Monday, 21 October 2013

Days & Times of Shooting

Shooting schedule planning

Kyra (can't do) - 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th & 3rd, (can do) - 31st, 1st & 2nd

Stefan (can't do) - 26th, (can do) - 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 1st, 2nd & 3rd

Ali (can't do) - 30th, - (can do) - 31st, 1st & 2nd

Theo (can't do) - 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th & 30th (can do) 31st, 1st & 2nd

Days:
Thursday 31st
Friday 1st
Saturday 2nd

Time:
31st: 10am - 3pm
1st: 10am - 3pm
2nd: 11am - 3:30pm


Location of each scene

Bridge scene:
Looking out onto the river

Putney Park scene:
Flashbacks - Couple moments
Walking along the riverside
Bench scene

River scene:
Singing Holding onto the barriers

Friday, 18 October 2013

Digipak Research/Album Covers - Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez - Stars Dance


Front Cover - Image, Font, Shot Used, Colour, Positioning & Framing

Selena Gomez is a Pop artist and her songs are mainly based about an electronic album, rooted stylistically in pop, dance and dubstep while also containing strong elements of techno and disco. 

Her album cover for 'Stars Dance' is in black and pink but the font of the actual album name is in pink  in the bottom left of the cover and the font is feminine and it looks to be fading in from the colour of the background to the pink used in her name. The fact her font is bright pink shows that her album is aimed at a female audience. 

In the front cover she is placed in the middle with each of her name on either side and the shot used in this image is a mid shot. This shot of her shows only her in the set which nothing in the background and because the background is in black makes it stand out from other pop digipaks as they normally bright coloured. 

In the mid shot of her, you can see that there is light reflecting on one side of her which makes her stand out from the dark background but also creates a effect on the image, this grabs the attention of young girls who would buy this album. 

Also, the way she is positioned in the frame shows that this is clearly professional photography which looks very well done and creative as her body language is in a pose that a model would do and this symbolises that she is selling herself as an artist but also a fashion idol because of the fact the mise en scene in her clothing is specifically chosen to interlink with the set designs.

CD - Design, Changes, Font & Colour

The design on the CD is in pink, the exact same colour of the font used in the her front cover but what has changed is the font of the her album's title. The font is still the same but they style has changed, it has now become bold and this is used to make it stand out. 

The CD looks very feminine as the whole CD is in pink with a font that is used to grabs girls attention. One problem with the CD is that the font is not easy to read because the colour of the font is still in pink except the middle of the words are more brighter, this makes it very difficult to read as the words do not stand out or even appear clearly on the CD. 

The single change made to the font on the CD shows that the she likes to change it up a bit to be different and wanted to try and make it stand out.

Back Cover - Framing, Artist's Image, Track list, Colour & Font

The back cover is just like the front cover except now Selena Gomez is in a different pose but is still in the middle of the frame and the shot used to show her is a medium long shot. 

On both the left and right side of the cover there is the album track list and the song title is in pink which is used to make the actual song title stand out from the black black background, this is used to grab the audiences attention. The font used is the same font throughout the digipak which is something we are planning to do as it is a good effect. 

The artist has the same effect on her just like the one on the front cover, the light reflecting effect. This is also used to stand out from mainly the black to make the other artists stand out so the audience may recognise the other artists and the may like them for before.

Digipak Research/Album Covers - Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift - Red



Front Cover - Image, Font, Shot Used, Colour, Positioning & Framing

Taylor Swift is a Pop artist and her songs are mainly based about relationships. Her album cover for 'RED' is a picture of her with red lipstick, this emphasises on the fact that her album is called 'RED', also the red is on her lips which used for kissing when someone is in a relationship this shows her album is aimed at a female audience. 

The font of the album title is in red and white which is expected as her album is called that colour and the font is in a simple, easy to read font which is normal and does look kind of mainstream as it looks to be a common font which shows that her album doesn't have to be filled with fancy fonts and sparkly images, it can be a normal image of the artist and a simple font because it still looks really good and would attract her female audience. 

In the front cover she is placed on the right side of the frame and the shot used in this image is a mid shot/close up. This shot of her shows only her in the set which a blurred background and the fact that the background is blurred makes her, the artist stand out to make sure all the attention is only on her. 

This grabs the attention of young girls because of the fact its clearly an album for them and they would see from the image and the red lipstick its for them that would buy this album. 

Also, the way she is positioned in the frame shows that this is clearly professional photography which looks very well done as her pose is something that a model would do and this symbolises that she is selling herself as an artist but also a fashion idol because of the fact the mise en scene in her make-up is specifically chosen to interlink with the set designs such as her red lipstick.


CD - Design, Changes, Font & Colour

The design on the CD is very simple as it is a white background with thick red lines filling half the CD, the font is on the other half of the CD in red and is the same font as the front cover which shows that the album is in a very formal and easy to read font just like her name and her album's title in the front cover. 

Keeping it simple has proven to be successful as the design looks very good and professional and yet again Taylor Swift has proved that she doesn't need to over fill it with useless decorations.

Back Cover - Framing, Artist's Image, Track list, Colour & Font

The back cover has the same red lines design just like the on the CD except now Taylor Swift is in a different pose and is now more towards the top right side of the frame rather than the the whole right side. 

On the left side and some of the top part of the middle is the album track list and just the song title is in white including the featuring artists who are on some of her songs which is used to make the actual song title stand out from the red lines, this is used to grab the audiences attention. 

However, the album name is still red and the artist's name has gone back to white. This represents the same colours is used being used throughput the digipak because it makes it look like all the images is linked which adds a effect to it.

Digipak Research/Album Covers - Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande - Yours Truly



Front Cover - Image, Font, Shot Used, Colour, Positioning & Framing

Ariana Grande is a Pop artist and her songs are mainly based about love or relationships. Her album cover for 'Yours Truly' is in black and white but the font of the actual album name is in pink and is feminine as it looks to be hand written which shows that her album is aimed at a female audience. 

In the front cover she is placed in the middle under her name and the shot used in this image is a mid shot. This shot of her shows only her in the set which nothing in the background and the fact that image is in black and white makes it stand out from other pop digipaks as they normally bright coloured. 

In the mid shot of her, you can see that there is light reflecting on her which makes her stand out from the dark background, this grabs the attention of young girls who would buy this album. 

Also, the way she is positioned in the frame shows that this is clearly professional photography which looks very well done and creative as her body language is in a pose that a model would do and this symbolises that she is selling herself as an artist but also a fashion idol because of the fact the mise en scene in her clothing is specifically chosen to interlink with the set designs.

CD - Design, Changes, Font & Colour

The design on the CD is very simple as it the background colour is in black just like her front cover but what has changed is the font of the her and the album's name. This time the album is in a very formal and easy to read font just like her name in the front cover but her name on the CD is now changed to more of a hand written, classical font. 

The changes made to the font on the CD shows that the she likes to change it up a bit to be different. On other CD covers the font is usually the same in the front cover but on this CD cover it is almost as she has swapped the font design for a different look, this can be a unique selling point because this rarely happens in Pop digipaks and her audience would like it as it something new.

Back Cover - Framing, Artist's Image, Track list, Colour & Font

The back cover is just like the front cover except now Ariana Grande is in a different pose and is now more towards the left side of the frame rather than the middle. 

On the right side of the cover there is the album track list and just the song title is in pink which is used to make the actual song title stand out from the black and white, this is used to grab the audiences attention. 

However, the rest of the words except for also the album name is white including the featuring artists who are on some of her songs. This is also used to stand out from mainly the black to make the other artists stand out so the audience may recognise the other artists and the may like them for before.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Casting & Positions

Kirstie Mayweather:

- Name: 
Kyra Hyder-Grant

- Age: 17 when we started production, 18 in midst of production and after.

- Process and Purpose in video:
Kyra will be starring as our main artist, Kirsty Mayweather. Looking for an artist was tricky as me and my group members wanted to find the right person who had the style, look and attitude to play Kirstie Mayweather.
After a few group discussions we decided the best thing to do was elect Kyra as our artist as she is a member of our group, so her availability would match ours, she wasn't camera shy when it came to test shooting and we believed she had the sense of style we wanted for our artist.

Kirstie Mayweather's Love Interest:
- Name: Shawn Fernandes

- Age: 18

- Purpose in video: The purpose in the video will include being Kirstie Mayweather's love interest that she refers to into the song.

Editor's:
- Name: Kyra Hyder-Grant and Theo White

- Purpose: Once the music video has been filmed, Kyra and Theo will edit the music video, this will include adding effects and transitions.

Cameraman:
- Name: Stefan King

- Purpose: His purpose will be to confirm with director that the location is safe to film at, film the music video and that the editor receives video clips.

Director:
- Name: Ali Fayyaz

- Purpose: Ali's job will be to ensure everyone arrives on set at the right time, the characters are in costume and that the location is safe to film in, also, to guide and instruct our artist's and her love interest's movements.

Photographer's:
- Names: Stefan King and Ali Fayyaz

- Purpose: Take photos for Website and Digipak.

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Q2. So far how useful has the use of new media technologies been in carrying out and present research findings as well as plan your ideas?

Q2. So far how useful has the use of new media technologies been in carrying out and present research findings as well as plan your ideas?

The HD video camera has been very useful because of the fact it allows us to record our footage. Particularly useful for when we went to test shoot for our locations for the music video which was during the planning stage and we didn't just use this for test shooting we also used it for our preliminary task which worked out to be the right choice. We have previous experience with this camera as we have learnt already how to use them, such as the components of the camera and the main features like the record button, the scroll for zooming in and out, and where our footage went on the camera once we finished filming, etc. We are going to use this HD video camera to film our music video because its reliable, easy to use and is perfect to film with.

We used the iMac computer for researching and for planning. We used it for editing our preliminary task during the planning stage and used it for researching music videos by going on websites like 'YouTube' to look at music videos which are the same as our genre. Also we use it for our posting on our blogs such as for when we did music video analysis. Once I started using the iMac computer more I got a lot better with the features and so when we had use the software to edit, I learnt and adapted my knowledge quickly to create high standard pieces of work. We have also used it for researching record labels that will fit in well for our song and its genre which has been very useful as we are able to access anything which has helped us plan for what we want to do.

Using Final Cut Pro I was improving my skills and developing them while I was editing the preliminary task and after a while of using it became easy for me to use, this helped me achieve what I wanted to do with the footage such as crop the footage in order to make it look faster to go with the fast tempo music, importing the sounds we needed to use which will go with what we filmed, etc. Overall I'm pleased with the outcome of the preliminary task because after the editing process it has looked more professional and the editing techniques we used like the short crops has proven to be effective.

Blogger (www.blogger.com) was a website where we had to make blogs before, during the planning and reserach stage and after our when we finished filming our music video. What we did was based on our ideas and we had research and plan for our music video helping us decide what to do and what not to do. It was just to help us get inspiration and figure out how we are going to film, etc. We accessed blogger through the iMac, my PC at home and even through my Mobile Phone. I learnt about many features like how to embed a videos, pictures and presentations. My blog is public so I can share a lot blogs I have made and this means anyone can see all the processes made for our product.

Our Mobile Phones was very useful because of the fact we could access 'YouTube' for researching music videos as this was an important part for planning our music video. We did a lot research on 'YouTube for our genre and this let me gain a deeper understanding of what you would expect in Pop genre music videos. In addition we also put our preliminary task on it and we put the link on our blogs to show our editing and the techniques we used on it/ and to show the changes we made to our product so people can see the But even before we used YouTube I was a frequent user so I knew a lot of stuff before hand and this came as a benefit for me because I knew what to do so it became really easy for me. But because of our product I did learn new stuff on YouTube like how to embed a video on my blog and putting it in High Definition, etc. So I did learn new features and this made my knowledge expand which helped out even more.

Q1: How and to what extent have the outcomes of your research findings influenced (impacted) on your initial creative thoughts and specific planning decisions?

Q1: How and to what extent have the outcomes of your research findings influenced (impacted) on your initial creative thoughts and specific planning decisions?

My music video is in the Pop genre, so my main focus was looking at and analysing pop songs in order to see the generic conventions of pop songs. When I was analysing I used Goodwin's theory to help me go in depth in my research, this allowed me to see the characteristics of pop music videos differently by looking at the type of the video such as if its narrative based or performance based or concept based videos, also I talked about the genre characteristics and the relationship between the lyrics and visuals. 

For my research I looked at popular pop songs to see the generic conventions and what I noticed was that the type of music video it was, whether it was a narrative based video or concept based video. Looking and analysing these types of videos helped expand my knowledge on pop videos as it allowed me to see what you would see in a pop video. From my research, when I was analysing the pop songs I noticed the common camera angles which were long shots, mid shots and close ups. These 3 camera angles were the most used throughout the different pop videos. This helped me in the sense that if this used a lot, I should implement this in my music video as it makes the music video look better and due to the fact it's very successful when used in pop videos. In Ariana Grande's video called 'Baby I' these camera angles were used for specific reasons, such as the close ups, mid shots and long shots of Ariana Grande singing and dancing towards the audience showed that she is the lead role in this video and is therefore the main singer for this song. From seeing how big of an impact theses camera angles are in pop videos has made me more aware in using them in my music video. In Carly Rae Jepsen's music video the camera angles were used for the same purpose such as the close ups and long shots of CR Jepsen singing into the microphone shows the audience that she is the lead role in this group and is therefore the main singer for this song. After seeing these camera angles commonly used it tells me that I should therefore use them in my music video.

From analysing two different pop songs i found out that in the Pop industry of music they are really mainstream in having a love story or some kind of relationship with a boy and a girl. But on the other hand in the Dance Pop industry of music, tend to be concept based videos to show the dance routines boys and girls have. This expanded my knowledge in pop music videos and help plan the type of video of my music video. Because of the fact that my song is half sad and half upbeat I am still considering in what type to use that will fit best for me. As it stands I am leaning more towards the narrative based video for my video because of the fact my song can have a story behind it and it would fit in with the concept of the song. Although I am also considering to do a mix with narrative and performance based video from what saw from Carly Rae Jepsen's music video of 'Call Me Maybe' it worked out really good. I believe I can do something like that for my music video because of the fact we have a female lead singer and a story behind the song.

My audience research allowed me to see what people expect from a pop music video. This was one of the big questions as it was something I needed to find out and do right for my music video. From the response people expect to see a narrative in the video and seeing the main artist or lead singer frequently throughout the music video. This helped me with the conclusion of doing a narrative in my video as it is something a lot of people see. I also wanted to know what people wanted to see in my music video by letting them hear my song and seeing what comes to their mind after they have heard it. The common response I got was a love story between a boy and a girl who are really into each other. From hearing this it made me realise that I should try implement a narrative based video and have the relationship of a boy and a girl as the story of the video. A suggestion I got from the audience was to do a break up story because according to them that will link better with our song and could potentially make the video better.