Rumour Has it Plans have Changed...

Since visiting the television studio, my plans for my Music Video have slightly altered, rather than using films such as Chicago, Flashdance and Black Swan as inspiration, I have turned to the Queen of Pop, Lady Gaga, and sassiest mother of them all, Beyonce for inspiration. This was due to the decision to use a white screen rather than a black background. Through our research I thought this image was much stronger and iconic and would be ideal for choreography. this also led to a change of song, as "Set fire to the Rain" didn't have the wow factor when it came to choreography, we therefore saw this as a chance, to still use an Adele song but to rebrand her as a full on pop icon!. We changed our song to "Rumour Has it" as the continuous beat is a thrilling opportunity to create interesting choreography. 

This also led to the decision to follow modern pop conventions such as multiple locations. We took inspiration from Beyonce's song "Why don't you love me", having our artist in her bedroom on an old dial phone singing. I also liked the use of fire behind Lady Gaga towards the end of "Bad Romance" to use as a background, placing the image against a green screen. Lady Gaga's music videos have been a huge influence on our final piece, her choreography is strong and dynamic, similar to our own desired choreography. 

TREATMENT!

The video opens with three dancers against a white screen, stood still in dynamic shapes. The opening sequence cross cuts between the profile of the artist, the artist in her bedroom picking up her phone and the three dancers. The first verse cross cuts between the profile image, dancers and artist in her bedroom, using multiple shots such as close-ups, long shots and mid shots. As the song reaches the chorus a third location is introduced, this will use the green screen and a 'fire like' background. The second verse cross cuts between the three different versions of the artists and the dancers, who have now incorporated chairs into their routine. As the song reaches the bridge the artist throws down the phone and three dancers begin to dance 'smoothly' in front of a 'kaleidoscope' style background. (we've all seen the new M&S advert, right?). The bridge includes cross cutting between the new location, the original three dancers and the artist in her bedroom as she falls slowly onto her bed. The final section of the song cross cuts between all location, matching the four versions of the artists singing and multiple dance sequences. 

 

 

 

GREEN SCREEN IMAGES

 

 

Pak up your troubles in your Digipak

DIGIPAK IDEA ONE!

Above is a photo draft or my original ideas for my Digipak. I took influences from Lady Gaga, as she is a strong pop star who makes controversial music videos which both sexualise her and show her off as a strong iconic woman. The use of a strong image shows our artist to be strong and independent, an ideal icon for female audiences. In the final Digipak the artist would be wearing white clothing, the use of the colours white appeals to an aspirant market as it is typically associated with being expensive. However the use of a close-up image, typically within pop, sexualises the artist by showing her face, boobs and body, whereas Adele typically uses and image of just her face. I also used a simple font, this challenges the Pop genre as usually thick curly writing in popping colours is usually used, for example Katy Perry. The use of simple fonts will appeal to older audiences as it's much more mature and less child like. The digipak throughout uses a similar image, one that will be used within out music video.

 Above are two examples of similar album covers/digipaks to our own. Both are well established pop icons who appeal to female audiences similar to our own, they appeal to the aspirant market as their videos are glossy and of high quality, making female audiences want to be them. Both covers use strong iconic images. The covers are modern and have an adult element, with the sexualised but serious image from Lady Gaga, and enhanced close-up of Christina Aguilera. Both covers follow conventions of pop, for example Lady Gaga uses quirky costumes and interesting font to catch audiences whereas Christina has used popping colours, however the covers still have a mature element to them. This is the similar effect we want our digipak to have, to create a sexual image of our artist that is also strong and independent while following the conventions of the pop genre.

FONT IDEAS;

Above is a selection of fonts we could use for our Digipak, although typically pop fonts tend to be very Katy Perry and Britney Spears, using curved and bold writing which suggests an element of fun and fantasy, suited to the typical conventions of pop, as being bold and quirky. I took influences from pop artists such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Beyonce to develop strong dynamic fonts.

Dynamic fonts tend to be used as it illustrates the type of music artists make, Ed Sheeran tends to make very down to earth and relateable music, so uses a font which suggests this, such as a sketchy "+" which looks as if it's been done by hand.

My font willd be strong and identified as part of my artists brand image. The visually strong font is eye catching and will appeal to my aspirant market as it suggests something "out of the ordinary" and strongly markets my artists name, for example the third font, is similar to Rihanna's and the larger "A" is eye catching and the multiple "Adele's" written inside make sure the artists name is remembered.

 Using visually strong fonts shows that we want our artist to be known as a strong and independent woman that aspirant audiences can look up to and want to be like.The fonts also suit the image we want to brand our artist with through our music video, our video will use conceptual and visually strong images, this is reflected through our strong unique fonts.

The font we will use will also be in black as it is strong and eye catching but also matches our colour scheme of using whites, reds and blacks, whereas if our music video was more targeted at a younger pop audience our colour scheme may be similar to Katy Perry's using bold pinks and blues.

AUDIENCE; Beliebers, Katy Kats and Directioners

In the above image are examples of media our target audience would consume. Typically they would read more expensive and "artistic" magazines such as Vogue and Grazia, rather than your typical Take a Break. Our audience are more likely to shop in stores such as HMV and Littlewoods, the more expensive end of the highstreet, this is also due to the fact that audiences in their 20's are more likely to be purchasing CD's from HMV than downloading music through iTunes, as typically they have a more disposable income rather than younger audiences. Typically the aspirant market are usually middle class and well educated, so tend to listen to radio stations such as BBC, rather than the very young orientated radio station, Kiss FM, they are also more likely to invest time in watching mainstream channels such as ITV rather than E4 and music channels such as Kerrang. 

In the above image are examples of media our audience would not consume. As we are targeting an older audience in their 20's they aren't as likely to be online as much as younger audiences, so are unlikely to be using apps such as Youtube and Itunes. We also established that older audiences are more likely to watch BBC and ITV so are unlikely to watch TV shows on Channel 4 as they typically target 17-18 year olds, such as Skins and Misfits.

Journey to the centre of the TV STUDIO

21/11/12
Wednesday
Today we went into the Television Studio to do some test filming, which has radically changed my approach to my music video.

Rather than using a silhouette against black lighting, my colour scheme is going to be alot lighter, using a mixture of whites and reds. I want to use an effect which silhouettes the dancers against a white screen, and rather than just the one dancer I will use multiple dancers. Using the white image means my music video will appeal more to my aspirant market, as white is typically an expensive colour. 

We tested out using back lights so our performer would be silhouetted against a black screen, however on camera this clearly looked student made, so we attempted the same effect however with a white screen, this gave a much stronger image which would fit in with the pop genre. this effect will be perfect for strong choreography to have maximum impact with little need for mise en scene. I have also decided to make use of a green screen as it was so effective last time.

Above is the video footage we collected. As you can see the white background creates a stronger image and will be perfect for choreography compared to using a back light in front of a black background. Visiting the TV studio before hand has prevented us from using our original ideas and creating mistakes which can not be fixed during filming or in the editing process. 

This now means we can take full advantage of the facilities available to us, using a white screen to create a strong image which requires little mise-en-scene but however is effective, and a green screen which can be used to create multiple locations.

Setting Fire to my Planning

I have chosen to do the song "Set Fire to the Rain" By Adele. For my music video I will take inspiration from films such as Black Swan, Chicago and Flashdance, due to its use of dark lighting, dramatic choreography and costume. I have also taken inspiration from the Cover art of the book 50 Shades of Grey with the idea of mystery and masquerade. 

I have decided to use a Performance Based video for my music video. Although the lyrics within the song are very strong and visual and could possibly be made into a narrative based video I have opted to use a performance as it is most typical within the Rock and Pop genre as it showcases the artists and sells them to the public so they become recognisable. I also want to attempt to create a conceptual music video, one which pushes my creativity and artistic ambitions in order to create an entertaining music video.

I established the Genre of Adele to be pop rock, as she combines popular music with dark elements of rock. This means i can incorporate the conventions of both genres to create a dramatic and entertaining music video which follows the conventions of its original genres. Above in my Mind Map I established that my music video would use a dark romantic colour pallet, this is very typical of the rock genre, as reds, blacks and blues are often used, as it tends to reflect the dark narrative and music. I want to use this colour pallet for my video as the song is very dark and dramatic. However I want to incorporate conventions of Pop within my video, such as the use of unusual costumes and mise-en-scene e.g. the ballet dancers outfit and vintage 50's microphone. My editing will also follow the typical conventions of the pop genre, and my shots will be quickly edited and will cross cut between the performance and dancer.

For my music video I will use just one location, the TV studio, this is because for something low budget it is easily accessable and can act as multiple locations, a dance studio for the dancer and a performance space for the artist. Although typically pop uses multiple location I want to challenge this convention by using one location but still create an eye catching final product by cutting quickly between shots and making it appear as if multiple locations have been used.

I have decided to take a PostModern approach to my music video using intertextual references to famous dance films such as Black Swan, Chicago and Flashdance. Modern pop songs typically tend to use intertextuality such as Lady Gaga's music videos. I want to use similar costumes and lighting to the films and will also take inspiration for choreography which is typically used within pop videos, Britney Spears is always using bursts of choreography within her music videos in order to keep the audience entertained.

SKETCHING MY MISE-EN-SCENE

I drew sketches of possible images I want to use within my final product, such as location, ideas for set and costume ideas.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music

Now comes the difficult task of choosing the perfect song for my own music video and creating a treatment for it. Through studying iconography and looking into different genres and creating my own Frame by Frame remake I can see which genre offers me the opportunity to get creative and to create a music video which follows the typical conventions and iconography of that genre but also challenges it. through my research I have discovered that choosing to create a Rock music video will typically mean a performance based video. If I were to create an indie video it would be narrative driven but also has scope for performance based. If I decided on pop my video will typically be performance based, however more scope is offered to create an unrealistic performance than in rock and I can incorporate some narrative if desired. 


"MAN I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN"
Shania Twain.

Shania Twain was a pop artists and released her single "Man! i feel like a woman" in 2003. Although a performance based video has already been created for this song, i feel as if there is so much potential for a different type of performance based video which follows the typical conventions of pop, lots of costumes, lots of settings, a little bit of humour, a little bit of sexy and also challenges the genre. The original video for the song lacks flair and focuses on the artist singing and undressing, of course she's got sexy down to a T, and her dance moves dominate the male backing dancers.

For my own music video I will use a performance based video with multiple characters as having a mix of characters means i can max out on mise-en-scene, costume and location, using a mix of real locations and a green screen which I had already had practice using in the Frame by Frame remake task. Also the use of different locations and characters means there is more potential during editing to create a fast paced edit which fits to the beat of the song but also fulfils the conventions of other pop songs.

The original video uses intertextual references from "Robert Palmers" "Addicted to Love". I want to take a similar post modern approach to the song using intertextual references to iconic females within film and music and history, and exploit these characters. (In a good way!).

TREATMENT:
Performance based. Iconic women within history, music and film. The roles of these characters are all played by the artist. The comedy value comes from these iconic females acting in a very stereotypical way, for example, the artist may play the character Audrey Hepburn from the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's", she'll be sat at her table lip syncing to the verse, as the song builds to its climax she begins dancing out of control, standing on the table and dancing provocatively, as if taking on the role of an out of control teenage girl having fun. All characters within the video will take on a similar persona, one that is wild and fun. These individual performances will cut between each other to build the final product. 

"SET FIRE TO THE RAIN"

adele.

 Adele is a modern pop artist and her music falls into the Pop Rock Genre, as she uses conventions from both genres, such as dramatic themes and a strong narrative. Fortunately a video has not been made for this song yet, therefore there are no chances for influences to effect my final product.

For my final product I wil use a performance based video as it is typical of the pop genre as it show cases the artist and makes them recognizable and often builds brand identity.

For my music video I want to challenge Adele's already huge brand identity and create my own, by targeting a new audience, such as an aspirant market and following the conventions of the pop genre, such as sexualising the artist and using elements of mise-en-scene and costumes. Typically Adele's music videos tend to be Adele sat on a stool singing, very Westlife, so I want to use multiple locations which cross cut between the artist and other elements of pop, such as choreography. I want to take a post modernist approach and use intertextual references such as moody lighting used in Chicago and Flashdance, but also costumes and iconic dance routines. I will also take inspiration from Black Swan when developing costumes.

 

TREATMENT:

As the music video plays out the artist sings using a 50's microphone. Close ups are used of her lips, arms and legs in order to sexualise the artist. The shots of the artist are used to cut in between other shots used within the music video.

 

Shot 1: A young girl walks into a dance studio, she begins dancing, falling over and becoming frustrated.

Shot 2: Taking inspiration from black swan, my character is then dressed in a masquerede mask, she continues to dance as the song reaches its first climax. As the character dances she throws flour to create a dust like effect, adding and element of mystery.

Shot 3: Taking inspiration from Chicago, my characters costume changes to something sexier as she replicates the dance from "I can't do it alone" as the song reaches its second climax she re creates the iconic image from Flashdance.

Shot 4: As the song reaches its final climax the dance character is dressed all in white as the song quickly cross cuts between all different versions of the dancer and the artists performing

Britney Lip Syncs

To practice our abilities to lip sync and edit together a music video, we created our own. We made two videos practicing these techniques. The First was: "IF YOU WANNA BE MY LOVER" by the Spice Girls. We took full advantage of our surroundings for this video, as our brief was "to create a video with accurate lip sync but also that follows the conventions of music videos". This being lots of different sets, mise-en-scene and costume. This was also an opportunity to use the updated versions of Final Cut Pro during editing.

The sets and locations we used for our music video included, a stairwell, bathroom, a graveyard, a beach babe cut out, and an alley with doodles. All these locations fitted well with the conventions of a pop music video, as they were kooky and unusual, they also added humor to our video and meant that during editing we would have a lot of different shots to cut to and from.

When editing the footage together there were some issues with the lip syncing as some parts were out of time to the original song, there were also clips we couldn't use due to performers laughing. You'll also notice during the video one of the performers reading lyrics off of a phone. This is due to not everyone knowing all the lyrics fully, and performers having to improvise during sections of the songs where they didn't know the words. This was so that filming wasn't wasted, as the extra footage from improvisation could be edited in between sections of the songs where performers struggled to lip sync. An example of this is Grainne dancing in the "graveyard" set and the group dancing on the 'glass' bridge. In order to improve on our lip syncing we need to learn the song more thoroughly rather than just having a very brief knowledge of the song, therefore we are more likely to be singing in time to the original track. 

In terms of editing I think it went very well and followed the brief and conventions of a Pop song. We had multiple sets that cut across each other and tried to cut shots to the beat, we also attempted match-on-action mid sentences, so that one performer would begin to sing a line, and another would finish it, this was so that audiences were kept entertained by the abrupt shots but also the different locations and the change in characters singing, as the same location and long scenes aren't typically associated with music videos and tend to be tedious and boring. The match-on-action worked really well and we even managed to cut our feet stomping to the beat of the song which was really effective. However I do think I could have cut much quicker if I had had more usable shots, rather than of us all laughing, this will be something I need to practice for my final piece, especially if I choose to do a pop song as they are typically performance based so lip syncing will need to be perfect, there will also need to a variety of shots and it is essential that they are quickly cut and fit to the beat. I also took the opportunity to practice a technique typically used in Pop songs, using a split screen, to make the video more entertaining as there is much more going on and for audiences to see, it also injects variety into our video, as all our shots were still mid shots, having split screens adds an element of fun and madness to these shots.

Our second attempt at Lip Syncing was Adele's song "ROLLING IN THE DEEP" for this we made sure everyone knew the lyrics, and for sections where performers were unaware of the lyrics we improvised so that these clips could be used to cut across, and for shots where performers are stood quite close to the camera e.g. Extreme close ups, the lyrics were held up so that performers could read off the sheet without looking unprepared. The lip syncing was much more believable this time as the majority is in time to the original track, this meant we had more variety of shots when editing together during the editing process. However for this practical task we had a lot less variety of locations so used a range of outdoor locations, however our shot types were much more varied compared to our first video, as we had a mix of long shots, mid shots, extreme close ups, angles and even moving and panning shot.

I started off the video with a split screen using four different shots of performers stomping, clapping and nodding to the beat. The shots also come on one after the other. This was very effective as all shots were in time to the beat of the original track, but the multiple shots in the first 5 seconds of the song offer the audience a variety of entertaining shots and images before the song has even begun. I also added effects to the individual clips so they stood out. I then cut between two different performers, one being an ECU and the other a MS, this offers a drastic change in perspective making the video more entertaining to watch, rather than seeing multiple shots filmed from the same distance. The two clips also had individual filters added to them so they could stand out, and match on action was used and the clips were edited to the beat. When the beat picks up a third performer is introduced using the same ECU and one of the original performers moves to a sitting down position as the camera zooms out. I then cut across these three different clips, creating quicker and quicker cuts as the tempo increases. The camera zooms out to reveal all three performers in time for the chorus. The shots then cut between each other, incorporating different angles of all three performers sat down, panning shots are also used to intensify the performance and keep audiences entertained.

Walk With Us: Special Effects

For this task we had to create a short video using low budget special effects suggested by Russell Evans. Some of the examples of special effects we can use is:

1. Greenscreen - we have already experimented with this technique in our Little Mix music video. This can be used to create big budget effects so that you can transfer one part of a movie shot onto another, whether you want to put your character into an exotic location or create two of them.
2. Ghosting - this is a technique which is simpler than green screen and lower tech, this process places one video clip on top of another on the editing timeline.
3. Duplicating an actor in the same place.
4. Moving objects - Creates a telekinesis effect, making objects fly across the room into your actors hand.
5. Forced Perspective - This effect is used for creating smaller or larger objects or people. The Hobbits in Lord of the Rings were all shot in a similar way so that actors could interact with the actual surroundings rather than using a green screen.
6. In camera effects - Using the manual effects on the camera to adjust different light conditions etc.
7. Walk backwards and reverse the footage - This creates the effect that the actor is walking forward and the surroundings such as traffic are moving backwards.
8. Music Promo Effects: slomo backgrounds - this is used to make performance videos more visually dynamic, the performers move at an increased speed against a moving background. The clip is then played at a slower rate to give the impression that the background is moving at a slower speed and the performer is moving at a normal rate.
9. Move slowly and play at faster speeds - this effect enables you to gain a wealth of interest in a frame where the background need enlivening. the actor appears to be moving at normal speed whereas the surroundings appear to be moving particularly fast.
10. Lighting Effects - Stylised lighting can create more atmosphere.

The low budget effects we will attempt to re-create are number 6, 7, 8 and 9.

HOW TO:
To do number 6 we had to switch the camera to manual and scroll through the various options on the LCD monitor. We used colour effects by adjusting the White Balance so the screen appeared warmer and the trees in the background were a much brighter green.

To do number 7 we filmed our actor walking backwards, we used long uncut shots to make the most of the real and so there was no CGI feel to it. We did number 8 and number 9 in a similar way, however these shots were much more easier as we only needed to film our actor walking at a slower rate and then a faster rate.

 We went to film our footage near a busy road so that the effects would be more effective. We filmed from three different perspectives so that we could build a finished product. The first shot we filmed was the actor walking backwards. The director stood on one side of the street and the actor on the other, the director then just followed the actor as they walked backwards up the street. We did this three times so that we could get a long shot, mid shot and a shot which shows the actor walking both towards and away from the camera. We did the same for the other two types of effects, except we changed the speeds we moved at. We had three different clips of our actor walking fast, and three more different clips of our actor walking slowly. 

 

  We then imported our clips into Final cut Pro and dragged them into the timeline. We started by editing the clip of our actor walking backwards, to reverse the shots we selected the clip, we went to Modify in the toolbar, Retime and then reverse Clip. We did this for all three clips, however our actor did look slightly unnatural walking forwards however the effect was very effective and created the desired effect. 

We did face problems editing the clips of our actor moving at a faster pace, and therefore cut it form the final product. To slow the shot down we had to go to Modify, Retime and then Slow, however we only had the options of slowing our clip by either 10, 25 or 50%, however 10% was much too slow for our clip and the effect didn't have the desired effect as our actor was moving much too slow. 

We edited the shots of our actor moving at a slower speed in a similar way, by going to Modify, Speed and Fast, we first sped it up by 8x as much however this was much too fast and switched to 4x as much, the effect worked successfully and had the desired effect. When editing my footage together I decided to put the shots to a backing track, as we had used in camera effects to look warm I decided to use the song "Weezer" by Pork and Beans, as the song is acoustic and has an indie element, and the colouring of our footage was typical of the indie genre.

By practicing easy effects like the above means I could possibly apply them to my final product to create certain effects and imply a dream like state or to make performance based videos more interesting and entertaining to watch. An example of this is Fightstars video "The English Way", which featured on the Gadget Show, this video uses the same effect as moving at a faster pace then reducing the speed, except the lead singer sings in double time in order to create a dream like effect when the video is slowed down in editing.  http://youtu.be/8mrMe5dLqEw.

The Pharcyde "DROP" is an example of another music video which uses one of these effects. The artists move and dance throughout a street in reverse and then in editing the shots are reversed, so that the artists are then moving forwards however their movements look unnatural and distorted to create a clever and fun video. 

W4ts Ur Trib3? Audience Theory.

Don't Tweet about it. Rap about it.

Below is a "Prezi" which analyses a short mockumentary we made to illustrate the conventions of a rap video and what what audiences expect to see within the genre, both within the lyrics and mise-en-scene of the music video.