Planning

Planning

Location
First shot- Walking down paverment on college grounds
Second shot- Shot of the street
Third shot- Sat down against a brickwall, playing a guitar
Forth shot- shot of the back of shops from the rose gardens
Fifth shot- sat down against a brick wall, playing a guitar
Sixith shot- shot at the side of college, near the main entrance
Seventh shot- sat against a brick wall, playing a guitar
Eighth shot- shot at the side of college, near the main entrance
Ninith shot- shot of the car park, within college grounds
Tenth shot- shot of the car park, within college grounds

Deconstruction+Reconstruction of a Media Text

Production Plan

Missing Andy- The Way We're Made (Made In England)

Poppy Elgey- Director
Beth Fell- Camera Woman
Hannah Burton- Editor
Benn Green-  Camera/Editor
Scott Davis- Producer
Peter Holderness- Editor/ Camera Man

Codes and conventions of a Pop Music Video

Cinematography

There are two common structures of a pop song. One being a solid performance video, focusing on the artist and the way he/she creates the emotion. And a narrative/ performance video, creating a story based on the lyrics of the song.

Medium shots and Long shot are used to create a scene and setting to the audience. This can also be shown through a Close up.
Establishing shots are used to indicate the location.

Two other shots commonly used in pop videos are; Over the shoulder shots and high and low angle shots. 

It is found that most music videos try and be creative by utilising the visuals of the camera angles. This entices the audience and has a unique selling point.

In Peter Andrew’s music video, ‘Unconditional’ starts with an establishing shot.
This shows the audience that the video is taking place in a musical theatre. It is a common way to start a music video. 

Camera Movements

Common camera movements used in a pop song are: Tracking, panning, tilt and arc shots.

At the beginning of Will Young’s, ‘Jealousy’ the camera movement portrays the characteristics, and creates realism within the story.

Editing

Common editing techniques are, montage, continuity, transitions, eye line match, match on action, shot reverse shot and a cut.
The editing techniques are there to illustrate the changes within a music video. The way the video creates a change of mood and changes the atmosphere through the lyrics is shown through the quick transitions, and the continuity in the lyrics. 

Mise-en scene

Mise-en scene consists of 5 key points. Location, Props used, Lighting, Costumes, and Characters to the audience. Through the mise-en scene, the audience is meant to know the theme, and the creation of the atmosphere.

In a performance video, the artist, or band singing the song is shown giving the audience a connection with the artist or band. One of the best music videos to show this, is Peter Andrew’s ‘Unconditional’.
In a narrative video, the mise-en scene needs to have a strong establishing shot to outline the style of the narrative. In Pixie Lotts ‘Broken Arrow’, Pixie lott is part of the narrative story. You will find that not every artist will take part in the narrative alongside the performance.  

Sound
Sound is a major part to a music video. It consists of diegetic, non diegetic and a voiceover. An advantage of a voiceover is, it helps to tell the meaning of the lyrics, or the narrative. A music video I know that contains a voiceover is Jessie J, ‘Nobody’s Perfect’.    

Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of their foundation portfolio.

In my foundation portfolio I was asked to design and create a music magazine, which included; a front cover, contents page and a double page spread on an artist featured in my magazine. At the beginning of the year, I designed a front cover and a contents page for a college magazine. I did some research on the internet into background information about the college. This helped to collect some ideas, and personal feelings on how students felt about the college they attended. I took sufficient images of students, the college, and rooms of the college where specific studies take place. 

From here I was introduced to a computer programme known as adobe Photoshop. I had come across adobe Photoshop when I was doing my GCSE Art course. I’d based my final project on emotions of the body and thought that photography was the best way to interpret it. My art teacher had shown me a few basic skills like using the blemish tool to even out the skin on my models, the eraser tool, smudge and blur tool to try and make the images I had cropped onto another background making the image realistic. And to be able to change the colour to a specific part of an image, or the full image itself. (The programme was a major part of the creation in designing my music magazine.) I designed 3 different magazine cover drafts. When all 3 drafts where finished I created a survey and asked students at the college to mark out of 10, which cover best presented the college and brought across the right meaning. This helped me to develop all three ideas into my final cover. I then based my contents page around similar designs and features to my front cover. Each bit of work and research I made, I posted onto my blog, giving regular updates, and detailed writing about the work that I was producing. 

First, I looked into the many various genres within music. This would help choosing a target audience and a demographic group. It also helped with the characteristics of my magazine as I was able to base the appearance beside the genre of music. I did my research on existing music magazines which fitted within the music genre I had chosen. I wanted to make sure that I was going in the right direction with my ideas and originality. When I had the structure and the layout to my magazine, I started taking images of my models. I wanted them to be relaxed and show there true selves so when I started editing the photos, I could bring across a natural image. When I was happy with my photos I started editing them on adobe Photoshop.

I began with editing the background. Even though I’d taken my images with the set background of a brick wall, it had no purpose towards the genre within my magazine. By using the cut tool, I edited the brick wall out, outlining the models before using the eraser to erase the brick wall out. Following that, I used the smudge and blur tool, making sure that the edges were smooth, and blended in to the white background giving the image a natural approach. To make the image stand out, I changed the tone, colour, and contrast to warmer colours. By doing this you could see the finer details of the facial features of the models. Using the blemish tool, I was able to click on a certain skin tone to each models skin, making my models have an airbrushed appearance. When I’d reduced the size of the image, I placed appropriate texts around the image such as; the masthead, sell line, main cover line, coverlines, teasing contents, price, date, issue and barcode.

I then started designing my contents page. Setting the background black, using the same housestyle, adding several different images, having a feature section, news section, and a reviews section. With the images, I changed the tone and colour to black and white. By adding in a brighter contrast, I felt it highlighted the image, making it standout being the main attraction. Finding the right tone of the colour on my models skin, I used the blemish tool editing out the blemishes on peoples skin creating an airbrushed affect.

I then went on to finishing my double page spread on my featured band (Two of A Kind). I went back with the original images I had taken of my two models and developed them within Photoshop. I edited out the brick wall, and replaced it with a simple white background. Next I used the smudge tool to create a smoother edge to the images. I was then able to use the blur tool. This helped to blur the image into the white background, assembling a realistic image. As a result of changing the tone and colour of the images, I was able to create a warm touch/texture. Plus by changing the brightness on the contrast, I was able to bring out there facial expressions. Thus adding in the finishing touches of an article. 

With designing 3 different parts to a magazine, I feel I have developed many new skills, and developed on the skills I already had. Even though I had some knowledge with Adobe Photoshop due to my art course at GCSE, I feel that I’ve developed a number of techniques within the program. I didn’t have a great knowledge on the program, but even with some of the skills and techniques I had didn’t really give me an advantage over other people that had no experience with the program. There was so much more for me to learn about Photoshop and that has grown throughout my first year. And with all the research on music, music magazines I feel I have gained more knowledge about the music business and was able to see just how much of a big influence media has on the music industry.

A thousand Years by Christine Perri

Frame by Frame of an existing music video

Here are hand drawn frame by frame shots for a story board from the existing music video 'A Thousand Years' by the artist Christina Perri

Influential media texts

.1. What are your thoughts on the music video???
.2. What do you think the meaning of the song is???

.3. Which words strike out to you as important???

Influential Music Videos

Ray Quinn- Smile  

Whilst doing some more research into exciting music videos. I came across an unwell known artist Ray Quinn an vocal Jazz, Pop and Swing artist.
This particular video, 'Smile' Is as well known jazz song was first sung by 'Nat King Cole' in the 1954. 

I like Ray Quinn's interpretation and character that he brings to the song. (The music video is no longer available on youtube) One thing that struct out to me whilst watching the music video was a particular section(illustrated by the screen shots) and how it has been edited. Its a particular technique which I am hoping to add into my own video.

However due to this video being no longer available youtube, I cannot present it on my blog. So I have tried my best by print screen, showing the progression of the particular part of the song.  

Influential Music Videos

We Found Love- By Rihanna

Doing some more research into music videos, I came across another well known artist- Rihanna, an R&B, Pop and HipHop artist. 

 

This particular music video 'We Found Love' doesn't really inspire me as such, however there is a certain passages (illustrated from these screen shots that I have taken) where the artist (Rihanna) is singing against a white wall.

Different images (such as a road, a clouded sky and a close up of flowers) are projected on to the wall, creating a different feeling and characteristic to each shot.

Influential Music Videos

From doing some research into music videos I came across this artist- Christina Perri an alternative rock, soul and pop artist. I watched and listened to her music videos but this song 'A Thousand Years' caught my eye due to its structure. 

The introduction of the music video introduces the artist herself. It gives the feeling of the artist telling a love story. The structure of the music video then changes to a narrative setting. This is of a very popular and well known film 'The Twilight saga-Breaking Dawn part 1'

Both Narrative and Performance is illustrated throughout the music video something which I would like to do with my own. 

Audience Key Terms

Qualitative Data- Qualitative methods are ways of collecting data which are concerned with describing meaning, rather than with drawing statistical inferences.  What qualitative methods (e.g. case studies and interviews) lose on reliability they gain in terms of validity.  They provide a more in depth and rich description.

Quantitative Data- Quantitative methods have come under considerable criticism.  In modern research, most psychologists tend to adopt a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, which allow statistically reliable information obtained from numerical measurement to be backed up by and enriched by information about the research participants' explanations.

Demographic Data- Is statistical characteristics of a population. This is commonly examined demographics included; gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location. 
Demographic trends describe the historical changes in demographics in a population over time.

Psychographic Data- Psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Psychographic studies of individuals or communities can be valuable in the fields of marketing, demographics, and opinion research.

Genre

Genres on Prezi