Filming

Last week was half term and we took the opportunity to use one of the days to commence filming. On the Monday we arranged to meet at school to film the first part of the video, which is of the artist leaving school on his path to fame. As it was half term the school was quiet, which meant that know one was around, giving the freedom of time, and this was very helpful as we could put in lots of different shots, and re film, parts that didn't go to plan the first time. To aid the filming we used a tripod, and this meant that the shots were steady and any movement was smooth.

After this we moved onto a local park (Garden City park), and this is another stage in the journey of the artist (once again the start of his journey, in an area that isn't that well off).

Once the filming at the park was complete we travelled to just outside the centre of Oxford where there were some large, expensive houses, which we had previously researched using Google maps street view. We resumed filming from the point that we got to at the park, in order to get a smooth cut. An interesting shot that we used here was a tracking shot. To do this we put the camera and tripod in the back of one of the group members car (Jenny), and slowly moved forward, at the same speed as Jack who is playing the part of the artist (HB).

From what we have viewed so far my camera work has been good enough for the final piece, and we plan to do a little bit more filming this Friday and then the final bit (in a club environment) within the next two weeks, so while we are waiting for these dates we will start to edit the material that we all ready have.

Editing Of Footage

Whist waiting for the final filming deadline we decided to start the editing stage with the footage that we all ready have. In total we now have 2 minutes 14 seconds and this will be what we will be using in the final piece. A whole group effort meant that we had lots of ideas and input, which has made these first two minuets look really good.

After all the filming we had to load the footage onto the computers, and then we deleted the clips that we didn't want. Due to technical difficulties we had to revert to using Windows Movie Maker, but luckily we have still been able to effectively edit the video.

Currently we are looking at the mise en scene for the next section of filming (so that it's at the same standard) and we are also checking the continuity systems and working out the shot sequences.

Preperation For Filming

In relation to the venue of the club scene, for the second half of the production, we have contacted our chosen venue but found that they are fully booked for the half term week that we hope to film in. This meant that we had to re-think our plan, and re-arrange the schedule (also the lack of camera equipment has set us sightly behind, but this should be resolved shortly). The filming of the artist's progression (walking through school, a local area and then a posh area of Oxford) is set to take place on the 25th October, and as it is half term we will have the whole day to film.

The second half of the film will take place the week after half term in one of the drama studios at our school, and we will need to edit the room to make it look more like a film set of a concert.

The person that will be in the film has also changed due to time table complications and we have now decided to use one of the members of our group to fill this role.

Rough cut of 'Never Let The Party Stop'

This is the rough cut of our music video and it is still a working progress. Although we happy with the shots, locations, mise en scene and sequence there are sill a few problems with the lip syncing that we have towards the start of the video. We will start to fix this issue ASAP and then the video will be finished. To fix the problem we will have to move some of the different sections/shots and create/remove the fade transitions that we have all ready have in place. As the issue is at the start of the video the movement of some clips will effect the timings of the others, but this might be able to be solved by an idea that I have of inserting another shot of the 'recording' phase and making it fade in.

Editing Video/Test Footage

Final Video - 'Never Let The Party Stop'

This is the final version of the video that we have created.

Goodwin's Theory of Analysis

Goodwin's Theory of Analysis has six main points

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band)

In our video we have created several genre related characteristics. One example of this is when you see the character walking from the school and then into a poor area, and the stereotypical view of rappers is that they grow up in poor areas before becoming famous and getting lots of money, which is why we then moved onto film in an affluent part of Oxford. Also due to the amount of money they can have, they can be popular with lots of people and this is why we have shown another person walking past him and 'giving him respect'.

Another example of a genre characteristics of a rap video is when we see HB in a studio, recording the sound for the video, And this is similar to Eminem in one of his videos, when he is see holding a mic.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)

In our video there are several times when the visuals match the lyrics and the main example when this is used is when we show the extreme close up of lips when the chorus is being sung. We chose to do this as it gets the attention of the viewer onto the lyrics and reminds them what the song is about. And an example of this in a professional video is in "Fight For This Love" by "Cheryl Cole"

Also another example is at the start of the video when we see HB point to the sky when the lyrics say "flyer that the rest".

Other examples include when he grabs his t-shirt, when his pretends to floss his teeth and when he is speaking down the phone.

3. There is a relationship between music and music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

In our video we have created several relationships between the music and the visuals. A good way that we have shown this is through the editing skills that we have learnt. In the pictures below we have created a cut that see's HB walk around a corner in the park and the next shot sees him walk round a corner in the affluent part of Oxford. The cut is smooth and fits in with the music that is being played (the hand movement also fits in).

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motives which recur across their work (a visual style).

In our music video we have created several close ups and reoccurring shots, e.g. the extreme close up of the lips, the recording of the song and when he speaks into the phone. These shots all create a feel of realism and let the audience focus in on the lyrics. The lips help to create some suspense as you can't see the girl's face, where as the reoccurring shot of HB in the studio helps to build up tension and it also heps you to see how hard he has worked to get to the success of performing the song at the end of the video (once the end is viewed people will understand why there are clip's of him recording his song).

The close ups are also shot from different sides of the artist and of the lips, which might mean that the audience feels that it's getting to know all sides of HB, which might make them feel more comfortable.

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens with screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

In our video there are two main notions of looking and they are when we do a framing shot using a mirror and at the end (backstage), when HB is about to go on stage and he nods to me to switch off the light (I'm behind the camera), and then the camera turns around to see me acknowledge the nod, look back at HB and then switch the lights off.

We also have a framing shot which is of HB looking in the mirror (when he puts his hat on) and we also use this opportunity to edit the letters HB onto the screen after he has walked off to the side. We feel that this is good as it focuses the viewers' attention on the name of the artist, meaning that there more likly to remember the name.

We got the inspiration from an video by "Pink" "Don't Let Me Get Me", and this is a similar angle to the one we used.

As seen above we have reoccurring shots of the lips singing the chorus, and the image of the female body is now commonly used in male artists' videos. Lips are generally thought of as sensual and this also fits in with the lyrics where HB talks about getting "dough".

We have not quite gone to the extent that some artists have done in their music videos to show women like in this video below by Little Wayne

6. There is often intertextual reference

In our music video we don't really have many intertextual references as we decided that not many fitted in with our video and if we tried to put some in it would look a bit cheesy and fake. The only reference that we do have is the t-shirt and Jacket HB is wearing are from other bands, which shows that he is a fan of other British artists.

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Overall, I think that all of the elements of our final production were very good. The way that ideas were generated in the planning and research stage, set an extremely good foundation for the rest of the production and I feel that this was then strengthened by the group’s teamwork and interpersonal skills. These aspects of our performance then really helped us to complete the production work, which at times could be quite complicated, so the advantage of having a group where everyone worked together and shared ideas really paid off. Also in the editing stage of the production, we once again worked efficiently to finish the product to a high standard.

Due to the level of research that we conducted (which had been greatly improved since our AS level production), I feel that our final media product clearly uses conventions which are used in professional music videos. On many occasions the group would share ideas that they had discovered in professional music videos and this ranged from camera shots to the mise-en-scene and even to editing techniques.

Some of the conventions that were very strong throughout the whole production included youth and money. These conventions are often seen in professional products, which is one of the reasons that I feel that our music video has the potential to contend and challenge real media products. In my opinion one of the reasons that these conventions are rife within music videos is because it has proved very popular with audiences, and this fits in with the Hypodermic Needle Model, which explains the how media ‘injects’ values and ideas into the audience.

To develop the conventions of our media product I noticed that many professional products have a strong theme of narrative running throughout the entire video, so I noted that it would be very important to do this in our video in order to contend. As our product was a music video for a rap song it didn’t really fit in with many conventional narrative theorists such as Vladimir Propp’s theory of narrative or TzvetenTodorov’s theory of narrative. So to find a suitable narrative we had to do lots of research into existing videos before coming up with the theme of wealth and progression through life (which we showed through a the artists journey).

However I think to successfully challenge real media products we would need to improve on a few aspects of the video. Firstly the quality of the recording isn’t particularly good as we were only using a hand held camera, compared to HD camera’s that are now used professionally. Another aspect that could be improved is some of the camera movements, which occasionally jolt when preforming a tracking shot and this could be solved by loosening up some of the tripod components. Furthermore in a small amount of shots the lip syncing is slightly out of time and this is something that is not seen in professional videos.

2. How effective is the combination of you main product and ancillary texts?

I think that the combination of our main product (the music video) and the ancillary texts (the CD cover and the magazine advert) are quite effective. From the start of the production we decided on a strong theme of wealth and this is shown in all three products.

Firstly the CD cover clearly shows the wealth theme by having an image of a rich upper class city on the front, and on the back there is a contrasting image of poor inner city area (the poor image was put on the back as it makes it feel like this area has been left behind). These images defiantly fit in with the narrative on the video which shows the artist starting at school, moving to an estate ,to an affluent area of Oxford and then to stage performance with lots of fans.

However I think that the CD cover could still have supported the video better. One of the ways that it could have done this could have been to show that it was a rap album, and this could have been done by doing something simple such as adding a review that mentioned that it was a rap video. Another way to improve on the CD cover could have been to advertise the video, and this could have been done by adding text saying something like; ‘Including the excellent Never Let The Party Stop Music Video’.

The magazine advert that was created also looks quite good, and personally I think that parts of it look professional. It contains many of the conventions of magazine adverts that we researched, and most importantly it advertises the CD and it shows a picture of it which would help people to find it in shops (and it is also black and white which fits in with the CD cover). One of the weaknesses of the advert is that it does look a bit cramped, so in the future to improve in this I think that I would remove some of the information to make it look a bit clearer which in turn, would emphasize the most important information. As well as this I think that it also needs to advertise the music video, as after all this is the main product which would help to boost CD sales.

3. How have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a very important part of any media production, because if the audience doesn’t like the product then they won’t buy it, which would reduce the money made. As Abercrombie (1996, 140) stated ‘Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are’. This shows that the audience will know what they want to see in a media text, and that the producer should not try to tell them what they want. One of the biggest things that I learnt from the feedback that we received was how important the lip syncing was. I think that this is because it’s one of the first things that the untrained eye of any media consumer can easily pick up. After receiving this feedback, the group and I all knew that this was where one of the main areas of focus needed to be throughout the whole production.

Another think that I learnt from the audience feedback that we revived was how we need to keep the keep the video flowing and interesting, because in one of the first drafts of the video, there were many similar shot of the artist walking through the different areas. To improve on this we decided to insert many more reoccurring shots such as the studio recording scene, and I think that this really helped to strengthen the story and keep the viewers attention.

Throughout the process, we would ask for feedback from our media studies peers, and I think that this was a really good idea because they were also familiar with more advanced media terminology, so were able to spot some of the less obvious issues with the video, CD cover and magazine advert. Whilst receiving this feedback we were able to discuss the points brought up and come to a suitable conclusion, which helped improve the final products. The only downfall of when we receive this feedback was that I don’t feel that we recorded some of the information as well as we could have done, which meant that small amounts were forgotten.

In the future, to improve my learning from audience feedback the major change that I would make would be to get a lot more of it. I feel that getting much more audience feedback could really help any project improve significantly. In addition to this, with an increase in audience feedback, it would be important to get feedback from a wider range of people (e.g. age groups, gender, social class etc) as this would make probably give back more accurate results.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the production, technology was the key to creating a successful product, and I feel that without it, our project would have been made to a significantly lower level. Probably one of the most important technologies that we used was a site called ‘blogger.com’ as this was where we up loaded all of our work to, and it would have been impossible for us to this if it hadn’t been for the introduction of web 2.0. The blogging site was extremely important to us, as all of our work could be put into chorological order, video and photos could be up loaded, comments of posts could be received, opinion polls could be included, our peers blogs could be viewed and links to other sites could be included.

Even though the internet is not brand new, it is still relatively new, and I don’t think that the research and planning stages could have been completed without it. By using the internet and utilising search engines such as ‘google.co.uk’, information could be quickly found and learnt from. Furthermore a lot of our inspiration was gained from watching music videos on the internet, and this was mainly done through ‘youtube.com’. YouTube has a huge collection of music videos, so practically any video that we wanted to look at could be found here and embedded into our blogs. The only downfall of using YouTube was that we weren’t able to access it from school, which meant that the research was slowed down slightly.

In the planning stage were able to upload pictures of locations from digital cameras, and this was very quick. Another feature that could be used was the scanner that we had at our disposal and this allowed is to get images that we had drawn up by hand onto the computer, and then be saved as images. However one of the downfalls of this method was that not all of the thin pencil lines were picked up, so some of the items scanned were not to a particularly high standard.

In the construction stages of the project many technologies were used to develop the final products. To create the CD covers and the magazine advert we used a program called ‘Adobe Photoshop’. Photoshop is one of the best products on the market to create designs and it is widely used in the professional industry. One of the most useful features in Photoshop was the layering system, which meant that each separate item could have its own layer, meaning that it they be moved individually and have effects added to it. An example of this was when we were creating the CD cover. We wanted the background to be black and white but the text to be different colours, so we were able to add the effect only onto the background layer. An example of Photoshop’s usability when creating the poster was when we had multiple items of text we were able to move them separately and make fine adjustments of the positioning with the arrow keys.

Photoshop did have its disadvantages though, with the main one being that it could be quite complicated to use at times, which meant that it could be time consuming to work around of overcome any problems that occurred. Also some members of the group were unfamiliar to the program which meant that they only had a basic knowledge of how to use it, and we had to devote some of our time to teach them how to use it effectively.

To upload and edit the video we had to use Windows Movie Maker as it was the only program, that we had available to us. At first we had reservations about using it because we were unsure of the quality that we would be able to produce from it. However after creating a short clip we could see that the quality was good enough and we were still able to add many effects such as fades, text overlays and transitions. The program also enabled us to crop down the length of certain clips, change the order and times of them and insert music over the top.

However there were also downfalls of using Windows Movie Maker, for example; it often froze when we tried to save the file and this meant that we sometimes lost unsaved work, which we would then have to redo and this slowed the editing process down considerably. In addition to this, uploading videos to the program was quite slow, which also slowed the process down. Another negative of the program was that it could be quite hard to move video clips fractions of seconds either forward or backwards. In the future I think that I would use a more advanced video editing suite such as Adobe Premier’. This program would give us all of the basic features that we had in Movie Maker, but with the addition of more advanced options, and I also feel that now that we have learnt the foundations of editing, we would be able to use the technology effectively.

In the evaluation stage of the project the internet was probably the main technology that was used. One of the main things that it allowed us to do was to find appropriate theorists that we could use to analyse the final projects, for example when we looked up Goodwin’s theory of analysis. Facebook also helped us to receive feedback from our friends after we uploaded the products to our profiles, and as this was in an informal environment were able to receive honest feedback.

This is some of the feedback that we received after posting the final video on Facebook:

In conclusion I think that our group worked well together in all stages of the project and I think that this was reflected in the quality of our final product and the ancillary materials. The issues faced were solved in a logical manner and this was very useful when dealing with the problems faced when filming and editing. If I were to repeat the project, the main thing that I would change would be the software used to edit the footage as I feel that this could help us to create a higher quality product.