First edit of my music video

The video is not completely finished and hopefully, from the audience feedback from this edit I can see what I need to do to improve.

During my video - filming

I began filming again with an HD SD card camera, which is also much better than the tape camera I was using previously. It is much higher quality, and it also doesn't take as long to upload onto the editing suite!

Disaster!!

I finished all of my filming yesterday for my first draft edit of my video, and then asked the media technician to set me up on an editing suite. As he uploaded the shots from my tape, we discovered that the tape didn't work and all the shots were showing up with black stripes across the screen. I have spoken to my media teacher about this and to rectify the problem, I have to re-shoot all of my video and use an SD card camera instead. I hope to finish filming for next monday - Dec 10th, and my first edit will hopefully be ready by next friday - Dec 15th.

Production Plan

Production Plan on Prezi

Settings for my video

Settings on Prezi

Props in my Music video

Props on Prezi

Costumes for my Music Video

Costumes on Prezi

Locations

These two pictures are of my bedroom. I am going to film around half of my video here. I think it's a good location as there's plenty of room for the equipment (camera etc) and because it's inside, the weather won't be a confounding variable. I can film here almost any time of day, however there is one slight issue. I have to wait until it has been fully decorated because if I film now, then need another shot at a later date (when the room is newly decorated) my video won't have continuity. Hopefully, this issue will be rectified this weekend and I can start filming at this location ASAP.

This is a possible location to film parts of my video. There are a few shots where I want the artist walking as if she is all alone. This could be a good location as it's easily accessed and I can film there during the day in my study periods at college, meaning the weather shouldn't be an issue.

Another location is Thorndyke Farm in Beverley.  This satalite image slightl shows the long track where the artist will be walking in certain shots of the video.
 

Health and Saftey

Audience demographic and psychographic profile

My main audience are students, or teenagers aged between around 14 and 19. I have chosen this audience because this is when a person’s personalities are shaped by others around them. This song aims to make people this age believe that nothing is wrong with who they are, and that they should always be themselves no matter who tells them to change. This audience can closely relate to the lyrics and will hopefully enjoy my video. I think people of a younger age may not understand the underlying meaning of the song as they’re not focusing on their personalities any younger than around 14. I also think that people older than around 19 have already chosen who they want to be and hopefully no one could shape their personalities or styles, hence why I will be aiming my video at people from approximately 14 to 19. The video will be marketed at all people of this age, regardless of their styles and personalities as I hope they will all be able to relate to it.

People this age fit into the demographic category E. This is due to the fact that mostly, they’re in full time education, or they’re not old enough to get a well-paid job. This means I will have to make my video available to watch on YouTube as it’s a free marketing device, and those who can afford it can then buy the track on iTunes or on a CD. I want all people this age to be able to watch my video so I think it’s a good idea to make it available on a free website so everyone can enjoy it.

Stereotypically, the two people in these images are a good example of people whi I would expect to enjoy nmy video.

Kiera - Student

Lauren - Student

Casting for my video

I have chosen Olivia Gibson to be the main role in my video. She has a very outgoing personality and is very willing to do anything I ask of her. I chose her because she has a very individual style, and I’d like to incorporate this into my video. The song Who You Are is about staying true to who you really are regardless of how much media attention you get from being famous. Liv has experienced something similar to this as due to her unique style; she has found it difficult to get a job, with the big fashion retailers telling her she must change her appearance to gain their attention. However Liv hasn’t let this stand in her way, and she hasn’t changed who she is and has now found a worthwhile part time job that value her style.

Liv can relate to the lyrics in the song and therefore will probably show true emotion from real life experiences. This will hopefully make it incredibly easy for her to play the role of Jessie J in the video. Liv studied A2 media last year at Wyke and understands the commitments she has to make to help me produce my final video.

My Animatic

Production Plan

Originally I wanted to shoot my video during the autumn half term. However, I couldn't film any of the outside shots because of the weather. On almost all of the locations I went to, it rained either when I got there or just before I went to my location. So I originally re-arranged to shoot this weekend. However as you can see from the image above, it's forecast rain for Saturday. I then planned to shoot after college, but since it's started to get dusk/dark around half past 5, I can't get to my outdoor locations while it's still light.

Evaluation of my reconstructed music video

Background

For my deconstruction and reconstruction of a music video I chose to do the first 30 seconds of Miley Cyrus Party in the USA. "Party in the U.S.A" is a pop song performed by American recording artist Miley Cyrus. The song was written by Jessie J, Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly and was produced by Dr. Luke. It was released on August 11^th 2009 by Hollywood Records. The song was originally written for Jessie J, however it didn’t seem ‘edgy’ enough and so was passed on to Miley Cyrus as her album Time of our lives needed more songs. It fitted with the fact Miley had just moved from her home town Nashville, Tennessee, to California, Hollywood. The music video for "Party in the U.S.A", directed by Chris Applebaum, pays tribute to the 1978 film Grease and Cyrus' parents' courting days. It occurs mainly at a drive-in theater and also won the MuchMusic Video Award for Best International Artist Video at the 2010 award show.

My Video Evaluation

Before we started any planning or filming, we allocated the various roles to each person in the group. Lauren – Producer and Cast, Abbie – Director and Cast, Kiera – Camera and Cast, Becky – Editing and Cast, Charlotte – Cast. We realised we needed an extra few people to create the feeling or a large group of people. So we decided to ask around our friends to see who were available and willing to take part in our video. We finally managed to recruit 3 extra people to be in our video. Mason – Cast, Autumn – Cast, Alex – Cast. After allocating roles, we swapped mobile numbers and came up with the idea of producing a timetable to show when everyone was free.

As we all had a study period last on Wednesday afternoon, we decided to use this to our advantage. We all met up in the college atrium and travelled to our location. This idea can also help me in producing my coursework music video. If I produce a timetable of when the cast and myself are free, it’s an easy way to decide when to meet up and what to do and when.

 Originally, our group had various problems with location. As the actual video distinctively uses a dry, dusty floor and many cars, we had to find a car park where we could get the same effect. We decided against trying to find a car park with the same surface as the only one we could think of, Walton Street car park, was in use for Hull Fair.

As you can see, the shot is the same, but the location isn’t. We also tried to get the best likeness to the boots Miley is wearing in this shot, and the one’s Charlotte are wearing are the best we could get hold of.

We also had a problem with the fact there are a lot of cars around in the video. Although we tried to find somewhere suitable to film, the college are park wasn’t appropriate as there was a lot of traffic at the times we wanted to film. We actually used the KC stadium car park, which only had 1 car in it when we went to film, but this meant it was extremely quiet so we didn’t have to keep moving out of the way of vehicles. We then decided to add in a few shots from the college car park. This was because we didn’t have enough time at the KC car park as although it was sunny, towards the end of filming it started to rain. The next week, Charlotte and I did some filming in the college car park with our media teacher, John, using his car to feature in our video. We were slightly worried that the change in location would easily show in our finished video, however because we were aware of this, we were able to shoot in a place where it wouldn’t be noticeable that the location was different.

We did around 5-7 different shots of the section of the video we were doing to enable us to be able to pick the best one. This proved to be a really good idea as in most of the clips, at least one person was looking the wrong way each time! This has helped me realise that when I’m filming my music video for my coursework, one take is never enough! Something else that we noticed was that in order for the video to flow nicely, the people on camera had to start walking before we started filming. At first, some of the shots we did looked extremely staged as you could tell that the first step in the shot was from a standstill. This resulted in us re-shooting a few clips. This is a useful tip to remember for shooting my music video for my coursework.

Another problem was that we couldn’t find a car owner that would let us sit on their car bonnet, so we had to fill the gap in our video with a different shot. However I don’t think it looks out of place as we tried to keep to the tempo and beat of the video so it didn’t look odd. We also couldn’t find a car suitable to get out of the boot of, so again, we filled the gap with a different shot.

Another problem was the weather. In the video, it’s sunny and bright, however we don’t have much sunny weather in Hull at this time of year. So the brightness needed to be added in post-production. I never realised that this editing could be done to the clip before this task, so it’s proved as a handy tip to remember for when I’m filming for my coursework. A few of the takes we did were extremely dark, so in post-production we took out some blue and added a bit of yellow. This made the clip seem much brighter than originally so it fitted more with the actual video.

Another feature we had to include lip syncing in our video. At first we thought it would be impossible to get it exactly perfect, however I think it worked really well. While we were shooting each clip, we had the song playing right next to the speaker on the camera, loud enough so that Charlotte could hear it. This meant that she was miming in time to the actual song, and when it came to editing, she was exactly in time with the track. In post-production, we turned the sound off on the clip, just listening to the track to make sure it looked right before saving it.

Overall, this has been an extremely useful project to take part in. It has taught me about many different post-production techniques and also about how to produce various different camera shots. For example, the crane shot in our video we thought wasn’t achievable as we couldn’t find a tripod that would hold the camera in that position. We actually asked John, our media teacher to our advantage here! He is just over 6” tall, so we asked him to hold the camera up as high as he could to achieve a crane shot. We realised that when creating a music video, without the funds that professionals have, you have to be creative and almost cheeky in some ways. This again, is another useful piece of information to remember when filming my music video for my coursework.

Storyboard images of my reconstructed media text

 

 

The images above show a direct comparison between the storyboard for the actual video and our copy. They show that we tried really hard to copy every shot, but in some cases it just wasn't possible.

 

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Miley Cyrus Party in the USA

Production Plan

Times and days where and what for

Wednesday 3rd
3pm - KC Stadium Car park to film the whole video (if raining, still to meet in oak)
Everyone needed to attend.

Thursday 4th
All group members to start editing in the Media lesson

Friday 5th
All group members to continue editing in the Media lesson.

Monday 8th
Lunchtime - Charlotte + Abby to finish filming with John's car.

Tuesday 9th
All group members to finish editing in the Media lesson.

Props

John - Black car

Costumes

Everyone - summer weather clothes (shorts/t-shirts)
Charlotte - "cowboy" boots

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a Media Text

Lauren Murphy - Producer + Cast

Abbie Hardy - Director + Cast

Kiera Pollard - Camera

Becky Foster - Editing + Cast

Charlotte Hemsworth - Cast

Mason - Cast

Autumn - Cast

Alex - Cast

 

Skills Development Essay

For my Foundation Portfolio I had to produce the front cover of a music magazine, its contents page and a double page spread. It had to be created for a specific genre, so I began to research all the possible genres I could choose. I began with researching the pop genre, fitting in with the most common genre of my favourite artist Jessie J. Although I analysed magazines such as ‘NME’ and ‘Mojo’, I decided I wanted to create something different. My magazine ended up being a mixture of the pop and indie genres, due to the fact I based my magazine on how an indie magazine would look. I tried to include features from more than one genre, as my target audience was all people interested in more than one genre of music. I chose to do this as most people like a mixture of music genres, and would normally have to buy several different magazines to cater for their taste in music. This however comes at a cost, so I chose to condense pop, RnB and indie into one magazine.

The magazine front cover I created was for the month with focused on the indie genre. I used Photoshop to create this look. Starting on the AS media course, I had never used Photoshop before, so I didn’t really have any editing skills, other than cropping or re-sizing images in PowerPoint. For example for GCSe drama, I made a PowerPoint on the skills I had learned throughout the year. I used PowerPoint to put images on a presentation and then added text. I also used Microsoft Publisher to produce various different posters and newspaper articles for GCSe English. I also never edited an image before. Therefore when I was asked to create a perfume advert using Photoshop, I had no idea where to start. I had never used the software before therefore I had no idea how to cut the background from an image, ‘perfect’ someone’s skin or rotate/re-size images. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge affected my overall advert, however it did provide me with some basic skills on how to use Photoshop. When it came to producing my actual music magazine, I had a lot more knowledge on how to use certain tools within Photoshop, such as the cutting tool, smudging tool and also how to edit texts and fonts. This helped me greatly on producing the look and design I wanted to create for my music magazine.

When producing my music magazine I completed several drafts using both Microsoft publisher (to get the layout just right) and then Photoshop (to piece it all together0. I then got audience feedback on the overall design of my magazine, which helped me to understand which features the audience liked and disliked. I also wanted to know how to use a camera correctly, to give my final product a proficient appearance (as this was a skill I had not yet mastered!) I also had no idea about all the different camera angles and shots that I could use to create an overall professional image, which showed in my perfume advertisement. Luckily, I quickly learned which shots were conventional for each section of my magazine and tried to stick with using these to appeal to my target audience.

I also had to create a Blog, again something I’d never done before. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the course as I could make my blog my unique by using presentation features such as ‘Prezi’. I had also never used this presentation tool before so my first one was extremely basic. However now, I use it in all my subjects, including English Language where I was asked to create a presentation on different word classes.

 

Overall throughout the whole time of producing my Foundation Portfolio I believe my skills vastly improved. From creating a perfume advert where I only touched up my models skin and didn’t cut out the background, to creating a front cover, contents page and double page spread where I used the cutting tool, smudging tool and many more features within Photoshop to create the design I had in my head. At the beginning of the course, I had no knowledge of Photoshop and I only had basic knowledge on how to use my own images in Microsoft PowerPoint. I now have detailed knowledge on how to use Photoshop and I can also use Blogger.com easily (a skill I never had before) and also the creative online device ‘Prezi’, another skill I didn’t have before the media A2 course. Looking back I feel that the fact I continuously applied the skills helped me perfect them and therefore show what my strengths and weaknesses are. I also believe that if I were to create my music magazine again, I could definitely better the images and editing I used. I now know that using presentation tools such as ‘Prezi’ are a great way of interesting the audience too, as I got to display my research in a more appealing and exciting way. I hope that I can apply this knowledge to my Advanced Portfolio in order to appeal to my target audience.



Key Audience Terms

Qualitative Data

Qualitative Data is written data with a lot of information. It’s normally personal interests or feelings towards a given subject. For example, asking someone their opinion on something would generate Qualitative Data.

Quantitative Data

Quantitative data is number data. It’s normally quite simple and usually generic. For example asking someone their age or, “on a scale of 1 – 10”.

Demographic

Demographics are categories people fit into naturally, such as gender or age. They also include social bands such as categories A,B,C1,C2,D and E. (The category determined by your profession or income).

Psychographic

Psychographics are personal opinions, views, likes and dislikes.

Influential Media Texts

Katy Perry - The One Who Got Away

Miley Cyrus - When I Look At You

Katy Perry - Wide Awake


 

 

 

Audience Feedback Material on Prezi

 

Looking at each of these influential texts, I then asked the audience these questions about their thoughts and feelings about each of the texts:

1. What is most appealing about each of the texts you have seen?

2. Looking at the three music videos what are your thoughts about the mise en scene used, what about the quality?

3. Do your expectations meet what you first anticipated for the three music videos and images?

4. Looking at all of the texts would you change anything about any of them?

5. Do you prefer something with abstract, narrative, performance or animated connotations? You can choose however many you like, please elaborate which and why.

6. Do the images of the artists represent their music video? If yes, in what way? If no, why not?

 

7. What type of visuals do you see when you listen to my chosen song?

 

8. Does the actual music video for this song live up to your expectations and why?

Storyboard - Miley Cyrus Party in the USA

Conventions of existing music videos

Cinematography

Most music videos use close ups and medium shots throughout the video. To create a relationship with the viewer, the performer sings directly to the camera, as if they're singing directly to that one viewer. Jessie J's Who You Are uses this throughout the song to create a strong relationship between the performer and viewer to enhance the dramatic emotions.
 

 

Long shots may also be included but conventionally, these shots are only used usually when the artist isn't singing. For example during an instrumental or just as the video is starting. Establishing shots are sometimes used at the beginning of a music video, in the conventional place but it's not a typical convention of music videos. Tilts and high/low angle shots are often used in music videos, especially in slow songs. Tracking shots are occasionally used but normally in a slow section of any genre song. For example, Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus uses a tracking shot just before the chorus.

 

 

Music video's almost always use the artist singing the song in the music video. This is a strong convention of all music videos as the record label are selling the artist, not just that one specific song. However Ed Sheeran's song Lego House did not use him in the music video, he used his best friend Rupert Grint instead. Rupert was made famous by the award winning series of films Harry Potter. This video is extremely popular, however it may not have worked if Rupert wasn't already so famous.

 

 

Editing

Conventionally, music videos are a continuous piece of footage, all in chronological order. This is because most songs are telling a story. The story is told through the images on the screen and the words in the song. It wouldn't have such a big impact if the video used montage, hence the use of continuity editing. To create realism, most music videos conventionally use cuts and the occasional fade at the end. This also enables the video to tell a story. If there were fades for example throughout the video, it wouldn't make as much sense to the viewer and it would take away from the big impact the video is supposed to create. Abstract videos and songs sometimes use fades, special effects and occasionally montage editing to fit the genre of the song. Much like Euan Baker's Your Heart Is So Loud video, although it's not essentially a music video.

 



 

Mise en Scene

Music videos vary in terms of mise en scene depending on their style. For example a music video of a dance-pop song will have flashing lights, maybe a dance routine and it will have props such as a microphone and other pop related items. The costumes are usually outgoing and brightly coloured, much like Jessie J's LaserLight video.

 

 





Jessie J is sponsored by Vitamin Water. So she features their product in her video LaserLight too. This is to promote the product and ultimately get them more money and custom. This is a common feature of a well known artist's music video.

 

Slow music usually features a quiet setting and 'everyday' clothes so the audience just concentrate on the song and the artist. Or bands that are not that well known. They do this so the audience also concentrates on them as an artist, as they need the publicity to get well known. Ed Sheeran did this in his music video for A Team, although he didn't feature in it himself.



Lip syncing is also a common convention, used in almost evry music video that has a soundtrack with dialogue. The performer will mime to the words then the soundtrack is added to the final video later, to create a professional finish.

Sound

Sound is conventionally the song the music video is being made for, occasionally with some dialogue or other diegetic sound over the top, creating realism. The music track makes the video, so without it, the music video wouldn't actually be a music video.

Genre of my chosen song

The genre of the Jessie J song "Who You Are" is coul pop. It tells a story, making it a narrative which the audience can relate to.A lot of pop songs now don't have that crucial 'soul' element, which makes them impossible to relate to as they don't tell a story. There is almost always next to no passion behind the lyrics. This means the ausience don't connect with the artist/performer as much as they have no underlying meanings to think about.

Another artist that uses this soul pop genre is Adele. She writes songs mostly about her own love life, making them extremely relatable and believable. This in turn, makes her an extremely popular artist as she sings from the heart, a skill which not many artists have now. Similarly, Leona Lewis (another soul/pop artist) uses the same genre codes and conventions to create music.

 

 

Adele – Rolling in the Deep

Similarly, Leona Lewis (another soul/pop artist) uses the same genre codes and conventions to create music.

 

Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love

Chosen song and artist information

 

 

Chosen song and artist information on Prezi

My chosen song by Jessie J - Who You Are

 

 

 

Who You Are Lyrics

 

I stare at my reflection in the mirror,
"Why am I doing this to myself?"
Losing my mind on a tiny error,
I nearly left the real me, on the shelf.
No, no, no, no, no...

Don't lose who you are, in the blur of the stars.
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay.
Sometimes it's hard, to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Just be true to who you are.
(who you are [x11])

Brushing my hair, do I look perfect?
I forgot what to do to fit the mold, yeah.
The more I try the less it's working, yeah
'Cause everything inside me screams
No, no, no, no, no...

Don't lose who you are, in the blur of the stars.
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay.
Sometimes it's hard, to follow your heart.
But tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
There's nothing wrong with who you are.

Yes, no's, egos, fake shows, like whoa.
Just go, and leave me alone.
Real talk, real life, good love, goodnight,
With a smile, that's my home.
That's my home, no...

No, no, no, no, no...
Don't lose who you are, in the blur of the stars.
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay...
Sometimes it's hard, to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Just be true to who you are.

 

"Party in the U.S.A" is a pop song performed by American recording artist Miley Cyrus. The song was written by Jessie J, Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly and was produced by Dr. Luke. It was released on August 11^th 2009 by Hollywood Records. The song was originally written for Jessie J, however it didn’t seem ‘edgy’ enough and so was passed on to Miley Cyrus as her album Time of our lives needed more songs. It fitted with the fact Miley had just moved from her home town Nashville, Tennessee, to California, Hollywood. The music video for "Party in the U.S.A", directed by Chris Applebaum, pays tribute to the 1978 film Grease and Cyrus' parents' courting days. It occurs mainly at a drive-in theater and also won the MuchMusic Video Award for Best International Artist Video at the 2010 award show.

Music Video Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the band
• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)