Monday, 30 November 2015

Filming Day 3





Our aim for today was to film the Rihanna puma advert inspired shots, however we were unsuccessful in our efforts to recreate the advert. In order to attempt to get the shots projected on my body we used a green screen and a projector. In addition we taped a handheld LED light for additional light for clearer shots.

We obtained both shots with the image projected on my body however this also projected onto the green screen which didn't work. So we then gathered shots with just me in front of the green screen to see if we could just layer an image just solely on my body without it appearing on the background. However when it came to editing the footage we were unable to find a way to do this.

In our final effort we filmed using a blue screen to if we could colour key, where we hoped to remove the background and then layer the image just on my body. Whilst testing this we found it extremely difficult and time consuming to achieve the effect, so we decided to move on and find an alternative to the effect used in the advert.










Thursday, 26 November 2015

Our trip to the BFI

Today my media class and I attended a talk in relation to our music videos at the BFI. The main speaker at the event was Tom Woodcock. He took us through the progression of music videos throughout history and how they've changed. In addition to that he gave us advice on how to obtain the highest marks for our videos and showed us videos from previous A Level candidates.

Below is the presentation he showed to us:


Below is the first video Tom showed us. The videos from the 1930s seemed to play around with colour and texture, it seems to be very different to what to appears it music videos today.


Toms advice for 10 steps to a successful music video:

1) Assess your resources

2)Warm up
   -lip sync task
   -remake a music video
   - photoshoot

3)Recce
   -limit locations
   -photos&footage
   -floor plan
   -assess lights&power

4)Pitch the whole package
   -Treatment
   -moodboard

5)Planning beats ideas
   -storyboard your ideas

6)Plan EVERYTHING
   -shooting schedule
   -shoot early
   -storyboard animatic (to see if it fits with the pace of the song)

7)Shoot
   -Plenty of cutaway shots
   -Shoot at least 10 times
   -Use different set-ups e.g. angles

8)Edit
   -Sync up everything
   -Paper edit
   -Cut and cut again
   -upload a rough cut to your blog and get feedback
   -Grade& effects in last

9)Evidence
   -research
   -all pitches
   -behind the scenes
   -screenshots
   -save all test footage

10)Evaluation
 

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

What is a digipak?

Often digipaks are used for a special edition of a CD or perhaps a deluxe album.







Why are digipaks seen as more convenient than the standard jewel casing?

  • More eco-friendly creating less impact on the environment
  • more compact 
  • shatterproof (more hardwearing)
  • larger space for graphics 
  • versatile packaging 
  • has a more premium look to it
What do they look like?
  • typically made from cardboard
  • dimensions: 139.55mmx6mmx125.5mm (based on a standard 4 page)
  • 30gsm card with matte or gloss 
  • can have spot varnish, lamination or embossing
  • gatefold
Generic Conventions:
  • parental advisory sticker
  • logo
  • track list
  • featured tracks 
  • album name 
  • artist name
  • record label 
  • social media e.g. twitter, instagram& website 
  • album of the year/reviews
  • produced by/songs written by

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Market Research Survey

Yesterday we finalised our market research survey using a website called 'Survey Monkey'. We found this website extremely useful as it enabled us to quickly produce and distribute our questionnaire to a wide variety of people. We managed to distribute our survey on a variety of different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The website allowed us to easily view the trends ad statistics so it was easy to analyse and retrieve our results. We hope to use the information from our survey to produce a great music video which our target audience will love.

Below are screenshots of our survey:

WhatsApp screenshots:

Saturday, 14 November 2015

-A Big Bad Wolf

I titled this post '-A Big Bad Wolf' to bring to you our change in idea for our wolf in our red riding hood inspired music video. We have now been inspired by the ABC series 'Pretty Little Liars' portrayal of the anonymous character '-A'. My group and I decided on a whole that it would be extremely difficult to have a visually accurate image of a wolf without it looking cheap, tacky and unrealistic. So I suggested to not be overly explicit with the red riding hood concept and instead have a different representation of the wolf as at the end of our video it is revealed that the wolf is in fact her self. We all thought to have the '-A' inspired character dressed in a black jeans and a black hoodie hiding the face. In the series '-A' is known to be stalking the 4 girls just like the wolf in the red riding hood story and in the same way '-A' is seen to prey on the girls vulnerability just like the wolf.

Banks- Brain Music Video Inspo



All of us of Mac 5 really love this video and its abstract imagery and we hope to incorporate a variety of different ideas from this video to ours. We found the opening shot of Banks in the circle with the screen on screen editing to be really effective and find this visually appealing. When the music changed to a faster pace, the pace of the editing increased also. We hope to incorporate this into our music video.  The monochrome colour palette is very contemporary and abides by the typical conventions of an Indie music video.

Friday, 13 November 2015

Young and Rubicam Psychographics Model

MASLOW'S Hierarchy of needs:

Young and Rubicam designed a profile to use as a research tool to see where people stood with it. They called this the 4C's. They aimed for it not to be ethnocentric so it can apply to people of different cultures. 


THE EXPLORER:

They seek discovery.
These people are driven by a need for discovery and challenge. Explorers are often the first to try out new ideas and experiences. They respond to brands that offer new sensations, indulgence and instant effects.


THE ASPIRER:

They seek Status
These people are Materialistic and acquisitive and are driven by others’ perceptions of them rather than by their own values. As a result, they respond to what others perceive as being superficial: image, appearance, persona, charisma and fashion. These people believe that an attractive pack is as important as its contents.


THE SUCCEEDER:
They seek ControlThese people possess self-confidence and have a strong goal orientation. They tend to be very organised.
When it comes to brands, they seek reward and prestige, and will often seek out the best, because that is what they feel they deserve. On the other hand, they also seek out caring and protective brands – their aggressive attitude to life means they need to relax occasionally.


THE REFORMER:
They seek Enlightenment
Reformers are the most anti-materialistic of the seven groups, and are often perceived as intellectual. They are socially aware, and pride themselves on tolerance. Reformers seek out the authentic and the harmonious, and are often at the leading edge of society. However, unlike Explorers, they will not buy things just because they are new.


THE MAINSTREAM:
They seek Security
These are people who live in the world of the domestic and the everyday. A daily routine is fundamental to the way they live their lives. Their life choices are ‘we’ rather than ‘me’. As their name implies, they are the mainstream of society. They are the largest group of people within 4C's across the world. They respond to big established brands, to ‘family’ brands and to offers of value for money.

THE STRUGGLER:
They seek Escape
Strugglers live for today, and make few plans for tomorrow. Others often see them as victims, losers and wasters - aimless, disorganised people with few resources apart from their own physical skills. If they get on in life, it will depend more on a winning lottery ticket than anything they do themselves. They are heavy consumers of alcohol and junk food. Visual impact and physical sensation are an important element of their brand choices.

THE RESIGNED:
They seek Survival
These are predominantly older people with constant, unchanging values built up over time. For them, the past is bathed in a warm nostalgic glow. They respect institutions and enjoy acting in traditional roles. Their brand choices are driven by a need for safety and for economy. They choose above all what is familiar to them.

In our groups we took an online test to see which of the seven categories we fall into and these were our results:


Wednesday, 11 November 2015

Filming Day 2 : Location 1

Today we started filming much earlier than we did on the last filming day which gave us more time to get a variety of different shots we needed to retrieve. However we still haven't completely finished filming all the shots at this location although we hope to get it all the shots done on the next filming day. We have also managed to get the shot of the metaphorical wolf stalking red riding hood, so we have made a lot of progress since our last filming day. 
Below is a collage of a few of the shots we got:


Sunday, 8 November 2015

Filming Day 1: Location 1

Today we started filming in the forest of hilly fields park. We didn't film for long because we struggled with the light as it got dark rather quickly. However we managed to a few great shots including an establishing shot and shots of red riding hood running through the forrest. We did hope to get more shots but due to the darkness we had to finish filming earlier than expected. In order to get the relevant shots we plan to start filming a bit earlier in the afternoon so we have enough time before the sun sets.
The above photo was taken at 3pm whereas the below was taken at 4pm. It got dark really quickly and we found it really difficult to film.


                   

Saturday, 7 November 2015

Where do you watch music videos?

A music video or a song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Music videos can be found on a variety of different platforms, however MTV and YouTube have become the most popular places to view music videos. 

There are now different music channels which cater to different genres:

Top Charts: 
  • Kiss
  • Capital 
  • The Vault 
  • ChartShow 
Classics:
  • HeartTV
  • Magic 

Rock:
  • Kerrang 
  • Scuzz 

Friday, 6 November 2015

Recce/ Location day 1

Today all of us of Mac 5 went and visited the location. I was the only one who had previously viewed the location so today was a great chance for everyone to view it and plan out where each shot would take place. Once we saw the location we also generated new ideas for shots when we saw a quirky fallen tree. Originally we planned to gather some footage today and start filming however we found it more useful to use today to plan. (Also, it started raining so we wouldn't of been able to film anyway!)

Mutually when storyboarding we planned to film early morning (i.e. 7:30am) however after viewing our location we all agreed that it wasn't essential as filming when its approaching can also work in our favour as it creates and eery atmosphere. However we do understand we can manipulate the lighting through both lighting equipment and editing which we intend to do.

All of us in Mac 5 have arranged to start filming Sunday afternoon when it isn't forecasted to rain (we learnt our lesson to check it today).

Purchasing a costume

Red Riding Hood is known for her red cape, so in order to pull of the Red Riding Hood concept we needed to have our main protagonist wearing one. We were quite particular in what type of cape we wanted being a red cape with a hood because we had to be careful our protagonist didn't look like a superhero instead of red riding hood. A problem we faced when shopping for our costume was our budget as many of the good capes were very expensive and therefore out of our tight budget.

After looking on a variety of different websites and fancy dress stores we found this cape from amazon.co.uk we chose this one because it was inside our budget and we also found that we were eligible for free next day delivery with amazon prime which was great as we needed the cape as soon as possible so we could go and start filming.