AUDIENCE FEEDBACK - 34

stop at: 1.40

PITCH FOR IDEAS - 33

For my music video I want it to be heavily narrative based. I'm not that keen on  the idea of having an actual performance shot through the song because, for me, I don't think it fits. Bastille - the band that I have chosen - have taken forward this idea before in the 'Oblivion' music video where the character sings/lip syncs part of the song with Dan's voice over top of it. I like this idea because it sort of intertwines the performance and narrative and makes the story link with the character more.

For the actual story, I want to take abstract notion of  'Haunt' literally. I want to have the character going on a journey and the further she gets, the closer she is to dying. At the end I want to show the total contrast of the before and after of the character (shadow of former self).

RISK ASSESSMENT - 31

MAGAZINE ADVERT IDEAS - 30

DIGIPAKS - 29

MUSIC VIDEO TIMELINE - 28

EDITING PLAN - 27

TEXT

I plan to experiment with using text throughout my video, particularly in the end frames. I like the idea of the audience not knowing for sure who the band is at the beginning.

Colour filters

I plan to use a cold tone throughout the music video (like a pale blue). I feel as if it gives a really eerie feel to the whole thing. Although I have achieved this with lighting beforehand, I want to emphasise it through the editing process. (I have found that natural light can have a cooler overall affect.

Editing/cuts

For my video I want to use a lot of jump cuts because I want to have a blunt feel to the video. However, when focusing on the characters 'change' I want the shots to fade gradually so it isn't such a dramatic 'unrealistic' feel. (what I mean by unrealistic is purposely looking jumpy).

ANALYSIS OF SONG LYRICS - 26

SHOT LIST - 25

- jump cuts of ghost character moving towards the camera, long shot to mid shot
- long shot of girl running in, breathless
- tracking into her face, close up, looking panicked
- low angle long shot of her running (over camera)
- jump cuts of her then ghost her (interchanging moving towards camera through jump cuts)
- close up of ghost character straight on
- close up of the girl singing the line 'wisdom we learn [...] rarity of truth' different angles but not looking at camera
- girl having a breakdown, varying shot types, circling her
- sped up mid shot to close up of ghost character
- close up to mid shot to long shot of girl standing up (slow motion)
- long shot of girl fading into long shot of ghost character

STORYBOARD - 24

FILMIMG AND EDITING PLAN - 23

 

LETTER TO LABEL - 22

Dear Virgin Records,
                               I am a sixth form student currently studying A-level media studies at John Cabot Academy. For our coursework we have to create a music video. I am writing to ask for your permission to use Bastille's song, 'Haunt'. The video will only be used for educational purposes and I will not be making any profit from it. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Yours sincerely,
Hannah Jones

LOCATION PHOTOS AND RAW FOOTAGE/CAMERA MOVEMENTS 19/20

COSTUME AND MAKE UP PLANNING - 18

 

MOODBOARD - 17

In this moodboard I have explored location ideas, make up and a brief outline for the costumes. I really wanted to get the creepy feel across that I want in my video. 

INITIAL IDEAS - 16

RESEARCH INTO MAGAZINE ADVERTS - 15

RESEARCH IN TO DIGIPAKS- 14

TRACKING AN ARTIST/BAND THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREER - 13

MUSIC CHANNELS - 12

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - 11

   

Hi, I’m Anna and I’m 18. I really like The 1975, they are my favourite band at the moment. However, indie stuff is cool too but I think I’m more into the indie-rock genre if I’m honest because I like how the songs tell a story. I like the urban environment and how it is used in a lot of music video for that specific genre.

Hi, I’m Adam and my favourite band of all time are the Arctic Monkeys. I’m starting to go to more gigs for alternative music and find myself really branching out into the indie-rock genre.

I'M WAITING TO COLLECT MORE DATA TO HAVE A BETTER SET OF RESULTS!

ANALYSIS OF PREVIOUS STUDENTS WORK - 10

INSPIRATION AND INFLUENCES - 9

THEORY - 8

RESEARCH INTO THE RELEVANT GENRE - 7

STYLE INFLUENCES - 6

RESEARCH INTO BASTILLE - 5

ANALYSIS OF MUSIC VIDEOS - 4

MUSIC VIDEOS IN ORDER OF ANALYSIS ON SLIDES.

RESEARCH INTO EXISTING COMPANIES - 3

BASTILLE 

Virgin Records is the record label for Bastille. The also manage many other bands/artists, such as: Grizfolk, Ella Eyre and Prides. even though virgin is a big company they seem to manage more alternative artists. Even though Virgin is part of a bigger corporation, Bastille still uses a VEVO account on YouTube to promote their music videos and songs.

Paramore

Paramore's record label is Fueled By Ramen LLC. This record label is linked with Warner music group
and is distributed by Atlantic records. These are very big record labels in America. The label doesn't use a
VEVO account on YouTube like most other artists use. However, it does have it's own YouTube account which
promotes only their artists/bands.

Stereophonics

Stereophonics record label is MapelMusic Recordings. MMR is the Canadian representative of Downton Records, Dangerbird records and ATO records. With Universal Music Canada and MapleCore's own Fontana North handling distribution. MapleMusic Recordings combines the personalised, artsist-friendly approach of a boutique record company with the reach of a major label. Again, the Stereophonics don't use a VEVO account on YouTube. However, this makes it less well known on the internet.

The Killers

The Killers record label is Island Records. Island Records are a label that operate as a division of Universal Music Group.The label was formerly based in the UK until 1998. As well as The killers, Island records also manage such artists as: Alex Clare, Alexa Goddard and many more. The killers do have their own VEVO account on YouTube which makes their videos easier to find.

CONVEVETIONS OF A MUSIC VIDEO - 2

HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEO - 1

Narrative task and mini music video

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Narrative video and mini music video task review

I have learnt, throughout this experience, that narratives have to be similar to the message in the song, therefore proving Andrew Goodwin's theory about music videos being an extension of the lyrics. Also that it is easier when you sort of in camera edit because it means that less will have to be fixed in the post-production stage, we learnt this through filming narrative. We also learned that sometimes using video transitions can mask over any faults with certain cuts, usually we would've re-filmed but we didn't have the time so we improvised. We also realised how important setting shots up the exact same and not moving the camera when we 

Lip syncing workshop review

LIP SYNC TASK REVIEW - OTHERS WORK

OTHER GROUPS LIP SYNCING TASK

Lipsyncing workshop

We found, that during this task, that it is important that the person who is 'lipsyncing' actually has to sing out loud. This is bexcause they form the words properly when saying it out loud and all in all it looks better when the clips are all synced up. Another thing is the performance. The performance affected the whole feel of the clip because when some performers were static it made the clip feel fake and awkward.
Again, we realised how we have to shoot a whole take of the song and then later when in the editing stage, pick and choose what clips we want. Make sure shots aren't shakey by using a tripod.
A variety of locations were importamnt because it made the whole thing a lot more interesting and engaging to look at.Along with this it is important to fill the entire frame of the shot, it makes it look, again, more interesting and pleasing to the eye.

MY LIPSYNCING TASK

Composition and framing task

From this task, I learnt that most of my pictures are very theme-lead, which was open/closed, I’m trying to slowly use more techniques like, negative space, e.g. However, I tried using the compromise between colour of Beth’s hair colour and the background of green trees which I think was successful. I like how I didn’t interpret the theme conventionally, for example, photographing a door, but a downside to this is that the theme didn’t come across as clearly. I like the first two pictures, the close up of Beth’s face, but I’m not that keen on the second two because I feel as if I could've used better angles, composition and framing. However, that could be said for the whole task.

Skills review

Research and planning 

From last year I have realised how important research and planning is for the whole project and how it's the basis of everything and how we also tend to refer back to it throughout. To do this successfully me and my partner realised that we have to look into the conventions in more depth than we first had thought. We decided to watch a whole range of the 'British gangster' film openings and compare them with each other, in hindsight it would've been more effective if we looked at the sub-genres of gangster films and compared them to each other, this way the conventions of our chosen sub-genre would've been made clearer.

When we were planning we decided to use a story board to show how shots would be used and the course of the narrative, this was effective. However, I think that we would have gained more use out of it if we had included more detail, such as: use of lighting/mise en scene. We found out that we constantly changed our minds about the narrative and didn't necessarily change the story board, but this showed development and the process of changing things around to produce the final product. However,  if we had shown the process of what we had changed and created a story board for each development, it might of been more successful in showing development.

We discovered how target audience plays a huge role in the research and planning because we are basing the whole opening on their likes and dislikes of existing gangster films. Our audience research consisted of using Surveymonkey to create questionnaires to find out what kind of person would watch this genre of film. However, we had to re-do the questionnaire because our questions were not providing us with enough accurate information from then on we found it helpful when our audience included what conventions made it really feel like a gangster opening tot them. Through the results I created a voki depicting what kind of person would watch our film and the characteristics of them. 

Digital technology

In my AS year, i had developed my editing skills more than GCSE, we briefly learnt how to insert writing into a frame and for however long we wanted, this was helpful because we needed to involve credits. However, I wish I had taken the time to learn more about after effects and possibly make a proper logo for the company; this would’ve given the whole thing a more professional look. Some of the sound in our clips, such as: the scene where the character is talking was too quiet originally because we didn’t use a microphone. However, we then learnt from our mistakes and used a microphone when recording the character’s voice over which immediately sounded better. Because we never re-filmed the characters talking scene, we had to use editing software to improve the sound, but we found that it still sounded almost tinny.

I also used how to use video effects effectively, for example: transitions and colour.

Using conventions from real media texts

As my partner and I weren’t that familiar with gangster film conventions, we had to watch a lot of gangster film openings, these included: Layer Cake, Reservoir Dogs, e.c.t. I learnt how lighting is used a lot to represent characters, scenes and story lines, we took the inspiration from Layer Cake. However, one main convention that we challenged was that the main character was female, which is never seen in traditional gangster films which we were cohering to. We had to change the storyline somewhat so that the character had traditionally represented a female in some ways.

In A2, I would like to focus more on challenging conventions a little bit but to a certain extent because I feel as if it gives an element of surprise.

Creativity

One of the main ways I was creative during the earlier processes of creating a gangster film was when I story boarded our original idea for the film opening and drew, with stick figures the angle and position of the person and how they will be framed. The only regret I have was how I didn't change the story board as I went along.

The video transitions we mainly used were jump cuts and cross-dissolve, cross dissolve gave a really nice effect of one scene going into another, this kind of gave the impression that the scenes were happening at the same time which was the effect that we wanted. We also changed the colour to black and white which gave the impression of looking back into the past. This made the lighting more significant and with one scene, the only thing I would’ve had done better was that because we had to lighten it with the editing software, it became a little grainy, so the quality was compromised. Also, it was a contrast between the black and white scene with decent lighting which wasn't grainy and this gave an unwanted effect.

Post-production

After capturing the footage, we uploaded it to Adobe Premiere Pro; editing software, and had a hard time getting the clips we had to reach 2 minutes. The sound was hard to get right, we had to lower the level of sound gradually and to do this, and we zoomed right in on the sound clip and made small cuts which gave the effect of the sound gradually getting quieter or louder.