Final Filming

After waiting for a camera to become free, we can finally film the last part of our music video. We have discussed filming one part in the day time and one part in the evening, and have found this will be too difficult as our deadline is approaching quickly. So to sort out the problem, we are going to be filming both of our next parts in the day time, one in the woods (carrying on the fairytale/dream theme) and the other in the alleyway (carrying on the prostitute/waiting for someone theme). Our filming date is the 28th February 2010, with the mise-en-scene carefully managed by being away from public influence, one location being in a local woods, and another location in the alleyway next to the actress's house. We will only have certain props such as cigarettes for the alleyway part, and a peice of cloth for the woods part of our filming. The clothes she will be wearing will be the same in the dream part, to emphasise the repetition of her life, she keeps dreaming the same thing, she only dreams of that thing. Her clothing in the alleyway will be similar to our first set of filming, however we decided they were abit too revealing to be wearing outside the house, we are still going to give her a "trashy" sort of look, but with more clothes and a leather jacket or fur coat, in which we shall decide when filming.

After publishing this post, we had difficulties getting hold of our actress, and this gave us great difficulties as we had a deadline close. We decided as a group to use ourselves but to carry on our theme and to ensure the grade we believe we are possible of, we would not show the head of the actress, and instead just use the legs and emphasise the "prostitute" theme. We planned 

Ancillary Tasks

We need to plan the digipack for our CD and DVD pack. For this, we have found a template off the internet to hold 2 CD/DVD's. We decided that our digipack and cover will reflect the artist and the controversy of our final music video. This meant that we would use simple fonts and subtle colours with emphasis to certain ones such as the colour red, which we have shown in our music video. 

To help us decide which fonts are best we used this website, we had already minimised the fonts to which we want, using the word simple to go with our theme. The colours we will be using will also need to go with the theme of our video. To match our mise-en-scene we decided to use pale mono-tones with the emphasis of the colour red, to make it stand out. The colour red represents feelings such as lust, anger and passion. For example, we have edited this photo to show how we want to emphasise the colour red on her lips, to show her provocative behaviour. 

Our progress

After having feedback from our peers of our final cut. We decided that we needed more footage to make sure that we obtain the best grade that we are capable of, and also so that our music video can be memorable and alternative to others. We have had a brainstorm and come up with more ideas to add to our existing footage. Other locations consist of in an alleyway to give the video more of a repetitive narrative, (the prostitute narrative). We will show our actress in a variation of camera angles from her slouching, to lighting up a cigarette, to standing and looking at her watch. This will be used to emphasise the feeling of her waiting for someone. Whoever that may be is up to the audience to decide. We wanted to add to the emphasis of repetition by using a number of different alleyways, if we could make this possible.

 The second location we decided was in a woods. This was to add to the juxtaposition of the "prostitute" scenes, to the dream world. We filmed our dream world in the dark last time, and this time we decided we wanted more of a contrast to the prostitute scenes, and plan to film in the day time to make it more clear. We will also use a various number of angle shots such as ariel shots, low angle shots, floor shots, over the shoulder shots and point of view shots. 

Certain props that we need will be the material we used in the first scenes of the dream world, this is just to add to the effect of her dreaming and it being abnormal and extravert. We will use similar clothes to the existing shots to emphasise this dream world, and to make it like a "fairytale", adding more of a narrative. Our theme is repetition, to show the actress's daily life, and the life that she aspires but will never be apart of.

In the alleyway, we will be using similar clothes to our previous footage, to show that she is a prostitute, without giving too much away. We didn't want to show her waiting on a street corner, as this will label our video as obvious and "tacky". So instead using the mise-en-scene such as her clothes, location and her mannerisms to emphasise who she is. We will be filming in the dark, and outside, to contrast from being inside and the dream, but still creating a similar mise-en-scene. To help with the lighting, as we found it difficult when filming outside in the dark, we will need a bright light such as a lantern or a lamp. This will add to our mise-en-scene and make it as perfect as we can get it. We are excited to get started on the next part of our filming. 

Magazine advertisement analysis

In order for our research and planning to guarantee us the grade we want, we need to do further research into our ancillary tasks. As part of last year we did a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, we decided to look on our blog from last year to see what progress we made and what textual analysis we conducted, on which magazines. This helped us a little bit, but we need to be more precise, for example, we looked at front pages, we now need to look at music advertisements. For help with our research, we are going to buy some magazines and textual analyse the magazine advertisements we can find. However we know that these are limited in certain magazines, and music magazines will be our best option. 

For our second part of our ancillary tasks, we need to create an album cover for our chosen song and artist. For research into this part,

 

Our Progress

We have completed our final cut after completing more filming and adding this to our other material. We feel the contrast between the two locations and the two ideas (feminism versus sexism) has been proved successful. After using a number of different techniques such as editing the speed and brightness and contrast of the colour, it gives the vibes of a professional final piece. However we still feel there are a few tweaks we still need to make, as our aim of making the shots black and white, enhancing the colour has changed. We don't feel like this will reflect our good set of mise-en-scene. We wanted to enhance the red colour on the lipstick, but haven't found a way to do this yet. So for now, we are looking for techniques in order to make this happen. We believe this will finish the video off perfectly and ensure us the marks we want. 

Now we have to complete our ancillary tasks and complete planning for our music video and make it as good as we will be able to. This is our next step.

Textual Analysis

After analyzing our first cut we have decided to add in another location which will create a juxta position of the prostitute and lonely lifestyle against a dream fantasy world. 

As an inspiration towards our second idea  we have decided to look at florence and the machine's- Rabbit heart(raise it up).

The video uses soft colors and lighting to create a pretty result. The overall effect creates a "dream" like world which is emphasized by the blur effect that is used in the editing process. The shots used are not too short and linger on her. Furthermore the close ups make the audience aware of her reactions and the mise en scene created with her pretty makeup.

An effect is also used with the lighting where a light and mirror is used to reflect onto the actress and create a aesthetically pleasing result. 

 

 

Research into producing our ancillary tasks

For the other part of our year 13 media coursework, we are hoping to produce a magazine advertisement and CD cover to go with our music video. During filming we took some photos to go with our mise-en-scene, however we wanted to keep the reputation of the artist but show that the cover/advert model, isn't the artist, as shown in the video. This further enhances our idea of fashion versus art, the contrast between the model and the singer's emotions. We realise we need to look at magazine advertisements, and album covers and textual analyse them, breaking them down to what is influential about each media product, and what makes you want to view/buy the CD. This will include the mise-en-scene, typography, colours, framing and quality. 

Next planning stage

We have decided that the next step to improve our mark, will be to film more footage of a juxtaposition compared to the previous footage that we have. We decided this because despite the huge amount and varied footage that we had wasn't interesting and as exciting as we hoped. However, because we want to make sure our mise-en-scene is perfect, as we feel it already has been, we need to carefully plan where our extra footage will be and what exactly will be in it. To make sure that we didn't have a huge contrast in mise-en-scene, we chose to keep the cool lighting and how we would do this would be to stay outside, so that we can control our mise-en-scene. We wanted to keep away from any external influences, such as cars and buildings too. Using this filming to be apart of the actor's dream world as the storyboard. Her outfit would need to be changed as we felt the one outfit was quite limiting to us and what we wanted to show. In order to create this dreamworld of "flashbacks" we needed to change the outfit to give a different mood and feeling to the atmosphere. 

Our Progress

We have currently filmed our first rough cut and edited it to the song. We found we were quite comfortable filming and were able to work with the camera creating different shots. Our storyboards and planning were key in making the filming a smooth process as we referred back to them to check that we had the correct footage and angles. 

After reviewing all our shots and editing them our mise en scene is exactly the scene that we wanted to create and reflects the mood and emotions of the prostitute.  By using dull lighting and dull colors we were able to show the loneliness and sadness that she feels. We also used the color red to show the fieriness and passion that is hidden within her. The clothes and dressing of the room make it appear as though she has little money and show that she is a prostitute. We also think that our choice in actor was also very successful because she has a versatile look and we were able to dress her in the way we thought fitted in with the mise en scene. She will also fit well with our next filming because we can change her look to create this other juxta position. 

 

However we have decided that to make our video more interesting and to create a juxta position we need to film some footage in another location to show perhaps the girl in another life or situation. This would further grab the viewers attention and keep them interested because at the moment the video is good but it lacks a real story. 

It has helped to discuss and show our video to other people and peers to be able to assess the video from other eyes. By evaluating our work we are able to see what improvements need to be made. The main point that people picked up on was the lack of story, although our editing and current progress is good we need to aim to improve and tweak all the final bits. 

Rough cut:

Storyboards

As our ideas and concept has developed we have altered and changed the shots that we wanted in the final video. This has meant that the music video will not follow exactly how we planned in our original storyborads. Howvere we feel that because we have incorporated our original ideas with the new they have created a more successsful result.
Currently we are editing the first set of film that we have taken. The editing process is where we are now changing and adapting how the final outcome will be. This is where we can change the colours and speeds of the shots to give the alternative result we are after.



Here are our original storyboards:

Dates of shooting/editing and deadlines.

At present most of our research is complete and up to date, we have organised our shot list, risk assessment, story boards, actors, date and time of filming and prop/location. This means that we are ready to film. Our chosen time to film is at night to add to the feeling of loneliness, and add to the dark, mysterious character that our actor is portraying. The date is 7th December, we plan to film tonight and have our rough cut complete by the 18th December, we hope before. 

21st January 2010.

We evaluated where we wanted to go from this date, we found that we did have our rough cut completed before christmas (the 18th December). However after working towards our final cut, we believe we needed more footage to ensure our aim for the narrative was spread out to the audience. We have filmed more footage and have nearly completed our final task. Our new deadline for our final cut is 5th February. The ancillary tasks need to be completed by the 12th February. We understand we need more detailed research in our ancillary tasks to ensure the main piece is backed up and the whole package is as good as we can. 

Shot list

Our shot list is quite repetitive as we wanted to show her life as it is repetitive. She does the same things over and over, we want to reflect how she feels trapped in this one room, where she works, sleeps, gets ready and eats. 

All shots are taken in the bedroom.

We want a variety of different close ups from all angles to give different view from all areas. Birds eye views will be best used to show her environment, for example the messy bedroom and to create a feeling of loneliness. Extreme close ups to show the audience the detail of the actor, and her emotion. Medium shots used to show the whole body of the actor or her surroundings.

Medium shot of girl in the bed.

Medium shot, camera zooms out.

Close up of her washing her face.

Close up of legs putting her tights on from the left.

Close up of legs putting her tights on from the right.

Close up of shoulder and bra strap.

Close up from her view looking down on the mess, reaches for the perfume, camera is jolty.

Close up of behind her.

Side close up, picks the perfume up, camera zooms in.

Perfume is sprayed from a point of view shot, the camera becomes her eyes.

Medium shot used of empty bedroom.

Close up of red lips.

Medium shot as she throws lipstick on the floor, slows down.

Birds eye view of messy bedroom.

Medium shot of her holding a top up to herself.

Medium shot used of empty bedroom.

Medium shot of her on the bed.

Close up of her face.

Close up of candle burning and make up.

Medium shot of her sitting on the bed.

Medium shot of her standing next to the bed.

Medium shot of her looking in the mirror.

Medium shot of her standing next to the bed.

The rest of our shots will be repeated in different orders and our editing is extremely important, we will be changing the colours (red is our prominent colour in some shots, highlighting her lips/ hair), textures and creating similarities and contrasts with the shots.

The colour red represents lust, poison, passion, anger, vibrancy and is very outstanding. This colour symbolises the emotions and feelings that the actor is going through day in, day out.

Actor and Costumes

Our chosen actor was based upon the criteria that we felt would fit in with our story boards, which is someone who is aesthetically good looking and quirky, also someone who is feminine but edgy. With this criteria we chose Emily Jeffery, she is perfect for our brief as she does performing arts and will not be afraid to "act" out what we would want for our music video and to make it the best that it can be. Her profile is tall, skinny, she has dark hair and a tattoo, however she has a very versatile look meaning we can adapt her to whatever style we want her to look like. Naturally she is a fiery character which will link to our feminism research of her having the "upper hand" in the situation we want to highlight in our video. Overall we believe as a group that this is the best choice we could have made. 

The costume which we are going for is very edgy and classy although bordering on trashy. We have tried to make it "fashion Vs art", with the character being a prostitute/escort. We didn't want to make it completely trashy, it then becomes more artistic, which will link to our experiences of being art students. We will be dressing our actor in one outfit in the whole of the video, changing only her make-up and hair. The outfit we have chosen are low denier tights, short skirt/dress, low cut top and platform heels, all in either black, grey or red, which is our chosen colour scheme.  

Risk Assessment

Here is the risk assessment that we have completed. It analyses all the risks and accidents thats could occur during the filming of our video. 

It is useful to do this because it helps us to think about all the details linked to filming including how our creative thoughts have had an impact on the technical aspects of it. 

Chosen project

24th November 09

After reflecting on our first post we have realized that we have become more analytical and can explain why we have chosen to do our project in a much more detailed way.

This project allows us to be extremely creative and as art students we feel this is best suited to us compared to the other briefs. It gives us a challenge and allows us to go down many different paths and develop not only our ideas but the audiences too. 

The project will allow us to portray our ideas and experiences through things we have researched and studied such as feminism and other different theories. The final cut will therefore be a product of our ideas and how we have related to the different theories and what we have learnt from them. It is ideally suited to us because we can be highly creative and execute a "piece of art" in itself. 

Furthermore we have a more in-depth knowledge of the music industry because of our previous project which was to create a music magazine. We have had an insight into the industry and what works and what doesn't. However because this is a video it gives us a new challenge and new ideas to work with. 

1st December

How important are your experiences to your creativity? 

Our experiences are extremely important because they influence our outlook on life and how we think about certain issues. Creativity can be affected by many different things, whether its influences, experiences or the media. We feel that our experiences are the main factor affecting our creative thoughts. We can reflect back on certain things that have affected us and how this made us feel. We can then adapt this to our video. 

Could you be specific?

For example when the girl in the video feels lonely. From past experiences when we have felt lonely or seen others who are lonely we can understand the emotions that go with this, the colors associated with that emotion and how it should be portrayed. 

As we have already discussed we are both art students and have a creative outlook on life. Our minds are creatively challenged everyday, not just in our work but in our experiences. So as this shows it is a cycle where both creativity and experiences influence and affect each other.  

Can people of your age be as creative as older people with more experiences?
Sometimes having more experiences can be limiting because it gives you an outlook on many things rather than using creative ideas which are new and fresh. Older people do have more worldliness than younger people however if everyone were to have had the same experiences then it would never work because our opinions and outlooks would all be the same. 

People of our age can be as creative as older people because their outlook is new and vibrant. However it does depend on the individual and all the factors that affect their lives everyday. 

Could you be very specific about how your AS project feeds into your A2 project?

Our previous AS project was to design a music magazine including the front cover, contents page and double page spread. It feeds straight into out A2 project because it influences our ideas on music magazines, the music industry and how the institutions feed music to the audiences. 

In particular it will help us to make the music advertisement and c.d. cover because we have looked at how magazines advertise products. The music video has been influenced because on our previous AS project we were the institution that music producers had advertise and link their work back to in order to sell music. 

Questionnaire Results

The results coincide with what we predicted, as the song is appropriate generally for all age groups, however, would only be understood by late teens and older. This age group is who we want to aim our music video at, as we feel it's best suited, because it's a difficult song to understand, and with the ideas of our music video being ironic and different, in co-ordination with the song tempo and atmosphere, we want to make sure that the viewers aren't confused or bewildered, but intrigued and excited.

This helps us because it tells us what the audience feels from the song, and how we can show these emotions in our video, using different forms of image, colour and narrative. By knowing the emotions the audience experiences from the song, we are able to adapt the video to these emotions in a style that is controversial.

The Plain White T's, Hey there Delilah video is in a similar style that we want to create, we felt it was necessary to question people about which emotions they felt after watching/listening to the video. The results show that the video's intentions were to create the feeling of loneliness, and the mass of the results show that our audience felt this. 

The genre we feel suits our chosen song, wouldn't necessarily fit into the genre "pop", so this was a suprise to us because from the other answers to our questions, the results weren't suprising at all. This probably shows us that the song we have chosen fits into a niche market that isn't necessarily liked and preferred by the general population. 

To show our use of technology, we decided to do a interview of our questionnaire and film it, then post it on youtube. This is what we got. 

Our Progress

At this stage, where our storyboards, shot list, prop list, textual analysis are all complete, we have influence from things such as feminism and academic texts that have accredited to our coursework and our idea for the final music video. We are ready to film! All we need to do is a risk assessment, and compile our results from our questionnaire, this will defer our audience and style.

Interpreting, Understanding and Applying an Academic Text

Being Discovered: The emergence of female address on MTV.

Lisa A. Lewis

Since MTV's inception in 1981, the issue of sexism has been a recurring and insistent theme in both popular and academic criticism. But the charge of sexism, while it importantly foregrounds issues of textual politics, too frequently treats MTV as a monolithic textual system, and sexism as a static and ahistorical mode of representation written into media textuality. Music video does bring together two cultural forms that have notorious histories as promulgators of female objectification - rock music and televisual imagery. And specific textual examples of women in chains, caged boxes and strewn across sets in skimpy leather outfits can certainly be called upon to justify such claims. But focusing exclusively on the sexist representations present in many male-addressed videos overshadows the emergence on MTV of an aggregate of videos produced to songs sung by female musicians, and their enormous popularity among female fans.

MTV's role in the rise of female musicianship

In the years leading up to the start of music video promotion, female rock musicians were struggling for recognition both as vocalist( the traditional female niche) and as instrumentalists and composers. The contemporary women's movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s provided momentum for change, as did the early punk movement in Britain at the end of the 1970s. Although punk emerged essentially as a working-class male subculture, Hebdige (1983) makes the point that punk included a minority of female participants who aggressively tried to carve out a specifically female form of expression, a sharp contrast to the usual subsuming of women by subcultural phallocentricism. 

Punk propelled girls onto the stage and once there, as musicians and singers, they systematically transgressed the codes governing female performance... These performers have opened up a new space for women as active participators in the production of popular music. (Hebdige 1983: 83-5)

In our group, we broke down this academic text, finding out words and phrases that we weren't familiar with, then we used google to define them for us. This then helped us to understand the text more.

Inception- The first part/beginning of a series of other things.

Monolithic- Massive or imposing in size.

Static- Unchanging.

Ahistorical- Unrelated to history.

Textuality- The attitudes that distinguish the text.

Promulgators- A public statement containing information.

Aggregate- Sum up the whole amount. 

Engaging with an academic text

Sound and Vision, Goodwin et al 1993.

Popular music and post-modernism in the 1980's, (Will Straw)

The thing that stands out about recent writings about music videos is the importance about the changes in subjects and their theories in cultures. 

Music videos are the latest of important examples of media texts that show how the media is developing. 

Music videos didn't fit with any existing academic area. 

Post structuralism is an era, where things don't fit into categories, music videos exemplifies that era. 

Music videos haven't been written about for very long, originally they came from the rock culture. 

Artists are scared because image is very important, more important than the music. It's to do with vanity and this threatens the music industry. 

The music video limits the listener in the imagination so they don't enjoy music as much. 

Engaging this academic text with reference to our coursework and blog

This text claims that music videos are influenced by the changes in different academic subjects, and that they are a convulsion of them and their different theories. For example, in our music video, image is extremely important, because we are representing a stereotype, and best trying to portray this with the use of image. We are influenced by being art students, where knowing the impact of line, color, form and texture, and see it as extremely important. These theories are important in concern of how we are reflective on ourselves and what we want to portray in our music video, based upon our experiences and theories/subjects in which we have been influenced by. 

Will Straw states that the production values of the developing media is indicative of the time that it is produced. The technology used and quality of picture, sound and editing show the audience what time this is produced in. A music video produced in the 80's would be entirely different to one produced in 2009, because of the development of technologies, ideas and theories, plus the broadening of subjects. Music videos are extremely focused, however, involve areas from subjects, that effect the audience on a personal level, for example, we are wanting to highlight feminism, prostitution, and relationships, which can come from subjects such as history, psychology and religious studies, also media, and music. Music videos are developing from the interaction and freedom of these different subjects, technology, theories, and creative ideas. They don't fit into an academic area, they interact with each other. The music video made, is indicative of the era that it is produced, the post structuralism of the recent times, where development of technology and ideas is at its upmost.

Straw's idea is that the history of music videos was created by the late capitalist societies, their culture and their ideas. He believes this began from influential rock and jazz cultures, and that their is an important link between these rebellious cultures and the music video and it's style. In our coursework, we support this idea by highlighting things that people wouldn't usually feel comfortable with seeing or talking about. We want to provoke an emotion from the audience so that is has an effect on the music itself, and highlight the song, in light of what they are being shown, because we understand the song can be interpreted in different ways, we want to show the audience our way of thinking. The emotion itself will be something they are not used to feel, as it is an uncomfortable subject that they are being shown, and it can provoke different emotions, but they will be intrigued and interested.

Image is highly important to us, however, what is image if the image isn't for your own benefits. This is where feminism comes into our category of prostitution. She sees it as a benefit for her, not for the men she sleeps with, it shows her doing something she likes for money, which could be seen as a benefit, and give her the upper hand, using men for their advantages. However different audiences see different. They could see the opposite, depending on their own experiences and life. 

How To Analyse A Music Video

A theory of how to analyse a music video, devised by Andrew Goodwin writing in "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" (Routledge 1992)

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

-Our planning for our music video doesn't demonstrate any of this, we would think an acoustic song would have the artist playing his/her guitar, a simple video. However, we have chosen to contradict this by making the video more interesting and dynamic. 

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

-We believe that this is the main importance of a music video, otherwise, the two have little relevance with each other. We have analysed the lyrics in depth so that the lyrics and our story board are linked together, making it simple for the audience to understand, but still being ironic. The song we have chosen is the narrative to our music video, which is why we believe this point is necessary for a music video.

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

-Our music video, which we have planned, will have quite a fast paced flow of shots, however we have chosen an acoustic song, which is quite slow and calming. This is where we have differed from the theory, as we wanted to create irony and make the filming different and alternative, rather than having a slow paced video, making a strong relationship with the music.

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

-Our music video doesn't include the artist, so this differs from this theory, and our story board doesn't outline any major close ups where you can see all of the actors face. We thought this would be better as it keeps the facial emotion minimal, and creates a mystery for the audience, not knowing entirely who they are watching. 

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

-Our planning shows actions through mirrors,