Music video Final.

Ancillary Task

Digipack

Poster

Evaluation- There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production

In our music video we have tried to make use of new media techniques. We used final cut for our music video because it makes it easier to edit a music video because we are able to have different sequences in our video of the whole song with different shot types and locations throughout that we can cut and change between. We hae also tried to use some of the effects we are able to use on final cut to make our video look more interesting. For example, one of the effects we used was where you can add the effect to speed up a clip. We added this effect on some of the clips up Southbank so it gives the impression that the people up there were moving quickly and because we got one person to stand in the middle, so it looks like time is moving quickly around them. Also we cropped some of our shots so it looks like they have been framed giving them more of a focus point when watching the video.

In the planning process of our music video we created an animatic. This was good because it enabled us to gain a clear understanding of which shot we wanted to be in-frame at which point during the music video and how long we wanted each shot to last for. This was a different approach to how we tried to create a plan for our 'opening sequence' in AS because it showed how we were using different technologies to show the planning of our main project in contrast to AS and how we were trying to show this in a different to last year.

Evaluation- There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions

For our music video and ancillary task it was important that we followed conventions of the hip-hop genre. For example, for the locations we dominantly tried to use, there was graffiti on the location to add more of a clear view as to what our genre was. Also it made our locations look more interesting because it matches but also the use of graffiti provided different fonts and colours in the background for most of our shoot. The other location we used was a recording studeo which isn't so much genre-related but is good to use in a music video because it is used in other music videos and is another example of how we have tried to follow music videos from our chosen genre. The locations for our photoshoot and our ancillary task were again at locations with graffiti so it also siuted our genre. The other main location for our ancillary task was Southbank because it enabled us to use other location such as the actual walkway or roads up London to give more of a different look and effect that we tried to focus on a variety of different shot types and locations. This followed conventions because it showed an urban look towards our music video which is another convention of our genre which is good because it emphasised our chosen genre more and helped to make it clearer to the audience.

The costming was quite effective because in our music video and ancillary task it matched our genre quite well. For example, Luke wore a dark coloured jacket with jeans or chinos which suited our genre well because artists from our genre are seen wearing darker colours of a jacket with either dominantly jeans or chinos. It was important that we got the costume done well enough to match our genre becuase we needed to show we knew and understood some of the main conventions of the hip-hop genre but also this helps our music video and ancillary task match the genre better. Also having the correct costuming is important because it shows our understanding of what is required to suit our chosen genre.

An example of how we have attempted to use conventions from other music videos of our genre would be from using a comparison of shot types and location between our music video and the music video 'Rockstar' by Dappy'. This is good because we have similar locations and shot types and conventions to proper music videos because it emphasises the fact that we have focussed on main examples and conventions from our genre and have used these examples as a base and ideas for our music video. In the comparison between the two there is a clear demonstration that our product matches videos in our genre because from the images above we have a similar location involved with both of them being filmed in a skatepark with our artist in the frame being recorded with a low angle shot. The low angle shot is supposed to give a sense of power over the viewers from the artist which we used in our project to try and give this effect but also demonstrate clear conventions from the hip hop genre in our music video.

In the majority of our shots we have got clear eye contact from our artist looking straight into the camera. This is effective in a sense because it gives the impression that the artist is staring at the viewers, which is intimidating from some camera angles, such as the low angle shot, but form shots like a close up it creates more of a relationship between the viewer and artist because it may make the viewer feel like the song is being directed towards them. We used eye contact in our piece because we wanted to create a slight relationship between our artist and viewer because it helps make the video seem a bit more friendly to the audience because they feel more involved with what they are seeing.


Another present convention that was evident in a lot of hip hop music videos was editing to the beat. We tried to incorporate this into our video because it can give quite an effective change between shots if there is a quick change in time with when the music cuts. This adds more pace to the music video as well and will help to avoid viewer fatigue because there will need to be quite a lot of cuts and changes between shots in our music video throughout because the pace of the song is quite fast.


An interesting thing that we did in our music video that isn't so much associated with many music videos in our genre was that we added whip-pans. These were quite effective because they enabled a quick cutaway from a shot, but also added a good effect because they were quite quick and had good pace to them to allow us to quickly get a change in shots. This was good because it challenged our genre in a sense because we hadn't seen many other hip hop videos with this incorporated in them so it was interesting for us to add these in.



The music video 'Don't go' by Wretch 32 does have a slightly similar aspect in location as ours in one place. This is that in this video they use a walkway as one of the locations in their video and film some shots there, and we also do this in ours because we used the Southbank walkway as a location in ours for a couple of shots. This is effective because it shows that we have again taken consideration about our mise-en-scene and because it shows that in a proper hip hop video there is a similar use of location as in ours; this emphasises the point of our music video being from the hip hop genre if there are locations present in both ours and a contemporary music video it shows we are following certain aspects of convention to clearly show what genre our music video is to the audience.

Evaluation- There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback

In the process of making our music video and digipack we have had to change our original design plans to help it fit our genre more but also make our music video and digipack better depending on what the feedback we got back was like.

On our digipack we have had to take quite a few different photos in different locations to get images that best suited our genre, but also fulfilled the criteria we needed for our digipack. Audience feedback effected our decision to re-do some photos because they may not have been good enough to match our genre or be the best quality that we may have been able to take.


Audience feedback was useful when doing our music video because it helped us understand what more shots we needed in our video to make it look better, but also add in more of a variety of shots. This was useful because it helped us to understand what was possible to improve in our video and specifically what we needed to do to make our video better. For example, we got told that our lip synch as slightly out in places so we needed to go back through our main product and look closely at how each shot/frame was aligned and ensure that we made the lip synch as good and effective as possible.

Evaluation- There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary tasks

We needed to ensure that our ancillary task and music video had a similar look and approach to show we were from a set genre and understood our genre had to be clearly shown through our two productions.

We made sure that Luke had similar clothing in both tasks to show our genre clearly through both productions and that we were showing the hip-hop genre from the image we had set of the artist and the locations we used. Also this helped to help emphasise our chosen genre and help the audience perhaps develop a clearer understanding of what our genre was. This worked to good effect because mise-en-scene is an important role in production and ensuring that ours was genre specific helped to clearly demonstrate our music video, ancillary task and digipack were all supposed to be from the hip hop genre and clearly demonstrated this to the audience. We looked into the clothing that other main artists of the hip hop genre wear, like Tinie Tempah. He mainly wears a black jacket with normally a pair of reasonably dark jeans. It was important we tried to focus our costuming around main artist in this genre because it helps to represent the hip hop genre in our music video in a clear way to our audience if they can recognise that our main artist is wearing clothing similar to other big main artists recognised in the hip hop genre.

The locations for both have mainly a graffiti background to show the link through the both of them that our chosen genre was hip-hop. Also the location of roads ad streets give a bit of a rougher look to our piece showing clearer that we are trying to show the hip-hop genre clearly through the use of both of our tasks. For example, one of the locations for our music video was at a skate park which had a good urban look about it which suited our genre well but also there was good amount of graffiti there which enabled us to clearly show a key convention from our chosen genre in our music video. We tried to use similar looking locations for both our ancillary task and music video because it ensured that the hi-hop genre look was clear in both tasks and we had the correct conventions needed to clearly show the link between both of the tasks and how they were the same artist.

However, the costuming in both productions is similar to clearly show the look of our artist and that the hip-hop genre was our main focus in both edits. Alsoin the music video and ancillary task Luke keeps quite a serious face throughout which is again a convention from the hop-hop genre because it gives the impression that the artist is almost looking down at his target audience or is represented/shown as not looking as if they are interested in th photoshoot because they need to keep a serious look. This is interesting because it is usually an attempt to make the audience feel slightly intimidated by the individual and try to emphasise that they have more power over the audience.

Assessment 7/2/2012

Advert poster

Our idea for the advert was to make it as obvious as possible what the album was called and what artist was trying to promote it. This was again an important aspect of what we thought was important because the main idea of adverts/posters is to clearly promote the piece of work that the artist is trying to sell. Also we wanted the image to be large so that it was obvious who the main artist was if someone didn't know what the artist name was but if they knew and would recognise them as an artist they had seen before. 

Digipack plan

Our digipack design mainly consists of photos from our location and ones of our main character as well in these locations. Having these photos of Southbank is effective because we are able to get the skyline images or ones of various parts of Southbank such as the actual walkway or parts around the area. We wanted to make the digipack stand out as much as possible by using a lot of pictures we have taken but also having a main colour scheme so that it is obvious what the theme of our cover actually is obvious and apparent for someone to look at it and understand what genre it is from just from looking at the digipack. Also we wanted it to be clear with who the artist on the front cover is and what the album is called to make it seem as a successful album cover.

Location permission reply

The response to be able to film in our chosen location was good as they were fine with us to use Southbank and was not worried about us doing so. Getting the response was important because it shows that we are allowed to have certain building that big companies may own and that they cannot complain if they see that they are in our music video because we had got permission to film them. Also because we have permission to use Southbank it means that it should be fine if certain people may be seen in our shots that we haven't got permission from directly; this is because the location is where we have permission to film at so if the person is there it is not our fault/responsibility of whether they are or aren't in the music video.

Track permission reply

We got a response back from the company that owns the legal rights to the track that we wanted to use as our chosen song. It was good that we got a response to give us permission to use the track so that we won't get into any trouble about copyrighting the track without having permission to use it.

It was good as well that we got asked to send in a finished version of the music video that we made. This is good because if when they see it and if they choose to perhaps make a slight adaptation of what we created then it will prove if we managed to make a good, successful music video. 

Assessment

Peer assessment

Shooting schedule

 

The shooting schedule is very important for the planning because it is used for our group to know and to follow when we begin the filming process. Also on it, it says what equipment we will need to have on us for each time that we are filming at and which location it is needed, which is important because again it helps our group be more prepared for when we are filming because we should all know what we need for what we will be doing that time of filming. For most of the days that we decided to film on it was when we had a lesson on that day; however, on the days that we are filming at Southbank we intend to stay for longer after school when we have been filming so that we can have a variety of lightning for some shots because it will be getting slightly dark at the time so it will add variety and make it look more interesting because of the change of lighting.

Props, costumes, make-up and equipment

Costume:


For our costume ideas we have decided to try and keep all of the costumes quite casual for each of the people because in this genre the clothing worn by most people is very casual; for men, chinos, t-shirts, jackets and shoes, and for women they are normally dressed in either casual clothing such as jeans, with a shirt; or sometimes depending what tone they need so sing in (soft and slow) they may be dressed in something a lot smarter like a dress but that isn't always the case. W e are going to try and follow the style of clothing as well as possible so that we are following the conventions of the genre successfully but also perhaps making it clearer and more apparent as to what they genre is.

Jordan drew out 2 ideas of what he thought that each person should look along the lines of.

For the female artist he thought that they should be wearing some skinny jeans, in wither black, pink or purple; however when we spoke about it more as a group we decided that they should be more of a beige colour or white to add a contrast to the male character in the video. He then thought that they should wear a jacket with a t-shirt but which is a fair idea/example which is quite easy to do when making our music video. However, whilst thinking about this again we decided if not the clothing above they should perhaps wear something nicer such as a dress or something.

For the male character he thought they should be quite casually dressed. For example, they should be wearing black trousers, being probably wearing jeans to show they are casually dressed. The shirt they should be wearing would also need to be very casually dressed, meaning they should have either a t-shirt on or a polo perhaps, to show they are from the genre  and they are casually dressed. Also they should be wearing a bit of jewellery to show they are wearing basic conventions of the genre we are doing and also to make it clear what genre we are trying to put across.

Equipment:

 

For the equipment we want to use it will basically be only the essentials to enable us to film our video. This would be the camera, tripod and perhaps the fig-rig. The camera and tripod are obviously essential to film successfully, such as, for all of the shots to record our video, but then also the tripod is definitely needed to hold the shots steady so the camera doesn't shake and makes it look more professional. The fig-rig was another thing that we wanted to use because it enables us to get shots to hold steady with camera movement around the people singing to add some dynamics to our filming.

Props and make-up:

We did not intend on using too many props in our video. If we was to really use any it may be known as the people who are skateboarding behind us when doing our video. We wanted to use the recording studio as well because we want to give an effect that in the video you are seeing the making of it as well, so all of the equipment we hope to be pretending to use in the recording studio may also be seen as a prop that we want to use. Otherwise we have not really intended on using any other props. The make up as well is not much that we have thought about because for the male singer it is not essential to use make up however if the female singer wants/needs to use make up then that is fine but we have not really planned on using too much make-up. We wanted to try and graffiti the album name on the background of the skate park at Southbank ot make it clear what the album title is when we design the CD cover but also because it adds an individual effect to our video rather than having random graffiti meaning nothing relevant to what we are doing in our video.

Track permission form

We needed to have and send a permission form to the company who owns the legal rights to the track we wanted to use. we need them to sign it to show that we understand that we cannot benefit or make any profit from making a video using their track.

Location permission Email

The email we sent about locations that we wanted to use was necessary because we need permission to film certain places with people knowing that it is ok for us to do so. Also we need permission to film some buildings on site from perhaps the company or council of that area. This email basically shows that we have got permission from the council of the area we want to film in and have got permission to shoot all of buildings, locations and people that are seen whilst filming are not allowed to complain about them being involved because we had permission of filming in that area.

Talent release form

The talent resource form is needed because if there is someone that we are filming that is not in our group they need to sign a form to give us permission to be filming them. We need to give this out to the people we want to have in our video so they are sure that it is fine for them to be in a video that we upload onto youtube. 

Location shots

For our location we are going to try and use three dominant locations but shoot at different parts around them. These were going to be at Southbank, in PDH at school and the school recording studio.

We thought these would be good considering the genre that we are doing because Southbank is quite a busy location but is clear that it is part of a big part of the city making it popular for people but also it is well recognised. Also we intended on filming here when it was beginning to get dark so that you had the effect of the lights to make it look better and seem more effective.

For PDH we were only going to film shots of the girl singing. This was because her part is quite slow and soft and we are able to play around with the lighting in there to create an effect and because it is a drama room we could get or use a stage that is in there. WE were going to use a spotlight on her whilst she was on stage to add the effect she is performing but also to help set the mood for the part that she is singing in.

We also wanted to try and use the recording studio at school because it looks quite professional and serious which would be a good approach to use for our music video because it looks more realistic which is a positive impact/effect to have. Also this was going to have a black and white effect for this bit so that it seems that this part was done in the making of the video so it has the  effect this was previously done in  the build up to the actual music video.                      

         

Storyboard

Animatic

Having the storyboards is important for when we actually film our videos because if we follow them well and successfully enough to as we planned out then we have a good basic structure to follow. This would also make it easier for when we are filming because we know fully and clearly what we are doing so the whole filming process should be a lot easier. Since when we first planned it out the only real difference form what we thought of was adding in the shots in the recording studio. This was a good idea to add into our storyboards because it adds variety of a different location that we can use to make our video seem more interesting and be more varied. This is important because the variety of locations should help to avoid viewer fatigue. 

Song details

The song that we have chosen to do is:
Wrtech 32 ft. Delilah -Don't be afraid


We decided to use this song because it is apparent that it is from the hip hop genre. Also the song is three and a half minutes long which was in the time that we needed to have a song of a certain length and this song is of that needed length. Also we are able to plan out and sync the song well because of the people who are singing in this song which also helped us decide upon choosing this song. Another important reason that we chose this song was because there hasn't yet been a video released so we are able to completely decide upon our own look of what we think the video should be like without being influenced by a music video already released for the song.

Lyric annotation

The lyric annotation is useful because we was able to plan out basically what we would have like to do on each verse in each location. It helps because it is like a step-by-step plan in the way that it says what happens in each section of the song in a small amount of detail, which is still good enough though to gain an understanding of what needs to be done in each verse. Also it's useful to use because we know what is supposed to happen in those places so that when we are filming we can elaborate on the foundations of those ideas to improve them when we are filming, but still keeping and using them as a basic guideline to follow. The lyrics are good because they were quite creative in some ways and enabled us to think of a lot of different ideas from them, which was useful because this means that we could be quite creative with ideas to try and make it as interesting as possible. Lyric annotation is basically the main plan for what we want to do when we get the filming done; it shows what we want to try and do for each line of the song, but we have more than one idea for each line incase we aren't able do one of our ideas.

Concepts

The main idea of our music video does not follow a basic narrative at all it is more a complication of shots from a variety of locations to try to add variety to and make our music video more interesting. We used 3 main locations Southbank, PDH and the recording studio. We intended on using Southbank and PDH as the 2 main locations for filming the 2 artists. This is not of importance to a storyline but more because the locations are relevant to the genre of the song and the tone that it is a for each location We wanted to use PDH for the female singer because we would be able to set up or use a stage because her parts are slow and soft so it would suit the part making it seem like she is staged and performing. For the male artist we decided on Southbank because it looks quite well suited with the hip hop genre because of the long road and all the building making it look quite busy and it fits the genre well. Also the skate park is going to be good to use because the people skating in the background add something different to our video and hopefully make it more interesting. When we was going to use the recording studio the idea was to add the black and white effect when editing those shots to give the impression that this was part of the making of the video and was a past event. We thought this would be quite effective because it gives the impression that the viewer is seeing the making of the video and again makes it more interesting because it adds diversity to our video because we use contrasting locations and try to make it obvious that we are using different time periods as well.

For the album ideas it was dominantly focused on deciding a name that suited the genre well for an artist, but also getting the album cover to have a good title but also stand out slightly because of the front cover ideas, colour scheme, images..., to make it seem effective but also so that it suited the genre well. We need to ensure though that it has a clear image of the artist on the front cover so that it follows conventions of our genre, and clearly shows who the artist is. Also the font size was discussed as to what should be larger the artist name or the album title; we decided that the artists name should come across bigger to again make it clear and apparent to an audience who the artist is. 

Evaluation

Image annotation

For the image above we are unsure whether or not this person is a hip hop artist however they are wearing the clothing that is usually associated with people that are from this genre. Also They have a chain, hat and a big watch that looks quite expensive which is also expected to be seen in this genre by the artists, which is then a good example to use and perhaps try to follow when making our music which will be useful because we can see see basic and obvious conventions of people from this genre.

For the female artists of this genre they usually end up being dressed in nice clothing usually and they tend to do the nicer, softer parts of the song. Also they do not usually have as many props as the male artists in this genre, such as, chains or a watch which is important to remember when making our video to show the female artist correctly.

The last photo is of the hip hop artist Jay-Z. In this photo he is wearing all the conventions that are necessary to make it clear what genre he is representing. The glasses and chain are a statement to show that they are representing this genre well but also they wearing easy clothing and accessories to follow to successfully this genre well.