Childhood
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT- Baha Men
This was the first CD I ever owned, which I listened to on repeat for months.
Teens
MR BLUE SKY- E.L.O.
I've loved this song ever sice I first heard it on Doctor Who a few years ago. It's my feel good song, and I'll always feel happy whenever I hear it.
Today
Love Is Easy- McFly
I've loved McFly for years, and they were the first band I ever saw live, this song is one of their newest and is so cute, with a really good video, showing the boys grown up and showing off their new 'suited up' image.
NEARLY CHOSE:
Ever Fallen In Love- The Buzzcocks
Posh Girls- Scouting For Girls
When There Was Me and You- High School Musical
Want U Back- Cher Lloyd
Inspiration- Last Friday Night- Katy Perry
Love Machine- Girls Aloud
Just Can't Get Enough- The Saturdays
That Girl -Noisettes
Boys, Boys, Boys- Lady Gaga
Atomic Kitten -See Ya
As I Am- Miley Cyrus
Full Circle- Miley Cyrus
Gentleman- The Sats
Not that kinda girl-
Karma
Keep Her
Ladykiller
Lose Control
Open Up
Puppet
White Lies
Lightening Stikes- Diana Vickers
On Friday 12th July 2013, the year 12 Media students took part in a remake workshop, where we remade the video for Wings, by Little Mix. For the main band roles we auditioned with lipsynch videos, and I was given the role of Jesy. Jesy has a lot of attitude, and is very sassy, with a distinctly Essex urban style, I found getting into this character very exciting.
Olivia Downes (who I did my lipsynch with)played Perrie, Arianna Tipper played Jade and Anjana Stephens played Leigh-Anne. Each band member also had a dance double, who assisted us in learning the moves specific to our individual characters prior to the shoot, and on the day they watched as we performed, and directed us in perfecting our moves, and informing us of anything missed out. The rest of the year 12 media students took part in the dance scene, wearing all black costumes, some close ups of a few students can be seen within our music video remake.
DID YOU ENJOY THE WORKSHOP DAY? WHAT WERE YOUR BEST BITS AND WHY?
Yes, I found the whole day really fun, and really enjoyed playing a lead role, espeically a character as fun as Jesy, dressing and performing in character. I loved seeing how costumes and sets were used, especially during a remake style music video, as we were able to really accurately liken our video to the real thing. The day was very long, with me being up for my solo performance first at 8.30AM, which was very nerve-wracking, but everyone else on set was very energetic and enthusiastic, and they cheered me on as I performed, and this made me feel much more at ease. I had so much fun, that I actually felt sad when my part was over. My least favourite part was the dance, as I cannot dance, and was not used to performing at the front.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM PARTICIPATING IN EACH OF THE PRELIM TASKS? In my analysis task, I learnt about music videos, especially performance style music videos. Here we looked at things such as style, genre, shot types and presentation of artist and setting, and learnt how crucial each individual part is in creating a music video. With the lipsynch, I realised how hard it was to link up the sound to the video, and how to create the most effective lipsynch possible. When watching video back, it was clear that the more energetic and enthusiastic you were, the better it came across, and a music video shoot was no place to be shy. Prior to our workshop day I learnt how much planning is involved in each stage of the shoot, and how many aspects need to be thought of and pre-planned to ensure a successful shoot, and eventually a successful and accurate remake music video. On the day I saw how each section of the team worked together and interacted to ensure that every shot was achieved, and when editing, I learnt about the editing of music videos, for example; discontinuous editing, which was especially helpful as I think the music video I create next year will be of a similar genre and style.
ARE YOU PLEASED WITH THE FOOTAGE AND YOUR EDIT? IS IT HOW YOU EXPECTED IT TO LOOK? I am pleased with the footage as it looks really professional and authentic, with the relation to the original video being clear. However, some specific shots were not achieved, as certain moves had been forgotten or missed out, during the edit we needed to find substitutes for these shots. In spite of this, I thought our edit was very accurate, as we were able to include replacement shots, usually of the same character, and although the actions were not exacty the I felt the similarity in costumes and sets played a huge part in creating a likeness. I did not expect our remake to look as similar as it did, and was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of footage, though some shots were incorrectly framed or not focused. In cases where these shots needed to be used, cutting was very fast, and anything that did not appear perfect would not be so stirkingly obvious.
HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR PRELIM EXPERIENCES WILL IMPACT YOUR APPROACH TO NEXT TERM'S MUSIC VIDEO COURSEWORK? After experiencing the entire process I realised how important planning is, when mapping out the entire video, and the shots that needed to be taken. When I come to plan my own, I will definitely make sure that every aspect is planned as thoroughly as it was for our Little Mix remake. I feel I would like to create a music video with a similarly bright and girly style, probably of the same Pop genre, and I felt the impressive and detailed sets were something I would really like to experiment with if possible. I would not like to work with a large group of performers, as I think this would be very difficult to organise, and some people would be hard to rely on. I liked the fast paced editing style, with lots of similar shots used together, and different sets and costume styles throughout.
1.The music, lyrics and imagery all work in collaboration here, with the American imagery playing a key role, evident through the lyrics, costumes and props.
2. Miley's performance and attitude drives the music video, and she definitely sustains this confident, fun attitude throughout, as the video loosely follows the narrative of her arriving and performing in the USA.
3. Her lip-sync is believable and realistic throughout.
4. Miley's role as the artist performing is cross-cut between shots of her in her 'bad-girl' character performance as she interacts with her friends and has fun in the USA.
5. As the audience would expect, we see Miley singing and dancing, thus conforming to their expectations of her.
6. Miley is visually striking, with her perfect hair and make up, and summery, teenage 'bad-girl' outfit.
7. While Miley's costume stays pretty much the same throughout, with the same short shorts, and cowboy boots shown, typical of the character portrayed, the backdrops are changing regularly, with several settings such as a parking lot, a dark chained swingset, and a stage complete with an American flag being seen.
8. A strong sense of development is felt, as Miley's party in the USA progresses, and she moves from performing on the back of a truck, to performing on stage.
9. Miley's dancing and general attitude is very typical of her style and the image she has created for herself, and she is seen as an inspirational figure to some fans.
10. Beauty shots are frequent, with several shots of her cowboy boots also featured.
11. Juxtapositions between settings can be seen, and within her different attitudes, from the crazy party girl, to the more chilled out serious presentation.
12. Discontinuous editing is standard and is shown here, with this making sense within the music video context.
13. References to popular culture include Jay-Z and Britney, as well as several American place names mentioned.
14. Different layers of meaning are offered, while predominantly this video appears to be about having fun, and living the American Dream style life.
15. A strong audience reaction is provoked from this video, with it being very well known and memorable to both fans of Miley Cyrus and the pop genre, as well as some others.
1. Summarise the conventions of title sequences that were most important to this task. The most important conventions in this task, were the fact that you needed to be able to see the titles (size and placement), and they should be on the screen for a sufficient and equal amount of time. They also needed to be kept in the same colour, font and size throughout, to maintain the same theme and institutional identity. It is important to include all the names legally required (director, actors, producers, etc.), however since we were not using the actual names, this did not matter in this task. 2. How did your group plan to edit the title sequence? (consider timings, industry requirements etc). We planned to edit the title sequence to include 11 credits, to appear over parts of the sequence which we felt had the space and the need for a title. We used moments where the screen is partially empty, or filled with a block of colour, where a title would look effective, and easy to read, we also used the action taking place, such as the swirling of coffee, or the swiping motion of a knife to coincide with the appearance of our credits. We knew that the titles needed to be on screen for relatively equal amounts of time, though we did not specifically time this, something which would need to be done in a real title sequence, due to the legalities related to TV productions.
3. Explain the creative decisions made by your group. We used a font called 'Insomnia', which was a blocky capitalized font, with slashes through the letters, we thought this was appropriate for the style and genre of the title sequence. We made the titles white, as this colour stood out dramatically, no matter what the image behind would be. The effects we used were different for each title, as we wanted to relate them to the image behind, we had some credits lurching, which is typical for the crime genre, and other credits followed the motion of the action taking place, for example a knife slicing across the scene. 4. How does your re-edit compare to the original? Compared to the original, our edit had significantly less titles, and we had not included the job titles of each name appearing, apart from the director at the end. While we had used a white font, to show up, the original used a dark red font, which was more clean cut, we can see that this font works in synergy with the title used at the start and finish of the title sequence, and this links the whole clip together. However, I did think that some of these titles were hard to read during the sequence. Like our edit, the original contained titles appearing in relation to the action taking place, but since we were not working with sound, the original also responded to the aural cues.
EVALUATION 1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you? Arianna Tipper and Anna Rawe. We split up the responsibilities with each of us taking on different roles in order to complete the task. We took turns filming and editing, and divided the planning, with a different person working on the shoot schedule, storyboard and shot list.t
2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try and take into account?
We planned our sequence thinking about the genre we wanted to create, the events we wanted to show taking place, partially acting it out and working out locations. We decided on the Horror/Thriller genre, so we thought about films of this genre we'd previously seen. From this, we established we would use a dark setting, with high key lighting, with clear characters which are associated with this genre. From our brief we knew we needed to include particular shot types, so we devised a shot list appropriately.
3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
A video camera (Canon DV30) and tripod- to film the sequence,
Adobe Premier Pro- to edit the sequence,
A PAG light- to light our shots, since we were using a dark setting. 4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing? We had to think about what was possible, within the constraints of the time we had and resources available. This meant considering our actors, props, costumes, locations and events when planning out sequence. During shooting we had to be aware of our spacial allowance, the natural lighting of the location, background noise, keeping to the rules and the time in which we had to film. Since we were working on continuity, this was a very important thing to think about when shooting, as we had to ensure the location and costumes would not differ between shots, we also had to follow the plans we'd already made. During editing we again had to be aware of continuity, editing the shots together in the correct places to achieve a match on action, and ensuring the sequence made sense. Another thing we had to consider was whether what we'd story boarded would actually work out in a video, and whether we'd have to make any changes.
5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?
I think our sequence was successful, as it made sense, and the Horror/Thriller genre was obvious. We achieved a match on action, shot reverse shot and complied with the 30degree, and 180degree rules. All our shots fitted together well, and without delay between dialogue. A problem we encountered was the fact that due to our location, we were unable to film the two characters in relation to each other, however we felt that the location was something we needed to concentrate more, as the confined space added to the tension of our piece along with establishing the genre. In hindsight, I think we would film a wider variety of angles of the same shot, so that there would be a greater variety between the shots in the sequence, however we would need to plan this in advance. Another thing which could improve our sequence, would be a better quality of acting, this could be achieved by rehearsing in advance, and having a greater number of actors to pick from. 6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
From this task, I've learnt more about filming and editing, from the point of view of us creating a film, rather than an advert, which is all the video work we'd previously done. I realised that in this task, we had a lot more to think about in terms of the order we shot in, and whether or not we'd altered anything between scenes. It was a lot harder than any video work we'd previously done, and I think this prepared us well, and was a good learning task before we have to make our film openings. Any problems we encountered this time around, or mistakes we made can be rectified and improved as we work on the rest of our coursework.
