Road sign post planning for my music video.

Final one; ready to print:

 

 

 

 

Cast profiles...

Cast profiles on Prezi

My Audience

The kind of people who would willingly watch my music video are: outgoing individuals who are creative and full of life. They feel need to express their feelings in a way the grabs other people’s attention, it could be via their experimental and unconventional way with fashion and make-up or their wide range of music genre taste, which could range from Florence + The Machine to David Bowie to Beyonce! 

Their positive and fulfilling attitude to life makes them the perfect viewer for my alternative music video.

I aim for them to be aged between 14-21 (and/or male or female), as I feel that around that age gap you are discovering who are and go through many different stages in your life - experimenting with fashion, music and lifestyle choices.








Their edgy approach to life reflects their hobbies and interests,
 for example reading fashion magazines such as Company and Vogue help them to express their personality. As well as reading music magazines featuring alternative and indie bands such as: NME and Q which will give them a wider insight into new and up and coming bands, because they are the type of people who are always wanting to get ahead of the game.

Production plan, so far...

Production plan on Prezi

Annotated lyrics!

Evaluation

Our group decided to reconstruct and deconstruct 30 seconds of Rihanna’s ‘We found love’ music video; the song is from the ‘pop and r&b’ genre, although I am not using this genre for my own music video I feel it is a great way to enable me to become familiar with camerawork and editing techniques and well as other difficulties such as lighting and mise-en-scene too. Firstly we set about on deciding which section of the video we would reconstruct, much of the video seemed difficult for us to film within the two week limit we had, so we concluded on filming from 1.16-1.46 as it seemed to be the most feasible to remake. We watched the video many times initially to look at which locations we would need to go and film at and what props we would need too. The skate park scenes where what we considered to be the most challenging part of the video because of the amount of continuity editing we needed to recreate and therefore the vast amount of filming too, therefore we decided to film these scenes first. After watching the video again we all came up with what props we would be able to provide too; we shared it out so we each all had 4-5 things to provide and by then we felt we were ready to start filming the skate park scenes. 

People in the skate park.

After college on Monday 1^st October, we travelled to Beverley to go to the leisure centre, as there is a skate park there; it was also convenient to go because both of the actors for the video live there too. We knew we needed at least 3 hours to film so we began with filming outside in the skate park. We had the video on an I-Pod so we could referring back to it for each individual shot and angle as we felt that when working as a group this was easier than using a storyboard. Ruby and I took it in turns to film the shots and helped each other when doing so, so we replicated it the best we could. When shooting these scenes we left 10 seconds either side of the shot, as we felt doing this would be easier when editing the footage together. A difficulty in which we had to overcome was the amount of people at the skate park; unfortunately they kept running into our shots and asking us questions which delayed the filming time, but we eventually overcame this and continued shooting to the best of our ability. As it had just rained and the sun was setting too, the lighting was great and I feel the shots replicate Rihanna’s original video really well. We also filmed each shot 3 times to make sure we had versions that were perfect to edit.

We then proceeded to film in the takeaway; we approached the owner and asked for his permission and showed him the video to let him understand what we would be filming too. Approaching someone in such an unforeseen and bizarre situation has enabled me to feel more confident when I will eventually film my own music video it has also given me a wider range of ideas that I feel I can explore too.

The day after we filmed all of the scenes outside, we had to film using a projector, so we researched clips on YouTube, such as a corn field, clouds moving and a pupil dilating.

We used these clips as a back drop for Chelsie (our actress) to perform in front of. One issue in which we were confronted with was the lighting; we found it incredibly difficult to adjust so we could see her face as well as being able to see the projector too. I feel some shots are better than others such as the first shot you see in the video and the shot at 11 seconds too; this is probably because the shots are close-up and where easier to film. The shot that I feel lets the video down and is not as effective is featured at 23 seconds, when Ruby and myself where filming we found awfully difficult to not get the edge of the board for the projector in the shot as well as getting the lighting right too, so we had to compromise and loose the quality of the lighting in order for the framing of the shot to be correct.

We continued to shoot the footage in our lunch hours and free periods in order to leave ourselves more time to edit the video. We began to edit with 3 college days left before the deadline-leaving us enough time to perfect each shot, its colour and continuity. Collectively we decided that it was unfair to leave just one person to edit the whole 30 seconds so we all contributed and let each other become familiar with the editing suite and what we need to do when editing, I believe that doing this helped us as individuals in preparation for when we film our own music video.

Each time we edited we made sure we had the original video set up so we could keep pausing it and referring back to it for the colour of each shot and also the timings, this was because our storyboards was in black and white and we couldn't look at the specific detail we needed.

In total it took us about 9 hours to fully edit the footage and put the sound track on.

I've learnt a lot from producing this video that I feel will benefit me greatly when producing my own video; some of which are: to ensure the lighting is correct, film the shot at least three times, shot 10 seconds before and after the actual footage I’m going to use, plan well in advance, be organised, always have a back-up plan, keep referring to my storyboard, keep saving the work I've edited and make sure my actors are willing and committed to helping me out. It’s also important for me to note that because, as a group, it took us approximately 9 hours to edit 30 seconds of an existing music video, how long it is going to take me to edit 4 minutes of my music video.

Rihanna 'We found love' Outakes.

Rihanna 'We found love' 30 second deconstruction

Codes and conventions essay

The primary form of any media text is to make money. Also to inform and educate people.

Genre is a type or category. It differentiates between one sort of text to another by the use of different codes and conventions. It helps create a choice and therefore a target audience for the producer if the text; consequently the audience expects to certain things within the text because of the codes and conventions the producer has created.
The same codes and conventions feature in all areas: camerawork, editing, character, narrative, theme, location, mise-en-scene and soundtrack.
In the early 20^th century Ferdinand De Saussure came up with linguistic analysis and consequently the theory of semiotics (the science of signs) in which you get given a signifier (a denotation) and it becomes signified (a connotation) these signs cannot be separated but they create a structure to help the way in which we communicate. He came up with the theory that when you hear the word tree the ‘signifier’ you automatically picture a tree - the ‘signified’ object. His theory applies to the media and therefore music videos because as an audience we can establish what is happening.
The genre I am looking at is the ‘alternative’ genre; which comprise of artists such as Florence and the Machine, The Blacks Keys, Eliza Doolittle and The Wombats. Each of these bands follows certain codes and conventions that feature in each of their videos. A code is when you get given an item then read into it, for example the settings used in the Eliza Doolittle video ‘Pack Up’ and in Florence and the Machine’s video ‘Rabbit Heart’ are completely dissimilar to an R&B/Hip-hop video.

Once the code (here the unusual setting) has been used over and over in separate ‘alternative’ videos it then becomes a convention that the audience will always expect to see when watching that genre of music.

Media language with the ‘alternative’ genre.

Within my genre, mise-en-scene is applied to Florence and the Machine’s ‘Rabbit Heart’ video in a very ‘unusual’ yet conventional way for the genre, for example- the video is set in the middle of a forest, the white floating clothing connotes innocence and a sin free personality. The props: a harp amounts to a peaceful and calm atmosphere; a table full of fruit is totally different and alternative and doesn’t particularly follow any kind of narrative. Finally the performers start doing a very strange dance in the middle of the video, again this connotes the alternative genre well. The main artist/character has red hair, but the others have white hair, suggesting that she’s more of a dominant figure than the others who are dressed in white and free from evil etc.
The cinematography techniques used with the genre-for the audience-creates a typical and expected unique and distinctive flair, for example there are many applications of close-ups, extreme close-ups, high angle shots, establishing shots, medium two and three shots, tracking shots, panning; the camera zooms in and out of focus/ fades in and out creating an air of mystery and unknown for the audience.

Now, looking at the editing and sound techniques of the genre; based upon Florence and the Machine’s ‘Rabbit Heart’ video there are applications of: diegetic sound- for example the harp at the beginning, lip synching-not just the main artist but all of the performers, this is quite unconventional but works well as it sets a eerie setting and robotic atmosphere, cross cutting for example around 1.30-1.45 where the characters are eating the picnic food thus generating a sense of real time. Rhythmic editing is used too; this is when the video is edited alongside the music so the narrative of the video becomes easily recognisable for the audience unlike in some ‘alternative’ music videos in which there isn’t a narrative and therefore an abstract performance is created in which there isn’t are story or theme running through the video at all.

Diary-the making of our video

24/09/12:
We decided what video we where going to reconstruct and concluded on 30 seconds of Rihanna's 'We Founnd Love' from 1.16-1.46. Shortly after we produced a production plan of what props we would need and which locations we would be filming at too.

26/09/12-28/09/12:
Unfortunately we couldn't film during this time period because we were all not available to film the skate park scenes until Monday 1st October; so we continued to plan out our video.

1/10/12:
We collected our camera and headed to Beverley Leisure Centre to film the skate park scenes-taking around 2 hours to perfect each shot. Then we went to the take away to film (Pizza Fez near the skate park).this took us around 1 hour 30 minutes to shoot. We asked for their permission to use their tables and chairs, they were entirely willing to do so and this enabled us to replicate the video substantially and to a realistic tee.

2/10/12-5/10/12:
We used our study periods and lunch hours to carry on filming the scenes of Rihanna singing, with the over-head projecter used for interactive whiteboards for an effect similar to that used in Rihanna's original video. We used our time effectively to film the video, although, it became hard as the we found the lighting was darker than on the video. We tried different solutions to over come the problem but as we projected more light we lost the images behind on the screne, such as, the clouds, flowers and the corn. By the 4th of October we began to edit the shots we were happy with as we felt this would play to our advantage when the final deadline arose on the 8th and consequently we wouldn't be rushing.

8/10/12:
Deadline day! Finally we made a few adjustments to colour and contrast of the footage as well as zooming in on particular shots too. We rendered the project and had finished with time to spare. 

Backdrops for 'We Found Love' music video! on Prezi