Teacher feedback

Hello group 21
I am really loving your blog - everything apart from the shot of my backside right on camera!  Made me laugh - I think I need to buy some new jeans.  Keep up the good work!!

Filming Our Music Video: Context of the Dalston Man

Whilst we were in the middle of preparing our camera shots and getting our costume/ props ready for filming, one of the workers at Dalston Curve Garden workers told us a little context behind our beloved stick man. 

Apparently, this drawing is someones signature wall art that he leaves behind whenever he has squatted in a particular building. This unknown man has squatted in over three places in Dalston (one of the buildings for 5 years) and various other buildings around London leaving his signature portrait on the side of buildings. Therefore, this is why we have seen this wall art around quite often! Quite an interesting fact I thought..  

Filming Our Music Video: Our Star 'Luna'

Luna?? I hear you ask?
This is the name of our bird, quoted by Erika "Luna its short for lunatic but its like the moon as well" :)

note: another video is coming! technical glitch

Filming Our Music Video: Pigeons!!

*gosh this vid is actually gross*
So yeah, this video practically explains why I spent around an hour of my morning observing pigeons! I gradually grew irritated, however I managed to get a great shot! Even though it only lasts for like 3 seconds...(but still) :D

Stav's genius idea! :) 

Valeza's conclusion as to why birds aren't video-genic 

 

getting irritated...

Planning for Music Video: Random Music Videos for Inspiration

We saw this new video release 'Earthquake' by Labrinth and Tinie Tempah just this morning and immediately loved the idea of the speakers and the added special effects.

Randomly listening to this song we really liked the idea of the balloon motif, as it is quite random. Like how our song has the wings motif.

Planning for Our Video: Learning the Green Screen

With the help of Rebecca we now have a pop up green screen to use to shoot our 'Bird' scene. We now know how to light the scene to not create any shadows and how to frame the shot.

How Many Girls does it Take To Put This Away..

Only trouble is that we need to make sure we light diagonally to minimize shadows and how to fold away our portable green screen.

Planning for music Video: Wordle

Here is a screenshot of our Wordle to sum up the main themes throughout our video:

Planning For Music Video: Feedback from Pitch

We gave our full pitch to the class and the teachers, there were some issues that were brought up in regard to our locations, planning schedule and bird scene. The teachers said they thought our filming schedule was 'too ambitious' for the many locations that we have to go to. However, when we went on our little day trip we got to all of our locations in less than five hours which was mid afternoon. Therefore,  I think we can easily do it in all the time we've allowed for, but if not then we can always add more time or re-think it.

Another point that was raised was maybe we have too many locations and do they all tie in with each other? I think that they do work well together but we might add a different scene in with a creepy church instead of the skate park. Then we were told that our bird scene would be too difficult to film so allow a whole day to film it and have a backup plan for if it doesn't work. We're green screening the whole thing so it shouldn't be too disastrous. However, we will come up with a backup plan just incase it doesn't work out.

Overall, the feedback from our video was mostly good things. They particularly liked the song and our ideas. We just have to organise ourselves with out schedule and re-think a few locations but other than that we're on the right track!

Planning for Music Video: Copyright Clearance

This is the copyright clearance for our song 'Falling' it was easy to obtain because I personally know the artist.

Planning for Music Video: Artist's Website

As our Artist is not singed to a record label she does not have a promotional website. The only way she promotes herself is through Youtube. However, she hasn't got a original video for us to compare our ideas to.  In a way this is better as our video will be original/unique

Planning for Music Video: Short List of Potential Songs

The Clash 'London Burning'

We thought that this song would be cool to do because we could flip gender stereotypes and have our group dress up as males. Also the fact that we live in London allows us to take advantage of the sites, and perhaps add amplification to give the music video our own style. This song wasn't possible to do though, because the voice was males and we are all female. 

Katrina and the Waves 'Walking on Sunshine'.
 In our previous group task we had to create a fun, cheery kind of summery concept for the song 'Alright' by Supergrass. This song which is by a female group, fitted this concept perfectly and we could have had a lot of fun in filming it, perhaps during the day in the life of lighthearted teenagers. However British weather always fails us, so this concept wouldn't work and is unreliable. 

Kate Nash 'We Get On'
This could have been a perfect song choice, however its a song with such a straightforward meaning that we would have almost been forced to use illustration, but we originally wanted to use amplification or disjuncture as this would have been more interesting and could appeal more to audience/ examiners.

Emel 'Falling'
This song was our FINAL choice because it has a great bass, that could allow for very quick jump cuts and a creative use for editing. The fact that it is very melodical aswell can allow for us to use slow motion effectively and use this to contrast and add variety. Also as it is by an unsigned artist it means that we can make the video how we want and there is no chance that anyone else will use this track. Therefore it cannot be compared to an original video as it has not been in the charts.

Planning for Music Video...The Pitch.

Planning for Music Video...The Animatic!

This is our final animatic. Most of the images that we have used we're borrowing from the day of our outing. This was the benefits of trying out different shots. Others are used purely as representation. For instance the pigeon on the fence represents our idea of the reflection in the water, or long periods of time with just one picture imply that that is going to be the main focus of a specific part of a song with little edits in between. So for instance when we have the skate park as a main subject for a while it suggests that the skate park will be the main focus with close-ups of the bikers/skaters etc and also a smaller amount of other themed shots will be used in those specific areas. Things like the lips imply the close-up of the artist lip syncing. 

Planning our Animatic!

You are 'blog of the week'!

Your blog is looking amazing.  I am really enjoying reading about your journey to Camden and the planning around costume and make-up that you've worked on so far.  Please keep up the great work girls.

Planning for Music Video: Analysis of three music videos that influenced our own

Seeing as we already have the ideas for the main components in our music video, like the shot locations and the actual event in the shot itself...
We decided to think of ideas that can perhaps effect the visuals themselves and edits that we can use to give our video some life and make them look more exciting.

There were three main videos that came up in conversation, these were 'All of the Lights', 'Nobody's Perfect' and 'Equinox'. From 'All of the Lights' we liked the idea of the flashing lights as it looks really cool and the lights fit into the dubstep genre of our song, and the fast edits from 'Nobody's Perfect' are really great because editing to the beat really complements it and could look really awesome if we add this into our own music video. 'Equinox' fits in with the same type of genre as our music, however ours has more of a melody. Also we have a similiar idea in that we have an actual character for our video / even though she is the artist herself she is portrayed as a character of a fallen angel.

Planning for Music Video: Location Permission

Just before our visit to Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, I sent a quick e-mail from my blackberry just asking for permission to shoot in the garden because it is private property.

Planning for Our Music Video: Our Target Audience

Pixie, Colonel, Ryan, Jessica and Lunar

Well, Thursday morning... quite hungry and we had to create a target audience for our artist...
The obvious solution, create our audience out of chocolate digestives, choco dips and m&ms.

This picture suggests that the audience for our artist is very diverse, and there is no particular niche audience for her.

The song however itself is dubstep with a melodic feel to it as well. Therefore it is a track for those that enjoy a more artful feel to their music and admire the use of lyrics and not rely purely on the bass. Our song is highly similar to the song 'Archangel' by Burial. It has the echoey feel, and is the type of music a person would listen to in their bedroom rather then at a rave, but a rave is what the dubstep genre was originally designed for, so the song is more sophisticated.

We realised that biscuits aren't enough to go on...so we have some images on what the people would look like. 

Research for Music Video... The Trip; Test shots of performer & locations!

What a long and hard day it's been but at least now we know exactly where we are filming. This Wednesday has been a massively productive day towards our project. It started at around 13:00 when we all met up just outside college and took the bus straight to Camden Town. This is going to be one of our main filming locations. We just want some random shots of passers by and the atmosphere of the area fits in with our dark theme. As it turns out not only did Camden Town provide us with inspiration for our filming location we also went to a costume shop where we bought our 'angel' some wings, a clothes shop where we were provided with the costume - the black dress we were looking for, and for lunch some very nice Chewits whilst we related on a chat of childhood memories of how we used to love these sweets! Cucumbers (that Erika had taken care of before leaving the house) and Chinese chicken - others settled for KFC. We'd decided we will do a few shots in front of Camden Lock so that everyone can clearly see the location and find it easy to familiarise with the idea of where the video will be carried out and maybe try to guess the genre/idea. We were also really interested in doing some shots for water reflections which we found a beautiful location for - The Camden Canal. Valeza also tried on the dress to make sure that it fits and that she is comfortable to wear it for the video, the shop assistant also helped us out with giving us an idea that we could put some ribbon around it, which will make the dress look more curvy and pretty. In the end we'd decided that it was the right choice and moved on to our next location.

We were going to the skate park on south bank. It was great! Along the way we enjoyed some lunch and once there we bumped into a lot of interesting figures, Mickey mouse, Chucky, two silver people, and a young musician who lured us in to sing us romantic songs in exchange for money. How flattering. Once at the skate park we took lots of pictures to experiment with the angles that we could use in our actual music video. The idea of the shot is deeply thoughtful, we wanted to have the angel with the wings sit in the middle of the skater space and have them circle around her without even noticing the fact she exists, we ran that as a practice today, just taking pictures to see what will come of our idea and whether the bikers etc would complain, turns out not. In fact, they did a few jumps and flicks for us to show off - we hadn't even asked yet!

As we walked past some very beautiful sights, the London Eye, The London Sea-life, Valeza couldn't help but hug the giant penguin. I have to apologise for the blurriness of this photograph, it turns out when you get a new DSLR it's probably best to read the manual so the know that that round thingy that you were playing with not really knowing what it does... for future reference, it's most likely the focus. We were travelling down to Big Ben. The reason for this was that we wanted to use the sundial for one of our shots, when we got there, it was such a pleasant place to film and we'd been inspired to come up with so many ideas that we decided we were going to use the sundial as our base track shot. The idea behind this was that we were looking for a beautiful location to release our bird. No, no, don't worry, I know what you're thinking. The bird plays a major part in our video, the song is about falling and being trapped in something that isn't for you. We will have re-occurring shots within the video of the bird being trapped in it's cage (it's ok, I have a cage... It's just the birds that may take a while to get hold of, no worries I'm not going hunting, actually I'm pretty sure that's even illegal, I will purchase the bird). Towards the end of the video as we symbolise the main singer detaching herself with whatever is taking hold of her, we will release the bird into the sky to fly. (I may also have to buy a net to catch it so that it doesn't fly into the wild and die because of the cold winds). I know.. imagination running wild, perhaps not always such a good thing?

Here is an example of the close up releasing the bird. Unfortunately, today, it was hard catching pigeons - we didn't have any bread (seriously, just kidding) so we left it up to our imaginations. Whilst my camera skills in this shot aren't exactly perfect that just remind me that it's a good thing we went out today and got some practice. Whist reflecting upon today, I think that maybe the this angle of the shot may not be the best to have, whilst it is so beautiful live, I don't think it lives up to what it should look like, looking now at the shot, remembering that on the other side there is a church which is much more linked to our theme of love and attachment that maybe for the mise en scene it would be more relevant for our project. Also with it being such a peaceful shot and possibly even our last - closing shot, I think the quietness to the atmosphere is extremely important whilst the video is coming to a conclusion, so is the song, so we don't exactly want traffic in the background.

TIP! DO NOT EAT BANANA'S IN CENTRAL LONDON. THERE ARE NO BINS FOR THE SKIN!
As ridiculous as it may seem, I am willing to argue that this is a danger hazard. Even having asked a police officer where I could find a bin, he PRESUMED there would be one near Tesco's which was completely out of our way. So for the next 10mins I had been walking around with a banana skin in my hand until it started falling into pieces and Stav may or may not have slipped on it, as she lost her balance (but luckily never reached the floor). Whist it was incredibly funny, it was brought to my attention that one of the banana skin parts was missing and that was probably the mysterious case that explained the events. Shortly after, we moved on to our next location. 'Dalston Eastern Curve Garden'. We had planned to see out little wall man for a few weeks now, and I am pleased to say that our efforts did us justice. It was lucky that we went to see the location, as some of the shots that we had been planning would be impossible to film as there is something along the lines of a vegetable patch in front of it. Nevertheless, we put our thinking caps on and looked for a solution to our disappointment trying out different shots to see if we can work with the place. We also met the very nice people who own it or work there, had a little chat - what pleasant people they are - and let them know that we'll be e-mailing them for permission soon (if Jess hasn't already done so).

The high angle shot seemed to work best and that is the one that I have included on the blog. The wood near which Valeza was, was a little bit damp so sitting on it may have not been such a good idea (mental note: when going there to film, make sure to bring a blanket of just something small to sit on, also make sure Valeza's head is looking down - just for a more effective shot - how the little man is looking over the angel). We also decided to try out a few shots with the wings on. This proved itself also a difficulty as one of the wing straps broke within the first 2mins (we assisted to this with a hair clip) and shortly after realised that we attached the wings upside down, so went through the process again - all of which was very hilarious. At around half past six, we took all our stuff and decided to head home. Eventful, yet productive and fun day.

final costume/makeup.

Here is the final look that we decided on for our music video; a short black lacy dress that will flow in the wind which we think will create a nice effect, nike high-tops (maybe) and a pair of black angel wings, which relates to the bird/angel theme we will create throughout the video. we bought the dress in camden lock today, and the angel wings in escapade (a costume shop in Camden).

Also, we wanted to create a 'Gothic' look so I tried out a black smokey eye make up look at home and it looks really effective with the dress and wings.

State of the Music Industry 2011

The music industry used to be one of the most notorious of jobs that everyone desired to get into. However, now-a-days all people have to do is star on X Factor to become a star in seconds! But the real question is: How is the music industry still going? I ask this because hardly anyone buys albums or CD's anymore. This is because of the easy access to torrent sites like You Tube Converter's and Limewire. In having so much freedom to download illegally people would rather do this than pay and support their favourite artist.

The Production, Distribution and Exchange between music 10 years ago to now is very different! Back then music was appreciated soley on the artists voice and the quality of the song. However, now people are much more interested in the style of an artist and weather they are the 'It' thing. Artists in the industry today have to 'blend in' with the crowd and go with the constant changing genre of music being produced. The days where recording was only done in a studio are long gone! People can record songs on their laptop in the comfort of their own home! This then leads me onto the downloading of illegal music. Even though we have Itunes who claim their profits go to the artists when really only 5% actually go to the artist and the rest goes into the running of Itunes. I feel that sites like this should be helping struggling artist that are just starting out and not taking a large cut of the money for themselves. I see it as if they are only getting 5% I might as well download a song for free rather than pay for it on Itunes that doesn't even help the artist so either way I'm not losing out. 

Artists used to perform their songs on live shows such as, Top Of the  Pops! Now the only way to see your artsist live is if they are appearing on a chat-show or through Youtube. In my opinion, the essence of seeing your favorite artist live now-a-days is lost as you can only book to see them in expensive concerts.

Random Idea in train station

So I was sitting on a bench waiting for my train to come by in Euston station and as I casually turned my head I saw this:

I thought that maybe we might be able to shoot something along the lines of a phone hanging off the hook in a more eerie way to connect with our song. Maybe with the girl in angel wings stuck in a phone booth? Just a thought..

Planning for Locations

Research for Music Video...Random but Very Cool...

Was just skimming through music on my iPod, and stumbled across my long forgotten Miike Snow. How odd, it seems that Swedish bands a becoming a 'thing' of mine, first with Lykke Li and now Miike Snow. Miike Snow is a Swedish indie-pop/electro-pop band according to Wikipedia. They took off in 2007 and now have an album. Listening to their fabulous music aroused my suspicion in any videos that they may have and the style of them. That's when I discovered 'Animal' it was also released as a single which is not exactly uncommon in the music industry. This video has all been created to be perfect through editing. Well, I won't blab on for much longer, have a look!

The colours, the close up of the rain droplets, it's all so overwhelmingly beautiful. The man-made environment is mixed with nature and it's created to look as something completely outstanding.  

Teacher feedback

Hello group 21
This is shaping up to be an excellent blog - well done!  I've really enjoyed reading all your entries today.  Just a couple of points to note:  Erika - are you sure that you've posted a picture of the real Andrew Goodwin?  he's looking rather young in your picture.  Jess: keep an eye on your 'use of ICT' - remember the importance of it for the mark-scheme.  It's not a major problem - just your most recent blogs could do with a couple of photos or links.  Stav: There are a couple missing....  Valeza: You've caught up now - which is excellent.

Keep up the good work group 21 - it's looking brilliant already!

Research for Music Video: Skills Audit

I think that from the AS year we were required to research a lot in order to create our final product. We spent most of our time watching thriller movie openings so that we could get inspiration for our own openings. Also we learnt about all the different sub-genres of thrillers such as political, action etc in order to determine the genre and how our characters will be represented.

This is sort of similiar to the research that we have to do this year for our A2 music videos. However I think that this may be more enjoyable, because music is an outlet for all of us to be creative and visual with our ideas... and some of us weren't too keen on thriller films. Although from this I think that know that my abilities for researching now are more thorough and I am doing an increased amount than from last year. I've also learnt to use blogger as a tool to talk about my ideas as I think of them and to keep my organisation in check as well.

During our thrillers, we would have to think about portraying a different genre that perhaps wasn't our favourite in order to get as much marks as possible and think more about the aspects of camera, mise en scene, editing and sound instead of our preferences. This is the same for our music videos, we cannot opt for a particular song/ genre just because we like it, if it doesn't give us many options for editing or to be creative with the visuals of our music video.

From the research of last year I've realised how important it is to have alternative shots / extra days in order to film just in case things go wrong.. this will ensure we can still finish our music video with enough time to alter it, as I remember that lighting from the cameras can be different when portrayed on the big screen.

Research for Music Video: State of the Music Industry 2011

There is a contrasting difference between the music industry now and ten years ago.

Production: The process of the making of the music and the recording has changed. Back then there wasn't as much focus on the artist itself but on the quality of the music. The industry was very established and professional because you could only record in a studio and analog sounds would be produced.

Now there is much more focus on the style of the artist and for them to be relevant with the changing genres and there are a lot more artists to each genre now. Therefore artists will record songs more often in order to stay current and for their image to keep up with the audiences' expectations. Recording now produces digital sounds and can be recorded anywhere, as many artists can record songs in their bedrooms.

Distribution: The way music gets to people and how we know about it is really different. Before most people only had channels 1 to 5, so there wasn't any music channels to advertise music videos. Music was mainly listened to on the radio and advertised by posters on the street, or most popularly different artists would perform live on shows such as Top of the Pops.

Now online video websites like Youtube are very popular, as they show videos worldwide and allows audiences to view the same videos. There are also loads of music channels such as MTV that show official music videos to advertise them in the chart run-downs. Videos and artists are also highly advertised on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook many users share videos with their friends to increase recognition and on Twitter, artists can promote their music directly to their fans and message them.


Exchange: This has changed heavily over the years, this is where the people who own the music and how it changes hands to us the audience so that we can listen to it. Then fans would listen to the music on the radio or purchase it as CD records or to make the sound more authentic then on Vinyl. The music industry would then profit by this, as they would make money from selling the physical product.

Now due to the emergence of new technology there are many illegal online websites in which you can download songs and albums for free. Therefore the industry suffers because they are not making money from the physical product or from legal downloads such as iTunes. This way the industry has to make money through other revenues such as concert tours and guest appearances on television shows.

Research for Music Video... Skills Audit

Last years research skills, well let's face it, they weren't the best. But I'm glad we've had the basis to them done because I feel more experienced and guided this year in my research. Last year consisted of a lot of movie watching (mainly first 5-10mins) to get an idea of the different styles. I have to say in that sense this year is very similar except that we ought to watch the entire video. This year seems to be double the work of last. This is why I think it's important that we went through a research phase before. Every teenager likes music. With so many different genres out there everyone is bound to find something they like, that's why we all know what YouTube is. We spend most of our time with it and relate more with the artists than we do with our friends. I can't deny that I am also a massive fan of Radio. For my 17th my parents got me a fantastic little 'Roberts' radio. I absolutely LOVE it. Any new songs that I hear on it that I find inspirational, always write down the name and upload it to my iPod. Maybe even watch the video for it. It all helps me develop my skills in research.
Last year, from having done our research we could plan accordingly. However not everything went according to plan, as I was in charge of getting a costume and my other group member was in charge of getting the fake blood. The costume shop didn't have fake blood so we settled for food coloring (which my the way, I would actually say looked more realistic than fake blood - we got it in a deep red) on the day of filming and I couldn't find the dress in my vision until that chaotic morning of filming. This year I hope to get all the costumes and any extras that we need at least a week in advance before filming - just something that I've learnt from last year - organisation is key to success. This year, so far we have researched the type of angles and costumes that we'd like to use already, giving it thought and dropping it down from the beginning isn't such a bad idea we can always use it later on in production.

Research for Music Video... The state of the Music Industry 2012

The music industry has changed dramatically within the last 10 years. In class we studied an article from 'The Guardian". It was based on the music season and what changes are being made and what bands are actually beginning to suffer as well as why. We studied an article called "Music is thriving, but the business is dying. Who can make it pay again?" I could not agree with this more as as we all well know because of websites like YouTube and programs such as YouTube Converter there is no need to buy CD's anymore.
Despite all the hype about Brit awards and digital revolution the music business is serious financial trouble. "Sales were down 7% last year in the UK and by nearly 10% in the United States" these figures are drastic, the music industry needs to be coming up with something and quick, music no longer seems like a great business to get yourself into, of course there are special programs created such as iTunes that encourage you to buy your music  and the thing that persuades them is the fact that iTunes promises best quality recordings. However, the question is was iTunes that big a success considering that they are destroying the notion of an album. The music industry has HALVED in size as there are hardly anymore purchases of "Physical" Sales. "The US, where all music business trends start, download sales growth has stalled, posting just 1% growth throughout all of 2010". These numbers are ridiculous, this just accentuates the amount of trouble that the music industry is in even in Britain 60 HMV stores had to shut as digital sales hope to save the industry.

Take That, with Robbie Williams maybe be one of the few bands that can still sell large quantities of CD's. "It is Radiohead that point the way to the all-digital future. Radiohead released their second album The King of Limbs as a download". Their style of self-promotion has been called a 'logical progression' from the 'honesty box' approach - this is where the listener can buy the album for what they think that it's worth. They also planned a physical release with special additions, comprising a CD, two 10-inch vinyl discs and a "host of artwork on sale for a healthy price of £33."
The main problem is, Radiohead's approach can't work for every artist therefore each record label needs to be coming up with a clever way of distribution. The X Factor winners are unlikely candidates to be selling albums for £33 the main way of making money now is performing live music as people still have to pay for the tickets. Another example of making money is Ellie Goulding, "she likes to run as much as she likes to sing" therefore she created an event with her fans that was supported by Nike, and through Facebook organised a race on tour in seven different cities with selected fans.
"Many hope that music subscription services, such as Spotify in Europe and Pandora in the USA can generate new, meaningful forms of revenue." Of course this is just a test so far If you were to listen to spotify for free you would be bombarded with adverts that would make it impossible for you to enjoy music, so now they have come up with the solution of 'pay £10 and you'll have no adverts, they are now looking for "broader combinations of ways to make money."
The main solution bands now have is selling out tickets to gigs and shifting to merchandise instead. Lady Gaga's telephone video featuring Beyonce has roughly 121million view on YouTube. This helps create her image - controversial, half naked and a bit freaky. It obviously attracts attention this makes the song spread as it soon becomes VIRAL. YouTube advertising revenue gets the artist extended profits that may fit into her sales, also this video in particular was a massive thing as a mini movie for a music video created a massive event and aroused interest for the viewers.

The differences between now and then:

• THEN there was more fuss created about the music and it's sound rather than the promotion of the actual artist. NOW it almost seems that the music doesn't even count if you love the image of the artist you ought to love all their music.
• THEN the industry only needed to advertise the music with posters and maybe radio, this would create interest and people would go to music stores to get hold of a copy of the song. NOW technology so so developed that it has become a threat to the music industry YouTube, music channels, social networking, nobody even needs to own a music player to get to play music. Most people don't even need a record label because they can record and put their music up on YouTube, as soon as it becomes Viral and creates a big enough fan base... we have a new 'star'. 
• THEN computers were not so well developed, there was no such thing as illegal download, NOW that technology is developing, so are we. Illegal downloads have been created and who wouldn't use them, you get to have thousands of songs that you love and listen to them whenever you like.