26/10/13 Update

I wasn't able to do my scheduled filming on Thursday and Friday, as I was in Edinburgh for a open day. This has put me behind slightly, but I'll hopefully complete my storyboard over the holiday's.

18/10/13 Update

At school I just carried on with my stupid storyboard. I didn't do anything else because I still haven't finished.

After school however, I filmed Beth's (coyote 2) scene in the park around 7pm. She was slightly camera shy, but I still managed to get some footage for me to use.

I'm hoping that I'll have the story board completely done before the end of the half term holiday.

17/10/13 Update

Today I've set myself tasks of getting a few posts I've started done: questionnaire results, shot lists and production schedule. I also decided to carry on with my story board WHICH STILL ISN'T DONE!!! It is a huge task and I don't think I can make the draft deadline :(


Admire my Photoshop skills <3

Shot Lists

Results on Questionnaire

So I've gathered up my results and added both the online and paper questionnaires.
Using Excel, I created my own graphs to present the results.
I ended up with 27 responses.

Q1)

From the survey, the most popular result was 16-20. This is good, as it means most of the answers are from my target audience of teenagers.

Q2)

Most were girls (15 girls), but I've managed to try and even out the results by handing out most of the paper copies to boys.

Q3)

The most popular answer for this question was rock, which isn't the genre of my song as mine is pop/folk and rock/folk. However pop and pop/rock was also a popular answer, which means to please my target audience I'll need to include some codes and conventions of pop/rock videos: performance of singer, editing to beat through pretty much all the song.

Q4) From my results of 'What is your favourite music video? and why?', there were quite a few answers of 'funny', 'silly' and parody songs. This suggests that people aged between 16-20 like parodies compared to more official mainstream music videos. Examples of answers were: Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball with Nicholas Cage's face, Feminist Blurred Lines, and What Does The Fox Say. These popular parodies such as the Blurred Lines and Wrecking Ball, tell me that teenagers like to make fun of the current media. To try and incorporate these responses, I can link and hint influence from these videos: for instance I'm having people dressed as coyotes which can relate to What Does The Fox Say. 

Q5)

17 people selected performance as one of their answers (or only answer). 12 for narrative and 10 for concept. This links back to how rock was the most popular answer and the the typical code and convention for rock music videos is performance.  Most of my music video is going to be performance based as I'm including singing and dancing. 

Q6) For the question 'Representation of characters: How do you like certain characters/people presented in music videos?' I got many responses on how they hate nudity of woman (which probably was decided by Blurred Lines and Wrecking Ball, as there are many bad responses): 'No nakedness', 'I don't like excessive nudity', 'I don't like when there's a music video that uses excessive nudity to make money', 'Not naked and swinging on metal balls. Or naked girls prancing about or a guy talking about blurred lines. Anything else is pretty much fine'. I'm definitely not going to include naked girls in my music video, as I pretty much agree.

There has been responses saying to opposite however: 'Girls naked (self respecting), and guys rich, surrounded by women, hench'. This again shows the jokey side of my target audience, as this responder (male) is being sarcastic to dig at the song Blurred Lines. However he is also referring to negative stereotypes of male audiences, and how men are highly attracted to the female body. It also suggests that some of the younger generation of boys agree with feminists and how women should be respected.

Q7)

In this question the most popular answer was singing with 22 responses. This works out well, as my music video will include lip syncing. However, I wanted to use slightly complex editing, and the target audience has voted against it (but I'm still going to do what I've planned, as my song is fast and up beat.)

Q8)

Because I need to make a promotion pack for my product, I've asked what is most effective out of the three things I could make. Unfortunately 'Website' was the most popular result. I don't really want to make a website as I feel that a CD and magazine advert would be most effective for my song and will work out better for me to design. However, having a website would be a good way of promoting the video as you could most probably have the video it's self, behind the scenes, and interactive competitions and polls. This is something I'll hopefully decide on later, as I quite like the idea of having a website.

13/10/13 Update

Yay!! I've got some filming done!! Me and one of my coyote actors waited till it was dark to walk down the the lamp post I wanted to use. I believe that the filming was successful as Cristalle took it seriously and didn't become camera shy. I managed to get quite a few good shots of the lamp post and Cristalle dancing.

I'll be uploading the footage onto final cut on Monday hopefully!

Production Schedule

I've planned out with my actors when I'll film, so I know when I could start editing:

Take Camera and Tripod on Thursday 10th October to Tuesday 15th October:

• Record some scenery shots 
• Sunday 13th, record coyote 1's scene between 6:30pm - 9:00pm
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express on Tuesday 
• Select parts which I definitely want to use

Take Camera and Tripod on Friday 18th October to Monday 21st October:

• Friday 18th, record coyote 2's scene  between 6:30pm - 9:00pm
• Record some scenery shots
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express on Monday
• Select the parts I want to use
• Add soundtrack
• Work out where I want footage to be

Borrow Camera, Green Screen and Tripod on Wednesday 23rd October during free lesson:

• Record coyote 1 and victim 1's scene
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express
• Place footage possible places
• Edit out green screen

Borrow Camera, Green Screen and Tripod on Thursday 24th October during free lesson, lunch and after school:

• Record coyote 2 and victim 2's scene at free lesson
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express second lesson
• Edit video
• Record coyote 3 and victim 3's scene at lunch
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express after school
• Edit the footage and remove green screen

Borrow Camera and Tripod on Wednesday 6th November second lesson:

• Record Tom's scene
• Upload footage onto Final Cut Express
• Edit the footage into the rest of the video

Real editing Wednesday 6th November and onwards (December time):

• Add in transitions, split screens, key framing and cut perfectly to the beat

Online Questionnaire

I've decided to stop taking in results for my online questionnaire as I just believe that I won't get any more replies. However, I did try putting it on Facebook and Twitter aswell as my blog, but I'm not that popular on any of them so I've only got 17 people who actually was bothered to do it. These are the results I've got, but isn't my overall results as I still need to add my paper questionnaire responses.

Character Costumes

Target Audience

11/10/13 Update

Today at school, I managed to brainstorm my ideal audience and what they are like, and also focused on character designs for the characters in my video.

I've also managed to get all my paper questionnaires filled out :)

10/10/13 Update

Today was basically carrying on with the storyboard (which is taking ages!!!) and handing out some paper copies of my questionnaire.

I decided to do a paper version, as people just weren't filling out my electronic version, and also I needed more boys to fill out the questionnaire.

7/10/13 Update - My Target Audience and News

Today, when I was doing some more of my storyboard, I was thinking about who would be my target audience for my music video. I've decided that it would be the young hopefuls and the affluent acquirers who I'm going to have as my target audience, as I am hoping to use clever editing techniques, which will hopefully grab their attention. (This all depends on whether or not if it works). It will also be aimed at the individuals, as it is fantasy based and concept based (alongside performance).

Last Friday I gave Tom (who will be playing as Mraz in my music video) the lyrics to Coyotes. Today, I saw him at break and he told me he liked the song, but it is very fast to sing to, making it a bit difficult for him. This is a bit of a concern, but hopefully he will become more comfortable with the song after listening to it loads.

I was also thinking of doing some filming this Sunday.

03/10/13

Today I created a questionnaire on surveymonkey to gather up what possible audiences like and dislike in music videos. I also started on my story boards for my actual music video. It's a good start but is taking ages as I'm struggling drawing people.

Music Video Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Analysing Past Student Examples

I had a look at three very different music videos created by the previous year 13 media class, in help to understanding what I'm capable at in producing my own video, and also to see what I should avoid.

Lewis Parker - Viva Brother 'Still Here'

http://vimeo.com/57132158 

In the beginning of the video, split screen is used to shown the three characters individually to the beat, and then the clip is sped up fitting with the fast tune. This shows an obvious link to Goodwin's theory of how the music sometimes links with the visuals. It is very well done, and I hope to fit the music with the visuals as well by speeding and slowing down scenes.

The video is performance and slightly narrative based, as we see the group of characters either singing casually when walking through town or properly performing with instruments in a small space. I'm not going to have instruments but I will have a singer. Also, I noticed in this video that the singer seems very unenthusiastic, which really suits the tone of the song. In contrast, my singer will need to be overly enthusiastic like Mraz is in pretty much all of his videos.

A strength to his music video is the precise editing and effective filter adjustments. There is a old movie-like effect used through most of the video, which seems to reflect as a style and suits the basic, non-flashy narrative. The hazy colour correction also complements the non-flashiness of the song and the old movie effect. For my music video, I'm hoping on using a more stronger colour correction effect, as my song is more lively (but still not flashy).

There is also an effect used on the narrative of the video, where it will go forward for half of it, and then it 'rewinds' (reverse and speeds up) to the very beginning with additional extra clips. This is quite a good effect, as it suggests on how they can just relive moments.

The only negative side to the video that I can spot, is that I find it too similar to the original. Other than that, it's too good.





Carla-Rose Smith and Ruby Gibson - 'We Intertwined'




In this music video, split screen is used as a main effect; it is used as part of the narrative to show the same things happening to the people. It is different to the Viva Brothers video, as the split screen is framed and shows different scenes. Out of the two types, I would probably use it similar to how Lewis used it when he mirrored a part.

I also quite like the beginning part when the characters both turn on the music.

This video is mainly narrative based, as the audience is following a story of two characters experiencing the same events in different places, who end up meeting each other at the end of the song. I thought that it was a really good idea, but I also found it a bit too clumsy (however, sometimes the clumsiness fitted with the cheese). It was clumsy on parts such as: when you can see a person holding music notes, when in one split screen there is four people skipping around and in the other only three, and when the singer is poorly boxed off. However, I really do like the idea, and the music video might of been a bit rushed, meaning that if a little more time was spent it would of been really good. This means that I need to use time wisely for my music video to be good quality.

I like the effect of how in some scenes, parts are taken out to make it jump to the beat, following Goodwin's theory of music linking with the visuals. For instance when the girl is standing in one spot and is moved to the beat.

Another small flaw in the video, is that in sections the singing isn't in sync with the singers. This is definitely something I need to avoid, as again it could become a bit too clumsy. I've already experienced the difficulty of lip syncing, and therefore understand how sometimes it can be a bit of a nightmare; clips end up moving about a lot when editing.






Amy Sadler and Caroline Autey - You Me at Six 'Crash'



In this video, contrast to the other two, there is no singing and completely narrative based with flashbacks and meanings behind objects. The video does follow Goodwin's theory of linking lyrics to visuals, as on the line 'It's meaningless to me', the girl chucks the heart shaped necklace on the ground. This part worked well, as the audience is shown a flashback of the girl being given the necklace, which is then followed to her throwing it away.

The flashbacks in the video were made mostly monochrome, which typically suggests past. It also makes it a bit more emotional, suiting the mood of song. By having flashbacks, the audience was able to learn the story and why the girl is leaving the boy: he cheated on her, as we see him with another girl. I'm probably not going to include flashbacks in my video, but I might include monochrome to separate scenes.

Again, like the 'We Intertwined' video, split screen is used to show separate characters journey's. Unlike the sharp frame in the other music video, this one is more gentle, suiting the emotional song used. Like I said, I probably won't use the technique like this, but I found it quite effective for this particular music video, as it suggests a normal day up to the point where they would meet up and the girl finds out.

I also like the choice of camera shots: most of the time when the boy and girl is together they are in the centre of the screen, but when the boy is alone at the end he is only on one side suggesting that something is missing. This shows that the makers of the video considered concept aswell as narrative.

02/10/13 Update

So today I almost died because I've released that the deadline is only 13 days away for me to have completed research, planning and get most of my filming done.

*cries in corner*

So I decided to finish off a music video analysis and print of the lyrics for Tom who is playing as Mraz in last lesson, and now for the rest of the day I'm planning on analysing past student music videos.