Planning posts - checking your progress Oct 16th SJA

WWW:


- Cameron, I am so pleased to see that you are relatively up-to-date with your Planning posts! This is great to see!
- I thought your idea for the 'Lyrics Annotation' was really creative and imaginative - keep up this sort of appraoch for each post
- Excellent work also on 'Concepts' post - very well thought trough, genuine interest in your task really shines through on this post
- Lovely photo using Kayleigh for your CD cover / Photoshop practices work - really effective and very relevant to your chosen genre. You show a good 'eye' for what works in a promotional photograph.


EBI:


- Improve your 'Technical Tutorials' posts by providing a written (or verbal) explanation of how you used the green screen and final cut - and your thoughts about how you could include these in to your own music video
- Likewise with the CD cover design post - again you need written explanation about what you did, why you chose that image, and how it works for your genre...

Overall assessment of 'Planning' so far: VG (Very Good) - but try to stay on top of it to avoid putting yourself through all the grief of last minute rushing. To reach the top of Level 4 (which is what you are certainly aiming for) you really need to show creativity, innovation, imagination and ICT technical flair for every post. The 'Planning' section of your blog really should provide you with loads of opportunities to demonstrate all of these things.

Lyric Annotation

Technical Tutorial-Green Screen

This short clip above demonstrates my groups current ability in using the green screen and editing it in final cut. To start off with we film a video clip in-front of the green screen, by doing this we create a background with solid colour (namely green.) We then import this into Final Cut, then we can apply a different background to our clip, we do this by applying the Chroma Key to the shot. Basically this eliminates all of one colour, we simply tell it to get rid of a particular shade of green and then its gone. The empty space is then replaced by whatever is in the shot below in this case a city scape.

This could be useful in our video in that we could easily replace a boring dull background with something more relevant to our given genre (soul.) However this could be less useful for our video as the background that we insert will never be quite 100% believable, also as our artist is meant to be non-commercial adding to much editing could take away from this image.

Technical tutorials-CD Covers

This CD cover shows the lighter side of our artist, this is due to the fact that the lighting is a lot brighter than the other CD cover (see below) thus connoting the slightly more light hearted side of the artist. The font also connotes a more positive attitude than the CD cover below, as not only does it have a inner glow and an outer glow, but it also has a less aggressive look than the one below, this effect is created by having the fill of the font look almost childish. The image in itself suits our genre as not only does it imply that our artist is an intelligent at independant woman (in that she is sleeping on a book full of music notes), but the composition also suits our genre, this is due to the fact that it is a close mid shot, this makes the photo more personal for the viewer, this connotes emotion which is a key theme within out genre.

This second CD cover (as mentioned above) shows the darker side of our artist (also known as the Amy Whinehouse side), this is created by having a dark red border and a shadow around the edge. We also added a very see through red layer over the top, this creates a darker scene and therefore a slightly more dark mise-en-scene. The title is also a lot more suited to our genre as it almost incorporates the classic 50s lights within the font.

Assessment 10th October 2011 JIN

Cameron,
I can see you have really attempted to catch up on the research posts of your blog. Well Done.
There are lots of good visuals here- sometime I think you could do more to really hit High Level 4.
Try to experiment with more technology and use http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ for responses
I still need to see Post 10 & 11 your application of theory to videos from your genre.
Post 18- Adverts - have you evaluated any?
Post 17 Record Labels- This could be further developed with some imagery.
Post 13 Mood board from your Genre- This works well as a video but I did get viewer fatigue. Could you keep the voice over but add in some relevant images?
For you to get a really high coursework grade we need to see:
Lots of images posted in innovative ways
Detailed analysis using connotation and lots of Media Langauge.
I know you can do this Cameron.
Overall your progress is Very Good. Lets get to Excellent- you are very close! JIN

Concept

To start off the concept I am going to go with costume as this is the part that I feel will define our artists image the most, this is due to the fact that it effects them personally. This dress above is similar to the one we are going to use we are using it as not only is it dark (similar to the little black dress which is a convention of our genre) but it also has tattoos on it, which directly access to the darker side of our artist. This dress also has a slightly more classic feel to it which we could relate back to the golden era of soul which was the fifties, this dress slightly resembles the type of dress that would have been worn back then (not the pattern but the shape.)

Now moving onto effects, as the soul genre is slightly more classical than more modern genres I figured that a sephia effect woul help to accentuate this. However as I was applying the effect to the whole picture (on picnick.com) i realised that I was not addressing both sides of our artist, I had to adress the more modern side as well, to do this is removed the effect that covered the artist, but left it on the background, this to me connotes that she is both modern and classic. It also helps her to stand out, and this helps me to realise that in our video we are going to have to come up with a way to have both modern and classical elements in the editing.

Finally we come to the setting of our music video, primarily I imagine that it will be set in a small club/bar with a stage in it. This is because in a club there are many different settings but all of which have graphic continuity, this makes it a great place to show off our knowledge of media theories. It also fits in with the overall image of our artist, as they are British they are relatively local and will therefore have a great rapore with the viewer to start with, we can play on this by having it set in a location that they will know and love. Having a stage also provides a great opportunity to have natural performance, this is a big convention in the soul genre as it ties in with other conventions (backing singers, band etc.) Finally this is a very accessible place which we would be able to hire out with relative ease, this makes it viable for us to use and therefore to do all of the options availible which I have already stated

Image annotation

In the soul genre we found out that there are 2 types of female artist, the first of these two is best exemplified in the late Amy Whinehouse. This type of artist has tattoos and usually wears a lot darker clothing, the songs are usually about modern life and the hardships of living in todays society. The advantages here are that it makes the artist very relatable to the viewer as they can relate to them as they appear to have a similar background. However a lot of what this type of soul artist does goes against a lot of conventions of the genre, they are in some ways more like rock than they are soul.

The other type of artist is one that Adele represents very well, this type of artist is very pure and heartfealt, as we can see in stark contrast to Amy Whinehouse Adele has no tattoos. This difference in image really shows in the song subject, whereas Amy Whinehouse's songs are about drugs and rock 'n' roll, Adele's are more traditional, love and sadness. This makes her a lot less relatable however as she is so idealistic her audience almost look up to her as an inspiration due to the fact that she is so passionate about what she does. However Adele's style of music is not so relatable in today's world and as such has many critics, and her image itself does not stand out andtherefore would not show an understanding of the conventions of the genre if we were to use it.

In the end we have opted for the best of both world's, as we feel that this will show our understanding in a lot more depth as we can put our artist into both the catagories. Paloa Faith is a very good example of the type of artist we want to use, her songs are about love and do follow the more traditional route. However, her image is sometimes wacky 9see above) and she has tattos so her image balances out the softness of her songs with a more modern edgey tone.

Song details

The song that we have chosen to do is Paloma Faith Technicolour, we have chosen this song as it is one that is not only by a British artist, but it also has no video for it. We also chose it as it fits our genre, as we are doing soul it fits it very well, having a lot of the conventions that are displayed in typical soul songs. However, the primary reason that we chose this song was due to the fact that we all liked it, I cannot tell you how many hours we spent on youtube looking for a song that not only fit our genre, and was british, and didnt have a video, and that we all liked. But when we heard this something clicked it was perfect, it was our song, and we were going to make it our own.

The roles in our music video

This is Kayleigh, she plays several important roles in the production of our music video. Her primary role is to be the "talent" here and to lip synch along with the music, we have chosen her for this as we feel that she is very close to the image we need, and that it would only take a small amount of work in costume to make her look the part (little black dress, fake tattoos etc.) However she will also be heavily involved in the rest of the production as she is very skilled in final cut and in creating ideas for the music video itself.

This is Katie, she will be heavily involved with shooting the video, this is due to the fact that she is very good with using the equipment and also is prolific at finding camera shots/angles that not only suit the job at hand but also look beautiful. During the planning process she will also shine, this is because she is a very creative person and also knows a lot about the media theories, this enables her to make ideas that are realistic, will look good and will get us marks. Finally she has a lot of skill in final cut and will therefore contribute a lot in the editing process.

And finally we come to me, I am going to in the actual video, as either a backing singer or a musician etc. However, I will also be using the camera extensively this is because I have a lot of experience with the camera and therefore will be able to sort out most glitches/problems that we could come across with them. My main area however will be during the editing process, primarily due to the fact that I have the most experience wth final cut and because I can get the most out of the macs, be it photoshop, final cut or imovie, I can use it to make a peice of work look proffessional.

Initial Ideas

In this video we talk about our initial ideas for our soul video, we decided to film our conversation regarding to this so that the ideas could flow more naturally rather than being very prescribed (which they would be if we just wrote them down.) By having a normal conversation we had more creative freedom and therefore the ideas we came up with were a lot more individual and therefore (in my eyes) a lot better.

Audience analysis-Questionnaire results

What do you expect to see in a soul music video?

This will give us a good basis for the content of out music video as it will give us what the audience thinks are integral parts of a soul music video, for instance, we now know that we need bacing singers as it in the number 1 convention shown in the graph above. However it also tells us about costume, if we have a female artist the little black dress is a must it seems. This chart will give me the ability to back up my decisions in regards to the video as we have primary research to bac it up.

Number of people who listen to our genre

This graph tells me the popularity of out chosengenre, it tells me that the genre (soul) is not as popular as rock or pop, this is due to the fact that these 2 genres are quite mainstream whereas soul is a more niche audience. As such we can afford to be more daring with the song choice and make it so that it will only appeal to our relatively small audience. This is a good thing as it will make our video a lot more focussed as we do not have to worry about pleasing different groups, only our niche market.

Audience Analysis-The Questionaire

This will give us a very clear indication as to what our target audience want to see in the music video, as we have put in very specific questions about the content that they expect to see. Also we have asked aboutthe artists this will not only help us to choose out a specific image that will make our artist very popular with our target audience.

Bordwell & Thompson's Theories

 

Assessment 2nd October (Research)

Cameron,
 WWW:
Some very detailed work on your genre here posted using a variety of methods! You seem to know it well.
I am glad you have attempted to stretch the technology here and I look forward to more interesting work.
EBI
We both know that due to your injury you cant write so well- but I have seen some going on in lessons! Therefore there should be something for all the required posts! A few posts are a bit patchy but - Missing is the theory posts 9-11 and the posts on audience 19-20.
Please ensure this work is completed by Friday 7th October.
This work has been graded as IMPROVEMENT needed!
JIN