Finale

"Messages are there on all levels in all music, and what ever level you get it on, I get it too when I wrote it or sang it." - John Lennon

I kept this quote in mind when I was thinking about when I was making the pop video because all good music always has a message in it and I wanted to make it clear what our message was. The blog explains what we have done from our first ides to what people thought of the final result and it is good to have finished it and seen all my work come together in one place gives a real sense of satisfaction and achievement. It was 7 month labour of love to do our pop video, digi pack, our magazine advert and writing the blog. Along the way we have had a few problems. One of which involved finding members for the band. The problem was that we left it too late to find the right members that can play an instrument, have the right look and are confident enough to pull it off. When we finally got people together and started filming they were not very good and so we had to cut them out of our pop video in the editing process.

The editing also was difficult. We did our first draft all together and overall pent about 6 hours doing it but when we presented it to a teacher they thought that it wasn't good enough so with little time left and my group having all day rehearsals I had to finish which took time but I think that I got the idea of having to stay up late and come in early to get it done and I think that it actually was good for me to have that opportunity. It has all been hard work but I can see now how I could have done it differently and how I could improve each area but overall I am proud of the work that me and my group have produced.

Director's Commentary - Audio Recording

The director's commentary is to help the audience understand out pop video even more and to show them how we did it and what we were thinking of at the time we made it. There were a few things that we needed to mention in our video. We needed to say what kind of image we were trying to create and why we were trying to create it. We also needed to talk about certain camera shots and what they suggest, how we used the rule of thirds and colours, line shape and form. We needed to talk about an d few of Negus' rule and weather we subverted them or imitated them. Mise en scene was really important in the video and the editing style would have a massive effect on the audience and how they felt bout the artist. We then had to go into the studio and perform it to a camera and put it over the video.

TASK 3: What Have I Learnt From Audience Feedback?

To access audience feedback we took data from various sources - you tube, a Focus Group, our peers and out family. I tried to use open questions throughout and realised this was a small scale trial of our pop video, and ancillary products.

I can apply Jictar to my pop video. Jictar made a scale of society going from A, which are the people who are rich, well educated, and high aspirations, E, who are uneducated, poor and have low aspiration . This is what we had to think about who our target audience was when we were making our audience and what would please them and stimulate them. Our target audience was mostly girls from the ages 13 - 25. The song does not apple to boys but there maybe a gap in the gay community for our artist. I showed my peers 3 of which were girls and one of them said ' I really enjoyed it, I loved the style.' This means that we gave her an image which appeals to girls. The lyrics of the song have a deep and thought provoking so our target audience was for ABC of Jictars theory. The A group will analyse the music video and really listen to the lyrics and take on the message that the artist is trying to covey. Group be would be very similar to this but possibly to a lesser extent. Group see maybe would not think about the lyrics so much and would not delve as deep into the message of women being suppressed and just understand the guilt and angry behind her song.

As a part of our distribution we put up our video on Youtube which gave people the chance to watch it for free whenever they want and to comment on it and gives their opinions on what they thought. Over all we got 456 views and 5 likes with no dislikes. One of the comments that was made from caz2435 a girl of 18 that said 'This is really cool' which shows that our style appeals you a young female audience mostly. Another person, dkeofhazard said 'whoever made this video is amazing, I love them, I might know someone who is interested please let me know the students name.' This was great for feed back but it would have been better if we could get more professional feed back on what individual shots they liked but to know that our work had generally been liked was good.

To get further response we set up a focus group. For this we let ether watch our video once because that is the amount of times real audiences would watch it and then asked them 10 questions that we had set up before hand. We had to try and keep these questions as open as possible so that we would not restrict their response. This is different from a questionnaire because it is open for discussion. If someone comes out with a good response then we are able to ask them to elaborate and get more out of them. We also made sure that all of the questions that we asked were open so that again the answers were not restricted. We tried to make it hard for them to answer with just yes or no so that we could get more information and opinions. So for example instead of did you get anything form this video? Where the answer is either yes or no, we would say what did you get from this video? This way it forces them to contribute more. There were the ten questions that we used:

1. Did you enjoy it?
2. What did you get from the video?
3. What message did you get from the video?
4. What personal for our artist did we established?
5. Did you identify wit the character, if so how?
6. Did you feel a personal relationship with the character, if so how?
7. Were you informed by the video, if so in what way?
8. Did you get the idea of women being ill treated in society?
9. What did you think of the video not having a narrative?
10. Ways it could be improved could we have done in differently?

The group was made up of 2 girls and 4 boys. We would see that there was a clear spilt between weather they liked it or not depending on their genre. One girl from London said 'I really liked it and I felt a real connection with the artist'. The more masculine boys of the group seems to not grasp the message of the video as much. One of the boys said 'I really liked the girl in the video but I didn't really feel close to her and I didn't get the message' This clearly shows that the audience for our pop video is for girls especially when it comes to having a relationship with the girl. I think that most of the focus group got the message of the video with one answering 'I got a sense of the woman being trapped in a cage which may signify society'. This is the exact message we were trying to portray. So overall the response was really positive and the feed back was just as we hoped.

Outside of the focus group and on youtube I also showed it to a few of my peers from outside of school to see what they think of it. One of my friends from Kingswood who is 17 and quite indie in her style said 'I really love the feathers and that girl is so pretty and energetic' This shows that her style and swagger appeal to my aged audience and for girls. Another boy who is the year below and is 16 said 'I thought that it was really good but I thought that you should have used some more locations rather then just the bird cage'. However a media teacher who saw it when I was editing said 'I loved it and the editing is done well because you feel like the cage is actually swinging and there is a lot of movement which makes it exciting.' I think that possibly older males understand it more and adolescent males don't grasp the concept.

We tried to use the theory of Bumler and Katz and 'uses of gratifications' to assess our audience response of Blumler and Katz says that audience respond in four different ways. the question was did ours respond in the same way. Bumlber and Katz identify four different way that the media is used or gives gratification.
1) The audience identifies with a character on screen we were trying in our pop video to get the viewer to identify with the main young, pretty, fairy tale, woman of group. It worked in the main. Of our focus group of 2 girls and 4 boys identified with the image. Hannah a 17 year old girl who is down to earth from London said 'I could see she was in pain and I wanted to get her out of the cage.' This shows tha the audience will identify with the young woman of their own age who is fighting back against society even thought trapped by the cage which is an extended metaphor from her womanhood.

Audience can be seen as the group of people who consume or might consume a media text. (Price). I can apply this to my video by using Stewart Hall who had a theory that producers encode a preferred message and meaning which the audience will decode in one of three ways. These are where the audience accept the message and meaning, rejects it by being oppositional or negotiates their own interpretation. One preferred meaning is that women are suppressed by society. The black box that she is in represents society and golden cage is and extended metaphor for her womanhood. When we did our focus group we asked them do you think that women are being ill treated in this video. One girl of 17 who is a little eccentric and colurful said 'Yeah, I fell really sorry for her'.

Image of Stuart Hall, media theorist

TASK 2: A Power Point Presentation To Explore How Effective The Combination Of My Main Product And Ancillary Text Is?

Blog Task2

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia5.

To answer this task I created a slide show to adress four things.

SYNERGY to stress how the image have to be convay through the pop video, the magazine advert and the digi pack cover to consistantly communicate the brand we are tryinh to create in the public mind.

THE IDEAS OF RICHARD DYER ABOUT STARDOM where he stresses that a star has to have certain qualities such as being youthful and rebelious, while two paradoxes also operate. I try and aply this to our pop video.

THE THEORIST CARLSSON EXPLORES THE IDEA THAT A POP VIDEO STAR IS ONE OF THREE THINGS. I try and analyse how and why our singer is a commercial exhibitionist or a televised bard or a electronic shaman, as Carlsson defines them.

THE IDEA OF LEVI STRAUSS AND UNIVERSAL MYTHS is also relivent and I try and show how our pop video and singer and song explore to important universal myths.

The slide show explores all these ideas and trys to apply them to our pop video and other products.

Magazine Advert

The promotional magazine poster is a really impotant part for building the image. The tour is how an artist makes their money because these days music on the internet goes really cheap. the poster has to look exciting and convay her image so that people will want to but tickets and go. We made it so it will appeal to people who read NME magazine which is about 16 - 24 age group. We put the same image as the album cover to keep the image consistant and so they will recognise them. We then also put a picture of her with a mike. This is good because you dont see her face and so she is breaking the rules and making things a little more exciting and mysterious and will draw people in. We then put the tour dates and the number to find to buy them. We made the font the same as the album cover to make sure there was continuity in the theme so the fans and people who are interested will recognise the band. The suggestion of the images being black and white throughout, with just a touch of colour, suggests high culture and art and so that our singer is a real artist with a serious message in her songs. Apling the rules of thirds the first hot piont is on the words 'UK TOUR DATES', which are very important. The fourth hot piont is on the empty swing which suggest an air of mystery.

Digi Pack

For the front cover we chose this picture because we felt that it was dark and mysterious yet with a flowery, innocent look. We were going to put a faint image of her face over the bird cage but I think the reason why we thought the cover worked because of it's simplicity which made it really eerie. We also wanted a mysterious and also etherial or 'other world' type feel and achieved that through the mise en scene, colours and camera movments.

For the inside we wanted the image for the band to be quite indie and arty. I really liked the work of Laura Marling and I tried to think of that when I was doing these two pages. Because the face is not on the front then I thought that there need to be at least two pictures on the inside so that they can really know what she looks like. Inside I put a picture of music but instead of notes there is birds sitting on the lines. I combined the last shot which is our strongest shot and the one of the guitar and but them over each other I think this made quite an impact because together the colours contrasted each other. The back we kept the same picture on the back of the cover to keep some consistancy. We wrote the song titles down the side and we tried to make it look as realistic as possible so we wrote out the copywrites parts and then put the lable record on this gave it a really professional look.

TASK 1: In What Ways Do Your Media Products Use, Develop or Challenge Foms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

The first thing that I was to do was to research Pop Promos. I went on to you tube and I found a few popular videos, some old and some current and analysed the major conventions. The main conventions that are set down by Negus are:

The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption

The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)

A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

Repetition of reoccuring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)

A possible narrative structure

A possible performance element

The flexibility to disregard Realism

Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track

Use of special effects (lighting, annimation, CGIs, in-camera effects)

A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track

High impact instantly

Looking whether the maker of the video had subverted these conventions or not meant that we could start thinking about our own video. We also looked into Barthes theory of plasir, the way you give the audience pleasure through what they expect in a genre, also jouissance, which is the unexplected and the different. If we imitated these conventions then we would be giving the audience pleasure in what is expected which is called plaisir. Or we could subvert them which would give jouissance which is the pleasure in the unexpected. We wanted to subvert some of them because this will make her seem edgy and interesting but if we inverted to many we would find that it would just look messy and will not be aesthetically pleasing, and we might even lose the interest of the audience if to much is different.

The message of the song that we were trying to convay was the idea of a hidden secret and that guilt was possessing her but not matter how hard she tries to suppress it it will never go. Listening to the lyrics of the song it seems quite dark and mysterious however the style of the song was quite light hearted and exciting so we wanted to keep it in that style. The image of the band was at first very innocent and pretty but we had put hidden meanings thought. The bird cage for example is an extended metaphor for her physic. It implies that she is trapped by her own guilt. Her image is very illusive and suggest struggling. the way we told her to act meant that you could see her split personality which made implies that there is a facade. She seems all innocent but then all of a sudden becomes aggressive and eruptive and then back into innocent.

In terms of Negus's key conventions we imitated cutting to the beat, but not all the time, disregard of realisum but we subverted high impact and a clear narrative.

This shot below says a lot about the singer and her image. At first is seems very innocent and peaceful. This is implied with the circle that is around her which makes people feel at peace and calm but we then the use tracking means that the shot ends up turning around. You zoom into her legs. This suggests sex and her innocence is taken away. It also goes on for too long and doesn't with the beat. This was done on purpose because it will give the audience jouissance and because it is an unusually shot to begin with it draws in the audience.

This shot of the hands running down the bars. I put this in because I thought that it was quite suggestive in the same way that the shot of the legs were. It suggests a lack of innocence however because the other shots in there are innocent you could also not see it in a sexy suggestive way at all. we did keep to the rules of thirds because it is more pleasing to the eyes. Putting the hand on the left of the screen suggests that she is good which also contradicts the idea of it being suggestive. This also means that it was pleasing to the eye a gave the audience plaisir. It also subverts the mager convention of excpecting high impact and realisum from a pop star in Negus's terms.

The third shot that I chose was this one of the last shot. For this we put the bar on the left hand side which kept to the rules of thirds and but her face is in the middle and that is the main point of focus. This meant that I converted them and they gave the audience jouissance. We cut this shot to the beat and faded it out as the music faded out which made it very pleasing to the eye. Her facial expression is seductive but the environment that she is in is very innocent this could suggest that she is in a world which she doesn't fit in. Also it makes it quite dream like which imitates one of Negus conventions of ability to bend reality. This shots also explores the ethereal and mysterios mature of our singer .

This shot I think added something different to the video. I think the the curve of the guitar I thought about calm peaceful and tranquility. It is also the contrasting that go across also gives the impression of tranquility. None of these shots of the guitars were put in the fast aggressive part because it did not go with the multiply personality theme. the film teorist Ricjard Maltby argues that colours and shapes are vital in convaying the atmosphere, feel and underlying message of any film piece. Khuleshov argues that 70% of the meaning of any film comes through the visual. By using shapes and colours that are easy on the eye, confortable and not threterning we continue to put over the soft feel of our singer and her brand. Many other pop videos do the same. For instance Eminem in his pop video in his video using sharpe diangoal shapes that are crushing on him to show how the world is hostile. www.eminem .com

For the digi pack I wanted the image for the band to be quite indie and arty. I really liked the work of Laura Marling and I tried to think of that when I was doing these two pages. Because the face is not on the front then I thought that there need to be at least two pictures on the inside so that they can really know what she looks like. Inside I put a picture of music but instead of notes there is birds sitting on the lines. I combined the last shot which is our strongest shot and the one of the guitar and but them over each other I think this made quite an impact because together the colours contrasted each other.
The promotion magazine poster is a really impotant part for the image. Tour is how an artist makestheir monet because these days music on the internet goes really cheap. the poster has to look exciting and convay her image so that people will want to but tickets and go. We made it so it will apeal to people who read NME magazine which is about 16 - 24 age group. We but the same image as the album cover to keep the image consistant and so they will recognise them. We then also put a picture of her with a mick. This is good because you dont see her face and so is breacking the rules and making a little more exciting and mysterios and will draw people in. We then put the tour dates and the number to find to buy them.

TASK 4: A director's Commentary On How I Used New Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning And Evalution Stages

New media technologies are up and coming and current technologies that we use in researching, producing and post producing media products. This include things like CGI, green screen and using digital filming in stead of using film. I max is also a big part of media. Films are now filmed on a lot bigger film which is 70mm instead of your average cheaper 35mm. However even though it is a lot more expensive to use it also means that it produces a profit because it is new and exciting to the audience and draws people in.

In TV technology is always improving to make sure that the audience gets information and entertainment quicker and better quality. For example they have changed from analogue to digital. Analogue sends it scrambles it up in to loads and loads of pieces separating the sound and the picture and reassembles on our screen. This would have to be filmed on a huge camera which was impractical and slow to move and set up and it is not good quality. Also it was really difficult to edit it because you would have to re-record to edit it and you went through it when it was finished and did it wrong then you could have to re-record which wouldn’t be a problem but it loses quality every time to got back and change it. They then switched to digital which was far more effective. It uses digital technology so you can broadcast it quickly and easily. The editing is all done on programs just a final cut pro and there is a lot more room to make special effects which is so much more effective and faster. Using digital is really cheap. An analogue camera can coast up to £100 000 and digital is only £60 000. the digital cameras are also smaller and easy to move and set up. The quality of digital is never destroy and can be enhanced so is so much better.

Technologies help in all aspect of making a film for example in pre production you can film your story board with a digital stills camera, edit it and watch it back to make sure that all the shots go well together. You can use the internet to do intensive research or just to e-mail someone details. The construction of the shoot was good because we now use digital. This means that it is faster and is in better quality. You can now use green screen which is much better quality. The construction in post editing is probably the most dramatically improved of all these areas. You can now create huge explosions and turn someone into an alien just by using CGI. There is also a new technology call motion capture which was used to create characters like Davie Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean or more popular Gollum from lord of the ring. They film the person putting motion point around their body so that you can CGI a creature around them. Although it is not always used in Pop Videos there is always the option and I think it will become increasingly popular. CGI however is used a lot in music video to crate exciting and visually pleasing image to draw the image in and to make them look up-to-date and current so they will appeal to a large group of people. The exhibition in films is showing it in the IMAX in 3D and with special surround sounds. Although Pop Videos got always get that opportunity to be shown in a cinema it can only be watch on the TV at home. Soon people will start getting 3D TV in their living room so the option to bring 3D into music videos is very likely.


Throughout the preparation and creation of this music video I have used loads of new media technologies to help me. First of all I had to research. this meant that I had to look through and study a various amount of video so that I can understand the concept and different styles of music videos. For this I used website such as YouTube where I can look at loads of different videos. I then spent some time on music video channels to see what was most current and the different genres on the different channels. I found that there are big splits between commercial pop channels and rock and roll channel. I also would look at band websights to look at how the image of the music video integrates with the cover and the design of the website.

The planning was helped along also by the use of the internet, which is based on new media technologies. For this we needed loads of different props. The internet allowed us to look at different types of bird cages that we would have liked to use on Google Images and also on YouTube to look at the channel advert to experiment with what kind of style we want it to be. We also used prop sights to see what we could get. We then used technology to film the story board and edit it together. this meant that we could watch it and see what worked and what didn't work and it was quick and easy. We also used the camera to do the camera test on our leading lady. this was to make sure that she would work in the camera.

The construction of the shoot we use new digital cameras which was the Sony Z1. this meant that it was quite, easy and cheaper. It was also in better quality which meant the the music video would be appealing to the audience. This also meant that we had a high ratio which means that we filmed about 70 shots and we ended up using 28. This gave us more choise in editing and made us more creative. New media technology is responsible for this. It would have been more but we were doing long fluid shots rather then quick sharp exciting shots. this means that all the material that we are shooting is working well and can be used. the cameras also allowed us to use slow motion which contributed to the dream like surreal film in the video.

The post production we used load of new technologies. We used a program called final cut pro in which we edited our video. We could sort through them and select the right bits and put them in over the track easily. We then used Adobe after effect to put effects on the video which included the diffused edges which gave it a dream like feeling and innocence to it and I think it completed her image. We then had to colour balance to make sure all the lighting in each shot match and didn't look un continuity. We did have the option to shoot green screen but we had no use for it in out video. We also could have used 3D but we didn't want to because I don't think that it would have been right for our music video.

The distribution was excellent. It no longer needs to be shown on TV for people to see it. We could then put it on YouTube so that everyone could see it. It also means that we can track how many people has watched it and it allows people to comment on what they thought of it. We also can now burn it onto a disc and people can buy a DVD of out video.

Overall it is easy to see how new Technologies in media are taking over and improving the speed, quality and cheapness of media and is making it a lot more assessable foe everyone to use. I have already been using a lot of the new media Technologies to make this product better.

Editing

After shooting the video it was time to move on to the editing it. This is a really big part of the process and will suggest messages and decipher the story and genre of the music video. Over all I spent about 13 hours editing this music video over the space of about 3 weeks and have done the bulk of the work. In lessons a few lessons of the week the group would get together and look at the work and discuss which we liked and didn't like but other then that I worked in my free time by my self on the project. I didn't mind this because it meant that I could but my editing styles and skills to practice.

We worked on a program called final cut pro which we also used in AS for our thriller so I knew roughly how to work it however last year were were more concentrating on sound as the filming was only three tracks. I had to learn much more then I did last year and my skills developed tenfold in the time that I spent editing the pop vid. We also briefly used adobe after affects to correct some of the colours on shots if the lighting colour was out. This is a really useful thing to know and I really enjoyed working in it.

At first we tried to sick to the story board as much as we could however there were a lot of shots that just didn't work and so we had to change it. Over the course of the time we ended up changing it twice because we found that the first cut just didn't look right and didn't structure or meaning to it. So we decided to drastically change it keep some bits in but creating much more structure and meaning in the song. This time we kept all the slow parts slow and all the fast bits fast. This meant that it was easy for the viewer to take it in and it seemed much more professional. This meant that we did not keep to our story board at all .

Our first try to edit this did not go well at all. First of all we tried using the techniques that many professionals do which is were you drag the entire song of each camera placement on the timeline and blade and delete the bits that don''t look good and then once you have done that with all the shots you tidy up and put in extra fill shots to make it seem more complete. This is a really good way of doing this however because were had a combination of slow motion and fast motion we found this quite hard to do and found that we worked much better and in much more ease with sticking the original way. We experimented with different shots and I think were we made our first assembly was in a very week position and I knew I still had a lot of work to do. This is the first Assembly.

After looking at the first assembly I noticed that very thing that I was going to be kept needs to be cut to the beat a lot more so that it doesn't look so messy. I went through then entire song putting markers on every beat so i could line up the shots with this. This immediately made things look a lot smoother and easier to watch. With the slow bits if was hard to know when I should make a transition so if a shot didn't work I had to really play around with at and put it different places and different lengths. because we didn't have a band element it was quite hard to work it in but by shooting the instruments with no one playing and scattering them through the sing worked really well.

Editing is a curtail part of creation your bands image, because the band shoot didn't work she is now a solo artist and so only ever focused on her and you don't see any other faces then so that the audience an purely concentrate and connect with her. In this industry 'Sex Sells' and I wanted her too look as sexy in a suggestive and poetic way as possible. The begging shot zooms into her past her face and near her crotch. This immediate gives her a little bit of edge because the very first second you see her she is a pretty angelic girl swinging but the shot reviles that she is a dark horse and has done naughty things. With this information you are then prepared for the rest of the music video because we carry on with her looking innocent and as if she is in deep thought and it oozes emotion. This allows the audience to connect with her which matches the lyrics of the song. It then moves into faster pass in the song which had aggressive lyrics and meanings. So I edited in a way where she seems aggressive, dominant and edgy. This swaps and changes back and froth thought the song but because we have a clear structure the audience wont got confused and can connect with the singer.

The first shot that I really love it the very end shot. I think that it is a really beautiful shot because it applies to the rule of thirds with her left eye placed the fist hot spot which makes her look good and beautiful but her facial expression is really seductive and a little naughty and so suggests that she has been bad. It was a really conclusive ending and gives high impact and is something that can remember.

The second shot that I like is the first shot of this video because like the ending shot it is high impact. It really draws you into the video. It starts off really beautiful and beautiful and then when you keep watching it and it zooms into her crouch and so ends as if she has done something bad and that she is not as innocent as you first think.

The third shot that I really like is the shoot the shot where she grabs the bar just on the eat. I like this because of the tracking around her gives the cage movement and energy. I love the way she grabs her hair and looks in pain because it gives it mood and attitude. It really contributes to the message of the video.

The fourth shot I loved was the shot of the guitars. I thought that these were really nice because they brought another element to the video. I shot it myself and I wanted it to look as though no one was plucking it. This looked really effective and kind of ery. I also shot it in slow motion because you can see the vibrations of the stings, also it would fit into the theme of the rest of the music video and because I know I wanted it in the slow parts of the song.

At first we tried really hard to make sure that everything looked although they matched and make sure that the continuity was good however sometime it didn't work and so it confused the viewer having a mixture in all places with no structure. So once we had come up with the new plan of having the slow bits in slow-motion only and the fast bits in normal we also thought that we can not have the slow bit in discontinuity which meant that it would edgy and create a exciting look in a not very exciting part of the song. The fast bits we did have continuity running through it because then other wise it is hard to see what is going on and what and the audience will feel disorientated.

Before we started editing we studied a theorist called negus. He said that there are different conventions that you need to have in our pop video to make it work. When I was editing the video I kept these in mind. First of all were were creating an image that she was innocent but she has a dark secret that she is keeping so I but it shots that were innocent with some that were really sexy. This went well because the older audience will understand this but possibly the younger audience will not catch on and just see her as a role model. I also made sure that we varied the camera movement with tracking pans and tilts. When I was in tiding up the video to make it look good I made sure all the fast bits were cut on a beat to make it flow easier.

Pictures From The Shoot

Shoot Day

Out shoot was on monday the 8th of November and so we got chance to set up most of the first set on the friday afternoon before the shoot. This meant that on monday we got in the studio at 9 am and we didn't have to spend much time at all making sure that the set was perfect. That morning because I am the only day student in my house I was able to bring bags of my clothing and my brothers clothing for the band, the vines and flowers for the swing and my mother who used to be a make up artist to do the make-up. When we got in all spilt up into little groups and a few tended to the singer of the band making sure that the dress that she was going to wear was defiantly okay and seeing to my mother to make sure that she was okay doing the make-up on shoot. The other group the put up the vines and the flowers on the swing and made it as thematic, dramatic and beautiful as possible. After this was done we could then set up the camera on the tripod and got the track ready for playback. Again se spilt up into little groups one ensured that the singer Karris was okay in the bird cage and any tracking or dollying that may be needed were there. After checking that the camera was ready checking things such as battery, memory cards and colour baring was done then we could more on to the next phase. First of all we all took time out to playback the song with Karris to ensure that she knew what she was doing and we told her how to act in certain parts of the song and where to be standing. We all knew what we wanted her to be doing in out heads so it was no problem going through it together. We were also jumping and dancing around on the outside of the cage to help her feel really comfortable as possible. We also found that we had to turn up the music a bit because she may have felt a little uncomfortable sining it for real with everyone could hear her. We then spilt up for a little again. We first of all talked to the lighting guys about what lighting we wanted and faced a few problems about the shadows of the cage on her face and also the lights were at different colour temperature at the back of the cage compared to the colour at the front which caused a problem for white balancing. On the other hand it gave us a chance for our main actor to practice it a few more times and get into the role of her character. On top of this we found out that we didn't have any dry ice which we hoped for. we tried out doing a smoke machine but it looked really bad on screen. All of this in consideration we ended up filming at about half past 11 am. With only a few more hours until lunch and with the amount that we had to shoot we had to get a move on. We started with the statics of the close up, mid shots and long shots. Long shots also posed a problem, because we didn't have a dry ice the floor was not covered how we would have liked it to be and the floor gave it a studio like feel and it didn't look so effective so ended up getting a huge black sheet to cover the studio floor which looked so much better. After completing all of the statics when then moved on to tracking. We quickly put the tracks down a did a little practice shots before we shot some really nice shots. We then moved on to the track out shot which I don't thing was as effective as we first hoped because of the focus being problem. We then had the idea of shooting Karris on the cherry picker over the top of the bird cage. This we shot in slow motion and turned out to be a really beautiful shot. For this we also had to show her how to act for this because she wasn't singing. We were very lucky that our actress was so patient and co-operative. After this we felt that it was about time for a good lunch break for all of the team. When we returned we felt refreshed and ready to get back into action. The moral and energy was still very high thoughout the group. We when straight into shooting with the feathers. We got the cherry pickers, ladders and fans of the floor to throw the feathers from. When play back was played the entered team was on set throwing 2000 goose feather at Karris. It was loads of fun to shoot and the entire production team agreed. What wasn't so fun was picking up the 2000 goose feathers from the floor. Everyone including the whole team and AS and A2 photographers all had to help with picking them up which meant that even though it was annoying it was done much quicker. In this we experimented with a few slow-motion shots which looked absolutely beautiful. For this part of the video we could only do statics because there was the cherry picker and ladder that were too close to the set to be able to do any panning or tracking. This didn't matter though because we knew we were going to do some fast cutting to make it more exciting. The next part of the filming didn't go so swimmingly. We had to get the band in there costumes and get them ready. We set them up against a black background for the feathers because doing green screen like we originally planned, would have been a nightmare to edit. We only did the feather part of the song with the band and after a few minuets of filming we found out that even though we had done a good job on choosing our leading lady our band casting wasn't so good. The band didn't know how to play their instruments very well and because we were running out on time they didn't really get a chance to get into it properly. Possibly if w spent more time on it them it would have been really great but I just don't think that it worked at all. After shooting each band member together and the individually we decided not ot carry on with the band on the green screen. This was a disappointment but the cage shooting went so well I didn't mind to much and was still feeling positive bout it. We called it a wrap and started packing up.

In some productions it is important for each member of our group to have a role so everyone can get on with what they are doing and everything will be organised. On the other hand because there were so little of us we thought that we would all work together taking turn on each role during the so that it was fair. On the day we did have our set team, lighting team and camera ream helping us but we were completely in control of what each group was doing. I think as a team we worked really well together because we all has the same idea of what we wanted to do in our heads and because each one of us is able to step back for a bit and let someone else direct for a bit or be on the camera for a bit I couldn't see this causing any problems, and it didn't. We each had a go doing each job and a few others that weren't so obvious. All in all I think we three girls all had the same amount of authority and jobs to do and it worked really well and I am very glad that we decided to do it like that.

I myself did many things on set. first f all I help create, build and decorate the set before the shoot. On the day I went though the moves and the acting with our main girl Karris before the filming begun. When the shooting began I started off doing the play back. Even though I would like more to be completely involved I did enjoy dancing on the set helping the actor get into it and to help lively up the spirits of the crew who by the end of the song were joining in with the dancing themselves. Also if I saw the screen in which the video was being played back on I could give little tips to the camera man saying what I thought worked and didn't work so even though I was at the back doing my job I was still helping out anywhere that I could during the song. I then went on camera for a bit which was the part that I enjoyed the most. I really love being behind the camera and felt confident in what I was doing and trying to make beautiful scenes. I thought that I did quite a good job as camera man because I have had quite a bit of experience of being behind the camera. I then started doing little jobs around the set that needed to be done. For example I was cable basher for the panning shots which is one of my least favourite jobs because I found it quite dull but I still enjoyed watching the performer dancing in her cage. I then might take a little itme out so that I could get some photos for when we do the digital pack and make the front cover so I was also photographer for the day in-between al of this so I was always always kept busy. In the second half of the day I became director shouting orders and demanding quite! I found this really fun and I really love looking at the screen and deciding for myself what works and what doesn't and if it doesn't what not and who needs to be where ect. When you are playing director you very much feel like this is your creation and even though there may be other people filming or making the set or lighting look good you still fell like it is your creative art work that is being played back to you on screen. I loved this role and really delve in whole heartily.

The set was one of the things that I am most proud of in this music video. The set was a huge 12 foot golden bird cage with a swing in the middle. We connected the set with the title of the song beige 'Bird Song' although we had no intensions of dressing her as a bird. The character in song fells trapped and encaged with the guilt that she has committed a desperately embarrassing or/and sinful act. This guilt she cannot shake not matter how ouch she tries to talk her self out of it. So I thought that it would be really appropriate to have her in this huge cage. We tried to make it look really classic and classy so and as real as possible. to build this we had Dan help us build the set and then our group printed it in first white base coat then browse and the sprayed it gold. This took a long couple of days to get ready but I think the end product was amazing. We also wanted a garden like swing to but in the ache so that it made it visually a bit more exciting. We hung the rope down from the ceiling and made the swing quite wide to give it that old look we were looking for. Over the weekends I myself went out and brought the decoration for it which included the fake flowers form Notcutts which I think gave it a really fairy tale like pretty innocent touch to it. I then got two really long pretty vines which were from Santa Fur a shop which actually sells christmas decorations. When they were all put on the sing and light up they look absolutely stunning and it looked really atmospheric and thematic.


This year for filming we used the few and improved cameras from last year which are the Sony NX5 HD. This is a much higher quality picture because instead of using film like we did last year it is now digital and on a card format. This means that it is a lot faster and easier to transfer onto a computer. These cameras are really easy to use and can be used by anyone because it is easy to find where the white balance is and how to colour bar. I find these cameras so much better to use then the cameras last year. Also this camera gave us the real huge opportunity to shoot in slow-motion which was a real benefit with out video because she was full of energy and jumping around with the feathers falling it all looked so effective on camera. This was really exciting for us and I am so pleased about how some of these shots have worked out. We never used hand held camera because we didn't want that sense of realism that the hand held give it because of our fairy tale like atmosphere. So we put it on Nibten tripod which made sure that it was steady all the time and makes it easy to pan or tilt and zoom at the same time

Through out the video we had loads of different light everywhere but as a photography once said to me the more lights you have the more trouble your creating for yourself. I think this was defiantly the case in out case we had to have loads of different lights to make it look right but because there were so many different ones it caused a problem. We used the movers on the ceiling which where controlled by a panel on a desk below which are called movers. They allow spot light to be anywhere in the studio from above. We then also used red heads and blondes to fill in the shadows of the bars on her face. All the lights were really useful and it was really important for me to be able to see how all the different filters and light works to help create a mood because in photography I only really like to use one point lighting so using a lot of lights was sort of new to me. LAst year in the thriller I didn't really pay much attention to the lights as I did this year.

We wanted to get some tracking in our shots to create more of a sense of depth and excitement in the video. We did a 180 degree track around the front of the cage which looked really effecting and the big bars created some really good cutting points for when we come to editing the video. This also allowed the audience to get more up close and personal with the artist and connect to her. We also did a track out at the beginning of the song so that we can slowly revile the bird cage to create high impact in the beginning couple of seconds. We did this by taking off the tripod that the camera was on put it on a dolly which has 3 wheels like a shopping trolly so can move in all directions, however we wanted it to look more smooth and accurate and easier so we put it on tracks. This allows us just to walk with the camera without having to worry about what we are going to walk into.

Though out the course of the day we came across loads of difficult problems that we had to over come and some of them were more serious then others. Out first problem was the lighting on the set. At first we were just using the movers on the ceiling but as well started filming and told her to move around the stage we realised that this long wasn't good enough because there were shadows on her face from the bars of the bird cage. This didn't look good at all so we tried moving around the movers but that still didn't work because there would still be bars on her face. We then opted to use some red heads and blonde heads and put them just below eye level to council out the bars and this worked really well however it did pose noter problem. Because all the lights were different the colour balance was different at the back of the cage to the font of the cage. These means that we had to spend ages putting different types of blue jells on the blondes and reds and the movers. Eventually we got it right and could carry on filming.

The next problem we had was the floor. Unfortunately there was no dry ice liked we asked and so the floor was bare. This meant that there were loads of impurities on the floor and it didn't look good on camera. We tried using the smoke machine to give it a little atmosphere and coverage for the floor but it didn't work and just looked a bit silly. We had the idea of putting a huge sheet on the ground that we the same material os the one used for the backdrop. This made the floor look so much better and more professional.

The major problem that we had that was was the band. Even though out casting for the main girl was inspired and a very good choose because she was patient, friendly and co-operative the band was a different story. The band that we originally wanted were unable to do it because even though the students said they could do it the teachers told us otherwise so we had to get a back up band. It turned out that none of them can actually play their instruments and even though they were all really up for it they didn't have the stage presents like we wanted and it all looked really fake and uncomfortable. We did the first couple of shots and a few closes ups but we didn't get onto the second part of the song with them with the green screen because we thought that we probably wouldn't use them in out final cut which is a shame but I think it would have made the video look really bad.

In all the shoots that we took there were a few which I really really loved. Most of them were the slow-motion shots because with the feathers and her long hair moving around it looked really effective. One shot in particular that I liked was the very end shot. We got her in a close up against the bars with the feather floating by her face. this looked really good because the framing wasn't applying to the rule of thirds which made her look quite edgy and rebellious. Another shot treat I liked was another slow-motion where she turned and jump and it was so effective and she went from the right to the left so even though she had quite an aggressive face on she still looked like a good person. One more that got me excited was the one from above her turning around on the swing. It was so smooth and peaceful it look beautiful.

Shots that I thought didn't work were the long shots. I think that they don't have much atmosphere and don't offer much to the video. It stuck to the composition rules with the cage being put on the left of the frame but still didn't look quite right. I also thought that loads of the band shots just didn't work because of the actors not look very good and some of the camera work was quite awkward and it didn't look 'cool' like how we imagined it. The track out wasn't very good either because as you track out and she starts swing she gets of of focus and it looks really odd and not very professional in my opinion and I don't think we will use it in our final edit.

Over all I think that the shoot went half well and half bad I walked away knowing that we had loads of shots to work with and that will look really effective yet I was really disappointed about how the band shooting went. I thought that we worked really well together as a team and the moral of the team stayed high for the entire day. I really enjoyed myself and I love playing all the roles that I did and I think it was a really good experience and one that I could learn a lot from.

MUSIC INDUSTRY STRUCTURE - WHERE MY POP VIDEO FITS

For many years musical taste has been a controversial topic almost to the point of tribalism. Music is really important because it can define someone personality. Music can change the way that people dress, talk, speak and sometimes act. For example if some listens to punk music they are more likely to act rebelliously. However all commentators agree that music and its trends sit at the epicenter of popular culture. In creating the image and the attitude of the band our aim is to make an artist that will last for as long as possible. We want to establish a business for many years so that we can get as much money from it as possible. This will include selling tee-shirts, mugs, poster ect. to make as much income as we possibly can. The more income the better.

Some critics say that Music and Industry are incompatible because of three key tensions. One is 'dynamic tension' this is when a member of the band will think that they are able to make a career of their own and still succeed. I good example of this is Cheryl Cole. She was originally in and group called girls allowed but left to peruse a solo career. This tension exists between the artist and the commercial forces which underpins the success of this vast media business. Two, is the tension between organic and synthetic. Organic is when the artist wear their own cloths write their own songs and are in the music industry so that their music can be herd. Synthetic is when their manager will tell them how to act, what to wear and how to sing. Our band is organic even though it may not seem it because of what she wears and we used loads of props and makeup to make her look a certain way, however, she is organic because we did these things to exaggerate her own style and her own personality. Three, is one more thing that could be considered in the music industry which is 'synergetic connection' with other media forms. 'Synergetic connections' is if the company has connection to sell it in other areas of the media industry such as television, newspapers and the internet. The codependence with other media means that a 'mutual reliance' can be productive but also risky. An exempt of this is Rupert Merdoch. He owns Sky and loads of newspaper such as the Sunday Times. This means that if something is showing on the television he can publish an article in the newspaper say when it is on and how good it is so that the program will sell better. Our song is not owned by a big company with subsidiaries so we will have to find owe own way to market our band. We will make an advertising poster to go in magazine and newspapers.

Our pop video is only one strand of media of a often multi-media campaign. There are many different areas like newspapers, magazines, shopping malls and radio. However a music video is really important as a product with in the scheme. The pop video is a chance for the audience to view what the singer looks like so that they can form a connection with them. It also allows them to see what style they have and it gives you an idea of what their personality might be like. It is so important for the audience to be able to make connection with the band or singer because that is ultimately going to sell the artist. For this to work however you need to make sure that the artist can make that connection the music video so we shot a lot of close us and kept the lead singer in al most every single shot. This means the audience can really see what she looks like which is important especially for a first music video to make that connection.

The music industry is dominated by four trans-national corporations which are Universal, Sony/ BGM and EMI. These are massive international music companies other wise know as 'The Majors'. Each one will have access to loads of different subsidiary companies. This will allow them to reach different kind of audiences in different kind of genres and make it easier to sell their product. This companies are know as 'major-independents'. Finally there are loads of smaller companies with little or no finical relationships between majors. These companies usually concentrate on the artist that have specialised niche audience and will only be committed to a few bands. These are know as independents . This is the area that we are in other wise called as 'minis'. Our relationship with the major companies is weak so it is harder to get advertisement such as interviews, however, the independent companies get to keep up to 100% of their profits where as the larger companies you may only get to keep 3% but you make much more profit. On the other hand it is misleading to see the industry simply as a hierarchy which is omitted by the majors. A ether description is a 'web' of companies who connection allow smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets and bigger companies to gain access to new artists and movements in popular music. In turn, most record companies organise themselves internally into artists and repertoire, marketing/artist development, promotions, legal and finical. The industry as a whole has a very complex relationship with a number of different media purposes.

A music video serves a different number of functions. it promotes a specific single and, normally, an album, promotes a specific artist or band. It also creates, adapts or feeds into a 'star image', entertains as product in its own right. It reinforces , adapts or undermines the 'meanings' of a song. A music video often contains different elements. These are performance, native, thematic and symbolic. There are also a few things that a music video need to have for it to sell well. It need to be visually stylish. Having are 'artist' mise-en-scene means that the audience are more drawn to it. Our mise-en-scene are really creative with the giant bird cage and the vines and flowers that were on the swing looked really great. We greased her in an quite simple but pretty dress so your not drawn away from the set too much. It needs 'rhythmic; montage, fragmented style. This will help the music video to flow and makes it easier to watch. Experimental use of the camera will give it an edgy look and keep the audience on their toes. Fast pace keeps the audience interested in what is going on and makes it much more exciting. Conspicuous lighting and cinematography lighting will give it atmosphere and make it more intense and more 'artistic'. Braking the rules of continuity makes the band look 'cool' and rebellious and can be very inviting for a teenager.

there are some threats to the 'pop video' in the current market These are thing such as the internet. Downloading music is much more popular now and so the pop video starts to seem irrelevant. The vidvert or i video. This is adverting it in a shopping mall. Music television becoming more mainstream for example MTV. I have to think how I am going to advertise my music video. The best for us is properly putting is kids TV or early morning shows like The One Show and Gram Norton.

Call Sheet

Call sheet is a film makers bible. It has all the information that you will need for the day of your shoot and after. Without it the shoot will be unorganised and messy, we can ever to the call sheet whenever we have a problem on shoot and it will most likely help us. In a call sheet you have to include Production team, which in movies can be hundreds of people, and what jobs each one has, cast and what they are doing, schedule, any props, wardrobe, set design light design, the story board, the lyrics and most impotently the shot list. This is what shots you shoot from each angle the camera will be at. To make this as easy as possible you storyboard should be very accurate and straight forward. This is our call sheet. We added in the set design, lighting design and the storyboard from what have drawn.

Call Sheet

BIRD SONG

MONDAY 8^th NOVEMBER

GABBY MEECH

HEATHER SCHREUDER

SOPHIE EVANS

Contents

1. Production Team Page

2. Cast List Page

3. Equipment List

4. Studio Set Plan

5. Lighting

6.Props

7. Wardrobe

8. Schedule for the day

9. Storyboard

10. Song Lyrics

11. Shot List

Production Team

Heather Schreuder

-07745096963

Gabby Meech

-07866792821

Sophie Evans

-07500775738

Cast List

Karis Arghiros

Lead Singer

Tom Warhurst

Drums

Freddie Eastham

Guitar

Sophie Loughridge

Harp

Equipment List

Cameras: Sony PDI 50

JVC1500E

Tracking rails

Dolly

Smoke machine

Studio Set Plan

Human size bird cage

Swing inside the cage

Lighting

Bird cage set: Warm colours and simple three point lighting.

Band set: bars across them as though shadowed by the bird cage.

Props

What the school is providing:

Swing

Bird Cage

Guitar

Drums

Harp

What we are providing:

Vines & Flowers

Feathers

Old Microphone

Wardrobe

Pretty Dress for main girl

Shirt or tee shirts and jeans for other band members with accessories such as head bands necklaces and bracelets.

Lyrics

"Bird Song"

Well I didn't tell anyone, but a bird flew by.
Saw what I'd done. He set up a nest outside,
and he sang about what I'd become.
He sang so loud, sang so clear.
I was afraid all the neighbours would hear,
So I invited him in, just to reason with him.
I promised I wouldn't do it again.

But he sang louder and louder inside the house,
And no I couldn't get him out.
So I trapped him under a cardboard box.
stood on it to make him stop.
I picked up the bird and above the din I said
"That's the last song you'll ever sing".
Held him down, broke his neck,
Taught him a lesson he wouldn't forget.

But in my dreams began to creep
that old familiar tweet tweet tweet

I opened my mouth to scream and shout,
I waved my arms and flapped about.
But I couldn't scream and I couldn't shout,
couldn't scream and I couldn't shout.

I opened my mouth to scream and shout
waved my arms and flapped about
But I couldn't scream I couldn't shout,
The song was coming from my mouth.
From my mouth, X15

Schedule

Morning 9:00-11:00 : Karis in the bird cage

11:00- 11:15 - Break

11:15 - 1 :00 : Proceed shooting Karis

Afternoon 2:00 - 4:00: Shooting the band

4:00 - 4:15 - Break

4:15 - 6:00 : Proceed shooting the band

Shot List

Camera angle 1 (tracking shot outwards): shot 1

Camera angle 2 (front without bars): 2, 11, 17, 12, 26, 15

Camera angle 3 (harp) : 3, 8

Camera angle 4(guitar) : 6, 9, 37, 35

Camera angle 5(Drums) : 5, 10, 38, 40

Camera angle 4 (feathers on their own) : 16, 33

Camera angle 5 (face shots of people and lond shot of band moving around) : 18, 19, 20, 21 22, 23, 24, 25

Camera angle 6 (Front on with bars): 29, 32, 31, 34, 39, 41, 43, 47

Camera angle 7 (Side with bars): 27, 28, 30, 36, 45, 48

Camera angle 8 (cat) : 42, 44, 46, 48

Camera angle 9 (feather falling): 49