Thursday, 17 March 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Blog Task 1
In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge froms and conventions or real media products?
We did a lot of research for our pop video such as finding locations sites. We also watched many of music videos to give us inspiration for the making of our own, there was one in particular which we did imitate a lot, Stress by Justice the music video made by Romain Gavras,t he hole feel and concept of our video really comes from this one. Keith Negus lists the major common generic conventions of a pop music video, which 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 exeption) • A wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement • Many short shots: high ratio • Repetition of reoccurring 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, animation, CGIs) • A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track • High impact instantly! • Discontinuity editing We looked to imitate some of Negus’ conventions of a pop video, such as having a performance element, a wide extensive use of shot types, shots cut tightly to the beat of the track and the featuring of the element or High impact so that we could follow Barthes theory of “plaisir” and “jouissance”. We also subverted some of these conventions such as the use of special effects, the promotion of the artists’s “image” we prefer to have our artist unknown and unseen, which is why when there is the performance element of the pop video our artist covers his face with a hat to make him unidentifiable. We knew from that moment that we wanted to create the same fear and repulsion as the video above had done, this coupled with the sense of disequilibrium we felt was the foundation for a good pop video.
One of Keith Negus’ conventions is to use a wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement . For all the gang shots we used handheld style filming to really get that realisms and grittiness feel to our video. To give our shots a more original feel we used odd angles (as you can see above) , we also used a few slow motions shots to really give our video that impact, “wow” effect. This really took the audience in the heart of the action and video so that they could relate better to the characters. 
Our does not have an abrupt end but instead of this, the video fades out, leaving the conflict unresolved therefore leaving the audience wanting more. This in is as reflection on modern society because most conflicts of a similar nature are left unresolved, such as knife crime and gang violence.
This shot really shows how we were trying to convey the brand of the artist’s image threw the pop video. This burning car shot really shows what lives the gang members live in a day to day basis. One of Negus’ conventions is “high impact”, we conformed to this with this shot because we create a missive build up and chose a part of the song in which the beat of the song builds up to and then we delivered this shot giving our audiences high impact. Everything from the gang scenes was all improvised so instead of following storyboards we used the location to create the film, only filming things that we thought would look god and which the audience would like. However we had intended from the beginning to have the burning car in our video and the flares too.
We did a lot of research for our pop video such as finding locations sites. We also watched many of music videos to give us inspiration for the making of our own, there was one in particular which we did imitate a lot, Stress by Justice the music video made by Romain Gavras,t he hole feel and concept of our video really comes from this one. Keith Negus lists the major common generic conventions of a pop music video, which 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 exeption) • A wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement • Many short shots: high ratio • Repetition of reoccurring 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, animation, CGIs) • A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track • High impact instantly! • Discontinuity editing We looked to imitate some of Negus’ conventions of a pop video, such as having a performance element, a wide extensive use of shot types, shots cut tightly to the beat of the track and the featuring of the element or High impact so that we could follow Barthes theory of “plaisir” and “jouissance”. We also subverted some of these conventions such as the use of special effects, the promotion of the artists’s “image” we prefer to have our artist unknown and unseen, which is why when there is the performance element of the pop video our artist covers his face with a hat to make him unidentifiable. We knew from that moment that we wanted to create the same fear and repulsion as the video above had done, this coupled with the sense of disequilibrium we felt was the foundation for a good pop video.
One of Keith Negus’ conventions is to use a wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement . For all the gang shots we used handheld style filming to really get that realisms and grittiness feel to our video. To give our shots a more original feel we used odd angles (as you can see above) , we also used a few slow motions shots to really give our video that impact, “wow” effect. This really took the audience in the heart of the action and video so that they could relate better to the characters. 
Our does not have an abrupt end but instead of this, the video fades out, leaving the conflict unresolved therefore leaving the audience wanting more. This in is as reflection on modern society because most conflicts of a similar nature are left unresolved, such as knife crime and gang violence.
This shot really shows how we were trying to convey the brand of the artist’s image threw the pop video. This burning car shot really shows what lives the gang members live in a day to day basis. One of Negus’ conventions is “high impact”, we conformed to this with this shot because we create a missive build up and chose a part of the song in which the beat of the song builds up to and then we delivered this shot giving our audiences high impact. Everything from the gang scenes was all improvised so instead of following storyboards we used the location to create the film, only filming things that we thought would look god and which the audience would like. However we had intended from the beginning to have the burning car in our video and the flares too.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Editing
During the pre-production stage we made storyboards so we could have an idea of what the final project was going to become. After months of preparation, the shoot day and 2 weeks editing we finished the pop video. Using finial cut pro, we did a rough cut and after a few alterations and minor tweaks here and there we finished the fine cut of our film.
We did not follow our story boards as one the shoot day we came up with much better ideas giving us greater footage. However, we did follow the storyboards in terms of the DJ’s scenes and when his scenes were put in place. We also followed the idea of cutting from the gang scenes and the DJ scenes to the project a much better flow and more making the video more interesting to watch.
The first assembly was quite easy because we all knew what shots of the gang we liked and which ones were more dramatic. For example, we knew one of the first shots of the gang being violent should be the breaking of the fridge in slow motion (as seen on left), to give that edge to our video letting our audiences know what kind of video they were watching without giving too much away. It was also put in to keep the audeince watching and waiting til the bild up, which is also emphasised in the song, and then the grand finale.
Whilst keeping our audience still interested with the violence we also showed how rebellious our gang members were with shots of them smoking. There is one particular shot (on right), a major close up of the gang member inhaling on a cigarette around the start of our video. The same shot is then put in later on in the video, after the second "drop" in the song on the actor exhaling from the cigarette showing that this is a way of stress relief in this life style.
As we get to then end of our video, as the song gets faster, so do our cuts, from the DJ to the gang back to the DJ and so on. The tension is building up and this is when we decide to but in a black out just as the song stops for a second which is then continued by and epic shot, one of the greatest ones we filmed, the slow motion burning car shot. This is not however the grand finale shot..
We cut from the black out to this shot to really give that "wow" effect in our video. We really used the rules of thirds for this shot, as you can see. We really feel like this shot is one that makes our video unique and is a key selling point to how rebellious our artist is.The last shot in our music video is "the flares" it fades from the DJ to the gang, which is the only time this happens in the pop promo, really symbolising how the two combine together. How our music, brand and artist can relate to our audeinces memebers. (see bellow).
We chose to use continuity editing because discontinuity editing would have taken away from the main narrative. Continuity Editing is when you edit a video to make sense visually, for example, if someone is wearing a green coat they would continue to wear this item of clothing threw out the video. Discontinuity editing is when you edit a video to create a sense of unrest in the viewer, usually building to some kind of climax.
Task Number 4
A director’s commentary on how I used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.
Digital Technology is new media technology, where the technology is based on digital storage and communication of data, using 0 and 1 code to compress the data into tiny packets, which give greater speed, quality and huge amounts more of storage space for data. This is far better than the analogue system of communication and data storage that proceeded digital. Digital technology underpins computers, mobile phones, modern video and still cameras, editing, the Internet, MP3 and I Phones, modern radios, modern movie projectors and most technological equipment ranging from in hospitals to schools and transport.
As in Maltby’s five stages of production, we used extensively new media technologies extensively at all five stages of the production from: research and development; planning; construction (shoot); post production; distribution and evaluation
In research and development we used new media technology a great deal. The Internet is based on it. We researched other pop videos on You Tube, and found locations where we might film on various websites such as http://www.filmlocation.co.uk/ etc..
In pre production we used a digital stills camera to go to the location and take stills of locations. We also did a camera test using a digital camera to test various potential actors and see if they could do what we wanted them to. In pre production too we created a Call Sheet using digital technology, including maps and stills, and e mailed this to cast and everyone involved which made it easier than photocopying and delivering it.
On the shoot, we used small, light, easily moved digital cameras, including the Sony ZI, which did not need much lighting. It could be manipulated to give our shots a seedy gritty feel and we did this. The smallness meant we could do a high ratio of shots to those actually cut in the final version, and this meant we could be far more creative as we had lots more shots to use. We also used slow motion for effect, which is made possible by digital technology.
In the editing stage Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects meant we could colour grade all our shots to make them clash and fit together as we wanted, and we could do slow motion and mixes and fades because of our digital technology.
Digital Technology is new media technology, where the technology is based on digital storage and communication of data, using 0 and 1 code to compress the data into tiny packets, which give greater speed, quality and huge amounts more of storage space for data. This is far better than the analogue system of communication and data storage that proceeded digital. Digital technology underpins computers, mobile phones, modern video and still cameras, editing, the Internet, MP3 and I Phones, modern radios, modern movie projectors and most technological equipment ranging from in hospitals to schools and transport.As in Maltby’s five stages of production, we used extensively new media technologies extensively at all five stages of the production from: research and development; planning; construction (shoot); post production; distribution and evaluation
In research and development we used new media technology a great deal. The Internet is based on it. We researched other pop videos on You Tube, and found locations where we might film on various websites such as http://www.filmlocation.co.uk/ etc..In pre production we used a digital stills camera to go to the location and take stills of locations. We also did a camera test using a digital camera to test various potential actors and see if they could do what we wanted them to. In pre production too we created a Call Sheet using digital technology, including maps and stills, and e mailed this to cast and everyone involved which made it easier than photocopying and delivering it.
On the shoot, we used small, light, easily moved digital cameras, including the Sony ZI, which did not need much lighting. It could be manipulated to give our shots a seedy gritty feel and we did this. The smallness meant we could do a high ratio of shots to those actually cut in the final version, and this meant we could be far more creative as we had lots more shots to use. We also used slow motion for effect, which is made possible by digital technology.
In the editing stage Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects meant we could colour grade all our shots to make them clash and fit together as we wanted, and we could do slow motion and mixes and fades because of our digital technology.For distribution we used You Tube and Face Book to put our song up and get viewings and comments. These are based on digital and mean you can potentially reach tens of millions of people, something impossible with analogue.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Shoot Day
In my opinion the reason our shoot day went so smoothly and according to plan was because we were so organised with the time and planning during the pre-production. It was only possible for us to prepare and make sure our set was looking good and the way we wanted it the afternoon before our shoot day, therefore without all the planning before the shoot day would have turned into a huge mess, even though our set was simplistic. The day before we had decided that we would have a white wall behind the DJ because the lights reflected well off it the set also included a large rack of fast flashing lights above the DJ and two moving lights on either side of the DJ and his decks.
On the day we shot all the DJ shots in the studio in the morning from 9:00 am until 13:00, before the actually filming we played the song a few times so that the DJ practice his performance and we could see which camera angles would be there best to shoot from. Once the filming had started we shot him from a number of different angles and also used a number of different movements including tracking left to right and track in and out. We used JVC 500 HD cameras, with tripod and tracking but did not use blondes or redhead on set or on location. Everyone in the group was directing giving there ideas and opinions of how all the characters should be represented, for example we came to agreement that it was best that we could see at little of the DJ face to make him more anonymous, therefore he wore a hat shadowing parts of his face so the viewers would concentrate more on what he was doing on the decks and what music he was producing.
I was directing and controlling the set saying “Rolling camera, playback and action”, and was making sure all the lights were good and rave like, whilst another member of my group was in charge of playback and the other two members were on camera at the time. I was also encouraging the DJ and clapped with him behind the camera so he could imitate me and did the very important pointing scene with him, making sure he did it correctly and boosted his confidence so he could give an even better performance. Then the group swapped around slightly and it was my turn on camera (see picture above to the right, me on camera) mainly doing the tracking shots in and out, left to right and right to left, whilst someone held the wire so it could not ruin the shot, I also filmed from a couple of different angles such as hero shots showing his the DJ’s importance. In the second half of the shoot I filmed a lot outside, which was all hand held. On location we found that the natural light was better from the effect we wanted, we filmed from 2:00pm till around 6:00pm. The directing outside was simpler than the directing in the studio because we did not have to worry about lights and wire and things like that it all became a lot more natural. The cast was very easy to direct all we had to do was point at something tell me to go crazy and smash it, which they did giving us great footage making it not looked staged and practiced which was the look we were going for.
Before the actually shoot day the main problem was to find a location where we would film all the gang shots. We were not aloud to film in our first two locations which we found because we simply did not have the money to rent it out and the health and safety precautions were just too extreme such as having an ambulance and fire truck which were really unnecessary and would put to much pressure on our actors. We also would not be aloud to make noise, break lots of things and burn a car which in our visions just did not work because that is exactly what we wanted to do. For example, the burning car was the “wow” factor to our video which we were not prepared to give that up without a fight.However, on the shoot day the only real problem was the weather after waiting a good hour for the rain to settle, we final went off to our location at 2:00pm (behind schedule) and were able to manage the rain with two umbrellas, one of which I had luckily remember before leaving that morning. It was difficult trying to keep the camera from getting wet when we were following and running after our cast members. This therefore ruined a few of our shots. Finally the rain completely stopped and filming became much easier.
We then came across some other difficulties, such as not white balancing correctly and choosing an appropriate shutter speed on location. This did force us to lose some shots which would have been very good but we corrected the problem once we realised what was happening and the rest of our shots turned out the way we wanted them too. A few other problems happened which was the way we were holding the camera, because it was handheld, the slightest touch would put it out of focus and with the rain we did not really realise because the screen was blurry with the rain drops, however that problem was solved when the weather became good again. We had a minor issue in the studio when the CD with our track on it didn’t work but that was easily solved when a member of my group went to get his laptop which he connected to the sound system.I was especially pleased with various shots that I did .These included close ups with kanted angles on the main characters. I shot these from a low angle which gave me an impression of power and authority and potential violence in the characters.
I was especially pleased with various shots that I did .These included close ups with kanted angles on the main characters. I shot these from a low angle which gave me an impression of power and authority and potential violence in the characters.
I also liked the close ups of the characters smoking. We tried to de focus the smoke and then the face but it did not work to well as I kept getting the timing wrong. I also liked the low angle shot of the smashing of the fridge which I thought we could use in rapid cutting and slow motion. I did not do the burning car shot but the close up and the wide shot were very effective as they filled the screen.
I thought the shots of the DJ from a low angle with him clapping gave a good brand image to him. Since a lot of the shots were handeld several were wobbly alough this gave the film impact I thought several of them were without any real meaning, such as two shots of trees panning to a face had no real message.
In my opinion in shoot day went extremely well, all according to plan and we tackled all the problems that were thrown at us and came up with good effective solutions. Even with all our careful planning in pre-production we still improvised all the gang shots on the day, which we had planned to do only a bit, and we hoped they would turn out the way they did. A lot of the good shots were not even scripted we just did them on the spur of the moment because it felt at the time a good idea to do them, I am pleased we did not follow the script exactly because we now have a wider variations of shots. It really sends a message to our audience members, in a naturalistic way, and shows how not everything has to be superficial and perfect to create a good and meaningful music video. Even though our final production does not follow our storyboards exactly it looks even better than we had versioned it to be in the first place. We managed to get the shot of the burning car, even if it was run down and half of it was missing, which I was extremely pleased about. We even got another “wow” factor which was the final scene when the two gangs meet and one of the gangs threatens the other with flares, the shots are fantastic. These are the shots that made our video what it is today.
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