A2 Media Studies

So far we have completed rather a lot of whats needed for our coursework, including our research and planning as well as already filmed and captured half of our footage that we hope to use in the music video.


The research that we have both completed has impacted our choices and opinions on genres of music to create a music video for. By completing research on both the print and moving image products it has enabled us to know the conventions of each style of music as well as how it links to the artists preferences and style. However, by focusing the research only on posters and magazine covers it doesn't really link to our brief and all of the products that we are required to make (a music DVD covers and poster).


After completing our initial research we began planning our music video and print products but the first big decision was upon us which prevented us going straight into the project. This problem was the song choice for the coursework. We had to decide on which song to use and whether we would go with a popular song by a signed artist or with a recorded unsigned bands track. After weighing up the pro's and con's with signed and unsigned artists we decided to go forward with the unsigned artist, however after we passed this first hurdle we came up to more - which unsigned artist and which song. We had narrowed it down to two different bands with one song for each one and brainstormed our ideas for each song before deciding which one that we thought that we could pull off well with the sources that we had available. We eventually decided on one song that we both like and feel that we could do a lot with it and have not looked back on our choice negatively.


We have so far completed half of our filming and have only two more locations to film at before we can begin editing. Over the past week and half term, the filming came to a stand still due to our actors availability during this time but we have scheduled for all of the actors to be available on Monday 9th November in order to complete our filming.


Due to this overrun in our filming schedule, we have however been able to start on our print products completely and have so far created the outside covers for the music DVD. However, we are currently not completely satisfied with the outlook of these covers and therefore will probably make changes to them once we have a draft product to work on and improve.

Hopefully, we will be back on track soon as well will be putting in extra hours on this work in order to make sure that we have completed everything we want to our own high standards by the deadline for the coursework (*fingers crossed*).

We have so far comleted two days filming for our music video which include the scenes in Telford Plaza and the live gig in Wolverhampton.

Whilst at the Modern Mafia gig in Wolverhampton, we set up the three cameras at different angles in the room as we would only have one chance to capture the live footage. By using three camera's we also ensured a variety of camera angles that we could use in the final music video after editing. We set the camera's up in this format.

The green squares are our cameras which we placed so that we would have a variety of angles (one straight on the whole band, one with a side angle and one at the side but on close up of the singers face). This worked out really well when we looked back at our footage and we hope to be able to use most of the footage we captured but we may have to edit it slightly because the lighting was not varied and the band was well lit with average lighting but this may be to our advantage when it comes to filming as we might be able to use more conventions of this genre than originally aimed for.

At the Telford Plaza, we filmed a variety of clips that we had planned to take as well as some spontenious ideas that looked quite good when we looked back at the footage. The filming at this location was delayed by one lesson in order to get all of the planning completed and also to ensure that we had enough understanding of what we were filming on the day and where exactly we were filming (even though we didn't quite stick to this).

The filming went quite smoothly with no complications as of yet. We just have a few more scenes to film before it's all done and ready to edit. Hopefully, we should have this done in a few more lessons, due to the distance between filming locations and arranging times with our band.

Although we are not filming in any dangerous locations or any dangerous scenes, we will have to be prepared incase anything goes wrong during filming.

To minimize risks during filming we will be carrying a first aid box with us in Katie's car and mobile phones that have credit, and full battery before filming.

Whilst filming, we will make sure that we act responsibly and do not do anything illegal and take care of what we are doing whilst still having fun. Hopefully this will enable us to be safe whilst filming and also to make sure that nothing goes wrong.

For our song, we have chosen in unsigned band from our local area to use as it will be easier to create something from brand new rather than getting ideas from the original video.

By using this unpublished song, we are also able to publish this video on youtube.com after completion where we can get feedback from a range of people as it does not have any copyright problems with the track or the footage.

We gained permission for having the song by mouth and then got written permission by the band, as shown by the image below.

By getting permission, we will be able to put the video on youtube.com as well as using the lyrics and other associated things, such as lyrics, photos and video footage of the band which we hope to use in the print products of this assignment.

We chose this song because of the genre it is in as well as the obvious copyright reasons. With this particular genre, it is popular in mainstream music and will therefore, make money if it was published on music channels, websites, and other places of publishing. The genre of this song (indie rock) also gives us a wide range of ideas that we can work with because the code and conventions are so wide and therefore give us a lot of space to work in and decide what to use in our own music video.

Actors

The actors we will be using for our music video are going to be the members of the band and some extras in order to make the music video realistic and so that the band can actually use the video if they like it.

• Nico Monterosso
• Edward Scott
• Matt Dunn
• Bruce Walters

Costumes

In order to use the conventions of our music genre, we will using the 'indie kid' look for our band members. This particular look involves skinny jeans, trench coats, band tee's and converse trainers. By sticking to this range of clothing our video will fit the genre better as well as making the video look realistic to audiences.


Prop List

There will be many props required for our shooting locations because of the range of locations we are shooting in but also what needs to be used by the band for them to be able to perform/take part. For each scene there will be different needs.

Due to our ideas being set in a variety of locations, we will have to travel to find appropriate shooting locations. This year, it will be easier to do because of Kate being able to drive we will be able to go shoot at any time other than class time and to locations further away from the college. This enables us to have more choice in locations but also makes it slightly harder to find the perfect location to shoot in.

For each scene, we will be at different locations so we will have to plan ahead of time where and when we are going to film in order to make it convenient for everybody needed in the production of the scenes. We have five different locations to film at so we are going to have to make sure that we are quick in every location whilst maintaining a good standard in filming in order to stick to our time plan.


One of our scenes is going to be shot at a live gig that our band will be performing at. This gig is going to be our only shoot for the performance part of the video so we need to make sure that we have good footage throughout the performance so that we can intergrate it into the music video. The gig will be filmed at the M.E.B bar, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton on Friday 16th October 2009 which will be our first official day of filming.

Another of our scenes is going to be filmed in the grounds of the Telford Plaza, near Telford Town Centre. We chose this location because it is a busy place during the day and also the office towers give the impression of the city. We are hoping that when we film this scene that the weather will be overcast or raining so that there is a clear difference in time between the memories and the present. We are planning to film this on........

In response to our results from our questionnaire, we have created some graphs to help show the results a bit clearer - showing the most and least popular in some cases.

In this result, we found out how often music videos are watched in order to know a bit more about the demand of new music videos by audience. It showed to us that 1 to 4 music videos are usually consumed by audiences in one week and therefore are usually in demand. This means that each video has to be different and original in order to obtain a good rating and make the song and artist more popular.


Overall, by several participants completing the questionnaire, we were able to establish a few of the starting points in planning our music video such as genre of the music and also establishing what audience it would reach. This information will help us with our planning as well as having completed some more of our research for this coursework.

We have had a range of ideas for our music which we were able to come up with my listening to the song repeatedly and also looking at the lyrics for anything that we would be able to get the video to move along with to ensure that the music video made sense and related to the song and its meaning.

At the start of the video we are going to focus on the instruments and links with the music in order to 'introduce' the band to viewing audiences. To do this we are going to use close ups on the bands instruments and band members faces like in the song 'Reptilia' by The Strokes. We have chosen to do this because it fits into the conventions of the indie genre as well as giving a introduction to the music video before it gets to it's highest volume level with all of the instruments playing in unison.

We have decided that the majority of the video will be a live performance of the song at a gig. At this performance we will be using 3 camera's to catch footage at different angles throughout the song. By using different angles we will be able use a wide range of the footage when it comes to editing in order to use some of the conventions that would be found in indie music videos as well as produce a fast moving video with similar clips that still feel different.

To ensure that we are linking in conventions of music videos, one of the three camera's will be zoomed into the singers face in the video and will have him looking directly at the screen at different parts of the song. This will make the music video seem choreographed and also performed to the audience because of the 'eye contact' established with the camera. This is a common convention in any music video and thus we would like to include it in our production.

However, to make a storyline fit into the music video we will also be taking separate footage in order to link the lyrics with the video. This also enables us to take some other footage to separate the performances of the song and make it more interesting for the viewers. In particular, we plan to do some scenes where we will use one or more of the band members in the 'acting' scenes because we want the video to flow from the performances to the storyline as smoothly as possible.

One of our storyline scenes involves showing the actor(s) in different locations but doing the exact same thing because we think that we will be able to show the development and passing of time clearer as well as add opportunities to add more scenes between each change of destination. We hope to film at three different locations for this scene which will be in a city/busy setting, a town/quiet setting and a countryside/deserted setting which will transition according to the timing in the song (we aim to be at the countryside setting at the end of the song).

Inbetween the transitions in location we hope to be able to use some other acting scenes, such as 'memories' in each location which we would be able to show using effects and transitions. We are aiming to have these memories to be linked with the lyrics of the song as well as produce a variety of scenes to make the music video interesting. We are currently thinking of having a scene in a park (with use of fading to make the girl disappear from the image) and another scene with a band member and an actress having fun with friends.

To make sure that we link in the title and the lyrics there is one scene that we hope to use in the middle of the song and maybe repeat in the chorus's. This scene will include the use of After Effects to layer the actress seem as if she is on the other side of a window (less opaque to provide the idea of imagination). The window will have rain going down it with the band member looking outside of it - this will hopefully link in the 'rain' references throughout the song.

At the end of the music video, we are hoping to show a variety of shots by separating them with black screens cutting up the image into sections. We have chosen to do this so that it links to the 'punches' in the music towards the end of the song. We are going to use the last change in location in this scene because we want to show and finish the transitions from each location which evidently finishes with countryside. In this scene, we would like to show the couple again but not using the effects used in the 'memories' and instead show it as real. They will be walking into the sunset (and if we can - into the sun) so that they look like black figures and begin to lose the audiences identification of the characters. Once far away from the camera we hope to make the girl disappear for the final time at the end of the music to link to the lyrics 'lose a fight' as losing his love.

There are different types of digipacks, each with there own different aspects and include different medias in order to meet their audience. In this research, I will be analysing the differences between the different types of digipacks and also use a few examples to understand more thoroughly the codes and conventions within this print product.


There is a basic four page digipack which includes one CD tray and one fold out cover. Examples of this format would be digipacks such as Metalica's Death Magnetic album. This type of digipack is the most simplistic yet most popular form for a digipack as it contains all the relevant information that the artist/record label may want to include but at a lower cost to more complex digipack designs.

The six page digipack cover gives more room for more information by adding another fold out cover in the dvd cases design. This is common for digipacks containing two disks as they can be placed on separate pages for ease of use. An example of this would be Coldplay's Greatest Hits digipack.

For the research for the production of a music promotional package, I have made a powerpoint containing all of my research for this brief. I chose to make a powerpoint because it's interactive for viewers and also made it easy to have all of my research in one place (ready to access whenever I need it for planning, filming and evaluation).In the powerpoint, I have various slides for the different parts of research I have done. I have sections for:

• Analysis of magazine covers
• Analysis of CD covers
• Analysis of posters
• Analysis of interview
• Analysis of music videos
• History of music videos
• Summary of research

This is our time plan for our media project. Obviously, this is going to change but we are going to try and stick to it.

Our team consists of myself and Katie Jennings and we will be working together on this project. I am really glad that I am working with Katie as I also worked with her for AS Media Studies for our coursework so we each know each others skills and abilities within producing products.

We have decided on the job roles required in this piece of coursework but will be working together on every task to ensure that we both have our own input into the project but also to make sure that we are using both of our strengths to make the best product available.

The job roles that we identified are:

Pre-production

Research (individual), Questionnaires, Idea mindmaps, Storyboard, Drawn Plans

During Production

Filming, Arrangement of Filming/photoshoots, Props, Locations, Creating Digipack, Creating Magazine Advert

Post Production

Capturing, Editing video, Editing images for print products, Feedback, Evaluation (individual)

By working on each one of these together, we are both using our strengths but also making sure we both put our own input into the project.

After much deliberation, our team has decided to use the music promotional package brief for our A2 coursework. We chose the music video brief for a range of reasons even though there are some disadvantages for completing this brief like there would be for any of the other briefs given to choose from.

There are many advantages to using this brief for our coursework such as that we experience music videos daily as part of our media intake as teenagers. Our knowledge of music videos and our exposure to them regularly will help us know what videos work well (the ones that appeal to audiences) and why they work well (what is so good about them) which we can then incorporate the conventions into our own music video.
Another reason to choosing this particular brief is the simple fact that it is very different to what we did last year for our AS coursework. This difference will enable us to develop our practical skills and become more creative with our work. Also, the knowledge we will have gained by completing this brief will help us to use the skills we have learnt in other situations in the future.

For the music promotional package brief, it also involves using different people in the product in order to make it successful, for example in a music video we will need to work with dancers rather than actors. This is an advantage to us for a variety of reasons as we will have no need to make a script for dialogue and most people will be using actors rather than dancers in their products for A2 media studies which will mean that it will be easier to get some dancers together and work with them.

Dependent on the song we choose to make the music video we may have a client which will enable us to imitate a professional setting. For example, if we choose to make a music video for an unsigned band who are currently looking for a record deal we will be given requirements and have a client which we can check everything. This, however, is dependant on if we use an unsigned acts song or a published song with a music video already. If we chose to use the latter, we may get tempted to copy parts of the original video which would mean the video would be similar to the original. There is also the issue that we might not be able to match the original (which would be shown in comparison) because of funding, editing software competency, etc.

As with all of the briefs there are disadvantages that we have identified and hope to tackle in the production of our music video. We have established that the main disadvantages are the editing for the music video because our skills using the editing software are limited and in this brief we know that we will have to include lip syncing and making sure the changes in camera angles are quick and professional in transition. Also, from analysing other music videos, the editing in this type of product is far more complicated than our previous experience of a thriller film opening. To overcome this we will have to plan anything we want to use in the editing software and then learn and practise how to do it before the final editing. This is time consuming but we feel that if we do this we will be able to produce a better product that looks professional and of a high standard.

Another disadvantage would be that we have never produced a music promotional package before (both the music video and the print texts) which will have to be thoroughly researched and planned out before the production takes place. We will have to use our knowledge of different techniques and also what we have found out in our research in order to make the product successful.

Finding of dancers, actors and band members may be difficult in the process of production and also making sure the video looks realistic and professional by use of extras. We realise that the logistics of putting a whole choreographed dance video together is quite challenging but we are keen to use conventions found in music videos already produced. It may be hard to find sufficient amount of participants in our music video but I am sure that if we use favours from our friends and family we will be able to do it. The arrangement of shooting times will also be difficult because of when people have frees in college and if anybody else we use in the video are from different schools and colleges we will have to arrange filming at a time which will be good for everybody.

In order to make the music video successful despite the disadvantages of the brief that we have chosen we will have to stick to the conventions of music videos and for the particular genre from the start of production using the research and planning that will be done before producing the product. We must decide whether the video will follow a storyline or be all about the performance of the song.

During my AS media studies year, I learnt a variety of skills and ideas through the theory classes and practical experience. By having these skills I was able to complete the coursework to a high standard as my knowledge was complete and I was confident in the work that I was doing because of the thorough research and planning I had completed before producing and editing the coursework and preliminary tasks.