Welcome to my A2 Media Studies Blog. The brief is: to produce a music video, a digipak cover, and magazine advert for the digipak. Throughout the course we will be learning about conventions (general and genre specific) used for each of these products.

Friday 22 July 2011

RM - Media Day: "Hit Me Baby One More Time" Video

Here is this year's media students attempt to re-create the music video for Britney Spear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

The Brief for this project can be found here
Whilst what happened in the group I was in and the problems we occured can be found here





RM - Mini Vid: Jaydee - Plastic Dreams

Here is our edit for the Mini-Vid Task.

The brief and original ideas we had can be found by clicking here.





This production (Mini-Vid Task) has allowed us to gain a further understanding into what shots and angles could be carried out for the production of the main product (the music video). It also gives us an understanding on what lighting conditions can be carried out. This task has also allowed us to gain a further understanding of how final cut express works and the tools available.

Monday 18 July 2011

RM - Music Vid Auteurs

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor. He was originally born called Adam Spiegel in October 1969. He has produced music videos for Beastie Boy, including Sabotage, Ricky's Theme, Sure Shot and Time for Livin'. Jonze also directed Beastie Boy's "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" which, like Michael Jackson's "Thriller", is a short movie that lasts 11 minutes. As well as directing music videos for Beastie Boys Jonze has also directed videos such as Daft Punk's Da Funk. As well as creating music videos Jonze had produced a number of films such as the Jackass franchise and Being John Malkovich. The most recent video Jonze produced is Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.


In videos Jonze has produced they appear in the style of a short film or programme. The shot lengths used in his music videos tend to be long, although he does uses quicker takes as well. As well as Jonze uses diegetic openings, breaks and endings in music videos.


Beastie Boy's Sabotage:

Beastie Boys' Dont Play No Game That I Can't Win



Daft Punk's Da Funk:


Arcade Fire's The Suburbs:


Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer and film and music director, born May 1955. Corbijn has directed music videos for such as several of Depeche Mode's singles such as Strangelove, Never Let Me Down Again, Enjoy the Silence, Personal Jesus as well as Joy Division's Atmosphere, U2's One and The Killer's All These Things I've Done. Corbijn has also produced a film called Control which is about the life of the Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. The most recent music video Corbijn produced was Coldplay's Viva la Vida.

Throughout Corbijn's music videos he has intertextual references with a previous one, he has done this in Coldplay's Viva la Vida where he makes references to Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence as the protagonist walks around several locations. Another example is in Joy Division's Atmosphere where hooded figures feature, similar to the ones which feature in Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box. Throughout Corbijn's filmography it is clear that he keeps special effects to a minimum, although he does use them.
Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence:

Coldplay's Viva la Vida:


Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box:



Joy Division's Atmosphere:

Thursday 14 July 2011

RM - Censorship

Throughout MTVs existent the company has banned or cut several videos for several reasons. Here is a link which features videos that have been banned by MTV:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_on_MTV#Videos_moved_to_late-night_or_obscure_rotation

One video banned was Foo Fighters’ Low which features Dave Grohl and Jack Black entering a motel, where they wreck a motel room, cross-dress, and get drunk. Due to this content MTV banned the video.




Another music video to be banned was The Cardigans' My Favourite Game, The video provoked much controversy which sparked MTV UK to play an edited version where all the car crashes and reckless driving were taken out. Jonas Ã…kerlund attempted to meet censorship standards by producing five different edited cuts with different degrees of violence and blood. MTV rejected the video was due to it to encourage joyriding as well as car accidents. However in the US many channels played the unedited version or a slightly edited version which featured fewer crashes.




RM - Fisheye Lens

"In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance. They are often used by photographers shooting broad landscapes to suggest the curve of the Earth. Hemispherical photography is used for various scientific purposes to study plant canopy geometry and to calculate near-ground solar radiation." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisheye_lens

An example of a fisheye lens shot.
Taken from Blur's Parklife
In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance. They are often used by photographers shooting broad landscapes to suggest the curve of the Earth. Hemispherical photography is used for various scientific purposes to study plant canopy geometry and to calculate near-ground solar radiation.







The fisheye lens is most commonly used by Hype Williams who has produced music videos for such artists as Coldplay, Jay Z, Kanye West.
"In 1996 Williams won the award for best Director of the Year, the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year.  In 1997 Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah" won Williams the NAACP Image Award. In 1998 MTV Video Music Award awarded him the Best Rap Video of the year for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," A year later the MTV Video Music Award awarded him for Best Group Video for TLC's "No Scrubs". William is still producing music videos with the latest being Kanye West’s song entitled Runaway." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_Williams




The first music video to use the fisheye lens for the entire video was the Beastie Boys song "Shake Your Rump" in 1989.



By using Final Cut it allows us to produce a fisheye effect, if wanted, without having to borrow or even buy one and wait for it to be delivered (if it was ordered over the internet).

RM - Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's Theory for music video contains three aspects which are: Performance, Narrative and Concept.

Performance – This sort of music video will contain footage of the artist playing the song live to a crowd or to the camera. Performance videos are normally taken from filmed gigs such as Muse has done with HAARP releasing a live video of Feeling Good. As well as this performance videos can also contain some narrative features.

Narrative – This sort of music video is footage based on the lyrics of the song, which forms into a story.

Concept – This music video is the opposite of a narrative based music video. It is where the music video has no connection to the lyrics.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

RM - Digitisation

As technology has developed throughout the years media products such as music videos have been able to use this as an advantage. This has also allowed the production of equipment to become cheaper and allows more people own them. An example of this is HD Cameras as well as having programs such as Final Cut which is available to the general public, the same program used for Hollywood Blockbusters. Here is a link to the notes I made during the tutorial of Final Cut.

Due to this new technology, this allows film-makers and producers create a music video at a lower budget than a decade ago. It also allows anyone create music videos as software used is now available to anyone who wants it.

Several examples feature below, including the most expensive music video to date as well as fan videos where the owner tries to copy a music video exactly but in a cartton format.
In 1995 Michael and Janet Jackson’s song Scream set a record for the highest budget music video which was $7 million. This is more than some films that are produced today. It also shows how the price for high technology has decreased as technology has increased throughout the years, as this record hasn’t been broken since.In 1995 Michael and Janet Jackson’s song Scream set a record for the highest budget music video which was $7 million. This is more than some films that are produced today. It also shows how the price for high technology has decreased as technology has increased throughout the years, as this record hasn’t been broken since.


As technology has advanced and the prices for it as decreased fan made videos have increased. This is because most professional software in now in the public domain, such as Final Cut. There are several examples of this. An example of this is MGMT’s Kids.





This is a fan-made video of Muse's "Bliss".


Another example is Muse’s Bliss. This is the original video.


RM - Media Day: Remaking the video for "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

For remaking the video of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" each class was slip into two and given one out of four sections. The four sections included: The Classroom, The Gym, and The Carpark and The Corridor scenes. The group I was in got the Gym scene which takes place between 2:21 to 3:52.The sequence consisted of 56 shots. However before we could film any footage we needed to deconstruct each shot and with this produce a detailed call sheet. Informing us what each shot consisted of.

At the start of the day we had to meet in our groups and practice Lip-syncing as well as a brief run through of the shots and who was going to be in each shot as well as running through the dance moves (although we did this again before we shot the sequence we were trying to film).

During the filming of the video we came across a few problems. One was that the call sheet we produced wasn't in enough detail as well as the choreographer's notes. This meant we had to watch the video before recording each shot. This wasted a lot of time. As well as this we followed the call sheet that was produced up to a point. In the sequence filmed there are two separate sections, one where Britney is sitting on a stand and the other when she is dancing. After we filmed the shots where Britney was sitting on the stand we stopped using the call sheet as much and followed how the video was presented. Another problem that was occurred was the timing which was approx one hour, which for the amount of shots needed to be taken was very difficult.

During the afternoon we had to create a vodcast and edit this as well as edit our behind the scenes footage we had been filming throughout the day.

Sunday 10 July 2011

RM - Media Day

Next Tuesday (12th July 2011) both Media groups will form one for the day to create their own verision of Britney Spear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time. Every media student will have to star in the music video as well as edit a part of it. Here is the original version:




This video was also re-created by last years A2 Media group. Here is their re-created video:



Each class was split up into two smaller groups and each given a section of the music video. The groups are: The Classroom, The Gym, The Carpark and The Corridors. Each group were given approximately one hour to film an entire section. The group I was in where given the Gym scene. Here are the shots required for the original video:

Shotlist Gym Only

Thursday 7 July 2011

RM - Mini-vid Task

In the mini-vid task we had the choice of three songs where we would have to pick one to create a 30 - 60 section for a music video.

The choices where:

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Two Tribes




Faith No More - Falling to Pieces



Jaydee - Plastic Dreams



Our original choice was Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Two Tribes as we thought we would be able to create a narrative around the lyrics with the footage following two tribes. However this would involve a large cast which we would struggle to get in the alloted time. Therefore we decided to go with Jaydee's Plastic Dreams which would allow us to create a narrative. At first we thought we could have the protagonist being chased by masked creatures through a wooded area. We found it a struggle to portray a narrative for Faith No More's Falling to Pieces.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

RM - Final Cut Notes

  • Drag objects from left side panel to one of the bottom two panels depending on video/audio format or drag object to right hand side panel/screen and highlight overwrite – puts video/audio files together.
  • Up/down arrows takes you to the start/finish of a clip
  • To select area wanted:
  • i – in point
  • o – out point
  • With the selected clip click the razor tool (bottom right) – cuts clip – then go back to the pointer tool immediately.
  • Highlight, shift then click delete (or backspace) cuts unwanted material + moves the footage to the previous footage clip.
  • Save often as possible – can auto save but best to keep saving files every few minutes
  • To create a second video clip layer drag the clip onto the time line. This replaces the first layer for viewing.
  • Highlight -> Motion control -> Then click appropriate option out of: Scale (changes size), Rotation (rotates), Canter (changes position), Crop, Distorts (changes size/width), Opacity (fades).
  • In the sequence tab you can render all or a selection
  • Effects – Video Transitions/Filters (Some need rendering)
  • Can have more than one effect/filter on each video clip (Needs rendering though)


There are many differences between Final Cut, the program we are using for our Music Video, and iMovie, the program we created the opening two minutes to a feature film last year. The main difference between Final Cut and iMovie is that with Final Cut there is the option to have more than one shot on screen. This can also be moved around the screen allowing space for more.  Another difference is that you are allowed to view the clip selected and can edit it before placing it into the media product that is being produced.

    Monday 4 July 2011

    RM - A2 Coursework Task

    The Task - Is to create a music video for an already released song, preferably that has been around for 10 years plus. As well as a digi-pack, and magazine advert for the digi-pack.


    This is broken down into three areas:
    Research and Planning: 20%
    The Products: 60%*
    Evaluation: 20%


    *The products are broken down further. With 40% for the music video and 10% for the digi-pack and another 10% for the magazine advert for the digi-pack.

    Markscheme:
    Minimal       
    Basic
    Proficient
    Excellent