Andrew Johnson Filming tips

This man is called Andrew Johnson who came into school and held an hour lesson out of his own spare time to help teach us more about filming and editing. He has been in the filming industry for 20 years and has traveled the world filming in a variety of different places which is why he was such an asset to listen to and ask questions to about filming as he has such a wide and professional knowledge about cameras and filming. He's mainly worked for the BBC and taught me a lot, mainly about the equipment which has helped Olly and I for our music video as we now have a better insight about camera's and how to use them to our advantage when we film our music video. 

Audience Feedback - Rough Cut Video

Last week Olly and I showed our rough cut of our music video to our Media teachers as well as 15-20 Media students at AS and A2. We had a lot of great feedback about how well our music video looks at the moment for the amount of the video that has been filmed and edited. Some of the improvements that we were asked to make on the video include to be:

• New font for title, one that links more to an indie genre.
• Mise-en-scene, linking more to indie genre as well as more emotions to the main story line.

Positive feedback given from the music video:

• A good story line alongside the music video, it works well with what we're trying to achieve.
• The dog is well suited to it's role of the video and fits in.
• There is some good shots and editing from what has been made of the video so far. 

Overall  we're happy with the feedback that we have been given because we haven't completed the music video yet which shows us that the work we have done for the video so far is on track and could be completed to a good standard if we keep up to date with the work and get enough camera shots. 

Animatic Storyboard

Here is a storyboard that I created with Olly for our main task, the song we have chosen is called 'The Fray - How To Save A Life being set around an Indie Pop genre. we've used post it notes and stuck them to an A3 piece of paper giving it a better structure and if we want to change a frame we can easily do this by using a new post it note. This allows us to know exactly what part of the music video each shot will be edited into so it's a quicker process giving us more time to do filming as well as knowing what frames we need to film when we go to each location. We've said how long we plan each frame to be so the video is 3 minutes long, I know this should be accurate because we did this for our Preliminary task and that was done effectively.

Audience Feedback - Briefing

Here is a photo of Olly (My partner) and I as we give a short briefing to a class of students from the year below about what our A2 media music video is based on and what we are trying to achieve. They all liked the idea of our music video which we have set out to create and all of the students we asked apart from one said they liked the Indie Pop genre when we explained it was artists like Florence + The Machine and Ellie Goulding. This meant that we weren't given much creative criticism to add more to the planning process of the music video.

Lighting Workshop

Here is a range of different photos that I took on my phone and asked other people to take of me for my A2 lighting workshop that I was taught in my A2 class as well as there being an As media class to help show us all the importance of lighting being used within filming when done professionally. They showed us a huge range of different lighting techniques which is why I have added a slideshare of images showing different lighting features. One of my favorite effect that I was shown was a 'reflector' because it is a very basic method of adding more light to a certain position (normally someone's face) within a dark scene to help capture the attention of that specific part of the image adding more depth and meaning so the audience knows exactly what they should be looking towards.

 

Main Task Lyrics

Here I have broke down the lyrics of the chosen song Olly and I are doing for our music video which is called 'The Fray - How To Save A Life' which'll be an Indie Pop genre. I have highlighted the main lyrics of the song which we'll try set our filming and editing around throughout the production of the music video so it has a realistic and professional storyboard for our target audience. Instead of it being about a relationship between two people it is going to be about a man and his dog to convey the stereotypical  man into being a soft person who is about to lose his dog.

The Fray-

How To Save A Life

Step one, you say we need to talk

He walks, you say sit down, it's just a talk

He smiles politely back at you

You stare politely right on through

Some sort of window to your right

As he goes left, and you stay right

Between the lines of fear and blame

You begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best

Cause after all, you do know best

Try to slip past his defense

Without granting innocence

Lay down a list of what is wrong

The things you've told him all along

And pray to God he hears you

And I pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice

You lower yours and grant him one last choice

Drive until you lose the road

Or break with the ones you've followed

He will do one of two things

He will admit to everything

Or he'll say he's just not the same

And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

How to save a life

How to save a life

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

How to save a life

How to save a life

Treatment

After a lot of research we have decided to use a male actor who is happy with his dog. His dog becomes I'll and he dies and we have decided to explore how people cope with losing a loved one and subverted the expectations using a dog and not a human partner. The feedback from the audience was positive as it will appeal.

Audience feedback - Moodboard



Here are some images of Olly and I displaying a short brief to a selected number of people where we shared our ideas and thoughts on what we were going to do for our main music video. We've created a mood board which has song lyrics as well as pictures of key props, costumes and the layout that we need to have in our music video to help make it more dramatic and meaning full to our target audience as we are planning on doing our music on 'The Fray - How To Save A Life' being an indie pop music video. From this briefing we got back some great feedback and questions which has helped guide us in a better direction so we know more about what we need to add to the music video and how to do this properly. 

Audience Feedback

Whilst being with a few of my friends I played 'The Fray, How To Save A Life'. After I played the music video to them I asked them to create a spider diagram each and to show what they thought and felt when they heard the music video. This helped me as it gave me a better impression to what we need to put into our music video to make it match these feelings which are shown by the words and sound of 'The Fray's' voice to make the video as good as it can possibly be.

Stromae - Carmen

This video was shown to me in class a few weeks ago. It's a very unique and different video shown to me compared to a more mainstream video. This is because it represents and interprets the social media in different ways telling us that it looks good but it is actually dangerous. I know this because a lot of bullying and other issues are caused through the social media, this wouldn't happen before social media as people wouldn't have the chance to do so which makes the audience aware of the social media in this way and tells us to be aware that bad things can happen to you and not just other people.

Prelimary Task

Below is our music preliminary task music video with the song we chose being 'Paolo Nutini, New Shoes'.
                            
This task was to create a short music video (1 minute) from an already existing music video. This helped us get used to using 'Adobe Premiere Pro' as we had never used this software before which means we're going to make less mistakes whilst creating our main task. It will also allows us to have a better insight into what camera angles will work and has improved our editing skills dramatically.

Camera Angles

Here I have done some primary research on camera angles and shots to learn more about why each shot is important and the impact it is trying to have on an individual scene to add more depth and meaning to that scene. This will help Olly and I when it comes to filming as we'll know more about what shots we want to have within our music video which will help us understand more about filming so the shots we make link more to our target audience helping us create our chosen genre and make it fit within the music video making it more professional.
 

Roland Barthes Research

Here I have done so research on Roland Barthes looking into how he has had such an effect within the media. I have talked about the books he has written as well as the studies he has made and how they have had such an impact on the media.

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Roland Barthes Narratives from charlienorris98

Codes And Conventions Research

I have conducted some research on codes and conventions defining what they are and what they do in the music industry and the effects they have. I have gone into more depth with the Indie pop and pop genre's as 'Indie pop' is my chosen genre for my music video so I can learn more about the genre helping Olly and I to know what needs to be done in our music video to fulfill this genre.

Codes And Convention Slideshare from charlienorris98

Florence + The machine - Ship To Wreck

This song is called 'Ship To Wreck' by 'Florence + The Machine'.

This music video has influenced us to create a music video within indie pop as it's creative, different and works really well and looks professional. This music video is created to help entertain her fans more as well as draw in new fans who may have not heard much of her music before.

The pace of the video is quite fast with a lot of fighting as she has a very short temperature and a lot of anger stored up inside of her within the music video, this also conveys the way the media. A lot of editing is also used to help the fighting look realistic and not fake.

This video is the genre of music that we're planning to base and create our music video around because its different, unique and I really like the way in which it's made and think it would be very enjoyable to create an indie pop music video. She is also one of the most popular artists within indie pop music industry at the moment which is why we looked at her videos over other artists because there is more to learn from her.

This music video is mainly aimed towards 16+ males and females. This is because fighting shouldn't be shown in front of children because some may find it distressing to watch as well as start fighting as they may think it is okay to fight as they don't know any better at a young age.

The narrative of this music video fits in well because at the start she is really strong and then throughout the video she becomes very angry and has a very short temper which shows to us that she is sinking in the image of a ship. Smashing objects, ruining clothes and assaulting people. The video is representing Florence + The Machine throughout the whole video as well as another guy who is shown to be her boyfriend? This makes us know that she is heart broken and is hurt especially when she starts to get angry with other people.

Enter Sikari - Torn Apart

This music video is called 'Torn Apart' from rock band 'Enter Shikari'.

The style of this music video is very strange and unique because of the editing used as the camera is always recorded downwards with a variety of different rooms some with one person in and other rooms with a group of people inside.

The pace of the video is slow as the camera is always going downwards to give the viewers enough time to see and understand what's happening in each room of the video. All the band members in this music video are dressed in black and play musical instruments like electrical guitars and drums which helps the audience build up that it's a rock genre as well as the lighting of the video being very dark and faded.

We are not intending to do our music video on this genre as it isn't the kind of music that we listen to and enjoy although I am a big fan on the creativity of the music video as it's different and unique with not many music videos using one camera angle throughout a video.

The main audience for this music video is 14-18 year old boys as it is a simple setting and the video addressing itself towards the males more than women. They'll also be trying to gain more fans and popularity from the song which is why the video is quite unique and different compared to other rock music videos.

For the narrative of this music video the song title is 'Torn Apart' and as the camera goes downwards through the different floors we see all of the artists in the band but they're always on their own in each room and never all together in a room showing us as the audience that they're torn apart and not together.

The representation of this music video is to show a group of people torn apart and not together anymore, the lyrics 'sinking' are used a lot and very repetitively with the camera continuously pamming downwards to signify them falling.

Katy Perry - Roar

This video has helped give us a good idea of potentially what kind of music video we intend on creating. It's by pop star Katy Perry called 'Roar'.

The pace of this music video is quite slow with Katy at first being crash landed with a guy who doesn't seem to be phased by what has just happened to them both, but Katy seems to be very scarred and shocked at what has just happened to them. Also she is very quick thinking at the start and shows us this from when the guy touches her to take a 'selfie' and she jumps thinking it's a creature in the jungle.

The genre of this music video is pop, we know this immediately when watching the video for a numerous amount of different reasons. The setting is bright and vibrant throughout to show the pop genre as well as help catch the audiences attention. We have still yet decided on what genre we are going to create our music magazine but we're looking into pop as well as indie-pop as they are both popular music genres which we have a high interest in.

The target audience for this music video is aimed towards a large amount of people as pop music is one of the better known genres of music around the world and this music video proves this as it has over a billion views on YouTube. We know that it's a very popular pop music video as well as we are shown that it's the official music video with the 'Vevo' label at the bottom hand side of the screen.

The narrative of this music video fits in really well and professionally with the title of this song 'Roar'. The very first image we see of this music video is a jungle and we all know what the king of a jungle is, 'A lion' and lions 'roar' which makes the audience aware of what this song is going to be based around. Katy also dresses up as a lion which makes us aware that she is the king of the jungle and when she 'Roars' everything around her will be scarred showing her dominance and importance in the jungle.

As far as representation is concerned in this video Katy is always on camera in each scene which makes us know that she is the centre of attention in the video. It also shows that she has made a bigger impact in the jungle than the guy she was with at the start as he gets eaten by a tiger promoting women power showing that she doesn't need a man to survive in the jungle when at the start of the video it shows that she thinks she does.

The work that's been put into this video to create it are: camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and non-diegetic sound not diegetic sound as the music has been edited into this music video. I will have to use all of these techniques properly and effectively in order to make my music video stand and look professional.

Brief and Explanation

A2 Brief and choice choice of practical exam

To create the release of an album, to included a promotion video with two of the three features out of:

• A home website page that works efficiently and properly.
• A digipak for the albums release.
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak.

2. A short film which needs to last around 5 minutes long, which may be live action, animated or both, together with two of the following three options:

• A poster for the film.
• A radio trailer for the film.
• A film magazine review page featuring the film

I have decided to do Brief 1 because last year I made a music magazine meaning that I will have a better idea of what I'm doing as I will set the video to a similar genre to my music magazine meaning that I will understand my target audience better by putting more time into my research finding out what they're looking to find in a music video. I also enjoy listening to music a lot more than watching films so will have a bigger interest in creating a music video which will enable me to want to put more work towards it as I will be enjoying what I do. 

A digipak is a type of packaging for CD's and DVD's, normally made from cardboard and plastic as they're light and strong to help protect CD's and DVD's. The plastic is transparent which allows you to see through which means that you can put paper with text and images inside the CD against the plastic as it is water proof. This protects the paper which can allow you to promote and add more to the CD to catch potential customers attention which could result in more sales. 

Reflexions on AS media coursework

AS Media Blog: http://charliemnorris98.blogspot.co.uk/

I have created a powerpoint showing the development and improvement I made during my AS Media Studies last year showing what I feel went well as well as areas of the work I did which didn't go so well which I will use as creative criticism to help improve my work this year.