Filming day 3 (hopefully final filming day)

Today we completed all the filming!!

All the performers performed their sections today.

1. Mohammed did his so-called 'juggling'.
2. Jevetta decided to film her bit again because she didn't feel confident with what she did yesterday.

We also completed the judges sections aswell. We have close-up shots of the judges feets walking in. When the final judge (Akieba) walked own the stairs in her heels and then walked upto the chair, i zoomed out into the 3 judges. Then we filmed the close-up shots of the judges expressions and then a middle shot of the main judge in the middle calling out 'next'.

We completed Jason's section where he would come to perform and then Akieba would walk upto him shaking his hand and then he would walk out the door.

Next lesson we're just going to be editing!

Filming day 2

In today's session, we got the performers to start performing and we also filmed Jason's bit.

1. First of all, we filmed the 'crazy girl's' section. We had her run through the door into the audition room screaming and then run through the exit door. We were meant to have either Ola or Olu to play the part of the security guard but they were too shy to do it lol. It doesn't matter though.
2. We had Jason (real name Tamouy) do his bit. A middle-shot of his feet where he's walking was filmed and then a close-up shot of his hand opening the door. Then a point of view shot of him walking through the audition room door. Finally we filmed him singing along with the music and these were long shots. The bit where the judge walks upto him will have to be filmed tomorrow and so we'll continue it then.
3. The final filming of the day was when the singer (Jevetta) did her bit. I got her to act crazy and confident about her singing and it actually looked really good because of her exaggeration. And we also got the other dancer (Zainab) to do her bit aswell which was just moving her head.

We will continue filming next lesson! Again..

Filming day 1

We've been given the cameras today and so we set off to film. We couldn't find our 'Jason Who?' so we filmed all the point of view shots first. We stuck the 'Star's in their eyes' posters on the wall and filmed a point of view shot of 'Jason' looking at it outside and then walking in through the door upto the security guard who let him in. We then got various other people to just react to the posters. We asked the librarian if we can film her putting up the poster. The next shot was of Mohammed walking upto the poster and looking at it.

There have been some changes to the music video and these are:

1. First of all, we couldn't get the theatre to film due to the drama students rehearsing for their exams so instead we thought we might use the sports hall but that seemed a bit odd. So we walked around the college looking for rooms but then we found this certain place near the sports hall; it was empty and plain and it had two doors which we needed so it was the perfect place to film.
2. Instead of having 3 singers, a dance group and a footballer, we now have 1 singer (excluding Jason), a juggler and a 'so-called' dancer just moving her head. We still have the crazy girl but we couldn't get the security guard because he didn't want to be part of it.

We're going to continue filming next lesson!

Taking pictures for CD cover

We took some pictures for our album cover and then we're going to edit them soon. Here are the best ones:

As you can see, most of the pictures are of the street and this is because for our album cover we're planning on having split screens of both the street and the stage to show how our artist has gone from being a kid from the estate to being part of the performing industry. The picture on top, we are planning on using that one for the magazine advertisement.

As for the stage, we decided we would take a picture from google.

Storyboards and CD Cover designs..

Aswell as doing a treament, we also have to produce storyboards and draw up intial ideas for the CD covers. Both me and Akieba worked on the storyboarsd; Everyone in the group has to draw up two different ideas for the covers. Below are images of the storyboards and the designs.

Storyboard:

Once you have the treatment ready, it's very easy to draw up images for the storyboard. Below are the scans of the sheet; we didn't draw eveything, infact just a summary: beginning, middle and end.

Initial designs for album cover:

Below is a scanned image of the 2 designs i created for the album cover.

As a group we've decided to go for the idea of having a split screen image; basically, there will be a line going through the middle of the canvas and on the left side of the cover would be an image of the street to and on the right hand side will be an image of a stage with a mic in the middle. The whole idea of this is to show how the character has gone from being a youth from the estate to someone living their dreams.

First day of starting the production!

Don't let the title musjudge you but what actually happened today was:

• We found our locations.
• Found some of our actors.
  

We wanted the theatre for the talent show but the theatre is booked and so it's difficult for us to use it, therefore, we decided to use the sports hall and fortunetly we can; it's not always in use so it would work in our favour.

Actors:

Singer: Still searching.

Bad singer: my friend Jevetta.

Dancers: Still searching.

Footballer: Kaamil

Juggler: Mohammed

Psycho girl: Akieba's freind

Security guard: Ola

Judges: Akieba & still searching lol

Jason Who: still searching.

The last thing i did before lesson ended was create a poster for the music video.

Here it is:

The Final idea!

After debating about what idea we wanted to go for, Idea 3 got the vote and this is the one we will be working on.

The idea in depth:

The concept of the video is a talent show with people waiting outside read to audition. The winner will then get his/her picture in the magazines and newspapers but the people who are blocking their ways are the three judges. Justin Who is actually going to be the winner of the show and we've decided that, throughout the video his face will not be shown but infact it will be a point of view show right up untill the end just before he starts to perform. There will be some good auditiioness aswell as bad ones and we've decided to have a 'psycho' girl running around liky crazy and then Ola the security guard will then chuck her out of the theatre.

Comparisons:

1. X Factor - Shayne Ward: That's my goal

The reason why this is a comparison is because our music video is a x factor/britains got talent style video.

The Similarities:

Judges

Auditioness

Stars in their eyes poster (instead of x factor ofcourse)

The line of other auditionees waiting outside.

Differences:

• Security guard taking out crazy girl.
• Not only singers but dancers too.
• Point of view shots.
• Video isn't only based around one person; other auditionees can be seen.
  

Here is the video:




2. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

I really like the idea of having split shots afer watching a previous A2 music video and i thought it was cool. Therefore, i threw in this idea and the others agreed. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean also inspired me because it uses several split shots when he's dancing.
Below is a GIF image i created using print screen shots of the split screens from Bille Jean:

Reason why we thought this will be a better idea to do than the other two is because it's similar to what the song is about and that about being 'a star' and as it is a pop kind of song, a jumpy and humourous video would suit it's genre.

Next lesson we will be looking at treatments.

Treatments

Before we start creating the music video, we need to write up a treatment. Rosie gave us an example of a treatment for Eightball's 'My Homeboy's Girlfriend' which was directed by Christopher Erskin.

The treament consists of the idea of the video into depth and what sorts of shots and angles we're going to have. Here is the treatment:

Music Video.. ideas

I'm actually happy with the group i'm in this year because everyone actually listens to each other and take each other's decisions into consideration :).

We've already made a decision of what song we would like to use for the music video and we've had different ideas about the music video itself.
Well the song we would be using is: Stars in their eyes! By Just Jack..

Idea 1:

It would start off with a close-up shot of a poster which says 'RESPECT' in capital letters and then it will zoom into the artist looking into the mirror. The point of the poster is to show that the artist is a very genuine person who believes in believing & respecting yourself. He is in the dressing room getting ready for a performance and then he will walk out the room and as soon as he steps out, there will be a point of view shot when he's walking. There will be flashing lights to signify 'stardom'. This idea has been influenced by Common's music video 'The game'.

Common - 'The Game'

Idea 2:
The second idea was all based around being in school telling a story. It would start off with a close shot of the school logo and then zoom out to Jason Who walking towards the building. The significance of being in the school is to show that, 'you can aim for your dreams even if you're at school' and also he would be having flashbacks of him when he was a student. The younger him would be messing about and getting into trouble but at the same time being serious about his music. This idea is similar to (not compeletly similar though lol) to Chipmunk's video 'Chip Diddy Chip'.

Idea 3:

Our third and final idea was a judging panel music video. It will be a talent show sort of thing similar to the x factor videos. We will have a line of people waiting outside the theatre for their turns to audition and then towards the end Justin Who would walk in and impress the judges.

Next lesson we will come to a final decision as to which one we want to do!

Pleminary task - the video

Here is the final and completed A2 Pleminary video!

What i learnt from doing the pleminary task is how to do different shots to add effect. For example, starting from 0:58 he starts walking down the stairs and then a point of view shot; then a shot of him walking down the stairs but this can be seen through the glass window. During editing i learnt the obvious: how to create a music video :).

Editing pleminary task

Unlike last time, everyone has to edit the pleminary task instead of just one person. I've started editing and finished in an hour; it was easy for me to edit it because, i edited the our last production which was the beginning of a film and i've become used to using the software 'Final Cut Pro'.
It was 1 min and about 30 seconds long which was alright because the maximum was 2 mins.

Evaluation:

There were mostly good shots such as the over-shoulder shot and the mirror out which turned out really good. I also added an 'crawl' effect to the bits where the camera was on Junior and this looked really good because it suited the music. In between his journey, i added the people saying 'fuck education'. However, there were some shots which were shaky, tilted and out of focus so i need to bare this in mind for when we start filming the music video; need to make sure the focus is fine and the tripod is fixed properly. Other than that, i was pleased which means the main production will also be good if i keep up with the pace im working at.

Pleminary task - day 2

We continued filming and that's all that happened this lesson. Junior was our actor and we had him walk through some doors (long shot); walk down the stairs (high angle); point view shot of him walking down; then an over-shoulder shot of him walking towards Kaamil. I then came up with a good idea of filming him through the drama window which looked like a mirror because of the black curtains on the other side and it looked cool. So we had him walk down the stairs and then turned the camera towards him. This was a good shot. We then filmed him walking towards the sports hall where he punched the lockers and then he walked into the sports hall and Marcus went round and round him with the camera. He then walked into the library and typed up 'Fuck Education' on word and we filmed him doing this. The last shot we filmed was of Ola kicking Junior out of the college. The lesson then ended and we had enough shots to edit for next lesson so everything was all sorted!

Pleminary task

Before we actually start producing our music video, we have to do a task known as the 'annoying pleminary task' lol. It's just a minor activity where we have to record and edit a peice and then evaluate it and talk about how we would improve to when it comes to the real deal. Maybe annoying but it brings marks so it's alright lol :D.

The pleminary task for this time is to:

'Create a walking/dancing video with different people appearing in it'

The song we are using is called 'F-Word' by the artist 'Babybird' (i've never actually heard of this artist before lol).

The video should have the running theme of young students saying "F**k Education". It should be as realistic as possible, but give the title song a connection with disaffected youth.

-

The class was split into 2 groups and then we went out to film. I was in a group full of boys and it'sactually much easier working with them then working with a group full of girls because all they is disagree and you never actually get much done whereas the boys listen and do something lol.

We went out filming students from the college saying 'fuck education' and we got about 10 of them and before we could continue, lesson was over.

Here is a 30 second preview of the song we have to work with:

The F-Word - Baby Bird

Posters

What is a poster?

'A poster is a piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface which include both textual and graphic elements. Posters are supposed to be eye-catching and convey information. They are used as advertisers for events, musicians, films or other groups trying to communicate a message.'

What is a concert poster?

'Many concerts, particularly rock concerts, have custom-designed posters that are used for advertisement of the event and these often become collector's items.'

Our aim for the project is to create a poster where we advertise our CD on it and we have to combine the concert poster with the digi-pak.

The target audience for our poster are teenagers and young adults who can relate to the artist

we are selling.

We are trying to sell this new artist who has come from the estates with the dream of becoming a star and trying to prove something to himself.

The most effective place to put this advert up would be outside youth centers, schools, colleges, universities; basically any place that teenagers and young adults go to because it will be more likely for them to see the poster. Even at a bus stop and underground/overground station would be effective because plenty of youths travel by public transport.

The purpose of the advert is to attract as many 'youngsters' as possible to come watch this new artist on the block perform.

We looked at other posters from the website 'www.posters.com' and we were discussing how, just like CD covers, the posters for Rock artists have themes where as for Hip-Hop it's all about the artists.

We looked at Bob Marley's legend poster.

This image represents that Bob Marley is serious about what he does which is music. At the same time, he looks calm which gives off the vibe that he knows what he's doing.

Black and white albums and poster covers represent 'timeless'.

We even looked at Jimi Hendrix's poster.

As you can see in this image, Jimi Hendrix is holding a guitar in which he does in most of his posters and album covers which represents the fact that he is a guitarist and that is what he enjoys.

Here is a video of a photoshoot:

The purpose of this photoshoot was to take pictures for a poster and flyers to promote this band.

Brand continuity: Our album cover and poster needs to have something that continues.

Audience Types & Groups..

The class were split into different groups to work on this production and i will be working with:

Akieba, Kaamil & Mohammed.

We've already started discussing ideas about whether we will have a standalone artist or a band and we came to a decision that it will be a standalone artist who goes by the name of: 'Jason Who'. Here is a print screen of Jason Who's biography typed up on a word document (as you can see, it's still not complete).

Here are a couple of questions we've had to answer regarding our artist:

1. Which music production/distribution company would you approach and why?

Well our artist Jason Who is signed to Sony BMG so they will be distributing the music video. As well as producing for the artists, they also distribute their productions.

2. How will the musical artists' single be promoted and distributed?

TIE - INs:

There will be collectable wrisbands for the fans to collect.

TV PERFORMANCES:

Jason Who will perform on the BBC1 Programme 5:19 and there will also be a video exclusive on Channel 4, E4 & 4Music. When big artists come out with their new music videos, they are often given a lot of attention as they are show at a certain time and date for the first time.

CELEBRITY SHOWBIZ PARTIES:

He will be partying with other British top charting artists such as Tinchy Stryder, NDubz and Dizzie Rascal (these are just to name a few).

3. Breakdown of the artist:

Standalone artist: Jason Who. He is calm and collected telling stories like Nas through his music peices. He will have a smart urban look just like Kano.

4. For their first single which cover song will you make the artist sing and why?

It's going to be an original song because if it was a cover then the artist will be compared to other artists and we don't want that; he's going to be unique.

Audience types:

He is going to be alternative just like artists such as Pharrell, Kano, Stryder and Chipmunk.

There are 5 types of audiences:

1. Mainstream: this term refers to majority of the audience who share the same opinion and in this, majority of the audience who favour an artist or genre e.g Michael Jackson - he's a prominent figure of Popular culture.
2. Cult: This is the definition of a very small highly devoted fan base and often most of these artists have failed to achieve fame outside of the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences e.g Gigs - you wouldn't get the elder generation listening to his music and the youths who listen to him are loyal fans.
3. Subversive: Controversial artists who go againts the concentional social, political, economic principles of a society.
4. Abstract: They are different and their music videos usually have a different image which does not fit in with the narrative of the song e.g Wiley 'Wearing my Rolex'.
5. Alternative: These artists are also different; they are neither mainstream nor subversive and a good example of this would be Chipmunk.

History of.. Album covers

An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product or album. The cover serves three main purposes:

1. To advertise the contents of the music product.
2. To convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists.
3. In reproductions of the artwork, to serve as a primary image in the promotional efforts surrounding the product, an identifiable image associated with it.

The cover became an important part of the culture of music at the time. As a marketing tool and an expression of artistic intent, gatefold covers,and inserts often with lyric sheets, made the album cover a desirable artifact in it's own right.

The album cover for Jay Z's: Blueprint 3

The instruments used in the cover were to portray foundation (that's what blueprint stands for) and the colour white was used to to represent purity. The artist used '3 stripes' in continuity on the album and his first song 'Run this town'. This is what we have to think about aswell; we need to have some sort of continuity between our album cover and our music video. We have also watched the makin of this album cover in lesson and i found it very interesting that for just one picture, alot of hard work was put into it which goes to show that profressionals really mean business and no nonsense and we should be working by this motto too.

Using conventions of a genre on the album cover makes the audience become aware of what genre the music is. For example, Pop artists such as 'Spice Girls' and 'S Club 7' would have very colourful album covers.

Pop songs are initially 'full of joy' and 'jumpy' and so the use of bright colours (as seen on the covers above ^^^) gives a sense of happiness and being optimistic which automatically helps the audience identify that the genre is Pop.

Rock artists and Indie bands have a theme on their album covers and it represents images more about their music often using pictures of their own instruments such as this one:

Jimi Hendrix was a Rock artist who was famous for being the most favourable guitar player and has also been the top guitarist on it's list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Let just say, if someone didn't know who he was then by looking at most of album covers, they would automatically assume that he plays the guitar because most of the album cover artworks consist of him holding a guitar.

However, moving onto Hip-Hop artists, their album covers are more about themselves and 'showing off' their 'bling' etc etc and a convention of their album covers are always portrait. Here are 2 examples:

Another thing, as you can in the 50 Cent picture, he is bare chested, showing off his tattooed muscles trying to prove that he is strong and wearing gucci and 'bling' showing that he is rich. This not only attracts female fans but homosexual fans aswell. 'Pink Pound' is the term referred to when these homosexual audiences make these artists money.

The key concept 'Male Gaze' (feminist Laura Mulvey), is basically when women try to see themselves through a man's eyes. Shakira's album cover for her lastest album 'She Wolf' would be a good example:

The reason why this is a good example is because, as you can see, she is trapped in a cage which means that maybe she is being controlled by a man and the female audiences can try and see her through a mans point of view; maybe they could understand why she looks like someone trapped in a cage ready to do whatever the man tells her to do.

With digital music downloading becoming increasingly popular, the purpose and the dominance of the album cover is developing. It should be noted that physical music products, with a physical 'album cover', continue to outsell digital downloads by a substantial margin.

History of.. Music Videos

As the project is based on creating a music video to promote my artist, i've done some research on music videos; how and why they came about.

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music. They are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s and this is when the term 'music video' first came into popular usage.

MTV was the most popular music channel which played music videos. It was launched on August 1st 1981 and in the beginning they only used to air rock and roll music videos produced by White artists.

However, Michael Jackson was the first Black artist to be shown on MTV breaking down the racial barriers with the first music video movie 'Thriller' (which was an impressive 14 minutes long). It was directed by John Landis (director of 'An American Werewolf in London') and it was released in December 1983. It has sold 9 million copies and is still till this day,the highest selling record ever and even Michael Jackson couldn't beat his own record. The genre of music was different to the usual genre that MTV aired which was 'Rock and Roll' and so this was the beginning of the crossover genres.

We had a Music Video Director 'Ben Peters' come into our lesson and talk to us about music videos. One thing i learnt was that there are so many different roles and some of them i haven't even heard about before.

These are the ones that are new to me:

• Spark: This person has the job of fixing lights.
• Gaffer: This person is the head of lighting.
• Grader: This individual fixes the colours of every shot so the shots run smoothly. They work on the quality.
• Colourist: Similar job as the Grader.
• 1st A.D: Assistant director who helps the filmmaker in the making of a movie or music video.
• PM: Photo manager.
• Focus Puller: They make sure the focus of the shot is fine.

He has directed Urban videos and worked for artists such as N-Dubz. He directed the music video for their song 'Wouldn't you'.

In this video (which he also directed) he appears in a cameo appearance. He can been seen wearing a hoody and fake beard & moustache at 0:44:

However one music video which wasn't Urban was this one:

Artist: Frankie goes to Hollywood
Name of track: Relax

This particular music video has turned Ben into a diverse director making it easy for him to attract more artists from various genres and giving him opportunities to direct their music videos.


Ben also showed us a treament he produced for the producers of N-Dubz next track 'I need you', however the job went to the director who worked with Lil Wayne.

The Q&A session with Ben was useful and we learnt that, to do something big and live your dreams, you need to start off small; Ben started off as a 'runner' who gives everyone their tea and coffee etc and then he stated talking his way in with the directors and that's how it started off for him. We've also come to know that every job for creating a music video is very important including the runner because, if for example the runner messes up someones tea then they might go and make it themselves which means wasting time. Usually a music video is filmed in one day and if it moves onto 2 days then it means more money and the director might have to take it out from his own wallet. I guess we're lucky we have have more than 1 day! lol

Evaluation of AS Media Production..

Last year, as part of our AS course, me and my group created the beginning of a film which was about a maximum of 3 minutes. The genre of our film was a 'Martial Arts drama' and the name of the film was 'Purple Death'. The story was about a boy called Aaron who's father died and his Master was given the responsibility to look after Aaron but little do they know that it was the master who got his father killed. During a visit to the local park, someone attacks Aaron and then towards the end it was revealed that it was the master who attacked him.

Strengths:

• Characters: We were lucky enough to find two Oriental Asian characters to act in our film because it fits in with the genre. They were always present during filming times so there was no need to go hunting for them.


• Camera work: Most martial art films contain fast pace shots and we had quick and tensed shots in our film. We had an establishing shot which set the scene and it was one of the best shots in the film.


• Music: According to our audience who have watched the film have said how the music used for the scenes suited the moods of the scene which created an impact on them. When the song was emotional, the scene was emotional and when the two were combined together, the audience felt emotional.

Weaknesses:

• Music: Although the music set the scene, the down side of this aspect was that due to the different songs used for every scene, there were skips and this was obvious to the audience.


• Shots: During the last shot, in the background behind the audience can see the actors bags and coats and this made this scene look a bit tacky. We also broke the 180 degree rule; We were on one side filming and then suddenly on the other side.


• Criticism: We received criticism about not having enough obvious martial arts conventions to show off the genre. The only thing that worked was the costume (a karate kit).


• Storyline: The story seems a bit unclear when first watching the film even though we had a voice-over where the master narrated the story.

During the process of the production i learnt how to use a Sony HDTV 108 10i camera. This is a very contemporary camera and its small weight is nothing compared to all the different effects it can do.

By learning how to use the editing software Final Cut Pro i was able to edit both the preliminary task and the final product. I now find it easy to use and this is an advantage i can use for the next task which is to produce a music video for a new standalone artist or a band.

I've learnt how to use the camera and so i can record the next production and edit the production using Final Cut. I didn't know how to do a 'depths of field' shot before but I am going to learn how to do it and apply it to the music video and hopefully this will give us extra marks!

The Beginning of A2..

The Brief:

Our task for this year is to produce a promotion package for the release of an album which includes a promo video; a cover for it's release as part of a digipack (CD/DVD Package) and a magazine advertisement for the digipack (CD/DVD Package).

I have to to be a new record producer who has to create, produce and distribute a new standalone artist or a band. We (meaning me and my group) will be using an original music piece from an existing artist or band. We will use the song to create a music video using 'Final Cut' as the editing software. The song will be part of an album and we have to create an album cover for it's release using 'Photoshop'. Last but not least, we will create a magazine advertisement for the digipack as part of the release also using Photoshop. There has to be a continuity (something in common) through all 3 products which will link them together and help the release.

The purpose of this Unit is to assess our ability to:

1. Plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.
2. Assess our application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating our own work, showing how meanings and responses are created.
3. Assess our ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.