Location Plan

Above shows a mind-map of the locations I have decided to shoot my video at. In the mind-map I have explained the pros of shooting in certain locations and have included any cons that there may be about shooting in certain locations. From this, I came to the conclusion of where I want to shoot (this is explained in the summary of this mind-map)

Teacher and self assessment of blog currently

The table below shows a teacher and self assessment of my blog as it is currently. For the self assessment I looked through each of my blog posts and analysed what I had done well, and what I need to improve on in order to make my blog as good as possible so I can move up into level 4. My teacher then did the same thing, so now I have an understanding of what I think I need to do to make my blog better, and what my teacher has said to do in order to improve my blog.

Initial Music Video Storyboard

Here is my initial storyboard for my music video. As you can see, I decided to include a male and a female going through very similar trans* struggles in order to show my audience that this is a universal issue. I also wanted to include two character of two differing ganders because it means that my product is more likely to appeal to men and women as opposed to one more than the other. I have also included quite a few extreme close-ups and medium shots because my videos narrative is all about getting a message across, meaning that emotions need to be emphasised, so by focusing on important aspects if the narrative (such as body language and facial expressions) the viewer is more likely to empathise with the characters in the music video and therefore understand the message well.

Audience research - UGT

Audience research

Permission For Song Choice

In order to avoid copyright issues, I needed to contact Mac DeMacos recording studio in some way to ask their permission to use Macs song 'My Kinda Woman'. The main reason for this being that once my music video is finished, I will upload it to YouTube in order to post it onto my blog, and due to the fact that YouTube is an online website, anyone online would be able to hear his song in my video outside of where it was originally published, so it could be subject to copyright issues. I decided I would message them on Facebook as I noticed that they posted quite often on there so I thought I would have a high chance of them seeing it. However, a few days have passed since I have sent this and I have still not recieved a reply yet. If I do not receive a reply from them at any point soon, my only other option is to upload it to YouTube without including their name in the title and giving them the credit for the song in the description of the video as well as making a point that I do not own the music in the video.

Initial video idea

Finding an audience

I now need to find a demographic to target in order for my music video to have some level of success. In order to find my demographic I set up a survey on the website 'SurveyMonkey', and constructed questions based around the audience themselves and their likes and dislikes in relation to what I have analyzed in order to find out what people of what age and gender find appealing in a music video. From there I can make a questionnaire aimed at my demographic asking them what kind of things they like to see in a video and what attracts their attention, and then begin researching more and then begin planning my product with the demographic in mind.

This is a screen grab of my survey, it firsts asks for age and gender and then where you would tend to go to watch music videos. This is an important aspect of distribution because if it turns out that my demographic mainly watches music videos mainly on TV then  would need to make a product that follows formats of products on TV. Despite knowing that I am making a video as a student for my media course and not a video that will go on TV, it is still an important piece of information to know to gain a good understand of the interests of my demographic.

Music Video Genre

Due to the fact that my song choice is indie, it means that making my video indie would maintain continuity between the products. However, I think that having a video with a strong narrative will contrast the indie style of the song therefore resulting in a highly dysfunctional products as well as an original one which will then enforce the indie genre.

I asked my audience what they thought of the indie genre and this is what they had to say:

Emily: "I prefer the indie genre because it feels much more real and relatable and it's not the generic stuff that you see every day on TV"

Beth: "A lot of the music I like is indie. I like it because it's different to what you hear on the radio and the TV all the time"

Alexandra: "I mainly listen to people like ED Sheeran and he isn't indie, but I do like some indie singers, I just don't listen to them all the time"

David: "I love what you'd call the 'indie' genre because I like having bands that I can call my own and that other people don't obsess over because when bands get big and famous like the Arctic Monkeys they change in a way that I don't like, they're too generic and they're not individuals anymore"

Peter: "I don't really listen to music much but when other people have music on I hate it when they play stuff that people listen to all the time. It gets really boring but I like listening to stuff I've not heard before that it's the kind of thing you hear constantly"

Thomas: "I never listen to the music in the charts, I like finding my own bands that are low profile because I feel like indie bands can interact with their fans way more. I like the music because it's new and exciting.

As you can see, it is clear that my audience is very interested in the indie genre and indie band for numerous reasons and not just because of how they sound of look. The main piece of feedback I noticed from this is that my audience likes the fact that indie bands aren't conventional, they are their own style and are a world apart from what is in the charts.

Song choice

My song choice is Mac DeMarco's 'My Kind Of Woman' as I love the message that the song gives off when combined with the unexpected elements of the video (the 'woman' mentioned in the song is expected to be a woman that mac desires to have...when only listening; when combined with the visuals, the meaning of the song changes as the 'woman' described is then representative of the identity of Mac's character in the video). I feel that doing something similar but in a slightly more serious way would make this a very good political message in an artistic and original way.

'My Kinda Woman' is an indie rock genre song, so this means that it creating an indie music video may be the best way to go with this because it will link up well with visuals and will also mean that my video will not look like an attempted imitation of current media products on high budgets with elaborate settings and experienced actors. 

Stylistic influences

Key scenes from stylistic influences: 

Key elements of the video:

 The video jumps straight into the message - Mac is applying lipstick

He then applies mascara. His make-up is messy and smudged, denoting disregard for his appearance due to his emotion and state at of mind, he is only applying make-up to be a woman but does not care if he looks perfect because he does not feel as such.

Mac then takes off the lens that was over the cameras in the video, as though he is reaching for the audience. This, I feel, is a great shot - the front lens is soft and it feels as though Mac is reaching out for a hug from the audience.

 The lens is then fully removed as though he is inviting the audience into his world.

Seconds later mac is showing the steps he goes through in order to become a woman, the earnings and the cap are all vital and representative of the daily routine for people who are not comfortable with the gender they were assigned with at birth. He has invited the audience in to see the truth.

The previous scene then cuts to a soft black fade and then fades out from black here - a smooth transition and works well with the current narrative. Now we see Mac as a woman, make-up, dress and all. The spotlight lifts him from the dark, representative of his negative emotions experienced as a man as he emerges a woman from the previous dark fade. The stage like setting with a curtain draped in the background represents a lacking of fear to bar all 'on stage' to reveal harsh truth.

The two screen grabs above show Mac in a dysfunctional setting as it reflects a confused frame of mind - confusion of social response. Mac has lettuce and cream thrown at him, a physical humiliation mimicking verbal abuse thrown at the Trans* community on a daily basis.

This video is weird and wonderful mainly because that is the style of the artist and all of his videos are as such, but the dysfunctional element always has purpose and is constructed well in a narrative, whether that narrative is simple or complex.

Key elements of the video:

This is one of the first shots that you see in the video. I like this particular shot because it reflects so much emotion without the need of a face. It also shows the thing that everyone does when they are feeling anxious or depressed, putting your palms together. It is so simple, yet it gets the message across in an effective way. The use of dark blue lighting with white light communicates simplicity, yet also a heavily melancholic mood (almost as though you are in the head of the 'character' in the video, feeling his simple and numb emotion) which enforces what the showing of the hands together truly means. 

Here we see the external, looking calm, yet the expression on the face shows a struggle to find an inner peace, and the previous showing of the hands and other facial expressions prior to this enforces that denotation - we are only seeing the external.

In this section of the video, the use of the hands and singing shows a sign of the 'character' in the video opening up to his emotion in an external way for the viewer to see,

This burst of colour comes in when the music begins to pick up, reflective of the 'characters' emotion. The colours look as though they are running through his fingers, and the mix of colours can connote different emotions, combining these two elements we can denote that the 'character' is embracing all of his emotions. The lack of colour in the last screen grab shows the 'character' snapped back into reality.

He then wipes away his tears in a bright blissful pink light, and becomes stronger for facing his inner daemons and emotions.

This simple representation of emotion with body language and lighting is something that would be very useful in my music video, it is simple yet effective and wouldn't take away from the main message in my video.

Short film mini analysis - styalistic influence

Despite this not being a music video, it still follows many conventions of music videos with a thick narrative. Also, this film challenges many conventions that I wish to challenge when I come to making my music video:


- The 'girl' is first wearing very stereotypically 'tarty' clothing and makeup (which is seen so much in the media). As the narrative progresses, this stereotype is challenged as we see that the 'girl' isn't a girl at all, but a female to male (FTM) transgender. He goes from this tarty sexy looking woman to a male, therefore challenging what the audience first expected in the mise-en-scene in relation to costume.


- From this point, the video also challenges the conventions of gender roles. It shows the true and tender side to what and uneducated audience may have previously found laughable as a 'tranny' or a 'dyke'. This is something that I would like to portray in my video - I want it to have a strong and almost shocking narrative in order to grip and audience and have the potential to inspire or open eyes.


- The music in the video could be seen as unconventional as it is extremely delicate and not something you would expect to hear in the charts. It is unconventional when we compare it to a music video as this is not a music video, it's a short film, therefore the music isn't the main aspect, so it wont follow the conventions of music in a music video. This is a feature that I would avoid when making my music video. However, the music does pair well with the video as they share similar features of narrative and the tone of the music sets the tone of the video. This is something that I want to take on board when I make my own product.


Overall I find this short film very useful as a stylistic influence in relation to narrative and content of what I would like to include in my music video.

Current Music Video Conventions

The above image is a mind map of current music video conventions showing how I am going to approach them in regards to conventionality of current trending media products. Next to each initial branch, there are the words 'conventional', 'unconventional' or 'a mix' in brackets - they are what I feel will be the features of my music video, and as shown, most elements will either be a mix of conventional and unconventional or simply unconventional.

Overall I have decided that I want to make something unconventional because conventional products are more often than not produced on a high budget, so I feel that if I try to imitate that with a very low budget/no budget, it will look like a forced imitation. So, I thought it would be best for me to challenge conventions and make a video that will work on a simple concept, basic equipment, limited location/setting and minimal props.

Analysis of music video: Weird Al - Tacky

This video and song isn't an original version, it is a parody of an already existing song and video. I thought that analysing this video coupled with a comical song would be beneficial to my research into music videos because I can then explore a larger breadth of conventions of different themed videos and songs and, then look at the link between the two.

Analysis:
The very first think that I noticed about this video was the fact that it's a parody - I noticed this from the fact that the lyrics were very different, and a comical version of the original song "Happy", and the mise-en-scene made it very clear. By this, I mean that the costumes were comical which was appropriate due to the fact that the purpose of this song and video is to entertain in a comical way. Also, the location is a mix of run down and fancy which is comical due to the fact that the viewer is slightly confused at what they are trying to get at with the location. The run down locations on the video reflect the "tacky" lyrics in the song and the fancy places contrast the ridiculous costumes that the 'characters' wear in the video making it even more comical because it is bizarre and weir.
This is something that I should keep in mind if I end up making a comical music video to a comedy song - contrast, stepping outside of the box, being weird and bizarre on purpose is often comical in current media products.

Analysis of Mac DeMarco - My kind of woman

Genre: Indie rock/pop
Style song: Melodic, dysfunctional, slow

This video and song by a slowly rising artist is very dysfunctional and strange - I am analyzing this because it is a song that I like - therefore if I use this song in my video, it will be a video that I as an A2 student (making a product that has little need for 'public appeal') will produce a good product from because I enjoy it. However, the song is semi-famous and the artist is gradually claiming more and more fame each day, therefore I will have grasped a certain level of conventionality in order to secure at least some audience appeal - it would be a video enjoyed by others, not just myself.
Analysis:
The video starts off with the 'character' in the video applying make-up and a wig which quickly links to the song title 'my kind of woman'. From this we see that the artist has played on the words of 'my kind of woman' by presenting not a love interest, but a persons inner identity breaking free - being transgender or a 'drag queen', therefore the woman referenced in the song is the woman he wants to be, not whom he wants. This challenges media conventions because this narrative doesn't represent something in the 'norm' of peoples knowledge, and often offensive or uneducated people may refer to them as a 'tranny' or 'dyke' to cause offence. This video in that sense is shocking and unconventional as it is breaking the norm and showing the world something that is a very true world for some people. However, it still keeps within Mac DeMarco's dysfunctional and funky style that also adds an extra element of shock and surprise to the video. The dysfunctional style of the video may be interpreted as the exaggerated world of abuse that people who are 'different' may face - it adds an extra layer to the narrative for those who care to look for it.

Analysis of music video: Of Mice & Men - Would you still be there

Again, much like LIGHS, this is a "semi famous" band as they appear on TV radio and magazines (examples of magazine covers - http://www.altpress.com/magazine/issue/308_of_mice_and_men [accessed 29th September 2014], http://www.bigcheesemagazine.com/features/article/of-mice-men-storm-the-cover [accessed 29th September 2014]).

Analysis:
At the start of the video there is a mix of close-up pan shots in order to establish the setting, scene and theme. This is very conventional of current media products as it is done very often to quickly grab the attention of the viewer. This is also done often at the start of the video so that the viewer can establish a narrative to the video and get a quick understand of possible content in the video without having to have a long winded storyline before and during the video (the reason for not wanting this is because having a story before a video isn't for everyone and can often bore the audience because they will just want to listen to the song and watch the video, not the story beforehand).

What I quickly notice about this video is that because the band is a "semi famous band" on the verge of fame, it is following a lot of conventional codes of current media products with it's narrative codes, location and setting and general generic codes in order to appeal to a larger audience and climb it's claim to fame faster. Examples include a suburban and abandoned location which many music videos follow the conventions of - mysterious and abandoned woods, war zone flat planes, run down abandoned buildings (used in many current media products of all different genres, such as Krewella - Alive, The Charlatans - One to another, Adam Lambert - If I had you, Black Veil Brides - In The End, Imagine Dragons - Radioactive ect...) and so on. This is something I can keep in mind for when making my music video as current audiences appear to be attracted to videos with a dysfunctional and broken narrative following the 'characters' (most often the band/artist in a video) breaking away from society and being rebellious, finding a new and place to call their own and be cast away from society.

Analysis of music video: LIGHTS - Banner

I am analysing another music video by LIGHTS because this video is a different genre and theme to the other music video she did (Portal), and I thought it would be interesting to look at the differences in conventionality, content, and how the difference in the style of the song can effect the end result of the music video.

Analysis:
The song here is a more modern and conventional, up beat style song, to a song by LIGHTs previously analysed called Portal.  In this video, we again see (much like the Of Mice & Men - Would you still be there) the conventional music video setting of a barren, isolated and abandoned wasteland to represent the 'characters' in the video breaking away from modern society and following their rebellious calling. My reason for believing that they did this is because the style music of the song is very modern and convention, therefore the music video needs to follow this format and style in order for the song and video to fit well together and to have a higher chance of success.
This is something that I can keep in mind when I come to making my own video - deciding whether I should go with current media conventions with a current media style song, or going against the conventions with a current media song and risk being unsuccessful, but creating something that is new, original and completely my own work instead of mimicking what has been done many times before.

Analysis of music video: Talain Rayne - Twinkle lightly

Genre: Indie pop
Style music: Melodic, emotional, raw

I felt like I would really benefit from analysing this music video as it is a very professional looking video from a "low famous" artists - the video is simplistic much like the fan video for Lemobright by the same artist (see post below).

Analysis:
This video is given it's meaning and strong message through body language, facial expressions, manipulation of lighting, camera shots and careful artistic editing. This then means that if I chose to do my music video for this song or a songs fitting similar conventions to this one, I will have an idea of how to make a simple video look very artistic while flowing well with the song.
Something that I like about this video is the similarity between the official video by this artists for "twinkle lightly" and the fan video for Lemonbright (sang by the same artist) is so similar regarding shots, lighting and setting - the only differences are the lighting effects, colour filter, hues and the lack of large body movement and dancing in this video. I think that even though there is no dancing in this video, it works just as well as the fan video for Lemonbright because it is made clear from his body movements and stableness that he is sad down, which suggests that the emotion in the song is also within him, and that he needs to sit, be still, and enjoy the moment with the song.
This is another thing I can keep in mind when I come to make my won video - I don't have to make the video overly complicated if I am smart with it, I can take very simple ideas such as making the 'character' in the video look sat down in order to represent their emotion, of have the 'character' making small emotional hand gestures that fit well with the tempo in the song to get the message and emotion across to the viewer.

Analysis of music vide: Talain Rayne - Lemonbright

I thought that this music video was very interesting due to its simplicity as there is only one location for the entire video in a dark room with one main light, and the content of the video is mainly close ups of the girl in the video singing mixed with what looks like unrehearsed natural dancing.
Even though this video is not an official video (but a fan video) I still thought it would be very useful to analyse as there is no way I could create an end product that could look like a high budget video, therefore this gives me a look into the reality of what I could create and how I could make something quite simple look effective, artistic and creative.

Analysis:
Despite this video being very simple and basic in content, it surprisingly doesn't get boring or tedious due to clever editing and the actual content; the movement of the dancer and the flow of the shots as well as interesting manipulation of lighting keeps the viewer. These subtle little elements and techniques really bring the songs to life, and the fact that it is basic and maintains the beat and tempo of the song makes the video flow very well with the song. These are all conventional features of any successful music video as it gives the piece an artistic edge and stimulates the viewer in a visual and audible way.
Due to the fact that this is a low budget music video with only one setting and location and what looks like one camera and one light (possibly two) it has followed the conventions of current media product to the furthest extent that it can. We can see this from the camera close ups, lighting tricks, clever and slightly complex editing and the portrayal of the 'character' in the video. However, it breaks the conventions of current media products because of its simplicity, and even though it works extremely well with the song, this isn't the type of video that you may see on TV due to the fact that it isn't gripping enough or exciting enough or complex enough o get appeal in that side of the media. However, it is artistic and simple enough that it will get credit and interest on the internet - especially since this is a fan video.

Analysis of music video: LIGHTS - Portal

The indicated music video is by an artist that is what some would call "semi famous" as she has her own website, has had showings of her work on TV and radio as well as being featured in magazines (evidence of such public media fame is seen in the following link: LIGHTS LOVE - date accessed 29th September 2014). She may have more fame in other locations around the world, but regarding the UK, the main source of her fame is online via youtube, FaceBook and twitter. She has also had several tours for 3 of her albums so far - she isn't a super famous celebrity constantly in the public, eye, but she still has a stapled and known name.
This then comes into play with the look of her music videos - do they follow the codes and conventions of current media products? Is it conventional, origin or generic?

Analysis:
Tying in well with the song, the music video has been filtered black and white - this element of mise-en-scene (lighting and filtering) is very basic, yet adds a certain mystery to the video. The mystery in the video created with lighting and filtering fits in well with the song (as the song is also very simplistic and basic, giving a mystic and mysterious mood) and this is important feature as music videos and songs need to fit together and flow well to become one - a new art form, otherwise their meaning and purpose (escapism - theorised by Blumler and Katz in the uses and gratifications theory) are and lost, therefore the product becomes pointless.

The black and white filter is used a lot in conventional and unconventional media products as it is a great way to represent story, meaning or narrative in a video, whether that be mystery (possible enigma codes), uncertainty, fear, the unknown or even to represent elements of an older time period by mimicking the look of black and white old TV. Therefore, I cannot say whether this element of the video follows current media conventions or popular products or goes against it because it is used very often in a numerous videos with different levels of status, however, I can say that it is not an original idea, making it conventional in that aspect.
Here are examples of a high status and a low status black and white music video to back up my point that it is used in media products of all status types.


Another thing that I notice about this video is the simplicity of shots and the impact that they have. Due to the fact that the song is very slow paces and calming, the video needs to mimic those elements in order for the two to flow well together and to grip the audience in a visual and audible way. This is why the slow and simple shots are effective because they don't under or overpower the lyrics and music of the song, they are in harmony and work well together. This is something that I need to keep in mind when making my own music video - I need to ensure that the shots in the video flow well with the music and lyrics of the songs, and as long as the two share similar obvious elements, the shots don't necessarily have to be complex or heavily edited to be successful or gripping.

List of potentail songs for my music video

Here is a list of songs that I have considered putting with the music video that I am going to create. There is a mix of just songs, songs with videos as well as songs and artists that are famous, semi-famous or simply underground. This gives me a nice variety of videos and songs to analyse and research into, so if I find a style of video that I would like to do I will know how to make/keep it conventional or unconventional and from there know what audience I am trying to target.

Below are links to each of the songs in the list above so that I can come here with convenience and reference back to them throughout the course of my work on my blog.

(lemonbright is not an official music video, but a fan made one. However, it will still be beneficial for me to analyse if I choose to analyse it because it will show what the target audience of the song sees in the song artistically and what they associate visually with the song in comparison to other media products.)

Narrative Theory Mindmap

This mind-map shows how a selection of narrative theories can be applied to what I expect to be the narrative of my final product. I created this mind-map in order to show myself what narrative style my product will follow and how my audience will be effecting elements of my narrative.

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

This theory explains how Andre Goodwin believes people view music videos and why. I decided to create this short video of the theory and uploaded it to my blog because it may come in handy to reference associated ideas when I come to research my audience and question them further on decisions I make in the planning stages of my video.

Character Types

I thought that it would be useful for me to do some research into character types due to the fact that my music video will have a rather thick narrative because that is the preference of my demographic - a meaningful and inspiring narrative, meaning there needs to be a very clear representations of characters in the music video.

The 'everyman'  

Non-linear Narratives

This slideshare describes the most typical non-linear style narrative structures for all media texts. A linear narrative is a narrative that has a very clear narrative structure (Barthes linear narrative structure - equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair disruption, equilibrium restored). non-linear narrative structures are the opposite of this - they have a disjointed or unconventional representation of narrative. My reason for producing this slideshare is because despite a music videos not often following narratives of other media texts such as TV and film, they still take on some form of narrative most of the time. For example, 'LIGHTS - Banner' was a video I analysed previously in the blog, and that follows a relatively linear narrative structure, as does my stylistic influence video 'Break free - Ruby Rose'. However, videos I analysed previously in the blog such as 'Talain Rayne - Lemobright' and 'Twinkle Lightly' as well as 'Mac DeMarco - My kinda Woman' follow cohesive non-linear narrative structures. From the plan and storyboard I have so far, I believe that my video will follow elements of all 3 cohesive models.

Marketing / advertising strategies

This slideshare will come in handy when I come to creating my magazine advert and digipak as both of these products are essentially advertising the release of my music video. 

Media theories

I decided to create this media theories powerpoint because I fell as though these theories are important and I want to keep them in mind when analysing existing products and when I come to deciding what I want to do for my final products.

Music Video Elements - Inspiration

This is just a creative way of getting some media related terms down on this blog for me to reference when analyzing existing products and to basically give me some inspiration when I am stumped for ideas or terminology.

Shot reverse shot and graphic match

This knowledge of the shot reverse shot and a graphic match may come in handy when I come to drafting the storyboard of my music video. The shot reverse shot and graphic match are key to creating continuity in conversation or when linking two object together in a scene. If these elements become apparent in the storyboard process of my production work they can be included to create a greater meaning and depth to the video.

Camera angles and shots

http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

The link to the webpage above explains a variety of camera angles and shots. This will be very useful to me when I come to make my storyboard and begin to shoot footage because a variety of camera shots and angles make footage go from amateur to professional. Having this on my blog means I can reference back to it at any time so that I am including a nice range of shots in my final outcome.

Adding depth to my shots

Available from: http://vimeo.com/videoschool/lesson/159/adding-depth-to-your-shots (accessed 17th July 2014)

The link above is a video explaining all the different techniques of how you can get the mpost out of your shots. Listed below are all the things that I found useful in this video.

1. Depth of field:
From this section, I learnt that turning the aperture up on your camera (making the number lower) will change the focus points in the picture - if the aperture is on f/1.4 it will make the background blurred and the subject focused in the foreground. This is called a shallow depth of field. By making the background equally focused to the foreground (f/22) it can be used for several different narrative reasons, however, it doesn't give much depth to shot because the viewer hasn't got anything in particular to focus on. However, when changing the aperture you need to compensate with the shutter speed and IOS to maintain good exposure.

2. Backlighting:
From this part of the video I learnt that the direction of light on a subject can really change how the viewer see's the subject in the scene - if sunlight or artificial light is cast behind the subject, it will draw a line of light all around them therefore separating them from the background and putting them into a much clearer and focused position for the viewer, which results in more depth within the shot as it draws your eyes to a certain place.

3. Foreground:
In regards to the foreground of shots, I learnt that putting something in front of the main subject in a scene can add context and meaning. From the video we see 1 subject talking in frame, and due to a lack of visual information we don't really know how far away the subject is from the camera, why they are talking or who they are talking to. However, they then put in a blurred shoulder of the person they are talking to within the foreground (making it an over the shoulder shot) which made it easy for the viewer to distinguish who they are talking to and where they are positioned in the scene in relation to who they are talking to.

4. Perspective:
The angle of a shot can really enhance what we see in a scene - in the video a girl is shot in front of a shed window, it was a simple shot and gave information about the location and such in the shot. However, the shot lacked a certain amount of visual appeal and depth, so they moved her so that the horizontal lines of the window frame were beside her, therefore drawing the viewers eyes right onto her in the frame, therefore adding depth and focus to the shot. Simple things like this give a shot that little extra something yet maintains all the information that it needs in order to make sense for the viewer.

5. Parallax:
By changing a boring steady shot to a parallax shot is can shake things up a bit and again break up the background up from the foreground. An example of this would be to use a glider in order to go from one image to another e.g. see the inside of a house to the subject being sat outside (as seen in the video) this then accentuated the main image and allows the foreground the move faster than the background, therefore giving the shot much more depth than it would have had with a plain old steady cam shot.

6. Smoke and Haze:
Despite smoke not being very natural, if used in moderation in the background (not between the subject and the camera) it can give the background a blurred and muted effect which again breaks up the subject from the background in an interesting and unconventional way.

Looking at 'Filmmaking For Beginners'

From watching this video I learnt several filmmaking tips that will give me the tools that I need to make a successful preliminary and final outcome. Below are the main things that I learnt from this video, and what I will be taking on board for when it comes to further shooting and editing.





At this point in the video, Victor (the narrator of video) explains all of the main equipment that I could use to achieve quality footage, some of which I had never heard of before. He then looks at this equipment extensively in the rest of the video.

He first explains how using an ordinary DSLR photographic camera is also very useful for filmmaking - you don't have to fork out a ridiculous amount of money to get a professional looking piece of footage, as a photographic camera has (as shown in the print screen) 'incredible image quality', 'superb depth-of-field', 'interchangeable lenses', 'small, lightweight and compact' and not to mention far cheaper. He also explains the video settings to use when taking a video with a DSLR in order to achieve the best  quality footage, being 1920x1080 (1080p) at

 24fps or 1280x720 (720p) at 24fps and he also

 explains how I can do this in the cameras menu. 

Victor then goes on to give information on what type of lenses to use depending on the shot being captured - it is ideal o change the lenses rather than using a zoom because a zoom can often make the image blurred and be of a lower quality. Instead of doing this, it is best to use a 'wide angle lense' when capturing an establishing shot to include as much of the surrounding area as possible, a '35mm lense' when there are two subjects in the frame, '50mm or 85mm lense' when there is one subject in the frame and '135mm or 200mm lense' for a close up.

He then talks about the importance of using a monopod, as a tripod can often limit the effect of how you can capture footage, but at the same time, it is difficult to hold a camera steady for a long period of time, so the monopod allows that little extra support on the camera and the cameraman therefore making it much easier to capture footage especially in a long scene. The monopod also creates more stable footage, is versatile to hold the camera higher up and to be affixed on different angles to achieve a variety
of shots, has a quick and easy set-up, is ideal for
long shots and great for mobile camera movement.

Next, Victor explains how useful it is to own a light-meter, as it lets you know if the environment you are in has good exposure or not, and exposure of lighting in a scene can really take it from amateur footage to being on a professional level as the scene then looks well crafted and visually pleasing to the viewer.

After explain the way in which to use all of this equipment, he then demonstrates how to use them effectively in some practice shots and how this effects the look and feel of the footage. He also explained during the practice how small few second clips can create so much context for the viewer - a POV shot in a foot cabinet as a person takes food from it doesn't seem to have that much importance and doesn't let the viewer know what the most important aspect of that shot it. So, Victor included a 2 second shot of the food that the character wanted (in this case peanut-butter and jam) and this made the world of difference as it lets the viewer have that little extra knowledge that they need in order to feel more involved in the scene. He also explained how important it is to film the entire scene repeatedly on different angles and perspectives so that way, I would have a variety of choices of what shots and angles to use at certain points of the clip during post production.

Blog Checklist

For the coming months, my blog will be concentrated around these areas in relation to my research and planning around my 3 products - the main music video product and two ancillary products: a digipak releasing the single for the song in the music video product, and a magazine advert advertising the release of the video and digipak single. I will be using this plan to aid me in constructing a research and planning action plan for my blog to determine how many posts I need to get done and a month to ensure I make between 60-70 blog posts that are all relevant and important to my production work.

Preliminary Evaluation

1. To what extent have you adhered to the brief? Explain.

The brief set for our short film was to create some representation of british youth culture. I decided to tackle this brief by not making the short film solely based around British youth culture, but to simply include elements of it as our culture is too broad and general, therefore choosing one element to bulk out an entire story seemed pointless and boring. So, I decided to choose an exciting story line (a girl goes missing) which I then give further meaning to by basing it around British youth culture. I believe that I have adhered to the brief because despite not making British youth culture 100% in your face obvious, I dropped in several elements of british youth culture such as including actors who are in fact young people, representing young people being consumed by technology in our culture of today and setting the short film in a very British area.

2. How effective is your main product?

I think that my final product has a very strong message -  a message of the young people of today being consumed by technology that they become almost 'lost' in it. However, due to a tight schedule I wasn't able to produce the hard hitting ending that I wanted to, leading to slight confusion about the 'Jane' character being missing. Jane was suppose to be found in a completely pitch black room with only the light of her laptop shining on her. She was going to be hypnotised by the technology and the social media. The main male character 'James' was suppose to find her here and close her laptop - the lights would then turn on as the laptop was shut, and Jane would have vanished, leaving the 'Where's Jane' poster behind on top of the laptop. Despite the confusing ending, I still feel that the core message behind the film is strong, and represents british youth in a nicely subtle way.

3. How did you use media technologies in the production and post production stages? What have
you learnt about these technologies and how have you used them?

During the production stages of this short film we used a standard Sony digital video camera, a tripod and a glider. Regarding the camera, we used it on the tripod to achieve steady shots and we used it handheld to get a slightly more rough and almost natural feel to the footage in order to reflect the conventions and plot of the story. When we used the glider for the opening credits, it was the first time that we used it - we basically positioned it where we wanted it and did a practice run by putting the camera on the glider, moving the camera across the glider and looking through the viewfinder on the camera so we could position it on the angle that we needed it on.

For post production we simply used Final Cut Express - we decided to experiment with this software a little more because me and Alex had both used it before and wanted to see if we could really take advantage of what it had to offer. So, we both decided to include transitions that we hadn't used before, mash shots up (at the beginning when 'James' tears down the missing person poster) and we also slowed down and sped up footage to create a faster or slower clip but to also make the clip look overlapped because the software creates a unique effect when you slow or speed up a clip if you haven't used a camera that captures a lot more of frames per second than the camera that we used. Overall from using these technologies I have learnt that I can take advantage of what they have to offer and really play around with how i capture footage and how i can edit it.

4.What have you learnt from this preliminary video task?

From making this short film, I have learnt a lot from my mistakes. I learnt that when it is time to capture footage to do it as soon as possible because problems can arise that means you may not be able to film certain scenes till a later date, meaning that some footage may never be shot if filming is left to last minute. I also learn't that sometimes you have to go back and re-do clips if the original clip didn't look how it was suppose to or other clips were needed to bulk a scene out of if some clips were simply forgotten about and not shot at the initial shooting. As well as that I learnt that it is better to have more clips than not enough, so when I shot and re-shot clips I made sure I had a lot of the same scenes in different angles so that I had plenty of options when it came to editing it all together. Regarding editing, I learnt that it is okay to experiment in Final Cut Express because you can always just save different copies of the clip after you edit it so that if it ends up going wrong there will be a back up of what you previously edited.

Mine and Alex's Preliminary Video

This is my preliminary video (which I created with another media student) - the aim of this video was to experiment with what we didn't perhaps have the confidence to experiment with in AS. For me, I needed to experiment with my use of the camera as opposed to the editing software as the shots for my AS final piece were rather basic. Here I have attempted to use pan shots, high and low angle shots, close ups, steady cam and hand held shots. 

I think that this product could have been much better visually if I had more time to spend editing it and re-shooting certain elements of it, but, the aim wasn't to produce a professional and polished piece, it was for personal progression in gaining confidence with the equipment and learning new things to apply to the final product for A2. From doing this preliminary I am more confident in using the camera and experimenting with new and interesting shots and, believe that my final product will be better because of this small experimentation.

Choosing A Brief

I decided after much thought that I would like to produce a music video as opposed to a trailer or short film due to the fact that I made a film opening for my AS product as well as a short film for my preliminary this year in A2, so it would seem rather tedious and unrewarding to repeat myself with the same/similar task. I feel that producing a music video will challenge me in interesting ways and I feel that  I could create far more artistic visuals by making this kind of product, which is something I have not experimented much with as if yet.