Janelle Monae - Cold War

This is another video that we find inspiring. It's very similar to Sinead O'Connors 'Nothing compares to you' and thats a reason why i like it so much. Its a very powerful song which is filled with emotion. According to Craig Davis it would be classed as a 'Illustration' as the emotional video matchs the cold upsetting lyrics of the song. I feel like the extreme close ups of her singing are really effective as you can see how emotional she is, and her lip syncing is perfectly in time which takes skill. The video is so simplictic which is why i feel its so good as sometimes when artists fill their videos with too much it gets confusing and loses its effect. This video will hopefully be similar to ours, but ours will have some background narrative in the background - but the close up shots will reflect this video hopefully identically.

Kelly Clarkson Because Of You Analysis

I decided to also analyse this music video as it combines both the effects we were thinking about using, the close up shot of the artist singing and the fight scene between a couple. We like the fight scene as it helps to create the storyline and emotion needed for our music video. We feel the artist is also portrayed as vulnerable which is another key feature of which we aim to create. The simplicity of the close up shots also are very effective. Again this video reflects a strong narrative as Steve Archers theory states the story within this story is the artist (kelly clarkson) singing about her life as a child watching her parents fight and how she doesn't want to put her daughter through the same pain she went threw as a child, the lyrics are also coherent to the story line (illustarive) which is one of Andrew Goodwins theorys of exploring generic conventions. Visually there are also alot of close ups of the artist, mainly looking sad in order to show the emotion of the video.

New Ideas

To start the music video i think it would be a good idea to start off with it black with the artists head looking down, then when the music starts for her to slowly lift up her head and to start lip syncing.
Also, as we cant film down a main road like our original idea, i think we should set it up that we go in a rural area and get people we know to drive around to create the same effect.
For simplicity, the majority of the video should probably be the 'artist' lip syncing, as when you start over complicating things and trying to involve too much, that's when things go wrong.

Coursework Deadline!

G325 Advanced Portfolio Cw Schedule Sept - Dec10

Kelly Clarkson Because Of You Video

Pitch/Moodboard

25 word pitch

We are doing 'I'm with you' by Avril Lavigne. Our video influences are Sinead O'Connor and Leona Lewis for their emotional close ups and storyline.

Analysis of Avril Lavigne "Im With You"

Avril Lavigne "Im With You"

Analysis of music video - Oasis-Whatever

This music video of the song 'Whatever' by 'Oasis' can fall into two genre categories; illustration and amplification. A large percentage of the video consists of simply filming the band perform the song alongside a full choir. In a sense it does illustrate the meaning of the lyrics as it perfectly portrays the carefree attitude of being free 'to whatever I want'. Particularly shown in the Gallaghar brothers. However, in a few different parts, it has flashes of different images such as lights on a road, an eye, Noel eating chips etc, which portrays amplification in the sense that they don't directly illustrate the meaning of the lyrics. The narrative of the video is very simple in that it doesn't particularly portray a storyline, but simply a performance with a specific attitude. The key musical element in this peice I feel is the violin continuously playing. It stands out as a key element as it's conventionally associated with classical music and not within this genre and therefore adds to the atmosphere of freedom to whatever. Lip syncing was well performed in this video and was vital that it was as it simply was a performance as oppose to a story. Unusual camera shots and angles are used to capture the band (particularly Liam and Noel) and also the chior and the instruments they are playing. Towards the end of the video images of a close up and an extreme close up are used at a very fast pace of Liams face to portray two images in one. It uses a typical montage editing theme, switching from for example the band to the instruments to lights to the quior with no sense of continuety in terms of the storyline in the lyrics. The whole video is filmed in a black and white/sepia effect apart from the images of the lights on a road and the very last line of the song saying 'I know it's alright' where Liam is filmed in a close up angle of the side of the face singing. In terms of mise en scene, for example some r&b and rap song videos rely on the setting of their music videos to portray the glamorous lifestyle they theoretically live. However this uses the very basics for settings; a studio. This adds to the sense of freedom the song tries to portray, and also that they, as a band, are not glamourous.

Katy Perry Thinking Of You Analysis

This music video is of an "illustration" genre, which basically means that it tells the story of the lyrics within the song and visualizes the music in a straightforward way. The story behind this video is about Katy being still in love with her partner who died at war and saying that she “still thinks of him” despite her being with someone new. Lighting is also key in this music video as it switches from colour to black and white , this is to contrast the scenes between her husband at war in the black and white and then her living her life in colour. A sepia effect is also used slightly to give the music video and timely look and makes it look more authentic. Mise en scene is also used to give a sort of historical period things such as her dresser, the clothing worn, and the fact that her husbands at war makes us think that it’s supposed to have been set early 1930’s. In respect of theorists Katy Perrys music video is a key example of Steve Archor's theory of narrative and performance, the video has a strong coherent relationship between the narrative(her husband going to war and dying)and the performance of the song. This is shown not only threw the lyrics of the song and the flashbacks of her husband going to war but also in the artists (Katy Pery's) clear and apparant emotion in the song. Andrew Goodwins theory also is relevant to this music video especially in the sense of relationshyip between the lyrics and visual it is extremely illustrative.

Katy Perry-Thinking Of You Analysis

Analysing Eminem "Stan"

Outline:
In 'Stan' Eminem is playing himself, with an obsessive fan trying to get in touch with him for guidance and to speak to him.
Lighting is key in this video. The dingy setting helps set an emotional atmosphere that 'Stan' is very troubled and that his girlfriend is very uspet and unhappy. The bleak setting of a basement denotates a rough hard life that they're struggling for money, and the fact Dido is pregnant makes the audience feel even more sympathetic that she's in this situation.
The lyrics are very violent and aggressive. When 'Stan' talks he is swearing and clearlly angry, this is also reflected in the video as when he is shown he is in the dingy basement in the dark. His facial expresions also express how he's feeling, with him crying and looking very distressed.
Overall the video is very effective in the way it's been made. The story behind the video is powerful and believeable to the point where you feel sympathetic and sad when you see 'Stan' kill Dido and their baby. This would only effect the audience if it had been properly made and emotions had been appropriately shown, so the fact it makes people feel shocked and upset shows that it's a well made video which suits the song perfectly.
There are many generic conventions within this video. For example, a heavy use of tracking dolly/gliding camera angles. These are used throughout the video to follow 'Stan' round the basement. Another example is that the genre is reflected through the mise-en-scene. The genre is hip hop/rap and this is reflected through the dirty/unfinished look of the basement. A further example is that there is a clear narrative. This is shown through the way the song lyrics reflect the action and storyline on screen.

Theories

This videos genre is categorised as Illusration according to Craig Davis. This means that the video matchs the lyrics of the song and follows in a logical order. The video relies heavily on 'star image', Eminem is portrayed in a specific way in the majority of his videos, and this one is no different.

Andrew Goodwin:
Some genre characteristics include: the dingy basement, no dancing, lots of lip syncing.
There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (illustrative as i already mentioned).
John Stewart:
This theory doesnt apply to Eminem at all. The idea of the music vieo has the aesthetics of a Tv commercial completely goes against my video as Eminem uses poor lighting and has no art photography influences.
Steve Archer:
This theory can be applied to this video in some ways. This is because there is a clear relationship between the narrative and the performance of the song. The song lyrics are being lip synced practically through the whole video and the story is being played on screen.

Eminem ft Dido - Stan

Post production-Busted prelim

Post Production

After completing the planning and research section of the Busted preliminary excersise, and filming the actual thing, we as a group went on to edit the footage using the Mac computers.
This was my first time using the mac editing program as I last year did a magazine for my practical. However we all contributed well and learnt quickly how the program worked. It soon became clear how much of an issue lip syncing is in terms of a music video as it is vital that the acting matches the timing of the song. In some cases we simply didnt have enough footage to last the duration of that section of the song and had to use the tool to either slow the clip down or speed it up in order to fill out time for the lip syncing to be correct. With some help from Miss Sutton, we also used the zoom tool in which we could elimnate single milisecond frames in order to compress time, we found this very helpful. Also we had to miss 2-3 small clips out as we couldn't fit them in and make the lip sync correct. This is an issue we'll have to address more accurately when it comes to making our practical coursework, and this is where storyboarding is vital. Once we finished editing the Busted clip, we uploaded it to YouTube and embedded it onto our blog alongside the original clip.
I personally found this preliminary excercise very helpful as it allowed me to have some experience using the Mac computers for the forth coming practical work.

Production of Busted Video

To make the Busted video was challenging. First of all, we had to make sure everyone who was given a roll had turned up. This created issues as some people didn't turn up to filming, making it difficult as we had to reassign roles to other people. This also made the background look more empty as we didn't have a full class of 'students' to pad out the classroom scenes. There were a few technical issues when filming the variety of scenes as well - especially the outside scenes. The person filming had to keep correcting where she was standing as everyone was jumping and moving around, meaning some people kept getting cropped out the shot. Within the inside scenes, we had problems with space. As we wanted to mimic the variety of shots used in the actual Busted video, this involved moving a lot of the props and the setting around to make room for the tripod - this was hard as we didn't want to play around with the setting too much as it would cause continuity errors throughout the final video. Lighting also became a bit of an issue, as there is a 'projector' scene we needed the lights off to make it look like everyone were watching a video. However, with all the lights off you couldnt see anyone when trying to film, so we did have to keep some lights on to keep the footage clear. Another problem was uniform, as some people forgot their school uniform - however we improvised and went around school to find some collared shirts. Everyone was involved in this part of the video, as the majority of people had a go at filming and using the tripod and everyone contributed ideas to make improvements. In total it took us 3 lessons to get all the footage we needed, this was much longer than expected, so I and the rest of the group can learn from this and make sure we start filming our own video well in advance to guarantee we hit deadlines and don't have to rush.

Pre Production Busted Prelim

Before we could film the preliminary task we had to watch the official video and begin to story board each scene individually. We split up into ten groups of two and storyboard ten seconds each of the video, this storyboard included camera shots and angles and specific references to the video for example lighting. We then all came togther as a class and put togther the storyboard and rewatched the official video and comapred the storyboard to it, this was to ensure everything fitted in and nothing had been missed out. Next as a class we had to come up with who we wanted to use as the main characters and how we wanted to make our video different to the other media classes, hence the use of Luke as the flirty girl who turns around. After assigning different roles to everyone the next class decision we had to make was on the location of shots, we all agreed on using the courtyard to film the outdoors shots and originally decided that we wanted to film the classroom shots in the E-learning room above the library as it looked more similar to the one which was used in the actual video. Unfortunately we then came accross a problem as at the time of which we needed to film the room was being used which had an effect on the length of time we used to film the clip (production time). We then decided to just use the AVS room as it was more convenient and we were beginning to run out of time. Lastly before we began to film we had to decided on props and who was bringing what in as a class and  what sort of costumes we needed this list included things like, ties, school shirts and electric guitars. 
Overall i think that the pre-produtcion stage is vital in order to ensure that we as a group don't miss anything out in the making of our video. The exercise also helped alot as we've realised that we need to start filming sooner rather than later, and it also helped all of us as we'd never done editing before on the Macs, so now we have a rough idea of how to use the software.

Busted Prelim - Final video

Busted- What i go to school for