My Pitch - Atomic kitten - Ladies night

This is my pitch video of which was on screen whilst i went through what i wanted to do with my idea, using this made things easier as i didnt have to fiddle with the laptop or anything, in the background i had the song playing at a low volume too so that people would get the idea of the song if they hadn't heard it before. 
Unfortunatley i do not have any footage of feedback because i did my pitch the day after everyone else and no camera got set up, but i can say that everyone thought it was a great idea, although been 'girly' doesn't make a difference to who is filming as i said 'watch out boys, its going to be girly'. My pitch was a great way of presenting as it flowed, i could talk to my audience and not worry about having to click the screen to move on a slide, i didn't read off the board etc and i involved pictures so that people got an idea of what was in my mind and i also showed a quick sample of the original video.  People thought this was great and i got very little negative feedback, people were very interested!! 

6th october 2011 - film fest

Bradford Film Festival 

The national media museum

We went to the Bradford film festival yesterday, This is a national museum of media e.g. films, technology and how it has progressed etc. We got the train to Bradford as a media group, this included year 12 and the other year 13 group, then we walked onto the museum. The museum has been open as a media museum since 1983 - previously a photography museum, they have a film festival every year sponcered by the co-operative who want young film makers like ourselves follow dreams into getting some were. 

Oliver and James 

As soon as we arrived we saw Oliver and James Phelps - the twin actors that played Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter! We got to take a picture with the twins and autographs and a quick chat of how they got into acting, they were rushed off to do a question and answer session which we also attended. The interview was held for about 30mins and they answered questions that the compere of the festival went around asking students earlier in the day. It was interesting to see how they got into acting and how they live everyday lives. 

Oliver, Harriet, Faye(me) and James

We then went on to watching our fellow class mates productions on the big screen! it was exciting and we showed our support whilst they were been screened. 

After the screening me and Harriet had a look around the museum, had been last year so we quickly moved on to the stage make up group for beginners! We made fake cuts on our hands and i made one on my nose to give the impression of a 'bust nose' personally i think it is very realistic and these skills can help us if we need to use them in our future film projects!

All the above pictures were taken on my mobile phone and uploaded to the computer. 

Our Edit

Me and Hattie made our own version of the video - threw it on the ground . We worked well together and it gave us chance to learn new skills on the new version of video editor - final cut and final express, we have gained a lot more knowledge from doing this project because we have learnt how to use the new effects and how to overlap/speed up/ slow down cuts - we used this a lot in our music video.
We somehow added a Repeat Loop which was interesting as we did not mean to do it but we did and it looked great!!
Seen as the video is quite comic we haven't got much 'serious' footage so we have been able to make it as silly as we like, this has made it more enjoyable for us, were as in our coursework task we will obviously take it more seriously and have more shot variation- the reason we don't have much shot variation is because we had little time between 9 people and 2 cameras to film. We were split into two's/three's to shoot different parts of the music video but this made it quite difficult because we couldn't communicate as a big group as to what should be in each shot seen as we all had to make a final version each.

Shot types in Girl bands

There is a range of different shot types used in girl band Music videos. Here are some of the different shot types used in almost every girl band music video. 

GROUP SHOTS

  

CLOSE UPS

EXTREME CLOSE UPS

MEDIUM SHOTS

Nikki Minaj & ABBA Contrasts - vodcast

This is Me and Harriet giving our thoughts of Nikki Minaj Super Bass and ABBA Dancing queen. We chose these music videos to compare because of the years they were released because there is at least 40 years between them this this is giving us chance to see how different they are and how we have moved on with technology.

My pitch for class music vid

Kesha - Tik Tok
My idea was that we could have a change, as my original idea was going to be that we do Party Rock Anthem by LMAO but seen as two other people desided they also wanted to do this idea i thought at last min I would do this track, as it is something we could work with. My idea was that we as a class film a party, and the scene is in class the day after and we are all suffering, jumping back to shots of the party - as flash backs? 
We could have someone throwing up in a bin, people sleeping, have effects from peoples points of view of just blurred visions. It was something we could work with and have fun doing! This is the original video :


We would not be remaking the video, it would be completely different.

Class Music Video..

In class we are coming up with a 'practise' music video that we are all working on. The task consisted of everyone doing a pitch of 90 seconds which is to give an idea of what they would like to film. Originally I wanted to do Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO but another two students did this idea so on the spot i changed my idea to Kesha - Tik Tok with this we could of done many things but my basic idea was that it would be based around a party that would of been filmed at an 18th that was coming up and then the morning after within school. This would of been a great opportunity to use effects to have flash backs of the night before and have shots that were shaky and from all sorts of angles.
The ideas that we had in Class were :

• Me speak no Americano - Sophie's idea
• Party Rock Anthem (twice) - Harriet & Katie's idea
• Tik Tok - Me
• Threw it on the ground - Connors idea
• Sam's idea
• Asa's idea
• George's idea
• Richards idea

The idea we all agreed on was Threw it on the ground - Connor's idea. 

The way that Connor wanted to film was to re-act the video which i disagreed on because we had done this previously for our Britany Spears video so we should of had a better challenge of having idea's ourselves so we changed things slightly but the lyrics have put us to a disadvantage because we need to film to make sense with the song so it is only slight changed we have made e.g. costume changes and settings.

The break down of the video is an 'angry' man throwing things to the ground. He is wearing big glasses a hat and a big jacket this denotation connotes that he is a normal guy but there are shots of him in the dark singing which can signify his mental state of him been psychotic. 

Geri Halliwell - its raining men

Geri Halliwell - its raining men

Geri Halliwell, an ex spice girl, released this single, which was her first single since she had gone solo, in 2001. This single was a hit around the world and was on the top ten UK chart list for two weeks ! It even made it on Bridget Jones Diary as a sound track! this was a success for Geri who is only one of the many that have covered this song. 

To start the video we are introduced to a white man, looking to be in his 40-50's wearing a suit and glasses and he speaks with an upper class tone, the background also gives us a hint to his upper class nature. He is giving the 'ok' to start an act so this also gives us a hint to him been a teacher or a gudge. We then jump into Geri Halliwell sat on the floor wearing what seems to be a black 'suit' - if gym pants and a crop top is what you call a suit. She starts to dance in a very sexual manner and the camera focuses on these points of her body, not perticularaly her face - this gives a male gaze which also occurs in the video as males start to gather at the doors atching her dance, we also get a glimpse of the teachers/gudges feet tapping to show their enjoyment. We have a lot of sharp cuts to different parts of the act showing the speed of her dance and tension.

As the chorus comes in all the people outside the doors watching her burst in, this shows how the tension has just burst and so there is everyone dancing but we still get the shots of her body and then to finish that section she kisses the male gudge that we saw at the beggining. We then move to another section were Geri is wearing short shorts/ hot pants and a short top, Then getting more flash backs of the previous section and a low angle looking up a stair case where loads of students seem to be dancing around, this sets the scene we are in a dance college or a school.

There are alot of fast, short cuts from shot to shot because we then jump into fast clips of her doing different work outs in different places showing her ability in the video and again setting the achorage that she is in a dance school and is preparing. In each shot she is dancing with a man, then we get a shot of Geri leading everyone outside and a shot of the school name to again set the scene that we are deffinatly at a school of arts. All the students start to dance on cars and in the road with a woman at a window watching down and smiling about it. This video shows alot of close ups and mid shots of Geri Halliwell and not really of any other person (apart from the judge and the odd person) this shows how this is all about her and her independence in the video.

ABBA - Dancing queen

Abba - Dancing queen

Dancing Queen was released in 1976 and was number one in the charts globally!  This starts with a shot of the piano been struck, then moves to a 'disco' with people dancing filmed from a high angle. Then we meet the singers and have close ups and mid shots of the two women and quick shots of the men playing the instroments. we have shots moving in and out. There is only one perticular place this is shot and that is in a 'club' were the band is performing so we only have shots in there and they are simple close ups and mid/long shots of the two women singing. This is a great video to show that this will not of had a big budget to work with as it is very simple and straight faward.

Chris Brown - Yeah x3

Chris Brown - Yeah

This music video is based around the streets, we are introduced on what seems to be a dark back alley which then jumps to a bright colourful street of children and people, Chris brown enters as a 'super hero' this reminded me of i am legend as he is on top of a bus

His clothing is quite old fashioned - waist coat, mixed with modern fashion - trainers.

Theres alot off dancing involved with different groups, again like in Lady Gaga Edge of glory we are at the scene of block apartment outside stairs

 We get quick and short clips of Chris Brown on the alley singing.

The end of the video includes Chris wearing a salmon pink jacket and white 3/4 length trousers and sun glasses, no t-shirt? this is because many teens and young females, age range of about 12-25, see him as a gaze.

Lady gaga - edge of glory

Lady Gaga - Edge of glory

Lady gaga is an inspiration to many female artists now such as nikki minaj, kesha, katie perry etc. she has an unusual style and he videos are also unusual.

this video starts on a street/ back alley with her in a window. There is red smoke and shots of her stood there.

 The costume she wears in this video is a 'punky' roman goddess as well as what looks to be a boxers jacket

and her wild hair that was styled by cruella devile (101 dalmations).

 The video is based around her climbing the out stairs ouf a block of apartments, this gives great opportunities to get many different shot angles, below, above, tracking etc. There is a black man playing the saxaphone, very stereotypical of jazz players, this could be seen as the contrast in her hair, black and whites unite possibly?

Nikki Minaj - super bass

Nikki Minaj - Super bass

Nikki Minaj is a female rapper, giving a twist because usually it is males that are rappers. She has a unique 'style' like Lady Gaga and Kesha and most female singers nowadays, this gets them noticed more for the unusual things that are in there video's, in this video Nikki has got many different hair styles and colours but based around the barbie doll style. the other style is a murmaid as she is also in a pool and in what can appear to be a murmaid outfit.

The shots of Nikki are close ups and mid shots, inbetween these shots we have quick shots of ice sculptures, money stacks and a male. Nikki also dances in a group, again in between these shots we have quick shots of random things. She uses the 'male gaze' card because she wears a tight swimming costume and does sexual dances whilst in a pool e.g. pouring a liquid down her chest.

There is a nice twist of using the UV lights as a change making her outfit (which is different to the other dances) and hair to stand out whilst she again does a sexual dance with a male. There are many short/snappy shots of Nikki from behind and below and a long shot of her dancing next to a man.

Dev - bass down low

Dev - Bass down low

Dev has chosen a different style of mixing her clothing, this fits in with the video because it is a rave/party that she is at and everyone is all over dancing setting the scene with an atmosephere. At the start we get different shots of everyone and then when the beat drops everyone starts to dance. There is a mix of races and genders. We get very quick shots and they are focussing her in each one. Alot of shots play on back and forth.

We have shots of speakers and shot glasses and a fish in a bottle and a birthday cake, this fits in with her lyrics

We also have shots of oven mits holding a female's naked chest, this insinuates that this song is about sexual activity/involvment BUT later we have these points:

• Hammer hitting a man statue - this can be a symbol of her been quite feminist, that men do not control women and she has the power to destroy them.
•  There is a point were there are a line of women against a wall. here she has a strike painted over her eyes like a warrior?
• She is also lying on man's lap whilst on a sofa with men all around her sat very still whilst she is singing and dancing in a seductive way so this can show her female dominance over them as she also strokes the mans head and face.

 So this text could have meaning to how she feels within hierachy.

Example - changed the way you kissed me

Example - Changed the way you kissed me

This Single is very recent and is a 'Dance track' - it has a specific beat which the video reflects and Example himself is a rapper which is of the modern day as he is not the stereotyped rapper as he is white and he is from England rather than a black american rapper. The video is in black and white showing his emotion of getting ready for a gig - this video is like a story, showing him before concert, during and after. The black and white effect through out gives the creativity of imagining the colours.

There are alot of close ups of Example because the song is from him/ his point of view. There are many establishing shots of all sorts of angles of the fans/audience showing that it is 'mental'. There is one perticular shot during the concert (towards the end) of a low angle looking up to him, showing that he is more important than any one else is the video.

Kesha - We are who we are

Kesha - we are who we are
This video starts with a look of been in the Galaxy and then has quick cuts with different coloured lights and polive car lights but still having that fade in of the galaxy waves.
Then we move to a group walking through a tunnel with a explotion of fire behind them, we get this from a straight faward angle facing them and a diagonal angle from the side and back again. We get alot of shots of Kesha, mid shots and close ups. Her costume is unusual and looks like she is not on this planet, it is unique to everyone else. We get shots of a night club and people danicng, this is our new section of the video and Kesha has a new outfit. We get a close up of her make up which is very metalic and modern. we have alot of shots were a video overlaps another. The shots seem to go with the beat of the music so they are fast, short shots.
We can see that this video was clearly alot of money to produce because of the costume and the stunts (falling from a building) and all the work that needed to be done to create the effects of it been 'spacey'

Queen - we are the champions

Queen - We are the champions
This single was released in 1977, this song is now a victory song for sports all over the world and has been covered by many people, but origonally - Queen. We start with a high angled, establishing shot showing that they are at a concert/ performing the song and then we have a transfer to a mid shot of the lead singer, followed by quite quick shots of the act and people in the band. we have shots from the crowd showing their point of view shots.
We focus on the lead singer though who is wearing a tight black and white suit, this suit has no perticular meaning but i have the idea of it been ' everything is either black or white' you win or loose, there is no grey colour - it goes with the lyrics. To finish we have a shot of the fans holding banners, again this is another video made with a small budget as it is all based in one area and is very simple.

The wanted - glad you came

The Wanted - Glad you came

This is a boy band, thier songs vary from R&B to love songs and raps. This imperticular video i have chosen is an R&B dance. The band were found from a TV program and made thier way up. The beggining of the video we have an establishing shot of them been abroad and also are introduced to the band members with close ups. We have quick shots that show us the setting/scene they are in, it is very 'party' like the song is meant for. There are many shots of each member singing along with quick clips of that perticular band member and what he is getting up to whilst he is abroad. The quick shots and different scenes e.g. night club, beach, house etc to show the 'fun' that is occuring. The end of the video is showing the morning after of everyone waking up and again we are introduced to the members, this is for the fans (most likely aimed at women) which gives them a sense of who is who and who they 'fancy' as the band is very recent and not as well known as some bands such as Westlife.

4 of my fav's!

Music videos i have looked at recently are Beyonce - Single ladies & If i were a boy, Rhianna - Who's that chick and Bruno Mars - Lazy day. These three videos is what my post is going to consist of.

Beyonce herself is an inspiration to everyone. In her music video If i were a Boy it is more of  story to go with the lyrics to her music video but it has a twist because in the video her boyfriend and herself switch places although she is still a female and he is still male.We see this is a switch towards the end when he says "what did you say?" and then a cut to her repeating it and his character changes. This has a twist to the story line as her lyrics also change. The video is a basic day to day activities of the couple at work and out with friends. All the shots are a straight cross cut there are no transitions.

Beyonce's other video that i much enjoy and have analysed is Single ladies - this video is very simple and plain as it is just three women dancing, there is no setting as it is a 'blank canvas' and the dancing is there to entertain and minds do not wonder away from the three women (including Beyonce) dancing. The way that they are dressed brings male gaze although they are dressed very plain as it is black, the clothing is very tight (and is like a baby grow) and they are also wearing heels.





Rhianna Who's that chick - this video has a sci-fi effect as it is based in a space ship. There are many shots and the costume is very 'strange' as she is very colourful but everything else is dull compared to her this is to give the audience a direct approach towards her as been the main person in the video.




Bruno Mars Lazy Song is very simple and will of had a low budget. this is the kind of video we would be capable of making as is is very simple and has one full shot throughout there are no cuts and the costume is simple but random which helps remember the song as there are five people dressed in a monkey mask but Bruno Mars himself is not so that the audience know he is the singer.

Mini-vid

Our group have now decided that we are going to do the song 'Sharp dressed man' by ZZ TOP. With this video we have had more than one idea. My idea was to have a teacher walking down a corridoor and all the female pupils fancy him and at the end of the shot he hands one of them a detension slip, this will add humour to the video. Another idea we had as a group we to have a man walking through town wearing a suit, new shoes, black tie (as the lyrics say)...

Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don't know where I am goin' to.
Silk suit,black tie,
I don't need a reason why.
They come runnin' just as fast as they can
Coz' every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.


Gold watch, diamond ring,
I ain' missin'not a single thing.
And cufflinks, stick pin
When I step out I'm gonna do you in.


They come runnin' just as fast as they can
Coz' every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.


Top coat, top hat,
I don't worry coz my wallet's fat.
Black shades, white gloves,
Lookin' sharp and lookin' for loves
They come runnin' just as fast as they can
Coz' every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

Media Day - Remake of Britney Spears

Today we have remade the video of 'Hit me baby one more time' by Britney Spears. There were four sections to film so we split our media classes into groups of four as there are four sections in her music video - classroom, corridor, gym and the car park - so today i have worked in a team including Alex, Sam, George, Harry and Sophie. Our filming was based on the classroom scenes. In our group we have certain roles, i was the producer which included me telling everyone what shots we were doing and in what order they would be filmed in, George was the director, Harry was the props manager which was telling us what we were to wear in our shots, Sophie was our project manager & Sam was the 'best Britney' and general helper. As our classroom scene only had 11 shots we had finished within 30mins and so we became extras for the gym group, this included us dancing and playing basket ball.


Overall today we have made 3 vodcasts to show our progress, our first vodcast was to practise lip-sinking and plan our day, we did this by rehearsing sections of the song out loud and also used other songs to practise words and speed of which we did it. This exercise paid off because although we didn't need to lip-sink in or scene two of our team (George and Harry) used these skills in the gym scene.
Our second vodcast was telling you how we felt the day had been and we made this in a creative way as we filmed it as though we were news presenters. This was fun and we explained in different sections how the day had been e.g. weather girl (Sophie) told us how the weather had been today and the sports man (george) explained the basket ball scene etc.
The final vodcast was how we felt the day could of been better, we all as a group sat together and discussed how we felt the day could of gone better and we decided we needed to be more organised and take the time we had to do this seriously and have a full and detailed call list so we knew exactly what angles and shots to take.


 I believe our group had the easy option due to the fact we only had 11 easy shots to film and we could of possibly done better but we felt rushed as a group because we needed to reorganise the classroom we were based in which took up at least 10mins of the 35min we had to film, this could of been prevented if we had been organised enough to sort out the tables and chairs before hand e.g. night before or first thing in the morning. Also, not all our group were prepared with props and costume such as white shirts to signify we were in a classroom however we were lucky enough to have our fellow class mates in another group have spares that we borrowed.

This was our first vodcast of the day..

This was our last to reflect on the day..


This was the final piece ENJOY!!

in class prep for Britney Vid

Today we, as a class, finally finished the call sheet for the whole video of Britney Spears hit me baby one more time, in groups of two/three the class had 30seconds worth of shots to analyse and give details of what these shots included - lyrics, props and the camera angle & shot. With this now finished our class has been split into two and so has the other media class meaning we have 4 groups to film the whole thing! The four sections are the classroom (which i am working on), gym, corridor and car park. We all have to prepare props and have a video available to us on a mobile phone or ipod to watch whilst we film so we have more idea of what to shoot. On the day we will be shooting behind the scenes so that we can show how we did things. This will be a full day to us media students to work on this so every minute will count!

Idea in class

in class we listened to a song, but did not see the video, the task was to create a video in a group. I was working with Kyle Meeson & Roam Hamilton. Together we colided ideas and came up with something completely different to the video we were shown after the task. Our idea was that a man would be walking in a rural area, he would be dressed in black. Every person he walked past he would have a vision of how they were going to die and then after the vision the person would follow behind him wearing white, signifying the death, this would happen to 4-5 people. We had the idea of this been in darkness so night time or early hours of the day e.g. 4am then as the sun rised we could have a shot of this man leading the people to the sun, having a shot facing the sun and them walking towards it.
The actual video is alot different to our idea, it is full of random funny things - this is so the viewer carrys on watching the video i presume as it is quite entertaining and i couldn't stop watching what bizare things would appear next!

Our music video/ minivid

'Clubbed to death' - Rob Dougan
http://youtu.be/1Lp-HN6j9GE

group members - Faye (me), Sophie, George, Alex and Sam.
Our first idea for the video was that we were going to have a man in a hoodie walking through rural areas with a gang following him and then the chase would start after the drop in the song occurs. However, this was too much a simple idea for us to use and was not as creative as it could of been SO, i came up with the idea of using the music as a tense moment e.g. a chef making a sandwich and handing it to someone who would bite into it and give aproval, i had many ideas for the shots that could of been used to create a masterpiece of work. We didn't use this idea though, we had little time to come together as a group to film so two of our group members took one for the team and filmed within a very short amount of time, an hour to be precise, and we went back to the hoodie idea as it was quick and easy to film. This was not good enough for our project though as we want it to be a top piece of work to hand in as our first video we have created so we are curently planning a new video to a new song -

Different country, different video

Albanian flag -

This is the Albanian flag. I refer to this in the following paragraphs.


We learnt that different countries will have a different way of making music videos. We looked at an Albanian music video which was very low budget as it was filmed in the slums of Albania. There were loads of MEN (showing dominance?) in a line, this gave the video a intimidating sense and the group all did a hand gesture the their countries flag. The MEN have baggy jeans on and just plain tops - this shows us how they are in the slums as brands cannot be afforded. The MEN are holding guns giving them the status as they will not be messed with in any form as they are higher than everyone else, in a way it is like a threat on TV. (upload video when find it)

Another Albanian group based in America has a complete different look, although been from the same country this video was a higher budget and they are wearing clothes to show their 'status' of the 'gangster' wearing branded clothing and having tracksuits on etc. These MEN also use the hand gesture to signify their countries flag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvfmIyS6Ytg&playnext=1&list=PL63E470DEDD326A41

Challenges & requirements for a music video

For any music video theres needs to be a certain thought through 'story'. This includes what clothing the singer/band/cast are going to wear, how thier make-up is done, their dance routines etc.
For companys making music videos there will be a budget giving them advantage to the setting, dancers, any special effects etc needed in the video. 
As we are not a music company we don't have a budget. This however will not set us back as we can use special effects on 'Final cut' and we can also arrange to have a big cast (if needed in any of our videos) also we can make up dance routines as people we know have had experience in coriography in outside school activities, so it might be a challenge but nothing is impossible!