Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Diary of Major Events
September 8th: This is the day we started to construct our blogs by adding the summer homework onto it.
September 9th: We started to think of our initial ideas for the narrative and performance elements of our video and a song that would go with them.
September 10th - 11th: After a lot of deliberation we finally chose the song we would use for our music video, this was ‘Pretty Visitors’ by the Arctic Monkeys. We felt that it covered our groups wide range of musical tastes and also thought the songs ever changing tempo would give us a wide choice to base our video on.We also started to think of narratives to use with the video. We decided to play on the theme of insomnia.
September 14th - 15th - We organised to shoot some of the performance footage. This involved choosing suitable actors and utilising the equipment available.
We chose reliable actors and brought in our own instruments to ensure that we would be able to film without any drawbacks. We were also able to use the stage lighting to get a more ‘rock’ effect.The filming went smoothly and we were able to get good footage of the band at many different angles.
September- 16th - 18th: We uploaded the footage onto the computer and imported into Premiere Elements and started to synchronise it to the song. THE START OF OUR MUSIC VIDEO!!
September 21st - 25th: We started to think beyond our planning and began to produce material for our audience research, such as a questionnaire containing suitable questions. Band research was also necessary so we could produce an effective video. The next few weeks were devoted to more major video planning and research such as mentioned above.
October 10th: We decided to use our free time to our advantage and film our first scenes for our music videos narrative. We filmed at Northumberland Park as we thought it would give a nice eerie affect to our storyline.
October 12th – 21st : We started to put our performance and narrative elements together to produce a rough cut to show to our peers as to receive feedback. This peer assessment highlighted the problems with our video and we decided a re-shoot of both elements was necessary as to obtain the highest grade possible.
October 21st – 23rd: This week we went through ‘Music Video Theory’ and the Theorists. We found this very useful but thought less time spent on it may have helped us on the production side.
October half term: We booked out equipment for over the holiday and shot some more narrative footage in a new location. We used The Quarry as it had better scenery and a more secluded feel.
November 2nd: We started our new video with the narrative footage shot over half term.
November 3rd: We had used our time to our advantage and started on some ideas for a DVD cover. We came together as a group and decided on which one had more appealing features. We also started to think about and produce our advert.
November 13th: We got up at early before school and went to the quarry to shoot a new performance element. This involved submerging a drum kit in the water and performing the song in there also. We decided to get new actors in as our other ones were unreliable!
November 10th-24th: As we got new actors in we decided to film our narrative again! But this time we used better props and came up with new scenes to add to our video, to keep it interesting.
November 25th: DEADLINE
September 9th: We started to think of our initial ideas for the narrative and performance elements of our video and a song that would go with them.
September 10th - 11th: After a lot of deliberation we finally chose the song we would use for our music video, this was ‘Pretty Visitors’ by the Arctic Monkeys. We felt that it covered our groups wide range of musical tastes and also thought the songs ever changing tempo would give us a wide choice to base our video on.We also started to think of narratives to use with the video. We decided to play on the theme of insomnia.
September 14th - 15th - We organised to shoot some of the performance footage. This involved choosing suitable actors and utilising the equipment available.
We chose reliable actors and brought in our own instruments to ensure that we would be able to film without any drawbacks. We were also able to use the stage lighting to get a more ‘rock’ effect.The filming went smoothly and we were able to get good footage of the band at many different angles.
September- 16th - 18th: We uploaded the footage onto the computer and imported into Premiere Elements and started to synchronise it to the song. THE START OF OUR MUSIC VIDEO!!
September 21st - 25th: We started to think beyond our planning and began to produce material for our audience research, such as a questionnaire containing suitable questions. Band research was also necessary so we could produce an effective video. The next few weeks were devoted to more major video planning and research such as mentioned above.
October 10th: We decided to use our free time to our advantage and film our first scenes for our music videos narrative. We filmed at Northumberland Park as we thought it would give a nice eerie affect to our storyline.
October 12th – 21st : We started to put our performance and narrative elements together to produce a rough cut to show to our peers as to receive feedback. This peer assessment highlighted the problems with our video and we decided a re-shoot of both elements was necessary as to obtain the highest grade possible.
October 21st – 23rd: This week we went through ‘Music Video Theory’ and the Theorists. We found this very useful but thought less time spent on it may have helped us on the production side.
October half term: We booked out equipment for over the holiday and shot some more narrative footage in a new location. We used The Quarry as it had better scenery and a more secluded feel.
November 2nd: We started our new video with the narrative footage shot over half term.
November 3rd: We had used our time to our advantage and started on some ideas for a DVD cover. We came together as a group and decided on which one had more appealing features. We also started to think about and produce our advert.
November 13th: We got up at early before school and went to the quarry to shoot a new performance element. This involved submerging a drum kit in the water and performing the song in there also. We decided to get new actors in as our other ones were unreliable!
November 10th-24th: As we got new actors in we decided to film our narrative again! But this time we used better props and came up with new scenes to add to our video, to keep it interesting.
November 25th: DEADLINE
Rough Cut Advert
The audience thought that the advert was particularly good because of the style we went for. We put across a collage theme for the advert which we found worked extremely well and thought it looked like an original advert seen in a music magazine. The criticisms were that the font for some of the writing didn’t suit the advert itself also the stars from the quotes on the bottom were too small and didn’t look like there was a space between each quote. Also didn’t like how there was a space in the bottom left of the advert making it look un-finished in a way. Also the images in the collage were not focused at times and it was said we needed images that were linked to the music video which included the band as some of them don't. One last criticism was that the website for the official website for ‘Forest of Morals’ was www.F-O-M.com, the criticism was that the initials is never in upper capitals its always in the lower case.
Rough Cut DVD Cover
Our Rough Front cover, Spine and Back Cover:
The feedback on our DVD cover was mixed in places. Some of our audience liked how it was plain and simple on the back, some thought the front was too plain. However, this was the style we were going for, to try and successfully promote the music video. Many of the criticisms were, that there was not enough diversity on the front of the cover. So we will change it so that it will be a large main image that incorporate different images that represent the band and our music video.
We were then told that the cardboard background for the title of ‘Forest of Morals’ has to be taken as an original picture due to it being classed as ‘cheating’ by extracting images from the internet. We will therefore take our own picture of ripped cardboard to replace it.
Our Rough Inside cover:
The audience really liked the inside of the cover due to the picture we used in the background. The image is very random but gets the point across that it is a different band. It’s characterised as Indie. The picture is of my feet in the mud whilst we were filming the performance element for our video, in the Quarry.
My feet made the writing hard to see because there is a lot going on in the background image. We were advised to take another image to make the writing more clear or put a cast shadow on. We didn't want to use another image so we tried to use the cast shadow effect. This made the image too dark and the writing was still unreadable. We therefore changed the font and the boldness of the writing making it clearer for the final cut. The audience then criticised the size of the bands title ‘Forest of Morals’, the letters weren’t big enough to stand out. we cut down the white background from the letters so we could enlarge them, making the letters standout more and catch the eye of the target audience. We then decided to put ‘Forest of Morals’ tour dates on the bottom right to make it more exciting and realistic.
The audience then criticised the images of the band on the right hand side. This was because the contrast and brightness had been turned up too much. We were also missing one of the band members and the audience realised this.
The audience didn’t like the font of the ‘Pretty Visitors’ writing because it didn't stand out or suit the genre of music. When therefore changed it to a bolder font which was a bit different than a normal font, giving it that Indie feel.
The feedback on our DVD cover was mixed in places. Some of our audience liked how it was plain and simple on the back, some thought the front was too plain. However, this was the style we were going for, to try and successfully promote the music video. Many of the criticisms were, that there was not enough diversity on the front of the cover. So we will change it so that it will be a large main image that incorporate different images that represent the band and our music video.
We were then told that the cardboard background for the title of ‘Forest of Morals’ has to be taken as an original picture due to it being classed as ‘cheating’ by extracting images from the internet. We will therefore take our own picture of ripped cardboard to replace it.
Our Rough Inside cover:
The audience really liked the inside of the cover due to the picture we used in the background. The image is very random but gets the point across that it is a different band. It’s characterised as Indie. The picture is of my feet in the mud whilst we were filming the performance element for our video, in the Quarry.
My feet made the writing hard to see because there is a lot going on in the background image. We were advised to take another image to make the writing more clear or put a cast shadow on. We didn't want to use another image so we tried to use the cast shadow effect. This made the image too dark and the writing was still unreadable. We therefore changed the font and the boldness of the writing making it clearer for the final cut. The audience then criticised the size of the bands title ‘Forest of Morals’, the letters weren’t big enough to stand out. we cut down the white background from the letters so we could enlarge them, making the letters standout more and catch the eye of the target audience. We then decided to put ‘Forest of Morals’ tour dates on the bottom right to make it more exciting and realistic.
The audience then criticised the images of the band on the right hand side. This was because the contrast and brightness had been turned up too much. We were also missing one of the band members and the audience realised this.
The audience didn’t like the font of the ‘Pretty Visitors’ writing because it didn't stand out or suit the genre of music. When therefore changed it to a bolder font which was a bit different than a normal font, giving it that Indie feel.
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Rough Cut Video Feedback
As we can see from the graph we have been graded on the 2 - 3 boundary mostly with comment such as, “Good for a rough cut”, however this does suggest we need to make our video better before we finalise it.
There were many things about our video that our classmates and teachers liked. Most of our positive feedback contained and comment about how our choice of actors for the band and narrative were good, these were aimed more so at our choice for the lead singer. Comments such as “The main singer looks good” and that he looks “so realistic”.
A lot of our shots have been picked up on for being good. Our audience liked the point of view shot of the handle bars of the bike. This helped the audience get into the feel of the main character.
The end shot of the video when the main character and the ‘pretty visitors’ walk over the camera was also highlighted as a ‘killer shot’.
Although these shot were good our viewers wanted more like them. This is one way we can improve our video.
Our attention was draw to our band performance shots with a mixture of comments both positive and negative. The lighting of our shots “reflected the personality of the band”, if we have to re-shoot our performance we will keep the lighting the same.
Unfortunately our drummer got the worst of our negative feedback, however this is understandable as the shots are out of time and the drums are being played right. We will have to re-shoot the sections with drums in. Therefore we will either need to get our original drummer to learn the song or get a new drummer.
I feel the best choice to improve our video is to re-shoot the majority of the performance and narrative shots.
I think that we need to relocate our forest shots as the main feature in the footage at the moment is the metal fence as it is off-putting for the viewers. I think that cloaking the ‘Pretty Visitors’ is a must as it is unclear what they are. The need for more visitors isn’t a must but would give a better feeling of insanity to the main character.
I also feel a complete re-shoot of the performance would give an overall better affect to the music video, as we could improve the shots. For example we could raise the drums on a pedestal/platform with a new drummer as the drums get lost in the background of the shots. More close ups of the lead singer is also a priority as this is stated in Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory.
A possibility for a new location
Some of our Rough Cut FeedbackWednesday, 7 October 2009
Applying Todorovs Theory to our Storyboarded Idea
An explanation of Tzvetan Todorov’s theory:
Todorovs theory (also known as a ‘Hollywood’ / ‘classic’ narrative) states that all narratives start off in equilibrium, a period in which all is calm and as it should be. There is then a climax which causes an event which is a disruption to the normally calm equilibrium.
The problem is then solved causing the restoration of the event and bringing the narrative back to equilibrium.
I have applied Todorov’s Theory to our storyboarded idea.
As you can see from the image above, our storyboarded idea subverts the theory by having three separate disruptions (or events).
These three events are:
1) The main character see’s the ‘Pretty Visitors’ multiplying and walking closer to him. He then ‘wakes up’.
2) The business man sees the ‘Visitors’ again but they then change into work colleagues and commuters. Confusion, ‘wakes up’.
3) The man yet again is riding his bike and the ‘Pretty Visitors’ appear. He does not wake up this time. The hooded figures get closer and closer. The man is then cloaked by the ‘Visitors’.
The representation of him being cloaked is that he has reached a new state of mind, thus restoring the equilibrium of the narrative.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Questionnaire and Analysis
1) What is the most important attribute of a music video?
Performance ( )
Narrative ( )
Concept ( )
All ( )
2) Do you think that the pace of the video should match the pace of the song?
Yes
No
3) What type of tone would best suit the chosen song?
Serious ( )
Humorous ( )
Light hearted ( )
Other ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Does intertexuality attract you to a music video?
Yes
No
5) What do you think is the most important element of filming?
Camera angle ( )
Camera movement ( )
Camera shots ( )
Cuts ( )
6) What is your favourite music video done by the artic monkeys?
Fluorescent adolescent ( )
I Bet You look good on the dance floor ( )
Crying lighting ( )
When the sun goes down ( )
Other -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here Is Our Audience Feedback:
Our results show us that the members of our target audience prefer a video that is narrative based yet, a high majority also like a performance based music video, so we have put both of these attributes in the music video. Even though a small majority like to see concept based videos the majority, for the other two types, is higher, which mean more people will be interested in the music video and more likely to watch it.
We thought that the pace of the video should most defiantly match the pace of the song, we also asked our target audience about this to see what they thought and the results we got back were that at least over half think that the videos pace should match the songs pace. This is so the video doesn’t look random, mismatched and so it all flows.
To have a certain tone to the song will make the video more interesting and more watchable for the public, our results show us that the public like a humorous tone with a slight bit of seriousness so this will be added in, to make the video attracted to the public eye.
Intertexuality is an important part of music as the theorist Andrew Godwin says the key features to a music video include a reference to inertexuality either from a TV programme or even another music video. We asked our audience if this attracts them to a music video and over half said that it did.
Filming is an important part of making a music video. This is to get all the shots and camera angles correct as to make the video look professional. So we asked the public what they thought was the most important element of the filming process. Our target audience said that camera shots was the most important element, we will take this into account and have put some ‘killer shots’ into our video as to attract our target audience.
Florescent adolescent came up on top to the most favourite music video done by the Artic Monkeys. So we looked at this video and have tried to analyse and look at key features of how this video is so popular.
Performance ( )
Narrative ( )
Concept ( )
All ( )
2) Do you think that the pace of the video should match the pace of the song?
Yes
No
3) What type of tone would best suit the chosen song?
Serious ( )
Humorous ( )
Light hearted ( )
Other ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Does intertexuality attract you to a music video?
Yes
No
5) What do you think is the most important element of filming?
Camera angle ( )
Camera movement ( )
Camera shots ( )
Cuts ( )
6) What is your favourite music video done by the artic monkeys?
Fluorescent adolescent ( )
I Bet You look good on the dance floor ( )
Crying lighting ( )
When the sun goes down ( )
Other -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here Is Our Audience Feedback:
Our results show us that the members of our target audience prefer a video that is narrative based yet, a high majority also like a performance based music video, so we have put both of these attributes in the music video. Even though a small majority like to see concept based videos the majority, for the other two types, is higher, which mean more people will be interested in the music video and more likely to watch it.
We thought that the pace of the video should most defiantly match the pace of the song, we also asked our target audience about this to see what they thought and the results we got back were that at least over half think that the videos pace should match the songs pace. This is so the video doesn’t look random, mismatched and so it all flows.
To have a certain tone to the song will make the video more interesting and more watchable for the public, our results show us that the public like a humorous tone with a slight bit of seriousness so this will be added in, to make the video attracted to the public eye.
Intertexuality is an important part of music as the theorist Andrew Godwin says the key features to a music video include a reference to inertexuality either from a TV programme or even another music video. We asked our audience if this attracts them to a music video and over half said that it did.
Filming is an important part of making a music video. This is to get all the shots and camera angles correct as to make the video look professional. So we asked the public what they thought was the most important element of the filming process. Our target audience said that camera shots was the most important element, we will take this into account and have put some ‘killer shots’ into our video as to attract our target audience.
Florescent adolescent came up on top to the most favourite music video done by the Artic Monkeys. So we looked at this video and have tried to analyse and look at key features of how this video is so popular.
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