Today's Progress:

Today, I just went through my case studies pitch/powerpoint and amended any mistakes, as well as do some further analysis in  more depth .

Task 8: Annotations and feedback from the CD pitch case studies

What I personally think we could improve about our mock ups is:

1. To take care when it comes to making spelling and grammar mistakes, as it makes it look unprofessional and tacky.
2. To be attentive to detail and include as much relevant information as we can, so that it mimics a real CD cover and promo poster.
3. Use actual editing software such as Photoshop to create it, as I would get a more realistic idea of what my final CD cover/poster would look like. E.g. with the correct dimensions.
4. Re-design the title of the album cover, as it's quite similar to the sports brand 'Adidas', especially since the person used was wearing sportswear. This also means we should think carefully about the mise-en-scene of the cover, including costume.

Video Feedback of the CD cover pitch

So yesterday, we had to present the pitch for our CD cover and promo poster. Below is the video of our feedback:

Individual Case Studies for Album cover

Group Pitch:

Task 8: Pitch Planning

Task 8:

Homework:
Case Studies for print -upload by monday 11th december 

• 3 CD Packages 
• 3 print ads *total to 6 mini case studies 

In Class:

• Plan the products:

Plan on photoshop/sketch to show shot types, colours, font choice 

• Plan shoot; photography call sheet (as a group) 
• Plan pitch for Tuesday 12th December

Case Studies

starting

Music Video

Today's Progress:

Today's Progress:

Today's Progress: 21/11

As we decided not to show our music video to the class yesterday, we have to independently get feedback on our video.

 After showing one of the other media teachers 'Rob' our music video, these are some of the points he made.

"The use of the fire effect in the video was really good ... "

He "understands the motif behind using the rabbit graffiti footage, however, it would be good if we could transition it better or add some effect to it, so it doesn't look like it's just stuck on there .. "

"Also, with the part where you filmed portrait with one of your phones, it makes the size of the screen change and orientates it when it comes to editing .. Clearly it doesn't look right so what would be a good idea, is to film someone sitting there watching the video on their phone (that way it looks like the portrait orientation of the video was done on purpose). "

So in response to this feedback, we are currently in the process of getting someone to act out this part, and then quickly edit it into our video before the deadline this week.

Today's Progress:

Today we had to show another class our music video, in order to get feedback, however we decided not to show them, we weren't comfortable with it. So we'd have to do that at another time.

Today's Progress: Filming Day 4

Today, we filmed some more shots again, this was our last opportunity to get some footage with the college camera.

We filmed in Leyton, in the same car park that we filmed before.

However, for the last time that we were meant to gather footage, it turned out to be quite unsuccessful as we didn't get to go to all the locations that we planned to. As well as the fact that the main person wasn't co-operating fully. This hindered our progress as the time was against us as it starts to get dark quicker in the winter.

Below are some of shots..

Today's Progress:

After spending time editing, we realised that the footage we currently have, isn't substantial enough. 

This is a problem as we only have footage for the verses, intro and outro, when the choruses make up a large percentage of the song.

So as a result, we've decided to try film more on the Wednesday coming. 

Today's Progress:

Still editing the footage from the previous film day and also preparing the props for our next filming day.

Today's Progress:

I've started editing the smoke pellet footage today. They turned out to be useful footage when it comes to creating a conceptual/effects in the music video.

Today's Progress:

Today's Progress: Filming Day 3

Today's Progress: Testing smoke pellets

Today, we tested the red and white smoke pellets ..

We used our matchsticks to light it on the field.

Our first few attempts were quite unsuccessful as it wouldn't produce smoke.

This could've been due to the instructions saying 'to use a match to light it up', but instead we used a lighter to directly set it on fire.

So we will get some matchsticks later and try again.


Below is some footage of one of the failed attempts.

Today's progress: link not working

Today's progress: Filming Day 2

Today's Progress:

After trying to edit the footage and place it into Premiere Pro, we were told by one of the media technicians that most of it couldn't be used. This is because we filmed it portrait, instead of landscape, which is the way it would've been if it was on a camera. Tom (media technician) advised that we refilm all those scenes.

But, this is a problem since we are unable to re-film it with that artist, as he's unable to come down from Northampton. So we'd have to just deal with that footage, even though it doesn't look that aesthetically pleasing.

Today's Progress:

Yesterday, was our first day of filming.

We filmed at the planned location Westfield's Car Park, as well as in Stratford East Village.

And we got to film Stunna's verse and do small parts of the chorus.

Despite our camera dying within the first 15mins of us filming, we used our iPhones and felt the footage that we gathered was really good.

Today's Progress: Filming Day 1

Today we started the filming of our music video, we felt it turned out to be very successful. Below are some of the clips and pictures that we took from today, copy and paste the link in a new tab to view them.

('Switch to normal view', to see the full images)

http://snack.to/bhnibiip

Today's Progress: R & P the Moving Image (AS Reflection)

Today's Progress:

Today I got started on the half term task. As part of it we had to write about the way that we have been influenced during the R&D task (Research and Planning Development).

Today's Progress: Album Cover Ideas

Today's Progress: Call Sheet

Today's Progress: Copyright Clearance

Copyright Clearance:

Today's Progress: Talent & Location Release Forms

Today's Progress: Finished Reece

(Recce) Yung Stunna ft Supreme - Addicts by Antonia

The reece is all about annotating the photos that we've taken of the locations, that we hope to film at. In total, we have 8 locations across East London & just outside of London. It may seem like a lot of places to film at, however they are all in similar areas - spread out across Stratford and Essex.

Today's Progress: Screenshots

Today's Progress: Actor Profile, Costumes, Props, Make-Up & Ethical Considerations

     

Today's Progress: Screenshots

Above are just some screenshots of the pre-production powerpoint that we started.

Today's Progress: Song, Lyrics & Annotation

Lyrics: (We've annotated the lyrics on google docs)

*the links below, copy and paste it into a new tab*
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSz9B4NGZZbChwQJn-lbGt4tBv2_o_SUMSSVMXdtS3IW2IatQk-CuwccnQNlEj-hNwby0bZM38foKDM/pub

But below is the lyrics and timings of the song..

Pre-Production: Storyboard

Today we brought the props that we need and finalised the actresses that we were going to use in our video.

We also made the wise decision to change our song, since the artist "TK" was proving to be unreliable.

For the new song that we have chosen, we already have the go-ahead to use the song from the artist, as well as the actors to perform in it.

The actresses will remain the same, but the main protagonist/people who are lip-syncing will be different.

Song: Addicts by Yung Stunna & Supreme.

Length: 3.08

Below is the storyboard of the music video, shot by shot

Pitch Feedback & Write-up

              

So today we presented our pitch for our music video, to our media class.

Questions:

• "You guys said you were going to use a motorbike as a prop, who's riding it, where you getting it from and is the person going to be of the legal age to ride it?" - Our response: It's a prop, so no one will be riding the motorbike, it'll just be there for decoration/to set the scene. And as we said in the pitch, we know a guy named Michael, who's 20, that has a motorbike - he said he'll let us use it.
• "It seems quite similar to the 'Day Ones - Manu Crooks' music video, how will you make it more unique. - Our response: The concept of our music video will be different, as both songs are about 2 completely different things. We use different/more locations, compared to that music video, so an office, block of flats, etc. And just as a little disclaimer, we already came up with the concept/props/locations way before we saw the Day Ones music video, but we wanted to showed it just as a visual representation of what we hope our music video to look like.
• 
  

Strengths:

• "It was good.."
• "Your idea's were really good.."

Improvements:

• 
  

Pitch

      

Today's Progress:

This lesson was a lot more productive as we finalised what song we wanted to do, after a lot of going back and forth about which genre/song we were going to choose.

However, deciding what song we wanted to do so late, meant that we didn't get to start our pitch until after college that day. And since we were both unable to access Emaze at home, we didn't get to finish it in time for the pitch on the following Monday (25th).

Today's Progress..

Today our group discussed possible genres that we could do, as we couldn't come to a final decision.
We were deciding between Rap, Afrobeats and R&B.

Complications of doing R&B:

• Difficult to make it look professional and not 'cheap'
• Us keeping ourselves interested in the production since R&B songs can be slow and tedious.
• A lot of the songs we were looking at were too short or already had a music video to it.

Songs we were looking at:

• SZA - Caretaker

Complications with doing Afrobeats:

• Creating a narrative/having a storyline for songs in this genre would be difficult.

Songs we were looking at:

• A-Star - Eggplant

Complications of doing Rap:

• Some group members found Rap to be too generic.

Songs we were looking at:

• TK - I Can

Treatment

Treatment - Rough Plan:

Song: TK - I Can




Summary of the narrative idea:
It's gonna be a performance type video. 

1. How does it link to the lyrics/tracks sound
2. The role of performance
3. Any conceptual elements/what type of video is it.

Which professional music videos inspired you and how?:

Dave - Wanna Know:
The cutting rate of the song is quite fast paced to go along with the beat, something we aim to successfully do. We also hope to mimic the mise-en-scene when it comes to stance/location.

Nav - TTD:
The use of special effects was really good, it made the music video seem a lot more conceptual. We plan to use similar special effects in ours.

Casting:
Since Antonia knows the artist, we can just get him to perform the song for us. 
(We've actually asked him and he's agreed to it).

So TK will be the main actor, but we'll have his friends in the background dancing and hyping up.

When it comes to the props, we'll just have about 3 coloured-smoke cartridges/pellets.

They can be purchased for www.smokepellets.co.uk for £6.50 a can & we'll all pitch in.



It'll be across various Locations in London.
Location 1: Barking & Ilford: Estate, Park, Shisha Lounge
Location 2: Stratford: Car Park

Any Ethical considerations?:

There is mild swearing/imagery in the song.

Length:

The length of the song is 3.28, but our video will probably be over 4 minutes in the total.

Audience:

16 - 20 year olds.. So the same age demographic as the artist - which is 17yrs old.

Channel for broadcast (inclu. youtube/others):

Youtube: GRM Daily -  Which regularly uploads UK rap, grime and drill music videos.

Initial Ideas Task

Today, Antonia and I brainstormed what raps songs we could possibly use and whether the potential artists would be available to perform the music video for us.

Songs discussed:

Dre Marsh - Rob My Shine
Dre Marsh - Nobody
D-Radar - Enigma
TK - I Can
However we realised that D-Radar's song already has a music video so we couldn't use it.

*Pictures*

We're thinking of using 'ThingLink' to present our treatment.

Lip-Syncing Task Evaluation

Below is the lip-syncing task video, for the song Love Galore by Sza:

Weaknesses/Areas of Improvement:

• Not enough screenshots or pictures were taken of the production and editing process. Which is an issue since everything needs to be proved with photos. 
• Some of the lip-syncing didn't match up with the song. This could've been due to bad editing, as well as the lip-syncing going wrong when it was being filmed.
• Not a variety of cuts were used, meaning that the transitions were quite basic and repetitive. So when it comes to the real music video, whoever i'm working with, we will have to make sure that different editing techniques are incorporated.
• The exposure was too high when filming the MLS.

Strengths:

• We used the 3 different shots that we were told to, so LS - the table, MLS - in the football goal, CU - behind the fence
• The clarity/focus in the LS was really good.
• The editing technique of fading out the music and the shot, at the end, was successful.
• Initiative was used to add words to the end of the video, to make it different.

Production Schedule

Ideas Task: Potential Music Vid 3

Potential Music Track 1:

Song: Caleon Fox - In The Hills ft Romey Rome [2:43] https://youtu.be/O1-XBq2UXfI

Proposal Summary:
This will be a narrative/conceptual type video.
It will be all part of a daydream.
The main guy, is invisioning himself hanging out with this girl that he likes. He wants to know if she feels towards him/about him, they same way he does with her. He asks her to meet him in the Hills. (Ref. to LA)

Lyrics:

https://genius.com/Caleon-fox-in-the-hills-lyrics

Examples of some of the shots that I'm hoping to do:

"Yo I'm really hella ill, like really hella ill"
Zoom in from a long shot to a mid-close up: of him sitting on the sofa

"She got me rolling down the hills"
Sharp depth of field: she's standing at the top of the hill while he's in the background rolling down it

"Like double-take, no pill"
Shot reverse/shot: on the girl

"But this view is hella nice, even though you afraid of heights"
Over-the-shoulder: shot of them on top of the hills.

"Tell me how you feel, can I be the one to tell"
Slow-motion: girl running through the woods (teasing him), dressed in a long, white flowy dress

Locations:
Hills
Field & Forest/woods (Most probably Epping Forest)
Fairground (Ferris Wheel)

Actors:
Main guy - Doing the lip-syncing. Has a hipster look, wears "geeky" vintage glasses
Main girl - Wearing white, representing innocence and purity.
Extras:
Possibly group of girl friends - in ref. to the line "Only hot mamas stay upon on the hills"

Props:
Sofa - The only concept of the video is that he's daydreaming so he'll be sitting in the sofa before he falls into the dream.
Packet tissues/Rolled up "used" tissues - When he refers to himself as being "ill" in the song, it's a double-meaning. Obviously ill as in sick (which is why he sounds like he has a stuffy nose and talks about needing to 'clear his throat'. Then ill as in cool, which is the American slang definition.


What makes the promo vid different?:

It's a daydream. It's narrative but has a sort of conceptual element to it, since it's a dream.

Where did the inspiration for this idea come from?:

The first case study I did (Nav - 10 Toes Down), in that video he was asking the girl where they stand because he was unsure, which is quite similar to this song.

I may also use similar special effects to the ones he used. So having shots where it's just his silhouette and against a background.

Ideas Task: Potential Music Vid 2

Potential Music Track 2:

Song:  Azealia Banks - Chi Chi [2:38] https://youtu.be/0QTQ2YtciB4
The song is based off of the 1983 movie 'Scarface' starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana and Chi Chi, who's his henchman. At one point in the movie, mid-fight, Tony asks Chi Chi to "get the yayo" i.e. Cocaine
Proposal Summary:
Have the main girl, acting as Azealia, to be just lip syncing and dancing about, since it's going to be a performance type video.

<div id='rg_embed_link_3079862' class='rg_embed_link' data-song-id='3079862'>Read <a href='https://genius.com/Azealia-banks-chi-chi-lyrics'>“Chi Chi” by Azealia Banks</a> on Genius</div> <script crossorigin src='//genius.com/songs/3079862/embed.js'></script>

Lyrics:
Read “Chi Chi” by Azealia Banks on Genius


Locations:
Car park - In verse 2, she says to "watch my Lexus purr"
Inside a car - In the bridge, she says "sitting in the drop top". In verse 2, she refers to her car interior being leather.
Zoo - Verse 3, she mentions it being "live from the zoo"
Library - Verse 2, "bet you read all about it"

Actors:
Lead Female lip-syncing "Azealia Banks" Costume will be all black, with a fur jacket "divaish"
Extras:
Male "Chi Chi"
Group of girl friends - just dancing in the background throughout the video
Group of guys with "high tops & waves" - Verse 3

Props:
Money - She references money quite a bit in the song
Cheque - Verse 3: "Uh, Put that cheque in my name" Have her waving a cheque around
Globe (Spinning) - Hook: "Island hopping in Bahamas, helicopter to Jamaica.."
"Yayo" (cocaine) - Have baking soda in a briefcase
Briefcase
Umbrella - Verse 3: "Weather advisor, we can't stop the rain"
Car(s)

What makes the promo vid different?
I guess the fact that it's going to have a dark, eerie element to it.
Aswell as the fact that it's based off of a movie.

Where did the inspiration for this idea come from?
The second case study I did (Syd - All About Me) It had quite a mysterious element to it and it was just mostly about her.

Ideas Task: Potential Music Vid 1

Potential Music Track 1:
 
Song: Caleon Fox - Senpai Skies [3:20]

Proposal Summary:
This will be a performance type video.
The artist took inspiration from Anime (Japanese type of animation). Senpai is Japanese for senior or someone of a higher knowledge. The promo video will feature a young guy going around with this old guy, trying to learn from him/gain knowledge.
But for the most part, it will be a video showing different guys and girls dancing.

Lyrics:
Interlude
Joey!

Intro:
Yeah, Yeah (Yeah yeah)
I just wanna fly out to Tokyo.
I just wanna anime my flow too!
That underwater flow on tidal wave
I'm up north then the sky to vesaylamon
I'm might simmer in the end just yet dawg
I'm in the K topped off for my own good
The sound good, too good, man I'm too on
You can say I'm too on for my sound good (yeah)

Hook:
(Now,)
Club is a bang through the night till we take off (take off)
Hello all my fans, bling their line before we take off
Turn up with Senpai through the night, till we take off
I fall through the sky, tell your friends before we take off!

Verse 2:
Man up north man where it's it
Yo this shit wack, man they go crazy
Yo this shit wack, without question
My genre is healthy, collective
Electrica can feel it in her soul
I promise you water, her bee is selection
Money is not loyal to the source
In the meat there's no swag and the  po's deuced up you can see it (2s)
I'm burning up the building from the boot, healthy
I made it to the skies, go on and ride for me

Hook:
(Now,)
Turn with Senpai through the night till we take off
I love all my fans, bling their line before we take off
Turn up with Senpai through the night, till we take off
I fall through the skies, tell your friends before we take off!

Verse 3:
Man this shit wack, man they go crazy
Them goosebumps bumpin' up a lil'.
Yes I see he got a little fizzle on your face.
Express yourself, that body a masterpiece..

So essential,
And attractive facials.
Yes I see ya tapping into your inner bum,
See ya swagger the same move.
Go down for the one.
Sensei hella mellow.
What's love to all of my people,
Repping the same colours, marseto
And when you wanna go with that to,
Represent to (ah ah ah) make sure we stay upon the map
And before I take off in the skies,
Lemmie show my people where its at...

Hook:
(Yeah turn up!)
Turn up with Senpai through the night till we take off
I call my fans, bling their line before we take off
Turn up with Senpai through the night, till we take off
I fall through the skies, tell your friends before we take off!

Verse 4/Outro

Yo this shit wack without question,

Consumed by the height I ascend to

If only you knew what I was into, truly 

Please enjoy my good time

My healthy presence is limited

Effort to sky, out in no time

Live healthy with all my esyndicate, 

While they are...

Down with Senpai before we take off, off
Down with Senpai and before we take off, off

Yeah, healthy music!

Locations:
Park
Living Room
Studio (Green Screen)
Graffiti Wall/Tunnel (Dalston)

Actors:
Old Man "Senpai"
Main Guy (doing the lip syncing)
Extras:
Dancers - Guys and Girls - About 10 altogether

Props:
TV - Anime movie is playing
Fruit (apples, grapes, etc) - in reference to him calling it "healthy music"
Water Bottles - when he says "I promise you water.. selection" in verse 2
Map - Due to him saying he wants to go to Tokoyo
Paper Aeroplane - have the paper aeroplane being flown across the map, then have a match-on-action shot, to an actual plane in the sky.
Large, vintage cellphone - Because he 'calls all his fans'
Coloured smoke bombs (just a nice effect to have, will really suit the mood of the music)

What makes the promo vid different?
It looks as if it's really randomly put together, but that's the whole point. As the artist doesn't like to define his music to one genre, he just incorporates everything.

Where did the inspiration for this idea come from?
The fruits part from a music video I saw quite a while back *cant remember the name*

3 Case Studies Task

When it comes to my music video, I would like to choose a song that is Alternative R&B/Rap-based, as that is what I tend to listen to, it will be easier to relate to.

I envision my music video to be quite dark themed/coloured, and to have a sense of obscurity to it. (In other words a conceptual music video). These music videos that I looked at are an example of this.


Music Video 1:

Nav - Ten Toes Down (Directed by RJ Sanchez) 29th July 2016


What ideas could you use in your own music video? (Inspired by this video)
I do like the idea of the coloured smoke, so may use some smoke cartridges in my music video.
I may also start and finish my music video with the same shot, just like they did with this video.



Music Video 2:

Syd - All About Me (Produced by Steve Lacy; Directed by Calmatic) 11th Jan 2017


What ideas could you use in your own music video? (Inspired by this video)
I like the consistent and simplistic theme used throughout the video, showing that less can be more.


Music Video 3:

ASAP Rocky - RAF ft Playboi Carti, Quavo (Director - Alec-Eskander)
Release Date - May 15th 2017
Produced by Dun Deal




What ideas could you use in your own music video? (Inspired by this video)
I would like to incorporate some of the editing techniques that was used in this music video. So the overlapping shots and the change of pace.

Music Video Practice Reflection

What have you enjoyed?

I liked the fact that we could choose our own song, which made it easier to produce since it's a song I already like.


What have you learnt?

I learnt how to edit and create a video by using Adobe Premier Pro.
Including all the other functions in the app, such as cropping out a part of the video or adding effects and transitions to the video.


What were the major challenges?

One of the major challenges was making sure that the music was in time with the lip-syncing. As often times the lip-syncing would either be too slow or too fast, meaning we would the have to keep adjusting the speed of it until it was perfect.

Having to film the video multiple times, in several different locations felt slightly annoying and repetitive as well. especially when you messed up the lip syncing, you'd just have to start all over again.

When it was filmed, the exposure was too high, but we didn't realise until it came to editing the video, so there was nothing that we could do about that.


Planning

We only had 1 lesson to plan so clearly we couldn't produce the best work in that short amount of time.
All that we had to do is find one song that we liked and thought it would be simple enough to lip-sync. Then print the lyrics, decide on a couple shots and few locations.

Teamwork

Teamwork could've been a problem if there was  like 4of us working on this project. However, it wasn't since there was only 2 of us in the group. Meaning thaT Meaning that we were both equally able to input/suggest ideas when it came to filming and editing.


Camera

We had to use a range of shots, 5 of them compulsory and the other 2 we could choose for ourselves.
These shots included  long shot, mid-shot and closeup.

Our focus was quite good, there wasn't any blurry moments.

Also the camera wasn't shaky at all, the person who I was working with



Editing



Mise-en-scene





What do you think would be the major challenges for your proper video?

Since the practice video had to be short - so around only 30 seconds to 1 minute - there wasn't technically much work that we had to do in comparison to when its the real thing, so I believe that editing 5 minutes worth of footage would be tedious.

Lip Sync Video

Lip-Sync Video Planning

Song: DJ Khaled - Hold You Down ft Chris Brown, Future, August Alsina & Jeremih

Part of the song: Verse 1 to the Chorus

[Intro: Chris Brown]I'll hold you downI'm on my way (DJ Khaled!)

[Verse 1: Jeremih, August Alsina & (DJ Khaled)]
All you've been thinking 'bout
Do anything you want and let emotion rule your mind
Rule your mind (We The Best Music)
And now you say you dreaming of doing it anywhere
Oh yeah, just tell me where it's on your mind
On your mind (another one)
Sit in my whip and see the stars (and see the stars)
Show me just who you are (show me just who you are)
You know who really hold you down (hold you down)
And when you not around (and when you not around)

Class Case Studies - Music Videos

What are the conventions of music videos?

• 3 - 4 minutes
• Studio
• Visuals reflect lyrics -Usually
• Sometimes videos are abstract/conception
• Focus of artist as "star" 
• e.g. low angle = high status close-ups repeated 
• costume - might be inspirational/themed so designer/varies by genre
• "Authorage" - the stars distinctive usual style
• Fast cutting rate, many shots
• Cutting rhythm - in sync with beats/lyrics
• Lip Sync - performance - dancing playing instruments

Beyonce - Single Ladies Music Video:

Camera pans

Beyonce framed

Transitions through lighting -fades

Cutting rate at same pace of beat; Started slow but speed up

Wide shots

Themed costume - Beyonce has distinct costume plus glove (connoting ring)

Ariana Grande & Iggy - Problem Music Video:

Varied shots

Themed - 60s - mise-en-scene: bike, set, costumes, hair

Stars Sexualized/Star Quality - Ariana - dizzy & Iggy - mature and tough

SFX - Greenscreen/projection (Graphic)

Lip Sync