Planning My Second Shoot

I've planned a shoot for this Saturday coming up, from 10.00 till finished!
I've have chosen to keep my former actor, Robyn Gravestock in the Music Video because I already have a previous shoot where she modeled, which I can potentially use in my final piece, and she knows the song, as well as being a great actor... although unfortunately on occasion can become rather giggly!

I also have asked a male actor, named Reece Gardner to model in my film. Both Robyn and Reece know each other well so there will be little tension/ embarrassment between them while filming the Music Video. Reece is taller than Robyn, connoting the stereotypical boyfriend and girlfriend look. This will also make it easier to carry out a few shots. For instance, I have planned for Reece to pick Robyn up and spin her around. If Reece were not taller/ well built he might struggle which would create an awkward and forced shot.

Inspiration Found From: The A Team - Ed Sheeran

My group and I really like this music video it tells a powerful story to the viewer. Through the use of camera angles, it is a very fast moving, and busy video, focusing on one girl as she struggles with life. The use of the black and white effect create alot of contrast in the video, and making the white lights stand out against the dark background, captivating the audience.

Roland Barthes 5 Narratives Codes

In our groups we were asked to research a music video that featured Roland Barthes 5 narrative codes. We decided to look at the music video 'A Team' by new artist Ed Sheeran. This was a previous music video we had gain inspiration from and felt it was good to work with as it a low budget video that is something we as a group could easily match and produce.

Inspiration Found From: Ordinary People by John Legend

Another Music Video we have found inspiration in is 'John Legend - Ordinary People'. This Music Video is very similar to our Music Video ideas, as we have decided to focus on capturing different couples and focusing on the up's and down's of relationships. Similarly this Music Video focuses on different couples and scenes in between the artist singing. We also want to aim to use lip syncing once again as it proves to be very appealing to the audience, and after researching A2 Music Video's online, we have found that it can be done very successfully.

Get Ahead OCR Media Studies

In lesson, our Media Studie teacher showed us a very helpful website called: 'Get Ahead OCR Media Studies'. The Website features lots of inner questions being answered, for example: 'Theory for the A2 Exam' and also lots of very successful Music Video's also from A2 Media Studies students.

'The Vixens', scoring full marks for their A2 Music Video was shown to us, and gave us a run of ideas, and alot of confidence, as we were shown how to do it properly. Some of the ideas we had were thinking about adding lip syncing to our Music Video, reenforcing the fact that it is a Music Video, not a short story. Also, we found that video blogs were an exciting and unique way to update our blogs, and will definately research this in the days to come.

Organiser: Planning Our Time

Weekly Update: Planning Our Time

Starting Our Editing!

We have now uploaded all of our individual filming onto the Apple Mac in our Media Studies room and have used seperate folders to keep ontop of organisation as we know who filmed what. After a few hours of waiting, we have finally rendered all our shots on Final Cut Pro.

We have all watched through each other's individual shots, gaining ideas and understanding their influences and their own ideas. This has proved very useful as we have now got several new ideas, that we wish to take further and have planned a date to all film together, combining our ideas. I have begun cutting and ordering the scenes so that it is alot more orgnaised, and we can see what more we need to film to meet our final deadline. We aim to complete all of our filming, by the end of November. At present we have about 10-15 minutes of footage to work from so we better get to it!

Location Shots & Stills

First Lot Of Filming Complete

I have completed my filming through half term and have focused on the sad times of relationships, (post break up) as my male actors unfortunately had to cancel. This was still a very productive week of filming, as I was able to capture different aspects of relationship's. I plan to film the happy times of relationships to capture the good times as well, adding contrast. I plan to do this within the next two weeks as at present i am concentrating on my current footage and editing it.

I will make the footage all black and white as it appears more professional in black and white due to the camera's lack of high tech equipment, that professional Music Video artists own. I will also cut out the bits that I am not happy with, and the bits that went wrong so I can show the rest of my group my ideas and we can therefore swap these ideas and inspirations and combine them.

Our Half Term Plan

During half term, my group and I will book out a camera and each use it for 3 days of our Half Term period. We have decided to do this as we feel that it will help us gain alot of contrasting and exciting ideas which we can later put together. We have planned to film all together very soon, after we know exacly what we want to capture and have a storming Storyboad already set up. After we get back from Half Term, we will all each individually upload our footage onto Final Cut Pro, and edit it how we want our footage to appear and then show it to our fellow group mates.

Playback

After our Media lesson today, we have found that the best quality recording is 'I don't believe you' the 'final' recording. This is because the Piano and Voice ratio is perfect, whilst in the other recordings, the Piano is too loud, and blocks Lara's voice out.

We have no yet decided to use this recording, as we plan to annotate the song lyrics and come up with some ideas, for the music video, because it is quite repetitive, for instance:

"When you say you don't need me anymore
So don't pretend to
Not love me at all
I don't mind it,
I still don't mind at all"

This chorus is repeated many times, and due to its repetitiveness it could cause a lack of ideas, for the music video plot.
We have each printed out a copy of the lyrics, and will annotate them individually, and on our next lesson, we will put our ideas together and make an informed decision!

Recording Complete

The recording was a sucess!

We recorded the two songs, 'Hide & Seek' and 'I don't believe you'. My personal favourite was 'I don't believe you' because i found that it sounded better, being played on the Piano, in contrast to the other song, which would have sounded better being played with two people, and the Harp.

We had to adjust the Microphone placement a couple of times, to achieve the correct balance between the sound of the Piano and Lara's voice. We also had to change rooms to D5 due to a clash between our plans and other students plans, although this room also had high ceilings, and little echoe, as well as a very nice Piano... with a squiky chair!

Tracks:
CD1: I don't believe you - Lara Anstead - First Take
CD2: I don't believe you - Lara Anstead - Final Take
CD3: Hide & Seek - Lara Anstead - First Take
CD4: Hide & Seek - Lara Anstead - Final Take

I have transferred all of the four CD's to my laptop, and renamed the tracks to that of above, and they are now in my Itunes Library. I have also burnt these 4 songs onto a blank disk, ready to use in my Media lesson on Thursday, to discuss the quality of the recording, and whether we should use the tracks/which track.

Recording Planning

From: Mr Canning
Sent: 04 October 2010 14:14
To: Emily BADGER
Subject: Recording

Hi Emily

Mr Broadbent says that Weds is a problem because they’ve got controlled assessments going on and this is causing rooming difficulties. BUT he says that breaktime is possible although you might get interrupted every so often by people moving about.

In any case, he’s happy for you to go and see him to explain precisely what you need and he will try his best to arrange it for you. If I were you I’d go today….

Mr C
_____________________________________________

From: Emily BADGER
Sent: 06 October 2010 10:17
To: Mr Canning
Subject: RE: Recording

I’ve spoken to Mr Broadbent with Katie and Katherine, and we plan to record this break time, using a CD recorder in the music room.

Thank you very much for helping us find a suitable area to record.

Hopefully it goes to plan!

Thanks,
Emily, Katherine & Katie

I don't believe you by P!nk

Change Of Songs?

My partners and i have found another song which we all like more than the other. This is because 'Imogen Heap', who sung 'Hide & Seek', has electronically modified her voice, so it sounds slightly Robotic. My partners and I all dislike this effect as we feel it doesn't fit in with the ideas we had for the Music Video, and it changes the mood.

We are going to record 'I don't believe you' by 'P!nk' on Wednesday the 6th of October, as well as 'Hide & Seek' and discuss which one sounds better/which one to use. Also, we have researched the background music to both the tracks, and found that 'Hide & Seek' plays better with two people, and a Harp, and 'I don't believe you' sounds beautiful on the Piano.

Lara Anstead on Youtube

Recording Wednesday 6th of October 10:30

I have contacted Lara and arranged for a recording on Wednesday 6th of October, at 10.30.
This recording will take place in the Music Department, in room D3. We have already visited the Music Department, and decided this room is the best room to use, due to the high ceilings, and its small size, so there should be no echoe.

We have spoken about recording Lara using a Camera, although the Microphones are too small, and the condition/quality of the recording would be poor, so we are using a Tape/CD Recorder. I have bought a pack of 12 blank CD's in preperation, so that we are fully prepared for anything that could go wrong. We have familiarised ourselves with the recorder so we know how to use it, and have a Microphone ready use.

I have also, printed of a copy of the Lyrics to the song 'Hide & Seek' and also the Piano Chords, so that Lara does not have to play by memory.

I feel we are very prepared for the recording on Wednesday,

Hide & Seek Lyrics Analyses

Inspiration Found From: Hide & Seek by Imogen Heap

Introduction To The Project

We have chosen our groups of 3 people to work in, for our new Music Video Media Project, and have started planning the genre of the musc we want to work with.

We used Youtube to research potensial songs, and music artists for our project, discovering many inspiring ideas, and gaining inspiration.

Although we have been Youtube'ing I have an artist in mind, Lara Anstead. Lara is a former student at this school, and an incredible unsigned singer. I have spoken to my partners and we have decided to use Lara as our Artist.

The problem with this idea is that we need to record her singing, but this must be a good quality recording, otherwise the music will appear amateur, which is not the effect we're looking for.

We have also found a song, through searching through our Ipod's and Youtube; 'Hide & Seek' sung originally by 'Imogen Heap'. The reason we have chosen Lara to sing, as oppose to Imogen Heap, is due to the fact that using an unsigned artist makes our Porject stand out from the rest, and is more quirky. Also, we have all agreed that we prefer Lara's voice, as oppose to Imogen Heap as her voice has been electronically modified to give a robotic type sound, which we feel does not match our ideas on the Music Video.