Filming arrangments

Due to rainy weather, we were forced to stopped filming at an earlier time today (Wednesday 30th Nov). However we have planned to continue filming tomorrow morning for an additional 3 hours, (Thursday 1st Dec). Due to extras being unable to be present for either of these dates, we will do our final filming on (Sunday 4th Dec) which will consist of only the scenes where the extras are needed.

Rich Mix - Pete Fraser

I learnt a lot while at the Rich Mix centre for the day. I found the presentation from Pete in the morning very useful and although most of his tips we already know and putting into prctice. However hearing him telling us that what we are doing is right is a big confidence boost.

I made notes during his presentation. This is what I wrote:

Music Videos:

• lasts the length of the song (and sometimes longer)
• features the artist (usually but not always)
• can tell a stroy (but usually doesnt)
• is a performance

The History of Music Videos
A Colour Box - Len Lye



This video was one of the first music videos. This is made by different rolls of film using drawing and spots of ink. Through the video you can see that the post office is advertised and its prices. This is because when music videos were first introduced they were sponsered by a company and this was a form of advertising for that company; in this case it was the post office.

The Soundies

These were early music videos which were played on video juke boxes. 4000 of these were placed in American restaurants/diners. These showed newly released music videos, for example 'From Fram Sauce' by Nat King Cole was should on these. However they were soon taken away because they were said to be too 'sexual'.



The Beatles

We have got a filming day planned now. We are going to film on Wednesday 30th November. We have got a list of locations that we are going to be filming, and what props we will need to bring with us. We have started to get them together and have worked out when we will be able to get the rest of them. As Wednesday is the day of a general strike we are only able to film in the local locations, our London location will have to be filmed on a different day as we will no be able to get there.

From MTV to YouTube

As a class we visited 'Rich Mix' in London. Pete Fraser shared a presentation on the history of the music video as well as codes and conventions and top tips for making our own pop promo. This was then followed by a more active session with Liz Kessler who works in the industry commissioning and producing music videos, who was later joined by Corin Hardy (director), who shared some of his work. For example, The Prodigy, 'Warriors dance' and The Horrors 'She is the new thing'.

Music videos feature an artist but not always. They often last the length of the song however again, not always. They must be visually memorable and the music should be illustrated by visuals whether this is through metaphors or obvious images.

Len Lye was the first to create a visual that was later referred to as a music video which purely described a visual accompanied by music. 'A colour box', although now seems extremely dated and poor quality, was used as an advertisement for the postal system in 1935. Unlike more modern times whereby videos are created mainly via relevant programmes on computers, A colour box was created by painting directly onto film which produced bright colours when projected.

Soundies came about in the 1940's these are video duke boxes. 4000 were installed in the USA alone. They are used as promotions for songs being released. For example, 'From Fram Sauce' by Nat King Cole, which was a performance based video including voyeurism, became famous through the exploitation of it on soundies.

As a development of soundies, scopitones originated in France in the 1960's which were colour, low budget video players which primarily showed music videos that consisted of a large amount of dancing.

Also in the 1960's, the Beatles became particularly popular from their song 'A hard day's night' because it was shown in a film starring them in the form of a music video. It worked as a showcase for films on an album, 'Can't buy me love', as a substitute for touring due to other commitments, and constraints. These showcase films became a useful method of advertisement.

Queen famously remembered from the 1970's due to their music video for 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. It cost £3000 in total to make which was a substantial amount of money at the time.

MTV the music channel was first premièred in 1981. This was the first channel purely for music videos. The music videos shown were specifically dominated by males. The first video to be shown on MTV was 'Video killed the radio star'. 

The USA then got involved firstly promoting Madonna's music video's for example, 'Open your heart'. The budget for music video making drastically increased from that in the UK.

Michael Jackson was the breakthrough for Black acts with him music video 'Thriller' which shocked viewers because of its gore and form being a short film. It cost millions of dollars to make. Before this, black music was rarely shown because producers believed there was no market for black people.

Artists such as 50 Cent started creating songs and music videos that were particularly explicit and whereby the lyrics matched the visuals. This triggered the start of having separate music channels for different genres. 'Candy shop' is specifically remembered for its use of excess materialistic, luxurious and desirable items including bling, models, expensive cars and a mansion. These were all used to portray sexuality.

Jay Z's '99 problems' video consists of 400 cuts in 4 minutes. The main themes shown are violence and sex although it appears controversial and political. 

As equipment improved and became more affordable, regular people began to create home made videos, sometimes remakes of videos on their phones and ipods. This along with the ability to download music from the internet for free, is a massive threat to the music industry. 

Makeup

This is the style of make up our performer will be shot in - natural, pale.

As an alternative look, to create a sense of over time and a spiral of moods she will also be seen with heavy dark eyes and bold red lipstick as shown below.

Animatic

We used our storyboard to produce an animatic of our music video. We took photos of each post-it note and imported them into Final Cut Express. We then used markers to ensure that we would get the correct timings with the beat. once this was completed we then put the images in order and started to drag them into the timeline. We cut them so they were in time with the beat and the way we hope they would be in our final music video. However, whilst during this we realised that our shots were too long and we did not have enough cutaways. We are going to have to add in some more shots to make sure that our audience do not loose interest. This was a very helpful task as we can now plan to shoot more footage and realise the mistakes within our current idea.

Researching stop motion

A specific technique I would like to use in our music video is 'stop motion'.

This particular video on youtube, among many others which are similar, demonstrates a well planned and carefully produced stop motion sequence.

I find stop motion really intriguing and effective in  generating interest on behalf of the viewer.

Although this would take a long time to capture and edit together, I hope to use very small examples of the technique in our music video.

Group Meeting 6

-horse

Directors Essay

Jonas Akerlund is an established Swedish film and music video director who was born in 1966. He has directed various music videos for well-known popular artists as appose to upcoming artists. I will be focusing on three music videos he directed; Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ 2004, which was not only a massive hit on MTV amongst other music video channels, but also received a Special Recognition award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Pink’s ‘Sober 2008, which was the second-highest viewed of Pinks music videos, and lastly Lady Gaga’s 'Paparazzi' 2009.

As a director, Akerlunds general style is creating abstract-like mock forms of movie trailers and short films for music videos. This is one of the similarities each of the music videos share making them narrative based, however it could be argued that they also show elements of conceptual and performance. This could be linked into the 'Auteur theory' which suggests an author has a great impact on the videos we watch.

I will be using Andrew Goodwin’s 6 point theory from his book ‘Dancing in the distraction factory’ to analyse my four chosen examples.

The song ‘Beautiful’ is of a soft-rock genre and the video focuses of portraying issues with self image and domestic abuse (which Christina herself has experienced in her childhood) through the use of obvious sequences of other people showing emotions through body language, facial expressions and situational factors. It specifically relates to underweight adolescents, LGBT, and bullying. The music video is mainly narrative with performance. A genre characteristic of soft-rock are the playing on themes such as love, everyday life and relationships which are clearly demonstrated in the music video. Throughout the video the scene switches between different people to Christina singing. The song lyrics support general individuality, ‘you are beautiful, no matter what they say. Words can’t bring us down.’ Therefore, using Goodwin’s analysis, there is evidence of an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The general mise-en-scene in the music video is dark and appears lonely which again emphasises the messages of the song and video. The pacing of the editing appears in time with the beat of the song i.e. where the song is slow, the edits are slow. Towards the end of the video, the victims of these illnesses or bullying drastically change their facial expressions from depressed to happy almost showing acceptance or a change attitude. A few seconds before the end a yellow flower is shown which could represent hope, happiness and courage which is likely because this would summarise the songs entire purpose. As expected in a popular artists music video, it is evident that the record label have requested to have a large percentage of the music video be close-ups of the star.

‘Sober’ by Pink comes under the genre of pop rock because the song is guitar-based. The music video shows scenes of a drunken nature which include socialising, sexual reference and mental institutions. It begins in the style of a film as the footage of statues and churches is not accompanied by the song, only the sounds of church bells which appears completely irrelevant to the song. The video is mainly conceptual with performance although has elements of narrative occasionally. Like that in ‘Beautiful’, the scenes go back and forth between Pink singing and other situations. The costumes used in ‘Sober’ are varied and not linked to each other appearing un-cohesive however this could seek to represent that of an intoxicated mind. For example, she is shown in an old fashioned dark coloured dress in a gloomy room filled with dusty, dated furniture, which cuts to her in a mental institution where all elements of mise-en-scene are white. Another example is towards the end of the video Pink is shown in an all black outfit which is seemingly a widowers clothing which again could explain her situation and feelings of this. Generally her outfits are attention grabbing as of that in Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ which could relate to Akerlund’s preferred style. When Pink is alone she seems sad, confused and lonely but appears to have multiple personalities depending on whom she is with. Location frequently changes consisting of woods, bedrooms and parties. Sexual behaviour is shown of Pink with an actor who is also plays Pink which could represent the extent of her loneliness and mental state. Like ‘Beautiful’, ‘Sober’ includes numerous shots of Pink herself performing.

Finally ‘Paparazzi’ is an electropop song portraying the lengths individuals could go to in order to become famous. This is the longest music video out of the three, 8 minutes in total due to Akerlund’s desire to create short films out of music videos. Similar to ‘Sober’, it begins with establishing shots and an introductory scene before the actual song begins. Whilst the audience is shown a large countryside mansion with the sound of birds and the general outside, credits appear such as ‘Serial pictures production’ and ‘Starring Lady Gaga’ clearly resembling that of an opening sequence of a film. Following this there is dialect between Lady Gaga and the character of her “boyfriend” which leads to him pushing her off the balcony as a result of his need to interest the photographers and gain star recognition shortly followed by snap shots of newspaper headlines on the matter and her body being discovered. Just before the actual song starts (already over 2 minutes into the sequence), Gaga is shown against a black and white spiral background illusion. Using Goodwin’s theory, I noticed that this was intertextual reference from the opening of the film james bond among many other films who also use this effect. She is then shown returning to the mansion after the incident in a neck brace, on crutches although costume remains glamorous which immediately generates the audience asking questions as if watching a film, as the song finally begins. Already it is evident the music video is narrative however further into the song it is clear that it is conceptual and performance also. Throughout the video scenes flash from Gaga singing, to her getting revenge in the preparation to her plan to poison her boyfriend in disguise, to the scenes of other various murders of glamorous females, presumably stars, that have been victims of this type of twisted plot as she was. Again, at the end of the song newspapers are shown only the headlines now consist of shocking news such as ‘She’s back!’, ‘She’s innocent!’ and ‘We love her again!’ However this is followed by her having mug shots taken in prison with dialect which tells us she was discovered. As a film, ‘The End’ then appears across the screen followed by a cast list in the style of that in dated films. Gaga is shown in close-up or mid-shots often which could relate to the demands of the record label. General themes portrayed in the music video are jealousy, bitterness, death and revenge which along with the themes of ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Sober’ appear negative which could suggest this is Akerlund’s most favoured style.

To conclude, it is clear that Akerlund as a director enjoys emphasising the message within the songs in the music video through features such as mise-en-scene, costume, characters and displayed emotion. From researching these three particular music videos it is evident that his ideas do not vary in the sense that he produces mainly narrative based videos that portray themes clearly.

Step By Step Keyframe Use On Final Cut

Firstly, you must drag a photo onto the timeline & double click it so it appears in the viewer canvas. You then must turn on the wire frame & activate the key frames by clicking on the motion tab & selecting them so they turn green. Move the play head to the beginning of the image & then rotate or move the image & move the play head to the end. You then play the video back & the image will move the way u want it to.