Update: Website Stuff/GIFs

Hey Guys

As we are also making a website within the process, I have decided to start looking at what we can add to it.

'makeagif' website

I haven't started looking fully into it but I thought it would be a good idea, what with all the footage we will have from filming, to make some GIFs. These moving images might help to fill up what viewers will see on screen and, maybe I'm not sure if it's possible, could serve as interesting alternatives to buttons and links on the website.

So as always, stay tuned for more updates as we begin filming once Christmas is over. Bye for now.

Music Video Director: Joseph Kahn

Hey Guys

Here's a look at music video director Joseph Kahn.
(apologies as SlideShare seems to have not correctly proportioned the presentation in  parts, hence why the text seems to not fit in the text boxes.)

Music Video Director from AlexHunter98

Update: Green Screening

Hey guys

Progress!

So yesterday I had some spare time so I decided to try and figure out a way around mine and Dan's green screen problem.
Basically the trouble we were having last time was that, after erasing the majority of the green screen we discovered that our bodies were outlined in green as well as our hair being scattered in bits of green too.

So, I found out that, using the magnetic magic wand tool on Photoshop, I was able to zoom in very far and draw around the outline of our bodies in greater detail. This effectively gave me the ability to erase the green highlighting my hair, Dan's goggles and, overall, around our bodies.

It takes time but at least it gets the job done right.

Once our website cover art is finished I will make a post about it. In the mean time, expect more updates, more research and more planning coming your way.

As always, bye for now.

Update: Website Cover Art

Hey guys

Raiding science classrooms

On Monday we found ourselves with some time on our hands so decided to have a go at shooting some of cover art for our website. As you can see we managed to get our hands on some 'science things'.

Now all that's left to do is edit the ones we like. I imagine the final images will be done and uploaded to blogger in the coming weeks as well as more progress with our album cover.

Bye for now

Album Cover Designing

Hey

Here's some designs that I came up with and decided to cut out (mainly because I couldn't describe my idea to Dan so I had to show him).

This isn't the final piece however I decided to analyse this one as we both like it due to it's effective simplicity.

Enjoy,

Update: Wix and Band Name

Hey guys

As well as creating a music video, another part of the task is to create a band website. So, with some spare time on our hands, myself and Dan decided to look online at ways to do this. Here we found site called Wix. Wix specialises in allowing people and organisations to create their own website for any purpose; whether it be in order to sell merchandise, advertise or even create a central hub for a band to post their latest news, music and other products.

We had a quick look and were able to generate a basic structure for us two to work on whilst our music video is in development.

These images are just designs for background/banner images I thought we could decorate our site with:
We also decided then that our band would be called Apollo AD; AD being our initials and Apollo helping to give off the scientist, crazy look we want.

So yeah that's that. Be sure to check out more updates on the way soon.

Knowing The Criteria

Hey guys!

Today we have been looking at our criteria for our music video that ultimately gives us an idea of what needs to be concluded within the music video to achieve high marks.

In short, the criteria divides the marks up into four levels. Level 3 and 4 are the ones we should aim for within level 3's grade boundaries being between 24-31 and level 4's being 32-40.

Level 4 states that candidates are expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

• Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise-en-scene
• Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
• Recording and editing sound with images appropriately

(not putting down what level 3 said because we're aiming for THE TOP LEVEL!)

We then watched a few music videos from students who had done this task before. Fortunately it seemed that these videos surpassed our expectations for what grade they got despite us all thinking they weren't too impressive. This gave us all confidence that our skills could allow us to achieve a high grade.  However, it is easy to notice mistakes in other people's work rather than your own. Which brings me to this, perhaps it would be a good idea to show mine and Dan's progress during our post-production stage to see whether people like it or can see room for improvements.

And that's that. As always, stay tuned for more research and updates as progress on the music video will start soon. Bye for now.

Audience Consumption

Hey guys

So this post is looking at audience habits on consumption of media. Most in particular we'll be looking at the 'Uses and Gratifications Theory' and 'Reception Theory' in application to music videos.

Enjoy.

Audience Theories from AlexHunter98

One Page Pitch: Video

Textual Analysis - Lana Del Rey's Website

Hey guys

Here's a look at singer Lana Del Rey's website.

Textual analysis 2 from AlexHunter98

Update: Ideas - Selective Colour

Hey guys

I've had a spark.

Today me and Dan decided to start considering shots and overall ideas to include in our music video. After Dan had watched some videos on YouTube that would help to improve our post-production skills, he came across this one. This video teaches you to change colours within footage to your own heart's consent. Think about the message we want to get across and what the song implies (despite mistakes and daily stresses, everything works out in the end), I had the idea of introducing our characters in black and white, which will boldly stand out against our basic, one colour backdrops. This will, hopefully, convey sadness and negativity. However, towards the end of the song these characters, using our skills in post-production, will alter from black and white to bright colour, thus showing positivity and the message of the song therefore told.

In order to see how easy this technique is to apply through premier pro, I imagine myself and Dan will soon be practising this with test footage, like we did with the cloning technique we used in our one minute task and will be most likely using in the main task.

Anyway, that's that. Expect some more blogs on the way and bye for now!

Copyright confirmation

Hey guys

So here is the email that I and Dan had to send to Walt Disney Records for copyright reasons in order to legally be allowed to create our music video. Although we aren't really expecting Mickey Mouse to reply:

I am writing to you to request permission to film a music video version of your song 'One Little Slip'. This forms part of my OCR A-level Media Studies course where my task is to record a music video to a song of my choice. It is only for assessment purposes and will not be used for any commercial or profit seeking purposes. I acknowledge your copyright of the material and will not use it for any other purpose than that stated above.

If you require any further information or clarification regarding the use of this material for
educational purposes please contact my teacher Mr Welch (welchch@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk)

And don't fall asleep just yet as I and Dan are thinking of more ideas for our music video like clockwork so be expecting more posts and updates coming you're way soon.

One Page Pitch

Hey guys!
Here is the pitch created by myself and Dan based on our ideas and chosen song for our music video main task.
Hope you enjoy and expect more coming your way soon.

Pitch from AlexHunter98

Textual Anaysis - Shake It Off

What is up ladies and gentlemen

Here we have a little textual analysis of the song Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more in the future.

Textual Analysis - Shake It Off from AlexHunter98

Stardom

Hey guys and gals

So today we were looking at stardom. First of all, we looked at the question, what makes a star exactly? From my point of view a star refers to a likeable person current and talked about who is known for a specific outstanding talent, whether that be for singing, acting or any of the usual talents. Turns out the actual definition of stardom is:

The semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

However the most common traits for shared between 'stars' are known to be:

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/Talent
• Aggression
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods
• Outstanding success against all odds

Expert in the Department of Film Studies, Richard Dyer, looked into this and developed his Stardom Theory. Analysing stars within film, TV and music, Dyer states that stars have some common features.

Firstly a star themselves is an image, not the real person, that is constructed from a range of materials. A variety of collected subsidiary media, such as magazines, are needed to construct an image for themselves which is then marketed to their target audience.

Secondly, stars are commodities (a material that can be bought and sold) produced and consumed on the strength of their meaning (what makes them a star).

This image is constructed through a process undertaken by record companies. For example, The X Factor displays to the audience this process on screen; how an ordinary person is groomed and styled into fulfilling a set of expectations for the record company.

This Star Image however must remain unfinished and overall incoherent. This makes the audience constantly interested in them through the quest of wanting to 'complete the image' to make sense of the star. This is believed, by the audience, to be achievable through consuming their products and merchandise. In addition, it helps if the artist/star is simultaneously 'ordinary' yet 'extraordinary', simultaneously absent and present for the consumer and finally positioned against the mainstream but also within it.

Here is an article on Richard Dyer's views on stardom that aided me in creating this post:http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Music/music.php?pageID=popstar

CD Cover practise

 Hey guys

Here's some images of some album covers I edited based on pictures that myself and Dan took.
My aim was to try and create some 'stereotypical' covers that portrayed the artist and music in a certain light:




The weird one

The serious/tortured one



The 'I'm not looking at the camera one'



Media Regulation: Banned Music Videos

Media Regulators

Greetings people

So today we were looking at regulations in the media.

Regulations refer to a set of rules or guidelines usually agreed between media organisations and public organisations in order to make media organisations more accountable for what they publish. This is overseen by an independent regulatory body who may have the power to issue fines or warnings.

For example, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is the UK's newspaper and magazine regulator. Furthermore, Ofcom is the UK's communications regulator; regulating TV, radio and mobile.

The internet however has no official regulator, putting the ability in the hands of 'comments' to report a post. As a result of this, Twitter has come under much criticism for allowing abusive content on their site as well as Facebook for their 'banning female nipples' issue last year. In addition, YouTubers were told they had to disclose whether they were being paid to endorse products on their videos. Although you can be proseceuted for violent or threatening behaviour on social media, hosting sites do not have to accept any culpability due to the content being user-generated.

So what about music video you might ask?

The British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) aim to protect young people by regulating all music videos published by artists signed to Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK. The BBFC classify each video and assign it an age rating; 12, 15 or 18, based on a number of factors like:Drug misuse

• Dangerous behaviour
• Bad language
• Sexual behaviour/nudity
• Threatening behaviour and violence

My Opinion

To be honest, I believe regulator help to some extent. Sure they successfully classify what is appropriate for a child and what should be seen by only eyes over the age of 18 but realistically, what it seems they are doing is highlighting explicit content to young viewers, sticking out like a soar thumb, thus making it easier for them to find. They can't control what a person sees. Take the 'parental advisory' label you see on CDs. What this does is basically sell the record by attracting people because it has a 'dirty word' or something. In the present day, this label has even become almost a proud symbol to wear for others to notice you by that wouldn't have beforehand. This can be supported by the fact that when this 'warning' was introduced, so many artist wanted to be associated with it rather than not wanting to publish explicit content; the ridiculous expectation. People buy the music because it contains adult content, thus artists make more money.

Controversy in Music Videos

Genres and Sub-genres Explored

The Genre of Rock from AlexHunter98

Update: Photo Album Practise Shots

Hey Guys

Today me and Dan were tasked to shoot some stereotypical album covers to see how heavily the front page image influenced the audience's view of the type of music and artist they'd find inside.

We've taken some pictures that we believe can be edited to influence these views.

The final images will be uploaded in the coming days so stay tuned!

Theories on genre in music

Hey people

So we're back at it with the regular media lessons now! Today we looked at theories of genres in music and how these ultimately shape artists; their image and the type of music they produce. So without further ado...

John Hartley (1994) - argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning - potential of a given text'.
This theory basically conveys genres as a straightjacket limiting creativity.

Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1998) - describes genres as 'controlling the behaviour of producers of such texts and the expectations of potential consumers'.
Again, this stresses that genres prevent products from cross the border into creativity and instead stay safe in conforming to audience's expectations.

John Fiske (1987) - asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular'.

This suggest that genre are useful in telling us about the 'way of the world' in the time the product is created in - the Zeitgeist.

Film Theorist Rick Altman however states that there is no 'pure' genre anymore as it is progressive and thus ever-changing.

He says that generic conventions are a thing of the past. His theory implies that audiences in general have become tired of the same formula being used over and over and instead need more to keep entertained and to generate appeal.

Altman also says that genre is surviving merely due to hybridisation. In this case it refers to genres borrowing conventions of others, creating a hybrid, and thus being more difficult to categorise.

Update: Looking at Album Covers

Hey Guys

So today we were looking at some iconic album covers as well as a variety of lesser known ones that give off a clear contrast from one another as well as evoking the artist's uniqueness. We then finished off by looking at some of the covers done by last year's group.

Alright, here are some of the covers that you'll probably recognise even if, like me, you've seen the picture but don't know the name of the album or artist:

After that we looked at some of the album covers which last year's group.
Here of some of them:

They all vary with their own individual look that help to suggest what type of music you'll find beyond the cover. I particularly like 'The Bikelocks' cover with the silhouettes being clear nods to the film Reservoir Dogs. This possibly symbolises the music inside is of a rock genre given the electric guitar, drum sticks and the film it nods to being of a violent crime, thriller type.

Afterwards, we looked at some official album covers of singers and bands we hadn't really heard of or aren't in the limelight in the present day.

Here is one of them:

1 minute Preliminary Task Video

Hey Guys!

Yes! Mine and Dan's 1 minute cover of 'Come Fly With Me' is finally complete! (And by finally I mean we finished it like just over 2 weeks ago and I'm just putting it up now)

So enjoy!

A History of Music Videos

Update: Preliminary Task

Hey Guys.

Just wanted to do a quick update.

Expert filming techniques

Basically, myself and Dan managed to get all the filming done on Saturday morning, just as planned, at his Grandparent's church. However the following day I seemed to have caught a really bad sickness bug and have been ill since then. I gave all the recordings to Dan as this unfortunate turn of events has lead to Dan basically driving the post-production stage himself. Luckily I have not completely left him on his own as thanks to our planning beforehand, we both know what we want the video to  look like and how to do it. So it's not like he's starting from scratch.

After recently talking to him I can clarify that the main cloning idea has worked and seems pretty excited to show me when I'm better which I imagine will be tomorrow.

So yeah thanks to Dan for managing to carry the post-production phase through and as always, see you guys later.

Update: Filming the Preliminary Task

Hey Guys

So here's an update on what's going on. Myself and Dan have are going to be filming this Saturday 16th for the one-minute preliminary task (which is to be done for the Thursday 21st deadline). BUT NEVER FEAR! We have planned what we are going to do already and booked the equipment needed in order to organise our filming time effectively.

Here is what we have booked:

So I will let you guys know how the filming goes and when we start editing.

As always, bye for now.

Masking Test Clip

Hey Guys and Gals

So that was fast, here's the video of the test that me and Dan did yesterday. I said it would be a while till I'd be able to upload this but never mind haha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDJi1wU9is&feature=youtu.be

Update: Mastering the use of masking

Hey Guys

Me and Dan made a clone of myself! See!


Crazy right.

But seriously, myself and Dan wanted to experiment with this idea of having multiple Dans (I know sounds odd) in our one minute music video task. So, we wanted to see if we could actually do it. We found within a matter of minutes this awesome YouTube tutorial. We followed the instructions and bam here it is. This is just a screenshot of like a 5 second clip which I'll post in the coming days. So yeah it turns out that we can do it with relative ease.

Also, be expecting some more upcoming posts on textual analyses of music videos, the history of music videos and updates on our current tasks.

As always, bye for now.

YouTube tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ASBzkL2aRY

Happy Recreation

Yes!

It is finally complete and here for you viewing pleasure:

Here are the links to Amy and Dan's blogs too:
Dan's blog: http://danielhaywooda2blog.blogspot.co.uk/
Amy's blog: http://amyhealda2advancedportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/

Update: Ideas

I've got an idea!

Yes after much thinking and watching other music videos I have had a brilliant idea has sprung. After watching many of the past music videos done by other students I noticed that all of them (or at least all the ones I been able to see) are real life. No one has taken it upon themselves to include animation.

Luckily for me I have basic knowledge from the past on using stop motion animation. So, my idea is to do a music video entirely filmed in stop motion, most likely through the use of Lego. I believe this will make my video a breath of fresh air and visually interesting (depending obviously if it is good in the end) as well as bringing back to roots with the filmmaking I used to do and enjoy dearly.

Last thing to do now is to decide on a suitable song. I have some ideas in my head so far but nothing is for definite.

As always, bye for now.

Update: Happy Complete

Hey Guys!

Myself, Dan and Amy have finished our recreation of 'Happy' (I know! Filming and editing and everything!). Our segment of the song is 1:00 - 1:30 (click the link to see 'Happy' start from this point).

(1)

So, here is a couple of screenshots of a storyboard we decided to create beforehand so we had a good idea of what we were going to film instead of completely relying on improvisation. However, around 10% of these shots drawn were not actually used and replaced with what we felt were much better ideas than what are seen on here. We wanted to mimic the occurrences of the songs; with characters dancing to the beat of the song as well as walking towards the camera whilst singing.

(2)

Anyway, you shall expect the recreation to be uploaded to blogger with in the coming days. So keep your eyes peeled.

As always, bye for now.

Recommended Music Videos

Hey Guys

Here's a little bit of analysis of some music videos.

Payphone (Maroon 5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRaWnd3LJfs
Cake By The Ocean (DNCE): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaRiD5ym74
The Scientist (Coldplay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-RcX5DS5A
Reptilia (The Strokes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8-tXG8KrWs
I wanna get better (Bleachers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5osPtE7kXI

Update: Happy

Alright!

Ladies and Gentlemen here is our first update.

Recently we have been given a task in groups to recreate the music video to the popular song 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. This task is to allow us to, firstly, start to get into the idea of making a music video and, secondly, experiment with matching the lip syncing to the actual words of the song.

I'm going to be working with Daniel Haywood and Amy Heald for this task and we are recreating the song from 1:00 to 1:30. The aim is that each group recreates different 30 second segments so that, in the end, everyone's clips can be put together and the full song recreated.

So you can expect updates on this and the actual recreation complete in the coming weeks.

Now! Time for some facts.

Released on November 21st 2013 and made specifically for the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2, hence the use of the minions in the official music video, 'Happy' became the number-one single for 2014 and went on to win many other awards at the Grammys.
The song was filled in Los Angeles and consisted of many dancers and cameo celebrities dancing around various locations there.
In addition, a 24 hour version of the song was released whereby people from across the global danced to the song and uploaded their clips to 24hoursofhappy.com. This act billed the song as the world's first 24 hour music video. This meant that exchange was actively encouraged as this was basically huge free advertising for the song.
The 24 hour video was aired at Buenos Aires Film Festival; a mass product appealing to a niche market.

That's all, bye for now.

Link to the official 'Happy' music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

YouTube research: Watchmojo

Alright, lets kick things off with some YouTube videos!

Here are some watchmojo videos on music videos. In case you didn't know, watchmojo is a YouTube channel that specialises in producing Top 10 videos as voted for by their viewers.

Top 10 Music Videos of All Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoPx7v74f0
Top 10 Animated Music Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExvKibHRxc0
Another Top 10 Iconic Album Covers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OcVWrrpOyM

Watchmojo.com channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/WatchMojo

Introduction

Hey Guys!

Yes I'm back and this time around our media project for A2 is to create a music video. Yes, not another thriller opening but a music video.

I know exciting!

Honestly I'm not sure on any ideas yet as I don't really watch music videos, I'm not really educated in which are good, which are bad, which are iconic and so forth. If I listen to a song I just listen to the song. However, Dan did put an idea in my head about doing a video of parodies of multiple different songs stringed together.

Which brings me to my next point. Should I choose to work on my own or with others? Some usually choose to do this task on their own because, firstly, they feel confident in using the equipment and have a better idea on what they are doing. Secondly, their is a deeper feeling of individuality in your video in the end; what is produced is all from your choice. However, working with others (most likely Dan, the guy who I mentioned before who I worked effectively with in our thriller task) would allow the workload to be shared and other ideas contributed to possibly create an even better result.

Anyway, I will of course be posting regular updates on my own task and relevant research into other music videos.

As always, bye for now.

Link to my thriller opening: http://alexhunterasfoundationportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/