What we did today

These are pictures of my group and I drawing our story boards and developing details of every shot

what we did today

Today we improved our story board and started again because we realised that it was lacking the details it needs, from transitions to shots that change. we will be working further on our storyboard and develop all the details needed.

What we did today

This is our story board so far, we out in shot types and tried our best to make it detailed with the lyrics and the scenes.

annotated lyrics

Today we printed out the lyrics of the song we will be making a video to and annotated each stanza and planned what we would do and which camera angles to use or location to use. This helped me and my group develop our ideas and think about the small and important details We are now prepared to start drawing our story board.

updated treatment Pitch

                           
This is our updated Treatment and after our initial one, my group and I decided to add more detail and develop our ideas, One of the suggestions in the video clip of our pitch was to show the audience that the song is about a couple and the main singer showing how shes not jealous/ is jealous. So we've made a scene where that takes place as seen in the improved treatment

treatment pitch and feedback

In this video my group and I gave what we had so far to the group and told them what type of ideas. however we did not really plan our pitch properly and could not convey our ideas easily, which kind of lead to some confusion about whether it is conceptional or narrative. all in all, from the pitch we gathered that the group liked the track which is a good thing. In order to improve our treatment and pitch my group and I will be making a new treatment with improvements and more detail to our scenes in correlation with the track. Overall we took on board the comments given by the group and my group and i discussed how we would develop our ideas in the new treatment.

What we did today

Today we gave our pitch to the class and showed everyone our track and received feedback. This feedback was recorded and the video will be uploaded alongside an evaluation for how we could improve our plans.

Chosen music track - Initial Ideas

Today we were listening to a few tracks and This is the track that my group and I have decided we will be using Bahja Rodriguez - Jealous Type. Also our group got extended by one. She will be the one performing the song. After coming to this decision, we looked at the lyrics carefully and started discussing how we could make a narrative out of the lyrics and which types of locations to use.

A2 media Music video and practice activity and evaluation

Evaluation

Planning

For our planning, my group and I drew up a rough storyboard of what our video would be about. And the different locations that we would use. We decided that because we were doing the Song frozen, we had to pick an outside type of environment and in this case it meant going to the field. However we did not spend that much time planning the details of what will be happening in each shot which wasn't a good idea because music videos need to be planned so that they are very precise. This is something that we will change and work on in our course work piece.

Group  work

In the group work side of things we all worked equally and all contributed our ideas equally which is good because it means that everyone is doing something and every one has a fair chance to give their ideas.

Technical skills: Ideas and directing

In our group we didn't really have a director as such because there wasn't much directing to do in our video as the actress is just lip syncing the song as she walks. However this meant that no one was in charge of anyone else and everyone contributed equally. However to improve on in this  aspect of the filming. Our course work piece will have a director, this would give our video more order and we will all contribute our ideas equally to make it fair and a group piece.

Technical skills: Camera and editing 

When it comes to our camera and editing, we had a mid shot in the beginning of the video and the camera slowly followed her as she sang the song. However most of the clip is the same shot which is a disadvantage because it doesn't give us much variety in camera angles. This also meant that our editing process was really fast as we did not have much footage to edit. This will also be an element that we will be working on in our Course work piece.

 

filming our practice music video

The pictures above are my group and I going through the shots that we just filmed and the bottom picture is a mid shot of the lip syncher of the song 'let it go'. This shot is at the field as the song is associated with nature. We used the DSLR cameras to shoot this 

Research/ Case studies

Track 1

Pharrell Williams - Happy

  Synopsis 

This music video is about pharell showing how happy he is and includes a lot of the public being happy as well

   Performance

Walking around different locations with different people, dancing. In a church dancing. Every single location dancing. Lip syncing throughout.  

 Narrative

Not really a straight narrative telling a story. More random and has people of the public engaging with the music video all knowing the lyric

 Actors
Random people of the public. Pharrell himself. Etc.etc
Editing
In the beginning of the video, the editing is at a slow pace, when pharrel is in the alley way. Also the lighting is low key and has a green tone to it. This gives it a grunge/ underground type of feel to the video. The next scene is him in side a ballroom where he is dancing and the lighting changes to high key. Also this editing is still one long shot. there hasn't been any cuts between the last scene and this new scene. As the video carries on; there's fast pace cuts between the different actors in the video.  

Camera
The camera Pans across the wall. We then see the music artist in a mid shot showing his body language as he dances with the music. In the ballroom it turns into a long shot where you can see his whole body and body language and his clothes.
Props

Wearing a top hat, everyone wearing casual clothing, different people with different styles all in one music video

   Location

Outside in the streets, inside a church/ballroom in alley way, all in different locations.

 What makes the promo different?

Usually music videos follow the singer/ rapper around as they tell a story that’s related to the lyrics. More of a visual representation of the lyrics. However in this music video. Its more random and has many different people who don’t really own the song dancing inside it. Which gives it that random element.

Ideas that I could use
The ideas that i could take away from this video is the fact that it is in public roads and outside locations. And the shots of the actors walking towards the cameras as they lipsync. I also like the performance element of the video and i would like my groups music video to have a performance element just like the ones in the music video of dancing.

 track 2

Drake ft. lil Wayne, kanye West, Eminem – Forever

   Performance

Each of the artists who have a verse do a performance when it’s their turn to rap.

    Narrative

There isn’t much of a narrative except the fact that they’re rapping in a club

    Actors

Each of the rappers and their crew in the club, drake Kanye west, Eminem and lil Wayne

   Props

High key lighting, drinks, fire, smoke, lights coming down. Different camera angles.

    
Camera
The camera angles in the beginning of the music video when drake is rapping his verse is a low angle shot which makes him look like he is in power and above us. It makes us feel as if we are looking up to him. There are many mid shots as well as long shots which show off what the artists are wearing and show off their body language.
Editing
The editing in this video is quite fast pace and there are many different lighting that go on in every shot. The beginning has red ish kind of lights which gives us the feeling that the artists is in the club or somewhere that has constantly changing lights. This adds a fun atmosphere to the video as well as the face pace cuts between the shots.
Location

In a dark place with different colours lighting up on their face, Eminem is outside for his verse and lil Wayne is sitting in what looks like a VIP section of a club with women surrounding him while he drinks

     What makes the promo different?

In this music video you’d think that they’d be throwing cash around and showing the money they have but instead they’re just in they’re just rapping their music and each of them have a different image that they want to portray as Eminem. The only white3 one out of all of them is outside in the rain wearing a hood and surrounded by other black men who are also in hoods while he raps.
Ideas that I could use
The ideas that I could take away from this music video is the different types of locations which makes the music video look more professional. I would also use the types of different editing techniques that have been used in this music video as the fast pace cuts are highly effective. The special effects of the fire sprinkles and the fade in the beginning may be something that would make my groups music video more interesting too.

Track 3

Rihanna And Kanye West & Paul McCartney - Four Five Seconds 

Performance:  

The performance element in this music video is mainly just un choreographed dancing and lip syncing the words. But Paul McCartney is playing the guitar. 

Narrative

There is no narrative to this music video as they're all in a studio which limits the story line.

Actors

There are the 3 people who are in the song as the actors, in this video it is very simplistic so there isn't any back up dancers or crew members or random people of the public like there is in the other two tracks. The fact that we have paul McCartney in the video is showing how they have combined old school Rock with new RnB and Hip Hop music showing the audience that they can mesh the two in perhaps bring in new audiences.

Props

The props used in this music video is the guitar that is played. Also, all three of the artists are wearing denim clothing. This could go with the image they're trying to portray.

Camera

The camera angles used in this music video in the beginning was an establishing mid shot of Rihanna, on a side profile. showing us her body language and facial expression. As the video goes on we get a close up of her facial expression and get to see up close her emotions. Inbetween this we get a quick long shot clip of Paul playing the guitar but he's facing away from the camera. When she finishes her part of the song, the camera slowly ans out and shows us her full denim outfit and then we get a close up of kanye west in that same position we saw rihanna in the beginning of the video. however it was an extreme close up showing us his facial expressions. In this video, the camera angles don't really vary as they just stick to the close up mid shots or long shots. In the end of the video we have a long shot of the hree artists while rihanna lip syncs.

Editing 

The editing in this video is very simplistic. The whole video is in black and white which gives it that very stripped down and bare feeling. which is in contrast to many music videos that RnB or Hip Hop artists usually do as they like to go all out however this is edited in a slow pace and given a black and white theme. This also adds a serious tone to the music video and shows that whatever they're singing about is serious to them and deep. In the middle of rihanna singing we have quick shots where we see paul playing the guitar, then the shot quickly goes back to rihanna singing. We have really long scenes where we focus on the facial expressions that suggest frustration with the artists.

Location

The location of the music video is in a studio with a white back drop while the whole video is in black and white. This also adds on to the simplistic and bare feeling they're trying to portray.

What makes the promo Different?

What makes this promo different is the fact that they're not doing anything that comes off like they overly planned everything like their dance moves or set it in a club where there would be the typical portrayal of women dancing half naked. Instead they're in a studio with just the music and the artist which gives it that raw feeling and gives the music video an edge.

Ideas That I could use

I liked the way that they did the whole silhouette effect of the side of the artist's face and I would like to use that in my music video with my group. This would be very effective and looks very professional.  

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