Animatic

Digital Storyboard

Here is our storyboard that we drew on a storyboard sheet supplied by the media department. The storyboard tells the shots we will be using and the main drift of the video.

Digipak Mock-up

Here, I was started planning how I would make my Digipak. I used particular features that real digipak's would feature such as, barcodes and copy right notices. I also included a font that I thought would suit the genre of our song by Lowkey.

Planning and production: What I have learnt since AS

I have learnt much about planning and production since startin As about planning and production. For example, the media product we are making is different from last years, so it requires a different approach to be taken. We now, in A2, have to plan what costumes our character is going to wear in the different scenes, and how we intend to edit the video- if we want to edit it to the beat. Also making the lip syncing look realistic and meaningful, will be both challenging and exciting.

Relating our music video to the real world

When making our music video we will be using the soundtrack from the real artists song, Lowkey 'Terrorist'. We are trying to relate our video to the lyrics of the actual song. We as a group have already planned the plot and narrative of our music video and we have created theme which we feel match the lyrics in the song, such as making a stand and challenging those prejudice and stereotypical ideas people have of all Muslim people.

                   

Digital Technology

I feel digital technology would be essential in the production of my three media products. For instance, when we have finished making our music video we intend to upload it on to Vimeo and Blogspot. During the production of the music video we will be using particular software such as, Final Cut Pro to edit the music video. As we go through the process of making our music video we will be blogging the progress we make. This will allow us to emulate real music artists and their videos, as they tend to keep fans up to date with the making of their media product. As for the production of my digipak I will be using software such as, Photoshop in order to manipulate and alter the digipak until I feel the design and font of my digipak reflects the genre our our product. I will also be blogging the production of my digipak.

   

Draft Story Board

Plot: One boys are sitting in a room(Ekene) but he is soon joined by another boy(David). David is our main character, he plays the role of Lowkey, but it is he and Ekene who provided the main narrative of the video. When David enters the room he begins to tell Ekene that he is upset because he feels he is being wrongly stereotyped by the public. He then begins to tells Ekene a list of things that have made him feel this way. This is what our videos main focus is on, Davids story. We want to make our video follow a similar sequence of Craig David's Seven Days, which continuously shows Craig David telling his friends a story of how he mat a girl.



We have three main locations but also have a few others that we intend to use. These locations include:

• A room
• Old Street 
•  Haggerston Tube Station(We in tend to be granted permission first)
•  Trafalgar Square
• South Bank
• Houses of Parliament(will be used as a back drop as we may not be able to film directly in front of it, so instead will will do it in front of the River Thames so we can see the Houses of Parliament as a back drop) 

Our base track location will be in the room where Ekene and Davis are having their conversation. This is because he is narrating a story so we have to continuously reflect back and forth to the story being told and us envisaging what happened.

Short list of potential songs.

Devlin- London city

Devlin- Runaway

Lowkey- terroist

Plan B- She said

Cold Play -Yellow

audience task

Barry Jackson is an 18 year old male who lives at home with his mum dad and younger brothers. He is a  student studying at City and Islington college and studies BTEC sports&science. Barry enjoys the physical side of his course as he likes keeping fit. The genres of music he likes to listen to are, R'n'B, Hip Hop, Dub step and Funky house. He likes to go out raving with his mates on the weekends wether thats clubbing or house parties.

Digital Technology In The Production of Products

To create my music video, advertisement and digipack I will need equipment and packages to do so to the full of my ability. Without equipment and packages, it would be near impossible to show off my creative abilities, but with the right equipment and packages I can do more than show off.

Firstly, in order to create a music video I will obviously need a video camera that is able to film in good quality and have easily transferable video from the camera to a Mac. A fully charged battery for the camera is needed also, in order for the camera to work. My college media department provides JVC GY-HM100E cameras. These cameras are professional standard and can shoot in 1080p, but most importantly they record directly onto SD memory card, and have 2 slots so encase you run out of memory on the first, you can save to another card. Saving to SD memory cards provides us with ease to transfer files between the memory card and Mac, we can put the SD card directly into a USB adaptor and then copy them onto our external HDD/Video drive (hard disk drive), this is so we can have our files stored in one place and can empty the memory cards for any other filming that is needed. A tri-pod may also be needed for the camera, but most the camera work will be handheld. So the following equipment is needed in order to create the music video: A camera, a camera battery, 2x SD memory cards, a tripod, a external HDD/video drive and a SD to USB adaptor.

In order to edit the footage that we shoot, we will need a Mac computer with the correct packages. The packages must include Final Cut Pro. It needs Final Cut Pro in order for me to edit the video together, cutting clips, putting clips together, adding special effects etc. Livetype is also needed in order for me to add any text that is needed on the video. My college media department provides us with Mac's with double screens that have these programs installed.



In order to create a digipack and advertisement, I am obviously firstly going to need a digital still camera. The camera must be high quality and be able to store images to a SD memory card. We are provided with Panasonic Lumix FS12 digitail still cameras. These cameras are 12 megapixels and store image files onto an SD memory card. When it comes to packages, photoshop will be needed in order to edit image files. The program Quark will also be needed to load edited images and add text to the covers. Obviously with having an SD card, you need to be able to transfer the image files using a SD to USB converter.

Initial Ideas for Digipack and Advertisement

(Full size image - http://yfrog.com/myp1050337lj)

When thinking of the visual style and graphics of my digipack, there was only one thing that came to mind, to make it relate to the video. So I decided on a 4 panel digipack that will relate to the music video for our song.

From the image below (top left), you can see the front cover will have a black background with a picture of the artist in his orange prison overalls from the waist upwards. He will be staring with no facial expression to represent it as a serious matter. The front will also contain the artist name in white to represent pure, and the album title in orange to show how its different and needs to be changed, just like the subject.

The back cover can be seen in the bottom right of the picture. The back cover will have a shot of the artist in his prison overalls from the waist up but from behind. This relates to the front image as he will be in the same pose and clothing, just a shot from the back reading what the back of the overalls say. This will not represent him turning his back on the fans, but will represent him turning his back against each and every person with the stereotype view on Muslims. The track list will be done in orange, to show how each one needs to be changed into a pure colour. Also a barcode and record label logo will be included.

From the CD holder image (top right), you can see a pure black background and an orange background to where the CD goes. These colours relate to being in a prison, having the orange overalls in a dark place.

The inside page (bottom left), shows the artist in a business like suit, with a shot of his whole body. This represents that he is just like everyone else and can be as upper class as the highest paid banker. The text will be text of encouragement to the fans and will be in white to represent pure. There will also be a thank you note in white to represent how the fans are pure for agreeing with his view on the situation.

Audience

George Jackson is a 18 year old from Islington, London. He currently attends college and studies Media studies, Business studies and Sociology. He currently has no job but that is due to him attending college 5 days a week, if he got a weekend job it would interfere with his social life which he loves. He gets around London with his free student oyster so it doesn't cost him a penny. He is a typical student, always poor and relies on his weekly EMA of £30. He shops at shops such as H&M, and UniQlo. He is always on Facebook on his laptop or BlackBerry.

Short List of Potential Songs

When our group came together, all of us had a problem, we all liked different genres of music. In the end we came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if one person doesn't like the genre, but what matters is that we get a song with a good meaning behind it and one which we all can contribute ideas towards. The following songs were chosen:


Genre:

-Rap
-Indie
-Soul

Artists/Group:

-Tinie Tempah
-Coldplay
-Blur
-Lowkey

Songs:

- "There's no other way"
- "Free Palestine"
- "Terrorist"
- "Clocks"

Valdimir Propp

Vladimir Propp's Theory Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who created a theory based on the structure of stories. With this theory of narrative, he examined 100's of folk tales to look for similarities. His book was published in 1928 and it contained an analysis of elements in these stories that had connections. He came up with 8 different character roles in these stories and these were: The Villain(s)- The person who will go all out to defeat the hero. The Hero- The person(s) that progress and go on a journey. The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object. The helper- helps the hero with the quest and journey that they are going on. The princess/princess- the person the hero may end up with and the reward for the hero and the person who the villain schemes against. Her father- rewards the hero. The dispatcher- sets the hero on his/her way to carry on in completing their goal. The false hero- Takes the credit for all of the hard work of the hero to impress other characters


This theory can also be related to today's music videos. The artist Ne-Yo, has a music video called 'So Sick', this video is an example where it has amplification of the narrative and this is shown through character's such as the main singer Ne-Yo which is villain and the girl in the video which is the princess who has bin hurt.

Andrew Goodwin - Video Catergories

lustration:


This is where the video tells the story of the song and lyrics, there is always a clear link between both lyrics and video.





Disjuncture:


This is when the video has little or no link to the video; it can be completely abstract and contradict the lyrics.






Amplification:


This is when the video is linked to the song but not necessarily to the lyrics, they introduce a different perspective to the song and add layers to the meaning.

Summary of Andrew Goodwin's Theory



Andrew John Goodwin was Director of Music and Organist at Bangor Cathedral for 37 years. Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in pop music videos, which still are used in todays pop music videos.

- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, and a relationship between the music and the visuals with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.

- Genre-related style and iconography present.

- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.

Andrew said that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require, which is obviously important in todays media entertainment . Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males.

Analysis of A Music Video

Genre:

The main genre of the video is hard rock, but with hints of horror with lyrics such as "If its the last thing I will do I will be the one that will escape from hellview". By having shots of the band also, you can tell they are a rock band due to having custom guitars, drums and bass with the bands logo/name on. The clothing also represents the genre as they are wearing other band shirts.

Narrative:

This music video is linear because it has a storyline that relates to the song. It is almost as if the lead singer is narrating the story, singing about friends having a good time and then suddenly something bad happens. It has a clear verse-chorus structure. The band also particapate in soparts of the video, you have ltos of shots of the guitarist, drummer, bassist and lead singer all playing there instruments and lip synching.

Representation:

From the start of the video, you can feel as though trouble is waiting to happen, this is due to dark and scary guitar riff and just like a typical horror movie, everybody is in the dark with just a camp fire to give lighting. Its almost as if the viewer knows whats going to happen, its just a matter of time until it happens. Even though this is a hard rock video, lots of shots represent the woman as sexy and innocent. During the chase scene, the camera tracks her legs and not her upper body, revealing under her skirt. As she is on the floor you can still see clearly up her skirt as she is about to be killed.

Media Language:

This music video uses lots and lots of camera shots for each part of the music video. From the opening of the video we have lots of shots of the band, including close ups of the guitar playing showing the fingers moving fast and in time to the song. Each band member has there own shot of just themselves. Tracking shots are used showing the people running away from the killer, to make you feel as though you are also in the chase, leaving you at the edge of your seat. Lots of close ups are used on the killers face, but all you can see through the mask are his eyes, the eyes are showing no remorse for what he has just done.  

Audience

 

This is a wordle I have produced. It includes certain characteristics that our average audience member would be like.

Audience

Tyrell Johnson is a 17 year old teenager from Hackney.  He has no Job but he attends college three times a week and is studying music technology, physical education and film studies. He gets around London either by bus using the common oyster card or on his peddle bike. He buys his groceries from Tesco and enjoys reading free newspapers such as the Metro and The Evening Standard. He works part time in River Island. He loves to shop at Footlocker and loves the odd bargain at TKmax. He is always on either his blackberry or his ipod touch.

Final Song Choice

Below is a link to our final song choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU

Lip Synch Tutorial

During our lip synch tutorial we learned a number of new things aswell as as reviwed what we learnt last year. We were taught how to place markers in a a track and in a clip, this was so that we could sing in time with the track without looking out odf synch. These markers were also used so that we could get shots from differnt angles and also so that we could get some good edited shots. We used the razor tool to cut bits of footage so we got a variety of shots.

One of the most challenging things was using the razor tool to cut and edit the footage to go in time with the beat, you had to be really precise with this and also patient. Editing music videos is much more difficult than editing thrillers because firstly the editing is much more complex with things such as the markers, also with the thriller videos you have to editi the sound much more than with the music videos because there is a base track that will always be there. With the music videos you cannot afford to make mistakes because if you do they are easier to spot.

Vladimir Propp Theory

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was born on the 17 April 1895 in St Perersburg to a German family. Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Vladimir Propp extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements, or morphemes, and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratemes, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

 

Vladimir propp's theories

Propp believed that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their most basic plot components. Propp developed an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the dramatis personae in each story. Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that these elements consistently occurred in a uniform sequence. Based on a study of one hundred folk tales, Propp devised a list of thirty-one generic functions, proposing that they encompassed all of the plot components from which fairy tales were constructed.  According to Propp, a cohesive story can be formed by connecting a series of any set of the thirty-one functions in order. This project explores this component of Propp’s argument by randomly generating a fairy tale from selected functions. Each function has several passages written specifically to express that function, and the generator will randomly select one passage for each selected function. While each passage appropriately expresses its respective plot element, the tone, characters, and settings may vary.

Potential songs

Me and my group have been discussing what will be the best song choice for our group to perform. After conferring with our teacher, Donna, we have drawn up a short list of potential songs:

 

•  Lowkey- 'Terrorist' - Rap 
•  Slick Rick- 'Bed time Story' - Rap
•  Sway, Darren B - 'Look After My Girl' - Rap

Analysis of previous student videos

                    Adam, Lisa, Nasima & Sayvita Music video by 283goswell

Adam, Lisa, Nasima & Sayvita from 283goswell on Vimeo.


In one of our most recent Media lessons we analysed several student music videos. Adam, Lisa, Nasima and Sayvita music video was one of those that we analysed. I found that this particular music video included many of the Andrew Goodwin theory points. For example, the illustration used reflects Goodwin's points because the video tells the lyrics in the song. In the video people are holding banners which is promoting the need for love and this conveys the message of the song. 

What I particular liked about this music video was, the clear narrative structure it followed. The song is about every one needing love and the video supports this and the girl in the video narrate this. The girl in the video goes to particular landmarks in London and holds banners which creates the sense she is one of those protesters who is demanding there be more love. Also there is a range of shots used in this video, one in particular was intriguing, a medium close up of two police officers holding a banner promoting love, so it created a feeling of realism. There is also a lot of extreme close ups to the girls mouth, the variety of shots kept the video interesting. The clothing the girl is wearing, the red lip stick and red ear rings reflects the genre, Pop.

Videos that follow Goodwin's theory of Amplification, Discunjture and illustration

                                Illustration

   

Mario- Let Me Love You  This music video follows the illustration structure because the video reflects the lyrics in the song. The lead female actress reflects the song lyrics of her being hurt by her boy friend and Mario wants to stop this. 

Amplification  

 

Black eyed Peas- Where Is The Love This music video adds layers of meanings and does not contradict the lyrics, because the video includes question marks and people trying to re-find where the love has gone.

                                                  Disjuncture  
  

Kaiser Chiefs Ruby- This songs structure is different from the lyrics, thus follows a disjuncture structure.