Snow

well due to the weather etc people have been unable to make it to our filming therefore we've decided we're going to change it the first week back after the holidays in an evening.
Merry Christmas xx

Risk Assessment

In order to be safe whilst filming a part of our video where a vase gets smashed, we have come up with a list of safety measures that will keep us safe and unharmed. We will make sure everyone present follows these rules.

• Goggles must be worn
• Gloves worn by those handling broken glass
• Full length sleeves and trousers
• Appropriate footwear- no open toed shoes etc
• Long hair tied back
• Standing 5 metres away from the smash zone - with tape and towels to surround the area
• Dust pan, brush, broom and bin nearby for when cleaning up
• First aid kit etc on hand

Update

Well we have just created a event on facebook to encourage people to come along to our filming day. We have invited loads of friends etc and plan to film on 21st december in the morning at Charley Thomas' house. We have also planned to go shopping for mise-en-scene on friday 18th december to get the probs needed:
Disco ball
Masks
Wall paper
Clothing and costume
Party stuff, glowsticks etc
Make up to use in the video (lipstick to write on things)

Hopefully we will get enough able to come to create a good setting for a house party & manage to get the stuff for good mise en scene. Will update soon on how this goes.

Pixie Lott's Single/Album Covers

These are a few pictures of Pixie's singles/album covers as they are and a one other photo aswell. Their main features are:
-Pixie is always seen on here own and centre frame.
-Pixie's 'logo'(here name written in the 'script' style) is always sited on her singles covers and is always in the foreground/prominant.
-In the top 3, the background is plain or simple, using a basic fade or tanned effect with the colour. This creates a dramatic effect and allows the picture to focus on the subject; pixie. The last photo uses a rustik brick wall to link to her music video.
-They're all of very good quality and high resolution.

Storyboard

Well we've speant a while doing this and its quite detailed. The music is the song we're doing; Here We Go Again (tho i had to edit it to fit it in) and we completed our shot list today so tht will be on here shortly. We now just have to go shopping for our mise en scene aspects and decide on a final date for shooting.



I should mention tht there won't be any birds-eye shots, that just our incapability to draw very well. They will all be horizontal shots but with the same idea (ie. people all laying around her etc). Furthermore the transitions we haven't filled in yet will all be straight shots (though things often get changed in editing.)

CD Cover Analysis - Cheryl Cole

The first thing we notice is that, like Beyonce, Cheryl Cole is looking as though she is making eye contact with her fans. This is because she is the selling point of the album.
She is the main feature of the cover and she stands out even though it is all in black and white.
A lot of other female solo artists, sometimes considered 'Divas', have album covers where they are the centre of attention and stand out, e.g. Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, etc.
On the front of the album is the artists name and the name of the album. The font of the title is also used for the track list on the back.

Unlike the Beyonce album cover, there isnt a full body picture of Cheryl Cole on the back. The colour scheme is similar and the font is the same, but the only picture of Cheryl featured is on the front cover.

Analysis of Katy Perry's official fan site

Katy's website is created by TMM who have also done projects for artists and bands like; Lilly Allen, One Republic, Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.

There is a page before you get to the website that has a large picture of the artist (Katy Perry), with adverts for itunes, downloads, trailers to performance, an advert for a number you can call Katy on and a link to the main website.

The colour theme is pink, blue and white
Katy Perry is the main focus point as there is a large photo of her down the the left hand side.

Her name is in bubble writing, the same writing thats on her album.
The menu bar has links to; home, news, shows, dear diary, lyrics, pix, whos that girl?, telly, extra and store.

Theres a news box on the homepage where fans can add things to, a reel of pics, telly, dear diary.

Adverts down the right hand side for downloading her new single and album and her online store. there are also links to street team, myspace, message board, ringtones, mailing list, and a Make your very own Katy Perry ringtone link.

At the bottom of the page there is another menu with links to; Home, news, shows, dear diary, lyrics, pix, bio, telly, extras, forum, myspace, sign up, ringtones and store.

This website is quite different to others for similar artists as it contains lots of colour. others tend to be quite muted skins and just have coloured picture of themselves to draw attention.

http://www.katyperry.com/

Textual Analysis

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

Lady Gaga's video just dance features many of the house party theme. Can't upload the video here as it's not allowed, but it also features the plastic cups that suggests alcohol use for a good time. It also features crowded shots, representing the chaotic fun nature of house parties. The usual making a mess and trashing the place is also apparent, like when Lady Gaga pours champagne/ alcohol all over the room. Loud music and distorted camera angles are used to show partying hard. We may use the idea of canted angles and speakers as well. Toward the end of the video, the video manipulates time by speeding it up creating distortion. We may also use the manipulation of time, as it slowing it down, like in the adidas advert made it look quite cool. We have looked at video directors that manipulate time and this is something we are looking to link in with our work.

Textual Analysis for BEP I got a feeling

Here are some the key features in the house party for this music video-

-Getting ready for the party first
-Arriving at the party
-Paper cups
-Hot pants
-Slow motion used as an effect
-Wigs and partly fancy dress
-Dancing
-Jumping on furniture
-Sunglasses on inside
-Glow paint
-UV lighting
-Glow sticks
-Piling on sofas
-Writing and drawing
-Laying on grass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rrxONlLo

Textual Analysis of Keisha - Tik Tok

Keisha- Tik Tok

Here are some of the key features of a house party found in this music video-

-Waking up in bath
-Shocking parents
-House a mess
-Hotpants-- links to pixie lottd image
-Glitter
-Bright lights
-Dancing crowds
-Paper cups
-Sunglasses inside
-People slumped out accross sofas
-Finishes where it begins- at house morning after, main artist in bathtub.

Some of these really fit in well with our ideas for our 'Here we go again' video. Such as; Waking up at the start of the video after a party and then reliving it, ending the video back at the start with the main artist waking back up, the hotpants used fit in well with Pixie Lotts image, in fact most of the list will be part of our music video somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=910ZFGkhuQ0

Textual Analysis of Adidas House Party Advert

Adidias Advert- House Party

Adidas launched this video to promote their products. The video is very useful and there are aspects of it which we think we will recreate. It's a good example of partying hard in a house and having fun, which we want to portray in our video. The use of celebrites such as Katy Perry and David Beckham helps to promote their brand, linking to the cult of celebrity, and make it look a cool place to be. We won't be able to do this in our video, but can use the clothing and mise on scene ideas that are in the advert.

The 'painting on the wall' aspect that is present in this advert was something we are already interested in doing, but had a problem working out how we could do it. This advert may have solved this, as they paint on peices of paper that are stuck onto a wall rather than paint directly onto the wall, which we might do insetad. We also wanted to use the idea of something smashing in our video, which is used in the advert too. This is also linked to the partying hard attitude and the idea that anything can happen. We want to show a bit alcohol use in our video as part of the 'house party' theme, and the plastic cups in this advert might be a way of doing that, as it's not directly implying that they are drinking a lot. The dancing, singing and having a laugh ideas shown in the advert are all things we want to convey in our video.

Textual Analysis of Skins Series 1 House Party

Skins season 1- House party.

This is another example of the house party been used in media. Here are some of the key elements shown in this clip-

• Jumping on beds
• Crouded houses
• Smashing household objects
• People laying in different places i.e. bathtubs
• Fast movement
• People slumped over eachother
• Writing on objects e.g; walls and mirrors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4RQZVKABLk

Textual Analysis

House Party Theme

We have decided to locate our video in a house for a house party theme instead of originally setting it in a club. This will be easier to recreate but also more fitting with Pixie Lott's image and her fans. Recently house parties have been frequently used in videos and adverts to relate to a younger audience. The house party theme is increasingly popular today for younger people and has featured in a wide range of media. We have been analysing Lady Gaga, an advert for Adidas, Black Eyed Peas, Keisha and a well known teen tv drama Skins. See above blogs.

Ancillary Task - CD cover

Brief

As part of the music video package, there was the option to do a DVD or CD cover for our chosen artist. Our group has decided to do a CD cover for the artist as well as a webpage. I'm overseeing the CD aspect so to start I have researched and will blog a few female artist CD cover designs such as Beyonce, Cheryl Cole and Pixie Lott who generally fit our target audience of young females. By doing this it could create a picture of what we as a group should aim for.

Beyonce

First thing that is quite obviously notable is the way Beyonce poses to directly interact with the audience by making eye contact. This is fundamental as it is the artist who is the huge selling point and whos image must be shown. The way Beyonce is shown to be looking at the consumer could be used to give the audience the perception of identifying with their favourite artist and at the same time clearly meets the demands of the record label. This I found to also be extremely common amongst female artists, a lot of face-on shots that show most, if not all of the artists face.

As are the conventions of a album/artist CD cover, the name of the shown artist is always written on the front cover, as well as the name of the album. If only a single then the artists name and the name of the track. These were featured on all of the artists I have looked at and pretty much any i've known.

Something that was common in both Beyonce and Cheryl Cole's Album covers was the (implied) naked shot of the artist. This is quite frequently used in terms of a female artist, and shows the 'sex sells' idea. It could perhaps link to Laura Mulvey's idea of the male gaze, and Beyonce being seen as an object of desire. We may not look into doing a similar technique but will bear it in mind when it comes to choice of clothing and appearance.

The back of the album also in most cases features the artist, again linking to the selling point that is the artist. Though I found that a full body shot was often apparent rather than just a head and shoulders shot.

What I have especially taken from both the back of Pixie's album cover and Beyonce's was the aspect of modeling and how it has been integrated into the composition of the artist when printed. Beyonce's striking pose on the back of her album as well as on previous covers on is a good tool that is able to show off her confident personality and something that we need to consider when recreating our own version. Pixie's posing suggests her fun, girly nature which we need to portray.

Obviously the tracks featured are always printed on the back.

so far...

so we've spent the last couple of lessons doing our story board. Its quite detailed so its taking a while but we're thinking of doing a short annimation of it and hopefully it will be up here soon.

Costume Ideas Continued

We decided to have some of our party goers wearing carnival/Venetian masks throughout the video to add to the disorientation of being drunk or hung over. We thought it would look good for people to occasionally see a masked person. It would make them want to watch the video again to make sure that they had seen what they thought they had seen.





We also want to keep Pixie's look, so we are going to have hot pants and a party top for our main girl to wear.

Focus Group Analysis

This is the focus group we held. We chose a few songs and artists which were either similar to our video or we like the directors ideas and played the song through once (without imagery) to gage what they thought the video should be like, and then once through (with the imagery) to see what they liked and didn't like.
Are audience are all female between 16-18, as this is our peer group and target audience.

They liked the idea of a narrative based video where the artist appeared natural and relaxed. The enjoyed the simplicity of the Boy and Girls video and suggested a carnival theme for our video after hearing the opening of the song. However, with no carnivals being available to us very easily we decided to use the carnival masks in the video, (also because some of the audience liked the "Pixie" masks in the Boys and Girls video).

Florence and the Machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TwqE2X55Wg

This video, which unfourtunately we can't embed, is really good for the canaval theme. The wide shot followed by tracking shots at the begginning sets the scene of the 'morning after', whilst close ups create a feeling of confusion and disorientation which is the look we were thinking of using for the beginning of our music video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpLXQorSQe8

This video is also good for our idea of having lots of people and then just her.

Carnival mise-en-scene research

After conducting our focus group, we found that after hearing our song choice many of the group found that it made them think of a carnival or fair ground theme. Therefore we are looking at possibly dressing some of the cast in carnival themed dress.

A good example of what we were thinking of is in the David Bowie film 'Labyrinth', but more carnival less goblin.

The masquerade theme would fit well with the opening sound that sounds like a fair ground / carnival. However we feel that it would be difficult to set it at a fair ground because of our other idea of having our main character dancing in a club. So by having a masquerade theme in the video it fits both ways. There's more of the carnival example in the video below which is also from Labyrinth.

Casting

Loads of People - For party scenes. Waking up with loads of poeple in her bedroom lying around in carnaval dress.
Girls - girls night out
Two friends to get ready with - leave her on the dance floor so shes the 'only one on the dance floor' = narrative.

Costumes

Dance party outfits - Sparkly stuff
- Hot pants (to keep in sync with Pixie's image)
- Leather jackets (")
- Quwerky clothing
PJ's - for waking up
Carnaval dress - taken from audience research
High heels - for the party scenes

Location Suggestions

Bed room - for waking up at the begginning of the song. Will probably one of our own bedrooms.
Bury St Edmunds - this is mostly the area availiable to us but Lizzy can drive so we may think about shooting in the surrouding areas.
Clubs - we really wanted an authentic dance floor but we still need to organise this.
Fairground - this was taking from our audience research that will be posted today or tomorrow. but legistically this will be difficult to do so we were thinking that we would represent the carnaval theme through costumes instead.
Brick Wall - to keep in sync with Pixie Lott's image.

For our music video we have to request copyright of the song that we wish to recreate. After looking for quite a while we found that Mercury Records were under Universal. Here is the email that I have sent to them requesting permissionto use Pixie Lott and her song 'Here we go again'


'Dear Universal,

For a recent educational project, we have been asked to recreate a music video. We have chosen the song 'Here We Go Again' by Pixie Lott and we would like to request your permission to use this song. The production of this video is only for educational purposes to learn about constructing a music video and promoting the star. '




I hope they don't say no.

Web page analysis

this is a brief analysis of pixie lott's official website.

The site is designed by TEN4 (who have designed websites for The Boat That Rocked, Britany Spears, Lemar and Manic Street Preachers to mention a few) and Pixie herself is signed by Mercury Records (who are a subsidiary of Univeral Music Group). The site has 4 Key Features:

• Interactive - there is a Naughts and Crosses game that you can play with Pixie, a section where fans who have signed up can leave comments on her new album or concerts etc and also plenty of invite to "Join Pixie" on various social networking sites.
• Advertising - Obviously the site is designed to premote Pixie and her music however there are adverts for not only her album (which again in vite you to "click here" but also associated bands who also have albums being released.
• Keeping the reader up to date - in this sense the page is more of a blog with up to date feeds on tours and concerts, links to her twitter page, the "latest pix" and a link to her blog.
• Premoting an image - the slideshow of images just below the "i got soul" advert, are all wide shot close ups that tend to portray Pixie as a young rock-pop star. the image shown on the picture above is or her infront of a rustik brick wall with duffy-style hair and a black shiffon top. This urban, 'rocky' imagergy (aimed more at older teenage girls who enjoy partying and clubbing) crontrasts witht the innocent, playful swinging motion picture at the top of the page (which is perhaps aimed at younger girls), which also matches the elegent yet playful typography used for the words "pixie lott" at the top of the page.
• All ot the links and headings are in capitals, which may be to draw the viewers attention to them, enticing them to click it.

http://www.pixielott.com/site/global/frontpage?cmdr=ip2country/detected

Test Shot - Layering

This is a short film we produced today.

We were trying to experiment with our layering idea (and of course in the video the subject would be dancing instead of signing) and also learn how to use final cut pro.

We found that if we simply layered the shots the subject became translucent, but when we split the shot into two and put them together they became opaque. This may pose a problem later because we won't be able to show depth as much or have as many people in the frame. Furthermore, we had to alter the lighting on one half of the frame because it didn't match the other, so we will have to ensure we keep the lighting as consistent as possible and we had to ensure the camera satyed as still as possible so the background matched up.

But this does look good and i think we will certainly concider using it in our music video.

Tomorrow we are planning to hold our Focus Group, which we will hopefully film so we can put the results up on here. We're also planning to do some test shots with green screen and see what we can do with that, tho i'm not sure we'll have time.

We still have a few post that need to go up on here and we need to start our planning stage.

Video analysis - Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry as a director is very 'avant garde' or different, which we were quite influenced by, especially his manipulation of what is on screen. Here are a couple of his videos that we are interested in for our work.

White Stripes- Hardest Button to Button

Good thing about this video is the fact that its doesn't have high production values, which we think it would be hard to recreate effectively.

Relationship between music and visual:

Cut on the beat every time, for example at the beginning each time the guitar comes in Jack is seen and each hit of the drum meg appears on another drum set.

Body movement/dancing in time with the beat.

Demands of the record label:

There is a close up of Meg, and the concept of the performers moving with all the instruments puts the focus on them.

The video is a good example of how Michel Gondry manipulates mise en scene and is highly creative. We liked this as we were influenced by the idea of multiple same objects but also want to try this with humans, which is also like his Kylie Minogue Video.

Kylie Minogue- Come into my World

This video is highly innovative and surreal. What we were drawn to most about this video is the idea of multiple Kylies, as we were looking at multiplying people in our video too.

Demands of the record label:

Four Kylies means that the record label will be pleased. Some close ups of Kylie are apparent too.

Notion of Looking:

"Come into my world" almost instantly says it, but the video seems to be looking at Kylie doing everyday things.

Just one single take for the whole video with no cuts is also highly inventive which is a theme we like but might not recreate ourselves.

Brainstorm

Song Choices

Here's a list of songs that we considered:

Candyman - Christina Aguilera
We liked the 1950's style and upbeat tempo however we felt it would be hard to recreate effectivly the context because of the high production values involved, costumes and casting.

I Got Trouble- Christina Aguilera
We really like this song, and are still considering it. Same problems as before, high production values and mise en scene make it difficult.

Just can't get enough - Wallis Bird
This song was quite slow compared to the others that we looked at, and we were looking for something a little more upbeat to make editing a bit more interesting.

Good Luck - Bassment Jaxx
We liked this one as well, still considering it but looking at others which we prefer. Had a good upbeat tempo, however we would have to do a more performance based video which we are steering away from.

Boys and Girls - Pixie Lott
This song was good as the artist was the same age as us. We thought that it would be easy to do a party based video, but the concept was too close to the actual video.

Here we go again - Pixie Lott
This is the song we like the most, as its similar to the boys and girls but we can be more original with the video and theres more scope to do more interesting stuff. The lyrics 'last one on the dancefloor' gave us the idea that we could use just one girl with effects like overlay, rather than have a big cast.

Looking at previous student work

We have decided against doing a performance based music video after seeing some student work. We think that it will look too fake if we have people singing on camera, especially if they don't know the words very well.

However, we have taken an idea from one of the student music videos from last year. We liked the way that there were multiple Louise's in her and Kat's video to Addicted to Base by Puretone. The best example of what we want to do is at 2 mins 19 secs, with the multiple girls dancing.

some ideas

-We really liked the idea of avoiding a performance based video by using lyrics on t-shirts like in the Bassment Jaxx 'Do Your Thing' video. We throught this would work well with a fun upbeat song.


- this one is just good for the stop motion idea and its in negative

- if we're going for an urban look this if good.

Student work from kegs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZn6IDxdhM
Pros - strong narative reinforced by the faded flashbacks
- the framing of the shots, not quite showing everything made for more interesting viewing
Cons - some shaky hand held camera shots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXVrz08nLco
Pros - fast foward
- sense of fun with all the people
- cut on action of "paper back writer" with the 3 different shots.
Cons - not all the lyrics are in time
- the publisher's office is in a garden

Examples of Glazer's work: Jamiroquai 'Virtual Insanity'

The video incorporates a lot of Glazer's motifs and style. It has high production values and a dull pallet. There are a lot of blues and greys, it is almost monochromatic like many of his adverts are. There are animals in the video; the CGI raven and the very real big bugs. Glazer uses steady controlled camera work.

The video also incorporates the key features of music video (Goodwin Six)

Intertextuality

We didn't find many intertextual references in this video. However, there is a link to 'The Shining' with the use of blood.

Reference to the notion of looking

In the video Jamiroquai often sings to the camera and looks into it. At one point he comes right up to the camera.

Genre Characteristics

The genre of this video is pop/dance. It follows the characteristics by being very poppy and funked up. There is dancing in it and the music makes people want to dance. It is very flash and slick and overall is highly polished.

Relationship between Lyrics and Visuals

When he sings "magic spells" it seems as though he is making the chair move towards him. Another place where there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals is when he sings "prayer" and puts his hands in a praying position. He also sings "can't see" and covers his eyes. One of the things he sings is "underground" and the bugs in the video could be reference to this. One of his lines is "crazy world we're living in" and a crow randomly flies through the room which is a little crazy. There is also some reference to the negative aspects postmodern world, "and now that things are changing for the worse."

Relationship between Music and Visuals

Jamiroquai is always on the move which goes well with the upbeat music of the song. When he walks on his tip toes behind the couch it goes really well with the sound of the music. When the music slows down so do his dance moves.

Demands of the Record Label

The record label often wants close-ups of the star because that is who they are selling to audiences. This video has a few close-ups of Jamiroquai and he is in the whole video. He is the only person in it apart from a small bit with some extras. However, he stands out with his dark clothes contrasting with their white ones that blend in with the walls. The video also includes some of Jamiroquai's own recurring motifs such as his hat and his funky dance style.

Examples of Glazer's work: 'surfer' advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbrAN36KLo
Begins with an monochrome extreme close up of a shirtless man. He has a rustic look and Glazer doesn't shy away from showing his imperfections. Glazer uses his recurring motif of horses by incorporating them into the waves via CGI. He also uses the technique of freeze framing however, this is a feature of his adverts and not of his music videos. Cinematic appearance as its shot on 35 mml. This quality appearance prevokes dramatic imagery so that almost any still taken from the film would be a breath taking imagery; this creates an impact aesthetic.


Like most of his other work the advert is about male masculinity overcoming or defying nature. He shows this through holding on a shot of the successful males face at the begining and then exapanding to show all four males as shirtless; facing nature full on. The culminates in the celebration of the man who successfully rode the wave.


The advert also contains a intertexual reference to 'moby dick' via the scottish voice over by saying: "So here's to you, Ahab".














http://www.cengage.co.uk/yeshin/students/guinness.pdf

research directors: Jonathon Glazer

Style:

• Black and White (monochrome) - cirascuro
  eg. Stella Artois monk advert, Radiohead music video (find out name)


• Or dull/muted palet
  eg. Unkle music video 'Rabit in Your Headlights' - greys (concrete), dark (clothing)


• cinematic, high production values
  Stellar Artois Advert - wide shots dark clothing against white snow


• Powerful imagery; Impact Aesthetic
  eg. car crash in 'Rabbit in Your Headlights'
• male masculinity/male torso
  eg.guiness advert 'surfer' - competition of males; physically fit; competition with nature, Richard Ashcroft 'song for the lovers' - shirtless
• Horses / animals
  eg. 'surfer' advert - horses in the waves (CGI + cinimatic), VW advert - dogs, horses (powerful imagery), 'dreamer' squirrels, horses, dog and shirtless man proving his masculinity.
• Slow mo
  eg. radiohead 'street spirit', unkle 'rabit in your headlights' car crash scene (the climax) - focuses /settles on the most dramatic images making them last longer and have a greater impact.
• Intertexuality
  eg. Blur 'the universals' - link with 'Clockwork Orange'.
• Extreme close ups particularly of male faces
  eg. guiness adverts 'surfer' and 'dreamer'

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