Editing

After the production stage of our video we had 8 weeks to edit our piece. Over this time I attended the edit suite 2 afternoons per week. I used final cut pro 7, Adobe after effects and blue screen effects to create a final product. Firstly we created a first assembly closely following our digital storyboard that we uploaded into the project before the shoot day. The weeks following this final assembly were used to tweak and polish off what we had done, this included adding new shots that we filmed that we thought fitted better or were more appropriate to our storyboard, fixing shots in time with the beat of the music and generally correcting mistakes. For example, a shot of the drummer was correctly in time with the beat and was the correct shot we intended to use however he was hitting the wrong drum as there was a different drum pattern (beat) to the second chorus than the first, this kind of mistake is easily corrected and I simply scanned through the shot to the correct part of the song and cut it so that the drummer was hitting the correct drum at the correct time. After all the shots were in the right place and the correct order we looked over some of the shots that we took impulsively in any time left over on the shoot day, there were some shots that we thought were more fitting and appropriate so we placed these in the video in the place of shots that were either less attractive or had been used a lot already in the product, this was for a number of reasons, firstly because we wanted to keep the video interesting and not make it to repetitive and also some of the shots we placed in later better fitted conventions we were following, leading the eye, rule of thirds ect. After we had a line of shots that we were happy with and all agreed on we used after effects and blue screen effects to finalise the product, we altered colours, texture and also lit up the light bulbs in the performance element as we did not have them connected to power on the shoot day.

Shoot Day

We set up the studio the night before the shoot day in order to have as much filming time as possible. We began our studio set up by firstly fixing our blinders together and connecting them to a power source, after testing the blinders and making sure they weren’t in contact with anything that could have caused a risk or fire hazard we used a cherry picker to hang light bulbs in the appropriate spot that we marked out using white duck tape.

After we were happy with the lighting we spread out bags of dried leaves again making sure they were not in contact with the blinders or slippery on the surface of the floor, after the leaves were evenly spread and the blinders were functioning properly we drew the blue-screen curtain across the back of our studio and laid down lights to illuminate it. Finally we set up the instruments such as the instruments (drums, mic) and did a final check of power for the speakers and the CD player for the playback.

For our planned shoot day we assembled in the morning at around 9:00am. Once everyone who was needed was present we gathered the band together and gave them instructions on what they needed to be doing throughout the day, for example who was needed at what time and how we wanted them to perform, the band then got changed into costume and took up positions while me and my group bubbled the tripod and set up the camera and looked through the camera in the main shots to see that there was nothing in the shot that wasn’t supposed to be there, for example on a few occasions leads and lights for the blue-screen could be seen so we combated this problem by simply moving some of the dried leaves so that they could not be seen ,this did have a risk of causing a minor continuity issue.

We used a JVC-1500 E to capture our shots. Once we had light up the blinders and blue-screen lighting we played the track and started filming. Once we had captured all the shots in a fixed position we laid out the tracks and captured the tracking shots we wanted, after this we brought out the cherry picker and set up the camera on it so that we could get hi-angle shots. Once all the shots that we had planned we had some time left over to film any extra shots, at around 1:00pm we started to collect the equipment (tripod, red-heads, generator, light bulbs and leads, tracks ect) however, due to the weather we could not go out to film and waited to see if the weather cleared up so that the conditions for filming were good. As the weather did not get any better we decided to postpone the performance filming to a later date. The conditions were much better a few days later so we gathered anyone involved in the performance element and decided to film the following day, this was so we could avoid any inconvenience to clashing commitments. The following afternoon we gathered the appropriate equipment and drove to our desired location in the Peaslake woods, which was conveniently close.

After arriving at the location we set up the light bulbs and generators, as this would have been difficult to do later on at night as the leads were black.

The temperature was very cold and we had a limited time to shoot so we set up the light bulbs and box so that we could shoot and then simply move the camera a short distance and quickly start filming again to efficiently use the time we had.

Once the sun had gone down and the light conditions were good we started filming our actress was already in costume as she changed before we left again for timing efficiency. The performance shooting lasted around 4 hours and we used torches and the red-heads to light up the location wile we packed up.

Theorists –Tom Ryall

‘The master image for genre criticism is the triangle composed of artist/film/audience. Genre may be defined as patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual films and which supervise both their construction by the filmmaker and their reading by an audience’
Ryall says in simple form that every thing is affected by everything,

Theorists- Stephen Neale

Genres are ‘systems’ of ‘expectations and conventions’ that circulate between ‘industry, text and subject’.
Audiences, therefore, have certain expectations of genre films, based on previous experience and familiarity with similar films which have repetition at the heart of the genre. They will derive pleasure from genre films. And this pleasure often comes from fulfilled or disrupted expectations. There must also be some sort of innovation or variance of one or more of the generic elements to keep the audience interested. This is why we can see develop alone a cycle. This movement is usually from the mythological towards the revisionistic.
The generic elements and conventions:
• Setting (time and place)
• Iconography
• Overall narrative form, plot
• Narrative events
• Representation of individuals and collective
• Stars (actors who appear in a certain type of role or film)
• Themes and ideology and universal myths
• Filmic codes and conventions

Theorists –Richard Dyer.

Richard Dyers theory is in context to star image. Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Dyer states that irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common, a star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials, for example advertising or magazines as well as films. Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. Stars depend on a range of subsidiary media- magazines, TV, radio the internet –in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.
Some common values of music stardom:
• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour (eg. The sex pistols)
• Success against the odds

Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.
Paradox 1.
The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.
Paradox 2.
The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

My group and I have used these paradox’s in our star image with regard to dress and behaviour, the group are dressed fairly plainly but still in sync, this is also fitted with a not to violent performance on and off stage.

An example of a unknown aritst using facebook to reach a market.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Sinclair/171966714833

Facebook, the current leading competitor in UK social networking sites

Myspace logo , a social networking website disigned for music lovers

Multi-media Campaign

We constructed our multimedia campaign around the target audience. As we have a target audience age range of 16-25, terrestrial channels would be ideal for marketing our band at certain times of the week and day, as this is a vaguely young age group channels such as MTV, ITV and T4 are ideal as well as such shows like Jonathan Ross who hosts a very popular show on the BBC Saturday line up, this show is very popular within our target audience and is known for its very high ratings and introduction of new bands, actors, directors ect. Another method of good marketing for this audience is popular music magazines which specialise in music and especially new ‘faces’ ,magazines such as NME, Rolling Stone and Q. The demographic of teens who read these magazines are the perfect market in contexts of our audience (alternative, indi, music lovers). And finally the internet holds huge possibilities as 16-25 year olds are currently spending more time nationally on social networking websites than any other form of media. WebPages such as Myspace and Facebook are two of the leading competitors which have the most profiles. Myspace is especially relevant as it is based around music and new bands.

Different type of shot size

Throughout our pop video we will be using a series of wide, mid, close up and extreme close up shots. This is so we can draw attention to specific contents of the mis-en-scene and create a flowing final product.

Camera position and angle

Camera position and angle is used to give a message about a character or object within the frame, for example, a left or right position with depth of field is usually used to portray a hero, whereas a villain is placed face on in the centre, the same effect can be used through angles, hi/low angles can be used to create a sense of dominance in a character or object. In our product we will use different angles and shot positions to recreate these feelings of relevance.

Example of camera position and Angle (over shoulder shot)

Lighting

Lighting will be a strong method of creating an atmosphere and mood in our pop video. We will use specific placement and intensity to silhouette and display our performance and narrative shots. Standard light bulbs are also a key feature in the narrative of our video acting as a power drawing in the leading female character.

Example of lighting used

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a composition rule that is used by dividing up a frame into 9 equal sections and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.This is because the human eye is naturally attracted to objects in these areas. In our video we will be both breaking and following the rule of thirds in order to create shots that attract the viewer and form a flowing final product.

Rule of thirds

Colours

The colours we have chosen for our video blend the narrative, performance and third element together, performance wise , we will use dark lighting in the studio to create an ominous atmosphere combined with red and orange colours to match the November gloom in the woods which is the chosen location to shoot for our narrative elements, this will create moods and emotions that will be recognised by the audience and will match the style of the artist. We ill also try to include composition rules such as Leading the eye, placement of detail and its arrangement in the frame and the use of shapes and lines to draw the same attention to specific elements of our video.

Example of colours

Example of location

White Lies- Farewell to the Fairground

In this video we can recognise the main composition rules used in common media. The video sticks strictly to the rule of thirds throughout the piece. Weather it is a shot of the artist (1:19) to a wide shot of landscape (0:10) .we also see that the lead singer has been placed in the middle of the frame to be portrayed as a villain (1:26) which binds in with the songs lyrics as the dominant male who is struggling with the relationship with a woman in plane view but looking at the bigger picture, with life itself, which is the basis of the song, the struggle of life. This point is being put forward by the composition rules in the shots. My group and I will use these same rules to put forward our different message. The White Lies video breaks the subtlety of placing a message behind an abstract composition rule in context with the surroundings and colours in (0:10-0:20) when we see the character walking through the snow whilst singing the lyrics ‘it’s a dream that’s growing cold’, this is a good example of effectively stating the obvious and breaking the subtlety of composition rules.

White Lies -Farewell to the fairground

Stingray logo

POP VIDEO 2009/10

Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap
1) Brief
As a group we are to develop a concept, image and brand for a new singer, group or band and develop and produce their first pop video, their first DVD cover and their first magazine advertisement. In order to establish the group and especially their image and brand for a particular target audience.

The Music Industry:
“We live in an age of music for people who don’t like music. The record industry discovered some time ago that there aren’t that many people who actually like music. For a lot of people, music’s annoying, or at the very least they don’t need it. They discovered if they could sell music to a lot of those people, they could sell a lot more records.”
--T Bone Burnett

STAGE ONE: Research And Development: Tasks - Decisions
Firstly I formed my group and between us we chose a track and an artist that did not have a major video. Secondly we developed some ideas between us for how we would treat the song in terms of performance, possible narrative and possible other images. we then sat down in class with the other groups and presented our ideas and they acted as the commissioning executives and marketing department of the record company, ourpitch included :
· Copies of the words
· APowerPoint presentation
· Lyrics
· A storyboard (with posters sketches a floor plan and anything that brought our pitch to life,
Our pitch took account of the specific target audience, the institutional context ie. Major/Indi record company’s, the genre of the artist ,the history of the artist, the current image of the artist , and the basic concept being the video ie how you promote the video

STAGE TWO: Pre- Production tasks and decisions
‘Greenlight’ in media terms means pre production begins; in our group we produced all the following elements for our group folder:
· Group roles list: a typed list with names of all major roles (producer, director, camera coordinator, chief editor, lighting designer, studio floor manger, props
· Cast, locations, props sorted soonest,
· Time line: a detailed timeline that illustrates how lyrics, visual action and song structure coordinate.
· Storyboards: full storyboards with all technical directions, as previously instructed (shot number, shot type, camera movement, sound track lyrics, lighting, actions, location, special effects, editing transitions, and possibly a digital storyboard.
· Then Film and edit the storyboard
· Floor plans/ lighting: Birdseye sketches, preferably printed, including rough measurements of all locations, showing all light sources (windows, video lights etc.) camera position and action areas.
· Shooting schedule: different to storyboard, lists the shots as they are to be shot, including AM/PM locations ect.
· Equipment list: full typed checklist of all technical equipment needed on the day of the shoot.
· Props list. Full list of all props and their source, including costing of any expensive items. Studio and location, with playback plus make up .
· Cast list: full cast list with digital pictures, MCU of each cast member (including details of house if a Hurtwood student, this also means that a camera test might be necessary.
· Title page, plus a contracts page for call sheet.
· Movement order page (if relevant)
· DVD cover and magazine advert (plus plans for this)
After this, the video is shot, STAGE THREE: PRODUCTION.
The call sheet for cast and performers few days before the actually shoot, the lyrics of the track are given to the performers also a few days before so that they can get familiar with the words and timing of the song. During this period everyone on the crew carries out heir main job and does some directing and camera work. A photographer should also be present to capture shots of the shoot for advertisement and DVD cover. Stage four is post-production. This is mainly driven by the lead editor, however, all need to be involved, this stage takes a large sum of input in both lesson and free time, the production is tested on an audience at a rough assembly and fine cut during post. The CD/DVD cover and magazine advert are all completed in this stage. The final stage of production is distribution and exhibition. This stage is where the final product is released onto established television outlets (terrestrial subscription), on CD and DVD.

Sweet Dispotition -The Temper Trap lyrics.

Sweet disposition
never too soon
oh reckless abandon
like no one's
watching you

a moment, a love
a dream aloud
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs
a moment, a love
a dream aloud
a moment, a love
a dream aloud
Chorus:
so stay there
cause i'll be comin over
and while our bloods still young
it's so young
it runs
and we won't stop til it's over
won't stop to surrender

of desperation
I played them for you
a moment, a love
a dream aloud
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs
a moment, a love
a dream, aloud
a moment, a love
a dream aloud

Institutional and Audience Context

Stingray
Stingray is a band formed by 4 teenage boys from Liverpool in 2001, at the time, this consisted of all members of the band being 17 years of age. They started off in 2001 simply as a casual band with little intention to make any impact on the industry, in late November 01 stingray were asked to play at a Christmas show in their school (which three of the four members attended) after this they were approached my a member of the audience who worked for a small agency working to develop unsigned bands with potential. Since then, Stingray have been performing at events ranging from small audiences of around 100-250 to landing spaces on introducing stages at large festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading&Leeds.Stingray also play on a regular basis at a bar in London (Parsons Green) that supports bands of a similar position. From 2001 to the present day Stingray’s star image has altered, this is simply due to maturity over a period of time, when Stingray was first formed they wore alternative and colourful cloths and wrote about different subjects in their lyrics, drugs and women for example, today they write with intention to express a more meaningful message, love and its dangers, government and its corruption and positivity within everyday life. Stingray’s style of music is liked by many people mainly a teenage market and in large numbers. The future looks positive looking at the rapid growth and popularity of the band and their music. Stingray’s genre of music fits with the Alternative, indie and Rock style. Theirinfluences come from bands such as Whitelies, Passion Pit, MGMT and The Boxer Rebellion. Leading competition consists of bands such as Empire Of The Sun and Flashguns who are both bands within the same genre. This genre shapes their star image as the music and lyrics reflect the morals they have, the cloths they ware, and the manner in which they perform. The commercial implications work positively with their choice of music as Stingrays Music fits in with a growing market. Stingray operates to target the jigtar market C-D. The band are signed with a successful independent label named Track Records, they work with similar bands in the same genre and aim to develop them by placing and advertising them in the correct locations such as certain bars, clubs and festivals. Other acts signed to Track Records are such artists as flashguns. this is a good label for Stingray as the correct company is vital for success , this is because of the way they market the artists in a certain way and in certain locations.
The bands demographic is made up of a mix of groups, mainly female but still with a large male audience, ranging within age from 16-25 and backgrounds from both public and state schools in the UK.The typical fan would demonstrate a sophisticated but rebellious life, strong morals and careless behaviour are the main characteristics of the fans, thealternative music that the fan base listen to is of similar genre and would consume other media products such as music magazines (NME for example) and social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. Stingray creates an image of simple autumn colours and basic visuals. On posters, magazines and CD covers for example photography of city landscape or simply the bands logo, this is an effective visual as it appeals to the audience genre to recognise this style. Stingray have a video for their main selling single which is to be release in 2010, in this video there is abstract shots of the band showing them in a dark surroundings and using blue and white to create a atmosphere, again this appeals to the listeners as it represents thought provoking lyrics. Thisimagery is similar to other videos in this genre and are likely to be exhibited on websites such as ‘Youtube’ and ‘Myspace’ alongside being able to purchase on music sites like ‘limewire’ and ‘itunes’.My video follows this style and imagry of this genre and audience.

Copyright premissions letter

I studied https://bac.hurtwood.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=dcf293354f0846b8a577ebcea1b2e29c&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.copyrightservice.co.uk%2fcopyright%2fp13_permission
To find out how things worked on copyright.

I had to ask for the copyright holder’s permission before using the song, and so wrote a letter which went off by e mail and post to the copyright holder. This letter is laid out below:

LETTER SENT

Tom Leader
Hurtwood House
Holmbury St Mary
Dorking
Surrey
RH5 6NU


Warner Music Group
75 Rockefeller PlazaNew York, NY 10019 October 8TH 2010

Dear Sir or Madam

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely


Tom Leader, Millie Driver, Jorden Pinchen
Hurtwood House School