Music Video

· In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My music video follows the conventions of similar media texts in the sense that I have taken into account what real acoustic music videos contain and have applied that to my own video. The same can be said about the ancillary tasks. I went into hmv in the high street in jersey and researched different digipaks for the acoustic genre. Many featured beaches and the sea, with almost every one featuring an acoustic instrument at one point in the digipak. The majority of them featured a scene of natural beauty, so I replicated that by using photos such as lighthouses, the sea, forts, acoustic guitars etc...

· How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


Linking in with my audience feedback I found out that a lot of people were impressed with my ancillary tasks, they said that they could imagine them sitting in a music shop and selling. This tells me that they were effective and react well with the target audience. Both the ancillary tasks and the main task fit in well together, they both follow the same genre and have the same effect on the target audience. As they both work in the same way to appeal to the same audience and follow the conventions of similar media texts it means that they are both effective as a combination.




· What have you learned from your audience feedback?


From what I asked people about my music video, the majority of them said that they liked it. An issue that a lot of them did have with them was the issue surrounding the lip-synchronicity. It is quite obvious that throughout the music video there is a lack of continuity when regarding lip-synching. I did however; anticipate this criticism as I had noticed that that was one weakness with my video. Quite a few of the people I asked said that they were impressed with the effort I put into getting to the locations where I shot some of the filming. The pan and shots overlooking St Ouens bay take are about a mile walk into some sand dunes and up a large hill, I had to transport all of the props and the camera itself up there and I think the effort into thinking where I should film paid off. Although a few did say that my music video may not look extremely professional, they did say that it did remind them of a real music video as it followed the conventions of a lot of acoustic music videos. All of the basics are there, although they might not be executed to the same degree as a professional video.


· How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


Particularly in the planning stage I researched greatly into youtube videos of the acoustic genre, I wanted to see how professional companies went around filming so I could try to replicate it and make it look as effective as possible.

Here is a link to my music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-InPfwa924I

Photos

This is a photo of Rocco Tower situated in St Ouen's Bay. This is the photo that I used for the back cover of my digipak. There were a few blotches on the lens of the camera which you will notice if you click on the photo. To get rid of these blotches I just retouched it using Adobe Photoshop. I also cropped it to 10cmx10cm so that it fitted the back of the cd cover.

This is the guitar I used in the thanks page of my cd digipak. I magnetic lassoed the outline of the guitar and increased the contrast to help the orange of the guitar stand out more. 

Equipment

Equipment:

FlipCam

For the majority of my footage I used a FlipCam. The quality of the footage can not be compared to other cameras I have used. It's high definition and is very easy to upload onto a mac. The downside for me was the size of it, it's very small (about the size of a mobile phone) and looks wimpish attached to a metre long tripod. The other criticism I have of it is it does not zoom in very far.

Sony NP-F750 Digital Camera

This camera has been used by my dad for years. Before I got my hands on the FlipCam this is what I used to film the first set of footage for my music video. Although it may appear fairly primitive compared to what's on the current market, it does the job and is of a decent quality.

Adobe Premiere Pro

Contrary to the majority of my class mates who all used Final Cut Pro. I decided to use Premiere Pro as I was more familiar with it. In Summer 2010 I made a short video and used this programme to edit it. There is a debate between which programme is the best, and looking at various forums on the internet they both seem to be pretty well respected. I just chose to use Premiere Pro as I already knew how to use it, and because it's on my mac at home I would be able to work on it after school hours as opposed to if I used Final Cut, which would have limited me to just working on it at school.

Props/Cast

I used various different props including an acoustic guitar and appropriate clothing for Adam who I filmed.

Ancillary Tasks

Below are my ancillary tasks. An advert for my CD as well as a CD digipak.

CD Front Cover

Back Cover

Inside Cover (Thanks Page)

 

CD

 

Advert

Filming

I filmed the majority of my music video at home where Adam lip-synced the lyrics of Neil Halstead’s Paint a face. I filmed on a sunny weekend deliberately to enhance the song; it is typical of songs of the acoustic genre to be filmed in this fashion as it relates to the tempo and mood of the song. Other scenes of the video were shot at St Ouen’s bay. Using the sand dunes and the views overlooking the beach below.

The time-lapse style shots were filmed at various places, the sped up cloud shots were filmed overlooking St Ouen’s bay, in total I filmed for around 30 minutes on the same shot, and when it went to editing I increased the tempo to 2000%. The driving scene was shot at various places from all around the Island of Jersey, again the tempo of these shots were upped to around 1000%.

In total there was about two hours of footage after filming, which meant that I met my original task of having excess footage. I don’t want to get to the stage and editing where I don’t have enough footage, and have to go out and take some more. This will just be inconvenient so it makes sense to get it all over and done with early on so I can concentrate of the editing.

A few problems did arise through filming, on a few occasions, circumstances arose which meant that filming had to be postponed. My original idea of filming in prior to the winter holidays had to be scrapped due to snow and poor weather. I then fell ill over the Christmas holidays, which meant that I couldn’t blog or film anything.

Planning

For my music video I have decided to go with the song ‘Paint a Face’ by Neil Halstead. The song falls into the acoustic genre and these are some of the things that are associated with that genre.

• Musician/band performing or singing in front of the camera. With a variety of different shots including close-ups and medium close-ups of the musician and the instrument.
• The videos tend to portray a message. Whether that be a message about relationships, life, a day out or perhaps something more significant.
• Contrary to other music genres it is important to keep transitions between shots slow to correlate with the tempo of the song. Genres such as electro and drum and bass which both have a far higher tempo in comparison will have quicker transitions.
• The location of the music video tends to be based around a natural environment. Many musicians such as Jack Johnson and Ben Howard shoot their videos by the sea. They tend to include surfing in them as the acoustic genre is strongly linked in with surf culture.
• Props are always relevant to the genre. There is no point using unrelated instruments, the acoustic genre is based around the acoustic guitar, not the electric.
• Setting is also important. Many music videos are shot on a sunny day with blue sky as this reflects the mood of the song to help the audience understand the message that is being portrayed.

With this in mind, I will be making sure that I follow these conventions as much as possible. I understand that it is unrealistic for me to make a professional looking music video, as I have no budget and limited access to equipment. However, I can at least make it look realistic by using similar shots and following these conventions.

I will be going to various places across Jersey, with St Ouen’s being one of the main places I will shoot. I will be able to take advantage of the views over the bay and the sand dunes. These look like realistic settings of an acoustic music video so it will enhance it.

I will be using a lot of medium close-up shots of the musician lip-syncing, and will try to make it look as realistic as possible. Other shots such as long shots and extreme close-ups will be used to add variety to the video.

A recurring pattern I want to include in my music video is a driving time lapse and a time-lapse of cloud movement. I intend to include these in various points of the video at specific points to create continuity in the video. 


Permission


In order to use the song by Neil Halstead, I first had to ask permission. By doing this I contacted him by writing this email.

Dear Mr Halstead

My name is Michael Medway, I am 18 years old and am in my final year at school at Victoria College in Jersey. I am writing to ask permission for the use of your song “Paint a Face” in my A2 Media coursework. We are required to use a song of our choice and make a music video for it.

Since seeing you live at the Grassroots festival in Jersey last summer I decided that I would want to use it for my music video. However, I need permission from you before I can do this.

I have no intention in using your song to make money, nor will I send it on to anyone else except my teacher and examiner who mark my work.

I understand entirely if you do not wish for me to use your song for my coursework and if that is the case then there will be no hard feelings whatsoever.

If you could get back to me soon, I would be very much appreciative.

Yours Gratefully,

Michael Medway

After gaining permission, I then went on to start filming,

Introduction