Andrew Goodwins theory

Andrew Goodwin's Narrative analysis is that there are Pop video's that use Illustration-  where the story tells the lyrics, Amplication- when the video introduces new meanings that do not condratict with the lyrics but add layers of meanings. Disjuncture- where there is little connection  between lyrics and video or the lyrics contradict the lyrics. Here are Video's that represent these three feature:

This is LL Cool J - Hush I think this is an illustrative video because he is describing how he's felt for this girl ever since he has been in his teens. He relates specific lyrics to an action in the clip on more than one occasion. This is the practicality of Goodwins theory

This video is Missy Elliot 'Get your freak on'. This is my example of amplification. There is a lot of dancing, close ups of the lead artist missy Elliot saying her lyrics and brief references to her lyrics in other actions on the screen e.g "Quiet hush your mouth sound is when I spit it out..." 







                                                    
Finally, This video is Usher Caught Up. i think this song displays Goodwin theory of disjuncture because Usher has done a video where he is in a gang that tries to win back a girl from his rival mobsters. It doesn't really have anything to do with the song lyrics however it does make for an entertaining video

Research: Favourite video from last year

I really like the transitions used in it, the mix between black and white and normal colour, the disjunction, the way the way Keith is singing but the characters cannot see him even though he is in touching distance of them. I aslo like the shots of keith standing still in oxford street and the buses going past him in fast motion. Another aspect of editing that i liked the multi screen effect that split into three in each row. My favourite shot was the one where both parties met up under the lights in the distance.

Overall I like everything about it is a very good video, a good song, good storyline and good ideas.

Laura Mulvey's Representation and my example and understanding of it

I understand Laura Mulvey's representation as trying to say in a world of male dominance females get objectified as figments of fantasy. This is done in a lot of hip hop and rap video's where men are singing and females are just either half naked and all over them or dancing in a strip club.

An example of this would be Akon and Eminem's Smack that

This clearly this video applies to Mulvey's theory and women are only used as an object of entertainment. 

Video's that go against this would be Your cooler than me by Mike Poisner

he uses he's video to make a point that a woman ignore his existants because she thinks he's cooler than him. This has no resemblance to Mulvey's theory because women are not the object of this video, its just a clear message without a derogatory treatment of women

Laura Mulvey's Idea On Representation

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which styled accordingly". 


My interpretation of this quote in a world where Men see themselves as physical mental and sexually more powerful than females what pleases the eye in a music video also replicates this.  This will mean women will be seen as the object and males shall usually narrate the subject of a music video in an image they would see as part of their fantasy. 


Here are a few video's that we looked at in class 

The first example is E-40. He objectifies women in a way that he thinks that they are on the same object level as cars, so cars should be glossed and have 'drop top roofs' and women should be in hardly any clothing oiled up and getting dirty whilst fixing these cars. This is using the "male fantasy" part of  Laura Mulvey's Idea On Representation. Another video that also uses this Idea is R kelly's- Snake. Instead of cars women are compared to animals and are expected to dance like snakes in order to charm there men and be seductive. 

Alicia keys does the opposite of this, where she uses herself to depict herself and other inspiration women as leaders and superheroes, however typical feelings interupt so they are still human inside

Mood board

Music Video Analysis

I think this songs by Lupe Fiasco Featuring Trey Songz is the perfect example of a music video. It doesn't completely objectify women in a way that they have to be half naked, however it still uses the typical male dominate convention of having a girl as something of a male fantasy. In the video Lupe has the light skinned lady on his mind that we see in his slightly unbuttoned shirt. Throughout the video, we see her as a reoccurrence and/or a motif. Trey Songz as the featuring artist pop up in a few abstract scenes where the artist is in the background looking at a beautiful view. It uses amplification and makes the chorus a visual theme "I can't get you out of my head" and this same lady popping up everywhere Lupe goes. This video uses a lot of slow motion and fast edits, it also uses a lot of angle changes some really nice mise-en-scene that keeps your eyes glued and keeps you as an audience interested.  

Skills Audit

I remember at the beggining of AS where we had a video tutorial from Mickey. he taught us how to use the JVC's and taught us how to look after them with care. Everyone in my AS group had a go at using the JVC, so we all had a good understanding of how to use them. The tripod was useful to use as we got good clear shots with them.

My skills in research have developed as i know this year is more important, so i try to keep to deadlines. Also, i try to go into more detail and upload more videos and pictures to keep my blog fun, fresh and exciting. I'm also trying to treat my blog as something i would do all the time rather then looking at it as "something i have to do." I am going into a wider range of research where i use the internet more and seek help from my BELOVED group members and Teachers if i am stuck on anything in particular. Whereas last year i just would not have tried to seek as much help as i have this year.

Summarise what you learnt about the state of the music industry in 2012

I have learnt that the state of the music industry is suffering since a decade ago. More people are downloading more than they ever had and the industry is losing profit money from this, as people are not going out and buying the songs. Music is now very easy to access through the internet. However, on you tube adverts now play before the actual song plays, this is showing that you are watching the video for free. You can also access music on the TV and Radio. Songs are played in clubs, which is also i place where music gets heard.

Downloading is a big problem for the music industry now, people are now able to download music on their phones and is such a common thing now. This is also the same for films, as they are accessible on the internet. Music 10 years ago was brought on CD's and that is where the Artists made their money. However, now they have to sell out concerts just to make a profit.

Review of my favourite previous student video.

I particularly liked this video as the performers were good, as they were confident. There were a number of different shots and edits made. Various shots like close ups and two shots were used. The costumes were good. The fades made to bring each performer back onto the screen were good. The mansion behind them looked like it belonged to them, so this was really convincing.

Therefore, as you can see this video is really BOLD, you could see everything that is good about it, and in my opinion it is hard to fault.

Research : Vernalis's Theory

Carol Vernallis published a book called ‘Experience Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context’.


In this book Vernallis studied editing and camerawork closely within music videos. She observed and state that edits in music video are more at a frequent rate then other conventional video forms such as Film. Vernallis also stated that many stand out as disjuncture, but also the editing seemed to match the rhythmic beat of the music in terms of cutting on the beat.

• The rules of continuity which are usually followed in film are broken throughout music videos to grab attention of the viewer and make them more interesting.
• Special effects and edits in-between shots are often going to be more noticeable in music videos as the lack of conversation leads to the viewer wanting to see more on the screen as they are not so distracted by characters, plots and speech.

An Example is Rihanna - Rude Girl

• Many more jump cuts are used, which agrees with her earlier statement about the rules of continuity being broken.
• Base tracks also might be used, creating a layer which the video frequently goes back to, usually in the chorus.

An Example is Mark Ranson - The Bike Song

Laura Mulvey's ideas on Representation.

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly."

Laura Mulvey (1992)

Laura Mulvey

I think shes saying woman are treated as sexual objects, and that they are designed in music videos to fit the males fantasy of his ideal woman. This can be shown through provocative dressing. The particular genre of music that uses this to its advantage is hip hop. They make the artist look dominant if they are a man. If a female artist dressed provocatively in her video, it would be to get a wider audience and to appear sexy for male attention. As we all know "Sex sells."

For example Eminem has made a song called "Ass Like That", this comes across as sexist. However, it works as it has now been accepted by society, there are worse things happening in the world, so half naked woman in videos seems to not be a problem today.I feel Mulvey's opinion is relevant because teenagers eyes are now pretty much opened to sex, as many songs are based on sex such as Busta rhymes and Mariah's "I know what you want." This song is purely about sex and it is public and teenagers are watching these video's and accept that this is how it is now in today's society.

Research : Review Your Favourite Previous Student Video

For my research i have watched a couple of previous student video they had made and these are a few i think are quite good.



In this the editing is quite amazing because we have like shapes that moves into the screen and out like blocks.
Then we have overlapping transition on one shot to show past memories and the current situation we are having now. I think having the guy singing while laying down is a great shot because it is different from other music videos.



I think this is another great music video because in this video they are recording with a scoop in front of the camera which is a good idea. But for editing we have like over 11 shots within 10seconds which is quite fast pace editing. It is suitable for this type of genre because it is a hiphop type genre. They filmed in variety of different location which also make the video look much better.

Summary of the main points of Vernali's theory.

Her main points of observation is how camerawork is filmed using edits such as wipes and jump cuts. This is done to grab an audiences attention. The usual rules of 'continuity' are broken. Master shots are frequently used to give the video a structure. The camera might move in time with the beat of the music.

Carol Vernallis

An example of her points could be a video such as- J-LO I'm into you

I feel this because she uses effects such as black and white at one point in the video and then color is put in again. This keeps the audience interested as its a change of seen. The locations are really random and exotic, one minute shes on a beach the next she on the pyramids. There are loads of jump cuts. This video keeps an audience interested and i though it was very effective.

Copyright clearance

Boy Better Know Records                                                                                             My address
                                                                                                                                     My postcode



London, England,
United Kingdom
W1F 8DH 


Request of Copy right Permission to use the whole of  'Amnesia' - By Skepta

To whom ever it may concern, 

I am currently taking A2 media at City and Islington college and for my portfolio and practical coursework I will be using the song stated above in a promotional package of an artist we are using within our group. I would like to request permission to use "Amnesia" for our A2 Project.


The finished product will not be publically available and will only be used for educational purposes. Your label and the artist will be fully acknowledged at the end of the project when it is being displayed.

We at City and Islington would be very grateful if you could contact us as soon as you have made your decision on this clearance. 


Yours sincerely 







Shannon Punter 
Email address here

Review of previous student video

I have chosen this video from previous students as i feel its really simple but effective!


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

Their idea for the video like I said is simple but effective, not really illustrating a story but clearly creating the message 'Everybody needs love'. The lip-syncing and camerawork is really good using lots of different shots and angels of not only the artist but locations. It is the editing I am most impressed by, using lots off jump cut to edit to the beat of the song, and having obvious effects such as the shots splitting and sliding across the screen. By playing around with the colour they have decided to use black and white with bits of red, creating a really unique look. You can tell that this group planed this video really carefully, choosing outfits they know would show up in red, and location where they could easily get people to hold the signs. All in all a great video!

Summary of the main points of Andrew Goodwins's theory.

The main points of Andrew Goodwin's theory is that there are three types of relations between songs and videos. These are Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture.

Illustrative is where the lyrics match the actions in the video. An example of this is Chipmunk's video 'Oopsie Daisy'

Furthermore, Amplification is used when a video introduces new meanings and does not contradict itself with the lyrics but adds layers of meaning. This is a very effective technique that is used in many videos.
An example of this is Ed Sheeran's "You need me, i dont need you."

Disjuncture is pretty much a video that has little connection with the lyrics. For example wretch 32 Ft Example "Unorthodox", i feel is a good example of a disjunctured video.

I have shown above three examples of Andrew Goodwin's theory about Illustrative, amplification and Disjuncture. He feels pop videos mainly rely on repetition as actions repeat when the chorus plays. Pop songs are often played on TV ads because they are rememberable. Pops songs aslo have some kind of form where there is a closure and ending.

What is the function of a music video

In recent times the functions of a music video have changed mainly because of the decrease in money going into the music industries due to illegal downloading. Now the functions are not only to entertain fans and promote the artists music but it's to sell the preformance in oder for the artists to make money off of tour dates and gigs. Also featuring other songs on in the video also premote the album which also has had a decline in general sales over the last 7 years. Now to increase entertainment puposes Artists use youtube and google video to turn their songs into short films as further promotions to sell themselves and their lifestyles and ideas to their audiences.

Here are some examples that we looked at and some that I thought resemble the change in videos.

This video promotes Lady Gaga's fashion sense and her ideas. It's supposed to dispel any rumours of her having male genitals and its supposed to promote her lifestyle and creative mind as a movie it also features beyonce who also blends into the Lady Gaga motif.

 

Here Neyo depicts himself as a superhero in a movie type role where he has to fight bad guys guys to get to a woman that possess the power of a beautiful monster. This video also promotes Neyo's morals as a "gentleman figure" as he wears the suit and the hat that promotes his fashion sense and is reoccurant in many of his video's

This video is made for the fan's of drake and Jamie Foxx. It's more like a movie that displays the mistakes that can happen with women when the men become famous. It uses Laura Mulvey's major use of the theory of sexual imbalance by making the male's look vulnerable enough to see that the women are forcing them into making mistakes.  

Laura Mulvey's ideas on representation

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly" 
(Laura Mulvey, 1992)

Laura Mulvey view is that women are basically seen as objects in music video. Expected to act and dress provocatively to appeal to the male audience's fantasy. For example, it would be seen as normal for women to be dancing around in little to nothing, or dancing around male artists while they just stand there talking about them like they are objects. This is Particularly common in Rock and Hip Hop genres. 

Akon - I Wanna Love You

Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love

Both of these videos support Laura Mulvey's research. They both objectify women, the outfits alone show this, but add in the dancing along with the song lyrics the message is very obvious!

There are however many music videos, even in these genres that challenge Mulvey's research. For example Estelle's 1980:

Estelle has created a video to reflect the song, about her life growing up. She to has a short dance sequence and the women still dress nicely however, they're in more normal casual outfits, so the focus is more about the songs meaning rather then how the women on the screen look.

Personally I can completely understand Laura Mulvey's ideas with women in music videos continually getting more and more provocative. However, I dont feel it's as one sided as she makes out. Yes, it is mainly women getting objectified however, there are plenty of music videos where men are. Nicki Minaj's Super Bass has loads of slow motion shots of topless men, with close up tracking shots of their muscles.

Also, many female artists are choosing to be provcative in their own videos; Beyonce, Jessie J, Nicki Minaj to name a few! Is it still as bad if they choose to do it? Are they just modern women proud of what they have and Laura Mulvey's view is too old fashioned? Or do they have the responsibility to set a positive view to their younger fans? hmm it quite difficult to say! However bad or not I feel that these videos will continue to push boundaries regardless of what people think! 

Carol Vernaills's theory

Carol Vernallis studied about editing and camerawork used in music videos. She found that edits are used much more frequently in music video then in film and they seems to have a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song.

Here are her main point:

• Jump cuts are often used.
• The usual rules of continuity editing are broken in order to draw attention to what is on screen.
• A master shot is frequently used to give the video a structure.
• The camera may move in time with the music
• Edits can be really obvious drawing attention to themselves, such as wipes and special effects. This is seen clearly in Example's Kickstart:

Andrew Goodwin's theory

The main points in Andrew Goodwin's theory, is that there are 3 main type of music videos: illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

Illustration, is when the videos directly match that actions on the video.

The A Team by Ed Sheeran is a good example of where illustration has been used. The song tells about a girl who turns to prostitution to support her drug addiction, and we get the exacted same story from the music video.

Amplification is where the video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add new layers of meaning.



Katy Perry's Firework, is an example of this. The video supports the message of the song of people basically inspiring themselves to cheer up! But brings in so many other connotations of what it could stand for.

Disjuncture is where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics.



Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror is an example of this. The song is about self-realisation but the video is full of radical world events.

Analysis of music video

Kickstart by Example is an perfect example of a great music video!!

It follows all the conventions of a music video like the lip syncing and being edited to the beat of the song. I particularly like this video as the editing is very fun a creative, using lots of spilt scenes. I love how they have mixed matched the faces and even replaced them with everyday objects like sunglasses and paintbrushes, creating a fun video you could re watch.
  

The song itself is about being in a relationship that your not that happy in anymore, but imagining yourself without that person, and realising how much you actually do like them.. that's how i interpret it anyway. I don't think the video completely illustrates this, but does hint toward this message in parts. For example all the repeated shot of people letting go of each other hands, and Example's facial reactions in some of the shots.

Research : Copies Of Copyright Clearance

Address

Postcode

27/06/2011

XL Recordings,

One Codrington Mews, London, W11 2EH

Dear sir,

Request for copyright permission to use part or whole of : Someone like you by Adele

I am a student of A Level media studies and for my advanced portfolio i will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publically and will be used solely for coursework purposes only. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song i would be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the correct details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours Faithfully




Viet Anh Nguyen


My email address

Analysis of a music video i feel is the best example.

For my example of a really good music video, i feel Beyonce and Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' was a really good video. The reason why i thought this is because they are keeping the audience interested every second of the video. There are dancers in both the prison cell and the American diner. They use a lot of colour.  There are times when the music stops like in the cafe where everyone gets poisoned and dies. Also, where they are in the car and Beyonce says Gaga has been a very bad girl. They have put titles at the front of the video when it says "Telephone" and the Artists names. 

There are a number of different shot angles and the editing is great. There is a narrative structure. However, they were able to do this as they have the time and the money to do it. For my music video it would be hard to do a narrative story with short time and no props. Which is why it is not recommended to do a narrative video. There are various locations such as, the cell, the prison hall, the car, the kitchen, the cafe etc.

 

I particularly liked her cigarette shades and the Diet Coke in her hair, as this is really wierd and something like that has never been done before. Her dress is provocative, so it grabs male attention too.

Function of a music video

There are sevral functions to a music video, to enthasia the songs meaning/ emotion, to advertise the song, to advertise products but mostly to promote the artist. Using it to sell whole albums, concert tickets and products not just the one song.

as the majority of people now listening to music do so through site such as youtube. Artists know this is a great opportunity to promote them selfs, with people watching learning about the artist rather then just hearing a song. Many use this to full advantage creating anticipation for there next video, using online premiers, countdowns, trilers and creating a video thats more like a short film!

Lady gaga is a great example of this with millions talking about her videos. Telephone in fact, has 121,875,850 view up to now!



Michael Jackson was probably the first artist to have a music video in the style of a shot film, with Thriller being nearly 14 minutes long and containing lots of dialog. MJ released this video when music channels where starting to get big. Similar to how modern artist see the opportunity of the internet, Michael would have seen in music channels knowing he could capture the attentions of a hugh amount of people!



Music video are such an important part to the music industry now! If an artist gets it right or creats enough buzz around it, they will get loads of people talking and as the modern day word of mouth is on the internet they could be getting millions of free advertisement with people posting it up on social networking site and so on. this has also been really positive for small unsigned artist. As anyone is able to upload their videos! Like in K.I.G case a small group that uploaded there own made video, that ended up going viral.

Below is the original video K.I.G filmed:



With over 2,700,000 views, radio plays, and starting a dance crase, they got a recored deal, and was able to re-film the video they got the so noticed.

Copyright clearance

Reflecting back on AS year

During the AS year I learnt loads both practical skills and general knowledge of the media industry. Here are some of the practical skills i leant:

Camerawork:
I became confident using the camera, and enjoyed learning different shots and movement to create different effects and emotions to the footage. After we mesed up our first filming attempt, we quickly learnt about stuff like when to use a tripod or not, when extra lighting is needed, and the amount or shots needed to create a smooth continuos thriller.

Editing:
This was the part I most enjoyed, using Final Cut Pro, we learnt how to edit our footage together using continus editing. Using different transitions and effects to add to the thriller.

Sound:
Sound is what I struggled the most with, but after playing around with Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro, we managed to create a decent soundtrack for our thriller.

Titles:
We learnt how to create interesting and different titles using LiveType, as well as Finale Cut Pro again for more basic text.

I also lernt how to convert music, clips and videos using Handbreak. We would usually convert our videos into a mp4 so they could be uploaded to the blog. Using a blog itself was new to me, I found it a really new and fun way of putting down our ideas and research, and was continuously learning new thing to do with a blog like, uploading videos, pics etc.

What is the function of a music video?

c video is often to promote the song and the artist. It helps them to become more popular and keeps their targeted audience interested by making new videos. They hope that people will see a particular music video and go out to buy the song. Also, music videos are easily accesible. You can find them all over the internet such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. You can also find them on music channels and the radio, which shows a chart list of all the latest and most popular songs.

There are different kinds of music video's that are made which are targeted towards different people. For example Lady Gaga is well known for her crazy and wierd videos. As we know what she is like, as an audience we cant wait to see what she does next, as she is just full of surprises. Lady Gaga dresses provocative in the majority of her videos, in order to get a male audience. She sings songs that are fun, which grabs the attention of the girls. This shows Lady Gaga has been able to capture both a male and female audience.

Artists such as 50 Cent often make videos directed at men by adding in dancers that dress provocative. The song choice would also be directed at men, showing that 50 Cent has a male audience. However, 50 Cent himself never seems to have a top on in his video's, so this could be argued that he may have a female audience too. (I mean if girls are into him :s)

Bringing you back to what is the function of a music video. I suppose it really is to get an audience, which is why i spoke about Lady Gaga and 50 Cent, as it makes the audience interested in what they are going to do next.

Digipak

Here's my digipak I did with my old group from AS :)

As you can see its not that great! but hopefully by the time it comes to making it this year I will be more familiar with photoshop and it will much better!

Research : Function Of A Music Video

The function of a music video isn't to only promote the artist but to sell the artist.This works because it doesn't just promote one song by the artist, but it can promotes the whole albums which are already released or ones that are the upcoming new releases.

Some music videos have even been lengthened into short films in which the artist specifically promotes themselves rather than the song, seeing as there is no music for a short period of time, only acting.

A few examples are :

Lady Gaga and Beyonce "Telephone"

Kanye West "Runaway"

Research : Laura Mulvey's Idea On Reperesentation

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which styled accordingly". 


From the quote above and summary into my own words, its trying to say how the world is dominated by males and woman are not worthy as much as the males and often are seen as objects and toys. Woman are only dressed up as what men want them to. We most likely to see this type of representation in Hip hop/ R&B genres. 

In the first video we have E40's music video for 'Candy paint', women are very closely compared with the cars, this gives the impression that women, however beautiful and attractive, are still possessions for males to take pleasure in. As in the second video, we have Dizzee Rascal music video for "Holiday", it give us an impression of woman are just object to men, where they dress up in bikinis for our entertainment.

On the other hand, you have Alica Keys "Superwoman" this music video show that woman can be strong and independence and support themselves and their families. It show woman aren't object to men but can be dominated aswell.  

Research : Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin theory say that a pop videos doesn't have really have a narrative storyline. They are approaching the narrative from a different angel to a novel and film. By this it mean :

• Pop videos are built around songs and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality-problem-resolution)
• The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character
• The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is an extension of (music hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

The videos rely on repetition such as repeats images in the way the song repeats choruses or lines. Pop songs and videos, do have a form of closure and ending.


Illustration :
Where the video tells the story of the lyrics. An example is this music video below is by Madonna "Papa don't preach"

Amplification :
Occurs when the videos introduce new means that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. An example is from Cee Lo Green " Forget you"

Disjuncture :
Where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics. An example is by Michael Jackson " man in the mirror"

Copy of Copyright Permission

Document for obtaining copyright permission

My address

Written here

17/08/2011

Mercury Records

Artist: Chase and Status

1 Sussex place

London

W6 9EA

Dear Sir/Madam,

Request of Copy right Permission to use whole of: "Embrace Ft White Lies"

I am a student of A Level media studies and for my advanced portfolio i will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publically and will be used solely for coursework purposes only. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song i would be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the correct details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly. 

Yours Faithfully

Lashmi Gemma Kaur

My email address

Reflecting on new skills completed i learnt in June (Lip Sync)

In AS, the lip sync made me realize how hard A2 Media was actually going to be. The lip sync was hard enough as i had to make sure my singing was in timing with the song, but now i have to lip sync a whole song for my A2 music video. This has made me aware of how much footage i needed to take, and i will now make sure i film enough footage in A2 in order to play around with the shots and edits, to get a video of good quality. I learnt about using the affects on Final Cut Pro in order to help me edit my Thriller. 


I found the Lip sync task a little difficult as i never knew the words to the song i was given. Not only did i have to complete a lip sync in a morning 3 hour lesson, but i also had to learn the words, so that i could give a good quality performance. Skills i learnt in lip sync was mainly setting the mise en scene. I realized if the location is not right in the music video then the video will lack amplification. Whereas, in my lip sync i used a black background, which helped make my lip sync seem more professional. Emily in my AS group also had to learn the words with me, so as we were practicing the words, our confidence came out a lot more. After the lip sync experience i feel more confident to complete a music video. Therefore, i feel the lip sync tutorials really did help prepare me for A2 media, and the skills learnt were very relevant.

Technical skills learnt in AS

In AS i learnt many skills that helped me to film my Thriller. My skills developed more throughout the year as i put my new skills to use more frequently. 

• How to use Final Cut Pro- I learnt how to edit through my clips that i filmed with my group thoroughly. I was able to put the clips together in order to make my AS Thriller. I also learnt how to use the special affects such as split screen and changing my video to black and white. By changing some of my video to black and white this enabled me to make it look like the story on the screen was in the past and not in the present. This was a very useful technique that i enjoyed playing around with.

• How to use Soundtrack Pro- Playing around with soundtrack pro was fun as i got to match up sound affects such as 'the scream' to my actual scream on the screen. I also got to play around with different sounds such as 'wind blowing' and 'violins' playing to make my Thriller more intense.

• How to use Live Type- This was fun to use as me and my AS group kept playing with the different fonts and sizes of the text we were adding into our Thriller. 

• I learnt how to use the cameras better. I was able to experiment with different shots whilst filming. Using the tripod allowed me to do shots such as 'over the shoulder'. By using the tripod, my shots came out steady and were not wonky. 

• By using blogger, i was able to upload films from you tube, put up pictures and write about my experiences and work in AS.

Reflecting back on the AS year

Digipak needed to be uploaded.

Reflecting on As year : lip sync in june

From what we learnt how to make a thriller is totally different from making a music video because in a thriller you have a narrative story but in a music video, there is alot of cut between shot and fast pace editing. Our teacher told us to forget what we knew about how to make a thriller and start fresh on making a music video. A advise the teacher told us was to count and mark down every 4 beats in order to help us cut in the song and to fit different shot in the video. i have learnt that if we make a mistake during filming, we should still continue till the end of the song so then during editing we can cut that part out. i learnt that when we have collected all our clip we have to line them up in the timeline so it make a perfect sync and then we can cut and edit whatever we need to.

Technical Skill Developed During The Course Of As Year

Editing skills : 

Final cut pro - we use this to edit our thrillers, by adding transition, having such scene as slow motion or making a scene faster and then merging two scene together.

Sound track pro - This is to add sound to our thriller and to make our own background music.

Live text - This is so we can add text in our opening then merge it to final cut pro.

Camerawork skill : 

Using a tripod to capture a still scene or clip so it doesn't shake. But you can use a handheld shot when tracking someone.

Converting skill : 

We use handbrake to convert the final clip of our thriller into mp4 so that we can upload on the blogger.

Blogging skill : 

On our blogs we have images, video, and such creative text to show our research, planning and production of our thrillers. 

Digipak

In our As class we didnt get a chance to do digipak.

02. Technical skills learnt throughout AS year

Camerawork skills- Using the camera with a tripod to get steady shots, only using handheld for tracking type shots or following the character.

Editing Skills- Using Final cut to edit our thrillers, using transitions, still shots, merging sound from soundtrack pro, merging text from live type into final cut pro for our thrillers , arranging images on timeline, using different effects such as slow motion, reversal of time ect.

Converting skills- Using Handbrake to convert our thrillers so they could go on blogger and quicktime player

Blogging skills - using Blogger to post our video's progress as well as delivering detailed blogs for planning and reseach, progress within the group and showing drafts of our video

03.New skills learnt in June doing lip sinking tutorial

The new skills we learnt during or summer lesson that were to lead up to our A2 course consisted of using final cut pro, having many different shots of the same music video and the backing track and cutting the song to the beat to help fit the lyrics with the song and the video clips. Doing this help to us to learn how lyrics would go with the song without having to do any guesswork in Final Cut Pro. Using the preset clips inserted by our teachers, we put down markers every four beats in order to help cut the song and fit it with the different shots taken of the film. With this we were able to sync the different shots with the lyrics involving long shots wide shots two shots and so on using the splice tool. We could then line the visual and audio components together to make a perfectly synced video. This would help us for further lipsyncing work

Reflecting Back On AS Year: Lip Sync

While attempting to film a lip sync with my group last year, we had loads of fun filming it and I learnt that filming Music videos and thrillers are very different and will need to be approached in a new way. The conventions of a Thriller are completely different to a music video. The thriller we made last year, had some what of a clear narrative, used continuity editing, and used little effects. Whereas, music video are pretty much the complete opposite. No clear narrative need, could be as random as we want it. Edits need to be noticeable and use loads of effects. This was quite shocking to see all the differences, but i'm excited to learn a new way of filming, editing and thinking!

Here is the lip sync I filmed in AS with my old group:

01. Digipack analysis

The digipack that I created in the last AS term was off my past group member Jessica Nock at our college canteen as we were doing the song "Respect" by Aretha franklin. The digipack consisted of jessica's picture with the song title and the group members names. We had to crop the picture of Jess out of the video we had on Final cut in order to put her in the digipack. We then designe the digipack individually within our group using different fonts, font colours and tilting the texts in different directions. Unfortunately there were problems with the new storage system and Iwasn't able to save my digipack so I cannot put up a jpeg picture of it. The strengths of the digipack were the shot used (it was very quirky and fun) and taking from a mid close up of Jess dancing. The Texts that I used added to the quirkiness as well as the colour scheme added. I think the contrary to this was the tilted texts posed as an inconvenience because the would get in the way of the picture.
Overall it was a good simulation exercise of what we will be doing later on in the year.