Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Monday, 23 June 2014
Music videos
A music videos purpose, initially, was to act as a marketing tool for an artists' new single or album, however music videos are now part of the product along with an album or single as you can now buy them and also because the videos are so easily accessible now, they tend to have more focus put on them than the song on its own.
How did music videos come about?
The first film with sound was The Jazz Singer (1927) which started the movement away from the silent movies that were so popular. This film was so important because they first piece of sound from the film was a song-and a man performing it, taking the form of an early music video.
From then onward, artists would make short films to include their songs just to make a video for that particular song for their audiences to see as videos were not accessible other than in the form of a film.
The sudden surge in interest in music videos came about along with the introduction of youth culture in western society. Before, there was no youth culture, children left school, got a job and married all very early due to the lack of money. In America, the economy began to prosper so families had more money which is when 'teenagers' started, giving young people time to rebel and be youthful and with this youth culture came the desire and demand for new, different music, creating the wave of rock and roll.
How did music videos come about?
The first film with sound was The Jazz Singer (1927) which started the movement away from the silent movies that were so popular. This film was so important because they first piece of sound from the film was a song-and a man performing it, taking the form of an early music video.
From then onward, artists would make short films to include their songs just to make a video for that particular song for their audiences to see as videos were not accessible other than in the form of a film.
The sudden surge in interest in music videos came about along with the introduction of youth culture in western society. Before, there was no youth culture, children left school, got a job and married all very early due to the lack of money. In America, the economy began to prosper so families had more money which is when 'teenagers' started, giving young people time to rebel and be youthful and with this youth culture came the desire and demand for new, different music, creating the wave of rock and roll.
Friday, 20 June 2014
A2 production brief
For my A2 media production, the brief is to create a music video for an original song that we have permission from the artist to use. The video must include lip-syncing as well as a narrative and should follow all of the forms and conventions of a music video to be successful.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Directors commentary
I recorded a directors commentary focusing on special effects and colouring as I did not cover it in my evaluation and felt that it was an important aspect in creating meaning and atmosphere in my film opening.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Sunday, 13 April 2014
what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to now?
I have learnt a lot from the continuity task/preliminary task compared to now.
The continuity exercise and the Life on Mars exercise posed as tasks to carry out to gain technical accuracy through specific shots and order of shots. However, during this project, I have now also learnt that meaning must be created through the micro elements of camera angle and movement, sound, editing and mise en scene. for example meaning and representation in created through pace of editing or the type of shot whether its low angle or high.
From the Life on Mars exercise, I learnt about timing shots so they fit perfectly with the original version and match the sound. Also I developed my knowledge of editing the shots at the correct timing so that they flow on well from one another, but also so they match the music and sound effects.
The continuity exercise allowed me to learn about the 180° rule when I am filming anything so that the shots look right and make sense. Also editing was a key concept in this exercise as well, because I had to ensure that each shot was in the correct order and that the length of each shot was right to create one single, flowing piece of action. Here, tools such as the cutting tool were important to cut out parts of shots that were too long or that didn't fit with the short conversation.
Finally, in the film opening, I learnt the importance of the micro elements to engage the audience and to introduce the characters and the genre, all in a small space of time. I had to think about lighting and setting to convey meaning, camera angles and shots to represent the characters in a specific way and the clothing to make the opening seem as realistic and believable as possible. Also, I had to choose audio that not only suited the forms and conventions of other thriller films, but that also matched my shots to create atmosphere. Finally, I had to alter the pace of editing in several areas in my opening to create different feelings at different points, for example, fast paced editing during the dark flash forward shots to only give a hint at what will happen, and slow paced editing whilst showing the homeless girl, to evoke sympathy for her.
The continuity exercise and the Life on Mars exercise posed as tasks to carry out to gain technical accuracy through specific shots and order of shots. However, during this project, I have now also learnt that meaning must be created through the micro elements of camera angle and movement, sound, editing and mise en scene. for example meaning and representation in created through pace of editing or the type of shot whether its low angle or high.
From the Life on Mars exercise, I learnt about timing shots so they fit perfectly with the original version and match the sound. Also I developed my knowledge of editing the shots at the correct timing so that they flow on well from one another, but also so they match the music and sound effects.
The continuity exercise allowed me to learn about the 180° rule when I am filming anything so that the shots look right and make sense. Also editing was a key concept in this exercise as well, because I had to ensure that each shot was in the correct order and that the length of each shot was right to create one single, flowing piece of action. Here, tools such as the cutting tool were important to cut out parts of shots that were too long or that didn't fit with the short conversation.
Finally, in the film opening, I learnt the importance of the micro elements to engage the audience and to introduce the characters and the genre, all in a small space of time. I had to think about lighting and setting to convey meaning, camera angles and shots to represent the characters in a specific way and the clothing to make the opening seem as realistic and believable as possible. Also, I had to choose audio that not only suited the forms and conventions of other thriller films, but that also matched my shots to create atmosphere. Finally, I had to alter the pace of editing in several areas in my opening to create different feelings at different points, for example, fast paced editing during the dark flash forward shots to only give a hint at what will happen, and slow paced editing whilst showing the homeless girl, to evoke sympathy for her.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout this project, I have learnt and developed my
knowledge on how to use Final
Cut Express, blogger, audio network and filming
equipment.
Throughout this project I have improved and developed my
knowledge of Final
Cut Express, for example I have learnt the
uploading/importing process to copy my
footage onto final cut. Also I learnt how
to create and use titles to show the name of my
film, as well as the actors and
people behind the scenes, and how to alter the titles
movement, position-by
adding the wire frame and title safe, and the opacity of the titles.
In addition, I learnt to control the sound in my opening by changing the levels of
sound at particular moments, creating layers of sound to make the opening more
atmospheric and also I learnt to fade sound clips in and out when they were
needed. Finally, whilst
constructing this product in Final Cut Express, I
learnt to use different visual effect and
alter colouring of shots, for
example, I learnt to delay the timing of some shots to give
the effect that
they are merging together, but also I gained knowledge on how to change
the colouring
of my opening to more closely match the visuals of films I had researched
by
altering the RGB balance.
In addition, from the process of constructing my film
opening, I have learnt to use blogger,
to log my planning and research
throughout this project. I have learnt to upload and copy
images onto my posts
by copying them or selecting them from the desktop. Also I
have learnt how to
post text and change the font, sizing and position of the text. In terms
of the
blog itself, I learnt how to customise my blog to make it unique and look the
way I want it to.
Another technology I have learnt to use is the audio network lgfl website to retrieve
suitable audio clips for my film opening. I learnt to download the audio files
and then
copy them from iTunes into Final Cut Express.
Finally, I
developed my knowledge of filming equipment. I used a Panasonic HD camera to
film the shots and to record my Foley sound. Also I learnt to use a tripod to
carry out
filming techniques such as moving the camera up or down whilst it is
stationary on the
tripod to create steady moving shots. In addition, I learnt
to use the SD card and how to
get my footage off of the card and onto the
computer.
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