Lesson update; Making props!

Today in our lesson, Ruby and I decided that due to the fact we are filming two days after we get back from America, we should make sure we're totally prepared now - so we thought it would be helpful to make some of our props needed in the music video.

We decided to make the music notes that are hung above both Amber and Max's head as this is probably the prop that will take longest to make.

In order to make them we decided to make music note templates, then found some cardboard - as this is much more stable than making them out of paper - and then cut them out and coloured them in in black pen!

They're looking pretty good but now we just need to hang them off of a stick so someone can dangle them over Max and Amber!

Final cut techniques: Colour saturation.

Earlier this year, before we had started planning for our music videos, we were placed in groups and had to find out a final cut technique and work out how to use it on a bit of footage etc. Unfortunately, the piece of footage that my group made has been deleted off one of the girl's in our groups account so I don't have the footage to show you. I'm going to try and describe what I remember and try and explain colour saturation.

Shot brightening and colour correction

I remember a few things about colour saturation, such as making the shot brighter, so that's the thing I'm going to start with. So, to actually bring the clour corrector up, you press the button Effects along the top bar of the final cut screen, then video filters, and then press colour corrector. Make sure not to press colour corrector three way, its just colour corrector!

So after clicking these buttons, a tab should appear that says 'colour corrector'. After clicking on that tab, these two colour wheels should appear:

One is marked 'Hue' and one os marked 'Balance'. The hue wheel makes it easier for you to change the objects in the shots to different colours. You are actually able to select certain objects in the shots and changing the colour of just those few objects.

Another important thing to be aware of on the colour corrector tab, is the toggles at the bottom of the screen. These toggles say 'Whites', 'blacks', 'mids' and 'sat'. By pushing the white toggles forward, you can bring out the whites or the light colours in the shot. As with pushing the black toggle forward, you will bring out the blacks and the greys in the shot, to make the shot darker etc. 

Also by fiddling with the 'sat' and 'mids' toggles you can bring the colours up in the sht such as the greens and blues etc. There are no specific colours that you can choose to bring up, however, the 'sats' button brings up the greens very well. You can also move the hue toggle in the middle of the circle and change the entire shot to a different colour.

Lastly, by moving all of the toggles to the end, it makes the shot duller if you want to take the colour out of it. This is about all I remember from when we did colour saturation! I also watched a video on youtube that helped me loads:

More to follow :)

Storyboard table

So I have made another table! I have a penchant for tables, if you haven't already noticed! Last week we went out and took photos for our storyboard, which Carla has been busy with. She's been putting them to music and making them into a photo slideshow. Carla's actually hit some technical difficulties with uploading te footage, so we're trying to work these glitches out asap. If all goes well, we should have them up before we leave on saturday.

So I' ve made a table describing the shots in detail just to go along with the slideshow, so that if we ever need to refer back to the storyboard during filming, we have our initial photographs but we also have written evidence to refer to. So in this table I've included the number of the shots because in the shot list, the numbers of the shots were all jumbled up, and this is them in order! Also I've included what happens in the shot, so when refering to the shot list, we can double check the table and work out exactly what we need in that specific shot. Lastly I've included the framing/angle of each shot and also any specifics I need to remeber when it comes to editing and filming. These will both help when filming/editing as we will be able to refer to specific techniques that we're going to use when filming such as still shots, green screen and split screen, but also to help us remeber what each shot looks like in detail!

Here's a basic key for the table because, as I'm sure you know, I like to use colour coding:
Red  - Split screen
Black - No specific editing technique used
Green - Green screen

 

Shot no.	Action	Camera framing/angle	Extra info (specific editing, special effects etc)
1	Max is in bed, he gets up	Mid shot
2	Max walks over to his laptop	Mid/Long shot
3	We see the laptop clicking 'play' on 'We intertwined' on youtube.	Close-up	Split screen
4	Max pulls a jumper over his head	Mid-shot
5	Amber pulls her head out of her jumper	Mid-shot
6	Max picks up his keys as he leaves the house	Mid-shot/close-up
7	Amber picks up her keys and then leaves her house, closing the door/gate in time with the music	Mid-shot/track
8	Max walking out of his drive	Mid-shot
9	Amber walking away, we see back of her head	Mid-shot
10	Max stops directly in front of the camera, singing to it, looking in his pockets for something he's lost	Mid-shot
11	Amber stops, looks in her pockets	Mid-shot
12	Extra enters and physically turns Max round	Mid-shot
13	Amber is turned around by an extra	Mid-shot
14	Still shot, with Max and Amber singing	Mid-shot	Split screen, still shot
15	Two maxes singing, one facing forward, one backward	Mid-shot	Split screen, still shot
16	Two Amber's, one facing forward, one backward	Mid-shot	Split screen, still shot
17	Back to Max and Amber, Max forward Amber backward	Mid-shot	Split screen, still shot
18	Extras pop into shot miming backing vocals whilst Max lip syncs	Mid-shot
19	Extras leave the shot leaving Max confused, carries on singing	Mid-shot
20	Still shot, back of Amber's head	Close-up	Still shot
21	Still shot, Amber is a closer angle to the camera	Close-up	Still shot
22	Still shot, Amber sideways on	Close-up	Still shot
23	Still shot, Amber even closer to the camera	Close-up	Still shot
24	Extras pop into shot as Amber finds herself facing forwards, confused	Mid-shot
25	Max singing to camera	Mid-shot
26	Extras blow bubbles into Max and Amber's way	Mid-shot	Split screen
27	Extras put their hands over Max and Ambers eyes	Mid-shot	Split screen
28	Extra gives Max and Amber a balloon	Mid-shot	Split screen
29	Pan to both balloons floating into the sky	Long shot/pan	Split screen
30	Amber walking	Mid-shot
31	Max singing and walking	Mid-shot
32	Max and Amber see themselves and turn, confused	Mid-shot	Split screen
33	Max and Amber yawm	Mid-shot/close-up	Split screen
34	Max and Amber walking	Mid-shot	Split screen
35	Max singing, stopped walking	Close-up
36	Music notes pop into shot above Max and Amber's heads	Mid-shot	Split screen
37	Max and Amber continue walking with music notes above their heads	Mid-shot	Split screen
38	Max and Amber out their right leg forward	Mid-shot	Still shot, split screen
39	Max and Amber put their left leg forward	Mid-shot	Still shot, split screen
40	Max and Amber put their right leg backwards	Mid-shot	Still shot, split screen
41	Max and Amber put their left leg backwards	Mid-shot	Still shot, split screen
42	Max and Amber jump	Mid-shot	Still shot, split screen
43	Extras waggle their tongues	Extreme close-up	Split screen
44	Max singing	Close-up
45	Extras walk in front of Max and Amber causing them to 'dance' in a crowd	Mid-shot/long shot	Split screen
46	Extra waves in front of Max and Amber to the camera	Mid-shot	Split screen
47	Max singing to camera	Mid-shot
48	Max daydreaming about the couple being together	Mid-shot	Green screen
49	Max and Amber having a picnic together	Mid-shot
50	Max and Amber take a picture of themselves together	Mid-shot
51	Max and Amber spinning round in a circle	Camera POV
52	Max singing	Close-up
53	Amber walks past the screen	Mid-shot/pan
54	Max walks past the screen	Mid-shot/pan
55	Max looking worried, searching	Close-up
56	Max and Amber look at each other from across the heath	Long shot
57	Amber's loved-up facial expression	Extreme close-up
58	Max and Amber are lifted up by all extras, duvet is then lifted up and over them, Max winks. (Max sings whole way through end shot) Extras cheer	Birds eye view & Long shot/pan	Tracking shot, possibly use steadicam?

Thank you for reading through another one of my ridiculously long tables!

More to follow :)

Research: Narrative videos.

So this is the last one in the set. Narrative is the last type of video that I've haven't talked about yet. So here we go!

Narrative videos are basically a music video that includes a storyline or a narrative. The main point of narratove videos is for the actual video to present a story or a characters journey through something. There are several different types of narrative video. A few being from one person's point of view. This can show their day and how it goes, or show a problem that they face etc. Narrative stories often have a beginning, a middle and an end, as the music video progresses. In terms of Goodwin's six, there is a tendency for the relationship between lyrics and visuals to develop in narrative videos, as the lyrics often reflect the story being told for the visual viewer.

Some theorists work apply directly to narrative videos such as:

Izetan Todorov was a Bulgarian structuralist that published influential work on narrative theory from the 1960's onwards. His main theory consisted of this theory:

 Equilibrium -> Disequilibrium -> Recognition -> Reparation -> New Equilibrium

This can be shown through the traditional Jack and the Beanstalk story in this way:

• Jack and his mother are living happily (Equilibrium)
• They are forced to sell their family cow which Jack then sells for five magic beans (Disequilibrium)
• Jack knows that he has done wrong but he decides to see what is up at the top of the giant beanstalk (recognition)
• Jack takes the gold coins from the ogre and manages to defeat him by cutting down the beanstalk (Reparation)
• Jack and his mother are now rich and live happily ever after (new equilibrium)

This reflects many narratives in several different media contexts. This could relate to films, newspaper articles and most importantly, music videos! Another main theorist that revolutionised narrative theory was Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss outlined the struggles in binary opposites. He realised that the audience is able to distinguish a clear 'hero' through the use of camera angles, mise-en scene and lighting etc. Also he interjected that audiences have been able to tell the difference between a morally right side of an argument and the morally wrong side. This creates a clear narrative for audiences to outline as we have a clear deduction of morals within our society. 

An example of a narrative video is the video 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias. In this video, Iglesias and his girlfriend have stolen lots of money. Their car breaks down and they are attacked by a group of thugs. Iglesias realises that the gang will not let them go and decides to fight against them. Iglesias dies but his girlfriend is safe. 

Examples of Todorovs narrative theory is as follows:

Iglesias and his girlfriend are happy and in love (Equilibrium)

Their car breaks down and they are attacked by a group of men (Disequilibrium)

Iglesias realises that the gang will not let them go (recognition)

He decides to fight against them (Reparation)

Iglesias dies but his girlfriend is safe (new equilibrium)

This is a perfect example of a narrative video. Audiences tend to relate to narrative videos a lot because a lot of narratives in videos can be very similiar to every day life. As a music video on average is around four minutes long, you can't fit a huge, extravagant storyline into those four minutes. So storylines tend to be simple and audiences often relate to the normality and the realism because they are every day storylines. This is a contrast to this video as people don't tend to steal a load of money, get beaten up by a gang and then die! However this is still a perfect example of a music video with a story.

Here is 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias:

More to follow :)

Lesson update, planning; facebook group for actors.

As I said in my last post I planned to create a facebook group in order to stay in contact with all the actors that we'd like to have in our music video - I think this is definitely the best way to keep in contact with them!

Here's a screen shot of the group I made and the introduction paragraph I posted just to let them know what we roughly plan to do!!

Concept videos

Out of the three of performance, concept and narrative videos I've decided to look in depth at concept videos.

There are several different types of concept video. Concept videos can include pretty much anything! Concept videos are usually used to attract an audience to the artist, song or actual stunt in the video. Concept videos are based on an idea (a concept), that can be replicated in several different forms. For example in the song 'Can't stop' by Red hot chilli Peppers, the entire video is based on sculptures from famous artist, Erwin Wurm. Some of his art includes people putting as many pieces of stationary in their mouth as possible, and another is a man praying with a lemon in his mouth etc etc. Erwin Wurm's sculptures are more for his audience to interpret the sculpture rather than to enjoy watching it.

In the Red hot chili peppers video, they attempt to replicate a lot of Wurm's art. This is to enhance the career of not only the band, but also of the artist. It gave Wurm a lot more credability for his sculptures because a lot of people liked the Chili Peppers video. This is one way that a concept video is a concept, it is based around art.

Another way that concept videos can draw people in is through the music. In videos such as the 'Ballad of black mesa' where the entire song is made with gun sounds. This is to promote the fight against war. It is a very clever video, using ambiguous characters, as all we see are black figures with no recognisable attributes. This makes the video more interesting to watch but actually draws away from the video and makes us focus on the music.



Another video in which the music has drawn their audience to watch the video, is that of the very famous band 'Genesis''s land of confusion video. This song was very famous and the video was not very widely-known. They then promoted the song alongside the video and the video's popularity shot up! The video is shot entirely with puppets, and gives the video a surreal quality that it might not have had with real people. There are lots of strange situations, as if in a dream, and it makes the video somewhat disturbing to watch. The puppets are attempting to be lifelike, as you can see the similarities between the lead singer Phil Collin's puppet and himself.

This is another way that concept videos can draw an audience in.

The last way that concept videos can draw audiences in is the actual video itself. The best example of this is Peter Gabriel's song "sledgehammer'. This entire video is done with very intricate stop motion. It's a very famous video and has received many awards. The video made this song one of the most popular songs in the 80's. There are several different situations in the video and lot of links between lyrics and visuals, as mentioned in Goodwin's six. For example, when he sings about being a 'steam train', a steam train drives around his head.

This video was made very popular purely from the video, showing that concept videos can draw an audience in, not just the song or the artist. Concept videos are usually different from comventional music videos and can include pieces of art or creative visuals. And there you have it! 

More to follow :)

Research: Performance videos.

So I've been looking at several different types of music video and the main video types that have been established is that of Performance, concept and narrative. I'm going to talk a little bit about what makes a performance video a performance video.
Performance

Performance music videos are pretty self explanatory. They consist of the artist or people performing the track that's being played on top of the video. Performance videos rely a lot on the 'frontman'. Whoever is fronting the video is usually attractive and usually the performer of the song. This is known to increase their record sales and to promote their popularity. In terms of 'Goodwins six' rules of music videos, it applies to the rule that there are lots of 'close-ups of the artists to promote themselves and the record company'. Performance videos can be used for any genre of music, but the two main genres that use performance videos are hip-hop and rock music. For hip-hop, it's more to promote the artist and the artists popularity whereas for rock music it's more to promote the sale of the song. However, alike with the song I have chosen as an example, the performance aspects in rock video can also display another of Goodwins six, a 'link between lyrics/music and visuals'. In the example I've chosen, 'Smooth Criminal' by Alien ant farm, there are lots and lots of references to Michael Jackson and his choreography. This is an entirely performance based video as it is always someone performing in the shot, and there is no story being displayed. So for a link between michael Jackson and this song, is the fact that 'Smooth criminal' is originally a Michael Jackson song that has been covered by this band. In terms of relating to his choreography, the video shows the band lighting up the pavement when they step on it, which is the main aspect of Michael Jackson's groundbreaking video for 'Billie Jean'.

   As well as this aspect linking both of the videos, there is also the famous 'lean' move that Michael Jackson performs in his version of Smooth Criminal. In Alien ant farm's version, they also perform the lean move.

This can draw two different types of audience in. Firstly, it can draw a rock and metal audience as this is a rock/metal song. However, this can also draw in an audience that enjoys Michael Jackson and his choreography as it has specific links to the dance moves and to his song 'Smooth Criminal'. This in many ways, is what most performance videos are like. It shows many close-ups of the artist, and the performers are often shown in order of hierachy within the band, with the lead singer being at the top and usually the drummer being at the bottom, as he is shown the least on screen. Performance videos are often used to promote the artist, the song and the record company. Here is Alien Ant farm's version of 'Smooth Criminal':

Also here is Michael Jacksons very famous dance move, 'the lean':


Watch this space for posts about concept and narrative videos. More to follow! :)

Shot list: COMPLETE!!

So I've been doing the shot list for this past week and I'm done! It's taken me a long time and I'm finally finished! It took me twice as long as I thought it would however because I thought I was going to scan the pictures of the storyboard into the computer and do it from there. But the picture has either come out too small to read or too big to fit into the blog, so I've had to rewrite the entire storyboard into a table! Hope y'all appreciate it!! Here it is:

Key:
M - Max (boy actor)
A - Amber (girl actor)
HE - Heath (one of our locations)
W - Walking
B - Bedroom

Group members: Carla and Ruby

'We Intertwined'

SHOT LIST:

Location	Shot no.	Type of shot	Action	Info (costumes, props etc)
HE	58	Long shot	Crowd lifts A+M as song ends	Ladder for birds eye shot, duvet.
B	1	Mid shot	M in bed, gets up out of bed	Pyjamas and bed (duvet etc)
B	2	Mid/Long shot	M clicking laptop	Laptop, bedroom scene
B	3	Close-up	Laptop on table, song turns on	Split screen, song begins
B	4	Mid shot	M putting jumper over head	Jumper, bedroom scene
B	6	Mid shot/close-up	M picking up his keys	Mouthing words, keys!
W	8	Mid shot	M lip syncing, walking out of drive	Costume: needs jumper!
W	10	Mid shot	M stops, lip syncs to camera looking in pockets	Lost keys
W	12	Mid shot	Someone physically turns M round	Extra: Bruce
Still shot	14	Mid shot	M singing	Split screen
Still shot	15	Mid shot	M singing, one facing forward, one backward	Split screen
Still shot	17	Mid shot	M singing, forward	Split screen
W	18 + 19	Mid shot	M singing, extras pop into the shot singing	Extras: Ryan and Will
W	25	Mid shot	M singing to camera	-
W	26	Mid shot	M singing to camera, people blow bubbles	Bubbles. Extras: Jaz and Abi
W	27	Mid shot	People put their hands over M's eyes	Extra: Jazz Bullen, split screen
W	28	Mid shot	Girl gives M a balloon	Extra: Eve, split screen
W	31	Mid shot	M walking and singing	-
W	32	Mid shot	M sees himself walk past, 'coincidences'	Split screen, 2 shots one for each version of M walking past
W	33	Mid shot/close-up	M yawning	Split screen
W	34	Mid shot	M singing and walking	Split screen
W	35	Close -up	M singing	-
W	36	Mid shot	M walking/singing, music notes appear in the background	Music notes! Split screen
W	37	Mid shot	M walking with music notes above	Split screen
W	38	Mid shot	M puts right leg forward	Split screen
W	39	Mid shot	M puts left leg forward	Split screen
W	40	Mid shot	M puts right leg backward	Split screen
W	41	Mid shot	M pus left leg backwards	Split screen
W	42	Mid shot	M jumps!	Split screen
W	43	Extreme close-up	Two peoples tongues appear	Split screen, Extras: Bruce and Will
W	44	close-up	M singing to camera	-
W	45	Mid shot/long shot	People walk in front of M, causing a crowd	Extras: Molly and Ryan. Split screen
W	46	Mid shot	M is walking/singing. Little girl waves to camera	Extra: Eve, split screen
W	47	Mid shot	M sings to camera	-
W	48	Mid shot	M looking up as if daydreaming	Green screen!
W	52	Close-up	M lip syncing, worried facial expression	-
W	54	Mid shot/ pan	M walks past camera	-
W	55	close-up	M's worried facial expression	-
HE	56	Long shot	M+A see each other for the first time	'Loved-up!'
HE (Green screen)	49	Mid shot	M+A at a picnic	Underneath a tree
HE	50	Mid shot	A takes a picture of them together	“ “
HE	51	Camera point of view	Shows M+A's faces as they spin round together	“ “
B	3	Close-up	Laptop clicks on song, song starts	Song starts, split screen
B	5	Mid shot	A puts on a jumper	Bedroom scene
B	7	Mid shot/track	A walks out of the gate, slams it	Door slam is in time with the music
W	9	Mid shot	A walking, we see back of her head	-
W	11	Mid shot	A searches in pockets as if lost something	Lost keys!
W	13	Mid shot	Someone physically turns A around	Extra: Molly
Still shot	14	Mid shot	A backwards	Split screen
Still shot	16	Mid shot	A backwards and forwards	Split screen
Still shot	17	Mid shot	A backwards	Split screen
W	20	Close-up	Standing still, backwards	Still shot
W	21	Close-up	A standing still, angle closer to the camera	Still shot
W	22	Close-up	A standing still sideways on	Still shot
W	23	Close-up	A standing still, almost at the camera	Still shot
W	24	Mid shot	A confused, facing camera. Extras pop into shot	Extras: Will and Ryan
W	26	Mid shot	A facing away, people blowing bubbles	Extras: Jaz and Abi, split screen
W	27	Mid shot	People put their hands over A's eyes	Extra: Abbey Kurton, split screen
W	28	Mid shot	Girl gives A a balloon	Extra: Eve, Split screen
W	29	Long shot/pan	2 shots of balloon rising into the air	Split screen, different colours for M and A
W	30	Mid shot	A walking	-
W	32	Mid shot	See themselves walk past, 'coincidences'	Split screen, 2 shots for 2 versions of A
W	33	Mid shot	A yawns	Split screen
W	34	Mid shot	A walking	-
W	36	Mid shot	A walking, music notes appear	Music notes, split screen
W	37	Mid shot	A walking along with music notes above her head	Split screen
W	38	Mid shot	A puts right leg forward	Split screen
W	39	Mid shot	A puts left leg forward	Split screen
W	40	Mid shot	A puts right leg back	Split screen
W	41	Mid shot	A puts left leg back	Split screen
W	42	Mid shot	A jumps!	Split screen
W	45	Mid shot	People walk in front of A, as if creating a crowd	Split screen, Extras: Molly and Ryan
W	46	Mid shot	Girl walks in front of A, waves at the camera	Extra: Eve, split screen
W	53	Mid shot/pan	A walks across, past the camera	-
HE	57	Extreme close-up	We see A's happy facial expression	SO HAPPY

Colour co-ordinating it in this way has really helped me to understand some of the quick moves we have in terms of location. However, I believe that we can do it and now with a detailed shot list, we can start studying the shots and making sure they have everything we want in them, including props, costume etc. By making this shot list it's helped me to begun studying the shots in detail but I believe that after writing down the words to go alongside our photograph storyboard I should have all the shots memorised, studied and detailed. Doing the storyboard table is my next big challenge and I should have that up in the next few days. I also plan to do another blog on narrative, concept and performance videos and the differences between them. Just to clarify our ideas on our music video but also to be fully prepared when it comes to answering the questions fully in our evaluation.

More to follow :)