Editing Tutorials - Prince

As we were not too experienced or familiar with using final cut pro I guess running into problem is no surprise. When we started of this project we were bursting with ideas of what we could include in our video for example effects. There was only one thing that was holding us back....we didn't exactly know how to do these effects on final cut. At this point we were feeling low and were starting to lower our standards and ideas. I guess there was just one thing we forgot, we had a weapon at our disposal, something that could turn anything impossible, possible.....the internet. All we needed to do really was to search up "how to do this" and " how to do that" and it will just put up in front of us within seconds. So we decided to search up different effects or problems we encountered and used websites such as youtube to help overcome these problems..

Speed

One of the biggest problems we had whilst making our video was the speed. The timing of our artists lip syncing and out audio file did not exactly match, this was a disaster at that time, as every professional video has the lip syncing and the audio working together. No matter what we tried or what we did it just was not working. To overcome it we searched it on you tube and came up with this..

Colour

Another problem we encountered whilst making our music video was that some of our clip either looked too dark or too bright. We needed to find a way to change this as it was making our music video look very unprofessional. As we did before, we decided to call on you tube to help us out.

 

Adding Effects

We wanted our music video to look different from everybody else in the class. To do this we had to obviously come up with something unique. So we decided to search on youtube for possible effects that could make our music video stand out.

The Most Expensive Videos Of All Time - Jessica

In order to know not only how much directors put into creating their music videos and what makes music videos so expensive, I researched the five most expensive music videos. 

1) Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson - Scream (£4,330,290.89)

This video was created in 1995.  When looking at this video, it becomes more obvious why the video was as expensive as it was. With the use of various transition editing, throughout out the video which would have been produced by the new developed equipments, therefore it would have been more expensive then than now. Additionally this video includes many props such as jet black electric guitar, chairs, statues, paintings etc. Majority of the video consists of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson in a "spaceship". Overall the main cost of this video would come from the narrative/performance within the video.

2) Madonna - Die Another Day (£1,673,951.46+)
This video was created in 2002 for the theme to the James Bond Movie (Die Another Day). The stunts and props used throughout the video is the main attraction of the music video, as well as the duplication of Madonna. From my knowledge of filming, the director must of had to film every clip (with the two Madonna's) twice - a man/woman playing the Madonna that isn't her. The several stunts means that money would need to be spent on hiring professional (add the different ones here) as well as a stunt women who features are similar to Madonna to stand in for the sections that can only be done by professionals. Additionally watching the video I notice there are some fighting scenes which contains Madonna doing martial arts; (not to ridicule Madonna, but I don't think she can fight) moreover money would need to be spent on teaching Madonna martial arts.

3) Puff Daddy - Victory (£3,713,036.57)
This video was created in 1998. The full video is approximately 7:59 minutes long. From my research victory is the replica of the movie "The Running Man" and Puff Daddy is basically the replacement of Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is a lot of rain, heavy duty explosions and pyrotechnics, motorcycles and choppers with with armed men. I noticed the known actor Danny Devito is used in the music video as the news reporter following Puffy's progress throughout the 'game show'; along with Dennis Hopper who plays  (if you have seen all his movies, you would not be surprised) the main villain.

4)Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker (£1,550,056.85)
This music video was situated in a cinema, obviously the cinema would had be rented out (costing A LOT). Similar to Madonna music video (Die Another Day) there are two Mariah Carey's along with a fighting scene (and not to ridicule her either - she can't fight) so the director would have to do extra filming (doing each scene twice) as well Mariah Carey being taught how to fight. Additionally the first clip there is a choreography which includes around 20 dancers (including Mariah Carey) therefore money would have need to be spent on the dancers as well as a choreographer to choreograph the dance.  Furthermore there is a animated section of the music video, moreover from my research in order to create that section of the music video an animator would draw up a storyboard of the section which would be animated then create using a computer.

Advisement during Music Videos - Jessica

Brands are increasingly embedding their products within music videos in their advertising; this creates an ease of targeting their audience. Products placed in music videos never disappear, as long as the video exists, so does the advertising campaign. This solidity is different from other ads which may be played before or after the music video, this is because (especially if the music video is a hit) the video is most likely to be played more than a single advert (imprinting the product in the audience mind). Music videos are particularly influential among younger audience, therefore brands which are longing to  'woo' 18-25 year olds demographics, are taking full advantage of this.

A quote I learnt, which to me I believes sums up advertisments embedded within music video:

"Product placement promotes consumer identification, interaction and conversation around a brand"

Diet Coke, Sony, Dating Site (Plenty of Fish) and Wonder Bread are just some of the brands that play the latest leading roles in a selection of music videos, and according to PQ Media, the trends are set to grow rapidly, bringing high returns on investment for brand owners.

Britney Spears' video for her hit single 'Hold it Against Me' featured Plenty of Fish, Make Up For Ever, Radiance (Perfume by Britney Spears) and Sony.

Lady Gaga's video for 'Telephone' presented viewers with the Virgin Mobile and of course the legendary hairstyle, Diet Coke - aka the eccentric pop star's 'hair rollers'

According to a report released last week by PQ Media, the money spent on product placement in recorded music grew 8 percent in 2009 compared with the year before, while overall paid product placement declined 2.8 percent, to $3.6 billion (£2,493,247.45). Patrick Quinn, chief executive of PQ Media, said that revenue from product placement in music videos totaled $15 million (£9360660) to $20 million (£12480880) last year, more than double the amount in 2000, and he expected that to grow again this year. For years, the opportunities for product placement  in music videos were limited. MTV was the dominant outlet for videos, and its policy prohibited blatant plugs in videos, so the network would often blur brand labels or ask for a new version without the placement. However there are a few occasions when music channels (MTV, Kiss) do not blur out blatant plugs in videos.

This is our own attempt to add promotion to our video:

 

Practicing Our Previous Opening Scenes - Jessica And I

In order to avoid wasting time we practiced are opening scene several times, therefore we would prepare for our first filming. Once we had gotten enough footage, I then used Youtube to find a footstep effect. Having both the footage and footstep effect I placed into Final Cuts and altered them both to make them in sync with one another. I used this as an opportunity to explore the different effects and video filters that Final Cuts have to offer. One filter that I found quite interesting was the 'Sharpen', the more i clicked on the 'Sharpen' the more sharper the footage became. 

Here is a practice footage of our opening clip:

As you are able to tell the sound of the footsteps replicate the sound of high heels and I am wearing wellies, as well as the fact that two different shoes are used in the clip. This is all because we used this as a test, to not only test our editing skills but who within our team is more skillful in handling the camera in handled position. It also helped us to understand in what way and angle the camera should be held, along with how the individual holding the camera would have to follow the artist up the stairs. 

Also as you can see during the clip I used the 'Sharpen' filter to give myself and idea of how the filter could effect our footage. 

Exploring Our Fonts - Jessica

In order for our group to understand what fonts would be best for us to use on our album, I decided to research different type of fonts which are use on albums. Below are three of the fonts which stood out the most for me. 

As our the artist of our music video is female I decided to look at a variety of fonts which are used on female artist album covers. For example Beyonce, the font she used for her latest album Beyonce 4. From my research I found that the name of this font is Dream Orphan. What I like about this font is that it gives a sort of vintage, posh  look to the album without taking away the fact it is an R'n'B album. Also the colour black (even though it is plain) gave some type of bold statement, which I believe represent the genre R'n'B. Additionally the contrast between the colour black and her complexion, gives the album a rich look 

Unfortunately I were not able to find that exact font, however a font which I found similar to this font was Apple Garamond from dafont.com. 


Using Adobe Photoshop I experimented with our artist name Melanie Fiona, both in lower case and capitals; to get an idea of what it may look like if placed on to the front of our album. 

Another female artist which I analysed the font on her album cover was Kelly Rowland. This album in particular is an R'n'B album which includes a lot of dance. Research showed this particular album was nominated for International Dance Award. Moreover as you can see the font  in which she used is very thin with both inner and outer glower. This I believes represents the type of music included in her album - dance music; the type of music which you would hear in a club. Nonetheless the font illustrate or 'paints a atmosphere' of a club.  As you can see below I attempted to find the closest font possible to the one featured on Kelly Rowland album:





This font is called Good Times also from the dafont.com. Unlike the font featured on the album this font is much thicker and bolder. This font in particular only has uppercase letter, therefore I was unable to see what it may look in lowercases. In order to achieve the similar font on Kelly Rowland's album I had to manipulate the font in Adobe Photoshop. Below is an image stating the quick steps I took to achieve this look.

Additionally another album font I looked at was Keyshia Cole - A Different Me, compared to the others I have reviewed, this font in particular was quite soft with a slight ombre effect. The swerves gives a gentle touch to the album. In someways the font gives the impression that the album will reveal a softer side to Keyshia Cole, therefore reflecting the name of the album 'A Different Me'. 

Using the font MTF Under Your Skin from 
DaFont.com I tried to recreate the same font, to understand what the name Melanie Fiona may look like in a similar font; however I used the colour grey. 

After reviewing several different album cover fonts, we decided to take ideas from all Beyonce and Keyshia Cole albums which lead us to the font Apple Garamond. For example what we liked about Beyonce Album font is that the font looks bold and stands out, it also looks classy and vintage; additionally the font makes her name looks like a statement which is how we wanted our artist name to come across on her album. Furthermore what we liked from Keyshia Cole's Album font is the ombre effect, in which the colours used to create the ombre is based on the background. Nonetheless we have come up with a font which we believe represent our artist as bold and fearless.

CHANGES 
We had made some minor changes to the font of our album cover. We found that using the gradient overlay with the colours black, white and pink contrasted greatly with the chosen image, therefore we changed the colours to pink and white. Below is our now chosen font:-

How To Create A Music Video Risk Assessment - Jessica

From my research I learnt that to make sure our music video is done in a professional and safe manner we must conduct as risk assessment. Nonetheless to make a risk assessment we would need to understand what it is and how it should be structured.

What is the a Risk Assessment?
A risk assessment according to HSE is a careful examination of what, in your workplace could bring harm to people, in order for you to make sure you have taken enough precautions or if you should do more to avoid harm. A risk assessment is important step in protecting whoever we will be working with, as well as complying with the law, it helps us to focus on the risk that really matter - the ones that can cause potential hazards.

 How I made the Risk Assessment
Making the risk assessment was very easy, first I listed down what potential hazards we could face in making our music videos. Next for every hazard I mentioned I then wrote a solution for each one. Luckily for our group there was nothing which had no solution to it (if that did occur then we would have the 'scrap' the idea and put the safety of our group first.

Conventions Of Different Genred Music Videos - Jessica

Pop Music Videos 

There are many convention commonly used in pop videos, in the video below is the video Katy Perry - Last Friday, I have used this video to show the conventions.

 Upbeat - Instantly as you play the video you can hear the upbeat song. Pop genre songs majority of the time are upbeat with a fast pace. 

Bright Colours - Also as you can see there is a use of bright colours. Pop videos to mimic the pace of the beat (exciting, fast, up-tempo) use retro, bright, block colours to create that fun, party atmosphere. In this music video the colour hot pink, yellow, purple etc. are use continuously throughout the video.

Locations - Location based on the lyrics is usually party/club scene, as the intention of pop music is to generally be played in clubs or at party. Likewise in this music video the location used is in a house to create a house party. 

Costume - Pop genre similar to hip hop videos always have a variety of costumes. For example in this music Katy Perry costumes changes from a dungaree with a turtle neck, to a bodycon skirt and crop top. There is also a part in the music video where she is wearing a long medieval gown.

Instruments - Unlike rock/indie music videos you tend not to see instruments in the music video for example Ke$ha - Tik Tok, however nowadays pop music videos do not always tend to stick to that convention; Katy Perry - Last Friday Night, is a great example as there is a saxophone solo performance in the music video. 

Dance Sequences - Pop videos tend to have a dance sequence in their music videos, this usually to encourage the audience to dance, as well as making the music video more entertaining.

Heavy Metal Music Videos

Similar to Pop videos there are conventions which are used repetitively used in metal music videos. I have decided to use the music video 'Psychosocial' by Slipknot to highlight these examples. 

Dark Lighting/Setting - Heavy metal music videos always have a sinister atmosphere to it. As you can see in the Slipnot video, the lighting is very dark, there is fire in many of the shorts giving it that 'hellish' setting.

Performance Based - Majority if not all metal music videos are performance based. Slipknot   music video is a beautiful example. As you can see all instruments used to create the song is shown in the video; the band is performing. 

Costume  - The costume is clothing is always dark to fit the theme of the video, black is prominently used in their attire. In the case of this music video not only are their attire black but they are also wearing scary looking mask.

Fast Pace - Heavy metal songs are always fast pace, electric guitars are constantly used to usually get the audience adrenaline 'pumping'.

Camera Angle - Camera angles are always shaky, to mimic the chaotic setting as well as the fast pace of the song. 

Hip Hop Music Videos 

All Hip Hop music videos all share similar conventions. Using Trey Songz ft T.I - 2 Reason, I will underline the similar conventions used.

Props/Location - Similar to pop videos nowadays hiphop songs are situated in a club or a house party. Although they are also some hip hop music videos which are located in a expensive house. The theme of wealth is prominently shown through hip hop music videos, therefore props such as expensive cars, expensive alcohol even literal money is shown. For example in Trey Songz music videos, it is in a club, there is expensive alcohol everywhere, along with many beautiful girls. 

Costume - To follow the theme of wealth prominently shown in hip hop music videos. The attire that the artist wear are usually very expensive, which not only makes them look wealthy but promotes the clothing line.

Promotions - Hip Hop videos love to promote products in their videos, from perfumes, clothing to cars and alcohol. As you can clearly see in this music video the expensive drink is Grey goose is promoted as well as french drink. 

More On Target Audience - Sath

According to UKtribes there are many types of young people out there in the world, their social groups have various names such as; boy racers, chavs, indie scenesters, emos etc. All of those groups of young people fall under bigger social groups which narrows things down. The big social groups are; aspirant mainstream, mainstream, urban, alternative kids, and leading edge. 


Aspirant mainstream consists of Trendies and Rahs. The brands that most of them use are; Amazon, Jack Wills, H&M, Topshop, and iTunes. The media brands that are most common are; Vogue, Timesonline, Channel 4, Twitter, Elle, and Facebook.

Mainstream consists of; Ravers, Townies, Chavs, Boy Racers, Sport Junkies, Street rats, and Casuals. The popular brands that people from this social group uses are;Nike, Umbro, River Island, Reebok, Primark, Nintendo Wii, Sports Direct. The Media brands that are most common are; OK!, The Sun, Youtube, ITV 1, and Facebook.



Urban social group consists of; Get paid crew, Blingers, DIYers, and Trackies. The brands that are most common in this social group are;Nike, Youtube, Yahoo, JD sports, Blackberry, Adidas, New era, and Playstation 3. The media brands which are common amongst this social group are; BBC 1xtra, Channel 4, Kiss 100, AKA, Facebook, and MTV Base.

The Alternative kids social group consists of; Gamers, Emos, Scene Kids, Skaters, Metal heads, Young Alts. The most common brands in this social group are;Amazon, American Apparel, Play.com, Nintendo DS, Topman, Quiksilver, Vans, and Xbox 360. The most common media brands in this social group are; Xfm, Eurogamer, 4OD, Youtube, NME, Facebook, Kerrang, and Myspace.

The Leading Edge social group consists of; Hipsters, Geeks, Craft kids, Indie scenesters. The brands that are most common in this social group are; Nike, Wikipedia, Converse, Ebay, ASOS, Urban outfits. The media brands that are most common in this group are; Flickr, The Guardian, Twitter, Vogue, and Xfm.

Filming Schedule - Jessica

To help us organise our filming and get shots we needed done on time, we decided to create a filming schedule. After considering all the different locations we needed to film at along with the equipment needed, Jessica went ahead with creating a digital copy of the filming schedule. After we had this filming schedule, we was able to see when each member of the group was needed and what equipment was needed during each filming.

Equipment Used - Sath

For the filming we have decided to use several pieces of equipment, there are various equipment such as two SLR cameras, two tripods, led lighting, halogen lighting.

Nikon D5100

The Nikon D5100 is a SLR camera which is capable of recording full HD videos which is a reason why we was chose to use the camera. This camera is really useful as it is a SLR which includes all of its manual options which comes in handy when we want to adjust our footage before we edit which would make it easier to edit. Another reason is that, the camera has a flip out screen which has the ability to rotate and tilt. Using this screen, we would be able to film high angle and low angle shots which gives us  great flexibility while filming.

Nikon D3100

The Nikon D3100 is the second camera that we used which was supplied by our Media Studies teacher, it is also capable of capturing full HD videos. This camera also comes will other features that are available with the SLRs such as manual focus etc which allows us to take control over what we film and the outcome of the footage.

Jessops tripod

The Jessops TP323, is a tripod provided by our Media Studies teacher, the tripod had three levels of leg which allows us to film from various heights allowing us to achieve different angles of footage. It has a head which can rotate either 360 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees vertically. This gives us a lot of freedom of how we filmed using the tripod.

Hama star 62

The Hama star 62 is a tripod which also comes with three extendable legs. Having another tripod allows us to film from two different fixed points so even when we do cuts, the angle and height of the footage would not change which would make the film have more continuity to it.

Melanie Fiona '4AM' Music Video Analysis - Prince

Prince thought it would be a good idea to repeat what we did for the Miguel adorn music video for our Melanie Fiona music video. He took out some time to write down the most used shots and camera angle in this music video. Seeing as the story line of the music video was going to be the same as the original it would only be right that we knew what the shots in the original music video portraying (e.g feelings, hunger, hard work...). It also helps as we now know what shots are needed to make our video look good and as professional as possible. 

Using The Dolly: Jessica

In order to give our music video the cinematic look, and make it as professional as possible, we realize that we need certain equipment to achieve certain looks. Luckily enough for us our school supplied us with these necessary equipments, one in particular is the dolly.

What is a Dolly?

'High-tech' dollies as you can see from the image, as usually carts which travel along tracks. The camera is mounted on a dolly and records the shot as it moves. Dolly shots have numerous applications and can provide very dramatic footage.

  

 As obvious as it may sound dollies are used to make dolly shot which are also known as tracking shots/trucking shots. Although many professionals prefer the 'rigid' terminology which defines dolly as an 'in-and-out' movement (i.e. closer/further away from the subject), while tracking means 'side-to-side' movement. Most dollies (especially those used by professionals) have levers to allow for vertical movement as well as (known as pedestal move). Or in other cases a crane can be mounted on the dolly for additional height and flexibility. A shot which moves vertically while simultaneously tracking is called a compound shot. 

How Effect Can The Dolly Be For Our Music Video?

Using the dolly would be an effect tool to our music video because it will allow our group to capture smooth and dynamic footage. For example in our music video the dolly could used for a tracking shot, as we want footage of our main female artist walking in the kitchen. With the dolly we could record our female artist in a way which would put our target audience in her POV, as well as following her; this could be a way of interacting with the audience. 

Practicing With The Dolly

To avoid wasting time during our filming with the dolly, we established that it would be more logically to practice using it. Nonetheless we split our group further into two groups, Seun and I and Prince and Sath and practiced using the dolly. 

First and foremost we had to set up the dolly, this was very simple. We first mounted the camera onto a tripod and then extended the legs. Once that was done we then connected it to he dolly, by adjusting the knob (widening the gap) to allow the tripod slip in, to then tighten the knob (reducing the gap) to the extent that the tripod could not move. This was done to all three legs of the tripod. 

Once the dolly had been set up we then practiced panning vertically up and down on each other. Below features so of these clips: 

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

 For my Question 4 I thought that it would be appropriate if I used technology to show the technologies we had used throughout the process.

Other Technologies we used were:

Time rime was mainly used to create timeline for the history
9 of our genres and to make sure we knew the importance of dates.

We also used flip book show most of the evidence we
did on paper such as schedules and our comments we got
back from our classmates.

I decided to show how we used the different technologies throughout the process and how it was so beneficial to us:

Research:

Planning:

Filming:

Construction:

Examining A Hip Hop Album Digipak

I decided to analyse a digipak, showing how professionals carry out the conventions in comparison to our own.

General Information:

Construction - How JESSICA Made The Font

As mentioned in an earlier post wanted an ombre affect on our font. The two colours we picked for our font was pink and black; black because it is a bold colour also the Apple Garamondfont in black makes the name Melanie Fiona stand out more and look like a statement. The colour pink was chosen because the image we are going to use for our album cover the lipgloss she used was pink (similar to the Keyshia Cole album who linked the background colour of the background with the ombre effect on the font) we are decided to link the colour of her lips with the ombre effect on the words.  

I created this font in Adobe Photoshop. Firstly I created typed Melanie Fiona in the AppleGaramond Font, making sure all letters are in capital letters. Once I had typed the letters up I then added a gradient overlay.

To add agradient overlay I first made sure that the layer containing the font was selected then clicked on the FX icon (at the bottom on the layer tab). After I had clicked on theFX icon a dialog box appeared. Next in the dialog box I clicked on the gradient overlay section. Once I have selected the gradient overlay the default gradient overlay ofblack and white appeared on my font. However I want the gradient overlay to flow from blackinto pink, therefore to make it easier for me to customize the gradient I first changed the degree of the  gradient from 90 to -90. Moreover all I would have to change is the white to pink.

To customize the gradient I double clicked on the gradient (which made another dialog box appear). The dialog box allowed me to alter the colour of the gradient changing it from white to pink. 

Update 
When putting the font on top of our image we noticed that it contrasted greatly with the image, making it uncomfortable to look at. Moreover we decided to change the colours we used for the gradient overlay from black-white-pink to white-pink.