Filming Day 2

My group planned to film the next part of our music video over the christmas half term when we had a lot of free time. The location of these scenes is Eysnford at the remains of a castle which means the background is a stone wall and so not too busy to take the attention off the actress. Before we began we asked Ellie the actress to wear the same outfit as she had before as well as to make her hair look the same, to ensure continuity throughout the music video.

Props
We organised the props we needed for this day of filming before we set out; this consisted of an alcohol bottle (which we half filled with water), a cigarette for the actress to light and a photograph of the two actors involved, however, we were unable to get this and so used a temporary prop of a piece of paper for now. We will however re-shoot this so it looks realistic and is inkeeping with our storyboard.

The Location

Lighting

Before we began filming we had to find a suitable area where the light was not too bright to make the film unclear, this was hard as it was quite early morning and the sun was moving round. The following pictures show different areas by this wall when we tried to find ideal lighting:

In this area was either very bright sunlight or a dark shadow.

Here there is still a shadow along the bottom half of the wall.

This shows the final area we chose to film in where the lighting was fairly consistent.

Problems we encountered



One of the scenes we filmed included lighting a cigarette, while another clip shows the actress setting a piece of paper on fire. This, which can be seen the above pictures, proved quite difficult due to the wind which was strong, blowing out the flames whenever we lit a match. We managed to light the cigarette by shielding the wind with ourselves, however, this could not be done for the paper being lit and so we will shoot that clip at another time hopefully when there is less wind.

Back Cover and Spine of Digi-Pak Research

Rihanna Rated R back cover

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger)

The spine is also shown either side of this back cover; the main information shown on the spine is the artists name and album name, with these written in the same font and style as on the front cover.

Kesha, Animal cover

Once again, the spine's of the album above shows the artists name and album name in the centre of the spine, written vertically so it fits well and therefore the two most important pieces of information necessary on the spine are:

- Artist Name

-Album Name

However, other information includes the record label at the top of the spine and a code at the bottom. As we have not mentioned a record label throughout, we may just not include this piece of information on the spine, while a code would be added during distribution and not in the design.

The research above shows two fairly different looking back covers. However, using these we have decided features our own back covers should include to meet the sophisticated style of our digi-pak:

- An image similar to that on the front but probably slightly less obvious, for example the back of the artist or a partially hidden image, linking with that in the Rihanna back cover.

-A list of songs as this is easier for the audience to read

-Information about the record label

-Contact Information

-Barcode

Transitions in Music Videos

After researching into different types of cuts and transitions, I have looked at music vidoes to see the most commonly used ones. I have chosen to watch music videos from artists who could be linked with our actress' style and those with a similar story line as this will effect the cuts and transitions. For example, our video is fast paced so a slow song would most likely have different cuts to make it appear soothing and calm.

Kesha, We are who we are
We feel that Kesha links well with our actress and music video and I have therefore firstly looked at the music video for her song 'We r who we r'.

Parallel editing Cutting

Here is an example of parallel editing cutting which shows the same scenes but from a variety of shots, making it more exciting and interesting for the viewer. The cuts are quick and therefore makes the music video fast paced. The image shows 4 different cuts of the same scene, using a range of angles.

Here is another example. The left image shows a mid shot of the DJ's with the laptop, while the second is a close up of the laptop screen. The scene is the same but the shots are very different with a simple cut separating them.

Dissolve

The images above show the stages from a close up shot of the singer turning into a long shot of a group of people. A dissolve transition was used as the middle image shows the original picture fading and the last image coming into view. It does not go black in between however, showing it is not a fade.



This image also shows the dissolve transition being used, with a close up of the singer turning into a long shot of a tunnel. It effectively makes two very contrasting views link into one another.

Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA

Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA is a music video starring a young girl roughly the same age of our actress. Though the setting is quite different (in this it is hot and summer, while ours is set in the winter) it is the same sort of speed and therefore appropriate to look at.

Parallel Editing Cutting

Once again, this cutting technique has been used, showing the same scene but in a range of angles, meaning regular cuts.

This cut however, is less obvious in showing that the scene is the same.

Fade in/ out

Going from left to right, the above images show a sequence of how the music video uses the transition of fading to change shots. Between the two different scenes, the screen goes black briefly and then fades in as equally slowly as it faded out to the next scene.

Beyonce, Best Thing I Never Had

Beyonce's music video for 'Best thing I Never had' does not necessarily link to the style of our song or plan for the music video but is one of the few videos I can think of that includes a story in the present and then flashback to the past and so I wanted to see how this change was cut to show the time difference.

Despite thinking there would be a particular transition to show the flashback, the music video just cuts to this scene in a basic cut. The difference in time is consquently shown in the effects used rather than the transition, for example the past in this video is shown as if it was filmed on a video camera.

Copyright letter

On behalf of my group I wrote to the 'Warner Music Group' asking for permission to use the Paramore song, owned by them. Here is a print screen of the message:

The message cannot be fully seen so here it is in full:

Dear Warner Music Group

I am a Year 13 student at Wilmington Grammar School for Girls in England. I am writing to request your permission to use one track from Paramore’s album ‘Brand New Eyes’, called ‘Ignorance’. With your permission, along with the three other members of my group, I would like to use this track for my Year 13 Media Studies Coursework, which involves creating a music video with a popular and well-known song.

We will also be producing a digi-pack and magazine advertisement which will include the name of the song. If we receive your permission, this track will be used for educational purposes only and will only be viewed by my media class, teachers and the OCR exam board. However, to upload the music video to our coursework blogs we will require uploading the video to YouTube for a short period of time until the exam board has viewed it.

The artist and the company will be fully recognised throughout the pre-production and the music video and a copyright notice supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required please send full details.

Thank you for your time, we look forward to hearing from you soon,

Sarah Biswell

Zoe Richardson

Charlotte Coe

Sarah Brushett

Portrait or Landscape?

My initial research into magazine adverts showed their are two different ways of designing magazines adverts, either portrait or landscape. I have therefore selected the two paramore magazine adverts; one being portrait and one landscape. While the portrait one is more commonly seen I believe the landscape one is more interesting and attracts my attention more. I have therefore decided to look further into landscape magazine adverts.

Here is another landscape magazine advert, for Britney Spears. Like the above one, this would presumably cover either half an A4 page or a double page spread. The name of the album on this one, however, is the largest font, with the artists name being slightly smaller. This contrasts to the previous research I have found which all shows the artists name as the most obvious information.

Below shows one of Rihanna's magazine adverts for her latest album 'talk this talk'. This is also a landscape product and has Rihanna's image covering one half of the page with the information on the other. I think this is an effective way of designing a magazine advert as the image can be equally as large as the rest of the information and so will be seen immediately by magazine readers, telling them what is being promoted.

I, along with the rest of my group, therefore believe a landscape design will be the best idea for our own magazine advert.

Research into slide transitions

Cuts and transitions move scenes from one shot to another and are therefore important in music videos. We will need knowledge of slide transitions while editing our music video in order to ensure the audience understand it properly.

Types of Cuts

Cut: Most basic slide transition which simply plays one shot immediately after the other. This is how Adobe Premiere will play the shots without us making any changes. This is also known as a 'straight cut'.

Contrast Cut: When the editor juxtaposes two subjects, for example a peaceful calm shot cutting to an angry shot. This would be relevant in our music video as it tells a story of the girls life now, frustrating and angry, against her past which was happy and relaxed.

Parallel Editing Cutting: Where a scene consists of several shots of the same action. This will be appropriate for our video as we have planned scenes where the actress is followed by the camera during her day. One continuous shot of each action, however, may make the audience bored as it would be very long-winded.

Types of Transitions

Unlike cuts, transitions aim to blend two shots meaning they are not as sudden.

Fade in/out: When one picture slowly fades out and the next fades in, usually turning black briefly between the two. This is seen particularly at the beginning or end of the film.

Dissolve: When a shot changes into the next, without turning black between. The shots blend into each other, this would work in our music video to show the difference between the present and the past of the girls life.

Wipe: When one shot is replaced by another by being moved across and out of the screen. It can involve the shots moving horizontally or vertically. I'm not sure this would be appropriate with our music video as it is rarely seen and may look amateur. 

Morph: Gradually reshaping one object to become another in a separate scene, for example a young man being morphed into an older version of himself. I do not think this will be appropriate in our music video as we are not showing the difference between two separate figures or objects when this would be necessary.

Initial Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Adverts

To begin our ancillary task research, my group and I researched female artists who look similar to Ellie, the actress in our film and girl who will be featured on both ancillary tasks.

Until we saved these pictures we did not see the resemblance between the adverts that they all have a gold and black theme. On the three where the text can be seen, the artists name is in a large font with the name of the single beneath it in a smaller font but still obvious on the advert. The artists all look glamorous and well-presented on these products which my group we also try to do.

The top right image is a parmaore magazine advert, with the left image showing the original image. Being the band behind the song we are using for our music video, I feel that looking at Paramore's actual magazine advert will show how we can link the song genre with the ancillary tasks. The poses are quite simple and the original image has a basic background in a road and so we may use this to recreate a similar image but with our one actress rather than a band. The second picture however has clearly involved a lot of editing with a logo of a butterfly which is present throughout many of the Paramore products.

Paramore's magazine advert above is very creative and looks like a reminder board with images, the title and anicdotes about the song all stuck on with selotape. The image shows the band with more forced poses than the previous one and the photo has a colour filter making it look quite old but effectively keeps the whole advert consistant. This contrasts to the other ones I have researched as it is landscape which I think is highly effective as it could either take up half an A4 page or cover two A4 pages as a double page spread.

What do magazine adverts consist of?

Ellie Goulding Magazine Advert

Rihanna Magazine Advert