Today, me and Chloe went out to film parts of our music videos and I think that for the most part of the filming, it was quite a successful trip. As I had slept at Chloe's the previous night to ensure that we were able to film promptly the next day, it made it a lot easier for us both because we were able to simply get ready and head off to film. We got up in the morning at around 9 o'clock but didn't end up leaving Chloe's house until half past 11 after getting ready and sorting out the shots we were planning on shooting, which meant that we had less than 3 hours to get all of our scheduled filming done for this day. We planned on travelling first to the Humber Bridge for Chloe's shots that she needed, going down into Humber Bridge Country Park for the rest of her shots and then going to a field near Chloe's house to get some of the footage for my music video. I planned on getting the parts of my video that are located in a field because these are the easiest shots to do so can therefore have more time on getting the other shots that I need. When we got to the Humber Bridge, I realised that I could use this time to record part of the video that I didn't plan on getting that day. We filmed Chloe's sections first as this location was mainly for her to do her filming in, and then I quickly did the one shot that I wanted. We then went down to Humber Bridge Country Park as this is the second location Chloe wanted to shoot at, and I again realised that I could easily film there as there are lots of fields to choose from. This also meant that we weren't rushed for time because we then didn't have to move to another location.
List of problems:
Rain.
Lip-syncing
Remembering which shots I needed to film
Handheld camera as tripod wouldn't go as low as I needed
Filming the wrong shot
How to overcome problems:
Check the weather just before going outside to film. I checked the night before I was going out to film but this wasn't accurate enough, so next time I film I will have to make sure that I check the weather the morning of or the night of filming so I can be prepared.
The part that I wanted the artist in my video to lip-sync was really quiet so she couldn't hear the words and wasn't sure of when to start. To make sure that the artist can hear the music, I am going to download the song onto a device that can play the song a lot louder or bring speakers with me so that I can still get the shot I need, and so that it works better.
So I know which shots I need to film, I need to remember to bring the storyboards with me so I can see which part of the song is for which scene. I also need to remember to write a list of which shots I need to film for that day and tick them off as I do them. I did this when I did the first day of filming but the paper kept blowing away, so I need to use a sturdier notepad next time or have something with me to weigh the paper down.
Using a handheld camera didn't work for some shots as it caused too much shake, therefore meaning the shot didn't look very good or professional. I will need to make sure that when I borrow a tripod next time it goes as low as I need or can rest the camera on a flat surface as not to shake.
When I filmed one of my shots, I realised afterwards that the clothing wasn't right as I was filming the parts from the beginning of the video, but what I got was a shot from near the end. When I shoot next time I need to remember what the artist needs to wear so that the shot is how I want it and how it is planned to look.
Yesterday when me and Chloe were supposed to be going to film, we unfortunately didn't get the chance. This was because it started raining and I thought it best to not go out in case my camera got wet and possibly broke, meaning I would have to borrow one from college which would be a hassle as they don't have a lot. It was also very dark by the time we got home from college which I thought may happen due to it being winter, and decided that the rain plus the dark weren't a good mix and would film my shots today instead to make it easier and make them look better. This doesn't matter too much, as we can just go out and film today and make the best possible use of our time.
To find out what was conventional for a
magazine, I researched a variety of genres and looked at what was on each of
the magazines, for example; barcode, main image and supporting images. For my
college magazine, I didn’t use any influences from college magazines as I
didn’t do much research for it, although I did use the basic layout for a
magazine. This was because I used a main image in the middle, text at the sides
to show what would be included in the magazine and a barcode. For my music
magazine, I used a ‘Top Of The Pops’ splash as an idea of how to lay mine out.
I did this because I liked the bright colours that were used on it and the
triangle that presented the main feature of the magazine. I also used a ‘TOTP’
magazine contents page as an influence on my product because I liked how they
had an image of the magazine on it, and had arrows pointing to the features
showing what page number they were on. For my double page spread, I put one
image of the artist on a whole page which was like a double page spread I had
seen by ‘TOTP’. I liked this idea because it separated the text and artist
which made it look like there was less text so the audience would be more
likely to read it. I also used an idea from ‘Vibe’ magazine in which they had
posed the artist in a variety of ways and put the pictures at the top of the
page. I used this idea but added a modern twist to it, as I placed these images
into Polaroid style shapes.
To get ideas of the type of colour scheme I
wanted for my product, I used Google to search and found a website called ‘Adobe
Kuler’. This was how I found that I wanted predominantly pink and green in my
product to make it fun and vibrant. I used Photoshop to edit my images and to
change aspects of the product. When changing the background of my front cover
from white to bright pink (to fit with the conventions and to relate to my
target audience of young girls) I had to use the selection tool to select the
parts I wanted to be pink and then use the fill tool to change the colour. I
used Microsoft Publisher to create some shapes that weren’t accessible on
Photoshop, which I think made my product look better and related to the target
audience I wanted to buy my magazine. I used the website Blogger to upload all
of my coursework to, and found this really useful to store all of my work in
one place, which was useful so that I could figure out how up-to-date I was and
could see what work I had left to do. For taking photographs, I used a Canon
EOS 1100D which gave me quality images for my product.
When thinking about the title for the
masthead of my college magazine, I had to fit it around the theme of college
life so I had to have one that reflected college in some way; learning,
students and work. This was how I came up with different ideas, but ended up
choosing ‘Choices’ as my final masthead because I felt like this was different
and related to the topic of college life. When I made my music magazine, I took
a variety of different shots like close up and long shot so that I could decide
which one looked better and use it in my product. For my music magazine, there
was a lot more freedom to be creative as I could choose which genre I wanted my
magazine to be orientated around could also choose and the audience I wanted my
magazine aimed at. I had a lot of different ideas when deciding the name for my
magazine so I decided to post a poll on my Blogger so that other people could
decide which one they liked best. I ended up choosing the name ‘Pulse’ because
it was the highest voted name on the poll I had made and also was the most
relevant to the audience I wanted to aim my product at. I improved the photos I
used at the top of the right-hand side of my double page spread because at
first they were just plainly at the top, which looked quite boring. I then
added a white rectangle behind the images and tilted them slightly to make them
look like Polaroid instant prints, as this was more fun and reflected the
audience I was aiming my product at. My initial idea was to simply put
everything that I thought belonged on the pages on, but I decided against this
because this wouldn’t give the product a professional finish. I researched the
conventions of a pop magazine and looked at the existing pop magazine ‘Top Of
The Pops’, and also other magazines that weren’t pop to see what similarities
magazines had so I knew what needed to be included in my product. I think this
helped me a lot because I was able to see what worked well in a magazine, and
was able to use ideas from them but adapt them in a way that would suit my
specific product and audience.
For my music magazine, I had a lot more
research to do because I wanted this to be a lot better than my college
magazine. I researched things like colour schemes, the way magazines pose the
artists on the front cover and the way they layout the pages. For example, I
researched different music magazines that related to the genre I wanted my
product to be, which was pop. I think doing this helped me when making my
splash, double page spread and contents page because I had an idea of how other
products looked, so could use them for inspiration. I also researched music
magazines that weren’t in the genre I was doing so that I knew what the
conventions were. Researching colours using ‘Adobe Kuler’ was a great way to
find colour schemes with colours that worked well together, as I could simply
search ‘pop’ and relevant options came up which I was able to choose from. This
ended up with the full product looking a lot more professional as I took
multiple images for each section, had multiple outfits and also a range of models
for the magazine.
I knew that to make the photo stand out and
look clearer and brighter I had to adjust the levels, which I hadn’t done on my
college front cover. Also, for my music magazine, I changed the background on
my front cover from white to pink by searching how to do it which made the
front cover stand out because it looked brighter and related to the target
audience a lot more than the white did. For the pictures I used on my double
page spread, I added a shape behind them to make them look like Polaroid
instant prints, which I think made them look more interesting and also related
to the target audience. I edited a lot of the text so that it wasn’t a plain
black colour on the front cover; I made it green to stand out of the cover and
catch peoples’ eyes to make them want to buy it. When I did audience feedback,
I asked questions about the product like ‘do you feel the colour choice suits
the genre’, ‘would you pay the price of the magazine’ and ‘do you think the
content is suitable for young teenagers’ which I got feedback which was
positive. I asked these particular questions because they were simple and were
relevant to the magazine. I think this is important when creating a product
like a magazine because then you can make any changes needed to make it more
appealing.
I have text Chloe today (Friday - the day of the first shooting) so that she remembered that we are filming. These are the texts that I sent to her and her replies;
As I am going to stay the night at Chloe's house, so that I can film tonight and also tomorrow morning, it will be easier for use to sort out the outfit she will wear in the videos because we can look at the clothes she has; sort through them and see which ones will work and which ones won't.
Things I need for this Friday and Saturday;
People needed for this day:
Artist.
Props needed:
Camera.
Tripod.
Stick.
Photograph of artist in 'popular' girl's outfit.
Clothing for artist (2 different kimonos, jeans, boots)
Locations needed:
Field.
Path.
As I am going to be filming on the Friday night and the Saturday morning, me and Chloe thought it would be best that I stay the night at her house because I live on the opposite side of Hull to her, so this will ensure that we use all of the time we can use to our advantage and get the most filming done as possible.
The shots that I am going to film are: 1, 7 to 9, 10, 11, 12, 26, 27, 28, 34, 36, 49, 69, 70, 71
For this post, I am going to write down the locations that I am going to use and which shots need to be filmed there so that I can keep a record of which shots I have done and which ones are still left; using the most out of the time I have.
When I have filmed these shots I will highlight them in green, and then after editing them and seeing if they look good I will highlight them in blue so that I know which ones will need re-filming.
For my first set of shots, I am going to film on Friday the 28th of November (night; after college) and Saturday the 29th of November (morning). I decided to start filming this Friday because it means I can film certain shots and will know if anything doesn't work in particular and will know that this needs changing. Also, starting to do this early will ensure that I can refilm if it is needed and can cope with any problems that occur. Because I am going to try and film on the Friday night, I think that this may affect the outcome of the shots and may end up being too dark. This is why I decided that I would film on Saturday too as this will be in the morning; meaning that it will be lighter. These days were worked out between me and the 'artist' who is going to appear in the video as she has a job that she goes to on a weekend, so we had to look at what times she was working so that we knew when she is available for filming. This will have to be checked weekly when filming due to her having different shifts each week.
To see what the weather will be like on the days that I am going to film, I went on both the Met Office website and the BBC website. I did this because I think that going on 2 separate websites will allow the information I receive to be more accurate rather than if I only looked at one site, as this could have wrong information.
This was on the BBC website and is a general overview of the rest of the week. I think that this looks like the weather will be okay for the days I am going to film, but I will still check it until the day of filming to see if anything changes.
Both of the websites have similar information, as the wind direction is slightly different but not by too much, and the temperature has only one degree difference in some of the times. This means that I can easily judge what times to film and it makes it easy for me because the information isn't too different; meaning I don't have to worry whether the information is correct.
This information is also similar, which means that I again don't have to worry about this day because the information is likely to be accurate.
For each of these days of filming, I know that the weather can easily change or these websites could have got the weather wrong. I am going to make sure that whether the weather changes or not, I still get some footage because it may make the shot look better in a way that I hadn't thought about. I will keep an eye on the weather on both of these websites and will write below if anything changes.
I have looked again on the BBC and the Met Office website to see if there are any changes to the days that I am going to be filming on, because then I can prepare for them or change the days. For the Friday, the temperatures have changed slightly from when I previously checked but this doesn't matter too much because they are only small. This is the same for the Saturday, as only slight changes for different times have happened so this is nothing major.
These are going to be the actresses in my video, who are the 'popular' girls that the artist is trying to be like and be friends with. I decided on these two as they are my friends so I know that I can rely on them to be in my video, and they are only in the video for little parts so filming their scenes shouldn't take too long so I can focus on other parts that need more time put into them and have more of a performance.
I also asked my friend Chloe to be in my video as the artist as I know that she is also reliable and we can easily sort out filming times to suit our timetables and personal lives.
I think that making a grid like this one is a great idea because it then reduces the risk of any accidents, and I can now plan what to do when filming so that it is all safe and everyone is okay. Before doing the grid, I didn't think I would have had a lot to think about when filming but now that I have done it, I'm glad I did because some things might have happened if I didn't take any of the precautions needed.
In preparation for filming my music video, I went out with my friend Chloe (who is going to be the artist in my music video) and took some test shots to see which ideas worked and which ones didn't. I think this was an important part of the process for creating my video as this allowed me to play around with shots and work out my ideas.
I think this shot will work well for the beginning of my video, although I think this shot is a little too dark and looks gloomy. This could work for my video to represent the artist's attitudes and emotions as she is in a dark place at the beginning of the video and feels sad about not fitting in with people. When filming this scene, I will video a dark sky on the night and also film in a morning to get a brighter setting. I think that filming both of these will be a good idea because I will be able to use the darker one at the beginning of my video, and end it on the brighter shot which illustrates how the artist has become happy with herself.
One thing that I forgot about when filming these shots was that I had to film them all either portrait or landscape so that it wasn't mixed, looked professional and so that the shots flowed seamlessly. I think this was a major thing that I learned from doing this as this wouldn't be good if I filmed the full video and then ended up realising after editing the full video. I really like this shot because it is simple yet effective in the way that the artist looks alone; portraying the lyrics of the song.
Although I think these shots look good and represent how people ignore the artist and simply walk past her and don't notice her, I found out that having the artist in the video sit on a bench was something that a lot of people use and so is now not recommended. I think that finding this out early is definitely a good thing for me because now when I start filming, I know that the footage I get is likely to be original and not look bad.
For these shots, I simply put them on YouTube and embedded them onto here without adding music because I know that I will have to reshoot them properly, and then will add the music at a later date so that it looks better.
I think that this is an important factor to look at when creating something like a music video for a new artist's very first single. When the video is finished, deciding where to publish it and where it would be promoted is a vital part of the process because this is where people will find the video and ultimately is how the audience decide whether they like the artist or not.
These are my initial ideas for the music video I am going to create for the song 'White Teeth Teens'. These are just first ideas I got when listening to the song and when doing my storyboard I may decide to change some things to make the video look better.
Because the above presentation is about the techniques I like and the influences which they are from, I decided to do another one but this time look at videos that were of the similar topic to the song I am doing; loneliness.
I am going to keep referring back to these presentations when creating my storyboard for my video so that I know what I want to include and so that I remember to put in the things I like. I think this will really help me because it will make it easier for me to create a storyboard if I know of some things that I want to include, and will help me if I get to a particular part in the song and get stuck on what to do for it.
I am going to look at the genre of rap and analyse some videos so that |I understand this theory more.
Female artists in this genre;
Nicki Minaj:
Iggy Azalea:
Azealia Banks:
Male artists in this genre;
50 Cent:
Lil Wayne:
Drake:
For this genre, the sex of the artist depends on how their videos look and the conventions for both are similar in ways but are also very different due to the one difference of their gender.
In the male rap artist's videos, the men are seen to be fully clothed, and are also seen to be glared at by women who find them sexually pleasing. This shows the artist in a dominant way and shows how they have power within the video. This is because they don't do anything to be admired for in the videos, the women are simply attracted to them. In these videos, the women are seen to be wearing very little clothing, which relates to the Male Gaze Theory of Laura Mulvey as this shows that the women are seen in the media as objects and are there to be looked at by and to please men.
(examples from the videos)
For the videos that are made by the female artists, they are again seen to be wearing little to hardly any clothing as they are females. This instantly stereotypes them to being objects and being in the media to please men and to look nice. This may be seen by some as their right to do what they want with their body and they may feel liberated to be seen in this way in their videos. In the videos for the songs, the camera focuses a lot on the curves of the female body, especially on their bottom. In all three of the videos, the costumes that are worn by the artists are very revealing. In the Anaconda video, Nicki Minaj is seen in one seen to be wearing a tiny pink thong, in the Booty video, Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Lopez are wearing costumes that are showing their bottoms in a sexual way, and in Chasing Time, Azealia Banks is seen to be wearing a costume that covers her body, but she has her breasts on show with only a tiny piece of material covering her nipples.
I think this video is good to illustrate how men and women are represented in today's media. This is because they have used stereotypes in an ironic way and this makes the video entertaining to watch, because it makes the video funny. The artists have represented the males and females in opposing ways in this video which I think is to show their thoughts on the media and how women are treated unequally. The females are shown as the dominant ones in this video and are seen fully clothed, illustrating their power in each shot. This is the other way round in the way the male actors are seen though, as they have short shorts on in scenes and are seen trying to be sexual towards the artists, which is how Laura Mulvey states that women are seen in the media. They are seen to be 'sexual objects' and that they are 'there to please men'.
It is clear from the title of the song that this particular video would have provocative dancing in and would represent the women artists as sexual. In this video, the camera focuses a lot on the curves of their bodies, particularly their bottoms as this is what the song is about. I think that this song was simply created so that they could make this video to appeal to men, maybe spark controversy and receive millions of views from all different age groups and backgrounds. This isn't what the music industry should be about, but in the society we live in today it is what happens whether we agree with it or not.
Because this video is explicit with the swearing, but is implicit with how some of the wording is sexual, I think that this video is inappropriate for this artist to do as she has quite a lot of young fans. Although it is clear that the video is inappropriate for some audiences, I think that this is just how Nicki Minaj has been from the beginning of her career, so I do not see why there was so much controversy with this video. Because of this controversy towards the video, it led to people talking about it and ended up with millions of views in no time. This was how she broke the VEVO record (previously held by Miley Cyrus with Wrecking Ball) for the most views in 24 hours, which received 19.6 million views in just one day.
This video by Rihanna was seen to be so explicit, sexual and outrageous that it was actually taken down by YouTube, but then was allowed to be reuploaded later on. The video contains women swinging on poles and dancing sexually, and the camera represents the women as objects through how it focuses on their curves and the assets that men find sexually appealing. I think that the reason this video was seen by a lot of people as inappropriate was because it is something that Rihanna doesn't usually do. This is due to her young fanbase and their parents being annoyed at how this role model had shown herself in this way, allowing young girls to think that they can do the same things and it is okay.
Stereotypes and labels can sometimes benefit an artist, as it has done for the multi-award-winning American artist Taylor Swift:
(At 10:20pm on the 19/03/2015, this video had accumulated 656,404,554 views)
This song is very ironic and illustrates Tessa Perkins Stereotype Theory perfectly. This song is all about how the media portray Taylor Swift as a woman who dates countless men and easily jumps from one to another. She has illustrated this in the video, which has gone on to be very successful and has sold hundreds od thousands of copies. She has used the media against itself and won, which demonstrates how successful she is and how dedicated her fans are towards her.
(At 10:23pm, on the 19/03/2015 this song had accumulated 669,078,934 views)
This is another music video from Swift, in which she again uses the media's representation of herself against them and has made money from it as the song has proved to be very successful. This is simply about people having negative impressions of her, and how she just ignores it and does what she wants to. This delivers a very positive message to everyone - especially Taylor Swift's fans, who are quite young mainly - and she uses stereotypes within the music video to make it relatable to everyone watching it.
The video I am going to look at for Stuart Hall's Reception Theory is 'Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus, as I think this will be interesting to watch for this particular theory. The video currently has 723,000,000+ views, which illustrates how popular the song is. I think the video is this popular due to how the artist used to have a 'Disney' image, and she then changed this by cutting her hair and 'murdering' her persona 'Hannah Montana'.
Dominant: The meaning of this song is how she is in love with someone and doesn't have this person in her life any more. She felt she was restricted in the relationship and this was causing her pain as she isn't getting what she wants. The wrecking ball reflects the destruction in the relationship and how this caused pain for her.
Negotiated: Some viewers of the song will see this as inappropriate for the artist to do (especially parents of young fans of the artist). They understand how the video reflects the lyrics of the song and how the artist being naked is supposed to represent her being 'stripped' of power in the relationship, but think that this could have been done in a different way which would be suitable for audiences of all ages.
Oppositional: People feel the song is completely inappropriate and the video is irrelevant to the lyrics. They feel that the artist has taken off her clothes for no reason except getting attention from heterosexual males, which joins with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory, as she suggests that females in the media are seen as objects and are there to simple be looked at.
I think that this video was done by Miley to be taken seriously in the industry and not to be seen in the way that she was as she played the character Hannah Montana. I think that this was a clever way to be noticed as she caused people to talk, and she was quoted to say 'If you're going to make people talk, it should be for 2 weeks and not 2 seconds'. I think this is what she did when she released this video, due to it still being a popular song today, a year after its release.
