Vince The Loveable Stoner

Seperate Blog

Due to the fact that unfortunately most of my blog is now irrelevant to my final product, I've decided to make a seperate blog simply for the final product, so all my work is more easily understood. I'm still going to finish each video, but for my coursework, my final product blog, however a lot of my research will remain on this blog. Hope that's okay! :)

Pre-Evaluation Filming/Questions

Editing with iMovie

Mise-en-scene

Filming Schedule

Media Technologies

Problem

I have a problem. Stereotypical Blues Train are finding it difficult to be available for filming at the same time, so I'm having to try a new approach. Its looking as though I'm going to have to film the video using actors instead of the real band. I'm going to have to use locations on-site at school as well, rather than the ones I'd had planned, as due to the fact I cannot film the band, it decreases my available filming time, so will have to make the best of resources in school. The band still do want me to do the video, so hopefully at some point soon, I can still make the video regardless, and possibly re-submit it in the summer because I'm hating having to make a sub-standard piece due to unfortunate circumstances.

Test screenshots (digipak)

Things I want to include (in this blog)

Music Video Directors

Lumiere bros

 The Lumiere Brothers 

Editing Theories & Compression of Time

Audience Theory

Stereotypical Blues Train have gathered a fan base since the band formed in 200_. To begin with it was mainly friends and family who supported them for the first few gigs at local venues for example Keystone Escape. This was the music scene for teenagers, and was undeniably helpful in getting their name out there. After a while, their girlfriends starting bringing their friends along, and they started getting recommended to play at new venues. 

It became apparent that they didn't just appeal to teenagers, when the Keystone managers and staff showed interest. This led them to gig around pubs with more of an older audience. 

They went on to play bigger venues like Roadmender in Northampton, getting a reputation and making a name for themselves. The likeness between them and their influential bands was being noticed. The generation of Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc became interested by this breath of fresh air breaking into the music scene. 

They entered the Red Bull Bedroom Jam 2011 competition with their song "Can't Carry On" (the one I'm making a music video for) They got to the ____ stage but sadly no further (However this is probably a good thing for me, as it buys me more time to reach my Uni course and be able to sign them!)

Audience Theory

With this varied audience in mind, it makes pitching and branding them both easier and harder. It means I have more scope to keep them the way they are, with no interference in terms of making them commercial, yet it also means that I have to balance the ages out to create an equally appealing impression for the whole audience. As a band, I think they are exactly as they should be; and I won't be changing anything about them to commercialise them. It is literally the love for their music that drives them, with the possibility of fame as a by-product. I wouldn't be happy changing them, just as I'm sure they'd kick up a massive fuss if I even suggested it. They have the right levels of talent, attitude and style to make their way without any fundamental editing.

Uses & Gratifications

Music Video: Pulp - Babies

This video is absolutely genius. Simple but clever [captions] are shown between shots at appropriate moments. The video itself would be so conventional without these, following a narrative, using typical band shots etc, but what makes it so cool is that the captions are used at the most obvious moments and it transforms it into a brilliantly original video. 

Back! :)

Right. I'm back. :) Here's a list of things I've done on holiday (for the coursework!) :

• Decided on 2 possible music videos: "Cancer" (as you knew) and "Heaven Help Us"; both by My Chemical Romance
• Further planned out the "Cancer" video on paper - each scene is now complete, and there will now be an Intro, possibly an Interlude, and an extra ending, with (sort of) original content created from the music.
• Tested mise-en-scene ideas - mainly make up, lighting and costume.
• Planned out "Heaven Help Us", although I'm not sure I'll being doing this one for the main project, maybe just a side project.
• Practiced various shots including shallow focus (and the switchy-inbetween focus - I will find the proper term from my notes and update!)
• Filmed at various locations as a Recce (seaside, park, caves, vintage-style funfair etc.) to get an idea of which locations would work - I found the perfect set for the second verse of "Cancer" - my Grandma's spare room!
• Requested permission to use "Cancer" - I'm awaiting a response :)
• Investigated example coursework including this: FINAL 153
• Began researching digipack structures
• Filming the intro and the second verse for "Cancer" (the overall lip sync I'd filmed previously)
• Been debating making a webiste completely from scratch (as it'll be all my own work) or using a website builder (so it has cool effects) - not got very far with the decision though :/

When I get back to school on tuesday, I will upload and moderate my footage, choosing the most relevant clips to show the shots I've practised and the sections I've filmed. I'll need to use GarageBand to try and edit sections of the song, as for the Intro and Interlude, I want to slow down and repeat the first piano chord, plus a pencil writing sound effect I will create, both playing underneath the voiceover I have scripted. This will all make much more sense once I've uploaded the planning I've done on paper (although, I may have to explain it a bit better, as it's a tad all over the place at the minute!)

Holiday

I'm going to my Nan's for a few weeks, and I'm going to have rehearsals for We Will Rock You (School's version) so I'm probably not going to be writing many posts until after those (I have no Internet at my Nan's house). I'm writing bits on paper here and there that I'll type up, and saving videos in my YouTube favourites to analyse. One good thing is the different scenery opportunities I'll get from my Nan's (in Somerset). I'm going to film various scenes, in a kind of non-commital way, so I can later edit the contrast, filter and sound to create any desired effect (within reason!) I'm going to use my time to practice and plan out my projects.
Back in a few weeks!

Short Film: Prelim Textual Analysis

Here is mine and Sarah's final prelim (I will update with the not-ruined version!) :

We began this idea as a simple "Day In The Life" of an average student. However after covering lessons, friends, common room, and the shop; we ran out of ideas. So we decided to go crazy and have some fun and made our student into a teacher poisoner! After having a lot of fun filming those sections, we thought it could do with a bit of depth rather than mindless killing for the sake of a laugh, so we made Amanda (the student, played by me) into an unfortunate schizophrenic. We aimed to shock the audience with the initial switch from normal to mental, then to confuse and conflict them from their laughter at the either highly comical, or intensely shocking deaths (depending on outlook, and reaction to the music), straight into a sad scene designed to create sympathy for her.

Camerawork: We tried to use a variety of shots to create a visually dynamic experience for our audience (especially important as our film was 5mins30 over the minimum time!)

Sound: The sound was a very important part in creating atmosphere and expressing Amanda's emotions.

Mise-en-scene: We thought about which items to use as part of the mise-en-scene. We debated over the science lab coat, but in the end decided to go with it, as no matter how over the top it looked, we weren't sure everyone would follow the poisoning as well without it.

Editing: I had a lot of fun as the Editor alongside Sarah helping me choose transitions etc :)

tbc XD ...

Film Trailers: Conventions and Uses

Although I doubt I'll be choosing this as my final project, I have investigated some conventions of film trailers, and how they use them to persuade their audience to see the film:

• Titles - although the film title is generally revealed last, alongside the release date, once the audience has formed an opinion and (hopefully!) would want to know the name so they can go see it.
• Credits - all of the famous and rising stars in acting and producing/directing etc will be made apparent, whether through image or captions, to appeal directly to fans of those people. Generally the more well known names, the better the film will do.
• Voiceover - used to introduce the film, usually in a booming male show voice. Often used are generic phrases such as "The Greatest Horror Film...Of Our Time" (quoted from "The Woman In Black" trailer, which I will analyse)
• Montage - gives an idea of what the film will be like, showing the most exciting parts without completely giving away the storyline, will give an impression and a vague understanding with (hopefully!) increased expectation. Includes highlights to give an overview of the film.
• One-liners - to grab the audience with clever lines and funny scenes.
• Cliffhanger - leaves it at a tantalising end so the audience will feel the need to watch it just to see what happens.
• Music soundtracks - gives a film its own identity, creates atmosphere, often repeats theme music so the audience will remember and recognise it, in a hope to grab their attention to then go and see it.
• Editing - edited to fit each genre, lighting, contrast, music, volume, silence etc can all be very valuable tools in creating atmosphere.

Short Film: Ideas

During class, we came up with a list of ideas for a short film and where to get ideas from.

Here's the list:
In the lesson we listed some ideas for the short film task:

• Love - Cute/Old/Obsessive
• Comedy
• From a film you've seen
• Songs - Lyrics
• Kids
• Crime - Twist in the tale
• Death - Murder
• Sentimental
• Betrayal
• Poems - William Blake - Innocence vs Experience
• Shakespearean story/tale
• Rework a fairy tale - Canterbury Tales
• Old people
• Other stories/books - make it modern

We also thought of what problems would occur with doing a short film:

• Have to write a screenplay - one thats interesting
• Continuity issues - hair change/clothes changed/nails/makeup etc
• Time
• Deadlines
• Having too much in the film - too many camera angles/sound effects etc
• Planning
• Talent - actors ill/unwilling/lazy
• Organisation

Short Film: Finished

We have finished our short film. I am pleased with the outcome, however when I came to export it, it hasn't quite worked. The video itself is fine, but twice during it, there is a random sound of me talking to Sarah. Its only about a second long, but its enough to ruin the film and distract from the story. 

I went back to iMovie to find the sound file to delete it, but it isn't anywhere on the storyboard (I'll screenshot it). I don't recognise the actual clip, so I'm presuming its from one of the unused sections of film. It's definately not from the actual film; and no matter what format I exported it in, it wouldn't work without the extra sound. 

It's repeated in two parts of the film, but I can't get rid of it at this moment. I'm going to try screen recording, or if worst comes to the worst, literally record it on a camera from iMovie (where it works perfectly) and upload it seperately. But for now, here is the flawed version:

Music Video: "Cancer"

I have decided to do a music video for my project. I'll probably end up doing one of the others, (or maybe some more music videos) but the song I've had in mind for a while now is "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance. I know how I'm going to do each part, and I'll upload the rest of the storyboard once I've finished it.

As there isn't an existing music video for "Cancer" I thought I'd research unofficial videos (to see what the competition is like!) I found quite a few on YouTube, ranging from decent ones to the not-so-decent. There were also some Sims ones and various cartoon videos! Here's some of the ones I found:

1:

 

I like the way this one has been made, especially the beginning shots. I liked the proffesional quality, however I felt it lacked in storyline progression as it went on. I especially liked the focus on the words "diagnosed with cancer" I might try to incorporate something similar into my video.

2:



I thought

3:

This one

4:

No offense to the girl that made this, but I'm going to try and make mine quite a bit better, with decent lip sync and various other scenes.

5 (Sims) :

I found this quite interesting, not necessarily because of the relevance to my video, but because it shows that the interest for making music videos is out there. There are many of these Sims music videos on YouTube for all sorts of music!
 

A couple of these include certain things I'm intending on doing for mine. I'll put my storyboard into a slideshow or video, alongside clips from these videos to show what I'm planning.

-

 

Short Film: Prelim Experiment

I am making a short film (about 1 minute long, if we can make it that short!) with my sister Sarah Tye. We are doing "A Day In The Life Of...Amanda Bellamy" - a fictional student played by myself. Sarah is the camerawoman and I am the editor. We both came up with the idea for our film, and help each other try to perfect each part of making the film.

I've noticed that it is a lot harder to make a short film, as there is so much less time to fit everything into! So we've tried to use certain shots, speed some of the footage up, and include as much as possible through shots and voiceovers.

I'll upload it when's its finished, at the moment I'm trying to incorporate one scene into another, faded in the corner of the shot.

Music Video: Literal Videos

We looked at some Literal Videos in the lesson. Although they are really quite funny, I don't think they'd be suitable for my project, as I would be using an already existing music video with a voiceover, which wouldn't be very challenging. I suppose I could create a video to be deliberately stupid, then add a voiceover, but I'd prefer to make a serious one first.
Here are some literal videos I found:

Aha - Take On Me (If you ask me, this one is utter genius!) :

Billy Idol - White Wedding:

James Blunt - You're Beautiful:

The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love:

Codes and Conventions of the Short Film Genres

Short films are identifiable by certain aspects that allow them to work. It is very important for the film to be understood, so considering the little time available to explore the storyline and characters, techniques are used to quickly clarify the film to the audience, and ensure it can be enjoyed just as fully as a full length feature film. Here are some of the techniques used:

• Establish characters quickly - sometimes through camerawork and sound, as there is minimal time for dialogue
• Little dialogue
• Not many locations - not enough time to establish them all
• Little costume change, or costume change indicates change of time/place
• Varied camerawork - as diverse as possible, show as much about the film as possible, depth
• Sound bridge - links the storyline
• Incidental music, major/minor key - emphasises emotion without much detail
• Silence - powerful tool, effective part
• Mainly cuts, some jump cuts
• Slow/fast motion
• Hazy glow, motion - flashbacks/forwards

Short Film: Pudding Bowl/Ginger Cake

We watched 2 short films in class; one by Vanessa Caswill and one by Charley Deakin (A2 student). Here they are:

"Pudding Bowl" (Caswill):

"Ginger Cake" (Deakin):

Charley used Caswill's "Pudding Bowl" as a style for her A2 short film. She has studied it carefully and taken certain conventions from "Pudding Bowl" to use in her "Ginger Cake":

• Both use a sound bridge of incidental music during the introduction
• Both use a pan shot of magazine cuttings
• Both use a variety of shots showing the main character working at her project: close ups, mid shots, long shots
• Both use transistions to show the passing of time/change of place
• Both have emphasis on the silence and the diegetic sounds that their work makes
• Both use jump cuts to show the passing of time (hair cut/getting up)
• They both use a mirror that the main character looks in
• Both use minimal dialogue, instead using camerawork and incidental music (major or minor key) to give their characters depth

Film Genres throughout the Years

Western:
1910's - 1920's - The Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919)
1930's - 1940's - Billy The Kid (1930)
1950's - 1960's - Oklahoma! (1955)
1870's - 1980's - Blazing Saddles (1974)
1990's - Present - Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Horror:
1910's - 1920's - Frankenstein (1910)
1930's - 1940's - Dracula (1931)
1950's - 1960's - Black Sabbath (1963), Diary Of A Madman (1963) - [Ozzy references!]
1970's - 1980's - Beware! The Blob (1972)
1990's - Present - The Ring (2002)

Crime/Thriller:
1910's - 1920's - Alibi (1929)
1930's - 1940's - The Crime Of The Century (1933)
1950's - 1960's - Escape By Night (1953)
1970's - 1980's - The Godfather (1972)
1990's - Present - The Beach (2000)

Action:
1910's - 1920's - The General (1926)
1930's - 1940's - The Public Enemy (1931)
1950's - 1960's - Seven Samurai (1954)
1970's - 1980's - The Terminator (1984)
1990's - Present - Rambo (2008)

Romance:
1910's - 1920's - The Echo (1915)
1930's - 1940's - Casablanca (1942)
1950's - 1960's - Scaramouche (1952)
1970's - 1980's - Grease (1978)
1990's - Present - Twilight (2008)

Sci-Fi:
1910's - 1920's - The End Of The World (1916)
1930's - 1940's - The Invisible Man (1933)
1950's - 1960's - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
1970's - 1980's - Back To The Future (1985)
1990's - Present - Doctor Who (1996)

Documentry:
1910's - 1920's - The Life Of A Salmon
1930's - 1940's - The City (1939)
1950's - 1960's - Seven Up! (1964)
1970's - 1980's - The Thin Blue Line (1988)
1990's - Present - Supersize Me (2004)

History of Music Videos

Today we looked at what may possibly be the very first promotional video to a song. From 1962, here is possibly the first promotional video made for a song (rather than abstracted from a music film); The Exciters - Tell Him:

It uses a surprisingly decent amount of current conventions compared with what I was expecting. I thought it would be a simple film with minimal resemblense to current music videos.

These are the conventoinal aspects of Tell Him:

• Lip sync
• Band visible
• Singing to camera
• Beat sync (clapping bear)
• Pan Away (at end)
• Dance/movement
• Tracking shot (Brenda walking)
• External location (no studio)

And these are the unconventional/dated aspects:

• Random animal shots
• No MTV cutting (really fast cutting)
• Pans a lot (mainly to animals)
• No airbrushing (Brenda's possible TB jab scar)
• Choreography very limited, timing etc
• Lip sync needs work
• Costumes dated
• Random

The History Of Music Videos (my video) :

Music Video: Trials

I have decided I'd like to make a music video to the song "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance. I have planned out each part of the video and I've begun a storyboard:

For the second verse of the song, the location is going to change to a room with a mirror. As a sort of feasability study, I tried recording that scene from a single camera angle using my phone camera, which I later added on the music from that verse.

It'll look better once its been shot with several angles, alongside the correct costume (an old-ish wedding dress) and lighting (dim, musty style) with the area around the mirror covered in drapes etc to make it look as though its in an old, forgotten, dusty bedroom. But I decided that it will work, and now I'm looking on ebay for a cheap wedding dress!

Video for Theatre

We did some filming for Theatre Studies, so I took the clips, edited them and created a montage to a piece of music I sourced online (there are loads of cinematic sounding, full length sounds available to download!). It's for a play called 4:48 Pyschosis, so it's a bit mental and doesn't make a lot of sense. So I've tried to use editing like slow and fast motion, backwards, zooms and cuts to recreate the madness and loss of control needed for the play. Here is the video:

Lip Sync: 1st Attempt

I've been testing out a few things for the music video task. Here, I got Henry Hall to sing to the song "A Little Piece Of Heaven" by Avenged Sevenfold. It's a bit of a sick (bad version) song, but once you see the humourous side, it's pure genius. It takes a while for the actual lip sync to begin, as I wanted to keep the last line is to set the tone, then it waits for Henry to start singing. Here's the video:

Website Ideas

With both the music video and the film trailer, one of the subsiduary (sp?) tasks is to make a website homepage. I have made several websites for various things in the past that I will upload and consider aspects of them to use for my real one.

I'm yet to purchase web-design software for my new laptop (I have one for my old laptop but its fairly out-of-date) so I've been trialling a few ideas on a free online flash website generator. Unfortunately I can't link it to here, as I'd have to upload it as it is (I want to work on it some more first) so I'm going to post some screenshots of it. Annoyingly, the whole page wouldn't fit in the screen, as the generator isn't affected by the percentage you view the browser in, so it's mostly in sections:

This is the idea I first had when I thought of this; to have a main image slideshow with the links below which using flash, would replace the images into a seamless website. However, I'm not sure basic web packages will include such features, so unfortunately I may have to create a static website until I can afford better software.

Conventions of Music Videos

There are certain conventions typical of music videos. Not all follow conventions, but most do. Here's a list:

• MTV Cutting
• Editing matches beat
• Tropes and Memes - challenging
• Multiple locations
• Multiple situations
• Multiple costumes
• Choreography
• Purpose: promote song/band
• Purpose: Sell product (shifting units)
• Purpose: iTunes (£2 videos)
• Symbolism
• Montage, anchored by music
• Lip sync
• In concert - live footage (more naturalistic)
• Intertextuality
• Narrative/mini-movie approach - compressed narrative
• Interpretive abstract approach - surrealist
• Artificial performance (non-naturalistic) like musicals - pre-planned, spontaneous bursts of song
• Direct address by performer - breaking the fourth wall
• Act out story of the song
• Genre affects style

Pastiche - copy but not exact - style thieves

Parody - mocking copy

Homage - tribute

Film Update & Link

I am still making my film, its all on a new blog I've made http://www.beckytye-iona.blogspot.com.
Please have a look if you like :)

Music Videos: Tropes & Memes

The style of music videos differ greatly across music genres. A particularly clear example of this dichotomy is between rock and RnB. Here are 2 videos that show this perfectly:
My Chemical Romance - I Don't Love You:

Rock videos are very focused on the music. The music is at the heart of the band, wheras for some other genres, it is more about image and popularity. Although Gerard etc (MCR) all are dressed to impress and looking gooooood, you can tell through their emotion what really matters. Rock has progressed from being all about the music and not caring so much about the appearance and promotion; to still being 100% about the music, however now with added emphasis on appearance. Most rock bands still prefer their music to be favoured over themselves, which is not the case with all genres.

Nicki Manaj - Super Bass:

RnB videos are predominantly sexually orientated and of a more show-off nature. Rock videos tend to have more of a structure, and can be a full story. Call me a cynic but in my opinion the music - rather than being the heart of the performance - is more of an excuse to act sexually as the performers, for example in clubs etc. It seems to be more of a tool to attract, with the actual music being forgotten; and therefore much simpler and similar sounding. Following on from my theory, most contempory RnB videos don't really have a story, and focus a lot on dancing and movement. However Chase & Status' videos are quite deep and have real meaning behind them. This is a rare commodity in modern chart music. Here is their video "Time":

Chosen A2 Brief

There are 3 briefs for the A2 coursework:

• Promo Package: Music Video - Website Homepage, Cover of Digipack, Magazine Advert for Digipack
• Promo Package: Short Film - Film Magazine review page, Radio Trailer, Poster
• Promo Package: Film Trailer - Website Homepage, Film Magazine OFC, Film Poster

I had a lot of trouble choosing from the 3 main briefs, but I've eventually decided to make a music video. I've got a few ideas in mind for some actual videos, the main one being the song "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance. I'm going to try out a variety of video styles, which will probably all be to rock/indie songs. Before I do that I'm going to do some research into certain aspects of music videos, especially conventions.

I'm going to research into the other briefs as I may decide I like another more. I think I'll stick with the music videos, but I'm still going to look at the others (which will also help me with my actual film).

Hello :)

Hi, I'm Becky and this is my Media Studies A2 blog.


Photo from my phone

 I've found myself wanting to try my hand at filmmaking. I was in London and I came across the British Film Institute (BFI) on my way to the National Theatre. I went inside and had a look around. It was really cool inside, with rooms of computers where you can watch any film they've got! I went in the shop - I have never seen so many media books and DVDs before! I was really pleased to find "Control" in the British Films section, as since we studies it last year, it has become one of my favourite films (and HMV aren't stocking it anymore). I also bought a book: "GET STARTED IN SHORT FILMMAKING" by Chris Patmore. I thought it would help me get started with the music video I have planned. It will be for the song "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance. It is a beauifully sorrowful song and an excellent challenge for me to try and portray the horrors of cancer in a tasteful way, yet without hiding from the worst of it. The way I've planned it out in my head and my notebook, is following the lyrics and creating scenarios for each part. I've written it all down, including the lighting timings for the intro. I'm going to draw a storyboard, as without the music, the film will be of a similar structure to a short film.

I'm going to upload all I've already done, but firstly I'm going to read some of my book to check I'm starting in the right place, as I probably should do something about budgeting, locations and casting etc before I start properly. Having said that, I've filmed a part of it already, but not a main part; I intend to use it throughout the final film, inbetween major scenes etc.