TASK 2- PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

In this task our group must come up with a promotional poster for our up and coming band. To start this project we needed to research into popular layouts and conventions of bands posters. To do this we used the internet, especially Google as the search engine has an images section which is perfect for what we need to further our ideas of what a music video should look like. We primarily looked at the Beastie Boys music posters to see how they have really given off a vibe that suites their style of music. Next we looked at popular bands that are around now to see how the music poster layout has progressed and developed. Through doing this research we learnt techniques that help us understand what it is that makes a great poster stand and be more attractive to the human eye.

I will now take an example of a very different music poster to ours to highlight the differences in campaigns. I found a poster for the singer Justin Bieber used to advertise his new single “never say never”. From the poster we can see only a side image of him, not showing all of his face. On the other hand our band probably would be unable to have a side shot of them as their image has not yet been released so people would find it more difficult to recognise them and this could even potentially decrease sales. The writing is in block capitals spread diagonally across the portrait showing hat this is the most important part of the campaign. The word “NEVER” is highlighted in purple, perhaps proving the colour choice is to draw in girls and draw their attention to the poster. This is backed up by the fact that Justin Bieber target audience is mainly girls from the ages of 10-16. In a smaller yet still fully visible text it tells the audience they can come and watch the show some time in February, potentially the uncertainty of the actual viewing date means that this poster was created way in advance to the actually shows, trying to create a buzz. Also, the simplistic layout and easily readable text could also be a method to attract people, it is a known theory that a page with lots of writing will deter people from attempting to read at it so perhaps this theory was applied to this poster.

After deconstructing other popular pop stars music posters we now have to assemble one on our own. As we took many pictures on the shooting day of the characters we will incorporate the most fitting shot into the poster and then write the bands name and their song name and perhaps even the first gig or release date. This is a very important part of advertising our band and we must make sure that the colour scheme, photo choice and style of writing will draw in the attention of our target audience. When first starting to talk to Alex about this we thought of many different colour schemes and pictures to use. We really wanted to create the idea of a fun loving, young and unique group and hopefully in doing this our target audience of 16-23 years old will enjoy and be able to identify with the band. Finally we decided which picture to use and tried out many different styles of writing. To do this we used an application called Photoshop and so we were able to play around with the lighting and writing position using a wide range of tools available on this programme.

TASK 1 - WHAT IS A DIGI PAK

Digipaks[1]

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This is

Editing

We started editing our music video a few days after the shoot day was finished. We were given a time frame of 2 and a half week to have finished the whole music video, which Alex and I found very difficult, especially as our video had lots of special effects. Firstly, we separated the better takes from the unusable one by creating specific bins for each type of shot. Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers.

By laying down the track on final cut pro it made it easier so u to get a sense of the timeline and seeing how far into the song we could build up the aliens new found fame. A really difficult part of editing is cutting each shot to the beat of the song and matching up lip movements to the actual song. To find the exact beat you would first listen to a short section of the song where you knew the beat was, then once you think you’ve heard it you pres pace bar and listen to the song beat by beat until you find it. Very luckily our song had a very noticeable and dominant beat so it did not take too long to find it, whereas for others it we very difficult. As for the lip sinking, if you altered the magnification size of the timeline by altering the switch at the bottom left of the screen it gave you a much more precise indication of time. By altering the clip one second forward, especially for parts that needed quick editing e.g. repition of the last word in a verse.

Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. Before doing any of the editing we put the track down on final cut pro. We then put the first runthrough of the rap over it cutting it to the beat. Once this is done, the hard part comes when trying to layer other shots of the rappers over the top of it as we were only using smaller parts, maybe only a few seconds long. We only had a few shots of the rappers singing the actual song, so although we were limited in how many shots we could use, it made the process very simple with the selecting shots and inserting them, as we didn't have to go through many shots to find a specific movement or action we liked, as they were already in the shots we had due to good direction on the shoot day. We used shots from all of the runthroughs of the song, as well as the short shots of the rappers repeating the word from the end of each line. After we had got the cut we wanted with the performance, we added the other element of the performance, like the reactions to what was happening to the alien character, and the part where the ship starts to fall apart.

I think we managed this well, and were able to sync the rapping perfectly amidst the chaos of the scene. The final part of the editing process was to put the narrative strand in. This was much easier as the shots were all similar, and all we had to do was to select a shot that could fill in the spaces that we had specifically left for these shots, which matched a certain point in the song. Now all that had to be done was the after effects. For the bulk of after affects Alex and used the Keying technique using abode after effects. This is where you crop out the back ground to replace it with an image that is either made on Photoshop or found on the internet. This is a multistage process and is initiated by resized the image to fit the frame. Once this is resized, you must check the lighting, this is done by clicking effects then keying and finally key light. Then click on the button to the left of the green to select whether a green or blue screen was used. In out media product we used a blue background as the green would have clashed with the green alien. Once the combined matte was allowed, we had to ensure the background was fully black in comparison to the white image we needed to keep to put against the background, e.g. the aliens face. For the beginning sequence of the space ship landing we used a basic key frame animation. This is where we selected specific parts of the screen for the space craft to change direction and the computer fills in in-between frames. The start middle and end point were shown as circular dots on the screen.

Acoount of shooting day

Painting and co-ordinating the set was done on Friday afternoon, the previous school day before actually filming the footage. Our set really came together at this point; the painting and attention to detail on the plastic space-craft like panels truly made the set come to life. To give an idea of the set it was made from three silver painted walls in a rectangular shape, with three vent looking panel across the back walls. We also have a controls box of about four foot with painted knobs and monitors, on the other side there was another panel with many different buttons on it. We left school for the weekend looking forward to filming the music video on Monday.

Because we had many more lighting options on the day then we had previously anticipated, we took time to try out new styles. After applying many different settings we felt the slow flickering strobe teamed with dimmed house lights set the mood correctly. For the scene where the space craft experiences turbulence, we sped up the strobe and used dry ice for dramatic effect.

We positioned the camera at about one and a half meters away from the spacecraft set initially and found that the distance was too small to give the effect of a spacious set. So, to correct this we moved the camera another three quarters of a meter away and checked on the monitor that this was at a good distance. The position in relation to the set was altered only slightly once the boys started rapping to ensure all three of the rappers were in focus and could be seen.

The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. Alex therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we felt we did not have at the time. After a quick costume change and a bit of hair gel, Alex was ready to continue the practises. We then felt that it was time to start filming so we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations.

The confidence of the three rappers reached its peak after a few practises and so they were more comfortable trying out new things like playing tug of war etc. Also, because the studio was not very crowded, unlike some of the other music videos, this made the boys relax even more so which was really important to give a confident vibe to the audience.
When filming the video we adopted the professional lingo of words like “turning over” and “roll camera”. This gave the set a much more professional film and showed me how an actual music video would have been filmed and the language I would have to understand. Other aspects that made the shoot feel professional that we adopted were running to a schedule. In the real music industry, the shoot day would have to run very rigidly and there would be no time allowed for discussing which shot came next and so on.
I felt having Alex in the video at this point was a great asset to the performers as he knew what we wanted them to do and lead the way to getting there. With the initial mid shots done after three takes, the performers were instructed to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, they did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.

For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the for ground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it. After a few takes with excessive smoke and green flashing lights, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair.Using a blue screen was really exciting for me and Alex as we both hadn’t used one before. The blue screen was simply wheeled along like a curtain and a stage was set up directly in front of it. The camera at this point also had to be readjusted to the new set. We used a variety of shots like extreme close ups, mid shots and close ups to suite the varying backgrounds. The lighting was also altered at this point as the alien was not actually in the spacecraft in the video. The ideas we had of him walking down the street and being in pictures with famous people made us alter the lighting to make it much brighter for the picture shots and not flickering but dim for the walking shots.

The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went, all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.




Editing

Alex and I have now started the process of editing the rough cut into an actual music video. For our group in some ways this is very easy and other are very difficult. The best thing about the song we choose is that the beat is very defined and easy to spot, therefore giving us more ease when cutting two clips together. However, another area of editing we have not yet started is editing in backgrounds fro the blue screen surrounding our alien, as both neither me or Alex have used a blue screen before, making it very difficult and perhaps more timely to edit this in. Our deadline, the end of the winter term I am confident will be kept to ad hopefully will give us time to truly polish the editing of our music video.

The original song

Set Building

The afternoon before shooting Alex and I were able to go along and help with the painting and putting together of the set. The set for our video had three main functions: inside the space craft, the outside of the space craft and the blue screen background. Our first shot of the day according to the shooting schedule was the rappers within the space craft so we therefore set up the ship to save time the following day. Apart from the initial painting there were other areas like ensuring the panel on the set were straight and which colours to use on the knobs of the control pads that took up a lot of time.

We felt that by putting in small details and paying attention to detail it would create more of a professional vide and ultimately make our video look better. One of the largest issues we had whilst set building was deciding what to do with the doors. Firstly we had decided to try to incorporate them into the set so they could be shown at all time and equally so the audience would be more aware that the alien was leaving the ship that had the rappers in, not that they were separate. But after a short chat, we felt that it would be more advantageous to not include the doors and have them separately and instead build up narrative of many reactions shots of the rappers from the actions of the alien. Now the only issue was getting the doors to open at the same time and at the same speed with people pulling them apart. This was very difficult, especially with lots of smoke and flashing lights but after around four attempts the doors were starting to move evenly and the monitor showed promising results.

Another issue we discovered on the day was that we were intending to use the green screen; however our alien had previously been painted green. Therefore he would not show up when in after effects. So luckily a blue screen was also available for us to use, otherwise our video would have been a disaster!

The reason for the attention to detail within the spacecraft set was to tie in with the music video convention of reality. We wanted to audience to feel as if the band could actually be in a space ship, making them feel, even more so, the quirky nature of the band. The more real the set felt, the bigger impression the band would have on the audience in my opinion. Equally, it would also high light their seemingly low socio-economic grouping, that they are in a fabulous state of the art space ship, yet they are lower classed. Specifically, the part of the set that ties the most into the narrative strand of the video is the control boards located on the left hand side of the set. This relates dominantly as there are parts of the video where the rapper are frantically switching the knob to help stabilise the aircraft.

Set Design

We hope to build a replica of this set in the studio

We used this drawing to show to the media teachers how we wanted the studio space to look. By having a diagram with labels indicating colour scheme and taking into account the size of the studo, this will help them to visualise the set. For example the background colour was light silver, used as most of the other spacecrafts we looked at for a point of reference. The light silver colour worked well as a background colour as it did not detract from the performance element of the media product. Equally, we also noted briefly about small flashing red LEDS appearing as if they were buttons on the control boards which are evident in other sci-fi themed media products like Star Trek. We tried to make full use of the studio space we had available to us and space out the props accordingly but also kept in mind the fact that the rappers would be running around the whole et so we needed to ensure the right mise en scene was provided everywhere. There were only a few subtle changes to the set from out sketch to the set of the sctual filming including a different type of lighting and one less control pannel within the ship due to lack of space.

Location Ideas

This picture is of Guilford high street, our first choice of shooting locations.

Essentially, we need to find a place relatively near school to shoot to ensure it is time efficent. If we were shooting an hour away we would lose atleast 2 hours travel time, and as we need daylight in our shoot it is vital we do not venture too far. Alex and I branstormed what kind of back drop we wanted, and decided Guilford high street would be a good location. The vibrant colours but still its not too busy to shoot in; especially on a monday midday. The highstreet could be used as it has shops the alien can go into and we could shoot the hocolate scene there at only a 25 minutes drive away. We also though that Guilford was not a particlary modern town, and the vibrant colours of the shops could comply with the 1950s theme.

Time Line sheets

These were sheets that we used to establish what kind of shots we wanted and when. These have been very useful when story boarding the music video, creating a reference to what goes where. We did completed them by going through the whole song and deciding what went better where. It was crucial that the lyrics went with what was happening in the frame and that the cut also went with the beat of the song. Although some sequences in terms of editing will change when we ge to that point, atleast we know what needs to be filmed. This was a very crucial stage of pre production and took a couple of days to complete.

Album covers of the Beastie Boys

By looking at past album covers for the Beastie Boys we got a better understanding of the star image of the band. Two of the three albums show the band on a street, conveying to the onlooker they are an organic band that evolved from street culture. From their outfits in all of the pictures we can see their gangster like style of shell suites and high top trainers. Their music is shown to be very important to the band as a boom box is featured in two thirds of the slbum covers. This may also be used to show they like load music and their slightly old school music taste, not conforming to the stereotypical rap we see nower days.

Pictures of the band

I have included pictures of the band in my blog to show the image the created for themselves through pr. The image we would like to create would be similar to this and we will show this in our single cover and picture of the band.

Props list and costume

Costumes, hair and makeup:

Rappers:
• Silver jumpsuits with their own trainers
• Gold chains
• Base ball caps
• Their hair if showing will be gelled upwards but at least two of the group should be wearing hats

Alien:
• Silver jumpsuit
• The make up will be green face paint


Props list
• 3 light sabers
• Two units for the background in the studio that will be painted to look like machinery on a usual spacecraft (included in set design)
• Mini spacecraft replica

Cast list and contact details

Alex Roberts
Peaslake
xxxxxxxxxxx

Stephanie White
Peaslake
xxxxxxxxxxx

Ian
Ewhurst
xxxxxxxxxxx

Ted rowndtree
peaslake
xxxxxxxxxxx

Sparky
Turrets
xxxxxxxxxx

CALL SHEET

8:40 am : hair and costumes for rappers

9:00 am : shoot begins (studio) with rappers doing the rap

11:00 am: break

12:oo am: more rapping filming doing their funny stunts

1: 00 pm: Lunch

2.15 Pm: hair, makeup and set up stage for the alien

2:25 PM: start
Shooting alien scenes (studio)

5:30 PM: alien shooting finish’s, clear up the studio

6:00 PM Finish shot day


We made a shooting schedule for our day of filming to give to the cast to let them know what we were planning to film and when. It is advantageous to have one as some students were unable to get out off all lessons of the day so they could know when they would be needed. Equally, we had to know what the set had to be left like on the Friday evening for a prompt start on Monday.
I posted it on my blog to show the various stages of planning that must be put into making a pop promo. I find, the more you can plan prior to the day of actually filming, the lower the possibility of anything going wrong. Thus, Alex and I wanted to ensure every aspect of the day had been accounted for and checked over to ensure a smooth day and not to waste any time.

Mise en scene

Props list
- large stack of papers looking like a contract
- powders looking like drugs
- light sabbers
- gold chains
- space craft door
- chocolate bar

Set
- The set created in the studio will be silver in the background will red tape along some of the angles looking like cable wires. We would aslo like to use a computer in the background to give the feel that the rappers are inside a space ship.
- In guilford we will shoot on the main high street so that it looks like the alien has litterally just landed in the middle of a completely new city

Performance
- the whole video should be perfromed in a jokey way, the video is poking fun at the alien invasion idea

Lyrics (Beastie Boys- Intergalactic)

Intergalactic Planetary Planetary Intergalactic Another Dimension
Well now don't you tell me to smile
You stick around I'll make it worth your while
Got numbers beyond what you can dial
Maybe it's because I'm so versatile
Style profile I said
It always brings me back when I hear Ooh Child
From the Hudson River out to the Nile
I run the marathon just up until the very last mile
If you battle me I will revile
People always say my style is wild
You've got gall you've got guile
To step to me I'm a rapophile
If you want to battle you're in denial
Coming from Uranus to check my style
Go ahead put my rhymes on trial
Cast you off into exile

Intergalactic planetary
Planetary intergalactic

Jazz and Awol that's our team
Step inside the party disrupt the whole scene
When it comes to beats well I'm a fiend
I like my sugar with coffee and cream
Got to keep it going keep it going full steam
Too sweet to be sour too nice to be mean
On the tough guy style I'm not too keen
To try to change the world I will plot and scheme
Mario C likes to keep it clean
Gonna shine like a sunbeam
Keep on rapping cause that's my dream
Got an A from Moe Dee for sticking to themes
When it comes to envy y'all is green
Jealous of the rhyme and the rhyme routine
Another dimension new galaxy
Intergalactic planetary

Intergalactic planetary
Planetary intergalactic

From the family tree of old school hip hop
Kick off your shoes and relax your socks
The rhymes will spread just like a pox
Cause the music is live like an electric shock
I am known to do the Wop
Also known for the Flintstone Flop
Tammy D getting biz on the crop
Beastie Boys known to let the beat drop
When I wrote graffiti my name was Slop
If my rap's soup my beats is stock
Step from the tables as I start to chop
I'm a lumber jack DJ Adrock
If you try to knock me you'll get mocked
I'll stir fry you in my wok
Your knees'll start shaking and your fingers pop
Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock

Intergalactic planetary
Planetary intergalactic
Another dimension do it

PRE-PRODUCTION PLANNING - Costumes

Fist strand- alien
The alien we want to create will be a shade of dark green, dressed in a colour matching green jumpsuit. Other factors to construct the look of the alien will be a third eye and two antennae coming from his temples. We also came up with the idea that two fingers from each han could be tapped together then painted over so that it looks like he only has four, as apposed to five on each hand.

Second Strand- performance element
Although we do not have a live band there will be three rappers (like in the Beastie Boys)wearing ientical silver jumpsuits. They will also be wearing accesories like flat caps, nike trainers and large gold chains. We wanted to put a modern twist on the video but still comply to the sci-fi theme. By putting both the alien nd the rappers in jumpsuites and looking like they are from outter space we are tying them together but not directly as they arent wearing the same colour.

Third strand- cool element
There will be two factors comprising the "cool" element of the music video. We will have the three rappers play fighting with light sabbers and photoshopped images of the alien on the front cover to Vouge magazine with super models.

Testing the cast on camera

Camera testing
Before finding a definite cast we needed to take pictures of the boys because many people look different in real life and on camera. For example although we thought one boy would be perfect, once on screen he didn’t look as authentic. Alex I and had to make sure that they had the right look and physical attributes to be in our music video. Another reason for this may be to ensure your cast are co operative and not camera shy. If the candidate seemed awkward and shy towards only a few people giving them instruction, they may not be able to handle a room filled of spectators on the actual shoot day. And therefore you would have to find someone else who feels comfortable enough. Especially for our music video we really needed energetic and easy going people that felt comfortable dancing and rapping in front of others.

Animatic

This is our storyboards cut together asif it were the actualy shots of our music video.

Story boards

This is one of the most crucial stages of post production as we can truly test out what we want to be on screen but also start to put the shots within a time scales and decided of the type of shot needed.Through editing the storboards we get a better understanding of the edting style we needed to adapt to fit in with our music video. All in all we had about ninety drawings to cover the whole song.
Most of the shots of the rappers are actually close ups, with them rapping right into the camera to give a kind of in your face vibe. Whereas, there are a lot of mid shots of the alien walking down the street and interacting with other people. Ths creates a contract between their two personalities and shows the alien to be shy and timid but the rappers to be confident and outgoing.
The edited verison of the storyboards as if it were our actual footage, which will be shown in a later post.

Letter to record lable

Def Jam records
2220 Colorado Avenue,
Santa Monica,
CA 90404
6th October 2010


Dear Sirs,

Myself and Alex Roberts would like to use your song “Intergalactic” for our A level media promotional pop video task at Hurtwood House. The aim is to create a unique video idea to go with your chosen song; our idea is keeping in tune with the video you created. Our ideas include an Alien coming to the planet Earth and instantaneously getting given a contract. We will use many shots to show the rise and fall of him and have fast cut editing to three rappers miming the words of the song. We hope that this will be ok especially as it is school policy to upload completed videos onto you tube. If you would like to contact us please email me back or have any questions do not hesitate to ask.

Many thanks, yours sincerely

Stephanie White and Alex Roberts

Composition rules

Composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art. This really forms the basic understanding of what’s going on onscreen through the use of shapes, textures, patterns and colours. We must ensure that all of these factors mesh together well enough se we can truly convey the meaning and mood of scene vividly. There are a few principles one must obey that govern the way visual element react to each other within a photograph frame. Once we have understood the basic principles we can then add new innovation to our photographs and inject more underlying meanings and effective imagery.

The Rule of Thirds
One of the most popular 'rules' when undertaking photography is the Rule Of Thirds. It is also popular amongst artists, so we must ensure this applies to our music album front cover and other promotional photos.
It works like this:
Imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically across the given frame. You place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect as it is said that these are the areas the eye automatically will flicker to.

As well as using the intersections you can arrange areas into bands occupying a third or place things along the imaginary lines. As you can see it is fairly simple to implement. Good places to put things; third of the way up, third of the way in from the left, you get the idea. Duff places to put things; right in the middle, right at the top, right at the bottom, away in the corner.
Using the Rule of Thirds helps produce nicely balanced easy on the eye pictures. Also, as you have to position things relative to the edges of the frame it helps get rid of ' tiny subject surrounded by vast empty space' syndrome.

One last thing about the Rule of Thirds is that once you have got the hang of the Rule of Thirds you will very quickly want to challenge this. By challenging this you could challenge the stereotype and fool the audience as to who is the “evil” one. As I said earlier the rules are basically used as guidelines and if you can create a better image by making your own rules then this is very beneficial.
For our music video we really want to take the rule of thirds into account, especially as this is a new band. We want all of the target audience to be able to gain a clear understanding of the type of music the band will potentially be making, as soon as they pick the dig pack up.

My ideas for the pop video

My ideas for the music video 5555

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Music Video conventions

Common generic conventions of popular music promo videos Along with the bands identity being promoted, it could be thought of as a brand aimed for mass consumption. The bands talent is showcased through the video, which could be in the form of instrument, dancing or musical creativity. By incorporating many different types of shots e.g. tracking, close ups and innovative camera movements it creates an element of surprise and rattles the audience. By selecting a thematic element suiting the bands image the audience will be able to identify with them adding other strands of narrative the skeletal structure of the video will be made. Most music videos conform to using three strands in a music video, consisting of performance element, narrative element and enigmatic strand where the band usually does something surprising. Usually the third strand shows the band in a quirky, personal light disregarding realism. To give a greater sense of rhythm the shots can be cut to the beat of the song, reinforcing the song into the viewers mind. Depending on the image of the band special effects, animation. CGI and suggestive lighting can be used. While keeping the band occupied and looking appropriate the mise en scene must also conform to the theme of the video. If the tone is slow, perhaps the use of paler less vibrant costume and background will reflect this.
Keith Negus said the organic acts tend to follow some of these conventions
1) ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists

this relates to the appearance of the music video, whther it is minimalistic and focuses on the artist or whether the music video is concerned more with the narrative strand and less bout them as a musician.
2) The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be ‘nurtured’ by the record company.

This could suggest the artist was already talented and had no star imgae before joining the music industry.
3)The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company.
4)Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue
5)Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers
younger audience tend to be less excitted by raw talent whereas older audiences will be more likely to appreciate their sound.
6)Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company

this is the record label stratergie as the organic artists apply to a smaller audience than the synthetis groups, therefore making them less likely to make a lot of money in the short term.

Keith Negus also referred to synthetic acts that followed these conventions.
1)A combinatorial approach to artists and material
this relates to the way inwhich the record label market the band. They will try to associate the band with what is cool and trendy now, making them appeal to a wider audience.
2)Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal

the band themselves will most likely not write their own music but sing other peoples songs.
3)The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company
the record label will dictate which gigs, clothes and personality of the band to ensure they sell more records.
4)Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums
more money is spent on launching syntetic bands then organic ones so there is more pressure from investers to get profit in the short term.
5)Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences
For example, Blue, Pussy cat dolls, mcfly and busted.
6)Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company

the synthetic music industry is very competitive so record label need to make money in the short term for the band to continue.

I researched and analysed the major conventions of Britney Spears music video "Toxic", she is a very popular synthetic artist who follows a generic approach to her videos.

In this video we se Britney playing many different parts, one for example is her dancing in a see through, diamond encrusted catsuite. This follows the generic conventions of a sysnthetic artist as there is sex appeal. In all of the other outfits she either shows clevage of her legs, which is done to entice the audience to but her album and watch her music videos. Although, there are some organis aspects to britney carrer; she is a long term investment to the record lable and been around for over seven years. She also was in the mickey mouse club when younger, showing she did have a natural voice and did have talent

Development of the main idea

As a group we thought we should use Alexs ideo of the Beaste Boys track, for the video. By researching the band and watching several other videos of the Beastie Boys, it became clear that the threesome wanted to create a spoof as well as a tribute to older content, and their own music video (Intergalactic) is a tribute to old Japanese monster movies e.g Godzilla. We chose to go along with the sci-fi theme but having a deeper meaning and poking fun at fame hungry people. In todays society, it seems almost too easy to be well known for doing only a simplistic thing.
We had developed our initial ideas of the music video and urbanized the story line.
Firstly, we began with really wanting to do a Beastie Boys songs as both Alex and I really enjoy their style of music. Next, we came up with the idea of taking the song quite literally and making a sci-fi themed video. And so once we had decided the rough outlines of the media product we set to work on what would look good, fit in and portray the bands image successfully.
We began with the image of have the beastie boys walking down high streets and doing funny thing in public, but we later decided we wanted them to be within the space ship set for the duration of the video. We did this as after looking at other videos, we felt filing inside the studio walls gave the video more of a professional feel. We developed our ideas of what we actually wanted the rappers to be doing from just generally having a good time to specific movements. Equally, to give off the idea of not everyone being perfect, we incorporated a scene where the spacecraft suffers a bit of turbulence and the rappers are being thrown around the set. Though we wanted the image to be a group of low skilled workers growing tired of their everyday lives, we thought of newer and perhaps more interesting ways to convey this.
We also developed the idea of the alien dramatically through this process. The initial idea for him to also be wondering around a high street was also altered some what. We felt by putting in backgrounds and using special effects, this would also contribute to bettering our knowledge of new media technologies and giving the video a cleaner cut.

Introduction to the music industry

In today’s world there are many record labels, some larger and better known than others. Within the music industry, most recording artists have become increasingly reliant upon record labels to broaden their audience, market their albums, and be both promoted and heard on radio, television, with publicists that assist performers in positive media reports to market their merchandise, and make it available via stores and other media outlets. The Internet has increasingly been a way that some artists avoid costs and gain new audiences, as well as the use of videos in some cases, to sell their products. For this task I will look at a very large record label called Def Jam records, Def Jam Recordings is an American hip-hop record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group. In the UK, the label takes on the name Def Jam UK and is operated through Mercury Music Group, They have managed a huge amount of artists since founded in 1984 by Rick Rubbin and Russel Simmons. Def Jam is a predominantly hip hop and R and B record label, having signed Rhianna and Mariah Carey. The benefits to joining such a vast label is huge, giving the artists lots of advice and experience in that field. There are however smaller record labels who sign more organic bands, an example of this is Bad Sekta and Bella Union. Smaller record labels usually sign artists on he basis of raw talent and are unable to create a mass audience for the artist like larger ones can.

Production Schedule: the stages of production

Throughout the year I will be creating posts in the blog about the five stages of production. This is an outline of why each individual stage is crucial in ensure success for the band and how we will ensure each stage is completed correctly. This blog is not directly related to my five stages of production, but will give an outline to the way in which professionals work.

Stage 1: Research and development
The research and development is needed to mould your idea to fit your target audience. We need to give our audience of 15 to 30 year olds what they would want to see for success of the band. The ways in which you can research the audience, is largely by questioning the target audience and observing similar bands and video techniques. Once the research stage of the project is complete the production team will probably have to mould their ideas into a more sellable product. It’s very likely that the team making the video are not the target audience, especially for younger targeting bands like Mcfly and Busted so this stage is very important.

Stage 2: Pre-Production
Pre-production stages include the storyboarding, organising, getting props and costumes, casting and other things like giving the band a lyrics sheet. Organising the day to ensure it runs very smoothly is perhaps one of the most crucial task to get right. Without organisation, the problems could be endless; ensuring all of the factors of pre-production can make your whole video look more polished and better. It could even give you extra time to try out new kinds of shots and new layouts to see what absolutely looks best.

Stage 3: Production (the shoot)
The time spent shooting and locations vary depending on how much the production company has to spend ion the video. Usually the bigger the star, the more extravagant the video will be. However some alternative bands attempt to make low budget videos that perhaps have a higher raw meaning. The shooting of the video entirely depends on the bands This stage is very relevant to the end result as because without it there is no product and the bands image will not be successfully constructed.

Stage 4: Post – Production (editing)
Without editing, the video can take no form. Especially with having different strands and elements for example performance, dance break and narrative. The videos have been edited since early 80s, late 70s; first coming about as a new cheaper and easier way to produce videos. Editing is essentially the cutting down of the rough cut into an actual music video using sharp cuts or fades. Many things like colour schemes and special effects can be changed during this stage, making the video look more professional.

Stage 5: Distribution and Exhibition
This stage envolves getting the music video and also band out into the public. Many factors must be considered before deciding where the music video should be shown and why. For example, an indie bands video would not be featured on a hip hop/ rnb music show. The reaon fo this is that the target audience would not have been reached. Other ways to get your band intot he public eye include guest apperances, live shows ans interviews. This stage useually occurs up to two weeks before and around a month after the product is released to ensure that is will reach every possible target audience.

Audience feedback

Now that our thriller is on YouTube we have got some feeback in the form of comments :)
FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!


Audience feedback will help us determine whether we have met our target audience and gained their interest...

LegacyOleg - YouTube Comment
Awesome and very atmospheric opening!
I like it :)

Sophie Evans - Personal Comment

I like the creative shots such as the tracking shots and the slow motion shots. I also like the tension building element and the titles with the blood.

Gabby Meech- Personal Feedback

My favourite shot is the birdseye high zoom at the end :)

mutemiss - YouTube Comment
Good tension at the beginning with the eye shots....Constantly building and kept me watching!Music is very suitable.Well edited :) Well done.

schreuderha - YouTube Comment
I love all the close ups! especially on the eyes in the begining it is a great way to build tension. I also think the tracking shots are very effective especially at the end and the slow motion effects are also very cool.Well done :)

stephaniemaureen - YouTube Comment
the end shot is absolutely INCREDIBLE!

hurtwoodhousemedia - YouTube Comment
great opening shot.

fatboy22222222222222 - YouTube Comment
The characters in this are well designed as they all oppose their stereotypes e.g. the female crime boss

Task 7 - Looking back at your prelinary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When comparing the sophistication of planning and preparation of the thriller task to the simplicity preliminary, it becomes obvious why the thriller took much longer to plan for, shoot and edit. For example, we did not storyboard our prelim or even choose a certain costume for the actors to wear; we simply found two actors, taught them the lines and shot it within an hour with no fancy camera angle shots. However, the thriller task took weeks to prepare for. We had to account for every little detail to make our thriller the most authentic. Firstly, we made power point presentation about our idea and why our group should make that thriller. Once that had been chosen we quickly set to work on the storyboarding of the sequence; this took our group in particular a long time as we all had ideas about what we could do to make our opening sequence exciting and mysterious. Next we had to ask the actors we wanted if they were available for a day of shooting, unfortunately the boys we wanted were in the A2 and we were not allowed to have them as they had exams around that time. Because of this we had to use AS boys, which actually worked better as we did need them for the whole days shooting that the A2s would not have been able to do. After actors and storyboarding had been sorted out, Megan and I travelled down to the schools costume department and selected suits, hats and a fur coat. We also had to design the set and draw a picture of what we thought it should look like. Included in the drawing were where the lights should go and some camera angle we would like to use.
Thinking about using visual expressions rather then using dialogue to move our story forward was very difficult. We tried to come up with ways to show higher tension and give the story more of a meaning and it think we did this by having the eye shots at the beginning. But at first this was very difficult as we did not know whether to have tension through speaking or just facial expressions. We collectively thought facial expressions seems more real and tense as dialogue in the preliminary task should have built up more tension then it actually did.
Throughout the day of our shoot, our whole group were learning new ways of using the camera and developing our knowledge of sound recording too. The huge different between our prelim to our main task was the use of different camera shots. In the preliminary task we had a very ordinary shot list, basically consisting of over heads, close ups and medium shots. In the thriller, we tried to experiment with shots like tracking shots, crane shots and extreme close ups. I think every one of these shots made our thriller more scary. We not only experimented with the type of shot but also the framing of it. For example, we tried to use the rule of thirds in some frames like When Tim is drinking from the top right hand of the screen this could mean he is the evil one. By doing all of the preparation we wanted to achieve a fast paced mysterious opening sequence that perhaps may people may not understand.
My knowledge of editing sound has really increased from the preliminary task. I now know to add sound effects from soundtrack pro, alter the sound tot he right volume and render the sounds. Our sequence used quite a few sound effects like doors opening, footsteps and drink drinking. We also used a room tone, this is because actually all rooms have an underlying noise that gives away their location. We do not have the soundtrack to our thriller but instead we have a combination of high pitch noises, the pitch changes when Niki enters the room and other significant things happen. We did not use any sound effects in our preliminary task, so it’s another more sophisticated aspect in the main task.Final cut server became very familiar to us throughout the course of editing. We would make new log bins as we went a long for things like sounds, then drag them down onto the time bar and cut them to when we needed them. If the sound had a bar on top of it, it had not been rendered; to do this you can press the apple button and r. Another thing we learnt to do was add in titles. To do this you pressed text, then text again. Once you selected the size, font and alignment of the words you could preview it. If you were happy with your title, simply drag it down onto the time line and cut it to how long you want it to be. We used after effects, to add a squirt of blood onto the ACE title and a muzzle flash to the gun when Guy shoos Luke. The preliminary task only took a couple of days to edit although the thriller took about 5 weeks to complete because of the complexity of the editing

Task 6 - What have you lernt about technologies from the process of constructiong this product?

Task 5 - How did you attract/ address your audience?

Task 5

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia5.

Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience age range we aimed out media product was 16-30 year olds that will mostly be male. We thought his would be the most appropriate as our movie involves violence, gangs and conflict over a woman. This would appeal to mostly men as they can relate to our product more so then women. Stimulating scenes like a first death within the first two minute of screen time shows what kind of movie this will be. I think for the type of film we made that it would have a very strong majority of audience that share common interests. Just like most romantic comedies are aimed at women viewers, this thriller will appeal mostly to men. Although it does not contain nudity or scenes of a sexual nature like others like it, it will still hold their concentration for an hour and a half. Ways to do this are incorporating car chases, more violence, gory deaths, smart gadgets and humour into the film. Our target audience will be similar to that of films like James Bond, Fight club and Memento.
A profile of the typical watcher would be:

Age: 21
Occupation: student
Hobbies: Playing sports, going to the cinema, music festivals
This is a male of 21 years who enjoys watching thriller movies. His social class does not hugely matter but we predicted that middle classed men may be more likely to watch these film then upper middle class men. This is because the plot isn’t as thought provoking as other movies and it does not contain any movie stars. If our movie was a day time televisions show it would give away which social group it was being aimed at. For example, shows being shown at 6:00 am are being marketed to children whereas shows being shown at 11:00 am may be marketed to the elderly. Both people who didn’t attend and attended higher education will be attracted to this film. His psychographic profile may include interest like playing and watching sports, their attitude would be fun loving and interested in many different peoples’ lives. The reason we feel a large proportion of women will not come to watch this movie is because they are generally not hugely interested in weapons, gadgets and scenes that have violence. Although some may be, the majority will not have any interesting in coming to see this film.

Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As a group we chose Lionsgae to distribute our thriller. Their films are usually full of violence, gore and mystery; for example The Bank Job and The gamer. We feel Lionsgate would take an interest in our film because it ticks all of the boxes. Lionsgate is a very highly respected distributing company, which works to the films advantage too. For example they will know how to advertise and market our film to the right people. They are so experienced that they will be able to get the biggest profit possible. Our budget to make our thriller was very small and we just used props we already had e.g. ashtrays, glasses, bottles etc. Lionsgate also takes on low budget movies and turns them in to well known franchises like Saw. Saw has had six other film been made and it think Lionsgate as a distributor had a large part to play in this. Lionsgate has six films coming our between April and August this year, three of then being thriller/horror movies. This could suggest half the amounts of films they take on are the genre of horror.

Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

The product my group and I created shows a very niche social group: international high status gangsters. Whether they are men or women it is obvious that the poker players have high status, this has been created through mise en scene, costumes and lighting. Costumes were very important as in a film we can truly judge a persons character by their clothing. To give off the right impressions about our actors; we ensured their suits were sharp and their hair was either gelled into a side parting or wearing a hat. Interestingly we decided collectively as a group to challenge the stereotypical beliefs of the audience. Like other typical poker type thrillers there is an oriental guy, a Nigerian guy and a few Russians, these nationalities are always portrayed as “the bad guys”. Although at first glance our characters may be the obvious actors for their roles, second glance shows the people you though were Russian are actually from Ukraine. The oriental looking man is actually from Korea, this shows that you can judge a person by their appearance. We show the audience that actually no ethnicity is particularly worse then the other.
Media products represent social groups as extreme; it’s almost as if you have to be part on one of the known roles. Take a college for example; modern day media says that there will be set groups like jocks, cheerleaders, emo’s, geeks etc. Although the group of people we chose would not usually be in a useual high school movie as children. They could perhaps been included in the private lives children perhaps making them drop off drugs or fight other people. We thought it would be interesting to shoot a movie where we follow their lives.

Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The media product the team and I produced challenges forms and conventions of real media products in many different ways. Firstly, it challenges traditional media as it contains a predominant female, unlike the typical male gang boss. This is shown to the audience through he arriving late and been given special treatment by one of the other men. None of the high status gangsters are questioning where she was or telling her that she can’t play. Silently, they deal her in and allow her to sit at the head of the table. Another way we showed her authority over the other men was seating her at what looks like the head of the table, also showing that they left the head of the table seat for her shows that they were expecting her. We also tried to challenge the stereotype of the male being more predominant in the relationship rather then the woman. To make Niki seem more in control, she had a toy boy enter in with her; Luke takes her coat, pushes her chair in and brings her a drink within the first two minutes of the sequence; which strongly raises the question, “why did he shoot Luke?” Normally in other media products it is an obvious character being killed but by killing a relatively unknown character it makes us as an audience wander why in greater depth.
These screen grab shows that we conformed to conventions of real media products. Like other media products we have selected a production company and have incorporated four titles within our opening sequence. We didn’t incorporate titles within the actual cut of our thriller as we felt it really interrupted the suspense we were building and detracted from the importance of each move the poker players were making; feel much more confident with the titles being at the beginning and end of out thriller opening as it gives a faster pace. Though we did not incorporate the titles within the sequence we still inform the audience our thrillers name, Production Company and the director of the film. Another way we conformed to real media product is by having a death within the opening two minute sequence. Other movies in the thriller genre conform to this not only to show the audience what kind of film this will be but also to excite the audience.





These screen grabs are examples of table shots. In all of these shots you can see the immensity of poker chips and collateral being put into the kitty, the stakes are getting higher and higher until Felix bets his car. These shots conform to real media products as they also give you a glimpse into the player’s hands to build suspense.

Sound Effects

We have just started adding sound effects to our thriller, no only to accentuate some important images but because the sound we recorded was not sufficient in some of the takes. We got our noises form soundtrack pro, another programme on the editing computers. After entering the programme you had to choose from a list of topics for the sound effects. For the door sound we went to the “people” button. It contained lots of different sounds including footsteps and coughing etc. After we located our desired sound we when back to final cut pro and imported a new file and made a new bin entitled “sound effects”. You then drag the sound down onto the part of the toolbar you want; if the sound appears to have a red bar above it you must render it. Rendering is done by pressing apple r; this tells the computer that the sound is allowed. It is quite difficult to input the sound at exactly the right moment because if it isn’t right it really looks very bad.

Editing

Our allowed time to edit is for an hour on Mondays and Fridays, and then if there is a computer vacant in your free time you may book it and use it with your team.
Our first task of editing was logging the shots we needed; in order to do this we created several log bins to separate different types of shots. In our groups we needed a lot of these separate bins as we experimented a lot with types of shot, we had close ups, card shots, tracking table shots, conversation shots, betting shots and then different kinds of shots of Guy walking through the alley and shooting Luke. As we shot so much footage during our day or shooting it took us quite a while to select the most fitting shot. Despite this I think we did a good job on this particular project.
Next, using our story boards we sorted out the order of the shots we needed. Through the editing process we have already changed to order of a few shots and frames. This is because we felt visually some shots did not link together and they did not create enough suspense building up to Guy breaking through the door.
In my opinion starting the next stage has been the hardest part of editing so far, cutting the clips at the right moment. Not only did we have to establish the order but check for continuity. Also cutting the clips at the expert moment was hard as if you didn’t have fast reaction you would miss the target time. To do this we simply pressed in the “I” key to start cutting then the “o” key to stop cutting it. After this we put them into the appropriate log bin. Our first shot is cards moving diagonally throughout the frame, we cut it once the cards touched the top right hand corner. And put it done into the main sequence, repeating this process until we reached the time allowed (two minutes). To ensure each shot did not clash with the shot before we went through the sequence many, many times. We also speed up the order of shot towards the end of our thriller, this was to create more suspense and give the audience an idea that Guy is coming rapidly and his chain of thoughts is faster as he goes towards the poker room. Its alarming as we are unsure what damage Guy wants to do and more so why he want to do this to seemingly innocent people. Short sharp snaps of Guy reaching into his pocket to find his gun may raise the question of who he wants to hurt.
“Jaws weren’t a movie a movie until John Williams score was added” Steven Spielberg. Sound is so important in our clip not only to raise tension but to make it more authentic.
We decided to use a mixture of conversations and music. The conversations were done in the poker players own language. The music we used gets faster in tempo through out the sequence. All sound was digetic about from the gun shot which we imputed whilst editing. We had to go this as we did not use a working gun.
Our group collectively decided it will be most effective to incorporate the title sequence into our thriller; this is so the audience may feel as it our opening sequence is actually just a card game. Then as it gets further in they realise what the production is actually about without paying much a attention at first. The ending may come as more of a shock to them creating an on edge vibe. This keeps the mood focused an unsuspected for the first minute or so.
The importance of all these choices can turn this sequence from average to good. Hopefully by making these decisions we have improved our video.
There were only a few difficulties when editing our thriller, firstly it hard to get the whole group involved in this process as only one person at a time can cut shots. Also as this type of editing was more challenging then our prelim as the scene was more sophisticated and the speech made it more complex for speed purposes. We not only cut to the next shot when a person finishes their line, we now had to add in connecting shots and card tricks.

Costumes

We really pushed for all our poker players to wear suits and have their hair gelled back into a neat side parting polished shoes and the occasional hat. Not only to give the sense of their importance but to differentiate them from our modern day gangster look. Wearing these sorts of outfits make them look important, having their hair done shows they are well taken care of and have a high status. Like in poker scenes from other movies the important people not only have countless chips but cash and other things to bet with i.e. car keys. I think the more detail we put into creating their individual looks made the whole sequence more believable.
The hats and some jackets were obtained from the school costume department. Luckily because of our schools previous productions we were give a huge variety of costumes to choose from, so we were able to differentiate each person.
Not only was it imperative everyone looked the part but also the mise en scene had to be spot on. As a group we assigned each other props to bring in and so the pressure was not put on just one person. A poker table was brought in along with glasses, whisky and ashtrays. To find cigarettes buds to convince the audience we had to go around the school and find smoking spots.
We also took a lot of time in discussing what Niki should be wearing; in the end we decided a red dress with heels and a fur coat. The colour red is a very powerful and over powering colour, so we used this to in a way reveal her personality to the audience as we may not be able to bring it across to the extent we would like to in two minutes. The shade of the dress had deepness to it, like the story we were filming. A fur coat was chosen to show she was wealthy and a well dressed character; like the poker players she had a high status.

set with the actors in it

This shows our first shot of Niki walking in to the room and sitting down with the boys. You can almost see the tracks we laid down on the floor (on the bottom left side of the frame) to navigate the camera around the table. Also, the atmosphere on the table can be seen in the photo. We put a door into the back left side of the set because it was needed for three people to walk in through: Niki, Luke and Guy. The door was very important for the most important characters to make an enterance as it is very central in all of the frames. The authenticity of the table was very important for our thriller. It was crucial it looked real to make the right effect on the audience.





After, long consideration we have come up with a concept of how we want our sequence to look. OPening with the poker game and a lady walking in wearing a red dress. and ending with a gunshot, and for a red 'blood' curtain to fill the screen.
We like how the James Bond 'Casino Royale' credits are floating around a 'card' animation of the Queen of Hearts, Ace of Spades etc.... In order for us to have the ability to do this, we do need to draw some animations to use.
I like the effect that it brings to an actioned scene before, as the card game is the focal point of the narrative. Due to the cards playing a big factor in the film itself. Another reason why I am interesting in us trying this, is because it isnt your convential credits.