Research and Planning
From AS to A2
In my AS year, I was tasked to perform my own local radio news bulletin. We were grouped together and were told to make a news bulletin for a local area. The area we chose was Marble Arch. To complete this task, I needed to understand genre, local and audience, therefore extensive research was needed. This was vital in order for me to create the best possible news bulletin. We used apps such as Audacity, GarageBand, and Camtasia. Our bulletin needed to have an interview, vox pox, jingles etc. I worked alongside 3 others in order to get this done.
In A2, we are tasked with making a music video of a song. This requires much more planning and practical work involved as also need to make. We need to understand which camera shots can emphasize the lyrics involved, which engages the audience. We needed to understand camera shots which can emphasize meaning. Also, we need to learn how to use Premiere Pro in order to assemble our shootings to create a compilation which creates our music video. This requires much more time in the recording as well as post-production stages as A2 requires us to use image and sound while AS only needed sound as it was a radio bulletin.
Amber's Blog: 6038
Joshua's Blog: 6084
Decoding Theory
He stated that audiences are able to receive messages from encoders which we are able to decode. Encoding messages are the initial production of the message which is done by the producer. Decoding is how the audience is able to interpret the message which is given to them. The reaction is active. Hall states being able to decode messages shows they are actively decoding the message. However, it is not 100% that those receiving the message will decode it in a different way of the encoder.
Adobe Spark
As part my research into music videos, I discovered an app which Adobe had released this year called Adobe Spark. I downloaded it on to my iPhone using the App Store. Adobe Spark allows me to create a video using the pictures and videos to create a compilation. I decided to make my video on my own designs - LK Designs. This video I created was the first of attempt of me using the app - learning the basics of using the app.
I decided to make another video using the Adobe Spark with one of my classmates, Hewi Ali. We decided to use the app to talk about a topic which was related to music videos. We decided to do it based on the history of music videos. I used my MacBook to record clips from music videos and obtain images to be used in my video. I have ordered each image and video with dialogue which we added on top of this to explain what we were talking about in the video.
History of Music Videos
The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first music that was aired on the MTV channel in 1981. It then was the place to view music videos at the time.
Michael Jackson's Thriller in the mid-1980's was considered the first narrative type music video - an element which combined elements of a film into a music video. The song replaces the dialogue of an original music video.
Music Videos by mid-1980 grew to become a vital part of in popular music marketing and has become an essential to mainstream music today.
Understanding the Auteur Theory within a Music Video
The auteur theory is a theory in filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. The director is considered as the "author" of the movie. When used successfully, the auteur theory is seen as the personal stamp of the director.
I wanted to research a Music Video Director called Paul Whisper. Paul Whisper is a director for one of the biggest Youtube platforms for UK hip-hop, grime and drill music - SBTV.
I decided to research two videos in which he has worked in, one popular video by UK drill artist K-Trap and another video with less popularity by UK rapper/singer Ekeno.
The artists are which he directs for are in the genre of Drill/Grime/Hip-Hop. In Paul Whisper's videos, he is most known for the post-production effects he adds on to his videos. Auteur theory can be applied to his work as the effects he uses are very similar.
The RGB Split Effect
One of the effects he is most known for which is seen in the two video is the RGB effect. He in post-production plays with the RGB and splits the 3 colours (red, blue, green) from the original video. This is very effective to create a distorted type effect on the video. Also, the effect is used in time with the beat, making it more creative.
Fast Cutting to the Beat
Another effect used by Paul Whisper was cutting clips very quickly. The use of cutting is usually used to match the speed of these hip-hop/rap songs. They usually will cut between two video clips very quickly. These songs include a very fast pace of drums which the visuals aim to replicate by cutting to the fast beat.
Alfred Hitchcock explained 3 theories of editing using one of his film's
Montage - assembly of pieces of the film, moved in rapid succession before the eye
The juxtaposition of imagery in a quick succession. 78 pieces of film in 45 secs in the scene of women getting killed.
Orchestration - the size of an image to create shock
Pure cinematics - the power of editing can change connotations of a character
Primary Research
There are two types of data which can gathered from researched.
Primary Research is research which is performed by yourself to gain data. I wanted to observe several music videos in order for me to gain experience of how to organise my music video
I decided to do 6 observations of music videos.
Observation 1
The first music video that I observed was from the artist, Nero, who is also a very close friend of mine. He is hip-hop rapper. It was directed by Kirx, who is most known for directing music videos for famous UK artist Not3s. He shot this video outside in a car park in Cricklewood on the 28th October.
In this video, I observed Kirx's very relaxed and flexible approach. He did shots using the surroundings around him, and the time of day to his advantage to get some very good shots. Here is where I understood the term "the camera keeps rolling", that anything around you that looks good can get recorded. The music video was a performance-based music video, with Nero and another model.
This is the music video, where I had a short cameo in.
Observation 2
I got in contact with Richard Kattah who allowed me to observe one of his music videos. This was for Azryah Harvey, an R'n'B singer with her new single 'Euphoria'. The video took place in a studio in North London.
Richard is a very vocal director and emphasised his points. As being a director of a large cast, he had to make sure that everyone was aware of what was going and how long we were going to spend on this. He was very organised and performed shots being time conscious of how long he should spend on one scene. From this, I took that in each scene done must have an organised set of what is getting recorded
Observation 3
I was invited again to observe another music with Richard. This was with another R'n'B/Soul artist Shae Jacobs. His single was called Space. This was filmed in the same studio as the previous one.
Richard implemented his style once again keeping time conscious of his scenes. In this song, there was a great use of creativity. In one of the scenes, it was made to look like as if feathers were falling on him. We had two people on both sides of the artist blowing feathers which then was slowed down which created a very great shot.
Observation 4
I decided that I should observe another music video. This was a performance-based music video with the music group called Wyla. They performed a song called Zero Dash, inside one apartment in East London. This was directed by a director of the name EtimExklusive. I got permission from him to be allowed to observe the video.
Etim brought a very different directing style than others. He was very conscious about the type of shot he wanted to get and changed his lens accordingly. One example of this was that he wanted to create a party atmosphere, so therefore he changed his lens accordingly using a much wider and closer lens, which allowed to capture more movement from the artist, but also the lens would make it almost look like the artists seeking proximity with the video, to be more engaged in what is going on. Our budget did not allow us to get another lens, however, I intended to implement a similar style to Etim, creating my own signature auteur.
Observation 5
I once again decide to follow Etim again to another shoot, with the artist Young Tribez and his new song 'Know Me' featuring Mickail Chase. He is a hip-hop rapper, and the music video wasn't in an atmospheric setting but in a studio in South East London. This was once again directed by EtimExklusive This also was a performance-based music video. I decide to help as well then just observe the video.
Here in this shoot, Etim played around with the backdrop a lot creating a different feel for each scene. He used a combination of lights which had led to great scene backdrops. Here, I realise the director has the greatest control in the majority of how a scene would look like, as it is recorded in their vision.
Observation 6
Etim invited to another music video for me to observe. The next video I was at was for the music group Harlem Spartans from South London, with their new song Bands. They perform songs of the popular new genre of the drill, which emphasises gang violence, money, and drug activity. They were filming in South London.
Here on this shoot, I saw the importance for how gel filters can create a mood for a video. Etim decided to use a red gel filter to go over the artist's faces, to complement their red clothing as well as creating a mood creating a sense of danger when their group is around.
Visit to the BFI Festival
I was able to get a ticket to the BFI London Film Festival to see 6 short movies on the 14 October 2017. I thought this would great to observe as a short movie has many similar traits to a narrative based music video. The biggest difference is that music video must rely on the song with the visuals to explain the story. Each video established the narrative set out - beginning, plot and end.
Each movie was able to establish the narrative very clearly which we aimed to put in our own music video, making it easy to follow but also keeping it interesting as well.
Secondary Research
Theorists
Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory
I decided to perform reseach on this on a musicvideo.
Gerard Genette's Theory of Narrative with reference to Music Video
Types of Music Videos
Before making my video, I needed to understand the two common types of music videos. I decided to perform my research on an award-winning artist, Drake.
Narrative Based
This music video is based on a storyline, in which the artist does not have to directly perform the song. The music video is portrayed much like a short film, but speech is replaced with the song which is used to explain the story. It will usually have the generic beginning, plot, and ending. The video created will dramatize the lyrics, to help create a story.
This music video is extended with a backstory which is much more different to the average performance and concept video. In the video above, Drake is the main protagonist, who is in a group where they are celebrating at a bar. However, he has been betrayed by one member of his team, who have given information to Drake's opposition. They kidnap Drake's girlfriend. Drake is now on a revenge path in order to get his girlfriend back, and he is using all the firepower he can use. It ends with a traditional ending, with Drake and co. heroically killing off the opposition rescuing his girlfriend.
Performance-based
This is where the artist performs the song which involves the artist performing the song. The song is primarily focused on the artist delivering the song. There does not use a storyline in order to dramatize the song but has more focus on camera shots of the artist performing and dancing to the song.
In this song, there are several mid shots and close ups of Drake, as well as other models. The song does not have a narrative to it, however, there are several vibrant colours used in the clothing and the background. Therefore creating a more jolly element which dramatizes the song having a feel-good factor.
Planning
As we decided to do a music video, it was essential that we made a plan that we could refer to in our making of the music video. This allowed us to perform according to our timetable, making sure that our filming was kept on schedule, giving us enough time to for our other tasks.
We had made a group chat on WhatsApp to allow much easier communication between our members during production. We included our actors and those extras helping out on the day. This allows everyone to be updated wherever they are. This meant we were able to be in agreements much easier. Between our group, we gave each other roles in terms of research to go towards our music video. Amber was tasked to find locations for where we could film, Hevi was in tasked of what props and extras we could add in the video whilst I was tasked with the clothing and makeup on the day.
Construction
In my group, we decided to make a mockup music video, in order to experiment several edits using After Effects and Premiere Pro. We had filmed in our school for my mockup version. We filmed using a Sony Camera. We recorded 3 scenes, one including one girl (Catherine), one boy (Henry), and close-ups of instruments. We record the following and we chopped it up and added VFX to the video using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects.
We looked at Youtube for any comments which we could improve our work from.
In response to these comments, our group made an updated version of the mockup. From these comments, we were to evaluate our work and how we could add more aspects. We aimed to add more elements to the video in order for it to have a much better and improved video.
In this updated piece we filmed more aspects to add on to the mockup. One of the comments received was that we should include more close-ups of Henry. Therefore, we had several takes of Henry singing along the with the curious. From the way we recorded the song, it was more of a performance-based music video which meant that close-ups of the performer (Henry) were a necessity. We went to record again with Henry where we included more parts of him dancing, and lip syncing. Here, we experimented a few edits e.g. the edit in the end with Henry in different areas dancing simultaneously. Also, we decided to post this video on Vimeo as the platform we previously posted on Youtube, but we released that Youtube and Warner Music Group has strict rules about playback of the music they owe, which does not allow us to use 'Plastic' on this website. Vimeo is a much better alternative in terms of playback than Youtube.
Here is evidence of our recording for our first mock-up video.
We decided to once do another mockup in order to explore other creative options when recording our own recording music video. This time we decided to use a popular hip-hop artist, Travis Scott and us one of his latest songs, Butterfly Effect. In this, we filmed Josh playing the lead character in a performance-based video. We experiment a few post editing skills such as changing the sky's colour as well as using the pencil drawing tool which is used in many other music videos.
My group was asked to make a music video and we decided on making a music video for a song which has not yet had a music video. We thought this would be the best idea as songs with music videos will have a much larger budget so it will potentially be better than our music video and also, we did not want the original video influence what we include and exclude in our video. This allows us to freely work from what we believe should be included in the video. The song we decided to go for was "Kavinsky - Nightcall". The song has a very eerie atmosphere, therefore we felt that if we matched the sound we could create a video with a strong meaning.
I wanted to try out some visual effects I could apply to my music video. I filmed two scenes - indoors and outdoors and put them together which created a natural transition shot.
This was a clean transition to establish change from the first scene into the next scene, establishing the character going to another location, which we could implement.
We decided to improve our video from what was commonly said in the comments which were to add more visual elements. We decided to edit the first sequence again. We thought of the electronic genre, which could be associated with advanced technology etc. We thought a glitch effect which could emphasise the advancement which shows us using codes and conventions said by Andrew Goodwin, filling the genre of electronic.
In this video, we added glitch effect on to the text that was put. We added the "tracking subject" text to create an atmosphere of technological advancement which is seen in other electronic music videos. We kept the same theme running into the next scene, and used that to establish the next scene of the music video.
When filming we realised that some of the resources that we expected to use were unavailable. We were not able to find a car to use for our shooting, therefore we had to re-adjust the narrative of the video. We then had to cut scenes out and add in other new scenes.
Draft Music Video
We received feedback once again from the comments on YouTube on the music video in what else we could add/remove in our music video.
From this, we felt very confident in the narrative that we created in our first video as it went along with the film, however, the slight tweaks in the colour grading is needed, as well as the VHS effect that we use for the backstory scene of them at StarBucks.
We also noticed that a couple transitions that when exported had led to an upside-down blue screen which is not the effect that we wanted in the video. Therefore, we had to export it again using a different effect on the video allowing us to have a perfect video.
Main Task
Examples of Editing
In this screenshot, we added text by using the Text tool. We used the Sukhumvit Set which is a sans serif font. We felt a sans serif font was best used in this case due to that it uses a much simpler letter-case which allows people to be able to read it much easier. We also used a bright yellow colour as it would not conflict with what Sasha was wearing allowing it to be read clearly. Also, we added text to add to our narrative video, as she was directly responding to what was being said in the lyrics which fulfils one of the codes and conventions in a music video.
Sound
In this picture, we were able to manipulate the sound and bring down the frequency of the song making it much quieter as sound outside travels. Using Bandpass and EQ we were able to make the sound suppressed which made the song an ambient sound, as if. This allowed us also to meet our codes and conventions.
Using Premiere Pro, you are able to colour grade footage which makes it look much more interesting and appealing, as you are able to manipulate the colours which can often make a mood. In the video, we aimed to try to make the video look colder, which favoured blues. We felt that could leave more of an eerie feeling that would go along with the song, unlike warm colours which could represent more of a happy, summers day.
The colour grade appears with as a purplish/pink box which there you are able to adjust the saturation, brightness, highlights and shadows of the video, as well as making a colour much more prominent in a scene.
We sent this to others on Whatsapp to get feedback from our peers to know how successful we were making our cover and any other aspects we should add before finalising our changes.
Website
We took inspirtation from Drake's website. We took aspects from his website which we needed to add our websites. Some aspects of the website, such as a short biography - a written account of someones life,
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my AS year, I was tasked to perform my own local radio news bulletin. We were grouped together and were told to make a news bulletin for a local area. The area we chose was Marble Arch. To complete this task, I needed to understand genre, local and audience, therefore extensive research was needed. This was vital in order for me to create the best possible news bulletin. We used apps such as Audacity, GarageBand, and Camtasia. Our bulletin needed to have an interview, vox pox, jingles etc. I worked alongside 3 others in order to get this done.
In A2, we are tasked with making a music video of a song. This requires much more planning and practical work involved as also need to make. We need to understand which camera shots can emphasize the lyrics involved, which engages the audience. We needed to understand camera shots which can emphasize meaning. Also, we need to learn how to use Premiere Pro in order to assemble our shootings to create a compilation which creates our music video. This requires much more time in the recording as well as post-production stages as A2 requires us to use image and sound while AS only needed sound as it was a radio bulletin.
Amber's Blog: 6038
Joshua's Blog: 6084
Understanding Audience
We needed to understand what is meant by demographics. These are used to describe a particular audience. Examples of demographics are gender, age, social class, ethnic, interests.
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| Stuart Hall |
Stuart Hall is a post-modern sociologist which came up with the theory of encoding and decoding the media. He stated that when a sender creates a message to the receiver, there is a straightforward
communication. This shown that audiences are active.
communication. This shown that audiences are active.
Stuart Hall suggested 3 ways which people can decode specific type of news which they receive.
Dominant Reading - This is the audience when decoding the news, have the same view which the media has presented it. There are no disagreements or misunderstandings between the encoder and decoder. This is usually in relation to a passive audience
Negotiated Reading - The is the audience when decoding the news have both a mixture of acknowledgement the dominant reading, however, do not accept the full reading by challenging parts of the view. This is a reflection of the person's personal interests and beliefs. Oppositional Reading - This is the audience when decoding the news have completely disagreed through as they decode the message for their own beliefs. This is usually due to personal background and experience. They tend to understand the dominant reading, however rejecting the view.
Dominant Reading - This is the audience when decoding the news, have the same view which the media has presented it. There are no disagreements or misunderstandings between the encoder and decoder. This is usually in relation to a passive audience
Negotiated Reading - The is the audience when decoding the news have both a mixture of acknowledgement the dominant reading, however, do not accept the full reading by challenging parts of the view. This is a reflection of the person's personal interests and beliefs. Oppositional Reading - This is the audience when decoding the news have completely disagreed through as they decode the message for their own beliefs. This is usually due to personal background and experience. They tend to understand the dominant reading, however rejecting the view.
SENDER --------------------------- RECIEVER
MESSAGE
Here's an example which is relevant to us using music videos
ARTIST ------------------------- FANS
SONG
The Cultivation Theory
This theory attempts to explain the long-term effect of TV and Mass Media on our social reality. It states the more we are being exposed to the messages being created by social media, the more likely we would be to believe the social reality being portrayed. An example of this is the "mean world syndrome". This is the belief that due to the violent based content being shown by the media, makes the world sound more dangerous than it actually is. Due to the heavy viewing of television with programmes such as CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, and Power has lead people being more fearful as they feel that there is always a serial killer, rapist, gang leader, drug kingpin lurking the corner.
As part my research into music videos, I discovered an app which Adobe had released this year called Adobe Spark. I downloaded it on to my iPhone using the App Store. Adobe Spark allows me to create a video using the pictures and videos to create a compilation. I decided to make my video on my own designs - LK Designs. This video I created was the first of attempt of me using the app - learning the basics of using the app.
I decided to make another video using the Adobe Spark with one of my classmates, Hewi Ali. We decided to use the app to talk about a topic which was related to music videos. We decided to do it based on the history of music videos. I used my MacBook to record clips from music videos and obtain images to be used in my video. I have ordered each image and video with dialogue which we added on top of this to explain what we were talking about in the video.
History of Music Videos
The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first music that was aired on the MTV channel in 1981. It then was the place to view music videos at the time.
Michael Jackson's Thriller in the mid-1980's was considered the first narrative type music video - an element which combined elements of a film into a music video. The song replaces the dialogue of an original music video.
Music Videos by mid-1980 grew to become a vital part of in popular music marketing and has become an essential to mainstream music today.
Understanding the Auteur Theory within a Music Video
I wanted to research a Music Video Director called Paul Whisper. Paul Whisper is a director for one of the biggest Youtube platforms for UK hip-hop, grime and drill music - SBTV.
I decided to research two videos in which he has worked in, one popular video by UK drill artist K-Trap and another video with less popularity by UK rapper/singer Ekeno.
The artists are which he directs for are in the genre of Drill/Grime/Hip-Hop. In Paul Whisper's videos, he is most known for the post-production effects he adds on to his videos. Auteur theory can be applied to his work as the effects he uses are very similar.
The RGB Split Effect
One of the effects he is most known for which is seen in the two video is the RGB effect. He in post-production plays with the RGB and splits the 3 colours (red, blue, green) from the original video. This is very effective to create a distorted type effect on the video. Also, the effect is used in time with the beat, making it more creative.
Fast Cutting to the Beat
Another effect used by Paul Whisper was cutting clips very quickly. The use of cutting is usually used to match the speed of these hip-hop/rap songs. They usually will cut between two video clips very quickly. These songs include a very fast pace of drums which the visuals aim to replicate by cutting to the fast beat.
Alfred Hitchcock explained 3 theories of editing using one of his film's
Montage - assembly of pieces of the film, moved in rapid succession before the eye
The juxtaposition of imagery in a quick succession. 78 pieces of film in 45 secs in the scene of women getting killed.
Orchestration - the size of an image to create shock
Pure cinematics - the power of editing can change connotations of a character
Primary Research
There are two types of data which can gathered from researched.
Primary Research is research which is performed by yourself to gain data. I wanted to observe several music videos in order for me to gain experience of how to organise my music video
I decided to do 6 observations of music videos.
Observation 1
The first music video that I observed was from the artist, Nero, who is also a very close friend of mine. He is hip-hop rapper. It was directed by Kirx, who is most known for directing music videos for famous UK artist Not3s. He shot this video outside in a car park in Cricklewood on the 28th October.
In this video, I observed Kirx's very relaxed and flexible approach. He did shots using the surroundings around him, and the time of day to his advantage to get some very good shots. Here is where I understood the term "the camera keeps rolling", that anything around you that looks good can get recorded. The music video was a performance-based music video, with Nero and another model.
Observation 2
I got in contact with Richard Kattah who allowed me to observe one of his music videos. This was for Azryah Harvey, an R'n'B singer with her new single 'Euphoria'. The video took place in a studio in North London.
Richard is a very vocal director and emphasised his points. As being a director of a large cast, he had to make sure that everyone was aware of what was going and how long we were going to spend on this. He was very organised and performed shots being time conscious of how long he should spend on one scene. From this, I took that in each scene done must have an organised set of what is getting recorded
Observation 3
I was invited again to observe another music with Richard. This was with another R'n'B/Soul artist Shae Jacobs. His single was called Space. This was filmed in the same studio as the previous one.
Richard implemented his style once again keeping time conscious of his scenes. In this song, there was a great use of creativity. In one of the scenes, it was made to look like as if feathers were falling on him. We had two people on both sides of the artist blowing feathers which then was slowed down which created a very great shot.
Observation 4
I decided that I should observe another music video. This was a performance-based music video with the music group called Wyla. They performed a song called Zero Dash, inside one apartment in East London. This was directed by a director of the name EtimExklusive. I got permission from him to be allowed to observe the video.
Etim brought a very different directing style than others. He was very conscious about the type of shot he wanted to get and changed his lens accordingly. One example of this was that he wanted to create a party atmosphere, so therefore he changed his lens accordingly using a much wider and closer lens, which allowed to capture more movement from the artist, but also the lens would make it almost look like the artists seeking proximity with the video, to be more engaged in what is going on. Our budget did not allow us to get another lens, however, I intended to implement a similar style to Etim, creating my own signature auteur.
Observation 5
I once again decide to follow Etim again to another shoot, with the artist Young Tribez and his new song 'Know Me' featuring Mickail Chase. He is a hip-hop rapper, and the music video wasn't in an atmospheric setting but in a studio in South East London. This was once again directed by EtimExklusive This also was a performance-based music video. I decide to help as well then just observe the video.
Here in this shoot, Etim played around with the backdrop a lot creating a different feel for each scene. He used a combination of lights which had led to great scene backdrops. Here, I realise the director has the greatest control in the majority of how a scene would look like, as it is recorded in their vision.
Observation 6
Etim invited to another music video for me to observe. The next video I was at was for the music group Harlem Spartans from South London, with their new song Bands. They perform songs of the popular new genre of the drill, which emphasises gang violence, money, and drug activity. They were filming in South London.
Here on this shoot, I saw the importance for how gel filters can create a mood for a video. Etim decided to use a red gel filter to go over the artist's faces, to complement their red clothing as well as creating a mood creating a sense of danger when their group is around.
I was able to get a ticket to the BFI London Film Festival to see 6 short movies on the 14 October 2017. I thought this would great to observe as a short movie has many similar traits to a narrative based music video. The biggest difference is that music video must rely on the song with the visuals to explain the story. Each video established the narrative set out - beginning, plot and end.
Each movie was able to establish the narrative very clearly which we aimed to put in our own music video, making it easy to follow but also keeping it interesting as well.
Secondary Research
Theorists
Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory
I decided to perform reseach on this on a musicvideo.
Gerard Genette's Theory of Narrative with reference to Music Video
Types of Music Videos
Before making my video, I needed to understand the two common types of music videos. I decided to perform my research on an award-winning artist, Drake.
Narrative Based
This music video is based on a storyline, in which the artist does not have to directly perform the song. The music video is portrayed much like a short film, but speech is replaced with the song which is used to explain the story. It will usually have the generic beginning, plot, and ending. The video created will dramatize the lyrics, to help create a story.
This music video is extended with a backstory which is much more different to the average performance and concept video. In the video above, Drake is the main protagonist, who is in a group where they are celebrating at a bar. However, he has been betrayed by one member of his team, who have given information to Drake's opposition. They kidnap Drake's girlfriend. Drake is now on a revenge path in order to get his girlfriend back, and he is using all the firepower he can use. It ends with a traditional ending, with Drake and co. heroically killing off the opposition rescuing his girlfriend.
Performance-based
This is where the artist performs the song which involves the artist performing the song. The song is primarily focused on the artist delivering the song. There does not use a storyline in order to dramatize the song but has more focus on camera shots of the artist performing and dancing to the song.
In this song, there are several mid shots and close ups of Drake, as well as other models. The song does not have a narrative to it, however, there are several vibrant colours used in the clothing and the background. Therefore creating a more jolly element which dramatizes the song having a feel-good factor.
As we decided to do a music video, it was essential that we made a plan that we could refer to in our making of the music video. This allowed us to perform according to our timetable, making sure that our filming was kept on schedule, giving us enough time to for our other tasks.
We had made a group chat on WhatsApp to allow much easier communication between our members during production. We included our actors and those extras helping out on the day. This allows everyone to be updated wherever they are. This meant we were able to be in agreements much easier. Between our group, we gave each other roles in terms of research to go towards our music video. Amber was tasked to find locations for where we could film, Hevi was in tasked of what props and extras we could add in the video whilst I was tasked with the clothing and makeup on the day.
Construction
In my group, we decided to make a mockup music video, in order to experiment several edits using After Effects and Premiere Pro. We had filmed in our school for my mockup version. We filmed using a Sony Camera. We recorded 3 scenes, one including one girl (Catherine), one boy (Henry), and close-ups of instruments. We record the following and we chopped it up and added VFX to the video using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects.
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| In this screenshot, we edited the volume of the song in time with the set of events which occur in the video. We made the song go to full volume once Hevi's hands had put the keyboard at full volume. |
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| To make the video more interesting, we decided to use Adobe After Effects to add effects. We can send specific clips into After Effects which we can add effects which can render back into Premiere Pro. |
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| In this screenshot, we used KeyLight and used the green ground to make it look like the ground was flashing lights. We then masked the effect only on the ground and not to conflict with the other colours. This work perfect as green is used in most movies and music videos to mask remove a colour as green usually does not conflict with skin tones. |
In response to these comments, our group made an updated version of the mockup. From these comments, we were to evaluate our work and how we could add more aspects. We aimed to add more elements to the video in order for it to have a much better and improved video.
In this updated piece we filmed more aspects to add on to the mockup. One of the comments received was that we should include more close-ups of Henry. Therefore, we had several takes of Henry singing along the with the curious. From the way we recorded the song, it was more of a performance-based music video which meant that close-ups of the performer (Henry) were a necessity. We went to record again with Henry where we included more parts of him dancing, and lip syncing. Here, we experimented a few edits e.g. the edit in the end with Henry in different areas dancing simultaneously. Also, we decided to post this video on Vimeo as the platform we previously posted on Youtube, but we released that Youtube and Warner Music Group has strict rules about playback of the music they owe, which does not allow us to use 'Plastic' on this website. Vimeo is a much better alternative in terms of playback than Youtube.
Here is evidence of our recording for our first mock-up video.
We decided to once do another mockup in order to explore other creative options when recording our own recording music video. This time we decided to use a popular hip-hop artist, Travis Scott and us one of his latest songs, Butterfly Effect. In this, we filmed Josh playing the lead character in a performance-based video. We experiment a few post editing skills such as changing the sky's colour as well as using the pencil drawing tool which is used in many other music videos.
My group was asked to make a music video and we decided on making a music video for a song which has not yet had a music video. We thought this would be the best idea as songs with music videos will have a much larger budget so it will potentially be better than our music video and also, we did not want the original video influence what we include and exclude in our video. This allows us to freely work from what we believe should be included in the video. The song we decided to go for was "Kavinsky - Nightcall". The song has a very eerie atmosphere, therefore we felt that if we matched the sound we could create a video with a strong meaning.
I wanted to try out some visual effects I could apply to my music video. I filmed two scenes - indoors and outdoors and put them together which created a natural transition shot.
This was a clean transition to establish change from the first scene into the next scene, establishing the character going to another location, which we could implement.
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| This was the first plan that my group and I came up with for our music video. We established how many scenes we would like to have to perform for our video.
The planned story summed is about a young woman who is struggling to cope with the death of her boyfriend, and is deeply feeling his presence on this specific day. We felt that the overall concept was great, however, how the story is delivered by the scenes was not final and always subject to change.
Our first piece of action was who would take part in our video. We established 2 main characters from this plan - The Mourning Girlfriend and The Dead Boyfriend
The Mourning Girlfriend is an attractive young woman in her early adult years. Educated and sassy, however, the death of her boyfriend has left a detrimental effect on her. She is craving attention to fill the void that she feels from his death. She does not want live in her reality, however, she aims to escape the thought through clubbing, drinking. Any sudden glimpse of being loved a is quickly reminded of how alone she actually is.
I decided to make a storyboard for my music video where I made 6 scenes using cartoons
  We used Panasonic G7 which shoots video in 4K and in 25 frames per second. This enabled my video to be shot in the clearest detail. We also used a tripod to make sure that our footage is stable. Day 1 We used our school as there were various locations we had access to which allowed use for our shoot. We used a studio in our school, which had black curtains which we used to film the chorus scenes for our music video. This gave us footage which we could use for cutaways. We then decided to film the office scene, which we were able to use our school office for this scene. We were not able to gain footage of the office at night like how we expected. However, we knew this was an obstacle we can overcome using After Effects in the post-production. In addition, we also filmed outside one of the Starbucks near my school. We felt that would be a perfect location to perform our throwback scenes. Day 2
We went to a friend's house who has a balcony which has a very great view from his apartment balcony of the whole of West/Central London. We were able to get several cutaways from the balcony. We filmed a few scenes inside the house which we thought would have a great contrast added to our video, helping us to create our mystery of the Dead Boyfriend.
Day 3 We filmed our crash scene which we would as a throwback scene. This was filmed at night in the Lisson Green area which we used a road to film our scene. We had brought in an SFX artist to help make the scene look more realistic, by added our actors with bruises. The gash was very graphic as it had plastic which acted as glass in his head. This was something when filming we did not want to completely focus on. Day 4 We filmed our other scenes such as Sasha chilling on her sofa, which we filmed at our school common room. as well the scenes of her running in a tunnel. We filmed this to complete our narrative which we wanted the scene to end on. After all the footage, we decided to do a 1-minute preview to get early feedback on the start of the music video. |
We decided to improve our video from what was commonly said in the comments which were to add more visual elements. We decided to edit the first sequence again. We thought of the electronic genre, which could be associated with advanced technology etc. We thought a glitch effect which could emphasise the advancement which shows us using codes and conventions said by Andrew Goodwin, filling the genre of electronic.
In this video, we added glitch effect on to the text that was put. We added the "tracking subject" text to create an atmosphere of technological advancement which is seen in other electronic music videos. We kept the same theme running into the next scene, and used that to establish the next scene of the music video.
When filming we realised that some of the resources that we expected to use were unavailable. We were not able to find a car to use for our shooting, therefore we had to re-adjust the narrative of the video. We then had to cut scenes out and add in other new scenes.
Draft Music Video
We received feedback once again from the comments on YouTube on the music video in what else we could add/remove in our music video.
We also noticed that a couple transitions that when exported had led to an upside-down blue screen which is not the effect that we wanted in the video. Therefore, we had to export it again using a different effect on the video allowing us to have a perfect video.
Main Task
Examples of Editing
Text
Masking
Here, we used the pen tool which allowed us to select around what we wanted. We used it in After Effects which facilitate us to select the outline of everything we wanted to be included/excluded. Here we wanted to smoothen the window so whatever appears outside was much smoother. These little edits here allows no unnecessary things which may alter the audience's attention.
Sound
Colour Grading
Using Premiere Pro, you are able to colour grade footage which makes it look much more interesting and appealing, as you are able to manipulate the colours which can often make a mood. In the video, we aimed to try to make the video look colder, which favoured blues. We felt that could leave more of an eerie feeling that would go along with the song, unlike warm colours which could represent more of a happy, summers day.
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Ancillary Task
We were tasked to create an album cover for the music video which we had made. We used Adobe Photoshop in order to create one. We decide to go with the theme of it being in the night, using dark, cold colours in order to create an atmosphere. We set the sky dark blue faded into a lighter blue more, almost creating a night sky look. We used the same fonts which we used in the music video so it has a correlation.
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| This was our base cover which we aimed to revolve around the text. We wanted the cover to give subtle hints to the video however not completely giving away the video as it is still a narrative based music video.
We saw the first album and the response we got from that it was too simplistic and needed more elements added towards this cover to showcase the codes and conventions of an electronic cover. We decided to do more research into electronic covers so we researched using Google to see common trends in electronic covers.
We saw that covers of the genre electronic followed common rules which we see them are as norms and conventions. We establish one norm from the covers which we saw. This was the glowing effect which was commonly used in them. Also, we added more layers to the sky to make it more appealing to an audience, instead of the plain dark sky.
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We sent this to others on Whatsapp to get feedback from our peers to know how successful we were making our cover and any other aspects we should add before finalising our changes.
From this, we saw the outline was the first thing which needed changing as it was both brought up in the comments. We also felt the comment about adding a monument from London was very useful as the cover would put a reference to our music video which is also based in London. We, therefore, thought we should add those aspects into the cover to make it better.
We used this cover as the glow gives a much fainter look which blends well with the sky. We also used a silhouette of the London Eye added to rest of buildings, as it is based in London, giving reference to our music video.
Website
We took inspirtation from Drake's website. We took aspects from his website which we needed to add our websites. Some aspects of the website, such as a short biography - a written account of someones life,
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| Drake's biography on Drake's website |
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| Our website's biography on our artist Kavinsky |
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
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