Monday, 15 September 2014

Transition task evalution

As a whole I feel out music video was very good. We managed to successfully replicate the original video with very few errors and we didn't need to go back and re film anything.

I  worked well to overcome problems such as pinning up backdrops and creating smoke for the shot with the smoking clock. As a team we tried to collect and replicate the props and mise-en scene that matched the original video, such as the floral bedding and dressing gown to a leather skirt and black wig.Also made sure there was nothing in shot that wouldn't have been there when the original video was made such as laptops and mobile phones. We also took care when framing each shot in order to get it as close to the original as possible. We also worked well as a team in post-production editing the footage so that the shots were in time with the music and of similar length to the shots in the original video. Although we did take separate roles within the filming which meant that group member Katie was the main editor. We also managed to edit an image of a crowd at the end of the video which we figured out and edited a
nd it made the video look better than seeing an old cupboard full of dusters and an old hoover.


However, we could have made this video better by taking more time to set up proper lighting, we should've filmed the darker scenes in the light and edited them to be darker, but we did not do this meaning that the quality of the video was poor and not crisp. We could also have improved by spending more time finding locations, as the locations used were not the same as in the original video. But overall our team worked well to plan, shoot and edit the video, and the result was a video which is similar to the original and well put together. We were very pleased with the end product.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Lesson write up - Wednesday 10th September 2014 - Wednesday 17th September 2014

Music videos were originally called promotional films one promotional film was;

Don't look back 1967 - Documentary, this film included;
  • Medium long shot
  • Hand held camera
  • They use the rule of third to emphasise the lyrics written on the card
  • No editing
  • Diegetic soundtrack
  • Casual clothing
  • No London icons were shown because it was in an alley way.
  • This was the first music video yet it breaks all conventional
  • The pop stars that were in these types of promotional films played a character not their real selves
Cliff Richard 1965 - Summer Holiday; this music video featured
  • Many medium close-ups & close-ups
  • Continuity editing
  • Lip syncing
  • Beréts as they were 'on a summer holiday' in France
Cliff Richard 1961 - The Young Ones
  • This music video was very much about rebelling and not being obedient
  • This was also based around the 'Mods & rockers' and how they rebelled.
Queen 1975
  • Their song Bohemian Rhapsody had already been released when the band decided to release the music video for it, it was going down in the charts and the video made it go back up in the charts and it spent a further 9 weeks in the charts. They used the setting as if they were doing a live performance.
People didn't have TV's before the 1960's and if they did they were in black and white, they had to go to the cinema to see a promotional film as music videos didn't exist. they also used radiograms which were eventually taken over by portable radios.

The Beatles 1960's
  • The Beatles were initially only popular in the UK when they appeared on the BBC every Saturday morning.
  • It was on the Ed Sullivan show they had a number one.
  • They the became popular in America after touring there
  • 85 million people watched the show
  • They took over the top 5 places in the charts
  • They started producing short promotional films rather than full length films.
  • The did the 'Magical Mystery' tour which offered alternative imagery as the lyrics 'oompalumpa, stick it up your jumper' changed through out the song to say 'oompalumpa everybody smoke pot' this song was banned in several places.
Peter Gabriel - Sledge Hammer
  • This was ground breaking footage as it used animation in the video.
  • The video was literally doing what the song was singing about, he was using the video as an art form.
  • We were becoming voyeurs 
Michael Jackson - Thriller
  • This music video was and still is the most expensive music video ever made.
  • There were three levels of diagesis within the film. 1- The girl dreaming 2 - Her reality 3 - Michael actually being a ware-wolf type being.