The Breakfast Club Camera movement

To further develop my knowledge of camera angles, shot distances and how/why they are used I decided to look at a scene from 'The Breakfast Club'. In this scene we see one of the characters, Andrew (Emilio Estevez) confessing why he is in the saturday detention. For all of the characters, their confessions are quite personal and they find it difficult to talk about and admit as they find themselves being ashamed of what they have done.

The negative emotions that are attached with each of their stories is emphasized by the camera's distance and use of a continuous shot as each character talks through their feelings and difficulties within their school/home lives. 

I particularly like the use of the continuous panning shot that is used when Andrew is telling his story, this allows the audience to only focus on that character, what he is saying and how it is making him feel as apposed to switched between different characters to show their reactions.

The continuous shot starts at 00:50 and lasts until 03:13. This time allows us to connect with the character and sympathize with what they're going through. This is something i would like to include within my music video. Not necessarily a continuous pan shot as long as this but something that allows that connection with the character. Having the right camera distance is key as well, making sure that there aren't any distractions in the background but also not too close so that you are still able to see the person's body language as body language can say a lot about an individual.

Body language will be an important part in our production as it will allow indication as well as emphasize the fact that the main character is separated and isolated from everyone else around them.

Story Board for Use Somebody

Camera Shots ideas

Today we experimented with some camera angles and shot distances, this will help us make a more efficient and effective story board.

Re-thinking a Music Video Song

After doing research into our idea for 'Hey-Ya' and music videos that are the same style, we have decided to re-think our song choice, this also means we will create different ideas as a whole as we also want a change of style.

With our new idea we have a better understanding of how and what we  want our audience to feel which is something we weren't as familiar with for our 'Hey-Ya' video.

We came across a friend's cover of 'Use somebody' by Kings Of Leon and were intrigued by the song's lyrics as well as the style in which are friend was performing it...

BBFC Rating specifications

As we are looking at making this music video suitable for mostly all ages, I decided to look into BBFC's conditions and specification for film age ratings. What elements of the footage make it suitable/ unsuitable to people of certain ages?

Here is the link to the BBFC age classification page:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/u







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First Team Meeting: Song choice

After the first meeting with my team partner we were considering using a well known song, however not one from the recent charts. We needed an up-beat feel good song that the majority of the public would know well and therefor enjoy listening to more than one that they are unfamiliar with.

During this process we came up with a few different songs which included:

• Mambo No.5 by Lou Bega (1999)
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by WHAM (1984)
• Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader (1999)
• Hey Ya! by Outkast (2003)

Despite Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go being voted (through ITV)the UK's 13th most favorite number 1 chart song from the 80's, allowing us to use it's popularity as an advantage, we decided that not only was this too big of a reputation to put at steak but it also just wasn't the right song in relation to what we had in mind.

 We came to the conclusion that 'Hey Ya' by outkast was the right song for our ideas and fitted the spec well; Up - Beat, feel good and well known, with easy sing a-long lyrics.

Here is the original music video for 'Hey Ya'

Questionnaire Results: Audience Research

 

This questionnaire was done through the use of Facebook, therefore most of the people who would have seen it are the age group of 16-18, however this is still relevant to know as now we can see who answered our questions and we can see who our most likely target audience will be.

 From our results we found that the preferred topic of a music video is a personal story line, although a combination of different backgrounds was also a popular preference. The least voted for was a video that is disconnected lyrically from the song therefore we aim to make the music video relevant to the song's lyrics.

 The most popular ways of viewing videos are on computers and mobile phones. This lets me know that when advertising the release of my music video I should pay more attention to advertising through websites, social sites such as Facebook or Youtube as well as phone apps (google play or itunes).

 This next question indicates that the music video won't just bee viewed by a target market of 16-18 year olds but their parents as well. This means that when we are creating the video we need to consider making the footage relevant and relatable to people of all ages which is an element I have discussed during my research into Pharrell Williams' song 'Happy'.

Music Video -'Happy' - Pharrell Williams & 'Haven't Met You Yet'- Michael Buble

I have been furthering my music video product research to find something similar to what I would like to create.

during my research I came across a few music videos that represented my ideas but only two that really stood out overall. One of them was 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams in 2013. This music video was made for the second  'Despicable Me' movie. This movie is targeted at children therefor the music material that is used to promote it must be suitable for the same audience. At the same time, like we found out in our audience research , the parents or older siblings of the children watching the film will also be viewing it, so directors and producers make sure there is something for all ages to enjoy. This is a key element that we feel needs to be considered while planning and making our product.

This music video includes a mixture of different people dancing along to the song in some of their simple, every day activities. However in my music video I would add more variation of activities and surroundings. for example, most of this is shot in the streets and on sidewalks, I would involve a wider variety of people and environment using the contrast of a serious professional ( for example a business man) and comedic, feel good dancing and singing.


The other music video that stood out to me was 'Haven't Met You Yet' by Michael Buble in 2009. what I like about this is that it is set in a supermarket and the artist, Michael Buble, is day dreaming about a woman, when the staff of the supermarket start dancing and parading the artist with trumpets and flags. The idea of taking a simple every day location and the concept of boring food shopping and turning it spontaneously into a fun, energetic party having a positive affect on the viewer is what I am aiming to achieve with my feel good music video.

What I need to keep in mind during this process is making it suitable and enjoyable for all ages.

Audience Research Questionnaire

In order to establish an audience to aim my production at,we have put together a questionnaire to find out about who our target audience will be and how they view the type media we will be producing as well as their preferences within a music video prodction.


Here is our questionnaire.
 https://emmabethdlq.typeform.com/to/UNT4IZ

Evaluation of AS Prodution

My AS product was based upon the contrast of personalities between two young, competitive woman. I used different forms, techniques and conventions of media to emphasize the relationship between the two individuals.

Personally I found that one of the areas of strengths within my AS production was the increase of cutting rate. Cutting rate increases intensity and makes the audience aware of the action. I found that I achieved this quite effectively and made sure the pace of production was  not too slow but also not too fast.
To fit the cutting rate I had someone produce a piece of music so that the tempo of music increased as the cutting rate did; I found that this worked well with increasing tension and creating a negative atmosphere.

Another one of my main strengths was my use of match on action. For example the horse jumping, in which i feel that the action flowed and due to this looked naturalistic.

One of the things that need to be improved for my A2 production would be pre-production audience research. One of the most important parts hen creating a production is knowing who your audience are in order to accurately address your target audience.

Another area of improvement would be to increase scene organisation. I found that during my AS production I should have paid more attention to mise-en- scene which would include more careful pre-production organisation and planning.

Music Video - Dire Straits_ Romeo and Juliet & Tunnel of Love

This music video for the song 'Romeo and Juliet' was made in 1980 for the Dire Straits album 'Making Movies'. I also looked at another track from this album called 'Tunnel of Love' and i found that the styles of the two music videos are very similar, but at the same time different enough for each of them to still be interesting and link to the individual songs.

The first thing I noticed in this music video was the simplicity of the scenes. the video was taken in a studio with simple white structures that act as the surounding environment that is described within the lyrics. The simplicity of the studio set allows the audience to just focus on the characters and their story as it is based on the same concept of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Although the audience know this story all too well, they still get obsorbed by this video because of the actors and how they are presented.

Throughout the song there are moments where we see the content of the video matching the lyrics of the song, for exaple:

Lyric: "The dice was loaded from the start"

Action: we see two dice being rolled out of someones hands. One dice with pictures of Romeo and the other, Juliet. 

Lyric: "You exploded in to my heart"

Action: A small explosion next to the dice 

This technique takes changes the metorphorical meaing from the lyrics to literal actions helping the audience visualise the physical effects of the carefully thought about lyrics.

Both of these music videos have avoided syncing the voive with the artist's/ character's lips. This technique wouldnt have worked for 'Romeo and Juliet' as it is narrating the two characters shown in the film. However it would have worked in 'The Tunnel of Love' video as it is a montage of vieos of the band performing the song, again in a very simple, set.

Short Film "8"

After looking through some short films as part of my product research, this specific production, "8" stood out for me the most.

This is a short film based upon two characters in an unknown war time following their game of  'cat and mouse'.

I found that this mainly stood out  because of  it's use of direct address and the range of close up shots it uses on the characters to emphasize their emotions, or in this case lack of emotion.

Another reason why I enjoyed it was because of the pace of the story line. Personally I found it a challenge during my AS production to get the pace right, so that the audience isn't waiting too long for the build up but at the same time making sure the rhythm of the piece isn't too quick; this is one of the reasons why admired this production so much, because I felt it got the balance just right. I wasn't waiting for too long for the outcome to lose interest but it wasn't too fast that it missed it's potential for dramatic tension.

I also liked the lack of dramatic musical soundtrack, as it made the situation more realistic and raw for the viewer. The diegetic sound was very sharp which fit with the serious and intense topic of which this short production was based upon.  

'Feel Good' songs!

One of my ideas for a music video involves using a popular, sing a - long, feel good classic that everyone knows but often forgets about... so preferably not a recent song.

To start off my audience research I have gathered a list of popular 'Feel Good' songs and  asked people which of those songs are:

1) Their favorite feel good song (maybe to dance and sing along to)
2) which of these songs they thought would be most popular/ best known

The List of  'Feel Good' songs were:

• I'm a Believer - Smash Mouth (The Monkees)
• 500 Miles - The Proclaimers 
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
• Don't Stop Me Now - Queen 
• Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
• Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader
• Don't Stop Believing - Journey
• Don't Stop (thinking about tomorrow) - Fleetwood Mac
• Faith - George Michael
• Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
• Living On a Prayer- Bon Jovi

The two most popular answers for question one were:
Dancing In The Moonlight  (most popular)
Don't Stop Me Now (second most popular

For the second question the most popular results were:
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (most popular)
500 Miles (second most popular)

As for personal choice, it's between 'Dancing In The Moonlight' and 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'. Depending on what ideas and research I come up with, I will not yet be making a final decision.

Product Brief (Music)

The brief i have decided to go for is:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- A website homepage for the band
- A cover for its release on DVD
- A magazine advertisement for the DVD 

I have chosen this brief as i feel that I will be able to work with it more effectively as apposed to the other briefs because of my strong interest in the music industry.

Short story Music video

This is one of Rudimental's music videos called 'Waiting all night'. I chose this music video because it links with both of the briefs that I chose to explore. As well as it being a music video it has the structure of a short film. 

During this video I picked up on a few elements of film language that I would like to look into as I found that the collective use of them was very effective and feel that I may like to eventually incorporate them into my product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97vR2V4vTs

I personally like the use of the handheld camera. It makes the audience feel more involved in the situation, like you are actually experiencing it with them. This is a technique I would like to explore as i feel there is a very fine line between it being effective and it looking cheep.

Another technique that was used was direct address.

I think it is very important and effective the way we see a character's story and the impact of a life changing event. As well as having a very powerful and  dramatic story line it is also one of inspiration, and has a very uplifting ending as we have seen the character build on his struggles and eventually get through them. This is a form of structure I would like to look into a bit more as it has had a huge emotional and thought provoking effect on it's audience.

I like the transformation from diegetic sound at the beginning of the video to the backing sound of the song. I would like to experiment with mixing diegetic sound and backing track in the context of  music video and I think it can be used really effectively to draw in the audience.

Narrowing down the briefs

In today's lesson we touched upon the different briefs available for the A2 course. 

After the lesson I went through the briefs and eliminated the ones that didn't stand out or interest me as much as the two that I managed to narrow it down to.

The first brief is:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three option:

- A website homepage for the band 

- A cover for it's release on DVD

- A magazine advertisement for the DVD 

For this brief I would create a music video as well as a magazine advertisement and a website homepage for the band. I am very keen to look further into this brief  as I am interested in a wide range of music and and therefore I am constantly involved with the different forms and elements of media the music industry surrounds itself with.

The second brief is:

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

-A poster for the film

-A radio trailer for the film

-A film magazine review page featuring the film.

I am interested in short films as i like the concept of being able to tell a story or depict a situation in such a short space of time and I like how the combination of different techniques can have such an impact without lasting the standard 2 hours of a feature length film.