Music Video
Skills Audit
Demo Work
Demo Work
Demo Work
Contents
Demo Work
Contents
> Theoretical exploration of the purpose
and application of research
> Secondary research into
music video genres, codes, conventions,
techniques, and theories
> Primary research with the
client to inform ideas development
> Focus group presentation of ideas for
feedback and review via questionnaire
survey
Moving Demo
Monday 1st November
Today was the first day back from half term. We were given some more instructions on what research we need to undertake and so my group has started on that. To begin with we have each chosen a song that’s in the same genre as our chosen songs, which is rock. I chose Welcome to the jungle by Guns N’ Roses. We are then analysing these videos and looking at things such as their genres, codes and conventions and theories that they use. This will help inspire and aid us when it comes to making our own music videos. The work I did over half term helped me as it gave me a basis to work from today, and I’m confident as I believe its given me a good ground knowledge to keep working from.
Tuesday 2nd November
In today’s lesson we looked at moving shots. This is a great way to enhance even a simple shot. By adding motion it improves the overall shot and makes it more visually interesting. My group experimented with using a chair to control the cameraman, which allowed a smoother movement. Additionally we also experimented with the small gimbal that’s on the end of some of the tripods. Overall it was a very useful lesson, and I definitely will want to use moving shots in my music video project.
Wednesday 3rd November
My group continued with research today. I looked at collecting research for several of the topics. This included Research that will inform the content of your music video production, Research that will inform the practical needs of your music video production and Research into relevant regulatory, legal and ethical issues. While I was doing this another member of my team was taking the research we had all found and finalising it into a PowerPoint in order to show the clients. I felt today was a really productive day and I feel confident we can get all our research done by the end of the week.
Thursday 4th November
We just continued with research today. To start with I created a survey that we will get the band to answer once we show our presentation to them. The survey includes questions that find their opinions on the different pitches and what they would want to choose/ include in the music video. Once I’d done that, my group discussed and we’ve decided to present the band with three different pitches.
One pitch will be for a music video that is purely performance based, another pitch will be 100% narrative and the final pitch will be a mixture of both. Between us we’ve decided that the mixture is our best idea so we’re going to try to get the band to choose that one. The reason for the mixture being the best is that it helps to keep the video entertaining as there’ll be several things going on, but it also allows for the band to stand out. We are planning to get shots from one of their actual concerts which we would use for the performance segments, and that will let them really be themselves.
Friday 5th November
We did even more research today. I further developed my pitch which was to be based around a narrative. To do this, I watched the music video for Dierks Bentley- Free and easy. Then I made a mind map to help detail my ideas. From this I then established my basic synopsis for the pitch. To then back this up I made a mood board to go in line with my idea. These will help in our presentation towards the band. Although we will try to aim them towards the mixture pitch as we believe that is our best idea.
Monday 8th November
Today was our first day of our demonstrational tasks. My group first started in a lighting demonstration. We looked at three-point lighting. For three-point lighting you have three lights, the Key Light is the main light, the Fill Light is the secondary light, and the Back/Hair light helps to break the subject from the background. I was put in control of the fill light, so I now better understand how to use the basic lights as well as adjust their brightness and intensity. For our Music Video section, we are planning to have a narrative section. For this section we would need for lighting to be accurate and so learning now the basics of lighting will allow us to research further into it and to make our lighting perfect for that scene. We were also told about a painter called Rembrandt who I am planning to do some further research into.
After that I did some more research for music video. I've now updated my WIX website with my mind map and mood board as well as having access to our final slideshow. This slideshow will be the one we show to the actual band so having the information informative and easy to read is vital.
Finally, I did a grip track demo. We looked at the ride on dolly, crane and jib. I really liked the look of the jib and I would really like to use it in a project one day. I feel the jib could be used for the narrative part of our music video. I have already had several ideas for shots it could be used for. However the jib can only be used in school and I’m not entirely sure if there are any rooms that would provide the right backdrop for our narrative as the narrative needs to be set in a kitchen. However I’m going to look further into it as I would really like to use the jib.
Tuesday 9th November
Today was our first lesson in animation. I was slightly disappointed as I had hoped we would be doing drawing animation but instead we were doing stop motion. Although it was quite fun. Me and my group focused on making it appear as though our actor was flying around. I see the importance of this style of animation and would love to use it in the future, however I think it is unlikely I will use it in the Music Video project as stop motion doesn't really match with the style of rock music.
Wednesday 10th November
Our demo today was on green screen and chroma key. I’d previously used green screens but only for photography so I was going in without too much knowledge. We each posed in front of the green screen and then used our video for editing. I hit some trouble here. In my video some of the floor behind the table I was sat on was not green. This meant it could be seen when the green was chroma keyed out. To get around this I tried my hand at masking. I had never used a mask before so it took me a little while to figure out. First I tested with using a with the crop tool. This worked but it was still a little rough. After I tried using a mask with the opacity tool. This worked a lot better and gave me a little less obvious cut. There is still a little bit of the background visible in the final video but It looks a lot better. I also got some green screen Simpson characters as that’s where I placed myself. Once I did that I added a start and end bit of Homer Simpson, to add a little bit of a storyline. I also had to use green screen for this section as when homer opened the door there was green screen that I had to key out. Overall I really enjoyed today and would definitely like to use green screens more often going forward.
Thursday 11th November
In the first half of today, we started looking at project 2, which is the interactive media project. We're learned more about what an interactive media project actually is, so now I have a better grasp on what I will need to do going forward. I know we have to build a website and I'm pretty confident with WIX so I'm not too worried about moving on with this project.
In the second half we continued with project 4. We were analysing a scene from one of the movies in section 1. My group chose Hot Fuzz and looked at the lighting in one of the scenes. To do this we recreated the scene with different lighting to show the effect that the original lighting has on the scene. This presentation will be displayed next Wednesday, so we haven't compiled the photos into a slideshow yet. I'm slightly worried about project 4 as I now have about three months to do it and I'm not entirely sure how to approach it. Tomorrow I'm planning to make a list of all the things I can mention in the project and on Monday I will ask Danny for some advice on how to get started.
Friday 12th November
Our pitch to the band has been organised. They're available for our pitch next Tuesday at 1pm. This is really good news as it means once we've done that we can move onto pre-production. However, everyone else was doing their pitches today. So instead of wasting our time, we conducted a practice pitch. We were pitching to other people from our class, but we still acted as if they were the band. From this we've gained information into what we need to improve when we present to the band. We've decided we need to summarise some of our information better as the band are going to have less of an understanding of the codes and conventions and things like that. So instead of boring them we're going to talk more about how our research will help them and their music video. We're also going to send them the survey afterwards so if they do want to look into the more technical side then they will have the ability to. The results we've gained from the practice pitch is also very useful. Our results were what we wanted with the majority of people picking the mixture pitch, which is what we wanted. We've also gained useful criticism, with some saying we needed to be a bit more concise which is what we thought ourselves. Overall, it was a very useful practice pitch and I feel it has better prepared us for our real pitch going forward.
Monday 15th November
We did a really fun demo today. We had to create a short music video for the chorus of Rick Astley’s Never gonna give you up. Me and my group came up with a really good plot. Our protagonist would put on his headphones which would then be the cue to cut to the lip sync performance of the video. Then at the end of the video we added a funny little bit which implied that the protagonist had just been staring at a door while imagining the performance. To get a lot of our shots we used a small slider, which was really good to finally get some practice with. It was really useful and made our final shots look really good. My group discovered that the slider can actually be fixed on top of two tripods which allowed us to get moving shots higher up in the air, which was really useful as we were filming a person who was standing up. Getting some hands on experience with the slider was really useful as my group is hoping to use it for our music video. In the editing stage of the video the hardest part was syncing the original song with the visuals. We had played the original song while recording so that the lip sync would be in time, but there were still a couple of bits which had to be carefully spliced together. Me and my partner made a really cool effect where there were three of the same person on screen at the same time. We managed this by cutting three shots together where our actor was standing in three different places. Considering we only had about 40 minutes to edit everything, I felt the final effect worked really well.
I’ve also been told today that only one of the band members can actually attend the virtual pitch we had planned for tomorrow. This is not good news as we really need the majority if not all of the band there. We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen as the band hasn’t responded to us yet, but hopefully we can reorganise it or something to make it easier for them.
Tuesday 16th November
Very bad news. The band has possibly pulled out. We were suppose to have our pitch with them today but because only one of them was around we couldn't do it. They also messaged us saying “If it’s gonna be an issue it may be worth looking for another band or subject”. This is very annoying news. We’ll try to get them to some sort of arrangement but I think it’s unlikely. We’re gonna have to discuss with our lecturers but I’m hoping we can just take the research we had done and apply it to the song anyway. But we may have to alter our idea since we may not have a band anymore.
In lesson today we worked on editing our stop motion animations from last week. We used a tactic called shooting doubles where each shot lasted for two frames, which allowed for the smooth look with less photos. To do this we had to change the timeline in premiere and adjust the frame settings. Once we had done this it was a simple matter of placing the clips in the sequence and cutting any shots where the actors feet had touched the ground. We then did some basic colour correction to fix minor details, and finally we reversed and repeated the last scene of the actor taking his glasses off so that it looked like he took them off and then put them back on. Overall, it’s been really useful to learn this way of creating stop motion and I’m hoping I can incorporate it in some future projects.
Wednesday 17th November
We’ve officially lost the band today. We sent them back a message saying we would still like to work with them. In the message we gave them a calendar of what we needed to do and when we needed to do it. In response they let us know that this wouldn’t work for them, so unfortunately we will not be working with them anymore.
Once we knew this we could adjust our idea. Luckily the main premise of having a simple person become changed by the music can still stay the same. But instead of having the band we’ll have to possibly have actors to pretend to be a band. We have also sent out an email to the drama technician to look into how we would book the Sundial Theatre. The theatre would be a perfect place to host the performance sections as it would allow us to have a stage for the “band” and lots of seats for the audience. Additionally, shooting that on campus would allow us access to more equipment such as the Jib and ride on dolly. This would be really useful as it would allow us to have a lot more freedom and creativity with our shots.
Finally, today we’ve started writing our proposal today as well as creating a timetable for when we need to get our pre-production work by.
Thursday 18th November
The first half of today covered project 2 in a lot more depth, with us now being set the actual project brief. To be truthful I’m a bit hesitant about this project as it all sounds very confusing at the moment, although I’m sure it will be explained more as we go throughout. In preparation for this project I’ve created a page on my WIX website for it. Additionally, I have selected my two websites that I need to analyse for the first part of the project which is Context and theory. Doing this now means I can jump straight into the work when it come to analysing them.
In the second half of today we looked at project 4. My group presented our presentation on the lighting in Hot Fuzz and we were giving little gold trophies for how well we had done. This has given me a confidence boost as I had created the PowerPoint and information on it for our presentation so knowing I had written about the right things makes me feel more confident for when I write my project 4. After this we started looking at spectatorship although we have not got far in it so will be continuing it next week.
I need to get some help in project 4 cause I’m struggling on figuring out how to start it. I plan to ask Lainey tomorrow for some advice
Friday 19th November
It was back looking at pre-production today. One of my teammates was off so me and the other one started by looking at the skills audit. We began with making a list of all the jobs that we would most likely need to do when production actually begins. We then selected some possible ones that we might want to do. I am considering Foley Artist as well as Grip. We would need foley for our kitchen narrative scenes, and I am intrigued about the process of foley, so using it as one of my skills audit jobs would be a good chance to have a more in depth look into it. Secondly, I'd like to be a grip. This basically means I'd be in control of the Grip kit, which includes the jib and ride on dolly. I was really interested in the Grip kit when we did a demo on it, so using it more in this project would be really great. I also feel getting more experience with this equipment would be great for future projects.
After that we also looked at storyboarding. Me and my teammate are teaming up on the performance sections, so we went through the song and split the time stamps into different shots that we feel would work well in that time period. The teammate that was off is working on the narrative sections so we've left her some time stamps for her to put the narrative sections into it. We also have come up with the idea of using multi image as well as using silhouette shots. If we use these it would help break up the performance shots as well as making them a bit more visually interesting. I'll put some examples below but the ones we've found inspiration from look really good and it would be awesome to try to replicate a similar look into our video.
I asked Lainey about how to start project 4 and she says they’re going to put the brief with notes on for project 4 over the weekend. So, once that is uploaded I will look at starting my project 4.
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Saturday 20th November
I wanted to get ahead of my work today so I started looking at the Skills Audit. I had selected my two job roles on Friday which were Foley artist and Grip. I did research into the responsibilities and requirements of both and then found a video for each of them. I’m feeling good about getting this work done as we currently have 3 projects at once, so I need to get on top of the work.
Sunday 21st November
Just like yesterday I wanted to do some more work to get ahead of the curve. So, today I started looking at project 2. I did the first part which is context and theory. I looked into the website for Lin Manuel Miranda and the website for the game Hello Neighbour. The minimum word count was 750 words and I wrote just over 850 so my word count is fine. However, I’m going to try to get one of my lecturers to read this work so I can check if I’ve done it correctly.
Monday 22nd November
Annoyingly, the work I did on Saturday on my skills audit was all for nothing. We were given more insight into the skills audit today, as well as looking into freelancing. It’s good to understand what being freelance means, as now if I wanted to pursue that I would have a more educated view. We also looked into lots of the different job roles within media. These included jobs from the main 5 departments, which are:
1) Production Department
2) Camera Department
3)Sound Department
4) Post-production Department
5) Art Department
After this we given a list of 5 different jobs we could do our skills audit on. Annoyingly, none of the jobs I researched on Saturday were part of these 5 which meant that work was useless. So, now I have chosen to do Editor and Director of Photography (cinematographer). In the last hour of the lesson we started research into them and at home I finished off this work. I’ve also now presented it on my WIX page to keep my website up to date.
Tuesday 23rd November
I’ve written up my proposal today and additionally planned out each step of pre-production for when I’m going to do them. The proposal is useful to get done first as it will act as a basis for the rest of my pre-production work. Also, the man who we emailed about booking the Sundial got back to us which was very useful. He told us that its free mainly on Monday and Tuesday mornings. He asked us whether we would also need the tech. We’ve emailed him back asking if the 6th and 7th of December would work for him and also what tech the sundial has. Hopefully when he gets back to us we’ll be able to get a solid booking for the Sundial. Finally, I’ve planned out my shots for my segment of the music video in preparation for drawing my storyboards later in the week. My segment of the music video is from 2:27-4:28 of the song.
Wednesday 24th November
We were originally supposed to have ex-students coming in to talk to us today. But they had work to do and so were unable to come in last minute. So, instead we continued to work on our music video project. One of my teammates wasn't in college again which was very annoying. So, I started looking at work I could get done. I started with my risk assessment and have now completed that ahead of schedule which is very useful. Later in the day me and people from other groups who want to use the Sundial went down to try and speak to Kieron who is in charge of it. Unfortunately, he was busy at the time that we went down to see him. But we've been told that he will email all of us to let us know more information. When my group emailed him last, we asked about shooting on the 6th and 7th of December. Last night I remembered that on the 6th we have a college trip, so we will be unable to film on that day. I have contacted my group so that we can discuss about this, but they have not currently got back to me.
When I got home, I started working on my storyboards. Last night, I had planned each individual shot. However, I had planned just under 50 shots so I'm not going to create a storyboard for every single one of them. So instead, I have selected the most important shots and not included some of the shots that are very repetitive. However, I will still include all the shots on my production schedule and shoot plan as they are all still important shots.
I also began work on my SWOT analysis for the skills audit. We've been told we need the skills audit completed by the same time as our pre-production which is in just over a week. I feel confident that I should be able to get it done by then as I've already done the research into the two jobs so all I need to do now is the SWOT analysis detailing my strengths and weaknesses and the action plan looking into how I can improve my strengths and get rid of my weaknesses.
Thursday 25th November
In the first half of today we continued with project 2. We were given more information on the context and theory so I’m reworking mine today. I’m still using the Lin Manuel Miranda website but I’m now doing the Hello Neighbour 2 website instead of the Hello Neighbour website. All I’m changing between my new version and my old version is I’m adding more detail and including analysis on the theories and conventions that the websites also use. Once I had finished rewriting it, I set it all up looking nice on my WIX website.
In the second half we continued with project 4. We looked at the theory of Male Gaze within film. We were then split up into groups and looked at films to see when the Male Gaze appeared. It was very fascinating to see just how many times it does influence the piece of media that you’re watching.
Friday 26th November
Today I tried to do as much pre-production work as possible. I've managed to complete all my storyboards with each drawing and the notes that go along with each of them. This is super useful as it will allow me to work on my production schedule and shooting script over the weekend. I also started working on uploading all my storyboards to my WIX website. Finally, I made a short animatic with the storyboards I have with the original music playing over. I did this in order to see if my shots would work as it is quite hard to visually tell if they work, especially since I had a minute of instrumental.
In other news I fixed my context and theory page for project 2, adapting it for a phone. This took a little while as I had to re input the paragraphs into separate text boxes, so that I could have more freedom with moving them around. This meant for the mobile version I would be able to position the images between different parts of the text, even though they were under the same subheading. This was really useful as it helps to break up the heavy text, which on the phone version could get quite boring.
Finally, I had a short demo look at the Ronin. The Ronin basically acts as a steady cam. It was super cool to see how it worked and be able to have a short hands on go with it. I was a bit hesitant with it at first, as it's a super expensive piece of equipment and I didn't quite trust myself, but it all worked out. I would love to use the Ronin in my music video but I will have to talk to my group and see their opinions on it. Annoyingly one of my teammates still wasn't in today so I wasn't able to talk to them about it today. Hopefully I can ask them about it on Monday.
Once I got home I started and finished my shooting script. This is a good thing to get done now as it’ll aid me when writing my production schedule and most importantly helps me to keep a detailed track of each individual shot. I will also use my shooting script when showing my part of the music video to my teammates in order to better convey my ideas thus far.
Monday 29th November
Todays entire lesson was focused on the Skills Audit. I started writing my personal profile in school and then finished it up on home. The personal profile includes the skills I believe I currently have for the job roles and then the skills I need to gain in order for the job roles. Once I’d finished writing the rough draft of it on google drive, I uploaded it onto my WIX page and laid it out nicely. This work is useful as it’ll lead into completing the action plan for skills audit, which I will be starting tomorrow.
At home, I emailed the music teachers in college to see if its possible for my group to borrow some instruments for our music video. I am currently waiting for a response. Finally, I completed my location assessment for pre-production on our Music Video. This location assessment is important as the Sundial Theatre is needed for the main chunk of our music video. Additionally, we still haven't got a 100% confirmation for using it so it may turn out that I need to do an alternative location assessment. This only leaves me with my production schedule left before I’ve completed all my pre-production work.
Tuesday 30th November
Good News, the music teachers got back to me and said borrowing the instruments should be fine. In even better news, they’ve offered us their rehearsal studio space in case the Sundial Theatre plan falls through. This is really useful as it gives us a good backup and considering Kieron for Sundial theatre hasn't got back to us its really good to have a backup option.
During lesson we started our action plan for the Skills Audit and then I finished it up at home. This is all the work that is required for the skills audit so its good to get it done now before its deadline at the end of the week. The action plan covers our weaknesses and what we need to do in order to fix them. Even after this project it will be useful as I can look back on it and see how much I’ve improved.
