Music video and research techniques

Music video lesson 1
Andrew Goodwin- codes and conventions "dancing in the distraction factory"
Carol Vernallis- summarise articles, quotes 
Analysis 5 music video- 2 extensive detail, conventions and construction of video, mention goodwin
Complimentary, contradicting or amplify

The first feature of a music video, Goodwin, claimed was that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals on screen
Lyrics and visuals:
Illustrating- showing something
amplifying- making it look bigger e.g lip syncing
contradictory- going again lyrics


Genre exists
Stadium performance
studio performance
location
narrative
conceptual/ experimental

Artistic branding
celebrity culture
artistic portrayal
Implications on looking good

following from artist close ups, a feature linked to this is star iconography which each artist will develop in their music video.
This could be though either of the following:
branding
style
brand values/ unique selling points

Looking and voyeurism
concept of voyeurism. meaning the audience see something that they would or should not usually see.
form of
Nudity, near nudity/ revealing cloths
exhibitionism
an intimate location e.g bedroom
frame within frame
The "male gaze" is often used to attract a male audience. the male gaze is a focus on presentation

Andrew goowin noticed music videos are often intertextual references to"
other music videos
films
tv shows
this can be homage, pastiche or even some kind of brand synergy

5 key aspects\

thought beats- where you see the sound
narrative and performance
the star image
relation of visuals to song
technical aspects of a music video

Hndheld, jump cuts, amplifying lyrics with singing, illustrates lyrics with actions matching lyrics, performance and narrative

Genre of music video- explanation and evidence/ context, lyrics with the video - illustration/ amplification/ contradiction, visuals with the music, does it illustrate? amplify? contradict? Narrative with he music, chorus, verse? star image?

Performance, Amplification with lip syncing, voyerism





Research techniques lesson 1

Production research- textual analysis- research conducted to inform the production process of a media product e.g techniques locations, genre etc.
Market research- qualitative- more through investigation into the reasons why products are produced and how they appeal to the consumer. statistics
Audience research - quantitive- the analysis of who consumes what media products and why. opinions focus groups

Primary and secondary

We had a question to ask our clients about footage of wildlife taken in a similar area to the hays which isn't the hays by someone who has cameras around different woodland areas, who we have interviewed. The top image is our email that we sent and the second is out clients response.

This is a part of an email we were sent from our clients, mentioning what they want in the video. The crossed off lines are what we managed to include, we couldn't include the bluebells as they have no yet seasoned.

This is a to do list, of what we need to do in order to finish the video.

These two images show the editing we had to do to one of the videos colours, as when we did one of the interviews, one of the cameras had an off white balance and so the footage was more golden than the others, so we had to change the colour of that video to fit the others. In the preview screen of the screenshot the image on the lefty is the video that needed changing and the one on the right was the video we needed thew other to look more similar to.

Editing

Sequence 01 from abbie on Vimeo.


This is one of our shots we got when shooting the promotional video, i used this to experiment with the warp stabiliser as in the first editing draft of our video their were shots that we used the warp stabiliser on, which didn't work and the effect messed with he video making it look not good. So experimenting with some clips to see if we could use this video editing effect in the final draft. The clip shows two shots of a stream, the first one is shaky with no effect and the second is still with the warp effect. It worked a lot better on this clip

sending in our first draft

Editing the audio

willow as she had the most experience in editing sounds, she edited the audio to the interviews, so that we could get rid of unwanted background sounds and make the audio easier to use and better to hear.

Evaluation

The process.
We did quite a lot of planning, in past posts you can see the planning we did, we came up with questions to ask in interviews and what to ask the ranger, we made lists of shots and equipments we need, we planned a lot of the shots which helped us when setting because we had a general idea of placement and close ups. However sometimes the planning doesn't go to plan for example we wanted to capture some wildlife, however we couldn't with the cameras we had, so those wildlife shots that we had planned didn't happen. I think what we did well during the process of making the promotional video was that we managed to get everything we needed to get, we got in contract with the Hartshill Hays (although it took a few tries) to get permission and followed what they said they wanted in the video. We managed to get good shots and footage, including several interviews to use in the video. What we could have done better is filmed more, we did leave filming the project quite late, if we had managed out time better we could have given ourselves and extra week or so of filming and editing. W couldn't film on quite a lot of days because the weather wasn't always in our favour, even if it was sunny the day after it rained, because we are filming in the woods, the mud gave the shots a less desirable effect. When we were doing our last interview with wildlife Kate, we did the interview in the woods where there was a lot of unsteady ground, so we found it hard to keep the tripod upright and in a stable position. We used the tamron lens which was very heavy and because we had a thin tripod, it wasn't well balanced, in the end we had to move from our original position somewhere with flatter ground. If we did this again then we would make sure we are well prepared with a good tripod, lens and camera, as there were more than one time, where we were under prepared and had to make do with what we still had, however we did try to always have two cameras and two Sd cards. Sometimes we didn't have a tripod when we needed one, so next time we know to have the right equipment with us when filming even if we have a plan that doesn't include a tripod, take one just in case. I think we could have been more prepared on the one off sunny day, if we thought it was going to rain and didn't plan on filming but it turns out to be sunny anyway, we should have been prepared to go out a film anyway. Although we managed to get all the shots and interviews we needed to put into the video.

Editing.
We had some trouble originally with the software and the files because we lost some of our clips when transferring the files from SD card to the Mac computer but we had backups so that it was easy to get the clips back. We did waste a whole day trying to put files imported to premier pro, because we originally was just working from a hard drive, we then had to put the files onto the computer then to premier pro because working of the hard drive slowed things down. When going back through the footage and sound, mainly with the interview with he ranger, because the mic was constantly being moved we had a lot of unwanted sound that we couldn't fully edit out. Because we didn't use a tripod in a lot of the shots we had to use the warp stabiliser which in some shots didn't fully work, so we had to be brutal with some of the shots so that only the best possible shots were left. When editing the interviews we found that we had to cut out a lot of fillers, when people spoke there were lots of "errs" and "umm" so we had to do a lot of chopping in order to have what they are saying flow. We didn't realise how long the interviews were going to be, so first we edited and hoped to what was usable and we felt like we needed to include. We then later had to cut more of the interviews out to keep the video shorter. If we did this again, i would make sure to label and organise the clips before we start editing because when we were editing, one of the hardest things was going through the clips to find which one to use, we should have labelled and sorted out to get a general idea of what clips we could use when to add more structure to the process and possibly save us more time. We also found when editing that we had to colour correct a lot with he clips because on one of the cameras the white balance was off this also slowed us down because we had to make sure that the clips matched with he exposure and colours. What we did well was cutting all the unimportant clips that, although was nice didn't add anything to the narrative and would have made the video longer than it should be and the music that Willow wrote went really well with the video, as it set the right mood for the video with was calming and relaxing. During the edit we also checked that we had everything that the client asked for, like logs, fonts and that we mentioned certain parts of the Hays. We had a lot of technical difficulties, during the several days of editing we lots some clips and so there are parts in video where we had clips over the interviews, which no longer exist, so we submitted a second draft to meet our deadline, we are able to re-shoot and salvage footage for a final draft when our client comes back from holiday in 2 weeks.

We made the interviews the main component in our video, this is to show that Hartshill Hays is a place for people and to get different insights of the different age groups around the hays to give a more realistic insight. We also had people walking around or playing in the park as apposed to just showing the empty spaces because it makes it more realistic and better to show the parks main spots being used, so it looks better than just empty spaces when people are talking about them. We had a lot of footage, so in order to shorten the film to a watchable length, we had to cut out a lot of it, which include cutting the umms from the interviews as they added more time and made the interviews more boring so we edited them out. We adjusted a lot of the colours so that all the footages white balanced match to make it look more professional and so that no shot stood out because it was a different colour that didn't go with the rest of the video. We each had our own ideas for this video, in order for the ideas to be shared and listen to we assigned jobs roles in which we could express our own ideas within the set job role, mine was filming (this allowed me to take shots that i felt would work within the video, it helped in the previous years at college that i took photography so i was well experienced with the camera and experimenting with different angles), Conner was directing and communication and Willows was Music. We all assisted with the editing as it was a big job, too big for anyone to do alone, so we worked as a team when editing taking it in turns and listening to each ideas and trying them out to see what would work and what didn't.

first edit (draft) and response from client

This is our first draft, we sent this to our client, we explained that it wasn't finished and that we still had a lot more footage to take and use, but this is the general direction of the video. They replied with...

The video isn't finished yet, but we hope to get is finished by the deadline and as Mrs Cheesman is going on holiday, and will be way during our deadline we have some extra time before the deadline just to go over any little imperfections before sending it to them and them hopefully using it on their website. In the meantime when it comes to the deadline as we won't have the client feedback we need, we are hoping one of our teachers could give us some feedback on our clients behalf.

Footage placement

We have gathered up all the footage we have captured so far and put it all on the same hard drive, so it is in the same place for when we start editing.

Tour and interview with the ranger and technical difficulties

These are images from when we had a tour from a ranger called Mike at the Hartshill Hays, he gave us lots to use in our video and gave a very good, informative interview. We had two camera when on the tour, so we could get what Mike was talking about and Mike taking about it. We also had a Mic recording the whole time, so we have clear sounds with plenty of footage.

During near the end of the tour, one of the cameras we had died and one of the SD card became full. So we had to switch the SD card with space still let on it, to the camera with the battery, however during the interview the camera malfunctioned and struggled to record for more than 30 seconds at a time. We had to keep taking the battery out to reset the camera and try and keep recording. We missed out part of his interview but we had a H1 Mic that recored the whole interview, so we can use what Mike said as voice overs instead of visual footage.

Conducting interviews

This is our setup for two of the interviews we conducted, in the hays, we got both participants to sign a release form saying that we can use them in the video, the young boy is under 18 so we got a parent to sign on his behalf.  the pictures show the interview as we captured it and the set up to get that shot.

weather issues.

Due to the weather it is difficult to shoot, as we can't capture the Hartshill Hays in it's best light when it's raining, so we have to wait on days where it's not raining to shoot. However this could easily put us behind schedule as we won't have that many days which we can shoot on. To try and get around it, we have been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts and planning and being prepared for the days when the weather forecasts say it's noting going to rain.

Contact with the rangers

This is a screenshot of when we contacted one of the rangers at Hartshill Hays country park to try and scandal and interview and/ or a tour around the park for the video. We are still waiting for a response from the ranger.

Filming dogs

We went out and got some shots of a dog playing in the park to put in our promotional video, we used the tamron lens when filming to get some close up, detailed shots.