Research: Location Scout

Here are serveral pictures which include me and my group looking for appropriate places to film.

It should be noted that we have changed our location setting and I will upload that post in the near future, as for now I will evaluate the following pictures as follows.

Here is me in the toilets lol, our idea was to have the main character find the mask in the toilet which would enable use of the mirror as he picks it up and wears it. This would give a couple shots of the character from behind as well as facing the camera.

Another shot of me near the lockers, this would mean we could have our character walking alone down this corridor and use an edit effect of multiple people flashing by him, similar to what you see in those movies where the character walks through a busy street and the camera only focuses on the main character while everyone else is moving incredibly fast and flashy, emphasizing the importance of that one character at that moment in time.

Yours truly staring deep into the camera.

This is a very important location as this is the entrance area that will introduce the character. We would be able to capture shots of the character entering and leaving the toilet as well as leaving the school. The size of the area is very useful and would provide us with room to get the best shots possible.

This shot includes a mirror in which you can see Adam and Kiel, we prerfer this shot over the stairs due to the mirror and the potential of this shot in terms of showcasing the actual character.

We don't really like this shot as much as we like the lift. Although it has it's uses such as doing something similar like the flashy corridor shot and having the shots of the character moving up and down the stairs including more engery then just sitting in the lift, we still like the fact that the lift has the mirror for us to use. We don't want the video to be all the same and lose the viewers interest.

Research: Early Storyboard

While I was away Adam and Kiel drew up a storyboard.

This was a fairly detailed representation of how our main idea would work, containg such notes as location, film techniques and characters.
Since this board we have all worked on a bigger and better storyboard with more details and a shot list to acompany it.

Research: Main Idea

The main idea has been centred around the song, we picked the song first then decided how we would build around the music and create a video. Much like real producers who first have a song then find a way to create an interesting music video .
The song is called "fraud" so we decided that we would have a main character who uses a mask he finds to conceal his identity and take on another persona in the form of a rebelious being who spreads his choas to others my giving them similar masks.
There has to be energy in the shot depicting the pent up emotions and rebelios feel that should emit from the people wearing the masks. In order to achieve this, the actors must show speed and energy in their movements which will match the song.

Our old idea, which sounded good at the time, was to use a flip book and draw the animations but we decided that this would be a tedious and time consuming project which had many editing and production problems.

I had an idea of using toys to animate it but much like the idea mentioned above it harboured the same problems, such as requiring around 30 frames per second in order to make a smooth animation.

Research: Target Audience

In order to grasp an idea of our target audience, I created a Questionaire out to 20 students at my school and 15 people outside my school.

The school questionare had 10 males and 10 females aged 16-19 and had several questions asking things such as what genres people listened to, whether they watched Music Videos and if so what channels, if they owned an iPod or any MP3 devices and how long the music should be and the like.

The questionare handed to 15 people outside the school involved 8 females and 7 males, aged 20-27. The questions were the same as the school version.

This type of research enabled me to gather the type of data I needed to determine my target audience and who we would need to 'sell' the music to. The main question that proved most useful to me and my group was the "Do you prefer highly edited flashy material for a music video, or a more natural raw version with less special effects?" It turns out the most favoured type was the one with the higher production values, it should be noted that people aged 16-19 preffered this whereas older participants didn't mind and often opted for the more simpler production.

People aged 16-19 seemed to want a music video tailored to their current generation and styles, they preffered it when the people in the video wore similar clothes to them and were representing a genre that they enjoyed.

People aged 20-27 voted for the same thing as the younger participants, and that includes an artist who they can relate to.

To conclude, the question was a valuble piece of data that has improved my research and given us the insight to decide how we will construct our production and most importantly who to distribute it to.

Research: Music Promo and choice of Music

We have chosen to use a song by "The Scarlet Harlets" who's main genre consists of 'Indie' and are an unsigned band. It's important to note that the type of song we have chosen is very upbeat and the images on screen in our production will have to mirror the pace of the song.

A Music promo is virtually the same concept as a music video and aims to 'promote' the band and their music. Ultimately the idea is to draw in an audience and produce sales in order to make a profit as media is a business.

Research: Andrew Goodwin Theory

Here is the Andrew Goodwin theory we did in class a few months ago.

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
• Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music videos style and iconography.
• Record companies will demand alot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
• Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially with the treatment of females but also in terms of systems of looking e.g. a screen within a screen, mirrors or cameras.
• There are likely to be intersexual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts, these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

Research: Plans!

First off we will include an Album cover for our CD which will showcase the artist and their name, style, genre and image to promote the music i.e. our Digipak. Once we have decided on our ideas we will construct a website in order to promote the music video and advertise the band. Our research on music genre's, videos and conventions will enable us to meet our objectives thanks to all our planning. Our production should capture what we are aiming to achieve and the only way we can achieve our aim is through careful planning and taking our time to ensure we end up with a quality music video.

The Andrew Goodwin Theory

A while back we had to research the Andrew

What we have to do...

We have chosen the music video task as our objective for this course, this will require us to construct a design for a webpage for the "Music Video" and make a digipak containing a CD and details on the band to promote the project

I have been away...

I have been away for a while due to me having to go to Spain to look after my grandad for a few weeks, I did take down some notes while I was away and I unfortuntely missed my group's activity when they made the masks for the production. I have kept my notes on research and plan to upload them over the next few months.

Music Video research

DEFINITIONS:

Promo Video: A promo video aims to advertise the product that is featured in the video i.e. the music and the artists involved.

Trailer: A short video with various clips of a movie that usually tells the viewer what the film is about and gives the audience an idea whether or not they would enjoy it.

Both of these items intend to avertise in order to promote a business and encourage success.


INTIAL IDEAS:

We had quite a few ideas to start with for our project. Our very first idea was to animate toys and use them for our music video. We decided against this as taking frame by frame shots of inanimate objects is rather tedious and time consuming.

We even had an idea to make a rap video just for jokes which would include lip sync and other "various" skills like dancing and such, but we decided not to go with that idea.

Instead we have chosen a song called "Fraud" and we will create masks for students to wear which will show them escaping from an exam room in order to show "rebels" and what not. Hopefully our final production turns out to be a fun and enjoyable process.

Group Members:

The following students are in my group;

Adam Pickup Link: http://adampickup.blogspot.com/
Kiel Ormesher Link: http://kiela2.blogspot.com/

Teachers Link: http://kscsmediastudies.blogspot.com/
OCR Link: http://www.getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/

Brief:
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 as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

Here is our Production LOGO: