Risk assessments are a systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking - such as a music video.
Here is the risk assessment I have filled in, which covers ALL risks which have any likelihood from the 'remote' up to 'likely' of affecting or harming the individuals who will be taking part in filming the music video. The front of the risk assessment shows a checklist of any hazards which we think may occur in the locations we have chosen to film in - the most risks will occur in the outdoor environment we are filming in - whereas in another location 'indoor room', there are much less risks likely to affect us. The back of the risk assessment shows the 3 main hazards which are 'likely' to affect us: cold environment, objects falling and noise; whereas the other hazards on the checklist are 'very unlikely' or have a 'remote' chance of occurring.
I have completed a risk assessment to ensure we are not at any high risk of danger whilst filming the music video and the assessment also enabled me to think of any procedures I need in place whilst filming which can make the risk as minimal as possible.
Hey guys, today's post is going to be a practise piece I created for my music video. This clip and these shots are not going to be used in the actual video but I needed to practise this technique to ensure I was able to do it when the time comes in the near future. This Polaroid style clip was inspired from another music video created by Sia which includes an array of pictures being put together to create a moving image which will tell a story. For this clip, I used Eloise as an example and simply asked her to look around the room and move her hand so each of the individual shots were easily recognisable. For the real thing, this clip will be a lot longer in order for us to tell a story through the pictures and it will also have a background behind the Polaroid shots to add extra moods and create a better feel to the video.
Obviously, I couldn't have created this shot by myself as I have had no experience with creating something like this previously, so I also used a range of Youtube videos and other people's blogs and pages on the internet with steps on how to create both the Polaroid image and the movement of the pictures. Here's are some examples below;
YouTube Video:
Blog Post: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/web-designer/photoshop-tutorial-create-the-polaroid-effect-for-images/
I will be doing similar practise clips similar to this one but using different techniques in the near future to experiment with different effects, shots etc so i can find the best ones to match the theme of my music video.
Today was a very interesting lesson where I was able to experience being the examiner of a music video. In class we watched a couple of different music videos created by students in the past couple of years in media studies and we rated the videos ourselves, discussing what the best aspects of the music videos were and which parts could have been improved.
The scoring was based on four levels:
Level 1: 0-14
Level 2: 15-23
Level 3: 24-31
Level 4: 32-40
This is the A2 mark scheme for level 4 (the highest mark band) for the music videos:
This was a beneficial task for myself as I was able to see what the examiner really looks for in music videos. As this is the main aspect of my media coursework, what better way to prepare for it than to look at previous peoples work so, that I can get a real idea of what the video needs to be like. Obviously my video will be very different as I will have a different genre, characters, setting, song etc, but these will help me identify what key features and skills I need to include in the creation of the video to help me achieve the grade I am aiming for.
The first video is shown below.
This video was scored 38/40, a very strong A grade. The best aspects of this was the range of shots including great transitions especially between the shots of the band and the references within the name and the location of some of the shots, which shows deep thought was put into the planning of the video and the mis-en-scene also adds to this effect. The only parts which let it down was the length of the video, it dragged towards the end and can lead to the audience becoming dis-interested and the pulled focus was sometimes a little awkward.
The second video was not scored as highly but reached the higher end of level 3 with 28/40. This music video had a much smaller variety of shots but the narrative of the story was very effective with good shots flicking back to a burning picture. However, the shots were very repetitive and the lip syncing was very off which made the video look very amateur. Also, the choice of lighting and clothing was not chosen very wisely as the 'character/artist' blended into the wall and was very unclear to see in some shots.
The best aspects of this video were the camera work which was very steady and the framing was generally good throughout, although there were some focus issues. They pay attention to mis-en-scene and the material is appropriate with a clear understanding of the conventions.
The third video was scored in between the first two with 32/40. The music video has moments of excellence - some framing, mis-en-scene throughout, but is generally consistently high proficient. There are some issues around focus, the rythym of the editing and the use of lip syncing is very minimal which keeps the piece on borderline level 3 and 4 but overall they have incorporated a wide range of shots, the video looks very professional, original and it is clear a lot of effort has gone into it.
From this task, I have gained knowledge on what looks best in music videos, what to keep a close eye on when filming and editing and I have learnt how important the mis-en-scene is in a video to ensure it looks professional and appropriate with the genre type you are using. I think editing is key for a good music video to show off your skills, it okay having a wide variety of camera shots but it's essential to put them together in a suitable way by using the correct and suitable transitions and effects. One KEY thing I have taken from this task is to take multiple takes of each shot to allow me to make the lip syncing as best as possible.
Hi guys, I've recently been playing around with Adobe Photoshop to practise making logo's for the company logo, but obviously this practise will help me when making the band logo in the near future. I played around with the fonts, sizing, colour range and different backgrounds to see what I could create. The bottom 2 are very simple but I feel get straight to the point so are effective as they represent a company and simply portray their name. The bottom logo offers a grunge effect, also leaning towards the more indie side with that particular font. The middle logo obviously portrays female characteristics with the silhouette of a lady but I feel is the most effective for illustrating my company, as we are 3 females and our music video which is in the process of being made is very feminine. Finally the top one was inspired by a range of indie, pop and alternative rock logo's with a contrast in fonts and dark rough background.
If you keep up to date on my blog, you will have previously seen my posts about the 'One Page Pitch' I have created for my music video which briefly covers song choice, locations, genre, lyrics etc and this video explains this idea in greater depth. Below you can see myself (on the left), Brooke (in the middle) and Eloise (to the right) which makes up my group! In this video we discuss the ideas told above, to my media teacher, Mr Welch, who you will see in the video. Enjoy!
Hi guys, recently I've been watching a wide variety of music videos to gain inspiration and ideas on editing, shots, but mainly the effects. I wanted to share this video with you all as I think that, although whilst watching it you may think it is very simplistic, I think it is also very effective. The video is called 'No Harm' by Editors and last 5 minutes. All the ideas put together including, the slow motion, the B&W effect, the close up and long shots, make a very efficacious but easy video to create.
I will leave the video linked below for anyone who's interested in watching:
Hi guys, today I emailed Sia's record company in order to recieve permission to use the song 'Breathe Me' for my final A2 music video. The email I sent said:
'I am writing to you to request permission to film a music video version of your song 'Breathe Me' by Sia. This forms part of my OCR A-level Media Studies course where my task is to record a music video to a song of my choice. It is only for assessment purposes and will not be used for any commercial or profit seeking purposes. I acknowledge your copyright of the material and will not use it for any other purpose than that stated above.
If you require any further information or clarification regarding the use of this material for educational purposes please contact my teacher Mr Welch (welchch@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk).'
This post may be very appealing to you OR very boring so, if it is the 2nd emotion, I deeply apologise! Today's post is my ONE PAGE PITCH! For myself, I find these posts very intriguing to see what songs and genres people like and choose to use for their music video, as there is usually a great variety.
As you may have seen from a previous post, this is not the first one page pitch I have recently posted! The reason being... we changed our minds and plans completely on what we wanted to do for our music video! This is now the second and hopefully final one page pitch you shall see!
Some of the notes might not make complete sense because they're brief and shortened down but I will be keeping a weekly diary to keep you guys updated!
Previously on my blog you will have seen my photoshop blog post (practising how to make CD covers) and I wanted to inform you guys on how I learnt about the basics of photoshop, As I'm a beginner I thought it would be best to do some quick research before hand to ensure when I came to using the software, I wasn't wasting my time trying to figure out how to use it! So, all I had to do was type into YouTube , 'How to use Photoshop' and VOILA(!), a list of hundreds of different videos appeared! I chose the video which I thought looked ideal and convenient for me and it was a reasonable time length. I wanted to share this with you guys incase any of you are also struggling to get to grips on how to use it! I thought it was VERY useful!
(You can also find shorter or longer tutorials if you want more in depth or quicker videos!)
I'm presuming you've all came from my previous post to see this.. (If not, you may need to have a look at it until you read this one!)
Bare in mind we have never used photoshop before and it takes a lot of effort to get used to it!! But, here is what we came up with!
This one represents a 'thriller' type cover which may consist of punk, shocker like music. The dark connotations and deep writing emphasises the eeryness of the cover.
This CD cover is not as serious as the others. We was inspired by children's music but also wanted to practise using more than one image photo-shopped onto another. For this cover we used 3 different pictures and cut them all individually then added them onto the chosen background.
This final cover is inspired by a pop, girl band cover. Typically a selfie or feminine picture would be used as a front cover; glitter and love hearts were added to emphasise the youthfulness of the album.
This is a post you don't want to miss! So, recently me, Brooke and Eloise (we shall be working together on our main music video) took a range of photographs of Eloise - she volunteered ;) - in different poses against the same background.. we chose a brick wall, how original. What we did with those photos you will be able to see on the next post but BACK to the point! We took these photos all with a different 'look' to represent different genres and themes. You can probably guess which photos are for pop, rock, indie, R&B, etc etc but we wanted to ensure we covered as many as possible! To see what took place on 'Photoshop' don't forget to check out my next post!
Hey Guys, this blog posts goes hand in hand with a previous blog post 'Controversy Article'. After my discussion about Rihanna's controversial music video, I wanted to do some deeper research on more controversial videos, so that is exactly what I did! This post will cover another 4 music videos in the past and explain how and why they were controversial and the audiences opinions! I got a lot of research from 'The Telegraph', 'Nylon', 'TMZ', 'HollywoodTake' and more, to ensure I got a wide variety of views and opinions from different sources.
Bonjour copains! Today I bring to you my (and the rest of the groups) one page pitch! This is in note version so, it may not be the easiest blog post to read but don't you worry, because in the next couple of weeks I shall be performing this to my teacher and of course a camera so you will be able to listen to a more in depth pitch on our ideas for a our music video!
These ideas - as you can probably already tell from the first line of the OPP are not finalised and they MAY EVEN change completely before we record this! But for now, I wanted you to have some insight into our current plans and proposals!
Ahn Jun-hee, known professionally as Joseph Kahn, is a Korean American film and music video director. Director Joseph Kahn spent part of his childhood in Pusan, South Korea and Livorno, Italy until his family moved to Houston, Texas. He began his directing career in his teens, shooting music videos for local musicians. He eventually enrolled at NYU where after a year and a half into film school, he dropped out to direct.
Within two years Kahn executed dozens of low budget videos where he served as his own cinematographer, editor, and production designer. Moving to Los Angeles in 1995, he first signed at Visages Films, a boutique agency that repped photographers and fashion stylists including the late Herb Ritts.
Kahn became highly sought, working with hundreds of artists such as: U2, Katy Perry, The Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Blink 182, Eminem, Wu-Tang Clan, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, Faith Hill, Moby, Jamiroquai, Justin Timberlake, George Michael, Kelly Clarkson, Janet Jackson, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, and many more. Today he is credited with launching and expanding the careers of many of his artists, and has collected multiple Music Video Production awards. He has won several MTV Music Video Awards with nominations for best video for Brandy & Monica “The Boy is Mine”, and Britney Spears “Toxic.” He won his first Grammy for Eminem’s “Without Me” video which also won the MTV VMA’s Best Video of the Year, as well as Best Director. His video for Muse “Knights of Cydonia” won the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award. Katy Perry’s “Waking Up in Vegas” won the MVPA Video of the Year.
Some of my favourite music videos that Joseph Kahn has directed include Taylor Swift's, both 'Blank Space' and 'Wildest Dreams'.
Hi Guys! I've been doing some research into the most famous CD covers and music videos from the past 50 years or so! This was such an interesting task for me to do and I also found it so surprising; some of the CD covers and music videos I had never come across before until now and it was super interesting finding out the background of some artists. ENJOY.
Hello lovely bloggers, I wanted to talk about controversy today, in-particular controversy within music videos and the medias views on this subject. I'm basing this blog posts on this articles about Rihanna's song/music video 'Bitch better have my money'; in the seven minute clip. the pop star kidnaps and torments the wife of an accountant for bilked her, dismembers the accountant and then lounges, naked, covered in blood, in a box of money.
There are many different views on this video, the first one being that this is a so called 'phase' that all artists go through at some point in their career following a period where they lose publicity. This suggests Rihanna's aim is to be controversial as an act of attention seeking. Although Rihanna may have a lot of young viewers which is why there was so much up roar about the pornography, violence and racial hatred, there's no denying that airing a video like this which constitutes bad behaviour gets people to talk about her. Being sexy and violent does the
same. She did not make this video to make the world a better place; she did it
to project an image and get paid and judging by the response, she succeeded on
both counts.
The article states that 'when a musician starts to use the phrase 'mini-movie' to
describe a video, its time to quit'. This creates disputes as some may argue the artist has put more of their own money into creating a better music video which offers meaning and a story line. However, when it comes to Rihanna's 'Bitch better have my money' mini movie, a lot of viewers said 'Without the video, it wouldn't have succeeded as much' which then brings us back to the first point of the artists using a controversial mini movie to gain publicity.
Overall, I think whether the artist is attention seeking or not, if they deem their video controversial and state it includes explicit content, the audience can't get angry with the music to a certain extent. However, if they still create a scene about the music, they are actually helping towards the artists aim of creating a reaction and helping gain publicity so either way the artist will still be winning.
Hi guys, for today's blog post I wanted to go into more depth about genres of music videos so, I decided to choose on specific genre which is very popular in today's music industry (you can't turn on the radio without hearing songs out of this category) to go into detail about including, the background and history of the genre, how it has developed through hybridisation and the sub genres created because of this. This research is beneficial for myself and my group as we are at the stage of deciding our song for our music video; We are focused around the pop/indie genre as this is an area where we have more knowledge and this research will give me influence and ideas on what conventions of pop, I may or may not want to include in my own music video.
Summer is over.. It's time to get back to work!
In the first few lessons back we have been learning about 'We Media and Democracy' and I wanted to summarise what I have learnt on here!
We media puts forward the theory that the media is becoming more democratic; Dan Gilmor backs up this with his own theory from the book 'We the Media' (2004). He argues that we no longer have to get the news from 'Big Media' and that is allowing for a wider range of voices and perspectives to be heard which will make the media more democratic and representative of people.
'Big Media' includes big organisations such as BBC, Google, Daily Mail etc. The actual definition is "the main means of mass communication, i.e. television, radio and the press, as opposed to blogs or personal websites".Murdoch owns 3 major organisations including Sky, The Sun, The Times and Press Association. These agencies are where the majority of news content comes from. Then newspapers, websites and TV stations often will re-report this news to their audience whilst putting their own slant on it. Metro Newspaper is a good example of an organisation which mainly uses agencies which allows them to give it away for free.
Many problems are created within 'Big Media' for example, the owners are able to add their own opinion when reporting the news to their media which may be biased. E.g. Murdoch makes no attempt to hide his political views and analysing the news from the organisation you will often find many of these views present. BBC does not have these problems because, it is funded by the taxpayer and has strict rules about giving both sides of the story; they have to try to be impartial.
These are just brief explanations about the basics of what I have learn in 'We Media and Democracy' and I will make more blog posts in the near future about what else I learn in my theory lessons.
Hi Guys! If you haven't checked out my practise one minute music video then you can click on my previous post to have a nosy! This post is to present to you our CD covers that we created. We designed both a front cover and back cover for our girl group and our aim was to match the genre of our music video (pop) with our designs; so to do this, we used conventions of pop and included them on our CD!
A wide variety of pop groups that I have previously seen, have a picture of themselves as the front cover. The artists may typically wearing fashionable and mainstream outfits (bright colours) to portray them as being happy, enjoying and content with life. As you can see from the picture to the left, we have tried to mimic these ideas and adapt them to suit us as a girl band.
In terms of the back cover we wanted to again include bright colours to match our theme and represent positive vibes. As our front cover is very 'selfie' based, we decided to keep the back cover simple with no pictures and I think this looks very effective. However, now looking back it at, I think to improve we could have used colours for the songs that matched our outfits to make both covers match more and flow better.
I hope you like the finished look and we will definitely be creating another CD cover in the near future for our final music video so look out for that!
Here it is.. the moment you've all been waiting for! My one minute music video covering the song 'Ugly Heart' which we changed the name to 'Cover Boy Pretty' for copyright purposes! I apologise for the sizing of the video and it not fitting the screen; we tried to change it but every time we exported the footage it returned to the smaller size again!
As I said in the 'FILMING DAY 1!' post, the second day of filming would consist of the indoor shots and that is exactly what we did! The whole point of the indoor shots for the music video was to make us look like we are in a 'studio' so, we tried our best to use a location which was easily accessible and free to use to create this background... I don't think we did too bad!! (I'm not going to say where we filmed, I will let you try and figure it out yourself) ;)
P.S. This part was for the CD cover, which is why we are posing!!
For these shots we went for more bright and outgoing outfits which looked more glamorous and created the stereotypical look of a pop girl group. This contrasted the outdoor shots, where we wore dull, more neutral coloured clothing which suited the woods location, but also made us look out of place at the same time!
This was much more fun filming than day 1 because we was not outside on the main road getting pipped at or being watched by drivers going past HAHA! Plus, we got to use our glittery microphones!! I hope you're as excited as I am to see the final piece; it will be up within the next 2 weeks so keep your eyes peeled and for now, good bye my lovely readers!
So guys, you may be thinking.. why is she blogging in such a weird order? filming day 1 then randomly showing you my storyboard?! Well i have no explanation apart from, I wanted to tell you about more exciting things first so the story board has waited until now to be shown ha ha! I know this is a pretty boring post but I had to show you at some point so here it!
This isn't in depth WHAT SO EVER but it didn't need to be; I just needed to draw a quick sketch of each shot to remind the group of what we need to film with a few notes next to each saying what shot it was, the location (inside or outside), who was in it and what/if any props we needed - you'll see what I mean by props when the video is complete ;)
SUCH A GOOD DAY! So guys, I am here to update you on day 1 of filming! We filmed yesterday (Monday) and we planned to get around half of the filming done; we had around 4 hours to do it in but it ended up only taking us around 2 hours because all the shots went well and to plan so we didn't have to waste any time trying to get better shots etc .However, we did spend around an hour at mine getting ready and prepared which consisted of doing our makeup, putting our outfits on, going over which shots we were taking and setting up the camera.
Our preliminary task involves half the shots being outside and half of them being inside so, seen as though it was good whether on the day we decided we'd film the outside shots. Here is a sneak peak of TWO of the locations we filmed in...
Day 2 of filming should take place in a few days time, we've planned either Thursday or Friday, so once we have filmed hopefully the rest of our music video, I shall update you on how it went! Stay tuned! :)
HOLAAAA, i'm back once again! I thought i would share with you what song me and my group will be doing for our preliminary task. As you guys probably know, you can't just jump straight into filming a music video, you need PRACTISE and that is exactly what our preliminary task allows us to do! Obviously you've seen our 30 second clip of the song 'Happy' in one of my previous blogs and that was also practise but mostly in terms of getting used to the camera again because it's been so long since we last filmed! Anyway i'm rambling, the song we shall be making our practise music video to is 'Ugly Heart' by G.R.L. This song is a typical pop song sung and performed by a girl group; which is why we thought it'd be ideal for us to use, as it means we all have to be in-front of the camera instead of someone having to pull the short straw and do it solo!
P.S. I am working with the same group i was last year for my thriller (AS coursework)
Hey guys, in the past week we've been putting together a short 30 second video to the song 'Happy' to get us back into the swing of filming and editing after our break throughout exams. This video is only a bit of fun and practise so don't take it too seriously as we did it within a few days of lessons! We only used our phones to record this which is why the sizing is a bit off and the heads of a few people get chopped off HAHA! Enjoy..
When reading the dates please refer to the year and not the day; all have been put as January 1st as it is difficult to find the exact date for all the events.
A textual analysis is a research method that helps you closely analyse the content of communication. In my media coursework I will be doing multiple textual analysis' on music videos, websites and CD covers to help educate myself on why these media products are used, how to create the best ones for my music video and how they will benefit the production of the video. Here is my first music video analysis and there will be plenty more!
Hi guys it's me again! Just the same old girl but on a different blog page. I am now into my SECOND year of media studies (wow time flies) which is why I have made another blog page. After a long hard few months of studying and exams, I have now returned to introduce you all to my new blog on music WOO! This year, our studies is all about music videos, whereas last year we learnt about the film industry and did our thriller opening video. I'm so excited for the year ahead of me and I hope you'll stick around too! My posts will be based around the research and planning I will do which will help educate myself and build up to the final product I will be creating of a music video of my choice and two ancillary tasks - a CD cover and a website page. The music video will be a group project and will be planned and created by myself, Brooke and Eloise, we have plenty of ideas for this and our research will widen these ideas and designs and I will be sure to keep you updated on all of the planning process of the video!
Don't forget to keep checking this blog for my new posts. I hope you will stick around till the end!
Here is the risk assessment I have filled in, which covers ALL risks which have any likelihood from the 'remote' up to 'likely' of affecting or harming the individuals who will be taking part in filming the music video. The front of the risk assessment shows a checklist of any hazards which we think may occur in the locations we have chosen to film in - the most risks will occur in the outdoor environment we are filming in - whereas in another location 'indoor room', there are much less risks likely to affect us. The back of the risk assessment shows the 3 main hazards which are 'likely' to affect us: cold environment, objects falling and noise; whereas the other hazards on the checklist are 'very unlikely' or have a 'remote' chance of occurring.
