Draft 6 - Lots Of Split Screen...

Here is the latest draft of our music video for 'She' by The Mags. We've added in lots of short clips to see how they work within the whole video and we may change some of them but the bulk of the video is done now! Here is draft number six; We have added in some split screen parts of the band members playing their instruments as well and we have also decided to edit the split screen opening again, this time in Final Cut Express as it is much better quality and easier to get each part of the screen equal.

Ice Technique...

Ages ago we were all watching some different music videos on YouTube together and came across a very interesting technique that we could very easily recreate for our own music video. The start of the video we were watching (Traktor - Wretch 32) showed a water forming into 32 on a black surface and we thought it looked very effective so we decided to film heart shaped blocks of ice as they melted and then reverse and speed up the footage to make it look as though the hearts were forming out of nothing.

This Prezi shows the process of creating the heart shaped ice holders;

Ice & Paper Mache on Prezi

After this we made the ice hearts, set them up on Charlotte's roof on a sunny day and (with the aid of a hair dryer) filmed the ice hearts melting. However, when we tried to speed it up on iMovie it was still 7 minutes long at the fastest possible speed, so we dragged the footage across to Final Cut Express and we were then able to speed up the footage to the right speed. Here is a video of us editing the ice hearts melting!;

here is our final product!;

I think this will look really effective in our music video if we edit it correctly to the right part of the music.

Draft 5 - Horizontal Split Screen...

After messing around on Final Cut Express looking for better ways to create a split screen effect than on iMovie, we discovered how to create a horizontally split screen quite easily, by using the motion tabs, etc. Once we knew how to do this we were able to create the effect we had wanted initially which was inspired by this Blink 182 video for their song Always; Here is our fifth draft of our music video with the extra split screens added into it. I really love the way it looks and I think the slow pace of this particular part of our music video helps to build up tension in our audience with the narrative side of the video;

Voyeurism...

As part of our music video we wanted to make sure that we fulfilled all the criteria and conformed to the conventions of the Alternative Rock genre. One way that we wanted to do this was to have an element of voyeurism within the video where the musician looks at themselves in the video. We learnt about this technique on one of our trips to RichMix in a talk by Pete Fraser about promotional music videos. A classic example of this type of voyeurism can be seen in Nat King Cole's video for Frim Fram Sauce, where he looks at himself performing on a screen; Here is how we attempted the idea of voyeurism in our own music video;

Credits...

When watching our music video for 'She' by The Mags we realised that we had not yet added the credits that a normal music video would have if you were to watch it on a music channel on TV. Here is the latest draft of our music video including the new credits at the start (with the conventional band/track name, record label name, etc.) and also with added close up clips of Tom's mouth lip-syncing to the track;

Split Screen...

For a long time we have been trying to figure out how to create a split screen effect on iMovie and Final Cut Express and have not had much luck with it, but after researching into techniques on YouTube, we found some tutorial videos that we were able to watch, understand and then copy. Here are examples of what we were able to achieve after learning how to create a split screen on iMovie; We also did a split screen opening that we have wanted to do ever since we began the post production process and this is what it looks like within the video itself;

Teenage Cancer Trust Gig...

Last night I went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Biffy Clyro as part of a fundraising event that is going on each night of this week to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

It was interesting to see Biffy Clyro in such a different setting as the Royal Albert Hall is very different to the type of venue they usually play. The lighting of the show was incredible and I wish I had a standing ticket because it was less atmospheric being so far away from the stage. However, there were advantages to where I was seated because it meant I could really appreciate the lighting, set up of the stage/equipment and the positions of the band members.

This would be really helpful if we were to film any more performance footage because I have gained an understanding of how stages are set up in the real music industry.

Album Advertisement...

Here is my first attempt at creating an album advertisement for our CD Digipak. Obviously I wanted to create something that had synergy with the album cover so for my first attempt I chose to use the image from the front cover of the CD Digipak and then simply add all the conventional pieces of information that you would find on an album advertisement.



However, I do want to have a go and designing my other idea to see which I prefer but at the moment I really like the simplicity of my first design.

The only thing that I am considering changing on it is to add some tour dates onto the advert, as I have realised that most alternative rock bands include this information on their album advertisements. This is probably due to the fact that not many people buy music on CD anymore so the bands make most of their money by selling gig tickets. (This is reflected by the fact that HMV is currently in fears of closing down).

Possible Album Advertisement Designs...

Here are two very rough sketches of my initial advert ideas;

Another Article...

I also found this interesting article written by Mark Sweney in the Media Guardian that was published on the 28th February 2011 about Product Placement in British television.

Although this does not have much relevance in terms of our music video, it is still important for me to recognise these things for the exam, as this is a significant change in the British Television Industry.

As the TV industry needs to find it's revenue somewhere, it seemed inevitable for this day to come where "broadcasters have the green light to charge brands to appear in top-rating shows."

I think this is probably a good thing for British TV as we have seen the example of the US and Australia where "product placement has grown to account for about 5% of the TV advertising market." and "the UKs audience are already used to product placement in foreign imports".

However, not only could this produce problems within the viewers because of it ruining the realistic aspect of programmes but it might not even work as "shows are shot so far in advance that product placement deals will not be a consideration for months if not a year or more, with only "low millions" in actual revenue expected in 2011".

Media Guardian...

I try to read the Media Guardian every week in order to maintain a fresh understanding of contemporary media issues. By doing this, I have read about some interesting topics that tie in with my A2 Advanced Portfolio work.



A few weeks ago I came across a very interesting article entitled 'Music's Leap Of Faith' written by Alexandra Topping. This article appeared in the Media Guardian on the 31st January 2011 and discusses some of the issues that the music industry are facing in terms of the "transition of power from music's old guard to it's digital avant garde."



The article talks about how the music industry is struggling to make the move from a recorded to a digital music industry and that the transition has been "painfully slow". One example of this is Spotify. Alexandra Topping states that "Spotify is only now edging towards a US launch, following a rumoured deal with Sony, after more than one stalled attempt."

This article particularly interested me after recently hearing the news that HMV is veering towards closing down all their stores due to a lack of interest in people buying music in a shop. So it seems as though everyone prefers buying their music online (or illegally downloading it for free!). However, this article states that "it is not clear that the digital future is strong enough to support the global rock'n'roll machine as it used to be."

This is quite a worrying concept as the music industry seems to be gradually reducing it's size when the industry is not even sure if they can uphold this new digital era; "Worryingly for the industry, the growth in the digital market - once hailed as it's saviour - appears to be stuttering."

Precious...

Over the half term I watched the film Precious (2009) directed by Lee Daniels and written by Geoffrey Fletcher. I knew the film was going to be very sad but I did not know much about the story and had not realised just how heartbreaking it was going to be.



The film itself is brilliantly produced and the actors/actresses are incredible to be able to play the part of certain characters so well. The story is horrendous and it is not a film that I would rush to watch again because of how sad it is, but the techniques used by the producers to create certain atmospheres and feelings within the audience are very clever and I would definitely recommend this film to any film lover.



Although this film is not particularly relevant in the production of our music video I felt that it was significant to note such a brilliantly produced film anyway.

Further Album Advert Analysis...

Here is a photograph of some work I did a couple of days ago on three different album advertisements of the genre that we are producing a music video for;



The three adverts are for The Killers, Nirvana and Stereophonics. Each one is quite different even though they are all bands from a similar genre. I have just written some simple annotations around the album advertisements to ensure I understand the conventions and selling points of an album advertisements of the Alternative Rock genre.

Russell Howard at the 02 Arena...

A couple of weeks ago (20th February) I went to see one of my favourite stand-up comedians perform at the 02 Arena. This was my view from where I was sat;



It was interesting to see the choice of videos that were being played whilst we were waiting for his performance to start and during the interval. Among some popular music videos by Florence and The Machine and Mumford and Sons (typically Indie!) some short films were played that made me think about our media coursework.

I noted down some of the names of the films to see if I would be able to find them and refer to them on my blog but they were really difficult to find. However, when I went on Future Shorts YouTube channel there were plenty of examples that were similar to those shown on the Russell Howard tour. Here are some of those examples;



I really like this short film because of the incredible use of stop motion and atmospheric mise-en-scene to produce a very "art-deco" film. This video has given me lots of ideas of how to use stop motion in our own music video.



The use of colour and camera movements in this short film are what excited me about this video, as it also gave me some ideas as to how we can use colour and editing techniques in a fun way in our own music video when we eventually begin to use Final Cut Pro.

I will keep looking out for the particular short films that I wanted to add to my blog but the main thing I liked about them is the way they used selective colour and stop motion to produce some vibrant and intriguing short films. Most of the short films shown were produced by either FutureShorts or BlinkTV.