Production Diary Week 8

This week I conducted an assessment, this was looking back at previous coursework comparing into to what I have I done now and how I could improve. This has helped me learn from mistake last year, especially not putting enough detail into genre research and also how I should do more planning and have it much more detailed.

This week my group decided it would be good to get research on our audience to ensure what we are doing is on the right lines and we can continue our research to meet there needs. It helped us learn that indie and R&B are poplar, but pop have the most exciting videos. Many people said they enjoy concept but like to see lots of performance too. We have used these aspects to choose our genre which is indie with a hint of R&B, to make it stand out.

Questionnaire

Media Assessment

Research and Planning

The beginning of my AS research was to look into the conventions of general film openings. This gave me a good introduction into what I would need to include when making my film opening, such as how early on you need to establish the genre and how you should create enigma to keep the viewer watching. Before researching this I had not noticed these aspects of film opening. Following on from that I looked more into detail of general film opening starting with the different shots which I analyzed from Harry Potter, this was helpful I learnt close up were used a lot and mid shots and what they showed the viewer. Next we looked at the jaws opening in groups focusing of different aspects of the opening such as characters, enigma, sound and image. I therefore learnt how all these aspects worked together to create the full opening, I also learnt the high importance of the music used as it created most of the enigma in this particular scene. Next we looked at still images and the effects they have on us, we also took some of our still images to see how to create them to fit a particular genre. Although this was helpful within showing how to create still images it did not affect my final opening and therefore I think I could have looked how each still image in my final opening would have represented the genre more to make the whole opening genre specific. As my research continued I looked at film posters, I looked at Bridesmaid’s poster it showed me how the image can create a sense for a film and therefore how important the mise-en-scene is I think I analyzed this well noticing the contrast between different elements of mise-en-scene. I think the research done at this point did help me, giving me a general view of film opening and what I needed to include in them, but I think as it wasn’t specific to my genre a lot of it was wasted and I couldn’t progress using the details of what shots and music used as it was for action and horror rather than my chosen genre of romance. Therefore in my research I decided to focus on just romance. Our next task was to create our preliminary video, I think I struggled a lot with this and it showed in my final opening, the shots were weak and didn’t link up properly also we used a lot of make do locations rather than searching for ones that would of made the video look more like the original. Now I was in my group we chose to do specific research looking into the conventions of our genre, romance, this helped us as we could plan and make our opening around these conventions ensuring we used appropriate locations such as real life which is used in romance alot. Creating a mood from looking at these conventions helped us put all our ideas into one place, looking at a creative version gave us an atmosphere for what our movie opening should be like. Our next step was to look at previous romance film opening so that we could see how the conventions were used in real movies and also give us inspiration for ideas for our own opening. We looked at Grease, The Holiday, 500 days of summer and The vow. We look alot of inspiration from grease as their opening was more to show of the titles rather than tell the story. Finally we looked at title timelines, making a timeline of the opening writing on when each title and appeared and in what order. This gave us a good idea of how long to leave between the titles and also in what order as we had never picked up on that before. Next was our planning we begun by working out what titles we would include and how we would include them, so we could plan around it. Next we created our film pitch so we had a clear plan of what we was doing this helped us create the opening realistic. Next we planned the mise-en-scence and shooting schedule but this wasn’t very detailed and we didn’t really stick to it. To finish our research and planning we created different production logos it different formats this gave us skills in another programme and helped us to see what looked professional. Looking back at my AS research and planning I spend alot of time on research, this made my work very real life like, but I think I spend too much time on work that wasn’t relevant to my genre. Through A2 I want to spend more time focusing on my genre in research rather than general so that I can make my work very gender specific.  Also I want to make a much more detailed plan this year having every outfit and make up organised so that we don’t waste time when filming. I also plan to make a detailed shot list and stick to it more this year.

Following the conventions of real media texts

During my research we looked at the at the general conventions of film openings and have tried to follow them as best as we can. Firstly we found it must include a production logo, we have included an animated production logo that we made ourselves at the beginning like seen in normal film opening. We also found that it should include titles, we therefore researched previous titles to find out the order theses should go in, and based a large part of our opening through including a title in each part of our montage. Therefore we included scenes like a birthday so that we could write the title on a cake and chocolate giving so that we could write the title on the chocolate box. Another convention was to  establish genre, key characters and key locations in the opening. We showed our main characters in every shot clearly showing the characters. I think the genre was shown very quickly as we had very romantic scenes such as hand holding, kissing, present giving and dates. We included sound of backing music to add to the genre and also folie of button on the CD player going down, as sound is a convention of a music video. Finally we created enigma at the end of the opening by having the girl crying as all openings are supposed to create enigma, by having her crying makes the audience confused as why she is crying. To continue we also have to stick to the genre conventions of romance. We found out romance usually contains a lot of emotion therefore we included the girl crying at the end to show the emotion of the boyfriends death. We the emotion of love throughout. They also contain a lot of day to day examples hence why all the parts of our montage included day to day to events such as brushing their teeth and getting ready in the morning. Romance films always include romantic music to set the scene , therefore we chose a romantic tune to give the romance vibe. We introduced the characters instantly and used a voice over which we are all conventions of a real movie opening.  I think we stuck well to the conventions and therefore created a very realistic film opening. But there was some aspects we didn’t stick to as much, firstly we didn’t have many romantic props, costumes or lighting. So overall I think I need to focus on the mise-en-scene and making it fit the conventions. Finally I think our characters could of been more fitted to the genre they came across and dressed very mainstream whereas we was trying to make it look more quirky, therefore in my music video I want to make sure if we choose an indie r&b song that we choose someone with that looks and concentrate a lot on their style. Also as we have to create a digi pack for A2 so I think I will focus a lot on the styling and mise-en-scene to make that fit the conventions of my genre.

Creativity / Originality

Through my AS film opening my group tried to make it as creative as possible while sticking to the previous conventions. We decided to make our titles very creative so we could take something that is a convention and give it our twist. We chose to include the titles into props in our scenes, rather than putting on the top as it gave a more indie twist and was original from openings we have seen before. We used a cake, lipstick on a mirror, coffee cup and chocolate box etc. Also to make our opening creative we chose to use romance music and a voice over rather than a script, I think they showed the emotion more. Finally we tried to practise production logo of a stop motion paper ball being scrunched up then opened with the company name on, this was different from what we found before, although this was creative it didn’t have a professional theme so we then decided to go for a typical video instead. I hope to carry on being creative in this video, firstly by using creative locations such as London graffiti walls as backgrounds and also shots of the artist looking more fun. I think clothing and make-up can also help us to make our video creative as we are going to use statement looks. Finally I think editing will help us to improve creativity we are going to start the video in black and white then introduce colour throughout, also using blur transitions. 

Production Diary Week 7

This week I chose to focus on Digipacks. First on all I started to research previous digipacks to give me an idea of what they included. This helped me as I didn't really have an idea of what they should include, looking at them also showed me how each artist makes them look different to suit them or the songs on the album.

From this we chose one of the digipacks to create ourselves, firstly we tried to create the Rhianna one but found it really hard to make as the angles of the photos were almost impossible for us to create. We then did a Britney Spears one which we found much easier to create. From doing this I learnt the importance of the angles and positioning of photos and also decided that I didn't like the moody look and when I create mine I want it to be much more fun and exciting.

Re Created Digipack

Here is our re created digi pack. We recreated the Britney Spears digi pack, at first we though it would be easy but as we progressed we found out that its hard to get a good angle, and the make the "moody" look work so I have learnt I would rather make a much more fun and colourful digipack.

Digipack research

Here my group have looked a 3 different digipacks, we chose to look at females solo artists and that is the star we aim to create, we noticed two of them had a large sex appeal with lots of lips reds and seductive looks. We also noticed that they all included the artist highly. We did see how some are more risk taking than others though which I think relfects how far they are in there career so we willl consider then when creating our star.

Production Diary Week 6

This week my research continued into look into music websites, I chose to look at 3 from different genres, R&B, Rock and Pop this gave me a variation of different music videos and therefore made me see how they was different. This will help me understand my star better and how they would be portrayed for example pop is related to bright colours whereas rock is more dark.

As a group we decided it would be a good time to start preparing for our own video so decided to practise lip syncing. I chose a song by one direction as it was medium paced. From lip syncing I realised it's alot harder than I had thought and for my real video we will all have to practise alot. I would say a downfall in our lip syncing is that we didn't all know the words so spend alot of time looking away from the camera and pausing to remember them.

Teacher assessment - lip synching

A Level Media Progress Check - Ellie
Assessed by	NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Lip syching
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		You have practiced lip synching to the song.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you could have edited the song over the top, so it appeared more like a music video and also reflected on your work.
Additional comments

Lip Syncing

Teacher assessment - website analysis

A Level Media Progress Check - Ellie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Website analysis
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Lovely use of a new web 2.0 tool. Variety of information integrated.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		Screenshots of the websites to exemplify your ideas.
Additional comments

Music Website Analysis

Marketing

Here I have looked at how stars are marketed, I've done this so that I can get an idea how we should market our star to make it look as realistic as possible.
I have learnt that social media is the most significant way so i plan to create social media accounts for my star to market them on.

Production Diary Week 5

In this week I have developed my research. I firstly looked at the conventions of music videos, this has helped me know the main aspects of a video so I can pick these out in the videos I am analysing  and also take these conventions into my music videos so it is realistic. I plan to later go more specific into the genre's I decided to choose.

Next I wrote an essay analysing a music video. I chose Ellie Goulding as she fits the genre Indie which I would like to do. From doing this essay I learnt the main aspects of a video such as the clothing and props used. Also it showed the different shots used and the variation between them. Finally it helped me see how much performance was used in an Indie music video. I think it would be helpful to look into more videos like this.

To continue my research I decided to look into depth into the theories, specifically Andrew Goodwin and Laura Mulvey. This would help when looking at other videos so I could pick up how they are used and how often it will also help me when making me own video to consider them to make my video appealing and realistic.

I have now begun to focus on how a star is portrayed. I have chosen to look at Rhianna as an artist as she has progressed  alot throughout her career and also is in the public eye alot. From looking at her it has showed me how artist change over time specifically how the become more daring in there songs videos and appearance. This will help me as I can choose when in the career my artist is and therefore decide how risk taking they are due to this. Also from this I have looked at how Rhianna is marketed in the public eye through social networking and magazines and newspapers this will help me adapt how my own artist is going to be marketed and how I would do it.

Teacher assessment - star analysis

A Level Media Progress Check - Ellie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Star Analysis
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Detailed and thoughtful analysis of your star. You have really considered each time and explained what this says about them as an individual.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you could reflect on how this will help you for your own star.
Additional comments		An excellent piece of work – looking at level 4 in terms of success. Please look at a couple of spellings- (beginning).

Improvements
Looking at Rihanna it has given me as insight into the public image of a star, and how they can develop over time. I have seen that they usually begin more innocent and progress into more risk taking in there hair, clothing, make-up and dancing the longer their career progresses. For my star this will help me as I will have to choose where in their career they are and therefore can determine how many risks they can take in their style, the dancing and etc in the video and finally if they should give an innocent look in the digipack or more of risk taking photo.

Rihanna

Looking at Rihanna it has given me as insight into the public image of a star, and how they can develop over time. I have seen that they usually begin more innocent and progress into more risk taking in there hair, clothing, make-up and dancing the longer their career progresses. For my star this will help me as I will have to choose where in their career they are and therefore can determine how many risks they can take in their style, the dancing and etc in the video and finally if they should give an innocent look in the digipack or more of risk taking photo.

Teacher Assessment - Analysis of a music video

A Level Media Progress Check - Ellie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Music video analysis
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Detailed and thoughtful analysis of a music video(s). You use media language successfully and compare across multiple videos from the one artist. Detailed and precise analysis of key aspects of the video.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you could consider using screen shots and other images to exemplify your work.
Additional comments		Could you use a web 2.0 tool to present your work?

Here is screen shots to compliment my essay.

Teacher Assessment - Goodwin

A Level Media Progress Check - Ellie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Andrew Goodwin
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Detailed and developed analysis into his theory and you have applied this successfully to music videos.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you made clearer comparisons regarding genre and audience, between videos.
Additional comments

Analyse Music Video Essay

The genre I am swaying towards choosing for my video is "indie pop" therefore the video I have chosen to analyse is Your Song by Ellie Goulding. The song is a cover of Elton John's original but Ellie puts her own twist on it. This video is a performance as it in mainly focused on the performer, Ellie, although we do not see her literally perform the song we see lots of close ups of her and the whole video is based around her, as indie pop is more of a low budget genre and performance is the cheapest style to make this would be expected. I also think this video touches on narrative as parts of it show a story line of her life also showing others in the video which may link to the lyrics.

As I have said the genre for this song is "indie pop" this genre began in 1980's it is similar to Indie rock but has a more melodic song and less aggression, the pop side of it also makes more commercial and give it a wider audience. There are many conventions of a "indie music" video which we see in this video. Such as indie pop videos are known for having low budget basic settings, the settings used are a train, park, field, house and woods, these are all low budget settings and would be easy to use also this makes the video more relatable for people to watch and therefore people can relate to her lyrics more and make a connection with the song, which I think indie pop will try to do to reach there fans and get a solid connection rather than pop who are seen to be more flashy and get fans through that than a solid connection. Another convention is for the video to be performance based, I have already commented on how I think this is a performance video due to the amount Ellie is seen in, she is the main character throughout and it almost looks as if she is reflecting back on her life. I think this is common as it helps to promote the artist even further as all focus is on them. Throughout most indie pop videos you see that the story is not initially being told but the video connects and the beginning of a story is there. When watching Ellie's video you can see the video is going through her memories and that she is looking/talking/singing towards another character who is not seen. Therefore a beginning of a story is there but a sense of mystery is left. Finally there are many conventions linked to indie pop videos through mise-en-scene. The props are usually very simple in Your Song and very natural to the setting rather than being used to stand out, there is a train ticket which our focus is brought to show us the setting mainly and a cat again natural to the setting around. Also with costume, lighting, make-up these are very natural and linking to the setting which I have already said is usually low budget, keeping the whole video natural and relatable.

Here you can see the natural locations.

Here you can see one of the shots of her,
showing you that it is mainly performance.

Here you can see one of the shots of her,
showing you that it is mainly performance.

Here you can see the natural props used.

Here you can see the natural locations.

The lyrics in the "Your Song" are very love based, they are the artist singing a love song and offering the song to a lover. Explaining how they might not have a lot but if they did they would offer it to them and all they do have is their music which they are offering to them in there own song. This doesn't initially seem to link to the video as the video is just Ellie in what seems to be her day to day life, also non of the acts in the scene link to particular parts of the song. But I think as you look closer in lots of the clips Ellie seems to be interacting with someone who may be this man. Also during the song she seems to be addressing the "lover" and in the video she is seen talking to the camera so this could been seen as if she is singing it to them.

Ellie is shown a lot in this video therefore we see clearly how she is represented. She comes across very normal, we see her doing normal day to day things like playing with her cat, chilling with her friends, walking around what seems like a normal setting. The way she has been styled is also very normal she is seen wearing typical clothes such as Barbour coats and winter scarfs when outside in the cold, and plain jeans and jumpers when indoors. Also her make-up is very natural. She is overall represented very normal and typical, this makes her seem very relatable for people watching particularly young girls. Also seeing her represented like this in the video makes the focus more on her voice rather than what she is/isn't wearing which I think is typical to the genre, whereas some genre make the focus more on the artist's appearance which takes the focus away from her voice. There is not much iconography in Ellie's videos, but in all the videos of her I have watched at some point she is wearing a beanie hat, this links her videos together and also gives us a way of telling it is one of her videos.

Here you can see her normal day to day clothing.

Here you can see the natural setting of a train.

Here you can see the iconic beanie, and again natural clothing and settings.

Here you can see the iconic beanie and the natural clothing and settings.

There are a lot of similarities in Ellie's videos, in all of the videos she is the main part of the video and stays the focus throughout. For example in Burn you can mainly see her dancing in crowds even when there are other people in the background she is the focus, like in Your Song when she is running threw the field although she is with her friends you see her as the focus. Also is all of her videos they give a natural life like theme, as in Your Song she is doing normal things like playing with cat and walking around, Burn has a more upbeat version of this so you see her driving with friends and dancing in a party like environment. I think this natural life like style is initially due to the genre conventions and the low budget, but I think you see this more in Ellie's videos and it seems like it's her style as she seems to dance in the same way and look like she is generally enjoying herself and having fun.

Here you can see Ellie being the center of attention in another video of hers, burn,

Here you can see how Burn is slightly different with more group shots.

The camera work is mainly full of shots of Ellie, there is lots of close-ups of her, mid shots telling the story and establishing shots to show what is going on. At 35 seconds into the video there is a close up of Ellie, I think this is a more significant close up as you can see the emotion on her face, also she is singing into the camera through this shot, which  I think adds to the narrative as you don't see the person she is singing to it gives the impression when she is signing to camera it is to her lover, this shot shows that perfectly and the emotion adds to the amount of love/ passion she has for the other person. Another shot I have looked at is the high angle, long shot of Ellie walking through the stream. This shot shows her full outfit and look, you can see her wearing very non glamorous outfit showing her down to earth appeal. Also you can see the beanie which is significant to her. Finally this is one of the view shots that shows the narrative aspect. The last shot I have looked at is half way through the video at 1:16 which is of the tree which has been carved into, there is a heart in the shot which shows the genre of the song, romance. Also when the shot is being filmed it is very shakey and looks like a hand held camera relating to the indie theme.

Here is the shot at 1:16

Here is one of the many close ups we see of Ellie.

Here is a mid shot showing the story.

Here is another mid shot telling the story.

Here is the sloe up i discussed at 35 seconds.

There is lots of editing techniques in this video at the beginning of the video you can see a sepia edit has been put over the top and also a grained effect which make the video look old fashioned with a vintage style, I think this reflects the genre as the clothing associated with "indie pop" is very vintage. I also think the part of the video is a flash back so the effect makes this more prominent to the watcher. Also blured effects have been used on a shot of Ellie standing on the train, I think this is to make the shot stand up and show the clarity of the shot, reflecting the clarity she is getting from the song. The pace of the song changes throughout, sometimes it is slow reflecting the song, but in other parts it is fast paced although the song isn't, I think this adds to the confusion.

Overall I think this video is very successful, if fits lots of the genre signifie's. The video also seems to show a lot of meaning and emotion through Ellie expressions and the flashbacks seem to add to the emotion you feel also through the lyrics.