Music Video Tests - After Effects Title

A brief look at what I hope to create in Adobe After Effects for the title of my music video... This is only a rough example that I achieved by using the pen tool to create masks on each letter and then using keyframes to create the transition. The finalised version I hope will be more professional looking and work with the video.

Print Production - Album Cover & Advert

Here's my album cover for my music video -

And here's my music advert -

Research & Planning - Comparative Essay On Two Music Videos

For our Research & Planning we were told to go away and write a comparative essay on two songs that were linked to the genre we had chosen for our music video.

This is my comparative essay featuring the girls group, "Girls' Generation" and boy band, "Shinee". The document has been uploaded to Google Drive and embedded into this blog, hence the drop  in quality and odd looking screenshots.

Sources Discussed in this essay -

Girls’ Generation - “I Got A Boy”: http://vimeo.com/62028756

Shinee - “Lucifer”: http://vimeo.com/13614513

Michael Shore Theory: http://www.slideshare.net/chrisdaw/theorists-of-music-videos (Slide 7)  

 

Music Video - Shots Preview Storyboard (Flash Animation)

For my storyboard I decided to go away from the typical use of drawing and scanning it onto the computer and went for using Adobe Flash CS6 in order to make a brief preview of what shots I intend to use in my music video.





It was interesting using Adobe Flash as it allowed me to learn some new skills that may come in handy later on in the project or as a career.


 

Research & Planning - Focus Group: Target Audience

I set out to find what people's opinions were on k-pop and audiences of the genre....

From this focus group I have come to the conclusion that western audience believe that k-pop is made and intended for Korean audiences only and more often than not come across as weird and unsettling....This may be something that we come to accept and adapt to over the years as more and more k-pop makes its way into the west.

Choreography For The Music Video

After throwing around some ideas for the music video....we have decided to keep the choreography fairly simple and for the video to focus more on the concept of the male gaze....

This is mainly because our performers are not trained dancers, so we wouldn't want them to injure themselves trying to perform a crazy dance move.

So instead we decided to go for more redundant "dance moves" that you typically see in Korean pop videos...this are often described as "cutesy"

Examples -

Final Casting For Performers

After a bumpy ride the final casting of the performers is complete....


All the performers seem to be enthusiastic and raring to go, most of them also have a background in drama which I believe will help the production of my video go smoother.

Final List -
. Tash Sampson
. Elisha White
. Gemma Gormley
. Katie McGorman

Print Production Planning - Sketches, Fonts etc.

Here's a rough sketch of what I intend my print production album cover to look like (please ignore terrible drawing skills) -

As for fonts, I have researched into doing a more free-flowing, maybe even strange fonts in order to further add to the vividness of Korean pop videos -

First is called "Flower" - 

Girls Generation

Second is called "Exotica" - 

girls generation

The last is called "FeliX" -

Girls Generation

Time Management Plan

For time management I used the site "Timetoast" in order to create a timeline of my plans and all deadlines....

Camera Practice Session #1

For our video we have decided that we want to over-expose as much as possible, even more hopefully when it comes to editing it. We have come to this decision after researching different K-pop videos and finding that the videos for said genre were very bright and over-exposed - further adding to the over the top, vibrant style of the videos....

Here's an example of what I mean:

In order to do this I went online and found both written and visual tutorials on how to mess around with camera lens exposure and I hope to be able to use this in both my print production work and my music video.

Health & Safety Assessment for the Music Video

What the risk is	Potential outcomes	How to avoid it	Who’s in charge
Loose wires	Fall, trip and/or possible death	Tape wires to the floor and make them as visible to the cast as possible	Jake
Falling off stage	Hurt, broken limbs and/or possible death	Make it clearly visible where the stage ends	Jake
Bright lights	Damaged or challenged eye site.	Not let the cast look directly at lights for an extended period of time	The cast
Falling over white sheets	Hurt/injury	Tape or staple the sheets to their attached surface eg. Floor or wall	Jake and I

Location Update

We have now finally found somewhere that we can get white sheets at a affordable price and are are of decent length to which we can adjust if necessary.


http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-flat-sheet/465-6555.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=609-2260 

Location Planning

We're planning to use the college hall as the set and we're hoping to use white sheets as a backdrop.

This has proved a slight issue as we have progressed through the planning stage. Without wanting to spend hundreds of pounds on renting it out from a production studio, we have been looking for either cheaper purchasable options from Warehouse like stores or being able to borrow one from another source.

We have emailed several sources hoping to receive quotes from them so we can study this further.

Further Costume Ideas

These pictures are what we have developed for costume...

Costume Ideas

Originally we going to go all out and go for the wacky and wild costumes you usually see in  the K-Pop genre but on reflection we decided to go for something more realistic and achievable; here are some ideas that we intend to use of influence us -  

Original Idea For Song - Betty Who: "High Society"

This was our original song choice but in the end decided to go for K-Pop as it was a more energetic genre to use -

Concept Sketch Of Floor Plan

Our rough sketch for the set up we intend to use -

Location Concept Photography

Here is some concept photography of the location we intend to use -

The Pitch - Feedback

We received feedback from our group when we did our pitch; in general it was positive and helpful. We also received some constructive criticism that we'll take into account when making our video.



Positives:
. Target audience seems to of been targeted correctly
. The originality of the idea has been praised as K-Pop is fairly unseen when it comes to coursework.
. In general people sound interested and want to see how the video turns out.

Negatives:
.  People have said that lighting may be an issue due to the lack of lights available.

Girls' Generation - "Talk Talk" - The Pitch

Copyright Permission Contact

This is a screenshot of the email I sent to the rights holders of my chosen song...They did not reply.

Research - Moodboard

The moodboard we created through our research -

Ideas and Planning for Music Video - The Pitch

Possible Casting -
Lucy
Ellie
Gemma
Laura
Liv
Sam
Tash
Katie
Ffyona
Rubie


Filming/Shot Ideas -
. Beginning beat of the song matching shots of a mobile phone - turning on, receiving a text/phone call etc.
. Reveal of the group with matching shots of cuts to close ups of each individual member for the beat/tempo
. For general filming; film one line/lyric at a time to improve the quality of the lip sync as the primary language of the song is Korean.
. Each performer has their own individual part - individual choreography etc.
. Wide shots of the entire group performing - synchronised choreography etc. - cut to close ups
. Narrative? - References to communication, dating etc. as the song is called "Talk Talk" - placed between the performers individual parts.   


Backdrops -
. Original idea - "Ice Fine Photography" - White backdrop, used for professional photography.
             - Google Map Search for the location;

. Main, Primary idea - Sixth Form College Hall - Stage, use white sheets hung up and on the floor to mask the background and to bring out the lighting more.
. May use other coloured sheets for a backdrop based on the colour styles of K-pop e.g. Light pinks, reds, blues, yellows etc.  


Editing Style -
. Fast cuts, based around the beat/tempo of the song.
. Visual effects? - Created in Adobe After Effects.
. Lighting - Amplified in the editing


Lighting -
. Studio lights - Used on performers; effects? Colours? Shadow lengths? Spotlight on performers?
. Static lights - Used to light up the backdrop, not generally used on the performers directly.
 


Health & Safety -
. Slipping/Tripping hazards - sheets, cables/wires etc. 

Music Video and Redundancy/Entropy

Redundancy -
An aspect of media that would be predictable in a media form. The higher the redundancy then the higher the predictability.

Entropy -
The reverse of Redundancy where an aspect of the media would be unpredictable and unconventional.


For instance, Taylor Swifts video, "22" is very redundant as it has typical, predictable elements you would expect for her target audience and genre.  

  












However an example of Entropy would Yo La Tengo and their video "Sugarcube". In this video, they do not use redundant features commonly found in the music industry and what is seen is something very unique and very different.

  












I believe that my music video will be a mix of both Redundancy and Entropy as i will aim to have typical generic features of K-Pop while attempting to introduce new and original features.

Green Screen Test

We experimented with green screen, this is the result -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PTghP51mSs&feature=youtu.be

Star/Persona - Andrew Goodwin

1.

- This screen shot is from Justin Bieber's music video for "Boyfriend". It clearly shows that an expensive, all out lifestyle is the one to live. Scenes such as this one may influence Justin Bieber's targeted audience.







2.

 
- In this scene, Justin Bieber is presented as sexually available and attractive. This is most certainly targeted at his target audience as they tend to be teenage girls.






3.

- This close up of Bieber is purposefully put into the video along with many others specifically for his target audience.  







 

Conventions Of Music Video Genre

-Dark room, lights behind them, generic band positioning.

-Matching/similar clothing, positioned in a shot that allows us to see all of them

-Not much of a narrative, usually just features the band as a whole with close-ups of each individual band member.

-Edited with lots of cuts to the members singly or as a whole, usually cut speed matches pace of the song or their movements.

-Lack of props to represent them as important.

-Usually have matching movements, represents them as being in sync or a group.

-Doesn’t usually take place in a normal location and is somewhere that isn’t of interest so that it doesn’t distract from the group

Stop Motion Animation - Paper Ball

My stop motion animation practice of two paper balls.

Andrew Goodwin Analysis Of A Music Video - "Gangnam Style"

The latest pop culture phenomenon of "Gangnam Style" by the Korean artist PSY. The music video itself is unique in a way that most audiences wouldn't have seen before. It has lots of bright colours that are strewn across the screen at all points in the video.

Illustrative -
Although the actual song may not be constantly linked directly by what goes on in the video, there are many moments where the lyrics have a direct link with the video. Many of these moments are when PSY shouts out "sexy ladies" and is then at that moment surrounded by many, young attractive female dancers.

Amplifying -
The colours are very important in this music video, as like the choreography and the lyrics themselves, they are vibrant and "in your face". I believe that the use of many different colours bring new meanings to the video as it tries to show the upbeat side of the song alongside the pace of the lyrics and the dancing. I do not believe that the colours conflict with the song itself, just reinforce its meanings.

Disjunctive -
There are many scenes in this music video that don't seem to flow with the song nor the video itself. For example, many characters in the video seem to be randomly placed and don't really add anything to the video itself apart from the oddness of it. Other smaller scenes like an explosion and shots of the artist, PSY, in various different places like a playground and warehouses don't really add up.

Lyrics & Visuals -
The general feel of  the editing is quick, sharp cuts that go with the upbeat pace of the song. There are some longer cuts which emphasize when the pace of the song slows down. Also many of the camera angles in the video tend to help with the music videos overall strangeness. The uses of bizarre costume also helps to emphasize the characters portrayed and even the song itself.

Summer Task - Reflection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGIssipwmE


For our summer task we were set to re-create the first 1:08 of the music video for Busted's "What I Go To School For". We were meant to create the video shot by shot from the original, easier said than done.

Research and Planning
For me the most useful planning task was the storyboard as it gave me an insight into the shots I had to recreate. For the task I wish we had planned more about the schedules and who was doing what and where, as we found later on in the production people were just given something to do as we were running out of filming time. For the A2 year I expect I'll be planning,
. Performers (Who, When, Where)
. Locations
. Timing for filming, editing etc.

Production: Digital Technology
As a Film Studies student I was already well versed in using the camera equipment and the editing suits, but I still developed these skills further and added some more techniques with camera up my sleeve for future projects. For the A2 year I would like to develop more technical skills in lighting and sound as these will be key for next year's production.

Production
During the production I learnt the importance of planning before hand so the actual production runs smoothly and without problems. The actual shoot itself went well in general but we encountered many issues like performers not showing up, bad weather and faulty equipment. In order for these issues to not be repeated in the future we'll have to focus on them before hand and make sure that through planning and pre-production these issues don't come up in the shooting.

Post-Production: Digital Technology
The editing went very well as I have used the software on many occasions before. The only issue I found was that with the lack of footage on hand, it was hard to create a flowing video. For the editing itself I found the "Cut" and "Time Expansion" keys the most useful as this allowed me to create the video you see above.