Friday
BIG THANKYOU
We want to thank Josh, Charlie, Sam, Lew, Mrs. Davies, Mr. Evans, The CLC, GEORGE FISHER-WILSON, Karen Paul, Frankie J, Tom Holmes, Becky's mum, Redcliffe caretaker for letting us stay after school until he had to kick us out, The Croft, BS8, The general public on Park St...
Thursday
Evaluation Pt.2
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The main motif that links our music video, CD cover and advert together is the use of the disco ball. The disco ball seems to be a universal element in all three products. We wanted the disco to symbolize life. Even though we don’t have the disco ball in the video, even the association with the word “discotheque” creates a link between the video and the album cover. ‘Disco’ is also written in talcum powder on the ground in our advertisement. All three products are cohesive, because the disco ball on the CD cover, represents the meaning of having fun. The bold colours in the music video, correlate with the bold CD cover and advertisement. We wanted the Hit-ups trademark to be youthful and eye-catching. The use of colourful props such as the red blazer had to fit in with our vibrant music video. Even the care-free mannerisms of our actors during the advertisement, has to reflect on the mood of the video . There is a ray of sun in the top right hand corner of our advertisement, and our video ends with a ray of sun when our protagonist finally dies, we wanted the video to subtly have a happy ending, without it being too obvious. Cohesion is extremely important, because it is the foundation of the trademark of the band. Once the band has ‘an image’, they have to maintain it continuously. Like any brand, or product on the market - the band needs to be recognizable and have its own flair. If they were to suddenly change their image, their fans may feel that they have ‘sold out’. There is an extreme amount of pressure for indie bands to maintain an ‘indie’ image or being non-conformist individuals. I really admire the Hit-ups for just being themselves. I don’t think it would make sense for us to only be playful and comical in one product such as the music video, there needs to be an element of satire in all products for continuity purposes. I think its also important for the band’s music and visuals to be recognizable. For example, if the ‘Eastenders’ theme tune is heard from another room –you would know that ‘Eastender’s’ had started without having to look at the visuals. If our song were to appear on ‘Radio1’, we’d want it to be instantly recognizable if it was seen in a magazine such as ‘NME’, because of the element of ‘disco’. Even though I do think our products are cohesive, I would change the advertisement and add the disco ball into it subtly. I think it would be too obvious and cliché for us to add the disco ball into the music video.
The main motif that links our music video, CD cover and advert together is the use of the disco ball. The disco ball seems to be a universal element in all three products. We wanted the disco to symbolize life. Even though we don’t have the disco ball in the video, even the association with the word “discotheque” creates a link between the video and the album cover. ‘Disco’ is also written in talcum powder on the ground in our advertisement. All three products are cohesive, because the disco ball on the CD cover, represents the meaning of having fun. The bold colours in the music video, correlate with the bold CD cover and advertisement. We wanted the Hit-ups trademark to be youthful and eye-catching. The use of colourful props such as the red blazer had to fit in with our vibrant music video. Even the care-free mannerisms of our actors during the advertisement, has to reflect on the mood of the video . There is a ray of sun in the top right hand corner of our advertisement, and our video ends with a ray of sun when our protagonist finally dies, we wanted the video to subtly have a happy ending, without it being too obvious. Cohesion is extremely important, because it is the foundation of the trademark of the band. Once the band has ‘an image’, they have to maintain it continuously. Like any brand, or product on the market - the band needs to be recognizable and have its own flair. If they were to suddenly change their image, their fans may feel that they have ‘sold out’. There is an extreme amount of pressure for indie bands to maintain an ‘indie’ image or being non-conformist individuals. I really admire the Hit-ups for just being themselves. I don’t think it would make sense for us to only be playful and comical in one product such as the music video, there needs to be an element of satire in all products for continuity purposes. I think its also important for the band’s music and visuals to be recognizable. For example, if the ‘Eastenders’ theme tune is heard from another room –you would know that ‘Eastender’s’ had started without having to look at the visuals. If our song were to appear on ‘Radio1’, we’d want it to be instantly recognizable if it was seen in a magazine such as ‘NME’, because of the element of ‘disco’. Even though I do think our products are cohesive, I would change the advertisement and add the disco ball into it subtly. I think it would be too obvious and cliché for us to add the disco ball into the music video.
Week 14: Evaluation
1) In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
Our response to the brief, was to create a fun and energetic music video that could be enjoyed by viewers of all ages. ‘Welcome to the Discotheque’ by The Hit-ups is an extremely up-tempo song, therefore we wanted to creature visuals that had a correlation with an animated feeling of the song. By having a youthful and playful creative vision, we decided to make our music video extremely satirical; we wanted to convey a light-hearted approach to the cycle of life. We wanted to tastefully poke fun at the stereotypical views of “the meaning of life”. Defining our genre was quite difficult, as the band are heavily influenced by many genres such as indie, funk, and hip-hop. I think that the song ‘Welcome to the Discotheque’ is the perfect fusion of all three genres. Although it’s hard to pin-point their genre, I think that they have more of an indie background. Looking back on my research, I found out that the main convention of many indie videos, (such as The Smith’s “How soon is Now?”) was to subtly construct a narrative. The story-telling came through the lyrics and was also incorporated in the visuals to set a basic mood and tone of the video. However, another convention of many indie music videos, is the use of performance. Many indie videos have some sort of live performance in it, for example “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon. Performance may be a key element, but it is not the most important thing. We wanted the performance to only be a small part of our music video and the storey of our protagonists emotional re-birth to be the main focus.
Our perception of the song was about having fun and living in the moment. We thought that the use of the phrase “welcome to the discotheque” was an analogy for reminding people about the joys of life such as falling in love and happiness. We wanted to represent these elements in our music video through the eyes of our protagonist. From our research, we found out the band’s target audience is of an average of 16 – 25. However, we wanted to create a music video that could appeal to everyone.
The generic conventions of an indie music video are based highly on the narrative structure. I feel that many indie music videos have an essence of the concept being the most important element of the video. There is always a message being subtly thrown in, whether it is through visuals or lyrics. We wanted to make an emphasis on various views on the meaning of life. Our protagonist was pining after an ‘old flame’, when he could’ve been enjoying himself at a gig. In the end, his Ipod battery had run out and he had another heart attack and this time he died. Even though we wanted to make a humorous video full of satire, we also wanted to create a thought-provoking one too. Another convention of any music video is the use of mise-en-scene. We thoroughly planned out our filming location. A lot like TV programmes such as Channel 4’s ‘Skins’, we wanted to use locations that are instantly recognizable to fellow Bristolians, such as Park street and Brandon Hill. It was an ode to The Hit-ups, as they are a famous Bristol based band. Our opening shot is in a park, we wanted to create a tranquil and peaceful setting, and then immediately create tensions and suspense with the stranger looming. I think that the opening of our music video is alot like the opening to a film. Just Jack’s video 'The Day I Died', had an element of a daily routine in it too.
We also carefully selected our protagonists outfit and the props used such as the pipe and fake moustache. We tried to think of the stereotypical attire associated with an elderly person, whilst still fitting the mood of the scene. For example the use of the dressing gown when the protagonist, ‘G’ is feeling sad and the use of a bright, tartan blazer to reflect his new youthful mood. Influenced by 'Bugsy Malone', we chose to leave the talcum powder stains on the bowler hat to ‘poke fun’ at our concept of using young people in a video about old people. Our plan to include a vast amount of satire needed to be continuous in order to be effective. As a performance is a key element in many indie videos, we wanted to include a small amount of performance in our video. When we interviewed the band, we were moved by their love for performing and engaging with the crowd. They wanted their music to be enjoyed by all ages. I think that the visuals from the performance scenes in our video, sets the tone of a lively song. The hustle and bustle of the party scene correlates with the energetic nature of the song. As does the ending part of the music video features lead vocalist Josh, swaying slowly to the soft music as the melancholy instrumental kicks in. We used many close-up shots to make an emphasis on the instruments and band members to show that it was a live performance. We wanted to capture the boisterous activity that our protagonist was missing out on. For the album cover, we placed a disco ball at the corner of a ‘water hazard’ sign in Brandon Hill. We edited the sign in Photoshop, and replaced the ‘water’ with ‘disco’. We wanted to create an abstract album cover and still get our message across of taking a light-hearted approach on discovering the meaning of life. The Hit-ups are fun-loving and modest, they aren’t concerned with vanity and fame. We thought that the band members themselves were irrelevant and it’s all about the music. We didn’t use generic portrait shots of the band on front cover, as it would’ve diverted the attention from the music, to the importance of the band members. A lot like the Maroon 5 album cover, ‘Songs about Jane’, the album cover is abstract and trippy, it reflects the mood of the album. We wanted to create a playful, colourful, eye-catching album cover to correlate with our comical music video. The use of the word “hazard” encourages the CD buyer to think that we are insinuating that our album is ‘dangerous’, again it adds to the satire and light-hearted concept of our music video. The CD advertisement didn’t come out exactly how we wanted it to. We wanted to create a collage of still shots throughout his day through Photoshop. During an editing session in IMOVIE, we created still images from the video, unfortunately we discovered the quality of the still shots were very bad when we went to the CLC. The disco ball is shocking blue, and we wanted to carry on this blue theme throughout the prints. The disco ball on the cover, the inserts inside of the CD and the writing on the advert all correlate. We wanted the image of the two main characters, ‘G’ and his ‘old flame’ to be recognizable. We wanted these two characters to be The Hit-ups trademarks. In terms of developing and challenging the conventions of indie music videos, we decided to poke fun at how serious the majority of indie videos our by using satire. Bands like ‘The Smiths’ have videos such as ‘How Soon is Now?’ that are dark and mysterious, we wanted to create a colourful video that was original and had never been done before. Whilst interviewing the band, we found out that they preferred performing to an audience at a boutique festival, Shambala than a well known mainstream festival like Glastonbury. The Hit-ups encourage the notion of making music for because they love it, not because they want to get famous for it. By making a satirical video, whilst still incorporating an element of performance from the artist, we wanted the message of the song, album, and advert to convey a message that it’s all about the music. I think that we challenged the generic conventions of a typical indie music video by contradicting the seriousness of indie videos, the satire element in many music videos lie in the genre of Pop.
Our response to the brief, was to create a fun and energetic music video that could be enjoyed by viewers of all ages. ‘Welcome to the Discotheque’ by The Hit-ups is an extremely up-tempo song, therefore we wanted to creature visuals that had a correlation with an animated feeling of the song. By having a youthful and playful creative vision, we decided to make our music video extremely satirical; we wanted to convey a light-hearted approach to the cycle of life. We wanted to tastefully poke fun at the stereotypical views of “the meaning of life”. Defining our genre was quite difficult, as the band are heavily influenced by many genres such as indie, funk, and hip-hop. I think that the song ‘Welcome to the Discotheque’ is the perfect fusion of all three genres. Although it’s hard to pin-point their genre, I think that they have more of an indie background. Looking back on my research, I found out that the main convention of many indie videos, (such as The Smith’s “How soon is Now?”) was to subtly construct a narrative. The story-telling came through the lyrics and was also incorporated in the visuals to set a basic mood and tone of the video. However, another convention of many indie music videos, is the use of performance. Many indie videos have some sort of live performance in it, for example “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon. Performance may be a key element, but it is not the most important thing. We wanted the performance to only be a small part of our music video and the storey of our protagonists emotional re-birth to be the main focus.
Our perception of the song was about having fun and living in the moment. We thought that the use of the phrase “welcome to the discotheque” was an analogy for reminding people about the joys of life such as falling in love and happiness. We wanted to represent these elements in our music video through the eyes of our protagonist. From our research, we found out the band’s target audience is of an average of 16 – 25. However, we wanted to create a music video that could appeal to everyone.
The generic conventions of an indie music video are based highly on the narrative structure. I feel that many indie music videos have an essence of the concept being the most important element of the video. There is always a message being subtly thrown in, whether it is through visuals or lyrics. We wanted to make an emphasis on various views on the meaning of life. Our protagonist was pining after an ‘old flame’, when he could’ve been enjoying himself at a gig. In the end, his Ipod battery had run out and he had another heart attack and this time he died. Even though we wanted to make a humorous video full of satire, we also wanted to create a thought-provoking one too. Another convention of any music video is the use of mise-en-scene. We thoroughly planned out our filming location. A lot like TV programmes such as Channel 4’s ‘Skins’, we wanted to use locations that are instantly recognizable to fellow Bristolians, such as Park street and Brandon Hill. It was an ode to The Hit-ups, as they are a famous Bristol based band. Our opening shot is in a park, we wanted to create a tranquil and peaceful setting, and then immediately create tensions and suspense with the stranger looming. I think that the opening of our music video is alot like the opening to a film. Just Jack’s video 'The Day I Died', had an element of a daily routine in it too.
We also carefully selected our protagonists outfit and the props used such as the pipe and fake moustache. We tried to think of the stereotypical attire associated with an elderly person, whilst still fitting the mood of the scene. For example the use of the dressing gown when the protagonist, ‘G’ is feeling sad and the use of a bright, tartan blazer to reflect his new youthful mood. Influenced by 'Bugsy Malone', we chose to leave the talcum powder stains on the bowler hat to ‘poke fun’ at our concept of using young people in a video about old people. Our plan to include a vast amount of satire needed to be continuous in order to be effective. As a performance is a key element in many indie videos, we wanted to include a small amount of performance in our video. When we interviewed the band, we were moved by their love for performing and engaging with the crowd. They wanted their music to be enjoyed by all ages. I think that the visuals from the performance scenes in our video, sets the tone of a lively song. The hustle and bustle of the party scene correlates with the energetic nature of the song. As does the ending part of the music video features lead vocalist Josh, swaying slowly to the soft music as the melancholy instrumental kicks in. We used many close-up shots to make an emphasis on the instruments and band members to show that it was a live performance. We wanted to capture the boisterous activity that our protagonist was missing out on. For the album cover, we placed a disco ball at the corner of a ‘water hazard’ sign in Brandon Hill. We edited the sign in Photoshop, and replaced the ‘water’ with ‘disco’. We wanted to create an abstract album cover and still get our message across of taking a light-hearted approach on discovering the meaning of life. The Hit-ups are fun-loving and modest, they aren’t concerned with vanity and fame. We thought that the band members themselves were irrelevant and it’s all about the music. We didn’t use generic portrait shots of the band on front cover, as it would’ve diverted the attention from the music, to the importance of the band members. A lot like the Maroon 5 album cover, ‘Songs about Jane’, the album cover is abstract and trippy, it reflects the mood of the album. We wanted to create a playful, colourful, eye-catching album cover to correlate with our comical music video. The use of the word “hazard” encourages the CD buyer to think that we are insinuating that our album is ‘dangerous’, again it adds to the satire and light-hearted concept of our music video. The CD advertisement didn’t come out exactly how we wanted it to. We wanted to create a collage of still shots throughout his day through Photoshop. During an editing session in IMOVIE, we created still images from the video, unfortunately we discovered the quality of the still shots were very bad when we went to the CLC. The disco ball is shocking blue, and we wanted to carry on this blue theme throughout the prints. The disco ball on the cover, the inserts inside of the CD and the writing on the advert all correlate. We wanted the image of the two main characters, ‘G’ and his ‘old flame’ to be recognizable. We wanted these two characters to be The Hit-ups trademarks. In terms of developing and challenging the conventions of indie music videos, we decided to poke fun at how serious the majority of indie videos our by using satire. Bands like ‘The Smiths’ have videos such as ‘How Soon is Now?’ that are dark and mysterious, we wanted to create a colourful video that was original and had never been done before. Whilst interviewing the band, we found out that they preferred performing to an audience at a boutique festival, Shambala than a well known mainstream festival like Glastonbury. The Hit-ups encourage the notion of making music for because they love it, not because they want to get famous for it. By making a satirical video, whilst still incorporating an element of performance from the artist, we wanted the message of the song, album, and advert to convey a message that it’s all about the music. I think that we challenged the generic conventions of a typical indie music video by contradicting the seriousness of indie videos, the satire element in many music videos lie in the genre of Pop.
Evaluation Pt 3:
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We made a questionnaire – people thought our music video was original and funny, they hadn’t seen anything like that before. I’m really happy that people said that because that’s what we were aiming for! One person said: “ It was incredibly unique and a brilliant performance”. I’m unsure whether or not it was a performance from the band they were referring to, or a performance from our brilliant actor. Many people thought that the intro was a bit too long, however we tried to cut down a lot of the footage but it all just fit in so perfectly (to the timing of the music at a later date). Majority of viewers understood the concept and humour of the music video. I know that a lot of music videos use long film-like intros, but they are done professionally with the right camera equipment and more time. Maybe if we had hired actors that were being paid to work, we could’ve shot our scenes many more times. We asked an art student in our sixthform what she thought of our music video cover, she loved the colour and the vibrancy of the product. We aimed to create a colourful, eye-catching CD cover and we did. Audience feedback is crucial to the media and music industries because it allows producers, directors and even the artists to reflect on their work. It outlines the flaws and what is needed to improve, and it can also encourage people to work harder. Positive feedback allows producers to acknowledge their success, so they know what they're doing right. It also helps in terms of research for their target audience. If they’re pleasing their target audience, it means more money for the media and music industries. More sales from bands, more demand from the press, more concerts being fully booked, more money being spent by their fans – it’s a vicious circle and it all benefits the musicians and their team. A consequence in ignoring audience feedback, whether good or bad – means that the production companies, managers etc do not know the views of their target audience and they don’t know if they are pleasing them or not. If the audience feedback is bad and they don’t act on it, they risk losing money, endorsements, fans and of course respect from the public. Once an image of a band is made, the band has to stick to it to please the fans and the public. I wasn’t surprised by the positive feedback, because we knew we had made a humorous video. I had all faith in our product and we followed our creative direction through and succeeded. However, I was aware of the weaker elements in our work. I feel that we could’ve worked harder on the advertisement and communication skills within the group. Even though it took us 4 failed attempts in 3 hours at the CLC, we could’ve come up with a solution to the collage of pictures. I don’t think the advertisement is our best piece of work.
We made a questionnaire – people thought our music video was original and funny, they hadn’t seen anything like that before. I’m really happy that people said that because that’s what we were aiming for! One person said: “ It was incredibly unique and a brilliant performance”. I’m unsure whether or not it was a performance from the band they were referring to, or a performance from our brilliant actor. Many people thought that the intro was a bit too long, however we tried to cut down a lot of the footage but it all just fit in so perfectly (to the timing of the music at a later date). Majority of viewers understood the concept and humour of the music video. I know that a lot of music videos use long film-like intros, but they are done professionally with the right camera equipment and more time. Maybe if we had hired actors that were being paid to work, we could’ve shot our scenes many more times. We asked an art student in our sixthform what she thought of our music video cover, she loved the colour and the vibrancy of the product. We aimed to create a colourful, eye-catching CD cover and we did. Audience feedback is crucial to the media and music industries because it allows producers, directors and even the artists to reflect on their work. It outlines the flaws and what is needed to improve, and it can also encourage people to work harder. Positive feedback allows producers to acknowledge their success, so they know what they're doing right. It also helps in terms of research for their target audience. If they’re pleasing their target audience, it means more money for the media and music industries. More sales from bands, more demand from the press, more concerts being fully booked, more money being spent by their fans – it’s a vicious circle and it all benefits the musicians and their team. A consequence in ignoring audience feedback, whether good or bad – means that the production companies, managers etc do not know the views of their target audience and they don’t know if they are pleasing them or not. If the audience feedback is bad and they don’t act on it, they risk losing money, endorsements, fans and of course respect from the public. Once an image of a band is made, the band has to stick to it to please the fans and the public. I wasn’t surprised by the positive feedback, because we knew we had made a humorous video. I had all faith in our product and we followed our creative direction through and succeeded. However, I was aware of the weaker elements in our work. I feel that we could’ve worked harder on the advertisement and communication skills within the group. Even though it took us 4 failed attempts in 3 hours at the CLC, we could’ve come up with a solution to the collage of pictures. I don’t think the advertisement is our best piece of work.
Week 14: Feedback
We held a screening at Redcliffe's 'Film Night'. We wanted to ask people who obviously had an interest in media and film products, but didn't necessarily study the subject to get an outsiders point of view. We asked a group of year 12's, who fit perfectly into our target audience, about what they thought of the video.
Becky came up with a few questions to ask our viewers:
Becky came up with a few questions to ask our viewers:
-Did you enjoy watching the music video? Yes or No
-Did you understand the concept of the video?
Yes or No
(If no, what didn’t you understand?)
-Did you think the visual went with the music?
Yes or No
-Did the music video remind you of any other music video?
-Was there anything that you didn’t enjoy about the video?
-Any thing else you would like to comment on?
One person said: "I thought the video was original and unique, I've never seen anything like it".
Another said: "I liked the video, it was funny but it the intro was way too long..."
The first quote stood out to me the most, because we wanted to create a satirical music video that still had an element of originality - for an outsider to say that about our product, it really makes me think that we accomplished what we set out to do. I do agree that introduction to the video was long, but we liked it that way!
I posted our album cover onto my flickr page and it immediately got lots of comments. I thought putting our work online was a good way to get feedback from various people. An art student said: "I love the vibrancy and colour, it's really eye-catching". We wanted to have an albun cover that was a reflection of the song, not the band - I think we achieved this by focusing on the bigger picture and trying to remain cohesive, with all of our products correlating.
Many people thought that the blue writing on the advertisement stood out, this is positive news - if this were to be on a billboard, it would attract alot of attention.
I'm yet to find out what the band have to say!
Sunday
Week 13: Success?
The group decided, that if the band were to be signed - it would be by atom sounds, an indie label. Atom are an individual label that promote new artists worldwide, via the web. The band are well-known in the Southwest and are starting to have a loyal following in Southampton...
Labels such as the infamous Rough Trade Records who signed indie sensations, 'The Smiths' may take an interest in the band, as they're youthful, developing talent. I can definitely see 'The Hit-ups' eclectic sound being played in Rough Trade (record shop) in East London, it definately fits into their demographic.
Labels such as the infamous Rough Trade Records who signed indie sensations, 'The Smiths' may take an interest in the band, as they're youthful, developing talent. I can definitely see 'The Hit-ups' eclectic sound being played in Rough Trade (record shop) in East London, it definately fits into their demographic.
Wednesday
Week 13: WE'VE ACTUALLY FINISHED!!!!
!!!!!
After an hour of editing and saying "we've finished!" we came back after the weekend, to realise that we had major jumps to re-edit. :( Becky, Paul and I disputed and disputed and disputed, we cut up to 0.4 seconds off but that still didn't make a difference in what was obvious to us, but not to a outsider.
I'm really happy with our product...I'm nervous to hear the feedback from our peers. We know that feedback is important, so that we know what to improve the next time we do a project like this. Constructive criticism is always useful.
After an hour of editing and saying "we've finished!" we came back after the weekend, to realise that we had major jumps to re-edit. :( Becky, Paul and I disputed and disputed and disputed, we cut up to 0.4 seconds off but that still didn't make a difference in what was obvious to us, but not to a outsider.
I'm really happy with our product...I'm nervous to hear the feedback from our peers. We know that feedback is important, so that we know what to improve the next time we do a project like this. Constructive criticism is always useful.
Tuesday
Evaluation Pt4:
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stage?
During our research and planning, we used search engines such as ‘Google’ to find out about local bands in Bristol. Social networking sites such as; ‘Facebook’, ‘MySpace’ and ‘YouTube’ proved to be extremely useful. We used these websites for initial research on our band, ‘The Hit-ups’. The band use ‘Facebook ‘and ‘MySpace’ to promote their music, they have a huge following on both sites. We even contacted their band through the information they left on their blog. I think the use of social networking sites is really crucial as it’s free advertising world-wide. They can showcase their music and really get it out there. We picked our song from the band, by looking at the music player on their MySpace page. We had strong communication with the band via the internet (hotmail) and our phones. Technology allows us to keep in touch with those who are far away, for example – I was emailing Charlie (the guitarist), frequently whilst he was in Southampton studying. Even though he was miles away, we were able to secure a meeting back in Bristol. When we met up with the band, we interviewed them using a camera phone – the picture quality was fine, it shows how much technology has evolved in the last few years that substantial software has been imported on everyday things like a mobile phone. We uploaded the video of the interview onto ‘Youtube’, so we could share it on our blogs. Of course our own blogs have allowed us to virtually ‘follow’ each other, just like social networking sites like twitter. The construction of our filming was carefully planned out. On the first day of our filming, we came fully equipped with tripods and camcorders. We placed one camcorder on a table, for various high-angle shots. We used ‘night vision mode’ on our camcorders because the lighting was poor inside of ‘the croft’ – however, this contributed to an underground, edgy effect. The analysis of music videos, has allowed us to delve into the world of HTML and coding. It’s quite easy to use once you get your head around it. Software on MACs such as ‘Photoshop’ encouraged us to find ways in how we could make our images better, whether it was brightening the picture of increasing the contrast, there was always something to fix. Imovie was easy to use and efficient – the effects we used in our video such as sound effects like birds tweeting and hearts pounding, added a more realistic element to our music video, a setting and tension too.
During our research and planning, we used search engines such as ‘Google’ to find out about local bands in Bristol. Social networking sites such as; ‘Facebook’, ‘MySpace’ and ‘YouTube’ proved to be extremely useful. We used these websites for initial research on our band, ‘The Hit-ups’. The band use ‘Facebook ‘and ‘MySpace’ to promote their music, they have a huge following on both sites. We even contacted their band through the information they left on their blog. I think the use of social networking sites is really crucial as it’s free advertising world-wide. They can showcase their music and really get it out there. We picked our song from the band, by looking at the music player on their MySpace page. We had strong communication with the band via the internet (hotmail) and our phones. Technology allows us to keep in touch with those who are far away, for example – I was emailing Charlie (the guitarist), frequently whilst he was in Southampton studying. Even though he was miles away, we were able to secure a meeting back in Bristol. When we met up with the band, we interviewed them using a camera phone – the picture quality was fine, it shows how much technology has evolved in the last few years that substantial software has been imported on everyday things like a mobile phone. We uploaded the video of the interview onto ‘Youtube’, so we could share it on our blogs. Of course our own blogs have allowed us to virtually ‘follow’ each other, just like social networking sites like twitter. The construction of our filming was carefully planned out. On the first day of our filming, we came fully equipped with tripods and camcorders. We placed one camcorder on a table, for various high-angle shots. We used ‘night vision mode’ on our camcorders because the lighting was poor inside of ‘the croft’ – however, this contributed to an underground, edgy effect. The analysis of music videos, has allowed us to delve into the world of HTML and coding. It’s quite easy to use once you get your head around it. Software on MACs such as ‘Photoshop’ encouraged us to find ways in how we could make our images better, whether it was brightening the picture of increasing the contrast, there was always something to fix. Imovie was easy to use and efficient – the effects we used in our video such as sound effects like birds tweeting and hearts pounding, added a more realistic element to our music video, a setting and tension too.
Saturday
Week 12: Two weeks 'til deadline!
MADNESS! We're still filming! This is awful...I'm not sure how we're going to finish this? We dragged our actor out of sixthform for the very very very last time. We have to many good ideas, we just have to get then SORTED.
.
We were extremely lucky, because the weather was gloomy and wet, alot like the day when we first filmed in october. This means that there will be a consistency in visuals when it comes to editing. Our video ended with our protagonist being stood up by his 'old flame'. The viewer watches hin pace around, waiting for her and she doesn't turn up. We edited the speed of this scene by fast-forwarding alot of the footage. We wanted to convey a theme of pathos, where the viewers feel sorry for our protagonist. We managed to over come obstacles such as the loss of the moustache, by using mise-en-scene - we asked our actor to put his hands on his chin, insinuating that he had 'freshened up' for his date.
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We were extremely lucky, because the weather was gloomy and wet, alot like the day when we first filmed in october. This means that there will be a consistency in visuals when it comes to editing. Our video ended with our protagonist being stood up by his 'old flame'. The viewer watches hin pace around, waiting for her and she doesn't turn up. We edited the speed of this scene by fast-forwarding alot of the footage. We wanted to convey a theme of pathos, where the viewers feel sorry for our protagonist. We managed to over come obstacles such as the loss of the moustache, by using mise-en-scene - we asked our actor to put his hands on his chin, insinuating that he had 'freshened up' for his date.
Wednesday
Week 11: Back to Editing
We've finished editing or main section, all we need is an ending. We've decided to film our last few scenes at Becky's house. We wanted to have a few shots, with a home-atmosphere, Becky's is the nearest house to Redcliffe.
Becky, Sidonie and Ifilmed the shots of 'G' outside of Redcliffe sixthform in a phonebooth, we used props such as the Hit-ups poster, to make our video more realistic as we show the actual event. Our actor misplaced his moustache, this meant that we had to film everything from behind! We used many over-the-shoulder shots and long shots.
I edited a photo of the protagonist's 'old flame'. I cropped the photo, and edited it by changing it into a Sepia tone. We chose to use sepia, because it looks like it could pass off as an old picture from 1946 (just about!)
We just have one more bit of filming to do! (Fingers crossed!)
I edited a photo of the protagonist's 'old flame'. I cropped the photo, and edited it by changing it into a Sepia tone. We chose to use sepia, because it looks like it could pass off as an old picture from 1946 (just about!)
We just have one more bit of filming to do! (Fingers crossed!)
Tuesday
CLC
When we entered the CLC, our mouths literally dropped...the suite was amazing! We had a really helpful instructor that talked us through a step by step guide in editing our photos sufficiently. Through photoshop, we were taught how to manipulate photos. As a photography student, I already had basic knowledge about photoshop. Sidonie and I immediately had thoughts on what we wanted to do to our images. I found the CLC trip very useful, because it improved my technology skills on software like Photoshop, it also encouraged me to experiment more, until I'm happy with my product.
I took a photo fron a tilted angle, of a sign that said "water hazard" on it, we hung the disco ball on the side of it. We wanted to create an abstract image.
Front Cover:
Before:
During Editing:
We used an eraser tool by copying ans pasting the plain yellow parts of the sign ontop of the water' part, to look as though it only said "hazard".
This was extremely time consuming, but we really wanted this as our album cover!
We replaced the empty space with black text that said "Disco", we would've used blue text to match the blue disco ball...but it wouldn't have shown up properly.
This was extremely time consuming, but we really wanted this as our album cover!
We replaced the empty space with black text that said "Disco", we would've used blue text to match the blue disco ball...but it wouldn't have shown up properly.
Inserts:
We increased the contrast to make the disco ball the centre of attention, the main focus - so the element of disco remains cohesive in the project.
For our second insert (dedications) - we cropped a long shot photograph of the bowler hat with the disco ball. We thought the two props worked well together, and the bowler hat is instantly recognizable - like our trademark.
We wanted to create a dedications page that actually reflected (what we thought) the band would say ; such as the croft and their manager Skip Curtis. We have a strong bond with them, and we thought it would only be fair if we did them justice.
Again, we've used the two elements of the video - the concept of disco and the bowler hat. We wanted the text to be blue, to correlate with the blue ball.
We experimented with different font colours during our photoshop session, we wanted to make the best album cover and back to suit our energetic image,
We increased the contrast to make the disco ball the centre of attention, the main focus - so the element of disco remains cohesive in the project.
For our second insert (dedications) - we cropped a long shot photograph of the bowler hat with the disco ball. We thought the two props worked well together, and the bowler hat is instantly recognizable - like our trademark.
We wanted to create a dedications page that actually reflected (what we thought) the band would say ; such as the croft and their manager Skip Curtis. We have a strong bond with them, and we thought it would only be fair if we did them justice.
Again, we've used the two elements of the video - the concept of disco and the bowler hat. We wanted the text to be blue, to correlate with the blue ball.
We experimented with different font colours during our photoshop session, we wanted to make the best album cover and back to suit our energetic image,
We originally used an orangey brown colour text, but it clashed with the business of the trees, this benefited us - because we still carried on with the theme of blue.
For our advertisement, we tried to make a collage of pictures, to make an emphasis on the amount of things he did in his youthful day, not only was this time-consuming - but very tricky. We didn't want to use the band's picture in the advertisement, because a portrait shot would not fit into our image of a care-free band, with a simple message - to enjoy life. I feel that that doesn't fit into the conventions of an young indie band.
We ended up going home without an advertisement, but we knew what we had to do in our own spare tinme.
Thursday
Week 9: CLC Prep
We're going on a Media trip to Brislington Enterprise College. There have an amazing facility full of macs for the whole media year to edit our photos for our CD cover, advertisement, and get general tips on Photoshop.
Sidonie and I ventured down to Brandon Hill (our prime location), armed with a disco ball, a bowler hat and an ipod - we went to take photos for all three products. We wanted to create cohesive products, that our target audience could find appealing. We wanted to create something that's not in the niche market, that's not already out there...
Sidonie and I ventured down to Brandon Hill (our prime location), armed with a disco ball, a bowler hat and an ipod - we went to take photos for all three products. We wanted to create cohesive products, that our target audience could find appealing. We wanted to create something that's not in the niche market, that's not already out there...
The Hit-ups own album cover, is an animation. It was done a few years ago, so the band have definitely grown up... It's extremely colourful and vibrant, like the song.
This is a key example of prioritising their music, more than getting their faces known. We want to follow their example and forget about vanity.
Back to more editing...we still have a lot to do and the deadline is nearing!
Sunday
Week 8: Finally getting there....
We officially have 1.48 seconds of a music video! We've been thoroughly editing the the croft footage. As we used night-vision to film, as the lighting was poor - the footage appeared grainy. We adjusted the lighting on Imovie, so it's not too dark or high in contrast. The band have been checking up on us now and again...we're getting there slowly but surely. We just need to film one last bit! AND WE'RE FINIHED, VOILA!
Friday
Week 7: Feeling the Pressue/Illness
I've been feeling extremely poorly! I'm so worried that there's still a bit of friction between Paul and the rest of the group...Becky says editing is fine. She's been attempting to edit the dance sequence and incorporate lots of match-on-action. Ofcourse Paul is on hand to help out with editing. I saw that he added a flash effect into the scene where our protagonist walks out of a quirky shop (BS8 on Park Street) after he's "re-born". It's cheesy, but I kind of like it...
I am absolutely inlove with Miike Snow, Kudos to the director of this video!
I am absolutely inlove with Miike Snow, Kudos to the director of this video!
Tuesday
Week 6: Film Schedule
Looking back at the film schedule...I'm noticing that we have not been following the rules!
Date: 16th October
Location: The croft
Whos' needed: Becky, Sidonie, Yero, Paul
Props: 3 camcorders, 1 tripod, charger
Date: 21st October
Location: Brandon Hill/Park Street/College Green
Who's needed: Becky, Sidonie, Yero, Paul
Props: Dressing gown, bowler hat, scarf, slippers, chalk, talcum powder, moustache, pipe, blazer
1 tripod, 3 camcorders
Date: 29th October:
Location: Park Street
Who's needed: Becky, Yero (and Karen - actor)
Props: 1 camcorder
Paul hasn't turned up to one filming session, it's proving to be difficult, getting him to engage in work....we're not working as a team. I spoke to Mrs. D and she says not to worry, we just need to focus on our own grades. That's set my mind at ease. :)
Date: 16th October
Location: The croft
Whos' needed: Becky, Sidonie, Yero, Paul
Props: 3 camcorders, 1 tripod, charger
Date: 21st October
Location: Brandon Hill/Park Street/College Green
Who's needed: Becky, Sidonie, Yero, Paul
Props: Dressing gown, bowler hat, scarf, slippers, chalk, talcum powder, moustache, pipe, blazer
1 tripod, 3 camcorders
Date: 29th October:
Location: Park Street
Who's needed: Becky, Yero (and Karen - actor)
Props: 1 camcorder
Paul hasn't turned up to one filming session, it's proving to be difficult, getting him to engage in work....we're not working as a team. I spoke to Mrs. D and she says not to worry, we just need to focus on our own grades. That's set my mind at ease. :)
Monday
Week 6: Tackling Editing
We've uploaded the song to the mac we're working on, this should make it easier to estimate timing accurately. We have finished editing the intro to our music video. I feel that it is a bit too long, as do the rest of the group. However, we don't want to change anything just yet. The group dynamics seems to be changing...Paul has failed to turn up to our group meetings and film days, even with notice. Becky, Sidonie and I are just scared that Paul may spend hours in the editing suite, deleting alot of footage that we need. It's really hard to be able to tell Paul that he needs to be aware of the creative direction...I know he's still new to the group, but it's so much easier if two people are in the suite at once.
We're having a problem with one scene from our video - our protagonist's 'old flame', is seen from across the street - yet she isn't re-introduced into the music video. We asked for feedback from our class members...and one person said they didn't understand the 'old flame' scene at all. This means that we have to drag Karen around Park street yet again so that our video makes sense. It feels as though we're filming as we're going along. We need to stick to the storyboard! We come up so many fresh, new exciting ideas that means more hard work...too ambitious??
We're having a problem with one scene from our video - our protagonist's 'old flame', is seen from across the street - yet she isn't re-introduced into the music video. We asked for feedback from our class members...and one person said they didn't understand the 'old flame' scene at all. This means that we have to drag Karen around Park street yet again so that our video makes sense. It feels as though we're filming as we're going along. We need to stick to the storyboard! We come up so many fresh, new exciting ideas that means more hard work...too ambitious??
Sunday
WEEK 5: The Aftermath
Filming Part 2 is done and dusted! The group (minus paul again...) met up outside redcliffe sixthform centre with our two main characters played by George Fisher-Wilson and Karen Paul. We waited for a good 20minutes or so for just a few friends to turn up and help out...no one came. Luckily we'd already made a plan B, just in case of rejection and we were just going to film the two main characters. We went to Brandon Hill, and set up where the benches are. We new it would be wet, so we came fully prepared!
Location: Brandon Hill, Bristol
Getting into Character:
Here is a picture of Sidonie, Becky and I prepping George for his 'old man' routine. We put tonnes of talcum powder on his hair, for a gey-hair look. Mise-en-scene: he's wearing a robe and red silk scarf like we planned.
It was extremely hard not to get talcum powder everywhere, but we decided that the more talcum powder, the better - the more fake and silly it looked, the more satirical our video would be.
Shots:
We had a faulty tripod, so it was extremely hard to film free-hand. We decided to make the most of it, by experimenting with what shots looked good and what didn't. We started off with a pan of small section of brandon hill; to show the viewer the protagonist's surroundings. We tried, tilts and over the shoulder shots - angles to make the footage look as surreal as possible.
We really wanted the question, "What's the meaning of life?" written somewhere in the video. We didn't like the idea of editing text into the video, so we decided to chalk for a more abstract and original look. Unfortunately our chalk started to run dry!
As we had extra talcum powder, we decided to write the answer to the meaning of life - "DISCO" in huge letters with the powder. We thought that we needed to be consistent in our originality. Thanks to our experimenting, we were able to film a really tricky scene, a high angle of the protagonist after he has his heart attack. A stranger puts ipod earphones into his ears...we didn't want to show the strangers face, to maintain an element of mystery...so I suggested that we put the camcorder on his head (as a point-of-view-shot) over the protagonist.
We then met up with dancer, Frankie J at college green for our 'old man dance' scene. Frankie J was supposed to be a busker, whom our protagonist, 'G' takes a liking to. We used two cameras for this scene, so when it comes to editing - we can use match-on-action to make an emphasis on the franticness of the dance sequence. Our actor George was brilliant, he improvised well and gave us so much to work with. It was hard to film Frankie J, as he kept moving in the opposite direction of the camera, I'm scared that our footage will be extremely shaky!
Unfortunately, we ran out of time as our actors had to get home. It took us about 2 and half hours to film such a small part of the video, we still have an ending to film...I'm starting to feel behind :(.
Wednesday
Week 5: Film Day!
'Old People' day has finally arrived! I'm feeling quite apprehensive, as I checked last night and only 13 people have still confirmed. However, I think that 13 people may still be enough for the concept of our music video - an elderly man (our protagonist) grabbing other elderly people at random and dancing to the Hit-ups gig, at the croft with him.
Mise-en-scene:
Props for the protagonist-
1) Talcum Powder
To create a "grey hair look". We'll need to sprinkle talcum powder onto his hair. I know that it would be easier to just spray a 24 hour hair dye into his hair, but we want to spend as little as possible on our props. Paul, Becky, Sidonie and I all have talc at home, so it would be easy to get hold of.
2) Bowler Hat
We love the classic look of the bowler hat. I have one at home so we won't need to spend any money. This also disguises the very fake hair that our 'actor' will have.
3) Slippers
Slippers are a stereotypical element in an elderly persons lifestyle. As we wanted to poke fun at 'the elderly', we thought that our protagonist dancing down park street in brown slippers would be an extremely humorous effect.
4) Dressing gown
This is another characteristic of elderly attire. I can imagine a grandmother sitting in a dressing-gown, sipping some tea. We have to make it as humorous as possible!
5) Scarf
We really want to use a silk scarf, it'll be quite cold outside and we want what he's wearing to a representative of the weather and surroundings.
6) 'Joke Shop Pipe'
Again, to add satire - we want to use the stereotypical 'old man's pipe'. This cost us £2.
We want him to still have a signature mature look, but we want to add colour as a representative of his new youthful persona. This will be the last bit of props for our protagonist.
Positioning/Facial Expressions/Mannerisms:
- Before heart attack
It's extremely important for us to get the message of our humour across. We want to create a satirical video, where we can make fun of adulthood, and the cycle of life; birth, adolescence, becoming an elderly person then death. We were inspired by the 1980's film 'Bugsy Malone', where the whole cast were under the age of 15. We thought that the use of paintball guns and apple pies as weapons, added a satirical and light-hearted view on the gangster lifestyle.
We decided to use a young person, dressed up as an old person to add humour to our music video. This means that there needs to be a consistency in how our protagonist is dressed, his mannerisms, and how he looks on screen. We thought of the general characteristics of elderly people; grey hair, scarves, hats, slippers, old ties and blazers, dressing-gowns.
We decided to use a young person, dressed up as an old person to add humour to our music video. This means that there needs to be a consistency in how our protagonist is dressed, his mannerisms, and how he looks on screen. We thought of the general characteristics of elderly people; grey hair, scarves, hats, slippers, old ties and blazers, dressing-gowns.
Mise-en-scene:
Props for the protagonist-
1) Talcum Powder
To create a "grey hair look". We'll need to sprinkle talcum powder onto his hair. I know that it would be easier to just spray a 24 hour hair dye into his hair, but we want to spend as little as possible on our props. Paul, Becky, Sidonie and I all have talc at home, so it would be easy to get hold of.
2) Bowler Hat
We love the classic look of the bowler hat. I have one at home so we won't need to spend any money. This also disguises the very fake hair that our 'actor' will have.
3) Slippers
Slippers are a stereotypical element in an elderly persons lifestyle. As we wanted to poke fun at 'the elderly', we thought that our protagonist dancing down park street in brown slippers would be an extremely humorous effect.
4) Dressing gown
This is another characteristic of elderly attire. I can imagine a grandmother sitting in a dressing-gown, sipping some tea. We have to make it as humorous as possible!
5) Scarf
We really want to use a silk scarf, it'll be quite cold outside and we want what he's wearing to a representative of the weather and surroundings.
6) 'Joke Shop Pipe'
Again, to add satire - we want to use the stereotypical 'old man's pipe'. This cost us £2.
7) 'Joke Shop Moustache'
This is the second thing we will be buying, it costs £1.99
8) Vintage Blazer (when he is re-born into a youthful old person)
We want him to still have a signature mature look, but we want to add colour as a representative of his new youthful persona. This will be the last bit of props for our protagonist.
Positioning/Facial Expressions/Mannerisms:
- Before heart attack
- Grumpy (dismal elderly person
- Squinting
- Crouched down, low shoulders
- Smoking pipe (With talcum powder inside of it!)
- Dejected
- After heart attack
- Upbeat/Energetic
- Smiling
- Fast movements
Tuesday
Week 5: Filming Part 2 - Shooting Schedule
Our first filming section went very well. We filmed the "rave scene" first because we thought this may prove to be the hardest thing to film during the project. It also helped that the Hit-ups had a gig coming up aswell. We managed to capture all of the shots we wanted to get. Although saying that, our footage would've made more sense if more "old people" attended. We have a few shots of two or three of our friends walking into the venue and dancing at the front, near the stage. However, we're finding this hard to fit in with the rest of our filming. We have to change our plot and story-board again and make do with what we have. In terms of mise-en-scene, we planned to have all of our "old people" extras planted around the venue, then slowly make their way up to the protagonist.
[PICTURE OF SHOOTING SCHEDULE]
This means that we have to come up with various ways we can make the "rave scene" fit in with the rest of our humorous video. We need to film our "brandon hill scene" ASAP. We hope to finish filming by early November (maximum!) So we have at least 4 weeks to edit in depth.
[PICTURE OF SHOOTING SCHEDULE]
This means that we have to come up with various ways we can make the "rave scene" fit in with the rest of our humorous video. We need to film our "brandon hill scene" ASAP. We hope to finish filming by early November (maximum!) So we have at least 4 weeks to edit in depth.
WEEK 5: EDITING!
I'm so happy to get back on the mac. I really enjoyed editing last year and experimenting with different effects. So far the footage we have, is from the croft. We filmed about 2hours worth of gig (altogether). We wanted a variety of shots we could select during the editing process.
I'm getting back into the habit 'splitting clips', 'cutting' and previewing. I thought that we were taught extremely well last year, so it makes it easier for us to get back into the flow of it, now in our second year of using iMovie.
Sunday
Week 5: Filming Part 2 - OLD PEOPLE DAY!
After the commitment and loyality issues were tested by our friends during our first part of filming, we decided to take drastic action. Influenced by The Hit-ups use of social networking, we decided to make our own event on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events.php?archive=1&s=80&hash=3df2df1d0773097990eac4bbc9c09a54#/event.php?eid=329943375416&index=1archive=1&s=80&hash=3df2df1d0773097990eac4bbc9c09a54#/event.php?eid=329943375416&index=1
We also contacted a well known dancer in Bristol called "Frankie J", he's about our age and is a phenominal dancer. I emailed him via facebook. One of our friends has PROMISED to turn up to the event as she is another main character in the music video. We want to insinuate that she is an 'old flame' from the past. This creates an instant link between her and the protagonist.
(video of frankie j)
We also contacted a well known dancer in Bristol called "Frankie J", he's about our age and is a phenominal dancer. I emailed him via facebook. One of our friends has PROMISED to turn up to the event as she is another main character in the music video. We want to insinuate that she is an 'old flame' from the past. This creates an instant link between her and the protagonist.
(video of frankie j)
We called the event: Old People Day
We invited hundreds of our friends, we thought that the more people we invited, the more people were likely to participate in our filming. We needed our friends to dress up as an elderly people for the duration of the filming process.
"Wanna be on MTV???Heres your chance; We're making a media music video with Bristols best 'The Hit Ups': myspace.com/thehitupsWhat we need you to do is dress up as your grandparents :), we mean, grey hair, granny jumpers, walking sticks, glasses, shawls, ankle socks, the lot!!!We're meeting outside Sixthform at 3.30 and will go on to brandon hill from there! We really need your help, and it will be a really fun day :):)Get back to me as sooooon as if you can make it!Much love, Sidonie, Yero and Becky xox"
We included the Hit-ups myspace url (myspace.com/thehitups) as it has their music on it. We wanted the people we invited to the event, to be able to listen to their music. In pink, we highlighted the guestlist (might attend, not attending, and awaiting reply) and cofirmed. Even after inviting over 200 people, only 13 people said they were confirming. If you were to take out the three of us that said we were attending (Becky, Sidonie and I), only 10 people would be turning up!
Saturday
WEEK 4: THE AFTERMATH
After getting home with beerstained clothes and a missing blackberry case at 1.30am, I am extremely proud of myself. Like we guessed, the male member in our group didn't turn up...I'm really annoyed, he didn't make any effort whatsoever to get in contact with any of us. He could've sent an email. It would've been so much better for all of us, if everyone's input could be used during this project.
We got to 'The Croft' at 8pm or so, after making various calls to Charlie we finally managed to get sorted. Armed with 3 cameras, a storyboard and a tripod, we precisely planned how we were going to make this filming process work. We had 4 hours to waste, and ended up taking pictures of ourselves we were so bored!
Josh actually announced that we were filming to the whole crowd, so this allowed us to have some sort of authority on the crowd
Camera with Tripod:We wanted to get a variety of pan shots of the bands performance, and the crowd dancing from a high-angle.
Handheld cameras: We wanted to get a variety of more energetic pans as if the protagonist was dancing whilst looking around. If the shot appeared shaky, it would look like this was done intentially rather than a crisp, swift movement on the tripod. We also used the handheld camera to zoom into the instruments and band members, we wanted close-ups on both the band and their instruments to make an emphasis on the fact that it's a live performance. We wanted to viewer to feel like they were part of the gig. 
We took advantage of 'midnight rave' feeling as it made the party feel more exclusive. It adds an element of humour, seeing a hundred trendy teenagers dancing while the protagonist is an elderly man. Unforunately, as our actor was not there - neither was the protagonist, therefore we used many point-of-view shots. We used nightvision on all of our cameras, it created an edgy underground feeling. We did this to encourage the audience to feel apart of the 'rave'.
Over-coming the problems: We found it hard to get extreme-closeups on the band members, especially lead singer Josh as he was really into the music. He wasn't aware of the camera at most times, and when he was aware of it - he looked into the lens! Alot of people were drunk and kept waving at the camera, this was time-consuming as we needed to remain in certain positions to capture footage of Josh's mouth, so we can make the lyrics in sync with his mouth movements.
About 7 of our friends turned up to the event, only 2 of them wore 'old people fancy dress'. We felt really let down, however with no budget - we can't expect too much from people. These are our friends, not actors.
Friday
WEEK 4: FILM DAY!
FRIDAY 16th OCTOBER! DOOMSDAY HAS ARRIVED! Or rather filming day...I've been feeling quite stressed, we've been asking our friends to help out, the old school way...we've been sending texts, emails and of course depending on word of mouth to get the news of The Hit-ups gig out!
It's an inset day, AND a Friday, so there's no excuse of "school the next day"...I really hope people don't let us down. However, I have to be realistic - I do think its a lot to ask, "can you please come to stokes croft dressed as someone around the age of 75? also can you dance so we can film you please?!"
Mrs. Davies gave us three cameras and a tripod. We want to use two of the camera's to get footage on the dance floor, and position the third camera on a table, near the stage using the tripod to get pans of the croft. We want sharp, clean shots that will make editing easier, yet we also want many shots of the crowd jumping up and down, as if they are point-of-view shots. George, our actor can't make it...so that will make it even harder to film.
Newest member Paul is completely silent in media lessons. I don't know how to encourage him to speak up, maybe he feels overwhelmed with all of our ideas. It's hard to know how to include him, when it's as if he doesn't want to be included. We have to work as a group on this. He won't give me his mobile number, this makes matters so much worse! I have to rely on facebook to contact him:
It's an inset day, AND a Friday, so there's no excuse of "school the next day"...I really hope people don't let us down. However, I have to be realistic - I do think its a lot to ask, "can you please come to stokes croft dressed as someone around the age of 75? also can you dance so we can film you please?!"
Mrs. Davies gave us three cameras and a tripod. We want to use two of the camera's to get footage on the dance floor, and position the third camera on a table, near the stage using the tripod to get pans of the croft. We want sharp, clean shots that will make editing easier, yet we also want many shots of the crowd jumping up and down, as if they are point-of-view shots. George, our actor can't make it...so that will make it even harder to film.
Newest member Paul is completely silent in media lessons. I don't know how to encourage him to speak up, maybe he feels overwhelmed with all of our ideas. It's hard to know how to include him, when it's as if he doesn't want to be included. We have to work as a group on this. He won't give me his mobile number, this makes matters so much worse! I have to rely on facebook to contact him:
I feel awful, I'm meeting with Becky and Sidonie at 7pm to set up (during their soundcheck) and then we'll grab Paul at 10pm for the midnight show.
Charlie the guitarist dropped a huge bombshell on us last night...The gig is infact at MIDNIGHT, rather than 8pm advertised on their myspace. Now he isn't replying to any of my texts, extra stress...I'm really unsure of what's going to happen this evening. Seeing as I'm the person in main contact with him, it's as though it's down to me to make this run smoothly!
Good luck to us...
The main obstacles that we may have to find ways to overcome during filming:
-Quality of lighting
-Disorderly behaviour e.g. drunk people looking into the camera lens
-People turning up! (Old people)
- Sharp, focused shots
- The whole media group turning up!
Good luck to us...
The main obstacles that we may have to find ways to overcome during filming:
-Quality of lighting
-Disorderly behaviour e.g. drunk people looking into the camera lens
-People turning up! (Old people)
- Sharp, focused shots
- The whole media group turning up!
Sunday
Week 4: New member in the team...
Both Becky and Sidonie have been poorly so I've been left on my own for a lesson or two. Sidonie had told me that both of our media teachers had noticed that one person in the class was working on his own, Paul. He asked me if he could join our group and I immediately said yes, without consulting both of my group members. I do feel that we were put on the spot, but if I was in that position, I'd probably be too shy to ask a group of people I don't know very well if I could join their group...however, when it comes to your 'A' levels, I think you have to swallow your pride and strive for the best grade you can get.
The three of us have been storyboarding and working so hard. We have a creative direction and we all share the same vision. I hope Paul can fit in with this intesity!
The three of us have been storyboarding and working so hard. We have a creative direction and we all share the same vision. I hope Paul can fit in with this intesity!
Thursday
Week 3: ARGH!!!
Just got home, been informed that reception has taken off majority of our posters...after all the effort we made! Sidonie and I even asked to put an announcement in the newsletter but apparently "if it's not work related, don't bother asking". IT IS SCHOOL WORK RELATED! Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to advertise it as a party? How are we going to pull this off? STRESS!
Currently my facial expression:
Currently my facial expression:
Wednesday
Week Three: Getting people involved
Over the weekend, Charlie and Josh told us that they had a gig at the croft on October 16th. This was excellent news, as it meant that it fit in with our shooting schedule. We didn't have to organize a gig, there was already one on! This made matters much easier, as we just had to get all of our friends involved. This week, we've been urging our friends to invest in some talcum powder, a few shawls and 'granny socks'. We have just about over a week, to promote the gig and get all of our friends and Hit-up fans to attend!
Sidonie and I made posters and advertised them "PARTY AT THE CROFT", with a picture og Josh and Charlie from our interview. In some ways, this could be propaganda as it's not actually a party. But we thought it sounded better than "A2 Media Project, please help we're desperate!"
To make this 'party scene' jam-packed and energy filled, we need to completely fill out one area of the croft. We even left our mobile numbers on the poster for more information.
Currently sticking these posters everywhere, and we mean everywhere. I just hope lots of people turn up...
Monday
Week Three: Meeting some ROCKSTARS!
A brief (and extremely giggly) interview with only 50% of the Hit-ups, as we pitch our idea and they talk to us about how they got started, their influences, random funny facts, their target audience and how they reacted to our idea!
Here are a few things that stood out to me during the interview:
-The band intially got started by just 'jamming' together and mutual friendships
-They compared themselves to bands such as Sublime, Rage Against the Machine and Redhotchilipeppers (all different Genres)
-They prefer more boutique festivals like Shambala than huge festivals like Glastonbury, they enjoyed the intimacy and the crowd at Shambala
- Target audience - everyone, they've got a good response from everyone, all ages like their music, they didn't want to appeal to "just one age group or genre"
- Charlie the guitarist said, "young people get it more" and "it's all about high energy and having fun"
- They use past experiences, (even if they're silly!) as references in their songs -e.g. the phrase "hot butter" in 'Welcome to the Discotheque'.
- When asked about their own ideas on a music video, Josh said that it's "not really their strong point". I think that Becky, Sidonie and I can express our creativity and encourage them to become involved in our music video
- Lead vocalist Josh, is "looking forward to seeing old people dancing around when they're really young people"
- Lead vocalist Josh liked the fact that each band member is influenced by different genres of music, he thought that it was useful that they have enough between them to bring in different ideas.
Here are a few things that stood out to me during the interview:
-The band intially got started by just 'jamming' together and mutual friendships
-They compared themselves to bands such as Sublime, Rage Against the Machine and Redhotchilipeppers (all different Genres)
-They prefer more boutique festivals like Shambala than huge festivals like Glastonbury, they enjoyed the intimacy and the crowd at Shambala
- Target audience - everyone, they've got a good response from everyone, all ages like their music, they didn't want to appeal to "just one age group or genre"
- Charlie the guitarist said, "young people get it more" and "it's all about high energy and having fun"
- They use past experiences, (even if they're silly!) as references in their songs -e.g. the phrase "hot butter" in 'Welcome to the Discotheque'.
- When asked about their own ideas on a music video, Josh said that it's "not really their strong point". I think that Becky, Sidonie and I can express our creativity and encourage them to become involved in our music video
- Lead vocalist Josh, is "looking forward to seeing old people dancing around when they're really young people"
- Lead vocalist Josh liked the fact that each band member is influenced by different genres of music, he thought that it was useful that they have enough between them to bring in different ideas.
Thursday
Week Three: Anticipation!
Eek! Tomorrow, is the day that we meet up with the hit-ups and pitch our idea. I'm very nervous, Becky and I both decided that even if they don't like our music video, their thoughts are irrelevant as it's our A level project. Guitarist, Charlie decided that we should meet up after school at 'The Croft'.
'The croft' has been dubbed the most chilled out bar in Bristol. It makes sense for the Hit-ups to make this bar their second home. I can imagine that they've been inspired to make majority of their music here. Our initial idea for 'Discotheque', was to film a party scene in castle park. However, this would be impossible - where would we find an adapter that would let us plug in outdoor lights? how could we make sure there was no disorderly behaviour that may ruin our filming? do we need to advertise a massive event and get all of our friends down there? Charlie also suggested that we should film out party scene in 'The Croft'. As we're meeting there tomorrow, it works out well - we can check out venue and start properly planning how we can make this look realistic.
'The croft' has been dubbed the most chilled out bar in Bristol. It makes sense for the Hit-ups to make this bar their second home. I can imagine that they've been inspired to make majority of their music here. Our initial idea for 'Discotheque', was to film a party scene in castle park. However, this would be impossible - where would we find an adapter that would let us plug in outdoor lights? how could we make sure there was no disorderly behaviour that may ruin our filming? do we need to advertise a massive event and get all of our friends down there? Charlie also suggested that we should film out party scene in 'The Croft'. As we're meeting there tomorrow, it works out well - we can check out venue and start properly planning how we can make this look realistic.
Friday
Week Two: Results
After an excruciating 3 hours of going through data, I finally made some pie charts with results from our questionnaire. We wanted to find out about the most popular genres that people of about 16-20 (our target audience) listen to. We also wanted to find out the importance of CD covers and where they actually purchase their music.
Majority of people go to gigs 'every couple of months', depending on whats on in Bristol. Only a few people go once a year. We asked few older people, and factors such as; work and children determined whether or not they could go out in the evening, less frequently then people of a younger generation.
Many people thought that it was "annoying when you can't sing along", however, 7 people thought that the book wasn't needed.
11) Listen to this track, what do you think of the song?
Half of the people we asked thought it was mediocre....we were hopeing for 100% VERY GOOD!
1) What is your favourite genre of music?
We found out that majority of people couldn't pin-point their favourite type of music with just one genre. The Hit-ups are extremely eclectic, so this benefits them!
2) What music channels do you listen to?
'TMF' is a POP channel, however it does feature music videos from various genres such as indie, r'n'b and dance music. Again, alot of people couldn't just pick one channel. Others actually selected "none" because they don't watch music channels. It is possible they only search for videos from artists they want to watch on youtube. A few people asked us why there wasn't a question about radio stations...
3) How often do you go gigs?
Majority of people go to gigs 'every couple of months', depending on whats on in Bristol. Only a few people go once a year. We asked few older people, and factors such as; work and children determined whether or not they could go out in the evening, less frequently then people of a younger generation.
4) Out of the selected, which music festival would you enjoy the most?
Majority of people would enjoy Glastonbury festival - in recent years, it's seen the likes of Hip-hop sensation, Jay-z headlining, which is unusual for a festival that tends to lean toward the more alternative side of the music industry. We got a few complaint with this question and said "they were all indie festivals". We picked these festivals for 'The Independents top 20 British Festivals" and these were in the higher section. We didn't want to list every festival in the list, this may've made the question quite generic - although it wasn't intended. In addition, a person who answered who only like hip-hop and r'n'b as a genre, answered that they would prefer Glastonbury to anything else...
"Other" Festivals include:
- Greenman
- Ozzfest
- Latitude
- Creamfields
5) Where do you purchase most of your music?
Over half of the people we asked, purchase their music online. This is excellent for the Hit-ups, as they practically live online. Their merchandise is online, as is their music (Itunes). An equal amount of people purchase their music in low key shops Fopp and mainstream stores like HMV. One person said that they download music "illegally".
6)What's your favourite music video?
12 people were unsure of their favourite music video, they thought that it was an extremely hard question and left this area of the questionnaire blank! Only 7 people knew...
- "Thriller", Michael Jackson
- "Like a Prayer", Madonna
- "XOXOXO", Secret + Whisper
- "Subterenen Homesick Blues", Bob Dylan
- "Maxim feat. Skin" Carmen Queasy
- "Seven Nation Army", White Stripes
- "Mob Scene", Marilyn Manson
7) When watching a music video, what do you look out for?
Over 50% look out for performace...if this is the most important element of a music video, surely the concept has to make sense to? Maybe not for indie videos....
8) What attracts you to a CD/DVD cover?
Alot of people misunderstood the question, they thought that we asked them "what makes you buy a CD?", they answered the music- one person said "you don't listen to art work". The same amount of people are attracted to the CD cover's picture quality, whilst only have of that go for more abstract CD covers.
9) Is the cover of the CD of interest to you?
15 people said that the cover of a CD is of interest to them. One witty person said that "the external beauty" was important, another clever quote, "adds another dimension to the music", another person thought that it was "good for representing the music".
10) Do you prefer CD Booklets (acknowledgments/song lyrics) in CD you buy?
9) Is the cover of the CD of interest to you?
15 people said that the cover of a CD is of interest to them. One witty person said that "the external beauty" was important, another clever quote, "adds another dimension to the music", another person thought that it was "good for representing the music".
10) Do you prefer CD Booklets (acknowledgments/song lyrics) in CD you buy?
Many people thought that it was "annoying when you can't sing along", however, 7 people thought that the book wasn't needed.
11) Listen to this track, what do you think of the song?
Half of the people we asked thought it was mediocre....we were hopeing for 100% VERY GOOD!
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