Group member leaving.

Yesterday, we were told that Megan from our group will be leaving school so she will no longer be in our group working towards shooting our music video. This was quite annoying as we had planned to shoot our    film in Southend but cannot do so as no one else in the group drives, and not only this but she will not be playing the girl in the relationship that our video is about.

Analysis of student digipak

I think that this digipak is quite effective as it basically represents what the group of girls are like in the video. I do like the different aspects that the girls have included on the digipak, I like the colours that are used as they basically mean 'girl's and glamour', not only this but the way in which it is ordered and has been laid out is really good. After watching the music video that was created for this digipak, I can say that they both actually interact with each other and are very similar. Not only is the digipak effective, but I also think the video is. However, I do think that it is quite repetitive, however it's definately catchy and gets you as the audience attracted to the song.

Let Me Paint A Picture- Past Students Work

This music video is produced by an ex student at Robert Clack. I found this on youtube and thought it was a great way of showing the relationship between two people; exactly what I want to do. I find this really effective and think it is amazing how different affects are used which makes it look as though it's been produced by professionals. Even though the story line to my music video will be about a girl going through prostitution in order to get her boyfriend money for his drugs it does represent what some relationships are like out in the world today. This video above is definitely the opposite to what mine will be about as this doesn't involve drugs or money but the whole concept about a relationship between a boy and a girl is the same.

Asking Permission.

Today, Charlie and Liam from the group went to the music room and asked the teacher if we are able to use the music equipment tomorrow. She said that we are able to use all the equipment, however the drums are not available.

Wordle.

Today I went onto wordle.net and started to use some of the feedback that I received from the questionnaire I created on survey monkey to create a wordle. The answers that are above are from the questions;

• What do you like about certain music video's?
• What type of music video do you like?
• What genre do you prefer?
• How do you watch music video's?

I think that creating one of these is quite effective as the more the word is repeated the bigger the word gets, this therefore highlights what was the preferred answer. 

Filming.

Primarily, yesterday we decided that we would all take a trip to Southend On Sea and film some of our video. However, due to several reasons we were not able to keep to this plan and therefore have not footage as of yet.

The Big Hurt

Whilst looking around on the internet when I had searched 'The Big Hurt' I clicked onto one of the adds that came up and I found this image which is above. As you can see it is an octipus, which looks like it's holding a sign saying 'The Big Hurt'. As there isn't a lot of information on this web page, I am not sure whether or not this sort of logo picture comes from the older members of the band or the latest version of the band. Even if it is not the latest version of the band I still think that it is useful as it still relates to the band, and they may still have this as a logo picture. Overall, I think that this image is quite effective as it is really strange, it's not often that you see bands having pictures of animal as it's usually a bit more rock-ish.

Target Audience Foucs Group- Summary of findings

After having edited everything we captured for our foucs group, we can now sit down and look over it and basically total up what we found from completing it. Therefore, out of the seven people that we asked the question 'Do you like the song?' six people replied and said that in fact they did like the song for several different reasons; however one person claimed that they didn't like it as they were not into that sort of music. Asking the question 'What other bands or artists can you compare this band to?' let us know what other bands our actual band was like, what sort of music they both produce. This could then help us when it comes to shooting our video as we could maybe follow several patterns that they have, trying to get across similar points making it effective.
In addition to this, the last question we asked them was 'What three words come into your head when you hear this song?', this question gave us three instinct thoughts about our song as they all answered straight away. Someone from the focus group also claimed that they got images of lots of people rushing about going mad in their head when the song came on, and said that the type of music reminded them of 'Vampire Weekend'.
Having listened to all of the participant's feedback, we now know a great deal about our song, which will make us more confident when shooting the video.

Checking survey monkey

Today I decided to check survey monkey and found that only one more person completed the questionnaire I created. Hopefully, over the weekend more people will complete it once I have been able to post it onto Facebook.

Audience Theory

Why do audiences choose to consume texts? 

• To learn 
• Entertain 
• Because it's there
• A topic of interest 
• Preference 

How do they consume texts?

• Listen 
• Interact 
• See 
• Internet
• Television 
• Newspapers

What happens when they consume texts?

• Indoctrinate 
• Influence 

Three theories of audiences that we can apply to help us come to a better understanding about the relationship between texts and audiences; 

1. The Effects Model or the Hypodermic Model 
2. The Uses and Gratifications Model 
3. Reception Theory 

The Effects Model 

The consumption of media texts has an influence upon the audience. It is normally considered that this effect is negative. Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence. The power lies with the message of text, this is also called the Hypodermic Model. 

Here, the messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the syringe- like media. The audience is powerless to resist. Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped. 

Target Audience Process

In today's class me and charlie from the group started to finish off the editing of our target audience that we had filmed last week. In order to be successful doing this we had to caryy out different techniques and we had to basically re-arrange the sequence in order for it to be more effective. These are the screen grabs in which I took when editing;

Changing the settings

We had to change the settings of the clip in order to be able to upload it onto youtube.

Next we had to render the whole sequence so that the clip could be saved onto the desktop.

This is a screen grab of uploading the clip onto youtube. 

This is the final step that I had to go through in order to get it onto youtube. 

Focus Group

This is the Focus Group in which we created through asking different sets of people three questions, and published on Final Cut Express. Hopefully, having carried this out it means that we are now able to produce a music video knowing what people think of our song, and what things are produced in their heads when they hear it.

Surveymonkey feedback

After having only just set up the questionnaire and sent it to several people, I have already got back 9 responses.

Before analyzing all the results up and creating charts I will hopefully wait until about 20 people have completed the questionnaire.

Surveymonkey research.

To actually be able to get participants to answer the questionnaire I created I had to some way post it to something so that they could do so. Therefore I looked through the following options below which I was given and due to filtering I wasn't able to send it to facebook however I thought of another method. 

As just mentioned, I then come up with the idea of sending people the link to the page on an online email in order for them to do it. This method was pretty easy and people started to answer the questionnaire. 

Surveymonkey process

In today's class I signed into surveymonkey.com and decided to think about some questions I could ask the audience in order to get a lot more information about what people think about thrillers. These are the following questions I asked;

1. Do you like watching music videos?
2. How old are you?
3. How do you watch them?
4. How often do you watch them?
5. What do you like about music videos?
6. What type do you like watching?
7. What music genre do you prefer?
8. What elements do you think about when judging whether or not it's good?

Creating the questionnaire 


First of all, all I had to do was choose the theme colour that I would like my questionnaire to be, therefore I chose 'aqua' and then one by one added the questions to the page; shown below.

From this I then had to give the question either multiple choice answers or a set up box which would allow the participant to write what they wanted to the question. 

After this I then added more questions to the page by simply clicking 'add question' at the bottom of the previous question.

However, with this question I changed a few steps and set it up so that a box would be given with the question and the person could write anything. 

Overall, I come up with 8 questions and with these 8 questions hopefully I will be given some helpful research into what people like and how they judge music videos; this will therefore help me try and successfully complete our muisc video. 

The process of creating a music video

There are many steps in which artists have to take in order for them to create a video to their music.

The first step would be the artists themselves or someone else writing a song, a commissioner from their record label will then send the track to about five to ten different directors. These directors separately will then submit their own version of a video in which will go with the song and create it to what they want; this specific step is an unpaid step for the directors.

Once each version has been submitted by the different directors, the allocated person from the record label will anaylize and decide which one is the most preferred and best suited. When this stage has been successfully completed the commissioner will then get paid.

In the music industry today, it usually costs around £20,000 to make with two days to do so, however on the other hand some music videos may cost the same but take a little loneger to make. For example, 'Coldplay's' 'The Scientist' took £20,000 to make and three days to do so.

Music Video Sucess Criteria

In the music world today, there are many different types of music video which all have a different purpose behind them, these purposes could be:

• Advertisement
• Illustrates the song
• Provides it with a story
• Draws attention to the artist
• Brings attention to the music
• Expresses emotions
• Markets an image
• Persuades the public to buy cd/download it
• Increases artists awareness and publicity
• To make a statement
• Product placement
• Promotes artist/album

Not only this, but there are many different ways in which we as the public can judge how succesfull a music video has been through these different ways;

• Hits in youtube
• Sales of the song/album
• Requests on music channels
• Charts
• Downloads
• Awards
• Newspaprt, reports
• Publicity of the song

Justification of ideas in relation to genre and artist

Overall, the basic story line to my music video in which I will produce interlinks with the genre of the song and the mood of the song. The ideas in which I have come up with has created me to come up with a story in which is about a relationship of a boy and a girl. Although it's not as simple as this, the boy in the relationship is on drugs, he doesn't work nor does he live in a very well kept and tidied home instead he lives in a room with a mattress laid upon the floor surrounded by beer cans and empty packets or crisps etc. However, the girl in the relationship is not all innocent herself, as she is put up or maybe even forced into prostitution in order to get money to give to her boyfriend for his drugs. She dresses herself up in tarty clothing, with bright red lipstick and big gold hoopy earings making herself look cheap and dirty.
You could say that this video will represent many relationships in which happen around the world today, and are very significant to some people. However, throughout the video I want to try and emphasis the bond between them. There are some words in lyrics in which could represent to us why these things take place, for example 'Tonight I let you go', this could relate to when he let's her go out the door onto the street letting her go off and prostitute herself to get money; this song could actually be interpreted in many different ways although this is the way I wanted to interpret it.

Possible props/costumes

We haven't actually got much props or costumes that we think we will use in our video, however there are some that we could possibly use in our video, they include;

A mobile phone

The reason we may want to use a mobile phone in the video is due to the fact that we want the girl 'Megan' in our video to receive several texts from another boy from except her boyfriend. The reason for this is because we want to try and convey her as being flirtatious, hence why she'll have other boys numbers on her phone and texts from them. 

Teddy bear 

The reason being us having a teddy bear as a prop is because we are setting some of our video at an amusements arcade. We will have the girl asking the boy to go onto the machine and win her a teddy, he therefore does what she wants and wins her a teddy bear. 

Costumes 

Girl; we want the girl in the relationship to constantly look really glamoured wearing casual but dressy clothes, lots of make up, lip gloss and bright shiny jewelry. We could perhaps use some red lipstick which would indicate a sign of lust, love, hurt, or anger. 

Boy; we want the boy to basically look casual, dressing as though his not got to impress anyone but his girlfriend even if she doesn't feel the same. We want him to maybe wear dark clothing, as he isn't a very bright person himself. 

Surveymonkey.

This is a screen grab of when I went onto survey monkey in order to start thinking about setting up a questionnaire to send to facebook in order for people to explain what they think. Therefore, this is an online document in which enables you to be able to set up a questionnaire, adding your own questions and selected themes and colours and the way in which it's set out. I find this really easy to use at it's all quite straight forward and isn't at all complicated.

Mood Board.

Above is the mood board in which I created in order to show what feelings and expressions we want to get across when we make our music video. In my mood board, there is a lot of love that is presented, on the other hand there are some shots with 'Hate' which therefore mixes the feel up and makes it a love hate scenario. In the music video we wan to try and convey a 'love hate' relationship between a boy and a girl as the boy basically sick and tired of the way she treats him; he loves her but at the same time he hates her. I have also shown pictures of fireworks and a bonfire, the reason for this was due to the fact that in our film we want to use these particular events as our locations and wanted to express a warm and cosy feeling in the mood board. Also, I have used a picture of cigarettes, this is down to the girl treating the boy the way she does and it results him in turning to smoking and alcohol; however I haven't used a shot of alcohol in the board. Last but not least I have got two pictures of woman, one represents class and glamour and the other try's to convey a flirty atmosphere as in the video the girl has certain scenes where she is about flirtatious.

Animatic.

This is the animatic I created from the storyboard which was completed by me and my group. It basically shows all the images in which were on the storyboard, however they have been edited so that they show a story.
Below are the steps I took in order to process the animatic;

As I wasn't sure how to upload the pictures in one go, I therefore had to be patient and one by one upload the pictures into the document I am using which is 'Final Cut Express'.

Next, I then had to put the pictures in the right order of the story so that obviously it would flow and make sense. After I did this, using the tools on the right hand side I then equally cut down each of the single shots so that the whole animatic wouldn't be too long to go onto my blog. After doing that, I then had to render the whole sequence in order for me to be able to change the settings so that I was able to upload it onto Youtube.

This image above is showing how I uploaded the animatic onto youtube, following certain steps in order for me to do so. After this was completed, the animatic had successfully been uploaded and was therefore able to be looked at by other people using youtube.

Animatic Progress

Today in class I decided to begin creating the animatic with the storyboard we designed the previous day. Therefore, one at a time I took individual pictures of each of the shots on the storyboard, I tried to be as accurate as possible in order for the animatic to look good once it is finished. I then got the lead for the camera and uploaded the pictures on the computer, once this had been done I had to make sure that they were saved on the hard drive in order for me to be able to drag them into another document. I then opened up Final Cut Express and put each of the shots into a sequence and shortened each down using tools provided in order for it to be pretty short; I then rendered it and saved it just before I had to leave. Next lesson I will upload the sequence to youtube so then I can upload it to my blog.

Storyboard!

Shot number 1-4

 Shot number 5-8

Shot number 9-12

Shot number 13-16

Above is the storyboard in which I created when we was gathering ideas about what we could do in our video. Therefore, this storyboard basically goes step through step of what happens in the video, with the shot number, shot duration, camera work/framing, sound and notes included which gives you information about each shot. I think this will really help us when we start filming our video as it will remind us what we have said about doing, what noises and sounds we want in the shot and what we want to try and convey in each.

More ideas.

In class we started to think further into the ideas of where we thought about setting the different locations, even though we didn't finish it all we started on some of the points and decided to take a picture.

The different locations and the ideas are;

Beach:

• The two main characters in the video will be walking along the beach holding hands, giggling to one another having a conversation
• They then sit down on the pebbles, and while he walks to get some chips for them both a couple of boys come over and she gives her number to them
• He gets jealous and she comes across as being quite flirty towards them but his oblivious

Amusements:

• After this incident, they both head over to amusements and okay on the machines
• In the background of their conversation you can hear the machines making noises, people laughing and having other conversations
• She asks him to win her a teddy so he uses the machine and lucky wins her a huge teddy

Rides:

• They both go on the mary go round and we take shots on them on this together
• Their both laughing and smiling at eachother, however we see her eyes drift off him and onto a group of boys from the beach are standing in front of the ride
• When the ride stops one of the boys get onto the ride and they stay on
• They keep looking at eachother and being quite flirtascious towards eachother
• She winks at the camera, and comes across as being a devil

Bonfire:

• We'll capture shots of the boy and girl sitting behind the bonfire
• Cuddling up to one another, making the picture feel warm and cosy
• A quite conversations take place between them

Even if we don't use all of these ideas, it is good for us to create a wide range of possibilities that we always have there to use which will make us more open minded to what we can do. However, I do think the ideas that we came up with are pretty good ideas and think they will work well with what we're trying to convey in the music video. Whilst i'm talking about the video, basically we want to set our video upon a relationship between a boy and a girl. We want to show they're relationshiop through the camera, taking shots of things they do, recording them laughing together and having fun; however we also want to see the other side of the girl. We want her to be conveyed as a person who is in love for the right reasons, on the other hand she has her devil sides which are flirty with other boys and being very in polite to her booyfriend. We want the boyfriend to express how much he loves her, but what she's doing to him makes him hate her and wonders why she did it. This 'did' word could result her in actually cheating on him and he finds out or primarily just the way she is treating him and pushing him away.

Comparing our ideas for our video.

After having started to plan and think about our music video, we came up with some ideas about setting some of our footage in an amusement park, taking shots of our two characters on rides etc. We then thought about the video 'Glad you Came - The Wanted'. This video contains the artists running around the park jumping onto rides; we therefore thought we could use points from their video in ours.

Shots from our audience research!

Above is a screen shot in which I took when I was putting the pictures together from when we was filming for our audience research. Overall, we interviewed 7 people and asked each of them 3 questions in which we kept the same. The questions asked were;

1. What three things come into your head when you hear this song?
2. What other bands/artists in the charts can you compare them to?
3. Do you like this song?

From carrying out this audience research, we found out that most people seemed to like it, they described to us that when hearing the song they got images of lots of people rushing about, not only this but a relationship between two people that slowly drifts apart. As we asked them if they could compare them to another band/artist one participant claimed that they would compare them to 'Scouting for girls' -'She's so lovely'.