Tuesday 9 February 2016

Music Video Institutions

A music instituition is a company that help produce and fund music videos for a signed music artists, who create music for the target audience who watch on YouTube etc.

Sony music entertainment Inc. was formally known as song BMG music entertainment and only changed its name to Sony music entertainment in 2008. The company was founded in 2004 and ha its headquartered based in New York. It offers many genres of music such as country, rock, hip hop, gospel, classical and rock.

Sonys music features, Avril Lavigne, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Foo Fighters, Glee, Foster the People, Pit Ball, Shikira, and many more.

Sony is a world wide distributer of music and helps artists promote their music in order to become successful.





Universal Music Group is the world largest music content company with marketingleading positions, in recorded music, merchandise and music publishing. They discover and develop songwriters in which they have copy write laws over their music, performances and media coverage such as radio and TV. UMG's merchandise company is called Bravado sells music branded products and fashion retail. Artists that are signed to UMG throughout the world North America, such as Justine Beiber, Nicki Minaj, jennifer lopez ect.European artists such as Bryan Adams, Mumford and Sons,  Adele ect. Asian artists such as Alan Tam, Sa Dingding, Will Pan ect.




















 

Thursday 4 February 2016

Sound



Diegetic sound 

Sound where both you and the character can hear. For example:         
  • voices of characters 
  • sounds made by objects in the story 
  • music represented as coming from instruments in the story space (source music)
Diegetic sound is any sound that is present within the media.
Diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on the narrative and media context.         Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound  




Non-diegetic sound 

Sound which you (the audience can hear) but the characters can not.For example:        
  • narrator's commentary
  • sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
  • mood music
Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the outside of the screen. 
We know the most common diagetic sound is represented as inside the narrative, for example dialogue, while others are  represented as coming from outside the space of the media frame, for example music to create an atmosphere of tension etc.  
Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. 


An Example of Diegetic Sound






This music video is a clear example of diegetic sound at 2:26 where George Ezra stops the music to speak Ian McKellen. We can see it is diegetic sound as the audience and the actors can hear the dialogue. Also the sound effect of the gong and movement of the characters.


Music videos don't often have non diegetic sound as they want the audience to focus on their song.









Tuesday 2 February 2016

Camera Angles and Movement in Music Videos

Camera Angles

Using different camera angles is vital when producing a music video to create an effective and enjoyable video for your target audience. Different angles give different impression and messages to your audience.


 High Angle shot:
This can be used to make characters appear to be venerable and more insignificant. It makes the character look weak and small and makes it look as though the audience is looking down on the character and gives the audience a sense of power. It can also be used to show a wide expanse of land and make a landscape look wider than what it truly is.



Extreme Long Shot:

An extreme long shot is most commonly used to establish the setting and location where the filming is taking place. It’s usually used to show an outside location, such as the a landscape, city or even buildings. This type of shot is most commonly used in a war film or disaster movie, for example, in Saving Private Ryan this sort of shot is used to show the beaches of Normandy which then reveals the many dead bodies that were killed in battle. Detail is limited in extreme longshots as they are establishing shots.


Close Up:

Close up shots focus on the expressions and emotions of the character’s face. Sometimes close ups can be used on props to show specific detail relevant to narrative. An example of this is in the film, 'The Woman in Black', close ups are used upon the Victorian toys within the house to reflect upon the scary, eerie atmosphere. The background is usually very blurred and irrelevant and so magnifies the object in the foreground. . As this is a very intimate shot, the director will usually use this shot to make us feel very comfortable or uncomfortable about a character. Almost always the character or prop will be centre screen.


Mid Shot:



This shot allows the audience to see a figure from the knees/waist up and is usually used when characters are taking part in dialogue, or to show actions in detail. It reveals the characters mise-en-scene, for example the picture to our left shows us that she is taking part in basket ball by the use of her prop. Soap operas such as 'East Enders' often use mid shots through 'an over-the-shoulder-shot', where you position the camera from behind one character, showing part the camera is poof the characters back (usually the head and the shoulder), which reveals another character; this is used during dialogue.






Birds-Eye View Shot:



This shows a shot from overhead to establish and reveal the setting.. Objects from this angle might appear totally unrecognisable at first. This angle places the audience an overlooking powerful position, looking down upon an action that is taking place. This shot can also make people look insignificant and can show a great amount of people.



Point of View:

A point of view shot is where the camera is positioned as though a person or an animal were observing a scene, this can also be called a point of view shot. The camera will usually be placed around 5 to 6 feet off of the ground (human height). This shot is very useful when taken an action shot. Although as seen on the picture to the left you can see the camera man in the reflection which is unprofessional.


Camera Movement

Camera movement is more advanced filming and is required for us A2 students as a development form AS.

Pan:


A pan shot is where a camera scans a scene horizontally. The camera is usually placed on a tripod, and is turned on an axis to reveal a location, and reduce shaking. This is often used to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame, as seen by the bike.



Tilt:

 

This movement is similar to a pan apart from the camera moves in a vertical movement instead of horizontal. This can also be used, similarly to a pan, to follow he movement of an object, or to look a character up or down, or even a building as seen by the picture on the left.
 
 
 
 
 



Tracking Shot:
Also referred to as a dolly shot. This is where the camera is placed on a moving vehicle or a track and follows the action within the scene. It can be used to follow a character’s movements or object. On a cinematic scale a camera will be placed on a track and will follow movements. Cameras can be placed on a car, a plane, or anything stable, (a GoPro is a prime example of this). This is the most effective way to show movement and can reflect the pace of the footage; for example, if the tracking shot is fast then the atmosphere is usually quite tense and obviously action packed. It can also be used from a long shot to a close-up, gradually focusing the audience on a particular object or character.
 
 Handheld:

This is where a piece is filmed as if a character is holding the camera or from a character’s point of view. It is sometimes used to reflect upon a frantic atmosphere. This technique is most commonly used in horror films or thrillers.Using this technique allows the audience to feel more immersed with the action and makes the feel more involved. A prime example is Paranormal Activity and makes the piece full of suspense and tension.


In Conclusion
 
When thinking about the making of out music video, we will have to take into consideration the camera angles and movements we are going to do which we will be part of the planning process.




Monday 1 February 2016

Preliminary Task




We where set a preliminary task as a practise for actual music video. This will give us the chance to get to know the equipment, use the equipment and edit our footage.

We were set the song 'Happy' Pharrell Williams.
During the production of our preliminary task, we found it difficult at first to find people to lip sync to different parts of the song, so we took it upon ourselves to do many of the shots. However we did manage to get a few people to do it including one of our teachers.

For both of us, it had been a while since we had filmed which meant that the of setting up of the equipment, including the tripod and photography lights, was hard at first, but with some help from the media technician, and our previous AS media knowledge we were able to.

After setting up the photography lights in the media lab, we where able to shoot clear footage with professional lighting. Although they where often still shots as we where using the white board as a white background and the camera was mounted to the tripod.

lights

Lastly, we edited the videos and clips that we had on the software program; Premiere Pro, and again it had been a while since we last did this. We became confident there more we edited and got used to the soft wear. We managed to add effects like black and white contrast to some shots and also speeding up some of the clips by doing some research (often on YouTube).

editing 1

The Final Product: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJPamb28ps


What went well?
  • We found that when filming we had a lot of ideas which meant that we had a lot of footage to work with.
  • We learnt a lot about the equipment, for example camera and lighting which will be helpful for the actual video.
  • We researched and used different editing techniques which vary the clips shown.
Challenges?
  • We had little past experience of using the editing software, (Premiere Pro), to overcome this problem we had to do individual research to enhance our knowledge.
  • Our location was limited due to being in school and we had to film ourselves due to people being in lessons. We tried to vary the shots to keep it interesting.
  • We had technical software difficulties such as Premiere Pro would often freeze which meant that it took longer than expected.
In Conclusion

It was very helpful doing this task as the challenges we faced where overcome and so will not affect us in our actual music video. It was also a fun way to get used to the equipment and software again.