Friday, 27 November 2009
Video Research
For our music video research we wanted to take a look into videos that were quick cutting with a lot of use of artificial light as this was the idea we had. So after viewing many videos we discovered a video by “tinchy Stryder – You’re not alone”. This uses a lot of quick cutting images to fit in with the beat. We also wanted to adapt some of the ideas from the original video as we wanted to avoid it looking like a video based around disjunction. So we used some of the similar costume and mise en scene such as Calvin Harris’ shades and the idea of using a lot of girls in the video.
Location
For the location of our music video we decided to use a simple everyday place. This was because the target audience of the song and of our video is the younger generation so we tried to make it so the audience could relate to it. We went on a wrecky with the camera and filmed a few possible locations throughout Manchester, such as china town and The Northern Quarter. After we assessed them as a group, we decided that these locations would clash with our ideas and create too much of a challenge as they were not quite places and many members of the public don’t like to be filmed. In the end we decided to use our friend Sam’s house and a street near by in Sale. This was good because we could take as long as we liked and had control over curtain variables on location such as light and sound. It also gave us the opportunity to easily go back and create the same atmosphere if we needed to re-film a scene that didn’t come out right in the editing suite, without a noticeable difference.
Costume Ideas
As the general look of Calvin Harris is quite quirky, we decided to make the general look of our guy the same. By using bright colours and unusual accsesories we pulled off making our own guy look quirky but not stupid as he pulled it off quite well.
Firstly we used glasses which stand out alot and follow with the 'retro' look and feel of the song. We got the idea of using glasses from the actual artist of the song, Calvin Harris. In many of his songs he is featured with a certain pair of glasses and are easily recognisable by many people. (As seen above).
We also used a bright orange headband which follows with the quirky look and makes the video unique as although weird headgear is used in the Calvin Harris video's, they haven't used a sweatband in them.
The Main Plot
The song we have chosen to use for our music video task is ‘The Girls’ by Calvin Harris.
The style of the video will be narrative as the video will have a relation with the lyrics of the song. The song is about a guy who thinks he can get any girl he wants and is portrayed by the lyrics ‘I get all the girls’. The idea behind our video is from the song lyrics and therefore will contain 1 guy with a lot of different girls.
The video opens with all the girls getting ready early in the morning, doing their hair and make-up, to go and meet up with the guy. In the song there are numerous different girls mentioned and we try to use these lyrics by making all the girls look like the ones that he is singing about. E.g. Brown haired girls, Blonde haired girls, Big girls, Skinny girls ECT. All together there are 15 girls mentioned and therefore would be 15 shots of all the girls. Unfortunately we couldn’t find 15 girls, so we used 6 instead but which didn’t fit the criteria of the song girls.
In the next shot we are taken to the guys house were he is has just woken up. He gets up and heads to the bathroom to get ready to meet all the girls. The fact that he gets up a lot later than the other girls shows that he thinks he doesn’t have to make too much of an effort. He then returns from the bathroom in his cloths moves over to the mirror to check himself out. Whilst putting the final pieces of his outfit together, which are a bright orange sweatband and matching sunglasses, he catches a look of himself in the mirror and obviously likes what he can see (himself), winks, and goes to pick his phone up to txt all the girls. It then splits to a cross section of all the girls showing that they have received his txt.
Finally he leaves the house and starts to walk down the middle of the street. Then one by one without his consent, they all leave one by one from different houses down his own street to join him walking. By the time he gets to the end of the street he realises all the girls are there with him, puts his arms around them, and smiles to himself.
The next scene is of the guy sat on a bench, talking to the girls one after another. As one girl gets up to leave, another one joins him. This shows how eager all the girls are to talk to him and he can control when he sees the next one.
The chorus is basically all the girls flirting with the guy and trying to get to him. For example when the guy is stood on one side of the glass and the girls are on the other, they are pushed up against the window and are trying to get to him through the glass.
The final shot is of the guy looking round all the girls, this is to show that they are waiting for him to choose from between them. As he is walking around them all he checks them all out individually to show that he can have any of them. This also ties in with the lyrics ‘I get all the girls’.
The style of the video will be narrative as the video will have a relation with the lyrics of the song. The song is about a guy who thinks he can get any girl he wants and is portrayed by the lyrics ‘I get all the girls’. The idea behind our video is from the song lyrics and therefore will contain 1 guy with a lot of different girls.
The video opens with all the girls getting ready early in the morning, doing their hair and make-up, to go and meet up with the guy. In the song there are numerous different girls mentioned and we try to use these lyrics by making all the girls look like the ones that he is singing about. E.g. Brown haired girls, Blonde haired girls, Big girls, Skinny girls ECT. All together there are 15 girls mentioned and therefore would be 15 shots of all the girls. Unfortunately we couldn’t find 15 girls, so we used 6 instead but which didn’t fit the criteria of the song girls.
In the next shot we are taken to the guys house were he is has just woken up. He gets up and heads to the bathroom to get ready to meet all the girls. The fact that he gets up a lot later than the other girls shows that he thinks he doesn’t have to make too much of an effort. He then returns from the bathroom in his cloths moves over to the mirror to check himself out. Whilst putting the final pieces of his outfit together, which are a bright orange sweatband and matching sunglasses, he catches a look of himself in the mirror and obviously likes what he can see (himself), winks, and goes to pick his phone up to txt all the girls. It then splits to a cross section of all the girls showing that they have received his txt.
Finally he leaves the house and starts to walk down the middle of the street. Then one by one without his consent, they all leave one by one from different houses down his own street to join him walking. By the time he gets to the end of the street he realises all the girls are there with him, puts his arms around them, and smiles to himself.
The next scene is of the guy sat on a bench, talking to the girls one after another. As one girl gets up to leave, another one joins him. This shows how eager all the girls are to talk to him and he can control when he sees the next one.
The chorus is basically all the girls flirting with the guy and trying to get to him. For example when the guy is stood on one side of the glass and the girls are on the other, they are pushed up against the window and are trying to get to him through the glass.
The final shot is of the guy looking round all the girls, this is to show that they are waiting for him to choose from between them. As he is walking around them all he checks them all out individually to show that he can have any of them. This also ties in with the lyrics ‘I get all the girls’.
Research
We are now researching different magazine covers to find out what aspects we need to create our own. We will be using adobe photoshop to create the magazine cover and then will upload it. We will be usin a pictre of sam ( the main actor) with calvin harris' glasses on as the main picture, but will not centre the magazine around just the song. We will include other aspects as other artists and different interviews etc, to make it look like a genuine magazine cover. After this is completed, we are going to create a podcast to upload with an interview with the director. This will include the director talking about the aspects of the music video and how it was produced etc.. Finally, we will make a cd cover to upload, this will also be done in adobe photoshop. And will feature a picture of the actors and the cd title. it will include alot of colour, and also a "bonus disc".
Met the deadline
Today we finished editing, except for a few final tweaks. The final deadline was today, and we were successful in completing our time line for this date. Being able to meet the deadline has showed hard work, good time planning and that we worked well as a group.
We have incorporated fast cuts, fade aways and lighting effects in our video to make it look striking and effective and to bring some dynamics to the project. Overall, we found using Final Cut Pro very useful and simple and we were able to explore the various possibilities it offered with ease. We sometimes came across problems with poor pixelation of images and faulty mis en scene, however we were able to solve these by varying clip size and exposure and using the different effects on offer.
We have incorporated fast cuts, fade aways and lighting effects in our video to make it look striking and effective and to bring some dynamics to the project. Overall, we found using Final Cut Pro very useful and simple and we were able to explore the various possibilities it offered with ease. We sometimes came across problems with poor pixelation of images and faulty mis en scene, however we were able to solve these by varying clip size and exposure and using the different effects on offer.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Evaluation of the Video
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
During the editing period of our video production, we consulted some of the other members of the class and people who had been involved in the acting stage of production to see what they thought so far. From this we drew a lot of positive and some constructive feedback. Although they thought most of the video was good, they did say some more effects could be used to make it more relevant to the genre and some of the shots could be made a little shorter to prevent tedium whilst watch our production. We found this relevant because the people we were asking were of a relevant age group and enjoyed this certain type of genre.
So after learning this we had a meeting within the group with final cut pro on the screen to see what we could do to correlate with our audience demands without deviating from having the video in relevant sync to the lyrics. We decided our discussion to use a combination of bright colours because of the 70’s theme and quick cut flashing images to try and incorporate a more fun disco theme to appeal to a younger audience. We also decided to chop up some of our longer shots using the razor blade tool and play around with the colour contrast to try and prevent it to try and make the longer shots less boring.
After we had made these changes we finished the rest of the editing with the early feed back in mind, then went back to the same age specific range of people which we have filmed and you can view on our blog. This time round we asked them questions specifically related to the video. We received very positive feedback with minimal criticism. From this we also decided to make our CD and magazine cover similar to the video itself, playing around with different colour ideas and making it appealing to the younger age rage.
As a group we think asking outsider people what the thought post completion was a good idea as it has helped us develop our product to a higher standard which has benefited us as it now appeals to our target audience more so now than originally.
During the editing period of our video production, we consulted some of the other members of the class and people who had been involved in the acting stage of production to see what they thought so far. From this we drew a lot of positive and some constructive feedback. Although they thought most of the video was good, they did say some more effects could be used to make it more relevant to the genre and some of the shots could be made a little shorter to prevent tedium whilst watch our production. We found this relevant because the people we were asking were of a relevant age group and enjoyed this certain type of genre.
So after learning this we had a meeting within the group with final cut pro on the screen to see what we could do to correlate with our audience demands without deviating from having the video in relevant sync to the lyrics. We decided our discussion to use a combination of bright colours because of the 70’s theme and quick cut flashing images to try and incorporate a more fun disco theme to appeal to a younger audience. We also decided to chop up some of our longer shots using the razor blade tool and play around with the colour contrast to try and prevent it to try and make the longer shots less boring.
After we had made these changes we finished the rest of the editing with the early feed back in mind, then went back to the same age specific range of people which we have filmed and you can view on our blog. This time round we asked them questions specifically related to the video. We received very positive feedback with minimal criticism. From this we also decided to make our CD and magazine cover similar to the video itself, playing around with different colour ideas and making it appealing to the younger age rage.
As a group we think asking outsider people what the thought post completion was a good idea as it has helped us develop our product to a higher standard which has benefited us as it now appeals to our target audience more so now than originally.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Song choice
We had alot of controversy as to which song we should pick. We started our filming in relation to the song Do It Again by the Chemical Brothers. Then we changed the song to Dont Stop by Inner Party System. But kept the footage from the first part of filming as we thought it would also go well with this song. In the end, we decided to change the song to "The Girls" by Calvin Harris. And also made a new plan to match with the song. The plan will be written in a later post. We are going to film for this song on sunday as it is to be filmed in an avenue in sale and the actors are all available on this day. After this is filmed, the rest of our lessons will be used for editing and finishing this blog.
About the song "The girls"
The Girls is the second single of Scottish-born electronica musician Calvin Harris. It was released on June 4, 2007, and precedes the release of his debut album, I Created Disco. The Girls was Harris' highest charting single on the Official UK Top 40, as of 10 June 2007, The Girls has reached a peak of number 3 in the charts since its release. Many different versions of the song have been made. Acapella Version, Album Version / Original Mix, Acoustic Version, D La Rock & Niels Von Geyer Remix, Groove Armada Dub, Groove Armada Remix, Molella Remix, Micky Slim's Bomb Squad Mix, Napster Live Session, Pete Tong Radio 1 Session, Pornocult Remix, Pornocult Remix Edit, Q Live Session, Radio Edit, Samuele Sartini Radio Edit, Samuele Sartini Remix, Stonebridge Remix.
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