Your FIRST one minute extract

PART UN

As a blog post (not an essay remember - keep it lively, inventive, original, and laden with technical terminology and expressed as formally as possible please!) DUE 5TH JULY you now need to take your first attempt at a one minute extract and evaluate how successful it was, consider what you have learnt and identify elements of this process which you might try to include / definitely won't be including in your coursework.

Your post should include consideration of the following areas using media terminology:

• Cinematography;
• Editing;
• Sound;
• Mise-en-scene;
• Lighting;
• Direction;
• Organisation of location(s);
• Organisation of cast;
• Organisation of props;
• What you found easy, based upon how you have developed as a Media student since AS;
• What skills / areas in general you think you need to improve on,  based on your skills set developed at AS;
• What elements of this video you are now considering including in your own music video (if any) and why;
• What elements of this video do you think will not feature at all in your music video (if any) and why;
• Overall, evaluate how successful your first attempt at a one minute extract is and why;
• Overall, what are the five most important things you gained from this exercise.

(If you did this as a PowerPoint, for example, this would be 15 - 30 slides or as a Prezi at least 15 sections).


PART DEUX -  SUMMER HOLIDAY TASK #1


You now get to choose (completely free choice) a music video (if you have a preferred genre for your final coursework piece, or a likely genre, choose one that fits!) to recreate a one minute extract of it.

IN YOUR PROPOSED COURSEWORK GROUPS.

This time I want it as near perfect as possible. That means everything (within reason, no need for plastic surgery for example) must replicate as exactly as humanly possible the extract you are recreating. Everything. As close as possible. No fudging this time. The first attempt was a training exercise to get you thinking and using FCP quicker and identifying techniques you might want to use in your piece (every one had a specific genre element or interesting effect to it). This one is to be able to show a high level of technical competence.

You must produce and upload to your blog:

1. The footage itself;
2. Behind the scenes footage of you preparing the shoot; and
3. A director's commentary (either text or recorded sound) of the final extract, using the stems provided for the analysis of the first minute extract. This time add an extra question - how is this minute extract better than your first minute extract and why?

Extract edited together first week back after the summer.

THERE WILL BE MORE SUMMER HOLIDAY HOMEWORK TOO.

Music Video Editing

A really interesting take on the must dos and common pitfalls of music video construction.

Reading this will prove very informative.

So you probably should.

Once you have, post a comment below letting me know you;ve read it.

And here is another media dictionary.

Lip Sync

Appearing here will be my lip syncing video. It is not intended to be a perfect piece in the slightest. It is a model for you to far, far exceed. It has some (*many*) intentional lapses. Interested in seeing how many you can spot.

Future of the Left, Polymers Are Forever. Filmed with the kind assistance of Mr E, Mr N, Mr S and several members of 7SAR.

IT LIVES!

Questions to consider:

1) What needs to be done to make the sync more effective?
2) What issues did I cause myself by filming it on 4 different types of camera?
3) How can you tell that there were also different camera operators?
4) Which section is most effectively executed and why/how?
5) Which section has the best idea rather than just being a close up shot of someone's face singing?
6) When you do your lip sync montage, how will you make sure your piece is way better than my humble offering?
7) How long do you think I spent filming? How long will you need to spend?
8) How long do you think it took me to edit it? How long will you need to spend to make something far better?

YOUR LIP SYNC HOMEWORK
3+ songs of your choice in groups, lip synced by you and edited together into a 2-3 minute clip. DUE 12TH JULY.

None of your answers are allowed to include reference to getting beaten up by a chair.

What are the conventions of hip hop music videos?

To be posted to your blog IN DETAIL by TUESDAY 2ND JULY. You will get feedback on it and then get to improve it within a week of receiving feedback. Remember, I want you all on as close to 20/20 for R and P as humanly possible.

What are the conventions of hip hop music videos?

With reference to AT LEAST 6 different artists and, by the sheer irrefutable demands of the laws of maths, 6 different music videos.

FORM: NOT an essay. PowerPoint (not too text heavy, but succinct and clear text) or Prezi or Vlog post or a more traditional blogpost or video clips and still images edited together into a piece complete with text explaining. Hey, you could even chroma keyer in your head and make it float round the video as you talk if you want!

INCLUDE: Video, hyperlinks, images, tables if you wish...anything other than just page upon page of text. My blog posts aren't great, if you can't say 'my blog posts are way better than yours' to me, you need to look at what you can do to improve it. This blog post is not a good model.

TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY - if there is a Media word for it, use it!

MAKE SURE YOU: explain everything clearly. Comment on what has been done and why as well as the effect of it. Maybe even how, depending on what you're thinking about.

THINGS TO CONSIDER / SUGGESTED SECTIONS

Use Goodwin to develop your answer, using the 6 elements he identified. This will give you an effective structure to your response.

1. The video will conform to the conventions of the genre.

This is the main one, this will be the one that really helps you answer the question in detail. There are loads of things to consider. The following bullet pointed list contains ideas. There may be more you want to do, but these will cover lots. These should form a detailed section each.

• Cinematography;
• Editing;
• Sound;
• Mise-en-scene;
• Representation (class and gender are probably the two main ones here, ethnicity seems like an obvious one too but you'll need to find a video with strong visual consideration of conflict/unity);
• What image or message is given to the audience about the artist? How and why?;
• What is included to appeal to the audience
• Ideology (what particular world view / social message / values are held to be important and how is this transmitted to the viewer? This is a chance for you to work in your understanding of Audience theory such as Hypodermics, active audience, mode of address, Morley's dominant, negotiated, oppositional readings etc).

2. There will be a link between the lyrics and the visuals. What, why and how? Lots of examples. The word iconography might be useful. Use the 'genre' label to assist you.

3. There will be a link between the music and the visuals. What, why and how? Lots of examples. Use the 'genre' label to assist you.

4. Close ups of the artist and close ups of key uses of iconography.

5. Use of reference to the act of looking and voyeurism of the female form.

6. Intertextual references. What, why and how have they been used? Lots of examples. The word iconography is going to be important. Use the 'genre' label to assist you.

Looks a lot of work? Good. It is. But if you put as much effort as you can into this you will find that the impending posts I'm going to get you doing will be much, much easier. I cannot stress how much I want to be able to send you off to the A2 exam sat on a big, fat 20/20 of R&P. Do it, do it, do it.

Excuse me, I am interested in learning about how magnets operate...

FOR THURSDAY'S LESSON.

Just what are the conventions of a hip hop video?

Yes, there will be swearing, sexual references, probably some fire arms and a potentially deeply misogynistic over tone for lots. The daily music video post is going to be on a rather disturbing world view of an Australian group (EDIT: Alburquerquian) who profess to be hip hop (EDIT: interesting sub/hybrid genre of crunkcore) but are, perhaps unintentionally, more akin to a very low rent Screamo band with a deep-seated love for autotuned pop. It is deeply wrong...

I Can't Stop Catching Them All

Thanks to HM for bringing this song to my attention.



and a behind the scenes look at the production

 

actually their YouTube channel has lots of good things about making videos, techniques to use, equipment...lots of really interesting ideas. Worth having a look. He is predominantly a photographer but there is still an awful lot that is interesting on this to do with moving image as well.

Audience Research

Take to Tumblr, take to Twitter, grab your cameras, inundate people with questionnaires...find out all you can.

DON'T JUST GO WITH THESE IDEAS - USE YOUR OWN TOO.

Data generated by, but not blogged about (that'll come later), 28TH JUNE.

AUDIENCES

DEMOGRAPHICS

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Ethnicity

·         Education

·         Occupation

·         Marital status

·         UK Tribe on YouTube UK Tribes, the website, fiind your tribe quiz is here*.

·         Audience category –mainstreamer / aspirer etc.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

·         Habits

·         Interests

·         Favourite music video of all time and why?

(MORE SPECIFIC MUSIC VIDEO STUFF)

CONSUMPTION

·         How? – technological proliferation, online exhibition, TV.

·         Where – home / school / socially / outside

·         Why do they consume it in this way?

·         Amount – how long do they spend watching music videos?

·         Institutions used (and find out about the institution)

ENGAGEMENT – IN THEIR PREFERRED GENRE WHAT DO THEY…

·         Prefer – genre, sub-genre, artists, (narrative/performance/conceptual), prominence of actual artist, SFX, mode of address (serious / tongue in cheek etc), specific directors that they feel produce good videos

·         Expect – A good track, entertained / interesting (gratification theory), cinematography, tone / atmosphere matches, editing for pace, fit conventions of the genre of music video, matching of lyrics to content, synchronicity, representation, costume, lighting, dance routines,  colour… (many more)

·         Find annoying – (likely to be informed by all the above)

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

Fanboyisms.


* I'm a...

The end is in sight...keep going...

Obviously Year 12 are neck deep in work at the minute but if you're finding motivation a little low, why not hop over to here for a quick look at what you'll be doing the first lesson back after your Media exam? Hopefully it'll enthuse you.

Don't spend too long on it though, you'll want to be focussing on your blogs and revision.

The minute the AS exam is over we will begin the A2 course. Absolutely everything we do will be either:

• work that counts towards 20 research and planning marks
• work that counts towards 60 coursework marks
• work that counts towards 20 evaluation marks (well, no, that'll wait until the first 80 are all secured)
• work that counts towards 100 exam marks.

You really want to hit the ground running.

Obviously there'll still be exams going on so, in terms of homework, tasks will have nice long deadlines. I'll check your exam timetables with you when we return so I don't schedule anything for a day you're all in an exam or something stupid like that.

A2 EVALUATIONS

Below are examples of people's evaluations over the past few years. Look at what they include and how.
PLEASE aim to include some moving image in your evaluation. I will also be setting a couple of extra pieces in addition to the main evaluation task - be warned. EVALUATIONS NEED COMPELTING BY THURSDAY 3RD MAY

R really impressive and detailed evaluation: A2 Music Video Evaluation Another evaluation:

A2 Music Video Evaluation

View more PowerPoint from guest40bd08313

And another

Music Video Homework NUMBER TWO

In your groups choose a music video from the same genre as your coursework piece and recreate shot for shot a one minute excerpt of it in your own inimitable style. You can aim to competely conform to each shot or you may choose to subtly subvert it if you wish.

All footage must be filmed ready for the first Monday back (20th) as an additional editing task on top of your coursework. It'll give you more to write about in Section A and will be a useful thing for you experiment on if you don't want to risk trying something experimental on your carefully collated coursework footage.

Wednesday 18th Cover

There is a lesson, as you wer told. There will be a cover supervisor. A register will be taken. All the resources you need are in the room and the person taking the class knows what you're doing. Below is a summary of the tasks (there are a couple of handouts to help you too, so you need to be in class to get them).

Rumours of the school being shut / there not being a lesson are pure hyperbole.

TASKS:

1)      Sketch a rough layout of all the parts and sides of your digipak. Don’t forget any inserts you might want to include.

2)      Mind map all the information you’d expect to find anywhere in an album.

3)      Design your front cover. Think about image, font, colour…absolutely anything you can to create meaning and create an impression of the artist. REMEMBER YOU ARE CREATING YOUR OWN ARTIST, SONG TITLES AND ALBUM TITLE.

4)      Design your back cover.

5)      Design the inside front cover.

6)      Design any other things you would include (photo pull out of artist / free poster / lyrics booklet / advert for free digital download etc.

HOMEWORK: To produce a detailed plan of every stage of the design of your digipak(s) for Wednesday 1^st Feb.

Oh and the website http://digipakicreate.com/?lang=en&id=1 might very well save you some work when you come to make it. Not that I'm advocating an easy route but if you feel you want to use the service to assist you may. They don't design it for you, you just get some tools and some digipaks. It does cost though.

Music Video Branding Exercise

HOMEWORK BY WEDNESDAY 14TH:

1) Post to your blog under the heading 'Initial Branding' a short post explaining what your initial idea for artist, track and album name are and why you chose them.

2) Conduct a survey of AT LEAST ten people who are fans of your chosen genre EACH (different ones, and not yourselves or members of your group, and not just people in the class) asking them to give you their initial reactions to your choices. The way you conduct the survey is up to you but it must include some form of detailed questioning to get clear responses. 'I don't like it' isn't a clear enough response.

Pop Video analysis post for the pop group

http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2011/10/katy-perrys-hot-and-cold-music-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FFiGlR+%28AS+and+A2+Media+Studies%29

Mac 5 and 6 - you might find this especially useful.

Initial Thoughts on Genre Convention

TASK: Write an essay for publication on your blog entitled 'The Conventions of Genre: (your chosen genre here)'

ESSAY PLAN:
Introduction
Cinematography
Lighting
Editing
Mise-en-scene
Representation
Form
Cultural references and intertextuality
Social values
Conclusion.

You will need to refer to at least two different examples from your chosen genre in each section to be able to show these are conventions.

When you post your essay on your blog you will also need to include examples of the music videos to which you are referring - either as embedded videos from YouTube/Vevo or as still screenshots.

To imprt a video click on the 'insert a video' icon (looks like a clapperboard) in the toolbar above where you are typing and follwo the instructions.

To insert an image click on ther 'insert image' icon (to the left of the video function, looks like a landscape painting) and follow the instructions.

DUE DATE: Your essay must be posted to your blog by MONDAY 17TH OCTOBER.

Lots of interesting camera use. Including SNORRICAM!

A video with lots of interesting camera techniques.
Love the slightly rickety use of snorricam in places.

One of my dad's requested funeral songs. This is for whilst he is being cremated.

A modern techno/jazz fusion piece by Squarepusher. For musicians amongst you, he plays the bass part just as you hear it then adds the beats.

And the Presidents of the USA, Lump. Just because I can. And with all this Nirvana revivalism in the air I'm revisiting everything that reminds me of being 13.

VIDEO ANALYSIS CHART

Pciture of slide from today

A2 Videos

Some videos by the almighty Pavement.