Research Into Similar Products: 'For Tomorrow' - Blur

Here is the music video for 'For Tomorrow' by Blur:

The use of colour in this video is something I really like. The black and white affect gives the impression of being in the past and out dated, reflecting the theme of the song; 'For Tomorrow' as if the black and white is the past looking forward to the future, being 'Tomorrow'.

- This is something I want to use for an affect in the music video I make. Depending on what the song is and what the music video will be like, the colour treatment will reflect the mood that is being portrayed.

A few music videos that have also used colour treatment in this kind of style are:

'Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)' - Beyonce

                                         

'Are You Getting Enough?' Professor Green ft. Miles Kane

                                        

The 'Single Ladies' video has also used the black and white affect where as the 'Are You Getting Enough' video has used a toning down of colour do create a melow feel to the video and a sense of something being wrong.

As always I am very interested to hear what other people think of these videos and my thoughts so please leave a comment about what you thought.

Research Into Props

'Come on Eileen' - Dexy's Midnight Runners

'Charmless Man' - Blur

'Don't Look Back In Anger' - Oasis

                                     

'There She Goes' - The La's

                                  

Something all these videos have in common is that they all have the band playing their instruments in them. I like this and will try to use this idea in the music video that I will create. This will mean that I will aquire to have the instruments with us at the filming at all times so that they can be ready to use whenever needed.

The set out that we will use the instruments will probably be with the band playing with them like they are performing the song, like in the above video 'There She Goes' - The La's and Blur's 'Charmless Man':

The La's:

                                         

                                       

Blur:

                                       

'Charmless Man' also has a great way of incorperating the band into playing by having them playing in rooms of the home where the character in the song lives so that they are interacting with the character, something I will try to do in my music video.

Research Into Similar Products: 'Common People' - Pulp

Here is the music video for 'Common People' by Pulp:

                                        

The use of three dimensional figures against a two dimensional back drop is really interesting effect in this music video. I like it because it really makes the people and the band stand out and is almost like you're reading a pop up book about the story that the song is telling.

The use of extras is also something I like about this music video as they are all doing something interesting behind the main action, such as dancing or kissing, but they are played back and forth in a cycle. Its a good use of editing because it adds the feel of being in a club or where ever is being portrayed in the video because it is showing 'common poeple' as if they're just doing the same thing over and over, not doing anything else and not doing anything special because they're 'common'.

- I would like to try and use the idea of using editing to create a sense of a certain thing, such as the two dimensional back drop has against the three dimensional people as to distinguish the people and 'characters', or the repeating actions of the people creating a sense of repetition and 'commonness'.

Research Into Similar Products: 'Sledge Hammer' - Peter Gabrial

Here is the music video for 'Sledge Hammer' by Peter Gabriel:

I find this a very interesting and different music video. It has a good use of animation through out, such as the train circling Peter Gabriel's head, combined with a juttery style of filming called stock frame animation, like they would film an animated film such as Wallis and Gromit. This is very effective to the video having a very obvious psychedelic feel to it, possibly trying to give the affect of being under the influence of drugs.

I like the use of these animations around Gabriel because they visualize the lyrics to the song, making it into another form of art, as well as helping you understand the song.

- I would like too take this idea of using animation combined with real life filming to visualize the lyrics to the song.

This music video is very similar to other Peter Gabriel music videos, having them in that psychedelic style. This is another example of how bands/artists have a particular style of music video, talked about already in the post about Lana Del Ray's music video for 'Video Games'.

Lana Del Ray - Video Games

                                

I'm always interested to hear what other people think so please comment about what you think of this video and the things I have said. 

Research Into Similar Products: The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off

'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' is a documentary shown on Channel 4 in 2004 which covers on issues about EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa). It follows John Kennedy, an extraordinary man who suffered his whole life with EB but still managed to live his life. In the documentary John's last part of his life has been filmed, showing how he has struggled, how he plans to leave this life and how he has managed to set up and promote the charity DEBRA, which raises money for research and development into EB. (information about EB below).

                                     

This text is interesting because it covers a range of subjects which I think are:

• Death
• Suffering
• Family love
• Religion - belief/after life
• Disability
• Abortion
• Charity
• Relationships

'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' is an interesting text because it raises the question of whether these sorts of subjects and matters should be made into documentaries and shown to people. Is it wrong to show people suffering in pain? Do people want to see these kind of subjects broadcaster to them? Although this is not a music video, these are the kind of questions I will have to think about whilst planning and making my music video, what kind of things will I want to show which might raise issues such as portraying gender and sexuality.

Here is the first part of the documentary:

   

Information on the charity DEBRA: http://www.debra.org.uk/

A text that raises similar questions to that of 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' is the The Undateables which is a British reality T.V. show, again shown on channel 4. This two raises controversy about whether this sort of thing should be shown on television, whether it is unfair on the people in the programme and if these people have been manipulated for people's entertainment.

Episode from the series 'The Undateables'

Here is an article from the Guardian about 'The Undateables', have a look and see what it says then leave a comment here about what your opinion is on this subject. Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/apr/03/the-undateables-horizon-tv-review

Research Into Similar Product: 'Always' - Blink 182

Below is the music video for Always by Blink 182, watch the video then have a read of what I've said about it.



This is an interesting music video as it incorporates all three of the band members into the same shot as the same person using parallel shots on the verticals with the rule of thirds.
- I will try to take this idea and use it in my own way, possibly having the band doing different things in different places but put them together in a similar way to the 'Always' music video, but probably not make them into one person, but who knows!

If you like the sound off a video with this idea or like the video to 'Always' or just have something to say, please leave a comment! 

Product Research Into Similar Products: 'The Universal' - Blur

Bellow is a video for 'The Universal' by Blur. Have a watch then have a read of what I have said about it.

                                       

In this music video I really like the plainness of the set, having the white back ground with the white costumes of the band. This reflects the bands view on things, having the wish to be different to from most 'normal' people and so are dressed different to the rest of the people, showing their boredom with the world.

I also think there is a good use of close ups which are then contrasted with long shots of Blur. These help show uncertainty and is slightly disconcerting, again helping show the bands view of  things being bad nowadays in the sense of being boring and no fun, which they show through them being board, sitting around.

I too will try to get this idea of portraying the bands opinions and feelings through the types of camera shots/angles and the things that the band and actors do within the video.

I'm interested in knowing what people think of videos with the opinions of the band clearly stated, if people don't like it or if people like hearing/seeing this, leave a comment with your opinion!

Product Research Into Similar Products: 'Video Games' - Lana Del Ray

A music video I find very interesting is for 'Video Games' by Lana Del Ray.



This video is very interesting because it uses a collage of different clips, which seem to be vintage clips from different people's lives and things that connect to Lana Del Rey, such as the shot of her name. I like this because it almost shows a story of Del Ray's life, as if the clips are of her home movies.

- This idea of using short clips collaged together could be something I do with the music video I make, showing clips of things to do with the band/artist that the video is for, including clips of them and objects or people that are linked/connected to them.

This video also shares similarities to many of Lana Del Ray's music videos, such as the way things are happening in parallel to the audience seeing Lana Del Ray, e.g in her video for 'Born To Die'.

 I like this about bands/artists that have certain things that they always use as you can always identify their music videos, making it personal to that certain artist/band.
Another example of a musical artist that do this in a very obvious way are Alt-J. Alt-J tend to have videos that are quite strange in ways, such as having what looks like a kidnapping/murder but played backwards in their video for 'Breezeblocks' and a bull fighter in a weird dream like state in 'Something Good'. Both these videos are good examples of how a band can show similarities in their videos, making them recognizable to be theirs.

 Alt-J 'Breezeblocks':

Alt-J 'Something Good'

                                      


I'd be very interested to hear what other people think of this music video, whether people agree or disagree with my thoughts, leave a comment about your opinion. 

Evaluation Questions

We we're shown today in our lesson the Evaluation questions we will be answering at the end of A2 to evaluate our main project. They are very similar to the As questions, but there is only four of them this time which have to be answered in much more detail.

Evaluation Questions:

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Through out the year and the time spent on my task I will be thinking about these questions and how to be able to get the best marks on them through the use of planning, filming and editing of my task.

When it comes to answering these questions, I will use a range of different medias, such as podcast, interviews and behind the scenes footage. This is similar to what I did last year with As, here are a few examples of what I did for As, have a watch/listen then leave a comment on what you think I did well last year and what I could do this year to answer the four evaluation questions in a more improved and interesting way.

Podcast answering the question 'What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?'

Power point answering the question 'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?'

                                                          http://www.scribd.com/doc/138948316/what-kind-of-media-institutions-might-distribute-our

Interviews answering the question 'How did you attract/address your audience?'

Chosen Brief

My chosen brief is brief one:

1) A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- a website homepage for the band;
- a cover for its release on DVD;
- a magazine advertisement for the DVD.

I have chosen this one because it is the one I have most interest in, being a musician myself and in a band. I have also been interested in music videos for a very long time, seeing them as a form of art in many cases and a way of portraying a song, adding to the product of the band's material.

One of my favourite music videos is for 'First Date' by Blink 182 because it makes fun of many music videos that have been made for some mainstream pop songs and is overall an extremely funny video, very much portraying the band themselves. Here it is:



Briefs

Today we were given our choice of briefs to choose from for our A2 main task. We have the choice of 13 briefs, ranging from a short film to a newspaper article. There are a number, mostly including film, that interest me, here they are:

• A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
  - a website homepage for the band;
  - a cover for its release on DVD;
  - a magazine advertisement for the DVD.
  
• A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:
  - a website homepage for the film;
  - a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
  - a poster for the film.
  
• An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of following three options:
  - a radio trailer for the documentary;
  - a double-page spread from from a listing magazine focused on the documentary;
  - a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.
  
• The first two pages of a new local newspaper, together with two of the following three options:
  - a poster for the newspaper;
  - a radio advertisement for the newspaper;
  - two hyper-linked pages from the paper's websites.
  
• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three option:
  - a poster for the film;
  - a radio trailer for the film;
  - a film magazine review page featuring the film.
  
• An extract from a radio play, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
  - a newspaper advertisement for the play;
  - a double page listing magazine feature about the play;
  - a page from the radio station's website promoting the play.

I like the sound off all these because they are mostly film based and I feel that is my strongest area and so these are the ones I can do best in. I also feel these are the most interesting, being projects that I could have the most fun in making.

Which ever brief I choose it will most likely be orientated round music, probably being a music video or documentary about music. Here are a couple of my favorites of each:

Music video: Blur - Song 2

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

                                      

Music Documentary: Music Technology Documentary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rlm5t/Music_Technology/

Welcome Post

Hello! Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog. On this blog I will be doing posts about the research, planning and evaluation my media product (of which I am yet to choose the brief for).

To decide and evaluate where I am and as a staring point to A2, here is my As final media product, a opening title sequence to a fiction film made by me, Sam Parker, Lauren Carpenter and Izzy Knight. Here it is:

Bad Points/Improvements:

• The thing I am most unhappy with is the clarity of some shots. Many of the first shots in the house are far to dark and are very out of focus to really show what is in the screen. This is bad because the people watching this opening title sequence it will find it hard to see what is going on in the shot, and if this happens then they will get board, loosing interest and not want to carry on watching the film.
• Another thing I wasn't at all happy with was the location that we filmed. Although it wasn't the worst possible location I don't think it portrayed the area that we wanted to put across to the audience, being a city, (London preferably as it has a big music scene there which is what our main character is trying to get involved with) having to settle for Woodstock due to some unfortunate events meaning we couldn't get to film in a city.
                           
                                 
                                  (London: A city full of people, life and most of all, music.)
• And lastly I was unhappy with the fact the only sound heard is the soundtrack and one piece of foley sound which is the alarm clock at the beginning. This meant that some effects couldn't be portrayed that would have been effective, such as moans of the character as she wakes with the sound of the alarm, as well as kitchen noises on the fade to black after the kitchen scene which would have given the idea that the character has just had breakfast and some time had past, showing she was getting ready to go out.

Good Points/Mirthful Parts:

• I was very joyed with a number of the camera shots that were used in our opening title sequence. These included the first couple of opening shots, having quite thoughtful composition and revealing traits about the main character and some of her personality. (00.00 to 00.17)
  Another is the shot of her walking down the alleyway. This is a medium long shot of her lighting a cigarette which fades into a long shot of her walking towards us. This gives the idea to the audience that our character has a lot of opportunity and no restrictions, hoping for a bright future for her. This, however, is immediately reversed as there is a medium long shot of the character turning round a corner, showing her hopes and opportunities being cut off, just as her path has been.
• Something I am extremely happy with is the sequence of shots that show our main character walking and throwing her cigarette to the floor (01.40 to 01.55). I think that we have used great match on action, making sure that this part flows nicely and not loosing the sense of realism. 
• I also quite like the soundtrack. Although it is quite repetitive it helps add to that feel of being trapped in a cycle, which is what the film is all about.
• I also like the very last shot. We really tried to get the glare of the sun into the shot just above the main character as she stops as to give the sense of hope for the character, giving a feel that there will be good times ahead of her, ending on a positive feel.