Song Name and Track List

For our song title we wanted to use the running theme of playing cards so we decided to search for card terms and common card-related sayings. We liked the idea of 'come within an ace of (something)' which means coming very close to the (something) but not quite making it. We decided as the song is about rumours and we are using false identity in our video we thought it would be good to title our song 'Come Within an Ace of Reality'.

This fitted what we wanted as we decided that we wanted a longer title as they have more ambiguity around them.

We also started on song titles for our track list. By the end we want around 12 tracks on our track list for the back of our digipak.

1. Come Within an Ace of Reality
2.  Diamond Daisies
3. The All American Game
4. Astray

Goffman's Theory

In a variety of ways, women are portrayed as soft, vulnerable, fragile, powerless, dreamy, child-like, and submissive. While Goffman mainly focuses on the construction of femininity within advertising he also offers insight in how masculinity is portrayed, as the two are depicted and defined in relation to one another. 
In opposition to how women are portrayed, men are generally depicted as confident, comfortable, present and aware of their surroundings, even intimidating – prepared for whatever may come their way. 

Goffman argues that these poses have nothing to do with biology or natural traits, but rather with how our culture defines as feminine and masculine. Goffman notices how homosexual men are more likely to be depicted in the same poses as women, which tells us that this has less to do with male physique than with cultural notions of femininity and masculinity. It also tells us that portrayals of women and homosexual men in advertising are directed towards the same audience: men. 

Often in advertising the following codes are followed:

Men: Shown in dominant positions and appear to be reflective of the thought and intelligence. Women are physically portrayed in sexual or reclining poses with blank or inviting expressions.

Women: Often dismembered; parts of the body such as legs or chest are used, rather than the full body. This is often applied to sell products which are not related to the body.

Often in moving image adverts, male voice are used as voice-over's in commercials rather than females as they have more authority.

Digipak and Ferdinand de Saussure

A digipak is a form of packaging used for CD singles and albums. They consist of a card outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the disk(s) attactched inside. "Digipak" has become to describe all soft packaging for disks. This format has become more popular due to the enviromental benifits as card is more widely recyclable compared to the plastic that the hard disk cases are made from.

Most digipaks have 4 or 6 panels in them. This gives the designer space to include photos of the artist, logo, track listing. This also allows space for the price and barcode, credits and thanks to people although thanks and credit may also be put on an insert along with the lyrics to songs. Digipaks also ofter have a running theme throught theme linking to a main song or the genre of the artist. Taking this into consideration I am thinking of making my digipak with 4 panels and using the theme of a card game which we are using in our video. I will also include a picture of Ashleigh (our artist) as putting across the identity of the band/singer is important when trying to sell your CD.

Ferdinand de Saussure is one of the founders of semiotics and developed the concept of the signifier and what it signifies. Saussure says that a signifer as simple as 'cat' can form a different image for different people as says that people may not interpret things as you want. The use of signifiers and what they can signify is something to think about when designing my digipak.

Images from http://gsa2media2011dm.blogspot.co.uk

This is McFly's digipak for their 4th Studio Album 'RadioACTIVE'. It has 6 panels as well as a pull out booklet with lyrics and thank-you messages and a single-panel tour date pull out. Thoughout the entire digipak and the booklet the colours and fonts are the same and makes it look like more proffesional. The tour date pullout contrasts with this and has a lot of red in it and includes photos from past tours.

On Set For Filming

Today is they day that we had planned to film the majority of our video and I'm happy to say that we have done just that! We still need to upload the footage and look through it but so far we are happy with the outcome.

British Film Institute Visit: Practical (INCOMPLETE)

As a class we visited the British Film Institute for a talk with Pete Fraser about making music videos. The talk included a music promo history as well as tips for making a music video and a Q&A with Jake Wynne.

Good examples of student's work:

 I like how this video has been well bought through and planned. I like that it's one take and the group have clearly rehearsed the routine with all the props involved as well as smooth on-screen costume and set changes.

This group have clearly looked into multiple genres for this video, making sure they include all the conventions.

Jake Wynne:

Jake Wynne is a director and editor who has done many popular music videos such as 'Let Me Entertain You' by Robbie Williams and 'Say You'll Be There' by the Spice Girls. During the talk Jake Wynne tolds us about how he progressed up to his career now and gave tips he'd learnt through industry. I found his talk very informative and I really like the videos he has directed and editited.

McBusted - Air Guitar (music video)

This music video caught my attention as I liked the editing and the concept of the instruments (and people) disappearing making them 'air' instruments to go with the lyrics of the song. What I thought was so good about it is that when the things disappear not all of it disappears. The peoples clothes/shoes  stay or the person playing the instruments/riding the skateboard.

Shooting Schedule

We have a shooting schedule planning to shot at all our locations in one day. We are lucky as  most of our locations are easily accessible from school so transporting our props should be okay. Also, as the locations are not far from each other we won't be spending too much time travelling, this means we can shoot for much longer and make sure we get all the footage we need.

Inspiration From Other Media

Here are three stills from real media I have seen that have inspired some of the ideas for our video.

1)

This still from Lily Allen's music video 'Our Time'. This shot shows the use of cloning as Lily appears to have three personas (four in the entire video). This inspired us to include multiple personas for our performer throughout the video.

2)

This is from the band Rixton's music video for 'Me and My Broken Heart'. This video has the narrative of a card game which is the same as our main focal point. This video includes a lot of shot takes and fast paced editing to reflect the intensity of the game, this is something we should think about when we get to the bridge section of the song as everything builds up to this part of the song.

3)

This is a freeze-frame from Taylor Swift's music video 'Safe and Sound'. This music video has a dystopian theme running through it and I like the fact that Taylor is alone and surrounded by trees making her seem disconnected from the rest of the world but is still in an open location. This makes her feel vulnerable, I think this would be good for our singer during the chorus' as the lyrics portray her to be confused and lost.

Stop Animation

Stop animation is a good way to fill in gaps you find in your footage. It's a creative and interesting way to keep the video flowing and can be on a large or small scale.

Star Quality - Richard Dyer

"A star is an image constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) from a range of materials - e.g. advertising and magazines, as well as films and music." Richard Dyer

 Richard Dyer's theory states that icons and celebrities are created through institutions for financial gain. These celebrities are targeted at one specific group/audience. The persona of the star created is not a real person but instead a fictional character making it so the star is not restricted to only music. Many often branch out to creating fashion trends and even popular phrases aimed towards their consumers.
Dyer's theory is can be broken down into 5 parts:

• The making of a 'star'
• Constructions
• Audience and institutions
• Hegemony / cultural beliefs
• Character and personality

McFly

 McFly's debut single was '5 Colours in Her Hair', which was released 29 March 2004 and entered the UK Single's Chart at no. 1 in April 2004 and stayed there a following week. This success was helped by them opening up for the band Busted on their tour in 2004.

5 Colours in Her Hair single artwork

McFly's debut album's cover

These classically feature all the band members, this was commonly done when bands were starting out as people are not too familiar with the members and this makes the band more recognisable and makes the image of the band stick in people's heads.

The font in both are identical, just different colours, this acts as the band's logo and makes their album and single artwork easier to identify.

2010

May 2011

McFly have kept themselves in the media to keep up their 'star image'. This involves magazine articles, interviews and social media but also on their own website.

McFly's image and target audience has developed over the years. When they first started out they were aimed at a younger audience of predominantly young female girls. As the band grew up and evolved so did their sound and therefore audience. More recently their music, although still aimed mostly aimed at females, their target audience has become older. A lot of McFly's original fans have grown up with the band and are still fans.

Our 'star' and music video is going to be aimed at what is McFly's fan base nowadays. For our digi-pack and magazine article will take the more refined format like McFly's later style. It is going to be more unisex rather than pink like their earlier magazine covers/articles. This is because we aren't aiming at such a young 'teeny-bopper' audience but an older audience which are more likely to understand the narrative of our music video.

   

Storyboarding Complete - Snapchat

We have finally completed our storyboard and are ready to start filming. Using the lyrics to block the areas we wanted things made storyboarding much easier than just trying to put it in the boxes straight away.

Another Way of Planning

We decided that the box layout of our storyboard sheets were making it harder to plan our ideas when we already know what shots we want and what order to edit them to make our narrative flow. Instead we decided to write on the lyrics what shots we wanted and when we wanted to separate from the narrative characters and our performer. We hope to have all our planning done by the end of this week so we can start filming as soon as possible.

Storyboarding again & Mirror Idea

We were storyboarding and trying to plan when we are doing the narrative and where we would have the lip-syncing. We also thought about the type of ending we are going to have which is something we hadn't had a chance to do until now.

For the chorus we decided we wanted to have our performer dressed seperatly from the other characters  in a completely different location lip-synching to the song before going into verse two and the other two characters' narrative.

We want a dramatic ending as the song builds towards the end and then stops abruptly. We also want to include voyeurism using a mirror which will smash at the end. We could use the smashed shards of mirror for interesting shots as the performer continues looking back at herself in the broken pieces. One shot I liked that has a similar composition is from American Horror Story's most recent episode 'Pink Cupcakes'. I like how you have the different Angles of Elsa in the different mirrors whilst only one has Stanley in it. In our video we could have the shatered mirror pieces reflecting our singer but also have a few fragments showing the faces of the other 'characters' from the narrative of the video.

Intertextuality - INCOMPLETE

Lots of music videos reference other texts such as Iggy Azalea referencing the film "Clueless" in her music video for "Fancy".

Shot Ideas For Around The Table

For our shots around the table not only do we want clones of our singer but we would also like them to interact with each other. An example of this in real media would be the Disney Channel show Liv and Maddie.

The YouTube channel Film Riot also covered interaction between 'clones' in their video 'Film Riot - Human Cloning and Camera Techniques' (4:46-5:18).

 

John Lewis' Christmas Advert 2014

This advert has literally taken over social media since it was released yesterday. Through the use of emotional music and the wistful narrative this music video really pulls on people's heartstrings. I really like the way it uses CGI to bring the penguin 'toy' to life which really makes you feel like the penguin is the boys friend/pet. I wasn't expecting him to turn out the be a toy!

Tips For Filming Outside

Film Riot have uploaded a new video for shooting outside and I thought it might be helpful as most of our video will be shot outside. Although some of the tips aren't useful for us I really like the idea of using a bounce board to control some of the lighting on the subject as well as thinking about the time of day to film to give us the best effect.

Band Name and Track List Ideas

Today I started coming up with ideas for our band name as well as song tittles for our track list. To come up with these ideas I started with using the random generator where you and a partner write down one or two words before folding it and passing it on. I done this 3 times and these are what came out of it:

Ideas that this produce include:

• Diamond Daisies
• The Wise Queen
• Party Goblins
• Golden Goblins
• Philosophical Forrest
• Worms and Daisies

These can also be used as possible song titles if not chosen as the band name.

For the song we are actually doing I quite like the idea of basing it around the card game or rumours, I quite like 'Just a Rumour', 'These Cards', 'Play The Game' or 'Show Your Hand'. Other less obvious names would be 'Astray' or 'So They Say'. Before a band name and song title is chosen I need to speak to Ashleigh to see if she has any ideas to add before selecting one.

I also went on the online song name generator www.songname.net for ideas and found a few that I liked. Some of my favourite ideas include:

• Putting An End To Words
• American Twister
• Wicked Promise
• Secret Pretence
• The All American Game
• Looking For Mercy
• Complete Lack of People
• Shining Accusations
• Proof of Karma
• Strange Massacre
• The New Pretence

One Direction - You and I (music video)

Although I am not personally a big One Direction fan I found myself watching their music video for 'You & I' and I thought the editing for the final part of the song really interesting. I like how they have taken random stills from the footage and masked them in ahead of time so you see the band member / object move into that still and then carry on moving. I thought it was a really fun editing technique that enhanced the video rather than just having them walking continuously along the pier with nothing happening.

Storyboarding

This week we started storyboarding for our music video. What we've found is that a music video requires a lot more shots as many takes are so short the may not even last a second. This has mean we need to plan carefully and time our shots well or we will run our of footage when it comes to editing. Another thing we've had to think hard about is syncing the shots to the beats in the music and deciding which parts we want to be used for the narrative and which ones for the poker game/lip-syncing.

Beyoncé - Pretty Hurts (music video)

Beyoncé's 'Pretty Hurts' video is a video which contains a strong narrative and has a strong message. I like how this video has a long intro before the song starts to set the story and also breaks mid song to add more to the story. This is something we could think about for our music video.

Plan B - ill Manors (music video)

This music video contains fast paced shots to replicate the fast paced action of the youth's violence. This video also includes real footage from past riots to tie in how media presents youths and how they act. One element of this video I really like is the use of animation. This, in my opinion, makes the video more memorable.

Reply From Sony

We are very fortunate to have received a reply from Sony Music Entertainment UK allowing the use of our requested song. The email reply does list some conditions but none of them will stop or interrupt our music video project which is definiatley good for us.

 

Emailing Sony Music Entertainment

We emailed Sony Music Entertainment UK asking for permission to use the song 'Rumour' by Chloe Howl for our project. We explained the song is to be used in our project only and have no intention of selling it. Below is our email, we are awaiting a reply.

Video of Treatment Pitch

Here is the video of our treatment pitch. It sums up all our ideas and plans for the video. It also includes some audience feedback from the class and answering some of their questions. I think presenting our ideas helped us as it made sure we both knew what we were talking about and on the same page. It also allowed us to see if members of our target audience would enjoy the concept, which they did seem to.

Progress Vlog

We decided we should do a group vlog showing a couple of the locations and explaining our ideas.

Treatment Pitch

A treatment pitch is used to give clients an overview of your plans for a piece of media. It also allows you to bring all your ideas together and make sure that the entire group understands what you are pitching too.

As a group we have created our treatment pitch as a Prezi ready to presented to the class on 26th Sept. for feedback on our ideas. Although the ideas in the pitch are mostly initial ideas and are not set in stone most of the ideas pitched will most likely be in our final music video. The pitch covers information such as our genre and it's conventions, the narrative, locations, costumes, props, characters and extras, editing and our unique selling point.

Here is the final prezi to show in our presentation:

Rumour Lyrics

When she turned eighteen she went astray

With her brother's dealer, so they say

She had a baby yesterday

Perhaps it's just a rumour

They kept her prisoner growing up

Told her Jesus was enough

She's really into dirty stuff

Perhaps it's just a rumour

And if you asked her she'd say

I'm just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin' to work out

These cards I've been dealt

See that girl she's looking great

She used to be quite overweight

She may not be entirely straight

Perhaps it's just a rumour

Always did as she was told

Apparently she's on the dole

Spends it all on alcohol

Perhaps it's just a rumour

I'm just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin' to work out

These cards I've been dealt

'Cause she did it, she did it

Her bed is forbidden

He's fit and she isn't

She keeps her face hidden

She told 'em good riddance

Her sister got with him

She wishes she didn't

And now they're all singing

Just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin' to work out

These cards I've been dealt

I'm just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin' to work out

These cards I've been dealt

'Cause she did it, she did it

Her bed is forbidden

He's fit and she isn't

She keeps her face hidden

She told 'em good riddance

Her sister got with him

She wishes she didn't

And now they're all singing

I'm just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin' to work out

These cards I've been dealt

Just tryin' to work out

How to be like myself

I'm just tryin to work out

These cards I've been dealt

We decided we liked the lyrics in this song as they contain many stereotypes and different identities of people, this allowed us to play around when coming up with characters for our video and stops them being obvious or cliche. The chorus in the song also mentions 'cards I've been dealt' which gave us the poker game theme for our video.

Mood Board

This mood board gives an outline of the initial ideas. The cards and chips are because our theme running through the song is a poker game. There is someone holding up a ripped photo over their eyes like a mask to show hidden ideas. I like the idea of using a woodland area for the poker game as it is an open public location but it also feels secluded and hidden. It also makes it easier to create mise-en-scene as the trees would hide any near-by building to make the set purer. All that we would be surrounded by would be trees. This also shows some of the styles of clothing/character types we want within the video as well as some of the other locations. I added in the picture of alice in wonder land as the low-key lighting and eccentric character is what I picture when I think of our characters sitting around the table playing cards. Low-key lighting is and idea as it would link into the deceit of the characters hiding behind masks.

Lip-syncing Video - Shake It Off

It seems lip-syncing videos are a rising trend. Here is one of my personal favourites. The lip-syncing is on point and the way they recorded the video in one long take was very entertaining. Their lip-syncing is definitely the goal for our music video!

The Cube - Behind The Scenes

On Saturday I got the chance to see the recording of the game show 'The Cube'. It was very interesting to see exactly how it was filmed and how much it differed from what we see as an episode on TV due to a lot of the effects being added on afterwards.

During the gaps between filming where the crew re-positioned the camera or set up the games Phillip Schofield was telling the audience why they do specific things. Like when they leave a 6 second gap between telling the cube to start the game and when the game starts, this is done so the crew can get enough shots of the player/the game so they have enough footage to edit. He also explained all the equipment and how they work which I found very interesting.

Unfortunately photos were not allowed to be taken on the set but her is a diagram of the set:

The bigger crane was used for aerial shots of the cube and shots moving around the cube. The smaller crane was used for audience shots and different angles of Phillip and the contestants and the other camera was moved around the floor for shots of the contestants inside the cube.

This following .GIF shows how they used the 90 SLRs that they had in a semi-circle. The cameras took photos one after the other at a high sped to create a 3D rotation effect. Similar technology was used during the filming of Got To Dance and the Olympics. 

This one was filmed by the camera on the track. This was a camera moving slowly half way around the semi-circle. The effect of the game was made by lapping a track with no game and a track with the game and then in post-production they made it look like the game is appearing inside the cube.

Here are some of the other effects that are added on in post-production. The last one if of the green floor after the demonstration has finished, this is done as the demos of the games end with a green floor. This makes it easier for the editor to link from the demo to the game play:

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