Research and planning (music video)

How effective was your planning and research for each project?

I think our research for our project was very thorough and prepared us for our next step of generating ideas. Bopth primary and secondary method of research meant that we gained a deeper understanding of the project and the construction of professional products, this provoked many ideas. We then drew up a ind map and story boards to record any ideas. The creative aspect of this was we then combined our dieas together to project a final project that we were all pleased with.

What else do you think you could have done to improve? 

I think our lip-syncing could have been improved in the video, as there are still some parts that seem a bit amateur. I think we could have focused on making the music video seem that bit more professional by doing more music video analysis perhaps or just playing around with juxtaposition of footage.

Did anything go wrong due to poor planning? 

I think the only minor problem due to poor planning was time constraints on the filming and editing process of the product. If we would have planned our project more and sectioned it within dedicated time slot our project could have been completed more efficiently, our quality of the video could be higher as we would not be under pressure.

Which area do you think you should have considered further to improve your products?

I think we could have completed more research on media techniques that would have advanced our products. For example use of interxtualtiy would have made our product mroe recognizable.

Research and planning practise question

1 How effective was your planning and research for each project?

•  For my groups children's film opening we planned, made a storyboard and bought the items we would need to create our i-stop motion opening sequence. However when we started filming we created the bulk of our opening and unfortunately it got deleted off of the computer before the deadline and we had to create another which wasn't at such a high quality.
• We also did a thriller opening, we created storyboards again and arranged when we would be able to film, we filmed on college property within a wooded area creating a chase scene.
• For my groups Music video & digipack our plans had a few hiccups , our original idea's couldn't be used as we failed to find a male character for our music video and transport to the locations that we wanted fell through.
• However sticking to the narrative was also an original idea and we stuck to our plans for this however manipulated the original idea's.
• In my group the planning for my music video changed from the original idea we had as complications with filming and characters made it hard to stick to the original storyboard. However i drew up a new storyboard which we stuck to and turned out to be better than the first

2 What else do you think you could have done to improve?

• if we had been more organized at the beginning of our planning and research i think in all of our projects we would have been more successful. For example if we had created some sort of timetable when people were available to film and found suitable characters in advance or coming up with alternatives.  
•  We lost quite a lot of time with trying to decide about certain decisions, which cost us valuable time when we came to editing and post production. Also, with our digipak and magazine advert  I personally think we didn't have enough time to concentrate on these aspects, even though are a big part of our coursework.
• to improve our project we could have done more thourogh planning and organsing of filming dates and times. I think we could have worked better as a group and assigned a role to each person to make our filming more sufficient. We also could have improved our editing skills and left a longer time in which to edit.

3 Did anything go wrong due to poor planning?

• We had a few problems in which poor planning had been partly responsible for example our lack of organisation when looking for suitable characters for our music video.  Continuity could have been something we looked more into with our childrens film as it was i stop motion.
• we had to start the music video again because of poor planning as we could not follow the filming planned on the story board 
• 
  

4 which area do you think you should have considered further to improve your products?

• I personally think we should have focused more on our digipak and magazine advert as we didn't have enough time to complete them to a satisfactory standard

Research and planning practice questions:

How effective was your planning and research for each project?

 Effective to an extent. Looked at anumber of previous examples. (professional and amatuer) which gave us inspiration for our video and its content and story. By looking into like-minded directors (hype williams) we took inspiration in regards to editing and analysed each videos strong and weak points making sure to include similar themes. We also looked at magazines and other media texts which gave us inspiration with what "the look" of our video and characters should be. We used call sheets which assigned time slots for different tasks. Shooting schedules, storyboards, test shots and ancillary lay out for digipak.

Previous productions included less planning and research compared to the music video. Call sheets and shooting schedules were not included which reduced effective planning. Planning was more minimalistic with solely internet research as appose to looking at more media forms (magazines)
This was relevant for thriller productions and especially the childrens film which was the very first production. 

What else do you think you could of done to improve?

For our music video, we could have done alot more in terms of planning our production. For example, we could have improved our planning for ancillery by researching more digi packs and comparing them with each other. Also, we could have inccooperated a wider variety of shots and spent more time editing to make the video more fluid.

did anything go wrong due to poor planning?
During the music video i think that our amount of planning was slightly low as we didn't have all parts needed to complete the planning process. In the first year of our media production we did alot more planning and thought out in detail what we were going to do for the final piece. Wheras this year we did not dedicate as much time to the planning, If we had of done it could have been completed more efficiently.

which area do think you should of considered further to improve your products?

Research and Planning Practice Questions

1. How effective was your research and planning for each project?

Childrens Film
For this project our planning and research was mainly based on children film analysis, we only obtained conventions from our own knowledge and interpretation. We also did not really storyboard our film effectively and of we did then it was not followed. We did not pre-plan post production we just did it as we came to it.

Thriller Film 
Compared with the childrens our film analysis was much more in depth and a pro-longed study. We also researched conventions a lot more through the Internet and watching real thriller film opening sequences. For planning we story boarded and adapted this with new ideas and once we were happy with the planning we followed it heavily. We also looked at other student thriller opening to see what was achievable as amateurs.

Music Video
 For our A2 project we researched and analysed music videos in depth, in terms of their conventions and genre, through Goodwins analysis. we also had a much more comprehensive storyboard with time sheets both simple and in depth. we also considered post production during filming. We carried out primary research in the form of a questionnaires and showing are research and un-edited to our peers to gain constructive feedback.
 

2. What else do you think you could have done to improve?
Throughout all of our productions we think that we could have improved on thoroughness of research and planning especially in the childrens film. However i do believe that we learnt from AS projects when planning for our A2 project.

3. Did anything go wrong due to poor planning?
During the production of childrens film we ran out of time whilst editing due to poor planning which effected our film heavily. The thriller project when really smoothly and timing was not an issue this was because we had learned from children film. Again with the music video, due to proper planning, prodcution and post-production went smoothly resulting in a high quality product.


4. Which area do you think you should have considered further to improve your product?
 Childrens film
Existing good story board and all pre planning


Thriller film
Looked at a wider variety of thriller opening through research to give ourselves a wider scope of creativity so that our product was completely original.

Music Video
We could have analysed more videos within our trip hop genre so that we had a closer image of what we had to include in our video in terms of conventions and music video content e.g narrative.
 

Research and Planning Questions

How effective was your planning and research for each project?

When we filmed our children's film we had to do lots of research on other childrens films and what was expected to be seen in them and what wasnt allowed to be included. We had to do some research on the age ratings of films which really helped us when planning what we were going to include in our work because it showed us what we couldnt do.

When planning our films, we made time lines storybards and also wrote down our ideas of what camera shots we wanted to use and where we wanted to film. This was really helpful as it allowed us to get as much filming done as possible.

What we could have done to improve our work is to have spent more time on our music for the work because it didn't fit very well with what we had filmed.

We think that both planning and research could have been better for this project but because we wern't as skilled as we are now so when we look back on our workwe realised how much better it could have been. For example we could have made the film alot more exciting and original.

When researching ideas for our thriller film we had lots more to investigate. We wanted to have a look at special effects because we wanted to include cuts and blood i our opening sequence. We also wanted to have a dark lighting in our sequence so we watched quite a lot of the beginnings of thriller films.

When planning our work we did story boards and time lines again but this time we also did a practise filming session to see what angles would look good. We took a camera with us to take still images of where we wanted to film and we experimented with the lighting of the images to see which would be best to film. We also had to practise using the fake blood as we didnt know how it would work.

When doing our thriller i think we could have made the special effects a bit more realistic as it looked a bit amateur. I also think we could have thought of a better soundtrack as when we watched other people work we had used the same music as a lot of other people. If we were to do this task againw e would spend more time on creating better music for the video and also making our jump cuts fit with the music better.

I thik that for this opening sequence we could have done more research for our work because then we could have created a more realistic and better film. We did enough plannng so that we knew what we were doing and we were very organised.

When we made our music video we had to watch lots of videos and research artists to get an idea of what we needed to do in our own video. This really helped us as no one in the group really listened to electro/techno music. We also went on artists myspace profiles to look through their pictures to get an idea of how they dressed etc. This also helped because it showed us how they posed for their albums which gave us ideas on how to create our digipak.

When planning our music video we created storyboards how ever they ended up changing when we actually filmed our video so this wasn't very useful. However we did do lots of test shots of what we wanted to film which was helpful because it saved us time when actually filming the video.

If we were to do the video again i think that we should have used more editing styles on our green screen parts as some of it didnt look very good. We also think that we should have made the video more consistent. Our original idea was to use feet in the video however we only really featured feet in the second half of the video.

We think that we did lots of really good research for the video which gave us lots of good ideas however our planning could have been better which would have ended us with a better result.

Over the past two years we have all noticed a change in our work. When we would first do research and planning for our work it would be very basic and we would experiment as much with ideas as we were unsure of how to do them. Now we all put our ideas in together and produce better work. We have a better knowledge of how to plan our work and get it done in time. We also know that when researching work you don't just have to use search engines eg google. You can get information form any where for your work.

research and planning practical questions

how effective was your planning and research for each project?

for our childrens film we planned a lot. We made storyboards and shot lists. This enabled us to complete the filming proccess qucikly and efficiently.

Because we used i stop motion the editing process wasn't neccessary. This gave us more time to film and more time to complete our planning process to a level of good quality.

We were pleased with the final product and used many different shot types to create a convincing film. The childrens film we made, resembled other childrens films we looked at for influence. Examples of childrens film we watched were;
Scooby doo,

Ruppert the bear,

Reeces 1,

Recess 2

Reccess 3

ruggrats go to hollywood,

drake and josh reach for the stars

 Hey Arnold; the story of football head.

The Muppets a christmas carol,

The Muppets in Manhattan

Ice age; dawn of the dinosaurs.

We watched small segments of these films to get an idea of the kind of genre we needed to replicate. The conventions we witnessed in these films we followed in our own, for example; Easy to understand language, funny and lighthearted humour, bright colours and lovable characters e.g Scooby doo and shaggy, Arnold, Tom and Jerry, all of the muppets, Tommy from the ruggrats and last but not least ruppert.


what else do you think you could have done to improve?


if we were funded for the equiptment and props we would have been able to create a more realistic film. also the time we were given did not allow us to get to the locations we wanted to. if we had been given better equiptment and script writers we would also have made it better.



did anything go wrong due to poor planning?


yes our group were very unorganised with attendance and therefore the jobs were not always fullfilled.

presentation for the research and planning of a short movie about the development of film.

Research and Planning Discussion on Technological Devices

mind map-the future of the internet

planning and research.

Media evaluation

In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?
We used Goodwin's theory elements in our music video so that the audience would recognise our video as a pop music genre as well as the artist. The way we used genre characteristics in our music conventions motivated our presentation of ideologies and value message. The ideologies being the fun, party girl image that we wanted to bring across.

The creative aspect of our journey has developed as we have carried out more practical coursework ans been exposed to more experimental techinques regarding media projects.

Goodwins analysis for own music video (aint no party - Orson)

My music video analysis 

1. Lyrics and Visuals


There are links between lyrics and the music video. For example "il take you up and down, and everywhere in between" along with me singing these lyrics on the music video there are hand gestures to help empathize the action of speech.

2. Genre Characteristics

Our film is typical or genre characteristics as the dress-were in the music video is extremely bright and in your face. This helps to emphasize the energy and passion of the band and the energy that they put into there music.

3. Notions of looking

The band in our music video is represented as a sort of youthful indie band. This is probably due to the dress code and how the music video pans out and the way that the dancing and playing on the instruments is presentation to the audience.

Using Conventions From Real Media Texts (Group Analysis)

Goodwins Analysis - AS

Genre Characteristics
Our thriller adhered to the conventions of a specific sub genre within thriller productions. When applying Goodwins theory to our thriller opening sequence, the genre characteristics would be the conventions of a thriller film. In our production we included a handy cam affect which is a sub genre within the thriller genre. We also used fast pace, quick editing which is also a convention. Building up tension and suspense was also used by us. A juxtaposition between quite a normal situation turning into a scary one. A vulnerable character usually a female is often seen in other thriller films and we also used this adhered to this convention.

Intertextual Reference
One main reference people may recognise in our production is the Blair Witch Project film, which has similar qualities to our project. We also play Micheal Jackson's thriller song within the film so this is another intertextual reference.

Notions of Looking
The female character within our production was seen as quite vulnerable which follows conventions of a thriller however to challenge a convention the female was quite intelligent also. Having female protagonist is also quite unconventional of both thriller and films in general.

Goodwins Analysis - A2

Links between Music and Lyrics
We quite loosely linked the lyrics and actions within our music video but not too structured. As this would have not been a convention of trip hop music videos.

Genre Characteristics
In comparison with our AS product we challenged more conventions when looking at mainstream music videos whereas with our AS we followed these. However, in terms of the Trip-Hop genre we followed these conventions through a heavy storyline, an abstract feel and showing the band play.

Intertextual Reference 
We did not have any intertextual references within our video because we wanted to keep are narrative flowing and with the trip hop genre this was not necessary unlike mainstream, chart music videos.

Notions of looking
We did not have focus of female as a sexual symbol as most music videos do at present. We also had the male bunny character as the vulnerable one within the film and the female as the dominant character. However, we did have a stereotypical portrayal of the Psychiatrist as a wise man, intelligent man.

Demands of the Record Label
Our music video was on a independent label so the artists (the band) had control of creation so no demands were made.

In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?

-Apply Goodwins theory.(frm notes taken from your blog)

-Use technical language(semiotics)

-consider your journey from AS -A2 

Our first production was our childrens film in our AS year. We decided to experiment with i-stop motion using little multicoloured pom pom balls with stick on googly eyes and the sweets jelly tots. We think this production didn't go as well as we planned as our work was deleted off of our computer before the deadline. However our plans and our final production conformed to the conventions of a childrens film. Ours was aimed at young children and we decided on i stop motion so we could use our own creations  and make the opening a bit more interesting for children because they could make the characters themselves.There are other childrens programmes/films that use the stop motion technique, such as the popular wallace and gromit shows/movies. However ours was much more simple and aimed at younger audiences , the aim of our film was for something that will catch childrens attention however there isn't too much for them to try and understand. We would have liked to have developed it alot more.

Our Second production was our thriller opening sequence. we filmed our sequence in the long road grounds. we didtn film the killers face which conformed to the conventions of a typical thriller movie because it conceals his identity. 

Brief Goodwin's analysis of music video production.

Links between lyrics and music

When referring to the lyrivs, we took into account some of the recurrin themes and imagery within them. For instance, Kesha mentions 'light' on more than one occasion which led to us shooting and creating several scenes which were heavely influenced by lighting. Be it natural light through the shots themselves and settings of the video or through editing which we swapped between black and white, natural and sepia tone.

Genre Characteristics

Typical of the pop genre, we focused on creating a strong image for the main character within the video (kesha). Through the use of party inspired fashion and the setting of the video we set about creating a character easily associated with the genre and the themes can be seen in many other videos of the same genre, including videos made professionally by Kesha.

Intertextual reference

The video can be seen to make references from several examples of popular culture media productions. An example of this is the use of similar styling and setting to that of the TV production 'Skins' which focuses on teens and their lifestyles. Also, for viewers who have previously watched a Kesha video will definitely notice the similarities in the theme of the video (settings and look).

Notions of looking

Notions of looking is especially poignant in reference to our media production. Our main character is a young female, as typical with many other female artists, they use sexuality as a point of selling and we could be said to have done that same. The main character is represented in a way to which women will inspire and men will be attracted to.


Performance, narrative and concept based video

Our video does not essentially follow a linear narrative, instead it is a jumbled narrative which embodies the concept of the pop life style. Scenes are definitely connected but they do not necessarily tell a story. However, it could be said that our video does have an ending, a summary to the jumbled events which occur previously in the video.

Demands of the record label

It would be expected for our video that the record label would want to emphasise the 'look' of the artist in order to create a memorable video and a character which people, especially young females, aspire to.

Using conventions form real media conventions

Fergie - Glamorous ft. Ludacris 

Lyrics and Visuals

-Godwins theory suggests lyrics will make constant references to visuals on screen. This applies to this conventional pop/r'n'b music video because the 'glamorous' highlife in the music video with connotations to  wealthy lifestyle. Therefore the visuals reinforce the message that the artist is sending across through the mise-en-scene and the props and costume. For example fancy cars, airplanes, champagne.

Genre characteristics are depicted within the music video as the certain traits associated 

goodwins theory

links between lyrics and music-
Everything she says there is an action for in the video, e.g when she wakes up at 7am there is an image of the clock showing that it is 7 o'clock in the morning. This is used and repeated throughout the video, with a party being shown when she sings about a party.

genre characteristics-
The video is very conventional, and follows the conventions of a stereotypical pop video. For example, the imagary used conveys a sence of the sterotypical American teens life, and it also uses imagary of dancing and partying common in this genre of music.

Analysing video with Goodwins Theory

We analaysed Katy Perry and Kanye West Music video ET.

In the video, lots of the lyrics matched what was happening in the video, for example they talk about aliens and they show an alien. The lyrics also say 'KISS ME' and we saw Katy kissing an alien.

The artist has not gone for a stereotypical look for a pop video however. Se has dressed up as an alien creature including daring hair and makeup styles. She has also incorperated animals into the video to show that she is part animal (alien). In pop videos there is normally a set dance routine for the act to follow aswel, however the video has no dancing in it.

Kanye is filmed in space which agains fits in with his lyrics as he talks about being in Mars whilst he is in a spaceship.

The video uses intertextualiy when it shows nature programmes of how a dear is born and raised and how it lives.