Our final practise is a remake of a Christmas Video in where the video is based upon a narrative of family and friends at Christmas time whilst school children sing along to the song. We took the inspiration from the Christmas video Mariah Carey "All I want for Christmas is You" and the Nickleback "Rockstar".
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Friday, 29 November 2013
Christmas Music Storyboard
For our Christmas theme music video we have chosen to film students singing along with the song whilst friends put up a Christmas tree. The video will consist of jump shot from the karaoke like sing along to the preparation of the Christmas tree and present underneath the tree. We hope it will be like a mixture between Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas" and Nickelback "Rockstar"
We have chosen to do a mixture of these videos and have shot mid shots of school colleagues and teachers singing along to the song whilst also having the some shot of Christmas at a house hold with friends and family. Some of the home shot could possibly be of the following;
- Decorating a Christmas tree
- Advent Calendars
- Opening present
- Making traditional food (cookie and milk)
We have chosen to do a mixture of these videos and have shot mid shots of school colleagues and teachers singing along to the song whilst also having the some shot of Christmas at a house hold with friends and family. Some of the home shot could possibly be of the following;
- Decorating a Christmas tree
- Advent Calendars
- Opening present
- Making traditional food (cookie and milk)
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Christmas Video - Simply having a wonderful Christmastime
As practice we will be constructing a music video for the Christmas season here is the original music video ... We want our christmas video to be heartwarming which would mean that there should be a narrative through it but because the song is very up beat and fun we thought of having children from our school to sing along to the song.
Here are some more Christmas video that we looked at for inspiration...
Here are some more Christmas video that we looked at for inspiration...
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Sainsbury's Christmas Advert 2013- Homecoming
This is one of Sainbury's Christmas advert and it relates to both our music video that we plan our Christmas video and our Army force video because it is about a family sending out a video to there father in the army when all of a sudden he walks in through the door the children run to embrace him. The embrace can help us vision out how we plan our family reunion to go.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Lilly Allen - Hard Out Here Response (RANT)
Lily Allen single "Hard Out Here" is the most talked about song and its because it is the most controversial music video. Press such as
The Guardian say
"Created specifically to drum up controversy, engage a debate and represent the now, Hard Out Here is exactly what we wanted from a Lily Allen comeback – sorry, John Lewis."
The Mirror
"Lily Allen on her controversial video, working with Miley Cyrus and life as a mum"
The whole music video is at the same time sarcastic and making a point you can tell when she says "you not a size six and your not good looking, you better be rich or be real good at cooking, you should probably lose some weight cause we can't see your bones" clearly she is attacking the way woman are being represented in the media to be as skinny as they can be which is why she is "getting" liposuction. Look at the fact that at the beginning of the video she is on a surgery table and she says "Are we nearly done?" and her male manager says "No... honey be here for a while" then later say how "does someone let themselves get like this" when she has had two kids. Just the very introduction before any of the actual lyrics she is already showing that the media world is looked at through a male gaze as if all audience were males and any woman in the media is for pure entertainment.
The music video itself is showing how woman are being represented in the media and is a pro feminist video despite critics who say that the music video is wrong and racist because of the "all" black female dancers even though they are not all black female dancers and say that is wrong because they are wearing little clothing is not just in her video where this is happening and Lily is just picking up something that is happening in all music videos not just dancer but artist as well. When really if you think about it the critics valued the ethnicity not because of the dancing but because of the colour of the skin which I think makes the critics more racist then the video. She has the dancers dancing in black swimsuit bodies with leather coats whilst she is in fully clothed, I personally think that she is trying to be the woman who has chosen to say that she does not have to degrade her self by dancing in little clothing but has dancers in her video do so which help make a stronger impact that not all woman need to do this. If you look at Rihanna "Pour it up" music video she is also black and is representing herself as a stripper and as a male because of the way she is dressed and the way she acts. Lily Allen is not pointing out the representation of black woman but of all women, its almost the same with the fact that all black male can rap but only a few white male can she is pointing out how woman are shown in the media.
Lily Allen is taken everything she has watched in the media recently specifically in music videos like Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop" Robin Thick "Blurred Lines" the twerking the way woman are being represented and making a truthful but sarcastic point and she even says in the song"and if you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood"
Lily is contradicting at times in her video but because it is sarcastic isn't taken seriously the video really just show how woman are shown in the media at one point it has Lily is in the kitchen washing tyre cover of a car which cars are a manly objects to be associated with but still the male manager comes out and tells her how she should look whilst she is washing the tyre covers, she is conforming with Laura Mulvey's theory that woman are know to be the tradition in the kitchen raising kids and cleaning but also her male gaze theory in the way that this video is about how the media is showing women through the eyes of a male for entertainment purposes only.
Whilst the music video along with the song lyrics has a serious message the music video shouldn't be taken so serious because she is on purpose trying to show how the music industry are showing woman to the world. She is also making a point to say that the music industry has become about sponsorship and she gives and example with the car and the beat speaker and she is making a point that the music industry should be about music and its messages and that the message has become distorted by media. This can then be back up with the auto tune used in her video because it is used so much that we think that again she is contradicting but in her recent "Somewhere only we go" song which has no auto tune its show the audience to hear that she can sing and that she is basically saying that everyone who has the right look and figure can be on music videos.
Finally the chorus "its hard out here for a bitch" when finishing the video the song title speaks for itself because the whole video and song is showing how hard it is for woman to get ahead in the music industry and what the have to do to reach that peak is degrading and only want a man wants to see which is why she calls all woman bitches because it is known as what men call woman who do wan they want.
The Guardian say
"Created specifically to drum up controversy, engage a debate and represent the now, Hard Out Here is exactly what we wanted from a Lily Allen comeback – sorry, John Lewis."
The Mirror
"Lily Allen on her controversial video, working with Miley Cyrus and life as a mum"
Some people hate it and other respect her decision of her choice of comeback. Lily Allen has the most triumphant return to the music industry with her single "Hard out Here" she is the most talked about artist everyone is playing her song and music video and talking about it whether its bad or good she seems to be the topic in today's media. She has taken time off to be a mum of two but she has still been able to keep up to date with the media and has chosen to pull off a video that consist ideas from Blurred Lines by Robin Thick and We Cant Stop by Miley Cyrus by many different shot in her video. She mainly looks at the three issue like body image, gender inequality and most of all objectification.
The whole music video is at the same time sarcastic and making a point you can tell when she says "you not a size six and your not good looking, you better be rich or be real good at cooking, you should probably lose some weight cause we can't see your bones" clearly she is attacking the way woman are being represented in the media to be as skinny as they can be which is why she is "getting" liposuction. Look at the fact that at the beginning of the video she is on a surgery table and she says "Are we nearly done?" and her male manager says "No... honey be here for a while" then later say how "does someone let themselves get like this" when she has had two kids. Just the very introduction before any of the actual lyrics she is already showing that the media world is looked at through a male gaze as if all audience were males and any woman in the media is for pure entertainment.
The music video itself is showing how woman are being represented in the media and is a pro feminist video despite critics who say that the music video is wrong and racist because of the "all" black female dancers even though they are not all black female dancers and say that is wrong because they are wearing little clothing is not just in her video where this is happening and Lily is just picking up something that is happening in all music videos not just dancer but artist as well. When really if you think about it the critics valued the ethnicity not because of the dancing but because of the colour of the skin which I think makes the critics more racist then the video. She has the dancers dancing in black swimsuit bodies with leather coats whilst she is in fully clothed, I personally think that she is trying to be the woman who has chosen to say that she does not have to degrade her self by dancing in little clothing but has dancers in her video do so which help make a stronger impact that not all woman need to do this. If you look at Rihanna "Pour it up" music video she is also black and is representing herself as a stripper and as a male because of the way she is dressed and the way she acts. Lily Allen is not pointing out the representation of black woman but of all women, its almost the same with the fact that all black male can rap but only a few white male can she is pointing out how woman are shown in the media.
Lily Allen is taken everything she has watched in the media recently specifically in music videos like Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop" Robin Thick "Blurred Lines" the twerking the way woman are being represented and making a truthful but sarcastic point and she even says in the song"and if you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood"
Lily is contradicting at times in her video but because it is sarcastic isn't taken seriously the video really just show how woman are shown in the media at one point it has Lily is in the kitchen washing tyre cover of a car which cars are a manly objects to be associated with but still the male manager comes out and tells her how she should look whilst she is washing the tyre covers, she is conforming with Laura Mulvey's theory that woman are know to be the tradition in the kitchen raising kids and cleaning but also her male gaze theory in the way that this video is about how the media is showing women through the eyes of a male for entertainment purposes only.
Whilst the music video along with the song lyrics has a serious message the music video shouldn't be taken so serious because she is on purpose trying to show how the music industry are showing woman to the world. She is also making a point to say that the music industry has become about sponsorship and she gives and example with the car and the beat speaker and she is making a point that the music industry should be about music and its messages and that the message has become distorted by media. This can then be back up with the auto tune used in her video because it is used so much that we think that again she is contradicting but in her recent "Somewhere only we go" song which has no auto tune its show the audience to hear that she can sing and that she is basically saying that everyone who has the right look and figure can be on music videos.
Finally the chorus "its hard out here for a bitch" when finishing the video the song title speaks for itself because the whole video and song is showing how hard it is for woman to get ahead in the music industry and what the have to do to reach that peak is degrading and only want a man wants to see which is why she calls all woman bitches because it is known as what men call woman who do wan they want.
Rough Drawings of our digipacks
To start to get an idea of what our digipak would look like we drew up some of the ideas we had in mind by researching many hip/hop album and single covers which gave us the inspiration for our own.
Most digipaks have the artist on the cover but most of the paks with the artist on are the album but when looking at the single the cover now vary and instead is something that associated with the song lyrics.
While this in mind we started to draw up the idea we have has based on the research that we had done, we did many prototypes and wrote a few lines explaining the idea of the digipak.
Idea 1
This idea is of a landscape we were thinking about the battle field but its has a bullet hole inside which fits in with the theme of war and battle.
This idea is of a landscape we were thinking about the battle field but its has a bullet hole inside which fits in with the theme of war and battle.
Idea 2
This cover is of a prop that we are going to use in our music video in order to promote the artist because the dog tag relates with the army force and the one we have has a image of the artist on one and on the other has the artist name 'drake' so we thought it would be interesting to have a prop used in the music video also on the single.
This cover is of a prop that we are going to use in our music video in order to promote the artist because the dog tag relates with the army force and the one we have has a image of the artist on one and on the other has the artist name 'drake' so we thought it would be interesting to have a prop used in the music video also on the single.
Idea 3
When researching covers we came across one of Beyonce's cover where it is her ace but in a mosaic painting way and thought it would be a good effect to have some of the fathers and mothers feature in the portrait. Below the Beyonce cover is shown for a more clearer idea of what we would hope to achieve.
When researching covers we came across one of Beyonce's cover where it is her ace but in a mosaic painting way and thought it would be a good effect to have some of the fathers and mothers feature in the portrait. Below the Beyonce cover is shown for a more clearer idea of what we would hope to achieve.
Idea 4
The owl is the artist logo it is the logo of the artist record company
"Octobers very own" or "ovo" which is made of the owl face. This idea would be a great way to promote the artist and for branding.
"Octobers very own" or "ovo" which is made of the owl face. This idea would be a great way to promote the artist and for branding.
Idea 5
This idea circle the twist in the music video in where the woman and male roles keep swapping and it shows the confusion and that both are in equal positions by having that half and half face from each character. Although the idea is simple it could help the audience get a sense of the music video.
Idea 6
The last idea we had was the pupil of an eye in a camouflage colour because it would relate with the song "I got my eyes on you" lyrics but it would also fit in with the theme of the music video by having the colour of the eye be the same as the army uniform.
This idea circle the twist in the music video in where the woman and male roles keep swapping and it shows the confusion and that both are in equal positions by having that half and half face from each character. Although the idea is simple it could help the audience get a sense of the music video.
Idea 6The last idea we had was the pupil of an eye in a camouflage colour because it would relate with the song "I got my eyes on you" lyrics but it would also fit in with the theme of the music video by having the colour of the eye be the same as the army uniform.
Actual costume
Below is a drawing of what we though the costume would look like and next to it is the actual result we had to buy a large shirt because of budget and the person playing the father is much bigger than the young woman who is playing our mother which is why the costume in the photograph is baggy on her, but it still looks really good.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Diary Entry - Montage Filming
15th of November - House
Our first day of filming we decided to get the first part of the montage filmed which would be right at the begging of the music video to show the audience a bit of background on the history of the family and the character within. Are aim was to shoot many different shots specifically close ups that would only be no more than 2 second long which will be in the audio beat. Because it was at my house we had to re-arrange some furniture especially where we were shooting for example a shot we had planned was of a shel that had all these great momentums of the different stages of the birth of the child which is why in my room what i had on my shelf had to be changed and we placed certain objects like the teddy and baby photos album to emphasise that at this moment in the music video its about knowing that the couple have had a child below is a photo of the item on the shelf and we shot from this exact angle and panned it from one end of the shelf to the other side.
Our first day of filming we decided to get the first part of the montage filmed which would be right at the begging of the music video to show the audience a bit of background on the history of the family and the character within. Are aim was to shoot many different shots specifically close ups that would only be no more than 2 second long which will be in the audio beat. Because it was at my house we had to re-arrange some furniture especially where we were shooting for example a shot we had planned was of a shel that had all these great momentums of the different stages of the birth of the child which is why in my room what i had on my shelf had to be changed and we placed certain objects like the teddy and baby photos album to emphasise that at this moment in the music video its about knowing that the couple have had a child below is a photo of the item on the shelf and we shot from this exact angle and panned it from one end of the shelf to the other side.
We also focused on shooting a shot of the famous picture frame that will make its appearance more than once through the music video but that is never properly seen in the video until our last shot where you will see a family moment captured. The montage is as long as the introduction is and because the tempo of the song speeds up the shot also speed up. With the montage of the the family flashing in contrast with the the solider getting ready we shot the actress getting dress putting shoes on but not ever showing the face because at the end it will reveal that it is the father getting ready. Shots like the actress going down the stairs stepping out of the front door and down the outside stairs are toward the end of the introduction/montage scene which helps create the suspense as to which one of the parents it is.
Friday, 8 November 2013
Our Lyrics
For a more visual effect of the lyrics for our chosen song "Hold On We're Going Home" we have created a Wordle which allows the audience to view the most common lyrics and line that is a big part of the song. Providing a image presents the lyrics in a way that will make them more memorable.
We have also included the actual full set of lyrics below
I got my eyes on you,
You're everything that I see
I want your hot love and emotion, endlessly
I can't get over you,
You left your mark on me
I want your high love and emotion, endlessly
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
You act so different around me
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
I know exactly who you could be
Just hold on we're going home
Just hold on we're going home
It's hard to do these things alone
Just hold on we're going home, ho oh
I got my eyes on you,
You're everything that I see
I want your hot love and emotion, endlessly
I can't get over you,
You left your mark on me
I want your high love and emotion, endlessly
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
You act so different around me
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
I know exactly who you could be
So just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
Just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
It's hard to do these things alone (things alone)
Just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
Ho oh (goin' home)
You're the girl
You're the one
Gave you every
Thing I love
I think there's something
Baby
I think there's something
Baby
You're the girl,
You're the one
Gave you every
Thing I love
I think there's something
Baby
I think there's something
Baby
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
You act so different around me
'Cause you're a good girl and you know it
I know exactly who you could be
Oh just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
Just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
It's hard to do these things alone (things alone)
Just hold on we're going home (goin' home)
Ho oh (goin' home)
(Hold on, hold on)
(Hold on)
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
25 Word Synopsis
This is our 25 word synopsis and I have written it down but also we have made Animoto with an image and the our song choice
"A happy family strive to live their lives - as mother is in combat, father struggles to fill both roles as mother and father."
Monday, 4 November 2013
Music Video Pitch
"A happy family strive to live their lives - as the mother is in combat, the father struggles to fill both roles as mother and father"
This music pitch is to allow the audience a clue as to what the our music video will contain and what the theme is about for instance the audience will already know that the mum is in combat and that the father is playing both the roles to their daughter of 5.
This music pitch is to allow the audience a clue as to what the our music video will contain and what the theme is about for instance the audience will already know that the mum is in combat and that the father is playing both the roles to their daughter of 5.
Sunday, 3 November 2013
What To Do First
Firstly we will make sure that we have all necessary equipment especially for the outside scene because we are going to film them scenes first.
We have ordered already our costume and are waiting for the delivery we are also waiting to film the main parts of the music video because our actress is changing her hair style and it will be a continuity error if we start no so we will be start be have taken to account that we are able to film the montage because that footage would be from the past tense so we are able to film with these with our actress current hairstyle.
This is due to the fact of weather conditions because it is winter we might not know if it will snow so we are planing to do all of the send off, training and battle scenes in 3 or 4 days max during the same week so that if it does snow we wont have to worry about continuity errors in the video, any re-filming can be done after.
We will then do the inside scenes which will be at a home and some parts on school site, leaving us only with the montage at the begging of the music video which some will be filmed outside but the weather is not a concern because the shots are from different time periods.
We plan to start filming mid way through November preferable on the 25th on Fridays and Saturdays these are the days we are able to film on school site and in our chosen location for the training and battle shots.
Doing our storyboard has allowed us to give a rough sketch of what it is we are hoping for in our results which allowed us to be able to start of with the outside scene that would be in the middle of the music video which is convenient in this season to start of with.
15th Nov we will film the shot of the objects such as sonogram, the back of the picture frame, the shelf with the baby's possession etc.
22nd Nov we will film the montage parts such as the engagement and the pregnancy
30th Nov is when we will hopefully be able to start filming all the and then we will filming any Fridays and Saturdays
We have ordered already our costume and are waiting for the delivery we are also waiting to film the main parts of the music video because our actress is changing her hair style and it will be a continuity error if we start no so we will be start be have taken to account that we are able to film the montage because that footage would be from the past tense so we are able to film with these with our actress current hairstyle.
This is due to the fact of weather conditions because it is winter we might not know if it will snow so we are planing to do all of the send off, training and battle scenes in 3 or 4 days max during the same week so that if it does snow we wont have to worry about continuity errors in the video, any re-filming can be done after.
We will then do the inside scenes which will be at a home and some parts on school site, leaving us only with the montage at the begging of the music video which some will be filmed outside but the weather is not a concern because the shots are from different time periods.
We plan to start filming mid way through November preferable on the 25th on Fridays and Saturdays these are the days we are able to film on school site and in our chosen location for the training and battle shots.
Doing our storyboard has allowed us to give a rough sketch of what it is we are hoping for in our results which allowed us to be able to start of with the outside scene that would be in the middle of the music video which is convenient in this season to start of with.
15th Nov we will film the shot of the objects such as sonogram, the back of the picture frame, the shelf with the baby's possession etc.
22nd Nov we will film the montage parts such as the engagement and the pregnancy
30th Nov is when we will hopefully be able to start filming all the and then we will filming any Fridays and Saturdays
Branding
Many music videos now days promote many brands such as sunglasses, watches, phones, clothes and the most common, especially in the Hip Hop/ Rap genre cars. When storyboarding our music video we have been thinking about promote brand in a specific relation with the artist for example we have chosen to promote the artist Drake by using Drake dog tag instead of military tags. You can see below the tag which we will be using in our music video to help promote the artist. We will have a close up of the tags during a chorus whilst the soldier is training or at battle and the shot will be showed at "just hold on we're going home" which is the song title this is because it will remind the audience that this song is sung by Drake the artist and that will be associated with the song
We also are planning to promote sunglasses. In our music video we will be promoting ray band sunglasses which will be in the scene where the solider is getting ready at the montage.
Record labels and music video producer choose to promote brands in their videos because they are paid to promote the products by the promotional campaign of the product, for example Miley Cyrus was paid to use beats in her music video "We can't stop" below is a screen shot of the product right in the middle of the shot, the shot is about 7 seconds long, which is enough time to allow the audience see the product.
Saturday, 2 November 2013
Actors and Actress
For our actors and actresses we have considered many of our previous actors in our Ride or Die replica and we have asked some of those students to be as the main characters in our music video. Last year because there was four of us in our group to make the opening to the horror film we had an actor within our group but because this year there is only two of us we have to ask friends of ours to shoot with us.
Mother
We have chosen as the role of the mother to played by Evelyn Adjattor who played Misha B in the Ride or Die replica because when we got feedback we got a lot o good positive comments on this particular student
Father
For the father we have chosen a friend of Evelyn his name is Jerone we have only meet him a couple of times but we think that he will be able to complete the the family perfect and it is also very useful because he is involved in the club Cadets in where it is an mary based training for teens and so he will be able to give us a good perceptive on what kind of training would go on in the a military training, he also has a military costume and because him and Evelyn do not share the same size this is convenient because it would mean only buying a costume for the role of the mother.
Daughter
For our daughter we have chosen Evelyn's little 5 year old sister Marmalade to play the cute daughter we choose her because she is a relative which would mean that she would look similar to her sister. I think that 5 is a good age because we would be able to communicate with her and because it would be her sister she will feel much more comfortable therefore make the scene look more like a family.
As an extra we also have many other that would be interested in playing a role of for example another soldier or a friend of the family.
Mother
We have chosen as the role of the mother to played by Evelyn Adjattor who played Misha B in the Ride or Die replica because when we got feedback we got a lot o good positive comments on this particular student
Father
For the father we have chosen a friend of Evelyn his name is Jerone we have only meet him a couple of times but we think that he will be able to complete the the family perfect and it is also very useful because he is involved in the club Cadets in where it is an mary based training for teens and so he will be able to give us a good perceptive on what kind of training would go on in the a military training, he also has a military costume and because him and Evelyn do not share the same size this is convenient because it would mean only buying a costume for the role of the mother.
Daughter
For our daughter we have chosen Evelyn's little 5 year old sister Marmalade to play the cute daughter we choose her because she is a relative which would mean that she would look similar to her sister. I think that 5 is a good age because we would be able to communicate with her and because it would be her sister she will feel much more comfortable therefore make the scene look more like a family.
As an extra we also have many other that would be interested in playing a role of for example another soldier or a friend of the family.
Costume & Props
Props
We have always payed a lot of attention to detail when producing our task so for this music video we knew that there would be a lot of little things that we will need to buy or create. The main concern with our narrative music video would be the props such as the weapons and army gear.
After researching the weapons that are most likely used in battle we have purchased a children's military set.
This set is for a child to play with so of course it is safe for our task in the set purchased it includes the following
- Handgun
- Gun holder
- Military gun
- Knife
- Walkie talkie
- Grenade
- Helmets
- Compass
- Battle mask
- Dog tags
We don't know whether or not we are going to leave the props as they are but instead we might spray paint the guns black to make them look more believable but if we do we would only spray paint the military gun because that has the camouflage and the orange nozzle that make a gun sound. We are also thinking of using real dog tags
Some other props that we where thinking off where some small but important to the music video we thought of the following
- Pocket knife
- Stich on patterns
- Hat (Green)
Any other props that will be involved would be when setting the scene for example the baby photos, teddies, bottle etc. will be set up and displayed as there would be in the music video
We have always payed a lot of attention to detail when producing our task so for this music video we knew that there would be a lot of little things that we will need to buy or create. The main concern with our narrative music video would be the props such as the weapons and army gear.
After researching the weapons that are most likely used in battle we have purchased a children's military set.
This set is for a child to play with so of course it is safe for our task in the set purchased it includes the following
- Handgun
- Gun holder
- Military gun
- Knife
- Walkie talkie
- Grenade
- Helmets
- Compass
- Battle mask
- Dog tags
We don't know whether or not we are going to leave the props as they are but instead we might spray paint the guns black to make them look more believable but if we do we would only spray paint the military gun because that has the camouflage and the orange nozzle that make a gun sound. We are also thinking of using real dog tags
Some other props that we where thinking off where some small but important to the music video we thought of the following
- Pocket knife
- Stich on patterns
- Hat (Green)
Any other props that will be involved would be when setting the scene for example the baby photos, teddies, bottle etc. will be set up and displayed as there would be in the music video
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