Finale

"If music be the food of love, play on." - William Shakespeare

As a whole I feel the process went really well for us as a group, we ended with a great main product and some ancillary texts that complement the main video really well. We were optimistic in choosing a song not mainstream and on top of this it had no lyrics. Not having lyrics meant we had to impose a narrative, because there were no lyrics to base a story on, but in the end I feel this worked out better for us, because lip syncing can only work so well, instead we landed ourselves with a real DJ who knew the track well, so he knew exactly what he was doing. In terms of the narrative, in retrospect, I would probably change location, to a more urban area to increase the dystopian effect that our narrative imposes.

The colour grading process was crucial to our pop video working. I never realised that this was so important. In media texts for the screen, every frame may be graded to make sure the colour is correct and fits the message intended. We used the colour grading software on Final Cut Pro to desaturate our colours somewhat, to make them seem a little cold and almost hostile. In this way we were stressing the message of our pop video that the world is aggressive and in a state of dystopia, which I take to mean a society that is in constant breakdown.

In such a greedy, tempestuous society, it is hard for any organic music act to break through; off hand I can name a lot of musicians and bands that are more talented than many mainstream ‘musicians’. The industry is a money hungry giant, that would continue to function even without people going in and out of it on a regular basis, and pop music fans are quick to forget what they were into last year. Our pop video intended fans to be drawn into the music, and sell the artist. However our pop video contradicts the music industry as an entity, portraying youth as your own, and not syndicated as the major labels intend it to be. Overall our originality as individuals really shone through, and this collectively combined to form a great group. And we are delighted with the finished product, and although it was lengthy and painful process, it was thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding.

Director's Commentary

The Directors Commentary, done by myself and Leo Faulks, was an aural aid designed to assist the audience in understanding the narrative, in it we detail several parts of the narrative, use some comparison to theorists and explain why we used specific shots. In terms of Hall, it may sway audiences more towards the preferred meaning. With the insight we have into the making of the pop video understandably makes the pop video better off as it may come of more to the conventions we had originally set. It gives the audience some background to the narrative, for instance the differences between the two gangs, the gang signs and the fact that the ending is actually a take on real life, and how no conflicts of that nature seem to end. We chose Leo and I to record it because we were the ones who had been most actively involved in shooting and editing.

Blog Task Three: What I learned from my Audience Feedback

Having collected a variety of feedback for our pop video and ancillary products from members of the target audience and from other members of the audience demographic. (Via YouTube, a Focus Group and other sources).

Our target audience was 16-25 year old males from JICTAR groups C, D and E. Generally speaking, groups C, D and E are less sophisticated people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds, but these social categories are big spenders on pop music and related commodities. C is people who are skilled but not academically educated, such as builders and electricians. D is families and people who labor and E are the unemployed. This applies to these JICTAR groups because of the people and the content of the video; the video features people of a poorer socio-economic background and the video details needless violence and vandalism.



The video was posted on Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook, from the three only YouTube and Facebook received comments, and all of these comments were positive. The comments included;

From YouTube
− “This is amazing” – bonesbilly545
− “Yesssss this video is ill” – skeme14
− “Amazing video” – kreitylowTheNINJA

From Facebook – On the Facebook liking system, 17 people like this.
− “Amazing. X” – Natalya Holley
− “Sik Video” – Kaleem Khan



The Focus Group contained of seven students, four male and three female. We gave a questionnaire containing ten questions to the group. We wanted the group to watch the video once before answering the questions, this would allow time for the group to think and come up with sensible answers before answering them. The idea was to simply find out if they enjoyed it, and to see if they understood what had happened and perhaps if they had gained any other meaning from the video or even the song. After they had answered the questions, we had a discussion as a group, in which we discussed questions, and their responses, and we attempt to usher them to elaborate on their statements. The supplementary discussion was actually more useful than the questionnaire itself; the verbal response seemed more emotional. One male student, Will Edgely, an 18 year old from Dorking said the video was “to a great song, and the emotion of the song, despite the lack of lyrics, really fitted the video”
The questionnaire was as follows:

1) Did you enjoy it? Why?
2) What did you get out of it?
3) What did you think the message of the story was?
4) Did you think the brand was established? How?
5) Do you think it is sexist/bias in any way?
6) Did you identify with any of the characters? How? Who?
7) Did it tell you anything about relationships?
8) Did it give you any information about the world today?
9) What is the official image that you received?
10) How do you think it can be improved?

In terms of Blumler and Katz’s theory of uses and gratifications, we tried to fulfill two of the specified areas as defined by them; we also aimed to apply their theory to our audience response. Blumler and Katz say that watching TV fulfills four basic needs. These are; Diversion (a form of escape from everyday mundanity), Personal Relationships (companionship via TV personalities and characters), Personal Identity (the comparison’s drawn between the characters and your own life) and Surveillance (a supply of information concerning the welfare of the world). In terms of our pop video, diversion occurs, when the audience watches and empathizes with the activities of the gang, or feels envious of the nonchalance in their daily activities, but because they are bound to the confines of their life, they cannot do these random acts, instead the relate with the video because it forms an escape for them. Surveillance occurs because the video shows the world in a state of disarray, where amongst a dystopian society, the broken lives appear to be the ones that shine, and the activities of young people are needlessly violent because there is simply nothing else in their lives.



Stuart Hall suggests a theory that producers encode a preferred message that the audience proceeds to decode in any one of three ways. These ways are either the audience accepting the preferred meaning, or they become oppositional readers, rejecting the preferred message, or negotiated readers, wherein they decipher their own meaning. The pop video has a preferred meaning, wherein the DJ is edgy rebellious and controversial. The meaning of the narrative is that the world is potentially violent and dangerous. The males in the focus group read the preferred meaning of both, but the females in the group rejected the second meaning, not believing the video was an accurate representation of a state of affairs in modern gang culture, instead arguing that the video “glorified needless aggression”. However, the Internet comments received were positive from both genders, so we cannot draw the conclusion that women reject the second meaning.



Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, not by any means a media theorist, introduced his ideas of Ethos, Pathos and Logos, arguing that the goal of argumentative writing was to persuade the audience that your ideas are valid, or more so than someone else’s. Ethos or simply credibility was the convincing of the characters and narrative by means of the author, meaning that we tend to believe people who we respect. Pathos or the emotional is the persuading by means of appealing to the reader or watcher’s emotion. Logos or words, was the persuading by mode of words, or in the case of pop videos, lyrics. With regards to our pop video, only Ethos and Pathos apply, as our video features no lyrics. Ethos applies because the DJ, the author, imposes the narrative and the DJ is a respectable character, his musical prowess demands respect from all ages, giving him the deserved credibility. Pathos applies because the video details emotions at their highest peaks, the viewing of the destruction of modern artifacts, and at their most suppressed, the gang members themselves who look like they have had it hard all their life.



I think that overall the performance element of the pop video worked beyond expectations; maybe if we were to reshoot we may have changed location to bring him closer to the narrative and emphasize the dystopian society. The narrative did work, but I felt we tried to hard to blur the lines between the gangs, and that they appeared too similar in appearance, we did try to achieve a certain similarity between them, but this could have been achieved through camerawork and editing, and if we were to reshoot I would the gangs wearing noticeably different clothing, with different modes of destruction, and perhaps alternative semiology that showed their unison as a gang.

Task Two: A Powerpoint Presentation to Explore How Effective the Combination of My Main Product and Ancillary Texts are.

TBlog Task 2

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I answer this question with a powerpoint slideshow exploring the theories of;

• CARLSSON
• RICHARD DYER
• CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS

And how they can be applied to stress the way my pop video, magazine advert and digipak covers used their theories to sell my artist, and his song.

Magazine Promotion

Most pop groups and singers in the modern digital world make their money more from touring than from CD sales. So when a new song is issued a campaign is mounted through the pop video and the digipack to drive punters to the concerts, where the main money is made. This is argued by Negus and Fiske in their various books. The magazine advert has to play off and use the same images as the pop video and the digipack if a ground swell of interest and support is to be created in the potential audience.

Our magazine advert is dark, suggesting a bleak view of the world, yet D'Artagnan, the name of our artist, connotes fighting for freedom and justice with its links to The Four Musketeers and All For One and One For All. The very word plays on the idea of a good gang. The advert also follows the rule of thirds and suggests through its black and white colouring that we are in a world of art.

Digipack

Creation of the Digipack

The digipack is a crucial tool in selling the artist and his brand or image. It has to work with and play off my pop video and my magazine advert to create a constant image in all of them.

A digipack is essentially what comes in a CD, the booklet of the inside, the front cover, the back cover and background for where the CD lies. It contains the track list for the album on the back cover, it will detail the production information for each song, and sometimes the lyrics for the songs. The digipack is what sells the CD to the public, it has to be eye catching, and informative. The font we used on our both our digipack and our magazine advert was a digital looking font, reflecting the nature of the music of the artist which is all electronic. The insider left cover details a picture of the DJ being photographed, coupled by a quote from Marianne Williamson about the ability of human beings, and that mediocrity for the sake of others is a sufferance to oneself. The inside right cover, where the CD sits in front, is an image from one the DJ live shows, wherein the lights obscure the DJ's image, and the only thing left is the crowd clearly enjoying the show. The front cover needed to be edgy and rebellious, similar to the artist's image, so we chose to make the image black and white, showing only one half the outline to his face in white, and his head phones highlighted in red, this is coupled with artist's name, d'artagnan, and the eponymous single of the album "We Are From Venice". The back cover shows the DJ's decks, again with the headphones highlighted in red, the back cover also shows the publication company (Downtown Publishing) and the record label (Fool's Gold Records). There is also the necessary copyright details, the track listing and a barcode.

Task One : In What Ways Do Your Media Productions Use, Develop, or Challenge Forms and Conventions Used by Real Media Products?

When we initially began the research stage of the production of our pop video, we looked at real pop videos, to try and get an idea, or an inspiration to form the basis of our pop video. After looking at "Declaration of War" by Hadouken! and "Stress" by Justice, we decided that we liked the extended use of documentary style filming, and we liked the gritty and seedy realism that it promoted through the use of handheld camera shots, almost as if to put the audience in the midst of the chaos. The main story arc conveyed a group of teenagers, no older than myself, wreaking havoc around the city they lived in, somewhere in Paris. The gang were menacing, and as a member of the audience I felt repulsed and dragooned by them. We knew from that moment that we wanted to create the same fear and repulsion as Romain Gavras (The Director) had done, this coupled with the sense of nothingness and disequilibrium we felt was the foundation for a good pop video. It was at this point we knew that we had to subvert all, or at least some, of the main conventions set out by Negus. We also knew that we had to work in plaisir, the thrill the audience expects from a pop video, but we felt more drawn towards Barthes' terms of jouissance, the unexpected.

One example from this in our video, may be the ending, where instead of the video coming to a definitive end, the video merely fades out, leaving the ensuing conflict unresolved, this in itself is a reflection on modern society wherein most conflicts of a similar nature are left unresolved, such as knife crime and the progression of gang warfare in London. In order to gain the ability to use these conventions well, we had to understand the main conventions of pop videos, and learn them in order to insert them effectively into the narrative. As Negus explains, the main conventions of a pop video are; the explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption; the featuring of the artist; a wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement; repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography; a possible narrative structure; a possible performance element; the flexibility to disregard realism; shots cut tightly to the beat of the track; use of special effects; a carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track; high impact instantly. We had initially chosen a quite difficult song to invent a video for, as the song we had chosen had no lyrics, so the message of the song, is personal and individual to every viewer. For us, we saw a liberationist agenda, and to a certain extent a post apocalyptic era. In many ways the video is hugely stereotypical, as all the gang members look dangerous, and it seems their sole motif in society is to cause disruption and disregard the rules. Our personal agenda probably was a little temperamental, and we know that not all members of gangs are this way inclined, and we know that if we had not followed this stereotype, we would not have gained the same vivacity we achieved in the final product.
The lack of lyrics in the piece made things seem distorted, which inadvertently worked in our favour, as this was exactly what we were trying to achieve. We had no intention of showing a band or main leader, because this was not how we wanted to portray our artist, we in fact actively tried to obscure his identity, we wanted to subvert the convention of "shameless" promotion of a star, and we wanted it to coincide with the recurring theme of the enigmatic in our piece. A large part of our mentality was to let audiences make up their own mind about the artist as they watch the video, we didn't try to make him a hero, more a kind of ethereal middle ground between two extremes.

The narrative in which we see the DJ, imitates a number of Negus’ conventions; the featuring of the artist, repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography and shows that it is cut tightly to the beat of the track. The scene subverts the rule of thirds, as the DJ was intentionally positioned in the middle, subverting the conventions of composition, to create a rebellious attitude, not just in his performance, but also in the filming.
One of our final scenes, was the scene detailing a rusted old burning car, that clearly integral to one of the bands daily activities. In this instance we challenged the normal conventions of pop videos, by leaving the audience on a cliff hanger, and instead or telling them what happens, we leave it to individual interpretation. However we do conform to Negus' convention of "high impact instantly". Everything in the gang scenes that we shot was decided on location. Filming as quickly and with as much improvisation as we did, it is hard to remember the sheer number of shots individually, but we were definitely trying to reflect the pace of the song through the pace of our work and ultimately the pace of our finished product. We did however have to carefully plan out two scenes, as we only had one chance at these, the scene wherein the fridge was smashed, and the final scene depicting the flares, so for these two shots we imitate the main conventions of constructing a pop video.
With regards to camera movement, we in essence were wholly spontaneous, naturally the DJ shots took a lot of planning and preproduction, but everything, other than the two previously mentioned shots, that we shot on location was improvisational, as we chose to use ideas that we conceived on the day. To obtain the handheld, documentary style that we highly sought after, we had to forget about the conventions and do some very avant-garde filming. In terms of Negus, we did imitate his convention of "the flexibility to disregard realism", because had we been realistic in shooting the gang scenes, the final product would have looked more like a news-piece than a music video.

Handheld documentary filming meant that we could take the audience into the middle of the action, giving them a very intimate feel for what was going on and the characters involved. We were also not afraid to let the shots run very short or very long, nor to be out of focus at times or to have odd angles. This all gave the piece a feeling of fly on the wall observational documentary, as explained by Michael Rabiger in his book 'Directing the Documentary'.

The Bloody Beetroots - We Are From Venice

Task Four: A Director's Commentary on How I Used New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages

New Media Technology is digital technology based around digital storage and communication of data, using binary code to compress the data into tiny packets, which give greater speed, quality and huge amounts more of storage space for data. This is far better than the analogue system of communication and data storage that preceded digital. Digital technology underpins computers, mobile phones, modern video and still cameras, editing, the Internet, MP3 and iPhones, modern radios, modern movie projectors most technological equipment ranging from in hospitals to schools and transport. Digital technology means that media productions are of higher quality, with proliferation, interactivity and convergence as advantages for the viewer. For the producer of media products the advantages are speed, lower costs, higher quality and ease of productions. These are especially crucial in producing, distributing and creating films for television and my pop video.

We used digital technology extensively during all stages of production. We used the Internet to research our song and videos that influenced our video, we used mobile phones to plan and communicate, and we used digital HD cameras that recorded directly onto SD Card. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the shot product, and our group used Pro Tools LE to edit and shorten our song. We also used the Internet in the distribution and evaluation stage through screening the music video on sites such as Vimeo and YouTube, and we evaluated the product through the online service Blogger.

In the research and development stage, we used the internet to a great extent to research the song and artist, The Bloody Beetroots, and the kind of record label artists like them were signed to, also we changed the song twice, it was originally a remix of Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine, then we changed it Black Gloves by Goose, then we changed it finally to We Are From Venice by the Bloody Beetroots. We also used new camera technology to screen test our eventual actors. We took digital stills of the location and the actors in order to procure a sense of preparation for the digipak we will eventual construct. The Internet was an invaluable resource at the end of the day, because the trouble we went through to find a location was all on the internet. We needed a place that we could basically destroy without people caring at all, but both of the locations we found on the internet were owned, and we needed forms filling out and an ambulance on call and the list goes on.

On the shoot day itself, we used two JVC HD Cameras, and lighting that was all digitally wired into one desk, and imparticular the movers which shifted and changed colour.The camera itself allowed us to change shutter speeds, ratio, lighting and ISO with real ease. In post-production we used Final Cut Pro to edit the song and cut together the video. We didn’t need to use After Effects at all, which was a planned decision because we thought as a whole After Effects at our level looked particularly tacky. We also got the idea that the gangs needed authenticity, so we decided to make gang signs, and we used the internet for this to come up with a two hybrids of already known gang signs.

The post production element of production was the most technologically dependant. We needed the aforementioned Final Cut Pro editing package, and the Pro Tools LE package which other groups didn't need, because their songs were an already appropriate length. But we had to finely cut ours down, so that there was no noticeable cut in the song. We did this by using a collection of waveform information and we chose where the song had lost its peak. Final Cut Pro was the tipping point of our production, had it not been for Final Cut, we would not have had the professional, glossy music video that we now have.

In terms of Distribution and Evaluation, we distributed the video through YouTube and Vimeo, and I have also posted the video on Facebook to try and draw attention from the social network. All the sites have had nothing but positive feedback. If we were marketing the song as a whole, we might go about purchasing adspace on popular websites such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon. The Internet is the key to our distribution.

The links to two of the relevant sites are below.

http://www.vimeo.com/17954809

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpnR1uOxC-M

The strength of the internet for distribution is clear, you can reach potentially millions of people, as they have to be persuaded to visit.

In terms of evaluation, the comments on YouTube are very valuble, we thought about putting a questionnaire online, but we decided that a focus group had more strengths as we were able to see that people took it seriously, and ask them supplementary questions. Where as a questionnaire can be filled in without people being serious about it.

Editing

To see the finished product: http://www.vimeo.com/17954809

After months of deliberation and about twenty hours spent in front of a computer screen, I have finally finished editing my pop video. The editing package we were entitled to was Final Cut Pro with Adobe After Effects, although in the end I didn’t need to use Adobe After Effects because of the calibre of the footage we shot on our shoot day. As I edited my pop video, I found more and more that I was taking the pop video in a better direction than our storyboards depicted, thus I built on my own ideas as opposed to the ones I had previously laid out. This isn’t to say that we changed the idea; some of the elements we had pre-planned were included. For example the introduction wherein the DJ is clapping or the scene with the man walking away from the car.
As far as a rough cut is concerned, my pop video was already at its final stages; I never actually had a designated rough cut. I went straight to my fine cut. I had various alterations to make to the structure after the film in itself was ‘finished’ and I still needed to make sure the film stuck to its continuity style of editing. An example of one error I made in terms of continuity is where the gang scene breaking the fridge are doing their ritual of blood brothers, I cut in a shot that portrayed someone different performing the act, this didn’t work as the focus was taken away from the grim nature of the act, and left the audience confused. I changed this by putting in an establishing shot of the gang.

In terms of selling the song, I tried to subvert the stereotypes laid out by Keith Negus by editing the video to obscure the DJ’s identity and not make him into one of the leather-clad lotharios that plague the world of the popular entertainment industry today. I wanted to establish the identity of the artist similarly to how Daft Punk and, the original artists of the song, The Bloody Beetroots.

I chose to use continuity editing because discontinuity editing would have, in my opinion, taken away from the main narrative. Continuity Editing is when you edit a video to make sense visually, for example a man wearing a red hat continues to wear the same red hat throughout the video. Discontinuity is where you edit a video to create a sense of unrest in the viewer, usually building to some kind of climax.

The above is an example of The Rule of Thirds. The eye is immediately drawn to the gang member's cigarette, and then to his young looking face, which connotes feelings of a kind of sympathy because this 'boy' is effectively throwing his life away on the destructive course that he is on.This is another example where I have used the rule of thirds, the eye is drawn to the obscured face of the DJ, wherein the point of this shot is to subvery stereotypical star promotion, most pop videos would have a the lead star spangled and front and foremost in their pop video, here we have chosen to obscure the DJ's face because it is not about who he is or where he was come from, but about his music and the narrative.

Account of Shoot Day

Because we were using digital cameras, we knew that we could work to what is called a high ratio. That means we could shoot a lot more shots, perhaps three hundred, but only use fifty in the final edited version. The ratio would be 6:1 in that case. Digital cameras are small, easy to light and easy to move. This means you can be more creative as you can try a lot more in the time that you have. Digital or New Media Technology is vital at all five stages of the production process. Pre-Production to Distribution.

In terms of pre-production, our pop video took a considerable amount of time and planning to pull off, we were optimistic with our pitch and final proposal but, in my opinion, this is why our pop promo turned out as well as it did. The shoot day would have been a mess had it not been for our good organization; we went into the studio the day before and made the set for the performance element of our video, this consisted of a plain white backdrop and a rack of rapidly changing lights, we also had two moving lights on either side of the DJ, to provide another lighting effect. On the day itself we shot in the studio from 9:00 to about 13:00. We ran through the song a large number of times, we did run the song over a couple of times so the DJ could practice his performance and get a feel for the song. We shot the DJ performing from a number of different angles and incorporating a large number of movements. In this element of the music video Leo Faulks and I manned the camera and Tamara Middleton and Millie Freeman were in charge of playback and making sure that everything on set was perfect, this included the lighting, and making sure the performer was doing what he was meant to be doing and that he was on set when we needed him.

On the camera, myself and Leo had to make sure the levels were all okay and that we got all the shots we needed, this consisted various movement shots, including panning and tracking shots. We tried to shoot the DJ from a slightly lower angle, a hero shot, to promote his status and to give him a heroic lift from the rest of the video, which depicts gang initiations and violence.

We used JVC 500 HD cameras, with a tripod and tracking, but we didn’t need to use any blondes or redheads neither on set nor on location, because we found the natural light sufficient. With the tracking shots, we shot the whole song four times the first time we shot left to right tracking at different speeds. Then the second time we did the opposite, and so the same for tracking to the front and the back.
The only real problems we had were in pre-production, where we were denied to access to our first and second locations unless we could have the “necessary” health precautions, which in the council’s eyes was an ambulance and a fire truck, which would have cost money that we didn’t have. A slight problem that we really had on the day was from the weather, we were due to shoot exterior shots after 13:00, but we waited for a short while for the rain to slow a bit. Luckily it slowed down at about 13:30, and we were able to manage until it completely stopped with only a few umbrellas.
We did make a few mistakes on the day when we failed to white balance correctly and choose an appropriate shutter speed on location. This rendered about twenty of the two hundred shots redundant. But we corrected this problem once we had realised that this was occurring and the remainder of the shots we had were artistic and well thought out. In the studio we did have a minor issue with playback as the CD with our track on it didn’t work in the CD player, but this problem was quickly solved when I fetched my laptop, which we connected to the sound system through the auxiliary/phono input.
One of the shots the really worked was of the DJ, it was during the middle of the song, and the DJ was on the hot point (using the rule of thirds) in the top right hand corner, the DJ decks occupied the bottom two hot points and the upper left hot point led the eye away fro the DJ, because the flashing lights caused an effect of the white background which synced perfectly with the melody of the song. We used this shot in our final cut at the exact point in which we shot it because it works just so perfectly.
Another shot that really worked was shot on location, it was shot from a slightly canted angle, with the camera being handheld, giving the shot an edgy realistic feel. The shot depicted the ultimate climactic battle between the two gangs, with one gang threatening with the use of flares. The shot worked so well because the camera’s movement is similar to that of a heartbeat. The main focus of the shot is a lit handheld flare, which occupies the uppermost right hand hot point. The best part of the shot in my opinion is the debris and smoke, which partially obscures the other characters, and adds a mysterious element to the shot. Other than the botched white balance shots mentioned earlier, there weren’t many bad shots. There was one however that didn’t work, were a gang member was meant to appear prolific and intimidating, but instead they had a grin that really fit with the mise-en-scene.
Overall the day went really well, we stuck to out plans very well, and although the final product didn’t follow our storyboards closely. I felt that the final product was of an excellent quality. We did follow the basic structure but we also filmed many shots that weren’t originally scripted, and I felt the inherent spur of the moment shots we incorporated worked very well indeed. It was these shots that made our pop video what it was in the end, and it was these shots that made our pop an exceptional final product.

The Pop Video Industry

“A background and how my pop video fits into it”

Musical taste can be a controversial topic, almost to the point of tribalism. It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act. However all commentators will agree that Music and its trends sit at the epicentre of popular culture, not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity, but to the extent the global community can be changed by musical trends. In many ways “Music” and “Industry” are incompatible terms, because there will always be a group of die-hards who claim their music is for the betterment of mankind, not their own pocket. But the truth of the matter is that most modern musicians are organic, and if they can make a living from their passion then who is to say that they cant. Our artist is organic, because he makes his own music and it is not mainstream.As a collective, we must understand that the pop video is only one strand of an often multimedia campaign. Multimedia campaigns often include Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Internet and Shopping Malls. The pop video naturally fits into the Television aspect of this campaign, and along with this there is often a “Making the Video” special aired to go with pop videos. In radio, the DJ’s are sometimes bribed to play an excess of a certain record. In newspapers there are often square advertisements that depict an artist’s new record or a tour supporting the record, this would be the same in magazines, also there might be a featurette with a “Meet the Band” style article, attempting to bring the band down to earth. The Internet is a limitless resource, and through this there are websites such as MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/) and FaceBook (http://www.facebook.com/), and through these two websites alone there are millions of people that you can advertise to.

Being an electronic artist this is probable the way that we are going to promote our artist. Three trans-national corporations dominate the music industry itself; these are Universal (http://www.universalmusic.com/), Sony (http://www.sonymusic.co.uk/) and EMI (http://www.emimusic.com/). Most major record companies own a string of smaller subsidiary companies. These are called Major Independents; an example of this would be Capitol Records (http://www.capitolrecords.com/), which is a subsidiary of EMI. After this there are Mini record companies. My artist would probably be signed to a mini record company because his style of music isn’t mainstream, and he is an organic artist. An example of the record company he would be signed to is Dim Mak Records (http://www.dimmak.com/) (artists such as The Bloody Beetroots and Armand van Helden) or possibly Fool’s Gold Records (http://www.foolsgoldrecs.com/) as they have many artists of a similar genre, such as the successful Duck Sauce and A-Trak. Music Videos serve more than one purpose; they serve as a method of promotion for an artist, promoting an artist and usually their album; they create, adapt, and feed star images; it entertains as a product in its own right; and last but not least it reinforces, adapts or undermines the meanings of a song. Music videos often include four basic elements; performance; narrative; thematic; and symbolic. My video should serve to do all of these things, the content of the video focuses more so on the performance and narrative than the thematic and the symbolic. It many respects the music video is becoming defunct and irrelevant. This is largely down to peer2peer sharing on the Internet through websites like Limewire (http://www.limewire.com) and BearShare (http://www.bearshare.com), and how music television (MTV, VH1, VIVA etc.) (http://www.mtv.co.uk/, http://www.vh1.com/, http://www.uk.viva.tv/.) is starting to air more main-stream programming now than actual music videos.

Permissions Letter

Legally and perhaps out of politeness, we needed to try to obtain formal permission from the copyright owner to use the song in our pop video and to publish it on the internet. This is our letter to the copyright owner.

HURTWOOD HOUSE

Dim Mak Records
Po Box 348
Hollywood
CA 90078
Date 08.10.10

Dear Sir or Madam

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies.

We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

We Are From Venice - The Bloody Beetroots

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board. The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely

JJ Benzimra, Mille Freeman, Leo Faulks. Tamara Middleton

Hurtwood House School

Call Sheet

The Call Sheet is a document that contains any and every detail that you may need on the shoot day. It is like the detailed plan or 'bible'. The call sheet contains niformation about the production team, the cast, equipment, shooting schedule, story boards, shot lists, maps, lighting design, studio design and any other contact details or points that might be relevant.

WE ARE FROM VENICE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH 2010
TAMARA MIDDLETON
MILLIE FREEMAN
JJ BENZIMRA
LEO FAULKS

CONTENTS

1. PRODUCTION TEAM
2. CAST LIST
3. STUDIO SET PLAN
4. LIGHTING PLAN
5. EQUIPMENT LIST
6. PROPS AND WARDROBE
7. SCHEDULE
8. STORYBOARD
9. SHOOTING ORDER

PRODUCTION TEAM
JJ BENZIMRA (DIRECTOR)
TAMARA MIDDLETON (PRODUCER)
MILLIE FREEMAN (EDITOR)
LEO FAULKS (CAMERA/LIGHTING)

CAST LIST
GLEN PEGADO (DJ)
(GANG MEMBERS)
NIALL GREEN
JAKE CECIEL
MAX CANOVAS
OMONELUMO IKANADE-AGBA

PROPS AND WARDROBE
DJ SET
LIT BATONS
CIGARETTES
FAKE DRUGS
EMPTY BOTTLES
BLACK/WHITE MAKE-UP
BLACK/WHITE HAIR ACCESSORIES
BLACK/WHITE JEANS
BLACK/WHITE HOODIES/SLEEVELESS T-SHIRTS
BANDANAS
HATS
BOOTS
JACKETS
DJ OUTFIT

SCHEDULE
9-12.30

STUDIO
12.30-1.15

LUNCH
1.15-3.30

BEATRICE WEBB
3.30-4

SHOT LIST STUDIO
Camera position: 1, 15, 19, 25, 27
Wide shot, mid shot, close-up from front Wide shot, mid shot, close-up from side Wide shot, mid shot, close-up over shoulder

Tracking Shots: Left to right, in and out
Cherry Picker

LOCATIONS Incidents:
Bonfire
Graffiti
Breaking stuff
Drinking
Smoking
Drugs
Stolen Handbag/Wallet

Location and Set Design

Our set location posed as a large problem for us, largely due to the health and saftey aspects of where we wanted to shoot. We wanted to use and old derelict factory (We found two sites), but we needed to have an ambulance and a fire engine stationed just to shoot there. The factory was for an extended gang scene, where they would be doing some pretty loud and unpeaceful, and in some cases unlawful, stuff. When Dan, our lighting designer came to talk to us about our lighting, we only needed lighting for our studio shoot. Because the lighting we are going to use on location will be provided by flares and a bonfire. The lighting we require on the day is for our studio, and we need specific rave lighting. (i.e. Strobes and Moving Lights)

Storyboard

Storyboards work and build on the initial time lines. The aim of storyboarding is to visualize the shot and work out what shot to use and why, and also what type of editing we use, and where the cuts on our piece will be.

Through the timeline we could see what worked and what did not. Here we saw that canted angles with short sharp shots, with much focus on handheld aspects of filming. We also aim to use monotone to great effect in our finished product, to represent how the world is black and white, clear right and clear wrong.

Storyboard

Timeline

Timeline

Our time line is slightly different, as the song we are using, “We are from Venice” by The Bloody Beetroots, features no lyrics. So naturally this makes the timings of the video all the more important. Time line is all about the time and it is all about the time the shot spends on the music, and whether or not we aim to conform and cut on the beat.

We have linked various aspects of our time line to various aspects of the song, there is a part of our song that involves what sounds a little like a car starting up, and we have mirrored this and stuck with our theme of urban decay by depicting a car on fire. This will start out being a close up on the car and as we cut to a DJ handclap it will move closer as we cut back in to the car at perhaps a different angle.

We aim to use balletic editing in our sequence, because it reflects the disorientated angle that we are going for. Another example would be the final shot of our piece which will depict the two gangs of our video facing each other and ultimately realizing they are one in the same. This shot will be a long fade out, because it reflects the music, as the song ends on a long fade out. This is a building brick for will be our storyboards.