Research Task 7: Review of the previous student videos

Becca, Benny, Kris & Tope from 283goswell on Vimeo.

During class, we have watched four music videos from the previous students last year. We analysed each one basing on their Audience, Genre, Narrative, Media Language and Representation.

However, for this video, we only had a discussion. This video stands out for me because of its Media Language, in terms of editing. In my opinion, The audience would be mainly for women, as the subject in the music video is mostly a woman, and the girl is not presented as provocative therefore it would not appeal that much to the boys. The genre has a mixture of pop/techno for the beats. Relating this music video to Andrew Goodwin's theory, this has a disjuncture narrative as there is a very little connection between the lyrics and the music video. It was mostly the subject singing in front of the camera with a little glimpse of a boy. There was only one clip that shows amplifying, this is the clip when the lyrics said 'you can have my checkbook' and the video shows the girl throwing her checkbook to the boy while they are in a separate locations.

As I have said earlier, the media language of this music video is very strong. It has a variety of shots and editing. There are multiple shots of her in one frame, the different colours of each scenes, the transitions i.e. sliding down or upwards, the quick cuts matching the quick beats in the beginning of the music video. The girl's representation in this music video is glamorous because of the settings, the lights on the floor and the bright lights used on different clips. The clothes matches with the setting and the genre of the song. However there were some weaknesses in the music video such the poor lighting or backdrop in some of the clips:

In this clip, the shot is good, however, the black top does not suit the colour of the lighting or neither the backdrop. 

Again, in this clip, the lighting is poor and it looks plain. It looks like one of the practise clips and because from the beginning, the music video started with a strong edit, the viewers/audience would be expecting it to be consistent. 

Overall these are just the few points that I could comment for their weaknesses, but other than these, the overall video is very strong and appealing. 

Research Task 6: Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp 

Vladimir Propp (17th April 1895-22nd August 1970), a man who was known for investigating the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to break down and simplify a vast narrative to their smallest narratemes.  

Propp invented tales consisting sequences that has 31 functions. In the end, he came up with a conclusion that  within the 100 tales that he has analysed, all the characters can be 'resolved' into '8 broad character types.' These are: 

• The villain - the rival of the hero
• The donor - who gives the magic, special weapon or the strength to the hero in order for him to succeed in his journey/quest.
• The (magic) helper - gives a helping hand to the hero
• The princess or prize - The main aim of the hero in most fairytales. The reason why there is rivalries between the other especially male characters i.e. the hero vs. the villain 
• Her father - chooses the brave, strong man for his princess, interrogate whoever attempts to marry her daughter, the one who challenge or set a quest to see a hero's strength
• The dispatcher - character who gives false information to the hero
• The hero - the strong, brave and good character, marries the princess
• False Hero - the pretender, character who tries to fake his identity so that she can marry the princess

These are the common characters in fairytales. This can be followed by a dragon who first is an enemy and becomes a friend of the hero and also a saviour. Alternatively, one character can have more than one role in a fairytale.

( RESEARCH) Task 7 : Analysis of previous students work

For this task i have to analyse one of the previous student videos i watched in class and i have to analyse it in relation to Andrew Goodwin's theory.

Elif, Eman, Fatma & Vanessa from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Unfortunately this video has been set to private , this group made a video to the song : Your angel by Natasha Beddingfield . The genre of this song is pop which is similar the song my group is thinking of doing which is About you now by the Sugarbabes.

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don't really apply to pop videos. The reasons for the different narrative structures are as follows :

1. Pop videos are built around songs - and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures ( normality-problem-solution) .

This applies to this video because it doesn't follow the normality - problem - solution structure , this video is about the singer recording her song in a recording studio and then singing it on a set.

2. The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character

In this video the singer is the narrator and the character although there isn't a storyline as she is just singing on a studio set.

3.The singer often looks directly at the camera- this is an extension of performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetition , in this video the scenes where she is singing on a set are being repeated and she is also wearing two different outfits , this is done because it looks like they are recording the video for this song. Through out this video the singer has a change of four outfits , this shows the process of the video because she starts of wearing casual clothes and then in the end she is wearing a black lace dress and a shiny grey top with leggings. This is important for pop videos as girls need  to be very glamorous and attractive so they can appeal more to their fans.

The strongest points of this music video were the lighting , the spotlight used when the singer was singing on set made the audience just focus on the singer.The editing used was really good , the transition from different shots was really good because it was in pace with the song and although they did repeat some of the scenes they had a variety of different shots which came together very nicely. There are good editing techniques used at the beginning when she is singing at the beginning and she dissolves and appears in a different position , this technique is also used when is she bending backwards. The weakest point of this video is that in some scenes the lighting appears to be different , its bright compared to other scenes and i also  feel that there weren't enough close ups of the singer and this is essential if they want to involve the audience.

( RESEARCH)Task 6 : Who was Vladimir Propp ?

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Russian and soviet formalist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of russian folk tales to identify their simplest narrative elements. He established that the tales take 31 functions , here are some examples : 

ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.
1. INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').
2. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.
3. RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.
4. DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.

He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

I was able to find to find a short clip of a film that demonstrates his theory.

This clip is from the fairytale Sleeping Beauty and as you can see you can already tell who the main character types , there is a princess , villian - the witch , the magical helpers- the fairies, her father - the king , and so on . If you watch the full movie you will find out that she is rescued by a prince so his theory does apply to this film.

RESEARCH - Previous Student Videos

Above is the music video - by previous media students - which has an audience of people who are 'under pressure' from their boss at work, school or in life in general, also, as the 'pressure' is sung through the lyrics, the narrative of the music video is clear for the audience and viewers.

The Rock & Hiphop genre is clearly indicated by the mise-en-scene used; the close-up on the drum kit highlight the rock aspect of the music video whilst the location of the skate park with the bright coloured graffiti (see image below) highlights the Hiphop side of the music video; this too widens the audience because it appeals to all sorts.

Successfully, there is a variation of media used within this music which includes the change of shots to every beat which adds an effect to the fast pace of the song and the up-beat rhythm. The extreme close-ups of the artists whilst singing from a low angle, as well as actors in the video (view imnage above) not only allows the viewers to feel vulnerable, but also to feel the sense of the theme being create of being put 'under pressure'. There are many handheld scenes which allows the viewers to have an insight in the video because the camera follows the movements of the singer so it's almost as if we're dancing alongside him. The video has a selection from long shots, close-ups, medium shots and wide shots which are all used appropriately.

The main representation for this music video is people who are constantly under pressure and this is clearly shown through the context of the video; the scene of a worker being shouted at by his boss, and through the edgy beat. The bright colours and change of bright clothes that the artist wears adds to the vibrant atmosphere created and allows viewers who are under pressure, to relate to the video.

RESEARCH - Appling Vladimir Propp's Theory

Vladimir Propp

17 April 1895 - 22 August 1970

Propp's theory was that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their plots and so produced a analysis which reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the characters in a play, also known as dramatis personae. He found within a play there were 31 functions which make up the play from the beginning to the end, including the function of the different characters which have a part; how they get introduced and their ways of leaving. Below is his initial production of the broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed:

1. The Villain — the one against the hero.
2. The Donor — prepares the hero for defeat by giving them a magical object.
3. The Magical Helper — helps the hero when in trouble or by request.
4. The Princess — promised to the hero but is not completely his, usually because of the villia which, in order for the hero to gain his princess or prize,  involves him having to defeat the villian then being able to marry her
5. Her Father — gives tasks to the hero/catches out the false hero; as identified by Propp, for the proper function of the play, the relationshiop between the princess and her father should not be clearly distinguished.
6. The Dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
7. The Hero — reacts to the donor, defeats the villian and weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess but is caught out by the princess' father.

Unfortunately, I was unable to retrieve a music video which helps to establish Propp's theory, however, I was able to find a play which acts out his very theory, Romeo & Julliet (1996)...

(PLANNING)Task 5 : Reflection on lip synch tutorial experience

In todays lesson, we were taught how to ' Lip Synch ' . Lip synching is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice and can refer to any of a number of different techniques and processes.

We used a program called Final cut pro to lip synch and here is where i learnt many new skills as i was completely new to lip synching. I learnt how to upload a soundtrack, mark it and be able to layer it with different videos we had recorded for our karaoke music video.  With final cut pro i  learnt how to use the razor tool when we were choosing what shots we were going to use and i learnt how to use the cutting tool because there were some shots we had to cut to make them smaller.

The most challenging thing for me was marking the soundtrack and the video because if they weren't precise then it wouldn't work and it can be quite confusing so i will have to practise more.Although i think we did good for our first time there is also room for improvement; in our video you will notice that there is a sheet of paper in one of our scenes, none of the group members realised this at time and it was a shame because the footage was good however this shows that we have got to be more aware of our surroundings so it wont happen again. I noticed that editing music videos is different compared with producing the opening to a thriller film because with music videos we have to do layers and we can use base tracks to edit which is much easier whereas with thrillers you would have to use different shots which you cant really repeat and the shots are layed out one after another.

(PLANNING)Task 4 : Letters requesting copyright

                                                                                                

Date: 21/09/10

 9 Derry Street

 London

 W8 5HY

Dear Sony Music Entertainment

Request for copyright permission to use part of whole of: Bleeding love By Leona Lewis

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my advanced Portfolio i will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song i should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully

JENNIFER BURITICA

jenniferburitica@hotmail.com

(RESEARCH)Task 3 : Examples and analysis of videos that follow amplification, disjuncture and illustration

Andrew Goodwin states that some videos are autonomous from the music they spring from . The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Therefore it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos:

1. Ilustration: This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics.

The scripts video to the song ' the man who cant be moved'  is an example of illustration because the video tells the story of the song for example when he sings ' You will see me on the corner of the street and I'm not moving '  you will see him sitting down on a corner of a street. I intend on using something similar to this song for my music video.

2. Amplification : Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

Dizzee Rascals song , holiday is an example of amplification as it emphasises on what a holiday is from a male perspective i.e hot weather, girls in bikinis etc

3. Disjuncture : This is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric.

Florence and the machine song , rabbit heart has little connection with the song i can see that the use of the natural setting may connect a bit to the name of the song but apart from that i cant see a connection to the lyrics.

(RESEARCH)Task 2 : Summary of the main points of Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses do not apply to pop videos , he thinks that pop videos approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films. The main reasons for the different narrative structures are :

1. Pop videos are built around songs - and often they do not follow traditional narrative structures ( normality-problem-resolution).

2. The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character.

3. The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is an extension of ( music-hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetition , you will notice that often the video repeats images in the way the songs repeats choruses or lines.  An example of this would be the video used for Ellie Gouldings video , starry eyed.

The repetition in songs of parts or rhythms of other songs ( intertexuality ) means that we become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations for example Ellie Gouldings song , Guns and horses does have a few similarities with her other song starry eyed , the rhythm is similar when she sings the choruses for both songs. Pop songs become very familiar through repetition , they become familiar to us because they are played on TV , played on the radio and might be used to advertise a film.

Pop songs and videos do have a form of closure and ending. The 3 minute single that a video is based on must end and this is often reflected in the structure of the music - it builds to a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away.

Reflection on lip synch tutorial experience, including photos and embedded video

Lip Synch Tutorial was our first filming task for this course. It was a great experience as I have undertaken the first step on learning the basic steps in making a music video.

We were given a CD by our media teacher, however, the song in the CD was not our group's or neither our teacher's choice. We worked on the song 'Ain't no stopping us now.'

What new skills did I learn through this activity?

What did I find most challenging?

Chronologically, in terms of editing, we had to upload the soundtrack first before the clips, cut it, and drag it on the timeline. When it comes to the soundtrack, one of our media teacher has advised us not to include the part of the song that has no words in it, instead start 

from the first word of the song. I learnt a new way on how to cut the soundtrack on Final Cut Pro (which differs from the way the soundtrack was edited when we were doing our thriller film) by only pressing 'M.' I also learnt how to overlay numbers of clips and aligning the red marks accurately so that the mouth movement of the subject in the video will match with the lyrics from the original soundtrack. Most essentially, I learnt how to match the time of where I have to cut the clip and the soundtrack.

What I did find most challenging was cutting the clip and the soundtrack both at the right time and blending the lyrics from the soundtrack with the mouth movement of our subject in our film. Finding the rhythm and marking the clips every 4 counts was also very challenging. 

This photo is a screen cap of our editing. My group had a small problem while we were editing our music video. The warning box in the middle of Final Cut Pro

has popped up and warned us about 'dropping playbacks.' After it has popped up a number of times, we asked for help from our media teacher, and she advised us to just tick off the box that says 'do not show this to me again' and just press okay as it would not affect our music video.

What New tools on Final Cut Pro did I learn to use?

Fairly, I did not learn any new tools. We only used the razer tool and I was already familiar with it as I often used it with my thriller film last year. However, in my opinion, I have improved on how to use it. This Lip synch tutorial has refreshed my memory on using tools in Final Cut Pro. 

 

Editing music videos differs compared to producing an opening to a thriller film. From my observation from editing our music video, there is a continuity, a repetition of clips. You'll only have one soundtrack which will be cut on final cut pro and a number of overlaying clips, whereas in producing a thriller film, you need to edit the clips, soundtrack, texts and effects all in different programmes. I find using the razer blade on music videos much easier and quicker than using it for a thriller film as it is all overlayed on top of each other. There is no need for adding 'slugs/gaps' in between each clip, unlike in a thriller film.

However as you can see above, a piece of paper which was the lyrics of the song was accidentally included in the video. We took a screen cap of this to show where we went wrong and to remind us that we need to be aware of our surrounding next time.

Letters requesting copyright clearance for your shortlist of songs

PLANNING; Copyright Permission

Mark Crossingham

22 St Peter

London

England

W6 9NW

25.09.2010

Dear Island Records,

Request for copyright permission to use your song: About You Now by Sugarbabes

I am an A2 Media Studies student at City and Islington College. For my Advanced Portfolio I will be working as part of a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would therefore like to request permission to use the track ‘about you now’ for this project.

The finished product will not be publicized and will be used exclusively for coursework purpose.  The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished product.

If you do not hold rights for this song, I would be very grateful if you could send this request to the right person, if not please return to me with contact details in order for me to request the right copyright holder.

           

Yours sincerely

TSHARNA BERNARD

tsharna.b_x@hotmail.com

PLANNING- Lip Sync Tutorial

Lip Syncing

Lip Syncing was one of the 1st tasks that had to do as a group, it was a fun experince and taught us how to do some new things on Final Cut Pro.



 



What New Skills Did I Learn Through This Activity?

I learnt how to put the soundtrack into final cut pro a different way then we did it last year with the thriller openings. I also learnt that by just pressing the letter 'M' on the keyboard is a marker which is a different way to editing the thriller openings. I learnt a new way of editing and that was by overlaying clips/shots then putting markers in and selecting the right shots.



What Did I Find Most Challenging

I think i found putting the markers in the top the hardest part as the markers had to be to the beat. To do that we had to count 1, 2, 3, 4 then put a marker in all the way through the whole song and if a mistake was made we would have to start again. I also found cutting the soundtrack and the clips at excatly the right time, if you dont get the hang of it, it can be quite difficult.

New Tools

I didnt really learn any new tools but we did use the Razor Cut tool which I got more familar with as we didnt use it as much while making thriller openings.

While filming our short music video, we didnt plan anything so it didnt go quite to plan, as you can see from the video we made theres a piece of paper in the shot, at the time we was shooting I didnt know the words so I was reading off a sheet. We as a group did not realise the piece of paper was in that shot so we had to get rid of one whole shot which made the rest of our options limited. even though we still had enough footage.

When making our actual music video we must remeber to check the shot through the lens and make sure there is nothing that is not ment to be there as that will be a waste of footage, then we could end up with not enough footage and waste time as we'll have to film all over again.

PLANNING - Lip Synch Tutorial

During our lesson we were taught how to 'lip synch' using Final Cut Pro, we were given a song to practise on and below is our final product...

...we also created a animatic of pictures we took during our filming.

PLANNING - Lip Synch Tutorial

New Skills Learnt...

...I've actually learnt no new skills, however, the use of Final Cut Pro in A2 with the music video's differs greatly from AS with our thrillers. The image to the right shows how using the software at A2 requires more understanding of what the program can do and what is available to help you with the usage of the program efficiently; it is also essential to know how to layer your different clips which are imported into Final Cut Pro and how to use the razor blade which is used to cut the clips to have different shots featured in the final product.

...Most Challenging Experience

...The whole point of 'Lip Synch' is for the words being sang in the video to be 'mimed' at the same time as the track in order for it to sound right ...imagine if Beyonce - or another infamous artist - had a video where the words followed 2-4 seconds after the mouth manuevere (not a good look!). In order to get it just right, you must select a word that you will use from the original track and use the same word with all the different clips you have and mark it. Once marked, it gets dragged to the timeline and if the markers are in line, the words being sang in the clip will be sang along with the tracksound (see image to the left.) What is so difficult about this task is getting that exact point because being even 2 seconds too slow or too fast can make a noticable difference.

New Tools Used...

...The razor blade and 'marker' are essential tools required to use with our A2 coursework compared to the minimum use we made of them in AS. We have been introduced to these tools before so they are not completely new to us however we will become more famaliar with the tools as it they play an important role for this year.

...Diffence In The Editing For A Music Video Compared To A Thriller Opening

...|The initial difference in editiung for a music video compared to a thriller opening is the layering of clips on top of each other with one sound track; in a thriler opening, you would be expected to film different scences from different angle shots and put the scenes together on Final Cut Pro and use effects to link the shots together. With a music video, it is nearly much easier; you can film as many base tracks as many angle shots as you want, where the whole of a song is filmed at one angle. The collection of clips will then get dragged to Final Cut Pro, the marker (using the method mentioned before) will help to allocate where the clips will be placed along with the track sound, and using a razor blade, you simply cut each clip at a beat - depending on the song - and you then randomly select which clips you want to get rid of, so long as you have one clip left in each row (made from the razor blades) - presd play, and you have a video of continuity, with different angle shots.

Improving Our Lip Synch Tutorial Product...

...I was extremely pleased with the outcome of our first attempt at Lip Synch, however, only after putting the clips together did we notice slight errors such as the one found in the image to right - the paper which had the lyrics on for T'Sharna to read had been caught in the corner of the camera and interferred with the camera, unfortunately, we had to cut out most of the shot though it was an interesting one. We have learnt from this mistake and will remember to stand miles away from the camera!

PLANNING - Letter Requesting Copyright

This is the letter I sent in order to use 'About You Now' by Sugababes but below are backup request for other artists...

RESEARCH - Task 3: Video Examples of Amplification, Disjuncture & Illustration

Andrew Goodwin has set three types of relations between songs and videos.


Illustration - when the lyric matches with the story in the video.

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. The song is about life, that the rest of our lives are still unwritten therefore, we should enjoy every second of it. The books, the location (settings) the scenes (singer holding an umbrella while raining) illustrates the lyrics in the song.

Amplification - when the videos add new layers of meanings to the lyrics.

Holiday by Dizzy Rascal - this song amplifies with the video as the theme of holiday emphasis on the women who are wearing bikinis, location, weather. It adds the meaning of holiday in men's perspective. 

Disjuncture - when there is the videos contradicts the lyric or unconnected link between the lyric and video.

Missing you by The Saturdays. The title is obvious as the song tells us the perspective of young females who are missing someone who is special to them. However, this does not connect with the video as it only shows the four female artists in different locations throughout the video.

RESEARCH - Task 2: Summary Of Andrew Goodwin's Theory

A man who was a director of music and organist, who has been involved with Television, radio and broadcasting knows the differences of these areas in media. Andrew Goodwin has made a theory on the different narrative structures of music videos especially in a pop genre. He 'feels' that the pop music videos does not follow the traditional narrative analysis. Instead the narrative structures of these kind of music videos are: 

• The singer becomes the participant and the narrator in the video. 
• Pop videos are built around the song, unlike the TV dramas, films or novels. 
• The singer makes an eye contact towards the camera which engages the audience more with the song and video. 

Intertextuality (borrowing from other media) is use in pop videos (such as; the beat,chords, rhythms, dance moves and iconographies). This makes it familiar to the audience. Repetition is another way for the audience to be familiarise with it. There are often repeated images. similarly to the way the chorus and rhythms are repeated. Advertising the songs on radio, music videos on various networking sites such as; Myspace, Youtube, Bebo, even on  the TV. It can also be use as a soundtrack in a film. 

Most music videos duration only lasts for 3 minutes, therefore they have a 'form of ending' and this can be seen through the structure of the song. 

Andrew Goodwin uses the word 'autonomous' when describing music videos. This means that pop music videos go beyond the original meaning of the song.The 'autonomous' pop videos has the appeal for the viewers to promote the song because of the repeated images that gives a visual pleasure although there is an unconnected link between the lyrics of the song and the music.

In addition, according to Laura Mulvey's quote:

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly."

Mulvey is trying to point out that in a world of pop genre, or hip hop, there is often a gender dividing power between men and women. Men often have a sexual desire from women. Beyonce and Madonna are two good example as they present themselves  provocatively. However, they are also seen as a independent and strong female artists through their passive attitudes. On the other hand, pop female groups tends to give these visual pleasures by the way they dress and gestures. They portray themselves as men's 'ideal girls' to be wanted by them. 

Andrew Goodwin's aim is to set the list of theories that he has discovered in pop music videos and although these pop videos does not follow the traditional narrative structure, they still appeal to a wide audience. In other words, the audience tend to look for visual pleasure/a relation to their own lives rather than how the song relates to the video. .