Thursday 15 December 2011

GM - Facebooking our cast

Originally we spoke to our cast members at school to find out if they would be interested in staring in our music video. Once we had an idea of who we would involve and when we wanted to film we emailed the cast via social networking site Facebook. This was the most convienient method of communication between ourselves and the rest of the cast members.



Wednesday 14 December 2011

ALL - Contacting Chrysalis Records

We searched all over the internet to find Chrysalis record company contact details, it soon came apparent that it isn't a independent company anymore but it is a subsidiary of the conglomerate BMG. After using there website http://bmg.com/category/contact to find out the email address, we then emailed them asking for permission to use the track.



After recieving the email reply suggesting that we contact the local collecting society we tried to find a new email address online but there appeared to not be one.

JT - Casting

This week we got in touch with the cast for the second time, our elder male (Joel) pulled out last minute so we found a replacement which was our second choice. We will now be using Katie and Nathan who are available all holidays.


Tuesday 13 December 2011

ALL - NU Music Logo

Jess and I made our NU Music Production logo in Flash. We found an image of some headphones on the internet and copied the image into our Flash file. From here we used the onion skin tool to trace the image. We improvised and drew the wire free hand so that it looked exactly how we wanted. We then exported it as a JPEG so that can be used around our blog and in other sections of our coursework.


Monday 12 December 2011

GM - Representation in our vid

     1. Gender
  • We have kept a very equal gender representation throughout our video. We have used attractive actors however we did not cast them on this aspect. We chose the people because we were friends with them or their family and especially with the younger children we needed the consent of an adult. As it turns out we could say that the older generations provide male/female gaze for the audience.
  • The person we cast as Robbie is a male and in the video he is very much in control, however in some places he is showing his more emotional side which is not expected of the male gender in media.
  • One place in our video where the woman may be seen weaker than the male and purely there for sexual attraction is in the baking scene where the man graps her bottom and leaves flour hand prints there on her trousers.
  • Our video includes a cast of both males and females which keeps the target audience wide.

     2. Sexuality
  • Our video portrays a hetrosexual relationship as the norm. We chose this because it is a male singing about a female that he is in love with therfore this scenario made sense and worked well with the lyrics.
  • This relationship has also been used because it is the one that traditionally has always been more accepted by society.
  • In addition to this it more appealing to the majority of both our core and secondary audiences as hopefully they will be able to relate to what is happening in the music video.

     3. Ability
  • In some ways we are following the codes and conventions of music video as it is very rare that a physically disabled individual is used.
  • This was not decided in a discriminative manner, Jess and I just decided that it would not fit in with our idea very well.
  • Casting would have also been a problem because there are very few people at school or in our friendship group who we could have been suitable for the role.
  • We are also inexperienced music video directors so using people with disabilities would have been an added challenge.
  • Also it appears it would be more appealing to the majority of our core and secondary audeinces as hopefully with the cast we have chosen they will be able to relate to the narrative story.

     4. Ethnicity
  • Our video includes a purely Caucasian cast however this was not intentional. Due to the demographics of our school and where we live, finding an ethnic variety of people to cast was not possible. I do not think that this aspect will narrow the target audience of our video as many existing vidoes are not commercially suffering from this.
  • Also, Robbie Williams is a white British singer so we have used a Caucasian cast although this would probably been different had be been a black American.


     5. Age
  • We have used a variety of age groups throughout our video. The youngest generation add the 'cute factor' whereas the older two couple add to the music video's appeal to the core and secondary younger audience. By using actors of this age it would allow our target audience to engage with them further and be able to relate to what was happening in our production.
  • Robbie has been cast as a younger male, age 18. This was because Jess and I didn't really know anyone who was older to play the part. By using someone older we may have had issues with finding times to film between us being at school and perhaps their work or family commitiments. However I think that by casting Jack he would appeal to all audiences as a cheeky, well brought up young man.
6. Social Class
  • Because of where our school is located Jess and I have used actors and actresses from Northern England. There a preconceptions that people from Yorkshire are poor and unsophisticated. However this is usually determind through their accent and we are only using lip syncing so this should not effect our target audience.
  • The mise-en-scene has also been heavily influence by the area we live in. All of our scenes are in comfortable areas and the footage that was taken in the house shows middle class.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

ALL - Shots we will use for filming

When doing our call sheets we realised that to get a variety of shots we will need to film at every different angle, so we made a list so when filming we can refer back to it 



  • Long Shot
  • Medium Shot
  • Close up
  • Extreme close up
  • Mid shot
  • Over the shoulder
  • Establishing shot
  • Medium close up
  • extreme long shot
  • high angle
  • low angle
  • two shot
  • POV

Tuesday 6 December 2011

ALL - Beginning Idea

When we planned out our full idea we realised that we didn't have enough material to fill the first 12 seconds. We had a discussion and decided we are going to research this further.

-Fade in from black
-Panning pictures on the mantle peice
-In and out focus shots

Saturday 3 December 2011

ALL - Treatment

Robbie Williams Treatment

ALL - Storyboards








ALL - Lyric Sheets



ALL - Call Sheets

Generation 1




Generation 2




Generation 3




Performance




ALL - Sample Footage

ALL - Analysing Music Videos

This is one of the first tasks we did after carrying out our research on music videos over the summer. I was in a group with Jess and Ellie. I chose to analyse the song Material Girl by Madonna, Jess chose Umbrella by Rihanna and Ellie chose Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. You can see our comparisons in this vodcast.

JT - Key Influences

After looking at several music videos, both me and Gina have found that there aren't any that are exactly like our idea. Although we have found some videos which represent different bits and some story lines.
Both One Directions video's 'What Makes You Beautiful' and 'It's Gotta Be You' and the X Factor 2011 charity single 'Wishing On A Star' used layering and editing techniques we would like to incorporate into ours.








These 3 video's use different clips fading into one another but still having them places on the screen, also keeping different layers on top of each other such as the group and fire. We want to use these editing techniques because the song we have chosen (Robbie Williams - She's The One) is a 'nice' song and the usual code and convention of music video is fast pace editing, this will not look right with the type of theme we are going for so we need slower editing to fit in. The video of Gotta Be You by One Direction also has a cold effect that we want to use for ours such as woolly clothing and a cold atmosphere, the lighting helps with this, another example of the cold effect is The Saturdays video of 'My Heart Take's Over', this also has the type of style we want to use for Robbie When he is on the Cow and Calf rocks.





Olly Murs also has a range of songs that are about love. His videos don't link into our idea as much but 'Busy' shows his love (even though the girl isn't real) this is something we definately want to incorporate into ours.




Katy Perry's 'The One That Got Away' is another example of loving someone. This video shows two different ages (similar to ours except were using three), one being a young couple and then the other being the woman of the couple grown up. The director has made the younger couples mise-en-scene to look older in time period, this is something we need to think about and incorporate into ours. It's a love story which ends in a tragic way when the young boy dies after they have an argument in a car crash. One of the opening scenes that they use is of them painting portraits of each other, we are using this idea too. They also dance together which we are having in our, the basic idea is of them being very close and in love.




Another video that is similar to the love story is the Breaking Dawn Soundtrack single - Bruno Mars 'It Will Rain'. This shows both performance and a love story between him and the girl. It shows there rocky relationship but love is still keeping them together. It links in with ours because it again shows the love and how they are with each other.



Another influence on our idea is the John Lewis advert. This is a perfect example of a young girl growing up with the same man as she met when she was younger. It shows aspects that we want to use in ours. Also it uses a messy baking scene which is another one of our ideas.





Our vodcast on key influences

Thursday 1 December 2011

ALL - Mise-en-scene issues

When planning our idea we came across potential issues regarding the props and mise-en-scene we have chosen:

  • Some of our locations are outside so matching up lighting and weather may be difficult if re-shoots are required
  • At the time of filming we may be to far into Autumn so all the leaves will have already fallen of the trees and started to decay on the paths rather than being crisp and in a perfect condition to throw 
  • An alternative to the leaves scene was to use snow instead however due to the unusually warm November we have experienced it is unlikely that snow will fall
  • As we are using three generations in our idea it may be difficult to achieve verisimilitude to the time period
  • We are also using 2-4 year old children so it is going to be difficult to get them to cooperate on camera
  • Some of the scenes involve getting messy, eg painting, so we will therefore have to order our shooting to ensure that we do the messiest last

Wednesday 30 November 2011

JT - Key Influences

After looking at several music videos, both me and Gina have found that there aren't any that are exactly like our idea. Although we have found some videos which represent different bits and some story lines. 

Both One Directions video's 'What Makes You Beautiful' and 'It's Gotta Be You' and the X Factor 2011 charity single'Wishing On A Star' used layering and editing techniques we would like to incorporate into ours. 







These 3 video's use different clips fading into one another but still having them places on the screen, also keeping different layers on top of each other such as the group and fire. We want to use these editing techniques because the song we have chosen (Robbie Williams - She's The One) is a 'nice' song and the usual code and convention of music video is fast pace editing, this will not look right with the type of theme we are going for so we need slower editing to fit in. The video of Gotta Be You by One Direction also has a cold effect that we want to use for ours such as woolly clothing and a cold atmosphere, the lighting helps with this, another example of the cold effect is The Saturdays video of 'My Heart Take's Over', this also has the type of style we want to use for Robbie When he is on the Cow and Calf rocks.




Olly Murs also has a range of songs that are about love. His videos don't link into our idea as much but 'Busy' shows his love (even though the girl isn't real) this is something we definately want to incorporate into ours.




Katy Perry's 'The One That Got Away' is another example of loving someone. This video shows two different ages (similar to ours except were using three), one being a young couple and then the other being the woman of the couple grown up. The director has made the younger couples mise-en-scene to look older in time period, this is something we need to think about and incorporate into ours. It's a love story which ends in a tragic way when the young boy dies after they have an argument in a car crash. One of the opening scenes that they use is of them painting portraits of each other, we are using this idea too. They also dance together which we are having in our, the basic idea is of them being very close and in love.



Another video that is similar to the love story is the Breaking Dawn Soundtrack single - Bruno Mars 'It Will Rain'. This shows both performance and a love story between him and the girl. It shows there rocky relationship but love is still keeping them together. It links in with ours because it again shows the love and how they are with each other.




Another influence on our idea is the John Lewis advert. This is a perfect example of a young girl growing up with the same man as she met when she was younger. It shows aspects that we want to use in ours. Also it uses a messy baking scene which is another one of our ideas.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

GM - The Big 4

The 'Big 4' describes the four major corporate labels that dominate the recorded music industry. They include:
  1. Universal Music Group
  2. Sony Music Entertainment
  3. Warner Music Group
  4. EMI group
Each of these labels consist of many smaller companies and labels which serve different regions and markets around the world.

The 'Big 4' was originally the 'Big 5' until Sony acquired BMG in 2004.
The 'Big 4' is now the 'Big 3' as EMI was bought out by Universal in 2011.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

ALL - Digipak research

This was research conducted outside of our individual groups so also in the group was Ellie Fry who added to sections of this write up.

Definition of a Digipak
Digipaks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipaks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the centre. 


Codes and Conventions of a Digipak 
As a group we researched and looked at examples of digipaks. When looking at some of the example ( Ignacio Fernandez - Buscare) we discovered the typical codes and conventions of digipak which include:


  • Front and back cover
  • Back cover includes a track list with timings 
  • Artist and the album names are placed on the front cover
  • Some may have a track list with the names of the composers underneath in small print.
  • Also on the back cover there is the record company name and sometimes their label. 
  • At the bottom of the back cover there sometimes may be the artists website address. 
  • There is a bar code/Qr code
  • Where the CD has been made.
  • Panels - different parts to the panels and different colours sometimes. 
  • Sometimes there is a lyrics sheet you can pull out of part of the digipak.
  • Sometimes it can be special edition or a collective and could include a DVD. 
Advantages of a digipak rather  than a standard Dual Case
  • You can recycle the material used to make the digipak  as it is cardboard not plastic
  • A digipak is cheaper to produce, making the distribution cost cheaper.
  • A digipak is a more up to date version of an LP which is basically a 12'' square cardboard, showing a resemblance to a digipak. 
  • They cannot crack like Dual cases can, however they could rip or eventually over time fall apart.
Digipak design layout 

















Four Panel Digipak 



















6 Panal Digipak 




GM - Initial Magazine Ad research

Features of Greenday, 21st Century Breakdown digipak magazine advert

  • Says the format it is available in - CD and download
  • Bold writing
  • Text is very clear agains the darker background - white on black/brown/red
  • Includes basic information such as band name, album title, release date, web address
  • Band name is in the largest font so it stands out
  • Band name is recognisable of their image/brand (logo?)
  • Frames the image - graffiti style - same as the album cover
  • Colours compliment each other
  • Introductory sentence to grab the audience's attention 'the wait is finally over...'

Other conventions we found as a group
  • Album artwork is included in the advert (all)
  • Says 'new album' on the ad (3/6)
  • Tour dates (2/6)
  • Release date (all)
  • Social media links - twitter/ facebook (no longer myspace for newer releases)
  • Tickets website (2/6)
  • Artist website (all)
  • Artist name positioned top, central on the page (5/6)
  • Tour sponsor advert and website (1/6)
  • Phone number for ticket (1/6)
  • Name of hit single included in the album (2/6)
  • Image of the band (3/6)
  • Thumbnails of the album (1/6)
Other ideas
  • Label it as limited addition to increase sales
  • image of digipak spread out

Thursday 10 November 2011

ALL - Location Scouting

This is a vodcast to show where we are potentially going to shoot when it comes to filming:


ALL - Costume and Props

The majority of our scenes will only require everyday clothes, warm for the outdoor parts. However we will need 3 similar fancy dress outfits (we are flexible to this as long as they get more revealing as the couples age), a long black coat for the male posing as Robbie, candles and cake, cardboard box for the toy car, tv, paint and flour. These will all be easily accessible.
  • Everyday Clothes





































  • Wii and Mario Game























  • Fancy Dress























  • Warm Wooly clothes















  • Long black coat



































  • Beard?
  • Condensed window





















  • Pen and paper















  • Car















  • Candles and Cake























  • Card board box























  • TV























  • Paint

















  • Flour