Monday, 19 March 2018

Music Video - Planning and Research

My chosen track will be Don Broco - Stay Ignorant
The meaning of this song is quite simple which is to party and enjoy your life, this is portrayed by the lyrics as they sing about how you can't live partying before the chorus kicks in and they sing about partying at the middle of the night drinking beers. The genre of the music is alternative rock,rock. It has a quick but easy to follow pace and is 3 minutes and 17 seconds. 
Damiani explains that the track’s lyrics were inspired by the Lord Byron quote: “Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth, the Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.”

Their clothing usually consist of normal everyday cloths, things such as t-shirts, chinos, jeans E.T.C.
in a couple of their music videos they will be wearing smart suits, they don't use any make-up as the majority of their videos come from their gigs. the ton of their existing videos are quite similar also and their locations vary depending either it is live footage or created purposely for a music video.    

Monday, 12 March 2018

Music Video Production - Styles, Conventions and Techniques.

In- concert (live footage)

This term means that footage from a live show or concert has been taken and is used within the music video. These videos are suited for people who enjoy going to concerts or like the feeling of them.
BMTH - Avalanche
 
This video is a good example of a live footage music video as the band is know for having very successful concerts and shown their best moments within concerts to create a music video with lots of energy and excitement.

Narrative and Interpretive

These videos are created to fit within the song and create a story that the viewers and both hear and see. These videos are created for people who enjoy stories and like to see what the meaning of a song is on a visual level, these videos can be very narrative or they can have no narrative at all.

Jamie Lawson - Wasn't Expecting That

This video is very good as Jamie Lawson sings about things he didn't expect, although it can be confusing as the song is in reverse with the music video so the lyrics don't match with what can be visually seen.

Surrealist/Absurdist

These videos are very unconventional and surprising and may contain very little narrative. People who may these videos are ones who may enjoy videos that are random and out of context, things that contain little meaning or relevancy. 


This video is a good example as the lyrics and video have nothing to do with each other as the video is created to serve as a comical visual while the lyrics are played.

Impressionist

These videos try to capture the emotional tone of the music rather than the literal meaning of the lyrics.

This video is a good example as the visuals along with the music create a very peaceful and aesthetically pleasing feeling especially the establishing shot as the bubbles are in focus and the guitar plays over, the shot also contains very nice lighting giving more enthuse on the visuals.

Inter-textual

These videos are a reference to other subjects. Media such as movies, events, text, a person or any other other historical or cultural reference.
This video is a good example as the music video contains it's own animation related to the Black Panther film it also contains small clips form the film itself.

Animation

Videos which are wholly or partly animated in some way.
All of the gorillaz videos are perfect example of animated music videos as their whole style is animation as even the characters representing them are animated people.

Lip-Sync

A performance video that might require the artist to mime the lyrics so they appear synced to the track.
           
this video is good as James Blunt is see in real time as everything around him is moving as extremely fast speeds as he sings.

Cutting to the beat

Cutting shots to match the beat of the music helps establish a rhythm to your edits.

This video contains good cuts that match the beat of the music at certain points throughout the video.

Post-production effects

Visual effects are used for a number of reasons visually pleasing effects can make the audience more interested in the music video.
This video contains a wide range of Post-production effects throughout giving it a very aesthetically pleasing video for audiences.

Friday, 23 February 2018

The Purpose Of Music Videos

Music videos first emerged during 1941 when the introduction of the jukebox combined short videos with the music playing. This will later evolve into a mainstream entertainment method that will bring millions of views thanks to the internet and certain music television shows such as MTV. This essay will go into the purpose of music videos, what makes them popular and the main reason for making them in the first place. I will also be going into the business behind music videos such as the promotion of artists, songs E.T.C and go through the extending artists and record company’s income.  


Some bands will promote themselves in their songs. This can be done a number of ways but a common one is to have the name of their band placed somewhere bold and viable within the video the catch the eye of viewers. The Hives "Hate To Say I Told You So" had their band name placed on the  drummers bass drum and can be seen throughout the video as the band plays. Weezer also use the same method but instead of using their name they use the bands logo. The directors can also be promoted through music videos. Michel Gondry was promoted in The White Stripe's "Fell In Love With A Girl" as the video was created using stop-motion Lego animation which is style of animation that Gondry uses a lot.   

Producers will have different methods for promoting their artist differently. Very popular and influential artists such as Kanye West or Ed Sheeran have lots of publicity behind them and will be made to look good all the time with a clean and well managed image that will be reflected in their music videos. Katy Perry's Swish Swish is a good example as she is known very well and has extremely strong publicity due to her work in charity. In the music video she is the main focus throughout overcoming the challenge she faces in the video which makes her look strong and confident to viewers. People like Katy Perry, Kanye West E.T.C will be found on mainstream websites and television such as MTV, BBC Radio E.T.C. Interdependent bands or artists might not have the finance to back a large production so they will have their music videos paid by their interdependent record labels. Dance Gavin Dance is a band which goes through their record label. One of their songs "We Own The Night" has no special effects or expensive locations and only consists of the band playing and a car inside a warehouse style building. Interdependent bands or artists can be found of their record labels websites and IndiMusicTV.

Bands/Artists and record companies gain their income form royalties or payment in exchange for the use of their product. How this is achieved is by having the record companies create an estimate based upon how popular the track is or or how well the single is selling. This means like someone like Ed Sheeran With his new song  "Shape Of You" which has over 1.5 billion listeners on Spotify his overall payment will be extremely high. This works well with radio and television also as knowing how many people listen to his song will allow them to know that he is very popular and in turn they will begin to play his song more frequently. This means that mainstream artists will gain large amounts of royalties due to this which can drown out more interdependent artists as they are obviously less known due to companies wanted more mainstream music to attract more people.   




Thursday, 1 February 2018

The nature and purposes of research

The nature and purposes of research

Primary research is any type of research that you go out and collect yourself such as interviews, surveys or observations. for my research I studied about the type of cancer my granddad had and what specific causes it had compared to other forms of cancer. I also had interviews with family members about how his cancer effected him and us and also about how they knew other people with cancer and how it affected their family and friends.

For my secondary research I used the NHS website to gather information about the forms of cancer my granddad and people we knew and looked into how people's life would be effected in different ways. I also used the McMillan website to find ways and stories of how people handled their situations and what support they had either through McMillan or their friends or family.

https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/cancer/Pages/coping-with-cancer-diagnosis.aspx


Quantitative research is the systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. I did not do this research as it was not involved with the research I was doing for my documentary.

The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. This company gathers information about how many viewers are watching a certain TV show and shows the figures in comparison to other shows within the UK. BoxOfficeMojo also does the same but with films as they gather information on how many people view films in cinemas and purchase either online or DVD and it also shows hows much money the film gains globally and country specific.

Audience and Market Research

This research consists of finding out what people like and dislike and how many people feel these ways for example the majority of people who watch an advert may or my not enjoy it which determines weather it should be kept or moved to another channel it also gives a good idea which channels will be more appropriate for certain adverts.

The McMillan adverts are a good example as they are shown on the majorly viewed channels such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4 E.T.C. This means that a majority of the UK population can see these adverts and can see what they can do if they or know anyone with cancer.

Production Research

This research consists of paperwork that is required in order to legally and financially create a media production. This includes such items as release forms, budget form, location release E.T.C are all created and filled appropriately and updated with any changes that may occur during production. 

For our DepicT work we created a number of pre-production paperwork as seen above. These covered both our legal and working requirements needed before we started our recording. we also created release forms for everyone that entered our short film to make sure we had permission to use these people within the video if any legal action was taken.

Friday, 12 January 2018

History of music videos

In 1941 the invention of the jukebox was the first use of video and music using short video clips. 15 years later Hollywood discovers the genre of music- centered films, Don't Knock the Rock, Rattle and Rock E.T.C were created, integrating musical performances into a story. In 1962 the British invents a new form of music television making shows such as Top Of The Pops, Ready! Steady! Go! become huge hits. Bohemian Rhapsody was released in 1975 by Queen was one of the videos in its time to use advance video effects. the video itself used effects such as dissolving to show two different camera angles at once, it also looked as if it was set on a normal stage as there was different stage mounted color lights flashing throughout. the video today will look very bland and simple but as it was using advance effects during its creation it was marking the beginning of the video era.
5 years later, David Bowie released ashes to ashes which was considered a ground breaking video. the video itself contain strange edits and a change of color grading to make everything red which would represent warmth. in 1984 Laura Branigan released her hit song Self Control which was refused airplay by MTV as they believed the music video contained objectionable which can been agreed upon as the video itself contained multiple scenes which could be seen as sexual which in times such as the 70's, 80's and 90's was frowned upon. The same year Micheal Jackson released his short film Thriller, this changed he concept of music videos forever. The 13 minute long film.   

Sunday, 7 January 2018

ESting Feedback and Final Evaluation






































As seen from the feedback everyone said that my animation was very smooth throughout the short but they all said that my animation has a whole was very dull with little in it and was very repetitive which indicates that I needed to add more in my animation to keep the attention of the viewer. To improve on this I shall do the following:

  • Add more things happening within my animation (more items moving, different scene E.T.C).
  • Make sure that the short itself isn't repetitive.
  • Try to make what I am already doing and make it more interesting through different means. with these needed improvements taking into account with my re-shooting I should be able to create a more interesting and non-repetitive version of my previous ESting short. 
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-YZTDJBKX8/


To review my animation project via a written report as I feel it will be easier to go into more detail about the issues and compliments people found with my ESting and I feel more confidant with my writing skills then I do with my speaking skills.

The way I showed my project was through the college's Youtube channel which our teacher uploaded and showed the students in my class. Other ways I could have shown my project could have been through my own Youtube channel or through my personal Facebook account and or my personal Twitter account.

The way I obtained my feedback was through the other students who saw my project and through he website ServeryMonkey. The general reaction to my work was the same through the class which makes it very easy to pinpoint what needs improvements and what went well.

I did not have any constraints while making the video as everything I used was within the terms of use such as the Channel 4 provided music and E4 Logo.

I tried to split my time evenly throughout the creation of the short film, i would make sure that my pre-production work was fully complete before starting the recording as i could insure that I was following the plan I had written.

As seen by the feedback everyone agreed that my animation was smooth which means that my camera movement throughout was good. Everyone also agreed that the short film was quite repetitive and didn't contain anything that made it interesting which I do agree on as i feel that the time I had I could have added additional Lego items into my short film which could have made it much more interesting.

Thursday, 16 November 2017

Monday, 30 October 2017

Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

The current CEO of Channel 4 is Alex Mahon (previously David Abraham) although it is a publicly owned corporation whose board is appointed by OFCOM, in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

E4 first launched on the 18th of January 2001 (16 years ago)

E4 host shows such as: The Goldbergs, The Cleveland show, The O.C., Smallville, Big Bang Theory E.T.C

E4's primary audience are people around the ages 16-34 who enjoy such shows as comedies, and reality shows such as The Big Bang Theory, My Name Is Earl and Made In Chelsea, all these shows are shown during early peak. According to https://www.slideshare.net/08ahmeda/e4-demographic the majority of people who watch E4 are females around and under the ages of 18-24.     

















E4's secondary target audience is towards the females bias and ages between 16-34 or housewives. Shows such as 2 Broke Girls, Misfits and The inbetweeners are shown during late peak.

Channel 4 which is owned by the same broadcaster aim towards the female bias mostly also with a few acceptations during breakfast, daytime and post peak.

E stings are short 10 second videos/animations before and after a show



This short is an comedy short based towards people who enjoy a play on words/ rhyming.The short is about a man with a horse head rhyming about mothers day.



This short is a comedy,science short aimed towards people who enjoy both much like The Big Bang Theory. The short shows the evolution of a fish that eventually becomes a man.


This comedy short is a comedy short based towards people who like animals. the short starts with a large chicken head with a small helicopter flying towards giving a feeling of depth of field when suddenly the chicken eats the helicopter revealing that the chicken is a large Godzilla sized animal.

I like the first short because its a short in comparison to the other E Stings as this short uses rhyming to create comedy. The other short is enjoyable as it mixes comedy with the theory of evolution so people who enjoy science will also like the comical aspect to this short. The last short was enjoyable also as the use of vision portrayed the chicken being close to the viewer while the helicopter is very distant but it is then revealed that the chicken is extremely large and is right next to the helicopter.

 


Friday, 20 October 2017

Research and Planning: Designing an ESting

I propose to create a ESting using stop motion Lego. For my ESting There will be a pile of Lego on a table, it will begin to come alive and build itself into the E4 logo. The location will be simple as i only require a table and Lego so i can be shot within the classroom. As i am only using Lego things such as finance and resources will be very little, the location can be anywhere as long as i have a table available to use and in terms of practicality I am easily able to preform this task. My target audience is set towards people ages of 16-34, people who enjoy Lego and who are both male and female. 

Friday, 29 September 2017






George Pal

Born 1908 in Cegled was a stop motion animator Since animated films at the time were generally for advertisement, Pal wanted to start by animating cigarettes. The Czech tobacco world was not interested in animated advertisements, but the French were, so the Pals moved to Paris. The first company approached bought the idea, the ad was a huge success, and Pal was famous. George attended the Budapest Academy to train as an architect, but a clerical error put him in illustration classes as they say, the rest is history. George graduated with an architectural degree when Hungary was in no need of architects... but there were jobs for animation illustrators at Hunnia. He was famous for such films as The Time Machine and War Of The Worlds. 

Ray Harryhausen

Born 1920 Los Angeles California was a stop motion animator famous for creating a form of animation known as Dynamation. After being Inspired by Willis O'Brien's King Kong he began to animate at a young age In 1947 Harryhausen was hired as an assistant animator on what turned out to be his first major film, Mighty Joe Young. Ray Harryhausen was also famous for such films as Clash Of The Titans and First Men In The Moon 

Phil Tippett


Born 1951 in Berkeley California was a famous stop motion animator know for his work in Star Wars, working with DreamWorks and starting his own company, Tippett Studios In 1975, while still working at Cascade Pictures, Phil Tippett and Jon Berg were hired by George Lucas at Industrial Light & Magic to create a stop-motion miniature chess scene for the original Star Wars film. Phil was known most famously for films such as The Original Star Wars Trilogy and RoboCop. 

Otmar Gutmann

Born in 1937 Munstertal Germany was a German television producer mostly known for his stop motion animation work in the TV show Pingu. 

Tim Burton & Henry Selick

Tim Burton (born 1958 Burbank California) and Henry Selick (born 1952 Glen Ridge New Jersey) are both stop motion animators who both spent their early careers working in Disney before they they created their own films such as nightmare before Christmas 

Adam Shaheen

born 1964 in London England is the owner of Cuppa Coffee Studios which in August 2015 had finished creating its stop motion studio in which they plan to create an animated feature on the music of Henry Nilsson.

The Brothers Quay 
   
Stephen and Timothy Quay born 1947 are twins who are well known for their stop motion  animations and have created short films such as Street of Crocodile, Rain Dance and The Sandman.




Grizzly Bear is aimed towards people who enjoy a mellow style of music with its slow tone and strange clay stop motion creations, While The White Stripes uses Lego stop motion to create a fast pace upbeat music video aimed towards people who enjoy the rock style music.



Terminator 1 uses a large model in stop motion to create life in the machine. this film was targeted towards people who enjoy horror films with action. The Lost World used rubber models of dinosaurs in stop motion capture to make the models look alive.


Lip sync uses claymation to animate the animal characters which are then dubbed over with real life interviews. this is targeted towards people ages 8-34 who enjoy the comical cartoons. Robot Chicken is another claymation cartoon which uses stop motion to create its animation, this is targeted towards a more adult audience. 




The Red Bull stop motion commercial uses two people which they use stop motion to pectic the man flying around like superman and saving a girl falling, this advert is aimed towards people who drink Red Bull or various energy drinks. The McCoy's Advert uses stop motion to create live with the bag and the crisps. This video is targeted towards people who a male bias who enjoy eating the McCoy's product.



I believe that stop motion animation is made for people who enjoy how people spend long hours of time a day to create and bring life to their creation through the means of stop motion as they have full control of the movements and emotions of the characters they made and i feel like it is seem by most people who enjoy to watch stop motion. 

i believe that stop motion will slowly dwindle but i don't think it will ever disappear as i think that there will always be people who like and are inspired by stop motion and don't want to see it go and so they create their own stop motion creations for others to see and be inspired about        

Monday, 18 September 2017



persistence of vision


the retention of a visual image for a short period of time after the removal of the stimulus that produced it: the phenomenon that produces the illusion of movement when viewing motion pictures.


This theory has been discussed by many people, some examples of people would be Ptolemy, Lucretius and Issac Newton were among some people who talked about this theory


Around CE 165 Ptolemy described in his book Optics a rotating potter's wheel with different colours on it. He noted how the different colours of sectors mixed together into one colour and how dots appeared as circles when the wheel was spinning very fast.




Issac Newton ( 1642-1726) purportedly demonstrated how white light is a combination of different colours with a rotating disc with colour segments. when spinning fast the colours seem to blend and appear as white.




Examples of devices used to show the Persistence of vision are shown below


 
This device was created by John Ayrton Paris 1824 which he described in his educational book in 1827.  The device as shows uses spinning of the string to create a fast motion between the two images on each side of the card making the illusion of both images being one.




William George Horner thought up a cylindrical variation in 1834. The device is used by placing a circular paper which a series of images in which spun and looking at a certain angle will create a constant motion with each image. 



created in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud similar to the zoetrope this device uses mirrors to reflect the image to the viewers eye from a different angle and as the base is spun the images on top are shown on the mirror.





the device was created around 1832 by Joseph Plateau and Simon Stampfer. The device is used by spinning the item so the wheel shape moves around including the image creating the spiral illusion and motion is made.


This device was created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1888 New Jersey. The device much like a proctor used a series of film which multiple images which are spun within view of the peephole creating a film like motion to the viewer. 

Music Video - Planning and Research

My chosen track will be Don Broco - Stay Ignorant The meaning of this song is quite simple which is to party and enjoy your life, this is ...