Rebecca Wood 9282 A2 Advanced Portfolio

I recently had the opportunity to film and edit a promo video for our school's production of the musical, Hairspray. It was certainly the quickest video I've ever shot and edited (in the space of two days). It's helped me to get back into the swing of editing and using Premiere Pro, which will be beneficial to my music video.

https://www.canva.com/design/DACFM19KHfA/X_w3jcLO8Z8NkDB308SziQ/view?utm_content=DACFM19KHfA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton

I've decided to experiment with glow sticks as a source of lighting. My original plan was to use them as a lighting source in my music video. Although I might have overestimated how much light they actually give off. For the camera's sensor pick them up, the iso needs to be incredibly high (resulting a grainy image the higher you go), or the shutter speed needs to higher (meaning that the length of time the before the image is captured is much greater, creating more motion). For filming a shutter speed of 1/50 is advised (to go along with the frame rate of 24fps), so using glow sticks isn't really ideal. But on the flip side they can still be used for the ancilllary tasks (the digipack or the website). Setting the shutter to around 5-15 seconds I was able to create some motion with the light. Below are the test images, the first one is a CD test cover: Update: Here's another CD cover idea. I think I'm going to use these as part of my band's previous singl...

After interviewing, and getting a focus group to fill out a short survey on what they thought about the screenplay I have written for my music videol; I have an interesting set of results. My questions for the focus group questions centered around getting the representation of the protagonist correct, and to raise awareness of mental health issues. Rather than on the contrary, creating a negative representation that would make people very uncomfortable. Transcript from a feedback conversation I voice recorded: 'The protagonist is represnted as more neutral, as we don't get to see that much of them to see whether they are they are presented as positive or negative.' ' I think that [the protagonist] conformes pretty well to expectations, and with people that have schizotophrenia' 'The weakest part is when they wake up with the alarm clock, because that's cliche' 'The strongest part I'd say is the last part' From the feedback I...

Performance shots in this music video were strong and were typical of those found in music video (close-ups of the instruments and the band members) There was also a narrative element to the video The first shot had a good composition with the song title layer over the top One of the down sides was that there was a little bit of camera shake on some of the shots Colour grading could also have been used to give it more of a conventional look Using the mark scheme I would have given this music video 32 The use of a black and white colour grading in the reverse shot of the photo being effectively un-burnt was visually interesting and creative It includes some convention of the genre. For example playing guitar in a countryside location The video focused on the artist quite a bit, and that is typical of a music video, but it does get repetitive after a while.  The shots are a little limited and do have a few exposure issues Using the mark scheme I would have...

Mind Map created by rebecca wood with GoConqr

Slow slow zoommm from 10woodre

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory states in its simplest form that: NO MEDIA TEXT HAS ONE SIMPLE MEANING The audience themselves help to create the meaning of the text. We all decode the texts that we encounter in different ways as result of our life experiences. Reception analysts have found that factors, such as gender, our place in society, and the context of the time we are living in can impact massively on our meaning of media text. Even though the makers of the media text encode it with their own life experiences, audiences may decode it in a different way. Hall identified three types of audiences reading messages: 1) Dominant -How the producer wants the audience to view the media text 2) Negotiated - Accepts parts of the producer's view and their own 3) Oppositional - Rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning of the media text

I recently came across a GIF taken from Panic! At the Disco's 'La Devotee' music video. I liked the way they have used a low key lighting in the video and then added a red still of the same shot as the camera zooms in. After looking and experimenting with colour isolation I'm looking for different ways to visual represent red and blue, so I am planning to try out this effect and see if it is something I would like to include in my music video.

In order to practice for the ancillary task of creating a band website I have signed myself up to the website creator, Wix.com, and have began trying to create an indie style webpage. I have used a picture that is incredibly blurry for the 'enter site' page and minimalist house style to keep with the indie feel. It's a current working progress, so check back for updates! http://10woodre.wixsite.com/a2rwoodpractice

Wrapped and edited, the pitch video to coincide with the one page pitch is done. I have try to express what I mean with the black and white, and red and blue colour grading within the video. Using After Effects to achieve the contrasting red colour of my scarf in the video against the black and white. Editing a one minute section took around an hour to properly track the mask manually, as I found the automated setting to not be very effective. Therefore I am skeptical about using this technique through the video, as I'd have to edit every single frame of each scene and take, which would be time consuming. Hence I am currently on the hunt of a different way to represent the blue and red colour scheme.

Today I thought I'd use some 'left' over footage from the Pitch Video to experiment and practice with effects solely in Premiere Pro.  I found a way of creating a flash bulb transition by key framing a small section at a high brightness (appearing to be almost white), and changing it back to normal. It's an effect I've been meaning to try out as it is quite common in music video and is an effect I will consider for post-production of my video. I have practiced changing the rate of the video playback in my previous videos but yet again it is typical of music videos, especially slowing down shots to get a more dramatic effect (like in the Editors' No Harm video ). I also had a go at cloning myself at the end, which was tricky than I thought. It would have been easier if I had planned out the proxemics. Although after a bit of tweaking I think I managed to convey the illusion of there being two of me in the room. 

Here's a feedback sheet my teacher gave me in response to my preliminary music video for Popscene

I've contacted Bloc Party's current label, Infectious Music, to get in touch about using their song as part of my coursework. They are a UK independent record label which was re-launched in 2009 but was first formed in 1993. They sign mainly alternative acts, such as Alt-J, Drenge and White Lies.  http://www.infectiousmusicuk.com/

Music video pitch from 10woodre

I've come across a few online articles when searching for the best music videos of all time, using ratings from NME, timeout and Billboard I've complied a short list of the music video that are considered to be the best of all time. Interestingly the music videos I've looked at are all completely different in concept and type.  Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit Influence for the look of the video came from the 1979 film, Over The Edge. The band distributed out flyers two days before the shoot, asking fans to appear in the video. A radio station in LA (KXLU) also made a casting call for extras. At the end of the filming, Kurt Cobain suggested letting the extras wreck the set. Bayer, the director, agreed and the destruction at the end of the music video occurred. Kurt didn't like the director's cut, so he personally watched over the re-edit, which is the final version. Amy Finnerty, who had only just joined the music programming department at MTV, campaigne...

Untitled The Stone Roses For the album cover, Squire (the guitarist in the band) produced a painting titled 'Bye Bye Badman' that was his take on the May 1968 Paris riots. Hence the french flag in the painting. The Lemons link to the lemons that were used to neutralise the effect of the tear gas used in the riots. It is a Jackson Pollock-influenced piece. Squire said that "Apart from untitled, I made the album covers on canvasses that are roughly four times the size of a vinyl album." Untitled was used on the front of their greatest hits album Source - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/may/13/stone-roses-john-squire-art Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of the Moon Pink Floyd's album covers are pretty famous. The band's light spectrum prism is one the most well known . Initial inspiration came from a was a photo of a prism on top of some sheet music. The prism on the cover is related mostly to a light show, according to the designer of the album cover...

history of music videos Infographic

I've began to look at the lyrics, and the overall atmosphere and tone of She's Hearing Voices creates; in order to start to come with some more concrete ideas. Here's some of ideas I've come up with,  after listening to the song at least a hundred times.

Genre research from 10woodre

An effects I've found that I would like to explore is colour isolation. I'd like to pick out red and blue for my music video so that it links directly to the lyrics, 'red pill, blue pill...'

I've started thinking about which songs that I can do for the music video task. I was think about She's Lost Control by Joy Division because I could imagine a narrative following a person that was lost control of their life. However I'm quite reluctant to make a music video for this song, even though it hasn't got one already, it's still quite a famous song and band, therefore I couldn't include a band in video and I like to idea of having both a narrative and performance video in one. Another song idea I had was Moaning Lisa Smile by Wolf Alice, I had a few ideas about this song but there is already a music video to it. She's Hearing Voices by Bloc Party is another song I am considering, as the lyrics are interesting and have a possible reference to the Matrix, which means I can include intertextual references in my video. There is also no music video to this songs,which is good and a narrative/performance video could work with the track. Joy Division -...

Here's an article from Q magazine from September 2015, it talks about controversy in music videos. It mainly focuses on Rihanna's event video for Bitch Better Have My Money. It raises some interesting points on how far is too far for music videos, and when does artistic creation blurs to simply just for sales. It implies that since the Billboard Top 100 and The Top 40 have made music videos count as part of the chart position, artists/record labels have been creating intentional music videos to shock people and cause a stir online. I agree with this to some extent. It is completely possible for music videos to be made just for sales and money, but on the contrary many are also made to raise awareness to a certain zeitgeist in society at the time. On the other hand, Rihanna's audience isn't fixed to one demographic, and many children may listen to her music. Since the internet is almost accessible to all, there is also the possibility that young children might see this ...

We were tasked with taking photos against a consistent background for album covers in preparation for the digipack task later on in the course. There were a range of different typical album cover shots to choose from, I also added in a few extra as well. For the photos I used a DSLR on a tripod, and I also decided to set up an additional light source to the right of camera to create harsher shadows.  The light source (two phones attached to a hole punch with blue tac) 'WE ARE A LOT OF FUN' Album Cover: For this photo I changed the green screen to black on Photoshop so that we stood out against the background. I later de-saturated the image a little, and adjusted the colour balance to give it a red hue. I also used a ball prop to make us look more 'fun'.  'GANGSTER' Album Cover: This image was also ran through Photoshop. Again I got rid of the bright green background. For the 'gangster' look I decided to have an out of focus clenched hand c...

Today I decided to have a go at using a green screen, I want to see if it would be something that I could use for my music video. I used this article to help me get rid of the green background in Premiere Pro: How to Chroma Key in Adobe Premiere Pro Chroma keying is usually something that is done in After Effects, but sometimes, whether the simplicity of the project or just the fact that you do not want to send your footage to After Effects, you'll want to chroma key in Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro comes with a great keyer built right in called "ultra key." Here's a short video, note this is only for practice purposes and trying out the keying setting on Premiere Pro. After trying out the green I don't think I would use it in the music video, because it would be hard to make it look like the two aren't different images due to lighting consistency, and I don't think it would fit in with the narrative/song I'm thinking about making a music video fo...

Front Cover: For the front I used a photo of the microphone with a shallow depth of field so that the background is out of focus. Although in the image you can see still that there is a band formation in the background. In Photoshop I edited the image along side the other photos for the CD. If you have seen my previous blog post on the filming of the music video you might recognize the shot. I ran the file through Photoshop to adjust the composition so that it was more balanced using the rule of thirds. Also so that it was the correct size for a CD cover 4.724 inches, or 4.974 with the bleed area. The bleed area is so that no unprinted edges occur. The colours and brightness were changed to be constant with the inlay. Back Cover: What I've noticed when doing this task is that the print colours can look quite different from the ones on a monitor screen. The blue hue did come out more than I expected it to, as you can see there is quite a stark difference between the screens...