My narrative follows a teenage girl who is swayed by a character which is bad influence. Hence why it had changed her into a rebellious person who decides to go a little bit crazy and it is black to resemble darkness. My narrative also strongly ties in with an anti-establishment ethic. Hence why I chose a punk rock song, because punks are stereotypically very rebellious.

Make up ideas

GOLD TEARS

This make-up look was inspired by a Pixiwoo make up tutorial. 

This make-up look is so much better in black and white. 

Inspired by another Pixiwoo make up tutorial...

EGYPTIAN LOOK

INNOCENT LOOKS FOR THE INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC VIDEO 

(pinks, light blues and a hint of purple to represent purity)

FAIRY/BUTTERFLY

BLUES

The use of the jet blue and turquoises were inspired by a Lisa Eldridge make up tutorial. I can improve this when I restock my make up collection, for instance I could use some sparkly gold but unfortunately I have used all of my gold pigment creating the 'Gold Tears' make up look.

PUNK ROCKER

since the music to the video is punk it is appropriate to give a punk look a go, I'm still experimenting with this look.

FILMING of group task

Here are some outtakes of filming which we didn't use. This is evidence that we have filmed a range of shots until we agreed which shot is the best deconstruction of each scene from the official music video.

These are what we turned out with from out first actor but we couldn't finish the filming with this person because he became unavailable.

These are some outtakes from which two of my team members filmed while I was absent.

Shots we did use. Most of the filming was done at my house on the night before deadline day because we realized our previous filming was useless. There were no outtakes, instead we decided to film throughout the whole process and just edit the parts we wanted out of the recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8LWdCBwRhY&feature=youtu.be

Curious Turtle Product - Film Wash

I have found a way to create a 1930's reel projector effect during the introduction and perhaps have other editing effects throughout my music video. It is to buy a film wash effect program. I'm still unsure of the product's price and availability but from the tutorials on Youtube it seems legitimate and could be very useful in making my video look amazing.

This is quite old, it was published in 2009 when volume 3 was probably the latest product. Now, all the way up to volume 5 is available to purchase.

I have become a memeber of Curious Turtle's website to investigate this product further and asses it's validity. 

I need to find out whether the editing suite supplied by my college can achieve this level of special effects and whether they are suitable to apply them to my music video. Buying this product may be an unnecessary action.

Storyboard for my music video

This my chosen song (Fuck Authority by Pennywise)

Introducation inspired by old films back in the 60's on a silver screen with a 8mm reel projector, as TV was only launched in 1976. The first 4 seconds of my video will be filmed in this fashion, but also with a film noir  style. How I will be able to reproduce a reel projector effect I do not know yet and will have to seek advice/research.

For example...

The Little Rascals 1930's - The tile section was burned by reel projector.

If I cannot achieve a quality like this then perhaps I'll go for a clearer 1930's style of reel projector appearance, such as the one from the award winning film "Inglorious Basterds" which was released not so long ago (2009)

Source: Wikepedia

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the last depression.

So, what I need to do to achieve film noir to best of my potential is basically edit the filming to a very high contrast, have defined lighting/highlighting and have it in black and white. Sounds simple enough...

Production (Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a media text)

In groups of four, we were set a task to re-create at least 30 seconds of a music video. Our group decided to re-create the first 30 seconds of Labrinth’s song ‘Treatment’. We discussed and decided who we would use as our actors and which jobs would be assigned to whom. We then produced a production plan explaining which locations we would use, when we would film and props would be needed. As well as how we could re-create the correct type of lighting and what shots we would need (cinematographically relevant).

Sydney’s role: part of the camera work and main director when filming in the theatre

Part of lighting/setting at my house. Helped with editing

Paige’s role: Part of the camera work and scene setting within the theatre

Did half of the filming at my house. Helped with editing

Javanna’s role: mainly in charge of scene setting and lights co-ordinator when filming in the theatre

Help with editing

Diary

Day 1 Monday 1st October:
We started to record the close up shots of our artist for the thirty seconds we have decided to reconstruct. We managed to record the shots successfully and we now need to create the setting and the other members of the cast walking within the shots.

Day 2 Tuesday 2nd October:
We recorded the walking shots within the thirty seconds of the reconstruction, however this hasnt been as successful as we haven't got all of our team together. We have kept the recordings to use as an example of how we would like these shots to look like. We also need to think of clothing and also the props needed to create a realistic reconstruction of the video.

Reconstructon Process day 3 Thursday 4th OctoberWe did more recordings of the video to create the last few scenes of the film to reconstruct the video precisely by shots.

Reconstruction Process day 4 Friday 5th October
We edited what we had recorded to see how the video was progressing, we also filmed more shots to change a few ideas that we had made mistakes on.

Reconstruction Process day 5 Monday 8th OctoberWe finalised the shots to finsh off our music video, by filming the walking girls within the video and also edited some more to see if the continuity worked well.

Reconstruction Process day 6 Tuesday 9th OctoberFinalised editing, however we changed our actor and had to re film the video to try and create an exact replica of shots and timing to see if it looked better than our original idea.

Reconstruction Process day 7 Thursday 11th OctoberDecided on final video, we then changed the contrast and brightness of the video and uploded the video onto Youtube.

Final result (30 second reconstruction of Treatment-Labrinth)

Codes and Conventions of Selected Breif (Genre, Narrative, Media Language, Representation & Audience Theory Essay)

I have decided that I will work on my own and that I will produce a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a promo video, together with a cover for its releaseas part of a digipak (CD/DVD package) and a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

Punk rock is a rock music genre which developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other form of what is known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed excesses of mainstream 1970’s rock. Punk bands create fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped down instrumentation and often political, anti-bourgeoisie lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; from the artists and fans ‘cut and paste’ edgy individual clothing to the bands self-produced recordings and distribution through informal methods.

I will look a range of punk rock band's music videos and look at the different codes and conventions.

Cinematography

This video is a great example of what generalizes the cinematography across many different punk rock videos I have viewed. Throughout this official Sex Pistol’s music video, I have noticed that the video contains a variety of camera distances with lots of zooming in and close-ups; for example, to show Johnny Rotten(lead singer) cussing as he says the lyrics, the audience need to see this so they can feel the rebellious body language in his facial expressions, the whole message of bands such as the sex pistols is to say they don’t care about boundaries or rules and regulations in society because they’re anarchists. The dominant camera movement seems to be hand-held shots, this connotes the edgy punk rock culture to me. Extreme long shots and long shots are used to show the audience how they perform together as a band live on stage, but also more importantly as in other punk rock music videos the audience themselves are shown to broadcast the reaction they get from the music-the passion and madness the music brings to make the audience go insane.  Zooms and pans are included in speed to the music mostly throughout so the audience can see as well as hear how fast the beat of the song goes. Through my research I have also noticed many angles (high, low, Dutch) so I will ensure my music video uses a large variety angles, this shows to me how punk rock as a culture isn’t neat or straight, it’s diverse, up and down, upside down and side to side to show the utter craziness of the genre.

Editing

This music video like many other punk rock music videos is dominated throughout by cuts, editing wise. The video begins with establishing shots to show what and where the event within the video consists of, this is arranged in a bundle of these different shots with sharp cuts between each one, there’s no smooth edit. Cross cutting is used with scenes from Sid performing to scenes of the audience. In association to this I had noticed a shot reverse shot fashion to show the audience reaction for example the shock on a viewer’s face when he transcends from a classical style to punk. Shot transition is rhythmic, there’s rhythmic editing using cuts because it’s based on the song and the artists attitude (sharp and snappy) it seems to be especially edited to the guitar’s solo’s and chord varieties. Furthermore, most importantly the editor has made sure the artists lips are syncing to the song while he is performing throughout the shot transitions.

Sound

From research I have found that it is conventional in punk rock music videos to have the music diagetic so you can see where the music is coming from (live performance). But as shown in this Pennywise video and many other punk rock music videos the sound can be non-diagetic because the narrative of the song often links to footage from historical and ongoing tragic events. 

Conclusion
The punk rock is part of the rock genre. Modern rock music videos have more of a storyline to them in comparison to older fashioned rock music videos, examples include ACDC’s music videos in comparison to The Foo Fighters. Codes and conventions of punk rock music videos include eerie/weird videos, displays the band performing on stage, hand-held shots, usually no narrative (e.g. including war scenes or riots), dark/deep colour scheme, uneasy camera movements and usually no use of special effects.

Evaluation (comparing shots and improvements)

EVALUATION

Storyboard of screen shots I created for us to film with, along side screenshots of our reconstruction

1 second into the video

This is the very first camera shot and the first second of the music video

Our version of the first second. I could've improved this by standing further away so more background was in the shot. I was unable to do this because the room was very restricted and I struggled with the small spaces I had to film it within.

Camera movement for the future 4 seconds: slightly to the left and downwards, then to the right slightly while it zooms towards the artist

4 seconds into the video

Official music video screenshot

Unfortunately I struggled to master this movement because of the fast zooming speed I struggled to control. I took a few takes and my final take was the best. I think it's okay compared to the original video

5-7 seconds into the video

The artist is filmed taking off a necklace chain 

Again by choice I would've rather filmed the shot further away from the artist, but since the space we were in was restricted and because  this was last minute filming, this wasn't to the best of my reconstructing ability. I have learnt to do more planning and preparation from this task and believe my team members may have as well.

8-11 seconds into the video

8 seconds

9-10 seconds

11 seconds

Our version

8-9 seconds

10-11 seconds

This scene shouldn't have been cut so short. I would change this feature if I had a second chance to re-edit the video.

11-12 seconds into the video

half way between 11 and 12 seconds into the official video 

Just over 12 seconds 

This scene only lasts roughly one second

We struggled to get the correct lighting and contrast throughout the video, this scene was shot within college on the first week of filming. I had the idea to blurr the shot by covering the video camera's lens with a sheet of thin plastic I had in my bag.

If I could retake this I wouldn't include the plastic cover because the original scene isn't as blurry as we made it.

13-14 seconds into the video

There's a snapshot of the artist taking off his blazer/jacket

Unfortunately the actor we used became restless at this point of filming and failed to take the jacket off for long enough, as you can see if you watch our reconstruction of the video, the scene isn't long enough and you can see him stop before he takes the jacket off fully. To avoid this, during editing it could of been cut shorter and then extended to make it in slow motion, this would have made that scene much more ideal in my opinion. We also didn't check which shoulder he slips his coat from (the left) instead ours is taken down the right shoulder. We missed this because of the rush we were in and should have paid more attention to details. 

 

 

 

15-17 seconds into the video

The artist seems to be walking down a corridor which has white walls towards a bright light.

 In our reconstruction we placed a torch in front of our actor as he walked towards it, unfortunately it doesn't show up very well. We couldn't find anywhere with pure white walls so decided to use my narrow kitchen. If the lights were brighter in front of the actor then perhaps the resolution would have been more similar. In relation to camera movement I can now see it would've been better if I had followed the actor as they walked, like in the original video, instead of the camera being still as the actor walks away from it.

 

 

18-19 seconds into the video

The duration of this shot is less than a second long. It is the artist checking/reading his phone as he sings the lyrics. It seems to be of a backstage location. The camera is placed so you can see the artist along the left side of the shot. The lighting is designed to highlight his face, his hand and his phone to draw the audience's attention to those areas.

To recreate this I held a light next to the camera as we filmed to highlight his face, his hand and his phone. The camera position could be improved by being further away and more behind our actor. There are shelves near the artist in the original scene so I chose the book case in my dining room to be in our reconstruction. There is no camera movement as this is a still shot. Our actor sang the lyrics which the artist sang in the scene which we then edited so the actor's lips synchronised with the song's lyrics.

 

20-21.5 seconds into the video

 In this shot the camera pans anti-clockwise as firstly one girl is walking along with two drum sticks then another walks into the shot along side the blonde girl with the drumsticks. The camera is positioned at quite a low level, so the main focus is the girls bodies instead of their faces, this may be because they are just backing staff and not the performer.

 To recreate this I carried on using the tripod supplied by my college. We chose to use the college's theatre so the background of the shot wouldn't distract the focus of the scene. Unfortunately we didn't achieve a very similar lighting environment for this scene as we lacked artificial lights e.g. flood lights or the show lights which are featured in the original snapshot. It would have been better if Paige (the blond girl) was the girl who started walking first, and then Javanna afterwards following alongside her. We made Javanna wear a striped jumper and Paige wear  black to match the costumes of the girls from the music video. 

 

 22-23.5 seconds into the video

In this scene the artist is singing on what I assume is a stage, I assume this because there are instruments behind him and he is singing into a microphone. The lighting is once again behind the artist, you cannot see the artists mouth moving to thew words but you can tell he is singing because of his body movement. It seems to have a misty effect, like the camera lense is slightly steamy.

We instructed our actor to pretend he is singing and showed him Labrinth's body movement so he could copy it. The camera should have been further away from the actor and slightly higher as if we are looking down on him, this was unachievable because our actor is 6ft5" tall and the tripod only extended to such a height. Perhaps we could have rested the tripod on some books to boost its height. The light we found which would be at the most similar position behind the artist ended up being my extractor fan in my kitchen. We weren't able to find a stage with drum kits in the background to recreate the scene more accurately. Labrinth uses the microphone as a prop so we used something of a similar shape as our prop (a thin drinking glass).
23.5-25 seconds into the video

 Camera movement: pivots anti clockwise. Artist remains still in the position of looking to his right at somthing in the distance. Lighting seems to be at a far distance away from him to his left

 find