must do's for my pop promo

1. copy of letter from artist or record label, must post a copy of response onto the blog
2. lipsync must be accurate
3. know your lyrics and sing along
4. the performance must be believable
5. vowels and mouth movement
6. play the song while recording so that it can be heard in the background while editing
7. have a 'BASE' which is where you play through the whole song at least once
8. editing to markers is a must
9. different shot angles
10. keep locations simple, no more than 4, but use different places
11. keep at least 2 weekends free for filming
12. no more than 3 minutes long
13. no soundtrack with swearing or drugs
14. editing to the beat or the bars
15. use a genre that is clear to identify
16. faced pace music will require more shot, slow paced music will require fewer shots.
17. consider the genre of music you use, for example rock music is performance heavy and pop music is mainly narrative based
18. if using music from a well known artist, must make sure to rename the band. i.e. give them a reband
19. Will need to know whether it is the artists 1st, 2nd etc track, as we will be marketing the artist through the ancillary task, we will also need to know how developed the star is and where they are in the star status.
20. a professional photoshoot with the artist is required if you are planning on using their face on the digipack or advert

Analysing a level 4 music video

I have watched a music video in class in and picked out why I think that it would be a level 4 music video. The music video would be level 4 because of the rhythm of the editing. They have edited their video to particular beats within the bar so that it is not distracting or that uncomfortable to watch. However the genre of the music would effect this, there are faced paced editing within this video which changes to the beat then to the bar, so that it does create a somewhat uncomfortable feel so that it relates to the gothic genre.
There has been a range of different locations and shot sizes used to film this so that it becomes more interesting and complex, there is also a good attention to framing, whereby the use of the camera and negative and positive space has been used sensibly so that we do not capture unnecessary object which may effect the narrative.
Mise en scene, camera and editing are therefore all used to create an erriness within the video, the lip syncing was also accurate which created a better sense of realism that the person in the video was not acting.
There are also good visual effects which help to create a gothic/fairytale narrative and this enhances the theme of the genre.

The history of pop music

 

1956 – Elvis Presley emerges as one of the world’s first rock stars
1957 – John Lennon meets Paul McCartney

1957 – The first official Quarry Men performance

1958 – Paul McCartney invited George Harrison to watch the Quarry Men

Late 1950s: The English rock music group ‘Beatles’ was formed

1960 – The Quarry Men become The Silver Beats

1960 – Pete Best joins the Beatles

1961- The American country singer ‘Patsy Cline’ becomes a mainstream pop music hit

1972 – Michael Jackson’s first solo hit “Ben” reaches No. 1

1974 – Michael Jackson introduces “The Robot”

1983 – Red Hot Chili Peppers are formed

1985 – Britney Spears emerges as a star of the music world

1990s – Various famous groups made pop music more popular.

1993 – Radiohead releases first studio album, “Pablo Honey”

1998 – “Coldplay” formed

2002 – Increased impact of television shows

2009 – Death of Michael Jackson

A2 explained

Using conventions from real media texts

I have spoken to professional editor Michael Harrows, on Skype, to gather information about the conventions of an opening title sequence, for the Thriller genre in particular. I learnt about the pacing and rhythm of editing and how significant it is to keep a smooth flowing rhythm throughout editing. This was useful as in my opening title sequence, rhythm and pace was key as we were editing to the pace of the music to create a opening title sequence which flows by sound bridging.
I also created a timeline using se7ens opening title sequence to pick out the duration, placement and types of titles which occurred. This was important as it gave a structure and guidance for the conventions of a thriller opening title sequence.

Post Production

During the post production of my media product I have used many different medias to enable me to create the most polished final outcome. I used adobe after effects to slow down and edit single shots. However, I realised that I didnt want my final product to be too surreal as it would contradict the idea of it being simplistic and dark in context. Therefore I reverted to using premier pro, which is a more simple way of editing and constructing a final product.At first I found using premier pro quite difficult as although I had used it in GCSE, it had updated and become more complex. This was an issue for a while as I was unsure of how to edit quickly enough to meet my deadlines. I then found lynda.com and this gave me some guidence on how to use premier pro, I also then started googling youtube tutorials, which gave me step by step instructional video of how to create certain effects using premier pro.

I progressed in my post production skills after the creation of my preliminary task. This was because I developed a better understanding of continuity editing through the realisation of the amount of takes needed in order to put together a smooth outcome, this was helpful for my opening title sequence as we caught enough footage to be able to cut clips together in a smooth flow.
During my post production I made a trip to the BFI, this was helpful as it gave me information on the order of titles for my opening title sequence.
We noticed problems when it came to the soundtrack for our opening title sequence. This was because of copyright issues which restricted the choices we had, and as our whole opening title sequence consisted of mainly soundtrack music, we had to make sure we searched hard for royalty free music, which also created the right affect for our story.

We used different types of edits in our post production, this was because we had to edit in order to meet conventions of the genre. We used transactions such as fade to black and cross dissolve quite a lot during our opening title sequence because it helped to create a smooth montage, and used hard cuts when it was within the same scene to make it evident that the editing for that scene had continuity. During our audience feedback we gathered information about the socks of our paedophile, this we were told, did not fit with the narrative and therefore we removed the clip in the final outcome to create a clearer narrative.

Research and Planning

During research and planning I found that timelines and storyboards became very useful in creating visual ideas for our final product. This gave us a framework of where each conventional title should usually lay within a thriller sequence, creating a starting point and layout which we could work around. I looked into the history of films during my research and planning to see how the film industry has changed within a number of years. This was helpful as it gave me an understanding of all the new technologies which are continuously developing throughout film.

During my research and planning I created a main focus around 4 different thriller films, these being 'Taken' 'Shutter island' 'Se7en' and 'man on fire'.  I focused on 'Taken' and 'Man On Fire' because of the context being of a kidnapping, which was an idea which stood out for me from the beginning. The slow paced editing which occurs within both 'Se7en' and 'Shutter Island' gave me conventional examples of Thriller montages for opening sequences, which was also an idea which I was striding towards for my final product.

Creativity

Pre-production
I was creative during the construction of my opening title sequence through the way which I displayed the research which I gathered and shared by using blogger. Using these different technologies I made my blog become more creative and interesting. I used technologies such as prezi and emaze so that my blog becomes more interactive and I also created animations so that my blog had some individuality, and didn't lack in creativity or excitement. I found that being creative with the pre-production work was quite simple as we had easy access to many different forms of presentation through the internet.

Production
I find I was creative during the production of my final opening title sequence by the way in which we filmed our piece. Our ideas were quite taboo and we tried to portray this in a way which didn't come across too strong, while still creating an enigma through the unusual montage of clips. We didn't use any dialogue in our opening title sequence, simply backing music, I find this a creative choice as a juxtaposition was created between the music and characters before we even properly introduced them.

Post Production
We were creative with the editing by keeping it simple. Our clips were short but our pacing was slow. I think that the slow editing and cutting in time to the music helped to create an uncomfortable feel and this is what gave away the impression our male character was slightly odd. I think that ou choice in music was creative as it isn't a conventional soundtrack for a thriller genre. This risk of using unconventional background music apposed to dialogue or a more familiar music choice became a very creative choice, and was based around the idea that contrast and juxtaposition makes audiences feel on edge.

Audit of AS skills on Digital technology

Pre-production
Using blogger was a new technology which I had never used before, I found this quite aggravating to begin with because without the latest update on your computer it can become quite slow and unreliable, however, once I updated my laptop I began to find it a lot easier to use and it allowed me to use software such as powtoon, prezi and emaze which made the task and research become more fun and interesting. these visuals are related to the opening title sequence because it helps to create a visual format for my film and also helps with the use of digital technology. It was also useful because all of your work stay together in one place and can be edited and altered easily. It is also easily accessible and you can gather feedback easily from teachers and people interested in media.

Production
In AS I used many different technologies to help make my final product as good as it can be. These included lighting, which involved using a dado to highlight certain key items, we also used a blonde as a main light and then used a red head for backlighting and fill lighting. We set these up around our location to give a better quality finish and create particular  moods. I also used a Canon 700D camera during filming to so that the depth of field and sharpness of the image, this was different to the canon legria which we used at the preliminary task as from using the more simple camera, we didn't capture as good footage. For editing we used adobe CS6 (Premier Pro) as another technology because it is quite a complex programme but simplistic in the sense that it can be easy to use.


Post Production
I researched adobe after effects onto lynda.com in order to improve my skills on editing. I also used youtube in order to find out how to do particular tasks on premier pro, by doing this I learnt how to split the screen, which was very useful for my evaluation work. I also developed my creativity by skyping professional editor Michael Harrows, this involved the discussion of pace and rhythm when editing and also the duration of titles on screen and making sure they fit within TV safety mode.