Editing

                  I have started editing my music video; to do this I am using final cut pro.

This is the first part of my music video. Here I have changed the colour slightly but nothing too dramatic.  You can change the effect of each clip quickly. Here is how you can do it and how much of each effect it has. You need to go to this icon which is highlighted in blue, this will bring up many of the same images but with different effects.

You are able to hover over each effect and choose the one that best suits what you are doing. You can choose many different effects; this could be going for 50s TV if you are doing an old music video. Once you have chosen the one you want you select it and drag it onto the clip that you want to use. If you are using more than one then make sure you apply to all that you are wanted to switch.

 You could have chosen indie red; can you see how this image is different to the larger image above. By adding effects it can make a piece of work look so much better. When you haven't changed the effects it can look very 'camcorder'. This then doesn't then appeal to anyone because it doesn't look professional. You can choose from a huge range of effects and you can also change the colour by changing it yourself.

In the top right hand corner is 3 titles; video, audio and info. click video and you will be a part called colour ad then correction 1. Click the arrow and this will appear. Once you are here you can move the circles around to change the colour. These are all good things to use when trying to make the music video look even better.

New Storyboard

I decided to change my idea for my music video; I needed to make a new storyboard so that I knew what I was doing at each point in the song. This storyboard is made up mainly of pictures and notes. It is not quite finished but it gives you an insight to how I am keeping organised for my filming.

I have altered it so that I have one singer who is going to be quite glamorous and three other talents who are going to be the main stars of the video. The first one is a young woman who is unhappy in a relationship; the second is an older male who is lacking some courage in his life; the final talent is a girl of about fourteen who is nervous about fitting in with her friends. I have chose these talents because they are all different with different back stories, back stories which most of my demographic can relate to. I find the song quite poignant and I think the characters should reflect this. My talents are easy accessible to me in school.

Editing and filming

I have now done filming and have started to edit my work already. There are a few things that I may need to re film, but that will be done in the next few days. I am still using the same film but I have just changed my story board. Instead of going with the story idea, I am just going to have many people singing it and having it at different location. I will be doing a new storyboard but that is my new idea because I think it will look better and will be interesting. I haven't used lots of people which is what I first planned of doing but I do think it is a better idea.

Reading of my music video - Brave

I don't feel that my music video can be read in different ways, the song name is Brave and it has 3 different clips of being brave. It is quite a simple concept but has a deeper meaning. Something that I like about my music video is that everyone can make it personal to themselves; everyone has times of having to be brave or when they have been brave. This song inspires and motivates people to push themselves beyond their limits and help them realise that they can achieve more than what they ever imagined.

I think that someone could dislike my media text because they may feel that some of the scenarios of being Brave are not very realistic. Some of the things that people think being brave is:

• Saving somebodies life
• Putting out a fire
• Doing a particular job (Police, Solider, Fire fighter etc.) 

They are just a few examples but it does show you what the stereotypical definition of being brave is. I feel that I have challenged that definition and are showing some things which is brave. Here is the definition of brave; 'Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage'.

My response of that is that being 'brave' does not have a criteria. Maybe phoning your parent is not brave to some people but not everyone has to say you are being brave; you know when you have pushed yourself and when your being brave. I wanted this music video to have a mixture of scenes where being brave is at different levels.

From the feedback that I have had on my ideas of being brave has been positive and that is one of the main reason why I have stayed with this idea. Another reason why I wanted to keep with that idea was because I did not want the music video to be too serious because it was quite an upbeat song, this was the main reason why I went for some more lighthearted brave scenes. If the tone of the song was darker and had more of a heroic sound then I would have used ideas which would have caught the target audiences eye more.

Camera shots for Piano scene

For my music video I am having part on the video where there will someone singing at a piano. I have decided to o this filming at school so that it accessible for most of the day. I have took some photos of different camera shots that I may want to use. Here are some examples of different camera shots that we may use.

For this shot below, I have used a high angle shot. By using the high angle shot we are able to see more of the location and the surroundings. I like the fact that the walls are white; his makes the piano stand out and that is the first thing people which catch on to. I think that I am going to use a high angle shot in my music video because it gives a good overview at what is going on.













I am also wanting to use close ups in the music video; this could be catching the person playing the piano, and you being able to see the fingers or having a close up on the feet. By having close ups it feels personal because you can see that the talent is actually playing the piano. i still think that I am going to use colour in my video because I don't think my video has enough emotion to work so well in black and white.

Foot:

Since this is the picture it doesn't show how you can fit this into the music, you could use it as the base.
Hands:
The same for the foot, you cant see how this will fit but this is just how I would like the camera shots.



Here are some of the other shots that I took that I am going to try and use in my music video:
I am going to try and use as many different shots as possible so that it is much more interesting and keeps it a  lot more personal. Since the song is quite long I wanted to make sure that it didn't bore people. Here are the shots that I am going to use:

The male gaze theory- Laura Mulvey

The male gaze theory has been developed by Laura Mulvey. This theory describes the way that the viewer or audience has been portrayed for the view of a male. What a male usually wants to see the camera shows this theory. Laura Mulvey explains how the camera makes the women look like the objects in the film rather than the possessors. The women are just there to look at and to enjoy the view but are not there to take charge or just be 'normal'. Most women in films have had parts of their body enlarged or exposed so that it pleases the male audience. Most films apply to this, because nowadays that is how you attract the audience. Same applies to a women seeing a male; but that can still make the women as the audience the objects. The women are either the over sexual in the film/music video or the audience watching the film. Here are two images from two different films which show how the male gaze theory applies.

Above are two images of actors which have both been apart of PG and 15 rated films. It has almost become the norm to have women who don't have many clothes on and who have parts of the body accentuated on show. The image on the right is from the film Transformers; the actor is Megan Fox. Megan Fox is known for her great body and being attractive. This is what makes most people watch the films because of the actor in it. If the audience are going to watch the film mainly because of this women then the director is going to make sure that the audience finds this film appealing. What keeps most of the audience interested is seeing the women will a small amount of clothes on.

From these images above, I asked the year 12 Media group on their opinions of this. The group is mixed so it gives me a varied response. The women in the group had opinions of the lady being unrealistic, weird and creepy. They wouldn't want to look like that and they thought that the breasts looked too fake and balloon like. Someone else said it was all in your face and there was nothing hidden. The male audience liked this; they said that they liked the fact that the features were emphasised and that thy wouldn't complain if their girlfriend did look like that. When asked what they liked in a girl, the response was Cheryl Cole. As you can see form this image below the male gaze theory again applies.

From the image you can see again where Cheryl is the object; she is dressed in a tight skirt and doesn't have much covered up on top. This again emphasises parts of the body that appeals to the male eye: The boobs and butt! The way that Cheryl is standing also elongates her and shows off her stomach which also attracts the male audience. 

                                                  

I agree with the theory of the Male Gaze; as much as there will be films out there that this doesn't apply to; the newer and more recent films are beginning to use women more and more as an object rather that having an importance at all. In films you may have a women in charge, but she will be extremely beautiful, a great figure and is great at everything. This will then appeal again to the theory that the films and music video's nowadays are just there to please the male audience, because apparently having a women showing her body is more important that having a good music video and film all because of the editing/idea.

As much as they appeal; the women are also changed to appeal more the male audience. If there were magazine covers or a DVD cover the women will be on the front and will be wearing something appealing. The actor Julia Roberts is perfectly showing the result of the male gaze theory. The women is dressed in knee high leather boots, which automatically gives you the opinion that she is quite open, adventurous, flirty. Leather is known as being apart of many sexual scenes films. It doesn't help when she is dressed up in a very tight skirt and a together short crop top. Black gives the audience a clue on what happens in this film and tells us that these two actors on the front have a lot of chemistry at the end. You can see that the women thinks that she is in charge but from the way she dresses and the way he dresses you can see who is the possessor and who the object is. Unfortunately again it is the women.

Examples:

Sara Bareilles - Brave

This is the song that I am going to use for my music video.

Storyboard

Here is my storyboard of my music video.

Scene 1
For the first verse, I am going to start with the talent sitting at a piano; playing it and singing. I am not just going to keep to one shot, I am going to use close up, mid shots, pan shots. Since the verse is long I want to keep it interesting. I only need to use a few shots and it can look so much better, and it can look much more interesting. Throughout this verse you can hear the piano playing, this is why I am using the Piano. I wanted to start the song before I got straight into the story.

Scene 2
The next 4 verses is the chorus, this is where I am going to start introducing the story of the song. This will be where I get the music class of only a few girls. There is girls going up and singing or playing an instrument and she gets asked to go up and do something. She is too nervous to do anything at that time so she sits down and waits till later. This will also go to a few clips of the girl at the piano to show the encouragement that she is trying to give. I am wanting quite a few camera shots; one at her hands where she is nervous and also so it gives a clue to the girl at the piano; which you will see at the end.

Scene 3
On this verse I would like to have one of the friends trying to guide her to go for it; trying to say to her that everyone has has confrontation before and has been nervous before but that all apart of trying is the most important. It gets to a part on the song where the girl from the story may look like she is about to go; this is when the line 'Don't run, stop holding your tounge' This is where the girl is going to sit down and think about carrying on and trying to do something that she may be nervous about but doing it anyway.

Scene 4
On these next 3 verses this is where we are go back to the girl on the piano and have her singing a few lines until they go back to the girl in the story. It will have the girl beginning to get up and her walking over to the microphone. The song will start playing and the girl is looking nervous. The girl will start singing while with this song playing over. She will begin to get even more confident and start singing even more. When the same verse is being repeated it can go from the audience clapping and smiling and the girl at the piano playing. At the end where the music stops the girl stands there smiling and happy, and the girl at the piano looks and then switches from the girl singing to the girl in the story.

Camera shots

For my music video I have decided that I am wanting to have two main parts to the video. In the video there is a very strong presence of a Piano. I thought this was good because I would be able to add an element of playing the Piano into this. Since the music video is 4 minutes long, it does give me a long time to put all of this together. I wanted to have an older person to do the part of the singing at the piano. This is because the people that I have chosen for the story are much younger. Also I have done this because at the end I want to swap two different people to give an effect that they are the same person. I am hopefully going to get people to catch on by using a particular piece of jewelery and getting them to wear the same clothes. To make this effect I am going to pan. The other shots that I would like to use is mid shot, long shot and close up. These are the shots that I want for the moment, but when I start filming, I am sure I will begin to use more and start to see the best editing. Here are some example of camera shots. I also think that it would be good to use high angle and low angle shots.

CLOSE UP

LONG SHOT

MID SHOT

Music video example

For my music video, I wanted to use a technique where I could merge two different parts of two videos and layer them on top of each other. My idea was to have somebody playing the piano as an older women; the camera will pan down from her head to fingers. When the camera goes back up; I wanted the person to be different, hopefully the younger person of that image. For my first attempt, I had a go at trying to to do; the people were different and we were not in the exact position. This does make it look slightly ghostly; but for my first attempt I now have an idea of what I would like to do.

Ideas for music video

For the song that I have chosen, I have noticed some instruments. The main one being, a Piano. I thought it as being apart of the video, it would be good if filming someone singing the song in the background at the piano would be good. So the singing and music is coming from that clip, which does come into show through some parts of the video. As well as this I would also like to have a story. I would also like to do a narrative. I am not sure on the particular story line as such but the video is called 'brave' and as you can guess it is about being brave. I know that the story will be about being brave and getting outside of that comfort zone.

music videos

For the media coursework I have decided to do a music video. I have been looking at many different artists for inspiration on what type of music video would be best to use. I am not going to use similar music videos to make a decision as I still want to have a wide range of genres and artists. I am going to choose two videos to choose from.

The music videos-

The first artist that I decided to look into was James Blunt, I am a fan of some of his music and thought that his new song; bonfire heart, was a good video to start with. To me this music video is trying to get the message across that in this day in age no everyone is there for each other. The video has somebody going around meeting people who he has never met before and takes pictures of them. Now this does sound strange but the main point of it; is to join people together and show that you don't need to do much to make people happy and make everything seem better. This is a good song and I do think it has a deep and meaningful meaning behind it. One problem with this video is it wouldn't tell you the sort of you cannot hear or see the lyrics.

Another idea that I have in Brave by Sara Bareilles. I like this song because it is a inspirational song to all of the people that may feel like they cannot do anything because they are too scared of nervous. I could add example of situations where being brave can sometimes make everything better and can make you feel less nervous to do things in the future. This is a video that I think I can have a lot of fun with and can make it entertaining and interesting. I think the lyrics on this song are






Out of these two videos I have decided that I want to use the song brave by Sara Bareilles. The music video is a concept video and it works by getting the reactions of the public. As much as I think that that idea would be good, I feel that I could make up a story and play the video with a meaning behind it so that it doesn't get too boring.

What to do

Our overall deadline for the subsidiary task is the 30th September; this is where the filming and photographs have to be done. I have set myself a to do list.

I want to start filming in about a week, this gives me time to get everything ready before i start. This means that I will be filming around the 16th to the 17th September. Before I start filming I need to make sure that I have finished certain tasks before I start. Here is what I need to do:

• Location of filming
• Actors in the music video
• photograph storyboard
• Costume (make-up, hair, clothes)
• Type of script

DRAFT of Evaluation

Evaluation of A Day In The Life Of A Dog

I had a few ideas of what I could do for my Day in the life and I wasn't sure at first. They all ranged from a dog, student, pencil and even a keyboard. In the end after thinking about different story lines, I decided to chose a dog; this is because I have a dog and I thought it would be much better then the rest. Although I had a couple of ideas and have now decided my final idea, it did take me a long time to think of these; a lot of questioning whether it was right to do. Since I was unsure, the filming was a bit behind and so was my editing. Because of this, I did have parts where I rushed my work and things came out messier than what I would have liked. For next time I have learnt to be a lot quicker on thinking about my ideas and to get all my filming and editing done on time. If I am not sure about something, get it sorted as soon as possible so that I am not sitting around wondering what to do. I feel as an improvement that I need to improve my creativity skills; i need to step out of the box and try something new and different, even if I am unsure.

For my research and planning, I didn't do too much which is why I did struggle with this task at first. All I did was write down a list of ideas that I wanted my dog to do and thought that it would be a lot simpler than it was. I did find that it was useful having wrote something down, but I didn't go by it that much which was a mistake of mine.

Media conventions

To edit my day in the life of work, we used final cut pro (FCP). There are so many techniques that you can learn easily without much assistance. Here are 5 techniques that I used with little assistance and how I used them.

1) Slow/fast Motion
To do this is very simple. Get your piece of work and select the part that you want to slow down or fasten up.

Once you have selected this you need to go and press the button on the right hand side of the page which looks like this.




When you press this button you will see options for different things. At the top there will be an option for fast or slow motion. Press the one you would like to use. Once pressed you can decide how slow or fast you want to make this clip. Your options are 25%, 50% or 10%. Choose the one you would like to use and once you have done this the box you have selected will now have either slowed down or fasten up. If you want to make any changes just drag on the box and change to how you desire.

2)How to cut using the blade
To do this you need to go to the arrow above your editing board, a few examples will come up. You need to decide which one you want to use, in this case you will use the blade.

Once you have selected the blade you need to make sure that you know the exact parts that you want to cut. Start from the left and select the place where you want to start the cut. You will know if you have the blade on because there will be a small image of it next to the cursor. Once you have your desired area click on the other part. Now this section will be on its own, and you are free to do what you want with it. You can delete it by clicking on the section and clicking delete or you can move it to somewhere else.

3)Making a title

If you are wanting a title on your work then what you need to do is you need to press the 'T' symbol and a images of different styles of titles will appear. You can scroll down and select your prefered title and drag it to where you would like it. Once you have placed it where you would like, double click on the text and write in what you need. You now have a title.

4)How to upload videos

Example of A2 media music video and a trailer

Here is an example of a music video from another A2 media student. I like this music video because they have used good editing techniques and I also like the camera work used. The lip syncing used is very good as you don't seem much difference between the sound and the singing. I like the way that there are many different locations on the video which keeps it interesting.

Here is an example of a horror trailer; not yet have I decided whether I am going to do a music video or a trailer which is why I have been looking at both. This example of a trailer is a bit different to my ideas but after watching it, I am much more interested in the horror genre. I think the way that they have layered the sounds and have played with the lighting has made this trailer very good and life like.

Introduction of A2 media blog

This is the beginning of my A2 media blog, all of my coursework, research, and ideas will be added onto this blog so that I can bring everything together. I will be posting regularly about many different things. At the moment I have decided my idea for the piece of work ' the day in the life of'. This will be a give an introduction to camera and film work. This is also a learning curve for us for our coursework coming up. I either have to make a music video, trailer or a short film. I have decided to choose a student for my day in the life. This is because I thought that it will be a good idea because I can make the video humerus by adding somethings that we all see at school. Also what happens at school nowadays is unknown to some people. I also thought about adding a twist onto my video but I am not entirely sure yet.