Cost

Fake Eyelashes: £3.99
Outfit one: Pink Dress - £15.00
Outfit two: Already owned - no price
Male outfit Already owned - no price
Petrol to get to venues: £10.00
Entrance: £5 per person - x3 £15.00
Glass of champagne - £5.00 per glass

Total Cost: £48.99

Anamatic

This is the animatic i have created with my group member Lois England. It gave us an idea of the shots we need and was an easier way of viewing our storyboards in a way that meant we could get a clear idea of exactly what the video needs to include.

Taylor Swift music video

I have recreated the music video to Taylor Swift- You Belong With Me with some of my piers from my media class, we planned what we were going to do and then put it into proactice in order to get an idea for the time and effort we would need to deticate to our final project.

I have chosen to form a group with one of my piers in my media class and we are going to be focusing on the RNB genre and our chosen artist is Nicki Minaj. We have chosen the song ‘Beez in the trap’ the video is mostly aimed at a teenage and older audience as they are able to understand the mise en scene in the video. The video is mainly performative as it doesn’t involve a clear narrative that we can read throughout the video and therefore could seem slightly unappealing to certain audiences. The crude lyrics are also going to be less appealing to the younger audience, the smoking and setting of nightclubs and Nicki Minaj’s lack of clothing in the video may also be seen as inappropriate by certain audiences. The idea of wealth is reflected throughout the video through the mise en scene, everyone is dancing and drinking with money to obviously spend in these nightclubs, good looking people dancing also gives an example of a certain lifestyle in which they are living. Younger audiences are not going to be able to relate to this, but also perhaps older audiences of 40+ are not able to relate to this either as that scene is probably no longer a part of their lifestyle. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZvOhHF85I

Nicki Minaj ft. 2 Chainz

This is the song I have chosen to do for my music video, this is the original video for the song which I am using for inspiration. Nicki Minaj's genre of music is RnB. The codes and conventions for the genre often are related to having lots of money and 'bling.' I like this video and song because it is a fast tempo and the video has a good flashy edits throughout which link in with the rhythm of the song. The main focus throughout the video is on the artist's. The video opens with a close-up shot of Nicki Minaj’s face which also flashes between the name of the producer of the song. Followed by more images of Nicki Minaj including a medium long shot which shows her crouched down in a pink leotard outfit and heels, these images flicker between a disco ball, coloured lighting glitter and her name in pink. Then the same is repeated for 2 chainz with a flicker of the artist, actual chains with is a connation to wealth, glitter and his name. The rest of the video flicks between close-ups of the artist singing and then people and artists in a club. All females in the video are wearing very revealing outfits and heels whereas all the males are wearing baggy clothes, chains and bling, they are shown smoking and drinking which is all related to the RnB genre. For my video I plan to create a similar setting to conform with the genre.

Storyboard - beez in the trap

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a media text

We have chosen the song 'Taylor Swift - you belong with me' that I storyboarded over the summer. we have chosen a 30 second edit from the video and we are going to try and recreate it with a video of our own.  The genre of the song is country pop, most of her songs fall under the same genre. The audience for this particular video would probably be more female than male as it is cheesy and catchy and therefore likely to be more attractive to girls.

Job Roles:

Cast:
Alicia Baldwin as Taylor Swift
Robert Gibbs as Lucas Till

Director: Lois England/Alicia Baldwin
Producer: Megan Coggin
Camera/Editor: Lydia Barrett and Sophie Marshall

Skills Development essay

Alicia Baldwin    

                                                                Skills Development Evaluation Essay

I studied the codes and conventions of a music magazine and I began researching which bands and information I wanted my magazine to feature so I could explore the creative possibilities of the brief to their full potential. I began creating a few different examples of bands and information I considered including so I would have more to choose from later. I created double page spreads of bands and existing double page spreads found on the internet and in various different music magazines, this enable me to include a similar structure and some similar ideas in my own magazine, I did the same for my front cover, I found that as I researched more ideas became available to me and my imagination began flowing, so I began experimenting with a few ideas on photo shop and this is when I created the front cover to my college magazine and this meant I could gain a better understanding on how photo shop worked for when I began my music magazine front cover. In the post-production stage of my AS foundation portfolio, I was determined to play around with the program of photo shop so I could discover all the different effects and possibilities I could include throughout my magazine, despite al4ready being slightly familiar with the program having used it in my other creative subjects. I found synergy between other Adobe programs that I had used in college and this made it easier for me to gain a better understanding of how the program worked.  I then tried some of the same ideas out in power point and publisher to see if the effects varied and became any better, this broadened my knowledge and enabled me to create the effects I had originally imagined and intended. I took photographs which were appropriate for the genre of music I did and what I felt was best fitting with the general theme of my magazine. Adobe photo shop allowed me to manipulate pictures and text to create the image I wanted and enabled me to create similar technical effects as those used on the front cover existing examples I had been previously researching.

Once I had completed the task, I posted the work onto my blog and I printed out examples of the various different front covers I had created and I went around college asking my peers which front cover they preferred and why this was and how I could make it better and also which target audience they thought the magazine would be suitable for, this was just a very basic way of me being able to gather some feedback, I then applied what had been said to my work and posted that on my blog. I looked at the college magazine as almost a practice run for me to be able to come to terms with using photo shop and developing my editing skills and techniques. By visually synchronising my own photographs with the text and imagery included in my magazine in enabled me to create a professional outcome that could be convincing to the audience as a music magazine as I followed the codes and conventions, confirming my audience’s expectations of a music video. I adjusted the themes of my front cover, double page spread and magazine as a whole so the theme was consistent throughout. I chose the colours black and red as they were appropriate for the music genre I had chosen of indie/rock. I liked the colour red as it stood out against the black and made my magazine’s image more interesting and professional. The other colours I chose for my other front cover examples were white with black and yellow with green which I didn’t think worked as well and were as genre appropriate as the red and black. I also noticed that the music magazine which inspired mine which was ‘NME’ also used colours white, red and black, and NME magazine follows the same genre of indie rock. From doing my foundation portfolio I was able to recognise how to reach out and grab the attenti8on of my target audience and also how to base my themes around what is going to be appropriate for the genre and target audience, by using Adobe photo shop and Microsoft programs I was able to develop my skills easily and create an outcome that I was happy with. If I were to do the project again, I would make my research and planning more thorough, I would annotate more front covers and double page spreads, despite the fact I have successfully remembered all the terminology for the conventions of a front cover from labelling them for my foundation portfolio. I would apply more of my time into how the conventions are applied to existing front covers and double page spreads and why this is, therefore I would be able to acknowledge them better in my own work. I feel like I have come so far in terms of being able to use technological equipment such as cameras, photo shop, and other programs and I have gained confidence in using them independently also.  

When preparing for the exam, I used the conventions from real media texts and looked at tv dramas and soap operas, after studying the terminology, conventions and stylistics I was able to identify them in examples of tv drama and talk about them in a class discussion, I found that I gained the ability to i9dentify them in many different examples of TV programmes and movies and found myself doing so when watching the television on a daily basis, this meant that revision was constant which I think really helped me in my exam, doing practice questions of how you can apply what you have identified and structure it into your essays, this enabled me to see the points I was making clearly and gave me chance to explain them thoroughly which all the time was developing my skills. This helped me gain confidence in including my ideas for the exam and confidence in being able to identify stylistics and conventions.

Storyboard - page 5

Storyboard - page 4

Storyboard - page 3

Storyboard - page 2

Storyboard - page 1

Codes and conventions of a Thriller

-increased suspense, audio and tension
-influenced by film noir and tradgedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process
-dark and eerie atmosphere
-something unsettling
-placed an innocent victim into a strange, life threatening or terrorising situation

Sub Genres include:

-physcological
-mystery
-crime
-horror element

The above genres each have their own specific codes and conventions
Mise en scene includes - dim lighting, black and white(film noir), higher and lower angle shots and flashbacks.

Codes and conventions of a sit-com:

examples of sit coms:

-only fools and horses
-dads army
-porridge
-the royal family
-blackadder
-the office
-the young ones
-the inbetweeners

Conventions: (audiences expectations and thins you would expect from a sit-com)

-reoccuring characters
-comedy comes from the dialogue
-family- central characters
-audience
-realism
-timings
-sets
-stereotypes
-simple narrative
-cast
-canned laughter
-mockery

Audience Key Terms

Qualitative data

Quantative data

Demographic data

Psychograpic data

Examples of videos from other R&B artists

Frank Ocean works closely with Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles so i have chosen these artists above the others he has worked with as they fit the genre well.

Kanye west -

Runaway - 'beautiful twisted fairytale'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm5iA4Zupek

Conventions:

cinematography - the high angle shot at the very start of the video is immediately suggestiveof a certain dominance over the main figure (kanye west). the slow zoom of the camera onto the blonde ballerina situated in the middle is suggestive of a female interest which is already previously suggested in the high angle shot at the start of the wedding scene with the white chairs and black bows.

editing- the limited use of speial effects in the video is effective as it adds realism to the video, the use of slow motion excites viewers and suggests some sort of film like sequence as the video is taken from the film 'runaway' which is what the song was produced for.

mise en scene - the location of being inside the metal green doors however we can see it is set outside due to the grey pavestones, the high metal walls almost act like a barrier suggesting they are trapped and he is unable to 'runaway' which is corresponding to the lyrics. The white suit in which kanye is wearing suggests his innocence, this is cleverly contradicted from the stereotypical innocence of the ballerinas as they are seen to be wearing black, the jerky, quick movements of the ballerinas suggest drama and the circular shape in which they are positioned is suggestive of the shape of a wedding ring which is a suggested theme by the registery table and white chairs with black bows which are shown in the high angle shot at the start of the video.

Sound - non diegetic, soundtrack to the film.

form - the narrative (storyline) is slightly unclear in my opinion, however the mise en scene is suggestive and therefore allows viewers to draw their own conclusions. Kanye is lip-syncing along to the soundtrack backing the music video. this is similar for many other music videos in the music industry improving sound quality of their videos.

Jay-Z

'Empire State Of Mind'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VutgMLuIxl8

Conventions:

Cinematography - the flashing photographs fitting with the pace of the music is effective as it is fitting with the lyrics ' a concrete jungle where dreams are made of' the photographs contain images of famous landmarks and then high angle shots of skyscrapers and bright lights which is what new york is famous for which is again fitting with the lyrics. the seperate frames for Jay Z and Alicia Keys suggest no romance which leaves the narrative of the video solely on the city.

editing - the black and white effect used throughout the video is similar to the next video example i have included of Beyonce, the colour exaggerates the lights in the city. However, the flashing photograhy images does interupt the continuity and realism of the video.

mise en scene - the black and white takes the focus away from the chosen outfits on the artists,which i find unclear as to whether this has been done purosefully or whether this comes down to the opinion of the viewer. The famous new york cap that is well known from the city is featured on jay z throughout the video.

sound - non-diegetic.
form-lip-syncing, I think that the video has been created solely for performance purposes as it has not been featured in a film as opposed to the video example i have included and anaysed previously.

Beyonce Knowles

'if i were a boy'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M

Conventions:

Cinematography - the close ups and extreme close ups of facial expressions and the contrast between beyonce and the male are vital for the narrative of the video. the high angle shot of beyonce over the male is almost suggestive of a certain dominance however this is unclear of which gender the dominant camera angle is representing.

editing - the special effects of black and white are similar to the previous video example i have analysed, however i think they work even better in this video as no colour is really required and it takes the focus of beyonce's looks and more to the narrative. the continuity is similar to that of a short film, however the constant change in location is almost a break in the continuity and montage of the video.

mise en scene - the plain make up and hairstyle is less feminine than beyonce's usal look, and therefore suggestive of a more masculine image which she is trying to show in this video which is corresponding with the lyrics 'if i were a boy.' the police outfit is showing her living a life in the day of her partner.

sound - non diegetic.
form- the form is similar to that of a short film as opposed to a musical performance.


The above artists have also grouped together and created a single that has been released on the album 'watch the throne' that was released in 2012.

Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles

'lift off'

there has not been an official video released for this yet, however i still wanted to include the track to show the artists recording together.

Chosen song and artist

For my A2 coursework, i have decided to create a music video. My chosen song is 'thinking 'bout you' performed by Frank ocean, therefore he is my chosen artist. He was born on october 28th 1987 and is currently 24 years of age. He goes by the birth name of Christopher Breaux. He has been actively writing and performing music as a singer-songwriter and a rapper since 2007 which shows he is relatively new to the music industry, however this does not show in his musical career so far as he storms the current charts. He is signed to the following labels, Odd Future Records, Def Jam, The Island Def Jam Music Group. His early career was as a ghostwriter for artsists including justin beiber and john legend. My chosen song is of the genre R&B and He is associated with various other R&B artists, such as Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles and has recently appeared on the new album from Kanye and Jay-Z, named watch the throne. His latest album for his solo career was released in July 2012 including three charting singles, 'thinking 'bout you', 'pyramids' and 'the sweet life'. He is also one of the first major hip-hop/R&B artist to openly announce that he has fallen in love with someone of the same sex, when the industry has been renoundly known for homophobia. He addressed the speculation of his same sex attraction on the social networking site 'tumblr' which is what he uses, first and foremost to contact his fans. He currently has 1,411,842 followers on the social networking site 'twitter.'

The Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

- a website homepage for the band
- a cover for its release as part of a digipack (cd/dvd package)
- a magazine advert for the digipak (cd/dvd package)