Task number four- A director's commentary on how I used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages

New media technologies refer to digital media that I used extensively in all areas of production. The use of digital media is any electronic systems to create the pop video. Digital and analogue are two ways of storing and transferring information. The analogue system is outdated, as it needs a lot of space. Analogue had to be large and was slow, low quality and expensive. However, digital uses a binary code system of repetitions of 0 and 1’s. The Internet, cameras and sound all use this binary code. The cable is a size of hair and it is high quality and cheaper than the analogue system. Digital media has four advantages over analogue. Proliferation; meaning there are many channels to choose from, for example on Sky which is digital compared to previously television only allowing the main four channels. Quality; including picture quality, sound quality and the option to view in high definition. Interactivity: which is the ability to be interactive in media such as television. Whereby viewers can play games, vote and choose camera angles from the television console. Convergence: which is when different media text can converge (come together) to produce one. For example, newspapers and the Internet use convergence, which means newspapers, can now be read online.

I used new media technologies in all stages of production from: research and development, planning, construction (shoot), post production, distribution and evaluation.

I used new media technologies in the research and development stage. Research was conducted via the Internet. I researched the key conventions of pop videos and watched examples of pop videos on ‘youtube’. We researched possible shoot locations on ‘Google’ and ‘Google maps’. We used the website ‘eBay’ to bid for props such as feathers. We used the Internet because it is a fast and reliable source of information. The Internet can be used to find anything possible for the shoot in seconds, allowing the process of research and develop to be fairly fast. The Internet, in particular ‘you tube’ helped contribute to the form of my pop video. The research on videos such as MGMT’s ‘Flash Delirium’ and Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Tonight, tonight’, helped instigate the ethereal, dream like quality I wanted in my pop video.

New media technologies were also present in the planning stages. We used a digital camera to take photographs of locations and the television studio. This helped us decide that the television studio would be the most appropriate location for the video as we could create endless possibilities of a dream world, however in a location we would be restricted. We used the Internet to research amateur theatre groups that would allow us to use members in the video. We then contacted these drama groups using e-mail that allowed us to have easy, free and accessible back and fourth conversation with the owners and members of these drama societies in the area. Digital media technology also allowed us to film the storyboards. This helped us see what the product would look like by playing the storyboards back in animation; which helped us understand what worked on screen and what didn’t. We also camera tested the cast members; which allowed us to see if they looked good on screen and if they worked well together, which they did perfectly. We also used the computer to construct a call sheet. A call sheet is a document with all the relevant information for the cast and crew including; lyrics to the song, the contact numbers for the crew and locations.

New media technology was incredibly helpful during the construction of the music video. We used the digital Song Z1 camera during the music video shoot. As the camera was digitally advanced, lighting was not too necessary. This meant that we could use close-up for intimate shots. This was very helpful as this was the overall intimate, ethereal ‘look’ I wanted to achieve for the video. This camera is also lighter and smaller, thus making it easier to construct free hand tracking shots and a shot on top of a crane. We also used slow-motion shots that are only possible when using a digital camera such as the Sony Z1. This camera also allowed us to have an overall better quality image. This helped us achieve the overall professional look we wanted to create for the video. The ease and quality of the camera allowed us to increase the amount of material I could shoot. Thus making the ratio for the shoot high, which meant that there was more choice with what shots I could use. We took 104 shots during the shoot day and used 26 of them in the final edit. This gave us a ratio of 4:1, which is four shots in the rushes for every one shot actually used. This is quite a high ratio and gave us more options to be creative in editing. This high ratio is only possible because digital cameras are easily lit, quickly moved and mean you can shoot alot more than previously.

During the post-production new media technologies were crucial. We used final cut pro editing software. This helped us edit the music video quickly, accurately and professionally. Final cut pro is a non-linear software, therefore allowing us to change shots that didn’t match or fit in with the overall feel of the video. Helping us to quickly get the video exactly how we wanted it. We also had the option to use Adobe after effects and green screen. However, we felt that no after effects were necessary as it would make the action on the screen too busy and this would take away from the dream like qualities we had created. We also used colour grading on final cut pro. This package colour grades every shot, thus matching the colours of shot so they grade together. This gave the video a more attractive, professional look. All of these effects are based on new media or digital technology.

New media technologies have made the process of distribution and evaluation far easier and cheaper. Digital media makes duplication of the pop video incredibly easy and cheap, by burning the video onto a cd. An even easier solution to sharing the pop video is through the Internet. The video can be emailed as an attachment anywhere in the world, to anyone for free and in seconds. The video can also be put on the artists website for promotional purposes and can be uploaded onto youtube. Comments can be placed onto youtube about the video. We did just this; by placing it on youtube we automatically gained views of the music video and comments of appreciation. These were very useful to understand what our peers thought of the video and external people. Thus helping us to gain knowledge if the video we made was successful.

Essentially new media technology is the basis for all production and distribution making it quicker, cheaper and much better in quality for the audience.

Editing

Aswell as the shoot day, the editing process is also essential to create any form of film media. The editing process for my video was realistic as the only after effects we used was colour correct. We spent a total of six houres editing the video.

We used the 'Final Cut Pro' editing system to edit the video and color correct system. Final Cut Pro is an editing system that works along side G5 apple mac computers. It is a timeline based non-linear based package.

Due to the disadvantage of changing our idea the day before the shoot day and therefore the storyboard was not a useful document to us, therefore we had nothing to go by during the editing process. This meant that we had to experiment with different shots for different parts of the song and judge which shot looked better. However, I do not think this was a hinder to us but helped us be more free and creative. This came across once finished as it portrayed the easy going, fun and free style we wanted to portray in the overall video. During the shoot day we did capture particular shots for particular parts of the song. For example, at the end of the song the music slowley fades out. We shot the girls lying down threw feathers down whilst filming in slow motion. We filmed this to particularly use for the end of the song.

The first assembly or rough cut of the video was sucsessful as I feel it had the correct feel to the video that we wanted to create from the shoot day. This first assembly is to make sure that the video works well and conveys our initial ideas. The video was then shown to Luke to make minor changes. For example, there is a quick cut of a light near the begining of the song, weher we used the light coming from the projector. Luke and ourselves felt that the light wasn't bright or impressive enough for the begining of the video. Therefore we looked over our shoot material and found a brighter, better light.

This is important in the editing process as it gives an outsiders opinion on the video. We felt that the video was secure and finished, however getting Luke's opinion on it helped us to analyse the video further and understand what needed to be changed. He informed us that there was a section of the video on the rough cut that cut to the beat of the song. He said that this did not look right in amongst the whole product as the rest of the video used discontinuity editing.

We came to the final cut after changing some shots to make the overall feel of the video the style we wanted. We used Kuleshovs theory to aim to sell the song and establish the image of the band. We wanted the video to paralell the etheral, bohiemuim and fantasy elements of the song through the video. We used soft circles and lines to create a soft, relaxed and imaginary atmosphere. We wanted the audience to feel relaxed and free when watching the video. We wanted a diversion from the audiences every day lives; we felt the free soft shapes and slow movement would give the audience an emotional release from everyday pressures.

We also used Kuleshov's theory of colour, using warm blues and pinks. I feel that this added to the surreal and fantasy element of the video by making it appear like a dream world. We used a program on final cut pro that allowed us to colour correct the video after it was cut. This meant that the shades of colour apperaed the same. This made the video look more neat and therefore proffessional.

This is the finished version of 'La La La':

Shoot Day

The shoot date of my music video of 'La la la' by 'The Bird and the Bee' was on Tuesday 26th November. We started filming at 10 am, after setting up the studio and making sure the cast were ready with full make-up, hair and costume. The set we used was a simple design that used two sofas, bed sheets and 'girly' items such as flowers, feathers, fairy lights and cushions. We carried in two sofas into the studio and put them on their sides to make a 'den' like creation for the girls. We then covered it in a bed sheet and the girly items. We set up the projector and linked it to the laptop that played the patterns that were continuously projected on the girls and sheets. We then filmed the girls from different angles in the 'den' laughing and lip syncing. However, we only filmed in close-up and mid close-up to show the intimacy that we wanted to create in the video.





One of the 'girly' items was pink netting; we discovered that this was created an interesting under water style effect when placed over the projector. It appeared as though the camera was underwater and created an delusional 'hippy' type feel that we wanted to create for the video, we then captured this on camera.

We then changed the set, making a tunnel of white material using a bed sheet and a fan. We then filmed the girls lip-syncing lying down in the tunnel, once with Lizzy in the foreground and then with Catherine in the background. We then set up four poles and hung sheets on them to look like a tent style white background and hung fairy lights around it. We filmed with this set up on a mid closeup and a closeup. We then filmed just the girls bodies with no background and projected the patterns onto the girl's white dresses and filmed them one at a time dancing and turning. After lunch, the girls then changed clothing from white dresses to cosmic style tops and Catherine wore a velvet skirt and Lizzy wore velvet leggings. We hung the sheets from the ceiling using rope and a ladder to attach them to the lighting rig. We filmed one girl at a time holding a sheet in each hand and waving them about at a slow pace whilst lip syncing. I thought these shots were particularly effective because the projection and the girl's make-up stood out particularly here. We then used this sheet set up by filming Catherine walking into the sheets and Lizzy walking out.


Gina thought of this shot on the shoot day and I felt it was particularly effective as it would make the audience consider are they twins or are they not. We then filmed them in slow motion from a birds eye view throwing them in the air on a bed sheet. We were assisted in holding a corner of the bed sheet, with each girl on it, feathers and flowers. We also filmed them each lying on the sheet and filmed them from a birds eye view lip syncing and then in slow motion with them both together as feathers were thrown onto their faces. We then packed up and returned the props we used, swept the floor and made sure the studio was left in the same way it was before we built the set.






As it was only me and Gina in a group, therefore was a lot of different jobs to do on the shoot day. I was in charge of making sure that what was being filmed looked good on the monitor, keeping the projector playing the images, making sure that the red light to stop people entering the television studio was switched on when filming and was also in charge of playback, which is when the song is played every time something is filmed so the girl's could lip-sync to it. Gina took photographs during the shoot day, she was also in charge of making sure the girls new what they were doing during the shoot and although I set up the different sets too, she had a more vital role in this process. We both handled the camera work also.
Camera work was especially important in our pop video as we did everything free hand.










We did not use a tripod during our video as we feet that would limit us and we wanted to have the sense of free spirit and energy in our video. We used the Sony NX5 to film our video, which I felt was an appropriate camera to use as wasn't to heavy to camera and delivered a quality image. We used this camera to take many different shots in all angles using different settings and lighting effects. We did this to make the video fast moving, dream-like and colourful.

We used different lighting effects and haze during the shoot day, to make the video seem more surreal and psychedelic. We used bright blonde lighting to light the girls from the front for a dreamy atmospheric quality. We also used coloured green and blue lighting at times again, to give a dream like, supernatural effect on the girls and the backdrop. We also used patterned 'gobos' that were patterned with horizontal lines and span around, to give a sense of a dream taking over reality. We also used projection of firework type lights that were projected onto the girls, their clothes and the set. Lights were very important because the backdrop, their costume and the idea was not complicated that lights were needed to bring out the dream like, surreal qualities of the video.There were no problems on the actual shoot day, it went to plan, giving us an hour to eat lunch and the girls performed to a high standard. However, the leading up to the shoot day, especially the day before the shoot was very problematic. Due to Gina and I unable to find a suitable amount of cast that were able to attend the shoot date, we decided on a new idea the day before the shoot.


Much of our energy and time was spent into trying to get cast to be available for the shoot day, however it was very difficult finding older people that were free due to work commitments, lived close enough, were not offended by the subject matter and were comfortable enough to perform. Many people initially said they would be available but as the shoot day became closer they realised they had other commitments. We asked teachers to be cast members instead, however, we did not feel it would be as effective as they did not look old enough. Therefore, the day before the shoot we decided to re-think the idea. We did not change the idea completely, but decided not to focus on the narrative elements of the video, but the performance elements.






We decided that we would only use the two girls in the bad and we thought the concept of the video could be them coming back from an exiting day, perhaps meeting a boy. The video would show the feelings of excitement and girliness with lights and pink items. We thought this would be an appropriate idea as the song appears to be surreal and has a 'girly' atmosphere about it. We also thought this would be appropriate as it is not a challenging but simple idea to carry out and as we only had one day to plan for it, this was important.

Therefore, we were limited to what we could achieve on the shoot day, as we only had one day to find things for our video and could not buy items previous to the shoot. However, we overcame this problem because our idea was simple. I borrowed fairy lights and cushions from friends and we had previously purchased feathers for our initial idea. Gina also purchased bunches of flowers and we brought in all the 'girly' items we had for the shoot. Also, Gina and I had spent allot of money and time finding and buying appropriate props for the initial idea. Therefore, we had to refund pink paint, wallpaper and bedroom stickers. We had also previously rented out and set up the cinema chairs for the cinema scene, which were no longer needed.

One shot I feel worked particularly well was a shot we created when the girls sat on sofas that were placed on their sides. We placed a keyboard in their and put fairy lights on it. Catherine played keyboard whilst Lizzy lip-synced. I thought this was especially effective as it gave a performance element to the shoot but it was not as the audience would expect. We used jouissance as they audience would expect Catherine to be playing keyboard on a stand standing up. However she played the instrument sitting down whilst she looked up at the camera. Although, Catherine was not playing the right notes, the shot brought out the dream like atmosphere we wanted to create. As it created a sense that they were in a 'magical' den and they were relaxed and happy in their 'dream world'.


Another shot I thought worked particularly well was when we made a small tent style set out of white bed sheets and the girls sat inside in lip-syncing. We placed the projector and the camera in a gap in the sheets and hung the fairy lights inside the tent. I felt this was effective as the projection was incredibly clear on the sheet in the background. I feel this shot helped highlight the element of fantasy we wanted to create in the overall video.

One shot I feel did not work very well was where the girls layed on the bed and the camera was shot from a birds eye view but on close-up of them. It was effective when they layed still and lip-synced; however we tried to roll them from either side of the sheet using two helpers and us to hold each corner of the sheet and move it back and fourth. However, this did not look good because the movement of each girl looked slightly awkward whilst rolling and them moving in and out of shot was not incredibly effective.

Overall, I honestly feel the shoot day could not have gone better. Considering we had one day to sort out our props, set, lighting and idea we pulled the shoot off very well. I feel the fact we only had one day, gave us a creative advantage as it meant the shots were not as formulaic and structured but had the free and dreamlike quality we wanted the video to posses. Every element of the shoot day went particularly smooth, from the setting up of the projector to the cast being especially good at taking direction. Therefore, we had time to film a large amount footage, with different costume, set, camera free hand movement and angles. Meaning that, we will have many different shots to chose from in the editing process, making it much easier and therefore creating a better finished product.

Permissions Letter

HURTWOOD HOUSE
HEADED PAPER

Head of Copyright - Blue Note Music 23rd September 2010
EMI Records
E M I House
43 Brook Green
London
W6 7EF
U.K.


Dear Sir or Madam

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

'La la la' - The Bird and the Bee

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely

Alexandra Hall and Gina Mitchel

Hurtwood House School

The structure of the music industry

The music industry dominates popular culture; music influences the way people behave and look. For example; the male in the left picture would steroetypically listen to hardcore metal, 'emo' music such as "Bring me the Horizon".

There are four trans-national corporations that are known as ‘The Majors’ that own the largest percentage of the music industry. These are, ‘Universal’, ‘Sony/BMG’, ‘Warner Bros’ and ‘EMI’. However, the structure of the music industry is not hierarchal as such with ‘The Majors’ at the top of the structure, as most majors also own, or license small companies in order to reach all audiences. For example, ‘Universal’ own ‘Verve Records’ an American Jazz record label. These companies are known as the ‘Major-independents’.

The music industry is structured as a ‘web’ of companies. These companies are made up of big companies such as ‘Majors’ and ‘major-independents’, the web of connections allow these to gain connections to new artists to move into popular music. Smaller companies are known as ‘independents’ that have little or no financial connection to the four major companies. The web of connections allows these smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets and popular music.

My pop video, is 'La la la' by the alternative band The Bird and the Bee. They are signed by independent jazz music corporation, 'Blue Note' records. These are not owned by one of the major trans-national corporations and have no financial connection with these also. This means that the video would not have much financial back up for the creation of the music video.
The music industry itself is linked to different media platforms such as radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media. This created synergy and symbiosis between these media platforms. For instance, music is played on the radio, which can be listened to now online and on television. Music is also linked to film; in a way that soundtracks are an important part of feature films and can be bought on their own.

The Bird and the Bee were featured on the soundtrack for 'Sex and the City' with a cover of 'How deep is your love?' by the Beegees. This is how I found out about The Bird and the Bee, not due to a promotional music video.

All popular music when released must have a music video. A music video serves a number of different functions. They are important in the promotion process of an artist's single and normally their album. The content of the music video and how the artist is shown in the video creates or adapts their 'star image'. It entertains an audience on it's own. There are all different music video channels on television promoting different music genres. The can also be viewed o the internet on the artist's website or on websites such as 'youtube'.
My music video promotes my band, that is made up of two girls. They wear indie, bohemian style clothing, to represent them as quirky and individual characters.

There are four elements that make up a music video. These are, performance; this includes the singer lip syncing and the band playing their instruments. Narrative, this is a storyline element to a video that could be performed by the singer/band itself or other actors. Thematic, this is what the video is about and must follow the genre of the music. For example, a rock band would probably not feature a dance break with girls as maybe an club style song would. For example; Arctic Monkey's video here is just the rock band performing with their instruments. This is so the video appeals to the target market, who will buy the song. Symbolic is the last element that uses symbolism to put over a message to an audience or reinforce the meaning of the song.
I have these elements in my pop video. The band is featured in a performance element that is filmed in the television studio. This shows the synth player, playing her instrument and the singer lip syncing. There is also a narrative element, that features members of the elder generation in teenage situations.

The music video does have current threats facing it, and in some ways they are becoming defunct and irrelevant. The music industry has been facing threats from the internet for some time due to many available websites to download music for free. There are now so many easy ways to promote an artist through the intent, such as artist websites and interviews. This is mug cheaper promotion than a pop video, and with the threats from lack of finance through music, these ways of promotion can be more effective.

call sheet

The call sheet is the most important document on the shoot day. It is designed to enable all crew members to be organised and allow the cast members to know what they are doing, so the operations of the day run smoothly. A copy of the call sheet is given to each member of the cast and the crew. The call sheet contains different parts, including:


Production team - This is a list of all the people who are involved in the production. It also has a list of their roles within the production and a way of a means of contact, for example their mobile telephone number. This is in case they weren’t there on the shoot day, you would still have access to things they may have organised or dealt with.



Cast List Page - This is a list of all the cast you are using within your production. It also shows the roles that they will have in your shoot, what times they will be needed on set and what they need to do in their performance.



Studio set plan - This is a description of what will be used in the mise-en-scene; for example, in our case the fairy lights, the sofas ect. It also includes a birds eye view of the set so that it can be quickly and easily made on the shoot day.


Lighting Plan - The same principle as the set plan but it shows the lighting that will be used and the areas that light will be, showing ar

eas that requires it to be well lit.



Props list - a list of the props that are needed. It also included where the props are going to be sourced; for example, we sourced the feathers from the website 'Ebay'.



Wardrobe - This is a list of the garments of clothing that are to be worn on the shoot day, in what shots and who is wearing them at which points.


Shooting Schedule- This is a guide to what is going to be shot during the day and in what order. The storyboard is used to state which times which shot will be done. This will allow for breaks.


Storyboard - this is a very precise shot by shot guide of what is going to be shot. It includes timing and edit transactions. It is done against all the timings of the song, using the timeline to make sure you can fit everything in.

Set Build and Lighting Design

The pop video our group wishes to create consists of four sets. This includes; a teenage girl’s bedroom, interior of a cinema, a bingo hall, and the performance studio space for the band. We decided that we would not have any of the sets on location. This is because we would not have full control of the location. For example, if we had chosen to film the teenage bedroom scene in a teenage bedroom we would have encountered problems. Firstly, we would have limited choice over the bedrooms we could choose. We would have to use a boarding room which is a lot more plain and less ‘girly’ than an average girls room if they were living at home. Also, we would not be able to change the wall paper, carpet, posters, bed spread and furniture to our desires, because we cannot damage a person’s bedroom. In the studio however, we have complete freedom over how the bedroom looks and we feel the overall impact of the scene will be greater and more positive. However, deciding to build each set in the studio does draw up some problems.

Firstly we would have four changeovers during the shoot day. This means that there is very limited time shoot as there will be time taken away from changing the set around. Also another problem we will face is that in the studio near the beginning of the video, a large amount of feathers fly down from the ceiling. This means that we will have to shoot this last and the band has to perform perfectly and not look tired and warn out from the day of filming. Also, this will have to be done in one shot as it would take to much time to sweep the feathers up and bring them back down. Also, when they fall onto the studio floor they may get dirty, which could ruin the overall effect of the features. Another problem we faced was that our initial idea for the studio space was that the background was going to be white. We thought this connoted free spirit and youth than any other colour. However, when the feathers fall, they will not show up. Therefore we had to re-think the colour to black, which we feel does not have the same impact, however we feel the feathers are more important that the colour of the set.

Another problem that occurred was how we would design the different studio set up’s in a way that looks real and not ‘tacky’. Neither of my group had ever been to a bingo hall, so we had to deign it based on pictures on the interest. We do have doubts that the younger generation may not be clear on a bingo hall as we were and therefore the idea may not click straight away. Also, we have to set the studio up to look like a cinema, with only the aid of four cinema seats and a projector. This would be very easy to manage. However, we have close-ups and mid shots of the couple sat on the cinema seat. Therefore, we needed to design the set and place the camera in a way that tricks the audience in believing there are more people in the cinema.

The decision to use multiple OAP men and women in my music video was an incredibly challenging decision to make. Most of the music videos only cast students from Hurtwood for their video. We had to write a formal letter to a local amateur dramatics society. Luckily we had some positive responses and have had the chance to cast five members of the Ewhurst players. Our peers have also helped by asking their grandparents if they would appear in the video.

We then had to design the lighting plan for the set build. This was a rather simple task as we decided we would want natural lighting in the sets to make the bedroom, Bingo Hall and Cinema look real. We followed the simple set up for a studio making sure everything would be lit the same to make it seem professional but also realistic.