I have looked more into James Bay who is the artist of the song we are using, it is important that I do this because having background information on the artist himself can give up an idea of what we need to include in our music video. I think that my target grade will be reached as I can put in the work to reach it, hopefully I will be a help to the other members of my group by making a good end product to produce a good grade for them. Next I think it would be good if the teachers could give my group some feedback on our shots and where they think they suit the film best, whether we need to re-film the shots or not and suggestions of different locations if they do not like the locations. Also I wouldn't mind harsh criticism if there are areas of my blog that are weak and could be improved as I do not realize what work I have and what work I don't have.
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Assessments Reviews
Recently I looked back on assessments from my teachers and I hadn't of been posting enough work onto my blogs, or at least the work wasn't sufficient enough, this had to change so I have worked harder to get more or better work onto my blog. Also recently we started filming, only location shots and some of Bobby on my phone for special effects shots.
Video Inspiration
As shown on Reagan's blog we watched this music video for some ideas and inspiration for our music video, to widen our options of what we thought we can do with our video, whether that be camera shots or various acting. The fact that this song is the same genre as our meant they we were able to picture what shots we could use for our music video. This was also a top grade media project from previous year 13's so it gave us an idea of what the grade boundries are like.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Monday, 20 October 2014
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
Chosen Song lyrics (Infinity ink - Games)
You tell me that you love but you're fucking with my mind.
Why you playing me like that.
You tell me that you're happy but you're crying all the time.
Why you playing me like that.
X2
You playing those games with me, baby.
Games with me, baby
There’s no love in the world is what you say...
Your calculating ways are infinitely twisted,
I can see in the cold light of day,
It's just a masquerade.
Why you keep playing those games with me, baby.
You say that time is on your side
But time is an illusion when you open up your eyes
and you see, whats in the light
im watching your delusions
there aint no use in playing games with me, baby
Games with me, baby
Why you playing me like that.
You tell me that you're happy but you're crying all the time.
Why you playing me like that.
X2
You playing those games with me, baby.
Games with me, baby
There’s no love in the world is what you say...
Your calculating ways are infinitely twisted,
I can see in the cold light of day,
It's just a masquerade.
Why you keep playing those games with me, baby.
You say that time is on your side
But time is an illusion when you open up your eyes
and you see, whats in the light
im watching your delusions
there aint no use in playing games with me, baby
Games with me, baby
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Production Diary
(Before the six weeks)
Weeks 1-4-
Weeks 1-4-
before the six weeks we was introduced and shown what A level media was going to be about, music videos. We looked at the simple conventions of music videos and what makes a good music video or what makes a bad music video. We had to do a mock assessment on an old A level question which was a short clip from a film and analyse the camera shots, mise en scene and techniques used within the clip. Whilst doing this we had to compare it to regional identity.
Introduction -
In week one we was introduced by Mr Anstee and Mrs Shuttle what music video's are in more detail and how a music video should be presented properly, how long it should be, is the video good or not and is the singer of the song well known. In this week we learnt a lot about what the course would include and what would be involved throughout the course. We were set an essay based on the statement ' Music videos have changed drastically over time and are now unrecognisable from their historical counterparts '. When writing this I looked at a few different videos ranging from when music videos first began to videos from early 21st century dates. When writing this I had the videos both open and was comparing the two, how they change in terms of acting and special effects and further on.
Britney Task Start -
In week 2 we were set a preliminary task which was to make a short remake of the Britney Spears video 'Hit me baby one more time', we got put into groups with a mixture of boys and girls which I thought was better as having people with a range of skills in the group made things more successful, by this I mean some of the members of the group were good with using cameras and some others were good at the lip singing and acting. We also had people in our group who are really good at editing so they were able to help the weaker members of the group with the editing stage. We had all been introduced in the first year of AS level to the programs used for editing but some came out with a better end product than others and putting the people that had the good end product and the not so good end product together meant that a better all round knowledge of using editing programs was taught to the weaker members. We looked and picked out the locations that the Britney Spears video was filmed and picked locations as similar to the video as we could, all the acting was kept as similar to the video as possible and the singing was all in time. An example of this is when in the Britney video the teacher dismisses a class so we asked one of the male teachers in our school to act within our music video to dismiss a class full of students. In the Britney task I played a part in singing and dancing, also in the editing stage. Timing of my singing was very important as it had to be in exact flow of the music or it would look out of tune and therefore the video would look poor so I feel I had an important role in the group within the acting stage.
Britney Task Finish -
In week 2 we were set a preliminary task which was to make a short remake of the Britney Spears video 'Hit me baby one more time', we got put into groups with a mixture of boys and girls which I thought was better as having people with a range of skills in the group made things more successful, by this I mean some of the members of the group were good with using cameras and some others were good at the lip singing and acting. We also had people in our group who are really good at editing so they were able to help the weaker members of the group with the editing stage. We had all been introduced in the first year of AS level to the programs used for editing but some came out with a better end product than others and putting the people that had the good end product and the not so good end product together meant that a better all round knowledge of using editing programs was taught to the weaker members. We looked and picked out the locations that the Britney Spears video was filmed and picked locations as similar to the video as we could, all the acting was kept as similar to the video as possible and the singing was all in time. An example of this is when in the Britney video the teacher dismisses a class so we asked one of the male teachers in our school to act within our music video to dismiss a class full of students. In the Britney task I played a part in singing and dancing, also in the editing stage. Timing of my singing was very important as it had to be in exact flow of the music or it would look out of tune and therefore the video would look poor so I feel I had an important role in the group within the acting stage.
Britney Task Finish -
In weeks 3 and 4 towards the end of the six weeks we were finishing our Britney Spears task and had it loaded onto our blogs, which I feel that it looked quite good! The hard work that we put in had really paid off and all of the singing on the music video all looked in time, although when I was singing there was a girl (Britney) singing as the voice over which made me look a bit like a girl, it was good that I managed to stay in role as with a girl's voice over singing the song it would of looked a bit of a joke if I was laughing about it. When the task had finished I had learned a few different things from working in a group and working with stronger team members, Kayleigh and Ryan showed me how to use Adobe Premiere Pro better and how to edit better and I also picked up some dancing tips from the girls in our group!
(After The Six Weeks)
Week 1 -
The first week back after the six weeks we were refreshed of what the course was about and what it is going to include, as after a long break some people had forgotten little important parts of what the course was going to include. We were set an essay to write from Mr Anstee selecting a music video and analysing it in terms of:
for this essay I chose to analyse Robbie Williams music video 'Candy', the reason I chose to do this music video is because it is very entertaining and the song sounds really well to go with it. It is the prime example of what makes a music video good because throughout the whole video all of the lyrics seem to go with it. The genre of the Robbie Williams song is Pop which everyone knows about which made it quite a popular song. It is good for me personally that this song is in the Pop genre because I listen to pop songs quite a lot and this meant that I was able to pick the song apart easily and compare it to other pop music videos that are of a high quality. I learnt a lot from doing this media essay, mainly about how which genres fitted different songs, other people in the class had written about different genres and this meant I could learn what made a good music video in those other genres. I also learnt a bit more about what the conventions of music videos are and what makes a good music video or a bad one, do the lyrics fit in with the music video? was a good question to think of when writing an essay about that video.
On the fourth of September we learned about Andrew Goodwin's theory, who is famous for his quote 'Music video is not primarily a commodity form, but a promotional one'. From looking at this quote I learned more that music videos are made for an advertising purpose, to get the song across to fans and to catch more viewers eyes depending on if the video is good or not. From this quote I looked at whether music videos use big name companies for production and development of their videos and they do so I agree with what he is trying to say that the music video industry is more of a business than just trying to keep fans satisfied. Many products have been used in music videos for advertising such as drinks like beer and coca cola, these brands would pay sums of money to the artist for putting their brand in their music video and people would also recognize the song in return for having the product in the video.
(After The Six Weeks)
Week 1 -
The first week back after the six weeks we were refreshed of what the course was about and what it is going to include, as after a long break some people had forgotten little important parts of what the course was going to include. We were set an essay to write from Mr Anstee selecting a music video and analysing it in terms of:
- comparing to theory
- the genre
- how did it fit with conventions
- stereotypes
- narrative, performance or concept
- did the lyrics fit
- iconography
- mise en scene
- camera work
- editing
- relating to the artist
- purpose
for this essay I chose to analyse Robbie Williams music video 'Candy', the reason I chose to do this music video is because it is very entertaining and the song sounds really well to go with it. It is the prime example of what makes a music video good because throughout the whole video all of the lyrics seem to go with it. The genre of the Robbie Williams song is Pop which everyone knows about which made it quite a popular song. It is good for me personally that this song is in the Pop genre because I listen to pop songs quite a lot and this meant that I was able to pick the song apart easily and compare it to other pop music videos that are of a high quality. I learnt a lot from doing this media essay, mainly about how which genres fitted different songs, other people in the class had written about different genres and this meant I could learn what made a good music video in those other genres. I also learnt a bit more about what the conventions of music videos are and what makes a good music video or a bad one, do the lyrics fit in with the music video? was a good question to think of when writing an essay about that video.
On the fourth of September we learned about Andrew Goodwin's theory, who is famous for his quote 'Music video is not primarily a commodity form, but a promotional one'. From looking at this quote I learned more that music videos are made for an advertising purpose, to get the song across to fans and to catch more viewers eyes depending on if the video is good or not. From this quote I looked at whether music videos use big name companies for production and development of their videos and they do so I agree with what he is trying to say that the music video industry is more of a business than just trying to keep fans satisfied. Many products have been used in music videos for advertising such as drinks like beer and coca cola, these brands would pay sums of money to the artist for putting their brand in their music video and people would also recognize the song in return for having the product in the video.
Wednesday, 8 October 2014
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Teacher Assessment: General Feedback
|
A Level Media Progress Check - Ben
|
||||
|
2/10/2014
|
Assessed by
|
NSE - Teacher
|
||
|
Focus of assessment
|
General feedback
|
|||
|
Relevant assessment criteria
|
Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
|
|||
|
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria
|
You have some very basic work on your blog. Your blog is set up.
|
|||
|
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider
|
You must ensure every single piece of work is uploaded to the blog –
including classwork and homework. Every piece must be reflected on. You
should have started your production diary.
|
|||
|
Additional comments
|
At the moment, your blog is lacking in lots of areas. You must get all
missing work on and complete by Friday 17th October.
|
|||
Essay Reviewing Coursework
Research and Planning
Research and planning was a critical part of my coursework last year. It took a lot of looking into things to actually plan where we were going to make our film opening, how it was going to be filmed and what it was going to be about. An example of how important our research and planning was when we were looking for a location, which was very tricky. We planned to make our film genre to be horror so picking the location was a very hard challenge, it had to have a freaky presence otherwise the film would look a bit pointless being a horror. We chose Tommy's house in Doddinghurst, this was because the road he lives down is very dark and lighting was key to make our film scary. He had an adjustable brightness light in his front room which also helped a lot as the scarier the film got the more we could play around with the lights seeing if our film was scary or not.
Personally I think their were many positives of research and planning for our group but there were also quite a few flaws. We spent too much time worrying about the location when we could of had one set in five minutes, a lot of lessons were spent looking at different places to film and quite a few of these weren't really relevant. One of the strengths of our research and planning was that we had everything planned out well, the outfits, masks and how it was going to be filmed was planned out well.
In A2 I think I will plan everything a lot better and look more into detail what makes a good music video. I realised when doing AS level that research and planning makes the whole end product completely different depending on how much effort you make at the beginning when looking into the music video.
Following Conventions Of Real Media Text
We followed real media text in many different ways, we looked at several different film openings from horror films and also looked at horror stories online to gain a good storyline for our end product. Because we knew we were going to be making our opening in Tommy's house we thought it would be useful to look at openings to horror films that were set in a house, Paranormal Activity and Friday the 13th were good openings to use. We looked at the way these films used lighting and how the acting was done and followed these conventions throughout our film. We looked at how other films used Mise en scene for our film because there are many conventions involved that we had to consider in our film. Lighting was the main convention that we needed to follow because we met a person who came into our class that was talking to us about horror film making and he explained that horror films will only be well made if the lighting is good, depending on how it is used for certain parts, initially we thought using strobe lights to add a weirdness to the film would be good but then we realised it would be a struggle to gain a strobe light. The decision to film at Tommy's house was a good one because as I said earlier he has adjustable lights and he lives down a dark road which made it easier to add darkness when we needed to. The camera shots that other products use was also helpful to us when making our film, we used a simple Panasonic video camera so the quality wasn't amazing but we did the best we could with it.
Positives of following real media text was that it helped us to show the audience some tension within our film but there were parts where we could of followed them a bit more. Our film wasn't scary at all in some parts that were meant to be scary and this made everything seem a bit silly.
In A2 I am going to watch many music videos before I start filming my end product and whilst it is being filmed I will compare it to big music videos and other students work also to see where about's I can make improvements or if I have done well which will give me confidence. Also I think I need to be more confident in my work as last year I think as a group we spent too much time saying our own work wasn't good enough when it might have been good.
Creativity/Originality
Our final product was very creative but it was also quite original. Over previous years many AS level students have chose to film their horror movies in forests and dark areas because they found that filming them in houses was too hard to make scary so we decided to go against the typical idea of filming in somewhere different. The originality of our film opening was that we tried to keep it similar to how many famous films in houses were filmed, so it was a bit similar and typical of a film made in a house. The idea with the lighting that was spoken about earlier on was creative as we could judge how bright or how dim to have them for certain parts of the opening but it definitely lacked creativity. In AS media I also used very stereotypical programs to present my work such as Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft word, I need to be more creative and use programmes that previous students haven't used before and this will give me an edge.
In A2 I think we will try to keep our music video original in parts as sometimes you can't really beat tradition but if we put our own edge on our music video I think it will help to gain a better grade. Also I will use different programmes other than prezzi and Microsoft programmes, I will use programmes online that previous students haven't used so that my blog has its own unique twist.
Research and planning was a critical part of my coursework last year. It took a lot of looking into things to actually plan where we were going to make our film opening, how it was going to be filmed and what it was going to be about. An example of how important our research and planning was when we were looking for a location, which was very tricky. We planned to make our film genre to be horror so picking the location was a very hard challenge, it had to have a freaky presence otherwise the film would look a bit pointless being a horror. We chose Tommy's house in Doddinghurst, this was because the road he lives down is very dark and lighting was key to make our film scary. He had an adjustable brightness light in his front room which also helped a lot as the scarier the film got the more we could play around with the lights seeing if our film was scary or not.
Personally I think their were many positives of research and planning for our group but there were also quite a few flaws. We spent too much time worrying about the location when we could of had one set in five minutes, a lot of lessons were spent looking at different places to film and quite a few of these weren't really relevant. One of the strengths of our research and planning was that we had everything planned out well, the outfits, masks and how it was going to be filmed was planned out well.
In A2 I think I will plan everything a lot better and look more into detail what makes a good music video. I realised when doing AS level that research and planning makes the whole end product completely different depending on how much effort you make at the beginning when looking into the music video.
Following Conventions Of Real Media Text
We followed real media text in many different ways, we looked at several different film openings from horror films and also looked at horror stories online to gain a good storyline for our end product. Because we knew we were going to be making our opening in Tommy's house we thought it would be useful to look at openings to horror films that were set in a house, Paranormal Activity and Friday the 13th were good openings to use. We looked at the way these films used lighting and how the acting was done and followed these conventions throughout our film. We looked at how other films used Mise en scene for our film because there are many conventions involved that we had to consider in our film. Lighting was the main convention that we needed to follow because we met a person who came into our class that was talking to us about horror film making and he explained that horror films will only be well made if the lighting is good, depending on how it is used for certain parts, initially we thought using strobe lights to add a weirdness to the film would be good but then we realised it would be a struggle to gain a strobe light. The decision to film at Tommy's house was a good one because as I said earlier he has adjustable lights and he lives down a dark road which made it easier to add darkness when we needed to. The camera shots that other products use was also helpful to us when making our film, we used a simple Panasonic video camera so the quality wasn't amazing but we did the best we could with it.
Positives of following real media text was that it helped us to show the audience some tension within our film but there were parts where we could of followed them a bit more. Our film wasn't scary at all in some parts that were meant to be scary and this made everything seem a bit silly.
In A2 I am going to watch many music videos before I start filming my end product and whilst it is being filmed I will compare it to big music videos and other students work also to see where about's I can make improvements or if I have done well which will give me confidence. Also I think I need to be more confident in my work as last year I think as a group we spent too much time saying our own work wasn't good enough when it might have been good.
Creativity/Originality
Our final product was very creative but it was also quite original. Over previous years many AS level students have chose to film their horror movies in forests and dark areas because they found that filming them in houses was too hard to make scary so we decided to go against the typical idea of filming in somewhere different. The originality of our film opening was that we tried to keep it similar to how many famous films in houses were filmed, so it was a bit similar and typical of a film made in a house. The idea with the lighting that was spoken about earlier on was creative as we could judge how bright or how dim to have them for certain parts of the opening but it definitely lacked creativity. In AS media I also used very stereotypical programs to present my work such as Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft word, I need to be more creative and use programmes that previous students haven't used before and this will give me an edge.
In A2 I think we will try to keep our music video original in parts as sometimes you can't really beat tradition but if we put our own edge on our music video I think it will help to gain a better grade. Also I will use different programmes other than prezzi and Microsoft programmes, I will use programmes online that previous students haven't used so that my blog has its own unique twist.
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Teacher Assessment: Marketing
|
A Level Media Progress Check - Ben
|
|||
|
Date
|
2/10/2014
|
Assessed by
|
NSE - Teacher
|
|
Focus of assessment
|
Marketing techniques
|
||
|
Relevant assessment criteria
|
Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
|
||
|
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria
|
You have written some very basic information about Robbie Williams and
his use of Twitter.
|
||
|
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider
|
You must include a much wider range of evidence on your blog and
ensure that you present it in an effective way. What other marketing? Images?
Examples?
|
||
|
Additional comments
|
Ensure you make your blog interactive by using Web 2.0 tools.
|
||
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Marketing Techniques
Robbie Williams is a highly known British pop star, he spins many dimensions of music and makes the boy pop genre very exciting. Robbie uses Twitter to his advantage as a marketing technique, he has over 2.2 million followers and has done over 3000 tweets. Keeping your fans up to date daily on what you are doing every day is a very good way to keep them interested in you or they could forget about you and therefore your downloads would drop. 2.2 million followers isn't many compared to some big singers and idols such as Justin Bieber and Cristiano Ronaldo but attracts the older generation more.
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
lip syncing lyrics
I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'cos I have been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel that love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
[Chorus]
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
[Chorus]
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
[Repeat Chorus]
Does an angel contemplate my fate
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'cos I have been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel that love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
[Chorus]
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
[Chorus]
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
[Repeat Chorus]
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Robbie Williams Essay
Media
Essay Anstee
Candy is a
song written by British pop-star Robbie Williams, this came from his ninth
studio album, Take the Crown. Candy was the albums top single in the United
Kingdom as a digital download on the 28th October 2012. The song was
written by Robbie himself and his long time best friend Gary Barlow who is a
part of the famous British boy band Take That. The song was also written by
Terje Olsen, who is a Norwegian DJ The song is very upbeat, it is sung about a
girl who thinks that she is better than everybody else and receives loads of
good comments from men at all times that brushes past her. There were many good
reviews of the song, which critics suggested that is was a very good catchy
song, some critics however stated that it left no final impressions at the end
of the song, their wasn’t really a meaning to it. The song was commercially a success,
it topped the UK singles chart and it also reached the top ten singles
charts in Austria, Germany, Ireland,
Netherlands and many more. Robbie sings as an male guardian angel in the music
video, protecting the girl from anything that comes at her, he is wearing a pink
suit but the girl in the video seems completely unaware of him being there. The
song is also in the game just dance 2014!
The song
comes under the pop genre, which was originally founded in the 1950’s coming as
a part of rock and roll. Pop is probably the most common music genre in everyday
life and a lot of people would instantly associate music to be pop. Pop is
mainly music that is in the charts as it is a good music genre for all ages. The
music video for ‘Candy’ really shows the pop genre well. Pop is generally
upbeat and instantly in the video we see Robbie dressed up in a pink suit with
a halo appearing above his head. When the as soon as the video starts we see
Robbie acting as a guardian angel protecting the main actress from being hit by
everyday life problems. The music video was released on You-tube on the 10th
of September 2012 and the duration of the video is three minutes and
twenty-five seconds. The video was filmed in Spitalfields which is located in
east London and was filmed in the 2012 summer season. The music video was
directed by Joseph Kahn who has been associated with many other top singers,
such as Katy Perry, The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 and much more. Kahn has picked up many different music video
awards, a few of these include: Best video of the year nomination at the MTV awards,
for Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ and also Chris Brown ‘Forever’.
The music
video’s purpose is mainly to entertaining. Robbie Williams is one of the
biggest British pop names of all time and a lot of his music is upbeat and
entertaining. Other videos of his such as Rock DJ and Millennium are also very
entertaining as in the Rock DJ the special effects are so good that he rips his
skin off. The costumes both represents flirting as he is trying the rescue the
girl in the video from everything and is dressed up looking smart in his pink
suit. In the Rock DJ video he takes all his clothes off slowly to try and
impress the ladies but no matter what he does they are not satisfied by what he
can give so he starts giving some roll skin back as he once said in an
interview and as he does this the ladies start becoming more interested and him
and he ends up dancing as a skeleton.
The girl in
the candy music video is called Candice and the song typically is all about her
and Robbie causing all sorts of trouble trying to protect her. She is wearing a
royal blue dress and huge sunglasses, she initially pushes past Robbie and
walks with a strut about her along the streets of London. Men are so stunned by
her beauty that in once case in the music video a man gets run over. Candice
then hitches a ride in black cab and to grab her attention Robbie throws
himself through the windscreen of the cab but still she shows no intention of
seeing him. The costume that Robbie is wearing then changes as he appears
dressed in knights armour riding a white horse, and he has great big angel
wings on his back, as the horse and Robbie slowly walk behind her she still
shows no signs of talking to him. The video is very fast paced and funny as a
lot of stupid things happen, Robbie does almost everything in this music video
and at one point of it we see him laying in the middle of a typical American crime
scene outline. He also grabs a table cloth to lay down for the lady before the
waiters of a restaurant give her the drink she has ordered. The lyrics show Andrew Goodwin’s theory very
well as they all link in with the video, which is essential for this because
every action is used to show how much Robbie fancies the girl and wants to
protect her, he sings about her the whole way through the song. The lyrics
suggest the girl is quite self-centred as he states ‘She thinks she’s made of
candy’.
A lot of
editing techniques have been used in the video including a lot of special
effects and foley sounds to go with it. The glass shattering is quite essential
that foley sounds have been used because it shows the extreme lengths that the
men have gone to, trying to impress Candice. A lot of the shots are sharp cuts
shots because there is a lot of events that take place in order for different
men to impress the lady, a tracking shot of all of Robbie’s actions was used
within the video to show to the viewer’s exactly what he thinks of Candice as
he is walking behind her.
In all I think
the music video has served its purpose and has fitted into the pop genre very
well, the way it has done this is by being very entertaining throughout the
whole music video and it is also very funny. It is also very typical Robbie
Williams which is a lot of what his fans would want the song to be, it shows
that Robbie has some very strong attributes and that he has played a big part
to the music industry.
Monday, 8 September 2014
Essay On Music Videos
‘Music videos have
changed drastically over time and are now unrecognizable from their historical
counterparts.’ Explore this statement and discuss how true you believe this
statement is. Use a range of older and contemporary examples. Use some basic
media theory to back up your ideas.
There are many ways in which music video’s impact us on
everyday life. In this essay I will explore some of the ways which music video
has changed over the years and in my own and a lot of peoples eyes, it has
changed incredibly, from the technological side of music video and the
attitudes and emotions shown in music videos. Some of the big icons in the
music industry are heroes to your average daily citizen and watching them on
the TV can change people’s moods massively. Music videos are most commonly made
for promotional ideas or marketing aspects of singers or musicians careers. They
are generally a short averaged at 3 minute clips on the song; in most cases
this will have the singer in the video. This is designed to get the song across
to the public so that they will download the song. Music video’s have been
going on for years but they become more dominant in the 1980’s as this was the
‘Electric 80’s’ during this decade a lot of music was played in clubs and
therefore when people went back home after the night out they wanted to hear
the music and using music videos for people to recognize the songs was a great
way of promoting the song. There are a wide range of music videos such as:
animated music videos which incorporate characters from TV or just fictional
characters made up for the song, they can be video clips of a live performance
from the singer or musician or there can be in a lot of cases, a short video of
the person singing the song in different settings and areas.
The music video form was
popularized by the MTV cable network in about 1981 and began to have wide
popularity and influence in the early 1980s. By the 1990s many hundreds of
videos, representing a cross-section of musical forms—from traditional to
experimental rock, heavy metal to hip hop—were being produced yearly. Although
music videos have usually been aimed at a teenage audience, many videos of
ballads or "soft rock" songs are now directed at an older group of
viewers. Since shortly after their inception, the style and content of music
videos have strongly influenced advertising, television, film, and popular
culture as a whole. In the early 1980’s Michael Jackson made what was said the
be the most successful music video ever made, with thriller. Thriller was a 13
minute long incredible video that stole headlines and grabbed people’s
attention on a global basis. Selling 9 million copies of the CD video album
thriller became the quickest and most successful music video of all time and in
2006 made the Guinness world book of records for the most successful music
video. In this video Michael Jackson gained a lot of attention for his dance
moves and soon after he became referred to as the King of pop. This music video
showed a massive change in the industry within just a few years, one of the
ways was through the technology. New cameras were being used in a short space
over time and this allowed Jackson and the producers of thriller to make the
perfect video. All of the costumes and effects were used greatly in thriller
such as the zombies breaking through the earthy soil and the smoke coming off
of the graveyards to give it a chilled effect. Jacksons film was also used for
promotional purposes as well, to gain more people to go to the cinema as at the
start of the video he is seen watching a film in a typical American cinema.
Before this was released there wasn’t many music videos that had enough class
to be as big as Jackson could be. He also showed a more energetic approach to
the audience by his dancing, which engaged more attention that the older music
videos as they were stereotypical of just standing there singing or dancing
very slowly as where Jackson was a high tempo dancer and so were the crew that
was used in thriller.
Music videos such as ‘Video killed
the radio star’ by the buggles and ‘In the air tonight’ by Phil Collins had a
huge effect on people in the 80’s., they had a range of emotions. Emotions are
important in the Phil Collins video as you can see the anger through the
singers face and these emotions go to the viewer as well. People would argue
that in these older music videos you feel more in contact with the song. Music
videos that are more recent, such as Robbie Williams – Rock DJ, and Britney Spears
womanizer show this. Many people would say that there is no real emotion in
these songs as they are more informal. They are more about just partying rather
than actually having a real meaning, the Robbie Williams video trying to just
impress the woman and the Britney Spears video doing the same to men. Even in
this short amount of time, about 20 years, music videos have changed
drastically; from the video quality to the meaning of the song it has had an
effect on people and music fans everywhere. In the music videos from the late
70’s early 80’s there wasn’t much craziness in the videos, like in the Buggles
song they stand there for a very long while just singing and we can see how it
has changed in the technological aspect over the years simply by looking at the
Rock DJ song by Robbie Williams as he actually strips his skin off in the clip
and dances naked. This is great for music video because it engages the viewer
more and people who may have thought that music videos were boring before may
feel that they are more exciting the watch now.
The Britney spears video uses the
male gaze theory brilliantly, the way music video has changed using something as
simple as this is great. The video will simply get a lot more views and
downloads simply due to the fact that men are more interested in looking at
Britney dancing during the video than they are the actual song. Stereotypically
men would find girls with curves sexually attractive and in this video the
camera shots used show Britney’s curves fantastically. This wasn’t used as much
in the older videos as it was said that men were not as sly about looking at
woman as they are now, they would shout out comments at woman as where now men
would sit and watch a girl showing off her body in a music video whilst they
are sitting in front of a TV screen. This theory is very effective in the music
video as it grabs people’s attention and it keeps it throughout the whole video
especially men. The gaze also states that women can look at their selves in a
sexual way, in the womanizer video Britney spears seems to act in a sexy sort
of manor because she knows that she is good looking, showing that she uses her
looks to her advantage to gain male attention. It is thought that if a series
of questions were asked after a music video with a good looking girl in it then
the male would not realise some of the questions asked. Like in womanizer if
they asked maybe what colour shoes was she wearing at a certain point then the
male would not know as they were too focused on looking at the body of the
female.
This theory is also effective in
the Robbie Williams music video as well, in the clip we see a lot of Robbie
Williams posing and then he strips off he’s shirt typically for the ladies to
see his body. Again the same as the womanizer film it shows that he knows he’s
good looking and uses it to his advantage within the clip. A lot of woman would
be caught out looking at his body rather than watching the video and listening
to the song.
Both of these films used the male
gaze theory showing again that music videos have changed so much over the years
because they never used to be as self-absorbed in the old music videos. A lot
of it used to be just the band or artist standing by a microphone singing
either recorded at a live concert or recorded in a studio but that was
generally the case until the late 1970’s early 1980’s. where thriller came in and this meant a lot of
competition for music videos to be more exciting and engaging than the typical
others on the market.
In conclusion I think that music
video has changed massively over time, even over the space of a few years, when
‘Video killed the radio star’ was released it dominated MTV and then within a
few years an empire was built around Michael Jacksons Thriller film as it was
one of the longest music video’s ever made and it was simply on another level
to any music video that had ever been made before and it is arguably the best
music video ever made and in my own opinion I feel that it is the best music
video ever made. The male gaze theory I don’t disagree with because it is shown
that in a lot of female music videos they try their hardest to gain male
attention and it’s too stereotypical as they gaining a lot more downloads from
men just because they are good looking when there are more successful music
videos that aren’t evolved around good looking women. Video killed the radio
star and womanizer both use the male gaze theory as they both show woman that
are sexually attractive with their curves and make up, backing the point that
they are doing so to gain male attention for the attractiveness of the ladies
as well as the attention they are getting for the video itself.
I believe that the statement is
partly true with how music videos have changed so much because they have most
definitely changed a great amount, in terms of the technology used as the
equipment has become much better over the years, the actors and dancing has
become a lot better as shown in the Thriller video and due to there being more
dancing classes and training available, and the attitudes and emotions shown to
music video has changed as well. I don’t agree that the historical counterpart
has been lost as music videos are still quite similar to old music videos as
shown by the male gaze theory, that sense of male attention for women has been
a key aspect of music video over the years and it will always be the same and
never change.
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
Teacher Assessment - Britney task
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A Level Media Progress Check - Ben
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Date
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2/10/2014
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Assessed by
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NSE - Teacher
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Focus of assessment
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Britney task
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Relevant assessment criteria
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Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
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Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria
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You have uploaded all of the relevant work relating to your planning
and the final Britney task.
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Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider
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You MUST reflect on this, because otherwise I cannot see what you have
learnt from the experience. Please explain what you still need to learn
before completing your own music video.
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Additional comments
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Ensure you make your blog interactive by using Web 2.0 tools.
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Thursday, 17 July 2014
Friday, 11 July 2014
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