Research & Planning criteria.

Below are the criteria for your research and planning part of this year's portfolio. Alongside each one is a suggestion of what you could include to ensure you're going to hit this element.

 There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience. - detailed analysis of at least one music video in your chosen genre using theoretical frameworks.
 There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. - shooting schedule including dates, props lists with details about where props are coming from, cast list, preliminary work on locations (recce photographs)
 There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. - initial treatment, notes on development of ideas, animatic, shooting schedule for the shoot itself.
 Time management is excellent.
 There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. - includes use of ICT in this, so pollster/poll junkie, wordle etc all count. Make sure posts are neat, titles are clear and informative. You could use the 'label cloud' feature to aid quick referencing of all posts by 'research, planning' and later 'evaluation'.
 There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. - include photos and embedded videos in posts, link to other websites you have used, lyric wordles, moodboards, animatics etc.
 There are excellent communication skills. - double double check spelling and punctuation. Embed links to documents which you have found useful in your research - wider reading on music videos in your genre, specific case studies etc.

Marking criteria - production.

Once your animatic is uploaded, use the following to asses whether or not you are on to a winner.

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following
technical skills:
 holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
 framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
 using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
 shooting material appropriate to the task set;
 selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
 editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
 using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
 using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.

Storyboard Deadline

Storyboards to be completed by THURSDAY 17th NOVEMBER. You will then have a week of lessons to get your animatic completed before heading out and starting to film at the start of December.

Animatics

What can be done with animatic storyboards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uRncKY8DU&feature=related

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBZ-PQoo9U

And also, below, why we do this. Actually, all the 'zero budget' tips are really useful. Check them out for cheap solutions to all your filming problems. Type 'filming trick' into youtube for a similar series which includes the stori-cam (they call it the pole cam) and many other useful ideas.

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

Treatment - Deadline Tues 12th October.

Some notes on how to fill out your treatment sheets. Note that these need to be scanned in or photographed and uploaded to your blog by 12th October. That's one week.

Ideas/Concepts/Inspiration:

What will form the main parts of your video? Narrative? Performance? Concept? What will happen in your video and where?

What will I need? (props, actors, locations etc)

Be as detailed as you can at this stage. If you need to recce locations, are there any places that spring to mind NOW which may be suitable? With props, how do you intend to get hold of them - Don't just write 'ask people'. Be specific.

What will the challenges be and how will I overcome them?

Budget is a key consideration. You can't hire fancy muscle cars except at your own expense. Are there any shots which may be particularly tricky to get the hang of? If you need to film test footage for costumes, locations of camera movements, state that here.

Justification: (Theory – Goodwin, Mulvey, Representation, Narrative, Audience etc)

Link your ideas to theory as much as you can - I'm not saying let theory dictate your ideas, but stepping back from your project at this early stage and engaging your critical analysis skills will make your evaluation and G325 section 1 much easier.

Excellent tips for filming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZA9r0iWbdw&feature=related

Great tutorial video for framing images. Everything except the colour correction can be done in camera with our DV kit. The colour correction is possible too once we get Adobe in the mac suite. Great shots come with planning too though!

Lyric analysis

Excellent way to use new media tech to analyse lyrics. Play around with this site for pretty pictures of words.

Exemplar blogs

This blog scored 19/20 for research and planning. Pick up as many tips as you can.

This guy also did very well by virtue of blogging every decision and aspect involved in the process; well worth getting in the habit.

Example from polljunkie

Follow this link to see how polljunkie can make your researching life easier.

The Brief

By 30th September you need to post the following on your blog.

1) Audience research into the music video genre in which you will be working. This may take the form of:

• Questionaire results aggregated into pie charts, bar graphs or scatter diagrams.
• Videoed interviews with proffessed fans of your genre (note that this will give you qualitative research but not much quantity).
• A blogger poll, or a poll through another website such as polljunkie.com - try to direct as many people as possible to this poll by joining online interest groups or fan sites.

One of your evaluation questions will be 'how did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?' So make sure you use as many as you can!

2) Research into your chosen artist. You may have to construct an identity for them if you have a track from freeplaymusic or similar. This will allow you to set your production in context and discuss Goodwin's 4th rule.

3) A detailed brief, outlining what you will produce. Try to reference distribution networks, exhibition points, anything else that you can refer to in your later evaluation.

Deadline for all this is 30th September. 2 weeks away.

Interesting...

Some analysis of signifiers and mind control in Lady GaGa videos. Adds fuel to the rumor that she is someone's media studies project.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=3423

Where to find music

1) Myspace - look for local, unsigned bands - those that check their profile often. Permission can be obtained directly from the band here. Also solves problems in terms of casting.

2) http://freeplaymusic.com/ - if you search on the 'feel' tab under ''vocals' you can find some non-instrumental stuff. Can't download at school though so try it at home. There are a number of different licenses available; pick the one that allows you to use the track for free following uploading to Youtube. We have a channel, so where it asks for the specific URL, type in www.youtube.com/themangomedia. There are a few of these kind of sites. If you find a good one, please comment on this post and let people know.

3) creative commons - any music with an appropriate CC license allows anyone to reuse, remix or add to it entirely without legal risks. Check creativecommons.org for info. Their search engine only works with Mozilla's Firefox browser, so you'll have to download that first if you havn't already got it. This guy has some tracks with no vocalls (add your own!) reeased under creative commons http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php

4) I have some CDs of local bands (one is my Brother's band, the other my Brother in law's) which you could use. Exhaust all other possibilities first as 14 videos of the same three tracks might get a bit tedious! Also, as both bands are from miles away, you'll have to cast them yourselves.

Andrew Goodwin - what's in a music video?

Andrew Goodwin, in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge), has identified the following features of music videos:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc).

Here is a link to George Michael's 'Outside' video (Vaughan Arnell 1998). Watch the video then read the handout. Link the deconstruction of the video to Goodwin's ideas (write on the handout).

Now find a music video of your choice (preferably in the genre in which you will be working). Using the handout as a guide, write a deconstruction of this video, linking your observations to Goodwin's theory and trying to explain WHY these six elements are often used.

MUST BE Completed by Tuesday's lesson.

Welcome back

Wilkommen, Bienvenue, hi, hello, word, s'up and whatever.

First things first, you need to set up a new blog for your music video project and post the URL as a comment here. This unit is G324, so (yourname)g324.blogspot.com might be a good place to start

Secondly, make sure you're listed as a 'follower' for this blog by clicking the tab on the nav bar up there (^look up^). It will make things easier for me, which may convert to extra marks for your project...

So, two things to do.

The powerpoint below (history of music video) is for you to peruse in your own time before next lesson. You will need to know music video inside out, so it's always good to start at the very beginning. It is a very good place to start, according to Julie Andrews.

And she's always right.