Making A Mood Board

This week I created a mood board that would have all the images that relate to my video. However, with the fact that I have recently filmed all my footage during the summer holidays the mood board wasn’t hard to make as I merely looked at the videos that I’d filmed and searched up images on what I’d filmed already.

Realising that it would be better to make my mood board into a video, I transferred images from PowerPoint onto Adobe Premiere Pro.

Is My Video Post-Modern?

With the fact that I was writing essays on genre and narrative I looked at media theorists. Reading what the theorists had to say I noticed that merely everything that was noted by each theorist didn’t relate to my video in any way. I noted in my genre essay that “None of the theories apply to my music video. The video doesn’t follow the stereotypical aspect of videos which theorists such as Domailletalk about the fatal flaw, the indomitable hero or the dream comes true. Nor does the video follow points Todorov makes, such as the 5 stages of equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, action and restoration. Like stated before my video doesn’t have a story line, it’s merely following real life. Nothing is staged.”

Looking at theories made me question my entire music video. Would I be able to say anything about my video in the actual exam? I realised that instead of relating to theorists I could make points noting how unlike the theories my video was, I could argue with what the theorists stated and this would be how I’d form my essay. With more essay writing I will be able to write up a good discussion about my music video and in turn will make my essay interesting to read for the examiner.

Typical British Weather

Regardless of my plan to go to Hyde Park last Saturday, once again the British weather managed to let me down. Considering that the camera I was planning to use was a school camera I wasn’t going to risk taking it out in the rain regardless of having an umbrella. In addition because of the terrible weather it came to my attention that no one in their right mind would have wanted to go to Hyde Park in the train to ride bikes and skateboard. As I had kept the school footage longer than I was meant to, I decided that id make the most of the last day id have it which was Sunday. I took the camera to a church called Hillsong which is not your typical run of the mill church. This church had teenagers jumping, bright lights and what looked like a mosh pit in front of the church stage which the band was playing. However I am not sure if I got near enough footage of that amazing scenery but I have to take in account that I have more than enough footage that I took prior to this Saturday.

Skateboarding

This week I plan on going to Hyde Park once more before it starts getting dark and raining. This is most likely going to be the last time I film any footage as I feel I have more than enough. Because I had to delete some footage from when I went to Hyde Park when I went to Zambia due to space issues I plan on filming things more interesting. Walking around London might be a good idea as I'd be able to capture more of London and not just one section (Hyde Park). I plan on filming someone putting on make-up at wh ich i will use as visual progression as it will go well with what i have in mind of representing beautiful people.

Looking At Existing Music Videos

This week I had a look at existing music videos I had a look at Fall Out Boy’s new album I found it unique when I noticed that each song had a music video. All the music videos for each song on the album were interlinked together. After all the music videos were finished they were all put together to make a 45 minute music video/movie. Each song was a significant part of the storyline. Having such an inventive type of video in turn would have made the fans feel part of something special. No other artists that I know have created something so unique with their albums.

Going To London

This week I made my way to London to film more for my music video. I was able to make space on the camera after filming in Africa. Going to the London eye on a Saturday insured me that there would entertainers on the streets that I could film to make my music video more interesting and cultural.

 

I went to film the sea of poppies which I’m intending on using in my video, making it more sentimental and cultural. I filmed by a skate park which was significant as it represents the youth of my target audience.

Post-modernism

This week I looked at a postmodern music video and analysed it. Looking at the Lady Gaga Paparazzi music video various times I started to think about whether or not my music video would look postmodern. With the definition on my blog that ‘anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute’. I thought about how Lady Gaga used representations to represent reality. In addition she used existing scenes from movies and made them look more modern in her video, creating several references to popular movies. In the rest of my definition I wrote that the distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a ‘reality’ defined by images and representations’. Lady Gaga uses a stage name and is hardly referred to as Stefani, in conclusion her private life stays private and she’s able to pull of such controversial things such as wearing a dress made out of meat. Having an alter ego allows singers to be creative with their music videos and in turn they get less criticised than if it were themselves who wore a meat dress out in public for fashion but not to outrage people as you’ve got a well-known alter ego who essentially does outrageous activities.

What i did in the summer

This summer I had the delight to go to Africa and film part of my music video. Despite the fact that my initial plan was to go film family, people and things that were merely stereotypically African I wasn’t able to go film any wild animals. I was able to film people cooking traditional African food and film the surroundings of Lusaka Zambia. As I had filmed prior to me going to Zambia I had to delete some of the footage that I had filmed when I was in London, regardless I was able to film while I was on the 11 hour flight plane to South Africa and on the 2 hour flight plane to Zambia. I was able to capture people in their element; people with their families and having fun. I plan on going into London and Filming more before the weather takes the worst turn. In order to do this I will upload all the footage I have onto my account at school and have enough space for new footage. When I have all my footage I will think to make a story board in which I will incorporate the footage I took over the summer and blend it in with the song so my music video makes sense. If I have the opportunity to go to another country I would plan to film there too so I can incorporate different countries and cultures in one music video which in turn should make the video more interesting.

What I intend To Do During The Summer

During the summer I intend to film most of my music video as I’ve already planned what I want to do inn my music video and how I’d like it to look like. By the time we come back to school in summer I plan on starting to edit my video and make it into a smooth transition between the two parts I am splitting my video. I plan on filming in London for half my music video and hopefully I can film the other half in another country. If this isn’t possible for me to do I’ll have to think up another idea of what I can do for the other half of the music video.

I plan to go to as many places as possible for this video. I intend to show all different types of people. This would include gender, ethnicity and social class. I intend my video to have somewhat of a meaning but also be fun at the same time. Going to as many cities and towns as possible will help me with my goal to get in as many different people in the video as possible.

The Journey

This week I started going through songs i wouldn’t mind listening to for several months. I thought about the genres i usually listen to, but this was hard to choose from seeing as i listen to quite a few music genres. Taking into account that I didn’t want to have a sad slow song playing i chose to use a Chris Brown song. Choosing the song allowed me to have a variety of ideas on what i could use and do with my music video. With the current news that I might be going on holiday i had the idea to show a journey and have a change of culture in my video. However if i don’t go on holiday this summer id have to change half the ideas I have for my music video. This video pretty much depends on me going away for this summer. Planning ahead i asked my media teacher if I would be allowed to take a camera with me during this summer just in case I did go away. A fault with my plan is that I generally have no clue on how id film on the camera. My skills are more limited to an iPhone camera...this should be interesting. I’m hoping I would get taught how to use the camera in order for me not to mess up the footage I’d like to take.

I’m looking forward to seeing my ideas come to life. If all goes to plan this video could be meaningful and emotive yet not too sad because on the choice of song. I looked at magazine adverts for digipaks which games me ideas of what conventions are usually seen in the magazine adverts. Conventions such as; the title of the CD, name of the artist, having a similar image as the album itself, when the album would be released etc.

Thinking Of Ideas

When thinking up my ideas for my music video, I considered having something emotive after looking at how effective past students had made their music videos. Regarding the fact I had just moved and was still without internet, thinking up ideas using YouTube wasn’t a choice for me unless I stayed after school during the week. During the week we had a lesson where our teacher talked to us about what effects we can add to our videos. My first initial ideas were to have dancers and go to London and film skateboarders and the skate park I shot my pictures for my magazine. I was encouraged to use more emotive songs if I was planning on making and emotive video.

Considering that I didn’t want to use a depressing song or make a depressing video. I reflected on songs I enjoyed listening in the past years. Regarding the fact that I would have to work on this video for many weeks; filming, editing and putting it all together, I would have to choose a song I wouldn’t get sick of so easily.

I wasn’t going to make a parody because…Im merely not creative enough to take time and think about a different idea for an already existing music video. I’ve considered using, time lapse, reversing footage, travel and journey. Using a green screen wouldn’t be an option I would choose to use, I found that I wouldn’t be able to be as creative as I would want with this video. I prefer to use more live footage that I can capture myself and use to make my full video. for me to use or maybe the thought of having to light the screen properly wasn’t appealing. Looking at past pictures I took for my magazine in a studio; the lighting wasn’t much to brag about, it was more or less…looking amateur.