Prelim Task Evaluation

Camera
We attempted at getting all of the shots exactly right with the original vidoe. By watching the original clip in the corner of the screen, you can clearly see how some shots are not to the standard of what I wished.  A couple of shots were filmed unfocused, we didnt notice this untill the editing stage. For this reason some of the shots are not completely continueous.
Certain shots were impossible to recrate as we didnt have the space nor budget. The long wide shots of the classroom were not completely accurate as we didnt have as much space to get it all in.

Editing
I was incredible happy with the editing. In the previous year I did not have much opportunity to edit, Because of this reason I wanted to focus on my editing skills. Fourtunatle, members of my group were not present and I was given full opportunity to edit. I am pleased with the basic skills I have developed. However there are further skills I feel I need to produce when it comes to editing my music video.

Sound
This prelim task was pretty easy to work with sound, as we didnt have to acctually record any sounds. Whilst filming we did it insync to the music. Because of this reason when it came to editing we were just able to edit the music to match the layered sound track. this allowed us to get all of the clips perfectly insync.

Mise-en-scene 
When preparing, we wanted to cast as close to the originla cast and their clothing. Unfortunatle this wasent completely accurate. However we did ask some friends which looked like characters to joing in with the filming. We also used a black wig on rachel to create more of a realistic affect on her character.
When choosing the location we had a couple of classroom of choice. However, we wanted to create as much verisimilitude as possible, so we chose what resemberled the original one as much as possible. 
For lighting we struggled, as we dont have much opportunity to light the room in the way which it was lit in the originla video. we tried opening the curtains at a certain point but it unfocused the camera.

Final Draft Prelim Task - What Time Is It?

Music Video- Yellow Love task 8 pt 1

Song: Yellow Love
Artist: Citizen
This music video has a grainy effect layered ontop, which gives it a really rustic old school vibe.
The actors are based in an empty white room wearing simple black clothing. Your attention as a viewer is taken nowhere but the music and what is going to happen.
They show extreme close up shots of the male and female in the same places, showing the difference between them is really nothing. They are both vulnerable. 
They both begin taking off their clothes, maybe suggesting at first sexual intentions. However this then takes a different turn once they both have knives in their hands. Slowly they begin dragging the knive across their bodies gentally, doing no harm, but giving the impression and symbolicness of harm.
They simultaneously stab themselfs in the stomache and dead flowers and leaves fall onto the floor, as they begin coughing up the flowers too.
An almost animated affect begins of vines pouring out of their stomache.
my interpretation of this music video is that it seems like they are "blossoming" through their love for each other but it eats them out and ruins them but then it's being born again. The love which they used to have is symbolised by the yellow flower.

Music Video- West Virginia task 8 pt 2

Song: West Virginia
Artist: The Front Bottoms
This is an absolute loved music video of mine. Not only do I love the song, But the video is so absolutely worth watching.
I love the idea of the camera following everyone through the house, giving the impression that you are in the house party with them experiencing all of this.
The song starts really slow, and the video compliments this by having a very slow pace as we watch Brian Sella ( lead singer of The Front Bottoms) through a window. There is a light in the bottom left hand corner which flashes to the strums of the gutair. Its little things like this which I appreciate alot.

Something else I absolutely ADORE about this video is that its just one long take, and of course the black and white affect.
You are able to watch, take park and enjoy so many different section of the house, poeple within it and their varied storylines. This is something I would maybe want to experince with my music video. 

Editing Prelim

I havent had the chance to edit since our previous task of an opening thriller, Even during this task I didnt do much of the editing. For this reason I was determied on working hard and editing the Prelim task.
I was able to learn new skills and refresh myself on old ones. I feel more confident with editing now and am excited to develop my skills further when editing the music video.
A problem which occured whilst editing was getting the original clip in the coner of the screen, playing at the same time. however, a quick youtube search helped sort us out on how to do that. This skill I can now use with my evaluations at the end of the course. 

Filming Prelim

We filmed our prelim over the course of two days as one of our members was upresent the first day.
I found filming relatively easy. We were able to film shot's as close to the originall as possible with ovbiously no budget and very limited time.
With what we were given, I believe we worked really effectively.
Unfortunately our costume wasent as similar to the original as I wanted, We just had to work with what we were wearing.
Rachel did bring a black wig to represnt gabriella more.

 This is the type of T-shirt I wanted to wear originally.

Second Student Blog Analysis- Chloe Mar Gerrison

Research
Chloe's research is very thorough with all of her research. Immediately I see that she did lots of investigating into theorist and is now well established on this. She analysed 6 different digipaks, multiple different music vidoes and magazines to gain a wide knowledge on how to produce these. I like the multiple uses of formats she has used to show all of her work.

Planning
Chloe planned everything to its full extent. She wqas very prepared when it came to shooting as she had everything allready fully prepared. She knew all of her props, locations, shot types and a very detailed storyboard. She even did practise shots of what she was filming so she could most likely get it right first time filming.
The drafts for the magazine advert and digipak are particuarly amazing, in my opinion. I find them quite unprofessional.



Digipak

Chloe's final Digipak is really well presented I think. In comparrison to rough ideas shown in the planning, the Digipak is now of much more of a professional standard. During her constuction we see the draft and retake of photos. Through this you can really see the progress of her ideas and thoughts.

Magazine Advert
The first draft of the magazine advert is pretty simple and bogstandard. It has no personality to music or anything. The final draft shows a massive difference and it much much better. The lighting is heavily improved, as with the modle and atmosphere of the advert. I think it gives a better promotion for the music. Unfortunately im struggerling to find her progression through her process of creating it. It just goes from one advert to a contrastingly different one.





Evaluation

Through Chloes evaluation I can really see how much she improved. There are many different posts of multiple different drafts as she really wants to achieve the best grade possible and compact it in as much detail as possible. She also used several different formats to present her evaluation to make it as interesting as possible.

Music Video
At first I didnt really enjoy the music video. I felt as if the story line was pretty unoriginal and did not draw me in so much as a viewer. The lipsyncing was relly insync and well done, however I just felt as if I had seen this music video a hundered times before.
However, the editing was really well done and there were certain aspects I really enjoyed; such as, when the camera tilted sideways as they were walking along the street. These are tye of aspects which i would like to contribute to my music video.

Prelim Task Introduction

Myself, Rachel Pride and Ed Barker decided to go into a group together for the prelim task. Together we will be sharing the roles of acting, directing, editing and operating the camera and lighting. We decided to recreate High School Musical 2 - "What Time Is It". Below is the actually video we will be attempting to recreate.


We will only be using 1 minute 10 seconds of the clip.

So what have we got up to so far?
we began by watching the section of the clip and writing down all of the names of the characters which have camera time. This is so we have a clear idea of how many actors will be needed and who can portray who.
After that we wrote down shot by shot what we could see. Whenever the shot changes we would write who is in the new shot, what shot type it is and what they are doing in the shot.
After this we went into suggest room we would be filming the prelim in and began rehersing how we would peform/ film it.
Schedualed filming is for friday.

We will attempt to make costume as accurate as possible to the recreation.

First Student Blog Analysis - Harriet Richardson

Very easily set out and I didnt find it too difficult to locate different areas on the coursework.


Research

Harriet's Research is well organised and detailed. She did lots of reasrch into the 1975 marketing packaging. This wa shighly detailed and I beleive she would have gained lots of indepth knowlage about it. She also did research into 5 differnt genres of music which would give her a wide variety to choose from and learn about. Other research went into theorist. She used many different formats to present her work which made it creative and interesting.

Planning
As the same with the research this students panning is extremely thought out and well presneted. She began initally by doing a brainstorm, once she had chosen the song. which is "Loosing Controll" by RUSS. They went on to get permission for the writer and song lyrics, audience research etc. All of her planning would have been very helpfull to her and allowed her to continue on with production with ease.

Digipak

draft of Digipak

final Digipak

Harriet did lots of research of Digipaks before hand,so would allready have a developed knowlage of them. She dosent write much analysis of how she came to the ideas of her Digipak, I just see photo developments of the stages during production of them. Personally i think her draft of the Digipack was a much better outcome than her final piece, it looks more professionl and intiriguing.


Magazine Advert
I was very impressed by her final magazine AD. it was quite boring and predictable after I saw the digipak. I understand that they have to have the same atmosphere and vibe but I feel she could have made it more interesting like the draft of the Digipak. I do like the simplicity of it and the overall affect however, its too simple for my liking and wouldnt reach out to me as a target audience.

Evaluation
For Harrietts evaluation she used a different format for each of her questions including a youtube video. I think she could have gone into more elaborate detail to expand her points and achieve a higher grade.

Music Video
From first impressions I was fairly impressed by the music video. I felt it was really well made. The opening sequence and titles were really effective I felt. It then went on to profuce lots of various shots which differed and made it intresting by using these layering techniques and bright colours, this gavde it a very modern feel. Hoever I feel as if during editing this was massively overused and almost began to turn me away with the overuse flashing and layered effects.


Key learning point I gained from this blog is to do as much research and planning as possible, that's very detailed. This is because I feel it would be alolt easier to focus on the production if you comfortable and satisfied with everything you're portraying. 

30 second anyalysis of music video Task 1

Track:  Oceans                                                
Artist: Seafret                                    
Director: Jonathan Entwistle                      
Release Date: 1st Febuary 2015
Length of video: 3 minutes 34 seconds
Number of shots in entire video: 65 shots approxomitely
Average length of shot: It varied quite vastly from 10 seconds to less than a second.

Number of shots in 30 second segment: 5 shots
Within the 30 second segment there are:
  
Throughtout the first 30 seconds and the entire music video, the viewer is made to feel as if we are watching her but she cant not see us. 

long shot,Long take :Begins showing the girl walk in through the front door in a messy school uniform. She is calling out for her mum, there is no responce. She walks down the corridor towards the camera and the camera pans to follow to girl walk into the kitchen. The long take of this suggest that she is tired and worn out and she drags herself through the hall. There is also a sense of antisipaction as we know nothing as a viewer. we are encouraged to think where she is going? and what has happenend to her?

close up, short take : Shows a note on the side reading "Working late (again) sorry. Dinner is in the oven". The shot shows the girls fingers slowly touch the note and move it slightly. This gives a sense of repetition, as if this happens all the time and she is left isolated and alone. Straight away we feel sympothy for the little girl.

mid shot, long take: we are able to see the entire kichen. It is small and packed with not much moveable space at all, this suggest that they are not particularly wealthy. She moves away from the note towards the oven. She opens the oven door to find a heated ready meal. This suggest no effort on mum's part, leaving her to unhealthy easy dinners. The young girl looks at it with slight disgust then places it on the side. 

 close up, short take: There is  straight cut to the young girl walking through a very dimly lit hall way into her bedroom. To do this they used a jump cut. 

From this process I have learnt that it is usefull the begin a music video by drawing the viewer in slowly, give them hints of information but not too much. Allow them to create their ow thought process on it.