Task 11 Production Log Evaluation

Pre-production:

Before shooting the actual music video with my partner Damilola, i had to do something called Pre-production. this is when you plan out the storyboard, camera angles, who will be in your music video and most importantly what your music will be about.

Stages

Step 1: Choosing your track

For your final production, it can be a mistake to go for something too well known as the image of the original will always be hanging over you, particularly the image of the artist. There is plenty of material available; you can create an image from scratch with your own performers adopting the role of the band.

The other things are to choose a track which stimulates some visuals and which isn't too long. Three minutes for a music video is enough of a challenge, so don't go for some five minute epic- you'll struggle to sustain it for the viewer.

Step 2: Write a treatment

A treatment is your pitch for the track, with a suggestion of what your 'concept' might be. It needs to be clear, workable and realistic in what you aim to do. If your idea is too elaborate, more can go wrong and you'll only be disappointed! After doing so, you get feedback on this from your teacher and fellow students and then review it in the light of their comments.

Step 3: Do lots of research

You should be looking at real music videos from the same genre of music as your own, not to copy them slavishly but to get a sense of what the conventions are. look closely at them and break them down to see how they work. How do they use verse and chorus? how do they use the beat and rhythm? how do they showcase the star? How much do the visuals relate to the lyrics? what's the concept?
You should also look at student videos to identify strengths you can draw upon and weaknesses you can avoid. here are a couple- what works and what doesn't?

For this stage I researched a lot of Bruno Mars' songs


Step 4: Plan for everything

Storyboard as much of it as possible

It might be tempting not to bother with storyboards but it is a mistake if you do so. You need a visual plan for your work as it won't just happen when you have a camera in your hand! I would recommend using post-its for constructing a storyboard, as you can move the frames around and change the order easily. Once you have done the storyboard, the next step is to turn it into an animatic, which quite literally involves taking a photo of each frame (on your phones or a webcam, nothing fancy) and then dropping the frames onto the timeline of your digital editing program. You can then cut them to length, in time with your music on the audio line and then export the whole thing as an animatic- a moving storyboard. Here's one of the first thirty seconds of a video...

The other crucial aspect of planning is logistics. This involves production management skills, thinking ahead to everything that could possibly go wrong on your shoot and to every little detail of what you will need. Nothing should be left to chance- costumes, props, locations, camera equipment and people all need orgnaising. Don't have your actors just wearing any old clothes- plan what they will wear; don't rely on someone else remembering particular props, have a list of who is bringing what. For a music video, the instruments are props, so don't forget them! Don't assume everyone will simply turn up- make sure everyone has all the phone numbers and everyone knows exactly where they should be and when.

You really will need suitable places for the performances and you will need to think about variety for these. You should also aim to shoot the whole thing well in advance of deadlines, as you may end up having to shoot some of it again!

Above all else, make sure your performers have rehearsed and know the words and that they are willing to throw themselves into it. If they don't look enthusiastic and don't look as if they mean it, the video won't work!

Step 5: set up a blog

This should be the place for all your evidence, showing the journey of your project. You can use it to link to ideas and inspiration, to examples of your research into music video, the genre and your particular artist, to post recce shots and ideas for hair and costume, for your storyboards, your animatic, screengrabs of work in progress and for feedback from others.

Step 6: know your equipment

Make sure you have practised with the equipment and that you know how to set it up and how to get the best from it. Cameras, lights and the edit program are all going to be important to how your video looks, but an easy one to forget is the music- have the track, (preferably with some 'beeps' at the start so it will be easy to synch video material with the master track at the edit stage) and have it on something where it is audible. It is no use just having your singer with headphones on so the camera can't hear the music- it needs to be played out loud!

Step 7: the Shoot

Shoot the performance at least ten times with different set-ups. You may think this is excessive, but if you are going to have something to cut together with coverage of every second of the track, you need lots of material. Make sure you have plenty of cutaways as well, for interesting shots that will retain the viewer's interest. Experiment with extra angles and lighting changes and don’t forget: lots of close-ups, which is the dominant mode of music video!


Step 8: capturing

Label everything you capture and organise it so its easy to find;don’t capture stuff you don’t need, but do capture full takes of the song, as if you stack them on top of each other in the timelines, you can strip away what you don't need easily thereafter. By the way, multi-track timelines like Premiere and Final Cut are ideal for editing music video- iMovie and MovieMaker are much harder to use for lip-synch material.

Step 9: the edit

Synch up performances first and get the whole picture rather than tiny detail
Cut and cut again, aiming for a dynamic piece of work. Do any effects work last.
Upload a rough cut to your blog and get feedback, then act upon this to finesse your final version.

Music Video-Task 5

Artist: Bruno Mars

Song Title: When I Was Your Man

Produced by 'The Smeezingtons

Written By Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.

Basic Information

Message: The soul and piano pop ballad finds Mars singing about a pre-fame heartbreak as he regrets a girl that he let get away. It starts with rolling piano riff and near-scat vocal cadence, "Same bed but it feels just a little bigger now / Our song on the radio but it don't sound the same."

Target Audience: The target audience for my music video is Bruno Mars. I've chosen this specific audience as it's very large and world wide. As i too am a Bruno Mars fan, i know what they like to see in his videos.

Technical Information and conventions:
In the music video i will use conventions such as cutting to the beat of the music, close ups, medium shot and many others. I intend to use close ups and medium shot because, I feel that with these type of shots you can really capture the emotions on the face.

Financial Information: In terms of the financial side of the music video, purchasing a professional camera to record the video would cost around £49, 655 and a piano with good quality sound will cost around £2, 200. Due to copyright laws, i would need clearance to use Bruno Mar's song. In one online transaction i can purchase a one-off license from just £15 pounds, or multiple licenses depending upon the number products that i'm making or distributing.

Television Advertisement

Should Television Adverts be regulated?


Advertising plays an essential part in all market economies. It stimulates growth and innovation, encourages competition and increases consumer choice. It is a swift and efficient means of making consumers aware of product innovations and keeping them informed of the range, nature and quality of the products available to them. Advertising is an important element in maintaining or increasing market share and vital to the introduction of a new product or the improvement of an existing one.

To fulfil this important task, advertising must enjoy a high level of consumer trust and confidence; it must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. If consumers are misled by advertising, they will not buy again; if it offends them, they will not buy in the first place. Bad advertising, even though it may account for only a small percentage of the whole, will gradually undermine consumer confidence and all advertising will suffer. So it is in the interests of the advertising industry to ensure that advertising is properly regulated.

In this essay i will be exploring the reasons why i think television adverts should be regulated. I will be using both personal opinion. Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules defining the ways in which products can be advertised in a particular region. Rules can define a wide number of different aspects, such as placement, timing and the content. In the United States, false advertising and health-related ads are regulated the most. This is due to the fact that false advertising is illegal according to the Federal Trade Commission. It is also unethical. Other kinds of unethical advertising are neither deceptive or illegeal; however, they offend moral principles. For example, an offensive advert is the "Antonio Federici" ice cream advert. It shows two males who look like they are about to kiss, wearing catholic priest robes. The reason this is offensive is about, it is two males displaying homosexual behaviour WHILST wearing clothes of a religion that frowns upon that sort of practice.

In my opinion i believe adverising should be regulated because some adverts out there which have hidden innuendos, are being shown before the 'WaterShed'. For example, the ' Flora' butter advert. In this advert we meet josh and his brother making breakfast for their parents' anniversary. They rush upstairs and burst open the door, however they instantly stop in their tracks and cover their eyes (and also the dog). Later you see the mother coming down stairs with messy hair and doing her robe. The advert doesnt say much except "She seemed quite good at it", this is the sexual innuendo which is shown/said in the advert. This advert should be regulated or changed because it is inappropriate to advertise butter in such a way. There are many other offensive adverts out there which are offensive to people, but yet the ASA miss those adverts and send them through.

In conclusion, i personally believe that adverts should be regulated because, they are meant to advertise products and there's ways to do that. You cannot have a billboard with a woman's chest wearing a bra only as an advertisement, and expect people to know what the advertisement is about. First of all it is offensive to women because their being shown as tools to use for advertising, and it is misleading because one would think that the advert is either for bras or breast implants.

Task 4 Page Layout

Out of the magazine ideas, which would you personally buy?

Which magazine masthead would you prefer?

Which cover best suits it's masthead?

Which magazine idea is most appealing to you?

How could i make improvements to the ideas?

How much would you be willing to pay for on of my magazines?

Which cover line is the least appealing to you?

Magazine Ideas

Magazine 1

Idea 1: "Baka" Magazine

Genre: Lifestyle

Content: In this magazine you will find tourist attraction places e.g Tokyo Disneyland and Kiyomizu-dera (an independent Bhuddhist temple eastern Kyoto)

'Baka' ( meaning 'Idiot'  magazine is based on japanese lifestyle. The kind of topics which i will focus on are japanese fashion, japanese food, exercise and 'Fun'. By 'Fun' i mean fun things to do in Japan, for example you could go to cosplay events, go to the famous temples and things like that.

Where would you find it?
This magazine would be available in most local news agents or stores and you can also find it online. You can also make an online registration account.

Cover lines:

"Travel Japan in the turn of a page"

"Enjoy Japan at it's fullest"

"Explore"

Magazine 2

Idea 2: "A Cosplay" Magazine

Genre: Specialist

This magazine will be about anime cosplay, people who like anime or cartoons would love this sort of thing. I chose to make this magazine about cosplay because a lot of people like to dress up as their favourite characters

Where would you find it?
This magazine would be found mostly in book shops because there will be a number of issues released at once. This way it will

Cover lines: 
"Be the hero you've always wanted to be"

"Don't play the hero, be the hero"

"Make the costume, win the competition"

I've based the cover lines on the idea of of the cosplay show.

Magazine 3

Idea 3:  "Kirei na Hana" (Pretty Flower) Magazine

Genre: Specialist Magazine

Content: Fashion from all over the world, but mostly fashion from East Asia. This magazine is targeted at women in their teens.

Where would you find it?
Since this magazine is targeted specifically at female teens, it will be found in women stores and in some local stores.

Cover lines: 

"The clothes you wear define you"

"Wear the world"

"The world is your dressing room"

These cover lines are based on the different fashion you would see in the world.

Television Advert Offense

KFC Zinger Burger

• Outline what happens in the advert

In the advert, you see some workers eating some Zingers with their mouths full. They start singing about the burgers and only at the end one of them picks up a call and it turns about to be a helpline 

• Identify why they might be considered as misleading, offensive or harmful and to whom?

This advert is very offensive to people are being abused at their homes or wherever they may be. It shows people who operate at this helpline to be non-caring and inconsiderate.

Task 1 Tv Advert Analysis: Sunsilk advert

The Sunsilk advert is a retro ad from the 1960′s. The tone of the advert is calm and gentle, this is because of the use of many different techniques such as non-diagetic sound, the melody played in the background -composed by John Barry- is haunting and sets a mysterious atmosphere within the advert. The voice over also ads to this because mans voice is so calm and matter of fact.

The message of the advert is clear  Sunsilk will make your hair beautiful therefor making you look more beautiful and the tag line is ‘its part of the art of being beautiful’ implying that Sunsilk should be an essential part of a beauty regime .

The representation of the woman is important in this advert she is simply a beautiful woman with beautiful hair. Because the advert is black and white it is hard to keep the audiences attention on the woman's hair but by the way they used personal codes like the clothes she is wearing (light colours) makes her hair more noticeable. However the representation could be perceived wrongly by an audience because in the voice over the man says ‘sunny silky, sunsilk’ and the woman is blonde, in my opinion this could be taken the wrong way and an audience could think the product is just for blonde hair.

I think that the setting used in the advert is completely irrelevant although i know that the directors intentions were probably to make the woman look elegant by rowing a boat. In my opinion they could of used a simpler more relatable environment to set the advert e.g a bathroom/hair dressers.

Product placement was successful in this advert because each bottle is displayed separately at the same time as being mentioned in the voiceover this makes it easy for an audience to recognise the product they are most interested in.

Task 1 Nina Ricci Advert

Colour: The feminine shade of pink instantly makes it clear that the advertisement and product is targeted towards females. The colour pink connotes compassion, nurturing and unconditional love. 

It makes the audience feel as though the product is very gentle and subtle. The colour conveys an image of the perfume as being innocent and the female also as she is dressed in a baby pink dress with white flowers around her, connoting purity.

Framing: The female is surrounded and framed by four mirrors reflecting images in the room, including her. Also, she is holding the perfume bottle behind her as well as it being places at the tail of her dress in a larger print. Moreover, two trees are placed next to and behind her, which creates quite a feminine and innocent feel as it adds white to the image.

Composition: The image has been composed with the female on the right side of the print, using the rule of three thirds. This draws more attention to her and creates a sense of importance not only to her but the perfume bottle also, placed on the opposite (left) side of the print. All the images in the print blend well together due to the similar shades of colours. 

Size:  The perfume bottle that is the actual product is not the largest image on the print, however it is placed the closest to the camera, which draws attention to it. The text is small compared to the images, however the Brand name is clear and visible. The slogan on the other hand is not.

Type of shot: The overall print is a long shot and slightly low-angle, this includes the female, trees, flowers and mirrors. Although, the actual perfume bottle shot is a straight on, close-up. This has been done to make the advertisement look empowering, encouraging women to buy it. 

Subject matter: The purpose of the print advert is to promote the Nina Ricci perfume. Feminine colours and images have surrounded the product.

Setting: The photograph has been taken indoors. It looks as though it is a bedroom with white walls, mirrors, trees and the product. The white emphasises the purity of the product. However the pink and silver adds a sense of femininity and class.

Lighting: The print is very bright and has white light added to the whole image. The background has shadows, possibly portraying an image that the female in the shot has come something negative, but is better now that she has the perfume. The mood is positive as it is promoting the product.

Pose: The female in the image is holding the perfume bottle behind her, as looks as though she is hiding it or has a secret. Her facial expression is relaxed. The pink flower like dress and wavy hair adds to the feminine touch of the image. The product appears three times on the print in a subtle way. It is clearly displayed at the front, and then is shown much smaller in her hands and reflection from the mirror.

Connotations: The constant colour white connotes purity and innocence. It could have a deeper meaning that the perfume actually smells quite floral. The way the image has been presented almost makes the audience feel as though they are in a fantasy. The tress coming out of the mirrors is quite unreal.

Audience: The product is aimed at females who are teenagers and adults. The product is priced at around £30-£50, therefore would be appropriate for a middle class audience.

Task 1 Advert Television Advertisement: Dior

Charlize Theron is shown wearing a lacy, low cut top or dress and a large gold earring in her right ear. She has one hand places at the top of the dress and looks as if she is about to take it off, like she 'cannot contain herself, while the other hand tugs at her earring.

The advert has a main theme of gold (gold earring, gold eyeliner, golden skin and a gold bottle) and the background is fairly dark, but shows a blurry chandelier, which gives the idea that wealthy people would wear this perfume.

The model's eye stare down into the camera and one eyebrow is raised, which gives the impression that she knows something that the reader doesn't, and that she is in control. It makes the advert intriguing and mysterious and also makes the viewer want to be just like the model. This advert also should appeal to men. The model shows a lot of skin and cleavage which automatically draws a man's attention and makes him think of his own partner in the way he is thinking about the model, which consequently should makes him want to buy the perfume for his partner.

The bottle of perfume is placed in the bottom right hand corner of the advert. It is large and gold which makes it look very expensive and grand. 'Sparkles' have been added to the bottle to make it seem more special and they make the bottle stand out even more. 

Next to the bottle, it says the perfume name ' J'adore L'absolu'. The word J' adore, meaning ' I Love' is in a large Serif font which I think is supposed to represent the passion of the advert. 'L absolu' is in a smaller font and is in italic writing to stress the meaning of it, which is 'the absolute one'. The fact that the perfume name in French, probably appeals to the viewer because it seems more unique, more special and by owning the perfume they may think that they will also become 'unique' and 'special'. In the top right hand corner, 'Dior' is displayed in white, on top of the darkest background.

It is also in a serif font and it gives the impression of wealth and have being 'proper; at the very bottom of the advert it says 'the new Eau de Parfum: J'adore L'absolu'. Notice how it says 'The' instead of 'A', this is so the advert sticks in the viewers mind as the only new perfume that has been recently been released.

Task 1: Preliminary Magazine Research

Task 1: Preliminary Magazine Research

Magazine 1: Empire  

Type:

‘Empire’ magazine is specialist magazines because it’s articles mainly focus on movies.

Target Audience:

At a glance this magazine doesn’t look like a film magazine, it looks like a men’s glossy magazine. This edition of Empire magazine looks as though it is targeted at the male gender. Megan Fox is posing on the front very seductively, not wearing a lot. I don’t think this appeals to women as much as it does to men. The second biggest writing on the cover is the “ Megan Fox”, this obviously trying to draw in the male attention. But will also appeal to other audiences because she is a big, well-known actress.

Writing:

The writing on the magazine Is very bold and it stands out, especially the Masthead and the "Megan Fox"

Use of Images: 
There aren't many images on the front cover, because it's mainly promoting the actor Megan Fox

Design and Layout: 
The magazine doesn't have many colours on the cover because, this way the audience would focus more on the large print of Megan Fox. Megan Fox is the main focus of the cover, that is why she is on one side and the cover lines are on the other.

Magazine 2: NME Music magazine

Magazine 2: NME

If seen for the first time, it is apparent that this is a music magazine and what specific type of music it focuses on. NME magazine is one of the most popular music magazines in the UK today, targeting those that have interests in the “Indie” music scene. NME magazine is owned and published by IPEC media, which is the UK’s leading magazine publisher. We can see clearly from first glance at the magazine’s front cover that it is indeed a music magazine, as we can see cover lines giving information on the articles inside the magazine to do with artists and focusing on the band Muse as it features heavily on the cover as the main image that covers the entire magazine and the main title is the band name. As this band is already well known and successful the imagery covers the masthead slightly, this is allowed as the band are seen to be important and do not need the name of the magazine to sell but the main image. With cover lines such as “Festival Survey” and bands such as Wild Beasts, Yeah Yeahs, and much more that this magazine has different genres, but not going totally off the scale with a certain type of genre as “Pop”.

From the front cover it is obvious that this is a music magazine targeted at the age group of 16 years of age to early people in their early twenties. The magazine is popular with the younger audience as this genre of music and the youth of the bands is more appealing to them rather than people in their 30’s and above, and generally the younger audience have more disposable income and therefore spend it on weekly/monthly music magazines for updates on their favorite bands and gigs or as it highlights at the top of the magazine “Festivals”, which attract the younger audience.

In terms of the front cover, the main image is entitled to be the band Muse. In addressing the audience the image has got quite a serious tone to it as the band members look at the camera and straight at the readers. We tend to focus on the lead singer as he is placed at the front and center of the magazine thus attracting the reader even if not a fan of the magazine but of the band. In the background of the band, it seems they are in “recording studio” or a room that has their instruments etc. that shows they are a successful band and that they are always at work with music. The masthead is in the common place of the NME magazine but in this case with such a famous band the masthead is slightly covered by one of the band members, this shows that the band are the very important in this issue, and that they don’t need to show the full masthead as the magazine already has a huge amount of loyal fans you would buy the magazine despite who is on the front cover. The cover line along with the main image says “If everyone slag’s us off, then fine!” showing the reader that they do have haters but they have still became successful enough to have sell out arena tours and headline at big band festivals, this attracts the reader to find out more about the band.

NME magazine tend to keep to the same colors of Red and white, as it is familiar to the reader and has now just become a conventional feature. Everything is written in quite a basic font, most of the cover lines are written in block capitals but are of smaller font to the main cover line linked with the main image and magazine special. The layout is set like most magazines with the Main image covering the first layer then the cover lines surrounding it and the masthead above.

The Buzzword on the cover is “vive the resistance“, which allows the reader to see that the band are much more exciting and ready to promote their new album even when they know they have haters. There are not many other short and snappy buzz words which are more common on other magazines, I feel NME have not used buzz words such as “New” and “exclusive”, as such language might not attract the edgy/indie sort of reader.