Possible location for video

As we want a live performance to be the heart of our story, we have been looking for locations to film the performance. We debated filming it within our school, and at a house as a house party. Eventually we decided that in order to avoid the piece looking very amateur, we needed to find a more suitable location. We found a local band rehersal space in Oxford which had 3 different size rooms, which could well be used to host a performance.

http://www.rotator.co.uk/studios.html

We will be visiting the site soon to make sure it is suitable.

Discussion of dividing roles

Our group has looked at the different points required for a Level 4 piece of work and chosen to divide them between us, ensuring that each person is very thorough with their work on their assigned topics.

The topics are-

-holding a shot steady, where appropriate (Sam)
-framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate (Sam)
-using a variety of shot distances as appropriate (David)
-shooting material appropriate to the task set (All)
-selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting (Jen)
-editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer (Jack)
-using varied shot transitions. captions and other effects selectively and appropriately (Jack)
-using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task (David)

By deciding to focus on inidvidual elements of the piece, we hope that this will improve the quality of the piece as a whole. We decided that as there were 8 points, we would take 2 points each to focus on, but as Jen's point on mise-en-scene was very broad and detailed, we thought it best for her to solely focus on that point. I volunteered for my role as editor as I believe it will be a good opportunity for me to express myself and demonstrate my skills.

DRAFT

This is the very first draft of our digipak cover. We are happy with the image, yet are debating about the font.

DIGIPAK IDEAS

As part of the CD cover, we aim to have a black and white image with white writing over the top. For fonts, we have been using www.dafont.com to search through various possible fonts for the cover.

IDEAS FOR DIGIPAK

As part of our coursework, we must create a CD digipak to accompany the music video (as well as an advert for the digipak). As an idea for our digipak, we imagined the artist looking over a city skyline, to create a sense of power and dominance in his surroundings.



This is one image we considered for the digipak. We have chosen to make the image black and white to create a sense of simplicity as he is a new and upcoming artist.

INFLUENCE FOR COVER

One aspect that is common with some rappers CD covers is the use of black and white, often a key part of intertextuality throughout the rap genre. This is used to create a sense of nostalgia and simplicity. Although very simple shades are used, the black and white helps to create a tense image and easily highlight the focus of the image. With no vibrant colours more commonly associated with things such as Happiness (Yellow) and Passion (Red), the black and white creates a serious, almost harsh, effect leading the audience to see the CD and the Artist as serious, with the colours creating verisimilitude towards what it is representing.

Importantly, Jay-Z's eyes can't be seen in any of these covers, conveying the message (based on Richard Dyer's list, 1985) of secrecy and mystery, intriguing the target audience, and contrasting to the popular factors of rap music (bright clothes, chains, tattoos etc.). By doing this, Jay-Z is intentionally going against popular culture in an attempt to influence factors such as 'style', and succeeding with his incredibly successful albums.

One rapper renowned for using black and white CD covers is Jay-Z. 8 of his 12 studio albums had black and white covers.As an incredibly successful and influential rap artist, the fact that Jay-Z has consistently used black and white covers and influenced many other hip hop artists to do so, including Rihanna and R Kelly.

Letter to Artist

We have written a letter to 'HB' to ask for his permission to use his song 'Never Let the Party Stop' for our music video project.

Here is the letter-

Dear Hope Bushe,

My name is Jack Chambers, you may remember me from Gosford Hill School. I am currently studying A2 Media and my media group, including David Bockett, Sam Brooks and Jenni Sampson, must make a music video as part of our coursework.
We would love to make a video for your amazing song, ‘Never Let The Party Stop’. After listening to the preview on reverbnation, we think it would be perfect to create a video for. We would obviously need your permission for this to happen and we think it would be great for you as an artist, especially regarding publicity. This video will cost you nothing, and if you wish, you can star in the video.
Please contact us ASAP regarding whether we would be able to use your song.
More details will follow.

Thank you,

Jack, David, Sam and Jenni.


He responded positively to our proposition and is grateful that we chose his song for our video.

COURSEWORK ACTION PLAN

These are the deadlines that our group has set our selves for the completion on the coursework.

Music Video Shooting Deadline: Wednesday 17th November
Music Video Rough Cut Deadline: Wednesday 24th
November Music Video Final Deadline: Monday the 29th November
Evaluative commentary, Digipak and Advert: Completed by end of last lesson week ending 17th December.

One of the first things that we need to do is decide on an appropriate song, and this will be done as a group, so that we are all happy with the choice. Once we have chosen the right song, we can then move onto thinking about what content we want to put into the video, and all of the small but important technical aspects such as the props, material and clothing we need to get, and this should also help us create a consistent Mise en Scene by doing continuity checks.

After the completion of the above tasks, we will be able to start shooting the clip, and we have left about a month to do this as it can take quite along time with all the different shots that we hope to use. Once filming is complete we then have about a month to edit a rough cut. Once the rough cut is complete we have a further two weeks to review it and continue editing to make the final video.

First Post

I'll be using this blog to display my media coursework. This year we are making a music video of/for an unsigned act. At the moment we are currently interested in making a video of local Oxfordshire rapper 'HB' for his song 'Never Let The Party Stop'.