Alterations

We have decided that our music video is going to be a bit different to how we first planned it out to be. We have done a quick vlog to explain what the changes are going to be and why we have decided to make such changes.

 

Filming Round 2

We went filming recently, to shoot the scene in which we are first introduced to another character in the narrative. The filming went well and the weather was really good, we were very lucky with the lighting as the sun is placed in the right hand corner of the screen, giving the diagonal lines of sun rays across the shot.

Here is just a general shot we got, with a bit of landscape in the background, with a shot of the balcony in foreground. However we used depth of field to place the foreground out of focus, as we felt the background suited the feel to our music video more.

This was a quick spare of the moment shot, which I thought, the freedom of the birds, can reflect the girl within our music video, and how she is constantly running, attempting to be free.






The following two shots are just a small example of how we are going to show the contrasting split personality of our protagonist. The light blue jumper shows a happier self.

                                                                              

Where as the dark stripy jumper and the fact that, when zoomed out and we are able to see her full body, it looks as if she is only wearing the jumper, thus giving her that provocative look. This therefore juxtaposes the cute skirt and bright blue jumper look in the previous shot.

Here is yet another shot of the landscape around where we filmed, its peaceful and on this particular shot we have used no effects, and altered nothing. This just shows how lucky we were to have such good weather on the day.

Digipak research

Definition of Digipak:
Digipaks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipaks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipak that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.
There are several types of digipaks available, with a range of different number of panels in each. The usual type consists of 4 panels but this can quite easily become either 6 or even 8 panels per pack.

I have a couple examples of them at home, with a four panel and a 6 panel one. The 4 panel Coldplay - Viva la Vida digipak has several signifiers, the first and most obvious being the use of a foreign language in the title of their album. This signifies a cultural variety to the band, and the signified font gives the cover a messy yet artistic feel to it. The dark colours signify gloomy and difficult times, where as the splash of colour signified on the flag creates a juxtaposition of colours.

Another example i have is The Maccabees "Given To The Wild", which is a 6 panel case, larger than the previous digipak. The obvious signifier is the fire across the wild grass, this signifies a sense of wildness to the cover, thus tying in with the album's title of "Given To The Wild". There is also a mysterious object in the centre third of the cover, thus signifying an abstract side to the band, through the randomly placed, unknown object.

Originally a digipak is made of 300gsm card with either a glossy or matt finish. It can have a variety of colours, with different finishing effects such as spot varnish, lamination and embossing. Based on a standard four panel digipak, the dimensions are 139.5mm x 6mm x 125.5mm, and the number of panels within the pack can vary from 4, 6 or 8. This type of packaging is usually for mainstream or leading artists, however more recently it has been used for upcoming artists and alternative/indie styles of music. Which is why this sort of packaging is perfect for our band, as we are produce alternative/indie music. They are also priced at a reasonable rate and are an extremely versatile type of packaging and it can be made to accommodate a booklet of information if wanted by the artist.

Goffman's Theory

In advertising, Goffman's theory was that the portrayal of both men and women follow specific codes and conventions. Such include the following:

Superiority, Domination and Body Language- 
Men are shown in dominate positions and appear to be reflective of thought and intelligence, this is especially evident when focusing on there facial expressions. Women are physically portrayed in sexual or reclining poses with blank or inviting expressions on their face.
Dismemberment- 
On females, parts of the body such as legs, chest act, are used rather than the full body. This is often applied to sell products which are not related to the body, such examples include the advertisement of mobile phones.
The Voice-Over Authority-
In moving image advertisements, such as TV adverts or animated Billboards, male voices are used as voiceovers as oppose to female voice overs. This is mainly due to a sense of authority and power given off in the deep pitch of a males voice, which is uncommonly found with the female voice.

BFI Trip

We went on a trip specialised on our media course, run by the chief examiner. We gathered quite a lot of footage whilst we were out there and I'v edited together all the clips we gained, and created a little narrative of the day.

 

Band Brand

I have made a quick Prezi to show our progress on our band name, our digipak and the logo we will be using not only on the digipak but also within our music video.

Talk Big Thoughts on Prezi

Progress Vlog

I have filmed a quick vlog about the progress of filming so far and the problems we have come across up until now.


 

However here is a first draft of the opening of our video, we are quite happy with this draft opening, the cut of editing is sharp and consistent throughout. There is no sound to the following clip as the following is just a screen recording, however the song will be uploaded for our final version of the music video.

First day of filming

We have already started to film our first location for our music video. We started in the forest as this is the first location we use, apart from the warehouse which we still have not been able to find yet, in our music video. Therefore we thought logically and went in chronological order of filming. We did manage to do a quick vlog whilst filming, which can be viewed below.

Terminology in music videos

On watching the following music video by Lana Del Rey I noticed several signifiers within it, most of which denote wealth and patriotism.

 

 The main signifier I found within the music video was the obvious two tigers sitting next to the artist:

This causes a great contrast in that we have two very fierce and wild tigers, who have the connotations of fear and power, sitting besides a women dressed in white, which signifies purity and innocent. Therefore the director of this music video has placed these two signifiers within the same frame, specifically to create such a contrast of ideologies.

There is also this frame:

Which has the obvious signifier of an American flag, thus is signified with the meaning of patriotism for  the artists country. Within the frame, it could be said that the artist although topless, signifying her vunerablity, the fact that she is looking directly at the camera, causes her to come across as the powerful and dominant one of the two within the frame.

However within our music video we have placed, purposely, specific signifiers to denote a specific idea. We will firstly, be using a dark/dim/low key lighting in order to convey the other side to our protagonist within the video.
We also aim to use a blurring technique, which the girl is running, to act as a signifier of  her running away from her problems, and with the blurry focus we can also get across the idea of her uncertainty.

As well as these signifiers, we will also include the juxtaposition of the clothing worn by the protagonist. With contrasting clothing, such as a summer dress and dark long jumper, we will be able to create this split personality, clearly, as if it were too subtle the audience might not pick up the distinction we aim to make between the two personalities.
We also hope to cause further juxtaposition when filming fire and water, tow elements that can reflect the clash of personalities as well as proving to be good objects to film, allowing an effective finish to the video.
We will also be using a specific symbol within our video, to hint subtly to the idea of a modern day witch hunt. We were advised to not use an already known symbol because this might offend certain religions so we have therefore invented/created our own little symbol which we will be using in the backgrounds of certain shots.

Signifiers and Signified

We were looking at the different connotations and what specific symbols denote in music videos and how we can apply these to our own music videos. We looked specifically at the theorists Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes.

Saussure created he concept of signified and signifiers, with his statement:
"What does that sign say? It says nothing-It needs to be read"
He defines the two as:
Signified:                                                        Signifiers:
The meaning which                                        Physical form which
we attach to the                                               we can see or hear.
signifier.

Barthes added to Saussure's ideas, by naming the way that signifiers were organised and put together the "symbolic code" of the text. This key terminology is best used when analysing groups of signifiers.

These are key things that we are able to comment on within a music video:
Body Language
Gestures
Clothing
Lighting
Objects
Weather
Sounds
Setting

Final Cut Express

As we are doing all our editing on final cut, we need to get to grips with how the software works, as it is very different to what we are used to on iMovies. Elisha has already picked up a few things that have proved very useful, such as uploading footage and adding different effects to it. However there is still a lot more we can and must know, like for instance silencing a clip and importing music onto the footage we have edited. We will be having a sort crash course in how to use the software but not until the end of the month, so learning as much as we can before hand will come in much use.

Filming Schedule

We have created a little schedule in which we hope to stick to regarding filming for our music video; Filming Schedule

Progress Vlog

Here is a short vlog about our progress in planning to go out on location for the first time on this project:

Items on location

The follwing is a little list of the things that we are going to need to take with us when we go out filming. In creating this list we are more organised and don't have to rush around finding specific props we need on the day of filming: