Sunday 8 April 2012

Looking At Everything



 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When we were generating ideas for our music video, we decided to use conventions of the R’n’B music genre. We did this for various reasons but one of the main reasons was to fit into the existing R’n’B scene and gain a wider audience and feedback. R’n’B is one of the biggest and most popular music genres out there.

We fully understand the forms and conventions of R’n’B music as we have been listening to R’n’B pretty much all our lives and are fans of the genre ourselves. We compared our song and video to other R’n’B products. But for this evaluation I am going to compare it to even more. A typical R’n’B track has some piano keys or strings and bass, a simple drum pattern and an artist speaking about feeling good or sad – usually the artist will speak about the other sex and attraction too.

‘My Last’ by Big Sean has exactly these features – moreover in the song he’s talking about being able to have a good life and certainly mentions the opposite sex more than once. His video shows plenty of females around him partying and dancing. Even though Big Sean is a Hip Hop artist he has adapted the Hip Hop genre to make an R’n’B track. Hip Hop and R’n’B are very similar – so Big Sean has used a slower beat and added a singing artist but still used females as an iconic status and a statement of ‘making it’.

Another modern R’n’B track is Chris Brown’s ‘No Bull****’. The instrument on the main melody is once again a piano played in chords and there is also some strings on the outro of the song. This song also has a slow instrumental and more importantly, a singing artist. However the music video has fewer females compared to Big Sean’s video. In fact Chris Brown’s video has only one female and minimal scenes of that female. But to make up for that, the lyrical content in this song is much more explicit and focused on the opposite gender.

One more R’n’B song I would like to compare our project to is a little older and considered an all time R’n’B classic. ‘My Boo’ by Alicia Keys and Usher once again focuses on singing, string instruments and talking about attraction, care and love. This song is more of a duet and talks about the qualities they admire in each other. The song also mentions the good times they have together as a couple.

I can compare our music video and song to these examples and find plenty of similarities. First of all our song has a simple drum pattern, pianos as the main melody and moreover complimentary melodies played by strings all running together at 90bpm making it slow enough for R’n’B singing.

The instrumental was created before we started this project but we found that it was the perfect choice for what we wanted to do. It had everything we were looking for because while I was creating it, I knew that it would be better to conform to the genre rather than to challenge it. Challenging the genre conventions would make it harder to identify and possibly cause it to lose its target audience.

The lyrical content of our song is also similar. Ayo is complimenting the female he is attracted to and explaining how he truly admires her personality and qualities. On the other hand Ayo is a rapper and not a singer but we made sure we had a singer to enhance that true R’n’B sensation we were trying to develop. Sam is on the chorus and he also compliments the female. Therefore we have Sam backing up Ayo’s statements; two artists, speaking from the same perspective, but in a different manner.

Finally, our video uses various conventions to enlarge our audience. We had a large emphasis on the colour red for this project. Red is the colour of love, passion, attraction and overall is just a very attractive and vibrant colour. We wanted to enforce the feelings and emotions by using that colour – we used a red filter on the music video to achieve this. And red text and highlights where necessary.

Also we used artificial lighting from the cars in the video to create silhouettes of the actors Kashif and October. The reason why we used silhouettes was to portray the good old sayings ‘It’s what’s on the inside that counts’ and ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. In the video Kashif tells his friends he has been seeing October in the area quite frequently and that he likes her. He then gains a confidence boost from his friends and things go surprisingly well for him. By doing this we wanted portray another saying ‘If you don’t try, you’ll never find out’.

More importantly R’n’B music videos do not usually use themes of materialism like Hip Hop videos do. Instead they tend to use symbols, references and images. Showing two figures together simply defines co-operation, care and love.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Overall we used conventions of the R’n’B genre to fit in and enlarge our potential viewing audience. Using the conventions has truly paid off. Our music video has been well received and viewed by many people of different classes, races and across many different geographical regions .

I personally appreciate all the feedback we have received. We have gained over 1800+ views on YouTube. However due to the feedback we received we felt the video could be improved. We have two versions of our music video. One is what we are calling the draft, this is the first version. The second version is our final version, released after the draft and is also being called the official video.
The video has been improved and not re-done. We have improved the video is various ways. One of the main complaints we received was that the intro was rather lengthy and that it took too long for the song to start. So what we did was remove parts of the intro making it shorter.

We also made the intro sound better; the windy sound effect used in the draft was used because whilst we were recording the intro there was conversations from pedestrians and other noises that we didn’t want to include. I then found a better sound effect and replaced it with a digetic traffic sound, of cars passing by.

We filmed the music video in the night time so that there were less people and that the video had a more relaxed and romantic feel to it. Many said that the artists were a bit hard to see on the chorus. 

This is because the choruses had overlays on them and also low lighting. What we decided to do was shoot the choruses in the daytime. This consequently made the lighting better and made the actors and artists seem apart from each other. The video is in narrative style but our viewers had the misconception that the artists were following or stalking the couple whereas it was really more of a story-telling flashback. Having the scenes clearly distinguished by day and night has erased the misunderstanding and solved the problem.

The previous video had terrible lip sync but we didn’t feel it mattered because the focus was more on the couple’s acting. We also used the wrong version of the song in the video meaning good lip syncing would have been impossible anyways. Lip sync is one of the features we focused most on in the official video.

These are a few of the features in the final video that have been included or improved. Having a grateful audience giving us detailed feedback via Facebook, YouTube or even word of mouth has encouraged us to output a music video of even higher quality.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Once again using the colour red has benefited us greatly; it allowed us to create a very strong link between the ancillary texts and the music video. Here is the front cover for the digipak – Red is used on the pictures of Ayo, and also on the stroke accents.

It’s not just red that I used though, I used the actual texts seen in the music video so that the digipak and music video has an even closer reference to each other. This is the ‘Lookin’ At You’ logo that Kashif and October walk past. On my front cover, it is used as the title text. This is the definition text of the word ‘Looking’. It can also be seen in the intro of our music video. I have enforced the reference between the music video and the digipak by using it as art for the inside left. I thought it would be very effective if someone was to open the digipak and be greeted by another item from the actual music video.

On the back, you can see a picture of the London Eye. The London Eye is used as an icon in our music video because it resembles an eye and the title of our song is called ‘Lookin’ At You’. Using the London Eye bonded the song and the video together. I feel it is a great concept because the London Eye is also considered as a romantic location. The London Eye is very popular to tourists and very eye-catching too. We also used this tourist attraction to further give off our location. Therefore I linked it to my ancillary task by using it on the back cover to have an impact on people who like the area or to be more specific the London Eye.

The magazine advert for the digipak uses the same concept of having red as a theme to link the two together. The advert has Ayo’s pictures in the background, less focused and than the actual digipak on top. The 5 stars and text are red ensuring that all media products of this project are consistent and come together like a family. I have combined themes, text, logos, images, symbols, ideas and concepts and I think they work well together, very effectively.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technology played a very important part in the production of all our media products. We used a Blue Yeti microphone to record the vocals of our song, Fruity Loops to produce the instrumental we used, a Canon Legria HF 20 to record the footage, a Velbon CX-480 tripod to get stable shots, Sony Vegas to edit the video, Adobe Photoshop to create album art, the internet to research and YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to share our work.

I value the technology we used because it has given me and my team the upper hand, allowing us to picture and develop each of our ideas further. It feels good to say that we have made a song, a music video and even album art.

The Blue Yeti microphone is a high quality microphone which helped us to construct a song that could be taken seriously enough by the public. The lyrics were clear and loud enough which consequently resulted in a high quality song meaning we were confident enough to share our product. If we used a poor microphone the instrumental would have overpowered the vocals and moreover equalled in a bad quality song.

Fruity Loops is music production software, this is what I used to create the instrumental. This instrumental was created in free time. By having a beat that already existed, it cut down the time of having to make a new one from scratch. It also reduced the time of planning for this whole project. It gave Daniel who is in charge of directing, research and planning more time to generate ideas and progress towards a final product.

The Canon Legria HF 20 is a great HD compact camcorder. The most important part to me is that the camera is HD; the camera is able to record footage in 1080p. 1080p is the highest form of HD available right now. HD stands for high definition, meaning the picture quality is even more stunning, pristine and clear compared to standard definition cameras. Having a music video of such quality is something to be proud of and we have also noticed our music video appear on various websites. One of the websites reviewed our video’s picture quality.

The Velbon CX-480 is simple to use. Stanley the cameraman used this tripod to get smooth pans and steady shots. Without the tripod we wouldn’t be able to achieve special effects like the time-lapse used in verse three. To achieve time-lapse you would need two different shots but in the same position. The tripod made our video seem more professional – we compared our music video to others and the majority have steady shots unless they were aiming for a shaky camera effect.

In my opinion Sony Vegas has been the most important software used. This is because I truly feel that the music video is my favourite part of this media project. Sony Vegas is my favourite video editing software because I have been using it for over a year now. It’s powerful, up to date and easy to use. I recommend this software mostly because of its simplicity and vast array of effects. We used effects like the red filter and red tint on our time-lapse. More effects used were the crossfades, splitscreen and flashes. Sony Vegas understands plenty of codecs and formats unlike its competitors take for instance Final Cut Pro. I’m glad I used Sony Vegas because it also has a range of great abilities like the cookie cutter which helped me to achieve the effect of Kashif and October making this text fade away.

Adobe Photoshop has got to be the most popular photo editing software out there. We used Photoshop to create the ancillary products like the digipak and advert. There was heavy use of the internet to research other artist’s album art. In Photoshop I made the dimensions of the pictures 1000x1000px which makes it a square. I then gathered ideas and brought it to life. Photoshop is great to use because the possibilities are endless – the amount of features and utilities are too much to mention.

Finally we used social media and social networking to extend our work to the public. YouTube is where we uploaded the music video, we chose YouTube because we knew it was the most popular and most visited video sharing website. We then utilised social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to advance the amount of feedback we would receive.

Conclusion

In conclusion it has been a great experience to make such products of media like a song and a music video. I’m sure everyone in the team is overwhelmed by the feedback we have received and the final product itself. All in all the technology, hardware and software has granted us the ability to bring our ideas to life. Everything from the camera to the internet has been valued greatly in all stages of research, planning, construction and evaluation. We have utilised everything throughout the creation of our media products to the best potential.

I feel that each piece of work for this project is great in its own way. Our work could be better but we had constraints like time and equipment. If I was to do this project again I would definitely put more planning and development into each section of the work. Also it would be a pleasure to make another video but with technological advancements this time, like an even better camera or a faster PC for better editing.

Making the instrumental, song, video and ancillary tasks with my team has been a pleasure, a great experience and moreover beneficial to my knowledge and understanding of the music scene and various genres. Looking back at where we started and then looking at our final products makes me feel happy for my team and where we will take media in the near future. I feel that I am even more advanced in media studies. My skills feel refreshed and sharpened and I hope to look back at these pieces of work and reflect on even more experience gained.

Monday 19 March 2012

Look Again


The music video has been improved in various ways:

+ Video is shorter; parts of the intro were removed
+ The windy noise on the previous intro has been replaced with a digetic traffic sound
+ Choruses in daytime for better lighting and so that the artists and actors do not appear to be together
+ Closer shots of the artists
+ Overlays of the artist during narration to show involvement
+ Correct instrumental was used this time
+ Improved lip sync
+ Improved mastering and volume levelling
+ The break/ verse 3 utilises timelapse, crossfades and the colour red. It also involves the artists more
+  Error with jumpy cuts and green flash on the London Eye (outro) pan-up has been fixed

Monday 12 March 2012

Digipaks To Distribute

The digipak is complete and also with an advert to promote it.
Front

Inside (L)

Inside (R)

Back

Magazine Advert

Each of these items were compiled in Photoshop. Starting with the Front Cover I took a picture of Ayo and then cropped it to show only half of him. 


I then added posturisation and a red screen gradient to relate back to the video's theme of love/ attraction and the colour of love is red.

After that I duplicated the picture of Ayo 4 times and roughly spaced them out equally by calculating 1000 ÷ 5 (1000px being the width of my album art and 5 pictures of Ayo). I also added a black gradient this time that got weaker from left to right. The fading graidents on Ayo were calculated by 100 ÷ 5 (100 being 100% gradient opacity).

 This is the text that was created in Photoshop for the music video. It appears in the video when Kashif approaches October. I also made the text interact with the video by making it fade away as they walked past it. Whilst making this front cover I thought of what could be great title text and felt that using the text from the video was unbeatable.


The 'VOLAS' text was spaced out to fit into the 5 sections consisting of Ayo's pictures. This was simply achieved by adding extra spaces whilst typing the text i.e. V    O    L    A    S.


Other various images were added to make the cover look more professional; a Twitter logo, my 'M' logo and a DVD logo. I added a DVD logo and not a CD one because it's a video digipak and CD's only play music/ audio. The DVD logo was also coloured white and complimented with a shadow drop because it didn't really stand out when it was black.

Finally, I added lens flares to various parts of text and red strokes to the lines that seperate Ayo's pictures. (But these lines also have a vertical gradient of black to red so the red only appears at the bottom). NOTE: The background on this image has been changed to black to show lens flares better.

Putting The Ancillary First

 
This is my plan for the digipak. I will be using logos and text from the actual music video. White to black vertical gradients and red highlights will by my colour scheme. I will also use an image of the London Eye on the back to add even closer reference to the music video.

I also received inspiratation from a random picture I found online. The picture shows a couple and the progression of the relationship within time. This picture has 6 sections with different images. My album art will have 5 sections but with slight variations of the same image.

Ancillary Analysis

Digipaks are overlooked sometimes as they are only cases for the content that you really care about... The disc. However they actually need to be eye-catching and constructive enough to gain attention from bystanders and make people think about what it is that they are looking at. In this post I am going to analyse other students' dipaks (ancillary tasks). I was handed a bunch of links that lead to existing pieces of ancillary tasks.

Fahmina Ali

The first student is http://fahminaali.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/F%20I%20N%20A%20L - She was first on the list so I decided to start there. To my suprise I instantly admired the work. I feel that there's a lot of ideas and planning behind something so simple such as a digipak.



The first thing that gets my attention is the use of red which consequently reminds me of me and my team's work. The girl on the actual CD is holding a glass with a red liquid substance in it. I'm not too sure what this piece of work is about but I took a quick look at the final music video and it appears that the digipak has actual references from the video. For example on the front cover, that shot is also seen in their video. The characters are in a cemetry and regarding the album title I think the red liquid substance in the glass on the CD signifies blood.

Another important thing is that the art is dark which emits a spooky and lonely feeling. The pictures are black and white but only red things that stand out. It seems they are thinking along the same line of making red stand out amongst other colours.



It reminds me of the red filter in our music video and when I decided to do a test on selective colouring to make sure that red was the only colour that would show up.

Overall I think this ancillary product is well produced and works well with their actual media product. She has included details like 'All Rights Reserved' statements and the barcode making her work look more believable and professional. I rate Fahmina's team's piece of work with an outstanding 9.5/10. The reason a perfect score isn't given is because I feel that even more details could be included, for example a DVD or CD logo to signify if the disc is a CD or DVD and also numbering on the back cover so that the track is easily identified.

Alexander Whitcombe

The second ancillary task I am analysing belongs to http://musicvideoalexanderwhitcombe.blogspot.co.uk/ - The digipak is much different to Fahmina's. I also like this digipak.


To be honest the inside covers look unprofessional, I would not expect to open a digipak on the market and see random, unedited photos. The photos do not show who's who or have a direct relevance to the music video. I have watched their final music video and I don't see any reference whatsoever for these photos to be included. However I am very interested in the front and back cover. They look very bright, radiant and artistic. I like how the characters (possibly 'Betty') has been drawn by hand.

This ancillary task gets a 4/10. It lacks details such as 'All Rights Reserved' statements and CD indentations. The inside pages have photos that would not make sense to a potential customer and seems like a lazy, rushed attempt to produce a digipak. I don't think there has been much planning involved. However the front and back cover makes up for it giving the overall package a 4/10.

Produce & Induce

The instrumental we used was an existing project of mine which was already released on YouTube but I edited it for coursework use. I upgraded my instruments kit and the quality of the bass and the shakers improved drastically. I also added a longer choir drop.


We then got round to recording the vocals and that was not done in a proffessional studio. We didn't have time for that. Instead we used a high quality microphone, the Blue Yeti. I was suprised at the quality the microphone was able to putput. Ayo and Sam recorded the lyrics and vocals and then mastered and put everything together in Logic.

The song was exported in the file format .wav which meant the compression would not be so high consequently resulting in a larger file (23mb) but also a higher quality file.

Monday 6 February 2012

Green Light For The Red

At first we were going to wear anything we wanted to but then we thought constructively regarding the red filter. We wanted our female actor to stand out and this would be easily achieved by using the red filter and having our subject wear red. We agreed that she would wear red and we wouldn't. We wore dark colours like black, grey, navy, blue and brown. All of these colours would not show up in the filter.


Ayo then came up with a good point that if she wore too much red it would be rather cliched. He felt it would be a better if she wore something iconic and smaller but still red. October was then ordered to wear red lipstick, a red scarf and paint her nails red. The scarf wasn't quite what I expected, it was a checkered white and red scarf showing red less than we wanted. We also wanted to ensure we got close ups of her lipstick and nails.



 
But to talk more in-depth about the actors and why we chose them... We chose October for her style, she's very cool, easy going and was more than willing to film with us. Kashif, we chose him because he fitted our idea perfectly. We was looking for a guy who didn't look like a typical male model and Kashif was a great choice. He wore a blue jacket and a shirt and tie. During the music video Kashif's tie changes colour to red, signifying that he felt closer and more indulged in October. It wasn't something that important but more of an easter egg for our viewers.

Monday 23 January 2012

Like Music To Their Ears

Our music video is directed towards everyone. Music is very powerful and it can have an influence on anyone who it touches. When we asked people for feedback we was not being picky or sending the video to a specific or targeted group of people. We literally sent it to to anyone and everyone.






However from the feedback attained we acknowledge from the YouTube video statistics that the video has hit every continent. From Europe to Africa to America. We also noticed that the video is viewed mostly by males with YouTube accounts of different ages.





We originally set out to spread the song and video to everyone, but as a result we have recieved more feedback and views from males. The song is an R'n'B track and it seems that it has been well received by both male and female audiences. However according to statistics and feedback, males seem to appreciate the video more. Perhaps because the song is told from a male's point of view. In the images above red hearts represent comments from females and blue lightning bolts represent comments from males. There are 13 comments from females and 14 comments from males.

On the other hand it also came to my attention that the majority of females who gave feedback were young American females. It might be that they have a thing for the scenery which is London or that the instrumental or lyrics were touching. Either way, all of the feedback is greatly appreciated. We gave our viewers music to their ears and with their feedback they returned the favour.

Monday 16 January 2012

Back To The Drawing Board

Over the course of one week our music video has attained over 1,500 views and we have received ample amount of critical feedback through various outlets and social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.



All in all, the video has been well received, the audience love the song, the lyrics, instrumental, scenery, editing and the video itself. The majority gave positive feedback with little to no complaints. The negative feedback that was received the most was that the characters were very hard to see. In other words the lighting was bad or the shots were not close enough.

Our Media teacher is suggesting that we redo some scenes from the video. Our music video contains really good editing and shots but altogether it could be better. We, the team agree but because we spent so much time focusing on media and neglecting our other subjects we are now finding it hard to find time to re-shoot the parts that need to be updated.

We also noticed the song isn't in great sync with the video. This is because we filmed the video with the older version of the song and used the new version of the song for the actual video. We are taking all the improvements into consideration, the only thing that is against us is time. Moreoever the actors we used are no longer available especially as we are all back to school.

Another thing is that some of the actors are not comfortable with the camera being so close to them, especially with a bright light in their face. For example October laughs at pretty much everything and we doubt we would be able to capture more than a second of a close up for her.

Would this mean we would have to film a whole new video with new actors? We hope not, however on the other hand we are considering doing another video, this is how much we love media. Let me speak for myself actually. I love media with a passion. When it comes to media I am very creative, determined and focused. Doing a new video would not be stressful at all, it would be a pleasure. Then again time is our only constraint.



If we do a new video with a new song this is the instrumental we would use, once again produced by me in free time.



We are planning to do a song based on guilty conscience, inspired by Eminem's and Dr. Dre's 'Guilty Conscience'.

Monday 2 January 2012

Have A Look



The music video is up, over the holidays we have met up and worked so hard to acheive this end product. We have gained great feedback so far.

Saturday 17 December 2011

Almost There

When recording the footage we had no idea we were this close to the end of the song. It's a good thing that we have been editing as we go along. It's good because it helps us to get a clearer picture for what can be in the next shots - when things are put together it also creates a clearer picture (sort of like a jigsaw puzzle). Secondly we can also give feedback to each other as we go along instead of having to wait till the very end and possibly having to re-take some scenes.



Its better to work with what you have and build up from there instead of waiting for what you'll get (which may not be as great or tailor-made as it could have been). We are nearing the end of our video shooting and every minute of it has been a great experience. I am not sure about the others but I have never shot a music video before and seeing this complilation is overwhelming. We are almost there.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

At Last, We Have A Cast

Words cannot explain how overwhelmed I am about the cast finally coming together. We all met today and everything went well! We got on so well we felt like family - it felt almost too good to be true. (Photos and photoshoot coming soon).

Cast:
October Malone - Female protagonist
Kashif James - Male protagonist
Kyle Dyke - Kashif's friend
Stanley Onyekwelu - Kashif's friend
Daniel - Kusimo - Kashif's friend
Martin Kusimo - Kashif's friend
Ayo Olukoya - Artist/ Narrator
Sam Folorunsho - Artist/ Narrator
Elsie Cullen - October's friend

Roles:
October Malone - Actress
Kashif James - Actor
Kyle Dyke - Actor
Stanley Onyekwelu - Cameraman/ Storyboard designer/ Editor/ Actor
Daniel Kusimo - Director/ Schedule Organiser/ Researcher/ Actor
Martin Kusimo - Lead Editor/ Secondary Cameraman/ Producer/ Actor
Ayo Olukoya - Editor/ Tertiary Cameraman/ Artist/ Actor
Sam Folorunsho - Artist/ Actor
Elsie Cullen - Actress



Here is a cross between a test, teaser and trailer. This is for feedback purposes within the group and for us to talk about what can be improved, changed or removed.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

It's Best To Test (Fast Motion)

Me and Ayo were around Waterloo and to our amazement the entrance was as busy as a beehive! It also gave us a great idea that we are considering to include in our music video.



Fast motion scenes. In a previous post I mentioned how the calm instrumental is to juxtapose with the hectic busy lifestyle of Londoners. This effect will help us to achieve just that. We decided to record at an ice rink instead.

Why? Because everyone is going round and round in one direction making the motion have a smooth flow. Also, the less confident ice-skaters will obviously move slower than everyone else because they do not want to drop (even though we filmed many drops). Because the less experienced ice-skaters are moving slower than everyone else it will help you to see just how important motion is.

Later on we decided to do even more tests with Stanley and Daniel. Stanley and Daniel have been really busy with the cast and storyboard but they finally found some time to help us do some tests.



We wanted to see what effect we could get by showing time passing by.



We noticed that Ed Sheeran's 'A-Team' used the fast motion scenes as well. But in his video he has fast motion scenes with a still/ slower moving character - it gave us the idea to have our actors moving in normal motion but everything else faster (giving the impression that they are in their own world).



We put it to the test, and once again, things did not work out as well as we hoped it would. Ayo is the person you see walking towards the camera. What we tried to do was have fast motion vehicles but Ayo in normal motion. Therefore we tried to get around it by having Ayo walk extremely slow in real-time, so that when we sped up the footage it would look like he's walking normally. Unfortunately Ayo's movements do not look natural enough and its too hard to acheive this way.

Next we tried to have two layers of the same video. The top layer would have normal untouched footage and the second layer would be sped up footage of the vehicles. Again, we couldn't get around it. The lighting between the two layers conflict and shadows do not match with the timing.



Finally, we came to a conclusion. Fast motion scenes are great but we have dropped the idea of having slower moving characters. Although, our media technician told us we could achieve the effect by using a green screen: the green screen would show the sped up vehicles passing by and then have the actual characters recorded in front of the green screen. However, we would need a pretty big green screen and would have to resize both footages to match real life proportions. We would also have to include other features like shadows to make it look believable. On that note we completely withdrew the idea of having slow moving characters. Maybe we will include still characters instead.

As for now, I think its best we just stick to fast motion scenes with just vehicles no characters as you can see in the video above.

Thursday 1 December 2011

It's Best To Test (Red Filter)

In a previous post I showed that having a red filter would be a very nice effect for our music video. However I showed in Photoshop how to have the effect on a still shot. Whereas using the same method on a lenghty video would take a ridiculous amount of time. Also that was technically selective colouring and not 'filtering'.

However I decided to actually record footage at Waterloo to do an actual test. The footage was captured in HD and in colour. In the videos below you will be able to see how the filter works.



This is the before and after version showing a direct comparison.



This is the version with full resolution showing the red filter.

Unfortunately the filter did not work as well as we wanted it to. When I filter the other colours out in the software manually it also leaves grey patches where red is supposed to be. When the filter is applied with a software effect (automatically) it does a great job of capturing reds. However because red is in pink, orange, yellow and brown, some of those colours are picked up as well.

The red filter works really well in my opinion even though it does not completely filter. I am happy with the result and glad I tested it.

Storyboard & Boardmeeting

We held a boardmeeting about our music video, we discuss things like props, shots, editing effects and the storyboard.




Monday 21 November 2011

Is It A Dream?

We have came up with two ideas for our music video. Both of them will be similar but the concept is very different.
  1.  The first idea which I like very much is to have the protagonist in his own dream. In the dream the protagonist gets on with the girl he is speaking about. They are walking around London, smiling, conversing and having fun basically. Towards the end of the video the protagonist is rudely awakened by his parent for a silly reason and unfortunately returns to his boring, glum life.
  2. The second idea is a representation of real life however the protagonist and the girl are not getting along. In fact its like the girl does not see the protagonist. In this video the protagonist will be standing next to the girl but its like he's a ghost. Even though he is standing next to her, looking at her and talking about her she does not see him.
To give a better example of what I am trying to say you can watch this music video of Ludacris' 'Runaway Love'. In some of the scenes he appears near the people who he is talking about for audience purposes, but they do not notice him.

Music Video Conventions pt.II

We are looking at even more artist's music videos so we can capture as much influence and potential for our music video that we will definitely produce to highest quality imaginable.

The first video I found interesting was Sean Kingston's 'Eenie Meenie'.


The video consists of splitscreen and cloning. The cloning is technically splitting the screen as well. It allows you to duplicate any shot, giving the effect that there's two or more of the same thing.

I am particularly interested in the splitscreen. The splitscreen enables the music video to show 2 or more scenes at the same time. I love this effect and and we plan to use one side during the splitscreen to showcase London.

The second music video is Drake's 'Forever'.


I like the close-up shots of Drake. He doesn't look into the camera, it almost looks like he's talking to himself. We might have to use that shot for the protagonist in our video talking about the girl he likes.



The last video influence is Loick Essien's 'Stuttering'.

Finally we decided that this video was just perfect. Our music video and topic can completely relate to Loick Essien's one. Loick is also after a girl who he admires.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Red Is A Primary Colour

Red seems to be another important colour for this year's media project as well. Red is a distinctive, meaningful and interesting colour. In our AS media project we used a red filter for Tie (our short film opening sequence). Here we are using it yet again. Here are some shots i've edited using photoshop to portray the red filter we intend to use in our music video.




As you can see the red filter has made everything else black and white. I acheived this effect simply by:
1. Duplicating the layer
2. Desaturating the bottom layer
3. Using the magic toolbrush tool to make a selection of anything that is red (top layer)
4. Inverting selection and deleting (or cutting) inverted selection

And there you are... 4 easy steps will help you to produce this effect. Because there are two layers and the bottom one being black and white - when you delete the selection on the top layer only what you selected will show. In other words red on top, black and white on bottom.

 Here is a preview of the process in Photoshop. As you can see, two layers and my selection. Simple.

Monday 14 November 2011

London Is The Location


London Is The Location - free slideshows

I took these photos of Waterloo /Southbank myself. I hope you enjoy the slideshow and get to see some of the beautiful shots. 

PS: Its nice to play the song 'Looking At You' whilst watchimg this slideshow. It helps to capture the idea of our music video. Calm song, busy London. (Song can be found below in the previous post).

Monday 7 November 2011

Looking At Ideas

Finally the song has been completed.  Its in final stages and I love it! The song is called 'Looking At You'.
Looking At You ft. SVF by KdotC

Now the song is completed I can now have a clearer perspective and plan for the music video to work around. The song's chorus mentions the 'corner store' so when filming around Waterloo we will have to use a corner store as a prop.

Monday 10 October 2011

Locating A Location

We have come up with a location idea for our music video. Mise-En Scene is a very important consideration when making any type of video. However, for our music video we feel that it would be really effective to film around London Waterloo/ Southbank area.

Waterloo is a popular place in London its where most people commute to and from various destinations. However, we also want to film at night. Now that its winter time and the sun goes down quicker than usual it would give us more time to film.



Waterloo is a great place to film because it reminds people of the city and how hectic life can be. However our song is going to be calm which will hopefully have a juxtaposition. We have taken a different aproach and we are no longer using the beat we intended to. We are now using an instrumental entitled 'Forgive Me'. Forgive Me is a calm R'n'B beat that I created in Fruity Loops studio. You can hear it here:

Ayo has the lyrics to the 'Forgive Me' instrumental and we can't wait to put the song together. We are seriously motivated to work hard and achieve outstanding results this year. We are aiming high and definitely putting our all in.

I have also discussed with my team that the video should be black and white. But at the same time has a filter that allows red and white to be shown. Red means love and passion and white portrays cleanliness, purity and serenity. Both are considered as romantic colours and we are making the video depicts scenes of romance, caring and attraction. Which is a very important part of our song, so it is only right to do a narrative music video to match the song.

However, red and white are also very common colours that you will see around London. Red buses and white lights. Red buses flow through London as if it were a vessel - once again, we wanted to show busy lives but also keep it calm at the same time. The black and white effect will release a mellow feeling to the video viewers although anything red or white, whether it be buses, tail lights or even clothes will show up in colour.




Moreover, the colours red and white can both be found on the England flag and also the Union Jack. Britain, England, London. London is the location!

Saturday 24 September 2011

Hip Hop Should Stop?

Q: Hip hop music promotes materialism, misogyny and criminal activity. It is responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of young men and women. Do you agree?

Hip Hop is a genre where rappers and emcees like to express themselves on beats that usually consist of hard-hitting kicks and snares or claps.

It has been said that Hip Hop music promotes materialism, misogyny and criminal activity. It also portrays a bad image of young black women because Hip Hop is a genre of black origin which started to take a trend in New York in the 1970s. Here are two music videos that agree with the statement:

Moment For Life - Meek Mill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806tX9ZN9GI

Cake - Lloyd Banks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47FP731RUQ

In both music videos we can observe materialism is focused on, especially in 'Moment For Life' where criminal activity occurs. A gang of black males approach Meek Mill for some materials, his jewellery and beloved chains.

I agree with this statement as the Hip Hop scene is flooded with artists who swear and fill songs with nasty, negative or violent lyrics. For example, I have recently come across two artists, they are in the same gang: 'Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All' (OFWGKTA). The two artisrts go by the name of Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, The Creator. I must say they do stand out because they use diverse beats that they produce themselves and their lyrical content is also different opposed to other artists.

Instead of rapping about guns and money like most other Hip Hop artists they look at Hip Hop from a different standpoint and usually mention killing, rape and religion.

Earl - Earl Sweatshirt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78_loMbmKJ8 (Music video)
http://www.rapgenius.com/Earl-sweatshirt-earl-lyrics (Lyrics meanings)

Yonkers - Tyler, The Creator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSbZidsgMfw (Music video)
http://www.rapgenius.com/Tyler-the-creator-yonkers-lyrics (Lyrics meanings)

The lyrical content in both songs is absolutely ear-opening and controversial. On the other hand there are positive Hip Hop artists out there like Lupe Fiasco and Nas. They withdraw from the usual talk about money, girls and cars and instead try to spread a positive influence through their music.

Nas has a track called 'I Can' and in that song he is encouraging the younger audience to aim high and motivate others to work hard and be what they want to be. To be big men and women with an actual future that is worth caring about. In the music video he is trying to break the stereotype of young black people. We can see that in the music video there are many black children so Nas is directly speaking to them through the power of music.

I Can - Nas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvVfgvHucRY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL (Music Video)
http://rapgenius.com/Nas-i-can-lyrics (Lyrics Meanings)

Lupe Fiasco's track is entitled 'Words I Never Said' in this song he releases what is in his mind, gets things off his chest and speaks about politics and the way the world is run by people who don't deserve the authority. Again, with the power of music he even targets President Obama and says what he did wrong. Lupe Fiasco speaks positive in this song because he wants top open peoples eyes about what should be changed and reveal the secrets that some may not know about.

Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvVfgvHucRY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL (Music Video)
http://rapgenius.com/Lupe-fiasco-words-i-never-said-lyrics (Lyrics Meanings)

Here are a few more songs that avoid the stereotypical Hip Hop music video and song.

Live Your Life ft. Rihanna - T.I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVHN6eO4Xg (Music Video)
http://rapgenius.com/Ti-live-your-life-lyrics (Lyrics Meanings)

Airplanes ft. Hayley Williams - B.o.B
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn6-c223DUU (Music Video)
http://rapgenius.com/Bob-airplanes-lyrics (Lyrics Meanings)

How To Love - Lil Wayne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Gf4-eT3w0&ob=av3e (Music Video)
http://rapgenius.com/Lil-wayne-how-to-love-lyrics (Lyrics Meanings)

I hereby draw to the conclusion that even though Hip Hop is crowded with negative lyrics and music videos with bad influence - there are also Hip Hop artists that counter the statement and use Hip Hop to portray positive, motivational and caring songs.

Artists nowadays are using music to send or even preach messages across to young listeners and fans. Music especially conjoint with a powerful narrative video can encourage people to aim higher and do the best they can.

Thursday 28 July 2011

On The Beat

Our A2 media project will consist of a music track and an advert, website or album art cover for the relevant track. Therefore we have to start of with the music track. But to make a track we will need a beat and lyrics to go with it.

For me and my team, finding a beat is easy - as I have music production software and often produce work in my free time. In fact I also upload them to YouTube just to share my work and gather opinions. Because my work is already on the internet - the team insist that they have already found the track they would like to use.

The track is entitled 'Hadouken'. And the lyrics will be related to themes of anger and violence.
Here you can preview the beat but it is not exactly in final stages yet: 

Saturday 16 July 2011

Serving A Survey

We know quite a lot about music genres and the possible music scenes we are about to enter. However we felt it would be best to still hold a brief but detailed enough survey. Too many questions and the public may refrain from answering them all. Too little and it would be pointless. I feel that Daniel (in charge of research and scheduling) has put together a great questionnaire http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RHWDX9

Monday 4 July 2011

Music Video Conventions

Today we learnt about three types of music videos. Perfomance, Conceptual - Narrative and Conceptual - Non Narrative.

+ Performance music videos show musical instruments actually being played in real time, the artist rapping/ singing or the artist dancing with other dancers. e.g. I Wanna Rock - Snoop Dogg


+ Narrative shows images relating to the song topic. The images and scenes enhance and reinforce the messages in the song. e.g. Yo (Excuse Me Miss) - Chris Brown


+ Non Narrative is reffered to as completely random. The images or scenes do not relate to the song. I Go - Wave Machines