Tuesday 19 November 2013

CONSTRUCTION: Location Recce

 
We decided to use Silvermere golf course as our final location for the Mad Hatters Scene
 
The mise-en-scene works well for our Alice In Wonderland scene due to the woodland foreground and mystical features eg. clock hammered into the tree. Roland Barthes distinguish the difference between connotation and denotation he quotes 'denotation is not the first meaning, but pretends to be so; under this illusion, it is ultimately no more than the last of the connotations (the one which seems both to establish and close the reading), the superior myth by which the text pretends to return to the nature of language, to language as nature' (Barthes 1974, 9). In our scene we decided to use the woodlands because it connotes madness. In Midsummer nights dream the characters are referred to being  'we are mad within this wood'. in our scene, to a certain extent, we are trying to recreate this atmosphere of madness which contrasts the reality and normality of the 'real world'. the mis-en-scene helps portray this madness through the woodland trees, the small carved wooden statues, and the hammered clock on the tree
 
 
 





CONSTRUCTION:TABLE SCENE (SCENE 1)

Today we started filming the first scene of our music video of the couple sitting opposite each other at a dining room table.
Our main objectives:
  • candle-lit romantic lighting that delivered atmosphere but also clarity
  • convincing lip synching using ECU
  • sharp focus
Our outcomes:
  • good atmosphere in candlelit scene 
  • concerns about sharpness of focus
  • successful lip-synching
One of the outcomes of feedback was not to use the lip-synching shots of the male singer. The candlelight worked well to create a magical atmosphere.



CONSTRUCTION: Burning ash scene

Displaying Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 10.50.00.pngDisplaying Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 10.32.56.png

Thursday 14 November 2013

PLANNING: Filming at school

 Yeah, you, you wreck me cuts to reality, close up of girls tears, boys hands clenched (filming against a white background using studio lighting)I put you high up in the sky-(performance shot) close up (filming against a white background using studio lighting)
And now, you're not coming down
It slowly turned, you let me burn-girl standing behind fire, mean't to look like she is burning and metaphorically inside

I never hit so hard in love-cuts to powder paint being thrown, slow motion, drum kit being hit, white room (song xperia advert) (studio lighting, white sheet, extreme close up)
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball-powder paint

Friday 8 November 2013

PLANNING: Script for my video presentation

I access online news articles such as The Time Newspaper. I also follow on Twitter, The Times rock and pop critic Will Hodgkinson. 
 

 
 

PLANNING: AMATEUR V PROFESSIONAL


In Avril Lavigne's music video, Alice,  it portrays Avril as transitioning between a reality and dream world. The dream world portrays Avril wearing a long gothic dress, whereas the reality shows her wearing everyday, normal clothing.
We, too, are planning on having our artist transition between a reality and  fantasy-dream like world. However, in our video, the reality world represents the artists true feelings and emotions about her break -up, whereas the fantasy world represents a happy, ideal state of mind

In Rihanna's music video, Stay, there are many extreme close ups of her singing, as the camera lingers on not just her lips, but on other features, including her eyes. In our music video, we plan to film many extreme close-up shots of our artists lips as she sings, and of her eyes. These extreme close-ups include tears falling from our artists eyes and are being used to convey a sense of emotion that the viewer can also share.
We are Never Ever Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift includes shots of the couple fighting. Our music video is also about a break up, and we have decided to also include a few seconds shot of our couple fighting. Unlike Taylor swifts music video which is quite playful, we have decided to take a more serious approach to the filmed shots.
Cher Llyods music video With Your Love also contains images and shots which follow a fairy-tale like story. In this shot, Cher Llyod is bottling up a 'love potion' which she then puts in her 'magic' pot later to cast a spell. In our music video, we are also taking a fairy-tale like approach, and  using this idea of a 'love potion' to represent the captivating and uncontrollable love our artist has for her 'man'. We are going to have a close up of the man handing the girl the love potion.
Gabrielle Aplin makes use of good lighting in her music video, The Power of Love. She uses fairy-lights to create a very serene and peaceful environment as she sings about love. We have decided to use similar lighting for when our artists enters this 'dream like' world. In one of our shots, we also plan to use fairy-lights to create a happy, romantic and peaceful setting showing a time when the couple were still together. In other shots, we might just use sunlight to create a mesmorising and dream like world which our artist occasionally enters into.
The music video Don't Come around here no more, by Tom Petty,  follows the storyline of Alice and Wonderland by including shots of Alice meeting the caterpillar and shots of her at the mad hatters tea party. We also plan to follow the story line of Alice and Wonderland to represent our fairytale/dream world. Our artist will also be dressed in an Alice and Wonderland costume and will  'attend' a mad hatters tea party, however this tea party isn't used as anything but to represent this fairy-tale world and follow the story line of Alice.


 

PLANNING: CALL SHEETS 3

PLANNING:CALL SHEETS 2

PLANNING: CALL SHEETS



Wednesday 9 October 2013

PLANNING: HOW MY BAND DEVELOPED ITS STAR BRAND

Miley Cyrus has rapidly transformed  from a child pop star to a much more provocative and mature solo act. A lot of child stars fade from fame as they grow and later re-emerge as developed adults, but Cyrus is different, because she never really left the spotlight. We’ve been watching her grow up and define herself as an adult.



The daughter of country singer Billy Rae Cyrus, she has had minor roles in television series throughout her childhood. Cyrus rose to prominence as a teen idol after appearing on the Disney channel: this is significant because her audience and fan base grew to have certain expectation that she would remain the wholesome innocent star that she started out as. She then signed a recording contract with Disney-owned Hollywood records in 2007 where she combined Hannah Montana the TV Disney series with her music career. The soundtrack became a number 1 in the USA. By the time she was 18 she had seven top ten hits on billboard hot 100.


Cyrus said that Britney Spears has been powerful influence for her, which makes sense. Spears topped the charts when Cyrus was growing up. "The way I am about Britney," Cyrus said in the documentary, "that’s the way a lot of people are about me. She was my first record. I was a lot of people’s first album. First idol. I’ll be a die hard fan for Britney, always.”
Source: E Online. http://goo.gl/yyEzxp 26.08.13

Cyrus has developed her brand through being active on social networks, and even visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. Cyrus artfully juggles being a celebrity and being a regular person. She regularly interacts with the media and with her fans, but makes sure to take time for herself. VIEW MILEY'S TWITTER HERE!

In 2007 she went on tour with the Jonas brothers, another pop sensation . Tickets sold out in minutes. On the conclusion of the tour Walt Disney Pictures released 'Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus 'Best of both worlds'. It earned over $31 million. 
In 2009 Cyrus launched her clothing line and was promoted with her first play.  
In 2008  she began transitioning into an adult image, she negotiated a film deal introducing her to an older audience.
In 2012 generated media attention after cutting her traditionally long brown hair in favour of a pixie style haircut. 


If there’s one thing we learnt from MTV's Video Music Awards (VMAs), it’s that Cyrus is a very different person than the adorable little girl we once knew. The VMAs were the moment when the world realised just how different she’d become. Cyrus made it clear that she doesn't regret her decisions, and that she's dedicated to being true to herself.

Speaking about her performance at the VMAs, Cyrus said, "I am very comfortable with sexuality. I like pushing the boundaries." This could be applied to the rest of her transformation. Her recent hits, "We Can’t Stop" and "Wrecking Ball," both displayed the ways in which she’s changed over the past few years.


                                                          Annie Lennox on Cyrus

The fashion and documentary photographer Terry Richardson has helped to rebrand Cyrus from squeaky clean Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel to pouting provocateur. In a recent set of shots he has her doing something suggestive with a fizzy-drink can. Sineas O'Connor wrote an open letter to Cyrus urging her not let the music industry "make a prostitute" out of her.




PLANNING: EDITING TECHNIQUES

Slow Motion: I plan to use slow motion in the chorus scenes of the song 'Wrecking Ball'. In this scene i want to show the couple arguing with the lyrics over there speech so they are just seen mouthing there argument. Moreover i want to film the china on the table being thrown and smashed against the wall or kitchen table. This link i found will help me achieve this effect well.
HOW TO ACHIEVE THE SLOW MOTION EFFECT WELL!

Cutaway: My music video involves a vast amount of cutaway shots as the story line involves the couple going from the real world, to the girls dream Alice in Wonderland type world. This link will help me in the process because it involves a lot of careful continuity and good composition. Shooting seamless and well-planned cutaways can add depth and dimension to your story.
HOW TO ACHIEVE CUTAWAY EDITING WELL!

Post production: (colour correction): From researching music videos i'm a real fan for the monochrome, vintage look. I want to have this monochrome effect throughout the video, with a slightly hazy edge to the dream like world so audiences know there is a change.
HOW TO ACHIEVE COLOUR CORRECTION WELL!

Short Takes: The lyrics at the beginning are fast paced and choppy, so i had the idea of several shot reverse shots between the man and the women. I want the camera in close up and show there faces in neutral expression. This involves in editing to cut the scenes and stop and start them.


RESEARCH: Directors

Richard Phillips
For Richard PhillipS, his merging of subject and genre continues to provide challenging comment on the situation and reach of contemporary art.
Phillips has embarked on a new phase of work that centres on the self-awareness of real-life subjects.  Lindsay Lohan (2011) and Sasha Grey (2011), his first two films, made their debut at the “Commercial Break” film project at the 2011 Biennale di Venezia. In these "motion portraits ", the notorious actresses pose erotically: Grey in a modernist John Lautner home, and Lohan in an aquamarine infinity pool. Both actresses project self-conscious recognition in their performances and in turn point toward the transformative potential of narrative action, framed by their compelling beauty.  Phillips’s third film, First Point (2012) marks his second collaboration with Lohan and third collaboration with legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele. A contemporary film, First Point juxtaposes haunting night-time imagery with surf sequences of Lohan.

Phillips uses joint forms of image production to reorder the relationship of Pop art to its subjects. The staging and format of his films presage the return of their subjects as paintings; eventually, they form the foundation for lush, large-scale works such as SashaLindsay II, and Lindsay III.
Born in Massachusetts in 1962, Richard Phillips lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work in many individual and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions include “Richard Phillips: Paintings and Drawings,” Le Consortium, Dijon, 2004; “Richard Phillips,” Kunstverein Hamburg, 2002, and “Richard Phillips,” Kunsthalle Zurich, 2000. He is represented in important public and private collections worldwide including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the Denver Museum, Colorado; UBS Paine Webber Art Collection, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern, London; Van Abbe museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. First Point premiered at Art Unlimited at Art Basel, Switzerland in June 2012.
Sam Brown


Strong”, starring the band and a guy who puts on an awesome, dangerous-looking and completely one-of-a-kind fireworks show for his young daughter. The band wandering the streets of an apocalyptic-looking LA while a father and child plot what looks like some kind of attack. In reality, they're actually organising a firework display in which the dad is turned into some sort of human Catherine Wheel for no apparent reason. Directed by the man behind the phenomenal ‘Rolling In the Deep‘ by Adele, Sam Brown, has managed to capture the essence of London Grammar’s chilling new track. The narrative of the video is slightly ambiguous, but the muted tones throughout add a strong atmosphere to the clip. It is a cinematic and emotive visual accompaniment to the mesmerising cut. 
Sam Brown is a multi-award winning director who transcends various styles and genres of the moving image. He has worked with music names that we all know; from Foo Fighters to James Blunt to The Verve and produces quality videos which, in his words, “Bring out the best in the artist”. Sam seems to have a gift for capturing artists in a very personal and endearing way, with none of the glam & glitz that Hollywood-made MV’s tend to have the look of.  Magazine called his Grammy & double MTV Award winning promo for Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’, ‘2011’s most watched and liked pop video in the UK’ with over 265m hits on YouTube.

Friday 4 October 2013

RESEARCH: Industry

RCA Records (logo).svg
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was founded in 1919.  It was part of General Electric in the hopes that it would take over the radio technology market.
 In the year 1929 RCA purchased the 'Victor Talking Machine Company' which was the world's largest manufacturer of gramophones and gramophone records. So RCA became RCA Victor.
RCA Records is the second-oldest recording company in US history. RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label in Canada, as it was only one of two Canadian record companies (now Universal Music Canada) to survive the Great Depression.
RCA is the name of three different co-owned record labels. RCA Records is the PopRockHip-HopR&B and Country music label
From the Billboard website- Article 'Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' Helped Convince RCA To Sign Her'
READ ARTICLE HERE. 
RCA president/COO Tom Corson says
"We feel like [the video] over-performed, and we were very pleased with the pickup," continues Corson. "The video is obviously high-quality, and the song is beautiful and wonderful. It's one of the songs that convinced us to sign her."
Produced by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Cirkut, "Wrecking Ball" offers starker lyrical content and a slower tempo than Cyrus' previous single, "We Can't Stop," which spent most of the summer camped out in the Hot 100's top five.
"Now we're heading into fall, and ... the timing is perfect for this type of tempo and style," Dastur says, adding that "Wrecking Ball" is still in Z100's "new" rotation category but that early indications signal a huge hit. The track debuts at No. 35 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Miley Cyrus is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.In 2005, Cyrus was cast as the lead in the Disney series "Hannah Montana", about a teen leading a double life as a pop star.The show was a smash and hit records, sell-out tours and merchandising deals soon followed. Cyrus became a teen superstar. Following the success of "Hannah Montana", Cyrus made the move into other roles - including playing Ronnie Miller in The Last Song (2010) and Lola in LOL (2012) alongside Demi Moore.Cyrus' maturing image progressed with the film The Last Song and her third album Can't Be Tamed in 2010. The latter project featured more prominent dance elements than her earlier releases, and was promoted through sexually-themed performances. In the following two years, she focused on her acting career with several television and film appearances. In 2013, Cyrus will release her fourth album, Bangerz, through RCA Records. Its singles "We Can't Stop" and "Wrecking Ball" were promoted with provocative music videos. The former was additionally performed during a controversial performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, while the latter became her first number-one hit in the United States.



FIND MORE ABOUT MILEY CYRUS HERE ON WIKIPEDIA!

RESEARCH: Genres

Synthpop- 
  • stylistic meshing of electro and pop music. 
  •  combines song structure typical to pop songs (verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/chorus)
  • predominantly features a synthesizer as the lead instrument.
  • Synthpop derived from the same place as electro, although it didn’t find a real home until the mid-to-late 1980s when electronic music really began to influence mainstream pop, yielding what most incorrectly call New Wave
  •  E.g Miley Cyrus,Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Freezepop, Bodies Without Organs, The Knife


WATCH 'WE CAN'T STOP'


Hip hop-
  • is characterized by stylized rhythmic music, often accompanied by rapping or emceeing and deejaying. 
  • influenced from jazz poetry, call and response parterns and soul music.  
  • originated from African-American communities during the late 1970s in New York City
  •  It began in the 1970s in the South Bronx of New York City and is characterised by scratching, sampling, rapping and beat boxing. 
  • E.g Drake, Jay Z, Kendrick Lemar, Pusha T, ASAP Rocky, Tyler the Creator 

Rock-
  • Rock music, sometimes also known as "rock and roll," 
  • a style of music that became popular in the 1950s in America and Europe. 
  • It is primarily based on older musical styles, such as the rhythm and blues music originated by African American with a heavy focus on guitar, drums, and powerful vocals. 
  • Today, the term "rock music" is used to refer to a wide range of musical forms, including anything from soft pop to heavy metal. 
  • The form has changed significantly since the days of Elvis Presley, but the term can still refer to his songs as easily as they can refer to more recent bands like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. 
  • E.g. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Green Day, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Kiss, Linkin Park

R&B-
  • Rhythm and Blues music, or R&B music
  • was originally termed "race music", included any form of music intended for black audiences
  • combination of jazz, gospel, and blues
  • the original genre focused on boogie rhythms and included such famous acts as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. 
  • The end of World War II produced a surprising call for race music, the R&B music genre took off as a result. 
  • E.g. Adele, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Esmee Denters, Frank Ocean, Kelly Rowland, Mis-Teeq

POP MUSIC
  • music of general appeal to teenagers
  • a bland watered-down version of rock'n'roll
  • emphasis on rhythm and harmony
  • often a focus on romantic love 
  • E.g.: Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars


PLANNING: Target Audience

When planning on our music video 'Wrecking Ball', one of the things we did was deciding who our target audience is. Our music video is set in the modern days with characters who are in an turmoil relationship. It is energetic, hectic and imaginative, and aimed at the kind of mainstream audience that are into mainstream pop music. Teenage girls i feel would relate to this video as they go through the confusions of love.

This is my viewer profile that I made in Photoshop

 

Thursday 3 October 2013

PLANNING: PERMISSION

We contacted RCA Record Label Company through Facebook for permission to use Miley Cyrus's song, Wrecking Ball.



Friday 27 September 2013

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

This is what we have come up with so far for our shot list. During the process, we might add and make changes to this table

SOUND VOICE_OVER
VISION
ACTORS
PROPS
NOTES
INTRO OF PRECUSSION
ESTABLISHING SHOT, TWO PERSON SHOT OF A COUPLE FACING OPPOSITE EACH OTHER ON A DINING ROOM TABLE
JO + TJ
CUTLERY, PLATES, TABLE CLOTH, DINNING ROOM TABLE
TO THE BEAT, SHOT REVERSE SHOT OF GIRL AND BOY  NEUTRAL EXPRESSIONS
‘ WE CLAWED’
CLOSE UP ON GIRL
JO
N/A
NEUTRAL EXPRESSION, MOUTHING THE WORDS
‘WE CHAINED’
REACTION SHOT OF BOY
TJ
N/A
QUICK EDITING TO THE BEAT
‘ OUR HEARTS OM VAIN’
SHOT REVERSE SHOT GIRL
JO
N/A

‘WE JUMPED’
REACTION SHOT OF BOY
TJ
N/A

‘NEVER ASKING WHY’
LOW SHOT; SHOT REVERSE SHOT
JO
N/A

‘WE KISSED, I FELL UNDER YOUR SPELL’
FLASHBACK TO THE BEAT. LOCATION (FOREST) WHERE THEY FIRST MET

CLOSE UP OF THEIR HANDS COMING TOGETHER. BOY HANDS HER THE LOVE POTION
TJ/JO
LOVE POTION, LITTLE BOTTLE WITH LABEL
LOCATION HORSEL WOODS – BOY HANDS HER LOVE POTION
‘A LOVE NO ONE COULD DENY’
DREAM LIKE, FAIRY LIGHTS _ SILHOUTTES OF THEM AND THEIR HANDS TOGETHER
JO/ TJ
FAIRY LIGHTS

‘DON'T YOU EVER SAY I JUST WALKED AWAY I WILL ALWAYS WANT YOU
BOY MOUTHS “I LOVE YOU” SHE DOESN'T SAY IT BACK
N/A

DOES LOVE HIM REALLY BUT DOESN'T SHOW IT SO BOY LEAVES HER
I CAN’T LIVE A LIE, RUNNING FOR MY LIFE
BOY AND GIRL CHASING EACH OTHER THROUGH THE WOODS
JO/ TJ

SLOW MOTION

LOW ANGLE SHOT OF FEET RUNNING ON GROUND
I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL
CUTS TO SLOW MOTION ARGUING OF COUPLE TRASHING PLACE, THROWING CUTLERY, SMASHING CHINA, SLOW MOTION

CUTLERY, CHINA, TABLE

------




‘ALL YOU EVER DID WAS WRECK ME, YEAH YEAH YOU WRECK ME’
REALITY- CLOSE UP OF GIRLS TEARS- BOYS HANDS CLENCHED



I PUT YOU UP IN THE SKY
PERFORMANCE CLOSE UP OF LIPS > MATCHING THE LYRICS
JO

DARK LIGHT ON FACE BUT DARK ALL AROUND< LIKE A SPOTLIGHTS ON FACE
IT SLOWLY TURNED, YOU LET ME BURN
GIRL STANDING BEHIND FIRE, MEAT TO LOOK LIKE SHE IS BURNING  METAPHORICALLY INSIDE
JO

REALITY
AND NOW YOUR ASHES ON THE GROUND
CUTS TO 2 CIGARETTES, BURNING DOWN INTO ASH IN ASHTRAY
CIGARETTES, ASHTRAY, TABLE

CLOSE UP
DON'T YOU EVER SAY –I JUST WALKED AWAY
SCRUNCHING HAIR (BACK INTO DREAM) AERIAL SHOT OF HER IN A DREAM< HER HAND STILL HOLDING THE LOVE POTION



I WILL ALWAYS WANT YOU
SET OUT LIKE MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY, EVERYTHING HAPPY, SMILING AND POURING EACHOTHER DRINKS


NAPKINS
TABLE CLOTH
CUPCAKE STAND
TEAPOT
------




I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL
(DREAM WORLD) RIPS OFF ALICE IN WONDERLAND COSTUME, TO REVEAL AN EDGY LOOK (SHORTS, CROP TOP BUT NOT TRASHY)
JO


I NEVER HIT SO HARD BEFORE
CUTS TO POWDER PAINT BEING THROWN, SLOW MOTION, DRUM KIT BEING HIT WHITE ROOM (SONY XPERIO ADVERT)


POWDER PAINT DRUNK KIT

----
POWDER PAINT SLOW MOTION



“YEAH, I JUST CLOSED…..YOU WRECK ME’
RUNNING THROUGH WOODS IN CLOTHES



I NEVER MEANT TO START A WAR
SHOT REVERSE SHOT BOY + GIRL, CAMERA FOLLOWING MOVEMENT ON A ROUNDABOUT, CLOSE UP



----------




DON’T YOU EVER SAY…WANT YOU
DROPS LOVE POTION + WALKS AWAY


EXTREMEM CLOSE UP OF LIPS AND MOUTHS THE LAST LINE