Welcome Message


Hello, and welcome to my blog. I am currently studying Media Studies at Ilkley Grammar School at A2 level and this blog will show you everything that I will be looking at this year. Each blog post will be like a piece of work that can be looked at individually. I hope you enjoy looking at my blog as I enjoy posting on it.

Friday 9 December 2011

Snow scene problem

Unfortunately due to Yorkshire not having a freezing cold winter as predicted, the degree in temperature has not been cold enough for it to snow. This leaves us in an awkward position as one of the scenes in our music video was to be filmed in the snow. Nearly every year it snows in Yorkshire in the winter, however due to our luck of predicting a snow scene it has not snowed. Faye and I will have to re-think this scene perhaps doing a raining scene with umbrellas instead.

We still hold out for snow in January.

Podcast 5 - uploading new footage and extra filming

Pointer Sisters original vid



The Pointer Sisters were the original girl band in 1983 to create the song Jump (for my love). The song was released prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics games, the song's video featured footage of athletes competing in track and field events. The song was the second of four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in a row for the sisters in 1984; it peaked at #3 in July. It also appeared on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and reached the Top 10 in the UK, peaking at number six. The song also netted the group a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1985.
The song sang by the Pointer Sisters is the original and the music video was seen as quite visually impressive for the 80s. However I believe Girls Aloud gave the song a more modern factor which works better with the music video I wish to create and the vocals match the age of the group members a lot better.


Pop group reunions

Recently past pop group S Club 7 have been rumoured to be back for a reunion in 2012, and the pop group Steps have already formed a reunion and are touring the UK. The group steps have recently announced that they are continuing to embark on their tour in 2012. All seven members of S Club 7 are hoping to reform after seeing how successful Steps reunion has been. Their representatives are trying to agree a deal with Simon Fuller, who still owns the S Club brand.

Seeing these former pop groups reunite and the success of the Spice Girls reunite in 2007, other former groups are hoping to come back together in the present day. It is already rumoured that the girl band Girls Aloud have decided to plan a reunion tour in the back end of 2012. This will be a great chance for the girl band to promote there already produced albums and to earn even more cash with advertisements and promotions etc.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Treatment

Treatment - Faye

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Podcast 4 - planning to re-film and upload




Lighting of pop music videos




The pop music video is notorious for the glamouress full beam bright lights which make the artists look flawless. My music video three out of five scenes are inside. I hope to borrow two set lights from my schools art department so I can get the bright light effect in the scenes. These lights will hopefully brighten the group member’s faces and also brighten the set. The lights being shone on the girls faces during medium close ups will make their skin pale and flawless, other pop artists us this lights such as Britney Spears or Katy Perry.
I also hope to lighten the scenes in editing to make them even brighter and as similar to pop music videos as I can.

Podcast 3 - ideas for sample scene

Preperation for music video





Recently I have purchased 200 white feathers, 100 10 inch white balloons and 100 pink balloons, and one balloon pump :S. These props were bought from where most of my internet purchases are from… the amazing eBay! eBay the online market stall is a great place for finding random items you may need for cheap prices. The 100 pillow feathers cost merely £4.50, and the 200 balloons £12.99. Not bad seeing as they sell a pack of ten at Tesco for £1. The feathers will be used in the sleepover scene, some being put in pillows and slow motioned downed during the pillow fight scene. I also think a close up of feathers falling from the ceiling would also be a nice shot to include. Other shots included would be group shots of the girl members playing will the many fathers in the bedroom.

The 200 balloons will be inflated on the day and placed on top of each other in a small room. I wanted to hopefully borrow large studio lights to light the room. I will film each member of the band playing in the room full of balloons. As the balloons will be in a small room they will be piled on top of each other hopefully up to the artists wastes. I will also have one member of the band bursting a balloon full of glitter which will be put into slow motion.

I have acquired three large bottles of glitter two of blue and one of red. I think having a member of the band blowing the glitter into the camera would look visually very interesting. I think a close up of the falling glitter would also look great and be appropriate to the pop vibe of the music video.


Both. Other Girls Aloud music videos

Girls Aloud, as one of the top and well known girl bands ever have over 200 songs! There are many to choose from but the one that stood out to me was the song Jump - this is the track we are using in our project although I am taking a cheeky little look at other music videos they have produced and why we did not choose the track to them...
Whole lotta history
This song is very slow, we did not want this slow, romantic gesture as it is not that well known and we wanted to make a fun exciting music video! The original video to this is very 'lovey dovey' which is good as it suits the lyrics, as each girl, unlike the other videos have worked on are more upbeat and fun video. This video shows the girls of the band looking miserable, obviously to go with the lyrics but it is not a denotation we need to be inspired by.





Sound of the underground


This song was released in 2003. The chorus ‘sound of the underground’ is the main aspect to the music video, as the band members all sing in a grotty underground train station. The metal cage the band members are singing in throughout the music video also portrays the dull, dark and neglected area the underground train station is. ‘waters running in the wrong direction’ lyric is portrayed in the music video through water dripping off a dirty light bulb in reverse from the underground station.

The song starts with electric guitars and then the tempo and the beat increases, and becomes more sharp and edgy. The visuals to the music video match up to the sharp and fast beat of the song as the band members are collectively singing in what appears a dark and dreary cage in a underground tunnel. The drum beat slows down whilst the girls sing the verses around different parts of the underground and the beat then picks up again when they sing the chorus in their cage. 
  
This song is as upbeat as the song Jump, but Faye and I thought that Jump would have more relation to the band characters we wanted to use. We also thought the song would be more fun to remake as there were more ideas we could use for this song compared to Sound of the Underground.

Podcast 2 - editing sample footage

Sean Kingston music video ideas

The Sean Kingston music video has interesting editing and light effects that I wanted to use as aspects to my video. The first idea was that of the balloon filled with glitter popping, and edited with slow motion. Faye and I have tried this idea twice, one with a large amount of glitter, and the other with no so much. The results can been seen on our sample footage behind the scenes
http://hattiesmusicvideo.blogspot.com/2011/11/sample-footage-no1.html
 
The video also includes a thin blue light edited across the clips on medium close ups of Sean. In the club scene I think an effect of a light edited on would give a really great effect as it would appear that the club had more lights and would create greater visuals that the club was more active.
 
To see my deconstruction of this music video visit my blog post

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Hit the lights music video ideas

Hit the lights by Selena Gomez has a great music video that really inspired me for the production of my own music video. The large balloons bursting and Selena dancing in the room filled with pink balloons encouraged my desire to work with balloons in certain scenes of my music video. I have recently purchased 100 balloons which I intend to use on the sleepover scene of the music video. Slowing down footage of balloons floating and bursting really gives a good effect in music videos and along with the feathers I also intend to use the whole vibe to the music video will have a pop video look to it.

The song Jump that I am using for my video has some fast pace beats in the chorus and so I intend to use multiple jump cuts from different scenes such as the singers from my girl band dancing in a room of balloons and feathers. The music video for hit the lights, does this very well. I think that changing the colouring of the different shots in editing would also have a great effect.

I am also going to use multiple layering over some of the balloon scenes to give the scenes an artistic vibe. I was hoping to use either glitter, shots of feathers falling or popping balloons.

1st ideas - costumes

1st Costume Ideas

Sample scene vodcast

Podcast 1 - ideas for sample footage

Monday 5 December 2011

Charity shop scene

For one specific scene in our music video we are hoping to film in a charity shop, where the five different girls try on unusual outfits and costumes. I want this scene to be similar to one in the film Wild Child released in 2008 directed by Nick Moore. The scene consists of five girls looking for and trying on different clothes to buy for a party they are attending. There are a variety of transitions and shot types that make this scene look interesting. I wish to do my own rendition of the scene whilst trying out similar transitions that may work with my own music video.
These pictures show some of the camera angles and edited transitions that I wish to try and replicate.