Lady GaGa and Madonna

Is Lady GaGa the new Madonna?

This could be the press just trying to promote GaGa but there maybe some truth behind the statement.  

Aspects that Lady GaGa and Madonna have in common are:

•  They are both Italian American
•  They both started out in New York underground clubs.
•  They both became famous after dying their hair blonde
•  They both have a unique fashion style
•  They flaunt their body’s and are very comfortable in their own skin
•  They both had a fearless determination to succeed
•  They don’t mind causing a lot of controversy

Mini-vid Filming and Editing

On Friday the 14th July my group and I filmed more for our mini music video Plastic Dreams. My team had previously filmed two weeks before some different types of shots and footage, but found that we had not included enough variety of shots, and so we filmed more shots that we could include in our final music video. In the previous week my team and I had started editing our music video and so had the start of it complete, and had some idea of what kinds of shots we wanted to include.
We decided to film in the original location of bluebell woods in Ilkley, and shot a larger variety of shots to include in our music video. These shots included point of view shots (POV), long shots, panning shots and close ups.
We faced some problems when shooting in the woods in Ilkley. These included a primary school of children walking through the woods at one point during filming and the noise of the traffic passing by the woods. Aspects in the woods that worked to our advantage were the eerie noises of birds and the creaking of trees in the wind, which gave the shots a nice creepy vibe to them.

The $7,000,000 Muisic Video.

Scream is a duet performed by Michael Jackson and his younger sister Janet Jackson, and is the most expensive music video ever made. Generally well received amongst critics, it has been compared favorably to other accomplished pieces by Jackson. It went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award and an American Music Award. The corresponding music video remains one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed pieces; it won numerous MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy. At a cost of $ 7 million, it was listed in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive music video ever made.

Brit Vid. Music video day.

On Tuesday the 12^th July was Media Music video day in which we had the task to recreate the 1999 Britney Spears music video, Baby One More Time. We were each assigned a group of which there were four, who were given a different section of the Britney music video to perform and film. Some groups had to collaborate as some scenes needed extras and dancers in the shot.

I was in the group which was assigned the gym scene which included a large amount of shots to complete in a short amount of time. The first hour of the day was used to practise lip synching and to sort out who was performing which part of the scene. The next hour was used to film the shots we needed for our scene. We used a call sheet we had produced the previous week which included the shot type, mise-en-scene, lyrics and duration of the shot.

My original job was to be project manager but as the day went on and time became constricted I took on the parts of choreographer, director and camerawoman at some point in the morning.  This was of coarse very stressful especially when time is working against you. The gym scene included a large range of shots which included high angled shots which was very difficult to produce as we did not posses some of the high-tech equipment used to make modern day music videos. The day was very stressful and quite unorganised at times, but was enjoyable throughout the day. The finished product and impressive range of shot types show are determination to make the music video a success.

Fisheye Lens

A fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in a broad and hemispherical image. Fisheye lens are known for creating a unique and distorted image. The image creates a warped effect and has a unaccurate sense of reality.

The Fisheye lens is a signature style used by Harold “Hype” Williams. Williams is a famous American video and film director. Throughout the vast majority of his videos Williams uses the fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus. This was used by the tandem Williams/Perez in "Gimme Some More" by Busta Rhymes and "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" by Missy Elliott.

 

The Mini Vid

The track my group and I selected is the song performed by JayDee titled Plastic Dreams. We chose this song because there are no lyrics to the song, which makes it easier to think of a narrative and performance based music video. The song even though written in 1993, still has a modern beat to it which appeals to a younger audience. Creating a modern day music video to dated music is quite a challenge, but with this song it was easier to think of ideas as the song is quite fast pace and has a modern aspect to it.

After listening to the song a couple of times we came up with some great ideas as a group on how this song could be translated into a music video. The ideas that seemed the best were those that involved a main protagonist male running through a wood, being followed by mysterious people. The song starts of mysterious and creepy and changes into being quite happy and joyful. For this we decided we could make it seem that our main male character was lost in a wood and then when he finds his way the music is a lot more lively and upbeat.

We were likely to use characters for are music videos as people of the same age range as our audience. Therefore the target audience will be able to relate to the characters in the music video easier. The mise-en-scene we are hoping to use is fashionable clothing and accessories e.g. jeans and black Ray-Ban sunglasses. This creates an image that the characters in the music video are individuals who care about their appearance and live a certain lifestyle. The lighting is likely to be dark in the woods with maybe streams of light coming though the trees, which could be edited in, in FinalCut.

The task set was to choose a track in that we liked, and then to discuss the track and why we like it. We then had to pick a section of the track that we wanted to create a mini-video for. Once we have filmed our mini-vid we then will be able to edit the video in Final Cut. Our primary target audience was youth around 15-25, so we had to create a music video that appealed to that specific age range.