Sunday 23 November 2008

Pitching your concept

13A and 13C - you will be pitching your concept to the group and the new teacher NEXT WEEK (10th - 11th December). Your pitch should be 3-4 minutes long and contain at some stage the following:

1. play extract of the track to the group - what is your BRIEF
2. initial response (images from moodboard?)
3. What did you learn from your product analysis?
4. What did you learn from your technical analyis?
5. How did your audience research inform your concept development?
6. What is your proposed idea? Style, type,
7. Ideas on costume, location, types of shot
8. What will be your biggest challenge? How will you overcome it?
9. How will this video promote the band?

The purpose of the pitch is for you to CONVINCINGLY explain your proposed idea. Would we, as record company executives think this is a suitable idea for your genre/group? Would we give you the GREEN LIGHT?

I suggest that you use PowerPoint - but not as a script - just to show us relevant images.

Development of concept

At this stage, your product, technical and audience research should be informing the development of your concept. You now need to make steps to develop this further. You should think about going on a location reccie - visiting potential locations, taking photographs and thinking about camera angles, framing, lines of action...

If you are going to have other people performing in your video, you will also need to take photos of them "in costume", whether as band members or part of your narrative.

You may also want to test out some effects or shot ideas in advance of storyboarding.

Also - keep documenting any other images/videos which are inspiring you.

Post, post and post again!

Institutional research

Using the reading material supplied, you should post an entry to show you understand how a music video is commissioned and shot.

A second post should reflect on how a video is consumed by audiences - taking in NMTs as well as niche channels. You may refer to our studies of EMAP for this post

This should be one post per group on each of these topics.

Technical analysis THIS WEEK

All three groups need to work on the technical 'shot' analysis of a music video this week. This is time consuming, but almost THE most relevant piece of product research that you do - it really does show you technically how a video is edited together and what you should be planning in your final storyboard. Tips are as follows:

1. Choose a video in the "style" (not necessarily genre) of the video that you are planning to deconstruct - in other words a narrative, or performance, or conceptual based video

2. Make the shot list on paper while watching the video online so that you can pause and make notes efficiently. This will be time consuming but better than trying to flick between packages online. DON'T post the shot list on the blog - it will take up too much space. Instead it can be submitted to us/for moderation as a paper appendix

3. Make notes on shot size, movement, elements of mise-en-scene, transition and if interesting - length of shot. E.g. CU tracking in to MCU on lead singers face grimacing fades to
MS couple on swings laughing 3 secs cuts to
...

4. Once you have completed the shot list - review and evaluate on the blog. What have you learnt from this exercise? How long are the shots? How are they cut? What shot size is predominantly used? How does the camera move? Are there any long static shots? Relationship with lyrics/music? How is the narrative constructed? Are any types of performance shots repeated? What will you now use from this when planning your own work?

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Mrs F groups: feedback

Well done - the first check shows that there are some creative and enthusiastic responses to the brief developing.

However, there are still some gaps on the blogs as well as a need for spellchecking, punctuation and a general tidy up. Remember, this is simply an electronic format for submitting planning to be marked and moderated (by external examiner) and therefore should be written to an A2 standard. Make it as easy as possible for us to find our way around your posts.

This week - your target is to tidy up and complete audience research.

Next week - technical shot analysis of a video.

Sunday 16 November 2008

Mrs Fernandez' groups - where are ...

your finished moodboards and textual analysis #2?

Have you clearly stated what your chosen track is?

This is due TOMORROW and alarmingly there are only a couple of groups that have made a start. You will lose planning marks if this deadline is not met.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Inspirational 'auteur' videos

In addition to the auteur research booklet we have given you, you might like to have a look at http://www.bugvideos.co.uk/. This event celebrates cutting edge music videos and on the home page you can view their featured videos (see programme links at the bottom). There are some very interesting examples here...

Choosing a track

You should now be choosing your track. This is a vital decision and for 13A and 13C you need to come with your final selection / chosen track on Monday 10th. It doesn't necessarily need to be from a genre that you are all "in to", but one that will fit with an accessible concept.

It shouldn't have a video already... we will check youtube.com

Thursday 23 October 2008

Start planning...half term tasks from CF

1. For 13A and 13C, your first task is to deconstruct a music video on your blog. This should be either from the genre that you are looking at using for your track, or the style of video that you are interested in making.

2. You should also at this stage begin posting entries recording the discussions that you are having in your group, track ideas, any videos you find inspirational...

3. You should also make a start on the institutional research. Divide up the following questions in your group:
What is the purpose of a music video? Who commissions a video? What kind of budgets would they normally have? How much lead time to produce one? How do music channels in this country work? How do audiences consume music videos?
Refer to article 2 and work on EMAP carried out over the last couple of weeks. You will also need to research music video production.

Sunday 24 February 2008

Exporting and organising folders

In order to finish your report - you need to organize your red zip folder. You should have one set of appendices per group, clearly numbered appendix 1, appendix 2...with a frontsheet contents page. A typical folder would include:
  1. CD copy of your blog
  2. storyboard
  3. PPT slides printed out from pitch
  4. call sheets with booking sheet attached (see CF/KJ)
  5. Any paper moodboards
  6. Any other paper sketches / notes used in planning

You also need to make a copy of your final exported video onto a DVD.

It is your responsibility as a group to ensure that this is done in time for you to refer to the appendices in your written report.

Audience feedback - screening evening

Well done - a fantastic set of music videos this year. Your final step before completing your Critical Evaluation is to carry out some audience research. The screening evening gives you the opportunity to do so. In groups you need to devise a questionnaire / focus group sheet and 15 copies need to be handed to CF/KJ by Wednesday at the latest with your group number clearly indicated at the top.

When planning in your groups, consider the following:
  • What was the aim of your video?
  • How can you find out if you achieved this?
  • Do the audience recognise the generic conventions?
  • Does it stand up to repeatability?

In terms of methodology, you must consider the following carefully:

  • Types of questioning; ranking, semantic differentials, open questions
  • Method of research on the night; time constraints, screening conditions compared to real consumption
  • Avoiding leading comments /questions
  • Issues with demographics; who are your sample audience?

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Planning shoots

By now, you should have uploaded your animatic, posted an entry on what you have learnt from creating it and how this will now inform your production.

In order to sign out your camera, you need to complete a callsheet, including a shot list, contact details, props, costume and who is responsible for bringing it to the location.

GOOD LUCK!

Remember - shoot much more than you think you'll need - the same action from different angles, filler shots and various takes of each planned shoot. That way you will be able to choose the best shot!