Podcast - 1

Here is our initial idea (Lazlo Bane/Superman) after rejecting the idea to to 'Fatboy Slim'.

Things I have learnt so far..

• How to use Final Cut to a good standard. 
• How much coverage is needed when producing a music video. 
• The basic outline of videos, narrative and performance. 
• How much an average priced music video costs.
• The codes and conventions of a music video. 
• The Buggles was the first music video to be shown on MTV.
• How to compare to different types of music videos. 
• New aspects of media language. 
• What censorship is. 
• What makes a good music video. 

......3 things I would like to learn about music videos:

• How to create a good narrative for my production.
• An increase in shot type knowledge, advanced shots. 
• To know all the ins and outs of final cut. 

Marking Gorlillaz 192000 Soulchild Remix

We have been set the task of marking a piece of last years A2 class, I have been given 'The Gorlilaz remix.'  I watched the video through several times and then, looked at the marking scheme. Here is what i though of the video.

• Holding a shot steady, where appropriate. Excellent. Throughout the whole of this video, when the producer has intended on keeping a steady shot, they have successfully done so. There are obvious uses of a tripod to achieve this. 
• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate. Excellent. We see straight away great uses of framing. When you see empty bottles lying around the floor there is a slight dutch angle, this works really well and is done extremely well throughout. 
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate. Excellent/proficient. We see a very good range of shot types from different distances, my only argument would be that in the car shots, the types of shots used could have been done slightly better, also a few more long shots. I would sway more towards excellent though. 
• Shooting material appropriate to task set. Proficient. Although from a personal view I believe it is shot extremely well, the only problem it may come across is the message that is involved in the video. I would have given it excellent if it wasn't for this. 
• Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and settings. Excellent. Throughout the whole video we see excellent uses of setting. At the party scenes the relevant things are shown on screen. The clothing represents the time period that the video is set. Lighting throughout is excellently done, especially at the end when the use of the fish eye camera comes in. This aspect was really impressive. 
• Editing so that meaning is apparent to viewer. Excellent. The editing throughout the whole video is too a very high standard. The use of transitions is excellent, also the use of the fish-eye to represent that the protagonist is of a drunk nature. When he is skateboarding near the start, the use of the blurred effect really fits in well with the song. 
• Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately. Excellent. The use of shot transitions is too a very high standard. As I have already said, the blurred effect used is a good example of this. 
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task. Excellent. The music matches to the video throughout the whole video, what is on screen is relevant to the sound. Also is is obvious that the editing is incredibly done, especially at the party at the end. It is commonly well done all the way through. 

My mark would be 36/40

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

Here is the mark scheme that I worked from.

A link to the whole mark scheme: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46418882/Music-Video-Blog-production-Guide

Class Video

We have completed our class video for 'Threw It On The Ground'. Overall I believe we have done a good job of re creating this music video.

It gave me a chance to practice using the the HD cameras and Final Cut.



We had to shoot in 5 different locations which proved time consuming. I learnt that planning is key and having a story board with you real helps.

My music video pitch

(I apologies for the poor quality) 

This is my pitch for the song 'Praise You' by 'Fatboy Slim'. I wanted to link the lyrics closely to the video so I used religious connotations with the lyrics 'praise you'. My idea was to show one male going through a rough time and only having religion there to comfort him.

Below is the video I made to help explain my idea.

'Fatboy Slim - Praise You' practice footage for pitch

Creating practice footage

Today I went and did some filming with my dad to play around with ideas for my music video. We linked the lyrics 'praise you' with the idea of christianity and religion. We played around with out of focus footage and different colouring. I then edited it on imovie and imported the soundtrack in, in all it is 1min long. This was all done on a HD camera. I am really pleased with the final outcome.

History of FatBoy Slim

Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook on 31 July 1963 in Bromley, England) better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s. Cook has achieved considerable success in the UK charts, performing as Fatboy Slim and with The Housemartins, Beats International, and Freak Power. He currently performs as the Brighton Port Authority.
                                         Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cook       


  
The main reason for us choosing Fatboy Slim is because firstly, with his music being the genre 'big beat' we believe by choosing a dance song we can be more creative. We also believe that because his songs have limited lyrics attached to them, we will not be tied doing with meaning. Basically, we don't have to link the video to closely to the lyrics.                                   

The history of Fatboy Slim continued...

Labels	Skint, Astralwerks, Southern Fried

Genres	Big beat, trip hop, rave

Years active	1981–present

'Norman Cook' most well known as 'Fatboy Slim' is one of Britain's best DJ's who was born on 31 July 1963 in Bromley, England. He first started DJing when he attended college in Brighton. A few clubs from London offered him to DJ after they played his first single “Santa Cruz”. And he did respond to their offer. Later he decided that he will gain more success if he opens his own club in Brighton, so he started this club and named it “Big Beat Boutique”. At this time FatBoy Slim was the resident of this club. Norman again attracted the audience, gaining more and more power and fens. He turned into one of the top DJs and remixers, working with such a stars like U2, Madonna, Cornershop, Wildchild, Beastie Boys, Fluke… even he remixed Queens “we will rock you”. On the New Years Eve of 2005, Fatboy Slim performed live in front of a tremendous crowd on Bondi Beach in Australia. During this all night set, Fatboy Slim reverted back to his original style of music production and DJ-ing with an emphasis on Dance music. The performance was absolutely amazing, the crowd was jumping and screaming all the time.

He received an award for Best Dance Act 1999 from the Brits and four MTV Video Award nominations for his video ‘Praise You’.

Final Pitch Idea

I have decided that for my pitch I am going to do 'Fatboy Slim - Praise You.' I believe this video gives me plenty of room to be creative. My idea is to do with religion and choice in Britain. How from christianity to music stars, things that people 'praise.' Hence the lyrics.
The filming will be of one man traveling around, with shots of religious venues and places throughout yorkshire. This symbolising his confusion and how signifying how Britain has changed so much. I have created a small video of what I want it to look like.

Bradford Film Festival Overview

We recently went to The co-operative film festival in Bradford to view fellow friends work on screen and to take part in activities going on there.


My day started with learning about the 'green screen.' This is a very communally used way of pretending to be somewhere when you are actually not there. The actor stands in front of a coloured wall and then through the use of clever technology what appears on screen is different. This is a very expensive way of producing a shot and one we cannot do, but learning about it was very interesting, plus we got to have a go.

We then went to look at special effects and make-up (advanced.) Here we learnt how they make cuts on bruise on screen for films and videos. We were surprised at how basic it was and easy to do. This was only a short session, but in films such as; Harry Potter, it can take hours to do make-up. Also in music videos such as; slipknot.

We then went to view all of our colleges work in the main room. Here a range of short films were shown, showing the true talent around the Bradford and worldwide area. They all received t-shirts and certificates showing their achievement for getting but forward for people to view their work.

Finally, I went to Final cut (express) for beginners. I used this as a way of refreshing my memory on how to work the software and quick short-cuts. I found this very helpful towards my editing on the project.

Overall it was a very good day, I learnt a lot about the film and video industry and, It helped me come up with new ideas for my own music video.

Codes and Conventions of Fatboy Slims music video's

Norman Cook, who is known as Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ and record producer. He created many well known songs such as; Praise You, Don't Let The Man Get You Down and Right Here, Right Now. Possibly the most iconic Fatboy Slim video is 'Weapon Of Choice' featuring actor Christopher Walken. It was directed by Spike Jonze and it won multiple awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards and earned a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Video, this was a massive success. 


In all of 'FBS's' video's, he appears in none of them. This will make it a lot easier for us when producing our video. They all have meaningful narratives to them, but they don't mainly match the lyrics. This is because his songs have limited lyrics in them. Also the camera shots tend to be still framed shots. Because his songs and videos were produced a long time ago, technology was no where near as advanced as it is now. 


His videos appear to have a very creative side. We don't see the usually narratives of a modern day music video. This feeling is created through clever and well thought about shot types/position. This is something we are going to have to focus on very closely when making ours, this is so the view doesn't get bored. 





Here is an example of one of his most well know songs, 'Right here, Right now.' This video is all about evolution and is very cleverly done. It is a great example of his type of videos. 

Podcast - Comparing two music videos

Bradford Film Festival

Pitch Idea

Artist: Fatboy Slim
Song: Praise you (Radio edit)
Released: 1999
Length: 3.24

I have decided that for my pitch I may choose to do 'Fatboy Slim - Praise you (radio edit.)' I believe that although this was a 'big hit' song, it will still be acceptable for me to work with it because it was such a long time ago. Reasons why I believe this will be a good idea:

• The radio edit is a short soundtrack. 
• With the genre being 'big beat' this allows plenty of room for me to be creative in this video. 
• Their is no hidden meaning in the lyrics which would stop us from being able to explore with ideas or being stuck to one idea. 
• It is a good quality soundtrack. 

I am yet to come up with a solid idea for the video. But I believe it would involve some sort of 'party scene.' This including a negative message about alcohol. 

           Or I would involve a singular person, someone with a lack of social skills and friends. The video would then be based around them and how they go on with life, following their footsteps. 

Fatboy Slim - Praise You on MUZU.TV

My pitch

For my pitch today I have decided to split it into two parts, both a minute long each.

• My pitch idea, which I will present to the class in a spoken form.
• Then I will show my minute long 'practice' video to the class. This will help create anchorage to my pitch idea as shown in the first minute.

Hopefully my pitch will be successful and popular amougst the group.

Pitch Idea 1

Artist: Fat Boy Slim
Song: Don't Let The Man Get You Down
Released: 2005
Length: 3.18

I decided upon the idea that for my pitch I may do 'Fat Boy Slim - Don't Let The Man Get You Down.' I believe that this artist would allow me to be very creative with my idea for the video. Reasons why I believe this will be a good idea:

• With the genre being 'Big Beat' this gives us a wide range of ideas. 
• There is an original video to work with. 
• Good quality soundtrack
• Its a short song

My initial idea for this video would be to have a cyclist, cycling along all kinds of roads, at different times of the day. We would shot the footage from the back of a car as he cycled along. It would then cut to a house party going on were the person cycling is trying to get to. As it is the idea is not complete but this is the basic idea. 

Pitch Idea 2

Artist: The Swing Movement
Song: Keep It Red
Released: 2007
Length: 3.46

I have decided that a possibility for my pitch will be 'The Swing Movement - Keep It Red.' This is because I believe it will be easiest to achieve.
Reasons being:

• Easy access to the band. 
• Existing footage that I have gathered from a while ago, including both gigs and band practice shots. 
• A full understanding of the lyrics after a brief down from the vocalist. 
• It is an easy song to put a narrative alongside band performances. 
• There will be no copyright issues. 

My current idea is to include both a narrative and footage of the band playing as a whole. With a fully functional band practicing room in my basement I have full access to all their instruments and amps. This would be perfect for filming in. 

                     I am yet to decide on an idea for the narrative, but I am productively trying to think of an idea. Research into the genre is helping me come up with a rough idea though which I shall continue to do. 

This is a music video made by Joe Gamble in 2007. The audio is an old recording and since then they have re recored. 

A link to their myspace page - http://www.myspace.com/theswingmove

Tracking/dolly/trucking shot

After watching the Sean Kingston music video 'Party All Night (Sleep all day),' I notice the use of the tracking shot was very predominate. I have noticed that this type of shot is used a lot in the latest music videos now so I decided to research how it would be achieved.

A tracking shot is when the camera is placed on a track, the the camera (whilst filming) is pushed a across (on a platform) the tracks. This is used to give a moving camera shot, whilst keeping the camera steady and still.

In Sean Kingston's video we see the camera being used to pass through/around two different party's. This is used to give the audience and full view of what is going on in the surrounding area. It passed through to what appears to the viewer as a wall.

In all types of filming this is a very commonly used shot. Although this process is very expensive and time consuming, it gives a very professional shot.

Because we dont/wont have the available technology to produce this type of shot, I have come up with alternative ideas. My thought is if we wanted to achieve this type of shot we could use a skateboard and wheel the camera across the floor. This would however not produce a perfectly steady shot. This could also be done with a chair with wheels on, but we would come across the same problems.

Tracking shot research link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_shot

Learning experiences from using Final Cut

Whilst editing our footage for our music video 'Threw It On The Ground,' I have learnt a lot about what you can do on the software.

Razor blade tool

• With all the excess shots that we had, we had to cut a lot of it out. This involved using a tool called the 'razor blade tool.' This cuts the clip at the point which you choose. We then deleted the rest of the clip that we didn't need. (CTRL+BS) 
• We have also found out how to import the videos in from Imovie. After uploading them all onto imovie we learnt how to import them all into final cut. This was a quick process. 
• The main section of final cut that we used was the tool palette. This was were you find the razor blade tool. 
• We have learnt how to slow clips down and also how to keep them to a good quality. You go on 'modify' then 'composition mode,' then 'screen' on the top display bar. This is a good way to slow the shot down whilst keeping the quality to a high level.

Creating this practice music video has really helped us to progress in all areas of producing a music video. We discovered how much work and time needs to go into the editing compared to when we did it using imovie.