Day 2 of filming

On the second day of filming we went to the train station to shoot some performance shots and all the narrative shots. It went well and many of the problems we encounterd in camber i.e. cold weather, were not apparent hear. The only problem was that it took longer than expected and we had to do some of the shots after dark under the light they had at the station.

1st day of filming- camber

our team of five left at 1pm on friday 1st February. I drove us all down in one car and we made good time and arrived bt 2pm. As soon as we arrived and stepped out of the car we realised it would be a struggle to achieve all the filming we had planned for as the cold wheather struck us straight away. We got all our equipment out of the car and walked onto the beach. With our delight the tide was out and we couldn't have wished for a more beautiful location as there wasnt a cloud in sight. As soon as we went bare foot and felt how freezing the wet sand was, we new we would have to go through the pain barrier to achieve all the shots we wanted.
It was perfect, exactly what we wanted, and as we began to record footage we realised the cold and wind was only favouring us as the footage was showing us the superb windswept boyband image we originaly set out to achieve. However the cold was really starting to set in and everyone's feet were numb but we had to soldier on. I felt our preparation was spot on as we had a good enough sound system to hear over the wind, the correct timing for our lines. Everyone was focused and we didnt need to make too many shots as everyone took such a professional approach that we all sang the correct words and used the appropriate body language.
We then moved from the windswept shots on the sea line to take some footage up on the sand dunes which were also very successfull. The sun began to set and we finished off the days shooting with some deeper emotional shots which really worked well with our track. We could have stayed to take some more shots but everyone was really beginning to struggle with the cold so we took a group decision to leave and hope that the footage we had was good enough.
When we arrived home we linked the camera up to the TV. This was the point when everyone involved in the project, (weather other actors or helpers with sound and filming)realised that this wasnt just a bit of fun anymore, that this video actually had the potential to be a brilliant music video, reaching the same quality as ones seen on the music channels. Everyone was so thrilled with the results of the filming and we couldnt wait to take our footage into school to start work on the editing.
A huge thanks to the other boys who put their own time and effort into helping myself and Dan achieve a fantastic first day of shooting.

Costumes

From our research we can see that boy bands tend to wear jeans with the bottoms rolled up or long shorts, with no shoes. They are normally topless or wearing tank tops, unfortuantly with the cold weather this may not be possible for our video. the jeans are either blue or beige and the shirt are either white, black or grey. In the shots with the actors, they will be wearing smart casual clothes.

Practice Shots

In class me and Nick took the time to do some practice shots of things we are going to do in the video. This we thought would save us time for when we are at the location. We found that it is hard to keep the camera still whilest moving with it so we keep the carmera stil and just try to use the lever on the camera for any movement. We also practising close ups and found they need to be at eye level and they looked best when it showed the face aswell as shoulders as it fills the shot better.

start of filming

The inital start date of the 27th of January has had to been pushed back a week because one of the boyband members picked up a back injury in the morning before the group were planning to go out at about mid-day. this was very unfortunate as the weather was perfect for the look the group want to convey in the video.
To cater for this, the group will look to spend a longer amount of time at their main location this week-end, making sure they take plenty of shots, using enough different camera angles to have enough material required for all the coverage at the beach location.

anamatic

here is the link to our anamatic-http://www.youtube.com/v/CKAg_0PrTTI
we are very happy with the way our project is starting to look and we have learnt some important aspects we need to change. we realised some shots are too long and that we needed some shorter snappier shots which are present in the majority of boy band music videos.
over all we felt that we are happy with the style and feel we will be able to convert the anamatic drawings into the actual music video without too much difficulty.
http://www.youtube.com/v/CKAg_0PrTTI

Planning review #3

You completed the animatic ahead of deadline, however you have not posted the blog entry, reflecting on how you made it and what you learnt from it - do this ASAP.

You must also use this blog to record any rehersals, group discussions or amendments to your concept.

This should also now be a production log of your shoots too.

planning review # 3 - CF

well done - a confident pitch and clear ideas on location, performance and camera style. Practice shots helped inform your research. You now need to amend your blog to include posts on the following:

1. locations

2. costume, performance

3. types of shots / movement you will use

4. Audience research

5. initial concept (write a summary)



Your blog still doesn't reflect the progress you are making - which is very promising.

review of pitch

Dan and I presented our pitch to the group orally, without using powerpoint and i think this worked very well. Both of us felt confident in all our ideas about our video so far we felt it would be a better presentation if we spoke to the group, while showing pictures of our boyband, rather than just reading slides out off powerpoint. I thought the feedback was good and we presented our ideas very well. Unlike other groups, we are very clear of our aims, and that is to meet the generic conventions of a boyband music video. It seems other groups might have an advantage over us by using real 'bands' in their videos but they still seemed unsure on their conventions and myself and Dan have really made progress in knowing specifically what we want to do. We both got all our ideas across and showing photos of our band really gave everyone a stong image of how our band will look in our video. We both felt there wasn't much more we could have added to our presentation and were very happy with how it went.

Technical analysis conclusion: Westlife- Home

from analysing this music video i have a better understanding of the key technical detail we will have to include in our music video for it to be a sucessful boyband video.
There is a huge difference between the amount of time different members of the band get on the camera. the lead singer is the only member shown singing up until 1 min 10 secs, then the second singer takes over. the other two members of the band get about 5 seconds each of camera time showing them singing parts of the chorus. the solo singing parts are majoritally close ups of the singer, other than when the narrative story comes in. the band are shown to be in two different locations throughout the whole video, on the runway and in the plane. the other location in the video is the narrative story in the arrivals part of an airport where famalies and couples are re-unighting. when the narrative story is introduced there are cuts from the band to the actors in quick sucession. aswell as close up shots of individual members of the band, there are also different camera shots that show the whole band, often airial shots are used helping show the location they are in. throughout the video there are regular cuts from the band on the runway, then back inside the plane, giving the viewer the feeling that they are going 'home'. the standing formation of the band always seems to be important and their diamond formation is shown with the use of the craine shots. after 2 minutes of the video there were 42 different cuts of shots, showing even as there were only three different locations throughout the whole video the camera angle was always changing and there were fluent consistant cuts between the 3 locations. in almost every shot of the band singing, they are looking directly into the camera, which is common in most boyband videos and we will certainly use this technique in ours along with others i have mentioned above. link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdLdOLDgHMA

Technical Analysis Conclusion (No Matter What Boyzone)

From looking at this video i have seen a number of conventions and camera shots that are repeated i will be able to use these when we create our video. The shots in the video are often very short and it is quick to cut to the next shot. Many of the shots when going to and from the band members are fades. During the video the most commonly used shot is the close up shot.This is almost always of the face of the band member singing, it has a slight low angle often and normally a still shot or sometimes it has a slight movement with the head of the band member. The band members do not have equal time in the video, the main members are shown far more than the others. There is often evidence of when the band is moving, it is shot in slow motion. Shots that are not of the band in the video are often not close ups and are fast cut, they tend to have a lot of camera movement which follows whatever the camera is focusing on i.e. when the women is dancing the camera moves with her. We will have to consider all these when making our music video in order to stick to the generic conventions.

ideas for track

location- sandy beach- slow motion shots in black and white
warehouse- group performing dance moves
close up shots will be used to help show emotion, a first person mode of adress will also be used.

blue- breathe easy

Narrative based, band singing, other actors used for the couple. band singing about the loss of a partner reveiling a lot of emotion as it is based at a funeral. they are all dressed in black and there are a lot of shots with all four members walking towards the camera edited in slow motion.
A lot of voyeurism is used with a great use of reflection off the train windows showing characters coming in and out, also reveiling loss and death. The opening lyrics show Duncan looking out the window while he sings, which is often present in love songs.
Roland Barthes 'Grain of voice' is present with Lee Ryan giving the song repeatability.
camera- a lot of close ups on the faces, also a lot of shots of the individual band member walking in slow motion looking directly at the camera. there is also a lot of black and white used which works well as it is snowing and they are all dressed in black.

5ive - When the Lights Go Out

genre characteristics of boy band shown- dance routines, band shown as being good friends and having fun, looking and talking directlt into the camera.

relationship between lyrics and visuals- strong relationship, what they are singing they are acting out. "baby when the lights go out, i'l show you what it's all about." they sing directly looking into the camera.

music and visuals- up beat pop soundtrack links to the boy band dance routines, bright fashing lights and bright clothing.

close ups are regularly used, often with the fish bowl lense. close ups on the individuals faces also helps show emotion through the song.

the women in the video are shown to be looking at '5ive' in a voyeuristic way

Planning Review #1 CF

Nick, Dan
You have institutional research and you have chosen your track - but this blog does not have enough detail. Dan - you have met the deadline it seems, although I can't read the last post. The product analysis needs more detail too. Nick - you have not contributed any video analysis and therefore missed the deadline.

Considering that you have chosen a clear, defined 'boy band' genre, I expect all of your research to now be focused on the construction of star persona, locations, costume, dance routines and you should be looking at a number of videos to do so.

This could be an excellent project - but it will take considerable rehearsals, location reccies, photographs of band members in different costumes (there is always a few outfits...) in other words, this blog should reflect all your discussions, ideas and at the moment it is very weak. Sort out ASAP.

westlife- my love

Performance based. .
Genre characteristics – ‘Pop- boy band’- dance routines, close ups, high budget video, similar costumes.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals – in the song the lyrics ‘overseas from coast to coast’ and they are at the beach/cliffs (the coast).
Women’s representation – there are no women in this video
Intertextual reference – there is intertextual reference to unbreakable another westlife song that was shot at the beach
Ambient consumption – the video has really no enigmatic codes and does not require focused viewing to understand the video.
Relationship between music and visuals – there are close ups on the face whenever a member of the band hits a high note. Or the member of the band who is singing
First person mode of address – the band is singing to the camera performing to the audience.

Backstreet Boys-As long as you love me

Performance / narrative based.
Performance shots intercut with shots of the narrative concept throughout.
Genre characteristics – ‘Pop- boy band’- dance routines, close ups, high budget video, similar costumes.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals – There is not much relationship between lyrics ands visuals, only that he is singing about a girl and there are girls in the video.
Women’s representation – the band is sitting choosing the girls like at an auction. Women are presented as a commodity.
CU of band members throughout the video show their reaction to her, staring with their mouths open - voyeurism.
Intertextual reference – there is no intertextual reference in this video
Ambient consumption – the video has really no enigmatic codes and does not require focused viewing to understand the video.
Comedy element in the video – when the women press the remote it shows one of the members of the band dressed up in unconventional costumes, which people may see as humnerous
Relationship between music and visuals – there are close ups on the face whenever a member of the band hits a high note.
First person mode of address – the band is singing to the camera performing to the audience.

Track Decison

Dan and I, after a lot of thought and discussion have finally decided the track we will be using for our music video. it is called 'Baby goodbye' by Friday Hillhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U51x2RpMgZo The song is not that well known and neither are the band. They are three of the former group 'Blazing Squad' and we agreed on the song as it is the genre and style of boyband song we wanted to work with. we agreed that a westlife song we were looking at was too slow and we wouldn't be able to perform dance moves to it, and a 5ive track we also were considering was too upbeat. we wanted a bit of both where we could show emotion through the song but also work with some synchronised dance routines. we both feel our chosen song caters for both these aspects.

how do audiences consume media

How do audiences consume music channels?

There are two types of consumption when audiences view music channels. The first is called focused viewing. This is when the viewer is giving there full attention to the channel as they have a deeper relationship with the channel because they enjoy it. It is similar to primary consumption. An example would be if a person enjoyed listening to urban music they would watch ‘kiss’. The second type is ambient viewing, this is when the person viewing is not fully concentrating on the channel, often this is because they are otherwise engaged. E.g. if a person is doing homework with the music channel in the background.


Why are they commercially viable with such small audiences?

These genre channels have become commercially viable because they are owned by large media companies i.e. ‘Emap’ who claim that at any one time 24000 thousand people are watching ‘Emap’ at one time. This means that companies such as creative Zen want to advertise on the ‘Emap’ channels. Each genre channel had a different advert that was specific to the audience that watched the genre. This was a huge success for Creative Zen as the product sold out in weeks.