Thursday, 17 March 2016
The Final product: SHOOP
Thanks to Tyler, Grace and Elisa for putting in all the hard work; big up SHOOP.
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Monday, 22 February 2016
Script and Task 4:How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages
Tyler: We did various screen tests for our music video to ensure that all of our actors looked comfortable in front of the camera. Furthermore, we wanted actors with a specific look, such as the artist Kelis in the 90’s.
Elisa: This ensured that
on the day there were no disappointments in the actual performance.
Ollie: We made sure that
there was always direct communication between members of the production team
and our actors, which we did through Facebook.
Grace: The outcome of this
better organisation was that we ended up with three girls who had the right
look and skills for our artist.
Tyler: During the
production of my A2 pop video, we had an Ipad on set, which acted as a digital
clapperboard.
Elisa: This was extremely useful as it made our jobs in the
edit suite much easier because it meant that we were able to sync all of our
performance footage from the rush bins on the timeline using the audio queue
from clapperboard, which enabled me to create a complex cut of the music video.
Ollie: Furthermore, we had a playback monitor in the form of
a plasma screen television.
Grace: What this
helped with was that while one of the members of my group was filming, I was
able to look at the monitor to see exactly the shot would look like. This gave
us an idea of how much we would have to do in the edit suite.
Tyler: From this I could then call a cut because someone had
entered the shot, or if there was a problem with continuity, etcetera. It
therefore meant that we had all the shots we wanted, but also that none of the
shots were corrupted with any of the things I mentioned above.
Grace: We used two
different cameras, a Sony NX5 for the hand held shots because it is light and
easy to manoeuvre around the set. We used a Sony FS100 with a prime lens for
the rooted, tripod shots when the composition was important. This helped to
keep a good quality of shallow focus, as with an integrated lens the focus
shifts about too much.
Elisa: I began
post-production by starting a lossless copying of the footage to HD on Adobe
Prelude.
Ollie: Then I began to
sort all of the rushes into a single bin on Adobe Premier. Once this was
completed, I worked onto the timeline, syncing all of shots to the clapper
board track so cutting the shot with the razor blade wouldn’t ruin the lip
sync.
Tyler: This left us with
plenty of different layers all in sync to the track. We used the razor blade
tool to cut into each layer on the beat, using markers so as to show me where
the cutting point was.
Grace: Having done this I
was able to drop the best cuts from each one on top of the main performance
cut. I created the text animation, where we made a text layer, and began to
font scale.
Elisa: We chose the font
from dafont.com. To do this, the key frame would start at 0% and end at 100%,
causing the font to grow as the computer acts as the inbetweeners.
Ollie: I needed to use
the select tool in order for the animation not to be blocked by a moving arm;
this masked it out by drawing a line around the object, and then cut it out.
Tyler: I had to
chroma-key, animate text and changing the aspect ratio. I used Adobe After
Effects to do it all, and it began with myself exporting all desired footage
into the programme.
Grace: Chroma keying with
the green screen meant matting everything out, then it was easy to replace the
black with a still image.
Elisa: We worked on
colour with Lumetri Colour Engine, which works inside premier. This let me
control the amount that specific colours feature.
Ollie: I worked on
desaturating and saturating, this was to get rid of the black colouring in each
shot.
Tyler: I desaturated the
reds in each shot, which helped to give a 1980’s/90’ muddy and messy light,
which propelled it into the period product look even further.
Friday, 5 February 2016
Task 2:How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The terms "pop performer" and "pop star" have become interchangeable — strictly speaking, in media terms they are not the same thing. The study of stars as media texts/components of media texts demands that the distinction be made between those who are simply known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars, who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.
- In order to understand the relationship between the industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars.
- The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell, the performer to a large and loyal audience.
- Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars, in film, TV and music.
- irrespective of the medium stars have some key features in common, which are; A star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials. (advertising mags etc).// Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
- Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media (mags TV internet etc) - In order to construct an image for themselves, which can be marketed to their target audiences
- The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.
- Common values of music stardom - Youthfulness, Rebellion, Sexual magnetism, Attitude.
- Fundementally the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’, Dyer says this is because it is based on two key paradoxes
1). The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extra ordinary - Lazy Rymz - Urban set - with friends - Costume, sass - DJ set
2). The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer - posters, video, interview - not fully embodied - concert (be with them)
Digipak
- Using different backgrounds
- Bright and vibrant colours
- Outlining the girls and making them stand out- this also creates a retro hip-hop 90’s look.
- Positioning of the girls- canted angles- adhering to stereotypes
Website
we also had to use the star image theory on our website, we realised that we had already got across the serious aspect of our groups image, with links to female independence. So for the website we kept this but we wanted to show there was another side to their image, which is more fun side, we helped get this through using a lot of colourful design within the website, for example the front page of the site, is the three girls looking serious, but surrounded by a load of abstract colourful lines, which is a similar style to something that KidnPlay used to use. Also to get the image across on the band page, there is a little back story to each of the girl, all of which highlight the classic background that RnB artists would come from in the 90’s. This is further shown within the gallery of photos, especially by one which shows the girls standing over the city of Brooklyn.
- bold image
- Sense of sass and attitude
- Bright vibrant colours
- Different shapes and patterns
- Clear layout
- Youthful and fun description of the girls.
- Urban vibes
Music Video
Through using Richard dyers theory of star image we were able to construct a group that we thought matched what was needed. Using both the lyrics and visuals within our music video we were able to portray our artists, as a group of strong independent woman, which was a common theme within 90’s RnB with reference to examples such as, independent women –Destiny’s Child and girl talk by TLC. An example of the shot which arguably highlights would be when the main artist is sitting on the sofa with everyone, in the centre of the shot, holding on her lap the boombox on her lap highlighting that she has control over it. Moreover, as a 90’s RnB group to fit the star image of this genre, we used a lot of bright and flashy colours within the video, such as the gel screened panels as one of the sets. Also the girl’s costumes, all of which were brightly coloured helped get this part of the image through, and you can see a similar style of costume used in Destiny’s Child music video for the song Nasty Girl. Through the use of star image, we were able to create a both successful and creative music video, which allowed us to achieve our desired 90’s RnB themed music video.
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