Final Music Video for Second Time Around Lady Gaga

Magazine Advert

Our magazine advert continued the monochrome theme that we used in the digipak, we felt that this looked

Digipak

We wanted to make sure our digipak would stand out and also took inspiration from previous digipacks, such as Lady Gaga and Beyonce of which we wrote about before. We wanted Ciara to be our focal point and so therefore this was our main feature throughout. Aswell as this, we chose to have a colour scheme of red, black and white which we also mirrored on our poster. We made sure we added a critics point of view, a track list of songs and a twitter page to it aswell.

Script

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
 Our media product challenges the typical conventions of a pop genre music video by not incorporating a male lead into it, and instead just concentrating on the female artist. This challenges conventions of a pop music video of this style, for example about a break up, which would normally have both a male and female in it. We also chose not to set our music video out as a 'story' because we felt it would look too cliche. We wanted to use more abstract scenes so it wasn't predictable by mimicking the lyrics.Our music video also uses conventions of a real media product in that it has a variation of different effects, such as slowing scenes down, speeding others up, change of colour filter etc. A lot of these features are used in real music videos. We also included a variety of cuts, some of which were in the middle of lines, which looks more effective compared to cutting all the shots after each line of the song.  Another way that we used forms of pop music videos is by using many different angles, which made the video less repetitive. The fades that we used, made the video flow better and helped us to change the settings more easily. We also fitted the fades in to the beat at the beginning, which we felt gave it a more professional look.


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For the digipak, the main theme throughout was our artist, as we wanted to really sell her. In order to do this, we decided to make the whole digipak black and white, so that her face would stand out. This then also linked to to the actual music video itself as we included monochrome scenes. Our album title also fits in with our pop genre because you would associate this with more of a pop genre song. We think that the album title of "say no more", which is a demand and therefore represents her as an independent artist, which she obviously is in our video. Our magazine advert continued the monochrome theme and also focussed on the artist. We used still shots from the music video itself, as once we had edited them, they looked as if they had been taken professionally. The pictures were like little 'snapshots' of the artist laughing. We also used 3 images, which fits in with the 3 word album title 'Say No More'.  The use of bold yet simple text, fitted it well with our monochrome theme. It stands out well, yet isn't too fussy, which helps to draw the audience in. We also added some red font to make our text stand out further. 


What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
From our audience feedback we learnt that our lip syncing was kept in time well, which is a necessity to make your music video look professional. This made it seem as if the artist was actually performing the song whilst we were filming the video. The audience also felt that the variation of colour filters we included throughout the video made it look authentic. We also learnt that some of the audience felt the amount of cuts we included made our music video interesting to watch as it didn't get boring, as there wasn't long periods of time with the same shots. We also learnt that the music and visuals fitted together well. In particular, the link between the  lyric "Second Time Around" and the visual of Ciara spinning around which is repeated at different speeds. The lyrics that appeared on screen had a mixed reaction, the majority thought that they worked well along side the artist and highlighted the main lyrics, however some thought that they made the music video seem less professional and ruined the ambiance of the video.  This could've been made better through using a different style of font and we could've placed the font in more interesting positions, to make our music video slighty 'different' to others. 

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many different media technologies over our journey of completing the music video. In our research stages we used the website You Tube, this enabled us to watch many different music videos by a range of artist to gather ideas and analyse how they created their own videos. We used the social network Twitter to try and Contact Lady Gaga to inform her of us creating a music video and to see if there was any advice she could give us when creating a music video. When creating our video, we used the computer program 'Final Cut', we put all our footage together and added effects such as colour filters and fades. It also allowed us to speed up and slow down shots, such as Ciara spinning around in the chorus. This helped to give our video more variation and enabled us to make it original, whilst looking professional. To produce our digi pack and magazine advert we used the editing program 'Photoshop', this let us create a professional product with our own unique touch.

Ciara's Evaluationnnnn

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
As seen in many stereotypical music videos there is always a love interest between two people, we challenged this convention by only focusing on the artist. We followed her throughout the video, but there was no original story line, we wanted to go for the abstract approach. When

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We have learnt many things from our audience feedback, positive things that worked well, and some areas we can improve on. Our lip syncing was spot on with the video, making it seem more realistic and that the artist was performing live, the artist was said to have performed well to make the lyrics seem believable and that they meant what they were singing. The quick cut editing of the music video meant that the audience were not bored by it, as the scenes kept changing. The amount of different shots from varied angles also worked well in making the music video unique and interesting to watch. The lyrics that appeared on screen had a mixed reaction, the majority thought that they worked well along side the artist and highlighted the main lyrics, however some thought that they made the music video seem less professional and ruined the ambiance of the video.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many different media technologies over our journey of completing the music video. In our research stages we used the website You Tube, this enabled us to watch many different music videos by a range of artist to gather ideas and analyse how they created their own videos. We used the social network Twitter to try and Contact Lady Gaga to inform her of us creating a music video. When creating our music video we used the computer program 'Final Cut', we put all our footage together and added effects such as colour filters and fades. To produce our digi pack and magazine advert we used the editing program 'Photoshop', this let us create a professional product with our own unique touch.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We decided too focus on more of a conventional pop 'love song' music video by filming and focusing on the main characters emotions and follow her throughout the song although usually another character (the person they are singing about) is a main feature within the video f which we decided to go against and not tell a stereotypical love story which would of fitted with the lyrics.

The fades of which we used, made the video flow and helped us to change the settings more easily and also did it to the beat at the beginning which we felt gave it a more professional look.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary tasks?

On each the product and ancilliary task, our main focal point is Ciara with our main cd cover cover being 3 seperate black and white images of her and our video being Ciara throughout.

A colour scheme for the poster and the digipak was our main way of linking the two products. Our music video itself, included monochrome shots with in it, which we mirrored on our digipak because ciaras face was in black and white.


What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
After the class viewed our music video, we discovered the parts within it which they liked aswell the parts that could of been improved. Firstly, they mentioned that our lip synching was spot on, and fitted in perfectly (apart from the ending which had unfortuently moved out of time). We were pleased that this was noticed, as we spent along time making sure that, that was the case. The way in which Ciara perfomed the song was also commented on. They said that it was a very believeable performance as she did not hold back and wasnt shy to put emotion behind the lyrics that she was singing. Also, a few said they liked the way in which we had edited the footage to make it have a more proffesional look(we made some parts monochrome aswell as changing the saturation and contrast). A few negative points were made about the lyrics popping up on screen, because they felt it made it look less proffesional and did not fit in with the whole look of the video. After viewing the video again when these comments were made, we felt this was a very valid point and if we were too make any changes , it would be to delete the lyrics altogether.

Emillie's evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

·         Challenges as real pop genre music videos usually have a male and female lead in order to represent other pov’s, however we decided to just have a female lead as the artist is female and the video would concentrate on her.

·         Uses forms of real music videos as it has lots of cuts and different angles like real music videos, and the filters used are similar to give it a more professional feel.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?

·        

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

·         We have learnt that:

·         Our visuals and music fitted together well. For instance, the audience liked the link between the lyric “the second time around” and the visual spinning.

·         We also found that we had a lot of varied angles and that the editing fitted in really well with the lyrics and music.

·         Cut through the lines well, which meant that the visuals weren’t boring or repetitive

·         Variety of locations used to keep it interesting.

·         However, the audience also felt that there was a disadvantage to the type of font used on some parts of the video, and that it made it look less professional.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

·         We used youtube a lot in the research stages, in order to watch a lot of contrasting real music videos. This allowed us to see what works and what doesn’t, and to also gain inspiration for our own video.

·         We also used the social networking site twitter in order to attempt to contact Lady Gaga, so that she could possibly give us some help or her view on our video.

·         Used final cut to edit all of our footage together, and to also add the filters and effects.

·         Photoshop to create our ancillary products (magazine ads, digipaks).

Ellen Quazi Evaluation Questions Notes

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video uses conventions of a real media product in that it has a variation of different effects, such as slowing scenes down, speeding others up, change of colour filter etc, which are featured in real music videos. We also included quite a lot of cuts, some of which were in the middle of lines, which looks more effective compared to cutting all the shots after each line of the song.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?

?????

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From our audience feedback we learnt that our lip syncing was kept in time well, which is a necessity to make your music video look professional. We also learnt that some of the audience felt the amount of cuts we included made our music video interesting to watch as it didn't get boring, as there wasn't long periods of time with the same shots. However, from our audience feedback, we learnt that adding in some of the lyrics onto the video made our music video look less professional. This could've been made better through using a different style of font and we could've placed the font in more interesting positions, to make our music video slighty 'different' to others.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
 In the researching and planning stages we used the internet a lot to help think of ideas, such as YouTube analyse existing music videos to gain ideas of how different cuts and other effects are used. In the construction stages, when it came to editing and putting all our footage together we used Final Cut. This programme allowed us to add different colour filters and other effects such as fades (Ciara fading shot at the start), and also speed up and slow down shots (Ciara spinning around in the chorus)

music video

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

use: 

develop:

challenge:

how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

use:

develop:

challenge:

Research into magazine ads

To complete the task of producing our own magazine advertisement we had to research into a lot of different styles. A magazine ad is vital in the publication and selling of an Artist as it includes important information about themselves and their up coming music. It also increases 'word of mouth' as people read magazines daily so it will be in constant view to many different types of people.

                                  

                                                   Front Cover Advertising

This image shown is of a recent NME magazine front cover, the artist Lady Gaga takes up most of the cover space, this is important to catch the readers eye, and to stand out from other magazines. Her name in bold stands out over anything else on the cover, again highlighting herself to the audience. A quote from the artist adds a personal touch, so the readers know that the magazine includes an interview with her. The outfit that Lady Gaga is wearing works along side the main message of 'Lady Gaga Unzipped', this visual interpretation of the headline helps to draw the audience in to read the article.

Article Interviews

Article interviews give artists the opportunity to let the public know about themselves, and also the chance to self promote their music; this image of a double page spread on Lady Gaga from Q magazine illustrates how. The full page image of the artist plants a strong image in the readers mind, this increases the chance of the reader recognising and remembering the artist and her face. As the image shows this was a very detailed interview, this has negative and positive aspects as some readers would find it very interesting, however due to the large amount   of text important details go unnoticed such as release dates of upcoming music and tours.       

This piece of advertisement in a magazine is so effective as it would stand out against plain text articles. However simple the ad, the information is put straight across informing the audience of the most important details from the artist.

                                                                                                                                                       



Feedback from class on final cut of video

Good points:

• Lip syncing fitted well
• lyrics coming up on screen - interesting.
• Lyrics matched visuals (second time around matched spinning around in the chorus)
• Editing fitted in with music
• Good performance
• Enough scenes (outside, black room)
• Variety of shots (low angles etc)
• cutting through the lines
• Scenes changed with time of the music
• Different places keeps the video varied and people interested

Bad points:

• Text on the video made it less professional.

Actual costumes used in the video!

Initially when we started planning for our music video, we intended for our "artist" to be wearing only one outfit, which was based off of this look:

However, once we started filming, we realised that by having more than one outfit it would make the video look more real rather than looking like it had been filmed on one day. So, we devised 3 outfits, a really casual outfit, a smart outfit and then an everyday outfit, all of which fit into their scenes.

Outfit 1: This outfit was the really casual outfit, consisting of a pink t-shirt and jeans. This outfit only really features in a few scenes, but we really liked the way the camera picked up the lighting on the t-shirt.

Outfit 2: This outfit was the smarter outfit, which consisted of a floral dress, black tights and then a light denim jacket. This outfit was used only in the dark room scenes, and again the lighting made the floral print really stand out from the black background.

Outfit 3: The last outfit was more of an everyday outfit, consisting of black leggings and an oversized blue cardigan. This outfit featured in quite a few of the outside scenes, making them look relaxed and not like we were filming.

Use of narrative/abstract/performance in video

We didn't want our video to be too cliche, because we could've followed the story that is being told in the song. We thought that this would be hard to achieve,  and would be very predictable. We decided to use more of an abstract performance in our music video. This included shots of our 'artist' in different locations, sometimes lipsyncing, sometimes not. When we were filming our footage we were worried it may be boring, but we knew we wanted to used editing to make our music video more interesting. Editing is a good way to make simple shots look more complex. If we used the narrative and just acted out the story, it would be harder to use more editing in it without making it too confusing, as you want the audience to be able to follow the story.

However, 'story' videos do sometimes work, for example Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night (TGIF),this video is a sucess becuase it uses humour to keep the audience entertained. There also would have been a good budget, meaning costumes, location and the quality of filiming and editing were more professional looking.



Bruno Mars' 'The Lazy Song' does the oppposite and has a completely random video, which includes men with monkey masks on. Although some of his actions in the video fit in with the lyrics of the song, it is still less 'story-like' than Katy Perry's.

Research into transition types

We wanted to use a variation of transitions in our music video. We liked the idea of having our main character fading away in the first scene, and then using the same scene at the end of the video. This works like a 'loop', giving a starting and ending point.
We also liked using quick cuts between shots, that fitted in with the music, because the song we used had a strong beat that could be used to make our video look more interesting. An example we found where this was used was in the Nicki Minaj and Rihanna video for 'Fly'. At the 41 second mark, there is a quick beat, which shows fast cuts that cut between Nicki Minaj and her feet as she walks. We thought this was a good technique as it shows the main characters facial expression, whilst at the same time you're not just stuck on that one shot of her face.





Drake's  video for 'Headlines' also uses the beat to do lots of quick cuts which makes the video really interesting to watch, because although the video is only made up of about 4 scenes, they are quite simplistic.This shows the power that cuts can have on a music video to make it different to normal. Drake's video also include a sort of 'split screen' effect but they are of the same scene, he is just doing different things/movements which gives a fascinating effect, that makes you want to keep watching.

Research into filters and special effects

We realised that without changing the colour filters of our music video, it would look far too much like a  'home video', which was not the look we were after, nor does it look like a professional, higher budget music video.

We paticularly liked the colour effect used on popular E4 show 'Made in Chelsea'. The colour filter used on this programme is very subtle but is 'warm' looking and makes the filming look more professional. It also improves skin tone.



On Final Cut we tried to achieve a similar look, but this was hard to do on the colour corrector. So we decided just to play around with the colour corrector dials and the sliders to achieve the filters we wanted.

We varied our filters throughout the video, some were bright, some were 'colder' looking, some were black and white. This gave our video variation and made it look less like a home video.

Time line of whole project

October schedule

 

November schedule

Our Day of Filming 09/11/2011

We decided to book our camera on this day and do a whole day of filming as we felt we were falling behind on our video because instead of filming our initial ideas, we were discussing new ideas too much so therefore we hadnt got enough footage for our whole music video.

Our ideas of having shots in fields and picturess surroundings were definitly at the forfront of what we wanted to film on this day. We came up with different ideas as to where we could drive too in order to get the shots we wanted with places such as

The botanic gardens- but we found that this cost to get in and felt we could find a location that would fit out video for free

Fields near Haverhill- Although this wasnt a quick and conveniant place to go because it wasnt near Long Road so we looked closer and in surrounding areas.

Newnham Park - In the end we settled on newham park which is about 2miles from Long Road so was in easy reach too get there and back without wasting too much time, it was free and has exactly the surroundings that we had wanted.

A change of plan- Once we chose our location, we watched the music video that we had so far and came to grips with the lyrics that we still needed to film or the footage for the lyrics that we were not happy with due to bad lighting so therefore wanted to re film it. We wrote down these lyrics and then planned what we wanted to do for each because at the start we were only planning on having the singing in the black room but as time went on and different ideas came to the for front, we decided to have the singing on location also which became a slight problem as we had not previously planned this.

Filming schedule for the day
11am - Get to Newnham Park, giving us 4 hours to film what we need.
11am- 12pm - Film lipsynching shots around the bridge area and field.
12pm-1pm Lunch
1pm - 2pm - More filming of lipsynching but from different angles
2pm - 4pm Scenery shots.

Classification

After researching different music videos, we've found that they are also given classifications in order to see who they are mainly aimed at and what audience they are suitable for. An example of this is Rhiannas 'Man down' of which features a shooting aswell as references to sexual assault. This video kicked up a storm in the media because it was being shown on tv aswell as the internet where youngsters could easily view it, although it was not seen as exceptable. This was later classified as a 15.

Our music video on the other hand is definitly aimed at a much wider audience because no violence, swearing etc is in it but instead it is simple and goes with the theme of the song, which is about a girl talking about love and going through a rough time of which a range of ages can relate to but mainly around 16 and over.

Overall we felt this music video should be given a U classification after we read what the guidelines are for this, with it saying that it can tackle problematic themes but sensitively aswell as no discriminitory language or behaviour.

Classification U
Should be suitable for viewers aged 4 and over. No violence, threat or horror. An example of a classified U music video is "Baby" by Justin Bieber, mainly due to his young fanbase.

Classification PG
Generally okay, but could be damaging to some young viewers.

Classification 12 and 15
Classification 12 is used when the material being shown is only suitable for people aged 12 and over. Classification 15 is used when the material being shown is damaging to people under 15.

Ed Sheeran- A Team- (Ideas)

This is the video for Ed Sheeran's first released single, The A Team. As a group we really liked this video, due to the natural setting, such as the park and the sunshine. Also, this video was filmed on just £20, which just shows that not all good videos have high budgets. This budget is similar to our budget as well, and so this video gave us quite a lot of inspiration. Another part of the video we like is when everything around the girl is sped up, making it look like everyone else is moving and she isn't. We would like to incorporate the black and white filter into parts of our music video, and would also like the incorporate the natural setting.

Lyrics.

 (these will be analysed against our shot list)

Oh oh oh yeah
Babe

Last time I thought we have this talk
Boy you were getting ready to leave
I thought baby you were done
Cause for a while you could barely look at me.

This time I thought that we`d be fine
That I`d forget the things that you said
I tried crossing out your words

But baby you can not forget the past (x2)
Still baby

Chorus:

I’m so unpredictable
you don’t know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I’m even still in love
You see
I don’t know what to tell you now
Its always harder the second time around

Im so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can forget the way you were with me
I don’t know what to tell you now
Its always harder
the second time around (x2)

We tried going back to Joe’s
That always was our favourite place
Long rides baby by the coast
Do you remember where we stayed

Last time we were hanging out
You were acting kind of strange
Now it’s the second time around
I’m sorry now it’s me that feels this way
Its me that feels this way, babe

Chorus:

I’m so unpredictable
You don’t know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I’m even still in love
You see
I don’t know what to tell you now
Its always harder the second time around

Im so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can forget the way you were with me
I don’t know what to tell you now
Its always harder
the second time around


I`m not sure the best way to say this
But I can’t pretend to love you no more babe
This ferris wheel`s got me crazy
Maybe the second time around is not meant for us babe
Not mean for us babe yeah!

Repeat corus (x2)

Shot list.

For this shot list, we're going to either say the line or the time frame and then describe the shot :)
Our first section- up too 'last time i thoughts we had this talk' RED
Shot 1- 0:00- 0:05 - variation of close ups, mid shots and long shots all cut to the beat of the song.
Shot 2- "Oh yeah babe" - All mid shots of ciara, mixture of angles.
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-

Second section- up too 'you can not forget the past' GREEN
Shot 1- Last time I though we had this talk - Mid shot
Shot 2- Boy you were getting ready to leave - Long shot
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-
Shot 7-
Shot 8-

Third section- Chorus 'the second time around' BLUE
Shot 1-
Shot 2-
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-
Shot 7-
Shot 8-
Shot 9-

Fourth section- Up too 'its me that feels this way' PURPLE
Shot 1-
Shot 2-
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-
Shot 7-
Shot 8-
Shot 9-

Fifth section- Chorus up too 'the second time around' BLUE
Shot 1-
Shot 2-
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-
Shot 7-
Shot 8-
Shot 9-

Sixth section- Up too 'not meant for us baby' PINK
Shot 1-
Shot 2-
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-

Seventh section- Chorus and finish BLUE
Shot 1-
Shot 2-
Shot 3-
Shot 4-
Shot 5-
Shot 6-
Shot 7-
Shot 8-
Shot 9-

Auteur study :)

Flora Sigismondi- She is an intalian director from the city of Pescara, born in 1965. At an early age, it was clear that she was a very artistic, imaginitive child and went on to study painting and illistation at Ontario college and aswell as this she took a degree later on in photography. Music videos came about for Floria when she was approached by The Revolver film company and she began to direct for bands in Canada. Her style was very noticeable and somewhat contraversial, with it being quite dark and disturbing. This though, helped her career and attracted many different artists of whom wanted to work with her. Some of her work includes;                                                                                 

  Katy Perry-E.T                                                              

Aswell as music videos, she also directed a film called 'The Runaways' in 2010 which was based around a girl rockband and it made over $3 million dollars at the box-office but overall the film was on rated  a 6.2/10 by film critics of whom felt it wasnt on par with other american films.

 

What remains to be done!!!

As of now, we have filmed all of the shots we needed in the dark room at college. In these shots our "artist" is lipsynching, which we've filmed from a number of different angles. We have added these shots onto final cut, and edited them all to be in the right places and so they cut on the beat. Blog wise, we've added our test footage on, which needs to be analysed, done our storyboard, attempted to contact Lady Gaga and a lot of other posts for the planning of the video. However, we still need to complete our shot list on our blog and add more posts on editing research. We also still need to film all of the natural, outside shots, edit them into our video and then change all of the filters on the different parts of the video, all in time for the deadline on 11/11/11. D:

Attempt to contact Riveting Entertainment

As trying to contact Lady Gaga was unsuccessful  we decided to attempt to contact Riveting Entertainment. We feel that this is a more realistic idea and we have a better chance of receiving a reply :)
Unfortuently they did not reply the our email either, of which we asked for any tips that they could give us and what advice they would give us in regards to a slow, romantic song such as the one we are doing.

Progress Diary 10/10/2011

This lesson we have researched into digipaks, and researched further into specific digipak , such as Lady Gaga's The Fame Digipak. We looked into the style of Lady Gaga's digipak and how it relates to the genre of her music and her general style.
Also we came up with thoughts and ideas as to what our video should be based around and what we should focus on. We couldnt decide if we wanted to to be a story and make full sense to the audience or if we should do more abstract and unique shots that werent in a chronological order such as in Rhiannas video 'rudeboy'.
By the end of it we wayed up each of our different styles by writing down what could be included for each and decided on  a video that is understandable and has a story present because we felt this was the option that we had the most ideas for.

Digipak research

A Digipak is a type of CD, DVD or BD cover. It is used to advertise a cd or dvd, through images. It also contains information such as who wrote the song and other behind the scenes acknowledgement.  They usually consist of a card gatefold, with one or more plastic trays that hold the disc.

Here is a digipak for Lady Gaga's The Fame Album:

This Digipak is quite dark overall, with a bit of colour on each part of the Digipak which puts the focus on Lady Gaga herself. The white font also stands out well against the black background. It shows the audience that she is quite dramatic through her poses and her outfit, which can almost be related to her music as it is quite different. The vibrant colour relates to the pop genre, which is fast, upbeat and cool. The overall look of the digipak, gives of the vibe of a 'club scene', which once again links to the style of Lady Gaga's music (pop,dance etc).

Beyonce.

Beyonce digipak has a much more elegant feel to it, and is much more reserved compared to Lady Gagas, which will be taken into consideration when we do our digipak because we may want to 'break the mould' of your typical Gaga style and look at something simple.
This example is simple, but its very bold and i feel makes a big statement.

Test Footage (Fade shot)

Storyboard for our initial ideas.

Box 1- We wanted to start our video    with a girl walking away with the sun coming down behind her and surrounded by a path of trees, with this starting before the music itself so it acts as an introduction to the music.

Box 2- After this we wanted to add a flicker off images of the man and women of whom would be in our video, which showed the good times that they had in their relationship. They would come over the screen and interlay.

Box 3-

attempt to contact gaga via twitter

We found out the other day that Lady Gaga has just arrived in the UK, so we are hoping that we can do everything we can to attempt to get hold of her so she can give us some tips to make our music video.

Here is our attempt to contact Mumma Monster herself, we haven't yet got a reply however.

Target Audience Research

Our target audience are females, over the age of 12. We think this because the song is mainly about a break up and we think that this is more relatable to people above that age. Also, we think females are more like to watch a music video about a break up, just due to the fact that a female sings the song and so they can understand what Lady Gaga is singing about. However, we do also need to consider components of our music video that can be relatable to males also so that we can gain a large variety of audiences.

Reece Location Shots :D

We really wanted a long shot of our 'singer' in the middle of a field whilst panning at the same time as her myhming the words as we felt that this would really capture different aspects of the whole location aswell as showing a great deal of emotion from her which reflects the song that we are doing.

Both of these photos are pictures of where we hope to film the opening of the music video. In this shot we hope to have a girl walking down with the sun shining on her, then have her fade away as she gets further down the path.

This photo is of the bench in the same location as the photos above. Here we plan to film one of the couple shots we have planned, as we think this will create a really cool silhoutte of the couple, rather than having the in full view.

Autuer Study - Colin Tilley

Colin Tilley was born on 27th of June 1988 in Berkely, California, making him only 23 years old. He's a music video director for Riveting Entertainment, an production and management company based in Los Angeles, California. He's won several famous awards, including best male video at the 2011 VMA's for his work on U Smile by Justin Bieber and video of the year at the 2011 BET Awards for the Look at me now video by Chris Brown. He was nominated for 3 awards at the 2011 VMA's: Best Male Video, Best Hip-Hop Video and Best collaboration video. \He also carries out a number of film projects. The artist that he works most frequently with is Chris Brown, and he's produced all 4 of his most recent videos.

Examples of his work

Next 2 You - Chris Brown ft Justin Bieber

This is an example of one of Colin Tilley's videos. For this particular video, its almost like a mini-film, very dramatic and you WANT to watch until the end. The film is a big production and we personally think its one of the best music videos of the year. Our favourite aspect of the video is the way its edited to ensure that you believe that they're in a natural disaster, and then really get involved in the visuals.

No Sleep - Wiz Khalifa


This is one of Colin Tilley's newest projects. This video is set at the morning after a party. Our favourite part of the video is the use of strobe lights and other lights, as we think its the main focus of the video.

Feedback for blog

The blog created here, lacks content and overall knowledge of the music video project. The blog, despite including initial ideas and a detailed pitch, lacks overall information and ideas about the entire project.

We feel, the blog could do with improvements and we feel your group should include more ideas, shot takes and more detailed and lengthly planning ideas. Your blog must have a storyboard completed, for which you can collect sheets from Tanya. This is a necessary requirement of the course, and lack of evidence to show this, will result in a decreased mark. Your blog requires shot lists and the analysis of two student videos, which must be included in the blog towards the start of the project. You also need to include an Auteur study including notes of the director and examples.

Also needed is digital shots and more research. However, you did manage to include notes from the talk given last week, with a thorough understanding of what was include in the speech. An attempt to contact an artist is also required as part of the project.  A filming schedule you provided needs improvement.

Thank you for your time.

by the way, nice photos. Jus' sayin.

Still shots

We chose the 'wood' scene for a possible location for our music video because you can achieve different effects by using the light from the sun and also you can shoot from different angles to get a variation of shots.
                                                                    Animation maker

Analysis of 2 student videos

T1-32 Music Video - 2010


We think that this student music video is really good, as it incorporates the right characterisitics for the genre whilst being quirky and interesting at the same time. For instance, it is set in a back road, matching the indie/alternative genre. Other characteristics of this genre is a performance in the video, which this group has done. They've also added lyrics on the most important parts of the song, which we feel makes it quirky and different to other videos of this genre.

T1-33 Music Video - 2010



We found this music video to be ok, however it does lack content. Aspects that we liked about it, is the way the beat of parts of the song have been matched in the cuts of the visuals. We also liked the costumes chosen (hot dog), as we feel it gives the video something different, and without it the visuals would be a bit boring.

Initial Ideas Second Time Around

What will make our video unique?
As our song is about a breakup in a relationship, our music video could easily become very cliche and cheesy, which is something we do NOT want. So to make the video different we've had the idea of putting either all or aspects of our music video in the style of a black and white old film. For example, we'd have the girl in glamorous vintage clothing, so that its in the style of 1930's hollywood. This picture would be the type of look we are going for:

Continuing with the old hollywood theme, the actual video would be a less comedic and more dramatic version of the we no speak americano video:

We like the way that its beleivable that they have shot the video in the past. We think that this will stop our video from becoming cheesy, and we'll be able to make the visuals dramatic.

Possible Locations
Some locations that we think will fit into the slow hip-hop genre of the song are:

• The beach
• A bedroom
• A field (only if the weather is sunny, as the main idea for this location incorporates the sun)

Amar and Arron talk

Tips:

• 1st 30 seconds are key to keep the audience hooked.
• Stimulating eyes aswell as ears.
• Plan/ block off before shooting
• PLAN PLAN PLAN
• Don't necessarily match lyrics to visuals
• Shoot lip syncing - 4 or 5 times in different locations
• Make it different
• Is the concept realistic

We are hoping to incorporate these tips into our music video in order to give it justice, ecspecially in regards to planning which may be diffictult compared to our other peices of work because instead of having to plan a 1 minute piece, we have to plan a 3 minute piece.
As of the lip syncing, we have already shot part of it in the dark room, using different angles and different lighting.

Inspiration from other music videos

A video that we've taken inspiration from is Rihanna's music video for her song Unfaithful. From 1 minute for 1.04, we liked the idea of flashing different 'scenes' with quick fades in between. This would create a kind of flashback effect, which we think will fit well into the meaning of our chosen song, Second Time Around by Lady Gaga. We also thought that we could do a mixture of still shots and moving scenes, just to switch it up a bit.



Another idea we had was to start our video with the end shot. This would keep the audience intrigued as they would wonder what has happened previously, which would then be revealed in the video. Then we would end with the same scene, so it's almost like a loop. Our starting visual would start before the music begins however, because we like the effect this has given in other music videos.

Lyrics for Second time around

oh oh oh yeah
Babe

Last time I thought we had this talk
Boy you were getting ready to leave
I thought that baby you were done
Cause for a while you could barely look at me
This time I thought that we'd be fine
That I'd forget the things that you said
I tried crossing out your words

But baby you can not forget the past
Oh oh oh oh babe
Can not forget the past
Oh oh oh oh, Still baby (Babe)

I'm so unpredictable
You don't know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I'm even still in love
You see
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder the second time around

I'm so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can't forget the way you were with me
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder
The second time around

The second time around

We tried going back to Joe's
That always was our favourite place
Long rides baby by the coast
Do you remember where we stayed

Last time we where hanging out
You were acting kind of strange
Now it's the second time around
I'm sorry now it's me that feels this way
Oh oh oh oh babe
(My heart just speaks to me)
It's me that feels this way
Oh oh oh babe

I now you are the one that is hurting
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/lady_gaga/second_time_around.html ]
I'm so unpredictable
You don't know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I'm even still in love
You see
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder the second time around

I'm so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can't forget the way you were with me
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder
The second time around

I'm not sure the best way to say this
But I can't pretend to love you no more babe
This ferris wheel's got me crazy
Maybe the second time around is not meant for us babe
Not meant for us babe hey-yeah!

I'm so unpredictable
You don't know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I'm even still in love
You see
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder the second time around

I'm so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can forget the way you were with me
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder
The second time around

I'm so unpredictable
You don't know what to think
So unemotional
Wonder if I'm even still in love
You see
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder the second time around

I'm so unpredictable
Just like you used to be
So unemotional
Boy I can forget the way you were with me
I don't know what to tell you now
It's always harder
The second time around

The second time around