Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Friday, 12 February 2010

Questionnaire/Interview


This is one of the interview we done using the questionnaire.

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Analysis of Music Video

Analysis of music video

This text communicated to the audience by having a connection with the song and the video. By this I mean because the song is fun and energetic we wanted to make the music video fun and energetic as well. This was done in order for our audiences to watch our video and enjoy it.


Analysis in terms of film language

Camerawork

We used a Varity of camerawork throughout whole music video.
the first bridge of the song which was the girls singing "I’m the ring leader of this" we wanted to use a mid shot of all of this so straight away the audience can know that this video is going to be of these girls.


Then for the first verse which was me and Ariane we did a clever shot. We basically started from a long shot and we both walked forward to the camera. So it went from a long shot to a mid shot. However in between the first verses we had shots of the girls dancing to make the scenes quite short and snappy to catch the audience attention. This is because I watch music videos and I switch the channel if the video doesn’t appeal to me or look fun. Therefore we did that in order for our audience to stay focused.

Then for the graffiti park we used high and low angled shots of the girls on colourful backgrounds. We used this because it helped show all the background f the location so the colours really looked good. also there was much more edit in this scene and we added a lot of video effects throughout the whole of the music video as it really helped it look more energetic.

For the second verse we wanted to try something different so we had a full verse sang by Alma and Ashleigh. However we used this really good graffiti effect that made it look like a mirror effect and because we had used zooming in and out it really helped with the scene so it wasn’t just a hand held image it actually moved which made it look better.

The chorus again was a long shot of the graffiti with bits of London and Jacuzzi. We used a lot of reverse and changed the speed to really help for the video to come together as being enjoyable to watch. Also for the Jacuzzi we used a low angled shot looking up we did this so me and Alma could flirt of the camera a bit and it helped show the colour of the Jacuzzi which were intentional as we didn’t want to do it just bland and dull.


Last but not least the last chorus had a mix of every shot from close-ups to long shots of the girls walking where we used a tracking shot. Also we had a scene from Madame Tussads which showed the paparazzi taking pictures in the back. This was useful because as the song uses words like pose it really helped put the whole image of photographers and these girls getting pictures taken together.

Overall we had three locations the graffiti park, London Trafalgar square with the fountain and Madame Tussads in London (paparazzi) and the Jacuzzi. The graffiti park indicates that these girls’ lives were colour and fun and gave it an urban touch. The Jacuzzi showed that they liked the high life and the London also showed this but on purpose we filmed near one fountain to show these girls were independent and also great as a group. This is why we added a walk at the end of our finished video and added flashes to make it look like pictures were getting taken with them however this also linked to the lyrics which were "every pose pose pose"

Lighting

Lighting was very important in our music video. this is because we wanted it to look as glamorous as possible so when we wanted to film the graffiti scene we wanted to make sure it was on a sunny day in order to the show the effect of the sun hitting all those bright colours in the graffiti park. Also we had the Jacuzzi with different colours in order to show colour within the scene as this was filmed at night just like in London when we used the fountain which also had a bright light shining from it. Madame Tussads also had a lot of flashing lights which really helped everything and theme come together along side with traffic lights we had which were showing red yellow green then revered it to show that these girls are ready to go!


Colour


Colour was a big part of our music video. We had to choose a lot of colourful locations like the graffiti park but also add colour in different areas like Madame Tussads and the Jacuzzi. Our outfits helped us show our colourful side but we had to plan out a lot of things. For example when we are in the graffiti park dancing me and Ariane purposely wear blue hoodies. This was done because when we added the effect both our hoodies went orange which made it stand out even more.


Mise en scene

Our music video is also a lot about mise en scene. Firstly our clothes. We did it purposely in order for it to match the background we had to different shots as well in order to the silver bit at one point to stand out for Alma’s scene this made it look like she was standing in front of a mirror and we did a shot looking up at her which made her look independent. However we did have shots looked at down at us to show we was still young and just living life. Our body language was very energetic and confident in order to show the audience that we are confident happy girls and i think we portrayed that well throughout acting and dancing within the music video as it was hard to go up in London near the fountain and dance in front of people as everyone was looking.


Our hair and makeup changed from, scene to scene just like our outfits. For example we had two outfits for the graffiti scene which was mostly track suit bottoms and for London we had shinny boots jeans so basically casual and for the Jacuzzi we wore swimming costume so it looked more realistic even though it was freezing cold outside.

our props were things like jewellery and when alma's ring blinged out in the sun in the graffiti park really made it look good when she was using her hands dancing also the climbing frame was a prop as we used it to film and also did a scene on it which was when it reversed on itself.

Editing


We had a variety of jump cuts from different locations to different locations order to set the scene and the mood of these girls to the audience. That’s mainly why our whole music video was concentrated on effects in order to make it look good. We hardly used any fades because we think this would have made it look a bit more boring as we wanted it to look energetic. We also got inspired by watching other music videos like the Pussycat Dolls and some during lesson which helped us put a scene in where Ariane hits the camera and then we have a change of setting. It was lucky this scene got in because during the time our cameras battery was getting very low. We also had a scene where I was on the roundabout and I got span around in order to show the whole graffiti park which helped to show the location and it resembled that these girls are on a fun rollercoaster.

Critical theory

We used a lot of connotation in this video when it came to colours. For example the colours resembled that these girls’ lives were fun and they were happy colourful and bubbly girls and are loving life. This helped with all the bright colours and which helped it look very glamorous which was an advantage for us.

Our music video did refer back to Laura Mulvey feminism theory a little as there were no men in this music video just 4 girls. So it’s showed we didn’t need men. However the way a man might look at this video might attract them to the song even though it’s a girly song as these girls could be attracted by teenage boys.

Our influences were glamour. So our music video also linked a bit with the effects model and it stereotype these girls a bit that yeah young girls like to go out and party and that there loose characters. However it can also be perceived as that they are independent and can live life strong together and individually.

This also links to postmodernism because were influenced by Hollywood and other big girl bands like Pussycat Dolls the Saturdays and Girls Aloud. This helped us think of dance moves and how to set the locations and the scenes.

This experience has been hard as one of our group members did leave but it feels good to have finished the music video as it was hard to also portray these images and characters to the audience as we did pick a difficult song but it really feels good to have finished the video as a lot of hard work has been put in from directing it, to planning everything like the dance and actually getting girls to be committed to this for us.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

The Saturdays- Research

The Saturdays album/single covers is also a very good help for our group. This is because our music video is very colourful and we want our digi pack to be as well, so The Saturdays album cover is really helpful to get some ideas. As you can see below each girl in the album cover has her own indivisual colour. Therefore, when it comes to designing ours I am definately consider a certain colour for each girl so it can give my audience an outline of how the music video is going to be. e.g colourful glamourous and fun like our album cover.



Some Album Covers

I am currently looking at some album covers in order to get some ideas for my digi pack. Here are some of the covers for PussyCat Dolls and the main singer Nicole.








Research on PussyCat Dolls Single


'I Don't Need A Man' was the 5th single to be taken from the Pussycat Dolls debut album, PCD. The video was shot in the USA in July 2006 and was directed by Chris Applebaum (Britney Spears, Nick Carter, Mandy Moore, Aly & AJ)
On 29th July 2006, CDUSA had a 'behind the scenes' on which Nicole said that the video would be shown on the same program in the future. Ashley previously blogged that the single was set to be a European release, but as CDUSA isn't shown outside the US (CD:UK was taken off air in early 2006).
The song is co-written by lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, producer Rich Harrison and Kara DioGuardi. Scherzinger's previous group, Eden's Crush, had recorded one song by DioGuardi. Scherzinger and DioGuardi also co-wrote the PCD bonus track "Flirt". "I Don't Need A Man" is produced by Rich Harrison and co-produced by Ron Fair. The official instrumental version of this song, that is featured on the CD single, contains some other samples than the album version. "I Don't Need a Man" reached the top ten in several countries and has also made the top five in some countries. The single has reached number six in Australia and number seven in the UK, breaking the group's string of top three hits in those countries.
"I Don't Need A Man" has also performed slightly weaker in Germany where it has reached number twenty. Although performing slightly weaker than the previous singles, "I Don't Need a Man" was one of four Pussycat Dolls songs to appear on the Australian 2006 end of year chart, reaching number fifty-five.
On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it debuted at number ninety three in the issue dated May 12, 2007.

Inspiration

I think the PussyCat Dolls have been a big inspiration for our music video. This is because it has helped us think of many dance movements and help us with how to set our music video and the outfits.







Filming

These are some pictures we took in London when we done the Madamme Tussade and Trafaguar Square Scene for our music video.