P1 Generating Ideas

 

Representation exam question

 The film that I studied was "Attack the Block" (Joe Cornish 2011) and it involved a lot of different examples of representation.

In the film Attack the block the director has clearly challenged the stereotypes that he was representing in the film.  This is shown in the progression of the film as all the characters have their own character arcs, for example the main character Moses is presented at first as a dangerous young black man that mugs innocent middle class white nurses.  But the film progresses and we see a completely different light to Moses.  It turns out that he is only 15 and his morals are quite fair.  There is also a major scene where the nurse that Moses mugged goes into his flat and it is revealed that Moses has a very child like room with Spiderman bedding.  This gives him a completely different light on the fact that his character and ideology is represented so differently by the end of the film.  

In the film the director also challenged the stereotype of middle aged white women as another main character, Sam.  She is represented at first as quite venerable and innocent as she is mugged and is completely mortified at the start.  She then proves to be very brave at the end by managing to kill an alien to save Moses and she goes through a massive herd of them to eventually lure them to their deaths.  This shows that the director completly challenged the stereotypes when he was trying to represent women.  

Representation Theory

 Richard Dyer made a theory in 1983 saying whenever you mak media on representation you need to show what sense of the world you are making, what does it imply, who is it speaking to?  For whom? To whom?  What does it represent to us and why?

D1

 D1 How I’ve met the brief and my proposal.

Overall this has been a difficult project for me to do and you can probably tell why and this is mainly because of COVID 19 but I guess you must be bored of that now.  In many ways I have met the brief and stayed true mostly to my P1 Proposal.  This is because I have checked over and over again so I can make sure all work and effort isn’t a waste of time and also so the client is happy.  The brief told me to make a music video that would have live action/graphics based and I have fulfilled that point from the brief.  As my video has footage and characters like actor Hattie Kelly and also graphics and editing like the black and white filter.  This furthermore shows that I have met the brief.  I also met with the P1 Proposal I made as In the proposal I said I would make a video cover of “I can’t believe your in love with me” with a style that fits with the jazz genre.  I explain more of this in the editing part of this blog below. 

Miss-en-Scene

 

For locations, I chose places quite far from civilisation, this is because I wanted to film without worrying about members of the public but it of course has deeper meaning.  The locations I used where either locations on the moor or in the woods as these places teem with nature.  In some ways the moor can seam like a desolate place especially when there is snow everywhere so I created meaning by showing how sometimes nature is desolate and lonely.  Here is an example of one of the locations I went to film.  Here is a wide shot of actor Hattie Kelly in the forest teeming with nature.  You can see that the photo is in black and white and this is at the start of the video before the lyrics start.  I made it black and white to show the contrast in her mind and to show the audience what she is feeling, and she is feeling alone and unwanted.  When the audience see the black and white they will see that something must be wrong but will also see the nostalgia of the video being in black and white.  This is obviously because most jazz videos and especially old ones where in black and white.  In the shot you can unfortunately not see that clearly but she is wearing a dress and has got ready to meet someone that she loves.  I also wanted and told her to wear a dress to appeal to the target audience of the baby boomers as they wore more traditional clothing back then.  But you can also see she is wearing a coat and that is originally because it Was freezing at the time but it also has deeper meaning.  Here I was trying to represent young women in relationships but that is mainly it, there wasn’t really any stereotypes that I was wanting to deliberately make.  This shot you can see that she is alone and she has got her head on her hands.  This shows that she is doubting if someone can come and overall makes her feel alone.  This is further shown by the fact that the entire shot is in black and white.  This can cause the audience to sympathise with her and see that she is sad.  In this shot there are no props in it but when I was using this shot I told Hattie to sit on the rock.  The rock represents nature holding her up when she's alone.  This overall makes the shot more important and descriptive for the audience as they will think that she has been waiting for a while with the fact that she is sitting down on a dirty rock.  In this shot she is also wearing a coat to further show that she is alone as she is cold and that can hint to her being more alone.  The audience will see this and think she is cold and alone.  The trees around her represent the matureness and wiseness of nature as these trees are more than a hundred years old.  Her being surrounded by these big trees shows that she is isn't that wise and mature and will have to learn from her mistakes.  The audience will see that she is tiny compared to the massive trees.

Editing 

I edited this video the way I did because I wanted to show some beautiful locations.  At first I wanted a storyline but after some thought and a global pandemic I thought that it would be too hard to make a video with a storyline because I couldn’t find any actor that could and even wanted to do this music video.  So even though a storyline might have captivated the audience more and make the video more memorable it was impossible for me at the time to do but this isn’t really a bad thing because my video still shows emotional meaning by the way I have edited this video.

Here are the screenshots of the editing I did to change the filter of black and white to colour in a smooth transition.  I wanted the transition to start as soon as the lyrics started to add greater effect and gracefulness.  This adds meaning to the video by showing how this video is a slow paced video with the fact that the fade is slow.  The black and white filter worked well to show the mood of the video and I’m glad how it panned out.  Overall I wanted the video to look tranquil with the black and white and have a nice transition to colour and then fade to black at the end and it worked well for me as an editor for the video.  This created meaning because the black and white filter easily stood out and showed what type of music video this was going to be and it also shows how it meets the proposal and the brief as I’ve followed my idea of half the music video being black and white the entire time I’ve been planning this, even throughout COVID 19.  Originally before COVID 19 I was planning to have a band play the music on camera and bubbles of colour coming out of a saxophone but because we had no band I had to adapt.  Overall I wanted a two minutes+ music video with the start of the song being in black and white and then the second half of the music video being in colour, this will be when the instrumental ends and the vocals start.  I wanted the video to be in black and white because it would show an alone and depressive side to the song but it will turn to colour in the middle to show everything will turn out ok. When the video changes into colour I wanted there to be a quick fading transition which I think has worked out quite well.  I wanted there to be some sharp cuts between the footage and also some fading transitions.  At the start and the end of the video I wanted there to be a fade from black and a fade to black and overall this has worked very well and has done a good job.  When I edited the audio I wanted the video to span the entire audio and the fade to and from black to span the video as well.  This shows that I’ve met the brief and the proposal as I wanted to keep the video the length of the audio.  When I was planning what audio I would use, I wanted the highest possible audio quality for it that was sung by Billie Holiday but the one with the highest quality was the audio I used for the video so the audio sounded very old.  This however may sound like a downside but i think it is good in some ways, as the old audio gives it more aesthetic and is more nostalgic for the target audience and creates meaning to the music video.  This creates meaning but it also shows how I’ve met the brief as at the start of this unit I wanted this video to seem old fashioned and it is. Overall though, the way I have edited this video helps create meaning of nostalgia by all these factors like the black and white filter and the change from black and white to colour.  The change of colour shows nostalgia by how we are all moving forward through time and technology.  This also shows how I have met the brief and how I have made a video that the client will like as it fits with the brief.   

Camerawork

With the footage I was creating I wanted a video that would show the beauty of nature even with a black and white filter.  I would shoot mainly mid shots of the character as well which would allow the audience to see a more detailed figure of how the character will be feeling while admiring the scenery.  There where also some wide shots to show the scale of a human to nature and to show the audience that we are all very tiny.  There where many wide shots of settings such as the moor and the woods and other places etc.  This is because of course, I wanted to show the beauty of nature as your probably getting sick of that saying now.  There are also other shots of course with an actual person in it.  This example above is a medium shot and shows more emotion even though she is facing away from the camera.

Target audience

The target audience for my music video was aimed at mainly baby boomers and older generations.  Even though the entire cast of one actor is apart of the generation Z the genre is mostly liked by the majority of baby boomers and the video is aimed to make baby boomers feel young again.  Originally I wanted this video to be targeted at my generation, generation Z but after very few thought I realised that Generation Z will be near impossible to admire to with this style of music.  Baby boomers will appeal to this video because they will feel nostalgic with how it fits with similar jazz videos and how it is in black and white for most of the video.  Baby boomers will appeal to the theme of nature because in they’re life they have been outside a lot more than current generations and so that’s also a major reason why I chose this target audience.  This meets the proposal and brief because in the brief I am meant to have a clear target audience and in my proposal I chose baby boomers because over 60% of them listen to jazz (Statistics from Yougov.)

Comparison to original plan.  

Originally what I wanted for music video was an almost 5 minute long video with a full cast of 10-12 and a band to top it of with our own music, there was a full script to do with a love story between two young teenagers and during the instrumental there would be colour expanding from everywhere and all sorts of couples would look around in amazement at it.  Sadly that never happened due to COVID and also because of my own low self esteem after the whole mess.  Now the music video doesn’t really have a story to it but shows the characteristics of a music video.  In the video there is no singing or lip syncing and no band playing but it doesn’t mean I’m upset with how it ended up as I made it to the best of my ability at the time.  I had to completely change it but I did my best to keep it to the theme which was nature.

Conventions and what I wanted to see.

Overall a music video should at least have one person in it so you can connect with them in a way, also it is good to have a character in your music videos to see all the different types of shots, for example mid shot, long shot, establishing shot etc.  These are things I wanted to see in my finished video and I am happy with how it has turned out.  Normally there should be a storyline as well but there isn't really one here that I did.

Symbolic codes

Of course as I have said many times that I want to show the beauty of nature.  The greenery is meant to represent the purity of this world and all things good and it adds greater affect to this when the filter is changed to colour and you can see it in a real light. I wanted this to add more dramatic beauty to the video and it worked out well.

Technical codes

When planning out my video I wanted to have a cover of Billie Holiday singing the song,  I also wanted an instrumental to add contrast to the lyrics when the colour changes.  I also wanted a verity of shots that would be different to each other.  In my music video I did not want any sound effects because I think it would interfere too much with the old audio.  

M4

Here is my full finished music video.
 The brief that I was given by my client was to make a music video for the song; “I can’t believe that your in love with me” by Billie Holiday.  In the brief I was given the freedom of making it a narrative, performance based or a concept.  And I went with a concept with nature due to the circumstances.  The brief said that the video must be as long as the song and I must take on specific job roles which both I have done.  The video mustn’t use any copyrighted © material unless I have given its source.  

Did i meet the deadlines?

At the start of the project I stuck to all my deadlines but it all changed when the 3rd wave hit and I hid my head under the sand for a few weeks.  Afterwards though after confronting this, a new deadline was made and I managed to get it done in the time of that one but the tasks afterwards where not made to the deadline because of this set back.

In the making of the video I found non copyrighted footage of nature that I could export to my video which I sooner decided not to use and instead find my own footage.  All footage that is in the video was made and distributed by me.

Technical Settings.

In Media people expect music videos to be at the highest standard The video was exported to be the highest quality at 1080p with a frame rate of 30 but unfortunately blogger couldn’t handle the size so I have used a lower quality op 780p for blogger.

How I tried to meet the brief.

When creating the video I made sure that I would meet all aspects of the brief to please the client.  

This came from going out to make the footage, editing the video and directing it.  While making my video i did my best to ensure all the aspects of the brief where met and to do so i was constantly rereading the brief so i knew that i hadn't breeched any of it.

Setbacks

Of course though there where setbacks and it did not go all well to plan and I hope the client realises this,  due to the 3rd wave of COVID after Christmas it all went to hell and for a while I was without actors and people to help but at the end it was all sorted with the help of a great friend Hattie Kelly.  Who went out of her comfort zone to do this when no one else did and for that I am very grateful.   The music video is still a shadow of what it could’ve been but all is well as it is the best I could do out of the situation honestly.

How I adapted to ensure COVID guidelines

COVID 19 absolutely ruined my ideas of making a music video before but after some time when things settled down I made my music video with some clear guidelines to tackle the spread of the disease.  Here are the guidelines.  The cameraman (me) must wear a face-mask at all times and must stay at least 2 metres away from the actor.  When there isn’t any filming going on the actors must wear a mask as well and stay 2 metres away.  When filming the cameraman will film 2 metres away or more.  These are the guidelines we used and it worked well 

Length of video.

The length of my music video was Two minutes and fifty seconds long and the video is the same length of the song except for a tiny bit at the end when the video fades to black of course. 

Did the visuals represent theme of the song?

When editing the video I made sure that the visuals represented the themes of the song.  What i did to do that was that i changed the image on the time of the beat to add a clean transition.  I also kept half of the visuals in black and white to add greater effect but also to show the age of the song.

Did my video conform to the conventions of the genre?

After making and seeing the entire video I can confidently say that my video did conform with the conventions of the genre.  Most jazz videos don't have a storyline and even though it wasn't intentional to not have one it defiantly conforms with the genre.  Another way my video conformed with the genre was that half of my video was in black and white. I took inspiration from many musicians to do this as it is popular in jazz music videos.  So that is a way that it conforms well with the genre.

How did my video create a positive image of the artist and genre?

My video was a video with a lot of visual nature in it and this is to show the purity of nature and how wonderful it is by showing lovely places in the Ilkley Countryside.  This will overall show Billie Holiday and the genre of jazz in a positive way.

M3

Conventions

The song that I am making a music video for is "I cant believe that you're in love with me."  This is a song by Billie holiday, a jazz musician and singer from the early 20th century.  I chose this song because I have always been interested in jazz and I like Billie Holiday's music.  In my proposal I said that I wanted to make a music video that reflects the codes, conventions and the genre of the song so the video can be very appealing to the target audience and also so the client gets exactly what they want.

Originally when planning out what the video was going to be like, I had the options of making many different types of videos, one of which being a performance video which is a video that has a story in it with actors and and a full crew.  This would have been a good idea to do but because of the current covid pandemic this would have been impossible to do.  The same is with a narrative music video where the lyrics tell the story, this would have also been a good idea to do as the lyrics of this songs does in a way tell a story of this person surprised that this other person is in love with them.   Originally I wanted to make a video like this and i even got a team to do this with me and act for me.  But this idea was short lived because of the pandemic getting worse so i had to improvise and make a concept video.  A concept video is a video that fits with the codes, conventions and genre of the artist and song but they are based on a single concept/idea, they are normally unusual and a lot harder to film but in this case it would be a lot easier to film than the other concepts (because if I would have done the other concepts i would have breached covid rules and guidelines).  The concept i had was a video mainly based in places with a high abundance of nature such as Ilkley Moor and Middleton woods and would only have one actor in it.  This is because in my area at the time there was a two people rule and all urban areas where very restricted and so i had to go for remote places in the area where there wasn't other people walking around.  The concept had no story but would have codes and conventions of the artist and the song because of the meanings that nature and a single person can make.  It represents loneliness,  love, loss, purity and corruption in the way that i made my music video.  This is because i have also made the video in black and white for half of the video.  I wanted to show some feelings of loneliness because I wanted there to be some contrast of emotions to grip the audience in a way to overall make a better video.

Now of course in jazz there are curtain conventions you will have to meet if you want to make a jazz music video that is successful in the jazz community and that is appealing to the target audience.  For example a jazz video will have completely different conventions to a hip hop music video.  One of the conventions of jazz music videos is the fact that most of them are in black and white such as "He's funny that way" by Andrea Motis.  This is because jazz is a moderately old genre dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century and the first jazz music videos where made in black and white so there is a kind of nostalgia in the way that these music videos in the modern day are shown.  So in my video i have made half of my music video in black and white and it suddenly goes into colour when the lyrics start this is because as i am making a concept music video it's going to add new styles that most jazz music videos don't involve.  Another convention of the jazz is that there is normally no story being shown in the video, this is because in some ways there is no story being told in a full context in the lyrics or that the fact jazz is a bit too old for music videos.  I have stuck to this convention by not showing a story but i have done it a bit differently with the fact that there is actual footage of a mysterious story with one character and a hell of a lot of nature.  I have done this because i actually want to make this video interesting and watchable as normally a jazz music video is just the band playing the music instead of an actual story or narrative.  In my video i have shot many different shots of a character and many shots of nature.  Some examples of shots i have taken are long shots, mid shots,  establishing wide shots and wide shots.  In the few jazz music videos there are, they use a variety of shots and so this is an example of how my music video fits with some of the conventions.  Jazz musicians use a bunch of different shots because it can really show the audience the emotion of all characters and places and how they can effect the audience and the way they see everything.  

The concept of my music video is to show how nature is beautiful in every single way but also how humanity is beautiful as well as when the video goes into colour there are more urban areas shown.  In the video as a whole though I mainly filmed natural areas of beauty like seen below.  I wanted to show that nature and humanity are beautiful because of how there is so much negativity in the world right now and a lot of people blame humanity fully and think the world will be better off without us all so the ideas and conventions of my music video are positive and happy feeling like most jazz songs but my song also has some deeper meanings to it and shows that nothing is perfect with the way that it is but overall we should be happy with ourselves.

As I had issues with filming with another person there are a few scenes where there are people in it.

Mise-en-scene

Here is a mid shot of actor Hattie Kelly who is wearing colourful clothes to stand out against the green background to show the impact of humanity,  but it is bittersweet as she looks around and admires nature around her.  She may be facing away from the camera but the mid shot shows more detail of her relaxing in nature. 

Here is a shot from my video of the skyline of Ilkley in black and white. It is at the start of my music video and is the establishing shot.  You can see that it is in black and white and that is because the majority of jazz music videos are in black and white, not only because they are very old but also because it is done that way deliberately.  I have took inspiration from most music videos of the genre and have made the first half the music video in black and white but have taken my own path when it comes to when turning to colour.  Most artist go to colour during the instrumental but I have decided to change it to when the lyrics start.  This meets the conventions of jazz and Billie Holiday as it adds nostalgia and contrast to the music like Billie Holiday’s many different songs.

To ensure that I meet all codes and conventions of jazz I have looked to the ‘Uses and Gratification Theory’ or U&G theory for short.  The U&G Theory is a theory that shows how and why people search for particular media to satisfy particular needs like how an elderly man may want to listen to jazz as it gives him the feeling of nostalgia which satisfies him.

This is my full finished video as well to prove the points before of how I met the conventions of jazz and of Billie Holiday songs.

Response to brief

 My Client (BBC) is the main broadcaster for the United Kingdom and is funded by the the Government.  They have tasked me to make and design a Television drama for their third channel called BBC 3.  BBC 3 is a channel targeted at younger viewers from 16 - 30.  This means they will want me to make a television drama targeted at this group.  Even though BBC 3 is targeted for young people there are many different genres of drama that they have to pleasure their audience.  As of looking on the BBC 3 website there are mostly dramas involving mostly young characters like Clique which is based in a university, Class which is based in High school and Our World war which may be be about ww1 but that time in history is known for having soldiers as young as 14 in it but overall it mainly has adults playing in it in there early 20s.

Nowadays BBC has mainly modern day settings which have proven to be popular amongst the target group so it will be beneficial to make a drama based in the modern day and perhaps also in a lesser Urban area than a major city in the south as this will overall cost a lot more than lets say in a Northern Yorkshire town.  To also keep production costs low it may be beneficial to hire lesser and Unknown actors rather than to hire a big, famous actor. 

There are also many legal requirements to making a drama such as using copy righted music for the background,