Music Video Final Piece

Craig Davis Music Video Analysis

According to Craig Davis' categories/genres of music videos, we have concluded that our music video is Illustration.

Illustration - 'either a straightforward performance video  or a simple narrative video (or a mixture of the two) that illustrates the meaning of the lyrics and visualizes the music in a straightforward way. It could be called music video 'denotation'.


Due to the nature of the song we decided to classify the music video under Illustration. The original song from our video, and the video that goes accompanies it (Kings of Leon, Use Somebody) is Indie Rock however Pixie Lott's cover version, and also her video would fall under the category of Acoustic Pop due to the pace of both the song and video.

Camera Shots and Movement


For our specific genre and also to coincide with the Illustration category, the type of camera shots and movements which we included were slow paced and still movements with a variety of long, mid and close up shots. We believe that because the music is so simple, and Pixie Lotts original video, the video should not contain flashy or complicated camera movements or shots, neither fast paced movements. Everything should flow very easily, and to do this, a degree of stability and a slow pace was needed. We contained several close up shots of Amy's face throughout the video to create a sense of intimacy and to portray her emotions whilst singing. This also allowed the audience to engage the difference between current experiences and past experiences such as the coffee shop scene.

A sense of intimacy is portrayed here, plus this scene is similar to that whole concept of Pixie Lotts original video which takes part solely within a studio. This relates back to the genre of Acoustic pop.

Editing

We used various transitions such as Non-Additive Dissolve, Additive Dissolve and Fade in and Fade out Dissolves. This is because we believe this made the overall affect of the video very floaty and seamless. This matches the light tones to the song which doesn't contain a heavy beat or fast paced rhythm.

Despite Pixie Lotts video being in black and white, we wanted to keep the colour as there is a very large variety within our shots. We believe that using a black and white filter would be quite boring and repetitive

Post-production digital effects


We didn't use that many post production digital effects as we wanted the overall look to be subtle and again quite floaty and seemless. Special digital effects tend to be used in pop videos, ones with a fast paced audio or quirky or possibly strange lyrics.

Lighting


The overall lighting of the video was very subtle, we used as much natural lighting as possible and never used artificial extra lights such as spotlights etc. We believe that the camera was able to create a very soft and delicate feel to the video due to the shallow depth of field affect that the lens made. 

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

Technology played a crucial role in the production of our music video. From the pre-production stage we decided that we’d prefer to use the DLSR camera that belonged to Jess. Paired with Taneshas 50mm we were all really excited to use the camera due to its ability to produce a very shallow depth of field and create clear, sharp images. Because two of the members owned DSLRs, we found it relatively easy to work with the camera due to previous knowledge. Therefore other than technical difficulties which arose from the camera itself, there were no errors in understanding how to utilise the camera to our advantage.

The camera in action on the first day of filming.

We also used a standard tripod for several shots to create a still and clear image. During our first day of filming in Costa Coffee, we were unable to obtain a tripod at this point and due to that we had to dismiss a variety of shots because of the amount of unsteadiness that can be seen within them. From this, we were able to understand the importance of the tripod and how it would set a higher standard for our production than if we did not use one. Post obtaining this equipment, we saw the importance of the tripod when using it in the park scenes. There is a specific close up where we have filmed it both with and without the tripod. In the end we chose to use the tripod used shot due to the steadiness. This shot in particular is in the video for quite a while and therefore we needed it to be still to avoid looking unprofessional.

The tripod we used to mount our camera. 

As mentioned in another post we were able to use a Slide track piece of equipment. This allowed us to create a very strong, clear and sharp image within the Pool/Diner scene which when added to the timeline, created the perfect intro to the new setting. From audience feedback we received very positive comments on this shot. The audience found that the shot was unique and something they’d only see in professional pieces of film or music videos.

Final Cut Pro was the editing software which we used to create our music video. Every group member had had previous knowledge on how to use the software due to their foundation productions from AS. Due to our camera equipment already being in .MOV, we were able to skip the process that we had to do previously for our foundation productions which was convert the files to .MOV. This was beneficial for us as we were able to add to the timeline a lot quicker and easier. The prior knowledge on how to render was very useful as during the beginning of the editing stage of our production, we were faced with technical problems with rendering and frame dropping however we were able to, with help, solve this problem. Some members of the group were stronger than others in the use of Final Cut Pro however we believe that this helped us when creating the final piece. The group members which were less strong were able to oversee the creative side of the video as opposed to the technical side which the other members had to focus on aswell. Final Cut Pro allowed us to experiment with various transitions which we believe are a strong point within our music video. We have used a wide variety of transitions for specific reasons, for example we used a transition titled “Additive Dissolve”. We used this transition when there was either a shot containing lights before or after the next shot it was to be connected with. In our music video we have used an Additive Dissolve in the very beginning in the transition between the opening light shot and the mid shot of Amy singing in the studio.

The 'Additive Dissolve' used between the two opening shots.

How we added transitions between shots.

How we rendered our timeline when required too.

We used the website Youtube.com to allow us to add our music video to our blog. We encountered problems when initially trying to add the video via Bloggers uploader and thus one group member uploaded it via the website and linked it through there. We also realised that this was a good way to receive audience feedback. We then advertised the video on Facebook and asked for feedback from friends and family. We found that the video was received very well with several comments of appraisal and Facebook ‘likes’.

Our production music video on Youtube.

When filming, Amy needed the music to be played in order for her to be able to lip-sync correctly. To do this we had to use both an iPod and iPhone. The MP3 player on both devices allowed her to listen to the music in ear (via earphones) very clearly and thus making her lip-sync to a high standard. This was a vital piece of technology which allowed us to create our music video to a high standard of professionalism.

How Amy was able to lip-sync well throughout the filming process.

Another technology which we used was Photoshop in order to create our CD cover and magazine poster as part of our post-production Digipack. We started with a 12x12cm blank template and as a group had to create a design which fitted in with the overall image of the music video, the music genre and the original artist. We believe that we were able to interpret this and represent all three elements well within the final pieces. This was an extremely joint effort between the group as this is where everyone could easily input and add to how the pieces should look.

Different annotations and evaluations as to why we decided on specific elements to add throughout photoshop.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As a group we decided the best way to recieve feedback from our production was through Facebook. Our target audience for our piece was the younger/teenage audience and Facebook is the most popular way for teenagers to interact now. I decided to add our video onto my Facebook page to see what reaction we would recieve, I did this by adding the youtube clip onto my Facebook status. The comments we recieved on our video made us all very proud, we had people 'liking' our video which is Facebook's way of people showing they enjoyed the piece. We had comments on how good the acting was, and how it felt like a realistic situation. This was our aim, that the acting came across as if the characters had been in the situations.

We also created feedback questionnaires for our audiences to fill out once they had been shown our final production piece. We gained several responses ranging from extremely excellent to some that included areas which we could have worked on. As a whole, we received very positive feedback and found it difficult to improve on specific elements in light of this feedback. Those which contained improvements such as "More variety in locations" we took into account and if we were to do this production again, we would definitely take heed on this. If we were to do this again we would use maybe one or two more locations, possibly in another daylight location as a lot of our shots were filmed at night time. Another shot containing a scene with both Amy and Ryan would have been beneficial to put across the message of how happy their relationship was, we can see this with the current scenes that we have, however we believe that another scene would have enhanced this message and made our production stronger.

Some filled out feedback forms/questionnaires.

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

Consider how the video, magazine advert and CD case compliment each other- have you used a similar design, style or aesthetic across all 3. Also how does the advert and to some extent the CD cover help to sell the product. You could analyse representations or marketing strategies here.

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

Before starting our music video we did a lot of research into music and genre's like our chosen song. We went through various different music videos, both of the same genre and different. These either inspired us or made us think we didn't want to pursue some aspects of them. As we chose our song 'Use Somebody' by Pixie Lott, we decided to look at acoustic music videos and take note on how these are performed.

This video is an example of a acoustic cover which inspired us. A typical acoustic cover has limited location shots, the entire video is located within the music studio. This is because an acoustic cover is to show off the music talents involved only, and how many instruments have been involved. This is a simple, yet very effective video as it shows a good variety of shots and how a music video can be produced without exotic locations.

This image is a print screen from the cover above. This close up is off the dominant male plucking his guitar. This is an image which as a group we loved because it shows off the talent of the male character on his guitar.

This print screen is from our music video, we tried to convey the image used in the other cover in our video with a close up of the male strumming his guitar. We did this from a different angle, but we felt we got the same effective shot. We also used the strumming in time with the beat of the song in our music video. It was a lot harder to sync up the strumming off the guitar in our video, than it would have been for the above video as that video would have been live. As we didn't film our video live, we had to match up the synching of the strumming and song once we got back to our editing suite. We managed to do this and produce a very effective shot of the strumming on the male's guitar.

We decided to look into acoustic videos, but within the same genre of our chosen song which is pop. We decided to look at a Avril Lavigne 'Wish you were here' Normally the typical Avril Lavigne song would involve lively, crazy locations with party and fun locations. This is the typical music video we would normally see Pixie Lott create, but they both change their approach when covering a acoustic song. As previously analysed, we can see from Pixie Lott's 'Use Somebody' music video, that she's gone for a studio set. This is the typical acoustic approach for a video, as we can see Avril Lavigne has also gone for this approach.

This is a shot that particularly inspired us, as well as the close up's of the strumming of the guitar which is the same type of shots involved in the other acoustic video we have looked at. This is a simple image of the main character singing into her mic, typically located within the studio. In this particular still, we enjoyed the fact that all the viewers attention would be on the lyrics, as you can see the singer would be lively singing the lyrics. 

These two still shots are from our music video, which are shots that we tried to create from Avril Lavigne's studio shots. We included both a medium wide angle shot of Amy singing on the microphone, and a close up of the microphone and Amy. We loved these shots and got our inspiration from Avril Lavigne's video, both these shots give a realistic attitude towards the video and as if Amy is singing these live which we aimed to achieve. 

As we wanted to take more of an original approach to a acoustic song, we included more exciting locations. Luckily we were able to film in my 'bar' room in my house, which created the exciting locations. The vibrant colours from the pool table, and the bar that is lit up creates a romantic feel. This helps us convey the story further, as we are aiming to produce a video about a romantic couple. 

Our inspiration came from the original artists of the song 'Use Somebody'. In their video of the song they include significant amounts of shots in a pub. These shots include a variety of 'extras' in the shots to create more of a lively and socialising atmosphere. As we aimed to achieve more of a romantic style to our video, we didn't add as many extras because we wanted all the main attention on the couple in the video. Although we did include a few extras in some pool shots, so the realistic pub setting would fit our aim.

After looking into acoustic video's, we realised that the typical approach to produce a music video from an acoustic cover are all based within studio's. Including a variety of shots around the studio's, of both the main singer and the performers involved through instruments. We decided to use these approaches in our video, but we also didn't want to copy these video's. We wanted to add the aspects of a typical acoustic into our video, as we were using an acoustic song, but also be original. We decided we would vary our locations to do this, and add more outstanding performers in the video. In the videos of acoustic's we have analysed, we realised that there aren't any 'extras' involved, and that the only people featuring in the video are the people involved in creating the music. We decided to go for a wider number of performers involved and include further actors. For various locations we used a studio, a bar room, a park, a cafe and various different locations around Manchester centre. This is something unique to acoustic music videos which are all set within a studio.

Analysis of one scene

In our chosen song 'Use Somebody' there is a ... between 2:14 - 2:29 in the song. For this section we knew we had to include fast pace editing and a variety of different shots. We managed to do this, and in each shot involved we varied the location. We included almost 'random' shots, as well as shots that fit the story to the video. We started this part of the fast pace editing with a close up shot of the guitar, which we have previously annotated. We included this shot because the strumming is synched with this section of the song which is the beginning of the fast pace bridge.

We included this shot next into the scene, which is a close up of the mug used by the main female in the video. We captured the fast dropping of the spoon in the shot, which creates excitement. This little movement adds a massive impact to the video and it is also an original shot. The focus on the cup makes the shot more impressive, being able to blur out the lights in the background with a nighttime effect makes the shot more effective.

This is a still screen shot, just after the shot of the balls being broke up on the pool table. This shot was created by the male character in the video breaking up the balls, and I captured the shot with the camera  from a higher angle than the pool table on the tripod.  

We included this image of lights into this section, as this creates a vibrant feeling to the video. Our first shot of our music video was a tracking shot of lights, so this image corresponds to the feeling from the start of the video. In the background to this shot is the 'Wellington pub' building which is a part of the video where Amy is filmed sat in front off. This is a famous old pub in Manchester, so this gives us exciting locations in our video. 

This medium close up was involved as it's a shot of Amy which includes fast movements in her eyes. This fast movements adds to the upbeat part of the song and the fast editing. The depth of field between the character and the leaves creates a shallow background so the character's actions are the main focus. 

A shot of guitar's has been included to link to the musical instruments as these are a main feature included in the typical acoustic music video. We took this view and added a simple shot to correspond to the usual approach. 

We included another close up of Amy's eyes which creates excitement and movement. This again adds to the fast pace of the scene and the facial expression involved is a serious face. This relates to the story of the video, as she's missing her partner and this is shown through expression.

This walking shot of Amy reflects to story, now she is on her own. The action of Amy moving her hair fast creates a upset feeling. We decided to produce this shot just on a tripod, and not a tracking shot. This is to create the effect of her 'walking away'.

This is our close up of a phone which is the story is Amy's phone. The message on the screen corresponds the the story in the video, that the female misses her boyfriend. This shot breaks up all the other shots which all involve characters and movement. Our inspiration for this shot came from the image below.

This is a capture a shot from Pixie Lott's music video 'All about tonight'. This shot shows the idea of the story in that video, which is about Pixie Lott partying. 

This is a still form the the Male character in our music video washing his face. This was our most 'random' shot as it didn't really match the story of the video. Although we felt it was one of the most exciting shots. It's a simple shot, yet adds an exciting touch. We got our inspiration for this shot from the image below. 

This is a still from the original track to the song we covered. Kings of Leon 'Use Somebody' video involves this shot of the character showering. This is also included in the bridge part of the song, where we have included ours. We loved this shot, but we couldn't video our male actor in the shower, so we used the sink image but it also gives off the same effective feeling. 

“Analyse representations in your music video. How does Mise-en-Scene and performance contribute to representation?”

“Analyse representations in your music video. How does Mise-en-Scene and performance contribute to representation?”
Our aim was to represent a young audience as the genre of our music video was pop. We tried to convey our representations by using interacting /socialising scenes such as playing pool and having a drink in a bar. Furthermore, bright lights and colours as well as vibrant props like the juke-box in the pool bar represent the lively and vibrant life style of a young person. Also the dominant colour in the pool bar is red; this sets an ambient ‘romantic’ atmosphere to the scene as the featured couple are at their peak of happiness together.

Also, we wanted the "studio scene" to look authentic and have the same, urban feel as the Pixie Lott studio video. We did this by including shots such as close up of my face singing into a mic and mid-shots from the side just like what features in the original Pixie Lott video.

This gives the feel of young, casual artistry. Also by representing the urban, fast-pace life style that most young people live in today; we used the 'bridge' in the song to display fast appearing images and snippets of the video to show the couples journey as flashbacks. This shows young-love and how fast happening it can be, also the shot of me on my own in Costa (a previous date location) shows how you can be suddenly alone as young love ends. Furthermore in that same shot the line reads "always looking down", at this point I 'look down'; this cannotes depression and how 'low' you feel after a breakup.
Also, to represent Pixie Lott we made sure costume was ideal. In Pixie Lott's video cover of Use Somebody she wears floral pattern; due to this it was discussed that I should also wear florals, therefore I wore a floral skirt to give the same feel for young and "girly". We also did this with Ryan's choice of costume as Kings of Leon wear smart garments we made sure he wore dark coloured shirts or smart jumpers throughout the video to represent the "grungy" feel of the Kings of Leon video.
(ADD PHOTOS AT HOME)

Complete Shotlist

Shot List

1. Opening establishing shot of town lights in a photographic term named ‘Bokeh’. Shot to pan across lights.

-         This shot will give a feel for the overall video due to the amount of night orientated shots we have which contain a shallow depth of field which blurs vibrant lights and images in the background.

2. Medium long shot of Amy lip-syncing in the studio.

-         This acts as an establishing shot as to where Amy is. This scene will be revisited throughout the music video and will allow the audience to understand where she is without being confused if the studio shots were placed randomly without introduction. Can be deemed as a master shot due to the closeup of the same scene cut with it.

3. Close up on Amy lip syncing behind the microphone within the studio.
4. Long establishing shot of the outside of Costa Coffee. Also a master shot due to several different varied shots following.

-         This shot allows the audience to understand a change in scene and also a change in time. At this point, Amy is thinking about a previous time where she was with her boyfriend.

5. Medium shot of Amy and Ryan opening the door to Costa Coffee. Cut with previous master shot.
6. Two shot of both Amy and Ryan
7. Over the shoulder, shot reverse shot pattern between Amy and Ryan.
8. Mid-Long shot of Amy resting against a tree in the park and lip-syncing.
9. Close up of Amy in same park spot lip-syncing.
10. Long to Mid panned shot of Amy and Ryan walking through Piccadilly Gardens.
11. Ground level shot of their feet walking by, gradually see all of their bodies.
12. Slightly low angle, close up of Amy lip-syncing in the park
13. Gliding track shot of pool game, close up, pool table level.
14. Mid-Long shot of Amy changing the song at the Jukebox
15. Mid shot of Ryan handing Amy pool cue, slight pan that follows them to the table.
16. Close up on Amy lip syncing behind the microphone within the studio.
17. Bokeh effect lights used as filler
18. Mid shot of Amy sitting on wall lip-syncing with heavy shallow depth of field lights within the background
19. Mid-close up of Ryan strumming guitar. Focus on Top end but gradually focuses into his hands strumming.
BRIDGE
20. Extreme close up of stirring of Costa Coffee cup.
21. Pool balls being broke.
22. Unusual moving Bokeh light effect.
23. Close up of Amy within the park, eyes avert downwards.
24. Line of guitars becoming out of focus.
25. Two shot of Amy and Ryan in Costa Coffee.
26. Extreme close up of Amy’s eyes looking upwards.
27. Flickering bright Bokeh lights.
28. Long shot of Amy walking down alley, looking backwards but abruptly looks away.
29. Small focus in of extreme close up on mobile phone which reads “I miss you...”
30. Mid-long shot of Amy and Ryan walking the opposite way through PG.
31. Flickering Bokeh lights due to people walking past.
32. Mid-long shot of Amy and Ryan in the Pool House/Diner playing a game of pool.
33. Close up of Ryan splashing his face with water in the sink.
34. Long shot of Amy walking towards camera beside pond in park.
35. Close up of Ryan strumming guitar.
36. Mid shot of Amy sitting on wall lip-syncing with heavy shallow depth of field lights within the background
37. Mid-long shot of Amy and Ryan in the Pool House/Diner. Ryan setting up a game and Amy watching him whilst Lip-syncing.
38. Mid shot of Amy sitting on wall lip-syncing with heavy shallow depth of field lights within the background
39. Mid shot of Amy drinking alone in Costa Coffee.
40. Closing shot the same as opening light shot yet panning the opposite way.

Calendar of Events

We decided to construct a calendar which consisted of all the days we used for Pre-production (Research and Planning), Production (Filming) and Post-production (Editing, Digipack and Evaluation). From this we can see where we may have improved if we were to do this task again; We see that in the week starting October 17th, we had nothing specific scheduled for that date which could have pushed back filming by at least one day and made the editing process less of a rush as it took us one week in November to be able to complete the editing of the video. We see this pattern again throughout the weeks starting 31st October and 7th November. If we had properly planned, we believe that we could have pushed back the time it took to film and edit and given us more time to work with the video. Despite this however, I believe that given our very short time frame to start and complete our production, we were able to create it to a high standard.

October

November

December

The challenges of A2 production compared to AS production.

As a group we believe that our A2 production work came with minimal challenges that we had to face compared to each individuals AS production work experience. At AS, the majority of us had either no knowledge or limited knowledge of Final Cut Pro and may have struggled with the organisation and research and planning. However, due to any mistakes made at AS and prior knowledge gained from our foundation productions, we were able to minimise the amount of challenges we faced at A2.

Research and Planning
At AS we believe that this is an element we all faced challenges with research and planning. As a collective we believe that this is an element that we initially assumed that was not important however when faced with tight deadlines and re-filming days, this was something to reconsider for our A2 production work. At A2, we do believe that we were slightly complacent and laxed to the urgency of planning however overall we believe that compared to AS we were much more organised and were able to complete our video within the deadline to a high standard. Research in both years as a whole was relatively easier for all of the members due to all having advanced knowledge on how to utilise the internet for research findings.

Camerawork
The challenges we faced I believe were more heightened at A2 due to the different camera that we used. In AS, a standard video camera was used and we needn't have done more than press record and stop, however with the DLSR used at A2 we had to make sure that each member was aware of how it operated. This, we realised after a crucial filming date where a member was not told how to correctly focus the lens to which we had to label the majority of the shots from this day as bad.

Editing
There were definitely much less challenges faced at A2 when it came to editing compared to the amount of challenges at AS. There was a very limited, if any, knowledge of Final Cut Pro at AS meaning that it was crucial to be guided and instructed by teachers for specific elements such as adding transitions. However at A2 we were able to add to the timeline, cut shots, add transitions and construct the whole of the music video with little to no help. Elements of editing to which we found challenging was the constant need to render files and also an initial error which dropped frames from our sequence. Despite still constantly having to render different clips, we were able to remove the dropped frame error with the help of a teacher. At one point when adding transitions we had to gain aid from a teacher due to the fact that when we added some transitions between two clips, it would not fade in properly or was not long enough. Once taught however, we were able to continue independently.

Overall we believe that there were very few challenges that we faced at A2 as a whole and compared to the production work of AS.

Magazine Advert Analysis

Katy Perry is the first poster I am going to analyse. I decided to analyse this pacific poster as the mise en scene of Katy Perry reflects the stereotypical view on Pop music which is the same genre of Pixie Lott. The bright pink of her name reflects to mischievous attitude which reflects how pop music is pursued. The use of props creates an innocent feeling to the cover. Including a paddling pool, pretty flowers, quiet locations and a pretty white fence reflects this innocent atmosphere. By using these props explains Katy Perry’s aims, which is to attract her audience which is a young audience. All these props and her clothing reflect a young girl wanting to have fun. The clothing worn by Katy Perry is quite revealing, but doesn’t make her look too inappropriate. She has to fit the theme of the song which is mischievous behaviour as the song ‘I kissed a girl’ reflects this, but she has kept the outfit to an appropriate standard. Her facial expression makes her look unapproachable and as if she's hiding something. The stance Katy Perry is in reflects the attitude further; she has one hand behind her back as if she’s misbehaving, with a large red love heart lolly in her hand which is almost an innocent act to how she really is. Her facial expression makes her look unapproachable 

The second poster I decided to analyse is a Pixie Lott poster. I decided on this as this is within the same genre of music as Katy Perry which is Pop. I also thought it would be a good idea to analyse one of Pixie Lott's posters as she is the artist we have produced out music video on. In contrast to Katy Perry's music poster, this one is much more toned down and plain. The colours used are all subtle greens/greys which doesn't suggest the stereotypical view on Pop music. As in the Katy Perry poster we can see the naughty stereotype of this genre of music pursued, but in Pixie Lott's here we can see a different approach. The tittle of the song 'Cry me out' maybe the reason why, as this isn't as mischievous as Katy Perry's song 'I kissed a girl'. The picture of Pixie Lott comes across as a un-tidy image, her hair isn't tidy and neat as we normally see her hair. The use of mise en scene from past music images and videos of her is totally wiped away in this poster and is strictly focused and serious on the name of the song. The look on Pixie Lott's eyes suggests she's worried and thinking about problems. 

Our CD Cover Analysis

After analysing three CD cover's we decided to create our piece for our chosen song. All three CD cover's I looked at were quite simple covers, but they were all very effective. Through facial expressions or a small added feature made the CD cover's attractable. We tried to pursue these aspects in our CD cover, by using a simple image of Amy, the main character in the music video in the centre of the cover. We've used a off white colour in the background and Amy has a white dress on. By using plain colours makes the artists name stand out, as well as the song tittle. We decided to include the song title in a subtle pink colour, at the top centre of our CD front cover as this is the song we covered. On Amy's white dress there's a pattern design of butterflies, so we inserted an extra butterfly to the right of the last 'T' on Pixie Lott's name. This is a small added feature which helped the balance of the CD cover, so it wasn't too plain but had little detail which had an effective impact. We used Pixie Lott's original signature name which is on here 'Turn it up Louder' album, but we edited it ourself. We did this to create a realistic CD cover but added our own effect to fit our cover.

The back of our CD cover was also produced in a simple way, but we included the same features from the front cover which has an effective impact. We used the same 'Pixie Lott' signature we used for the front cover, but in a smaller size at the top centre. We used the subtle pink as the background this time, instead of the plain white. We did this so there was a varied colour through out, but we used colours that combined well and didn't contrast. We included faint butterflies around the thirteen song titles which are another example of a simple added touch. We included the credits and the barcode at the bottom of the CD cover to give the realistic look. For the inside of our CD case we decided to include the lyrics for leaflet, this is because people who buy CD's would generally want to learn the lyrics and this would help being included. As the song we covered in our music video was 'Use Somebody' we included these lyrics as it is the most important song of the album for us. We used the same colour throughout our CD cover for the background. The writing colour used is the faint grey colour, which is the same colour as the butterfly's we have used. For the part of the cover where the CD will be placed, we simply used the circle design to create the image. We then used several line of the song which we all felt were of some significance to the song, and used these are the circle shape. Again we used the same simple butterfly's which gave that extra touch to the realistic look of all the pieces. 

Goodwin's Techincal Code Theory

1. “Music video should demonstrate genre characteristics”As our song choice is a Kings of Leon cover who is an indie/rock band, covered by a female pop singer Pixie Lott. Therefore we picked visual genre features such as darker colours to help refer back to the KOL video while using contrasting images such as floral clothing and bright props that create a ‘pop’ genre mise-en-scene. (INSERT ARTIST PROFILE PHOTOS)

2. “Should be a relationship between the lyrics and visuals”We chose to have a story line to our video which would amplify the song lyrics. Also by using a girl-meets-boy relationship story line it conveys a stereotypically pop/girly video. Using shots and angles such as ‘over-the –shoulder’ gives a personal vibe and invites the audience into the story.The lyrics “use someone like you” speak of needing someone who is caring and someone who is dependent. Our video successfully portrays this as it shows various shots of the young couple going on different dates and laughing together as the story of the lyrics is told. However the video finishes with a shot of the female alone in the same place the couple once had enjoyed a previous date. At this moment the lyrics narrate, “Always looking down” – at this point the female looks downwards towards her coffee cup; a memory she once shared with her ex.

3. “Is there a relationship between the music and visuals?”We edited certain shots for dramatic effect such as transitioning from black to a close up as the beat and lyrics begin just before the first chorus. (INSERT STILL) Another shot we also especially edited was the bridge to the song. The bridge is the part of the song about half way through when the melody of the music shifts and the lyrics read “I’m ready now, I’m ready now” the tempo speeds up and so to display this we used short (1-2 second) snippets from previous footage that wasn’t used anywhere else in the video. This visual bridge worked as a break up from the slow story telling of the other parts of the video. This part has been commented on by all members of our production group and peers in our class as “effective and slick”.

4. “The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. Does anything like this feature in the A2 video?”When looking at the Pixie Lott and Kings of Leon video’s we noticed that there were many close-ups; especially in the Pixie Lott video. Obviously this helps establish a new artist and gets them recognisable to the public. (INSERT STILL)Due to this, we opened our video with a mid-shot and a close-up of me. This makes me recognisable throughout the entire video as the female character in the storyline as the audience has seen a close-up facial shot right from the start. Additionally the close-up of me using the mic, highlights my eyes as they open. We noted that Pixie Lott is famous for her fabulous legs – my eyes are noticeably big and serve as my main feature. This close-up shows off my eyes and are then featured in other facial close-ups and extreme close-ups of my eyes such as in the bridge; there is an extreme close-up of my eyes opening and looking up.

5. “Does the video reference to the notion of looking such as telescopes or screens within screens? Or is there any particular use of voyeuristic treatment of the female body?”After we looked at various Pixie Lott videos we noticed the use of mobile technology such as featuring shots of text messages on a mobile phone or emails from a computer monitor. Due to this we used the originality of the text from the smart phone and used an Iphone as a prop and had a CU of a text message reading “I miss you” which also features in the fast visuals of the bridge.Furthermore there are few shots in our production that highlight the female body. However, shots such as me walking down the ally in Manchester city centre highlights the shape of the female body with low lighting and shadows that highlight the body shape.

6. “Does the video feature any intertextual reference?”There are plenty of ideas we thought of due to the analysis of other KOL and Pixie Lott videos such as the fast shot of Ryan washing his face which also features in the bridge; this was an idea taken from the fast shot of Caleb, lead singer and guitarist from KOL in the shower in their Use Somebody video. Also the ally shot and mobile phone screen text were ideas taken from the “It’s all about tonight” Pixie Lott video as she dances on a dark, outside location and views a text message on her smart phone.(INSERT STILLS FOR COMPARING) Other Pixie Lott intertextual references were also from the studio shots, from her Use Somebody cover video. We made sure we used similar shots and positions such as mid-shots from the side and facial close-ups to make the female character recognisable and build motifs just like most real artists do throughout the video.

Full Digipack

Glidetrack Slider Equipment

This picture is a imagine of Glidetrack Slider, which we managed to use in our music video. My brother works within the media industry and he let me try out some shots using the slider. As a group we all loved the shot we could gain from using it, so we did some practising while filming and then finally we decided on where to use the equipment. After trying to equipment outside and inside, we felt the best shot using the slider would be of a pool table shot. We was able to place the slider on the edge of the pool table and let the camera slide along to get a swift moving shot. Without the slider we wouldn't have been able to create the piece using any other equipment. If we used hand held the shot would have been extremely wobbly and if I used the tripod we had the shot wouldn't have caught the action as swift as the slider could. We managed to get a shot of one of the male's in the video taking a shot playing pool. This enabled us to include both the male's face and the movement of the ball's from a low angle which was what we aimed to achieve. Overall as a group we all using the slider as we created a unique shot which we couldn't have created using anything else.

These three images are stills from our music video where the Glidetrack was used. The shot produced was in total eight seconds, which shows the movement from one side of the pool table to the other. This gives us a smooth and effective shot which we couldn't have produced using any other equipment or hand held. The shot involved a 'extra' character which we added to pursue more of a lively atmosphere. The shot of the extra character is minimised on the male's face, we did this so all the attention would still be on the two main characters. The use of depth of field on the pool table and the actual shot taken by the character, creates a blurry effect on the main male character's back sat down at the bar. This is so the audience will know that the main characters were still in the room at the time and that the extra character was used to add more of a socialising atmosphere.