Filming the performance

We have been working really hard on filming the performance part for our video, as this was a common comment on the responses after the showcase. As we were unable to use the drama space after school due to the space being used for GCSE drama plays. Howevere to every cloud there is a silver lining and for us this was in the form of the stage in the hall still being set up from the dance show, meaning black floor and black curtains, perfect! We stayed behind till 5:15 and filmed everything that we needed. Also a comment from the showcase was to perform it more to the genre, therefore I had to be more 'angry' and rocky, which I believe I achieved. Overall I feel that this filming session went really well, we even filmed Elliot's part of the narrative. So all we have got left to do now is to import all the performance in Final Cut Express and get editing.

Showcase

Today in class we had an oppertunity to show the rest of our peers and teacher what we have editing and creating in terms of our music video. This showcase allowed us as a group to recieve some really helpful, constrcutive criticism and for ourselves what we still need to do to make it perfect! The rest of the peers responses were all really nice towards our work which was an utter relief because every time I watch it, I still have brace myself before I see myself on screen singing along to Evanescence.
Also by watching everyone elses work was constructive also for the evaluation part of the exam, being able to evaluate work at the level we need to.
Overall I really enjoyed this process and can now learn and work on the parts of the video we need to.

Editing- Update #4

Another update...I am so happy with the progress made on our video, we have pretty much completed editing the whole of the narrative. Due to other circumstances we were not able to film the performance part last week but have decided to do so tomorrow (Wednesday 30/3/2011) after school in drama. We are aiming to have the whole video edited and completed by this time next week, which will be such a relief as the song is starting to give me a headache!!

What I want to achieve from tomorrow's filming.

Tomorrow we are finishing all the filming for our video, and this is what I want to achieve:

• To film the performance in extreme close-ups, close-ups, mid-shot
• To have alot of action within the performance and to reflect the genre of music, therefore to portray current Rock artists.
• To film Elliot singing the male parts of the songs
• To have fun with my group!

'Bring Me to Life' Analysing the original video

Before creating our music video to the chosen song 'Bring me to Life' by Evanescence, I believe that it will be beneficial to analyse to the original video for the song. Hopefully by doing this I will be able to see what codes and conventions of the Rock genre and music videos are used.

 In the first shot of the opening of the video conventions of music videos have been used straight away through emphasized diegetic sounds of the wind and cars, as the camera pans and sweeps through the city sky scape. The slow panning movement is in time with the tempo and pace of the song making it feel almost ghost/spirit like which can be associated with the gothic genre. However this movement can also be decoding as if the audience were on a helicopter which is supported by the helicopter sounds. The camera is constantly moving until we reach the window of a peacefully sleeping girl, as the camera passes through the window into the room the wind sounds are no longer giving the idea of reality.
 As the heavier beat begins the mood of the video changes as we are shown the singer falling which is mirrored by the girl in bed fidgeting representing her discomfort, this suddenly changes the dreamy feel into a nightmare which is coded with the music genre. However as the girl falls she is angelic as her arms out and seems happy to be falling, which is the opposite to what is seen in the bedroom. The music at this point is parallel to the images being shown, despair, fright and scared with is reflected through the heavy guitars. This fright and despair is also shown through the quick edits, which are discomforting to the audience but at the same time reminding that this is a music video, just a show. 
 In some music videos the band and performance is separate from the narrative, this is distinguished through a different setting e.g. a stage. However in this video the performance is part of the narrative as they are set in a room above the bedroom, the setting of sound proofed walls code for the loud music of the genre.
 As a whole the video is set in a dream state and is very unrealistic as all music videos are. This state is constant as no one pays the character attention as she walks along the window ledges and in the editing a ghosting effect has been used. 

Editing- Update #3

So far we have made really good progress with our editting and I am really happy with the way that it is coming together. We have really focussed on editting on the beat and using different filters such as the colour corrector which has allowed us to change the lighting and colour of the footage disconnecting the audience from the narrative as it changes to black and white in a instance. Also by using the colour corrector we have made footage darker, and brighter when in the forest. This colour correction really reflects the conventions and codes of the music genre as the flashses of black and white and different colours represents the heavy music.

Postmodernism- Album Covers

Whilst studying postmodernism we applied our knowledge to album covers which has relevance to the A2 media coursework as we have to create our own. Examples of postmodern album covers are as followed:
The Clash- 'London Calling' 

• Conventionally this album is very traditional as it has the album name, band name and a picture of the artist
• The whole of the album codes youthful frustration which is conveyed through the artist smashing his guitar
• Punk Rock is coded through the costume
• The album has an 'edge' to it, which is reflected through the black and white image however the image also gives it come conviction and a class feel which is a juxtaposition the font used
• The font is very playful, colourful and cartoon like and by this clear juxtaposition draws the attention of the audience to the album
• This cover is an example of an hommage to Elvis's first album as they both have the balck and white image and colourful font
• The seriousness of The Clash's cover shows that it is a recognition and respect to Elvis

Today's Filming

As seen in music video 'Love the way you lie' by Rhianna and Eminem the artists sing in an open field to represent the freedom, which is also associated with our ideas of the music video we are creating. To achieve this we went down onto the school field and filmed some performance. To make sure that lip sycning is good I had to sing along with the track, which was quite embarrasing infront of Jamie and Elliot but I got over it and sang along. We had to film quite a few times as Elliot kept distracting me and making me laugh, this footage could not be used as it does not work for the gothic genre. Overall though I feel as if it all went well and got some good footage that we can use in the video, but we still need to film more in drama studio.

Introduction to Postmodernism

As we are about to sit our A2 level Media exam we have started to learn the content, Postmodernism. Before I share my notes made in class about postmodern album covers and what we have learnt and discussed in class, I have additionally researched online for different definitions of the Postmodern movement.
Follow the links below to the websites which I have found most useful and interesting whilst researching:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
Glossary Definition: http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/postm-body.html
The Po-Mo page: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html

Postmodernism: relates to the idea that all originality has gone and that it is no longer to create a new piece of art either it being in music or writing (novels).
Intertextuality/Postmodern allusions: making reference/alluding to other meida texts.
Hybridity: merging or clashing or genres.
Parody: mocking to original text e.g. Scary Movie
Intertextuality: a nutural reference.
Hommage: celebrating the original text.

Forgetting Last Friday on MySpace

I have designed and created a MySpace page for my band Forgetting Last Friday.

Within my MySpace page I have included the following:

• A Bio about the band
• All information about the band
• Image of the album covers
• Created an event of the single release date
• A background reflecting the band

Things I still have to add are:

• The completed music video 
• The track 'Bring Me To Life' so fans can listen to the bands music

http://www.myspace.com/forgetting-last-friday VISIT NOW 

The Power and Reign of MySpace

From Wikipedia

Myspace,^[6] stylized My_____^[7] and previously MySpace, is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California^[8] where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, News Corp. Digital Media, owned by News Corporation.

Myspace became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006, a position that it held throughout 2007 until 2008.^[9] In April 2008, according to comScore, Myspace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor,Facebook based on monthly unique visitors.^[10][11] Myspace employs 1,000 employees, after laying off 30% of its workforce in June 2009;^[3] the company does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. Quantcast estimates MySpace's monthly U.S. unique visitors at 43.2 million.^[12]

Music

Wikinews has related news:MySpace to take on iTunes

Myspace profiles for musicians in the website's Myspace Music section differ from normal profiles in allowing artists to upload their entire discographies consisting of MP3 songs. The uploader must have rights to use the songs (e.g. their own work, permission granted, etc.). Unsigned musicians can use Myspace to post and sell music using SNOCAP, which has proven popular among Myspace users.

Shortly after Myspace was sold to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News and 20th Century Fox, in 2005, they launched their own record label, MySpace Records, in an effort to discover unknown talent currently on Myspace Music.^[20] Regardless of the artist already being famous or still looking for a break into the industry, artists can upload their songs onto Myspace and have access to millions of people on a daily basis. Some well known singers such as Lily Allen and Sean Kingston gained fame through Myspace. The availability of music on this website continues to develop, largely driven by young talent. Over eight million artists have been discovered by Myspace and many more continue to be discovered daily.^[57] In late 2007, the site launched The Myspace Transmissions, a series of live-in-studio recordings by well-known artists.

Myspace, in 2008, redesigned its music page adding new features for all musicians. These new features include the users' ability to create playlists, resembling the functions of Last.fm and other social music websites, along with the popular ProjectPlaylist that is popular on profiles. The new music features also archive songs from many popular artists, resembling the services of iTunes and Napster. In March 2010, listening to the full song in the search results has been disable and had been replaced by 30 second samples. Myspace music also suggests songs based on the songs you are currently listening to or the songs you had added to the playlist, making it as a music discovery tool. Myspace Music also added an improved playlist feature and artist profile, along with better music suggestion features, making it one of the highest rated and advanced music discovery sites on the Web. The site features charts similar to Billboard charts and it keeps track of the most popular music liked by users of all genres. It also enables user to view popular music in other countries of the world, mostly in Europe and major Asian countries such as China and Russia.

As I come to design a webpage for my band 'Forgetting Last Friday' I have now decided to create a MySpace as it  is now widely used to promote the band.

How do artists market themselves via their webpages?

To receive an understanding of how artists use the internet to market themselves via their own websites, I visited the webpages of the following:

• Evanescence- The artist of the song we have chosen to perform
• Jessie J- As she is a new rising artist of 2011

Evanescence

When first visiting this website you are welcomed with a welcome page.

It is rather common now to be welcomed with a page like this when visiting websites, on some of these pages give you the option to choose what country you live in this allows you to access information which is applicable for where you live. Also choosing the country allows you to access the website with a language you understand.

The codes of the gothic genre are also apparent on their website page, this is now a continuous convention of the band and how they manipulate their fonts so fans can associate with the band. On this webpage the bands music is on a loop and is continuously playing but allows the fans to manipulate what they listen to. Also there are recent and up to date posts of the bands whereabouts as this is how they communicate with their fans.

Jessie J

Alike Evanescences webpage you are welcomed by a welcoming page.

Here it is apparent that this welcoming page is for the UK and US fans to choose the correct website which will provide them with the right information for their country. Also it shows how wide the artists fan base and that this is considered gives the artist recognition.

Jessie J's webpage is based purely on her star image, this is shown through the colour scheme used (black, white and gold) which are all code for wealth and bling which the artist is associated with. Also her originality it reflected through the artwork on her lips and striking images.

Editing- Update #2

In class we are now focussed on editing our music video using the porgramme Final Cut Express. The footage we are editting is all the filming of the narrative as so far we have not filmed the performance part of our video, but have planned to do so in the next week, in the drama studio as the background and setting will all be black; this clearly distunguishes between the narrative and performance. However we have started to put the narrative together using short, quick edits on the beat and having no continuious footage like a film and other music videos adapt. These quick edits show the frustration, confussion and explosive build up to the scene in which she decides to commit suicide.
In the editing aspect it has been quite hard to decided the ratio of narrative and performance and the order of both due to the lack of film on the performance front. Although this is a problem at the moment, refering to our plans and rough order drafts we have been able to see how the narrative will work.
So far we have been able to manipulate the footage in speed, brightness and contrast, reversing the footage and cutting it into short quick edits.