Pre-production elements explained

In this blog post, i am going to explain the importance of the pre-production elements that will be included within my media product (the music video).

• Treatment - the purpose of creating a treatment document for the music video is to make sure that we explain the type, story, look and feel of the music video. this will help for reference on the music video we wish to create and it will back up the mise-en-scene for the music video

• Moodboard - the purpose of creating a moodboard is to make sure that we take into account any aspects that we may include within the music video, and to show the choices i had, and the decisions i made and why.

• Risk assessment for each location - the purpose of creating a risk assessment for the music video is for health and safety purposes. this is to raise awareness of any risks that may impose danger to any members of the crew list. by highlighting the risks, i am able to minimise the chance of somebody getting hurt.

• Timeline analysis of chosen song  (Music Videos only) - the purpose of creating a timeline analysis is to plan the duration of the scenes and edits of the music video. this will be created to help the editors with the editing of the final product.

• Storyboard - the purpose of creating a story board is to help plan how the music video will flow, what scenes will come after which, the duration of the cut, what effects will be included, etc. this document is created to help the editors see how the final outcome should be created.

• Crew list - the purpose of creating a crew list is to ensure that you take account of all of the members involved within the production, planning and editing of the music video. this will help to give them the credit they deserve and for health and safety aspects, you are able to make sure that all of the correct members are accounted for and available when needed.

• Shot list - the purpose of doing a shot list for the music video is to help analyse and record the shots and angles that are going to be used within the music video. by planning the shots to be used, you are able to save time on filming by knowing how to shoot the scenes already, saving time on cutting and editing

• description/list/pictures of location - the purpose of writing a explanation and description on the locations that are going to be used is to help back up the reason of shooting the scenes within the music video. the purpose if taking pictures and shots of the scenery/locations to be used is to help visualise the locations within the music video. it will also help to see the natural lighting and environmental aspects that may affect the shot.

• Planning rest of Mise En Scene (clothing, props, make-up, effects etc) - the purpose of planning the Mise En Scene for my music video is to help plan all of the elements that will be placed in the scene and to ensure that all of the aspects are taken into account to help portray a more meaningful message using the scenery and props in the frame.

• Pitch to gain feedback (presentation to the class about the ideas) - the purpose of pitching a presentation on information of my music video is to get back the intended audience's feedback, and to check what elements they find effective and not. by pitching to an audience, i am able to make my music video more effective for the intended audience and change/improve any elements before making the final product.

Evaluation of music video

Evaluation of music video

My music video was based on the song Airplanes Medley Mash-up by Megan Nicole. The members that were included within the planning and producing of the project was Shalini Yogamoorthy, Ayesha Shaikh and Mizbah Iqbal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHugkzcMF1E

1. How well did you work in a group? Give specific examples.

I feel on a scale of 1-10, we worked on a rate of 8. This is because i think we made good decisions, equally set tasks and completed our objectives efficiently and managed to maintain a good communication flow when discussing different planning and production options.

A specific example of how well we worked together within the group was when we were filming our last scene. This is a good example because we all had to record and organize what we were going to shoot within a matter of hours. This is because we had ran out of time and our schedule had been altered due to complications. But we managed to work together, input various ideas and produce a final scene for our music video.

I only rated our teamwork an 8 out of 10 because there were some flaws which did not allow our group to flow consistently. These were flaws such as no communication outside of lessons and coming from different schools caused disruptions too.

2. What difficulties did you have to face in the production of the video and how did you overcome them?

The difficulties that occurred during the production of our video was not having no communication outside of lessons to update other group members on what tasks have been accomplished and what needs to be done.

This was a major flaw with the production of our music video because we lacked communication which resulted in poor teamwork because some members had no idea what was happening.

We managed to overcome these difficulties by finding methods of communicating and updating outside of lesson time using social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

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

Our media product uses conventions of real media products because as each song section changes, the scene changes to meet the requirements and expectations of the meaning of the songs.

The forms and conventions which our final media product included were,

•  Types and styles of music videos (we chose to do a predominantly based Performance music video, but we also challenged a couple of themes from a Narrative based music video, so our scene mesh well with the theme of the song.)

• The mise-en-scene for our music videos will portray the genre and meaning of the music video (which for ours was a heartbreak romantic theme).

• we broke down, analysed and recorded the mise-en-scenes for each of our scenes and thought through what clothes and makeup will be worn, which locations will be included, what props will be used, what type of lighting will be used and what movements and expressions the protagonist will portray within the video scenes. (*scroll down for the mise-en-scene analysis for my section in the music video).

• We also considered the camera angles and shots which will be used within each scene, which will help expand the meaning and message to the audience of what our music video is about.

*1.0: Clothes/make-up
The clothes to be used in my scene will be white, and floaty/draped. This is because my character is almost dying, and with the use of pale, waft-like clothing, this will give the viewers and impression of death and spirits.
The make-up used for my scene will be pale colours to symbolise that their is no life within me, and i am calling for help, to regain back to life. The colours of make-up used for my scene will be fair colours to match the message.

2.0: Locations

The location used for my frame will be in a dark box/room to give the impression that I am trapped, and I need help to escape. Also, the use of a dark room will give the impression that I am alone, and I am speaking up for sum help.

3.0: Props

The props that are going to be used within my scene in the music video will be clocks in the background. This is to relate to the lyrics "I'm running out of time". This is a important stanza in my part of the song because it shows that I am under pressure, and I don't have much time left to escape.

4.0: Lighting

The lighting used in my scene will be a key and filler light only. This is so the character in the frame will be highlighted from the darkness, and the filler light will help enhance the props used in the background. A back light will not be used in the scene because we want to make the surroundings as dim as possible to symbolize emptiness.

5.0: Actors movements/expressions.
The movements and expressions that I will act out within my music scene will be of pain, distraught, confusion, lost, loneliness and anxiety. These emotions will be portrayed to show the audience the feeling in the protagonist's mind, and to help expose the meaning of the song.

4. Strengths, weaknesses and improvements of the final media product

The strengths of our final media product is that the video was equally recorded (each group member had our own parts) and it followed effective media conventions of creating a music video. I also feel that we used appropriate use of mise-en-scene for each of the clips/scenes. This is because we related the topic of each sub-song according to the surroundings/emotions/costumes/etc.

The weakness of the final media product is that we didn't work efficiently and as well as we could of as a group, but our final product was as we desired, so i would only say the weakness of the project is the process/production of the project.

The improvement that i would like to make of the final media product is that i wish we had continuous use of the same equipment as the quality of the final product was sacrificed. Also i would make improvements on how the production of the music video, as i feel we needed more communication and flexibility between each member.

Questionnaire on GoogleDocs

Preparation for evaluation

Preparation for evaluation



To help answer and evaluate my music video, I have created a questionnaire for the audiences of the video to answer, to help me assess and collect the appropriate feedback.

The questionnaire will consist of 6 questions, and I will ask a collective sample of 15 watchers and request for their feedback. To make the questionnaire fair and unbiased, I am going to as equal amounts of male and female spectators, i will try to vary the age range and i will try to ask first time, unknown watchers, so they don't have any influence on answering the questions.

This will be the questionnaire:

The results wll be recorded and included within the final evalation of the music video.

Timeline analysis of music track

file:///Users/akhtersa/Desktop/Screen%20shot%202012-04-26%20at%2010.00.34.png

on Photoshop Premier Pro CS4, we edited our video scenes with our music soundtrack before uploading it to youtube.

this image shows the timings and transitions when putting our video together.

each of our scenes within the music video depends and is aligned with the section of the song we are singing. we have edited each of our scenes, rendered the different scenes, then bought them together to finalize the video according to the sound track.

Discussion on Rihanna Ft Calvin Harris - We Found Love

Discussion on Rihanna Ft Calvin Harris - We Found Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg&ob=av3e

For the music video of "We Found Love", the use of editing for the scenes are short, quick and snappy. This is because it tries to keep the constant attention of the younger generation, as it is a scientific fact that we have shorter attention spans.

The use of short and quickly jumping scenes is to show the tension and hallucination that the characters in the scene are going through. it also tries to symbolise all of the feelings and contexts that relate to the narrative of the music video.

In one point if the video, a scenery of flowers and the sky is projected onto Rihanna and her walls around her. This is to symbolise that her love is growing around her, in a "hopeless place", and the use of sky imagery is to symbolise the high she is on from having fun, taking drugs and the overwhelming feeling of falling in love.

The use of graphical editing on the cigarette and when she vomits, there is a use of streamers. this is used to represent the vivid imagination of them, when they took drugs.

The purpose of the music video is that a couple are in love, but they are only more infatuated with each other when they are doing bad/wrong things. When they return to their senses, they have arguments and realise that they are bad for each other, but they return to each other for the thrill.

How to shoot using ChromaKey

Color Spill

"Spill" is the term that refers to: color that reflects off the background or walls of the room to cast a noticeable tint on areas of the subject or color that's showing through semi-transparent areas of the subject, like hair or a wedding veil. The goal of your set-up is to reduce spill as much as possible so that you don't have to deal with it in post. If it's not dealt with when shooting, dealing with spill can easily take longer than the photo shoot itself. It's the main reason that people give up on Chromakey photography. However, if the shot is set up correctly, it's mostly avoidable-you just need to be aware of it and make adjustments as necessary before you shoot.

Usually you see spill on the back of the shoulders, side of the arms or legs, and through the hair.

Positioning

You want to get the subject as far away from the background as possible. This reduces the possibility that light reflecting off of the background will spill onto the subject. Eight to 10 feet is ideal, and four feet is the minimum. The more light you're using, the further away from the background you want to have the subject. It is possible to have a successful shoot with the subject closer than four feet, but other problems start being introduced, like shadows on the background, and you'll be setting yourself up for a lot of Photoshop work.

If the walls or ceiling are close to the subject, it's helpful to paint them black or hang black fabric on them. Light bounces all over the place, and that light can turn your background into a big green or blue light. The black material helps soak up that light and avoids spill on the front of the subject, which can be especially problematic.

Lighting

There is no set rule for lighting. It really depends on how much room you have and what you're shooting. For things like Little League shots, two umbrellas in front of the subject work just fine but produce very flat lighting; and you need to be concerned about shadows falling on the background. For senior portraits, you might want to use a three-light set-up to create more moody or artistic lighting.

You have more flexibility if the subject is 10-feet away from the screen. Light from the background falls off after five to six feet, so you naturally end up with less spill. This also makes the foreground a bit darker than the subject, which is helpful. You want the background to be about a stop below the foreground. You can light the background with separate lights if the background is too dark. You don't want the background blending into the shadow areas on the subject. However, you need to be careful about lighting it too much and increasing the amount of spill.

A hairlight or backlight can be helpful as well. This can make it easier to separate the hair and reduces spill on the shoulders. If it's too bright, it can add a glow to the hair, which looks fake when you remove the background.

Background

The background needs to be a flat, consistent color, but you want to achieve this with the least amount of light possible. You want to avoid turning it into a big blue/green light, but any significant variation in the color of the background will cause you problems. Sometimes you'll get a flat color naturally with the same lights you're using for the subject, but you can also light it separately. Again, especially with green, you want to keep the background at about a stop below the foreground.

The color also matters. You want a blue or green that is a pure medium-tone blue or green and very saturated. Most software, like our Primatte plug-in, works with saturation, so having a screen that's too light or dark will make things difficult.

In addition to proper lighting, the material the background is made of can have a huge effect. You don't want to use something like paper or polyester, which can be very shiny. This causes a lot of the light to bounce off of the background, creating spill. Felt-like materials work best, and in particular we recommend a fabric made by Velcro. It's inexpensive, the right color, wrinkle resistant (wrinkles make lighting tougher), and works beautifully. It's a very soft, foam-backed fabric that diffuses the light and prevents it from bouncing off. It's available from many places including www.chroma-key.com and www.filmtools.com.

http://www.imaginginfo.com/print/Studio-Photography/Chromakey-Photography-Secrets/3$3940