Lyric Analysis.

I analysed the lyrics for my chosen song, this allowed me to gain more inspiration from the actual words in the song and not just the imagry of the words but the deeper meaning. The deeper meanings of the words reinforced my orginal idea from the imagery I found in then words and it expanded on certain scenes I was unsure about.

Lyric Timing and Interpretation.

In the image below, I timed every time a new line of lyrics started. This will help me when filming and editing my video as I know what time the words should be at and when to add certain clips of lip sync, along with knowing how much time I need to fill between each line.
I also commented on the visual clues in the lyric, this will give me more inspiration if I am ever stuck for ideas, or if I want to make my video closely related to the meaning of the lyrics I can easily do that.

Chosen Song.

My chosen song for my recreation of a music video is Streetlights by Wild Cub. I chose this song as it has a song beat in the background that I can edit to and the pace of the song is very nice. I want to go with a simplistic feel for my video and I feel like this will allow me to achieve that. 

What makes a good/bad product?

To establish what makes a good and a bad music video we watched 3 low grade student videos and 3 commercial videos.

Unsuccessful Videos

When watching the unsuccessful music videos I noted down some of the things that made it unsuccessful.

Grade E video.

-Cinematography is poor, no variety of shot types and angle, no pans or tilt, and no shots that relate to the lyrics. For example sad lyrics are often accompanied by close ups.

- The narrative was random and does not flow or fit the song. It jumps from one location to another for no reason and does not fit with the lyrics.

-Editing is minimal, simple cuts from one scene to another. Editing does not flow with the music and no editing on the beat is featured.

- Mise-en-scene is lacking, lighting and location is bad in many cases, you cannot see the artist due to poor lighting and the locations do not fit with the song.

- No performance or narrative featured.

Grade D- video.

- This video tried to break conventions and be a little post modern by adding a quote within the video, this broke the flow of the video completely and served no relevance to the video or the lyrics.

- Mise-en-scene was again lacking in this video, a green screen was used during a performance scene however the locations used for the green screen where poor, for example a simple picture of a park.

- The framing of many shots was poor, cutting of drummers heads or arms etc.

- This video did feature performance which is good however it did not reflect the genre of the song and the cast who was performing look very bored taking the audience away from the video.

Grade D video.

-Video feature narrative which differs it from the others however it does not flow with the song.

-Editing was good in the video as they used screen flashes however at times the editing was too much and didn't quite fit in certain places.

- The location does not switch often and the shot taken in one location are rather long and drawn out.

- Despite this video having some narrative, it does not feature any performance.

Successful videos.

When watching some commercial videos I again noted down some things that made it good in terms of the techniques used and how it follows conventions.

Meat Loaf - Objects in the rear view mirror.
- Progressive and interesting narrative

- Narrative tells a story of childhood and relates to the artists life.

- Editing fits with the pace of the music, at time becomes fast paced along with the song and slow paced when the song slows down.

- Has a huge variety of angles and shot types all framed well.

- Editing syncs performance and narrative well with pans and cuts from locations.

- Mise-en-scene is good with nice lighting that reflect songs mood, costume and location changes are frequent.

This video takes advantage of the length of the song. With the song been around 8 minutes long you can tell a full story, this story is of childhood memories and is re lived in the narrative section and reflected on in the performance sections. The pace and flow of the video are synced with the song and problems in the narrative happen on the fast paced section of the song. 

Ok Go - Here It Goes Again

- The video features no narrative which in this case works out well as it is a comical video.

- The entire video is a single static shot. This is good as the video feature large amounts of action on the screen at once.

-Costume fits the song and the theme and lighting is good in the video.

- Performance elements in parts of the video.

This video is mainly successful as it become an internet sensation of sorts, this video was intended to be different and wow the viewer a little as the video is impressive because it is a one take video. This is breaking many conventions of music videos and is very risky but is a great example on how to do a comical video well. 

Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire
- Performance and narrative flow well because of the editing style used.

- The shot variety is good, the video feature uncomfortable close ups that relate to the song.

- The video fits the genre, with the costume and the overall mise-en-scene of the video.

- Pace and flow from one scene to another along with edits on the beat.

- Dark colours but the lighting is good as it emphasizes correct areas of people in the narrative and performance elements.

This video fits its genre very well, and relates to the song lyrics well as it uses good mise-en-scene that reflects what is being said. The narrative and performance split it good and is all edited together nicely using the beat of the song to flow from one scene to another.

The Brief and my chosen ancillary texts.

The Brief 
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with:
- A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
- A website homepage for the band/artist

Transition Task Evaluation

What did I find the most challenging and why?

I think the most challenging aspect of the transition task was the actually reconstruction, trying to replicate the camera angles and shot types was difficult during filming we had to use a public road. This was very difficult as when we was filming the tracking shot down the road we got interrupted multiple times, this increased the amount of shots we had to take. With the shot being a single shot we couldn't edit edit good section of one clip and fit it into another as it would jump, so when things went wrong we had to start from fresh and re film which was difficult and frustrating. Another aspect of the reconstruction that was challenging was the mise-en-scene, gathering the correct costume and props along with lighting was challenging. The original video is well lit and filmed during sunny weather, however during filming we couldn't get ideal weather so we had to impressive and use slightly duller weather. In the room scene of the video light is shining through the windows, unfortunately we could not achieve this as the weather was again dull and we couldn't get any studio lights outside as we filmed on the second floor of the building. Editing was also difficult at point, it was the first time I had used Final Cut Pro so timing the lips with the song was difficult.

What will I do differently when I make my A2 product?   
For my A2 product I will ensure that my filming process is planned heavily. I will make sure that I have the correct Mise-En-Scene and will not have any shots that need the sun and ensure that I can control my lighting in my shots. With the A2 product not been a reconstruction and being a remake of a video I can plan my costume and settings a lot more because I will already have a visual plan of what I am doing. In my A2 product I will ensure that I become better at camera work and take multiple test shots and many takes of the same shot to ensure that I have what I need and I know what I need the mise-en-scene to look like. When making my product I will have a check list so I know what I have done and what I need to still do, I plan on leaving a large amount of time for editing, this is so if I am somehow missing a shot or need to re-do a shot I have time for that.  

How has the task helped me? What can I take away from this task?

The task has helped me as it has shown me what I am weak at, because of this I can ensure that I don't do it again. During the task I used an editing program that I was not familiar with, this extended my editing time as I had to learn a lot about it. This is good as I learned the basics of a new software however I can take away from this that I will not be using this software again and use one I am more comfortable with when editing my A2 project. I have learnt doing this project that planning is key to ensuring you do well, I did not have a check list and was not very well organised during filming which meant I wasted a lot of time and missed out some aspects of filming that I needed. In my A2 project I will be more organised when filming to make sure I have everything I need before going into editing.           

How successful was your product?

I think in ways the product was successful, aspects of it were okay and others not so much. It was successful as we managed to produce a product that looked like the original in parts, for example the street scene was good as the mise-en-scene was correct in terms of location and the cinematography was done well and was taken in all one shot just like the original. However the second scene was dramatically different to the original, as the mise-en-scene was different and so was the cinematography. Along with this it was poorly planned meaning we didn't have correct costume or lighting in our location. Another unsuccessful aspect was the lip sync, at times the sync works well and flows nicely however at parts it jumps out of sync and look poor.   

How do I feel now moving to A2 level?

Despite the transition task being very poor in terms of planning and final product I feel a lot more confident in moving to A2. This is because I now know how difficult it is making a music video and how much time and effort I need to put into the making of my A2 product. It has shown me that I need to use a comfortable editing software and plan the project heavily, along with taking into account any problems that may occur along the way. I believe this task will ensure that I do not make the same mistakes again which will allow me to make a really solid A2 product.

The things I like the most about the product/The things I do not like about the product?

The thing I like the most about the final product is the tracking shot in the opening scene, I feel like this is the strongest thing about the product as it is tracked well and keeps the correct framing throughout the shot. This shot is very similar to the original making the reconstruction accurate. However they’re many things I do not like about the video, the main thing is the mise-en-scene. Location, costume and lighting are poor in the product and make it look very unprofessional. The costume and location in the second shot look very different to the original. Also the lighting could be massively improved on as it was not close to how the original was, lighting in videos is huge so I dislike this aspect the most.

Transition Task

Transition Task Brief

- To work in a group of 3/4 people, to plan and produce a reconstruction of an existing music video. The reconstruction must be one minute long.

The chosen video

The video we have decided to reconstruct is Sam Smith - Stay With Me. This song is currently in the charts and has a simple video that accompanies it. In the video they're two location, a normal street that features parked cars and houses. The second location is a simple room that has a few windows as the background. Within the video there is only one central person that performs throughout the video. We have decided to reconstruct the scenes from 0:40 to 1:40 in the video, the group felt like this is a good section as it swaps locations and feature the main body of the song. The full minute we have chosen is all performance.

Camera Work

The chosen scene is good as it allows us to practice our camera skills, the shot from 0:40 to 1:05 is a single backwards track shot. We thought this is good to practice for our A2 project and may provide useful later on. The second shot is a static mid shot that slowly zooms. This we thought was useful also as it allows us to practice correct framing and lighting.

Cinematography and Mise-En-Scene

We went through the clip we was reconstructing and noted down the shot types used and what costume was needed. This will help us when going into production as well as editing as we will know what type of shot we need when filming and what costume. It will also help during editing as we know the exact order of the clips that we have filmed and we know what times to cut to the next location etc.

Location and Props

When looking through the chosen section we found the specific locations we need and some props that we may need when filming. In terms of set we would need a typical street with many parked cars and houses on either side. This is a simple location and we had no trouble finding one that fit well. The second location is again rather simple and we would need a room that features windows as the background. For props we may need a grey quilt, along with lamps and chairs for our second location.

Casting

Due to the selected video we only needed one person. For the reconstruction we chose to use someone from our media class as they would be available for filming during lessons and would be reliable. The person we casted was Leo, we chose him because of the reason above and was also confident in performing the song.

Lyrics 
Verse One: 
Guess it's true, I'm not good at a one-night stand
But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man
These nights never seem to go to plan
I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand?

Chorus:
Oh, won't you stay with me?
'Cause you're all I need
This ain't love, it's clear to see
But darling, stay with me


These are the lyrics that are featured in our one minute section, our cast member Leo learnt the lyrics before filming. The song was easy to learn as it is sang rather slow and is very clear. This would mean that our cast would not jumble up words or miss pronoce them, this would make lip syncing hard. 


Final Reconstrucion