Today we presented our ' what music means to me' choices from childhood teens and now. It was really interesting to see everyones choices of tracks and videos and major patters occured with each presentation. I liked that the music tracks everybody chose were each really original and personal to us however throughout we shared common links.
Music- When do you listen to music, where, who with?
I think this question is really personal to everyone and depends completely on you. I listen to music everyday, I listen to the radio every morning while getting ready for school, I listen to Kiss 100 and Capital FM mainly.I rarely use my ipod except for on holiday and in the gym, mainly because I dont own itunes. I love listening to music with my friends mainly when were getting ready to go out and when im in different places i listen to different types of music. I mainly consume my media from the music channels on the TV just because I can enjoy music more when im on my own if theres something to watch with it. I also love listening to the radio in the car for background noise. Music to me isnt about finding the latest band and constantly downloading I just like consuming it for entertainment, with friends and for escapism.
Pleasures of listening to music?
For me, listening to music is to give me escapism and different genres of songs can give me different feeling and emotions. Music can really cheer me up and get me in the mood if im going out for the night. I think sharing music with others can help people socialise it can create an atmosphere and help release tension
From hearing others presentations today I feel alot of people listen mainly to music to realease many different emotions. I think the lyrics of songs can help express peoples feelings and can perhaps remind you of a memory or a time in your life which is why people like listening to the music. Depending on different places the pleasure of music reflects that for example if your in a club the pleasure of the music is to express happiness and socialise in a group. Whereas if you sat on a train you would prefer to listen to music indvidually for company and to entertain you.
Our choices of music- did they follow any patterns?
When presenting our music choices numerous patterns came up. Firstly a main pattern that came up was memories. Lots of people including myself choice tracks that reminded them of something in their lives, something that realy stands out to them, whether that be a holiday, a trip or a song that reminds them of growing up. Most of our childhood tracks werent chosen because of the lyrics but mainly because they were targeted to appeal to us. We also saw gender difference with boys choosing football songs and the girls choosing disney films and pop music. People said that the music was influenced by people around them such as siblings or what their friends listned too. The music industry itself influnced many of us with CD covers such as 'Now that what I call music' appealing to the younger audiences and making it something we would all want to listen too. Alot of tracks that out class chose were from a ceratin occasion such as holidays, summer, gigs, festivals, school trips,first CD. With out childhood tracks many of us liked songs because of the look of the band, particualy the girls. Groups such as S club 7 and Steps had a look that we wanted to be like and so we were instantly attracted to them. The tracks that were then presented for early teens and now showed patterns of us all growing up and growing into music genres and types of bands I think as we have got older we all grow into our own tastes. Many people also widened theit music tastes and become more open minded.
What was the relevance of this task to our project?
This taked allowed us to really start thinking about the audience involved in music and how they are targeted. This will be crucial for our upcoming video as we need to target our audience in order for tehem to listen to it. We will need to create a genre and visuals that will suit that audience and allow them to recognise it. It also showed us that a music video must draw on peoples emotions and ther must be something in it that makes it so memorable and plays on peoples feeling. Overall it really got me thinking more carefully about the project in order to create something that will really work
These are a few tracks that I have been listening to in order to find a track suitable for use in our music video project. I focused a lot on shy fx because I don't think there music is very mainstream and I think its quite different. I've also looked at a couple more which are linked below:
To begin researching I found it very hard to think of a track that would be perfect and something that me and my group would use. So instead I began thinking of the kind of ideas and mood I could create with a music video. I firstly thought of a really modern track which has recently just been realeased. I would not be able to use this track however it's the music video that I really like, it really tells a story and I like how they have a whole story being acted out throughout however the shots cut to Rihanna and Eminem throughout which breaks it up and makes the song really emotional and powerful. This is the sort of thing, if it worked for our track, would look really effective.
I also looked at quite classic, really fun songs. I like these tracks because I think it would be a lot of fun to make a video to them. I like how bubbly and exciting theses videos are and if I was to choose a track with a rythum like these I can see some sorts of ideas.
I've decided to choose a song which reminds me of Summer 2010, it was a song that played every night in the clubs in Turkey, it was also the song that played the night I celebrated my results. This song generally reminds of this summer and brings back good memories.
I also really like the video for this song just because it isn't at all what you would think it would be. It's really clever and very slapstick.
I found this quite difficult to think of a key song from my early teens partly because of memory. Which is why I thought back to my early years of Latymer from 2004 to around 2007 and mainly of school trips. There is one song that seemed to play on all the early school trips i went on and that was wonderwall by Oasis. I think this song is so catchy and I really like it. It bring's back memories of Holland and Cwm and is a song that whenever I hear always reminds of my teens.
When thinking about what music I listened to and what I use to enjoy pop music was easily the most influential. At the time the music that i listened to was the music that featured on the 'NOW thats what i call music 49' etc CD's. I remember every christmas for pretty much all my time in primary school I would put down the latest 'NOW thats what I call music' and when my friends came round we would make a dance
My favourite bands that I loved during my childhood were Spice Girls, S Club 7 ( because I wanted rachels hair), Blue ( because I wanted to duncan to be my boyfriend) and Steps.
There are two tracks that I have chosen that remind me of my childhood they are S club 7-Don't Stop Movin' as this was my favourite song and video, I knew all the words to it and I stayed in my bedroom making up a dance routines to it.
My other track is Miss Teeq- Can't get it back. I performed this alongside 3 friends in the year 6 talent show. At the time I thought this was amazing and we practised every day and were so excited for the real show
When I was younger music never seemed to have any real meaning I never liked a song because of the lyrics or how it related to me. It was just about what everyone my age at the time liked and more about who the band actually were and if they were 'cool'. I think with age my music taste has developed I enjoy the video and the actual lyrics behind the song and thats what I enjoy the most.
1. What do you think you learnt from Monday's workshop?
The workshop day was something that I really enjoyed i learn't so much and got a real in sight into how the media works and different roles while on shoot. I played the main girl in the video whick meant I was pretty much on set all day and in nearly all the shots. We all had to dress up in costume, make up, hair and create the sets I learnt how important the mise-en-scene was in order to create the right atmosphere, mood and create a music video with meaning.
I also saw how imporant each role was when shooting a music video. The director, lighting, choreographer, assistant director all had to work together because without each of them doing their role the video would have fallen apart. It was vital that both the crew and cast worked together and followed instructions and communicated and this is something that I really learn't and can use when making my music video.
Although I didn't get to try as much of the technical side on the day due to the role I had to play I was able to see how important it was. The HD camera enhanced the shots and the lighting emphasised the mise-en-scene. I saw the neccesity of making everything perfect in the shot. Each shot we did we took a couple of takes and we also did run through of each shot this allowed us to re do shots making sure the lighting, character, setting, play back and camera angle was correct allowing us to get he best possible shot. I also saw and learn't how long the process of making a music video is and that you cannot rush the process, it is very time consuming, each person has to work together in a team and work past any issues in order to create a music video andI feel with the help of Jake and the crew our class produced a succesful copy of the music video In the Sun.
2. For you, what was the best bit of the day and why?
I really enjoyed the whole day although at some points its got very tiring and having to do retakes made the day very long. However the best bit of the day for me was shooting the library dance scene. In the morning we shot the corridor scenes and I was really nervous so did not enjoy it as much. However as the day progressed I started to feel more confident and could relax. I enjoyed working with my class and doing the dance together. I think we all got into the video a lot more in the after noon and felt more confortable in our roles. I also had a lot of fun shooting the hoola hoop scene. Although I struggled to hoola hoop (!) I really had a lot of fun and we worked more as a team and had a laugh. Overally the day was so interesting I learn't a lot from it and without all the help from Jake, Jazzy etc it couldnt have been the success that it was.
3. Are you pleased with your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?
I am really pleased with the edit and it wasn't at all how I thought it would look at all. When I first watched all the captured footage I was quite dissapointed at how it was and initially thought that the edit we would do will look nothing like the actual music video of she and him- in the sun. However I have been proven completely wrong am I am so pleased with the final edit and am so happy at how close it is to the real thing. I think all the shots work well, lightning and mise en scene looks really good and overall looks really convincing
I think a huge success was the end part of the music video it looks so good and all the short snapy cuts of the hoops and the guitar playing work really well, I love the crane shot and am so pleased we were able to do that because without it, it would have spoilt the copy of the music video. I think we were able to make all the shots match up in our edit a few shots were shorter or maybe longer then the actual video but we were able to work around that. Although some shots were not exactly the same I think my edit looks really similar and am really happy with the outcome
I think however in some of the shots the lighting didnt match up and this perhaps made the cuts and where we had placed the shots obvious so if we could do it again I would try and resolve it. On a couple of the shots on the production day we did not realise that I should have been singing like the main girl is the video we were copying therefore if we could do it again i would make sure i was lip singing in all the shots and in the right place. I also think sometimes we were all not putting in the right energy or werent all doing the dance right so perhaps this would be something to change but we all tried out best and I don't think its really obvious.
Although we may have had a few continuity errors which became clear when we started editing I don't think any of our mistakes look to obvious and the edited version that we did looks really good. Im so pleased I could be part of it and the edit of it looks really convincing and matches up well to the real thing.
4. Have the lip sync tasks benefitted you in any way?
The lip syncs have really benefitted us, as we did two we could improve on the first and try to make the shots we used more like a music video. The main thing that I learnt from doing the lip sync tasks were what sort of shots we should be using as in music videos they are usually either
close ups
mid shots
long shots
The way in which the shots are used in music video are for example a close up into a long shot so quite and extreme to give a great contrast. Unlike in film the continuity doesnt need to be seamless and a music video is much more relaxed. When editing the lip sync it allowed me to practise using the real music track and matching that up to what we had lip sync'd. At first i found this difficult as i had to match up the movement of the mouth with the song lyrics however by doing these tasks I gradually got much more confident and can now use these skills for the rest of the project.
I worked in a pair for both tasks and the lip sync's made me learn to be much more efficient when I will shoot my new music video. On the first lip sync we shot all random shots and wasn't sure if we would use them or not. On the second lip sync we gave ourselves a time of one hour to get every shot done and so this made us think about what we really needed and whether we would actually use a particular shot. When we come to shooting our real music video timing will be vital therefore the lip sync tasks has really benifitted me and I really enjoyed doing them
5. How do you think the work you have completed for the preliminary tasks will impact on your real music video project?
I've learn't so many skills from my preliminary tasks and it has reallly given me that in sight and help that I needed to get started on my real music video project. When I was first introduced to the project I felt quite nervous and its completely different to a film or anything we have ever done before. So when we started the preliminary tasks I put in a lot of effort and I feel now it's really paid off.
To begin with all the preparation we did for the workshop day and on the actual day has given me so much help and confidence that will impact on my real music video project. I now know all about looking at the lyrics of songs, the charcters, the singer, the genres, the band and how this then all impacts hugely on what style and mise en scene we use for the actual music video. So when I come to looking at my music video I know straight away as to what I should be looking at. On the actual day of the workshop i learn't about all the different roles, lighting, techincal side, choreography, acting , mise en scene, shots, re shoots, and working as a team.The whole day benifitted me greatly and I know that i will be using all the skills I watched, was involved in and learn't to create a really good music video for my own project. I really like working as such a big team and I saw how important it was to share roles and all take turns it doing different things which i really want to do when I make me own music video
Both my lip syncs task made me mainly focus on the shots that we will use when making our real music video and the way in which they are then cut in order to make the style similar to all other music videos. The different types of shots that I learn't will really impact on what I do on my real music video shoot. The timing on my lip sync task is also something that will benefit on my real music video because I saw the importance of having a plan and sticking to a time limit
Finally the whole editing process of all 3 tasks have been so useful and i have been able to familiarise myself with all the equipment, the razor tool, the timelines, caputuring footage and being able to use the edit suites again to cut up shots and order them to make a music video. These skills are vital for my music video and ive grown in confidence while doing these preliminary tasks and now know how to upload to youtube which was something i did not know how to do
Overall these preliminary tasks have been so much fun and I have really learn't a lot from them. The workshop day went so well and we really produced a good copy of the she and him music video. I am now really looking forward to next term and being given and little more freedom and choice and creating my own music video!
