Our Life....the problem

With the song we ran into a problem as the 2 artists on the record are unavaliable to record the song, but where i was one of the people that produced it i have rights to use the song for this and have decided that we will use this song to make our music video to. So because we are unable to get the artists we are going to be having different people mime the lyrics so it looks like everyone in the actual video is rapping along to the song. We took the insperation from a song by So Solid Crew called Broken Silence

The Locations we hope to be using...

In this image we hope to use this location as a kind of hang out for the characters to stand around looking shifty and dangerous.

We have thought a lot about what locations we are going to use and we have decided that we are going to use locations that are run down and shifty looking places, such as Elephant & Castle, Stockwell and Brixton.

This area is where we hope to get a line up of the characters and we will pan down the line of people.

We have already taken photos of the places we are hoping to use and the pictures have come out pretty well, and we are going to use some of these places that we have taken pictures of, we will also be using places in our 6th form.

This is a corner that we thought of using for another gang of people to look shifty.

Our Insperation...

We were looking at different kinds of music videos, so we looked at many different videos that have been filmed in the London area. We looked at a particular music video from artist Dizzee Rascal called "Jus' A Rascal" and we liked the idea of people standing in a row with their back to a wall. So we decided that we would use that kind of shot in our music video of people lining up to show that the issues mentioned in the lyrics affect not just the black community but all different types of communities. i.e the Asian community and the white community.

I Cant Believe I Forgot About It

We finally have a song that i completely forgot all about, its a song that i had produced a few years ago called "Our Life" that has alot of issues in it like black on black crime and what young people face today on the streets not just in london but around the planet. So we have decided to go with this song and we have already started coming up with ideas. We decided that we would take photos of places where we could film so we are getting the cameras today....im definatly excited about this project now because i was starting to lose faith.

Another Bump...

we encountered yet another bump in the preparation to our filming, unfortunately the artist we had agreed to use known as Rizla has had to decline a day before we were due to meet with him. This is very unfortunate as we do not have a lot of time to plan our video, film it and then edit it. However unfortunate this is we must push on and so we are now asking one of our old friends who has recorded a few songs, if it is possible to use her songs and record her singing in the video.

We hope she will agree to this as we have had a lot of bad luck over the last few weeks moving on from 2 artists and now on to a third. i don't think that we are going to do very well with the music video as now it really is a last minute thing we have a little over a month to record and edit. So from here on its full steam ahead with this project......i just hope we finish in time.

Teenager Questionnaire

We handed out 12 questionnaires to teenagers and came up with our information for our blogs.

7 people said that they like the story behind the music video. 4 people said they like the use of attractive people/characters in the music video aswell as the dancing, the song/lyrics, materialism, small films, the artist themself over the music video and what it implies. 1 person said they dont watch music videos at all due to the fact that it is full of foolishness, like hidden images and messages.

A Bit Of A Bump.....

We came back to media today after a whole week off and we run in to a bit of a bump. The song that was being made for us by an artist called Phoen!x was unable to be completed due to unforseen circumstances. However Amina came to our rescue as she knows a artist who goes by the name of Rizla who has agreed to let us take one of his songs to make a music video.

On the 10th November myself, Fatiat and Amina are going to meet Rizla to discuss what ideas we have for the music video of his song. We are also gonna ask him what ideas he has about the music video as i believe it is important to have the artists input aswell as our own.

Album Covers

Today we had Miss Kay and we looked at different album covers from different genres and the album cover i chose to look at is "The Black Album" from Metallica.
This album is made by American heavy metal band Metallica in 1991 and is still a popular album with classic songs such as "Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters." The Snake on the album cover is a symbol of a flag that was made for the American Revolution during the Boston Tea Party.


The reason that Metallica has put a the snake on their album is because that there is a song on the album called "Don't Tread on Me" which links to the poster above.

I believe that it is a effective album cover as the album is called "Metallica" or "The Black Album" and the colour of the album is black. The target audience is mainly people who are in the Heavy Metal scene so those who listen to Led Zeppelin, Queen and Guns N Roses.

Editing

On the 22nd September we went in to the studio to do some messing about with the cameras and look a the new and old equipment that we will be using to make our music video. We also used the green screen which we would use later on while we edited our little clips. On the 4th October we began editing the clips that we had put together and we learned abit more about the lighting on camera as when we were filming the lighting was good, but when we imported the clips they came out darker, so we have to be aware of that when it comes to actually putting our music video together.

We continued on the 6th October by adding the pictures on to the green screen that i was dancing infront of and adding text in to the video. im glad we done this because i am a bit rusty seeing as i havent used it for a couple of months and now my mind is refreshed with this knowledge of final cut pro........i can't wait till we start our music video

Lady Gaga Continued

Why Has Lady Gaga Been Presented in this way?


I believe that Lady Gaga has been presented in this way because she is newish on the music scene and many people still don't know what to expect which is why a lot of people are still waiting to see what she is going to do. Gaga is showing us what she is like through her music, the way she dresses and her attitude. Gaga also modelled for Japanese icon "Hello Kitty" aiming to bring a bigger and wider audience

This is another way of her being extreme as "Hello Kitty" is associated with Teenagers in Japan but around the world it is seen as something for younger people at the ages of 10-13.

Lady Gaga

How Has Lady Gaga Been Represented In The Music Industry?

Lady Gaga has been represented in the music industry in a many different ways. There is the persistance of rumours that she was a man and we dont know very much about her. Gaga is an enigma as some of her costumes cover her face.

Gaga is constently changing her sexual orientation as in many of her songs she is seen kissing men while in others she is kissing women, however in her song Pokerface which was released in 2008 she says "Bluffing With My Muffin" which is a referance to her being Bisexual. She is also very extreme in the way she dresses e.g the meat dress she wore at the Music Video awards.


Lady Gaga is trying to be ordained as a minister so she can marry gay people on stage, which is very extreme by its self and a lot of people wouldn't look to kindly on it being that she is marrying gay people and a women is trying to be a minister. In a interview with Barbara Walshes we saw a different side of this mysterious enigma where she seemed like a normal average women who loves to sing.

Purpose Of A Music Video

Today with Miss Kay we looked at music videos and discussed what makes a music video a actual music video. A Music Video is a series of moving pictures put to music. The images are linked with the song that is performed by a Musician/s, the images also tell a story. Music Videos don't necessarily have a singer or message but its better to have one.

TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEO

We looked at several different videos and came to the conclusion that there are many different types of music video.

Performance - The Animals - House of the rising sun, The Band and artist performing the story. Today, Often this is a live concert but it can also occur in the studio.

Conceptual - Narrative - Focuses on the images and there is a story running through it.

Conceptual - Non Narrative - Focuses on the image and its a collection of random images - On To The Next One - Jay Z.

What Is The Purpose Of A Music Video?

The purpose of a music video is to show the audience what the song is about. We hear the song to tell us what its about but the video shows us what its all about which reinforces the song.

Conventions Of A Music Video

1. Rapid Shot Changes - In one minute there is many different shot types
2. Poetic Images - Images that link to the emotion and music - Runaway Love Ludacris Ft. Mary J Blige
3. Imagery - Images to tell a story
4. Fairytale Story - When we have a classic boy meets girl hollywood story - Taylor Swift - Love Story
5. Jump Cuts - Going from a guy in a car to a girl walking aross a field
6. Editing Is Linked To The Music Video - Rhythm of editing is linked to the editing of the music - The Dukes - Vampire
7. Creating The Spectacular - Dancing, Jewellery, Setting, Costume, Props, Lights - Britney Spears - Circus
8. Music Videos can deliver a social message - Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Oh No.....Not Questionnaires!!

Today Mrs Greig told me that i would have to make Questionnaires and we looked at what our audience was going to be for the questionnaires and we came to the conclusion that we would aim our questions for parents, Teenagers and the L G B T Q(Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual)community. So we began to make and type up our Questionnaires and when they are done we are going to hand them out to people and start putting our results on our blogs.

A2 Media Begins

Today we started A2 Media with Mrs Greig and i discovered that i would be making a music video. I am really excited about this because i really like music and it would be easy for me to direct a music video. I also watched last years music video which was " Tribal Man Skank" and I saw the level that i am suppose to be working at for this year. I also met Miss Kay who is our other Media teacher....this year is going to be hard but at the same time really easy.