Blog Reflection (week 9)

This week in Miss Severn's lessons, we finished our call sheet and we also made an experimental video. In the experimental video we tested out the effect we would use on the Girl in our music video. The effect of that ghostly type figure worked pretty well when we tried it, but the only thing we need to improve in the real music video would be, to get the positioning and the size of when we put the Girl into the scene, because she has to be the right size, or it will look too fake. Plus the positioning must be correct, so that she looks like she's actually standing in front of him, as a normal sized girl. If we can pull that off, then it will look fantastic.

We have bought our memory card and are ready to film, we decided to book out the camera on the last day, after school. Since the next week would be the half term holidays, it would be the perfect time period for us to film, because we have a whole week, we can take our time and get good shots that we need. Hopefully, we can get all our outdoor filming done during the half term and I'm sure we will. We also need to film a part in school, because we need the green screen for the effect we will have on the Girl, but that should only take an hour or so.

Let the filming begin...

Experimental Video

Me and Aran went out to film an expirmental video during lesson, to test our effect of the Girl in our music video.

Call Sheet

Open publication - Free publishing - More call

Blog Reflection (week 8)

This week in Miss Severn's lessons we were finishing off our shooting script and miss gave us an idea for our music video. In the music video, we thought about the idea of the Girl being almost ghost like, but maybe, more heavenly, calling the Boy. So, miss gave us the idea of "Sirens".

In Greek mythology, the "Sirens" were dangerous and devious creatures, portrayed as females who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. But obviously we would change this, we would just take out the part that their voices are irresistible. So the Boy has no choice, but to follow this Girl. However, we are not sure if we will definitely use this idea. But we will do is very similar to this. But this reference can help us to explain our idea of the Boy following this Girl much better.

In Mr Clark's lesson, we scanned in our digipak flatplan and finished our magazine advert flatplan. I also made a production schedule.

We are planning on filming in the half term holidays, so we will take a camera on the last day. 

We are all set, but we a minor hiccup. We need a GIRL, we still don't know who the Girl will be, because we haven't asked anyone yet. Therefore, this will be one of our main priorities to get sorted, otherwise, we will not be able to film.

Production Schedule

Open publication - Free publishing - More call sheet

Magazine Advert Flatplan

Digipak Flatplan

It looks a bit rough, because of Aran's hard pencil lines. But we want the real product to look more simple and minimalistic. The image has also faded, due to the scanning process.

Shooting Script

Here is the shooting script for our music video...

Open publication - Free publishing - More gokulan

Recci Images

We went to different locations that were associated with our idea and took photos of some nice places. These images show the journey of the boy through the motorway and the forest.

Reflection on Planning so far...

We will use the Uses and Gratifications theory of entertainment, since music videos are watched mostly for pleasure. Since our story is also a type of romance, we can bring into this personal relationships, because the audience may use our video for emotional interactions. There is also personal identity, because some of the male audience can relate to this, as they may have just broken up with their girlfriend, or something along the lines of this. But obviously, the main purpose of our music video is to entertain, because we want that encouragement of the audience watching our video again, for them to re-pleasure themselves. The reception theory suggests that, the audience will have different decoding's of what they witness. This will allow the audience to go and discuss about the video, so the music video will spread due to people talking about it and there will be many different intriguing thoughts, this will eventually give audience the temptation of watching the video again.

Our whole video is based on the male gaze, because the protagonist is the Boy and it is through him that we are visualizing the story. The story is about this boy who sees this Girl, but the girl is sort of in a heavenly way, so he goes on this journey to find her. We have used the male gaze, but through a female perspective, as the Boy is going after this Girl and he doesn't care about anything else. The music video ends in the conclusion, of him finding the Girl dead in the forest. This female use of the male gaze shows that the Girl has manipulated the Boy and maybe, changed his expectations for the worse.

We have combined narrative and performance, but it would still be more narrative. Its the story of the Boy going on this journey to find the Girl, at the same time, we will have the artist performing with his guitar and singing the song. We have combined it by, making the artist perform in the narrative world. We chose to have a narrative, because it will make our audience more drawn to our video, they'll be in suspense to what might happen next, then we'll hit them with our ending. Our song also helps this, because it builds up to an this ending.

Since we want the audience to be very drawn to our story, we need them to see our characters facial expressions. Therefore, we will have plenty of close ups, where they can see our characters moods through their facial expressions. We need the whole video to be live and not boring, so we will have many different camera angles and many different shots such as long shots, mid shots and establishing shots. We wont be cutting to the beat too much, because the song is quite slow, we will have to make the video flow with the music, rather than cutting to the beat. I believe this way, the video will look better and it will add more atmosphere and verisimilitude.

Blog Reflection (week 7)

At the start of the week, we had a discussion with Miss Severn about how our music video should show why the boy is going to look for this girl, because at the moment it just sounds like he is randomly walking through motorways and forests with no intention. So she gave us ideas about leaving clues for him to find, for example if he gets a letter saying come to the forest or something like that. But I think the idea we're going for is this, when the boy is walking, the girl appears in front of him, but we will add that effect to make her look like a ghost and she's calling him, to follow her. She will appear in parts of his journey calling him, this will eventually end up in the forest. 

This kind of effect...

So far we have nearly finished the shot list, what we have left to do are the flat plans for the magazine advert and the digipak, then the recci images, we should have all this done next week.

On the last lesson of the week, we were given a treat, the lesson was being taught by 3 student teachers. The  lesson was great and I learnt quite a lot of stuff, for example, how the weather in the video and how the costume of the actors can change the whole atmosphere and meaning of the product. We will definitely think about these things when making our music video and products.

Blog Reflection (week 6)

This week, me and Aran were told the little bits that were missing in our blog, so we had to go away and deal with those and now we pretty much have everything up to date.

We also started on our shot list this week, the shot list will give us a better view of our idea and in more detail. It will help us to film, as we will keep referring back to it, to see what shot we would do next. This is most important for when we are editing, as it will be in chronological order. 

Apart from that, since we are on the topic of music videos. There is a particular Korean music video that is growing in popularity. Its hit UK no 1 on the charts, pretty much Europe's no 1 and will soon concur America. It is also has an amazing amount of views on youtube, with 407 million views and en-counting. Furthermore, its also the most liked video on youtube, with 3 million likes and also en-counting, which I would say is quite an achievement. This video does not only have a catchy beat, it also has humor. But what does it for me, is those dance moves.

If Simon Cowell said "This guy is amazing!", then it must be great.

So sit back and enjoy... "GANGNAM STYLE!!!"

Lyrics and Analysis of "Dissociation"

Due to the fact we were rejected and left standing, waiting for a girl who never came to the date; we found a new a song and artist: Dissociation  by Carl Hauck. Now it is our duty to analyse the juice out this song. This is a girl who has not let us down...

"Dissociation" Lyrical Analysis

He eats turkey for tradition, but not the taste,
Use old movie lines, as it touches her face.
Everybody's got a lover on the big screen.
Prefers his love advice from old Jim Beam

Cos beauty's in an empty bottle,
As long as its contents are travelling through his in-insides.

She just never tasted right, but there's cocaine on her lips.
And it's sad to see him claim a thing.
When it's hard for him to deal with the stages in-between.
When the logic kicks in, called sobriety.


Cos beauty's in an empty bottle,
As long as its contents are travelling through his in-insides.

Is there any cure for this second brain?
Is there any cure for this second brain?
What is true? Love or lust?
What is true? Love or lust?
Tell him what is true. Tell him what is true.
Tell him what is true. Tell him me is true.
Cos I'm lying to this thing you called God,
and I'm lying to your friends.
And I'm lying to myself again,
and I'm lying to you.








Analysis

I needed help transcribing the lyrics of the first verse, because Hauck goes for the moody grumble delivery. I assume this is because the character of he song feels pain. Just in the verse, we can see the problems of failed love and relationships. The monotony of eating turkey, most likely for Christmas time, has become a chore, because he doesn't have the love to share it with. This is proven when he mumbles about using "old movie lines" to find a girl, and the sad case of falling in love with the fantasy girl on the "big screen". All signs show this person has no love and finds solace in the fake girl in fiction.The final line of that verse shifts the theme to darker places; because he finds his advice from "Jim Beam." Luckily I thought to research that, because Jim is a whiskey bottle. Now it has become apparent that this character is so demoralized he has hit the bottle and is possibly an alcoholic. This may be the reason he has no girl. It's a very gloomy verse of lyrics, which focuses on a serious theme but has some chink of hope, by focusing on relationships.

Then the chorus comes in and all subtlety goes out the window; he says "beauty's in an empty bottle". This reveals that the character is stuck in a kind of drunken nightmare; because, in his mind, for him to find love he has to finish the bottle, so for someone who wants love badly to be someone who believes it is in an empty bottle that must be "travelling through his insides", is a bad combination.

"She just never tasted right, but there's cocaine on her lips." He could be talking about the bottle here, and now the addition of cocaine further shoves him down this hell-hole. The character is in strong distress and there does not seem to be a way out. Or, more straight-forwardly, he could be talking about a girl and that makes him out to be quite disrespectful, choosy and nasty, because the girl he had didn't satisfy him physically, but she did have drugs to keep him happy. That shows he didn't love the girl for who she was.
You wouldn't be blames for losing faith in this character. But there is some hope when he learns "sobriety" is the key to redemption. He then further calls for help when he asks for a "cure for this second brain", and this conveys the fact he sees the junkie, alcoholic person as not being him, but some evil Hyde-like character he wants to get rid of. He calls for help by saying he is lying to God, friends and you; because it is not the real him talking.

It is not exactly a rosy set of lyrics. It deals with harsh issues of drink and drugs, but does include a thread of a love tale, because he talks of the girl he lost, but also begins to get the courage to get her back. That is some heavy stuff right there. For my video idea it would work in terms of that fantasy girl being there. Our Boy visualizes his girl and that would throw the question up as to whether she is actually real. Also, the character her is looking for his girl, just like ours is more literally.