Final Video Dappy No Regrets Video Remake

This is the final video for our video with thanks to :
Matthew Caine-Mckenzie
Kane Allen
Steph Cullen
Matthew Molnar

Video Edited By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

(Apologize's For the Poor Quality Couldnt Take A Big File)

Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Evalution question 1 : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There is many different forms of real media but I being the director was the person that had to chose what was going to be developed and what was going to be used to challenge these forms and conventions.
I feel at the very beginning we stay very close to the forms especially with props and costume. I tried to stick to sterotypical teenager wear e.g snapbacks I also use the most famous teenage item a mobile , this is what every teenager has and I felt if I was going to show a teenage story in the production that there should be a mobile to tell messages and share information because realistically that would be how it done. we had already developed the song and the lyrics by this point because we had change the meaning of the song slightly by making it about a teenage relationship instead of the original meaning about life and trying hard. This was a challenge because we had to instantly challenge the meaning of most lyrics somewhere easy and fitted like "i'm a changed man now Chris Brown" this has a intertexually meaning and refers to the relationship between Chris Brown and Rhianna when she was assaulted by him. This fitted nicely and worked well with another lyrics which was " i'll blow the bloody doors off... Michael Caine" in this scene we shown me trying to get into a room very agressively showing maybe theirs a chance of abuse in are relationship.
After the introduction with the phone scene I felt it was important to show the urban side of Manchester and even though we had changed the main meaning of the song I wanted to keep that urban struggle running through it thats why straight after we had me under the motor way surrounded by cars showing that i'm surrounded by 'passer-byes' (people that just don't care and just get on with their lives). This was very useful because it seem very original and no had seemed to use the motor ways and roads are an impacting background , we also used the subway in some scene which had very effective graffiti on the walls which we used to increase the realism and it also increased the 'on-the-streets' feel that I was trying to creat I didn't want much of it to be indoors or inside becaus that not what it like , when your have a relationship it on show leading to the scene where i'm thrown out of the door showing that things have changed that people don't talk about people in present times and that actions are used alot more but after to end the scene i used my leaving as an scene changed showing that life moves on.
However , we used juxistapostion because I feel that using a stereotypical teenager as an example of the emotionally struggle especially cause males are ment to be indifferent towards emotions yet whenever he seen inside he seems to b doing nothing but self-reflexing and I think that was challenging the conventions and forms of men because on the streets maybe they seem to be perfect and fine but when they go in maybe there is an emotional turmoil that isn't seen. Thats why when inside it had to be completely different to when were on the street to show the contrast in personalities. I made sure when inside it was alot of light effect to show he feels like the spots lights on hime however he still feels alone in the dark.
In conclussion are product challenge , develop and used the conventions and forms in many different ways to show many different thing in many different light both mentall , emotionally and visually cause we challenged stereotypes , we used daily examples as to show revalance in the audience's life and developed character that seems very insignificant and made them seem very revelant.
by kane

Evaluation Question 2: How Effective Is The combination Of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Matthew Caine-Mckenzie (Word Count: 1,030 Words)

"Click On All Pictures To Enlarge Them"

When I designed the Digi Pack I wanted to make the different designs interlink, The first things I design were the album covers, This is the first album cover that I designed, in it I have used the colour black on the left and right hand side to depict the "Regret" and Disappointment in the relationship, this can also been noticed from the glum and frustrated look on both Kane and Steph faces (who play Boyfriend and Girlfriend) and the lifeless pose they are sitting in, to add to this feeling I has also added an effect called "Dark Stroke" which emphasizes the dark parts of the picture to make it more gloomy.

I have made the sky dark in low key lighting which follows the idea that is portrayed in the CD Cover "Face Off" which has been analysed, this is used in the same way which show the characters in the black part of the cover have a "dark side". As can be seen in the picture Kane can be seen twice, one shows him looking sad whilst the other has a bright background and Kane has a smile on his face, this bright "naturalistic" lighting is used to create the same effect as high key lighting to portray a happy atmosphere. This is done to create a juxtaposition between the two Kane's whilst one is sad the other is happy and has "No Regrets" which is the main message of

the song, this follows the idea shown on the Jessica York Poster.

Secondly I designed the picture shown below shows our final album cover chose by our target audience, the reason I chose to do the album cover like this because it links in with the video itself, it is linked because the location in the album cover is also the same location with can be seen in the music video which happens to be a studio room, and as the studio room is featured a lot in our video i felt it was relevant for me to use it.

I used the shadows as a way to represent the emotions Kane would show throughout the music video no regrets, one of the shadows shows a shadow of Kane going to punch himself, this emotion is self-hatred, also we can observe one of the shadows pulling the "aggressive" shadow away, this shadow shows a rational and reflective emotion. On the right hand side there is a shadow offering a helping hand to Kane, this shows a persevering emotion, this is when he was reflecting on the relationship and thinking it wasn't worth it. and finally you see a shadow of Kane praying, this shows the emotion of self-pity, this can be seen through the flashbacks in the video such as Kane getting kicked out of the house.

The final CD cover links closely with the Back cover, inside cover and Cd cover, in order to link the designs closely I have used similar themes throughout, for example in most of the designs I have used shadows of Kane “the main performer”, these shadows have been used to portray emotion shown throughout the video which can be seen throughout the Music video. The Back cover i have designed it so it seem like the shadow is shouting No Regrets, and then I have aligned the text around the shadow to add another perspective to the design.

In addition I have used another shadow in the Inside cover to keep the theme of Shadows running throughout the designs I made, as shown in the picture below I have taken a image of Kane and made his shadow different to the action he s actually doing, and have also made the shadow hold a copy of the actual album cover and finished it off with a quotation of a lyric from the video we created. Finally the CD cover uses the same text found on the album cover, but uses a watermark of a picture found on the album poster in order to link all the designs together.

Below is the final Magazine Poster advert that I have done for the album, you may notice that the graffiti watermark with circle can be seen both on the poster and on the CD it self. This is the poster that we chose to use as the it is linked with the actual music video itself, for example, there is a part in the music video where Kane drops a significant picture and him and his "ex-girlfriend" which smashes upon dropping on the floor, so I have linked the glass smashing in the music video with the smash on the poster, and to show the drop of the picture, I have created an effect that looks like the album has been thrown.

In addition as graffiti is heavily linked with Hip Hop I have used graffiti symbols in the background in order to support the graffiti side of hip hop, and to link the text to Dappy, I have used a similar font to the one that can be found on Dappy's actual cover for "No Regrets". As a group we chose to use Def Jam as our record label as a lot of the people they actually have on the label create similar music to Dappy and in the hip hop/r'n'b genre, they are also well known so if we were to be associated with them it could gain us a wider audience.

Finally, near the bottom you can see a range of places you can actually purchase the CD from, I noticed a few people did radio stations instead of actual shops and labels , when I was designing it I chose to use actual shops because although radios can be used as advertising people wont be able to actually purchase the CD from there. The places i chose to put on the poster include HMV, Ebay, Apple and Amazon, I believe these are the best places for me to sell the CD, as they are known world wide and some of the most profitable musical industries out there.

"Click picture to enlarge"




All Designs Done By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Use of Mise en scene

This was one of the most important aspects because it is such a massive part because so many different things are wheeled in to so if where not careful and something inappropriate is used then it could easy mess it or change the message were trying to send.

Locations
We had many location however we didn’t use most because we felt that some didn’t create the feeling we wanted but with the subway it was very relevant because that urban feeling is seen very much especially here also another locations was on top of the hill I feel that the cars going pass help create realism.

Props
Are primary props was the picture frame it help show a important emotion that had been lost by the main character even though this has a small amount of show time it is crucial in the seens its in. when it is smashed this is the finally example of the change and that the character feels "No Regrets" about what has happened!

Costumes
As the main character I tried to imitate the original artist (Dappy) because I felt it was something that would add to the realism and also because it teenage romance and I felt that the hat fitted the stereotype perfectly also it fits the genre of music.

Lighting
This was mostly natural cause we wanted it too seem real but when we did use light it was at the parts where there is big emotions being shown so people could see theres a clear contrast both visually and mentally. we used spotlight at the mirror parts (chrous) to show that the attentions on him and to show he feels like everything beaming down on him. But at another part there a spotlight but he alone in the dark showing that he feels alone that he can't find himself.

colour
Originally we were going to use filters through out but i thought it was better to have a natural shroud that was easily found in Manchester , There was some colours that came in but we didn't expect for example the the short Red when I say "Chris Brown" this flash was good because it shown the brief anger and all of the intexulatiy between Chris Brown and rhianna aswell.

By Kane

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Starting with the construction aspect, a key piece of media technology we used was a Digital Video Camera. Without the camera we would not have been able to record any necessary footage we needed to make the music video and take any images needed for the digipack. To help with the filming and picture taking, we had a tripod and a crane; the camera could be mounted on both of these to help achieve better end results. For example the tripod help stabilise the camera for stationary shots and the crane allowed us to have high and low shots with ease. The images and footage captured with the captured with the camera would then be uploaded to a computer . From here we would then edit them using two programmes: Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, used for film editing and image editing respectively. When using Final Cut Pro, all of the footage we captured is readily available and we could edit them together in any order that we wanted. We could also add visual affects like fade-ins, lighting affects and camera shakes. Examples of these affects can be seen throughout our finished music video.
Going back to the use of a computer, this piece of equipment helped us out in the planning and research stages. Firstly in the planning stage, the computer enabled us to view the original video for the song, "No Regrets", and any other professinally done music videos of the same genre. This gave us a launching point for our own idea and concepts for our music video. Any idea we had for things like shooting locations, shot types and costumes would be listed on the blog, as were any documents we produced for planning or any or purposed would also be uploaded to the blog.
As you can see we are also using the blog for our end of production evaulation. The evaulation is uploaded to the blog and is the offical end of blog-related work. As with previous documents, we either use Mircosoft Word or the blog's internal word processer to produce any needed documents. Furthermore, a camera was used to record a podcast for part of the evaulation.

As this is the last evaluation question, this is the end of our groups media production. Thank you to all have been involed in making our production.

In Depth Analysis of Dappy No Regrets Lyric-to-Video Representation.

Hear me out…This is my king’s speech, I’m nowhere near the end,If I s-stutter… Sorry I ain’t heaven’s sent, ←← (For this part of the track we decided to use text messages to set the scene and hint to the audience the narrative of the Music video was going to be about a struggling relationship, this also was done because we wanted to link the visual to the audio by making the camera stutter the fact that text messages are sent with the lyric “If I S-Stutter, Sorry I Aint Heaven Sent”)

I messed my life up, yeah I’ve been down, I’m a changed man now… Chris Brown, a know I feel your pain ‘cos I done been through it, I’m Kurt Cobain but I just couldn’t do it, No point in turning back, just to hit rewind, Back To The Future.. Ma.. Marty McFly, ←← (For this section of the song as we would have been a new artist we would of had to use lots shots on the artist in order to make him recognisable to the Target Audience so there is a short scene of Kane saying “Chris Brown” with a close up and a section of Performance where Kane’s Face is identifiable)

Be the deciders with fire’cos I’m no longer looking in a reflection that I admire, I paint a picture of a fire… But there’s no one looking back at me since I’m a liar, If I should die before I wake.. The least that I could ever say, I made mistakes but held on to my faith…←← (Whilst making the video as a group we wanting out video to link heavily with the lyrics, so during this part of the song when “reflection” is mentioned there is a mirror and when paint is mention you can see graffiti type Charactertures of both Kane and Steph. In order to dramatize the scene we introduce a long shot showing a silhouette of Kane performing in “low key Lighting”)‘

Cos when I look in a mirror…I don’t even recognize myself,Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No Regrets (x2),No point in crying over yesterdayNo Regrets (x2), ‘Cos we ain’t even seen the best of days←← (Chorus) For the chorus we wanted to create a theme throughout each one, and as the lyrics for it was I “Cos when I look in a mirror.. I don’t even recognize myself” for me, as the editior, i wanting to do something special so I decided to do an effect which made Kanes reflection do somthing different to what he was actually doing then make his reflection disappear from the mirror in order to show “He no longer recognises himself”)

oo-oh-oo-oh-oo-ohhh Na Na Na Na Naoo-oh-oo-oh-oo-ohhh←← (Here is just Dappy making humming noises, but this is probably one of the most important parts of the music video, this is because it depicts a story of Kane and Steph (the Ex-Girlfriend) having a heated argument in which Kane gets thrown out of her house which eventually leads to a fade, but this scene allows the audience to know the storyline)

This is my last chance, I’m on my final straw, I came so close to b-breaking like a spinal cord, I came from nothing… Some kid in Camden, Now I’m flying with the birds.. Richard Branson, I’m a prince.. Yes I will.. Get the crown, Kate stays in my dungeon when her sister’s round, So please forgive me.. If I make mistakes, But I’ll blow the bloody doors off… Michael Caine←← (This part of the song is maily performance, but when I was editing I used a few effect to match with the lyrics, for example, when “breaking like a spinal cord” is said, Kane lands on a wall which instantly cuts to a scene of him somewhere else, then futher on you see a glow effect used in timing with the beat which is followed by a flash back of an argument where Kane is trying to get in a room that steph is block, this is paired which the lyric “I’ll blow the bloody doors off”)

If I should die before I wake.. The least that I could ever say,I made mistakes but held on to my faith…Ohhhhhh,‘Cos when I look in a mirror…I don’t even recognize myself,Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No Regrets (x2),No point in crying over yesterdayNo Regrets (x2),‘Cos we ain’t even seen the best of days←← (Chorus)

I’m free to be whatever I…‘Cos I’m famous.. Call me Gallagher.. ‘Cos I’m so shameless,The papers sold a page at the cost of my failures,Victimised by the public… don’t know if I can take this,So I sing “So when you feel like there’s no more nothing left but the life you’ve broken.” No regrets.. No turning back.. Pick up yourself and tell them I’m just being me… ←← (the whole of this part has been done in a dramatic low key lighting in order to portray that his is feeling sorry for himself and is reflecting on the situation)

Ohhhhhh,‘Cos when I look in a mirror…I don’t even recognize myself,Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No Regrets (x2),No point in crying over yesterdayNo Regrets (x2), ←← (Chorus)

No Regrets….Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No Regrets (x2),No point in crying over yesterdayNo Regrets (x2),No Regrets….←← (Coming up to this point you seen Kane take out a picture of him and Steph together, the picture has been used to symbolise their relationship, thi is probably the most “emotional” part of the song as it shows a slow mo (which adds drama) of Kane taking the picture and droping it which causes it to smash, this allows the audience to know that for him the relationship is over, to force this message through he then picks it up and allows the glass to drop off cannoting he is getting rid of his “regrets”)‘

Cos when I look in a mirror…I don’t even recognize myself,Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No Regrets (x2),No point in crying over yesterdayNo Regrets (x2),‘Cos we ain’t even seen the best of days‘Cos when I look in a mirror…I don’t even recognize myself,Got the heart of a winner… but looking back at me is someone else.No…No. Nobody crying over yesterday. ←← (This part just shows Kane lip-syncing the ad-libs to create drama and then a final fade of Kane walking away “into his new life”).

Directors Commentry

Director: Kane Allen
Editor: Matthew Caine-Mckenzie


Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

4 Panel Digi Pack Advertisement

This is how I would present our Digi Pack in a store poster in order to make it look more appealing to the target audience, this is also the packaging i would use instead of just displaying it as four 2D panels.

We decided as a group that displaying this way would also improve the chance of stores buying the CD if it was presented in a more aesthetically pleasing way, because we did research on how people get there albums into shops, and if it doesn't look pleasant theirs less chance of them stocking Cd's in their store.

"Click To Enlarge Picture"



Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Inspiration

This was an collaboration of many ideas, as the director I felt it was solely on me but because of my creativity it was very easy however it was not the first idea. Firstly we were going to do ‘Just Be Good to Green’ By Professor Green & Lily Allen this would have been easy done because we had Steph in are group making it the female parts the song an option it would of included a lot of cuts between me and Steph especially shot-reverse-shots. But after we wasn’t sure what else we would do so we decided to do something else. We thought that maybe a serious song could be a option and we thought maybe “I be missin you” by P Diddy however I felt that doing this would demand a lot of self control I felt that it would be hard to maintain this throughout but it would have had a lot of intextuality because of the meaning the song (towards and about legendary Notorious B.I.G). So again we thought and jump to the opposite side of the spectrum and thought maybe “wasn’t me ” by Shaggy this would have been fun but we didn’t have many ideas or any locations so we were stuck and also must fell in to confusion, and would of got in the circle that many groups have. Eventually we came to “No Regrets” by Dappy because it has humorous moments but yet a serious feel underlining the song also cause of the use of metaphors made it easier to fill with short stories and clips.

We had many strong effects and some very unusual ones like the fading this is liked by many people and a lot of comments complimenting it my original idea was a lot more complex this is was way above satisfactory and I was happy with my editor another effect was the change of scene after the fighting this was easy but obvious the editor had to fit the timing perfect this was similar with palm raze and small lighting (where the wall goes red and yellow) we did when next to the wall these were all the editor’s idea he said that it would be good to go slide on with the actors. The smashing of the picture was my idea but we couldn’t do slow motion or a slow throwing effect because we only had one camera. The first effect done with the stutter was lucky there just happened to be an open bag of cerement and cause of the wind made it seem special and was one of my best ideas inspired by something so small.

Are general ideas came from many different things like the costumes that was simply urban stereotypes but the relationships instead life struggles was my idea I fought it was more appropriate then life struggles because the lyrics are about self reflection and I felt after a relationship you change and have a different look at things and yourself but there nothing you can do so there’s “no point crying over yesterday”.

Album magazine Poster Draft

This Magazine poster was going to origionally be our poster but when I was designing the poster I wasnt happy with it as it wasnt relative to our music video, althought the actual look of the poster was good, i decided to create a new one that was linked to the actual video that would make sense to actual fans of the video.

I also decided to make the outline of this poster linked to the music by using muscial notes, I then used designed rays to replecate sunlight to show happynesss and lack of "regrets".
"click picture to see bigger picture"

Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Feedback

We handed out questionnaires to different people we knew, and asked them to fill them out with feedback based on our music video. We asked them 4 questions which were:

What did you think of our video?

Give us technical feedback on either of the following:

*Camera Work

*Editing

*Mise en scene

Tell us 2 strengths.

What could we improve?

Here are some of the replies we got for those questions:

What did you think of our video?

*Video was very good.

*Was really really good, nearly everything about it.

*The music video was good. Loved the song

*I enjoyed it

Give us technical feedback on either of the following:

*Camera Work

*Editing

*Mise en scene

Camera Work

*Very good because you used various angles

*I liked the camera work, the range of movements and the choreography was on point A.K.A. 'Pizzack'(Hip-hop term).

Mise en Scene

*Good

*Mise en scene linked closely to the video. The graffiti in the tunnel links closely with the caricatures.

Editing

*Also good, quick editing which matched with the high tempo of the song

*The editing was clever and very technical, really effective

*The editing was very clever, really outshone the song

*Editing was really good! Loved the bit with the mirror

*Absolutely quality editing, techniques and effects are combined well to give a very professional piece of footage. A grade at least!

Tell us 2 strengths.

*Good editing.

*Lip syncing is very well done - high quality.

*Camera movement mixes well with music. Slight hint of Mickey Mouse technique.

*The mirror editing.

*Large variety of shots.

*Some of the lyrics of the song linked with the visuals.

*Song choice.

*The fact it was really in sync with the song/lyrics.

*The effects and story elements were used well.

*Range of shots.

*Ability to tell a story through the video.

What could we improve

*I would prefer the scene where he is kicking the door to be changed. A little cheesy in my opinion

*Possible effect on saturation or contrast, give a more professional and full feel.

*More locations could have been used.

*Some more consistency between each shot.

What we learned from the feedback

We learned that there were a couple of bits in our video which we could improve such as where Kane is banging the door down. We could also have used more filming locations as we only used 4 in the video. We used a desaturation filter to take away some of the brightness…We could also have had a bit more consistency between our shots, and added some shots in between existing ones to link them a bit more.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Draft Album Cover and Poster

This are pictures I drew before making the actual album cover and poster, these are in a very draft form but were done like this in order for me to know what I was going to be doing. Whilst over people may look at these and not know what is going on but these were done for me, looking at them next to the actual thing people may actually be able to see the link between them.

Narrative

Our music video is a narrative but it is unconventional because it starts in the middle, then goes to the beginning and then finishes with the end. This differs from a music video we have analysed called ‘Stan’ by ‘Eminem’ which is a conventional narrative. It starts with the relationship and then continues as it would happen in real life. The video then ends after Stan having killed himself, his girlfriend and their unborn child.

Our music video is unlike this because it starts with Kane replying to a text message from Steph which says “What’ve I done wrong?” and Kane replies with the first line of the song, which is “This is my kings speech, I’m nowhere near the end”. It then goes back to all the problems with the relationship as Kane thinks about whether he should stick at the relationship and try and make it work or should he end it. The video then goes to the break up and continues showing how Kane starts off unhappy and gradually feels better as he becomes surer that it was the best thing for him. We used elliptical editing to do this.

Parts of our video are also performance-based. Throughout the video Kane is lip-syncing, but not all the way through. Kane lip-syncs some of the words such as “’cause when I look in the mirror” and “I’m flying with the birds, Richard Branson”.

Steph Cullen:)

Craig Davis' Analysis

In this post, we going use to an analysis checklist created by Craig Davis to analysis our own music video.

1. Narrative type

Illustration - our video falls into this narrative type as it simply visualizes the music and gives meaning to the lyrics. As with most music videos, the narrative illustration is combined with a performance. As Davis' mentions, narratives are rarely complex because they need to market the band/artist and song; we had this idea in mind when we were coming up with our narrative.

2. Performance type

Conventions of solo artist performance - a common music video aspect is lip-syncing. As there are no instruments in our video, we focused exclusively on the lip-syncing parts. This was key due to the fact our song features a solo artist so during the performance parts, he would be addressing the viewer through camera. This required close ups and shots where our performer's mouth was clear and predominate. Our performer is also part of the narrative, being the lead male in the story, so the video's cuts between the performance and the narrative, being what Davis calls a "hybrid form" form of editing.

3. Audio-Viual Technical Codes:

Camera shots: Our videos features a wide variety of shots, the main ones being medium shots and close ups. The close ups fits in with the main generic convention for music videos of seeing the singer's face while there singing.

Camera movements: During outside shots when our performer was walking around, we used a crane do tracking shot and to tilt the camera for high shots. Furthermore, during the "black background" parts of our video, we re-used the crane, it being stationary this time, to get the camera to vertically tilt for high or low shots.

Editing: Throughout our video, we used jump cuts and the so-called "MTV style" editing. We did this to give what Davis calls "a de-centred experience" of jumping from location to location giving the narrative a sort of fractured continuity; an aspect we agreed as a group to be common to narrative music videos.

Post-production digital effects: Digital effects were throughout our video. A key example being the "Reflection fade" scenes, where the performer's reflection in the mirror fades out of view. Slow motion , colorization and glow filters were also utilized.

Lighting: We used lighting in the "black background" scenes to remove the background naturally instead of wasting time doing it the computer way. We also used this as expressive lighting to add mood to the scenes.

Mis-en-scene: We aimed to design a sort of "urban chavvy" Mis-en-scene in our music video. We did this through clothing (hoodies) and through the areas we filmed at (estates) We also found an area covered in graffiti, adding to the design.

Research in to music Genre

HISTORY –

Music is art form whose medium is sound and silence. Common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. The roots of spoken hip-hop music are found in African-American music and ultimately African music, particularly that of the griots (west African storyteller) of West African culture.

DAPPY

Dappy’s career started in N-Dubz but in 2007 he released a song called ‘love For My Slum’ with fellow UK rap Artist Baker trouble. This was number one on channel U (now channel AKA) for several weeks and it was a big hit in the underground urban scene. The real question is how do you go from street grime to mainstream hip pop. When looking Dappy interviews he said ‘No Regrets’ had many reason and he had to do because he was sick people stereotyping as a ‘Bad Boy’ and that he is just self reflecting (hence looking in the mirror and not recognizing himself) and showing he is just human and there no point crying over yesterday he also said he wanted to do something different and “Epic”.

HIP POP TYPICALS

Most artists would say they have individual typicals when on stage and but if you ask the audience they will say that most are similar this is because the energy they are trying to create is the same. Which is ‘hype’ and making audience go wild and want to sing along explaining why so many artist put their mike to the audience encouraging them to sing-along in our piece Kane does something similar he points to the camera is trying to make the audience feel as if he talking directly to them. There also stereotypes that are often fulfilled like sagging pants this happens very often so we also included it in ours, also seen especially by tinie tempah when jumping round stage Kane does this at the beginning when he kicks and creates the dust effect. All these different things are typical and are also expected and required because if done well you are almost a good artists you just need to focus on your singing or rapping after that but they are crucial for performing.

Posted by Kane Allen

Final CD Cover Audience Feedback

When I designed the two album cover as a group we couldn't decide which one to use, so i decided to make a poster that would tally up the results in order for us to make a decision, this is relevant because the people i asked are included in the chosen target audience we chose as a group, therefore the CD is more likely to appeal to the audience. As shown on the -picture below you can see that the album on the left gets 40 vote compared to the other albums votes of 33 so we decided to use the one the public preferred.

Posted By Matthew Caine-Mckenzie

Comparition between AS production and A2 production

At first, this video production and last year's AS video production may not seem that different; you get a camera, plan what to film and then go film it, all the while recording what you did on the blog. However once you start looker more closely, you'll realise that both productions are nearly worlds apart.

The first difference is with the style of filming and what's being filmed. In the AS media production last year, we were tasked with filming the opening sequence of a film. In the medium of films, the camera usually stays in the same place for most of the time on a tripod or a similar device, with it following the action by having the camera rotate. In most music videos however, the camera is moving around most of the time, either by tracking or moving freely. This makes planning shots more differcult then just having the actor do all the work, now the cameraman has to move too. Also last year, we were free to to make a scirpt ourselves, and thus we could choose the way it should be shoot. However, with this year's production, we had to take a mainstream song and make a video based around that. Its quite hard not to copy ideas from the song's orginal video as we could think up ideas and then write around these ideas. Futhermore in the AS piece we could have long shot and long gaps between edits, but in music videos this is rarely done so you have to change your mind set completly to know what to film, something that I had to do myself.

The next key difference would be in the editing. Last year, the editing was use to help add emotion to film or help estabish the atmosphere the group is looking for. Also, the editing of film compared to music videos is very simple; in film its about portraying a story so the editing is done in a way so all story-related elements to the viewer. The amount of cuts are come low during story-driven parts to help shows details that the audience need to pick up on so they can understand the story. Visual effects are also under used at these parts so as not to distract the viewer from the experience. On the other hand however, music videos have a different style of editing altogether. Rather than story, they are more about spectacle, drawing you attention to the video and also the song. As most music videos usually have little to no story at all, so there isn't any need to draw attention to that aspect of the video. Furthermore, because the aim it to draw the attention of the viewer, visual effects like fades and screen blurs are commonly used. Finally, the speed of the editing mostly depends on the tempo of the music. In our groups case the tempo is high, so the editing will be fast with many fast cuts, adding to overall effect of the video on the viewer and highlighting the song's beat.

Another key difference between the two video projects was in the performance aspect. In films, the dialogue is spoken on set and is recorded on the day of filming. The emotion portrayed though the lines of dialogue are usually decided by the director, the actor or what is stated in the script. The actor's movements are also dictated by the script; say weather it is a scene with high stress or a slow melodramatic scene. Also the person chosen to act in the production doesn't have to move around that much, depending on the scene. In the A2 production however, a lot more is asked from the performer. Not only do they have to move around the chosen area to film in, but they have act and dance around the beat of the music. Furthermore, they have to try and lip-sync to an already existing piece of singing, where all the choices they made with dialogue in last year's video being stripped away from them.

Diary for this week - 17-24/11/11

17th November - Today we did some more editing as well as filming. The first day we went out filming, the footage of Kane in the mirror, was not as good as we thought it could be, so we decided we would re-film the shot. We heading down to the dance studio in college to film the footage. We also took the picture which we would use to put in the frame which we decided we would smash to symbolise the end of the relationship.

24th November - Today we recorded our final pieces of footage. It was mostly the end including smashing the frame. We also filmed sending and receiving the texts for the beginning of the video. We also did some filming in the studio and finished off editing the video.

Equipment and technology

We used a variety of equipment and software to aid us throughout the production. Some were key to finishing the production while some helped enhanced the finished product.

The first three pieces of equipment were a necessity during the filing process. The first of these was essential to any video production, the camera. To be more specific, the camera was a Canon Legria FS406 . All clips and photos for either filming or the blog was done with this camera. The camera may not have had the greatest of quality, but it was the only camera available to us so we had to make do with what we had. Also due to its small size and weight we could easily handle it handheld-style. It was also very user friendly and easily to use, which meant that even someone who was wasn't very experienced with camera could use and handle it with ease.

The next piece of equipment we used was an asset to the camera, the tripod. Specifically designed so the camera could be securely mounted on top, this kept the camera steady whenever it wasn't moving. The part of the tripod with the mount was also able to swivel side-to-side and tilt up and down, so it allowed us to have good smooth panning shots and easily follow any on-screen action with ease. The legs of the tripod were also able to be extended, which allowed to have shots from a high angle.

The third and last piece of equipment was another camera asset; the Jib. Similar to a camera crane, the camera is mount on top of the Jib on a platform separate to the main structure of the Jib. Then through the use of a handle located at the other end of the Jib, the platform can be turned up and down at a various number of degrees. This permitted us to have camera movements mimicking those of a camera mounted a crane, with shots going from high shots to low shots in a smooth fashion. This also made executing high and low shots easier as we didn't need someone with the camera to be placed on a high object or to lie down on the floor. The Jib was also able to extend higher allowing for shots that were higher then first thought.

Next, we moved into the equipment in the studio area to film some performance shots. While working in there, we made use of the Spotlights positioned in there. We could move the lights around so we could use them to achieve the mood we were looking for. We could also change the brightness of the lights helping to further set the mood of the shot. They also help us achieve shots that would normally be hard to do; for example, our performer walks out of the shadows and up to the mic. This would normally be done with visual effects, but it has been easily achieved by lighting.

On the software side of things, the editing program we used was Final Cut Pro. Being a professional editing program and used by many Hollywood editors, Final Cut Pro was an ideal system to use. Although it is not easy to use unless you have experience with the program, it is probably the simplest and best way to edit anything; it has a wide variety of special effects and most importantly it allows non-liniaer editing. Basically this means that if we wanted to re-edit the beginning part, instead of having start over again like in the days of film editing, we simply scroll back to the start and edit away. Furthermore, the Mac computers we had access to had two screens, allowing Final Cut Pro to be used on both screens, giving us a clearer view on what we were editing.

Diary for this week - 3-14/11/11

3rd Nov - Today we started looking at how we were going to edit the video. Matthew CM is very strong when it comes to editing so we decided to put each of our strengths to use and let him edit the majority of the video. We also did more blog work and looked at where and what we were going to film next.

7th Nov - Today we continued filming at Kane's house. We filmed more of the outside shots and decided to re-film some of the shots which we thought we could do better- either because of the acting or because the camera wasn't steady enough or we didn't like the positioning. We also filmed Kane being 'kicked out' of the house by Steph, where Kane is pushed from the door, his coat is thrown at him, and he then throws his coat over the camera. This was one of the ideas we came up with to change the scene.

10th Nov - Today we did some more editing, as well as some more test shots of extreme close up of Kane's lip-syncing in the Music recording studio at college. This was very tedious as we had to position the camera very specifically in order to see Kane's lip syncing as much as possible. This took a lot of time and very small camera movements.

14th Nov - Today we went out filming again. We visited the rather large area underneath Mancunian Way, except when we got there we realised that work had been started since we last checked the area. Fortunately the area that was under construction did not take up the entire area, and the scaffolding was only on one pillar. We started off by taking a couple of shots in the subways and the footpaths leading up to them. Then we did the shot where Kane is stood beneath two of the pillars and kicks a bag of cement creating a lot of dust. We kept having to re-film this bit because we were filming using the crane on a slope, and there was a lot of gravel, the footage looked very unsteady and unprofessional. After re-shooting this a couple of times we became better and more able to film steadily. The reason we used the crane was so that we could film both high-angle shots and low-angle shots as well as normal shots. We also had Kane jumping off the top of a pile of sandbags. Having the crane meant we could film him jumping more easily. We also did a shot which involved us moving in between two other pillars and having Kane stay on the other pillars. This was effective because it let us view from a different angle so that we can switch between different shots and let people who are watching see more of the surrounding area.

By Steph Cullen

Possible Album Advert For Audience

The Two pictures you can see below are of advertisements I have designed to go onto video player sites as a potential way they would be advertised if we were actukly making the album cover, both the advertisments are the same but I have put them on different websites for a reason, the first one is of youtube, this was be good because it is view by thousands of people and show a wide variety of video weather they be comedy, action, sketch, music and animation.

The second one is of VEVO, i thought this one would be better to use because unlike youtube, VEVO is dedicated to just music videos, therefore there would be more chance of the appropiate audience type seeing the advertisment which could potentially mean selling an album.

Deadlines

'The deadline for the completed music video is Friday 25th November. It is essential that videos are fully completed by this date as they will be marked early the following week.'

'You then have until Friday 9th December to finish the blog and the print-based work.'

We have nearly finished filming now and we have started our editing. We will be filming the last shot of Kane in a field later on this week/early next week. And then we will continue to edit our video and we will finish it some time in the next 2 weeks. We have started work on the album cover, and have created one already. We are exploring our other ideas and will look at our covers and decide which one we feel is best and submit that one. We will then work on our poster, so we can put a picture of our cd cover on the poster. We will then evaluate our video, album cover, and poster, and post it on the blog. We will aim to have this finished a couple of days in advance to give time to check over everything and make sure that we have covered everything in as much detail as possible.

By Steph Cullen

Album Covers

I like very simple album covers, where there is just a picture of the person, and there is nothing else really going on, except for the name of the artist and the song. Here are a few examples of album covers which I really like.

• Eminem – The Hits and Unreleased

I like this one because it is in black and white, and Eminem’s face is hard to read. Also because it is extremely simple.

• Rihanna - Loud

I like this one because the lighting is very bright, to reflect the bright make-up she is wearing.

• Usher – Raymond v Raymond

I think this one because it is very relaxed and very simple, and its just usher resting on his hands. He looks sad and upset, but his facial expression is very confusing, and it could have a double meaning. The lighting is also very dark, which also contributes to the simplicity of the album cover.

• Pixie Lott – Young Foolish Happy

This album cover is in black and white, with the big ‘x’ being the only thing in colour on the cover. This draws attention to the ‘x’, which obviously is symbolic to the ‘x’ in Pixie, as it overlaps. The picture look very natural, and the make up used is also very simple. She also looks quite windswept, which usually is used to portray minimalism.

• Alexis Jordan – Alexis Jordan

This album cover is also extremely simple, and the make up and pose is very natural. But there is a pink tint to the cover.

by Steph Cullen

Very Basic Explanation Of How A Album Cover Develops

Step 1: First I got the original picture we took and rotated it slightly as the picture was off center and changed the contrast to make certain parts of the image stand out.

Step 2: I then got a separate image of Kane sitting in the middle of the bench and took him away from the background using a tool in photoshop called the Pen Tool were i had to carefully trace around the part of the image i wanted.


Step 3: The Kane I cutout was then transferred over to the original picture and put in place, this process took a while as i had to keep making changes to the cutout making sure it wasn't over lapping and that it fitted in place.

Step 4: To create the effect shown above I competed the same steps i had taken in 2 & 3 to put the image of the two Kanes and Steph onto a bright sunny background which also took a while. The contrast of the background image was also changed in order to make it appear brighter.

Step 5: The left and right hand side of the image were then change to extreme low key lighting to show that it is the Kane to the left and Steph that are "Regretting" Life whilst the middle Kane is smiling and in bright Naturalistic lighting.

Step 6: This last image shows the picture with the finishing details on it which include the name of the Album "No Regrets" and also the P.A. Logo at the bottom.

(This Description is just a brief outline of how the image was made there were a lot of fiddly bits in between that would have taken quite a while to explain over a paragraph. This was done in order to give onlookers an understanding into how Photoshop works and how it was used to develop and idea.)

Program To Design Album Covers & Posters

Photoshop

The program that will be used for Matthew Caine-Mckenzie to design the album covers and posters on will be Photoshop CS5, this program is a proffesional program used by graphic designers to create and design. It is the program of chose because it has many features which can aid and help develop proffessional looking designs, below shows the packaging that comes with the program (Which Is Worth Over £500) and also the look and workspace that Photoshop uses.

Locations and other research

The following research is relevant to our production because each of the above sections helped us to recognize common traits in music videos and helped us choose ideas for our music video.

Clichés seen in most hip/hop music videos:

• Cornfields; Seen in “Love The Way You Lie”, “Stan”, “You and I”, and various Rihanna music videos. Unable to find a reason why cornfields are used so much; possibly linked to Fields – Emotional Locations
• Roof of a tall building: This allows for many wide sweeping shots to add emotion to when the music build-ups and when the music reaches a crescendo. Also shows the cityscape in the background, a easily recognizable and effective backdrop.
• Fade editing: Again adds emotion, mainly at the chorus of a song. Takes also allows for cuts to take place while not breaking the rhythm of the song.
• A house estate or area: shows a stereotypical area for gangsters and gangs to live.

Ideas for our music video:

Emotional locations:

· See Cliché – Roof of a tall building

• · Fields, e.g. cornfields, parks etc. Can either been used to emphasize “big” parts in a song (No Regrets – Dappy) or to make a song seem more depressing (Love the way you lie – Eminem ft. Rihanna).
• · A rough estate where good people are pulled into a gangster lifestyle, showing a different side of the gangster stereotype. Therefore, we see poor people living in these areas and then they make a life for themselves.

Camera shots that may be used:

• · Medium close ups; so we can see our “Dappy” lip-syncing to the lyrics, a key aspect of any music video.
• · Mid-shots; shows the appearance of our “Dappy”.
• · Long shots to add effect to the crescendos’ in the music. E.G. As seen in the video for No Regrets, Dappy is seen on top of a building. This allows for wide sweeping shots to give emotion to parts of the song where there is a build up or a crescendo.

Research collected by Matthew Molnar and Kane Allen

Prop List

Phones: Blackberry, Iphone
Picture Frame
Spotlights
Concrete Dust
Microphone
Mirrors
Coats
Snapbacks
Chains
Scalf
Bag
Chair

Problems Faced When Making Video

When making the video we faced alot of problems as a group, some of theses included budget, transport, traffic, weather etc.

When starting we didnt really allocat e a budget for ourselfs, we tended to spend the money as we went along, this was different for different people this was because some people already used bus as a way of transport and therefore had a bus pass, wearas I had to spend extra money in order to get the bus back and forth from location to location.

Also as we done most of our filming during college hours this meant that we had limited time when filming as we would have to get back to college in order to be back in time for our lessons.

The weather was also a major problem for us when we were filming, as we needed bright naturalistic lighting from the sun, but as the filming took place over the winter we didnt have many days where the sun was shining brightly or it wasnt raining.

Mind Map

This mind map diccusses the origin of hip hop, some morder day hip hop artist, Hip hop stereotypes and about Dappy (the Maker of No Regrets).

Story board/ Shot List

Storyboard for “No Regrets” From 2:50 – 3:15

This is a partial Plan of how we are going to make our video, we may use all of it, or we may even use very little of it but this was done so as a group we had some ide as to where we wanted to go with our music video.

1. A mixture of Mid & Establishing shot of Kane in a field on a bright day using whip pans whilst Kane is singing the song whilst doing the Hip Hop Styled bouncing (Described in the product treatment) on a bright day in a park using naturalistic light.

2. Then it will cut to a Close Up Shot of Kane in a Mirror where he will be lip syncing the lyrics, in low key lighting, to create a deep and mysterious effect. Cutting back and forth to close and mid shots.

3. A Mid Shot will be used showing Kane in the mirror, this will be used in parternership with Special Effects, which will be used to remove the reflection from the Mirror. To show that he is upset will also use extreme close ups.

4. It will then skip to a Long Shot of Matthew bouncing a basketball, followed by a tracking Mid Shot of him shooting the ball. Shown in slow motion to dramatize the scene.

5. Then a Tracking Close Up Shot Of the basket ball making a "swish" into the net, or, we will used the same shot type to simulate a slam dunk effect, this can be done through cutting.

6. A Mid Shot of Kane in his bedroom looking at a picture of him and his Ex-Girlfriend, which will be shown as a key prop via Close Up Shot, then a mid shot will be used to show Kane slapping it of the shelf.

7. A Mid shot of the picture falling which will be used to symbolises and end to the regrets in the relationship which will be finalized with the smashing of the frame in slow motion.