Planning your Advanced Portfolio - Summer Work

Use the summer time to find your song and start your research.

In the meantime, this is the kind of letter that you'll need to write to the copyright owner; though they might not reply to you, at least you've taken the right steps to get permission. Alternatively, you might want to ask if it would be ok to have your video posted on your school's YouTube channel.


















GET STARTED ON YOUR BLOG!

1. Complete the  Evaluation of your preliminary task

2. Complete at least 2 analyses of music videos using Goodwin's points as sub-headings.
Example 1: Analysis of Rihanna - Disturbia (using Goodwin's Ideas)
Example 2: Analysis of Marina and the Diamonds- Oh No

3. Watch as many past students' videos as possible - select a few to embed and write a comment (or a few notes) on - this might be features you like or don't like and some screengrabs of interesting shots. GATHER AS MANY IDEAS AS POSSIBLE NOW.
PHM YouTube Playlist - other schools' videos

INCLUDING THIS FULL MARKS ONE:


4. Watch as many varied videos as possible, embed some / screengrabs interesting ideas + few bullet points to comment.
Park High Media YouTube Playlist - Range of music videos plus playlists focusing on important directors (Jonze, Williams, Fincher, Gondry etc.): Playlists.

6. You could start your CD cover / digipak research now. Hit the shops and look at your own collection... Prepare a collage of interesting CD covers.

7. Watch and make a few notes on what you have picked up from it. This video was recommended by the person who's in charge of A2 at OCR......


The Videographers Guide Ep. 1 - The Music Video from Hypebeast on Vimeo.

EXTRA - CHECK OUT: http://www.bbc.co.uk/introducing and also there on Twitter (bbc.co.uk/introducing We support unsigned, undiscovered & under the radar musicians No need to Tweet us links, just upload your tunes at bbc.in/Uploader)
AND HAVE A LOOK AT THE VIDEOS THERE:
[last year's] BBC Norfolk Music Video Festival

Last year's BBC Music Video Festival Facebook page - some fantastic videos!

Finally, if you don't subscribe to COUP online magazine yet, you really should! Great article from last year: "The Soap Girls - A Branding Exercise"

Have a great summer. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter - we mainly send relevant links for your Exam units: start reading about We Media, Online Age and Media Regulation! So many debates at the moment!!!

Week starting 16.6.14: What needs to be done now...

Hi everyone and a warm welcome back!

Before I go on, Issa James has posted the great post below with plenty of links to music videos that we want you to look at. It is crucial that you spend time becoming familiar with different genres and that you pick up ideas from a wide range of videos. Of course, there are other sources of inspiration such as films, TV drama and books!

But before I go on further, let's go back to basic information.

1. You will be starting your coursework straight away. Trust me, you will need the summer to make a good start! Once again, the coursework accounts for 50% of your final grade and we usually finish by Christmas with a little time in January to complete the evaluation.
The brief is to create a promotional pack for an upcoming album (you will have to invent an artist/band), including a magazine advert, a music video for the single coming out, and a digipak for the album (6 panels minimum). So, 3 products this time around!

2. You need to start a new blog to start recording your work. Please send me the URL as soon as possible. Include your name in the header as well as your candidate number. Include a link to this class blog.

3. You need to understand that there are many genres of music videos, usually dependent on the music genre being promoted. Overall, there are Performance videos, Narrative-led videos, but the majority include a mix of both.
Two key theorists who will help you deconstruct and analyse videos are Goodwin and Vernallis. I will provide templates summing up the main conventions they have come up with to support your analytical work and we will of course go through their key points together.

Starting with Goodwin, here are the key points:

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography
- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. Videos allow artists to present and modify their 'Star Image' to the public.
- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc.
- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts; these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

Please use these to get started with your music video analyses. It goes without saying that you will need plenty of screengrabs!

4. We will be completing some preliminary tasks to teach you a few skills in preparation for shooting and editing your own videos. The first one will take place this week. You will need to be ready on Wednesday to shoot a lipsynched song of your choice. You can work in groups of 3 groups of 2 or 3 groups of 2.
You must:
- bring the printed lyrics
- have learnt the song lyrics before the lesson
- bring any prop you might want to use.


Here are examples from previous years:

See you Wednesday in the media pod! I cannot wait.

Welcome Back! You are now A2 students.

Hey Guys, in preparation for your A2 studies I have listed a bunch of useful links for you to check out.


This is the range of music videos playlist, assembled for your perusal!
Range of Music videos

Simple videos that rely on lighting & a strong performance (some of these are in the above playlist)

One Take performance with an emphasis on lighting

Same artist as above utilising dance & shadows (black & white)

Classic performance video that inspired Miley Cyrus

An almost film noir look in this iconic video

Heavily reliant on performance

Using real subjects & scenarios along with performance

Simple + performance based This controversial song went viral & made the artist popular

Dance led video with interesting lighting

Good example of cutting to the beat -Dance led video using smart choreography & switches between colour (I challenge you count how many cuts!)

Lip sync by another performer

Innovative reverse video by Spike Jonze

Innovative one take performance video

Student examples

The following are screen shots from student videos in the past year that utilise good lighting

Techniques

Split screen

Simple and effective lighting

Dear Moderator,

Here are the blogs of our A2 students. They have all followed the music video / promotional package for a new album brief:

Some students worked as a pair whilst planning and filming:
Romina and George,
Leon and Luke,
Nikita and Kelly.
All the editing and ancillary tasks were done individually.

The other students worked individually:
Lisha
Priyesh

Romina Mohammad-Nejad 8146 - Romina's blog: http://rominamusicvideo.blogspot.co.uk
George Schena 8218 -  George's blog: http://georgesmusicvideo.blogspot.co.uk

Leon Jay Dominique - Leon's blog: http://leonjaydominiquea2media.wordpress.com
Luke Georgiades - Luke's blog: http://lukegeorgiades.wordpress.com

Nikita Petralia 8317 - Nikita's blog: http://nikitasmusicvideoblog.blogspot.co.uk
Kelly Amdur 8009 - Kelly's blog: http://kellysmusicvideoblog.blogspot.co.uk

Lisha Gorasia 8067 - Lisha's blog:http://lishagorasia.wix.com/mediastudies

Priyesh Mistry 8141 - Priyesh's blog:http://priyeshmusicvideo.blogspot.co.uk

GET YOUR EVALUATIONS DONE OVER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS!

That is all. Information in a previous post. See below.

Consolidating your audience research

Some of you need more information on your target audience. Here is a link to the media pack published by a magazine:

http://www.mhpromo.co.uk/MP_11.pdf

Look through the pack to see how the target audience is described in detail.

DEADLINES - ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

Timing is really tight. We are expecting ALL of you to meet the deadlines and talk to us if any issues should arise PRIOR to the deadlines.

FRIDAY 22ND NOVEMBER: FIRST DRAFT DIGIPAK (you will have both the double and triple to work on that) - Work on your advert should also be under way.

FRIDAY 29TH NOVEMBER: FINAL DRAFT DIGIPAK + MAGAZINE ADVERT (preferably final but first draft if not)

Start work on Evaluation Question 2

THURSDAY 5TH DECEMBER: EVALUATION QUESTION 2 DUE IN (WILL BE CHECKED IN THE LESSON)

FRIDAY 6TH DECEMBER: MUSIC VIDEO ROUGH CUT + MAGAZINE ADVERT FINAL DRAFT (if not completed the week before) 
Monday's lesson [9th Dec] will include a showcasing of the videos and feedback for further improvement.

Start work on Evaluation Questions 3 and 4

THURSDAY 12TH DECEMBER: EVALUATION QUESTIONS 3 AND 4 DUE IN (WILL BE CHECKED IN THE LESSON)

FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER: MUSIC VIDEO FINAL CUT DEADLINE

Work on Evaluation question 1

THURSDAY 19TH DECEMBER: EVALUATION QUESTION 1 DUE IN. 
IMPROVED EVALUATION QUESTIONS 2-4 DUE IN.
FINAL DEADLINE.

Exemplar material from the OCR weebly

This A2 brief was the film trailer rather than the music video but you can learn a lot from their evaluation:
http://emilytolgamedia.blogspot.co.uk

In fact, here is the examiner's comments on this blog (note the 20/20 for Research and Planning and the 19/20 for the Evaluation though we were warned to be careful about over-using prezi for presentations as they are often poor and fail to properly exploit the format):

E.T. Total 93
Research and Planning 20
There are over 80 posts here, really detailing the journey of the project. There is a real sense throughout of the journey of the project, with the research on each element very clearly articulated and drafts of every stage in evidence.
Construction 36+9+9 (All three pieces are clearly level 4, and though we might quibble about the precise balance of marks, overall about right)
Trailer: excellent use of a range of sound, well-layered. A good variety of shot types, well paced editing. A sense of the narrative is established without giving too much away. Text is used well to set up a sense of ‘tease’. A really good sense of institutional understanding.
Magazine cover: in the style of Little White Lies, very appropriate
Poster: works well with the trailer and uses institutional features appropriately Evaluation 19
Technology question makes good use of prezi and explains points well. The lengthy video on audience feedback is very thorough on what they did and how they did it. The prezi on the combination of texts is also very thorough, with a lot of close attention to detail and relates the choices made to real examples. The prezi on forms and conventions is well-constructed, detailed and appropriate. 

EVALUATION

Seems like a good time to remind you that you need to start thinking of the Evaluation of your work. (20 marks)

Can I remind you once again that the 4 evaluation questions are:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Assessment: to achieve Level 4 in Evaluation, you are expected to demontrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
- understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
- understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
- understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
- understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
- choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
- ability to communicate.
- use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Here is a example of a level 4 blog (a bit weaker on the Evaluation, particularly question 4, where the focus should really be on Creativity):
http://musicvideocm3christina.blogspot.com/

The following booklet is for guidance. You might have better ideas and be keen to do vlogs instead. That would be fine. AVOID PREZI IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO STICK TEXT IN IT. THE MODERATORS GOT FED UP WITH THAT LAST YEAR.

Open publication - Free publishing - More a2

OR in this format: UPDATED Music Video Evaluation Tasks

ANCILLARY TASKS - MORE IDEAS OF WHAT YOU COULD DO TO SHOW YOUR RESEARCH

Analysis of Magazine Posters and Digipaks from jkfernandes17

More examples…

Lighting Techniques

For those of you wishing to incorporate some interesting lighting in your video shoot!


Three point studio lighting

Basic Three point lighting

Basic technique for patterns

Lighting pattern demonstration

Lighting composition design: Using 'Flags' to block portions of light

Exemplar Blog from Latymer (from OCR weekly)

Have a look at this Band 4 blog:
http://latymermusicvideo2011group6.blogspot.co.uk/

Music Video Analysis - Assessment Week

Rockstar 101 - Rihanna

TASK: Analyse the following video referencing Goodwin and Vernallis. Particularly focus on gender representation and star image. Offer different readings.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/rihanna/rockstar-101/USUV71001042#

Ancillary Tasks - selection of old posts to help you

Click to see a good example of the research and planning that should go into your ancilliary tasks: the digipak and magazine advert

Last album digipak: FINALLY, HERE IS A PAGE WITH EXAMPLES OF CD COVERS AND MAGAZINE ADVERTS.

And here is the template for your digipak. You can find it on the Media drive in the Digipak folder. You'll need to import it into Photoshop.

Obviously this only has four panels; you should be aiming for six:

Have a look at this group's work on ancillary tasks. They achieved level 4.

The magazine advert:

Here is their 6-frame digipack:
Do check out these obscure and brilliant album covers: 
http://a2musicvid.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/great-album-covers-have-look.html

Audience Research - Initial questions + Theory

Uses and Gratifications

Audience theory powerpoint from Nia Jones