Day 9 -

Here is my first temporary draft:

I have already found the following faults with my piece:

To Improve this I am going to :

Inspiration shots for Ancillary Texts

Day 6 - Weather Forecast Planning ahead

I am planning to film on Sunday the 14th December. In order to be prepared I have looked up various websites for weather forecasts. Since it is quiet cold I am going to be filming my indoor scenes.

I may look at filming a couple of the outdoor scenes if the weather isn't to bad and if it is bareable.

Looking at fonts (Ancillary Texts)

In terms of my ancillary texts I have decided to start looking at fonts.
These will be used on my digi-pak and poster.

Day 5- My animatic

The above video is my animatic, this is my visual storyboard using my own drawn images for my storyboard, this is my first look at a storyboard and I believe certain shots will change and some may be difficult to create which may result in compromise in changing an idea or location.

Day 4 - Second edit

Here is my second edit, for this i have used premier pro cs4. In which within I have used the video effect 'addictive dissolve' in which is a good effect to match this piece to the audio.
This again is very simplistic as my skills upon premier pro are basic and on a very beginners level.

Day 3 - Edit suite - Image Storyboard

Here is my second edit, for this i have used premier pro cs4. In which within I have used the video effect 'addictive dissolve' in which is a good effect to match this piece to the audio.

Today I have begun creating my downloaded image story board

the images above show some of my progress, Below is the video which I have created. 

First Day Filming:

For my filming and behind the scenes I have decided to create a blog/diary which I will document my actions and plans as well as footage and other aspects to my production.

This has allowed me to ensure that  I can keep track of my filming etc. easier and more efficiently. 

Click image for filming blog

Make-up

When looking at props and costume (Mise-en-scene) I have been contemplating creating bruises for self harm rather than cuts, I have looked at the following tutorials to gain some understanding as to creating makeup and effects for my music video.

Rough Test Shots

Health & Saftey

 In order to avoid hazards, I have made the following Health & Safety Grids, These allow me to note which scenes have potential risks and allow me to carry out the relevant procedures to avoid the risks. 

The preparation to avoid these risks must be always carried out to avoid my actor being injured, as it would be hugely difficult to re-film and find a new actor at this stage in my work.

My Chosen Tracklist:

For my ancillary texts I decided that it was best to take a few songs linked to my artist linking my chosen song to the other songs, I also decided to make up some song lists.

1.  Happy Little Pill
2.  Sleeping
3. Saving the soul
4. Darling daisy
5. Heartbroken
6. Touch
7. The prayer
8. Angels brought me here
9. Saviour
10. Beyond the blue
11. Above all stars
12. Riding clouds
13. Starlight

I have begun Looking at various fonts and have looked and tested the following "You're Invited Font":

Helpful Editing Tutorials

As I am in the process of looking and creating as storyboarding, I need to start thinking about how I would like to edit my music video and what kind of techniques I should/could use.

 In addition, I have decided to look at the various aspects of music videos and due to the factor that I haven't had much experience to be honest very little using video editing software, 

I have to begin looking at the techniques that I may need to use as I have a set period of time to create my piece so I need to  learn what to do quickly so my video will look as effective and professional as possible.

In order to do this I have looked at the following links which our Ben, suggested whom is the college's media technician, has recommended to take a look at. The links for the websites are below:

http://www.lynda.com/
http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

As well as these I have decided to look on YouTube in order to find more tutorials about editing and the software, such as 

Learning how to use Photoshop for my Ancillary Texts

Despite having used Photoshop previously for my first year on my media course, I decided it was best to get to grips and learn how to use Photoshop. For this I decided to look up some tutorials on YouTube. I simply started by looking at simple beginner videos such as the one below:

From this I have learnt that:

1- The Marquee tool allows you to select a specific area, and allows you to edit that specific section without editing anything outside of the selected marquee tool.

2- Next I learnt that the lasso tool is exactly the same however this allows you to basically draw your own selection instead of having it as a specific shape.

3- I have learnt that once editing you can use the history brush in order to restore back to the original image.

4- The dodge tool, helps to enhance lighting and bring more lighting to the images/areas in which you select.
5- The burn tool is pretty much the opposite to the dodge tool as it darkens the image/areas unlike the dodge tool.

This video was very basic, just discussing simple tools upon the side bar, however I learnt a good few new tips which may and probably will be helpful for my ancillary texts.

Next I decided to look for some different videos, The one above is about basic photo compositing. From this video I learnt that you can use the a layer mask tool , this allows you to edit around the image without ruining the whole image.

due to the fact that I am looking to use my model to create my ancillary texts, I decided to take a look at working with and covering up acne and blemishes.

When watching this video I decided to practice this technique. I took an image off Google of a male with acne.

This is my sample image.

From the video I learnt to change the Hue and saturation selecting just the reds and then change the colour change from the bar at the bottom of the bars on the left side of the image this lowers the redness and helps to reduce the redness in the skin therefor making it easier to 'perfect' the skin. Next I moved onto using the spot healing brush to edit and remove blemish this enabled me to create an image which then creates the stereotypical 'perfect model skin'.

This was my final outcome of the image.

The next technique I decided to look at was teeth whiting, this is a technique I may not use due to the theme of loneliness and emotion in my video my actor may not be smiling on my ancillary texts, however I decided just in case I choose to have him smiling its best to learn the technique in advance and for future reference.

So far Ive found this pretty  difficult so I think later in my course when I begin my ancillary text then I think I will run this video again and have another practice.

My next technique I decided to look at was changing eye colour, this is a technique I probably will not use due my actor keeping his eye colour in my music video. However this will be good if I am to add a an extra actor or model to my ancillary texts or for again future reference. 

Advertising my music video

As stated in my previous post the original music video which I am to create will featured on Youtube -  Vevo, just like the original music video along with many other featured music videos of popular artists.

Vevo is a recognised music video it is  global institution owned and operated (in cooporation) by Universal Music Group, Google and Sony Music Entertainment. 

Vevo specializes in the advertising of music videos taken from two of the three major music labels; Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Troye Sivan is based as a youtuber who has risen from the bottom he has and does work with EMI (Australia)  (previously the forth label in "the major four" however it has now been sold to Universal Music Group). Since Vevo is interlinked with YouTube as stated previously. YouTube is a global company that operates around the world; advertising many different ranges of music videos from all different kinds of genres. Troye Sivan have advertised his music videos through Vevo on Youtube therefore I think it will an effective way to advertise my music video. Youtube is owned by Google (which, in comparison owns Vevo), 

  Troye sivan  also has used ITunes to  advertise his music. iTunes is a great way to advertise  music because it is open to all different genres, interests and styles of music. As shown on Wikipedia - it was Initially developed by Bill Kincaid, SoundJam MP was soon changed to iTunes when Apple purchased it in 2000. Apple is a global company which is easy access for anyone anywhere around the world. iTunes mainly specializes in music audio rather than music videos however you can watch music video via iTunes and then download them onto your iPhone.

Facebook is as great way to advertise my music video due to the factor that  it is free to advertise. Although my institution is signed to a major music label and they can afford to advertise within big companies; I think Facebook is an extremely effective way to advertise my music video. The images shows the amount of people who use Facebook:

Facebook is extremely popular with teenagers, roughly 13 - 30; this applies to my music video. By advertising on Facebook, I will be primarily advertising my music video at the specific target audience my music video is aimed at.

Day 2- Editing - Testing

Here is my first ever edit from using the edit suites and adobe premier-pro.

It is very simple and doesn't have a lot to it.

I have learnt to change my shots into black and white as well dissolve edits.

I feel more confident in what I am doing after having a go on the editing suite, it has allowed me to work and I think it has given me more motivation to film etc. 

My Chosen Song Audience Ideas:

I have decided to create a survey in order to esablish the popularity of the song, what type of audience it may be aimed at and ideas for my video: Click HERE to take survey.

Where my video may feature:

In order for my audience to have access to my video, I need to look at sites which have easy access. For this I looked for sites in which enable sharing, such as social networking sites this will ensure that more people see the video and encourage things such as sharing, liking and commenting (Web 2.0).
When researching I found that the following are popular sites in which all allow video's.
-Youtube
-Instagram
-Tumblr
-Facebook
-Twitter

When looking upon the websites I found that Youtube would be the best place to upload my video. When looking at youtube I decided to look for some statistic in order to ensure that it was the best place to upload my music video.:

From this it states that there are more than 1 Billion users on YouTube each month, with over 6 billion hours of videos watched each month.
This for me backed up that YouTube would allow my video to reach a wide audience, allowing me to also recieve audience feedback through likes and comments. Another good promotional tool which is easily accessible on YouTube is the ability to share the link on various social networks as well as embed the link to a website.

In order to promote my music video as listed previously I looked at the social networking sites: 

-Instagram

-Tumblr

-Facebook

-Twitter

 For this I decided again to do a bit of research on how active the networking sites are.

Firstly I decided to look at Facebook, from this I found that:

 -worldwide there are over 1.35 billion monthly active Facebook users which has had a 14% increase year over year  (Source: Facebook as of 10/28/14). 

-864 million people log onto Facebook daily, which represents a 19% increase year over year (Source: Facebook as 10/28/14). 

-There are 1.12 billion mobile active users (Source: Facebook as 10/28/14) which is an increase of 29% year over year.

-Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. (Source: The Social Skinny)

From this information I found that Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites and has alot of mobile users this is helpful in showing technological convergence which allows portability meaning that my audience can access my video wherever whenever making it convenient to them. This also allows Peer2Peer sharing meaning that my audience can share the product with friends etc. Allowing  a mass audience to see my product.

I believe Facebook will be a great place to promote my product and will help to distribute my ancillary texts as well as my music video.

Next I looked at Instagram, I found that instagram wouldn't be good to promote my music video due to the fact that it only allows you to upload 15 second clips however it would be good to upload and promote my ancillary texts as well as make a " flipagram" ( A quick flick through of images creating a short video) of my music video to upload and share. 

When researching I found that:

- Over 200million monthly active users are on instagram
-There are over 75 million daily users
- And from December 2013-May 2014 the mobile app users increases to 25%

Next I looked at Tumblr I found that this again would be a good place to promote my ancillary texts as well as my music video, this allows you to upload a video through YouTube again backing up why YouTube is a good place to upload my video. 

When researching I also found:

- There are 194.6 million Tumblr Blogs
- With 199.1 million Monthly Tumblr Users (Global)

- With 113.6 million post per day.

This shows how tumblr is a popular network for blogging and sharing work.

Finally I looked at Twitter due to the fact there is a limit on word count to a post, however this means I can share the link to my video as well as upload my ancillary texts to receive feedback, 

When researching Twitter I found that:

- There are 645,750,000 active twitter users
-58 million tweets a day
- 43% of users use their phone to tweet
- 40% don't tweet but view other peoples tweets

This again backs up that Twitter is a large social network which is great for promotion and will enable me to reach a mass audience.

Sam Smith: Not the only one (Analysis)

The narrative of this music video is a love story; this is helps to back up Tim O Sullivan’s theory that all media tell us some sort of story. 

When looking at Kate Domillies theory which states that every story can be filtered into one of the eight narrative categories: This video falls into the Tristan and issault narrative of a ‘love triangle’. (Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures.) This Narrative follows Todorov theory of the equilibrium of diegesis as the female actor is the protagonist and the male is the antagonist, the disruption is the male cheating this leads to the females ‘quest’ to destroy his property. Finally leading to him returning home and her acting as if nothing had been done, this then starts again like (Groundhog Day).

When watching this video the theory from Bordwell and Thompson (1997) states that it offers two distinctions between stories and plot which relate to the diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see. This is seen in the fact that this is presented to us as an audience in parts, the start of this piece shows the protagonist and antagonist kissing, and this is then shown at the end which shows us as audience a chance to establish he beginning and the end. The video is made through cross cutting showing the two sides to the story,  one being the male being ‘bad’ due to cheating and the female being ‘good’ by staying loyal as well as the male being ‘happy’ and the female being ‘sad’ this is stated in Claude  Lévi-Strauss (1958) Theory: which states that  ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clear binary opposites such as ‘good vs bad’, ‘right and wrong’ , there is no in between. This is shown through this music video as the male is doing wrong where as she is doing right.

The use of mise-en-scene within this video is shown when the Male actor is wearing black which connotes bad whereas the female is wearing white which connotes innocents, this is how the institution have tried to imply the story  to us as an audience, in which this is how we understand Claude  Lévi-Strauss (1958) Theory. Another use of mise-en-scene is the fact that the female who the male is cheating with, is also dressed in black again adding to how we are shown the characters  within the story.

Within this as well the use of Laura Mulveys male gaze theory is shown through the female who the male is cheating with, she is see with very little clothing on as well as none at all, this is a way to attract a male audience and helps to build on stereotypes though Tessa Perkins Theory as the women involved in the cheating is shown as a more sexual object and more provocative than the wife of the male. 

Textual Analysis 1:

All About that bass: Megan Trainor - this is my first textual analysis.

Simple Story Board Using Online Images first draft

This post is a simplistic storyboard using images from the internet. This does not cover all of my shots however helps to build upon inspiration for my piece and portray the imagery I would like to create in my video. Some images may be of female models however they are an inspiration of shot for my male model.

"In a crowd alone" - (00:10-00:15)

Every second passing (00:15-00:18)

Reminds me I'm not home (00:18-00:20)

   Bright lights and city sounds are ringing like a drone (00:20-00:25)     

Unknown Unknown (00:25-00:30)

            Oh, glazed eyes, empty hearts  (00:30-00:33)         

Buying happy from shopping carts (00:33-00:36)

  Nothing but time to kill (00:36-00:38)       

     Sipping life from bottles (00:38-00:41)  

       Tight skin, bodyguards    (00:41-00:44) 

        Gucci down the boulevard  (00:44-00:46) 

      Cocaine, dollar bills    (00:46-00:49)

       And...     (00:49-00:50)  

       My happy little pill (00:50-00:54)

   Take me away (00:54-00:57)     

      Dry my eyes (00:57-00:59 )

00:59-01:01        Bring colour to my skies

01:01-01:04        My sweet little pill

01:04-01:06        Take my hunger

01:07-01:09        Light within

      Numb my skin (01:10-01:12)  

(Break)   (01:12-01:24)       

01:24-01:28       Like a rock afloat

01:29-01:33       Sweat and conversations seep into my bones

 Four walls are not enough (01:33-01:36)      

01:36-01:39       I’ll take a dip into the

01:39-01:43       unknown, unknown

01:43-01:46       Oh, glazed eyes, empty hearts

01:46-01:49       Buying happy from shopping carts

01:49-01:52       Nothing but time to kill

01:52-01:54       Sipping life from bottles

01:55-01:57       Tight skin, bodyguards

01:57-02:00       Gucci down the boulevard

02:00-02:02       Cocaine, dollar bills

02:02-02:03       And...

02:03-02:06       My happy little pill

02:07-02:10       Take me away

02:10-02:12       Dry my eyes

02:13-02:15       Bring colour to my skies

02:15-02:17      My sweet little pill

02:17-02:20      Take my hunger

02:20-02:23      Light within

02:23-02:26      Numb my skin

02:26-02:47       (Break)

02:47-02:49       Oh, glazed eyes, empty hearts

02:49-02:52       Buying happy from shopping carts

02:52-02:55       Nothing but time to kill

02:55-02:58       Sipping life from bottles

02:58-03:00       Tight skin, bodyguards

03:00-03:02       Gucci down the boulevard

03:03-03:05       Cocaine, dollar bills

03:05-03:06       And...

03:06-03:09       (Break)

     My happy little pill (03:09-03:12)  

    Take me away  (03:12-03:14)   

03:14-03:18       Dry my eyes

03:18-03:20       Bring colour to my skies

03:20-03:23       My sweet little pill

03:23-03:26       Take my hunger

03:26-03:28       Light within

03:28-03:32       Numb my skin

03:32-03:40       (Fade in music)

Day 1 - Filming & Editing

 have filmed various test shots in which the originals are below:

This test shot is a simple shot of a clock, this is because I will be using clocks within my video and decided it would be good to work with shots that will feature within my video.

From these test shots I am going to create random editing effects on the Edit suites in order to give myself some experience on the suite prior to making my final video.

These test shots are very basic and contain little conventions or skill, I will develop my skills as I go along.

Here are some images of the editing suite I am using.

So far I have begun uploading footage to the suite and opened up adobe premiere pro cs4

I have also watched the following video in order to help me out with the basic of the software

Another video that I have watched it this:

This taught me how to place my videos in black an whit this is effective as my theme is sad, which black and white connotes sadness.