Lip Syncing

We have recorded Michaela practicing lip syncing to our chosen song Teenage Dream, we tested some shots of Michaela singing for example, a close up shot of half of Michaela's face singing. After editing the song I have discovered that we can not always edit on the beat because the shots become repetitive and confusing for the audience.
Also, we feel it will be better for Michaela to sing the actual song out loud rather than mime, as she will sing the song how Katy Perry would sing it and we found it difficult to get the lip syncing correct with the song. When we film the actual performance I think that we need to change the 'happy' emotions, as towards the end of the song the girl realises that she has imagined the relationship. I feel that the emotions need to be more angry and doubtful as she is confused.
This is the video to the Lip Syncing.

Teenage Dream Ideas (Nine)

I think that we should include a silhouette shot which would be of Michaela (girl A) or Jessica (girl B) and the boy, so the audience assume that the boy is with Michaela (girl A) .
The still shot on the right is from 30 Seconds to Mars- Kings and Queens, this shot makes the audience immediately focused on the people as the subject contrasts the background.
The silhouette could be a close up shot of the side of Michaela's face when she has realised that she is not actually in a relationship with him which represents the 'dark' side of her love and the obsession. We could also have a mid shot or a close up shot of girl (B) and the boy during the video. However the audience will not know that it is girl (B) as the silhouette is blacked out, an example of a similar shot is shown in 30 Seconds to Mars- Kings and Queens shot on the left. Below is the video to 30 Seconds to Mars- Kings and Queens.

Many silhouettes are used in Labrinth- Let the Sunshine but the sequence of the silhouettes that I find the most interesting are at 1.08-1.24. The sequence is during a clapping part of the song which bulids up to the chorus. In our music video to Teenage Dream there are a lot of instrumental beats, so I feel that we could include a sequence similar to this in our music video.There are two different shots in one each second, one of the shots is a silhouette and the other one is usually a mid shot or a close up of the artist singing the song. The silhouette is at two different angles, in one shot Labrinth's face will be on the left and the next silhouette his face will be on the right. I have created a montage of the sequence showing each shot which is shown on the right. I would think we should create a sequence similiar to the video as I believe it will suit our narrative and we could include performance during the sequence. Below is the music video Labrinth- Let the Sunshine the sequence is at 1.08-1.24.


After researching on how to create a silouhette I have found out that we should have a lighting pointing towards the subject matter far away but in the shot the light is not shown and the camera should be focused on the face. When editing we can make to silouhette darker by increasing the contrast, we would have to use a non dark background and there should not be a lot of night in the room.

By including the silhouette in our video we would be increasing the amount of performance, and after watching previous A Level music videos many A grade video have majority performance.

Teenage Dream Ideas (Eight)

As a group we have decided to change our narrative, as we felt that our music video would be uneventful and forgetful in comparison to other music videos. We felt that our previous narrative idea would not be memorable through the other A2 media students. Another previous idea was to create an Alter Ego, we have incorporated this idea but girl (A) will try to act like another girl (B) who contrasts the girl's style and personality.
For our new narrative we wanted to have girl (A) who is obsessed think that she is in a relationship with the boy, the audience will also believe that girl (A) is dating the boy. However, towards the end of the song girl (A) is watching footage that she had earlier filmed and she pauses the television of the boy holding hands with girl (B). We want an element of voyeurism which will show the girl on the television filming herself and may be performing. This was inspired by Kids in Glass Houses- Matters At All.
We thought of Girl (B) wearing flamboyant clothing and dramatic make up as we want to portray later in the video that Girl (A) wants to be like Girl (B). We thought about Girl (A) applying a lot of make up which will seem child like, this will show the audience that girl (A) is imagining her relationship with the boy and she is unhappy in her life.
We still want Michaela to be Girl (A) as she has had previous acting experience which will benefit our production as there are a range of emotions within our music video. We have decided amoung our group that Jessica will play the part of Girl (B) as we can imagine the girl looking like Jess.
To show the audience the difference between reality and girls (A) dream life we wanted to have the the dream life in colour, but we want the colours to be bright so we will use iMovie to enhance the brightness and contrast. We have also changed our location as we wanted to film in Brighton but after learning that Winter Wonderland will be open when we are filming we have decided to base some of our music video shots there. There will be many bright lights as it is a fun fair aswell. We wanted the reality shots to be black and white as it shows the unhappiness in her life and it contrasts the bright colours to the dull colours. This was inspired from Lily Allen- LDN.

Photography Gallery Trip

As a photography student I attended the World Press Photo 2010 Exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall and the National Press Gallery on Monday 15th November. This is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Photo about the background story of the World Press Photo Exhibition World Press Photo which is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest.
The awards ceremony is held in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. After the contest, the prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition that is visited by over a million people in 40 countries. A yearbook presenting all prizewinning entries is published annually in six languages.
In addition to selecting the World Press Photo of the Year, the contest determines winners in the following categories:
-Spot News
-General News
-People in the News
-Sports Action
-Sports Features
-Contemporary Issues
-Daily Life
-Portraits
-Arts and Entertainment
-Nature.
Another primary objective of the organization is to support professional press photography on a wide international scale, to stimulate developments in photojournalism, encourage the transfer of knowledge, help develop high professional standards in photojournalism and promote a free and unrestricted exchange of information.

I really enjoyed the World Press Photo Exhibition as it opens your knowledge about what is happening around the world and the photographs evoke strong emotions as the subject matter of the photographs are strong topics. For example, one photograph was about the affects of drugs and people smuggling drugs, one photograph which I found most shocking was of a gang who nine hours before shot some one.

I wanted to research in to the history of the National Portrait Gallery which I found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Portrait_Gallery_(London). The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London, England, housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) also has various satellite outstations located elsewhere in the UK, mostly for aristocratic portraits. It is unconnected to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, with which its remit overlaps. The gallery is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

At the National Portrait Gallery some photographs were very explicit as it showed naked people, however most photographs were of people in different locations which expressed different emotions for instance, one photograph was of a girl in a forest which portrays her freedom.

Framing and Composition

Framing and composition is important in any shot as it is used to draw in the audience, make the shot stand out and to portray the characters importance. Being a photography student I understand the concept of framing and composition, however I need to learn how to use a range of framing and composition to create an interesting shot.

This is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds to specify the definition of The Rule of Thirds.

The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

The meanings are taken from http://www.tutorial9.net/photography/composition-and-framing/

Framing

Look for natural frames in the scenery you have, it can be anything at all; having some frames can do wonders for a photograph.
Try to never cut off a small part of an object, such as a person’s hand or the ear or tail of an animal. If you leave an entire arm outside the frame it usually doesn’t look odd, but if there’s something small like a hand missing the viewer will notice it in a different way and it can be very distracting at times.

Lines and Shapes

Lines and shapes are everywhere; try to use them to your advantage. They can draw the viewer into the picture or they can guide the eyes to a point that you normally wouldn’t pay so much attention to. Both symmetrical and asymmetrical lines and shapes are a great asset.

Simplicity

Focus on the small things instead of the entire scene this obviously won’t work for every scene you’re shooting but as a quick rule it’s often good to keep your compositions clutter free and with less distractions. The “only” difference here is that I isolated the object in the second photo, this helps the few things stands out more. Metal, stone, wood and water simple and clean.

Empty Space
Negative space should not be underestimated, it can be a great way to simplify your image and draw attention to a certain point in the photograph. Don’t be afraid to use empty spaces in your photographs. Empty spaces usually work very well in portraits as, just keep in mind that it’s often preferred that the model either looks towards you or into the space so to speak. A common rule says that there should always be more space in front of a moving object than behind it. If there’s not enough space in front of the object we often get the mental picture that it’s going to crash.

Eye Level

Try to photograph on the same height as your object, be it a child, a pet or a small bird. Instead of photographing the child from your viewpoint some 6 feet above ground try to get down on their level and get eye contact, this creates a totally different feeling as you become a part of their world. If you get down on their level they usually respond to you in a different way and this will often give you photographs that would not be possible for another angle.

Group Meeting (Six) Montage

On Friday 19th November our group had a meeting to discuss our new narrative ideas, locations, costumes and camera shots. We had the meeting after school in Emily's house which made us feel calm as in the class room it is very noisy. We used the lyrics to Teenage Dream to inspire us and we knew that we wanted the challenge the aspects of a pop genre, we decided to include a bigger twist at the end which was inspired by Kids in Glass Houses- Matters At All. We have edited some footage from the meeting to Delphic- Counterpoint I felt that the song suited our vibe. The video introduces our group and the people at the meetings. Some shots show us working and re-in acting some shots that we want to do in our music video, however most of the shots in the montage are of us eating biscuits and laughing.
This is a montage of our meeting.

RichMix Theatre Pitch

At RichMix theatre Corin Hardy and Liz Kessler told us to come up with a pitch to Biffy Clyro- God and Satan, we was given half an hour to come up with pitch. Corin directed the original music video so we was very nervous to give a pitch of our ideas in front of him. Me and Charlotte are both media prefects so we was eager to present our pitch as we really liked our ideas, as we felt it would suit the song.

The sheets below are of our pitch preparation, we used these sheets to help us to create our ideas and to present our pitch (Click to enlarge).

Below is a video of me and Charlotte presenting our pitch infront of Corin Hardy, Liz Kessler, Pete Fraiser and our fellow peers.