Video techniques experiment.

OLD WOODEN BOX

One of my favourite ways of creating videos is using stop motion. I think it is very effective and can make a short piece of video more interesting than simply filming it.  I have decided that I may try and use stop motion for my music video. Linked is a video I created earlier today using stop motion. It is a little experiment as i have also included small pieces of film. I will consider using stop motion for my music video although I will also have to keep in mind that it is a very lengthy process and can take much longer that simply filming a video.  I am pleased with the way this short clip has turned out it doesn' have any form of a plot but

it has given me the opportunity to look at stop motion and how to create a successful short clip. 

GOLDFISH NATION

The second type of filming I have experimented with is animation. I have created a short acetate animation based on a poem. I decided to look into acetate animation as it is a cheap and easy way to create short animated clips. This experiment was quite quick but it opened my eyes to how i could create a animation based music video. 

This animation, named 'Goldfish Nation' is based on a poem by Jason Strugnell and is basically about how life is so much easier for a fish as they have nothing to worry about. I created a short animation for the first few verses of the poem. 

The History Of Music Videos

The first channel dedicated to music videos, MTV, was started in 1981 in the USA. But it was long before this that people were watching music accompanied by film on their TVs and at the cinema.

The first time people really became interested in the concept of music and films was when musicals first started being shown at the cinema. Musical such as 'The Talkies' and 'MGM musicals' were very popular and people really enjoyed going out and seeing there favourite songs accompanied by story lines and dancing. The next stage was Rock'n'Roll  musicals such as 'Kissin' cousins' which starred Elvis Presley. At the time when they were produced they were part of a new culture when peoples ideas about music and dancing were really changing, and it became a common practice for young boys and girls to go see these films at the cinema.

By this point people were enjoying going out and seeing these musicals but real music videos still weren't being produced.  It wasn't till The Top OF The Pops started in the UK in 1964 that artists started producing music videos. When artists were on tour if they became top of the charts they were unable to go to the studios in London to perform live. To get around this problem and still be able to perform something for their fans they started creating music videos to be shown on tele. One of the first music videos was the Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964. The film was a 'mini film' and it was a great success. This encouraged more bands to start creating music videos for there fans .
 
The music video that really created a craze for music videos was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. The song itself was extremley popular but the reason people really loved the video was because of how experimental it was and how different it was from anything people had seen before. Even to today's standards it is a exceptional music video and you can see why so many people thought it was good.

Now artists had started creating music videos they needed a platform to show them to their fans and this was when MTV started. Launching with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," .

LIP SYNCING

A few weeks ago we looked at lip syncing in class. We were looking at lip syncing in music videos to ensure the artists singing is in time with the track. This is a common practise when filming music videos .  It is quite difficult as you have to ensure your lips are moving exactly in time with the audio. To see how difficult lip syncing is we were set the task of completing are own lip syncing video to a track of our choice. I was in a group with Keiran Harper and we decided to use the track 'Radar Detector' by Darwin Deez as it is repetitive and at a fairly slow pace.  We both took it in turns to lip sync to the song and we decided that Keiran would lip sync whilst I filmed on a hand-cam. We decided to film in random locations around the school and are going to cut the footage later and paste it together in the most appropriate way.  We are waiting to edit it but hopefuly the lyp syncing will be seamless.

EPIC STUDIOS

Today we visited Epic studios which is situated in Magdalen street Norwich. The trip was relevant as the topic we are looking at, at the moment, is record and Epic studio is used to record TV shows and other programs/videos which require a studio space. At the moment we are are looking at the recording of music videos and Epic studios has been used to shoot some music videos and to record artist's songs. The studio is most famous for recording The Trisha Show, a chat show which people can go on to complain about their lives.

     Whilst we were at the studios we looked around all the different areas of the complex. The first area we went to was the main studio area. It is a massive room which has seats for live shows with the capacity to hold up to 300 people. The area was rigged with over 360 lights and the studio possesses 4 large HD cameras which are capable of capturing footage of a very high quality. I was very surprised when the production manager, who was giving us the tour, told us that there were only 3 members of staff who were employed to work in the studio full time. He told us that when a show is being recorded most of the people working on the floor are freelance. This would be something to keep in mind if i was planning on trying to follow a career in this industry as freelance work is very competitive and you would have to work very hard to ensure you always have a job lined up.

    The next area we went to was the production managers and directors suite where they record the programs. This a room with around 6 chairs and a wall of TVs. Some of the TVs were large plasmas and others were smaller HD TVs. There were also a few smaller old glass screened TVs. These were there because when the production team are recording a TV program they have to ensure that people with older TVs will still be able to watch it in a good quality. In this room graphics are also added to the program. For example if you are watching a TV program and a telephone number comes up for a competition this is where they are added. Although everything is often compiled as it is being recorded (especially if it is live) they do still record all the separate feeds individually as well. They do this so if there is a mistake or they want to compile a edited repeat they can go back and use the footage. Another thing that surprised me, when i was looking around the studio, was the fact that everything that is recorded there is stored on video rather than hard-drive. When I asked they said it was because even when a file they film is compressed it is still Terabytes large. Hard-drives at this capacity are therefor too expensive for them to buy and it is far more economical for them to continue using video to store data.

         After looking around for a good half hour we were taken to a smaller studio where we were told we were going to film a short 'Norfolk Now' news program. We were asked to choose roles within either the news reading team or production/floor team. I was given the role of the news reader and I had to read the news from an auto-cue. I found this experience quite daunting as I had never done anything like it before. I was most worried about missing a cue or miss-reading something from the auto-cue. In the end it wasn't too bad and I enjoyed the experience. After this we exchanged roles and I started working on one of the large cameras. I had to learn how to work it and ensure all my shots were clean and there was no obvious jogging of the camera. As well as having to make sure the camera is in the right place and has good head-room you also wear a head piece and are being given instructions from the director. I found this quite stressful as there were many voices going through my headphone at once and I found it hard to hear when I was being called.

      It was very rewarding at the end when we were able to look back at the product of our work and to see how all the different elements of the production had fit together. I found the trip to EPIC very useful and educational as it showed me ho competitive the television industry is and all the different jobs there are within a television studio. All the techniques will also hopefully be helpful when I am filming my own video.





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In a short time they will send us the programs we filmed and I will put them on my blog.