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.





Add caption



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

BackToStarImage//: TheKillers Vs JLS

The killers are my favourite band and I am going to look at their star image and compare them to another band JLS.

KILLERS Vs JLS

The Killers are a organic band as they write all their own music JLS on the other hand are definitely synthetic. They are synthetic because they write all their songs with a writing team and because they formed on t.v. show X-factor. The killers said, when I went to see them play at Hyde Park in London, that they formed after David Brent Keuning, their guitar player, put a add in the local paper. They started of as simply a group of like-minded musicians who wrote music together.

Our Presentation:

Last Friday we presented our treatment to Eugene Riecansky. We created a mood board and had both designed a treatment to give to him. Because Meg had bee Ill for the last week and we had only had one week to complete our treatment we didn't have much time to talk to each other and run through our presentation. I think this ment our presentation didn't run very well. Eugene also picked up on this and he said he liked our idea but felt we needed to work on our presenting skills.
      I found going and presenting to Eugene a new and quite daunting experience. I hadn't done much of this kind of thing before so I think it was a really good thing to do and a great experience. It was really good beacaue he asked us lots of questions as they would have done in the real thing and made us think about all the important elements of developing an idea for a music video.

My Treatment for Betty Curses Music Video:

Treatment for Betty Curse – ‘Do you mind’

The music video starts and Megan is pleading with her boyfriend not to leave her and join the army. This scene is set in a dark dressing room with a restricting closet feel to it.  He looks her in the face and tells her that he has to go. At this point the music suddenly kicks into action and she storms out of the room through a door, the video will then cut to her on a stage in the middle of a hall. Inside the hall will be young soldiers in their uniforms, they are with their girlfriends socialising and listening to the music. The rest of her band will already be on the stage and dressed in soldier’s uniforms. She walks up to the 40’s microphone, grabs it, and starts to sing the first lines of her song. For the first verse we film her performing emotionally on stage with cut ins to people in the crowd. We will have shots of men playing cards whilst smoking and laughing, couples kissing and talking.

     When the chorus starts playing we cut to Megan in a white room. She is dressed in a Second World War pin-up girl outfit. She is singing and dancing around the room.  Although this sounds as if it should be a happy scene Megan will have put a gothic twist on it as instead of wearing the usual bright pin up girl costumes she will be wearing black and heavy make up.  This scene will carry on throughout the whole of the chorus.

    When the second verse starts we then see Megan in a 1940s house at a party. There will be civilised atmosphere with people drinking and talking but the room will also be a smoky environment giving an eerie feel and leading the viewer to believe that something isn’t quite right. You pick up on Megan and her boyfriend at the back of the room and the camera draws in on them. They are talking when Megan’s boyfriend is passed a letter. He opens it and you can see from the expression on his face that he is shocked and deeply concerned. This is the moment that he is asked to join the army.

     This scene continues until the end on the line ‘when the stars came crashing down’ at this point the camera will cut to a shot of everyone in the room. People will look concerned and the tables will be shaking. When it gets to the line ‘by the sound’ on the word sound everyone in the room drops down into a crouching position on the floor in unison, the room is shaking implying a bomb has just been dropped close by.

     The next scene is showing Megan’s boyfriend on a battlefield.  He is in a soldier’s uniform and the camera is facing him face-on.  He is holding a photograph and looking at it but we can’t see what the photo is of.  As he is looking at the photograph he is also mouthing the words to the song. As he gets to the line ‘what it’s like to be up there’ he looks up at the sky. His facial expression changes to fear, implying he has seen a fighter plane, and he is starting to run. He is running and drops the photo. The camera focuses on the picture on the floor and we see it is of Megan.  It is of her in her pin-up costume and the camera cuts to this scene as we start the chorus.

       During this chorus Megan is also in her pin-up costume but she is facing away from the camera. Towards the end of the chorus she turns around and we see the all her make up is smudged down her face and that she is crying.  This scene continues until the chorus has finished.

       The next verse starts with the line ‘I got myself up off the ground’ and we are back in the dance hall again.  At the start of this verse we see her singing and then we cut to the crowd.  All the men in the crowd are getting up from there seats and starting to leave. Their girlfriend are crying and holding onto them, begging them not to go.  We stay with this scene until the end of the line ‘silent sound’.

        For the short line that follows, ‘Violent sound’, we see Megan’s boyfriend running through the battlefield.  The next verse starts in a different scene. Megan is standing in what appears to be the rubble of a house that has been bombed.  She is singing the lines very emotionally and passionately. She is being illuminated from either side by strobe lights and the atmosphere is very smoky.  At the end of this verse we start to hear the faint sound of air raid sirens.

     We now cut back to Megan singing in the hall. She is singing very animatedly and she appears very angry. As the line ‘we could die together’ is sung she throws the microphone over and runs of the stage.  This is now the start of the chorus and as the pace of the song starts to quicken and the drumbeats become more prominent we see Megan in the white room in her pin-up girl costume.  She starts to walk towards the camera with anger across her face; she takes off her heel and throws it at the camera.

       We then switch back to the battlefield and the camera is at floor level, we can see the boots of a soldier running in the mud.  He will be running fast and in time with the music, which will be very effective.  The scene of the muddy field will then turn to pavement and the soldier will continue running.  

As the last line of the song is sung we will see the full shot of the soldier running. It is Megan’s boyfriend and he is running down the street holding a suitcase. As the song finish he will reach Megan’s bombed house at the end of his street and from behind we will see him drop his suitcase.  As the songs finish the air raid siren becomes louder.

EUGENEROCKS

On the 5th of December Eugene Riecansky, music video producer, came into speak to us about making our own music videos. No one better could have come in to speak to us about this project, Eugene has produced videos for The Prodigy, Madonna and HIM which makes him the perfect person to come in and talk to us about making our own music videos for record.  I found his talk extremely useful and it gave me a lot of ideas for my own video.  

Eugene was born in Cambridge. He first started working in media in Soho, London and started his business ROCKSTAR 10years ago using freelancers. Since then he has made websites, videos, tour graphics and merchandise for many very well known artists.

The IDEA: Eugene spoke about how a good idea is the most important part you have to develop before starting your music video. He went on to say that you should be inspired by other peoples work but you should never copy someone else's idea. Originality is crucial to developing a successful music video.

Eugene also told us about how when he was stating up he made a music video at Epic Studios in Norwich for £10,000. He said it was 'awful' but that it was an important experience as he learnt from his mistakes and was therefor able to go on and make better videos in the future. I think that learning from your mistakes is very important and that if something goes wrong it is okay as long as you know why so you can prevent it from happening the next time.

BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-BLAG-IT-

Another thing Eugene spoke about was the importance of the blag. He said that in the music video business who you know is everything and how sometimes it is necessary to over exaggerate the truth to make contacts. He also told us about how with the tight budgets music video producers are on to get props and outfits you have to try and get as much as you can for free or on loan to keep costs low.  Just blag it. 

Finally Eugene told us about how important budgeting for you video is.  At the moment artists will rarely spend much at all on music videos, this means that when producing music videos you have to make sure you take up the minimum space and time. 

Coming soon.......  Eugene set us the task to create a treatment for a video for Betty curse's song 'do you mind'. He will then judge them all and decide which one is the best. I have started on mine now and I will blog it soon. 

Program Making and Video Blogging

On the 22nd of October ________ , who used to be a producer of Big Brother, came in to speak to my media group about video blogging and program making. I found it very useful and interesting and here is a little of what i learnt.....

FORMAT: The format of an interview or a program is how it has been structured. For example when they interview contestants on the X Factor all the interviewees will have been asked the same questions and all the footage will have been edited in the same order with similar cut ins. This is useful for me as now when i see an interview on tele i can see how it has been edited and if it is effective. If it i an effective interview i can try to follow its format to make my interview just as good.

NARRATIVE ARK: A narrative ark is a story that has a beginning, middle and an end. In other words it tells the whole story from start to finish.

PRODUCING: From the speech i also learnt what you have to consider when producing a television program, film etc. I learnt that you have to be able to develop your ideas and the capacity to make them happen. To make sure it is successful you also have to make sure you have a clear angle and concept.
You should also be able to format your angle into a narrative ark, ensuring that your format can be used throughout the program.

A producer also has to consider health and safety issues, have an understanding of media and law ethics as well as budget control. They should also be forward thinking and be able to foresee any problems that may occur.

-PEG- WHAT CAN YOU HANG YOUR IDEA ON ?

Any good television show should have a PEG. Something different that will make people want to watch it.

For example the television show Peep Show has the PEG that it was filmed from the main characters point of view, the camera is the 1st person. People like this because it makes the show different form other television programs.

VIDEO DIARYS AND VIDEO BLOGGING


A video diary is just how it sounds, it is someone talking directly to the camera as if they are reading a diary. Good examples of this are in Big Brother and in other programs such as Alone In The Wild. This technique will be useful for me as when i am updating my blog i don't always necessarily have to use text i could also film me telling the camera what i have been doing. 


CUTAWAY: Cutaways are were you keep on filming a shot even when the action has finished. This allows you to use the footage in editing to prevent jump cuts and make to final product seem much smoother. 


WHAT MAKES A GOOD VIDEO INTERVIEW?  YOU ASK, WELL......  


it should be challenging, revealing, evocative, provocative, display emotion and be engaging with audience. 


THE TWO TYPES: 


The on camera interview. Here you see both the interviewer and the interviewee.


The off-camera interview. Here you only see the interviewee, for this to be successful you have to ensure the interviewees eye line is just off camera. If they are looking in another direction the interview wont engage the audience and if they are looking directly into the camera it is just scary.