Abbie Hallam A2 Advanced Porfolio

Website analysis – lana del ray from abbiehallam

Hey Guys! Just thought id write a blog about our current planning stage with the storyboard. We have already done the first page of the storyboard which is around 45 seconds, and some of the second side of the page. However, the song is 4 minutes and 24 seconds long, so we need to get cracking! We have only stumbled across one problem when doing our storyboard, which is ideas of what to put in it. We have already thought about the chorus and what we are going to do for this part of the music video, however, we are stuck on what to put in the versus. This is a problem that will take a lot of thought, but I am determined to get the group to think and hopefully finish the storyboard.  This is the current state of the storyboard:

Hey Guys! This is our second, but our final pitch! We had to make some improvements to the pitch as it lacked detail and we wasn't clear on our final idea. However, me and my group had a discussion in which we gave our own opinions and what we could improve to the pitch, then we fed back to our teacher. 

Within our music video, we thought we could have various different time lapses at the beginning of the video during the instrumental. We thought this would be a good place to put the time lapses as it is quite a long build up to when the song actually starts. We have never done something with a time lapse as a group, and if we had it would of been just a short one of our phones, however we want to know the proper way in which we can get a good shot using a time lapse. I have carried out some valuable research on how to use time lapse on the DSLR camera.  Here are two videos found on YouTube: I found this video the most useful, as it shows you all the set up methods needed to work with the time lapse feature on the DSLR camera, aswell as how to edit them in the post production. After watching this video and similar videos, it is clear to see that there is not just one way in which you can do a time lapse, but two. This is either through taking a video or systematic ph...

Hiya Guys So, today in lesson we have been looking at the criteria for our music video which gives us a good idea of what needs to be included within the music video to achieve the highest of marks.  In short, the criteria divides the marks up into four levels. Level 3 and 4 are the ones we should aim for within level 3's grade boundaries being between 24-31 and level 4's being 32-40. Level 4 states that candidates are expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise-en-scene Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects Recording and editing sound with images appropriately (As our group are aiming for the highest of levels, i am only including level 4!) From looking ...

Hey Guys,  Today I am going to be commenting on the feedback that was given to me by Mr Welch on our 1 minute music video task. Before the summer break, me and the rest of my group created a 1 minute music video to 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by Cyndi Lauper. We created this for practise for our final piece, which is a full length music video. We have received feedback that will hopefully help us for next time when we make our final production of a music video, from this feedback we are able to reflect on it and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes again next time.  Here is the feedback we got given:  Feedback on one minute music video (July 16) Areas of strength: Strong opening with well-chosen transitions and consideration of mise-en-scene Well framed shots and variety of shot types Images and sound are well edited   Areas for development: It’s not always a good idea to have a single vocal track performed by 3 people unless it’s pa...

Here's an email that has been sent off to the manager of Passion Pit. We hope to get a reply that will give us permission to use Passion Pit's song for our A2 music piece . 

Richard Dyer states that the star is a construction and not a real person. This star is constructed through music videos, magazines, advertising etc. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences. Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of the audience, who respond to various elements of a star's personality by buying records and becoming fans.   His theory is split into three sections: The stars as commodity - The stars are produced to make a profit from putting their faces on products and merchandise, some examples would include clothing, such as t-shirts, hats etc., posters, mugs.  The stars as ideology - They will often be styled to represent certain ideologies of social groups. For example people who like the music genre, grime, might try to copy some aspects of the figures in the music genre on what they wear and their style, the way they would see this would ...

The star theory is a theory developed by   Richard Dyer, he argues that a star is just an image and not an artist's actual personality. It's made to keep the audience engaged. The artist should be present yet distant. A celebrity shouldn't reveal everything about them but keeps the audience guessing their real identity, therefore retaining their interest. The star  has an incomplete image so that its fan can strive to complete it. An artist should be present yet extraordinary. This is so that they can stand out from everyday people yet still relate to them. A good example of where the star theory can be applied is with David Bowie.  Bowie adopted personas such as ‘Jean Genie’, ‘ Ziggy Stardust’, he w as always able to change genres/looks of music several times to suit whatever he wanted to do at that time.  He becomes ‘David Bowie’, a construct which means whatever you  want it to mean rather than  ‘the si...

One page pitch from abbiehallam

Media regulation  is the control or guidance of mass  media  by governments and other bodies which is sometimes  overseen by an independent regulatory body who may have the power to issue fines or warnings. Who controls regulations?   An organisation known as the BFFC controls regulations for music videos which they don’t tend to add age restricting rules unless it contains adult-content. Their aim is to im prove child protection online. Vevo and YouTube, are working in partnership with the BBFC, and are making a permanent pilot scheme to age rate all music videos by artists signed to Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK that are unsuitable for younger children (under 12s ). Media regulation was brought in due to the issues raised by the public from online videos and TV showing violence, drug abuse and nudity. BFFC then brought in the idea of music video regulation, in which only people above a certain age can watch these mu...

Our group really didn't have the foggiest idea on what our song choice was going to be for our music video, and required (what seemed to us) endless research on YouTube and Spotify for the perfect song for us. After much consideration between our group, we decided on the song, 'Take A Walk' performed by Passion Pit. We compared this song with other songs such as "We're Not The Same" by Wolf Alice which is more of a slow song, and then "Do You Think Of Me?" by Misha B, which is more up tempo compared to the Wolf Alice song. However, we decided in the end that 'Take A Walk' would probably be the most suitable and fun video to film. The song is pop/electro-pop. Comparing them to the other two songs, the sound is this song has more of a happier feel to it. When deciding what song to do, we came together and said that we didn't want to do a music video to a wide spread popular artist, such as Beyonce or Ellie Goulding, and thought it would b...

The theory is an active audience theory which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts, rather than passive consumers. The idea is that individuals interpret texts in different ways. It demonstrates that even though one message is sent out, that not one understanding is received.   Stuart Hall suggested there are three different positions that the reader of a text can occupy when trying to interpret a text, they are: Dominant/Preferred  Reading  – When the reader fully shares the text’s codes and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading i.e. the most dominant reading.  Negotiated Reading   – When the reader partly shares the text’s codes and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests (the reader may agree and understand with the text however, disagree with other areas) – this position involves contradictions and ...

Michel Gondry is a French independent film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. He is well known for his music video collaborations with Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Björk and The White Stripes. Gondry, along with directors Spike Jonze and David Fincher, is representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with Human Nature.  Popular music videos he has directed:  Around the World – Daft Punk (1997) Everlong – Foo Fighters (1997) Music Sounds Better With You – Stardust (1998)  Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones (1998)  Mad World – Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (2001)  Knives Out – Radiohead (2001)  Fell in Love with a Girl – The White Stripes (2002)  No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age (2002)  Go - The Chemical Brothers (2015)  City Lights - The White Stripes (2016)...

Hey Guys! Well basically this is a short post that has been helping me and other members of our group out a lot with Photoshop, and I just wanted to share it with you guys!! It gives you help on 10 things that all beginners don't need to know, but can be very very useful to use. This has become useful for us is the past when creating CD covers or merchandise. 

 Hey guys! We were given the task to take a range of 'band/artist' photo's behind a consistent background and have a go at editing them. For the shots we just used an iPhone 6 and the images below show the before and after editing them with Photoshop. Here's a few: 

Personally I think that this video is very interesting, as it seems to have no story line throughout as such, it still seems to captivate me every time I watch it. I like the parts in the music video where only one shot is used, however some parts are in slow motion and other parts are in real time such as when Thom Yorke is singing and there is a person behind him running in slow motion. I also like the idea of the whole video being in black and white, as it gives the whole look of the video some sort of edge.  Camera shots/angles Within the video, a lot of mid shots are used throughout and mainly  the camera is usually straight on looking at each character of the music video with no angles used. The opening shot of the music video, just before the music starts there is the use of thunder sound effects and in the background lightning can be seen when Thom, (the singer of the band) can be seen falling from the caravan to the floor. This relates with sound, and how it creat...

In the article above the author talks about some of the most controversial music videos watched, 'Bitch Better Have My Money' in particular. The article unpicks every detail of the music video, giving a negative impression through sarcasm, when words and phrases such as, 'self-regarding, hubristic and flamboyantly expensive' and 'if you missed it, it's not that complicated'. In the article he discusses the main issues within the video, which are nudity, drugs and death.In the seven minute clip. the pop star kidnaps and torments the wife of an accountant for bilked her, dismembers the accountant and then lounges, naked, covered in blood, in a box of money. "When a musician starts to use the phrase 'mini-movie' to describe a video, it's time to quit" is the quote that really caught my attention. This quote from Dave Ghrol, who is the lead singer of the foo fighters. From this quote it is quite clear to say that Dave doesn'...

Textual analysis from abbiehallam

Alternative Music from abbiehallam

So this is our finished storyboard for our one minute music task, it was rushed a little and that's why the drawings are a bit rubbish! Apart from that, take a look!

24th December 1900 - Invention of the gramophone. 1933 - Choreography involved within movies e.g. West Side Story. 1940 - The Disney film 'Fantasia' came out, was the first musical film. 1952 - Musical films were introduced. 1960 - Elvis Presley was introduced, singer/ dancer. 1972 - Music artists adapting a persona , a prime example of this would be David Bowie with multiple different personas. 1981 - The first ever TV station to show music videos on their channel, MTV. 1983 - Michael Jackson made the first ever mini- movie for his song, 'thriller' . 2005 - The introduction of Youtube, a site where you can stream music videos anywhere. 2014 - Beyonce introduced a full album with music videos for each of the songs. The music videos all told a story and was seen as a movie. She also did this with her another album 'Lemonade' in which she made an entire movie at the end with the music included.

John Hartley (1994) - Argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning/potential of a given text.' – This suggests that genre acts are a straightjacket, limiting creative potential.  Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988) – say that genres ‘control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential customers’ – also again suggests that genres can limit the creativity and often merely conform to the audience expectations.  John Fiske (1987) – asserts that generic conventions ‘embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular’ -suggests that genres tell us something about the ‘way of the world in the time of which they are popular’.  Rick Altman – argues that there is no such thing as “pure” genre anymore. Genre is progressive, and that it will always change. He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggests that audiences, in general have become tir...

Hey guys, So recently we had been set a task in lesson to film a 30 second clip of the song "Happy" by Pharrell and this is it down below. This was only a mini task we had been set just to get us back on track with filming and editing clips, and for the fun. Enjoy!  

Hey Guys!  So, this is my second blog now, as i have just finished my first year of sixth form and all my AS subjects and i am now returning to do my A2 subjects which will include travel and tourism, health and social and media. In media, our focus on this year is music videos and will include making our very own music video! Whereas last year we learnt all about the film industry and did our thriller opening video. I am going to be blogging throughout the process and keeping you up to date on everything you need to know!  :)