4. Evaluation Task 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

7. Ancillary Task 7- Digipak Flat Plan

26. Filming

Here are some pictures I took during the filming process. I now have all my footage.

23. Locations

For my section 1, which is the lip sync section, I am going to film up at the Ogstoun Theatre. I have chosen this location because it gives me access to a full lighting rig, while also being a large, black space. There is currently a very big and grey set up but it still looks neutral and will be effective. With this section, I am going to film with my lip syncer in front of a black curtain, so that the colours are different to the other section (section 2).

Section 2, the dream dancers, is also in the Ogstoun Theatre, but this will be utilizing the full theatre space. I chose this one fro the lighting opportunities but also because it is a good and reliable space for the dancers to perform.

Section 3 is the Black and Gold dancers and that will be film in the upper level of The Services Center. The walls are plain and simple and I will be hanging black cloth on them and using an alpha pack and simple lighting. I chose this space as it is open and will be spacious enough for the dancers to perform while also being different from the other dance space.

22. Shot List

20. Story Board of 3 Sections

Section 1- Black and White colour, male lip-syncer. Standing microphone, single spotlight, plain background.

Section 2- Black and white colour, four female dancers. Four blocks for dancing on, low level lighting, fedora hats, simple black costumes, black and white facepaint/make-up.

Section 3- Full colour image. Theme of Black and Gold, girl- gold, boy- black. Simple black backdrop with fairy-lights sewn in swirling patterns. Mood lighting.

13. Mood Board

My video is going to have a central focus on lights and the dancers. My video will have a very definite colour palate of black and gold with small bits of white (eg. shirts etc.). The style is very classy as I feel that the combination of black and gold has connotations of wealth and luxury, hence the tailcoats, waistcoats and ball gowns. However, the song has a jazzy aspect to it with its tempo and strong beat and therefore i have put up images of gold fringe dresses that will catch the light and move with the dancer. I felt it was important to have dancers because the dance-pop genre tends to have dancers in their music videos and as they have strongly emphasised beats they come across as being provocative and sultry. As well as my main dancers and backing dancers, I want to have a person lip syncing, either into a mic with a focused light or backlight or in various locations. The singer is male and in order to attract a male audience to the video, I will have female backing dancers and while they will not be 'scantily clad', they will look attractive, as will the leader female dancer. The male dancer should also look sharp to attract a female audience, similarly the male singer.

11. Ed Sheeran- Thinking Out Loud (9 Shots)

Ed Sheeran 9 shots of 'Thinking Out Loud' from LaurenOram

10. Textual Analysis of Vogue By Madonna

The music video for Madonna’s song Vogue was directed by David flincher in 1990 and was shot entirely in black and white. To accommodate this, the dancers and Madonna wear monochrome clothing, especially black and white so that the colours are bolder and contrast each other more. Similarly, the majority of shots are taken in front of a black backdrop with low and soft lighting.

The main focus of the video is on the dancers and Madonna although there is also a maid and a butler cleaning a grand house, giving the impression of luxury. This idea of grandeur is strengthened through the costume style, with the mean wearing sharp suits and Madonna wearing fancy and stylish dresses and a suit too. Madonna is the main focus and she is a sexualised woman, wearing clothes like the iconic sheer lace blouse and cone bra. The dancers are all male and their dancing puts particular emphasis on their hands. This is known as voguing and is a style of dance that ‘is a highly stylized, modern house dance that evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1980s and was invented by gay black and Latino Americans’. Madonna came across this dance and felt that it needed mainstream exposure and from that decision, ‘Vogue’ was born. Voguing takes the model’s poses from the magazine Vogue and puts them into this stylised dance as shown in the first scene of the music video where the male dancers strike poses in time with the beat of the song. This theme runs through the whole video, along with artwork and statues that put emphasis on holding rigid poses. During the song, Madonna is lip synching while she dances and while she walks and poses around different sets. There are about five different locations in the video but the watcher gets the impression that they are all in a grand house, furthering the idea of luxury. Madonna’s style changes throughout the video too, as she does impressions and mentions different celebrities (eg. Marilyn Monroe)

The opening cross-cuts between the men voguing and a shot of Madonna from the back dancing sultrily in a glamourous and bejewelled dress using a cross-fading effect. The shots of Madonna are stationary but the shot of the men is following along the line in a tracking arc shot. The editing varies between fast and slow edits, often being edited to the beat in a way that draws attention to the beat of the song. Towards the end of the music video, there is a shot of a man dancing that has a fast fade in/out to give the impression of strobe lighting and this may also have jump cuts.

The cinematography puts a lot of focus on the hand poses and Madonna’s face as she lip-syncs. To keep the shots dynamic and interesting, the camera zooms slowly and there is a variety of close ups and mid shots as well as different camera angles between shots. 

10. Textual Analysis of Rolling In The Deep By Adele

The video for Rolling in the Deep by Adele was directed by Sam Brown and premiered on Channel 4 on 3^rd December 2010. This video shows Adele as the singer who is lip syncing, a ‘faceless’ dancer and a ‘faceless’ drummer. By faceless, I mean that you never see their faces close up like you do Adele. She sits alone in a large room that has some scattered furniture, peeling wallpaper and a crumpled sheet of paper taped to the wall behind her. This makes the room look abandoned and deserted while Adele is dressed in a classy dress and nice hair style.

A lot of the mis en scene focusses on destruction and decrepitude in terms of both locations and props. A more obvious example of this is shots of a town build from paper which, as the video progresses, is set on fire by sparks and burns to ashes. Also worth mentioning is the staircase location with a hanging board that has a pile of smashed crockery at the bottom and has a continuous stream of plates and cups being thrown at it. Apart from this running theme, the director has decided to put a large focus on the video’s lighting, making it interesting and dynamic in more static and stationary shots where the subject doesn’t more or do anything eye catching. Most of the lighting looks simple and just convenient however, the use of fluorescents in the dancer’s room makes the white powder stand out and makes a very contrasting colour palate to the shots in the room with Adele which uses warmer lighting and the room is a warm colour too. This contrast makes the video more interesting to watch and will hold the attention of watchers as the shots won’t all run together.

By using visual aids, they bring focus to the beat of the song. They do this with a light above the drum kit that flashes every time the drummer plays the strongest beat and they also use a floor covered with glasses of water that ripple when they are hit by sound waves at every beat.

To make the shots of Adele sitting in a chair singing more dynamic, the camera is always panning and the edit displays various shot angles too. This technique of always having the camera panning and/or zooming makes the video flow better and the shot more animated.

The beat of the song is a strong focal point for the video and as well as the previous methods I have mentioned, the director also has the shots edited to the beat, meaning that the edit becomes quicker at the climax of the song. The fast edit really builds up the song and grips the audience. The shots have also been chosen to contrast each other by cutting between different locations with their contrasting lighting and shots that are in real time and ones that are in slow motion, like the dancer.

9. Sophie Muller

7. Things to Consider- Lighting

As a member of the tech crew at the theatre, I have access to the stage space and lighting rigs. This is what I plan to use for my video. I want mood lighting, warm colours instead of 'natural light' or cold colourss. I will use Fresnels with perhaps yellow gels to cast a general light but they will be on a relatively low level. That will be used as general lighting, however for other shots, I may use a profile with a gobo to create interesting images. LEDs will be useful as well as they can be set to any colour. Light flashes will be in time with the beat of the music, illuminating the dancers briefly. The lighting is something I can play around with but I want it to create an intimate atmosphere. At some point, I think it could be good to have a back-light, again in a warm colour, perhaps a floor-flood and depending on the light produced,maybe  yellow gel again. I also have access to parcans should that be something I prefer to the others.