Extra Challenge Research: Director Case Study

While not compulsory, one way in which to make your blog stand out from others is to delve deeper in your research and do a case study about a specific music video director and identify their particular 'auteur' style- essentially look for stylistic devices that they consistently use in their videos that you may bring to your production work.

The website www.imvdb.com provides a music video database and can be used to demonstrate the work from various directors. You may wish to do it in terms of a specific genre of music video.

Below are a list of examples of music video directors that may be interested to do some further research on:

Romain Gavras- dark, gritty, high energy videos predominantly by electronic music artists (M.I.A., Justice, Simian Mobile Disco)

Daniels- high concept, plot heavy, amusing videos for 'indie' rock artists (Foster The People, Tenacious D and The Shins)

Yoann Lemoine- saturated colours and a slightly melancholic feel for a series of female singers (Lana Del Rey, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift)

Hype Williams- legendary music video director, predominantly hip-hop and R & B. More than 100 videos over 20 years (recently Nicki Minaj, Ja Rule, Busta Rhymes)

As always, try to share the information in a visually interesting manner. Below is a sample of a Glog I created about the music video director Tom Scharpling, who won the Spin Magazine Music Video Director of the Year in 2012- please click on the links if you are curious to see some of his videos!

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Improving your Research & Planning

Half-term is a fantastic opportunity for you to improve your research and planning: after you come back your major focus should be on the filming of your video.

Although you have been given consistent feedback throughout this term, you should also be able to self-assess your blog by checking:

(1) That you have all posts completed in detail
(2) That you have used ICT in every post (and that this is varied)
(3) That the presentation of every post is tidy

To get an A, there also needs to be some sense that your project is a 'journey'- that you have changed your mind throughout the project and made improvements throughout, acting on feedback and through collaborations. This means posting follow-ups to location/costume/storyboard posts that discuss how the project has evolved.

Below are two examples of blogs- the top one received an 18/20 and the one below received a 17/20. Don't worry about the fancy template of their blogs, they have not received any credit for this- focus more on their use of ICT, detailed posts and good presentation within the blog.

http://www.i-m.co/kayjianoran/kayjianoran/

http://06tscott.wix.com/a2musicvideo

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Film Schedule

Above is the exemplar of a film schedule. While they are easy to fill in, you must remember that you are still assessed in terms of detail provided and in that sense it is important that you take your time in completing the schedule as accurately as possible.

Identifying the shots can be tricky- you need to attempt to designate scenes in terms of where they appear in your trailer, or think about what scene it would be in your video.

Details of the scene should be clear and cast and props and costume should be addressed both in terms of who/what they are but also in brackets actor names/person responsible for providing prop.

Camera setups should be at least 2 even for the most basic of scenes and time taken should always be generous allowing for delays between different shots (it is better to tell your actors/yourself it will take 2 hours and to finish after 80 minutes then vice versa).

Please fill in a different schedule sheet for every filming session you plan to do. Dates for each filming session should only be completed when you have confirmation from all participants.

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Y13 Advice About Music Videos

Above is the advice that Year 13's gave to you to produce excellent quality footage. 

Pick out 2 or 3 points that:

- you feel you may not have considered as a group

- you feel back up your priorities as a group

- you will act upon to ensure you do it well

- you think are interesting and you had not previously thought of

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Final Parts of Planning: Talent Release, Location Permissions, Record Label Permissions

Talent Release Forms

In the final stages of your planning, you will need to complete some practicalities.

In terms of the talent release form, you need to have everyone who has agreed to be in your video to complete a release form- if they attend this school then the address can simply be the name of the school. For any students who do not attend, a 'vague' address is fine (e.g. Sutton). You should not upload any Talent Release Forms with full addresses.



Location Permissions Letter

Again used as evidence that you have planned out all of your locations and have a set shooting schedule, the location permissions letter can be more formal than below

 

 

Record Label Permissions Letter

 

You are required to seek (but not necessarily receive) permission to use your track from their record label. This should be done in an official manner but may be e-mailed as an attachment to the record label. 

 



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Costume

The costume post should focus on both the artist(s) but also any additional cast members in the video. The key is to combine the visual (you should be able to be precise) with justification of why these costumes are best.

While this may be more simple if you are designing a video for a glamorous pop star, an effort must also be made to discuss video with an indie rock theme. Constantly referring to 'casual clothe's is not enough- you should commit to a specific T-shirt/sweater etc. in terms of messages and possible significance of colour.

Any visuals you create can be shared among the group but there should be some individual context.

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Exemplars

Below are three examples of music videos from other schools. What grade do you think they received and why?


 

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Innovative Planning Posts

Below are a few examples of excellent ways to present some of your planning posts. There is nothing wrong with making it fun and being innovative provided there is a clear focus. These kinds of posts would get you additional marks in terms of presentation and use of technology but the candidates involved also seem to be having a good time!

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Audience Research

The powerpoint below provides some guidance about Target Audience. You need to ensure that the following questions are answered:

• What do real audiences consume?
• Who are the specific audiences for particular products?
• How do media industries target those audiences?

You will need to present this, as always, in a visually interesting way. So, where possible provide plenty of examples and screen stills of your research.

You should also look at what 'tribes' might be most interested in your music:

https://www.uktribes.com/ and you will need the password slwhkxwi

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Year 13 Media H/W

You should write a 30 minute response focusing on how the concept of audience is relevant to either your AS or your A2 production.

 

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Ancillary Task Exemplars

Below are a few different exemplars of work for the ancillary task, with the marks and comments also below.

Exemplar 1 Digipak:  http://www.i-m.co/kayjianoran/kayjianoran/digipakfinal-draft.html

Exemplar 1 Magazine Ad: http://www.i-m.co/kayjianoran/kayjianoran/magazine-advertfinal-draft.html

Exemplar 2 Digipak & Magazine Ad: http://06tscott.wix.com/a2musicvideo#!magazine-advert--digipak/c27p

Exemplar 3 Digipak: http://laraanisere.wix.com/media-a2-coursework-#!digipak-final-draft-/c16iy

Exemplar 3 Magazine Ad: http://laraanisere.wix.com/media-a2-coursework-#!magazine-advert-final-draft/c1jxc

 

 

Exemplar 1 Feedback:

 

 

Exemplar 2 Feedback:

 

Exemplar 3 Feedback:

 

 

 

 

 

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Additional Audience Research

In November, the Media Studies exam board stated that they expected that students do more than primary research (i.e. surveys), as they felt that these were too basic and did not reveal enough understanding of audiences. They felt that audience research would be better if it answered the following questions:

· What do real audiences consume?

· Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

· How do media industries target those audiences?

To help answer these questions, you will need to focus on the music video industry. I have set 3 research tasks to get you thinking about the relevant information. We will briefly discuss the meaning of some of the findings when you return, so you do not need to make it too visual at the moment
 

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The Importance of Good Lip-Synching...

For all of the forthcoming performers: (i) be grateful that you are not performing these songs (ii) understand how important it is to lip-synch in time.

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Storyboarding Assembling Process

As instructed in the last lesson, you should have completed 20 frames of your storyboard for a particular 'strand' of your video. What you should now aim to do is assemble these together as a group, thinking logically about when different shots should be in the video.

Timing should be considered at this point but may not be precise- all of your songs are of a different length and pace, so some of you will need to add some storyboard shots while others will not need to use all 80. However, you must ensure that you assemble a 'rough cut' of your music video and how the different strands may integrate into one another.

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Storyboarding/Planning Article

Music Video Planning Examples

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Record Label Research

In order to develop a deeper understanding of music videos and why they are made, it is important to have some knowledge of record labels.

You will need to do a case study of 3 different labels and consider the following:

• When they were founded
• Where they are based
• What companies (if any) they are affiliated with/owned by
• Artists and successes that they have had
• Any other relevant/interesting information

It would be an advantage to look at a variety of record labels in terms of size and music genres, and this will allow you to consider what kind of label may be releasing your artist's work- so, perhaps look at Syco Music and Warp Records.

You should ensure that at least one of your record label case studies specialises in your chosen genre.

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Music CD Covers

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