Christmas Break

We are breaking up on the 21st December therefore that means we have a 3 week break, which means we won't be in to blog, edit or filming until we come back on the 10th January. So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

Hooray :)

Deadline Day

The deadline day has been confirmed by my teacher. He is expecting me to finish the first draft of my music video by the 17th December which is on Friday. Therefore me and my group have a week left to complete the editing as we have already completed the filming of the music video. As result we are a head of schedule as 1 week will be enough for us to complete the editing of the video. However we have to stay focus in order to complete the first draft of the project. To remind us of the deadline my teacher has been putting up posters demonstrating the information we need i.e. the date and what needs to be completed.

Here is a picture I took of one of the poster's next to my computer;

Questionnaire Results

I’ve finally managed to record all the questionnaire results. I have created a slideshare demonstrating the questionnaire results. Down below is the slideshare giving the results;

Feedback results

View more presentations from ianwhite11.

Started Editing

We have finally started editing which to us is good news because we are progressing. For us we need as much time to edit because our music video is one of the longest, furthermore "Final Cut Express" is a new software. Therefore we need as much time as possible to get use to the software as not everyone in the group will be comfortable using the software. Again I think "Final Cut Express" is a software that is very effective because I've learnt that it is one of the best editing software due to studying ICT. So researching "Final Cut Express" I found out that people can do a lot more with the software, whereas other software limits certain affects.

So today we managed to edit the start of the video as we are thinking to use our London and Concert scene together because there the best two scenes to start our storyline in the music video. In the editing we added a lot of the dance sequence that was filmed in the Concert and up in London. This is because we want to demonstrate the different locations we used to dance. However our editing today only focused on putting the first part of the story together, as a result we haven't added any transactions to the editing. So today Jason and Meghan were the two people who decided to tackle the editing, whilst I concentrated on the check list so that we don't have anything missing to our coursework. Throughout this week we will be concentrating solidly on editing and during the next few weeks it's going to be intense for us as we are looking to complete the editing and the music video. Therefore I will keep in touch with our progress.

Last Filming

Finally completed the last 2 clip of our video which is the locker and dance room part that is included in our plans/treatment. Firstly the locker scene was very successful because we managed to film a great scene quick which was very efficient for our music video. In this scene the main girl (Michelle) wishes to tell her crush Jason that she likes him but she is interrupted by the main boy's friend who distracts him which eventually pushes the girl away and makes her lose her confidence. To us this is another great filming because it clearly hints out to the audience what is going on which again makes the audience have sympathy for her. And that is what we are planning to do as we want a reaction from the audience. So by Michelle confessing her crush it is sad as this is one of the only times that Jason is left alone and then his friend spoils the chance.

Here is a picture of the locker area where we filmed;

The second area was in the dance room and that was very difficult for us to film as the other 2 members of the band didn't show up. So because we have a tight deadline we decided to film without them. In terms of filming we basically filmed two sides of Michellel. We filmed Michelle practising her dance routine and her reaction/emotion towards the disappointment of Jason not knowing the cursh. In the end the filming was very successful as it looked realistic and depressing. To us that's good because that's the type of reaction we want to get out of the audience, so by us feeling that means the audience will also feel it. Overall am thrilled to finally say that we have finished filming and we can now move on to the editing of the film. Bring it on!!!!

Here is a picture of the dance room;

Concert Filming

We have managed to overcome the bad weather as the snow has began to clear up. Therefore today was another useful day as J2M Production took another step towards their goal of achieving either an A or B in the current coursework. Today we filmed our concert part of our plan towards the music video. In the video we used the girls "Khandi Floss" who performed their dance again and the song "Crush on you". We managed to film the scene in three different angles from the front and from both left and right. The girls used the whole school stage to perform their dance therefore there was enough space from them to express their moves. Apart from the stage and whole we also got girls from the art department to create banners for the girl band, as we wanted to make it as realistic as possible. To contribute to the idea we got to use the lighting affect of our stage so it makes it more like a concert.So overall the filming of the concert scene was a huge success as we are almost done with the filming. This therefore means we can concentrate on the editing of the music video so that we can complete the project.

Here is a picture I took demonstrating the stage we used as our concert scene;

Questionnaire

As shown earlier we know where to go to look for our target audience. On top of that we have managed to create our questionnaire using 10 key questions that will allow us to gain knowledge on people’s thoughts on music and music videos. From there we can then move on and analyse every questionnaire so that we can also get ideas as the feedback will give us negative and positive views on other professional music videos. To create our questionnaire we used a website called survey monkey as it’s very resourceful. The website allows people to create many different questions and formats i.e. we used multiple choice, yes/no and open box questions in our survey.

Survey Monkey;















Here are some screen shots of the questions that we used in the questionnaire.

1st Screen Shot
Firstly we included the first two questions because we wanted to know whether different genders and age group think differently towards music. Therefore by us noting down the different genders and age we will be able to work out how the different groups think and act. Now question 3. and 4. are used to find out what different types of music genre they prefer and where they get access to music video. This is important because we can look at our on music and what genre it is and find out whether it’s popular or not. Furthermore we can find out if it would be good for our music to be on the internet or TV because those are the most used media sources more music nowadays.

2nd Screen Shot
The next two questions 5. and 6. are other questions we felt that is important to include in the questionnaire, because question 5. allows us to find out about how people generally find out about music videos. Therefore if we ever one day want to promote our music video we can have the best solution due to the audiences feedback. Question 6. lets us know what people watch more on a weekly basis as a result we conclude whether music is popular and whether we could get hits if we were to upload our music video.

3rd Screen Shot
The last screen shot has 4 questions (7., 8., 9., 10.) and they just allows us to find out what people generally prefer in music videos and what music videos they like. For example question 7. enables us to note whether people think music video is essential. Consequently if people think it is essential it would make us work harder on our music video as people enjoy watching them. Question 8. is an open box question and it allows us to find out what people like to see in a music video. Therefore that gives us ideas towards our music video. Again question 9. is very similar to question 8. apart from it having the options already. So again it expands on whether we should consider the ideas given to us by the public. Lastly question 10. gives us lots of music video people prefer and from there we are able to look at them and compare or retrieve ideas for our own.

Filming Cancelled

Filming our last part of the video has been cancelled due to the weather. It has been snowing for the past 3 days which has disrupted our filming as we were planning to film in front of our school. Our main two reasons to why we won’t film with the snow are that it can ruin the camera and it wouldn’t go with our shots as there wasn’t any snow in the video. Therefore we will be keeping a good eye on the weather as we want the snow to settle so that we can film and edit the video for the deadline of 17th December.

This picture demonstrates how bad the weather is in our other location;

Researching our Target Audience

In our research for our target audience we managed to find a way to advertise and get some feedback on the types of genres and music videos that people enjoy. We are looking to advertise our questionnaires on “Facebook”, “MSN” and in school. This because we believe that those places are where we are likely to find a range of different people. The questionnaires will allow us to gain knowledge on what type of genres people prefer and what they expect in music videos. The questionnaires will contain up to 8 or 10 questions giving the audience an option for their answer in each question. We are looking to publish the questionnnaires out tommorrow so that we have enough time to collect the data.

Here is some pictures indicating the places we are advertising our questionnaires;

Wordle

This is an image that I created in Worlde.net and it is basically giving me the vital, effective and most used words in the lyrics of the song “Crush on you”. I believe that using "Worlde" to demonstrate effectiveness as it’s a different technique to show the lyrics and popular words used in the song. Therefore people are able to spot the key words used in the lyrics.

Second Filming in London

Today was a stressful and memorable day because we took a day off school to go up London and film our second part of the video. The day was planned a week ago therefore we had set times to meet in order to complete the filming. For example we planned that everybody should meet in London for 9 o'clock. Once we got to London we went Buckingham Palace to ask permission to film in front of the palace as we wanted to show creativeness. However we wasn't able to get permission from the Police because they simply thought it wasn't safe for us or the royal family in terms of media and suspension. Although we didn't get permission we still went ahead with our plan and filmed at Buckingham Palace.

After spending an hour and so at Buckingham Palace filming and taking pictures when then decided to move on to a different location. Whilst walking away from Buckingham Palace one of our crew member's managed to find a park that was perfect for our next scene. St. James Park was the location we found therefore we used it as one of our romantic scene with the main boy and girl, to express their feelings for each other. Shooting at St. James Park was difficult because the acting had to be perfect as we didn't want the audience to recognize any fault in the video. Therefore it took us a couple of times to get the correct shot because the chemistry between the main girl (Michelle) and boy (Jason) had to be created exactly right. However spending an hour planning and filming did us a whole load of good because we believe it was our best filming as we managed to fit in many shots. For example tracking, mid, long, close and zooms we were used significantly to create an exciting music video.

The last part of our filming in London was on the bridge by the London Eye. Filming next to the London Eye was beautiful because its a tourist attraction that means a lot to us the British Public. Consequently we thought that it would be great to include it in our video. Though filming on the bridge was difficult because there was so many people either touring around or going work therefore we couldn't get enough time to film as they would just walk past the camera when recording. So that was very frustrating for us as we would have to wait for people to walk pass, but there were time where people walked past the film whilst recording. As result it ruined the filming, however we did manage to film a few minutes without being interrupted. In those few minutes we managed to squeeze in the dancing of the group.

On the whole again am proud of the group because we completed another stage of our task which is proving to us that we will achieve the best grade possible. :)

The London Locations used

We have filmed quite a lot of locations in London for our music video. This is because we want to demonstrate creativity and knowledge. So the different places we filmed in London I took a picture of and I’ll be talking about the different locations in this post.

Firstly we filmed at Buckingham Palace as we believed that it was prestigious location that has a lot of significance to the country, since it’s where our Queen lives. Therefore thats one of the location where we wanted Khandi Floss to perform that last dance as it would follow the glamorous look as it’s also a glamorous location. However due to the Queen and the media we weren’t able to perform the dance in front of the Palace. As a result we had to go elsewhere in London to perform the dance.

Here is a photo taken by us showing Buckingham Palace;


Another location that we used and has a lot of significant to our music video is the London Eye. This location is a great choice as many tourists come to visit the London Eye as well as having an importance to the country. Therefore because we weren’t able to use Buckingham Palace, we did our final dance in front of the Eye. Along with the dancing we also managed to squeeze in the lip syncing as that’s another important aspect to the video. I believe it will be beneficial towards our coursework grade because it’s a beautiful location that has a lot of meaning to many people.

A photo of the bridge and London Eye taken by us;


St. James Park the last location we used in London for our music video. We used St. James Park to film our romantic part of the video where the group leader (Michelle) and the boy who she has a crush on (Jason) go out and enjoy themselves in the park. The park was a good idea because it’s a huge tourist attraction as its gorgeous, natural and passionate. Therefore it was a great scenery to show the chemistry of the main boy and girl portraying the message of love in the music video.

Photo showing St. James Park;

Storyboard

Here is a picture of our music video Storyboard. The storyboard contains drawn pictures of the events that will take place in our music video. It also includes all the different shots and pictures that will be used in our video. It's important that we identify the different shots as it contributes to the planning of our coursework.

The Cast

Our plan has been done and we know now how the video will operate. As a result we’ve also found the people that will be involved in the video and in the shooting of the video. There are about 8 people who will be involved majorly in the shooting and making of the video. With those 8 people I have managed to split them up into different departments and roles that they are going to having during the coursework.

Here is the pictures and roles of the different people involved in the making of the “Crush on you video”;

Meghan Producer and Joao Director
So on the left is Meghan the producer who actually I came up with the whole idea of using a girl band. She also came up with the different locations as her idea was better then mine and Jason's put together. Therefore we went along with her plan to improve and add more of our own ideas and experience. On the right is me (Joao), and I'm the director therefore am there to position and order the actors about as I take control of the filming.

Khandi Floss (The Girls)
This picture shows the girls that are going to be used as the band memebers of Khandi Floss. On the left is Marie and she will be known as Harmony. In the middle is Michelle the bands leader and she is the original member of the band. She is known as Honey in the group. The last member is Maureen on the right she is also new to the group and she will be covering Pharai who is a original member of the group.

Jason Editor
He is our main man because he covers many aspects of the J2M Production. For example he does the editing of our music video, which is probably one of the hardest and stressful thing of our coursework. Also he deals with the music of our video, so in other words the technical stuff is done by him. However 1 last and big duty that he is involved in with J2M Production is that he is apart of the video as the main guy that the band leader has a crush on.

1st Mise en Scene

This picture is the location where we started filming for the first time. In this particular location we had both the band and Jason in the shoot, as the scene is meant to portrait the ending of lunch time. In the filming the group (i.e. girls) are together having general conversation. From there Jason walks pass, which Michelle then stares at him. With that shot wanted to create an atmosphere for the audience and since of empathy for Michelle and her crush.

Here is the 2nd mise en scene we used on our first filming. This picture is the side path that leads to the enter of Robert Clack School. In that particular location we got the girls to walk down towards the camera, as it gives a girl band look. We also got the girls to perform their dance as we wanted another dance location in the video.



That's a picture of the third mise en scene we used. The picture demonstrates the actually frame we used in the filming as the empty chairs were filled with students. We used a classroom as one of our mise en scene because it links to the school girl crush. In the filming we had Michelle sitting behind Jason and imagining the possible outcomes of her crush. Again that's making the audience have empathy for her crush.

Filming

Yesterday was the first time where we actually managed to start filming our music video. For us it was a proud moment because we have delayed our filming due to time keeping and unforeseen circumstances. In the filming we managed to film at least two parts of the different mise en scene that we are going to include in the video. So we were able to film the classroom and the entrance of school. However it was a very stressful task because we had at least 20 people on shot due to the classroom part. Therefore it was hard to keep people quiet and organised as the large number was very dominate. But in the end we took control and we were productive as filmed more than expected. Our next shoot will be on Thursday when we go up London to film another scene to the film.


Well Done guys :)

Change of Plan

Due to unforeseen circumstances we had to change our filming dates. So we won't be filming on Sunday 21st November therefore we are looking to film on Thursday 25th November. On that date we will be going up London to film our second scene of the music video with the group. We have checked the weather for Thursday and it looks to be the best day of the week in terms of the sunshine.

J2M Animatic

The group has finally finished the storyboard and animatic. The animatic is a short video clip containing drawn pictures of the events that will take place in our music video. It also includes all the different shots, props, scenes and people that will be used in our video.

Weather Forecast

Having done our timetable for when we going to film, we also had to research the weather for the days. We went on the BBC website and looked up for the weather for the next few days in central london. We managed to find out that the days we are filming our going to have nice weather as there isn't any rain to ruin our coursework.

Here is a picture showing the weather forecast in london for the next few days;

Timetable

I've managed to work out a timetable where I can see what time and when I'll be needed to film the music video. This had to be done because I needed to know when am I available and free to devote my full time on the music video.

Here's the dates that the group are looking to use to film;

Sunday 21st November (from 9.00 am to 18.00 pm)- Buckingham Palace filming our second scene of our video.

Monday 22nd November (from 15.00pm to 18.00 pm)- Robert Clack School filming our first scene of the video.

J2M Treatment

Name of track: Crush on you
Name of artist: Khandi Floss
Name of students in group: Meghan Adjei, Jason Adorsu, Joao Rodrigues

Initial research and target audience
To research into music videos, we watched channel 4’s 100 greatest music videos to help us get an idea of how other artists have made their videos in recent years. When watching the program we realised that most of the videos are from the 1960s to the present date, as a result we managed to see how music videos have grown in recent years due to technology. One of the most modern videos that we enjoy is “Outkast – hey ya”, this video in particular made excellent use of new technology as it took the image of the leader singer “Outkast” and multiplied it in many different ways to create an entire band.

To find our target audience we are going to create a survey on a website called “Survey Monkey” and from there we will send the questionnaires to our friends on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MSN. This way we will be able to ask them questions that will enable us to find our target audience as we have various friends in different cultures, sex and age.

Outline Ideas
Our ideas are very different towards others because we are actually doing the band a favour by creating an affective video that they can use as their official music video. This is because they are an upcoming band that is waiting for their first opportunity. Therefore we spent a lot of time planning and with the plans we managed to come up with a lot of scenes for the music video, as we want to tell a story. For example;

Scene 1
· Outside the school, girls are sitting outside talking. Guys walk past main girl gets distracted (watching main guy). [song starts] [girl walk up to the camera and them break into dance routine]
· Main guy walks toward the school, girl walks behind him singing (I see you on the way to school part)
· Main guy is going into his locker; girl tries to approach him but is interrupted by the boy’s friend. Girl is upset and walks away (is time I let you know part)

Scene 2
· Rapper (one of the friends of the girl) walks down the road to school while singing the rap (same place girls do the walk)
· In the dance studio, girls are rehearsing for their show main girl is not focused; they sit on the floor next to her to comfort her.

Scene 3
· In the classroom, main girl is seated behind main guy. She starts to day dream about him.
· Central park, we see the two main people hanging out (being very loved up and romantic)
· Go back to the school scene and we see the rapper in a classroom with the students as she does her rap.
· Go back to the central London part. We see the dance routine again.

Scene 4
· We see the other girl and see flashes of the guys.
· Go back to the stage scene again (slow motion)
· We see the girls turn and walk away, we see clips of everything that has already happened in the music video so far then back to the girls again

Scene 5
· The school bell rings and then the girls are walking out of school, main guy runs up to the main girl and asked her out
· She says yes and then her walks off. Girls look at each other then laugh
· Fade out then back in again. See the girl on her bed with the lyrics of the song, she turns around and smiles.

Research into Artist(s)
To research into our artist we went onto their MySpace page (a social networking site). We were able to get a feel of what type of style they use in their band. Not only this, but we were able to see the kinds of people who enjoyed listening to their music which also gave us a good idea of who are target audience will be. We have also been able to talk to the members in the group and they have been able to give us a lot of commentary regarding the group and the sort of image that they had in mind when they first made the group and the sort of message they feel the video should communicate.

What resources will you need?
There are many resources that we going to need for this music video and with the resources there going to be much more needed due to how big the music video assignment is. So we will be considering things like actors, props and settings. The first resource is actors as we need people that are confident enough to act out in front of the camera. Therefore we are looking to have at least 4 main people because the band consists of 3 people and we need a boy to be the person who Michelle has a crush on. Alongside actors we also need different types of mise en scene since that rewards more marks in our music video. As a result we are looking to shot in 3 different settings i.e. Up London, School and Home. Those places will allow the music video to flow well as a story is being told in the video. Lastly props are the last resources that we need and customs are the only props that are significant to us at the moment. So the customs have to be well chosen as the band has a different trend/swagger, so everyone has to look the part and similar.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

1. No filming in inappropriate locations
2. Check safety of locations (e.g. road)
3. Minimize risk of theft of equipment
4. When filming on location ensure teacher or a responsible adult knows where you are and have your telephone number and knows when you will return
5. Check all equipment is working before you leave
6. Ensure you have permission for filming of necessary
7. Always film with at least one other person
8. Ensure you have the permission of those you are filming

Rehearsal Video

We created a video that showed the steps to the dance that will be shown in our music video. The video is a brief explanation to showing the routine to Khandi Floss dance. I believe it was important that we created a video because I want to show our progress and determination to our coursework. Therefore creating a video shows that we are taking our coursework very seriously.

Rehearsals

Our first meeting and rehearsals took place today. In our meeting we managed to get a hold of all our actors (who are going to perform in the video) and we discussed the dates and the roles that are going to be taking place in the video. The meeting was very beneficial towards the group because it improved our organisation and communication. Whereas before we wasn’t organised, this led to us failing to complete tasks on time. Furthermore our communication was very poor therefore it brought a lot of confusion in our work as certain members were missing work when blogging. The meeting also allowed the girls to rehearse their dance as they need as much time possible to perfect the dance. The dance is going to be the key part of the video.

Here are some pictures that was taken during the meeting and rehearsals;


This picture shows us sitting around in a circle discussing our plans and dates for the filming of the music video. in the picture we have almost all the team members that will be involved in the casting of the video i.e. acting, directing and filming.

This picture shows the girls going through their dance rehearsals as a group, and in the picture it shows all the girls that are going to be acting out in the video.

The last picture demonstrates the girls doing the actually performance, which is the dance. The girls who are dancing are the girls who will be performing and in the front line we have our main girl.

Khandi Floss Portfolio

I found a portfolio on Myspace that gave a quick description on Khandi Floss life.
It's a short paragraph that basically gives a short description to how Khandi Floss was made and where they are at now. Here's their small portfolio;

They’ve been described as the miniature British Destiny’s Child but Khandi Floss are a girly, burst of energy, edginess, girl band. The girls Harmony, Honey, Shara and Pharai make up the Khandi Floss crew; ranging from the ages 14 -16. Their music is a cross between Pop meets “Grime N B” and Experimental. The name Khandi Floss originated from the bands Manager Hazel (Artist) and began with Honey and Pharai, when they decided to take music seriously in their music lessons (at the time in year 9) from dancing to singing and rapping. Over time the group grew in size with the addition of Shara and Harmony; and vocally matured. In the future KhandiFloss hope to be as successful as the greatest female bands Destiny’s Child, TLC and Missteeq; whilst inspiring their generation and other generations to come. Our proudest moments and honours are;

- Performing at Tottenham, Dagenham and Newham Town Show
- Performance in Black Urban Fusion
- Tour in Malawi
- Performance in Hackney Empire

Here is a picture of the actually mixtape/album cover of "Crush on you";

Similar Band

On top of finding a similar video we also managed to find a similar band. There was so many candidates, however we concluded that Destiny's Child is our like artist. We believe that Destiny's Child is similar to our band because they are in the same genre with the same amount of memebers. Also the style/swagger that Destiny's Child use is the same style that Khandi Floss are trying to remix and better. Furthermore Destiny's Child have 1 main leader so it relates to Khandi Floss because they also have 1 main leader who does most of the sing in their songs.

Destiny's Child background info (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destiny%27s_Child);

Destiny's Child (also known as DC or DC3) was an American R&B girl group comprising lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girls' Tyme, comprising Knowles, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett. After years of performing underground, they signed to Columbia Records and changed their name. Destiny's Child was launched into mainstream recognition following the release of their best-selling second album, The Writing's on the Wall, which contained the number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name".

Despite critical and commercial success, the group was plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split off the group's manager Mathew Knowles. They were soon replaced with Williams and Farrah Franklin; however, in 2000, Franklin also parted with the group, leaving them as a trio. Their third album, Survivor, which contains themes the public interpreted as a channel to the group's experience, contains the worldwide hits "Independent Women", "Survivor" and "Bootylicious". In 2002, Destiny's Child announced a hiatus, allowing its members to attain individual success. They re-united with 2004's Destiny Fulfilled, and a year later during their world tour, announced that the group would disband and its members would pursue solo careers.

Throughout their career, the group released four studio albums and achieved four US number-one singles. They had sold over 40 million records worldwide as a group, 50 million including their solo album sales before their disbandment, becoming one of the best-selling recording artists in the U.S Billboard magazine ranks the group as one of the greatest musical trios of all time, and inducted the group in 2008 into the All time Hot 100 Artist at 68th place. In 2005, the World Music Awards recognized them as the World's Best-selling female group of all time. They were ranked the 9th Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard.

Similar Video

After finally finding our music we managed to also find a music video that we believe is similar to our ideas. However the music video is no ordinary choice as we decided to use ex pupils coursework. Houda, Ardit and Eustacia are the ex pupils that we are analysing and comparing to our ideas.

Background Info
They were last year’s group and their music was from the RnB genre. The song was called “Only You” from Keshia Angeline who was an unsigned artist on unsigned.com. Their music video was at last at an A grade standard because of the editing, acting, ideas used and the setting of the video.

Here’s their music video that was used for their



We believe that the video is similar to our idea because
• It has 3 different locations
• 1 location is the same as ours
• 2 main people in the video is the female and male

So firstly with the 3 different locations is great idea that we are looking to use because we believe that we are being more adventurous with our coursework. Therefore that allows us to create a good piece of coursework because it shows that we have taken our plans very serious and that we are creative with the music video.

Second idea we are looking to use is as going up London to film parts of our music video. This then shows that we are also using the same location as their video. We believe by using that particular location gives us certain advantage this is because the mise en scene is attractive and we will be able to find many different shots with the place. Therefore that gives us the chance to get awarded with more marks as we have learned our lesson from our previous coursework, since we kept our filming in one place.

Lastly we are looking to use the same idea of 2 main people with a male and female because the song is about love therefore it’s only between two people. However we have kept it the same because it’s the female sing to the male.

Lyrics

Boy i'ave got a crush on you, wonder if you only, only knew
Boy i'ave got a crush on you, wonder if you only, only knew

chorse

Boy, you know i got a crush on you
Don't know what am going through
Baby if you only knew, if you only knew
Coz boy, you know i got a crush on you
Don't know what am going through
Baby if you only knew, if only knew.

Verse One

i see you on my way to school
it's a shame da you not notice me
baby you should be my boy
we could be together, we should be together
it's time i let you know exactly how i feel, how i feel about you 2x
it's time i let you know exactly how i feel, how i feel about you, are you feeling me too

Rap 1

easy boy n am feeling you
smells so good like sweet perfume
but it's ok, cuz am needing you
times like this when am wanting you
but hold on, am dream about you
constantly always thing about you
wondering if am wanting you, now you know that am onto you

chorse x2
(INTERLUDE)

Rap 2
now you know that am going through
times still hard, still feeling you
but seckle am missing you
do you know that am liking you scratch that am loving you
can you be my baby boo
now you know that am unto you
now you know that am wanting

chorse x2

when i see you over here
when i see yo over there
i be like oh my oh my oh my oh my
who is he? who is he?
oh my oh my oh my oh my

chorse x2

Plan B

Therefore because our first plan didn’t work we went on to find another alternative. So our “Plan B” is to use a well established school band as part of our coursework. Khandi Floss is the group that we are using and they have been together for at least 4 years creating a few tracks that has been recognized by the public. However they are a band that is still isn’t signed therefore we took our opportunity to create the bands first video. We believe that using raw talent can improve our coursework because we are creating a music video that can potential help the band with their career.

The song from Khandi Floss that we are going to use is “Crush on you”. The song basically concentrates on the main band leader having a crush on a school boy. However the rest of the band members/friends try to convince her to fight her fears and tell the boy her crush. Therefore we must create a music video that tells the story of the actually song.

So because the band is a school band the video will be mainly shot at school. Also because there are 4 band members we are looking to use 4 boys as well as we want everyone to be paired up. To find out more about the band they are on myspace on- http://www.myspace.com/lbxkhandifloss

Song Choice

We have started the coursework for quite some time. However it has been very difficult for our group to find a piece of music to use, this is because we went for a specific genre. Therefore we didn’t have much to choose from as we were only concentrating on that particular genre.

The website that we used to search our music was unsigned.com as it was the most popular and used website in our school. Therefore the recommendation was high for us as the majority of RnB songs came from there. So we actually used the website and found 2 potential songs that we wanted to use for our coursework. Both of the songs belonged to the RnB genre and they were both different as one had a fast pace, whereas the other one was much slower. The first song that we were happy to use was called “Photo Shoot” from Cincere, and the song was basically focusing on a woman of his life that he would like to take and use as a photo shoot. Consequently the song tended to have a lot of sing focusing on the woman with a verse of another artist rapping. Our second and back up song was called “Apologise” from Solo Soul. The song was slower and it focused on forgiveness from a woman therefore the majority of the song was based on sing.

Here is a photo of our song choices from unsigned.com;

1. Cincere- Photo Shoot













2. Solo Soul- Apologise













So in order for us to receive permission to use the songs we had to contact the artists even though the songs were non copyrighted. As a result we researched the artists and we managed to find an email address for both artists. From there we wrote an email for both artist stating where we are from, who we are and why we wanted to use their music.

Here is a photo of the emails we sent to both artists;

1. Cincere













2. Solo Soul













However it has now been three weeks and unfortunately we haven’t received any replies from our emails. Therefore we concluded that we weren’t successful in getting our music as a result we have to find another alternative so that we can begin filming our coursework.

Channel 4- 50 Greatest Pop Music Video

In lesson we have been analysing Channel 4's 50 greatest pop music videos. This allowed me to gain more ideas to use in my music video because there were many different videos that used differet features and scenarios. Therefore hopefully I'll be able to get some ideas and use them constructively in my music video, so that it bumps up my grade.

Here is the list of the 50 greatest pop music videos (from Channel 4);

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
2. Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
3. A-ha: Take on Me
4. Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
5. Madonna: Like a Prayer
6. Robbie Williams: Rock DJ
7. Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
8. The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
9. Madonna: Vogue
10. Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
11. Coldplay: The Scientist
12. Michael & Janet Jackson: Scream
13. Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
14. Christina Aguilera: Dirty
15. REM: Everybody Hurts
16. OutKast: Hey Ya
17. Blur: Coffee & TV
18. Beyonce: Crazy in Love
19. Madonna: Material Girl
20. Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood
21. Queen: I Want to Break Free
22. Justin Timberlake: Cry Me a River
23. Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
24. Radiohead: No Surprises
25. Madness: Baggy Trousers
26. TLC: Waterfalls
27. David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
28. Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
29. Electric Six: Gay Bar
30. Weezer: Buddy Holly
31. Eminem: Stan
32. Chris Isaak: Wicked Game
33. U2: The Sweetest Thing
34. The White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl
35. Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2U
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give It Away
37. Guns N Roses: November Rain
38. Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice
39. Pulp: Common People
40. Missy Elliot: Get Ur Freak On
41. The Spice Girls: Wannabe
42. Bjork: It's Oh So Quiet
43. Dire Straits: Money for Nothing
44. Kylie Minogue: Can't Get You Out of My Head
45. Aerosmith: Crazy
46. Adam & the Ants: Prince Charming
47. The Prodigy: Firestarter
48. Johnny Cash: Hurt
49. Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
50. Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al

Preliminary Exercise- Video

Our Preliminary Exercise consisted of us using our group member (Meghan) who sang the first verse of a song called “I won't forget you.” . We manage to vary our shots by using close ups, mid and long shots. However because the clip was so short we didn’t include all of our different shots. Nevertheless we believe the filming of the Preliminary Exercise was rather simple because we’ve been studying Media for 2 years. Therefore we were familiar with the cameras and the type of angles that we were going to use.

On the other hand the editing of the video was rather difficult for us because it was the first time that we were using a new editing software. Therefore we weren’t familiar with what the software could allow us to do with our video. As a result we kept the video very simple by only adding a few transactions. However for us to overcome our difficulty we will be using the software more often so that we get practise in order to perfect our video.

Here is our finished Preliminary Exercise;

Grime Picture Collage

Here is another collage that shows grime artists like Tinchy Stryder and Tinie Tempah. These artists were specifically chosen because they are the two that are dominating the industry in 2010.

R&B Picture Collage

Here are picture of certain R&B stars that have been successful in recent years, the likes of Usher, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Eminem. These artists are the ones that are topping the charts right now for R&B today.

Final Cut Express

Final Cut Express is a non-linear video editing application created by Apple Inc. It is the consumer version of Final Cut Pro and is designed for advanced editing of digital video as well as high-definition video, which is used by many amateur and professional videographers. Final Cut Express is considered a "step" above iMovie in terms of capabilities, but a "step" underneath Final Cut Pro and its suite of applications.

Features the program does include are;

• The ability to keyframe filters
• Dynamic RT, which changes real-time settings on-the-fly
• Motion path keyframing
• Opacity keyframing
• Ripple, roll, slip, slide and blade edits
• Picture-in-picture and split-screen effects
• Up to 99 video tracks and 12 compositing modes
• Up to 99 audio tracks
• Motion project import
• Two-way color correction.
• Chroma key

Preliminary Exercise- Lip Synching

Today was a very productive day for me and my group JJ Media because we managed to start on our preliminary exercise of lip syncing. However it became very frustrating for us because we used a new software called Final Cut Express to edit the video. Therefore with our first attempt we wasn't able to complete our video as it was to difficult for us to handle. However hopeful by next week the preliminary exercise will be complete which will allow us to begin preparing for our actually video.

Copy Right

“Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the law of a jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Exceptions and limitations to these rights strive to balance the public interest in the wide distribution of the material produced and to encourage creativity. Exceptions include fair dealing and fair use, and such use does not require the permission of the copyright owner. All other uses require permission and copyright owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions, copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright protection applies for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright)



Therefore it’s important that we find a none copyrighted song.

Music Genres

There are many different types of music genre around the world that people prefer to listen to. All genres are very persuasive towards the way people act, behave and conduct themselves. Some music’s are calm, quiet and others can be aggressive and loud depending on the genre. In this post am going to be discussing about some of the popular music genres people listen to. Each section is going to represent different music genres and each genres are direct quotes from the website wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

R&B

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s.The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s and beyond, the term rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the 1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as contemporary R&B.

Grime

Grime is a genre of urban music that first emerged in Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop. Grime is typified by complex 2-step breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute and constructed from "different" sounds. Stylistically, grime takes from many genres including UK Garage, dancehall and hip hop. The lyrics and music combine futuristic electronic elements and dark, guttural bass lines. According to Sasha Frere-Jones, writer for The New Yorker, grime has developed a fierce sound by "distilling" rhythms to a minimal style resulting in a choppy, off-centre sound. Whereas hip hop is inherently dance music, the writer argues that "grime sounds as if it had been made for a boxing gym, one where the fighters have a lot of punching to do but not much room to move." Frere-Jones also states that grime has maintained a style distinct from American hip hop, with clear Jamaican and Caribbean influences. Writer Hattie Collins supports Frere-Jones' analysis by asserting that grime is "an amalgamation of UK Garage with a bit of drum'n'bass, a splash of punk and a touch of hip-hop thrown in for good measure."

Pop

Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. Pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, but as a genre is particularly associated with the rock and roll and later rock style.

Soul

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying.” Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound. The genre also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds.

Introduction of J2M Media

I have finally re united with my group and partners from last year. The production group will be called J2M Media and that consists of me Joao Rodrigues and my partners Meghan Adjei and Jason Adorsu. We have already got an idea on what direction we will be heading to in terms of what genre and music we are going to be using. We are focusing on RnB and Hip Hop as our genre as we believe its the strongest genre that could make our music video very popular. Unsigned.com is the website that we are going on to find our music for our coursework, and at the moment we have 3 songs to choose from.

Here is a picture of me and my partner Jason Adorsu.
On the left is Jason and on the right is me.

Music Promo Video: Purpose and Success Criteria

Question- What is the purpose of music promo video?

Answers
- advertisement
- draws attention to the music/song
- illustrates the song
- appeals to visual audience (i.e. people who prefer to watch things)
- expresses an individual's emotions
- tells a story
- markets an image (i.e. focuses on the image to get popular and publicity
- promotes the artist/single/album
- persuades audience to buy CD or download the song
- raises the audience awareness
- gives an artistic statement
- to advertise other products

Question- How might we measure the success criteria of a music promo video?

Answers
- word of mouth
- number of hits on youtube
- newspaper articles/TV reports
- how many times shown on TV
- amount publicity
- downloads
- Chart position
- CD sales
- last word

"Shut up and drive" Mise en scene

Am analysing the "Shut up and drive" video and my main focus is on the mise en scene of the video. I have taken a few important screen shots from the video where am going to be talking about on this post.

This first picture is showing a leopard skin heel coming out of a Ferrari f430. To me the start of the video is misleading because normally in those circumstances we would expect a dominate male figure to pull out of a Ferrari as it’s more of a male’s toy. However we see a heel pull out which indicates to me it’s a sex, feisty and powerful women because she has money to be having a Ferrari.


The next picture demonstrates a women mechanic which again is misleading to us because it’s rare to find women mechanic. Therefore this shows that the video is going for something different as two major aspects has been spotted in the start of the video as misleading.




This picture is the establishing shot of where the actual video is set in. In the picture we can see that the video is set in a garage that is fall of women mechanics and famous junk cars. However the crucial part of the picture is Rihanna who’s in the middle of shot posing, which demonstrates another sexy appeal.


This fourth picture is showing that Rihanna is different to the other girls in the video because she wants the main attention on her. Therefore that’s why she is looking glamorous whilst the other girls have the mechanic clothing as she needs to stand out from everything else around her.


This picture shows that Rihanna isn’t afraid to get down and dirty by working with the cars. Again she does the sexy poses when she’s working which demonstrates a sex masculine look to the audience. Also Rihanna has always been portrayed as a good girl on her previous videos therefore those shots link to her album of “Good girl gone bad”, as the title of the album has elements shown in the video “Shut up and drive”.


This picture shows Rihanna and the mechanic girls’ changing their whole look as the setting of the video is also changed. Again she’s different to the rest of the girls as she wears the sexy masculine look this time instead of acting the sexy masculine look, whereas the girls with her change their look to girlie type. Once more Rihanna wants to be singled out from the rest of the video by having that particular look.


This last screen shot is the last change in the video. The screen shot is showing Rihanna’s new look as she has gone for a school girl look. However with the costume she is wearing it still has a hint out to the audience that she isn’t the innocent girl we all first thought. Again this can be related to the title of her new album “Good girl gone bad”.