Copying an exsisting music video

I have been working towards re-creating some of the music video Wheatus- Teenage Dirtbag. The experience I have been given by taking part in this task is being able to develop using production equipment, in order to be able to film at a good standard, when it comes to me filming my own music video. I will also be developing skills to be able to plan well, how shots will be filmed, also staging in a shot.

Storyboard

In lesson I was given a storyboard, which was of the Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag video. It features the opening ten frames of the video, giving a analysis of the shot type, camera movement, description of action, also if there is a lyric or audio in the background, when a shot is shown.

Shooting Script and Clapperboard

The shooting script was given of six shots, which we filmed in two groups, it shows an enlarged image of the shot which we had to copy and film. It had a similar layout to the storyboard, as it had the details about camera shots and movements, also write notes about how successful each shot was, each shot has to be logged, to see where each group might be struggling with a type of shot. While learning how to use the shooting script, I also learnt how to successfully use a clapperboard. A clapperboard was shown in front of the camera, before each shot was filmed. There is a procedure, that takes place for each shot. The cameraman has to say "speed" when they are ready to film, so the director knows when starts off the film. Also the director says for example "Shot 4 take 2, action", then the filming can start, and the background actions start.Also after a shot is filmed the director shouts "cut" to notify the cast the shot is finished. Also the clapperboard is useful when editing as you can determine a beginning of a shot, and hear "cut" when a shot has finished.

Communication on Set

Camera health and safety.

• Keep the camera steady when holding it.
• It is hard to keep just main character in focus and the extras out of focus.
• Lighting- had to reposition into the natural light.
• Always think about the final edits.

Always take off the plate off of the camera and back on the tripod. Use white balance when inside with artifical light, so on the camera use the AWB automatic white balance. When filming outside, using the sun shaped symbol, and the light bulb button when filming inside. Also put on the manual setting via the message shaped button.

I was shown how to direct a shot, it is important that to keep the production running smoothly, you need to clearly let the participants know of what is going on. In our exercise the director worked with the camera operator to set up each shot, they set up each actor and extra in position. After checking the shot is how it should be is essiental before able to film. Then the clapperboard is shown in front of the lens and the filming begins.

Setting up the Camera

Mounting to the tripod

Mounting the camera to the tripod can give you stability when filming. It is particularly useful for zooming, panning and tilting the camera. The tripods at college have a spirit level on them which enables you to position the camera to an exact horizontal.

Setting the White Balance:

The white balance has to be set before shooting can begin due to the different conditions. The camera reacts differently to varying light conditions. When outside it should be set to "Daytime Filming" otherwise footage could have a blue tinge to it. Likewise when you film outside the white balance should be set to artifical light. Once the camera knows the conditions it can then calibrate the rest of the colours, which should give even results.

Adjusting the exposure:

When using our Canon XM2 cameras, you should get into a habit of using the manual settings to adjust the exposure and not let the camera run on auto. Usual manual settings will give you control over how light or dark the footage is. You can change the exposure using a combination of the Shutter speed, Aperture and Gain.

Camera Techniques

Composition:

You can change the frame size to be like a widescreen film. This is called a 16:9 ratio. Normally the camera is set to a standard frame size of a ratio of 4:3. Which ever ratio used you can apply the rule of thirds to help you compose the frame.

Depth of Field:

This refers to the focal range of the camera. You can use depth of field to centre the audience attention on a particular part of the frame by having it in focus while the rest of the shot is blurred. This is called a 'Shallow or Narrow Depth of Field'. Conversely, if all the frame is in focus that is called a 'Wide Depth of Field'. Shifting the focus from one part of the frame to another is called a 'Pull Focus'.

This is the link to our copying of an exsisting video which is Wheatus- Teenage Dirtbag
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7qMb6ynzP5WMTA4NzIxZDktMjNjYS00Mjg2LTkxMjYtMTBiN2Y2YzIzZjU0&hl=en_GB

Here is the comparison to our music video, in which is the original gained from ouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJVRcCdvyY

Video Analysis

Ellie Goulding - The Writer video analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ru2glqXAg

The music video of Ellie Goulding's 'The Writer', she is shown as being represented as being part of the 'Electropop' genre by being linked to a traditional Pop music video that has a romantic theme. This is shown by using close up shots to show emotion from the character in the video, which is presented by the first image, showing how induced Ellie Goulding is to focusing on the camera. As the narrative of this video is about changing as a person in order to get noticed by a certain individual person, whom you are attracted to. The other type of shot used are long shots that are taken from a high angle, which could suggest that Ellie Goulding is being observed by the certain person she is attracted to, from the narrative. The last image I have print screened from the music video is an establishing shot of which shows the character and a lighthouse, this suggests that as it is a shot near at the end of the video, that when she reaches the lighthouse, then she will find the certain person, when she reaches there. The lighting and colours in the video are bright and colourful, such as yellow, cream and oranges, to me this suggests this video is very positive and calming, shows that an interpriation of the narrative is mellow, and that the climax of the ending, will occur how it should end. In terms of Ellie Goulding, getting to be happy at the end of the video, after going through many fields to find the destination of finding that special person. This music video is targeted at the fans of Ellie Goulding this is good as this video shows a different approach of how she as an artist is presented. So this would interest her fans more, also shows that her genre of music 'Electropop' does not always have to be kept to the similar narratives that normally relate to Electropop tracks. Overall this music video has a meaning of about Ellie Goulding getting noticed, by the man she is attracted to. This video has a lots of bright white colouring, to suggest she is in her perfect world, like is living a dream. This music video could be inspiring to creating my music video as the type of settings Ellie Goulding uses is mainly outdoors, in fields and forests, so this could be included in my video, so an essence of originality to keep my video, still in relation into her style of music video.

The second music video I will be analysing Ellie Goulding's- Guns and Horses. The genres that this track is from represents electropop and folktronica. The music video has a simple narrative of which Ellie Goulding is portraying a character that is walking through the woods, and is followed by her backing dancers, when she reaches the end of the music video Ellie turns around and reveals the production set of where the music video took place. Ellie Goulding is being represented as a young girl who is out in the woods all on her own, along her way through the journey through the forest, she is joined by soliders, which turn out to be her backing dancers in the video. So this represents that in this video, having backing dancers is random, as they do not relate to the music video. So this representation could represent that Ellie Goulding herself is slightly random in her personality, or how she makes decisions in her life. In the music video, her costume suggests that the clothes are smart casual as she wears a blue checkered shirt, in which is appropriate for a casual walk through a forest. A mixture of different camera shots were used on the main character. This included mid shots, the mid shot is to focus on the character singing, so it shows concentration, on the character, without showing too much emotion. This type of shor applies to the audience as they feel that they are focusing on the whole character without realising it. Also long shots are used to show the location of the woods in the music video. Also are used to show all of the subjects that are involved in the video. This is good as this also shows the staging in the shot shown in the second shot shown above. It shows that the main character is in the centre of the frame, and the backing dancers are placed behind, to show her importance and that she is in control, suggesting that the music video is all about her. The type of audience this music video applies to is the fans of Ellie Goulding, also people who are interested in artists that focus on a unusual representation of how to show a narrative in a video, this video would be good example of that as it is unique. This video does not produce many meanings that could be symbolic, apart from the low key lighting might suggest that the location is quite dull, but when there is some people in the woods, that the woods come alive, and the characters brighten up the location.

The ideas that as a group that we came up with consisted of with that we had some inspiration from the types of locations that she uses in her videos. For example in The Writer' she has shots of outdoor locations that are in fields and on top of cliffs, so we thought logically that we live locally to the coastline, so will have easy access to film on top of some cliffs. So this developed our idea of our character roaming around on the cliffs as part of her dream, that will possibly cut to the character roaming around in a urban area. Another idea we got inspiration from her was that we discovered that in her videos, she doesn't really seem to have an actual narrative to the video, so we decided to add a new element to her music video that we would create a narrative to 'hook' the audience into watching the video. We had an idea that we were going to use some background dancers, as featured in Guns and Horses she has background dancers in the woods, they start off as extras, then become part of the video. So we had the idea of including background dancers that would be dressed in pyjamas to make the music video seem surreal and to confuse the character who is in the dream.