That last post was mean't to be from Dave...

During our wednesdays lesson, we had to quickly go out and film some more footage as there was few scenes in our video that daves lip syncing was impossible to get in place. We had a few other difficulties getting the lip syncing to match the music, as we wanted it to be exactly right so we played around with the speed of the video for daves syncing to slow down as it was often too fast for the music so we did in the end maange to get 90% of it lip synced perfectly as we were eager to get that skill up to scratch ready for our real music video.

If we had more time to do the music video, i would have added in N-square at the part of dave running about near the trees so we could of had some time to practice a new skill but instead we had just played around with the scale and the motion of the shots in split screen to create movement to match the visuals of dave running about with excitement.

I would have also added in the second part of the split screen in that being the cloning of the individual in the shot at the point of dave not singing to the music as that also could of just been another skill to learn and to perfect yet it would of looked more neat and could of flowed more within the video.

I will be uploading our practice video soon!!!

HEY

hello everyone, its been a while since ive posted. hehe

anyway, we've been doing alot of work in our media lessons e.g, learning how to use final cut express, and such effects. the effects are fairly simple to use once you get the hang of it, and in my group, was me and katy matthews, and we were given the task of recreating colour correction on a clip, this was very successful, and once we got the hang of it, was simple to do.

in our more recent lessons, we were given a task to make a practice video, as ella has explained in her previous blog posts! i volunteered to be the star of our video ;) because im quite obviously beautiful and funny and charming, and the group agreed of course. we chose not to use extras in our video because we felt that the video was personal to the voice that was singing. the exponent's 'why does love do this to me' was the song we were given to re-create, and i believe that the finished product is very successful purely down to my good looks. lol jk, the editing went fairly smoothly and it should be ready to view in lesson tomorrow!

FINISHED!

We are pleased to let you know from after only 2 lessons we ave actually completed our practice music video in which we managed to get it all filmed and edited ready for wednesday. We have generated a various amount of different effects and transitions to complete the links between the shots to make it flow in a much more complimenting way.We have added split screen, colour correction and  revserse slow motion shot to create a stiking effect that will capture the intensity within the audience.

The way in which we used split screen is where the line is repeated of "i dont know" so we made Daves head turn in towards the middle from the left, and again from the right to look as if he is talking to himself.

The way we used colour correction is by the purple tint when we rewound dave twirling as he is walking towards us as we just wanted it to be noticed in the change of  beat and tempo from the music so the visual effect would tribute the music.

We used split screen in a different way aswell which we hadnt tried before, so we thought we would experiment. So we played around with the motion of it so it could be moved about within the screen along with placing the shots in random places so it wouldnt look as boring as we only had the footage of dave running, so we thought we would make it more interesting.

Our practise music video...

In our music video on wednesday we were asked to produce a little section of the song 'Why does love do this to me?' by 'The Exponents' so we could produce a little practise video to get us used to the footage and how we can play around with it on Final Cut Express.

The video for that song was very bland and not many techniques and effects were being used, so our group member, Dave, volunteered to be starring in our video for this song to make it as exciting and enjoyable as possible. So far, we have been producing some footage yet also thinking about the effects that we could add to this, such as the colour correction, just so Dave will stand out a bit more, which is popular for most music videos as it all seems to be mostly about the promotion of the artist and the close up of there overall look so this is the type of idea we were going with this shot. Also thinking of adding in the reverse/rewind effect and the slow motion just so it creates the dramatic outcome to the artist.

Throughout the footage that i had filmed of dave on wednesday, i was making sure that the mouth syncing was been matched up with the lyrics in the music i was playing through my phone (to make it easier so we didnt have to keep going back to the classroom and listening to the tune and speed of the music) as we feel this is very important this should be done in our music video as it is just another skill we can add in to make it more succesful and effective with the audience.

Overall,  I think after creating this practise video, i can really progress with the filming and eventually with the editing which will hopefully mean it can be an easier process for myself and the rest of my group when it gets down to making our real music video.

Media Lessons....

In our media lessons, we have currently been practising Final Cut Express ready for when we edit our music videos. So far we have looked at Split Screen 1 and 2, Colour Correction, and N Square.

My area to look at was split screen, which was hard to pick up at first but now i have gone through it a few more times, i have learnt how to do it properly and am confident i will be making full use of it when it comes to making my own music video. The way in which we exampled split screen to the class, is that we made a short video of 3 people and split screen to make it look like a conversation between them. So there was one long landscape clip at the side then the 2 other people were split smaller to make the other side. It was very effective as we made the people in the conversation look in the right directions as to who they were speaking to at the time as some were at a lower angle and some at a higher angle.

We have also been looking at the different effects that can be used. I chose the distortion of the fish eye, then played around with the scale making it higher so it will be closer to the eye to make it look a bit mysterious and a little fightening. This effect would probably be used if you were getting a close up of the artist in your video which then could be suited for the sinister music genre.

Next week we will be looking at green screening which sounds very exciting and more definitely something we will be using in our music video.

Hype Williams

Bio


Harold Williams - also know as HYPE Williams, due to his hyperactive nature as a child


Born: July 1970 (age 41)
          Queens, New York, US

Occupation: Film director, music video director, screenwriter - since 1991 till present.

Graduated from Andrew Jackson High school of Art and Music in 1987. He grew up wanting to be a painter, yet not the traditional sort of Art - He wanted to be working towards the graffiti work.

Hypes first big break came from when he began working with Classic Concepts Video Production. But in 1983 he started his own production named 'Big Dog Films'

Other Work 

He directed his first feature film named 'Belly' in 1988. He filmed it in New York as an urban drama which stars rappers DMX, Nas and the R&B singer from TLC, who all feature in his music videos which could be an easier option for both him and the artists as it could promote their work and also a lower budget for Williams.

He is also a photographer in which he shot the photographs of Kim Kardashian in the December 2007 issue of Playboy magazine.

He has also been a script writer - he wrote the Kanye Wests 'Runaway' film which  was a short 35 minute film directed by Kanye West which included a compilation of songs from Wests album.

Key artists Hype Williams works with

He created a number of music videos for artists such as, The Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Kelis, Jay Z, Kanye West, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, and many more. Judging from this set of artists, we can tell that Williams only seems to work with the more R&B, Hip Hop, Rap artists which comes out in the style of his music videos.

Style


Looking through many of Hype Williams music videos he has produced, I can see that he doesn't use any sort of narrative or performance, it is literally just the artist standing/dancing there and singing to the camera. But as his artists are mainly R&B, and not rock/metal genre, they don't tend to show a performance, as they are mainly there to promote their image which is normally attractive to make their music more successful as a whole. Whereas in bands/rock music, the camera normally shows the artists with them playing their instruments/equipment to really show off their skills.

His overall typical look uses a lot of colour, which occurs throughout his videos he has produced. For example, in his music video of Kayne West - 'Gold Digger' and Beyonce - 'Video Phone' has a solid colour background with a softer colour being shown in the centre of the background which gives a fading and merging together effect. This makes the artist stand out in the centre of the screen with them normally wearing brightly coloured clothes aswell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY

One of Hypes main motif throughout his music videos is placing shots in regular widescreen ratio, with the two bars that are split at the top and bottom. For example, this is used in Beyonce - 'Check on it,' Pharrell - 'Give it to me,' Rihanna and Kayne West - 'All of the Lights'  and Neyo - 'So sick.' In some of these videos where he splits the screen to make two bars, he often uses the bars to represent the main motif in the video. For example, in Neyo's - so sick, he has mountains constantly then himself in the middle. Also uses this effect in LL Cool J - Freeze video, to contradict the lyrics by having roaring fire in the bars to contrast the song title with what is happening on the screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1dUDzBdnmI

Another one of Hypes trade marks in using fisheye lens which was used in Busta Ryhmes - Gimme some more video and Missy Elliott - Can't stan the Rain. Which gives the whole video a sinister and creepy effect as it distorts the camera view around the central focus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHHT7dTmw8U

Music Video Director Case Study

Jonas Akerlund Basic Bio:
• Born in 1965 -56 years old
• He has a son called Elvis and a daughter called Mini.
• Between 1983-1984 he was a drummer in a Swedish band called Bathory.
• He is a director known for his pornographic music videos such as Telephone – Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce and Hold it against me by Britney Spears as well as other controversy themes such as drug use and violence.


Music Video Work
• He has directed a lot of Madonna’s work. Ray of Light won a Grammy award for best music video short form. Other videos he directed were American Life and Celebration.
• This attracted some of his more recent work like Britney Spears- Hold it against me. This video shows her with little clothing, it’s very fast paced and includes loads of different effects. The video is set in space and very surreal. The video provides us with lots of colour.
• Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce “Telephone” also uses lots of colour and the women are dressed in almost nothing.
• David Guetta featuring Rihanna –includes scenes of space at the beginning and includes lots of colour.
• Christina Aguilera-Beautiful is a big contrast to the music videos above. This video includes very dull colour and disturbing scenes such as a anorexic girl and a girl getting beaten up.


Other work
• His short film ‘Spun’ made it into the Guinness book of records for having over 5000 different edits.
• “Try” another short film about a couple of drug addicts who are homeless received a review saying “It was a brilliant film but incredibly depressing to watch.”
• Commercials include – Dior “the iconic lipstick” and other designers such as D&G featuring attractive well known women like Kate Moss.


Accounts of their style
He likes to use a lot of colour in his videos which make the video really fun and interesting to watch. It is also noticed that he uses split screen and uses writing to introduce his video.
He also enjoys using lots of effects which also contributes to making his music videos fun and wacky. None of the videos I watched other than the Christina Aguilera video, Beautiful were normal.