Teenage Dirtbag - Loren, Nisha, Jack and Shaun Finished Video

Once we had captured all the footage from the music video workshop day we were put into groups in order to edit it into the way the real music video looked. I was put with Nisha, Shaun and Jack who i get on with well and therefore we were all keen to work on it together and as much as possible. We were the first group to finish editing our video together and this is how it turned out:

Lip Synching Practice - Loren and Nisha

As we are doing a music video for our coursework, for research we were all asked to practice lip synching to a song of our choice.

I paired up with Nisha and together we decided to do Justin Timberlake - My Love. Originally we had aimed to do Michael Jackson - Dirty Diana, but the song lyrics were too hard to learn and too difficult to mime therefore we chose something easier.

Although it is a boy sung song we still found it worked effectively when editing it together and it does look convincing. We both felt that the takes where we did not sing, looked the most unrealistic but the bits where we went for it looked the most convincing. 

We did not really stick to rules when it came to filming it which made it more interesting to watch and more like a music video. Despite this i feel that if the camera was a bit more controlled it could of had a better effect rather than just being too wild. Going from long shots to close ups makes watching it less boring and captures the audiences attention more.

We had loads of fun filming it and it was hilarious to watch back because you could hear our dreadful singing over the top of the track. It makes me look forward to making the real thing even more because i can only predict that we will have just as exciting time making it. 

This practice has taught us that for the real thing you have to know your lyrics in order to perform them well and also to be able to sing them to make the video look as real as possible. 
Here is the edited version of our lip synching task:

Teenage Dirtbag Video Workshop Reflection

After finishing our workshop for remaking the Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag video we had to answer three questions about the day and here to the answers to mine:

1. What do you think you have learnt from Friday's workshop?

From doing Friday's workshop i have learnt many new things that i did not know before, therefore i found it extremely beneficial. I learnt that it takes a very long time to make a music video as we only did a short section from it but it took the whole day. I learnt that managing, lighting and acting are the three most important things involved with making music video. As the music video takes so long to make the pre production is very important in order to make sure your day is organized so you can spend as little time as possible sorting things out, and therefore reduce the time it takes to make. On the day we were sometimes unable to do the things we wanted to due to time and weather issues. Therefore i have learnt that although pre production and planning is important, we have to be able to be flexible in order to still be productive. As we have never shot a music video before we found out that lipsynching was a lot more difficult to look realistic than we had expected. You have to actually sing quietly in order to make it look real and almost mimic the singers facial expressions to look convincing. This was also linked with the performance acting where the actors had to pretend to play an instrument convincingly which was difficult. The management on set was much more vocal and hands on than i had expected. Before we had done this workshop i thought that directors did very little but on the day it was the director who did most of the work and got stuck into the workshop as much as possible in order to achieve the desired effect. 

2. What was the best bit?

Despite enjoying the whole workshop throughly, I found the most enjoyable bit was jumping around in the background of the performance shots. Although it was hot and a lot of hard work, we had a laugh and was able to experience what it would be like to be in a real video. 

3. What impact had the whole workshop had on your coursework?

From this workshop i have changed my thinking about my main project a lot. I have decided that i am going to find a song that includes both narrative and performance in order to show off the new skills that i have learnt from the performance scenes in this workshop. Also i have realized just how important it is to do a lot of pre production and be organized. If the organization on the day was not as good as it had been it would of taken a lot longer and probably needed a lot more reshoots and in our coursework we want to keep re shoots to the minimum, therefore pre production is highly beneficial. As the video took so long to remake i realised just how much of a commitment being in a music video really is. From this i have decided that in my main project i will try to use reliable actors, preferably from our group, in order for them to know what to expect and we will not have any time issues because this could end up making the shooting a lot more complicated than it already is. From the workshop i found that anything goes in a music video, and the more outrageous you are the better. From this i have decided to make my main project use a simple idea but build upon it to make it something ambitious and exciting. This will make it interesting to watch but yet still easy to shoot.

Lady Gaga - Boys Boys Boys - Track Idea 1

Last night i went to see Take That and Lady Gaga was supporting them. When this song came on i immediately liked it and thought it would be great to do a music video too. I came up with a treatment for it here:

Starts off with a black screen and flashing lights lighting up as the beat comes in.
As the singing starts the choreography begins. It will be one lead girl and two background dancers.
Then there will be cutting between close ups of a girls lips with bright pink lipstick.
Also she will be doing her make up in the mirror and singing at the same time and getting dressed.

When the chorus comes on there will be a black and white scene with a man standing there and a girl dancing on him and using him as a prop. The camera will be constantly moving between long shots, mid shots and close ups.

In the second verse it will be the girls that were in the first shot walking into a club and everyone is watching them.
They sit down at the bar and start flirting with some guys still keeping eye contact with the camera.
Throughout this we are still cutting to a close up of lips.

On the chorus again cut back to the black and white shot of the girl dancing on the boy and going between cloes ups, mid shots and long shots.
For the third chorus we are cutting between the shot of the girl dancing on the boy, the lips and the bar scene.
On the next verse it cuts back to the dancers and they are doing another bit of choreography.

Then for the last few chorues it is just constantly cutting between the CU of the lips, the bar scene and her dancing on the boy.

The last shot is of her kissing the camera lens.

The King Of Pop

I cant do a music video coursework blog without paying tribute to one of the most influential people in the music industry, Michael Jackson.

Throughout his life he inspired many people and the music industry would not be what it was today without him.

Michael Jackson begun his career in 1968 as a memeber of the Jackson 5. He was the youngest in the group and grabbed the worlds attention from the moment he stepped on stage with his angelic face and amazing voice. Since then he has gone onto release 10 best selling albums, one of which 'Thriller' still remains the best selling album of all time. Overall he sold 750 million records worldwide throughout his lifetime and had a staggering thirteen number one hits. 

Although Michael's songs were incredible, his music videos were equally, if not more outstanding. It was him who changed the way people viewed music videos. He transformed them from a premotional aide for the song to an art from with his flawless choreography and complex storylines to all of his videos that just made to want to watch more. 

Before Michael Jackson released his video 'Thriller', he was struggling to get his videos seen by the public due to his race, however he managed to persuade MTV to show his 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It' videos which led to a life long partership between the two, as it put both of them on the map. 

Whether it was the choreography from 'Thriller' or the short film style, like i said before it still remains the best music video ever made. People still to this day try to imitate it and use the skills and ideas from it in their own way on their videos.

Not only is it his perfect timed dance moves and narratives that still live on to this day, but Michael Jackson was also the first artist to have cameo appearences in his music videos. His most famous video with cameo appearances was 'Remember the Time' starring Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson. Along with this he also appeared in 'In the Closet' with Naomi Campbell and 'Black or White' with Macaulay Culkin. Many people enjoyed watching his videos to see what stars they could spot from different areas of the media and it made fans realise just how many people worshipped Jackson. 

Many of Michael's videos not only promoted the song but sent out powerful messages to its audience. He used his videos as a way of gaining awareness because he knew just how wide a reach they would have. His most famous meaningful video is 'Earth Song' showing time being reversed as the earth is being destroyed. 

Michael Jackson has won many awards for his various music videos over the years and to me they are much deserved. His videos and his songs shaped the way the music industry is nowadays and although he may not still be alive his songs and impact upon the earth will live on for ever. 

Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

Tomorrow :)

Tomorrow we are planning to recreate the Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag video.

I am extremely looking forward to it as i think it will be a fun process and also teach me a lot about the music industry and how they create music videos. 

Although i do not have a main part in the video, i think the free time i have will help me to really take in what is going on around me and will allow me to watch the professionals do their job.

Here is the Wheatus video we will be recreating:

The song was released in the year 2000 and it was part of the soundtrack to the film 'Loser' starring Mena Suvari and Jason Biggs. It was Wheatus's first successful song topping the charts in Austrailia and reaching number 2 in the UK. It was also voted number 69 on the best ever pop songs of all time which is a huge achievement. The video itself is supposed to mimic the film 'Loser' with the geek falling in love with the popular girl, however in the video the events take place at a high school whereas in the actual film it takes place in college.