Review of editing

We started by looking through all the footage we had taken and deleting clips which went wrong and we didnt like, and cutting down clips which we'd planned in our story board and placing them in the right places. We had to lock the visual part of the files and delete the audio as we were using the original Paramore soundtrack throughout, and then render it. Sometimes the rendering was taking a long time because some of it was in HD and took up alot of memory space. We used this time to talk through new ideas. Me and the person i was working with found that we work in very different ways whilst doing this, because she liked to set out everything that we were going to do and then do it, where as i like to talk about something, then try it out and possibly change it and try out different things before moving onto looking at how we were going to edit the next clip. At times we didnt get very much done as we spent alot of time talking through ideas, and so coming close to the deadline i stayed behind after class without Courtney and edited a big chunk of the video basically just doing everything we had been talking about, and so when she watched it, it was near enough what she wanted it to look like anyway. We edited the bits we didnt think worked and moved onto the rest of the editing.
After looking at the final edit of the video during Christmas, there are a few things i would like to change. Such as there is a clip of the guitar where the bottom of the screen has not been cropped to the size of the other clips, and i would like to add some text to the beginning of the video to tell the audience the name and artist of the song.

Filming in Recording Studio

We used the music recording studio in college to record footage of Courtney singing into a microphone whilst wearing a dress in the studio. We decided to film in monochrome to add variety to the video as the effect adds appeal when the colours of the room are quite bland. The room was completely soundproofed and has all the equipment you would expect in a professional studio. So courtney wore the headphones and sang into a microphone which was held in a round microphone stand.
This effect is one of the conventions, as Paramore use monochrome when recording footage of playing in a recording studio in their 'Careful' video. As well as You Me At Six using it in their 'The Consequence' video.
We had a problem from the start that thw memory card was only 2GB which couldnt hold much footage as it was high resolution and the battery was running low, but still managed to film the full song 3 times. The first time was close up direct approach which wasnt a very good angle as well as she wasnt wearing the headphones, so this was deleted to give space for more footage. Then we filmed her singing the full song into the microphone again, using a close up angle but filming from her right hand side at a diagonal. Also we filmed the song again close up and directly infront on her but this time using a high angle which made the shadows and tones which monochrome brings out look alot better. I also filmed a long shot from behind her so that you could also see the rest of the studio, which was effective and hope to use it as one of the clips. A shot which didnt work was one i tried to do through the window of the door to the room in the studio which has all the sound desks in, because I wanted to zoom into the TV which had CCTV footage of the room she was singing in, and this would have given a really nice effect and footage from an angle which we otherwise wouldnt be able to get. But my screen just went white when trying to film the TV screen.

Filming in Summer House in the afternoon

This went a lot better than the first time we filmed, because the lighting was right. But we had picked up a camera which had only 20minutes of battery left, and this meant we could only film the shots we needed and not much else. We still tried to get as many different angles as possible, turning the camera on and off to save battery. We were filming in Apley wood for the first time the morning afterwards, and didnt have enough time to go and get a new camera from college, so this was the point when we decided to film the Apley footage with my DSLR camera as we had no other choice, and also ound that this was of a much higher quality.

Filming in Summer House in the evening

We left college at 4 o'clock in the hope of getting to the location in Lilleshall at sunset but not too dark to film. But as it gets dark so quickly at this time of year we didn't get there and start filming in time, so it was too dark. We tried using a torch to shine on me whilst i ran through the door, but it still wasn't enough and we'd have continuity issues and couldn't see the effect of it being a dusty room. Also the green screen footage we'd got earlier in the day wouldn't fit, because the lighting wouldn't be the same. But this did give me chance to introduce this location to the person I'm working with and she agreed that it was the right location for our video.

Green Screen Filming

We very nearly were not able to get this done, as we set up the green screen in a room and i put the bold makeup i needed to wear on, then we had to leave the room as it was being used for an exam. So we disabled and re assembled the green screen in another room and i got changed into my costume before the fire alarm went off. By the time we got in it was lunch, but we stayed in through lunch to film. The idea of using the green screen is to add into the footage we recorded later in the day in a summer house, with the view of filming over my shoulder the corner of the room, then putting the green screen footage in so it looked like there was 2 of me on the screen.

Filming instruments

The girl i am working with got her friend Josh who plays guitar to learn the guitar parts to the song, and we got him to play it over the top of playing the music (to make sure that the tempo was right) and used the camera to film different angles and zoom in and out. He didn't want his face to be in it and as we hadn't got a band we used close ups and extreme cuts as well and zoom in to get around this. They then got a youtube clip up of someone playing the drums to monster, and even though neither of them played drums, Josh learned some of the music and we filmed him playing it (again not including his face and putting on a cardigan to try and block out the fact that it was the same person who played guitar).

Filming the Dance choreography

We originally booked out the bridge dance studio to film but had to be moved to the dance hall which is a lot bigger and has sports markings on the floor, but tried to use angle which meant this wouldn't make any different. The dance was to the chorus of Monster, as this could be edited so that certain movements could be shown for the narrative after I've ran through the wood and to show emotion to the piece. We tried different angles of the room (being careful not to get the camera in the shots as we were filming into mirrors) including:

Theorists

Blumler & Katz’s (1974) ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory says that an audience consumes media to meet certain need which include Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal Identity and Surveillance.

My work backs up this theory because the audience might listen to Monster by Paramore and watch their music videos for diversion to relax or as a form of escape from the things which are going on in their own life. The high energy of their music and the energetic movements of the artists and actors and rapid cuts could suit their mood if they were either in a happy full of energy mood, or needed a pick me up if they were feeling down.

They may also build personal relationships with the artists even though they have never met them, because the audience can usually relate the lyrics (and the indirect lyrics in Paramore’s songs means that you could interpret them in lots of different ways and relate them to different situations) which makes the audience feel a connection.

Personal Identity can also be found through media products, from the audience finding comfort or inspiration on how to deal with a situation through the lyrics and energy to a song. Also by buying their merchandise and wearing a band’s T-shirts or basing their own style and fashion sense on what the artists wear shows their appreciation and effects how other people with view someone as it begins to effect the way they look and act. A fan would see it as expressing how they feel through a band.

The lyrics form a type of surveillance when the artist writes them about certain issues which are in the news or affecting society. With Paramore the lyrics tend to be about light hearted issues such as teen love, revenge, dealing with friendships and breakups, getting over things and moving on. Fans will also often keep updated on news or photos of a band via magazines, their website, etc. To find out about tours and new releases as well as big events in the music industry, general interest and admiration in how they live their life and keep updated on their fan base.

Stuart Hall’s (1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding’ model looks at how well an audience receives a media product. When watching a music video or listening to a song, you interpret what the actions and lyrics mean, which makes you think or feel a certain way.

If an audience was to have a ‘Dominant Hegemonic’ view on a product it would suggest that they have accepted and agreed with everything which was included in the product. For a typical pop punk rock genre video which the audience would expect from Paramore, this would mean the video and soundtrack would be full of energy, showing the band performing as well as communicating the narrative, and dressed in the stereotypical brightly coloured modern punk fashion.

If the audience was to have an ‘Oppositional’ response to the product them they wouldn’t have agreed on anything which was shown and wouldn’t have liked anything which the director represented. If this was the reaction I was looking for in my Paramore video then I would do a hip hop dance video which shows no meaning behind the lyrics and contains no instruments, concentrating purely on making the artists look stereotypically ‘perfect’. This could have a big impact on the artist’s fan base, losing a lot of the original audience but possibly gaining a new audience who look for different things in their media consumption.

A ‘Negotiated’ response from the audience is in-between dominant and oppositional so the audience agrees with certain aspects of the product but disagrees with others. For example this could be if I was to show a purely performance video of them rehearsing in the studio and no link to the narrative, or the opposite if the band hired an actor to show a story to portray the narrative and there was no reference to or clips of the band. This is because out of all the pop punk genre videos that I’ve researched, they have all been performance + narrative.

Richard Dyer’s (1997) four notions of representation theory stated that a media product is a ‘constructed version of reality’ and that everything which is shown falls into a stereotype. Like it is purely the view of the director and not personal to anyone else, yet can be very influential on the people who consume it.

The digipaks for Paramore are photo shopped to make it look more creative and interesting as the target audience tends to be very artistic and likes to experiment designs and the way that things look, oppose to retouching  a picture to make it look perfect like in other genres. Their videos and soundtracks are full of energy with rapid cuts and creative editing effects and filters to make them stand out against other bands and make them appear more unique.

The target audience is very similar to the band themselves, generally being both male and female around the ages of 13-23 although other ages may also listen to it. There aren’t aiming it at any particular race or religion, and although it tends to be the teenage punk culture of today or stereotypically ‘emos’ who listen to Paramore’s music, part of their appeal is that they promote individuality and not trying to fit in somewhere that you don’t.

Paramore are signed with ‘Fueled By Ramen’ who is a subsidiary of the major record label Warner Music Group which is a subsidiary of the Media Conglomerate Time Warner. This means that although the lyrics are written by the band and not written for them or copied from other artists, we have no way of telling how much of it was edited by their labels, and what was told to be taken out of put in. The people in the industry who are going to have the most power is going to be rich middle aged men who have a very different outlook on the world than a student or someone how has come from a modest background.

To me I enjoy watching Paramore’s videos because I like the energy in them, and one of their songs always seems to be able to fit my mood and be there for me to be able to relate to. Also it brings back memories of my friends from a few years back as we used to talk about the band, listen and dance around to their music and try to copy what they did on their videos. For others Paramore videos could mean the same, but also it might give them a subculture image and a feeling of identity for people who follow that genre, and be a topic of conversation if their friendship group are also into that type of music and feel to fit in.

Analysis of Paramore Music Videos

Misery Business (14th May 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/user/paramore#p/c/36A47467F4E49F78/9/aCyGvGEtOwc

This video uses narrative and performance.  The narrative section fits with the lyrics which are about the girl in the blue dress in the narrative section who is a stereotypical high school bitch. It uses metaphors to represent a lot of social problems which face current teenagers. The pop punk genre is known for promoting individuality, and here we see that the girl in the blue dress is obviously fake and unsure who she really is by the way Hayley rips out the chicken fillets and wipes off her makeup  to  reveal who she really is. The guy with the broken arm implies vulnerability, and the way she treats him shows she is taking advantage of it. Most people can relate to this, not by the broken arm but the feeling of being vulnerable and being taken advantage of.

At the time when this was released, Hayley Williams was known for her unique style of having yellow and orange/red hair, so wears an out fit and makeup to match this. The guys in the band wear red jeans and a black top to match Hayley, as well as fitting with the youth culture fashion of the time.

 

Decode (31st October 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/user/paramore#p/c/36A47467F4E49F78/6/RvnkAtWcKYg

Narrative + Performance is used in this video as the soundtrack was used in the Twilight film, so the video has been used to promote both the band Paramore and their music, as well as the film Twilight. This is an example of horizontal integration. Half of the video features clips from the Twilight movies, and the other half  is the band who are performing in the wood where as Twilight was filmed, and showing the band taking on the characters from the film.

Monster (18th July 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/user/paramore#p/c/36A47467F4E49F78/0/PoTEnaAI9Fo

The lyrics to this song seem to be reflecting on the band members Josh and Jeremy's recent departure from the group and as they said alot of things in the press about them, the lyrics are a way of trying to prove them wrong. It doesnt seem to be much of a love song and more about the breakdown of friendship. Josh said that 'Paramore were just a product of a major record label', which contradicts everything which the band appear to stand for and saying that the 4 guys who play the instruments are just backing Hayley and they arent a real band. I think that this song is the remaining band members saying to the 2 who left that they can carry on without them and that theyre the ones who have come out on top. 

Storyboard

I originally decided that I would go and take photos of all the shots we would need to film, to get a clear idea of camera angles and what the film would end up looking at. but due to shortage of time and the fact that I thought this could hinder any further development to ideas which I may have between taking the photographs and filming and whilst I'm filming, I decided against the idea and did sketches instead.

Production Schedule

	To Do…
October
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th	in the morning, go to Apley wood to take photos for story board, and get an idea about the location
13th
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
19th
20th
21st
22nd
23rd
24th
25th
26th
27th
28th
29th
30th
31st	Start Filming
November
1st
2nd
3rd	book rehearsal rooms / think of more shots
4th
5th
6th
7th	filming dance choreography in hall after college
8th	filming drums and guitars in practise room
9th
10th	uploading footage
11th
12th
13th
14th	green screen filming during lesson / filming in summerhouse after college
15th	upload footage / update blog
16th
17th
18th	filming in summerhouse after college
19th
20th
21st	editing
22nd	editing
23rd
24th	editing
25th
26th
27th
28th
29th	editing
30th
December
1st	editing
2nd
3rd
4th
5th	editing
6th	editing
7th
8th	editing
9th
10th
11th
12th	editing
13th	editing
14th
15th	editing and converting video file; deadline date for submitting video

Prop List

Practise room:

• drum kit
• electric guitar

Summerhouse:

• Bad blonde costume

Greenscreen:

• Bad blonde costume

Apley Wood:

• Microphone and lead for singing in the woods
• writing paper to write on whilst sitting by the lake
• bad blonde costume
• good blonde costume
• woods brunette costume

Recording Studio:

• microphone and lead
• microphone holder
• studio brunette costume
• guitar amp
• drumkit

Location Report

Practise Room:
We used this so that we could record footage of Jamie playing the guitar and drums in an environment where they look as though they could actually be practising and recording the song to show some footage of them producing instead of them just performing to an audience. I feel that artist who record here also appear to be showing an aspect of them as a band to their audience and fans which is behind the scenes which would appeal to the fans.
Summerhouse:
This location was chosen because it appears very remote and secretive which
Apley Wood:

Recording Studio:

Lyrics + some initial ideas

Choreography for dance section

(1,2) Sway right, left

(3,4) Kick left leg to side

(5,6) Prepare for pirouette

(7,8) Double pirouette

(1,2) Rise stepping forwards and rising arms right left

(3,4) Lean down bending right knee and stretching left heel

(5) Lead with right hand around in circle

(6,7,8) spins to upstage diagonal

(1,2) contraction to front stage

(3,4) Shasta to downstage diagonal

(5,6) Scissor leap

(7,8) attitude turn to right

Ideas for digipak photos

These photos were taken at sun set in a wood near to where I live and are for the photography design digipak:

I edited the third image down by putting a blue filter through it, to give it a colder feel:

Reflecting on how my research is going so far with A2

I am trying to be very thorough with my research, by analysing everything and finding photos and videos to back up my research. This often means that I fall behind and have to go back to tasks, which is getting everything a bit muddled up on my blog. Also I have been trying to look at more than just the minimum requirement to get a better understanding of the tasks and hopefully boost my grade. Me and the person I am working with have already exchanged mobile numbers so that we can keep in touch outside of the lessons as well to exchange ideas and let the other know of any circumstances which may arise and effect the project. Also we will book any equipment which we want to take out, and plan to use lighting and will need to book out the music studio. I think that with my research so far I still need to broaden the amount of resources which I am looking at, maybe but looking for them in magazines and looking at their merchandise.

Since AS I think my research skills have improved a lot, because my knowledge of sources have widened as l have been looking on the online shopping websites which sell their music and their own websites as well as just the YouTube clips of them performing. I am also including in my blog and experimenting with every idea which I have to try and get the best out-come overall. This year we will plan out our shoots better by keeping a more rigorous time schedule, because last time we didn’t plan out the whole thing at the start, and although there wasn’t any issues with it, this video is going to have a lot of cuts, and with lots of different scenes, so it will be nice to have a good idea about what we are going to do, how we are doing to do it, and when would be the best time. Especially as we would like to film in the woods at dusk when it’s looking dingy, so will have to pick a night when the weather is right. Plus I would like to experiment with different techniques more this year, to learn more about lighting, filters and other effects. I would like to put a blue filter on a lot of the shots, especially those in the woods and outside to make the video feel cold as well as being a link to the references to water.

I need to improve on my lip syncing, as it appeared to be a weakness especially in the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video and ruins the whole video. To do this I will make sure that whenever filming a clip where lip-syncing is taking place, I will play the ‘Monster’ song whilst filming, so the character knows which part they are meant to be doing, and keeps it in time. Also one of the effects in the AS video were pointless and didn’t make sense to the audience, and so we need to make sure that both of us know why the other has added something in and discuss it.

To try to impress the examiner I need to start keeping a list of the websites I have got the information from and magazines or other media forms I have looks at, so the examiner knows that I have been thorough with my research. Also being creative with the camera angles and shots fits in with the stylistic qualities of the pop punk rock genre, so will be able to link and back up the decision to use any type of shot.

Initial Ideas

Narrative:

There is a very open narrative to the lyric of this song, which makes it easier for the audience to relate to, because they could identify with it no matter what is on their mind. The main part of the chorus which says 'stop the whole world from turning into a monster' implies that they are trying to do the right thing and save everything which is going wrong. The start implies the singer is talking about more people than just herself, referring to 'we' but not implying the gender or type of relationship means that it could be the relationship between any 2 or more people in any circumstance, but the mention of 'heart' shows a strong bond. The second verse is almost like claiming innocence, and blaming someone or something other than themselves. The tempo is very uplifting, like giving you the energy to carry on. Although it isn’t a particularly happy song, it doesn’t make you feel depressed.

Visual Style:

A lot of emphasis is put on the facial expressions of the artists, which communicate the emotion of the song to the audience. It also pays a lot of attention to the instruments with a lot of close ups. The editing often fits in with the tempo of the music, as if it’s very fast the cuts will be rapid. The cuts are also done in time with the music, and to emphasis certain points or notes in the piece. Unlike music videos in genres such as dance, where direct shots, whereas in the pop punk rock genre they experiment with the angles and shots a lot which means they don’t last very long, and are usually almost still images, but makes it look more interesting. The videos are often performance with narrative, as use it to show the audience who the band are and gain themselves exposure and publicity, as well as communicating a theme or idea to the sing, and giving the song a meaning and therefore more appeal to the audience. For the lighting I would like to have a blue filter when filming in the woods, to give a creepy effect and enhance the fact we are filming at night. Also as we will e filming in October, the woods will look very autumnal. Then in the studio i think it would look good to use a monochrome effect whilst actually filming, as it looks better than changing it to black and white in post production. 

Cast:

Girl who performs the singer and lip-syncing as the performer in the studio and standing in the woods, is different to the girl who performs the narrative without lip syncing who appears in other clips such as by the lake, on the peer, in the bedroom and other locations.

Practicalities (filming locations, costumes, time to film, etc.):

In a wood (possibly Apley wood because it has a lake and peer), by a lake, in a studio and in a bedroom. Costume would need to be the stereotypical pop punk rock fashion which is skinny jeans and t-shirt for the studio and recording room, using one main colour which is used for props and any other characters throughout. The costume for performing in the woods would be an evening dress, or something which a singer would usually wear on stage. The dance clips would be wearing dance clothes. The lake and peer clips would be wearing the same stereotypical punk pop rock clothing as in the studio. Filming would be best done in the evening because it would look good to have a dusk effect which would be dingy. As it would be in October, being autumn means the trees would be different shades of orange, red, brown and green which would look nice, plus a possible autumn sun set if we time it on the right night.

How this all links back to research into other media products:

This all links back to Paramore’s videos which they have released because we got the idea of filming performance in a wood from their video 'Decode'. Their videos are very typical of the punk pop rock genre, promoting themselves as performers by adding performance in, then promoting their song at the same time by adding in a narrative and having the band acting out as characters. The costume is very typical to the fashion sense of young people today (which we will use in our video) and using Paramore’s signature colours for a basis for this.

Plan for Digipak

Photograph Design
Location: Woods
Subject: Photograph or a wood at sunset, with the figure of a person standing behind a tree on the front, and the face of one of the girls in the video on the back (faded and semi transparent into the trees)
Pose: Facial expression = looking upset
Costume: Person standing behind the tree wearing black clothes and face on the front with hair blowing forwards
Angle: Direct approach
Font: Although in all of paramore's album cover's they use the same font for the artist's name and the name of the album, i wanted to do something different, although keeping it in the orange/red colour
Visual Sketch:

Artwork Design

Target Audience

The age range for people who are most likely to listen to the punk pop rock genre are teenagers and people aged between 13-24. It seems to appeal to a large proportion of this age range, but mainly groups of stereotypically people originally known in the 80s as punk-rockers, and now more popularly known as emos or scene kids who wear brightly coloured skinny jeans and t-shirts (similar to the artists of the music they listen to). So in my video i will need to include characters dressed in this type of clothing and within this age group.

Paramore Digipaks

All We Know Is Falling (released 24th April 2006)

Uses a Photo-shopped photograph. The brightness and contrast of colours has been increased, and stars added to the sky, but not as heavily photo-shopped as some album covers in the punk pop rock genre.

The main focus of the cover seems to be the red sofa, and the ‘Paramore’ above.

Riot (released 25th June 2007)

The main and biggest word draws attention by being orange/red in colour which fits with Hayley’s unique hair colour at the time, and a lot of their videos take this colour scheme.

‘Paramore’ is written within the cover, but doesn’t draw as much attention. It says ‘Paramore’ on the left of the cover.

Uses Artwork

Brand New Eyes (28th September 2009)

This cover also uses artwork. The first album cover uses a photograph, but then artwork for the second and third albums, so they must have thought it worked better. They are all quite abstracts and random designs, but often the design is used within the music videos as well, as in Misery Business the ‘Riot’ where the design is used all over the backdrop in the performance section which helps promote the album.

The cover from the ‘Brand New Eyes’ album, has a picture of a butterfly which has had its wings taken off links with the video for the song ‘Brick by Boring Brick’ which is in the album, as it contains a younger version Hayley Williams wearing fairy wings which she takes off in the end, and links with the lyrics ‘ripping wings off butterflies’. Also butterflies fly past the screen throughout. This song is essentially about growing up, and throughout their albums you can tell they are growing up, as the first cover doesn’t really show much about then, then ‘Riot’ seems to show their teenage rebellious and fun personality, whereas ‘Brand New Eyes’ seems a lot more grown up and calm in comparison. None of them show a picture of the band themselves, although they have released posters which show photos or heavily photo-shopped photos which are blended into artwork. They usually use only one colour per design, with their first album having the red sofa, the second album having the orang/red 'Riot!' and their third album having the yellow butterfly. These colour schemes also link with the colours they tend to dress in, hayley's hair colour, and the main colours and occasionally the tint on the lighting of the music video. The font on all 3 albums is also the same.