Editing

Paulo Nutini

Paulo Nutini has many conventions in his videos which we are interested in. In 'New Shoes' I like how he is always walking towards the camera which I think is a shot which we could use.

More Inspirations

Taylor Swift - Mine



Shania Twain - Any Man of Mine



James Taylor - (I've got to) Stop Thinkin' Bout That

Inspirations

Suzanna Vaga - Luka


We like the overlap at which starts at 0.09, and we could use this to show both characters in different places but thinking about each other. All of our inspirations carry the same theme of 'folk rock/country pop'.

Results

 These are my results which I collected from the Surveymonkey questionnaire. I processed the graphs in Microsoft Excel and we now have a greater idea of what to include and not to include in our video.

Questionnaire and results

To find out exactly what our target audience was and what their needs were, we conducted a questionnaire on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ which is an easy and free site to distribute questionnaires.

This screen shot shows my first question which I put in, and proof of the website which I used. There are more questions below. After this was completed, I emailed four males and four females to make it a fair test, to find out their needs and wants from a music video.

 

Email - Permission

We asked permission from Polly Paulusma by email to ask whether we could use her song. Due to them being family friends, Tom also conversed with her but to make things more official she suggested we emailed her on Sunday 5th December:

Dear Polly,
I am writing on behalf of myself, Rachel Procter, and Tom Bowers; we are A2 Media Studies students at Saffron Walden County High School Sixth Form. For our A2 media task we have to create a music video and ancillary tasks which consist of a digipak and  a magazine advert. Our work will be assessed by the OCR exam board.
We would love to use your song 'Back to the Start' as we feel the song has the potential for us to produce a creative, quality music video gaining the maximum possible marks.
On copyright grounds we need to ask your permission to use the song. We will not be producing this video for profit or any other commercial purposes. We will be posting it on our coursework blog at www.blogger.com and we shall show you the finished product to assure you it is only for coursework purposes.
If you could reply on this email address as to whether we have permission, we would both really appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely
Rachel Procter and Tom Bowers.

Polly referred us to One Little Indian records who replied:

Tom and Rachel,
I work for Polly Paulusma at One Little Indian Records.
Polly has written to me and expressed her wish for you to be able to use her work as part of your media studies course.
I am writing to confirm that Polly and One Little Indian Records are very happy to grant you all the permissions necessary to use Polly's song 'Back To The Start' in your media studies course as outlined in your e-mail below.
Thanks
Derek

Derek Birkett
One Little Island Records
34 Trinity Cresent
London
SW17 7AE
Telephone: 0208 772 7600

Storyboard

We storyboarded our ideas, however the scanner is not working at the moment and will be updated soon.

Profile of Polly Paulusma

Profile taken from Wikipedia

Polly Paulusma is an English singer-songwriter. Her first album, Scissors in my Pocket, was largely recorded and produced by herself at her home. A second album, Cosmic Rosy Spine Kites (a virtual anagram of the title of the first album) features the same tracks, four of which were recorded with a string quartet (and without guitars or percussion); the rest at a gig in Manchester, England, where she supported Jamie Cullum. Apart from Jamie Cullum she has also supported other artists on tour including Marianne Faithfull and Coldplay and played at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005.

As well as using computer-based methods to self-produce her first album, Polly and her management have arguably made good use of the internet and contemporary methods of distribution to reach a larger potential audience: signed to One Little Indian Records, two of Polly's tracks ("Over the Hill" and the live version of "She Moves in Secret Ways") were issued as free downloads through Apple's iTunes Store. This has possibly led to greater exposure for a niche artist on a UK-based independent record label than might otherwise have been expected or previously possible. Polly has also used her profile at MySpace.com, her own website, blogs on both websites and a link to a forum on the latter to connect with her fans and keep them up-to-date on her touring and recording plans.

Polly announced on her web site that her daughter Valentine Constance Mae was born on 10 November 2006 (coincidentally Polly's own birthday). Paulusma's third album "Fingers and Thumbs" was released in the June 2007. The cover shoot was done when Polly was 38 weeks pregnant.

Polly and her husband, Mike, live in the thinnest home in London. Located in Battersea, the 7-foot-7-inch-wide (2.31 m) home is where Paulusma recorded her first album "Scissors in my Pocket," as well as the demos for "fingers & thumbs."

Annotated lyrics

These are the lyrics to the song which we annotated before filming. It can be seen from this that our ideas have changed and have been manipulated compared to our final product.

Synopsis

Our video will be of a love theme, where a boy has cheated on a girl at a party. We are going to include flashbacks of both of them where their relationship is working and when it is not. They realise that they love each other and are ready to forgive what each other has done, and the picture and colours become clearer towards the end. The cinematography and the mise-en-scene will make contrasts between the two characters, and the way we are planning to edit will show their despair.

Locations

We have decided to film in Cambridge, and we have permission to film in Trinity College which we are going to visit next week. We are currently waiting for permission to use a tripod within the college as they have said we need special permission to use a tripod but not for a handheld camera. There are many isolated spaces within the beautiful grounds which will be perfect for our film.

Polly Paulusma - Back to the Start

You've got something to hide
You can run all you like
'Cross plains and over mountains
The chains you drag behind you leave track marks in the air
You're asleep on your feet
And all the people you meet
'Cross plains and over mountains
Fooled by mirrors, think the light is shining bright in there

Come on, come on
We're going back to the beginning
I took a wrong turn
And you take it to heart so easy
When you come home
I will be waiting by the fire
And we'll take it all back to the start

What you trying to prove?
If you love it then let it fly
'Cross plains and over mountains
When you left her you kept a little feather in your hands
She's your rose-fingered dawn
So why are you gone
'Cross plains and over mountains
Peering out into the dark to see what light remains?

Come on, come on
We're going back to the beginning
I took a wrong turn
And you take it to heart so easy
When you come home
I will be waiting by the fire
And we'll take it all back to the start
Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start

Come on, come on
We're going back to the beginning
I took a wrong turn
And you take it to heart so easy
When you come home
I will be waiting by the fire
And we'll take it all back to the start
Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start
Yeah, we'll take it all back to the start

New!

I am now working with Tom Bowers and we have chosen a new song, location and are nearly ready to film. I will upload planning notes after every lesson about our progress. I have been unable to blog so I have a few weeks worth of material to upload.
Our new song is 'Back to the Start' by Polly Paulusma. We chose an uncopyrighted artist as it is easier to gain access and have permission to use the song, and Polly is also a family friend of Tom's. The song is different from my last choice but we have many inspriations to work with. We know that we have less time than everybody else and so we are trying our hardest to get up to speed with the rest of our group.

New arrangements..

Today my group and I spoke to our teacher about our progress in this course. He advised us to go our seperate ways and to complete individual work instead of working as a group because it is obviously not working, what with absences and other issues. I feel now I can do completely my own work and manage my own time. I can now be more motivated as I know I have less time to complete what everyone else has in the last two months. However, I know that I will try my hardest to get the best grade possible by myself.
I will complete a new course plan and my own weekly production meeting notes and post on my blog.

Permission to use the song

Yesterday I emailed the music company 'Columbia Records' to ask if we have permission to use the song 'I Need Air'. I rang them in the morning but the lady I had to speak to wasn't in the office when I phoned. Her colleague gave me her email address instead.

Dear Shirley,
My name is Rachel Procter and I am an A2 media student currently working on a project where we have to produce a music video which will be assessed by the exam board OCR.
I was given your email address by your colleague who works in your office after getting in contact through the phone this morning.
My group and I would like to use the song ‘I Need Air’ by Magnetic Man for our video and we thought it would be best to contact you for permission to use this regarding copyright issues.
We will be manipulating the video to our own ideas, but the video will only be accessed by the centre and by the exam board OCR. It will be published on a blog as that is the basis of our coursework. The website for the blog is www.blogger.com.
It will also not be used for any commercial purposes, only for us to receive a good mark in our A Levels!

If you would like to contact the centre the address is:
Saffron Walden County High School
Audley End Road
Saffron Walden
Essex
CB11 4UH

Telephone: 01799 513030 and ask to contact Mr Canning or Mr Hansard in the Media Dept.

I hope that you will allow us to use this brilliant song as we feel that we could use it to the best of our ability to produce a piece for us to get great marks at the end. We will send you a copy of our video when it is completed to prove that it is only being used for exam purposes.

Thank you very much for your time, I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Rachel Procter

Song Change

We have decided to change our song due to complications with the last one. We feel that we can encorporate more and better ideas into this song to receive the best possible grade. Maddy and I both annotated the song lyrics to fit with conventions on how we would like to film it. The annotations include mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography. Obviously these are brief ideas and we will improve them as we begin the storyboard. The song we have chosen is 'I Need Air' by Magnetic Man.

More meeting notes

This is our meeting notes for this week and what we expect to get done by the end of this week.

Production meeting notes 2

This is our meeting notes for last week, it has taken me a bit longer to upload as I had problems with the system. As you can see our synopsis is ready and we have thought about locations and the mise-en-scene. We will begin the story board to finish for next lesson.

You've Got The Love - lyrics

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need To see me through

Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough
And things go wrong no matter what I do
Now and then it seems that life is just too much
But you've got the love I need to see me through

When food is gone you are my daily meal
When friends are gone I know my savior's love is real
Your love is real

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Time after time I think "Oh Lord what's the use?"
Time after time I think it's just no good
Sooner or later in life, the things you love you loose
But you got the love I need to see me through

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need to see me through

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

As the song is over 5 minutes long, we are going to edit out the middle instrumental part as it will take a very long amount of time to film and edit for a video which is that long. Therefore, we believe our video will be of a much higher standard as we will encorporate all of our ideas into a shorter video.

Song - The XX - You Got The Love

All of us like the group 'The XX' who are an indie rock band from London and were formed in 2005. As they are from the UK and not the USA, we feel that if we are to ask permission to use one of their songs, the response will be quicker. Their record label is 'Young Turks' so we will need to find out information on how to contact them.
We enjoy the song 'You got the love' which is a cover from 'Florence and The Machine'. This song is different and we believe we have many ideas. You can see from our first meeting notes that we discussed the theme and concepts of our film. We developed the concept of love from the song and have decided to film in London, where a girl goes to find her true love. Our film will be black and white but we will colour pop everything which is red to enhance the meaning and connotation of love.

Music Video

Our media studies A2 project is to develop a new music video to an existing song. Instead of doing this individually, we are working in groups of three. I believe this is a good idea as many ideas can be put into this piece of work to make it the best it can possibly be.
Before we use a piece of music, we need permission from the music company to use it as there is a strong possibility the song is copyrighted. We cannot use any original ideas from our chosen song's video, however we can adjust and reconstruct ideas from other videos.
Our initial idea was to use a song which is not as well acknowledged; one, to receive permission earlier, and two, so the chances of someone else using our song is slim and we can use more original ideas. We decided not to do a popular pop song, as it limits our originality of ideas and there is more of a chance that somebody else will be using it not only from our school, but around the country. We want to stand out and show that we can receive the best possible marks from our work.

Inspirations and ideas

We looked at videos by Rihanna because her videos are always different but engaging. We picked up on a few ideas which we thought we could use and interpret in our own film.
Firstly we looked at Russian Roulette:
There is a light beam between 0.36 and 0.55 seconds which we thought gave a great effect.
The editing is brilliant in these videos, and at about 1.09 the scene moves really fast. Cross fading is used frequently and there is a cross faded flash which we enjoyed at 3.05, and at 1.43 there is a fast zoom out.
Another great effect we found was having the foreground in focus and the background out of focus. There is also a fast zoom at 2.36.


Secondly we looked at Rude Boy which is a completely different genre and tempo to Russian Roulette:
Even right at the beginning (0.02) there is a fast forward/reverse manouver, which gives the audience straight away the impression that this video is going to be less serious than Russian Roulette. It is also great editing as it fits perfectly with the music.
We were thinking about lip syncing in our video, and also having shots of just lips as we are considering a song about love. Coincidentally, this song has many lip shot sequences including 1.03, 1.13 and 1.50.


Russian Roulette:




Rude Boy:




One last idea we had was to use photos instead of film. This is a different and original idea. However it would take alot of time to do this, so we are going to research further and decide whether to continue this idea.

First Meeting Plan

We have chosen our song which is: The XX 'You Got The Love'. We looked at song lyrics, concepts, locations, inspirations and completed the plan schedule.

Plan Schedule for the course

This is the plan for the whole 10 weeks of the course. We have left the last four weeks free as we cannot plan that far ahead as we do not know how much progress we will make. I will update this after half term to give ourselves goals towards the end before the deadline.