Treatment

My music video will be abstract with some narrative elements, all based around the concept of a broken relationship. The focus is the artist and she will lip-sync which adds an aspect of performance. A boy will also feature as her boyfriend. The location of the video will mainly be in a studio but there will be flashback scenes (which provide the narrative elements) filmed in a park and a house setting. 

3 Initial Ideas

Kate Nash - About

Kate Nash - A Brief Bio by kmaxey18 on GoAnimate

Kate Nash - A Brief Bio 2 by kmaxey18 on GoAnimate


These are a couple of short videos I made which give a brief background of Kate Nash, the artist of my chosen song. I feel as though it is necessary to know about the artist of the song, in order to understand the song in more depth. This will also help me to create/develop an artist of my own because Kate Nash is a real life example of a female Indie artist.

Helpful YouTube Tutorials

Although this video is related to film making, the techniques covered can be applied to music videos too. As I have not got any proper experience with camera work, I found this video very interesting and helpful because it taught me and explained some of the basics.



This video was really helpful and I plan to use some of these tricks when I am filming my music video because I won't have all the complex filming equipment such as tracks and a crane that film crews have, so this has given me good alternatives to use that will still create a professional looking product but without the big budget.



This tutorial which gives tips on how to make lip dubs/lip-syncs easier will really come in handy when filming and editing my music video, as I want to include some lip-sync sections to my product in order to conform to the conventions of a music video, and make it look more professional.

Conventions of Music Videos & the Indie Genre

I did research into the conventions of music videos and the indie genre so I knew what is expected from a music video, specifically from that genre. This means I can now conform to or purposely go against these conventions so my video will appeal to my target audience and look professional, whilst still being unique. Conventions are the foundation to successful music videos so it was important to find out what these conventions were. Therefore, this task has been and will prove to be incredibly beneficial to me in the production process of my video.

The History of Music Videos

This is a timeline to represent the history of music videos, along with some examples:

These are the music videos included in this post:

Lyrics - Picture Moodboard

These are some pictures that match the lyrics of my chosen song. They portray the more literal meanings behind some of the words in the lyrics, and therefore give a little bit of insight into what the song is all about.

Lyrics Analysis

I carried out an analysis of the lyrics of my chosen song so I could get a a deeper insight into what the true meaning of the lyrics is. This helped me get some initial ideas of what the style of the music video and the meanings within it should be. Additionally, it gave me some inspiration in relation to the mise-en-scene I could use and when the best times to do edits would be. Therefore, this was a very helpful and key task as part of the planning process.

Lyric Timing

Here I have done the lyric timing for my chosen song. I timed the length of each line in the song. This prepares me for editing, and will make the editing process slightly easier for me. It will also help with the storyboarding process and any lip sync sections of my video.

Chosen Song

For my advanced portfolio, I am going to be using the acoustic version of Foundations by Kate Nash. This is an Indie Pop song, which was released in 2007. Foundations is the lead single on Kate Nash's debut album 'Made of Bricks' and she co-wrote it with Paul Epworth. Following it's release, Foundations reached number 2 on the UK singles chart and remained there for 3 weeks, as well as getting positive reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone and The Guardian.
I chose to do this song because its clever lyrics and preppy beat inspired a lot of ideas in me for the video. The way Kate Nash conveys sadness and anger in such a fun, upbeat yet snarky way is very interesting and hooked me on the song, and I really want to capture this feel in my music video. I also decided to do the acoustic version rather than the original because I like more stripped back nature of it, and I want to focus on and incorporate the more raw beat in the video. Also, the acoustic version doesn't have a music video made for it, so I can start completely from scratch and look at the song with an open mind rather than have the temptation to take bits from an original video.
Note: The song is actually 3:21 in length, this YouTube video just has blank space at the end for some reason.

Possible Song Choices

Over the past few weeks I have been considering lots of different song choices to do my music video for. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming of ideas, I narrowed it down to my favourite 6. I feel as though these songs would all be good to work with, as their lyrics are effective, they have good beats to edit to, the length of each song is adequate, and they all have inspired me with ideas for the video. Furthermore, they all fit into the Indie genre which is the genre I was wanting to use for my advanced portfolio.

Audience & Personal Feedback - 'All Time Favourite Music Videos'

In class, we picked our all time favourite music video. Three videos were then picked at random, we watched them and made notes. This prezi is a summary of this task.

Audience & Personal Feedback - 'What Makes A Good Music Video?'

This is a summary of this week's lessons.
Knowing what audiences consider to be a good music video and why is very beneficial to me because I can apply this when creating my music video. I want my video to look professional and be successful in appealing to audiences so it is necessary to know what audience want to see in music videos so I can adhere to this.

Main Task Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with:

• a cover for its release as part of a digipak
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak

Skill Development - Post-Production

My skills in relation to post-production have also developed by a huge amount. Throughout the year, my ability to analyse products really improved. For many years I have had to use analytical skills, especially in English at school, and I thought they were one of my strong points. However, before starting A Level Media, I have never been as in-depth. Learning how to carry out thorough evaluations of my own work was an eye-opener, as I never realised how much detail I would have to go into. The process of completing the evaluations of my preliminary task, final task and my transition task was stressful at times and could be very time consuming but the outcome was worth it. As I progressed through the year I also developed my ability to apply creativity to and be imaginative with my post-production work. By the end of the year I was using lots of different formats for my evaluation, such as go animates, videos, etc. rather than doing one long text post. This helped me to gain more marks, and made my portfolio a lot more interesting.

Skill Development - Creativity

In relation to creativity, I think my skills have developed by a great amount. Before starting the course, I lacked in creativity, as the theory side was more my strong point. For this reason, I struggled to initially think of ideas for my coursework, especially my preliminary task. My blog posts also lacked imagination, as the format of my posts were all very boring and standard text posts, rather than using other mediums, such as prezis or videos, etc. Over the year, my creativity and imagination began to expand. I think looking at existing products and some example blogs of previous students really helped me to establish what was expected from me, and I developed ideas from there. Also, when looking back at the comparison of my preliminary task to my final product, the development in creativity is very clear. My final product is much more complex and professional. In addition, I felt as though I could be more creative within the brief compared to the preliminary task. My development is also clear when looking at the early posts of my blog, compared to the more recent ones. Throughout the year I learnt to be more imaginative with my blog posts and use a variety of formats, and also be more in-depth with each post, as these things gain more marks.

Skill Development - Using Conventions From Real Media Texts

From completing my Foundation Portfolio, I now know the conventions of the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine. My knowledge of conventions expanded throughout my AS year, for example, after completing the preliminary task I realised the importance of using the conventional shot type of medium close-up for the main image of the magazine cover. Before doing my preliminary task I thought any shot type would be acceptable and look effective, but when looking back at it, I can see that it doesn’t look as appealing and professional as it would have done with if I followed conventions and used a medium close-up, correct lighting and a set pose, and if I had done this in my final product, I would have lost marks. I also gained knowledge in relation to other key conventions, such as the positioning of the masthead, a set colour scheme including three colours, including a plug, etc. In the evaluation of my final product, I completed a conventions analysis of each part of the product (front cover, contents page, and double page spread), which clearly showed the conventions I followed. These conventions included: a skyline, main image, masthead, plug, barcode, etc. on my front cover, a title, editor’s note, feature stories with their page numbers, multiple images, layout in columns, etc. on my contents page, and a stand first, drop cap, pull quote, article set out in columns, main image taking up a page, etc. on my double page spread.

Skill Development - Research & Planning

I have always known that research and planning is important when creating a product, in order to get it to a high standard. However, before doing my foundation portfolio, I never realised the extent of planning that needs doing, and how in-depth you have to be. Throughout the year, I learnt about and used research and planning processes, such as LIIAR analyses, reader profiles, mood boards, conventions analyses, existing product research, audience research, and mock-ups. I included these processes in both my preliminary and final task, with the extent of how in-depth I was with each process improving between the two tasks. In addition, as well as doing the essential parts of planning and research, I also realised the importance of thinking outside the box, and doing some independent planning to put on my blog. This allowed me to go beyond what was being asked of me, in order to have a product of a better standard and gain a higher overall grade.

Skill Development - Digital Technology

Before starting media studies and beginning to put together my Foundation Portfolio, I had very little/no experience with using certain digital technology, especially Photoshop. As a class we had a Photoshop 'workshop' which helped me learn the basics, for example, how to change the brightness and contrast of an image. The preliminary task then allowed me to develop these skills further. I started to get more confident with the technology, learning how to add and edit text, get to grips with the layered format on Photoshop, etc. After that I mainly used a 'trial and error' approach with Photoshop, practicing with random pictures before beginning the actual production process of my magazine. Some specific skills I learnt throughout the duration of my year of AS Media include: image editing (colour treatment, spot healing tool, and dodge tool), text editing (magic wand and eraser tool, and transform-scale), how to add shapes, and changing layer styles (opacity, etc.).Throughout the course, I also became more confident with using cameras and lighting. Beforehand, I had used digital cameras but I had never used them in an advanced way. After doing multiple photo shoots for my product, I now know how to position and frame shots correctly and how to use lighting to make the shots look more flattering.