Task 11 - Inspirations / Directions

For inspiration, I looked at videos for artists and genres that I really like. For example I looked at artists such as; J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and Jay Rock.

Jay Rock - Vice City ft. Black Hippy

The video above is the music video to Jay Rock - Vice City ft. Black Hippy. I take inspiration from this video, mainly for clothing. The clothing is very Hip Hop/ Rap and is generally something the artists in the song would wear on a day to day basis. I think that the style they possess is definitely an american gangster style. For example, Jay Rock is wearing baggy jeans, with black and white trainers and an open thin coat with a plain white t-shirt underneath.

Earlier in the video Kendrick Lamar is shown wearing a sweatshirt with a white t-shirt hanging out the bottom, with some baggy, ripped jeans and some white trainers. This is the outfit I had imagined in my head for my actor, maybe mixed with some of Jay Rock's outfit.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Weeknd - Often (NSFW) 

The video for this song is really what I take my inspiration from, the song is Hip Hop style and has a slow tempo, so the video fits very well. The outfit that The Weeknd is wearing is also striking, the american football style jacket, with his own brand fits very well, and looks very fitting for the setting and song itself. The slow pans and close ups of The Weeknd himself are what give this video a sense of originality, the fact the camera pans upside down, around his head, really gives the video its distinct look.

Task L - Risk Assessment

Risk	Danger Level	What can happen	How to avoid
Dropping the camera.	4/5	If you drop the camera, you will have to pay the school the cost of the camera.	Be careful at all times, and wear the camera around your neck using the strap.
Tripping over equipment.	3/5	You could drop the camera, or most likely hurt yourself from falling.	Move anything that isn’t needed out of the way, and be careful of the tripod, what your steps.
Props causing harm.	4/5	If using any sharp objects during filming, it can bring harm to those in the vicinity.	Handle props carefully, and act responsibly, making sure you don’t harm someone or yourself with the prop.

Task 9 - Digipak Analysis 1

Task 2 - Analysis of Another Student's Work

For this task I had to analyse a past Media Studies student's blog, and for this task I chose to analyse Jake Maud's work.

Research:
Positives:

•  Jake's work is very concise, and is laid out in a very simple but sophisticated way. All sections to his blog are very easy to find and navigate within.
• I found that his research tasks contained a lot of information into Music Video Directors and that he related them to his own ideas and work, he created sections to comment on their work and how he could take inspiration from them in order to plan and film his own music video.
• For his research into the music videos, he asked 20 people; 11 female and 9 male. This allows him to record data from a wide range of people and not just being biased towards one gender. 

Negatives: 

• I found that Jake could maybe have used more pictures to illustrate his research, this would have brightened his research blog up a bit.
• As for Jake's questionnaire on music videos, he could have added more questions to the questionnaire itself, and also he could have asked more people and maybe added age onto it so that when analysing his own questionnaire he could have seen if age was a factor with the genre of music. 
• Jake could have also analysed more music videos for his research to benefit himself when planning his music video, by getting inspiration from different genres of music and their videos.

Planning:
Positives:

• Jake's planning is very good in that he extracts ideas from different types of music videos and has brainstormed them, and analysed why they would work for him.
• When Jake was planning his locations, I can see that he put in a lot of effort, he scouted out many possible locations and took at least 5 images of each, so that he could fully take in the scenery and compare to what he had pictured in his head. 
• He added a lot of images and videos of places that he had visited, making the blog a visual experience for those who viewed it. This allowed people to understand what Jake was trying to create with these locations.

Negatives:

• Jake's storyboard is a video of all locations, with the picture of the actors placed over the videos. Although this is a very good and original idea, it could easily cause people to become confused with his ideas, and unaware that the actors will eventually be filmed there etc.

Music Video: 

Positives: 

• Jake's music video is shot incredibly well, all shots have been well thought out and don't look pointless or as if they have just been placed in randomly.
• The video fits perfectly with the song that Jake has chosen, and the video gives off the same vibes as the song. 
• The video contains some stereotypes as to what type of people listen to that sort of song, and they fit very well.
• Jake's video has a very clear and in-depth story to it.

Negatives:

• Some of the shots during the video, don't match the pace of the song.

Digipak:

Positives: 

• Jake's digipak highlights the amount of effort that he went to, in order to create his music video, including the final raw images. 
• The mock up of the digipak that Jake did showed that each element of the end product was thought out carefully.

Negatives:

• There are some parts of the process that haven't been recorded in Jake's digipak, such as; how he made the images,  for example what software he used and how he edited them. 

Magazine Advert:

Positives:

• Jake's magazine advert for his music video is very good, as it includes a date of release.
• It is also good because he has put a lot of effort into editing the original image into the cover of the music video.
• It shows where you can buy the music video (iTunes)

Negatives:

• The only negative I could find is that it doesn't show a price. 

Evaluation: 

Positives: 

• Jake has used many different presentational formats in order to deliver his evaluation to us. 
• Jake has answered every question in detail, and used pictures when needed to illustrate his point.
• The rang of presentational formats help the evaluation not seem linear and boring, especially with the video answers.

Negatives:

• Jake could maybe have used some pictures in the questions that he has used a vlog to answer the question, just to help his points that he has written out. 
• Jake could have also used a different format to present his last question such as; Slideshare.

Task 1 - Music Video Shot Count Analysis

Shot Count Analysis Chart

Track: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

Artist: Beyoncé

Director: Jake Nava

Record Co: Sony Music Entertainment

Release date: 2nd October 2009 ( Music Video ), 13th October 2008 ( Actual Track )

Length of video: 3 Minutes, 18 Seconds (3:18)
Number of shots in entire video: 42 Shots
Average length of shot: 4.7 seconds

Number of shots in 30 second segment: 25
Within the 30 second segment there are:
Number of CU: 3
Number of ECU: 1
Number of LS: 17
Number of MS: 4
Number of Panning Shots: 2
Number of Tilts: 1
Other Shots: N/A

I have learnt from this music that there are a substantial amount of shots in any music video, which mainly contain the artist dancing or doing something related to the title of the song. I have also learnt that the quantity of shots can differ depending on the genre of song, if it is a fast-paced rap song for example it would be probable that the shots will be fast cuts to keep up with the beat of the music. In contrast to a slow indie or pop song which would most likely have a noticeably less amount of shots, and the cuts will be slower. The majority of the shots will contain the artist for self-promotion, with the exception of some original artists who have an abstract video that wouldn't contain themselves.