9.Pitch

Me and my group are creating a PowerPoint presentation to pitch our song choice and music video in front of a camera. We linked in most of the research we did prior to our blogs; target audience,initial ideas,song choice,effects and costumes,outcomes and why? Why a pitch? This is to show our final ideas and that we have a plan of what our group intend to make. Also to gain other people's opinions they have on our idea. Of course, the feedback was great! I think if it was to be made into an official music video for Lay Gaga's 'monster' it would increase her popularity as it seems exciting and new and links with themes and ideas of her previous videos, like Bad Romance which is heavily influenced within the Gothic genre with Christian Crosses and her 'little monsters' accompanying her dance routines. With our music video heavily influenced within the Gothic B-side horror movies (Frankenstein,Dracula) it references to Gaga's intertexual style she incorporates in her videos (collaborating two genres of music -Beyonce) and pop cultural references (Tarantino films in Telephone). Different subcultures and ages will be interested to appreciate her performances and her songs and the meaning there is behind them! i like to think of her album The Fame Monster as a story, moving through different chapters of her life or indeed a horror movie itself ie. sequels! PowerPoint - https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8spo8elV8wfNTBkNDg3MDMtNDUzNC00OWZjLWJhMDAtMzdkODBiMjIyOTZi&hl=en Out PowerPoint looked in detail various ideas and thoughts for the video and we have researched a lot into her target audience and how we can achieve this. Recorded Pitch - https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8spo8elV8wfNjZkYjI4NmUtMjQ5ZC00NGViLThkMmUtNjZiMTJjMjlhNDNk&hl=en This shows the PowerPoint in the background as we elaborate further our ideas in speech!

8.Initial Ideas.

Using the lyrics to the song is key when planning a narrative based song. In order to create the film like quality, we have to understand the song first! Here we gathered a few ideas after brainstorming what Gaga is about (shown below). In my head, i already had a clear idea of how it was going to look, with lots of old film grain and shoddy cuts and props!

I spilled out a few ideas through brainstorming what "Monster" as a song means and the connotations it has with horror. Also exploring Lady Gaga's music videos helped with the planning!

The WolfMan

Jackson Transformation

Thriller film!

Dracula

Many of our initial ideas were inspired by 1920's/B side horror movies. Because Lady Gaga's album track listing for 'The Fame Monster' follows a story, we thought it be appropriate to much the running theme from her other videos like Bad Romance and Alejandro to make a movie themed music video.

At first, planning the video and the introduction leading up to the music was to reinvent Micheal Jackson's 'Thriller'. The beginning of the story was of a couple watching a film in a cinema on a date. They walk out of the cinema because the girl is scared and like in many horror movies, the boyfriend transforms into a beast, or in this case Dracula. Lady Gaga is notorious for her statements among men and women and the objectification of them. Mulvey's The Male Gaze is apparent in many of her videos focusing on close up and detailed shots of Lady Gaga in a sexualised manner. As do the photographs from Dracula and the Wolfman above!

The two iconic character's were to become the main ones in out video. A Love Triangle idea was inspired through her lyrics 'He's a Wolf' and 'Licking his lips' giving us imagery of wolves and vampires. Furthermore, the objectification of women can be seen through these lyrics as it arguably connotes to Red Riding Hood and the danger she faces as do all 'Little' Girls and Gaga's army of monsters.

All of these ideas created the planning for the video like the chain that goes in Gaga's thoughts. You can tell I'm a die hard Gaga fan!

Being a fan of her work i would definitely say this would be a possible idea if she were to make this music video as it tells the audience whatever the audience wants it to. The idea is open for interpretation much like many of her other works!

But this is just the narrative!

Through browsing on YouTube, we researched many iconic films (found in creative camera use blog!) to help us develop ideas for the cinematography, set and location, editing and sound for the obvious spectacular introduction!

I really want to incorporate the famous Nosferatu silhouette shot across the wall and all the fast edited and paced zooms 1920's cheesy horror movies had!

The love triangle story line follows throughout each verse and bridge of the song, through the wolf being introduced first as Gaga's lover, and Dracula second as she is her partner. The theme follows what love can do and unfortunately, sorry to give the end away Dracula dies! OH no! SHOCKING?not until you hear what Gaga's girlfriend has to say!

Using blurred,shallow and narrow and wide depth of fields, different shots will appear to stand out more to the audience so that they follow along with the story.

I don't now whether using effects rather than black and white and visual/lighting effects will work as it is telling a story and in most of Gaga's videos, evrything is in sight and focusing in on her!

7.Copying an existing video

To get experience with cameras, shooting scripts/schedules and working well as a team, our class copied an existing music video! 'Teenage Dirtbag' is an obvious one as we are all teenagers!

First of all, your storyboards depict all oft he shots that are going to be included in the music video and contain detailed noted ie. the Shot Type

The Camera Movement

Description Of Action

And the Sound!

During the first week of planning, our group analysed the first ten frames of the music video and wrote the shot number and action for example

Shot 1

Action Description: Boy waking up on the stairs

Camera Movement: Slow Zoom

Sound/Audio: Teenage Dirtbag by Wheetus!

We then went to try out some test filming using clapperboards and shooting scripts to help us monitor our filming. A shooting Script is much smaller than a Storyboard and has space for you to note how each take went, so that when it comes to editing, the clapperboard and the shooting script will be able to tell you whether its a good or bad shot, thus speeding editing time up!

Each of us were shown how to direct on shoot and learned the importance of communication with each other so that everything runs smoothly and calmly! In our exercise, the director works alongside the camera man so they can both check to see if the angles good etc after positioning the actors. The director asks if the actors and camera crew are ready and set the camera recording!The clapperboard is the placed in front of the lens so that means the shot has been called out. Now the Director say..ACTION!

Setting up the Camera:

Mounting the Tripod

The tripod gives stability when filming and useful for zooming,panning and tilting the camera. however you need to make sure its level unless purposeful by using the spirit level!that way you get a straight clear shot every time!

Setting the White Balance:

Before filming the white balance on the camera has to be set to suit the conditions of the location for example when filming outside stetting it Daytime filming with decrease the blue tint that will appear when editing the shots! In our exercise most of the test filming was shot in the college corridor on a cloudy day so we set it to artificial light to suit the balance.

once the camera knows the right conditions it will then calibrate itself to suit it!

Adjusting the exposure:

When using Canon XM2, manual setting are best to adjust the exposure and to not let the camera run on auto.The manual setting will give you control over how light or dark the footage appears.Using the shutter speed aperture and gain you can adjust these conditions

Composition:

you can change the frame size be like a wide screen film this is called 16:9 ratio. the normal setting is 4:3 however using the rule of thirds you can find the right composition for the shots!

Depth of Field:

In our test filming, shots 5-9 were using a narrow depth of field where the foregrounds in focus and the background is blurred!shifting the focuses is called a pull focus.