Initial Ideas

We have decided to three different parts for our video. We have a storyline that we are going to present like a short movie, a main singer part where all you see is the mouth of the singer, emphasising the teeth and a dance routine where we hope to have around 5 dancers doing a dance we have choreographed from looking at Lady Gaga's live performances.

We have decided to film our video completely in black and white. We think this will be different to the other videos and will go nicely with our theme of death and vampires. It will also go well for our storyline part as we want a olden day film feel to it.

We would like to achieve some unusual shots and camera angles in our video to match the quality of a Lady Gaga video. We are also going to experiment with our lighting to emphasise parts of the body and low light to give people dark faces. We hope to do these shots in a studio.

For make up and costume we have decided to make our dancers wear some sort of mesh or lace face mask to cover their eyes and make the audience focus on their mouths. But we still want to see the make up through the face masks. Dancers will be wearing home made outfits of all black and maybe some white. We think dancers will be in leotards or lace outfits. We hope to achieve quite outrageous outfits, as Gaga does, but of course we have not got a huge amount of time and these outfits could be expensive, so we will make outfits to the best of our abilities and resources. Make up will also be black, and we are thinking smokey eye make up, quite overdone with bright lips that we may or may not shoot in colour. As the red idea would go well with out theme of death as red symbolises blood.

We put together a mind map to see which ideas would work with our theme and resources for the video. See link below for mind map.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5WUAYNvqSRQMmYyZDY1YjQtZDgxNS00ODE5LTg3MDgtMmVkNmIwODU0ZWU3&hl=en

Copying an existing video

In our lessons with Dan we have started videoing our own version to Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag. The link below shows the actual video to Teenage Dirtbag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJVRcCdvyY&ob=av2el
In our first recording lesson we went outside the back of the college and had a go at filming some outside shots for the beginning of the music video. For this lesson we worked as a class as it was our first time using the video cameras and tripods. For the shot we did I acted as an extra and had to walk through the frame pretending to be a student. After each shot we all filled in our shooting scripts with how the shoot went and what improvements we could make in the next take. This lesson went well but not all of us got to have a go behind the camera and it was mostly a watch and listen lesson.

In our second lesson we split our class into two groups and were each given a few shots from the corridor scene to film. We then went out in the corridor outside our class and worked at opposite ends. Our shots were the shots of the main character walking down the corridor and spotting the girl he fancied. We had a selection of close up shots and mid shots to shoot. We all took it in turns being in the video, recording, directing and writing on the shooting scripts. We worked very well as a group and all had a go behind the camera. The shots were fairly successful but we had trouble getting steady shots as we had to use tracking shots without a dolly and it is very hard to keep the camera steady without one. Other then this issue, we didn't have any other problems and managed to record the 4 shots we were asked to try.

In our third lesson we split into our same groups again and were given different shots to achieve. One group had to get the outside shots of the college and the shot of the main character asleep on a stairwell. We had a problem with this shot as it was raining. So, instead of outside shots, this group went into the common room and canteen as these places both gave the impression of a school setting. Our group stayed in the classroom and had to record the sports hall scene with the singer of the band playing the guitar. One of the people in our class had made a full sized score board for our video which we gaffa taped to the board and another rbought in the costume of the singers signature hat and glasses. Our teacher had brought us in a mcrophone stand and microphone as well as a small acoustic guitar. We set up the camera and tripod at the back of the classroom facing the board and the boy in our group dressed up as the singer and posed with the guitar. We had to try and get a shallow depth of field so that the scoreboard was slightly out of focus. this was hard though as we didn't really have a big enough room to achieve it. Other then our actor we had a few people taking in turns to record the shots and direct and some others keeping record of progress on our shooting scripts. I was in charge of the sound for the recording. Working on the computer pausing and restarting music as and when I was directed too. I also helped pre-recording with finding out what lyrics were being sung in each shot. I think our shots were very successful. We averaged a good shot every 5 takes. We had a close up shot, a mid shot and a mid shot in the profile view. Instead of just trying to achieve the few seconds of each shot we decided to film the whole verse in every shot, this way we had less problem with our singer trying to remember his cues and coming in on time. I think this was a very good shooting session and look forward to seeing the footage played back.



This week we have started editing the footage we have recorded in our previous lessons. We had a lesson where we were shown how to connect the video cameras to the laptops and introduced to Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs and how to set up our projects and capture our videos onto the macs. The first step when getting on Final Cut was setting up the editing format. The European format is PAL which is 24 frames per second. This is different to the American or Asian format which is NTSC which plays at 30 frames per second. If you are in the incorrect format then you will encounter problems when it comes to editing. To change the format on Final Cut Pro you have to go to the programme menu and go to Easy Setup where a panel will open. Using the drop down options you choose:
Format: PAL
Rate: 24.00 fps
Use: DV PAL 24 @ 25
After setting up the editing format you have to setup a Scratch Disk. The Scratch Disk is a folder you create to store your video. This is important to make as its very important to keep track of your video files as we will be capturing a lot of footage. To setup a Scratch Disk you go to the programme menu again and go to the System Settings panel. In it you click the Scratch Disk tab and click on the Set Button. It then asks you to make a folder to keep all your videos in, we saved the folder in the Movies Folder as then it is easier to find and recognise which is yours as we have to share the MacBooks with other media classes.
Once Final Cut is ready to use you have to connect your video camera to the laptop. You have to set the camera to VCR or Playback mode and then use the Firewire cable to connect the camera to the laptop. Now that the camera is connected you no longer need to use the camera controls, instead you can use the computer, this gives you a more precise frame by frame accuracy. You also need to rewind your footage so that once your video is on the computer you do not waste time rewinding it to the beginning and you can get started capturing straight away.
Now that the camera is connected we can capture the video from the camera to the computer. Before capturing you need to save your project in your folder you setup on the Scratch Disk. You then go to the Final Cut Pro menu and select Log and Capture. The computer will then open up a connection to your camera. Sometimes a box will appear that says, "Unable to Initialise Video Deck" which means you need to check your camera is set to the right mode or that the Firewire cable is connected properly as they can be quite temperamental.
When the capture window opens you can see your video in a frame where you can fast forward and rewind it using keyboard shortcuts:
J - Rewind
Jx2 - Rewind Double Speed
Jx3 - Triple speed
L - Fast forward
Lx2 - Double speed
Lx3 - Triple speed
Space Bar - Start/Pause
Before capturing the footage you need to give the video a name in the Description Check Box in the Logging Panel. Before capturing you need to play the video for a couple of seconds then click the Now tab. Once your footage is captured, you click the escape button and you video is ready to be edited on the computer.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BNzBmNzJlMmEtN2FiYS00MDc1LWI1ZmMtZGU1M2NlODY0OGNm&hl=en

This is my groups final edit for our Teenage Dirtbag video. The final edit isn't to the standards I was hoping as we ended up being rushed with time and this meant editing wasn't perfect and we missed out quite a few shots. This made large gaps in our video. We also have some shots that arent quite in focus or not quite in time with the music. We also have some problems with setting because of weather some shots that were supposed to be outside had to be shot inside, making them look unlike the video. If I could do it again I would re shoot quite a few shots were we had to film without a tripod as it makes the picture wobbly and unprofessional looking. I have learnt some good methods for shooting for when I make my own musical video. We learnt whilst doing this video, that it was easier to film the whole song from different angles then edit bits out of these then try and film each individual shot. I have also learnt the importance of shooting scripts and storyboarding to help with organisation and to refer to when we come to the editing stage. I feel I need to practice using FinalCut pro some more in my lessons with Dan as I am still not fully confident with the programme.

This is another piece of filming we did as a class to experiment using Final Cut Pro and is an experiement of a time lapse. We filmed it in college and split the class into 4 groups and looked for locations where we had a solid background with a good view of the sky. We filmed our subject in 3 different positions in the frame with the camera on a tripod and filmed each position for around 5 minutes. We then edited everyones work together and made it into a time lapse. I am pretty happy with the final product, the time lapse is a really nice effect and will seriously consider trying to incorporate it into my own music video. My favourite part of this time lapse is the one where the light gradually comes on in the background, it looks really effective.

Video Analysis

To analyse Lady Gagas videos I went onto http://www.youtube.com/.

The First video I looked at was Bad Romance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyI0I .

This video is set in a bath house which is named The Bath Haus of Gaga. The storyline is that Gaga has been kidnapped by a group of supermodels and sold to the Russian mafia.This video starts with a shot of Gaga sitting in a gold throne surrounded by her dancers, a mixture of men and women. The room is brightly lit and Gag has her finger on the mute button of an iPod speaker, as she releases it the song begins to play. We then switch to a fluorescent white room with baths that look like pods in it, the light spans the room and a sign saying The Bath Haus of Gaga shows. As the music continues dancers in long sleeved white leotards emerge from the small white pods and Lady Gaga gets out of the central one with a similar looking outfit. We then switch between these dancers and other scenes, including one of Gaga with candyfloss pink hair lying in a bath. During the chorus Gaga is dragged from the bath by two women, has her clothes ripped off and forced to take a swig of a drink. The second verse starts with Gaga in a diamond covered outfit dancing for some men who look like they are bidding for her. She then performs a lap dance for one of the men and a highest bid is made. Next Gaga is in a faux polar bear coat walking towards a man with an unbuttoned shirt sitting on a bed. The bed then spontaneously combusts. Gaga sings and dances in front of he flames and switches between these dancing scenes and one of her in a red lingerie outfit dancing with dancers in red outfits. At the end we see Gaga lying next to the burnt remains of a skeleton on the bed, smeared with soot, calmly smoking a cigarette whist her pyrotechnic bra sparks.

This video helps show Lady Gagas uniqueness and quirky style. There is a theme of revenge throughout the video from when she is kidnapped and we have scenes of Gaga trying to escape the models and resisiting when being dragged around. Then she gets her revenge at the end when the bed sets fire and the captor is burnt to a skeleton. In the video she is seen in various outfits, all of which haven't really been seen before a music video but you can see aspects of different artists in her style. The song itself is very mainstream pop which has been popular for years. Youtube lets you see who watches the video and where abouts the viewers live. From the videos psychographics you can see that this video is most popular in Europe, North America, South America, Austrailia and Russia, as well as lots of other parts of the world. We can also see that this video has been most popular with female Youtube viewers between the ages of 13-17 and male Youtube viewers between the ages of 35-54. Of course we cannot get a precise look at who likes Lady Gaga from these numbers as some parts of the world do not have as many computers and internet connecion as others.

The second Lady Gaga video I am going to analyse is Paparazzi, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2smz_1L2_0&ob=av2e

Paparazzi is set out as a 8 minute mini-movie. Its plot is a doomed star who is constantly followed round by the paparazzi. The beginning of the video shows short shots of a well kept garden and then a large mansion. We then cut to Lady Gaga and her boyfriend on their bed kissing and talking in Swedish, which is subtitled at the bottom.Her boyfriend then carries Gaga out onto the balcony and they continue kissing. It then becomes apparent that the boyfriend has arranged a photographer to take pictures of them together. When Gaga realises this she tried to make him top kissing him, which leads to her slapping him round the face. He then gets angry and pushes her over the balcony. The photographers take pictures of her lying in her own blood then declare her career over. Next we see Gaga being carried from a limo by her dancers and into a wheelchair in the house. Gaga is wearing a metallic neck brace and a black plain outfit. As she gets into the house, the dancers dance round her and as they pass in front of her, her outfit changes to a gold metallic leotard with a matching helmet and she starts stumbling forward on her crutches. During this scene the music starts and we also cut to quick shots of dead models. We next have dancing scenes where Gaga is wearing a series of different outfits. A black brief outfit as she makes out with a trio of rockers on a golden couch, a white body suit with a black skirt on one leg and a dress made of film strips and a feathered Mohawk headdress. Our next scene is Gaga and her boyfriend sitting in a sitting room, a maid comes in and lays down a tray of drinks. Gaga is in a Mickey Mouse yellow catsuit with matching sunglasses and shoulder pads. In this scene she takes revenge on her boyfriend by poisoning his drink with white powder she has concealed in her ring. She then phones the police declaring she has killed her boyfriend. Next Gaga is being taken away by the police wearing a large cone corkscrew wig, surrounded by paparazzi once again. The papers now proclaim her innocence and say that Gaga has regained her fame. The video ends with Gaga having mugshots taken in a tulips style dress whilst posing like a model.

Looking at the psycho graphics provided on Youtube I can see that this video was popular with female Youtube members between the ages of 13-17 and male Youtube members between the ages of 35-54. We can also see by the colour coded map that this video is most popular in North and South America and Europe. However it was not popular in Africa and parts of Asia.

Paparazzi is a catchy pop song that would be popular with most people who are interested in the charts. This video also shows Gagas quirky and individual style through her numerous amount of individual outfits. The video itself has more of a story then a meaning but does show the extent people will go to get fame or regain their fame, even if they have to murder someone.