Blog's shut down

After two whole years of media studies, it has come to an end. I will be studying English Lit at uni so unfortunately this is my last time blogging for media. I have thoroughly enjoyed media studies along with my teachers Miss Foster, Miss Scott and Miss Poulten, you have all made my lessons fun and enjoyable! All the best marking my blog haha! X

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

FINAL ADVERTISEMENT

FINAL DIGI PACK

Evaluation - Questions 1, 3 and 4

Question 2 - Evaluation

Question 2 Media

Additional analysis of Pixie Mix

Myself, Emma and Sophie decided to voice over our music video to help the audience understand why certain shots used in our video were included. We left the original soundtrack running in the background to allow the audience to hear what the lyrics are, and why they are important at certain times in the song. This was an original idea where we weren't sure would actually work, but it seems to make our understanding as well as the audience's understanding a lot easier.

Audience feedback

On the remaining days of school (before the easter holidays) Our year group had an after school assembley for year 11, 12 and 13's to watch our video's and comment on what they liked and enjoyed the most. This was a great turn out and filled up the seats! Many people had lots to say on our video, which was a great help! We also had the chance to watch the year 12's productions and gave them audience feedback as I felt that their films had a range of some of the best idea's, as they were an assortment of all different genres not just horror/thriller.


Here's some of our audience feedback from the day;

Black and white fitted well with the tempo of the song.


Good narrative that fit with the song.


It was a realistic portrayal of the story that the target audience of young teenagers can relate to.


They used good locations.


I liked the idea of the reversing clips. It really made it clear to the audience what was happening.


The photo's looked realistic.


The studio scenes looked professional.


The play fighting scene showed how much they loved each other, and I liked how this was contrasted with the fighting scene behind the broke arrow to show that they had broken up.


I liked the split screens at the end, with the contrasting light and narratives.


It was perfectly composed, a really good music video.


Good story telling.


I loved the editing, especially the L.O.V.E and the bed scenes in IKEA. I thought this was edited to the beat well.


I liked the L.O.V.E


The camera angles and effects were effective.


The black and white made it look more natural and fit with the emotion of the narrative.


Good transition between footage.


It fits well with the pop genre.


It was really good.


I loved the animation of cupid with the heart.


The L.O.V.E was effective.


Good different angles and speeds.


I liked the broken arrow.


Good portrayal between past and present.


I like the change of scenery, it made everything really touching and the fast forwarding made the video feel emotional.


I like the romance of the characters portrayed and how one shows the difference of how their relationship changed with their body language.


Good lip sycnhing and creative angles used throughout.


The rewinding scenes which embody the essence and meaning of the clip.


Good use of photographs.


The singing seemed very realistic.


Good use of black and white.


Good links between shots.


I also spoke to a friend via iPhone, and asked her how she felt about our music video..

Evaluation

After a long easter break, and with exams and media deadlines round the corner; myself, Sophie and Emmak met up today to create and finish our media evaluation. We met during the afternoon at school, and went throught the media evaluation questions 1,2,3 & 4. We discussed and wrote down our answers before we recorded the real thing.

We decided to record the whole evaluation, except for question 2, which is a personal opinion on our own digi packs. Most of our answers although pre arranged/planned were from our own opinions, which made the discussion seem more real and interesting as all three of us were having in depth convosations about our media production.

We've uploaded the evaluation and edited in black screens at the start of the questions, so that it is not too confussing, as we do talk a lot!!

Changes

-Opening Credits
- changed ikea shot
- changed lip synching
- new opening
- l.o.v.e to the beat
- changed clip behind the broken arrow
- unreversed the arrow
- edited to the beat (bits in ikea)
- Added the water umbrella "ooh" shot
- made alex and myself appear on the split screen when the word "love" is sung
- alex and myself brighter contrast - happy times, me on own - darker

Changes to lip syncing

I noticed that some of the lip syncing cut off half way through a line, for example the the clip at Ally Pally after the still shots above she sings "Giving me all your time, you.." which is cut off of half of another line. I thought that this doesn't happen in professional music videos and that I needed to change it. However it wasn't as easy it sounds, as once I cut a bit off of that clip the whole timing for the whole music video was out of sync. I therefore had to refine the clip after that which was the couple play fighting, the good times on the bed in Ikea and make it slightly longer. Seeing as we have a lot of footage, this took a lot longer than I thought it would have.

The next lip syncing shot I changed was this screen shot.
From our audience feedback from Michaela's group who were in the media room at the same time as we were editing, they thought that this shot fit in much better than the shot before. The shot before was just myself not even singing at all in the studio and trying to have a Marilyn Monroe effect with the hairdryer. However this hairdryer wasn't as powerful as we hoped and didnt have much effect. They also said that this was a different shot, mid-shot/closeup from the side which reflects our different camera angles. She also end up with her hands near her chest which in the next shot of her seeing "Like a broken arrow" in the studio that's where her hands start, so the music video flows more.

I also changed the main kitchen Ikea scene. I still wanted the intertextuality of "The sinks broken..." from the film (500) Days of Summer but I needed a better clip as the clip we had chosen before, although I really liked it as I was running into the kitchen and you could instantly tell it was Ikea, was too shakey, even when I did stabalise it. However this clip still has myself taking things out of the "oven" and given food to Alex then running over to the sink and laughing that the sinks broken. I found this clip a good potrayal and good intertextuality of the film. It also shows a wide shot which is composed well as Alex is sitting in the rule of thirds in the left corner.

The next lip synching shots I changed where the shots up against the wall where I sings "Oh, I miss him, I miss him, Im missing him." However all the lip synching I found she was pronouncing "him" well as you can't tell that her lips are closing. I did however editing it anyway so one shot was, "I miss him" another shot did the next "I miss him", and the last shot, which returned the the first did "Im missing him". I thought that this was a good idea, but seeing as the lip synching isn't perfect i'm not sure if it works well. I will need to get some audience feedback from other members of the class to see what they think. I also liked these shots as the background goes from black to white to black and this is a connotation of slow pop music videos, having flashes of black and white.

I also added more studio clips the same as the starting initial studio clips. I think that this was a good idea as the whole music video has to have a linear timeline somewhere and refering back to the initial studio clip shows some versimilitude and continuity to the music video. This is a shot where the microphone is hanging and I was singing into it facing to the left in a checked shirt.

I then changed the shot where I was holding the camera and singing into the camera. I thought that this would be a good idea if we were still doing the home video effect. I would have liked to do the home video effect however the green screen was not achievable on final cut or iMovie as the green wasn't a clear enough green, this may have been due to the printer or to the actual camera, but if I had better quality equipment we would still try to do that idea. I then decided to replace that clip with a clip of myself singing at Alexandra Palace. I like this clip as she is composed to the technique of the rule of thirds and to the right of her you can see a lot of sky line and all the lights from the city.
I also adjusted the side by side shot of me and Alex looking at photos. On the left of the shot is of me looking at pictures with her head down and in darkness where as on the right of the shot is Alex and I both looking at the pictures together in a brighter lighting, this then represents the good and bad times of the couple. I also made the shot so that it starts off with her looking at the pictures on her own then the second picture on the right comes in on the beat on the word "love" to represent that she loved him.

Editing To The Beat

I also noticed that the start of the chorus all of the editing was a bit miss matched and was not edited to the beat at all, which I thought was weird as that's what we get marked on, and seeing as our song is slow, we can't do a lot of sharp cuts for our editing but we can use the beat to edit to. So at the start of the chorus when myself and Alex jumps on the bed in Ikea, immitating (500) Days of Summer I made sure that she lands when the first symbol sound is played. On the next symbol sound I made sure that her face was shown and then quickly on the next one his face was shown. After that a two shot of the couple together was next shown on the fourth symbol noise and finally on the fifth symbol noise he kisses me.

Changes..

At the start of the film I replaced the bit where the girl touches her breasts as we felt that this was very inappropriate for an innocent pop music promo. I replaced it with a clip of me in Ally Pally running up to a telescope and looking into this. I think that this starts off as an establishing shot to set the scene that she's in Ally Pally, alone and broken up with Alex. It also can act as if she is looking down the telescope into the music video as it goes straight into the stop motion of L.O.V.E.

Opening Credits
We added in basic Times New Roman font the opening credits to the music promo in the bottom left hand corner. I did a bit of research into the credits at the start of music promos and realised that the lines go:
Song Title - Line One
Artist Name - Line Two
Album Name - Line Three
Production Company - Line Four

Seeing as we all have different album names as we all have different digipak's I found the third line slightly difficult to do, however with a bit more research into album names I found two different initials.
LP - Long Play
EP - Extended Play

Extended play is not a full album, but not quite a single. So the CD in the shop would have our music single, broken arrow and plus maybe two or three more. Seeing as all our digipak's have around 12 songs on it this would be the full album which is sometimes referred to as long play. So I will change the opening credits to Broken Arrow EP to mean the single and it will avoid any confusion with album covers.
Also I carried on our production name "SEEN producitons" from year 12 as it was easier and it fits with our group.

We tried out our film in colour, by copying our footage onto another project to see what it looked like. I am really in two minds as to whether I prefer this to the black and white or not, as in some ways it looks effective with all the different colours, but in others, I liked the use of the black and white as black and white signifies a memory, and/or flashback.

Evaluation Research

Here are the four questions needed for our evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The marking criteria

Level 4 16–20 marks

There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions
There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
There is excellent ability to communicate.
There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Music Video update

Here's a new version of our "so far" edits. We've added in the title at the start - not 100% sure if were completely keeping that exact one, but it seems to fit at the moment. We've also added in a lot more choppier towards the end as far as the editing is concerned; more different shots of "Pixie" singing, instead of the same shot singing one line.

We've also added in a split screen, although I am not too fond of it, so I think we are going to see what it looks like on final cut pro, and see if that can help us make it look more professional.

We took out the reverse clips as our audience feedback informed us, it looked a bit amature and not something we should pin point as the main storyline. So in order to replace this, we added in more performance shots!

To add to this, there is a shot where the top of my head is cut off, so we are going to refilm that line and add it in before we submit the video!

Overall, its coming along nicely!

Album Advertisement

Here is my album advertisement. I had to print out the picture and draw it myself as I couldnt make it how I wanted to on the computer. I copied and pasted the "parental advisory sticker" and the "itunes" and "limited edition" stickers onto the original picture and then I printed them out and wrote over them what I thought looked best.

I added a web address at the bottom left hand corner to make it seem realistic, as well as a bold "buy it now" and at the top the "22.4.11" to inform the viewers of the release date. On the right hand side opposite also shows the featuring track we produced "Broken Arrow" and the "tour dates; realsed in February 2012" Lastly I added a little slogan underneath the headline Pixie Mix saying "Just walk away" as I think the picture reflects that, and makes it seem more interesting.

Album Advertisement

Here is a rough sketch of the outline for my music advertisement.

Conventions of a Music Advertisement

•Release date
•Image to represent the band/artist/photographs/graphics
•Album name and information
•Record label
•Website
•Reviews or ratings
•Same image as album cover- synergy
•Record labels logo
•Tracks featured
•Slogan/tagline
•Quotes from newspapers
•Product content
•Magazine reviews/endorsements-smash hits
•Tour dates
•Outlets in which available e.g. HMV, Amazon
•Limited edition
•"Out now"/"debut album"
•Offers free download

Album Advertisement

When a new album is advertised in a magazine, there are always certain conventions which are included in order to make it recognisable to the readers of the magazine and so they know it's an advertisement for a new album. Here is a brief list as to whats usually included:

- Most magazine adverts for new albums nearly all the time have some form of review on them. Wether this be "*****" or a comment such as "this album is simply unmissable". By doing this it makes the reader of the magazine more influenced into buying it.

- The release date of an album is one of the most vital pieces of information that needs to be included on a magazine advert. By including the release date the readers will then know when the album is available to buy and this will then enable the artist to then make as many sales as possible.

- The Advertisement itself usually features a similar image of the artist/band from the actual album cover itself, this way the listener of the music can relate to the image on the poster and when buying the actual album.

-Any extras that aren't essential but sometimes occur are things such as the album record label, possible tour dates and also a web address/my space of the band/artist too.

- There will definitely be a description of some sort as to where you can buy the album from - this could either be an online website or a music store such as HMV.

-some albums have added extras such as a "slogan" that's fits in with the overall theme of their album.

- Finally some have exclusive offers/downloads which can be made available to the buyer of the album.

After researching this, there is a lot more that can be included on an advertisement for an album than I thought and I will be taking these points into great consideration when it comes to designing my own one.

Album Cover Research

SUGAR MAGAZINE



This is an album cover of Pixie Lott on a magazine aimed at 11-12 year old/ or "young teens". I chose this as one of my advertisements to analyse the difference in each magazine about the same artist and how each magazine represents Pixie.

As the magazine "Sugar" is aimed at "young teens" it portrays Pixie Lott as an innocent young female, smiling at the camera in a sweet way. She has reasonable clothes on - not too raunchy or sexy, perfect for what young girls aspire to wear as they grow older.

The colour of the fonts (blue and green) go well with the tones of Pixie's dress and hair colour. Nothing in this picture seems promiscuous, inviting or flirty, which is what Sugar aims for.


FHM MAGAZINE


This advertisement is for FHM magazine, full of music and for the "older viewers" Its a picture of Pixie Lott with a satin bra, hot pants, and dark black eye makeup seems a much more "adult" look. She is standing in front of an amp which suggests the magazine and Pixie are all about the music.

From an adults perspective on music, this picture seems normal, as most artists wear skimpy clothes in their music video's to show off their physic. FHM is prodominately aimed at men, and so the look of the blonde bombshell on the front cover wearing nothing will attract the readers well and also sell well!

However, it seems, the look for Pixie and her target audience seems to be changing from the sweet innocent girl, growing up to the sexy blonde!

Depending on the target audience of the band/artist really depends on what "look" the artist is going for.

COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE



Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at young/middle ages woman with lots of fashion icons and tips inside. Pixie's image on this front cover seems to be going back to the innocent young girl but with a more experience. She is dressed in a plain blue dress grinning at the camera.

This look seems a lot more suitable for the audience and fans Pixie Lott has. The comment on is the "dress sexy" text over the top of her picture, gives off the impression that is what she is trying to do/ doing, proving perhaps Pixie Lott's young teenager image is wearing off, and she is trying to become more of an adult performer? Something I will need to look in to/ decide more about my album advertisements.

Digi Pack final

Here's my finalised digi pack - for now! I am really happy with my choice, but as a second opinion I am going to ask my peers at school to see what they think looks best!

I have used all my own fonts and even circles which I am proud of! I am hoping to put the CD advisory sticker on the lower right of the front cover as I was unable to edit it in on the software I used at home.

Digi Pack discarded pictures

I have decided not to use these pictures as they didnt fit with the 'Pixie Mix' look, but I had a play around with the contrasts and colour splash, to see what they would look like. I didnt use the group one, although the picture looks interesting as even though i had highlighted myself in colour as the rest is in black and white, it didnt seem to fit with the idea of it being a front cover on my digi pack for example, so I decided not to go with it.

The picture of just me with the colour just on my face was just used to experiement with the colour focus.

Lastly the close up of myself scrunching my face up is still undecided as by looking at it more and more I think it would look good as either the album list or the "with love" page. I am going to ask around and get some audience feedback before I finalize it.

Digi Pack inside covers

I chose to put the inside cover with the words "with love" as I think it is short and sweet for the fan to read and the handwriting style font (which I wrote myself on all my digi pack covers) makes it more personal, which is exactly what every fan (little girls mostly) want from their idol!

Digi Pack cd place

Out of all four, my favourite and most appropriate cd cover is the first one with the split screens. I think this works really well as the contrast goes well as a background and the whole concept of the boy and girl goes well underneath the cd placing.

Digi Pack album list idea's

Out of all four album lists I prefer the first one with just my face as I think it focuses on Just me, and "my" songs. I also like the girl on the beach as it isnt focused on the girl, again it is focused on the box of album names.

Digi Pack album cover ideas

ALBUM COVERS

1) 2)

3) 4)

1)Here's my first idea as an album cover for my digi pack. I have used the same font throughout my different idea's as I love the 'crayon' effect. I have changed this picture into sepia as it had a more interesting look.

2)I am not as keen on this one as I think it looks more like the CD should be on top of it. I used this image as the album title is called 'Stupid Cupid' and the majority of songs are based around the girl "Pixie" and her boyfriend. I like the split screen of myself and Alex as we are a real life couple and so the chemistry looks good within us both!

3) I quite like this picture with the gradual fade in colour as the picture in itself looks as if she is 'making a big break' - jumping into the sea, NOT holding hands, with no strings attached for instance. I have focused the colour on the girl as it shows her as the artist and the boy in black and white reflecting the songs she sings about him. I like this idea for a album cover as it is different and unique!

4)This is also another favourite of mine, as it is set in the summer, sun is out, and the girl is alone holding a lilo, showing her Independence walking alone on a beach. This could contradict or go really well with most of the songs on the album cover as it shows her alone without a boy. I put a soft focus on this picture to focus more on the name instead of the girl by herself. Really love it!

The group today

Today in class my whole group was finally in! Yay! We updated Neelam with everything she had missed and were finally back on track. I think the girls liked what I had done the previous day as there was not much they changed/tweaked. We have been editing the stock motion and overlapped a clip of myself and Alex laughing to show the importance of the arrow reversing the unbroken heart.

P.s i am blogging on my iPhone during lesson as it is another form of media to blog from

Editing

Yesterday I came up in my frees to sort out the ending of our music video as it was really bugging me the fact the narrative side of the song wasn't fitting with my original idea of how i wanted it to look.

It took me a few hours to figure out what I could do to sort this and in the end I decided to drag the clips we had originally used and reverse them so as "pixie mix" was thinking about the memories she has "lost". This looks far more effective and I got the opinion of another group member Trisha, and she also agreed.

Lastly I also added some clips we had filmed earlier this week and stabilized them. We re filmed and changed the shots as since looking at the marking criteria, it was evident that we needed more of a stabilized shot and more close ups. I'm hoping my group likes what Ive done and doesn't change too much of it!

Filming day 5

Editing

Again, in my free periods, myself and Sophie went to the media room to continuing editing as we want to get it finished as soon as possible so we can concentrate on the theory side to our exam. So, we edited again for another two hours and managed to produce this:





Again, in our free periods, myself and Sophie went to the media room to continuing editing as we want to get it finished as soon as possible so we can concentrate on the theory side to our exam. So, we edited again for another two hours and managed to produce this:

Research and Planning

Most of Pixie's songs are upbeat and happy songs and so bright colours and costumes are used to reflect the mood of the song. However, "cry me out" is a much sadder song and so the video is completely in black and white. I love the way it doesn't use any colour at all and I think this really portrays the emotion of the song well.

After watching this music video, I have decided that I think we should use all black and white as it fits the mood of the song and I think, overall, will make the music video look more professional.

Possibly more filming? Day 5

Having looked over our film again, Sophie and I realised we needed a variety of close ups and different shots to make our video's performance more choppy and professional, changing different clips and locations in time with the beat.

So we are going to go out to film with the camera as soon as it is charged to get more shots as I am wearing my hair up and have a completely different look to the previous shots.

Will upload the footage soon!

Fonts

Sophie and I are currently in the media room discussing different fonts to use for our digi-packs as well as possibly having 'Pixie Mix' at the opening of our song..

We googled Pixie Lotts actual font on her album cover but no luck, so we typed in 'scribble font and crayon font' and found a few to download. They're not the exact same as the original Pixie Lott, but nethertheless they look really good!

Unfortunatly 'blogger' will not let us upload these fonts onto a post!

Everything's coming together..

Finally, everything seems to be fitting together. Sophie and I stayed behind in our free periods and after school today to try and fit everything together, as our music video was a bit of a mess earier last week, so we decided to sort it out.

It went really well as by the end of the day we had edited and lip synced all the shots into place, with the right balance of performance and narrative, making our music video seem more like a music video.

After much deliberation between myself and Sophie, we decided to put the whole music video into 'Black and White' with different contrasts so that it isnt just 'black and white' there is a difference in the performance and narrative.

This makes the video look more professional and the continuity of the different shots the same.

SO relieved the music video is finally coming together!

Narratives

Narrative

Narrative Theory From the Theorists of Media

ARISTOTLE'S UNITIES - Perhaps the first 'narrative theory' as such. A narrative should be created within a 'unity' of time, place and action - that is, it should all take place in the same location, in real time, and with all action moving towards a logical (and moral) conclusion.

FREYTAG'S DRAMATIC STRUCTURE- Gustav Freytag was a 19th Century German dramatist and novelist who constructed his theory from the analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama. Freytag's dramatic arc is divided into five parts. (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action & Denouement/Catastrophe/Resolution)

TODOROV’S THEORY – Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative).
PROPP’S THEORY –Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.


BARTHES’ ENIGMA CODE – The narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes along. Essentially, the narrative functions to establish and then solve these mysteries.
LEVI-STRAUSS’ BINARY OPPOSITION – Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. This can be as simple as two characters fighting, but more often functions at an ideological level – e.g., in Westerns, what do the cowboys and Indians each represent? What ideologies are embodied by the opposed sides in LOTR or Star Wars?

Behind the scenes (The Time)

Before my January exams, I had some free time in my free periods so went up to the media studies room and began playing with the footage we had from the first day of filming and extra background stuff we had filmed on the flip camera's. I began putting together a mini music video montage of different clips we had filmed and put it to a popular Black Eyed Peas song "The Time". I used this song as I wanted to try out what an upbeat song would be like to edit. Although the editing isnt its best in this video, I was really porud at how it turned out.

As a group, once they had seen what I done, we decided to put it all in black and white to show that it is practice footage.

Filming Day 4

Alley Pally!

Last week we filmed the scenes of myself singing the song at Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace). We were right on top of the hill so the view was amazing and we got some good shots of London all lit up.

We had to do to get permission by the officials at Alley Palley to film on their grounds to prove we were students and sign a form. After this we started filming myself against the wind singing the song all the way through. From this shot we got the skyline and the view. We used the rule of thirds and composed her in the correct position. We also filmed long shot, mid shot and close up of her singing.

After this we set it up along a walkway and had her singing and walking towards us. Seeing as it was 5 o clock at night and was dark we had a big light that was quite bright and shone it on her. This looked a bit weird in some shots as you could see a big circle where the light was but in other shots, such as when I was standing by an arch way singing, it looked good as it mainly focused on just myself, possibly implying her lonliness.

After Ally Pally we went back to my house and filmed the "Polaroid" pictures that Emmak had made. Seeing as I didn't have any pictures of myself and Alex in Polaroids, Emmak made them by cutting out pictures of them and sticking them on card backgrounds to make them look like the typical Polaroid picture. She also did some green screen's of this to see if it will work on iMovie. This inspiration and use of intertextuality has come from the music video "Airplanes - BoB" when the camera pans across all the Polaroid pictures and then one of them starts moving. We would like to try and incorporate this into our music video, but if it doesn't work, as we weren't too sure, we filmed it with the park bench shot as well so we can zoom into it and the next scene will happen.



We also created a stop motion effect on paper of a printed cupid shooting an arrow and breaking, hence broken arrow. We filmed this in 8 different shots and will create a stop motion of it for our music video. We will also do the picture in picture effect and have her in the background singing the lyrics. We also found on my mantelpiece L O V E letters. We also thought to have them jumbled up, and to move them little by little to create a stop motion of them rearrange themselves and we can also play this backwards so they split up. This idea has come from the Kate Nash - Foundations video.

Filming Day 3

We decided to film our outdoor scenes seeing as the weather was bright for once. We filmed the park bench scene where the couple first meet. We all set out to Enfield Town Park and found a bench that had the best scenery around it and the most light hitting the bench.


When we found the best bench, we took a picture of myself and my boyfriend Alex on the park bench, so when we film over the pictures, we can zoom into the picture of the couple on the park bench as if it "comes alive" incase the green screen doesn't work.


We filmed a wide shot of the pair reading the same book and then talking to each other with some music playing in the background. This would be the scene when they first meet. The book they were both reading was Pride and Prejudice, a love novel, the typical cheesy love stories that are always associated with pop songs. As Neelam and I are English Literature students we both brought our books. We filmed this as a wide shot, close up, and a two shot.
We also wanted to film a "break up" shot of the girl (me). So after the break up of myself and Alex she returns back to her "happy places" that she had with him and looks back on the memories. We filmed the girl with an see through umbrella saying "I love rain." for a sarcastic feel. As the weather was quite nice out and we wanted to make it seem as if it was raining, we poured a bottle of water on the umbrella and then when she opened it up it all splashed out. We filmed shots from below, high angle, as the umbrella was see through you could see my face through the umbrella, and a mid shot.
After this we just filmed us messing around, giving piggy back rides etc, natural shots. Also we filmed myself lip syncing down the path way and just rotating the camera around her.

Track list

As I have researched around at different pop genre's track lists, it has become apparent that the popular number of track songs on a album is between 10-15 songs. In order to keep with the 'Pixie Lott' theme, we are naming our band 'Pixie Mix' and going to have our album tracks as a remake of hers with 12 songs on the list;
For example..
This is Pixie Lott's real track list:
* 1. Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)
* 2. Cry Me Out
* 3. Band Aid
* 4. Turn It Up
* 5. Boys And Girls
* 6. Gravity
* 7. My Love
* 8. Jack
* 9. Nothing Compares
* 10. I Wish I Was There
* 11. The Way The World Works
* 12. Hold Me In Your Arms

Our tracklist will be something like:
*1 Papa No
*2 Drown Me
*3First Aid
*4 Pump It Up
*5Girl Meets Boy
*6 Space
*7My Heart
*8Alex
*9Contrast
*10Wish You Were Here
*11The World Goes Round
*12 Hold Me Tight

And the debut single * Broken Arrow

Second day of filming

On Tuesday we filmed the (500) Days Of Summer scene in IKEA. It went great.



We used intertextuality from the film and incorporated the films idea into our music video. We decided to change the south end scene - reflecting the good and bad areas of the relationship, to the IKEA scene as we believe that it is more achievable and is less costly and time consuming.

We also decided that while we were there, it would be stupid for the characters to later return to the scene at another time during their relationship to the same place and we then realised that they wouldn't be in the same outfits. So we therefore decided that they would either have an argument and break up on that day-wearing the same outfit, or on the second half of the film relate back to the girl discovering problems the day the couple went for a walk in the park, NOT reading the same books or liking the same things, like they did the first day they met. Showing the differences the couple become after so long.

We filmed them sitting around in the kitchen, on the sofas and on the beds, and also running around the shop. We used the flip camera and the actual camera to record our footage and recorded this from different angles such as long shot, wide shot and pan shot.

Also downstairs in the warehouse, Sophie and Emma were sitting in the trolly's (using it as a dolly) and filming a pan shot of 'us' around the warehouse, that we might or might not use in our film.

(footage to be uploaded)

Artist's name

Since we could not copyright Pixie Lott's real band brand name, as it is her famous name, I was out one night and come across a London club called Whisky Mist. The name had a real ring to it and stuck with me for days.. I started saying it out loud until I thought of Pixie Mix. I thought this name sounded even better than Whisky Mist and so put the name forward to my group. We all thought the band name had an edge to it, it was something different and so we began to consider it.

First day of filming

Before the christmas holiday's, we managed to film our "studio scenes in the schools photography room, as it had a profesional light and white backdrop. We did different shots of myself singing, such as high angle shots, close ups, mid-shots etc. We also filmed me in different outfits and we also filmed us filming from the flip camera. Unfortunately due to the lack of time we had we only got a few shots that we thought looked good and fit with the image of our song. We also saw, as the white screen behind her was not wide enough, we had to have very close up shots otherwise the sides, that didn't have a white screen, were on show, and it was obvious that it was a classroom.
Overall, the day went well.

(footage to be uploaded)

If we can't film this again, due to lack of location, we will film close ups of her singing in other places such as through a window or at different locations where she is on her own. Possibly her going back to the starting location of where her and her boyfriend first met on the park bench.

Slight change in idea..

On our storyboard, we said that we would portray the relationship through a scene at south end. We would have used sand to draw a heart to show their happy times and have a shot back at this later on in the song and have him cross it out, symbolising the end of their relationship. Unfortunately, seeing as there has been a lot of snow and cold weather and no sun at all, we might change this idea and extend our intertextuality idea from "(500) Days of Summer". We will use IKEA and have the couple run around pretending that it is their house, and then return back to this scene and have him just walk away, like shown in the film. We also will film a lot more close up shots of me singing to make it more performance based with a narrative to follow.