GREENSCREEN: Setting Up Your Own

While I was in England in the summer holidays I asked my dad to help me try and set up a greenscreen studio in one of the rooms in our house. I found a suitable room upstairs (rectangular shaped bedroom) which has entirely white walls and two simple windows. I decided on the wall to place the greenscreen sheet on. 

Here are some photos of the greenscreen 'studio' my dad and I set up at my house in England:

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Firstly, to stick the greenscreen up on the wall, I had the idea of using bluetac. This idea did not work whatsoever. Then, I tried to use pins, this was even worse of an idea. Then, my dad came to help me and he had the idea of using masking tape. He stook some yellow/beige tape on the wall first so that he wouldn't be sticking the masking tape onto pure painted wall, otherwise the wall paint would come off with the tape. After he stook that on, he attached the grey masking tape half onto the greenscreen and half onto the wall, as you can see on the left. On top of this, he decided to lean some heavy things (wood and metal) onto the greenscreen so it wouldn't fall down.
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My dad also went to Screwfix to get an LED light/two LED lights on one stand for the 'greenscreen studio' which you can see here. After the greenscreen was set up on the wall, we brought in the LED lights and set the camera in position (I used a gorillapod here to keep the camera in the right place - I wrapped the gorillapod around the metal headboard). 




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After this, I did some research into how to set up your own greenscreen studio at home. I watched a video about it and discovered that if there is a window in the room, you have to cover it with big black curtains. I figured we didn't have any black curtains so instead I found big sheets to throw over the lilac curtains and many dark things to cover up any light coming in. 






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To improve this, my dad came up with the idea of using black plastic sheeting to cover the windows. He would cut the plastic sheeting to fit the window shape exactly. So we did that and it turned out exactly how I wanted. No light could get through. 









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Once we had done all that, we discovered that the greenscreen still wasn't bright enough. So, my dad went back to Screwfix and bought a single Halogen light with a handle. These lights are extremely bright. Once we added this to the set up, the greenscreen was a lot more lit up than with just the LED lights, as you can see on the left. I had no idea that LED lights weren't actually that bright. 





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LIGHTING: 3 Point Lighting In A Studio

3 Point Lighting In A Studio:
I wanted to learn more about lighting in a studio, how to do it properly. So, I watched two videos to understand how to get the perfect lighting on a subject in a photoshoot or on set for filming.

The ground rules for this are:
1. Key Light 
2. Fill Light 
3. Hair Light 
and you can also light up the background/backdrop behind your subject with one or two lights. 

Before you set up the lights, you need to decide where to place your camera in terms of the subject. So for example, most likely you may decide to place your camera directly in front of the subject. 

Depending on what kind of look/image you want you can either use one of the three main lights (key light, fill light, hair light), two, or all three. 

This is what it looks like to have all three lights used on a subject (without lights on the backdrop):

This is what it looks like to have all three lights used on a subject and lights on the backdrop this time:

What Is A DIGIPAK?

A digipak is a patented style of optical disc packaging. Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. 

To the left you can see two examples of what a digipak looks like. In these examples you can see that you can open it to have 3 sides rather than a CD which only has 2 sides. On one page you can see the main front cover with the album title and the artist's name. On another page you can see the disc itself stuck to the page. Then you can see the very back of the digipak which has the list of songs on the album/CD. 

The good thing about digipaks rather than CDs or Vinyls is that it is smaller in size than a vinyl but lighter in weight than a CD, this makes transport cheaper and will also mean that shops can hold more inventory of digipaks. 

Digipaks have become very popular due to the paper feel of it, it gives a nostalgic feel of vinyl. Because of it's popularity, it has a target audience on YouTube where people unbox the digipaks. 

I believe that the artist I have chosen (Astrid S) has not released any digipaks yet. I think this is because she has released many EPs instead of full albums. 

Key Elements of a Digipak
TEXT
1. Name of the band/artist
2. Name of the album
3. Tracklisting 
4. Price
5. Bonus material
6. Website
7. Credits
8. Recording material, producer, where it was recorded and when, who wrote the songs, thanks.

ASTRID S: Existing EP's

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Here are Astrid S's existing albums/EPs. This first one is for the track 'Hyde'. 










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The second one is her latest album 'Party's Over'. I really like the border used around the outside of the album cover and how the border stops specifically for the writing of 'Astrid S' and 'Party's Over'.








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This EP is for her track 'Bloodstream' (the song I have chosen to use for my music video). I really really like this album cover because of the border used, the angle of the image used, the image itself being of the artist floating on water and the colour scheme. 







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This EP is for her track 'Such A Boy'. I really like the border used around the outside of the album cover and how the border stops specifically for the writing of 'Astrid S' and 'Such A Boy'.

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This EP is for her track 'Breathe'. I really like the extreme use of golden face paint used on the artist's entire upper body, it is quite striking and extravagant. 









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This EP is for her track '2AM'. I really like the use of black and white filter/colour correction that has been used over the image. Also I like how the artist is not looking in direct gaze, but instead, she is looking to the left into the distance. 







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PODCAST 2: Production Schedule Update 1

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THE SCRIPT:
Hi, it's me again, Evie, just giving an update on the production process so far since we set up our blogs and I will discuss what I am planning to do for the next few weeks of the summer. As I forgot to mention in the last podcast, I am almost finished with the general and genre music video analyses, the genre music video analyses were in the genre of electropop because I was very sure I was going to pick the artist Sakima. This has changed now, as I said before in the last vodcast because there were other artists I may have chosen instead, these were Jakwob or Astrid S. I decided that I was going to stick with the artist, Astrid S, and her song Bloodstream. I came up with a narrative idea for the music video for this track - this is a boy on a journey of grief, struggling to get through a hard breakup with harsh psychological effects. I was thinking to film the entire music video from the boy's perspective of the breakup since most music videos are from the girl's perspective of a breakup e.g. Tove Lo - Habits. Things may still change but right now that is my narrative idea. In my blog I mention the reasons why I decided not to choose the other artists, Sakima and Jakwob. I also have decided on the casting for the performance footage for the song Astrid S - Bloodstream. I have decided that I want to act the role of the singer, Astrid S, therefore I will be the one lipsyncing in the video. On top of this I decided that I want to film the majority of the performance footage infront of a greenscreen and some outside with a sky background or trees background. Also, this summer from the 31st of July to the 13th of August, I went on a 2 week filmmaking course at the MET Film School located at Ealing Studios. This gave me the opportunity to film some greenscreen performance footage inside Ealing Studios, I filmed this footage on the 11th of August. Since then, I have chosen the rest of the dates of when I will film all this performance footage: these are the 17th of August, the 26th of August and the 27th of August. I have also decided, after looking at many past music video examples, that I am going to film some nature footage to be used as cutaway shots in the video. Since I am staying in a countryside location for the next few weeks of summer, this is very convenient. I plan to film trees, flowers, ponds, plants and forests in a variety of shot types. That is all for this podcast so, see you next time!

Summer Filmmaking Course Experience

This summer, I had the opportunity to go on a proper 2 week Filmmaking course in London at the MET Film School which is located next to Ealing Studios. 

The course was led and taught by someone who has experience in the film industry who has worked in various roles on a film set such as role of cameraman, sound boom operator, director etc... 

Throughout this course I learned many new things in terms of visual storytelling, directing actors, directing, producing, sound, editing and cinematography. I learned how to use a different editing software to Final Cut Pro X which is called Adobe Premiere Pro. 

There were 14 of us on the course all aged 14-17. On the first week we all had the chance to direct our own little scene with two characters to get us more familiar with everything (camera, sound boom, clapper board, with what to say exactly on the shoot). We all switched roles throughout the production of all 14 of these practice filming/directing exercises. On the Friday of the first week, we all had to pitch an idea for a short film. After pitching, we all voted for the two best ideas out of the 14 ideas that were pitched. We split into two groups of 7 to work on each idea. 

Here is my little scene I made for the practice exercise, on the course:
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PODCAST 1: Introduction

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THE SCRIPT:
Hi there, my name is Evie Gibbons and I will be introducing my A2 Media Studies blog, Lilac City Records. This year we have to make a music video, website and digipak for a music artist. I am still unsure of who I am going to pick, I am stuck between three, a male artist called Sakima, a male DJ called Jakwob and a female electropop singer called Astrid S. I have decided the song I would pick for each of these artists however, for Sakima it would be 'What I Know Now', for Jakwob it would be 'Somebody New' and for Astrid S it would be 'Bloodstream'. I have also already set up a twitter and instagram social media account for the artist; at the moment the social media account name is sakima_music, until I finally decide the artist that I am definitely picking. In this blog you will see my journey of how I got to the final products of a music video, digipak and website, you will see things like music video analyses, website analyses, pre-production and post-production lists, podcasts, vodcasts, research of all kinds, audience feedback, audience analyses etc. I am really looking forward to getting started with the A2 Coursework properly and getting inspired by other media products which will influence my work. I hope you enjoy looking through my blog and seeing all my work for A2 Media Coursework. I also hope that this blog inspires you and provides you with a lot of useful information. Also, I will be posting many podcasts throughout the production process which will be updating where I am, what I plan to do and what I have done so far. So, until the next podcast, thanks, bye!

MVid EG1: Astrid S - Such A Boy

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES:
1. The excessive use of colour correction and colour gels (for lighting - colourful lighting). 
3. The locations e.g. indoor in a bathroom, in a bowling alley, in a bedroom, at a party full of people.

Act: Astrid S
Track: Such A Boy
Year: 2017
Director: 
Genre: Electropop
Main Audience: Females (15-24)

There are 18 shots in the first 30 seconds. That estimates that each shot lasts 1.6 seconds. 
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There is frequent use of colour correction and colourful lighting (created with colour gels) in this music video. I am really inspired to use this for my music video, I really like it. 

Andrew Goodwin's '6 conventions of music videos' can apply to this music video. There are frequent close up shots used of the singer, Astrid S lip syncing. There are also frequent electro pop genre signifiers used such as the excessive colour correction/colourful lighting (created with colour gels). 

Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' can be somewhat exploited in this video because of how the artist is glamourised throughout with either pink lipstick or lipgloss, lilac nail varnish, black mascara, either silver earrings studs or bangles, foundation, blusher and black eyeshadow. You can denote that her eyebrows are plucked and shaped nicely also. The pink lighting on her for example at the start as you can see in the image on the left, helps to further glamorise her and make her appear very feminine. The shot on the left is of a boy about to kiss the artist's neck which is not something which would attract a young tween audience but instead, an older teen audience aged 16-25.

There are also many shots of the artist showing her shoulders in thin strapped tops/dresses. She is also a white caucasian blonde female so this is a normative representation of females. She also has mid-length long hair which further enforces this normative representation. Later on in the video you see a close up two shot high angled shallow field of focus shot of Astrid S looking in direct audience address with the boy in the background out of focus. In this shot she is wearing a thin strapped pink ribbed tight dress which shows her cleavage - this is clear evidence of the 'male gaze' theory being exploited. 

She is also eating candy floss at the same time - the fact that she is looking in direct address while biting into something has sexual connotations, therefore glamourising and sexualising Astrid S which can attract a male audience. It also signifies that her audience are not young (e.g. tweens aged 10-13) but instead they are young adults aged 16-25. However, the candyfloss element could be considered as an attempt to create a playful vibe to the music video which could therefore attract a younger audience (aged 13-15).

You could say the 'female gaze' is also being exploited in this video due to the high key colourful lighting clearly glamorising the male character as you can see in this image below.

The boy is sucking on something or has something slightly in his mouth in the lower image, the female gaze being exploited because this is a sexualised pose that you see male models do for modelling images - as you can see here in this example on the right for this 'Spicebomb' perfume. There is lighting coming from many different angles in this image on the lower right, to create a glamourised effect on the facial features and skin. For example you can see some sections of the face are dark blue and some are pink. The jaw/neck, which is a glamorised feature of the male face, has clearly been purposely lighted a different colour to the rest of the face. 
This boy character is being glamorised and sexualised by being in this pose which connotes that the Astrid S's (the artist) audience is not young but instead is older teens (aged 16-25). 




There is also use of direct personal address in the video from the singer, Astrid S. This creates a personal connection between the artist and audience/fans. This is a common convention of music videos of any genre. While she is with her lover character in the video she is looking at the audience while the lover character is looking at her or doing something to her like kiss her neck. 

I also noticed this technique/effect was used in Astrid S's music video for 'bloodstream'. This makes the audience really empathise with her and relate to what is going on in the video, this can be tied nicely with Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications theory' - the personal identity gratification is relevant here - the female audience members at a similar age to Astrid S (aged 20) or younger (aged 16-18) can relate and identify with Astrid S. 

Website: IDEA 1

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This is my first idea of a layout for the home page. I put the menu (with the Home, Bio etc...) in the footer and then froze the footer so that when someone scrolls down, the menu always stays at the bottom of the page. 

I inserted a picture of the artist (for the moment until I get pictures of my own) and made it fill the entire page. 

I also added a social media bar and put it on the right hand side of the menu. 

GENRE: Carol Vernallis 'Experiencing Music Video'

Carol Vernallis (2004) 'Experiencing Music Video

Carol Vernallis argues that music videos derive from the songs they set. The music comes first - the song is produced before the video has been created - and the director normally designs images with the song as a guide.

'In music video, what is concealed and what is revealed serve to encourage multiple viewings by engaging the viewer in a process of reconstructing, interpolating or extrapolating a story behind the scenes that are actually visible. When the narrative mode is present even fleetingly, it creates an aura of mystery, a sense that things need to be puzzled out'. 

Videos use ellipsis in such an extreme fashion that causality is often absent.

"Music video presents a range all the way from extremely abstract videos emphasising colour and movement to those that convey a story. But most videos tend to be nonnarrative. An Aristotlean definition - characters with defined personality traits, goals, and a sense of agency encounter obstacles and are changed by them - describes only a small fraction of videos, perhaps one in fifty. 

'I argue that the lyrics constitute no more and no less than one of many strands a video must weave together.'

GENRE: Andrew Goodwin's 6 Features of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin Relationship Between Lyrics, Visuals and Music:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. 

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

5. There is reference to the notion of looking (mirrors, screens within screens), particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.

NARRATIVE: Todorov's 5-Part Narrative Structure

1. A state of equilibrium at the outset. 
Everything is balanced evenly - there is no problem - everything is calm.

2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action.
Something happens to upset the balance - chaos - things have gone wrong. 

3. A recognition that there has been a disruption.
What has upset the balance is recognised. The characters see what has changed. 

4. An attempt to repair the disruption.
People make an effort to bring the balance back - to restore equilibrium - the characters will have to work to make things different.

5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
The balance is back - equilibrium is restored - all the problems are sorted out. 

NARRATIVE: Roland Barthes' 5 Codes

EASSC:
The Enigma code - the audience is intrigued by the need to solve a problem. 

The Action code - the audience is excited by the need to resolve a problem.

The Semantic code - the audience is directed towards an additional meaning through connotation.

The Symbolic code - the audience assumes that a character dressed in black is evil and forms expectations of his/her behaviour on this basis.

The Cultural code - the audience derives meaning in a text from shared cultural knowledge about the way the world works.