Task 1 (b) - Music Video Production

Camera Shots: 

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera Movement: 

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene:

 This is the sequence of props and performers on stage or in a music video. Mise-en- scene puts notification on the representation of something. An example is, ‘Mad’ by Neyo. The scene involves him walking down a road alone, feeling isolated. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood. 

Editing: 

Jump cuts is the most used editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts. 

Lighting: 

Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look.

Sound: 

Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.

STYLES:

Editing and Digital Effects:

 Often enhancing the editing are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. This might take the form of split screens, 

16.1.2

STALKER UNEDITED PRODUCTION BY SAFFRON, LILIANE, RAY, PATRICA & PRI.

We, as a team had an hour to record a short film about a young girl who was in rush to be somewhere without noticing she was being followed. However there was twist to the storyline. No editing was allowed, as it was an single handed camera task.

What i enjoyed about the project was, our group had used a range of shots within planning. For example;
POV shot - to show what direction the stalker was heading it and also to see who the victim was in fright.
SHOT REVERSE SHOT - to notice the facial expressions as actions speak louder than words.
CLOSE UP - showing the face down to the shoulders.
TILT - illustrating the movement, clothing and attitude of the actor. Along with;
MEDIUM CLOSE UP
LONG SHOT
EXTREME CLOSE UP
                We were impressed with our video because there was no editing involved yet the pace and presentation of it made sense. Also the camera was quite steady as there was use of a tripod and the audio at the end was clear and understanding, The preparation of the project and the contribution in the task was satisfactory as each individual had an input and all ideas were taken into consideration. On the other hand the difficulties were trying to keep the camera in focus after setting certain shots, so throughout the whole video had not been vivid.

What would be done if i could edit the film;

• Re-record some scenes: reason being is to set the focus properly.
• Add dramatic classical music to add intensity and suspense.
• More add more shots to the film: example - high angle to make the victim more vulnerable and the predator more empowered. 
• Better location as it was not suitable for the genre we had chosen.

Reviews

Skyfall Review

Earlier, during the week my media class had to write a review about one of our favourite films and write a detailed analysis about the favourite film we had seen. Also, write another review about another film we had watched but we had to explain who we had watched the film with, how it made us feel etc. So I have chosen to write a detailed review on Skyfall, since it had been the latest film I had seen, which would have made it easier to remember; I had written a small review about Avengers Assemble.

Skyfall

Skyfall had been release in October 26^th 2012 in the U.K.

The storyline of Skyfall is that Bond's mission is to keep a computer drive that has a list of British agents from being used against them. He chases the man who has it and they have a brawl on top of a train. Eve, an agent sent to assist Bond has them in her cross hairs but hesitates to take the shot because she might hit Bond but M orders her to take it. She does, and hits Bond who falls into the river and is believed to be dead. A few months later, the British government is upset with MI6 for losing the list; specifically with M. She is told that she'll be allowed to retire but she refuses to leave till the matter is resolved. So she returns to HQ to work on it but as she arrives, there's an explosion. In the meantime, Bond, who is not dead, has been laying low. When he learns of what happened, he returns. And M tasks him with finding the one who has the information. He eventually learns that the man, who has it, is someone from M's past and who has it in for her. The genre of the movie is action; crime and adventure.

When I had watched the film I had been quite impressed with the film; it had been quite interesting to watch since it had been the first bond film I had seen with Daniel Craig as Bond, because I had not really considered all the other bond films by Craig to be in my interest because the trailers had seemed not very interesting, they had reminded me mostly of Chinese movies because they had followed the theme Rush Hour would use etc.  Craig as Bond, which in my opinion is the best who portrayed the Iconic spy, Dench as M, and Bardem as Silva, which by himself takes the movie to a whole new level both as an actor and the character itself, since among the Daniel Craig-led 007's, Skyfall is the first film to bring us a true villain, an archenemy, one that is actually in-par to Bond himself. However, I had considered “the golden finger” directed by Guy Hamilton; to be the ultimate best bond movie I had seen staring “Sean Connery” back in 1964, because it had been classic, he had been the third man to play the role of James Bond. Gold finger was described as “the quintessential, definitive bond film, the first of the series to set the necessitates of the entire saga in motion. It is also the best of the Bond movies, arguably the most suave and sophisticated” from one of the critics who had reviewed the film, which back-up my point as the Gold finger being the best bond film made. Also, because the far-fetched gadgetry (including fast cars, the one being Aston Martin) and, arguably, the first of the series to feature the famous line “Bond, James Bond” which was 007 catchphrase. When Bond had used those lines they would normally zoom the camera towards his face, then the 007 theme song will play and he will use his second catchphrase line “Its Bond baby”. However, the catchphrases had not been used in the recent bond films which weren’t very interesting to keep because I prefer the director to keep to the same catchphrase, since the line never dies as also, the line “Bond never dies”.

Personally, I had thought that Daniel Craig seem to play the James Bond Character really well, in the movies it seems as if he lives the bond life in reality because his character is very believable; even though, I would not consider him as one of the best bonds, because he is the recent Bond and the movies that he had starred in hadn’t interested me, however; I will have to wait until more Bond films to see if he can match up to the best Bonds who lived.

I had really liked the Villain Gareth Mallory acting he had seemed really believable and very unique as a person, because his characters personality had been very strange because he had metal plates, his missions and how he spoke was very strange but I had found it interesting because most villains. But the villain is funny, unpredictable, frightening and mostly interesting and tragic. A fantastic Bond villain. 

I had liked the bond film because they had many great stunts and thrills. They had long sequences – bond is not burdened with gadgets and still had lots of energy. Skyfall feels like a true resurrection of the character and the Bond universe, and an incredible addition to the storied franchise. From its spectacular opening scene in Istanbul to its sensational climax in the Scottish Highlands, the film grabs hold of the audience and never let’s goes.
The director Sam Mendes had added a little more humour than the last two recent Bond films Daniel Craig had starred in and had successfully planned the storyline out because it was interesting to see where Bond had been raised because towards the end of the film he had used a flashback to show where he grew up. Sam Mendes at the helm, Skyfall is propelled by a veritable narrative purpose. Mendes values story and character over anything, and he gets Bond. His action sequences are thrilling, artfully directed; He directs with finesse and nuances the powerful character-driven scenes. Also, he understand bond’s and respects the Bond style which has gone through decades but also breaks new ground with the treatment of the story  The key fact factor of the flashback was he had brought back the Aston Martin vehicle because the car was part of Bond’s identity. It had a retro touch to the film that pays homage to 50 years of James Bond. The movie was very classy, adventurous since that is the genre of the film including crime. Lastly, I had really liked the soundtrack they had used “Adele – Skyfall” because the way she had sang the song it had gone with the theme of the film, because it didn’t seem as it was a movie, I felt like I had been watching a TV series; which I enjoyed because they had make an entrance instead of starting the movie and trying to work out what character had been which if you had watched the film for the very first time. However, her vocals had been really good but I still would have preferred if they stayed with the original bond soundtrack. I come to the conclusion that I’ve rated the film 8.5/10.

The movie had been rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language and smoking but I would have preferred if they had rated the movie quite higher because I would have enjoyed seeing more of the violent sequences since I enjoy watching a lot of action movies.

Short Review – Avengers Assemble.

                                                     

One of my favourite films has to be Avengers Assemble which had been released in 26^th April 2012. The main reason why I consider Avengers Assemble to be my favourite film because the storyline line had been very interesting and the trailer was very catchy because they had gathered plenty of known loved super natural hero’s to create this movie; Whedon's cast not only work brilliantly together but are perfectly comfortable wailing on each other and threatening each other all day and night. because the movie has its own twist because normally super natural’s don’t get along since they want their powers to be better than other super naturals. Seeing Joss Whedon's direction and envisioning of the film come to life on the big screen is perfect. The script is amazingly detailed and laced with sharp wit a humour. The special effects are literally mind-blowing and the action scenes are both hard-hitting and beautifully choreographed. The actors' performances in "Marvel's The Avengers" are simply captivating and there are many instances where we get a glimpse further into their characters pasts and innermost feelings. Robert Downey Jr. will have you in stitches. Scarlett Johansson will have you staring in disbelief as she winds her way through sticky situations. And Tom Hiddleston will have you simply shaking in your seat with fear. I had watched the film with my friend’s from school, after school because it had come out during the week and we could not wait until the weekend to watch the film since the trailer had been very interesting. I had watched the Film in O2 centre because their cinemas are really good with audio, even though the film is very bright, which hurt my eye sight because they had been many flashing images, and, because the audio had been so loud the movie built tension, and kept me off my feet. It had increased my heart beat because I had thought scary scenes would appear.