All - Week 7 Podcast 1 - Pitch/Music Vid Coursework idea

EF- N'sync - The Band

Nsync: 

N'sync were an American boy band who were formed in Orlando, Florida in 1995. The group consisted of 5 male members  JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, & Chris Kirkpatrick. They were managed by Lou Pearlman, who has worked with previous famous bands such as Backstreet Boys and O-town. 
Between 1995 and 1998 the group were signed by Sony BMG record label, however just before their second album " No Strings Attached" was released N'Sync filed a very public law suit against Sony BMG & their manager Lou Pearlman, resulting in N'sync going on to be part of RCA Records between 1998 & 1999, after this between 1999 & 2002 the band were part of Jive Records.  

Sony BMG :Sony BMG Music Entertainment began as the result of a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment (part of Sony) and Bertelsmann Music Group (part of Bertelsmann) completed on March 4, 2004. It is one of the Big Four music companies, and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Victor Records, RCA Records, Legacy Recordings, Sonic Wave America, and others. - Wikipedia 

The group released their first song in 1998 " I Want You Back" it reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, their first album was released in March, however rate were slow and album sales were low, resulting in the album reaching 82 on the Billboard 200. To help the band sales increase Disney Channel aired one of their concerts for them in July. 


After this the sales increased more and within three weeks of the concert, the album reached number 9, and then six month later the band were in the top ten. Then after appearing on "Sabrina the teenage Witch" Their Second single " Tearing Up My Heart " peaked at number 2 in April 1998, then shortly after also in the same year, N'sync formed a law suit against their manager and the record label Sony BMG. 

*NSYNC had a publicized legal battle with Lou Pearlman, due to what the group believed were illicit business practices on his part. 'N Sync sued Pearlman and his record company, Trans Continental, for defrauding the group of more than fifty percent of their earnings, rather than his promise of only receiving one-sixth of the profits. The group threatened to leave and sign with Jive Records, which prompted Pearlman and RCA to countersue 'N Sync for US$150 million and the use of the name. Pearlman's request for a preliminary injunction against the band was denied. After reaching a settlement out of court, 'N Sync signed with Jive.- Wikipedia  

In 2002 after their Celebrity tour N'sync went on a break, due to Justin Timberlake wanting to focus on his solo career. The group still went to award ceremony's together, and regrouped in 2003 to sing a medley of the Bee Gee's at the Grammy awards, as a tribute to the Bee Gee's this was the groups last television performance. 
Then in the fall of 2005, after their final re- group for the Annual Challenge For Children, the band released a greatest hits album. More recently in 2010, N'sync released The Collection which is an album that just consists of singles that were released in the USA. 


In order to keep the band history alive and the fans happy, in 2010 the bands official website was relaunched, which has been updated to keep fans informed on previous members recent or future projects. 
The website Biography includes links to the members official solo pages. 

Marking Emmie Bryett's A2 Blog - BackStreet Boys

Me and Mel worked together to do this, we decided on Emmie Bryett's blog as we are planning on working on a Boy band for our A2 Coursework. 


Research & Planning : 


Excellent research into similar products and potential target audience. 
The posts done between July and September mainly focus on the metal genre with specific focus on the sub-genre Heavy Metal. The 10 deconstruction on music videos are good as there wide spread across genres, however lack few bits if detail. 
The case studies on bands such as Queen and Guns and Roses show in depth research towards different bands from different genres. 
Up until January the main focus seemed to be rock, this research seemed to be good.
Clear evidence of changed ideas were blogged on from January onwards, when they changed their idea to Boy Bands, the research and planning they showed was well thought out, clearly stating their change in ideas. - For this we give Excellent


Excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 
The post done were detailed and not just written they used things like vodcast's and interviews, for the casting to identify who was going to be in the music vid, showing they have clearly thought this through. 
For the target audience they did a video and uploaded that to blog, interviewing potential target audiences. 
Detailed posts on costume, they highlighted and posted blogs on the difficulties they faced during filming. - We marked this as Proficient. 


Excellent work on shot lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or story board. 
Call sheets were used in order to indentify shot types, these were put on the blog using scripted, and they also have posts on story boards and call sheets, which are detailed. 
For this we give Proficient. 


Time Management. 
Judging by their rough cuts they didn't start filming until February, they had a set back when cast members couldn't be in it, but apart from that we give this excellent. 


Level of care in presentation and presentation on research and planning. 
Overall we think the presentation is good, the information is correct and accurate and involves references and links to You Tube. They have a various range of multimedia in posts. They included pictures of everything they have done, especially when they were introducing the digi pack, which was a good form of evidence. The only bad thing we had a bad thing was how small the side bar was. They included vodcast's, podcast in posts instead of just writing, this is a good form of digital use and multimedia.  - We gave this Excellent. 


Communication.
The communication skills were good as the blog was easy to read and navigate, also their blog was direct and too the point. 


Overall we would give this a mark of 17/20

Evaluating and Marking Music Vid From Last Years A2

During class the latest task we had been given in order to get us ready for A2 coursework, was to mark a piece of A2 coursework from last years A2 media group, in order to help us do this we had to use the mark scheme given to us, and attempt to grade the work. The music video which was assigned to me was the coursework of George Scaife and Elizabeth McPhail, their video was " Land Down Under" by Men At Work.  


Holding a shot steady, when appropriate. 
For this category i gave George and Elizabeth Excellent. I gave this because through out the video, the camera is kept still where and when appropriate. However there are times when this is not the case, but it seems to have been done deliberate, and not just a case of rubbish camera work. A steady shot is used at the start (0:12). 
Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.
For this category i gave Proficient. I gave this because i believed the shot at (2:36) was a very good example of framing, this is the shot which includes one of the characters of the video and a Koala bear, and included in the shot is a sign which states "Koalas Next 4KM". On the other hand an example of less than perfect framing is scene on the moorside. This however could just of been a difficulty surrounding a low budget. 
Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.
For this category i gave Excellent. I gave this because some of the variation in shot distances are good, and are used quite frequently, an example of this is between (0:52 & 0:57), this is because the sequence changes quickly in distances throughout the shot, whilst at the same time showing the scene in a period time length of 5 seconds approx. 
Selecting Mise-en-scene including colour,figure, lighting, objects and setting. 
For this one i gave Excellent. I gave this because this song is quite hard is find excellent mise-en-scene for, however they achieve an excellence by the Australian objects and item use, to set the scene. They have successfully selected times to film in order to make you feel more like your in australia with the weather and climate of when they filmed, as it always seemed to be nice or sunny, (2:18) is a good example of when they carefully selected Misc-en-scene. 
Editing so that the meaning is apparent to viewer. 
I gave this one Excellent. Generally i think the editing worked well for this video, a good use of effects were used however a more appropriate effect could have been used during (0:37) as i didn't really understand why the effect was used for this part, this for me is the reason i gave excellent.
Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately.
Excellent, i gave this view as there were not a lot of shot transitions used during the video, but when they were used they were used correctly and added good effects and flow to the video. There are a lot of jump cuts used which work very well for me. 

Vodcast - Comparing Videos

Here is the vodcast Me, Gina & Jess completed on the comparison of our three different artists. The three we chose were Lady Gaga, Rihanna & Madonna. I chose to do Bad Romance as it seemed to have many different meanings and opinions surrounding the video. Madonna was also a good comparison to do against Lady Gaga, as it seems Lady Gaga is almost trying to be like Madonna in the way she forms her videos, and causes controversy. Rihanna is also known for causing a mixed reception for Umbrella due to the " raunchy" parts of the silver body paint, and the provocative dancing.

My Final Pitch Idea - N'Sync - Gone

"Gone" is the second single from 'N Sync's third studio album, Celebrity. The single debuted on the band's 2001 Pop Odyssey World Tour, during the summer of 2001. The commercial release of the single didn't occur until Summer 2001. Directed by Herb Ritts and filmed in August 2001, the video wasn't released until late September because of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The video is in black and white, and has shots similar to Charlie Chaplin-esque footage. The video is a mixture of flashbacks of Justin Timberlake's video girlfriend and his world currently, all filmed in an apartment. The video shows flashbacks of his girlfriend's birthday party, and random parts in their apartment where emotional moments taken place." - Wikipedia 

Idea : 

My first idea which I recently pitched today in class was for the N'sync song " Gone". I am looking to do your typical love scenario. Firstly i am going to arrange and put together hopefully 5 boys, to form my version of N'sync for my music video. My video will be telling the story of a teenage boy ' one member of the group' possibly the lead, who has recently lost someone he loves. 

I am going to begin the video with a montage of pictures of the two of them previously when they were happy, i haven't yet decided if i am going to put the pictures in black and white or colour. 

The scene will then fade out to our lead boy of the group sat in a room maybe looking through these pictures around a room. 

I am also going to use flashbacks and memories as a basis for the video. To signify these are flashbacks i am going i am going to put the scenes in black and white, and then to signify the memories i am going to fade out white maybe. Some locations of flashbacks and memories could be the park, a restaurant, birthdays parties etc. 

In one part i am going to use a scene hopefully where he is looking in the mirror, but instead of seeing his reflection he sees the girls, connoting he cant forget about her, and he sees her everywhere he goes. 

In a twist for the ending of the video instead just having the conventional love/break up story for the video which is what the original by N'sync shows. I am going to hint/show that she has died not just left by having one member of the band going to the cemetery to place flowers on a grave. 

Misc en Scene: 

I am going to modernize the video a lot more, making it different from the original version of the video by N'sync. I am going to have the members of the band wearing baggy jeans, and low cut v neck tops maybe, haven't quite decided on the tops yet. 


The colours are going to be either caramel, grey,brown, black very modern colors and clothes. I think the only black and white i am going to have is during flashbacks. I am going to be using plenty of settings, such as Park, Cemetery, Nice House ( modern), Streets of Ilkley maybe, i will need to use somewhere like a restaurant so maybe a dining room of a house, Bathroom in a house etc. 


Below is the original video for 'Gone' by Nysnc:

Coursework - Pitch Ideas

In order to begin our Coursework for A2 we have to present a pitch of the song we would like to produce a video to, and explain a rough idea of what my video would include. The pitch has to be  2 Min long, and have a decent amount of information. We will be filmed whilst presenting the pitch so we can then upload it to our blog. 
In order to pick a song we have to look at the length as we are advised to not have anything over 4:00 minuets as it would be too long to collect footage for and edit it as well, also if we choose a song which already had a video, that song has to be 10 or more years old.



I have recently been looking at a boy band 'N SYNC, i have looked at 3 songs Bye Bye Bye which was the first single to be released from their second album in early 2000, " No Strings Attached", Bye Bye Bye was written by Jake Schulze who was part of Cheiron Studios , The song itself is 3:03, where as the video is 4:03. It reached number 3 in the UK singles chart, and number 1 in the US singles chart.

Pop  this was the first song to be released from their third album Celebrity, it was written by Justin Timberlake himself, the single itself was released in February 2001, the video is around 3:57 long and the radio edit is 2:55. 


My third song i have been looking at by N'Sync is Gone this was their second single from their third album Celebrity, in debuted in 2001 on their Pop Odyssey Tour, and was released on September the 4th 2001. The video is around 4:45, and the radio edited version is 4:22. 


Overall these are the only songs i have looked at, because i would like to stick to boy bands. I have now planned my pitch to the class for one of these songs.

Music Vid Class Comparison - Sean Kingston- Party All Night & Professor Green - Read All About It Feat Emelia Sande

During one of our class lessons we compared two music videos, Sean Kingston - Party All Night & Professor Green  - Read All About It. They are both from different music back grounds, with Professor Green being more Rap style genre and Sean Kingston R&B Pop genre, making the comparison in video style, shots and editing more interesting. 

Sean Kingston  was born in 1990 he is a Jamaican American R&B Pop singer. He began his music career in 2007 with his debut album titled after his own name like many first albums " Sean Kingston". Then in 2009 he released his album " Tomorrow" which featured hits " Face Drop" and "Fire Burning". Kingston is still working on his third album which features "Party All Night" which was released in the USA on December the 21st 2010. 

The video for Party All Night is approximately (3:52). In the video I think there are not a good variety of shots used. However out of some of the shots here the main ones we noted. A slow pan is used when we see the party beginning in the video at (0:57) the slow pan used helps highlight the different genders and ethnicity used in the video, as the pan happens words bounce on to the screen highlighting the lyrics, this is one of the effects we noticed. We also noticed that mid-shots and mid-close ups are used during the video, a mid-close up is used at the beginning of the video when his phone appears on screen, showing us the party's are happening. There are some cut away's seen when he is putting shoes up. The most frequent shot used was long shots this could have been due to him not having the conventional artist body or size of his body maybe. The use of long shots through most of Kingston's videos could tie in with Missy Elliot and her video, Missy Elliot is famous for using a fish eye lens in her videos and not many close ups or mid shots. "Party all night" i think is a performance/narrative video.  


In comparison to this Professor Green is a British MC/Rapper, he released his debut album in Alive Till Im Dead in 2010 which features songs " I need you tonight" , " Just be good to green" featuring Lily Alan, " Jungle" & " Monster". 

His current single is "Read All About It" which features Emeli Sande is mainly about his relationship with his parents especially his dad, the video for this song is almost like a mini film telling the story of his young life with his dad and mum, making the video a narrative video. Performance aspect also occurs in this video where we see Emeli Sande singing and Professor Green rapping the camera cuts to a black room with just them in it adding the performance element. 

Unlike Party All Night there are a good variety of shots used in this video. At (0:06) there is a side shot used with light shining focusing just on Professor Green, we then see a slow pan around an establishing shot of a house in a dark area. The most frequent ones are close ups and mid shots on Emeli Sande and Professor Green when they are singing the camera clearly focuses on them, giving them the importance. There are point of view shots used at (0:19) and (0:47), when we presumably see him as a little boy, the lyrics tie in very good with narrative aspect of the video at this point. There are also a lot of cuts between shots used, between the narrative and the performance. Also used is a shaky camera, this can help add to the realism in the video, giving more verisimilitude to the video and the song.   

Making The Class Video - Hello

As a class we pitched our ideas for a class video, and then we voted on who we thought had the best idea and in the end decided on Tom's idea of Hello by Martin Solveig.
Tom began as the director of the video allocating roles to different members of the group during class time, however after time, Gina took over as the director due to difficulties.
After deciding on who was going to take on which role from the original video, we then decided as a class how long we were going to make the video, in the end we decided to cut the video from its original length of 4:41 to 2:40 because of time circumstances. 

We focused our remake of the video on the original changing a few things,however we kept the idea of a tennis match. To make it more funny and original, for example in the Original Music Video there was a character simply called " She" to make our version more funny we had Tom as the "she" dressed up as a girl.  We used lip syncing for the "Hello" and "Hey" and one verse. Overall it took us 3 lessons and a few frees to complete the filming of the footage.

However we did have a few problems when filming with people not being here or turning up, this was most probably due to our lack of organisation to begin with, reasons for our lack of organisation were most probably because we didn't have a leader of the group to make sure we all turned up at a certain time with the correct props and costume. A call sheet would also have been helpful but as it was just a practice we didnt put one together, however next time espessially for our coursework music  video we shall all be putting together call sheets, to make things run more smoothly and effectivley.

Improvements for next time will be :

1. Produce a call sheet before filming for effective organisations and less time consuming when filming.
2. Have a leader, during class productions someone who is strong and has good organisation skills
3. Work more as a team, and co-operate more with each other and listen to each other more.
4. Have back up people for roles just incase people are not here.

Roles we included and allocated to people were :
"She" - Played by Tom
Manager - Played by Dave 
Tennis Players - Gina,Harry,Rob and Sam
Ball Boy - Will 
Umpire - Kyle 
Girl Fans - Me, Jess and Mel 

After we had filmed the footage we were then split up into pairs and put the footage on certain macs for our pair and then began to edit our own version for the class to see.


Below is the edit that Me, Jess and Sam made :