Thursday 24 November 2011

AN - Sample Footage Idea 2

Next week, we will be filming a second set of sample footage in which we'll be using the same segment of song heard in the previous sample footage. However, it will different because we'll be filming the girlfriend's aftermath of the break up.


Like I said in this week's podcast, we've got an actor to play the girlfriend, Francesca Fox. By filming this footage, we'll be able to have an idea of what we'll be filming involving the scenes with the girlfriend.


Similar to the first scenario, the girlfriend will be walking around Ilkley feeling the depression of the breakup. For example, she will go into Caffe Nero and sit at a table all by herself. The footage will be sped up at one point to signify the passage of time.


Finally for the last set of the sample footage, we will get both sets of footage and put them into different frames. By doing this, we will be able to test out the split screen idea.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

KM - Fish eye lenses and stop motion

In our music video, I suggested using either Fish Eye Lens or Stop motion.
The reason for this is because I have seen a few video's with these examples such as "Train - Hey Soul Sister" 





Stop Motion
Stop motion (also known as stop action) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Motion animation using clay is called clay animation or clay-mation.

The term "stop motion", related to the animation technique, is often spelled with a hyphen (stop-motion).

Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as if by magic. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In 1902, the film Fun in a Bakery Shop used the stop-trick technique in the "lightning sculpting" sequence. French trick film maestro Georges Méliès used true stop motion to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films, but never exploited the process for any of his other films.



 Websites that specify in Stop Motion
There have been many videos uploaded to websites such as YouTube that either show you a step by step guide how to succeed in Stop Motion or have used it for their own personal use to produce some pretty impressive videos!









To include this in my video, I was wanting to use white T-shirts for the band members to wear with specific words such as "love" or "hurt" that can be seen through out the video in sync with the lyrics in the music. It just adds skills and differs from the 'typical' love/break-up songs that have been or are on the market in the music industry today.


Fish Eye Lens



A fisheye lens is a type of camera lens that has an ability to capture wide-angle images. In theory, the images captured using a fisheye lens will have a close similarity to how the image would look like viewed through the eyes of a fish. The center part of the image will appear normal or magnified, depending on the distance of the subject to the lens, while most of the parts of the background, including the edges of the image will appear bent and a bit distorted. Thus, the background elements in your composition will just be secondary most of the time. This is why it’s essential to decide on which part of the composition you want to focus in the photo.
The effect that a fisheye lens creates gives photographers a lot of room for creativity. The wide field of view of the fisheye lens will enable you to fit huge landscapes, or a large number of subjects in a single frame. In situations where a room is too cramped or too small, the wide field of view of the fisheye lens will make it possible for you to capture great images.
The first company in optical industry to develop a fisheye lens was the Nikon Corporation. Back then, fisheye lenses were used as a tool for meteorological research to capture cloud formations. Today, fisheye lenses have become very popular, not only among professional photographers, but also among photography hobbyists, due to the unique effect it produces.
There are two different types of fisheye lenses: the one that produces a photo with dark edges is called a circular fisheye lens, the other type of fisheye lens is called a full-frame fisheye lens, which does not produce images with dark edges.
Examples of fish eye pictures :                                        
There are videos on line that can actually show your what to get so that you can make your own Fish eye lens.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

ALL - Podcast 2: Sample Footage

In this week's Podcast, we talk about our experience filming sample footage to give us an idea of what we need to do when filming the final product, a sneak preview of our lesson on narrative and a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

ALL - Sample Footage

Here is the first set of sample footage, in which we see the boyfriend's perspective of the breakup aftermath. We do plan to film some more sample footage in the near future, but I will talk about that at a later date.

Monday 21 November 2011

AN - Treatment

Here is the treatment for our coursework, which gives you a good idea of what our video is about and how we're going to make it. I apologize for any glitches with the product because it was fine in Microsoft Word.

Treatment A2

KM - Sample Footage Idea

Later on today myself and Asa will be shooting some sample footage. We have asked James Newton, who is playing the role of the main male character to shoot with us, so we can get an idea of what shots to put across, and if the right locations fit.


Couple in split screen, an example of what we would show in our video.
An idea for the video was when the couple start to argue, and they finally walking away the screen will then split into two, and each character will have their own story and journey until they return to each other.




Location, for split screen.
For the sample footage we are focusing on the male characters side of the story after he has left the female character.

Sunday 20 November 2011

AN - Blazing Grace Productions Facebook Page

Besides from having its own blog, Blazing Grace Productions now has it's own Facebook page. So click on the link below and keep your eyes peeled for updates concerning the development of our coursework and one or two exclusive pieces of content.

Blazing Grace Productions Facebook


Friday 18 November 2011

AN - Magazine Ads



Magazine adverts are another method used by music companies to advertise CD singles and digipaks. There are many common codes and conventions which can be seen in these adverts, these include:

  • Artist name being visible
  • Web address
  • An image of the band
  • Tour dates
  • The record label
  • Theme of the band
  • The album cover.
  • The single name
  • URLs for the band and company.
  • Hash tags relating to the band and company for sites like Twitter.
  • Highlighted song
  • Record label/logo
  • Release date of the album
  • Pre-order/out now sign

KM - Deconstruction of my Music Pitch



Destiny's Child Official Website
Destiny's Child Wiki Link



















Forming in 1997, Destiny's Child have had big hits such as Bootylicious, Survivor, Independent Woman, Lose My Breath and many more.

Australian Pop Sensation Samantha Sang!!
I have always been a fan of their R&B style music, and this is one of the main reasons for picking there music to include for my music video. 
The song Emotion was originally sung by an Australian pop singer Samantha Sang in 1977, but then recorded as a slower-tempo version by Destiny's Child. 
The music video featured a triple split-screen effect. Rowland on the left, Knowles in the center, and Williams on the right. Rowland is seen saying goodbye to her boyfriend before he leaves in a taxi. Knowles catches her boyfriend with another woman and runs around the house in tears. Williams is with her grandmother, who has died in her bed. At the end of the video Williams calls the other band members to her home. The three girls meet there and comfort each other. The screen returns to normal.
For our music video, myself, Sophie & Asa have discussed the video to include both narrative and performance. We will include 5 main cast members, three taking the roles of the band members, we have asked Melodie Abraham and Annie Cutillo for taking those roles, but we need to fill the parts of the main male role as well as the female role, and another band member. The video will take place in three main locations: Train station, a street, and a cafe. The reason for picking three locations is because each band member will come into each location and sing to the characters, but the characters will not acknowledge the singer and be arguing. The video is based on a break-up, some videos I have looked at that are based around the 'Break-Up' topic is:






 NSYNC's 'bye bye bye'
 No Doubts 'Don't Speak'
 & a more recent song Cee lo greens 'forget you'.




The video will also include flashbacks, this will shown the audience times when the couple were good together or what started the break-up to happen, so we would then change the location for this, possibly more romantic places, such as the 'cow and calf rocks' or the park.
To show the audience signs of tension and anger, Asa thought that a picture being smashed would be good to include, also we thought flowers being given one minute and then broken and thrown on the ground another is a good signifier for this. 
The target audience will be 15-24, many people in that age range can relate to the way our video will be presented.
Sophie and I will be doing some sample footage this week so soon enough we can show you what shots we are thinking about, and the locations.

Thursday 17 November 2011

KM - Spike Jonze Case Study

WIKI - 'Spike Jonze October 22, 1969) is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman, which include the 1999 film Being John Malkovich (that gave him an Academy Award for Best Director nomination) and the 2002 film Adaptation, and direction of the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. He is well known also for his music video collaborations with Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Björk. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV'sJackass.[1] He is currently the creative director of VBS.tv.[2] He is also part owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.'

He also co - founded 'Directors Label' with film makers Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry."

Spike Jonze's IMDB

2011Mourir auprès de toi (short) 
2011Scenes from the Suburbs (short) 
2010The Vampire Attack (video short) 
2010I'm Here (short) 
2009We Were Once a Fairytale (short) 
2007Fully Flared (video documentary) 
2005The Medúlla Videos (video short) (video "Triumph of a Heart") 
2004Corporate Ghost (video) 
2004Weezer: Video Capture Device - Treasures from the Vault 1991-2002 (video documentary) (videos "Undone - The Sweater Song", "Buddy Holly", "Island in the Sun [2nd Version]") 
2004Hot Chocolate (video documentary) 
2003Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks (video documentary) ("Wonderboy" video / as Spike Jones) 
2003The Best of R.E.M.: In View 1988-2003 (video documentary) (video "Electrolite") 
2003The Work of Director Spike Jonze (video documentary short) 
2003What's Up, Fatlip? (video documentary short) 
2003Yeah Right! (video) 
2002Adaptation. 
2002Björk: Volumen Plus (video short) (video "It's in Our Hands") 
2002Pavement: Slow Century (video documentary) (video "Shady Lane") 
2002Cydeways: The Best of the Pharcyde (video documentary) (videos "Drop" and "What's Up, Fatlip?") 
2000Beastie Boys: Video Anthology (video documentary) (videos "Sabotage", "Sure Shot", "Ricky's Theme", "Ciao L.A.") 
2000D.A.F.T. (video) (segment "Da Funk") 
1999Clip Cult Vol. 1: Exploding Cinema (video "Praise You") 
1999Björk: Volumen (video) (video "It's Oh So Quiet") 
1999Torrance Rises (short) (as Richard Coufey) 
1998Amarillo by Morning (documentary short) 
1997How They Get There (short) 
1997Mouse (video documentary short) 
1995R.E.M. Parallel (video) (video "Crush with Eyeliner") 
1994Beastie Boys: Sabotage (video short) 
1994Ciao L.A. (video short) 
1991Video Days (video short) 










He has also directed Films such as























- Jackass the movie
















- Being John Malkovich

















- Where the wild things are.






















Wednesday 16 November 2011

AN - Digipaks

Digipaks are a patented type of CD packaging which is made out card/paperboard. Usually, digipaks can open up like a book or they could have a more unique design, such as a three-part digipak in which one portion of the packaging opens to the right and other to the left. The part of the digipak which is made to hold the CD(s) is made of plastic, which is attached to the paper background.


A company known as MeadWestvaco first created the digipak. Since the birth of the product, it has become more popular with manufactures and they have also started to use it. Now, the term "digipak" has been used to describe all soft CD packaging.

Codes and conventions of a Digipak



  • Album art
  • Track listing
  • Card/paperboard packaging
  • Lyric booklet
  • Credits
  • Copyright logo
  • Artistic cover
  • Pictures of band members
  • Quotes from reviewers
  • DVD(s) depending on the type of digipak.
  • Barcode
  • Web addresses
  • Folding packaging
  • Date of release
  • List of band members' roles
  • Square based packaging

Katies Scan 2