Our Chosen Song (New)

Our initial song was 'Miguel - Adorn' which as a group we were busting with several ideas, what we wanted it to look like, where we wanted it to be and what props we would like to be in our music video; we even wrote out every shot we would need to make up our music video. 

As you can see in this image below, here is the shots we wanted to use for the music video, 'Miguel - Adorn'.

Due to several issues, such as cast; lead character was unable to attend the dates we had set out to record our music video and location; there was misinterpretation between the owner of the location and our group, we have decided as a group to change our chosen song. The trials we faced trying to put together taught our group many things such as:
1. Location - Ensure you have in writing permission to use the found location, to avoid any misinterpretation.

2. Chosen Song - Ensure that the song we have chosen is by a female artist, this is because we can easily find females to join our cast for our music video.

3. Timing/Be More Organised - We noticed that as a group we were not as organised as we should be therefore we have made it a mandate to become disclipine ourselves more, and be on time and organised. 

Putting this all into consideration we have chosen to bas our music video on: Melanie Fiona - 4Am 

                                  

You may have noticed that there is main male in this video, however unlike 'Miguel - Adorn' the female artist dominates majority of the shots taken. 

Copyright Permission - Melanie Fiona 4AM

Similar to the Miguel - Adorn music video we were planning on making, we need to create a copyright permission email to use the song because it is copyrighted. By creating this email we are avoiding any chances of being sued for using a copyrighted song without the permission of its owner.

The copyright permission email is very similar to the Miguel - Adorn copyright permission email, however we had to alter some of our wording:

Dear Copyright Holders at Sony Music Entertainment,

 

We are A-Level Media Studies student from Wilmington Grammar School for Boys Sixth Form, in Wilmington, Kent, United Kingdom. We are writing to request your permission to use one track from Melanie Fiona's previous album 'The MF Life'. The track we wish to use is track number two, titled '4AM'. With your permission this track will be used in our current A-Level Media Studies Project. This involves creating a music video a music video for a popular music track as well as producing and advertising a digipak, which includes a magazine front cover and album artwork. If we receive your permission to use this track, it would only be used in an educational context and be viewed by our media class, teach and the OCR exam board moderator. It will not be released to a large audience or uploaded to any public video websites. The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout the pre-production and the final video itself. A copy right notice with wording supplied from you can be included in the recording of the project. If this is required please send full details.

 

We look forward to hearing from you,

 

Kind regards,

Jessica Obiorah, Prince Obode, Sathurshan Gunaratnam and Seun Osho

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright Permission - Miguel Adorn

Before we can use the song Miguel - Adorn we had to seek permission from Sony Entertainment as the video and the song is copyrighted. We had to write up a letter asking for permission to use this song and email it to them. Prince took the responsibility of emailing Sony Entertainment, and created this email:

 

Dear Copyright Holders at Sony Music Entertainment,
We are A-level Media Studies students from Wilmington Grammar School for Boys in Wilmington, Kent, United Kingdom. We are writing to request your permission to use one of the tracks from Miguel's latest album Kaleidoscope Dream'. The track we wish to use is track number 1, titled Adorn.
With your permission this track will be used in out current A-level Media Studies Project. which involves creating a music video for a popular music track as well as producing and advertising a digipak, which will include a magazine front cover and album artwork. If we receive your permission to use this track, it would only be used in a educational context and be view by our media class, our media studies teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It will not be released to are large audience or uploaded to any public video websites. The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout the pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice with wording supplied from you can be included in the recording project. If this is required please send full details.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Prince Obode, Sathurshan Gunaratnam, Jessica Obiorah and Seun Osho

 

 

 In our copyright permission email we ensured to highlight:

- What track we wanted to use,

- What we will be using the track for,

- Where we are from,

- Who will be seeing the video,

- We will not be using the video for any profitable reasons,

By highlighting all this in our copyright permission email we are hoping that they would believe that it is a legitimate email not a fraud/scam.

Miguel Adorn - Shot Analysis

My knowledge of camera shots in music videos, are that they are shots used as tools to shape the look and feel of a music video. A camera shots is a powerful way in which our group could communicate our vision to our audience.
To gain more understanding on shots used in music videos, we used the music video of our song choice 'Miguel - Adorn'; analysing all the shots that make up the shots. 

Create and captured by Prince

- Medium Shots

This was one of the shots consistently throughout the music video; medium shots of both artist and dancers. What we obtained from this is that the medium shot are used to focus attention on an interaction between artists. 

- Medium Close-ups

What we notice was that medium close up were used to focus fully on Miguel's facial expression, it was also used frequently throughout the music video (not as much as the medium shots).

- Long Shots

This is another shot that was used several times during the music video,throughout the music video. Through the use of long shots Miguel's expression as well as the message of affection he is trying to put across to his female audience, is exemplified. 

- Close Ups

Mainly used to enhance Miguel's expression and to create a connection between Miguel and his audience. 

Miguel Adorn - Animatic (Prince, Sath and Seun)

In order to give ourselves a quick preview of the outcome of our music video, we created an animatic. The animatic consisted of drawing up a story board and placing it into final cuts - an animatic version of our music video.

This has not given us an idea of what are music video would look like but also what we could and need to change to make it look better.

Here is our animatic version of our music video:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Opening - Staircase Scene (Practice)

In order to avoid wasting time we practiced are opening scene several times, therefore we would prepare for our first filming. Once we had gotten enough footage, I then used Youtube to find a footstep effect. Having both the footage and footstep effect I placed into Final Cuts and altered them both to make them in sync with one another. I used this as an opportunity to explore the different effects and video filters that Final Cuts have to offer. One filter that I found quite interesting was the 'Sharpen', the more i clicked on the 'Sharpen' the more sharper the footage became. 

Here is a practice footage of our opening clip:

As you are able to tell the sound of the footsteps replicate the sound of high heels and I am wearing wellies, as well as the fact that two different shoes are used in the clip. This is all because we used this as a test, to not only test our editing skills but who within our team is more skillful in handling the camera in handled position. It also helped us to understand in what way and angle the camera should be held, along with how the individual holding the camera would have to follow the artist up the stairs. 

Also as you can see during the clip I used the 'Sharpen' filter to give myself and idea of how the filter could effect our footage.  

Album DigiPack (Seun)

Album Digipak Research

An album digipak is a form of packaging often used for album cover and in recent years its contents. It has been patented by the company AGI - Shorewood, a holdings company.

All about Digipaks
An album digipak would consist of the features such as:

Have a type of thick paperboard or card which would have been folded into a book style

Card outer binding, to bring the lyric sideline book together.

Two or more side trays which are capable of holding the CD to the case

Has a protective UV coating on the paper to ensure longevity and durability

The teeth of the packaging are brittle to allow the digipak to remain light.

In the diagram above, it shows the different sides of an album digipak and how it would fit around a CD.
The two end sides show where the CD would be placed and the little details such as the teeth and ridges that would be holding it in place.
These places would be see through as it would allow the accompanying leaflet to slot inside.
The accompanying leaflet would often consist of:
Notes of how the album first came together
A note from the artist themselves, often addressing their fans
The album track list
Lyrics to the singles that will be released
Contact details such as phone number, management, record company etc.
Sometimes it might be a photoshoot of the artist in the background of these spreads.

Some have even tried to make them recyclable by having them made out of renewable materials such as sugar cane and made ridges with the back packaging to get rid of the use of teeth.

Here some examples of digipaks that have become iconic to both the masses and in R&B.