Fiona the Turkey

Transcription incase you missed any of it:


Mark has been busy filming. He prepared a green screen last month and filmed all the shots where it was required.
Now he has been extra busy filming at his house. The video requires a messy living room where the character can be a slob. Luckily he had had the house to himself all week so it was already in a slob-ish state.
Filming went well and did not require too many takes. However, it still took a couple of hours!

Miley Cyrus Album Covers

Party in the USA features a purple background which shows that it's target audience is girls. She has a very cute, innocent face. This is supported by the purple background. However her punky accessories contradict the look, perhaps to appeal to a wider audience.

It's interesting that three fonts have been used. I would have thought that it was more professional to be consistent in the font and font size but Miley pulls this off well. I think the inky pen style in Miley really suits the tone of the design and album itself.

Miley is placed in the center of the cover, perhaps to show importance but more likely because there isn't much else going on. Note she is in decent clothing that an everyday girl might wear.

In this album Miley looks much more relaxed. She's sitting down with her golden microphone and looks very happy and at ease. She still has a slightly punk look with the gloves. However her main outfit is a pretty normal female outfit. The gold star above 'breakout' matches the gold/cream theme of the cover. I like how 'Miley Cyrus' is written along the side of the cover. It follows her body upwards giving a symmetrical and even appearance. There is differences in the fonts again, this time in colour. This is, again, interesting because I would have naturally chosen to keep the font the same throughout.

Miley is placed to the right of the album with the titles to the left. This cover is again very simplistic and features just an image of her and the titles. She has remained with the same target audience as the last two covers. Although appealing mostly to girls, her appearance is highlighted on the cover to appeal to teenage guys.

Two fonts have been used again. This works well for Miley.

Here Miley has broken free of her good girl image. She 'can't be tamed' and her clothes show this. Her slight punky bad girl image has taken over and she's in full costume. She's no longer in clothes worn by everyday girls. She still looks beautiful but has chosen to show off some more tummy.

She has moved to the center of the cover as again nothing much is going on. 

Interestingly the same font and colour is used for the first time. It's also printed across her body rather than to the side. I like the look of this one because it's bold and ties in well with the title. 

Miley has returned to the side again, but this time the left. She's kept the rougher look, in leather trousers and sharp high heels.

For the first time the visuals link obviously to the title. She's holding a rose and looking sad as the title suggests. As she's maturing so is the nature of her albums and her musical style. She's clearly trying to break away from her Disney girl connotations as seen in the first album. 

Again the same font and colour is used, and it's actually the same as the previous album. I like the idea of choosing a font as a kind of motif. I also like how there are many more links inside the album. The colour of the rose matches the text.

Here Miley has changed completely. She's become pretty radical, as shown by Wrecking Ball. Her new hair style is unique and is usually worn better than in this album cover. The layout of this cover is very different to her previous albums. She's placed in the center in just a rain coat which has strayed very far from her old casual with a hint of punk style.

The title of the album is made to look like a bar sign which is obviously aimed at a more mature audience. Her previous audience probably wouldn't know what this was. Bangerz also has some more adult implications.

The font chosen for 'Miley Cyrus' is unusual for her. Both words are placed on the top and bottom respectively. They are also different colours. She has gone back to using different colours for her title and ditched the 'motif' font.

Green Screen

Today I spent two of my free periods ironing and then filming the schools green screen. I managed to rope in two of my friends who were actually much better ironers than me. Shortly we were joined by one of our school caretakers called Linda. She gave us ironing advice and told us be should be using steam! So we watered our irons and it got very warm very quickly.
Once we'd ironed the green screen we had to get it up on it's frame. This wasn't too hard but still took us a few tries.
That took us all of the first free period, so in the second we began filming. We only had about 50mins before the tech crew wanted to clear it all away, so we go going. It actually didn't take long to shoot.

Below is a picture of the ironing process and my glamorous actor/model

Locations

Today I've been thinking about settings for each green screen room. In my film the person will explore the great indoors and enter each room, finding a new place. These are just four ideas I've found. I think I will film the actor actually in the scene, rather than using a still image as a background. I may use a bit of both if the location is unachievable in real life. 

The locations must be very cool and exciting, because at the end the character would rather stay home than leave the house.

Artist Analysis - Who Says

I really like this video. Nothing really happens, but it just shows Mayer going out with his friends and doing random activities. The idea of the song isn't about getting stoned. It's more of a libertarian statement of 'who says' I can't do what I want in my own home.
I really like the parts where he's sat at a restaurant table, and one shot he's acting as though the camera isn't there but the next he's singing into it. My first reaction was 'thats pretty cool', so I'm thinking if I can use it then my audience will have a similar reaction.
It has the short opening part (actually the longest one yet, at 46 seconds) at the beginning, and yet another bridge for him to walk along! During the start there is really quick flashes of all the locations to be shown later on. I like this idea, and it could actually work for my video.
I like how he goes to each location with his friends but then half way through he'll become invisible to them and just sing to the camera. It makes it quite personal.

Artist Analysis - Waiting on the World to Change

'Waiting on the World to Change' was the single from Continuum. The video also starts with a short clip before the song kicks in.
 

This video has Mayer walking along a bridge while singing his song. It's interesting because the song is a kind of protest song, but not really. It kind of says we need to change the word, but do it in your own time. Rather than telling us to change the world it's just suggestive.
I think this is why they didn't choose to use a theme of changing the world. Instead they chose to show a bunch of artists who spend time planning a mural and then going out and doing it. It shows people taking action, but avoids the cliched 'lets change the world' kind of theme. Instead one of the tags says WAKE UP!
I really like some of the over the shoulder shots while he's looking over the bridge. I also like the walking shots.
I also like how the camera is never still. It's constantly moving, whether it's following somebody or just has a handheld effect. This helps keep the video interesting and keep things flowing.
Did they cross the line at 2:13? Seems like he's facing the other way.

Past Student Analysis - Effects

This is a video from last year by Lew Parker. 

I love how important style is to the video. From the band's clothes to the effects applied in Final Cut, everything in the video is about looking cool.
I love the very beginning of the video where the band are faced backwards. The singer of the group is highlighted from the very first shot and is seen pulling his collar up.

From here we head straight into performance footage. This is so vital to this video. It takes up a good amount of screen time and is, perhaps sub-consciously, very expected of this genre and music videos in general. This links to one of Goodwin's theories.

The quality of this video is very professional. I'd obviously love to achieve footage of a similar standard, although I'm not sure my camera is quite that good. Different motion speeds are used over and over, whether it's fast or slow. This is a kind of motif and it used very well. It's somehow escaped being gimmicky, which means it's been used carefully and considerately.

Other effects are used on some shots, such as the one above. This lens flare effect is used on all the shots at this location. This creates a feeling of familiarity and also looks very cool, which continues the idea of everything being stylised.

Another effect used is this kind of wobbly 'faulty camera' effect. It's often applied for a very short period of time to make a boring shot more interesting.

My favourite part of the video is the end or last half, where the whole video is replayed backwards to the beginning part of turning up the collar.