Tazmin Lucas A2 Media Blog

Since my original planning post, nothing has changed with my idea and I plan to continue forward with my idea as it is when I go into production, and use the plot line I have already made. You can see more about this here , in my first plot planning post which lists all my ideas.

There has been no changes to my storyboards since my last post, which you can see here . I will be using these to guide me through the production of my coursework to help keep me on track and ensure I am filming the right thing.

Based on all the research and planning I have conducted, I now have a very solid idea of what my plan for my A2 media coursework will be. I am planning on making a music video for my coursework, and you can see my initial ideas here . My ideas have mainly stayed the same, with just a few alterations once I began to plan and practise filming properly, but the core elements have not changed. I will speak about the changes in more detail in further blog posts.

As an exercise to keep me on track and to help me evaluate how my coursework is going so far to see if I need any improvements, and by being able to mark a blog properly I will have a fuller understanding of what I need to include in my blog to make sure it is the best I can be, as I will know what the mark scheme wants of me. If I can identify a level 4 piece of blog work it will give me an idea of how to include that standard into my own blog. This is the mark scheme that I will be following: Level 3 : 12-15 marks: Planning an research evidence will be complete. There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience. There is proficient work on shot lists, layouts, drafting, scripting and storyboarding.  There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. Time management is good. There is proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. There are proficient communication skills. Ther...

One of the main things to consider when making a music video is who the target audience for your band are, and how you can specifically aim your products at them as they ultimately are the people who will be interested in purchasing what you are advertising. To be able to do this you have to know and understand the band you are making a music video for. BAND PROFILE: Band Name : The Hoosiers Genre : Pop Rock Formed : 2003 With this knowledge, you can then deduce that the target audience for my music video would be people of a younger age range, possibly 13-25, due to the fact this is the stereotypical audience for pop music, thus they are the most likely to be interested in the song I am making a video for. However, due to the fact the band formed over 10 years ago, and the availability of their music on the internet through platforms such as YouTube, the target audience could vary to older ages as they would have been the people who were listening to their music as it ...

This task is research based on the second Ancillary task, which is creating a poster for the band/music  that we have constructed our music video for. I did the same thing I did for the first task, which is create a questionnaire and hand it out to 20 people of different ages and genders to collect their response and help me know what to include in my own work. Here are the questions included: 1) Are there any music posters you remember? Why do you remember these? 2) How important is the poster to when you deciding whether to buy the music? Why? 3) In your opinion what makes a good poster? 4) How much space should the act name and track name take up? 5) Should the image the act or should it be a piece of artwork/design? Does this depend on whether the act is a soloist or group? 6) Should there be common themes across the CD cover and poster? 7) Do you like to see a quote and/or star rating? 8) Should the acts social media accounts appear on the poster at all? 9) Shoul...

This is research in preparation for creating my ancillary tasks, in this post I will be researching audience feedback for the CD digipak which I will have to make for my coursework. I created a questionnaire which I handed out to people of a variety of ages and gender to get an inclusive idea of what people expect/want from this product, which I can use as guidance when I create my own. Here are the questions I included in the questionnaire : 1)Are there any CD covers that you remember ? Why do you remember them? 2)How important is the cover of a CD to you buying it ? Why? 3)In your opinion what makes a good CD cover? Does it need to stand off the shelf? 4)How much space should the act name and track name take up? 5)Should the cover be a piece of artwork/design? Does this depend on whether or not the act is a soloist or band? 6)Should there be a common theme amongst the 4 panels or 4 individual images? 7)What should be included in the inside and back panel? 8) Do you like to s...

PLANNING: REHERSAL FOOTAGE As part of our planning and practice for our real coursework, we decided to go and record some rehearsal of footage for our coursework. The idea is to get an idea of the kind of shots worked and didn't work. S o we went and filmed a few clips of us going on a walk at a local church in Wymondham called the Abbey.  The objective of this exercise was to practice how to get the best shots that could be used in the real coursework later on, so we are more prepared and can complete it in a smoother fashion. We also learnt a lot from it as we had some problems with the practical side. When we were filming, we brought two phones to record footage but within the first 10 minutes it died, so we learnt for our actual coursework to make sure all cameras are fully charged before we leave, as although this is simple it is something that can insure our actual filming day goes without any issues. The second phones ca...

Directorial style  Within my music video I have some particular styles and directors I would like to use for inspiration for creating my own footage for my coursework, particularly the silent film inspired aspect.  One of the inspirations for my coursework was a film movement in the late 1950s and 1960s called the New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague if you were to use the French term. This was an umbrella term for a group of french movie makers in this time period. There are thousands of films that come under this category but here are the some of most iconic/recognised: This movement is still very relevant today and has influenced many contemporary directors with the film making style. This movement showed people that they didn't need professional studios to make effective and impressive film inspiring film makers all around the world to make their own content. When this movement arrived was crucial, as it was just after the war so France was starved from culture a...

Editing   Narrative: Narrative is the structure through which films tell a story and narrative appears throughout media and society , in books, plays films and even tv advertisements. It is a string of events occurring in time and space, connected by the logic of cause and effect; tied together by character traits, obstacles and goals. Here is a picture which depicts the typical narrative set up according to Todorov's theory: The words demonstrate the typical structure of a narrative and below are their definitions: Exposition: Establishing the normal of the world within the film, so the tone, the setting and an introduction to the characters. Rising action: The central conflict is introduced and tension between the protagonist and antagonist begins to build. Climax: The turning point, defines a change in the protagonists future. Falling action: This is sorting out the major conflict and the aftermath of the climax. It is sorting out a resolution. Denouement/resolu...

Sound Sound is a crucial part of a music video; it is the basis for making the video in the first place and often the music is the inspiration for the footage within the video that accompanies it. Sound can be used in music videos in different ways to just having the song the video was made for; they can include diegetic sound or foley sound if the type of video they want to make lends itself to this. By adding these extra aspects, rather than just the song, it can make the music video more interesting and diverse as it adds a different dimension to the non diegetic sound of the track over the footage. Therefore it is a very important aspect to consider when creating a music video as it is not always just as simple as laying a track over some footage, it all has to fit together and make sense with the genre of music. For my coursework I am planning on using mainly the track to ' cops and robbers' by the hoosiers as this was the inspiration for my video and the footag...

As a class, we worked together to recreate the Mannequin challenge, and internet challenge that became very popular quickly. We got the common room at our sixth form to get involved and after a couple of takes, we completed the final video:

What are the different camera shots and angles? Camera Shots: Extreme long shot Extreme long shots :This form of shot is taken from a long way away, up to a quarter of a mile, and is used to give a general impression of the scene as not much detailed will be included in the shot due to the distance. It is generally used as an scene-setting/establishing shot as it gives the general impression  of what is about to take place; for example an exterior of a building or landscape within which action is taking/about to take place. The picture to the left is an example taken from Harry Potter, showing how this kind of shot can be used to set the scene and indicate to the audience where the next part of the story is about to take place. Long shots: Long Shot This shot is generally the one that is as close to 'life size' that cinema can get, corresponding between the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema. This can also be known as the  full...

Storyboards: As part of the planning for production I constructed some storyboards to give me a clearer idea of what the different shots will look like and give me a clear plan for when I go into filming. It gives me a shot by shot breakdown of what I need to film and helps me finalise the plot so can I can picture what I need to do, making filming go smoother. I am not the best at drawing so I have labelled each section so I can explain clearly what is going on: 1) The beginning of the video will start with the name of the song and band appearing on the screen in a typewriter fashion, with a filter and a font to make it seem more vintage. 2)There will be a panning shot of the city to set the scene, it will be a tilt going from the floor into the air and will be a slightly longer shot. 3)Then there will be a similar shot within the performance element, starting with a tilt shot to start with all the band and their instruments, giving them an identity and connecting the two...

Here is a stop motion animation video that we had 4 hours to create, from ideas to editing. We had to do it as part of the selection day for the BFI film academy, we had the conditions of: A clown Horror genre A cuboard A cactus 'The sun is shiny bright'

For my arts award as part of doing the bfi film academy, I had to make a website documenting everything that we have done. So here is the finished website, with all the work we did during the academy. https://tasminlucascwe.wixsite.com/film Here is the link to the finished documentary we created in production week, which was only 4 days long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZyTz-U-baw

Props This aspect of my music video is strongly linked to the costume  aspect of my video, as most of the props I am planning on using link to the set costumes for my characters. This also makes props a crucial part of my music video as it will add to the effect of the costumes; as good props will be an extension of these costumes and thus the characters, giving the audience a clearer image when watching my music video. Also, due to the fact that I am trying to use costumes inspired a different time period to modern day, by adding props this will make that difference clearer by adding more definition and the little details will make the over all finish of my video more professional. The props I want to use are going to  used quite a lot in my video as well, again making them a pronounced element of my mis-en-scene. Props I am going to need: Police Baton - This will be held by the police officer who is chasing the 'robbers', and he will be waving it up above ...