In the first part of the lesson we were speaking about the early music videos, which were mostly based on Performance, usually no-cut, and the showing was very limited.
These early videos were often shut with TV cameras, and it caused the bad quality, limited details that could be seen, no white, stripes, reds, and a controlled set of stage.
In the late 50's, the Scopitone was invented in France, and the producing of short films started. One of these artsist is Jacques Ductroncs. His great song, L'opportuniste was made in 1968, you can watch in on youtube from the below link. Its a great song! :) Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVjaI9-8KbI&feature=related
In the second half of the lesson, we were talking about MTV. We all thought it was new, a huge invention, but actually there were quite a lot of forerunners. ( e.g.. American Bandstand 1952, Soul train 1980, Top of the Pops. The production of MTV videos didn't start until 1982.
In the end of the class, we watched the previous music videos, that were made by the Baam 3 students. It was useful, and a lot of fun!
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Lesson 2
Today we were talking about "performance and Movement". We examined three kind of performance a. dance, b. heavy beat music, c. Poetry reading. All of them are really different in terms of clothes, light effects, camera movements, the number of cuts and the number of close ups. We watched, and examined a few videos later on.
Than we have put the character itself on a pedestal, and were about to discuss how is a character created, and what is his media power. A great example is Madonna. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTDR6ztcnQ&feature=fvst , who has the same image for 20 years. :)
We watched the movie: The history of Rock 'n' Roll, which is a documentary about the evolution of music videos, mostly related to MTV, and the new attitude.
In the end of the lesson, we were studying about the tricks, how to make a low budget movie, movie like. Planning is the first and most important thing to do. Using false light can make your music video look more professional. If the movie is ready, better quality can be achieved by adding filters (gran filet, less color saturation..).
I found some useful information about making a music video: http://musicians.about.com/od/musicindustrybasics/ss/makeavideo.htm
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Lesson 3
Our todays topic is called Genre and Diegesis. We are faced with genres every day through a music video or a movie. For example in a western movie, for sure there would be some horses, hats, pistols. Genre help for the viewer, to understand from the first view what is this movie about. These movies also conclude overacting, which helps in better understanding of the situation..
But it is not only the movies, who has genres, they are used in music videos as well. traditionally, they are based on: lighting, camera, placement, music and narrative. There are different genres, the most commons are goth, hip-hop, classical and rock.
And the Diegesis. Concludes series of codes and conversations that give meaning for the video. (eg.: the bling is the symbol of richness). This code is shared between bot the Director and the Audience. ( otherwise it would have no meaning... ). The sound is also part of the diegeses. If a sound has no purpose, we call it Non Diegetic sound. There are some more interpretations of course, for example the beat style, fashion, movement, lightening and special effects all fall into this category.
In the end of the lesson we discussed some editing tricks, which we will try out in our next meeting. I am looking forward to put a nylon on a camera! :)
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Lesson 5
Today was the big show of our first music videos. I really enjoyed watching my classmates works, in my opinion everyone was successful. After watching all the music videos, we made comments, and learnt what could be done better. We made a few plans for the upcoming videos as well.
I am looking forward our newt lesson!
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Lesson 6
Finally we had an opportunity to watch Adams video. It was worth waiting. Than we studied about irony :)))))
Ok, to take it serious, after watching Adams video, we watched a few by Phil. They were great, and we had an opportunity to get some background information as well. We distributed the tasks for the upcoming video. Since we also had time to have a look at the use of symbols and irony, we will have to incorporate those to our final video. For a long time we are not going to have class now :( We will start to make the video, (idea putting together) on Thursday. I am looking forward starting the new video, since making the previous one was a lot lot lot fun !!!!!
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Lesson 7
The title of our today's class was: STEP BY STEP: HOW TO SHOOT A VIDEO
We were learning about the practical steps that one can make, before, during and after the shooting.
Analyzing the song itself is important elemental step. What you have to do?
1. Write down all the words
2. Look at the structure of the song
3. Searching for instrumental breaks
4. Counting the beats/measure. (What is beat/measure? Check out here ! )
Horizontal story-boarding: Music storyboards are horizontal. Usually they move quickly from one idea to another.
Shot description is an essential part of the planning. The shot description is a short breakdown of a given sequence in a film, in which key uses of editing, cinematography, and mies-en-scene are defined. With the shut description, you also have to write about, costuming/makeup, the character, and the set used.
Things that are important to keep in mind:
- once you are ready with the plans, stick to them! Changes just cause further changes, and than a bad video.
-the white balance should be set early
-its a good idea to look at the videos, immediately after the shooting, so there will be no surprises later
- feed the people :) ... BUT NO BEER! if you don't want droopy eyes :)
Thats all for today, newt week we will visit the Margit Island for a picnic-study. Looking forward!
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Lesson 8
THe weather went bad, so we had our music video production class at school. Anyway, we will go next week so! :)
The todays topic was "HOW TO MAKE A GOOD CV"
I was very happy that there is someone who cares about our CV-s :). Since there is just a very little knowledge provided both in high school- and university about this topic, we started to examine the main points of making an appealing document of ourselves.
I would like to highlight the issue of the "Date of birth" and "Nationality" "Picture attached" in a CV. It is interesting that usually thats a basic requirement from the applicants to conclude those information. Can you judge someone because of his age? Nationality? "Beauties"?The answer is obviously not, but in reality this is not the case. No-one can be forced to include this information. But how about the photo? Well, you can leave it out as well, the only drawback, is that maybe they will pick someone who has a nice photo attached... :)
Later we looked through Vlada's CV, and corrected it. We started to write our own-s as well according the new principles we have learnt.
THis lesson was very beneficial for all of us! I am going to rewrite my whole CV! ( With no date of birth) *)
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Lesson 9
Finally we managed to all get together on the Marit island. We learned all the tricks of Frisbee using, and in the end, had a big match. I was in the winner team wupi :)
It was great fun! I am waiting for our next weeks class! :)
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Lesson 10
We have all done our second music videos. There was a big show day in class, and in the 116. I think we are all very proud of all the videos, all of the unique in a different way.
We have learnt a lot not just about music videos, abut ourselves as well. I am very happy that I took this course, and I wish there would be an opportunity for further continuation.
Thank you Phil!!!!
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