Friday, 26 February 2010

Magazine Advert Ideas

As the internet wasn't working today me and Shelley resulted to using pen and paper and our own thoughts. Shelley was telling me about a model who has four different photos next to eachother in the Andy Warhole style but without the colours. I liked the idea of that and though of maybe having each photo a close up of "Edie" and have her looking into the centre.

In the centre we both decided on haveing a something simple like "Edie's Back". We was thinking of fonts and agreed on big and bold. Shelley then thought of a scene from "Chicago" where Renee Zellweger, who plays Roxie, climbs on her name that is lit up in lights. I think this look great if we do it really well.


Thursday, 25 February 2010

Narrative

What is "Narrative":
A Narrative is the way a story is organised.

Elements of Narrative:
-Time
-Closure
-Enigma

Our video covers probably covers six years; capturing Edie Sedgewick at the peak of her modelling and film career to her drug abuse and finally her abruptive death at 28.
Unfortuately there is no closure at the end of our video because of Edie's death.
Our two main enigmas was Edie's drug abuse "why doesn't she stop?" or "why doesn't else stop her?" and Edie being caught up between Warhol and Dylan and choosing the wrong man in the end (Warhol) who wrecked her career, "Why did she choose Warhol over Dylan?"

Classical Hollywood Narratives:
-Linear
-Few, if any, sub-plots
-Tendency towards closure

Theories of Narrative:

1) Todorov
-Equilibrium
-Disruption
-Resolution
-New Equilibrium

Our narrative does have a Equilibrium at the beginning with Edie shopping and having a great relationship with Warhol. However her career and the introduction of Dylan is the disruption. Due to her abruptive death of a drug overdose however, there is no resolution and therefore no new equilibrium at the end.

Two good examples of this is "The Outlaw of Josey Wales" and "Blue Velvet"

2) Propp
-Analysed folk stories
-Eight character roles:

1)The Hero (protagonist)
2)The Villian (antagonist)
3)The Donor (provider)
4)The Helper
5)The Father Figure
6)The Dispatcher
7)The Princess
8)The False Hero

Narrative- Levi-Strauss and Binary Oppositions
-Argued that the structure of narratives was a dependence on binary oppositions
-A conflict between two qualities or terms
-These binary oppositions can form the basis of narrative
E.g. Male<->Female Young<->Old

E.g. Gender
Narratives can be organised through binary oppositions of gender stereotypes

Gender Stereotypes: Masculine
-Professional
-Strong
-Rational
-Competitive
-Independent
-Aggressive
-Ruthless
-Ambitious

Feminine:
-Domesticated
-Weak
-Emotional
-Co-operative
-Communal
-Passive
-Sensitive
-Supportive

The Western:

-Homesteaders Vs -Native Americans
-Christians -Pagan
-Domesticated -Savage
-Weak -Strong
-Feminine -Masculine
-Garden -Wilderness
-Inside society -Outside society

Our video has a main binary opposition which is male Vs female. We have steretypically created our characters the way they are in accordance to their gender. Therefore Edie Sedgewick is seen as weak, vunerable, emotional and passive whereas Warhol in particular (amongst many men in her life) is strong, dominating, ambitious and ruthless at times.

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Questionaire

Here is a basic questionaire I have created to find out what people think of our music video.



1) How old are you?

10-15 16-20 21-25 25-30 30+


2) What gender are you?

Male Female


3)Who do you think our target audience would be (looking at the video)?

10-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 30+

4) What genre of music do you usually listen too?

......................................................................................


5) Would you buy this single?

Yes No


6) Our genre was folk/acoustik, do you think our video matched the genre?

Yes No

7) Do you have any knowledge about Edie Sedgwick?

Yes No


8) What were your first thoughts when you saw our video?

.........................................................................................................................................................................

9) What did you enjoy most about the video?

.........................................................................................................................................................................

10) What improvements could we of made?

.........................................................................................................................................................................

Monday, 15 February 2010

Analysis


























I am going to analyse the video by givin the times of clips that I want to discuss and the video is above. I'm going to do it this way because I want to explain most clips and it wouldn't be appropriate to keep pasting small sections of our piece.




0:03: We used this high shot close up clip first because it shows the ending which i think is a great technique because it makes the audience question why Edie looks like that. With the writing over the top of the clip it explains that our video is based on a real person. We used the sepia effect to give it the brownish colour to distinguish her life from the home made film.



0:05: The overlap transition with these two clips show the comparisent. She goes from looking so sad to so happy with Andy Warhol. Its the best time of her life. I liked this shot alot because of the funny face "Andy" pulls to show he is having fun too. To film this shot we had Jack Stone hold the camera and turn it around to face us to give it the home made film effect. We also added scratches and black and white effect to make it look old. Throughout the song, the home made video is all in high key lighting, showing the bright side of Edie and how she's always surround by lights.

0:06: I thought this shot worked well because "Edie" has a tiny pair or knickers to show her naughty side and how she isn't embarrassed about sex. The zooming out shows her surroundings. She is next to a Christmas tree, showing she is Christmas shopping.

0:10: I love this part. With Jack using the camera we can see how "Andy" is admiring her and how he films her. The shot looks her up and down showing his interest in her.


0:18: The square transition worked well because it showed a complete change of scene. Unfortunatly we forgot about the "Costa" label on the mugs and didn't realise until we were editing but we didn't have anymore time to refilm.




0:20: The awkwardness here shows that Andy really wants more with Edie but she isn't interested. With this shot linked with a simple overlap transition and a close up of "Edie" it shows her facial reaction to him holding her had. She has a slight smile but it shows she isn't really happy it's just out of feeling awkward.


0:25: This is our first bit of lip syncing. I had Jack Outtrim sit on a stall infront of a black wall with an acostic guitar. We added a black and white effect and changed the brightness and contrast so it didn't look too much like the home made video. At first when we were experimenting with effects we had the brightness and contrast only and it flashed all different colours. This looked really good but unfortunatly didn't fit our piece so we change it to black and white. I liked this effect because with the black wall "Bob's" face really stands out.





0:30: As the words say "let me paint a picture of how" it goes into "Edie and Bob" kissing. It's a picture of what Bob wants. The close up emphasises the kiss and the connection they have.

0:32: This mid shot has "Bob" smoking in a secluded area with "Edie" as they talk and laugh. It matches the words as he is singing about what he wants.

0:42: As it says "these are barely shadows of you" the mid high angle shot of edie that actually really focuses on her face as she up and looks up at the camera and smiles. It is back to the home made video that Andy is making but linked to what Bob is reminiscing.


0:45: The sepia effect on this clip of "Bob and Edie" kissing shows it is private and not being filmed. Their romance is being shown and with "Edie" dressed in a revealing outfit shows they have alot of fun.

0:51: For the second time it says "I barely know you" we decided to use a close up of "Edie's" sweaty forehead to show she isn't well and something is wrong. It matches the words because it shows she wasn't anything like what Bob thought she was, she was into drugs.

1:15: "Bob and Edie" are going a step further showing that they are serious about eachother. We decided to do this in a mini instrumental because the music matches this clip with the pace and the focus on the video not the words of the song.

1:22: Haveing "Edie" naked under the covers with a glass of straight Whiskey and make up smeare across her face shows she is going downhill compared to when we first see her happy, with Andy, shopping. We filmed this in mid shot because we wanted to show that she has no clothes on but also show her face. The words are "this would be the first time I knew", and they go really well because it's as if Bob is just finding out what she is really like.

1:30 "When they told me what they did to you" and "Edie" collapsing on the bed, not even being able to take her jacket off is where we start to really notice that something is wrong and someone is leading her astray. We done this in long shot to show she is alone on the bed and her whole body is exhausted.

1:34 This shot was actually Jack getting stressed because I made him repeat a few parts but we used it because it was real anger. The zooming out was also an accident but I think it worked well because it brings Jack back into the shot and we see his angry face. "Bob" is getting angry at this point of the song because he is thinking of when Edie.

1:37: We used the push transition to introduce Bob singing again because it was like a retake after he threw his guitar.

1:47: Connecting a clip of Edie drugged up with her happily being filmed by Andy shows the different parts of her life and how things have changed for her.

1:56: "And you go and get so high" is "Edie" sitting up quickly and choking as though she needs to be sick from her dosage of drugs. This is a long shot, once again showing her alone on the bed and suffering.

2:00: This is a clip showing what lead to her being ill. Because we didnt want to show any drugs we just had me drinking naked under the covers to show Edie wasn't really in complete control of what she was doing.

2:04: It is this shot that we used to create a graphic match. Here she is thinking back to what lead her to be in this position and it's like she doesnt understand because she was so happy.

2:12: Because she doesn't understand, she takes a sip of her whiskey. I'm going to be honest, as it was real whiskey in the glass and I didn't want to drink it we used the reverse effect and slowed it down so it looks like she drinks and then pulls it away again. The slow motion shows it is and important part of why she died.

2:20: We reversed this clip to because her face goes from happy to sad showing again that everything is going wrong.

2:23: We reversed this clip too because Bob looks more serious and angry.

2:31: Once again we reversed this clip. It shows that Andy realises that Edie isn't interested so he pulls his hand away.

2:40 We thought we should add some more home made video footage because it just adds to the effect of how happy she was and how bad she is getting. Again with a transition this clip connected with the camera zooming in to "Edie's" face adds on the feeling of how happy she is as we see real emotion in the close up.

2:58: Slowing down the kiss shows the real connection Edie and Bob had. We really feel how she felt at this point.

3:02 The zoom into "Edie" blowing into her drink shows Andys fasination on her features and his lust for her also.



3:05: The bright lights are a representation of her life. How she was famous but also the light can be seen as seeing the light as she dies.

3:09: The newspaper article at the end is what I made with my face and the headline that Edie has died. It just ends the song completely and makes it really emotional.

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

FINISHED

We finally finished our music video. I uploaded it to my youtube account so when we analyse it we can place it on here and reference our points. I am very proud of our work and I wouldn't make many changes. The newspaper article I created fitted in really well. Here is our piece (sorry for it being so blury, we filmed with a HD camera and youtube doesn't show the good quality).

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Editing

As I inserted another close up clip of Edie's sweating face, I asked Shelley again if we could change it to the Sepia effect because it still didn't make sense being black and white, even though it looked good. She agreed but the next task was to go back and change the effect on all of the simular clips. After playing around with them I worked out how to delete the effect and apply the Sepia.

It caused some problems that were easily fixed but became annoying. We kept forgetting the transitions lengths and and names so we had to undo our work sometimes to remind ourselves. Although this cost us some time, it wasn't valuable as we only have a few seconds left to complete.

Going back and changeing the clips has made our video make alot more sense. I also copyed a clip of Edie and Bob kissing and slowed it down. It worked really well with the beat and actually could make one become emotional if they understand what is going on. I think we have protrade Edie's life really well and we didn't need anymore footage as repeating it slowly and reversed shows her life slowing and breaking down.


We then had an idea to put a newspaper article of Edie's death at the end of the video. I was worried about the copy right rules so we decided on changeing an article slightly or making our own. I have been on websites to do this but found none of them that were good enough to use. I looked at a recommened website http://www.inthepaper.co.uk/ but found I could not change the date to fit Edies death and then, maybe a fault with my laptop, I could not change the headline. I looked for other simular sites but didn't have much luck. Thanks to Google Images, I found an article of Edie's death and decided to change the picture to one of me playing her so it would make more sense and we wouldn't have the big problem of copy right. I then used http://www.picnik.com/ to edit a picture Shelley took of me so it suited the paper. I chose the picture of me holding a cigarette as the orginal picture of Edie, she was holding a cigarette. It also simbalises a short life as we all know cigarettes are not healthy.









Here is what I have done: