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Essay for Jon

All across the media industry there are hundreds of different types of interactive media, my job is to deliever the main ones in essay form with examples and description.

Platforms for video in interactive media
I have to admit, the one in this section that has the most impact on modern life is the World Wide Web, with platforms such as youtube, and iplayer it is by far the easiest and quickest way to access anything. Youtube is the most popular website for watching mucis videos, looking for funny clips, and watching TV highlights. Youtube brought about Susan Boyles popularity by people watching her audition song, she hit record numbers within weeks of starring on the show Britains Got Talent all thanks to internet sites like YouTube. The telegraph have said "The Scottish singer's rendition of the Les Miserables song on the television show was watched more than 120 million times by viewers across the world. She netted more than three times the number of internet hits achieved by the second most-watched video of 2009."

Another popular platform are Mobile phones, PDA'S, Games consoles and blackberrys, with most mobile contracts now coming with internet, the oppotunities to access interactive media is alot higher than it was say, 5 years ago. With blackberrys being business phones and now coming into 'fashion' amoung young adults, sales have rocketed skyhigh. Also, with all phones now having cameras and video modes, it gives people the chance to make there own clips of anything they want, be that happy slapping, to funny animals.

DVD's and CD's are a very popular way for companys to make money, be it documenties, albums, singles, or even an education film there are several different types of dvd's now, you can have bluray, HD or just the normal traditional dvd. bluray and HD are both high definition pictures, so there really isnt a massive difference between the two types of traditional or high def. CD's are used for producers to make money, releasing an album for a famous artist such as madonna, the production comanpy are bound to get some commision on the sales.

When it comes to Kiosks there are several different types. Telekiosks are exaclty like telephone boxs, but with the options of sending texts, e-mails and faxes, these started appearing inthe uk in the early 21st century maily being positioned in shopping centers and airport terminals to give the customer the infomation they require. Another type is internet kiosks, normally placed in hotel lobbies, long-term care facilities, medical waiting rooms, apartment complex offices, or airports they give the user quick acess to anything on the internet.

Uses of video in interactive media
Short films, which can also be called short subject, Are mainly Documentries or hand drawn animations, Short films are alot easier to download from the internet as their capacity is obviously not as big compared to feature films.

Promotional material promotes several types of media, eg; music bands, products, places, movies, television programmes etc. The different ways of getting them seen are on television between programmes, (the adverts) bus stop advertising, magazines, beginning of films, football grounds, radio, sponsorships

Viral marketing is actually a rather new way of getting the word out about a product or someone. "Evian Roller Babies" started off as a vial advert for the water company, and now it is there most watched youtube clip with 18,225,751 viewers. Viral marketing is becoming more popular with the rise of internet sites that you can put your own videos on.

Video in interactive media technologies
Video compression is compressing a video down to a suitable size of format. You are able to get software for Macs or Pcs that do this, I have done this a few times with some videos at college on the macs so that i can upload it on to youtube.

CODEC- a device capable ot encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal
streaming + download - download means you can watch it whenever, streaming means you are watching it live
interactive video formats-
MPEG -moving picture experts group
AVI-audio video interleave
MOV- quicktime file format
WMV-windows media video
bandwidth-a rate of data transfer
frame rates-speed of which a device produces consecutive images
screen resolutions-the number of pixels in each dimension that can be displayed
file sizes- measured in bytes, this is the size of a file on a computer
picture ratios-4:3 is the common size for a video format, 16:9 is the format for high def tv.
digital rights management- copyright management
embedded video- videos on a site that can be taken off via a HTML code and placed elsewhere.
video tagging-
media players
DVD- Digital Versatile Disc
iPLAYER- Interactive Media Player for the BBC
QUICKTIME- proprietary multimedia framework developed by apple
WINDOWSMEDIAPLAYER- proprietary digital media player developed by microsoft

Evaluation of pop promo

For our prop promo rotation, i worked with stephanie whiskin and we created a Doctor Who spoof with our music being the doctor who theme tune, throughout our work, i have to admit that Stephanie did not pull her weight, i ended up doing all of the pre production work and editing, however stephanie did do about an hours work editing the monsters.

I think our promo is exactly as our pre production says it would be, however, we forgot to shoot the first two shots, this resulted in us cutting out the sections and cutting down the song/video in total. This was due to my flaws more than anything else, we only had Tom available to shoot for one day so we planned to get it all shot in a day, this did work, minus us running over our scheduled time and obviously forgetting the two first shots

We came across some major problems within our work, the monsters we created to chase Tom through out, we didn't realize at the time that we couldn't put the monsters behind Tom and still manage to keep the background there, so we spent days, with some help from our classmates, removing the background from ever frame of ever shot, as you can imagine, 25 frames per second and with about 10 shots, this took us a very long time, after I had completed the one of the Dock scene, we tried to put it into the video and it didn't work, so we wasted all that time on something that didn't work.

In the end, we used one clip of each monster and green screened them into the video chasing tom, this really doesn't look as good as i hoped it would, but we still managed to complete our given task.

My favorite part of the video is of the explosion scene, this turned out alot better than we had actually anticipated. If i was to re-do this video, i would use a different song and a different video idea, i would properly mainly use green screen as my personal opinion is that it is of a much better quality.

Pre Production

These are my storyboard sheets, they give the viewer a brief outline on what we will be shooting.This is a 'Shot list sheet' this is where we record the shots we have done as we progress through the shoot.

This is a shooting script, this shows us where we will be and what we will be doing etc each day.

With the 'Location finders checklist' you write down pretty much the pro's and the cons of the location you are using.

This is a shooting schedule, it shows us what we will be doing where and when in more detail than the shooting script.

This is a breakdown sheet, it shows us whats needed in each area.

During pre-production, i spent about two days in total working flat out to get it all complete before the pre-pro deadline.

One day lip-sync Project

This is Stephanies and my lip sync project final edit for Abba - Dancing Queen.

For this project we had to shot our own lipsync videos. Inbetween each clip of Stephanie or I dancing or singing, i put in our 'outake' clips. I admit that the video isn't in perfeect sync, but this is the best i couldv'e possibly done, i spent a total of 2 - 3 hours trying to get the clips in perfect sync with the song and it was alot harder and trickier than i thought it would have been.

This video was Fully edited by myself.

Our locations were TowerRamparts, we used the TowerRampat shots in the first 3 clips, the two escalator ones and one of me lipsyncing on the stairs by the toilets. shortly after we shot my 1st lipsync clip, we got told by security that we needed permission to shot there and shortly after, we got kicked out.

To finish our shot, we moved our equipment to Buttermarket Basement. we found this the best place as there was no cameras so we couldnt get removed or seen, and not many people would be present down there as it was about 10am. Obviously, i had forgotten about the people going to there cars, so we had an ongoing audience watching us singing and dancing to Abba.

We used a Tamborine during the shot as the lyrics read 'feel the beat from the tamborine oh yeah.' Personally, i think the tamborine is the highlight of the video as it is comical and it ties in perfectly with the lyrics and the song.

The outakes which are shown inbetween clips that needed a gap between them to create the syncronization between clips and song, were shot after we had finished recording our shoot. we put the camera on record and just generally messed around, we thought this would give the video a nice little edge to it, and it has to be my favourtie part of the video itself.

If i had to creat a lipsync project again, i would most likely think alot more carefully about the locations, props and the way in which we recorded the clips. Also i'd think alot more about the editing as it could be alot better in most places.

Overall i think our video is great! but there is always room for improvment.

Research: Purpose of music videos

• Promotion
• Raising profile of artist
• Entertainment
• Music Video Director - Great Opportunities!

Music videos were initally made to give the artists a break, in the 1960's bands were needed to travel all over the world to promote themselves. The first band to commercially do this was the beatles in the 1960's. There song 'A Hard Days Night' was the first one to be made, shortly followed by Help!

From 1981 - 1991 music videos began to become mainstream, with 'Video killed the radio star' and famous acts such as Adam and the Ants and Madonna being amoung the first to produce videos that have greatly influenced music and pop promos today.
In 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was releasedIn 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was released, Micheal Jacksons - Thriller

Music videos now-a-days, are used to promote the band/singer and to try and sell their music as much that is possible. Normally, two to three videos are produced and aired before the band/singer would release there album. eg, Lady gaga released, Just dance and pokerface.
Some artists do videos to recoup some of the money spent on the production itself, to do this, the artists videos must be shown on some of the many extention outlets avalible. on television, there is MTV, Kerrang, VH1, Q, Magic etc, on the interenet there are sites such as youtube, vodpod, videocure and thousands more and for downloads there is itunes, blackberries, mobiles, spotify, nokiamusic and hundreds more.

In some cases, bands music videos are used to promote films or shows before there releases. Paramore released a song called 'Decode' this video was used to promote 'Twilight' the first in the twilight saga by Stephanie Mayer. Television shows like the Xfactor, Britains got talent and orange unsigned acts also use this method, on X-factor or Britains got talent, the winners videos are known to be a video of there journey through the show and how they became the winner.

In the last 25 years, the art of making music videos has become incredibly influentual and indivitual, with each video having their own style and help to give the audience an idea of what sort of genre the artist/band are.

This is the beetles with 'A Hard Days Night,' this was there 1st pop promo release, it is made as a short film on a low budget, this influenced all future pop promos. I know this because in the following years, Micheal Jackson released 'Thriller.' Another incredibly influentual pop promo as this definitly changed the whole concept of pop promos, using a director who understood what micheal jackson wanted to produce and also achieving it. the video stars actors done up as zombies and the new found Horror genre for pop promos.

This is 'Beauty in the Breakdown' by The Scene Aesthetic, its a simple pop promo really, with the video being mostly performances by the band themselves and the promo also has a narrative sroryline to it, a girl with a boy, she sneaks out and then they mess around and have fun, and then he drives her home. the main thing i like the most is how when shes not with him, its shot in black and white, but when shes with him, its all in colour. The way in which this video which is more contempory than the previous two relate to each other is the storyline, the way in which the directors make the videos tell a story.

Sources used;

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video

Purposes of research?

Why do we do research into topics before we start a project? The most obvious answer to this is to find out more information about the topic. There are two types of research, primary research and secondary research.

Primary research is a collection of data that does not already exist, these can can be in forms such as questionnaires, analyzing films or radio shows, interviews, surveys and group feedback sessions etc.

Secondary research is research someone else has done that is related to what you're doing. you can find these on the internet, in books, in newspapers, magazines, journeys and government statistics.

The main reasons why we do research is to find out more information, to be able to answer questions efficiently, to be able to create your work so that it will suit the target audience and to know how to make your product to a top quality.

Research: Contemporary music video research

For my Contemporary music video research i will be researching the bands CSS and Amy Macdonald




CSS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_(band)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpntLf4V4jI
Release; Febuary 26, 2007
Format; CD / 7" / 12"
Genre ; Indie rock
Length; 3.30 (album version)
Label; Sub Pop
Writer; Adriano Cintra
Producer; Adriano Cintra
Director; Ana Rezende

This song is featured in the computer game FIFA 08. It is also featured in Forza MotorSport 2.

Mise-En-Scene used throught the video;
A basment,
Everyday objects like hats and balloons,
A tiled room,
Dogs,
Mugs of water.

There is alot of shots that have been played backwards, giving that joltly sort of look to them.
The lighting is all natural lighting, there doesnt seem to be any percific lighting rig used. The Cameras used seem to be stationary. there seems to be very little movment at all.
In my opinion the video was made to have fun more than make money. it appears that alot of the video was based on the badn dancing around, not with any particular coreography involved.

Including the style of the band, i feel that the intended audience are for those with an alternative sence of style and music. The band also Featured in the channel 4 hit series skins, which put 'Off The Hook' in the puplic eyes.


Although the camera is mainly stationary throughout, the editing draws you away from recognizing this at first, they play most of the clips backwards, you can see this the best at 2:31 where the lead singer is pulling tape off of the wall, but through playing it backwards, makes it look like she is only now putting up the tape spelling out CSS.









The music video is that of the electro background. We are able to tell this not only by the style of music linked to the video, but also how the video is so recognisable. Most music videos that have an electro or dance background have to create more interest within the video as the music may sound repetitive If the music video wasn’t that interesting. I feel that this is exactly why the director has decided to create a music video that has a variety of different things happening. some of the shots are just the band performingin a basement, then they move on to what appears to be a bathroom because of the tilled walls and floors, then we the final scene of a white wall and the lead vocalist putting up the CSS logo. However, because of the editing, throughout the video, we have all shots being played backwards, personally this gives me a feel that they are different to other bands of this genre.






"Off the hook" is a bizarre but unique music video When a music video much like this one, by CSS, has a video like it does, with eye catiching editing and lyrics the most powerful form of advertising and promotion is word of mouth, and if the target audience likes the video and discusses about it on “Social networking” then this would lead to make the band extremely popular just because of the different style of music video.

some responces to their video/song

• Notice this is more entertaining than a music video with a high budget...
  
• I first heard about css from the apple iPod commercial and I've loved them since
  
• this is the best song on the FIFA 2008 soundtrack, that happens to be the best comp of music in a very long time. Also, love the vid a lot. I like the album a lot.
  

It was hard to find many english comments for this band as they are brazillian, and the vast majority of there fans are brazillian



Amy Macdonald;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6MRYLWJb1o
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=c6MRYLWJb1o&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3Dc6MRYLWJb1o


Released; December 10 2007
Format; CD single, Digital Download
Recorded; 2007
Genre; Indie pop, folk,
Length; 3:07
Label; Vertigo records
Writer; Amy Macdonald
Producer; Pete Wilkinson
Video director; Lindy Heyman
Video producer; Malachy Mcanenny

Mise-en-scene used;
A party house
Dark alley way with a car behind (0:18)
Moving pictures


The lighting throughout changes with the different scenes. when shes by her self, its a natural lighting rig, but when she was out in the alley, it was very dark. also, while she was near what appeared to be a garage door, there was alot of flashing lights, like paparazzi cameras, (0:52)
The actors in this video were laying down, it appears as though they were out the night before and just passed out. The moving pictures in Amys hands and on her fridge gave us the story of the night before, her and her friends out and about having fun till the early hours.

The lyrics do tie in well with the video itself, Amy Macdonald sings 'and your singging a song thinking this is the life, and you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size' which is obviously talking about a hangover! in the video, they show all the actors playing her friends laying on the floor (0:14)as we get flashbacks from there night before.(0:23)

The video takes the form of a storyboard. Switching from one action to the next with ease, because of this, it promotes the image of Amy being laidback and generally funloving. I feel her target audience is from the ages of 16 plus.

You probably couldn't find a stronger link between the lyrics and the visuals in any other music video. As the song is named this is the life, the video shows Amy having the time off her life with her friends still recovering from the night before. The director Lindy Heyman has gave the video a really nice story line to it, showing us the stop animation photographs from her night before.
The lyrics “thinking this is the life when you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size” is about going out with your friends, getting really drunk, then when you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size due to a hang over. One of the opening lines of the song is a reference nightclubs, “And the people they were dancing To the music vibe”, refers to when you are standing in a club with all your friends, you've drunk a fair amount, and you just dance like a crazy person, feeling the 'vibe' of the song. "And the boys chase the girls, with curls in their hair While the shy tormented youth sit way over there" to me this applys to guys going on 'the pull' chasing girls and then you have the shy people who are to self concious to dance incase they draw attention to themselves just sitting in the corner with they're friends.The music and the visuals work well together because the music is rather laid back and Amy Mcdonalds voice gives the song that soft edge to it."Oh where you gonna go, where you gonna go Where you gonna sleep tonight?" this lyric ties in perfectly with the shot of all her friends alseep on the floors/sofas round what appears to ber her flat, (this shot is at 0;15).This could be an example of intertextuality in the music video.

Some responces to the video

• I was on a European tour with Tokyo Blade in Oct 2009. We were driving through Belgium and I heard this song on the radio. I immediately grabbed my camera and recorded a little bit of this. Was just going over the pics and vids and this popped on and reminded my to look for it. So glad I found it!! Love this song!! Now Im jamming this song in Detroit, Michigan USA!!!
  
• when i went to germany last year this song was EVERYWHERE, i mean really everywhere; supermarkets, restaurants, on the radio! i never get sick of it...
  
• Good song, nicely sung. Infact her appearance suites the occassion of the song "this is the life".A makeover-face with a bulk of lipstic and foundation sometimes ruins the video. Its a natural feel here...