Part Two – Research

Secondary Research – Practitioner

Jonathan Lia is a music video producer and editor who has worked with the most famous music artists of our time, such as Beyonce, coldplay, Travie Mcoy, Bruno Mars and so much more. His work does vary from creativity to simplicity. There is not much about him but I have been doing some digging around. As for my idea in creating a music video, I got my inspiration from a video Jonathan produced with Bruno Mars called – ‘That’s What I Like’ the production in the video is very good and detailed as hes added animation on the top of Bruno mar’s movements to the song. Below is the Video:

As you can see from the above video, there is great though that has been put into it as well as creativity. I will be going in deeper with concepts and original ideas to mine in another post below.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to found his back story of how he became a very successful producer, but I have found a few interesting things about him from what he has produced and how he may of started his career. With doing a fair bit of investigating from many websites, I have managed to find his very own Facebook page of where he lists where he has studied at a young age. He first went to North Rockland High School in the United States, he went to this school from 14 and finished at the age of 18, from the age of approximately 18, he then went to study at the University of Michigan where he studied media production. He then progressed to college that specialised in media called The New School Film & Media Studies in New York. From then he then progressed to University in Michigan. From then graduating university he then co-founded a company called GOOD COMPANY of which they create and promote music artists through their very own music videos. Below is some of his work:

Costume

The costumes are not so adventurous but as the main focus is Selena Gomez she is wearing on the occasion of her lyrics, dressing to impress whoever she wants to appeal to. As the lyrics are rather sexual, she then has scenes of where he is wearing next to nothing but the target audience for this is specifically males.

Lighting

The lighting is rather good due to it showing the main focus of which is the singer as well as ASAP Rocky on the video, the lighting is rather bright which is good, i feel like they have used the lighting on set as it is similar to a fashion shoot just like the style the video is.

Actors

Actors wise there are not a lot of actors, the video only includes the two artists of whom are Selena Gomez and ASAP Rocky who is featured in the song. For the style of video that this is, there was no need to have backing dancers or any additional actors as it is a simplistic video.

Makeup

The make up of course is very well done as it has to be good for the lighting on set, to show definition on the facial expressions.

Props/Performance

Props that are used are very simplistic such as the sofa, stool that Selena uses in the video, as for the Exploding Car in the background is an awesome touch to the rap and lyrics that ASAP rocky is rapping. The Props don’t necessarily have any meaning behind  them but still serve a purpose of what they solemnly are for – sitting/laying on.

Setting

The setting is first in a room that appears to have green/blue walls with wall paper on the right and left hand walls. The Sofa in the room is mostly the only prop in the scene and Selena laying upon it. She also in one shot is laying on on a wooden floor. It seems that the whole place of where this is filmed is in a building of which does not have any personal attributes or furniture inside – ie. no one is living there.

Another Shot of where is in a different location is in what seems to be an empty wash room of some sort of which she sits on a stool with wet hair and a white t-shirt which may mean that she may of taken a shower in the possible narrative of the music video.

Jonathan Lia then captures great and visually appealing shots of slow motion in the shower, with the water sparkling and shining as it drops over her.

Further more there are also shots with a glass screen of which she is filmed on the other side of, that may show separation to who she may be singing about or an emotion that she may wish to send out to the viewer.

Secondary Research – Competition

The Video above is a stop motion music video animation of which is done and created in great detail. Each picture taken is extremely aligned and detailed. As you can see above, the producer has to cut every single piece of paper into pieces that move in a very specific way. I have found out that the song is sang in Japanese and the lyrics go something like this:

If you spit out

Everything you’ve seen so far

Before a summary voice

Passes through your throat,

A dissenting voice

Will reach your throat

And everything you’ve seen so far

Will be erased.

Before that happens,

Retain their shapes unchanging.

That’s where I’ll be waiting.

That’s where I’ll be waiting.

Before the dissenting voice

Passes through the throat,

If you can’t make a move by then,

Before you have to get out the oil can

To get yourself moving,

Even your laziest memories

Will be erased.

Before that happens,

Retain their shapes unchanging.

That’s where I’ll be waiting.

That’s where I’ll be waiting.

The translation isn’t too informative or accurate but it seems to be about how you need to think before you speak and all that you do say has an impact on the world around you. Like you would with shaping the world. The Title of the song is ‘Katachi’ which actually means ‘Shape’. In the Video Description is states that the video is made with approx. 2000 silhouettes extracted from PVC plates using computer-controlled cutter.

There is also a video showing how they managed to create this video and its production made in a studio and briefly showing what program they used to create the shapes of which was after affects.

The people involved in the videos production and making was the following:

Director, Concept, Animation – Kijek/Adamski
Production – Katarzyna Rup / Ab Film Production
Cast – Artur Cetnarowski
Gaffer – Heliograf, Blitz
Studio set – PlumArt Marcin “Śliwa” Śliwiński, Arek Szot, Joanna Kijek
PVC cutting – Dawid Krzyżanowski

Kijek/Adamski has made maby music videos that are all in stop motion, of which he specialises in. His Vimeo channel is full of great and visually appealing work.

Here is an a lot more detailed animation of which is creative in the aspect that the song is about a pirates life, and each time the wave covers his face, something changes in his appearance until the wave then begins to reseed back down. With this animation, it is all drawn frame by frame of which you can see in one of his blog post videos that teases the release of the video. The teaser shows him under a blanket drawing on a pad surrounded by pens and as the video reaches the end, the lighting begins to dim giving the impression that time is passing into darkness, as in hes been drawing non stop for hours until his project is complete.

His job role. Adam is an independent film maker who specialises in Stop motion animation, directing and art direction. He has also won many nomination awards in France, Mexico and the UK for best stop motion animation short clip and also many other destinations. He has a Behance page of which doesn’t provide very much about him at all or his back story but as what you can see on his page is that he is very talented and puts an awful a lot of time and effort into his projects that he sets himself to create. And for me, I will definitely have to show my effort and skills of to create something to the standard of his work as I know from my past experiences that animation take an awful amount of time to put it all together and at times it cant always go your way. I will be expanding more on my technical issues in a separate post below.

VEVO Record Label

Vevo is an extremely well known record label and is one of the most used music platforms used by the majority of people who wish to listen to music. The Company was founded in 2009 where it is now got hundreds of views, videos and partnerships with many artists themselves, production companies as well as other platforms.

Statistics

As you can see above they are huge, there is a small majority who watch their videos on mobile but also a further 48% of their audience use other devices to watch their videos as well as look at the latest celebrity news etc. As you may know, they are rather large on YouTube with many music artists of which when you look at their YouTube channel, it may say their name and then “VEVO”  at the end.

 

So as this is a great company and is ever so large on many media platforms such as YouTube itself, Facebook, twitter etc. They also create their own content of which they call ‘the hot seat’

 The clock is ticking and the answers are flying. We put artists in the hot seat, demanding quick responses to personal questions.

As for Vevo being not only a video platform for music but also the amount of contacts they would have with the top producers and stars is so broad that they will endlessly grow as social media is one of the largest and best ways to grow as a company especially when your platform is based on the internet and there is no sort of carbon or physical thing that people need to consume.

In regards for me to even think about taking on such a large company, I feel that If I was to want to become a company such as that, I would maybe need to stop become an independant film maker and become part of a production team within the web of the contacts that vevo may have, even if it means staring as a runner. From there I would have to work my way up and gain great experience to then become a director of choreography or editor director. From then I would then begin to think about creating my own company like what Jonathan Lia has done. From there I would of been able to have many contacts from working in the industry of music film making over those few years and then grow to be a successful media company.

Primary and Secondary Research – Target Audience

Focus Group – 24th March

Below I will be showing my focus this video where I will then ask them the following:

What do you think of the animation?

Very good – Professional, Engaging but too much animation.

I also like how it doesn’t have live action shots and just separates and has its own animation.

What do you think of the song choice?

Good song, repetitive after the first minute or so.

Do you have any pros about this video?

• Even though there was a lot of of drawings it was great to see.
• Liked the lyrics showing up.

Do you have any Cons about this video?

• Repetitive
• Too much happening all at once and also there were too many close ups

What do you guys think I will find difficult If i was to produce a similar project?

• Take a long time to draw each frame.
• Lighting must be good in nightclubs and in nightlight.

Should I have a Narrative to my video or have it similar to the video you just watched?

• Similar to the one I’ve watched but different without any narrative as its more of a visual thing than needing to focus on the narrative.

Would you watch this video again? If yes or no, please give reasoning.

• No, was too long and repetitive and also boring for the length that it is 5 mins long.
• No, as it needs to have some sort of narrative behind it.

What do you think of the lighting?

• There wasn’t much lighting and was more colour corrected.
• Wasn’t much variety of colours and was just in a white background.

Do you have any additional points that you would like to add?

• Think about another song to use, genre wise.
• Be creative.
• Good luck.

Survey – Created 23rd march – Closed 24th March

Below is a survey I made to conduct and collect additional information about my potential audience.

Conclusion 

From the survey and the data that I have collected, I can see that there is quite a large of variety of people who are doing or like different things. Such as the genre of music that they like to listen to of which varies to personal taste but found that people would listen to anything once to see if they liked it or not as people are always up for trying new things. Another thing to also take note of is the hobbies that they have participated in, as you may of noticed there is a small majority of females who took part in my survey and as for the results in the hobbies section, there are a few who have taken part in arts and crafts, photography and swimming, I am aware that I wont be able to tell who were female or male of who selected these but I can assume that the stereotype for those 3 hobbies are the majority of female participants, this means that my audience is also creative but also flexible in their own personal taste. Same goes for the employment segment of my survey, the majority of the participants are either working or are looking for work. My conclusion is that with this survey and the amount of people who happily took part in it, were either in education or work, have a rather fair balance of males and females, and have a very active lifestyle such as the hobbies that they do at a regular basis. I will be covering a lot more broader segments of my audience in my pitch that I will be presenting later this week.

Secondary Research – Ethical and Legal Issues

https://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/fair-use.html#yt-copyright-four-factors

Below is a segment taken from :

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/research/data/consumption-underage/

UK consumption data for school-aged pupils, or underage drinkers.

This section reports statistics on UK consumption data for school-aged pupils, or underage drinkers.

If you are looking Local Authority (LA) level data, you may be interested in the What about YOUth 2014 (WAY 2014) survey.  This survey asked 15 year olds in schools across England about different health behaviours including alcohol consumption.  You can find Local Authority (LA) level data via Public Health England’s data visualisation tool.

Trying alcohol

In 2014, around two-fifths of pupils (38%) aged 11-15 in England had drunk alcohol at least once. Boys and girls were equally likely to have done so. This continues the downward trend since 2003, when 61% of pupils had drunk alcohol, and is the lowest since the survey began in 1988.

The proportion of pupils who have ever had an alcoholic drink increased with age from 8% of 11 year olds to 69% of 15 year olds.

Drinking in the last week

In 2014, one in twelve (8%) pupils aged 11-15 in England had drunk alcohol in the last week, compared to one in four (25%) in 2003.  Two-thirds (63%) of those who drank in the last week had consumed alcohol only on one day in that week.

On average, English pupils who said they drank alcohol in the last week consumed 5.5 units (median); equivalent to just over 2 pints of 4% beer. This was the same for both girls and boys. 22% of pupils who drank in the last week had consumed 15 or more units of alcohol⁵.

In 2014, almost half (49%) of pupils who had consumed alcohol in the last four weeks said that they had been drunk at least once during that time. Of those who said they had been drunk in the last four weeks, 71% of boys and 57% of girls said that they had done so deliberately⁶.

In 2013, there was a decline in the proportion of Scottish pupils drinking in the last week from 14% to 4% of 13 year olds and from 34% to 19% of 15 year olds. Under half (44%) of 13 year olds who had ever had an alcoholic drink had been drunk at least once, compared with over two thirds (70%) of 15 year olds.

Attitudes

In 2014, about half (48%) of pupils aged 11-15 in England thought it was OK for someone of their age to try drinking alcohol, and about a quarter (26%) thought that it was OK to try smoking. Pupils were much less likely to approve of drug use: 9% thought it was OK for someone to try cannabis.

Pupils in England were most likely to remember lessons on drug use (59%), and less likely to recall lessons on smoking (55%) or alcohol (53%).

In the period 2010-2013, there has been a reduction in the proportion of both 13 and 15 year olds in Scotland who thought it was okay for someone their age to try drinking alcohol to see what it is like (from 52% in 2010 to 42% in 2013 for 13 year olds; from 82% in 2010 to 77% in 2013 for 15 year olds). The proportion of pupils who thought it was okay for someone of their age to try getting drunk has also declined since 2010 (from 13% to 8% for 13 year olds; from 46% to 39% for 15 year olds).

Obtaining alcohol

In 2014, 28% of pupils aged 11-15 in England said that they had obtained alcohol in the last week. The most common ways of obtaining alcohol were to be given it by parents (17%), given it by friends (15%), to take it from home with permission (11%), or to ask someone else to buy it (9%).

In 2014, 40% of 11-15 year old English pupils who drank alcohol said they bought it. Of these, 55% bought it from friends or relatives, 29% from someone else, 29% from an off-licence, and 27% from a shop or supermarket.

In Scotland, amongst pupils who had ever had an alcoholic drink, the proportion who reported successfully purchasing alcohol from a shop, supermarket or off-licence in the last four weeks has declined since 2010 (from 6% in 2010 to 3% in 2013 for 13 year olds; from 11% in 2010 to 7% in 2013 for 15 year olds).

With alcohol consumption it is a major issue in todays society especially within the UK with underage people. Because of these figures and statistics I feel that with having the use of alcohol in my music video wont be wise as I do not want to promote it in anyway. The whole concept and the idea behind my video is to promote nightlife and living in urban cities and having alcohol will send a different message to my audience as some of them are below the age of 18.

Secondary Research – Costs Budget and Production Issues

So as im doing an animation video called rotoscoping, i will be having to draw on each and every frame of the video that I will be recording and putting together. My aim from the focus group and my data that I collected, I wont be including animation on every single frame as there would be too much going on at once, therefore I will be doing rotoscoping in time with when the beat drops and the chorus is underway, to add extra effect and feel to the song and visuals. The music video that I am using is 3 mins and 30 secs long. Below are my aproximations of how many frames I would need to draw on if I was to draw on each and every frame and how many ther would be if I was to film in either 30 fps or 24 fps.

30 fps x 60 = 1800 frames per minute / 2 = 900 = 30 secs

Average song is 3.30 mins – 1800 x 3 = 5400 +900 = 6300 frames total to draw on aprox.

If i shot my film at 24 fps – 24 x 60 =1440 frames per minute /2 = 720 = 30 secs

1440 frames x3 = 4320 + 720 = 5040 frames aprox to draw on.

Filming at 24fps will save me from drawing on 1260 frames, which is a large amount. Therefore I will be filming at 24fps instead of 30.

My Budget is around £50.00 that is only for any equipment or travel that I may need for this project. At the moment I am thinking that a Disco light will help me with some shots of my final project that will be around £15.00 or so. And travel will cost around £20.00 as travelling to my sisters is rather far.

Potential Budget

My Potential Budget for my final project would be a total of around £500-£700 as I would love to buy a Drone to capture some ariel shots and to rotoscope some of the buildings there. Some of the drones that are available on the market are rather good but to buy one that is decent and would also capture is HD would be Ideal. One company of which make drones specifically for filming is DJI. One of their drones that I am particularly interested in is the DJI Phantom Standard 3. 

Features:

• 3 Axis Gumball for the most stable of captures when flying.
• Features a 12 megapixel camera
• 2.7K video shooting at 30fps
• Slow motion 1080p at 120fps
• Autopilot flight system
• Maximum speed 16 metres per second.
• Maximum flying height 120 metres.
• 96 minutes charging time for 25 minutes flying time.
• Suitable for indoor and outdoor use.
• Controlled using remote.
• Built in camera 12MP and 2.7k HD video.
• Batteries required: 1 x Li-Ion (included) plus .

  

  EASY VIDEO EDITOR
  Create professional-looking movies in minutes using the DJI Director video editor. With a wide variety of pre-designed templates, it’s easy to pick one that suits you best and make a new video to share.

  

  Watch a live HD video feed direct from the camera right on your screen.Adjust camera settings and use this real-time view to line up the perfect shot

  

  Practice flying and perfect your skills anywhere. The included flight simulator gives you the lifelike experience of flying your Phantom 3 in a safe, controlled virtual environment.

  

  

  Drone Code to ensure that you follow the Drone code and fly responsibly.

   

  With all of this taken into consideration I will most definitely be purchasing a drone for next year as at the moment I do not have the funds to purchase such a thing. Another thing that I would love to buy as not at the moment is possible is a Slider for my camera as I also only have a tripod and a Stabiliser for my production but I know that a Slider will add more effect and feel to whatever universe I would be wanting my future films to be in and would also add much more depth to what is being filmed. A slider of which I would Purchase is the RatRig V-Slider 35 which is a heavy duty slider for cameras. The reason as to why I am also looking at a heavy duty camera is because I also would like to keep this slider for the rest of my potential media career as I will be having bigger and heavier cameras further down the line. 

Features:

• Lightweight rail: 35cm, 45cm, 60cm, 80cm, 100cm, 120cm, 150cm
• 1/4″ Screw for Camera / Head fitting
• Heavy Duty Carriage Brake
• Robust Anodized Aluminium Frame and Rail
• 1x Central 1/4″ Mount for mounting on to tripods
• 1x Central 3/8″ Mount for mounting on to tripods
• 2 Ball Bearings in each wheel for huge load capacity
• Delrin Wheels for one of the smoothest Sliders available
• Easily upgradeable with our motorizing kits
• Note: Slider legs are optional

Primary  Research – Technical Issues and Test Shots, Rough Edits

Above is a test shot that I conducted earlier on this week, I simply filmed Ben at 30 Fps in one of the fire exits in CCI  at Exeter college , we played some music and all i asked him to do is to dance in front of my camera. Later on in the day I then took the challenge of attempting to create my own Roto-scoping in after effects. It was a bit difficult was I was only using my mouse to draw over the frames, but later in the week I bought an electrical Pad and Pen ad to use for animation, It really helped me continue with the test shot and it is so much more quicker and precise when outlining and drawing.

Research Concepts

Above is a commercial advertisement by the snack company ‘Oreo’. The video is to promote and advertise their new biscuit of which is a normal Oreo cookie but with a twist of poppy candy inside. The reason why I have chosen this short 17 second advert is because of the animation and setting used in the video. The costumes are casual as those who are trying the new product are normal people and those who would consume it would be people of the social Grade C1 and below. The Setting that this is ion is with a blue neutral background, that seems to of been shot in a studio with artificial lighting to get the sharpest edges around the people in shot, this will help with rotoscoping and colour correction in post production. The animation in the clip is smooth and clear to see, with its sharp edges and clear colours. The colours used are to have good contrast with the blue background and the people in shot. The animations are also in the form of an explosion of flavours and a ‘firework’ which is the name of their new cookie this also connects the main ingredient which is popping candy. Last but not least the Actors, Make up and Props. The Actors are simply describing the product that they are eating in an enthusiastic way to attract not only young people but also children and parents as it shows that its a fun snack to have for the family. The Make up is pretty standard, there seems to be use of foundation and blusher used for both male and female actors in the segment. There are no props used in this clip accept for the cookie itself because its the main focus and purpose of the video.

Evaluate Research

The amount of research of which I had conduct was a little bit overwhelming at times especially when just being handed the brief. I knew that it was going to be a lot of work but once I get to the end of it, I knew I would be one step closer to finishing the Project and the next bit would be Pre-production. I feel that the the few things that went well were the focus groups and surveys as I got some really got really good responses with the questions I asked to get my audience profile together. One reason I enjoyed it was because it was more on the ‘interactive’ side of things as you get to see peoples expressions when they answer or are watching a video of which is a similar concept to your own. Not only that but I also love how honest people can be, honesty is taken very seriously as it can be the key to making a good, or bad project at the end.

As for the other parts of the research.. well, I struggled, no doubt about it. The reasoning for this was because at this stage I was wanting to change my idea and I was still having second thoughts on the whole ‘rotoscope and animation’ thing’ and from just looking at for example Jonathan Lias videos such as the one with Bruno Mars, I really wanted to do it as it looked so rewarding but also it dawned on me how long it would take me when finding out how many frames I would have to draw on if I was even going to pull this off. From looking at more videos and competition I knew that they had the right mind set with animation and knew that the end result will be a great one if you put your time and effort into it. And when I say time, I mean hours and hours of concentration and mind power. Although I was dreading the task that I had set myself I was also secretly loving it as I knew mine would look really cool, because from watching some videos similar to my own I created some Ideas in my head that I just couldn’t wait to put down on a video for my friends and teachers to see.

Not only that but I also found that budgeting was a struggle for me as I already had the editing software from a few months back and also a stabiliser for my videography and I didn’t need much else but the digital pen and pad that I purchased during research as the next thing was to get some test shots and storyboards down so I knew that buying it before hand would be good for me to get used to the new equipment for editing as it can put your coordination off when drawing on a computer screen with a pen. So instead I made a ‘Potential’ budget for myself to see what I would purchase if I had a much higher budget, this was recommended by Charlie as it would help me reflect better on my work once completed.

One thing that I would do better is actually look at more sources of information for example a book. Because most of my research was found on the internet. I feel that next year in level 3 Media and my future projects I will look at a much wider picture than just whats on the internet as not all the stuff you read on there can be accurate such as whats on Wikipedia because people can add to it and change information all the time on there even though what they are writing isn’t always true. I also feel that I could of expanded much more on the research and expressed a lot more of my own opinions, as I feel that struggle to type them down. So one way that I can do this is to Vlog myself because I am a much more vocal and verbal person when talking than I am when typing. This will help me not only improve my confidence but to also learn and know what I am talking about when eventually one day talking to other colleagues in the media industry so that putting my ideas across will be easier in the future.