Hi, this is my A2 Media blog. .It contains research and planning for my coursework production (music video) and ancillary texts (digipak and magazine adverts) and media exam. I'm in a production group with Kate, Tilly and Poppy, MKTP Productions.

Our Track (It's OK - Atomic Kitten

Thursday 20 February 2014

KH - Track Timing Sheet - 'It's OK'

Re-pitch Video - New Idea

The track we have chosen to do is 'It's Ok' by Atomic Kitten. It's a pop song, and the lyrics talk about a break up, which we plan to reflect in our video. We plan to use a mixture of narrative and performance. The narrative part of the video involves a couple breaking up with flash backs to when they were happy and in love. The performance section will be the three members of the girl group lip syncing and doing some basic dancing. The couple will be wearing 3 different outfit to help show the difference between the flashbacks and the current day. Their outfits will be casual and will change with the different situation they are in, from a romantic dinner to walking the dog. The girl group will also be wearing a number of outfits as this is a common convention in girl group videos. These outfits will not be the same for every member but will differ in either style or colour, but they will be recognisably similar. You can see this concept portrayed in The Saturdays videos where they have individual colours for the different colours. We also wish to use The Spice Girls as inspiration on their image as they still have clear individualities and their personalities are still projected through what they are wearing. The couples location will be mainly set in a house, but also the countryside as this will create interesting shots, backgrounds and framing opportunities. The performance location will also be partly be in a rural setting but also a studio type setting with a plain background. Atomic Kitten have done this a number of times with a plain white or black backdrop.

Monday 17 February 2014

Idea Update 3 - Song Change

We decided as a group after receiving feedback from our target audience that we should change our track from The Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up to Atomic Kitten - It's Ok (lyrics here)



We are keeping the pop girl-band aspect of the video the same, however the mood of the song is very different.

The new narrative of the video follows a couple in love, before something bad happens and they break up. This couple will be separate from the three members of the band. The performance footage will be the band lip-syncing layered over the narrative shots.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

PP - Teaser Mag Ad 3


This is the 3rd teaser mag ad, we also plan to do one with the girls dresses hung up in a row. This one anchors how the younger girls want to be famous by putting make up on. Again the song is written on the mirror in lipstick. When editing I used effects such as brightening and contrast to make the colours, especially the written lipstick, stand out. I also made the edges fade to make the picture look less harsh.


PP -Teaser Mag Ad 2


This is our second teaser mag ad, made in the same way as the previous one. In this one we reveal more information by the song name being written in lipstick on the mirror. There are also signifiers of the younger girls in the video from the mise-en-scene, for examples the jewellery box and tiara.

PP - Teaser Mag Ad 1

We decided that we would release a number of magazine ads, starting with 'teaser' ads and gradually adding more information until our final mag ad with tour dates on and all the info.

Here is a trial example. These are just sample shoes used as we would want to show the PCD individual colours here but this is an idea we can get feedback from our target audience on. To make this I used picture editing software and the font that the PCD use to help hint to the audience.

trial ad
We have included a QR code here leading to MKTP productions blog and twitter and blogger icons so the audience can search for us on social media.

TD - Feedback from Rough Cut 2

Shaky shot improvements
-mirror shots at the beginning with colour effect need to be still, dancing scenes, climbing frame scenes, down the stairs at the park.

Framing 
- charity shop scene looking through the clothes and the girls trying them on.
- more material needed.

shot variety
-more variation of setup and better evidence of more scenes with dancing variety need to reinforce the narrative.
- good shots in mirror and a lot of variation in dancing and charity shops.
-lalala shots work the best and will stick in peoples heads



material appropriate
- almost excellent with colour coding
-costumes not urban enough need ti be more objectifying.
-bedroom footage of younger to older anchors the narrative
-grid format of dance shots
- random cuts of music don't look right.
-lighting issues too dark at the start in the park.

FX
- Good use of effects works really well on the phone
- colour correction works well and shows colour scheme.
-fading and layering on catwalk shows girls changing into women really well.
-flash effect works really well

mise en scene
-costume works well dance costumes need to be more urban.
-outside the house doesnt work for the girls being celebrities
-bedroom is good and been adapted to look more girly
- wall with pipe looks bad ( will have graffiti )



improvements:
- limo at the start and at the end of girls getting in and out of car or frame the girls getting out of car in dresses and heals more scope for wide shot variety.
-crowd scenes of people and paparazzi to show the celeb life style. 

PP - Set Dressing for Teaser Mag Ads


For the teaser mag ad we had to set dress the room we used to make it look effective as possible. This involved taking down pictures that were in the reflection of any mirrors, as well as removing excess items so that the the pictures didn't look cluttered. We also then carefully chose what we wanted in shot and positioned them to make the framing look effective and also give subtle hints about the song and album. We did this through displaying tiaras, shoes and other signifiers along with writing on the mirrors in lipstick.

Here are some pictures of before and after we set dressed the room:
after

before

after
before


Sunday 2 February 2014

PP - Make Up

Atomic Kitten (performance section)
atomic kitten - whole again
Looking at past atomic kitten videos they have a common theme across their make up. They tend to keep it done up, like they are clearly wearing make up, but still relatively natural compared to big Amercian glamorous girl groups. There make up does obviously depend on the setting and is appropriate to the location they are in and the time of day. We plan to do this also, and as our locations are all during day time we plan to keep the make up natural but very crisp, neat and put together.
atomic kitten - it's ok









Jess 'the girlfriend' (narrative section)
natural make up
We plan to keep Jess' make up also natural in the narrative section. We want her character to be as relatable to the target audience as possible, so by keeping her make up natural it is more realistic to the situation than if she was wearing a lot of make and looked very done up. It also makes the relationship look more realistic as if they were very happy she wouldn't feel as if she had to go to great amounts of effort to still impress him. When the couple break up, Jess needs to look sad so again if she had a full face of make up it would make her look too together like the break up wasn't effecting her. By having less make up on it shows that she may be struggling more and torn apart and upset still.