level 4 mark scheme

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills

1. holding a shot steady, where appropriate
2. framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate
3. using a variety of shot distances
4. shooting material appropriate to the task set
5. selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and settings
6. editing so that meaning is apparent
7. using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectivly
8. using sound with images and editing appropriatly for the task

1,2,7 will be throughlly checked by me
3,4,8 by alex
5,6 paige

through this we hope to divide and conquer as it were to ensure we get the level 4. We believe by splitting the points between the three of us it will be easily possible to ensure that all these points are met to an excellent standard.

cd covers

these are some examples of cd covers that i have chosen to analyse these all show some part of the group or individuals i chose a wide range of differnt acts to show how differnt cd covers are marketed to there target audiences for example rhianna's is bright and colourful which is inkeeping with her music style whereas fall out boy is a simplistic blue colour inkeeping with the rock theme and finally michael jackson album colour shows him as a public icon by showing a statue of him.

album back cover

This is a back-cover alex designed for our Digipak. he has  kept it simple yet effective, with the four tracks clearly labeled. The background design is a blotched purple design that we feel represents teenagers through its abstract approach. A small image of the band is well placed and relevant while the barcode and price keep it looking realistic and professional.

digipak photoshoot ideas

today i came up with the idea of our digipak pictures i decided that we should use pictures of david cameron, nick clegg and gordan brown as they are the key theme of the songs as at the time they were the leading politicians what my plan was is that we could use the 3 pictures below and then pose like these pictures and mirror them along side each other using photoshop

and with these taking up 3 of the digipak covers for the front cover i believe we should include a picture of big ben with us infront of the london icon

album cover first drive

Fist Draft Album Cover

Alex has designed a first draft album cover for our DigiPak, it clearly states the name of the song and band, with visual aids. The juxtaposition between clean 'metal' design edges and livley pictures in the middle will attract our target audience and boost sales.

background research for The Midnight Beast

Forming in London 2009, The Midnight Beast is a comedic band comprised of Stefan Abingdon (21), Dru Wakely (23) and Ashley Horne (21). Each of them have mu and television experiance of their own making them perfect for the media, Ashley in particular as appaeared on various television shows such as Casualty, Eastenders and Doctor Who.
       They began to find fame after posting parody videos on Youtube, their best known of these is their parody of Ke$ha's 'Tick Tock'. It was so well recieved Ke$ha later saw the video and claimed "holy. shit. this is better than my version."
      Since this the band have written and produced their own music, with songs such as 'Booty Call' and 'Lez Be Friends'. We have decided to use one of their newer songs 'House Party'. This song was produced by BBC Comedy to humour the then up coming elections. The band are impartial, claiming to be part of the TMB party and make claims such as 'David Cam can't do the running man' (a dance move). It is a new and relevent video that got many young people interested in voting, and this is why we have decided to use the song for our project.

My magazine cover idea

This is my first attempt at creating a magazine cover for the band although as we have not had the photoshot yet we are all uploading our first copies with photographs of The Midnight Beast.

Why we chose 'The Midnight Beast'

We decided on 'House Party' by The Midnight Beast for several reasons the first of this was that we could realistically film the video as we have several locations possible such as Oxford or even making the trip to London for filming, this is because there are several places that need to be shot outside and these two key locations fit perfectly into the video our first idea is to use the oxford botanic garden as a set for our outdoor dancing scenes aswell as carfax tower,

I believe that in using these to oxford landmarks we would be able to create a video of a high standard when combined with our knowledge of filming techniques.

The second reason we chose them is because they are a relitivly unknown band despite there recent work with the BBC and MTV and through choosing a band that is widely unknown we open ourself up to option that could take the video in new directions and even improve it as apposed to doing a song such as 'thiller' by michael jackson in which the video is so iconical any attempt we coud make would be viewed as inferior.

Digipak research

Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI Media

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.


Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Because such packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, it tends to show signs of wear relatively quickly. Licensed digipak manufacturers such as domestic U.S. printer and disc replicator Oasis Disc Manufacturing recommend coating the raw printed paper with a protective UV coating, thus ensuring greater longevity.


Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package (particularly the "teeth" of the hub which secure the disc in place) remains rather brittle and is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.


Manufacturers have sought to reduce environmental impact and improve functionality by introducing recycled components into its trays; one has announced a 100% post-consumer PET tray made from recycled bottles, which also eliminates the need for the brittle "teeth". Many printers use recycled or sustainable material for the board stock.


Historically, Digipak was only available in large quantities. However, AGI has recently introduced a new product called digipak i-create for the consumer market. Digipak i-create is a web-supported concept that is aimed at the download, music, photo and creative markets.

The types of shots we will have to use

I have made a short list of the type of shots we will have to recreate:

• long shots X5

• two shots X2

• mid shot X11

• 
  
  close up X4

• Over the sholder X1

• panning X1
• tracking shot X1

• zooming in X1

• low angle shot X4

I should also state the importance of our group using quick edits as they is strong evidence of quick edits in the video.

Our choice and the shortlisted artists

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p007pqpx/the_midnight_beast_tmb_house_party/

This is the act and song we have chosen to use, We did this as we believe the scenes in the video are the most realistic for use to be able to shoot as we can either travel to London or even take advantage of living near a big city and use that as our prime shooting location, also we chose this video as we feel that we can match the editing techniques used e.g repeating one second of film and sound three times. I will continue this piece in a later post as i would like to include clips of the other two songs that we chose not to do for the remainder of the post.

Our second shortlisted artist was Ron Pope and his song "A drop in the ocean" although this song logically would of been the best to chose as there is no exsiting video for this young upcoming artist however we decided that through the lyrics in the song we would not be able to create the neccisary conditions for the video to work with the song as although it is a love song there is various refernces to desert and ocean landscapes and with our location inhibiting are ability to capture footage of the four of us by an ocean or desert we decided against doing this song below is a link to the song on http://www.youtube.com/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt8jifKlbTc

Finally we decided against choosing the scholars as we believed that they were already a recognized upcoming band and we felt we wouldnt be able to create a music video to match there songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f85lSUOm88I

Action plan

Media: Action Plan

As a group we have to create a music video and promotional advertising piece . Our first task was too research bands we could create a video for we researched three main artists. Although it was possible to use well known bands, it is easier due to copyrights to use unsigned and/or lesser known bands. that is why we chose artists that were either on the rise of relitively just youtube acts We searched the internet using google search and websites such as Myspace.com and youtube .com to search for bands, plus our personal knowledge of local talent.

The bands we shortlisted:

The Scholars
The Midnight Beast

Ron Pope

Week 1	Introduction to the course
2	Research/Choose band
3	Cast roles, look at shot types, complete story board
4	Complete 4 ‘reccies’ for filming / Digipak photo shoot
5	Begin filming / construct digipak
6	On location Filming /construck digipak
7	Filming / posters
8	Editing
9	Editing
10	Editing
11	Editing
12	Plan promotional (eg. DVD cover, adverts)
13	Create promotional
14	Create promotional

This is an original action plan that we will try and stick too. We had already started our research and are trying to get inspiration, to do this we have looked at classic and powerful music videos such as Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ as well as new and unknown videos such as The Midnight Beast’s ‘House Party’ to get a wide look at the music video spectrum. As things stand The Midnight Beast's song "house party" is the song we have chosen to do in the next post i will include the research into the three acts we chose and why we chose The Midnight Beast's song.

Electronic band The xx have won the Mercury music prize for their debut album xx.

The south London trio fought off competition from 11 other shortlisted acts including bookies' favourite Paul Weller, Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Dizzee Rascal and Foals.
Their victory means they follow in the footsteps of groups such as Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys and Elbow.
The xx's intimate and sensual sound has impressed critics for the past year.
The award called the Barclaycard Mercury Prize is designed to reward the best album of the past 12 months and is worth £20,000. It will also mean a huge boost in sales.
The xx had attended the same London school, the Elliott School, as previous Mercury nominees Hot Chip and Burial. Frontman Oliver Sim was stunned by the music prize: "I don't know what we were expecting but we weren't expecting this."
Sim added: "We've had the most incredible year and it's just felt like every day we've woken up to something incredible we weren't expecting." Asked what he would spend the prize money on, he said: "Haven't a clue."
But bandmate Romy Croft suggested a new studio could be on the cards.
She said: "We made this album in a converted garage the size of a bathroom."
The judges said: "Hypnotic beats and hushed voices combine in a brilliant evocation of space and time."
Head of judges Simon Frith said it was "a record of its time".
He said: "It's a very urban record, it is part of that urban soundscape when no-one has any idea what is going to happen next." below is a link to see the footage of the xx winning and the interview after. and ive also included a link to watch one of the songs crystalised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11224473
http://www.muzu.tv/thexx/crystalised-music-video/204996?country=gb