Premiere Pro tutorials

Premiere Pro CC.

In preparation for the A2 course, I have started to research the tools within Premiere Pro in order to be able to edit videos myself. For my AS thriller, my group had delegated responsibilities for which they took full control: as I was director, I seldom used Premiere Pro and was often consulted on editing via email, and so with the exception of my preliminary task, my knowledge of Premiere Pro is limited. Today I watched a 30 minute tutorial on the 10 basic tasks to know to begin using Premiere Pro, I have learned how to create sequences, make my own animated titles on After Effects and other elements of Premiere Pro which will help me in most of the projects I create on the software in the future.

Filming 'Happy'

'Happy' filming- Friday 24th June

Today we filmed a part of our recreation of the Happy music video by Pharrell Williams. My group and I found a free classroom and changed around the tables and chairs until we had a mise-en-scene which we were able to work with. We had to get creative when it came to wanting a dolly-cam shot of entering the classroom we were in, and used a swiveling desk chair which one of us sat on holding the camera whilst another person pushed them in. We are likely to be re-filming this shot as there were aspects that we were not quite satisfied with, for instance the camera, though on a tripod, was rather unstable and produced quite a shaky image.

Textual analysis- HAPPY

Pharrell Williams- Happy

Presently in our media lessons, we are investigating the topic of music videos: this entails the textual analysis of iconic videos, looking into the conventions of music video, as illustrated in Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' and have recently been delegated the task of recreating a 30 segment of the music video to Pharrell William's 'Happy'. 

The single was released as a part of the soundtrack to the Despicable Me 2 film in November 2013. The song was highly received and was the best-selling record with 6.45 million copies sold in 2014 in the US alone (1.5 million in the UK). The music video was nominated for Video of the Year at the MTV Awards for the same year. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2015 and was the Billboard's number one single for the previous year. 

The song is also involved with cross-media-convergence, with a website set up primarily to show a 24 hour version of the 'Happy' music video, featuring compiled footage of an abundance of different videos taken by the public and submitted to the website. 

The video consists of a variety of footage which is flipped back and forth throughout in quick cuts that accompany the tone of the song. In class each group was given a 30 second segment from the video: my group was given the first 30 second slot. We hope to recreate this in terms of the media techniques rather than mimicking the actions or dancing from the video directly.

In my media lesson on Wednesday I sketched up a storyboard for the first 5 seconds of the music video, to which no music accompanies. We aim to film this scene tomorrow morning (Friday 24th June) in school during our free period. 

Textual Analysis- THE PRODIGY

The Prodigy- Smack my b*tch up

In order to familiarise ourselves with the typical features of music videos, our media group was given a task to analyse an iconic music video that was released before we were born. Born in 1998, this rave song by The Prodigy was released a year before I was born, and was infamous for being extremely controversial, both in its title and in the content of the music video. I decided to analyse 'Smack my bitch up' as there are many elements of the video that conform to Goodwin's music video theory, but there is also a distinct feature within the video which breaks typical conventions, both societal and within the media. 

Needless to say, due to its considerably explicit content, this music video is restricted to 18+ on Youtube. 

Introduction

Introduction to A2 course.

This is a blog for my A2 media coursework that will be composed over the course of 9 months from June 2016 to March 2017. During this time I hope to complete a portfolio of extensive research into music videos and media theory which I will learn throughout the year, along with producing my own music video which will, collectively and hopefully, provide me with an A-level grade in August which I will be pleased with.