Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Report on interactive media
The first major breakthrough in interactive media was cinema when in the early 1900’s the first cinema’s were invented but they didn’t play full length films at first they only played short films roughly 10 minutes long cinema was getting more popular thought and in the 1920‘s the first full length films were introduced. Cinema started to grow in popularity but in the 1960’s cinema took a hit as new interactive media was coming into households in the form of TV ,although the majority of households still didn’t have a TV in the 1960’s this was still a major breakthrough and by the 1970’s most people had TV’s in their homes. After the excitement of TV’s being introduced boiled over cinema began to slowly recover as films were shown at cinemas before they were on TV. In the 1980’s VCR’s were introduced ,they were very popular as people could now rent videos of films shortly after they were released at the cinema. But now we have DVD’s ,CD’s and widescreen TV’s ,and that is how far interactive media has progressed and with more promising devices being released as I speak such as the ipad and who knows what lengths interactive media will climb to in the future.
I am now going to talk about the different platforms in interactive media. The world wide web is one of the biggest platforms in interactive media as it allows you to find out almost any information you want. It can be used to educate ,entertain and you can socialise with your friends. It has become a world wide phenomenon. It has also now become a alternative to going out and shopping as you can now actually order what you want online and have it delivered straight to your doorstep. People are also communicating more over E-mail and Email attachments such as homemade videos that you might get sent by a friend or more likely on the negative side Email attachments may contain pop-ups and viruses that could destroy your computer the general name for this mail is normally called junk mail or spam and it has become such a problem that people are now advised to not open a Email unless you know the sender. DVD’s contain lots of different types of interactive media as they can be used to entertain or they can be used to educate .You can now buy your own blank DVD and burn anything you want onto it such as a homemade movie. You can get DVD’s with the latest films on them or you could get educational DVD’s with a guide to GCSE maths or English etc. CD Rom’s are extremely similar to DVD’s although CD’s generally only contain audio. Again CD’s have educational properties as they could contain a maths test on them (Spoken questions)or they could contain the latest songs from someone’s album on them. Albums produced by global superstars are all now burnt onto a CD and sold online or on the high street. Presentations now also include interactive media as for pitches now most business men will use PowerPoint or Flash in their presentations and on your TV if you have freeview or sky etc you could use the red button to browse through the latest news or to get information about TV shows etc.Most people in the world now also have mobile phones or games consoles were you can send and receive messages and browse or play online with friends like on the PS3 from Sony and Xbox360 from Microsoft.
I am now going to talk about the uses of video in interactive media. Short films are mainly found in Cinemas before a feature film is about to start but could now also be found online on websites such as Youtube etc. They are mainly used to advertise but could also be in the form of homemade movies as well. Promotional material is also found online or in cinemas but also anywhere you look as you can find promotional material at football matches and on billboards in the street or even on the side of buses. Promotional material such as trailers will some times be played before you watch a video online or could be advertised in the corner of your computer screen or on a ad break during a TV programme promotional material is used to let the general public know all about there new game or film etc. Film trailers are also promotional and are also found on TV ad breaks on video websites like Youtube online they are also frequent in cinemas and before every feature film at the cinema a few film trailers are shown as this is were they will catch their main target audience. User-generated content on websites such as you tube is used so you can share hilarious moments online or get noticed as a online superstar through famous homemade movie appearances. Viral marketing is a extremely cunning and clever .Viral marketing is adverts that look like homemade funny videos but are actually discretely advertising their product. An example of this is the famous youtube video of a man videoing his girlfriend playing on the wii in her underwear. Later on it was discovered that the man who took the video was related to wii. Advertising is massive and is used to over exaggerate and make company’s products look good you can find adverts everywhere on billboards ,online websites ,cinema ,TV and newspapers. There are lots of different types of advertising like viral marketing advertising as I talked about above that advertises discretely and advertising on billboards etc which is nowhere near as discrete. Virtual reality tours are sometimes found online on websites for restaurants or hotels etc. They are used to as a type of tutorial for people who want to visit or make a reservation so that people know what to expect when they arrive at the location before they actually arrive at the location. The gaming industry is now massive with hundreds of millions of games being bought worldwide. Games can now be used online with people exchanging messages and socialising and playing games together they can also talk to each other through wireless Bluetooth headsets.E-Learning is another use of interactive media with schools and colleges now teaching students via the internet it is essentially a virtual learning environment that other teachers an alternative way of teaching. Examples of this are tutorials that show you how to use software like final cut pro tutorials etc.
Now I am going to talk about video in interactive media technologies. I am going to start off with video compression .Video compression is basically reducing of files by reducing the amount of data used this has its down sides though as this also reduces the quality of the file. A codec device is closely related to video compression as it is involved in the process .A codec is a device that decodes or encodes a signal etc. But it also compresses and decompresses data. You Stream and download videos or the latest songs from itunes or youtube etc online .Most videos downloaded would be on the following formats:
MPEG: Moving picture experts group.
AVI: Audio video interleave-this is a multimedia format.
MOV: Quicktime movie format.
WMV: Windows media video-This is the format for windows media.
Other video in interactive media technology is data transfer rates. This is the number of bits that are transferred per second often shown in the abbreviation bps .Your data transfer rate determines how fast your broadband connection is. Frame rates are the frequency at which cameras and video cameras produce frames(fps).Most video cameras shoot at 25frames per second. Screen resolutions are the amount of pixels or mega-pixels that your computer screen is made up of. With file sizes the smaller files have less quality but have a short time to download were as with bigger file sizes the quality is better but the file will take longer to download. Picture ratios are the size of the screen on your TV. Normal TVs generally have a picture ratio of 4:3 and are referred to as a letter box picture ratio. Were as wide screen TVs normally have a picture ratio of 16:9 which is referred to as the pillar box picture ratio .Other picture ratios include 14:9.Digital rights management (DRM) is a management set up to make limitations on the usage of interactive media content and devices. For example DRM imposes age restrictions on films and games etc.Here are different media player types:
DVD: Video and data storage (films short films etc)
Iplayer:TV catch up system for the BBC online
QuickTime: Displays .mov movies
Windows Media Player:used for WMV plays videos and songs etc.
Real: Plays real file movies.
Embedded video is a compressed video taken from a site like Videocure or Youtube that can be “Embedded” onto websites like blogger. Video tagging is creating a tag on hyperlinks or videos or songs etc that shows in small print when you role over it a bit of info(few words) about it.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Synopsis
The Treatment and Evaluation
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
One Day Lip-Sync Project
For this Project we had a Abba song chosen for us and we had to shoot and edit a lip sync video.We had to mime the Abba song and then place the audio on top when editing in final cut pro.
Purpose of Music Videos
In 1967 in February The Beatles took 2 days to film one the first ever real music videos in a surrey field to promote there new single "strawberry Fields" this video was a huge hit and made other artists and bands want to create there own music videos, in addition to this the Beatles also recorded a performance as live and it was broadcasted on TV, this arguably was one of the main reasons the Beatles where so famous and well liked because they started music video industry.And in the 1970's most big name artists were making pop promos with bands such as Queen, Abba and the Jackson 5 all making music videos,but the demand increased dramatically for artists to make music videos because of top of the pops , the BBC show was a phenomenon and soon it was essential for very top pop group to get onto the show, the TV show gave viewers a real taste for a visual representation of there favorite artists , and it became essential for most artists to have a certain unique style or image to go with there music.It was in the 1980's though when music videos really began to take-off with the launch of MTV in 1981,because now there was a real need to create music videos in order to ensure your music was "heard" globally.Although initially however it was generally British acts that were creating the videos for broadcast.And this was why there was a massive "Brit Invasion" into US charts in the 1980's .This showed how essential music videos were now to bands and artists.
I am going to talk about how music videos promote the band. From the 1960’s when music videos were first really experimented with ,music videos have become more and more a regular occurrence with almost every signed band now having a music video to go with there songs. Music videos are excellent for promoting the band because they give a visual representation of the band .This meant that massive bands like the Beatles didn’t have to appear live to perform the track and gave more opportunity for the track to be “heard” , this meant that the appeal of bands like the Beatles grew further. Music videos provide a great way to promote a artist or track as they provide a visual representation of around three to four tracks from an album.
Music videos are also used for extension of income. Music videos help to keep the artist or band in the public eye for a few months after the release of their album leaving them in the public eye for as long as possible .This means the artist/band will continue to rack up sales of their album for months after its release. This helps recoup the production cost of recording the music originally, but the real money spinner is extension of outlets, because technology has been gradually progressing since the 1960’s and it is now a massive influence on the music industry. Since Music videos entered television on stations such as MTV,VH1,Kerrang and Hits etc Music videos started to have a big impact on music artists popularity and a lot of work went into music videos examples of this were videos like Michael Jacksons Thriller which is arguably one of the most popular music videos of all time ,people not only were impressed by the short story but also the dance choreography behind the video ,this set a bench mark for artists and many artists now have particular dance moves to their music videos.In the early 2000's a band called the Gorillazs pushed the boundaries even further by creating a strong visual representation of themselves in the form of animated characters ,these made the band unique and there music videos were extremely good with funny twists and brilliantly created animated characters,the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about the gorillazs is there animated characters in there music videos this made them a very successful band .This shows the importance of music videos . These Stations all show music videos and have to pay to get the rights to show them. Also the internet will continue to show the artists music videos for months on sites such Vodpod and Video cure and music videos will be available to watch whenever you please on sites like YouTube .And you can also collect even more income from downloads of the Internet. The Internet is growing by the day and now people prefer to sit at home and buy and download songs off the Internet rather than go and buy there CD’s from high streets. Devices such as ipods ,mobile phones,blackberry's and mp3s are bought in there billions and people are listening to music on there phones ,ipods etc constantly, this however has seen the fall of well renowned TV shows such as Top of the tops to fold .This is mainly because of websites , such as YouTube because they had all of the most popular music videos just a click away and these music videos would get millions of views,in particular the most famous ones , and therefore people shunned there TV's for there computers and internet became the main source to listen and view music videos and songs. A really good example of how popular Music videos are on YouTube is the recent example of Eminem's new Music video for his track :"Not Afraid" which has had a massive 17 million views in under a week and a half of its release on the YouTube music video channel vevo.This shows the extreme popularity of Music videos on the web and shows the massive exposure the artist gets from this.
Music videos links to Film/Tv programmes (synergy) are also a important purpose for music videos.Music made by a artist or band that is specially made for a film, a good example of this is in the film Charlie's angels , where clips from Charlie's angles where included in destiny's child's music video this helped promote both the band and the film as every time the film was watched the song was being played and the popularity of the song grew, and even bigger example of this is the James bond films which where widely renowned as brilliant films and every single one of the movies had a single released from the film , and the music video would have clips of the film in it as it was specially made for the film, examples of this are gold finger and live and let die.The artist could then include clips of the film in there music video.This is another purpose for music videos because when people think about the film they think about there song as well.The artist could also get there music video on unsigned act shows such as x-factor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k
Contemporary Music Video Research
And the night is aching
Two lovers lie with no sheets on their bed
And the day is breaking
This shows the strong link between the visuals and the lyrics as in the visuals at this point a man is emerging from the sea at the break of dawn. The song is about two intimate lovers and visuals as you will see in the video below definitely portrays this. The chorus talks about a “electrical storm” and at the end if the video this is visually represented by a firework display in the night sky. The music is typical to U2’s style ,its sought of a light rock type of music. With the music mainly consisting of light drumming and strumming with the drums and guitar. The calming music fits in well with the visuals as you get the calm effect in the video with the sparkling sea and gentle lovers. The visuals in the music video don‘t represent the normal stereotypical rock band music video but at one point the band is shown playing which is very much stereotypical to rock band music videos. There is no real obvious use of intertextuality in the video although you could say that the visuals are very romantic based and the lyrics are very much about two lovers. I would say the video is very much performance and narrative based as the video tells the story of two lovers,with the director relying on the actors (the male actor was the drummer of U2)to intimately express there feelings and use strong facial expressions this was done excellently. The narrative is on showed in the visuals of the music video when the band is playing and when Bono(U2’s lead singer)is on the train. The promo doesn’t necessarily promote the band as they rarely make a appearance but the visuals are so fantastic that when you hear the song it makes you think of the music video. Quote about music video from fan:i get myself lost in time every time i hear this song , it reminds me a few years ago when i used to be so happy , life was so easy , i was a teen at that time , wow , what a gus song they have come with on that album , i have no words 2 describe it
I feel the intended audience for this music video is teens upwards. Although I feel more for the adult audience as the video and song is very relaxing and the songs lyrics have a deep meaning. And the visuals are also very sexual so not really suitable for younger kids. The song also may seem to “boring” for some of the younger audience.
"Come to Daddy" -Aphex Twin
The excellent cinematography in this music video was done by Simon Chaudoir. The mise-on-scene is interesting with the filming taking place on a rundown estate with a big car park. There is a lot of rubbish and debris hanging about and there was a particular focus on a TV on the floor were the “daddy” if you like of these weird aphex twin faced dwarfs appears, the actors didn‘t have any facial expressions as they were wearing aphex twin faced masks ,and the granny actor performed her role well as the innocent scared old lady. The video starts off with a innocent looking granny walking her dog but when the music picks up the TV on the rubbish pile turns on and strange children with the face of aphex twin pick it up and start running around creating chaos. The cinematography is this video is excellent with panning shots of large buildings and shots of the camera following the apex twin dwarfs in the ally ways the lighting was not very complex as the filming was done in the day but some of the shades of tone and light on people's faces especially on the granny and her dog in the film opening. There were a variety of shots in this video including LS’s ,panning shots and CU’s.There were some very interesting visual effects, in particular the “daddy” creature squirming out of the TV and then the dwarf children also looked extremely sinister. The lyrics were few and far between in this music video but were fairly appropriate in comparison to the goings on for example in the video when the dwarf children come and take the TV with the creature on the Lyrics are: “come to daddy” and also the aphex twin shouts out “I want your soul” during the music video which relates to the children being somewhat abusive the people and environment around them. There was some relation between the music and the visuals, the music was sought of electronic and the fast pace of the music matched the visuals when the children were running around creating chaos. There is use of intertextuality with the horror in this music video. The horror is contemporary as it relates to the use of children in horror movies, which is being used more and more recently. The visuals don’t match the stereotypical electronic music video which normally involves people raving in clubs with flashing lights in that respect the visuals are very unusual as this comment from a you tube user suggests:
“cross dressing midgets is original” .
The video is very much concept based with superb visuals and no real narrative as there was no real story to the music video ,it was mildly performance based but the actors did not express themselves much and mainly just carried out actions. The promo promotes the artist because his face is on the children and is on the creature at the end as well, this makes the people watching wonder who he is and will want to by more of his music if they like this video. Comments about the video from you tube :
Music Video Director Research
This table of Corbijn's Music video's was from the website-http://www.mvdbase.com/tech.php?last=Corbijn&first=Anton
Quotes about Corbijn's work:
Amazon comments:
"This is a great representation of Anton Corbijn's work. The director's series has long been on my list of dvds to get round to buying and i'm glad I started with this. There is a wide selection of music videos here, though perhaps rather too many Depeche Mode promos for my liking [ not a fan!]. The commentaries are very interesting"
"But his best work is available elsewhere: Namely on U2 and Depeche Mode singles collections."
"How could this DVD not include the wonderfully inventive and moving Please by U2, and the rich and stylish In Your Room by dM??"
YouTube comments:
"One U2 's best songs/video EVER... "
"Man, i love it <3> "
"I'm blown away by it all. Totally."
These comments show how respected Anton Corbijn is as a director ,the comments also show how people appreciate his work as "Rich and Stylish" this these comments are true to his work as corbijn works hard to make his videos cinematic and stylish to look at.The same comment also explains how he is "Inventive"every successful music video director has to have good innovation and the fact that his work is described as inventive shows this.
Some of Corbijn's work: