Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Music Video Analysis - Superstar by Jamelia

Jamilia

Filming Schedule

Date	Time	Location	Shot	Character
Friday 13th November	Night time	Club/bar	Long shot, over the shoulder shot, pan, establishing shot	Fergie (Leah) & fellow partiers
Sunday 15th November	2:00-4:00	Underpass	Mid shots, long shots, close up, over the shoulder, pan, low angle shot, high angle shot	Fergie (Leah) & 4-5 gang members
Monday 16th November	1:30-2:20	Red carpet paparazzi scene in drama studio	Long shots, pan, low angle shot, high angle shots, close up, over the shoulder shot	Fergie (Leah) & 3-4 paparazzi
Tuesday 17th November	1:30-3:00	Red carpet paparazzi scene in drama studio	Long shots, pan, low angle shot, high angle shots, close up, over the shoulder shot	Fergie (Leah) & 3-4 paparazzi
Wednesday 18th November	1:30-4:30	Lightwater – auntie’s house, taxi and waiter scene, walk in wardrobe	Long shots, pan, low angle shot, high angle shots, establishing shot, two shot, over the shoulder shot	Fergie (Leah) & glamorous friend & waiter
Thursday 19th November	3:20-4:30	Performing on stage in hall/drama studio –singing	Establishing shot, long shot, low angle shot, close up, over the shoulder shot	Fergie (Leah) & fans
Friday 20th November	10:10-11:30	Make up scene – drama studio	Over the shoulder shot, establishing shot, mid shots	Fergie (Leah & 1 other)

Dolby

Leah- there seems to very little work here- no ancillary analysis and lack of other planning elements. The song lyrics are not analysed. Don't forget that audience info is key. You must be uploading all research and planning.

Song Lyrics

If you ain't got no money take yo'broke ass home
You say: If you ain't got no money take yo'broke ass home
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, yeah G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

We flying the first class
Up in the sky
Poppin' champagne
Livin' my life
In the fast lane
And I won't change
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

Wear them gold and diamonds rings
All them things don't mean a thing
Chaperons and limousines
Shopping for expensive things

I be on the movie screens
Magazines and boogie scenes
I'm not clean, I'm not pristine
I'm n queen, I'm no machine

I still go to Taco Bell
Drive through, raw as Hell
I don't care, I'm still real
No matter how many records I sell

After the show or after the Grammys
I like to go cool out with the family
Sippin', reminiscing on days when I had a Mustang
And now I'm in

We flying the first class
Up in the sky
Poppin' champagne
Livin' my life
In the fast lane
And I won't change
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

I'm talking Champagne wishes, caviar dreams
You deserve nothing but all the finer things
Now this whole world has no clue to do with us

I've got enough money in the bank for the two of us
Brother gotta keep enough lettuce
To support your shoe fetish
Lifestyles so rich and famous

Robin Leach will get jealous
Half a million for the stones
Takin' trips from here to Rome
So If you ain't got no money take yo' broke ass home

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, yeah G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

We flying the first class
Up in the sky
Poppin' champagne
Livin' my life
In the fast lane
And I won't change
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

The glamorous,
The glamorous, glamorous (the glamorous life)
For the glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

I got problems up to here
I've got people in my ear
Telling me these crazy things
That I don't want to know (fuck y'all)

I've got money in the bank
And I'd really like to thank
All the fans, I'd like to thank
Thank you really though

'Cause I remember yesterday
When I dreamt about the days
When I'd rock on MTV, that be really dope
Damn, It's been a long road

And the industry is cold

I'm glad my daddy told me so, he let his daughter know
my daddy told me so, he let his daughter know
my daddy told me so, he let his daughter know

Possible Locations

I'm not sure how useful this is; only one location filmed and not sure how it ties in with the song?

Research and Planning Evaluation

Research into genre helped me with production because it gave me a feel of the style that is represented throughout the R&B industry. Once I had established this it made it easier for me to decide the colour scheme and the style of layout I wanted to use, as from research R&B magazines were very simplistic. It also allowed me to identify the different conventions as well as features to make my magazine suitably fit my genre. 

The research into target audiences allowed me to create an appealing magazine and appropriate themes for my the age of my target audience. This is extremely important as different features work well for certain age ranges and what appeals to a 16 year old would be very different to what appeals to a 30 year old. Research and planning also helped as it was always there to look back on when I got stuck and needed to refresh my memory for ideas or inspiration. It also made me feel a lot more confident in the creation of my magazine as I felt I knew what I was doing and had a lot more background knowledge which would lead to making a magazine to the best of my ability.

Audience feedback was a very important element of research and planning as the main aim was to make the product appealing to the audience, and by creating surveys and gaining other forms of feedback, this meant I was creating exactly what my audience wanted. This is something that I will keep in mind when producing the music video, as the feedback I will receive can be taken on board and the necessary changes will happen. The effect of these changes will improve the quality of the music video and fit better into my chosen genre. 

From the first production research I learnt how crucial time allocation was for the project, as I underestimated the amount of time each stage would take and how much detail would need to go in to filming and editing. As there were several stages within the planning and research area, I feel I should have set myself deadlines and made a timetable for when I was going to be doing what to ensure I had everything organised and everything would be easily achievable. Time management is a major detail I will pay attention to in the music video project as it can have an impact on the outcome of the project. 

Research in to the Music Video Industry

Question 5

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your advanced portfolio, do you think?

From completing this task, I have learnt how useful research and planning is so you know exactly what you are doing. I have also learnt how to operate the video camera and how to use the editing programme which will be extremely significant when completing my advanced portfolio as I feel confident with what I am doing.

Question 4

How successful was your music video? Please identify what worked well, and with hind sight, what would you improve/ do differently?

I think our research and planning worked well in the process of creating our music video as we had storyboarded the whole music video and identified all the camera shots/angles/movements, costumes and where they were shot. Therefore our music video looked very similar to the original due to the time and detail we put in to this section.

However, due to us spending a lot of our time on research and planning, we didn't leave enough time for filming and editing. We underestimated how long this would take by quite a lot. Therefore we joined a larger group. To improve next time I would create a timetable and give myself deadlines so I would have sufficient time to complete each task.

As a result of poor time management and poor coordination between the two groups our music video wasn't fully completed. We definitely needed more time for editing which was made harder by the lack of communication we had with the other big group. I have learnt from this that making a final schedule of when and how we are going to do everything by would be the most effective solution.

Question 3

Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, what were they and how did you over come them?

We encountered quite a few difficulties when using the video camera as this was the first time anyone in our group had used one, so no one was very familiar with the device and how to use it properly. This resulted in us losing some of our footage while trying to use the "playback" option. To overcome this difficulty we re-filmed the footage on an iPhone. However, unfortunately this footage was of a lower quality. Next time, we will be more familiar with the camera and how to operate it so hopefully this won't happen again.


Another issue was when we tried converting the footage onto the mac, the file format wasn't correct. This was because we were saving them into the wrong area so all we had to so was re upload them and save them onto final cut pro to make the files valid to use.


The final difficulty we encountered was our time management and not realising how much time it takes to cut and edit the footage. As this was our first time in creating a music video, we also underestimated the timing of how long it would actually take to get everyone together to film all the different scenes. In order to allow time for editing we joined with the other group to split the work load but also gain more cast members to fill gaps in the scene. By working collaboratively with the other group, it was much easier to get shooting done quicker and understand what needed editing and who would do what.

Question 2

What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

Video Camera:

This was the key of technology that we used to film our actual music video as it aloud us to film, transfer to the mac and then edit. Once we had established how to use the camera it was easier to use different camera shots and movements such as zoom. Mostly we just used steady cam but on occasion we moved around with it to get different angles.

iPhone:

We decided to use an iPhone instead of a video camera in the final tennis court scene due to the weight of the device and being able to move it around more freely. However, by doing this we made our video look less professional as it was harder to control the camera and keep a steady hand so the video is slightly wobbly. Although the video camera would've been the more suitable option to film some our scenes, the IPhones' camera quality and zoom maintained the quality of each shot.

Mac:

The IMac was used for the final, editing section of finishing our music video. We used this for editing as it has the editing software 'final cut pro'.
Cutting the videos and aligning each section was fairly simple, however matching the lip syncing within the video with the music was very difficult and we had to render a lot of sections which took up a lot of time.

Question 1

What have you learnt about the importance of research and planning?

Research and planning was very important in the creation of our music video. Research and planning enabled us to decide as a group what genre would be best for the music video we were going to replicate. We did this by examining various music videos by looking at the pace of cuts and mise en scene to make our final decision . We also made sure that all the music videos we were researching were set in schools as this would be the most easily accessible location for us.

We finally agreed on the song 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea and Charlie XCX as it was appropriate casting wise and had fairly similar locations to what we already had as it is set in a school. This would enable us to make it as similar to the original as possible. To do this we were limited to 1 minute and 30 seconds, therefore we divided up into pairs to look at a 30 second section each. This was very effective as it was time efficient and it also meant that we would get more precise recordings of each camera angle and movement and what is happening in the scene at different times; regarding mise en scene and body language. This was an important stage of creating our music video as it was basically a storyboard for our music video that we could follow and made it a lot easier and precise when we went to start filming ours.

The final stage was planning. This was useful process as it gave the whole group more confidence about the organisation of filming time and what everyone was doing and when. When we planned we probably should've considered a few more things such as an extra camera as ours didn't charge overnight. I will carry this kind of planning experience and factors that we did not plan for when I produce my music video.