official Website

Helloooo,

After a very hard work on completing the website, we officially finished the website!

Moji did the majority of the website but I have helped with...

• Choosing the themes of the website
• Completing the biography
• Help to choose the merchandises that could be on sale of the customers and the prices
• the covers for the website

During the completion of the website, we had feedbacks from both our teachers and friends. We explored what our Star should be represented as and how we would portray her to the audiences. Because we wanted Abby (Star) to be seen as reachable and "girl next door" therefore we had to think a lot of the colors, the images and the font used. 

I found out that by including a little biography about the Star makes the audiences connect to her easier as some can relate to her or may have the same interests as her. 

The biography that I have produced can be easily read by anyone and any type of audiences. The first few sentences I have written mainly about social media. I feel that this era, audiences use so much social media therefore I have include about social media sites that the Star uses to connect with the audiences and her friends. Also, tell a little bit about how many followers she has so visitors of the website will know how famous is she or how is she going to develop over the years as an Artist. 

The merchandise sold in the website are basically another source where audiences can purchase official products that they could collect as a collection. Moreover, Abby also worn some of the shirts and sweaters to further promote her products. This can be seen clearly on the digipaks.

performance shot finally!

Hi Blog!

We finally shot our performance shot!
Today at noon-ish Abby and I we decided to take our performance shot. The lighting was great and we managed to take only 5 takes of our performance shot.

Obstacles
There were many obstacles during our shoot, Including...

• The wind of the location --> It was quite windy therefore the Star's hair was hard to control during each take. Also, because the wind was very unpredictable we had no choice but to do many takes and try to get the best out of the takes that we did. However, by the 3rd take, we decided to put a chair that was pretty stable directly where the wind came and just on the side of the Artist so it blocks some wind out of her face. It worked pretty well and the wind more calm therefore the shots look more candid and the artist's hair wasn't blocking her face most of the time.

• The lighting --> Because we took the shot at noon, the sun was very bright. The artist (Abby) herself has a tan skin color, therefore when the sun shines directly onto her, she becomes even darker and is too contrast. However, we fortunately found a white background where there was some shade. the lighting was pretty good and we were able to experiment around a little to find the right lighting. 

• The shots --> Abby and I, we had some discussions of which shots we should have used. I suggested her a still mid-shot using a tripod. However, Abby suggest a mid-shot or close-up where we didn't use a tripod so it looks like the camera is moving slowly with her. We ended up using mid-shot of the Star with her guitar and not using the tripod so it looks smooth. 

The 2 photos above, shows the lighting and shot differences. The first one on the left is the first take while the one in the center is the last take we did. You can see clearly that the first one the lighting is not as bright and made the Artist look dark. While the second one is more bright and the shot is more close up to her face. The Camera is also more tilted forward so it looks more focused on her face rather than the guitar.

Overall...

Our last scene taken was a scene to remember... it was really fun this year to be able to be the cameramen and try new things that I didn't know I could take before. 

At first the thought of filming the scenes was too challenging for me because I have really bad skills for taking pictures and video. But after Abby and looking at some tips on the internet, I was able to perform better and received some compliments from my friends:)

music video - without performance shot

Music video - without performance shot

During the editing of the music video, as I have mentioned, Abby did most of the editing while I have helped to look for any errors or improvements as well as some editing. 

In this music video draft, I have experimented and filled in the blanks that I felt that we can use instead of the performance shots. 
Because of exams and the different time schedules we had, we weren't able to take the performance shot earlier together so I have decided to do some editing myself as well to develop and improve my editing skills.

Music video - Draft one

Hi blogggg,

Abby has finished editing her fist draft of the music video. However, this does not include the performance shot yet because the performance shots that we have taken before the lighting was not as good because the artist and the background did not go together as well therefore we are taking another performance shot soon!

Some of the shots are not all in as well so there may be black scenes. Therefore, we can fill in later on when we film another performance shot or other shots that may fit in later afterwards.

Artist biography - website pt 2

Artist Biography - Abby

Helloooooo, 

after the plan and discussions about the biography, during the term break I have decided to help our team by helping Moji to do one of the parts for the website which was the artist biography. 

I started off by looking at different famous artist websites such as Rihanna's, Demi Lovato's, Beyonce and much more to get some inspiration to write for my own artist.

I have use some intertextuality from some of these artists that I have mentioned and I have tried to put some of my ideas into it as well to make my artist different and unique than other artists.

Here is the masterpiece that I have written for my artist...

"Abby is a student, an athlete, a singer, and a guitarist. In addition, she has high followers on social media, with followers over 2 million Twitter followers, 3.5 million Instagram followers and over 7 million fans on Facebook.

It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago, Abby was just a normal teenage girl who's very passionate with singing. Abby began her journey by doing covers with her brothers and friends and posting on social media for her friends to see. With just a few days, the cover videos especially “Say you won’t let you go” became the biggest hit. Within a month, she was contacted by a big music company “Republic Records” which have many big artists and bands in their company. Such as Ariana grande, DNCE, Hailee Steinfeld, Drake and much more. The record label was struck by her unique singing techniques and her ability to attract many groups of audiences at once. As she signed her contract with Republic records, she made more covers with other artists before her big fame with the song “Starving”.

Outside her singing career, her interests in doing sports is also outstanding. She has been representing her school in competing in football, touch rugby, athletics and softball competitions.

To support her singing abilities as mentioned above, she has been playing guitar as well. She have been learning how to play guitar from her peers, her brother as well as self learnt."

website - biography

Today in our lesson,

We have discussed about the website and the majority of the time, we talked about the biography part of the performer.
It took us sometime to think about the ideas of how our artist became a star because we want it to be realistic as well. I felt that Abby life (real-life) can be related to our coursework and therefore I felt I could snip some of her real life situations.
we have decided to start our biography by telling how our artist "Abby" started off a normal student in school and loves to sing. Therefore her and some of her friends started to do covers in different locations. With these covers, she posted on social media for her friends to see. But as people viewed the videos, they realized that she was better than they imagined and shared her videos all over social media which became a sensational hit. She then was discovered by a big record label "Republic Label" which many artists such as Nicki Minaj, Demi Lovato, Drake and much more are also in.

We also wanted to put information about her family life and about her hobbies as well. Because I believe that if our artist has many interests, this will attract more audiences as the artist and the audiences may have the same interests and can connect with each other better. Also, this can tell what kind of artist she is just by knowing her hobbies or family life. 

cover of songs - website

Hellooo,


Today Abby, Moji and I, we decided to shoot some cover of songs. This also can be used as our marketing strategy to promote the artist herself but also this can help other artists to give a shout out to our new artist as well!

Today we shot 2 songs which were "Say you won't let go" - James Arthur and "Sunday Morning" - Maroon 5.

It took some time to shoot each clip because there was a construction going on and there were really loud sounds of the construction noises in the background. But in the end, we managed to finish filming 2 songs and maybe we will be shooting more during the week.

Today I have learnt that taking covers are not as easy because sometimes it takes time for the performer to nail the lyrics and because of other unpredicted sounds/ noises it takes more time and patient is needed while taking the covers for music videos.

website - mechandises

Hiiii,

Today Moji and I we posted some products on the website.
As I have said Moji is responsible for the website but I have help choose what to put in or the layout of the website. 
For the products, we are selling the basic products such as the sweaters, jackets, bags and hats.

Moji have put the logo of our group on the products and we have given them prices as well.

Some of them are limited editions as well and the photos of the merchandise can be seen in different views.

Music video more exploration

Hellooooo,

From the feedback Mr. Harrison just gave my editing of the music video, I have went to explore more music videos on Youtube to get more ideas.

I have firstly looked at the music video, "Good time" by Owl City and Carly Ray Jepson.



I felt that there were a lot of edits and cuts. I felt that due to the jump cuts it makes the music video more excited than just one full shot. 
The up beat music and the music video illustrate each other and I felt that with their storyline it connects very well.
The performance shots are shot very well and there are many shots which makes it more interesting and entice audiences and me more.


Another music video that I found very cute and interesting is this Korean Artists "K.Will" and this song is called "Day 1".
It is also something about love and couples, so I believe this was a good music video to look at. Also, its very cringing for me therefore I want to use it as reference as well!!!

feedback on first draft

Hi Bloggg,

Yesterday Mr. Harrison gave me the feedback back for my edit for the music video.
I have done my edit for the music video because I just wanted to practice my skills and to see what I can do.
However, we are using Abby's editing because we swapped roles this year and I did most of the camerawork. Even though we are using Abby's editing, we can use my feedback on my editing to assess Abby's editing as well and so she would not do the same mistake as me. 

So Mr. Harrison have gave feedback such as...

• try to use jump cuts so the music video is more lively and not to long and boring.
• try to see whether I need to link the story or not, or how can I can link the different parts up
• try to see if I need to film another performance shot, where Abby is looking at the camera.
• try to make lighting the same or not as contrast.

I felt that these feedbacks are very useful and Abby and I we both helped each other to see what we can do to improve our music video. Abby did the majority of the editing, but I have looked out for her to see what techniques or tools that she could use to make the music video entice audiences more. 

Editing Day 4

Hi Bloggggg,

After a long night editing, I have finished my own first draft.
I have just put the shots in place but I have not yet edit the lightings and maybe be some of the shots that needed adjusting but I was really satisfied with my work last night.

Editing Day 3

Helloooo,

After the shooting yesterday, I have try to edit again and I have edited just over half of the music video. It was a little easier this time to edit due to more shots and it was more chronological. 
I used about 3 hours to edit the first few scenes. However, it took some time to choose the scenes and takes because there were many good ones to choose from. 

Filming Day 2 by Pearl

Hey Blogggg,

Today we decided that after school we will be filming the parts that we haven't filmed yet. Because of our actor's injury, we had to change and adapt many things. 

today we will be shooting the scenes for the first opening of the music video and the second half of the music video. 

These are some of the scenes include:

- the field scene (Abby and Moji)

via GIPHY

- the hair scene

via GIPHY

- the couple scene (Rute and Abby)

via GIPHY

- the guitar scene

Today the costumes that we are going to use is firstly, Abby the main performer will be wearing a white oversize shirt for the opening scene. and also she will be wearing the white jumper in the scene where she comes back from her journey in the different locations. 

The props that we need today is mainly the lipstick (makeup), the guitar and a sofa which the actors and performers can sit.


The scenes that we shot today was quite fun and we have experiment many things during the filming because we forgot some props and we had to improvise some of it. However, it turned out pretty well and the most important thing is we had an amazing time together and laughed a lot.



I have learnt so much from doing camerawork this year because I was the main cameramen and Abby was a great teacher to me as she taught me many things and told me not to give up. Also Moji and Abby have tried to motivate me and at last I have shot all the scenes.
I am really proud of myself and my TEAM!!!!!

Artist inspiration - CHANGE

Artist Inspiration - Influences

you may know, we kind of change our plots a little bit, from an innocent girl who just travels around Bangkok to explore before coming back to her boyfriend. However, now that the plots change, she now meets up with a friend who both have a chemistry and they both have some feelings for each other. They go out together and goes back to the girls apartment where they have scenes such as the lipstick scene and the hair scene where it shows affection between the characters.

The main plot change is when the performer turns out to be bisexual and has feelings for her friend while she still have a boyfriend.

We have been inspired by the music video of Hayley Kiyoko, she is known for being a LGBT artists and her music videos also portray her sexual interaction for girls. On of the ones that we have use for intertextuality was the music video called "Girls like Girls".

I felt that nowadays there are so many LGBT artists who are trying to show themselves and show that they are the same as everyone and they should all be accepted by the society.

Some of these artists include:

• Sam Smith
• Sia
• Cher
• Mary Lambert

Today session --> making changes

New Changes 

Today we just had a conversation of shooting the next part. However, we just knew that our actor has broken his leg and therefore we had to change the plots around or maybe change everything. Because of this, we had to sit down and think about our consequences a lot. 

We had a lot of good advice from our Teacher "Mr. Harrison" on what we could do. 

At first we thought of doing a LGBT music video. because we thought it would be different and this is something that is very important right now around the world. 

But by the end of the lesson, we decided on a plan and we planned to shoot the other parts by this Thursday.

Even though there were so many issues but I feel that we can overcome these issues and a team.

Postmodern Artist

Hellooooooo

Today in class we looked at postmodern artists.

These are some criteria for postmodern artists such as

• homage
• pastiche
• simulacrum
• intertextuality
• creation
• mixed between high and low class
• reflexivity 

I have researched on Sia because it is very interesting to see how she developed over the years of her fame.
I believe that she is postmodern because most of the criteria for postmodern artist matches her quite well.
The way she hides half of her face, the way she illustrates herself using a young dancer in her music videos, the colors she wears etc.

This is what I have researched at and this have also supported my ideas and thoughts about my Star as well.


Moreover, during the lesson. We also shared some ideas together as well.
I have learnt so much as well as some laughters because of how the artists developed as postmodern artists. I have taken some notes that I found interesting,
Including...

Mac Demarco

→ is he pastiche or parody?

→ uses bricolage = used a lot of songs from the past periods in his sampling and also covers in his concert

→ intertextuality - e.g. Michael Jackson

“Chamber of reflection” - asked his girlfriend dress as homer simpson and act sad

Influenced by John Lenon

→ Simulacrum = comic side

Very personal but on stage very crazy and different

→ consumption - into old things

→ creation - writes his own music, records it, produces it all at home

→ performance - mental and crazy (get naked sometimes)

Rich Chigga

→ pastiche - mocking american culture, gangster, ghetto culture.

• Anyone can be a rapper
• Asians can be rappers

→ simulacrum

→ influences

• Ghostface killah and pouya on the Dat Stick remix
• Reference in eung freestyle - live, flowsik, Owen Ovadoz

→ homage

• Bringing rap to south east asia
• “Drill rap”

Editing Day 2

Hi Blog,

Because of my clumsiness, I accidentally deleted my first editing draft and therefore I had to start all over again. However, Abby's editing draft was still there, so we still have something to put more shots in.

I started to do my editing again today. I felt that from my mistakes before, I was able to do this draft better and even though with our limited shots, I was still able to put things in place like I want them to.

I have listened to Mr. Harrison's words and have tried to place the shots in order as much as possible avoiding confusion for the audiences and making sure that there is a storyline as well.

mannequin challenge

Mannequin Challenge

Just by the end of the year 2016, there was a new trend called the "Mannequin Challenge". 
We, the "Prefect team" we also wanted to do our Mannequin Challenge and therefore we filmed it. 

I was also in it, I was acted like I was watching the Korean series with my other friend and it was quite fun as well.

I then decided to edit a little bit. 
I put the Mannequin Song in it and just made some of the shots a little slower to let the audiences focus on the us a little bit more as well as making it more intense.

We did this also in the purpose for the sixth form students. We separated people into families and therefore this was another challenge for the students to do as a family together.

Website designs

Helloooo,

For the website we have assigned the majority of the work to Moji.
But I have also helped her look at the designs that can be our intertextual for our website.

I felt that our website should be pastel colors or at least bright, vibrant colors to boost the positivity of the audiences who are looking through the website and with the bright colors it should show that the song has a light and chill feeling as well. 

However, dark tone background for the website is another choice as well, because it gives a different impact to the audiences because it gives a more mysterious feel and can attract a different kind of market as the genre may be more of edm, rock-ish kind of sub genre. 

Editing Day 1

Hellooooo,

After a long day taking shots on Saturday. On Sunday morning I started doing some editing by myself.
With limited shots of the performer, I did only the middle part of the song.
On Saturday, we kind of change the plot a little bit. The performer would be joined by a friend during her time on her own before she meets up again with her boyfriend.

We also did some photoshoots of the performer (Abby) to put in our website as well.

The editing went better than I thought and I manage to fill in some parts that I thought would not work out.
I tried to put some "Thai" things in the music video as well to bring some authenticity into the music.
I felt that our music video contradicts with the music because the scenes are slow motion and the song is more upbeat and fast.

Conventions of the my genre

Conventions of the my genre 

Conventions: What audiences expect to see.

What the audiences expect to see in this Genre (Pop-EDM):

My group as we mentioned, we are doing "Starving" - Hailee Steinfeld.
Hailee Steinfeld is an artist that is for modern teenagers or young audiences living in the 21st century.

There are many similar artists that can be related to her 
For example:
- Selena Gomez
- Zara Larsson
- Ariana Grande
- Fifth Harmony

As I watched the music videos during my free time, I saw some similarities and differences between the different artists that have the same song genre as my artist.

The Representation --> 
The similarities between the artists are...
1. They have a sexual kind of aims and objectives or music videos
2. There will be exposure of skin in the music video

3. Their target audiences are usually teenagers or young audiences. Can be both male and female.


via GIPHY


The intertextuality -->
For most of the music videos for young female artists, it is based on love, heartbreaks etc. 
Therefore there would be male actors also in the music video which sometimes the performer may be used as voyeurism, but rarely male actors are being used as sexual objects.

The shots --> 
The similarities between the music videos of these artists are, they have a lot of close ups of the artists' faces because to show their emotions clearly. Usually this happens a lot in heartbreaking songs but also happens for songs that are related to "falling in love".

via GIPHY

Mis en Scene -->
The similarities between the music videos is the lightings are usually dark for implicit meaning songs about "sexual" things. 
However, sometimes there are light to show the positiveness of the atmosphere when the song is about love and "not heart broken"

Lighting --> 
Usually light is quite a significant part for the music video because it shows clearly the mood of the scene and it creates mystery when the lightings are darker and low tone colors to give a different impression of the performer and the music video.
For Hailee's music video and for a lot of edm sub-genre musics, bright vibrant colors shining for some scenes would also appear often in edm/ pop artists.

Taking shots/ scenes Day 1 (VLOG)

Today Abby, Moji and I we went to the different locations for the shooting of our music video.
Today I did the majority of the filming even though I have very little experience in filming. 
I woke up pretty early compared to other weekends and I arrived at Boarding House around 8am.
We ate some breakfast and we travelled to our first place Chatukchak Market around 9am.



When we arrived, we got a little lost since we all never came here before or we came here once or twice. So that kind of took some time off us. However, we manage to go to the location that we wanted and took some shots of the items and people as well as the performer.
We had a little problem on the shots because we didn't know how much footage we need, therefore we just took random shots so it would help increase shots that will fill up the music video.


After a little while, we went to our second location which was Chalerm La Park, which was filled with graffiti.
We travelled by taxi, and the most confusing and worried part was when the taxi driver didn't know the location and we had to use the GPS to help us reach our destination. It felt like a long trip due to the traffic congestions and the confusion between us and the driver.
When we arrived at the location, I was stunned by the vibrant colors and the amazing drawings on the buildings and walls.

This was easier of us here in this location due to the fewer people around the area. I decided to take dancing shots and performance shots here due to the attractive colors that will entice audiences more.

After that we decided to eat lunch at paragon and talked about what we should do next. 
We walked from the park to Paragon which took 10 mins but was worth it.



Today we didn't have our actor (Rute) therefore our shots were quite limited compared to what we have planned at first.
We then finished before 3pm and so we decided to film other shots on other days to finish off the other half of the music video with Rute which was the first plan.

Health and Safety Documents

Health and Safety Documents

Before we go out to shoot, we also need to do a health and safety document or a risk assessment so we are aware of what will happen during the shoot. 

I have covered the things that I think will occur during the shoot such as dehydration which is a moderate risk, while car accident is a higher risk.

Location Recce

Location Recce

Before we went out shooting, we had to complete Location Scouting Report. I had to complete for 3 locations which are Boarding House, Chatuchak Weekend Market and Chalerm La Park. We decided to not do Asiatique because when we looked at the shots that we should include in, Asiatique was an extra location where we thought it was nice to have but not a compulsory place.