Before we get stuck in to completing your music video coursework, we need to complete a couple of weeks of prep. This is not just for marks (although your prep work is NOT officially marked!) but it is also to create the best music video possible. First of all, let's look at how you get an A for the music video and magazine coursework project.
How to get an A in the NEA (in theory)
- Use media language to demonstrate intertextuality and/or generic hybridity
- Convey a complex representation of a social group using media language
- Subvert and challenge typical representational stereotypes
- Present a clear and identifiable ideological context
- Create a magazine that demonstrates clear stylistic, thematic and ideological links to your music video
How to get an A in the NEA (in practice)
- Start shooting the first day you are able
- If someone lets you down, deal with it and shoot someone else
- If your venue falls through or your location shoot is rained off, shoot somewhere else
- If you accidentally delete all your work, take a deep breath and start again
- If your teacher tells you your footage is not up to standard, take a deep breath and go out and reshoot
- Realise that you do NOT need ANY technical skills to get full marks in this project, just hard work and resilience!
Note - the work you are doing today will be inserted in to your preproduction workbook, so don't lose it...
Task 1 - genre analysis
Select a music video of the genre of the song that you wish to make a music video for. List, using media language and screenshots the explicit generic paradigmatic conventions of this genre. It helps here to pick a really cliched and maybe straightforward video. Don't be vague: make everything EXPLICIT.
While you can subvert generic conventions, you must at least make reference to them to get marks (and to create an excellent and functional music video)
Task 2 - creating a mood board to create an aesthetic
Don't just point and shoot! The best music videos have a clear idea of the aesthetic (basically the look) of what it will look like before anyone even touches a camera!
Here's an example of a mood board:
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It's basically a collection of things that you think look cool. What do you like to look at? Where do you like to be? What colours make you happy (or sad :'( ). Here's another one!
When making a mood board don'[t consider if it's actually feasible or not. Just chuck some stuff together and try and make it happen!
Task 3 - technical analysis
Pick one crazy cinematographic or editing technique you would like to complete for your video and spend some time right now working out HOW you would do this and if it's even possible. YouTube tutorials are your friend here, but remember even you cannot complete a technique conventionally, there may be some unconventional ways of getting thigs done...