Media Pitch

Reflection of lip sync tutorial

We were first shown how to use Final Cut Pro to sync multiple videos to one song. Once we had mastered that and played around with cutting in time to the beat we were given the opportunity to make our own video.

We were given a song, (He's the Greatest Dancer by Sister Sledge ) , a video camera, a CD player and a large sheet of lyrics. We had an hour to film and the edit using Final Cut Pro with the following brief;

• Sing don't mime
• Do NOT use a tripod
• Film at least 3 base tracks
• Use a variety of shot types

From this I learnt how to make a music video using multiple base tracks. At first it was difficult to get the video in sync as you had to pay close attention to the mouth of the singer. I used markers (for the first time on Final Cut Pro) at certain points of the song in both the base tracks and the song track, this allowed me to match the video to the song easier. 

One of the problems I found was that it is very important to pronounce the words of the song correctly and clearly when filming as it helps when it comes to syncing the video in Final Cut. Also, that because we couldn't use a tripod we had to remain very still when holding this camera, it sounds simple enough but proved to be very difficult when you had to film for the whole song.

When editing a music video it's key to cut the video in time with the beat in the song, as it helps to give the video structure and makes it flow, making the video more appealing.

This video shows the different angles we played around with but was not our final piece:

This is a youtube video explaining how to use Final Cut Pro for lip syncing:

Storyboard For Our Music Video

This Is the draft story board for our music video. A few more things need to be changed in in for example we need to use a wider variety of shot types and change them more regularly.

Audience Task

This would be an Example of the typical taget audience our music video product would be marketed at:

Name: Stacy Gallowell                                             
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White British
Class: Middle Class
Lives: Student Accomodation, however her family home is in kent
Describe what they do for a living: University Student, Goes to Cambridge/Oxford studies history
Where they buy their groceries: Waitrose or Sainsburys
What they do in their spare time: Photography in the City, Plays Guitar/piano, Reads alot, Vistis Museums and Galleries
Newspaper/Magazines read: Metro, Books
Type of transport often used: Train or her Bicycle
Gadgets they use: iPhone, Apple Mac Laptops
Brand attracted to: Converse, Top shop,
Where they often go clothes shopping: Top Shop, River Island, H&M, Vintage shops around Camden Town
Favourite Drink: Starbucks
Describe where they may like to go on holiday: America, Possibly New York
Why they like this song: our target audience example would like this song because being a university student, reading books often and vistiting educational museums often would suggest she is a intelligent and educated indivudual. The Song 'I wish i was a punk rocked' describes how times have changed throughout history, and clearly 'stacy' has a wide interest in history and expresses a desire for freedom, which fits in with the idea of the song.

Final Song Choice

Our final song choice for our music video is Sandi Thom -  I wish i was a punk rocker.
This Is The orginal video for this song


The reason me and my group chose this track, out of the short list we had was because it is the least mainstream song out of the other four options and we wants to steer away from a typical conventional Pop or R n b track. Our Music video will differ greatly from the original music video. Throughout Sandi Thom's videos she uses no varietys of shot types or edits, the whole clip is filmed within one frame with no cuts, however throughout our music video we will aim to incorporate as many shot types and edits as possible. Our Video will also include transitions from the present day, to the artist going back reminising on old photos in an album she finds, to which becomes her reality for the song, untill in transitions back out in the end.  The current video is about a girl walking through the present day street singing about how she wished she was born in the past and people dont care anymore. Our video is about a girl who is looking back on photos from the 60's and 70's and uses four different locations. The artist will also meet 3 people on her journey of reminisance to which she acts caring towards, as she suggests nobody cares in the present day, although she wished they did. Costume will also differ to this video as everybody in Sandi Thoms video is dressed as how people dress nowadays, however first our artist will be dressed in current day clothing throughout the begining and the end of the music video, during the time where she is looking back in the photo album she will be dressed more Punk/Hippie, along with the 3 other people she meets along the journey, whilist handing out the photos from the album.

Who was Vladimire Propp

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp ( 17 April 1895 — 22 August 1970) was a Russian structuralist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. He was born in St. Petersburg to a German family. Propp attended St. Petersburg University (1913-1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy, then after graduating he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.

Character theory's are useful for analysing and understanding media in which people take on the role of an actor or social actor.Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

In analysing these 100 folk tales, Propp also was able to discover 31 different narrative structure units that occur in a story which were:

1. ABSENTATION
2. INTERDICTION
3. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION
4. RECONNAISSANCE
5. DELIVERY.
6. TRICKERY
7. COMPLICITY
8. VILLAINY or LACK
9. MEDIATION
10. BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION
11. DEPARTURE
12. FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR
13. HERO'S REACTION
14. RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT
15. GUIDANCE
16. STRUGGLE
17. BRANDING
18. VICTORY
19. LIQUIDATION
20. RETURN
21. PURSUIT
22. RESCUE
23. UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL
24. UNFOUNDED CLAIMS
25. DIFFICULT TASK
26. SOLUTION
27. RECOGNITION
28. EXPOSURE
29. TRANSFIGURATION
30. PUNISHMENT
31. WEDDING

Vladimir Propps Ideology can be usefull while creating my music video and analysing other music videos. For Example the video Goodbye Mr A  - The Hoosiers is a good example of how Propps theory related to media as it follows his idea of the conventional media story. In terms of The key characters it features the villian, The hero and the fake hero/villian. It also follows to some extent the narrative features throughout a media text or clip, with the hero defeating the villians, the hero being put in need by another villan, who then poses as the fake hero in order to become the new super hero, helping children and old people, however the fake heros are not revealed in the end they become the new superheros, meanwhile the real hero has been defeated. lost and forgoten about. Using Vladimir Propps example helps us to analyse the conventions of a music video and, if filming a music video that would fit this type of story line, shows us the conventional storyline that could be used in it, and the layout to follow.

Targeted Audience

Name: Stacy
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White British
Describe what they do for a living: College Student in the City
Where they buy their groceries: Tesco
What they do in their spare time: Photography in the City
Newspaper/Magazines read: Metro
Type of transport often used: Train
Gadgets they use: iPhone, Apple Mac Laptops
Brand attracted to: Converses
Where they often go clothes shopping: Top Shop, River Island, H&M
Favourite Drink: Starbucks
Describe where they may like to go on holiday: Somewhere sunny
Why they like indie rock: Mainly lyrical, 45% about the beat, 65% lyrics.

Final Song Choice

As a group, we decided between two song choices of 'Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker' and 'Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten'. After talking through it many times, we finally decided on the one song - I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker'. We came across this decision by listing as many pros and cons for each song. For example, for Bedingfield's song, the tempo is more upbeat but the music video is too strong that we could hardly make our video strongly original. And for Thom's song, the song is more acapella, but the original video is only one cut which gives us the advantage of thinking of a whole different idea and plot. Although both of the pros and cons were equal, we chose the song with the strongest con, which was Thom's song.

Previous A2 Pop Music Videos

Claudio, Kat & Wing from 283goswell on Vimeo.

I have chosen this video made my students of last year, for me to analyse as I thought it was one of the strongest pieces. The costume and style clearly showed it's genre of indie rock and the narrative was strong throughout as I began to feel the pain of the main singer who reminisces back to before he broke up with his girlfriend. The group used a wide variety if shots and also split screens which made the video more interesting in a way on what screen to focus on. I also though the song choice was rather good as it was easy for the editing as it wasn't too slow or too fast. 

I particularly liked the 'home video' shots which made the video seem very realistic. And although it was a windy day, I think it worked well with the emotion of the video. I really liked the autumn colours of the establishing shot of the main singer walking backwards.

Who was Vladimir Propp?

Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet scholar born on April 17, 1895. He analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest narrative elements.

Propp's theory shows the breakdown of narrative structures of 31 functions.

Reflecting On Lip Synch Tutorial

This was the first lesson we were able to use the video cameras to film our lip synch music video and to learn how to edit using final cut pro.

Firstly, we were given a chosen song by random - He's The Greatest Dancer. We were given the lyrics and a CD of the song. Then, with only a small amount of time for our performer to learn and get use to the song, the rest of the group was planning our different shots. We all took turns with the camera only to make it fair, while the other member was in charge of the CD player, the other holding the lyrics and the other directing. In this way, we all took part. With our performer (Alima) having to sing the song over and over, she only got use to the song in this way. She was required to not only mouth the words, but to actually sing the song over the CD track. In this way, it would be easier to sync it in with the original song on final cut pro.

When it came to editing, we were already familiar with the program as we used it last year with out thriller title sequences. But this year, I learnt something new about the program which was the 'cutting' tool which marked red marks in a clip and this was where you were able to cut the clip. And to get rid of a section in a clip, I learnt that you had to mark two red markings on the clip and press 'delete' instead of 'back space' as it would only delete the section not to pull everything together. After putting everything together up on final cut pro and finishing the editing, I learnt from our mistake not to 'prolong' the words in the song so it doesn't seem odd and to make sure we have learnt the song inside and out before hand. I enjoyed this one lesson of filming and editing, so I can only look forward to the 'real deal'.

Lip synch tutorial

Lip Synch Tutorial

The lip synching tutorial was one of our first lessons. shortly after everyone was put into groups we were given instructions about the lip synch. in our group we were given a song that we had to work on to do our lip synch. Firstly we stated of by listening to the song and looking at the lyrics. I then started singing along to the song for practice before recording anything for the video clip. this enabled me to prepare for the video. I had to move my mouth according to the song playing on the CD player. shortly after practicing the singing the group and i decided what the narrative of the video would be. We decided that i was going to walk up the stairs then take a seat at the top of the stair case. i would be all this whilst singing. when i took a seat at the to[ of the stair case i continued singing. for the lip synch to fall in place and at the correct time we had to film the same shot several times.   

Letter requesting copyright clearance

                                                                                                      283-309 Goswell Road

                                                                                                     london

EC1V 7LA

12th October 2010

Dear Alexandria (Sandi) Thom / RCA Corporation

Request for Copyright Permission to use part of whole of: Sandi Thom - I wish i was a punk rocker

I am a student of A level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfoli i will be working in group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. i would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be use solely for coursework purposes. the holders of the original copyright will be full achnowledged in the finishing project.

if you do not hold the rights for this song i should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours Faithfully

Amy Nicole Fitzpatrick
Chloe Scaffardi
 Estefania Ortega
Alima Begum
Cathrine Valentina Dumlao

Potential audience

This is Valerie Smith, she is an Arts major at Brighton University. She enjoys indie/rock music and constantly listens to her iPod. She enjoys watching Classic Noir films and hanging out with her friends.

Valerie is my targeted audience as she is between 15-45 which are the ages I feel people will best be able to relate to the song and find it enjoyable. She enjoys the arts and so will appreciate a song which has a strong meaning behind it. She is female so will be able to connect better with my singer who is also female.

Final song choice

Our final song choice is, Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was a Punkrocker.



We have chosen this song as it fits in with the 'pop' genre, while also being a song with real meaning in it's lyrics which is important. We also had to choose a song that we wouldn't get bored of too easily as we have to spend a lot of time listening to it.

We will make our video differ from the original by having a variety of shot types, while the original video consists only of a head on, medium shot. We will also use many cuts in editing to make our video differ from the original which is all done in one take with no additional editing. Also, while the original involves Thomm walking in a straight line towards the camera without stopping or turning, our video will involve changes in location which will give our video a variety of mise-en-scene.
A main point of our video is that our main character watches the news and falls asleep thinking of how bad the world is today, she then dreams of going out into the world and attempting to make it a better place. This allows or video more interaction, which the original video lacks and will help to establish a clear narrative which is reflective of Andrew Goodwin's theory.

Final song choice

Sandi Thom- I wish i was punk rocker 

We have chosen to do this song as it is original and goes well with the plan we already had in mind. We were indecisive between Natash Bedingfield- Unwritten and this song. We realised the vision we had for Unwritten had already been applied to the original video. Therefore we went ahead with this song, as the video only has  a shot of the artist singing the song on unknown streets of London, simple but it does work well.  We have in mind different locaions, landmarks of London such as Oxford St, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. The props, costume and make-up would also be very different from the video, the artist is shown here to be dressed casually wearing natural make-up, in ours the artist would be dressed in bright colours with a more edgy make-up.

List of the potential songs

Natasha Bedingfield - These words
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Sandi Thom - I wish I was punk rocker
Mutya - Fast Car
Sugababes - Too lost in you

Vladimir Propp

Vladmir Propp (1895-1970) was a Russian and Soviet scholar. He extended the study of narrative structure, in a formalist approach. He studied 100 Russian fairy tales he came into conlusion
- That the tales have a sequenceof 31 functions
-  that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types



 This Video Of Katy Perry - Hot'N'Cold could relate to the theory Propp has done.
As the the artist/ main characte is shown to be happy getting married, but then a dilemma occurs as the groom runs out of the church. But at the end it both characters end up marrying.

Animatic Video

Lip Synch Tutorial

In our lesson, we were given a reintroduction to use Final Cut Pro, learning on how to use base tracks editing. We were shown how to place markers on the sound of the music to match the singing of an artist, this was to enable the sound to be in-tune with the video. Then shown to place all the footage from different angles on the timeline, so they were all in synch. To make the demo music more thrilling we were shown how to cust different parts of the footage, how to show the specific footage we wanted to be in the video at different times to match the beat of the music. I found it very challenging to cut the footage at different times, it was complex, when played back it would look out of order, but then I found to use the stereo waves we much easier to put the music and footage in synch.

We chose a grop member ALima who will be performing in our chosen artist, we had to make sure she learnt the lyrics. we were given only a day to practise, therefore we had to print the lyrics, which was a disadvantage as in many of the shots, she would get confused. However, in editing we managed to make it work.

We had to make the most of the location we were set. 

Our final piece, looks rough but with this practise and more time we will have on our original piece it will look much better.

He's the greatest dancer by Sister Sledge

Review of previous student video analsed

In my media lesson i watched previous a2 music videos. Doing this allowed me to seel real life examples of the product i have to create myself, giving ideas for my music video.

My Favourite Video was by Adam, Lisa, Nasima & Sayvita
This is the video


Adam, Lisa, Nasima & Sayvita from 283goswell on Vimeo.

This video has an excelent variety of camera shots and angles such as close ups, extreme close ups (lip) medium shots, establishing shots and so on. It also has great variation of location.
My favourite part of this music video would have to be the black and white effect, while having just red stand out, the colours go very well together. lip syncing was good, along with the general story board for this music video.
The Genre for this song is indie pop, and i think the constume, along with the contrast of colours really help portray this.