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.