⁠⁠Classwork (technical elements)

 This is a summary of what we've learnt throughout media studies class

Class Work: Technical Elements by Gusde 

Reflection:

I was quite an introspective reflecting and reviewing back on what we've learnt over the past few years and made me realize how far I've come and also how much I've forgotten :). It was quite challenging to make as I had to practically relearn everything so I had when to the old presentations our teacher gave to us and looked at my past class works which was really annoying and time consuming. Although at the end of the day this gave me more knowledge about technical elements and theories which can help me find the right shots, mise en scene, editing sound etc. to use when shooting or in post production and find out which media theories can be applied to my music video. In the future I want to experiment with the formatting maybe using a mind map to help see how everything relates to one another.

Classwork: Persona

 This is classwork we did to analyse band/artists persona and create a plan on how we will design our bands persona.

Media Studies: Persona Research by Gusde

Reflections:

Overall this classwork was really fun and instresting as we got analyse the diffrences between reel and real personas of real bands/artists which helped create a plan on how we will shape our band's persona. I think the only problem I faced was trying to research the members persona especially their real personas as we can never really know so the closest thing we can get to it was intimate interviews and infering from known facts/biography of the individual but thankfully I was already knowledgeable in the band members as I have been a fan for a long time. I think in the future I may want to find a band that has a greater contrasts between their reel and real personas as for RATM their reel and real personas were basically the same.

Location Scout and Risk Assesment

 This is the Location Scout and Risk Assesment for the music video

(This was made by Sagara with input and suggestions by other group members noteably me)

Location Scout & Risk Assessment Table .docx by Sagara

Reflection:

Although Sagara was the one who made the Location Scout and Risk Assesment I was pivitol in suggesting possible locations as I was the one who came up with the idea for the narrative so I had already thought of possible locations. One thing I liked about the location was the proximity as most of them are close by especially as most of them are close to school which would make travelling easily. One problem is that we may need to get permission to shoot in these places such as in our school's MPH which is ussally only used for big events, so we may have to give the school a proposal and a plan of how we're gonna shoot at the MPH. So I think next time we should find locations which are more readily present and easier to shoot in where permission is not nessesary as changing locations may mean we have to rework certain scenes.

Mood Board

 This is the mood we made to plan the ambiance feel and atmosphere of the music video

(This was made by Maisie with input ideas and suggestions from other group members notably me and sagara)

Comp 3 Media Moodboard by Maisie Halomoan

WHY:
- Our team decided to go for a bleak, oppressive and dark mood. This is because such coloring scheme and mood will represent the suppression imposed by the politician upon the journalist, and in the larger scheme, the people. This theme was inspired by the music videos we researched especially Just by Radiohead as it had an old timey film type of look. Also this color grading and style was also suggested to me by my IT teacher when I pitched him the idea/concept of my music video as he thought it would be the most suited.

Reflection:

Although Maisie was in charge of making the mood board I helped her by giving suggestions of pictures to choose and also giving her my general idea for the theme and mood of the music video which was dark and bleak. One problem we encountered was actually finding images for the moodboard where even when we had a good idea on the theme and style we still found it hard to find images that would fit. To solve this I think we should've utilised apps such as pintrests more and as well refrence our genre research for example music videos that had a similar style or feel such as just by radiohead. I think next time it would be better to organise the mood board for example maybe one moodboard for each scene or per aspects of the music video such as character or location.

Storyboard and Lyrics Sheet

This is the storyboard and lyrics sheet we made and will use to plan our music video.

(This was made primarily me and maxine with additional input and feedback from other group members)

Design by Max W

Lyrics Sheet:

The lyrics sheet was pivitol on finding the right timing of the scenes as we wanted certain scenes to happen when a certain lyric was said or a certain part of the song such as a guitar solo or opening intrumentals. It also helped to build and develop the narrative as we are able to sequence and find the flow and make a story that progresses and follows it. It was also useful to brain storm ideas though most of the ideas came from me and were inspired by Rage Against the Machine like polictical messaging and music videos. So in all the lyric sheet acted as the bassis of the music video that will be visualized and expanded in the actual storyboard itself.

Storyboard:

Like how the lyric sheet acted as the basis of the music videos ideas, the storyboard is the visualisation of those ideas which help us see how to frame certain shoots and which camera angles will work best which helps us make the best possible shot. The storyboard will also help us later in the production and post production process as it has time frames and shots which will help us not lose focus when shooting,  in addition it also shows which editting transitions will be used which can help the edittors as they do not need to think of one on the spot.

Reflection:

Comming up with ideas for this song/music video was actually quite easily as before term 2 I had already listened the song and had an epiphany of how a narrative music video for this song could go which I then sent to my now group member Sagara. As well being a huge fan of the songs original band, Radiohead, helped me easily be able to identify the song's messages and read between the lines which helped contribute to the idea making. However one concern I have when shooting this music video is the logistics as many scenes require a large amount of people to act as a crowd which may be hard to find, we also need to move alot of music intruments and equipment to a parking lot where we plan on shooting the band scenes which may be hard especially for the drums and amplifiers. One problem I ran into was trying to explain my idea to the group as it was pretty solid but had alot of holes in it though with discussion and communication we were able to fill them up. In the future maybe I would try to make the scenes easier to shoot with better logistics and management.

Screen Test

 This shows the process and the decisions behind picking our actors from the screen test.

Band Members/Artists:

For the artists/band members we wanted the actors to be comfortable with and be able to play their respective music video to ensure that the performance looked accurate and realistic and as well make the acting look more natural. This did narrow down the number of people we could use but would result in a much better final product. For the screen test we requested them to send a video of them performing.

Drummer:

Abi:

Abi is one of our juniors he is an excellent drummer in many students band such as After Six which have played in public local events in malls. As well he has shown off his skills in local competitions and school events. He is very enthusiastic and always available to do activities which is great. One of my teammates Maisie has as well recently started a band with him which brought him onto our radar.

Here is a video of him playing drums at a local event in Living World Mall Bali:

Marvell:

Marvell is a good friend of mine who is an excellent and multi instrumentalist. He has been playing drums ever since he was kid but now has ventured to other instruments such as bass or keys. He as well had extensive knowledge on sound recording and sound rigs which may come in handy when we shoot at the studio. Being a multi instrumentalist as well makes him more versatile.

He often posts drum covers on his you tube channel MarvLix:

Final Choice: 

In the end we choose Abi as he was more available which meant that he could join more shoots and as well he would have nicer chemistry with the rest of the "band" due to him being in a band with one of our group members.

Guitarist:

Maha:

Maha is new guitar player but he shows effort and is a fast learner already being able to pick up songs he's only been playing for half a year but is a already a capable guitarists. He primarily plays acoustic guitar however it wouldn't be hard to transition him to an electric guitar that is used for our song as he has the basics covered. He is also comfortable singing which could make him a possible contender for a singer. However he is also a media student and our shooting schedules might clash.

Maisie:

Maisie is one of our group members which means she is readily available for shoots this makes it easier to schedule and find time. As well she is a talented guitarists playing for many bands in and out of school. She primarily plays rock music which fits right into our song.

Here is a video of her playing guitar:

Final Choice: 

We went with Maisie as we were worried our schedules might conflict with Maha's and she is a member of the group she is more readily available and convenient. As well she is more comfortable with electric guitar and she is familiar with these type of songs which makes the acting more natural. However we might

Bassists:

Sagara:

Sagara is one of our group members which as mentioned before makes it easier to schedule time to shoot as he will be more available. However he has little experience with Basses as he is more of a guitar player although he has always been eager to try out the bass which could mean that this could be a great opportunity for him to try it out. As well the conversion from guitar to bass is easy as they are similar instruments.

Heres of a video of Sagara playing guitar:

Candra:

Candra is both a guitar and bass player he took several lessons as a kid and now is able to recall his bass playing ability. He is a capable guitarist and bassists this means that he is versatile in the shoot or as an actor due to his ability to play both bass and guitar. However Candra is also a media student so our schedules might overlap.

Heres of a video of Candra playing electric guitar:

Final choice:

We ended up going with Sagara as we is apart of the group and thus has the same benefits as Maisie however like Maha we have another role for Candra in the narrative.

Vocalist:

Gosha:

Gosha is a student and good friend from another school and the lead vocalist of the band AFTERSHOCK which plays in their school events such as Rock On and competes with other schools in Battle of the Bands where they achieved runners up and their bassists was deemed the best bassists. Gosha is a comfortable and confident singer who primarily sings rock songs which means the acting/lip-syncing will be far more natural.

Heres Gosha singing with his band at a school function:

Narrative:

Politician:

Journalist:

Candra:

I have worked with Candra before on a previous media project called Mark Choi: The Revenge and he is a wonderful actor with great range of emotions and body language/actions which would be great in a music video where there is no dialogue nor sub titles especially with a complex character like the journalist.

Here is Candra in a screen test where he is instructed to introduce himself:

Here is Candra in Mark Choi:

Guard:

Maha: 

I have also worked with Maha in Mark Choi: The Revenge, where he plays a tough and stoic Mafia Boss which I think would work well in role such as a bailiff or secret service type of guard.

Here is Maha in a screen test where he is instructed to introduce himself:

Heres Maha playing the Mafia Boss in Mark Choi:

Reflection:

I'm quite excited to shoot with these people as I had previously worked with them and had a lot of fun shooting with them and i hope that continues with this project. For the band scenes I am as well excited to shoot with them as I know they are capable musicians and I have seen them play first hand and I can't wait to see it again. I hope we are able to schedule a time with everyone and be able to shoot successfully.

Development: Regulations & Permissions

 This blog outlines the regulations we followed as well outlines the process of asking permission to use the song for our music video project.

Media Regulation:

Before starting the project our teacher reminded us about the rules that cambridge recommends us to follow such as avoiding sensitive topics such as Suicide and drug use and avoid dangerous acts such as harsh violence or shooting in or with motorised vechicles. Simultaniously we have to follow the regulations of the schools which meant our product could not contain explicit imagery nor explicit language These regulations aim to protect and keep us safe however some may argue that they limit and censor our creativity. However these rules did not impact our production or our image as we kept these rules in mind since the beggining and made sure our video did not involve content that would violate the regulations.

If we were talking in the sense of govermental regulation Indonesia uses Lembaga Sensor Film which is the regulatory body which sorts films and other content onto 4 age ratings shown below taken to from their website.

According to the age ratings of Lembaga Sensor Film, our music video would fall under 13 years above as it features implied violence with the execution scenes however we did not explicitly show the deaths of the prisoners but only implied they were hit by a weapon. However our music video does feature mature themes of political corruption which would make it a higher age rating however those themes are not as explicit due to the lack of dialougue and have to be interpreted by the audience and as mentioned by Stuart Hall audiences can have multiple readings of a text. This would aswell fit our target audience of Teens and young adults.

Permission:

Background:

Pierce The Veil:

To respect the artists copyright we wanted to write an email to the music label behind the song. After the quick google search we found that the Karma Police cover by Pierce the Veil was released under Fearless Records which is distrituted by Concord which is an independant music company which owns Fearless Records which is one of the world's leading independent rock labels. 

Radiohead:

However the song Karma Police which Pierce the Veil covered is made by Radiohead and released by Parlophone which was a subsidiary of EMI which was bought by the Universal Music Group in 2012 but Parlophone is now owned by Warner Music group, as in 2012 Universal Music Group wanted to buy EMI but the European commision would only allow it if Universal Music Group were to divest Parlophone which allowed Warner Music Group to aquire it. However as of 2016 the ownership of Radiohead's discorgraphy with Parlophone was transfered to XL records which is a birtish independant label due to Warner Music Group making a deal with Impala ( Independent Music Companies Association) a non profit trade assosciation to divest 30% of Parlophones catalougue to independant labels with artists approval. 

So to play it safe we decided to email both XL records and Concord/Fearless records.

XL Records:

Contacting XL records was quite easy they had a contact us page on their website where users could submit messages so I wrote a simple message stateting how I'm a year 12 media studies student in Bali making a music video for my final project which uses one of their songs.

Concord:

Finding the contacts for Concord was quite easy as they had a page on their website for License Request forms however the process was a bit long and tedious as it was letigious and very formal which is the right way of doing things.

The first page lists our the diffrent types of License Request forms as shown below. This required me to do some research on the types of License Request Forms which I found on

https://www.foximusic.com/7-types-of-music-licenses/

This helped me conclude that the one I needed was a Synch or Synchronization License Request Form as a music video has audio and visual elements and a synchronization license is required when music is used in combination with visual media. This includes movies, TV shows, commercials, YouTube videos, and more.

After clicking on the Synchronization License Request Form it brought me to the next page where I had to fill in general information regarding my production ( The Music Video).

This included a synopsis where I gave a little description of the narrative of the music video. As well as the location and where it would be published/uploaded.

Next up is the song request this had me explaining the song used which was Karma Police - Pierce The Veil and how and how long it was used including a description of how it was used.

Lastly They allowed me to upload a few files that would help them better understand the music video and such I uploaded the storyboard and Statement of Intent which would give them a good idea of what the music video is about.

Lastly Submitted YAY!

Reflection:

For the media regulation section it was quite easy as I was just rehashing what was told to me by my teacher about the rules by cambride and the rules by our school regarding the content we could/couldn't include. As well finding the indonesian regulations by Lembaga Sensor film was quite easy as it was on their website with an optional english translation their regulations are also very descriptive which allowed me to get a specfic understanding of the ratings.

For the permissions things got a bit confusing as it was hard to find the exact owners of the songs but for Pierce the Veil it was fairly easy as they had an independant record label which was owned by an independant music group. However for Radiohead as the song Karma Police is old and due to media consolidation where media companies buy out and aquire one another the song rights changed hands alot which caused me to go on a rabbit hole to find the history behind the record companies. 

For the asking permission part this was really intresting as it gave me first hand experience on how to license the use of a song from a record label however the process was somewaht complicated and letigious especially for a student however the experience I will find useful for the future.

Statement of Intent

 This is the statement of intent for my Alt Rock music video for comp 3.

ALT rock G12_Statement of Intent_Comp 3_Template.docx by Gusde

Reflection:

For the most part this task was easy to complete as we were able to work as a team to create it. The only problem we ran through whilst making it was choosing a song but thankfully we were able to choose one quite quickly as our teacher let us do Official covers which we all agreed to. Another issue was due to the shorter deadline as before we had months to do our statement of intent now we only had 3 days which meant that we weren't able to write and spend as much time as we wanted and honestly some parts might reflect the rushed nature. Another issue was discussing representations and what to include but the way we solved this was by implementing diffrent aspects from each other in a compremise. I think next time we should work together more and finish the statement of intent faster and with more quality although I wish we had more time atleast a week.

Development: Song Choice

This was our process and our decision making behind choosing our song for the Music Video Project

For the Music Video Project our teacher limited the song selection to songs from the last 5 years so songs released between 2021 - 2026 in hopes of keeping things contemporary. This made it difficult to find songs in our genre as alot of our favorite songs in the alt-rock genre are older than 5 years and as well there was not alot of new popular alt-rock songs that fit our tastes. This meant that we had to keep searching essentially from scratch as we did not anticipate this rule when we were thinking about songs over the break.

However we had found a good number of  songs that were released in the past 5 years now we had to just sort through them and find the best one. I tasked every member of the group to suggest 5 songs they liked from there we sorted again. Sadly theres no footage of this discussion as it was held in class where phone use was not permitted at that time. However we were able to screen shoot our lists.

Then we began listening to the songs then striking through ones we didn't like which helped narrow the selection.

At the end we all championed one song and came up with ideas and as well gave a hefty description of the song's meaning and style from there we gave reasons on why or why not to choose said song.

Link Here --->

From this we choose Karma Police By Pierce the Veil after confirmation from our teacher that this song was allowed as we were unsure if covers were eligible. We choose this due to its political and authoritarian theme which would allow us to create a unique and interesting story. As well liked the beat and style of the song as it is very familiar to what we like whilst being energetic yet still dark. Another factor is the simplicity as we had a clear idea of the scenes and where to shoot which made it easier to make the storyboard and statement of intent and as well find people to be actors. 

Speaking of coming up with the idea, the song had appeared in my queue when I was listening to music. I then had the idea after watching a Youtube web documentary about the meaning of the song which them inspired the narrative which the idea I sent to my groupmate Sagara over Whatsapp.

Reflection:

At first it was somewhat hard as the 5 year gap really threw us off and as well that made it harder to find songs in our genre. However after we found some songs we ran into another problem which was finding the right one or at least narrowing it down but using the decision making systems mentioned above we were able to narrow it down to Karma Police By Pierce the Veil which I suggested as I am a big fan of Radiohead and thus was able to understand the meanings of the song and thus make a clearer image/narrative.

Genre Research

 This my genre research blog for my Comp 3 project

Copy of Genre Research - Music Video by Gusde_ Dabs

Reflection:

For me researching the rock/altrock/artrock genre was overall pretty fun as I got to search for deeper meanings in my favorite songs and analyse their hidden symbolism and easter eggs. The most challanging part about completing the researching was my time management because I have a bad habit of procrastinating and aswell this term my schedule was pretty packed with retaking psycology exam and school events. Next time I try to manage my time better and better focus on doing media studies tasks. I will probably add to this research as there are many things I wanted to say but couldn't right in time, also I feel like my writing is inconsistent due to the time constraits I put on myself and for some I might have wrote to much and its wordy and hard to understand whilst others are far to short.but nonetheless I hope I get a good score and was able to share my passion with anyone reading.

Pre-Production: Preliminary Research

 This is Preliminary Research I did for the Music Video Project

Copy of G12 Preliminary Research Template by Gusde Yaka

Weekly Progress

 This is the weekly progress for Music Video Project for Term 2.

Music Video Project
Stage	Week	Blogpost No.	Blopost Name	Description of Blogpost
Pre-Production	W1	1	Brief	Description of the brief, embed powerpoint
		2	Plan & Weekly Progress	A weekly journal that is updated at the end pf each week. Contains a list of what you do, problems, solutions, and a to-do list
		3	Team	Your team + Links ot their blogs
	W2	4	Classwork	Can be carried over from last project
		5	Preliminary Research	Research into variety of music genres
		6	Genre Research	Research into relevant music videos within your genre
	W3		Genre Research (cont)
				Deadline for Research (end of Week 3)
	W4	8	Statement of Intent	Proposal for the details of your project. Final product, target audience, Star Persona etc
		9	Storyboard	Scene by scene storyboard
				Deadline for Statement of Intent (end of Week 4)
	W5	10	Location Scout & Risk Assessment	Possible shooting locations, risk assessment table
		11	Filming Schedule	Schedule of when you will film, what locations, and what you need to prepare
	W6		Finish Pre-Production
Production	BreaK	Term Break Use your Term Break to Film 12 Behind the scenes What did you do on shooting days, your roles
Post-Production	W1	13	Thumbnail (Research & Development)	Research into similar thumbnails. Development of own ideas.
		14	Social Media (Research & Development)	Research into similar Social Media Accouts. Development of own ideas.
		15	Editing Process	How did you edit? Challenges, solutions
	W2	16	Research: Production Company	Who is a big producer of your genre. Who is an independent distributor of your genre
		17	Test Screening	Audinece Feedback
	W3		Continue Work
	W4
		20	Production Deadline	Final Music Video, Thumbnail, Social Media Account
	W5	18	Movie analysis	Text analysis of your film opening
		19	Critical Reflection	Self Reflection Essay
	W6		Continue Critical Reflection
	W7		Continue Critical Reflection
			Final (Submission)	Full Blog

Week 1:

Week 1 started things of with a bang, in the beginning my original group instantly had arguments of what music video we were going to shoot as we had drastic music tastes but with this all said we were still able to start our research into our genre which I had chosen to be rock/alt rock which didn't align with my original group.

Week 2:

Due to the disagreements we made a compromise to switch groups to find people with more similar interests this greatly helped us as now we could finally secure and lock in a genre which we all agreed to be alt rock. This was honestly such a huge relief as we now have actually made some progress. We also continued our genre research where we had to research 6 music videos in our intended genre. At first I found this a bit challenging due to bad time management which was not helped with the constant need to prepare and partake in our yearbook photo shoots

Week 3:

With the deadline of the genre research rapidly approaching and me procrastinating and also finished with half of a research. This week was honestly really stressful as I had to cram 6 researches and due to my pride and passion in this topic I had a bad habit of writing to much and too in-depth which did not help the crunch. This also caused some researches to be lackluster as I didn't have time to make them all comprehensive which really irritated me although at the end I was still able to finish. Thank God.

Week 4:

This week we we're given tasks to do regarding our project which included Statement of Intent, Storyboard and lyrics sheet, Location Scout and Risk Assessment, and Mood board which for the most part was easy as we were able to quite quickly find a song we all agreed with and most of these tasks we had made in the past with the exception of Mood Board and lyrics sheet which was really helpful in planning the narrative and flow of the music video and fining the right atmosphere and ambiance. We also reviewed gender theory but I think it will be seldom used in our music video as gender is not really a focus. By the end of the week we also finised our statement of intent as our teacher only gave us 2-3 days to complete it.

Week 5:

In this week we made good and steady progress on our Storyboard and lyrics sheet, Location Scout and Risk Assessment, and Mood board and by the end of the week they were about 70-80% done just missing some final touches and revisions. I was responsible with helping Max make the storyboard as I was the one who came up with the idea/narrative of the music video which was great especially making the lyric sheet which help find how things flow would together. 

Week 6:

This is the last week so we just did and finalised everything from Storyboard to Moodboard. Thankfully our teacher allocated all periods to be about project so we were able to work with our team face to face which was really helpful. By this week we had bascically finished everything as again due to being able to work together we were able to help each other with problems, brainstorm and suggest ideas/solutions. Though like any other media deadline I still had to cram everything to make sure everything is done as I have bad time management and tend to do things last minute.

Reflection:

Overall the pre production went well with a few minor hiccups due to procrastination and the shorter deadlines however I think we have created a great plan and foundation to then start working on our music video production. I think these tasks we created such as the storyboard and statement of intent will really help us with the production of the music video.

Semester 2 Term 3:

Week 1:

In this week we went back our school holidays although our teacher told us to shoot during the holiday we unfortunately were not able as most of the members were busy. This meant that we had to shoot during this week and the following weeks. Fortunately we were able to shoot the band scene which compromises a majority of our music video. Although we did have some trouble as our original actor for the singer bailed so we had to get a replacement thankfully my friend who is a singer in a band was available at that time.

In class we began working on our persona mind map which helped us think about our brand and how everything will connect together to form said brand. The mind map was drawn up and decorate by Maisie, whilst me and Sagara thought about the answers to the questions. We also learnt about the theory of stardom which we also had to do classwork where had to analyze a star based on the theories criteria.

Week 2:

In this week we began editing the footage we have which was the band scene however we were able to fully shoot as we lack a lot of clips especially for the narrative. I do worry about being able to shoot everything on time as our locations are a bit hard and we lack communication.

In class our teacher gave us a new task/assignment which was a screentest to get feedback on our video. We had assigned max to make up the questions. He told us that we had to make our questions very specific so that we can get the answers and the feedback we want that is not ambiguous.

Week 3:

Week 3 we began work on our blogs. I began research and development on the digipack and I took inspiration from my favorite album covers from the genre. I also used the website discos to find the insides of the digipack and the back. Where Sagara worked on the branding and Maisie on the social media. In class we also learnt more theories the first was the theory of Fandom which outlines the types of fans are there and how they act. We also learnt about end of audience which talks about how audiences now want more interactivity and how they are become more active and less passive. I think these theories will help us develope a fanbase.

Week 4:

In this week as it is the deadline week we had all project lessons this week. we just used this to finalize our shooting our blogs etc. For the shooting we did the politician scenes which went pretty well even though we were in a rush due to the encrouching deadline and because our actors had plans so we only had an hour or so to shoot with them but in the end we were able to get all the shots we need. This week I also started on the digipak development which involved me on a rooftop making chalk sketches for the front and back cover.

Reflection:

This was probably the most eventful and stressful 4 weeks of my media studies carear. Due to our groups inability to shoot over the holidays meant that we had to juggle blogs schoolwork and shooting which became challenging and was not helped by our lack of communication which meant that our shootings kept getting delayed and were rushed. Thankfully we were able to lock in during the last weeks where were able to get everything shot and develop social media and the digipak. In the end I think with all the challenges we endured we were able to produce a satisfactory end product and this wouldn't have been done without the skills and the effort of my team. In the future I think I should've listened to my teacher and shot during the holidays which would've really destressed us. Now all we need to do is the CR and hopefully it will go well.