PRODUCTION: Skills Development AS to A2

I feel the way we approached and planned our music video compared to our AS thrillers was quite different. This was because all the factors that would have mattered last year, are exempt this year and vice versa. For example, in AS, we had to focus on continuity, something which was completely ignored in our music video production. We had to take a lot consideration of how we were going to match up each shot and the emotions we wanted to convey when we planned our storyboard in AS. In A2, it was much easier. We have all been subject to music videos while growing up, and over the years, I have realised that anything can be shown on screen; what is shown on screen is and often isn't related to the music or the lyrics. This is where Andrew Goodwin's theory of illustration, amplification and disjuncture comes into play. The music video can completely match what the song is saying, present new ideas that the song doesn't, or just completely have nothing to do with the music. The fact that we could be so broad with our ideas and have no limits while planning our music video allowed us to do anything. This was something we couldn't do in AS as a thriller is a film, in which a story is told and shown on screen. In a music video, the song itself tells the story and the video just shows their perception, ideas or feelings of the song.

In AS, planning had to be direct and relate in every aspect to what we were trying to convey to the audience. From the setting, costume, lighting, sounds and camera angles, everything had to be taken into account when planning. As thrillers do not directly relate to our age group, last year we had to learn what is taken into account when creating a thriller, whereas with music videos, we all know what they consist of. With thrillers, some people hate the genre whereas some people may like it. This meant that idea wise, not everyone last year was capable of presenting feasible ideas that would work well when planning. Thrillers is a genre of films that some people may enjoy and others would not enjoy so much. Personally, I'm not a great fan of thrillers as I feel in the film industry, they are all too similar and predictable. With music, everyone has their own varied tastes in genres and could find a song suited to them. It allowed us to work with what genre we personally liked which meant we had much more detailed and better ideas than in AS.

Also, what made this years planning much different was the way that as we group, we communicated much more than my group did last year. For instance, last year, the only time we managed to present ideas to each about our work was in lesson when we all met up as a group. This year, the fact that everyone in our group had smart phones meant that we could all contact and present ideas to each other through various applications available. Facebook played a big role in as we were constantly able to keep on contact. Poppy suggested an idea to create a private Facebook group in which only me, Poppy, Nick and Charon could access. As we all had smart phones, we could all access this nearly any where at any time. Below is an example of how it looked on my Blackberry Bold.

On my phone, I was able to access our Facebook group and view any comments or information I, Nick, Charon or Poppy  may have posted.

I could see the latest comments, images or videos posted to keep me upto date with the groups ideas.

As Charon, Nick and Poppy also had smart phones, they too could do the same. The fact that we could communicate much more easily compared to last year made planning simple and efficient.

Facebook group on a PC.

The fact that only Nick, Charon, Poppy and I are members of the group allowed us to freely express our ideas.

As we all had access to this, we could all constantly present ideas and update each other with information if one of us were ill or unaware of something.