Massive Attack 'Unfinished Sympathy' Context and Timeline

Massive Attack 'Unfinished Sympathy' Context and Timeline

60 Second Film Competition: Take 2

60 Second Film Competition: Take 2

'The Power of Red'

 

Assessment : Analysis Of Katy Perry 'Firework' Music Video

In 2010, Katy Perry released the pop song 'Firework' for her third album release called 'Teenage Dream'. The song was initially released with the meaning to self-empower her targeted audience of teenage boys and girls. The video showcases multiple mini-narratives that cut in between close ups of the artist in order to infer her influence upon the story line. Also, the emotional and soulful facial expressions of Katy Perry imply how passionate she is about the subject and this confirms the serious tone to the song, even though it is upbeat. 

At the beginning of the video we experience a series of establishing shots from a high angle to set the scene. Upon research, we know that the video for 'Firework' was filmed in Budapest, Hungary, however it’s not a set fact within the video. By this I mean that the establishing shots are taking at night and all we can see are light exposures which causes the fact that its Budapest to be unclear to the audience. We then move on to see that Katy Perry is stood upon (what appears to be) a palace balcony. The juxtaposed idea within this section of the video is that she is looking out onto a typical, scrubby modern-day high street, while she stands in a glamorous ball gown in an elegant persona. This can connote that she is supposedly 'God-like'. The high-angle shot from her position gives a sense of power on her part, we know from here onwards that she is the main attraction within this video. Although the artist is looking very graceful due the aesthetics from the mise en scene, Perry is only wearing a cream dress, which is a plain shade that does not connote any descriptions of her- therefore not drawing the focus of the audience away from the topic of the song. In addition to this, the artist’s purple hair and her tattoo can be seen within the video to portray the quirky side to her character.  Throughout the video we are constantly reverted to close-up shots of Katy Perry lip-syncing to the song. These close-ups reveal the denotation that she is wearing makeup as well as stylish jewellery leading to the inference that Katy Perry is a symbol of beauty.  

After, we are introduced to the setting a Katy herself, we are then prefaced with the narratives, which all involves youth of approximate ages ranging between 12-18 years. Examples within the small narratives are; a boy whose parents are arguing while his trying to reassure his distressed younger sister; a girl who is clearly uncomfortable with her body image at a pool party; a cancer patient who is isolated within a hospital; a boy who is sat alone at a part who is not confident enough to be truthful about his sexuality; and a boy who is walking in a dark alleyway and is a victim of an attempted robbery. 

The video becomes slightly abstract after a high-angle establishing shot occurs which reveals that fireworks are coming out of her chest. The use of special effects within the next set of scenes that reveal fireworks coming from Katy Perry do not entirely fit the words of the song, however they do link to the overall message and title of the song. By involving 'exciting' CGI within the video through the fireworks, it makes the video more memorable to the audience; therefore, promoting both the artist and their work. The video has been edited in a fast-paced, montage style which is clearly very well thought out as the shots change to the beat of the music, making the video more interesting for the audience, keeping their attention throughout the video. The firework element within this area, showcases that Katy Perry is indeed a firework herself. We are then gradually exposed to see a series of close-up camera angles that reveal fireworks coming from the chests of the protagonists within the narratives. This shows Katy Perry's spark/message has spread onto her audience, and they have then obtained the confidence to overcome their issues. We see the young boy break-up his parent’s argument; the girl at the pool party take off her clothes and jumps into the pool, the cancer patient escapes her isolation and goes outside; the boy at the club, goes to another teenage boy and grows the confidence to kiss him in front of everyone else; and the boy walking in the alleyway uses his magician talent to save himself from a robbery. All these 'happy' endings to the mini-narratives occur while the protagonist of each one of fireworks coming from their chest, like we saw Katy Perry first experiencing. 

The fast-paced montage style editing in the video is very well thought out as the shots change to the beat of the music, making the video more interesting for the audience, keeping their attention throughout the video.

At the end of the video, we see Katy's emotion picks up as she skips down a street- while lip syncing, alongside her, a crowd of variated teens run with joy also. Throughout the entire video, we only see young people; only in the narratives do we see older or younger actors, but they are not the main focus, this helps summarise Katy Perry's target audience. The last series of shots we see, involve Katy stood in the centre of Budavári Palota (Buda Castle), while around her a mass of youths dancing in a 'firework' symbol configuration. although the 'dancers' are moving in a specific direction to create the firework symbol, they are not performing a synchronised routine, each individual is moving differently. for example, we see some women on roller skates, some jump in the air, and other skip. This could further emphasise the connotation that everyone is different. The overall message within Katy Perry's 'Firework' music video is that- 'people should accept themselves no matter what and stand up for who they are as a person'.

Word count: 991 

The Walk

60 Second Film Competition Entry And Evaluation

The Walk: 

A 60 second movie I created for the A-level Media studies course. This is my first try at Cinematography. I chose to base this video on a walk with my dog to a local Quarry. The walk took about 2 hours and in the meantime a total of 48 shots were talking in the process of filming this clip. Within the actual video, only 24 shots were used. There is no moral or message with my clip, it is purely a documentary which samples what a walk is like with my dog. I chose to make my dog the main focus because I have a massive passion for nature and animals; by filming my dog on a walk in a totally natural environment, I feel its links my persona and the things I enjoy.
Due to the fact it was filmed outdoors, there was lots of wind noise. This meant the diagetic sound was not viable to be used for my film and therefore had to be muted. To add a calm but up-beat feel to my clip I chose to add non-diagetic sound. I chose the instrumental to the Indie song- 'Sweet disposition' by the Temper tap.
The criteria asked for this movie was to include atlas 5 basic camera shots, at least 2 basic camera angles and at least 2 camera movements. In my video, I believe I included 6 camera movements, and a variety of 21 camera angles and shots. Some of the criteria overlapped one another by being used in the same clip. For example, the 8th scene shows a tracking shot, whilst also a establishing shot. As well as the criteria asked, I also managed to involve some post-processing effects, like slow motion, which occurred 6 times. I also added 2 titles, stating "The walk" at the beginning of the clip and "The end" when the clip finished.
My awareness of Mise en scene was shown by the fact I included multiple scenes just showing where we were within the Quarry. This involves scenes of the trees, the ground and the pathway. Some of these establishing shots included the 'Leading lines' technique, which helped to notify the viewer of what the walk was like and where we were going.
As my first try at producing a short video, there were obviously a few amateur difficulties. For example, I found it quite difficult to keep the video stabilised. I used a Camera cage in order to help this, but still found it tricky on such an uneven surface. Another difficulty was capturing the camera movement shots, like Arc shot and tracking shots. This was because I was using my dog, I cant tell her were to go or to stay still. So I kept it natural but she did indeed keep suddenly moving and I could not keep up with her in the process. And finally, I had an issue with focusing. I was using my DSLR camera which had a manual focus lens on, this meant that when my dog moved, she went out of focus and i had to quickly get her back into focus- which I was not used to. However, this did allow me to include a another technique called 'focus pull' within the movie, which I did often.
Overall, I really enjoyed attempting cinematography, as well as the final editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. If I were to do this again in the future, I would look at 'stabilising' the video within the editing process, and also try and cut the video more to the beat; I successfully did this towards the end, but not in the beginning. I would also try create more of a story, for example, short clips of me attaching a lead to her collar and more clips to create more of a 'vlog' style.



Taken on a Nikon d7200, with 35mm prime lens f/1.8