Massive Attack 'Unfinished Sympathy' Context and Timeline

60 second short film: attempt 2- Baking Cupcakes

This is my second attempt at making a 60 second video.

Music Video Assessment Task: Katy Perry Firework

In the Katy Perry song firework, the representation of Katy Perry are that she is a very glamorous person, this is because in the music video she has her hair and make up done. This is a representation of Katy because she is becoming across as a 'pop queen' and this means she will make appeal to her target audience (predominantly teenagers), she would appeal to teenage girls is because every girl would want to be like her and teenage boys would like to date somebody like her. Throughout the video Katy Perry is shown as becoming more confident as the song goes on. This is because at the start of the video she is shown to be unconfident with her appearance, this is shown by her face being completely covered in make up meaning she might not be entirely confident with her look, but as the song becomes more upbeat Katy becomes more confident with herself, this is shown by how her make up is presented. Although she is still wearing make up, it is a lot more subtle showing that she is becoming more confident.

In the video, there are little narrative stories shown, for example a teenage boy struggling with parents because they keep on fighting, a teenaged girl struggling with her body confidence. These are representations of what Katy Perry is trying to get across in her song. These narratives are shown to have teenagers in it, this could have been used because that is who her target audience is. At the very start of the music video, it shows a series of establishing shots, this is filmed in Budapest but it doesn't state this in the video showing that it could be based anywhere in the world. This could suggest to the person watching the music video that it is not only people in the specific place it was filmed that have these problems but everyone will have these problems. This relates to the song because in the song it states 'cause there's a spark in you, you just gotta ignite the light and let it shine' this suggests that even though you do have a problem, you have it inside you to find the confidence within yourself to overcome this. This is what the fireworks and spark from most characters in the video represent.

Throughout the entire video Katy is seemed to have dominance over the camera, meaning she is in the shot a lot, at the start she is seen walking out onto a balcony from a high angle, this could show that she is vulnerable as it looks like she could fall. As the tilt shot of her comes up we can see that she is wearing a white gown that seems expensive with jewelled earrings and because she is wearing these, Katy is shown to be high on a balcony looking down on the rest of the city. This could suggest to the person watching the video that she privileged enough to look down on the rest of society and sing.

Overall, I believe Katy Perry successfully constructed her music video to promote her video to her target audience. This is predominantly teenage girls.

Word count: 533 words

60 second short film: Making a cup of tea

This is my 60 second short film, making a cup of tea, for my A level media work. As this was my first ever attempt at filming and editing my own video, I chose to keep what my film was about very simple, which is why I made a video about making a cup of tea. In my video I felt like there was no need for diegetic sound as I was only making a cup of tea, however I did use non- diegetic sound that was very upbeat, this was 'Good Sunny day' by Serj Anto.

For this video I was told it must have a least 5 basic camera shots, at least 2 basic camera angles and at least 2 camera movements. I feel like I did not complete this task as I only included a couple of camera shots, however I believe I managed to include more than 2 camera angles such as a high angle shots and establishing shots. Another part that my video must be included was a title, I exceeded this by adding 2 title one at the end explaining what the video was about 'Making a cup of tea' and one at the end stating that the video had finished 'The end'.

I didn't show any awareness of Mise en scene as I didn't think about where the video was filmed, what I was wearing in the video and who was acting in the video I created.
Obviously my filming wasn't the best as  I have only just started the course but I hope to improve this as the course goes on, one obvious thing I need to improve is which way I hold the camera whilst filming as the video was being edited the footage was showed in a square which is not how I wanted the video to be showed.

If I was asked to do this again, I would possibly look to do more of a story based film, such as people were in the video and talking to either the camera or to each other. I would also consider syncing the music to the footage itself to make it look a lot more professional.