Assignment

MEDIA SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 

Game of Thrones 

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television serial created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Game of Thrones is filmed in Belfast and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, Croatia, Canada, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Spain and the United States. This serial began on April 17, 2011 on HBO in the United States. It is up to its eighth season now which will conclude sometime in 2018 or 2019 as the seventh season has just ended on August 27, 2017.  

Nina Gold and Robert Sterne are the serials' primary casting directors. Through a process of auditions and readings, the main cast was assembled. The only exceptions were Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean, whom the writers wanted from the start; they were announced as joining the pilot in 2009. Other actors signed for the pilot were Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon, Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen and Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon. As of season six, Game of Thrones has seven writers as David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, write most of the episodes for each season. Author George R. R. Martin wrote one episode in each of the first four season and did not write for the later seasons and he wanted to focus on his novel. 

CSI 

CSI is a media franchise of American television programs created by Anthony E. Zuiker. The first three CSI series follow the work of forensic scientists as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious deaths, while the fourth series, CSI: Cyber, emphasizes behavioral psychology and how it can be applied to cyber forensics. CSI began on October 6, 2000 and ran on for a fifteen-long series, wgucg starred, Walliam Petersen, Ted Danson, Marg Helgenberger, Elisabeth Shue and Laurence Fishburne, and the shows ended its run with a two-hour finale which was titled Immortality on September 27, 2015. The series initially had two original lead characters which were Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows who played the crime scene analysts Denial Holstein and Yolanda McClary.  

CSI have 4 different CSI series that include, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and CSI: Cyber. Each CSI series used different methods for solving the crimes in order to keep it interesting. The Las Vegas CSI which is the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation series, had a team of scientists foremost and follow the evidence. The CSI: Miami team are detectives foremost and mainly used theories to solve crimes. The CSI: NY team are both scientists and detectives and frequently used criminal profiling to solve cases. Finally, CSI: Cyber which the held in Washing, D.C focuses on the technical aspects of crime, with next gen forensics providing it with a real-world crime scene investigative counterpart. 

The Fast and the Furious 

The Fast and the Furious is an American franchise based on a series of action films that is largely concerned with illegal street racing and heists. The series was established with the 2001 film titled The Fast and the Furious. The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action crime film which was directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Gary Scott Thompson and David Ayer. The film starred Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Jonny Strong and Matt Schulze. The film follows undercover cop Brian O'Conner who is played by Paul Walker, who is tasked with stopping a group of unknown hijackers using high-performance racecars to hijack 18-wheelers.  

Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner is a LA Police Department officer who is sent to go undercover by the FBI. Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto is a professional street racer and leader of the hijackers. Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Oritz is Dom's girlfriend and part of the crew. Rick Yune as Jonny Tran who is Dominic's main rival and Vietnamese gang leader of the Little Saigon Crew. Chad Lindberg as Jesse who is Dominic's friend and part of the crew. Jonny Strong as Leon who is also Dominic's friend and part of the crew. Matt Schulze as Vince who is Dominic's childhood friend and part of the crew.  

Director Rob Cohen was inspired to make The Fast and the Furious after reading a 1998 magazine article called "Racer X" about street racing in New York City. The film's original title was Redline before it was changed to the Fast and the Furious. Paul Walker got his role as Brian O'Conner because producer Neal H. Moritz had previously worked with him on the film skulls which came out in the year 2000 gave the actor a script and offered him the main role. 

Unit 29: Music Video Production

P1

Purpose of a Music Video 

There are six purposes of a music video, the promotion of a particular song, the promotion of a particular album, the promotion of a particular artist, the promotion of and synergy with another media product, increase of income for a record company and increasing the range of media an artist is active in. The first music video was published in 1894 with a series of still images that were simultaneous to live performances, this would be the first step toward the music videos. In 1956, Tony Bennet claimed to have made the first music video as he was filmed walking in Hyde Park with Stranger in Paradise playing and it was displayed on television all over the UK and US. In 1981, a video channel was released that aired "Video Killed the Radio Star" and it was a 24-hour a day music on television and in 1983, Michael Jackson released the most successful music video of all time, which was a 14-minute-long video of his song "Thriller". 

Promotion of a Particular Song 

The first purpose is the promotion of a particular song, an example of this can be Adele "Rolling in the Deep". Rolling in the deep is the lead single and Adele's opening track on her second studio album "21". The song reached number 1 in 11 different countries and the top 5 in many more regions, it was Adele's first number 1 single in the United States and it hit the billboards top 100 where it was number 1 for seven straight weeks and by February 2012 the song "Rolling in the Deep' sold over 7.6 million copies. Adele performed "Rolling in the Deep" many times after it was released and she even performed it in front of the Royal family in 2010. The song was first noticed when it was promoted in the trailer and in the film of "I am Number Four" and since then it has been featured in many other television shows such as; 90210's third season and One Tree Hill's eighth season and most recently in 2016, Donald Trump used two of Adele's songs in his campaign to become the president of the United States, them being Skyfall and Rolling in the Deep, even though Adele did not permit Trump on using any of her songs. 

At the start of the music video, you can see that Adele is sitting in a dark room and a ticking sound in the background to start it off. This shows to me that she was going through a rough patch at the time that this music video and song was made. The lyrics of this song tell us that is was about a heartbreak, the lyrics start with "There's a fire starting in my heart", which shows that she had just gone through a heartbreak that left her broken in pieces. Throughout the music video, Adele is sitting in a dark room, singing the song and transitioning back and forth to different rooms of a house that looks to be rather empty. The empty house could show us that she is feeling empty inside, and how torn she really is about this break up.

Promotion of a Particular Album 

The second purpose is the promotion of a particular album, an example of this can be Michael Jackson "Thriller". Thriller was Michael Jackson's sixth studio album and was released on November 30, 1982. The album "Thriller" currently holds the record for the world's best-selling album and has as estimated sale of 66 million copies, the album also won a record breaking 8 Grammy awards in 1984, which also includes the album of the year. This album was also the first to use music videos to make their album a success. 

The album thriller contains a total of nine songs. These songs are: Wanna be Startin' Somethin', Baby Be Mine, The Girl is Mine, Beat It, Billie Jean, Human Nature, P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing), The Lady in My Life, and of course, Thriller. Thriller explores 4 different kind of music genres in the one album, he explores pop, post-disco, rock and funk. These genres show strengths off of Michaels previous album "Off the Wall" where the rock tracks on the album were more aggressive and the pop tracks were softer. The album also included Michael's first rock crossover piece with the song "Beat It" which was a reference towards anti-gang violence. 

Thriller's music video is a short movie, and at the start of this music video, you see a confrontation between Michael Jackson and a girl, and right in front of her he turns into a werewolf, and right from the start, we can tell that this music video is going to be a fiction. However, it turns out that he was just in the movie theatres. The song for the music video starts at 4:40 and you can see that a ton of camera angles shots are taken to show the body language of the girl and you can see how she thinks that Michael is being silly and stubborn. It is then when they pass the graveyard that we see the zombies appearing, and at around 7:40, we see that the zombies are circling them and every person in that shot looks frightened. When Michael is turned into a zombie, they start dancing and the dance becomes one of the most memorable dances ever. Towards the end of the music video, you can see the girl is screaming and trying to get away from Michael as she is trying to hide herself while on the sofa, but feels trapped, but as she turns towards him, he looks normal again and asks to take her home. As he is taking her of the sofa and out the door, he turns back and you can see his yellow eyes, just before it cuts to the credits.

Promotion of a Particular Artist 

The third purpose is the promotion of a particular artist, an example of this can be Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball". Wrecking Ball was a single recorded by Miley Cyrus for her fourth studio album Bangerz in 2013. Wrecking Ball hit the billboards top 100 at number 50 and then later became Miley Cyrus' first number one single. The single came with a very controversial music video, people were divided on this music video as it left a provocative image upon Miley, viewers said that Miley has gone too far in this music video and because of this Miley Cyrus began to promote herself as her video kept getting shared around during all the controversy. It may have promoted her in the wrong way but at the time it was just getting people to know who she was even if that meant getting a mixed reaction of heat and love.

This song was originally written with Beyoncé but it was then offered to Miley Cyrus when the songwriters realised that this type of song wouldn't work for her. On September 6th, Miley released the cover artwork for Wrecking Ball which shows Miley swinging on a wrecking ball with a sleeveless white shirt and underwear showing the new image that she was creating for herself. Recently before this song, Miley had recently gone through a break-up which immediately puts a negative effect on this song because you know that she is going to be addressing her feelings through the song. The music video for this song shows that as at the start of the video it shows a close-up of Miley's face, showing that she is hurting. You can also see that she is crying and isn't very energetic throughout the music video because she is expressing her feeling upon her break-up. 

Just after this at 0:32, we see Miley with a hammer behind her neck and leaning back on it, like she is upset about something or just feels really tired. This song was also after a recent heartbreak, so it's probable to assume that she is feeling fed up and tired about everything. Then at 0:43 you can see a quick 1 second cut-scene from showing her picking up the hammer, to a mid-shot with her hands on her forehead suggesting that she is angry and frustrated, it also shows her as nude because she is deprived of all her emotions. Then at 0:50, we see a long-shot where she is walking away from the 3 walls and a wrecking ball is about to crash into the wall on the left, the wall being broken down symbolises how hard her heartbreak actually hit her and the pain that it is causing. Also, at 2:42, towards the end of the music video we can see her with her hand on her face, crying, this shows how emotionally hurt and upset she is as well as being angry and frustrated. 

Promotion Of And Synergy With Another Media Product 

This is an example of the promotion of and synergy with another media product from the Furious 7 movie "See You Again" recorded by Wiz Khalifa and featuring Charlie Puth. This song was a tribute to the late Paul Walker who died in a car accident on November 30th 2013. "See You Again" is Khalifa's and Puth's biggest single and it spent 12 consecutive weeks on top of the US Billboard top 100 and it broke the record for longest running rap number one single in the country. The music video was the most viewed video on Youtube and it received three nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards and was shortlisted for song of the year. 

The music video currently has 3.1 billion views and 17.1 million likes, which is currently the second most viewed and liked video on Youtube. At the time 3:19 Vin Diesel who played as Dominic Toretto and Cody Walker who filled in for his brother Paul Walker to complete his final scenes in Furious 7 who played Brian O'Conner stopped and smiled at each other for one final time before going their separate ways. After this scene and they ride off into the sunset, the words "For Paul" pop up on the screen before the music video comes to an end.

At the beginning of this music video, we see a long-shot at around 0:30 where we see the scene from the Furious 7 of the team looking over the city and transitioning it from day through the night which could symbolise how Paul Walker's death was so sudden and overnight. Throughout this music video we see emotional shots being taken of Paul and the editing was quite light and slow paced which gives the video more of an emotional feelings towards it. Also, throughout the music video we see Charlie Puth playing the piano, which suggests that he is feeling emotional as well, as we also see many close-ups of him and Wiz Khalifa in multiple scenes. 

Increase Income for the Record Company 

An example of increase income for the record company would be the song "Love the Way You Lie" recorded by Eminem and featuring Rihanna from Eminem's album "Recovery". "Love the Way You Lie" is the second single on Eminem's album "Recovery" and was released in August 2010. Eminem promoted the song by performing it in the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The song is Eminem's best-selling single and it ranked on the US Billboard Hot 100 for seven straight weeks, it received five Grammy nominations and ranked number one in several countries. 

The music video for "Love the Way You Lie" was directed by Joseph Kahn who has previously made 2 other music videos of Eminem's in the past. Joseph Khan casted Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan to play a role in the music video and Khan said that Megan's involvement made a huge impact on the music video. The music video shows a girl who is played by Megan Fox and her abusive boyfriend who is played by Dominic Monaghan and they show Rihanna starting off in front of a burning house and Eminem starting of his rap in an open field, they show multiple flashbacks in the video showing the two lovers fighting after she see a phone number written on his hand. At the end of the music video it shows Rihanna and Eminem both standing in front of the burning house this time and the two lovers end up reconciling as the video returns to the first scene when they're sleeping. 

This music video is an illustrative because of the strong bond between the music video and the lyrics, and it begins with Megan Fox waking up and seeing a phone number with the name "Cindy" on Dominic's arm, she then attacks him and Dominic, who looks to be confused, defends himself until it looks like he sexually assaults her, when she spits in his face. Then from 0:50 to 0:58 we see the bond between the lyrics and the music video as we see Eminem acting like a narrative for Megan and Dominic, as she tries to leave him but he won't let her. Throughout the music video, we keep seeing cut-scenes and flashbacks of their past and how they met. Around the middle of the music video, we see Dominic frustrated and thinking of the past, as we see a flashback to Megan and Dominic in a bar, and then we cut to a scene of Megan crying, with another cut-scene of Megan and Dominic in a shop and Dominic stealing some Vodka at 2:00. Near to the end of the music video, we see Megan locking herself in the bathroom because Dominic has gone ballistic and started throwing objects around the room, then we see shots of Dominic, Megan and Eminem on fire. After that, we see Dominic assaulting Megan but eventually kissing her while the house is on fire, just before we cut back to the scene of Megan and Dominic in bed together. 

Increasing the Range of Media an Artist is Active in 

An example for increasing the range of media an artist is active in would be the single "Telephone" recorded by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé. Telephone was one of Lady Gaga's best-selling singles as this single managed to sell around 7.4 million copies in 2010 and was then nominated for Best Pop Collaborations with Vocals in 2011, and also was nominated for another three awards at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards and even being nominated for Music Video of the Year. The music video was shot as a short film and is around 9 ½ minutes long and is a continuation of her 2009 song "Paparazzi". The music video is based on a prison theme where it starts with Lady Gaga getting arrested by poisoning her boyfriend's drink. 

This 9 ½ minute music video was directed by Jonas Akerlund and this was their second collaboration together as Jonas previously directed Gaga's 2009 single "Paparazzi". On set Lady Gaga and Beyoncé were driving the "Pussy Wagon" which was inspired from the movie Kill Bill. This music video recorded by Lady Gaga advertises a range of products. The first product shown is at 1:34 where it shows Heartbeats earphones, the second product is then shown at 2:06 where it shows a Virgin Media Mobile Phone which is also shown again at 4:15. Shortly after the first showing of the Virgin Mobile, it shows Lady Gaga with cans of Diet Coke curled up in her hair at 2:17, and then shortly after the second showing of the Virgin Mobile it shows a HP Envy 'Beats Limited Edition' laptop from Monster which 4 seconds later at 2:28, it then shows the Plenty Of Fish dating site. Just after that it then shows a Chevrolet which is the time in the video where Beyoncé comes to pick up Lady Gaga which is around 4:44. The seventh different product in this music video isn't shown until almost a minute later then the first showing of the Polaroid is seen until near to the end of the video where it is shown as the last product of the video at around 8:31. Almost another minute later after the first showing of the Polaroid, at 6:24 Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are at a small restaurant, which is where Tyrese Gibson makes a special appearance in the video before he is poisoned and killed, they're seen with a product called Wonderbread. Then finally, the final different product before the last showing of the Polaroid which comes around 2 minutes before it and just shortly after the Wonderbread, they show the Miracle Whip which is a type of salad dressing that is manufactured by Kraft Foods and is used for the spread on the Wonderbread.

Assignment 29.2 Music Videos

Imagine Dragons - Believer

Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out (Maybe)

Eminem - Till I Collapse

Bruno Mars - 24k Magic (Maybe)

Animation - Believer 0:00 - 2:19 = 2:47

Surrealist - Till I Collapse 2:21 - 4:58 = 2:37

Illustrative - Stressed Out 0:56 - 2:26 = 1:30

Total Time = 6:54

Script:

Believer

• Believer is a rock song by Imagine Dragons and this animated music video was released March 7th 2017
• It shows a boxing match between Dan Reynolds and Dolph Lundgren and it is obvious that Dan is losing the fight overall and wants to stop it.
• But, Dolph says "We can't" and continues to fight like they're being forced to fight each other
• We also see a younger version of Dan in various scenes drawing on a notepad, which he seems to end up drawing a symbol that the older version of Dan has on his chest
• The music video ends with Dan being barely attentive, like he has no idea where he is at

Till I Collapse

• 'Till I Collapse is a rap song by Eminem featuring Nate Dogg and it was released 21 July 2002
• This song was turned into a music video for the movie "Real Steel" which was released in 2011
• This music video turned into a surrealist because of the dream-like scenarios in the video, where robots face off in a boxing match against one another
• All the way through the video you see the Max's robot "Atom" face off against other robots the whole way through
• Then eventually he comes up against the undefeated "Zeus", who in the end, ends up winning
• However, the message the creators were trying to send was that the underdog can always come out on top and that you don't have to win the battle, to win the war

Stressed Out

• Stressed Out is a song by Twenty One Pilots from their album Blurryface and it was released November 10th 2015
• However, the music video for stressed out was released a few months before hand when it was released April 27th 2015
• The music video was mostly filmed in John Dun's childhood home of Ohio, which there also happens to be quite a few members of Twenty One Pilots family that appeared in the video
• The music video starts with them riding on tricycles over to their houses to record the song
• Throughout the video you can also see them talking to each other and and constantly riding on their tricycles going back and fourth
• This music video is illustrative as it shows a strong bond between the music video and the lyrics, as they're recording "Stressed Out" in the music video itself.

Video 29.2

Invoice
Personnel List
Location Report
Shotlist
Storyboard
Invoice
Risks
Shooting Script
Copyright
Assignment Home Page
Contents

Assignment 2.2

Mockumentary Secondary Research

Mockumentaries are short films which look and sound like documentaries. A mockumentary is a comedic approach that aims to mock a serious subject to the viewers, it is meant to look as similar to a documentary as much as possible and they make it seem like you're looking in on their life. 

Mockumentaries settings are rather simple and a subject of anything can be taken and made funny in a subtle way. They're done in a wide range of settings for example such as an office like they use in the mockumentary "The Office". 

Typical mockumentary characters are mainly based on the roles of the subject that the short film is presenting, mockumentary characters are created of the social concepts and stereotypes of everyday life. There are a lot of different character types in mockumentaries, however, not all of the time is there a main character but rather multiple main cast characters in a collection, the characters are all based around a comedic feel due to the nature of mockumentaries. For example, in "The Office" there are many different types of comedic characters, different comedic characters can include, sarcasm, silliness, idiots, etc.  

The narrative of mockumentaries also known as the storyline don't tend to be very specific, they mainly focus on the situation and the problems occur as time goes on. The storyline also tends to have no morals when it comes to the comedic jokes between the characters. The style of mockumentaries can be a film or a short film that can be uploaded and published to the internet to be viewed and delivered in the style of a documentary. The narrative construction is in third person narrating what the film shows, all the codes and conventions of a mockumentary can vary following the main content of the film.  

The genre of a mockumentary crosses between a comedy and a documentary. The genre is typically a comedy because mocumentaries are made for comical purposes to take a serious subject and take the mick out of it. There are many conventions of the documentary genre however one example of this is, voice-over narrators. However, compared to the conventions of the mockumentary genre one example of this is, parody characters. 

There are several pros of a mockumentary genre. The first pro of this is the humor in this genre is intended to be precise, which makes mockumentaries appealing to their audiences. The second pro is that mockumentaries are often cheap to film. The third pro is that the actors have more freedom with their lines, they aren't forced to say anything. The fourth and final pro of a mockumentary is that directors can make deliberate mistakes. However, as there are pros, there are several cons to a mockumentary. The first con of this is that sometimes mockumentaries are hard to believe. The second con is that it is hard to have a good storyline that is precise and credible. The third and final con is that some people think the styles gets in the way of the storyline. 

The target audience of a mockumentary isn't really specific but the majority of audiences that are more likely to watch mockumentaries are between the ages of 16 and 25. An audience of this age can relate because the characters in a mockumentary will be of a similar age and can relate to the plot of the film. Audiences watch mockumentaries expecting the film to make them laugh, making people laugh although a mockumentary would usually have quite a serious plot this is what will entertain the audience and keep them occupied. Mockumentaries are found rather interesting as they're meant to make you laugh even though it's supposed to be serious which is what keeps the audience entertained and to stop them from disengaging. To find the right audience a focus group must be created so that people of different age groups can express their opinion about what they think of it, internet polls can also find the right audience by receiving feedback overtime from what the targeted audience chooses. This helps know that they have been targeting the correct audience after they have gained their feedback.  

The production process of a mockumentary does not include any kind of special effects and editing when in the making of a mockumentary. When filming a mockumentary, the interviews with the main cast normally take place after the production of the film and are edited into the mockumentary when it feels most suitable. In the production of a mockumentary, they use conventions, conventions are a standard way of presenting something, there are several kinds of conventions that are used throughout mockumentaries. Conventions in mockumentaries could be for example someone looking directly into the camera, this is shown as them talking to the camera on screen.