RAW #2

A couple of days ago I decided to do another RAW test, this time (surprisingly) in Gladstone Park. I recorded it all with my Canon EOS 50D mounted with a 100mm 2.8L lens for better sharpness and stabilization. Again this was shot using the Magic Lantern Raw Hack by Andy600. If you own a Canon EOS 50D, I will advise you to try it out, since this is a dSLR camera that, from the box couldn't even shoot video.

In order to make your camera shoot RAW, you will need a fast memory card! As I am shooting on a 50D, I am using CF (Compact Flash) cards. There is a lot of different cards to choose from, but I found that the best value for the price is the 64GB Komputerbay x1000 card (buy on eBay). If you want to shoot raw on your 50D (or any other camera) I advice you to check out the 50D RAW Shooters Guide from www.eoshd.com (link).

Portfolio Thoughts - Test #1

A couple of days ago, I loaded my bag with a Canon EOS 5DmkII and went for a walk in the nearest park near Dollis Hill called Gladstone Park. I decided to bring my girlfriend along and use her as a model. It was late afternoon, and the sun was about to come down as we took a stroll through the park. The sun was bright orange, and the skyline was enrolled in mysterious light.

As we moved along the paths in the park, and the night began to cover us in darkness, I decided to shoot.

I got to think about what I want to do for my portfolio, and found portrait photography really interesting! To capture great portraits I find is very hard! It is time consuming and require a patient photographer if you want the picture to be natural. I will keep the blog updated and do more testing to find out, what exactly I want to do! 

Intertextuality in the 1989 music video “Like a Prayer” by Madonna.

For this post I wanted to do a deconstruction, combine what I've learned so far with my Communication and IT roots. Therefore I decided to write about intertextuality in Madonnas musicvideo to Like A Virgin, because there are a lot of direct symbolism and a lot to write about. This is what I came up with. Enjoy.

Intertextuality

The video for the song "Like A Prayer" begins with a woman, Madonna, who flees into a church. She just witnessed an assault on a woman, committed by a group of men. A black man, who comes to her aid after the attack, is then helping the woman. The black man is then arrested, and charged with assault. Inside the church where Madonna seeks refuge, she notices a statue behind a cage that is similar to the black man being accused of the assault. Madonna then prays to the statue through song, and the statue burst into tears. Madonna then lye down on a bench, and falls into a dream scenario, in where she encounters with a black woman in a scenario that resembles heaven. The woman throws Madonna out of her dream and back into the church, but she is still dreaming. The saint then leaves the church, and Madonna is stigmatized on her hands after touching a knife. The scenario switches over to an outdoor scene, where Madonna is dancing in front of five burning crosses. Back in the church, the camera panes over a gospel choir in song, and Madonna take part in the dancing and singing. She now wakes up from her dream, and decides to go to the police station, to convince the police to release the black man. Again the burning crosses are showed. The music video ends in a last scene where the audience is becoming aware that the whole scenery was only a play, and the actors involved take a bow.

Madonna is a pop artist who manages to appeal to a wide range of people through her music. She makes sure to draw many parallels between her music videos and reality of racism in the 1980’s. Looking at the videos for "Like A Prayer" and "Like A Virgin" (Madonna, 1984), straight away we can see a resemblance in the titles. Both cover the themes of sex and religion. Sexuality in "Like A Virgin" appears in the form of the search for a relationship, and religion in terms of her appearance in the wedding dress, which legalizes her quest for sexuality. These themes also appear in "Like A Virgin". The religious parts are pictured through the church and the religious references occur in form of stigma and the use of religious figures and rituals within Christianity. In both videos Madonna is wearing a cross on her body. In "Like A Virgin" the cross is seeing hanging from Madonna's hip, and in "Like A Prayer" it’s seen hanging from her neck. Madonna also subdues to a man dominance in both videos. In "Like A Virgin" subdues herself to a man with a lion's face, which is a very male-dominated symbol, and in "Like A Prayer" it is in the form of a black man. The video deals with racism, as an interracial relationship was looked down upon in the 1980’s era. Furthermore a theistic element is raised, as God in the video is depicted as a black woman.

Looking at the intertextuality that occurs in Madonna's videos, we are on the horizontal axis (Jensen, 2008, p 16). The two music videos refer to themes and characters, but not direct texts on video or interviews, as these will go under, respectively, secondary and tertiary texts, located on the vertical axis. Most of the horizontal intertextuality in the videos is portrayed through symbols and genre. In addition, you will find thematic similarities in Madonnas universe. Madonnas character appears in both videos, and "Like A Virgin" can be characterized as a previous text in the same genre, as on video was made before the other. Both "Like A Virgin" and "Like A Prayer" consists of dream scenarios, and both have supernatural elements. In "Like A Prayer" this is seen through the saint who comes to life, and the scene where Madonna is portrayed in heaven. In "Like A Virgin" the dream scenario occurs when the lion becomes a man.

Madonna defends her provocation of sex and religion, since the  scenarios portrayed in the videos are "just" dreams. Madonna tends to provoke more and more through her active years, and if we compare the early videos with the late ones, we will se a provocation through time. This is reflected in her recurring stylistic universe.

Religious themes and references

For  many years Madonna has been known for her controversial music videosm that crosses the boundaries between the sexual and religious. "Like A Prayer" is no exception. The first time we encounter religion in the music video is when Madonna runs inside a church. The audience is at an early stage presented with a religious theme. The video uses several direct references. One example is the black statue behind the cage. The figure illustrates Jesus and his suffering for the people. As the statue is black, it could be argued that when the black man is arrested, he acts as a kind of black Jesus, by taking the black people's suffering on his shoulders. There is a clear reference between the video and the Bible, in the form of symbols, themes and characters. Especially the cross as a symbol is very essential. This occurs both in fiery form, as a symbol of racism, as well as on Madonna in the form of a necklace. The burning cross is in Christianity a symbol, which can be a clear reference to the Ku Klux Klan. The light from the cross is the symbol for lost hunting of evil, darkness, gloom and despair. Furthermore, there is a strong symbolism in the scene with the dagger, where Madonna is stigmatized. This is a direct reference to the Bible, in where Jesus suffers for the human sin and become pinched to a cross. Another obvious symbol is when the statue cries. Madonna relates several times to biblical characters, and the whole theme of the video is deeply religious. Textuality binds so some of the aspects and references related to the horizontal axis.

Madonna has become the dissemination between the general public and the church, by displaying the cross in public at concerts as her "logo". At the same time she makes up with a lot of peoples beliefs, and determine its own position over an otherwise taboo subject - sexuality in religion (Nygaard, 2006).

Comparing today's media with that of the 1980’s, we are able to see a radical change, in what content is allowed to be shown to the general public. Madonna has through her career been the cause of many discussions about what is ethical and unethical, and not least critiques and general people a reason to discuss and reflect on taboo subjects.

Bibliography

Books

Jensen, Claus Bruhn. (2008). Medier og samfund: En introduktion (s. 15 – 18), Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.

Web articles

Whitney, Jennifer Dawn. (2010). Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro': A Madonna Pastiche. Critical Cookie. Source:

http://criticalcookie.blogspot.com/2010/06/lady-gagas-alejandro-madonna-homage.html

Bego, Mark. (1992). The Madonna/Pepsi Controversy: Madonna: Blonde
Ambition. New York: Cooper Square Press. Source:

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id135.htm

Hvidt, Niels Christian. (1998). Madonna græder blod. Berlingske Tidende. Source:

http://www.hvidt.com/default.asp?page=pub&subpage=default&CatHead=57&CatMain=97&IndexID=0&show=text&IDF=51&sortset=default&book_id=0&lang=dk

Nygaard, Else Marie. (2006). Korset er Madonnas varemærke. Kristeligt Dagblad. Source:

http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/28065:Kultur--Korset-er-Madonnas-varemaerke?all=1

Grundholm, Charlotte Taaning. (2009). Oversigt over kristne symboler. Religion.dk. Source:

http://www.religion.dk/artikel/311487:Indfoering--Oversigt-over-kristne-symboler

thinkquest.dk. Ku Klux Klan. Thinkquest. Source:

http://www2000132.thinkquest.dk/racisme/kuklux.htm

Videos

Madonna. (1984). Like A Virgin. Sire / Warner Bros. Records. Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s__rX_WL100&ob=av3e

Madonna. (1989). Like A Prayer. Sire / Warner Bros. Records. Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMCbtyBdZZ4

Comparison of the NLE Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro

In my time being an editor, I have worked with a variety of different NLE software, including Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer and loads of smaller amateur software. Since I am a photographer, I have worked a lot with adobe software like Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects, Illustrator and InDesign etc. I‘m used to working with the Abobe Workflow, shortcuts and interface that makes the editing process in Premiere Pro an easy and effective task for me personally.  For the TVP course we have been taught Avid Media Composer, but the workflow just comes of as quite difficult to work with for me compared to Premiere Pro. This is a review on some of the things I find useful when using the different software.

Pros and Cons of Premiere Pro

Pros:

·      Working with Adobe Premiere Pro provides a good, fast and effective workflow combined with a beautiful interface.

As previously explained, I am very used to working with the Adobe interface. This includes shortcuts and UI design. The UI is build up, almost like a dark room where you develop film. In general adobe started changing the UI of the software towards the CS series, where Photoshop went from being a grey UI, to become an almost black one. The most characteristic change of a NLE UI being upgraded can be seen in the move from Premiere Pro CS2 to CC.

Final Cut Pro 7 grey interface

Final Cut Pro X dark interface

·      Premiere Pro offers a complete copy of shortcuts and workflows from other NLE’s such as Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro.

As seen in the above picture, Premiere Pro has the ability to customize the workflow to users of Media Composer and Final Cut. This means that you as a user are able to integrate your previous workflow, if you’re jumping right in to Premiere as a Final Cut or Media Composer user.

·      Premiere Pro CC offers a wide import option. For example the CinemaDNG, ARRI Alexa and RED RAW files can be imported straight into to the edit workflow. This saves you time from transcoding.

Though it’s not preferable, it is possible to import RAW CinemaDNG and RED R3D footage directly in to Premiere Pro. Alternatively this workflow can be used to generate proxies, and in the online process just replace the proxies with the RAW files. Even though you would need a really powerful computer to play back the RAW files in realtime, editing straight in the non transcoded files is an option, and would save you the time and effort it takes to generate proxies.

·      Premiere Pro provides a wide variety of exporting options.

From Premiere Pro you have the ability to export in a vide variety of formats. If you work across different NLE platforms, for example Media Composer, you are able to generate proxies in DNxHD format varying from the DNX 36 to the DNX 440x formats. 

Cons:

·      Premiere offers a very mouse-controlled workflow, which excludes the use of shortcuts.

For me as an editor, it is important to have a vide range of shortcuts to relate to. From personal experience with Premiere Pro, I get the feeling that the shortcuts are very limited. If you’re used to working in Media Composer, you could shift the workflow to integrate the Media Composer shortcuts, but if you’re not you will have to get used to using a mouse quite a lot.

·      The software is very easy to hack.

All of the adobe software’s are highly popular, and therefore you get a lot of hackers cracking the programs. As a response, Adobe offered an alternative. You “rent” the software through Adobe Creative Cloud, and if you sign up for a year, you can get the whole pack for as low as roughly 400£ a year or 30£ a month (www.adobe.com).

Pros and Cons of Media Composer

Pros:

·      Media Composer offers RTAS sound plugins

The RTAS sound plugins are used through AVID software, and offer a great indexing of your plugins combined with a fast interface. Only avid software supports the format, but it’s definitively worth using! 

·      The software offers a wide range of shortcuts

Unike a lot of other NLE’s I’ve worked with, Media Composer offers shortcuts for everything! You would be able to cut a film/video in much faster, if you incorporate the shortcuts into your workflow!

·      Avid Software is the industry standard

If you get a well-paid job in the industry, you need to be familiar with Avid’s software. Media Composer and Pro Tools are industry standard software for Video and sound, mainly because of their flexibility and ability to combine the software with special hardware that boosts the performance significantly!

·      The autosave feature.

When working with Media Composer, you don’t need to save your project! When I have been working with Premiere, I somethimes experience crashes, and even though there’s usually a backup file for the project, this is not always the case! Media Composer saves all changes you make automatically, and you therefore don’t need to worry about loosing your project!

·      Media Composer has a vide variety of export formats 

You can export in all formats from Media Composer. This is a nice feature if you’re planning on going back in time – but the main reason why I think this is good is because you don’t have to feel limited. There is only one problem – to acces the different formats you have to open up a lot of windows! If you didn’t know what you were doing, you could end up messing up your export format easily!

Cons:

·      The UI was not made for easy access

The user interface is clearly made for pro users! It is not easy to access features if you’re a beginner, and the way that it’s organised will make sense to pro users, but not for beginners.

·      Any mouse gestures are hard to access. Not made for beginners.

Again, if you’re a beginner you will have a difficult time editing with Media Composer. Mouse gestures have to be turned on with the click of a little red arrow (I know, it makes no sense..). After you switch it on, you will have full control over the mouse gestures.

Conclusion

Both editing softwares provide a good workflow for fast editing. Avid Media Composer is in it self a better piece of software to use if you are doing offline editing, provided that you take the time to learn all the shortcuts and the edit flow. Media Composer comes off as quite old school to work with, in terms of how the interface is organised, but this will on the other hand give you a fully customisable workflow. If you want to cut films with Media Composer, make sure you have at least two screens to work on; The interface takes up a lot of space, and if you’re working on a small screen, you will not be able to see the video-stream properly.

Inspiration #1

Over the last months, I have come across some pretty impressive short films online, and I want to share some of them with you, and therefore these inspiration posts.





PAPER MEMORIES

This film is about an old man, who goes searching for his late wife in old photographs. It's shot either as a sequence of photographs also known as time lapse, or as film with a very low frame rate, and I really enjoy the sound is in realtime, which gives a nice strong background to support the pictures. Especially the talking voices that occur when the woman is seen walking, lifts the whole scene, and gives the viewer a feeling of presence, but also seem to bring in a metaphysical element to the story, as if the voices are calling him towards her. The colours are very intriguing, and supports the story of the man, as the colours tends to get more vivid towards the end of the film.

Enjoy!

RAW #1

Today, while it was raining, I tested out the RAW function in my hacked Canon EOS 50D. I hacked it with the Magic Lantern Firmware, and upgraded it with the Tragic_Lantern_50D109-Andy600.2013Nov2 version. I shot the video out the window of my flat, converted the RAW file to a readable CinemaDMG, put it into Adobe Lightroom 5 for some fine-tuning and color grading, exported the metadata to all the images, popped it into Adobe After effects and exported it as ProRes 422 720p 25fps.

Here is the result from today.

Deconstruction of Music Videos - Radioactive

As a project we had to deconstruct a music video we created and compare it to another music video of our choise.

For our project we chose to do a music video for the song Radioactive by the band Imagine Dragons. This is the result:

We filmed the music video on the Sony XDCAM broadcasting camera, to get a high bitrate and lots of detail in our production. We then mixed in a bit of Canon EOS 7D footage. The bennefit of using a dSLR for these kind of projects, is that the camera is small, flexible and shoots 50pfs at 720p. We did all the 7D footage in 50pfs, to be able to convert it to slow motion, though we didn't end up using any slow motion sequenses.

Deconstruction of our music video

 To give a perspective on what is going on in the music video, it's good to have an idea of the over-all story line in the song. We started out by listening to the song, to get an idea of what we wanted to do. The "radioactive" part appealed to us, since it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. We finally came up with the idea that the radioactive part could be something to do with drugs, and from there we wanted to do kind of a Breaking Bad theme, where a bunch of young people gets hired to make drugs. Off cause the making drugs story isn’t the only story going on in the music video. We wanted to mix in some dance moves, since it is a music video, so to underline the music video part of the video we mixed in a sequence of the drug dealers dancing.

The first thing we notice in the music video, is that the video is done in warm and orange colours, and gives a feeling that it is a friendly environment, even though we are following drug dealers in the video. We thought this contrast was important for the story, as we didn’t want the guys to be addressed as bad guys, simply friendly people with no other options for making money than dealing drugs.

The very first shot we see in the music video is one of the dealers playing the guitar in the rain. This brings an emotional element to the video and establishes that it is not a bunch of bad guys we see in the music video. The video jumps around in time, but starts out in present time. Every shot we see of the dealers making drugs is in the past. They gather around in the garden after finishing cooking drugs to relax.

The shots of the drug dealers cooking drugs are shot on wide angle to make the image of the dealers distorted, and to create shots working as both establishers and detail shots. It is often shot from a low angel to make the dealers look bigger than they really are; the dealers are good at what they do and on top of the world when they make drugs.

The music video mixes wide angle shot and close up’s to show the viewer what is actually going on in the video. There are close up’s of the drugs being made, and a couple of close up’s on the house to show the viewer what kind of place the drugs are being made. These shots are all intended to give an image of inhumane conditions.

As the music video progresses, we see the faces of the drug dealers without their gasmasks on lip-syncing to the song. These shots are intended to show the viewer, that underneath the radioactive suits, there are actually human beings. By giving the drug dealers real faces the viewer will think of them as real human beings. This aspect gives a whole new dimension to the characters in the video by personify them.

Deconstruction of Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

The overall theme in the music video by Imagine Dragons deals with a mysterius girl who arrives at an old shack, disguised as a fighting arena for stuffed animals (I know… what a fantasy). The hidden theme in the video is animal cruelty, since there is a lot of stuffed animals being tarred apart in the video…

There is a cold theme throughout the entire music video, which manifests in the autumn like weather and the cold colour grading. This effect makes the video very dramatic.

There is a lot of close ups on the stuffed animals being torn apart by each other, and in general the camera is cutting between reaction shots on the stuffed animals, and action shots of the animals being torn apart. These clips are mixed with shots of the audience throwing money. These characters are filmed from a low angle to make them seem big and powerful.

As the story progresses, the dead stuffed animals are thrown into a shaft after they are defeated. From here the shots changes from a bright lit room where the animals are fighting, to a dark dungeon-like room in where the band are also playing the song. The mood in the dungeon are cold and contrasty filled with hard light. The light in the dungeon is very diffused in itself, but casting hard shadows on the characters down there. This gives an illusion of freedom in a miserable state.

In general the stuffed animals are brought to life by the way they are portrayed like humans; the stuffed animals are filmed in eye-hight and have emotional looks on their faces. The stuffing thrown all over the arena resemble guts, and the scenario is almost like a gladiator arena. The humans in the video are portrayed almost like gods, who control the fait of the stuffed animals, and are the powerful segment in the video. The girl who bring her stuffed animal, is very much an outsider, both by the fact that she is a girl, but also on the fact that she is dressed differently. She is the saviour, and her stuffed animal is also like a god.

The music video consists of high pace shots, to make the storyline seem more dramatic. It plays out well with the pace of the song, and when the song starts to get dramatic, the tempo of the clips increases. I would imagine the video was shot on either an Alexa or a RED camera, since it looks rather digital, but since it is used in a way that highlights the contrast and make it look sharp and harsh, I think digital was the right way to go.