Music Video Copyright Permission Letter

Dear Copyright Holder

I am an A level student currently studying at Overton Grange Sixth Form and I am writing to request your permission to use the song _____ in my A Level media course work.

The task involves creating a music video to a music track of our choice in order to show our filming and editing skills to be able to be graded at the end of the course; we also must produce an album and a magazine advert for the artist of the chosen track.

The track would only be used for educational purposes and will be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board only. The track will not be released to a wider audience.

Recognition for the track itself would fully go to your company and the artist throughout the pre-production and final video itself. If you feel a copyright notice supplied by you should be included in the records of the project then please send full details so I can include that.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Regards

Jessica Granger

Final Decision

After doing some research into both music videos and documentaries i have decided to focus just on music videos as this is what i want to produce as my end product. The main reason for deciding this is because i have a song in mind that my friend and i would like to use to produce a good video on, the song allows us to fully show off our creative ideas and produce an artistic piece. Whereas i struggled to think of an idea for a documentary the music video is much easier to gather ideas for.

History of Documentaries

Participatory Documentaries

Participatory documentaries involve the filmmaker playing an active role both on and off camera, it includes direct engagement between the filmmaker and the subjects. This engagement often comes in the form of an interview where the filmmaker is seen on camera questioning the people involved in the topic in order to find out more in a more personal way. Typical features of a participatory documentary are using a hand held camera, this is used to make the documentary seem more personal and make it obvious that the filmmaker is there personally and is fully involved. Another feature includes the use of a voice over, this is often the filmmakers voice which again makes it obvious that they are fully involved in all aspects of the documentary. Often the filmmaker plays a centre role in the documentary, whereas the topic may not be about them personally they usually appear more than the subjects involved with the topic but are ultimately used to communicate with them in order to find out more. An example of this is Super Size Me, in the documentary the filmmaker himself took on the challenge of eating only McDonalds for 30 days rather than following other people that may eat McDonalds everyday, therefore the filmmaker is playing an active role in the documentary making it a participatory documentary.

Types of Documentary

Expository 

- a narration presents the content, film maker doesn’t normally appear on camera

Poetic 

- a topic that is personal to the people involved

Observational 

- filmmaker is a neutral observer ‘from the outside looking in

Participatory 

- the events presented are influenced by the filmmaker

Performative 

- presents different emotional aspects of the ideas

Reflexative 

- audience engages with the documentary as it happens

Some genres of documentary include:

Animated

Digital storytelling

Docudrama

Docufiction

Ethnofiction

Ethnographic film

Mockumentary

Mondo film

Nature documentary

Pseudo-documentary

Reality film

Semidocumentary

Travel documentary

Visual sociology

Evaluation of AS Coursework

My Opening Sequence

Strengths: 
- We used a range of good camera shots
- There were no major continuity errors
- The music used worked well to build up the tension
- We worked well as a group and all shared ideas
- Our time keeping went well and we managed to get our work in by each deadline
- We were all assigned different jobs within the group and all carried them out to a good standard
- Our group had good communication and planned meetings and filming occasions

Weaknesses: 
- One minor continuity error (posters in the kitchen)
- In the focus group task we learnt that for some the storyline was hard to follow
- We had to cut one scene out as the ambient sound was too loud so it was unclear what the character was saying, we struggled to make the background noise quieter without affecting the dialogue so felt the best option was to cut it out

Ideas for improvement:
- Double check before each scene that everything is right
- Make sure there are no continuity errors
- Watch each clip properly after to make sure they're okay and redo if there are any issues


My Contribution

Strengths: 
- I turned up to every planning, filming and editing session on time
- I helped contribute towards the ideas for the opening sequence
- I did a good amount of editing both in lessons and out to ensure the work was completed on time
- I got my share of blog posts done on time and to a good quality
- The evaluation i did for the group was completely to a good standard

Weaknesses: 
- I could have let others do more of the editing at times
- I could have gone into a little more detail for some of the blogs, both for the group and my individual posts

Ideas for improvement:
- Have a go at other elements including filming rather than just the editing and blog work