Planning - Settings

To match the scenes of the video we are using a classroom and a school corridor.

 

We're using (what was previously known as) Trent Houseroom, now: Year 7 Base as our class room as there is a lot of space, a lot of light available, and it's rarely got a class in. This class is good because we can easily organise the tables in the way we need without getting told off. We can also use the computer at the front of the class so that we can watch the Britney video and put it on the big screen so we can actually see the video while we film it. We watch the clips and then film then immediately after.

 

We chose to use the corridor in the PE block as it is spacious and full of light. Although there is a lot of space there's is howver some pillars in the way that may be a problem when we try to re-enact the dance scenes. This is a good choice of setting as it is similar looking to the actual corridor used in the music video.

 

(this post will have pictures on, eventually)

Planning - Costumes

As we're only doing up to the scene and costume change at approximately 1:25 the only costumes we need to prepare are the school-themed ones, these are:

 

Britney is wearing a grey cardigan with a white crop top shirt, a short black skirt and a maroon coloured top/bra is also visible underneath her shirt. She has knee high grey socks and black, high-heeled creepers. Her hair is in pigtails, which have been done with little pink ribbons.

 

The female back-up dancers wear much the same however they are not wearing cardigans. Some of their knee high socks are black and other's are white.

 

The male back-up dancers are in white shirts, black blazers, black and blue striped ties (some are in maroon ties), sand coloured school trousers and school shoes however swome are in trainers. Some are also wearing weird grey trilbys/fedoras that make them look gay as fuck.

 

The teacher of the classroom at the begining of the music video is shown wearing a dark brown blazer and big round glasses to make her appear old despite her looking no older than 25 (no idea why they didn't get an actual teacher to play this part, or just someone actually old). She's wearing a white shirt and her hair is shoulder length and flicks up at the ends which along with the full fringe makes her look old and outdated

Research - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Laura Mulvey coined the term 'The Male Gaze' in 1975. The theory suggests that the audience are forced to view the text from the perspective a heterosexual male as the films constantly focus on womens' bodies and because for some reason everyone thinks that's all any heterosexual male can ever think about.

The camera sexualises women by lingering on their breasts, curves and booties much like hetero men do all the time supposedly. To an extent I agree with Mulvey's theory as it is what is done in the media the male gaze is used an awful lot to sexualise and objectify women. However I find it generalises far too much about men saying the camera focusses on womens' curves and bodies because that is what all men do. I will admit that a lot of hetero men do do this but I think it is quite harsh and a little bit offensive to state outright that this is all that we think about.

Planning - Story Board

Kirby produced a story board for our preliminary task using snapshots collected by Harry from the video to 'Baby One More Time - Britney Spears'

Planning - Roles

We decided in our group that Myself and Aidan would be the cameramen for out Preliminary task piece, we also decided that Lauren Skinner (previous media student) would be our Britney, this was a good choice I believe as Lauren does dancing and as she has allegedly said to Miss Jarman she is willing to help. However we chose Kirby as our back up Britney if Lauren for some reason can't come in to help on the certain days we would need her for, or if in fact she is unwilling to help us. We also decided on Harry, Aidan and Kirby as back-up dancers if obviously Kirby isn't Britney and Aidan will presumably be filming the shots he isn't in. (I may also play the teacher at the begining)

Baby One More Time - Applying Goodwin

Goodwin's theory applied to the 'Baby One More Time' Video

Goodwin's first point states music genres demonstrate genre characteristics. This is evident in the video for 'Baby One More Time'  as the ridiculous-looking, intricate dance routine reflects the pop genre as dance routines are often present in the videos of other pop songs.

Goodwin also points out that there is often a relationship between the lyrics and visuals however there are not many relations of visuals to the song, only in dance moves really, for example when there are lyrics to do with a broken heart they dance move will have them touching their hearts.

As Goodwin's theory states; the record label will require there to be lots of shots of the main artist. There are many shots of Britney throughout the video and whole time she is shown to be a school girl, with the matching uniform, but she stands out by wearing slightly different clothing, to make her stand out. For example she wears a grey cardigan over her shirt, but the other dancers and extras do not.

One of Goodwin's main points is the use of voyeurism and the notion of looking, both are very broad themes that almost every single music video contains. Voyeurism can be used to sell the artist's music through sex appeal. This has been done in the Britney video as she is wearing a deliciously revealing outfit. The notion of looking has also been used here as, although people in the video aren't looking at her that much, we are. We are drawn to her as she is the obvious star and because she is centred and at the front during the dance routine scenes.

Finally the intertextual reference point. Goodwin says video are often an intertextual reference to another piece of media such as a film or TV programme etc. however I feel this is not the case as it only seems to reference general school life rather than referencing another media text. The video, at the end turns out to be a day-dream; the editing shows this by using a faded effect, the edges of the screen go fogged. This is a popular effect used in the same context and in the context of TV programmes. This may be considered an intertextual reference however I don't think so.

Research - Goodwin's Theory

Baby One More Time - Routine

 

Uncut version of the corridor dance routine

without cutaways and in between shots

Baby One More Time - Video

Listened to this well over 10 times today, love it

Baby One More Time - Lyrics

 Lyrics:

(Oh baby, baby)

(Oh baby, baby)

Oh baby, baby

How was I supposed to know

That somethin' wasn't right?

Oh baby, baby

I shouldn't have let you go

And now you're outta sight

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now

Oh because

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

Oh baby, baby

The reason I breathe is you

Now, boy you got me blinded

I bet you baby

There's nothing that I would not do, no

It's not the way I planned it

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now

Oh because

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

Oh baby baby, oh baby baby

Oh baby, baby

How was I supposed to know

Oh baby, baby

I shouldn't have let you go

I must confess that my lonliness is killing me now

Don't you know I still believe?

That you will be here and give me a sign

Hit me baby one more time

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

I must confess that my lonliness is killing me now

Don't you know I still believe?

That you will be here and give me a sign

Hit me baby one more time

Preliminary Task

For our A2 preliminary task (prelim) we have to produce a 'shot for shot' replica of the video for 'Baby One More Time - Britney Spears', I personally find this absolutely brilliant as Britney is fabulous however certain others in the class aren't so thrilled.

For our prelim we have been put into groups; the group in which I have been placed in consists of Myself, Harry Webber, Aidan Richardson, Beth Hardy and Kirby Hicks whom I worked with previously for our AS final piece so I know we can work well together.

We'll be planning and shooting/filming in our aforementioned groups however we will be editing on our own; ie each of us will have to edit the clips together by ourselves rather than in groups. I feel quite positive about this as I am quite confident with editing now as I did a lot of editing in AS Media Studies and have since made skateboarding videos with similar software to the software available at school.