Filming Day 1.

We film all of the Lady Sovereign parts, this was very successful as the weather didn't make the filming impossible. We attempted to use the dolly for tracking however we found that the camera was shaking vigorously because of the bumpy ground. We agreed that this will be no good for the music video so we decided to do the majority of the filming handheld.

Locations.

 

Before our first filming day we searched for locations that would be most suitable for our music video. From this we picked out what locations we felt were best for the music video and what we could use as the most filmable and safest locations.  

Album Art II.

Meeting One.

Over the past few weeks we have had meetings in discussing different ideas and merging them together for our final pitch for our music video to 'Nine2Five' By The Ordinary Boys and Lady Sovereign. Upon discussing our ideas, we came up with a finalised storyboard and pitch. We have also discussed how our music video will be laid out on our storyboard, by deciding what camera shots and movements to use for what scene and where. This has involved having to make some changes in order for it to run smoothly and the story to make sense.
Our origional ideas was that the lead worked as a presenter, hated his job and Lady Soverign was somehow linked to him, like his manager for example. We decided to change this idea after realising that this made the music video too structured, restricting us on what we can do with the music video. We decided to change this idea completly but keep it along the lines of having low profiled jobs and having band performances.
We have also made a decision upon making the music video have a twist in somehow. Instead of the characters interaciting face to face, as planned before, we decided to connect the two characters together by and object like a clock. Again, the clock indicates the whole purpose of the song 'Nine2Five'.
The reason why we have decided to choose this song is because it consists of a male and female lead, this way we can show a contrast in female and male performances in our music video. We can also identify the different genres used, how their image contrast with each-other and how they fit together to make a pop/street song.

Digipak analysis.

This is my own prezi, under the name 'anne media35'

Research on bands albums and ideas for Digipak. (wip)

The Ordinary Boys.

Lady Sovereign.

Here are some ideas of mine for the Digipak in promotion for the band. I have taken photos on location  and drawing as of what I would like to have on my Digipak. For the photos I have taken on location I have decided to use different effects available on photoshop to make it more relatable to the artists image.

Influential music videos two.

This music video by Ellie Goulding opens out with a lively scene on a rocky beach with the sea crashing on the rocks. This could be a representation of the damage and destruction that is seen at the end of the video with the car crash. The reason why the sea is used is because it's a natural element that is very powerful and fresh.

A few seconds into the video, we see floating shapes such as pyramids and spheres which act as mirrors because of the reflection shown. This could show the reflection on either past events, such as the car crash shown at the end or a reflection on the artist and her situation. The mist also gives the beach a mysterious and gloomy feel which again reflects on the emotions seen in the video and the emotions of the song. The floating objects could also be a way of adding an artistic edge to the music video making it more interesting and random.

At the start of the video we see a shadow of a person against the grey colour of the waves which could show that something has happened to this person. This is soon revealed to be a man who could be the singers 'boyfriend' with blood and we could relate this to the car crash at the end. This could also give us a clue about why there are floating mirrored shapes on the rocky beach. One reason being is that the mirrors reflect this person who the singer keeps looking back on. Also the singer could be looking back on the event of the car crash.

As the video progresses we start to learn the event that has happened because of the emotion shown by the artist. We soon see blood dripping down on her so we can probably guess that something bad has happened. Her clothing can also represent the persons death as of her wearing black and a sign of heaven because of her flowing dress which could relate to an angel. There is no choreography as its just the singer herself walking around don the beach, which as said before could represent heaven.

At the end we see what has happened in slow motion creating more tension and impact on the viewers mind. Everything that we have seen before in the video all tie up together and everything soon makes more sense. We see a person hanging down from a cloud and this, again could represent her soul gone into heaven because of the crash.

Influential music videos one.

The song Love Is Easy by McFly gives an example of what we want to do in the music video with the camera shots and the comical seen in the video. Instead of using cuts continuously to move from one shot the another, camera movements is used to indicate a change in scene. The first example below shows the first scene, close up of an image then a new scene when the image is pulled away.  The second example shows different close-ups of backdrops merging together and pulling apart for a new scene. The third example shows one simple camera tilt to change the look of a prop, here being the umbrella.

This music video shows a normal stage with all sorts of props as though the band are preparing for a play, soon revealed to be for the fans. The band only wear casual suits throughout and use backdrops to change scenes rather than use different locations. This makes the music video more fun and something that fans can keep watching.

Band Identity.

The Ordinary Boys.

An English indie-rock boy-band from West Sussex, England who were active from 2002-2008 are signed to MCA Music Inc. and B-Unique. Their members currently consist of Sam Preston, Simon Goldring, Dane Etteridge, Dan logan and Toby Horton. Their previous members were William J Brown, James Gregory and Charles Stanley. For the St Trinians soundtrack they collaborated with Lady Sovereign and produced the song 'Nine2Five' which is what we are doing our music video to. their image is very typical for a boy-band which is mainly smart-casual.

Lady Sovereign.

A British rapper and Grime artist who grew up in a council estate in Wembley, London. Her real name is Louise Harman and she was signed to Universal (Casual Records) in 2004 to 2005 then Chocolate industries (2005-2006), Island Def Jam (2005-2008) and Midget Records (2009-present). She has also made many television appearances such as Total wipeout, Soccer AM and the seventh series of Celebrity Big Brother.

Both artists collaberated together for the St Trinians soundtrack and produced the song 'Nine2Five' which is the song we are doing for our music video. We have decided to do our music video in a different perspective to the official video. 

Group influential music videos.

These music videos helped us come up with an idea for our music video to 'Nine2Five' by The Ordinary boys and Lady Sovereign. By sticking to the bases of intertextuality in music videos, we decided to base ours around the main singer who hates his jobs as a news reporter, relating back tot he lyrics of disliking a job. Also we thought of contrasting this with Lady Sovereign showing a more middle class and urban image in her rapping parts.
In terms of editing we decided instead of cutting from one cut to another, we would use lots of camera movements to transfer to one scene to another as seen above.

Album Artwork

Some albums have very artistic and creative covers to draw attention to the creativity of that artist. Some may relate to the songs in the album and others may portray the type of music the artists makes.  Coldplay have set a theme of colourful and graffiti artwork which can reflect moods of the songs, it also gives it a young and urban look to appeal to younger audiences. 

Female artist either portray their artwork through an artistic, fashionable or revealing way. For Example Rihanna shows an edgy look because of the sharp ‘R’ symbol and her facial expression, this is important as her look has to be appealing particularly as she is a worldwide superstar. Male artists such as Ed Sheeran may use a simple portrait with artistic effects to make it stand out like the oranges used. 

Different girl-bands and boy-bands also portray different looks and statements that they want to hold. The Saturdays show more of a girly look which matches with the image of the cover and this attracts wider audiences giving a typical pop music look. But some bands like The Script show a more artistic look as they have a silhouette of the main member of the band and the other two members are cleverly photographed onto the silhouette.

Star image.

A good example of a celebrity who has made drastic maturity and image change since the start of their career is Selena Gomez. Born on 22nd July 1992 in Texas, Gomez's first television appearance was on Barney, alongside Demi Lovato, when she was only seven and had the look of a young innocent girl. From this her career had accelerated to having the main role as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverley Place on the Disney channel and eventually getting signed to Hollywood Records as Selena Gomez and the Scene.

When she first starred on Disney she would have been expected to be a role model for younger children and would 'have to behave appropriately' to her audiences. However, like other ex-Disney stars such as Britney Spears, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus; Gomez could be criticised for moving away from younger fans and maturing too quickly as Disney stars are at first portrayed as innocent. As soon as thy leave Disney and deal with teenage issues, their careers change drastically and are no longer innocent Disney stars but are mature adults.

Once signed to Hollywood Records as Selena Gomez and The Scene her success and fame had climbed higher and higher. One of her debut singles 'Falling Down' from her first album 'Kiss and Tell' shows her young, fun and innocent side to herself. The lyrics and video are very cheesy, appealing to her original young audience particularly as it was premiered on the Disney Channel.

From this her third and latest album 'When the Sun Goes Down' we see a different side of Gomez who showed a more grown up image in music videos like 'Love You Like a Love Song' as of the more revealing clothes and heavy make-up. This is a good example of her image maturing now that she is 20 and has grown out of her innocent teenage years. As before her music and style really shows her wanting to break away from her original image.

Additionally, her fame has not only increased because of her appearances in films and releasing a fragrance but also because of her dating Justin Bieber. As Bieber is a worldwide superstar, his fans will find out more about Selena and her audiences will increase. We can see her readily wanting to move on from her innocent image after landing a role in Spring Breakers which is based around issues like of drugs, robbery and parties. This could be considered as her breakthrough into adulthood.

Music Video Director.

Jonas Åkerlund. 

This director is known to make music videos in forms of mock short films or trailers which make it very entertaining for wide audiences.
He makes videos in the form of intertextuality such as 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga and Beyonce, where there is a typical image of two 'rebals' making a run away from the police however, this could be critisised for voyeurism because of the revealing costumes and very adult scenes. His aim for this music video was 'A follow up from Paparazzi' where it's very sexy and ends with the singer thrown into jail and getting mugshots. Yet the beginning of the Telephone video starts in jail. This is filmed on a movie set to make it as realistic as possible and has a three minute intro just like a movie along with other narrative breaks with no music making the video around ten minutes in total. This is to make the story behind the video more clear and his aim may be to focus on the characters rather the music itself.




There are other music videos of his which stick to the outline of having an intro at the beginning like a movie. Maroon 5's 'Moves like Jagger' starts off with a mise-en-scene of auditions in black and white before going to colour during the song. This sets up the scene of a typical audition show which has a vintage edge to it i.e from the '80s There are intertextual references in the song as the chorus refers to Mick Jagger, from The Rolling Stones. This reference is seen through the main singer who could be portraying Mick Jagger.





Another music video of his his made of two contrasting versions. The song is 'Who's that chick?' by Rihanna. The day version is a very bright, colourful and girly mise-en-scene whereas the night version is more of a dark, gothy and edgy mise-en-scene.Like the other music videos, there is a shirt simple narrative at the beginning and both the starts and ends of the music videos are laid out like a movie.

Audience questionnaire.

1) Gender:    Male      Female

2) Age:    16 and under     17-21     22-29     30 + 

3) Occupation:     Employed     Unemployed     Student

4) What music genre do you listen to? (Tick as many boxes as you like). 

() Pop

() Rock

() RnB 

() Country 

() Electronic

() Other

If other, please state: ..................................

5) What music channel do you watch? 

() MTV 

() 4Music

() Viva 

() Smash Hits

() Kerrang 

() Other

If other, please state: ..................................

6) How often do you watch music television? ..................................................................

7) List some of your favourite music videos and explain why you like them: 

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8) Out of your favourite artists, what is it about their album artwork that you like?

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9) What features of a music video are you most impressed with or attracted to in general?

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For our audience research we had to do a questionnaire  in order to help us with what different audiences like about different genres of mudic. This will also help us with what to do in our music video and album art for our target audience in order to grab their attention and satisfy them. 
Once we came up with our song, we could identify the genres and image presented by the artists of our chosen song. Therefore we could have additional questions in order to focus upon the audience that would be attacted to our artists. 

10) What is it about RnB and rap music that attracts you? ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

11)  What appeals to you the most within boybands?
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12) what is your opinion on collabriations of artists?

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Mind-map for marketing music.

 

Here we had to come up with stratagy for promoting a band or artist. We looked at examples that were sucessful and effective and this helped with what kind of promotional things we wold do for our own artisit.

Music video analysis.

Wings analysis for media from annemedia35

This is my own slideshare, under the name 'anne media35' 

Intertextuality in music videos.

Intertextuality is where a music video uses other media texts (Fashion, T.V shows, films, magazines etc). which are recognisable to wide audiences For example, a music video may have references to well known films such as "James Bond' as seen in Scouting's For Girls. Their music video for James Bond obviously is based around the film as identified by the lyrics '007; Britain's finest secret agent, licensed to kill.' The set is simple and the band are dressed up in suites, referring to the main character and the choreography of the spies matches with the beat of the song. This could be seen as a parody of the film as seen by the lyrics' I wish I was James Bond'. This way they gain fans of the film and visa versa. 

Goodwin's Theory.

 -According to Goodwin there are six main features of a music video:

- In all music videos there is a clear image of the genre of the music and the image that the artist is trying to put across. This is seen through the artists costumes, props and locations giving it characteristic to a certain genre like pop, rock, indie etc.  For example if the artist is a girl-band or a boy band then there may be a dance routine involved or a cheesy storyline. But if its a rock artist then the locations and costumes would be very dark and edgy giving the audience a hard and moody image. A good example of a pop music video that refers to Goodwin's theory is Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' which shows a generic image of a typical pop/country music video with romantic and cheesy lyrics and narrative where the female singer is in charge over the guy who broke her heart.
- There can be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in any music video. This can create something that contradicts the lyrics with the video or completely relates to the lyrics or visa vera. For example, we can see that there is a literal connection with what is in the music video and the lyrics. For instance, we see the break up happen as told by the song and 'acts out' according to the literal meaning of the lyrics like 'I say, "I hate you," we break up, you call me, "I love you."
- There can also be a relationship between the music and the visuals and this can be either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. The editing and style of the video can either match with the beats of the music or do the complete opposite. Here not only the camera movement is on the beat but the choreography matches with the timing of the lyrics, like when she sings 'we' her band dressed as animals jump, making the video more happy and fun.
- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which rear across their work. This may also be a way of establishing the artist and creating pleasure for the audience particularly if he or she is a worldwide superstar. Here the artist interacts with the camera and the audience feels as though she is talking to them.
- There is frequently references to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. In the music video there is a part where a vintage T.V set is used with the artist singing which gives it a vintage love feel to the music video.
There is often intersexual reference to 'films, t.v programmes, other music videos etc. For example her music video reflects most typical American films where theres a heartbreak.

Album covers and designs.

Here are some examples of album covers and packs from a variety of artists. As you can see some have 'exclusive' pictures of individual members or the artist such as The Wanted and Hilary Duff. This will make the audience want to buy these deluxe albums because of the extra stuff that comes with it. For example extra pictures in The Wanted album. Also they may feel as though the album is more personalised to the fans as they get extra things with it unlike most album packs.
Other albums like Coldplay are more focused on the artwork and photography of the album and the band rather than the lyrics. This makes it more appealing to older audiences as it's not as cheesy as other albums of different bands.
Pixie Lott's album however, has lyrics and pictures in the album covers which means that fans can look up the lyrics and relate to them. Her album  also has very bright and appealing which attracts the right audience wich would mainly consist of teens, by means the album would have to be girly.