Photos - planning a CD cover

Today we practiced capturing some photos for the band to use in our final piece. We took a variety of shots which enabled us to take factors such as positioning and light into account. We used these photos to make a practice CD cover and play around with various editing techniques such as the lighting, effects and contrast. This was a good task to carry out as it enabled us to learn about what effects to use and what effects not to use.

Lip Syncing Practice - Harry and Dom

During our planning we decided to video myself and Dom to see if our lip syncing was good enough or if we needed to improve for our final piece. We videoed our performance and it turned out extremely well and was a useful planning exercise as it will give us an advantage when it comes to our actual filming.

The Do's and Dont's when making a music video

 When making a music video there are some important Do's and Dont's that must be taken into careful consideration to help gain the best end product of our music video.

 DO'S

•  A clear sense of genre and artist. 
• A good & natural performance. 
• An idea that is simple yet effective.
• Creative editing.

 

DONT'S

•  Well - known song (don't be tempted to copy original video).

•  Over done effects - shouldn't use effects to disguise poor footage. 

• Aimless driving around - it's boring and it's not creative.

• Scenes involving alcohol, drugs or fags (even stimulated). 

• Shots of people just walking around - it will become boring for the audience.

• Speeding up the footage or putting it in reverse.

•  Zooms.

• Footage from elsewhere.

•  Over the top narrative

The Kooks 'She Moves In Her Own Way' lyrics

"She Moves In Her Own Way"

So at my show on Monday
I was hoping someday
You'd be on your way to better things
It's not about your make-up
Or how you try to shape up
To these tiresome paper dreams
Paper dreams, honey

So now you pour your heart out
You're telling me you're far out
You're not about to lie down for your cause
But you don't pull my strings
'Cos I'm a better man
Moving on to better things

Well uh oh, oh I love her because she moves in her own way
Well uh oh, oh she came to my show just to hear about my day

And at the show on Tuesday
She was in her mindset
Tempered furs and spangled boots
Looks are deceiving
Make me believe it
And these tiresome paper dreams
Paper dreams, honey
Yeah

So wont you go far
Tell me you're a keeper
Not about to lie down for your cause
And you don't pull my strings
'Cos I'm a better man
Moving on to better things

Well oh oh, oh I love her because she moves in her own way
Well oh oh, oh she came to my show just to hear about my day

yes I wish that we never made it
Through all the summers
They're keeping us instead of
Kicking us back
Down through the suburbs
yes I wish that we never made it
Through all the summers
They're keeping us instead of
Kicking us back
Down through the suburbs

But uh oh, I love her because she moves in her own way
But uh oh, she came to my show just to hear about my day
But uh oh, oh I love her because she moves in her own way
But uh oh, oh she came to my show just to hear about my day

 

 

 

 

When we began to plan/storyboard our footage that will go into our video, we took a lot of planning time to research into the lyrics of the song. We have decided to use a girl as the main footage as the song talks about a girl who is individual in her own way and we can contrast between the lyrics with the visuals.

DCAS Evidence

When we went to visit the DCAS centre we were extremely happy as a group with the equipment and space that was available. Due to the amazing facility we will have access to a huge variety of equipment which will allow us to create great footage for our video. We have sent an email to DCAS to thank them for their extremely generous hospitality.

 

 

Below are some pictures we took on our visit to the DCAS centre.

 

 

 

Planning our loacation for filming (DCAS)

For our music video we are going to carry out some of the filming in a music studio called DCAS. Below are the e-mails we used to contact DCAS and arrange a meeting. The recording studio was impressed with our emails and our polite enquiry so they gave us the use of one of their studios free of charge. This was an extremely kind gesture and will hopefully allow us to get some very professional shots to use in our video. Furthermore, this will give a greater effect when filming our video as it will allow us to add some extra features from the out-takes when filming. We are extremely grateful to DCAS for allowing us to use these facilities and would recommend the studios for any other media students in the future.

Type of Clothing/Image

Type of Clothing/Image

 

We have researched into the clothing that we need to make sure we use in the making of our music video. Our song which is ‘She Moves in Her Own Way’ by The Kooks, shares the genre of Indie Pop.

 

 

When we plan what our performers are going to wear we must ensure it fits this genre. As we can see from this picture they have their own individual style. The image in which they have created themselves suits their type of music and if their style was to change people may feel that they are trying to be something they are not. The image of the band does not overlook the music.

 

 

We can compare The Kooks to One Direction. One Directions’ image has been created for them as it is what consumers/audiences wish to see. The band is a lot to do with image as well as music as this is what attracts their audience. They wear bright colours to support their style of music and always have the latest fashion trend to help keep their huge fan base.

 

When planning our music video we must ensure that we follow the genre and do not revert to wearing bright colours which will contrast a lot with the music. Clothing/image is important to what audiences see and can have a major impact on an artist/band. Overall, this is a huge factor which we have researched in order to give us the best possible music video.

Preliminary Video





 

During the summer of 2013 myself and Dominic Collins worked in a group with Amy Hopkinson, Toniey Salt and Alice Martin. We made a music video for the song "Lets Get Ready to Rumble". Here is our finished piece below. We know there are points of improvement and we will learn from our mistakes to help with our final product of our actual music video.

 

 

 

 

Textual Analysis - Passenger

Textual Analysis

Artist:-Passenger

Song:- Let her go

I have chosen to do my second textual analysis on this song as this allows me to contrast it to my previous piece on ‘Olly Murs’ and how they are similar and how they are different.

The music video for this particular song is a live performance of the song, with various close ups of the band members and their chosen instruments which are; guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. This is portrayed as it is trying to promote the music as well as trying the artist. There is good lip singing as the dialogue meets with his lips. This allows the audience to relate to the lyrics and means they are able to understand the meaning of the song more. There is a strong relationship between the music and visuals. This relationship between music and visuals is good as the emotion comes through in the performer’s facial expression which enables viewers to connect with the song and makes them appreciate the music rather than the artist compared to other band such as ‘One Direction’ who are mainly about selling themselves rather than their music.

The Industry and Audience section of Richard Dyers’ star theory suggests that ‘Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose - to make money out of audiences, who respond to various elements of a star persona by buying records and becoming fans’ and also that ‘Record companies nurture and shape their stars’. This theory can be applied to this particular music video as Passenger have been portrayed in a way that their particular audience will want to see them and hear their music. However, we can also argue this theory as this band has not been manufactured and nurtured. They have kept to their love for music and haven’t tried to promote themselves in a negative light. They have modelled this video around the music rather than themselves and this is what their target audience like to see. Compared to Olly Murs this video is more about the music. In Olly Murs it is about selling him more than the music but this video is more about the music rather than the artist.

Video conference on song choice

Audience Research Survey

As part of our research into music videos we sent out a questionnaire to 19 people, all aged between 16-18, asking them about their consumption of Indie music and how important music videos are.

(my graphs show the highest response for both gender);

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our results show that females were more like to listen to indie music, that they see music videos as important and that their opinions on a song are more likely to be influenced by a music video than males.

This will be important when it comes to planning our own music video, as it suggests who our target audience should be.

Reception Theory

Reception theory

·         Given that the Effects model and the Uses and Gratifications have their problems and limitations a different approach to audiences was developed by the academic Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970s.

·         This considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and the decoded (understood) by audiences.

The theory suggests that:

·         When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.

·         In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say.

·         In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to understand the message.

Stuart hall identified three types of audience readings of the text:

1.       Dominant or preferred

2.       Negotiated

3.       Oppositional

Dominant - audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do.

Negotiated - audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previous held views.

Oppositional - where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. 

Textual Analysis - Olly Murs

Textual analysis- Olly Murs- Right Place, Right Time

Olly Murs was born on the 14^th of May 1984. He is an English singer-songwriter, musician and television presenter. He rose to fame after finishing as the runner-up in the sixth series of The Xfactor in 2009. He is currently signed to Epic Records in the United Kingdom, Columbia Records in the United States, and Syco Music.

I have chosen to do my textual analysis on the song ‘Right Place Right Time’ by Olly Murs. The song was released on the 23^rd of November 2013. I have chosen this song because it has been released this year and there are many features to talk about. The song is an upbeat, pop song and has a particularly young audience. Olly Murs is presented in a good light for the audience and there are lots of images of him being a genuine person. This is a rare experience in today’s limelight as many artists are presented as to what their specific audience want to see and not for whom they actually are.

 

Andrew Goodwin’s’ writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ argued that many music videos shared 6 generic conventions. In this particular video there are intertextual references to in particular; TV programmes and other popular cultures. There are references to ‘The Xfactor’ and the ‘comic relief’ challenge programme that is on every year. These will have been shown in the music video to show were Olly Murs started in terms of his music career and also to show him taking part in charity events to show his audience that he is genuine and isn't self-centred and vain.

In this music video there are lots of close-ups of Olly Murs. This is to sell the artist as well as the record. He has a large female fan base and they will want to see images of him as well as listen to the track. Many people will argue that this video is more to promote the artist more than the song, as this will attract more album sales with the females. This is a sales technique used by many artists in todays era so is expected form producers. However, compared to videos such as 'Miley Cyrus - We Cant Stop', this video attracts good publicity rather than the bad due to Olly Murs' good reputation.

How is the music industry regulated?

·         The music industry is mostly a self-regulated organisation. But just as any other industry it has to have regulators to protect all the people involved in the production and realisation of a song, cd, a concert etc. (copyright, trade, music representation).

·         The most important are: BASCA, APRS, MPA, PRS, BPI and OFCOM. Although all these companies have different aims the vision is the same: - keep the music industry alive. However the fact that technology is evolving so fast, makes it even harder for them to protect every single detail.

 

·         The internet, Is the most used media in the world, but some times that is not a good thing. Sometimes songs come out to the public long before the official release prejudicing the sales.

·        Tighter regulations on sexualised music videos and a single portal for parents to complain about products that are inappropriate for children are to be proposed by a government report into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood.

·         The music industry is expected to be told to put some kind of advisory age rating such as films have on music videos. Earlier this week the pop star Rihanna was unrepentant for filming a music video in which she shoots someone who raped her. She has faced massive criticism from parent groups in America.

 

In my opinion the music industry is right to have these regulations because I do believe that some of the content in music videos is inappropriate for the younger generation. Children can access YouTube easily now due to the development of new technologies so it is inevitable that they are more than likely going to see some inappropriate images and possibly try to copy them. The cultivation theory supports this statement. One example of this is the recent video from Miley Cyrus. In this video she has very little clothing on and has been produced into a completely different image that we are not used to seeing. This could cause children to copy this image and in effect want to become her. I believe the producers are to blame for these inappropriate images as they are moulding an artist to be something they’re not.

Alternative music forms

Alternative Music Forms

Popular music can generally be defined as "commercially mass produced music for a mass market". Popular music is also about popular culture - it shapes the way people dress, talk, wear their hair, and, some say, other behaviour such as violence and drug use. ‘According to usual representations, pop music is all about youth, sexuality, rebellion, outrageous haircuts, drugs, staying out all night dancing and offending old people’

When we refer to "alternative" music, we are referring to music that alternates from the mainstream in any way, such as;

•          Representation

•          Style/Genre

•          Lyrical Content/Ideology

•          Production Distribution

•          Consumption

•          Fans

•          Form 

 Alternative music is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. Most commonly associated in its heyday with a distorted guitar sound, transgressed lyrics and a nonchalant attitude

Most bands that are not recognised in the media as famous are labelled usually as an alternate band, even Macklemore on the Radio 1 website is labelled as ‘indie’ in the music charts as the top 10 is dominated by auto tuned, hard bodied artist, who attract all the younger generations of female fans, such as the Beliebers, or Directioners in society.

There are lots of different genres that make up alternative music;

·         Anti-Folk

·         Baggy

·         Punk Rock

·         Garage Rock

·         Grunge

·         Noise Rock

·         No-wave

·         Post Punk

·         Alternative hip-hop

·         Alternative country

·         Alternative dance

·         Alternative hip hop

·         Alternative metal

History of Music Videos

http://www.slideshare.net/hjackson7/history-of-music-videos-26612319

This is the link to my history of music videos PowerPoint presentation which I carried out for my research and planning.

A2 music video

This year myself and Dom Collins are joining together with Molly Brailsford and Misha Armstrong in the making of our music video. We are happy in this group and will work at are full potential. We have chosen to do the song 'She moves in her own way' by The Kooks. We have chosen this song because it is a genre of music that we all enjoy and feel that we will be able to work with well using our existing knowledge. It is also 2 minutes 55 seconds long. We took this into account for when we were editing as it meant that we would be able to work on quality rather than quantity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0_dzob846E

Devlopments from AS (preliminary piece)

From completing this A2 practice piece I have used some skills that I developed in AS. The biggest development I feel I have made personally is my editing. In AS my editing skills were not as strong as I would have hoped for. However, I feel I have developed these skills during our A2 practice piece. We have had the chance to experiment with different techniques and i have developed my editing skills through doing this. I have also used video techniques when filming bits of our video. I fell AS has helped a lot in the way that we have been able to use and develop skills that we learned from it in our A2 piece.

CD insert (preliminary piece)

Today we have finished our CD insert. We have decided to stick with the colours red and blue, as this represents our two performers in the video. We think it is important to keep this continuity within our CD insert to show the consumer that they will know what they are looking for instantly, due to the theme that is used in each performance.

Editing (preliminary piece)

This week we have completed our editing and created our final piece. There are improvements which could be made and we will learn from our mistakes this year and take them into the next to hopefuly improve them. Overall we are happy in what we have created and there are many positives in which we can take forward to next years final piece. We have all as a group edited our preliminary piece in some way, shape, or form. This is one clip which we have edited a lot in order to get the best possible shot.

Magazine advert and CD cover (preliminary piece)

Today we are looking at why it is important to have the necessry synergy between our CD cover and magazine advert. They have to have synergy so consumers recognize it, so when they go to buy the actual Cd they know what type of logos/pictures to be looking for.

On the left it is the magazine advert of Olly Murs, and on the right is the actual CD cover. From stidying the two we can see that both the magazine and CD cover have the same picture of the artist on. This is to help sell the album and sell the artist at the same time. Also, we can see that the same font and colours are used. This is to help consumers recognise the CD cover when they go and purchase it. The picture of the artist stands out on both the CD cover and magazine advert. This is also a key factor in helping consumers recognizing the artist and purchasing the album. It is also done to attract particularly the female audience. They will be attracted to the artist and will more than likely purchase the album.

Photos of our filming (preliminary piece)

Here are some photos of our filming which we carried out last week...

Filming (preliminary piece)

Last week we carried out the filming of our music video. We took several shots to try and ensure that we got the right shot for our video. We then uploaded all shots to our computer and found that most of them were not great due to lighting and sound. We also found that the main problem was lip syncing. Our lips were in sync with the music when we filmed, however when we assembled our music video on the computer the music did not fit. This required us to use our editing skills to try and ensure that everything was of the standard we had planned. We completed our video and it came to approximately 50 seconds long. We are happy with what we have created however there are still improvements to be made.

CD back cover and insert (preliminary piece)

We began today by taking photos of myself and Dom for our Cd cover and insert. Our genre of music for this piece is pop, so we wanted to portray this in our Cd cover so that this would attract our target audience.
Me and Dom are the main singers and dancers in the video so we have got photos of ourselves so we thought it would be a good idea to have us on the CD cover to follow the stereotypical pop covers. We are creating the CD cover and insert on publisher. In the still images we have took we are posing in funny/dramatic ways which enables us to relate to our target audience of which is the younger generation/teenagers.

Story Boarding (preliminary piece)

We have completed story boards of our music video as part of our planning. We have took into consideration; setting, lighting and positioning.

Poster (preliminary piece)

Here is our poster for our single.

The start of our music video (preliminary piece)

In this preliminary piece we are carrying out a music video project. I am working in a group of five people, whom of which are; Dom Collins, Amy Hopkinson, Alice martin and Toniey Salt.

We carry out a preliminary piece to see how well our group works together as we have made it considerably larger from our AS studies. Also, we do it to see how well our group gels in order to give ourselves the chance to get the best possible grade available.

Our chosen song is ' Lets Get Ready To Rhumble ' by PJ and Duncan. We began our planning by listening to music on each of our phones and selceting a few songs each that we liked. We then walked around the setting for our video (which in this case, is our school), and decided that an up-beat pop song would suit the mise-en-scene. We have also chose this song because, although it is a song from the 1990s', it has recently been released in the charts again, due to a live performance on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which was a huge it with the younger/teenage generation. Finally, the lyrics have similar connotations of school, which enables us to make a video which fits our mise-en-scene well.
http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/a/antanddec8697/letsgetreadytorumble456033.html