Journal 6

Recently we have started our preparation for our retake of the exam from AS. We have done a practice exam and been doing refresher classes, but in our group we have been focusing on our location and deciding when to shoot our first scenes.

We have decided we have to delay our filming for a while due to the poor weather conditions, as they are not suitable as we are filming outdoors a lot. We will be able to film the indoor sections though, so we will be doing that in the near future.

Job Roles Within Group

Job roles

Director- Mike
I was chose as a director because we thought Harj and Dom thought I was best suited for this job. I will be able to use my knowledge to direct us and create a good music video.

Props, costume and lighting- Dom

We chose Dom to sort out the props as we thought he will know what is best to purchase for each scene. We will all pay towards things equally and all have the end decision of what to buy.

Location-Harj
We thought as a group that Harj should take on the role of location as we thought it would be something challenging for him to take on. It will be my job to find out all the information and contact members if we want to use something they own.

Cinematography- Mike- Harj
Me and Mike chose to do Cinematography as we knew what shots will suit our video. We will have to see which shot is best for the location and do our best in producing the best shot.

Editing- All
We will all take on the job of editing as it will be good for everyone to play apart in this.

Raji Feedback

This is the feedback that I got for Raji, I have since then added more blog posts and updated other posts.

Digipak Analysis

This is the digipak analysis that we had done and we recorded it on a green screen, so we can put the photo of the Boyz II Men digipak on it.

Google Calender

This is a google calendar our group has set up so we can all keep in touch and this will make sure we know what we have to do by when. This is a back-up diary, just incase someone forgets what we are doing on that day. We are going to try and stick to the calendar as much as we can and keep updating it regularly.

Photo Animatic

This is our photo animatic that we have made on Final Cut Pro. This is our final complete version. Our first copies shots were too long, so we had to cut some shots up and add a few more in, so it makes it more appealing for the viewers and so they do not lose interest.

The worst thing for a music video is if it seems as if it is dragging. Also, as we are creating a digipack for our artist, we need the video to be interesting so people will not only just want the CD, they will want to music video.

Audience Profile

We decided to make an audience profile for our artist 'Chanele' and we think it is very eye appealing and it contains a lot of information on the audience we are aiming for.

Music Video Brief

This is the powerpoint presentation that me and my group made and this about our artist and everything to do with our music video ideas.

The presentation includes a brief, information about the artist, location, the narrative and the target audience. The presentation is in rough detail of what we are planning to do, how and where.

Journal 5

We have now moved on to making our storyboards and making our photo animatic. We started by going through the lyrics and writing on the sheet all of our ideas, and making sure we understand the song and what is about.

As a group we then decided what we wanted to do for the each of the verses and develop our idea from there and started to think about what effects we could use, so it will look effective.

Once our main ideas were down, we done our draft copy first. Our draft was okay, but it wasn't neat and very presentable and we also had to add more frames in because otherwise each individual shot would be too long once we started filming it. Then we done our main storyboard and made it neat and tidy and easily understandable. We then took photos of each individual frame and made it into a photo animatic and put the music on it to see how our music video would plan out. Our animatic needs minor adjustments but I think it will be effective.

Journal 4

Location

We then had discussed, as a group were we would like to locate the music video. In the original music video of torn the whole video is based in a flat. We are going to have flashbacks of when the couple is happy, so we will have to have many different locations. We had to think carefully and only think what is possible that we could achieve so we are going to have two main scenes they are in the park and in a house. 

The reason we have chose to use the park as a setting is because its a lonely place and its almost a cliche setting for couples to be, so she will be reminiscing looking at other couples being happy. Also, its easy to show her in pain because the woods can be lonesome.

The household shots will show when the couple is breaking up also it will show the woman on her own. The house is a good place to use as a location because their will be plenty of things to remind her of the 'good old times'. We will also have scenes maybe in a restaurant when the couple was going out to use in the flashbacks. 

Journal 3

Decisions and Ideas
Once we had sorted out what we are doing and picked the song, then we had to discuss and come up ideas for our music video. We decided as a group to stick to Goodwins theory and make sure the lyrics and music relate to the music video. We also decided on a rough story line, to which we decided to keep and develop as we go along.

In our music video, we are going to have the same couple throughout and the audience gets to see everything they are going through, so they can relate to it. At first, we are going to show them having a rough break up and we will show them miming arguing and screaming at eachother, and throwing things in a household environment.

The next stage when people are going through break ups is the sad, depressing and lonely time, and we will show this by her on her own in stereotypical places for people at this time(parks, walking down streets etc.) We shall also involve her reminiscing and her having flashbacks of the good times in her past relationship.

To show our editing skills, we will show the couple walking along and getting the man in the picture to fade away to show she is alone. This will be hard as it will be all about timing, and getting the framing right but I am sure it will be very effective.

Journal 2

Group Selection

In this lesson, we had to get into our groups and sort out what we will all be doing in our group. I have been grouped with Dominic Coleman and Harj Chana. Then we was given about 6 pages of different briefs of different styles, genres and types of artists. Our group then had to pick what music video we wanted to do. We decided to do 'Torn' but we are going to redo the entire song and record everything from scratch and Chanele will be our performer and she will also star in our music video. We think this will be a good idea and will be effective and will look good.

Journal 1

In the first lesson we got told what we will be doing for our final year in media.  We got told that we will be doing a music video, but before you can make one, you have to put a lot of research and planning into it. So we started doing some immediate theory on music video and focused on Goodwins Theory. The theory behind Goodwins Theory is that the video will include these 6 rules:

1. The record company's demands for exposure of the artist will mean a lot of close-up shots of the singer.

2. There will be a relationship between music and visuals.

3. There will be a relationship between lyrics of the visuals.

4. There will be genre characteristics, for example rock music videos show live performance, hip hop videos present an image of wealth and "gangsta" lifestyle and bot bands have dance routines.

5. There will be references to the notion of looking for example, television screens, mirrors or people looking at each other or at the audience.

6. There will be some use of intertextual referencing.

They don't have to all apply this theory as some artists try to rebel against it.

We then tried to see if Jay-Zs '99 Problems' applied Goodwins Theory and I have written my findings on another blog post. 

Blog Feedback

The main points that I got out from my blog feedback is that:

1. I have done the least posts compared to most people and I need to catch up with all my work
2. To start Labeling all my work and find all my work easily
3. I need to complete the 'Big 3' Task as its incomplete

There is loads of posts that I need to do and also I have to start doing my journal so I will have to catch up after school. I am planning to get everything upto date and up to a good standard by the end of the week.

Purpose Of A Music Video

The purpose of a music video is to try and get a brand out so they could get the artist/band out to the audience and try to make a profit through merchandise and possibly set a new trend. The record label pays for the music video and they can spend millions on it, and when the song starts to make money, they pay off the music video. These are some of the main reasons why companies create music videos:

1.To create an image that would appeal to a certain target audience

2.You could use it as a marketing tool for a certain artist or band. You can use it as a marketing tool because it could help the artist/band become more known and keep up the popularity.

3.To create a buzz for the airplay of a song, i.e. on the radio or television.

4.Some music videos rely on one song so if this one song has a good music video then it will create more interest for the album (The worlds most popular song on YouTube is now ‘Gangnam Stlye’ by PSY because of the music video.

Jay-Z - 99 Problems

The genre for Jay-Zs “99 problems” is hip-hop and we know this because it is all about his ‘gangsta’ and thug life. This is shown through the mise-en-scene in the music video. The way he dresses in a big puffy jacket, baseball cap, baggy jeans and wearing tracksuits through out. Also the setting is a rundown Brooklyn city, which looks rough and unfriendly. It gives of this impression because the buildings in the background are rundown, old and broken, which you wouldn’t have in somewhere like New York. Another way to tell this is a hip-hop song is because of the lyrics. They lyrics are all about his life and he has “99 problems but a bitch aint one’ which shows he sees women as an object or as a pet than being equal.

Throughout the video, they keep showing exit signs out of Brooklyn, and he is continually in various music shops, which gives you the reason to believe that he wants to get out of Brooklyn and leave behind the ‘gangsta’ life via music.

Goodwins Theory

Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin is the person that wrote a lot of things about music videos and he suggested and came up with an idea of having 6 rules that all music videos include. Obviously Goodwins theory isn’t applied to every music video as people try to go against it, but the general rules are:-

1. The record company's demands for exposure of the artist will mean a lot of close-up shots of the singer.

2. There will be a relationship between music and visuals.

3. There will be a relationship between lyrics of the visuals.

4. There will be genre characteristics, for example rock music videos show live performance, hip hop videos present an image of wealth and "gangsta" lifestyle and bot bands have dance routines.

5. There will be references to the notion of looking for example, television screens, mirrors or people looking at each other or at the audience.

6. There will be some use of intertextual referencing.

I think that this theory will apply to our music video. As this is Chanelles first music video, there will be plenty of close up shots of her, to get her look and appearance out.

We shall also be applying his theory by having a relationship between music and visuals, so we will keep the cut to the beat, and also there will be a relation between lyrics and video, which we will make sure the video, ties in with the song.

In our music video, we will be keeping the genre characteristics, which are commonly found in this specific genre and we will do this by doing slow cuts and the video will be more of a story of her reminiscing.

In our music video we will be breaking the fourth wall, where she will sing looking into the camera and this will make the audience feel like they are communicating with her through the television. This is a simple but an effective technique.

The only rule we are not using is intertextual referencing as I do not think we will need to use it.

Mood Board Prezi

The Big 3 (Incomplete)

THE BIG 3

1.Who are the big 3?

The big four companies in the music industry are universal, Sony and Warner Music

Group.

2.What do they own? (what are their subsidiary labels?)

Universal Subsidiaries includes: 

Universal Music Publishing Group

Universal Music Group Distribution
Interscope-Geffen-A&M
Geffen Records
The Island Def Jam Music Group
Universal Republic Records
Universal Music Group Nashville
Verve Music Group
Decca Label Group
Universal Music Latin Entertainment
Universal Music Enterprises
Universal Strategic Marketing
Show Dog-Universal Music
V2/Co-operative Music
Polydor Records
Mercury Music Group
Island Records Group
Universal Music TV
London Records
R.O.A.D Entertainment UK
Bravado
Twenty-First Artists
eLabs
Silver Scoop

The subsidiaries in bold are the bigger and more well known subsidiaries out of the many I have listed. These subsideries are the more well known out of all the subsidiaries listed.

Boyz II Men Powerpoint

Boyz II Men Powerpoint

The artists that i decided to look into more was Boyz II Men. I looked at how they got into the industry and there record label.

Music Video Brief

Music Video Brief

You have been asked to devise and make a promotional music video for the new act detailed below. As a new act, the record label is keen that this first release appeal to a wide audience and establish an image that is both recognizably unique and appealing to their target audience. With this in mind, their first release will be a cover version and will be used as a platform for future original releases. The record label is happy for this release to be any of the three songs listed below and would like you to choose whichever one you can make a dynamic promo for, as the key thing is to get them exposed!

Chanele:- 

Chanele is 19 and comes from a small town in Greater London. After getting to the judges houses round of her X-Factor in 2009 but losing out because she was ‘too different’, Lucy decided to change tack. She used her X-Factor exposure to build a fanbase through My Space and released a few tracks as free downloads. She got signed to Tough Trade a few months ago.

Sound: Pop

Ideology: Be what you want to be, not what society says you should be.

Influences: Janis Joplin, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Florence & the Machine.

Likes: Charity shops, clubbing, fancy dress parties.

Dislikes: Size zeros, boredom.




This is the song we have decided to chose for Chanele to sing

Director X

This is Mine, Jasons and Harjs work we done for our research on a director. We decided to look into Director X and the work he has done and how he got into the music video industry.