Friday, 8 May 2015
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Introduction
Welcome to my online log page of my A2 Media Studies coursework.
The task of the coursework is to:
Create a 3/4 minute music video based on our chosen music by an unsigned artist.
Customise a DigiPak for the Album
Create a Magazine advertisement for the promotion of that album
The task of the coursework is to:
Create a 3/4 minute music video based on our chosen music by an unsigned artist.
Customise a DigiPak for the Album
Create a Magazine advertisement for the promotion of that album
The members of my group:
 |
| Abdul Maajid (Me) 4135 |
 |
| Aimee Surina Watson 4193 |
 |
| Rahat Hussain 4097 |
Music Video
Dani Kareem - Easier As Us
Dani Kareem - Easier As Us
CD Album
Magazine Advert
Friday, 12 September 2014
Research
Conventions of a music video
Music Industry
Before we can begin making our project, and start our own music video we need to understand this media form, what it consists of, examine the edits and identify the key conventions.
As a whole, through my research, I have gathered that the music industry consists of many different companies which may be global or independent, and the companies would earn their money by a way of selling music but also by selling the image of an artist. In general within a record label, there would be many people operating in different sectors to make and sell the music, however the artist would be a major selling point as they are the one that compose and perform the music. Also in todays digital world, music is so often download for free that the industry are turning much more to star construction and celebrity culture to make money.
As a whole, through my research, I have gathered that the music industry consists of many different companies which may be global or independent, and the companies would earn their money by a way of selling music but also by selling the image of an artist. In general within a record label, there would be many people operating in different sectors to make and sell the music, however the artist would be a major selling point as they are the one that compose and perform the music. Also in todays digital world, music is so often download for free that the industry are turning much more to star construction and celebrity culture to make money.
What is a music video and the purpose of it
The artist and/or their record label company make a music video. It is a construction of a short video clip, which is made for music of the artist. There are many reasons why music videos are created they promote, bring an extension on the income, extension of outlets (such as direct DVD, CD sales, music channels, downloads) and also to synergy for films, games, TV programmes. Recently the main purpose of making it would be for promotion.
Types of promotion
Advertising - The music video can be used for advertising the song it self. Music video’s started off playing on MTV channel where the video was seen by their audiences, this had attracted them onto the song and may had lead them to buying the CD.
Illustrate the song - The song would be given visuals therefore the audience would be able to see what visuals the artist or record label had chosen to put with the song.
Tells a story - To some of the audiences the music video may tell a story, maybe of the artist, as the individual would be able to see what is happening.
Expresses an Individuals emotion - Some may feel as though it expresses their own emotions as they may have experienced something in life and feel relatable to the music video.
Appeals to a visual audience - Audiences may prefer watching rather than listening to the song, therefore they would be more entertained by watching the music video. Sometimes individuals just prefer watching the music video and not listening to the song, which is what it would normally be used as.
Markets an Image - Music video may also be used on the artist, as it builds a name for the star, as it allows the audience to get an insight on how the artist looks and how they act.
What this means for me and our task: From this research I have identified that in our tasks we will need to place a strong focus on the image construction of our artist as the persona and image of the artist is clearly an key feature of this industry and form.
Andrew Goodwin's Theory
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| Andrew Goodwin |
Andrew Goodwin examined music videos as a form and developed a theory about the conventions of music videos. In this he states that there are 6 aspects to a music video:
- Lyrics and Visuals- Presenting a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
- Music and Visuals - Presenting a relationship between the music and the visuals
- Genre Conventions - Presenting a relationship between the genre and the visuals, for example having a convention such as a location which matches the genre.
- Frequent Looking - Having the Artist look frequently to the audience/camera or to another aspect of Mise En Scene such as another actor/actress
- Artist Promotion - Selling the artist, on how the record label or the artist wants to be seen. For example an artist may want to be presented as a heart throb and this may be done through presenting aspects which represent this.
- Intertextuality - This means to have one media text referencing to another media text.
What this means for me and our task: I am going to explore these conventions and try to identify them when I examine my own real media examples in my research, If I find that they are present across all music videos then I will need to consider how I implement these features in our own planning. At first hand I feel that many of them seem very accurate, just from many own knowledge of music videos and I think it will interesting to do a deeper analyse of music videos and track how accurate his theory is.
Conventions of Chosen Genre
Define Genre
We have decided that our genre will be Pop. Therefore we need to identify the conventions fo this genre. The name 'POP' originally comes from the word 'popular', this means that the selected genre is the most popular one. The genre is very diverse and often borrows elements from other styles. POP music usually consists of a basic format, which is the chorus-verse structure. Its a genre that has a great deal of hybridity- mix within in and is always developing and changing.Reason for decision
Being one of the most popular genre's is one of the key reasons why we have chosen the genre, it would mean that there would be a very wide range of pop audiences. Also it's diversity and the fact that there is so much hybridity in this genre greatly influenced our decision. It would allow is to be more creative and borrow aspects or ideas from other genres too.Its also one that our group is all familiar with and enjoy listening to ourselves so we believe that we would be able to work with it in an enjoyable and more successful way as we can relate to it.
This is a short video edit of pictures showing the generic conventions that we identified within the pop genre.
Because our chosen song is Pop/ Romance we wanted to focus particularly on this string of Pop. There are a number of photos in this video showing what we feel are conventions of a POP romance song. In order to complete this task we looked at POP music videos in order to gain an understanding of the conventions.
What this means for me and our task: From this research we were able to denitrify the conventions that we are going to apply to the music video that we will be creating. In addition to this we edited the pictures to the beat of the music as a practice of editing (Andrew Goodwin's theory of video matching the music). This has been useful s it has shown us how quick the editing will need to be and opened our eyes ot the completely of this task. we will need a lot of shots and the edit is going to take a long time.
Constructed Artist
As well as picking the song, the artist had to be chosen and constructed. We identified early on in our research into the industry that the construction of our artist will be one of the key feature of the video and a very important aspect in terms of the success of the product. We have put together photos of existing artists and stated what characteristics of them we would want to recreate for our artist.
What this means for me and our task: We have completed this in order to show what are intentions are of our own artist. This will be a clear aspect fo our planning and the ideas we have drawn form this will directly influence the casting decision we make.
What this means for me and our task: We have completed this in order to show what are intentions are of our own artist. This will be a clear aspect fo our planning and the ideas we have drawn form this will directly influence the casting decision we make.
In conclusion to this video, we intend on finding an artist that is, a young, white, attractive male artist, which has a smart casual look to them and this is because we want the voice to match our artist, and it is what we have all intended on going for. We see our artist to be a heart throb that usually teenage girls would lust over.
Star Profile - First Artist that we cast
This is Teddy Walker. He was our initial chosen actor to play our artist.
CHANGES: Unfortunately Teddy had a busy timetable and was unable to fully commit to the project. In addition we had doubts about his confidnece as in early shoots he was a bit shy and struggled to learn the lyrcis and perform to camera. So half way through we found ourselves without an artits. We decided to refocus our constructed idea and at this point we had carried out further research and really liked Olly Murs look and style. We felt that it directly fitted with our music style.
We recast and after many failed auditions I decided that at this stage I would be the actor! I also do drama and feel that I can confidently carry off the role. Also it means we don't have to rely on anyone else as I will obviously fully commit to the project. Although my ethnicity is not the same as those we found in our research, we felt that through costume and style we could conform to the start construction we had identified.
Star Profile - New Artist
Print Task Research (Digi-Pak)
A Digi-Pak is the packaging of the CD album. It
would consist of the front cover, back cover and the two inside panels.
I will be analysing how existing Digi-Paks have
been creating.
Print Task Research (Magazine Adverts)
A magazine advert would be used to
advertise the album, on a magazine and they would provide little information of
it.
Aimee and Rahat's Print Task Research
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What we will do with this research :
By collaborating all of our digi-pack research we realised that consistency is present across a number of different artists, not just the ones we looked at individually. From looking at two different digi-packs for Olly Murs, we found that artists maintain their star image across a number of different albums/releases. This meant that we knew that the star image for our artist had to be very strong and evident in our digi-pack.
We also saw that the colour scheme was continued throughout, making sure that the same colour scheme is kept throughout, this may be done to make it all recognizable as being related to one product so we would need to think about keeping the same colour scheme throughout in our print tasks.
The images would also mostly consist of the artist themselves rather than anything else, this is to ensure that the artist is being promoted than anything else, and for the audience to recognise who the product belongs to, which could be the selling point as the artist is what is sold to the audience mostly. From our research we plan to sell our artist and this would be done having our artist presented majorly throughout the print tasks, probably using a range of creative shots.
Further Research into music video
Aimee and Rahat's Music Video Research
Music Video research (taylor & bridgit) from aimwatson
As well as this, the male artists of the POP genre all have a similar smart/casual look which consists of bright colours (not dull or unsophisticated costume). So we will focus clearly on costume when we style our artist.
We also noticed that Andrew Goodwin's theory, particularly the lyrics and visual theory, apply throughout the videos we have analysed, and will therefore be a key feature that is taken into consideration when constructing our music video.
Finally, we realised that the mood in most POP videos are happy and cheery, which is highlighted through mise en scene, as well as the song its self. As a result of this research, we will aim to conform to these conventions of the pop genre (and of music videos generally) and will apply these to our music videos.
What we will do with this research :
By collaborating our research, we noticed similarities within the research we have individually carried out. We discussed these and drew out the similarities we came across. These include the common choices of locations within pop music videos; often parks, streets and cafes are chosen for locations. We plan to use similar locations in our video.As well as this, the male artists of the POP genre all have a similar smart/casual look which consists of bright colours (not dull or unsophisticated costume). So we will focus clearly on costume when we style our artist.
We also noticed that Andrew Goodwin's theory, particularly the lyrics and visual theory, apply throughout the videos we have analysed, and will therefore be a key feature that is taken into consideration when constructing our music video.
Finally, we realised that the mood in most POP videos are happy and cheery, which is highlighted through mise en scene, as well as the song its self. As a result of this research, we will aim to conform to these conventions of the pop genre (and of music videos generally) and will apply these to our music videos.
Costume Inspirations
There are several mainstream POP artists that we came across and looked into. They had a range of outfits that we found interesting and wanted our artist and female character to be wearing costume which is similar to those. For the male artist, commonly we wanted him to have a smart casual look, which made him look sophisticated, for example, with shirts, hats and chinos. The artist's girlfriend would potentially have smart trousers, jackets, skirts and dresses. Below there are a few images of costumes we wanted our cast to wear similar clothing to.
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
Planning
Finding a Song
The first stage of making our video is to find a track form an unsigned artist. We did this by asking each group member to go away and select a sing they found and then we pitched our songs and ideas around that song to the class.My Pitch:
The song that I picked is called 'Name In Stars - Anthony Rankin'.
The genre of this song is Pop, Rock, R&B
The idea of a music video I had for this song was to have it concept based. As it is a music which is based around romance I thought it would of the artist and his partner.
(A similar example of the music video I had in mind is the video by John Legend - All of Me)
The actor of the video should be the artist throughout the video he should be seen singing, and with his partner.
The artist should a male, preferably a young white adult male, wearing smart casual clothes in terms of the costume. The actress should also be a young white adult female, and to be seen wearing pretty dresses or casual clothes.
Costume Ideas:
Costume Ideas:
Throughout the video there should be a range of various locations of moments the artist and the girl are spending time together where you're able to see them acting like a couple and have nice romantic times together.
Some of the locations of these would be common places such as a park (field), cafe, bedroom, dinner table, streets etc. In these scenarios I would expect the weather to be bright and sunny however these may differ due to locations.
A more specific examples of shots could be in a field where the couple are laying down on the floor looking up at stars. Close ups of intimacy would be required as the couple should gently stroke and touch each other around areas of hands, lips, neck etc.
There should also be scenarios where the artist is lip syncing to the song, this would be in places such as the bedroom, a piano room, and maybe in the different scenarios where the couple are seen spending time together.
Feedback of the pitch: It may be difficult to find an actor and actress that are willing to act intimate, especially in front of a camera, therefore drama students or more of an experienced actors may be needed as it is more likely for them to feel comfortable taking on these roles.
This Idea is going to be shared with my group and we will be thinking about what are good about the song and the ideas and if the song would be a good option to use to start making a music video for. We may also be taking some ideas from it and think about how it may help for our chosen video.
1. Bedroom
This location was selected, as we thought it would be a common ideal place for a POP genre music video to take place as we found in our research that they often use domestic settings. I think this is to identify with average people/ audiences.
EXAMPLE: Olly Murs - Dear Darlin'
As our artist is a young male, we thought to set a bedroom location which as it would usually be a place where a young male would do most of his thinking. In addition to this, within the video our idea is that he would be shown sketching scenes of the video from this location and most of the lip syncing would be set in this location.
Challenges: We need to find a masculine looking bedroom that doesn't have too much clutter. Ideally we want somewhere that the decor is quite sophisticated. We also need someone where that the parents will be happy/ give permission for us to film in.
Challenges: we will obviously have to arrange for transport and will have to take all the kit to this location. It is not local so this will be difficult. We will need to ensure that we plan at a good time so a to avoid rush hour tube congestion. Finally we want it to be sunny so we need to check the weather and plan carefully.
Challenges: The biggest challenge will be have is going to be gaining permission to film within a cafe like this. We will need to be professional and contact the owner, maybe with a letter from our school and our student passes as evidence. We may also need to pay for a meal so this is an additional cost that we need to consider. We will nee dot be considerate of other diners and may need to schedule at a time when they are not too busy.
Cast Planning
Group Meeting (11/09/2014) 3:00pm - 6:00pm
In this group meeting, we had discussed the selected music we had chosen and went over the ideas we had for them in order to select one to progress with
Anthony Rankins - Name In Stars
(Aimee's) Michael McEachern - Easier as Us
(Rahat's) Jason Chen - Best Friends
We thought that 'Name In Stars' had the least potential in progressing with the music video so we had decided not to go ahead with it.
However as we liked both the remaining songs, it had seemed that it was difficult for us to pick. We had brain stormed ideas in detail for both the songs but still had gotten no where.
As a result to the group meeting we decided that we will be creating a brief storyline for both of the music videos and see which of these will be better for use. From this we will make a decision.
Group Meeting (16/09/2014) 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Another group meeting was held as we had to make a selection both the music we had chosen.
After completing the storyline (shown below) for both of the songs, the two songs ideas were really good and strong with a lot of potential.
Also after researching further into Jason Chen, we found out that we were not able to use his song as he was signed under his own record label.
This had lead us into picking Michael McEachern's Easier As Us
This is the brief story line for 'Jason Chen - Best Friend' by Rahat Hussain
This is the brief story line for 'Michael McEachern - Easier As Us' by Aimee Watson
Chosen Song Michael McEachern - Easier As Us
One of the main reasons why we decided to choose this song was because with the idea of the music video we thought that this song had potential in creating a really strong narrative based music video. The song ticked the box of being an upbeat romantic song which we was looking to head towards. We will be making the video as it was pitched.
Lyrics
Can't get my mind away from thoughts of you
Two weeks ago today you were just the girl I drew
Now I think it's time that we decide; lovers or friends
And we would be fools not to follow what our hearts suggest
So think it over
And let me know girl
'Cause you and I would be easier as us
We don't need three words when just one could sum us up
We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch
Oh, you and I would easier as us
Can't keep my hands away from holding yours
And your eyes like gravity keep pulling close inside of your world
Now I think it's time that together we find a life of our own
But together is hard when our title indicates we're alone
So think it over
And let me know girl
'Cause you and I would be easier as us
We don't need three words when just one could sum us up
We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch
Oh, you and I would easier as us
Straight to the point
Straight to the heart
I knew you were right
Right from the start
You and I would be easier as us
We don't need three words when just one
One could sum us up...
You and I would be easier as us
We don't need three words when just one could sum us up
We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch
Oh, you and I would easier as us
You and I would be easy as us (x4)
Contacting the artist
Proof of us contacting Michael McEachern
The message:
I am currently studying A level media for college (Sir John Cass Sixth Form) and I am in need of a song to use for my music video. I came across your song 'Easier As Us' on Jamendo and would love to use it and create a video for the song. Of course, your permission is required for us to use your song, and it would be greatly appreciated if you would grant us the permission needed. The video would be used for educational purposes only, but we would be required to put the video on YouTube in order for the examiner to view it. We would take no credit for your track.
Yours faithfully,
Aimee, Rahat and Maajid
Developing our ideas further. Our animatics
Now that we have our chosen song and some initial ideas, we wanted to develop them further. Here is our animatics video that we made.
It is basically our storyboard edited together alongside the track to demonstrate how we roughly envisage our music video to be. We will be following the animatics for our filming as a storyboard.
It is basically our storyboard edited together alongside the track to demonstrate how we roughly envisage our music video to be. We will be following the animatics for our filming as a storyboard.
Locations Research and Plan
Here I will be talking about the possible locations that I feel that would be good to use. It has been gathered through the conventions of pop that we identified in our research and consideration of our story board.
This location was selected, as we thought it would be a common ideal place for a POP genre music video to take place as we found in our research that they often use domestic settings. I think this is to identify with average people/ audiences.
EXAMPLE: Olly Murs - Dear Darlin'
Challenges: We need to find a masculine looking bedroom that doesn't have too much clutter. Ideally we want somewhere that the decor is quite sophisticated. We also need someone where that the parents will be happy/ give permission for us to film in.
2. Park: St James Park
London SW1A 2BJ
This is a location we found during our location hunt which we would like to use. This was one of the places that we found and felt as though it would be a good place to have our opening scene, where the artist is seen sitting on a bench sketching the girl he likes. We thought that the location is very peaceful and natural, a place where a person could come to relax and sketch like the character in our music video would.
In addition to this we thought the location matched our music genre research as parks are a very common convention in the pop genre that we found.
EXAMPLE: One Direction - Night Changes
In addition to this we thought the location matched our music genre research as parks are a very common convention in the pop genre that we found.
EXAMPLE: One Direction - Night ChangesChallenges: we will obviously have to arrange for transport and will have to take all the kit to this location. It is not local so this will be difficult. We will need to ensure that we plan at a good time so a to avoid rush hour tube congestion. Finally we want it to be sunny so we need to check the weather and plan carefully.
3. Ice Skating: Somerset House (Ice Rink)
Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Another location which we had come across was the Somerset House, we thought this would be a ideal location to choose for a date scene between the artist and the girlfriend. It looks bright and romantic, which is also a common POP/ romance genre convention. We found in our research that date scenes tended to be bright and well lit, often with fairy lights and in busy locations filled with people's fun and laughter.
EXAMPLE: One Direction - Night Changes
Challenges: This will be expensive, not just the travel up the west end, but also taking all the kit. And then the actual cost of ice skating is quite pricey. Also there are the safety limitations of skating and filming and the technical issues of do we take the camera on the ice or film form the side. These are all issues that we will have to explore further.
Challenges: This will be expensive, not just the travel up the west end, but also taking all the kit. And then the actual cost of ice skating is quite pricey. Also there are the safety limitations of skating and filming and the technical issues of do we take the camera on the ice or film form the side. These are all issues that we will have to explore further.
4. Cafe: The Gaslight Lounge and Bar
4 Duke Of York Street, St. James's, London SW1Y 6LA
In the music video, one of the locations we had chosen to have was a cafe, and during our location hunt we came across this place. We thought that it may be one that we may use as we thought the shop looked romantic and may be a place where a couple would go to. A Cafe/ dinner location was also a genre convention we found in our research.
EXAMPLE: Justin Bieber - Mistletoe
Especially POP songs which feature topics of 'love' and this is what we were intending to do, so we felt this would work well.
EXAMPLE: Justin Bieber - Mistletoe
Especially POP songs which feature topics of 'love' and this is what we were intending to do, so we felt this would work well.
Challenges: The biggest challenge will be have is going to be gaining permission to film within a cafe like this. We will need to be professional and contact the owner, maybe with a letter from our school and our student passes as evidence. We may also need to pay for a meal so this is an additional cost that we need to consider. We will nee dot be considerate of other diners and may need to schedule at a time when they are not too busy.
Cast Planning
We found early on that casting was important and because of this we wanted to ensure that we took this aspect very seriously.
Here is a calling for audition listed on a website called 'StarNow'
Here is a calling for audition listed on a website called 'StarNow'
Applicants will be replied to via email or phone number informing if they were successful or not.
Photoshoot 1: Ted
On the 6th November we ran a practice photo shoot for the digi-pak we were planning to create. We took some photos in reference to other albums of male artists that we found in our research and tried to use their style of poses for our artist. Here are two photos that we edited in photoshop, aiming to remove the spots on the face of our artist (as he is a teenager and we found that all the prints we looked dat in our research had flawless skin) .
Final Casting decisions:
Maajid
Pelin
Final Casting decisions:
Maajid
Pelin
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