Group 35: October 2010

Sunday, 31 October 2010

Describing the initial ideas for digipak and advertisements.

My initial ideas for my digipak is I would either get a big picture of the band or the lead singer and put some effects on it like black and white or something else that would make it have the indie vibe. However for the cover that goes on the CD I want to do something creative like cigarettes buts that make it look like an ash tray like Arctic Monkeys album ‘Whatever people say I am I’m not’ I will not however use this idea but maybe have pictures of different instruments or loads of mini stills from the video. I think I may produce a 6 or an 8 digipak to gain more marks. By having these sorts of ideas I believe that it will create the indie effect and therefore meet my target audience and will get interested in it.

Also in my digipak I will have a poster of the band. to make it a unique item for fans of the band to have to put up on there bedroom wall.

I will also advertise my digipak on the Internet to connect and reach my target audience and hopefully reach a wider audience as so many people use the Internet. I may also decide to advertise over the radio for music fans.

Planning : Pitch 13,14 and 15

13.For our 3 products we plan to use digital technology by doing a radio interview of the band to promote this single of shooting star to get across to their audience and to increase sales. Also we was planning on posting on facebook of our single to and advertise maybe on the Artist Facebook page to get across to their fans as only their fans will be able to see this page and will go out and buy this single.

14.We have used conventions of real media text like radio interviews, digipacks which real music artist use. The difference between all these three are the digipack will be what people actually buy and i want to do something creative with an indie twist and the rest are actual advertisements to get the single out to the public.

15.In A2 we have looked at production in a different way to A level because in A level we was looking at prediction of films and this is usually done in big budgets so the production like adverting would be everywhere. However with music video we are looking to advertise on the radio unlike film, also unlike film and A level at As we are looking to do a digipack and look to advertise online and of course produce a music video.

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Production: Filiming Day One.

Our first filming day went really well, we filmed all shots and angles that we felt would do the performance aspect of the music video justice. Even though the performance space was on the small side, we thought that it still looked pretty effective and puts the band where it is at in the world of music - forthcoming. Without having looked back at the footage, the only problem we have encountered so far was the dropping out of the drummer at the very last minute, and so we had to get George to play the drums with no experience. Above are a few of the photos we took while on shoot. some could possibly be used in digipaks and adverts.

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Storyboard

This is the storyboard that we had to do to show how we plan to make our video work and what sort of shots we plan to use in our video.

Planning: Main Filming Location.

On Monday the 18th of October, myself and Michael officially booked our main filming location at the Roundhouse. We were shown around the facilities available for us to use at a small fee. We discovered that if we wanted to, whilst filming, are able to use programs such as Final Cut Pro in their media labs. This could be used to our advantage as we will not have to wait until we get back to college to find faults in our footage.

One thing that could be a disadvantage is the overall size of the rehearsal rooms: they are very compact and they are poorly decorated and brightly light. Though I think we will have to use an idea suggested by teachers, which is putting curtains/fabric around the areas of filming so that we can have a plain and clean looking background. It needs to be discussed whether or not to use black or white backdrops. Today I have been emailing requestin permission to film footage outside a number of small gig venues to be edited into music video.

Planning: Storyboard

This is the final storyboard that we have come up with and will be the main basis of the production of music video.

Friday, 15 October 2010

Planning: Pitch 13, 14 and 15.

13. How do you plan to use digital technology?

The internet : facebook, youtube, blogs, band website etc.
Analogue and digital radio.
Photoshop
Editing transitions and effects (final cut)

14. How have you used conventions from real media text in your planning?
We have had to analyse a number of official music videos and from this we have been able to take certain aspects and adapt them to fit our own. We noticed that close ups are vital and so we have aimed to use a vast amount. Also, the pace of the editing cuts to the beat of the song. For indie bands, their CD and digipack covers tend to have photographed artwork, with a range of graphics over-layed. as opposed to pop genre artwork being more animated.

15. What have we learned about research and planning?

We found planning for A2 more difficult that AS. Mainly because we have to request permission to use a number of locations and the song itself. The video and the planning would not be possible without permission. Using final cut is not as simple as last year; we have be showed how to correctly time the track to the performance on the video.

Planning: Describe your initial ideas for the visual style and graphics of your digipak and advertisements.

Ideally, I want to produce a digipak with simple images that symbolise the genre, the band and the music they produce. Whilst shooting our video, we are planning to take a range of photos that can possibly be used, either, on the cover of or on the inside panels of the digipak. I am looking to produce a 6 panel digipak containing song lyrics and a pull out poster of the band. The addition of the poster is likely to be one of the way in which the digipak – teenagers are likely to want to put posters up of the band they like in their bedrooms. Those who are fans of a particular style of band, for example, indie rock are likely to style themselves around the band – the poster showing the band is likely to affect the style of the consumer.

I want my advertisement to be very simple, but informative and eye-catching. Preferably a photo of the band with the band name at the top of the ad and further information at the bottom with maybe a small thumbnail of the album cover.

Wordle

Planning: Pitch.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Planning: Animatic

Audience Task

Sid Brady is a seventeen year old white British male student who is currently unemployed. Sid lives in North London, he shops at Tesco as it is the cheapest place to go shopping. In his spear time he plays musical incitements like guitar and socialises with his friends and drinks alcohol, He don't tend to buy big tabloid newspapers and gets The Metro as the best things in life are the free things.

When Sid is meant to be doing work he reads Kerang and MME so there is not a surprise he is into Indie Rock. When Sid goes shopping he goes to the high street like Camden high street. He feels that he best likes Indie as it goes with His style. Sid favourite drink is cider and he would very much like to go to America but is happy to stick with UK domestic holidays. Sid will take public transport when traveling around London using his Oyster card.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Copyright request

Letter sent to record label.
EMI records
EMI House, 43 Brook Green
London
W6 7EF
Dear, Sir/Madame
Request for Copyright Permission to use part or whole of: “shooting star" by Air traffic
I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.
The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledge in the finished project.
If you do not hold the rights for this song I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.
Yours faithfully
Kirsty Phillips

Friday, 8 October 2010

Planning: Filming Permission Request

In order to make sure there are no problems on the days of production, I emailed Westminster council to ask permission to film in the borough. This is the email that was sent:

Dear Sir/Madame

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a music video. I would like to make sure that it is okay to do so or request permission to flim in areas of Westminster. Specifically around areas of the river Thames. The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes.

Many thanks,
Kirsty Phillips.

Planning: Audience Task

Harry is a seventeen year old white British male from central London. He lives at home with his parents and is currently an unemployed student who would usually buy his groceries from Tescos. In his spare time from college Harry enjoys socializing with friends and some family members. He also plays guitar and piano and enjoys creating forms of art. Harry enjoys reading his parents newspapers, but prefers the free newspapers that fit his budget such as the Metro. His most enjoyable magazines to read are music magazines such as NME and Kerrang! He tends to use all forms of public transport, particularly the bus as it is free for hims to travel around London. Harry uses a range of gadgets such as a smart-phone, iPod, laptop, digital camera and other up to date technologies. Harry is attracted to designer brands such as Fred Perry and Lyle and Scott, but mostly chooses high street brands such as Topman because they are more in his price range. His preferred places to shop would be Camden, Covent Garden, Oxford street etc. Harry tends to go on road trips with his older friends around the UK to seaside and city destinations. But goes on family holidays most years. Harry like the indie rock genre as he feels he can connect with the passion of music most of the bands and artists of that genre have because he can play instruments and loves to play music. His style also reflects his liking of the genre.

Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture

1) Illustration: - This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics.

2) Amplification: - Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

3) Disjuncture: - This is where there is little conncetion between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric.

Illustration: Miley Cyrus - Fly On The Wall :

This video fits the Illustration category because the lyrics are about the paparazzi and them watching everything that Miley makes, which completely relates to the video because she is being followed by the paparazzi; they're basically following her around with cameras.

Amplification: Paramore - Misery Business:

This video fits the amplifcation category because the lyrics of the song fit with the video, but the video uses different illustrations to add more meaning into it; for example, we get to see who the character is in the video, and have no need to create an image of the mean girl in our heads (we would if we only listened to the song) becuase they've created one for us.

Disjuncture: Katy Perry - California Gurls

This video is an example of disjuncture because it bears no relation to the song; the lyrics are about California, but the video is using sweets and is sweet themed. This therefore has no relation to California; however the only relations to the lyrics in the video are the girls weraing daisy dukes and the heart with the letters CA (Abbrevation for California) inside at the end of the video.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

Audience Task

For our audience, we're hoping it attracts young people more, because of the genre, especially the indie/rock type of people.
But, then again, it could go for any age.

Andrew Goodwin Blogging Task.

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional analyses (using ideas such as todorov) don't really apply to pop videos. This isn't because pop videos are trying to be innovative or experimental; they approach narrative from a diffrent perspective and angle compared to novels and films. There are some reasons behind this:

1) Pop videos are built around the song, which do not have traditional narrative structures.

2) The Pop video often uses the singer as both a narrator and a character.

3) The singer often looks directly at the character - This is an extension of performance and tyring to invole the viewer at home with the performance they're creating.

Pop videos rely on repetition. Often, the video repeats images in the way that the song repeats chourses or lines. Also, this repetition in songs of parts or rhythms of other songs means that we become familiar with the genre and then we have expectations of how the genre creates it's videos.

Pop songs and videos have an ending to them. It's the single that the video is based around and therefore must also have an ending, which is often reflected in the structure of the music, it builds to a climax, before fading and ending.

Some videos are autonomous from the music that was created for them; a video for a song may go completely beyond the original meaning and create a new, deeper meaning for the audience. Sometimes, the video provides a visual pleasure which encourages viewing the video over and over, which in turn promotes the song and the artist's music. Sometimes the song/video is synergous and therefore promoting something other than the song/video itself. Therefore it can be said that there are just more than one relationship between songs and videos: Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture. (See post on Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture for meanings and examples.)

Pop videos often have easily recognisable features (An example, Hayley Williams for Paramore's coloured tape around her microphones in Paramore's Videos) Another feature is the way women are presented as objects of male desire. This is particularly true of hip hop and heavy metal videos. In some videos the different instruments in the music are represented by different objects. Also, videos try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, without alienating the core target audience. Videos which feature older bands often show them in their older days, usually so an older audience can sill identify with them. Finally, Videos that are from songs made for movies often (Usually all of the time) include and incorparate images an clips from the movie.

My copyright Clearence

This is My copyright clearance E-mail/Letter; It was also completed for florence + The Machine and Hadouken!

Corporate Communications Department
EMI Music
27 Wrights Lane
London
W8 5SW

Tel: +44 (0)20 7795 7000

Dear, Sir/Madame

Request for Copyright Permission to use part or whole of “Fireworks” and “Underdog” (As an acoustic song) By You Me At Six.

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song, I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully

Michael Lewry

Planning: Our Media Mood Board

This is our Mood Board. It puts all of our influences of genre, clothing, audience and locations together (Paramore, You Me At Six, Indie Rock, Massive crowds, Moshing, Drums, Guitars) in one place. This shows who we are, what influences we have in our own preference of music and what is going to influence our music video.

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Final Song Choice.

We picked Air Traffic's 'Shooting Star'as our final song.
We haven't quite planned out our narrative, for now, and how it'll be different from the actual clip itself, however we're thinking of filming London -either in the day or night - and speed it up in the editing. Fast and slow editing. Also, the part in the clip where everything slows down, we're comsidering that. Also, we're planning no to do the cliche thing where boy meets girl and falls in love, we want to make it creative.
Also, we're planning to book a studio, where we can film the band...

Monday, 4 October 2010

Short list of potential songs.

Who is Vladimir Propp?

Vladimir Propp is a Russsian Scholar. We have to write about his theory:

ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.
INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').
VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.
RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.
DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.
TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.
COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).
VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.
MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.
BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.
DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;
FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);
RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;
BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);
RETURN: Hero returns;
PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;
UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;
DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
SOLUTION: Task is resolved;
RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;
TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);
PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;
WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Also, Propp concluded that there are 8 main character types he analysised in the top 100 tales:

The villain — struggles against the hero.
The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Sunday, 3 October 2010

Planning: Final Song Choice.

Air Traffic - "Shooting Star"
Official video link

Our final song choice is "Shooting Star" by Air Traffic.The video we produce will be substantially different to the original in the link above. We hope to portray the song through a mix of linear and non linear narrative, with the artist being a narrator as well as participant. One way in which we could make the narrative different to the original video is by changing the narrative to give the song another meaning or show its meaning from another point of view. We want to experiment as much as possible with this music video to allow us to get a range of shots and transitions in the video, but not to many so that it is overwhelming and distasteful. We want to follow conventions of the indie pop genre as well as adding our own twist to it.

Planning: Song Choice Shortlist

After researching and discussing a varied range of genres, as a group we decided to chose a song of the indie rock genre, that wasn't to up-beat and heavy based but not to slow. We then looked at the songs we all requested copy right for and chose five that fit the genre and what kind of song in that genre we wanted. Our final five are as follows:

Friday, 1 October 2010

Planning: lip Sync Tutorial

To get us familiar with the used of the new skills that are needed to create a music video, we were set the task of making a very basic music video.