Audience, Audience, AUDIENCE!!!

Audience awareness is key when developing ideas for our music video and so I spent an extensive amount of time researching to discover what it was exactly that made the fanbase of AlunaGeorge tick, and then - what 'young people' (the wider generalised audience) would possibly expect from their music videos. Here's a powerpoint documenting my struggle...

After that I also did some research url (in real life) rather than electronically. I asked some normal teenagers a similar sort of questions and here they are;

Planning - Final Logo Choice!

After much deliberation we came to a shortlist. We were stuck between choosing one of two logo's;

We finally chose the second logo because of its striking nature as opposed to the first because it looked more typical for a pop artist. We're glad about the decision made because we feel it is more appropriate for the genre and the artist (Romy). It shows the uniqueness of the artists' sound and will work well with the digi-packs and promotional materials.

Planning- COSTUME CHOICES

We are going to try and stick to 4 costume changes.
We want to match each outfit to each of the 4 settings. (See other blog post for settings and locations)

We want to create a casual look for the first scene, an outfit that's quite homely and cosy and then in the second scene something quite casual and street like.


here are a few items of clothing we might aim our costume ideas around:

http://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/product/clothing-427/shorts-448/moto-overdye-hotpants-2294788?bi=1&ps=200

http://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/product/clothing-427/knitwear-444/knitted-rib-detail-crop-jumper-2013065?bi=201&ps=200

http://www.boohoo.com/restofworld/clothing/new-in/icat/newin/new-in/diana-retrometric-brushed-knit-leggings/invt/azz41927

http://www.boohoo.com/restofworld/clothing/new-in/icat/newin/new-in/mia-turn-back-cuff-skater-dress/invt/azz43131

Planning- Locations, Settings and Props

We looked into out props and locations and found a motif we could go by (i.e rich colours). We decided on four locations corresponding to parts of the song - not exactly following the lyrics narrative but matching the tone of the music.

Here are our findings, note style;

The Lyrics Decoded

Since the actual song 'Bad Idea' doesn't have a music video, we can analyse the original one. However, I thought something useful I could do was decode the lyrics to see if they could contribute any ideas to the development of the final Music Video.

Here I am, talkin' bout it...

Brand Synergy...A Logo?

As a graphic design studio - the prospect of developing a brand image for the artist in the music video excites me - most particularly the 'logo' for the artist. Romy is the performer in the music video and so i will be designing one for her. Here are my initial ideas...

As a group our initial thoughts were to go with something bold as we found more pop artists use bold type for their logo's. Taking this group feedback I went on to develop more possible logo ideas.

Now all thats next is asking the group what they think!

Who Is AlunaGeorge?

Good question blog title, well - I went into some depth myself about the subject. Well I made a little video about it - however, the first thing to know I suppose is that they went unsigned for 4 years before being signed to Universal Music Publishing Group UK;

Inspirations for Le Music Video

When thinking up iDeas (I like to type 'ideas' like that, makes it seem more creative) I tried to think about the kinda music videos we as a group could gain inspiration from.

Cher Loyd - Swagger Jagger

Although the song itself is pretty horrendous, the music video hold some useful notes on onscreen typography and colouring. I feel like colouring is such an underrated component of a music video that is key to what makes one amazing - congruent colour choice can really step a music video's game up. Also the costume in this music video is rather synonymous with the pop feel - I like how the extras in the music video are dressed in relation to the main artist.

Rizzle Kicks - Lost Generation

What I admire about this video is its framing. The director and cinematographer obviously thought a lot about how they wanted each shot to look and I hope to bring this level of intricacy to our music video. I also find the shots the dancers were in were useful for reference because we hope to have some form of dancing in the music video.

Mika - Lollipop

Although it would be interesting, we can't create an entire music video in an animatic style, however - we can still take inspiration from his music video. I find the colours can be useful reference to us as well as the typography as we are pretty much set on on-screen type. Yet, the thing that most interests me about this music video is the opening, I enjoy the beginning titles for the music video and so think it could be someting to consider for ours.

Planning- More Legal and copyright...

It turns out, that we happened to choose one of the songs that a member of the group requested copyright clearance for over the summer - so we were quite lucky with that.

Here's the evidence:

Planning- The Beginnings (i.e the MoodBoard)

We put together a moodboard in class detailing the awesome and extensive amount of ideas we had initially, we managed to talk over ideas and so far we're happy about where the music video is heading. We're gearing towards a very pop art inspired and colourful music video - hopefully it will work out as we're planning.

Skills Audit...

Think back to the research that you conducted for your AS practical work; how have your skills in research developed since then? 

I feel as if my skills have developed in the sense that i know more about how to edit things and how to make the edits clean and precise. I feel as if my skills can only grow as i go into my A2 year. It's quite simple to research things but it takes more skill to research well and to make your research interesting and readable. 

I enjoyed my first year in media but i feel as if i'm more excited about this year because i love music and music videos so creating one sounds really exciting to me. Hopefully i can show my enthusiasm through my blogs and work. 

Obtaining Copyright Permission

First of all, we had to request copyright permission for a track that we think would be good to use for our project. I picked Delilah- Inside My Love (Redlight Remix) as I really like the song as it has an intense feel to it which I thought would go hand in hand with an intense music video. I also thought it would be fairly easy to get copyright permission for as Digital Soundboy is quite a niche record label, mostly known in London. Here's a screenshot of a letter I emailed to their label manager:

Progress

I feel like this year i am going to be a lot better at blogging on time and blogging enough work. Last year i feel as i did blog enough however sometimes i left blogs to the last minute which didn't benefit me at all so this year i hope to stay on top of the blogs and also do more blogs that aren't on the checklist.

I want to find new and exciting ways to blog in order to keep my work interesting and readable.

So far i haven't used that many interesting ways to produce my work however the reason for this is because i wanted to make sure i got enough of my work done before making it look interesting with pictures etc.

i would give myself maybe 14 out of 20 for my blogging so far this year.

3 things i need to improve:

• blogging apperance
• amount of blogging
• do more blogging that isn't on the checklist

Planning- The Decision Has Been Made...

So after that tense video last time we had a shortlist of songs we were to choose from (click here to view the blog post). However, today for you we have the final battle in the song choice saga - The Decision. Enjoy...

The Choice Part 2 - Group 21 by asmediaset5

Reflection on My Progress...

This is gonna be a short, but valuable one today folks. I've pretty much improved on my presentation from last year - trying my best to develop my use of presentation mediums - pushing myself to keep each blog interesting to watch - so here is me - reflecting on my progress...

How Music Video's Apply to Audiences

Well, music video directors and producers along with record labels and artists spend a long time thinking about how to put across and artist IN their music videos so that they appeal to their audiences. lets talk some more about that in this podcast;

Relating Synergy to Our Song Choice

After much consideration we came to a decision within the group to do an AlunaGeorge song (Bad Habbit). So after that the we had t think carefully about relatable artists and what we could take from their brand synergy. I feel out of all current artists I could think of, Katy B shows the most similarities (musically) to AlunaGeorge, meaning they are in a similar genre (pop/trance). So I thought further investigation into her brand synergy would be useful for us as a group.

Katy B - On a Mission Music Video

Here, Katy B makes keen use of colour - a trend I am noticing more and more in trance and electronic music as well as pop music. Once again, the artist has a logo as part of their branding like a product, that makes me believe that a logo for our 'artist' will be key when developing brand synergy. Also; a colour scheme will be needed to make the project look more together. There is not necessarily a moitf that is repetitive within Katy B's media, but it is something to think about and consider.