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.

A review of a previous students work

I was looking through the previous music videos made by some students last year and the music video that stood out for me was the Dubstep video. I thought this was a really original idea and the students stuck to the conventions of a music video really well. As much as I despise dubstep as a genre, I didn't mind this song too much, but I think the video had a positive effect on me as I felt as if it brought me into the song.

Firstly, I think the video itself is aimed at a young audience, as it's a relatively new genre of music in which a lot of young people listen to. This is a dance genre which outlines the even more the fact that its specifically aimed at young people. 

The originality is something that impressed me about this video, as told by our teacher a Dubstep music video has never been done before by students so it seems like quite a risky idea. After watching a few other Dubstep music videos on Youtube, I noticed the similarities between them. The video coincides with the music very well, as it has quite an eery and intense feel to it. I think what this group did well is focus more on the camera work and editing, which was really strong in this video. Particularly the use of jump cuts, close ups and black and white, which gives outlines the general conventions of a music video, along with the slow motion and numerous base tracks used. Another strong point is the theme of birds that they use in the video, which doesn't really make sense but then again doesn't have to, as it simply just increases the eeriness, particularly the bird in the cage. A favourite shot of mine was the silhouette one as I think it really suits the song choice. I also liked the mirror effect they put on the hand movement I thought this was very clever as again, it doesn't really have a reason to it but just fits in with the general feel of the video.

Something that I thought that they could have improved was the setting for the dancing. I think a location similar to the ones in the other base tracks would have made this video perfect, as I don't think the dancers doing it in a dance studio really fits in with the rest of the video. 

Analysing Costume, Setting and Location in music video

I've decided to analyse Natasha Bedingfield's song 'These Words'

There were 8 costume changes, 2 of those changes included a change of hairstyle but not a change of clothes. She was wearing a different outfit for each setting, this might be not be a wise thing for me and my group to do because if we do too many different settings the costume changes would start to look really obvious and predictable.

This is at the very start of the music video, the background is very colorful and her blue top stands out against the background because the colors clash slightly.

The setting in this shot is very small but that allows all the attention and focus to be on Natasha because she is right in the center of the shot. Also in this shot there is the use of slow motion. 

This is a wide shot of Natasha showing the background behind her to be again be quite bright and colorful like the first screenshot. 

This close up allows the audience to see the expression on the singers face. 

This shot is a lot darker and she has darker makeup on during the middle 8 section of the song, the location and costume link with the lyrics and setting as the chord selection changes and becomes more intense.

AlunaGeorge, Who Are They?

ALUNAGEORGE? WHO ARE THEY? 

Sooooooooo basically our group came to the decision today that we would do our music video based around the song 'Bad Idea' by AlunaGeorge.

But who ARE AlunaGeorge? 

This PREZI tells you everything you need to know my friend...

Interview with BBC1 Radio

Album Cover:

Eliza Doolittle Album Synergy

Eliza Doolittle is an artist that relates to the chosen artist and genre me and my group have chosen...

This is her album cover:
It's very bright and colorful and grabs the attention of anyone walking past it in a shop. It shows off her personality and gives you an idea of what her music is going to be about. It's almost quite childlike so you can imagine the younger generation being interested in her music (possibly her target audience).

Here is a music video by Eliza Doolittle for her first single:



Eliza Doolittle looks similar to how she does on her album cover which links the two things together. Her first single is very upbeat and happy which relates back to her album also because of the bright colors featured on the album cover. 

Planning- SHORTLIST OF SONGS

Here is our first stage of deliberation in full technicolor, brought to you via group 21. Enjoy our witty conversational debate, before it turns ugly...

Creating Brands and Brand Synergy (its very fancy stuff)

Today in class we were introduced to the wonderful world of brand synergy. It's all about the consistency artists adopt to make themselves for easily recognised and branded, especially when being newly introduced. I studied three musical artists and how their brand synergy was intertwined through their image when releasing their debut albums.

Emeli Sande

Emeli Sande has a specific look to her videos and promotion, they all follow the same muted colour scheme (browns and greys) suggesting the down to earth and wholesome nature of her music. Her name is in a plain typeface on her album cover, the same used on her promotional material. The slight grunge look on her album cover is used in her music video 'next to me', which imitates the muted tones and rustic feel of the album art. We also are given a lot of close-ups of the artist (key when thinking about releasing a new artist) in both the video, album art and promotional content. Her actual styling is also key to brand synergy, e.g. her blonde hair in quiff form is made evident across all media plattforms.

Disclosure

Disclosure makes use of a couple motifs to format their brand synergy. The most evident is the outline of the face that they use across all of their media (album art, posters, music videos). It usually flashes on the music video but is obvious enough to become a recurring brand image associated with the duo. When seen in another music video fans will immediately be able to male the link between the two, making the motif useful for brand association and awareness (branding musical artists is key in the music world to push awareness of the artist). The band also has a font type the use across their printed media, much similarly to Emeli Sande. Lastly the dup are in fact a duo - and so the more subtle motif is the impression of duality.  A lot of mirrored images and shots of the duo performing together are used in the music video, as well as the use of an image depicting the two as young boys on their album cover.

Labrinth

Labrinth focuses on a few key elements of synergy that tie into an entire brand concept. His debut album is entitled 'Electronic Earth' and so fittingly, the look of the album art and his music video 'Let The Sunshine' are appropriately very futuristic looking with high production value. Even down to his typeface for his printed media, the overall look is very futuristic. His colour scheme (black, dark blues, reds and purples) is also used throughout different media to once again tie in with his album concept, similarly to Emeli Sande and her matching album work and music video. 

Three Video's With Synergy

During my lesson today i looked at 3 music videos and thought about how synergy is added to help link each promotional item together.

the first artist i looked at was Ellie Goulding:

Ellie Goulding's album cover is very distinctive due to the way she looks and how she dresses. In the music video for her very first single off her newest album 'Halcyon' her look is stylized so that she looks different and unusual. This idea of styling links back to her album cover.












The next artist i looked at was Ed Sheeran:

Ed Sheeran's look is also quite unique. I think one of the things that makes him stand out is the color of his hair and on his album cover you can tell that he embraces the fact he is ginger because he uses an orange background that almost covers his face that is in the center of the album. The font is also unusual and this font is continued on the back of his album. 

The final artist i looked at was Disclosure:

Their album cover is a picture of them when they were younger (disclosure are brothers). The unique drawings on their faces is featured in the video below, in fact they feature the drawings in most of their work which makes them stand out and grab the audiences attention.

Research- Blogging progress

Blogging Progress.pptx andreoia

 

Research- Re-edited version of last year's student music video

I couldn't find my last year's video re-make of The Queens therefore there is no re-edited version :(  Sorry!

Research- Skills audit

My skills in research have developed immensely because last year I would depend on my own knowledge and discussions in class rather than taking my time to look for further research. I also used the recommended book 'OCR Media Studies for AS' Third Edition however I have been encouraged to look at other media textbooks relevant to the course and surf the internet for further information.

I believe I have certainly improved my research and practical work this year because not only have I been improving my work day by day but my evaluation and analysis and conclusion have been purely through that extra effort and hard work I have always given in media.