Official Risk Assessment Form

We have been reminded the importance of filling out a risk assessment form prior to filming. This is crucial to do in any type of technical project in media, from film, to TV and especially music videos. Since we are planning to do some of our filming outdoor, it is therefore essential to have this documentation fully completed for assurance.

Possible locations

In order to get the best shots and footage possible for our hipster style video, we have researched and been to the quirkiest and cultured places to choose from. We have come up with a bullet-point list of the
best suited locations where will be considering filming. London is a cosmopolitan and unique city with plenty of places to choose from, therefore we are aiming to utilize what we can in order to achieve the very best results. Here are some of our ideas:

• Hoxton
• Clerkenwell
• Camden
• Soho
• Primrose Hill
• Notting Hill
• Portabello
• Hampstead High Street
• Little Venice 
• Covent Garden 
• South Bank
• London Bridge/Bermondsey

Noah and the Whale's website page

As a group, we 'Googled' the band's official website page to browse through their blog, tour dates and music links. This provided us with a deeper insight into who we are working on for our own production of a music video, as well as inspiring us to see what a professional website homepage is like for further reference to make our own.

Synesthesia Exercises: Research Method

In class we learnt that another form of qualitative research is through a synesthetic exercise. This gives the viewer an opportunity to participate in listening to the music. This triggers images and thoughts in the brain due to hearing sounds and noises, automatically responds to visual motions. 

This can be a source of amazing artistic inspiration when creating the video, as it gives us ideas as to what an audience hears and feels. Especially our TARGET audience! It is known to be a unique experience for the participant as they capture colours, tones, images, harmonies, shapes and other elements included.

Musician and synesthetic Michael Levy, made an over 2 minute film on his thought processes whilst listening to composer John Coltrane's jazz music. This was definitely eye opening and gave us a scientific insight as to what we are expecting from our audience feedback.
Below is a filmed interview with a peer, that records James listening to Five Years Time, and then saying his reaction and any thoughts that come to mind right after. Take a look!



As a group, the three of us sat down and did our own, professional synesthesia exercise. We came up with a brainstorm combing all of our ideas.

Group Contact and Networking

In order to communicate and post instant ideas online where the three of us can see, we have created an
interactive Facebook Group that is called: Media A2 for our benefit.
This use of free and useful technology very much assists us to brainstorm and to share ideas and thoughts in this pre-production process.

Facebook was also used for our Media AS thriller title sequence as well as the tool to send our survey out to friends and family on Survey Monkey. 

We also send each other brainstorms and spider diagrams filled with ideas and possible concepts to incorporate in the video. Here is an example:

Our chosen song!

Lyrics to Song from Tyler Alexander-Abt

Audience questionnaire feedback example

Below are 3/10 of the questions from the survey, made into pie charts. This help us to analyse the results strategically and show the difference of information.

Stop motion

Stop Motion is a technological technique used in film and the visual arts in order to manipulate objects to appear moving on their own using still, divided frames combined into a pattern.
My group and I thought that it would be really effective and a nice touch to use this in our own video. First we researched examples of videos that incorporate this.




The objects are moved slowly in a gradual development between the individually photographed/filmed frames, creating the illusion of movement. This looks fantastic when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence creating an almost animated touch to the video. 

We decided it would be well suited to use to stop motion in the very beginning, where there is whistling and a ukulele playing. This transports the viewer from fantasy to reality as we will form a transition at that point fowards. We have created a draft of the stop motion. Our idea was to have a sun gradually moving along the horizon through white, puffy clouds above green landscape. In our free time, we constructed a mock up and cut and glued these components using coloured paper. We then used our iPhone 4 to take separate pictures whilst readjusting the sun continuously. Then, we uploaded our still frames onto our saved file on Adobe for the video, and created a 10-15 second sequence of the gradual stop motion. I found this such an artistic and creative way to introduce the video. This has sprouted many other ideas and possible effects that we will use in the production process. 

Below is an example of the first frame used in our stop motion experiment:

Our target audience

As the indie folk, community, hipster genre is known for a 'share the love' motto, we are promoting a positive and authentic take on music. Having inspiration from 70's subculture, we have decided to choose a 15-16 target audience and older. We aim to achieve nothing explicit or sexually charged yet our video has a focus on culture and youth lifestyle.

Therefore we are steering away from the following aspects:

• horror and gore
• discrimination
• drugs
• imitable behaviour
• language
• nudity
• sex
• violence
• homophobia

Genres like house and dubstep are notoriously known for their rebellious, experimental and wild nature which in our opinion is not exemplary for young audiences.

We have in mind of course that media producers can not control who consumes the product even if there is one specific target audience. Therefore we feel that our chosen song and genre aims to engage with a wide, mass audience which includes a niche group as well. This gives us the advantage for a variety of consumers.

The hipsters are known to express themselves emotionally, spiritually, and politically. Music can make a statement, give voice to a movement, even unite the artist with their fans and target audience. As hipsters explore their inner world, music guides them along in their quest for meaning. We aim to achieve this community, folk style within our final product. 

Getting equipment for filming

This week is half term which is the best suitable time to take out neccessary equipment to use for our project. We have assigned a few days to film around North West London from the 1st to the 5th of October. This gives us a flexible stretch of time to fulfil the required footage for our shots and to get enough done to work on edit once coming back into the Media suite studio.

We have signed a permission take out form from the tech department to use the following:

• redhead lights
• two cameras
• extension cables
• wide lens
• tripod dolley

A rough shooting schedule plan has been written up to give the three of us a structured and organised format to use from.

MONDAY: lip synching and landscape work
TUESDAY: transition shots and genre-related shots
WEDNESDAY: DAY OFF
THURSDAY: core filming and focus on narrative
FRIDAY: review and reconstruction on footage

Our preliminary music video!

Back in July, our class were introduced to the basics of the A2 course and were taught the functions and codes and conventions of music videos. Applying our knowledge of technology and history of film and cinema into the creation of a innovative preliminary video, this has successfully prepared us to take on the real and final video this year. We chose to do 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen which is a charming and fun song to choose. We all enjoyed participating in front and behind the camera in order to experience the feeling of spotlight from an artist's perspective. We purposefully chose a song that had a young and positive message, gearing away from sexual innuendos usually implied by mainstream, female artists. This allowed us to appreciate the craft of the artist and the music itself.

Using Adobe Premiere, this video took 3 days of filming in order to be ready for final edits.

1. The main title in the first shot was created used opacity rubberbands which enabled us to set fades on the words for a luminous effect.
2. As the song is by a female artist, we specifically wanted to use the three of us (girls) as well as eager and helpful peers from school.
3. The technique that we applied to the filming, gives the viewer a variety of imaginative and creative shots that reflect the mood of the song. 
4.  Panning the camera to medium close up and wide shots in the intro of the video before the chorus kicked in, involved members to participate in the dialogue and created that girly, vivacious feel for the viewer. We used fade to black transitions with white titles: 'Hey!' and 'Call Me Maybe' are humourous and audience-friendly which invite the viewer to take part in the almost kareoke style of the song.
5. We also incorporated some dance and exaggerated dance moves to emphasise the optimistic message of the song.
6. The high shot of the girl sitting on the floor was tinted green, pink and yellow giving an almost kalidescope effect. This was once again used in the close up shot of me amoungst the plants whilst dancing. This allowed to play around with the special effects tools and in my opinion, it brought life to the visuals of the video. I found this a modern and arty effect to include. This worked as a colour collage which David Bowie uses in his own work.
7. We clearly repeated 2 shots of the lip synching as the repetiton of the lyrics is challenging to film again and again. Therefore we structured the coda of shots in a neat order which is almost unnoticeable to pick out as it flows well in the piece.
8. Zooming in and out gave the video a slight dramatic effect.
9. Amoungst the editing tool bar, the push and doors options worked to our advantage to help put the shots in a slick order.
10. I found using the project window, monitor window, the palette tools and timeline window, all efficient and thanks to my experience of my AS Thriller title sequence, this enabled me to edit confidently. I found arranging the clips into the timeline quite simple and the adjusting of the brightness and contrast controls were fine to use.
11. In order to get the timing right for the lip synching and music itself, it was at first quite challenging to match yet fading out the audio. As a group we collapsed and expanded the track in order for it to agree with the timing and recorded music.
12. Using the equipment worked efficiently and using travelling shots with the dolly and tripod gave us extra confidence for our real upcoming video.
13. The lack of costume, placement and lighting continuity was not a major yet we have taken into account that it is somewhat vital for the proper video.
14. Our main aim ultimately was to focus on synchronizing video to audio. Then we could from there add colour and tone to make it more creative.

Overall, this experience has prepared my group and I to work on the video at a professional level.

Requesting and getting copyright permission

We have been taught that Copyright rules define much of the music business, shaping the practices that drive recording and touring deals. For a new song or other work, copyright begins at the moment of fixation — when the music and lyrics have been set down on paper, recorded, or stored on a computer. Copyright protects the musician even if the song is never registered with the Copyright Office. I personally telephoned Universal Music Studios UK to grant their permission to use their artist's song: Five Years Time. Noah and the Whale are signed to Mercury Records which is owned by Universal. This facilitates us to contact Universal directly to gain full allowance to use this song choice for our music video. We have taken in mind the importance of copyright and the laws and protection of music. In AS Media Studies, we have learnt of the criminal offenses that people participate in, especially the ongoing issues of piracy and file sharing. This has educated us further to understand from a professional point of view, the potential dangers and seriousness behind the music industry. We therefore have managed this in a professional manner and hope to be granted full permission. We have requested for a license of up to a year so once the final video is uploaded on YouTube and Blogger, it can be accessed without it being removed too early.

This Friday 28th September, we officially secured the copyright agreement from Universal studios as the executive music associates: Neil Mulford and Adam Soffe sent me a confirmation email after having  spoke to the band's lawyer for full permission.

Questionnaires in action

Using the efficient programme: SurveyMonkey, this has allowed us to create an interactive and beneficial survey in order to track down and gather the essential details from a random audience. Eventually, our gathered feedback will help us gear towards the best possible direction when filming and storyboarding. We are expecting to receive more than 100 responses from the online survey as this is a quick, accessable and interactive way of getting valuable information.

We have succesfully gotten over 100 feedback comments from peers and other random particpants giving us the opportunity to plan further having receieved enough primary research.

A music video analysis

Vampire weekend from Tyler Alexander-Abt

Vampire Weekend's song Oxford Comma falls under the same category of music as my group. Therefore this analysis has helped broaden my insight into examining the minor details as well as stylistic technique in order for our own video project to be as worthy.

Importance of Marketing

A marketing plan/ strategy is very valuable to help the journey in music promotion excel. The advantage of obtaining more fans and opportunities in the music business, include three, key steps, which make this, plan more achievable and manageable. They each incorporate cross-media marketing.

The first step is to join a mailing list provider that automatically allows sending a series of emails to subscribers.

The second step is to set up a page on your website (web-based text) that offers the site’s visitors a prize of gift for free in exchange for their email address.

Lastly, in order to send as many visitors (including fans) as possible to this webpage as well as the email provider, will from now onwards develop my own music business.

An attached audio-visual promotional text can be included on the website as well as on popular music channels. This contributes well to marketing in particular as this form of promotional text is entertaining and a good way to advertise and promote the band. Together the two forms of promotion are nessescery for success in business.

The group!

Name:		Role:	Strength:		Availabilty:
Felicity Joyce		all same	good at editing		always able
Tyler Alexander		all same	good at producing		always able
Gabriella Cohen		all same	good at directing		always able

Hipster Image Research

Using the programme Kizoa, I created a short, research-filled slideshow of images that are associated with the hipster genre and community of music.

Kizoa slideshow: Media Music Research - Slideshow

Hipster is known in the media as a contemporary subculture, that consists of urban middle class teenagers and young adults. This movement originated from the 1990's. This subculture is described to be independently driven with music expression, non-mainstream fashion style, liberal political views and opinions, spiritually alternative and has is strongly influenced by independent film and other cross-media devices over the years.

The genre has a reputation that is described by New York Times reporter, Christian Lorentzen: "hipsterism fetishizes the authentic" elements of all of the "fringe movements of the postwar era—beat, hippie, punk, even grunge."

The steps of creation

As a group we came together to discuss the ideal branding image of our potential artist. When discussing our target audience as well as prefered genre of music, hipster was the all-round favourite style to choose. In order to achieve the best results, it was important to do some general research and analysis beforehand. Hipster refers to a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers that appeared in the 1990s. The subculture is associated with independent music, a varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility, liberal or independent political views, alternative spirituality or atheism/agnosticism and alternative lifestyles. http://sycophantfashion.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/haight-ashbury-hippies.jpg

Inspirational video

This video has a retro, cowboy, western, youthful and hipster style which my group members and I particularly like. The sepia coloured shots and 70's theme really contributes to the overall label that we aim to achieve. This article has been helpful to read whilst researching different ideas and gaining different thoughts of how to create our finished piece.

Group brainstorm on the elements of a music video

Types of music video on Prezi

Audience and styles of music

There are so many different styles of music which appeal to a variety of people who are consumers of the music. The artist's target audience is vital to pinpoint in order to gain individual success for the artist themself and the label. The music industry categorises music so that there is a provided spectrum for all.

As well as listening habits, style of habits and fashion refers to culture and lifestyle involving the audience in the artist's musical dimension. Therefore, music videos and music itself affects people to use these styles of music to express their personality and define who they are. 

My group for this upcoming music video include the following members: Gabriella Cohen and Felicity Joyce. 

We have discussed and analysed the several options to choose from when devising our final piece and we have come up with the theory that all current styles of popular music are linked to music from the past. Therefore we are going to focus on a hipster, bluegrass style. 

Noah and The Whale is an influential group who formed in 2006 and have made a great impression on my self and and my group members. Therefore we are considering choosing their song: 'Five years time' as a potential track for our music video. After contemplating and listening to other songs from the same genre, this recurrent indie pop genre is so colourful that we feel our vision as an ensemble works best with this chosen artist. Their recurrent themes, lyrics and music have a retro element to them which we are all a fan of. 

The artist's image

Beyonce is an iconic diva in the mainstream world of pop music. Her revolutionary and sexual image attracts a wide and broadening audience of women and men. Mainstream artists belonging to major labels as well as breakthrough artists belonging to minor labels all intend to promote and sell their image to their target audience. Genres like rap and hip hop are associated to represent women in an urban, erotic way. This plays on the idea of voyeurism and how the female body is considered to be a pleasure of cinema. The notion of watching a female on display shows that she is objectified. The use of camerawork, editing, lighting and mise-en-scene all contribute to the emphasis of the female body. Back up dancers and other decor also flatters this sometimes sexual image. However, it is debated that men are also objectified and the male body is also desired to be put on show. There is a double standard of sexes and their representation in music videos.

The english band Sugababes have been evolving for many years, yet due to high demand for more sexualised music it has been obvious the three singers make this raunchy impression in their music videos

Playing with senses!

A curious and clever director and production team are interested in targeted their niche audience. Due to the improvements in modern technology, digital editing offers myriad options to create different kinds of special effects for the audience. From flashing lights, to split screens and use of colour all contribute to the impact of the music video. A good example of this is in the introduction and ending of Kanye West's music video: 'All of the Lights' The combination of fast-paced visuals and this rhythmic song create a thrilling and almost electrifying feel for the viewer. Many scientific disciplines deal with the topic of music and emotion, including philosophy, musicology and psychology. The perspective presented here is mainly a psychological one, yet some theoretical and philosophical considerations will be made to clarify prevailing concepts about music and emotions and how they can be connected.

A little bit about music promotion...

In class we have recently covered the three elements that a promotion package consists of. These include: a music promotion video, a website homepage and a digipak CD cover which all contribute to the success of the discovering artist and the music itself. In order to achieve the style and essence of a music video, there are key concepts to consider: CAMERAWORK: The way in which the images are presented creates the sense of mood and intimacy for the audience. It also captures the unison effect of the artist/band, voice and musical accompaniment of the music. Close ups and extreme shots are also dramatic and intimate for the audience to experience the visuals of the video. It has been said that the technical aspects of the music video share the aesthetics of a TV commercial. This allows the product/artist to be highlighted on camera through effective use of camerawork.

EDITING: As a class, we have encountered that music videos are generally edited in a fast cut montage effect. This allows the mulitple images to permeate through the viewer's minds at a fast pace. However, some music videos establish a slower editing style which creates a more mellow mood. The editing usually reflects the tempo of the song which is mirrored onto screen. This effects the audience to travel with the song whilst watching the video.

Welcome!

Welcome Chief Examiner and admin! For my A2 Media Studies course this year, it has been a sheer progression from what I have been to taught and achieved at AS level to now what I am presently being taught and doing. The focus on the music industry and the introduction to the semiotics behind the music video, uncover extraordinarily interesting things. The other aspects of screen include film which has played an essential part to learning about intertextuality and refer back to the other type of film. Music video production. This blog is a continual record of my personal and group's work over the coming year as well as inspiring research and resources into the project.

Lets dicuss the music video...

Since the 1980's and the arrival of the extraordinary MTV, video has been an important aspect of music promotion. However, in the past, the music video has a strong concentration to the promotion of selling the single, yet nowadays the video has become as successful as the art of the music.

Therefore, due to advanced technology, music producers, artists and even the public participate in we media. This is a great opportunity to make, create, sell and promote music and their accompanied video.
While the sales of singles decline, the value of the music video has become more significant than ever before. This year, and during this assignment, it is one of the main objectives to take on the music video director and creator, having the experience of lipsynching exercises, this has brought us to create and think on a whole new and sophisticated level.

Below is a useful and educational timeline depicting the gradual stages of the evolution of the music video:

This clearly shows that from 1900 to 2001, the great development and influence that technology and the introduction of new, breakthrough artists has had on what we are accustomed to as of present day. Institutions like MTV, VH1, MGM and Nickelodeon have all contributed to the birth of the music video.