Amalgamate ideas

Here are images of inspiration for our idea that we have settled with and how we expect our artist and target audience to look like, what they enjoy and how they would come across to us

http://www.pinterest.com/taramannmedia/mood-board-music-video/

Job Roles

My ARTIST Survey Analysis

I created a survey of 10 questions, which i had to get people to complete. I posted it on social networking sites to get as many people as possible to fill it in.  By carrying out this survey i could look more into what people felt about my song choice, what they can imagine seeing when listening to the song, who my artist is most like and how i could represent the artist through her appearance and characteristics. 

From making up a survey i now have a better idea of what people expect, and how i could show this. Over half of the people that filled in my survey said that they would expect to see the theme of love, as the lyrics refer to being in love throughout the whole of the song. However some people did say that they would expect to see the theme of sex, but i don't agree as i feel as though this is what we would typically see in a male artists music video not a females. I also feel as though the theme of the song is about relationships and being in love, and showing the theme of sex wouldn't be suitable to use in my music video. 

 I asked in my survey about how important they felt a performance was in a music video. Overall i found that most people found it important and everyone agreed that it should be necessary to see. This has definitely helped me decide that including a performance is a good idea, and the audience will be more interested in the music video if they see the artist. This also tells me that i need to make sure i find someone suitable who will fit the role of the artist well and it shouldn't be someone who doesn't match the voice or the style of the artist

I also found that 90% of people would prefer to see a story line and performance than something that is humorous. This helped me decide that even though more than half of these people said they would rather see a story line a performance will still play a big role in making the music video. I feel as though i should put the two together and make it a mixture of both styles instead of just focusing on one, as this means we could be more creative rather than it being one story line the whole way through which could be quite boring for the audience.

For  my music video i wanted to get an idea of what people would expect of the artist. For this i had two questions which asked the people to say what the characteristics of the artist would be like and what she would look like. Overall i found that most people would expect her to a be a white young female. This would work best as it is what you would expect to see when listening to the music. Most people said that she would be very natural and simple compared to most artist of the pop genre who are over glamorized and made to come across attractive to the audience. I think these characteristics fit well as you can tell the focus is on her voice and not on what she looks like as she sounds very natural and you can tell her voice hasn't been auto tuned. In the other question most people said that she would come across as quite shy, naive, not very confident and that she is emotionally unstable. I think this is similar to what i thought when i first listened to her song as you could tell it was very meaningful to her. 

I also wanted to see how many times they watch music videos, so i had an idea of who i will be mainly aiming my music video to. As most of the people who filled out my survey were teenagers/young adults of both genders it tells me that they watch a few music videos per week but don't over watch them. This tells me that people probably watch more videos if they have an interest in that artist but otherwise they just listen to their music. 

 I also looked at who they thought my artist was most similar to in terms of artist in the music industry at the moment. I found that most people said she would be more like Demi Lovato as she is a well known artist who normally sings meaningful songs. However i would say my artist is more Taylor Swift as she is someone who makes her music based upon her heartbreaks and her experiences in love which seems exactly the same as my chosen artist.

With this information i could then go onto create my ideal audience member:

My Pitch and Focus Group

Here is my Music video pitch that was based around my chosen artist Amanda Kaletsky. I had to talk about my ideas, visual techniques,cast and the locations i would use in my music video. I also had to establish my targeted audience for my artist and show my audience the song and what the lyrics are like.





I got both positive feedback and some ideas that could help develop and improve my initial idea that i had come up with.

The strengths i received from my idea that i spoke about in my pitch was how my ideas fitted well with the genre and the subject of the song. As the song was about love and heartbreak i said i would use flashbacks, close ups that would show the emotion and a dark colour pallet. My focus group felt that this would work well and my chosen locations at Hainault forest would fit in with the genre and would help set the right atmosphere and mood for the audience. They also felt that i casted all of the actors well as i knew stuff about the people i had chosen and i could rely on them to be there when i needed them. My focus group said that they felt the song had a good tempo and using close ups would help show the emotions of the artists and help portray the message to the audience. 

I felt that my idea could be quite conventional of that genre and that it would be similar to what we normally see which could bore the audience. I wanted to add some originality to my idea so i asked my focus group for any ideas that could help alter my idea and make it more interesting. The first idea that i was given was to alter the roles that we normally see by making the man being seen as the one who is heartbroken in the end and the woman comes out more positive from the break up, this would subvert what we normally see in a love song and would make it slightly different to the typical conventions.

Another idea i received back from my focus group was that i could make it different by showing the girl being happy at the end, with a new boyfriend and she is looking back at how bad he made her feel. This will give the music video have a positive ending compared to having something quite dark and negative which we normally see in a pop love song. 

The final idea i received was to maybe add in the idea of dance. By doing this i would use movement to portray the message that i will be trying to show to the audience. As both of my actors that i cast for the music video, are performers by adding in this element it could make it more emotional and would make the audience sympathize with the actors in the music video. This would make my music video very different, but i do think that the focus should be on her voice as that is what she is about as an artist and the dancing in the video could take away that focus. 

I felt that i received good feedback from my focus group as they have inspired me to consider other ideas that i may not have thought about using at the beginning. I feel as though they have helped me think more creatively and i will use some of these ideas to develop my initial ideas that i had first come up with

This was the inspiration that my focus group said it could be like:

Blog Reflections: Week 4

In this week i created a presentation which i would present in front of my class mates. This presentation had to be based upon my artist Amanda Kaletsky. 

I had to talk about the background of my artist, the targeted audience it would appeal to, my ideas, the visual techniques and styles i would use, casting and the locations.
 I also had to show my class mates the song of my choice, the lyrics to go with the song and i also had to show proof that i had got permission from the artist to use her song.

 This power point will then be presented to my class mates in the next week 

The main decision this week was coming up with a good idea that i would be able to talk about and present to people. I also had to have an idea of what i wanted the music video to look like for the audience and what locations would be most suitable and conventional for that genre

Another decision was who i was planning to cast for the roles in the music video, i eventually come up with my two people who i think would work best and actually fit the style and genre through their appearance and body language.

My Pitch

Blog Reflection: Week 3

This week i looked for a artist that i could be interested in using. I looked on www.unsigned.com and finally chose an artist that i would think about using for my music video. The artist was Amanda Kaletsky and she is a indie/pop artist based in America. 

I chose this artist as her music was meaningful and there was clear themes in the song that i could translate and use in my work. Once i had found my artist i had to find permission from her to use her music to create a music video and get her to send me a copy of the lyrics.

I then had to analyse the lyrics based on the tempo, and look further in to the meaning behind the lyrics and how i could interpret this into my music video. 



This week i also looked at 5 music videos that had inspired me. This helped me pick out the conventions that i liked in the music videos, and which conventions i would avoid using in my own music video. This helped me think of ideas and become more creative in how i could make a music video for my chosen artist 




The main decision i had to make this week was what artist i felt was most suitable in terms of the genre of music, how it would appeal to a targeted audience and how i could translate the music and lyrics into a interesting and creative music video

Beachcombing

This video by Taylor swift is similar to what i plan to do for my artists music video. Throughout the video we see a typical love story which goes from her performing intimately with the camera to then being seen in a situation with a boy she likes. You can tell she is targeting her song to a young teenage audience as we see her in a school setting where she is being flirtatious with a boy, which helps young girls relate to it as personal identity. We see her innocence shine through by the clothes that she is wearing, her long green dress makes her look vulnerable to the audience and makes them want to sympathize with her. As she belongs to the pop genre this is conventional of what we normally see in this genres music videos. The narrative is very omnipotent as we can expect what is going to happen, in this case we see a heartbreak which is expected from the very beginning of the music video. This style of narrative and performance would be well suited to my genre of music and would show a clear meaning behind my artists lyrics. 

This video by Ed Sheeran, has a clear narrative structure. I like the use of Black and white throughout the song as i think it helps set the tone and mood for the audience. We see a young girl throughout it walking around the streets of London but from the start we dont really know much about her apart from that she is homeless. This restricted narrative is a good way to keep the audience engaged and get them thinking about the main female character in the music video as it helps create enigma. The fact that we don't find out about her being a drug user, and using prostitution as a way to get the drugs till the very end makes it more interesting to watch and helps us see that there is more behind her than just a homeless girl with no money. The costume used throughout is rough and scruffy which emphasizes the fact that she has little money, and the way we see her sleeping on the park bench shows that there is little hope for her. The video is quite graphic so wouldn't appeal to a young audience but it is quite educational as it shows how drug habits can effect you in a serious way. As we see her using drugs at the end it goes against what is conventional in a music video as we see more than we probably should and in some ways it could influence people to do the wrong things. I like the colour pallet used throughout and would probably use something similar to show the dark stage in a relationship when breaking up.

This video by Christina Aguilera has a clear aspect of performance where we see the artist sing to the camera as if she is singing to the audience directly. This song would be aimed at both genders as she has references to both male and female characters so it is relatable to them. I think this song is inspiring and the music video emphasizes that more as we see a range of different people who are insecure and bullied about their appearance or sexuality. This is aimed at a very wide audience of all ages and ethnicity's who don't think they are socially acceptable. The narrative shows how people start off as being self conscious and insecure but how they develop and should be proud of who they are and ignore peoples opinions. The costume worn by the artist subverts what we normally see(e.g. materialistic costumes to show their wealth) as we see her in a minimalistic costume of just a plain vest and trousers to show that its whats inside that counts. I like the way that each character shown has their own insecurity's and that they all face them in different ways which makes it different to just seeing one conventional narrative the whole way through.

This video by Iggy Azalea, shows her in India. We see alot of bright colours throughout this video which makes it eyecatching for the audience. I would say this is aimed at males and females, but mainly females due to the artist being female. We see alot of shots of the artist either singing or dancing for the camera in different locations. This would appeal to a wide range of ethnicitys but this song in paticular is based on the indian culture so would appeal to a majority of asians. The main artist is wearing more extravagant clothing comparing it to the people we see in the background e.g. the dancers. This shows her wealth and also trys to show her as a respectable religious believer. We see alot of traditional dancing, which is incorporated with dancing done now days. I like the way she has used different locations which are all relevant to the same subject so there is still a link with the whole music video, which I may use with my music video.

In this music video by Demi Lovato, we see both a performance and narrative. Demi Lovato aims this music video at young teenage girls and once again the song is about love and being in a relationship. The artist is wearing normal clothing to make it as relatable for the audience as possible through personal identity. We see several flashbacks that are from when the male and female were together, but this then goes back to present time when there not together. I think flashbacks are a good way of emphasizing good times in the relationship to contrast between their happiness to being upset about not being together.  I would use this in my music video as i think it fits in with the pop genre well, and it would work well when showing the narrative side of the music video.

Lyric Analysis

Analysis of "Wait" by Amanda Kaletsky

Target Audience

Age: 14-26

Gender: Mainly Females

Interest: Indie Music,love,relationships,meaningful songs, songs about heartbreak

Location: The UK and America due to her background

Ethnicity: Mainly White but a mix of all races

Analysing  Lyrics

If I had to climb, the highest mountain

Alone, across the sea

Would you wait for me with no word no answer

Tell me, would you wait for me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

‘Cause I have to go now, for a time

And I don’t know how or when

But if you tell me to, I’ll come back for you

Just tell me you will wait for me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

And you can break my heart in a million ways

But please not tonight

You can be who you want to be

But be it with me

Be you with me

These lyrics suggest the song is about heartbreak, she talks alot about her heart, her emotions and how she has been through alot to be with her partner. This is typical of a love song and throughout their is references to how she feels and how she wants to repair the relationship and be with him. She often talks about coming back to the boy she was once with if he wants her back which shows her vulnerability and immaturity because she will take him back.

Analysing the Music

The song is very minimalistic, but this helps the audience focus on her strong vocals. There is only one instrument involved which is a guitar, this is played throughout the song and becomes louder and is played more in the chorus of the song. However this doesn't take the emphasis away from her voice but compliments it well, this is best suited to her tone of voice as she sings songs of the pop,indie and soul genre's. 

Analysing the tempo

The tempo is rather similar throughout the song, however nearer the end we hear a slight climax which makes the tempo a bit faster as normally it is on one level throughout the whole song. The lyrics are typical to what you would see in a song from the Pop genre, but the music behind it is less conventional as we would normally hear an upbeat song that is simply made with software.

How i would use the song in a music video

I would use this song by creating a music video which is both narrative and performance. We would see the actors performing a scene which will be split up throughout the song, which would be the breaking down of the relationship

I would use long takes to fit with the tempo of the song and cross cut from the performance to the narrative section

I will use a dark colour pallet to emphasise the mood of the song and the lyrics, and have a slight contrast in colour and lighting when we see the artist perform

I will do a lot of camera movements which will follow the action throughout the song, and a simple cut will change from narrative to performance

Blog Reflections: Week 2

What have you learnt from the video remake?

When planning our section for the video remake, we created a short storyboard which we would use when we got to the production stage of  creating the video remake. By using the storyboard we could make a visual idea of what we wanted the section to look like, as we was creating our part on parody. This meant we could select a shot type, camera movement, and a rough description of what will be happening in that shot. However i have realised that doing a storyboard for a short amount of time is much better but can be quite time consuming if i was going to use it for a 4 minute music video. Therefor i would probably prefer to create a shot list instead of a whole storyboard, this is still a good way to plan as you can still give a lot of detail so it is easy to replicate it onto the real thing. 

From creating the video remake i have developed my skills on how to use final cut, as the editing had to be more precise. I didn't use i movie to edit this so my focus was used on another bit of software. This helped me improve the editing by adding in effects and making sure the music was added in at the correct times. From doing this i learnt that static shots can be quite boring and movement is more interesting for the audience as they can follow the action better and feel more involved with the video. 

Mash Up Video

This is the mashup video we did as a class project for the song "Thrift Shop"  by Macklemore. Me and my partner had the genre of Parody which meant we had to copy something that we have seen before in the media and basically take the mickey out of what they are doing. Our section is at 3:05-3:20

Lyrics

These are the lyrics of my chosen song "Wait" by Amanda Kaletsky:

If I had to climb, the highest mountain

Alone, across the sea

Would you wait for me with no word no answer

Tell me, would you wait for me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

‘Cause I have to go now, for a time

And I don’t know how or when

But if you tell me to, I’ll come back for you

Just tell me you will wait for me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

‘Cause I have broken down my barriers

Taken down my walls

Let down my fortress for you…

And you can’t find yourself in somebody’s else

But they can help you see

All your true emotions shining through

to the heart of me

And you can break my heart in a million ways

But please not tonight

You can be who you want to be

But be it with me

Be you with me

Permission

This is proof that i have permission from my chosen artist to use their song for my music video project, and to tell her that it will not be used for commercial reasons and only for educational purposes

My Song Choice

http://www.unsigned.com/amandakaletsky

"Wait" By Amanda Kaletsky is my chosen song for my pitch and analysis. I found that even though she is an American artist she has a world wide appeal, and most of the focus is on her voice. I think this song in particular would be a good song to create a music video for as it is slow, and has a strong meaning behind it

Blog Reflection: Week 1

In week one of school we have looked at:

-Representation and the theory's(e.g. Laura Mulvey)

-Genre and the theory's(e.g. Steve Neale)

I also found an artist this week, which meant i had to research into the songs she has made and which one i would use in my music video. I used http://www.unsigned.com to find my chosen artist Amanda Kaletsky. 

I also had to start thinking about how i would go about making a music video suited to the song of my choice. 


Who would you like to work with?

I would like to work with Tara Mann, as we worked together at AS and i feel as though we work well in a pair. I also feel that we can help improve each others ideas so that we can develop and support each other.

What are your hopes and fears about the project?

As i have picked a slow song, i don't want to be at risk of making the music video boring. However i do think that i picked a good song as it has a lot of meaning behind it which can be shown through the action in the music video. I also think that i will be able to use a range of camera language to make each shot different and more exciting to watch.

Representation and the Theory's

Stuart Hall-Encoding/Decoding(Preferred reading)

"The question of power can never be bracketed out of representation"

"Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj

Dominant reading= She is very promiscuous in the way she moves her body and this can be seen as her way to grab attention from the opposite sex 

Negotiated reading= She is a strong independent woman who has men wrapped round her little finger

Oppositional reading= All girls are clones of each other(wear the same clothes, dance the same and act the same)

Laura Mulvey-"The Male Gaze"

In this image we see an example of a woman being surrounded by men and being pinned down by one of them. This is an advertisement for a well known designer, this makes the woman look significantly weaker than the males who stand looking over her. The men are topless which makes them look more masculine and the woman is in a skimpy dress, high heels and red lips which could show that they are attracted to the female character.

In this image we see a woman pulling up her shirt and showing her muscles. Here we see women in a different light as its normally men who are showing off their bodies rather than women. The caption "We can do it" proves to consumers of this media text that women are just as strong and powerful as men. This advertisement would have been used to get women to stop being house wives and help out with the war which was normally seen as something the men would do.

In this image we see an advert for a Hosiery company called "Voodoo". This advert shows a strong female figure holding what looks like a lead where two men are their hands and knees. This gives the impression that the female has power over the male figures as they are being compared to animals. Even though the men are all oiled up and naked it still makes them look weak which is normally what the female figure would like in any media text

Andrew Goodwin-Voyeurism

This theory suggests that most media texts especially music videos focus on the female body, which are normally sexualised in a way which is more enjoyable for a male audience to watch. In most music videos we see closeups of different parts of the female body that men often look at and find attractive. 

Male artists are often known to have female dancers or females in general included in their music videos. Sometimes females are even used as props to look at and to make the artist look and feel better when on camera. Even when the focus should be on the artist it is sometimes drawn away due to the audience having an interest in the female characters.

Genre and the Theory's

Neale- Genre as a System (orientations,expectations,conventions)

 

For this theory we looked at the music video "Sky's the Limit"  by Biggie Smalls. What we expect to see in a typical Rap music video is a big extravagant mise-en-scene, this is mainly through the artists costume which includes large jewellery and smart clothing. Another massive convention that we normally see is a large mansion which normally shows the wealth of the artist and this is emphasised in the wide shots that are used to focus on the artist and the location. We also see shots of them in a car and close up of the Mercedes logo at the front of the car, this shows that the artist is very materialised and spends his money on luxurious items.  The males in this music video are shown throughout as they are seen as the dominant character which empowers their sex and makes the women look weaker. Non continuity editing is used and we see alot of cuts that help show the two sides of the performance and where they are in the house.



Repetition and Difference-

For this theory we looked at the song "All the small things" by Blink 282. The genre of music was seen as Rock, however watching this video it is not typical of what you would usually see for that genre of music. In a rock music video the artists are normally more outrageous and are normally full of energy, jumping around and causing mayhem. However the song doesn't really match the music video so its subverts the normal conventions of a Rock video. This video could be classed as a parody as the boy band are imitating normal cheesy boy bands, for example running down the beach, performing cheesy dance moves that match the lyrics of the song. However they do keep a certain feel of the rock genre by seeing them with their instruments performing and really looking into the camera and jumping around which is more like what we would expect. With this theory i would like to subvert what we normally expect to see in a genre of music and try and make it as different as possible but without using the genre of parody. 

David Bordwell- any theme can be shown in any genre 





This theory is very beneficial as it means you can show several themes within one music video which isn't always seen as artists like to conform to typical conventions of their genre. This theory would be helpful for me when thinking about my music video as you can be as creative as you want and as random as you want and still have a good outcome. By using a variety of more than one genre it will help engage the audience as it will be interesting to watch as it wont be what they would normally expect. For example in this song "As long as you love me" by Justin Bieber we see several themes. At the beginning we see the theme of bullying as the girls dad is threatening the boyfriend, we also see a strong theme of romance which also cuts to shots of him getting beaten up which shows the theme of violence. 

Creativity in Media

Throughout the year 12 media studies course I used a range of digital technology, this included…

Hardware: video camera, tripod, SD card

Software: I movie, Final cut, Live type, PowerPoint, word

Online: YouTube, Issue, blogger, prezi, da font

Last year when creating a British social realism opening scene, I researched into the genre by watching the films that fitted under this category of being British social realist. Through the research stage when trying to find a suitable idea for our opening scene we created a vox pop. In this we asked a certain amount of people to answer questions about the genre we were looking at. By doing this we got feedback from what they felt was good about the genre, what was not as good and what they would be interesting in watching. I spent a lot of time on YouTube to discover the conventions of an opening sequence and thing that’s we typically see in the British social realist genre. For example we looked at a normal opening scene and saw how many credits that were displayed (e.g. names of actors, producers, and crew) and this helped me get a rough idea of how many I should put into my opening scene. The time I spent on planning I had to think about what camera shots, angles and movements I would use and how I would put them together in my opening scene. I had to keep to the typical conventions that I had previously seen in the films that I had watched at the beginning of the course.

Once we had gathered all our footage we went onto editing and putting in all the typical conventions you would see in an opening scene. With this footage I used I movie to edit all of the clips and put them into a correct order that fitted with what I was trying to show to the audience. I then went onto finding music which would be suitable for the theme and the genre; I used a copy right free music website where I found a good track which would work well. I then had to go back to edit in I movie to make changes to cuts so it fitted to the beat of the music. I created my graphics on live type and got the image for the title off of Flickr which I then imported onto final cut. This is where the final steps were taken and my final opening scene was tweaked and finally completed.

In year 12 looking at British social realism I found out a lot about the camera language which would be suitable for the genre we were looking at. Most of the films I watched had minimal shot types and didn’t really use a wide range of angles or shots, however their use of continuity editing made it have more verisimilitude and this made it believable for the audience. I translated this into my work by using simple shots and repeating similar angles/shot types throughout the opening scene. The themes that I regularly saw were mainly violence, sex, drug/alcohol abuse and crime, this was shown mainly through the narrative and how the characters would act. One of the films used the theme of prostitution so we decided as it is seen in BSR but not a lot we could still use it. The mise-en-scene that I saw mainly was rather run down which reflected on the characters lifestyle, and dark, dull lighting was used a lot throughout the films to create a negative atmosphere for the audience. We used this information and put it into our own piece of work by using a similar colour pallet and a location which looked urban and shabby. The sound used in most of the films were diagetic as they wanted to keep the feel of realism, we kept this the same by using diagetic sound in ours where it matched with the action.