MYSPACE WEBSITE

please click on the link below to visit our artists' website

http://www.myspace.com/harlemuk

EVALUATION - QUESTION 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

For research we mostly used the web. We looked at music videos on youtube and band websites of facebook and myspace. We used a still camera to show evidence of our process. Such as timelines and storyboards. 
Editing on adobe premier pro allowed us to capture our footage in blocks. We were able to edit in a non-linear style and were able to make different timelines to put different parts of our music video on. We were also able to add a lot of effects such as 'black and white, contrast, brightness, dissolve, fade to black' to make our music video look glossy and professional. The only disadvantage of using HD cameras was that capturing took longer and we were not able to see what we were capturing on the big screen, so we had to look through the small camera screen to know when to stop capturing. The Adobe programme would also become very slow or would not open with sound which was a problem we couldn't overcome. 

This is a photo of Loren and I with all our equipment. The list includes: Sony HD cameras, Paglights, HD tapes, Adobe premier pro and Adobe pohotoshop.

EVALUATION - QUESTION 3

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK



We decided to have a screening to get some audience feedback. We started screening at 1.00pm and handed out questionnaires to find out what people think of our music video. Here is a photo of our screening in process:

EVALUATION - QUESTION 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and anciallary texts?








In order to make sure the audience can create a link between our main product and ancillary texts we have made sure the same image, genre and style runs throughout each product. 
The theme of New York runs throughout the products. - The images/montages in the music video, the background and side images on the website and the 'I LOVE NY' tops and New York Skyline on the album cover. The constant reminder of New York remind  the audience that we are from different parts of New York. 

The second location, the dance studio, also links our media products together. On the back of the album cover is an image of myself in front of a dance bar - signifying our dancing dream. Images of us in front of this bar are also on the website and in the performance shots of our music video, therefore creating a link between the three products. 
Lorens make up for the album cover shoot was the same as the make up used for the performance shots. Furthermore, the black tops we are wearing on the album cover image are the same ones we wore during the dance routine in our music video. 

The album makes most of the money for the artist, it works with the myspace and music video to entice their target audience. The album cover helps sell the album. It can be bought instore, downloaded online or through itunes or just watched on youtube. The album cover is vital as it will always show up however you purchase the album. 
Finally, the tour dates on the myspace website allows the audience to book their tickets quickly and easily. The well known venues make the artist look professional and successful. 

Overall, our products worked well to promote the artist, however more could have been done to make them individually unique  yet still link together as a package. 

The image on the front of the album cover could have had a yellow background to follow on from the colour scheme throughout the products (the taxis and yellow font of the website.) Another thing we could have done was have more 'behind the scene' photos of shooting the music video on the inside pages of the album cover.  This would make the audience/fans feel like they have a personal relationship with the artists.  

EVALUATION - QUESTION 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?







Talking about album cover:




Talking about myspace:



Vernalis / The music video: Vernalis states that the structure of the video may appear disjointed. In our music video, the narrative flows smoothly until the end where there is a montage, (at seconds 3.08minutes) of shots of New York, the dance studio and our performance shots. The narrative is what drives our music video forward, - from the audience following the actors into the studio room up till watching them perform a dance routine. 
During the dance routine, both Loren and I move to the beat as we choreographed it this way. However, through the video our walking pace also matches the beat. 
Vernalis states that a clear convention of music video editing is breaking or disrupting the 'rules' of continuity editing. We have shown this in our music video, for instance when I put on my nike shoes whilst sitting on the chair, I have a gold hoody on. However, throughout the dance routine I only have a black vest top on.  At 2.38 minutes to 3.00 minutes.
 The editing is also very clear between the dancing shots of Loren and I to create emphasis on the different moves and solo parts (the shots are broken up by an additive dissolve)  There is no even pace throughout the music video. As the music video opens, the shots are very quick making the pace very fast, however in the middle they slow down. 0.00 minutes to 0.30 seconds.  
Finally, our music video obeyed Vernalis' theory as the diegesis was revealed slowly in order to suspend the audiences' disbelief. We started off by simply showing the actors feet at 0.03 minutes, as they walk through the streets of New York, followed by a montage of New York shots (at 0.11 minutes to 0.15 minutes) to emphasise the location and then the audience was shown who the actors were. 


The album cover: Our album cover followed the conventions of a typical debut album cover with the images of the artist on the front and a list of their tracks on the back (along with an image, barcode, institution information and websites) and the name of the album,serial number and the artist on the spine of the track. The images on the album cover signify the hiphop/RnB genre of our music video. Gold jackets, red lipstick, hair out and voluminous are all stereotypical RnB/hip-hop styles. After looking at other debut album covers we thought it was ideal to have a close up image of us on the front as this would create a great impact on the audience as it is very eye-catching and will also help promote the artist.  The inside of our album package is a photo of Loren and I merged with the New York skyline. This imitates how lorens' and my life is merged together through having the same dream. Our album cover is similar to 'Girls Alouds' album cover. - black lines separating the individual sections of each member of the band. I think this is an effective way to promote the artist/band. 

The Myspace website: Our myspace website is very bold, trendy and young. With glittery red banners and glossy slideshows, our website reflects the artist' identity and genre. It helps sell the new debut album, promotes the artists' merchandise and makes the audience feel connected with the artist through their face book and twitter links.

We have a playlist and dates of our tours a the top of the page. This is one of the conventions of the myspace websites. The playlist helps create customer awareness and advertises the artists' tracks. We have also listed our likes/dislikes and a story about our childhood and background - making the audience feel enticed and special about knowing more about the artists' personal life. The record labels on the side of our website helps create fan awareness and promotes the record label through viral marketing.


Here are the links for the videos i spoke about: 

EVALUATION - REFLECTIONS

On Tuesday 8tb December, Loren and I had to present our media evaluation in front of a camera. Although both of us were very nervous about the evaluation I feel it went very well. Our evaluation lasted much longer than expected and we had still forgotten a lot of things we wanted to say. Although Loren and I planned the questions together we thought it would be easier if she said answers to questions 1 and 3 and i said the answers to questions 2 and 4 as a discussion would not have worked as well with only two of us in the group. We've both decided to type up what we missed out on our individual blogs.

PHOTOSHOOT

When Loren and I went to the dance studio for our reshoot we decided to capture images for our album cover on the same day. We used the bar as this is a known signifier of a dance room- something our music video is based around. Here are a few photos we took:

LOCATIONS FOR OUR MUSIC VIDEO

Fifth Avenue - Lorens' route
Brooklyn, alley ways, graffiti walls  - Nishas' route
Dance studio - Performance and audition room.

FINISHED

After a full day of editing, myspacing and photoshoping we have FINALLY FINISHED!

ANALYSIS CHARTS

Here are the analysis charts we used to plan our answer to question one.

SHOOTING IN THE DANCE STUDIO

We shot the dance sequence and our performance scenes in the dance studio. With our dance sequence we thought it would be vital to shoot from as many various angles as possible to make the video as interesting as possible. In particular I liked the 'in the mirror' shots and the handheld shots, because when watching it through, it made the audience feel involved with the music world. The master shot and close ups will be used frequently, following Vernalis' theory.
We also used the dance studio to shoot our performance footage. We used the following shots:
- CU of Loren
- CU of Nisha
- CU of Loren and Nisha
- Long shot against the window of Loren
- Long shot against the window of Nisha
- Close up of Loren in the foreground with Nisha out of focus in the background
- Close up of Nisha in the foreground with Loren out of focus in the background

We shot each of these shots throughout the song atleast three times. This way we had a variety of shots to choose from, especially because we didn't know the lyrics very well the first time, we thought it would be a wise move to film again!

After capturing the footage we found that the out of focus shots and long shots weren't of very good quality due to the lack of lighting. Hopefully after some editing we will be able to fix this problem

PROBLEMS

After having a discussion with Ms Blackborow, we agreed on having a reshoot. The out of focus performance shots looked very unprofessional even after crazy amounts of editing. Furthermore, the dance studio shots also looked very amateur because of the objects in the background. (I.e: the piano, fan and fire extinguisher) So with the deadline this friday we need to get a move on!

weekly update

Loren and I have now nearly come to the end of editing our music video. It has come along so well and is looking very professional and glossy. Seeing how there is only two of us in the group, we have decided to split the other projects up to make us work more efficiently. Loren will be designing the website and I will be desgining the album cover. After designing them we will both work on them together as the project goes ahead.

weekly update

We have almost come to the end of our editing and have started getting feedback. Here is some of the main issues with our music video.
- Mise en scene is a bit cluttered - this would look good if we are just doing dance rehearsals but not if its meant to be a studio where auditions are taking place.
- Crop the solo shots so that the framing is tighter
- Have a shot of Nisha spinning instead of simply walking past the window to make her the focus of the shot.
- Try replacing the wide dancing shots with in the mirror shots as the mirror shots look much more proffessional.
- Add effects, perhaps colour changes to the dance scenes to make it different from the rest of the music video.
- An idea is ending with a glamourous shot of Loren and Nisha to make it look like we have made it 'to the top'
- Change a shot of Lorens lipsynching to make it look more realistic.

The good parts!
- The seperate solo shots are the best shots of us
- The tight montage sequences in the beginning are really well edited to the bed and look very professional and glossy.
- The editing is unpredicatable, keeping the audience engaged throughout.
- Close up and hand held shots are the best shots in the dance sequence (try using as much of them as possible)

weekly update

Editing is going well at the moment. We've planned our time well and come in during most of our private studies and lunch times in order to make sure we don't get left behind seeing how there are only two members in our group! We've edited the out of focus performance shots and long shots making them look much better however they still  don't look as good as the rest of our footage. We've decided to make our performance shots in black and white to set it apart from the New York scenes. We also decided to have three montages in the opening of the music video to allow the audience to acknowledge where the actors are. It is also edited to the beat of the music - following Vernalis' theory.

SHOOT

Here are some photos I took whilst filming from the top deck of the tour bus. I think these were the best shots as the high angle made the footage look very professional and interesting. There was also a lot of movement making it look realistic and glossy.

APLYING VERNALIS THEORY TO A MUSIC VIDEO

I chose this video to analyse as it the same artist we chose for our track. Firstly, Vernalis says that there is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance. In this video there is more performance than narrative. The narrative is about the members of the PCD coming together to perform a dance in the studio. The music and the performance is what drives the music video forward, with the performance being of shots of the different members of the band.  The music video is edited to the beat. For example at 0.53 to 0.57 the cuts between the artists go with the lyrics of the song. The same goes for the opening of the music video where the camera cuts to all the members of the band with the beat.
Like Vernalis says, in a music video there are many shot types with extremes being very common. In this music video there are extreme close ups that run throughout. For example at 1.00, the shot of the sound system adds to the RnB genre of the video. The performance shot of Nicole Sherzinger with Will.I.Am is used regularly throughout the music video in order to promote the artists and help sell their album.
Moving to the diegesis of the music video, the artists move in beat to the music. With the opening of the video being in slow motion, this fits in with the first beat.  Actions or dance moves are never completed as this would make the music video very boring and predictable. There are also many repetitions throughout the music video. For example the music phrases, the beat, lyrics, performances and camera positions

NISHA AND LOREN LIPSYNCH

This is our lipsynch that we used as practice for our real video.
From watching this we have decided that Nisha will be better singing the main vocals and Loren will be better singing the backing vocals as Nisha looks as if she has a stronger voice.
Both Loren and Nisha work well in front of the camera, therefore we both equally be performing in our music video.
The voices look a lot older than the actresses, therefore in order to make the lipsynching look more realistic we will need to dress up very sophisticated with lots of makeup etc.

IDEAS AND ANALYSIS/INSPIRATIONS

Here is a clip from the Dolce&Gabbana advert starring model Tyson ballou. I think its a good clip to analyse as there are many great ideas throughout the advert which we could take a closer look into as the narrative is very similar to our own music video idea.

Firstly, the camera following Tyson into the backstage shooting room is similar to the idea of our music video, in which the members of the band are being followed into the audition room. In the advert, the camera is hand held and therefore gives a real sense of chaos, allowing the audience to empathise with the performer and how he is rushing to be on time. I really like the black and white in the shot as it makes the sequence look more professional and gives a real sense of the camera going 'backstage.' I think we could co-operate this into our own idea, either for the scenes where the camera follows the performers or just the beauty shots. The beauty shots being in black and white would really set apart the performance from the narrative, making the music video easy to follow. At 0.40 there is an extreme close up of the sign on the door which reads 'D&G UNDERWEAR SHOOT, CLOSED SET!!!!!' I think this idea of showing a sign on the door is clever as it gives the audience a direct sense of where they are and what is happening. Another thing which works really well is the lack of music in the bit where Tyson walks into the shooting room. When the performers in our music video walk in to the audition room, I think the music should stop and the footsteps of the dancer walking into the room echoes and is the only sound the audience can hear for roughly two seconds. Then suddenly the music starts again and the girls start their dance routine. The idea of the camera and shooting equipment being in the shot works really well, giving a sense of a 'backstage pass into the closed set'. It makes the advert look expensive and glossy, which I reckon could also work very well in our music video, whilst shooting in the audition room.

IDEAS

So after a few meetings with each other and also Miss Blackborrow  we have come to our final narrative idea. The narrative is based around two girls coming from very different backgrounds who join together and become best friends through their passion for dancing. Loren being the more affluent girl of the two will be dressed in a red coat, red heels and red alice band to connote the poshness in her. Nisha however, would be dressed in jeans, a hoody and nike high tops, making her look more street and trendy as opposed to posh. The different lifestyles would also be shown through different locations. Loren will be walking through Fifth Avenue whereas Nisha will be walking through Brooklyn. The destination is an audition room where they will be assessed on their dancing by three judges.

Jake Wynne's advice

- Whilst doing the dancing shots, always have a wide shot shot, otherwise the audience will get confused and won't know where the location is or what they are doing.
- Whilst shooting the beauty shots, have mostly close-ups. Therefore it wont matter what background we choose. Also, if you want the background out of focus, stand far away with the camera and zoom in. The performer would be in focus but the background would be out of focus, keeping the attention on the only them.
- Whislt shooting in New York, have a lot of wide shots. Don't hide where you are; embrace it.
- To avoice the video looking like a home video, use a lot of shot types. I. e close ups, long shots, tracks, pans e.t.c
- Capture random shops and movements to make the music video more exciting and to stop if being very linear.
- To create more of a narrative, have the two dancers coming from different sides of town. One from a rich, classy area, and another from the less affluent area. To expand on this, the well-off girl can have a really confident personality (which is shown as she strutts through town and flicks her hair) whereas the other girl could be more down to earth and anxious about the auditions.
- To really emphasise that the two performers are completely different people, have them walking in different directions with different backgrounds. (I.e the upper classs girl walking past desgigner shops and the lower class girl walking past a basketball court)

UPDATE

Loren and I have chosen the RnB path to our music video. We have decided on a final track

PUSSYCAT DOLLS - TOP OF THE WORLD.

Seeing how we're both going to New York and staying in the same hotel this half term (coincidentally) we've decided to shoot some footage out there. If plans don't go according to plan we can just switch to shooting in London City.

Our treatment is ready to pitch in Mondays lesson, where feedback would be crucial to make our music video the best it can possibly be.

Analyisng an album cover

Typical features of an album cover
- Main image of solo artist or band
- Colour scheme (can be black and white or in colour)
- Signature font/typeface
- Logo/visual motif
- Links to the artist websites
-Track listing
- Institutions
- Date of release
- Bar code
- Front, back and spine

How would you catergorise the covers?

- Genre

- Gender

-Era

- Number of the album (debut, 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

- Target audience

- Link to style; photography, artwork, animation

- special editions

- career

-mainstream or alternative/niche

What are the different functions of an album cover?

-Creates identity; makes the band/artist and music distinctive

- Helps sell the artist/songs on the album/their music

-Captures audience and pursuades them to buy the album

- Visual representations

- Has to sell the genre

- Promotes the producer/record label

Album cover

LADY GAGA ALBUM COVER


ALBUM COVER

- A shot from a scene in the music video of the hit single 'poker face'. Fans would've watched the video over and over and therefore automatically know the album is Lady Gagas'
- Extreme close up of the singer facing the camera. This creates impact and draws in the audience
- 'The fame' (the album name) is clearly visible as it is types in white. It is illustrated by Lady Gaga's huge sunglasses, and the collection of diamond in one of the reflected in them. This shows the glamours, rich, famous life she lives.
- The only other font is 'Lady Gaga' leaving no room for the audience to get distracted by anything else that is going on the album cover.


THE BACK

- Colour scheme is similar to the colour of the diamonds on the front cover, making a connection between the two.

- Follows the typical conventions of the artist websites/institutions and the bar code.

- The low key lighting, make-up, costume and hair style makes her look very glamourous - anchoring the album name 'The fame'

- The signer and album name is written again on the left side of the back cover, read from left to right and typed vertically. This prevents the audience from getting distracted from the main image and the track names.

- The track names are written towards the left of the album back, with an extra bonus track 'I like it rough.' This encourages fans to buy the album as they know they'll hear her forthcoming release before everyone else, making them feel special.

Album cover

GIRLS ALOUD - tangled up

- Play on words, girls are trapped their small frames of the CD

- All singers are directly addressing the camera, enticing the audience.

- Shows the importance of each singer - they all have an equal amount of space on the album cover, showing they're a band with equal roles.

- White strappy tops with ties up hair, making them look sexy yet sophisticated

- Trapped with a rope/string. Again, play on words with 'tangled up'

Analysing Album covers

- Black and white colour scheme. This gives the impression that the singer is a 'classic, well known, all time' singer.
- An image of one of Michael Jackson's well known dance steps. Fans will automatically know the CD album is his by this image even though it doesn't show the singers face
- Black shoes, white socks. Iconography of Michael Jackons dress sense.

- 'Michael Jackon' is the first thing you read on the album. This is because he himself will help sell the album.

- The song names are typed in a small font, preventing the audience from getting distracted from the main image.

- Breaks the typical convention of the track names being at the back of the album.
- The feet are in a spotlight, this shows the significance of the singer
- The famous signature dance move features in other Michael Jackson products,(i.e posters) linking all of his merchandise together.

- The black, white and red colour scheme is also evident in most of his album covers

.

Goodwins theory- Ciara, promise

Institutional/reference information
I am analysing Ciara- Promise as I think it is a great one to use for inspiration. The music video fits into the genre of RnB hiphop. The characteristics which show this is a street dance routine, clothing - big hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, chunky tainers, a black singer who wears a lot of make up and 'bling'

What is the relationship between lyirics and visuals?
This is a performance based video, therefore there is no relation between lyrics and visuals. In the beginning she announces she is single and wants a guy to just 'hold her' so perhaps the performance is just for her to show off her talent and through it find a guy right for her.

What is the realationship between music and visuals?
Most imporatantly, the edits match the pace of the music. It cuts to the beat a lot. If the pace is slow, the editing is fast. If there is a slow bit (i.e singing solo without instruments) the editing is very slow, mirroring the music.
At 2.10 when Ciara sings 'do, do, do' and 'you, you, you' the camera shot changes, emphasising the beat of the song.

Are there closeups of the artist and star image motifs?
The record company is looking to sell this track through the artist and the choreography. Therefore there are four beauty shots of her. The artist is portrayed as sexy, confident and clearly a dancer. Likewise, in many of her previous music videos. For example, goodies, never ever, like a boy, are all very dance related. They use her strength to sell the track.

Is there reference to the notion of looking?
The artist is definitely a sexual display for the audience. This is shown through her clothing/(lack of clothes) and her dance routines. There are many grinding movements in the dance video, with a silhouette of her in a white background - This attracts the male audience. Also she uses the mic stand as a dancing pole. These features have been chosen to help sell the track.

Are there intertextual references?
The music video relates to the star's image, as she is known for being a great dancer from her previous music videos.

Is the music video performance- based, narrative-based or concept based?
The music video is solely performance based

Analysing a music video of my choice - 'Promise' by Ciara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vPyzCHgZ88&feature=channel


I'm so fascinated by this music video and think it is a great video to use for inspiration as it is also performance based. The lighting throughout is very lowkey making it look very classy and expensive. There are four beauty shots of Ciara - a silhouette of her dancing, her dancing in trackies, her on the chair with red heels, and oe of her with the mike stand.
There is a whole range of camera shots, from close ups, low angle tracks, high angle shots, mid shots, and extreme long shots. This keeps the audience engaged throughout as they dont get bored from seeing one shot over and over again. Although there are back up dancers, during the dance routines the camera always focuses on Ciara, making her the centre of attention. This helps sell the artist. The choreography is brilliant, which is essential to produce a successful music video.

MYSPACE AND ARTIST WEBSITES DECONSTRUCTION

Michael Jackson

www.myspace.com/michaeljackson

- Colour scheme: black and white. This usually connotes aged and traditional, connoting he is a classic singer who has been famous for decades.

- A silhouette of the singer which is the focus of the page. This sells the artist and makes him the main icon of the page. The still dance movement is of him on his tip-toes. This is one of his signature dance moves.

- 'His music will live forever' this shows his significance in the music industry and how he'll never be forgotten.

- Add to friends /leave a commment; allowing people to communicate and share their opinions about the legend over the myspace page.

-Automatic music playlist; allowing the audience to listen to his classic hits whilst cruising his page, also allowing them to become aware of songs them may have not heard of before.

- View photos/view videos; The audience can reminise over the great singer and his greatest moments.

- Send Michael Jackson a text; This allows his greatest fans feel special and 'text Michael' there thoughts rather than posting them on his page (more personal aswell).

- Top 4 friends - This is it movie. Legacy Recordings. The Jacksons. Akon. - This is an indirect way of advertising his forth coming movie, greatest hits and his partner in PYT - Akon. His 827068 will see his four top friends when them go on his page.

Pussycat Dolls

http://www.pussycat-dolls.net/pussycat-dolls/


- A huge banner which holds a black and white group photo of pussy cat dolls.
- The 'Pussycat dolls' icon in the middle of the image, and in colour - making it stand out. The shiny effect makes it look special and valuable.
- Individual profiles allowing the audience to get to know each of the singers individually.

- Lyrics page; fans can sing along

- Calendar; keeping fans up to date with where they will be performing next.

- Freebies; Downloading wallpapers, icons. This is a great way to market the band.

- Gallery; shows photos of the fans (shows off their image)

- Multimedia; both audio and video for fans who want to listen to their music whilst cruising their page.

- Artist briefing; allows fans to know more about the band. I.e how they formed, and The Pussycat Dolls career.

GROUP UPDATE

After our last meeting, we are considering whether or not our group is working to its full potential and individual strength. Due to diverse music tastes we considered giving the project one more week as a group. If the team shows progress in working together we will stick as a group. If not, we will split into two smaller groups as that may be better for us individually.

DYM HW FEEDBACK

Nisha, the extended deadline for posting your marketing research has passed. Please post your work asap.
Mrs D.

FINAL IDEA!

So we've FINALLY got our track, after days of searching and all of us can't be more happier with the track idea!

Maroon 5 feat. Rihanna - If I never see your face again

Now as the summer fades
I let you slip away
You say I'm not your type
But I can make you sway

It makes me burn to learn
You're not the only one
I'd let you be if you
Put down your blazing gun

[Chorus:]
Now you've gone somewhere else
Far away
I don't know if I will find you (find you, find you)
But you feel my breath
On your neck
Can't believe I'm right behind you (right behind you)
'Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before
And if I never see your face again
I don't mind
'Cause we gone much further than I thought we'd get tonight

Sometimes you move so well
It's hard not to give in
I'm lost, I can't tell
Where you end and I begin

It makes you burn to learn
I'm with another man
I wonder if he's half
The lover that I am

[Chorus]

Baby, baby
Please believe me
Find it in your heart to reach me
Promise not to leave me behind
(Promise not to leave me behind)

Take me down, but take it easy
Make me think but don't deceive me
Torture me by taking your time
(Talk to me, talk to me)

[x2]
'Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before
And if I never see your face again
I don't mind
'Cause we gone much further than I thought we'd get tonight

MY TREATMENT
This video would be based around the division of genre, gender and style. (using walk this way - Run DMC feat. Aerosmith as a reference)
The music video open with the band in the middle of the stage with the lead singer in the front. As soon as the female voice takes over the girls come in and take over the stage. Throughout the music video these two groups would be competing and challenging each other.

It is a performance based video which would also involve the effects of the ipod advert. On one side of the screen would be the male singer singing into his microphone or playing the guitar, and on the other side of the screen the female dancer.
At the end the main female and male swap characters. The female wears indie clothing and the male wears more slick and hip-hop. clothing. This portrays the fusion of the two divides. The last shot would be of the whole dance floor. The two main singers in the centre of a crowd of people facing each other, singing into their microphone stands and the lights go out.

MY FINAL TWO

Akon feat Keri Hison - Change Me

I think this song could work really well for us, especially because there is both a male singer and female singer and this would make the video as a whole more interesting.

MY TREATMENT: The song is based around two good friends. They both love each other but aren't aware of it. The girl constantly sees him 'check out' other girls and decides to release her frustration and sorrow at home through smashing valuable objects in her house. (see below for referencing) She then tries to change herself and become someone she isn't just to make him like her back. She changed from being a plain and simple girl into a plastic, girly girl.



I love this video (Enrique Iglesias feat Ciara - Taking back My Love) and think we can use 0.57seconds -1.09 seconds for inspiration. The other scenes are also very well shot and directed but i think it would be out of our budget to splash paint over a car or smash a glass table!

Runner Runner - She Will be loved

MY TREATMENT: A girl sees her boyfriend in bed with another girl..she is distraught and runs away. The whole setting of this music video will be black dominated as it is a depressing narrative. The boy does everything he can to win her heart back. He sends her flowers, waits for hours on end outside her house in the pouring rain, calls her numerous times etc. In my opinion this music video would work really well in black and white to emphasise on the vulnerability and sorrow. There would also be constant montages throughout the music video of the good times they had spent together. These shots however, would be in colour.

second group meeting

SHORTLIST:

Rise against - The Dirt Whispered



She will be loved - Runner Runner


Impression that I get - Mighty Mights Bosstones


Arctic Monkeys - Still take you home

Some useful tips for our music video:

Today we had Jasmine Blackborrow, who has experienced working in the real media world come talk to us and give us tips about our music video. Here are a few of the most important, useful tips she gave us:

- Firstly, you should always have more than one idea. Whether it is for the treatment, location or even actors. Something may come up such as the someone not liking your idea or one of the actors may not be able to be make it. If you have a back up you would not waste any time or panick about what to do.
- Referencing from other music videos. Try watching as many music videos as you can and take into account ideas that you especially like and can use in your own music video.
- Make a storyboard - This is crucial as it allows other members of the group to visualise your idea exactly how you want it to be.
- Write out shots you want for every verse and plan ahead. Or the day will come, and you will have no idea what to shoot on particular lines.

GENRE

RnB and HipHop


Above is a music video by one of my favourite RnB singers - Akon.
RnB music tends to be based around relationships, love life or fighting for life/escaping. In contrast to other genres, RnB music is more slick and classy. Classic outfits are: Black suits, Hoodies, Trainers, Bling, Flat caps etc. RnB music involves a lot of street dance and tends to have a more voyeuristic view of women than other genres.
Typically, the rhythm section consists of a drum kit, bass (electric or acoustic), piano (sometimes organ instead of or in addition to piano), and guitar, while the horn section features saxophones, trumpets, and occasionally trombones. The emphasis on the horn section in most styles of R&B has been one of the ways in which the music has historically been differentiated from white rock music, which has tended to be guitar dominated.

80's pop

Madonna - Lucky Star

An obvious feature of 80's music is the outfits worn. Classic outfits include: Crop-tops, Leggings, Big bows, Nets etc

In this music video Madonna wears red lipstick, black frilly clothing and has BIG HAIR. - A classic 80's style! The dance routine itself is very pop, and the continuous beauty shots throughout the music video is most common in pop videos, however most genres do this as it helps sell the singer.

Track ideas

Casely - Emotional.

I think this song is a great song to do because there are a lot of various ways we could narrate the lyrics.
This song should have 3 main locations. One beauty shot - of the singer singing. Second, the setting would be in a club - The camera would be switching form the main actor to his ex girlfriend with another guy. Finally, the last shot would be flashes of memories he had with her.

Something more dance related ..Pretty Young Thing - Michael Jackson remix feat Will.i.am

Party All The Time - Black Eyed Peas

GROUP MEETING

Today was our first group meeting. The group consists of four people: Loren, Jack, Shaun and myself. Today we discussed the song ideas we had and then cut it down to the best three.

I Want It That Way - Dynamite Boy

Sunny Days - Kid British

Rock Your Body - Black Eyed Peas

Until the next group meeting, we have all agreed on picking a song we want to base our project on and create a treatment for it. It's all starting off!

Music Industry Marketing

After lask week's introduction to the money-fuelled world that is music marketing, we got set some work to do on the 4P's of music marketing. These are: Products, Place, Price andPromotion.
1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:
a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
They can buy CD singles, albums, merchandise e.g. t-shirts, key rings,freebies etc

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Place; TV, Music channels, bus-stop/bill boards, posters, radio, internet Music festivals, gigs, youtube, band, pop-ups

Price; Freebies, Discount coupons, vouchers, offers (shops are more expensive than then internet), illegal downloading is free. For example: www.limewire.com)

Product:

Internet stores, the band website, myspace.com, music downloading sites, record stores, radios, television on specialized music channels, gigs and concerts, music festivals, adverts for the band

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.
Examples of free products are free music downloads, free episodes to watch online, free tickets to a gig when you pre order a CD.
Examples of paid for/subscription products are CD'S or albums bought from music stores or online, music magazines which you can subscribe to, merchandise such as clothing.

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

• Adidas are using the famous artists and sports stars to promote their product to specific audience by showing adverts on television which has a large audience, getting more coverage of both the product and the stars. Yes, on TV between the correct shows to reach the correct audiences.

• Lily Allen’s single The Fear is being promoted via a viral music game. The instant gratification of this type of game makes it inherently viral. They are potentially reaching a new audience who are not listening to the radio or reading the music press.

• Samsung: Bebo and Samsung are teaming up to promote their new Beat phone over the internet in a online series. It will be interactive and allow the audience to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and win chances to appear in episodes. They will also be trying to find a co-presenter for the show and are also offering live performances from White Lies and The Maccabees to promote the series

• Jamie Cullum launched ‘The Advent Cullumdar’ on 1st December which houses £20,000 worth of Christmas gifts behind its virtual windows, including AC/DC tickets, John Legend concert tickets, 10 CDs from Universal and a Nokia Comes With Music phone.

• Lenka's song The Show was the iTunes free download of the week in September 2008, which promoted her whole self-titled album, pushing up sales

e) Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?

They are a specialist music marketing agency. They develop and create ideas that use music as a way to market products. Their ideas are creatively bold and distinct and created with a collaboration of their team and other agencies. They deal with music alone and use both on and offline ways to market products.

Music videos and lyrics over time

The way you make me feel - Michael Jackson 1987



Pretty Ricky - Grind on me 2006

After listening to a variety of music from the 80's (such as 'John Lennon - Stand by me' and 'Michael Jackson - The way you make me feel'), i noticed how song lyrics have changed significantly over time. In the late 90's women had more respect and were treated as 'goddesses or stars' through lyrics. They talk about how a girl is so special and how they need a girl to just 'stand by them'

Standing in stark contrast are the lyrics of more modern songs such as 'I want to fuck you - Akon' and 'Gring on me - Pretty Ricky.' The lyrics are extremely derogative and present a voyeuristic view of women - They tend to represents women as a sex object.

Lady Gaga - Case Studies

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

• Mainly influenced by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Quenn, pop artists such as Madonna and Michael , artist Andy Warhol, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and fashion icon Grace Jones.
• Her music structure is very similar to 1980's pop and 1990's Europop.
• Music that is a mixture of both dance and rock.
• Said to be extremely into fashion and inspired by her mother.
• She has her own creative team called Haus of Gaga who put together all her costumes, stage props and hair dos.
• Said to have drawn inspiration from Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Madonna.
• Considers her muse as Donatella Versace.
• She is seen as the rising gay icon and a lot of her success is down to the gay community.
• Markets herself a lot to the gay community as some of her first performances were to the gay community. One of her early performances was singing 'Just Dance' at the San Francisco Pride event and a later on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, two hugely rated events by the gay community therefore setting herself up as a gay icon.
• Early in her career she decided to focus on pop music to differenciate herself from the underground rockers of New York and took part in burlesque shows where a lot of her fashion inspiration still comes from.
• Was nicknamed 'Lady Gaga' early in her career after the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga' due to her vocal style similar to Freddie Mercury and is still compared to Queen now.
• Begun performing with fellow burlesque dancer Lady Starlight and their show was known as 'The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow'. People still say her music has a rock n roll edge and compare her style to burlesque dancers showing she has not changed for the public very much.
• Used her history to help to market her nowadays and make her stand out from the crowd.

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

• The gay community are make up the majority of Lady Gaga's fans.
• Performed two of her debut concerts to target the gay community specifically, one at San Francisco Pride event and one on The Ellen DeGeneres crowd.
• Outrageous clothing, makeup and hair which appeals to the gay community.
• Her lyrics have underlying bisexual meaning which the marketing companies draw on in the videos and therefore appeals to the gay community.
• Her revealing and provocative clothing appeal to the male audience.
• The dancing and pop theme throughout her songs appeal to the younger generation.
• The influences from older bands appeal to the older generation.
• The use of male models in her videos appeals to both the female audience and gay audience.
• She markets herself in a feminist way which appeals to women

3) What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist

Lady Gaga has achieved her prestige through a variety of different marketing strategies. She has her own official website, the look of the website is very trendy and bold - mirroring her personality. An image of the official website is shown below. Here is the link http://www.ladygaga.com/events. She also as her own myspace page www.myspace.com/ladygaga which automatically starts playing music as soon as you log onto her page. This promotes her music straight away and allows her fans to become aware of her latest tracks which they may or may not be aware of yet. Furthermore she has her official fan club on http://www.facebook.com/ where she currently has 105,527 fans. Furthermore she works in synergy with 'Heartbeats' to promote 'high resolution in-ear headphones' -http://www.ladygaga.com/