In our lesson, in groups, we had to create our own singer/role model. One person in our group was the manager and the rest of the group formed up a team who would make the manager's vision happen.
Our singer was called Cara who is a Latina and her music genre is rock and indie music.
She plays the guitar (both acoustic and electric).
The main message she conveys is to fully embrace life and to give it all you got.
In her spare time she loves travelling and always visits her home town.
Prefers to play at small venues to be closer to her fans.
Her dress sense is mainly retro style dresses and boots.
Has a tattoo of the world map in black and white on her back to show her love of travelling.
She was discovered through her YouTube channel.
She is adventurous, intelligent, brave, energetic & independent.
WHAT I LEARNT:
This activity helped me learn that every aspect of a person has to be considered to create an artist. I never previously thought things like personal interests would be important in the formation of a music artist and I will consider this now for the formation of me and my group's formation of our band.
Another thing I learnt and found interesting was ethnicity in the music market. Our group's singer was a Latina and with research this highlighted the lack of non-Caucasian artists out there. It shows that audiences now are looking for something fresh and not the typically churned out artists from the industry. Furthermore, our artist was not sexualised which is something that is common in the industry and this also really shed light on what we as consumers want to buy into. Not every girl or boy want to see an overly sexualised, Caucasian female artists all the time but, this is what the music industry is giving us so we have to accept it.
In a lesson in class we discussed Album Art and its purpose and conventions.
When putting albums into certain categories these are the ones we came up with:
whether it was a band or a solo artist
conceptual imagery or beauty shot of the band/artist
colour scheme
gender
compliations
focal on artist or album name
pop culture links
links to songs
what the focus is on the back of the album
debut album or not
abstract or realism
medium used for the style/design
theme of music
decade in music (trends within a certain year)
consistency of albums
record label
We drew out some main features of all the album artwork that people had brought in for the lesson and we found:
album and artist/band name at the front
tracklist on the back
spine has the name of the artist/band and album title
an image
record label on the back
barcodes
consistent colour scheme
websites (a newer method of promoting)
casing (booklets included)
smallprint
publication date
copyright
parental advisory (if needed)
promo sticker
distinctive fonts
After further discussion we came up with ideas as to what the purpose of an album cover was:
an insight into the artist
attractive to look at
images associate with the sound of the artist/band
to inform
promote the band/artist
provides lyrics which deepens the personal connection of the artist/band and their fans
value for the money people spend
shows band/artist identity
gives people a physical product
The album artwork that I had decided to analyse for the lesson was Paramore's Brand New Eyes Album.
Conceptual/artistic imagery used for the cover
Paramore's third album so there is no need for an image of the band as they have already established themselves as a band
Has a pastel/faded colour scheme
Niche and quirky
Very simplistic
Images connotate lyrics as the album front cover is a reference to their song "Brick by Boring Brick" from the album
Has a booklet which provides similar conceptual and abstract images on each page as a background for each set of lyrics
This lesson was useful to me as it made me see just how important album artwork is. If it does not draw in the audience, the album won't sell. As our group's idea is for a three piece band and they are releasing a debut album, we probably want all our band members featured on the cover as we have to establish their identity. Also I learnt that genre is very important to convey across using album art and that is something that we will do for our band's album.
First song (childhood)- Year 3000 by Busted.
I can remember dancing around to this song in my room pretty much all of the time and humming it during school. I think at one point I even tried to make my own version of the music video for it. It's a fun and energetic song.
Second song (early teens)- Don't Stop Believing (covered) by the cast of Glee.
The show "Glee" was, and arguably still is, a big part of my life. I loved the message of the show- everyone is important, even the underdog. So when I started the show, even though this surprisingly wasn't the first song I heard, it is the one that has meaning. To this day, I have tried to not stop believing.
Third song (present)- It's Time by Imagine Dragons.
Came across this song via the trailer for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" which is one of my favourite books and my one of my best friends also loves the book. We were both really excited for the film and when we heard this song in the trailer, we adored it. It has a lot of meaning to us friendship wise.
A list of songs I like and more or less fit the criteria given:
Golden Jubilee by Boy & Bear. The upbeat tempo of this song makes me imagine a young boy exploring a garden but to him it's like exploring a jungle.
Kill of the Night by Gin Wigmore. This would be a performance based video. Most or even all of it set up in a studio.
Bad Things by Meiko. This could be a narrative driven music video. Perhaps the journey of an average teenage girl and how things drastically change for her.
You've Got Time by Regina Spektor. I would see this as a performance driven music video. All of it on stage and as one of the interpretations of the song is about being jailed and trapped, the studio could be set up to possibly look like a prison (if that is achievable) or it could just look really dirty and abandoned.
Bye Bye Bye by 'N Sync. This is one of my favourite songs and I like the styling of the music video (puppets, theatrical studio and in contrast a plain white studio). Also I think a boyband could be a good idea but, this is dependent on whether we can get enough people to be a boyband. However another way of doing this is to have a band of of both genders but the main singers could be the boys.
Our remake of "Wings" by Little Mix took place from 8am until 8pm and consisted of the two Media A level classes and professional members with industry experience.
1) Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?
Despite being a long and very tiring day, I found the workshop to be a great experience. I was a backing dancer and the backing dancers were not needed to perform until after 3pm. However, there were many runner jobs that needed to be done. Something I really liked was that we also got a taste of the equipment used in the shoot. For example, I got a chance to do some "cable bashing" in which I had to hold up the cables laying on the floor whilst the camera was filming in order to stop them from being tangled. The cast and crew were very welcoming. We were always made to feel part of the team. Another thing I enjoyed was how as backing dancers we got our hands on the camera, managed to capture footage for a behind the scenes video and also gathered some candid photos. I think my favourite aspect of it all was being able to experience a semi-professional music video shoot and now I have that in my portfolio. As a Media student, I think having this as something I was a part of will be helpful to me in the future. Being able to spend time with both classes and interact with different people was also refreshing.
Dance rehearsals backstage pt 1
Dance rehearsals backstage pt 2
Group circle in between takes.
2) What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?
Our group's Little Mix "Wings" audition.
Our main prelim task was to shoot a music video of us lip syncing to Little Mix's "Wings" and this was in order for us to be able to lip sync correctly and show our performance talents off. From that I learnt that when lip syncing you need to sing along to make it look believable so, on the whole you cannot afford to be embarrassed and that you just need to go for it and have as much fun as you can.
Furthermore, we also picked our own performance driven music video to analyse and I picked "Drumming Song" by Florence + The Machine (analysis post here). That exercise helped me to pin point the key features of a performance music video and helped me differentiate between different types of videos.
Before the shoot, everyone participating pooled in different costumes to see which ones resembled the outfits in the video the closest. What I liked was that there was a very open minded approach to it as even if the outfits weren't an exact match, if they had similarities in either style or colour they were accepted. For the backing dancers, in the video they all wear black. That did not mean we were to make it boring. We decided that each backing dancer would have a customized look to bring out a bit of personality and uniqueness.
Dancers in costume
The workshop day gave me an idea of what a real shoot would feel like and put me in a professional mind set. I learnt how a filming team would work. I also learnt a lot about the roles of the Assistant Director and Director. Working with the professionals was great as it was almost like a taste of a real music video shoot and we were able to gain knowledge from their experiences. The workshop day also kept me on my feet and brought everyone together as a group. It really showed me that without co-operation and team work we would not have been able to have a successful shoot.
Editing was a familiar experience but slightly altered as this time I was editing a music video instead of a film opening as I did for my AS Media course. Getting the lip sync right was difficult and new to me as there was less creative freedom in this project. We had to match our footage to the actual video of "Wings".
3) Are you pleased with the footage and your edit?
I am pleased with the footage and our edit of the video. When it came to editing we realised there were some shots that weren't exactly similar or that we had missed out but, we managed to turn that into a positive by coming up with creative solutions for it. For example, in the medium close ups for the "blue grunge" scenes there was one shot that didn't work out so we used another shot and zoomed into it to make it seem like a medium close up. The fact that we were in large groups made me worry a little as I thought it would be very hard to manage and figure out who is doing what. However, we used a schedule and we all made an effort to spend time editing in our frees. We usually did it in pairs and took turn every half an hour or so. The Little Mix music video for "Wings" consisted of very quick shots and cutting our shots to be as quick was challenging. We had already learnt to edit as part of our AS Level course. However, that was focal on continuous editing to create a linear storyline. The "Wings" music video does have linear progression in it as the dance moves get bigger until there is the final big dance number towards the end however, it consisted of non-linear and discontinuous editing which was hard to get my head around at first.
Our group's rough cut of the remake
4) How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?
I think this coursework has told me that time management is very key. We cannot afford to not have a shoot schedule as it is important to stick to timings. Time equals to money. When the shoot started, originally we were behind schedule and that taught me not only the importance of timing as shots cannot be rushed but that having a schedule is extremely helpful. Also, personally, before the music video workshop I had thought I would want to make a purely narrative music video but, the workshop showed me the positives to making a performance based music video too. I would quite like to do a hybrid of both.
The dance crew performing the routine.
The experience has also helped extend my knowledge of technical aspects of shooting a music video. It has shown me that co-operation is very important to be able to obtain a successful music video. Motivating the group will help to keep everyone on their feet and it will feed energy into them. For example, when the main girls were performing a lot of the crew sang and danced along to make sure they didn't feel uncomfortable. For our A2 music video shoots we will have to think of ways to keep everyone going but, I think it will be easier as we are in a smaller group. Next year, I will keep in mind that you have to put in more than 100% energy when performing in a music video as your actions appear much smaller in the actual video.
If we were to do it differently I would have allowed more time in the schedule as we did go behind at the start.
Our main aim was to create a successful remake of the "Wings" music video and I believe that we met that goal. Playing the original video in the corner of our remake whilst editing really made me see what we had accomplished.
I have chosen to analyse "Drumming Song" by Florence + The Machine
1. The music, lyrics and imagery do work in collaboration. Certain dance moves and scene changes happen in time to the beat of the song. For example at 0:35. Whenever the words "drumming song" are said the sound of heavy drums is used the highlight and emphasise the lyrics, for example at 0:07 and 0:15.
2. The performance definitely drives the music video and is sustained throughout. It starts calmly with a close up on the artist standing still and as the pace of the music picks up so does the performance. There are some conceptual elements as you can see two different sides of the artist: one in which she is wearing blue and in the other she is wearing black. It could be symbolic of two different personas.
3. The artist lip syncs throughout and it is done well.
4. With the conceptual idea that there are two possible different personas to the artist it could be said that she switches between characters. However, it could also just represent two different sides of her as herself.
5. The artist is known for this type of music video, the fans will expect to see a variety of dance moves. But, it could be argued that it does not fit in with the conventions of the genre. Despite it having a very upbeat chorus, a lot of the song is rather sombre and the lyrics are more intricate and we don't usually associate that with a big dance number.
6. The music video is visually striking as it is set in a serene and vast building. The dominant background colour is white. What makes it striking is the contrast between the building and the action inside the building.
7. The music video features highly stylised hair, costume, make up and backdrops. It is all created to fit in with a rather eerie atmosphere.
8. There is development as the action gets more intense as the video progresses. Towards the end of the video the two different personas begin to merge/become similar. This could be a comment on how in spite of the juxtaposing personalities it is still the same person on the whole.
9. We see a sense of the artist's identity through the dance moves. The viewers can probably assume that the artist produces similar style music videos. The dark and edgy sound and look to this song and its music video is something the listeners might enjoy which will make them assume the rest of the artist's music is similar and they will proceed to listen to more of her albums etc.
10. Close ups of the artists act as beauty/money shots and also the wide shots of the building as it makes it seem a lot more extravagant.The music video starts with a close up on the artist's face even before she starts singing.
11. The idea of binary opposites could be present in the concept of their being two personas in the music video. When the artist is in blue she is "angelic" and "heavenly" whereas when she is in black it is shown that she is a lot "darker" and "mysterious".
12. There is some discontinuous editing for example at 1:03 when there are jump cuts to create an almost disorientating/crazed effect to fit in with the themes of the music video. Discontinuous editing is also used at 2:05 where the artist is first dancing with her back up dancers and then suddenly it cuts to when she is dancing alone but in the very same place.
13. There are not many references to pop culture. There is a running theme of "heaven and hell" or "good vs evil" (shown in the lyrics "sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell") in this song and this sort of theme has been around for centuries not only in music but in books and films and the modern audience still get a good thrill out of it.
14. The video is polysemic. Also the lyrics itself show that it has many interpretations such as "I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole" this could be hinting at a struggle in the relationship so the two people are trying to "swallow" each other so they are always at each other's throats arguing. The colours used in the music video are quite bland and the rather hypnotising dance moves suggest dark undertones to the song.
15. It may not provoke a strong audience reaction but it is visually stunning so they are likely to engage with it.
