Preparing For The Evaluation

Before we started our evaluation process for our groups music video, we felt that we must discuss what we are going to say. We will do this otherwise we will have no direction in what we say and it will effect our clarity in gettin across ideas. Preparing for the evaulation is key so that we cover all aspects of the video and evaluate everything, fully showing an undertanding of our work carried out and answering th questions in full, whilst covering the development,progression and creation elements of our project.

We know we must look at the good points as well as the bad points analysising how we can improve and look forward to more effectve ideas in the process as this is what makes a good evaluation, the ability to analysis your video as a whole.
We will set ourselves guide lines in order so we do not go off track of the evaluation and begin to raise issues tha was not relevent to the question as that kind of discussion belongs on the blog, however we wish not to script what we say as it will negetivley effect that whole discussion and therefore not create a real sense of evaluating. As a group we will all take our turn to evaluate and give our own answers to the questions however through communication we wish to not hit upon the same idea continously and wish to display our collectve knowledge as a group.

The evaluation itself is very important to the coursework as it allows us to highlight on issues we feel we done well on as well as allowing u to recap on areas of weakness. All in al it gives a chance to focus on the 3 main factors which are: development,progression and creation elements of our project.

Final Filming

This was to be our last filming session, and after planning and discussion we came to the idea that it should be predominantly used to film footage that can be used to fill gaps in our main filiming, such as moments in between verses where no real narrative would have to be partaken.
We returned to where we started the filming, at one of our group memebers house, in order to create a party scene that will play upon the idea of 'the night before' and how it has contributed to him and his hangover now.
We only needed a couple of shots, and we maintained to keep the idea of a party theme. We did however experiment with angles and shot types, and we felt that it was important to keep the first person shot theme going as it would create a sense of being apart of the video for the audience, and will benefit the effect the video has on the audience.
We experimented with filming using just one shot, gaining about 3 minutes of footage and therefore creating a sense of flow when cutting back to the scene.

The footage filmed today was purposly just going to be used as gap fillers.

We have focused on syncing the lyrics to the actions of the main character in which the Carol Vernallis' theory suggests. As a class we have looked at Vernallis and I felt that its a very worthwhile theory and one that makes more of an impact than others. We decided as a group that we should use Vernallis' theory as it linked in the most compared to other theorist's.

Rough cut of our video

BoB Magic Rough Cut 2 from Jules Thrasher on Vimeo.

This is the footage we have so far, and is what we displayed during the showcase. Through feedback and personal evaluation of the piece i feel that a great use of high quality shots and the editing used on the footage so far really has given our video so far a real professional edge.
However after discussion and personal evaluation of the piece i feel that towards the end of the footage we really let the professional look go where filming looked very much rushed and there areas in which could easily be pulled of in a much more effective manor.

I feel that by re filming parts in our final filmins session, it will allow us to create a successful ending to a video that starts of with a extremely effective footage and editing.

Video Showcase

In a recent lesson we put our video on show to the class in order to gain response and reactions to what we have far. As a group we introduced our video and explained tat it was unfinished but critism is encouraged as we are always looking to improve. We gave everyone a evaluation sheet to write their thoughts and critically analyse our video. We took everybody's views and gathered up what everyone had written and made adjustments accordingly. The screening also gve us a chance to watch the video as part of a audience and look at what we feel could be improved. As a group we feel we have done a very good job in the video and gave our all into it.

We gained a lot during the showcase lesson as we could see what all the other groups came up with in terms of experimenting with edits, as well as it being fun to watch, it helped us with our own video as we could compare our video to everybody elses and see the levelother groups are working at, however we were sure not to let this put us off our task and the follow the ideas we already had discussed.

Meeting Update

Yesterday we met up as a group once again, to discuss whether there is anything that we could do to improve the video further or any issues group members may wish to raise. We decided that we could make some of the cuts smoother and quicker,and that tidying up the cuts is the main thing we need to do as that is what makes the whole professinalism of the peice. Hopefully this tidying up of the editing will be done as soon as possible, however we know the priority at the moment is to film the footage first.

Creating a webpage for 'B Money'

This is the webpage that I created for our artist, B Money. I decided to use MySpace like any artist nowadays as my source; I chose MySpace as it is very user friendly and extremely easy to access as a fan. Also it is great for artists to promote themselves and their music. I created the page and designed into a Hip-Hop style to keep with the theme of B Money.

Websites such as myspace gives artists such as ours the chance to interact and create a fan base, as well as promoting there music, there image and there genera activites, keeping a personal commnicaton with there fans.

Making our Artist Look Like a Star

This is where research into my star model really paid off. To keep our artist, B Money,looking like a star and have a somewhat fame feel towards him, we have give him a specific 'look', just as most artists have in order to differentiate themselves to other artists and in turn start their own trends.. Kid Cudi in particular has his own image and he sticks to it where ever he goes, his style is something we associate with him. An extreme case of this would be Lady Gaga who is very much extreme when it comes to her choice in clothing and her style. We have given our artist a unique style with the clothes he wears, as the song Magic has an indie artist and a Hip-Hop rapper, which gives us freedom on what look we want for him. In this case we wish to keep him looking youthful yet a sense of status in the music industry so he doesn’t have a ‘newcomer’ look but a look that says to the audience he knows what he’s doing and his is no weak character.

Tinie Tempah - Written In The Stars (Analysis)

In the opening of the video, it starts with Tinie Tempah and Turner doing there own style to show a bit about them. IT then shows the little boy sitting outside of his flat and then he transforms into Tinie Tempah suggesting that this was him when he was younger.

The mum is then shown taking a man into her flat and throwing her son outside again as she is a prostitute. The boy sits down and puts his head-phones on like this is his normal routine. The lyrics say ‘I want my family back’ as the boy is kicked out; the lyrics correspond with the video which agrees with Vernallis’ theory.

As the man finishes with the boys mum, he taps him on the head as he feels sorry for him and the little boy throws something at him in anger at his mums job.

When the boy is in the basket ball court, sitting there writing with his head-phones on, (trying to hide from the real world.) a boy comes up to him and throws all his work on the floor; this shows that he gets bullied just as they do in Prom Queen and No Love. The lyrics say ‘Every one’s the kid that no one cares about’ just as he gets bullied (agreeing with Vernallis’ Hollywood style theory).

Towards the end of the video, the boy comes out of his shell and dances on the roof to show his passion for music and this is his way to express himself.

It finishes with the boy standing there with his arms in the air to show that he will make a name for himself just as Tinie Tempah has.

Lil Wayne - Prom Queen (Analysis)

The opening lyrics correspond to the video as he mentions the girl he fancies and shows him looking at her across the classroom. This agrees with Goodwin’s theory.

Lil Wayne is seen looking all scruffy and on his own at the prom as he is bullied just as the boy in the No Love video is.

He talks about how she ‘laughed and walked away’ and now she should regret her decision to bully Lil Wayne as he turns into a superstar.

The video agrees with Vernallis’ theory as it is a typical Hollywood style continuity.The video is correspondent to the lyrics as well as following Vernallis’ style.

Eminem - No Love ft. Lil Wayne (Analysis)

Opening powerful image of a child with a black eye, this is a close up shot to emphasise the pain; this instantly suggests that he is being bullied in some way, whether it be his family or bullying at school.
Flashbacks are shown to give the audience an insight into how the black eye came across. The pungent image of the three boys within the opening sequence show the extent of the bullying.
The bullying continues as the lyrics read ‘No more’ showing the boys pain and how he is feeling at this current time.
1:24 in to the video, the boy stands up to his bully’s and doesn’t back down, he gets barged but deals with it and doesn’t run, showing he is growing as a person and it doesn’t affect him any more.
The lyrics are corresponding to the video as the lyrics say ‘Do not knock me down’, which is a contrast as he gets knocked down (1:55). The camera shot at this point is aimed directly to the boy with his bully’s higher than him to show status and power.
The boy walks around with his hood up to emphasise that he fears the bully’s and doesn’t want to be seen.
The boy has earphones in whilst Eminem is rapping, this may show that he is listening to the long that we are listening along to.
In the background to where Eminem is rapping, there is an image of chains to show that the boy is chained up and cannot escape from his current situation.
Once the boy stands up for himself and punches one of the bully’s, we see a sequence of flash backs to portray the effect of how he is trying to forget the old and continue with his life.
The last shot is a medium shot of the boy walking away with his head held high showing he has put the bullying behind him and stood up for himself.

Marketing a music video

In the modern day music industry, artists can use a variety of ways to promote/market their music video. A common method of marketing is called Viral marketing; this form of marketing is used worldwide not only used in the music industry but also many other companies. Viral Marketing is where the video is uploaded to a site, such as YouTube. Sites such as these, are a great source of marketing for artists and help them promote their music for free. A lot of unknown artists us YouTube to create a fan base for themselves. The artist that we create as a group will very much want to use Viral Marketing as one of the main sources of promotion as it is easy, free and very effective. It is also something that is open to everyone to watch, so focusing of targeting audiences would not be an issue.
In addition to Viral Marketing, using websites such as MySpace and Twitter; social networking sites assist artists as they can upload their music on to these sites and start creating a fan base, As well as working on there personal interaction with there fans.. Many artists use social networking sites to promote new music, Kid Cudi, Jay-z and Katy Perry all use MySpace to let fans see exclusive music. Once tracks are known by fans and recognised, companies such as Apple and HMV will pick up on this and begin to sell their track; Apple use software called iTunes to sell music on whereas HMV sell hard copies in store, which does in turn create a better income for the artist. Album covers are very important when selling as even on iTunes you purchase the album cover as well as the track; iTunes also allow you to purchase the video for many songs. Once the track is known and the artist has picked up fans, the artist will do gigs to further the artists reputation and pick up more sales and hopefully one day become a global success.

The music industry, and its change

The music industry sells compositions, recordings and performances of music to the public. Music is produced and sold by two groups; the act and the organizations that operate within the industry.
In the late 19th century, the industry was mainly controlled by publishers of sheet music; (sheet music is a hand-written piece of music on a hard copy of paper that uses music notes to display the music). Technology gradually improved and music was moved to audio in the 20th/21st century; this was due to Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph which assisted the industry in recording music and allowing them to play music via radio (the only real way the public you could listen to new music).
The record industry then replaced sheet music publishers as the major music distributors/owners. Record labels were then introduced such a giants Columbia Records. More and more labels were created (as well as some not doing to well and folding), but in the 1980s the "big 6" as they were called were formed; EMI, Song, BMG, PolyGram, WEA and Universal.

As we entered the 21st century technology was improving continously. Consumers were spending less and less money on CDs, Vinyls, cassettes and digital downloads, they eventually dropped 25% world wide; this was due to the large number of illegal downloads. Illegal downloading became a 21st century epidemic, everybody seemed to be getting involved. Websites were being created with a 'front' which involved selling a product in order to make the website legal, but allowing music sharing for free. Napster was the leading site for illegal downloads, in 2001 Napster was shut down, but this was clear to not be the end of illegal downloading as the music industry soon found out as one website closes down, 2 websites open. This was a great issue for the music industry as a whole, and in some cases caused devastating effects to income, therefore having a knock on effect to the artist/bands, causing some outrage from some artist.

iTunes store was open in 2003 and lowered the rate of illegal downloads due to easy access of music. Digital sales improved but still to this day have not recovered the loss due to illegal downloads.

In 2010, a study shows that MNCs (Multi National Companies) such as Wal-Mart and Best-Buy retail more music than stores that just sell music. Due to the massive decline in the sales of music, artists these days rely on live performances and merchandise to bring in the majority of their money; this has made artists more dependent on labels and has created a market for record labels. It has also led to the mass commercialization of the music industry nowadays and the ‘Americanization’ or many artists ideology.
This change in the industry has given consumers a wider variety of choice and at an extremely low price.

Universal account for 25% of the industry, closely followed by Sony at 21%, Warner and EMI also have large shares. The rest of the market falls down to independent record labels.

Storyboarding

As a group got together in order to complete a detailed story board in order to have a very clear idea for when we film, so we had a thorough idea of whatwere going ti film. The song that we chose is very up-beat so we feel we need to make many cuts at a high tempo/pace and show a variety or shots in our work as well as getting a idea of the timings and how much footage we will need to film.

We looked at other music videos for inspiration but we felt that our own ideas will be more suitable for our song choice as it also allowed us freedom to experiment with our own ideas and connotations of what the song meant to us, and how we could display that through the video.

Completing a story board sheet before filming, I believe to be clearly very beneficial for the group and the video in terms of preperation. By creating the story board we will know exactly what we are doing when filming, shot by shot etc. Also having the story board in hand when filming is helpful in the way that it will give usa organized schedule/ time and on top of everything, we can mark off what shots we have done and what shots we still need to do.

Preperation for filming

Before we start filming we wanted to sit down a discuss exactly what were doing, such as where were starting, where were filming and whos going to be our main character. we came to the agreement that with the help of altering mise en scene and a little help from our friend final cut, we could easily use a simple setting such as one of our houses and edit it to give it a far more music video, and in some cases a rags to riches feel.

Storyboard for music video

Lumby Producky Storyboard

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This is the storyboard for the music video that we will use as a guide to follow throughout filming our video, however we will not restrict ourseleves to just filming for the story board , we will allow ourselves to contionously add to these ideas. It also gives us an understanding of the characters and setting we will be looking for.

Our Choice

B.O.B - Magic ft. Rivers Cuomo is our chosen song for our final video.

The video is very appealing and somewhat inspirational but we will not let the video itself inspire us, we will use our own ideas and techniques and allow ourselves freedom to experiement with putting across ideas and connotations.

The video is very fast paced and we will create a video which is hopefully matched with the beat playing on the idea of the upbeat feel. We will lip sync some of the song to ofcourse give it its realistic feel, but not all the song, similarly to what they do in most music videos, too much or too little lip syncing will result in a bad music video as it either does not do the job of promoting the artist, or it shows to much of the artist therefore maybe not getting across ideaologies and connotations.

The editing will be very important to help the video look professional and out skills on Final Cut will assist us in doing this. It is software such as this that will make or break our music video as due to our low budget and lack in 'Superstars' we rely mainly upon the editing aspect to give the video a professinal feel.

Prelim Task (lip sync)

For our preliminary task we filmed a varitey of shots to practice for our final piece and I feel as if it was a success however improvments can still be made. We used Final Cut to edit our filming and we all had a go at the software to get used to it and get a feel for what we would need to be doing as a group for our final peice.

We added the music to the video by importing it to Final Cut and it was easy enough to work out by our selves without any problems caused my importing etc. We then had to do the more complex part which was alining the sound to sync with our mouths/ movements to make it look real, after a bit of work we got it to look as realistic as possible.

During the filming we knew we had to actually sing the words out loud as we felt otherwise once finsihed it would not look realistic, so we did. We can see that it looks respectably realistic so we will use this technique in our final filming.

Overall we got a positive response from our prelim task, getting around 1000 veiws on youtube, clearly displaying it was a good attempt at a lip sync, with ofcourse its comedic values.

Editing the lip-sync

When editing our lip-sync task (preliminary task) I found that the software such as final cut express cut is easy to use once i got the hang of it. When firstly reading through the instructions it made the software look somewhat complex and it was clear a number of stages had to be gone through in order to simpley edit a few seconds of film, however when i started using it i found it was not difficult at all. We made all the cuts we needed and made the sound in time with the video to make it seem as real as possible. After we had put all our cuts in and put it all in line, we tried out all the effects to see how they would help us for our final task. We found that some of the effects didnt really do much but others will come in handy in our music video. I feel I have learnt all I need to know on the software to create a good music video and overall I am happy with the progress out group is making.

Ideas we will moved forward with

Now we had a number of songs we felt would be good to use for our music video we began discussing ideas of what we could and what styles/ connotations we may like to consider when using these songs, these are the two songs were seriously considering to use and why:

B.o.b - Magic
This fast paced song would allow us to experiement with a number of cuts and camera shots, really playing with the editing to create a modern styled music video that plays upon fast movement and upbeat feel to the song.
Our particular idea for this song would be to show a day in the life of our character, going to an audition to perform infront of a judge and generally show the gradually rise to fame for this character.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Cant Stop
This song is very fast paced and would require many fast cuts and experiemental angles, the style of music will allow a lot of freedom in terms of what we want to do, and will allow us to play with the idea of tension buliding which is dispalyed within the song beat.We will look to once again follow the audition theme, however experiement with a lot more random connotations as this style of music allows such a thing due to its versitile lyrics.

Kid Cudi, Star Image Collage.

Music video ideas

As a group we have been looking at and discussing a number of tracks we feel would be the right track for our music video. Youtube has become a great source for us, and it has allowed us to search through many music videos with different styles and genres, and we have used this to our advantage. After much discussion we have decided that it will be most beneficial with us to follow a pop genre, and a pop song as it allows us to use and experiment with a number of quick shots, range of angles and vary shot type. Originally we wanted to go for a either hip hop or indie genre however we found these music videos often restricted what you could do, as the style of music only really appeals to certain types of people/audiences.

Song Choice Possibilities:

- Naive, The Kooks
- Gives You Hell, All American Rejects
- Cant Stop, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- Magic, B.O.B

Finished Album Cover

My B Money Album Cover - How i created it

I designed my album cover using photoshop.
Firstly i began with a simple image of our artist (B money) as i felt it was important that i built around the main feature of the album. In this case i took a picture that had a look of rebelious behaviour yet controlled to connotate the ideas a emotions of he artist we ar creating. I think this image is extremely striking and would appeal to an audience who desire ground breaking music that deals with such issues in a post modern way,tackling ideas of rebellious behaviour in the music industry.

I then look at enhancing the photo such as adding an outer glow in order to make the image stand out. I also then added promotion of our record label, placing the brand name on the cover twice as i felt in todays music industry this is something that is usual done to promote record labels. So to add to the realism of the cover i felt it was only neccessary. Additionally I have added a parent advisory label, also conventional of controversial music.



I then went on the add text sycronising with the colour scheme, and i felt that by manually enhancing the boldness of the name it made it a dominant feature, however not taking away from the powerful picture that stands behind.



I felt that my album cover was a success and was similar to ones we see in the music industry today. Although kept very minimalistic, i feel the cover connotes a real senseof power about the artist and displays his genre of pop/ hip hop music that is looking to change the industry in the way of the artist personality to rebel.

Video Analysis of Stromae - Alors on danse, and the way it will influence our peice

This particular song, is in fact sung in french, which in a positive way allows me to focus more upon and the importance of understandig its narrative and the video in general.
I feel as if this video can have great influence on our ideas and themes in terms of our narrative, as it similarly focuses on telling the story of the artist contiuously showing close ups and a the artists rections to such events, very much similar to our intial ideas.

Immdeiatley the video begins, by setting the scene and giving the audience a sense of the tone of the video and what sort of pace is likely to be used throughout. This allows immediate aprehension in the audiences mind as they wish to see what is behind this lifeless character and the reasons for his clear tiredness.

As the song progresses it takes us on a journey with the character through diffrent events of his day keeping it very much naturalistic in order to create a real connection with the audience in this case the target audience are party go'ers and it displays a real sense of 'weve all had these sort of hangovers' immediatley engaging the audienc through use of anecdote.

The main character in this piece in which similarly to ours is in fact the artist, shows clear signs of depression in the video and this is emphasied through cuts to close ups focusing on facial expressions, played alongside medium shots that display his full body languae and the situations in which he is in.

However we see that although he faces many hurdles and shows clear signs of 'giving up' on life if you will, he gains enjoyment and hope in the form of 'partying' which once again links back to the relation between the artist and the target audience and the way in which the video is basically connotating that no matter how bad things get, you should just enjoy life, and through translation of the title, which translates to 'so we dance' which is clear connotatio of the way that the artist is just getting through life and the way in which if he jus dances he is getting away from it all, which again link back to the audience and they way in which they may feel a connection to this idea, and the way in which similarly to this song they feel that times of partying for example just allows them to get away from the troubles and stress of life.

These ideas of using representations that link to the lives of our target audience i feel is intrumental in promoting a connection to the audience from our video and therefore forming the basis of a successful music video.
I will look to develop on ideas of this particular music video and communicate ideas to the group in order to benefit our final outcome.