Thursday 20 December 2012

Job Roles Within The Group

Me - Costumes and Blog Management
As my Blog was quite good last year then we decided that I should overview the blogging that happens within the group and making sure that all the blog posts are up to standard and are saying the right things. To clarify though we will not be copying each others posts, this job role means that I will only make sure that we are writing the correct things on our blogs and that all of them are up to date and merely offering suggestions as to how we can improve our blogs. I also said that I would be in charge of all the costumes which is quite a big part of our video as we are spoofing so many videos we will have to buy a lot of costumes obviously. I will not have to buy all of the costumes by myself as we will each pay for our own costumes but I am in charge of finding out what costumes we will need and where the best place is to get them. 

Luke Shelley - Director
We all decided that Luke Shelley should be the director as he is the mist organised person and is the one who will be the most determined to create the best product at the end. We felt that he would be the best person to overview the whole product.

Luke Hewitt - Location
Luke decided that he wanted to do location and it was from there that we decided that we would go to Woolwich Polytechnic and one of the drama rooms it will be his job to take location shots of the places that we are going to film or places that we consider so that we can finalise a decision on where we will shooting our final video.

Aaron Vander - Cinematography
Aaron's role within the group is cinematography and this may mean that he has to work out the shots that we are going to use in the music video, he will also have to work closely with Luke Hewitt when we are choosing locations as we will have to consider the camera shots and how the location will look on camera and whether it is practical.

Friday 14 December 2012

Dance Routine - The Macarena and Cha Cha Slide



This is our first rehearsal of the dance routines that will be in our music video. As you can see we did start off quite bad without any synchronisation or rhythm but as we practised more and more we got better and it started looking promising. In the video we have practised the dance routines that are 'The Macarena' and 'Cha Cha Slide'.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Album Art - Is Your Digipak Really Going To Sell?

In this lesson I was taught more about what it takes to make a good digipak and this lesson has helped me greatly with my own thoughts towards my digipak. What I was taught is that print and web design in the music industry is really about identity. What our audience, potential customer or client can expect to hear, feel, experience or identify with is communicated visually. I also learnt that a talented designer understands the power of text (typography) and images, and knows how to use them creatively. In order to find out whether my digipak is successful or not these are some of the things that I can look at to see if what I have created is a success;

  • is it unified with the content or message you are trying to get across? This creates and immediate connection and sense of belonging.
  • is there an information and visual hierarchy? This means there's a focal point or image that grabs your attention first and then your eye is led around the design in the order of what's important after seeing the main image or reading the main text.
  • does the design have graphic impact? is it distinctive or memorable? There are many CDs competing with your for attention (lots of demos are sent out to producers, potential crew, record labels and distributors), so yours must be a major contender.
  • is it appropriate for whom you want to attract and the environment in which it will be presented? A poster or CD for a country audience will not have the same look and feel presentation as for a heavy metal one.



Why is this image so iconic? This is such an important question because it's just so plain and simple but yet who can forget the strong identity between the Rolling Stones and this bring, red tongue? It's a very powerful example of a highly successful design. The Stones logo has graphic impact. is distinctive and memorable, and is appropriate for its Rock audience.

When looking into the history of cover art design, the golden can be seen to have begun in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. In this time cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musicians artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album. Album cover art went through a change in the 1990's and had a rebirth as the designers learned to capture snapshots and portions of the artist's musical intent rather than trying to convey the entire message. Also designers started conveying the emotion of the music rather than the musical intent.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

De-commodification - capitalism, creativity and the crisis in the music industry

One of the opening comments within the article states that 'the big changes, of course, are all largely the consequences of the development of the Internet and of digital media formats which can be reproduced and distributed by anyone, effectively cost-free'. What this statement is saying is that in recent years the development of the Internet has meant that the world can now access music like never before and that now you can get songs off the Internet within seconds. What this means is that there is now a decrease in album sales, single sales and digi pack sales. With this in mind I will have to take into consideration the fact that, Itunes, Youtube converter and Limewire has taken the music industry by storm and has left albums and digipaks behind. Therefore with regards to my digipak I will want to reach out to the audience that still enjoy collecting the material and get a thrill out of collecting the memorabilia. On the other hand the audience members who are now more attracted to the Internet in order to get their music, with regards to them I am going to have to find a new way in order to attract them to my digipak and I think this will be something that I am going to have to think about when making my digipak.

'One of the central features of this transformation in the music industry is the effective de-commodification (the process) of music. In the 19th century, with the development of a market for sheet music and the spread of public concerts, music became something which could be bought and sold for profit'. This is a very important point that is made by the article as it states that music now makes money in so many different ways and this is where my idea for my digipak comes in as I think that there is an idea to be pulled from music making money. I think that I can use this concept by offering tickets to go see DJ Boosh in a live performance to the audience by putting two tickets in every 500 digipaks that are released in the UK and hopefully this will be what draws the audience to my digi pack and persuades them to by it, instead of going online and getting it.

'A commodity always depends for its status and its value on its relative scarcity; once the reproduction and distribution of that commodity becomes effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value and that status'. This is much like the first comment as the article states that once the music has been sold time and time again then it losses its value as it essentially becomes free as who can stop someone from buying one album and then uploading it to one computer and then uploading it to several other computers, this essentially renders the music free and therefore it loses its value and status. Much like I have talked about in the first paragraph and second I am going to have to look for another way in which to stop this from happening and to stop my digipak from it losing its value and status.

'If we want to have professional musicians at all (and of course there are those who say we don't need them), then how are we going to pay for them? How will their work be compensated, if not through selling their wares in an open marketplace?' In simpler terms what the article is stating now is that with the increase of technology taking its toll on artists by making them sound better, then this means that we have no need for real talent anymore. With no need for professional musicians then concerts will become endlessly boring and will be the same artists singing the same music with no extra flare or special touch. Also with people finding there to be no need for musicians anymore, then it does beg the question who will pay for them? As they will be so expensive to offer a contract too and to get for gigs and such other things.

This information has come from, Jeremy Gilbert (14 september2012) www.opendemocracy.net

Wednesday 5 December 2012

The Iconography Of The Album Cover

'In the age of Itunes, can there be a future for the ancient art of album cover iconography'. Straight from the first comment of this article I can understand that this piece from the magazine is going to make me think hard of the unique ideas that I am going to have to come up with regards to the design of my digipack. However I am hoping that this article is going to give me some ideas of what I could possibly do or how I could possibly go about making my digipack and where to watch out for the pitfalls that could render my work not as special and unique as I want it to be. In this post I will be looking through the article from Media Magazine and I will be picking out certain points that will help guide me through the difficult task of making a digipack for my artist DJ Boosh.

When looking at this iconic album, you can understand that this is an artist that does not mind swearing as it uses the word 'bollocks' within the text. What the text is also doing is commenting on the show 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' by mocking it and changing the words around. We can also tell from the text that this isn't just one artist and that it is in fact a band as it states 'Sex Pistols' which is not singular, its plural which means there more than one. What we can tell from this album cover is that if there is only words on it then why isn't their faces on there, this asks the questions, do they want to be kept hidden? are they camera shy? are they so tough and well known that they think they don't have no need to have a picture on there.

Within Media Magazine it talks of how the art of album cover is part packaging part advertising and often gives an insight into an artists personality. It also states that usually the best album cover art illustrates and accompanies the music in a way that creates a whole package. In my opinion I think that what the article is saying here is that the album/digipack has to link with the artist and the illustrations has to link with the genre of music that I am doing. With this in mind I will make sure to follow my artists genre of music which is 'Dance' and I will also make sure to design my digipack in a way that will connote the dance genre whilst at the same time giving some sort of hint as to my artists personality.

Having already done some background research on this album cover already I can understand that this piece of art is actually mocking Elvis Presley album by smashing a guitar. Smashing a guitar could symbolise the anger in the music that this artist creates. Once again we can also understand through the text that 'The clash' are a band and not just one artist and this is plural and not singular. 'London Calling' is quite and effective title for a album as it can suggest that perhaps the capital of london is shouting out for The Clash to sing or for them to release this album. Much like the previous album the band is not on this cover so this leads me to ask are they that well known that they perhaps don't need their faces on the album cover.

When Christopher Budd is interviewing people within the album cover industry he asks questions about how the album cover is made and what it takes in order to make the best album cover and the answer he got is from 'Julian House (a creative partner in London agency 'The Intro Partnership'). She stated that 'we take most of our direction from the artist. More often than not this involves sitting down and talking with them about the ideas behind the album, anything they've seen that they liked (not just music related, but film, books etc). Then we'll go off and do several sets of visuals and present them, then home it down from there'. With regards to my artist I could think of what books, films and other such things he like but instead I can just look at the brief and judge by that what he likes and what he dislikes and from their I can build up my ideas within my head and draw it up on paper of what the digipack could possibly look like.

With this album cover we can see all of the singers from within the group stuck inside what seems to be some sort of science tube. This matches the title of the album cover as it is called 'Biology' and they are like an experiment as they are in a tube with a cork in the top which means that they are so lethal that they shouldn't be let out as perhaps they are an experiment that means they are untouchable or even toxic. I think this album is the best album for linking in with title and image as you can understand that they are like an experiment. Unlike the other albums Girls Aloud have their faces on the album which is also interesting.

Within the next part of the article I will be looking at how to deconstruct album cover art and in doing this it can be broken up into four main sections, these are; Who made it, why, how, for whom and for what purpose?, associations and connotations, signs and symbols and composition and framing. When looking at the first part of the deconstruction it is much like what I have already talked about with regards to the art of an album cover is usually to promote the artist, to make it eye catching (it will usually be reproduced not just on CD covers, but also posters), and to tell us something about the musicians and the music behind it. While the immediate target audience is likely to be those who frequently buy music, and particularly those who favour the specific band or genre, the artwork may be designed to attract a wider audience. As I have talked about earlier with regards to this aspect of my digipack design, I think I know what I have to cover with regards to this section as I have talked about it earlier but I know that DJ Boosh's personality has to shine through the digipack in order for it to be  success. The second section of the four, associations and connotations is also important as you have to consider the difference between denotations, which means simply identifying the elements in the image and connotation, which means examining what meanings and associations they might link to. For example an image that denotes a powerful looking car may have connotations of speed or power; but in conjunction with other elements making up the art it might also have connotations of escape, or thrill-seeking, for example. On a hip-hop cover it may well have connotations of conspicuous wealth and extravagance, given that genres conventions. This will be an important aspect of my digipack as I am going to have to make sure to have something on my digipack that connotes the genre of 'house/dance'. I am also hoping of connoting the fact that we are using intertextual references in our music video by perhaps mocking a design of a different pop artist that we are mocking within the video.

This album cover uses good symmetry as each member has their own little section of the album cover and we will be using this four face effect within our music video. I think that from the positioning we can understand that the guy at the bottom in the centre with his hands on his chest is the lead singer as unlike the other three he is doing something different and so we can understand this artist to be the leader of the group. The typography used on the album cover is like an olden days sort of writing back in Shakespeare days and so with this in mind you could say that perhaps their music has some link to past centuries with regards to the music that occurred back then. What is also interesting is it is their second album, yet still they need to have their faces on the album.

The final two sections are just as important as the first two and this next section, signs , symbols and codes links in with the section that I had just talked about as a sign is a representation that refers to something else and has meaning, such as the car. A code means the structure of how sings are organised into systems to make meaning. These are usually divided into the technical (for example, what techniques are used to make the image, such as camera angles and lighting?) and the symbolic (what subtle indicators are there in the tex to create the meaning, for example details of clothing or the arrangement of objects?). There are also written codes that include the use of language and text layout. This is very important with the regards to my digipack as I am going to place close attention to the positioning of characters within the design as I am thinking that I could have the four main dancers as black bodies standing there, with one guy stood out with head phones in his ear. The final section of the four is composition and framing. This section links in with the previous section as it talks about if there are are numerous objects or figures in the scene, is one of them favoured? are they all in focus? how is the image framed? this links in with what I have said before about the previous section as my initial idea is having the four dancers with no expressions in their faces as they will be black silhouettes and where the composition and framing comes in is how the guy is standing more in front of the other 3 dancers with headphones in.

This articles originated from 'Media Magazine' (September 2012) Interviews by Christopher Budd

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Feedback On My Blog

Feedback on my blog and my comments on it;

  • The costumes for our music video - This post I unfortunately have not done yet but this will be the first post that i do and i will ensure to make this my main priority.
  • Calendar (our production plan) - With regards to our calendar, the reason that no one else could see it is because I had the privacy on with regards to the calendars settings that meant that only the members who were linked to the calendar could see it. However now I have changed it so that anyone can see it.
  • Potential errors - there was not a lot wrong with my potential errors post but now I am going to add on a part about how someone should draft up a letter to send to Woolwich Polytechnic asking them for permission so that we can get access to the school.
  • Green Screen Test - there is no problems with this post in fact it was a great success, however the reason why the sound is not on it was because the sound went wrong within the clip so we decided to remove it, we however know that this problem will not occur within our actual music video. 
  • Developing Our Ideas - the reason that the video within this post did not work was because we added the song to the back ground of the clip and so Youtube rightly decided that this was Copyright of the song 'One More Time' and so we will have to re-upload the footage without the song in the background.
  • Other Missing Posts - these are the other missing posts that i need to go back and add to my blog, these include; Notes and review of album cover article, analysis of digipacks and the de-commodification 



Friday 30 November 2012

Costumes For Our Music Video

  'The Fast Food Song'


As you can see above I have got a few images from fast food places and so I will be asking the people who I am friends with who also work in these such restaurants if our group can borrow there work clothes in order to use in our music video for 'The Fast Food Song'.

'Cha Cha Slide'

As you can see from this image of the cha cha slide, the costume for this music video is quite simple to achieve as the clothes are very plain and basic so therefore it will not be hard for us to find clothes like this and so much like the song above this one we will not need to buy costumes for this music video as we will either borrow someone else's clothes or use our own.

'The ketchup Song'

This costume will be different to the other costumes as we will have to buy these cotumes ourselves from Ebay or perhaps amazon as I don't think that anyone in the group owns a black dress like this. However if possible you could borrow someone else's black dress in their family which can save money but if this doesn't work out then we will be buying them online.

'Can't Touch This'

With regards to this costume above we as a group know someone who owns a costume just like this so we will ask to borrow their costume in order for us to use in the music video. With regards to the dancers in the background we will have to buy tight black clothes in order to communicate that we are imitating this music video.

'The Macarena'

For this the costumes we will need bright coloured costumes in order to communicate that we are attempting to be the dancers in this video. We will also need two of us to be the the guys in the suits that are singing into the microphone and this costume shouldn't be a problem as the suits are just plain black and we already have them. 

'Hit Me Baby One More Time'


Once again this music video costume shouldn't be too hard to accomplish as all we would need is a white shirt that we can roll up and the dancer that would be Britney would need a grey cardigan. We all would also need skirts and long grey socks like the ones they are wearing in the video. This should not be hard as this can be easily brought from a shop at a cheap price.

'Bohemian Rhapsody'


This could be one of the easiest music videos to do with regards to the costumes as all we would have to do is wear black shirts as the way i which we would be filming it (camera shot) would mean that we would only get a close up f the four of us which would mean that we would just need to see our shoulders in the shot and as you can see above there clothes are black so this really shouldn't be too hard. 

'One Time'


This is also another music video that would be easy to get costumes for as it is just a grey hoody with a black t-shirt and black jeans. I think that this video will be one of the first videos that we do as it means that we can get it out of the way and done with.


'Gangnam Style'


For this video we will not be needing the costumes that the dancers are wearing in this music video but we will be doing the same dance routine and the costumes we will be using to do it will be the costumes from the previous music videos in this dance routine as it will be hectic and fun and it will be the last dance routine in our video and we want it to go out with a bang.

Costume List

  • Borrow fast food costumes from people who work in Mcdonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut or we will get printed t-shirts with the fast food restaurants on.
  • Find a light grey denim top with a printed t-shirt underneath and some grey jeans or trousers that are quite baggy or loose.
  • 3 black dresses that we will need to buy or borrow. 
  • We will need to borrow the 'can't touch this' costume from someone we know and we will also need black tank tops for the dancers.
  • For the Macarena we will need two black suits (waistcoats optional) and crazy bright coloured clothes.
  • We will need black tank tops for this one as well and a white shirt with a Skirt, with regards to the skirts we may need to buy them from Primark. 
  • We will also need black tops or black shirts for the queen video.
  • We will need a grey hoody which I own along with a black top which we should already have and black jeans which shouldn't be too hard to get.







Wednesday 28 November 2012

Potential Errors


There are several potential errors that could affect the shooting of our music video. The first and major problem is that our first choice location, Woolwich Polytechnic, may be unwilling to allow us to film there. However I think that this should not be a problem as like have already stated one of our group members mum works within the school as a teacher and she thinks that it should not be too much of a problem, however we will still call the school and double check to see if it is okay to use, once we have been given the all clear we will also draw up a letter requesting permission which we will then get the higher authority of the school to sign as evidence that we are allowed to film there. We also have to get permission to use the rooms that we are going to be in use, we plan on using a drama room and we will have to get permission to use it from the teacher in the room. Both of these problems can be avoided by simply getting permission before we go there and getting a time slot as to when we can use the spaces that we want, and after we have got the permission then we will be good to go on with filming.

Another potential problem is that we all have to learn the dance routines that we will be performing in the music video. We can eradicate this by making sure that we are all practicing the dances prior to the filming and together so that we can all try to be in time when it actually comes to shooting the video. We will have to edit out the green-screen and make sure that the lighting is correct so that during editing this doesn't cause a problem a error with the lighting could lead to us having to re-shoot the whole video as the lighting was just wrong, and we have to make sure that the green-screen is set up properly to give us the best results. If we can avoid all of these errors then we will have made the best music video that we possibly could.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Locations



There are many potential location's that we can use to film our music video, taking into consideration that we need enough room to use a green screen we had to decide on a big room so that we have space to dance and not damage any of the equipment. We have decided that one of the drama rooms would be an ideal location, this is because we will have enough room to set up the equipment we are going to use e.g. lighting, green screen and camera. In addition the drama room doesn't have any natural lighting, this will be play a major part when filming. By not having any natural lighting it means that it won't affect the green screen when filming, if there is any uneven light shone onto the green screen it could make it more difficult when editing the green screen out. Before we are able to use the room we have to be granted permission from the person who resides in the room, if we are then granted permission we have to negotiate a day and time we are able to use it.

Another location that we are looking to shoot our music video at is Woolwich Polytechnic School for boys. We have decided that we would like to use a different location other than Welling School; this is because we do not want to be predictable in our locations and we would like to think we have made an effort in finding locations other than our own school and as a group we decided that too many videos have been shot in this specific location. Woolwich Polytechnic would be a good location because people wouldn't be familiarised with this location. We would use this location to film the dance routine for the song by Britney Spears - "Hit Me Baby One More Time". The location is the main part of the song as it is set in a school, before we can use it we have to obtain permission from the school itself. Again if we are granted with permission we have to see when we are able to shoot, we have to find a time and day that suits us all.


In order to get access to these locations we will need to write a letter or even telephone the places asking for permission to use their premises in order to film our music video. We shouldn't have a problem getting permission to use the drama room within our school, all we would need to do is ask the permission of the teacher who's room it is, which we have already done. Perhaps we might draw up a letter asking for the permission so that the drama teacher can then sign it so that we have prove that the teacher allowed us to use his room. The other location that we want to use for our music video is the school Woolwich Polytechnic, in order to get permission from this school we would have to call up the school and ask for access in order to use one of its corridors out of school times in order to film our music video. This may seem like quite a tricky thing to ask and rejection could be quite likely, however it just so happens that one of the group members (Luke) mum works as a teacher in the school and she does not see it as a problem and s we shall once again write a letter and get the higher authority of the school to sign it in order to justify that we have the right to film within the school.

Monday 26 November 2012

Animatic - One More Time




Once we had finished the storyboard, we decided to create a animatic to get a primary idea of what the final video would look like. We took photos of the storyboard and put them in to a movie with the music behind it. When then had to match the timings of each shot, to make sure it all works together. The feedback we received form the course leader was very positive, with a few minor criticisms. 
The first piece of feedback was the music did to sound high quality and it did not match the storyboard exactly. This meant that the slow part of the song One More Time was out of sync with what we decide it would go with in our video. Despite this comment she believe that the video has a lot of potential and if the video is shot well it could be very successful. We are very happy with this feedback as it allows us to move on and start to shot the music video properly.

Friday 23 November 2012

Green Screen Test


This is our testing of the green screen in order to ensure that our music video will work as the green screen will play a very important aspect in our music video. As you can see from the video and the crazy dancing you can tell that the green screen will be able to work perfectly and we shouldn't have any problems in using the chroma key effect in our music video. We used a new programme in order to make this test work and that is called 'Adobe After Effects CS6'. What this programme gives us is a better chroma key effect on the video making me look like I am almost on a beach scene. I am glad this has worked as it means that we can now focus on getting the other aspects of our music video up to scratch.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Green Screen Setup



This is a video based on how to set up a green screen. What this video gives us information on is how to lay out the green screen, what you need to setup the green screen and where to light the green screen in order to make sure that it will work perfectly. This youtube video will give us tips on how to light and prepare a green screen to maximum effect so that our music video will look like the best of quality.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Developing Our Final Ideas



This is a video that we recorded of us discussing our final ideas for our music video.

Saturday 20 October 2012

The Pitch





Jack Mitchell AKA BooSH is a 25 year old DJ named after his love the TV ‘The Mighty BOOSH’. Originally from Milton Keynes, he begun working in local clubs making demo tapes. He moved to London at 19 where he made a name for himself on the decks and featured on various compilation albums. He then went to Ibiza where he work with various artists to produce his new album. Now back in London he decided to make a music video for his new single.


BooSH states that he has many influences who play a large part in the music that he creates, these influences include Fat Boy Slim, Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.The club music in Ibiza is a large influence within his music he says that Ibiza is his favorite place on the earth it has the things that he likes more than anything else in the world these things are sun, clubbing and keeping things chill, Mitchell was quoted as saying once that his ideology in life was “Party all night and sleep all day” and Ibiza is one of the only places on earth that this was possible.


The influences behind our music video, were similar dance videos such as Gangnam Style and the original video for One More Time. We realized that dance songs videos very rarely have a narrative to them and they are quite random however these types of videos usually have some kind of dance routine, conventions that we will also try to stick to. Also in the brief BooSH stated that he disliked ‘cheesy pop videos’ so we are looking at the possibility of spoofing certain videos.


The audience profile above is the primary target audience that we have identified but with regards our secondary target audience it would be females within the same age bracket and similar tastes in music. The main way that the song would be heard by both audiences is in clubs, because clubs are unisex and the people within the age range listed above.


On our mood board we put plenty of pictures of acts similar to ourselves or acts that have inspired us. Also the words that we put around the mood board are either song lyrics or things that we are going to try and incorporate into our videos.


We decided that BooSH should be signed to Sony as there are several similar artists signed to them including:
• Calvin Harris
• Skrillex
• Mike Posner
Also Sony have the ability to get him a lot of media coverage


The one of our ideas for the One More Time video will consist of a select spoofed iconic pop videos. We wanted to do this as we wanted to take the mickey out of videos such as Gangnam style in a similar way to of Eminem’s ‘Without Me’video. The idea of playing with intertextual references and mocking the mainstream pop industry.

For the costumes we feel that because we are spoofing videos we should try and make it look as close to the real one as possible, so we will try and get outfit similar to ones worn in the original videos, for example morph suits for the around the world video and drag for the queen’s video I want to break free, again another iconic pop video.

The location that we are considering is public places with flash mob feel with a lot of people dancing, we could also use the green screen to get to locations that are not realistic to get to. Because there are not many conventions for dance videos we can go crazy with the ideas that we have and can
make the video as random as we like, because we dont have the constraints of a normal music genre with usual codes and conventions demonstrated by Goodwin

In the video we are trying to imitate iconic dances from the YMCA to Party Rock Anthem. The reason that we feel that spoofing videos is such a good idea is that in our artist brief he said that he disliked cheesy pop videos, and from there with the lack of codes and conventions that we had that we were going to spoofvideos.Drag is intertextual reference to Queens ‘I want to break free’.

Friday 19 October 2012

Audience Profile


Criticisms On Our Audience Profile That Needs Changing

  • The gender of our audience profile needs to be changed as both males and females would enjoy our song and music video. We put male on our audience profile demographics because we thought that they would be able to relate more to the 4 male main dancers. So we will now change our gender to unisex as we think it will appeal to both male and female audiences.
  • Another thing that we need to change about our audience profile demographics is the age as our song and music video will primarily be aimed at 'clubbers' and the age of 16 does not fall under this. So we are going to change our age demographic to 18-25 the more 'clubber' age.
  • (Talk about psychographics being aimed at a more clubber audience)

Thursday 18 October 2012

Feedback On Pitch




Things that need developing are;

  • Who will we have dancing for our videos. For this development we will need to find 4 people who are going to be the main dancers and that is already sort within the group as each of us group members will be the 4 main dancers.
  • Randomness of our video. Now that we have sat down and talked about it as a group, our music video will still be random in way that we do not know what music dance routine is coming next but it won't be so random that it does not make any sense.
  • Make sure the idea of spoofing actually gets across. We as a group are going to make sure that we get the idea of spoofing across as none of us are professional dancers so we cannot recreate the music videos perfectly so there will be some sort of bad dancing element within the video. Also we are all boys so when it comes to the girl music videos then you will be able to tell that we are spoofing the video.
  • We need a theme and it needs to flow. Now we as a group have made sure to deal with this head on as if the music video doesn't flow then it wont work. So what we have decided to do is use a corridor in order to link all the dance routines together and what will happen is our main dancer out of the four will walk into different rooms and there we will find the different dance routines in each room. This theme of having the corridor and the rooms will keep our music video flowing.
  • The target audience of our music video. At the moment our target audience is aimed at males aged 16-25 (our primary audience) however this needs to change as i think that it is both genders who we should be aiming at and it also should be aimed at a more 'clubbers' profiled audience so we are also changing the age from 16-25 to 18-25 in order for it to be a more adult specific gender that is not primarily based on one gender but that is aimed at both genders.
  • Our record label. What needs developing about this aspect of our music video is the fact that the record label we have chosen for our music video is too mainstream and we have been questioned on this but based on the artists that sony BMG already have we have decided that we are going to stick with them.
The Things That Work Are;
  • The intertextual references with regards to Goodwins theory.
  • The logo  and branding for our artist is also very good.
  • The idea of spoofing pop/dance music videos.
  • Our audience profile and mood board are also very bold and detailed. 

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Feedback On Blog



  • The posts on my blog is too text heavy and so I have to think of ways in which I can break the text up with images or perhaps to present the piece of information in a PowerPoint or in Prezi.
  • Need to add to my mood board post, perhaps by making a Prezi in order to present the ideas of my mood board so that we can see the path we have taken to getting to our final idea.
  • I am using too many labels within my blogger and it's starting to become a bit over used and so I need to cut down on that especially with regards to lessons so perhaps I should think about cutting down on lesson labels and perhaps use one or two labels for all of my lessons.
  • I need to add analysis to the Daft Punk video 'Around The World' as there is not any analysis there at the moment. So i need to analyse that using my micro skills and Goodwin's theory in order to draw ideas from the video for my own music video. Use screen shots in order to analyse specific parts of the music video that I want to talk about.
  • I need to make sure that I am keeping up to date with post journal's each weak about where I am with my work and any ideas that I might have picked up within this week. I have thought of a good idea of how I could present my journal posts by recording my own voice talking about my journal as this is more appealing with regards to not being too text heavy.

Thursday 11 October 2012

Analysis Of Digital Pack




Other Analysis;
  • Starting with the front cover we can see that there is a graffiti styled images used of instruments and it seems to be appearing from behind the artist and title of the digi pack. This is telling the audience a little about what these two artists have created here, it also tells the audience what to expect from the music inside.
  • The typology used for the artists names and the name of the album/digi pack is block capitals that also look like they could be graffiti, this links in with the overall theme of the digi pack.
  • When looking at the colour scheme throughout the pack we can see that there are three main colours used, orange, blue and white. These colours are consistent throughout the pack. A little bit of black has also been used in the pack to add another stand out effect on it. This will be something that I can think about with regards to my digi pack as I think I will have to have a colour scheme that runs throughout that ties in with my artists and his genre in order to make my digi pack as successful as this one.
  • When looking at the codes and conventions of the digi pack, on most you will find the contents of what is in the pack on the back of it and this will be something that I am going to incorporate on my digipack and the things that I will need to include on the back of my pack are; barcode, track list, explicit content sticker perhaps?, special features, recordings perhaps?, our music record label and I have to make sure that it is split into sections as to not make it confusing. So when looking at this pack I would hope to organise it in the same way so that it is easy for the audience to read unless I could make it messy and jumble it up as this could tie in with my music video in the way that it is quite random. 
  • The spines on the digi pack are quite simple as they have the artists names written down the side along with the name of the album, the DVD symbol is also there to show that there is a DVD inside, this is something useful that I may want to include on my digi pack.
  • The inside flap is much like the front on the digi pack, it connotes the content inside and what is to expect from the artist and the songs inside. As we can see the music instruments that were in the background on the front of the digi pack have disappeared and now there is just block capitals of the two artists which is bold and stands out enough on its own. This is something that I could perhaps include on my digi pack.
  • The design within the digi pack is a wallet compartment for the booklet, another wallet for the tracks and then a final CD holder for the DVD. I think this is a perfect design for a digi pack and I think that this is very close to how I want my digi pack to look.
  • The theme of the digi pack carries on throughout with the white music instrument effect used throughout. Even of the CD and DVD the colour theme is also carried through to good effect as i think this is what stands out the most to me when I look at the inside, so I think that this is something for me to think about with regards to my digi pack, possible having a stand out colour used on my CD that makes it stand out compared to the rest of the digi pack.



Thursday 4 October 2012

Mood Board


This is our mood board and underneath is a presentation on our mood board and the ideas that are within our mood board.


Monday 1 October 2012

Adorno And Horkheimer's Theory

Adorno and Horkheimer made a theory which stated that songs as well as artists are becoming predictable and that products which are be produced within the culture industry are being exhibited with standardised features. This means that songs and artists were being based around repetitive sequences that have already happened and that already exist. For example with X factor all of the winners are practically the same and are inseparable with minimal differences between all of them. This is done for commercial reasons, so that song would imprint itself on the mind of the audiences and would then provoke the listener into a purchase. The same goes with the artists now that there are so many artists in the world, we find that Adorno and Horkheimer stated that songs and artists are becoming typical as they think the audiences are not expecting anything new or spectacular (unique) and are happy with the what the music industry is feeding them with regards to the same repetitive songs and artists. To Adorno songs had become manipulatitave motivated by commercial gain, meaning that no artists were doing it for the passion anymore but just for the money.

It is easier to find an artist that fits Adorno and Horkheimer's theory than it is to find an artists that goes against it. There are many artists and bands that fit the theory such as One Direction, Westlife, JLS, Enqrique Englasias, Justin Bieber, Pixie Lott, and perhaps Shakira. All of the artists in one way or another have been influenced in a way to produce music that they know that the audience will like, these artists are also in the music business for the commercial gain as they are part of the recurring system that sees them gain from the cycle of the culture industry with regards to the products sold through their name.

It is extremely hard to find a band or artists that goes against this theory, but their are some artists to some extent that goes against their theory such as Lady Gaga, Amy Whinehouse, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Pink. These artists who in my opinion all go against the theory set in place by Adorno and Horkheimer. With regards to Lady Gaga and Amy Whinehouse, we know they are unique but with regards to Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran questions could be raised but I believe they have not been swayed in any way by the music industry and the audiences expectations and have wrote the music that they wanted to. Anther example why Ed Sheeran belongs in this group is that at a music awards ceremony where everyone was smartly dressed, he was in his same jeans, 'hoody' and print design t-shirt showing that he wont change his style in order to fit in with the crowd, he wants to stand out. You may think that Pink surely can't be in this group and that she abides by what people tell her to do and how to look in order to attract the audience but she is unique as she has gone from being at the very top to being that forgotten someone but she never stopped writing music and she wrote it from what she believed and had a passion for music. Also what made me believe that she was unique is that when asked if she 'would prefer all the money in the world or to be back at the top of the charts again with her hit single, she chose the hit single' also when asked what would she rather be doing for the rest of her life 'making hit singles and number one ablumns or performing live for her audience.' She chose performing live for her audience and to me this shows just exactly who she is and what she stands for and this is why I believed she belongs in this group as she is unique. Even though I have stated quite a few unique artists here who go against Adorno and Horkheimer's theory of corruption to gain money, if you wish to find the true unique artists and bands who do it purely for the fans and are not changed in anyway by image for the audience, it is the independent bands who perhaps don't have a record deal yet or perhaps do but haven't been given the chance yet to become famous, my example of this is The View who are a Scottish band from Dundee who play gigs in small arenas such as shepherds bush in London, the genre of this band is soft rock/ indie.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Major And Independent Record Labels

There are two types of record labels when it comes to the music industry they are known as, independent and major record labels. The traditional definition of a major record label is one that owns its own distribution channel. Some independent record labels, in particular those with successful performing artists, sign dual release agreements and make other deals with major record companies and may rely to some extent on international  licensing deals, distribution agreements and other arrangements with major record labels. Major record labels may also partially acquire independent record labels.

Other independent record labels are started and sometimes run by major record label artists but are still owned at least in part by the major label parent. These spin off labels are also frequently referred to as vanity labels or boutique labels and are intended to appease established, powerful artists and/or to give them latitude in discovering and promoting new talent.

According to Association of Independent Music (AIM). A major record label is defined as a multinational company which together with the companies in its group has more than 5% of the world markets for the sale or records and/or music videos. The majors are currently Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and EMI. If a Major owns 50% or more of the total shares in your company, you would usually be owned or controlled by that major record label.
Sony BMG's subsidiary companies are Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Mchenry Records, Jive Records, RCA Victor Records, RCA Records, Legacy Recordings, Sonic Wave America.






Warner Music Group's subsidiary companies are Warner Bros. Records, Asylum Records, Rap-A-Lot Records, Smoke-A-Lot Records, 143 Records, Blacksmith Records, Maverick, No Limit Forever Records, Nonesuch Records, Reprise Records, RuffNation Records, Sire Records, Maybach Music Group and Jet Life Recordings.






Universal Music Groups subsidiary companies are Universal Music Publishing Group, Universal Music Group, Distribution, Interscope-Geffen-A & M, Geffen Records, The Island Def Jam Music Group, Universal Republic Records, Universal Music Group Nashville, Verve Music Group, Decca Label Group, Universal Music Latin, Entertainment, Universal Music Enterprises, Show Dog-Universal Music, V2/Co-operative Music, Polydor Records, Mercury Music Group, Island Records Group, Universal Music TV, London Records.

Stolen Recordings
One of the smallest and lesser known labels, Stolen Recordings have a true home made feeling, a DIY attitude and some great signed bands. Highlight acts include critically lauded indie popstars Pete and the Pirates, the wonderfully unpolished Let’s Wrestle and noise rock mentalists Screaming Tea Party, recent supporters of The Go! Team on their last U.K. tour.

Ninja Tune
Not a label to check out for traditionally guitar based indie fans, but a great label nonetheless. Ninja Tune has a huge roster of excellent turntablists (an unsung art form) and hip hop artists, including Mr Scruff, Kid Koala and Roots Manuva. With their own radio station filling the net waves with soul, jazz and hip hop, Ninja Tune are definitely a worthwhile checkout for the indie fan looking for something a bit different.

Kill Rock Stars
Founded in 1991, Kill Rock Stars has some great bands both in its alumni and current roster. Past attributed acts include Bikini Kill, Elliott Smith and The Gossip. The Decemberists (one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade) and Deerhoof are two standout acts from those currently signed; IMO, Deerhoof.

Saddle Creek
Another pretty big label, at least in indie terms, Saddle Creek provide a home to folk singers Bright Eyes, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor, as well as more indie pop punk orientated bands like Desaparecidos and The Faint, as well as the brilliantly talented folk rock/blues revival band Two Gallants. As a label, Saddle Creek are one of the more collectively motivated labels in the list; many acts share band members in communal fashion, which is refreshing in a record industry often dominated by separatism and rivalry over sales and listener numbers

The Leaf Label
The Leaf Label is based in Yorkshire and features a lot of very small and mostly unheard of artists. Some of its more popular names include singer songwriter Essie Jain, gypsy music collective A Hawk and a Hacksaw (featuring Jeremy Barnes, previously the percussionist in the incredible Neutral Milk Hotel), Efterklang and Wildbirds & Peacedrums.

Our Record Label
I think that the record company that would Appeal to us the most would be Sony BMG. The reasons why I think this would be the best record label for us to use is because the power that this company has is what our artist would need in order to propel him into the public and giving him the backing as well as the image that he needs in order to be big in the music industry. Another reason why I think that Sony BMG would be the best record label for our artist is because the record label has worked with artists such as, Mike Posner, Skrillex and Calvin Harris. This is another reason as i think these artists can be seen as falling under our genre of music (dance) and so this is why i think our artist would best suit this record Label.