Influential Videos

When planning our music video for Lois Lame’s take of Katy Perry’s – One Of The Boys we decided to take a look at other music videos for some influence and guidance. I will now post my favourites.

My first influential video is from Demi Lovato – La La Land

I believe that this video will help create my own music video because the video shows the exact style and sense I want to portray. As Demi in the video shows that she isn’t fazed by Los Angeles and just acts her usual self, which is what we want Lois Lame to show in her performance, we would like her to stay herself and not change for anyone.

 

 

Another influential video I have discovered is “Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me”

I think that this video can be seen as an influence, because the dorky band girl that Taylor plays is like how we want to show Lois Lame as that girl, who the guy the girl is crushing on sees her as a friend.

 

Another reason I think this is an influential video is because Taylor Swift plays two characters the girl that has the guy and the girl that wants the guy. My group really liked this idea and want to play around with it in our music video.

 

 

I hope that we can bring elements from these music video into our own music video as I think we will be able to achieve the music video we would like to create.

Band Perrmission

As part of copyright, we had to write to the band/artist to ask permission to use their song in a music video.

There are a number of ways of doing it, you can:

• Write a formal letter
• Email
• Facebook
• Twitter

 

We decided to Tweet Katy Perry as we believe it is the fastest way to reach a celebrity in this day and age. Terri in my group tweeted Katy Perry asking her permission.

 

 

Production Meeting

My group and I needed to discuss what we needed to finish, and when we would like to start production. We recorded our meeting to include in our blogs.

Before the meeting we created an agenda so we knew what topics we wanted to talk about during the meeting, instead of trailing off and using lots of erm’s and err’s to fill the pauses.

 

Our discussion included what we need to do a.s.a.p and what we needed to start.

 

Here is our production meeting.

Profile

We have now formed groups in our lesson to continue with our planning for the music video.

I am in a group with 3 other class mates: Terri, Penda and Will.

We developed a mind map of all the musical genres we enjoy each, and chose the one we all have in common; Pop.

The mind map shows songs ideas such as “Jessie J” “Katy Perry” “Carly Rae Jepsen” “Fun.” “Lily Allen” etc.

From this we discussed what sort of theme we would like to present.

We didn’t want our artist to just fit in to the music industry, we wanted her to stand out, be bubbly and also be iconic. Like “Taylor Swift” and “P!NK” we wanted our artist to play herself in her music videos.

Then it came to deciding on a name: we threw names in the air that we thought would be catchy  for our supposed target audience, such as “Bella Hale” which we thought didn’t work. So we decided to look at superheroes such as “WonderWoman” and “Clark Kent” and noticed the alliteration, which we thought is eye catching and rolls off the tongue better. Sticking with the Superman theme we thought of “Lois Lane” swapped the N for a M and we had:

“Lois Lame”

We all liked this idea as it shows that she doesn’t really take herself seriously and is fun and bubbly.

Then we put all our ideas into another spider diagram as we “Thought Showered” about Lois Lame so we could then create a presentation to show the rest of the class our ideas. We began discussing how we would like the music video to look and what we would like the key message to be. We listed where we would like to film, what props we need and also what costume, etc.

 

 

 

Here is our presentation:

 

Lois Lame presentation!

Our second slide showed our audience how we would like “Lois Lame’s” image to be, we want her to be bubbly, relatable, out going, and young around 22. We also included images as to what we believe she should wear, “nerd glasses” with tape around them to show she is unique in the music industry and also an outstanding dress as we think Lois Lame shouldn’t dress conventionally.

The third slide showed our audience how we would like to represent Lois Lame and what messages and values she portrays as an artist. Lois Lame likes to tell her fans that it’s okay to be different and out of the ordinary, and to not be afraid to be who you are. She says “If you can live through school, you can live through life.”

We then explained to our audience Lois Lame’s background, her career and how she came to who she is today.  We described her as being a “British YouTube Sensation” as she was first discovered on YouTube singing covers and her own original work. We said that she had been singing and playing the guitar since she was ten years old. She has just recently been the opening act for British Pop Star Conor Maynard and is now promoting her first UK album, and she hopefully wants to jump the pond and make it big in America, just like One Direction have recently. She is constantly interacting with fans and has an expanding number of followers on social networking site Twitter with more than 100,000+
We believe that she best suits the Pop genre as she has the conventions of a pop star like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

We then explained her consistant style. In her logo she has red, green and yellow, these are recurring colours on her album and promotional material etc. She uses Pop Art style images and graphics on her album covers and adverts. A similar font is used on all promotional material. She dresses eccentrically in costumes and a unique dress code.

Talking about Lois Lame’s branding we initially thought it should stand out and be eye catching, so if you saw her CD on a rack it would get your attention. We chose the colours red and yellow as they are conventional superman colours.  We believe that there is a quirky look to Lois Lame that makes her desirable to her fans which we have named “Lamettes.” We came up with the name of her fans when we researched other pop stars fan base: “beliebers” for Justin Bieber “directioners” for 1Direction and “Katy Cats” for Katy Perry.

We announced the name of the track we will be creating a music video for. The track we picked is “Katy Perry – One of the Boys” (as we were doing the presentation, a clip of the song played in the background.) We explained that the song reflected Lois Lame’s academic years. We showed that Lois Lame just wanted to be excepted for who she is and she wants her “Lamettes” to feel comfortable being who they are.

We then expressed our ideas for our music video to the class.

• Lois Lame is dressed as a “tom boy” playing football with the boys, we then see her talking to the boys and looking at one admiringly, to which he walks away with another girl (dressed in pinks, typical girl clothes)
• Through the verse we see Lois Lame change herself to  get the attention of the boy she fancies.
• At the end of the song we see Lois laugh and ignore the boy she once fancied.

We wanted Lois Lame to express the message that you shouldn’t change yourself for a boy, be comfortable in your own skin. Lois Lame will be playing herself in the music video and also the girl we see the boy leaving with, to create contrast.

We think Lois Lame’s “Lamettes” will range between, young children (aged between 7-12) and teenagers of both genders, and also anyone that has ever been out-casted for being different.

After our presentation, the audience (our classmates) gave us some productive feedback.

As a whole the class believed we had created a strong star image and played to the conventions of a typical pop star very well. One group suggested that we should have included a picture of Lois Lame so they could get a feel of how she should look. Another group liked that we had a wide range of a fans/audience.  The final piece of constructive criticism we had was to maybe reconsider the colour scheme.
We liked our feedback and are going to look at the feedback carefully to see if we can change certain things like the colour scheme before we progress any further.

Star Image: Case Study

In this blog post I will be presenting my case study on the 18 year old pop sensation Justin Bieber.

Born 1st March 1994 Straford, Canada.

Bieber was first discovered on YouTube in 2008 buy Scooter Braun under the name “kidrauhl” who then became his manager. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Pattie Mallette (his mother) posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber’s popularity on the site grew and that is how Scooter Braun came across Justin, by clicking on one of Bieber’s 2007 videos by accident. Impressed by his talent, Braun tracked down the theatre Bieber was performing in, located Bieber’s school, and finally contacted Mallette, she permitted Braun to fly Bieber, (then 13,) to Atlanta, Georgia, to record demo tapes. A week after arriving, Justin sang for R&B singer/songwriter Usher. Justin Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group, (RBMG) a joint venture between Braun and Usher. It was rumoured that in 2008 that there was a battle between Usher and Justin Timberlake to sign the talented 14 year old.

Justin aged 14 with Usher

Justin and his mother temporarily left Canada and moved to Atlanta.

Justin’s first single “One Time” was released to radio stations while he was still recording his début album”My World.” The single charted at 11 in the UK charts in 2009.

His first album “My World” released 17th November 2009 charted at No. 4 in the UK album chart and also reached Double Platinum.

Late 2009 Justin Bieber started promoting himself in the UK by being the opening act for Taylor Swift on her UK leg of the “Fearless: World Tour.” (This was the first time I had personally heard of Justin Bieber.) During one of his performances in the Wembley Arena Justin tripped and hurt his leg, he carried on singing and entertaining the crowd, once his set was done he limped off stage, later it was revealed that the pop star had actually broken his leg while on stage, and still finished the song.

Justin’s broken foot while touring with Taylor Swift

Bieber has also performed for The President Barack Obama and First Lady in 2009.

His hairstyle (the bieber cut) was the most popular haircut in 2010.

Justin’s next single and one he is more well known for is “Baby Ft. Ludacris” which is still the most viewed on YouTube (799,226,156views,) closely followed by the 2012 one hit wonder PSY with “Gangnam Style” (716,342,619 views.)

The song also brought a lot of negativity and humour towards Justin.

despite all the negativity (and possibly jealously?) the song charted at No.3 in the UK.

Justin has so far collaborated with 28 other artists including Usher, Chris Brown, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Mariah Carey.

When he was 16 years old he sold out Madison Square Gardens in 22minutes, now at 18 he sold out two gigs at the famous gardens within 30 seconds.

His career has spiraled to success, despite all of the negativity that comes in his way,

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/justin-bieber-sparks-online-criticism-wearing-overalls-meet-124722060–abc-news-music.html

Justin now has two perfumes for women (Someday, and Boyfriend) has two autobiography’s, 6 albums, and even a motion picture (Never Say Never)

With achieving numerous awards and over hundreds of nominations, I think it’s safe to say this pop teen sensation isn’t going anywhere for a while.

 

 

Conventions of an Album Advert

As a class today we discussed the conventions of an Album Advert.

This usually consists of a poster, depending where it is posted it can vary in size: from A1 to A5.

The poster would usually consist of:

• Album artwork
• band/artist name
• album release date
• review/quotes
• ratings
• hit tracklist/new singles
• where to buy
• price
• screenshot of album cover
• achievement
• logos
• website
• label
• how you can consume it
• album name

Here are three examples of album adverts that portray most of the conventions above.

This one shows the cover of the album, the name of the album and artist, when will it be released and what single she has released will be on there.

Britney Spears – Circus Album Advert

This album advert shows the aritst name, the title of the album, when it will be released and what single will be featured on it. It has also been set out to look like a circus poster to link into the title of the album.

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night Album Advert

Conventions of a Digi-Pak

Individually we were thinking about the conventions of a digi-pak. We then all put our ideas together as a class and listed what you might see on a typical digi-pak (the album/single case)

• Band/artist name
• Tracklist – back panel
• Album title
• Record label
• Bar code – back panel
• Booklet – sleeve
• Copy right information – back panel
• Logo of the band/artist
• Link to website
• Image on the album (artist/band) – portrays the star image and gives a concept of the album
• Producer/writer (people involved)
• Bonus track/material – tracks, live performance, extended additions
• Lyrics – sleeve
• Cd – inside
• Thankyou’s – sleeve
We then studied some album covers and looked at how they represent the Star image of the band/artist:

Beyoncé – 4
On the album cover, Beyoncé is the centre of attention, meaning you must look at her and only her. The image of Beyoncé covers her own name on the album, which conveys that you don’t need to see her name, because you should already know her name. The Album name is located at the bottom right of the cover, portraying that it is less important than Beyoncé. The album appeals to everyone as everyone loves Beyoncé, young and old, male or female. From looking at the cover I can assume that the genre of this cd is pop.

Take That – Progress
The album image consists of the 5 band members standing in the different stages of Dawson’s theory of evolution, which fits in with the album title “Progress.” The album title has a double meaning towards it: The name of a song from their tracklist, and also the original 5 members of Take That coming together and making music for the first time on 10years. The audience of this album would be their old fans from the 90’s and also their recent fans from when they reformed in 2005 as a quartet. By looking at the album cover, I believe the genre of this album to be pop/rock-is, from the colours of red and yellow representing fire, and light.
East 17 – Steam
The logo of the band is in the centre of the album cover, indicating that it is the most important design on the album cover. The background of the album cover is meant to look like water, which links to the album title “steam.” The Album consists of typical boyband stereotypes , all staring into the camera, taking up every aspect of the album cover, dressed the same, look the same, etc. By looking at the album cover I believe that the album is from the pop genre.

The Saturdays – Chasing Lights
The band logo is at the top of the album showing its importance. The 5 band members are also on the front of the album, each looking the same direction. The only sign of individuality is they are each wearing individual colours. Each band member has their own colour which you can see on the front of this album cover and also in some of their earlier music videos. There is no indication to the album title “chasing lights.” The genre of the album is pop as they are a girl band and that is very conventional for this type of band.

Audience Research

In class we looked into audience research to find out what type of music people like and how they go about listening and purchasing their favourite albums.

I drew up a questionnaire to help me conduct my research.

Questionnaire

1. Name ___________________________________

2. Age:

• 16 – 18
• 19 – 21
• 22 – 25
• 25 – 30
• 30+

3.  Gender:

• Male
• Female

4. Favourite Music Genre

• Pop
• Hip-Hop
• R&B
• Rock
• Country
• Techno
• Punk
• House

5.  Favourite Artist/Band: ______________________________________

6. Where Do You Watch Music Videos?

• YouTube
• Music Channels
• On My Phone

7.  On Average, how much would you spend when buying an album?

• £0 – £2
• £3 – £5
• £5 – £7
• £8 – £10
• £11 – £15

8.  What Attracts Your Attention To An album?

_____________________________________________________________

9. How Do You Purchase Albums?

• In Store
• iTunes
• Amazon
• Play.com

10. Do You Often Watch Music Videos

• Yes
• No

11.  Do You Prefer physical Or downloadable Copies Of An Album?

____________________________________

12.  Does An Artists/Bands “Star Image” Affect Whether You Listen To Their Music?

•  Yes
• No

13.  Have You Ever Purchased A Music Video? ________________

14.   What Is Your Favourite Music Video Of All Time?

___________________________________________________________

15.  Why Is It Your Favourite?

___________________________________________________________

16. What Attracted You To The Video?

___________________________________________________________

I asked 12 people these questions, 6 male and 6 female to make in unbiased, and also asked people with a difference in age range so I could get a full idea of what different ages thought of the music industry and what sort of music videos they enjoy.

I asked each candidate what type of genre of music they like, I then put the results into a graph so it is easier to read:

The graph shows that out of the people I asked, 5 people preferred pop to any other genre. None of my candidates liked Punk or House music.

I then asked what was their favourite artist/band so I could see for myself what type of music they were into, ranging from Lady Gaga, to Led Zeplin, to James Blunt to LMFAO, I had a wide range.

I asked my candidates how they most commonly watch music videos.

 

10 out of the 12 that I questioned said they watch music videos on YouTube with the remaining 2 watching them on television, nobody seemed to watch music video on their phones frequently.

I then asked them what are they most likely to spend on an album:

5 of my candidates would spend between £8 – £10 on an album, with the remaining spending no more than £7. None of the people I asked were willing to spend more than £11 on a CD.

 

Question eight asks what attracts them to an album, literally all the candidates believe it to be the artist or their star image, with only two people attracted to the genre.

 

I asked how they would usually go about buying an album.

5 would buy their album instore, while 5 would download it from iTunes, the remaining 2 would buy from Amazon, nobody would buy from play.com,  some of my candidates had never heard of play.com

 

When asked if my candidates often watch music videos, they were split in the middle, half said yes, the other half said no.

 

When asked if they preferred physical or downloadable copies of the CD’s the people I asked under 18 said downloadable, whereas if they were 19+ they preferred physical copies. This could be due to age, or they may prefer physical evidence of a purchase.

 

I asked if a Star Image affected your response to the music, 8 candidates said no, with the remaining 4 said yes. This shows that people aren’t really bothered if they prefer meat dresses to a shirt and tie.

 

I asked if any of the people I questioned have ever bought a music video. All participants responded with no, and they had no knowledge that you could even purchase them from iTunes.

 

I then asked what was each of theirs favourite music video, why they like it, and what attracted them to it.  They liked the music videos because they were funny, had a strong narrative, different, showed star image and were memorable. When asked what attracted them to the video the answers ranged from they liked the performer to seeing it advertised on YouTube, and to only catching the last 10 seconds of it and wanting to see the full video.

 

I believe that the answers to the questions will help me create a music video that people will enjoy, with a good genre to go with it.

Critial Response

When analysing a music video it is important to use critical response. Here are the main questions you must consider when responding to a music video:

1. What is effective about the music video?
2. What doesn’t work?
3. Does it appeal to the audience?
4. What would you have done differently if you were producing the music video?

The music video I will be analysing is:

1. This video is effective by the use of illustrative, and also the editing that is used. It also portrays a valuable message to the audience, which is to not change yourself for anyone. We can see that there is intertextuality in this video where P!NK transforms into different people that are portraying the same message, this can also be seen in Michael Jackson’s music video “Black & White.”

   

2. What I feel doesn’t work is the amount of edit transactions there are. I think that some of them work quite well, however there is too many to comprehend.
3. This music video does appeal to the audience, not just P!NK fans but also people that aren’t fans of her. It appeals to a wide range audience because of the message it is portraying; “Don’t try to be something you’re not.”
4. If I was to produce this video I would have used less editing techniques as I feel that there are too many which is overcrowding the message that P!NK is trying to put across.

Mood Board

In class my teacher had asked all of us to create an individual mood board that showed our musical influences. I then went to the computer and download pictures of artists, band logos, and song lyrics that I like and also that are influential to me.

Here is a picture of my mood board.

On this mood board there are artists such as:

• Taylor Swift
• McFly
• Ed Sheeran
• Stereophonics
• Rizzle Kicks
• Katy Perry
• Carly Rae Jepsen
• Miley Cyrus
• Bruno Mars
• The Script etc

I also included music notes, band/artist logos and song lyrics to fill in the white gaps.

This mood board will help the people that will be in my group know what kind of music I am into when we come to create our group music video.