Planning - End of Term Podcast

Below is a podcast we filmed to talk about our work during the Christmas break.



Video edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Storyboard of Music Video

We created 24 sketches of a storyboard of our music video, we then uploaded these to Celtx and wrote a caption explaining each picture. This will help us when creating our music video as we can look at the storyboard and will know each section to film. Below you can see the storyboard in Celtx.

Storyboard created by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Creating a Master Catalog

We used Celtx to create a master catalog, this allows us to describe everything used in our video, including actors, props, costume, set etc. By doing this we will be more prepared for filming as we know everything we need to have to be ready to film. Below is our finished master catalog.

Master catalog created by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Brainstorms for Music Video

We made storyboards on various topics in our music video such as characters and filming. This gave us a good basis to work from in the development of the ideas for our music video.

Brainstorms created by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Presentation of Green Screen Test

Greenscreen presentation1

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Below is the finished Green Screen Test.

Greenscreen created and edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Preliminary Coursework - Lip Syncing Video

To first create a Lip Syncing video we chose the song "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith, once we had chosen a song we played the song and videoed Mitchell miming the lyrics in time.

We then moved this video into Premiere and deleted the audio for it this silenced the video so later we could just hear the intended song. You can see below the video is without audio.

Next we needed to download the song from youtube to place over our video, to do this we used 'video to mp3'.

Once we had downloaded this we transferred it to the video and lined them up so they were in sync.

Making sure they were timed well we added a title and fades to create a better overall video.

We now have a finished video of Mitchell lip syncing well to Aerosmith's song.

Lip Syncing edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Video of Proposal

We recorded our proposal to give a better idea of what we want in our music video, below is the video.

Video edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Video Proposal Write Up

At the beginning of the video there will be an instant close up of the mans (main character) face, staring into space and looking into the distance. This will show the feelings and expressions of the main character who is going to be looking very depressed, while this close up is taking place the sun will be shining on his face and shown in the background. Both the close up and the shot of the sun are common motifs in music videos purposely placed in our video. For the first verse, the main character will be walking through a field followed by a busy street.  This shows him walking through open space as if he is lost in in his thoughts and thinking of the past. During the second verse the main character begins to sing the lyrics while walking to illustrate he is also the artist. Next will be a flashback to his past relationship, this will be in black and white so people know that it's a flashback. During this flashback there will be scenes of the couple laughing and playing together and looking into each others eyes, this is to highlight they were happy and in love. There will then be a scene of them fighting to show how the relationship deteriorated and why he is sad. When the lyric 'I'm going back to the start' plays the flashback will rewind to the beginning to correspond with the lyrics. During the third verse the main character touches a girl infront thinking it is the girl from the flashback but when she turns around it is someone else, this is done in many music videos and creates suspense within the story in the music video. In the fourth verse we see the main character on the phone to someone but we don't know who it is, however because of the previous scenes we presume it is the girl. As the last chorus plays we see the male character walk into a cafe and the girl is sitting there waiting for them, we see them talk and laugh together signalling they have made up. At the end of the chorus when the line "I'm going back to the start" plays the main character sings this directly into the camera, I feel this shows intertextuality as  he recognises that the camera is present. During the slow ending the entire video will slowly rewind all the way to the beginning. The overall story line of this video is that the main character has fought with his girlfriend and broken up, we see his progression in the video as he begins to miss her and wants to get back together, it ends with the couple reuniting and becoming happy again as this links to the lyrics of 'going back to the start'

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Permission of use of Song

We were inclined to email our artists record company in order to get permission for the use of their song. We had to mention that we would not be making a profit from it and it is being used for a school project. Below is the email sent to Capitol Records.

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Interviews on Target Audience

We interviewed six people in our target audience, asking them questions on their preferences for music video types, lengths, motifs etc. Below is the video of our interviews.

From this we can see what our target audience want to see and make our music video suit these needs.

Video edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Survey of Music Videos

We created a survey asking questions about music videos, we did this to see what our target audience preferred in a music video. To access our music video we uploaded our survey onto Facebook so they could complete the survey.

The questions in the music video covered what people like to see in music videos, lengths people like to see videos and much more as you can see below.

From the answers we receive on this survey we can change our music video to suit what the audience want, and therefore appeal to a bigger market. The results were as follows:

Through looking at the results of this survey we can direct our music video to suit the target audience's wants. for instance from this survey we can see that 85.7% of people who answered said they like to see a story line in a music video, therefore we will try to give our music video a story line to please the majority. We can also see that most people like to see the mythical and mysterious, the video to last between 3-4min and for the video to contain controversy, all of these factors will have an impact on our video.

Survey created by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Podcast on Demographics

Below is a podcast on how the demographics we have found will effect our video.

Video edited by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post created by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Demographics of who watches indie music videos

Through doing some research I have found exactly who is watching indie music videos on television. Here are some demographics that show the viewers: It shows the number of subscribers, the median age of the viewer, the average primetime viewers, average total day viewers, average primetime 18 - 34 viewers, average total day 18 - 34 viewers, target audience, main competitors and upfront presentation (in New York) This information will help to influence our music video as now we know exactly who we need to be appealing to and with this information we can now find out how to appeal to these people

Mitchell Pace

Planning - Demographics of Coldplay - Artist

Once research was done on our overall genre we started to do research into the audience of our specific artist, Coldplay. We found that the most popular listeners age was 12-17 and 52% of listeners were male, while the age doesn't correspond with that of the audience of the genre the gender does meaning we need to focus on the male perspective when making our music video. From our research we have found that Coldplay is most popular in the UK, not surprising as it is a British artist, and the USA, we now know we need to represent Americans and British in the video more and appeal less to lower markets such as India.

Not only do we know that Coldplay is most popular in the USA and the UK we also know it what parts of these countries it is the most popular. For instance in the USA Los Angeles has a much larger amount of Coldplay fans than areas such as Philadelphia, by knowing this we know which areas to promote our video to more than others.

Through the year we can see when Coldplay become more popular for periods of time and how their popularity fluxuates. From this graph we can see their popularity spiked in January 2010 and 2011 this is due to the video music awards in held in January.

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Demographics of how people access music

We needed to look at how people mostly access music today and particularly Coldplay's music. We found that overall people access music mostly through the internet but Coldplay specifically is accessed mostly through Facebook. This is surprising as we would presume music is mostly accessed through YouTube but by now knowing it is through facebook we know how to best promote our music video, by focusing the promotion of our video through Facebook we will reach the most fans as this is their main source on accessing Coldplay and their music.

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Demographics of Indie Genre

When looking into our chosen genre it is important to note the different types of people and overall amount of people who listen to that genre, in this case indie. This will help us when trying to see who we should aim our music video out. From our research we have found many different things about the audience who listen to our genre, we've found that that the most popular age group listening to Indie is 20-30, this is as it is quite a young type of music newly founded so younger people will be more interested. We now know that when producing our music video we should aim it as this age group.

Age
20-30	- 99 ( 39%)
30-40	- 60 ( 24%)
40-50	- 52 ( 21%)
15-20	- 32 ( 13%)
50-60	- 6 ( 2%)
60+	- 4 ( 2%)
	253 - Overall Total

Next we looked at the different genders that listen to Indie and found that it is mostly men. This will greatly influence the perspective our music video comes from and aims at. 

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Analysis of Rihanna - Cheers Music video

When analysing music videos we look for things like common motifs, controversy and if the lyrics fit the video. To analyse a video we must first read the lyrics and see if they tell a story, if they do not we look for an overall theme such as love or heartbreak. In some part of the music video the lyrics do fit the video such as when Rihanna says 'Cheers' and the characters hold their glasses up and cheer.

In Rihanna's music video Cheers there are many of these things throughout. The beginning of the music video starts with video footage from Rihanna's concerts, this is a common theme that occurs among music videos. This is a screenshot from her video showing one of her concerts.

Next we see Rihanna putting on make up in the mirror while having her hair done, this is clearly an example of intertextuality when an artist recognises themselves as an artist, this is done by showing shots of cameras/sets/directors or artists looking at themselves such as Rihanna. Below is Rihanna's example of intertextuality.

Fragmentation of the body is the most common theme used in music videos, mainly female. Rihanna is not exempt to this and shows examples in her music video. Her example of fragmentations of the body is of women's bums which not only shows fragmentation but also the exploitation of the women in music videos. this is controversial as it implants the idea that women are only seen as sexual objects and nothing more. 

Ritual celebration is another example of a highly used motif, often these are parties as in Rihanna's music video. As an theme in these celebrations the black artist is usually happy while the white artists are the opposite. In Rihanna's video we see her at a party with friends and family, this also matched the lyrics as the song is all about partying. 

Other features often seen in music videos include shots into bright lights, breaks in narrative for the artist to sing and clips from the film the song is featured in. Within Rihanna's video we see an example of this with a shot of a firework in the sky.

As we can see from all the common motifs used in Rihanna's music video that they feature in all types of music videos, from Madonna's 1989 hit Like A Prayer to Rihanna's current 2011 song Cheers. 

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Analysis of Madonna - Like a Prayer Presentation

Presentation2 madonna like a prayer

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Presentation created by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Presentation on Aspects of a Music Video

Presentation on music videos

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Presentation created by Mitchell Pace
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Aspects Of A Music Video

The main goal of the music video is to keep the viewer watching, this is done through a series of techniques. Most music videos are 3-5 minutes long and longer videos are usually compressed. However there are anomalies to this from the 60's and 70's such as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which was 6minutes long. Music videos are kept short for a number of reasons firstly to keep costs down, as the longer the video the more expensive it will be. Also as people have short attention spans they are made short to avoid tune outs. To gain maximum profit it is beneficial for producers to play as many videos in a short amount of time therefore this is achieved by being shorter. They have become this way as producers are aware that we are passive viewers and are able to do many other things at home, such as doing homework, while watching T.V. As music videos have become this way there are many things missing as there is no time to develop characters we instead get stereotypes so we can quickly understand the person. There fore characters and plot are weak to accommodate the song, not the other way around. Music videos attempt to rather than tell a story, convey an overall message. To do this multiple clips are shot and edited together, these clips make little sense on their own, such as someone getting beat up, but when seen with the other clips and accompanying music they give an overall story.

Aisleen and Mitchell

Planning - What Has Been Learnt From Looking At The History of the Music Video?

Looking at the history of the music video has taught us a lot, we've gathered that they have become more and more controversial overtime, this is as viewers have become desensitised to the previous controversy and therefore artists have made their music videos more graphic and more sexual than the previous videos to keep viewers interested. We can see evidence of this by looking at different music videos from different periods of time, for example in the 1920's and 30's the soundies showed women dancing with their legs on show and black people as the stars of the videos, at the time this was controversial. By the 1950's people were immune to this so the scopitones went further with their sexual exploitation, focusing mainly on women in even skimpier outfits. Comparing videos from different time era's we can clearly see the differences in what was seen as controversial for the time. Factors such as these wont really affect our music video because we are not aiming to be controversial as we are limited due to this being an A level project. However we do need to keep in mind the progress of the music video in order not to return to old conventions, we also need to think about our target audience and what they expect to see from our video to keep them interested and keep the video popular.

Aisleen

Planning - History Of the Music Video

Over the years music videos have changed dramatically, there were five main stages to the music video, each more controversial than the next. Music video's first started in the 1920's/30's with 'Soundies', these were three to five minute music sketches which could be seen in the cinema. An example of an early soundie can be seen below.

This fits in with the conventions of the time as Soundies usually showed a live band on the left hand side of the stage followed by dancers on the other side of the stage. The women are dressed appropriately, in a long elegant evening gown, in keeping with the conventions of the times.

Next came the Scopitones which were developed in France in the late 1950's, these were the early video jukeboxes and became the model for the music promo. After the end of the war in the 1940's there was a cultural explosion and views became a lot more liberal, such as more drinking, drugs and women dressed more provocatively. The quality of the song itself decreased as there was a lot more focus on the sexual exploits of the video.





This Scopitone meets the newer conventions as throughout the entire video it is focused on woman dancing in bikini's, and therefore has a very sexual theme throughout the video. As with many music videos of today it returns to one main woman again and again in this case the woman in the orange bikini. The sexual influence means the music video has no real meaning and is made as a way of attracting attention.

The 1960's introduced the music promo, many famous rock artists began to make music videos to promote their albums. As the 1960's brought the hippy movement a lot of music videos were heavily drug influenced. This is seen with artists such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd.



This meets conventions as it is clearly drug influenced by the bright colours and swirling patterns especially at 1:18 of the video when the blue pattern seems to come towards the viewer. The drug influence overrides any narrative or story line a normal music video may contain as there are no characters or settings.

The Glam Rock era arrived in the late 1960's/ early 70's, these music videos were made as a way of keeping fans entertained when away on tour. The main idea of the Glam rock era was to push the boundaries of the time, in this case the idea of sexuality. Some artists that pushed the limits include Queen, David Bowie and Adam Ant.



This video pushes the boundries of homosexuality as David Bowie is wearing heavy makeup during the entire video, he is also wearing tight clothes that would usually be worn by a woman and were ultra feminine at the time, this can be clearly seen 30seconds into the video. Not only is Bowie wearing make up and dressing feminine but so are all of his male band members completely eclipsing the usual perception of the 'straight male'. This new approach to music videos was meant to push the boundaries from the last era and therefore grab attention and gain popularity.

The Birth of M.T.V
M.T.V was created in 1979, on August 1st 1981 they played their first music video which was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Music videos now started to compete to be played and almost all artists were producing music videos.

In the 1990's the definition of Hip-hop began to change along with their videos. Music videos were now being given budgets the same as motion pictures. The Hip-hop artists began to embrace their gangster lifestyles and drug use was exploited.



Early hip-hop videos such as this were fairly tame as there is no exploitation of drugs or women, the raps themselves were quite innocent, as this song by the Sugar Hill Gang shows it is about rapping skills and having a good time. This video also shows old style rappers dress sense was very different from those of today, they're dressing up as red Indians as it matches the song. As time goes on we start to see music videos focus on drugs and partying as seen below.



This video is much more in keeping with the new Hip-hop genre as it involves parties with drink and drugs. there is a major reference to girls throughout the video and in the lyrics, we can see how women are treated in the "gangster" society at 2:25 in the video, they are seen as sexual objects. this is backed up by the lyrics "And before me dig out a bitch I have ta' find a contraceptive...Ain't no pussy good enough to get burnt while i'm up in it." The gangster lifestyle is now embraced by these new rap artists as this video demonstrates gangsters hanging aroung their hood enjoying life, 'Ain't nothin' but a G thing'  means that this lifestyle of parties and drugs is casual and common to a gangster and not a big deal.
We can see from these different music videos how the music video has progressed over the years.

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Introduction to A2 Media - Vlog

A short introduction to our music company.



Aisleen and Mitchell

Planning - Our Project

Our project is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a promo of a new music video together with a website home page for the band and a digipak for the albums release.

Aisleen and Mitchell