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Friday, 11 November 2011

Logo

This is a logo that we designed for our artist (Veronica Summer), we did this in order to make a start of some descriptio on our digi-pack. Using photoshop we put in a photo of a Dahlia, we used this flower as it is quite classical, and exemplifies a side of our artist. We juxtaposed this with Black writing in order to create contrast in the image, and also to connote the two sides of our artist. To connect the two sides we used a very nature inspired font, this connects the brighness of the flower to the darkness of the font, making the logo seem whole.

We put a posterize filter over the image in order to make it look less realistic, this makes the image more memorable as  it is no longer just an image of a flower, ity has a bit more character. We also softened the edges of the flower using the smudge tool, this makes it look more delicate, and therefore the contrast is more evident.

Artist Image


Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

The images above show both of the sides of our artist, this is good for me as I can check it against the video (when it has been made) to check if the image suits our planning.


Make your own slide show at Animoto.

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Talent Release form

Kayleigh had to sign this talent release form as she is the main artist in our music video, she basically has written that she agrees to take part in our music video, this makes our video a lot more professional, as, in real life the artist would have to do paperwork similar to this.
This will make Kayleigh's performance in the video a lot more convincing as she has been fully immersed in the reality of being an artist. As she has been so far immersed I believe that she will be able to convey a lot more emotion in her performance due to the fact that she is in the mind set of the artist and therefore believes in the songs connotations.

List of Props and Costumes


The props that we decided to use are vital for our video, the taxi and balloons in especial are very important as they make up a large portion of our video and allow us to have a lot more vivid color scheme, whilst also relating the artist to the songs narrative. The taxi also allows us to make the british heritage of our artist very clear.
The costumes that have been shown above are ones that we will emulate in the music video, this provides variety (avoiding viewer fatigue), the variety of costumes will also show the two sides of our artists character, the darker and the lighter side. The costumes also differ in the time periods that they are from, some look more classic (50s style), and some are very modern (brighter colours, more flair etc.)
On the video there is also a lot of equipment that we will use, in order to have a professional quality video we will need to use the best equipment, I feel that we can achieve this as the social club has a large lighting rig, and here at the school we have high quality cameras.

Advert Analysis 2-By Kayleigh Hobbs

This is an advert for the album cover The Kooks- Junk of The Heart. It has just been released.

The Kooks are a band that fit into the Indie Genre of music. This album artwork could be described as simple as there is one main image just off centre. This means that the audience that will be focusing on this album cover, can directly focus on the individual image. It is also a simple image, of a woman standing in a car so it is more than likely going to be remembered by their fans and lookers of the magazine.

The font on the cover is in block capitals and in white letters which means that the font is easily seen and will be spotted. The dress that the woman is wearing matches the writing on the album cover so the colours all blend well together.

The costume that the individual is wearing, is an everyday dress that the majority of females would wear. The contrast of the black cardigan against the white dress, could be reflected by the type of people that may listen to the band.

The orange in the corner of the page, matches the ginger hair of the female in the image. All their colours match meaning that no particular part of the album stands out.

Caroline Vernalis-By Kayleigh Hobbs

Location Shots

The location above has the correct colour scheme for our artist, as it is red under dark lighting this could seem dangerous, this gives the viewer half of our artists image (the amy whinehouse side.) However the location in itself suits our genre due to the fact that british souls is often set in bars (see the previous posts for Lemar and Amy Whinehouse.)This local setting allows the audience to relate to the artist very easily, this is a key part for our image, and one that will work in our favour due to the setting.
This second image is another section of the bar that we intend to film in, this is slightly brighter, this will give us a difference in location, thus avoiding viewer fatigue. This will also be th setting for a lot of our mid shots, as the bar cuts the body off half way this makes the type of shot very clear, as well as making the boring old mid-shot a lot more interesting. Finally the clean surfaces that will be evident in the shots will indicate a new fresh look, this is corresponding with the overalllook that we want our artist to have.

Friday, 4 November 2011

Track Permission Form

We had to send another form to sony in order for them to give us permission to use their song, this is essential when making a music video in real life as if it is not done the producers will face copyright acts, which will incur penalties upon them and their company.
We have not received a reply yet but expect one soon, this will enable us to film as if we were professional film makers, this will add a certain authenticity to our music video and have the knock on effect of making our video look more professional. Sony have a british branch in London, therefore we can expect a letter or email back in the near future.

Advert Design

The image above is my design for a draft of an album poster for our artist, I believe that this shows the lighter side of our artist, this is because I have made the picture brighter, I did this by applying a filter upon the image.
The text that I have applied makes the darker side of the artist more vivid, this is because the colour is a lot darker than the rest of the image, it also makes it stand out. However the text itself makes the lighter side become more evident, this is because the writing has a more playful aspect about it, this also shows the age of the artist, as she is a young woman the playful nature of her would still be evident.
Finally the composition of the poster is very simple, this allows the subject matter to be remembered as the viewer is not bombarded with differing images, this simplicity makes sure that the audience will remember the album day and release date as they are all that are evident in the album.

Storyboard Video


This storyboard video is a rough outline of what we intend to do in our video, in a visual way it gives us an easy way in which to keep our shots in line, this makes it easier to film and edit our video. The main setting is the stage which will have a performance and will be a long shot, then we have a mid shot at the bar, this goes on to a taxi and so and so forth. This gives us a great variety shots and settings, thus enabling us to avoid viewer fatigue.

Location Permission

This location permission letter was written by Katie Lee to the bar in which we intend to film a large portion of our music video, North Cheam social club. The main reason we chose this club was because it has a great array of lights, it has a variety of rooms for us to film an eclectic range of shots (see the location shots to see the rooms.) However it also has a stage that we can have an actual performance on, this will ensure that we follow the conventions of a soul video.
They replied and said that we could use the club, this is great and means that we can definately have the mise-en-scene that we were looking for in our video, thus ensuring that our video is better prepared for and therefore of a higher quality overall.

Shooting Schedule


This is how we intend to shoot our music video, as you can see we plan to be filming over 2 days (which are a week apart), this will give us lots of time to film (roughly 10 hours of film time.) However, it does also leave us a lot of time to edit the film in final cut HD, this is needed as if the film is not editited correctly it will not look professional no matter how good the shots are.

The plan helps us to organise who needs to be were and when, this makes us more time efficient, therefore we have longer to film, and thus can take more time on each shot, this has the added effect of making each shot better as more effort has been put into every shot.

Photo Shoot Plan


The photo shoot plan helped to keep our photo shoot organised and on time, this gave us more time to edit our photo's in the way that we needed to edit them. However, it was also vague enough that it allowed us to have creative freedom that we would need so that we could create a high standard.

The photo shoot has allowed us to have a large selection of photos on file, which we can use to make mock-ups of adverts, cd covers etc. It was also very good practice for when we take photos for our digi-pack, as we have learnt what makes a great photo through practical experience.

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Planning posts - checking your progress Oct 16th SJA

WWW:


- Cameron, I am so pleased to see that you are relatively up-to-date with your Planning posts! This is great to see!
- I thought your idea for the 'Lyrics Annotation' was really creative and imaginative - keep up this sort of appraoch for each post
- Excellent work also on 'Concepts' post - very well thought trough, genuine interest in your task really shines through on this post
- Lovely photo using Kayleigh for your CD cover / Photoshop practices work - really effective and very relevant to your chosen genre. You show a good 'eye' for what works in a promotional photograph.


EBI:


- Improve your 'Technical Tutorials' posts by providing a written (or verbal) explanation of how you used the green screen and final cut - and your thoughts about how you could include these in to your own music video
- Likewise with the CD cover design post - again you need written explanation about what you did, why you chose that image, and how it works for your genre...

Overall assessment of 'Planning' so far: VG (Very Good) - but try to stay on top of it to avoid putting yourself through all the grief of last minute rushing. To reach the top of Level 4 (which is what you are certainly aiming for) you really need to show creativity, innovation, imagination and ICT technical flair for every post. The 'Planning' section of your blog really should provide you with loads of opportunities to demonstrate all of these things.

Friday, 14 October 2011

Lyric Annotation

Technical Tutorial-Green Screen


This short clip above demonstrates my groups current ability in using the green screen and editing it in final cut. To start off with we film a video clip in-front of the green screen, by doing this we create a background with solid colour (namely green.) We then import this into Final Cut, then we can apply a different background to our clip, we do this by applying the Chroma Key to the shot. Basically this eliminates all of one colour, we simply tell it to get rid of a particular shade of green and then its gone. The empty space is then replaced by whatever is in the shot below in this case a city scape.

This could be useful in our video in that we could easily replace a boring dull background with something more relevant to our given genre (soul.) However this could be less useful for our video as the background that we insert will never be quite 100% believable, also as our artist is meant to be non-commercial adding to much editing could take away from this image.

Technical tutorials-CD Covers

This CD cover shows the lighter side of our artist, this is due to the fact that the lighting is a lot brighter than the other CD cover (see below) thus connoting the slightly more light hearted side of the artist. The font also connotes a more positive attitude than the CD cover below, as not only does it have a inner glow and an outer glow, but it also has a less aggressive look than the one below, this effect is created by having the fill of the font look almost childish. The image in itself suits our genre as not only does it imply that our artist is an intelligent at independant woman (in that she is sleeping on a book full of music notes), but the composition also suits our genre, this is due to the fact that it is a close mid shot, this makes the photo more personal for the viewer, this connotes emotion which is a key theme within out genre.

This second CD cover (as mentioned above) shows the darker side of our artist (also known as the Amy Whinehouse side), this is created by having a dark red border and a shadow around the edge. We also added a very see through red layer over the top, this creates a darker scene and therefore a slightly more dark mise-en-scene. The title is also a lot more suited to our genre as it almost incorporates the classic 50s lights within the font.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Assessment 10th October 2011 JIN

Cameron,
I can see you have really attempted to catch up on the research posts of your blog. Well Done.
There are lots of good visuals here- sometime I think you could do more to really hit High Level 4.
Try to experiment with more technology and use http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ for responses
I still need to see Post 10 & 11 your application of theory to videos from your genre.
Post 18- Adverts - have you evaluated any?
Post 17 Record Labels- This could be further developed with some imagery.
Post 13 Mood board from your Genre- This works well as a video but I did get viewer fatigue. Could you keep the voice over but add in some relevant images?
For you to get a really high coursework grade we need to see:
Lots of images posted in innovative ways
Detailed analysis using connotation and lots of Media Langauge.
I know you can do this Cameron.
Overall your progress is Very Good. Lets get to Excellent- you are very close! JIN

Monday, 10 October 2011

Concept

To start off the concept I am going to go with costume as this is the part that I feel will define our artists image the most, this is due to the fact that it effects them personally. This dress above is similar to the one we are going to use we are using it as not only is it dark (similar to the little black dress which is a convention of our genre) but it also has tattoos on it, which directly access to the darker side of our artist. This dress also has a slightly more classic feel to it which we could relate back to the golden era of soul which was the fifties, this dress slightly resembles the type of dress that would have been worn back then (not the pattern but the shape.)

Now moving onto effects, as the soul genre is slightly more classical than more modern genres I figured that a sephia effect woul help to accentuate this. However as I was applying the effect to the whole picture (on picnick.com) i realised that I was not addressing both sides of our artist, I had to adress the more modern side as well, to do this is removed the effect that covered the artist, but left it on the background, this to me connotes that she is both modern and classic. It also helps her to stand out, and this helps me to realise that in our video we are going to have to come up with a way to have both modern and classical elements in the editing.

Finally we come to the setting of our music video, primarily I imagine that it will be set in a small club/bar with a stage in it. This is because in a club there are many different settings but all of which have graphic continuity, this makes it a great place to show off our knowledge of media theories. It also fits in with the overall image of our artist, as they are British they are relatively local and will therefore have a great rapore with the viewer to start with, we can play on this by having it set in a location that they will know and love. Having a stage also provides a great opportunity to have natural performance, this is a big convention in the soul genre as it ties in with other conventions (backing singers, band etc.) Finally this is a very accessible place which we would be able to hire out with relative ease, this makes it viable for us to use and therefore to do all of the options availible which I have already stated

Image annotation

In the soul genre we found out that there are 2 types of female artist, the first of these two is best exemplified in the late Amy Whinehouse. This type of artist has tattoos and usually wears a lot darker clothing, the songs are usually about modern life and the hardships of living in todays society. The advantages here are that it makes the artist very relatable to the viewer as they can relate to them as they appear to have a similar background. However a lot of what this type of soul artist does goes against a lot of conventions of the genre, they are in some ways more like rock than they are soul.
The other type of artist is one that Adele represents very well, this type of artist is very pure and heartfealt, as we can see in stark contrast to Amy Whinehouse Adele has no tattoos. This difference in image really shows in the song subject, whereas Amy Whinehouse's songs are about drugs and rock 'n' roll, Adele's are more traditional, love and sadness. This makes her a lot less relatable however as she is so idealistic her audience almost look up to her as an inspiration due to the fact that she is so passionate about what she does. However Adele's style of music is not so relatable in today's world and as such has many critics, and her image itself does not stand out andtherefore would not show an understanding of the conventions of the genre if we were to use it.
In the end we have opted for the best of both world's, as we feel that this will show our understanding in a lot more depth as we can put our artist into both the catagories. Paloa Faith is a very good example of the type of artist we want to use, her songs are about love and do follow the more traditional route. However, her image is sometimes wacky 9see above) and she has tattos so her image balances out the softness of her songs with a more modern edgey tone.

Song details


The song that we have chosen to do is Paloma Faith Technicolour, we have chosen this song as it is one that is not only by a British artist, but it also has no video for it. We also chose it as it fits our genre, as we are doing soul it fits it very well, having a lot of the conventions that are displayed in typical soul songs. However, the primary reason that we chose this song was due to the fact that we all liked it, I cannot tell you how many hours we spent on youtube looking for a song that not only fit our genre, and was british, and didnt have a video, and that we all liked. But when we heard this something clicked it was perfect, it was our song, and we were going to make it our own.

The roles in our music video


This is Kayleigh, she plays several important roles in the production of our music video. Her primary role is to be the "talent" here and to lip synch along with the music, we have chosen her for this as we feel that she is very close to the image we need, and that it would only take a small amount of work in costume to make her look the part (little black dress, fake tattoos etc.) However she will also be heavily involved in the rest of the production as she is very skilled in final cut and in creating ideas for the music video itself.


This is Katie, she will be heavily involved with shooting the video, this is due to the fact that she is very good with using the equipment and also is prolific at finding camera shots/angles that not only suit the job at hand but also look beautiful. During the planning process she will also shine, this is because she is a very creative person and also knows a lot about the media theories, this enables her to make ideas that are realistic, will look good and will get us marks. Finally she has a lot of skill in final cut and will therefore contribute a lot in the editing process.


And finally we come to me, I am going to in the actual video, as either a backing singer or a musician etc. However, I will also be using the camera extensively this is because I have a lot of experience with the camera and therefore will be able to sort out most glitches/problems that we could come across with them. My main area however will be during the editing process, primarily due to the fact that I have the most experience wth final cut and because I can get the most out of the macs, be it photoshop, final cut or imovie, I can use it to make a peice of work look proffessional.

Initial Ideas



In this video we talk about our initial ideas for our soul video, we decided to film our conversation regarding to this so that the ideas could flow more naturally rather than being very prescribed (which they would be if we just wrote them down.) By having a normal conversation we had more creative freedom and therefore the ideas we came up with were a lot more individual and therefore (in my eyes) a lot better.

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Audience analysis-Questionnaire results

What do you expect to see in a soul music video?


This will give us a good basis for the content of out music video as it will give us what the audience thinks are integral parts of a soul music video, for instance, we now know that we need bacing singers as it in the number 1 convention shown in the graph above. However it also tells us about costume, if we have a female artist the little black dress is a must it seems. This chart will give me the ability to back up my decisions in regards to the video as we have primary research to bac it up.

Number of people who listen to our genre


This graph tells me the popularity of out chosengenre, it tells me that the genre (soul) is not as popular as rock or pop, this is due to the fact that these 2 genres are quite mainstream whereas soul is a more niche audience. As such we can afford to be more daring with the song choice and make it so that it will only appeal to our relatively small audience. This is a good thing as it will make our video a lot more focussed as we do not have to worry about pleasing different groups, only our niche market.

Audience Analysis-The Questionaire




This will give us a very clear indication as to what our target audience want to see in the music video, as we have put in very specific questions about the content that they expect to see. Also we have asked aboutthe artists this will not only help us to choose out a specific image that will make our artist very popular with our target audience.

Monday, 3 October 2011

Assessment 2nd October (Research)

Cameron,
 WWW:
Some very detailed work on your genre here posted using a variety of methods! You seem to know it well.
I am glad you have attempted to stretch the technology here and I look forward to more interesting work.
EBI
We both know that due to your injury you cant write so well- but I have seen some going on in lessons! Therefore there should be something for all the required posts! A few posts are a bit patchy but - Missing is the theory posts 9-11 and the posts on audience 19-20.
Please ensure this work is completed by Friday 7th October.
This work has been graded as IMPROVEMENT needed!
JIN

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Genre research 6

Created by Kayleigh Hobbs (group work)

Jamie Cullum is an English pop and jazz pop singer and songwriter, he is a solo artist who accompanies himself on many instruments such as the guitar and drums as well as the piano. 

Jamie Cullum's video 'Everlasting Love' fits into the Soul Genre with conventions that match to others in the same genre.
Jamie's mise-en-scene is clearly portrayed clearly to the audience as he us wearing a suit. This could also be a similar style to the likes of Lemar (also a Soul artist). This could be a common convention. The clothes that he wears could also make people see him to be a man that takes pride in his appearance, and this sort of pride could also be taken with his music, as he is very pedantic when it comes to songwriting.


1 and 2. Lighting
3 and 4. Sound

The lighting in this music video perhaps fits into the genre of Soul music videos as well as perhaps going against.
Image 1 (far left) shows that this music video uses artificial lighting that is seen as very bright, highlighting the figure of Jamie who is in the black suit. However, when approaching the end of the song, (2) the lighting becomes more low key and Jamie isn't as prominent as he previously was. The low key lighting fits into the genre of Soul music, whereas the bright artificial light could be seen as 'not the norm'. This may make the audience more familiar to the music and the genre in which it fits.
The sound in this music video could be described as diegetic as Jamie has a band that are accompanying him as he plays the piano. This conveys to the audience that perhaps the music has been left as it was recorded, with little or no changes to the sound of the instruments and Jamie's vocals.

While he performs it is clear to the viewer that this performance means something to Jamie Cullum. When he is playing the piano and singing the notes that reflect how he is feeling, he will gradually stand up, and this is when the camera comes closer to him. This conveys to the audience the passion that Jamie has for his music, and perhaps his feelings towards the person that the song lyrics are about.

Genre research video 5


Created by Kayleigh Hobbs (group work)

I chose to look at the music video for Adele's 'Chasing Pavements' as it isn't stereotypically a music video that would be associated with a Soul artist like herself. However this song 'Chasing Pavements' is definitely a Soul song as can be told by the sound that we hear in her voice and also the instruments that accompany her in this song, and in fact all the songs on her album.

The colour scheme that is used in this music video, very much matches the genre of her music. The dark orange colours of the leaves on the floor, the dull colours of Adele's costumes and in fact what the actors are wearing fits into the typical colour scheme.

Contact sheet to represent the colour scheme.

Colour scheme is one way to instantly tell the difference between a pop and soul music video. Pop videos use brighter/bolder colours whereas Soul will use more neutral colours that go together well.
In Soul music videos, the female artists are usually dressed to look glamourous and as if they are wealthy people. In this particular music video, Adele is wearing a long coat with black trousers on. This isn't particularly glamourous but does fit into the overall colour scheme really well.

Adele as an artist does not normally include dance moves into her music videos, and this one is no exception. She has little screen time in this music video, but what she does do is very important and very well done. She has various close ups on her face to convey her facial expressions and  perhaps show to the audience how she is feeling. Like other soul music videos, the use of the long shot is  used here (as shown at the top of the page). This is a very effective shot, as it shows the background as well as Adele and the colours fir together, creating the overall mood of the music video.

As Adele is just situated in the background for various shots, it could suggest that her status perhaps isn't at it's highest point. However the close ups on her face, could perhaps go against this idea. In Soul music videos, females are seen to be of a high status and parts of this video go against this.

The lighting in this music video, is natural as it has been shot in the natural environment, which looks to be a park. The lighting is used in a very clever way, as it creates slight silhouettes of the characters on the floor when they are performing various movements. However when Adele is moving around the set, a silhouette is not apparent, again limiting her status. This could also be used to make the two main actors in the video stand out when they are surrounded by the other characters.

Monday, 26 September 2011

Label research 3

Columbia records started up in Washington D.C in 1891, from then to know a lot has changed (believe it or not) and it has since become a very successful record label for soul artists. It is owned by the Japanese company "Sony Entertainment". This is a big label and therefore a lot of very successful artists have been attracted to it because of that.

File:Columbia-logo.jpgI think that this label would suit our music video due to the fact that they sign on a lot of british artists (like Adele for instance) and a lot of artists who fit into the catagory of soul artists (Adele and Beyonce pictured above.) However it is an American label which might make it a bit less relevant to the type of artist that we need to emulate.

Label research 2

Created by Kayleigh Hobbs (group work)
WARNER MUSIC GROUP: is the record label that I have chosen to discuss in this blog post. This is because it best supports the genre of music that I intend to use to create my own music video.

This is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies.

This company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off and made completely seperate from Time Warner.

Some artists that work with Warner Music Group are the likes of: Chaka Khan, Seal, Simply Red and Rod Stewart. This sing in the same style as my choice of artist Duffy.



Warner Music Group is currently situated in New York, United States. This is a very beneficial place to be as there are always new artists looking for recognition in America and being situated in New York would be ideal for the artists to find the record label and want to work with them.

Label research 1

Created by Katie Lee (group work) 

Island records was founded in Jamaica but was based primarily in the UK for many years, now it's owned by the Universal Music Group however now it operates under the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group. This fits well with soul as soul as a genre is derived from Motown which came about in 1960s Detroit, as well as this Def Jam records is well-known for the making of accomplished r'n'b and hip hop artists such as Rihanna - which are also genres of black origin. However, nowadays soul music is equally as dominated by white artists especially in Britain.

Artists such as Leona Lewis, Lionel Richie and most relevant to our genre of female soul, Amy Winehouse are signed to Island Records.


The fact that Island records is related to soul artists means that they're a relevant record company to our planned artist as we wish to base our portfolio around soul music.

Genre research 4

Lemar is a classic Soul singer, he has a lot of passion that he freely and openly shares on stage, this passion is clearly shown in his video for the song "It's not that easy". Lemar's mise-en-scene is clearly shown in the video as he wears his trademark suit and tie combination and uses the classic 50's style microphone. These 2 items clearly state him out to be a soul singer as the suit is common for male soul artists across the board, and the microphone refers to the golden age of soul, the 50's. The clothes he wears also make him very approachable as he looks to be a gentleman, this fits him as he is often reffered to as one of the "gentlemen of pop", which reflects his mise-en-scene of the "nice guy".

The sound in this video is dominated by diagetic sound as Lemar and the band make up the music, this shows how his music is very "real" and has not been interfeared with (autotuning) as we can see the band playing the music (for the most part.) The moments of non-diagetic sound emphasise the singers isolation as he is alone and the music has almost abandoned him along with everything else, this is shown by the absense of the band.

The cinematography in this video shows how Lemar's emotons are increasing, this is clear as the camera comes closer to the singer as the shot progresses, this could show how Lemar's emotions are intensifying. It also makes the performance more personal to the viewer as they have an up close and personal view of the performer, this enables the song to have a greater effect due to the fact that the viewer can clearly see the emotion on the singers face. The editing here is clearly continuous as the shot is about 10 seconds long, this could show the singers long suffering or the everlasting love he possesses for the woman he is singing to.