Reflections of our Evaluation

Now that we have finished and I have had a chance to look back at our evaluation I am happy with the final outcome. I think we managed to get everything we needed to into our discussions even though we only had a limited amount of time due to other groups overrunning and our group having to be slotted in later, trying to finish quickly so that Mrs B's class wouldn't be on tape.

I think we all had a fair amount of discussion time in the evaluation as well and it shows that as a group we can work together and also work individually on our own as we all did our own research for the questions too. Even though now I look back I think we shouldn't have been so worried about the evaluation because once we got started it went really quickly, I'm glad we did as much preparation as we did and I think it really shows in our final piece.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?




In this answer we mention all of the equipment that we used and what we used most of it for. Holly led the discussion of this question and once we said all of the equipment we began to say how they had been useful to us and the new things that we had learnt throughout the project.

I think that this question went pretty well as we each had our own opinions and bits to say and we all learnt new stuff about the equipment throughout the project which we individually found useful.

Below is a picture of us with all of our equipment that we used.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?




Our audience feedback turned out to be really good which is what we were hoping for. The only real problem being that people didn't really completely understand the concept of the music video, but that's not too big a problem as it makes people want to watch our video again, which most people said they would when we asked them. The audience also liked our album cover and website, with the only criticism really being that the front of the album cover was maybe a little bit boring.

I think that we managed to answer this question really well with Amelia leading the question and starting the discussion and then splitting up the feedback between us by good/bad, music video, album cover and website. Splitting it up like this meant that we each managed to talk and we didn't talk over each other too much trying to get it our own opinion.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?



As I lead us to start with in question 1, Laura began the discussion for question 2. Therefore, although Laura led the discussion I think that I contributed well to this question and tried to help with useful inputs to help evaluate our products. In the end we agreed that we managed to combine our products together well as we used the colour scheme from the video on the album cover and the website as well. We also had links, pictures and a blog about the album cover on the website and had backstage pictures of our shoot to tie in the shoot with the website. By using the colour scheme I think this showed our band as individual and quirky which worked well for us.

To improve the combining of our products we could've, again, had a viral marketing campaign on the website as this would've brought the album cover in even more.

I think we answered this well as Laura had real album covers with her for evidence which showed good organisation and we worked through pretty much everything we wanted to say.

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Part 1


Part 2


For this question, as it was the longest one, we split it up between the four of us. We gave Amelia the music video using Goodwin's to analyse it, Holly the music video with Vernalis's theory to analyse it, Laura the album cover and I did the Myspace.

When it came to the MySpace we did pretty much stick to the conventions of a band MySpace because there is not many ways in which you can change it without it confusing the audience by either not knowing how to navigate around the page or not fully knowing who the band is. A way in which we challenged the conventions slightly was by having individual bio's on the blog as this is not always something that bands have, but as we are a new band we thought this would make a nice little addition to our page and allow our fans to get to know us better. It also gave our page a personal touch which we felt made us seem more British than American.

A way in which we could've improved the MySpace was by having a link to merchandise somewhere or actual merchandise on the page apart from the album. Another thing we could've added which would've been good was a viral marketing campaign. Unfortunately though we did not have time for this which is a shame.

WE FINISHED ON TIME!!!!
and we are very happy with our finished products, just hopefully the audience will like them too!

Deadline Day

Today is the day of our production project deadline. Unfortunately we are not as far ahead as we would've liked but we are determined to finish on time and believe that we will. At the moment we are re-grading our music video with brightness and contrast, colouring in and tweaking the final bits on our album cover, and still trying to find a way to steal a banner for our MySpace.

So what's left to do is:

• Get Mrs B. to look at our music video again to check if need more grading and then screen it
• Get album cover signed off
• Either add banner onto MySpace or give up on idea
• Add the individual bio's and group bio onto blog that we have written
• Add links to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
• Add viral marketing idea if possible

So although it seems like we have loads left to do I think we will still get it all done on time.

The Vixens UK Myspace

I've started to look around for background for the MySpace and different codes we can use to jazz it up a bit. So far, I haven't found many interesting backgrounds that would really work for a band's MySpace. It would really be best if we could design our own MySpace background completely, but unfortunately none of us are complete computer/design tech genuis' so we are going to have to settle for a bit of a boring background. I am going to wait to run through everything with my group.

New Idea for Album Cover

So we tried our idea of using the locket behind the CD with pictures of us inside but after showing Mrs B. our album cover so far we agreed that it didn't look very good and it looked too plain. So I had the idea to get Holly to do a doodle with our names and little pictures and we scan that and put it behind the album cover. Everyone liked the idea and this is the doodle we ended up with which we are all really happy with.

We coloured in our names on PhotoShop after we scanned it and we think it makes it look bright and quirky and we have followed the colour scheme from the music video and the shoes by using blue, pink, purple and yellow. The cocktail glass also ties in with our album title, 'Glam Punch'.

Flatplan for Album Cover

This is our flatplan for our album cover. On the front we are thinking of having individual pictures of ourselves in columns with the band name and title of the album at the top. On the back cover we are thinking of having a still shot from our music video of the shoes with the track listing between the shoes because this is quite quirky and fun and ties in our hit single with the album. On the inside cover we are thinking of having a picture of the four of us together in the same outfits from the front, and behind the CD we are thinking of having a picture of the locket with pictures of us inside as this also ties in our hit single.

Band Member Name Ideas

Hey Guys, I have made the MySpace page, it has nothing on it at the moment except our name and one picture but the point is we do have one up and running under the URL www.Myspace.com/thevixensUK (/thevixens was already taken but bands have that problem all the time). So I've been thinking about band member names, I think it would be more interesting if we change ours. Here's a list of names that I have brianstormed so far with the help of the interenet giving some weird ones.

• Holly Woods
• Amelia Rose
• Laura (need to think of an interesting last name, sorry no offence!)
• Charlotte (same problem)
• Heidi Woods
• Amelie Rose
• Kali Rose
• Bee
• Leilah
• Gabriella
• Lexie
• Heidi
• Cali
• Romy
• Cleo
• Hattie
• Ava
• Amy/Amie
• Sammi
• Piper
• Haley
• Jayde
• Pippa
• Ria
• Izzie
• Isabel
  

That's what I've got so far, any ideas would be great :)

Video Shoot 11/11

Today we had our second and final shoot, this one for the narrative at the beginning an the end of our music video. In the narrative we are having Laura lying on a bed, she then looks at the locket and the picture inside of her and her boyfriend (the one we are singing about in the song) and she then goes to the mirror which is where we then 'go into her mind' which is the footage from the studio and us as the sins. For the end of the narrative we shot Laura falling back onto the bed looking happy and slightly more evil than when she started. Here are some behind the scenes pictures:

I think the shoot went really well as we got all the footage we needed and a bit more. The lighting also worked out well in the end which we were worried about as we had to shoot in the evening when there wouldn't be much natural lighting. However, it turned out to be a success which we are really happy about.

Plan to Shoot 11/11

We have made a plan to shoot the narrative for our music video tomorrow at Holly's house as we are using her parents bedroom for the mise-en-scene and tomorror is the only time everyone is available due to drama rehearsals and coursework deadlines going on at the moment.

We have booked out all the pag lights, camera, and a tripod. We have booked out all the lights because we will be shooting in the evening and we need to make sure that the lighting isn't too dark compared to our studio footage. In the shoot Laura will be wearing the blue dress we all wore in the studio footage and will have natural make up.

So props we need to bring are:

• Blue dress
• Heels (in case we want to use them)
• Make Up
• Hair Straightners
• Shooting Equipment

Editing our Footage

So, once we got back to school after October half term we began capturing all our footage, and there really was a lot. Once it was all captured we cut up the footage into different timelines titled:

• Laura
• Charlotte
• Amelia
• Holly
• All Sins
• All Sins with Laura
• Mannequin

In these timelines we out in all the footage that it refers to, for example all the shots with the mannequin go in the mannequin timeline and all shots of Holly, Amelia and myself dressed as sins but Laura as innocent go in 'All Sins with Laura' and so on. This has made it easier for us to find footage to put into our video. So far for our music video we have edited a bit of the video in which we are in four boxes and we all look to the side/down on the beat to 'here come the drums, here come the drums'. It sounds simple, but actually took a lot of work getting the colours right and everyone on the beat. We are now currently editing shots to the rest of the chorus and following verse, as we are waiting for the narrative to be shot before editing near the start and end of the song.

So far I am happy with our progress, it is starting to look good and we can see that our idea for the music video actually works. I am pleased with my own personal progress as I am learning to use more effects and different editing techniques.

This is a still shot we made of the idea we were going for in the 'here come the drums, here come the drums' bit.

The Shoot

Today we had our shoot and I'm really glad with how everything went, despite a few hiccups to start. Firstly, a member of our group was late so the other members attempted to start setting everything up and start with our make up. When all of our group was there we got started behind schedule and then found out the pag lights had not been charged by the previous group and one of the tall lights was not working. So, despite these problems we carried on and ended up finished not only on time but way ahead schedule and we had time to shoot lots more things than we thought we would be able to in a day.

We tried out lots of distances with the camera static and then we each shot another member of the group holding the camera to also have some camera movement. We all gave really strong and energetic performances, even near the end when everyone was beginning to get tired and our feet starting to hurt by wearing 5-inch heels and dancing around all day. But despite exhaustion and a few unforeseen problems everything ended up better then we expected. We've got absolutely loads of footage, about a tape and a half, and we can't wait to capture it and look at it, ready to start piecing together our music video!

Here are some backstage pictures of the shoot too!

AND, we even got to meet GOK WAN!!!

Video Shoot

So, tomorrow is our video shoot at Holborn Studios and I think we're all slightly nervous as well as excited. We have planned our shoot as well as we can so far, but because we are pretty sure that our video will mostly come together in the edit we only have a rough shooting schedule/shot list and storyboard.
Our shooting schedule is:
08:00-09:00   Arrive, set up, get ready (hair and make up)
09:00-09:45   Amelia Blue Dress
09:45-10:30   Holly Blue Dress
10:30-11:15   Charlotte Blue Dress
11:15-12:00   Laura Blue Dress
12:00-13:00   Laura Blue Dress with 3 Sins (Charlotte, Amelia, Holly)
13:00-13:30   LUNCH
13:30-14:30   Holly Sin
14:30-15:30   Amelia Sin
15:30-16:30   Charlotte Sin
16:30-17:30   Laura Sin
17:30-18:00   Any extra bits we want to add or anything we haven't done

And the props I need to bring are:

• Song on CD and CD Player
• "Hooker Heels" for Laura
• Blue Dress
• Accessories for Sin
• Some make up
• Lights and Camera

Audition to be Main Girl

In order to decide who is going to be the main girl we thought it would be fair to each 'audition'. For our audition we all lip-synced to the start of the song and recorded it so that it could be shown to an unbiased audience to decided who would do it. This is our auditions.

In the end, after Mrs B. had shown practically everyone she could (thanks for that Miss!) the feedback was that Laura should be the main girl so that is what we have gone with.

Call Sheet

This is the call sheet we made in preparation for our shoot.


Call Sheet

Costume Idea

Now that we have decided to go with the sin idea, we now have to re-think our outfits. I have chosen to be the sin Lust and therefore our first thought was to dress in red to anchor the idea of the sin. However, after discussion we thought it would be a good idea to make my character more of a dominatrix instead of just lust, as the concept to our music video is the corruption of good by the bad personailities and the bad personalities being in charge and dominating the man in the song as well as the innocent girl.

An outfit I would really like to base my own on is the outft that Cheryl Cole wore in her music video for her single 'Fight for this Love'. In the video she wears a red military jacket, a military hat, leather leggings and boot heels. Our idea to change the outfit is wet-look leggings, boot heels, a corset and a black blazer. Although this means that my outfit will be completely black we will try to tie-in the lust aspect with my make up by having bright red lips and red nail varnish. Almost the ambiguity of my outfit will make our video good for repeated viewing as the audience will enjoy trying to work out which sin we each are.

Costume Moodboard

This is a moodboard I made for costume ideas for our music video. As you can see, sequins, bright colours, very high heels, leggings and blazer type jackets is the type of outfits we are going for. This is because we are going for a disco-type look but with attitude to suit our genre.

Make Up Moodboard

This is a moodboard I made for make up ideas for our music video. As you can see the main thing we are aiming for is strong and striking make up such as smokey eyes, bright red lips, glitter and bright eye shadows. We would really like to have striking make up as we plan to shoot our music video in a white studio and therefore our make up and outfits will have to be bold and stand out, giving us personality and brightening up the video.

Seven Deadly Sins

So we decided we are going to draw inspiration for the characters/bad personalities from the Seven Deadly Sins. I looked on the internet and found these definitions of the sins:

• Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
• Pride is excessive beliefe in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
• Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
• Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
• Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or .Covetourness.
• Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
• Wrath is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury.

Because there is only four of us in our group we are only going to be four of the Seven Deadly Sins and we have picked Lust, Envy, Greed and Wrath. We have thought about the styling for these characters but for inspiration I have also looked on the internet as America's Next Top Model did a photoshoot as The Seven Deadly Sins, so I thought the pictures would be good to get ideas from.

Group Meeting

In our group meeting today, we discussed how to plan our music video further. We had previously thought about whether or not we are going to have a single artist or a group but didn't come to a final decision. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to decide on having one main character in the video who is the artist and the other characters her alter-egos or bad personalities. This also allows us to have some progression in the video, which we wouldn't have had if it was just loads of images of us dressed in different outfits.

I quickly jotted down a very brief and rough outline to the video:

• Begin main character sitting with flowers or some sort of object that associates her with the man she is singing about looking sad
• Her 'bad personalities' come out and she throws away this object
• Performance of the 'bad personalities' shown almost corrupting her in a way (whispering in her ear, kind of seducing her)
• Performing with mannequin of a mans torso, representing the man she is singing about, pushing it around, 'controlling it'
• End on strong shot of main character in her normal outfit that she is wearing at the beginning but has the bold make up she has as her 'bad personality'

This is a very brief outline of the progression of the character. There will also be many other shots involving reference to the lyrics including:

• 'Do I twist, do I fold' - shot of playing cards, possibly with a kiss on the King/Queen of hearts
• 'Why don't you tell me my future' - shot with tarot cards, either looking at the cards or throwing them at the camera
• 'Here come the drums, here come the drums' - us miming drumming, either in the band uniforms or just as our personalities (this shot isn't important anymore but was one of our favourites when we thought of the idea and so can still be put in there just for fun
• 'You're kisses are cold' - a bad personality kissing the main character on the cheek
• 'Sticking pins in a doll' - sticking pins in a voodoo doll, or on the mannequinn so that it is not literally just illustration of the lyrics

Album Covers Work

A: Look at a selection of album covers (minimum of ten, CD or vinyl), maybe from your own, your parents or a friends collection, or online - the more variety in genre, style, decade etc the better. Make notes in answer to the questions below:
1. What are the typical features that an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common.
- Name of Artist/Band
- Name of Album
- Debut albums tend to have a picture of the band or artist
- 4th album or so of well known established artists can have more obscure images, not neccessarily of the band
- If not a picture then mostly an unconventional, obscure image that is eye-catching
- A colour scheme throughout the cover (front, spine and back), usually bright colours or striking picture to make it recognisable and eye-cathcing
- Either a recognisable font always associated with band/artist or sticking to the colour scheme
- Track List
- Barcode
- Legal/institutional info
- Web address

2. How would you categorise the covers in front of you? Are there any other ways of distinguishing between them other than generically?
- Hip Hop and R'n'B covers tend to have large, usually sexual image, of the artist
- Bands are more likely to go for more alternative covers without an image of the band
- Debut albums have a large image of the band/artist to promote them
- More established artists don't need to have the large image of the band/artist
- The audience, old or young
- Era of the album cover

3. Album covers serve many different functions. What do you think these are (ie what is their purpose?)
- A marketing tool to promote the band or artist
- Introducing an iconic image or logo of the band that will become recognisable
- Give an idea of the sort of music
- Make it stand out on the shelf so that the fans and audience will buy it

B: Choose one album cover out of your selection. It might be a particular favourite, or one that is particularly visually interesting. Prepare deconstruction notes of the cover (back, front, inside sleeve).
I chose to deconstruct David Bowie's 6th(?) album, Diamond Dogs released in 1974. I chose this album cover because it is very visually interesting with quite a shocking and definitely eye-catching image of Bowie on the cover. The album is a concept album based on Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and Bowie's own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocolyptic world.

The cover features Bowie as a half-man, half-dog grotesque, painted by Belgian artist Guy Paellaert, with two women with fat pig bodies in gold bikinis behind him and an almost desolate-looking city in the background (the link to the post-apocolyptic world). The original artwork of the cover was actually banned as the original vinyl image showed the dog's genitalia. The cover image is now a gatefold sleeve and therefore a more classic and less controversial image of David Bowie is on the back with the institutional information and the track listing.

Unlike most album covers recently, Bowie does not have an ongoing font for the artist name on the cover, however the font does tie in with another one of his albums, Aladdin Sane, and the now very iconic lightning bolt. Therefore, the Diamond Dogs album cover does not have any images that are continuous throughout his albums, apart from the shocking and unconventional images that Bowie was well known for.

The colour scheme is mostly yellow with the tracklisting in yellow and the image predominantly yellow, brown and orange in the image of the desolate kind of waste land. Therefore, there is an obviously strong relationship between the image and the concept of the album. This is similar to most of Bowie's albums as the album, and Bowie as an artist was mainstream but well known for his eccentric images and outfits.

DYM MYSPACE FEEDBACK

This is solid work, Charlotte, but you need one other example and also check the links on your blog.

Group Meeting and Brainstorm

So we had a group meeting today where we sat down to try to formalise some shot ideas, as we had all these wonderufl idas bouncing around but we need to put things down on paper. Once we had started brainstorming we just couldn't stop and ended up with loads of ideas which would all work.
Our main theme is different looks, using the 7 deadly sins as inspiration.

Here is our first brainstorm:


Our main 'looks' are:
Look 1: 80s, glam rock, sequins, glitter, shoulder pads, platforms.
Look 2: 60s, futuristic, angular body shapes, solid make-up.
Looks 3: American band outfits "here come the drums"
Look 4: Marie Antoinette, inspired by fim, big white hair, mole etc.

We had the idea as well that we could each be a deadly sin in the video.


the ones we came up with were:
Lust: dressed all in black, dominatrix, leather
Greed: Marie Antoinette style, jewels, pearls, strawberries
Envy: Dressed In green, green contacts
Wrath: Dressed all in reds and oranges (firey)
Pride: like a celbrity, flashing paparazzi, big sunglasses etc

No Doubt Website

No Doubt is an American rock band that formed in 1986. The band members include Tony Kanal, Adrian Young, Tom Dumont and the female lead singer Gwen Stefani. They began their mainstream success in 1995 with the album Tragic Kingdom and the single "Just a Girl". They then began touring and have maintained their popularity and success up until now.
There website looks quite classic with the simple black, white and red colour scheme. The top of the page has links to news, tour, band, videos, discography, photos, link, press, community and store. The homepage has a link to 'Become a Fan', recent activity involving fans and 'ND On Twitter'. Their website offers fans a chance to get to know them better with videos, photos, news and tours and the link to the store offers the fans to buy their music and merchandise.


This is one of No Doubt's most famous songs, 'Don't Speak'

Caspa MySpace

Caspa is a Dubstep DJ who has become very well known in the underground dubstep/drum and bass scene. He has a reputation as a bit of a 'geezer' which you can see in the styling of his MySpace (he doesn't have his own website though).

His MySpace has a white background with 'CASPA' grafittied onto the white background. The MySpace layout is black making the whole page look dark and eery, like the grimy dubstep genre. His page is filled with his discography, up coming shows, 'caspa television', a biography, contact details and a link to his twitter page. His page gives a strong sense of what kind of guy he is with the biography and the link to his twitter page showing his comments. The page has videos as well with interviews he's done and songs and gives whoever is looking at his page lots to look at. The page really keeps the fans up to date with the songs, his up coming shows and the twitter commets.

"Today, Caspa is synonnymous with the underground. If you don't know Caspa you don't know Dubstep. With an epic list of tour dates taking him to every corner of the globe he still finds time to host a bi-monthly night at the world famous Fabric. Not content with running 3 labels, producing dancefloor bomb after dancefloor bomb and the acclaimed album 'Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening', his remix skills are in higher demand than ever, remixing for the likes of Deadmau5, Miike Snow, Depeche Mode and Kid Sister just to name a few."



This is one of Caspa's songs called Disco Jaws featuring lyrics by Beezy.

The 4 P's of Marketing

PRODUCT

PLACE

PRICE

PROMOTION

http://www.brandsbandsfans.com/archives/1204

Music marketing with Sprite soft drink

PRODUCT

WHAT BUY – buying the music and band/artist merchandise
NEEDS SATISFY – individual needs for individual people. Satisfy their taste for music

FEATURES – music, artist, lyrics (optional), video, narrative or performance, illustrating, amplifying or disjuncture of lyrics

HOW & WHERE – whenever and wherever with technology nowadays making music much more accessible

LOOK LIKE – a music video, branding of the band

EXPERIENCE – however the individual wants, again, with technology nowadays
CALLED & BRANDED – this is individual to brand

PLACE

WHERE – music on internet, on television, through word of mouth, in clubs. Promotional product sprite, in shops

PRICE

PRICE SENSITIVE – music targeted mostly and teenagers, 20+, students so can’t cost too much because won’t want to pay it, free downloads to bring in audience

PROMOTION

Music and Coca-cola – synergy. Sprite endorsing new artists to target music fans. Webisodes is interactive which appeals to young market, young new artists – relates

REACH - Web – youtube, global reach with the internet and other formats of music
WHERE & WHEN – internet, whenever, very interactive and therefore personal

ADVERTISING & PR – organising music reality show and advertising online (frukt.com)

TECHNOLOGY – yes, available on internet, download webisodes available on new technology

BEST TIME TO PROMOTE – promotion time is quite seasonal. Start of summer, summer no 1, February – love songs, Christmas – Christmas no 1, just before major music award shows to get coverage and possibility of winning

Trojan condoms and Cobra Starship music video

The band were promoting safe sex along with music and featuring the condoms in their video. This shows synergy as the band were also featured in the condom advert. However, this was controversial with CBS and Fox.

1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
Bands have their own merchandise relative to them, but usually there is CD's, Posters, T-Shirts

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?

Shops (HMV etc), Online (Amazon, play.com etc), Downloads (Itunes etc). Merchandise can often be purchased from HMV and other music stores, or stands within other shops e.g. Topshop often have band t-shirts in a separate section of the shop.

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.

Free Products:
• free music downloads (often as a taster before the album)

• free episodes to watch online

• free tickets to a gig when you pre order a CD.

Paid for/subscription Products:

• CD'S

• Downloads

• Music magazines (paid for and often subscription)

• Merchandise

• Subscriptions to band websites (updates via email)

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

• Adidas are using the famous artists and sports stars to promote their product to specific audience by showing adverts on television which has a large audience, getting more coverage of both the product and the stars. Yes, on TV between the correct shows to reach the correct audiences.

• Lily Allen’s single The Fear is being promoted via a viral music game. The instant gratification of this type of game makes it inherently viral. They are potentially reaching a new audience who are not listening to the radio or reading the music press.

• Samsung: Bebo and Samsung are teaming up to promote their new Beat phone over the internet in a online series. It will be interactive and allow the audience to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and win chances to appear in episodes. They will also be trying to find a co-presenter for the show and are also offering live performances from White Lies and The Maccabees to promote the series

• Jamie Cullum launched ‘The Advent Cullumdar’ on 1st December which houses £20,000 worth of Christmas gifts behind its virtual windows, including AC/DC tickets, John Legend concert tickets, 10 CDs from Universal and a Nokia Comes With Music phone.

• Lenka's song The Show was the iTunes free download of the week in September 2008, which promoted her whole self-titled album, pushing up sales

2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?
Frukt UK is an agency specialising in music marketing on the internet so that there is a wide and possibly global reach.

"We bring communication ideas to life through music and aim to produce work that is creatively bold and distinct. Either we develop the central idea ourselves and bring it to life with our team of on and offline activation specialists, or work collaboratively with other agencies, using music to make their ideas shine."

"We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives. It’s found in the mundane and the exalted. It moves us all. And it’s thriving. We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists. Music is a vast cultural space - it's flexible, it's multi-channel, it's live and digital, it unites gender, race and age and it defines the spirit of generations.You just need to know how to use it "

Pitch Feedback

We got really positive responses from everyone, and Miss Blackborow said it was "excellent!" which made us happy!

The only things she said were what to do next;

listen to "pump it up" and other songs by Elvis Costello as it has a major influence on our song
make a shot list while looking at the lyrics
look for locations
Not even constructive criticism! One advantage we have is that we could film almost anywhere as the background isn't really important. The focus is on us, our makeup and costumes, and tight framing will make it easier to shoot anywhere.

So at the moment we are in the process of contacting some places which have white backgrounds, and potentially The Phoenix Cinema as one location.

Treatment

This is our treatment for the song Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders.

In our treatment we

Our target audience is fairly wide since we combine genre fans of electro-pop with Rogue Traders fans, with Neighbours watchers (the lead singer used to be in Neighbours), fans of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" as it samples the riff (predominantly older people), teens/young agults who enjoy dancing and clubbing. So basically, we have a really wide reach, which is great for us as our video should appeal to both genders and many people.

Treatment Presentation

This is the presentation we made as part of our pitch for our treatment. It is mostly visual as so that the audience didn't have to read off the presentation as we spoke to them and also so that they can visually see our idea.

Voodoo Child Presentation

Group Final Idea

Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child

After each pitching a final idea on our blogs we have finally decided on Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders. We picked this idea as it has a strong female lead which we can recreate with our group but mix it up by having all of us in the video.

Our idea is that we go completely concept and performance based and have all of us in the video in lots of different outfits, ranging from disco to glam rock to 60s and we make a montage of each of us in all of the outfits, lip syncing to the song. We also plan to confuse the audience by all wearing the same outfit and then all wearing different outfits as this will make the audience want to keep watching because they won't know who is who. We have decided on this because we are all confident in front of the camera and it reduces complications by not bringing other people into the project to perform for us. Also, we think this would make a really eye catching video as even though we don't have a narrative for the audience to follow, the strong performance and the direct eye contact with the camera will keep the audience involved and add in the voyeuristic element of music videos which proves to be popular and successful.

We also plan to illustrate a few of the lyrics, so far we have thought of these ideas:

• "Here come the drums" - we will be wearing band outfits and playing drums, if possible.
• "Put your cards on the table baby. Do I twist, do I fold?" - either a poker game or tarot card display which would act as a motif to keep the video moving
• "Why don't you tell me my future?" - use of the tarot cards
• "I'm coming undone" - unzipping or untying or something not too sexual, letting her hair down, or unravelling from puppet strings
• "You play me like a puppet" - puppet strings attached to us if possible

Quite a few of these ideas may be very hard to do (the puppet strings mostly) but we will see if we can do them, hopefully we can.

Final Idea

Chase & Status - Heartbeat

This is my final idea for our pitch on wednesday; it is Heartbeat by Chase & Status with vocals by Nneka. I have chosen this song because it has female vocals which means that we could use one of us from the group or ask a friend to play the singer and the lyrics give us the opportunity to make our music video either narrative or context based. We also have to opportunity to bring in intertextuality with references to other music and DJs.

My idea is that the music video is a mix of concept and narrative, with a narrative between a boy and girl/man and woman with images of dark, club scenes and abandoned street scenes as the music connotes quite a dark setting. For the idea of the club we have discussed asking for permission to film in the well known club, Fabric, as one of our group members has previously been given permission.

The dubstep genre of this song does not have many music videos, especially none particularly well known, which means that we can be very imaginative with this song as at the moment there is not well known genre conventions that we would need to follow or break to make the video familiar to the audience.

The Streets Case Study

1. Summarise how the image has changed/developed over time, and the music genre.
The Streets primarily started as a band made up around the creator and lasting member of The Streets, Mike Skinner, began making hip-hop and garage music but adopted a more indie feel when success came in 2000. However, the music has always maintained the garage beats, keeping true to the music despite breaking into the charts.
In 2008, Skinner made a point to highlight the new "peaceful, positive vibe" to his new LP, Everything Is Borrowed, in comparisson to 2006's The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, which was more grimy with darker lyrics.
However, Skinner has said that the fifth record, the next to be released, would sound like the city of Berlin, and that the album will be "ravey". but will still be "one more banger" and, as strange as it sounds, "dancing music to drink tea to".

"The final Streets album (the fifth one) will be dark and futuristic. This could not be further from the album you're about to hear, but it's what is on my mind at the moment. I feel inspired by the synthesizer exhibition we just visited in Austria after the gig we just did."

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?
The Streets have a very widespread fanbase ranging from teenagers of both genders to students and young adults and even to drug users. Skinner's realistic and revealing lyrics often mention his battle with alcoholism and drug addiction which both widens and narrows their fanbase. Many drug users will be able to relate to his music and his lyrics and even seek advice in what he sings, whereas other people will be put off by the truthfulness of his songs and for the reason that he openly says he has used and abused drugs.

The Streets have not got a definite branding such as other bands apart from the 'cockney, typical geezer' type look, with Skinner wearing normal everyday clothes of polo shirts, jeans, t-shirts tracksuit bottoms, and caps. The recognisable image of The Streets is the clipper lighter that is on all of their albums, and once again this is just like an everyday object that makes him more normal and less of a celebrity. In a way the branding is to not look different to the people who listen to his music which links him to the fans and makes him familiar and almost like just one of your mates.

3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.
Skinner is an big fan of Reebok Classics shoes, often seen wearing a pair of white Workout Plus trainers, and has even mentioned them in the lyrics for his song "Let's Push Things Forward", in which he says, "Let's put on our Classics and have a little dance, shall we?". Therefore, in 2005 he signed up to appear in a twelve-month ad campaign for Reebok, joining other prominent celebrities in Reebok's "I Am What I Am" campaign. Skinner also collaborated with PETA2 in a campaign urging KFC to demand that chickens raised for them be treated more humanely.

Carol Vernallis

She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?
Yes I agree as the constant changing visuals in music video do make it very hard to create your own mental pictures because as the viewer there are too many images created by the director to concentrate on to let your mind wander. However, with some music videos there are more abstract shots which does allow the audience to look outside the director's choice. Therefore, with the longer shots of film and more abstract shots in more arty films it is possible to look outside the director's choice and create your own mental pictures, but it can also still be quite difficult.

She says music video is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?
No, I don't agree with this statement as music video can be just as much about the video as it is about the music. Many modern music videos reach almost 6-8 minutes long and are therefore about a narrative which the audience watch to enjoy just as much as they enjoy the music. The music video is also used to promote the band and therefore the audience see how the band want to promote themselves and the way they want to present their song and so we watch the music video to see this.

"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?
Yes, I agree as when we are presented with lots of short clips that may appear unrelated, in our minds we attempt to link the images and fill in the blanks, creating images in your mind.

The constant motion in a music video and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point. The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?
Yes, I agree as the "beauty shot" is a stable point constantly reinforced throughout the music video to provide familiarity with the artist/main band member which particularly promotes new bands.

Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?
Yes I would say the viewer is drawn into the digesis of the film through the editing because the editing creats the narrative and shows the audience shots in particular order creating particular meanings. Simply swapping just two shots around could completely change the meaning of the shots and therefore the editing finalises the narrative.

Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?
This is true for the director as there are less conventions to follow in music video and the main convention of music video is to break conventions. However, the viewer has less freedom as they are being shot what the director wants them to see and the quick editing and quick shots mean you don't have time to create your own mental images and therefore don't question what you are seeing.

Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?
Yes I agree as out of the three elements of a music video: music, image and lyrics, the only one that is not essential for a music video is lyrics, but you can not make a music video without either music or image. Also, sometime the images are completely unrelated to the music or are opposites (contrapuntal) and if this was so then the viewer would not be able to understand the story fully.

Initial Ideas

Nneka - Heartbeat Chase & Status Remix

I have chose this track as an initial idea as it also does not have a music video yet, although it is recent, and because it has lyrics. Luckily the lyrics are by a female which means we could either use someone from our group or find a friend who is willing to be in the video, and we think it would be easier to find a girl to perform in our video than a guy.

I like this song as an idea for our music video as I think it has obvious beats which we would be able to edit to and the music has different stages which will allow us to change the pace of the editing to keep the music video interesting.

Like my other initial idea, I think it would be best to keep the video predominantly concept based, with only a little bit of narrative so that it does not seem like a short film to music. With the narrative I imagine a guy and a girl having an argument when they are out, most likely at a club, and the concept afterwards is the way that he makes her feel. This idea comes from the line 'can you feel the pain you're causing', so I imagine the girl acting in severe pain, lost and feeling isolated and alone even though she is in a crowded club. The song is quite dark and ominous and therefore I think the club scene, possibly of the nightclub Fabric which it is possible to get filming permission for, fits with the music really well.

The beat will also allow us to use some effects really well, particularly lighting. At one point the beat is short and frequent and at this point I imagine strobe lighting (which they use at fabric) and at other changes in the beat I think it would be effective to use bright flashes as well as darkness and dimming, reflecting how she feels.

Initial Ideas

Chase & Status - Running
From the Album More Than Alot, 2008

I have picked this song as one of my initial ideas as even though it is recent, when this was released Chase & Status were still fairly unknown and therefore there is not yet a music video for it.

The song has lyrics which means we can have lip syncing in the video but I was thinking of the video being concept based as well as performance. The music starts of quite upbeat and happy but can be quite dark and heavy at times. This gives me the image of a dark and dingy setting, possibly some slow motion and flashes of bright lights. The concept I have thought of is loneliness and isolation shown by contrasting shots of busy places and the performer alone somewhere lip syncing to the song. I can also imagine a short narrative of a boy and a girl with possibly almost violent sexual encounters and a clear dependence of the guy on the girl.

I have not written a full treatment as of yet though, but am planning to do this after running the idea past the group to see whether it is worth looking at this track in more depth, or to leave this track and move on with another idea.

Teenage Dirtbag Video

Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
Latymer Edition, edited by Amelia, Holly, Laura and Charlotte

Evaluation

1. What do you think you learnt from Friday's workshop? It could be specific things about making a music video OR general things about the production process.
Friday's work shop mostly taught patience. We had to be patient between shooting and whilst setting up shots, showing how long it takes to shoot as you have to have lots of takes so that you have enough footage in the edit to use the best shots and not be left with rubbish shots with nothing better to use. It also taught us to be prepared for long shoots and to bring in appropriate props and to have spares just to make sure that you're not going to be left with nothing.

2. For you, what was the best bit?
My favourite part of the workshop was the performance shots with everyone in the background although it was very tiring jumping up and down and dancing for the whole extract of the song about 5 times in a row.

3. How do you think the work we have done will impact on your group project?
I think the workshop has helped us see what it is like to shoot a music video and therefore has helped us to prepare for our own shoots as we know that we will have to shoot the video lots of times and have everything prepared in advance. It also helped us think about who we will have in the music video as it showed that shooting a music video is a long process and therefore we need to have people prepared to put their all in and be prepared for long shoots.

Lip Sync Practise

Girls Aloud - Sound of the Underground

Evaluation
1. What do you think you learnt from the Lip Sync workshop? It could be specific things about making a music video OR general things about the production process.
What I learnt most with the lip sync practise is that you really have to not be embarassed to perform and lip sync because it will show in the performance and will not look right when it comes to edit the song to the images. In the video, Laura and I tried to lose all inihibitions and just enjoy making the video, and I think that it really shows in the final edit. However, I have learnt that you really need to learn the words as there is a rather obvious bit in the video when neither Laura or I knew the words and therefore we had to use a clip that covered up best that we didn't know the words, but it is still rather obvious.

I also learnt to shoot the whole song more than once. In our lip sync practice we performed the whole song with both of us twice and the whole song individually once each as well. This left us with loads of footage to choose from, and meant that there is equal coverage of both of us in the video.

2. For you, what was the best bit?
My favourite bit, despite the initial embarassment of dancing around the drama room to Girls Aloud and singing along, was filming the lip sync because we ended up having a lot of fun and attempting to make up a routine in about 5 minutes and then remember it when we had to perform, at points in the video it is obvious we forgot. My favourite bit of the video is the shot of me just spinning around in the back randomly when I ran out of ideas for dancing, and also of the chorus parts of Laura and I dancing together.

3. How do you think the work we have done will impact on your group project?
The lip sync practise could be quite useful for when we come to do our group work as we are all willing to be in our music video and we can use these lip sync videos to see who is confident, who is good at lip syncing, who has good ideas of what to do with the camera and what kinds of songs people are keen to do from their song choice, although I think we are pretty sure we won't be doing a Girls Aloud song...

BLK feedback

Excellent research posts so far Charlotte, a great start to your background work for this project. I really like the analysis work you have done on music videos.

You are rather behind though on some of last term's classwork and you need to catch up fast, as it will be so busy when we get back to school.

We also need to get you using/applying advanced theory more explicitly when you analyse music videos, think Vernallis for now, although you will also need to get to grips with Goodwin in the new term.

For now, your short term targets are:
1. Link your lip sync and workshop video to your blog
2. Post your workshop and lip synch evaluations
3. Post the work you have done for Miss T on Vernallis (see her post on the main music video blog for specific details)
4. Post your track research/ideas – we need to see what tracks you have in mind for your own video
5. Put some inspirational/useful weblinks up
6. Sort out your blog navigation – you need to link to the main music video blog for example
7. We need a photo and some info about you please!

All instructions are on the main blog if you are not sure what you should have done. There will be a lot happening when term starts so the sooner this outstanding work is completed, the better.

Great effort so far, keep up the good work and see you soon!

The Wombats My Interpretation

My interpretation of The Wombats 'Let's Dance to Joy Division' is that the song is ironic in the fact that they are seeking happiness by listening to a famous band (Joy Division) from the late 1970s whos lead singer suffered from depression and fits and famously committed suicide just before the band were about to tour America. 'Lets Dance to Joy Division' also references Joy Divisions most famous, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' but changes the words to 'let the love tear us apart' showing the possible meaning of just taking life as it comes and trying not to get too down about what happens.

The simplest meaning that I can determine from the song is that he has learnt ('I worked something out last night') that to deal with life you have to just deal with the problems that you face and try to enjoy yourself, even when things are going so bad ('celebrate the irony, everything is going wrong but we're so happy'). The reference to Joy Division could have a deeper meaning, or could simply just be a band that The Wombats were inspired by and therefore enjoy listening to their music.

The Wombats Treatment

When we listened to The Wombats track, 'Let's Dance to Joy Division', my first initial thought for a music video was to pretty much stick to conventions of 'band music' video with a performance and focus on the band.

I would start with a shot of the band walking down a street in Liverpool ('I'm back in Liverpool') with direct address to the camera as the lead singer sings along to the song. As they walk down the street I want to cut to the band playing the instruments but in the same scene and time so it looks like the instruments are appearing and disappearing.

In the second verse with the line 'grab your purse and take a taxi' I will have a shot of the band getting into a taxi and then an elipsis to the band getting out in front of a small, secluded club in a 'darker side of town'. The singer will then grab a girl standing outside and 'lead you through the dance floor, up to the DJ booth' where she asks for Joy Division.

In the next chorus I would have the band on a stage performing to the song and a crowd of people coming onto the dancefloor to dance along to the band. With the line 'let the love tear us apart' I would have broken plastic hearts taped together with sellotape with music notes on it taped to the band appear and the crowd singing along with the band. The hearts would then disappear and the band jump in the crowd and carry on performing the song to the chorus. With the last line ('Yeah we're so happy') I would have a shot of the band with smiley face masks on and then they walk off down the street.

This is a video of a live performance by The Wombats of Let's Dance to Joy Division

Music Videos with a Narrative

Fall Out Boy music videos are well known for having unrelated narratives which are enjoyable to watch. Here are some videos for example:



Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance
From Under the Cork Tree, 2005

In this video we see the band as two different people, playing themself as the band at the prom and also as 'geeks' attending the prom. Audiences enjoy watching this video because it is funny to see the band members playing geeks and the narrative is amusing, such as when the gym teacher shouts at Pete Wentz, "Hurry up powder puff". This video is also quite relatable, more to American audiences as the band are American, and therefore makes the video enjoyable to watch.
The video sticks mostly to conventions of a film rather than a music video except for the occasional direct address from the band with the camera when they are performing on stage.




Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down
From Under the Cork Tree, 2005

This is another example of Fall Out Boy's music videos with a narrative. This one, however, is different to the previous example as the narrative does not relate to the lyrics.
In this video we see the band in a room performing the track, a common convention of 'band music', and we have a separate narrative of the guy and girl that are falling in love. The video is strange as the guy has antlers and therefore the girl's dad does not want her to see him, but in the revelation we see that the girl's father has deer feet. This strange unrealistic narrative makes the video enjoyable to watch as the audience wonder what the narrative has to do with the song.
The video breaks conventions of a film by having the band's performance, but otherwise follows the conventions with the narrative as there is an equilibrium - disruption - equilibrium and follows camera conventions with no eye contact with the camera or unusual camera shots.


Although these videos are enjoyable to watch there is the problem of does the narrative become more important than the music? But that really depends on the invidual viewers.