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 "