Research into Similar Artists

We have shown our song to a few people and asked them if they could think of any bands that it could be similar to. The two names that kept popping up where 'Scouting for girls' and 'Madness' so i have done some research into them to see what their music videos are like.

Firstly i looked at some 'Scouting for girls' videos and i've noticed that the comon theme in their songs and and videos is a girl or girls. This has been a very useful to look at because there is also a main theme in our song of a girl. However the downside is that most of the songs are quite slow where most of our song is fast and up beat.



I then moved on to look at some 'madness' videos. Their songs are all very fast and up beat which is good for us seen as our song is mostly up beat. However in their videos there does not seem to be much structure or story, just manic videos. This is not what we would like to do with our video so it would probably not be good to look at their videos for ideas.

Audience research - Survey Monkey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's

Ideas Meeting - Initial Ideas

We came together as a group again today so that we could improve on our ideas. This was a successful meeting as we came up with a lot of ideas and then wrote them down on paper so that we can make reference to them when filming.

Initial Ideas

In class today we had a group meeting so that we could start discussing our initial ideas. we plan to build on them tomorrow and get it all writen down on paper so we can look back at it easily. 

Production schedual - call sheet

Production Schedule Call Sheet Music video title: Low down ho Director: Charlie Brien Writer: Charlie Brien

CREW Camera: Liam Coughlan Props: N/A

Meeting at: 64 the avenue, Hornchurch (my house) Location Venue: Embankment (central London) CALL DATE: Sunday the 5th February 2012 CALL TIME: 10:00 am Transport: 252 bus and district line train

Actors: Charlie Brien, Harley Mason Make – up: Actors own Wardrobe: Harley: blue jeans, coat and pink wellies. Charlie: trousers, jumper and trainers  Location Catering: McDonalds Notes:

what is a digipack? - what needs to be included

A digipak is case which a cd or dvd is held in, they normally consist of 4-6 sides which all have a different picture on it. Our digipak will have 6 sides the things that need to be included are:

• six sides
• cd holder
• pictures
• track list
• cd name
• artist name
• label name
• label sign
• barcode

It is important that a digipak is attractive and catches the eye so that they get noticed in shops and people buy them.


This is an example of a 6 sided digiak. This one is for the album 'loud' by Rihanna.

                                                              

  

Storyboard animatic

Below is the storyboard shown in a video form.  it shows all 16 shots individually .

As this animatic shows, the basic idea of the video is that there is a boyfriend and girlfriend that appear to be getting along well but there it later reveals that it is not a good relationship. We see the girl talking to other boys and generally being a horrible girlfriend. In the end we see the couple break up.

mood board

this is the mood board that i have created for our music video.  i have chosen each photo because it means something to the video or one of the characters in the video.

Storyboard

Below are pictures for our storyboard.

Shots 1-4

Shots 5-8

Shots 9-12

Shots 13-16

100 greatest music videos

the list below shows the top 100 music videos of all timete list was as follows, from 1-100:

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
2. Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
3. A-ha: Take on Me
4. Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
5. Madonna: Like a Prayer
6. Robbie Williams: Rock DJ
7. Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
8. The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
9. Madonna: Vogue
10. Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
11. Coldplay: The Scientist
12. Michael & Janet Jackson: Scream
13. Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
14. Christina Aguilera: Dirrty
15. REM: Everybody Hurts
16. OutKast: Hey Ya
17. Blur: Coffee & TV
18. Beyonce: Crazy in Love
19. Madonna: Material Girl
20. Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood
21. Queen: I Want to Break Free
22. Justin Timberlake: Cry Me a River
23. Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
24. Radiohead: No Surprises
25. Madness: Baggy Trousers
26. TLC: Waterfalls
27. David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
28. Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
29. Electric Six: Gay Bar
30. Weezer: Buddy Holly
31. Eminem: Stan
32. Chris Isaak: Wicked Game
33. U2: The Sweetest Thing
34. The White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl
35. Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2U
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give It Away
37. Guns N Roses: November Rain
38. Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice
39. Pulp: Common People
40. Missy Elliot: Get Ur Freak On
41. The Spice Girls: Wannabe
42. Bjork: It's Oh So Quiet
43. Dire Straits: Money for Nothing
44. Kylie Minogue: Can't Get You Out of My Head
45. Aerosmith: Crazy
46. Adam & the Ants: Prince Charming
47. The Prodigy: Firestarter
48. Johnny Cash: Hurt
49. Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
50. Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al
51. Run DMC & Aerosmith: Walk This Way
52. Massive Attack: Teardrop
53. Wham: Club Tropicana
54. Daft Punk: Around the World
55. Fatboy Slim: Praise You
56. Eminem: Without Me
57. Meatloaf: I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)
58. The Cure: Close to Me
59. Abba: Knowing Me, Knowing You
60. Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams
61. The Prodigy: Smack My Bitch Up
62. Blur: Parklife
63. George Michael: Outside
64. Bjork: Human Behaviour
65. Aphex Twin: Windowlicker
66. Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues
67. The Beastie Boys: Sabotage
68. Madonna: Ray of Light
69. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Two Tribes
70. The Police: Every Breath You Take
71. Bjork: All Is Full of Love
72. Robert Palmer: Addicted to Love
73. Basement Jaxx: Where's Your Head At?
74. Wu-Tang Clan: Gravel Pit
75. Duran Duran: Rio
76. The Beatles: Strawberry Fields
77. MC Hammer: U Can't Touch This
78. Godley and Creme: Cry
79. New Order: True Faith
80. Radiohead: Just
81. Ultravox: Vienna
82. 50 Cent: In Da Club
83. Shakespear's Sister: Stay
84. The Boomtown Rats: I Don't Like Mondays
85. Sid Vicious: My Way
86. The Streets: Fit But You Know It
87. Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime
88. Elton John: I Want Love
89. Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight Tonight
90. The Pet Shop Boys: Go West
91. The Specials: Ghost Town
92. Herbie Hancock: Rockit
93. The Rolling Stones: We Love You
94. Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Heart
95. The Cardigans: My Favourite Game
96. So Solid Crew: 21 Seconds
In this video each member of the band was given 21 seconds to sing their part.  because it as their first main song it was a good way of introducing everybody and giving each of them a chance to prove themselves.
97. Cornershop: Brimful of Asha
98. Bronski Beat: Smalltown Boy
99. Supergrass: Pumping on Your Stereo
100. Musical Youth: Pass the Dutchie

This is a very famous video beacause they are the first band with black members to ever be shown in america on MTV.

audio clip of chosen song

This is a video of the song we have chose 'low down ho'

The process of making a music video

below is the process of making a music video.


Firstly a song is written. Then a commissioner from a record label sends the track to between 5-10 directors. Each director then submits their own treatment of what the video will look like. This stage for the directors is unpaid. After each treatment is submitted by all of the directors the person from the record label chooses the 'best' and commissions it to make the video. After the last stage is completed only then is the director paid. 

Nowadays it costs around £20,000 and 2 days to make, however some videos such as Coldplay's 'The Scientist' cost £200,000 and 3 days to make, but it is thought that only a couple videos will cost this much these days, unlike michael jackson and janet jacksons  '' which cost millions to make, there will not be many music videos made for this much in a long time.

Copyright

The copyright law means that if somebody copyrights a piece of work it gives them exclusive rights to it. it gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights. This is why we are not allowed to use a signed artist because their work is under copyright. Therefore we have used  a website called http://www.unsigned.com/. on this website there are hundreds of unsigned artists.

Possible Locations for Filming

This is a slideshare showing the possible locations that we could use to film our video.

Preliminary Task - What we Learned

From this exercise we learnt how to use final cut express in a more detailed and effective way.  for example how to use layers and how to prioritise them so that the right image appears first.  we also gained the expierience of singing outloud with people listening, this was ecpesially important because it is important to have confidence when singing so that when we match our mouths with the song it will look better.

Preliminary task - Finished Video

This is the finished video for the preliminary task.

Initial Research into our Chosen Band

Our chosen band the big hurt are a group of six members from america. There names are; Billy Martin - Vocalization Scientist, Will Sutton - Noise Bringer, Tim Johnson - The Low End Specialist, Matt Costello - Percussion Master, Germ - El Scratchini, Jamie Kelley - The Layer of Beats and Joe Mysko - Disco Mysko. They make there music i 4 different genres; drum and bass, reggae, punk and rock.

Newgrounds.com

Another website that we could use to find our music is Newgrouds.com. This is another website that contains unsigned artists with songs that we can use.

low down ho lyrics

below are the lyrics to the song we are using for our video 'low down ho', it is very important that we learn them so that we can sing the song fluently.

You would always be the one 
To try and keep a brother happy. 
Lately maybe I’ve been feeling kind of crappy. 
Low down ho. 
Yes I admit this shit just makes me sick. 
If I come quick she’s out the door. 
Man I don’t know. 

So why’d you have to be that way? 
Hotter than a cigarette and everybody’s smoking. 

She leaves me once again I don’t 
know why she had to go. 
She’s got my CD’s, VCR, TV 
and remote control at the pawn store. 

So why’d you have to be that way? 
Hotter than a cigarette and everybody’s smoking. 

So get to stepping woman you’ve got me feeling low. 
She’s trifling and scandalous I’ll miss 
the loving but she’s stepping on my toes. 
Low down ho. 

Why’d you have to be that way? 
Why’d you have to be that way now? 

Low down Ho.

Reply from the band

Billy William from 'The Big Hurt' has sent us a reply saying that we have permission to use their song for our coursework.  this is good news because now we can go ahead with making the video.

Prelminary Task

Our grroup had to comlete a preliminary task as a part of our course work.  The task was to create our own music video for the song 'Dont go breaking my heart' by Elton John and KiKi Dee.  Two people had to play the parts of Elton John and KiKi Dee and sing along to the song.  We then uploaded it onto the computer where we cut out the soud of the singers an edited it so that the mouths matched up the the song.


what did we learn from this exercise?
from this exercise we learnt how to use final cut express in a more detailed and effective way.  for example how to use layers and how to prioritise them so that the right image appears first.  we also gained the expierience of singing outloud with people listening, this was ecpesially important because it is important to have confidence when singing so that when we match our mouths with the song it will look better.

Song Choice

We have found a song that we would like to use for our music video, it is called 'Low Down Ho' by !The Big Hurt!.  We have sent an email to ask for permision to use there song forr our video, we are now awaiting reply.

Case study - Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves is a British film writer and director and music video director.  Jamie started off by making short films in university, he used his award winning short film as a 'calling card' to 'get his foot in the door' with th video production company 'Factory films'.  He began by making three very low budget music videos costing £5,000.  Jamie has been very successfull, he made possibly Coldplay's best music video 'The Scientist'.  this cost £200,000 and was shot in three days.



He also made a very successfull video 'just' by Radiohead.  This had a budget of £100,000 and was shot in three days. 

searching for a song

today i have been looking for a song in our music video, i have found some that i would possibly like to use but i am going to keep looking so that i find the perfect song.

Unsigned.com

unsigned.com is the website that we will be using to find the music to use for our music video.  unsinged.com is a website that contains thousands of unsigned artists that are advertising their songs.  every genre of music can be found on the website.  we will have to ask for permission from the artist if we would like to use one of their songs in our video.

Purpose and Success of a Music Video

In class we had a discussion about music videos, we talked about what what the purpose of a music video and the success of a music video.  The questions we answered were:
What is the purpose of a music promo video?

• Advertisment of the music/song/artist
• It draws attention to the music/song/artist
• illustrates the song
• Appeals to a visual audience
• Expresses an individuals emotions
• Tells a story
• Markets an image
• Promotes the artist/single/album
• Persuades an audience to buy - CD/download
• Raises the audiences awareness of the artist/group
• To make an artistic statement e.g Talking heads 'Once in a lifetime'
• Product placement e.g. Christina Agulara and perfume 'Not myself tonight'

How might we measure the success of a music promo video?

• Word of mouth
• Number of hits on Youtube
• Newspaper/Magasine articles/TV reports
• How many times shown on Youtube
• Amount of publicity
• Downloads (leagal/illeagal)
• Charts
• CD sales
• Awards

What factors must be taken into consideration when planning a video?

·         Relevance between the story and song

·         Locations

·         Ethics

·         Actors

·         Actresses

·         Mis en scene

·         Lip sinking

·         Weather

·         Continuity

signing up to unsigned.com

Today i signed up to unsigned.com.  On this site i am able to search for unsigned artists and get a song for my music video.

Me and my group are specifically looking for a boy band as the members of our group are male, and therefore it will be easier to find actors to be in our video.

My favourite music video

The video below is 'sexy and i know it' by 'LMFAO', this is a favourite of mine.

This is favourite video of mine because very different to other videos.  It is a very memorable video because of the pure madness of it.  It is a comical video pretty much based on a conflict between two groups of men who seem to resolve it by dancing.  The video takes a twist at the end where they seem to get along and dance together, along with everyone else in the video, who also end up in just speedos.  Overal this is a very fun, crazy and amusing video that wil be a hard one to forget.

Music Promo Video - Coursework Brief

This year for our coursework we have been given the task of making a music video that lasts up to 5 minutes in a group of up to 5 people.  This needs to be acompanied by a blog that shows the work and research we are doing for the project, also in this blog we need to produce a detailed evaluation on the project which will include all of the research and planning that we did and the reviews that we will get for the video.  The other things that we will need to do are create a digipack for release the song on DVD and create a magasine advertisment for the video.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog. This blog will be detailing the process i have gone though in creating a music promo video, digipack and magazine advert.