Storyboard Ideas - Behind Bad Luck

22/10/13

After planning and picking the music that we are going to choose for our music video, we have finally started to plan the actual making of the music video. Although the ideas at the moment are quite rough because it is just the beginning of the ideas and that we may change them in the near future but the people in our group (Connor, Nick and Dapo) have an idea about what the beginning of the video will be like.
Since the music that we are choosing is influenced by a Ska band tha we have chosen called Behind Bad Luck. The idea is that we will need instruments such as a trumpet or saxophone and the main instruments like a guitar and bass guitar. Our initial idea for the first shot is that we have the main character (Tomas) on the swing watching 'Man Of Steel' and then says something like "I want to be like him!". Then the rest of the group will come into the shot and say "Then let's do it!". We will all then depart different ways and then the shot will be of all of the members of the group putting on the gear which we have agreed will be white shirts and blackad white ska ties apart from the leader Tomas who will have a red tie to signify that he is the leader of the group. This is as far that we have gotten into the idea of the music video, we will have a nother group discussion in the near future and will then further plan our music video.

4/11/13
After the lesson, we have finally begun to make our start on how the music video that we are going to make is going to look. The main person in the music video will be the same as in our last video Tomas, as we believe that he has the acting skill to make the video come alive. So far we have planned the beginning of the video. First, we will have Tomas sitting on the swing in the park watching the latest Man Of Steel movie on his phone. Then a group of band members who will be me, Connor, Dapo and Nick will approach him and ask if he would like to make a music video with us. As soon as they ask the question, Tomas then goes into a daydreaming stance which is where the music will actually begin. After this happens the music video will contain different shots of us, the band members playing the instruments to the song while there will also be short clips of us performing around different and iconic locations around London. Coming to the end of the music video, we will then come back to the question that the bands members asked Tomas which is where the music video will end. The picture that is shown on the right is only the first page of the storyboard that we have completed so far but by the time next week when we will have begun filming; there will be many more sheets.

How Katy Perry's latest pop video 'Roar' reinforces her brand identity and reflects her personal life

Katy Perry has many pop videos and the target audience that she is trying to reach is teenagers but mainly girls. She is clearly trying to show the role of 'Big Sister' by trying to inspire younger girls. This is clearly shown in one of her music videos 'Firework'. The music video shows many different examples of that people in the world shouldn't be hiding away their true feelings. In the video, there are kids who are worrying about problems but then by the end of the video, they overcome their fears. The idea of the video is to show a positive image to the audience in saying that "You can be yourself". A common thing with Katy Perry's videos is that they don't have a low budget at all. She doesn't waste any expenses to try to prove her point and become a big role model.

But before Firework, Katy Perry was seen as a more sexual and desirable female. California Girls one of her prior videos, shows her off as a sexy type of fantasy image. It could also be said that when the video was produced, she was going through a 'Miley Cyrus' phase because she was conveying the image that she is a young and attractive woman. While this technique definitely worked, a couple of years later she was then married to Russel Brand. Although Russel was married to Katy, he believed that it wasn't enough and that the romance was basically none existent. He has even quoted that he had to think of other women while they were married because the spark had gone. This then caused them to split up and become divorced; which then inspired her next song. This song explains all of Katy Perry's emotions as she explains "You made it so sweet, until I woke up on, on the concrete". This shows how she realizes the mistakes that she has made by marrying Russel and she has woken up to the light. In the song however, there are signs that she is already over Russel while talking to a stage hand as if she is flirting with him but then become friendly at the end of the conversation. There are many references throughout the song which explains the trials she has had to endure after the break up.  One reference in the song is where there are men with bulls for heads. I think that this symbolizes that she had a mental breakdown as in this section she was in a wheelchair but then breaks free with, I presume, a young version of herself called Katheryn. In the last elements of the song, she comes to a clearing to meet her 'Prince Charming' on a unicorn. The unicorn is a pure creature of imagination which also means that the Prince Charming is also an illusion (Russel Brand). To make matters worse and more obvious, the 'Prince Charming' crosses his fingers when they meet which means that he doesn't actually love her at all and hope that the relationship falls apart.

Now we come to the conclusion and analysis of Katy Perry's recent video 'Roar'. Like the previous video 'Wide Awake', there are also references about her previous relationship with Russel. In the song lyrics she clearly states "You held me down, but I got up. Already brushing off the dust". I believe that this means that Russel was holding her down but now she sees the mistakes that she has made and that she is completely forgotten about him. The costuming and effects for this video is seen to be very productive, so again she hasn't wasted any expenses. I think that she is trying to get back to her original target audience of teenage girls but at the same time showing an image that she is available because of the costume she is wearing.

Organic and Synthetic Music

The term 'Organic' in the music industry is to describe bands who care that the music comes first which typically means that it is from the hear. They are the ones who decide the kind of music that they want to create and then the record label (if they are signed), try to sell their music to the correct target market.
 While on the other hand, Synthetic music can be seen to be similar to 'Xfactor' music. This is where the artist/s are not really in control of the music that they want to make but instead it is the record labels that decide the kind of music that they want to sell. The role of the record labels is for them to find a gap in the market (normally a kind of genre of music) and then explout it so that the artist or the music that they produce will fit in that genre. Money is the main objective when it comes to this kind of music. There are other acts that follow this kind of style e.g. The Spice Girls, McFly and JLS are classed as 'manufactured' artists.

The Major, Major-Independent and Independent Music Labels

Major Music Companies

The same as the film industry, there is also major people who are involved in the music industry. The first thing that i will go through is the major music labels. The music industry is dominated by four major multi national companies and they are Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. They are known as the major companies because as well as 'having their finger in; the other businesses such as film, TV and electronics. Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest American music corporation as well as being the biggest in some of the other categories, their publishing  company is the second largest in the world which makes Universal overall; a very big company.

Sony Music is also an American company and is obviously part of Sony Corp. Sony Music was founded in 1929 and have continued strong and have placed themselves as the second largest music company in the world.
Warner Music Group is another American major label global record company which is headquartered in New York. The company controls some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world which include Parlophone and Atlantic Records.
EMI is a British (Finally!) multinational music recording and publishing company  and occasionally an equipment manufacturing company which is HQ'ed in London. At the time of it's break-up, it was the fourth largest business group and family record labels in the recording industry. The company then began to have financial troubles and $4 billion in debt in February of 2011. They would then have to sell their arm of the company to Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion and Sony/ATV for $2.2 billion.

Major- Independent 

The major independent companies are normally owned by the major companies such as Universal and Warner Brothers. They are create their own content as an independent companies but the majo companies take profits from them and give them their share. They try to reach different kinds of audiences in a different kind of genres. For example,  because Universal is the big company, they make all of the films that people want to see such as Despicable Me 2; which smashed box office record. While the major independent will make the smaller films to reach the smaller audiences.The five big major independent studios are Columbia, Island, Syco, RCA and Virgin.
Volumbia Records is a premier recording label which is currently under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment and was founded in 1888.
Syco Music which was previously called Syco Records is a British record label whic was founded in 2002. It is distributed by Sony Music only for the United Kingdom music industry while in America all of the music that it produced is released by Columbia for The United States.
The RCA Music Group was the umbrella group to Sony Music Entertainment between the time of MAy 2004 to 2009. But then later sometime between July 2011 and October 2011, the music group was then merged into RCA Records to become one company.
Virgin Records is a British record label that was founded by many iconic figures in 1972. The comany then began to grow when platinum artists such as Janet Jackson and te Spice Girls began performing with the company. Virgin Records is currently owned by Universal Music Group.

Independents

There are those companies who are a lot smaller than the Majors and `Major-Independents which will have either little or no financial connection to the majors. These types of companies decide to concentrate their energy on a much smaller number of acts. An example of a successful independeny company could 'Domino Records'. Normally for independent companies, that start off as record labels who then may or may not be chosen by a major company which will then in title make them a major-independent.

How Pop Videos Market An Image? - Miley Cyrus

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/06/miley-cyrus-exploited-empowered-debate

Is Miley Cyrus exploited or empowered in her latest pop video?
In the link to The Guardian post above, there is a debate as to whether Miley Cyrus is in full control of the way in which she is trying to show her new image or whether the people and producers around her are simply trying to market her as a prostitute? Barbara Ellen believes that she is being exploited. She claims that the letter Sinead O'Connor sent to Miley explains how she is worried that she is be exploited by the people around her. But instead of Miley taking in the words of Sinead, she riposted by mocking Sinead's past mental health issues. It is also said in The Guardian post that the new female artists will need the help of the older artists because they explain how if 'you're not prepared to strip to "edgy" videos, you can smooch your contract goodbye'. This is a fair point because in today's society, it isn't unusual for women's music videos when they strip down to skin tight clothing but when the music artist aren't, it isn't as popular. For example, in Adele's videos, in none of them is she striping down her clothing and this is not for her image but her music videos still sell.
On the other hand, Bertie Brandes believes that Miley is becoming empowered by changing her image and that it isn't the people around her who are trying to create her image, but that she is trying to change it herself. Miley claims that 'Hannah was murdered' which only means that she is trying to get rid of her past fan base and trying to make a new name for herself. Even Bertie explains that when she was Miley's age, she was desperate to be sexy at 20 which means that the phase that Miley is going through will hopefully be over. Bertie also attacks Sinead's letter to Miley by saying that everyone is reacting and criticising the actions of a young woman and that the only way in which we can deal with this is to 'stop playing the record labels game by blogging about her music (Sorry!) videos and start asking them more difficult questions.

We all remember the nice, cute teenager that was once Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, but what happened to her? Well, she turned into a twerking, sledgehammer licking monster who i believe has her priorities messed up. We can go back to years ago when Hannah Montana was still airing on Disney channel and we all had our favourite show. I'm going to show you the different of then and now. Now in this video, this is the teenager which had millions of girls and maybe some boys who looked up to her because she was a teen sensation. But since she was getting older, of course she is going to recognise the older world which also means that she was probably going to start doing drugs. This is a reasonable assumption because there were others who are older than her who have done the same thing such as Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and even Kylie Minogue; so what she is going through is no different. But then now that she is older, she is making video such as Wrecking Ball, which is making her seem more like a sexual object. Miley also adopted the style of Sinead O'Connors Nothing Compares To U by having a close up at he beginning of the song and with the tear rolling down her cheek at the start of the song. This is what sparked Sinead to try to explain to Miley what she is doing wrong and this is exactly what we need is for someone to explain to her exactly what she is doing wrong.
Miley is cleverly using the pop videos in her most current music videos to try and change her music, fans and image. So the real question about Miley Cyrus is what is she really trying to accomplish and is it really working?

How Does A Music Video Get Made? Case Study 3 - Alex Southam

Alex Southam as well as Emil Nava also freelances for OB Management. He originally trained to become a lawyer but decided to turn into a new direction and work in filming. His reason for deciding to make music videos was that he wanted to 'learn the trade'.

One of Alex Southam’s previous employers Agile Films described him as: An exciting new talent who works in a dizzying variety of styles in both live and animation. For a person who is entirely self-taught his creativity has caught the eye of a series of independent promos for the likes of Walkmen, Alt+J and Lianne la Havas. Alex joined Agile in August 2012.

When Southam began his career, he undertook all of the tasks in his video such as Filming, Lighting and Editing. But now he uses a Director of Photography, which helps him to create his videos. In Southam’s videos, he likes to use the format where ‘you can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom’. I believe that he means that you can also try new techniques when you are filming and that you should be able to have as much creative freedom as you have the imagination for. This means that he is a lot less keen on commercials because they all for a lot less creative freedom. He uses a online showcase called 'Vimeo' to show his videos. This website/application is becoming a lot more popular platform as it is considered to be a 'higher status' than Youtube.

His big breakthrough started with a video Tesselate by Alt J. He was provided with a budget of £10,000 and all of the shooting was completed in 1 day. The casting for the video was quite large and he also used aftereffect in the video. The other video that he directed was for Chase & Status - Lost and Not Found. For this video he was given a budget of £50,000 which is seen as a medium amount size of money when you compare is works to the likes of Emil Navas (who i have explained in the previous post) He decided to film the video in Los Angeles and used Steadicam. Steadicam is a stabilising camera which is used for smooth filming and ignores the camera mans movement. I believe that it is mainly used when the user of the camera is trying to move and keeo the camera steady at the same time. He filmed the video at 36 FPS (frames per second) which is rather high quality but then decided to slow the footage down. He fwas influenced by Massive Attacks - Unfinished Sympathy. He thought that the best way to make the video was to aim to make the video look like it was from the early 1990's with a VHS look. The unique thing about the video is that there are only three edits throughout the entire clips. Can you spot them?

How Does A Music Video Get Made? Case Study 2 - Emil Nava

Emil began his video making as a runner for film production companies. He previously worked for Blink Industries but now freelances for OB Management. After working as a runner, he then graduated to Assistant Director (A.D) where he would then be able to manage the video shoots. After this he the signed to Academy who are the biggest video production company out so far. Then he worked for Between the Eyes and now mainly work for Pulse. He has now started making adverts, which generally allow a much higher budget than making videos but at the compromise that it allows a lot less creative freedom. His most famous or well know advert is the L'Oreal 'Dare To Be Different' . One of Emil's years have been very busy where he has created up to 24 music videos in one year. He began by working for independent agencies and was given a budget as low as £5,000 to up to £10,000. To this day, his most expensive video to dat has been made for Jessie J with a budget of £160,000. Emil's first video was for the band Kid British and their track 'Our House'. He was given a budget of £20,000 and chose to produce the video in Manchester. Although the budget was a lot more than smaller independent filming companies, he decided that the cast of the video would be the local residents. The filming for the video only took 1 day but the editing took between 2/3 days and the pre-production took 10 days. This shows that the very small and tight time scale that Emil had to work with. The company that Emil freelances for OB Management work as agents for music video directors such as Emil. They have 4 mains aims and they are:-
-Nurture talent
-Work with production companies
-Work with record labels
-Match the right director to the right artists
The list of companies that OB Management work with are Pulse Films, Rocket, Agile Films, Friends and Wonda. A popular artist that Emil has made videos for are Paloma Faith. He has helped her create some of her videos such as '30 Minute Love Affair' and 'Picking Up The Pieces'. Palmoa Faith's video. The other artists that Emil has worked with include Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Rita Ora. The songs that he also directed and created include: Lego House, Do It Like A Dude, R.I.P, You Need Me and Price Tag. While creating these videos, Emil only had 2 main tips and they are to use the Extreme Close Up  on the artists face whenever it is possible. An example if this is in Sinead O'Connor's - Nothing Compares to U. Throughout the song was mainly just a close up through the entire song showing her face with a few background fades periodically. The other main tip that Emil had was to not shoot the entire video in a medium/long shot. I believe that Emil said this because then you cannot see the emotion on the artists face which means that the video will not be as effective.