Links with TV

Using some of the footage from our music video and images I found on the internet, I created this powerpoint so that we can see the many similarities between our product and the teen television series 'Skins'
This should help us attract our target audience aged 15-24

skins pres

Magazine album adverts research

As Gorillaz are a well known band worldwide, we wouldn't need to focus on smaller budget, or less well known music magazines.

Though as the bands creator, Murdoc Niccals is British, the bands largest fan base is most likely to be British as well.

For this reason we think that main stream British music magazines such as Q or NME would be the best to look into for our music magazine research.

As well as this both Q and NME have their own radio stations and also music channels which ties in nicely with the production of our music video for the track. This is an example of globalisation and how companies are expanding from their original sources, out into other aspects of the media and entertainment industry.

Both these magazines don't specialise into one specific genre of music either which makes them ideal as our dance remix of a Hip Hop track is harder to specify as one set genre, and therefore focus our attention on one type of magazine.

Existing Examples of Album Adverts:

We scanned some full page album adverts from a 2009 copy of Q magazine.

• A single full page album advert for the band Lightning Seeds
• Basic information included - Album title, band name, available formats 'CD/DOWNLOAD', release date, web address, record label.
• Band name and Album title are equal in size
• Photographic imagery - the same as album cover

• A single full page album advert for the band Manic Street Preachers
• Information included - Band name, album title, release date, Names of band members and other + their job roles, available formats 'CD / DELUXE 2CD / LP/ DOWNLOAD, wed address, record label, advertises amazon.co.uk as a way to purchase the album.
• Band name is larger than Album title
• Imagery is of a professional painting by an artist- the same as album cover

• A single full page advert for the band Maximo Park
• Information included - Band name, album title, release date, available limited edition CD including performance footage, wed address.
• Also advertises new single release, and available formats of that
• Album title is larger than band name
• Font of band name is recognisable of their image/brand
• Imagery is computer generated - the same as album cover

• A single full page advert for the band The Enemy
• Baic information included - Band name, album title, featuring - 'song title', available formats 'CD/Special Edition/Digital, already released, wed address
• Band name and album title are the same size
• Imagery is computer generated - the same as album cover

• A single full page advert for the band Green Day
• Basic information included - Band name, album title, available format, release date, includes - 'song title', web address.
• Advertises what their website has to offer
• Has an introductory sentence 'The wait is finally over...'
• Band name is larger than album title
• Font of band name is recognisable of their image/brand
• Imagery is of graffiti art - the same as album cover.

• A single full page advert for the band Depeche Mode
• Information included - Band name, album title, already released, available formats - 'CD / CD+DVD / VINYL+CD / BOXSET / DOWNLOAD', tour dates and venues, web address.
• This advert is also promoting the bands tour and advertises where to purchase tickets
• Font of band name is a recognisable link to their recent comeback and 'tour of the universe' tour in 2009
• Imagery is computer generated - the same as album cover
• Also includes smaller images of album cover.

• A single full page advert for the artist Bob Dylan
• Information included - Artist name, album title, album description 'studio album', release date, available formats - 'CD / DELUXE CD / VINYL / DOWNLOAD', wed address, record label.
• Advertises HMV as a place to purchase the album.
• Artist name is larger than album title
• Photographic imagery - the same as album cover

General Codes and Conventions of Magazine Album Adverts :

• include band / Artist name
• include album title
• give a release date
• inform of available formats
• include a web address
• advertise songs it includes
• advertise where to buy album
• match imagery to album cover or use photographs of album cover on advert

Some less well know bands had smaller half, or quarter page album adverts in the magazine such as:

As these bands are less well known, they probably are unable to afford a full page spread which in Q magazine costs £9,156 [statistics from www.bauermedia.co.uk/ratecard]

However, as Gorillaz are equally as well known as some of the larger bands such as 'The Enemy' or  'Green Day' they would be able to afford a full page spread in a more popular British music magazine.

Music Video Draft + Audience Feedback

From the footage we filmed last week we were able to put together a rough draft of our final music video, which we're in the process of editing now.

Whilst editing we have noticed a small problem, that is that Callum isn't wearing the same T-Shirt throughout due to our small section of re-shot footage.

Also there is a larger gap than expected between the street scene and the house party scene which we had hoped to fill with car scenes but may need to add something extra or extend some sections in order to make it all fit.


Rough Cut from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

We showed this to 8 students aged 17-18, which is effectively an accurate representation of our target audience, and asked them a few questions about it.

Did they understand that the plot is non-linear and the ending is where the beginning picks up from?
Yes they all picked up on this and some said it was clear it cycled round from start to end.

Did they understand why we would edit the clips at the end to be blurry?
Yes they all understood that this signified that the characters on screen were drunk.

Did they think the alteration to the colour contrast on the house party scene worked well?
They didn't even notice it had been adjusted which shows that the contrast looks natural, but they agreed it looked good.


Did they notice the difference in Callum's T-Shirt during the opening?
No.

Did they think that we should extend some scenes?
Yes, they thought skating scene would look better if it was longer.
As well as this they also suggested that clips with Simon and Callum lip syncing into/towards the camera would look good.


Did they think that we have realistically portrayed teenage behaviour?
Yes, they also used examples of existing media texts with which they thought our music video has similarities.
These included:
Skins
Chase & Status music video for 'Blind Faith'
Modestep music video for 'Feel Good'

The Shoot - Rave Scene

We shot the scenes for the Rave scene this past week, including those of the morning after.

We did it in this way to ensure continuity, as Callum could pick up his clothing immediately after we filmed him taking them off and they would have been in the exact same spot.

When filming we needed the following props:

• Empty alcohol bottles
• Shot glasses
• Strobe lights
• DJ decks
• Playing cards

And the following equipment:

• Cameras
• Tripods
• Snoricam

We needed around 10-15 extras
The location we used was Beth's dad's house only.

Podcast: On the shoot

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Target Audience

In order to gain both information on our target audience and also some audience feedback we filmed the responses of our fellow peers to some questions on our Gorillaz track '19/2000' Soulchild Remix.

 

• From this target audience feedback we can see that, the Soulchild remix of 19/2000 is definately popular amongst our age group.
• Also it is hard to recognise genre, though most who did not have much previous knowledge of Gorillaz guessed correctly that the remix was in the region of Dance genre.
• We can also impliment the audience's ideas for music video as many apply well to our idea and therefore suggests that the video's concept will be popular with teen audiences.

Band as brand [draft]

Also to include our Re-Branding

Contacting rights holder

Initial Ideas Vodcast

This was our first vodcast, in which we we discussed what we hope to have achieved with our rough footage and where we hoped to go from there.


Initial ideas vodcast from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

Digipaks

Following the presentation given to our year by 'Laurie O'Connor' from the 'wewow' company my knowledge of digipaks has increased.

Due to the issue of global warming, Eco- friendly products are now much more popular and encouraged than those which are not. In the case of CD production this would be the difference between the standard jewel case >>
and the digipak, which is made entirely of biodegradable material.

As well as the encouragement to save the planet, digipaks are soon to become the cheaper option, due to the increasing price of the polycarbon material with which jewel cases are made.

Digipaks are currently more popular with independent labels, but this is thought to change soon. The company Sony claimed that by 2015 they would reduce the companies carbon emissions by 30%. This means that they now actively encourage their signed artists to Sony Music to choose digipaks for album and single releases over the jewel case.

One of wewow's main distributors of CD's is Amazon.com

Although another great way to distribute them is as a free hand out at gigs. To produce small runs of albums or singles will increase the band's appeal to a wider audience.

One of the most appealing factors of the digipak is the retro appearance of them, especially the lancing pack which bares some resemblance to the old fashioned vinyl packaging. This would draw in older age groups who will have used vinyl in their youth as well as younger age groups who consider reviving era's such as the 70's and 80's and re-establishing old sounds and styles of music a good thing, therefore the popularity of the digipak should increase.

Another selling point of the digpak is the use of them as a 'limited edition' which makes them appear more special. For example, Keane recently produced their 'Hope & Fears' album with wewow and produced both jewel and digipak cases and ran the digipak as a limited edition version.

The talk given my Laurie was very insightful, and useful in helping us to produce our own digipaks. He gave us some useful background knowledge on the barcodes and licences which the covers must include, as well as some hints and tips on how to create one using designs such as this one:

4 Panel Paperfoam With Booklet Space

We will be producing our own album digipak which will contain a VCD instead of a standard CD-ROM, as we are creating a music video. Due to the specificity of mine and Beth's original design due we will have to develop a new one, incorporating all the knowledge we learnt for Laurie.

BC - Call Sheet

Call Sheet

Location scouting for House Party [draft]

Location Scouting for Rave

Location Scouting/Test Footage - Rave Scene from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.


This is the location we hope to use for our rave scene.

The reason we chose it is because it has all the following aspects which we thought would be crucial in order to film the rave scene:

• Large open space
• Accesible by car
• Surrounded by trees/woodland
• Away from housing
• Provides some lighting

Since we scouted this location our music video idea was redrafted and we have now chosen to use an indoor location.

Between the abandoned hospital and a house cellar, we have chosen the cellar as it is more easily accessible, and is also quite a bit smaller so we do not need to cast quite as many extras.

Casting Vodcast

Casting Vodcast from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.


Using these two interviews helped us choose who to cast for our main protagonist between Simon who we used for the rough footage, and Callum.
We chose Callum, because i seems as though he is more confident on camera and has more ideas about the role he is to play in comparison to Simon.
We also think that Callum will portray a more relatable teen to our target audience.
However we still hope to use Simon to play an alternative role within our music video.

Mise-en-Scene, Props & Costume

There are 3 different scenes in our music video, and each will require individual planning.

After redrafting our idea we no longer need to organise the rave scene in the woodland car park. We are instead shooting the rave scene in the basement of the same house we will use for the opening 'house party' scene.

Our new non-linear idea means that we are able to shoot the same characters at the rave which are in the first scene as this represents the morning after the rave scene which occurred the night before.

For our rave scene we will require:

• extras of around 15 - 20 people.
• no set costume, they can wear what they like to portray a realistic teen group.
• Alcohol (Spirits, wine and beer), shot classes, cigarettes
• Cards, for a drinking game
• Strobe lights
• DJ Decks
• Speakers

For our street scene:

• Skateboard (as the snorricam is a little shakey we have decided to film our central protagonist on a skateboard to achieve steadier shots)
• a car

• 2 characters (Callum our central protagonist and Simon his 'friend')

For our 'morning after the house party' scene:

• some of our extras lying on the floor sleeping
• Callum and an extra girl 
• bed
• the empty alcohol bottles + general mess in the kitchen
• fridge
• clothing for Callum to dress into

Equipment:
Whilst filming we will also need to have the HD cameras, tripods, the snorricam, and call sheets.

Story boards Redrafted

These story boards follow on from the morning scene of the house party as the first show of our central protagonist walking out of the door follows the last scene of the previous story board as he opens the door. This has been redrafted after the street scene which we took out, and instead we are following a non linear storyline, which ends with this scene of our central protagonist and a female going to bed, and the very first scene of him walking up will be in bed with this girl.

The car scenes may be cut between lip syncing in the two shot frame and other shots of individual close-ups and also mise en scene within the car.

Between here and the next storyboard we also would film their arrival at the party.

Story boards

Before filming our first bit of rough footage, Beth and I drew up these original story boards for the morning scene:

Following this we drew up a new story board due to alterations we needed to make.
As well as this we also drew up some more shots which link into the street scenes in which our central protagonist meets friends and hands out posters:

Genre

Uses And Limitations

The term genre has become less applicable to music than with film in the past decade due to the expanse of a variety of sub genres. Genre no longer defines an artist's style as within any one given album an artist will now experiment with many different sub-genres as there is now such a wide choice to delve in to. 

To apply this to Gorillaz '19/2000' record, we can see that their music is influenced mostly by Hip-Hop. Though the track sounds as though it is influenced by electro and also dance genres. This suggests that a single track can be a hybrid of numerous genre influences. This therefore makes it very difficult to recognise and even establish genre within the music industry.

The hybrid genres, and sub-genres are a positive movement in the industry however, as this means that bands able to broaden their fan base, as aspects of many genres can appeal to different target audiences.

Again, with the track 19/2000 on the self titled album 'Gorillaz' their addition of the Soulchild remix onto their album shows how they wanted to attract a wider audience to their music, as fans of dance who don't particularly like the original for its slow pace, may much prefer the remixed version.

Music Video Conventions of Genre

As previously mentioned in the Treatment, the genre of the record is Hip Hop with a Dance influence. Therefore we should look into music videos from both genres and look out for any similarities between the two.

Jay-Z - 'Girls, Girls, Girls'

This is an orignal Hip Hop track from 2001, clearly this has different style, tempo and influences to Gorillaz, though we can see similar influences to Dance genre, due to their being a lot of focus on the women.

Another Classic, original Hip Hop artist from the 90's is Snoop Dog.

Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell Williams - 'Beautiful'

The key contrast between the hip hop genre and the dance genre would be the locations of filming, glamorous areas of the USA are portrayed in these videos such as New York and Florida. This wouldn't be seen in a dance, or remix video typically.

There is also a clear ethnicity divide between Hip Hop and Dance, which focuses less on Black, Afro-Caribbean ethnic groups and more toward White, Caucasian groups. 

Dance videos show different styles, some focus more on the dance aspect, including shots from clubs/raves/parties such as:
Katy B - 'Katy On A Mission'


However this video has a key focus on the artist which is common of mainstream dance acts and pop acts. Though as our video is a remake and a remixed version, there would be little point focusing on a lead artist.


The alternatives to this, which is a direction beth and I chose not to go down, is the more brightly lit studio style video, which usually include dance routines and focuses closely on the women, for male gaze. We feel this is inappropriate for a video which is a remixed hip hop track. 
An example of this style of video is: 
Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand -  Let Me Think About It


A great example of a recently released record which has a similar style to our video, due to the realism and rave scenes is:
Chase & Status - 'Blind Faith'

As well as these, Beth also found some music videos of a similar dance genre which incorporate some similar ideas to her original pitch and our redrafted idea. Click Here

From researching music video genre conventions it is obvious that the lines between sub-genres etc cross just as much as the music itself and again there is no clear definite codes or conventions to define a hip hop music video genre, nor dance or remix.