Deadlines Reminder...

Friday 2 December for all planning and research + the first draft of the finished video and ancillary tasks.

Thursday 15 December - final final final deadline for all work - planning and research, music video, digipak, magazine ad, evaluation. This means having the video burned to DVD (so it can be played on a domestic DVD player)

It is very important to hand in a copy of your DVD for each member of the group. The exam board are quite clear that they will not accept Final Cut Pro files, Quicktime files, AVI files or anything that can't be played on a normal home DVD player.

This means using 'DVD Studio' or 'iDVD' in the edit suite. I can give you blank DVDs, there are simple instructions on the wall of the editing rooms on how to use these, but I advise getting to know this software a little better because you must include your ancillary tasks on the DVD.... this means creating menus.

If you do this well you will earn marks for appropriate use of technology.

If there is a member of your group who is not doing much at the moment - or if you are a group member who is feeling at a loss for something to do - this is your mission... create the DVD menus. You can start now - don't wait for the video to be finished. It is unlikely you know how to use the software at the moment - so you must learn. By yourself.

Don't forget, the evaluation is also due on Friday 16 Dec. It must be on your blog with each question very clearly marked.

We will look at these in more depth in due course.

In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This student will get an A - learn from him

Have a look at this blog - I taught this student when he was in year 11. He's also doing music video for A2 coursework, but probably won't have to have it completed until May next year.

If he had audience research, this planning and research would get 19 or 20 out of 20. As it is it's still worth 15/20.

Click on the link to see his blog.

http://5135aidanchengg324.blogspot.com/

Screencasting

Ever get bored of typety type typing?... Ever wish there was an easier way of completing your coursework?... Well now your wishes can come true with Camstudio screencasting software which is totally free!

Actually it's been around for years. All you need is a microphone, but even if you don't, most laptops have one built in or you could just borrow one from Matt the tech-man.

Check out the tutorial embeded here, or just Google Camstudio or 'free screencasting software'.

This type of software will record your voice and whatever's going on on your screen. So you could, say, have an image of a digipak or magazine advert and analyse it by speaking into the microphone and using the mouse to point at stuff you are talking about.

This kind of analysis will score you big-time points.

Screencasting: how-to video

Magazine Ad analysis

Okay - so something I discovered recently was that album and single releases don't really advertise much in magazines anymore. But if you look for long enough, you'll still find some good examples. I've put a choice of 3 you can use on Blackboard under 'Course Materials' - or just find one of your own.

Don't go spending money on a music magazine. Check the net or go the the library - there are loads of magazines up there. A word of caution about finding these on the internet though - if you Google something like 'magazine advert and album release'... you'll get loads of student produced adverts aswell as real ones. Make sure you analyse a real magazine advert and not a student ad.

Here's a fairly simplistic idea of how you might go about it:

 Much better would be a spoken/screencast analysis.... see the next post for details on that.

Audience Research

This post is going to be simple. You do need to do some audience research, but whatever you do, DON'T USE PIE CHARTS OR BAR GRAPHS! Here are some examples of why pie charts are stupid and make you look stupid too:

Doing questionnaires and interpreting the results as pie charts and bar graphs is fine at GCSE and even at AS level. But by the time you get to A2, there's no longer any point in pretending that this is useful information or a good use of your time.

Many of you did some sort of on-camera interviews for the AS coursework - these 'vox pops' are a useful way to do some research because it can be done quickly with no need to design, distribute, collect and collate questionnaires. Most important of all, the research into your target audience should be genuinely informative.... I would suggest a few simple questions about music preferences and favourite music videos - where they first saw them, why they were memorable etc.

One last thing - for top marks it is essential that you include some evaluation or reflection of your own in the audience research. Even just a few lines on what influence your research has had on your creative ideas. If the answer is "nothing", then your research is worthless and you'll get a maximum of 16 out of 20 for your planning and research. 

Music Genre Research

You need to identify the conventional themes and iconography of the music genre you have chosen to work with for your own music video.

Remember, as with your film opening sequence, the examiner is NOT looking for something completely new which has never been done before. The examiner wants to see you stick to the conventions. It doesn’t mean you can’t be original, it just means that if you are producing, say, a heavy metal video, you shouldn’t include boy-band style synchronized dance moves…. In that case what you SHOULD include is lots of close-up shots of the band performing, head-banging, moshing etc – in fact, you should include whatever you identify in this research.

As usual, the best way to display your research is in a number of different formats. It has to utilize the blog format… images, clips, links, vox pops etc.

(CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF A CREATIVE STUDENT BLOG)

Ideas to get you started – using the example of Hip Hop/Rap:

Musical and lyrical conventions – Hip Hop and Rap music conventions include sampled beats and tracks, often with a repeated melody layered on top. The artist then speaks rather than sings the lyrics in time with the beat. The artist is always credited with writing their own lyrics, which can often be controversial due to their explicit nature.

Iconography – the ghetto or the ‘street’; expensive fashion often including sportswear such as trainers and baseball caps; jewellery and ‘bling’; fast or luxury cars; sexually provocative women who are often objectified; guns; primarily African-American ethnicity.

Themes – artists such as Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg emphasize the criminality of their origins in their lyrics and videos. Crime is represented both as a way of life and the means by which they have achieved their success. Eminem often focuses on the poverty of his roots. In both cases the idea of having come from a poor neighbourhood is important to the image of the artist.

Lastly - note how some of the words in this post are clickable links. For top marks you should try to do this with all your blog posts.

Analysis of album cover art (Digipak) and magazine ad

Firstly, what is a digipak? Check the Wikipedia definition – but in short it is a folding CD cover/jacket. It folds on one or two spines and has room for one or two CDs inside. It's NOT the 'jewel' case which is the old plastic style CD case. 

You MUST produce an authentic-looking digipak. It must be the right dimensions, and if folded up and put onto a shelf in a music store, not look out of place. The only way to get full marks is if your artwork and design looks 100% real.

Here’s an example of some student work which got full marks.

And this is the magazine ad which went with it.

You will need to buy or borrow a music magazine and find a couple of examples of full page adverts for the release of a new album.

When analyzing an existing digipak and magazine advert you should ask yourself:

·         What information is offered by the digipak? (Band name? Track list? Lyrics? Institutional info? etc.)

·         Are there any indicators of genre? What are they?

·         Semiotics: what signs/symbols have been used? What connotations do they have?

·         Are there any stylistic themes which are present in the band/artist’s music videos?

·         How does the digipak create a brand identity?

Start by looking through yours or your parents’ CD collection. Don’t bother with anything more than 10 years old – don’t use the old-school plastic jewel CD case type of album – only use the newer folding digipak kind.

Choose a couple which you think do well at communicating the brand identity of the band or artist. Either scan them in or take good digital photographs of them folded out against a blank background (turn the flash off to reduce glare).  Now analyze how they communicate.

To get top marks for planning and research you need make your blog ‘multi-media’. So a good way to present this might be to record a podcast, screencast or video of you answering the questions above.

When it comes to designing your own, it should look real with a circular space for the CD. You can download various templates HERE (click for link). You can choose a 4 panel or 6 panel digipak. In my opinion 6 panels look more impressive.

Technical Analysis

This task is really for you to demonstrate where you are getting your idea from. A good music video will usually have one simple but effective concept behind it. It’s that one concept you are looking for now… it could be the concept of repetition – your performer keeps repeating a simple action again and again with subtle variations; it could be the concept of playing with time – your performer performs the track at ¼ speed when recording, then you speed it up to match the track speed in Final Cut and everything around your performer looks like it’s going super-fast; it could be the concept of direction – there is a constant forward, backward or sideways camera tracking throughout the whole video; or it could just be a costume theme – your performers dress as vampires/doctors/priests/mechanics/anything!

You should look at one or two videos and analyse how they were technically constructed, then design your video in the same way. It might be using similar camerawork, similar editing style, similar mise en scene or a combination of all of them.

For example, all music videos cut to the beat, but the concept of these two videos is to cut on EVERY beat:

Chikinki - Assassinator N13

White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

Looking closely at the camerawork in the Chikini video, you can see that in the whole video there are around 12 different static (camera doesn’t move) shots. For each of these shots at least two costume and mise en scene variations have been made. The shots include:

·         Long Shot –lead singer, guitarist, drummer, and the whole band

·         Medium Long Shot – lead singer, keyboards

·         Mid shot – lead singer, whole band

·         Medium Close Up – lead singer

·         Close Up – lead singer, guitar

·         Big Close Up – lead singer.

Notice there are no extreme long shots, there rarely are in any music videos. The camera is static throughout the video because matching camera moves between costume changes would have been extremely complex. The concept works through placing the performers in exactly the same positions between costume changes, but making subtle variations to the mise en scene such as switching the positions of the glasses of liquid on the table next to the lead singer or changing the painting hanging behind the keyboard player or having the guitarist ‘playing’ a tennis racquet.

This is an excellent concept for a student music video because it is very achievable with the technology you have available to you – but bear this in mind, if there are 12 shots and at least 2 costume changes for each, that means the performers will have performed the entire song at least 24 times – probably many more times – in order to make this video.  

There is no right or wrong way to go about this technical analysis. You must simply focus on some technical aspect which a) you feel is important to the concept of the video and b) is going to influence your video in some way.

Andrew Goodwin Theory

You must analyse a music video using this easy to follow six point guide. I would use a music video in a similar genre to the one you intend to produce. Also it can be the same video that you use for other types of analysis... What I mean is, there's no requirement to analyse more than two or three music videos across all of your planning a research. In fact, I would stick to just two or three in the same genre you intend to produce.

How to analyse a music video...
Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Example Analysis

1.       Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics…

Muse are well-known for their musicianship and powerful stage performances. Indie or ‘progrssive’ rock bands would seldom be seen in a video without performing with their instruments. This is because the target audience for this genre are attracted to a sense of authenticity in the music which is not found in genres such as boy-band pop. In this video, while true ‘realism’ can’t be expected as they have obviously been superimposed into a miniature model-world, the band do perform the song in synch.  

(CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO)

2.       There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

Uprising Lyrics:

The paranoia is in bloom, the PR
Transmissions will resume, they'll try to
Push drugs, keep us all dumb down and hope that
We will never see the truth around, so come on

Another promise, another scene, another
Package not to keep us trapped in greed with all the
Green belts wrapped around our minds and endless
Red tape to keep the truth confined, so come on

They will not force us
And they will stop degrading us
And they will not control us
We will be victorious, so come on

Interchanging mind control, come let the
Revolution take its toll, if you could
Flick a switch and open your third eye, you'd see that
We should never be afraid to die, so come on

Rise up and take the power back, it's time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end, we have to
Unify and watch our flag ascend, so come on

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious, so come on

Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious, so come on

Hey, hey, hey, hey

The lyrics are reported to have been inspired by the G20 protests in London 2009. The G20 are a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 of the world’s strongest economies (USA, Japan, Europe etc). The protests were about the way the world’s banking systems are run only for the benefit of the rich, but was also about the ‘War on Terror’ – which is actually just a war for oil, and about climate change issues.

So in the lyrics words such as paranoia, revolution, mind control and fat cats all refer to the issues of those protests. In the video the narrative of the song, which is a positive and optimistic message about people ‘rising up’ and being ‘victorious’, is represented as a model town with a fuse burning through it... the fuse represents the tension and anticipation of explosive events.

Lyrics such as ‘rise up and take the power back’ are reflected by images such as teddy bears rising out of the ground and destroying the infrastructure of the city. At one stage the guitarist smashes a window with his guitar reflecting the typical activities of a riot.

These lyrics, according to Goodwin’s approach are largely ‘illustrative’, but because the song does not specifically relate to smashing windows or burning dolls, much of the imagery can be said to be symbolic, and as such tends to ‘amplify’ the lyrics.

3.       There is a relationship between music and visuals

This relationship can be a trickier to analyse than lyrics and visuals… but what it’s getting at is the quality or mood of the music and how it illustrates, amplifies or contradicts the narrative or performative elements of the video.

For example, the moment the guitarist strikes the window is also the moment of a big guitar and drum hit in the song.  In addition to this the mood of the music is dark and foreboding, and this is generally illustrated by the low key lighting of the video and theme of a burning fuse which has connotations of an impending explosion.

4.      The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work

The video features a significant number of close-ups of the band. Close-ups of the lead singer are restricted mainly to his face, close-ups of the bassist and drummer are restricted to their instruments. In this way the skill and musicianship of the band are emphasized and the ‘face’ of the band is limited to the lead singer.

If there is a recurring motif of the band it is that they always appear in their videos are musicians rather than actors. As mentioned before, this is what appeals to the target audience.

5.      There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

While it is true that music videos often feature voyeuristic treatment of the female body, it is not evident in this video. Sex and eroticism are much more prevalent in other genres such as R&B and pop where dance routines are performed by attractive men and women (but mostly women) in revealing costumes. The visual themes of Indie and alternative rock tend to be much more varied.

The inspiration behind and the themes of this music video have nothing to do with sexuality and it has not been included in the imagery. There is, however, some reference to the media with the lyric ‘interchanging mind control’ which is illustrated by the depiction of multiple screens:

6.     There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

There are a number of references, or at least heavy influences from other media in this video.

To begin with the band is depicted playing from the back of a moving truck. Perhaps one of the earliest known rock music promos is AC/DC It’s a Long Way to the Top which features the band playing the song from the back of a truck.

The moment of smashing the window is a clearly iconic image of our age and can be seen in almost all news media coverage of political demonstrations. Sometimes these images seem almost staged.

Lastly, and to me the most obvious, is as the giant teddy bears rise up and begin to destroy the city. This seems to be a direct reference to the ‘Stay Puft marshmallow man’ in Ghostbusters.

Auteur Theory

Do a little research into one of the many well-known music video directors.

Use these questions as a starting point, but don't feel you have to stick rigidly to them.

1. What are the 'landmark' videos they made?
2. How were these received? What did the critics say? Did they get any awards?
3. Do they have a visual style? If so how is it achieved throughout their work?
4. What inspiration can you draw from them?

Some old-school famous directors you might want to look at are:

Spike Jonze
Michel Gondry
Chris Cunningham

Feel free to start at Wikipedia - but remeber this, to copy and paste from Wikipedia is to admit that you are a complete idiot who has difficulty walking and chewing gum at the same time. Less importantly, you will also automatically lose 15 marks from your total. My advice, always scroll to the bottom of the wikipedia page and check the links under 'references'. 

Also check out THIS site for the names and work of up and coming talent.

OR, just find out who directed your favourite music video, and see what else they did.

This doesn't have to be a big essay. But it's a good opportunity to actually use the blog format... embed video, add pictures, search your director on music magazine websites and add links to the articles. You just have to show evidence that you have looked into the work of an established music video practitioner as MORE than a member of the audience... anyone can watch a music video - but can they name three other videos by the same director?... Can they say why these were important videos? Can they analyse the style? NO, because they are nothing more than teenage couch-potato MTV-watching mouth-breathers! You, on the other hand, are students of the media with finely tuned analytical senses.

Enjoy your research, you might surprise youself.   

Star Analysis

The music promo, or music video, has always been a way of promoting the artist and driving the sales of recordings.

Before the days of music video, performers did not have much of a visual presence - it was their music which represented them - primarily on the radio. But in the words of The Buggles: "Video killed the radio star".

Now, the image of a band or artist is a very carefully constructed media representation designed to appeal to a specific target audience.

For this task you must analyse how a band or musician has constructed their image. You need to answer the questions: How have they constructed their image? and Who does the representation appeal to?

Their fashion style - how can you describe it? (show examples)
Their music genre - how do they conform to it (or not)?
Their media representation - magazine covers, album artwork etc
Motifs - are their any recurring themes? (eg Michael Jackson's white glove)
Symbolism - do they make use of cultural symbols? (crucifixes, flags, dollar signs etc)
Body Language/Performance - what do they usually do in their videos?
Audience - who is their target audience? How does the image of the star appeal to them?


Take... Lady Gaga!

Lady Gaga first came to prominence in 2008 with her debut album, The Fame. Since then she has become a global phenomenon and has always maintained a very carefully constructed public image and performance persona.

Lady Gaga's stage costumes are consistently theatrical and flamboyant.

Fashion/Visual Look
Drawing from historical and retro fashion styles her 'look' is eclectic and derivative. Her costumes often emphasise a fetishistic sexuality, which is very much an aspect of her performance and on-stage persona. But this is not new, her influences in the music industry are self-evident:

David Bowie, Madonna, Marylin Manson and Grace Jones seem to present fairly obvious influences, in fact, some of these are more than influences, in the case of David Bowie and Madonna, these artists have been deliberately referenced through mise en scene and camera.


Genre
Lady Gaga's music is firmly placed in the pop genre, she appeals to a mainstream audience, but she breaks from the usual mainstream representations and instead presents herself using the iconography of counter-culture. Lady Gaga's image constantly shifts. Madonna also had a gift for reinventing herself, but while her representation, no matter what shape it took, was always cool, glamourous and sophisticated, Lady Gaga's representation is consistently constructed as grotesque, surreal and unsettling... take for example the final shot from the Bad Romance video of her lying in bed with a corpse while sparks fly out of a wierd mechanical device attached to her bra:

Media Representation
Lady Gaga's appearances in the media are as varied as her stage costumes. While an overall identity can be traced through each of her magazine appearances, each image is constructed to appeal to the target audience of the magazine. Take these for example:

On the cover of Vogue, she wears a classic dress. Her catwalk-model-thinness is emphasised by the dress and her body language. The image is a medium long shot to display the dress at its best. The image is not a representation of sexuality, if anything Lady Gaga looks androgynous.  This all appeals to the style and fashion-concious ABC1 female audience of this magazine... Pink hair ensures her image is not entirely 'sanitised' for this audience.

A highly sexualised image of Lady Gaga is little surprise for the fron cover of a 'lad's mag'.

The Guardian Weekend Magazine readers are generally an audience of 28-55 year old professionals, who are high culture oriented and socially aware. The artistry of Lady Gaga is emphasised here. Her pose has connotations of ballet, the costume is reminiscent of renaissance painting. But of course, her make-up and facial implants are undeniable signifiers of fetishised beauty.

A big close up of Lady Gaga is typical for a hair and beauty magazine. It is the details of the make-up which are of interest to this audience.

Through all these images a theme of borrowing and mixing persists. Lady Gaga could be described as the archetypal postmodern artist because of her intertextuality, fragmented identity and eclecticism.

Motifs

Lady Gaga's visual motifs tend to borrow from other genres and styles. One recurring theme seems to be the fetishised body. Blood, monsters, mutilation and prosthetics tend to feature in much of her work. It isn't new, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne were doing it before she was born. But she did bring it into the mainstream. Take her performace at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards which ended with Lady Gaga bleeding from the eyes:

At the 2010 MTV Music Awards Lady Gaga famously wore a dress made entirely from meat. It was controversial - animal rights activists voiced their objection to it. Lady Gaga claimed it was a statement about human rights:

Other recurring motifs include a certain futuristic look evident in a number of videos and photo shoots. Though even these are actually often references to retrospective - rather than futuristic - styles. The following shot, for example, is a direct reference to Friz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis

Symbolism
Lady Gaga also often uses religious imagery. Maddona did the same, as have numerous other musicians. It perhaps stems from a catholic upbringing, and certainly invites publicity. What it means is almost irrelevant - it represents the very opposite of sexual liberation, it stands for abstinance and traditional values, but also for the positive values of love, faith and sacrifice - perhaps the contradictions of the imagery are something which Lady Gaga embraces and promotes in the contruction of her identity and, ultimately, the product she is selling to her audience. 

Performance

Lady Gaga's performance in her videos is always highly theatrical and features the pop convention of group synchronised dance. There has also been much discussion of the originality of the choreography...

An article in the Guardian identifies some of the best moves in the video for Telephone:

The "hand over the phone card or I'll shank you" air-punch (3m, 11s)

The boxing bikini bad girls' strut (3m, 24s)

The "cyanide in the fish paste" teeth-gnash (6m, 53s)

The demented post-poisoning Wonder Woman stomp (7m, 44s)

Target Audience:

Primary: 15-25 female and gay males

Secondary: broad mainstream audience 12-44 female and male.

Lady Gaga has a high profile for speaking out for the gay rights, and so has large gay following.

Her popularity may well be to do with her representations of 'otherness'. In other words, in a world where many people have feelings of inadequacy due to the 'perfection' represented by most mainstream pop icons... Lady Gaga celebrates imperfection. You might call it 'freak chic'.

The audience enjoy the theatre of her performance, they enjoy sexually provocative dance and body language, and they enjoy working out the meaning of symbolic and intertextual iconography. 

Research and Planning Tasks

You will each produce an individual blog. There will be no group blog.

Research, as for AS coursework, will be produced individually.

Planning tasks (storyboards, location shots, drafts etc) can be divided between group members - but you will only upload your own work to your blog. A link to your other group member(s) will provide access to the other planning documents.

Bear in mind that the ancillary tasks must be produced individually, so research, drafts, photography etc for the album cover and magazine advert must be produced individually.

Here is what should be included:

• Star analysis: research into a particular music 'star' and how they construct their representation.
• Auteur Theory: research into one music video director
• Goodwin's Theory: analysis of 2 music videos using Goodwin's 6 point approach
• Technical analysis of 2 music videos. What shots and transitions do you take inspiration from?
• Analysis of album cover art: look at at least 2 album covers
• Analysis of magazine advert: look at at least 2 magazine ads for new albums
• Lyrics of the track you've chosen & analysis of the mood and representation of the artist they construct.
• Moodboard for the overall theme/design/look of your music video and artwork.
• Music genre research: what are the themes and conventions of music videos in the genre you have chosen?
• Target audience research: what they like/look for/identify with etc. (discuss album art and print ads too)
• Drafts of album cover art and magazine advert: some sketches and ideas of your own designs.
• Storyboard for your music video
• Animatic for your music video (the storyboard images scanned in and edited to the track) 
• Shotlist
• Call sheets
• Risk assessment
• Contact with the artist - either proof of permission to use the track or your attempts to gain this permission.

Your blog should be creatively presented with images, video, links and interactive features.

Research and Planning Marking Criteria

Look, this is the document I will have in front of me when marking your research and planning. If two or three of these criteria are not 'excellent', let's say your audience research is 'good' and your storyboard is 'average'... 15 is your MAXIMUM mark.

Level 4   16–20 marks

1. There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
2. There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
3. There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
4. Time management is excellent.
5. There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
6. There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
7. There are excellent communication skills.

Listen to this, a handful of candidates were ONE mark away from the next grade up in their AS coursework, they could so easily have made that mark in their research and planning by doing something like adding a little more detail to the script or storyboard, adding a few screen-grabs to their similar product research or adding links to the sites they used to research genre ... while you have the time it's worth investing in your research and planning.