Monday, 19 September 2011
Music Development
As a group we have decided to use the music and the band of 'Hope and Social'. They are a group of 5 band members accompanied by brass instruments from Leeds; they have been a group together since 2000, but started touring and performing their music in 2008. http://www.hopeandsocial.com/
As progress of communication, I have contacted the band and they are performing in Bishops Stortford football club on the 21st october, it is a public concert and there will be roughly 100 people there; tickets are £10 each. The group members are going to attend the concert and ask whether we can record the performance of a song; this element of performance will be filmed in 3 different angles so we can show different camera techniques in the performance element. As we have not decided what will happen in the narrative of the video, being able to see the performance we can decide what different elements we can use within their our video.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Research and Planning - Camera Conventions
A short prezi I made to show the different camera conventions and techniques that can be used when filming a music video, this was designed to help me and my group when planning our coursework. Using authentic camera angles and conventions found in music videos will make our music video more authentic and effective.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Genre research
When thinking about the different genres and types of music I could choose to base my music video on I realise the vast variety of music genres there are. When debating, I am confused whether to choose a style of music which I personally enjoy listening to, or whether to do a type of music that is interesting to me, and unfamiliar to me.
I usually listen to pop, R&B, Alternative or jazz/soul; likewise I enjoy to personally sing this style of music. I often find myself listening to contasts such as Chris Brown, Beyonce, and Amy Winehouse.
When searching for music I realised that I know an unsigned band who are extremely talented; their music genre is most likely indie or alternative. Their music has a rock beat to the rhythm but a very lively atmosphere. I have already asked them what they think, and they would be fine with my media group using their music. They are called 'Hope and Social' and are a band from Leeds. This is me and the band.
Summer Work task 2 - R&B Genre
Chris Brown
Christopher Maurice "Chris" Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He made his recording debut in late 2005 with the self-titled album Chris Brown at the age of 16. The album featured the hit single "Run It!", which topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Brown the first male artist to have his debut single top the chart since Montell Jordan in 1995. The album has sold over two million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. For more information about Chris Brown look at the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brown_(American_entertainer.
'Run It' was his first single released, throughout this video he established himself as a person and an artist as 'the next best thing' and portrays the attitude of being over confident and 'grown up' mentally and sexually considering his age of 16. The song itself it about finding the attractive woman and getting her to be 'his'; this sort of cocky persona works well to portray himself as the successful young musician, whose confidence, will most likely take him to where he can be.
The song 'Take you down' was yet another of Chris Browns successful songs over the years. In this period of his career his music had turned more soul or urban genre, making more meaningful music involving more intimate topics, for instance sex and love. Take You down was, at the time, one of the earlier songs to be very detailed towards sexuality, combined with the live performance (seen and used as his music video for the song) showed clearly that Chris Brown had become a success and a sex icon. Using his sex appeal and his melodical voice Chris Brown soon became even more famous than ever, and reached a peak in his musical career.
At this time it was worldwide that Chris Brown and fellow R&B singer Rihanna had been dating for just under 2 years when Chris Brown was reported for physically assaulting and injuring Rihanna. At this point, he lost all hope for a career in the near future. This act of assault damaged his reputation in music and in business, he resulted in being imprisoned for a short period, then to be released with a year community service and a restraining order from Rihanna. Chris Brown lost a large fan base, especially the Rihanna fans, and he started to receive a lot of negativity and abuse.
In august 2010 Chris Brown recreated his image, resorting in whole body coverage of tattoos, bleach blond hair... and a supposedly purpose naked photo leakage to gain media coverage. All these changes worked, and Chris Brown was back in the media again.
2010 to Present day Chris Brown has returned to his 'Bad Boy' persona which he created back in 2005. His newest album 'F.A.M.E' was released recently this year, after his new image and his continuous media coverage though twitter and the media news he reached success again. This album cover was designed to show a new era in Chris Brown's music career; the filter of colours showing mainly only yellows, purples, blues and browns, he most likely chose to use these colours as they seem to stand out in comparison to a variety of brigh colours.
Christopher Maurice "Chris" Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He made his recording debut in late 2005 with the self-titled album Chris Brown at the age of 16. The album featured the hit single "Run It!", which topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Brown the first male artist to have his debut single top the chart since Montell Jordan in 1995. The album has sold over two million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. For more information about Chris Brown look at the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brown_(American_entertainer.
'Run It' was his first single released, throughout this video he established himself as a person and an artist as 'the next best thing' and portrays the attitude of being over confident and 'grown up' mentally and sexually considering his age of 16. The song itself it about finding the attractive woman and getting her to be 'his'; this sort of cocky persona works well to portray himself as the successful young musician, whose confidence, will most likely take him to where he can be.
The song 'Take you down' was yet another of Chris Browns successful songs over the years. In this period of his career his music had turned more soul or urban genre, making more meaningful music involving more intimate topics, for instance sex and love. Take You down was, at the time, one of the earlier songs to be very detailed towards sexuality, combined with the live performance (seen and used as his music video for the song) showed clearly that Chris Brown had become a success and a sex icon. Using his sex appeal and his melodical voice Chris Brown soon became even more famous than ever, and reached a peak in his musical career.
At this time it was worldwide that Chris Brown and fellow R&B singer Rihanna had been dating for just under 2 years when Chris Brown was reported for physically assaulting and injuring Rihanna. At this point, he lost all hope for a career in the near future. This act of assault damaged his reputation in music and in business, he resulted in being imprisoned for a short period, then to be released with a year community service and a restraining order from Rihanna. Chris Brown lost a large fan base, especially the Rihanna fans, and he started to receive a lot of negativity and abuse.This downward spiral continued on for the next year, resulting in his album 'Graffiti' ending up at number 55 on the charts, when considering all his other albums this was considered a 'failure'. From that moment on Chris Brown began to recreate himself, trying to gain his fans back and start a whole new musical career.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Summer Essay
Explain the methods you used to attract your audience in your AS coursework.
Firstly when planning our coursework we considered all the possible ways that audience members could be involved or pulled into our work; through listings of word phrases used in the clips, words such as ‘you’ and ‘me’ to directly aim the character to the audience member. These direct pronouns accompanied with threatening and thrilling phrases such as ‘someone is coming’ and ‘who will it be next’ created that capturing effect we wanted to portray within the film or trailer when advertising our final product.
As our thriller film was aimed towards tribe wired/ technologically advanced people we decided that a frequent involvement with newer technology would be a way of attracting these ‘aimed’ audience members in. As our thriller was based around a stalker we decided that bringing the old convention of a stalker into the 21st century would attract these audience members. Instead of following people this character could follow the character through social networking sites such as facebook or MySpace; these sites are included in our clip. Another example is the variety of changes we include; shots vary from a character using the very vintage and iconic red telephone box to make a call, but later on in the scene the character is seen using the very latest form of a blackberry; showing the diversity to the technology interested audience members.
In general, our film is heavily based upon the usage of modern and relevant technology, ranging from blackberries, cameras and mac laptops; Involving these items also attract another group of audiences members which we aimed to address, the youth. As we are classified as the youth, we had an advantage of knowing what sort of items and ideas would appeal to our ages and below (relating to the age certificate, 15) Using items which were within possession of the audience is extremely important as it gives the opportunity for them to become involved with the film. By using a brand such as Blackberry or Apple there is a very high proportion that the audience have at least one of these items; similarly the fact that these items are used in creative and potentially interesting ways the aimed members of the audience will then be appealed to watch the film at the fact that there is a possibility that they could gain something by watching the film.
The variety of camera techniques that were included when filming the clips were pre-planned to stick to the relevant style of the film. As the plot was involving secrets and stalking, the decision to stay within the plots style and act as though the character is being spied on himself. Frequent shots are taken from the character facing away from the screen, creating the effect that the film crew are behind him, almost copying the characters style of ‘stalking’ and hiding. Often the shots are from far away and followed by a slow zoom, this is stereotypically a ‘stalker’ style, characteristic and relevant in most films related to stalkers and spying. Our plan was to create the sense that the camera was another insight to the story, to show the plotline in another way, other than the obvious of one character following another. This plan, including the cameras, was aimed to attract the audience members who are passionate about media or productions.
I often find myself watching a film, and noticing all the small details, most commonly the editing. I find myself critiquing whether if I remade the film, I could edit it better, or whether there was more potential. For these types of audience members, we decided to try and be original with the editing styles. For a start, the direct start shows the photo and name of the production company, this involved a lot of editing. The photo itself was played about with on Photoshop, black and white effects, originally a red tint, texture effects, ageing, filters and stretching. The fonts of the credits and names were downloaded, created especially to suit the style and genre relevant to thriller and stalkers. All these little touches were added especially (firstly for quality) but secondly to appeal to the audience members who appreciate quality within a film. Attracting the audience members who love a good film, media fanatics, producers, students and even teachers; I wanted this to try and be an example, or even a comparison for media. I believe that all the contributions added helped this aim.
When considering sound, the audience we aimed to attract is similar to before; the fanatics and those audience members who appreciate the variety and quality of music. We used the combination of music and speech to appeal and attract to these audience members. The track heard behind the clips was produced by Alex, using his knowledge of music and production to create these relevant tones and beats that created exactly what our film required. When I listen to the track it seems clear that there is a lot of thought behind the production; when combining the music and film clips there is the opportunity to admire the precise timing and effects in place to portray exactly what we wanted. This contribution to the sound production was aimed to appeal to audience members who appreciate the whole package, sound, mis en scene, camera and editing.
Stating the obvious, we tried to attract audience members who were interested in thrillers; people who enjoyed watching, people who were involved in thrillers or even people who were interested in crime and killing. We knew the importance of attracting our key audience members; if the film didn’t attract them to watch it, what luck would there be in any success. We decided that the main conventions had to be there, stalker, mysterious characters, twisted plot line and creativity. We used a variety of mise en scene and camera to ensure the essentials were present; firstly the portrayal of the character. We decided the woman ‘Sarah’ should never be clearly shown within the beginning; I personally believe that this element works very well.
I think that our audience wanted to be thrilled, sounding vacant, but to state the obvious. If they watch a Thriller film they want to be thrilled, excited, involved and shocked at times. I would like to believe, considering that our whole film would be made, that the concept of the plot accompanied by the production our film would provide that. When considering the introduction to the thriller, I think that it provides a good insight and starting point to what the film could develop into, leaving no easy expectations or the possibility of guessing what could happen in the end. To me, if you can guess what happens, then the film is to cliché and isn’t really a success... especially if the film is a thriller; and I would like to believe that this film would have been a success.
Firstly when planning our coursework we considered all the possible ways that audience members could be involved or pulled into our work; through listings of word phrases used in the clips, words such as ‘you’ and ‘me’ to directly aim the character to the audience member. These direct pronouns accompanied with threatening and thrilling phrases such as ‘someone is coming’ and ‘who will it be next’ created that capturing effect we wanted to portray within the film or trailer when advertising our final product.
As our thriller film was aimed towards tribe wired/ technologically advanced people we decided that a frequent involvement with newer technology would be a way of attracting these ‘aimed’ audience members in. As our thriller was based around a stalker we decided that bringing the old convention of a stalker into the 21st century would attract these audience members. Instead of following people this character could follow the character through social networking sites such as facebook or MySpace; these sites are included in our clip. Another example is the variety of changes we include; shots vary from a character using the very vintage and iconic red telephone box to make a call, but later on in the scene the character is seen using the very latest form of a blackberry; showing the diversity to the technology interested audience members.
In general, our film is heavily based upon the usage of modern and relevant technology, ranging from blackberries, cameras and mac laptops; Involving these items also attract another group of audiences members which we aimed to address, the youth. As we are classified as the youth, we had an advantage of knowing what sort of items and ideas would appeal to our ages and below (relating to the age certificate, 15) Using items which were within possession of the audience is extremely important as it gives the opportunity for them to become involved with the film. By using a brand such as Blackberry or Apple there is a very high proportion that the audience have at least one of these items; similarly the fact that these items are used in creative and potentially interesting ways the aimed members of the audience will then be appealed to watch the film at the fact that there is a possibility that they could gain something by watching the film.
The variety of camera techniques that were included when filming the clips were pre-planned to stick to the relevant style of the film. As the plot was involving secrets and stalking, the decision to stay within the plots style and act as though the character is being spied on himself. Frequent shots are taken from the character facing away from the screen, creating the effect that the film crew are behind him, almost copying the characters style of ‘stalking’ and hiding. Often the shots are from far away and followed by a slow zoom, this is stereotypically a ‘stalker’ style, characteristic and relevant in most films related to stalkers and spying. Our plan was to create the sense that the camera was another insight to the story, to show the plotline in another way, other than the obvious of one character following another. This plan, including the cameras, was aimed to attract the audience members who are passionate about media or productions.
I often find myself watching a film, and noticing all the small details, most commonly the editing. I find myself critiquing whether if I remade the film, I could edit it better, or whether there was more potential. For these types of audience members, we decided to try and be original with the editing styles. For a start, the direct start shows the photo and name of the production company, this involved a lot of editing. The photo itself was played about with on Photoshop, black and white effects, originally a red tint, texture effects, ageing, filters and stretching. The fonts of the credits and names were downloaded, created especially to suit the style and genre relevant to thriller and stalkers. All these little touches were added especially (firstly for quality) but secondly to appeal to the audience members who appreciate quality within a film. Attracting the audience members who love a good film, media fanatics, producers, students and even teachers; I wanted this to try and be an example, or even a comparison for media. I believe that all the contributions added helped this aim.
When considering sound, the audience we aimed to attract is similar to before; the fanatics and those audience members who appreciate the variety and quality of music. We used the combination of music and speech to appeal and attract to these audience members. The track heard behind the clips was produced by Alex, using his knowledge of music and production to create these relevant tones and beats that created exactly what our film required. When I listen to the track it seems clear that there is a lot of thought behind the production; when combining the music and film clips there is the opportunity to admire the precise timing and effects in place to portray exactly what we wanted. This contribution to the sound production was aimed to appeal to audience members who appreciate the whole package, sound, mis en scene, camera and editing.
Stating the obvious, we tried to attract audience members who were interested in thrillers; people who enjoyed watching, people who were involved in thrillers or even people who were interested in crime and killing. We knew the importance of attracting our key audience members; if the film didn’t attract them to watch it, what luck would there be in any success. We decided that the main conventions had to be there, stalker, mysterious characters, twisted plot line and creativity. We used a variety of mise en scene and camera to ensure the essentials were present; firstly the portrayal of the character. We decided the woman ‘Sarah’ should never be clearly shown within the beginning; I personally believe that this element works very well.
I think that our audience wanted to be thrilled, sounding vacant, but to state the obvious. If they watch a Thriller film they want to be thrilled, excited, involved and shocked at times. I would like to believe, considering that our whole film would be made, that the concept of the plot accompanied by the production our film would provide that. When considering the introduction to the thriller, I think that it provides a good insight and starting point to what the film could develop into, leaving no easy expectations or the possibility of guessing what could happen in the end. To me, if you can guess what happens, then the film is to cliché and isn’t really a success... especially if the film is a thriller; and I would like to believe that this film would have been a success.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Summer Work task 2 - Boy Band
Take That
Take That are an English five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter.In total, the group have had 27 top 40 singles and 16 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom alone, 11 of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums. For factual information look on the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_That.
This take that song was made and released in 1995, this song was towards the end of the band's success before they broke up. The music video for 'Never forget' features a variety of different videos and photos of the band in their younger years and some of their biggest moment in their music careers, it also shows clips of their live performances and their audiences reaction to their music. Using such clips as this portrays the success and power that their band gained over the years between 1990 and 1996. Simiarly featuring personal clips and footage of the band mates in their younger years builds the sense of pesonailsation and removes the barrier between fan and celebrity; using this they allow their fans to feel closer to the band, creating the impression that the band are connected with their fans and creating the sense that their are 'just like everyone else' and 'human'.
A newer song of theirs, after their comeback, is 'The Flood'. his song was released in 2010, as this was their first song reunited as a band it was already sought after. In this stage of their career they had an incredibly large fan base, their older fans from their original days, combined with the newer fans on the 21st century.
Take That are an English five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter.In total, the group have had 27 top 40 singles and 16 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom alone, 11 of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums. For factual information look on the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_That.
This take that song was made and released in 1995, this song was towards the end of the band's success before they broke up. The music video for 'Never forget' features a variety of different videos and photos of the band in their younger years and some of their biggest moment in their music careers, it also shows clips of their live performances and their audiences reaction to their music. Using such clips as this portrays the success and power that their band gained over the years between 1990 and 1996. Simiarly featuring personal clips and footage of the band mates in their younger years builds the sense of pesonailsation and removes the barrier between fan and celebrity; using this they allow their fans to feel closer to the band, creating the impression that the band are connected with their fans and creating the sense that their are 'just like everyone else' and 'human'.
A newer song of theirs, after their comeback, is 'The Flood'. his song was released in 2010, as this was their first song reunited as a band it was already sought after. In this stage of their career they had an incredibly large fan base, their older fans from their original days, combined with the newer fans on the 21st century.
Summer Work task 2 - Soul/jazz
Amy Winehouse is and was clearly one of the most media covered artist this century; she began her controversial music career as a young woman in 2003, releasing her album 'Frank'. As she was just emerging the media she became critically successful and won a prestige music award; then in 2006 she took a turn. As her music career rocketed, so did her life. She began taking drugs and drinking often, so often that she became very popular with the papparazzi and the media; they were obsessed with her.
The hit single 'rehab' was extremely successful, currently with 14 million veiews on youtube; she even won 5 grammy awards and a record for "First British female to have 5 wins". The song rehab reflects her drug and alchocolic elements in life, and how it was getting to the stage where she was risking her life and health.
The song 'Back to Black' was yet another famous song of hers; depicting the love/hate relationship that she ahnd then husband 'Blake'. The music video has black and white filter over the video; making the words 'black, in the title of the song even more evident; also creating the tone and symbol of emotion representing her 'black'' and negative moods.
The content of the video consists on a storyline of a woman going to a fumeral; her emotions and her moods. The words closely relate to what happens in the video, 'I died a hundred times' and then semantic link with a funeral, death, and graveyards. Similarly the words 'Goodbye' and 'I go back to...' have the semantic link to the music.
The hit single 'rehab' was extremely successful, currently with 14 million veiews on youtube; she even won 5 grammy awards and a record for "First British female to have 5 wins". The song rehab reflects her drug and alchocolic elements in life, and how it was getting to the stage where she was risking her life and health.
The song 'Back to Black' was yet another famous song of hers; depicting the love/hate relationship that she ahnd then husband 'Blake'. The music video has black and white filter over the video; making the words 'black, in the title of the song even more evident; also creating the tone and symbol of emotion representing her 'black'' and negative moods.
The content of the video consists on a storyline of a woman going to a fumeral; her emotions and her moods. The words closely relate to what happens in the video, 'I died a hundred times' and then semantic link with a funeral, death, and graveyards. Similarly the words 'Goodbye' and 'I go back to...' have the semantic link to the music.
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