Research: The music industry in 2012

Currently the music industry consists of record labels and musicians who are owned by these record labels that are making money by producing, advertising and selling their music . This is done through advertisement and promotion of upcoming albums or singles, music videos that aim to please the viewer visually to get them to buy the product.  This is also done through things such as concerts and promotional tours, endorsements that may be related to the product but most specifically the artist such as perfumes, video games, posters or other merchandise that the artist tend to charge a ridiculous amount of money for. Today, The music industry consists of three major record labels which are know as "The Big 3".

• Universal Music Group owns a music publisher, Universal Music Publishing Group, which became the world's largest since the year 2007. UMG owns record labels such as Interscope, The Island Def Jam Group, Virgin Music Group and a couple of other successful labels.

• Sony Music Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated to SME or simply called Sony Music) is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big three" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America. Some of the labels that are under Sony Music are Colombia Records, Epic Records and Mercury Records.

• Finally, Warner Music Group (WMG) is a US-based conglomerate and it is the third largest in the recording industry and one of the big three record companies. The labels that are under WMG are Atlantic Records Group, Warner Bros and Records Group amongst many more. 

Research: Skills Audit

Research for Music Videos: Skills Audit by AleksssD on GoAnimate


Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Planning: Letter requesting copyright clearance

*Please note, my address and email have being removed for privacy.

 Universal Music Group UK LTD

364 Kensington High Street

London

W14 8NS

7 Wood Lane

Essex

IG8 9TE

Dear Sir/Madam, 

Request for Copyright Permission to use the following song: “Paper Planes” by MIA.

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project. 

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully

Aleksandra Dugić 





Email: aleksdugic@msn.com

Planning: Final Song Choice

For our final song choice we have chosen M.I.A's 'Paper Planes'. We feel that this song does not have such a strong narrative based structure; if it did it would be to difficult to differ from this and make our video original. The music video for our song choice is Disjuncture and it works well so we plan to also do this as we feel it will make our music video more creative and enjoyable to watch and would get us higher marks then doing an illustrative music video would as it would restrict the mise en scene, location choice and shots we could put into our music video as they would have to strongly follow the lyrics of the song and in all honesty would be boring for us as a group to do and for the viewer to watch. 

Research: Analysis of Music video

                    The music video I have chosen to analyse is 'Daddy' by Emeli Sande.

This music video is an example of amplification as it adds a new meaning to the lyrics. An example of this is 'But friends keep telling you what he did last night, how many girls he kissed how many he liked' but instead of having the male character do what the lyrics say (Illustration) it instead shows him robbing a convenience store whilst referring back to shots of the artist singing; almost as if she is looking into the shot and telling us what he is doing which I find to be very effective as it gives the impression that the artist is looking back at what happened which led up to the climax of the song and music video (the artist has left her boyfriend because of his actions)

The pace and mood of the song is quite slow and dark and the music video matches this very well as it has lots of shots of the artist in a dark room and the music video itself has alot of natural light as I think its trying to represent the Artists life and relationship with her boyfriend which is real; representation of the ups and downs of their relationship is reflected through the light which is either really dark (bad) or very light and natural (good and pure). Using spotlights and unnatural light would take away from the grittiness and reality of the music video.

Planning: Moodboard

This is the mood board we made for our song 'Paperplanes' by M.I.A. It shows the vision that we have for our music video which is lots of colour and bright vibrant things. The motif for our music video will be paper planes, and we were thinking we could start of the music video with plain white paper planes and then progress to different and more brightly coloured paper planes as the song progresses, we might do the same with mise en scene, especially makeup (lipstick colour).  The background will have lots of natural light aswell and then by the end of the music video will have steadily progressed to a colourful finish.

Our target audience will be quite young so ages range from 16-25 due to the fashion choice and song itself we couldn't see anyone over the age of 25 watching our music video. Also, the fashion will be quite hipster and modern, following current trends as we want our music video to be very modern and urban; the costume will be similar to what you would see a middle class teenager living in the city would wear on a regular basis.

We will attempt to target our core audience by filming in locations that the typical teenager is familiar with such as Brick Lane, Skateparks and in the city in general which will give the music video a very realistic setting.

Planning: List of potential songs

Here is a list of the potential songs that we have considered using for our music video. Nothing is certain yet and we are unsure if we will even use any of the songs in this list but these songs have being chosen as they are upbeat and we think would be good songs to use for our music video.



                             REDLIGHT - Get out my head 

                               CRAIG DAVID - 7 Days

                               M.I.A - Paperplanes

                              

                              M.I.A - Bad Girls

                            SWEET FEMALE ATTITUDE - Flowers

Screen Shots

This a screen shot of my base tracks before i cut them up in editing

Lip Syncing Video

This is my video from the lip syncing task. On final cut pro we had 7 base tracks for the song 'I'll hold my breath' by Ellie Goulding. Using markers we then had to line up the base tracks with the song so the lip syncing would be in time with the track so the girl looked like she was the one singing. Then using the cutting tool I took bits out of the different base tracks thus making my video.

Research: Lip Synching lesson

Here is an example of the lip synching editing that we had to do in class. We looked at lots of shots that a previous student did for their music video and we cut the shots according to the lyrics of Ellie Goulding's song 'I'll hold my breath'. I found this task we did at first fairly difficult because the student wasn't very clear with her lip synching and facial expressions so I really had to search hard for the correct shots but once I got into the editing process I found the experience fairly enjoyable and fun and I am satisfied with the outcome of the editing I did in FinalCut Pro and I know my editing skills will improve drastically and I will get more comfortable with the whole process once I start to get more introduced to it for our music videos .

I used FinalCut Pro to edit the music video and had to use markers on certain parts of the shot to make it in sync with the music. I learnt about putting shots on top of one another which makes for a cleaner and more professional transition into the next shot so this lesson was very helpful.

                               Here is a screenshot example of the editing process in FinalCut Pro.

Research: Review your favourite previous student video

Jem, Zakariya, Courtney, Fuzail from 283goswell on Vimeo.

I have chosen the above music video to analyse. It is an indie song and music video made by last years A2 students. The song they choose to do is ‘Undercover Martyn’ by Two Door Cinema Club.

The music video itself is quite similar to the actual music video in the sense that both involve the performers standing and playing guitars. However, the A2 students vary it by getting multiple shots of the performers in various locations wearing different costumes whilst standing in the same position and camera shot; this was a very effective technique as the way it is edited is quite fast paced and the camera moves in sync with the lyrics and music pace.

They then proceed to vary it slightly by having them standing in different positions in every shot; in one shot both performers are standing facing away from the camera so their backs are to the camera and the fast paced editing flashes quickly so they are in different positions every time, I thought this was a very good and creative idea as most Indie music videos use this technique so it came across very distinctly that this is a Indie music video and song.

I also noticed that the costumes they wear clash and contrast with the environment. An example of this is when the two boys are standing at a fountain playing their guitars but they are wearing pyjamas. This is further done in the music video as they are wearing formal suits by the water. This added quite a comedic and laidback vibe to the video, which wasn’t very flashy. It was simple but effective as they obviously put in a lot of effort which is demonstrated through their impeccable lip synching and good camera shots.

The choice of locations which from what I can see are outside a office building, a park and a roof at the canal in Angel which I really think suits the British indie genre and the selected song itself as indie music videos don’t tend to be flash like hip hop or rap videos but focuses more on the action and music rather than the location. There is no disruption within the video and the footage flowed throughout the video which made it I think flow really smoothly. I think the music video was very simple (in terms of misė en scene and location) but the editing itself adds complexity to the music video and makes it visually appealing to the viewer.

There was a good use of editing, especially when it came to matching the camera shots and pace to the actual pace of the song itself. Like Carol Vernallis described in her book Experiencing Music Videos: Aesthetics and Cultural Context, the camera tends to move in time with the music and the group did this very well. An example of this is through use of special effects; when they split the screen into four shots showing the performers at all their locations in different clothes playing the guitar the shots flashed and wiped and jumpcut in time with the beat of the music which at that point was going fairly fast: this group were not out of sync with their editing once in their music video and the outcome is that they had a good quality music video that was interesting and I believe could pass as a real music video.

The group also instilled some of the main points that Andrew Goodwin made about Narrative analysis of music videos. Goodwin points out that the singer or singers, look directly at the camera as they are trying to involve the viewer. Throughout the entire music video the two performers broke the ‘fourth wall’ by looking directly at the camera, thus creating a rapport and some form of communication with the viewer. This music video didn’t have a traditional narrative structure in the sense of ‘normality, problem and solution’. The two boys were playing their guitars and having fun there was no narrative structure, therefore this was a music video that I would classify as Disjuncture.

Albeit there being very little weak points in this music video I think the final product would have come out much better if they more of a variety of shots. They tended to use mid shot quite a lot and it would have being very interesting if a couple of aerial shots or long shots were used, especially if they used long shot because some of the locations looked very nice and it would have done them justice if they included the location more into their music video.

Research: Laura Mulvey's ideas on representation

Laura Mulvey says that sexual inequality is still very evident in today’s society; Men are portrayed as active and women as passive. Women are demoralized through the male gaze and usually styled to please men in the media; this is both in film and music video.

Women tend to be ‘dismembered’ in all forms of media, there isn’t focus on women as a whole but more specifically on parts of their body; this is why Mulvey calls it ‘Dismembered’ as the whole of a woman tends to be dismembered and instead focuses on a specific part of her body such as her bum or breasts. Mulvey reasons that this is why women are obsessed with media and looking a certain way as women in the media are portrayed in a specific way that men see as desirable so real women think that they must look a certain way or exactly the same to be desirable or appealing to men as well.

• The men in this music video are fully dressed whilst the women are in bikini’s
• Dismemberment is evident: e.g. focuses on specific body parts of the women such as breasts, bum and legs
• The way the women act in comparison with men shows them as passive and men as active: in one shot a female brings a towel to her man and puts it on for him; this portrays women as doting and in a way submissive to the men who are dressed quite flashy with gold chains and watches.

• The men are in the position of power – Man at door decides which girl can get into the party or not by giving her ‘the male gaze’ to determine how attractive she is
• Dismemberment occurs throughout the whole of the music video of women’s body parts
• The men are all fully clothed e.g. Hawaii shirts and shorts with flashy jewellery and designer clothing whilst the women are in skimpy bikini’s
• Dizzee Rascal has ‘the power’ as he is center stage in the middle of all these adoring women

Research: Carol Vernallis' theory

In Carol Vernallis’ study of editing and camerawork in music videos she found that edits occur much more frequently in music videos than in film. She observed that a lot of music videos stand out as disjuncture and that the editing itself matches the rhythm and pace to the song.

• Edits can be very obvious; this is used to draw attention to the edits and usually things like wipes and special effects are used.
• Jump Cuts are used very often
• Base track/Master shot is used very frequently as it gives the video some semblance of structure
• The camera often moves in time with the lyrics and pace of the music itself
• The rules of ‘continuity’ editing is often broken as it draws more attention to what is going on in the music video

·         Very obvious edits e.g wipes.

·         0:30 Freddie Mercury moves in time with the vaccum cleaner to the pace of the music

·         Rule of continuity editing is broken: E.g. the crowd of people holding the lights breaks away from the introductory shots in the house.

•     The pace of the music is very fast and there is a lot of jump cuts
•     The camera matches the pace of the music which is very fast so you get a lot of quick shots of different things
•     Slow motion is used as the band holds more and more umbrellas

•     Very obvious edits 0:19 – 0:25 – Split screen of women dancing
•     Base Track: Whenever the chorus starts it switches back to the shot of the two performers singing at the microphone
•     Jump cuts: from each individual woman lip synching the words.

Research: Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin expresses that pop videos nowadays have no traditional narrative analysis. He thinks the reason for this is that music video directors approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films. He thinks that Pop videos are built around songs (often songs do not have traditional narrative structure)

Repetition is also something that is often seen in modern Pop videos. It means that the audience would become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations, and as the video will be played on TV, the song will also be played on the radio and the video act as an advertisement to buy the CD.

The visualisation of a song in videos may go beyond the original meaning because sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that makes the viewers want to watch it repetitively and therefore it promotes the song. 

There are 3 types of relations between songs and videos

·  Illustration : where the video tells the story of the lyrics

For example Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' music video

The way Lady Gaga narrates and also participates in this music video illustrates the song is very unique way. She uses costume and the mise en scene in the video to express the mood of the song. The editing and choreography makes the video very illustrative that it is rich in visual aspects. Which is why I think that this video represents Goodwin's illustration definition.

· Amplification: When the video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

A music video example is Adele's 'Chasing Pavements'

The lyrical meaning of the song is Adele's own personal memory of when she broke up with her boyfriend after he had cheated on her and I think that this video suits the amplification idea because the video has a very unique story line and choreography which centres around a car crash in Hyde Park. I think that the video gives a literal meaning to "Chasing Pavements"

• Disjuncture: This is where the is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics.

An example of this is Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' video

Alejandro is a key example of Disjuncture as there is no connection to the lyrics with the music video. The meaning of the song is ignored and there is little to no connection between the lyrics and the music video itself.

Research: What is the function of a music video?

Reflection: Technical skills developed in the AS year

BLOGGING

Through blogging I have learnt numerous things that really helped me in the coursework for AS and I feel will help me now in A2.

• How to create, edit and publish a blog
• How to change the font size, and font type of a blog or post. (including colours)
• How to add a link to a blog or post.
• How to upload images to a blog or post.
• How to upload videos to a blog or post.
• How to change the design of a blog and add extra features.

Researching 

Through researching I have learnt:

·         How to select information which is relevant to my project.

·         How to analyse films and film openings in technical terms. The different shot types, and technical terms used.

Audio
With sound I have learnt:

·         What Foley sounds are and how they are used within the film industry

·         How to import and export sounds.

·         How to edit sound in SoundTrack and FinalCutPro

Camera

·         How to turn on a camera.

·         How to insert memory cards into a camera.

·         How to put the battery into the camera.

·         How to correctly set up a tripod.

·         How to attach a camera onto a tripod.

·         How to zoom in or out.

·         How to record.

·         How to pan, tilt or track.

·         How to play back using a camera.

Final Cut Pro

·         How to edit audio, video and text using FinalCutPro.

·         How to import clips into FinalCutPro.

·         How to cut clips.

·         How to create imput and output points.

·         How to add and edit a transition on a clip

·         How to add effects to a clip

·         How to save a project in final cut.

SoundTrack

·                     How to import and export sounds.

·                     How to edit sounds

·                     How to fade audio.

LiveType

·         How to add effects to text.

·         How to format text.

·         How to save and import text.

Reflection: Identify three technical strengths and weaknesses of this video.

Looking at my music video remake of Queen's 'I want to break free' I feel fairly happy with the end result as during filming we were very aware of camera angles being in the exact same position as those in the actual music video. Here are three of the best camera angles and shots from our music video remake that I took the liberty of comparing with actual shots from the real 'I want to break free' music video.

                                    An example of a high angle slanted shot of the performers.

Closeup of Emma lip synching in unison with Mr Mercury.

                               We took the extra time referring back to the music video whilst filming to get the exact    same camera shots - as demonstrated here, and were very happy with our footage's outcome.



Another strength of our music video remake is that the lip synching came out really good; we were playing the song on the highest volume whilst filming and were singing along to the song from start to finish. We did this for every single shot and in the editing room found that this worked to our advantage as we had a selection of shots that we could just cut and edit into our music video and the lip synching would still be in harmony rather than only singing a certain part of the song for a certain shot and it coming up out of sync or not have the right movement for a certain part as we had to go back and forth from shots to match it to the actual music video.

Finally, our transition from shots to shots was very smooth, it wasn't abrupt or very obviously edited.


However there was definitely room for improvement. The camera was slightly shaky at times because we had to put the tripod on the table to get that high angle shot so it did have quite a unnatural amateurish effect on some of the shots. Also, whilst the transitions were quite smooth, it was hard to keep that up towards the end as we didn't have enough shots of Emma opening the door so we had to cut two different shots into one and it was very obvious as the edit 'blinked' slightly before it went into the next shot so it looked quite stilted and the lighting was slightly off in some shots as we were working with the natural light of the room so I think the music video would look much better in some shots if we used special video lighting.

Identify 3 technical strengths and three technical weaknesses of this video

 

Here is a video that I have looked out and observed a few things

 

 

 

 

The 3 technical STRENGTHS of this music video:

1) Wide variety of shots

2) Good mise en scene in costume

3) The close ups of the cars and women make the genre really clear and follow the conventions of a music video.


The 3 technical WEAKNESSES of this video:

1) Many shots has parts of his head cut out

2) Main character doesn't look at the camera as much which repells the audience

3) Women populate the video not a good mix in gender

Summer Work : The music video remake that I produced in June 2012

Down below is the link to video remake we did;

http://summerworkprojects12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ola-emily-and-anil.html

Reflection: Embed a copy of the music video remake that you produced in June

http://summerworkprojects12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/set-9-toeknee-and-annabel.html


Here is a link to the remake of a music video myself and my previous classmates produced in AS last year in preparation for the A2 course. We did a remake of the hit song 'I want to break free' by Queen. I feel for a first time attempt at producing a music video we had a satisfactory product as our lip synching and edits were in exact time with the music and the actual music video by Queen.

However, I feel that since coming into A2 I see a lot of room for improvement, for example, our camera shots were pretty shaky and kind of slow in comparison to the pace of the actual music video. This task helped me greatly as I got to learn about what Base track is and about the different types of music videos such as Disjuncture or Illustration and I feel prepared for the upcoming coursework we are about to start.

SUMMERWORK - Copyright Letter

*Please note, my address and email have being removed for privacy.

 Universal Music Group UK LTD

364 Kensington High Street

London

W14 8NS

288 Samuel Lewis Trust

Amhurst Road

London

E8 @JB

Dear Sir/Madam, 

Request for Copyright Permission to use the following song: “Paper Planes” by MIA.

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project. 

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully

Mostafa Rahman



Email: mostafar@hotmail.co.uk