Email to Record Company

As we are using a song that has been produced by a record label it is compulsory that we email for permission to use the audio - Chloe Howl 'Rumour' . Below is the email we as group sent to Sony Music Entertainment UK and are now awaiting a response. 

Treatment Pitch

As part of our planning process, we were tasked to come up with a treatment pitch for our music video ideas and present it to the class in order to keep everyone informed with our thought process, development and maybe gain some feedback about what was good/bad or even suggestions to better our video.

In a previous post, I posted a picture of the plan and us working on in in lesson on the Mac.

The video underneath is the treatment pitch we presented on Friday 26th September. After we finished presenting we opened the floor for questions regarding what we had just said which can be seen at the end of the video

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Our First Vlog

Here we go, the first group vlog of this course!

In this vlog, Karen and I start to discuss our music video ideas and locations accompanied by a tour of options for the locations to hopefully give you a feel of how our planning is going and the thought processes we are putting in! 

Lip Syncing Research Videos

As part of our video, we wanted to incorporate lip syncing so I decided to look online at some videos for examples on how well it can be done and the standard that we should aim for. Here are some videos I found on youtube that i thought were funny and really good.


 
As the popularity of the film 'Frozen' is rising, there is a number of videos that go with the song 'let it go' and I found this video really good!  I love the passion the couple put into protrayig the characters and how they pronounce the lyrics!

 
Although for our video, we are sticking to a female voice being synced by a female actor, i'm a big fan of James Corden and found this advert for Dairy Milk amazing especially with his lyp syncing. 


 In a series of episodes on the Jimmy Fallon show, the host challenged the stars on his show to a lip syncing contest. I like this video as it takes a lighter approach and makes it fun which i think we should approach our video like. In the video above Emma Stone (above) and Paul Rudd (below)

Mood Board

As part of our creative side and planning of our video, it was important for us to construct a mood board to put together the ideas of what we wanted and aspired for in our final video before we did any storyboarding or shooting. 

Now we know the song and have a good concept to our video, here is the mood board ive constructed using images from the search engine google.com.

My mood board includes;

• Fashion inspirations for our characters in their "behind the scene/background'. Such as the smart clothes, casual dress and school uniform. 
• Locations - Forty Hall, Forrest, Classroom ( Only A Few - Still some to consider) 
• Props - Playing cards - the main element of our video idea. 

 

Treatment Pitch Planning

On the 26th September, we'll be doing our treatment pitch to share idea's and get some feedback about what we hope to do for our music video content. So today's lessons was all about creating our prezi to present. 

We've so far included all the text we want and have written proof on the handout we were given to plan our pitch.

Song Lyrics

"Rumour"

When she turned eighteen she went astray
With her brother's dealer, so they say
She had the baby yesterday
Perhaps it's just a rumour
They kept her prisoner growing up
Told her Jesus was enough
She's really into dirty stuff
Perhaps it's just a rumour
And if you asked her she'd say

I'm just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin' to work out
These cards I've been dealt

See that girl she's looking great
She used to be quite overweight
She may not be entirely straight
Perhaps it's just a rumour
Always did as she was told
Apparently she's on the dole
Spends it all on alcohol
Perhaps it's just a rumour

I'm just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin' to work out
These cards I've been dealt

'Cause she did it, she did it
Her bed is forbidden
He's fit and she isn't
She keeps her face hidden
She told 'em good riddance
Her sister got with him
She wishes she didn't
And now they're all singing

Just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin' to work out
These cards I've been dealt

I'm just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin' to work out
These cards I've been dealt

'Cause she did it, she did it
Her bed is forbidden
He's fit and she isn't
She keeps her face hidden
She told 'em good riddance
Her sister got with him
She wishes she didn't
And now they're all singing

I'm just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin' to work out
These cards I've been dealt

Just tryin' to work out
How to be like myself
I'm just tryin to work out

These cards I've been dealt

With these lyrics, we as a group feel that we can come up with a great music video and a strong message running through it. The lyrics "these cards i've been dealt"  has given us a few idea's on how we can mould our video. We want to use past and present media experiences and high profile stories in order to maybe inspire our characters and how we portray them. 

SONG CHOSEN!!!

After much consideration and as you could probably tell by my last post enthusiasm , we have decided to use the song 'RUMOUR' by Chloe Howls. Karen and I really had a good feel for the song and we feel that we can work with so many ideas in order to produce a great video.

  

So far we have a few concepts but a message we would like to portray is that you don't know what is going on in peoples life behind the front they put on - "the cards i've been dealt" and we'd like to portray that between 4 different people and the experiences they go through in life. 

Song Shortlist

Firstly we've decided on our genre... POP ROCK!!

Now that we know what genre we are going to be working with it was time to look at a few options in order to choose our song;

Song Criteria:
- Female Vocalist
- Good Strong Beat
-  Can work with lip syncing and perhaps a storyline
- not too much of a dance song

1. Paramore -  Emergency 

We have decided to shortlist this song firstly because:

•  it fits the genre. 
• has a good beat that we could edit with 
•  can come up with some good ideas to fit a storyline. 

2. Lena - Neon (Lonely People) 

This song was shortlisted as we felt;

•  the beat could work
•  we thought we could work with the lyrics 
•  but after a while we decided that the female lead voice was too soft for us and preferred other choices.

3. Pixie Lott - Lay Me Down 

Although this song does not fully fit into the pop rock genre,

•  we really liked the beat in this music video 
• however after consideration we decided not to go down the pop/dance route but think it is still worth a shortlist mention! 

4. Chloe Howl - Rumour 
Rumour gave us LOADS of ideas!! 

• It fits the criteria and to us it gave us lots of ideas. 
• The only downside that could arise is the lyrics are quite sad/down however that can be overlooked by a good video!!
• We feel we can use a play on words/lyrics to send out a message while completing our task. 

Record Labels

Record Labels are key to the artists for promotion, back up and funding. As we are considering doing either Pop or Pop Rock, I thought it was best to look at labels that represent these types of artists.

Columbia Records –  

Columbia Records is an American flagship recording label under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment operating under the Columbia Music Group. It was founded in 1888. It represents various genres’. As of 2012, Columbia Records has the highest label share in Adult Contemporary radio in the US; it was also ranked the number-one AC label that year. For much of the 1990s, Columbia released their albums without a logo, just the "COLUMBIA" word mark in the Bodoni Classic Bold typeface.  Columbia experimented with bringing back the "notes and mike" logo but without the CBS mark on the microphone. That logo is currently used in the "Columbia Jazz" series of jazz releases and reissues.

Syco Entertainment –

Syco was founded in 2002 as a trading name for Simco Ltd.  Currently under the banner of Syco Entertainment are, Syco Music, Syco Television and Syco Film. Syco Entertainment is one of the world’s leading global music, film and television production companies responsible for some of the world’s most successful global TV and music franchises. Syco Entertainment is also the world’s most successful producer of international talent with Syco Music being the record label home for such diverse international recording artists as Labrinth, One Direction, Leona Lewis, Susan Boyle and Little Mix.

Mercury Records –

Mercury Records is an American-based record label owned by Universal Music Group. In the United States, it operates through Island Records in the US and through Virgin EMI Records in the UK. Mercury Record Corporation was formed in the American city of Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. They were a major force in jazz and blues, classical music, rock and roll, and country music recordings. Rather than rely on radio airplay, Mercury initially relied on jukeboxes to promote their music. Mercury Records was re-launched in 2007 as a label under the Island Def Jam Music Group.

Genre Options - Pop Rock

Another genre my group is considering is Pop Rock .

Conventions:

• Most videos have clips of the band performing the song, with cuts to the narrative. There are usually many cuts back and forth between the performance and narrative. Within the narrative the band member/s either portray themselves and show their own experiences or act as fictional characters.
• Usually have a narrative within the video, which the band members feature in. It has a story which sometimes links to the lyrics of the song or sometimes is more random and not necessarily based on what the lyrics have to say.
• The clothing that the bands wear is usually fashionable but not as revealing as in pop videos, and not as dull and dark as in rock videos.
• They use lots of natural lighting and colours, to simply show their song to their audience and show just how natural and ‘real’ it all is.
• The band normally are seen performing in a studio, stage and sometimes outdoors. The location is usually lit up well via ambient lighting.

Pop Rock Videos 

Taylor Swift “Shake It Off”

In this video, the clothing is very fashionable and has good lighting where it isn't too dark or light. Taylor Swift however is not performing in a studio, stage or outdoors which goes against the conventions. The random story within the video has little link to the lyrics.  


Avril Lavigne - "Sk8er Boi"


This video is more of the rock end of Pop Rock than Pop. It is linked to the lyrics by having a skater boy and also it is set in a skating area and there for meets the conventions that it is outdoors as well.


 Cliff Richard - We Don't Talk Anymore

This video from 1979 fits the convention of performing of a stage and as it is older than the previous videos, the development of the making and editing of videos is shown. The clothing is not revealing or dull - the bright top makes Cliff Richard stand out. It illustrates the crowd enjoying his music too.

Genre Options - Pop

An important part of choosing what song to make a video is what Genre we want to work with. I think my group would best suit is “POP”.  I feel it is the best genre for us to use as we should be able to come up with a fragmentary story to complement the lyrics.

As we are going to be working with the pop genre, it was probably best that we get to grips with the convention so that we can apply it to our video.

POP:       

o   Videotaped Performance

o   3-5 minutes long

o   Accompanied by Dance/Fragmentary story

o   Quick Cuts

o   Graphics

Throughout the years, the Pop genre has had many different artists that fall under the title and you can see by the differences in videos that the genre has evolved over time, gaining more use out of graphics, effects and the different camera angles.

Pop through time

80’s – Bananarama                                                     

As you can see, the video is shot in one location. The camera angles varies to show different perspectives of the set. The artist's are in the centre of the screen and the colouring of the video is not as bright and clear when you compare to todays camera and editing work.  This video is accompanied by Dance which is specified in the characteristics for a pop video.

90’s – Spice Girls

The Spice Girls is one of the best known pop groups from the 90s.  The camera follows the band around as they go through the location. It is full of dance - a characteristic of pop - which keeps with the upbeat music and makes it catchy to follow and become popular. 

00's + - B*witched

 The use of the green screen behind the band shows the development of music videos and how the videos have been changed to make it better. This video still uses dance moves but also uses the lyrics to make the video better - the boy in the tree is the main representative.

Pixie Lott- 

All about Tonight is a pop video that shows the development of music video's. There are so many effects that make the developments seem bigger. It also follows the characteristics of the pop genre

Why Pop?

We should be able to use the beats to our advantage for transitions. The pop genre seems to be more suitable and relatable to our group therefore it might make it easier for us to link the lyrics with the idea that we come up with. Other musical genres seem to be out of reach for our group as I don’t think another one would be comfortable for the both of us. Genre’s such as classical, rock and heavy metal are not the ones that I feel I could come up with a successful storyline  to cover.

The Evolution of AUDIENCES

Throughout the years, music has begun to be promoted in various ways due to the ever changing and improving technology which will bring in a new and different type of audience and audience viewing as it develops.

The TV brings in many audiences throughout the years, with TV channels becoming a better way to view music videos with the growing amount of programmes and the channels that they feature. Even when the TV has channels for the links to radio stations so even though you aren’t watching the video, you’re still using the channels to boost the ratings of songs by playing. Specialised music television stations such as MTV and Viva are most known for their popularity. However there are also programmes such as “Top of the Pops” “UK TOP 40” “THE BIG REUNION” “X FACTOR”. There is also now documentaries that film the artists as they record their albums which help promotion and give a behind the scenes access that can appeal to fans.

Magazines are not used as often to solely promote music such as TOP OF THE POPs magazine used to do for the then younger generations. Now Music artists can get their videos promoted by releasing a still from the video to put in a magazine, rely on reviews from esteemed magazines such as CLASH and ROLLING STONE where as others may now also use billboards just like in the past.

Other ways that audiences have grown are by the use of songs over advertisements where the advert sometimes credits the song on screen or the viewer/listener can use the lyrics they have heard and search it up on YouTube which should give you the song title you are looking for. The development of social media has had a large impact on music as it has allowed the artists to connect with the audiences – they can talk to them, release sneak peeks of in the studio or behind the scenes of the video shoot – they can even release links to their itunes/youtube official accounts where the fans can buy/view their work.

Evaluation of AS work

For our exam, we will need to compare our AS work to our A2, and how we have developed our skills. For a reminder this is our film...
 


Here is my evaluation of what went well and what did not go as well in our film making.