FILMING DAY 1

Karen and I stuck to our shooting schedule (YES!!) and have surprised ourselves with how much we have got filmed today. We've spent roughly 3 hours filming today from all different angles, locations and costumes in order to get 95% of our music video done!

We hopefully now only have one of the individuals background to do and then we are complete.

As I write this post, we are uploading our footage!

Below (and beside) are a few behind the scene shots of shooting...

Shooting Schedule

Today we laid down a date for when we are going to film our video content. We have a trip to the BFI on Wednesday which is when we would've started but we are postponing it till Friday 28th November and if not all is able to be filmed then we will carry on, on Wednesday 3rd December. 

                                Karen & I planning our schedule and also the schedule itself.

Real Media Texts Inspirations

This week's task: get 3 screen shots of real media texts which have inspired your own music video.

1.  Whilst doing my Star Theory research, I came across Pixie Lott's Caravan of Love and saw this opening of the video. I really love how the pictures are placed and taken apart like this.

 After doing research into this, I know it will take a lot of media skill and it might just be out of our reach but I hope we can use something similar in our video as I really enjoy the effect it gives and the quality of the technique. 




2. 

The Chloe Howl video for 'Rumour' has inspired our video a little bit. As our theme we are using cards and poker however this shot of the two individuals at the chess table in some way inspired us to use the idea of a game in the video. However ours is completely different and we are not risking copyright with our ideas. 

3.   Ed Sheeran's The A Team video features a young individual living on the street, which is similar to one of our game players who will also be shot like she is living on the streets in a run down area showing her bad luck in life. 

 The shots above and on the left are a great example and inspiration to our video as I think they grasp the emotion on the individual and also her loneliness as she is all by herself with the world moving around her. 

Catch Up Vlog

My first solo vlog of the year!! I thought that instead of writing a post summarising the other posts, I would do a vlog to tell you how I think the work is going and my feelings towards the steps we are about to take!!

Hopefully the next vlog on here will be from 'on set' with Karen! 

VOYEURISM

While we are watching a film we are Voyeurs. 

Voyeurism originally refers to the notion the erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (object is unaware of being watched) 

In lesson we had examples of Voyeurism and then we were tasked to find our own video example. 




In 50 Cent's video 'Pimp' and Duran Duran's video 'Rio' voyeurism is present.

For my own video, I've decided to use Kelly Clarkson's 'Mr Know It All' as she is watching one of her old music videos from 1:32 as well as looking at online articles.

Star Quality Theory - Pixie Lott (3)

How will you promote your star quality? 

For our star quality we want to make our video unisex and appeal to the ages that we feel will enjoy our music at the time without being too specific. As seen in previous posts, Pixie Lott liked to be on the front of her albums as a way of stamping that it was her as the artist. This could be a  good way to link in our singer or even a way to represent the four individuals that we portray in the video. 

Her theme throughout her albums reflect her personality as well as the songs so for our digi - pack and magazine article we can take inspiration from her work. 

Star Quality Theory - Pixie Lott (2)

Target Audience - Pixie's target audience will be the age range of teenagers to early adults however her music is so versatile that she can appeal to most ages. Pixie appeals to her fns by keeping touch with them through her social media but also seems to never fully go out of the spotlight by attending awards ceremonies, appearing on TV, radio or being interviewed for magazines. 

By keeping in the media and with her fame, she is able to participate in television shows such as Strictly Come Dancing as well as helping charities such as Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Sport Relief.  

For Sport Relief, Pixie stared in Promotional Pictures, Visited Zambia and performed on the show.

Currently Pixie is staring in the 2014 series of Strictly Come Dancing. 



Pixie also gets involved with promotional aspects and commercials in order to keep her name in the press.

She has also appeared on Chat & Game shows such as A League Of Their Own (Brings in a typically more post childhood male and female audience) and Alan Carr.  She was a guest judge on X Factor in 2010.

MAGAZINE COVERS

Star Quality Theory - Pixie Lott (1)

Pixie Lott is a female artist who I think fits into our Pop Rock Genre. This is because she has songs with the edge of the rock genre whilst having a 'pop feel to it. 

During her time as a student she appeared in the West End production of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' at the London Palladium, and in BBC One's Celebrate 'The Sound of Music' in 2005, aged 14, as Louisa von Trapp. At the age of 14, she was part of the chorus, recording vocals on Roger Water's Opera Ca Ira. 

She is apart of Interscope and Mercury Records. 







Lott's first single 'Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh) was released in June 2009 and reached NO.1 on the UK SINGLES CHART. Her latest single is Caravan of Love. Other songs include Lay Me Down, What Do You Take Me For and Kiss the Stars. Her video's have not changed too much apart from the fashion. She matches her style to what she dresses in normally and what best fits the song, there is no out of the context videos for a simple song like other artists have. 

  


As her career has taken off her popularity has grown. As an artist she appeals to more of the teenage girl audience as her music is relatable however other age ranges can relate to her because she is diverse artist ranging from ballads to pop songs to rock vibes. 

Her official website www.pixielott.com is up to date and really stands out because it is interactive and gives you more of an option of how to navigate round whilst showing the options we want in a more fun way. The links go onto her social media accounts so that the fans can be interactive and follow her. 

                             ^  Instagram page 
< Twitter Page

Album Covers Progression

As you can see from the images above, Pixie's albums all feature around her and form those images you can see how she has evolved as person and style. 

Style Progression 

ABOVE: Casual Looks - The More Recent on the LEFT. This shows she is developing her style as she grows as a person and artist. 
BELOW:  Her Red Carpet Style Changes. 2014 Brits & 2010 Brits

Star Quality Theory - Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer specializes in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender.

A Star is an image constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) from a range of materials - EG. Advertising and Magazines, as well as films and music." - Richard Dyer

His idea fulfils the idea that pop stars are manufactured and constructed in order to generate a financial gain. Furthermore, he also believes that stars are constructed to represent ‘real’ people that are experiencing real emotions. 

Stars as Constructions

Dyer proposes that: A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])

Industry and Audience

Dyer states that Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

Ideology & Culture

Stardom, and star worship in general is a cultural value in itself. Ideologies drawn upon include materialism and sexuality. Whole sites of institutional support (eg radio & TV shows, magazines, websites) are devoted to star scrutiny, and it seems we can never get enough information. Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology. Audience interest in these values enhances their 'star quality', and it is through conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside music that performers help create their star persona.Stars also provide us with a focal point for our own cultural thinking — particularly to do with Youth & Sexuality.

Character & Personality

Dyer says - In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.

Storyboarding is FINISHED

Since we used the lyrics to structure how we wanted to set out our video, we found it so much easier today to FINISH storyboarding. 
The idea's flowed a lot easier and more than one came to us, so if we don't like how one section is shot, we have back up plans for some of the filming. 

Below is a video of our finished storyboards. We decided with the popularity of Snapchat, we would use it as a base for uploading so that we included a new technology!

Another Approach

We have decided to take another approach to planning our video structure.

We printed out the lyrics and annotated them to decide how to separate the verses into what we thought would match. We were stressing over how precise we needed to be and specific to the camera work and timings. We decided to go the BASICs and BUILD UP. 

This has helped us come up with other ideas and made it easier for us to try and plan in more depth. Hopefully soon enough we will have a complete storyboard by next week then FILMING. 

Stressed and Storyboarding

Today's lesson was catching up with Karen on all we have thought of over our two week break. We have some really cool ideas but translating this on to storyboarding is HARD.

At first we wanted to split our verses up between the four individuals but as we progress we are realising that we still need another location for our vocalist to sing the chorus with and also how we can end it with a dramatic scene to match the abrupt ending. 

After hitting what i've decided - a creative wall - we asked Miss about the ideas. By sharing our ideas and coming up with suggestions 

We've set up a day for next week to try and get all our storyboarding done or at least know where our video is going and the structure we definitely want to do.

Band Names & Track List Idea's

As I was absent from lesson, I've missed the opportunity to start coming up with Band Names and Track List ideas with Karen. As Karen was in lesson, she has started coming with ideas and blogged a few which I have been looking at and cant wait to trade ideas and opinions.

On Karen's blog post she has put - "For the song we are actually doing I quite like the idea of basing it around the card game or rumours, I quite like 'Just a Rumour', 'These Cards', 'Play The Game' or 'Show Your Hand' " - I think the idea of basing around the card game or rumours is great because I think it will gel well with the ideas and it will be good to keep a current theme throughout the track. 

Karen used SongName.Net to try and come up with a few ideas -