Planning : Green Screen Test

During the editing of this video I found it difficult to get it perfect because my hair was a bit messy , so i've learnt that you need to make sure everything is in place to do this test precisely .

Planning: Radio Spot

Radio Spot 

Preliminary: Lip Sync Test

This is a lip sync test.
The reason why we did the lip sync test is because we are preparing for our music video for furture reference.

Planning: Our chosen song- (Rihanna - What Now)

We chose to do Rihanna - What Now because it is a very controversial song which can include a number of different storylines, we have chosen to go down the path of domestic violence, self harm , depression, because these are very sensitive topics that people tend to look pass.

Planning - Analysis of chosen music video

Analysis of chosen music video from RADDLTD123

Planning: Analysis of Madonna

Analysis of madonna from RADDltd

Planning: Motifs

Common Motifs

motifs from RADDltd

Planning: Characteristics of Music

Characteristics of Music Videos 

In music videos there is a lot of similar characteristics and this is because of both psychological and economic reasons. 

Song length- is a common issue as it is very important that the music videos                                         are a certain length of time e.g. 3-5 minutes, song longer than that length are                                 often compressed.  

The reason for this is both for psychological reasons, such as, people switching off. people in general have short attention spans so if a music video is too long they will switch off and not watch it. An economic reason is because music companies such as MTV, make there money through adverts so the goal is to get as many videos played and adverts played in the shortest amount of time because that is more money for them and if they have music videos longer than 5 minutes that would prohibit them from playing that song as they can play 2 music videos in that time.  

Concept- there is always a concept in music videos because due to the short length of music videos there isn't enough time to develop characters so directors have to create personas so that people understand and the concept and they strive to create ones that stand out to keep people locked in and watching the whole video, an example of this is Rihanna's- bitch better have my money. There was a lot of controversial aspects which kept people watching and talking about it and that is very important when it comes to music videos, as it keeps music videos current due to the fact that they are constantly being talked about, but artists and directors need to be careful that it doesn't step into morè, thats when it reaches the point of offending people and the video could be banned. 

Fragmentation- In music videos there is a lot of fragmentation of the body, this causes the audience to focus on a particular part of the person or artists. And in general there is a lot of freedom in music videos because there is a lot of time to fill it up, but this depends on what concept you have, some artist use there music videos to promote themselves as dancers or even there products, for instance Lady Gaga and Beyonce when they were promoting the 'Polaroid' camera in the video, and also when Nicki Minaj promotes her drink in her music videos.

Planning: Ralia's Reflection on last years work

Last year was a year full of different experiences we experienced a lot of ups and downs (strengths and weaknesses) A strength that we had was being able to agree and come to a consensus on our different ideas and talk through situations that may arise. I believe because we were all friends before we formed the group it helped us to work together and respect each others opinions and work quite well. However we also experienced some disadvantages such as reaching deadlines on time and also we all had different schedules and finding time to film was a bit difficult. Overall, I feel as though there were more strengths than weaknesses and i really enjoyed working with my group and I am looking forward to working with them again this year and produce a wonderful piece.

This year I hope we would be able to work together and complete our assignments to a good standard, I am looking forward to creating this music video as it will be very enjoyable and a learning experience as we have an opportunity to expand our skills in using the different software such as the editing, the camera , and different websites that will help us create an A grade piece. I hope we can maintain the standards of the work that we produced for our AS coursework.

Planning: Ade's Reflection on last years work

Reflection on Last Years Work

Reflecting on last years work, I have to admit that it had a lot of impact in me because I have experienced various of techniques that I did not expect to learn which were quite interesting such as the understanding of the importance of film making like the camera shots/angles should be considered in filming etc.

One of my highlights from last year was the fact that we had a plan on our opening film then we started filming in public few days later we had a better idea of the opening scene which was hilarious so we had to completely change everything that we did and start we the new which took us time but we worked as a team and we were able to complete it.

However, on of my weakness from last year is that the editing took a while and it got a bit boring watching our opening scene again and again and again but at least we got it over and done with.

What I could've improved is to always do the wok as soon as possible so that we wouldn't have stress and pressure to do the work because I wasn't meeting the deadlines.

This year I am aiming to get a better grade and a much better result which means that I have to work extremely hard. Overall, I last year was the most busiest yet fun experience for me in media.

Planning: Demmy's Reflection on last years work

Demmy's Reflection 

Last year my I would say my group worked very well together, as we was able produce a really good thriller and that's the reason we have decided to work together again. Also for the fact that we have become close as a group of friends.



What I would say we need to improve on though, is time management and meeting deadlines as that was a problem last year, also procrastination, instead of wasting and not doing work on time doing it and getting out the way because when we do complete it, it's to a high standard but its just the time wasting that was the major problem.


What was good last year was the communication, because in the beginning it was bad but was had a group meeting and we solved that problem which is why I would say we came out with a good thriller last year.

Planning: Controversy

Controversy

In music videos controversy is very important in order to keep relevant and current in todays current evolving industry. So in order to understand what this was and try and get a better understand how we could achieve this in our music video I researched the definition...

"a lot of ​disagreement or ​argument about something, usually because it ​affects or is ​important to many ​people"

From this definition I came up with the idea that in order to get a music video seen and recognised as well as getting maximum air time it has to be controversial.
But there is a fine line between controversial/ taboo and moré and sometimes artists cross controversial and step into moré.

For example Lady Gaga's is very controversial in everything, from her attitude, to her dressing, to her music and music videos....
by lady Gaga doing this she is staying current and keeping people talking about her therefore getting more views and popularity.




But sometimes some artist cross taboo and step into morè, for instance Lady Gaga wears nude and very revealing clothing which has people taking and may offend a few people but not the masses, Robin Thick crossed this line and offended the masses with the video blurred lines.

Blurred Lines was banned youtube and from a number of Universities as the song glorified rape, the song implies a woman is 'an animal' who 'wants it' because of the way she is dressed, The language within the lyrics and the images in the video are degrading towards females.

"Any song that expresses an author's frustration at 'being sick of blurred lines' is beyond unacceptable."

"Blurred Lines has been widely criticised for appearing to glorify rape and violent sex, with lyrics including "I know you want it", "I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two", and "Nothing like your last guy, he too square for you/ He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that."

This is a classic example of music videos that have crossed taboo and is now seen as more which is why this video was banned from YouTube for the over sexualised content.

Planning- History of the music video; Hip Hop/ MTV

Hip Hop/ Rap

Looking into the history of hip hop and rap its clear to see that there is no particular start point, it was something that has come together and is very popular in todays society. But when researched and looked into there is a something that stands out about the originating point of hip hop and rap....

"In the 1970s, an underground urban movement known as "Hip Hop" began to develop in the South Bronx in New York City. It focused on emceeing (or MCing), breakbeats, and house parties. Jamaican-born DJ Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell was highly influential in the pioneering stage of hip hop music."

The style of Hip Hop has become very influential into days society as it has changed drastically over time, when I went to look at the first Hip Hop song I got to see that it was "Rapper's Delight" which came out in 1979 by the American hip-hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. I also got to see that the song featured rapping, not to say that  it was the first single to feature rapping, but is it is considered to be the song that first popularised hip-hop in the United States and around the world.

Hip Hop and Rap are both similar and different at the same time, they both promote music but ones message is harsher that the other, for example NWA f*uck da police, it spoke about the brutality people faced against the police after what happened in Ferguson where a woman with advanced dementia walks down the street in her bathrobe, and her adult son, who is black, follows close behind her, desperately trying to get his mother back in the house.

The police car arrives and aggressively questions the old woman. Bewildered by their inquiry, she tells them she doesn’t have a son. The officers slam the grown man to the ground.

The difference between Hip Hop/ Rap

Hip Hop and Rap influence everything from commercials to politics and in todays society that is a major thing.

After researching deeply, I would say that there are 3 main differences between Hip Hop and Rap, for me they are: musical features, culture and the community message.

Rap is a combination of rhyming and poetry to a musical beat. Hip hop music includes rhythm and blues and beat boxing. Rhythm and blues or R&B music is a combination of soul and pop music. Singers combine their lyrics to fast-paced music that is often used as the background to complex dance routines. This type of music lead the cross over into popular music with soulful singing and lyrics focused on common relationship issues.

Controversy

Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. So in order for people to stay current and have there music videos noticed, artist often opt to do something controversial, but sometimes this goes to far for example in the rap music video by Nelly- tip drill, the mark was stepped when he swiped a credit card in-between the behind of a stripper. This was controversial because it was sexually objectifying a woman. 

Madonnas music video like a prayer was also controversial due to racism at this point in time, and considering that madonna is white and her getting frisky with black christ is very controversial. 

MTV

In 1981 MTV was introduced for the very first time.  The executives had good intentions when they decided it was time to bring rock music to the viewers.  There target audience were men and women between the ages of twelve to thirty-four. The main goal of the operation was to get the baby boomers to open up their wallets because they felt that this was the peak of consumer spending in the United States. MTV has gone on to revolutionize the music industry and become an influential source of pop culture and entertainment in the United States and other parts of the world, including Europe, Asia and Latin America, which all have MTV-branded channels.

The very first music video featured on MTV was The Buggles- Video killed the radio star

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Planning: The History of Glam Rock

Glam Rock

Glam Rock was popular in England it is also known as glitter rock due to male musicians often to the stage with a style of glittery outfits which they wore outrageous make up, clothes and hairstyles, like extreme platform boots. also, they adopted theatrical personas and mounted a vast amount of glamorous productions frequently as it was characterized by space and age futurism.

Glam rock positioned itself as a backlash against the rock mainstream in the late 1960s; on the verge of society and rock culture, glam rockers were as critic just like Robert Palmer“rebelling against the rebellion.” It contained heavy guitar sound shaped by hard rock and pop styles though the movement though movement also had heavy metal, art rock and punk incFirstly it began with T. Rex. Formerly known as Tyrannosaurus Rex, they mainly known as hippie acoustic duo with a score of one minor hit. But leader Marc Bolan reinvented himself as an electric rocker with the catchy Ride A White Swan and concocted a new interesting image to go with it. The record was a huge hit which lead to others rush to follow, sensing commercial opportunity in eyeliner and lipstick.

The popularity of glam rock majorly increased in the 1970's as the fans were attracted by the act and look of the musicians such as Gary Glitter shown in the video. In the video it shows the way Gary acts by giving gestures to every word that he says and dressed as he is wearing an outfit that is pink covered by glitter. This is quite controversial because Gary Glitter is wearing an extremely fitted outfit that is very bright and shiny this may cause people to question their homosexuality.



Pink Floyd The Wall Flower Scene What Shall We Do Now


In this video, it is quite different to the one you would usually see from other glam rocks music video as this glam rock music video gives a sense of discomfort as the concept of the music contains many interactive video

Planning: The Hisory of 60's Rock n Roll

The History of 60's Rock n Roll

The 1960's were a time of upheaval in society, fashion, attitudes and especially music. Before 1963, the music of the sixties still reflected the sound, style and beliefs of the previous decade. The roots of rock emerged in the mid to late 1960s as a combination of several genres and subgenres of rock music that were popular at the time. 

Roots rock combined elements of folk music, blues, country and rock 'n' roll. And, the genre was exemplified by its "back to basics" sound. Bob Dylan is thought to have pioneered the genre with the release of his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde that demonstrated what roots rock was to become. 
Many of the most popular bands of the time joined the "roots revival" and crafted albums of their own that featured and experimented with a roots sound.

Rock n roll style started to get extremely aggressive as sound is characterised by more aggressive tones and delivery. Vocalists are identified by their high pitched and distinct voices. The music was also influenced heavily by blues rock, garage rock, and rhythm and blues. As most bands started to be violent by even destroying their own instruments on stage (like The Who). Due to their hard-partying lifestyles, many musicians developed drug and alcohol problems. As a result of these problems, musicians died at a young age from substance abuse or accidents related to substance abuse like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

In this video, The Kinks have been influenced by the blues as they have demonstrated it through the vocals, instrument and also the way they're dressed as the blues are always known as wearing suits.




Controversial 
Rock n roll resulted in a powerful impact on society as musicians aggressive behaviour and attitude such as sex, fights and drugs were "known as hard-drinking, hard-living characters. During the 1960s the lifestyles of many stars became more publicly known, aided by the growth of the underground rock press. has now become a norm to the fans which is now popular in culture."

Planning - Scopitones

HISTORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO; SCOPITONES

 In the late 1950s, a company called Cameca in Courbevoie, France, came up with the Scopitone. Scopitone was a cross between a jukebox and TV, the Scopitone was created after soundies. There are two main functions of the scopitone, the first is to demonstrate and present a story of the song, the second was to make it look appealing to the audience. Sexual Objectification of women play a big part these videos to attract more views from people. Scopitone's were deliberately made exotic as it was designed as a form of entertainment to appeal the target audience of drunk men in bars and clubs. The wild colours , suggestive dances and bikini girls in the films were supposed to distract men from their drinking long enough for them to put more money into the machine to see what else might be there.The costumes women wore in these videos emphasises the sexual objectification as they were very revealing and they dances in an over sexualised way. for example they wore very short dresses and shown cleavage. this was all to attract a wider audience and for people to want to watch the video.                                                                  

Neil Sedaka's ' Calendar Girl' was a good example of how women were represented in these Scopitone's, they were shown wearing very exotic clothing, the video included Las Vegas Show girls, Bikini girls etc. He was surrounded by these women as he sang the song. This video was very pleasing and entertaining to the audience as it incorporated the main features of a scopitone needed to attract the target audience of men.

Planning - Soundies

Soundies

Soundies was a form of entertainment in the 1940s, they are 3 minute black and white films with an optical soundtrack designed to be shown on a self contained  coin operated projection machine. Located in bars, diners, night clubs, roadhouses etc. The films were glorious little time capsules of music, social history, dance styles, fashion and modes from a seemingly care free America of the 1940s. These films featured artists from the Jazz, Swing and Big Band Era e.g. Duke Ellington, Court Basie etc. These filmed can be viewed for a dime through a machine called Panoram, a movie juke box. In the 1929s- 30s it would have be very controversial to have a black person on screen especially to be seen to be wearing a sexually suggestive outfit. But today the outfits worn would not be considered controversial, this is due to the desensitisation of what is considered provocative. Also due to it becoming a normal thing in the music videos to be revealing and be appealing to the target audience of men. In the beginning this was not acceptable and was seen as taboo.


An example of this is
"thats the spirit" with Cara LaRedd featuring the Noble Sissle Orchestra where there is a black women shown wearing revealing clothing and dancing in an overly sexual way. This is controversial because not only was she dressed that way but back then black people were not considered equal to white people and this was considered as unacceptable.

Planning - The Silent Film Era

Silent Films
History of the Silent Era
"The silent film era extends from the late nineteenth century, with the earliest work by the Lumière Brothers in France and Edison in America, into the early 1930s, when silent film gave way to “talkies.” However, most scholars situate the silent era in America during the 1910s and 1920s, when it matured as a tightly organised industry privileging the multi-reel feature film after the waning of the nickelodeon, the move to Hollywood from earlier production headquarters in New York and New Jersey, and the decline in competition from European filmmakers caused by World War I. D. W. Griffith's twelve reel feature The Birth of a Nation (1915) was a major commercial and cinematic success showcasing many of the directions the industry was to take into the 1920s."

A silent film is a film with no synchronised sound and no dialogue. A silent film is very pantomime and exaggerated. The only text in silent movies is the title cards that comes up during the film. During that time there was no way to capture audio so all films that were created were silent. However after a while audiences wanted more and become less entertained by the silent films. So they eventually led to sound being incorporated for audience satisfaction. Therefore to fulfil this void, films would often be played alongside bands and orchestras. The bands and orchestras would supply music and audio that would provide tension and a more enjoyable experience for the audience. However, having music had its advantages and disadvantages , the music needed to be played over and over again until the film was over  and this meant that the band could make mistakes which can be unpleasant for the audience. This eventually formed the creation of the music video, as prerecorded audio can be added on top of moving image. As these music videos couldn't be accessible to everyone the artist or band would usually put on a drama production on stage. More and more artists used the structure of silent films, and began to write more songs to perform and play along-side a stage production. This ultimately laid the bases for the music videos that we see today.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Planning - Name of your media company

Planning - Description of the Brief

This year in media studies our coursework is to create a music portfolio of an artist of our choice, within the portfolio we will be creating a music video a website a CD digi pack and other promotional items and text. We will also be documenting the planning construction and evaluation through the use of digital technology, such as a blog, podcast and other presentational techniques.