Potential Album Cover Ideas

 

This is an image produced by Brantley using Photoshop to give us an approximate idea of what we wanted our album cover to look like. We agreed that we wanted out album cover to have a rough sketchy feel to it as it would fit in perfectly with our song choice as well as what we want our finished video to look like. One of our primary ideas is to have the three of us in our group who are going to be in the music video (Me, Sam and Tom) sitting on the floor or possibly standing wearing quite scruffy street clothes and on the right hand side us wearing formal suits.

The Male Gaze Theory

The Male Gaze Theory

The male gaze theory was originally created by Laura Mulvey in 1975 as a feminist idea that centres around how the media has specifically placed aspects and assets that appear appealing and desirable for men as sexual as pleasurable images or other such inclinations as well as the idea that using these can actually affect an audiences anticipation (mainly a male audience) to see it used in trailers or music videos as a way of attracting a male based audience. A famous example of the male gaze theory in work on a film would defiantly be the James Bond films which has always been ironically known for it's beautiful women with 'desirable' figures who always appear to throw them selves towards the manly hero in the films. The men with  the most power in James Bond are always accompanied by a very attractive provocative female. The Tomb Raider series as also famous for this but in a slightly reversed way. Rather than seeing a dominant male picking and choosing his women there is a powerful main woman in the films who is made to look very sexually desirable through her attitude and the clothes that she wears. Despite all of that this theory is a very subjective idea due to it being established and devised on the principal that it is all men who are pulled in by such luxuries when it does work both ways for males and females and would not always be the case.
 The male gaze theory did have a big influence during the 70's and Mulvey describes it as voyeuristic  in that its for likable appeal or rather just sexual.

A fine example of the male gaze theory in the music video industry would be Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke which has such obvious use of sexual appeal aimed directly at men as it features multiple top half naked women dancing and posing with the singers in a very sexual way which is obviously a direct attempt at male gaze to attract popularity and extremely controversial manner especially as music videos are never usually this explicit.
Quite the opposite to Blurred Lines is 'Bitch beta have my money' by Rihanna. This has very many similarities to Blurred Lines because of the high levels of controversy but presents the woman as the one in power including explicit scenes of violence the woman in power is dressed and behaving very provocative.

Applied Lyrics - Music Video Planning

Contradictive music to the happy sound the lyrics are run down and depressed visuals. Start happy and slowly become darker as time passes.

Key for who
Warehouse (assault) - Joe
Home (kicked out) - Tom or Sam
Job (fired) - Tom or Sam
All



(leaving job centre happy)
different pubs, same name -
Kids out in the rain - "kids" displays teenager as childish to viewer                                                    
Drain on society - waste i.e. unwanted (link to family)
Nothing on the telly -  bored lazy                                               
Barely at school - delinquent, no care for education
Acting like a fool - carefree irresponsible shows unresponcible
Well I coulda done well if things had gone better - reference to education
Slurred singing, wrong lyrics on the dance floor -
Not rich, not poor - just getting by so not a comfortable life
What you living for? - using as a sense to
Poundland pubs and Wormwood scrubs -
Last nights takeaway in Tupperware tubs -

I lost my job in Weatherspoons -
And since that day my bank has hit zero -
Hopefully things'll pick up next year though -
And if they don't then well... -

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x2)

Every week do the lottery -
Daylight robbery -
Spend more on tickets than it's worth in the long run -
Young, dumb, living off mum -
Waiting for the right time to come -
Can't afford the bus that I used to run for -
Lurking on the wrong side of the law -
What for? -
Once more, never been abroad -
A week around here's enough to make you crazy -

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x2)

All my shoes have holes in the soles
Live my life in second hand clothes (x2)

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x4)
(Entering job centre together all miserable)


- walking past school goes to abandoned warehouse messes around assaulted
- walks home leeches of parents living easy, gets kicked out
- goes to job a mess carefree, gets fired, becomes poor
- jobs happy jobs carefree, bad mishaps meet up depressed




Script
(Leave job centre happy)
All - "drunk" record us wobbling outside pub
Tom - coming home in the rain
Tom - lazy scene
Tom - recording me lip-syncing that's played on the TV tom pressing remote
Joe - messing around in abandoned warehouse
Joe - people approach him menacingly
All - being handed "F" grade papers
Sam -
Sam -
Joe - bullying him shouting "what you living for
All - leaving pub looing upset
Tom - eating all the food in the house
Sam - gets fired throws apron on floor
Sam - walking go pro recording me walking mouthing lyrics
Sam - Continue
Sam - sat on the floor in town wrapped in rags


[Chorus - start]
Tom - mimes first line happily
Joe - mimes second line unscathed
Sam - mines third line in apron


Tom - mimes first line upset and depressed drenched in water
Joe - mimes line bruised and beaten and bleeding
Tom - mimes third line without apron scruffily and dirt on face
(think of idea for next part of chorus)
[Chorus - end]
This is work from Samuel Boden's blog which was contributed to by the entire group so I deemed it necessary to include it in my blog since I contributed to it also and it is important planning for our groups music video.

Lip Syncing Practice

As a group we spent some time last week to practice lip syncing to our song. This was a helpful exercise for us to do as a group because it was not only fun but also very productive because it has helped us prepare for the actual filming of our music video. We all found it very difficult to do the lip syncing at first because Sign On is a very fast song so it took us all a fair bit of practice to be able to keep up with the pace of the song.
Here is a video of us practicing our lip syncing.

A2 Music Video Pitch

In preparation for our music video we had to prepare a one page pitch showing what ideas and initial thoughts we had about filming our music video and how we wanted it to look and feel.

Target Audience

Identifying our target audience is one of the most important tasks when conducting our research and planning for our music video. Identifying our target audience at an early stage is key to creating a good suitable music video that our target audience will appreciate and enjoy.

Our chosen song for our music video is Sign on by Rat Boy. We opted for this song because we thought that the lyrics could easily be related to be many young people who are of a similar age to us. The lyrics include lines such as "I lost my job in Weatherspoons and since that day my bank has hit zero". This highlights a lot of the struggles that young people have especially people who are still in or around education and have very limited funds because of a lack of time to work a part time job or hold on to one. This is the case for many young people because it costs money to do anything and there is nearly always a lack of money.
The chorus of the song is about signing on, hence the name 'Sign on'. This is especially relevant to people of a similar age to me and people still in education because getting a job is the main thing shadowing over someone through their earlier years because there is never a guarantee of someone being able to get a job especially a good one and it is worrying for many people. I believe people around the ages of 14-24 would be our specific target audience.
 

Textual Analysis - The Slim Shady LP

Key Company Case Study

Key Companies in regards to the music video industry.





YouTube - YouTube is probably the leading websites for people to find and watch music videos in todays society with the technology available to us today. On YouTube users can search for anything that crosses their mind any there are numerous music videos available for people to find and watch at their leisure and there is even the option for users to make playlists and favourite their favourite videos and save them to watch at as more convenient time. Anyone can create a YouTube account with the option to view music videos they want to see and leave a like or dislike on that video as well as being able to subscribe to their favourite channels. People who have YouTube accounts can also upload their own videos onto their channel for others to view across the world. YouTube users can create their own music videos to songs of their choice and share them with similar like minded people who take an interest in music videos of any quality.




MTV - MTV has been active for the last 34 years. With its headquarters located in New York City it is very much an American based company but networks to countries all over the world. MTV stands for music television and is an American basic cable and satellite television channel which is part of the Viacom Music and Entertainment Group. MTV has been the leading channel for the music industry in terms of promoting music videos through television. It is a massive channel in multiple countries and if a music video is on MTV then it can reach millions of viewers. The networks current target audience consists mainly of teenagers and young adults, interested with the latest trends and fashions. In 2015 roughly 80% of American households with a television received MTV.



Vevo - Vevo was created 6 years ago so is a fairly new company compared to the likes of YouTube and MTV but like MTV it is based in New York City. Vevo offers a wide range of music videos throughout different networks most famously YouTube. Vevo also launched Vevo TV in 2013 and this offers 24 hour music and music videos.

Famous Album Covers

Famous Album Covers

Iron Maiden - The Number of the beast. Throughout the years they have been active Iron Maiden have maintained their own high standards when it comes to their album covers. The eye-catching red font that reads Iron Maiden has always stayed the same and been located right at the top of the album cover. This consistence has maintained their image and success along with the quality of their music that has been at the highest level for decades.
This Album cover is particularly eye-catching because there is so much going on but it appears so simple at the same time. Which is why it is so effective.

NWA - Straight outta Compton. This is the first album by American rap group NWA from 1988. This album was the first big step for gangster rap. This is another simple yet effective album cover because it contains all the members of the group on in looking down towards the camera on the ground. It is very similar to the Iron Maiden album cover with the famous red font at the top of the cover.

A2 Preliminary Task

This is the short preliminary task I completed as an introduction into making music videos.
My song choice was 'That's not me' by Skepta

Music video regulation

The BBFC is the organisation dedicated to the contr4ol of music video regulation and their content, which can include things like the representation of religion as well as sexual content and violence. Age restrictions can be applied to videos which contains content the BBFC deem to be unsuitable for younger audiences. Recent events and various music videos have led the government to pay more attention to music videos. This has led to the BBFC looking into sexualisation in music videos especially in areas surrounding children. This government interest has resulted in the video recordings act that should restrict how easily available children can view explicit content. Despite increased government activity into regulating music videos there is still a lot of explicit content available on the internet for anyone to see who has access because it is still very difficult to regulate content on the internet. However people can report things that they believe to be unsuitable.

'Prison sex' by American rock band Tool is an example of a music video which had to be regulated. The music video itself was viewed to be very successful by critics as the video was nominated for MTV's best special effects category. Despite the video not containing any violence or nudity it was banned for how the video tapped into human emotion which was labelled as disturbing content.

'We Media' and Democracy

‘We Media’ and Democracy

 

While I was completing the summer work it became evident if it wasn’t already that the majority of news and stories travel through word of mouth and social media a lot more than they do from people seeking out news on their own. The news which is constantly being thrown around on social media can be quite deceiving as people often edit the information and change parts of it so it is never easy to filter out the lies and unreliable news stories. However certain amounts of the news on bigger sites can often be believed to be more trustworthy because it is coming from ‘big media’ sites such as newspapers and other large sources. The majority of the news stories that I read and take an interest in come from BBC news and the BBC’s website. This is because I believe the BBC to be a trusted source because its funds are paid for by the taxpayer rather than privately owned big news firms.

The first piece of news that I saw and took note of over the summer was when I saw on the BBC news website that there were jobs at risk for Morrison’s employees. There are 900 jobs at risk as a certain eleven stores are set to close in the UK. In early September the firm announced that it was selling 140 loss-making Morrison’s local stores for a sum of around 25 million. I became interested in this piece of news when I was browsing through the BBC news website and decided to read it in case the store where I work was at risk. I believe this piece of information is from a trusted source because the BBC is a well-known website and isn’t run by any single corporation or person who might select certain pieces of information to give to the general public for their own gain. I was also made aware of this news by one of my Facebook friends sharing it on their newsfeed but this story was on another separate website to the original one I saw it on, making it even more believable because I had seen the same news story with the same facts and statistics on multiple websites. Once I knew that this was a real news story and I could trust it I told my friend who already knew because he’d also seen it.

The second news story I saw and thought was worth reading about was the crisis in Syria and all the thousands of refugees that had to leave their homes and their country in an attempt to escape to a better life in a country not affected by war. This was a huge news story over the summer because everyone is concerned about other people in some way and the majority of people get upset about human suffering and discomfort so it makes for big news which many people take an interest in, resulting in it getting shared and carried around in many different ways. The many different news stories about Syria and the refugees was spread and posted by multiple different sources, some of which I would view as reliable and some which are far from reliable.

 Most of the news I read about this crisis was shared throughout Facebook and Twitter. These social media sites are the main places to gather different pieces of information in today’s society. This is good in some ways as it allows stories and news to spread quickly and to a much wider audience as there are a lot more people that use these kinds of websites each day than there are that seek out news on the official ‘big media’ news websites and newspapers. I don’t believe social media to always be reliable as stories can change between people the more they get spread around, this creates confusion between fiction and reality which is often the biggest problem with social network sites. However there are pages on social media specifically for news corporations to share news which is in their papers and websites. These are reliable sources as they are proper news firms and on these pages is where much of the information about the refugees came from which I saw.

 

Controversial music videos

One of the most controversial music videos of all time is The Prodigy's 'Smack my b**** up'. It was voted the most controversial music video every to be shown on MTV. Directed by Dane Jonas Akerlund in 1997 the video follows a man starting to get ready for a night out then follows his 'activities' while he is out. The video contains excessive drug use, drink driving, nudity and sex. All of these activities performed in the video resulted in being banned by the BBC upon its release. Because it was such a highly controversial video upon its release it gathered a great deal of attention from people as well as the media. With the help of the high amounts of publicity surrounding this video it helped launch the directors career who has gone on to greater heights producing videos for Lady Gaga and Madonna.

Another more recent music video which caused a lot of controversy was the video to Elastic heart by Sia. Throughout the video there are two people dancing suggestively in a cage very intimately throwing each other around a cage in skin colored leotards and pants. This is surprisingly dark as the two actors used in the video are Shia LaBeouf age 28 and the girl is Maddie Ziegler who is only 12 years old. This caused uproar among some audiences because of her age and the content of the video especially because of her age and her lack of clothing, not to mention LaBeouf being over twice her age. Some critics claim that the video has a paedophilic overtone despite the artist saying that she believed those two actors to be the only ones suitable for the roles and that she didn't mean to offend anyone.

How genre reflects music videos

           How genre reflects music videos

The majority of music videos are all very different but quite similar at the same time. Genre plays a massive role in the similarities and differences between all the different music videos there are. Hartley had his own view and theory on genre in music videos. He argued that genres were agents of 'ideological closure' and that they limit the potential meaning of a given text or video. This shows us that types of videos that fit with the genre of the song and artist which the music video is about. A good example of this in use is in Yung Lean's music video for his song 'Kyoto' which is initially a rap song with a sub genre of 'cloud rap'. The video contains an opening view of space as the song starts and then goes into the video and there are lots a bright lights and 'skippy' editing with the background behind the artist moving in the video along with his sword. The video seems very futuristic but vintage at the same time which is exactly what the artist was aiming for with the sub genre cloud rap.

 

Fisk (1988) argued that generic conventions embody the crucial ideological concerns in the time they are popular. This suggests that genre is the key thing to tell us about how music videos should be or shouldn't when they are created to the specific genre. It also shows us that genre tells us what is popular at the time and also what is not popular, the amount of music videos that have been released follow the suite of a genre or a sub-genre, this is by the popularity of the videos depending on what genre it is and that shows us the way in which we consume music videos will depend on the convention of the video in relation to the genre that the chosen song is representing.

The Slim Shady LP cover

Textual analysis - Skepta 'Thats not me'

At the start of the music video the beat of the music starts and while it is playing there is a wall with Skepta's name on as well as the names of some of his mates. The names look very much graffiti and are used to show the audience that it is Skepta's song and that he is close with the rest of his crew.
As the best has been playing for about 5 seconds it shows Skepta standing with his DJ behind some decks which has all been edited in front of the wall covered in graffiti which appears to be behind them.
Skepta then holds the mic up and begins to speed up the process of the song starting. While he does this the Mise en scene changes to a different looking wall behind him. This continues and the background changes again to Skepta sitting there talking behind them.
Skepta and the DJ are both wearing all black fitting with the stereotypical roadman look of all black. However when the background changed Skepta was wearing a white hoodie and then a white t shirt when he is outside, this shows that he is different and can wear what he wants.
When he starts to sing the chorus the speed that he is moving speeds up but the speed of the scene that he is in in the background stays at the same slow speed.
During the chorus the Skepta in the background moves forward so that the white of his t shirt contrasts with the black decks. This may be by accident or it may have deeper meanings into racism or other such issues surrounding different colours.

Filming

Yesterday I went to film at my location which was a start but more will still be needed before the final piece.

Song choice and initial ideas

I am working by myself for this preliminary task. I have decided to recreate the song 'That's not me' by English MC Skepta which was released on 8 June 2014. I have chosen this because it is a well known song and I believe it will be fun to film as it is a throwback to early grime music. When I was thinking of ideas that would make my video unique I decided to use one of my friends who volunteered to rap to the song which I will film in a very urban environment but rather than wearing the traditional 'roadman' outfit he would instead wear a red velvet suit and bow tie.

Prep

Yesterday I went in search of an ideal location to film my preliminary music video and took some pictures so that I could use them for my album cover and website. 

Textual analysis

https://prezi.com/e1gifujvmq3s/edit/#39_95982358

Introduction

Hello this is my blog for my A2 media work and will include all of the work that I complete over the course of the year. This blog will contain my planning and storyboarding for my 1 minute practice music video which will be completed over the next few weeks and eventually include the final piece. The blog will include
- A CD cover/case
- A website to represent the artist and advertise the music video
- The 1 minute practice music video.
Next year the blog will also include my final A2 finished music video.