Recce Shots

The Music Industry

In this post I speak about the platforms that a music video can be consumed on by the audience as well as what a music video is and the overall purpose of a music video.

Mise En Scene In Our Music Video

 

This post talks about the mise en scene being used in our music video. We have spoken about props and costume that help create stereotypes and linking to the indie genre.

Representation In Our Music Video

We decided to film ourselves discussing representation in our music video. This was so that we got more detail and opinions on what we both thought as a team. We spoke about mise en scene, camerawork, editing and stereotypes. Discussing this, allowed us to plan what representations we were going to include and build in our music video.

Record Label Research

 

This post shows a number of record labels that are associated with indie bands similar to mine. I have also done additional research a couple of record labels and saw what bands they manage and market. This helped me make an overall decision on the record label I have chosen for my band.

Location, Costume, Equipment and Props

 

This is a post that shows my planning of the locations, costume, equipment and props. The locations shows the different locations as well as a map of where they are. The costume shows three costume types and why I have chosen them. The equipment and props show a list of items that will be used in the music video or to make the music video and it includes why they are being used. This all helps with the planning and preparation of the music video as they will all be used or needed in the making of the music video. This saves time and organises characters and people involved.

Shooting Schedule

This is my shooting schedule for the filming of the music video. It is a plan for the Friday 25th November, Saturday 26th November and Sunday 27th November 2016. It is a break down of each day and scene which includes the location, actors needed and the shots.

Risk Assessment Form

This is the risk assessment form that my team have filled in to say what risks they are, to whom and what, what can be done to prevent it and other additional comments. We also included property contacts so if they get damaged or there is an issue we can get in touch ASAP. It has been signed by myself and my team member.

Animatic Storyboard

This post shows our animatic storyboard. The lengths of the shots are how long each post it note is on the screen for to give us an idea on what it will look like. We have featured some drawings to help us as well as shot types. The track lasts for 2:14 minutes however we are featuring dialogue before it. This is why the animatic and shots are longer than the track itself. We used the software of Microsoft Windows Movie Marker to vary our software we are using as we had to learn how to use it which ahs developed our skills.

Storyboard Images

These are images of my storyboard in detail with every shot that will be taken and in what scene. This helps when planning as it saves time and organises my time when shooting the music video. I have added some images to each scene as these are inspiration for some shots.

Reasoning For Risk Assessments

What is a risk assessment?
When filming, especially in the music industry- risk assessments are very important to ensure that if an accident occurs- you would have previous assessed the risk and tried to your best to prevent it, making claiming insurance easier! However, this does not apply so much for an A-level Media Studies music video- but we have tried our best to scale down the process to get a feel for what real music producers have to do when producing a music video.

Risk assessment is the process where you:
- Identify hazards.
- Analyze or evaluate the risk associated with that hazard.
- Determine appropriate ways to eliminate or control the hazard.

In practical terms, a risk assessment is a thorough look at your workplace to identify those things, situations, processes, etc that may cause harm, particularly to people. After identification is made, you evaluate how likely and severe the risk is, and then decide what measures should be in place to effectively prevent or control the harm from happening.

Why do you have to do a risk assessment and its importance?
Risk assessments are very important as they form an integral part of a good occupational health and safety management plan. They help to:

- Create awareness of hazards and risks.
- Identify who may be at risk (employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, the public, etc).
- Determine if existing control measures are adequate or if more should be done.
- Prevent injuries or illnesses when done at the design or planning stage.
- Prioritize hazards and control measures.

The aim of the risk assessment process is to remove a hazard or reduce the level of its risk by adding precautions or control measures, as necessary. By doing so, you have created a safer and healthier workplace.

Questionnaire Answers

 

 

 

 

We have used these answers from the focus group to decide on a band name, song title and overall idea. These helps us to give the audience what they want and expected from our music video. These answers were not given to us by many during the focus group footage therefore these questionnaires help get more detail to others opinions.

Band Name and Song Title

We have chosen the band name ‘The Originals’ and the song title ‘MAD’. We decided to name the band ‘The Originals’ as we evaluated the focus group answers and came up with two options. As a team we discussed and came to the conclusion that we both preferred ‘The Originals’ as it fits the genre better. We decided on the song title ‘MAD’ as the focus group highlighted this as a favourite as well as me and my team member preferring the song title over the other choice. It is important to listen to the focus group’s opinions however they are not concrete answers and decisions as I believe we have more knowledge about the indie rock genre and the conventions.

Digipak Analysis

 

 This is a post using Slide Share to show analysis of four indie digipaks. The artists I chose where The Script, Paramore, 1975 and Lana Del Ray. These are different artists which is why I chose them in order to compare the similarities and differences. This research enables me to produce a digipak that fits with the conventions and stereotypes of the product and genre.

 

Voxpop

This is some extra research I did for the indie genre. This aids decisions with the music video as well as extending research on the genre and what audiences views are. It was shot and edited by my production team which may also help in the editing stage of the music video as it is some practise using the software and choosing the software.

Music Website Analysis

 

This post is a Prezi to show music websites by different artists. I have analysed them to understand what conventions are featured on an indie rock genre website in order to help me create a digipak. This adds to my research of the genre. My team member has also done some different research. We planned to research different bands to get a more detailed understanding of the music websites of indie bands. We distributed the work load for this task as it needs to be in detail and each page analysed. 

Indie Rock Audience Profile

The reason why I have chosen the layout of a magazine is because I got my inspiration from ‘NME’ reader profile. I think that is allows me to be creative by using Wordle as the psychographics and my survey responses for the audience profile. I have included elements of audience theory which allows me to think about this whilst creating my music video.

Focus Group Interview and Pitch

 

This is my focus group interview that I filmed with a small sample of people. They ranged in age to get varied answers. We showed them a pitch which included mood boards, the song, the lyrics, three summary ideas as well as names for the band and song title. This all helps make decisions as we can base it on the reply of the focus group. We also asked open questions to allow people to give additional ideas and opinions to our pitch. We got the focus group to fill in a questionnaire whilst doing the pitch to get physical feedback that they may not have had chance to say during the pitch.

Survey Monkey Responses and Analysis

 

This post shows the results from my survey I created via Survey Monkey. It includes analysis and an overall comment about the survey and why it is important. The data collected was both qualitative and quantitative which allows deep analysis. I asked questions such as gender, age and preferred setting to allow me to adapt my final idea to suit the needs and expectations of the audience.

Meet The Production Team

This is an online presentation (Prezi) that shows the production team for my A2 media studies music video project. It includes a fact file about each member including photos, strengths and music taste. It also shows why I think that working in a team is more beneficial than working as an individual.

Demographics For Target Audiene

I have created this word cloud on Wordle. This is an online site that you can add words to and it creates an image to show your thoughts. I have used this to create a word cloud of all the words associated with my target audience such as social demographics(C2DE), hobbies(socialising), Media Grouping(1975 and Snow Patrol), Occupation(Student/Manual Skilled Worker) and style(leather, grundge and altnerative). This puts all of the words relating to my target audience into one image making it easier to see what they are like as a whole. 

Album Cover Remake

I was tasked to recreate an iconic  album cover. This included taking an existing album cover and re-make it as closely as possible with differences such as the image or font. This allowed me to develop the way I construct an image as well as paying attention to detail within the cover. I had to think about the genre and conventions in order to re-create an iconic album cover.

Random Generated Album Cover

I was given a task to make three album covers that were randomly generated. This meant I had to get a random image, band name and album title. I used Flickr to get my image as I used Flickr’s last seven days and chose the third image every time. The title was generated from a few words from a random quote site as well as the title being a random search in Wikipedia. This meant the title, image and band name didn’t always go together making it difficult to do. I used Photoshop to complete this task as it has all the tools needed such as blur and effects for the image. My first album cover was the band ISG20, title fake your way through and an image of a duck. None of these matched together meaning the album cover looks unorganised and rushed.  My second attempt was Dax Norman. This cover was better than my first as the artist, title and image linked together however I wasn’t completely satisfied with the outcome which led onto my third attempt. This was Michael Avery ‘forgive but don’t forget’. This image was perfect for the cover which made it easier to create. I preferred the black and white effect to all the others as it links to connotations of the title. After doing this task, I realised that the title, band and image all need to link together in order to compliment each other within the finished product.

Music Video Sturcture - Research

This shows some of my research into how a music video is formed and structure. I have found out that there are three types of music video structure which are narrative, performance and concept. These can all be featured in one video as a hybrid or they can be separate. This research has helped me to form three ideas on potential music videos using the different types of structure.

 

Permission To Use Chosen Song

I have wrote an email to the record company for Arctic Monkeys (Domino Recording Company) to ask for permission to use ‘Curtains Close’. This is an image of my email as it will be used for educational purposes.

Questionnaire For Focus Group

This is my questionnaire that I have designed on Microsoft word document to give to my focus group during the pitch. This allows me to collect answers that they may not mention in the video as well as other allowing them to add some in depth answers. The questionnaire can then be used as well as the answers from the pitch to help make decisions based on what the target audience want to see from the music video.

Intertexuality Within Music Videos

Indie Rock Moodboard

This is a mood board that I have created to show conventions, stereotypes and ideas about the indie rock genre. This will inspire me whilst doing my music video as it contains costume, shot types, setting and props that I could use to create my final music video piece. It gives a general idea of the genre which I can also show to a focus group to gain ideas and opinions to embed in my video.

Survey Monkey Questionaire

Create your own user feedback survey


I have created an online survey which will allow me to ask a large group of people numerous questions. This allows me to collect and analysis the date according which will enable me to create a focus group to send my ideas to and get feedback to help me adapt and add to my music video plan before producing the final version. This will help me to create a realistic video that you would expect to see from my genre of Indie Rock. Doing the survey online helps me reach a mass audience compared to a physical paper questionnaire. This lets me eliminate the anomalous results as well as answers that are not needed. I can then make informed decisions on music video based on my target audience answers. I have used comment boxes which will allow me to have quantitative data as well as qualitative data.

Extended Research Of Indie Rock Genre

 
This post is some extended research that I have conducted about the music genre of indie rock. I decided to research three indie rock bands and look at some conventions in the music videos as well as seeing similarities and differences to help me when creating my own music video. I have analysed the mise en scene, sound, camerawork and editing in order to break down the music video and focus on certain points. I decided that conducting additional research would help me to analysis other music videos in more depth therefore broadening my knowledge as the genre was unfamiliar. I will also take inspiration from these music videos when planning my own in order to meet certain criteria and to meet the expectations of the audience who listen to the indie rock genre.

Audience Theories

 

You Gov Profile Lite - Arctic Monkeys

You Gov Profiles Lite is a website that allows you to find the demographics of an audience for a specific band. This is a useful tool to help me create my music video as I know the target audience for my genre of music. This allows me to be able to use 18-24 year old males in my focus group to get ideas that my audience will like.

Music Video Conventions For The Indie/Rock Genre

This is a Prezi that presents the conventions of the indie/rock genre for music videos. It includes information about mise en scene and a brief summary. I watched various music videos from artists such as The Killers and Arctic Monkeys to allow analysis of the genre as a whole.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory Summary and Music Video Analysis

 

This is a slide share that shows Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos. It shows a brief summary of the five key elements as well as three music videos that are analysed in the theory of Goodwin. They all show the five key areas of each music video which includes representations of artists.

Welcome Post

My name is Ellis Warren. I am a A2 media student. This year I shall be making a promotional package for a new band – including a music video and digipak. I will be showing my research and planning as well as production and evaluation. I have chosen the indie/rock genre as my genre for the promotional package. This is because I wanted to challenge myself to do a genre that I don’t tend to listen to. This means I have to go in depth with my research in order to create a high standard production.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog J