album cover/ Digi Pack

ALBUM COVERS/ DIGI PACK
A Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging.
Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package (particularly the "teeth" of the hub which secure the disc in place) remains rather brittle and is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.

AGI has recently introduced a new product called digipak i-create for the consumer market. Digipak i-create is a web-supported concept that is aimed at the download, music, photo and creative markets.

I was inspired for my album cover's by walking through London once on a busy day. I saw at lunchtime all the busy workers leaving work for lunch walking over the Millenium Bridge in London and it made me picture the artist standing in the middle of the bridge with St Pauls Cathedral in the background looking at the caera as images moving are all around her. The images around her would probably be blurred to show the busyness of London and possibly of her life and the album.




Another possibility would be to have the artist standing in an iconic old traditional telephone box staring at the camera. There are still some left in Covent Garden, London which always interests me as they are very picturesque and eye catching. The artist could be standing in the middle box with the remaining four telephone boxes identically beside her.




Ofcourse there is the option to have a close up of the artists face, or have her on a photo shoot, quite like Pixie Lott and other pop artist do, although I want to be unique and more urban with my choice of locations, and so the ones I have already mentioned seem like a good idea.

narrative

For my exam I have decided to write about my A2 music video as I feel as though it has a clearer narrative and better storyline. Our short film last year at AS level was told in a linear way in chronological order which seemed very "to the point" and predicatable, but our music video has flashbacks which is more effective and broader to discuss in an exam whereas I think our film could be quite vague and dull.

The narrative in our film is a young teenage ballet dancer who, after a ballet lesson gets stalked by a mysterious killer. In the film we see her journey home from school, her first meeting with the killer, and the ending which is a cliff hanger as we don't know if he catches her or not, and then the film would begin. During this journey the places she passes she passes a music box, and this music box is a symbolic code for the killer always following her.

The narrative in our music video is a teenage girl has just broke up with her boyfriend and in the music video we see her flashback into the good times with him and she remembers the good memories she had with him singing the lyrics to the song. It includes both narrative and performance in it showing a range of different ideas and shots which will be interesting to talk about and why we chose particular symbolisms.

I believe that my narrative skills has improved greatly from AS to A level and therefore I will create a stronger narrative in my music video.

Background research/ Shot types

I was looking over other groups from my class's current footage and come across this video of example of shots they're thinking of using.

The shot where the camera is spinning as the girl sits cross legged on the floor really caught my eye as it makes it seem as if the girl is confussed or upset. I really like this shot, so I think I may put it to my group to try out!

Being adventurous on imovie

Here are a few clips, Neelam, Emmak and myself put together in revenge for Sophie not turning up to school on the day we have media!!! Sorry Sophie. ENJOY haha!

Studio Practice

We had a quick practice in the school gym at practicing angles for our "studio" performance. Here's what we made..

Framing and Composition

Rule of Thirds



The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photographyand design.The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.


Headroom
Headroom refers specifically to the distance between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame, but the term is sometimes used instead of lead room, nose room or 'looking room' to include the sense of space on both sides of the image. The amount of headroom that is considered aesthetically pleasing is a dynamic quantity; it changes relative to how much of the frame is filled by the subject. Moving images such as film and video cameras have the same headroom issues as still photography, but with the added factors of the movement of the subject, the movement of the camera, and the possibility of zooming in or out. Headroom changes as the camera zooms in or out, and the camera must simultaneously tilt up or down to keep the center of interest approximately one-third of the way down from the top of the frame. The closer the subject, the less headroom needed. In extreme close-ups, the top of the head is out of the frame,but the concept of headroom still applies via the rule of thirds.

Practice Filming

Today we got given our camera's to film, so during our lesson time we managed to have a quick go at filming, to see how the lip syncing would fit. We stayed local, in and around the school, and actually filmed some great shots! We filmed 15 minutes all together of footage which Sophie and I stayed after school to edit and produce a practice version of our music video.

Here's how it looks!

Questionnaire

1.How old are you?
12 – 16 []
17 – 19 []
20 + []

2.Gender?
Male []
Female []

3.Do you prefer a music video which is…
Funny []
Serious []

4.Do you prefer abstract videos or ones that go with the lyrics?
Abstract []
Goes with lyrics []

5.Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations etc?
Yes []
No []
Why? _______________________________________________________

6.What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch? ____________________________________________________________

7.Do you prefer…
Calm/slow music videos []
Lively/fast music videos []

8.Do you like to see dance routines?
Yes []
No []

9.What’s your favourite music video? _____________________________
Why?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10.What’s your least favourite music video? ________________________
Why?_____________________________________________________________________
11.What charts do you go by? (radio 1, kiss 100, UK top 40)?_________________________________

12.Do you prefer to watch narrative or performance video’s? Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our moving storyboard

We decided to to creative and inventive and draw and film our storyboards to make our filming easier and more reliable instead of written directions. We feel as a group, that this way is a lot easier as it fits in time with the music, so when it comes to filming we will be able to see what scenes we are at easier.

Lip Sync

During our free periods, Sophie and I decided to give lip syncing a go to see how hard and accurate we need to make our music video. Here is a mini video we edited off different songs for you to enjoy, hope you like it!

Andrew Godwin

Andrew Godwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)

1. Music video's demonstrate genre charecteristics. For example, stage performance in metal video/ dance performance for a boy/girl band all need their set stage directions.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between music and lyrics; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens telescopes) particularly voyeurism treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv, music)

Costumes

I have been researching into Pixie Lott's costume and style, the way she does her hair and make up and clothes she wears for a guideline for our music video. Here are a few images I found.

The official Pixie Lott video

New song lyrics and idea's

Here are our new song lyrics. This song is about a girl talking about her current or past relationship. As I listened to this song I could picture our ideas fitting, hense why we decided on the song.

We can still use the idea of a happy couple, with their happy times; meeting at the park bench (As if it is their first date) along with a shot of the fireworks and sparklers together. Also the scene at Southend where they are messing around and walking down the front with the candyfloss etc, as it all fits in with her lyrics of reminicing as if it is all a flashback of the relationship she is missing.

We could possily use animation like Kate Nash does, with objects coming together or appart to imply the couple either happy or not. Possibly a heart, or the couple drawing their names in the Southend sand, then an arrow breaking that up to reflect on the songs title.

I also imagined the video to be in black and white. I took this influence from Pixie Lott herself as she does a lot of effective video's in black and white. I think this will look good and apply to the mood she could possibly in as she has just potenially split up with her boyfriend of partner for instance as so she is feeling very black and white, yet happy as she is thinking back and reflecting on her past times.

We also wanted to make it look more professional and film the girl recording in a studio, still keeping the 'home video' effect, possibly holding the lyrics on a piece of paper and singing to the microphone. So the camera will film the girl singing in the studio the lyrics to the song, and possibly fade into the next scene of her with her boyfriend as she sings and looks back on her past over the years. Then to show that it is all a flashback, we film her finishing in the studio and saying bye or the makeup artist fixing her hair before she sings, to keep the reality of it. This could be an idea for keeping all the seasons like we wanted to use in our old song. For instance, we would film different parts of the year- supposedly, and have them as a flashback; summer, valentines day, the day they met, birthdays, random days etc.

As the opening comes in, there is no lyrics for 10seconds, this part we could fade from white/black into a close up of the girl getting reading to sing. Maybe a makeup artist brushing blusher on her face quickly, or a director giving the all clear and thumbs up, then as the lyrics come in focus on the girl singing (9seconds later), until about the third or fourth line where there could be fades in of pictures from a holiday or previous happy times of her and her boyfriend, or just her boyfriend.

Then when the chorus comes in 'And you're sitting in the front row' - This could be when the different parts of the seasons and memories comes in, possibly the park scene when they first meet.

I am going to meet up with my group tomorrow and continue storyboarding.


LYRICS


What do you do when you're stuck,
Because the one that you love,
Has pushed you away,
And you can't deal with the pain,
And now you're trying to fix me,
Mend what he did,
I'll find the piece that i'm missing,
But I still miss him,
I miss him, i'm missing him,
Oh I miss him, I miss him i'm missing him

And you're sitting in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow.

He's the thorn in my flesh
That I can't take out
He's stealing my breath
When you're around,
And now you're trying to convince me,
He wasn't worth it,
But you can't complete me,
It's the thought that he's missing,
I miss him, I'm missing him,
Oh I miss him I miss him, i'm missing him,

And you're standing in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Live a broken arrow,
Like a broken arrow.

What do you do
When your hearts in two places?
You feel great but you're torn inside.
You feel love but you just can't embrace it,
When you found the right one at the wrong time.

And you're
Standing in the front row,
Wanna be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow...

CHANGE OF PLAN / Outing to Richmix studio's

Today as a class, my a2 media went all the way to Shoreditch in East London for a talk about media, and music video's. The 'Richmix' studios we went to included 3 cinema's, screening blockbusters and up and coming music video's along with a theatre for performances', locally and nationally, along with a huge bar/gig area for bands to perform and even its own art gallery. As you can tell, this place was amazing. We met some amazing people in the business; producers, chief examiners and directors of music video's of this day and age. It was such an influential talk.

From 10-12 we had an inspiring talk from the OCR chief examiner for media studies. His name was Pete Fraser, also a media studies teacher at a school in Cambridge. He lead us through a talk for the duration of the morning. Information and advice was given out to help us all as a group producing our video. It was very helpful, as we watched a lot of previous music video's ranging from the 30's to present day. Video's include Beetles, Queen, Madonna, 50 Cent, Jay Z, looking at the difference in each video and how they varied in genre and shot types.

We also learnt about MTV and facts on how it was introduced and who the company was based around (mostly the white population) No black artists had been seen on MTV until Michael Jackson brought out his hit record 'Billie Jean'.

Songs such as 'Video killed the radio star' was one of the first songs to be played on MTV, a British produced song.

Methods of Analysis - Andrew Goodwin
-Genre characteristics
-Visual relationships with lyrics and music
-Needs to sell the artist as a star
-Voyeurism/looking - artist appearing on screen as the character.
- characters looking at singer- emphasis.
-Intertexuality - Referring to films, previous video's. Making contextual links.
- A live performance, or pretending to be a live performance.

Making your own music video. - Advice given.
-learn to lip sync
-do karaoke multi angle version of track for fun
-remake old video frame by frame
-50 shots per minute MINIMUM
-around 150-250 shots per song
-make it your own video
-write a treatment
-clear idea, be realistic
-plan everything; people, props, locations, costume
-aim to shoot early to get more time to edit
-rehearse and be ORGANISED
-take the music with you and external speakers on location and whenever you are filming
-shoot the performance of a minimum of 10 times
-singer needs to sing first line of song
-lots of close ups
-shoot more than you think

CHANGE OF PLAN
After this we had lunch and that’s when the dilemma started. We began to take in to consideration, Pete's advice. I wasn't comfortable with the song choice we had as it meant we would have to rely on a boy we knew to lip sync the words and act exactly how we wanted. This to me seemed too much effort as the boy in it would not be able to be the main character and be there every single time we wanted to shoot, especially if we wanted to randomly film a shot and we couldn’t because he does not go to school with us. So we began to brainstorm ideas for a girls song, still with the same idea concept of love and relationships, but it would make it a whole lot easier if it was a girl singing as one of us in our group (me I think) would be reliable and not camera shy.

We came up with the song 'Broken Arrow' by Pixie Lott as it is a song about love and a nice song and not complicated to change over with as the lyric's are easy to follow. My group and I began to listen to the song intensely to see if we could pick up idea's and we all agreed it was the best thing to do. This of course means we need to rethink a name for the singer as well as research into the lyrics. Although this is going to set us back a bit, we are dedicated enough to meet up every day this week, texting and communicating to get our video back on form. Hopefully we will be fine as this is the best solution for a successful filming and final video at the end of it.

Back to the outing
After lunch and all decisions made, we went back to meet a producer of a Soho music company and a director similarly from the same company. Both were so interesting learning all about what they do, and how they got there. We watched many of their music video's they had been involved in and created and all were amazing and inspirational.

Overall, the day was so helpful and we all learnt a lot.

I directed my group to listen to 'Watch The Sun Come Up' individually and picture what they can see in the video from their point of view. We wrote down significant words that applied to the song and came up with a few idea. For starters..
- at the start of the song, we could have him lying on a bed, the camera tilts and goes upside down, out of the window into the sky. The next scene will been a zoom out/tilt from the sky then drop down into the busy London streets with cars and buses, to the man walking down the street; cars, trains, traffic lights etc, all sped up to show the hectic life of a city and possibly his day.

Ive also looked ahead into the production side of the video as for a cd cover, the main man could be standing by an iconic item in London. Possibly a telephone box (one's in Covent Garden) or on the Millenium bridge with people walking past at a busy hour.

To get the best picture possible, I would like to possibly borrow my friends photography camera to make the shot more professional.

Treatment Video

As a group, we wrote out an email to Examples recording manager.

Band brand

We have been discussing band names for our group and have been trying to base it on our original artist, Example. He called himself Example as his name is Elliot Gleave, which stands for the letters e.g, which is known "for example"orn "exempli gratia". We decided to have our band name around the idea of an example, so we put "example" into http://www.thesaurus.com/. We came across these words;

Exposure

Illustrate

Paragon

Specimen

Archetype

Idest

All of these were possible names for our brand, as they all symbolize the term 'i.e', which is similar but different to 'e.g'. With much thought, our group have decided that 'Idest' worked the best as it had a catchy ring to it. We was thinking of spelling it 'idEst' to make it more contempory and upbeat to match the style of the song.

Location's

As a group we were thinking of going to a beach where the couple can walk along the beach front, messing around and possibly throwing stones in the water and doing general romantic stuff. We was thinking about going to Brighton, using the pebbles and the fairground or another alternative would be would be to use the sand at Southend. Possibly drawing the couples names in the sand and shoot a scene walking and running in the shallow part of the sea. We was also thinking about running off into the distance with the fairground lights in the background to show the happyness of them both. We could fast pace this scene up so we do not dwell too much on the couple running off.
Walking along the front with a bag of chips or candyfloss is the typical seaside thing to do, with the who individuals sharing and having a laugh with a few close up shots and behind shots.
Another location is in our local town's playing fields as there is a big pathway lined with trees which is very picturesque. We would like to use this as the couple walks down staggering etc.
I wanted to film the couples shadows of them walking as I think that shows their solidarity as they are both alone but together in the dark for instance.

Background Research

At the weekend I watched the film 'Couple's Retreat' and I loved the way during the opening sequence to the film, as it first started, there was different video's a pictures in 'sepia' 'black and white' and 'colour' etc all going through time from the early 1900's to the present day, changing into more modern times. I thought this idea would go well with out theme of our music video as it is about a couple.

Audience Feedback

This is our wordle for our audience feedback. Overall the response was very positive with only a few questions on how we would link all our home video's together

Mindmap

This is our spider diagram of all our current ideas for our song choice. We thought of using calenders as the theme of the song is about time changing etc and so we would green screen the calender and have different things happening in different months and possibly the main guy walking through the different months. We want to start with the music video acting as a home video and it would start off with someome putting into a TV a VCR with on the white label, "Watch The Sun Come Up". We would then zoom into the TV as if the "film" is coming alive

background info on the media industry

When I was younger I used to work a lot in television productions, eg appearing in tv programmes, films, and adverts. I recently found an advert I was part of back in 2005 when I was 11. It is quite funny to watch myself back over. Ever since I was that young, appearing in a variety of things to do with the media has engaged me more into becoming involved in the media when I am older.

Genre Research

Genre's
Genre is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements.

Daniel Chandler ( 2001) - The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for "kind" or "class". The term is widely used in literary theory and media theory to refer to a distinctive type of text.

Sub Genres
Barry Keith Grant (1995) - Within genres there are sub-genres which allows music to have the same basic elements, but different components. Genres are divided up into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics.

Steve Neale (1995) - "Genres are not 'systems', they are processes of systematization" i.e. they are dynamic and evolve over time.

All genres will have similar mise-en-scene which helps us identify what genre the song is allocated to.

Jason Mittell (2001) - Genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within the industry, audience and cultural practices as well.

Discarded songs

Magnetic man - Perfect Stranger


Katy B - On a mission







Rihanna and Eminem - Love the way you lie

Song Lyrics

Here are our lyrics to the song, we have some lyrics we are going to expand on and possible use in our video. For instance, Example talks about a girl in a red dress, so we are going to try and wear a dress. Also when he says 'How can 10 hours feel like 10 years' Here we were going to green screen a calender and have the main guy walking across the calender. We was also going to green screen poleroid pictures of different times of the year.
Also another key lyric is when it says 'watch the sun come up' Here we are going to film a panning shot ot the sun coming up and also going to reverse the shot back down as he sings it.
SONG LYRICS

Hey, good morning
Hey, it's calling
Hey, good morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want another day with you

How can I explain it scratchin my brain
How can 10 hours feel like 10 years?
I cry 10 men’s tears as it disappears
With the passionate atmosphere
Took your glove as a souvenir
Left the other on the pillow as I stroked your ear
One last breathe of your hair, stared for a second
Then the doorway beckoned
I’m a lover not a fighter
So I didn’t fight the fact that I more than liked ya
Didn’t matter we were under influence
Made sense this was more than lust
I don’t own you, you don’t own me
One night only, if only
I could take you back and just show you off
But I guess if I did that, the magic is lost

Pre chorus:

Believe me I wanna stay
But I'm off and away

Chorus:

Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It’s calling
I want another day with you

Verse 2:

You and that red dress - What a pairing
I kept staring, you couldn’t have said less
Cant let my head rest, thinking about ya,
Really wanna look into your catwoman eyes
Turn back time, cause it flies by
You know, them Marty mcfly vibes
Example Watch The Sun Come Up lyrics found on http://www.directlyrics.com/example-watch-the-sun-come-up-lyrics.html
See, I can picture the bright lights
Sights and night skies and boats go by
I don’t why it happened so fast
When I tried to speak your language I'm happy you laughed
Cause I’m hardly a linguist
Spoke through kisses you didn’t speak English
And It was hard to distinguish
Love at first sight or holiday romance?
Don’t care I was lost in the moment
I really shoulda missed that flight

Pre Chorus:

Believe me I wanna stay
But I’m going away

Chorus:

Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It’s calling
I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It’s calling
I want just one more day with you

Middle 8:

I don’t think I could be dreaming I felt your touch
No I remember you breathing when I woke up
Now all I have are these memories I can't trust
Just one day, wont be enough

Chorus:

Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It’s calling
I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It’s calling
I want another day with you










Watch The Sun Come Up lyrics

Chosen Song Choice

We have finally chosen our song after a long hard thoughtful week. We initially was going for the Hip Hop/Rap genre, but with much thought and consideration we decided that the song choice we wanted to use was too demanding and it seemed more like a short story rather than a narrative and performance. So its goodbye Rhianna and Eminem's song 'Love the way you lie' and hello Examples song 'Watch the sun come up'.

We decided on our original idea of using the artist Example as he has meaningful lyrics and the story we have come up with matches his lyrics and could potentially work really well. Hopefully this idea will work and we will be able to include all the idea's we have made and include them in the song successfully.

Mood board for genre

Mood Board Finish

Potential songs to use

Last week my group and I wrote out a list of potential songs to use in our music video. They are;

Example - Kickstart
- Watch the sun come up
- Last ones standing

Rusted Root - Send me on my way

Ellie Goulding - Lights

INXS - I need you tonight

Professor Green - Just be good to green

Cee lo Green - Forget you

Rihanna ft Eminem - Love the way you lie

Kate Nash - Foundations

Meeting Log

Date of Meeting: 15th September

Venue of Meeting: School Library

Attendees: Elle & Sophie

Minutes and Actions: Thought about the narrative video, and the storyline behind it. Also the song and genre of the song

Video Analysis

Research on youtube

When i got home from school I began looking on youtube at last year's A2 music video's and come across this really clever video. I love how the drawings move and the words are cut out. Great idea to think about for our video.

Music Video and Genre choices for our song

We have decided our groups genre is going to be 'Rap/Rnb' as we are very fond of the idea of using Eminem and Rihanna's duet "Love the way you lie" as it fits our storyline perfectly.

Miming

To make sure our video does not go horribly wrong and look cheesy, we wanted to focus on a performance video rather than narrative, although including some shots of narrative. To do so we thought of the idea of using long shots and wide shots so that the movement of the mouth isnt so clear.

We also thought that by making the rapping more exciting, we could use a number of mouths, male and female to rap parts of the song, like Black Eyed Pea's did on their single 'Where is the love' and Example's 'Kickstart'. This could be a really effective technique to use.

Lastly, at the start of the song 'Love the way you lie' we were thinking of filming the flashbacks of the two different couples fighting, or possibly just show one couple at a time, to save confusion of the audience, and only when Rihanna's singing part of the first chorus comes in, the couples or girl depending, begin to reminisce over their good times, and so the plot of our performance starts in our video. (As we want to focus more on the happytimes of the story to contrast the songs lyrics and make it feel more upsetting and depressing that this is how the couples have turned out.)

I have been researching loads into different music video's my group can use, and found that it was a lot harder than we thought! There are so many different types of genre's and storylines we could use, but we managed to get a rough idea of what our video can be about.

We watched Example's video of 'Watch the sun come up' and loved the idea of the scenes with a girl, walking and talking randomly, and just being happy. We also loved the arguements and fighting in Eminem's video 'Love the way you lie' as it is very meaningful and powerful.

We want to encorpertae both happy and sad moods into our video, juxstaposing eachother.

Our idea of 'love' is looking promising, as we have written bullet points on a plot of a story to do with 2 couples, 2 different girls, but both in the same situation and in the same location( possibly a cafe or leaning on a tree on two opposite sides) as they reminise their previous fighting and arguing, along with their goodtimes, possibly looking through photo's of memories, or their memory in their head. The girls could start off at the cafe or the park and either reminse what's just happened in a flashback or, during the flashback at the end it goes through all the happy times repeating the arguements from the start of the music video and then showing the two girls leaving in fury and making their seperate ways to the starting location, using different routes, but finding comfort in this one place where they can think. We would focus on the two girls situations by using a zoom in editing technique either into the cup of coffee, or the girls themselves, and using a split screen later on in the video to show the girls similar situations and how they are both handling it.

We was also thinking, to show the difference in the flashbacks and real life, to use a date and time on the screen indicating the location and the fact it is earlier that day or even the previous day.

Narrative or Performance?

We are more than 80% sure our narrative will be about love, preferably a couple either having arguements or a couple that are happy and looking over memories. We think this would be a good choice as many artists nowdays are about love as it is such a big part in people's lives, and so we need to find the right music to match this.

We will be including performance in our video, but not too much as we do not want to over do it and make it look unprofessional, as a lot of artists, such as Rhianna, and Example, have a storyline and a few shots of them actually singing. We would like to do the same.

Genre's and song choices

We are currently debating which music genre to choose. We have had a number of idea's, ranging from indi/rock to pop. We want to focus on a narrativee music video as we like the idea of a storyline going on during the singing. We want to stay away from using too much performance video as it could come across as being quite cheesy.

We found a song from the film Matilda - written by Rusted Roots - 'Send me on my way'



We have also been looking at Examples songs; Kickstarts and Last one standing as both have an upbeat rhythm which we could easily do a narrative video with. They also have meaningful lyrics.

Groups- We're Back!

For my group, we have decided to all stay in the same groups from AS as we are all ocmfortable around eachother and know eachothers likes and dislikes whilst making a film. Last year I was the main actress in our film, and so this year, depending on the music choice we choose, we are all debating whether to all take part in the music video, as it is also our last year of the A2 course.

I have been researching this years A2 music video's on YouTube as I wanted to get a rough idea of the competition and what kind of music and genre's have been previously used. I come across this fantastic music video called 'A-ha! Imogen Heap - By Greg Bernstein & Joshua Moss' which I found some great shots and ideas. The genre for this music video is very Gothic and eerie, and reminds me of my groups AS two minute film we made, featuring a music box, likewise to the one in this music video. I also like the overlapping transaction at the start of this video showing the confusion as the audience does not know what is happening. I also liked the upbeat beat and tempo of the song, and the sillhouettes of the girl and objects in the background. I hope you like this video as much as I did.

I really like the Kate Nash video 'Foundations' as I like the movements and individualism of her storyline as she uses objects to show her split with her boyfriend. For instance during the video, the man and womans toothbrushes start off together and start to seperate as Kate is singing about her seperation with her boyfriend. Likewise with the watches.

I also like the camera angle of when she is singing "my fingertips are holding onto the cracks in our foundations" and she is holding onto his hand and the sun is creaping in, and as she sings "and I know that I should let go" as she sings this she drops the boys hand which is significant as it shows the change in the relationship etc (1:03)

The high shot of the feet in bed is a good shot as it shows the connection the couple has and the relationship status between them. These objects make the storyline and make it more interesting to watch.

Kesha's song featuring 3oh!3 'my first kiss' attracted my attention as I liked the idea of the image of Kesha's face coming across the screen with the two boys from 3oh!3 still in the background. I think this is effective as the songs lyrics overlap and we are able to see all three singers at the same time.

Different genre's and storylines

By looking at differnet music video's with different beats and rhythms, I noticed that by using more upbeat songs, we will find it difficult and it is also very rare that upbeat music video's have a storyline to it, so it is more than likely that if we went down the route of having a storyline in our music video, we would do a more slow song such as Knock You Down by Kaanye West or Last Night by P.Diddy where there is a situation going on as they are singing etc.

Music video research

Rihanna. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers. She subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for then-label head Jay-Z. Rihanna has achieved six number-one singles on the Hot 100 chart, the most for a female artist since the start of the 2000s decade, and has also received several accolades, including the 2007 World Music Awards for World's Best-Selling Pop Female Artist and Female Entertainer of the Year, as well as the 2008 American Music Awards for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist.She serves as one of Barbados's honorary cultural ambassadors.In January 2010, Rihanna received two Grammy Awards for Jay-Z's 2009 single "Run This Town".


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Example (Elliot John Gleave) is a British singer and rapper currently signed to Data Records. His pseudonym arose due to his initials forming e.g. which is a common abbreviation for "for example". Example sung vocals that employ stylistic elements similar to that of 1970s Blues music.

He was born 20 June 1982 at West London hospital in Hammersmith and he attended All Saints Primary School in Fulham High Street. He later went on to attend ADT College, Wandsworth. Gleave has claimed in interviews that the main reason he started rapping was due to his introduction to Hip-Hop through albums by Wu-Tang Clan and Snoop Dogg. In 1992, he won Royal Mail Poet of the Year, winning his school a new computer. In 2000, Example attended Royal Holloway University, London to study film directing. While at University, Example started garage MCing to make some money. It was during this period that he met his producer, Joseph Gardner which was later known as Rusher. Example and Rusher made a concept album in the audio booth of the University film department which included the track that would go onto be Example's first white-label vinyl release, "A Pointless Song".

However, Example didn't restrict him to just being a rapper. In February 2008 Example also tried his hand at stand-up comedy as part of BBC2's The Culture Show. Mentored by English comic Richard Herring, Example spent six weeks writing and practicing his own stand-up routine which culminated in his first ever stand-up show in front of 60 paying customers in a Covent Garden pub. A week later he appeared on the bill under Richard Herring, Phil Jupitus and Harry Hill at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Example has discussed evolving into a new genre in his blogs, describing his new work as "Dysfunctional Electro-Pop". UK producers Chase & Status, Calvin Harris and MJ Cole contribute also to the project. Won't Go Quietly was released on 18 January 2010. The chorus is sung by Sam James and Pearse MacIntyre of the band Rogues. "Won't Go Quietly" entered the UK Singles Chart at #6, of which it spent 2 weeks within the Top 10, marking Example's most successful single so far.

He also has a website which is called http://www.trythisforexample.com/. Example has a Facebook fan page with over 40,000 fans. Which shows his success in his short period of being around in the UK Charts. Artist's that are also signed to the label Data Records are artists such as, Alex Gaudino, Beatfreakz, Eric Prydz, Sidney Sampson ft Wizard Sleeve and Joey Negro.



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The video of Umbrella by Rihanna really caught my eye as I loved the jerky camera effect during the video. I also liked the fast paced clips of Rhianna and the different costume change and different mise en scene. It breaks up the music video making everything seem more interesting. Another video which also caught my attention was Example's song Kickstart as there are different shots of the body. I also liked the quick sharp cuts of the feet tapping at the start and of the boys changing in the video.