Tuesday 8 December 2009

More Pictures for Music Video...






These are the pictures I have taken for some of the shots of my music video. The idea is that when they have all been uploaded onto iMovie or Final Cut I will have them all of these images merged together so that when the video is played in full the magnets in the photos will appear to be continuously moving on their own to form the title of the song. I am planning to use these images around 3 or 4 times in the video, however I may use other images as this particular image may become repetitive if it is repeated after a certain number of times.

Friday 27 November 2009

Digipack Stuff...

I have managed to edit the photos I have taken of my band members for my digipack. I used the same sort of editing techniques so that all five members of the band have the same style of photo for when they've all been put together in my completed digipack. The main part of my digipack that is left to complete is the front cover as well as the background of the section which would have the plastic digitray stuck on. For my front cover, I am planning to experiment with the photos I have taken by cropping certain parts of each members faces and then putting them together so that each section of a members face makes up one full face. I will again be doing this on Photoshop and am planning to do this some time next week. Hopefully it will work as I think it will add a really different effect and style to my digipack, and will fit in well with the style of my music video and the style of my band.

Wednesday 25 November 2009

'You've Got The Love' song lyrics...

You've Got The Love
Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need To see me through

Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough
And things go wrong no matter what I do
Now and then it seems that life is just too much
But you've got the love I need to see me through

When food is gone you are my daily meal
When friends are gone I know my saviour's love is real
Your love is real

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Time after time I think "Oh Lord what's the use?"
Time after time I think it's just no good
Sooner or later in life, the things you love you loose
But you got the love I need to see me through
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need to see me through...

Band Members Info...

These are the members of the band I have created for my project, 'The Disadvantaged'.

Lucy Taylor, 18

Lead singer + guitarist

Amir Ramsahaye, 17

Guitarist

Sam Sheridan, 17

Bass Guitarist


Sam Richards, 17

Keyboardist


Aaron Wilkinson, 19

Drummer

These are the photos of my band members and are the photos I am going to use for my digipack. I will be editing these photos before putting them onto my digipack and will put the new edited versions of these pictures on here another time.

Wednesday 18 November 2009

First Images for Video...

I have taken a number of the pictures that I am going to use in my music video, and already I have a rough idea about what some of them when merged together are going to look like in the end. These are examples of some of the pictures that I have taken and am going to use in my video:


These are just examples, as in the actual video I will have scanned these pictures into the computer in order to get a clearer image and cut out any backgrounds like the ones in these particular pictures. Also, once I begin editing my video these images will be merged together so that there is a continuous moving image of the heart breaking and coming together again.

Friday 6 November 2009

Pictures for Animatic...

These are the pictures of my storyboard that I am using to make my animatic...






Shot 1






Shot 2








Shot 3








Shot 4








Shot 5







Shot 6







Shot 7








Shot 8







Shot 9









Shot 10








Shot 11







Shot 12







Shot 13








Shot 14








Shot 15







Shot 16








Shot 17






Shot 18







Shot 19








Shot 20








Shot 21






Shot 22








Shot 23








Shot 24

Monday 19 October 2009

Music Video Ideas...

The majority of my music video will be made up of drawings and other random objects that will represent the story of the song I am making my music video for. For a number of these shots of the drawings in the final cut of my video, they will need to appear as if they've moving as the idea I have for these drawings is to draw the characters of the video and have them almost re-create the scene that is going on at points of the song.
In order to achieve this, I will need to draw a number of images of each shot of the image moving. I will then take pictures of each of these images, before eventually uploading them onto iMovie or Final Cut, putting them all in order and into a flow so that when my video is played back it will look as if the images are seemingly moving on their own, or in the case of some of my shots as if they're being drawn onto the paper by themselves. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work, and hopefully it will turn out how I'm hoping it will.

Monday 5 October 2009

Song Choice...

The song I have chosen to make a music video for is 'You've Got The Love' by Florence + The Machine. I have chosen this song because it has a really individual sound and it ties in well with the type of music video that I want to make, which is something thats individual, has a unique feel to it and is easily recognisable through the bright colours and random objects that appear throughout the video. I have looked at other music videos that are similar in style to what I want to achieve, with the aspect of having bright colours that stand out, having random objects seemingly move on their own and have aspects of the video tie in with the words of the song as they come up in the background of the video. Videos I have looked at for ideas include: 'The Fear' by Lily Allen and 'Foundations' by Kate Nash. I like the way of these videos have a different feel to all of them, but they manage to do it in a way that each video is like every other music video out there, as well as not being the same as all the 'unique' styled videos made.

Friday 25 September 2009

Creating Your Music Artist...

  • Name of band: The Disadvantaged
  • Genre: Indie pop/rock

  • Brief description: In the band, there are 5 members. 2 of the members are boys and the other 3 are girls. All of the members were born in Britain. All members are aged between 17-19 years old.

  • Biography: Where are they from? All were born in Britain, all members have grown up in the south east London area.
  • History of the band? The band met at the secondary school they attended in south east London. They all had experience of playing instruments and put their band together when they were 14 and 16. Started practising and writing songs together and having practise sessions of their music. All took up Saturday jobs and saved up the money to hire out studios in order to record their demos. Set up their own Myspace page and put their songs onto this page. Put up advertisements on similar bands music pages so that fans of those bands would go and listen to their music and their fanbase would start to grow.

  • Musical Influences: La Roux, Florence + The Machine, The Killers, MGMT.

  • Accomplishements so far: Debut single got into the Top 10 of the UK singles charts. Supported Fall Out Boy on the UK leg of their world tour at the beginning of 2009, performed at music festivals over the summer including V Festival, Reading & Leeds and Glastonbury.

  • Up and coming tour/gig dates: Supporting Enter Shikari on their upcoming tour. Also set to perform for fans at the HMV store in Oxford Street to launch their new album.

  • Press Coverage to date: Interviews with Radio 1, NME magazine, Kerrang magazine and featured in the new artists sections of a number of music websites.
  • Artists Image:
  • Where you propose to push the artists image: Have an 'unstyled look', something that doesn't look as if its been styled by a stylist, something that looks as if they've styled themselves. Clothes you would see typical teenagers wearing, indie style clothes.
  • How you will create a band identity: Identity will be quite a unique one. If people were to look at them for their image, compared to other bands of a similar genre, they would be easily recognised by people of their own age and possibly a few years older due to their style being things that everyday teenagers would wear. This will help people relate to them and possibly help them create a large fan base among teenagers who are around their age.

  • What sites will you use and what style?: The main website the band will use is their own Myspace web page. This page will have the full versions of all their songs and will give fans the opportunity to listen to their music and download the songs they like for free. Will also have full information about each member of the band and the band as a whole to let their fans and people who are new to their music get to know them. The band will also have their own official website on their label, Warner Bros. Records.

  • Other internet plans: Will be featured in the new artist sections of music websites such as NME.com, Kerrang.com.
  • Other gimmicks and PR stunts: appearances at Kerrang Awards, interviews on Kerrang Radio and Radio 1, live sessions for MTV music channel, and will release a podcast for free on iTunes which will include interviews and exclusive acoustic versions of their songs.
  • Alliances Already Forged: Formed an alliance with Enter Shikari when they both performed at a music festival over the summer, which lead to them being asked to support them on their upcoming UK tour.
  • The Target Audience: The bands main target audience will be people in their late teens and people in their twenties, due to the different sound that the band provide and their fresh and original image.

Saturday 19 September 2009

Ideas for my music video...

One of my favourite music videos has to be Foundations by Kate Nash. When I first saw it I thought it was great, the whole thing was so original and was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I love the way theres a mix of the singer and the actor, as well as scenes which use only objects which have been filmed in a way that makes them look as if they're moving around the scene on their own. I also really like the way that the whole video has bright colours throughout it, and all of the objects used in the video go really well with the theme of the song and the meaning of the lyrics. The way that the video has been filmed using objects which represent the male and female present in the video really fits in well with the meaning of the song, talking of how a strong relationship was now ending as the people involved could no longer live with each other, despite them both trying to carry on as usual.




I would really like to do a video that involves moving objects, and would like to do it in the same way that it was done in this Kate Nash video. I'm also thinking of using polaroid photographs and other random shots of things that go along with the song that I will choose. At the moment, I'm not planning on using any actors in my video, and will instead use random objects to represent the meaning of the lyrics of the song.

New Music Act Stuff...

Solo artist or group?: Group, mix of boy & girl members

Name: Not yet sure about what the bands going to be called...need to do a bit more thinking to think of something original and that will stand out, and that doesn't sound like any artist name thats around at the moment...I have come up with the idea of calling my music act The Disadvantaged. I have chosen this name because I think it goes well with the bands image and sound. I also think it would be something memorable and people of a similar age who listen to their music could maybe relate to the bands name.


Back story: Band made up of 5 members, 3 girls and 2 boys. All met at secondary school, and set up their band through being in the same music class and joining their school music club. All had Saturday jobs and saved up their money to hire out a recording studio to record their songs, which they then uploaded onto their own Myspace page. They put their songs up for free download and advertised themselves on similar bands Myspace pages in order to attract a wider audience. This increase in popularity led to them being signed by an independent label.

Ideology: Values are to make music that doesn't sound like anything else that is in todays charts. They want their music to be completely different from other bands that are around today, and want to bring an original sound to todays music charts. They write their own songs and play their own instruments, and their songs all have lyrics which refer to experiences members of the band themselves have experienced.

Image: The members of the band all have an indie rock type style, though the type of clothes they wear are quite ordinary and what you would expect to see everyday people wearing as they don't have the 'perfect' record label styled look, which is something they pride themselves of never having. No one in particular has styled them, instead they have styled themselves to fit in with their unique sound.

Record Label: Signed by independent label, Echo Label, which sign various bands that have a unique and different sound. Bat for Lashes, another group bringing their own unique sound to todays charts, are also signed to this label. The band would rather be signed to an independent label than one of the majors, due to the fact they want to have their own say in the music they make and the image they have. They don't want to be changed or styled in a particular way which would make them like every other act, which a major label may do. They also thought it would be better to sign to an indepedent label, as they have seen from other music artists that when particular artists have been signed to a major label after a while it becomes all about making money and not about the quality of music that is made.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Analysis of 'Bliss' Music Video



I have chosen to analyse the music video for 'Bliss' by Muse. The song itself has a spacey almost futuristic sound to it, and this sound has been portrayed by the imagery of the video. The video is set in space, on an unrecognisable planet that has a giant hole right through the core of it. The colourings of the planet and the sky above it are all in the colours of grey and different tones of blue, again giving the impression of the songs out of world sound and possibly representing the coldness of this strange planet.

These colours of the background are a huge contrast to the bright red colour, the colour of the lead singer Matt's shirt and his hair. This huge difference between the colours of the background image and the lead singer could have purposely been done in order to draw the audiences attention to the lead singer, a way of presenting him as the main focus of the video and to let the audience know that he is the main focus of which the camera will be concentrating on throughout the video. The difference in the colours of the lead singer and the background of the video could also be representing the difference between the planet and the main character, an idea which is especially notable to the audience when we see the other two members of the band randomly floating around as the lead singer falls through the core of the planet, as they are wearing clothes which are the same blues used for the planet and the sky, possibly showing that they are not as important as the lead singer and are not what the audience should be mainly focusing on as the video is playing.

The image of Matt falling through the apparently metal core of the planet and the effect of wind blowing his hair and clothes as he falls gives the sense of freedom to the audience. This is re-enforced further with him freely rotating and flying around as he continuously falls, giving the audience the idea that he is free to do as he pleases and that while he is falling through air he is able to almost fly like a bird, and because of this cannot be stopped or restrained from doing what he wants. This idea of freedom as he falls could be seen to go along with the title of the song, 'Bliss', and the idea of the video could be to represent that by falling through the air and being able to fly freely and have all the freedom in the world, he may be achieving his ultimate bliss, and therefore his ultimate freedom.

Saturday 15 August 2009

Research of Record Label - Rough Trade

  • Geoff Travis opened the Rough Trade shop in West London in February 1976.
  • Sold mixture of punk and reggae records, influenced by the music scene that was taking place in the West London area at the time.
  • The shop was seen as radical and revolutionary for music of the time, selling records from both the punk and reggae genres, and by selling seven inch picture sleeves that were about to become extremely popular with the music industry and music fans.
  • 1978, had started its own distribution of records made by bands that did not have a major record deal. By this time, more and more bands were choosing to record, produce and distribute their music on their own terms without the help or being signed to a major label.
  • As the shop started to distribute more and more records, it was decided that Rough Trade would also become a music label.
  • First record released on the label was 'Paris Marquis' by the French punk rock band Metal Urbaine.
  • Released records of the punk, reggae and electronic genres.
  • Electric Eels, Subway Sect, Cabaret Voltaire, Swell Maps and Augustus Pablo were also some of the first acts to sign and release records on the new label.
  • 1979, bands that are nowadays associated with Rough Trade, including Scritti Politti and The Raincoats started to release their music on the label.
  • The labels widespread recognition lead to the TV programme 'The South Bank Show' to become devoted to the music released by it.
  • Rough Trade's first album was released in 1979, 'Inflammable Material' by Stiff Little Fingers. It sold over 100,000 copies and charted at number 14, and it became the first independent record in history to sell this number of records.
  • Over the next few years, Rough Trade released some of the best independent music, including acts such as Aztec Camera, This Heat, Robert Wyatt, The Fall, Television Personalities and Young Marble Giants.
  • LPs such as 'Songs to Remember' by Scritti Politti, 'The Modern Dance' by Pere Ubu and 'Are You Glad to be in America?' by James Blood Ulmer have become some of the classic LPs released by Rough Trade.
  • Rough Trade's main aim for their record label was to make great music and get it out and heard by the public. For them it was more about finding ways in which to get their music heard by people rather than the money the releasing of their music was making.
  • In 1983, Rough Trade signed the band The Smiths. They were the start of the genre that would go on to be called 'indie', and the major success that they had in the three years they were together as a band meant that Rough Trade had to re-assess how they promoted bands and their music. The band led the way for all future indie bands and they were doing this without even realising they were almost revolutionising the music scene at the time.
  • The Smiths are still seen as one of the most successful acts signed by Rough Trade, with the band having a continuous run of 16 singles which made it into the charts, and all four of the studio albums they released all reached the top 2 in the charts.
  • The joining of Jeanette Lee to Rough Trade in 1987 revolutionised the label once more, with her influencing the releasing of records which went on to become some of the biggest record successes of the late 1980s, including 'Reading, Writing & Arithmetic' by The Sundays, which was a top five hit in 1990.
  • In early 1991, the record label made a third premises move to Finsbury Park. It was after this move, that the labels parent company, Rough Trade International, went into administration after a number of ill fate business decisions and money issues which affected the labels distribution system.
  • The record company and the rights to the Rough Trade name were sold off in order to pay back some of the debts caused by the distribution, and it was another ten years in 2001 until Rough Trade was started up again.
  • Geoff Travis and Jeanette Lee re-acquired all the rights to Rough Trade in 2001, and once again made it into a record company, with the help of their trading partner, Sanctuary.
  • Despite the ten years of which Rough Trade had not been producing and distributing music, the companies aims of making great music and their belief in the artists they were working with all remained the same.
  • Since the re-establishment of Rough Trade in 2001, the label has signed, produced and released a number of records that have proved just as successful as their 1980s hits, including the likes of: The Strokes, who in 2001 & 2002 gave the label their biggest commercial success since The Smiths, as well as The Libertines, Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Low, British Sea Power, Antony & The Johnsons, and most recently in 2008 Duffy, who became the biggest selling artist in the UK for that year.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Friday 19 June 2009

Favourite Music Video


One of my favourite music videos is 'The Fear' by Lily Allen. I really like this music video as the while the song talks about how ideas that people have about life have changed dramatically and how everyone dreams of being a celebrity, the video is set in almost a fantasy world where nothing is as it seems. I really like how everything is out of the ordinary and is like one big fantasy, with there being rooms of moving presents, balloon people and other random items throughout the video. The whole video is quirky and individual and theres no other music videos around like it, which is probably why I like it so much.

http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/4054642/10954466

Thursday 18 June 2009

My Music Glog



This is my music glog, and it shows some of my favourite bands, music videos and genres of music I like.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Music Video Introduction...

On this blog I will be writing all of my planning and research for the production of my own music video. The aim of this project is to plan and produce a music video for a new band or artist.
All the stages of my ideas, planning, researching and the final product will be posted on this blog so that the progress of my project can be assessed from start to finish. As part of my research I will also be looking at music videos of artists and bands that I like, in order to find themes and styles that I like and that I may consider using in my own music video production.