Our Website Review

In order to see if our band website was simple and easy to navigate, we asked a number of people to try out the website and give their opinion about the site, what they liked, what they disliked and what we could have improved on.

Below are our results;

"I thought that the design of the website was well thought out and easy to look at. I think that the white background adds to its simplicity and lets me know where the links are on the website. I would mimprove on the amount of images made available, as there are not that many on the wbesite."

Mr Philip, Media Teacher

"A very impressive website. I enjoyed the band biographies and thought that the tour and review section of the website made it feel very realisitic. However, I would have added more links on the website because I think that fans like interactivity."

Bethany Mossop, Media student

Oerall, we are pleased with the feedback we have been given. I felt that I had put alot of time and effort into designing and creating the site, but I am delighted that the feedback has been constructive.

Tom

THE Music Industry

The four 'major corporate labels' that dominate the music industry are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI. Space was signed to gut records, an independent record company based in London and owned by Guy Holmes who had previously been working for Island Records. The key role in the record company seems to be the A&R department (artists and repertoire). A&R people work very hands-on with the artists that they "sign." When a record label "signs" an artist, it simply means that the artist makes an exclusive contract with that record label.They do everything from assisting with song selection to choosing the people that will produce the album to deciding where the album will be recorded. The people in this department work as the link between the recording artist and all the other departments of the record company.The diagram below shows a basic power play situation in a record company.

Yussra and Marwa

The Final Website!

I have finally completed the website. Click on the image below to check out the website for yourself.

Tom

A Few Additions to the Site...

In order to make the website more interactive for our users, we have decided to include biographies of each band member in order for fans to find out more about the band and what the members are like. Inlcuded in these biographies is the roots of the musicians and how they began playing music and started out as a band. Below are the screen shots for each page. Click the pictures below in order to see the pages in full.

Tom

Band Website Research

In order to find out how a band is able to promote themselves online, I visited many band websites and drew influence and ideas in order to create an effective and informative webpage for our band, The Motion. What I learnt first is that a band website needs to have its links clearly laid out. The users needs to know what they can and can't click as well as being able to find these links on the website. This means that I need to take into account the layout of our website and try not to inlcude too much information on the main page, therefore, confusing the user and not being able to find the links. As you can see below, the website for popular rock band The Strokes has it links clearly laid out at the top of the page. Also, the links font colour differs from any text and so, people can easily distinguish between what parts of the website are interactive.




I also learnt that I need to choose suitable colours for the website. I personally felt that white would be the msot suitable colour as it is easy on the eyes and is more convenient when trying to find the links on our website. I felt that dark colours such as black and grey would make our webpage look morbid and the user may feel like we had more of an 'emo' rock band, rathern than an alternative and so, I think that white is the best choice. I drew this inspiration from the webpage of We Are Scientists, a band who I believe are very similar to the type of band we are trying to portay.






Lastly, a key aspect of band websites is trying to include as many pictures as possible of the band. Many websites included photos of the band, both on photoshoots and during live performances. In order to be creative, I have included individual web pages for each band memebers, complete with a iography and a picture of the band member. The website for dubstep producers Magnetic Man included a picture of all three band members at at the top of the page.

Tom

Website has been built!

Today, I completed and made the final touches to our band website. The pictures below show what i have included onto the webpage;

1. On the main site I have included an About section. This gives the users a rough description of the type of genre that the band is, and the sort of music they produce. I have included their influences and what music critics are giving the band critical acclaims.

2. I have also added fully functioning links which allow the user to see an individual bioghraphy of the band members, who are me, George and George. I decided to put them on the main site as I believe that most users would be interested to know more information about the band and will want to know what inspired them to create their music.

3. On the right hand side of the page, have added a news section. This will allow the user to see the most updated news about the band. For example, the website currently has the news about their February 2011 tour, which would be of great interest to any fans.

4. In order to make the band feel realistic, I have added a tour section, which includes the bands February 2011. As I have seen from other band websites, the tour section is the most prominant part of the page, and so, I used a bright blue border to clearly show the user the dates of the shows and where the venue is.

5. I have also added a 'Buzz' section to the band website. This shows the fans what well known music critics are saying about The Motion and how they have become so popular. As with many band websites, they try to exhibit what the critics are saying about them, particularly if the feedback is positive.

Tom

Making of the band website

As part of our project, we were required to make a fully functioning website, which contained links to all sorts of pages related to the band. To begin with, I researched a number of flash websites which would be easily layed out, as we are not specialists at building websites! I then found wix.com, a website whereby we could add a number of information about our band. I then chose a simple layout, complete with sections for links, pictures of the band and this blogger website. This would allow the user to easily navigate around then website and find out more information about the band and the members. Currently, I am in the process of creating web pages for each band memeber, including an image of the band member along with a biography about their roots in music. I will also try to include a buzz section, whereby the user can see what major publications are saying about our band.

Tom

Lights, Camera, Action!

Professional lights were used and caused quite a lot of trouble. Spacing in the tight rooms we had to use caused to be an issue with lighting and manoeuvring the lighting in our movement shots also became an issue. We spent at least half an hour before each shot recording and pausing to see if the light looked natural. (at one point we even tried to use a sheet of foil to reflect the light in the bedroom scene or I balanced off the top of George's sink trying to light Tom from a high angle while he made a sandwich). The use of the light and the time it took paid off. We had brighter more vivid shots which I believe would create a more effective shot rather than a dimly lit dull shot. It was the second time we had used lighting since the preliminary task and it did make an extreme difference, this is why when given the opportunity to use it in our music video we thought it would be the best option.

The camera was a professional HD sony camera which, really gave us the opportunity to excel in our choice of shots playing around with focus and creating different depths of shot. The camera truly came in handy adjusting to lighting and making it seem as realistic as possible which we didn't get from a normal video camera. The attached microphone also meant that editing became a lot easier as we could clearly hear the section of the song that was playing at the time of filming rather than just second guessing what section we were filming. The only two issues we had with using the camera were the weight of the camera when trying to do aerial shots of the bed scene and the change in shot size (it became wider) once we had uploaded it to imovie in order to edit.

Yussra and Marwa

Animation, Animation, Animation!!!

If we were going to be making a completely professional piece of media we wanted to follow through with it as if it were not a project from sixth form but, as if we were actually supplying a music video for a band. This meant factors such as lighting, storyboarding and mise-en-scene all came into practice.

Yussra's detailed storyboarding came into play as soon as we started planning our initial ideas. With a keen drawing hand we came to see how shots could work and couldn't work. Storyboarding aided us a lot on set when we would be lost for what shots would be most convenient to shoot next rather than wasting time and shooting it in narrative order and then returning to previous sets. I then turned our storyboard into an animation in order to see clearly how our video will turn out and if our shots would be enough or too much for the length of the song. The animation is below.

Cancellation List

the reasons we have cancelled filming.
1) By using other peoples house there are times where the people who live in that house may want to actually use their house and therefore we cannot film however we understand the fact that we are very fortunate to be allowed to film in these peoples houses therefore this excuse is something that does not bother us at all, as we are the ones who are intruding at times.
2) We had a number of issues with the lights, one of the days we took the lighting kit to Marwa's and started to set up the room the lighting and the camera. Although when we turned the lights on we were intrigued to know why they would no turn on. Little did we know that the light bulbs that should have been sitting in the lights did not actually exist. With the help of Anna and her Ford we drove around to multiple stores with maybe a glimmer of hope as we bought bulbs which were GY6.35 when we needed GX6.35. We thought why not give it a try. It ended in the fuse in Marwa's house going out and us being in the dark. Filming was impossible.
3) After the above incident we waited for the order of new light bulbs to come in as shops didn't actually sell these bulbs. Amazon did not turn up on time so we had to postpone our filming from Monday to Friday.
4) Having to travel from school to the location takes up time, therefore on one of the days we realised that by the time Tom and George went home and arrived to Marwa's Anna would have had to leave for work. This was due to the lack of time organisation, as usual we rescheduled.

Yussra and Marwa.

Uploading New Footage Issues

When it came to uploading new footage into the existing window with the previously taken footage it wasnt working and continuously came up with the image camera not connected when we wanted the image camer connected:

Unfortunately the image we were waiting for never appeared. We had to approach this differently so we opened a new imovie and simply uploaded it there with no difficulties. However when trying to import the old footage into the new footage window it would automatically letterbox something we did not want. We had to discard the old footage and the hair dye incident gave us another reason why the old footage was impracticable.

Yussra and Marwa.

Feedback

After the class had got started on editing and had a substantial amount ours being 40 seconds we rotated the class giving out feedback whilst recieving.It allowed an insight into what other peoples views and interpretations are about our video. As a group we took the criticisms quite constructively andimproved what we had editied and made sure that it applied to what we edited from then onwards. This technique was constantly used by us, as a group we valued other peoples opinions and unserstood how they are looking from the outside and see things that we ourselves do not notice.

Yussra and Marwa.

Peer Assessment

During our lesson on Thursday 25th November, we exhibited to the class a rough cut of what we had in store for our music video. Through peer assesment, we were given consturctive feedback from our fellow students, as to how we could improve our footage or what their personal opinions and thoughts were about it. Much of the feedback was given a level 3 mark, and so we were pleased overall by the comments given back to us. This allows us to build on any flaws mentioned by other students and hopefully we will be able to possibly push ourselves to create a level 4 quality production.

Responses included;

'We felt that the footage works well with the style of the song. However, some parts do not sync in time with the pace of the song but overall, a really good start to the music video'.

One key issue we can take from this response is timing within the video. We can build upon the comments that the music did not match with the visuals on screen and therefore giving us an outside opinion as to how we can better ourselves.


Tom

Our record label.

Our band has decided to sign for Virgin records. After looking through many different labels we decided we wanted one that was well known for maximum appeal, but still retained an independence and originality that would help develop the band.

Founded by Richard Branson Virgin records started in a Notting hill gate record store, and gained major success through it's release of "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield in 1973. It gained a reputation of originality and going against modern conventions when they signed infamous band "The Sex Pistols". Since then they have become a subsidiary of EMI records, a major record labels that have previously had Nat King Cole, Radiohead and Daft Punk to name a small few. this was an important decision for us as we felt we needed that mainstream label to help gain fans and a more global appeal, whilst still remaining an individualism you get though individual labels such as Domino, Rough Trade and 4AD.

We decided not to use one of these labels as we felt that although keeping the individualism was important, we would be much more able to maximise demand for the band through a larger label with more financial backing.

Major record labels who pump money into a band can often demand more control over the album, losing the bands touch. This is something we hoped to avoid by using a subsidiary of EMI, and bands like Radiohead have shown that they can still make emotional, heartfelt albums that do not follow what the record label would maybe hope for, but are still known worldwide.

overall a good choice

George

Drum Kit issue...Really?

After successfully filmingon friday we returned to school on monday to find out that the teachers were under the impression that we had left the drum kit outside unattended as well as leaving it outside for the whole weekend. Something that was certainly incorrect. It had simply built up from something that was incorrectly said. We immediately corrected their thoughts and thourghly showed our resposibility.

Yussra and Marwa.

Filming the Band.

With the permission of the music department we headed down to set the equipment at 2:20. This allowed us to start filming at 2:40, we had set up the band with george on drums in the centre at the back and tom on bass and lead vocals situated just to the left of the drums and closest to the front. George on guitar and the right just behind tom. This created our vision for the three man band. We had one chance to get this right and with a deadline of 4:30 we had to crack on working hard and getting all the shots perfect from the very begining.
On the list of what to shoot was:
1) Stationary shots of all band members with different angles for the whole song.
2) Moving shots of band members faces focusing alot on tom.
3) capturing a significant amount of facial expressions from Tom whilst singin so that he expresses the words well.
4) Alot of moving shots experimenting going into band and out.
5) Close up shots of all the instruments.

And i believe that we successfully accomplished these shot effectively within the time limit we were given.

Yussra Marwa.

Filming: day 2

Marwa’s house was the perfect setting for the last few scenes of our music video. We could connect the shots of me walking up the stairs to where I find George and Anna in the bed. This worked well with continuity and does not break the viewer’s sense of reality. As we had a few shots we needed to shoot in light, we began filming the scene where I hop down the middle of the street, excited to see Anna when I get back to the house. We faced many problems while shooting this scene; including the time which we had available to film, as it was beginning to get dark quickly. But fortunately, we managed to get footage which we felt was very effective.

Next, we began the scenes where I entered the house then moving the onto the bedroom scenes next, as we felt that this would be the longest process. It was very strenuous task, and so we decided to be creative by using a number of different angles in order to get the facial expression and emotions which we felt that the audience could relate to. The challenges with these scenes were the space we had available for the crew and the actors. It was very cramped but we managed to obtain the shots which we wanted.

Lastly, we filmed the scenes of me walking up the stairs to the bedroom. We filmed numerous versions of this scene, including me singing and not singing. We wanted to include a stairs scene because it relates to the music video theory of using many close-ups of the lead singer.

We were very fortunate to use Marwa’s house for the setting.
Tom

Tracking Troubles.

George's home provided a opportunity to take advantage of the layout of his kitchen and living room. We thought that tracking from the kitchen where Tom was situated to Anna in the living room, would really show their characteristics and would allow the audience to understand their roles in the household. However we didn't look at the floor before we attempted this shot we realised that the change in flooring from the kitchen and living room would cause a horrible jump in our footage. So our mission began to solve the problem, we used George's dogs bed to place the tripod and with me behind camera and George and Marwa on their knees pulling the dog bed smoothly we managed to get appropriate shots. Although it required quite alot of skill with timing and lifting and pulling, but we managed.

Yussra and Marwa.

Digipacks that inspire!

Researching digipacks proved easier than i anticipated, as quickly i began to realise that an album cover can literally be about anything. I wanted something that sticks in the listeners head, and that can become recognisable. i didn't want something bland and wanted an album cover that was enigmatic, and leaves the listener asking themselves what story the album cover is trying to tell.

Nevermind by Nirvana is one of the most famous albums and album covers of all time, and what i liked was the way it broke conventions of album covers and goes against what the public expect from album covers. The Nirvana made a controversial album cover the suited their style of music and demeanour perfectly. It provokes many questions as well as to the actual meaning of the album.

Serotonin by The Mystery Jets is a simple album cover with the whole band on the front. I found that really there is no secret meaning to this, and nothing too outlandish about it. It is a simple cover of the band, something that is easy for us to do, and it reflects the uplifting spirit of the band and in particular, this album.

I photographed my copy of Kid A by Radiohead, specifically for it's content within it's digipack rather than it's album cover. It provides a whole booklet, all of puzzling pictures that still i cannot work out any meaning for them. This of course is the beauty of it, a deeply fascinating digipack for an extraordinary album.

This i think covers all the areas we are looking at for the Digipack. I feel that Nirvana's Nevermind will relate best to what we are trying to do, but perhaps to tone down the controversy, as this doesn't fit in with any ideas we've already begun formulating.

George

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene played a key role for us as a group as we spent about three lessons discussing optional sets for the music video. Our biggest issue was the dilemma of the bedroom scene- we couldn't use a parents room because we knew it had to look like it was a young recent couple and it couldn't be our cluttered teenage bedrooms. After hours and hours of discussing we realised that my room would do the job if we altered a bit. When we decided to shoot we moved a desk a couch and placed the bed in the middle of the room which, not only made filming easier but also centred the importance of the couple in the bedroom rather than anything else. George's kitchen seemed to flow well with my bedroom as it seemed to be in one house and the dividing wall separating the kitchen and the living room allowed us to track Tom easily when he handed Anna the sandwich. We also placed photos of Tom and Anna in photo frames in George's living room to create the full effect of a real couples home. For performance we went through many ideas. We were told that a green screen would be coming into the school soon and Tom was eager to use that whereas George a likened to the idea of using the Drama rooms in the school, whilst Yussra and I suggested a standard brick wall. The brick wall idea developed well when Tom and George suggested putting a band flyer up behind the band. When we got to the large brick wall making the music department in the school we realised one issue- a sandpit. We went hunting around the school eager to film as soon as possible and when we looked upon the other side of the music department we found a quiet green where we could easily film without any distractions. It also meant that transporting instruments wouldn't be hard and we could look like we were in a park or somewhere isolated. The green connotes a feeling of emotional loneliness as Tom seems to be surrounded by no one but his band mates whilst he yearns for female respect and nurture.

Yussra and Marwa

The First Shots

I took some intial shots of my idea for an album cover. There are a few bits i needed to touch up in order to make it the real deal, but i felt the felt there was enough for a good basis.





I will see what the feedback is tomorrow and build on it from there

George

The Digipack

Our idea for the digipack was to incorporate the various meanings of our album title. When making this I stuck with my initial idea of photographing someone using a computer to chat to people. The idea for me challenged our perceptions of relationships, the idea being that you can meet chat and perhaps fall for people, all through using the Internet and social networking, without actually meeting them. This system in effect is a good opportunity for lonely people to meet people without social interaction and I thought if I showed a person sitting lonely at their desk talking to someone via MSN Messenger, it would visually reflect the connotations of the album title. I thought we could reflect this by using a MSN conversation as the track listing as well, which would act as a cleaver play on social networking sites, and would be a original idea not yet explored by any other band, giving 'The Motion' a Unique Selling Point for their first album. It could also Relate to people who themselves also feel lonely perhaps emotionally unstable.

I can now begin to bring my idea to life

George

The Album Name

We discussed albums titles that we could use before thinking of a digipack cover, as the album title will impact what we design for our digipack. The discussion was over quickly as we all agreed on 'E-Motion', an idea I'd given as it fitted with our band name. It gives recognition for the band, as the band name is in the title. Self titling the album gains this same effect but we could use this to gain extra meanings to the album, with E-Motion suggesting a very emotive album that will contain some very personal tracks that the audience can connect with. The spelling of it (E-motion rather than Emotion) not only highlights the bands name in the track but also has connotations of the internet and the world wide web, Through use of 'E' being separated. This allows us to access a whole new meaning to the album.

We plan to integrate these meaning into our album cover.

George

The Change In Band Name

We just found out that our band name 'Moose' is already in use by another band... This meant we had to change the band name to something new. We decided to use a new band name from scratch rather than the ones we already had. We talked through a couple of ideas and finally settled on 'The Motion' which we felt was simple but very effective. It follows a similar demographic for indie bands so would help us to fit into this genre.

This came luckliy as we were about to dicuss ideas for a digipack which we will begin to do now.

George

Band Performance

We started to think of what our band should consist of. We realised that all we needed was a main singer, guitarist, bass and drums. To create a more band look we thought it would be better if Tom our male protagonist should be singing and playing an instrument this could show how talented he is. We assigned him to play the bass george to play the guitar and a firend coincidently named george to play the drums. Initially in the storyboard the backdrop which the band would play against was a 'interesting' brick wall however we realised that we personally did not own a drum kit and niether did we know of anyone who did. Yet the school did own a drum kit which after questioning the music department would allow us to use it. So it had to be filmed in school. We chose to place the band infront on a tree on grass, it was perfect and exactly what we needed.

Yussra and Marwa.

Photos of Filming

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomcox93/


During the time we had filming, we also took a few photos of locations, actors, props and general goings-on while filming. Below is our Flickr page, where you can view our on set images. Enjoy!

Tom

Music Video Analysis - Cater to You

We were set the task of reviewing a music video that is similar or deals with similar issues that were incorporated in our ideas for our own video. For this I have chosen Cater to You by Destiny's Child. I felt that this would be a suitable video because it dealt with the topics of relationships and men and women's roles within society.

Firstly, we see a lot of close ups of each of the band members. This supports Andrew Goodwin's theory of the record label wanting to see images of the singers, in order to promote them. Also, the singers are scantily dressed and act provocatively towards the camera. This shows that they are trying to attract the target market of both males and females. They are also trying to gain the attention of the voyeuristic audience as men are attracted to them and women want to be like them.

Also there are many lyrics that relate to the visuals on screen. "Let Me feed You, Let me run your bathwater, Whatever you desire, i'll aspire". These lyrics particularly relate to the woman servicing the man. However, a our song has the lyric "the female of the species is more deadlier than the male", we will subvert this context so that the female is the most dominant one in the relationship.

Tom

The Band Performence

Finished the band performance, which went very well and concluded the final scene which we had not already shot anything for. the costumes worked well with the three members of our band (Me, Tom and our friend George) all looking the part of an indie band. luckily we all knew how to play the instruments we had which would allow the video to look more authentic.

The location we chose suited the performance well. We wanted somewhere basic that wouldn't steal focus from the band. We wanted somewhere outside which would provide natural light rather than a lighting kit, and finding somewhere where we could fit the drum kit that was inside was also hard. We had to film inside school grounds as this was our only access to a drum kit. playing in front of the tree blocked out some of the view from behind us, and it provided us with a location to walk into shot from.

A problem we may have faced was is how bright it was towards the end of filming. As it was filmed outside we began to lose light. Luckily we were done before it got too dark that you wouldn't be able to see anything. Occasionally there were cars in the background which may have been a hindrance be at the moment it doesn't seem likely any were caught in the shot.

All is back of track with our filming and it should hopefully all finish soon.

George

Band Performance: Inspiration

As me and George regularly attend gigs of bands similar to the one we are trying to create, we felt that we would be inspired to recreate things we have seen on stage live for our band performance part of our video. It has always been a dream to be a performer on stage, and so this gave us a chance to act like our favourite musicians. One of the bands in which we drew much of our inspiration from was The Strokes. We began researching many live performances of the band online, trying to creatively change their behaviour and their persona on stage. We noticed that they were very reserved when trying to show off to their fans. They seemed very calm and relaxed and were not too over the top when it came to any solos or bridges. The band are not excessive when they play and are themselves when playing the instruments. We felt that this was the sort of image we would like to portray with out band.




Hopefully, we can try to avoid a performance similar to this...


It feels like the band are not being watched and that there relaxed front shows that they are comfortable when performing. Hopefully when we begin to film our band performance, we can try an number of methods as to how to portray our characters on screen be it reckless or timid.

Tom

Filming : Band Performance

For the band performance, we had the task of acquiring the instruments, assembling the band as well as finding a suitable location which we could utilise and allow all of our band memebers to play. After school, the whole group met in the music rooms and found instruments that we could use. We asked to borrow a drum kit and a bass guitar as well as two performance amplifiers. On top of this, we brought in our own equipment. We had the initial idea of filming by the gym block, as it had the simple background setting of a brick wall. However, once we put all the instruments in place, we realised that there would not be enough room for the band to move and also, there were certain things on the wall for example the fire alarm, which affected our shots.

For our performance, we kept to the criteria of Andrew Goodwin's theories. We exploited the use of star image, as well as the development of the star over time. We used a number of close-ups of each band member, in order to promote the band and create a sense of intimacy with the viewer. The close ups are also able to show what the band is offering, particularly the voice of the lead singer. John Stewart of Oil Factory states that he 'sees the music video as essentially having the aesthetics of the TV commercial, with lots of close ups and lighting being used prominently for the star's face'. For this, we tried many shots focusing on the lead singer in our video.

We had to take into account the setting while shooting our footage. We were unsure whether or not the time we had available would make the shots looked different when put in chronological order. However, we kept to a strict timing schedule, which allowed us to avoid the dark weather which would have delayed the time available to film. In terms of the band, all 3 of the members have a passion for music as part of our interest. Our background knowledge allowed us to portray what we have seen our favourite musicians act like be it in their own music videos or by seeing them live. Me and George had asked a friend, George, to be a part of the band and act as our drummer. He also had a basic grasp on how to play the drums and so our band were complete. In total, we shot a total of just under an hour of raw footage, were we captured many different angles and close ups of each band members, allowing us to be creative with the footage when it came to editing it into our final piece.


Tom

Filming : Day 1

Our first day of filming began smoothly. The location of choice was George's house, a setting whereby we could utilise the kitchen and adjoining Back room/conservatory, in order to keep a flow with camera movements and being able to lessen the amount of cuts in our footage. Although our scheduled filming time began 2 hours late, we were aware of what scenes needed to be refilmed. Also on this occasion, we had the fortune of using a school lighting kit, which helped to enhance the resolution of our footage.

One of the key Goodwin theories we tried to incorporate within the first few scenes of our music video is 'A relationship between visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics'. Our video is concentrating on the subject of genre, and how the lyrics play with the superior dominance of men over women, which in this case, it is the other way round. The concept of the video focuses on the lyrics 'The female of the species is more deadlier than the male'. Many iconographic acts have been used within our video, including the man making a sandwich for the woman, the woman cheating on the man and also the woman demanding the man for sex. We felt that these typical relationship issues were predominantely caused by men, whereas, we are subverting this image, not only to show that the woman is in control of the relationship, but she is 'deadlier than the male'.

Also, the video shows a relation between the lyrics and the visuals. 'A thousand thundering thrills await me, facing insurmountable odds gratefully'. The visuals shown at this point of the song is of the man making the sandwich. The use of 'await me' and 'facing insurmountable odds' could suggest that the video will be negative and that the protagonist will be the subject of this negativity. His blank facial expression show that the man is visually unhappy and that he is not looking forward to the actions that will proceed. This is then supported by the fact that the man is then hit by the woman, an action to show that she is physically in control and dominant over the man. Prior to this, the man speaks towards the camera unbeknownst to the woman, perhaps showing that he finds solace in the audience that he is addressing. It is a form of escapism for him, yet also allows for a sense of interaction with viewers, making them more involved with the video.

Tom

costumes

With the band performence coming up we've analysed various bands and thier looks. All bands and all members have a distinct style and we wanted our band to be recognisable. Obviously we have to work with what we already owned, but we all have some pretty good ideas that should look good. We wanted to follow the stereotypes of indie bands of the past and rock icons. We could see this consisted mostly of suits, skinny jeans, parka jackets and other general smart to smart casual wear. We looked at Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Pete Doherty of The Libertines and The Walkmen. The pictures below further help describe what we were looking for and hopefully we will try to match these sorts of looks as best as possible.

George


The Walkmen



Pete Doherty



Rivers Cuomo



Thom Yorke



Julian Casablancas

The Hair Dye Incident!

Anna, our actress playing opposite Tom in our music video, has dyed her hair a different colour without realising the effects it will have on continuity of our video. No of us had seen this coming and considered any kind of warning against this, assuming it would all look the same for re- shoots! This means all scenes with Anna have to be re shot, in order not to lose continuity. A lot of shots had to be redone anyways, but this will cause a hindrance to our filming as this could all have been avoided if we had anticipated it happening. However on the plus side, we do now know to look out for these sorts of things when checking continuity for the rest of our video and we can move on knowing we have learned an important lesson.

George

The Footage

We went back over our footage, and we had some lessons to learn. We had not realised that the camera would record outside of what we could see on the cameras monitor. This meant that the mis-en-scene of some shots was not what we would’ve hoped for. Also the lack of having a lighting kit caused some shots to be too dark to use. Luckily we have been through our mistakes and now know what we must change. We are going to make a detailed list of what is needed to improve each shot and start planning the days when we will re shoot the necessary shots. We have learned that in order to get the shots we want we must all plan more carefully and take more care in the mis-en-scene of the scenes but ultimately, the learning process will make our final product that much better.

George

2nd filming day

We finished our second day of filming earlier today, which consisted of shooting the scenes involving the bedroom. This was done in Marwa's bedroom, as this was the most appropriate setting we had due to its neutral colours and generic look once I and tom removed all the furniture from it. The use of a pink bedspread stood out against the white walls, and with pink stereotypically being a popular female colour, we felt it represented Anna’s dominance over Tom, in that she gets her way on every detail. It easily offered enough space for us to get our required shots. Removing all the furniture proved a difficult task but we managed to hide everything effectively in order for it to not be seen in the shooting.

Once again we did not have a lighting kit and had to make do with the same lamps we had used at mine. We again successfully got all the shots we had hoped to get. The use of close ups we did give tom’s reactions when seeing Anna has cheated on him makes the audience focus more on his face, and gives the audience a sense of the shock he feels, which I think helps portray how he feels to the audience.

Using me as the man Anna is cheating on Tom with was an idea we had based on the fact that I am also in the band as the lead guitarist. The point of this was to emphasise the pathos the audience would feel towards Tom’s character, as even his close friends and band members are treating him like rubbish and doing stuff behind his back.

With this being the last of our filming over half term we just have to wait to get back to school and go over what is hopefully some very good footage!

George

Our first day of filming

We finished our first day of filming and managed to get all the shots in we had hoped to get. The location we chose was my house basically as it was our only option that offered a kitchen that backed onto another room. Obviously working with no real budget we had to work with the best options we had and this stood out far more than any other choice we had. This large space allowed for a bigger variety of shots and meant the track we wanted to use for one of the shots could be done.

The use of the kitchen leading onto the living room I think proved effective in establishing the relationship between tom and Anna, as tom is in the kitchen doing the work in making the sandwich, and Anna in the living room is casually watching TV, not bothering to make herself food but leaving it to her partner. This showed the relationship contrast we wanted, and makes Anna appear the dominant one in the relationship.

The major problem we faced was that there was no lighting kit as we were unable to book one due to all the schools kits being taken. Having no lighting kit meant that Yussra had to fashion lighting for us using lamps we had stashed around my house, tracing paper to dim it so there would be little shadow, and hair clips and tape to hold it together. This managed to work, just, but it clearly would have been a major advantage to us if we had a real lighting kit.

Another problem we faced was the scene where we wanted to Anna to eat the sandwich tom had made and drinks the beer in a disgusting brutish way as possible. It needed essentially to be done in one take as once the sandwich had a bit taken out of it continuity was lost as when it was bought to her it was whole. It initially took a long time to get and caused a lot of havoc as we didn’t feel we got the desired effect we wanted at first, however eventually we got the shot.

Anna and tom’s commitment to our filming was shown by the slapping scene. We had asked Anna to fake the slap but neither seemed bothered about making it real for authenticity in that scene. It was pleasing to see toms commitment to the filming that would ‘take one for the team’ in order to help establish the dominance Anna has over him in the video.

Overall a great success and we are pleased with how the filming went. Look forward to more filming in the coming days!

George

MOOSE

We had decided the name after hours of debating, arguing and intensive discussing, we came to a conclusion which we all liked. The choice for such a name is that in our choice of band name we wanted to show the quirky side and aspect of music videos, which is what we are trying to attempt. So in that idea we wanted to match it and be a bit different and out there. And out of the list we had made it was pretty much the only one in which we all liked. MOOSE.
But now there was a bigger task on our hands and were still debating it and unless there's another post we haven't decided. But our band name needed its logo. Something which the world would recognize as moose. Something that would take over the world. Again it had to be different, yet not too much that it didn't just fit. We looked online at the different types of fonts however i felt that it wasn't an exciting way to make our logo or funk out our name. It was time to get the pens out.
We first had a few doodles looked at them debated, one was to curly the other was just to much 3D, other thin.



We then came with the idea of maybe being able to manipulate the shape of antlers, it was a difficult on but something we all liked and if it could be accomplished than it was definetly something we would go for. This was the outcome.



It was something. But as a group it didn't seem like we could go ahead for sure on it. The next time we meet this will be discussed in further detail.

Yussra and Marwa.

The Band Name!

Me (George) and Tom sat down today and created as many ideas as we could think of for names whilst Marwa and Yussra continued on the storyboard.

We decided on three different approaches to this:

1. In the style of many bands, particularly indie Bands which is the genre our band fits best, we thought of Simply putting 'The' in front of a random noun e.g 'The Smiths' or 'The Cure'. We did however feel this to be quite bland and not limited names we could have seeing as so many have already been used, but it was quick and simple to do and if correctly done would sound catchy and rememberable.

2. Our second approach was to use a perculiar name in order to gain recognition through something rememberable and distinguishable, such as 'Vampire Weekend' or 'Everything everything'. This can also work by using something basic, but catchy such as bands like 'Foals' or 'Klaxons'.

3. Our third approach is one adopted by some bands whereby a band name is based on or borrowed from a song e.g 'Radiohead' were named after the song of the same name from a 'Talking Heads' album. We both looked at bands that inspired us and took ideas for names from them.

We made a list of 20-30 names, then gradually reduced it six. The six were

France
Moose
Mexico
Shanghai Boat Club
Stripped Sunset
NY Youth Society

In the end we chose... Moose!!!!

Moose was chosen as we felt it was short, effective and easy to remember, whilst fitting in with the genre of band that we are directing Moose. We felt it would be easier to market this name as it would not be to outlandish to put some people off, although it could have been said to have been quite bland. In spite of this we all agreed it was the best direction to take our band in.

Stripped Sunset was taken out early as the group decided that it sounded a little flimsy and not fitting in with the bands demographic. It did not give the image we felt was fitting for our band, and that it didn't give the right impression.

France and Mexico were considered but we thought they seemed a little too bland and unimaginative. It was agreed that maybe naming a band after a country seemed a bit too simple, and that they just didn't quite have the ring to it that we wanted our band to have.

Tom had a simple idea for Shanghai Boat Club. Choose an obscure location and then follow it with an obscure method of transport e.g Bombay Bicycle Club. However, the group felt that the choice was too similar to the said band and would simply sound too much like a cheap knock off.

So now we have settled on this we can begin to build our bands image and how we want them marketed!!

George

The NY Youth Society wasn't liked by Marwa and Yussra as they felt it just didn't sound right, and that it probably is already an actual organisation. This was my personal favourite but as the rest of the group were not happy about it, so it was scrapped.

The Band

Space was an indie/alternative rock band hailing from Liverpool, England. They became a well-known mainstream band due to a number of popular hits including “Female of the Species” and “Neighbourhood”. The 4 piece band were all male, who were predominantly influenced by fellow English rock pioneers, The Who. In 1996, their debut album Spiders reached platinum success, especially with the music video of “Female of the Species” being shown regularly on MTV both in the UK and USA. Also, the song was used as theme song for popular 90’s TV show Cold Feet.

We all decided that we wanted to choose the song “Female of the Species” for a
number of reasons. Firstly, the melodic tone of the song gave as an idea of a satirical video, particularly as the song had very strong meanings within the lyrics. As well as this, the lyrics tell a story of a ‘deadly’ female who is dominant over the lead singer. We felt that we could incorporate this onto the screen and could develop a storyboard that would relate to it.

Tom

Locations

Costumes

The costumes we have decided to choose for our music video are simple but they keep to the idea of dominance and control over the male. Firstly, for my outfit, I have been asked to wear a shirt with a black tie and smart, black trousers. We decided on this because it shows my lack of authority and how I am more aware of my appearance. AS we are subverting stereotypes, we have also changed the fact that males will spend m,ore time improving their appearance than the female of our video. It has been suggested that I wear fluffy slippers, rollers and apron in keeping with gender conventions, and the fact that I am the character in the kitchen rather than the female character.

Anna's outfit for the video is that of a lazy, slobbish person. We felt that just a simple black vest and a pair of track pants would be most suitable because it shows how she is more relaxed and in control if I am subservient towards her. We may also try placing food stains on her top in order to give the impression that she is lazy and that she is not fussed about her appearance, compared to the normal stereotype of women trying to make a good impression by the way they look.

Overall, I believe that these tactics will work well when it comes to filming.

Tom

Location

We made a little poster and placed it in particular places in the school where we thought we may get some help.We asked within our group whether we knew anyone with the sort of specifications we were looking for. However looking for a location was harder than we thought. There was an idea of possibly putting a letter in the post and asking people if we could use their houses but we agreed as a group that houses on the outside may not look as nice or as bad on the inside. Therefore it was hard to find the perfect place. But the problem was quickly solved when george brought pictures in and showed us what we had been looking for the whole time. It was perfect for tracking and panning. Just what we wanted. Then We questioned each other to see what our rooms were like and Marwas was a possibility with there being alot of stuff which were in the way alot of manpower would be needed but it was the only location we had so we decided to make do and find a way to possibly make the room perfect we thought of ideas like adding photos of the couple, and changing bed covers so they were 'couply'.We were confident that we could make it work.

Yussra and Marwa.

Choice of Protagonist

After having our idea thought up and fully storyboarded we looked at the character thouroughly and started to brainstorm possible ideas of who this person would be, looking at the style of the song, the lyrics and the images and visions we had for the video. We came to the idea that he would be to some extent indie when it came to his hair style and style of clothing yet not too much as the voice of the male was quite normal in our eyes. In addition to this we needed a female who we could see as beautiful and mesmerize our male audience, making them believe that she could put a man under a spell.
Little did we know that our male protagonist was sitting right across the desk all throughout the process. Marwa suggested the idea of using Tom as our male character and it was a good idea because finding someone who is willing to give up their time for the benefit of others is quite difficult. By using someone in the group they wouldn't be losing out on anything as they would have to be there when filming. then we remebered that we needed a female protagonist to act alongside Tom. Anna his girlfriend fitted the role perfectly and this would mean that there would be no difficulty when acting intimate scenes which may be awkward for other actors.
It was sorted. Anna and Tom it was.

Yussra and Marwa.

Storyboard

Open publication - Free publishing - More storyboard

Yussra and Marwa.

Dance Idea? Part 2

It was proving to be a difficulty to try and fit in time to film this park scene as everyones schedule was colliding when it was good weather. We did not want a happy dance routine to be filmed in the rain and we also needed the ground to be dry in order to place the tripod on the grass. It was becoming clear to all members of the group that it seemed impossible. So instead of cutting it out altogether we simply adapted it to make it easier to film in the places which we were already in. Tom would now skip towards the camera dancing and spinning, happy to see his girl. This would still include the cheesyness that we wanted and show the extent to which she has control of him.

Yussra and Marwa.

Dance Idea?

I ( Marwa) introduced the possible idea of including a cheesy dance number in which the viewer would understand the male protagonists love for the female and how devoted he is. An example which I provided was a clip from 500 days of summer in which the male protagonist has recently slept with a female and he sings publicly 'you make my dreams come true'.


This clip is obviously something we could never reproduce yet it influenced our music video a great deal and built in the quirky style we want to obtain.
Another clip which I (Yussra) introduced the group provided further inspiration although does not include a continuous shot or the walking down the same street or path it involves the idea of a person singing publicly.


this clip really demonstrates the theatrical side of a dance number, to an extent where it is clear that there has been deep planning in order to construct such scenes. It is clear that the dancers in this scene are all trained professionally or have a skill where as in the other clip from '500 days of summer' the male protagonist is portrayed in a more fun way. As a group we would like to incorporate both clips in our inspiration and take things from each one. The main things we would like to include is the possible use of other people within the dance making it seem like the public are joining in. Another idea we liked was how the male character in '500 days of summer' was portrayed as over-sentimental in his actions something we want to portray in our male protagonist.
The idea developed into possible idea of having Tom and Anna walk in the park through couples sitting on benches and on 'oh how can heaven' Tom would start to turn and dance boasting his pride for having Anna at his side and showing the depth to which he is under a spell that she can physically humiliate him. With the other couples dancing in unison with Tom.
This was something that as a group we agreed to and completely loved.

Yussra and Marwa.

Similar Artists

The Lightening Seeds-Lucky You
This song has the same feel as Female of the Species and uses a main theme of performance which, develops the idea that these alternative bands are more about performance element and marketing themselves rather than a narrative. The video is extremely low budget but effective. We want to go with a low budget look because, as many critics say high budgets with masses of effects loses quality of narrative and becomes an on screen kaleidoscope which as a group we strongly want to avoid. There are many close ups of the main band member. This makes the main band member the story teller and the icon of the video which, we have decided to make of Tom. Making Tom the main band member and the protagonist of our narrative familiarises the audience with him and means that marketing will flourish in his name along with the bands. There are many aerial shots of the performance but because we don't obtain the technology to make these shots we will use a lot of movement shots- tracks, pans and crane shots.



Space/Cerys Matthews-Tom Jones Ballad
This again is similar to our song however, the duo battling with each other is what we similarly want for our own music video. Because Anna wont have any lyrics or singing parts in the song we will attempt to maximise her part in the narrative as much as possible so the audience can begin to familiarise with her as a character. The key point in this video is when Cerys Matthews tries to save Tommy Scott from falling off the cliff thus, the tables turning. We want to introduce a key point like this in our narrative so we may have Anna at the end of the song trying to seduce Tom again and as he rejects her, a true demonic female of the species comes out of her and she gets her way anyway playing along with the theme of the lyrics. The whole video is a sequence of close ups and extreme close ups of the couples hands as they fall from the car. We will use similar shots to show the importance of certain sequences such as a close up of the lock on the door as Tom comes in before he finds Anna cheating.

Yussra and Marwa.

Demographics & Psychographics- and how it lead to changes!

Media content today is a multi-platform, user generator packed world, so when we were asked to make a music video we had to keep this in mind. Obviously the platform was chosen for us (a music video) however, we did go along the path of making our music video into a sort of mini film by jam-packing narrative into it. WIth the plans of a dance scene and the dysfunctional relationship between our main character and his girlfriend, we believed this would pull a mass audience in- young and old. The demographic for the song would generally be for 20-30 year old males because of its release in 1996 and also the male of voice breaking out showing himself as the victim for the first time. Perhaps this would have even appealed to women as they would have been showed as the dominating characters rather than the stereotypical image of woman under man.
The lyrics seemed to be overdramatised so, with this we decided to create terrible mini narrative situations which would genuinely lead to empathy with the man from the audience and humour for both men and women. We also tried as hard as possible to go with a 90's image of the housewife however, we went with the ''househusband''. We did this for comic relief and it seemed to work. At first we wanted our main character (Tom) to be wearing fluffy slippers hair rollers and an apron but, after re-shooting we decided that we are genuinely discussing the FEMALE of the species so, rather than changing Tom into a female so that he would appear fragile and the loser in the relationship we questioned why he couldn't be a man and feel like this- it is after all what the song is about! So we got rid of the apron, slippers and hair rollers and the drummer pans seemed to work very well at the beginning of the sequence to soften Tom's appearance as a member of an alternative rock band successfully.
The psychographics for the song would hold a niche audience in my our opinion however, one of their key interests would be music and this song would appeal to them because of it's upbeat and almost addictive tune. They would believe modern music to be in somewhat shambles except for the rare band which would bring it back to the essence of good music (such as Moose). Activities for the psychographic would be musical such as, gigs, festivals and concerts. We would want to have an audience that knew their stuff. Values would partake in modern society and the idea that female and male are equal. They would possibly also hold a strong belief in freedom of speech- maybe a remake of the baby boom generation.

Yussra and Marwa

Inspiration

This was a video i particularly liked and appealed to the idea that we wanted to get across to our audience. The idea of the female being in control and taking over the males place in society.


This music video can be seen as one which presents males as dirty and vile creatures. It takes this stereotypical view of the "street" and subverts it showing the females to be in control. This can be seen by the continuous use of a church as a setting, the "street" has the same set of beliefs as a religion in which there are rules which cannot be broken, therefore seen as hedonistic. There is a continuous use of close up shots of different peoples facial expressions including a substantial amount of close ups of the main singer. This can be interpreted as what the street can be seen as, an intimidating battle field at which no one is welcome. Jessie J's face comes into focus and out, and at most times when out of focus it appears that she is creating a male like expression or one which is not associated with a lady. The use of focus shows how the female is changing from one who is innocent to one which is an extrovert, loud and at times rude.
At the very beginning of the video there is an initial "hey hey hey" repeated and continues throughout the video. this allows the audience to establish the theme and provides them with the knowledge that the portrayal of females within this video is rough and upfront. It continues to maintain this viewpoint throughout.
The costume throughout provides an insight into the male dress code on the "street", yet the females have adopted this dress code and shown how they can rule the "streets" and "do it like a dude". This portrayal of women is different to that which is seen within society and media. Women are suppose to be elegant gentle and well dressed showing off their body in a way which cannot be seen as inappropriate. Where as this video provides everything but the stereotypical view. The women here are viewed as brash in their movements and actions as well as provacative in their dressing and the way they dance. In addition to the clothes the use of a piece of meat in which a female attempts to eat shows the vulgar side in which men a portrayed therefore the women are portrayed in this way. Men can be seen as hunter/gatherers and here it is clear that the female is the bread winner, and sticks up for herself. The use of a cigarette and a lighter to ignite both the cigarette and the music suggests that she first of all has a dirty habit which may have led to the way in which she acts. in addition the use of the lighter to start the music suggests that this life they lead is one which has only just started just like how the portrayal of women has changed and only just started.
Throughout the song the lyrics "grab my crotch, wear my hat low like you" is repeated, this is certainly reflected within the visuals of the video as she dances them out. This relates to Goodwin's theory on the link between lyrics and visuals.
In conclusion the views of women within this video are shown as animal like and is something we want to reflect within our video to a certain extent as i believe that this may be a bit to far.


Yussra.

Possible Idea

when looking at the lyrics a constant theme drifted into our minds that the song was depicting a male who was in control of a female. The song had taken the stereotypical male who has control and women falling at his feet to one who was completely controlled by the female.
Lyrics such as:"one kiss and I'm zapped", "when a girl like you has cast a spell on me", "but first she'll conquer me discreetly", "the female of the species is more deadlier than the male" suggest the idea of the female being in complete control. We decided to take these lyrics directly and present them within our music video subverting the female stereotype showing her being the one that cheats, abuses, and controls the situation at all times. Whereas in society it came across to us that the male is more likely to commit these offences, with the female putting up because she has no choice. This was certainly something we wanted to portray in our video.

Yussra and Marwa.

evaluating of music video

I chose to evaluate "Toxic" by Britney Spears, as i felt it relfected female dominance over men and this is an idea we are currently looking at using for our music video.

The embedding code had been disabled so the link to the video is below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9kVZ1Zperc&ob=av2el


My Evaluation is below as a soundcloud file


GEORGE ELLIS BRITNEY SPEARS MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS by georgeellis1

George

We Are Scientists - "Inaction"

I was searching through youtube and found this video. Is extremely funny and seems so simple to make, which makes me wonder if we could make a video like this. It's funny and original and the performance part is really something we could draw from. It location is also somewhere that is important for us to study as it is simple and another aspect we could replicate.

Overall i suppose this video just stuck out for me and loved it enough to put it on our blog!

Enjoy. George

initial idea? Part two.

After discussing the idea involving a walk down the sidewalk we found examples of in videos from other artists one which i found quite interesting, as a viewer i was interested even though it was very simplistic and at times can be seen as bland.



As you can see from Red ink their video for their songs battlescars has edits yet nothing really comes in and out of the shot to describe the lyrics or present them visually. As a viewer you are centered on the group and their characteristics and who they are as people. This idea was liked very much and one which i tried to push forward with the idea of using a car to assist us yet the flaws were too big.One issue with this idea is that in order to keep the viewer constantly interested it would have to really captivate them in the narrative. Another issue that we came across very quickly is the fact that doing a continuous track would not be easy without the necessary equipment. It would be difficult to carry the camera for that length of time especially with the trouble of trying to keep it straight and level at all times.
After debating it was clear that this unfortunately wasn't the way forward.

Yussra and Marwa.

Initial idea?

After hours of conversation and phone calls we came to the possible idea of having our male protagonist walking either down the middle of the road or on the pavement. With it being a continuous clip or maybe with a few edits. But the idea is to have him continuously walking and have the camera in front of the central character.The way we could include the performance part is to throw a guitar into shot, he could catch it and start playing and singing into the camera whilst the lyrics could be visually displayed around him through people and objects.

Yussra and Marwa.

Vision

On our initial hearing it seemed mutual within the group that we got a tropical kind of setting in our vision. Through further development it was obvious that this idea was more than just impossible it required a huge production budget, something we had no access to. The list of problems with this concept follows:
Sand
Sun
Beautiful beach looking like its in hawaii
a coconut tree
generally all the setting
creating this setting would cost alot of money and time

This idea abruptly left our minds and the brainstorm for a more appropriatte idea began.

Yussra and Marwa.

Planning

Hello!

Our group have spent the last week planning and researching many existing music videos in order to acquire a general grasp towards the style of music video we will be filming. We spent the first weeks essentially brainstorming ideas that we could use for our music video and what direction we would take it. We felt that part performance and part narrative would be most effective for the song we have chosen as this would allow us to narrate the lyrics which would engage the audience more by giving them something they've never seen and by keeping the performance we can market the band by using close ups of band members and give what we feel would be a close interaction with the fans as they would essentially feel close to the band. We want the video to have a fun feel to it and to portray the serious aspects of relationships and gender stereotypes but in an entertaining way, in this case we want our audience to enjoy the video, not have to think too much about the stereotypes of gender and the issues of relationships.

One idea we had to use the basis of the video 'Drunk Girls' by LCD Soundsystem. It is an entirely performance based music video in which the band are attacked by people dressed as pandas. We will incorporate elements by getting girls to 'attack' members of the band as they are performing.

We discussed Yussras idea of using one single continuous take of the lead singer following a women, lusting after her, but we thought that one single take would be too hard to construct and would be less feasible.

We are also looking at using this as well as a narrative which relates to the song, however we are still considering ideas to use for this.

The group liked the idea of having a 'female dominance' attitude towards the synopsis of the video using the line 'the female of the species is more deadly than the male'. The song relates alot to gender and a sense of control that we assume men typically have over women. we decided that we could flip the stereotype and this way engage our audience with something they perhaps haven't seen before.

George and Tom