Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Story boards

Storyboards 
Storyboards are a series of photos or drawings that outline the sequence of scenes and 
major changes in the production. In simple words, storyboards are series of images or 
illustrations, which are displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualising a motion
graphic, animation, interactive media or motion pictures sequence. 


What is the purpose of the storyboard?
The purpose of a storyboard is to determine a logical format for the information to 
be presented in the music video. This means that we can make critical decisions during the 
storyboarding process, including how information is to be grouped and how specific 
information is to be represented. Further, navigational decisions will also be made based on the 
organisation of the information. By storyboarding we can obtain a clearer idea for what will be 
included in the video, we can also come up with additional ideas in terms of improving and being 
more likely to fabricate a successful video.

Primary and Secondary Research

Conducting our primary research will assist us with the planning of our creative production as it allows us to consider our target audience throughout. This may effect certain camera shots/editing styles we may like to use and to see how appropriate they are in aim to fulfil our purpose of appealing to our audience.   This will also allow us to mould our music video based on the comments we obtained in the interviews that we have conducted, this should give us a more relatable and accessible experience for the audience as they will be viewing features in the music video that they want to be seeing. We collected important information and what kind of music videos, genres, and their opinion on our choice of song. We also created questions that were open, therefore obtaining a greater detail of information and their own voice and opinion expressed in a more open way.  Once we had completed this task, we discussed the findings of our research and brainstormed various ideas based on the feedback we obtained from the people we interviewed, by doing this we have more chance of creating a successful music video that appeals to a wide audience and can be a video that is accessible for consumers and relate to them on a more personal level. Some of the elements we found that proved popular were; a narrative based music video, and also our song choice 'Sun don't shine' proved a popular choice. We also asked the interviewees what type of editing styles and techniques which they would like to see within our music video, by gaining popular choices such as jump cuts, fade outs and straight cuts this accessibility and relatability factor can be achieved, therefore be more successful as a result. However, subverting these popular choices could also prove a success as it will be something that they are not familiar with and give our video an air of freshness and uniqueness. The secondary research we conducted in terms of our research into our artist assisted us as we could see what features they included in their video, and how we would incorporate different features in our video, we also researched the background of our artist and other songs that they have produced.

     Our group then sat down and brainstormed the ideas that we had gathered on paper, we share our ideas and came up with best option that we all agreed on, by sharing our ideas we have the best possible chance of creating a good scene and incorporate successful camera shots. Fabricating this storyboard did not prove that difficult as we combined our ideas and supported each other within the group. We all shared the responsibility of the story board by divide the work up between us, we all produced 2 pages each for the story board and combined our ideas so we all had a mutual agreement with the final vision of our music video. By including everyone in the storyboard process everyone felt involved and valued as a member of the group. By fabricating the storyboard and looking at what our final storyboard looked like we had a greater idea of what we will include in our video.
   
   When the creating of the music video initiated, our story board gave us a model of what we need to go by in order to create our video. It was just a matter of dragging the clips that we had to match the storyboard so our video flowed in a nice thought out manner. After this process was repeated throughout, all we had to carry out was slightly modifying our video to what we thought was lacking. Therefore this story board assisted us in a great way as it worked as a model and a base to go by, and afterwards modifying what we didn't like, this helped us to hopefully create a successful music video.







Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Major record labels

Major Record Labels

Definition:

Large companies within the music industry that may also own smaller record labels

Who are the major labels in the UK currently?

Sony Music Entertainment UK is part of one of the largest music and entertainment companies in the world. It has a broad array of local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalogue comprising of some of the most important recordings in history.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to Sony:
  1. The Tings Tings
  2. The Clash
  3. MGMT
  4. Ke$ha
  5. R.Kelly
The EMI Group is a British music company. It is the fourth largest business group and family of record labels, in the recording industry, make it one of the 'big four' record companies. EMI Group also has a major publishing arm- EMI Music Publishing- based in New York City. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now wholly owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to EMI:

  1. Whitesnake
  2. Iron Maiden
  3. Spice Girls
  4. Kate Bush
  5. The Beatles
Warener Music Group (WMG) is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recroding industry, also making one of the big four companies. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off from Time Warner, and asa result, Time Warner no longer retains any ownership. Warner Music Group also has a music publishing arm called Warner/Chappell Music, which is currently one of the world's largest music publishing companies. ]

A few examples of bands/artists signed to the Warner Music Group:

    1. Death Cab For Cutie
    2. Gnarls Barkley
    3. Basshunter
    4. Fleetwood Mac
    5. Enter Shikari

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to the Universal Music Group:

    1. Lady GaGa
    2. Gwen Stephani
    3. Keri Hilson
    4. Young Jeezy
    5. Mariah Carey

Independents


Definition: Music labels that operate one or a few music labels


Independent labels can be just as successful but operate from a smaller company base. They are traditionally known as offering more ‘organic’ music rather than manufactured mainstream although you may disagree!



Task:

1.      Identify some of the independent labels in the UK and a brief history of each.

2.      What artists are signed to these labels


Task:

Consider the following questions:

1.      Is it right from a music point of view as well as an industry point of view that 4 companies dominate the music industry?

2.      What affect do you think this has on the industry?

3.      Are Independent labels as successful as major labels, how do you judge this?

4.      Is there anything that independent labels offer the industry that the majors do not?

 

Monday, 14 October 2013

Research into chosen Artist


We have chosen to create a music video for the song 'Sun Don't Shine' by the Austrian dance producers Klangkarussell. We have chosen this artist because they have recently created a breakthrough with this song and are now up and coming in the music industry. Another reason for this choice is the fact that they are a new and fresh artist that have not gained significant recognition, they have only recently became recognisable from the song that we have chosen to create a music video for. Their new song is widely recognised and therefore a larger audience will be attracted to it and enjoy it. 


In June 2013 the duo released their debut single "Sonnentanz", the song has peaked to number 3 in Austria, number 3 in Belgium, number 4 in Germany, number 1 in the Netherlands and number 3 in Switzerland. The song was released in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2013 and features vocals from Will Heard. They originate form Salzburg, Austria and are  associated with the Dance and Electronic music genres. The labels that they are signed to include Vertigo Records, Capitol Records and Universal Music.In their early career one of the members Tobias Rieser worked as a solo artist under the name Klangkarussell. Adrian Held, produced electronic music under the artist name i herald an anagram of his real name. In 2011, the two artists joined the duo "heroes sound" together and produced their first songs together. To avoid confusion, who hides behind what name they gave soon known to now produce music together under the name Klangkarussell. When the pair met again in 2011 for the first time in over a decade (they'd been friends at school in Salzburg before being split up, apparently for their own good) Adrian was actually already in show business, starring for eight nights an opera at the prestigious Salzburg Festspiele. Tobias, meanwhile, was studying Sound and Audio Engineering after stints training in Mechatronics (electrical engineering), working in a post office and driving a bread delivery van. The pair received a call from Universal, and after wowing the major label with a private gig, they were signed up to create their debut album, due early next year. To date the song  has 22 million views  on youtube and over 10,000 comments in every language under the sun. There's a ten hour looped version, for those (and there are plenty) who just can't get enough, and the vocal version is currently riding high in charts across Europe.



3)     Artist music video analysis
1) Analyse 2 music videos



In our video Sun Don't Shine by Klangkarussell, Dyers star theory cannot be related to the video,
this is because our artist is not included. This is common in the dance genre with artists such as
Aphex Twin, David Guetta and Swedish House Mafia not being a main vocal point in each of their
videos. However, because of this, our artist relates to one of Dyers key paradoxes; 'Star must be
simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'.


2) Explain how Dyer’s star theory is used
3) How is Goodwin’s theory used?
4) How is the artist represented?
5) Who is the target audience?
6) What is the style of the music video?
7) How is mise-en-scene used?
8) What common camera shots do the music videos use?

4)     Summary
Explain how your research on your chosen music artist will assist you with planning your own music video



Vox pops new



Vox Pops 

As a group we decided to carry out voxpops as an aspect of our primary research. This is because it would give us a more reliable and accurate idea of our target audience and how various people felt about our song choice and also what type of elements they would like to see in our music video. Feedback in terms of our target audience is vital and if we did not include this we may have fabricated a video that does not appeal to our target audience and therefore we would not be successful. We have decided to create a narrative based video and this is why we have included questions such as 'Do you like a narrative based video?'. This was to gain a deeper understanding of why audiences like a video with some sort of story.

     To execute our questionnaire , we devised 5 new questions to ask random people around our school. We found 5 people and filmed them on an iPhone, we then uploaded the footage of our 5 participants onto the computers and edited them on Final Cut Pro. The footage that we obtained did not require editing except from adding a name tag underneath each participant and then creating a smooth transition from each interview, this was done to create a nice flow throughout the interviews. 
   
     Fabricating our own vox pops will assist us with the planning of our creative production as it allows us to consider our target audience throughout. This may effect certain camera shots/editing styles we may like to use and to see how appropriate they are in aim to fulfil our purpose of appealing to our audience.   This will also allow us to mould our music video based on the comments we obtained in the interviews that we have conducted, this should give us a more relatable and accesible experience for the audience as they will be viewing features in the music video that they want to be seeing.

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Pie Charts













Questionnaire

Music Video Questionnaire

What gender are you?    Male     Female



How old are you?   0-15       16-30       31-45        46-60



Which is your favourite music genre?    Rock       Pop      Dance     RnB     Rap      Jazz



Have you heard of Sonnenantz?   Yes          No



If yes, what is your favourite Sonnentanz song?



Do you prefer to watch a performance (singing and dancing), a narrative (story) or a concept (idea)?
Performance           Narrative            Concept


What conventions (typical elements that make up a dance video) would you like to see in a dance music video?



Do you think music videos should be censored?        Yes      No



How do you think an artist should be represented?



What editing styles would you like to see in a dance music video?


Jump cuts         Split screen           Green screen            Fast paced editing   

Slow paced editing