Updates to our band website:

We have been making developments to our band website for a while, including doing things such as:

changing the backgrounds for most of the pages. We did this because we thought that there were too similar many tree shots, making it look a bit boring. We included some photos that we had taken away from the setting of the music video, while still keeping the nature theme that we are trying to keep within everything we are making.
We changed the font at the top of the page for 'Firelight Falcons' as previously it was quite a bulky font and did not fit very well with the theme that we were trying to keep.
On the 'ABOUT' page, we removed the singular shot of one of the band members and added a group photo and a slideshow underneath (including pictures of all the band members)

We also added another quote (portending that it was fro a magazine) to make it seem more realistic.
We added some buttons at the top of our pages, including 'Account' and 'Help' buttons as we noticed band websites have them in order to buy merchandise but also for obvious help reasons for new comers to the site.
On our 'HOME' and 'MUSIC' pages we added our final front cover to our album playlist.
We changed the 'SHOP' making it look more professional. We changed the lay out of the merchandise and prices, along with the font of the titles. We also added the album to the shop.
We added a 'GALLERY' page, including behind the scene shots of the band members.                                                                                                                                       
We created emails for all the addresses we made up so they actually worked. We then added these to the 'CONTACT' page.                                                                                                                                              
Finally, we added a slideshow on our HOMEPAGE of snapshots from our music video and added our final music video to the 'VIDEOS' page.

Here are some screenshots of our updates:

Another previous A2 music video analysis

Sixth day of filming- Shooting schedule

Here is a shooting schedule for our sixth day of filming. Here we have listed what we need, what time we will be filming and what shots we want to film etc.

Fourth filming schedule- Final music video

Hi everyone, here is the filming schedule for our fourth day of filming. There is everything that we want to film on it, so we can tick it off when we have finished the shot.

Here it is:

Previous A2 music video analysis

Theories linked to our own ideas (our music video)

Vernallis' 'Functions and meanings of music video editing' theory- http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/vernallis-functions-and-meanings-of.html (here is the link to my blog post on this theory).

With regards to our music video, we think that our music video will include some of the 'common features', however, we also think that our music video will challenge some of these features (as it is different to most music videos that are seen now). For example, Vernallis argues that a lot of music videos include a lot of close-ups to suggest that the appearance of the artist or band is important. As out music video doesn't include the band much, apart from a photo of the lead singer being in it, this therefore argues against this statement (as out music video is mainly narrative based and the story is being told than someone other than the band themselves). 
With regards to editing, Vernallis argues that music videos usually 'break the rules' of continuity (such as bands and artists changing their clothes, or the narrative from a story to the band themselves playing/singing the song). With regards to our own music video, our's kind of does this, as we have a band playing at a short part in our video. However, our music video mainly doesn't do this, as the most part of our video is one big narrative (one that is real and one that is imagined). This theorist also argues that music videos use a lot of jump cuts, which we are also using in our own music video to fit with the mood of the music, and how we want it to fit to the 'spooky' feeling.
This theorist also argues that the 'diegesis' is something which is revealed slowly throughout the music video and it's story. I also believe that this can be applied to our own music as the audience may be unsure what is happening until closer to the end of the music video, when it becomes more clear that one side of the narrative is imagined and is separate to the sleepover part of the narrative.
With regards to narratives in music videos, this theorist argues that it is sometimes disjointed (like our own), for the reason that I have stated above. 

'Two-step flow' theory: http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-two-step-flow-theory.html (a link to my post on this theory).


This theory argues that information from media moves in 2 different stages. This means that the 'opinion leaders' receive the information, but then pass it on to the 'influentials' then receive this, but with the 'opinion leaders' own interpretations, meaning that it is bias.
Although this theory is kind of hard to apply to music videos, with regards to our own...

'Life Matrix' audience theory: theory: http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/life-matrix-audience-theory.html (a link to my blog post on the different audiences described within this theory).

We think that our audience members are most likely to fit into the 'Fun/Antics' audience group (aspirational and fun seeking young individuals) as our music video's characters are played by young people (ourselves). Also, we think that these may also be the people who will enjoy interpreting our music video's narrative in their own ways. However, as we have previously said on some of our other audience blogs, we believe that anybody will be able to enjoy our music video.

John Hartley's 1994 genre theory: http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/john-hartley-1994-theory_12.html (my post on this theory).

This theorist argues that genre limits creativity. However, our band's genre is considered (Pop Rock), I also believe that this is a genre which allows artist's to try different things with regards to their style and their music without really having to live up to certain expectations much. For example, an artist such as Marilyn Mason is an artist that people don't expect to do anything different to what he does (meaning he's not likely to come out with a pop song).

Andrew Goodwin's Theory: http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/andrew-goodwins-theory.html (link to my post on this theory).

Genre characteristics: Our own music video mainly goes against some characteristics of a 'rock pop' music video. For example, the most part of our music video is narrative-based, with very little of the band being shown in a performance. However, as it does also include a small part of our band playing, it means that our music video does also fit in with this theory.

A relationship between lyrics and visuals: Our music video also includes this. For example, the line in the song 'leaves a note' in the song that we are using, we fit with a shot of the girl in our video leaving a note on the side/table.

A relationship between music and visuals: We are also using this in our own music video by fitting the shots to the music at some points. For example, the candle sequence that we are using at the beginning of our music video is something that we have recently edited. At this part of our music video, we sped up the shot so as it fits more with the music itself. However, as our music video is also mainly narrative based, there are times when the music isn't always fitting completely with the 'beat' of the song.

Demands of the record label (such as close-ups of the band/artist, mirrors, stages, and focusing upon the female body): Our music video does not include the band's faces themselves, meaning that our music video does not fit with this theory with regards to it arguing that music videos include a lot of close ups on the artist. 

Intertextual references: We have tried to add some of these in our own music video. For example, when the main girl in our music video leaves the house, various shots of the house and objects in it are shown, such as the TV which has been left on. Here, we used an intertextual reference by including a TV show on the screen (we tried to use a show which fit with the more 'dark' theme within our music video).

Stuart Hall's Reception theory: http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/stuart-hall-reception-theory.html (A link to my blog post on this theory).

This theorist argues that an audience can see a certain form of media and take it either 3 ways, these being accepting the message, partially accepting the message, and being completely oppositional to the message. As in our music video, we aren't really trying to give out any certain message, I don't really think that many audience members will react to it in any of these 3 ways (however, this is still possible). Therefore, we expect our audience to 'accept the message'. However, some people may also interpret anything from it (this is possible with all music videos), so therefore have an oppositional view towards it. (For example, some members of our audience might just not like the story or think that it portraying something too 'particular'.

Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory': http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/richard-dyers-star-theory.html (my first blog post on this theory, talking about what it argues) http://lozzykay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-star-theory-applied-to-some-artists.html (my second log post on this theory, applying it to more artist's in detail).

This theory argues that different forms of media can demonstrate the star being 'constructed', by the record label presenting the artist's or band's look or style to be important. I think that our own band does not really apply to this through what we are creating (such as the music video for the single, the website, and the CD cover and back). This is because our band are never really shown (apart from their hands playing instruments, and in a photo in our music video, as the lead singer in our band plays 'The Boy' in our music video).
This theory also argues that 'stars' are a 'commodity', meaning that they are produced to basically create money for the record label. I also don't believe that this apply's to our own band, due to the some reason as my last point.
With regards to him arguing that stars are an 'ideology', he also states that stars will represent certain social groups/views so will therefore create certain ideologies. For example, he says that fans of the star will usually want to copy their style and be more like them. I think that this is something which could happen, as it can with any artist or band, however, our band obviously won't be big style icons such as how the Beatles were in the  60's/70's.

Third filming schedule- Final music video

Here is the filming schedule that we made for filming on Saturday at Elsie's house. Here is what we have planned to film:

Second filming schedule / updating info on band website

Hi everyone, so as I have previously mentioned, we decided to film another Wednesday to make sure that we have enough footage when it comes to editing our final music video (we are filming again tomorrow at Tammy's house).  

Here is the second shooting schedule that we made which will help us remember what needs to be done when it comes to filming. This means that we can get everything done that we need to done faster.

Elsie also thought that it would be good to add a bit of information to the 'ABOUT' page on our band website. On this page she wrote a review on our band (as if it was from a magazine) and also just some general information about what the band have been doing (therefore making it more realistic, as though are band is real).

Here is how it looks with the latest updates:

Final music video- First shooting schedule

Hi everyone, 

as I have previously said, tomorrow is when we are going to start filming some parts of our final music video. Therefore, in advance we wrote a shooting schedule to help us remember everything that we have to do, here it is:

Developing merchandise, updates to website & CD inspo

Hi everyone, so today my group and I decided that we should update our merchandise, making it look more professional than what we previously came up with. We thought that it would be a good idea to use the eagle from the band's logo which we made, to show a consistency in the band's design and branding. Elsie also suggested that instead of using cartoon templates of clothing (like we did in our original ideas), we should use plain real clothing to make it more realistic for when people are viewing our website, thus making them more interested. Elsie went and used Google images to find some pieces of clothing and then added our eagle design onto them.

Here is what they ended up looking like:

Elsie then added these to our website and we all decided on pricing the t-shirts at £15 and the jumpers £20 as they are usually higher in price and we are a 'small band'. Elsie then added the buttons 'Price' and 'Buy Now' next to each one and decided on their placing and colouring. She then added two headers saying 'T- Shirts' and 'Jumpers' in a pastel orange as it matched our aesthetic and colour scheme of our website. 

Elsie then updated the 'Home' and 'Gigs' pages with some tour dates and where they would be taking place. We decided that we would choose small gigging places/locations as our band is not fully established but are just starting in their career, therefore, naming smaller places of performing would make more sense than an arena. 

Here our the updates that can be seen to our website:

Finally, while Elsie was checking her Twitter, she came across some artwork of a nature-based piece on animals and had the idea that something like it would fit with our tree theme shown across our website perfectly. This inspired us so we decided that I should draw a version of it but with a falcon. This is another idea that we think we could use this as part of our albums front or back cover.

Here is our inspiration and our version drawn by me:

Here is the piece that Elsie found on Twitter.

And here is the piece that I drew.

We hope that you enjoyed all of our new ideas and updates, thank you for reading.

UPDATE: I then thought of an idea for our CD cover that would incorporate both of our existing ides.  Here is what I came up with, obviously when it is the final design, the grey background on the falcon will be cut out so only the 'tree aesthetic' will be seen.

Booking equipment and planning to start filming

Hi everyone, so today, my group and I finally agreed on some days that we are going to start filming on (our shooting schedule will be uploaded soon) and we thought we should just update you all on it.

We decided to start some of the filming on Wednesday the 11th next week after school. We are going to start filming the part of the music video that we are doing at Tammy's house, including the close-up shots of the candles at the beginning of our music video, the parts where we are all on the bed teasing Elsie's character and are seen to be lip syncing, and the parts where Elsie's character is getting angry and throwing things (this is where the music starts to get faster).  We decided to film this part after school as we don't need it to be lighter outside. 

This means that when we come to filming some of the outdoor shots, we are doing it on a weekend (we decided upon Saturday the 21st) as then we will have more time to shoot when it is lighter.

For these filming days we decided to book the following equipment:

• A DSLR camera
• A tripod (we decided to book one which can extend to be taller, in case we need it for a bigger variation of shots).
• And finally a shoulder mounts for keeping shots steady if the camera needs to move (such as when we are on the bed in the music video and the camera crane's around the room).

Hebididges's Subculture theory - 'The Meaning of Style'- applied to our music video

 

Sources: 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture:_The_Meaning_of_Style

http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/dick-hebdige-subculture-meaning-of.html

Final music video- risk assesment

Here is the risk assessment for my groups final music video. This ensures that we know all of the hazards that there could potentially be and what we can do to lower the chance of these hazards putting us or any other people at a risk.

Part A:

Part B:

Interior location scouting- Final music video

Hi everyone, my group and I just thought that we should show you where we plan to film most of the interior location shots for our music video. Tammy took some pictures of her bedroom as this is where the sleepover will be taking place in our video, and is the bedroom of the main girl in the 'spooky' story being told. 

Here are the photos that she took:

We are choosing to film the sleepover in Tammy's room as we thought that it fit the most with the room that we wanted for our video (a 'typical' girls room').

Exterior location scouting- Final music video

Exterior Location Shots Music Video by Slidely Slideshow

These are some photos that Elsie went and took near her house. We plan on using this area in our music video when the main female protagonist, played by Elsie, goes looking for the boy as well as in the chorus.

Mood board- Final music video

Hi everyone, so my group and I basically thought that it would be a good idea to create a 'mood board', by adding pictures of some of our most iconic ideas for our final music video. This helped us get more to grips with how we want the music video to look and how we want to portray the 'spooky' feeling to it along with the 'typical teenage girl sleepover' style at the beginning.

Here is a look at what we have created:

As you can see, we've added things such as the candles that we plan to show first in the music video and possibly them being blown out at the end of the music video. We've also shown a picture of a handwritten note which is something that is left by the girl. Another thing that we added was a picture of a torch (which adds to the 'spooky' feel with regards to the lighting) as well as an outdoor location where there are trees (where the girl finds the boys shirt on the floor).

Banned music videos

Hi everyone, this is a follow-up post of my last post 'Music video regulation'. Basically, this is a post where I talk about four different music videos that have been banned and why they were, as well as some of my opinions on how music videos have changed over time with regards to what is and isn't allowed to be shown in them.

The information about the first three music videos that I talked about in this post are from: http://www.clipd.com/tv/5751/12-music-videos-so-extreme-they-were-banned/

The information about the last music video that I talked about was from the website: http://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/entertainment/10-music-videos-banned-for-excessive-sex-and-violence/

This infographic was created using www.easel.ly

Hope you enjoy... 

Rihanna- 'Bitch betta have my money'

Today in lesson we got given a sheet which had an article on it about Rihanna's music video to 'Bitch betta have my money'. The article discussed what the music video included such as Rihanna kidnapping someone's an accountant's wife who stole her money, then proceeds to "stuff her into a trunk, strips her half naked, hangs her upside down, gets her drunk, half drowns her and then stabs the accountant. The article then carries on talking about the controversy of the music video by saying that Rihanna "finally has a relaxing smoke in a bath while naked and covered in blood. It states how the internet "unpacked the sexual and racial politics of the video" and the fact that they ignored that the video was what like pop stars will do at some point in their careers. In my opinion, a lot of pop stars do sometimes come out with some quite 'controversial' videos in their career however, I think that Rihanna's video for 'BBHMM' would easily shock any viewer watching due to the extent of the 'explicit' content within the narrative of the music video. An example of another artist's music video that was considered to be 'controversial' at the time of it's release is Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking ball' which was released in 2013 as part of her album 'Bangers and mash'. This music video contains scenes of Miley swinging about on a wrecking ball whilst only wearing boots, however, it doesn't 'reveal' anything or I believe show anything as 'controversial' as Rihanna's music video for BBHMM.

Here are some screen grabs that portray this music video to be 'controversial' (obviously I can't add a lot of things because they're 'too explicit'):

The article then goes on to talk about viewers expectations and how most music videos will 'ponder' to them, the characteristics being "glamour, success, and fun" which is a completely different case with this music video. It also states how an "event video is designed to project power and money but usually ends up revealing an artists fatal flaw before it swallows them". It states that artists such as Guns N roses, Jackson and Oasis subconsciously telling the audience 'have lost the plot. Please send help', suggesting they are basically saying this if they are "deluded, demented, drug-addicted or just a bit dim'. In my opinion, this is a bit exaggerated and artists that usually use drugs in their music videos are talking about money or just having fun. However, I think that some artists do do it to get more attention and to make people think that they are in a way pretty 'bad-ass'. For example, 'feelin myself' by William featuring other artists talks about drugs and money at the same time, suggesting they are just showing the audience how rich they are and basically that they can do what they want to do. Relating with this, the article then states that "Rihanna wants to be seen as a no-f**k-giving badass but comes off as somewhat desperate", which i think can sometimes apply (it sometimes feels like artists who do this just want attention however, not always).

The article goes on to talk about the artist Taylor Swift, saying that she "wants to cement her status as an A-list celebrity and every famous woman's dream BFF" with reference to her music video for her song 'Bad Blood'. In my opinion, I think that this could definitely be the case as I don't see why else she would have had all of her 'famous friends' involved in a video where she wants to try and put out a message.


The article also states that in 2013, the Billboard hot 100 added YouTube and Vevo news to it's calculations meaning that it makes the songs/music videos go up in the charts the more they are viewed on these platforms. From reading the article I therefore learnt that although the music video for Rihanna's BBHMM was not exactly viewed a lot when there was no video to show for it, however 'Bad blood' was because of the music video contents. The article here states that songs only get listened to and do well in the charts due to their music video views instead of how good the song really is. Quoting the article, It says that "Bad blood, probably the worst song on parent LP 1989, only topped the Billboard charts for a week because of the video views". "A day before Rihanna launched her video, Kendrick Lamar released his clip for 'Alright' (which gives ambitious mini-movies a good name)". The article states that this was "more original, beautiful, moving and thought-provoking than Rihanna's, with a better song boot" however, this received approximately only a quarter of the views and a fraction of the fuss surrounding it. In my opinion, I think that songs will mainly do better and become more successful when there is a music video to it that is either controversial or 'stands out from the crowd' as something that people will look at and remember.

Here's a look at the article that we were given:

As a short conclusion, I really think that this article really points out the importance of music videos in today's generation and about how they can easily make the songs more popular, even if the song itself isn't particularly that good. This therefore also shows the importance of how artists and bands decide to portray themselves in their music videos as how they want people to see them I think is a big part of the music industry (meaning it can effect the success of their songs and them as people).

Famous music videos

Looking at some iconic and popular CD covers