Majority of the songs are mainly pop and there aren’t any Ska
tracks in this chart. This shows that Ska isn’t popular anymore and implies
that we don’t have a lot of audience that would listen and watch our music video.
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Audience research (Vlog)
In this audience research, i am looking at people doing vlogs which are video blogs. This is where people film themselves talking about a particular subject. For example, I am researching people vlogging mainly music videos or songs. Vloggers will talk about the music video or song in their own opinion. They will then post in YouTube so that people can view and like their video.
Vlogs can promote music videos or songs because vloggers are able to speak about the music and talk how good the music is and presuade people to listen to the song. Also, vlogs are able to promote new bands and help them get more recognised around the world.
Audience Research on VLogs
Vlogs
A Vlog is simply a
blog in a video form. They can be about everything: an event, interest or
someone. d
This vlog is about
going to the Blues festival in Australia. This is used to promote music as it
is showing the journey of two girls to the blues festival. This means that we
are able to see how fun it is to go to festivals and the pleasures of listening
to live music from your favourite bands and artists.
This vlog also
promotes music as it shows the life of artists on tour. The vlog shows how an artist’s
daily life on tour is like. This means that we can see the possible lifestyle and
how rewarding it is to be a musician. This promotes music as it encourages
young artists to pursue their dreams with music and performing.
The most popular
music genre in today’s charts is POP. It has a lot of followers and almost all
of the songs in the top 10 are pop. Our music genre of ska is very much for a niche audience however,
Vlogs and how they promote music
Vlogs:
A vlog is a blog which is presented in a video form.
Vlogs are used to promote music videos by putting out to a lot of people either their views and opinions on music, or to even promote their own music. Some vloggers who have a lot of followers may use blogs to explain their own music they may be releasing and parts about the making of it to get people interested in it before it is released. The second video I have put up, shows a girl explaining to her audience the music she listens to. This type of vlog gives other people who are watching it the opportunity to find out about songs they may have not listened to and therefore are giving people more options of music. Mainly this type of vlog is their own personal opinion on music they like but this is still promoting music as the vlog may make other people want to listen to that song which will bring about popularity.
Audience Research (Vlogs)
A vlog is a blog which is posted in a video format. Vlogging is becoming more popular nowadays as the equipment such as cameras are becoming more affordable and more software is coming out to support the cameras to give ease of use.
Here are two example of vlogs;
Vlogs help promote music in a number of ways. By posting a vlog online it means that anybody on the internet can view it and see what is being said in the vlog. For example, if the vlog is talking about a new music video and giving opinions on it, it gives interest to the audience viewing the vlog about the music video. This means they could discover the music video through the vlog and might like it. If the audience likes the music video then they might also tell their friends through word of mouth and this will further promote the music video.
In the first example of a vlog, the vlogger tells the audience what the music genre 'Ska' is and how it originated. This gives people more information that they didn't know and helps promote the music genre by educating people about it. If people did not know about the music genre before then they might not even know whether they like it or not, and if they do then it helps to promote the music genre and any music videos in that music genre if a specific music video is being spoken about in a vlog.
The top 5 strategies to use to promote my music video would be;
The most popular music genres on Radio 1 charts, downloads, MTV v NME/Brit Awards are. Ska as a music genre is not that popular as it is not a big music genre in the UK in comparison to hip-hop and other genres, as these genres are more mainstream than Ska and have a bigger fan base. Having a bigger fan base also means that more sales means more money to produce music/music videos, and as the quality of these videos are higher it attracts more people.
Here are two example of vlogs;
Vlogs help promote music in a number of ways. By posting a vlog online it means that anybody on the internet can view it and see what is being said in the vlog. For example, if the vlog is talking about a new music video and giving opinions on it, it gives interest to the audience viewing the vlog about the music video. This means they could discover the music video through the vlog and might like it. If the audience likes the music video then they might also tell their friends through word of mouth and this will further promote the music video.
In the first example of a vlog, the vlogger tells the audience what the music genre 'Ska' is and how it originated. This gives people more information that they didn't know and helps promote the music genre by educating people about it. If people did not know about the music genre before then they might not even know whether they like it or not, and if they do then it helps to promote the music genre and any music videos in that music genre if a specific music video is being spoken about in a vlog.
The top 5 strategies to use to promote my music video would be;
- PR - having interviews with those in the music video, interacting with the target audience and having events will help promote the music video.
- Social media - having pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other major social media that many people use can keep people up to date with sharing the latest music video, behind-the-scenes, interviews and so forth. This will bring publicity to the music video and those behind it.
- Advertising - putting posters of advertisement of the new music video around town, and displaying it on various websites.
- Post content regularly - this can be on the blog, YouTube, or any other social media, encouraging people to know about the music video.
- Upload the music via different music streaming services - as well as uploading the music video onto the main website, upload it onto YouTube, Soundcloud and other websites where it can be discovered publicly by anyone and can give the music video free promotion.
The most popular music genres on Radio 1 charts, downloads, MTV v NME/Brit Awards are. Ska as a music genre is not that popular as it is not a big music genre in the UK in comparison to hip-hop and other genres, as these genres are more mainstream than Ska and have a bigger fan base. Having a bigger fan base also means that more sales means more money to produce music/music videos, and as the quality of these videos are higher it attracts more people.
Lip Syncing Practice
In this task we filmed Ben whilst playing our song for our music video 'fast feet' as he was lip syncing to the lyrics. We then edited the video of Ben lip syncing to the music file on final cut express to fit in time with the audio. It is important to do this and get this right to make it seem more authentic and professional so the audience believe Ben is actually singing it.
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Mise-en-scene creativity
I like that they have thought outside the box when they shot this still. It presents mystery on who the person in front of Ben is and what is it that he is doing that is causing stress. I think this can be used in our music video which is why i think that it is the most effective.
This is the least effective still because although it was a clever idea, the shaky camera and the fact that it was off-center makes it a very ineffective shot.
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Ben music video still
This still is effective for giving the impression that the DJ is live on stage thanks to the green screening editing. The mid shot helps give focus onto the DJ and gives people the impression that he is using a DJ deck. However, it could have been better if there was a DJ deck to be shown as some people might think something else even with the headphones showing.
I would not use this representation in my music video as I think it is rather hard to display and analyse a certain image to the audience and it can be confusing.
Music Genre Stills
This still shows the genre of indie/ska. The use of the video filter: Sepia creates an indie atmosphere in the video. The white/plain background and plain t-shirts connote that they do not care what they are wearing or what people think of them, which is normally a stereotype of indie or ska artists. We used a guitar as a prop because it is a very significant instrument in the ska or indie genre therefore we wanted to incorporate it. I think the semiotics used in this still is very important for our music video as it is of the same genre as our song. This means that we will be using these filters, props and atmosphere in the still as in our music video.
Furthermore, this still links on to Gauntlet's new man theory. In the still, we represented ourselves as new men as we are smiling and not looking aggressive. There are no women in the still which means that they are not being sexualised.
We used black and white filters for the metal genre because it makes it look dark and gothic. It is a low angle mid-shot to focus on the guitar. The M-E-S helps the audience to see that it is a metal genre because the person is wearing mainly dark clothing with a leather jacket which is commonly worn in metal bands.
The low angle show show that the guitarist is dominant linking to traditional male by Gauntlet.
This still is effective because it represent the genre as dark and the guitar implies that the music is going to be loud.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Conventions of ska music;
Conventions;
Ska music tends to not have a narrative aspect to it and therefore the main one used is performance. This is because in most of the music videos for ska music you always see them playing their instruments which is an aspect of performance.
For example in the ska song 'Date Rape' the first thing we see is the band all together playing their instruments.
another example is 'Baggy Trousers' this song also uses the perfomance aspect and using instruments to show this. You can see in the background of this music video the two men playing the guitar which is part of the original track.
The audience from this can decode that a main part of Ska genre music is based on the focus of the instruments that are being played. It also draws their attention to how important they are
Another convention of Ska music is that is has no set order (narrative) and therefore is more spectacle as in most of the music videos the directors have used a mixture of locations to make the scene seem random.
Using the same songs 'Baggy trousers' and 'Date rape' we can see in both of them that the directors have encoded the randomized scenes into the genre to make it seemed jumbled up.
You can see that from these three pictures that the director has used different locations in order to mix it up a bit. This distorts the fluidity of the video, unlike if it was a narrative, which makes it more of a spectacle. This is enhancing how a convention of Ska music is to make it distorted and random through spectacle and performance.
The audience can decode that there is no set storyline to the music genre and that when watching a ska music video it'll be random. Usually in a music video for example if they were on a stage playing their instruments, the audience would be able to decode that they are playing to an audience and performing. But because ska music changes the location of performance or bases the performance element in a rural area it makes it more difficult to decode the reason they have filmed it there. But this is because the producer is wanting it to be random.
Also in ska music genres they tend to use characters in the background. As well as using the band in the music video as the main focus, to break it up a bit and fit with the random aspect they use characters to act out scenes in the middle of sections.
in 'Date rape' we can see that this women isn't part of the band but she is acting in the bar to show a different scene in comparison to them performing with their instruments. The audience can decode from this picture in particular is that a bar is related to getting drunk an loud which fits in with the songs upbeat tempo.
In 'Baggy trousers' we can see the children running down a pathway and they are not apart of the band but are characters with in the random scenes in between. The audience can decode from this picture to the right that they are running away from something, which looks like the school teacher which is decoded as them being naughty and retaliating. This can link in with how the director has encoded into the music video the personality of the band to match the scenes included, as throughout the video we see clips of the band members being naughty and mischievous.
we can link this to Halls theory. Halls theory consisted of three things;
preferred readings
oppositional readings
negotiated readings
the audience if they like the type of genre and music video they will have preferred it meaning they are wanting to decode it and they accept how the director has encoded it.
if they are oppositional, they may reject the preferred meaning and therefore means they might not like some of the conventions.
if the audience negotiate the readings of the conventions, they may understand the meanings of It but have no interest in the genre and conventions and therefore aren't interested in decoding it.
Ska music tends to not have a narrative aspect to it and therefore the main one used is performance. This is because in most of the music videos for ska music you always see them playing their instruments which is an aspect of performance.
For example in the ska song 'Date Rape' the first thing we see is the band all together playing their instruments.
another example is 'Baggy Trousers' this song also uses the perfomance aspect and using instruments to show this. You can see in the background of this music video the two men playing the guitar which is part of the original track.
The audience from this can decode that a main part of Ska genre music is based on the focus of the instruments that are being played. It also draws their attention to how important they are
Another convention of Ska music is that is has no set order (narrative) and therefore is more spectacle as in most of the music videos the directors have used a mixture of locations to make the scene seem random.
Using the same songs 'Baggy trousers' and 'Date rape' we can see in both of them that the directors have encoded the randomized scenes into the genre to make it seemed jumbled up.
You can see that from these three pictures that the director has used different locations in order to mix it up a bit. This distorts the fluidity of the video, unlike if it was a narrative, which makes it more of a spectacle. This is enhancing how a convention of Ska music is to make it distorted and random through spectacle and performance. 
The audience can decode that there is no set storyline to the music genre and that when watching a ska music video it'll be random. Usually in a music video for example if they were on a stage playing their instruments, the audience would be able to decode that they are playing to an audience and performing. But because ska music changes the location of performance or bases the performance element in a rural area it makes it more difficult to decode the reason they have filmed it there. But this is because the producer is wanting it to be random.
Also in ska music genres they tend to use characters in the background. As well as using the band in the music video as the main focus, to break it up a bit and fit with the random aspect they use characters to act out scenes in the middle of sections.
in 'Date rape' we can see that this women isn't part of the band but she is acting in the bar to show a different scene in comparison to them performing with their instruments. The audience can decode from this picture in particular is that a bar is related to getting drunk an loud which fits in with the songs upbeat tempo.
In 'Baggy trousers' we can see the children running down a pathway and they are not apart of the band but are characters with in the random scenes in between. The audience can decode from this picture to the right that they are running away from something, which looks like the school teacher which is decoded as them being naughty and retaliating. This can link in with how the director has encoded into the music video the personality of the band to match the scenes included, as throughout the video we see clips of the band members being naughty and mischievous.
we can link this to Halls theory. Halls theory consisted of three things;
preferred readings
oppositional readings
negotiated readings
the audience if they like the type of genre and music video they will have preferred it meaning they are wanting to decode it and they accept how the director has encoded it.
if they are oppositional, they may reject the preferred meaning and therefore means they might not like some of the conventions.
if the audience negotiate the readings of the conventions, they may understand the meanings of It but have no interest in the genre and conventions and therefore aren't interested in decoding it.
Blumer and Katz theory
Blumler and Katz theory is the understanding of how the audience consumes the media and how the media does this for the audience. The theory follows a simple model - the audience takes an active role in the media, for example if they like it, they use word of mouth to spread it about. We will use this by suggesting that people who watch and consume the music video will be satisfied and fulfill their gratifications, meaning the effect this will have is more people will want to consume the media if others are spreading it about and giving praise.
Monday, 21 September 2015
Representation Stills
Gauntlett - Masculinity in Crisis
As women become increasingly assertive and successful, men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today.
This looks at whether the man is a 'New Man' or a 'Traditional Man'.
Mulvey - The Male Gaze
Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men.
As women become increasingly assertive and successful, men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today.
This looks at whether the man is a 'New Man' or a 'Traditional Man'.
Mulvey - The Male Gaze
Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men.
Berger - Ways of Seeing
The audience looks through the "directors view" to see his vision for the video as well as their own.
Audience's perception -> Audience sees this image
Camera man's perception -> Construct image
Record labels
Warner Music Group
Genre: Pop
This record label records for some of the most popular artists around the world such as Rudimental, Wiz Khalifa and Alt-J. This record label has been in the top 3 record labels in the world since 1988 and still is
Universal Music Group
Genre: Pop/Hip-hop
This record label has recorded for some of the greatest artists/groups back in the day such as Abba and Elton John. Now they are broadening their genres to artists such as Eminem who is a rapper and Kendrick Lamar, as well as continuing their dominant pop genre.
Sony Music Entertainment
Genre: Pop/Rock/EDM
Sony Music is the home to the world’s greatest artists past and present such as Beyonce, Foo Fighters, One Direction, Britney Spears, Usher, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Meghan Trainor, Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Rita Ora, George Ezra, Olly Murs, Paloma Faith, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Luther Vandross, Dolly Parton, AC/DC, Manic Street Preachers and The Clash.
Genre: Pop
This record label records for some of the most popular artists around the world such as Rudimental, Wiz Khalifa and Alt-J. This record label has been in the top 3 record labels in the world since 1988 and still is
Universal Music Group
Genre: Pop/Hip-hop
This record label has recorded for some of the greatest artists/groups back in the day such as Abba and Elton John. Now they are broadening their genres to artists such as Eminem who is a rapper and Kendrick Lamar, as well as continuing their dominant pop genre.
Sony Music Entertainment
Genre: Pop/Rock/EDM
Sony Music is the home to the world’s greatest artists past and present such as Beyonce, Foo Fighters, One Direction, Britney Spears, Usher, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Meghan Trainor, Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Rita Ora, George Ezra, Olly Murs, Paloma Faith, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Luther Vandross, Dolly Parton, AC/DC, Manic Street Preachers and The Clash.
Jake Nava
Jake Nava is a director of music videos and TV commercials, having created award-winning works over the past decade for some of the best-known artists and brands worldwide.
Nava's Lucozade spot was honoured with a place in Campaign magazine’s Top 10 TV & Cinema Ads and his videos for Adele “Someone Like You” and Kanye West “Monster” landed him in Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Music Video Directors listing. Nava collaborated with Beyoncé on “Crazy In Love” and the video for “Single Ladies”, recently listed by the Times at position number 3 in The 25 Most Influential Music Videos of all time. It charts as the 3rd most downloaded video in the world and won “Video of the Year” at MTV America, MTV Europe and BET Awards.
These 3 music videos are some of his popular work. In his recent work, he has directed majority of female artist and mainly directed on Beyoncé's music videos.
In IMVDb, "Someone Like You" by Adele is the most popular work he has done.
For the three videos Jake Nava used black and white
0 In this video, he has used black and white for the entire music video which the audience may think it is a narrative music video but It is mainly a perforce based music video. The close up shots are used to focus on her emotion and the black £filter seems that she is reliving the past and makes it more dramatic.
In this music video Jake Nava is focusing in sexualising females. In the music video, the women are wearing body fit clothing so that the male audience can be attracted to their body. the black and white filter helps the clothing to stand out more and emphasis their sexuality. the long shots enables the male audience to gave on the women's body.
In this music video is narrative based, Jake Nava has cleverly reversed the gender roles at the beginning of the music video but then changes to reality at the end of the video.
Overall I think that Jake Nava using black and white filters makes it dramatic especially in "Someone Like You" and "If I Were A Boy".
Nava's Lucozade spot was honoured with a place in Campaign magazine’s Top 10 TV & Cinema Ads and his videos for Adele “Someone Like You” and Kanye West “Monster” landed him in Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Music Video Directors listing. Nava collaborated with Beyoncé on “Crazy In Love” and the video for “Single Ladies”, recently listed by the Times at position number 3 in The 25 Most Influential Music Videos of all time. It charts as the 3rd most downloaded video in the world and won “Video of the Year” at MTV America, MTV Europe and BET Awards.
These 3 music videos are some of his popular work. In his recent work, he has directed majority of female artist and mainly directed on Beyoncé's music videos.
In IMVDb, "Someone Like You" by Adele is the most popular work he has done.
For the three videos Jake Nava used black and white
0 In this video, he has used black and white for the entire music video which the audience may think it is a narrative music video but It is mainly a perforce based music video. The close up shots are used to focus on her emotion and the black £filter seems that she is reliving the past and makes it more dramatic.
In this music video Jake Nava is focusing in sexualising females. In the music video, the women are wearing body fit clothing so that the male audience can be attracted to their body. the black and white filter helps the clothing to stand out more and emphasis their sexuality. the long shots enables the male audience to gave on the women's body.
In this music video is narrative based, Jake Nava has cleverly reversed the gender roles at the beginning of the music video but then changes to reality at the end of the video.
Overall I think that Jake Nava using black and white filters makes it dramatic especially in "Someone Like You" and "If I Were A Boy".
David Fincher Evaluation
David Fincher is an American film/music video director and has worked with many renowned artists. He has won two Grammy awards for Best Music Video and three MTV Music Videos for Best Direction.
Here is some of his work;
3 characteristics;
The first characteristic is that in 3 of David Fincher's most well known music videos that he has directed, all of the music videos are black and white. The black and white editing is because David Fincher was influenced by Hollywood glamour at the time, which is accompanied by what each artists wears in their music video. This is a style that David Fincher keeps consistent throughout all three of the music videos.
The second characteristic is that David Fincher tends to keep the music videos in the 'performance' genre, which is dominant in all his videos. As we can see in still of the Justin Timberlake 'Suit and Tie' music video, he is singing in a microphone. The close up on his face throughout the video focuses on his image as well, which is the same case in the Madonna 'Vogue' video.
The third characteristic is that he has sexualised Madonna, which is one of his only female artists he has directed for. Examples of this are shown in the music video 'Vogue' and 'Express Yourself'. Madonna is portrayed as somebody who is sexy by the use of close ups and focusing on the body, as well as wearing costumes which give impressions to the audience.
I think the use of black & white editing throughout all videos is effective. Firstly it shows that David Fincher is trying to portray a certain image across, such as in the Madonna video, Madonna is very focused on and is the 'pop queen', and the combination of both having performance and image is effective as it shows how well she can perform and as an image she is an idol to many people.
What is not effective is that all of the music videos are dominantly performance. Although this is beneficial in some cases, it sometimes may not be effective in some music videos. For example, in the Rolling Stones music video it shows a performance throughout the whole music video with the artists all out of proportion in size, as if to show some kind of narrative. This may confuse the audience in some cases as they will not be sure what is happening in the music video.
Paul Thomas Anderson's Music Videos
Paul Thomas Anderson is an American Film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed music videos such as Try by Michael Penn, Fiona Apple's "Across the Universe" and "Fimp". His style of music videos includes a lot of performance, there is a sense darkness in each of his music videos. He uses the use of black and white filters to connote sad and lonely times as seen on "Across the Universe". He is also famous for his work on films, having won numerous awards for "There will be blood" and "Magnolia"
In each of his music videos, there is an obvious artistic atmosphere through the sense of spectacle. As seen on "Across the Universe" she spins around the set, although rather strange, it creates the sense that she is loosing control of her life and her self. This use of subtle connotations Is consistent through all of the three music videos. There are links between the music and the videos on the screen which allows his music videos to also have narrative.
Sunday, 20 September 2015
case study of iconic director: Jonas Akerlund Evaluation
3 characteristics;
one common feature of Jonas Auckerlands music videos is that he always has long introductions before the music starts. in all three of them they all have about a 2min introduction of the music video of them acting and building up a story. This seems to be a feature which works well as its builds up an understanding of the music video before the main songs happens meaning the audience have more of a chance to be able to denote it.
Another common feature is that he always uses quick jump shots moving from one scene to another, even when a slow song like 'magic' is playing he still does continue to do fast jump shots.
lady gaga;
this shows it going from one scene to another straight away in completely different environments at a very fast pace.
Coldplay:
this also shows a jump cut from one angle of view to another.
David guetta:
these photos also show the different point of view from the camera through a quick jump cut to show this.
The last common characteristic that Jonas uses in all of them is that he always uses a transition when the actual song starts from the music video which used a fade out where the new scene over takes the screen from the middle outwards.
in lady gagas it uses a random shape to fade out into the new scene:
david guettas uses a car shape to suit his music video to fade out;
and then cold play uses a circle transition so that it suits the target board.
one common feature of Jonas Auckerlands music videos is that he always has long introductions before the music starts. in all three of them they all have about a 2min introduction of the music video of them acting and building up a story. This seems to be a feature which works well as its builds up an understanding of the music video before the main songs happens meaning the audience have more of a chance to be able to denote it.
Another common feature is that he always uses quick jump shots moving from one scene to another, even when a slow song like 'magic' is playing he still does continue to do fast jump shots.
lady gaga;
this shows it going from one scene to another straight away in completely different environments at a very fast pace.
Coldplay:
this also shows a jump cut from one angle of view to another.
David guetta:
these photos also show the different point of view from the camera through a quick jump cut to show this.
The last common characteristic that Jonas uses in all of them is that he always uses a transition when the actual song starts from the music video which used a fade out where the new scene over takes the screen from the middle outwards.
in lady gagas it uses a random shape to fade out into the new scene:
david guettas uses a car shape to suit his music video to fade out;
and then cold play uses a circle transition so that it suits the target board.
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