Plan for the Holidays

For the Christmas holidays I intend to get my first filmshoot done, so that I can get started on editing it once I return to the school. I am unlikely going to be doing any work from Christmas to New Year though, for obvious reasons. This means I will try to get my film shoot done ASAP, before Christmas hopefully.

Things To Do - Deadline Extended

I have sadly not got everything done by the deadline I had set myself, so I am going to extend it until the end of the term in order for me to get it all on the blog.

New Deadline: 21st December

Digipak - Name of Artist and Album

(This was originally done back in October, but have only noticed now that it wasn't published)

For my digipak (and for the video as well), I am going to need to come up with a name for my artist or band. I made a questionnaire in which I asked for a few ideas for band names, aand also for a name for the album.

After asking around, the best name for the band (in my opinion) that I was given was Columbia. After a bit of research I found that Columbia (not Colombia, the country) was not only a city in South Carolina and the Space Shuttle that tragically blew up in 2003, but it is actually the name of a song by the Britpop group Oasis. This creates a great link, as the genre of music is what my chosen song is.

For the album name, I decided, after looking through various possible names without any luck, I decided to make my album self-titled, therefore calling it Columbia.

Band: Columbia
Album: Columbia

Digipak - Insert Designs

After doing the front cover for my digipak, I decided to look into the designs for the Insert for my digipak. Here are some of the designs I looked at:

Digipak Front Cover Draft

Drafting for Digipak

I have begun the drafting for my digipak and will upload it in due time.

Digipak Front Cover Idea

After looking through various digipaks (as shown previously), I have begun looking at different ideas for MY digipak.

 

I asked around a few of the students into what I should call my digipak/album, and I decided that, even though I had been given many ideas (most of them sensible), I was not going to have the title of the album on my front or back cover of the digipak. This is a common theme through albums, but you do see it often in alternative albums, mostly older ones.

Duie to this, I have been looking at other album covers outside of the 1990s, mainly ones from the late 1980s, artists such as The Smiths, The Stone Roses and U2 among others, in order to gain inspiration and tritle-less covers.

 

The album cover that has most attracted my attention is Achtung Baby by U2 (1991). The use of 16 different images, only three of those eluding any idea of who the band is, creates a great effect, wherein which the band's identity and the genre of the music are contained within the contrasting imagery. Other things, such as that the title of the album does not appear, and that the colours are quite dark, with bits of white spread across to contrast.

Storyboard - First Minute 30

Over half term, I used the time I had when I wasnt filming to help create my storyboard. Here is the first minute 30 seconds:

Things To Do

I need to get these things done by 11th December:

• Storyboards
• Two different drafts of my Digipak front and back cover
• One draft of the digipak insert
• A draft of my website - With necessary research
• Plans and outlines of film and shoot days
• Still/screenshots of filming and photography (for digipak and website)

Using The Editing Software

I have begun to learn how to use the editing software for making my video. Doing this early will help me be ready and able to use it fully once I have done all my filming.

Inspirations & Ideas From Other Bands' Videos - Continued

Another band I looked at was Oasis. It was quite hard to actually get a couple of their videos, as they don't appear on any of the music websites.

 

Digipak Ideas - Inspirations

I have looked at many of the album covers by variopus bands that are familiar to the ideas of Britpop and /or from the mid-to-late nineties. I chose various different covers which I would then analyse in order to gain an idea into whay my digipak's front and back cover should look like.

Here are a few of those covers:

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis (1995)

His 'n' Hers - Pulp (1994)

Elastica - Elastica (1995)

Wild Wood - Paul Weller (1993)

Stanley Road - Paul Weller (1995)

Half Term

I tried to spend my half term as wisely as possible, as I was away from Saturday to Tuesday, so I only had 3 extra days instead of 5. Some of my video I could not film or get footage during the holidays anyways, as the majority of my filming is either school based or will involve the green screen in some way, using the schools facilities. I have storyboarded most of my video there is just a few piece that I am unsure of in terms of location, but I will likely get that sorted in the coming weeks. I also need to think of a location where I can get the room to be completely white, though I think that the green screen will help me if I cannot find a suitable room. Therefore i have tried to plan as much as possible, now i am going to finish off my storyboards, work out a date and then attempt to get in touch with some of the school staff about locations. My aim is to have around at least 1 minute of my video filmed (and if possible, edited) by the end of November.

Inspirations & Ideas From Other Bands' Videos

Even though I am mainly looking at The Verve as my main inspiration in my videos, I have still been looking at other bands in order to gain more ideas and other things such as shots, costume, etc.

One band in particular I looked at was Pulp. After having one of their songs in my original shortlist, I looked through many of their videos. Here are a few:

 

 

There are quite a few ideas, that I could possibly 'borrow', that appear throughout a lot of their videos. The use of a plain white background in the videos 'Babies' and 'Mis-Shapes' among others, is a very simple yet very eye-catching and sharp - it creates more focus on the band member, particlarly Jarvis Cocker (the lead singer).

Things such as the use of the clocks in 'Disco 2000' or the images created of a working class life in 'Common People' are also things that I could possibly attempt to integrate into my video in some form.

E-mailing Record Labels

As mentioned (quite a while ago now) I sent an e-mail to three different record labels in hope that they would let me use their song in my video. I sent an e-mail to Parlophone, Polydor and Creation Records. Since I decided that the song I am going to use was F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown, I only needed to hear from Polydor. Sadly, I have not heard from Polydor, and since I have started filming, I may have to use the music, regardless whether they say yes or no.

Half Term Objectives

Over half term, I will be taking the filming equipment home with me, and will hopefully begin to start filming, but will mostly working out different shots and ways I can use the camera. I will (hopefully) begin filming the actual video as soon as possible.

Green Screen

We have now set up the green screen within the new building which should hopefully help enhance our videos by being able to create many more various situations that can appear within my video.

Song Choice

I have finally decided on exactly which song I am going to use. I have chosen F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown, due to the fact I believe I can come up with many more ideas using this song than the others.

Locations For Filming

I have been researching various locations which I will be trying to use in order to create my video. Some of these locations will be Roos and Burstwick, as well as using certain places within the school, such as the Green Screen room and (hopefully) the recording studios and the main hall.

(Here is one of the locations within Roos I hope to be able to film at(hopefully with the weather like that as well!))

Storyboarding

I have begun storyboarding for my video - I so far have done around 1 minute of the video and will hopefully have it uploaded soon.

The Verve Video Analysis - Bitter Sweet Symphony

I have chosen to analyse Bitter Sweet Symphony by the Verve as my Verve video analysis.
Bitter Sweet Symphony is the 1st single on The Verve's third album, Urban Hymns and it reached number 2 on the UK Singles chart. The full version of the song is 5:57 minutes long and is of the alternative/britpop genre similarly to bands like Oasis and Pulp. The song also in a similar way makes use of violins to give it a unique sound. These qualities will make it a good analysis to conduct for research regarding my chosen song. The video is in a pseudo-performance style as the lead singer is shown singing as he walks along a street but the rest of the band is not shown.

 

The video begins with a camera panning to follow the Richard Ashcroft (the lead singer) as he walks onto a busy street. The unique sound of the violins fade in on the 3rd second eventually drowning out the ambient street sounds that could be heard before. This highlights how the character is thinking and how he becomes almost oblivious to the world around him as the song continues.

He stops and turns to face the camera as it pans up to show his face. The camera moves slowly backwards as he pauses and looks towards it as if deep in thought.

Eventually, Ashcroft begins to move forwards, following the camera. The rest of the song continues as he walks along the street throughout which, he is shown to be completely uncaring and almost oblivious to his surroundings. Almost immediately as he crosses a road where he doesn't look, he is almost run over but he shows no reaction.

 

He continues to walk down the street and doesn't move from his path regardless of who or what is in his way. The lyrics were clearly used directly when the video was being created, the third line of the first verse is ''I'll Take You Down The Only Road I've Ever Been Down''.

This is represented by the road he walks down and along with ''It's A Bitter Sweet Symphony, This Life'' clearly set the theme for the whole video in the eyes of the director and the video reflects that in the singer's nature and actions.

 

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony on MUZU.TV.

Music Video - Basic Ideas

After looking through the results of my audience research, as well as extensive research of music videos across the Internet, I have finally been able to start creating my music videos' story.
For the video, I extensively looked at similar artists to the genre that my song is from, and then choosing just one of those artists to base my music video around.

The band that I chose was The Verve.

Looking through almost all of the videos have an identity that is prevalent throughout them. The whole band feature in nearly all of the videos, but only Richard Ashcroft appears in all of them. In a lot of the videos, Ashcroft is made to be pictured as an isolated, lonely figure, such as in 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' and 'The Drugs Don't Work'. Another connotation is that the band's appearance, both them and their surroundings, are made to look very bleak and desolate places, for example 'History' mainly features driving around in desert and wasteland, or 'Rather Be' which features Ashcroft walking around a small wood for the entirety of the video. There are exceptions to these though, such as 'Lucky Man', which is quite the opposite of a Verve video, with a much joyous atmosphere about it. The songs and song lyrics themselves dos have an effect on the video, as a lot of their songs do have a slightly depressing tone towards them, which will affect the video.


The Verve - Lucky Man on MUZU.TV.

Song Choices

I have now eliminated Under The Westway by Blur from my song choices, as I felt I could not develop my ideas with the resources available to me.

Songs left:
F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown
Some Might Say by Oasis

E-mailing Record Labels

In order for me to use one of the songs I have chosen, I am going to have to e-mail one of the record companies to ask permission to use it, as I will be uploading the video onto YouTube. As the music will not be used for my own financial gains and just for educational purposes, I am hoping that the companies will say yes.

I will send e-mails to two companies:

Parlophone           (for Blur - Under The Westway)
Polydor                (for Ian Brown - F.E.A.R.)
Creation Records (for Oasis - Some Might Say)

Goodwin's Theory Of Music Videos

Goodwin's Theory is based on 8 principles:

1. Links between Lyrics and Visuals
2. Links between Music and Visuals (Complimentary, Contradicting or Amplification)
3. Genre Characteristics
4. Intertextual Reference
5. Notions of Looking (Objectification of Women)
6. Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at artist, insight intoartists' life, screens and mirrors)
7. Demands of the Record Label (and the representation of the artist)
8. Performance based, Narrative based or Concept based music videos

Moodboard

Here is my moodboard, which I will use to engage ideas of what my video could look like. I know that it is quite basic and simple, but that is what I want from my video, as the general convention of the genre's videos at the time were quite simple.

Digipak Analysis - Urban Hymns by The Verve

While researching digipaks I have seen a very similar theme appearing throughout the various genres. The genre of Alternative Rock, or just Rock in general, is that the band does not usually appear upon their respective cover. Instead, a more common cover is much more abstract, featuring something more political or controversial.

The front cover of Urban Hymns shows the band, with Richard Ashcroft (Second from left) the main focus of the various members. They are all sitting in the middle of a large field or park of sorts (the images were taken at Richmond Park in London), possibly showing the ideas of being free and able to be who you want - the fact that they are sat in very casual, laid-back positions shows that the songs may have a slower, less pacey style to them, similar to the Britpop genre of the time.

The title 'Urban Hymns' seems to give religious connotations, which is followed within the album itself, with songs such as 'Sonnet' and 'Lucky Man' which feature many pieces of religious imagery. The title may also be another way of saying the album is full of 'Anthems of the Current Generation', with songs like 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' a highlight.

The back cover, in comparison, is completely black, with only the setlist and a very small image of the band, stood in a garden. This is a good comparison from the front cover, as it makes the front cover much more eye-catching, though the use of random images of the band on the back are common themes of the various pieces of art on The Verve's various albums and singles.

Digipak Analysis - Viva La Vida by Coldplay

The front cover of Viva la Vida (which means 'Live the Life') mainly consists of a painting known as "Liberty Leading The People" by french artist Eugene Delacroix in 1830. the use of revolutionary imagery such as this cover is prevalent throughout the entire album and the songs within. It also shows that the band is trying to (possibly) purvey an anti-political message to the masses. in contrast, the back cover and the inside of the digipak are much less hectic and much calmer in comparison to the front cover, which compliments well and makes the front cover more eye-catching.



There are a couple of conventions which Coldplay break here - firstly, the band's name does not appear anywhere on the outside covers. This shows that the band does not need to state their name anywhere in order for the album itself to sell copies.

This 'revolutionary' cover also shows of in the genre of music that they perform - Alternative Rock.

Song Choices

I have managed to narrow down my six song choices down to three. These are Under The Westway by Blur, Some Might Say by Oasis and F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown. I have been able to create many more ideas for these three songs than the others, but I couldnt seperate these two just yet. I will upload my final choice when I have decided.

Albums Sales

Over recent years, trends in music sales have begun to make a change toward a more digital market. In 2009 the BBC wrote an article about the fall in album sales giving way to a rise in digital sales. Overall album sales had decreased by 3.5% over the year despite downloaded album sales increasing massively by 56.1% consisting of 1 eighth of the total sold. This has become a growing trend and 2011 became the sixth year in a row where album sales have dropped. Despite this trend, singles sales are still increasing. In 2009 152 million singles were sold (up by 32.7% from the previous year) with 98% of those being digital downloads.

One of the most insteresting things in regards to albums is that none of the top 30 highest grossing albums were released after 2000. Michael Jackson's Thriller tops the list with 110 million estimated copies sold worldwide - over doubling the next highest; Back in Black by AC/DC at 49 million.

 

Here are the top 10 biggest selling albums of all time (Excluding Soundtracks & Compilations):

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson (1982) - 110 Million

2. Back In Black - AC/DC (1980) - 50 Million

3. Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd (1973) - 50 Million

4. Bad - Michael Jackson (1987) - 45 Million

5. Bat Out Of Hell - Meat Loaf (1977) - 43 Million

6. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac (1977) - 40 Million

7. Come On Over - Shania Twain (1997) - 40 Million

8. Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin (1971) - 37 Million

9. Dangerous - Michael Jackson (1991) - 33 Million

10. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles (1967) - 32 Million

 

In the UK alone, the biggest selling album of all time is 'Greatest Hits' by Queen, which was released in 1981, and has sold over 6 million copies. Like I previously mentioned, there is a lack of albums that were released after 2000, with 2 in the top 15 - Bacxk To Black by Amy Winehouse (12th), and 21 by Adele (5th).

 

Here is the top 10 biggest selling albums in the UK:

1. Greatest Hits - Queen (1981) - 6 Million

2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles (1967) - 5 Million

3. Gold - ABBA (1992) - 5 Million

4. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis (1995) - 4.5 Million

5. 21 - Adele (2011) - 4.3 Million

6. Thriller - Michael Jackson (1982) - 4.2 Million

7. Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits (1985) - 4.1 Million

8. Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd (1973) - 4.1 Million

9. Bad - Michael Jackson (1987) - 4 Million

10. Greatest Hits II - Queen (1991) - 3.7 Million

Word Cloud

Qusetionnaire/Audience Research Done

I have completed the audience research for my questionnaire, for which I got the opinions of 10 people. I will upload this in the next few days.

Iconic Album Covers

Since the album cover, in it's current format, came about in the late 1930s/early 1940s, there have been many album covers which have become symbols of music, and have transcended time and are still considered iconic images.

Here are some of the most iconic:

Album covers from williamyoungmediastudies

History Of Albums - The Album Cover

The cover has become an important part of the culture of music. Album covers became renowned for being a marketing tool and an expression of artistic intent. Gatefold covers, and inserts, often with lyric sheets, made the album cover a desirable artifact in its own right. Notable examples are The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which had cut-out inserts, lyrics, a gatefold sleeve even though it was a single album, The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street which had a gatefold and a series of 12 perforated postcards as inserts, and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon which had a gatefold, lyrics, no title on the sleeve and poster and sticker inserts. The move to the small CD format lost that impact, though attempts have been made to create a more desirable packaging for the CD format, for example the re-issue of Sgt. Pepper, which had a cardboard box and booklet, or the use of oversized packaging.

A number of record covers have also used images licensed (or borrowed from the public domain) from artists of bygone eras. Well-known examples of this include the cover of Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (from the painting "La Fille au Bouquet" by French painter and sculptor Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg).

History Of Albums - The Compact Disc

 

 

The Compact Disc's format effectively replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette, to become the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and the iPod, US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music.

History Of Albums - The Compact Cassette

 

 

The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music in the late 1970s through to the 1990s. The very first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in the form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman, which allowed the person to personally control what they listen to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants. Compact cassettes also saw the creation of Mixtapes, which are tapes containing a compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a Mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album.

 

Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record "Demos" or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract. The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after the release and distribution Compact Discs. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format. Recently there has been a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who prefer the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet.

History of Albums - The LP

Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. A common configuration was to have the album led off by the second and third singles, followed by a ballad. The first single would lead off side 2. In the past many singles (such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street") did not appear on albums, but others (such as the Beatles' "Come Together" and Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone") formed part of an album released concurrently. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. Albums have also been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.

Questionnaires Handed Out

I have handed out my questionnaire and will upload the results in due time. By doing this I will hopefully know what people are expecting of a Britpop/Alternative video and this will therefore help me with the storyboarding of my video.

Questionnaire

Here is the questionnaire with which I will gather research on how people feel about my ideas.


I will publish the results when they are completed.

Audience Research Task

Now that I have annotated my lyrics, I will create a questionnaire, within which I will ask various people to look at my annotated lyrics and then answer a few questions about the song that they find the most interesting of the six.

Song Lyric Analysis

After looking at those 6 songs, I decided to analyse these lyrics and see what video ideas I could come up with. The song with which I got most analysis done was actually my 'extra' song, Under The Westway by Blur.

Lyric Analysis Task

For the 6 songs I have chosen I will now analyse the lyrics and attempt to come up with ideas for my own music video. I will then post these findings on this blog.

Extra Song: Come In Come Out by The La's

I have decided to add another extra song to the shortlist, this song being Come In Come Out by The La's.

Extra Song: Under The Westway by Blur

I have decided to add one extra song which I will consider alongside my 5 main options. This song is Under The Westway by Blur

5 Song Shortlist: F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown

The final song that I have chosen is F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown, released as a non-ablum single back in 2001.

5 Song Shortlist: Some Might Say by Oasis

The fourth song that I have chosen for my possible video is Some Might Say by Oasis, which was the band's first UK Number One, and was also released on the 1995 album (What's The Story) Morning Glory?.

5 Song Shortlist: Do You Remember The First Time? by Pulp

The third song chosen is Do You Remember The First Time? by Pulp, released on their 1993 album His 'N' Hers.

5 Song Shortlist: Extra Songs

I will also consider posting one or two extra songs that are not within my original 5 choices, so that I can thenhave a couple more options available if necessary.

5 Song Shortlist: Made Of Stone by The Stone Roses

The second song that I have chosen is Made Of Stone by The Stone Roses, released back in 1989 on the self-titled album The Stone Roses.

5 Song Shortlist: Motorcycle Emptiness by Manic Street Preachers

The first song that I have chosen is Motorcycle Emptiness by Manic Street Preachers, released for the album Generation Terrorists in 1992.

Here is the music video:


Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness on MUZU.TV.

(There is a version of the song which is 3:35 long, which may be more sensible to use for my video.)

5 Song Shortlist: List Of Artists

For my 5 song shortlist that I will be building over the summer, I have decided to make a list of various artists, of which I will look through their music catalogues in order to find 5 song that I find suitable for my ideas. As we have been recommended to do song that are more than 10 years old (2002 and before) I am most likely going to pick songs by artists around the late 1980s and 1990s.

List of Artists:

Oasis
The Stone Roses
Blur
Pulp
Manic Street Preachers
The Smiths
The Verve
Suede
The Cure
Happy Mondays
The La's
David Bowie
U2

I may look at other artists to broaden my musical range, but I am going to focus on these particular artists.

5 Song Shortlist

Over the summer holidays I will be looking to choose a shortlist FIVE songs which I will try to base my final video around. I will most likely post one song at a time once I decide whether I definitely want to use them or not.

The 3 Types of Music Video...

There are 3 main types of music videos found across the entire music business.

• Performance - Usually suited to Rock and Pop music, the main focus in these videos is on the band/artist. It is usually the most common type of video as it is easy to produce, and it also requires the least planning. Here is an example:

Blur - Song 2 on MUZU.TV.

• Narrative - This is suited to most genres of music. Usually the videos rarely have anything to do with the songs' subject matter, with the video being more figurative than literal. Usually the videos adopt something more distinctive or unique. Here is an example:

• Abstract - Again, these can be used with any genre, and the videos usually are very detached from the music and/or the lyrics, and are also usually a series of unconnected image which are edited to fit the pace. Here is an example:

Across all videos, the record label will require a certain level of intimacy between the performer(s) and the viewer to be formed. Intertextuality is becoming increasingly common - music videos are now beginning to reference other forms of media, such as TVs and Video Games.

Examples of music vids

Here are a few videos from those artists which I can draw inspiration from:


The Stone Roses - Standing here on MUZU.TV.

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony on MUZU.TV.
Oasis "Wonderwall" - MyVideo

I will be continuing to add videos all the time.

Early Song Ideas

I already have, at this early stage, a very basic idea of what song I want to create a music video for.
I am leaning towards the genre of music that is Indie. The reasoning behind these two because I have a good understanding of their music and their videos. I will create a shortlist later on tio decide which song in particular my video will eventually be based upon.
Until then, I will continue to research through many music videos in order to help broaden my ideas.

A2 Portfiolio Task

For this year, my A2 portfolio task will be around the idea of making a music video. The whole portfolio will include:

• A Music Video
• An Album Cover for the song which the video is based around (creating the whole digipak, essentially)
• A website for the band - mentioning all the relevant information about the band

There will be considerable amount of research and planning needed in order to get the grades that my ability merits. There will, of course, be an evaluation at the end of my project which will help me assess how good my video, album and website are.