research -Best example of a music video form

'THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY'

-KATY PERRY

I feel like this is a great example of a music video because it makes me develop different emotions. The song illustrates the life of a young girl, and the total different life she lives when she's old. The themes displayed play a massive role as they are contrasted with eachother. A sad, dark and bitter atmosphere that represents her emotions after the love of her life 'got away'; this is contrasted with a colourful, bright, happy and alive atmosphere interpreting her emotions when she was young.
This video is very effective because it shows how the media can be used in such way to represent different emotions. As a viewer it makes me feel emotional and makes me realise how music videos can be used to 'control' the audience's emotions. By watching it and listening to the lyrics it makes me feel sorrow in a way because there are real situations in people's life that can relate to this song and video because they might have lost someone very important in their lives.
These techniques are very effective to attract people's attention; this song differs from the rest as it is a conventional song because it strarts with the end, the situation occuring later on in her life is illustrated at the beginning.

Bellow are images showing teh contrast of the emotions interpreted:

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Chosen song

Name Of Chosen Artist: Katy B

Song Title: Disappear

Genre: Dubstep

Target Audience: 16-24 year olds

Trying to find the perfect song was actually quite easy for my group. The reason being is that we are a group of the same gender and we all pretty much have the same sort of ideas of what we want our music video to look like. Luckily we already have Copyright Clearance for the song choice so it was a really good first meeting.

I was doing a little research and came across a video Rhianna- You Da One, which uses a black and white theme for the music video. I really like this idea and think that we could use this as intertextuality within our music video. This will also show that we explored Goodwin's theory within our music videos

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Copyright Clearence

Planning- Skills Audit

production -Technical skills I developed during my AS course

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Favorite Music Video

I love music, regardless of the genre, or the the artist. Although I do love Beyonce Knowles my choice for favorite video was not made through favoritism. I believe Beyonce's Countdown video follows aspects of Andrew Goodwin's and Vernalis's theory. Beyonces video explores Goodwin's idea of having Close ups of the artist, infant the video opens with a lovely close up of Beyonce; this instantly gives artist recognition to the audience. Beyonces video follows many more of Goodwins theory such as the technique of 'Thought Beats' - Seeing the sound and Relations of visuals with the lyrics. I love the fact that Beyonce's music video also uses Vernalis idea of having obvious edits, this makes the music video more exciting and interesting to watch as an audience.

How I can use my favorite music video to influence my work
I think as a group it'll be really interesting to use Beyonce's way of having more than one image of her. However this will need a lot of practice and editing skills, but it is something we can discuss properly in our next meeting.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Review of favourite previous student video

My thoughts on the previous  student music video

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Vernalis's Theory

Carol Vernallis's Theory highlights the idea that music videos tend to use a lot more edits than in film. This may stand out as disjuncture. Traditionally  music videos would look natural however nowadays editing is obvious and used to give deliberate effects. Base tracks are used to frequently give the video structure, the camera may move in time with the music.

An example of a music video which explores and demonstrates Vernallis theory is Ciara- Love Sex Magic. A lot of edits and effects are used to deliberately add to the music video.
Within my group work I can use Carol Vernallis theory to explore interesting ways we can use editing to create an engaging, exciting music video. For example having obvious edits and jump cuts to create dimensions, or even the use of lightening like Ciaras- Love Sex Magic video.

planning -Copyright Request

Production -Music Video Remake Produced in June

Bellow is a link of the remake of 'Amarillo' we made, there are a few attempts of it!

http://summerworkprojects12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/mary-and-louisa-set-8.html

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Examples of music videos which follow Goodwin's theories

Examples of videos which follow Andrew Goodwin's ideas on Prezi

How will I use this piece of research for my music video?

Conducting this piece of research has made me thing more about how as a group we can use Goodwin's theory to create our music videos  For example the use of disjuncture, this demonstrates that my groups music video does not have to actually imitate word for word what the lyrics of our song is; we can be as creative and fun as we want to be!

Research- The state of the music industry

Record labels are responsible for the promotion, distribution and production of music videos. The four major labels that dominate the music industry are conglomerates that operate and own a number of specific label imprints i.e the logo stamped on the recording. These labels are responsible for 70% of music sales worldwide and 85% of music sales in the us.

1) UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
They have accounted for 25.5% of the music market sales in 2005 according to IFPI. The groups well known label imprints include; Geffen, Island, Motown, Universal.

KEY ARTISTS:


Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Black eyed peas


2) SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
This is the second biggest major label in music sales. They accounted for 21.5% of the market in 2005. The company is well known for their logo imprints included Arista, Columbia, Jive and RCA.

KEY ARTISTS:

Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys


3)EMI GROUP
They are the third largest record label. They accounted for 13.4% of the market in 2005. The groups well known logo is included in Astralwerks,Capitol and virgin.

KEY ARTISTS:


Cold Play, The Beatles, Robbie Williams


Another major record label is the warner brothers.

Subsidiary Record Companies- 

These are the smaller companies that have been taken over by the major above.

They include The Island Def Jam Music Group including artists Justin Bieber, The killers and Rihanna. Universal Republic Records including artists such as Lil'wayne, Any Winehouse, Owl City ect. Interscope Geffen A&M They joined they joined the universal music group in 1999. The group is headed by chairman Jimmy Lovine. They have a major force of music crossing over the genres of Rock, Rap, Latin, Gospel and Pop.

Where is the music industry heading in the 21st century?

The music industry has been changing drastically due to the invention of convergent devices and the ways in which audiences are now consuming music. The music industry recognised piracy and illegal downloads was inevitable which is why music can be downloaded for free which was one aspect and change that the music industry made. They are now are learning more towards multiples of ways in which music cvan be experienced for audiences through, iTunes downloads, Youtube music videos, and also albums for cd players. The music industry is also moving towards synergy with films to help with the promotion of their songs. This is an effective move for both industry's as they benefit through a wide range of audiences and gain advertisement. the music industry are also moving towards digital technology to make music videos more exciting and engaging for audiences. 

What role do music videos play in the 21st century and how are audiences targeted by this?  

Music videos are used to appeal to a wide audience and is meant to promote and present the artist as a brand. The engaging tempo, performance of the artist, Mise en scene and Editing i.e. transition effects, filters and pace are used to make the experience exciting and impact energy so that audiences would be interested in the song. music videos ensure that the correct target audience are being appealed to through there music video to ensure the sale of the album and single.

How important are music videos to the industry?

Music videos are the reason for most of the sales of albums. It is important for the industry, because it allows them to connect to the audience through visual images and also present the artist as a brand through props, costume and mise en scene. Music videos are evidence that the music industry is pleasing their audience and embracing the new transformation towards digital technology. 

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research for music video - Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew goodwin’s theory from Tamara Akotuah

Planning- Mood Board/ Brand Image

This is our mood board for our artist. We used camtasia2 to create this and embeded images from google and screenshots from tumblr. We used clipgrab to download an audio clip to be played throughout the presentation. Enjoy!

Planning- Potential Songs

Bellow is a Prezi showing the songs that we might use for our music video; it also explains why we might use them

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research for Music Video- Function of a Music Video

Nowadays, technology is everything! I personally believe that over 75% of society listen to music and that 50% of them listen to music simply because of the music video that accompanies it. My first media class lesson is an example of this; the teacher asked how many of the class listened to music because of the music video or even just watched music videos, literally the whole classes hands shot up. This straight away emphasises the importance of a music video and it's benefits and purposes. Music videos not only help promote the songs but they give them deeper meanings (amplification). Lady Gaga- Judas music video would be an example of this as her video has a lot of religious links giving it a deeper meaning.

 It is clear music videos are very important and play a big role in the marketing side of the music industry, it is a great way to promote and gain fans for musicians/ artists. Conducting this piece of research has made me realise that the music video I create needs to be able to be suitable enough to reach my target audience represent my genre and promote the music itself.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Research For Music Video - Re- Edited Version of last years student music video

Planning- Re-edited version of last years student music video

Using Final Cut Pro-  I dragged the sountrack of the song on to the timeline. I then put an 'M' marker on the song labeling the word that I wanted to start my visual footage of the artist saying.  I then went through the clips ,and base tracks of the artist that was filmed and marked an 'M' where she started singing from before dragging it down to the timeline. This was a major DIFFICULTY, because she was miming the lyrics and partly singing it really low so when it came to editing it was hard to mark where she started singing to make sure the lip synching was accurate.

• When my group is filming our music video we would make sure that the artist being filmed is singing loudly and clearly with the music being played from our phones so that we don't have this problem when it comes to editing.

I then used markers again on the soundtrack making an 'M' every 4 beats. This was so that I could edit the basetracks in time to the music. I used the razor tool to cut into the footage that I wanted to be shown and deleted the shots that were blocking the visual I wanted to see. When I was re-editing this I noticed the variation of shots that were used this made the music video look more exciting and engaging for me as a viewer, but also the editor

• When my group goes out to film we will make sure we have included a variation of extreme close-up's and tracking shots, and a good amount of base tracks so that when editing we can select and choose the shots that we feel will engage our target audience.

If I was given more time I would have added special effects i.e. dissolves, transition effects and fades to make it look more stylised and more like a music video.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Blogger Layout

I thought it would be creative if I design our groups layout, Since we are an all girl group I uses the theme of pink and have musical notes since we will be making a music video. I used Paint and photoshop to create the layout using shaped and text to place our names on an existing picture. I experimented with exposure and brightness to ensure the colour was just right. A copy of the blog background is below

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Reflecting on the AS year-Technical Skills developed during the course of the AS year

It's fair to say the AS year came to a successful end, in terms of the group that I worked with and the outcome of our grades. I developed many technical skills during the process of the AS year some of which included:

• Being able to use Final Cut Pro to edit and add effects to our AS Thrillers
• Being able to operate a camera, including how to set up a tripod properly (which I found extremely difficult)
• How to set up/ personalise and use your own personal blog
• Being able to export and import files
• How to convert media files into other formats E.g compressing a video into Mp3 or Mp4 file format through 'Clip Converter'
• How to add sound effects/ voice overs to videos
• How to make a soundtrack using your own sounds

A lot of these skills learnt can help develop and improve my A2 work, for example the technical skill of converting media files can really benefit the music video I am going to create this year. Luckily, even though I have finally learnt how to set up the tripod evenly this year in the duration of filming our music videos we must hold the cameras which from the AS work I have had a lot of practice doing. This is a big advantage for our group work and I look forward to gaining even more technical skill from the A2 work.

research -Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos

Goodwin's Music Videos Analysis and The Structures of Music Videos 

-writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' 1993

According to Andrew Goodwin the traditional narrative analyses don't apply to pop music videos; it is only becuase he feels that music videos approach narrative from a different perspectives or structures to films and novels, this is because of the following:

-Pop music videos are made around songs; songs don't pose traditional narrative structures

-The singer in a pop music video is used as both, a narrator and as a character

-The singer tries to involve the viewer at home with the performance by looking directly at the camera

-Pop videos often rely on repetition as images are repeated in the way chruses or lines are repeated; the repetition of parts or rhythms of other song form a bond or relationship that makes us become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations

-Pop music videos are likely to be palyed on TV, on the radio or advertised making the song known through repetition

-Pop music videos do not usually have an opening or an ending, the structure of the song is usually reflected on how long it should last for as it builds a climax or a constant repetition before it fades away

-There is a strong relationship between the song, the music genre and the illustration shown in the video, this relationship is shown through illustration, amplification and disjuncture

Examples of each video structure

Illustration: The video tells the story of the lyrics, 'Price Tag' bu Jessie J shows illustration by showing images of what the lyrics of the song are saying. The lyrics talk about money and it is illustrated with notes.

Amplification: New meanings to the lyrics are introduced. 'Where is the love' by Black Eyed Peas shows amplification as it adds more layers of meaning to the lyrics by giving a wider image of the song as the lyrics talk about the lack of love in humanity and the video shows in what ways people act to show lack of love, for example by stealing. 

Disjuncture: There is little connection between the lyrics of the song and the video. 'Beautiful Liar' by Shakira and Beyonce shows very small connection between what the lyrics say and the video as they are just dancing in a dark/rainy atmosphere.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Reflecting Back on AS Year - Strengths and Weaknesses