BFI trip

Last week, my media class and I visited the BFI in Southbank for an interesting talk about the making of music videos. We were spoken to by Pete and Jake Wynne, a director who I had researched for my AS exam! 

Both talks were very interesting and helpful and we left the BFI with many top tips that we have assured will be included in producing our music video.

We also made a short vlog before going in for our first talk in front of the River Thames:

Our school's media Twitter account posted a Tweet while we were at the BFI:

I have attached our Twitter page to my blog for future references: 

https://twitter.com/A2MediaECS

Stop motion

I like the idea of using stop motion in our music video, being inspired by videos such as "A Fire On A Hill" by Hands Like Houses. They use art (paint) to explain the concept of the song which is basically the fire in the house on the hill. The song also suits our chosen genre of rock.

Unfortunately, none of us can draw that well and it would be way too time consuming to use stop motion art for the entire video. Still a great idea though.

Another inspirational video is one that we watched last lesson in class. Italian artist Blu has been producing street art since 1999 and one of his best works, in my opinion, is titled Big Bang Big Boom which describes the Big Bang theory. I love the determination and dedication that he puts into his work and also the use of real life objects as well as animated objects.

Intro practise

We left the classroom and filmed our intro for our music video, however when we came back we realised some of the shots weren't good enough so we have edited this video as a practise instead.

We used a metre stick to measure the distance from the camera to my feet so that in every shot, the distance was the same.

We were inspired by Example's video for "Kickstart" to use a split screen however now, we have decided to scrap that idea and just use the changing of backgrounds. 

Inspiration from real media texts

1) The opening credits for psychological drama series Dexter inspired me to include extreme close-up shots of not only people, but objects too. This is a little different from the usual and this could also represent the vulnerability of the characters featured in our music video.

2) The music video for "I'm Not The Only One" by Sam Smith inspired my group and I to include a love story in the music video. Also, the use of slow motion to show how exposed and hurt the characters will be included which is also featured in this music video.

3) Ed Sheeran's "The A Team" is another inspirational video because of the lack of colours used, as the whole video is filmed in black and white. This is something my group and I want to include in our music video. Also, the locations in London are something we want to use as well, for example Camden Town. 

Marina and the Diamonds

My chosen star to research from my genre of indie pop is Marina Lambrini Diamandis from Marina and the Diamonds.

 

Marina and the Diamonds released her first debut studio album in 2010 called The Family Jewels which incorporated the indie pop genre. She explained that the album is "a body of work largely inspired by the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality". 

After releasing her first album, she then performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, the Glastonbury Festival and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. She gained a lot of popularity because of this and was ranked second place on the Sound of 2010 poll run by the BBC. Her second album Electra Heart (2012) included elements of electro-pop. This debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and introduced Marina to many international markets.

 

 

Marina and the Diamonds is also known for her retro and cartoonish fashion style, which is evident in these photographs taken from performances at festivals. 

Her album cover The Family Jewels conforms to the average pop album cover of a female sprawled out in a sexual position with her eyes directed at the camera. The background is quite retro which reflects on her style and music, and this subverts to other female pop artist's album covers. The font size of the writing is quite large and takes up a lot of the cover, including some of the artist's face. The writing is in a sprawled font style which adds sophistication and elegance to the artist's name.

 

Electra Heart is quite similar to the first album cover as both feature just Marina and the Diamonds in the middle of the frame. As the camera is focused on just her, the background is slightly blurred to divert the audience from it. The style of this album cover is different, however, because of the filter and editing used to make it look 3D. This adds to the retro theme of the artist and also her cartoonish style. The font size is very large and the artist's name is written in bold in order to catch the eye of the audience. 

Marina and the Diamonds has been featured in articles by big named companies such as Huffington Post, the Guardian, the BBC

Huffington Post's headline for her article included big named artist Beyoncé, catching the attention of those who are part of both artists' fan bases. 

The BBC's article features a a clip of an interview from Big Weekend, and information about her. 

She has also appeared on many popular magazine covers:

     

As well as this, she has appeared on TV around the world:

Star Quality Theory

Richard Dyer is a professor in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. He specialises in cinema, particularly Italian cinema, queer theory and the relationship between entertainment. He also studies the representations of race, sexuality and gender. Dyer was previously a faculty member of the Film Studies Department at the University of Warwick and has held many visiting professorships in the UK, US, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

He suggests that stereotypes perform a number of functions in media representations as well as reinforcing the idea that there are many differences between different types of people. 

Dyer's "Star Theory" is the idea that icons (celebrities) are manufactured by institutions for money only. He believes that stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. They are manufactured by the industry to serve a purpose which is to make money out of the audience who respond to various elements of their personalities by buying albums and becoming fans.

His theory is split into three sections:

1) Audiences and institutions

2) Constituions

3) Hegemony

1) Increasing the brand's identity benefits the media as they become a name which increases sales in all of the platforms. The institution then models the artist/band around the target audience they choose. For example, Lady Gaga was modelled around fashion and homosexuality which would target audiences who are into fashion and who are homosexuals.

2) This is similar to the audience and institution part of his theory. 

3) AKA 'culture', this is the idea that the audience is able to relate to the star because they have a similar feature that they share or admire. This causes some fans to replicate the star in their behaviour, what they are and what they do. This can also have a negative impact as some stars are often heavy drinkers or drug addicts. For example, in the 60s and 70s, there was an increase of illegal drug use due to The Beatles being open about taking drugs. 

The artists share cultural values and attitudes to promote certain ideas in which the audience are interested in. These values enhance their 'star quality' and is conveyed through beliefs, ideas and opinions outside music. Stars may be famous for also starting a fashion trend in which their fans copy their hairstyle or clothing. 

New idea?

My group and I have come up with a few new changes for our music video. This is our new storyboard including the split screen shots featuring the shoes/feet that we will use for our opening.

Video inspiration!

We found this music video by Example which gave us inspiration to do a split screen shot for our opening. We had similar ideas before we saw this music video and we wanted to include feet/shoes to represent the different days featured. Now we have decided to do a similar shot for our opening including both the characters' feet, not just the protagonist. 

Audience feedback

My group and I filmed our friends' opinions on the ending of our music video. We told them two alternative endings - the original one including the reveal of the character's sexuality and another ending including a pessimistic, realistic ending.

Music video inspiration

I was watching a bunch of music videos in order to gain inspiration for our final project and found one that I really liked. I like it because it's different to other music videos because of the use of animation mixed with real life objects and people. I also really like the bursts of bright colours and use of imagination behind props and scenery.

It's not something my group and I will use in our music video as we do not have the skills to create something this good using animation, but it still inspired me to be more creative and quirky which adds to the originality that we want.

Random name generator

This week's lesson was spent thinking about our band and soundtrack name as we are not allowed to use the original band or song names.

We played a game called Random Name Generator and took it in turns to choose a one each - an adjective, verb and noun. It wasn't extremely successful however we took a liking to one name in particular - The Worn Skies.

The reveal

We have been struggling for a while now on the best way to reveal the protagonist's sexuality without making it seem cheesy and cliché. But last lesson, we finally came up with an idea that we all thought was suitable yet subtle:

So our idea (in a clearer explanation) is basically taking a photograph of the protagonist, his girlfriend and another couple on one of their dates or outings. The males will be positioned in the center with their girlfriends on either sides. This will be seen in the middle of the music video and towards the end, when the audience realise who the protagonist really is, they will see the photograph again. But this time, the protagonist will have folded the photograph so that only the two guys will be seen. This suggests that the protagonist is homosexual.