Reflections on the past couple of days

Yesterday, Emma and I had a Media filled day and I'm really pleased with the amount of work that we got done. We've decided to shoot the performance shots in a room in Emma's house, which we're going to decorate with fairy lights, large pieces of floaty material etc. I think this is a good plan, since shooting in central London (as we had originally planned) would have been far too complicated to do with just 2 people in the group.
We also sorted out our superhero actor problem and have chosen Melissa to act as Wonder Woman. This is a good idea since we know Melissa would be confident enough to play the part and she also doesn't have any commitments on the scheduled shooting weekends.
Yesterday we also storyboarded all of our Ava + Wonder Woman scenarios... badly drawn stick people, but it gets our ideas across.

So yeah, I'm really pleased with all the things we managed to get done yesterday!

Address photo thingy

Hello! Hope you had fun in India =]
I just read your comment about going to take a photo of that place's address. I'm only free on Sunday but idk what time yet because I have to see family at some point. I was gonna go tomorrow but stuff came up and I'm in Durham /working for the rest of the week. So yeah, if you want to come with me on Sunday I'll probably be going about midday-ish/early afternoon but I'll let you know when I know what's actually happening!
Emma
x
P.S. I figured you're more likly to see a new post than a comment on a post =]

Paul Hunter Research

Biographical information
Paul Hunter is an American music video director who has directed over 100 music videos since 1996. He has directed videos for a diverse range of artists, whose genres range from rock to hip hop. Paul Hunter has also done adverts for Nike, Burger King and Coca Cola. He was nominated for an Emmy for his Nike Freestyle advert. Paul Hunter has also been involved in the making of a few feature films. For example, he directed 'Bulletproof Monk'.

Paul Hunter's Work
Paul Hunter has directed lots of music videos over the years. He has directed music videos for bands/artists ranging from Enrique Iglesias to Christina Aguilera to Snoop Dogg. Paul Hunter directed the multiple award winning 'Divas' (Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and Lil Kim) video for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. He has also won a Music Video Production Association award for Best Direction of a Male Artist for 'My Love' by Justin Timberlake in 2007. He also one another MVPA for Best R&B video for 'What the Fuss' by Stevie Wonder in 2006.

Examples of Paul Hunter's work

TLC - Unpretty


Jennifer Lopez - Love Don't Cost A Thing



Christina Aguilera - Come On Over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMoQm_TZ2DE

Britney Spears & Madonna - Me Against The Music

Aaliyah - One in a million

Justin Timberlake - My Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtU3KmxJGg8

Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Mya and Pink - Lady Marmalade

Similarities within Paul Hunter's work

• Quite a bit of sexualised display/scopophilia
• A lot of performance
• Quite often there is more performance than narrative
• Lots of choreographed dances - this is also linked to the genres of music he directs videos for
• When there is a narrative, band members/artists act within the narrative as well as the performance
• Videos appear to be quite high budget - also linked to the artists/bands he directs videos for

BLK FEEDBACK

super progress evidenced on this blog; high quality research, planning and reflections so far. well done.

Holiday time...

Well, I'm in India from tomorrow until the 25th of August. So, there might not be too much posting from me on here or on the group blog. Over the next week I'm doing tourist-y stuff in Delhi, so I won't be posting at all I don't think. Then after that I'll be staying with family... so I should be able to either use the computer at my uncle's house or pop to internet cafes every now and then (since it's going to be relatively dull over there really...), depending on where I'm staying...

If there aren't any new posts from me for a little while, chances are I went back to complete previous incomplete posts. I'll probably post a bit of new stuff while I'm away though :)

Bye bye for now!

Kate Nash's MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/katenashmusic

According to her MySpace, Kate Nash considers her music to be "Alternative/Indie/Other". So I thought it might be useful to analyse her MySpace as her music is of a similar genre to that of Imogen Heap/Frou Frou.

The headline for Kate Nash's MySpace is: "it's all a bit homegrown". This is linked to her identity as an indie artist who writes her own songs (hence the 'homegrown').
On her MySpace, Kate Nash has 6 tracks - Baby Love, Model Behaviour, Foundations, Pumpkin Soup, Merry Happy and We Get On. None of these can be downloaded from MySpace can't be downloaded, which means that Kate is trying to encourage her fans to download or buy her tracks the legal way (although obviously there are less legal ways other than MySpace).

Kate Nash has used the Upcoming shows function to give details on all of herupcoming gigs - with date, location and time details being given. This enables her fans to quickly look up upcoming tour dates and check the details for them.

She also has a blog in which the blog posts are written (or seem to be written) by the artist herself. This gives the impression that Kate Nash is an artist who wants to try and connect with her friends through use of a blog.

In the photos section, Kate Nash only has one photo album: 'My Photos'. This album contains images that appear to be fairly exclusive and they seem more like personal photos rather that promotional photos. This would appeal to Kate Nash's fans, since they would really enjoy the privilege of being able to view these exclusive photos. Also, it may give the impression that there is a more personal connection between Kate Nash and her fans, since she's sharing personal photos with them.

Kate has a YouTube video by the 'Trachtenburg family slideshow players' embedded in her 'About Me' section. this shows her connections other bands.

In the influences section, where most artists put their musical influences, Kate Nash also puts things like "Beans on Toast, Cheese on Toast, Anything really that you can put on toast, Spaghetti bolonese". This adds to her quirky image and the incorrect spelling of 'bolognese' could make the MySpace seem more personal, as if she writes things on her MySpace herself, as opposed to her management writing things.

In the 'About Me' section, there is also details on how to pre-order Merry Happy on CD/7 inch. There are different versions of cover art for the CDs/7 inch. The cover art is hand drawn, which links to the artist's image and the headline's use of the word 'homegrown'.

Kate Nash also provides her fans with links to her Facebook, music videos on YouTube and online interview. She also has a video from the Camden Crawl embedded into her About Me section.

In the About me section she also states "i love harrow and garageband.". This makes her MySpace seem more personal.

NME Cover Research

Brief History

In 1961, New Musical Express (as it was known before the magazine title was abbreviated) was released every Friday and cost 6d (approximately 2.5 pence today). Nowadays NME is very much known for being an ‘indie’/‘alternative’ music magazine often featuring very niche artists, but during the 1990s the bands and artists featured in NME were much more mainstream and of a wider genre range (such as Robbie Williams, Korn and Cypress Hill). One of the main reasons for this change was the progression of the different music genres, and the increasing popularity of genres, like indie, with the magazine’s target audience. In the earlier years of NME’s existence, most of the artists featured were males, it was only in the early ’90s that NME began to feature more female artists. For example Madonna was the main cover image on a 1995 issue of NME, in the same issue Courtney Love and Nicolette were some of the main features.

Conventions

• Masthead
• Gig info - "x Gigs Listed"
• Institutional information - bar code, issue number, price etc
• Banner at top near masthead
• Small images to go with coverlines
• Website name
• Quotes from interviews
• Coverlines about recent news
• Lots of band names mentioned on the cover
• Some competitions
• Central image - often quirky poses, direct address
• Colour scheme - red, white, black and yellow

Differences

• Bands/artists on the front - some indie pop, some more indie rock
• 'Studio reports' on Pete Doherty cover
• Scarlett Johansson cover has a lot more empty spaces

Reflections on the past couple of days

I think that overall, the past couple of days of work that we did as a group, have been quite successful. Emma and I found some good locations on Sunday, so I was quite pleased about that - even though our feet were aching after all that walking! I especially liked the fountain with the London Eye in the background... if we could get permission to shoot there it'd be amazing! I also liked the fountains near City Hall - those have such a great background too.

Today was also quite successful, we took a lot of pictures. Some of which are going to be used to practice turning Jennifer into Wonder Woman using that Photoshop tutorial I posted on the group blog. Other photos we took were possible storyboard images. It was a pretty funny couple of hours, with Jennifer jumping around and whatnot.... but yeah, overall I think the past couple of days have been really good and I'm really pleased with the work we've done :)

Sophie Muller Research

Biographical Info

Sophie Muller is a British music video director who has worked on over 170 music videos since 1983. Sophie was born in London on January 31st 1962. She gained a Foundation Diploma in Art, a B.A. in Graphic Design and then a Masters in Film and TV. She started as 3rd assistant on 'Company of Wolves' , then went to work for International Film and Video and then Oil Factory, after a chance meeting John Stewart and Billy Poveda.

Sophie Muller's work

Sophie Muller has directed many many music videos over the years, for bands/artists ranging from Mika to Gary Barlow to The Cardigans. She received MTV Video Music Awards for 'Why' by Annie Lennox and 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt. She also won a Grammy for her work on Annie Lennox's 'Diva' video album and was nominated for her work on the Eurythmics 'Savage' video album. Sophie also directed the critically acclaimed 'Not Ready to Make Nice' by the Dixie Chicks. As well as directing them, Sophie Muller also edited Lily Allen's 'Smile', No Doubt's 'Don't Speak' and Nelly Furtado's'Turn off the light'.

Examples of Sophie Muller's work:

No Doubt - Sunday Morning (1996)

Blur - On Your Own (1997)

Sophie Ellis Bextor - Murder on the Dancefloor (2001)

More recently...

• Leona Lewis - Better in time (2008)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrNoDUblAtE
• Beyonce - Deja Vu (2006)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qABg_tKVYsA
• Shakira - Hips Don't Lie (2006)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygctbqBijFk
• Lily Allen - Smile (2006)

...and many, many, many more

Similarities within her work

• Lots of performance
• Sometimes performance within the narrative of the video
• Often look relatively high budget - but this can obviously depend on who the star is
• Often more performance than narrative... rarely more narrative than performance
• Band/artist often acts within the narrative as well as in the performance
• Videos often don't present a voyeuristic view of women, although this varies depending on who the artist is
  

'Don't Speak' Analysis

• 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt... Directed by Sophie Muller again
• 'Third Wave Ska' and 'Ska Punk' illustrated by the performance-based video
• Lyrics sort of contradicted by visuals- lyrics talk about a break up, visuals show problems in a band rather than between a couple
• Sometimes lyrics are illustrated - "our memories, well, they can be inviting" - transition to memory shown by the greyish tone to visuals.
• Cut to the beat
• Instrumental illustrated by narrative
• Long takes for slow verses, shorter takes for chorus
• Close ups of all band members at some point. Lots of CUs of Gwen Stefani with microphone.
• Gwen Stefani presented as sensitive whereas band members seem indifferent
• Both this video and video for 'Just A Girl' are predominantly performance based
• Quite a few shots of Gwen Stefani and bass player Tony Kanal since the song is based around their relationship
• No real sexual display of Gwen in performance. The dress she's wearing doesn't really make her seem sexualised.
• Gwen's wearing less clothing for live show footage, but it's still not really shot in sexualised way
• Some sexual display when Gwen's taking pictures with the orange - pouting etc.
• Notion of looking: camera taking pictures of Gwen, band members looking at her (ECUs on eyes)
• Intertextual references to band's image - media focus on Gwen and not band. Live footage.
• Mostly performance based - in a garage
• Some narrative - Gwen Stefani being focused on by the media, other band members being ignored... some archive footage
• A bit of concept at the beginning and end - orange from tree - garden of Eden-esque

Lee Mead Album Cover

Front:
- MCU of Lee Mead, directly addressing the camera
- Name: Lee Mead
- Self titled album
- No particular artist logo

Back:
- 10 tracks
- Bonus track (Any Dream Will Do)
- Black background - no background image

Institutional information:
- Barcode
- Record label: Polydor
- Year: 2007
- No reference no.
- Lee Mead is the only performer

Spine:
- Artist name: Lee Mead
- Album title: Lee Mead
- Record label : Polydor
- No reference no.

Inserts:
- Fold our insert
- Institutional info for 2 tracks per page
- No song lyrics
- One image of Lee over a few pages
- Small 'Thank You' section

Reflections on Sunday's meeting

I'm really pleased with the progress we made during the meeting on Sunday. I'm glad that we managed to sort out any issues with actors that we previously had. Plus, we reached an agreement really quickly, which was great. I think the way we've now casted our actors, was the best way to go really (as I've mentioned in a previous post) - it works with the actresses personalities and it also fits with our target audience.
I think that going out as a group to look for locations is also a really good idea, especially for locations in central London.
At Sunday's meeting we also discussed the possibility of changing our superheroine from Supergirl to Wonder Woman. I think that this could be a good idea, since we'd probably have a lot more material to draw intertextual references from, and Wonder Woman is still a really great representation of women and female empowerment etc.

Here's your group work on Marketing!

BLK feedback

interesting reflections here angelie

Wednesday's Feedback...

Firstly, sorry for the slight delay in doing this! I had planned on doing it yesterday, but then I had some crazy food poisoning type illness so when I got back from the Economics conference I just went to sleep... Anyway...

I was quite pleased that on the whole, people liked our comic book/superhero themed idea. I'm also glad that people brought up some ideas and thoughts that we may not have otherwise thought of.
The points raised about having a black indie artist were very interesting I thought, especially as I'd not really thought about that aspect of things before.
In some ways, I think it could be really interesting and different to have a black indie singer. It plays on the conventions and could be something to make our music video a bit different. However, if we were to do this, other issues could be raised. For example, which actress would play Supergirl... originally, we had proposed to have either a black or asian girl play Supergirl. But I now realise that this wouldn't make sense if we are targeting a predominantly white audience. I feel that essentially, the best way would be to have some sort of equality with the casting of the actors. But if we were to have a white hero helping out a black victim, there would be political correctness implications for that too. In which case, I think it would make the most sense to have Jennifer playing Supergirl (since that character really suits her personality) and Jazmin playing Ava.

Tomorrow we're having a group meeting. There we intend to discuss actors, style, location etc. I'm hoping it'll be a success! :D