Our Artist

We have chosen Diana Vickers as our female artist to use for the music of our Video. Coming 4th in the X Factor in 2008 and now with 2 number ones up her sleeve, she has proven she is not a failure! She has done a substantial amount of appearings, from turning Christmas lights on, appearing at shop openings and countless TV shows. Her music is mainly mainstream Pop with a quirky feel about it. Her signature poses, facial expressions and gestures can be noticed throughout her performances which make her unique to the rest of the female Pop stars of today. She writes her own music which shows she is an independent female, and this is something we wanted to incorporate into our artist, for them to be fiesty, but fun.  Diana is originally from Blackburn therefore we have some connections with the singer, we were able to get in contact and through a telephone call and an email she said was pleased to let us use her song. The song we have chosen is 'My Hip'. As a group, we sat down and disscussed the meanings of the songs and the connotations of the lyrics and came up with, that the song is about her trying to find her 'man' again, searching for him and finding him for a short time until he leaves again. We then presume that she finds him but the enigma is unsovled.

'I dream of the day when we find we find ourselves
And we are both together/ we are both together
Speaking your truth you have lost me lost me 
In a place that is so tender, it is so tender

Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and it's singing me a song
Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and you're singing me a song

You touch makes me blind
I don't want to see not now no no not ever oh no not ever
Smiling this way and I wonder could it be forever
Wonder could it be could it be forever

Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and it's singing me a song
Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and you're singing me a song

Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and it's singing me a song
Your hand is back where it belongs
On my hip on my hip
Your voice is sweet and you're singing me a song

I dream of the day when we find we find ourselves
And we are both together/ we are both together
Speaking your truth you have lost me lost me 
In a place that is so tender, it is so tender'

Liv x

Firstly I emailed Diana via her music email address (dianamusic@hotmail.co.uk) but due to her busy schedule she didn't have chance to reply so she gave me a phone call, to get in contact so I did. The email is quite small to see so I shall copy and paste it.

From: Poppy-Bethany Cookson
Sent: 29 October 2010 13:24
To: Annecka Griffiths
Subject: Music Permission 
  
Hey!

I've tried to get hold of Diana via her music email however I have been asked to get through via you. 
I am wondering if I'm able to have permission to use one of Dianas singles to use for my media A level exam.
My work is non-profitable and it will only be seen in my exam and not by the general public. 

Please get back to me, 
Thank-you
Poppy x 

-----Original Message-----
From: Annecka Griffiths <Annecka@modestmanagement.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:28:12 
To: <poppycookson@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Music Permission

Hi Poppy, 
  
What would you be doing with Diana's single for your exam? I'm sure that wont be a problem. 
  
A x 

-----Original Message-----
From: Poppy-Bethany Cookson 
Sent: 29 October 2010 13:35
To: Annecka Griffiths
Subject: Re: Music Permission

I would be making up my own music video, but its more about the filming on the video itself and how I would go about making one. Its completely non-profitable and for my exam only and won't be publish publicly.

Poppy x
-----Original Message-----
From: Annecka Griffiths <Annecka@modestmanagement.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:40:27 
To: <poppycookson@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Music Permission

That's totally fine! Good luck : )
Poppy!

Filming schedule

As we are using a few people in our music video we have decided to make up a time table of when everyone is free in and out of college, this will able us to set dates and times when we can film parts of our video.

Monday-All free after college

Charlotte 1 2 5 8 9

Molly 1 2 5 8 9

Poppy 5 8 9

Liv 1 5 8

Tuesday-All free after college

Charlotte 3 4 6 7 8 9

Molly 3 4 7 8 9

Poppy 3 4 7 8 9

Liv 7 8 9

Wednesday

Charlotte 1 2 5 8 9

Molly 1 2 5 8 9

Poppy 3 4 7 8 9

Liv 7 8 9

Thursday-All free after college

Charlotte 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9

Molly ALL DAY

Poppy ALL DAY

Liv 1 2 3 4 6

Friday

Charlotte 3 4 5

Molly 4 5

Poppy 3 4 5

Liv 3 4

From creating a timetable of when everyones free we have been able to organize our actors to be free when we are so that we can book the studios, although the studios are there for use to use we will have to find a time that then can allocate that all of our group can comply with, however, with our schedule i think think will be easy for us all to work out and then once the stuidos are booked and we have arranged our time we can begin filming.

 

Molly

Props list

Plastic guns- fit with the James Bond theme

Magnifying glass- fit with the detective theme

Fan- to blow the hair and dress of the protagonist

Smoke machine- to create a mysterious effect to the shots

Torches- use for spot lighting and to use for the 'searching' idea

Molly

Synopsis of Video

The theme for our video is along the lines of a detective/James Bond, we have chosen this theme to link with the theme of searching for a man.

The narrative consists of the main character looking for the man who should have his 'hand back where it belongs' searching all through the song to fit with the detective/James Bond theme. the main character will stand out from the 4 dancers with a different appearance and costume. I think the narrative will work well with our artists as her image is feisty, sexy and glamourous which can be represented through the theme we have chosen.

The narrative will be constructed through the media language, as soon as the music starts the feisty and sexy image of the character is portrayed. The colours we will be using in the video will show the contrast between her being single bad and searching for her man being mainly dark colours then throughout the video we will be hinting of the good taking over her and then man coming back into her life, the hints will come through the white props costumes and backdrops coming into the video about half way through. The end of the video will be with just white props and costumes, we have chosen to do this as throughout the film she is searching for her man and not getting any attention but then at the end she has finished her mission and fitting to the song the 'hand' is 'back where it belongs'. Therefore the colours throughout the video will show the good and bad narrative.
The lighting throughout the film will fit with the narrative being bright for the parts where she is good and with limited lighting fitting with her bad side.
The camera shots and the movements will also construct the narrative as the searching theme will consist of fast camera movements along with fast pace editing. as well as creating an interesting narrative I think this will create an interesting music video and won't get boring.

Narrative theories
Propp
Although propps theory conists of 8 main characters and our narrative doesn't the characters in our video do fit in with the  theory.
The hero: Lucy who is our main character as she is out to fins a man because there is a lack of them in her life.The villan in this case is the white colours taking over her bad side and trying to stop what the hero is trying to acheive. There are 2 helpers in our narrative that aid the hero, the 2 helpers being the backing dancers of our video. The princess in our video is the man, this is the main focus for our hero and is her reward in the end. Although our narrative isn't fitting with the 8 character theory we have still ecorparated 4 of the 8 characters.


Todrov
Todrovs theory is that all stories begin with an equilibrium which is a state of balance and normality. the equilibrium is then disrupted by some event which alters things and then there becomes a second equilibrium which is a resolution to the problem caused in the disruption. in our music video the equilibrium will be the single girl searching for men, the disruption is the white colours invading and dragging her into the good side and finally the re-equilibrium is the girl being good again now she has a man.

Levi-Strauss
The binary oppositions that will be created in the video could be:
good vs bad
single vs in a relationship
black vs white
girls vs boys

Barthes
The enigma code theory will appear in our narrative, although only a small amount of enigmas will crop up the questions that might occur could be:
What is she looking for?
Will she find her man?
Who's hand does she want on her hip?

Molly

Feedback: 1/11/10

Some good progress group - however- all research should be done - are you doing this for homework? Have you done anything over the half term week?

Split the tasks up and do these for homework!

a)  Remember to link each post/ bit of research to your project and ideas - otherwise it isnt relevant! E.g. the 2 example videos on your blog at the beginning? relevance? analysis?

b) AUDIENCE: Remember to link the demographics and psychographic theories (Young and Rubicam, Maslow, Uses and Gratifications Theory etc...) and ideas to WHO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS!!! Define your target audience clearly.

c) Dont forget to research the conventions of POP video (subgenre) too!

d) Feedback on your target audience questionnaires findings and link to your plans and ideas for your project.

Some good stuff here - but not enough and not enough detail for A2! See the example blogs on the Advanced Portfolio Blog.

PLANNING:

a) Now you need to define THE BRAND IMAGE - of your artist
b) remind us of your target audience and explain how this brand image will appeal to them
?
c) Now include videos that inspired you - storyboards, animatics, props lists, casting shots and location shots/scouting, shooting schedules, risk assessment sheets for shoots etc...

Research: Genre: Same but Different: Ok Go - Here it goes again

This video, unlike Cheryl Cole's, challenges the conventions of a pop video because they use the same long shot throughout the video and use very little to no editing.

This music video therefore challenges the pop genre by ignoring the typical conventions of a pop video, the video is very random as the band are dancing using the treadmills throughout the song. This video does not apply to all of Andrew Goodwins 6 points of a music video as the visuals do not match the lyrics. However as the video mainly consists of the band dancing, the visuals do match with the music.

Charlotte

Audience Questionnaire

Audience Questionnaire- Please circle your answers

Male     Female

White     Asian     African    Other ______________________

14     15    16    17    18    19     20+

Do you have a job?

Part time     Full time    Unemployed

Do you enjoy listening to music?

Yes     No

When do you listen to music?

College    Bus    Home   With friends    During lesson    Doing sports     At work    Car

What do you listen to your music on?

Ipod   Phone   Mp3   Itunes    Radio   Music channels   Internet    

What genre do you prefer?

Pop   Rock   Indie   R&B   Electronic   Bass   Country   Rap    Other ______________________

Where do you watch music videos?

Home   Internet   Ipod   Other ____________________

Can you name channels or websites you watch them on?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Do you attend music festivals/concerts/live performances?

Sometimes    Regularly    Never    All the time 

Who are your favourite music artists, and what is appealing about them?

____________________________________________________________________________________

What’s your favourite music video and why?

____________________________________________________________________________________

What types of music videos are more effective?

Studio    Outdoor     Animated      




Liv x


From our questionnaire we asked all girls as that is who we wanted to aim our video at however we got a few different views and opinions on music videos and this is what we found out....


Firstly we found our target audience was: Female, Aged between 15-25, White British, Middle/working class.


findings about music videos: 

• most girls listened to music with there friends, on the bus or in the car
• they liked to listen to their music on their iPod's, on the radio or on the music channels 
• the most popular genres were Pop, RnB and Indie
• the most popular place to watch music videos was on music channels-this answer was stated in the 'other' option on the questionnaire
• the most popular music channels were: 4music, MTV music and The Box
• we found most of the girls attended live music performance only sometimes and not on a ragular basis.

from our finding we have been able to identify the likes and dislikes of our target audience and plan our ideas around the findings.

Molly