Our Superstar

During this lesson, we discussed audience consumption and how much control we have over what we consume and how we consume it. We realised that we do not actually have much creative control, and we consume music like the labels expect us to consume it. This activity, however, allowed us to have control over what we are consuming; we had to create an artist from scratch, including the name, identity, ideology and type of music that the artist produces. Our artist was Willow - a 20 year old girl who produces music with "strong beats", but studies zoology at Sydney University in Australia when she is not touring around the world or campaigning for up-and-coming, young artists.

Track List

Here is my list of potential tracks for my group's music video:













My main idea is a 60's/50's style music video, which I think could work with the majority of the tracks I have selected. The video focuses on the performance of a 3 piece girl band, perhaps a lead singer with backing singers. Below are some photos and screenshots acting as a visual representation of my idea.

What Music Means to Me

My childhood



I chose this song because when I was in primary school, Avril Lavigne was my idol, and this was my favourite of her songs. Her punky brand/identity is evident in this video through her clothing and antics, and her identity influenced my fashion choices as I used to wear combat trousers and t-shirts. Avril Lavigne's album 'Let Go', featuring this song, was the first album I bought. I didn't have an iPod at the time, so I mostly listened to the CD on my radio in my room or in the car. Although she wasn't incredibly popular among my friends, everyone knew of this song, and so sometimes we would listen to it together at parties.

Early Teens


Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' still remains one of my favourite songs, but I first discovered it when I was 14. Although I started writing songs at a young age, it was after listening to this song and discovering Ed Sheeran as an artist that my song-writing skills seemed to improve, as his lyrics, interesting rhyming and sensitive song topics inspired me. I purchased his album and put it on my iPod, and I often listen to it when I'm travelling or doing homework.

Today



I discovered Kodaline earlier this year, and although 'Love Like This' isn't the first song I heard by them, it is definitely one of my favourites today as it is so uplifting and always puts me in a good mood. My closest friends are also fans of the band as one of us liked them first, and told the rest - this means that we often listen and dance to the song together when at each other's houses. I saw them perform live this year, and a couple of friends and I are also seeing them live in November. I have the song on my iPod and listen to it regularly, and I listened to it a lot over the summer holidays because it has a real summery feel.

Music Video Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our workshop day on Friday 12th June involved us remaking Little Mix's music video 'Wings'. Our cast and crew was made up of Year 12 media students, the media teachers and media professionals, most of whom have gone to Latymer.

1. Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?


Moving the camera on the track

The workshop day was really enjoyable because even though it was a very long day, I was always doing something, including performing and helping out behind the scenes, meaning there was never a dull moment. I was a principle dancer and Jade's dance double, which involved learning all of Jade's moves in the actual video, and ensuring that Arianna (playing Jade) did them on the workshop day. I particularly enjoyed performing as a principle dancer in the video because it really helped build up my confidence, especially as
the cast and crew were incredibly supportive throughout the day. What I found really interesting was just being on a set similar to what a real music video set would be - I helped move some set pieces, and had the opportunity to move the camera on the track to get the tracking shots of the band. This was a good experience because we may use tracks and other equipment in our music video, and now we have some knowledge on how to use them.


2. What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?
Our first task was to analyse a performance music video, and so I decided to analyse OneRepublic's 'Counting Stars' video. This analysis allowed me to explore the conventions of a performance music video, and how you can follow but also challenge them. The 'Counting Stars' video also included some narrative, highlighting how some music videos are hybrids; they can be performance, narrative and concept. I found this interesting as I was considering doing a performance/narrative hybrid for the music video next year. We were then instructed to create an audition video on finding out that we were going to remake Little Mix's 'Wings'. We had to lipsynch and dance in the video, which helped to build up our confidence and to learn the song in preparation for the workshop day. Ultimately, the workshop day was the most informative prelim task as it allowed us to get a feel for a real music video set, perhaps similar to one we will be creating next  year. I also learnt about how allocating roles is very important when it comes to a group project - as we had a large cast and crew, we were able to share the jobs between us, depending on poeple's strengths. Hopefully next year we will do this when creating our music video in order to work more productively. Editing the rushes for the music video helped me to better understand the idea of sound/vision editing and discontinuous editing, which is essential in a performance music video. What made the editing a little easier was the fact that the original video was on a video track on Adobe Premiere Pro, and we edited to the video, enabling us to see where the cuts were.


3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit?

A screenshot from our edit

I am very happy with our finished music video remake. Our shots are incredibly similar to the ones in the video, and in some cases, ours look a little better, especially as our sets looked more authentic. I am particularly pleased with our edit, however, as we had a more prominent role in this stage. We worked in large groups for the edit, meaning that we could split a lot of jobs between us, making it easier to complete the edit in a rather short period of time. The part of the edit I was most responsible
for was Leigh-Anne's solo and grading. The real music video has shots of very short duration, and lots of cuts, which is quite hard to edit, so I am very happy with the finished results as ours looks very similar to the original.

The camera ops filming the dance scene

4. How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?
I think this prelim task really helped to underpin who is good at what, which will help a lot during the making of our own music videos next term, as it will make it easier to delegate roles in our music video groups. Some people, for example, were really good at performing in the Little Mix video, and so they may be the main performers in our music videos next year - and others were good at using the technical equipment. Personally, I thought I was quite good at directing Arianna when it came to her solo bits, so I would like to take more of a director role next year. We were given the opportunity to use lots of equipment on the workshop day, including lights and tracks, and so this will help if we decide to use some of this equipment in our music video next term as we will have more experience with it. We also had to do a lot of planning in the build up to the workshop, like learning the dance routine and Jade's moves in my case, to ensure that everything would go right on the day, and next year planning will be incredibly important for the success of our music video - especially as we shall be doing more directing and producing next year rather than just performing and helping out on set.


Here is the final cut of our remake:

Performance Music Video Analysis

The Top Key Features of a Performance Music Video Analysis
OneRepublic's video for counting stars follows most of the conventions (the top 15 key features) of an effective performance music video, however as they are a band who wish to focus more on their music rather than their image, some of the key features aren't as evident in this video as they would be in a more cheesy, pop video.

One key feature is that the music, lyrics and imagery work in collaboration in the video, which is definitely present in Counting Stars, as lead singer Ryan Tedder's dance moves work with the lyrics (for example, "swinging vine"). Some other imagery within the video also works with the lyrics, for example the flashing lights on the ceiling could represent stars. The imagery works well with the music, clapping to the beat of the music and hitting guitars, but there is also some seemingly random imagery, like the crocodile which features often in the video.
The performance drives the video, with many shots of the band miming effectively and playing instruments (or pretending to), but there are also some shots of other people dancing on the floor above the band, suggesting a slight narrative or conceptual idea, as well as the performance - it is quite typical for performance videos to contain some narrative or concept to keep the music video exciting. Sometimes a band or artist may switch between artist performance and artist in-character performance; in Counting Stars, most of it seems to be artist performance, however some shots, like the high angle on Ryan looking down, sat on the floor, with his hands clasped, could be more of an in-character performance.
One of the most important features of an effective performance music video is that the performance will be engaging, impactful and visually striking, and OneRepublic achieve this in their video through the whole concept of the collapsing building, with objects falling and everything rattling about, and the artist covered in dust which scatters whenever they move. The way in which the band perform, especially Ryan's performance, is very care free, and he often dances in an unstructured way, making it rather engaging, and this also allows the audience to get an idea of the identity of the band - care free attitude, fun, etc. A sense of their identity is therefore built up mostly through their movement and band relationships, and there is a lack of highly stylised costume and make-up and beauty shots, as again OneRepublic focus more on their music. They wear simple black clothing, and there are often CUs/MCUs of them singing/playing instruments, which could act as beauty shots respectively.
A strong sense of development is expected in a performance music video (things changing and moving on) and this is definitely seen in the Counting Stars video; initially the atmosphere is quite calm, with the slower pace of the editing and the music is actually calmer here, however as the song progresses, a beat kicks in and it becomes more energetic, and the video reflects this with the band performing erratically and the building collapsing, presumably because of their energetic dancing. Some binary opposites are used in the video, making it more interesting, for example, cutting from CUs of just one of the band members, to an LS establishing shot of the whole band. The flashing lights on the ceiling also create extreme lighting changes. Discontinuous editing is standard, and is seen in the video through the random shots of the band performing, intertwined with the other people dancing, etc.
Another key feature is that the video will be polysemic in nature, offering different layers of meaning, despite being a performance video. In Counting Stars, we are shown a rhapsody like congregation scene, which suggests religious connotations of the song, whereas the use of the crocodile and the collapsing building could imply danger and facing up to danger. Recently, animals have been appearing in OneRepublic's music videos, and so the use of the crocodile could be them continuing on with this running theme, which is presumably related to the fact that their new album is called 'Native'.
Audiences are very important when it comes to music videos - they will gain pleasure from popular culture references, the video will hopefully be aspirational to them, and overall, the video is likely to provoke a strong audience reaction. The congregation upstairs, the fashionable black clothing and the instruments are popular culture references, and the band's general attitude and cool style would be very aspirational for fans. In conclusion, the Counting Stars video provokes a strong audience interaction as it is a very fun video, easy to dance along with, the narrative congregation idea adds religious connotations, making it more impactful, and also the band's appearance and movements will appeal to fans and maybe even the ladies.

Reservoir Dogs Remake

Here is mine and Sharlene's remake of the Reservoir Dogs title sequence.

Dexter Title Sequence Re-edit (DYM)

Here is a link to our re-edited Dexter title sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaRuTy1-tWs

1. Summarise the conventions of title sequences that were most important to this task.

• Consistency (for example, the same typeface and colour scheme throughout) to establish a strong brand.
• The legal requirements of titles sequences (for example, cast names, actor names, producers, directors).
• The title sequence must reflect the genre of the drama whilst conveying a certain mood.

2. How did your group plan to edit the title sequence? Consider timings and industry requirements

• Initially, we wrote down all of the names that we would have to include in the titles due to the legal requirements - for example, the directors, producers and other cast members.
• We also had to decide how long each title would be, and whether it would last over more than one shot.
• Synchronisation was also important - we wanted the titles to match what was going on in the shots.

3. Explain the creative decisions made by your group

• We used quite a plain typeface that was eaily legible and wouldn't distract the audience from the action playing out on the screen.
• We used some different motion effects on some titles in order for them to work well with the visuals (for example, the title with the 'slicing the orange' shot).

4. How does your re-edit compare to the original?

• I think our re-edit is more creative than the original, but I can understand why theirs would be used instead of ours as theirs is very simple but effective and doesn't distract from the already very-compelling images on the screen.
• The real sequence also included more titles, and if we had more time we would have included more in our sequence.