Lip Syncing Task

 My group and I, filmed our Prelim music Video on an iPhone using an app called Video Star, which allowed us to choose a song, add effects and easily cut to the beat. The song we chose was 'Shape of you' by Ed Sheeran. The reason we chose this song was because it is a very current song which was number 1 in the charts, therefore because of this we thought it would be good to use as everyone would know the lyrics, making it easier to lip Sync during the filming. However, all though everyone in my group knew the words to the song, we found it extremely difficult to lip sync due to the fast pace and quick beat of the song, meaning that it was hard of us to mouth the lyrics in time of the beat. The app Video Star allowed us to use a vast range of effects and filters, which we used accordingly to the narrative of the song. For example when the lyrics mentioned love, we put in heart filters around the footage, this allowed our video to relate to the narrative and so therefore our audience would be able to understand the music video.

 If I were to re-do this prelim task, I would make sure to spend more time planning in advance due to the fact that there are a lot of factors to take into consideration, such as: Actors, Location and song choice. For example, when filming we used female actors however, the artist of the song chosen is male, this make the music video look less realistic and therefore will not give off a good effect to the audience. Additionally, Due to the fact that we had limited time, we were not able to complete the full song.

Therefore, when filming our real music video we will create and story board and plan the music video in advance, to ensure we can make it the best it could possibly be.

Overall, This was a good draft, and I am happy with the outcome as it enabled us to see what our future music should look like and what it should include. It has taught me important skills and allowed me to practice lip syncing and cutting to the beat

Music Artists Websites

Similarities Between Several Artists Websites


- They all have tabs to go to specific areas within their website

- Their names are at the top of the screen in bold writing

- They all have a main picture in the middle of the screen to promote their newest song

- They all have links to follow them on social media

- They all advertise merchandise

- They all display the dates and locations for their tour

- They all have a link to buy tickets for their concerts

- They show where we can download and listen to their music

- They all have News which includes the latest updates about that artist

- They all give an option for the audience to sign up and subscribe to their website

- They state which record label they are with






Differences Between Several Artists Websites: Organic Vs Synthetic



- Beyonce's name is at the top of the website, whereas, the Foo fighters name is at the bottom

- On the Foo Fighter Website, the tabs are not clearly visible, but on Beyonce's they are

- Beyonce's is very bright colour, which compares to the Foo Fighters is in black and white

Application of the Narrative Theory to a Music Video

John Grant - Chicken Bones

Equilibrium - The Man is a failed Super hero who has lost all his power, however tries to still do good by helping people such as the old Lady. As seen in the Picture on the right, the Super hero is very content being normal at a car boot sale

Disruption - He gets beaten up by another super hero who is much stronger than him

Acknowledgement - As a result of being beaten up, the failed super hero goes out drinking and takes a lot of drugs in order to drown his sorrows and plot his revenge against the Stronger superhero who hurt him

Attempt to Restore - He carries out the revenge on the Super Hero who beat him up 

New Equilibrium - Once he carried out his revenge, although he has become stronger, he now realises he has become a bad person

Although this Music Video has a fairly linear Narrative, i understand not all Music Videos need to follow this path, however, some music videos are purely narrative driven and follow a traditional narrative trajectory. This is one option for a possible music video to make as we can eschew performance element and make a video entirely narrative driven in order to sell the song and the artist

Narrative Theories in Music Video's

Todorov - He proposes that all texts have a narrative structure. He states that their are 5 stages to each narrative structure and he analyses old Russian folk tales in order to demonstrate his theory.
He argues that we have the following:

• Equilibrium - The normality at the beginning 
• Disruption - An event occurs to disrupt the normality
• Acknowledgement - When the main protagonist understands that he/she needs to act in order to restore normality/equilibrium 
• Attempt to Restore - Is the act of fighting/rectifying the problem in order to solve the issue.
• New equilibrium - Is the restoration of normality, However, due to the act/journey under taken by the protagonist, this is a new normal as the old version of normality no longer exists and can never be replicated.

The Narrative structures do not have to come in a specific order and can often start at the point of disruption or acknowledgement and then work in a non-linear fashion towards the new equilibrium.

Vladimir Propp - Russian Folklorist in the early of the 20th century. He said that there are only ever 7 different character types that exist in literature. 

• Hero
• Donor
• Helper 
• Villain
• Princess
• False Hero
• Dispatcher

He added that it is not a necessity for all 7 character types to appear in the plot, but after analysing a range of different folk tales and literature observed that these 7 character types were the mainstays of all fiction and therefore media texts.

Enrique Inglesias - Hero

• This music Starts at the point of Disruption as it appears that someone has been robbed and the main 'princess' and 'hero' have run off together
• Acknowledgment then occurs when Enrique realises he needs to fight the Villain in order to win the princess. He cannot Escape the Villain and restore equilibrium without first fighting him to win her and the money
• Attempt to Restore Happens when the Hero and the Villain meet up in the desert and have a fight to the death, so that the winner can take the money and win the princess. However, the Princess calls for Helpers 
• Unfortunately, the Helpers do not get there in time and Enrique dies
• In the New Equilibrium, the Villain is arrested, the Hero dies and the Princess is heartbroken but runs away with all the money

Band of Horses - Dilly

• Equilibrium - The town people are fine and the bikers are also fine because they have not realised that they were going to end up in trouble with the towns people.
• Disruption - The Bikers realised they were not liked in the bar and in turn, they react in a way that they shouldnt 
• Acknowledgement - The bar people called the police
• Attempt to Restore - The shoot out between the bikers and the police
• New equilibrium - The Bikers ride off into the sunset 

The Iconography of the Album cover

The iconography of an Album cover:

The art of an album cover is a curious one. Part packaging, part advertising, often an insight into an artist's world view and usually the happy result of a successful collaboration between creative minds, the best album cover art illustrates and accompanies the music in a way that creates a whole package. Julian House states how most of the direction of a music cover must be taken from the artists themselves. He also explains how an Album sleeve is an entry point into the universe that the music is and how it is a wind into the themes an ideas of an artist.

Deconstructing album cover Art:

Album covers can be extremely varies, utilising photos, graphics, typography, or any combination of these. As a type of media text, it can be deconstructed like any other. When analysing it we can use the same tools we'd use to analyse and understand any visual media text

Associations and connotations:

denotation, means simply identifying the elements in the image, and connotation means examining what meanings and associations they might link to. On a hip-hop cover it may well have connotations of conspicuous wealth and extravagance, given that genre's conventions

Signs, Symbols and Codes:

A sign is a representation that refers to something else and has meaning. A code means the structure of how signs are organised into systems to make meaning. These are usually divided into the technical and the symbolic

Composition and Framing:

This focuses on the construction of the album cover, e.g. light, shadow and colour. We refer to conventions are established ways of doing things, in this case they mean established forms of presenting an image. it can be helpful to examine how closely any given image tracks the conventions you'd associate it with.

Examples:

Pink Floyd 'The dark side of the moon' was inspired by a physics textbook, and the bands desire to use a simple design rather than a photograph. This famous cover also nods to Pink Floyd famous light shows.

John Coltrane 'Blue Train' - with its bold typography, simple colour scheme and striking, high contrast photography, this is a classic example of the iconic work of Miles and Wolff which defines the classic 'blue note' look of this period

Music Video Tips

1. The Music video will be our bands first release, so it is important to make sure that it is successful
2. We will start by creating the image of the band. This includes: style of the song and instruments required so that they can realistically mime the track.
3. It is up to us to get the word out about our band via various marketing techniques and digipacks  in order to construct our band a fanbase
4. The best type of music videos contain three different narrative strands, a performance element which the label think is vital as it acts as a save, a lip sync element and a narrative element which will be led by genre and style
5. the music video will consist of constant cutting between these narrative strands
6. We are advised to make a 'Mood film' or press hat involves a set of images to create a short film to demonstrate the ideas for the final product. this helps us to clarify the idea and identify any potential problems

Using Coral Draw to make an Album Cover

Step 1: I held down the hand shape and used the Bezier tool to draw straight lines around and trace the hand
Step 2: I then selected the colour white so that the traced shape was filled
Step 3: I held down the control button and drew a square, the filled this shape with the colour black to make the background for my album cover
Step 4: I clicked on the text tool and then selected a similar font to the original album cover
Step 5: I then selected the bezier tool again and traced over the grenade and heart from the original image and then placed it accordingly on my version of the album cover

On the left is the original album cover and on the right is my version of which i recreated

This has helped me to develop the skills I need to create my own Music Video cover, and has given me ideas to use for when we create our own one

The Promotional Brief

1. promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, choosing one of the following options:
2. A website homepage for the band
3. A cover and 4 sides including the spine for its release as part of a digital (CD/DVD Package)

What are the positives and negatives of making a music video?

• I think that matching the lip syncing to the music will be difficult 
• I think it will be difficult memorising every single line to the song, and singing it in time of the music
• It is hard to find suitable actors
• Time consuming
• However, the time spent on making the music video makes up for the time that could be spent revising
• A positive will be that we would be able to be creative when storyboarding our music video and creating the star image of our singer
• You don't have to worry about recording the music, you can use the artists song if it is not copyright
• We live in London which gives us a host of stunning locations to use to film

Analysis of a student music Video: - Morning Blues 

• She represents herself as the 'girl next door type' in an urban setting
• We can see that she is organic through the use of location, clothing and use of thrift stores, this helps to sell her as slightly alternative and so therefore organic
• Through the lyrics we can understand that the narrative is about relationship breakdowns, this sells her as vulnerable and through the visuals we see her shopping to get over her break up. This reaffirms her as a girl next door who isn't sold through her sexuality
• Locations and editing help sell the artist through the fast pace cuts, lighting, whip pans and hand held camera movements.
• Through the locations, quick cuts of people her image is reinforced as slightly alternate and independent

Using Photoshop to Learn how to Create a CD cover

We are going to attempt to recreate this CD cover using Photoshop.

Step 1: I cropped the Picture so that Just the Women's face is in the image
Step 2: I adjusted the Image and made it Black and White
Step 3: I adjusted the Image and posterised it, to take away the definitions in her face
Step 4: I added in the photo of the dripping blood
Step 5: Using the selection tools. I used the magic wand to delete the white background from the dripping blood image
Step 6: Using the Free transform, I adjusted the image using a mix of scale and rotation so that it fit on top of the image so that it looks like the woman is crying
Step 7: I used the rubber tool to touch up the image
Step 8: I adjusted the colour balance, and kept adding blue and Cyan until I got the desired colour
Step 9: Add in text, change colour, size and font
Step 10: I used the Ellipse drawing tool and held down the shift key in order to make a perfect circle, I then selected the colour that I wanted and made it transparent by reducing the opacity to 53%
Step 11: Duplicates the layer with the pink circle and re positioned it on the screen

By using the steps above, this was my final attempt of re creating the original album cover

Beyonce and her Star Image

Timeline of Beyonce:

• Late 1990's - Lead singer in Destiny's Child: one of the worlds most successful girl R&B groups
• 2001 - Acting debut in the film: Carmen : A Hip Hoperer
• 2003 - First solo album: Dangerously in love (earning her 5 Grammys)
• 2005 - Destiny's Child split up 
• 2006 - Second Album released : B'day
• 2008 - Third solo album: I Am... Sasha Fierce
• 2011 - Fourth solo album: 4
• 2012 - Gave birth to her first child ( Blue Ivy )
• 2013 - Fifth solo album : Beyonce
• 2016 - Sixth album released : Lemonade

This picture shows Beyonce's first star image where she was in a popular girl band called Destiny's Child. Here we can see Beyonce wearing bright colours and is not wearing provocative clothing and so therefore representing herself in order to portray her music and not her body.

This image was the cover of her first solo album, Dangerously in love. Here, we can see that she has begun to sexualise herself in order to attract a large audience base. She has completely changed her image and is wearing more provocative clothing, in order to sway away from her image as an innocent girl band artist.

This image was taken from a music Video in Beyonce's latest album  'lemonade'. Unlike the previous images Beyonce is now looking down on the camera instead of directly facing it, in order to show that she is important and that she no longer needs to build on her star image. She has a much more reserved look which is used to portray her maturity and new life style.

Star Image

Star and Star Image

• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences it is important to consider the roles of music stars
• The term 'star; refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience

Richard Dyer:

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music
• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:

- A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (e.g. advertising, magazines etc as well as films

- Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

• Stars are reliant upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet - in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audience
• The star is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences
• Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and 'open'. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes:

- Simultaneously the star is present in our lives and absent. 

Common Values of music Stardom:

• youthfulness
• rebellion
• sexual magnetism
• an anti-authoritarian attitude
• originality
• creativity/talent
• aggression/anger
• a disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds

The star Image:

• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense of' the image
• This means that fans will go way determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image

Organic and Synthetic CD covers

Synthetic CD Covers:

Ariana Grande - Yours truly:

• The bright vibrant colours are used to connote the idea that she is synthetic. The Pink is used to attract a young mainstream pop audience of girls.
• Flowers are used to reflect the synthetic nature of the artist as it draws attention to her innocence as an artist.
• Her title of the album is the same size and font, showing that the album is not selling the music but also selling herself as an artist. This also shows that she is an established name as she is a big mainstream artist
• High - key lighting is used as a spot light around the singer, which sells herself and her star image
• The artist is looking directly at the camera, highlighting that she is selling her looks rather than the actual music itself.
• Her stance represents her to be innocent and young which is also her intended target audience.

Organic CD covers:

John Grant - Pale green ghosts:

• The dark colours are used to connote the idea that he is an organic artist. The Brown is used to attract an older audience of men
• The props used containing items such as coffee and a book which again reflects the organic nature of the artist. The book shows that he is literate and well educated.
• The artist is looking directly at the camera, however, his facial expressions are serious. This is used to sell himself as a serious artist which cares more about the music than his star image.
• The font of the music is different to the font of the name of the artist, which therefore differentiates the music from the artist. The style of hand writing is old fashioned and mature, representing that his music is directed at an older audience
• The camera shot used, breaks the rule of thirds. This is done intentionally to make him blend in with his surroundings
• John Grant is wearing smart clothing, in a full suit, this differentiates him from synthetic singers as he is not wearing mainstream clothes

Organic Vs Synthetic Artists

Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man

• Target audiences is rock and country, we can see this as the location is set in an abandoned music video, which highlights the idea that they are a proper band. 
• Emphasis on instruments is also used to mirror the idea that they are authentic musicians, in comparison to a pop artists. This also shows that they are not an ordinary band as they use different instruments such as the banjo and cello
• Dutch tilts looking up at the guitar
• Swish pan to show them all standing on the stage together, highlighting the fact that they unified and perform together.
• Mise-en-scene is key when identifying that they are a rock country band to their target audience.
• Close ups are used to sell the star image of the band and to sell them as authentic.
• Close ups of them sweating is used to show the passion of the music and that they are a real band instead of a classic boy band.
• Their choice of clothing also differentiates them from ordinary boy bands as they are wearing old suits
• Their target audience will be primarily males over the age of 20

Promoting Organic and Synthetic acts:

• There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artists are represented to ensure short term or long term success
• Organic acts are often sold on their 'authenticity;, both musically and socially
• The image of the artists appears 'unconstructed' (although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)
• synthetic acts are often sold on their 'look' or personalities
• The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed

Synthetic bands include:

• Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences
• Profits generated by this kind of artists tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company - because the audience often grows up and out grows the artist.
• Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of artists and the songs at their disposal
• The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company
• The artists will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out

- one direction 

- the wanted

- JLS

- Girls aloud 

- The Saturdays

- The spice girls

- S club 7 

- Cher Lloyd

- Jonas Brothers

Organic Bands:

• A 'naturalistic' approach to artists
• The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be 'nurtured' by the record company
• The image of the artist is 'enhanced; by the record company
• The artist is finger the time to evolve and progress through their career, this is because they recognise that their fan base will continue to grow and evolve over time.

- Oasis

- U2

- Blur

- Mumford & sons

- Arcade fire

- Bastille

- The Beatles

- Imagine Dragons

- Arctic Monkeys 

Analysing how the clash album cover represents them as organic:

• Shows them smashing up a guitar whilst playing through a live performance, this shows that they are a proper band as they a playing gonna stage
• The aggression signifies that their is something serious about them
• The Dark grey colour differentiates them from a synthetic band
• The idea that their face is hidden all represents an anger that wouldn't be seen in a synthetic band
• The cables on the floor, make it seem unprofessional, adding to the authenticity 
• The instruments adds to the organic nature of the band and adds to the authenticity
• Ripped clothing connotes the idea that they are not selling themselves as a boy band, as it is not something generally seen in a pop band
• The large titles shows that they are selling themselves through the music and not through themselves and their star image.
• The cover also represents the band as part of rock history because it references Elvis Presley's cover of 1955, where he is also in a live setting playing an instrument. 

 Analysing how the Nicki Minaj album cover represents her a synthetic:

• The bright vibrant colours connote the idea that she is synthetic
• Facial expressions suggest that she is not serious as she is posing in a way that portrays her to look surprised and shocked
• She is selling her star image and her looks through her positioning and costume
• The stars above her name suggest that she is synthetic as she is drawing attention to her name, selling herself rather than the album
• Her name is also bigger than the title, again highlighting that she is selling herself and not her music
• Her outfit and hair is doll like, which is revealing and not serious. This has been used in order to accentuate her body image. 
• The doll like dress is also mirrors a 'barbie' like image, portraying her to be fake and manufactured

Conventions of a Music Video (part 2)

1. Conventions of narrative music videos 

the music video contains a series of events that both make sense to the audience and appear to be       

unified in time and space. So as to ensure repeated viewings and the effective marketing of the   band/artists and song, the narrative code must be 'loose' or simply 'suggestive' rather than 'realistic' or    'detailed'

Arcade Fire - Everything Now:

- the narrative was about abandoned children who were playing through an empty desert location,        whilst an indie pop band were singing around them. it is designed to make the audience question the music video and so therefore encourages people to watch and talk about it.  

- I feel that the music sold to band to be quite indie through their use of location and props. It also showed them to be professional as it was a high quality music video.

- I feel that the intended target audience for this music video is for audiences ages 20-30 years old who like alternative music.

2. Conventions of band performance
A degree of authenticity of the performance is sought by the band an the directer so we often lip-syncing close-up, mimed playing of the instruments, repetition of chorus shots to enhance 'repeatability; unusual camera shots and angles (e.g. the micro camera shots attached to the neck of the guitar, sweeping crane shots to dilm the audience reaction to the band playing etc.)

Foo Fighters - Run:
- The music video features many scenes containing violence and rebellion and so therefore it attracts audience members who are fans of rock and rock music is associated and with these two aspects.
- The music video would appeal to all ages as it is funny and so would attract a variety of different ages.
- There are a range of different conventions of band performance as it includes a variety of lip synching, playing of the instruments and has a clear narrative which is not realistic as it shows the elderly turning violent.

3. conventions of a solo artist performer

many of the band performance conventions plus choreographed dance routines are used to enhance 'repeatability''. Also, a first-person mode of address directly engaging the viewer through the camera which involves many close up shots of eyes rolling and gesturing and if the video is a hybrid from cutting from cutting between performance and narrative then the solo artist or band lead singer often becomes part of the narrative story, acting as a narrator and participant at the same time. 

Katy Perry - Roar:

- Close ups, mid shots and low angle shots are used to sell her star image

- Clearly Katy Perry was part of the narrative story as she was singing about lions, whilst she was in the jungle

- Pop music videos use brighter colours in order to appeal to their target audience of young people

- Visual effects were used to encourage the audience to watch the video again

- Eyes rolling and gesturing to the audience, which allows herself to make her available to the audience.

- A lot of lip syncing to portray that she is the star performer

- Lack of instruments connotes that she is the star and is not a part of a bad; she is just a singer