Planning Ahead

Now that I have completed a large section of my planning and research into certain aspects of my production, such as the location, casting aswell as tasks such as storyboarding etc. I feel that I am now in a relatively strong position to move forward within my production. Today I spent some time looking at what direction to head next with my planning and research, knowing what I have already completed I was in a position which meant I could think more about the types of shots rather than the finer details that have already been completed such as locations.

I have set myself some tasks of planning and research into a number of different shots, these are listed below -

• Widescreen Editing
• Main Chorus Shot Planning and Research

This lists of shots that I need to put time into getting a greater idea about through the planning and research skills I have showed previously. I will be trying my hand at the different shots in order to know what it is that is required and note how to improve upon my skills before the final production filming. I will be keeping my blog upto date with these types of shots through video's that will be uploaded to my Vimeo account, I will also been keeping updated with my progress and how I will go about improving any downfalls within the practice runs.

Cast Costume (Olly Murs)

Today I have been making the final decisions on the type of outfit I want my Olly Murs to sport, I have opted to go with a very classy and gentlmanly type look for my cast. Considering the location I plan to use and the meaning of the song in terms of it being a first date, all this aswell as the fact Olly Murs tends to wear a lot of these type of clothes I have opted to go with the below.

Ska Hat - This is a look that is used frequently by Olly himself, it will add to the look and give a classy feel to the outfit that will really come across during the production. It will help to give him a sense of individuality and really represent my artist in the right way.

 

 

The grey waistcoat will accompany the white button up shirt beautifully, along with the matching trousers. This will give him a chic and once again classy look, without making the look too formal for the cuts.

 

Matching trousers is a must for the look, this will help to finish off the look and give my cast the complete Olly Murs look. It will overall give him a smart and sophisticated feel and really add to the vibe of the music video and the production as a whole.

I have decided to go for a pointed end to the shoes as I feel it will once again help to add to his individuality, it will give him stylish look and will again sway away for a business look and more towards a chic and sophisiticated feel.

Having selected this look I am very happy with the look that will be achieved during my production. My cast will be sporting a very classy look that represents my artist correctly and really helps to set the mood of the production and set the scene for the date that will be involved within the production.

Costume Ideas and Designs

Today I began collating idea's of the type of costume designs that will suit my production correctly. I put in some further research into the type of style that Olly Murs uses himself and into similar artists  and the genre of music as a whole, including fans. The look Olly attempts to achieve is very much a classy gentlemanly type look, yet keeps his appearance modern and very stylish. This type of look includes shirts, ties, waistcoats, trousers and chinos.

Something that is very apparent within Olly Murs's videos and his public apperances is the use of hats, he often tends to wear hats as part of his look and it has become a very much iconic look for him. I have collated a collection of pictures that show Olly wearing hats, this has been implemented in the form of a slideshowm, shown below.

You can also find my main role candidate sporting some of the costumes in the pictures below, I believe that the type of style I am aiming for to match the genre of music is something that will definitely be achieved with the candidate and costume design I have used.

Casting Selection

Having completed my research and final auditions for the role of Olly Murs in my music video I have selected Dean Houghton to play the role of Olly. Having put a lot of time and thought into my selection I decided to opt with Dean for a number of reasons.

Deans vast experience within media and within performing aswell as producing music videos is something that I feel will help myself in achieving the highest quality of production possible. He is also a very enthusiastic and bubbly person as shown not only through the audition video but in the picture to the right. He is a very versatile personality and can adjust to suit different songs and peaks of a song, his confidence is something that will be key in achieving the cheeky chappy attitude that Olly Murs gives off, he is also a huge fan of Olly himself and very much familiar with Olly's album and the song itself in What A Buzz.

Now that we have selected our candidate we can now begin to look towards filming and getting on with the later aspects of the production. Having done this type of research to achieve the correct Cast for Olly Murs I feel much more confident in myself as I know that I have the right actor for the job. I will begin to look into costumes and ideas for different outfits that can be used for my production.

Main Character - Casting Candidates and Auditions

Main Character Role:

Candidate #1 - Deano Houghton
Firstly, for the main role within my production is Dean Houghton. Like my other candidates, I also have close links with Dean through A2 Media Studies. Dean is well known for being a very confident figure, with his role as head-boy of Kettering Buccleuch Academy to back this up, as well as playing roles in a number of amateur media productions, and directing many others. Dean's clear passion for media is something that he hopes to continue on into his University days and beyond. I believe that the confidence he shows in front of the camera is something that will be vital during certain types of shots such as the lip-sync shots. More on Dean Houghton is explained and analysed during the interview video shown below.

Candidate #2 - Joe Cassidy

Firstly is Joe Cassidy, a fellow A2 Media Studies student as well as a close friend, I have spent a lot of time in Joe's company. I have come to know of his confident nature and his love for media. Having worked extremely close to Joe during AS Media Studies during the time we produced our Horror Film Opening we have come to understand the way in which we both work. This is something that could play an important part in the success of the music video. Being able to communicate and organise the production correctly with my cast is something that I felt helped towards the previous success I had within media and I still feel to this day is hugely important. The video below gives a more in-depth context of Joe as a person, as well as an actor.

Risk Assesment

I have spent the last couple of hours completing an in-depth Risk Assessment. This is for all of our production that will take place on an unspecified as of yet date in January. This document will help us to ensure and maintain that all of our production remains safe and danger free. I had to consider a number of different aspects when completing this Risk Assessment, things such as occurrence probality, how severe the risk is, this amongst a number of different aspects.

Below is what I produced this evening:

Select Image To View Larger

I feel that producing the Risk Assessment has put the myself as well as the cast at rest and makes the whole production that little bit safer. It means that we don't have to have any worries about the health and safety of the crew when filming on location, which will make the whole production run just that little bit more smoothly. Overall I feel I am growing increasingly closer to reaching a point where I are ready to film, I have one final task to complete before I will be able to move onto filming. Last but not least is a filming schedule, I am unable to do this at the moment as we don't have a specified date for filming until earlier than January.

Location Research and Planning

Today I began considering locations for the production, I knew from the off that I want to focus my production very close suited to the genre and style of music Olly Murs produce, a very stylish and modern feel. Knowing this I began looking over all of their video's, I also used Spotify's 'Similar Artist Search' tool in order to find a list of similar artists, who of which I viewed their music video's to try and find inspiration on location. The screenshot below shows me viewing Conor Maynard's music video for 'Can't Say No' which was produced in back in 2011. I found this good inspiration due to it's use of modern, fresh locations such as the shots inside the party.

Knowing the locations I had in mind I set out in task of collecting pictures and recording's of these locations, to my surprise along my walk I came across a number of other locations that I believe would be perfect for my production, these pictures are shown below -

 

In the meantime I am going to continue to collect images and recordings of the type of locations I can find, putting them into a video to showcase them, these will be found in a later post. I believe that having done this task I have put myself in a stronger position in terms of locations for my production as I now have a clearer understanding of where I can film and the types of shots available to myself.

Planning Shots IC

I have spent this afternoon going through Spotify and finding similar artists and artists and bands who have similar music style to Olly Murs. By doing this I have created a formative list of bands who I believe I can use as inspiration. Once I had created the list shown to the right, I then searched thoroughly on Youtube, finding all the different music video's that they have created in the past and looking at different shots, angles, editing and different techniques they have used in order to create a successful music video.

 I have downloaded the different clips that I believe I can use for ideas, to re-create or even for inspiration in my production and collated them into a compilation of clip.

I believe by creating this video I have helped myself to gain a clear understanding of the genre Pop as a whole and I am not given a variety of different ideas and inspiration for my production. I believe this will help my production suit the style and genre of music and will increase my standard of production and overall grade in general. I will now go on to come up with a plan of shots and look to storyboard them in the near future.

Animatic Storyboard IC

Now that I have fully completed my paper copy of my Storyboard I believe that I am in a suitable position to move onto my digital version of a storyboard, animatic storyboard. This is when you take pictures of the sketches you created for your paper storyboard, put them in order on an editing software such as Sony Vegas 7, overlay music and create a more realistic feel for the storyboard by making it into a sketched music video. I have done this by downloading my MP3 of 'What A Buzz' by Olly Murs from iTunes and using Sony Vegas 7 to edit together my pictures and music, I then used the simple 'Upload To Youtube' button that is part of the Sony Vegas 7 software and embedded it from there, this is shown below -


I believe that having created this Animatic Storyboard it has put me in a much stronger situation as I now know what I have to do in order to create a high quality production for my music video. Creating this Animatic has allowed me to visualise the actual production and notice any problems I would face in creating the video, I have most become aware of the amount of editing that will come with this music video and the different shot ideas I wish to include, this is something that I am fairly inexperience with as last year a lot of the editing was passed over to the strongest editor of the group meaning I haven't had a lot of time editing and the quality of my edits won't be as strong as others. This is something I aim to overcome with lots of practice of the coming months as I aim to perfect my music video and the editing that comes with this. The next step for me is the Location research and planning, I will be looking into suitable locations and finding places that I believe go well with my genre of music.

Storyboard IC

I have been collating a list of shots I plan to use in my final production of a music video for 'What A Buzz' by Olly Murs. Having come up with a fairly intensive list of shots I wish to use I believe I am at a good position to start Storyboarding my ideas to give me a clearer idea of what my final production will look like. Obviously this is a very very basic view of what my production will appear as but it helps for me to visualize the vision I have for my music video and also notice anything that would or wouldn't work for my Indie Rock genre music video. Below is the music video ideas I have for my production.



Having created this storyboard I believe that I am now beginning to move forward towards a good position in which I can begin shooting for my music video. However I do believe that I have a long way still to go before I can start the production phase of my music video. The next step of my pre-production would have to be to advance this storyboard concept and move on to creating an animatic version of this storyboard, overlaying music to create an even more advanced version of this storyboard and give me a further vision of what I am aiming to create.

Lyric Analysis

Today I began looking into the deeper meaning of my song 'What A Buzz' By 'Olly Murs'. I began listening to the song and starting to think about what each line means, the song itself brings a very obvious meaning in the way it tells the story. I have embedded the song below for you to listen to whilst I analyse the lyrics.

 

The lyrics are shown above, he starts by mentioning the fact that he is on a date with what we can imagine to be a female. He states that he is laughing like a lunatic at everything she says, this shows the nervousness of the first date and the fact that the vibe in the video would be upbeat and vibrant rather than slow and romantic. 'My Cheeks Are Going Red', he clearly feels nervous around her, this woman must be highly attractive and have an aura around her that would make him feel this way.

The song also makes several references to wine, this is something that I feel could be interpreted within my video and could be used to produce shots and cuts of the couple drinking wine and enjoying themselves together. During the lyrics, he makes it clear that they are sat at a table with a waiter nearby, for this I must use a restaurant scene in order to tell the story through the shots. This is something that I will look into through my research into locations for my production.

The song itself remains upbeat and produces a happy feel throughout, for this reason I feel I need to ensure that the actors I select remain laughing, smiling and looking like they are having a real happy time. The vibe for my music video needs to be bubbly in order to suit the song and represent the type of personality my artist brings to his own music videos and himself as a person.

Track Choice

Today is the day that I have decided to finally sit down and try and choose which of the many great tracks I have pondered upon that I want to use in my production. I have spent the past few hours listening to Olly Murs's new album 'Right Place, Right Time'. I have been judging the different tracks on the compatibility to a music video, what I mean by this is I have been rating the different tracks and selecting the tracks I feel have the correct hook and the correct beat to fit a production of my potential standard.

I had narrowed it down to two seperate tracks, as shown below.

1. Olly Murs - Army of Two

 

2. Olly Murs - What a  Buzz



After going over the option of both song's I have decided I would much prefer to create a music video for choice #2 - What A Buzz. I have come to this decision by concluding a number of different things, I personally feel that within my music video I would like the chorus to be a product of a Lip-Sync, I feel that this song would allow this to be done very well as the Chorus and Verses are clearly separated. I also feel the upbeat and happy style of the song would allow myself to use different clips over-laid on the track and it suit it well. However with Army of Two I feel it is of more a type of song that isn't as related to the lyrics in terms of a video and would be best suited with a Lip-Sync throughout which is not the product I wish to produce. I also feel very happy that What A Buzz as a track is a reasonable length, not to short, not to long at 3:10. This will give me enough time to produce something of high quality and show a variety of different camera techniques, as well as editing skills throughout the production, without over-doing it.

Research Into Similar Products (Videos) IC

Audience Background Research

Today I decided it would be a great idea if I began doing some further research into my audience and the current market within the music industry. I decided I should try and collate some information on the different opinions from the market on what they like within music and music videos in order to decide what decisions I should make in future. I used a well known free of charge Survey site called SurveyMonkey. This site allows you to create professional like Survey's quickly and publish them efficiently and effectively.

When creating the survey I knew it would be crucial for me to ensure that I collected to correct type of data. I needed data that would assist me in making my music video and information that could generate new ideas that I could perhaps take with me and re-create within my own production, below I have shown the different questions I have asked, as well as the answers I received that I feel are helpful.



The graph above shows the different types of age groups that took part in my questionnaire, as you can see the majority of my survey partakers are under the age of 18, with some falling into the 18-20 category, with my Nan's making up the final two partakers in this case.

The question I asked to get the results that are shown above was "How often do you watch Music Videos?" - As you can see the majority of people do watch videos at least Sometimes, with a good percentage of people watching them Often. A small chunk of the asked watch videos Always, with the small remaining answers making up the Rarely and Never category.

The question above was the following "Do you know of Olly Murs?" - The results of this question make for very positive reading, my band, despite being fairly unknown on a mass scale are know hugely by people of the under-18 age group. This means that people will have a good knowledge of the band and will be very interested on this band.

The pie chart shows that people in general like music videos to carry a plot rather than have videos that have no real storyline, this is something that I feel I should consider of high importance when creating plans for my music video, generally people would prefer it to be in the format of a short story through the format of a music video.

The final question I have asked that I believe the information is worth sharing is shown above. I asked my audience what there favourite type of music video is, half of the people who I got information and opinions from believe that Music Videos that are relevant to the lyrics are more enjoyable than music videos that aren't, a quarter of the people enjoy no lyric reference and the remaining quarter prefer the video have having some reference to the lyrics.

I believe that having collected this audience information that I can begin to form a stronger opinion and begin to collect ideas on what could and could not work for my music video. I think that having peoples opinions that are relevant to my production in the way that alot of my asked audience were people who know of Olly Murs and enjoy music video's that carry a plot and are relevant to the lyrics, this is something that is crucial. Having relevant audience feedback rather than irrelevant audience research is something that could make the difference between forming a good music video and creating a production that creates the incorrect effect when it is completed.

Mood Board

Today I decided it would help my long term task of creating a succesful music video if I really got to know more about what the artist of my chosen song was really like. I wanted to get to know more about the background of this type of music and the common conventions within an artist such as Olly Murs and the type of social scene they fall into, this will help me to create a more authentic product based on the song I am using. In order to do this I decided I would store my ideas and thoughts in the form of a Moodboard. I used a special site called Vuvox that allows users to cut and layer images in order to create a very smart look as shown below -

I feel that doing this has really helped me to understand the type of look and effect I need to aim to achieve within the music video with my song, 'What A Buzz' by 'Olly Murs'. I have realised that a band such as this falls into the pop genre, it will appeal to a young teenage audience and widely within females. I will use this information to try and create a more realistic music video for the song I have chosen.

Artist Background

Today I decided that I would do some more research on the Artist I have chosen to use for the track to be used for my music video. I have chosen Olly Murs. During the research I went through I decided it would be a good idea to collect information in the form of a PowerPoint. Below is what I came up with in the time I spent researching.


I believe that in doing this research and collecting it I have offered myself an invaluable source of information that can be used in future to better my prospects of creating the type of product in a music video that would achieve higher grades and a better level of authenticity for my own personal sake.

Album Choices

Olly Murs - Right Place, Right Time

Oliver Stanley "Olly" Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and television presenter. Murs rose to fame after finishing as the runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009. He is currently signed to Epic Records in the United Kingdom, Columbia Records in the United States, and Syco Music. In November 2012 Murs released his third album Right Place Right Time and so far has released two singles from it, the first, "Troublemaker" which became his fourth number one and the second "Army of Two" which reached number twelve.




The Apples In The Stereo - #1 Hit Explosions

The Apples in Stereo, are an American indie rock band associated with The Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel and The Olivia Tremor Control. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. #1 Hits Explosion is a greatest hits compilation album by The Apples in Stereo. It was released on September 1, 2009 by Yep Roc Records. The album culls songs from various LPs and EPs released by the band between 1995 and 2007.



The Enemy - Streets In The Sky

The Enemy (The Enemy UK in the United States) are an English indie rock band formed in Coventry in 2006). The band's debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns (2007) went straight to Number 1 in the UK Albums chart on release. Their second album Music for the People (2008) went to Number 2 on the UK Albums chart. The Enemy announce that work had begun on their 3rd album and had around 30 songs already written. They revealed the album was set to be released around late spring 2012, and also revealed that they had returned to their more original style of debut album 'We'll Live And Die In These Towns'. The band have signed to the Cooking Vinyl record label, working with original manager John Dawkins and new album producer Joby Ford (The Bronx). 

My Favourite Music Video - Textual Analysis

Chemical Brothers - Galvanise

The Chemical Brothers released there hit single Galvanise in February 2006, directed by the knowledgeful team of Adam Smith / Colonel Blimp the single remains one of there best selling and most succesful singles in the bands history. The Hip-Hop, Big Beat genred song offers a brilliant viewing for the audience and aswell as a very catchy and memorable song to go with it.

There is no real relationship between the visuals and lyrics some might say, the lyrics talk about being ready for everything and wanting to go out and seize the day, to be galvanised for the day, this is shown in the line - 'The world is holding back, the time has come, to galvanise'. In terms of the visuals it shows a young male up late at night after his father has fallen asleep, he applies facepaints and goes to meet his friend in the darkness of the night, all with facepainted as shown to the right, they patrol the streets as a gang, ready for whatever may come there way. So in some respects you could claim the lyrics and visuals have some relationship, in others you main claim that the visuals are simply to tell and intice a seperate story.

 In terms of the actual music there is not any relationship at all between that and the visuals, the editing is suited to the visuals, as is the beats, this backs up my thinking that the visuals are just there to entice the audience and tell a seperate story. The artist of the actual song is not shown within the visuals, this means that The Chemical Brothers don't really like to portray a star image within the video, but prefer to use a method of disjuncture to entice the audience and grab there attention. The screenshot to the left shows a screen with in a screen, this helps to tell a story and set the scene, it shows football being shown on the TV

The video itself doesn't really include any intertexuality, it is a simple video that follows the night of a young group of males patrolling the night street, also, the band not performing in it, the young actor help to tell a story of life as a youth and the different situations different people, from different background are exposed to. The adventurous, fast pace video and beat, with the Galvanised type lyrics are what make this video.

 

Chemical Brothers - 'Galvanise' from Richard Simpson (Music) on Vimeo.

Andrew Goodwin - Dancing in the Distraction Factory

The History of Popular Music - Timeline

Three days ago, Mr Henton put our media group into seperate groups of 3's, we were each allocated a decade from the 1950's onwards, I was allocated the 70's, alongside Ryan Swannel and Larrisa Martin. We had to produce an a2 size sheet of paper that had information on the growth of technology and music throughout the years. We had to include different ways to listen to music, best selling artists, singles and albums.

The video below shows all the different sheets put into a timeline order -

-

I believe in doing this activity it has allowed myself aswell as other members of the class to split the workload, but still get the same amount of information onboard. I have been able to see how technology as well as popular music has changed over the years.

Research Websites

Today our tutor introduced us too a new range of websites that could help to expand our current knowledge of the world of media and music video's. He took us through the three different sites that he felt we should know about and showed us how they work and what they have to offer in terms of content and ease of use.

Below I have included links, images and a brief description on all three sites, click titles and logos to visit websites:

BEMUSO.COM

This website is a very innovative site that offers new unsigned artists the ability to make it big within the music industry without actually needing to have the backing of a record label and the music industry as a whole. It specalizes in offering future stars information on different aspects of the music industry, producing, editing and releasing, and the best way to get the artists name out there and make it within the industry.

PROMONEWS.TV

Celebrating the best in music video creativity, daily updates of music video news and information, links to high quality video files, and its ever-expanding archive – Promo News is the first stop for everyone who loves music videos, and everyone who makes music videos.

It’s where to find new work in music video, the stories behind the making of the videos, the most exciting new music video makers, and lots of production and crew information – from mainstream pop promos to low budget creative gems – every day.

If you would like to submit music videos and other work for possible inclusion on Promo News, email david@promonews.tv.

HUB.TV

Established in 2002, Hub are ahead of the curve in creating and delivering superior quality video production solutions for the digital age. We know how emerging multimedia platforms can be best optimised for the needs of your project, and have earned ourselves a solid reputation as the go-to production company for major broadcasters and independent brands alike. Quality content is at the heart of our business and we strive to produce polished work that is rich in value. Design-led and brand aware, we understand the requirements and restraints of a constantly evolving media environment, translating this into intelligent and intuitive work that exceeds expectations and drives brands forward.

UNSIGNED.COM

Unsigned.com is dedicated to providing independent Artists from solo, trio to bands, the best outlet possible to be heard globally on the Internet. Just as important is our goal to provide you, the Artists, with a new revenue and distribution model for your music. Unsigned.com is owned by First Beat Media Inc., an online entertainment media company that is committed to being the best source of information to discover unsigned artists. Our dynamic team of independent music junkies, from around the world, have an ear for the underground and new exciting sounds. We are always listening for fresh sounds, bands or artists that really have the potential to become something big. We have developed this website with you in mind.

I believe that this activity has actually helped my knowledge of different aspects within the music industry, it has helped for my understanding of different types of artists and

Myself as a consumer of Music.

Today I decided to put together some information as to Who, What, Where, When, Why and How - in terms of myself a music products and music itself. I decided I would show this in the form of a slideshow in order to illustrate it to a higher standard and get my points across better.Myself as a consumer of Music products

View more presentations from jackwhiteas.

I believe from doing this task I have learnt a lot more about the different types of products available within the music industry, I have also learnt alot about the wide range of music on offer to us and the different ways we are exposed and also access these types of music. A final note on which to touch upon, I feel I have also learnt a key reason for why people actually listen and enjoy music as much as they do, I believe it allows people to get in touch with different emotions through the use of lyrics and different notes. I believe this to be just the start of my planning and research into similar products and the industry as a whole, I will continue to keep posts updated as to my progress over the next 12 months.

A2 Briefing

In today's lesson the class were introduced to our A2 course, we were given a briefing on the layout and the set-up of the A2 media studies course that we will be taking part in over the next 13 months. I have included the details that we were introduced to below -

A2 Set Brief
We must create two of the three tasks set below for our main coursework scheme, this is the construction part of the course -
.A promotion package for release of an album to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- A website homepage for the artist -
- A digipak for the albums release -
- A magazine advertisement for the digipak -

An Example of a Digipak similar to the product I am aiming to achieve 

I will be using this Blog to track my progress throughout the year, to illustrate my different methods of planning and research into my product and similar types of products. This will be in order to create a better standard of products in order to attempt to achieve a better overall grade for my A2 and overall A Level within Media Studies. I will also show my progress throughout the 3 different stages of productions, Pre-production, Production and Post-production. This will help to show the examiner my different use of different media conventions and technologies, as well as equipment, This is important to try and achieve the highest grade possible.