Evaluation Question 1A

How do your products use or challenge conventions?


Common Conventions of music Videos

• Intertextuality: Intertextuality is the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. There are many examples of this, however a music video in which the intertextuality is very clear is in the music video for Gwen Stefani's song 'What you waiting for'. She references Disney's film 'Alice in Wonderland' throughout the video.
  
• Narrative/Performance/Concept: These are the 3 main different styles of music video. Narrative is when there is a storyline featured. This can be in chronological order, or it could be fragmented.
  
• Dance Routines: Dance routines are a very important aspect of music video, particularly when engaging with an audience/target audience. Simple dance routines are extremely important as they are very easy for fans to copy and recreate. This is something very common in girl and boy bands as their audiences include young female fans, who are more likely to recreate the moves. This links into the uses and gratification theory, which describes the main reasons people consume a media text.  
  
• Stereotypes: There are often stereotypes in music videos, many of which are negative and inaccurate representations. For example, women in music video are often represented as over-sexualized. They are often shown dancing provocatively or wearing tight or little clothing. This links into Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. There is also the argument of feminism and post-feminism

• Lipsynching: Very important when achieving verisimilitude, there also needs to be convincing playing of instruments/dancing. This is particularly important for rock/metal bands as they want to prove their authenticity: that they do play all the instruments and the vocals are theirs and un-edited.

• Voyerism: Male/Female Gaze

• Special Effects: special effects are very important in music videos, as unlike a film or tv show episode, you watch a music video many times, therefore it has to be interesting. The special effects that are commonly found in music videos are: Layering, Slow-motion, Green Screen, Cutting to the beat and Emphasizing the drop. Long takes must also be avoiding in music videos, again to keep the audience engaged.
  

• Costume Change: This is when the characters/performers in the video change costume. This is to keep the video more diverse and interesting. Although it is very common among female artists, male artists also have costume changes in their music videos. This is also something that fans can re-create.
  
• Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium: This can be applied to the narratives in music videos, particularly linear narratives, as they often start out, for example, as a couple together, happy. There are then a few scenes of them fighting and finally a break up.
  

How did we use or challenge conventions?

(Vodcast)

This is the script I created for the vodcast: 

INTERTEXTUALITY IN OUR VIDEO

In our music video, there are a few cases of intertextual references.

Firstly, the underwater/swimming pool scene references and was inspired by 'This is Gospel' By Panic! At The Disco. 

The lying position from this video is something that we have replicated in our own. It is also quite similar as there is a source of light shining into the water.   

We also were inspired by 'Up in The Air' by 30 Seconds to Mars in terms of the colour powder. However, when we used the colour powder, we focused it on the drums and the end singer rather than a large group of people. 

COMMON CONVENTIONS OF WEBSITES 

Through my research i found the follow common conventions for metal core band websites 

• Black and white/neutral colour scheme 
• Branding is updated to promote new releases (e.g. new single or album) 
• Photos of band/performance
• Simplistic design and fonts (e.g.) not too many photos or links, no over decorative fonts. 

Other Metalcore websites:

 

Our Website:

As you can see, we have used these conventions in order to create a website that really fits well withing the genre and personally i find that it is instantly recognizable as a metal or rock band website.

Evaluation Question 3B

How would our products be distributed as real media products? 

In Film, there are the 'Big Six' (arguably big seven) which are the companies that dominate the industry. However, in the music industry, there are the 'Big Three'

This pie chart shows the World music market sales shares, according to IFPI (2005) This chart and information was sourced from Wikipedia. 

The Big Three are:  

• Universal Music Group
• 

• Sony BMG Music Entertainment
  

• Warner Music group

There are also:

• Independent Record Labels
• EMI (Until 2012)

So to clarify Market sales shares: 

-Universal: 25.5%

-Sony BMG: 21.5%

-Warner Music Group: 11.3%

-Independent: 28.4%

-EMI: 14.1%

Decrease in physical music, Increase in online music

In recent years, the demand for physical music/CDs has decreased, as music is becoming more and more easy to access online. Websites such as YouTube and Soundcloud and apps

like Spotify have enabled fans to listen to music and watch music videos for free. Since 2000, sales of recorded music have dropped off substantially while live music has increased in important. In 2011, the largest recorded music retailer in the world was Apple's online iTunes store. 

Competition in the music industry

When an industry goes from many to few competitors, it is called either Consolidation or Concentration of Ownership. An issue with concentration of ownership is that if there is no other competition, prices will rise. Evidence of this can be seen today with the CD industry. As there is less demand for CDs (due to the availability of music online) there is not a lot of competition, and therefore the price of CDs has risen a significant amount recently. 

Advertising

The American Cable company and satellite television network HBO (Home Box Office) has no advertising whatsoever. Because of this, they are allowed to broadcast far more explicit shows than other similar companies. This is because advertisers have a lot of control. They do not like their brand to be associated with shows that are explicit or negative, especially if they are considered a 'family friendly' brand. 

An example of this is Madonna. Madonna had a deal with Pepsi and was working with them. However, after she released the video for her song 'Like a Prayer', which was very explicit and controversial, they pulled out of the deal as they did not want their brand to be affected by the controversy surrounding her. 

Chomsky's 5 filter Theory:

This theory, which explains how propaganda and systematic biases function in mass media. The second filter in this theory is Advertising. Here is a useful explanation of the advertising filter, however this is using the example of newspapers.

Record labels 'dropping' acts

EMI signed the Sex Pistols, suddenly the band came under fire from politicians and the media. EMI dumped them immediately. Their song 'EMI' was written about this. 

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring me The Horizon's albums Sempiternal, and That's the Spirit are distributed by RCA which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.If our video was a real media product, it would be distributed by RCA too. I think this because these are considered their most successful albums and we would hopefully like to continue this success with this album. 

SR: GIF in music video

For our new track, there is a part where the lead inger sings: "So you can throw me to the wolves tomorrow I will come back leader of the whole pack". 

We thought that it would look amazing if we included a wolf in the music video. The wolf is a symbol of dominance since it is such a prestigious animal but also of guardianship, ritual, loyalty, and spirit. It is quite fitting for this music video, because the album of the song is "That's the Spirit" and is a lot about spirit and how you can convey negative thoughts into positive ones. 

We have two different opportunities to add the wolf into the music video. One of them would be to have a GIF in the music video, however this would be less use of technology and the GIF would have to be a bit longer than usual unless we layer it well into it. The reason why I thought of the GIF is because it would be easier than creating an animation of a wolf and would also be more real looking than if I would create an animation. 

These are some of the GIF's I found at, mainly on a website called Best Animations:

This is one, where I really liked due to the snow effect, but also because it shows the wolf from a bigger distance in it's entire prestige and power.

This GIF would be perfect for layering, because it features the wolf on the side so we sould layer it well. Also, it is close-up of the wolf's face, which is what particularly caught my attention. 

This GIF, only features the teeth of the wolf and should therefore if being used, appear later in the music video so that the audience knows it is a wolf. It could however also appear in the beginning and make it more mysterious.

This GIF is different because it zooms in on the wolf until it is extreme close-up of the wolf's face. This GIF allows the audience to see the wolf's face in it's entirety and would therefore be useful. There is also the snow effect on it again, which is also an effect I really like. 

The other opportunity would be to include an animation that I would create myself, via an animation software. In case I would decide to create an animation myself I would use "Express Animate" as the program. 

Download here:

http://www.nchsoftware.com/animation/index.html?gclid=CjwKEAiA79zDBRCgyf2FgeiY-CESJABzr0BMS7KanwH4Z29IwKFXw_S8Fn1rWTsrjWJ4k7HN1B2t6BoCwOXw_wcB

Gun Footage: Why we won't be using it

For our music video, we decided to film 2 different endings, and choose which one to use after filming both. 
We have decided to definitely not use this ending- Where the main character pulls a gun to his head and there is a fade to black- As we thought it would be too problematic. 

Violence in music videos is less more common and tolerated than it would be in Film. Because of this, we decided to decrease the amount of violence in our video. 
To add to that, a violent ending to the video would restrict where it would be shown, (For example, certain TV channels may not want to show it), therefore giving our video less views and opportunities, specifically with our young adult Target Audience.

Using Final Cut Pro X, I edited some of the gun footage together. We shot this on two separate occasions (once without tattoos, as a practice, and once with) 

MVid EG 6: Miley Cyrus: Wrecking Ball TBC

Wrecking Ball is a song by American singer, Miley Cyrus. This song was released on August 25, 2013 by RCA Records. It is a pop ballad which's topic describes a relationship deteriorating. 


The song received positive reviews from critics and debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number fifty. 

As of January 2014, "Wrecking Ball" has sold three million copies in the United States.

An interesting article I found whilst researching the song discusses whether or not the song is actually a 'hit'. This can be found on The Record. 

The music video to this song was released on September 9th 2013, which has inspiration/ is reminiscent of Sinead O'Connor's song 'Nothing Compares 2 U' there is a high level of intertextuality of O'Connor's video in the Wrecking Ball video. (Baudrillard and his theory of Simulacra can be applied to this) 

The critic opinion on this video was largely divided as many considered it to be provocative /inappropriate. 


Miley Cyrus considers herself to be a post-feminist. Wikipedia definition:
"the ideology of postfeminism is often recognised by its contrast with a prevailing or preceding feminism. Postfeminism strives towards the next stage in gender-related societal progress, and as such is often conceived as in favor of a society that is no longer defined bigender binary and gender role."

She believes that feminism assumes male control. She breaks free from this, especially in this video, as although a traditional feminist may see 'Wrecking Ball' as a video where Cyrus is exploited and seen as a sexual object, perhaps even exploited by the director (Terry Richardson, who is involved with a lot of controversy surrounding his exploitation of women) They may also claim that this video is representative of the patriarchal world that we live in.    
However, as a post-feminist, Cyrus believes that instead, she is presenting the idea that she is not trapped at all, and is free, creating art. As a post-feminist, she would also state that the patriarchy is an out-dated term, and does not agree with it. 

Through her hair, Cyrus is breaking gender stereotypes as the repeated stereotype that men should have short hair, and women should have long hair, has become normative in society, therefore making it difficult to break free from this societal construct. Through her hair, Miley Cyrus is being Counter hegemonic, as she decides to ignore the restrictions of society, and break gender stereotypes. 

Another singer who had similar thoughts/beliefs as Cyrus is Annie Lennox, who shocked many people in the 80s due to her short, ginger hair

hegemony, gramsi, annie lennox,

The white tank top that she is wearing, which exposes her strong arms this typically is seen as a male stereotype, and as she is a female wearing this top, with her arms shown as muscular, many would assume her sexuality, and believes she looks like a lesbian. Again, this is a societal construct and very stereotypical. However, the top which is cropped, which also has feminine connotations, so she is mixing up the stereotypes and going against them.   

sigmund freud, the sledgehammer is seen as a phallic object.
caroline vernallis, musicologist would disagree with the choices in the video, 

she uses direct mode of address, when swinging on the ball which can have both sexual, and non sexual connotations (engaging with the audience). 

Treatment

I wrote a treatment for the idea for our music video, whereas Sophie applied the pictures and theories. The treatment is something that could be handed out to people when presenting a vodcast or spoken explanation of our idea.

GROUP:

We are creating a music video for the song ‘Follow You’ by Bring Me the Horizon. Our group consists of Bronwen, Kristian and Sophie. The brief of our project is to create a music video, a website and a digipak. 

SUMMARY:

To summarise our idea, we will combine both performance and concept and will also include some aspects of a fragmented narrative. We are going to have the band performing in an abandoned location and also outside. We will also have the lead singer in other locations such as a bathroom and bathtub. There will be a female protagonist who will actually be a ghost, and we will achieve this through different editing techniques such as layering. The lead singer will slowly grow more and more crazy, thinking about the girl. The female protagonist could actually be someone in his life who passed away or just be representative of a relationship ending. We will use colour powder and black balloons during certain scenes.

INSPIRATION: 

We took inspiration from a great variety of music videos by various artists and genres. As examples, we were inspired by the use of colour in Up in the air by 30 Seconds to Mars, where they use color powder and in Bagboy by Pixies, where there are colored cereals in the bathtub.

We were also inspired by Joe, a previous media studies student from our school, as we really liked his use of layering, where there is a clear link between visuals and lyrics as well. We want to use one of Andrew Goodwin's suggested features of a music video, which is too establish a clear link between visuals and lyrics. There is one scene, where our leadsinger sings "Cross my heart and hope to die", where we will get a Pig's heart (achieving verismilitude) and have him squeeze it to connote his pain. 

MISE-EN-SCENE + CASTING: 

As the mise-en-scene of our music video will be crucial in obtaining a professional and believable final product, as well as achieving verisimilitude, we put a lot of thought into it. 

For the mise-en-scene such as costume for our band members, we got inspired from rock bands such as ofcourse Bring Me the Horizon themselves, THE 1975, My Chemical Romance and Fall out Boy, whose logo you can see here on the right of the post. 


Ofcourse, we also needed students who could fit the role and who had some experience with playing an instrument. Therefore, we held casting sessions where we filmed students from our school and outside of school as well in order to get a variety and have students/people who fit together as a group and are keen on doing the project with us. We had advertised for this via social media such as Facebook and had found males who were very keen on taking part as a band member. We will discuss, who we are choosing as our band members in our Podcast 2. 

We will dress the members in black ripped skinny jeans and black jackets, ripped t-shirts and black boots such as Doc.Martens/sneakers such as all black Converse or Vans. The lead singer, and also perhaps the female protagonist will have skull face paint on their faces, inspired by the TV show, American Horror Story. Some members will be wearing eyeliner and we have also ordered some materials in which we can create temporary tattoos to put on the band members necks and arms. 

Bronwen will design and draw these tattoos as she is an art student who has designed tattoos before. In order for the tattoos to stick, we ordered "water based-ink-jet-water transfer paper" from Amazon, which can go into the copy machine and be printed out with nice tattoos that Bronwen will draw by hand. The tattoos, will be based on what the Bring Me The Horizon band members have and also other rock bands such as You Me At Six, but mainly Bring Me The Horizon. This means that they will contain tattoos such as a skeleton, cross etc, which we will be evidencing on our blogs soon. 

The female protagonist’s makeup and outfit was inspired by the female characters in the Fall out Boy song, My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark. She will be wearing black skinny jeans, a crop top with some cleavage and a leather jacket. Her make-up will consist of dark, smokey eye makeup, mascare and a dark red lipstick. 

AUDIENCE:

In our investigation of target audience, we found that the main audience of alternative rock like the song Follow You, is males aged 16-25. This means that the video also should appeal to a male audience (Laura Mulvey, male gaze theory), which is why she will be wearing those type of clothes. 

DIGIPACK + WEBSITE:

On Sunday, we have our first shoot, where we will also be doing a photo shooting with the band members, which will most likely be the cover of our digipack together with a logo of the band that we will create ourselves. We will do a post shortly, where we will be investigating for different fonts that fit into the genre and could potentially be used for our digipack. 

On Monday the 17th, we will be creating our website for our band and start setting up our social media accounts.