Casting video

 This is a compilation of all the casting videos we took of all the potential people we had try out for a role as a member of the band. We were very lucky in having so many very talented and willing people to help with our video, and this is shown in the casting video. We made this compilation not only to help us decide who to pick, but also if someone drops out last minute or in the future, we can go back to this video and hopefully use someone else from it. 

Advanced camera workshop

The first thing we were told was to turn the lights on. We were then reminded of how to use the zoom and focus wheels on the lens. The first new thing that we were introduced to was the monitor, and we would have to get used to using that when we shoot our music video.

Then we were told about shutter. Shutter is measured in degrees, and it’s to do with motion and more specifically, blur. So, when the shutter angle is 180 degrees, it is like real life, and we see on the camera what we would usually see in our eyes. The lower we have the shutter, the more clear and sharper the image looks. If the shutter angle is higher, it is a lot smoother. Just by adjusting the shutter, you can get different emotions and feelings out of the shot, for example, when there is a low shutter angle, with a very sharp image, the image can look very distressed and very agitated. The next thing we learnt about was frames per second (FPS). In the UK, we use 25 FPS, and in the US the FPS used is closer to 30 (due to a difference in electricity). When you’re shooting for a slow motion, smoother shot, you can increase the FPS to 50.

Then we learned about the lenses we are going to use when shooting our music video. We are going to use Prime lenses. Prime lenses don’t zoom in, they have a fixed zoom. The number on the lenses say the MM of the lens. Prime lenses also only focus by turning and using the focus wheel, and to get a shot completely in focus, we use a tape measuring technique. The tape measure technique is measuring the distance 7 feet away, getting that in focus so that it applies to that lens. For face shots, we tend to use 85mm, and wide lens for establishing shots. 

We then had a brief look at the new PICTOR lenses, which was two lenses that went from 50mm, to 125mm.

Mood board

This is the mood board I made. I did this so that I could get some pictures down on a document showing what I was thinking and what we as a group were thinking our band would look like, so that we don't forget certain ideas or certain things leading up to the shoot. I think all of our mood boards will come in a lot of handy. 

Legal email

We are having to send an email to the record label or to the band itself to ask permission whether or not we can use the song in our video for legal reasons. This is the email we sent. 

Research into genre conventions

This is my research into genre conventions presentation. I did the majority of my research into Kelly Clarkson, and each member of my media group was assigned someone else to research briefly. After that, all the work seen is my own. 

Audience profiling:

The JICNARS scale is used to help identify a demographic audience. It can be segmented into various social groups, for example gender, class, race and sexuality.
 

However, the JICNARS scale applies mainly to people who are employed, have an income, and are over the age of 18. This would mean that we would have to use a more psychological type of segmentation. We would use VALS, but again this applies to employed, and older people, and since our target audience is younger teenage girls (13-15), we would have to use teen VALS.

 The target audience that we are trying to appeal to are the "rebels" and "innovators", as this best describes the teenage girls that we think would like the song and the band we are creating.

We will appeal to this audience by making the band slightly rebellious, and certainly quite independant and distinctive in the way they dress, their makeup and in the way they perform. This way, the target audience we are trying to appeal to can mimic and follow what the band are doing, whilst also remaining the same feeling of independance.

Feedback from our treatment:

We presented our treatment for our first song choice in class in hope to get some feedback so that we could get some constructive criticism to help us work on our idea. We got some very good feedback from our media teacher Mike and our production teacher Luke.

 

The first thing that they said was that in keeping with the genre, we need to show the singer more than the other members of the band in the music video, as opposed to having them all equal. They also said that the music video would have to open with the performance with the entire band, as opposed to just the lead singer as we suggested in our pitch. We also need 3 very different looking people, playing guitar, bass, and drums (lead singer will play the guitar). Also, to maximise the use of the barbie set, we should have the whole band in there not just the lead singer as we pitched. Another suggestion from Luke and Mike is that we buy 2 sets of customs, one that we can trash, and one that stays good. They also instructed that we film them destroying the set and graffitiing the set in the same set, not 2 separate ones like we suggested. They also said that we would need to think of specific stuff to break or smash, because it could look quite pathetic and poorly done if they are just knocking over stuff that doesn’t look impressive to break – they need to look like they have caused some substantial damage.

 

Targets:

 

-   We need to focus more on a main frontman for the band, and so we will need to find someone quite charismatic for a lead singer

-   We need to factor in the performance more, especially at the start of the video

-   We need to research into how to properly trash a set to make it look realistic without having to break too much stuff and without having to spend too much money

-   We also need to use each set to the max and get as many shots of them in before they are trashed.

Full Treatment 2

 This is the full treatment for our second song. I worked on this with my group. 

Full Treatment 1

 This is our full treatment for our first song. I worked on this with my group. 

Songs for media feedback blogpost:

I played 2 out of the 4 songs that I chose to look at for my music campaign to my class so that I could gain some honest feedback from my piers on whether they liked the song, the image that the song could reflect and if they thought the song would be a good choice to base a music campaign around. This is really going to help me moving forward and will help me decide whether one of my songs would be good, or whether we should go with someone else’s song from my group.

 

 

 

Musky feedback:

This was my first choice to play in class, which is why it is labelled as song 1 on my blog post. I think it is the most interesting out of the songs I found, but this is what feedback I got from playing it.

 

 

Was it a band or artist? my class thought that it was quite clear that this song was written by a band, and that the band had a strong and obvious frontman.

 

Was the song/band castable? This question was used to help determine whether the band or artist would be easily castable using people at school. From the feedback my class thought that it was an easy song to cast, but we would need an older looking upper year to be the strong main role in the band, as the singer sounds relatively old in the song.

 

What genre was it? The class thought it was from the alternative genre.

 

Would it be a good song to launch a campaign around? My class thought that this song would be quite tricky to plan an entire campaign around, as the song struggles to hold interest throughout the entire piece, and so planning a campaign around it would be hard.

 

What would you expect to see in the music video? A big performance from the band, with an obvious focus on the lead singer, with some trippy and psychedelic effects to add to it.

 

What is the image of the band/lead singer? Quite quirky and alternative, perhaps a bit shy.

 

These are some more images of the band that I found after I received feedback from my class. I think these images prove that my class were mostly correct in what they said, with the psychedelic patterns/writing and the focus on a strong male lead.

Buried in the sound feedback:

This was the second song I chose to play in class, and I chose to play this one as it is the least like the first song I played, and I wanted to show a range of genres in the songs I chose.

 

 

Was it a band or artist? Artist.

 

Was the artist castable? My class thought the song was very castable with using the people at school.

 

What genre did my class think the song was? My class thought it was from the pop genre primarily, with a hint of indie to the song as well.

 

Was it a good song to base a campaign off? My class thought that it was a good song to plan a campaign around. My class found it a lot easier with this song to picture the key conventions of the song in the music video, with the artist being a primary focus, and her having a flirtatious personality on screen surrounded by dancers. My class thought it would be a lot easier to film and base a campaign off than the first song I presented.

 

What is the image of the artist? The feedback I received was that my class pictured her as a confident, strong, independent, and powerful person.

 

Again I decided to go out after the feedback to try and find out more about the artist and to try and find some more images, and I think the feedback about this artist from my class was also very accurate.

 

This is the feedback I received from my class about the songs that I chose to present. I was quite curious to see how they felt about the other 2 songs that I picked out, but I am glad I went with the songs I presented as I still think that those 2 are the stronger songs. The next step is to be put into a group and deciding who’s song we will pick to base our campaign around.

Song idea 4

This is the fourth song I have chosen to look at

Name of Artist: Accidental Hero

Name of song: It's a Wonder

Release date: 5th November 2017

Amount of listens: On sound-cloud, "It's a Wonder" has 86 plays, and it has 199 views on YouTube.

Link to the song on sound-cloud: https://soundcloud.com/accidentalhero/its-a-wonder

Song idea 3

This is the third song I have chosen to look at. 

Name of Artist: King Brown

Name of song: Sweet Action

Name of the album that the song is on: Sweet Action

Release date: 15th may 2021

Amount of listens: It does not show on Spotify how many people have listened to this song, but on YouTube, the "Sweet Action album visualiser" has got 123 views:

Song idea 2

This is the second song I have chosen to look at.

Name of the Artist: Olivia White

Name of the song: Buried in the sound

Release date: 29th April 2021

Amount of listens: 3,169 plays on Spotify and it has 110 views on YouTube

The YouTube release:

The song is also on Spotify:

Song idea 1

This is the first song that I have chosen to look at.

Name of the artist: Actual Fact

Song name: "Musky"

Release date: 17th August 2019

Amount of views: 74 plays on sound-cloud and YouTube upload has 64 views

The song has been uploaded to YouTube but there is no actual music video, it is just a picture with the song playing over it instead:

Link to the song on sound-cloud: https://soundcloud.com/actualfact/musky