Planning:Filming Location Scouting

The location which we would like to use is located in Sheffield but are awaiting a response from the owners of the location for permission to film there. However, even though is further drive than our other option we believe it is better suited to our needs. The old warehouse bares resemblance to the scene of Reservoir Dogs that our music video will attempt to parody so is exactly what we are looking for.

 

 

Just in case we are unable to get our desired location we went and scouted another location.With this location being in Chesterfield it would make filing much easier. However this set was a little cramped and needed to be cleared if we were to use it for filming the Reservoir Dogs scene there but it did offer a perfect back drop for the scene we had in mind. The main downside to this location was that area of space we were given was in fact so small that we would have to record our band performance shots at another location which would take even more time to film and would not really fit with the band shots we had already planned out.

Research: YouTube Case Study

As i am going to be using YouTube a lot throughout this media course, I thought it would be a good idea to do a case study on the website and explain how I am going to be using it myself:

Planning: Permission Request

To ensure that our music video does not get taken off YouTube due to copyright issues I decided to  send an email to Stealer's Wheels record company (A&M Records) requesting permission to use the song fairly:

Planning:Rough storyboard-Steelers Wheel Stuck in the middle with you

Our group created a rough story board to give ourselves an idea of what shots and ideas we could use in our final music video. We will be doing another story board to finalise our ideas in preperation for filming.

Planning: Pitch Video

Here is our pitch video, where we pitched our music video ideas to a production company. In this video we discuss why we have chosen the song  'Stuck in the Middle With You' for our music video, how we are going to incorporate intertextual references to the movie 'Reservoir Dog's' and why as well as discussing the theme we are going to be aiming for in the music video.

Planning:Song decision making

Our group was unable to come to up with a decision for which song we should pick to do for our music video. After some debating, we decided it would be best to get the collection of songs that we though would be worth considering doing for our music video and put it up for a vote. After listening to each song,we rated them on how much we liked/wanted for it to be the song for our music video, out of 10.



After the votes were calculated and compared it was decided that Stuck in the middle with you by Steelers Wheel would be our song choice for our music video.

Research:Iconic Music Videos

This post shows research i have done to find some of the most iconic music videos ever created. Through researching these videos i have been able to learn of some shots and ideas i can later use in my own music video.
 

Research:Iconic CD covers

In this post i have researched some of the most iconic CD covers ever created. In doing so i have discovered what has made these particular covers stand out when compared to other CD covers created over the years and have also gained new ideas on what our group could use in our own CD cover.

Research:Star Theory

Research:Music video director case study-Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. Jonze is well known for his music video collaborations with Fatboy Slim, Weezer, Beastie Boys, Björk and Kanye West  but has also directed full length movies such as  Being John Malkovich (1999) ,Adaptation (2002), Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Her (2013). He also was a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's Jackass.


Music Video's

 He has produced over 50 music videos from 1992 to 2013 including; Praise You - Fatboy Slim and Da Funk - Daft Punk. His breakthrough video for the Beastie Boys song "Sabotage" earned him four MTV Video Music Awards. Throughout the 1990s, he directed music videos and commercials.
Spikes personal factor is making music videos and films that are off-beat with their storytelling, particularly a mix of live action, animation and puppetry. Throughout the 1990s, Jonze directed music videos for many other artists—including R.E.M., the Breeders, Puff Daddy, the Chemical Brothers.

Examples of his work:

Praise you- Fat Boy Slim

Jonze actually starred in this video himself, along with a fictional dance group ‘The Torrance Community Dance Group’. The video was shot guerrilla-style (on location without obtaining permission from the owners of the property) in front of the public outside a movie theatre in Westwood, California. The video mianly features Jonze and the dance group dance to "Praise You", apart from at one point when a theatre employee comes and turns off the stereo.  Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) is also seen briefly in this video as one of the onlookers. The video apparently cost only $800 to produce, with most of that money going towards a replacement boombox and food for the cast and crew. The video won three major awards at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Choreography. It was also nominated for, but did not win, Best Dance Video. It was voted number one of the 100 best videos of all time, in a poll to mark the 20th anniversary of MTV.  

Da Funk – Daft Punk

This video focuses on the character of Charles (Tony Maxwell) who is a dog in a leg cast with a crutch who has lived in New York City for only one month and is shown walking around with a boombox blasting "Da Funk" at a high volume.  Throughout the video the boombox annoys the people he encounters as he is unable to turn it off . At one point Charles meets a woman who he was neighbours with when he was younger and they agree to have dinner together at her home. They decide to go there via the city bus. The woman boards the bus, but Charles is stopped by a sign stating "NO RADIOS". As he is unable to turn off his boombox and is forced to remain at the bus stop. Although the video has drawn several interpretations, Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk member) has stated: “There's no story. It is just a man-dog walking with a ghetto-blaster in New York. The rest is not meant to say anything. People are trying to explain it: Is it about human tolerance? Integration? Urbanism? There's really no message. There will be a sequel someday.”

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Funk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jonze
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise_You

Research: Music Video Regulation

Research:The Male Gaze-Laura Mulvey

The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. In this theory it can be seen as how men look at women. The male gaze theory was created by Laura Mulvey who coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Features of the Male Gaze include:

•  The camera lingering on the curves of the female body 
•  The events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events.
•  Women being reduced to the status of objects.

Other theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body ,even in situations where female sexiness, has nothing to do with the product being advertised. Here is an example of an advertisement for Budweiser beer and as you can clearly see there is no clear reason for there to be a woman in this picture but it is there anyway to attract men to look at.

Another example would be the music video for Eric Prydz - Call On Me in which the entire video consists of an aerobics class of women wearing aerobics outfits performing sexually suggestive gym routines which really has no link to the song in the background.

There are some flaws and disagreements with the theory however:

• Some of the women may enjoy the attention and like people to look at them.
• There are videos and media products which use men in the same light, for example in Kelly Rowland’s 'Motivation' some of the men  have less clothes on than she does and she treats them how some women are treated in other music videos-like objects.
• How is the heterosexual male gaze different from the homosexual gaze?
• The gaze can also be directed toward members of the same sex, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

Research:Controversy In Media

In this article the writer discusses Rihanna's music video,"Bitch better have my money",what content the video contains and his views on the whole thing. The writer sees the video as Rihanna wanting to be seen as a no fucks given badass but instead comes off as somewhat desperate and that compared compared to Kendrick Lamar's video for Alright, which only received a quarter of the views and was a much better video, was not worth wasting your time on.

From watching the video myself I can understand why the writer has the views he does. The video contains quite a lot of nudity ,which in most cases, was not really needed for example the final scene with Rihanna laying in a pile of money ,covered in blood , completely naked. This could be seen as her just being desperate for attention but could also just be a way of marketing her new video because of the controversy it has caused. Controversy is a very good way of marketing a music video because many people will go out of their way just  to watch a controversial video that they may not have viewed if it had not received such attention but artists can risk loosing fans if the video is something that they don't enjoy or are not used to.

 I have noticed recently many more videos are becoming controversial which could mean that more and more artists are just using controversy as a way to promote their work instead of just making something new and creative.

Research:Applying Genre Theories to Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright'

FGMB - Practice Piece

Research:3 Recommended Music Videos

This 4:16 music video by Childish Gambino(A.k.a Donald Glover) is filmed using just one shot through its entirety. In the video Goodwin's Conventions are used many times. For example in the chorus the lyrics say 'I will be right by your side till 3005' and throughout the video it shows the bear slowly eroding symbolizing time moving forward ,but with Gambino staying the same. Then,at the end the city was burning and he was gone which could mean the year is 3005 and he has no reason to stay. What is really interesting about this video is that the narrative in it fits in with the other music videos in his latest album ,'Because the internet', like a continuous film that the lyrics match up with with 3005 being the last music video in the film.




Marry the Night is a song written by Lady Gaga in 2009, off of her third album, Born This Way and serves as the fifth and final single off the album. The narrative in the video mainly follows the story of lady gagas life before she became famous and is a metaphor for how she felt when she was dropped from her first record label, Island Def Jam. In the video there are many scenes where Gaga is naked and experiencing a mental breakdown in her apartment and in an interview she said it was something that happened when she found out she’d been dropped.


Panic! At The Disco- I Write Sins Not Tragedies  takes place at a wedding where groom hears that his bride is cheating on him from a discussion between a bridesmaid and a waiter. His instinct is to tells them to shut the door and keep it to themselves, but he wants to handle it himself and figure it out with "poise and rationality." Panic guitar player and lyricist Ryan Ross came up with the story after breaking up with his girlfriend. He was trying to convey that despite all that happened, it could have been worse.

Brief For Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task we have been asked to re-create a 1 minute music video, create our own homepage and make a CD cover for our re-created single. For this task we have chosen to re-create the music video for the song September by Earth,Wind and Fire.



We have decided to choose this song is quite slow paced so will be easy to edit our own video to the beat of the song. Also the music video can be very basic like the original and still work very well with the music.

Pharrell Williams - Happy-30 Second Music Video

Research:Eminem-Curtain Call CD Cover Analysis

By analysing CD covers I was able to learn about what you need to include in one, what works well and what doesn't which I can then apply to my own  CD cover later on.

Research:A brief history of the music video

Thomas Edison and the phonograph
23 Jun 1877

the phonograph was the first ever recording and listening device which was invented in 1877. This was a pivitol moment in music history as it allowed for ownership and without ownership nothing could be sold.

The television
3 May 1920

A very crude version of the television was available in the early 1920's however after WW1 a much improved version became popular in the UK and the USA. In the 1950's television had a primary function of influencing the nation yet by the 1960's color broadcasting was introduced to the US and most other developed countries.

Fred Astaire
23 Jun 1934

With a career that spanned over 76 years the American singer, choreographer, dancer, musician and actor starred in a total of 31 musical films, winning a number of television awards in the process. This is another example of the calabaration between music and film.

Battle of the ice
1 Dec 1938

 Sergei Eisenstein directed the 'Alexander Nevsky' a Russian propaganda film. The film climaxes to the so called 'Battle of the ice' which is accompanied by music to give a strong feel of patriotism.

Fantasia
23 Jun 1940

Disney's Fantasia is arguably the first music video. Walt Disney was a huge fan of classical music and in order to promote it among the younger generations he designed a film from his ever popular cartoons. This was the first time that a film or video had been written for the music rather than the other way around, however many Disney and Fantasia fans debate this.

Singin' in the rain
1 Jan 1952

Eugene Curran Kelly more commonly known as Gene Kelly starred in the hit musical 'Singin' in the rain'. Musicals became more and more popular as other such as 'West side story' began to arise in the 1960's.


Jailhouse rock
24 Sep 1957

 Elvis Presley was able to promote 'black music' and used the music in a significant way. The Jailhouse rock video is choreographed well and has uses lots of different cameras to achieve the final video.

ITV and music
23 Jun 1963

ITV had a television show dedicated to music, the artist mimed their songs on air in order to persuade viewers to invest in a copy of their vinyl and by 1965 the show became completely live.

The animals
19 Jun 1964

 The animals were a completely fabricated band, they were put together to sell. This has been happening for years as the Bee Gees experienced when their lead singer was told to stay at the back due to his appearance. Only now are we openly experiencing this with the X-Factor creating bands

Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
31 Oct 1975

 The video was iconic for its simplicity of the four heads but was also revolutionary in terms of its editing, transitioning and effects

Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer
25 Apr 1986

 This video which saw Peter Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours whilst animators worked around him, the video was a huge success and in many respects surpassed the song which may not have taken off without this.

Madonna
21 Mar 1989

 In the 1980's Madonna became hugely controversial using religious iconography and sexual metaphors in her 'Like a prayer' video.

Sabotage
28 Jan 1994

 The Beastie boys used intertextuality in abundance in this 80's police detective parody, the video uses similar titling and editing to police dramas from this era to create a music video closer to the Naked Gun than any other music video before its time

Red Hot Chilli Peppers Californiacation- Storyboard

Research:Michael Jackson's Thriller-Textual Analysis

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Gabriel Judkins and this is my blog for my A2 media course. This years course will involve creating our own music video and as a big fan of watching music videos I am really looking forwards to creating my own.