Music Video Research

This collection of Kano videos share similar properties, particularly that the main artist is the main focus of the video, and appears in a large proportion of the shots, this conforms with Goodwin's Theory, which  states that the recording artist is in shot very often.

We thought that the styling of these videos worked very well, particularly that they seem to be have shot in 1 take - we would be interested in emulating this in our attempt at a music video, however this would need an extremely large amount of planning and it could potentially take hundreds of takes to get it right, particularly as the song we have chosen is quite a long track.

The clip above is from the movie 'Kidulthood' which has proven very popular among the youth of today, we selected this specific clip as we thought we could incorporate some of the shots used between 0:32-1:30 for example 

This Maverick Sabre video uses some of the features I spoke about in other videos in this playlist such as heavily featuring the artist.

This video, 'The Return of Mr. Pane' is sort of the style we are looking as it focuses heavily on the main artist, Mikill Pane.

Album Cover

Before my partner and I begin to design a digipak, as well as posters using Photoshop, I thought it would be a good idea to get to know the software. I have created some CD covers in spare time using a variety of the tools and features of the programs.

With this first cover, I had to use the magnetic lasso tool in order to highlight the artist - Tyler, the Creator - and delete the background; in order to make the edges look smoother I used the blur tool, so that the image would look like there was a transition between foreground and background instead of one image looking as if it has been pasted directly on to another. Next, I simply used text tool to create a text box in which I copy and pasted the group name 'OFWGKTA'; then I rotated this and changed the colour and font size. The way in which I made one OFWGKTA stand out was by creating a new text box in a new layer, making the font the same size and manually moved it over one of the background 'OFWGKTAs'. I then used the outer glow tool to give it a glow and after used the brush tool to add the effect of the word bleeding/melting.

After this effort, I decided that I would like to try out some of the filters that are available using Photoshop. I started out with this image: 

Again I needed to remove the background so I went through the same process of using the magnetic lasso tool to select the artist, and remove the background. As the artist sometimes goes by the name of 'Scorcher Skywalker' I thought that Skywalker would be a suitable as the album title. I used a futuristic font for the title, because Skywalker connotes Star Wars which has themes of space travel etc. so I thought it would be appropriate. I kept the artists name quite small as his image is very much the focus of the cover and people buying the album would generally know who the CD was by, immidiately after seeing his face. I decided to use a silhouette of the London Skyline as the background because Skyline has connotations with the 'sky' in Skywalker, but also because the artist is a London rapper so it shows a connection to his roots. Finally, I used filters to create this brush stroke effect on the image, as well as reducing the saturation of this layer to reduce the vibrancy of the colour of his jacket, as it contrasted too heavily against the black background and text.

Music Industry Research

Making Money
"The turmoil in the recorded music industry changed the twentieth-century balance between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music-stores and the consumer. As of 2010, big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy sell more records than music-only stores, which have ceased to function as a player in the industry. Recording artists now rely on live performance and merchandise for the majority of their income, which in turn has made them more dependent on music promoters like Live Nation (which dominates tour promotion and owns a large number of music venues.) In order to benefit from all of an artist's income streams, record companies increasingly rely on the "360 deal", a new business-relationship pioneered by Robbie Williams and EMI in 2007. At the other extreme, record companies can offer a simple manufacturing and distribution deal, which gives a higher percentage to the artist, but does not cover the expense of marketing and promotion. Many newer artists no longer see a record deal as an integral part of their business plan at all. Inexpensive recording hardware and software made it possible to record reasonable quality music in a bedroom and distribute it over the internet to a worldwide audience. This, in turn, caused problems for recording studios, record producers and audio engineers: the Los Angeles Times reports that as many as half of the recording facilities in that city have failed. Changes in the music industry have given consumers access to a wider variety of music than ever before, at a price that gradually approaches zero. However, consumer spending on music-related software and hardware increased dramatically over the last decade, providing a valuable new income-stream for technology companies such as Apple Inc."


(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry)


Most of the money made by up and coming artist will be from live PAs and performances. Because of this the video will be posted online as there is little way of making any money back from producing the video. The release of the new single is in a bid to increase the hype surrounding F Star Raw, so that he can achieve more record sales. This single a CD will be released alongside a string of performances at major venues throughout the UK


Distribution
Music distribution is the essentially, the process music reaches the shops. Distributors usually make deals with the artists' record label but sometimes directly through the artist if they are independent. The distributors make money by taking a percentage of the revenue from each CD sold.


The distributors normally expect the 'finished article' from the label/ artist but sometimes they sign a M&D deal which is an agreement where the distributor manufactures and distributes the CDs/ albums. They retain all of the revenue until their initial investment has been paid off, then they will take a cut from the revenue after this point.


F Star Raw is an independent artist as has signed a distribution deal with a private distribution company. They have agreed a deal with HMV who will take 10,000 units 6000 of which will be spread between the London based stores and the remaining 4000 throughout the rest of their stores in the UK.




Royalties
Essentially royalties are an exclusive copyright to the score/lyrics of a song. Owning the royalties gives you 5 exclusive rights:
(a) to make copies of the songs through print or recordings
(b) to distribute them to the public for profit
(c) to the "public performance right"; live or through a recording
(d) to create a derivative work to include elements of the original music; and
(e) to "display" it (not very relevant in context).


These exclusivities have led to the evolution of distinct commercial terminology used in the music industry.
They take four forms:
(1) royalties from "print rights"
(2) mechanical royalties from the recording of composed music on CDs and tape
(3) performance royalties from the performance of the compositions/songs on stage or television through artists and bands, and
(4) synch (for synchronization) royalties from using or adapting the musical score in the movies, television advertisements, etc. and
With the advent of the internet, an additional set of royalties has come into play: the digital rights from simulcasting, webcasting, streaming, downloading, and online "on-demand service".


[www.wikipedia.org]

First Attempt at Lip Sync

Music Videos From the Same Genre [U.S. R&B]

There are some common themes between these music videos, particularly the focus of the main artists in each of them. There is generally a link between the music and visuals, and also the lyrics and visuals. In this genre there is a lot of voyeurism as the artists are seeking somebody and it relates to searching for them; this also creates a link between the lyrics and the visuals which is another element of Goodwin's conventions of music videos. The videos also look quite expensive which shows a contrast from British R&B videos which tend to have a low production value.

Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's Theory - She

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3.4 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3); secondly to assess candidates’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created (AO2); and finally to assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (AO4). The unit requires candidates to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving them the opportunity to develop their own skills in these technologies. It also enables them to develop the skills of presentation that are required for further study at higher levels and in the workplace.

This is a coursework unit. Centres must set the brief from the menu below, though they may define more precise details in negotiation with candidates. From this brief, candidates will produce:

a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts

a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in digital format(s).

The media portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

Video

Print

Web-based

Audio

Games software

Each candidate will evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally, this evaluation being guided by the set of key questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or individually. Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:

A blog 

DVD extras 

A podcast 

A powerpoint 

A Website 

a combination of two or more of the above

In all cases, candidates should be encouraged to see the evaluation as a creative task and the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources. Marks should be supported by teacher comments and may be supported by other forms such as audio or videotaped presentations.

Production work for the main text in the Advanced Portfolio may be in the same medium as AS work (in order to allow for the development of skills within a particular medium) or a different medium (in order to allow for breadth of experience of different media forms). The ancillary tasks will ensure that all candidates have the opportunity to explore a different medium at some point in their production work.

The production element and presentation of research, planning and evaluation may be individual or group work (maximum group size is four candidates). Where candidates have worked in a group, the evidence for assessment may be presented collectively but centres will still assess candidates on an individual basis for their contribution to aspects of the work, from planning, research and production to evaluation.

Though there is no formal individual essay component for this unit, in the G325 examination, candidates will be asked to write about the work undertaken from this unit and from the AS coursework unit. It is therefore recommended that candidates undertake some form of written reflection as practice for the exam.

G324 is marked and internally standardised by the centre and marks are submitted to OCR by a specified date, a sample is then selected for external moderation. The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for the planning and research and its presentation; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.

In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?