Welcome to our A2 Media Blog

Over the next few months, this blog will document every step and decision through our extensive music video project. Chelsea Lindsay, Katy Jobling and Alexandra Hennessey are starting this project with the intention of creating a professional and convincing music video.

We hope you can enjoy watching our ideas evolve from vague suggestions to elaborate details. This project will be a test of skill, creativity and communication and will be a challenge to each of us. We hope that we will end this project with new skills and an understanding of what we are each capable of doing, and we look forward to sharing our finished product with you.

Introduction to Kitsch

We are Kitsch and we will be guiding you through the entire process of the making of our video 'Colourless Colour'. We are a band of two members, Lexie Hennessey as our synth player and Katy Jobling as lead vocals. We aim to reach out to fans in their late teens to thirties with our stylish and sophisticated electro-pop music. Our band name 'Kitsch' describes everything about us from our music to our fashion sense. Fashion is very important to our brand image and we take inspiration for this from 80's pop icons such as Madonna. Colour is also a big part of our band identity, this will be shown throughout our blog and in our music videos. We aim for 'Colourless Colour' to be our best and most modern video yet!

We invite you to take a look around our blog and hope you enjoy being a part of our music video.

History of music videos

Early advances in the music video:

Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV and VH1were launched. The term "music video" first became popular in the early 1980s.
In 1894, Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired the electrician George Thomas to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. George Thomas photographed many people acting out the song; the pictures were printed onto glass slides and painted by hand! The electrician projected the series of still images on a screen with live performances, which became a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. This has been said to be the first ever music video. Even today, many music videos and contemporary TV still use series of still images accompanied by music.
Modern music videos are used as a marketing technique to promote the sales of the artist’s record.


The Animals – House of the Rising Sun


This was one of the earliest music videos (or performance clips) which was filmed for The Animals in 1964 for their breakthrough song House of the Rising sun. It was shot in high quality colour for its time and uses only a few basic shots such as long shots and close ups. The video is very simple compared to the videos of today as the band shown in only one set lip-syncing to the track.

MTV

On the 1st August 1981, MTV launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," said by John Lack. The words were immediately followed by the original MTV theme song, playing over a montage of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon with the flag covered by MTV’s logo.
Appropriately, the 1st ever music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. A Video of the launch of MTV was uploaded onto YouTube (one of today’s most popular ways to watch modern and old music videos via the internet) in 2009, with the original commercials between videos. When MTV launched the purpose of it was to be ‘music television’ and play music videos 24 hours a day, every day. This concept was abandoned by MTV long ago however MTV does still play a limited selection of music videos. Most of the music videos played by the MTV network are on its sister channels such as MTV HITS and MTV DANCE.

Advances in technology

Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy to use video recording and editing equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques. Introducing high quality colour video recorders and portable video cameras enabled many artists to produce music videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the higher cost of using films. However, as the genre developed, music video directors increasingly turned to 35 mm film, while others mixed film and video together.

Groundbreaking videos

In 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was released. Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, which lasted almost 14 minutes. The video set new and higher standards for artist as it cost $500,000 to film. It was also seen as a groundbreaking video as it was extremely popular resulting in more African-American artist being played on MTV, which had earlier been rare. Thriller was a new kind of music video as it was almost a mini movie, and opened up the world of the music video showing how unique and different promotional videos could be.

In 1985 A-Ha’s video for ‘Take on Me’ was seen as groundbreaking as it used new special effects and challenged them by combining a mixture of both sketched animation and video of the band and actors.

In 1999 another influential music video was created for Fatboy Slim’s hit, ‘Weapon of Choice’. The video was as groundbreaking as it featured the professional actor Christopher Walken dancing round an empty hotel. Walken trained as a dancer before his career in acting therefore the choice of this actor becomes less strange. The video has won many awards including a Grammy for ‘best short form video’.

Summer Homework Task

Music Videos

Telephone – Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce
This music video is seen to be quite outrageous and ‘out there’, especially for this day and age. The video begins with no music for around about 3 minutes and this is just the narrative seen here, we also here odd bits of dialogue spoken which again adds to the new, stylish way of music video’s. The video seems to almost be similar to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ is terms of the length, and the way that the videos caused such a stir. The video is set in a prison to begin with where we see Lady Gaga posing in a provocative costume/outfit and this shows what type of video it may lead on to be. This shows her as an dominant person and gives her a ‘bad girl’ sort of image. The fact that she has coke cans in her hair again shows Lady Gaga’s brand image as we all know her for her wild and daring fashion and style. The lighting in the video has a constant theme of being of lower light, although in most music videos it would make the story harder for the audience to understand, here it acts as an aid for them and it almost catalyses the narrative itself. The idea in the video is that they are trying to get away from everything, yet somehow it seems ironic that they use a bright yellow car in which almost everyone would notice it. Throughout the video they constantly use the phrase ‘honey b’ to refer to each other showing signs of affection towards each other and the fact that they are the only 2 people standing at the end of the video shows that they are stronger together as 1. The scene where Lady Gaga seems to be in the kitchen is very bright in comparison to the rest of the video, and here they use the idea of cartoon missed with video which in this case works very well as the rest of the video almost seems very animated. Throughout the video we see the motif of a phone and especially in the diner scene, not as obvious but still out of Lady Gaga’s hair is a yellow phone with a wire stretching across her head, both again relating to her brand image of being outrageous and also the video itself. Beyonce is well known for her dances and bold singing, and here we see her mark on the video in the dance scene at the end and in the middle the almost rap style of music shows Beyoncé’s brand image. The music starts calmly and gets more and more frantic as it goes on and louder – this shows the progression of the video and the structure in which they chose to present it to the target audience. The target audience would generally be teenage girls around 17 or 18 years old up to around mid 20’s. The reason for the higher age choice is the fact that the video does show some very provocative things in which younger girls should not see.


La Roux – Bulletproof
Throughout the video we see the constant bright white lighting giving a futuristic look and lots of SFX are used which is part of La Roux’s brand image. One thing I noticed that it was very obvious that lots of different shots were being used yet I believe that this is part and parcel of making this video a success. The edits were all very clean and sharp, and very on the beat which is more effective for the audience if there is a visual to go with the sound of the music. The video shows no narrative, and is all based around La Roux herself, this is perhaps to do with the fact that she was bullied at school and now is proud to be where she is. The coloured lights which feature all the way though the video but are most obvious when the video is at its darkest at the end, this is perhaps a feature that would be nice to recreate and be able to shows throughout our video. The colours black and white appear throughout the video and binary opposites are seen at various points for example black background with white outfit – this works well as the audience can make this clear contrast, and the music fits in well with this type of Mise en scene. The music video is all visual and no narrative, yet because of all of the shots, edits and Mise-en-scene it works – this keeps the audience interested and also makes the video eye catching and unusual.

Madonna – ‘Vogue’
This video is very stylistic and for when it was made unusual as it is in black and white. Vogue like the magazine is obviously about models and fashion which is very clear that is what Madonna is portraying through this video. The different shots such as a high angle shot gives different perspectives so that all types of people can enjoy the video. The video does portray something different about it and when this video was released it was something different to the other music videos. Madonna has always been known for being something bizarre, and her brand image has formed around this. The video is a narrative, yet shows not as mush performance side – it is mainly just dancing and on the odd occasion singing towards the camera. I think that the video works well, yet in my opinion the narrative is TOO simple as there is not enough substance to make the whole video interesting enough for the audience. The target audience for this video and Madonna I would say is 30– 40 year olds who enjoy a bit of ‘feel good’ music. To make the video better, or what could improve it is using odd splashes of colour and adding more to the narrative side of it, this would both allow for more shots and edits to be created instantly creating more interest for the audience, and this would then open up what you could do in the video more – thus increasing the target audience.

DVD Covers

Madonna
The DVD cover here has a continuous colour theme of blue running throughout, although in different shades, which in y opinion doesn’t work as well as it could if they were more similar. The back looks very professional as it has all of he details of the video very neatly, all square on. This is effective as it shows professional and effective work. The two images that have been used both show Madonna as a powerful woman, which we also see throughout all of her music videos, and also the posses in which we see in the photographs relates to the name of the name of the album ‘Ciao Italia’, this shows part of the Italian culture as they have cultural dances, and the dresses she is wearing is powerful in relation to her brand image and the red that is seen in it relates well again to the album title as red is in the Italian flag and this relates well. The spine of the DVD cover just seems to blend in with the rest of the DVD cover where I think it should stand out.

Take That
Again blue is a constant colour theme throughout, and it works as the motif for this is the sky. The hot air balloon on the front cover ties in very well with the whole ‘circus’ them around the DVD album, and the fact that the background is the sky, it shows that it has been very well thought out, especially in comparison to Madonna’s DVD cover. The white writing on the back stands out very well, and these could also be thought of as clouds which again if you look at it that way, it seems like it has been very carefully thought about. This DVD cover is all about the visuals and it works very well as it creates a link for the target audience . It relates well to the name of the album, the CD cover and the advertisement poster for the release of the CD and their tour.

James Blunt
The continuous theme of black, white and red seen in this DVD cover creates a professional look and can relate through to the target audience better than if it was multiple colours. The one large image on the front is simple yet effective and possibly shows that the video/music itself is simplistic yet beautiful. The way the back is set out is neat and well presented yet doesn’t look very professional, and this almost ruins the whole DVD cover. The spine is well done as it just blends in with the rest of the cover and the artistic design shown throughout on the bottom of the whole cover is a good way to blend the front and the back of the cover together. Again this is mainly visual as it really gives nothing away about what the Music/Music video will be like.

Advert

La Roux
This is typical La Roux’s brand image and we see. It is very much cluttered which is a complete contrast to her video’s which are simplistic just featuring her. It includes most of the features seen on all adverts such as the single that it is particularly featuring and whom is presenting the DVD etc. The colours seen are red, blue, white and black – all very bold colours which relates now to La Roux’s Brand image. By having the image placed at the top of the page it shows dominance and also this uses the rule of thirds by having La Roux poised directly in the centre of the page, and buildings either side. The fiery feeling that this photo portrays is strength, which she has had to have success in the music industry and power, she could almost be seen as a role model to her target audience (teenagers etc)

Madonna
This advert is based around fashion. The way that Madonna is posed already suggests stylish and artistic as it is not a posed generic poster. It is advertising for an album that she is releasing ‘Confessions on a dance floor’ yet I feel that although artistic it is too simplistic and should have recommendations on to attract other people than just her regular target audience. The special effects that are used are quite obvious – reducing the brightness and increasing the saturation to give t an unrealistic sort of look. The disco ball in place of the ‘O’ in Madonna is a nice touch and show a little of Madonna’s brand image. Also the faded out larger disco ball in the background keeps the continuity of the poster going.

Westlife
This is my least favourite advert, because I think the colour quality looks poor in comparison to an advert like Madonna’s. On the other hand I like the typical ‘boy band pose’ as I think it shows them all together as one and by just having head shots of each of them we can see all of them and distinguish each band member which I think is forgotten about these days as people just name them by the band names. The grey background looks bland on first look, but the yellow writing really enhances the whole look of the poster, also the yellow ‘tinge’ that can be seen over the whole poster makes it more ‘alive’ than what the basic grey background did. By having the band name boldly across the top of the poster it shows the target audience exactly who the advert is for and then the audience can see what it is exactly that is being promoted and what is available for them to buy. Overall the poster conveys its message however I feel that it is weak as it does not give any recommendations and does not fit all of the codes and conventions that’s is usually present on a poster, such as recommendations and when the album will be released.

Summer Research Task

Chick Lit – We Are Scientists

(MUSIC VIDEO)
Laid out in a narrative format, the video is and laced with comic, contextual references to classic ‘Western’ film.
Band members Keith and Chris play the roles of cowboys and follow the standard codes and conventions of these movies to a point where the viewer is completely oblivious to the fact that this is indeed a parody video. They realise this when it is revealed that the duo are not herding cattle as what is suggested in the clip, but tiny adorable Pomeranian dogs. The comical reveal is enhanced further as the two clumsily chase and tackle the dogs in an attempt to catch them; slow motion has been placed here in the editing stages to make scene seem dramatic and serious as an old Western movie may have.
Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in the clip is the ‘quick draw’ between Chris and a singled off dog. Quick draws are such a classic feature in Western movies and are usually played out with extreme close-ups of each dueller, back and forth to exaggerate the massive suspense between them; this scene mimics this perfectly, making Chris seem pathetic for being so afraid of such an unintimidating dog, and adds a nice extra touch when we realise that he was in fact reaching for his dog leash rather than a pistol.

However, this video is not pure narrative. The band sneaks in parts of performance in a way so subtle that they still seem to be in character. For example, nearing the end of the video the two are sitting by a campfire playing acoustic guitars together which doesn't appear out of place. For the rest of the video however they aren’t seen with instruments and instead Keith (the vocalist) breaks the fourth wall and sings directly to the viewer.
(ADVERT)



Not dissimilar to their videos, We Are Scientists' tour advert is based around contextual humour. Unlike what you'd expect from a tour poster, it doesn't strike the viewer as anything related to music at all; Keith and Chris are dressed in formal wear and are posing in a particular way reminiscent to salespeople. Upon further inspection, the viewer realises that the text written on the poster is a parody of a business advert, using ridiculous catchphrases to interest and amuse. Beneath this are the tour dates, which are perhaps the only feature of a tour poster which they have used.

(DVD)

Unfortunately, We Are Scientists have not produced a DVD so I chose to analyse another Indie band's DVD - Keane.
What is instantly noticeable about this cover is the lack of colour; everything is in black and white besides a few font samples in which they have chosen to highlight in a beige colour. The photo featured on the front is one of the band on a quiet road(?) at night, walking away from their camera looking as disheartened and solemn as the colour scheme.
It's artsy, calm and serious, a binary opposite to We Are Scientists, which is perhaps a suggestion to their potential buyer that they should expect similar things from their music. The large white font against the black dead space at the top of the photo is attention grabbing and in a stern serif font.

Killswitch Engage - Starting Over
(MUSIC VIDEO) The video is based in a dark cityscape and is a perfect combination of both band performance and storyline.
We get several establishing shots of roads around the city which are alive with the blurring lights of fast moving cars which suggests this video will be completely sped up. However when we see the band, they're moving in normal time amongst the lights. The two characters of the storyline are moving in different time and speed also, however unlike the band, they aren't moving at a normal speed - they're in slow motion.
The characters begin by staring at each other in a way that is difficult to determine their relationship with each other. Soon, there is a moment where a gust of wind, possibly from the cars, blows them both back, briefly shocking them into normal speed before they regain eye contact and they slow down. From this point, the two have expressions of desperation as they reach and move towards each other, as if they have had a sudden realisation moment.
Eventually, the two manage to leap into the air at each other and, instead of colliding, they embrace each other and warm golden lights encircle them.
However, as the viewer feels there has been a sense of resolve, there is a zoom out from the girl's eye and we see she is still looking blankly at the boy in the street.

The slowness of the characters enforces the significance of the moment between these people as they have completely detached themselves from the world around them, their prolonged eye contact suggesting they are communicating with each other without words and seem to be thinking the same thing. The gust of wind is a reminder that there are still things going on around them and it appears to make them realise that they don't have much time to express how they feel, so they simultaneously begin to run towards each other. Leaping through the air, the viewer is concerned about them colliding and falling, however they hug and float in an ethereal way, lights coiling about them showing the love and warmth, and we begin to think that their love makes them powerful and capable of doing this.
Then, quite suddenly, we zoom out from the girl's eye and see she hadn't moved from the start, and the happiness from before drains as the video itself does when it fades to black. Perhaps it is symbolic of their relationship, that she believed they were special and exempt from everything else and that their love was magical, and yet she finds herself in the same place she started, as the song suggests, alone and lost.

(ADVERT)

The advert is dark as it is comprised mostly of quite desaturated colours. It features a roaring leopard, which is representative of strength, masculinity and a wild temperament, be that describing the band's persona or their music. On the topic of which, they do not feature their faces, which is a suggestion that their personalities are less important than their music, so they have chosen to have an graphic based advert to illustrate their sound.
The leopard could also be an animal representation of the vocalist, as it appears to be screaming in the same way he does; the leopard's beauty could be symbolic of the meanings and softly sang segments of their music.

(DVD)

The cover is not subtle in telling the viewer the genre of music it contains. The most prominent feature is the large golden skull emblazoned across the cover which spills onto the back as well. With the skull being a very classic symbol of death, its developed into being the representative icon for heavy metal music. The symbol is worn, chipped and metallic, perhaps a visual description of their sound.
Their band name is written in a mixture of silver worn typewriter font and fancy script, which is very much like their music; masculine and angry but at times soft and beautiful.

Britney Spears - Break the Ice
(MUSIC VIDEO)
This video by Britney Spears is very unique as it is completely in the style of Japanese cartoons. It is completely storyline based and features no performance excluding her character 'speaking' the lyrics at occasional points.
On the surface its an exciting action anime video, however it is completely symbolic of how Britney wants to represent herself with her new sound.
She is represented as anime as she wants to appear exotic and youthful as the cartoon, and she has chosen to be an action heroine to personify her strength through the hard times of her personal life.

She breaks into some sort of laboratory, in which she sees an innocent version of herself contained in a testing tube. She places a time bomb on it and she seduces and kills the man responsible, before diving out of the exploding building. This is symbolic of her being a changed woman, that she doesn't want people see her as an innocent little girl anymore. By seducing and killing the man in charge, she explains the woman she has become - a powerful and sexual woman whom we should respect.

(ADVERT)

As Britney's album is called 'Circus', she has appropriately decided to advertise it as though it really were a circus. It uses bright red and yellow colours to really capture the retro circus feel, flouting various colourful and exciting fonts. It could portray Britney as good entertainment and iconic as well as youthful and fun. There are no photographs of her however the idea that she is the headline of this fictional circus makes her seem more iconic. Perhaps it is a metaphor suggesting she is the 'leading act' of pop music.

(DVD)

The colours immediately noticeable as they are so light; representative of her youthfulness and femininity. On the cover, Britney is dressed in Elvis Presley's iconic clothing, however it is more sexually provocative . This is symbolic of her being the Queen of pop in the same way Elvis was the King of Rock n Roll. It also suggests shes more hip and attractive, making her an appealing female role model.

Summer homework - analysis

This poster is advertising a tour for the electro-pop act La Roux. La Roux’s image is very fashion dominated and she takes her style quite seriously. The image is a close up of the artist with quite forceful look on her face. As the face and eyes are so big on the picture it really grabs your attention and draws you to look at it. The colours have been adjusted on a programme like Photoshop to make them more unique and eletro-like. I aim to use Photoshop also to make my pictures seem professional.

The text ‘La Roux’ is written in the artist’s style that she always uses, the font is very futuristic which suits the theme of the poster. It is important to match text to images to keep a brand image looking clean and professional. The smaller information is also in this font and supports the main colour of green.

Summer Homework - analysis

This is a promotional poster for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour.

This poster is quite minimalist for Lady Gaga’a usual approach to images. The main focus of the poster is the artist in a futuristic looking contraption. The shiny silver frame is very fitting to Gaga’s wacky style of fashion and music. The use of dark glasses also adds to the strange vibe given from the poster. The surrounding people don’t seem to have any relevance as they are just standing around drinking. The alcohol involved however could be suggesting a way of life that many of her fans take up which would appeal to them subliminally.

The background of the poster is jet black resembling a night sky and also acts as a good backdrop for the text. The text is very garish and in your face. The font is a sans serif type and is brilliant white. The name of the tour and the name of the artist are clearly the most important information on the poster therefore have been shown in a larger and bolder font. This is an element that I wish to include to show the importance of the act.