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.

Summer Homework - analysis

This is the DVD cover for Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Sweet’ live concert. The cover is in keeping with Madonna’s modern image rather than her older brand image.

The colour scheme is mainly black and features accents of pink and red which shows the dark yet the feminine side of her style. Sticking to around two main colours helps the cover stay simplistic and not too in the viewers face.

The image on the front of the artist is clearly a still from the live performance which is a good insight to what the buyer will be getting from the product. The image also shows Madonna in action rather than a posed picture from a photo shoot. For my DVD cover I will be using a purpose shot image as a snapshot from the video will not be good enough quality and I aim for it to be professional quality.

The text is bubble like and fits the pop/dance music genre. It also resembles a neon light sign and appears flashing this again fits Madonna’s genre and her style. The smaller image on the cover and on the back is a snapshot of her album which has been used as a promotional technique. The spine of the cover is simple and features the name of the artist and the tour. This is something I will take inspiration from as I wish my spine to be minimalist in this way.
The track listing on the back is left aligned and in the same font as the spine, this is a way keeps a theme throughout however is not as stylish as the front cover. Barcodes and logos also feature which make the cover look finished and complete.

Summer Homework - analysis

This cover is for David Bowies ‘Serious Moonlight’ DVD. It is quite unusual looking which is why I chose to study it.

The text on the cover is simple and quite subtle, which doesn’t distract away from the main focus of the cover. The text on the back is very different; it is tiny and appears quite cluttered. This to me looks unprofessional and is something I will try to stay away from when making my cover. The text on the back is also hard to read as it is red on a black background. It curves around the image of Bowie which is a good quality of the back pane and leaves the image clear to see. A snapshot of this image is shown on the spine of the DVD which I think is a good finishing touch and keeps a theme going.

The front image is a picture of the artist however it appears to be a painting. This could perhaps appeal to an older audience as it looks quite an old fashioned painting. The style of the image and colouring however match the 80’s like style the artist has and would look out of place used for any other artist. This is a way of keeping his brand image up. The image on the back also shows this as he is holding a skull and wearing dark glasses. This is very odd and maybe something that would only appeal to the fans of Bowie’s music.

The barcode is in a strange place for a DVD and is usually placed at the bottom. This could be seen as either quirky and stylish or just unprofessional. I am to keep my DVD cover simple and fitting to the conventions of music DVD’s.

Summer homework - analysis

‘California Gurls’ by Katy Perry and Snoop Dog was very popular and widely talked about soon after its release. I believe the song owes its success partly to the video as for me the song without the visual aid of the video doesn’t have as much impact.

The story of the video is based around a fictional board game called ‘Candyfornia’ which Katy Perry and other girls are actually living in as pieces of the game. Snoop dog is out of the game controlling them which has a negative connotation of the men being more powerful than women idea.

The entire set and costumes are made from sweets and cakes, these were made by artist Will Cotton who’s work initially inspired the video. This massively appeals to the teenage girl demographic with the colours being mainly pink and shiny. The revealing outfits worn by the girls in the video will appeal to a male demographic and have the sex appeal most female pop stars include in their videos. The whole video is so bright and eye-catching, it also is crammed full of tiny sweets and creatures which the viewer will have to watch several times to catch everything. I plan to make my video quite fast paced and full to achieve this effect.

The special effects include digitally enhanced sweets coming to life for example walking gummy bears dance around with Katy Perry. This candy land theme gives the video a fun factor and is an idea that has not been done before. A green screen has also been used to super impose Katy and her friends dancing against a bright blue sky with candyfloss clouds. We used a similar effect in our preliminary task however will probably not feature in my final product as it will not fit the genre.

Summer homework - analysis

I have chosen to analyse the video for 30 Seconds to Mars’s ‘Kings and Queens’ as it is quite different to the standard music video. The music video is actually 8:50 minutes and acts as a mini promotional film for the track. The style of the opening minute of the video resembles the opening of a movie, introducing the director Bartholomew Cubbins, the record company and the title of the film ‘The Ride’. This is an unusual way to show a music video, and is the type of thing to be sent round in emails through friends. This is a great way of promoting the video and will get it recognised by millions of people. The video also ends in the same way with credits and cast listings.

The colouring of the video is quite dark and warm, for example scenes of sunsets are featured throughout the performance and the narrative. The sunset effect makes silhouettes of the band which I find mysterious and interesting to watch as will other viewers. This fits the rock genre of the song and their music in general. The entire video is from sunset onwards therefore most of the video is set at night with the lights of the city showing. I love this effect and if possible will include shots of the city at night in my music video product.

The actual storyline of the video is unclear. The video is essentially a bike ride hence the title ‘The Ride’. What looks like thousands of bike riders are being filmed riding through a city. Each bike rider is in a different costume, some are in fancy dress which confuses the viewer and keeps them watching in case this ‘ride’ ends up somewhere. It makes you want to know where the bikes are going which has been thought about by the director. The number of people on bikes to me, accompanied by the music is very powerful and emotive to watch.

There is also a cultural reference involved which I noticed perhaps the 3rd or 4th time I watched it. In the middle of the video a man is shown throwing a vase of flowers, which is representing a piece of graffiti art by ‘Banksy’. This is quite stylish and shows the video is modern, a characteristic which I hope to achieve in my product. I am not sure the reason behind this or if there or more references throughout the video but I think it is clever the way it has been done and makes the video even more mysterious to work out.

Camera angles in the film vary with many close-ups on the singer despite the scene being almost in total darkness. As the bikes are moving there is a lot of camera movement in the video and high angle shots to show the crowds of bikes.

Summer Homework - Analysis

Take That – The Circus Live
This is the cover for the DVD version of Take That’s latest live concert ‘The Circus’. True to the title of the tour the cover has an overall circus-like theme.
The background stretches over all 3 panes and is a simple picture of a bright blue sky. This gives a blank canvas to add text such as track listings and logos. The brightness of the sky seems digitally enhanced to make the colour more vibrant and fitting to the colourful theme. Balloons are also a main feature of the picture that appear also on all 3 panes in a variety of bright primary colours which are very eye-catching. I like how the balloon clusters on the back pane of the DVD are more subtle yet keep an ongoing theme to the disk as a whole.
Unlike many other pop band adverts and DVD covers, the band themselves are not the main focus. Other circus related objects are featured on the cover like a hot air balloon and an elephant. These objects will appeal to fans of Take That as they are recognisable from their live shows.
The text on the front of the cover is white to stand out from the rich blue background. The text is thin and subtle to keep the older sophisticated side of Take That, that they are trying to maintain. The title and band name are divided by a crisp white line, also keeping the clean appearance. The text has flourishes so it is a serif font. The font is quite traditional and plain making it clear and easy to read rather than a more abstract modern font used by many pop bands. The track listings on the back pane are centred giving a stylish look and leaving the rest of the space to contain the sky and balloons.
The spine of the cover is very basic, which is effective in making the whole disk flow as one picture. The text on the front cover is repeated to keep an ongoing theme. Subtle logos such as the band’s record label are also featured on the spine; I think this looks better than them cluttering up the back pane of the disk.




Adverts for Take That’s album ‘The Circus’ were featured in magazines and on billboards as an enlarged cover of the actual CD. An advantage of this is that anyone who had seen this advert would instantly recognise the album in a shop.
Very much like the DVD cover for Take That, the CD advert keeps the bright blue sky as the background. The band however, is the main focus on the picture wearing coordinated blue outfits. These match the colour scheme of the whole advertising campaign and make the band look connected. The fact they are in casual matching clothes keeps their band identity alive. The content of the advert is unusual, therefore attention grabbing, and not something a conventional ‘boy band’ would usually go for. The advert shows each member walking on a tightrope all in similar poses. This obviously fits in well with the ‘circus theme’ that the band has created for itself and contributes to the brand image. Another example of repeating brand image is the title and band name. This appears on the CD and also the DVD. When making my adverts and covers, brand image will be very important and the band logo will feature throughout.

Take That – Up All Night
I have chosen to analyse this video from Take that to round off my research into the band. The main video does not appear to have a storyline as such, the main idea of the video is showing a street party in a working class estate. The time period seems not completely modern and would offer a sense of nostalgia to viewers who used to be involved in street parties in the 70’s etc. This is a good move by the director as the band has fans from all different age groups. The video opens with a close up of a hand written sign saying ‘road closed’ which looks quite child-like and shows that this video isn’t going to be the usual hi-tech video produced from a pop boy band. This is followed by a pan up shot which turns into a really effective establishing shot which sets the scene for the next three minutes. Throughout the video many different types of people are shown from babies to old women. The sheer variety of ages, heights and ethnicities in the video is a key factor to this video appealing to a range of demographics. The way the street residents are shown on screen dancing and laughing is very realistic and very good at making you think that this is an actual street party and that these people are not actors being filmed for a music video.
The bands is positioned on a lorry and are dressed in scruffy clothes which supports the ‘rugged’ image that the band are trying to achieve. The clothes also suggest that the band are part of the street and are no better or different to the rest of the crowd. Viewers would feel comforted by this when watching. The performance is dispersed well and the ratio of band to narrative is balanced. The feel of the performance is happy and lively which encourages people to get involved.
There are a lot of different camera angles in the video and the scenes switch quickly making the video fast paced to match the tempo of the song. Many of the shots of the party are right in between the crowds of people which make you as a viewer feel like you are there dancing with the residents. Close ups of pianos being played by fingerless gloved hands are nice inserts to keep the scruffy image running. There is also a lot of camera movement in the entire video cutting from aerial shots to tracking shots, this adds to the fast paced vibe.

Music Video Director Research

For the music video director task we have studied just one director as we feel this is the director whom relates to our genre of video the most.

Jonas Akerlund

· Jonas Akerlund is a Swedish music video and film director. He has worked with the likes of Madonna and Lady Gaga, whom relate to our video as they both share the fact that they are very outrageous for that particular time.
· Akerlund is best known for his stylish music videos, which again will reflect our ideas as we are planning to use and film in a modern city and where bright lights and glass is used a lot. We are planning to use reflection and glass a lot in our video as this shows a new/ futuristic style of media and we are planning to make our video look as new and upcoming as possible.
· Most recently he directed Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ featuring Beyoncé’s song. The video included many outrageous ideas, yet as his genre of music videos is modern and futuristic – these ideas worked for this artist. The Mise-en-scene within the video was seen as being ‘loud’ and ‘out there’ which we hope to portray in our video particularly through the performance side to the video.

Initial Ideas

This is our initial ideas mind map, giving a rough outline of what were our first thoughts and how he video will hopefully turn out.

Diary entry

Week 1
The first week of doing the music video project was the week we learnt about who was in our group and decided what type of song we would like to have. We started thinking about what genre of music we wanted for our music video, and in the end we came to the choice of ‘colourless colour’ by La Roux – a electro pop style song that allows us to put our own creative stamp on it. The next thing we decided on was on a name – and instead of choosing a song to fit our name we chose a name that fitted in with the genre of the song – the name we decided on was ‘Kitsch’, meaning original style – thus allowing us to create a style for our band and group.

List of Roles

Main Characters
Girl – Chelsea Lindsay
Boy – Sam Heslop

Band Members
Singer – Katy Jobling
Synth Player – Alexandra Hennessey
Drum Player – Rebecca Houghton

Extras
Katy Jobling
Stephanie Thompson -------> Friends that appear throughout?
Benjamin Hennessey


Reliable people that will help make a professional looking music video.

Crew
Camera Operator - Katy Jobling/Alexandra Hennessey/Chelsea Lindsay(instrumental?)
Director - All share the role of main director = each show individual qualities.

Media Pitch - Powerpoint

Media pitch

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Mood Board

As part of the planning of our video we decided it would be helpful to create a mood board. To do this I looked over our storyboards and started to gather images that could represent different aspects of make up, props etc.



- Colour accenting - is a key part of our video, we plan to feature this effect in scenes where the male lets down the female character. I have shown this through colour accent on the chairs of a cafe and also of city buildings, two main settings for our storyline.

- Relationships - The storyline contains a relationship that appears happy on the surface. I have portrayed this through public displays of affection e.g. holding hands.



- Colour - Colour is very important throughout our music video. Colour will come from our make up in the performance, bright and eye catching. Also in the performance we plan to shoot the band with coloured lights flashing around the set to add to the electo-pop vibe and keep interesting colour present at all times. Colour will also come from the Millenium Bridge on the River Tyne, this setting is very modern and stylish, we aim to shoot it at night to really capture the effect of the lights along the Quayside.

- Concept of time - Over time, the relationship in our video changes, so to show this visually we plan to feature watches, clocks, and calendars in certain scenes.

- Fashion - Fashion is highly important as it features in the lyrics and fits the genre of our band image. For the performance shoot we are going to go all out with our costume and hair as our band is known for making a statement and living up to its name 'Kitsch'!

- Instruments - As you can see, I have featured modern, electric musical instruments such as electric drums and a synth. We could not use the common instruments used in other genres of music like guitars as our song is very true to the electro genre and ordinary instruments would look out of place.

Mise - en - scene plan/ Planning timetable

This is our original plan of mise - en - scene for the video and also what we changed after feedback.

Narrative Theory Work

Tzveten Todorov
Tzveten Todorov has a theory that every music video fits into a general narrative. This is his theory:


The Story Starts at equilibrium, then,

Confusion and event occur, and finally,

Problems are resolved and restored


This fits in well with our music video as at the start we are shown a perfect relationship on the surface that at the heart is corrupt. Bad events happen throughout the middle of the song such as her long term boyfriend standing her up and laughing at her. He also proposes in front of their friends and almost forces her to say yes! By the end, the girl realises that she wants better than this and she leaves he ring and walks out of the door, therefore all is resolved and her happiness is restored.




Claude Levi - Strauss

Another Theory is by Claude Levi – Strauss. His theory is that all videos are generated by binary opposites such as big and small, good and evil and past and present. For instance in our video we have a very key and important inary opposite being greyscale and colour – which is quite obviously linked to both the song name and the narrative itself.
Other binary opposites that occur within our music video are:
• Happy – Sad.
• Boy – Girl.
• Apart – Together.
• Love – No love.
• Colour – Greyscale.

Colour accent test

Before shooting footage for our music video we thought it would be a good idea to test out the colour accent tool on Adobe Premiere. We shot Lexie wearing a bright pink top and picked out the colour. As you can see the shadows on her top prevented the effect from fully working, we will have to make sure the colour is clear and bright when shooting our actual footage.

Looking at videos of a similar genre I found this video - 'Why Don't You' , by Gramophonedzie. The video uses the contrast of colour and greyscale in the opposite way to which we plan however, the group can still use this as inspiration.

Brand Image Research

Meatloaf’s brand image features a lot of fire and ‘hot’ imagery for instance red backgrounds which could represent hell, blood or death. This imagery portrays that he as an artist has a dangerous sound. Danger is also shown through objects such as, motorbikes and dragons – this also brings in the mythological theme that also runs throughout with the various creatures and the use of ‘hell’ which can be seen as quite a religious type thing. The general colour scheme is dark and dingy: the main colours being red and black, however the colour used gives a bold sense and makes a statement. The theme of the brand image is quite gothic and mystical which gives a medieval vibe, especially seen through the font which features on all areas of Meatloaf’s brand image and advertising. There is a vintage appearance to the brand image as one of the posters resembles an old horror movie – where a lady dressed in red (a symbol of blood) is against a wall with a fearful expression, also we see a piece of the wall damaged again showing the mystical and mythological theme as it is suggesting that there was a dangerous creature of some sort there at some point.

Brand Image - Hot Chip

Hot chip are an English electropop band who have released four albums to date. They are a five-man band, made up of vocalist Alexis Taylor, backing vocals Joe Goddard, and Owen Clarke, Al Doyle and Felix Martin on synths, drum machines and steel pans.
The members are memorable due to their 'geeky look', Alexis usually wearing eccentrically large glasses; some people may describe them as 'hipsters'. They enforce vibrant colour schemes in their videos as well as their album covers and even their clothing (see images).

Above is the album cover for their second album, The Warning. It's very contemporary vector art, made up of bright primary/secondary colours that overall gives a very simplistic look. The shapes are very abstract, to the point where I'm not comprehending what they are - note holders? Or perhaps they're rulers? Or maybe they aren't supposed to be anything. One could say it is as unusual and unique as the music itself?

To the left is a poster for their UK tour. As you can see, its in the same contemporary vector art style as what appears on their album cover.
Not dissimilar to the album either, their colour scheme is very limited, keeping to six basic colours only.
There are some familiar patterns that appear on the poster, such as black and white stripes, keyboard, and even the colours chosen for the colour scheme. These are common themes that are associated with electropop music and 80's/90's graphic design.
As expected of this genre, the poster itself is more orientated around the visual aspect rather than its practicality to be informative to the viewer. Perhaps it is more of a teaser poster, however it is still rather simplistic even for that, as we should probably at least be informed of a website or fanpage in which to learn more about the tour. However, it still does the job of catching the viewer's attention with its vibrant colours and exciting composition.

Overall, Hot Chip would rather hint at their music genre in their publications rather than themselves; they'd rather make their sound iconic rather than who they are as people. Their 'hipster' appearence only enforces this more; wearing cheap kitsch clothing suggests they don't care for expensive designer labels. Not shaving their beards and wearing quite dated sweaters almost tells us directly that they aren't the ones we should be fixated with.
We should expect some quite obscure and seemingly unrelated themes appearing in their visual displays - why in the photo below is Alexis holding a banana as confetti rains down across the band? What on earth are those shapes on the album cover supposed to represent? And why do their band photos always look unplanned and accidental? We'll never know, and perhaps they don't know themselves, but to be noticed in the electropop genre you need to be eccentric and unpredictable.

Diary entry

Week 2
In the second week we pitched to the teachers about our song and why we should and can do justice to the song with our ideas. After this, with our already annotated lyrics, we sat down and started to expand on our basic ideas that we pitched, this lead on to us really thinking how colour can be used in the video and even started thinking about props and accessories that could be used in the video. We started doing colour tests, because we needed to see which colours would work best, coming to the conclusion that colours such as blue, red and yellow (the primary colours) worked best against other colour and when trying to change everything else to greyscale.

Band Logo

This was the first draft of the logo, which was created with second-hand images originally.
I was aiming to present a few graphics and colours associated with 'kitsch' in one eye-catching and memorable logo (pink hair bow, smiley face etc). I also added a rainbow splatter effect behind the face to add a little more vibrancy. However, I feel like the end vibe was that of a techno or rave band rather than our electropop band, so we needed to tone it down somewhat.

To solve the problem, I took a step back and revisited other existing band logos again. I realised the problem with my logo was that it was perhaps a little too complicated and loud, whereas existing logos are relatively simple and have a very small range in regards to the colour scheme.

So I went onto Photoshop and used a graphics tablet to produce original logos from scratch. I followed my research and kept the graphics simple and memorable. I still felt like bold primary/secondary colours should be the part of the colour scheme as it reflects the 80s/electro/kitsch look we are aiming for as a band.
I thought a hot pink heart should be prominent in all three designs, as it represents us as a girl band aswell as having a kitschy feel and having a love themed song.
The first design was influenced by a peace symbol for a retro hippy-chic look. Instead of the lines expected in a peace symbol, I drew in a white 'K' to represent our band name. I like how it is in a simple, two-colour colour scheme and looks more symbolic rather than like a cluttered graphic.
My ideas for the second design were a shadow of our initial logo idea. I thought that perhaps a simpler graphic would reduce any 'rave' or 'techno' connotations. I think this is true, however it still isn't quite representational enough. I do really like the clashing of the pink and yellow, and the varying line thickness for the black worked well in my opinion. The imperfectness of it is a nice effect too, as I think it seems a little more like a girly doodle.
Finally, I thought that a heart within a comic book-esque speech bubble would be a good reflection on the theme of our songs (love). The exclamation mark represents that we are confident and perhaps full of 'girl power'. I'm not sure that the genre of music is clear from the logo; it definitley looks like it could reflect electro, but it perhaps someone could read is as emo music or something completley different.
In the end, we decided we were most fond of the above design. It's memorable, simplistic and perhaps offers more advertising/graphic oppurtunities (eg. We could use the logo to be the 'K' in Kitsch and write the rest of the word in regular font etc) It is also a bit more iconic as a logo, which is a good thing in regards to branding and advertising.