Copyright gaining permission

Gaining permission. 

In this post i will be showing me and my team gaining permission from an artist to use her song. This was our very first song choice and here is the email we sent. This song is "Sucks to be you" by Emma Blackery

Unfortunately We never got an email back from the artist as we expected so we had to change our song choice which wouldn't require permission to use. This is due to the fact Youtube are not as  strict with this song's copyright as they are not pulling down content from other people other than Vevo. Therefore this means we are free to use the song of our choice without any repercussions. This second song choice is "Cool Kids" by Echosmith.

We knew we could feel free to use this due to the copies uploaded on youtube that had not been taken down we thought that we got the permission well. 

Choosing of the track

In this blog I am going to be discussing the process of choosing our track for our music video.

In my group of me Sarah and Louis we had a few ideas on what type of thing we wanted to do. Sarah had the idea of rock and guitars but me and Louis wanted to do pop. We all decided in the end that pop would be the best idea to make it realistic.

When deciding what track to use we decided we wanted to do a narrative music video so due to this we knew we needed a track in which we could make a realistic story line to, we needed a simple plot in which we could film so it didn't look ridiculous so we thought through a few tracks, when thinking through these tracks we took into consideration not doing a famous artist, the main reason to this is copy right but the bigger reason is we didn't want our music video to look ridiculous and more like a parody rather than a narrative.

We then looked at past music videos in which past media students have produced to go by what kind of music and actions they was going with. We then went online to look up some songs recommended to us on you tube when we came across 'Cool Kids' by Echosmith, We thought the plot would be good to do and have based in a school and chose who would be playing as what roughly, we then extended to what props and costumes would consist in our music video and hair and make up. We was all happy with the track chosen and looked at the music video and see how dull it was and how our ideas for the music video was completely different.  Below is the original music video to the song cool kids.

Model Of The Media

The model of the media is a flow chart that analyses how media institutions produce their media products. This then goes onto how these products get to the audience and lastly the audience paying for these products to these institutions, this then makes a cycle repeating.

The model of the media is mostly used by institutions so that they can work out different strategies that they could use. Below is a picture of the model of the media in which i created.

The institute has to produce and distribute their product. Institutes are  companies in the media for example as listed above BBC, Netflix, The Big 6, and News companies. It is basically any company that manages to reach out to the public using media text.

The media text is the product made, this can be through TV, Film or video games. These texts can portray all different types of messages to the audience.


Finally the audience is the people who buy and use these media texts, this is normally for entertainment and can use different resources to view them such as game consoles, Netflix or Movies. The audience are the ones who pay for the service and products which is a financial transaction this then gathers the institution to make more money so they can carry on the cycle to make more media texts.

Digipak and Magazine Advert research

In our lessons we have learned about features that are meant to be inside a digipak and magazine advert for a artist.


Features of a Digipak include;

- Barcode
- Spines
- 6 panels of images in the correct order
- Name of album and artist
- List of songs

We then was provided with a layout of of a digipak so that we was more acknowledged on where to place our 6 panels.

The features in which we came up with for our magazine are;

- Website
- Name of album and artist
- Similarity between advert and album
- Itunes
- Distribution method
- Different fonts and effects.

Case Study Alex Southam

Alex southam is a British music video producer who is also currently considered one of the biggest which is interesting due to the fact Southam originally wanted to be a lawyer. Once he set his path for the music industry he taught him self all the camera, lighting and editing skills and techniques in which he needed to know. Sotuham had an amazing opportunity to work with Aglie films which gave him more skills and experience in making low budget music videos. Currently Southam does freelance work with OB management.



' Alt J- Tesselate' was Southams first big hit video which was successfully filmed in one day which he then spent time on the next few days to edit and add effects with premier pro which was successfully produced with the budget of just £10,000 which was a rather small budget. Southam went on to to work with with a variety of people and make bigger and even more successful music videos. One which is ' Cruel - Snakeships FT Zayn Malik'  which is by no doubt Southam's biggest hit of success at this current time, due to how popular the song was.  

                                                                   Alt- J Tessellate 

Snakehips - Cruel FT Zayn 

  

A Case Study Of Emil Nava

Emil Nava began his carer as a runner for film production companies, he then expanded into working for Blink productions. Nava now works in OB Management as a freelance, OB Management work as agents for music video directors who go on to describe themselves as " Three straight up dudes who work out of Denmark street London". The company has their aims which is too: nurture talent, work with production companies, work with record labels and finally match the right director to the right artists. He is now signed to Academy as a director.

Below are some music videos that Nava has directed.

In the music video Lego House by Ed Sheeran Emily Nava directed this music vdeo with the cost of £25,000. It looks very low budgeted. Nava was smart in the way he produced this music video due to the fact that the lyrics to this song are so sweet and expressing love however in the music video its his stalker. 

Price Tag by Jessie J is one of Navas most popular music videos in which he directed. In this music video there is money trees and big teddy bares in which is torn, with Jessie J being so free with references of toys like puppet rag dolls and doll boxes and a tricycle from back when Jessie was young and what she used to play with and not worry about money unlike today's generation . 

Nava also directed RIP by Rita Ora which the video overall looks like it has a higher budget and is targeted at a older target audience as Rita Ora is wearing red lipstick and looking rather sexy with cars in the music video. 

Case Study Jamie Thraves

In this blog I am going to be doing a case study on Jamie Thraves. Jamie Thraves is now a Director who produced short films at university to begin with. Jamie Thraves first started shooting music videos with very low budgets which was startign at £5,000 each video produced so he was very restricted with what he could produce, however he always successfully made it work. Below is a more recent picture of Jamie Thraves who is now 43 years old.

Jamie used award winning short films to get in with a video production company called ' Factory Films' this really helped him start his career. In the directing world the process is a commissioner from a record label sends a track to roughly 5-10 directors which then the Directors go on to send their treatments in which is then selected by the commissioner from who's is best. It is then commissioned to produce the music video. Jamie sent in treatments for his two best video's and luckily both was accepted which was a massive achievement for Jamie.

Jamie Thraves had Directed a variety of music videos such as;

Radio Head - Just 

Jamie had the budget of £100,000 which he successfully shot in three days this was one of the first big music videos that Jamie directed. Which he then went on to make some great music videos stated below. 

James Arthur - Money On My Mind 

Jake bugg - Two Fingers. 

Now Jamie's budgets for producing music videos tend to be around £20,000 a video and takes him around 2 days shooting. He used the advantage of his music videos to get him into the film business where he has now so far filmed three features which is, The Low Down, The Cry Of the Owl and treacle Jr. When gaining advice for music videos Jamie suggests using the lyrics but not going in to literal and in debt he suggests going with the emotions of the lyrics which he states is most important. 

Sexism in pop videos

In this blog I am going to be discussing sexism in music videos mainly being targeted at women.

Laura Mulvey's theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity, regulating them to the status of the objects they are seen as due to their physical appearance being admired. Due to this image of women in the media it leads women to see themselves in a secondary perspective being a male perspective. In a lot of television and film the women only exists in relation the the male and is dependent on the male character.

Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball 


Laura believed that producers create every womens unique selling point as she warned Miley when she released this music video where she is naked. However I dont believe this was the producers idea due to the fact that Miley was signed to Disney as an actress for many years where producers gave her the innocence for her unique selling point making her the perfect role model, when Miley finally came out this contract She explained she is not her character who she was on Disney and the fact that Disney made her and gave her this unique selling point which was not who she was or wanted to be at all so Miley become this way on her own as she made a big deal out of the fact she wanted to express who she was and now she finally can. Due to this style Disney created her with when she finally started expressing herself and her individuality she changed her style with make up, clothes and cut all her hair off and became a massive feminist as people went on to believe that she had lost her mind and needed rehab as they was so used to seeing her in this innocent light with her acting career, So when this was released it was seen in a very negative sexual light. Unlike other women who have filmed naked music videos which have been seen with respect this was blown out of proportion.

Blurred lines by Robin Thicke is a very sexist music video showing so many references of women in a negative light giving away the message at how its impossible for a lady not to be interested in him. A lot of people say that the lyrics to this music video even reference rape. There is lots of naked girls all over him in the music video showing how women are only seen as sexual objects for men and nothing else that cant say no.

Lily Allen Hard Out Here 

In this music video Lily Allen shows all stereotypical stuff women go through within the media and how they are represented in comparison to men, even though she carry's on this stereo type in the end by dancing revealing  however her message shows why can men do it but women do the same things and get labelled for it and how women have to keep themselves with a good representation but men can do whatever they want which is a really good representation to portray in a music video as she is showing that you should be yourself regardless of your gender.

Micheal Jackson Case Study

Michael Jackson was one of the first artists to make a big music video in which made music videos seen by the world as a form of art. In this blog I am going to be disguising some of his best work when it comes to his music videos and why they are seen in such a excellent light.

Thriller 

This was the most popular of all Michael Jacksons music videos. This was considered a short film as it was 13 minutes long and had a massive impact on Michael's  carrer this was even shown in cinemas as well as CD's . This was when Michael was at his most popular as his name was seen very positively and was portrayed as a massive role model for teens and his fan base was massive. The making of this music video made millions. This video showed wolfs and was a very successful thriller the budget to this music video was one of the most highest budget spent on a music video to this day, and the sales was massive. They even produced another video in cinemas which was the making of this music video due to how much of a massive hit it truly was. After this music videos carried on becoming a bigger and bigger thing in the media.

Black or White 

Micheal made a music video to his song Black or white which hit millions of views due to the fact Michael's appearance had changed drastically due to his drastic surgery people suspected that due to Michael changing his skin colour to white he was abounding his nationality and where he came from where he should have embraced it when Michael released this song fans loved it as it was embracing many different races and nationalities and shows Michael agreeing with equality. However others would say Michael was contradicting himself due to the fact that he had changed his skin colour so people expressed mixed opinions on this music video however due to the massive lime light based on the surgery and the skin colour this music video has massive views and earned million due to it being the first music video produced since the change that Michael had.

Michael then had terrible publicity as he had rumoars circling him that he was a child molester, the surgery changes to Michael and these roamers was circling him in such a negative light this is also when people started stating he was a drug addict who was addicted to having surgery and everyone turned on him and his talent.

Audiences - Reception Theory

Audience reception theory is based on how different media texts use different characteristics and interpretations to get different responses from  from an audience. The audience become influenced from these texts. These media texts can involve music, music videos, film, TV, magazines and adverts 


Encoding/decoding theory
Here is a model of this theory:





Looking at this model we can clearly state that producers put messages in a media text for the audience to be able to see and pick up on it. These messages can be from a number of things such as writing, visuals, talking, body language, and intertextual references. In the context of the reception theory we are looking for a message that are secondary and hidden behind the main text. Due to this the main method in which producers will use is body language as one main action or position and could be addressed in different ways depending on artists age, race , religion etc..

When a audience reads these messages they will have a different reaction. 

- Preferred reading - this is when the audience agree with the producers encoded message for example people who like eating meat will agree with advertisement on meat products and products with meat chemicals in.

- Negotiated reading - This is when the audience partially agrees with a message to an extent such as healthy eating this means that these people would agree with advertisement of meat products but not those with preservatives and chemicals inside.

- Oppositional reading - This is when an audience disagrees with the message for example vegetarians and vegans would would disagree with meat products and take away food.

Encoding/ decoding in music videos. 

Managers of music artists will encode messages within a music video will give further meanings to fans and this can potentially give in more money.

The artists target audience mainly being fans would be preferred readers due to the fact they would support the artists and due to this they will also support the message that are connected to the negotiated readers which would be the secondary target audience due to them partially agreeing with the music video. Finally the parents or people who dislike the music video would be the oppositional readers who would also have negative opinions on the music video.

An example where the artist uses body language to give a message would be Ariana Grande FT Nicki Minaj - Side To Side.

A preferred reader would see Arianas's body language as flirtatious and sexy but playful at the same time. This is considered a good thing due to her not being over sexualised and her actions definitely match the meaning to the lyrics, due to the music video been presented with much loess sexual looking's comparison to the lyrics. 

A negotiated reader would also see Arianas actions in this light however they could disagree with how revealing the girls are and the second audience are potentially a lot younger this could also be due to the fact Ariana is an ex Nickelodeon star and it could be seen as over sexualising so it may not appeal to them. 

Oppositional readers would look into the body language, costumes and even hair and make up and see it all as Ariana being over sexualised and being objectified and see this image to younger girls as false showing them being revealing with make up and hair being flawless showing a false representation of girls. 

I personally would be a preferred reader as i agree with all the messages it is showing and feel she isn't being over sexualised however she is trying to portray herself in an older light away from her Nickelodeon  target audience. I agree with her make up being a little too much but I would also state I don't see a problem with that. I don't think this gives a false representation to younger girls as its not giving that message and its not really appealing to that audience anyway. 

Short variety and pace (Foo Fighters Animatic)

Foofighters anamatic

In this blog I have put together a storyboard formed into a anamatic of Foo fighters to show how a music video is put together and how quick cuts can be. I did this video so i could have a rough idea on how to construct a music video.This video was a great example on how quick shots are formed in the average music video. Through this video we then created an anamatic and gained the skills by editing within premier pro with editing to the beat.

Editing to the beat

In this lesson I learned how to edit to the  beat the purpose of doing this was to learn new methods such as overlapping on editing and knowing how to edit to the beat. This also got us back on track with premier pro due to the fact that we was away for 6 weeks for summer.

Below is the video of editing to the beat in which i did.

Star theory - Richard Dyer

In this blog I am going to be discussing a man named Richard Dyer and his theory with stars as constructions.

Richard Dyer believes artists are constructed through the media formats such as, Films, Magazines and Music. They are shown as looking perfect and well groomed however, he believes fans and people interested in the stars prefer artists to be portrayed with real emotions and how they naturally are rather than being set up with fake personalities and looks that record labels produce them with to try earning more targeting certain groups. Dyer goes on to explain how real artists can use this as their unique selling point due to them being real rather than what record labels want them to be like.


Richard Dyer believes the reason  stars are manufactured is down to making money for their record labels as stated above, Record labels have to market different artists in which cater for a variety of target groups to suit a larger sum of people so that they earn more money, If a record label was to sign only acts with similar taste they wouldn't meet the sum of larger people and due to this be loosing money so they want to have a variety of different styles on their labels so that they can reach more people and earn more money.

Dyer also believes that artists also become trendsetters through hair, make up and clothing style. Artists also pick up fans from artists by them sharing similar religious and cultural views and also on stories happening in personal life in which people feel they can relate too which producers can earn money off by producing synergy with their artists and a good cause where half the earnings go to them or even more than so. 

Due to this Artists never express themselves but rather who they have been made to be. And this is why a lot of Artists loose who they are and have a hards time trying to find themselves as they have been pretending to be someone else for so long.