Friday 28 October 2016

Podcast 3



  • Creating Social Media accounts
  • Merchandise
  • Halseys records companies (artist study)
  • Website Analysis 

Audience Interaction

To interact with my audience I will be creating a Facebook questionnaire where I will be explaining the narrative of the music video and then ask them what ending should I use with provided answers such as:

The story is about a girl waking up in the park having amnesia, she tries to remember and gets flashbacks of her being in different places, the first flashback she gets is her talking to someone wearing a black mask. The girl then tries to recreate her flashbacks to get her memory back, she ends up being in the forest and finds a hidden treasure chest, when she opens it, she will..

  • Final Flashback - the person who was wearing a mask before turns up to be the girl herself
  • It was just a dream and the girl wakes up in her bedroom.
  • The story ends when the girl opens the treasure chest 

Thursday 27 October 2016

Website Analysis

iamhalsey.com

Halseys official website page. 


 On the top right you can see hyperlinked social media logos; Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, followed up by her online shop and iTunes, Google play, Spotify and Soundcloud.


On the menu bar we can see a link to her bio, her music videos, songs, merchandise, tour and mailing list.

First thing we get to see as we enter her website is her album cover with her name on it. We then have to scroll down to see other information. Followed by pictures from her Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram,etc. including some annotations. 

Background
Her website background is plain black color apart from the image from her album on the top in the beginning. 

In her Bio page is only has 

Record Label
On the bottom of her website page we can see her record company in a white, large font. Which makes it stand out more that all the menu bars and other labels on the page.




Wednesday 26 October 2016

Artist Study

Halsey is assigned to two record labels Astralwerks and Capitol Records. Astralwerks is a US record label which primarily focuses on electronic and dance music. Its material distributed via Capitol Music group, also releases materials mostly from EMI Music Australia.
Most popular recent releases have been from deatmau5, Mat Zo, Empire of the Sun and Halsey.

Capitol Records is also an American record label. Capitol Music Group is also a parent company for Capitol Records. They were responsible for modification of albums for American release, bands which they got to work with were The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, etc.




Although she is mostly known in US and UK, she is trying to aim world wide. For example she filmed her music video for the song "Ghost" in Japan and she had some Japanese writing, a girl who was the central protagonist and she also was narrating music video in the beginning in Japanese.


Her most recent album "Badlands" has been a success, starting from 4.5m  up to 31.5m views on YouTube. 

She also got to be featured in some well known artists songs. 


She got nominated on MTV Europe Music Awards, People's Choice Awards and NME Awards in 2016. She also went on VMAs and sang with Chainsmokers, song "Closer".
Her music video are elect pop genre therefore every single one of them has bright lighting, colours featured. Bight hair colours and unusual clothing. 

Her primary audience are female young adults and teenagers her secondary audience are males and  LGBT group as well since in music video "Ghost" she has a romantic relationship with the female protagonist, she also was featured in revealing clothing which was made to target male audience.

Although Halsey in new to this industry her popularity grew a lot during two years. Which may lead her to be word wise singer and be recognised in most country. Also a new music video where she was featured, with Chainsmokers got into "Billboard Hot 100 Charts". More people started to recognise her because of the song "Closer".

Halseys style tends to be grungy and with a pop of bright hair style. Because of her style and her voice and the style of her songs  people compare Halsey to another upcoming singer Melanie Martinez. There were also a lot of fan made mixes with their songs where fans mashup two songs. 

In her YouTube comments people usually talk about her music and compare it to other electro pop genre artists and wanting them to create a music video where all of them will be featured.

Evidence of Directing

Directing Evidence for my samples scenes.


This video includes me directing my central protagonist. I get to tell her what facial expressions she has to make, where to stand and what action she has to make. 

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Merchandise (tbc)

Here I have looked at two artists Justin Bieber and Halsey as well as a band One Direction. All those artists have a separate website where all the online shopping can be included. Bellow are some example of merchandising of those artists.
  • CD (Every artists owns one and sells them online)
  • T-shirts 
  • Clothing/baby clothing (baby clothing is usually targeted towards parents which means that the band or the artist would target adults rather than teenagers and kids)
  • online games
  • jewellery 
This One Directions' official merchandising page. As you may see here this is a One Direction bracelet worth 18.49 euros. 

They have even mentioned that this bracelet is 100% Official Merchandise. This was made to attract One Direction fans.

  • badges


  • Electronics (Headphones, watches, stereos,etc)
  • shoes
These are The Beatles shoes, famous shoe brads also get involved in this merchandise. Below are pairs of shoes from a well knows for young people shoe brand "VANs"



  • DVD (A film about One Direction, Justin Bieber also created a documentary about himself)
One Direction DVDs from their official merchandising website. 

Monday 24 October 2016

Creating Social Media accounts for Halsey

Here are social media accounts which I have created for my artist. Bellow you would be able to see Instagram and Twitter accounts. I have used iamashley_halsey for her instagram account since Halsey has iamhalsey for hers. Her real name is Ashley therefore I decided to include that as well. For the twitter account I just went with iam_halsey 



Friday 21 October 2016

Production Schedule 2

This is a production schedule for my music video. I have already done the sample scene and edited it however I may have to add in some scenes therefore I need to do some more filming on 21st.
V = Done

Dates
15th October V
Location Scouting
17th October V
Auditions for the actress and the singer
18th October V
Roles given out
19th October V
Filming Sample Scene/Edit them
20th October V
Filming Sample Scene/Edit them
29st October 
Filming extra sample scenes + Edit
30th October 
Start Filming Music Video
1st November
Filming
3rd November
Filming
4th November
Editing
5th November
Filming
6th November
Editing/ Filming extra scenes if needed
7th November
Filming any extra scenes if needed/Edit


Podcast 2

  • Music Video Analysis
  • Theories 
  • Branding Research
  • Treatment
  • Audience Interaction
  • Vodcast on Audience 
  • Sample scenes 

Thursday 20 October 2016

Vodcast 3 Target Audience


In this vodcast I talked through my target audience. For my primary researching I have created a questionnaire where I asked people their gender, age, what genre music they listen to, etc. To make the questionnaire fail I gave it out to the equal amount of males and females and varies their age category. After this research I have found that my target audience are females, 12-18.

I have  also created a video quiz and asked some people to watch and answer them. I have embedded the video at the end of the vodcast.



The result of the survey were as as expected. The people from 25+ barely knew who Halsey was or didn't know at all. It was more males/masculine people in this age range that didn't know who Halsey was rather than the females/feminine people. 

Halsey is a recent Alternative, electro-pop artist that gained popularity over the past two years. She is probably more of a social media icon rather than pop icon as she has rarely been in the UKtop 40, unless she has featured on other peoples songs e.g. Justin Bieber's "The Feeling", Chainsmokers "Closer". 

Sample Scene

This is my sample scene for my music video. This is a rough version and does not have all the scenes in it. The costumes which I want for my music video haven't arrived yet therefore I have to film it without it. For the locations I had forest, inside the building and the park. However, I still need to film in an abundant  house and the actress entering there. I have put blank spaces in where I don't have the scenes. I also have to film the performer lip-syncing the song. I have filmed it but after it turned up not matching the beat of the song therefore I need to redo that scene.



Improvements 

  • For the scene with windows in the house, add curtains to give it horror effect.
  • Use matching set of Pjs to make it easier for the audience to recognise.
  • Use extreme long shot of loaves passing by to introduce the character in the beginning.
  • GoPro high angle shots could be used for the park scenes.
  • Make the characters hair look worse to create destroyed effect. 
  • Get the song on my phone before starting to record so when lip syncing it cuts to the beat of the song.
  • For the running scene in the forest the girl should look scared so I need to direct her more careful to create the right mood otherwise change the character. 
In this scene I used a worms view shot to signify the character being lost. I have used colour correction to follow electro pop conventions. 


For those scenes I have used colour correction, saturation and exposure. I used saturation to make the colours more vibrant and exposure to change the lighting of the colour. 

In the first two scenes I have used black and white effect to create classical horror effect. 

Questionnaire to find my target audience


Wednesday 19 October 2016

Target Audience Research

Video Quiz
This is a video quit which I created where I asked my audience about Halsey and her music.
There are the questions I have asked:

  1. Do you know this artist?
  2. Do you know this song?
  3. What genre is this song?
  4. Who was Halsey singing with at the VMAs? 
  5. Do you know this song?
  6. Do you recognise these albums?
Quizzing people online
I have created a quiz on a website  https://www.quotev.com/30024328
This is a quiz where I asked people if they are Halsey fans? They got to answer it and get their results. The questions will be made on Halsey knowledge. 

This is a YouTube video where teenagers react to Halsey, we can see some of them recognising them. We can also see their thoughts on her music and the way she presents it.


Monday 17 October 2016

MV Analysis

Starboy - The Weekend


This song is recorded by Canadian singer The Weekend for his upcoming third studio album of the same name, featuring French electronic duo Draft Punk. He handled the majority of the song's production, with McKinney and Crikut serving as co-producers
It was released on 22nd September 2016, by XO and Republic Records, as the first single from the album. 

Relationships Between Visuals and Lyrics

Looking at this music video, this is a performance and the concept based video which means that the lyrics do not match the visuals. Looking at the video we can see how the man killed Weekend with his old hairstyle and Weekend with new hair was a thief. He then takes one of the expensive cars of the man he killed and rides away. However the lyrics are about him and relationships. 

Genre Characteristics 

This is an electro pop music which means that there should be a lot of bright lighting such as pink and purple. This music video is a cold tonnes and has fragments of purple, pink, blue and green lighting. They have also used a cross which lights up red. 

Performance, Narrative or and Concept

This music video is a mix between performance and concept with a touch of narrative. We can see the plot of Weekend killing the man, getting a revenge on him and leaving mans' house. We can also see the performance side of it as the singer sings in the house as he passes through the corridors and rooms. 

Performance Style

This was a performance based video therefore there was a lot of lip syncing. The camera focused on Weekend with different shots such as medium shots, long shots and close ups. All the scenes are central framed to show that he is the central protagonist in the story. We were also abled to see Weekend dancing while he was walking thought the hallways and singing. This type of dancing is very common among male artists. The dancing was simple this was made so the fans could relate and copy the moves right from the screen. 

Looking/Mode of Address

Weekend is looking directly to the camera throughout the video this creates a sense of direct connection with the audience, in this music video we can see how they applied uses and gratifications theory. Looking directly to to the camera Weekend creates a personal relationship with the audience making them feel as if they were there and he is talking to them. 

Mise-en-scene

The first location was a dining room it was an important location as this is the place where the video started. We can Weekend with his old hairstyle tied up to his chair opposite Weekend, this location was important as it anchored the the difference between the two characters.There were also hallways and where different paintings were hang up. Another location was garage where all the expensive cars were. Finally the last location was inside the car somewhere in the roads.

We can see how make up and costumes affected the video. At the start of the video we saw a man in a mask and Weekend tied up. Later using mise-en-scene the audience saw a completely different thing. We saw the man taking his mask off and it was The Weekend with his new hairstyle. This use of mise-en-scene was made to introduce him new hair to his fans in the video. 




Treatment

Control by Halsey


Summary 

I will be using a combination of narrative and performance with a touch of concept. For the narrative part I will have a girl (central protagonist) waking up in the park on the bench. She will not remember how and when she got there. When the girl tries to get her memories back she will get flashbacks of in different locations and performing different activities. The first flashback will be of her talking to someone in a black mask and black clothing. She will then follow and recreate everything she has done before getting to the park. In the end the girl will go to the first and find a little treasure chest where she hid all the expenses. As she opens it we will get a final flashback of her in an abundant house where the first flashback was made and there we will be able to see the girl leaving after talking to somebody with a mask. As she leaves, camera would pan and show the person in mask through the mirror reflection taking off the mask. The audience would then see the girl and understand that all of her flashbacks were of the girl playing a phycological game. In terms of performance I will have a separate artist singing the song and performing in various locations.


Mise-en-scene

Bellow I will be listing thing which are essential for the music video I am creating. 
  • Locations: Forest, Park, Town/shops/streets, Abundant building
  • Costumes: Black mask and clothing for the antagonist, grunge outfit for the singer, white lose dress for the central protagonist
  • Lighting: External lights for the scenes at the building
  • Props: Smoke bombs, treasure chest, jewellery
This is the mask I am thinking to use for the antagonist

These are the smoke bombs I will be using for the performance scene


Target Audience 

I have created a questionnaire where I asked people on what genre they like and what they expect from it. I found out that my target audience are females 14 - 25. Therefore I have decided to make an accent on the colours such as pink and purple. One of the ways I have done that is by using smoke bombs. 


Digipak Design

I will have my first shoot on Thursday where I will also have a photo shoot of that cast and the artist. After Shooting the photos I will be using Photoshop to add different fond and experiment with colours for the digipak. There are verities of fonts which I could use therefore to help me with this task I will be creating a questionnaire where I will ask my audience to choose a font and ask for their option on it. 


Cast + Crew Needed:

For this music video I will need a female central protagonist, artist who will perform the song, make up artist and a stylist. I have already done auditions for central protagonist and the singer, Also I have someone who would be responsible for make up and costume. 

Sunday 16 October 2016

Researching Branding (tbc)

Here I have looked at examples from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Facebook.
This is Halsey's iTunes page where you can purchase her album. The background colour is light clue which matches her hair on the album cover and in the photo she appears on the top right. 



This is her Instagram account where she posts her life events, tours, concerts,etc. Usually artists have a link to their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube pages on their Instagram bio however, she does nor have anything but her name there. 

This summer Halsey had her tour Chicago 2PM-8PM Saturday July 20th and here we can see how she is promoting it through her Twitter
 These are her YouTube and Facebook pages. On there back page and on her profile she has her album "Badlands" cover, she also has a music video of her songs. This was made so that fans can easily find the song.




MV Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

This is a Dance/Pop genre music video which is directed by Francis Lawrence who worked along side many artists, creating music videos for them, but is best known for directing three of the four Hunger Games films. Bad Romance is a song by Lady Gaga an American singer who released this song as an ad showcase in October 2009, at Alexander McQueen's show at Paris fashion week. 

Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey came up with the theory of the Male Gaze. She looked at objectification. Where the body is getting broken down into different parts. Laura is a feminist and she is concerned of the pro dominance of the males. 
Lady Gaga is a post-feminist who would disagree with this theory, as she believes that her clothing choices and behaviour gives women sense of freedom. The costumes on the video are revealing which would arguably be to attract male audience. The males in the video are watching Lady Gaga and the rest of the female cast which leader to accentuation of this point and arguable aspects of the male gaze. 


Feminist/Post-Feminist

As a long standing and traditional arguments to call out. Gaga would be found as empowering artist. She believes that all women are ownerships of their own bodies. Gaga claims that she is not a feminist and opens up the image of empowered and liberated women to her fans

Normativity

In this music video we were abled to see things which have become normal for people to see. Stereotypes which have been there in media for a long time. We were abled to see thing exaggerated over and over so it became a normative for us. In this case it is Vodka being a stereotype of Russians. Women dancing for men can be arguable as an objectification, For the representation of the audience we can assume that it was strip club set up. This could also be read as Lady Gaga critiquing men. 


Intertextuality 

There were a lot of product placement in this video such as Nemiroff Vodka. Beats headphones, beats logo on the laptops. 
Intertextuality of Katy Perry's music video "California Girls" where Katy is wearing a cream shooting bra. We can see at the end Gaga with a bra shooting fire. 

Stuart Hall Reception Theory
The theory is an active audience theory which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts, rather than passive consumers. The idea is that individuals interpret texts in different ways. It demonstrates that even though one message is sent out, that not one understanding received. 
In this music video we can see Lady Gaga wearing revealing costumes but individuals will interpret this look in different ways. Some people would view her being pretty, but others would view her as being attention seeking. 

Andrew Goodwins Theory
Music Videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning.
Here we can see Lady Gaga's dance routine with elements of dancing from Michael Jackson's Thriller Music Video. 

Friday 14 October 2016

MV Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

This music video was directed by Terry Richardson. He is an American fashion and portrait photographer who has shot advertising campaign for Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Yves Sait Laurent, etc. He was involved with a lot of controversy surrounding his exploration of women.
This song received positive reviews from critics and debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.


Feminist vs Post-Feminist

Feminists and post-feminists would differ with perspectives. Feminist would see this music video and be discussed by the way females are being represented. Where as, post-feminist would see it as a women who is open about everything and not scared to be herself. 
Miley Cyrus considers herself to be a post-feminist. She and many other artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, etc. would believe that feminism assumes male control. She breaks free from this, especially in this video. 
Here we can see her wearing barely any clothing, boots and holding a mallet, she also has a short hair, all of this goes unconventional for female pop genre artist. Miley Cyrus considers herself a "gender fluid" which shows that she doesn't count herself as either bisexual or gay. 

Normative and Hegemony

Cultural hegemony is a concept developed by Italian scholar and activist Antonio Gramsci
This term refers to the ability of a group of people to hold power over social institutions. Normative is when a person is exposed to a certain image over and over again until it becomes normal. Hegemony is an idea which can become hegemonic. Hegemonic would be considered when a girl is wearing a skirt, but if a boy is wearing it he would be considered as counter-hegemonic
In this example Miley Cyrus is presented as counter-hegemonic

Stereotypes 

Looking at Miley Cyrus we can see her hair braking the gender stereotypes, short hairstyles are stereotypes of men and long are for females. We can see how this became a normative through media and show the society brings it to us, making it societal construct. In this video Cyrus is wearing a white tank top, we can see her strong arms which is mostly seen as a male stereotype. We can see her exposed arms and see her muscularity which is shown among males, this may make her look lesbian however as she said before she is a "gender fluid"


Intertextuality 

Miley Cyrus's' hairstyle intertextualises  the singer Sinead O'Connor who had short hair.
After Miley Cyrus publishing her music video we were abled to see many parodies on her music video. This music video became a parody icon like Oppa Gingham Style by PSY, Tik Tok by Ke$ha and many others. Bellow we can see parodies from YouTube with 1,220,000 results. One of the most viewed parody is made by Bart Baker who specialises on parodies.



Friday 7 October 2016

Podcast1

This is a podcast on what I have done during this and last week
I have also talked through my Music Video Idea in here

Production Schedule 1

This is the production schedule which is made for Music Video Control by Halsey


Thursday 6 October 2016

My Pitch

Music Video Pitch

Control by Halsey

This is a pitch for my final project. In this pitch I will be going through my ideas.

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Pitch




This is my Pitch which I have presented to the class in order to sell my music video idea. In this video I have went through my props, mise-en-scenes, locations, narrative and the lyrics of the song.

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Practice video (We Don't Talk Anymore)

We Don't Talk Anymore

In this project I got to work with Bronwen, Riona and Sophie. For this music video we have decided to have We don't talk anymore by Charlie Puth ft. Selena Gomez.



Key notes I have picked up on this project.

It is hard to get all four members and actors in one place at the same time.
If it doesn't work just leave it and continue on the other things.
Schedule and sticking to it. You have to be proactive.
The artists should be given time to learn their roles.
Costumes and make ups should be thought when making production schedule.
Shake Camera and discontinuity of actions, it would be better to use two cameras instead of one. 
Be careful with the head and avoid cutting of the head in the frame.
Have several locations to give the multiple options in editing.
When lip syncing it is crucial to sing while lip syncing otherwise the lip sync would look fake.

Pre filming in any location is crucial to give an idea to people. 
Props and costumes have to be thought ahead and needs some time before shooting, testing is also essential.

Pitch 1

Music Video


This is my pitch for my music video, where I will be presenting possible ideas of what to include in my music video.