Individual digipak - Miss Miller

Individual digipak - Miss Miller

There are many uses for a digipak in terms of the promotional and artistic benefits for a musician and their subsequent record label. The use of a digipak not only results in added features which will appeal to fans of the artists as it includes aspects such as lyrics for the songs and also a personal message from the artist which adds to the personalisation and resultantly the relationship between artist and audience the digipak also results in an increased revenue as it means there is an added source of income in addition to the album and the song itself. Below are the 6 slides that make up my digipak I will discuss the slides in detail and analyse them to discuss the features and how they are conventional to my genre.

Individual Magazine - Miss Miller

Individual Magazine - Miss Miller

The use of magazine adverts are incredibly important to artists and their correspond record labels for many different reasons; firstly the use of a magazine advert means the artist's album is publicized more as magazines have thousands of readers and thus a successful advert could appeal and attract a reader which in turn could result in increased sales of the album and a wider following. The use of a magazine advert can also result in creating a new image of an artist, as the use of a variation of lighting, editing, font and colour scheme can portray the artist in a different light, which can result in targeting a variation of readers, not just constricting it to their initial fan-base as readers of magazines vary greatly in terms of age, music preference and general interests which means using a magazine advert that would be deemed conventional and mainstream is effective as it attracts the largest conglomerate of readers which will result in heightened sales. Within my magazine advert there are several features that appeal to the audience, firstly in terms of positioning of the poster, the main character and protagonist of the song "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" is in the center of the poster, this is as he is the main focus in the music video and is thus should be the main viewing point of the poster. The font of the poster was entitled "Keep On Trucking" and derives from a psychedelic website that has many different psychedelic fonts, the use of this means that despite the abundance of conventional or mainstream features the poster still has psychedelic rock roots, which will appeal to the primary fan-base and may also appeal to other fans of the genre whom are not aware of the song or album. The use of several filters such as Artistic and Texturise, combined with a vibrant colour scheme also appeals to the fans of psychedelic rock genre as the music videos within this genre are famous for their trippy styles which us a variation of special effects and colours. Below is the magazine advert I have created for the promotion of my album and the song "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards." In terms of the positioning of the text the title "White Rhinos" and "Escapsim" is in the middle of the poster below the main image, it is large and catches the eye of the viewer due to the colour not matching the scheme of the background. In terms of the effects used I used Diffuse Glow, and Plastic Wrap, as it gave the buildings a strange glowing look that was unusual and relevant to the drug link within our music genre, I also used blend and burn tools to make the text stand out more.

Research into chosen music genre - Miss Georgiou

Research into chosen music genre - Miss Georgiou 

The genre of which we have chosen to use within our music video is psychedelic rock, there are many reasons as to why we have decided to use this genre of music to create a video for. Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired by psychedelic culture, pioneered by artists such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and the experience of taking mind altering drugs, the music also takes roots from Indian music and implements the usage of instruments such as sitars and ragas, there are many different features within this music genres of which we will implement within our own music video. I will be investigating 2 different music videos of the psychedelic rock in order to discover features and conventions to implement within our own music videos and to draw inspirations and ideas that will further aid the end product of our music video.

The first music video of which I will be analysing is The Black Angels - Entrance Song, there are several features within this music video that I will take inspiration from as they are conventions within the Psychedelic Rock music genre. One feature within the music video is the use editing within the video, the abstract and over exaggerated colouring effects within the video. The abstract and strange colouring within the video reflects the nature of the music genre as the music itself is abstract and out of the ordinary. I will consider using a variety of lightings within my own music video through the editing software iMovie as it makes sense to reflect the music genres ethos.

The second music video I will be analysing for inspiration and information in the Pyschedelic Rock genre is Animal Collective - Monkey Riches. There are several features within this music video, such as the use of editing, specifically the use of stop motion and fast editing within the music video. These aspects are effective as they link with the high tempo of the song this intertwining with Goodwin's theory of music and visuals having a link. The stop motion is effective as it is enjoyable for the audience if it is done well through editing, the stop motion is portrayed as magic within the video and makes the video more believable. The fast editing reflects the high tempo of the music and creates a more exciting impact as it is fast paced. 

Initial group planning ideals - Miss Georgiou

Initial group planning ideals - Miss Georgiou 

My group consists of 4 members including myself, Luke Durrance, Harry Hyett and Bryce Yarwood.

Within our first meeting we discussed what songs we were thinking of using for our music video, we quickly decided upon using the song Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala and promptly printed the lyrics and annotated them, to see what the themes and elements were within the song to see whether it would be suitable for our music video. In the meeting we discussed why we were going to use this song, going through the positives of the song and the features we wanted to implement within our music videos such as the time lapse and backwards editing, we also discussed the location of where we would shoot our music video and decided upon Central London as our location, we also decided upon our actors, with me volunteering to be the main actor within the music video and characters and also began to build up ideas on the narrative of the song.

In our next meeting we began to discuss the elements that would be implemented within our music video in terms of the cinematography and editing. We discussed and agreed on many different elements, in terms of editing we decided upon using many elements such as reverse of time, a time lapse, slow motion and fast editing all for an effect and as it corresponded with the context of our song and its lyrics. In terms of cinematography there were many different elements that were suggested as we agreed that we needed a variety of shots to make our video successful, camera shots such as arc shots, extreme close ups, tracking and panning shots and handheld shots along with the standard style shots were suggested and we agreed we would use them all to further our music video.

We quickly converged to create concrete ideas and all members were adequate in terms of contributing towards ideas and bringing suggestions to the table. We were able to use the information we gained through the meetings to contribute towards our storyboard, filming schedule and risk assessment. Below are the initial plans we made within our group in terms of the many sub sections that make a successful music video.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
15.09.14	To decide on an artist and a song.	15.09.14	All group members.	Various ideas were discussed and the group created a mind map. Eventually we decided on creating a music video. For the song “Feels like we only go backwards” by Tame Impala.
22.09.14	Applying for copyright.	22.09.14	All group members.	Group members discussed the purpose of Copyright and how we would gain permission to use our song.
30.09.14	Lyric analysis.	30.09.14	All group members.	After printing out the lyrics for the song we analysed the lyrics for hidden meanings and themes.
13.10.14	Planning mise-en-scene.	13.10.14	All group members.	Members discussed the elements of mise-en-scene to be implemented within our music video.
15.10.14	Planning cinematography.	15.10.14.	All group members.	Many ideas were discussed in terms of the camera angles and shots to be implemented in our music video.
18.10.14	Planning artist image.	18.10.14.	Jazz Chrystie and Luke Durrance.	The two members discussed the image of the actors and actresses within the music video.
19.10.14	Planning editing styles.	20.10.14	All group members	As a group we decided the editing features and special effects to be implemented within our music video.

22.10.14	Group storyboard.	25.10.14	All group members	All members of the group discussed and finalised the storyboard to be used as a guideline for our filming process, and to maintain we know what features in terms of editing and cinematography will be featured in our song.
25.10.14	Filming schedule	26.10.14	All groups members.	Within this meeting we discussed the film schedule, which would allow us to be organised in terms of our filming schedule as we have a detailed plan as to what would occur within each shooting sequence in terms of location, date and time.
26.10.14	Risk Assessment	26.10.14	All group members.	As a group we discussed the many different risks that could occur within our filming process, after finding these risks we found ways in which we could prevent these risks or at least decrease the chances of them occurring.

Photo Shoot - Miss Miller

Photo Shoot - Miss Miller

Within this blog I will discuss the many different photos we took that reflect the music video and subsequently may feature within magazine adverts that advertise our album and our song "Feels Like We Only Go Backward," and within our digipaks that act as an exclusive bonus to more dedicated fans who make the purchase. I will also discuss the reasoning and background of each picture in detail making reference to its relevance to the song.

This is an image of the main protagonist within our narrative and the performer within the performance aspect of the music video.  This character is the key figure within the entire music video and thus this can be seen reflected through the character positioning as he is in the center of the image and the lack of any other characters meaning that he is the only attraction and thus must be the main point of focus from the audience.

This image features the protagonist within the music video however the majority of the shot is taken up by the lights within the fountains, the reason for this being that this is a still from a particular shot within our music video that holds importance. The use of stop motion within our music video occurs here and thus we deem this an important part of music video as the editing is key to our video being succesful and original. The lighting of the image is also aesthetically pleasing to the audience which can add to the appeal of the image. 

Within this image contains the protagonist of the narrative within the music video, and also the main performer of the song whom lip syncs the lyrics within the video. The protagonist is the key figure within the image and is positioned in the very center of the image, making him the main focus of the audiences attention as he stands out from the crowd. This image is a still taken from the time lapse within our music video, an integral element of the video that we are certain will be popular as it was a complex process to film and edit and thus we take a still to create a teaser in a sense for the audience.

This image is a still taken from a particular establishing shot in our music video. The intention of this shot within our music video is to set the scene in terms of the narrative as our music video features many different settings and thus in order to eradicate the prospects of ambiguity as the many different locations could be a little confusing to those without explanation. The picture is also very aesthetically pleasing due to the picturesque and nice area it is shot in, the photography is also very good and gets the buildings, sky and fountain in, the audience may find this picture appealing to look at.

Applying for copyright - Miss Georgiou

Applying for copyright - Miss Georgia

1) Introduction - explain what copyright is and why its used in the music industry.

A copyright is a legal right that grants a artist or creator of an original piece of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, published editions of works, sound recordings, videos, DVD's and broadcasts exclusive rights to use and distribute. The idea behind this is for the artist to gain compensation for their intellectual effort and creativity, it also protects their original work from being copied or illegitimately used for other organisation's profit. 


2) Applying for copyright - explain why you had to apply for copyright, discuss in detail what you 
did, identify the record label.

In order to use the intended song (Tame Impala- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards) for our music video we had to get clearance from the music groups record label to show that they would allow us to use their song. The groups record label was Modular Records, an Australian based record label, they are now partnered with Universal Music, thus we had to make contact with both Modular Records and Universal Records, we emailed them asking to use their music video for a non profit project.
Below is a screenshot of the email our group sent to the record label of the artists of which we want to use their music videos.

We received an email from Lisa Ward, a representative of Modular Records whom have Tame Impala under contract. She gave us permission to use their song within our music video and also gave us feedback and certain guidelines in terms of copyright.

Risk Assesment - Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou 

Conducting and creating a well thought out risk assessment is an incredibly important process of filming not only creating our music video, but the entire entertainment industry, in the proffesional world creating a risk assessment is a legal requirement when creating a project as the organisation is responsible for the safety of a group of people and thus the eradication of risks is a serious issue that must be discussed and highlighted.  There are many reasons as to why a Risk Assessment is integral to the success of our music video. Firstly the risk assessment provides our group with guidelines that have our health and well-being at its main intentions, every possible danger was discussed in a sensible manner in order to eradicate the prospect of a group member getting injured. There were many different risks that could possibly occur within our filming process, such as tripping hazards, filming close to train tracks, lifting hazards, and water risks, in a group we discussed each danger and how we would get rid of the risk, and within our actual filming process we had our risk assessment on us to ensure we felt comfortable to film as an injury would not only physically harm one of our members but would also effect the morale of the group and also would waste time that could be used for actually filming our music video. Although the risk assessment itself does not completely eradicate the possibility of an accident occurring that could harm somebody we felt a lot more relaxed and in the know during our filming process after we had completed the risk assessment. The group made sure we had a first aid kit on its inventory which had items such as plasters and bandages that could be used at any time possible to stop a member of the group bleeding, in terms of filming by the train tracks, which is incredibly dangerous, we were very cautious, and the actor (Jazz Chrystie) who was in the shot and closest to the track was looked after by the other group members to ensure no accidents that could potentially have been fatal would occur. 

Overall I believe our risk assessment is a successful and efficient guideline to ensuring the safety of all the group members and those involved within the filming process. The risk assessment is detailed and provides one with many different alternatives to prevent injury, such as the many different precautions the group should take to ensure nobody trips over equipment and other hazards on the floor. The guidelines made the filming process a lot safer and easier and meant that we could film without having to stop when changing each scene and have to discuss if there were any potential dangers as each scene we shot at had been scouted for risks. Below are screenshots of the risk assessment we used to prevent any injuries towards the group members occurring.