Ancillary final Digipak

This is the final digipak that we created for our ancillary task. We used similar or the same images in our website and in digipak to keep the work fluent.
Front:

Back:

Inside back:

Ancillary final website

We had a few people have a look at the website including our teacher and the infomation that we got back was that the black and white wasnt working hugely well. So we have gone back to the idea of using colour. I really like the sepia feeling in the script website and this has followed through into the colour scheme in our final website. Here is our final website link please copy into address bar:

http://edsheeranmusic.webs.com/ 

Pitch questionnaire results

We managed to find 30 willing volunteers to give us some feedback over Facebook on our film pitch. This small debate was create and they simply ticked the box that they felt stronger for. Here is an image of how we did the voting:

Here are the three options that you could choose on what colorization you believed we should use.









Here are the results for our voting panel:


Clearly the voting came up trumps for the default settings on the camera. So we have decided to keep the normal colours.

Problems we faced

When you go out with a plan for filming it rarely sticks to that plan, we found new angels and shots that we hadnt thought of when planning. It was great to explore different angles and interesting placements of the camera. We got most of the shots we wanted and more to compare i the editing stage. The idea was to get more than enough footage so we had plenty to edit and get the best result. It wasn't all problems, when we got out of the house the camera worked much better and we found the colour especially in the green near the park. The trees and green bridge were very vibrant and we got some great shots of the couple here.

Our Pitch

Before we started filming we had to make a pitch for what we wanted to do and showcase the song itself. Then we'd get feedback from the people watching on any improvements that could be made to the story or if they think the song has problems. This is the video of our pitch:

Camerawork

We spent two days filming and had to gain the shots we needed on limited time. Our actress wasn't readily available and we have to prioritise other school work. So we went out with the intention to get a range of hand held and fixed shots that we had planned to obtain. On our first day we went out and used many hand held shots. But with the lighting and the quality of the camera it struggled to record great visualls. We kept to it and found our areas we could work in and found that we had used a few too many hand held shots. So we started to sit the camera in interesting angles and played with places to place it. We had the idea of putting it in plant pots. Strapping it to the leg of a table and many other ideas. We got creative and got more than enough footage.

Lighting

We faced some difficult issues with lighting, it started in the quality of the camera. The camera wasn't the best at picking up light and this began to create problems with inside lighting. The lighting inside the house was difficult to work with, even though it was 13:00 PM and was sunny inside the camera struggled and we could of done with a flood light or even a lamp. We persevered with the light and found angles and areas in the room that were ok to work in. However in the point of view shot when elliott looks at her and brings the mug up to the camera the lighting is quite poor. Outside is fine as the natural light worked well with the camera and we could work happy.

The next issue faced was the bowling, we went near to halloween and they had the halloween theme going on in there. So it was dark with glow in the dark and neon lights. So this flooded the camera with problems in the dark. We managed toget our shots and I think that they do work as at this point in the video its near the end when the day has gone on and its getting dark anyway.

Camerawork and editing

During the filming of or piece the amount of equipment needed to reach a finished piece, in our case, was very limited. We were restricted by the quality of the camera and the accessibility of it. Our school had to share 5 cameras between 50-60 of us. So we did worry about getting it all finished on time, but everything really did flow quite well for us. We didn't have a tripod so still images were hard to achieve and we found that our footage was mostly a bit shaky. But we made do and managed to get some really good footage. What came next was bringing all the footage together. We did this by using the editing suite at our school which had 5 apple mac computers. The software we used on theses was iMovie, an editing software that is very simple to use and deals with some basic effects. Such as simple transitions, Texts, image overlaying and a simple version of green screen. We found the editing part very stressful as we had some technical problems with the mac. But we carried on and have enjoyed doing it. The software was easy to get used to as we had used in the production of our media work last year. We used less of the colour overlays and editing software that's on iMovie and tried to rely more on just quick cuts.

Filming Diary

As i have not got internet at home and most our filming was done over the half term i could not update my progress on my blog as i couldnt access the internet. So i recorded my progress after each filming day on a note pad. This is what i wrote:

Day 1 of filming:
We began our filming today and have already started changing shots, angles and the story. We had predicted that this would happen as the angles dont always work and you find new ones when you reach your destination. The start of our filming did actually start with the drinking of the tea in the kitchin as we arived at Elliott's and wanted to just start. So began by filming the drinking of the tea and the making of it too. The making of the tea hadnt of even been thought of until that moment, so already changes were being made as we began to get creative. We found ways to start transtions within the visuals, for example making the screen go black ready to cut into a new scene. We began to over film and ended up with 20 minutes of footage just for the opening of the video. We were doing well with time and thought we could get some other filming done and as we started we realised the lighting was starting to change so we had to stop.

Day 2 of filming:
We started the travel part today and we found loads of new shots that we could include into the video. Once we excited the train we made our way to the arcade and spent about 20 mins trying to find a good shot to set the arrival at the arcade. We then entered and just went overboard with shots and interesting angles. On the way home we just filmed as much as we could and just forgot about our story board and the shot list we had

My website - where the idea came from

Before i started the creation of my website i looked into how other designers had created sites for other bands. I discussed earlier about Jose Gonzalez and what his site looked like. The information i gained was a simple approach to the structure and design. unlike the other sites i looked at such as the script's site. Which had a lot of work put into the design, which is also successful. So i had a simple decision to make on whether to have it simply made or tray and really go to town on the design. I eventually came to the conclusion that a simpler design would work much better. My first inspiration began with the new HTC mobile phone that has a live homescreen. It has a few panels that update themselves regularly which has become hugely successful. Each panel is a link to one of the phones applications such as facebook. They look like square boxes with letters and numbers in them relevant to that application. So i took the design the panels and filled them with the infomation about the artist that you would expect to find on a typical artits site.

Website design - ancillary

For our second choice we decided to create a website. Our decision was that I'd create the website and my partner would create the CD cover. So i came up with the idea of using the feet for the star image motif and started collecting drawings for the design of the site. I had the idea come having the banner as the feet and the name of the artist. As i wanted the site to have that simple feel, not too much going on with the colous, buttons and images. I kept i blank white back layer to set a blank canvas for the infomation and images. I have created my first prototype as you can see from this image. In the top left corner theres the image of the feet with 'Ed sheeran' and the name of the album/song that we're doing. Then like most websites there is a bar that has the titles to each main page of the site that usuall includes home, lyrics and clothing. To separate the titles from the main page a bar is usually dividing the two so i kept with the theme of feet and used a shoe lace. In the creation of the site i used two programmes, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver. Photoshop is the editing software that I used to edit the images and create the buttons, basically all the visualls! Then Dreamweaver is the software to bring all the components together into a website structure. The buttons are made easily by duplicating the image but changing the second in my case giving it a faded grey background. Then on Dreamweaver i add a box and make a rollover image. This means when the mouse goes over the image the second appears making it look like a button.

Lyrics for Little Bird

Little Bird

(Ed Sheeran 2009)

Part 1:
If we take this bird in        
With its broken leg                                                              
We could nurse it                                                                
She said
Come inside
For a little lie down with me
If you fall asleep
It wouldn’t be the worst thing
But when I wake up
Your make-up is on my shoulder
And tell me, if I lie down
Would you stay now
And let me hold you?
Visuals:
In this first part the boy wakes up, looks at the girl, gets up and goes down stairs. He starts making a cup of tea then goes upstairs to get the girl up, she throughs a pillow at him which then cuts to them walkin downstairs for the tea. They sit drinking tea and smiling a each other, as the tea comes up it cuts to them getting ready.

Part 2:
But if I kissed you
Will your mouth read this truth
Darling, how I miss you
Strawberries taste how lips do
And it’s not complete yet
Mustn’t get our feet wet
Cos that leads to regret
Diving in too soon
And I’ll owe it all to you
My little bird
My little bird
Visuals:
the camera follows her as she's getting ready then they get up and go to the door. The two exit, with a cut behind the two of them as they walk away. different shots of the two walking away and walking together. They reach a park and run to the entrance.

Part 3:
If we take a walk out
In the morning dew
We could lay down
So I’m next to you
Come inside
For a little home-made tea
If you fall asleep
Then at least you’re next to me
And if I wake up
You see, it’s late, love
Go back to sleep
I’m covered by nature
And I’m safe now
Underneath this oak tree
With you beside me
Visuals:
There is low angle of the two walking towards the train station. This is followed by quick cuts of buying tickets and gettin onto the platform. Another low angle of the train as it comes in and the two jump on.
Part 4:
But if I kissed you
Will your mouth read this truth?
Darling, how I miss you
Strawberries taste how lips do
And it’s not complete yet
Mustn’t get our feet wet
Cos that leads to regret
Diving in too soon
And I’ll owe it all to you
My little bird
My little bird
Visuals:
The two get to the destination and there is a few shots of the two walking to the arcade. Once at the arcade the two go to the till. They then go into the arcade and start playing some of the games.

Part 5:
And of all these things
I’m sure of
I’m not quite certain
Of your love
And you made me scream
But then I made you cry
When I left that little bird
With its broken leg to die
Visuals:
A mix of shots follow of the two playing the games. With mix of angles showing the two playing games. they then make there way to he bowling.

Part 6:
But if I kissed you
Will your mouth read this truth
Darling, how I miss you
Strawberries taste like lips do
And it’s not complete yet
Mustn’t get our feet wet
Cos that leads to regret
Diving in too soon
And I’ll owe it all to you
My little bird
My little bird
You’re my little bird
Visuals:
as it says 'but if i kissed you' there is a clip of her kissing him on the cheek. the two exit the arcade and cuts to them in a cafe. it cuts back to them on the train again making theyre way home. as the sky has gone dark and the lights flash past the screen fades black and rewinds to the start.

Shooting schedule

We had to create a shooting schedule and plan out when we can film on what days and when we could work. Here is the image of the shooting schedule:

Digipak - different types

I have had a look into the different types of a digipak and found three main digipak styles that most artists use. These are some examples of different types of a digipak:

Here is the most commonly used case that displays two parts of which one folds over the other with the CD in between the two sides. I think this is the best idea to use as its simple and easy to work with. We would have to create the inner and outer design, plus the design on the CD face itself.

This is another example of a digipak that folds out into three parts. This takes away the inner booklet that most have and have whats printed on the booklet, printed on the inside of the case. This we could do alot more with but it would get confusing on what parts we're doing and what part goes where.

This is the final digipak that i could find when researching. It has a sleeve with the CD case and folds up to slot into the sleeve. This could be a great idea as the case looks more professional and modern.

Our decision was to go with the first simple case design with a simple two side case. Like this that has the front, back and inside. The ideas we have come up with was to use screen shots from our video of key points of the video that really display something meaningful or significant.

Digipak - CD cover ideas

I got this image off the internet and i really like the idea of matching lyrics to visuals. There are the lyrics 'lips taste how strawberries do' and i could easilly create an image like this on the programme Adobe Photoshop. This image does remind me of the the Red Hot Chilli Peppers album cover

I really like this album cover by the band and i could use his idea to create my digi pack. However within the story we made the link more to the lipgloss making the lips taste like strawberries. So maybe the idea of having a still image from the video would be better. We have been struggling for our image motif and we have reached our target. There are plenty of references of feet in the lyrics and plenty of visual references to feet so we can have the image of the feet of the couple.

Digipak - CD covers - ancillary

We have create a CD cover as part of our ancillary task. So i have looked into other artists CD covers to gain some ideas for my own:

 This example shows an animated approach, creating theyre own image instead of using a still image from the video, image of the band/artist or a relevant image to do with the lyrics/album name. They have the idea of the 'iron sea' and have carried the name through to the image as you can see. I like the idea of creating an image, for example we could have an animated strawberry with a cup of tea.

This is the album cover of Ed Sheerans actual album. He has drawn the image with felt tips and created this colourfull image that keeps the young theme with all those bright colours. The album is called loose change and he's dawn around coins to write letters on for his alubum name. I really like the idea of drawing our own to keep the target audience but i prefer the idea of a cute still image from the actual video.

The script have used the idea of an image of the band/artist as the album cover. This isnt matching lyrics to visuals at all just to look good. i like this idea but we would have to get our own image of Ed Sheeran which will prove extremely difficult.

This image from Katy Perry is a still image from the music video they created and i like the idea of using a still image but again not of a person. I like the idea of using an image of a significant object or moment within the video.

Location, props and actors

As seen in our location shots we are going for the cute boy and girl date locations, for example in an arcade. We wanted to show them as if they're on a date, having fun and doing things that age would do together on a date. The location was very important as we need to build a visual relationship between the boy and girl but also between the viewer and the video, so they can relate to the video. Props aren't really used in out video, there's the important link to strawberries so we got the strawberry lip gloss. That link was important to linking lyrics to visuals. The actors were obviously the most important as that's what the visuals centre around. They needed to be young(late teens) so that the audience we're aiming for can relate and feel in they're shoes during the video.

Target audience

The age group we are aiming at are the teens and early 20's. it has the upbeat style of music that doesnt bore. It already fits into what the teens listen to linking to a similar artist called jose gonzalez, who was hugely successful in the teens world. How we aim to direct the music video starts clearly with the age of the actors. The boy and girl are both late teens and wearing clothes that are in fashion with that age group. the things that they do within the story show the age they are, for example going to the arcade and bowling. They also do childish things like walking along walls, running towards parks and kicking eachothers bums. the artists himself is only 19 and you can tell it by his soft voice. The gender of the audience we aim foris female, as the song is soft and the voice quite high. The lyrics themselves are cute and about love which most young boys wouldnt be interested in. As you can see from this image Ed Sheeran himself is selling his own clotes line and you can see its meant for the age group we aim for as its the style of clothes you would expect to see teens wearing.

Task 1 - Web design

Part of our course work is to create a homepage for the artists website. We have to design it so that it fits into the artists style well, and keep the star image motif solid. Most artists now have their own websites that display their music, clothing, news and information on the artists. The homepage has to show navigation but with no actual links to other pages. However i could possibly link to the artists actual webpage and include links to the music video. A successful website has to have a balance, with not too much happening on the page. Examples of this are too many links, buttons, pockets of information and multiple colour schemes. it confuses the user and puts them off using the website as they cant find what they want. This image on the left is the splash screen, the opening screen that carries on the image from the album. There is only one link and that is through the image which then takes you to the image on the left. The site that is linked to this page is very basic and looks like something made on paint. i was disappointed by the lack of design in the site. However it does have everything that is needed to make good website, like the home button, information on the artist and more. Plus because its so simple it is very easy to navigate.

Location shots

This slideshow shows our loactions for where we are going to be filming. Some i aquired from google maps as i did not want to go all the way to stevenage just to take a photo!

Our difficult decision

We struggled to decide between a selection of songs so I made a list of advantages and disadvantages of using each of the songs :

The script - For the first time:

Advantages - Good points for this song are the fact it has a quick beat so it will fit in with a fast cut monatage well. Unlike many of the unsigned artists we found they have that little bit extra talent, experience and it does show. The quality of the music and how it sounds has that proffesional finish that many unsigned artists lack. They are a well known band so the viewers will find themselves not thrown into a new sound that they may not like.

Disadvantages - Unfortunately the song is too mainstream, similar to other bands and may distract the viewer from the visualls. The band have already generated a video for the first time song which is very similar to our ideas.

Alex Day - the world is mine

Advantages - the song is unique and gives gives us that new sound that we searched for. It has a good beat to use with fast cut montage with. The song will not take over the visualls with a mellow, soft sound.

Disadvantages - We find the vocals lack quality with them sounding a bit sharp on the ear. He lacks experience too and we're not sure his song is going to go well with our story, as the lyrics don't have huge meaning behind them.

Ed Sheeran - Little bird

Advantages - It has that new sound we're looking for with the vocals sounding like an experienced artist. He is only 19 and has produced a great song. His voice takes my decsion only one way.

Making contact

We made contact with our artist asking permition to use his music on Twitter. My partner has a twiiter account and made contact through the social site and we quickly got a reply from him. He agreed to the use of his music and we straight away knew which song we could use.

Ed sheeran - Little bird (our choice)

We have decided to go with little bird and here is the song:

Similar artist - Jose Gonzalez

We have looked into artists similar to our chosen artist and the closest we found was Jose. He is a Swedish indie folk songwriter whose style i find suited to Ed's. He started his career with a band called 'Back Against the Wall'. He released his debut album in 2003 called 'Veneer' an amazing album with covers of many popular songs that became a huge hit instantly. His trademark sound is solo classical guitar with soft vocal melody. His work, although mostly his own, also includes acoustic covers, an example is the amazing song 'Heartbeats' by his fellow Swedes 'The Knife'. He released his second less popular album, In Our Nature. He got his inspiration from The God Delusion book by Richard Dawkins. His unique sound has attracted a wide audience with his first album selling over 700,000 copies around the world. His song has been used in many videos and used to sell many products, most famously for the SONY advert for the new TV.

Story board 1st draft

Alarm clock – starting noise – Point of view

Wakes up, gets up and goes to wake up friends/girlfriend


Cuts scene – to strings on guitar (performance based half) low angle close up


Exchange of point of view shots (possibly make the camera part of the narrative) getting up from hang over or just with girlfriend


A pillow thrown at the camera/actor (point of view) as screen goes black cut to previous night (what happened) OR cut to going to bathroom as taking the towel down from face from showering.


Cut to singing (performance based half) medium shot


Go out in car exchange of point of view shots, putting CD in, kiss on cheek for girlfriend idea OR just messing around with mates.
Arrive at park/arcade/bowling/cinema (we’ll ask permission to use camera during adverts) looking down at air hockey, look up and exchange to them sitting on sofa together watching film, hug OR cut to actual football from foosball with mates they come around you for doing something like scoring/saving


Cut to singing (performance based half) close up from the side


Possibly bring the idea of being young? Exchange of shots as they go to young? Messing around in park, OR on train going somewhere, getting ready for night out? Like previous night?
OR
At restaurant with girlfriend with preparations like getting ready before?

Cut to singing high angle shot


Just getting to pub/club with mates / or see girlfriend there she runs over kisses you and brings you through door as goes black use shot from the beginning with the alarm going off and waking up.


Possibly one more performance based shot?

Eyes opening and closing looking at bedside table turns over looks at girlfriend screen goes black

Possibly one last performance based half of artist finishing?

Change of plans

We eventually decided that the song by the script was way too main stream and similar to many other songs at this time. We have decided we wanted something new and in its own style. My work partner went to see the band 'example' and a supporting act that is touring with the band, called ed sheeran, caught our attention. He's a brand new artist, young, with his style the closest i can think of as similar to Jose Gonzalez. Despite only turning 18 in February 2009, Ed Sheeran is more experienced than his age would suggest. He has already generated two albums and become winner in 2008 for 'Next big thing' competetion. His music is described as blending acoustic and folk with hip hop beats. In the past 12 months he has done nearly 300 gigs around the UK really trying to get his name out there. For a 19 year old he is doing extremely well for himself and we really like his sound. For us it offers the perfect mix between jose gonzalez and the script. We have looked through his albums and found the song 'one night', it is a soft song that sounds similar to heartbeat by jose gonzalez.

The script

The script has marketed themselves well with their own website, style, sound and appearance. There website is very good in the style of their new album 'Science & faith'. The style of their new album has many images in a similar effect to sepia, a little like coldplay did with 'viva la vida' with the video like it was an old painting. Coldplay are the nearest i can find to the style of the script. Their website is very easy to use and you can listen to their new song and watch the video free on the site. What is also useful is the site has infomation on when the band is next performing, releasing a new album, info on the actual band and links to sites where you can buy tickets to see them. What I like most about the site is the continous theme of the new album and the simple approach they've used in the creation of thir new album. You can even register on the website to sign up for a newsletter and much more like first to know about performances and discounts on purchases.

Our chosen song

We liked the idea of Alex Day's song but we don't think it was a strong enough song, we wanted the music to obviously stand out. So because the song was too weak we thought it might get lost in the visuals. Which lead us to search for a new song, we searched through different songs and found a great song by 'The Script'. The Script has an interesting alternative rock sound that is not in following of current artists. They are an Irish band currently based in London after signing to 'Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic'. The band released their debut album in August 2008. their music has featured in video games and in popular teen programmes such as '90210' and 'Waterloo road'. This has made them extremely successful and on the 9th November The Script received an award at the World Music Awards for 'Best Selling Irish Act' of 2008. They have released a new album, which was released in Ireland on 10th September 2010. We really like their song 'For the first time' and are going to use this. To have permission to use their song and not break the rules of copyright, I sent the band a message on their Twitter page. Here is a copy of what i sent:

I am writing to ask permission for the use of your new song ‘For the first time’. As we are making a music video for our A-level media coursework and have found the perfect song to fit our ideas. We are big fans of your music and would like to be able to use it.

Contact from Elliott Gallimore and Joe Robertson from The Priory School

Eminem

Eminem has targeted his audience perfectly with his sound, image and everything about him. Eminem gained popularity rapidly in 1999 with his debut album, The Slim Shady. To many he is the best rapper ever with many number 1s to his name and grammy awards. What made his name was more his lyrics than anything with his lyrics talking of the real world and past experiences that many people could relate to. This attracted many followers because his lyrics were so strong. His hard life as a child mainly to do with his relationship with his father. His image is that what many would call a 'chav', a popular culture coming into the current world today. The big baggy tracksuits and flat caps are becoming increasingly popular. B-boys and DJs represent the life of lower class people and links many to his words.

Eminem has marketed himself extremely successfully. He has starred in a film called 8 mile. The film is based on Eminem's life, he grew up in a poor Detroit neighborhood and followed his dream of rap stardom. The movie got very good reviews as Eminem turned out to be a surprisingly good actor. Since then it has snow balled and his songs have been used in many films and in promotional videos. A recent example is the new call of duty game, which his song has been used to help promote the game. It is a song from his new album 'recovery' , the song is called 'wont back down'.

Florence and the Machine

Florence and the machine are really hitting it big with the public currently, and the way they do this is by perfectly aiming at their target audience. Florence and the machine's sound has been described as a combination of various genres, including rock and soul. The band are trying to aim for the teens with many different ways of getting thepublics attention. Every way the band presents themselves is important to attracting an audience going don to the way they dress. Firstly what attracts more of the female teen is the style of clothes worn. The main singer has put herself in the current fashion with the long dresses covered in flowers. Looking very much like a 'topshop girl' which does attract that audience. BBC played a large part in Florence and the Machine's rise to the top of the charts with the band's debut album 'Lungs' was released on 6th July 2009, and held the 2nd position for its first five weeks in the UK album chart.

There are main conventions for promotional websites for musicians/bands/artists. Basic parts or sections to a website that a user can interact with and use. Florence and the machine has images of the artists that you can download. A video of her music is also placed onto the opening page to promote her music and give a taster of her music. Many websites have promotional boxes for other websites, promoting their products on the artists website. The colours and and images have an old fashion feel to it. Breaking the norm for music these days, producing a different style of music in the actual sound but also the visual presentaion. The colours are quite dark which goes against the style of her music and usual presentation of what i would describe as a hippy look. But the the websites theme goes with her new album with the idea of Lungs with an actual lung that breathes. This really works well as it connects to her album and her music. What doesn't work about this website is that it aims to produce the best looking website, this takes up internet memory usage. So those using an old computer it would take a long time to load or might not be able to support the websites usage.

Getting a Niche

What most artists try to do is create a niche that will make them stand out different to the rest. Much like Lily Allen, whos musical tastes evolved from glam rock to a new alternative style of music. However since her new style was created many have tried to copy her style. A contract was signed with the label Regal recordings, as the views on her MySpace account rose to tens of thousands. Kate Nash is an example of this but has been seen to be copying her style and has become less succesful. However at the start of her carrier she was not instantly famous as bands like coldplay were exciting the public with their own new style.

What coldplay managed to do, which many artists do find difficult, was to create a sound that nearly every age loved. Coldplay's early material was compared to acts such as Radiohead, They achieved worldwide fame with the release of the single 'Yellow' and quickly became loved around the world.

Music videos

There are different types of music video that all intend to visually capture the audience. There are narrative based videos that tell the audience a story. Then there are performance based videos that concentrate mainly on the artists as the perform. Concept based videos which can just be random.


An example of a performance based music video is this song by the Foo fighters, My hero. The Foo fighters do alot of performance based videos as do most bands under the rock music genre. This video is about a man saving people out of a burning buildingm and within the building the band are in the house playing their song as if theyre not there, invisible. The whole video is a hand held shot with no cutting to different angles as if we, as the audience, were him saving people. Clever editting was used also to put the singers face on the tv screen as he's actually singing.

An example of a narrative based video is this song by Plan B, She said. Its a great example of a narrative video as it has a story to the video that links to the lyrics. The lyrics that link he says he's in court, in a box infront of a judge which in the video he really is. The video is of him being in court for a crime he didnt comit. He eventually get taken down for it in the end.

Alex Day

Alex day is a young artist trying to get his music out there to the public. He has created his own website for the public to listen to his music free and download it off iTunes if they saw fit. He has finished his album and is available for purchase now on iTunes. He has an interesting sound that drew us into his music, his song 'The world is mine' was a starting option for us and we really liked the song. So we emailed him asking for permition to use his track in our music video. We got a reply back an hour later saying we could use his song and we had a song available for our use if we wanted.
http://www.alexdaymusic.com/

Here is how we contacted the artist:

On 20 Jul 2010, at 18:09, Elliott Gallimore wrote:

Hi Alex, my name is Elliott Gallimore, I'm currently studying my A-levels and have been set the task to create a music video over the summer using the song of my choice and would like to ask permission to use your song 'Candy Floss'. In the interest of copyright i thought it important to ask authorisation from yourself. Thankyou very much for your time, Elliott Gallimore

Reply from Alex:

Sure, help yourself! :D

xOn 22 Jul 2010, at 14:55, Elliott Gallimore wrote:

Hi again Alex, sorry about this but I was wondering whether instead of Candy Floss as the song that I make a music video for could I perhaps use 'The World is Mine (I don't know anything), thanks very much for your help :D

Reply from Alex:

All my songs are available for whatever people want, so yeah, go ahead :D x

Finding our artist

Our task is to create a music video for a song of our choice and explore the creation of a meaningful video. We began by searching for unsigned artists as their music is free to use in whatever the public wants as the song is not owned by a company selling music to the public. We found sites like http://www.theunsignedguide.com/ which show cases peoples music to the public and is a great way for bands to get their music out there for the record labels to see. We found many interesting bands but not in the stye we were looking for and unfortunately there was a lack of any interesting music, a lot of it we found dull. Many artists get their music out by youtube, which is a great site for free videos of basically anything, This is how we stumbled across our first artist option, Alex Day. He is a recently signed small artist who has many home videos of him singing and showing off his music. He is young and jumped out at us with a song that we thought is different in his own style but comfortbale for knew listeners to be drawn in.

Goodwin's theory

Goodwin’s Theory is based on 8 main principles:

-Links between Lyrics and Visuals

-Links between Music and Visuals (Complimentary, Contradicting or Amplification)

-Genre characteristics

-Intertextual reference

-Notions of Looking (objectification of women)

-Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at artist, insight into artists life, screens and mirrors)


-Demands of the Record Label (representation of the artist)

-Performance based, Narrative based or Concept based music videos

Lyrics and visuals:


Goodwin suggests that the written lyrics will link to the visuals on screen. Visuals will reinforce what the lyrics are trying to say. An example of this is within the Griminal – Invincible music video. The lyrics are telling the story of a boy and girl in love, using personal terms about a relationship such as “we” and “us”. This is emphasised further on screen by the couple sharing an intimate moment. Finally the lyrics lead up to the word “love” on screen this is followed up by the ring reading love and the way the couple are together on screen, in love.

Genre Characteristics:

These are depicted as the certain traits associated with a particular music genre. For example a rock video usually have a video with the band performing live on stage, Greenday does this alot with their music. For grime music it shows the strongest culture visually more than other genres of music. The typical grime video’s you would expect them to have the strong culture that has a narrative based story, with hoods and ‘urban’ clothing, a trait of many grime songs is to perceive the artist as if he/she is just writing the music. Eminem is an global icon ringing this culture to the wold within his lyrics style of clothing and the visual within his music videos. He appears hooded and in run down back alleys, typical of this culture.

Notions of looking:

Notions of looking plays on the idea of gaze and the way someone in particular is seen by us as the audience. For example, the stereotypes of women in music video’s are often presented according to Goodwin as objects. Notions of looking however is not just restricted to women, it may also represent men in a particular way such as controlling or violent as cheats etc. Looking directly or indirectly at the camera is an obvious form of this and an example of this is 'Pink-who knew'.