Planning - Potential Song Choices

 Oasis - Morning Glory

Oasis are a band commonly associated with anthemic music, being chanted at events such as football matches. Morning Glory tells a story through lyricism which could become a successful music video because of the story line throughout, Morning Glory is an uplifting song about bringing yourself together as it states in the lyrics 'need a little time to wake up' with a strong guitar riff - this song is an accurate representation of an anthem and would be an ideal song.

Pulp - Common People

A classic British anthem that is colourful in both lyrics and visually about a wealthy woman meeting a working class man and adapting to his simple lifestyle. This song tells a story which would be an easy route to associate Andrew Goodwins principle of matching the lyrics with the visuals, furthermore, due to the 80's visuals it would be easier to include intertextuality within the music video.

Blur - Country House

A song infamous for its music video, this particularly visually engaging song tells the story of a wealthy man in the city who is taken aback by the busy city and wants to settle down in the country to live a simple life, however is trapped as he is 'caught in the rat race, terminally'

Oasis - Champagne Supernova

A much slower song in comparison to the other options, however remains a beloved British anthem nonetheless and has plenty of room to experiment with visuals and technical effects.

Industrial Context - Contemporary Context

The major players in the music industry:

Economy:

It can range from the artist themselves, the producer, the record company or anyone that wants to take the chance and make the investment. If an artist is signed to a major music label, the funding for a music video is normally provided by the label, this would also happen if the artist is signed to an independent label. 

Music videos make money from both direct and indirect revenue streams. Some examples of direct revenue are the actual sales of the video (digital downloads), sponsorship, ad revenue from platforms such as YouTube and product placement, for example Drake's 'Headlines' video heavily features Nike. Then forms of indirect revenue include royalties from the video, donations and crowdfunding, live performance opportunities, merchandise sales and performance royalties.

Distribution:

Distribution companies such as Vevo, Tidal and Vimeo sign deals with record labels, which gives them the right to sell that label's products. The distributor takes a cut of income from each unit sold and then pays the label the remaining balance.

Accessibility:

Music videos have recently become more accessible through the advancement of technology. Audiences are now able to download as well as stream music videos straight to their devices to watch when they want. The main 3 ways that audiences access videos are the internet, through platforms such as YouTube and Vevo, the TV and channels such as MTV, and media players/apps like iTunes where people can buy and downloads music and videos. 

Industrial Context - History of Music Videos

 Timeline of Music Videos

1894 - Sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would be known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video. 

1926 - Arrival of "talkies" and many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (produced by Warner Bros) featured many bands, vocalists and dancers.

Early 1930s - cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons

1940-7 - Soundies were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos

Mid 1940s - Musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film, Lookout Sister

Musical films were also an important part of music videos, and several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. For example, Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl"

Late 1950s - Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was invented in France and short films were produced by many French artists

1964 - Beatles starred in their feature film, A Hard Day's Night, which was shot in black and white as a mockumentary

1965 - Beatles began making promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in different countries, so they could promote their record releases without having to make in-person appearances. 

1974 - Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds, were significant in developing and popularising what would later become the music video genre in Australia and other countries

1975 - Queen promo video made to show their new single "Bohemian Rhapsody" on BBCs Top of the Pops. Song described as "widely credited as the first global hit single for which an accompanying video was central to the marketing strategy".

1979 - "Video killed the Radio Star" clip made which was the first music video played on MTV in 1981

1981 - MTV launched - 24 hour a day music on television

Innovations in the development of modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy to use video recording and editing equipment.

1983 - 14 minute long video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller", directed by John Landis. One of the most successful, influential and iconic music videos

1997 - iFilm launched, hosted short videos including music videos

Mid 2000s - MTV largely abandoned showing music videos in favour of reality Tv shows

2005 - YouTube launched, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier, Google Videos, Yahoo! Video, Facebook and Myspace's video function used similar technology

At its launch, iTunes store provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched 

2009 - VEVO launched. The videos on VEVO are syndicated to YouTube, with Google and VEVO sharing the advertising revenue

2010 -  Lyric videos started being made and Vertical videos started being made that are tailored to mobile devices

Contemporary context - who are the major players in this industry (info graphic). How do companies finance, distribute and exchange their products. How do audiences access them? (consider recent developments in technology) 

The largest corporations are EMI records, Sony, Vivendi Universal, AOL time warner and BMG, and are collectively known as the big five. 

Research - Audience Profile 2

 

Name: Bobby Welch

Age: 17

Occupation: Football player

Psychometric: Mainstreamer

Interests: Football, PS4, Fifa, English

I listen to drill primarily and do not watch music videos regularly unless they catch my eye, mainly music videos with a narrative as it intrigues me as to where the storyline is going. A video that I enjoyed was Take On Me by Aha due to the contrasting colours and interesting style of the video.

Name: Albi Muja

Age: 16

Occupation: Chemist

Psychometric: Explorer

Interests: Physics, Chemistry, Maths

I tend to listen to upbeat songs such as Avicci's music and enjoy videos with bright colours without the dreary tone of sad songs.

Name: Lyam Kirton

Age: 17

Occupation: Vape Salesman

Psychometric: Mainstreamer

Interests: Goalkeeping, Curry, Cheese

I like rock music, especially blind witness and 3 days grace, as for music videos I never really pay attention to them as I prefer to truly listen to the music and appreciate the talent, however 1 music video that I am a fan of  'The Real Slim Shady' by Eminem

Name: Emma Firmin

Age: 40

Occupation: Self-Employed

Psychometric: Mainstreamer

Interests: Netflix, Shopping, Cooking

I am a big fan of country music and listen to a lot of John Denver. I appreciate relaxing music videos where not too much is going on as it gives me a headache.

Name: Imran Badruddin

Age: 40

Occupation: Gas Engineer

Psychometric: Reformer

Interests: Films, History, Politics

I like many types of music, but am especially fond of 90's Britpop such as Blur and Oasis, the classic colourful music videos never cease to impress me no matter how many times I watch them and it is interesting to try and spot references within videos.

Research - Audience Profile

 Audience research

 An audience of ages 16-25 is very broad and leaves plentiful room for experimentation and taking many perspectives. Around 6 million people from the UK fall into this category and so the despite the generic age group, this collective are aware of social issues, mainstream supporters and veer towards alternative interests such as indie-pop. This demographic engages in terms of popular culture, as it is the new age for technology and music, leading a new ideal world and combatting societal issues frequently. This demographic is ideal for my brief (music video) as it provides a personal input from myself, simply creating more links that I can relate to - furthermore, 16-25 is an age in which a modern society will be of an understanding which can mean a more open opportunity for a music video.

Planning - Moderators Report

 

Brief 4 Advice

1. It is essential to the nature of the music video to maintain editing which keeps consistent to the BPM and pace of the video, lacking this could lead to inconsistencies and an unsuccessful music video. This is integral to the genre explained within the brief as an 'Anthem' as this type of music is renowned for its upbeat tempo and catchy tune.

2. Mise-en-scene featuring school fields / classrooms/ uniform. In several centres, it was hard to see that two social groups were represented. Clear representation of multiple different social groups and the mise-en-scene should be relevant to the songs tempo and rhythm. 

3. The best products demonstrated that candidates had understood the specific requirements of the brief relating to genre, representation and industrial context and clearly researched this before planning their own pieces. There were some very creative and accomplished productions seen which, through strong technical skills, demonstrated a fundamental understanding of the relevant codes and conventions. 

4. Most videos included some element of performance, although some were conceptual or narrative pieces. Some videos demonstrated very well-performed lip-synching, although this was more often a weaker element. Most videos took into account the requirement that there be two social groups featured (some quite inventive approaches were seen to address this) and costumes/ settings often addressed an AB audience. Most videos featured a range of shots and camera movement.

5. Tracks that did not fit the dance genre. Although this is a very broad field, some songs chosen could not be regarded as dance, with a number of pop/ballad tracks, for example (e.g. a low-tempo piano track by Lorde with no drums or bass; several indie rock pieces and at least one 1980s classic which, good though it was, was clearly not ‘dance’)

6. Representation is a named criteria for this specification but lots of work was submitted featuring young people in ‘normal’ clothing, making no attempt to follow conventions and create messages via the costume. An effort should be made to include as many clothing styles within boundaries to ensure a fair representation of all people.

7. Lots of videos this year which shot actors from behind walking away from camera, sometimes holding hands, sometimes not. This is not a convention but seems to be very popular and should be avoided.

8. Camerawork/ camera movement which did not demonstrate the level of skill, finish or excellence required for Level 5 marks to be secured – although this is less important than it was for the legacy specification, the criteria relating to this uses the descriptors ‘sophisticated’ and ‘accomplished’; where shots are out of focus or the camera-operator is reflected in glass, it is difficult to agree that these are appropriate terms to use.

Brief Decision

 The brief I have selected is brief 4 as I feel it allows creative freedom and a personal involvement within my work, I can truly engage with this brief and freely express myself as well as my media capabilities.