R + P Post 19: My influences and vision for the project

              

Above is our group's 'steal-o-matic'. This is a presentation/pitch of our ideas for the music video, shown visually. Recently, after the creation of our steal-o-matic, we came across a music video which we have taken a lot of inspiration from and would have liked to include a lot of clips of it in our steal-o-matic. I will link the video below. It reflects the London culture perfectly without being too obvious in terms of landmarks. It also forms an interesting perspective on youth culture, especially London Youth Culture and we want to also use their shaky, hand-held filming style.

             

A steal-o-metic is an easier way of sharing our ideas and making them come to life; it paints a much better picture than words are able to describe. It also makes sure all our ideas are synced as a group so we have the same vision of what our finished project will hopefully look like. We were able to experiment with how we are going to mix narrative and studio shots and in what order.

We took clips from a very wide variety of music videos including artists from Nicki Minaj to Chase and Status. Overall, I think our steal-o-matic is informative but could have been better.

Here is some teacher feedback we received:

• need to cut to the music much more
• be clearer that the start of your music video (the argument) will be without music
• use the opening lyrics ("na na na na na") to create a fast-paced montage sequence to open the music video
• we need to go back and analyse the percentage of time we want to be taken up by narrative and by performance-reccomended that we don't go narrative-heavy
• think about WHERE the cuts can be made-away from performance/into performance
• use beauty shots for the opening "na na na na" sequence
• don't under-estimate the use of big close-ups; vital for a  music video
• main performer (girl) could gradually throw away physical items which are restricting her to symbolise the things in life that hold her back
• make strong connections with the performer and actor-use of make-up?

R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

We decided to analyse our track's lyrics as we felt it was important to get a clear and in-depth understanding of what they mean and how we could interpret them in the later stages of the process.

Slide Set created by eleanor lynch with GoConqr

R + P Post 17: My chosen track

AlunaGeorge-Best Be Believing

Released: 2013
Album: Body Music
Written By: Francis, Reid, Sam Frank
Produced By: Reid

Label: Island records, Universal

PROS:

• It has a good beat-light-hearted
• message behind the lyrics appropriate for our artists-about breaking free from a relationship
• female vocals
• synth-pop genre 
• catchy lyrics-simple for our actress and the audience to remember

CONS:

• Over 3 minutes long-need to cut it down effectively
• the literal meaning of each verse/lyric is quite complicated to figure out-could be interpreted differently BUT this is also a pro

In order to stick to copyright laws, I emailed Island records (managed by universal music) to enquire about using their artist's track in our project, on behalf of our group.

We will be posting our finished music video on youtube and therefore, don't want it to get deleted. 

R + P Post 16: My band or artist

Our band/artist will be a duo consisting of one female and one male. Their name, together, with be MiraJax. The age of our artists will be early 20s - the female being 21 and the male being 23. Separately, their names are Mira and Jack but we shortened Jack to Jax to sound more catchy.

Below, I made two photo collages showing a rough idea of how our duo will be styled visually.

Jax/Jack

Mira

Richard Dyer's 'Star' theory

Dyer suggests that the audience often admire or relate to certain qualities the star promotes. This could include attitude, dress or even culture. Sometimes this can have a negative impact on the audience, say for example if the star is a drug addict/alcoholic, the audience would still idolise them. Our duo will have a laid-back, 'don't give a f*ck' attitude and promote self-love and being 'different' through both their image and their music. They've learnt to be this way through life experiences, and repeatedly being told, considering their rough upbringing, that they wouldn't get anywhere in the music industry.

R + P Post 15: My record label

We have chosen Island Records to be our record label. This is an existing Record Label which originated from Jamaica but is now based in the UK although, also, having headquarters in the USA.

Artists that are currently signed to them and were signed to them include...

• Amy Winehouse
• AlunaGeorge
• Tough Love
• Drake
• Disclosure
• Dizzie rascal
• Florence and the Machine etc...

I believe these are all artists who reflect current music trends AND more niche music trends and this record label as a whole represents the youth,diversity and raw talent in the music industry. 

R + P Post 14: My target audience

Primary Audience: 16-25 year olds, predominantly girls

Our primary audience is young people, predominantly girls, aged 16-25. We will hopefully appeal to girls who like to stay 'on-trend' with their fashion, music and cultural choices. They will also be girls who like socialising with their friends and don't like to be too ordinary-girls with a bit of colour in their life! We want them to relate to our artist's vibrant style and personality and not wish to be held back b anything or anyone.

Secondary Audience: Fans of the synth-pop genre

Our secondary audience will be people who love to listen to synth-pop as our debut single, along with the rest of our album will be based around this genre. 

Tertiary Audience: 16-25 year old males (boyfriends and friends)

For our tertiary audience, we will be targeting young boys. They will, perhaps, be the boyfriends/friends/brothers of our primary target audience. These might be the people who decide to buy the album for their girlfriend or take them to see the concert as a friend. 

It is important to have a clear idea of who our target audience is, on every level, so that we can use the most appropriate platforms when starting to distribute our products and artist brand. It is also important to have what the audience is attracted to and enjoys in mind all the time, so we are constantly making decisions referring back to what matters the most - our consumer.  

R + P Post 13: Influences and inspiration from art, fashion and culture

It is very important for us to present our artist/band with a style which is super edgy and inspired by street-wear. Our TA will then be able to relate with our artist/band but they need to also be able to aspire to the artist so they can become a 'fan' of them. We can do this by dressing our artist/band in styles which are considered trendy and desirable for the audience.

famous South African beaded bangles

We found a lot of inspiration in South African artwork and culture. Their use of colour is exactly what we would like to achieve in our music video. Rather than going for neons and pale colours, we want the makeup and colouring of our music video to be much richer.

Surma child covered in vibrant tribal paint

abstract art piece by South African artist

Another big inspiration for us is 2000s fashion style. Particularly the clothing worn in old RnB videos. Here are some example screenshots of outfits taken from old 2000s RnB videos...

Even though the style shown above was predominantly American, UK style plays a huge part in our influences for our music video as we want to make it as realistic and relatable to our UK audience.

We came accross the designer CAITLIN PRICE who creates street-wear inspired clothing collections. Some of her collections are sold in Selfridges which is obviously very high end with some of her pieces selling for £620. Our audience would generally be too young to afford or relate to this style of clothing, but the fact she took ideas from streetwear (which is generally cheaper) and some of rave culture which reflects on the style we want to create for our artist; edgy.

CAITLIN PRICE AW16

I looked at some other designers from London Fashion Week September 2016 and found some designers' collections which fit the style we are going for.

FYODOR GOLAN AW16

TATA NAKA AW16

TOPSHOP UNIQUE AW16

J.JS LEE AW16

As you can see, all these collections are very urban and edgy. Some feature a lot of colour and some are more monogram. Some feature patterns which remind me of tribal prints and traditional African clothing. You can also see a lot of street-wear and sportswear worn by youths being reflected in new fashion trends. 

We want to portray youth and diversity through our artist's styling because children are our future and so the styles they create or aspire to now will be huge fashion statements.

 I believe RIHANNA portrays this 'urban' fashion look really well and subsequently many youths aspire to her because of it. She seems to be able to pull off every outfit you could think of! This edgy, funky and urban style mixed with her 'I don't give a f*ck' attitude and controversial dance music, makes her a diverse but inspirational and quirky role model for young people.

I would love to interpret some of these fashions into the styling of our artist/band.