Playlist

I have added a playlist to our blog so that it means more people will look at our blog and it will keep people entertained whilst reading through our posts. This will keep people viewing our blog.

Search Box

I also added a search box to make it easier to navigate our blog for easy access.

Twitter update

I also added a twitter update so that the blog contained my twitter posts, this could help us to gain more views to our blog getting more band publicity.

Institutions

having looked for bands we feel would be our inspiration and the record labels signed to them we have decided that we would probably be signed to an indipendant label such as Rough Trade Records because they fit other artists who play music similar to a\our genre. Conversely we could also be signed to a mainstream label such Virgin or island records as these have signed bands such as mumford and sons who we feel play very similar music to our own genre.

The shortlist for our influencing bands / artists would be:
- Laura Marling
- Mumford & sons
- Noah and the Whale

Target Audience

Age Range
Teens to late 30's
This is a large age range however it is differentiated by demographics


The gender
Both male and female. There is no specific gender for our genre


The social class
Aimed at working to middle class. This can be portrayed by their clothing style which is quite inexpensive


The demographics
They are likely to be interested in more than one genre but find our genre easy to listen to. They acquire
 the music online on itunes as well as purchasing it in store.

How we will reach our target audience

Our audience is quite young and is exposed to a great deal of online advertising and word of mouth via social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. With this in mind we can create public facebook groups which include an embedded flash mp3 player which will play selected songs. This can also be susceptible to viral marketing as other friends check out the band which there friend has just become a fan of. Myspace has moved from personal social pages to bands which. It has become a good place to look for new bands so having a myspace page would be beneficial to the bands online presence. Another way for a music video in particular to proliferate the web would be to host it on a video sharing site which runs on user added content such as youtube. You can also monitor the users, who have commented on your video, country and other stats, this will help outline the target audience.

My personal progress

I have achieved three analytical blog posts, two for the specific genre which our band fits into. I have also created a post on the relationship between the band and the fans explaining what is needed to create a parasocial relationship with your audience and what the important factors are in making this. I have also made a flickr account which i intend to use for uploading pictures of interesting camera shots used in various genres and an album for our specific genre. I have put some thought into the bands name as well.

The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way Analysis

The music video starts off with the band in a coach, which has been filmed by attaching a camera to transport in front. This has a variation on the hand held camera effect as the shot is not perfect as if it were on a trolley. They continue to travel to different places through out the video in this coach as the camera flashes back to them periodically throughout the video to emphasize the change in scenery and there activity. The are two aspects in the video that help create a parasocial relationship between the audience and the band. The camera style used on the coach gives the video more of a intimate feel with the rest of the band. This is done by using a rushed hand held camera style with the band mucking about while on the road which makes the audience feel almost as if they are there with them. The other way they attract a parasocial relationship is by having shots in the piece with the artist miming the lyrics to the song. This is often done to parts of the song they wish to stand out such as the chorus or specific words that tie into the video. Another subtle technique used is the use of video which relates to the lyrics. An example of this is at 0:33 of the video and also shown in the attached picture when the lyric "you don't pull my strings" is played the camera zooms out from a close up of a double bass to tie in with the word "strings" used in the shot.

It seems to be quite typical of indie artists to use dim lit locations as well as low colour saturation. This is one way it differentiates from other genres, especially a genre such as 'pop princess' where vivid colour and bold characteristics act a strong part in there characteristics Indie gives off more of a low tone feeling which is shown in the above video. It also shows that it hasn't been as artificially created compared to other genres, which reflects independent bands such as the kooks who go for more cheap looking simplistic daily life videos. The style is used to contact with the target audience too. There target audience will be in the teen/student category. People in this category are not going to be wealthy and have much money to spend on clothing. The indie look is quite inexpensive to wear so the audience feels more a part of what they do and how they look. A lot of attention is given to the artist in this video which is also typical of indie music videos, it also helps relate back to style.

Link to video (Embedding disabled by request ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6-QM0_Prp0&ob=av2n

Indie Music Video Analysis- The Pigeon Detectives- Im Not Sorry

This is a music video of a current Indie Band and it represents a style and grace that most Indie videos contain, this video is a good way in linking the lyrics to the video and helps show the feelings felt by the artists. This will help get a relationship between both audience and artists.

In the first scene we see them turn up at a junkyard in a small old car, this in itself suggests that the band are not very well off and it creates an image which suggests they are just like any normal person. This can be linked to John Stewart's theory by the performance not being on stage it can link and give more access to the performer.  By use of this Mise En Scene it means that the audience can relate as many of their target audience are of the younger age who aren't as well off as many in society. Then it flickers to a dangerous dog barking this suggests that they are not allowed to be their and represents danger and excitement this is effective in the video as this is what the song is about. It shows the band being aggressive and throwing chairs and keying cars throughout this give the band a reckless "live life to the fullest" appearance. Not only this but it links to the song title too being "I'm Not Sorry" this shows that they don't care about what they are doing and the consequences this will appeal to the audiences. We then see him singing in the car, this can show who is singing the song then he sings to the camera and by having these sight lines it creates an effect as though he is singing to his audience this will create a relationship.
Throughout this video there are lots of cuts as the music is fast pased and it helps narrate the story to the audience better. The fact that the video is shot in black and white helps give the video a vintage effect and also it can make the video seem more enjoyable to the audience as black and white music videos are rare, its a contrast to the typical Indie music video of the artists playing stage and singing about a girl. However they do play in the back of a lorry this brings all the performers together and shows who does what in the band therefore creating a relationship with the audience. As it is in black and white it is hard to tell the lighting of the scenes however you can see how most of it is natural light as it is outside. The black and white effect could have connotations of jail as jail links to dull black and white criminal colours.


The Video contains numerous different types of camera shots as it has close ups, mid shots, POV, wormhole, long shots and establishing shots. For example there are lots of close ups on the singers face when he sings the key parts of the lyrics in which the band wants to spread an message to their fans. There is also close ups when he is keying the car you see just his hand scratching the whole length of the car, this creates a rebellious effect, there are also close ups on the guitars on the big guitar parts of the song. Windows get smashed throughout this video in a close up shot then it flickers to a mid shot so you can see how they are doing it.
The Image of the artists is a very "normal" casual appearance and it would be hard to tell them out of a crowd due to there casual appearance. However there image can easily be immitated by fans as there clothing is not hard to imitate, this can create a better relatioship between fans and band. However it can be said their look is not that unique but they are all wearing leather jackets in which the fans would copy. There image looks laid back and casual. They just look like the sterotypical indie band.
 

In conclusion this video is effective through its Mise En Scene, camera shots, editing and through its representation.

Ideal audience profile

• Artist: local Beauties
• Her name is Zara. She is a 17 year old sixth form student studying Art, Media and Drama. She is aiming to study  fashion at a University in Cardiff. 
• She is a fan of Laura Marling, Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay bicycle Club, and Mumford & sons including all of the album tracks rather than the commercialized single tracks.
• She listens to her music on a 1st Gen iPod Touch that her dad got her for her 16th birthday. However she has a clumsy streak and thus has gone through 5 sets of earphones. Currently she is using £7.99 orange Gummi earphones she found in HMV with her freinds.
• She Gets all of her music from VidtoMp3.com as it conveniently lets her get music for free straight from youtube. This is because she does not have a clue on earth how to use Bitorrent clients and has no money to spare for purchasing music on iTunes
• She works a saturday job in a local teashop spending most of her time gossiping and drinking vanilla latte with her workmates whilst she slices egg & watercress sandwiches
• She spends all of her money on clothes at various charity and vintage shops. She has precisely 4 piercings in on ear with only 2 in the other. Which cost her one month of her allowance from her highly strung parents. She still hasn't plucked up the courage to tell her parents about the retro flower tattoo she has on the back of her neck.
• She doesnt really care about technology and would much rather sit down for an hour with her pet spaniel (who has a very tatty coat) on her lap whilst she reads and drinks tea with no sugar.
• Frequently hands in half finished homework, but sees it as needless due to the creative nature of her subjects.
• She is in between relationships and currently hold men in very low esteem.

Audience research

We have researched radio stations and their audiences to work on our audience profile:

BBC RADIO ONE 
- mainstream
- played at a louder base volume
- Top 40, pop. hip-hop, RnB, Indie and other current music genres

BBC RADIO TWO
- Quieter base volume
- Easier listening, Indie
- aimed at ages 30 to early 60





BBC RADIO SIX
- plays classic songs from the 90's as well as light rock and indie.









OXYGEN RADIO
- internet radio
- reach young middle active audience



In conclusion Our predominant radio domain would be on radio one or two depending on how successful the band becomes. If say we were to become commercialized and become signed on a big name record label like bands such as the kooks and the script we could definitely expect to be played on Radio One, and Oxygen radio, However if we were to remain an independent band with less success and less input from the music industry we could be expected to be seen on websites such as Last F.M. and on radio stations such as BBC radio Two. Or even remain an internet famous band (if applicable) appearing on websites such as Youtube and MySpace music such as the band Ok, go!.

We needed to research radio stations, and we picked a select few and discovered that radio 2 would play many indie songs, and radio 1 would only play the big hits from indie.

Radio Analysis

BBC Radio 1
Played at a louder base volume
Top 40, pop, hip hop RnB, indie most other current genres
Aimed at  Teens of ages 15 yo 29 years old as well as others who share similar tastes.
It radio channel should offer a range of new music as well as new artists especially from he UK
There are a selection of news articles, documentaries and advice campaigns that would be relevant to the age group.

BBC Radio two
Played at a quieter base volume
Easy listening, indie
Aimed at ages 35 and up
It is designed to play distinctive music and mixed music genres and is targeted at a large audience.

BBC Radio six
Plays clasic songs from 90's as well a new indie and light rock
Indie, rock and other classic music from the 1960's to present
The station focuses on music newly released which isn't mainstream. It also utilizes the bbc sound archive, they also support live music renditions.
Aimed at 20's to late 40's

Target Audience for an Indie Band

The Indie genre is generally quite popular and many people enjoy listening to Indie Music. I need to find out who my target audience as obviously I need to sell the video to them and make them enjoy it, therefore creating more views around the world leading to more profit. Not only this the video is a great way into getting more fans as this could lead to them seeing your video in the first place and liking you.

Indie's target audience generally leans towards a younger person and generally a male prefers the music to females. 15-24 year olds are generally the most listeners and enjoy the mucis for what it is, therefore meaning we should aim to please them and this will keep the fans coming. I think that the reason for this target audience is because of what the stereotypical Indie band represents and they are usually of this age. They share the same style sense and the bands lifestyle and culture may relate to a more male audience and to this age range.

                                                                         This image represents the indie style.

Camera angles

Camera angles in an indie video:

• Wide shots of the whole band playing instruments in performence format.
• Panning and tracking follwoing band members acting out narrtative plot of the song.
• Close up's on instruments and band members. 
• Birds eye shots of crowds of fans.

What makes an indie band

Indie bands have the potential to produce music independently, many indie bands work their way up through doing live gigs, so for an indie music video it is common to include some shots of a live performence, indie/rock are the main audience that attend gigs so including some of this footage gives the audience what they want. Indie music will generically consits of guitars, drums etc, so showing the band playing these instruments in a music video shows that the music matters just as much as the vocals to this genre of music, it creates the image that they are professional about their work and differ from say a pop band, as usually a pop video will not show the band members playing guitars, because pop music does not rely on such instruments, because they make a song recogniseable as indie/rock. Bands such as'Arcade Fire' experiment with instruments generically used in other genres as music, such as the use of harp and vioilins. This is called hybrid genre, however doing this is also quite recogniseable as an indie/rock trate at present as more indie bands are experimenting with this to show their individuality.

Flickr

I have made a Flickr account to upload and share pictures. I can print screen certain parts and camera techniques used in various music videos and upload them to show the other group members. I can also use it for pictures of sets for the music video or to illustrate written analysis's.

Locations of an Indie Video

All music videos have there own location and setting and they all vary due to the narrative or concept of the song.

When looking at Indie videos we must take into consideration the style of the song, most indie videos narrative consists of a love story. And most Indie videos are low budget therefore meaning the videos lacks quality in terms of special effects and film quality. For example






These are the Union Jackals a relatively new indie band. As you can see from this video it is set in simple to produce places like the beach and a town/city. By doing this it makes it a lot cheaper and helps your fans relate to you and it creates a bond because it may be a place the fans could go and it shows reality in the band. It shows they are just normal people. The clip generally is just set in a town and it is really effective as when the camera zooms out it makes the man seem lonely thus creating part of the narrative as it shows something about him.
In the beach shots it presents the sea to be tranquil and the weather to be bright and sunny as it links to the lyrics of the song. Not only this but makes the song more cheerful. There is also a man with a box on his head and a pictures of the sun on it. This links to the lyrics and the song title and also throughout you see people staring or even laughing at him, this gives off an impression he is either a joker or not very normal. And the Juxtaposition of a man in a town with a box on his head is head turning as it is not something you would usually see. It adds a comical value to the song making it more light hearted.

And finally once again towards the end it relates to a love story as a women understands him and holds and with him. This is a typical indie song in the narrative point of view. It sticks the the theme of the genre.

Poll

I have also added a poll to the top of our blog in order to gain votes from external readers to have their say on the naming of our band.

New buttons & Video Analysis & A filming idea

New Twitter Buttons

I added a couple of twitter Hyperlink buttons to mine and Max's Twitter accounts. This should hopefully increase web traffic to them and allow a greater link betwen the blog and our accounts so that we seem like a more complete media unit to any external readers of the blog/ fans of our music video production.

Music Video ideas





This is The video for Vampire weekends song "A-Punk". As you can see this video is comprised of a single scene and is filmed with actions going in time to the music. I think we should utilize scene changes in our music video as it is hard to make a successful video with only one scene, however i think that some elements of our video could be in time to the music, however we should do it with discretion and keep it simple, i.e. scene changes could be effected by different parts of the song or simple actions like doors closing, but making the whole video in time would be far too complex. However as can be seen above, a very popular indie band is using the effect so this should be a cue for us to try and incorporate it.



This is the video for Rebellion (lies) by The Arcade Fire. This video incorporates a narrative that includes live performance along side a storyline that depicts the the songs message and theme. As well as using camera blur effectively

Filming idea
This is something that I think we should do for our local beauties song "souls on fire". As far as i can tell from my listening to the song the theme is about a strained relationship following the boys side of the story. I think we could do something like the camera following fiona (playing the Girl) going through the motions of a break-up and being surrounded by her soon to be ex-boyfriend i.e. Max, Jack or myself playing guitar and lip-syncing in places around her house (sitting on her sofa) , connoting the theme that it is hard to forget a loved one, whilst also connoting that the boy is not over her yet by staying around her. However I thin that we should play on the theme that the boy is not actually there, but rather just following her in her day to day life like a ghost. This could convey the message of the song whilst utilizing the aforementioned effects.

A good example of the sort of Narrative i mean would be this video
Simple Plan - When I'm Gone

 I couldn't find a video that had embedding code allowed so you'll have to make-do with a link Sorry. Although this video isn't indie, or anywhere near our genre it still conveys the basic theme that i was trying to describe earlier. However I think our music video should be more low-key and really play on it In keeping with the Independant roots of the indie genre. i.e a video set in a house/flat with parts of live performance included when the boy is on camera and boy and girl are singing in the 'local Beauties' song, we could do the latter like a flashback to the better parts of the relationship between the two characters. With the ending of the music vido being the girl sitting next to the boy playing guitar and singing along with him, connoting to the audience that they are back together. 

If we do this closely following conventions of the indie genre, i.e. wearing the same style of clothes/make up and in the right setting this sort of video could appeal to a teenage audience predominantly as they stereotypically relate to relationships as a theme more than other age groups.

Another idea we could add to this outline would be use of black and white and colours, we should definatley experiment with using black and white in certain parts of the music video, using it to denote certain moods that the girl is experiencing, or anything else the rest of the media group has to suggest, but it could definatly be worth looking into, we could even have it at certain points of action.

Filming Idea

Basically as I have a small obsession with stop motion and find it really effective, I think we could have a stop motion of say Me and Fiona (as we are at this stage the two candidates for actors in the video) walking down the same street and using stop motion flicker between myself and her in a fluid way. i.e. it will cut to her in a position that would be continuing on from my movement, thus creating a seamless transition in the stop motion whilst looking very effective. We could do the flickers between us in time with the music if we can work out how to do it.




This is a great example of stop motion, and we feel that this would look great in our indie video. I think that it is really quirky and we can make it look really indie and professional.

John Mayer - Waiting On The World To Change Video analysis

At the beginning  of the video there is an opening shot which gives you an idea of the setting for the piece. Another obvious video effect which they have used throughout is a use of dull footage, it has a low colour saturation. Close up clips have been taken of the singer of him walking slowly through the city towards a independent artist who go out into the city to graffiti. This gives the feeling of independence and a strong creative personality. During the song he mimes the words along to the song for the chorus which makes them stand out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaLA0tFVxts&ob=av2n (Embedding disabled by request)

Possible Band Names

We want a fresh and unique band name, that must conform to the indie genre e.g nothing to dark or nothing too happy. These are the names we will present to other students to vote on which they think is the best in terms of the indie genre.


Gosforth

Frank Monk

Harthorne Wingo

Neri Medina

Millennial Fair

Faux Bois

Bantry Bay

Dazed of the Famous

These were all randomly generated by wikipedia's random article generator. We selected out a choice of favourites and shortlisted them.

content taken from: Wikipedia

Online presence of bands

It has become very important with the rise of the Internet to have a strong online presence when promoting your band. Bands keep a parasocial relationship with their fans by owning online fan pages on social networking sites such as facebook and also band pages where you can talk and listen to their music. In fact many bands today have a Facebook music page to spread their band by word of mouth, Myspace page for social networking, official band Twitter account to keep constant interaction with their fan base, YouTube/Vimeo channel to distribute their music, a SoundCloud account as as another way to store and spread their music in an easy to use form, Flickr profile for pictures related to the bands activity's, iTunes/Amazon account to sell their music online and their own official website with can be interactive to engage the fans. Their website could also make use of synergy link to their other pages and music and index all there pages and other forms of media together.

The more social pages and groups the band makes the more people your band reaches, this makes it easier to promote any new work and also keep you fans posted about new events. It also helps keep a more intimate relationship with you fans as they can directly contact you, and comment on your posts.

One such artist is John Mayer, here is a link to his twitter: http://twitter.com/JOHNCMAYER

Indie Music as a Genre

I found this website into Indie and its sub genres and i found it really interesting and helps us to understand more about the Indie music industry and the music industry in General. This is directly copied from http://www.examiner.com/indie-music-in-austin/indie-music-as-a-genre.

"Many bands present themselves as "indie", both to describe the style of music and the current status of their music careers. First, and most obviously, independent bands are just that: independent. They haven't been signed by a record label and are do-it-yourselfers when it comes to recording, promotion, touring, and distribution. The vast majority of all musicians, many of which (thankfully) reside here in Austin, are indie musicians. Austin has indie rock, indie pop, indie rap, indie electro, and about every other combination of indie genres. The indie tag is indicative of more than just the lack of a recording contract, but things get muddy when music genres come into play."


"There is a vague consensus that "indie rock" is a broad musical genre. It is characterized by an alt-rock guitar-led style, with an increasing dependence on keyboards and synths. Austin is packed to the brim with musical acts that fall into this vague category. When in doubt, describe your band as indie rock. If indie rock is a genre of music, is it possible for a band signed to a major label to play music in the indie rock style? Since that doesn't work, we then create subgenres."







"To get around the possible confusion of an indie rock back that isn't indie, we start to create sub-genres and sub-sub-genres. Modest Mouse isn't indie rock any more, instead they are part of the "lo-fi" movement which brings back the low fidelity recording methods and equipment of the 1980s. Once they got signed to Epic Records, the indie tag didn't seem to fit. The music didn't change a whole lot, yet the genre did. So if you are a poor band in Austin, you can now safely describe yourself as lo-fi if you can't afford modern recording equipment. Want to present an even grungier attitude? Describe yourself as "no-fi". Eventually when that movement grows too large, you can be" post-no-fi" or event "no-fi revival". The possibilities are endless.


The sub-classification goes on and on, and occurs in every broad genre (Rap, rock, metal, etc). Alternative rock used to describe a counter-culture movement until it moved into the mainstream. Now "indie rock" and it's myriad sub-genres can show that a band is not interested in selling out to the mainstream, or maybe that they just haven't yet.


As humans, we like to find patterns and put things into categories. Music that spans multiple genres is confusing; we feel better if we are able to give it a label. Some of the best music in Austin is from independent bands who defy standard classification. Genre is not necessarily a good tool to determine whether or not you will enjoy a particular act. All of this is to say: explore Austin for it's variety of music and don't worry too much about the genre. Leave that up to the people with way too much time on their hands."



http://www.examiner.com/indie-music-in-austin/indie-music-as-a-genre



This is useful to our research because it helps us to figure out exactly where indie stems from and not to accidently create hybrid genre's and means that we can stick to the one. This extract helps us to understnad this part of the music industry and how this genres can be mixed up in different parts. However this is just one persons views on this type of music and may not be exactly correct therefore leaving it a less reliable source than I could have hoped. Although it has given me a broad idea into how we look at our genre.

Indie Music History

Indie wasn't a very successful music genre until the millenium where it really hit off and became a huge success. The Internet has caused a boom in the music industry it means that anyone is able to watch any music they wish and can easily download it. indie in the past was a small genre as it struggled to get publicity due to the ever growing mainstream and big companies which produce massively in all genre's. The nice thing about the indie scene is the home grown feel and that they have produced all their music themselves and made themselves big.

"In this atmosphere, it has become impossible to identify music by its sound, or even by its sales. Best selling albums such as those put out by The Postal Service or Panic! At the Disco illustrate the new reality that is the indie music scene" this is a quote from an indie music history website, it talks about how hard it is to indentify genres. As there are so many parts to music now their are lots of hybrid music and sub genres appear. For example with Inide their are numerous parts to it.

Audience Profiling

The typical audience for modern indie music is teenagers and young adults and so I think it would be a good idea to gain an understanding of the typical styles of fashion so that we can market our image a successfully as possible.

Clothes
Typically fans of the indie genre could be expected to adopt a faux-mature style, meaning that the types of clothes and colours would typically be associated with a different audience yet they are revamped, rebranded and finally adopted by the indie audience; something it is notoriously good at. A good example of this (in terms of male fashion) is:

Quilted jackets were stereotypically only worn by farmers, however recently it has been adopted and modified by the indie genre and it's fans into the latest must have in fashion, even spilling over to fans of other genres in the process. This shows how influential the indie genre is whilst also giving insight into what fans would expect from a band of the genre. I.e. that their favourite artists are fashion concious and stylish.

Converse to the audience demands and expectations, many of the styles seen in the indie genre originate from the artist and spread over into the fans, so indie definatley contains a strong artist-audience relationship which we will have to attempt to capitalise on.

To do this we could conform to many of the conventions that are expected of an indie artist but put our own spin on it, perhaps by altering the way the outfits are worn and trying to promote this through certain specific camera angles when filming. This is just an idea but I think it's worth attempting.

Purpose of a Music Video

 There are many purposes to a music video and these are reasons why they are made:

- To associate with a film or event
- Create/recreate or enhance an image
- To make the song interesting and give it meaning
- Some people do not listen to the radio
- Advertise the artists and market (make money)
- Something extra for the fans

 For our Indie/acoustic genre the main aim a music video is created is to give something extra to the fans and to earn some money. However most Indie music videos do give a song meaning. For example with snow patrol chasing cars. That video has a lot of emotion and gives the song a lot more.

Admin

Last night as well as tonight, I have done my best to make the blog a little bit prettier with a nice tiger background as well as adding some gadgets in the right hand sidebar that I found useful last year at AS level.

Links - Displays a list of helful sites that we can edit and add to as we discover new ones, so far i have added links to both mine and Max's twitter accounts, as well as our groups YouTube channel. I would of added fiona's but there wasn't a link included in her post, so i'll get that sorted out in tommorrows lesson hopefully.

List - Displays a cloud of our names with size proportional to the number of posts. Basically it's a good reference point to keep us competitive so we always know who's doing less work, I found this helful last year as it gave me more motivation to create more posts and thus do more work. I hope it will have the same effect this year.

as can be seen above, a screenshot of the gadgets i've added to the blog.

I'll probably end up tweaking the blog aesthetically as the project goes on, but for now this will do.

Twitter

i signed up to twitter to post progress with my media skills!

Style

Style is incredibly important to the bands image, the artists of this song have developed a style that mixes 50's and 80's with generic indie aspects. Typical garments worn by the artists include skinny jeans and trilby hats, and the female member takes on a rather bohemian image wearing white dresses which our simple and vintage. This mix of styles gives the band a cool image which we intend to take in to account when dressing our actors.

Our track

Although we had originally considered the band 'Blonde Louis', i contacted the band and received permission to use one of their songs, however we have now decided against this. We have chosen our track for our coursework, Soul's on fire- Local Beauties, i have messaged the band using myspace, which is how we researched the band, this was the reply i got:

The song has a current style, the current indie genre is now incorporating with folk and acoustic aspects. The songs repetitive beat and lyrics is catchy and individual. The songs lyrics make for an interesting narrative opportunity between a male and female 'character' in the video.

The band seem to be excited about the opportunity of us using their song in our work.

Twitter

I have made myself an accout on twitter!

http://twitter.com/olliecrackmedia

Genre Research

As we have selected our song and thus genre it is important to know exactly how to portray and market an indie band with regards to style of video, choice of outfit, and audience expectation.




Two door cinema club are a good example of an indie bands typical vide, here we are shown an example of stop motion shooting, with the band seemingly jumping around the screen erratically to flashing background colours. Stop motion is something i would like to incorporate into our music video as it is found in many other indie musicians videos without being in so many that it is clichéd. It is also a relatively easy technique to use if not slightly more time consuming. but the final result is a professional looking effect that anybody can achieve, hence why many Indie[Indipendant] bands choose to use it.

Another good example of use of stop motion in an indie music video is in this video by khaki king:



Without getting sidetracked for too long on stop motion, both of these artists can be considered 'indie' however they show a difference in costume style, with two door cinema club seemingly trying to market themselves as 'average lads' by wearing hoodies and jeans i.e. very common attire of their target audience (teenagers) with khaki king clearly trying to portray the lone shy female by wearing a large parka coat which makes her look smaller and less intimidating. She spends the majority of the video walking around dark streets on her own which would also help to connote that she is indipendant of others. She is clearly trying to appeal to both women who would also consider themselves indipendant and a slightly older audience i.e early 20's whilst still remaining fashionable to the stereotypically more fashion inclined youth. This helps her to maximise her market in an effective way.

As far as audience expectation goes, they will be more inclined to appreciate young, fashionable and good looking artists in the indie genre. Good examples of people who's success has been aided by these factors are

The Dykeenies

Jamie T

The Kooks

Although not necesarily the only factors that attribute to indie artists success these are prominent features of many of todays successful artists which we should look to use to our advantage when we come to film our music video and promote our band.

I took material from:
Youtube
Photobucket

The Pigeon Detectives

The Pigeon Detectives are a great example of a popular indie band. In this video they have used the retro setting and Mise en scene which gives the video a more dynamic approach. At the start they show a couple watching TV in the old days and it zooms in onto the screen where you see the pigeon detectives. This is a good example of showing that they are famous and it helps intertwine both the narrative and the artists playing their song. Throughout this video the artists are constantly looking at the camera this helps to create a relationship between the audience and the band, therefore creating a bigger fan base.

From watching this video you can tell that they hadn't spent much money on the set or the production, this is because it helps save money. And is part of the whole indie theme, a good example of this is "ok go" the internet phenomenon. This is also part of the whole home grown scheme and this is what indie is about, as in contrast to lets say RnB where they are trying to look rich and menacing.

The Rifles- indie band

This is relatively new indie band, who have not made any huge hits. However there genre of music is quite similar to ours, although they sort of link to a heavily enthusiastic indie fans as not many people would have heard about this band. I discovered them on yahoo, and i like their image. This helps us in giving us ideas for our video and our image.

Audience Expectations

When looking at Genre's and choosing a song for our music video we must consider the expectations of the audience, for example how the video presents a style, for example with the Indie genre they where skinny jeans, tight fitted shirts and a retro hairstyle. This is the stereotypical indie style. By having a style like this it means that the fans can relate to the artists and the artists style can be emulated later on by its fans.

Also this can be linked to the parasocial theory by Hoston and Wohl where the artist of the song looks into the camera, this can help a relationship to the fans. the connection between the fans and the artist is the biggest part of becoming a successful music artist.

Genre

We have decided firmly on the indie/folk/acoustic genre for our music video and artist style. We have researched a local band called "Local Beauties" and have messaged them on myspace for permission to use one of their songs. We have looked at their style and image and we think it will suit us perfectly. Also the band has a male and female singer so the idea is that Fiona and Ollie can fit these roles. We feel that the band has a very unique and individual feel, and we are feeling positive so far :D

Here is an embedded quote from the bands myspace as evidence of our research:
"Local Beauties are a contemporary indie rock band with a new feet tapping sound you won’t forget. With their exciting set of modern catchy indie pop songs, soulful rock numbers and acoustic sing-a-longs, they are guaranteed to get you dancing. The five young musicians from Harlow, Essex, mix folk/sixties narratives with modern day indie pop to create their versatile sound. With guitar driven rhythms, piano melodies, and a strong presence on stage, their stage show is definitely one to watch."

Amended by Ollie

Imelda may music video analysis

To begin with there is a close up of some vintage items. These include compact mirror with suggests a girl is involved in the scene and also an old book. This helps set the scene and the date in which it takes place. The camera cuts quickly to a double bass being played which is an instrument which was mainly used in jazz for strong bass line while the other instruments improvise a melody. It flicks back and forth between the double bass and the girl getting ready suggesting there are two story lines happening. It’s made to look like the double bass player is waiting and that the girl is getting ready to go out. The rest of the band turn up and meet with the double bassist and make their way to the venue. It changes to the main performance which is set in a low lit simple small room. It gives the feeling that it’s exclusive and that they only play to small audiences, this is much like jazz bands of the time whom would only play in small clubs. The clothing and appearance is all part of the 40 -50’s mise en scene with low key lighting and dull colours with brings to mind the war and the lack of vivid and bright times in life. Despite this the audience seem to be enjoying the act. The camera shots used are very quick and changes angle and zoom constantly making it seem like the performance is lively and upbeat

Music Analysis- Lady GaGa- Paparazzi

This video from Lady GaGa depicts a strange yet stylish persona for Lady GaGa, and tells us a narrative from the song into a video. This video is cleverly made as it's storyline is quite twisted due to her killing her husband at the end, however it puts in a fun and comical twist.

The video starts off with an establishing shot which shows the setting, which suggest the character in the video is rich. This is common in music videos in this mainstream genre as they make being a pop star look like a rich and glamorous worl like in John Stewarts theory. The video is presented like a film at the start with credits this is effective as it means that it is in a film style and that it keeps the viewers watching. In the way of mise en scene they are clever  in this video because they layout certain items which can give ideas into what has happened at the house. Not only that you can notice lots of money on the table, and on this money contains Lady GaGa's face. This shows supreme power and gives away that she is someone of a high standing in the video. There is a contrast too as they are in a massive well polished mansion and there is lots of money and rubbish everywhere and this contrast can surprise the audience.

GaGa near the beginning of the scene is talking a different language with a man in her bed, this shows that there is romance there. And by using a different language is clever as it can catch the audience by surprise and enticing them into watching the video itself. It then flicks to a newspaper with her in the headlines, which then again shows power and how famous she is, it can also be linked to the title of the song being paparazzi. They then use an effect which is in the view of a camera taking pictures this is really effective considering the title of the song, and then cleverly shows loads of headlines. It cunningly switches from a diagetic camera sound to the non diagetic beat of the song, and it gets the rhythm of the song going.

Lady GaGa's appearance can be linked to Goodwins theory as her image is quite suggestive and for display purposes. By doing this it gets the men more interested in the video as it adds sex appeal to Lady GaGa's image. Lots of quick cuts and close ups on her fashion and clothing, she does a number of costume changes through out the cideo through these cuts. There are also lots of men around her which suggests she is a powerful women and is in control, this men are also doing a carefully choreographed dance which makes the video look more polished. The video contains shots of dead women which could suggest that she is the dominant female.

This video contains numerous camera angles and shots to add variety to the video. It shows lots of close ups and mid shots which show GaGa's image. GaGa uses exhibitionism by having a sexualized gaze. A lot of GaGa's choreography is of her lying on an expensive gold sofa which shows that she is rich and powerful. There are so many quick cuts in this video as the tempo of the song is quite fast and has to show lots of narrative, however it always cuts back to her singing, to show that she is one with the song. This video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can, the Mise-en-Scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise  an aspirational lifestyle.


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hiiiiii

new blog. we have selected indie as our genre!!! :)