Preliminary Project + Evaluation - Sound Remedy & Savoy - Leaving You (feat. Jojee)

This is the 1 minute video we produced for our preliminary task, the aim of video was to illustrate a narrative, one being someone trying to find themselves. As a group, we all decided to go a little on the strange side of things and to proceed with a main focus of editing rather than the shots and with a result which may be confusing but interesting at the same time. We used a variety of effects such as speeding and reversing footage in addition to fades, feathers and keying. Overall, the video was a success but there were a few things that I believed could be improved on. Firstly the parts of the video during the main body of the song were slightly out of sync and if I had more time I would have polished off that part and made sure the movements were in time, overall about 90% of this worked but there were a few small parts that affected it. In addition the camera quality changes significantly due to us having to use various cameras rather than just one and this means in our main task, we need to plan ahead and make sure we can use the same camera everytime in order to maintain the use of it and create a video in the same quality.

The website was built using a website builder called Weebly. Although it was easy to use and had a simple user interface, I was some what unsatisfied with the result, not because of the content of the site but because of its lack of freedom and the advertisement of the Weebly brand unless we paid for the site and domain. The content on the website fits with the narrative and provides a house style for the album. In addition to this, the website contained buttons to digital stores and ways to view the music video on the site to make it easy for people who view the site to listen and view our music and to buy it if they enjoyed it. Savoy & Sound Remedy Website

This is our artwork for the album of the song we have chose. With the template and the style we chose we went with one side containing the protagonist and the other side being empty implying that the protagonist is searching for himself, this creates the house style between the video, website and the artwork. I think the album artwork was successful in delivering the house style as it contains similar connotations to the narrative as the video did and that it uses similar scenery. However, the time it took me to create the artwork was poor as I created various drafts which took about 2 weeks to do as I wanted to make it perfect. In addition to this I tested with 3D fonts which is what I used for the artists name on the front cover which also took some time, especially with the shadows. The font for the other text was not the best choice and I wish I could have used a more professional font or one which may have matched the narrative a little bit more.

Textual Analysis: Deadmau5 Website

On this link is a Gliffy about the website of Deadmau5. The Glif is too big for the embed so the link is the only way of viewing.

The website has taught me a lot about the website for our preliminary and main task, and that it should have a very simple and clear layout. In addition, we should post social media plugins on the site to show that we aren't just on the website and also have links to where we can buy the song such as iTunes, Bandcamp and Beatport. We should have a very clear house style that will stick with the single or album of our band.

Textual Analysis: Album Artwork for The Prodigy's "The Day Is My Enemy"

This is the textual analysis for the album cover of The Prodigy's "The Day Is My Enemy". This textual analysis has helped me in understanding some of the conventions, styles and aspects which the artist would have used when creating the album artwork for a song or album.

Storyboard of Preliminary Music Video of 'Sound Remedy & Savoy - Leaving You (Feat. Jojee)'

This is the storyboard to the preliminary music video which is meant to be a minute long of a song called Leaving You by Sound Remedy & Savoy. The aim of this video was to have a boy and a girl go looking for each other in a chase for discovery but due to problems with actors we decided to change the actors to one person in two forms on a journey of self discovery.

13 Reasons For A Band Website

This article by Make It In Music explains 13 different reasons as to why it is important for a band/producer to have their own website. When I read this article, it helped me understand what kind of stuff I would need to include in my website, but also the reasons behind why I would create my own website and for what purpose and style I would require in order to make it personal to me and my fan base however big they were and that it is the hub to rely on rather than various social media platforms.


1) You have to have at least one place where people can find you and your music:

This means that you need one place where you can collaborate everything together. This means links and utilities available for people to listen and buy your music. It also includes such 3rd party plugins for social media so people can see everything you post in one area, for example people would be able to view and access your Facebook page and your Twitter feed in one place.

In addition, it is a way for you to post links to tour dates, locations and meetups and in addition your bibliography and your personal messages to your fans without any interruption from 3rd party companies whether its record labels or social media websites. The main aim of the site is to have the one core place where you can control what you post and not have any interference by other companies.


2) You need to be in total control:

You have the freedom to create your own website and design it exactly how you want it. This means you are able to create the message for your audience on your website, whether it is informing them about what you are doing or what is happening or if it is to get your audiences to sign up in the long term such as an email subscription or for regular updates onto your website which will draw your audience to view your website regularly.


3) You can build a coherent brand and image:

You can design the website to fit to your artist style. This means that you can make your website suite a specific genre of music which will reflect on what you do. For example; on Deadmau5's website, it is mostly dark colours which show his personality as mostly dark sided.

It also allows you to make a site which your audience will expect to be from you. This means if you are a boy band, you wouldn't make your websites appearance look similar to a heavy metal band etc. In addition, the websites brand and image should fit those of the pictures and logos of your band and by doing so would make a house style of your band which would look significant in all the works you do and will show to your audience that you are organized and devoted to your band.

4) Having your own artist website looks professional:

Having a professional looking website opens your band to a wider audience, this is because people who may look at your website may see it and think if the website looks professional, than their music is worth listening to. A professional looking website also shows that you are serious about your band and that you are committed to making it successful.


5) You cannot rely on social media platforms:

Social media platforms don't last forever, an example of this is MySpace, it was very popular a few years ago but it has been in decline ever since. This means it is crucial for your band to have a website, if you only rely on social media, it means you may lose your fan base if the platform goes into decline or if it has significant changes which people will oppose.

With a website rather than social media platforms, it will not decline unless you allow it to and if you make news about yourself exclusive to your website, it makes your fan base incline to return every now and then which is where you can draw them in more and keep them as part of your fan base. Some social media platforms have rules which could effect your pages or feeds and negatively effect it.


6) You can use SEO to rank and get new fans:

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is away of promoting your posts on search engines, its a way of advertising which is useful for band websites, when you post on your site, you can optimise your page so that people will see when searched for on google. An example of this is by optimising your page so it is focused on House music, when people search House music on a search engine, your website may be quite high up opening yourself and the site to a wider audience and an increased fan base.


7 & 8) You can do whatever you like with it & do everything with it:

With your own website, you are free to try out things that you wouldn't normally be able to do on social media platforms due to rules that are in place and the policies you agreed to on creation of your pages and hubs on the platforms. There wouldn't be any consequences behind this too as you haven't made any agreements when you created your own website.

In addition to doing whatever you want, you can do everything with the site, whether it is having a massive teaser countdown or having a forum section on your forums, it means you can open your site to more than pictures which would normally be posted on Facebook and Twitter. It means you can put exclusive content on the site, for example; behind the scenes content and extra audio content which only people going to your site will be able to view or hear.


9) Sell what you like at whatever price you like:

Selling your music on your website will make you much more money. This is because digital retailers take a cut of the profit every sale that is made. An example of this is when someone buys a song for 99p on iTunes, the artist only gets 70p of the sale and Apple will get the remaining 29p.

Once the website has a big enough fan base, it will be far more easier to sell music on your website as it gives you the freedom to promote specific content and that you will get the entirety of the sales without having some of it given to the middle man or digital retailers..


10) You can make money from other sources:

Your website, unlike digital retailers, is tailored for you and only you, this means that your website can make money from other non-song sales. Most artist websites have ways of buying merchandise which your fans can buy. In addition to this, if your website becomes a huge success and you have a wide fan base, you can open your sites to advertisements or partnerships with other companies or platforms in order to promote yourself or make some extra money on the side.


11) You can build a members area and forum:

With the band website and the fan base, you are also making a place of interaction, although Twitter and Facebook make that possible, a personal forum on your website can make the difference as it means the fans which are there because of you can discuss with other fans just like them and create friendships, it also means you can interact with your fan base, this could be used for criticism, contests or just general chit chat.

In addition, a members area could be used as a way of making some pay more for exclusive benefits. An example of this is live.deadmau5.com where if you pay for the premium membership, you get access to pictures, videos, free music and a chance to message deadmau5 himself which non-premium members do not have access to.

12 & 13) You are investing in yourself & it’s yours forever:

With the creation of yourself, you are also creating a part of yourself, with all the effort you put in to make the website, it is a symbol of you as an artist and it is the most central hub for your work you can get. As a result, you are making a website that can last forever and to carry your legacy. It also means that your fan base can view you as you grow from the band that practiced in the garage to being a headlining act at Glastonbury.

Textual Analysis: 'Eminence - Knock Me Out (Feat. Anna Cyzon)' Music Video

In the music video for the song by Eminence, the narrative of the video is a mystery person in a spaceman costume trying to find someone or something which is indicated from early scenes to be the woman in the water.

The video uses camera angles of the vocalist Anna Cyzon on a bridge, the use of mid shot's and close up shots throughout the video is used to show the vocalist as recluse with the addition of wanting to be seen. This is shown when she is on the bridge alone and with no signs of society in the background. During the video, there is use of slow motion editing to show the slow paced narrative of the spaceman's journey to find the person in the water. In addition to this, it is also designed to create a continuity system to make the video flow and for the narrative to be easily viewed and understood.

The use of intertextual references in the video with the spaceman talking to the 2 people (being Eminence) is there to show off the artist behind the song which the music video is representing. This is for the artist to get more promotion in the video along side the vocalist.

The video uses contrast and binary opposites in order to express society in the video, this is shown by the change in shots during the second half of the video between the spaceman in public and the vocalist who is in complete isolation. This is used to show the separations in society and how people like either being amongst people or if they prefer to be different or if they wish to be alone.

The song itself is of a similar genre to the song we chose to use for our preliminary video task, both videos are electronic dance songs and consist of vocalists which sing throughout the song. In the video, it uses a narrative of finding someone whereas in our video we use the narrative of finding someone too but with our video its finding themselves with the use of different coloured jackets. We chose to try this to use the contrast in colour which is evident in this music video with the vocalist having a bright colour compared to the background and the vocalists sections compared the to water scenes and the public scenes.

Lip Syncing Practice of 'LVTHER - One Look (feat. Mammals)'

This is a practice of lip syncing, this is because music videos often illustrate vocals by singers or mimers. By this practice we edited video and sound together to make it look like I was singing. This will be useful in our preliminary task and our main task as we will most likely need to lip sync in the songs we will choose for our task music videos.

Brief for Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task, I will be working with Brad and Matt.

The task asks us to create a mini-package of a 1 minute music video, a website homepage and a cd front cover.

We have decided to create the package for an artist called Savoy, for the music video we have focused on the song of Savoy and Sound Remedy called 'Leaving You'.


We have decided to use a house style for which the music video, the cover and the website will follow. For the CD cover and front we will consider a variety of different designs of CD's to see which will be the best for our artwork, we will also use Photoshop as it is a professional program which will give us the tools to make an adequate cover.

For the website, we will use the web builder Wix to create the homepage which will show the artist off and show off the information that he wants such as dates for live shows, new music and news about himself and his personal life.

Peter Fraser - 10 Steps To Success

In the article called '10 Steps To Success' in the MediaMagazine, principle examiner Pete Fraser wrote about the 10 crucial steps in order to succeed in making a music video for the A2 course. This article was very useful as it explained in detail what I need to do and not to do in order to make a good and original music video.

1) Research

• Music videos have a variety of different conventions relating to its genre.
• Music videos also have thousands of pounds worth of budget.
• The video has to sell the song and the artist, must be worthy of loads of replays.
• Goodwin's convetions theory is a useful framework to begin the creation of the music video.

2) Getting in a group

• Work only with people who are reliable - good communication, organisation and practicallity.
• Allow for a deadline earlier than the actual deadline. 

3) Choosing a track

• Choose unfamiliar material - it is more like the reality of the music business: you do not have to like the music.
• Pick a song that can stimulate ideas.
• Think about performers, locations and use of shots.

4) The pitch

• Be prepared to pitch the ideas of the chosen track, a single page of ideas, simply expressed, which would enable anyone reading to image the finished product.
• Needs to stand out, have a hook in the first paragraph and have a clear idea of location and narrative.
• Stand out from the crowd.

5) Look at previous student work

• Previous students work can tell you what works well and also what doesn't go well.
• Avoid using well known songs.
• Do not overuse effects or use them to disguise poor footage.
• Avoid aimless driving shots and use of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
• Shots of people walking around, speeded up footage or reverse footage.
• Do not use found footage, use your own unless there is a good reason.
• Avoid over the top stories.

6) Planning and shooting

• Timescale is crucial.
• Use your deadlines and time constraints to focus your thinking and working practices.
• Storyboard as much as you can.
• Plan ahead and use props, costumes and locations.
• Make sure you know basic controls of a camera and that you have a tripod.
• Don't forget to bring the CD.
• Check your footage early on.

7) Editing

• Load footage sensibly, load and edit in chunks rather than importing it in one go.
• Name the files for easy location.
• Use effects sparingly and in planned fashion.
• Make sure lipsyncing is correct with song in editing.
• Expect to make compromises - some things will need to be done to make final product work.
• Apply filters to even up lighting.

8) Screening and feedback

• Expect feedback for your product - ask questions to prevent "it was good" responses.
• Did it remind them of any other videos or media texts?
• What message does audience get from the video?

9) Writing

• Follow guidelines given by teachers.
• Begin writing early on but do not leave it until the very end.
• Do not leave the writing full of excuses, it should cover the whole process, use technical language accurately, include the feedback and your comments, place the video in terms of the industry, relate it to examples and conventions and include an analysis of finished product.

10) Marking

• Leave that to the teachers.

Textual Analysis: Pharrell Williams 'Happy' & Recreation of Happy

This is the textual analysis of the music video & song of Pharrell Williams 'Happy'. It is helpful to know the information in this about the two theories 'Reception' & 'Media 2.0' as it can give us an idea into how we may distribute the video in the future or how we create it and with what intention or message we will have in the video which we want the audience to interparate it as.