Creative commons- Spitfire

By Jasmine
When we had researched Spitfire (our chosen band) we had found that it was quite tricky to find as it was on the creative commons website. This was disappointing as this site can only let you access bands songs and nothing further about their history. Other than if they have a social networking site such as MySpace, Facebook or Bebo, to let you listen to more of their music and even become fans.




Creative commons is a non-profitable organisation in which the user can add towards the world wide web (www) to build a unique individually creative site. As this organisation is legal, many people are able to upload and download music,images,videos etc for free. However, creative commons can also have its down points, as the following shows:

Disadvantages

• May be expensive to download files, which will persuade the market to either get it elsewhere or from an illegal website where you can download stuff for free.



• Creativity- Even though this word signifies being artistic, what exactly is artistic about these websites? The only thing which makes these websites 'creative' is the way we are working togther to produce new ways of seeing things. It does not allow you to change the colours of the sites or anything else technical. However, even though this sounds quite true, social networking sites are the only way you can change your backgrounds,change fonts, say what your doing etc. This is so that you can create an image to the viewers about what your personality is like.
  

Whereas, its advantages are...:

Advantages

• Creative commons webite allows you to add media of your choice such as,images,videos,text,information,music and so on. These sites include, wikipedia,youtube and even social networking sites. These websites are all used so that people from all over the world can collaborate and create a unique way of seeing the media industry.





• Creative commons allows you to access high quality sites so that you can enjoy your time on the internet throughout the day.




• It can also be used effectively towards the music industry. This is because people can pay for the artists tracks to help them get into the download charts. Furthermore, people can upload their desired music videos onto such sites such as 'Youtube'. This is so that they can collaborate and share their own tastes of music to the world.
  



• You do not have to be punished/ or fined for using sites. Whereas, if a user accesses certain sites which are illegal, they may have to pay an expensive fine, or in other serious cases, being prosecuted for creating the website.

Artwork 1 - Props

By Kathrine Nielsen:

First finished "artwork"

Having completed A-levels in fine art I know about the pop art movement and Andy Warhol, but what I tried was to combine chalk and scribbles in the style and sense of Jackson Pollock but keep in mind the idea of capturing the soul through a portrait. I've chosen to work with permanent marker and a 6b pencil as my tools, and I believe this is a modern twist and will convert the idea of the 60's artwork. It will suit our video as part of the background very well and also it add's to the theme of our song, and the modernisation we will try to achieve in best possible 60's style.

Edie Sedgwick: Andy Warhol's "Superstar"

Edie Sedgwick: A biography

by Emma Green



Edie Minturn Sedgwick was born on 20th April 1943 to a wealthy family of impressive heritage. Edie was raised on a 3000-acre ranch which was bought with money inherited by her mother. Family fortunes increased even further in the 1950s when oil was discovered on the ranch. Edie and her 7 brothers and sisters were privately educated.

Despite their prosperous lifestyle, Edie's upbringing was plagued with trauma. Mental illness run through the family with her father suffering bipolar disorder and mental breakdowns, and her mother being institutionalised. Her brother Bobby killed himself on the same day Edie was in a near-fatal car accident herself, and her other elder brother Minty committed suicide after his father's disgrace to him coming out as a homosexual. Bobby, Minty and Edie all were sent to the same mental institute, "Silver Hill" by their father for varous reasons. Edie was sent there after catching her father having sex with another woman in their house, and when she went to tell her mother, he accused Edie of being "insane" and had her sectioned. It is also rumoured that Edie was sexually molested by her father too, from a young age. She also suffered from bulimia, and at her most extreme, her weight whittled down to just 90 pounds (6 stone 6 pounds), so she was yet again institutionalised.

In the early 1960s, Edie moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, while studing at Radcliffe College. Edie studied sculpture and spent her time partying and driving her Mercedes. At one of her therapy sessions, she met Chuck Wein, who was a bohemian that styled himself as an Edwardian dandy. After she turned 21, she went to live in New York, in her grandmother's 14 room apartment, and spent her nights at the top clubs and discotheques. Chuck joined her and was determined to turn Edie into a beautiful, social butterfly. He strived to be Edie's promoter as he saw a lot of potential in her, and he continously plotted at moving Edie up into high society. He knew she had a special quality, but because she was infamously disorganised and couldn't pull herself together, Chuck took over her entire life.

In January 1965, she was introduced to Andy Warhol. Chuck worked and lived at Warhol's "Factory" and so began bringing Edie on a regular basis. Edie started in appearing in Warhol's avant-garde films such as "Vinyl" as a last-minute replacement . Warhol took a shine to the socialite and was attracted to Edie because of her wealth, her family's fame, her stunning looks and her sparkling personality. He crowned Edie as the "Queen of the Factory" and she became an underground superstar. Her on-screen persona was compared to that of Marilyn Monroe and her association with Warhol built both of their reputations. With glamourous Edie in tow, Warhol would visit parties and gallery openings, and the duo generated reams of free publicity. Before Edie, Andy was deemed an outsider but with her, he was wooed and complimented by the rich and wealthy, and became very much a part of the art establishment.

Her newfound celebrity, howver, meant Edie started to get offers to leave Warhol and go into mainstream cinema. She was also being influenced by the pull of several musician lovers she was seeing at the time, including a rumoured Bob Dylan. Her and Warhol's relationship started to become strained in 1966 with her disatisfaction of her decreasing role in Andy's life. They also argued about money, because he only occasionally paid her for her work in his films, and she would reguarly pick up tabs for Warhol and other Factory members. Edie then stopped coming to the Factory all together and left Andy's crowd.

She decided to pursue her modelling again and she appeared on the cover of American "Vogue". But her career never took off, because the fashion industry were put off by people with drug problems, and Edie was badly addicted. She then turned back to her acting but her auditions were never "good enough". By the end of 1966, her celebrity had nearly diminished and she had spent nearly $80,000 on drugs, in 6 months. A typical breakfast for her was a saucer of speed. To support her habit, she stole antiques and art from her grandmother's apartment, and sold them for money. She also got into dealing, but got busted. In October 1966, Edie's apartment set on fire and she suffered terrible burns on her back, arms and legs.

She broke off her connections with the Bob Dylan music scene too, when she discovered Dylan had gone behind her back and married another woman. Her affair with another musician, Bob Neuwrith also ended because he could not deal with her erratic behaviour and drug dependancy.
For the last 4 years of her life, she had several on-off affairs with other drug addicts, and was yet again in and out of mental asylums and hospitals. She landed her most defining role in "Ciao Manhatten" where she plays a girl very similar to herself who was caught up in the fame and whirlwind of New York. This film was not finished until years later. The shoot of the film was anarchic, with many of the back-stage crew and actors highly addicted on cocaine and needing regular doses. By late 1968, Edie was an emotional and physical wreck; she could hardly walk or talk due to poor blood circulation in her brain.

In 1969, she met her future husband in a psychiatric ward and she married him on July 4th 1971. She managed to stay clean from the July to the October of that year, untill her doctor prescribed her pills to treat an injury and to help her sleep. On the night of November 15th 1971, Edie attended a fashion show, then a party afterwards where she was verbally abused by a guest who called her "heroin addict". She left the party early, and when her husband came to pick her up, she was heavily drunk. Back at her apartment, Edie took her meditation and went to sleep. When her husband woke the next morning, he found Edie lying next to him, dead. Her death was ruled as an Accident/Suicide.

Edie was only 28 years old.

Notes on the film - 'Factory Girl' by Director George Hickenlooper

By Kat.

Sitting down as a group, we watched the film from 2006, starring Sienna Miller as famous 60's icon Edie Sedwick who in 1965 dropped out of her artschool to move to New York, as an aspiring artist and model she attended many exhibitions at which young celebrity pop artist Andy Warhol (portrayed by Guy Pearce) is also attending.With a major promise of making Edie the star she always aspired to be, by comming to Warhol's Factory (Hence the title) to work for him as an actor, model and be his muse, Edie Sedwick was thrown into a whole different side of society, slowly losing her grip on reality due to her major use of heroin and her addiction to being the 'it' girl of the time. She ends up bankrupt, and must face the demons of her past with her fathers abuse and try to take her future into her own hands - little does it help that Warhol replaces Edie soon after she starts seeing folk musician Billy Quinn (Who is supposedly portraying Bob Dylan who had a brief relationship with Sedwick)

This is the official 2006 trailer for the film 'Factory Girl'


These are notes on effects, costume & make up, angles, camera positioning and general ideas which may be well suited or worth considering for our music video.

• Opening shot of Edie running the streets of New York in tears, camera moves same pace as from another persons perspective. Camera catches all of Edie's movement including behind cars, as it films through the windows.


• A controversial "nerdy" look- Shirt tucked into trousers, and a jacket, many brown tones and colours.


• Andy Warhol was a Catholic and goes confessing his sins, which to others seem like minor issues for example about clothes.


• Over shoulder shot of Edie getting ready to attend an exhibition in New York, brown flat, large framed mirro, her hair done up in a bun, she smokes.


• Some attenders of the exhibition are very upper class looking and smug.
  Edie makes her entrance and is immediately surrounded by male attenders wanting to light her cigarette, take photos and film her.
  Split screen shots.


• Andy Warhol wears a black suit, simple pattern shirt, scarf, black thick framed sunglasses and silver/white hair (very well tended to)


• A long shot of Warhol getting interviewed with his famous Elvis pop art print in the background (black and white)


• The factory has tinsel on the walls and floors, wall's are painted white, pieces or artwork, finished and unfinished haging and lying on floors.


• "The factory is for people who are different" - Andy Warhol


• Split screen shots - one half is strong colour, other is bold black and white, the black and white side resembles more serious issues.


• Black and white flashbacks (sinister underlying tone)


• Fur coats and big earrings


• Edie's own artwork i watercolour based and charcoal drawings of peopole and animals.


• Andy Warhol compares Edie and icon Marilyn Monroe, as Monroe was the 'it' girl, comparing the two would be because Warhol had such a strong feeling about his new muse Edie.


• Handheld camera shots of Edie and Warhol in the park - poor quality.


• Layered shot of Warhol and his artwork.


• Group shot, all the Factory people are sat on a couch in the Factory - smoking


• Edie is free of inabitations and gets undressed in public (A restaurant)
  The handheld camera is fuzzy almost out of focus.


• Edie moves to a larger flat which she can not afford (The false success)


• Studio/photoshoot shots of Edie doing professional modelling and it becomes a laugh with Warhol, it symbolises their close relationship.


• Edie's make up: Black soft pencil liner above eyelids, false lashes, fake beauty mark.


• Warhol's party: Balloons, colour, lights, tinsel.


• Edie takes her first heroin shot, music and picture speeds up as Edie makes a fool of herself.


• The TV screen shots are black and white - with an underlying soft blue tone.


• "Billy" encourages Edie to pursue her own dreams and to work more on her own artwork.


• Edie steals sun glasses at a garage sale - she doesn't get paid by Warhol


• Her banker says Edie is going bankrupt.


• Edie denies any knowledge about "Billy" and stands back once confronted with a news article with both of the pictured together.


• After the revelation that Edie is having relations to "Billy" Warhol expresses jealousy.


• "Whats there (points at chest) is as empty as your friends soup cans" - Billy Quinn


• An ugly side to Warhols artwork appears when Edie is madeto perform in sexual activities against her will due to Warhols jealousy.


• Shot of projector projecting a video onto a white wall, Warhol stands before it and casts a beautiful silhuette.


• Andy Warhol traps Edie by giving her $50 - later he can say "But I already gave you money"


• Billy Quinn confronts Edie a final timetrying to help her out of the Factory enviroment but Edie shouts back "I can't hate him!" Edie picks Warhol over her love.


• Edie get's replaced.


• Edie has lost grip of the situation and in a desperate measure confesses to her banker that she was sexually abused by her dad, banker gives her money which she spends on heroin.


• A shot with handheld camera of Edie walking the streets barefooted, a mix between in and out of focus. This creates a feel of the insanity going on, and how Edie herself is falling apart.


• Edie finds Andy Warhol in a restaurant with his new muse and confronts him, she attacks him.


• Edie goes into rehab


• Andy Warhol says "She used to be really beautiful, but now shes so ugly, why would anyone wanna be ugly?"

Notes on detail within costume:

1. Zebra stripes


2. Giraffe pattern


3. Stripes


4. Dots


5. Fur


6. Green, red, yellow, creamy tones and patterns for women


7. Blue, bleen, black, white, grey, silver, scarfs, long coats, hats for men


8. essential = False lashes

Fashion in the 60's

Fashion in the 60's by
Jasmine Underhill


As we believe that this type of music is very similar to the Beatles, we have decided to research what people from the 60's used to wear and what style they used to have. This is so that we can gather our thoughts on what costumes to use in our music video for "Do You" from Spitfire.

As you may know, the Beatles were a fashion icon in the 60's as they developed new ways of creating unique individual styles. Although they were most famous for their songs, they also became very popular for their hair cuts. The 'mop-top' cut was very strange at first, as many people from the 60's used to have a traditional hair cut so that their hair would be straight and neat. However, it then became a fashion icon as many young boys had copied their sense of style. Although we may not use this for our cast it would of been a good idea to possibly use their style of haircuts for our video.

As we are using ideas from 'The Factory Girl' to help us figure out what to do for our video. We have decided to use their 60's themed fashion in our own music video.
As Edie Sedgewick was inspired to become an artist/model we believe that this would be most suitable if we were to copy some of her looks. We had noticed that Edie had used False Eyelashes in most of her looks so that she looks elegant and far most glamorous to any other person in that decade. We will most probably use false eyelashes for Edie's character (Jodie) in the music video to resemble her trends as a "Factory Girl".


The image on the left is of Edie wearing a black mini dress to show off her figure. I had noticed that the use of earrings she had used was quite significant as part of her image. This is because they were very large and chunky to create a fashion statement. An item in which you would always catch Edie wearing is her cigarettes, not physically but she would always have one where ever she would go even if it was in her bed. It is known that she has been caught setting her room alight whilst falling asleep with her cigarette in her hand. Back in the 60's, cigarettes were often a norm in society, as many people had smoked as they believed that it was very fashionable as many celebs would have one. This would be a good idea for our video as I believe that it can make it more realistic as we are going to record scenes that may have been set in the 60's. Our cast e.g Jodie and Matt may use many cigarettes in the video, especially Jodie as she is replicating Edie Sedgewick. Luckily both of our cast members smoke already, so there wont be a problem if we ask politely. We will probably not let our 3rd cast member,Owen, replicating Andy Warhol have a cigarette in the video. This is because we have researched that Andy Warhol was against smoking, and that he didnt particularly want to damage his health.

I have added a video via youtube, showing a huge range of pictures of the styles Edie had created in the 60's......

Pre-production to-do list

Xmas Holidays:

All of the group

*Watch the film "The Factory Girl" together to get ideas for plot/aesthetics/characters/mise-en-scene.

*Collect and buy props, costume and makeup.

Kat

* Copy up film notes on costume/make-up/setting/characters

*Blog on 60's fashion

*Blog on 60's makeup

Emma

*Blog on Edie Sedgwick background and the person

*Blog on Andy Warhol, the person and artist and The Factory Movement

Jasmine

* Blog on information about the band, "Spitfire".
*Blog on 60's fashion (extra).

*Blog on the music genres, "Rock n Roll", "Punk" and "Folk" (their history and the artists of each genre)

*Risk assessment for shooting of the video (using electrical appliances, high heels, instruments, using a stage, etc.)

Emma and Kat

*Contact Ludlow Assembly Rooms for room hire

* Storyboard (ideas for video and actual storyboard with editing effects)

*Shooting schedule

*Contact cast again to verify they still want to do this project and to give them their shooting schedules.


First Week back at College (Jan 5th-10th)


All of the group

*Questionnaire (what people would like to see in a music video, favourite music genre, their favourite all-time music videos)

*Beat sheet

*Location shots (Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Old Ludlovian apartment, Train station, Ok diner, Streets, etc.)

*Producing art work and props

Emma

*Blog on 60's interior design and settings

Emma and Kat

*Final organisation of props and costume (borrowing cameras, borrowing from the drama department, borrowing instruments, etc.)

The song

By Kat

In windows movie maker I constructed a sample of our chosen song and chose to lay over an image of the group.

Casting

By Kat Nielsen

As soon as deciding our song we started discussing ideas for cast members, we want to go through with the idea of reliving the 60's Andy Warhol/Factory movement. For this we want a male lead who portrays a young man deeply in love with and almost obsessed with our lead girl, a girl who is very unoptainable, as she is a very famous celebrity. Male lead is also singer as he sings this song to our lead girl. Our lead girl will be more interested in her career helping out Andy Warhol at his factory, doing filming and modelling, and living the sex drugs and rock'n roll. Now we have been giving this a lot of thought and here are the people we need and the people we have in mind:

-Singer/male lead
-Girl who portrays a modern version of Edie Sedwick
-Andy Warhol

Male lead/Singer: Matt Carter (18)

One of Emma and Kat's fellow Drama students. Having had the large role of "Orin" in our College production of Little Shop of Horrors, we know that he can use strong emotion and portray our 60's character extremely well. Also, what we considered was his facial features and hair, he summs up our image of our singer with his cool rock'n roll exterior. Also he used to sing in a band in Brazil so it isn't completely new to him to do performance based acting.

'The Girl' - Jodie O'Callaghan (19)

We will be trying to convey the stereotypical image of 60's beauty by giving it a modern punk/rococo look. Back then women with clear skin, lush hair and big eyes were the starlets. Jodie is a photography student at our College and has several facial piercings, tattoos and likes wearing 'different' clothes, but still she does modelling and as an example above, she still looks beautiful, and we really can see her be perfect for our video in the way her and Matt would contrast.

Andy Warhol - Owen Lewis (17)Owen has everything we are looking for in a replica ofAndy Warhol, not only has he done "Art and Design" so knows who Andy Warhol is, but he has the hair, the face the body to be Andy Warhol, he has already agreed to let us dye his hair for his performance. He has minor acting experience but is very outgoing which we believe is the main essential ingredient when it comes to acting. Feeling comfortable with yourself.

-Matt and Jodie we have sent e-mail, and we hope they'll get back to us as soon as can be.

Textual analysis on music videos- Marilyn Manson - Coma white

By Kat.
In a genre of it's own, Manson has once again overwelmed his fans and cased mass media fuss over a performance of his, in this video, Manson portrays he assasination of JFK which went down terribly in the US. The Genre characteristics of Marilyn Manson's music videos are usually bizarre, scary, gory and have often been referred to as a fracture of Manson's sick imagination, alas, this music video is strangely calm, yet what appears to have stayed with Manson during production is how he always uses his whole band in his videos, like he does not want to exclude them, there are many shots of him with his band which also gives them a feel of a union. Also the use of colour is very toned down as usual, Manson's previous videos like "Beautiful people" have always been  the same with only a limited amount of colour, usually red, light green and blue is used within setting and background, otherwise, it's mainly Manson's hair which for example in Coma White is red, people are dressed alike as the set, in this video's case I believe it is to emphasise that everyone fades in with each other in society. The relationship between lyrics and visuals is oddly strong, looking through the video first I barely noticed the relation, but embraced the thought of this girl in the beginning - the only person who wears a white, long, innocent dress throughout the video, as the girl which Manson refers to, but this spreads further with the mob surrounding JFK - portrayed by Manson himself, so it is like Manson is singing to the world, the interesting bit that emphasised this I found was the chorus in the lyrics - "a pill to make you numb, a pill to make you dumb, a pill to make you anybody else, but all the drugs in this world - wont save her from herself" Manson - a man who's experienced with drugs, alcohol and the rock lifestyle, I believe is warning the world - perhaps directly his fans, as this song was written shortly after a Manson fan committed suicide whilst listening to an earlier Manson album. This I found an interesting theory - Manson basically saying "no drug can make you happier" this is supported also by how his lyrics continue "You were from a perfect world, a world that threw me away" At the end of the day there is a definite hidden message to this song, using JFK may have been because JFK was the president but he also embraced drugs and had many affairs - love is a drug? Some people can't go without it, but in the end JFK was assasinated, nothing in the world could have helped him, no doctor or member of the mob, no love, prayers or drugs, he died. Between the music and the visuals, I believe it is very strong use of clips, and it is very well edited, the phase in which everything moves goes steady as the beat of the drum in the song, and rarely in this music video does it return to normal phase, the use of colours makes it look even more sinister, and how no one has an expression of emotion on their face apart from Manson himself - it makes it look like people are not bothered, they all look like they are on morphine. What I found was a delight was how there are many close ups of the band, Manson and some of the characters portrayed, both in and out of focus, seeing Manson up close performing is strong also as it gives people a visual as to how he'd perform live, but also a strong visual of the video, the viewers feel closer to Manson if he gets close to them and you feel more part of the video with the type of shots from within the mob and surrounding Manson. The definite intertextual reference is the assasination of John F. Kennedy, this is highly offending to some, but in a way I find that Manson's style of crossing the line is just so creative and artistic, it's rebellious and it tells us in a way as viewers that we have every right to express ourselves in our way. The video is partly performance based but also both narrative and concept. Manson was always about concept which makes him so unique, he has his complete own style within costume, props, setting and acts. 

Textual analysis on music videos- Rihanna "Disturbia"

By Jasmine
A music video that I had analysed is "Disturbia" by Rihanna. Rihanna is also known to have a unique dress sense, however, she has a sense of sexiness to he clothing as she tries to keep up with the fashion and in most videos she wears very little to show off certain parts of her body.

When I had analysed this video, I had found that it was very effective and interesting as it showed different characteristics.

Genre Characteristics:

• Dancing-mainly used to interpret horror
• Background dancing-usually used through the chorus of the song

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?:

• Horror based-when she says "release me from this curse i'm in" indicates that someone has cast a spell over her and she cannot escape. (Relates to other various horror films).
• Costumes-Her costumes are mainly dark to symbolise the dark character of the lyrics itself. Furthermore, she wears gothic clothing which is very similar to specific horror films, and they are very detailed, to show fashion.

What is the relationship between the music and the visuals?

• A piano is used at the start to build up tension
• The video is being put out of her genre- Rihanna is known to be an r&b singer, however, this song has the elements of rock/gothic genre as this is song is very different from any other that she has done.

Are there any close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

• Mainly of her costumes and her physique- to attract the audience to the video of the artist. Furthermore, the costumes are there to show her becoming different monsters, relating to her music.
• Sexual undertone

Is there reference to notion of looking?

• Through bars-Shows that she is trapped in a cage
• Mirror-Shows reflections of other monsters

Are there any intertextual references?

• Horror films/songs- A bit like Micheal Jacksons "Thriller", when a group of people dance in Rihanna's video.

Is it performance,narrative or concept based?

• Performance based- As most of the video Rihanna is acting out various scary moves to suggest that she is a different creature. Also, dancers are mainly used in the chorus to suggest the intensity of the lyrics to "disturbia".

This is the original video, we've got via youtube.com, the video is a bit out of synch but still is effective.

Textual analysis on music videos- "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga

As we are intending to plan and create a music video, we have decided as a group to analyse 3 different videos individually of different genres. This is so that we can get a better idea of what to include in our music video, and possibly think about adding a narrative theme towards it.

Emma has chosen 'Bad Romance' by Lady GaGa for her music video as she believes that this artist is very unique and individual from any other seen in the music industry. Her wacky, yet creative fashion sense is seen quite popular at the moment as it is giving the impression to viewers that she doesn't care about what she looks like.

Genre Characteristics:

• Pop video-Loads of dancing/Background dancing
• Fashion and image is important
• Lots of girly dancing for men

Relationship between lyrics and visuals:

• Warped up love between her and the mysterious man (the one she kills at the end)
• Quotes from lyrics-"I want your ugly,I want your disease" "I want your leather covered kiss in the sand,I want your love"-suggests that she is portraying her feelings towards the man.

What is the relationship between music and visuals:

• Earphones she wears in the bath
• Mp3 Box

Are there any close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?:

• Lady GaGa always wears mad outrageous clothes
• Unusual Videos
• She kills the man at the end-Explicit, controversial/cliff hanger
• Emphasis of fashion
• A lot of dancing

Is there any notion of looking?:

• Close-up on: face,boobs, naked body (centre of the video)
• Close up on a number of fashion costumes she wears
• Look through legs and crawling on the floor
• We can see through various different types of things such as, coffins,bath,mirror,computer and shower to get the viewers engaged

Are there intertextual references?:

• Fashion house "Haus of GaGa"
• Strange references: coffins, fire surrounding the bed-could suggest power or revenge.
• Animal references:cat,bear,deer etc
• A clip of Lady GaGa in close-up singing towards the camera-similar to Christina Aguilera's song, "Beautiful".

Is it performance,narrative or concept based?:

• A bit of performance based, a bit narrative based
• And also a little bit of concept based-random clips of her in the shower

Lyrics to our final CHOICE!!

By Kat and Jasmine

Yes! Success, we have now chosen our artist and song, Spitfire's "Do you" appeals to us in so many ways and we feel we can do so much with this song!


Lyrics:
I couldn`t reach you when you set it to the ground
I said well, do you run?
I said well, do you run?


I couldn`t reach you when you said you were hanging around
I said well, do you run?
I said well, do you run?


I couldn`t see you when you said turn off the lights
I said well, do you run?
I said well, do you run?


I couldn`t see you when you said "I'm sure I'm right"
I said well, do you run?
i said well, do you run?


Life thrust down into a rush, nothing else matters much (uuuuuuuhuhuuuu)


Sometimes makes me loose my mind
Yeah it does, it makes me loose my mind


I couldn't hear you when you said turn out the sound
I said well, do you run?
I said that, do you run?


Ba ba ba etc... baaaaaah... x2




Next couple of things to do would be constructing a beat sheet, storyboard and start considering cast.


Success!

Ideas for music videos

This lesson, we have been looking for a song to do for our project. We found two websites, www.jamendo.com and www.tenthousandflushes.com. Jamendo is a worldwide creative commons website where you can upload and download different tracks and albums of all genres for free and without need for copyright. Ten thousand flushes is a band from Hereford that has it own fan Myspace page, which has tracks on it available to listen to and download. We selected 3 different songs that appealed to us, and we analysed each song for context ideas for a possible music video:
Ten thousand flushes-'Fighting for myself'

By Jasmine
When we had first listened to this song, we had found that it had a deeper meaning to it as the lyrics had shown to us that he is sticking up for himself in a certain situation in his life. We had come up with specific ideas which we had thought he was conveying in his song. We had thought that it may possibly be that he is being bullied or possibly being abused by his parents in his life and he wants to stick up for himself to stop this problem. This idea of "fighting" also suggests he is trying to survive the turmoil of his life and he sees this as the only way to get through the day. If we were to use this song for our music video, we could possibly create black and white scenes to show bad aspects of his life, and then resolving it during the end. As rock songs tend to be based around dark dull colours, we may suggest that we should include this for his costumes. However, as the lyrics to his songs are quite narrative we may suggest to use average day clothing so that it could make it look more like a story of his life.



Stephanie Bosch- "Broken Hearted Fool" By Emma



This song embodies someone (either the singer or the guy she is singing about) being broken and hurt by love, but trying to gain revenge to hurt the other person back because they are "obsessed" with them. This guy, we believe, tries every way to hurt

the narrator (e.g. by ignoring her) and yet one of them is caught up in love. For example the sinister tone of the song, and the psychotic ideas could maybe create an idea for a video in where he/she is locked in an asylum, which represents how they are locked in their head and thoughts due to the chain of their heart. In a possible video, we could use symbols of hearts and being broken and hate and being cracked. The laugh at the end suggests that she's done something quite scary and crazy, and makes her seem like the "mad one". Maybe the video could be a guess game to work out which of the lovers are the "obsessed one" and leave it on a cliffhanger.

Spitfire - 'Do you' by Kat



There is so much we could do with this song, for example we could larg

ely embrace the 60's movement of the 'factory girls' aka Edie Sedgwick. This we believe would be a great task , trying to re-create the feel of the 60's and the notes on doing so at the moment are as following:

• The 50's-60's feel of the music (Bob Dylan, Beatles) inspired us to re-create the pop culture of the time


• We've come up with ideas for the video, the singer loves the girl who he sing about, but she is unoptainable because of her high status in the media and she is loved by every man in her presence


• The idea of "Do you run?" represents the character Edie's life because she always tried to escape, from her past and her old persona, this is portrayed in the film "The factory girl" which we as a group intend to watch and take notes from


• We want to strongly refer to the 60's using Andy Warhols artwork & factory, the beatles, rolling stones, morris minor, bob dylan, 60's costume and make up, the other factory girls ect


• Ideas for the video: Girl followed by paparazzi and her guards push them off, no one realises that the singer is amongst the paparazzies trying to get to the girl. The girl tries to be anonymous and people come asking for her autograph. The singer is excluded out of her life fx he looks through windows when she attends exhibitions or in her home with other high status people, this also emphasises where he stands in their 'relationship' Or when she is at a premiere or award ceremony he is left outside in the rain with a bucket of flowers. Ending - He believes she's come to see him play his song, but he realises its someone else who is embracing her fashion look. Opening - A shot of the singer in black and white as if he is performing on TV live.


• A clash between the 60's and modern days (clothes? props? settings? Staying eternally youthful but changing decades?)


• Considerable locations: Train station in Shrewsbury or Hereford, shots from the morris minor, the OK diner, old buildings, Ludlow Assembly rooms, Shrewsbury town centre, a house, Ludlow Assembly rooms cinema, a studio for a photoshoot (Oscars/studio?)


• guitar and drums were the only instruments used in the song, so look for this in a 60's style.
  


• Bold colours and clothes.


• When the girl does her modelling (Andy Warhol) we can use radiant make up and costume which Kathrine Nielsen will contribute to as she intends to study this at UNI.


• Photoshop/Coreldraw13 print photos of photoshoot of this girl - part of possible ending to show this girl is a piece of work by Andy Warhol


• Editing - enhance colours which also add's to the artistic vibe of the 60's

Video killed the radio star - The history of music videos

By Em, Kat and Jasmine
-Started off with the invention of the talkies, adding sound to the video rather than having a man on the side playing the piano...
-1950's introduced the viewers to colour in film and TV, stars like Julie Garland embraced this as film started to include their own soundtracks eg musicals

-In 1955 came the rock'n roll movement which inspired rock'n roll films including Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley. Scenes in the film with the music soundtracks would lay the foundations for the modern day music videos

-Inspired by the American billboard charts that was established in the 1940's the UK singles chart first accounted for based on sales on the 14th of november 1952
-When shows like top of the pops came around in the 60's it was highly popular in Britain. When music acts could not appear, they would usually send in videos of themselves performing their single. An iconic example of this is the Beatles's "Strawberry Fields".
-In 1975 Queen released "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was first influential music video, as they made it not just for not being able to appear on a certain show, but to bring their album cover to life. The budget was only £3,500 and the effects were all done by camera work, compared to today's music videos that normally have budgets of at least hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars and all the effects are done by computers. Overnight, the music video was born.
- In 1979, the TV show "Pop Clips" was aired. A "video DJ" showed different music videos during the programme.
- In 1981, MTV was first launched by Mike Nesmith, an ex member of the pop group "The Monkees". He collected different music videos and compiled them together to create a 24 hour channel of music videos. The first ever video played was "Video killed the Radio Star". 200 videos were only available to air at the time, but MTV hoped it would be successful, and more record companies would hopefully produce more videos.
-Some artists such as New Romantic musicians like Adam and the Ant and David Bowie embraced this new invention. Image became more and more important because it was no longer like live concerts where the artists would be small and hard to see by the audience, and only the music made the impact. Fans could now recognise and see clearly their favourite musicians. Other musicians over the last 28 years since MTV has been around, have rejected and disliked this new media because of the channel's obsession with "Pretty Young Things" like Britney Spears and Duran Duran: they certainly looked good, but weren't credited initially as really talented musicians like acts such as Led Zeppelin for example. Those opposed to music videos thought that they were killing the music because of the new desire for images.
- Fans found this new medium as quite strange at first because their favourite artists were playing different roles and characters to what their audience were used to. Music videos included everything from cameo appearances (e.g. John Malcovich in Annie Lennox's Video, Courtney Cox in Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark".) to inspirations from different films. Anything went as long as it was cheap and cheerful to produce.
- Producers and record companies didn't realise at first how this convention could really sell lots of albums. Musicians that would have gone "unseen" in the past now had a platform to market their music to a large audience. (For example, Boy George and his colourful, crazy style took America by storm because he was accessible through his videos.)
- Two artists who really took hold of the music video were Madonna and Michael Jackson. Madonna started out in 1983, just as MTV was starting to grow in popularity, and her provocative, sometimes controversial videos made her a huge star. It was even believed at one time that the "M" in MTV stood for Madonna! Michael Jackson paved the way for modern music videos when he too released "Thriller" in 1983. "Thriller" went where no video had gone before: it had a full set, plot and characters, turning a simple music video into a mini-style movie, and kick-started big budgets. To fund the project, they agreed to make a "behind-the-scenes" programme for ABC. It was a huge phenomenon and they eventually released a video version of it in the shops. This was the first time this had ever been done, and began the idea that not only could you buy cds and albums, but videos along with it.

Action plan

By Em, Kat and Jasmine
We are going to put up an action plan which will help us plan out our time for every aspect of our project. It will hopefully be the following:




Week 1:


Research genre, style, theme and song which we could possibly work with.
-Use mind maps
-Youtube channels
-Look at other A2 music video projects
-Research into the history of music videos




Decide on song
-Contact labels/owners for copyright
-Download copyright free music
-Find lyrics and make notes
-Research on specific band (Style, genre)


Week 2
-Research into how music videos are made
-Research into music video directors
-Questionnaire on music videos
-Textual analysis of music videos




Week 3
-Treatment sheet
-Brief synopsis/summary
-Storyboard
-Beat sheet


Week 4
-Locations (images/arrangements)
-Shooting schedule
-Casting, getting props,costumes etc


Week 5-6
-Filming


Week 7-9
-Editing
-More filming if needed


Week 10-13
- Textual Analysis of several Digipaks and Advert
- Produce a Digipack
- Produce an Advert


Week 14
-Evaluation
-Feedback questionnaire

Plan of the day :)

Dear diary.. lol :D

Hello guys. Today we have planned to sit down and do a mind map and narrow down the categories of music which we`d be keen to work with, and from then take our work further by researching music history within the selected categories and research music video style and concept to gain a theory and ideas. 

Love Em Kat and Jaz

HELLO!!

From left to Right:

The goon on the left is the infamous Emma G! She takes English and Drama as well as Media which gives her a wide range of knowledge and experience! She is also nuts about music and watches alot of music channels!

The little one in the middle is jaz! She loves music and has been on waterloo road! For my coursework we have to make a music video, so hopefully it will be great and awesome! :P

Hello...My name is Russel, i am a wilderness explorer... *oink oink* Nutter on the right is Kat, she's Danish :) So she's special... She like's films and music and taking part in creative tasks... She hopes to produce a creative and different music video for this coursework, hopefully with a bit of a sinister look to it, she'd like to explore elements of puppetry and stop motion, but thinks realistically about the time we have... My strong sides and contribution to the group lay in creativity and making people smile :) !