Production Diary 7 - initial planning ideas, moodboard, contact with artist, equipment list, analysis of lyrics

I completed the 2 homework tasks I set myself last week which were: initial planning ideas and moodboard.

I did initial planning ideas on Prezi. In this Prezi I included the brief idea I had on my music video such as the song I am planning to use (“Count On Me” by Bruno Mars) as well as the type of music video (lyric video with a bit of narrative). I also mentioned the possible locations and props I could use for my music video (school themed).

For the moodboard I collected several images of the things related to my music genre (pop), target audience interests (brands, hobbies, status) as well as ideas related to the type of music video I want to create.

For this week’s classwork I chose to do: contact with artist, equipment list and analysis of lyrics.

For the contact with artist I wrote an e-mail to the management of Bruno Mars which I found on his official website. In the e-mail I requested for permission to use his song for my media coursework.

The equipment list requires us to list all the possible equipment which we may use for our music video including the equipment to film the music video such as camera and tripod as well as the props we may use in the music video.

I analysed the lyrics on Prezi as I thought that it would be more suitable as there is no frame which restricts you from putting things like PowerPoint slides. This was important because the lyrics are formatted in a long list and so Prezi would be useful in analysing it wouldn’t fit nicely on a PowerPoint slide. For the analysis I mentioned my interpretation of the lyrics as well as how I may film my music video to match parts of the lyrics for example using the notebook and other props to present the lyrics.

Equipment list

Equipment List

I listed all the equipment I used in my music video shoot which included the equipment that assissted the filming as well as the props I used in the music video. I checked this list before filming to make sure I had what I needed.

Analysis of lyrics

Contact with artist

I sent an e-mail to the management of Bruno Mars and in the e-mail I informed them that I wanted to use the song "Count On Me" to create a music video for my A2 Media coursework. I then kindly requested for permission to use it.

Moodboard

In my moodboard, I found many images which relate to the general idea of my music video. These include images related to the artist and audience of the pop genre as well as the possible props and locations for the music video.

Initial planning ideas

Production Diary 6 - research into equipment, artist, directors, genre and audience

This week in class I set myself 3 tasks to do which were: research into equipment, research into artist and research into music video directors.

For the equipment task I wrote about the different equipment which I plan to use to make my music video. These included the camera, tripod as well as software –Adobe Premiere, InDesign and Photoshop. I briefly explained why I plan to use these equipment and also mentioned how it would help me to make my music video.

I did the ‘research into directors’ task on PowerPoint. I researched the directors of the videos which I liked such as Katy Perry’s “Birthday”. Through this research I found out about the other videos which these directors had directed. For example Tanimura the director of “Birthday” also directed other Katy Perry songs which was interesting to know. I also found that a lot of the music video directors also directed films.

I researched Bruno Mars and noted some of the important and interesting information about him. Firstly, I found the basic information about him including his birth name, date of birth, occupations etc. I also researched the awards and nominations he received and also other areas of success such as his album sales.

I completed the homework task I set myself to complete which were: research into genre and audience research.

I used Prezi to present my work regarding the research into the pop genre. I firstly found the definitions of pop music. This was rather interesting to see how people defined it. I also noted the conventions of pop music, mentioning the clothing and colours used for example. I also mentioned some famous pop artists and included some images of them.

For the audience research I used a website called PowToon. This is a website which creates animated presentations. Since I had used PowerPoint and Prezi quite a few times already I wanted to find a different way to present my work and I came across this when I was searching for different ways to present things on the internet. I found this website fairly easy to use as the way it was set out was easy to get used to. Despite not having being taught or looked at tutorials and managing to make an animated presentation is a personal accomplishment and perhaps suggests the simplicity of the website. Although it was quite easy to use but the outcome was wonderful as it looked professional and interesting.

I typed up the information before I put it in the presentation as it made it easier to work with and also ensured that I had a copy of the information in case it didn’t work out. I wrote about the age, gender, social class and interests of my target audience.

Research into directors

Research into artist

Bruno Mars

 

·         Born as Peter Gene Hernandez.

·         Born on 8 October 1985 in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.

·         Occupation: singer-songwriter, record producer, voice artist, choreographer.

·         Instruments: vocals, piano, guitar, drums, harmonica, keyboard, bass, beatbox.

 

Mars signed to Motown Records in 2004 and after a year he was dropped by the company. He met songwriter and producer Philip Lawrence through the company. They then collaborated, writing songs for Mars but received many rejections from labels. In 2006, Lawrence introduced Mars to his future A&R manager at Atlantic Records who wanted to sign him immediately but it took 3 years for him to be signed to the company as Atlantic felt that it was too early and that Mars still needed development as an artist.  He finally signed with Atlantic in 2009.

His debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans was digitally released on 4^th October 2011 and physically released on 5^th October 2011. The lead single “Just The Way You Are” was released on 19^th July 2010. It reached the top of the several charts such as the Billboard Hot 100.

On 30^th October 2011, he exclusively performed “Runaway Baby” on the results show of The X Factor UK. On the same day he received 6 nominations for a Grammy Award for: Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Mars has released 2 studio albums: Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010) and Unorthodox Jukebox (2012). He has released 1 EP, 21 singles, 17 music videos, 5 promotional singles and 3 other charted songs.

He has featured in 2 films (Honeymoon in Vegas and Rio 2) and 3 televisions series.

 

Success

Ø  Billboard ranked Mars as the 12^th richest musician of 2013, with earnings of around $18.8 million.

Ø   “Just The Way You Are” (12.5 million) and “Grenade” (10.2 million) are two of the worldwide most digitally sold singles of all time.

Ø  Amazon.co.uk named him as the 12^th best-selling digital artist.

Ø  Mars became the first male artist to top the 4 million mark in digital sales with 4 different songs.

Ø  He has sold over 130 million records worldwide as a singer, producer and songwriter.

Ø  Mars has the highest total number one songs on Hot 100 Airplay among all solo male artists.

Ø  He has sold 11 million albums and 68 million singles worldwide as a singer.

Awards and nominations

§  He has won a total of 67 awards and has been nominated for 209 awards.

§  Mars won his first Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance on 13^th February 2011 and also received 6 nominations including Best Rap song, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Producer of the Year.

§  He has won 2 Brit Awards for International Male Solo Artist 2012 and 2014.

§  He won Favourite Pop/Rock Male Artist in 2012 as the American Music Award.

Research into genre

By doing this research I can apply some of the conventions of the pop genre into my music video. For example, I know I should try to make it colourful and display a positive message to the audience. I also know that my song fits in with the genre as it is about friendship and I found that typical pop songs are about relationships. Since the pop genre is focused on visual imagery I know that I should create a music video which meets this and this could be done through the use of mise-en-scene.

Audience research

Research into equipment

Media - Equipment by fionawongmedia

Production Diary 5 – music video theory and music channels

This week I managed to get two more research tasks done.

Firstly I completed the music video theory task which was fairly easy to complete as I used the information from the work I did for the exam side of this course. I got information on each of the following concepts: narrative, media language, audience, representation and genre. To accompany some of the theories such as the narrative theory I inserted some diagrams beside the text to show the theory in an easier and more interesting way.

Secondly, I completed the music channel task. For this task we have to research information regarding different music channels. I decided to research the music channels 4Music, Viva and MTV because these are the few most known music channels. For each of these music channels I found out information about it such as when it was launched, who it is owned by and the slogan. I also found some more descriptive information such as the details of the launch of 4Music as well as the first music video that was shown on Viva.

For homework, I set myself two tasks to complete: research into genre and audience research.

Music Channels

Media - Music Channels by fionawongmedia

Music Video Theory

Production Diary 4 - music video conventions and history, work I admire and music labels research

Over the summer holidays I managed to get some more of the research tasks done.

Firstly, as an extra research task I finished off the reverse storyboard of an existing music video which we started in the lesson. We used a program called Celtx which allowed us to make storyboards. To create the storyboard I print screened the music video and briefly wrote about what was significant in it. Through this task I managed to find what types of transitions I could use for my lyric video.

Another task which I did was the conventions of a music video. For this task I used PowerPoint to complete it. I divided the conventions into sections such as camera, sound, structure, mise-en-scene, editing and so on. Although my music video is going to be a lyric video and will be different but some of these conventions still apply I think. For example, the mise-en-scene is important to show the emotion of the song so this would not matter whether it is a lyric video or narrative video whereas the camera shots may not apply for my lyric video but would be necessary for a narrative video.

I also found examples of lyric videos which I admire. I chose Jason Mraz’s “I Won’t Give Up” and Katy Perry’s “Birthday”. These videos really caught my eye as they were done to a high standard. I really admire the mise-en-scene of these videos as it was thought out carefully which inspires me to also do the same for mine. I wrote briefly about music video and described some of the techniques used. I then explained what I liked about it.

Finally I did the history of music videos task. For this task I decided to use Prezi to present it. I gathered a lot of information from the internet to create the sort of history timeline of music videos. I found out about some of the earliest types of music videos. To accompany the factual information I found I put in some relevant images/videos.

This week I managed to complete the music label research task. For this task I used PowerPoint to present my work. I researched 4 music labels, these were Warner Music Group, EMI, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. For each of these music labels I mentioned the key facts such as when it was founded, the labels under the company, some of the artists under the company as well as some points about the history of the company. To accompany the text I included some images of the company logo, logos of the labels and images of the artists.

Next week I plan to get started on another research task which will be researching directors or theory. 

Research into music labels

Media - Research Into Music Labels

I researched the main music labels in the music industry, looking at information such as when it established, the artists under the label, the revenue of the company as well as the number of employees in the company. Through this research task I found that all the major labels had many subsidiary labels and that there's a lot of merging between companies. For example, EMI was aquired by the Universal Music Group.