IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STAR IMAGE!

How the star/band/performer is represented in your video and on the digipak and website is crucial in constructing the values, attitudes and beliefs of the artist in the mind of the target audience.

REPRESENTATION, AUDIENCE AND OWNERSHIP ARE COMPLETELY INTERTWINED CONCEPTS!

WHAT IS THE INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE OF A MUSIC VIDEO?

Music videos are made primarily to promote the star, in order to sell their music, in order to make money…well mostly!

They are also constructed to construct a set of desires in the target audience to be like them, think like them, love what they love, be involved in their lives & buy what they suggest.

There are huge synergies between marketing and star image! We don’t just buy a product we also buy into the values of the star image and in purchasing their product emulate them. Media representations of the star image is crucial in terms of raising an audience awareness.

STARS SHOULD BE STUDIED AND ANALYSED LIKE ANY OTHER TEXT!

They are essentially walking talking brands, who use their branding to advertise, publicise and sell to fans. Stars have to remain constantly interesting to keep the fans intrigued – the star image evolves and is constantly reinvented by media companies! In fact Stars could be seen as its own special kind of ‘species’.

RICHARD DYER

Richard Dyer is a theorist you need to learn about. He came up with some concepts about how ‘star image’ works in the media. The link to the concepts booklet is in the menu at the top of the blog. Find it, add it to your drive, print it, LEARN IT!

TASK

CREATE A ONLINE CONCEPT BOARD IN PINTEREST/GOMOODBOARD STAR IMAGE (you can use any other collage app of your choice but you must be able to annotate the images you upload to it).

Your task is to take the ‘star’ (performer, duet, band, group…) you analysed when you did the genre analysis and create a ‘concept board’ on how they are ‘represented‘.

Find examples of news stories, incidents, events, digipak covers, music videos, articles, blogs, tweets that all contribute to their ‘star image’. The way they are represented is called their ‘metanarrative‘ (over arching story about them).

And remember, just as you do in your TV drama analysis – you must add ADJECTIVES to how they appear through that particular event, story, picture etc. You can do this task as a group but must all equally contribute to the page.

This is a link to an excellent example. You should have at least 15 – 20 images and comments.

Filming day for the Performance shoot is on Thursday 17th May.

You are able to choose your location but we can suggest the following as possible ‘easy’ yet ideal locations.  You will have to independently risk assess the location you choose and think about the logistics of getting there with your MES and Performers etc.

HOWEVER, we have access to the old Education buildings in The Grange which has a number of empty, eerie corridors, grand high ceilinged rooms, huge stairwells and a massive school/dance hall with balcony for high angled shots.

This venue, in particular, would mean we could easily transport the musical instruments and filming equipment.

If you choose, not to use the filming day, then you will need to ensure you get the performance filmed either before that date or during that weekend at the latest.

PERFORMERS – need to be students from this class or any of the other media classes. The sooner you ask them and put your request in, the more likely you are to get who you want and we can then juggle a shooting schedule out for everyone as it may mean you having to travel between locations at lunchtime.

The Grange

Candie Gardens Photos

St Peter Port

A link to some photos Mrs C took of backgrounds (from home) and from Town.

PLEASE SIGN UP TO PADLET.COM AND SHARE WITH YOUR GROUP.

Instead of a written list of shots we want you to create a visual shotlist of the kind of shots you want to include in your performance shoot.  You will get the chance to practice next week. This is a group effort so share a PADLET.com board amongst you.

However, certain genres rely specifically on certain shots as part of the repertoire of elements.  For example heavy rock might be canted, hand held camera shots with whip pans a plenty. Indie acoustic might be much smoother, longer, pull focus shots.

You should study other bands of a similar genre and collate @ 10 screen shots of conventional shots, frames, angles they use in their performances. You should look at at least 3 – 4 other music videos and use shots from these. You will then title the shots with an explanation of the shot i.e. close up of guitarist’s instrumental mastery; whip pans between band members looking at each other; master long shot of band performing as a unit; mid shot pan of band members; extreme close up of lead singer’s expressive face and vocals etc. Always add in some textual analysis….how does that shot help represent, connote, convey, portray the star?  YOU NEED 9 DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHOT; distance, angle, framing, movement, special.

Clearly a lot of the energy and dynamics will come from the edit in post-production but you will need a variety of shots of the performer from different angles with different movement to give yourself adequate footage.

Remember:  take at least 2 cameras for your performance shoot and get the band to sing the song several times through and take complete footage of the song being performed from different angles, distances and with different movement.

Also think about shots where movement happens through the frame…i.e. feet or people walking across the screen? What about POVs, hand held, canted, whip pans, pulling focus?

Take a printed version of the screen shots out with you to remind you of what you need to shoot in order to create the right vibe, look and energy. Also take a list of specific shots you need to help create energy and star image.

This week you will:

• Meet your partner and thrash it out!  Whose idea will you go with?  One or the other or a combination?  If it is a combination, then you will need to create a new presentation using slides from both individual pitches.
• Complete the Perfect Production Group agreement. Print, sign and embed.
• Embed all the pitches with summaries in your blog.
• Meet your teacher and impress them with your pitch. Film it. top and tail it and embed it and reflect on it.
• Ensure your blog is all complete and up to date before you leave for your
  

  Easter Holidays!

Mr Gregson, Miss Hales and Mrs Cobb.

This is a really great article about how to be successful in A level production projects. The advice comes straight from the chief examiner and so it is well worth spending time on.

Please spend time this lesson working on your Production Group Agreement. Think about the general (transferable) skills your team will need: diplomacy, organisation, compromise, creativity… as well as the technical skills like choreography editing, costume design & lighting…

Think back to the preliminary video tasks: What technical and personal qualities did your group possess that helped you deliver the product and on reflection, where were the problems and what did you lack as a group?

Upload it to you blog and remember to use a thumbnail to attach the link to. Also, please include a brief commentary on:

What is the document that you have uploaded?
In what ways will this discussion help you manage the project?
Remember to use pdfs and jpegs – NOT LINKS to GOOGLE FILES!

MOST IMPORTANT – LIMITATION IS STIMULATION

There are 2 filming days we have set up to make the production easier for you. Teachers and Year 13’s will be on hand to advise and support.  One will be for performance and the other for narrative.

You should endeavour to choose your performers/actors from within the Year 12 Media Students.  You can only perform in one.

You need to short list some songs (see below the guidance on choosing songs) and, using synesthesia, develop some tangible ideas for one of them.

You should present your ideas as a inspiration board of found images / videos. You will need to consider the following:  The genre of music & repertoire of elements associated. The look of the band / lead singer. Locations for performance / narrative. Style of Performance. Costume / Make Up / Hair. Instruments. Colour Palettes. Narrative Events.

Use this slideshare as a basic template (make a copy):

Individualise it and add extra information as and when you see fit:

• Choosing a Song.
  • Start with thinking, ‘Who will perform this?’ and work from there. Perhaps opt for a solo performer to make organisation easier.
  • If possible choose people from within your class who could perform/act.
  • Don’t choose something that is well known.
  • Don’t choose something too long, 3.5 minutes is plenty.
  • Album tracks or cover versions are useful options Beware of Warner Music Group and its associated record labels

TIPS AND ADVICE

• Avoid showing or referencing overtly sex, smoking, drinking, drugs as the majority of you are under 18 and, probably, so are your target audience.
• Best to avoid mimed dialogue as it looks odd and people tend to laugh.
• Avoid ‘dancing’ unless you can show us it will be ‘theatrical/performance’ based.  Synchronised swimming out of water is not useful to any narrative. Choreographed street dance etc for relevant genres is good – as long as you have skilled practitioners who don’t mind doing it, again and again and again.
• Think about your performers:  are they available, will they be happy to film possibly on several occasions?  Do they have stage and film presence?
• Do you have access to instruments, transport, locations and if not – focus on a single performer with no instruments.
• Risk: We need to risk assess everything so unless you have access to firemen and adult lifeguards – fire and water are out of the equation.
• Think: doable, can I film this in two shoots? Studio shoots are not good quality light wise. Some of the best videos are the simplest but well shot and well dressed and well edited.

Please listen to music on these site for inspiration:

• Glastonbury (BBC Introducing Stage)
• Balcony TV
• Unsigned.com
• Soundcloud

THIS IS A LINK TO A PREVIOUS PITCH

Synaesthesia is a way of generating ideas from music – effectively ‘seeing sounds in your head’.

It is a really helpful technique to use when listening to music in order to come up with visual ideas.

When listening to a piece of music you should concentrate on each of the following features in turm:

• Sense of subject matter
• Grain of voice
• Arrangement
• Suggested Stories
• Cultural references

Here is a Prezi which explains and illustrates these ideas:

Task 1 

• You will listen to two songs and write down the images, ideas, colours, adjectives, themes, subjects that come to mind when listening to the lyrics, beat, grain of voice, tempo etc.
• Then we will watch the videos and see how close you were to how the music was interpreted in visuals.

Just some inspiration!  Don;t just look at other music videos.  Watch dance, theatre, adverts, films for ideas on narrative style and contents.

It is always worth looking at OTHER ART forms for inspiration. Photos, art, websites, films, theatre – they could all spark a moment of imagination.

These are just a few links to ‘weird and wonderful’ youtube videos:

Beckett play – Theatre of the Absurd – Quad

Not I – Beckett

Beckett – Acting without words – I High

The Bed Experiment – Theatre of Cruelty

DV8 – Physical Theatre – 3 ballets

This is a link to a really intriguing channel on YouTube. Have a look at his videos though – a myriad of ideas perhaps?

Here is a playlist of some of the best music videos made by students from The Sixth Form. They are an example of what is possible and moreover – what works:

Task:

Here are the assessment criteria.

Independent Study Tasks

• Embed the video (not the whole playlist), copy the level ladder and evaluate your chosen video in terms of how it reaches (or doesn’t) level four.
• Address the following,  most important criteria and use sub-headings in your evaluation:
  • Appropriate to task (is a music video and what is conventional about it),
  • Variety of shot distances,
  • Mise-en-scene selection (for star image and character representation) and
  • Editing for meaning (narrative sense and conveying of genre).
• Remember to EVALUATE the success of the video with reference to  the assessment criteria with SPECIFIC EXAMPLES from the video  and use  TECHNICAL TERMS.
• Remember to try and get in theoretical terms too (SIGNIFICANCE): ‘brand, break the 4th wall, genre,  code, star image, representation, narrative – almost like a mini textual analysis.

This is an interesting one from another centre.