Annabel uploaded our Rough Cut to her Facebook and she got feedback from her Facebook friends about our Rough Cut. The feedback she got was mostly positive and constructive criticism was given.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Audience Testing
Audience Testing
Annabel uploaded our Rough Cut to her Facebook and she got feedback from her Facebook friends about our Rough Cut. The feedback she got was mostly positive and constructive criticism was given.
Annabel uploaded our Rough Cut to her Facebook and she got feedback from her Facebook friends about our Rough Cut. The feedback she got was mostly positive and constructive criticism was given.
Initial Ideas For Our Music Video
Initial Ideas For Our Music Video
- Black and white flashbacks. The whole of the video is going to be in colour but the flashbacks are in black and white to separate the past from the present.
- A lot of focus on memories. The song is about Kieron's battle with Cancer and his death, therefore the video will include things to do with the past to show how everyone's life was before Kieron found out he had Cancer.
- Direct eye contact when focus is on the main actress. This will be used to show emotion.
- Low saturation. This will be used to keep the video simple.
- Simple clothes, simple makeup, simple setting. Everything will be kept simple so the main focus is on the story that is being told through the video and the lyrics. Also everything will be kept simple to make it look more natural and real.
- Lyrical links. This is to make the video narrative based. We are making the video narrative based so the video can tell the story that the lyrics are telling. However we are making parts of the video performance based because Louise is going to be in the video herself singing.
- Shots moving in slow motion. These types of shots could be used to show time. Shots in slow motion almost look as if time is nearly frozen. The use of slow motion shots in our video could be to show that they want time to go slower as everyone wants more time with Kieron.
- Lots of closeups to show emotion.
- Lots of long shots to represent the feeling of being lost and alone.
- Shots of the main actress looking at old photographs. This is to show memory. These shots will be in black and white as she is reminiscing about the past.
- Black and white flashbacks. The whole of the video is going to be in colour but the flashbacks are in black and white to separate the past from the present.
- A lot of focus on memories. The song is about Kieron's battle with Cancer and his death, therefore the video will include things to do with the past to show how everyone's life was before Kieron found out he had Cancer.
- Direct eye contact when focus is on the main actress. This will be used to show emotion.
- Low saturation. This will be used to keep the video simple.
- Simple clothes, simple makeup, simple setting. Everything will be kept simple so the main focus is on the story that is being told through the video and the lyrics. Also everything will be kept simple to make it look more natural and real.
- Lyrical links. This is to make the video narrative based. We are making the video narrative based so the video can tell the story that the lyrics are telling. However we are making parts of the video performance based because Louise is going to be in the video herself singing.
- Shots moving in slow motion. These types of shots could be used to show time. Shots in slow motion almost look as if time is nearly frozen. The use of slow motion shots in our video could be to show that they want time to go slower as everyone wants more time with Kieron.
- Lots of closeups to show emotion.
- Lots of long shots to represent the feeling of being lost and alone.
- Shots of the main actress looking at old photographs. This is to show memory. These shots will be in black and white as she is reminiscing about the past.
Directors' Previous Music Videos
Directors' Previous Music Videos
As the only music videos Louise has done are mostly just live performances, we have all decided as a group to analyse some more directors who have directed music videos for artists that are similar to Louise e.g. JoJo.
As the only music videos Louise has done are mostly just live performances, we have all decided as a group to analyse some more directors who have directed music videos for artists that are similar to Louise e.g. JoJo.
Erik White
Erik White is an American director, his main focus is directing music videos.
Erik White directed 'Leave (Get Out)' by JoJo, who was an artist we considered using a song by. The music video takes place in a high school. JoJo is seen with friends and dancing with cheerleading girls. The camera mainly focuses on JoJo. There are cuts used going from JoJo to someone playing the guitar throughout the video. JoJo's outfit changes five times in the video. She is made to look like a normal teenage girl. There are quite a few different scenes shown in this music video. There's a scene when JoJo is in the toilets. where she is stood by the lockers. where she is sat in front of the lockers, where she is dancing with her friends and there's a couple more. The video ends how it begins, with JoJo sat on the floor, in front of the lockers. Right at the end of the video JoJo gets up and walks away.
Roman White
Roman White
Roman White is a music video director who has directed most of Carrie Underwood's videos. He has also directed music videos for Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and more. He directed 'Because Of You' by Kelly Clarkson.
Narrative Based And Performance Based Video Analysis
Narrative Based And Performance Based Video Analysis
Narrative Based
Often there are stories to accompany music videos. These can either link to the song or contrast to the song (either buying into the audience expectations or subverting them). Think of Don't Mug Yourself by The Streets OR Step Into My World by Kylie.
Don't Mug Yourself has a simple narrative told through different snapshots of the young boy's relationship breakdown. This narrative conforms to the lyrics of the song and buys into audience expectation of both the artist and the 'idea' of the song. Other examples are Michael Jackson's Thriller and Weezer's Buddy Holly.
Step Into My World had a more complex surreal narrative. This narrative shows Kylie walking through 'a day in the life of', but every time she starts the day again, elements are repeated with different consequences. The song does conform to some of the lyrics i.e. the idea of stepping into Kylie's surreal world, bit it subverts the idea creatively looking at repetition and consequence. Other examples are The Chemical Brother's The Boxer (this follows a boy trying to get his ball back) and Robbie Williams' Rock DJ (where the models are not satisfied until they literally get a piece of Robbie!).
Performance Based
This is literally a performance of an artist to their music. It does not mean that they have to be playing their instruments or singing to the camera. It does not even have to be the artist singing.
Here are some examples of creative performance based music videos:
- Daft Punk's Around The World the performance here is by dancers dressed as skeletons, spacemen, jocks and many more doing a repetitive routine that is addictive to watch.
- Notorious BIG Sky's The Limit the performance here is by children performing as Biggie, Puff Daddy and their many, many women. It's interesting to watch the confident performances.
- White Stripe's Hardest Button To Button the performance here is by Jack and Meg White. But the director digitally repeats their performance to move them through some interesting urban scenes.
Narrative Based
Often there are stories to accompany music videos. These can either link to the song or contrast to the song (either buying into the audience expectations or subverting them). Think of Don't Mug Yourself by The Streets OR Step Into My World by Kylie.
Don't Mug Yourself has a simple narrative told through different snapshots of the young boy's relationship breakdown. This narrative conforms to the lyrics of the song and buys into audience expectation of both the artist and the 'idea' of the song. Other examples are Michael Jackson's Thriller and Weezer's Buddy Holly.
Step Into My World had a more complex surreal narrative. This narrative shows Kylie walking through 'a day in the life of', but every time she starts the day again, elements are repeated with different consequences. The song does conform to some of the lyrics i.e. the idea of stepping into Kylie's surreal world, bit it subverts the idea creatively looking at repetition and consequence. Other examples are The Chemical Brother's The Boxer (this follows a boy trying to get his ball back) and Robbie Williams' Rock DJ (where the models are not satisfied until they literally get a piece of Robbie!).
Performance Based
This is literally a performance of an artist to their music. It does not mean that they have to be playing their instruments or singing to the camera. It does not even have to be the artist singing.
Here are some examples of creative performance based music videos:
- Daft Punk's Around The World the performance here is by dancers dressed as skeletons, spacemen, jocks and many more doing a repetitive routine that is addictive to watch.
- Notorious BIG Sky's The Limit the performance here is by children performing as Biggie, Puff Daddy and their many, many women. It's interesting to watch the confident performances.
- White Stripe's Hardest Button To Button the performance here is by Jack and Meg White. But the director digitally repeats their performance to move them through some interesting urban scenes.
Monday, 21 October 2013
Analysis Of Track Lyrics
Analysis Of Track Lyrics
Kieron:
December nineteen, nearly Christmas day, A
The demon inside you, decided to come out and play, A
And as you'd expect, we feared the worst, B
But the doctors managed, to ease all the hurt, C
The chemo would come, and the steroids too, D
But for now, we had Christmas, E
Our family, and we had you. D
And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same B
I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B
The next year came, so did the pain and the blues, A
Still tinged with this hope, that it would all be over so soon, B
But then they said 'it's terminal', and cancer got so personal, C
No way this could be worse at all, I can't stand, I only fall, C
Scream so loud, and strike a wall... C
But I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same D
I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B
And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round... A
And I think I'm being selfish, because I can't bring myself, to visit you now, B
I just want to remember you as the uncle I always knew, C
So I'm sorry. D
But I swear, I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever, ever, be the same D
And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could have stayed. D
Because, February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day, A
That demon inside you, decided, to take you away. A
Kieron:
December nineteen, nearly Christmas day, A
The demon inside you, decided to come out and play, A
And as you'd expect, we feared the worst, B
But the doctors managed, to ease all the hurt, C
The chemo would come, and the steroids too, D
But for now, we had Christmas, E
Our family, and we had you. D
And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same B
I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B
The next year came, so did the pain and the blues, A
Still tinged with this hope, that it would all be over so soon, B
But then they said 'it's terminal', and cancer got so personal, C
No way this could be worse at all, I can't stand, I only fall, C
Scream so loud, and strike a wall... C
But I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same D
I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B
And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round... A
And I think I'm being selfish, because I can't bring myself, to visit you now, B
I just want to remember you as the uncle I always knew, C
So I'm sorry. D
But I swear, I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever, ever, be the same D
And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could have stayed. D
Because, February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day, A
That demon inside you, decided, to take you away. A
Louise wrote this song herself. Kieron is a song that Louise wrote over a period of 14 months, documenting her uncle's battle with Cancer from December 2011 to February 2013.
She chose Kieron for the title as it is her uncle's name. I think having his name as the title is really simple but also effective. Having his name as the title automatically tells us who the song is about, but it doesn't tell us what the song is about. It doesn't tell us that he was battling Cancer and that he died. Louise doesn't mention the name Kieron once in her lyrics.
We find out that he was battling Cancer and that he died through the lyrics. The lyrics tell us the whole story about his battle and his death. The first line 'The demon inside you, decided to come out and play.', explains to us how Kieron's Cancer started to attack. The last line 'That demon inside you, decided, to take you away.', tells that he has died because of the cancer.
The fact that she refers to Cancer as 'The demon' explains to us how horrible Cancer is and how badly it affected Kieron. Louise doesn't actually mention the word 'Cancer' a lot in this song. She doesn't need to as we straight away realise her uncle is ill with Cancer as she mentions the word 'Chemo'. Louise makes quite a few references to Cancer. This could be an example of a semantic field. Louise is also very specific when it comes to time. 'December nineteen, nearly Christmas day', she is very specific here because she tells us when it all started. She also tells us when everything ended as well, 'February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day'.
Louise has made the lyrics rhyme. The letters in pink at the end of each line indicate the rhyming pattern. This pattern is just to do with the last word from each line. Louise makes words rhyme within the line e.g. 'And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round...', 'Bound' and 'Round' rhyme but they are included in the same line.
Louise used quite a lot of repetition in her lyrics. She repeats 'I don't mind' quite a lot. She also repeats 'We might be 'fine''. The fact that the word 'fine' is in quotation marks gives the impression that they wont be fine, also that they might not now what being fine actually is. She also uses the word 'might', this indicates that she is uncertain whether they will be fine or not. She seems to repeat this verse quite a few times but she usually changes the last line:
And I don't mind
What anyone else has to say
We might be 'fine'
She chose Kieron for the title as it is her uncle's name. I think having his name as the title is really simple but also effective. Having his name as the title automatically tells us who the song is about, but it doesn't tell us what the song is about. It doesn't tell us that he was battling Cancer and that he died. Louise doesn't mention the name Kieron once in her lyrics.
We find out that he was battling Cancer and that he died through the lyrics. The lyrics tell us the whole story about his battle and his death. The first line 'The demon inside you, decided to come out and play.', explains to us how Kieron's Cancer started to attack. The last line 'That demon inside you, decided, to take you away.', tells that he has died because of the cancer.
The fact that she refers to Cancer as 'The demon' explains to us how horrible Cancer is and how badly it affected Kieron. Louise doesn't actually mention the word 'Cancer' a lot in this song. She doesn't need to as we straight away realise her uncle is ill with Cancer as she mentions the word 'Chemo'. Louise makes quite a few references to Cancer. This could be an example of a semantic field. Louise is also very specific when it comes to time. 'December nineteen, nearly Christmas day', she is very specific here because she tells us when it all started. She also tells us when everything ended as well, 'February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day'.
Louise has made the lyrics rhyme. The letters in pink at the end of each line indicate the rhyming pattern. This pattern is just to do with the last word from each line. Louise makes words rhyme within the line e.g. 'And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round...', 'Bound' and 'Round' rhyme but they are included in the same line.
Louise used quite a lot of repetition in her lyrics. She repeats 'I don't mind' quite a lot. She also repeats 'We might be 'fine''. The fact that the word 'fine' is in quotation marks gives the impression that they wont be fine, also that they might not now what being fine actually is. She also uses the word 'might', this indicates that she is uncertain whether they will be fine or not. She seems to repeat this verse quite a few times but she usually changes the last line:
And I don't mind
What anyone else has to say
We might be 'fine'
The last line of this verse changes, it's been 'But we'd be better if you could have stayed.' and it has also been 'But we'd be better if you could stay.'. It's been a few different things actually. I think Louise does this just to emphasise what she says in the verse, but she changes the last line to follow on with the story. The first line that she uses is 'But we won't ever be the same' and the last line that she uses is 'But we'd be better if you could have stayed.'.
Friday, 18 October 2013
Artist's Target Audience
Artist's Target Audience
I think the target audience would most likely be young females than young males as young females would be able to relate to her songs more than males would, especially 'Our Song' which is about a couple who broke up. Most of Louise's songs are emotional and get to you. Kieron is a very emotional song. It actually made me cry, so I feel that other young females would feel the same way about this song. Louise is a young female herself, so she writes and sings songs about what girls like and feel. She writes and sings songs about her life as well.
When I say young females I mean females from the age of 12 to the age of 18. Females of this age like loads of different things. They are into, fashion, hair, makeup, shoes etc. Females of this age usually worry about their image. Also girls of this age are interested in boys and some get into relationships, so they're interested in love. Some have been in relationships and have been hurt. Some have been through breakups too. A lot of Louise's songs are to do with love and breakups therefore girls of this age could relate to her songs and most likely, like her songs.
I think the target audience would most likely be young females than young males as young females would be able to relate to her songs more than males would, especially 'Our Song' which is about a couple who broke up. Most of Louise's songs are emotional and get to you. Kieron is a very emotional song. It actually made me cry, so I feel that other young females would feel the same way about this song. Louise is a young female herself, so she writes and sings songs about what girls like and feel. She writes and sings songs about her life as well.
When I say young females I mean females from the age of 12 to the age of 18. Females of this age like loads of different things. They are into, fashion, hair, makeup, shoes etc. Females of this age usually worry about their image. Also girls of this age are interested in boys and some get into relationships, so they're interested in love. Some have been in relationships and have been hurt. Some have been through breakups too. A lot of Louise's songs are to do with love and breakups therefore girls of this age could relate to her songs and most likely, like her songs.
Artist's Star Image
Artist's Star Image
Louise Champion has a Youtube page. On her Youtube page she posts her covers of other artist's songs and her own original songs. She uses it as her platform to easily get feedback and to advertise her videos. On her Youtube page the videos to her original songs aren't really videos. The video is mainly just the song playing and a picture on the screen.
Louise Champion has a Youtube page. On her Youtube page she posts her covers of other artist's songs and her own original songs. She uses it as her platform to easily get feedback and to advertise her videos. On her Youtube page the videos to her original songs aren't really videos. The video is mainly just the song playing and a picture on the screen.
Here is Louise's Youtube page:
As you can see she has a video on her page. The video is for an original song of Louise's. The song is called Kieron. The video is just the actual song and a picture of a picture inside a locket. The picture inside the locket is of Louise and her uncle Kieron.
As you can see she has a video on her page. The video is for an original song of Louise's. The song is called Kieron. The video is just the actual song and a picture of a picture inside a locket. The picture inside the locket is of Louise and her uncle Kieron.
This is the front cover and inside cover of a CD that Louise created herself. She created it to present two of her songs that she had recorded. She took both of the photos herself.
The front cover is a photo of Louise herself. It's simple but effective. She has included a little bit of text in the bottom left hand corner. The text says 'Louise Champion', this is the title of the CD. The text is in a smooth, flowing font, in a plain grey colour. Louise used grey so it didn't stand out too much. Louise took this photo in August 2013. The songs on the CD themselves are quite calm and slow and the photo looks quite calm as well. The photo has a quite low saturation and is taken from a straight on angle. The main colours on this photo are light colours. The colours kind of represent Autumn and they give the photo a natural feel. Green, brown, white and pale natural colours are used.
The inside cover is a photo of a lake. Louise took this photo at Caversham Lakes in 2013. This photo is also looks quite calm and serene. The colours in this photo are mainly browns and greens, quite similar to the front cover. The background of the photo is blurred but the main focus is on the pebbles in the water. The title and length of each song is at the bottom of this photo. It is in the same place as the title on the front cover, but in a slightly lighter grey than Louise used on the front cover.
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