FOR LOZ

Know This


Ok, let's have it your way
See if I give a damn
And ok, we'll play your games
That change just who I am
Ok, we'll see which one of us wins in the end,
My friend
So let us figure out just what we're gonna do
Cause this shit ain't working out, ya know,
Me and you
And things just aren't the same as they were before
Anymore

Know this, know this
I'll never forget what we were
Know this, know this,
I didn't want you to be hurt
Know this, I just,
Want you to get what you deserve

Ok, now I'll have my say
See what you think of that
We'll play the games my way and
I'll hurt you right back
Ok, we'll see which one of us wins in the end,
My friend
So let us figure out just what we're gonna do
Cause this shit ain't working out, ya know
Me and you
And things just aren't the same as they were before
Anymore


Know this, know this
I'll never forget what we were
Know this, know this,
I didn't want you to be hurt
Know this, I just,
Want you to get what you deserve

I could just take the easy route and stay with you,
But no,
I've learned from my past
And I'm sorry but if you ain't right for me
Then we won't last


Know this, know this
I'll never forget what we were
Know this, know this,
I didn't want you to be hurt
Know this, I just,
Want you to get what you deserve

Independent Research - Lilygreen & Maguire's Big Welsh Busk

"WELSH singer-songwriters Lilygreen and Maguire will bring their melodic, acoustic sound to communities across Wales from April 16- 20 in a series of free, open-air gigs at some of the country’s most famous locations and landmarks, including a beach, a stately home a castle and an amphitheatre.

Friends Jon Lilygreen and Jon Maguire, both from Newport, who have just released their debut single ‘Come On Get Higher’, on the Warner Music label, began their ‘Big Welsh Busk’ tour in Wrexham city centre on Monday, April 16, and will play their final gig at their hometown of Newport.

They will also play at eight other venues across the length and breadth of the country including:


Wednesday, April 18: SWANSEA AND BARRY


Thursday, April 19: CAERPHILLY AND CHEPSTOW

Friday, April 20: CAERLEON / NEWPORT AND CARDIFF

 

The pair will be in the Mumbles in Swansea tomorrow morning (Wednesday, April 18) before moving onto Barry in the afternoon.

 

The duo who are both in their early 20s have already built up a solid fan-base after supporting X-Factor runner-up Olly Murs in his recent arena tour of the UK and Ireland.

 

They are also well known within south Wales’ music scene: Lilygreen as a covers performer and Maguire as a local music producer and member of a rock band. They came together in 2009 when their talent was spotted by Warner Bros. Music who soon secured the duo with a lucrative record deal. Their debut album will be released later this year.

 

Jon Lilygreen said: "These gigs are going to be great fun for us and our fans. I can’t wait to grab my guitar, pitch up at some fantastic locations and play free acoustic music in the open-air. It’s going to be quite a challenge visiting so many venues across Wales, including a beach, a prom, a castle, a mountain and our hometown, Newport, hopefully our fans will come and support us and cheer us on."

Jon Maguire added: "We love writing and performing our songs and thought we’d like to give our fans a special preview of some of the songs that will be on our album. We’ve played in front of thousands of people in big arenas but this Big Welsh Busk will be quite different – we’ll be up close and personal with our audiences and that will be an intimate experience.""

Independent Research - How To Make A Music Video

How To Make A Music Video

The Planning

1. 1
   Plan every detail, like who the lead character is and what song you're using.
2. 2
   Choose the entire cast (even the background characters, they are important too!). Make sure you have good actors and actresses !
3. 3
   Get props for the set, a camera and lights. If you don't have lights, go outside on a sunny day and use something called a reflector. Its a piece of white fabric used to "reflect" light onto the set. It is the most effective way to make a professional looking video. You don't need to go out and buy one; you can use a large piece of poster paper or something similar. For the most effective way to focus light, use more than one or even a mirror. You can have a group of people holding it off camera.
4. 4
   Remember, the main person on screen is always the brightest on screen. When outside, always have the main character's back to the sun except when the sun is in the middle of the sky. This way, the reflectors can illuminate the person's face and front. Although there is a lot to do to get efficient lighting, it is worth it when you want a high quality video.

The Filming

1. 1
   First, find the ideal setting. It could be your room, a location outside, a trailer, or anywhere you want. Some people could rent rooms for the video shoot also.
2. 2
   Set up your camera where you can see everybody in your video. Tripods are excellent for this purpose, because you can smoothly turn the camera, and you avoid the "shaky hand" taping that screws up your great performance. Also, if you face the sun dead-on, your video will be too bright and you won't be able to see anything.
3. 3
   Determine whether some people will be dancing and the others singing. Maybe you want to change it up and have all singing, or all dancing.
4. 4
   Play your song in the background while you're filming. This way everybody is in tune and on the same page.
5. 5
   Transfer your video to your computer.
6. 6
   By using Windows Movie Maker (PC), iMovie, Premiere or Final Cut Pro (for Macs), synchronize the song and the video together. Import the song you chose, and the video you recorded. Then drag the song to the 'Audio' section.
7. 7
   Add a title and credits to the end and there you go, an awesome music video!
8. 
   

Tips

• Always put the copyright somewhere to give credit to the artist and its year!
• For YouTube videos, you need to put the credits in the Additional Details area, or your music may be muted or your video removed due to copyright infringement!!
• Make sure the video camera is not facing the sun, facing a video camera, or any camera for that matter; the sun can greatly damage the internal image capturing hardware.
• A very good strategy to video making is to make 3 completely different videos and mix clips in different places.

Things You'll Need

• Video/digital camera
• Song
• Stereo
• good director/tech producer
• Computer
• Editing software like Windows Movie Maker (PC), iMovie or Final Cut Pro (for Macs), or Sony Vegas for both OS.
• A YouTube account if you are uploading the video.

Mood Board - Lilygreen & Maguire

Independent Research - Moodboards

I have been looking at different moodboards online to try and get an idea of how I can create a good quality, media rich moodboard for the artists Lilygreen & Maguire.


I found http://olioboard.com/, a website which you can use to create moodboards. The website features lots of different moodboards, submitted by the public, and you can enter competitions on the website and win prizes.

Here I was uploading pictures to my account on Olioboard to place on my moodboard.

However, I soon found that Olioboard is not my friend, and it wouldn't upload my pictures into my library, so I started to look for a different website.

I then found MoodShare, another website that allows you to place images together and create your own moodboard.


Once I had collected all the pictures and placed them together, I tried to find an embed code for my new moodboard, but couldn't...

so instead I took a print screen and chopped it down!

My finished moodboard can be seen here.

How Your Advanced Portfolio Is Marked

Mr Henton has spoiled us yet again and has made a very informative post on how our work is going to be marked.

You can access the post by clicking here.

Independent Research - What makes a music video memorable?

I have thought back to some music videos that I clearly remember from when I was growing up, as this is the time I watched music channels on TV the most. I don't watch music channels any more as I have other ways of getting access to music, and I don't really like the music that is in the charts nowadays. By thinking back to the videos that I personally remember, I can find out what it is that makes music videos memorable and hopefully then, what will help me to make a good quality, memorable music video.


One of the main factors of music videos that makes them memorable is sex / sex appeal. This is used a lot in music videos today. 
The first video that came to mind was the video to Alex Gaudino's "Destination Calibria", seen below. 





Personally I believe that this video is too explicit to be shown on television, I can't remember how old I was when I first saw this video but I remember being told to change the channel! 
However, it is cleverly done, as the level of explicit material shown worked as a shock factor, which is what made me remember the video. 


In a similar way, another video that was memorable to me due to a sexual nature is the video to Benny Banassi's "Satisfaction".




Benny Benassi - Satisfaction from Luxo on Vimeo.




This video is also very explicit and equally as shocking as the first video I mentioned, again I believe this is why the video was memorable.
So it seems that the reason that we remember videos with high/explicit sexual content is because it shocks us - whatever age we are - watching the videos back again disgusted me, but I know that if someone were to sing the tune of either song to me, I would instantly remember the video.


Simple videos can also be memorable. For example, the music video to "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve shows a man walking down a street, being bumped and bashed by various people. That is pretty much all that happens in the video, seen below.



The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony from liamliu on Vimeo.



I have read an interesting article on Five of the Most Memorable Music Videos, which you can read here. The writer talks about what happens in the videos that makes them memorable.

Artist Research - Lilygreen & Maguire

Lilygreen & Maguire on Prezi

Lilygreen & Maguire have their own website, where you can access their music, videos, lyrics, dates and locations of gigs, their personal Youtube, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a store where you can purchase EPs, singles, and acoustic versions of tracks by Lilygreen & Maguire.

Below is an interview with Lilygreen & Maguire. Some of it is recorded in the boys' flat and there are snippets of them performing. It is quite an intimate interview where they talk about how they got to where they are now and what it means to them.





Here is a playlist of 12 videos, featuring Lilygreen & Maguire in their "Big Welsh Busk" - they went to 12 different locations around their home of Wales, and performed a few songs for free to get themselves known.





Whilst researching, I also found that the duo have a MySpace page and a Soundcloud! Here is a recording of the song that I am using for my music video, found on their Soundcloud profile.

Decisions...

I had made my final decision as to which song I was going to use for my final product, "I Don't Feel It Anymore (Song of The Sparrow), from "The Sparrow and The Crow" by William Fitzsimmons, but I found that the album was released in 2008, and the song that I was going to use was released February 10th, 2008. This means that I had the problem of finding a new artist, a new album, a new song and new ideas, which I was very disappointed about as it set me back and I had my heart set on doing this song.


Luckily, I didn't have to look too far, as I also love a particular cover released by Lilygreen & Maguire, a duo I mentioned in my Potential Album blog post.

The song I have chosen to use is "Come On Get Higher", originally released by artist Matt Nathanson, and recently covered by Lilygreen & Maguire. I am still thinking of ideas for the song as it is a love song, and I don't want to make my music video too cliche. 


Here is the official video for the song, starring Lilygreen & Maguire.

Independent Research - Styles of music video

Here is the video to "Wetsuit" by The Vaccines.

The main feature of this video that stood out to me was the beats - each picture came up to the beat of the song. This is a technique often used in music videos to make the video more unique and interesting.

I found the video on http://www.hub.tv/2012/05/top-10/, where speaking about the video, they have said:


"Populated entirely by Instagram snapshots, pop-punk indie band The Vaccines are responsible for creating music history with the video for Wetsuit. As the first music video to ever be made entirely from fan-submitted photos, director Poppy De Villeneuve of design agency Partizan utilises the trademark Instagram Toaster filter to maximum effect, portraying a sun-kissed slice of festival life.
Weaving intimate and personal viewpoints into the narrative as the perfect from of fan engagement, De Villeneuve's work is as nostalgic as it is touching."

Researching Potential Albums

I have been researching different albums that have tracks on them that I may use for my music video.



Lilygreen & Maguire are a two-man band who are currently recording their first album with Warner Brothers Records UK.




Below is the video to their song, "Ain't Love Crazy", which was released on iTunes on June 10th this year.


Lilygreen & Maguire 'Ain't Love Crazy' from Mattias Nyberg on Vimeo.

Another artist I have been researching is Seasick Steve. He is a blues solo artist who is very unique. I have seen him perform live at Reading Festival and there are a few songs on his album, "You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks" that would be good to use for my music video.
Below is a video of Seasick Steve performing one of his songs, 'Treasures'.




Seasick Steve - Treasures from PIASGermany on Vimeo.

The final artist that I have researched is American singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons. I have chosen a particular song from his album, "The Sparrow and The Crow" as a potential song for my music video.
Below is a video of him performing the song, "I Don't Feel It Anymore", also known as "Song of the Sparrow", live in France. The song is originally recorded with a female vocal but as it is a live performance of just William, he sings the whole song alone. It is a video of a live performance as I couldn't find a suitable video of the song.


http://vimeo.com/19738039 from Bart Jansen on Vimeo.

Interview with a director

http://www.promonews.tv/2012/04/30/the-wanted-chasing-the-sun-by-director-x/

On Promonews, I looked at the interview section and found an interview with the director of The Wanted's new music video to their song, "Chasing The Sun".


"Following the hugely successful videos for Glad You Came and Warzone,The Wanted team up with Director X once again for Chasing The Sun - and more compelling eyecandy for their legions of fans as they conquer America.
The video begins with the boys on top of the roof performing in hues of blue, progressing to a party where all the boys pair up with respective love interests - but then there's a twist..."


Director X said "Great working with the guys again, and this time we caused some ruckus in LA. Very happy to see their star rising..."


After watching the video back, I saw the twist that was mentioned in the website article. As the boys pair up with their love interests and begin to get intimate with the girls, each girl turns into a vampire and bites each member of the band on the neck.

Below is the music video for "Chasing The Sun".





The Wanted
Chasing The Sun (Global Talent Records)
Director: Director X
DP: Joe Labisi
Producer: Michelle Larkin
Production company: DNA Inc.
Art director: Alex Delgado
AD: Jesse Sternbaum
UK Representation: Luti Media"

A Brief Textual Analysis of My Favourite Music Video

Artist - Jessie J
Title of song- Who's Laughing Now
Date of Release- August 10th 2011
Director of music video - Emil Nava
Genre - Pop / R&B/ Hip Hop

The video, filmed at King's College School, Wimbledon, is set in a primary school, where a young actress (Adrianna Bertola) plays a younger Jessie J. She seems to be bullied by preppy girls, while Jessie J is seen as different characters during the four minutes in the video - a school teacher, janitor, and dinner lady. The video ends with young Jessie J standing up to the bullies, and empties a fire extinguisher all over the bullying girls.

Speaking of the track, Jessie said "Music is about making a change but also being able to laugh at yourself. I think this song tells a story a lot of people have been through and I hope it will raise awareness to the serious issue of bullying."


Jessie J 'Who's Laughing Now?' from Pulse Films on Vimeo.

History of Popular Music

In groups, we researched different decades of music and created timelines of popular artists, songs and technology of the decades.

With a group I was told to research the 1990s.

 On the day that the task was set, unfortunately I was not in the lesson, but Lauren Head, a member of my group, did some research on the decade and shared it on a blog post. You can see the post here.











*Below are the pictures of the timelines produced by our group and the rest of the class, ranging from the 1950s to the present day.

Music Videos and Technology

Today I looked at www.promonews.tv, and found on their homepage an article about a new app, released on May 30th, by a company called BUG Music Videos, to celebrate the 5th birthday of the company. It is the first app released by the company and is now available to download for free on Apple and Android handsets. It is also on iTunes, available for download onto iPhones, iPod touch and the iPad, and available to download to Android-powered smartphones and tablets.

"The BUG 5th Birthday app contains a playlist of 30 videos – one from every original and unique show of BUG: The Evolution Of Music Videos at the BFI Southbank over the past five years.

There’s also editorial about the videos, plus BUG artwork created for each show, and a history of the hugely popular event hosted by comedian Adam Buxton that showcases music video innovation and creativity."

As videos of the different shows and performances are available to download straight to several different devices, this is a new method of music consumption for BUG MV. It is also a way for people to see different music videos, so I feel this may be helpful to my research. I am going to download the app and see what I can do with it.

Research - independent websites

www.bemuso.com

Bemuso is an independent website set out to de-bunk the music business. The site is for independent musicians so that they can advertise themselves if they are looking to get somewhere in the music industry. It also gives information about music industry and web.

http://www.promonews.com/

Promonews is a website dedicated to promotional music videos. The website contains interviews with top directors who have directed music videos. The site shows different videos by different artists, some that people may not heard of before, so it is a way of promoting their work.

Research - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin wrote the book "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" in 1992. It analysed music videos and Goodwin shared his thoughts on what makes a good music video.

He believes there are 5 key aspects of music videos that as an audience, we should look out for:

• Thought beats - seeing the sound
• Narrative and Performance
• The Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to Song
• Technical Aspects of Music Video

Thought beats - Seeing the sound in your head

1) Look at the song itself. Take into account the structure e.g. verses/chorus.
2) The voice of the song. Every artist has a unique sound. (This theory is further explained in The Grain of Voice by French literary theorist Roland Barthes).
3) Artist's mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artists are the storytellers. This makes the music video a 'two communication device'.

Narrative and Performance

-Goodwin believes that songs fail to give us the complete narrative! We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
-The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity.
- Lip syncing and any mimed actions are the heart of the video. It needs to be believable so the audience buy into it.

Star Image

- Star image is a vital aspect of music videos. It helps people to remember the artist or the song, for example, when people hear the name "Britney Spears", most people will think of the video to her song 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', where she is dressed as a schoolgirl.
- Artists need to consider their image carefully depending on how they want to be seen, and which message they are trying to convey, as different images can portray different messages and ideas.

Relation of Visuals to Song:

• Illustrate
• Amplify
• Disjunction

Illustrate - music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre. This is the most common.

Amplify - meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video.

Disjunction - lyrics and meanings are completely ignored, the video normally has nothing to do with the meaning of the song.

Technical aspects

- Technical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angles, mise-en-scene, costume, editing, sound and special effects.
- Lighting and colour help to set mood of the video and help to emphasise key moments of the song.
- The setting of the music video is vital, and needs to look authentic in order to attain professionalism.
- Some videos use cuts to match the beat or rhythm of the song. This often makes the video more interesting and entertaining.

Me As A Consumer of Music

Me as a consumer of music on Prezi

Below are some pictures of some of the artists mentioned in my Prezi.

The Everly Brothers

Buddy Holly

Bullet For My Valentine

One of my favourite bands, Foo Fighters

One of my favourite bands, Muse

P!nk

What is a music video?

"A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip". Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance." - Wikipedia





In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.

In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released — the video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", which lasted nearly 14 minutes. The video cost US$500,000 to film.

There are many ways in the modern day that you can listen to music and watch music videos. For example, on the MTV website you can scroll through recent music videos and videos for songs that are in the charts.









Here are a few links to some iconic music videos.


Michael Jackson - Thriller


Britney Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time


Madonna - Hung Up

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony


Fat Boy Slim - Praise You


MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This


Nelly - Hot In Herre

A2 Set Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

·         A website homepage for the band

·         A digipak for the album’s release

·         A magazine advertisement for the digipak