THEORIST ANDREW GOOWIN AND HIS THEORY

As a Director of music, Goodwin formed a theory involving what he thought applied to most music videos and the basic structure that they used.
  • There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (with the visuals either illuminating, amplifying or contradicting the music). The editing might match the pace or tempo of the music.
  • A particular music genre may have their own music video style and iconography (such as a live stage performance in heavy rock).
  • There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist.
  • The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which, overtime, becomes part of their own star image. An example of an artist who has developed such an original, distinct and inspiring iconography is Lady GaGa, who stuns and fascinates her audience with her  outrageous and quirky fashion sense and style.
  • There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens).
  • There are likely to be intertextual references either to other music videos, films and TV texts.
I watched and analysed Florence + the machine's, Dog Days video according Goodwin's theory. The video showed some conventions but also involved different features, as the band have been styled purposely to attract a specific target market.  

Florence + the machine - Dog Days
Within this video there are many examples of the features that Goodwin proposed in his theory. First of all, there was a distinct relationship between the visuals of the video and the audio. This helps emphasise the meaning within the song as you are hearing and seeing something that is to do with the same subject matter. The visuals of the dancers help amplify the meaning of the music as it gives the audience the visual interpretation of the lyrics. Also, as the tempo of the music gets faster so do the dancers and the editing of shots within the video, allowing the audience to form distinct observations between the different tempos. Moreover, Florence + the Machine have created their own individual iconography that separates them from other current bands, as they have crafted their music into a mixed genre of alternative indie-pop. This attracts a wide audience as it is original and unique.  

SHORTLIST OF UNSIGNED ARTISTS/BANDS

After doing thorough research into unsigned artists, I narrowed  my choices down to  3 artists that I thought I could create an imaginative video with. Two of the artists I found from the website http://www.unsigned.com/. This site is primarily designed to advertise one's music to a worldwide audience free of charge. Its easy process of uploading music makes it appealing to every music enthusiast. However, the website was not well advertised or promoted and only caught wind of it through much searching through the Internet. The site gave a lot of control on the type of artist you were looking for as you could specify the genre of music you wanted and  the location where they were based. My third artist was found on the well established site http://www.myspace.com/. Due to many experiences with Myspace I already knew that the site hosted a section where unsigned artists could upload and share their music. The area was easily accessible and gave you a list of artists on demand. Hower, its navigational ability wasn's as high a standard as unsigned.com and dosen't allow you to specify the artist you are after. This can be seen as a negative as it akes longer to find an artit you're interested in but is beneficial in that you will come across an artist you never would have thought about.

Below, I have created a shortlist of both solo artists and bands that I have researched and thought would be a good sample to use for my main task on creating a music video.

Joe Brooks
Hello Mr. Sun
Joe Brooks (born May 18, 1987) is a British singer-songwriter, born and raised in Southampton, United Kingdom. He has received media coverage based on his topping the UK Myspace charts.
http://www.myspace.com/joebrooksmusic

When Brooks first posted his music on Myspace the social networking site was just beginning. As Brooks added more diverse and complex songs, the more "friends" and plays he got. Currently, his songs receive up to 30,000 plays a day. Brooks constantly is the number one artist on Myspace music. His last song, "Superman", has had more plays than Oasis' last single. He has over 100,000 friends. Superman was one of the first songs Brooks wrote. Brooks states the song is about how he always wanted to be the hero to win over the girl of his dreams. 


While unsigned, Joe Brooks built up a strong internet following, gathering 12 million plays on Myspace. His first two tours in the UK, 16 shows total, sold out without the help of a label or publisher. He has also played sold out shows across the United States Tickets for his shows were being sold for 12x their face value. Brooks spends time both in the United States and the United Kingdom. His Myspace success has allowed him to write and record with the likes of JR Rotem and Kara DioGuardi.

Aaron Roberts 
Through my veins

I’ve been heavily influenced by listening to soul, jazz & blues from the Southern United States and I draw my musical roots from these styles. After abandoning instrumental jazz on the saxophone, I found myself musically as a singer and songwriter playing piano.

“Fickle Thing” is my debut album and covers the favorite songs that I have written over the last couple of years. While the album has no constant theme, to me each song is a deep and personal exploration of my life’s lessons learned.

The production is simple and relatively sparse which has given me the opportunity to explore the depth of my voice leaving the songs pure and uncluttered.  This is my first offering to the world and I hope you enjoy it.
Alain Lou
When you love some1


Wattup world! Thank u 4 visiting MySpace. I am Alain Lou, I'm 20 and my ethnicity is Filipino with Spanish Influences. So this is a short introduction about maself... hope u like my SkillzZ how i 'm singin'. So keep in touch with me! It would be great when u post some commentzZ!
Thanks again for visiting my page!!!
Pls check out my MySpace there are more songz and tell me what ya think 

CRITERIA FOR WHAT MAKES A GOOD MUSIC VIDEO

Depending on the content of the music video you are creating, the criteria that you follow will influence you on how you go about creating a music video. So, below i have divised some key criteria that I think is essential to follow and make reference to.
Use a diverse range in camera shots (many close-ups according to Goodwin's Theory) - this will allow your video to become more visually interesting as you are not looking at the subject from just one angle all the time. Instead you use various shots to fully highlight your subject matter in as many different ways as possible.

Faultless lip syncing - without matching lip syncing to the audio as closely as possible, your audience will not take your video seriously at all. They will percieve it as some sort of joke or a very amateur video. This is ythe complete opposite of what i want to create for my audience, I want my audience to be interested, involved and attracted to my video as much as possible. To make sure that i achive this I will have to work very critically with my work, in order for it to be the best representation of my abililty to create a professional music video.

Goodwin's Theory - By applying Goodwin's theory to my own music video it will ensure that my video will be successful in what it is about and the atist being portrayed.

HOW DOES A RECORD LABEL PROMOTE A RELEASE

There are many strategies in which a record label may take when promoting a release for one of their artists. Some strategies are used more than others as they claim to be more effective in how they promote their artist and attract their intended audience.I have identified some of these promotional stratergies and listed them below.

Billboards



Billboards nowadays usually only promote an artist's upcoming or present tour dates, however, a few years ago it used to be common that they would promote an artist's album. The reason for the dramatic change in promoting a single or album release is due to online revoulution. The internet is the no.1 place to seek information fast on demand therefore promoting a release would be more effective and cost productive using the  interenet.

 Magazine (specialist)


A specialist magazine such as VIBE and YOU often promote music artists such as Eminem and Rhianna appearing above on the front covers. This promotes the artist very well as it portrays the artist's style and their persona.  

Advert


Adverts are very effective in promoting a release as gives you the name of the release, who it is buy and when you can but it. 


TV Advertisement




TV advertisements are one of the most successful ways in which a record label can promote a release for their artist, be it an single or an album. It's successful because it targets the audience directly and inconspicuously.  

Retail Websites



HMV is one of the biggest retail stores for selling music within the UK. So if you are looking for any type of artist of genre of music HMV is one of the top places where your find will be fulfilled.


The one attribute that Amazon adds to there website that HMV hasn't included is the ability to buy individual songs as well as singles and albums from the site. Single tracks are priced at £00.98p each. This allows the buyer to have maximum choice in what and how much they buy.

Tv guest appearances





TV guest appearances on popular TV programmes is a very beneficial way in promoting a release. Due to the growing number of people now owning digital TV they can access a wider range of channels. This increases the chance of the amount of people watching one show at a time. however, the most popular TV shows are shown on the most favoured  channels on TV such as BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. An example of a channel that uses Tv uests as the main feature of their show is 'Allan Cars Chatty Man'. This programe is an informal interview show in which the host banters and converse with their guests. Another example of this type of programme is BBC 1's 'Friday night with Jonothan Ross'.

Music Festivals/Gigs






Festival gigs are effective in promoting new, upcoming bands. Having the artist play at a high profile   gig, such as Reading, is going to get them heard and recognised by a wide audience. This allows the audience to then research and explore more about the artist if they wish. 

Music software: Spotify/iTunes


Spotify was launched in 2008 so it may not be as well known as iTunes. A feature that Spotify has that iTunes does not is the ability to create a playlist using songs that you haven't even purchased. Making a playlist allows you to preview and listen to the songs as many times as you like. With iTunes however, you only have a 30 second or less preview time on all songs. 


The more popular out of the two, Apple's iTunes let's you keep up-to-date constantly on the latest songs and current artists. Founded in 2001 iTunes is still the no.1 place to get your music from your computer onto your hardware, be it your iPod, MP3 or your phone. Not only does iTunes have its own store but just recently it has added a new feature called 'Ping'.  

MY CHOSEN UNSIGNED MUSIC ARTIST

After much debate on who will be my chosen artist I decided to choose Aaron Roberts. Reasons for this choice are because I thought he was different from other artists that I had researched, the one that had the most unique and distinctive voice and also an artist who is completely different from any artist that peers in my class have chosen. I like a challenge that is new and one that will push my creative thinking to the edge, however, I haven't played it safe by choosing this artist as his song that I have chosen to do, surrounds the theme of alcohol. After much discussion with my teacher and my peers I feel that I can divert my video away from alcohol being the main theme by leaving it out of my video. This slight obstruction to me making my video will only push me on further to try and create a video that is successful. To ensure this success I will use my research of criteria for a successful video and Goodwin's theory as guidelines that I will follow closely and appropriately. 

When considering the theme of this song and the type of singer Aaron Roberts is, I can tell that he wouldn't be a mainstream artist such as the one in the charts today. Instead, I think his profile will suit the category of being signed to an independent label where his image isn't that important but gets heard about by his voice.

Although the song seems very slow, I still think it's a really strong song as it is full of emotion. This emotion being conveyed by the artist is was I want to harness and emphasise and illustrate through my video.

After presenting my presentation to my peers on my artist 'Aaron Roberts'; involving my initial ideas for the music video, my teacher and my class gave me supportive and helpful criticism which has helped me to think about other ideas and features that will make my video more successful. 

CONTACT BETWEEN ME AND THE ARTIST







When concidering Aaron Roberts to use as my artist I e-mailed him asking if I was aloud permission. These e-mails are evidence of my contact between me and Aaron Roberts. 

INSPIRATIONAL IDEAS FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO




Bon Jovi

Jamey Johnson

Jason Derulo

Conventions I will use from these videos:
  • I like the idea of having a relationship theme that would construct the basis of my video. By using this convention my video will become a narrative based music video.
  • The use of the picture frame is very effective.
  • Using memories to emphasise emotion works well, and is illustrated through a different colour to the present scenes.
conventions I will challenge
  • Contrast between black and white and coloured visuals to represent different emotions. Typically presented in colour and memories/flashback as black and white. I will change this around to suit the my plan for the video. 
  • Age of my artist is 18 and so challenges my researched artist's as they are a lot older. 

AARON ROBERTS - PROPOSED MUSIC VIDEO IDEAS TO TARGET AUDIENCE

Aaron Roberts ( Proposed Music Video Ideas to Class)

View more presentations from samo1992.

This is the presentation I presented in front of my Target audience, to see what they thought of my initial ideas of what I was going to include in my video. Their response was very positive as they enjoyed the song, as well as the ideas I had conveyed to them. They thought the strongest idea of my ideas was the memory/flashback convention, as they thought it was an interesting and effective way of expressing emotion, which reflected the meaning of the lyrics well. 

From showing this presentation to my audience it has helped me to understand that my ideas were successfully perceived and would prove effective if I used and applied them to my music video.  

FIRST DFRAFT OF MY STORYBOARD





SECOND AND FINAL DRAFT OF STORYBOARD

From reviewing my previous storyboard I have decided to form a new storyboard. My reason for doing so is because my i thought my first draft included very similar shots and angles, and so in this second draft I will look to rectify this problem, By including a diverse range in angles it will make my video more visually interesting and pleasing to the eye.











Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)