Diary Entry Week 8

During the week I was able to create the first piece of merchandise for our fictional band - a T Shirt. I decided a T Shirt would be an essential first piece of merchandise because it also a form of advertisement when a fan is walking around wearing it. I could also now begin this process due to the fact we still have our own logo now. I created a white t shirt with the band's name visible across the front and back and also a 'shh' graphic to symbolise 'The Secret' in 'The Secret Nothing's'.

Also this week I analysed another Indie Band's website -  Two Door Cinema Club. Now I have compared two band's websites I can begin to take note of the similarities between the two and begin creating my own. What I have found between the 2 is that the fans defiantly come first and informing them about everything they do is something which they both do alot of.

Two Door Cinema Club (Website Analysis)

Merchandise

During today's lesson we used photoshop to create a piece of merchandise for 'our band', The Secret Nothing's. I wanted to focus on a T Shirt firstly, as they are the most common and popular for our chosen genre. After I finalised the bands logo last week it was easy for me to create a t shirt according to my research. I found that to be able to sell band T Shirt's online you have to be relatively popular, as even some of the biggest and well known bands in the indie genre didn't even offer merchandise online for the fans. This is okay, as I want our band to be quite well known with a relatively large fanbase. All of the T Shirt's was all the same, or similar - featuring the band's name and a logo or piece of artwork.

Here is my first piece of merchandise for my band The Secret Nothing's. As you can see I have the bands name clearly at the top of the front and at the bottom of the back - this is important as it is another form of promotion when one of your fans wears your top in public. The graphic or artwork is of a woman 'shhing', this links with our band name - showing a secret.  

Diary Entry Week 7

An exciting thing happened this week - we finally have designed our band's logo. 

The logo of the band had to be spot on as it more than likely going to stick with the band for the rest of their career and is what fans are going to be wearing on their T- Shirts and other merchandise and therefore it is also the main face of any advertising. I documented the journey of designing the logo in a prezi presentation, where I choose 9 of the most popular indie rock bands and found there logo's. The clear resemblance between them all was the colour - all of them were black. They also featured a bold distinctive font, and the use of capital letters. Which is exactly what I then focused on when making our own.

I also researched the History of the VMA's during this week. I thought this was essential as if our final product was in real life it would be potentially be up for one of these  and is one of the most prestige awards you can win as a music video director. Sadly the awards is more well known for it's controversy, due to the fact it's a live award show - but the award is still regarded highly. 

History of The MTV VMA's

Band Logo

Diary Entry Week 6

Over the past week we have achieved so much in such a small space of time, and we are really beginning to see our band and video come together a lot more.

On Monday we researched the history of music video's starting from back in 1984 when using magic lanterns Edward. B. Marks and Joe Stern created what can only be described as shadows on a wall oppucined by music, ending in 2000 when the controversial Robbie Williams released Rock DJ which was banned in several countries due to it's graphic nature. I created an organised prezi presentation to document this in a timeline.

Another part of our assignment is to create a website, so I began researching Indie Rock band websites. I began with the Arctic Monkey's and documented my findings on a powerpoint - the main thing I found was that the band love to please their fans with countless features which have been tailored to aid fans enjoyment while on the website. I defiantly want to replicate the fans comment section on my own website as it seems like an essential when dealing with a large fanbase.

We have actually finally decided on our band name this week - The Secret Nothing's. It was a tough decision to come to as all 3 of us in the group had different idea's, but in the end The Secret Nothing's seemed like the most appropriate choice. One of the main reasons we thought so was because it had the word 'The' at the front, which seems like almost essential when naming a indie rock band with all the big bands having it in front of there names.

Band Name

Last lesson we had the hard decision of naming our fictional band. Between the 3 of us we had got a list of 3 potential names, The Secret Nothings, Little Castles, and Into the Wild but deciding on just one was going to be the hard part. The only sensible way to make our final choice was by each writing down the pros and cons of each name, and why we thought it would make the most professional name.

Jack - Into The Wild 

Rian - Little Castles


Me - The Secret Nothings

Why we Choose The Secret Nothings

As Indie Rock is the genre we have decided on the research we have found gives sufficient evidence that most bands, or most successful band have a ‘The’ in front of their names. The Fray, The Killers, The Hoosiers, etc. We want our ‘fake’ band to be as realistic as possible therefore putting a ‘the’ in front of the name in my opinion is an essential. The word secret in the name gives the band an era of mystery which is something we wanted to create, it gives the fans something to wonder about and hopefully get people interested in what the band’s secret actually is. The word nothing makes the band relatable as everyone has those days where they feel like they are worth nothing and I believe we could make up a fictional relatable story to do with the word nothing for a way to relate and engage with the fans. The fans is something which is extremely important to all already existing Indie Rock Bands and that is something which I think we should try and replicate as much as possible and choosing the name The Secret Nothings defiantly does so.

Why we didn't choose Little Castles and Into the Wild

One of the main factors of us going against ‘Little Castles and Into the Wild’ is the fact they don’t include ‘the’ at the front. We found out in our research that this was an important part of being a successful indie band which is something we want to attempt to replicate. We also want our band to appears as successful as possible so using the word little didn’t seem appropriate, as we want to come across as ‘BIG’ as possible. As we have said previously a strong relationship with the fans is something we want to prioritise, and a good media image is something we would like to maintain so by using the word ‘wild’ in the name didn’t seem ideal. Although we like the idea of being edgy, like most indie bands, the idea of causing trouble is not something we want to go for. 

Arctic Monkey's (Website Analysis)

History of Music Video's

Diary Entry Week 5

This week we went to school and have been back at work on our research and planning.

I started on Monday by analyzing my first music video, it was essential to research a music video from our chosen genre as it would help us out when coming to make our own. I chose to research a song I actually liked as it would easier to analyse, as when doing so you have to listen to it over and over to make sure you get everything wrote down. The lyrics of the song Give Me Love show that someone wanting love, either from someone in the present or someone in the past. The music video show brings this message across to us, the viewers. Therefore I concluded that this music video was a narrative.

Watching as many music videos as possible is essential to the knowledge you will have when creating your final product so I decided to analyse another one, this time it was by The 1975 - Chocolate. The 1975 are the band whose song we are using so it was useful to see how they usually direct there music video's. In an interview, Matty the lead singer of the band says this song is about "me and my mates knocking around in my hometown. It is a kind of love letter to the kind of relationships we had with authority figures, be it our parents or the police. its kind of a story about small town boredom." So I based my analysis around this idea and quote.

The 1975 - Chocolate (Music Video Analysis)

As The 1975 are the band whose song we have chosen to create our own music video I thought it would be important to analysis one of their previous music videos to see what themes, camera angles and ideas they use, which we could take for our own.

The song "Chocolate"  was originally recorded by the band for their second extended play, Music for Cars, where it appears as the second track, and later appeared as the third track on their debut studio album, The 1975. The single peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart, and the Music Video which has 2 million + views on YouTube was released on the 20th February 2013. In an interview, Matty the lead singer of the band says this song is about "me and my mates knocking around in my hometown. It is a kind of love letter to the kind of relationships we had with authority figures, be it our parents or the police. its kind of a story about small town boredom."

The first thing we need to consider when analyzing music videos is that everything that is going on in the video has been planned and is there for a reason, and by analyzing we can interpenetrate our own opinion on what the director has intended.

The very first shot in the music video is of the bands lead singer in the underground piped room. The camera is panning in on the main character as he is lighting a cigarette surrounded by smoke, it is notable that the camera is panning in slow motion which could be representing the slow death in which smoking could cause.
The music video is in black and white, and there are many reasons why this could be. After watching the entire video I believe that the director has shot the video in black and white to create an atmosphere and a era of mystery. The colour black  also represents death, which could be referring to the lyrics in which they are saying they are never going to quit it - that if they don't quit it it will ultimately lead to death. I believe the thing that is ultimately going to kill them if they don't stop it will be smoking, and I am led to believe this due to the continuous onscreen smoking - matching the lyrics.
The frequent cuts on the interment couple underground could be trying to portray that it is a dream, a thought or memory, and the reality is that the girl is now dead and all the male has left is his thought's. I got this impression by the location in which the video is shot, in an underground room with brick and pipes - it isn't the stereotypical place for a couple to be getting interment. There is also smoke surrounded the couple, again it could be possibly portraying the smoking or it could potentially be representing clouds if the girl is in heaven.
The video itself is take up with the 4 band members driving in a car. These shots could be a crucial in helping the viewer interpenetrate what the meaning behind the music video is - that the car is always moving and so is life, that regardless what happens, such as someone dying that life won't stop for anyone.
Something which I have also noticed about the chocolate video is that the cuts are irregular and are never in time with the beat. The director could have chosen this to compliment the black and white and the era of mystery in which that simple effect creates.

Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love ( Music Video Analysis)

Sir has emphasised the importance of researching and watching Music Video's, so after watching several I decided to analyse Ed Sheeran's Music Video for Give Me Love.
It was released as the sixth and final single from his debut studio album + on 21 November 2012. The song was written by Sheeran, Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard. The single peaked at number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. The Video was released on 9th November 2012.

The lyrics of the song Give Me Love show that someone wanting love, either from someone in the present or someone in the past. The music video show brings this message across to us, the viewers. 

The main character in the Music Video is a young woman and the first thing we see is a crime scene, there is blood visible and an attractive police officer is on screen. 

The music starts, and you can see the main female character watching couples who appear to be happy, in contrast to her, as she is alone and sad. 

As the music begins to speed up so does the video and the woman grows wings. The process in which the female grows the wings looks painful, and traumatic. This could be symbolising that she is willing to die or go through pain for someone’s love, and therefore go through this transformation into what could be an angel. 

In a shot of her at the café, where again she is alone, you can also see Ed Sheeran, the singer, sitting alone at a table. This is one of the only times you see the singer in the music video. Ed sits down, and allows the actress to be the spotlight of this video. The woman then constructs an arrow, and is revealed to be a version of cupid. Giving love to anyone and everyone by shooting them with an arrow, although she herself cannot obtain it.

This music video shows all sexual orientations, not just straight couple which we have come to expect in representations of the media. Usually in a music video about portraying love, it is shown to be between a man and a woman. But in the music video for “Give Me Love” both straight couples and gay couples are all represented. The music video also shows a combination of races, also breaking the stereotypes and not only showing white people. There are both black and white people being shot by cupid’s arrow.  The music video shows that you can’t help who you fall in love with and that gender, skin colour, age, background or even religion should not affect love. 

The end of the music video shows the attractive male police officer from the opening shot walking towards a door, then the room where the first scene takes place. Now the woman, who was portrayed as cupid in the music video, has killed herself, the final shot focuses on the woman’s eyes, with the rest of the shot blurred and out of focus. This could be showing that now she is in heaven, seeing things in a different perspective.

Summer Diary Entry

Over the Summer we have still been hard at work focusing on our A2 Media Task.

To be able to make our work the best it can be we felt it would be important that over the summer we researched to see if there was any suitable theories which would benefit our final product. We found that Carol Vernallis had a 4 point theory. The 4 points included, Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement and Framing Diegesis. After finding this theory we could begin to think about the different aspects we defiantly wanted to include in our own music video and one thing we all agreed on is the importance of the establishing shot - even though we didn't have a song choice at that point it was a point which carol had highlighted which all 3 of us agreed with. It is important to find theories as they show you what is expected as standard in a music video and we want ours to be as effective and realistic as possible.

We also chose our genre and song choice over summer, we done this using texts and social media. Choosing the genre was an easy choice, as indie rock is something which we all enjoy and thought we could put the most effort into it and therefore get the most out of it. A song choice was the harder part, as we had so much variation in our favorite indie rock songs.  In the end Jack who had more of a wider knowledge of the genre tweeted us, me and Rian, a list of songs which he himself liked and he thought we would like. We then exchanged a couple of texts and decided on Heart Out by The 1975. The song does not currently have a music video and we feel there is loads of opportunity to be creative.

After knowing the genre it was easier to find relevant research. I first wanted to broaden my knowledge on the genre itself creating a small moodboard, it contained a few pictures and some information on what's expected in the genre. I then continued to research looking up what are the frequent themes in indie music video's, I concluded on 'Black & White' 'Performance'  and 'Costume and Lighting'. I even made a video on my findings.