Location Scouting

In order to create an effective music video which creates this 1960's mise en scene with a modern twist, we have decided to look for locations that have a traditional feel to them, (not being modern).
A few shots may consist of terraced houses,  as we think this will create a perfect setting for the music video. Me and Callum got these images from Chesterfield and Danesmoor.

Slideshow created on http://animoto.com/

Uses and Gratification Theory - McQuail

McQuail - Uses and Gratifications is a theory understanding how and why people seek out specific media products to be satisfied. This is a communication theory which focuses on communication within the mass media. This approach assumes that audiences are not passive consumers, rather that they have power over the media and how they consume it. Furthermore this theory suggests that audiences are responsible for consuming media that meets their needs and desires in order to achieve gratification. This theory leads on to suggests that sources of media compete in order to gain viewers gratification.

 

Information

Finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world.

Seeking advice on practical matter or opinions and decision choices.

Satisfying curiosity and general interest.

Learning; self-education.

Gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

Personal Identity

Finding reinforcement of personal values.

Finding models of behaviour.

Identifying with valued other (in the media).

Gaining in sight into one's self.

Integration and Social Interaction

Gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy.

Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging.

Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction.

Having a substitute for real-life companionship.

Helping to carry out social roles.

Entertainment

Escaping or being diverted from problems.

Relaxing.

Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment.

Filling time.

Emotional release.

Examples:

Information - 

The song 'Imagine'  was the biggest seller of John Lennon's career. The song was for everyone to imagine a world at peace without the divisiveness and barriers od nationalities, borders and religions  and to consider the possibility that humanity should be living a life unattached to a material of possessions, (live in peace).

At the time this song was released it made it so individuals could find out about relevant events and conditions immediate surrounding, society and the world. The song is still very influential and dues to SLATE (web 2.0) it is able to be viewed at any given time.

Personal identity - 

Individuals can use the internet to find models of behaviour. Barack Obama is the first black American president and his speeches will always be influential. The theory suggests that's consumers will access content again and again in order to find reinforcement of personal values.

 

Integration and Social Interaction -  

One Direction have recently released a new album. This theory suggests that consumers will seek out the album to gain a sense of belonging in order to create social interaction with others. Therefore by seeking out popular media content consumers carry out social roles.

 

 

Entertainment -  

The theory suggests that consumers can actively gain intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment as the music video 'Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus is not the best regulated music video. Consumers may actively seek this music video out for an entertainment purpose because the video went viral. The main reason the video going viral was the explicitness of Miley Cyrus being fully naked which links to the aesthetic enjoyment.

 

Costume and Hair Boards: Pre - Production Planning

In order to generate ideas and inspiration for the themed 1960's music video with a modern twist, me and Callum used Pinterest to make boards. It is essential to get the clothing, hair and make - up correct for this particular era, in order for this modern twist to be enhanced.

For the woman character in the video we looked at modern make-up twists from the 1960's era and also an iconic model 'Twiggy' from the 1960's.

For the males (band members) we looked at the style of The Kinks clothing in 1964 when their style was predominantly suits and also similar bands; The Animals, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones from 1964.

The next step will be to find existing clothing we own or seek items out in charity shops.

Follow Callum Hind A2 Media- Male Costume Board on Pinterest Follow Georgia Tooby A2 Media- Womens Costume Board on Pinterest

The Kinks Record Labels

Pye Records

The bands demo 'Long Tall Sally' reached Shel Talmy (American record producer under ye Records). In 1964, Shel Talmy helped the band get a contact with Pye Records. 'Long Tall Sally' was released in February 1964, but failed to chart. In addition their second single 'You Still Want Me; also flopped.
However, their third single 'You Really Got Me' was a more dynamic and nosier solo from Dave Davies reached number one within a month. The groups fourth single 'All Day & All of the Night', released in 1964 rose to number two and in America it reached number seven. During this time the band also produced two full length albums.

                                         RCA Records

The bands contract with Pye Records expired in 1971, leaving The Kinks free to sign a new record contract. By the end of 1971 the band had signed a five album deal with RCA Records, in which they gained a million dollar advance. The Muswell Hillbillies, released in 1971 (first album with RCA) marked a return to the nostalgia of The Kinks in the late 60's albums, but with more music hall influences.

Arista Records

In 1976 The Kinks left RCA and signed with Arista Records. On this label the band refashioned themselves as a hard rock band. Sleepwalker, The Kinks first album for Arista became a major hit in the US. The bands next album, Give the People What They Want, released in 1981, peaked at number 15 and went gold.

 

MCA Records

 In 1986, the band signed with MCA Records in the US, London in the UK. In 1986 their first album Think Visual was released. The Road was released in 1987, which spent a brief time on the charts. Two years later the band released their last studio record for MCA.

Columbia Records

The bands contract with MCA expired in 1991 and later in the year the band signed with Columbia Records and released an EP called 'Did Ya' which did not chart. In 1994 the band was dropped, leaving the group to release the live To the Bone on an independent label in the UK.

Key Company Case Study

YouTube is a vide - sharing website, created in February 2005 by threes (former) PayPal employees; Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen.YouTube has been owned by Google since November 2006, when bough for $1.65 billion. The purpose of YouTube is for consumers to create and upload videos which they then become prosumers (creating the content for the website). The company is based in San Bruno, California and uses  Adobe flash video, HTML5 technology in order to display a variety of user-generated video content, including music videos, television clips and also 'grassroots media' (blogging from individuals).

Content on YouTube is uploaded by individuals, although media corporations; BBC, Vevo, CBS, Hulu and other organisations offer material through the website, (YouTube partnership programme).

Company History: 

• July 2006 - more than 65,000 new videos uploaded every day and the site was receiving 100 million views per day.
• YouTube is the dominant provider for online videos, with a more than 14 billion views on May 2010 and has a market share of a 43%.
• 60 hours of videos uploaded every minute.
• Third most visited website, behind Google and Facebook.
• June 2008, Forbes magazine projected revenue at $200 million in advertising alone.
• January 2012, consumers spend on average 15 minutes a day on the website.
• June 2006, YouTube entered into advertising and marketing partnership with NGB.
• YouTube launched a new design in March 2010, with the aim to simplifying the interface in order to increase time users spent on the website.
• May 2010, YouTube was serving more than two billion videos a day, (double prime - time audience of all three major US television networks combined.
• May 2011, YouTube received more than three billion views a day.
• The Google+ social networking site integrated directly with Chrome web browser, and YouTube which allowed YouTube videos to be viewed the Google+ interface, in November 2011.
• May 2011, YouTube launched a pilot  programme which offered some content providers that ability to charge $0.99 per month for certain channels, (majority of channels still remaining free).

Content accessibility:

YouTube offers the chance to view videos outside their website. This can be done because each YouTube video is accompanied by a HTML code than can embed on any page. This function is often used on social networking sites and blogs.

Usually YouTube does not offer a download link for videos as it intends for them to be viewed through the websites interface, only a small number of videos can be downloaded as an MP4. However, plug-ins and third party websites allow users to download YouTube videos. When uploading a video to YouTube, it will retain a copyright on the video for the uploader, but in July 2012 it's been possible to select a creative commons license as the default, allowing other users to reuse and remix the material if it is free of copyright.

Platforms:

Through the technical convergence of mobile phone, they are capable of accessing You Tube videos, (depending on the data plan). Since June 2007, YouTube has been available for viewing on a range of Apple products  which required YouTube's content to get transcoded into Apple's preferred video standard. Products YouTube can be viewed on; Apple TV, iPod Touch, and the iPhone. In 2010 the app became available on Android due to the app avoiding the use of Adobe Flash Player.

In January 2009, YouTube launched 'YouTube for TV' a version of the website catered for set-top boxes and TV -based media. This allowed YouTube to be accessed on PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox Live.

In June 2009, YouTube XL was introduced which was a simplified interface designed for viewing on standard television screens.

According to Global Web Index, YouTube was used by 35% of smartphones between April and June 2013, (third most used app).

Music Industry:

YouTube launched its own weekly chart in 2011, 'the YouTube 100' where the main aim was to track popularity of music videos on the website. This is significant because in 2013, the Billboard charts began including online streams in the top 100 lists, which means that YouTube videos now had an influence of positions in the charts.

 

Overall:

YouTube is such a significant company because of how far I has come in 8 years. It's possible that YouTube may one day be the one source for all content. YouTube has had a huge impact on the music industry as video views on the site count towards the Billboard charts. In addition, how certain distribution websites, Vevo, etc. uses YouTube to make profits through advertising. YouTube is the main source of 'grassroots media' whereby individuals can express their own creativity. This view links to the Tapscott and Williams theory 'Wikinomics' of how collaboration has lead to prosumers producing content which consumers are responding too. This suggests that traditional ways of consuming media may cease to exist as 'grassroots media' is like a perfect storm, the advancements in technology will continuously occur and so will more prosumers producing content. YouTube is a key factor in this because this website is the source for consumers to create their own channels and to gain their own audience. Furthermore this links to possible predications of Web 3.0, will YouTube replace traditional sources of media used today.

Distribution Process

The distribution process is where the song and music video get released and gets duplicated as it will be required from different companies such as MTV and Viva. The products will be advertised by events such as music festivals, interviews, the artist own website and companies such as YouTube and Vevo. The purpose of distribution is to get as many viewers as possible in order to make profit.

There are websites that are connected with music industries e.g.

 

 

Example of Distribution Company:

http://www.selectmusic.co.uk/


Select Music was founded in 1991 to distribute and market Marco Polo labels and Naxos in the UK. Over the years it has taken over 70 independent classic labels, supplying retail in the UK with over 17,000 live titles. It is established as largest and most successful independent classic distributor in the UK and in 2010 was named the Best Classical Distributor by the ICS (Independent Classical Specialists). Select also lead with distributing all the lager independent DVD labels such as, Arthaus, EuroArts, Major Entertainment and Opus.


http://www.properdistribution.com/

Proper distribution is the largest distributor in the UK and provides top quality distribution services to over 400 labels around the world, supplying UK retailers and exports. Proper Music were voted 'Distributor of The Year' at the Music Awards for two consecutive years (2009 and 2010).

 

Exhibition:

This stage is where the music video is broadcasted for worldwide viewers, where technical convergence has increasingly become a real advantage for music companies. Phones and iPod's have become more modernized, allowing access for people to download music and watch music videos. Individuals can now go onto YouTube and watch music videos which also shows advertisements for songs and other media products before the music video starts.

The music industry have benefited to web 2.0 because it is a useful resource for exhibiting music videos and many people now use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. A further benefit is how the internet has made it so individuals can download and watch various music videos on YouTube and other torrent sites. The advancement of the internet has allowed music videos to be shown to mass audiences which has increasingly allowed more and more advertisements to be used on certain websites. This is done when music company's know that a certain age group will be targeted by the advertisement in a way that will directly benefit that company.

The main purpose of music channels are to show music videos and new artists for audiences who do not have access tot he internet. Usually audiences watch music videos on TV passively, which subconsciously influences the target audience by music companies (linking to The Hypodermic Needle Model). Radios are also a source of exhibition, although they don't show the actual music video, they are able to play the song which acts as a source of advertisement.

Production Process

                                    Pre-Production:

In order to make a successful music video planning is crucial. A thorough plan should identify; production aims, target audience, key messages and style. Summarizing a music video should be the starting point. This allows the production company to communicate idea to the artist and allows the artist to regard the direction the music video will take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storyboards:

After a music video summary is approved by either the record company or the artist, the next step is crating the storyboards. Storyboards are essential as they act as a great medium to help everyone involved gain a visual understanding of the summary.

Storyboards also serve as a communication tool between the artist and the production company where either party can feedback in a contextual way and suggest input.

An advantage of using storyboards would be that they act as a time saving tool which in the long run saves money. This is because storyboards keep to the process of filming and continue to stay focused on pre-planned and pre-determined angles and takes.

Casting:

If casting is necessary, a casting director has full control, but with some input from, director, producer or studio. Music videos do not usually require actors, as the only people present on screen are the artist or band members. However this does depend on the genre and narrative of the song, because storytelling-based treatments will require hiring of actors.

Location Scouting:

When filming on-location, in comparison to a controlled filming studio, there is a pre-production step that needs to be taken - location scouting. This process is usually done by directors in conjunction with the director of photography and occasionally the lighting technicians.

Licensing:

If an artist or group pay dues to ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) or BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), a synchronization license needs to be obtained, which allows the producer of the video to use copyrighted music in timed relation with a visual image. An

Production:

When filming action using digital video, (in most cases) its important to treat captured footage in order to make it compatible with TV broadcast standards. For example, there are a certain amount of limitations in the amount of colour luminosity that need to be respected. Its important to do a proper treatment of footage through colour correction to ensure that the final product will be broadcast-friendly and therefore considered for broadcast by TV stations.

 

Production Insurance:

With every video production, there is risk of loses, accidents or inconveniences that may ruin assets that are expensive or irreplaceable. In these situations it is very important that the production company provides insurance. The cost of production insurance depends on the conditions the production takes place from; weather conditions, stunts, third party liability and cost of equipment.

Post-Production:

Editing and Colouring:

Editing is the most important step of post-production. Without editing there wouldn't be any continuity. After all the footage has been captured and loaded up onto a system, the edited will layer out the shots onto a timeline and carefully select shots needed.The process can be very time consuming and its directly proportional to the amount of offstage captured, known as the principal photography stage.

Colour correction is the process which occurs after all the shots have been laid out on the timeline. Colour correction brings benefits to the final cut; ensure colour found in selected shots don't exceed limits by broadcasting standards and increases the consistency of colour throughout the video, and also creates a specific look for some or all clips on the timeline.

Transitions are used to join two clips together. Commonly used transitions are cross dissolve, fade-in, fade-out and dip to colour. In filmmaking, different transitions have different meaning. Fade can be used to express that a long period of time has passed between situations. On the other hand, cross dissolve can be used to cut between present time and a flashback scene.

Mastering:

Mastering is the process of flattening all the effects, transitions, colour correction and other effects into a format that can be distributed for broadcast. Mastering also involves making sure that audio levels are in the right place and that the final version is technically compliant with the rules of broadcasting.