Genre of Music, SONG CHOICE

This video describes our journey of choosing the genre and song.

Here is our brainstorm:

Here is our analysation of You've Got The Love, Florence and the Machine:

Here is our analysation of Gravity, Ella Eyre:

Artist Name

To decide the name for our female artist Hannah and I sat down and discussed the names we liked. We come up with a variety of names, as you can see below. 

After creating our initial name ideas, we then put the names we thought sounded good together and wrote them down. Here, it came apparent that the name Violet was very popular. 

We then spoke about each name in more depth and used red to cross out the names we were not happy with and highlighted greens the ones we wanted to take forward.

This left us with

Chelsea Violet

Harper Violet

Violet

Chelsea.

After asking our classmates for their ideas and researching each name we agreed on Chelsea Violet.

To make sure Chelsea Violet was definetly the name we wanted to use, we annotated the name to show how it would relate to our artist. We believe the name shows she is feminine, calm, spiritual, and down to earth. The name also creates a character, of a girl who grew up in Chelsea and had a childhood nickname of Violet. From this research we are extremely happy with our artist to be called Chelsea Violet!

Artist Ideas

Today, Hannah and I brainstormed some ideas about the kind of artist we want to promote. We believed that a female artist would be the best as that meant one of us could star in the video as the artist. 

We looked at a couple of celebrity profiles we want our artist to be like, these include:
-Zara Larsson, as she is modern, pretty, confident and successful
-Alexa Chung, as she is always seen FrontRow at prestigious shows and high up in the fashion industry
-Cara Delevingne, as she is funny, relatable, a household name and the audience feel like they know her
-Arianna Grande, as she has a unique looking instagram and is an active user on social media sites

Production Diary 4 - audience theory research

Production Diary 3 - textual analysis

Soundcheck - Catfish and the Bottlemen (Textual Analysis)

Lighting is a huge factor in any music video. When researching different videos to do my textual analysis on for lighting I instantly thought of looking at an Indie band as their videos are usually quite unique. I finally chose to study the ‘Catfish and the Bottlemen’ video for their song ‘Soundcheck’. The video follows Van McCann, lead singer, and his band mates performing their track in a large open spaced room.

Flashes of light against a black screen open the music video. This grabs the audience’s attention from the beginning instead of a typical fade out of black or wipe transition. When the flashing stops, we are introduced to the set and main source of lighting, the strip lights on the ceiling. These lights appear bright against low key lighting, to grab our attention within quite a plain set.

Initially low key lighting is used and we see the silhouettes of the band members. It is a performance based music video as we see the band singing to their track and playing instruments.

The colour theme of the music video is black and white. As the song is titled ‘Souncheck’ I believe the video has been kept to black and white to keep the main focus on the sound of the song instead of the visuals in the music video.

Despite this, it is important that the video still draws in viewers to help promote the song and maximize profits and knowledge of the band, especially as they are an uncommon indie band. This has mainly been done by the lighting within the video. One way this has been completed is by using a strong light through different angles. This changes the low key lighting to high key lighting. This creates a light beaming through, creating silhouettes and unique shapes. It comes across as quite glary whilst on the screen. This makes visuals stand out, even though it is entirely in black and white. The use of the light beaming also focuses where we look on the screen, which can be useful when changing the center of the music video.

Thought beats are used in this video with lighting. In the music video there is a section where the lights flash to the beat. This can be seen in the following gif.

As the song slows down and an instrumental is played the lighting gradually changes to low key lighting again. This adds to the suspense and emotions of the song. As the song starts to pick up speed the lighting becomes higher key again.

At the climax of the song there is a montage of different lighting used. The main effect used is flashing lights. The and movements of the band create the feel of attending a concert. This is an advantage of a performance based music video as it sells the artist as performers and especially within this music video, it makes you believe you would enjoy to see them live, which then promotes them and increases their profits if their tours sell out and get bigger. Another interesting moment I noticed about the lighting is during this climax montage the initial lights we saw shine at their brightest. This further increases the experience of the music video to feel as if the viewer is actually at a concert.

Along with the fast pace editing of the ending of the music video, the lighting creates extremely interesting visuals for the audience to watch. There is never a boring moment of the video, even though it is all set in one room. Indie bands have different conventions to pop bands and they are known for being quirky and different. Through the use of lighting this video manages to be different and not become a boring black and white video.

A technique I have learnt from this video is that by shining a bright light behind the artist you can create different silhouettes, depending on the closeness of the light. The closer the light the more extreme the silhouette.

At the end of the video there is a bright light shining on McCann as the camera follows him. As the camera follows him the bright light continues to disappear out of shot. As he carries on walking the bright light entirely goes out of shot and as McCann exits the shot the video is left with a black screen.

Rihanna Comparison Textual Analysis

Rihanna is one of the most critically-acclaimed artists of our times. She has 8 Grammys, 2 BRIT awards, 6 VMAs, 14 U.S Billboard Number Ones along with a huge amount of other awards. Her youtube has over 9.63billion hits, which showcases how successful her music videos are. In this essay I will compare one of her first videos, SOS against a video she released 10 years later, Needed Me, which was released in 2016. I will compare how the director has used narrative and mis-en-scene to create successful music videos throughout the artists development.

The video for SOS is a performance based video as we see Rihanna the artist singing and dancing to her song. It is an upbeat song which the video represents through the fast pace editing and use of bright colour.


The video for Needed Me is a narrative based video, as there is a strong story line throughout the video but the artist doesn't sing along to her track.

First of all I am going to analyse the lighting in both videos. To begin with, the SOS has majority of low key lighting. This creates a club feel to the music video, which is where the song would have been played when it was released. In one location for the music video a spot light it used to highlight Rihanna and a male dance, which creates shadows of their silhouettes behind them which is visually pleasing. Furthermore, a lighting effect is used to symbolise diamonds in the background, this makes the music video look more expensive. Another light effect that has been used in a location where Rihanna is surrounded by a maze of mirrors. The visual created is of pink lights, complementing her pink dress, shining out from her hands. This creates the image of Rihanna being magical and creates more interesting visuals for the audience to look at. The whole feel of the second video is much more mature. This is due to all kind of factors such as her maturing as an artist over the 10 years, the lyrics having a stronger narrative and then the way that the music video industry has changed. As she is such a well known, respected artist now there are higher exceptions for her videos, which her dancing around in different locations will not live up to. The lighting of the Needed Me video begins high key, displaying Rihanna in a high class location and her figure is explicating on show, which is something else she is highly recognised for. Throughout the video there is both high and low key elements. The high key scenes are all outside and show the area and location that the video is located in. The high key lighting at the beginning allows the colours to

be extremely bright, which tells us the video is high quality which is what we expect from a Rihanna video. A close up shot shows Rihanna  smoking showing that her good girl image has disappeared. The low key shots are used in the locations for the strip club scenes. The narrative follows Rihanna searching for a male that is in a strip club. The strip club also shows how Rihanna has developed as an artist as she would of been able to have such an explicit narrative before she was famous as people may have been put off her.

Next I will look at how the costumes have evolved in her video. Traditionally in pop women wear revealing outfits, which coincides with the Mulvey Male Gaze Theory. This is highlighted in the SOS video when from the start Rihanna wears a short, slinky green dress. The location where there are diamond flashing lights is the main dance location. Here Rihanna wears a crop top, hot pants, stockings and stiletto's. This is a revealing outfit which along with her sexualised dance moves creates the male gaze theory. The fashion taste from 2006 has obviously changed hugely, we can acknowledge this when Rihanna adorns a Pink Frilled playsuit which now looks very outdated. The outfits in this video create the image of Rihanna as a fun, young party girl along with the nature of the video. When looking at the Needed Me video we see a different side to Rihanna, some of which can be seen through how she dresses. The first outfit we see Rihanna in is extremely revealing, showcasing that her character image has changed extremely. The beat of the music is lot more relaxed and in a way mysterious as well, creating mystery with the viewer to how she has changed. The second outfit Rihanna wears is a metallic tie up dress, which is very in fashion at the moment. Rihanna is huge in the public eye and has become very well known in the fashion industry. She is frequently sitting FROW on the most respected fashion walks in the industry. This influences her costumes in her videos now as she will not be seen in something that is 'unfashionable' as she is so high up in the fashion industry.

Another element of mis-en-scene I will compare is the setting. The SOS setting is very generic for a POP music video. All aspects of the video would have been filmed in a studio using green screens.
The  effects are very basic including the spotlight scene and mirror location. In the Needed Me video the locations seen are much more interesting and real life locations. This shows that Rihanna's budget has increased. Although some of her videos may use green screens in studios, the effects used would be much more advanced then the ones seen in SOS. Needed Me was filmed in Florida Miami, and the city takes a huge role in the video. Due to Rihanna's star status, she will have location scouts go out and search for locations for her videos, meaning she will get the best setting and best videos.

The spacing of a music video means where the artist is in comparison to everything else. In the SOS video Rihanna has only one co-star who doesn't appear much within the video. Her props are also limited, maybe due to her budget not being as high as it is today. Most of the shots used are mid shots or close up shots, meaning we are quite up close and personal with her meaning that we feel like we get to know her quickly. This differs to the Needed Me video, as Rihanna appears in rooms full of people. This creates the idea that Rihanna is a much more poplar artist now. However there are also scenes where she appears on her own, however the shots are varied from wide and close ups. There are two main types of spacing used in this video. The first is when Rihanna is on her own with the city in the background and the second is where she is in the busy strip club.

The last element of mis-en-scene I have to analyse is facial expressions and body language. In terms of music videos we can look at them artists are shown in close up shots. In SOS, her facial
expressions once again sell her as a fun, friendly character. However we also see a sexy side to the singer when she pouts and stares at the camera. This shows the looking theory as well. Rihanna comes across fiesta through her body language and her choreography. This is quite similar to the Needed Me video as she is shown as feisty however she is not shown as a fun and friendly girl. Her facial expressions are mostly straight faced and she is seen as a serious more mature woman. When she is in the strip club the close up shows her looking angry, which is then further proven when she goes on to shoot a man. After we see the man fall to the floor, Rihanna smoothly exits on a yacht not seeming to be bothered about what she has just done in the slightest. Although Rihanna is obviously acting in the video, the fact she is now acting out a much more serious narrative compared to her just dancing in the SOS video showcases another way that she has matured and developed as an artist.

Story Of My Life - One Direction (Textual Analysis)

One Direction's Story of My Life video has a clear narrative element. The storyline is based on the band members looking back at memories through photos.

The video starts with one of the members dropping a photograph into a tray of water to develop the photograph, which reveals the name of the song and the director, Ben Winston. We then see panning shots of the room showcasing the members of the band developing and looking at more photographs, this foreshadows the whole narrative for the audience as we know it will probably be fully focused on photographs. This is a narrative music video, with some hints of amplification. As lead singer Harry Styles sings 'Written on these walls are stories that I can't explain', he hangs up a photograph as a metaphor for the stories. A variety of mid shots and close ups are used at the beginning of the video, before the first chorus, all focusing on different members of the band. Each member is doing some action with their photographs, for example Niall Horan is laying his to dry on a rack whilst Liam Payne is looking through a selection of filters.

The first photo we have a clear view is, shows Zayns story. A zoom in shot shows an old photograph of Malik and his little sister which morphs into a modified image of the pair in the same costume, setting and poses but grown up. Everyone in shot, except from the band member, remains still in freeze frame whilst the band member moves and sings. This gives the impression of the band member looking back on their memories and re living them.

The idea behind this is to show how the One Directions boys have grown up. It also gives fans chance to see into the bands life, by seeing personal photos and also their family members it allows the viewer to feel they are getting to know the band even more then they did before.

For the chorus, we see all 5 boys in a huge open room, surrounded my hundreds of photographs hung around the room. This is an interesting visual for the audience to look at and it makes them think about not only the memories of One Direction but also their own memories, making the video more personal to them. The boys wear neutral clothing, to keep the attention on the props of the photographs in the background.




It then cuts to Niall's family memory of him and his brother playing instruments, relating to him becoming a musician. This photograph creates humour for the video as when the photo is brought up to date the outfit choice and kids instruments are funny to watch. It then cuts to Liam's memory, which is of him and his family standing on some steps. This picture allows the audience to think about their own family and memories they have had with them.

For the next chorus, we see lead singer Harry Styles memory, of him staring up at his mum. This shows the audience a loving, soft side to the singer that we don't usually see. The positioning of Harry looking up at his mum and his body languages makes us forget about his 'player' and rock and roll portrayal but a more sensitive young normal boy who got lucky on a TV talent competition.



For the slow part of the song, we are shown a more saddening image. Louis's image shown is one at christmas with his parents and grandparents. When the image morphed into the up to date image, his grandparents disappear, showing they have sadly passed. This creates a whole different set of emotions for the viewer, as it will most likely lead them to memories or a deceased relative that they dearly miss. Louis looks to either side of himself and smiles, showing he believes they are still there and acknowledges how much he misses them.

After this chorus, we see each members photograph once more, with all participants moving and no one in a freeze frame. This shows how the family members are all there for the boys now and living the moments with them. All the cast now have smiles on there face, stepping away from the sad emotion previously created.



Finally the photo's morph back into their old state, showing that the memories will always be there and that the relationships the band have with their families and friends is unbreakable and will remain forever.

In terms of the purpose of this video, it shows the viewer a different side to One Direction the they may have not seen before. This allows the band to come across as more normal to some people, if they are seen looking through their old memories instead of dancing around on a sunny beach in America. If more people feel they can relate the the band and also the video, more people will buy the single, promoting the band. It also tells a story that the fans can relate to, keeping the close relationship with their fans alive.

Fancy - Iggy Azalea, (Textual Analysis)

The music video for Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ is based upon the international hit film ‘Clueless’. Clueless is a famous American chick-flick released in 1995. The music video recreates the visuals from the school, including the 90s outfits and the school setting. The aim of this video is to create nostalgia with fans of the film, who would probably be in the age group of 13-25 which would be the main target audience for the film.

One way they recreate the film is through the typography. The name of the artist and song is displayed using the same logo that was used in the film. This font and colour scheme is instantly recognisable by fans of the film, therefore they will be interested in the music video within the first 10 seconds. 

We then have another clue that the video is a spin on the 90s movie when Iggy uses a system to choose her outfit for her. In the film she uses a computer based system whereas in the music video the software is on a tablet. This shows a binary opposite between modern day technology and technology back then. I like how they have adapted the film to suit our modern day society.

The next location confirms the alikeness between the music video and film. They are both set in similar looking classrooms, with the same 3 characters at the front of the class. This approves that the music video is a take on the Clueless film, which ensures that fans will watch to the end. The use of costume is very important within this video as it has to match the original very well so that it is authentic for the audience.

For the second chorus and then throughout we see the location of the house party that is it the film. Red and pink lighting has been used to emphasis the chick-flick feel which is aimed at mostly females. The lighting is quite low key creating the atmosphere of a party. The look of the party in the music video looks similar to the one in the film, however in the film the house is decorated with Christmas decorations. This does not feature in the video, as they would not have wanted to limit the target audience or have create an effect when listeners only listen to the song in the festive season. The song was also released in March, so having Christmas elements to the video would not make sense.

Another part copied is from the scene when main lead Cher’s best friend Dionne gets lost in her car and ends up on the freeway. This is a memorable funny part of the film, so by adding it into the music video will create excitement, laughter and further nostalgia within the audience. The red car remains the same it is just a newer model and the basis of the costumes are similar. The editing technique is also alike, as we can see from the following close up.

I believe by relating the Fancy video to the popular film Clueless it gives the record label a huge brand that they can sell for the video. Music videos are now shared and released by social media, so if for example a tweet with a 6 second Vine was sent showcasing a sneak preview of the Fancy video, it would catch peoples eyes as they will recognise the theme of the video and then create interest with people telling their friends. As the film is such a hit, a music video based on it has a higher chance of viewers wanting to watch it. Below are a few more comparisons I found when watching the video! As a teenage girl, who loves chick-flicks, especially Clueless, I loved the idea of this video and watched it repeatedly without getting bored and it also created conversation within my friends as we all loved the film and was excited about the video. This strategy to sell the product has obviously worked as the Youtube hits for the video are currently at over 762,906,100.