Copyright Request

Every member of our group was required to send an email to the email address of the artist of the song we chose to make a music video for.

The email that was sent read as follows:

'Dear Sir/Madam,

                             I am writing to you to request the use of the music track ‘Sign On’ by the artist Rat Boy (yourselves) for my A2 Media Studies music video production.

Our task for this year is to make a music video to an existing song. We found that this song suited our style and needs perfectly and we do not wish to infringe on any copyright issues nor continue the project without consent from the original artist(s) or their manager/company. The song will be used for non-profit educational purposes and only used for the sole purpose of educational assessment and will be transformative in that no copyrighted material (other than the song) will feature in the final music video. Furthermore, it will be clearly labelled as a production for this purpose and we will not pose ownership of the material. We will place a link to the original song by the artist in the description below once uploaded to YouTube.

I hope that this request will be viewed by yourselves as fair and proper use under existing copyright guidelines. If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please contact my teach at welchch@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

Thank you for your time,

yours faithfully, Brantley Steer'

Storyboards - Sign On

Here are the storyboards that we produced for our music video of the song 'Sign on' by Rat Boy.

Risk Assessment

Lip Sync Practise

Here is our practice lip sync video, as you can see there were many mistakes, but in the end we managed to sync up the music and have the people singing the correct lyrics. Enjoy.

Pitch Video

Here is the video of our pitch for our music video. Please bear in
that the original footage of the three students was lost and we had
to make do with what we had via taking pictures with a mobile phone
and showing which person was speaking by lighting up their face
using editing.

Apllied Audiences

Rat Boy - Sign On

The song that we have chosen to use for our A2 music video media project is the song 'Sign on' by Rat Boy. Stereotypically, a song like this (genre etc) would attract more of a so called 'indie' audience, and perhaps a teenage audience who are in school. They may be able to relate to the song in that they may be in a position where they are making important decision such as what options they will be taking and ultimately thinking about their future, and also with things such as upcoming exams putting the pressure on them. I would argue that Rat Boy is the kind of artist that would appeal to this sort of audience since he discusses the troubles that teenagers are going through at this stage in their lives in his songs, and also the potential pathways and problems that they will face throughout their lives leading up to them ultimately having a career. He often uses humour to express these points of view, which is displayed in his song 'Sign on'. I would argue that this offers the audience guidance and reassurance in their times of distress and that ultimately things will be OK.

Our target audience for our music videos is in the range of teenagers between fourteen and nineteen years old. We chose this audience for our target audience due to our view that the ideals depicted throughout the song would best relate to those within that age range. Lyrics such as 'Young, dumb, living off mum.' may be found to be relatable due to their current situations and not know what to do etc.

However, the lyrics in the song could be taken literally and have a negative impact on those listening to it as people within that age range are more than likely easily influenced. such lyrics as 'It won't be long before i sign on' may encourage people to simply automatically assume that things will be easy for them and they can claim benefits as soon as leaving school. Although this could be drawn from the song, this is later criticized in the song and the singer further encourages the listeners to do their best and try to make the best of their lives and whatever situation they find themselves in.

It's reasonable to conclude that the audience for this song are younger people who are in a situation where they are not quite sure what they want from their future and their lives. The song manages to offer support and encouragement to those in these situations, without dictating to people what they should do.

Album Cover Idea



Here is an image I produced in Photoshop as a very rough idea of what our album cover will look like. The main idea is that on the left side of the cover will be three young men sitting on the floor in scruffy clothing etc. And on the other side the three men will be stood up wearing formal attire and such. As you can see from the image I have separated the two walls, with one looking more dirty and having broken glass on the floor and graffiti spray painted on the wall, and the other side is a very clean looking, newer wall, and the idea is that these will represent the differences between the states in which the men are. I have tried to link this to the song as much as possible as it is about having a job and losing it at then signing on and claiming benefits.

The ideas represented in the song and also the cover I have created, in no way reflect those of our own.

Applied Lyrics and Script [Idea Plan for Music Video]

Contradictive music to the happy sound the lyrics are run down and depressed visuals. Start happy and slowly become darker as time passes.

Key for who
Warehouse (assault) - Joe
Home (kicked out) - Tom or Sam
Job (fired) - Tom or Sam
All



(leaving job centre happy)
different pubs, same name -
Kids out in the rain - "kids" displays teenager as childish to viewer                                                 
Drain on society - waste i.e. unwanted (link to family)
Nothing on the telly -  bored lazy                                            
Barely at school - delinquent, no care for education
Acting like a fool - carefree irresponsible shows unresponcible
Well I coulda done well if things had gone better - reference to education
Slurred singing, wrong lyrics on the dance floor -
Not rich, not poor - just getting by so not a comfortable life
What you living for? - using as a sense to
Poundland pubs and Wormwood scrubs -
Last nights takeaway in Tupperware tubs -

I lost my job in Weatherspoons -
And since that day my bank has hit zero -
Hopefully things'll pick up next year though -
And if they don't then well... -

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x2)

Every week do the lottery -
Daylight robbery -
Spend more on tickets than it's worth in the long run -
Young, dumb, living off mum -
Waiting for the right time to come -
Can't afford the bus that I used to run for -
Lurking on the wrong side of the law -
What for? -
Once more, never been abroad -
A week around here's enough to make you crazy -

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x2)

All my shoes have holes in the soles
Live my life in second hand clothes (x2)

[Chorus]
It won't be long before I sign on
Is it right or is it wrong?
I've got no money, it's all gone (x4)
(Entering job centre together all miserable)


- walking past school goes to abandoned warehouse messes around assaulted
- walks home leeches of parents living easy, gets kicked out
- goes to job a mess carefree, gets fired, becomes poor
- jobs happy jobs carefree, bad mishaps meet up depressed




Script
(Leave job centre happy)
All - "drunk" record us leaving the pub drunk and such
Tom - coming home in the rain
Tom - lazy scene
Tom - recording me lip-syncing that's played on the TV tom pressing remote
Joe - messing around in abandoned warehouse
Joe - people approach him menacingly
All - being handed "F" grade papers
Sam -
Sam -
Joe - bullying him shouting "what you living for
All - leaving pub looing upset
Tom - eating all the food in the house
Sam - gets fired throws apron on floor
Sam - walking go pro recording me walking mouthing lyrics
Sam - Continue
Sam - sat on the floor in town wrapped in rags


[Chorus - start]
Tom - mimes first line happily
Joe - mimes second line unscathed
Sam - mines third line in apron


Tom - mimes first line upset and depressed drenched in water
Joe - mimes line bruised and beaten and bleeding
Tom - mimes third line without apron scruffily and dirt on face
(think of idea for next part of chorus)
[Chorus - end]


This work was written and edited by Samuel Boden, and the ideas and such were generated and suggested by all members of the group, this work has been copied from Samuel Boden's blog and pasted onto mine so that our ideas are shown on my blog also. I felt this was necessary since we all contributed to the production of this work, and so that the ideas are displayed on my blog, as well as Samuel's

Most Iconic Music Videos & Album Covers

Here is my Prezi discussing some of the most iconic music videos and album covers of all time.

Music Video Director Textual Analysis

Here is my textual analysis of the music video director Samuel Bayer.

Regulation in music videos

The BBFC is on organisation who specialise in the control of music video content. Such content like the representation of religions, races, drugs and sexually explicit material. Restrictions are put in place to stop people of a young age to stop viewing the material, if the content in the video is deemed to be unsuitable by the BBFC. Recent events involving music videos have led to the government and organisations like The BBFC to be more aware and pay more attention to the content displayed in some music videos, for example, the sexualisation of people in music videos, and how easy it is for people of a young age to access this sort of material. This government interest has resulted in the video recordings act that should restrict how easily available children can view explicit content. Although the government and BBFC have paid more attention to such matters, explicit content is still released in music videos on a regular basis. Also, although these regulations are in place, it is still very easy for people to view explicit content, for example on YouTube, for some explicit content to be viewed, a person must confirm their age by signing into their account stating they are 18, such an account can be created with no insight into the persons age and the person can just lie. Thus, regulation over the internet is a very difficult matter to handle.

A notable music video which stirred up a lot of controversy due to it's explicit content was 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke. This video contained sexually explicit content, and thus a regulated version was released which covered the areas which were deemed explicit.

Here is the regulated version of the song 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke. The 'Unrated' version had to be taken off of YouTube and is only available to be watched on the official Vevo website.

Controversial Music Videos

Over time, thousands of music videos have been created for thousands of songs, most of which have been well received. However, some of these music videos have been viewed as controversial. So what constitutes a controversial music video?

A controversial music video is one that leads to prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion.
There have been many of music videos that have done, and continue to do just that. A perfect example of such a music video is Like a Prayer by Madonna.
 

This song was released in 1989 and stirred up massive controversy an is widely regarded as one of the most controversial music videos of all time.
The video featured Jesus being portrayed as an African American man, and Madonna kissing him etc.
Along with that Madonna is shows dancing in a field of burning crosses. This may have been seen as more controversial in the time it was released that now mostly due to the fact that in modern society, we see things that are worse that this all the time, such a music video being released today would most certainly not get the sort of reaction it did in 1989. Nevertheless, this song was seen as extremely controversial and offended many religious and non religious people alike.

The Male Gaze

The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented.

For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:

1.      How men look at women

2.      How women look at themselves

3.      How women look at other women

Main features of ‘The Male Gaze’ theory (1975)

1.      The representation of women as a sexual fantasy and from a heterosexual point of view

2.      Scopophilia – the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies

3.      Patriarchal society

4.      Objectification of female characters

5.      Active male and passive female

6.      Men – controlling subjects

7.      Women as an image

8.      Men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at

9.      Needs of the male ego

Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

 The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man’s reaction to these events.

 Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

 Use of the Male Gaze in everyday life

Some theorists also have noted the sexualising of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised

Criticism of Mulvey and Gaze Theory

Some women enjoy being ‘looked’ at e.g. beauty Pageants.

The gaze can also be directed toward members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

How Genre Reflects Music Videos

In some cases, perhaps more often than not, certain genre characteristics can often restrict the creativity and flexibility of certain music video producers, directors and artists themselves. By limiting them to certain conventions that appear in music videos of a particular genre, for example, a common representation of a music video of perhaps a heavy rock or metal band would display them on stage performing to an audience, or if a boy/girl band have produced a music video, it will more than like contain some sort of dance routine. As Hartley (1994) argues 'genres are agents of ideological closures - they limit the potential meaning of a text'. An example of a music video that depicts this would be Aerosmith VS Run DMC 'Walk This Way' which displays the band performing to a live audience.



Not only does Hartley say this about music videos, but so do Hodge & Kress (1988) who state that 'control of behaviour of producers of such texts, the expectations of potential consumers'. This suggests that the more consumers see of a certain genre and its conventions, they will, in time, get bored of seeing the same thing and find the concepts very repetitive. An example of music videos being similar is Green Day - American Idiot, which shares a similar theme to the music video above, in that it shows all the band performing live, the only difference being that in the Green Day song, the performance is not in front of a live audience.

The White Stripes Website

Here is the website that our group has created for our starter task for the band of our choice, The White Stripes.


http://tomellismedia.weebly.com/

A2 Short Music Video Task - Seven Nation Army

Here is our short music video of Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes.

Short Music Video Task

For our short music video we have decided to do the song 'Seven Nation Army' by The White Stripes. We have chosen to make a music video for this song for a number of reasons.

We chose this song because we felt that we could come up with lots of ideas of things to do with the song in terms of video, for example using the lyrics to our advantage and using references to the lyrics within the video, that may be subtle and other that may be obvious.

We also chose this song because it is a song that all the members of our group enjoy listening to and believe that many others enjoy the song.

We also felt that there was plenty of ideas that we could use to produce a CD front cover, which is one of our tasks which is currently in progress, and also creating a website for the band.
We felt that the colour scheme that the band used on their album 'Elephant' was also something we could include in either our video, CD cover or our website.

Overall we thought that this song was a good choice down to how flexible we can be with the ideas associated with it and the references we can put within the video.

Recommended Music Video Textual Analysis

Sign on - Rat Boy

'Sign On' in an indie song released in 2015 by indie rock band Rat Boy. The song contains very fast editing with vibrant colours and inclusions of props such as a bouncy castle. These things may have been included to emphasise the fast pace of the song, and to show that the artists are young and energetic.

 The car used throughout the song could typically be seen as a car owned by people on the lower class, this connoted that the young men portrayed in the video are lower class, which links to the theme of the song, which is about signing onto the benefits system. 

There is also an inter-textual reference in the video to 'Alright' by Supergrass. This reference is that all the band members are shown driving in a car in 'Sign On', and in 'Alright', the band member are shown riding around on a bed. Another reference, is a scene in 'Sign On' where a band member is riding a chopper bicycle, this also happens in 'Alright' by Supergrass. This infers that Rat Boy used some ideas from 'Alright' and used the songs video as inspiration for their own. 

Happy Music Video

Here is our 30 second recreation of the music video to Pharell Williams' 'Happy'.

Here is my textual analysis of the song 'Walk This Way' by Run-DMC and Aerosmith

Californication Storyboards

We produced some story boards to the music video of Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers. We did this in order to gain a better understanding of drawing storyboards and also gain an understanding of how to fit in different shots into the bars of the music. I hope that this will come into use later on in the year when I produce my full length music video. 

Introductory Post

This year, I will be focusing primarily on music and music videos in particular. I will start by producing a 30 second recreation of the music video to Pharell Williams' 'Happy'. I will then go onto creating a 1 minute music video to a song of my choice, as well as producing a CD cover art for the song and a website to go with it. Finally i will create a full music video to a song of my choice for my final piece. I hope to develop several skills such as editing a music video, story-boarding and also work on skills i already have such as using cameras, editing and various other skills. I hope that my skills will develop through the year and result in me making a good music video for my final piece, through my progression throughout the year.