Digipak

What is a digipak?
Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak)is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Such packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, so it tends to show signs of wear relatively quickly.

Licensed digipak manufacturers such as domestic U.S. printer and disc replicator Oasis Disc Manufacturing^[ recommend coating the raw printed paper with a protective UV coating, thus ensuring greater longevity.
Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package (particularly the "teeth" of the hub which secure the disc in place) remains rather brittle and is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s. Folk band Show of Hands were one of their first bands to use a digipak, on their 1997 album Dark Fields. The band stopped using digipaks but upon the release of Cold Cuts in 2002, they have used them ever since.

Manufacturers have sought to reduce environmental impact and improve functionality by introducing recycled components into its trays; one has announced a 100% post-consumer PET tray made from recycled bottles which also eliminates the need for the brittle "teeth". Many printers use recycled or sustainable material for the board stock.
Historically, Digipak was only available in large quantities

Own analysis of a digipak

Research from genre

  I like this digipak from Rihanna as it is bold yet simple due to the use of black and white.  It is easily identifiable for her fans due to her 'R' logo, illustrating how she has a large fan base who easily recognise her trademark. The images used are very fitting to Rihanna's rebellious image due to the use of cigarette smoke and her smoking on the back cover. This presents her as edgy which is also represented in the cool colours of black white and grey. Rihanna's sexy image is also illustrated due to her being shown wearing suspenders and sitting in aprovocative pose. The front cover image also looks as if she is naked due to her top half not being covered, which adds to the shock factor of her image. From looking at this digipak we might use the conventions of using our artist as the main feature on the front cover similarly to Rihanna, but instead of using black and white we will be using bold and bright colours to fit in with our genre of indie pop.

       Katy Perry's digipak for Teenage Dream is the direct opposite to Rihannas album. Katy represents her fun, pop side by using bright colours and focusing on a candy theme, using candy floss and with the font making it resemble different types of sweets. The theme is very girly which contrasts with Rihanna's masculine and sexy look. The colours are mainly blue, pink and red which are literally very 'bubblegum pop' and allows Katy's album to have a strong identity and brand which allows her to expand it for tours/merchandise etc. The conventions katy used are quite similar to what we want to achieve, for example the bright colours allowing our artist to have a strong brand identity, we also want to use a theme with scrabble pieces, similarly to what she has done with sweets.

Ellie Gouldings digipak for her album 'Lights' is very different to Katy Perrys, Ellies is very simple and understated representing her style of music. She has used basic colours of black and gold presenting her album as quite classic and cool. Ellie has played on the title of 'lights' by using sparkle in her hair on her image. The title is simple, using Ellies name in bigger font makes it clear who she is as an artist. The back cover is also very simple with a simple black background with gold writing, rather than Rihanna's cover with a back image of herself. The conventions I would use from looking at this would again be the bold image on the front and a clear colour scheme.

Lily Allen's album 'It's Not Me It's You' is very similar to the theme we are hoping to use of quirky, play like feautures. For example the front cover of her laying in an L presents her as bold and allows her to be easily identifiable by her fans. She plays on letters on the front and back using large alphabet letters to present the album as fun and perhaps her child like manner. As Lily is dressed in a princess like dress this could link to her chilhood and being perceived as a young, playful character. The colour scheme is colourful yet not too bold due to the use of pastel colours. Similar conventions we would use are the playful fonts and use of quirky items like her with the large letter L and we also want to use similar colours, yet slightly more bright.

COMMON CONVENTIONS

-Artists face on front cover                    
-  Distinctive theme

-Identifiable logo/brand   
-Track list not having being clear with no bold images around it
-Bright bold colours
-Simple classic style
-Identifiable aspects for fans                             

Lips Filming

In Mondays lesson we filmed the whistle section of ths song by filming my lips. We used different colour lipsticks and decided we would experiment with colours when editing, for example using a pop art effect or perhaps black and white. We also filmed me singing parts of the actual song in order for us to use it for fillers when editing.

Filming: Day One- Tennis Scene

Today we begun our filming! We started today with filming the tennis scene in which the girl appears competitive and aggressive towards Ken but towards the end becomes humoured and happy by him. My outfit consisted of mini shorts and a polo top which in December weather was not ideal, but it looked effective! We did a variety of shots including close ups, back of head shots and long shots, some proved difficult as Ken needed one of us to hold him up in order to stay upright in the shot so we had to make sure we were not shown in shot. We first did shots of me serving the ball to Ken and getting competitive and aggressive when he missed the ball, we then did the direct opposite filming me laughing and enjoying Kens company. We also took some comedy action shots of me playing tennis which will add to the humour of the video, including Kens own mini tennis racquet which I ashamedly admit was made by me. I also lip synced to the song on a bench with ken and a tennis racquet to add to the tennis image.

We also filmed teh kitchen scene in which I cook and give Ken a small sized egg. The video below summarises our day of filming.

Filming Schedule

In todays lesson we organised a filming schedule in which we would begin to film our video. We have arranged to film over 7 pieces of our video over a period of two weeks and are beginning this Wednesday in which we are hoping to film the tennis scene and kitchen scene. We also brainstormed ideas about my styling and what I would wear in certain scenes and locations.
Here is a copy of our ideas below:

Experimentation with Stop Animation

In Fridays lesson we began to experiment different ways to use lyrics in our video. We adapted our initial scrabble piece idea and used the effect of wiping the letters off the page. We also had the idea of writing out the lyrics and using stop animation. When editing we achieved this through using freeze frames and as a draft we liked the outcome and as a result we may use this effect again.

Trip to Rich Mix

Yesterday our class took a trip to Rich Mix in Shoreditch and visited a seminar studying the Music Video- FRom MTV to Youtube. Chief Examiner Pete Fraser spoke to us about the history of the music video and how they have evolved over time with him showing us examples from the 1950s of Nat King Cole to Madonna in the 80's and to modern day of 50 Cent. This was really fascinating and I learnt how long music videos had been around for as I originally had not thought they had existed for that many years. An example Pete showed us was Candy Shop by 50 Cent and he explained how today wealth and power is shown in videos, but this was not originally the case due to MTV never showing black acts, until the evolution of Michael Jackson and Thriller.



I found the afternoon session the most enjoyable with music producers Liz Kessler and Corin Hardy coming in to discuss and show us their own music videos. I was amazed to find out what high callaber artists the two had worked for including recently Britney Spears and Olly Murs. We were shown examples of their videos and they discussed their initial ideas, working with the artists, budget and how they actually made the videos. A factor that I found interesting was Product Placement as Liz expalined by brands using this in videos this often helped pay for the video. An example of this is the Britney Spears Criminal video in which products such as perfume, a jewellery company and car brand are used in the video.



Amongst the day we were set a task to come up with our own music video to a song 'No Rest' in which we did not know who the artist was or what the original video had been. We all pitched our ideas as a school and our group came up with the idea of an isolated man living on a mountain and as he sleeps items in his house come alive and interact with one another. The producers liked our idea and it was interesting hearing other schools ideas. A concept a group came up with was particlarly significant as it involved a toy being used as a character, a similar way to how we are using our Ken doll in our own music video. Another factor was that Corin Hardy had in fact produced a video with a similar concept which we had in fact looked at when our group were discussing video ideas and this video was Olly Murs- Busy.



Corin showed us a great amount of his videos which was really interesting and in particular one of his videos was really imaginative. It was the Horrors- she Is The New Thing. Corine xplained how he filmed the band simply across a white background but illustrated everything himself on 1,500 sheets of paper and simply merged the two together. This showed just how efective animation can look in a video, and although it is time consuming it is worth the time and effort as the outcome is very effective.



Overall, I really enjoyed my day at the Rich Mix and definitely left feeling inspired for our own music video.

Questionnaire

Last lesson we discussed what questions we were going to ask in our Questionnaire regarding our storyboard and our ideas in general. We came up with the questions we are hoping to ask:

1. Does the storyboard work as a whole?
2. Does it make sense?
3. Do you like the idea and concept of the video?
4. Does it appeal to your target age group?
5. Is there anything you would change about the video?
6. Do you like the ending?
7. Are there any specific shots you like?
8. Does it express positive views on female empowerment?
9. Would you like this video on Youtube?
10. Does the video fit in with the song?

Scrabble Practice

In last weeks lesson we practiced filming our scrabble stop animation for the beginning of our video. We experimented with different backgrounds and found the brick background looked the most effective and we are hoping to use this background in our actual video. As we filmed this on the flip the quality is quite distorted so we came to the conclusion we would film the final thing on our actual video cameras as it is in HD it will come out in better, clearer quality.

Stuart Hall Theory

Stuart Hall developed the concept of audience positioning as a result of examining news reports on industrial strikes. 

He claimed that media representations established a framework for possible responses – this is like setting an agenda for issues to be raised with audiences.

The responses to an audience watching a media text would be likely to fall into

three main categories:

 Dominant readings mean:

Audiences respond to the way narrative is constructed and adopt the points of view implied

Oppositional readings mean:

Audiences reject the way the narrative is constructed, question andchallenge the points of view implied

Negotiated readings mean:

Audiences partially accept the way the narrative is constructed but can see both points of view:

the dominant and oppositional readings

Aberrant readings

is an additional interpretation: where the text is read in a deviant and largely unanticipated

manner, the preferred reading not being recognised at all

After flicking through the music channels I came across Olly Murs' video to Dance With Me Tonight. It caught my eye due to the London setting and Indie feel to the video and it gave me inspiration for how I'd like our video to look. I liked the London streets setting along with aspects such as a market and also it showed some parts of London at night time, which we hoped to feature. The video also made me think about female representation as the video portrays the female in the video in a traditionally sexy male shirt and due to her good looks and blonde hair this is quite a negative representation as although she is not as sexualised as other music videos she is still seen as a sex object due to her sexy image. This is the complete opposite to how we would like to represent women, as we want to use classy and fashionable clothing which does not conform to other ideas of women, like this video. Overall, I enjoyed this video and it got me thinking about my own.

Location

 One of our locations is Swirlz, a milkshake shop nearby to us just outside of Enfield. We're using this location for our milkshake scene where the girl and Ken are sharing a milshake and gazing into eachothers eyes. This location is ideal as any props we need will be available as all we need is a milkshake and straws. The only issue there may be is the shop is a public place which may interfere with our filming but hopefully we will go at a quiet time of day so the shop will be empty. We feel using a milshake shop will fit in perfcetly with the quirkiness of our song and the lighting is quite bright which will also go well with the theme of our video. In order to use the shop we may have to contact the owners to gain permissiom to film, but hopefully we will be able to!

Another location we are hoping to use is Alexandra Palace skatepark, we like this location as it is bright and funky and as the pictures show from when I visited it is very urban and quirky which we feel fits in well with the theme of our video. The skatepark allows us to use resources such as ramps which we are hoping to feature by Ken skating in rollerskates. We hope to shoot it in light weather conditions as we feel it will show off the bright colours of the graffitti. If this location does not plan out we were hoping to use Southbank skate park as it too has an urban theme.

 A location we are also hoping to use is our local park in order to film the swing scene with Ken. As a park is a busy public place we would want to go when it is relatively quiet but also go with people still around in order to make the situation seem more realistic.There are weather restrictions on using a park as if the weather is bad it shows through the camera as it the back drop appears quite dark, hopefully we will film on a sunny day in order to portray the happy and quirky style of song.

A location we have already done some filming on and are hoping to do more on is Southbank. We want to film here in oredr to add the city elements to our London themed video. We would liked to film it amongst the general public to also make the situation seem more realistic, we may have to gain peoples permission to film if they may feature in it. We found filming at night effective as the image shows it adds to the city theme as it shows Londons nightlife, we may use a night shot like the image to the left shows and may show her walking along Southbank during the day.

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard of our idea to our music video. Here we have basic shot ideas which we will develop once we film our desired scenes. We have changed some of our original ideas in order to fit in better with our genre. For example we originally though of an idea based on Ruby and Ken sharing a milkshake in a romantic moment, we decided to challenge this by her getting annoyed when he drinks her mcdonalds drink in order to add to the humour and comedy element to our video. Hopefully, our filming sticks to our planned storyboard.

Treatment

On Fridays lesson we presented our treatment to the rest of the class which gave them the outline of our concept and showed them our ideas regarding marketing and branding, genre, audience, costume and makeup, editing ideas and what makes our video stand out. I feel our presentation went really well and was detailed and imformative, also I feel the audience understood our concept well and hopefully look forward to seeing the end product. We used our practice filming videos from Southbank and the park to give them an idea of what our video would be like, as well as enabling them to understand the concept more by seeing an example of our filming. Overall, the treatment was successful and we now feel confident in carrying on our idea and developing it further, and hopefully to start filming soon!

From looking at this image we had the idea of perhaps using the theme of Pop Art when doing our lip shots and I liked the prospect of perhaps using a split screen like the image on the left shows. This pop art theme adds to the quirky and retro idea and fits in with our shot of using the 50s style diner in the milkshake scene.

Southbank

Last Friday for a friends birthday me and Valentina went to Southbank, knowing it would be a good opportunity to get some good shots of London at night. We brought the Flip along with Ken and got some good footage. We really liked the shots we got of London Bridge lit up at night and thought it would look effective enough to use as a slot in shot for our video. We also got some humourous footage of me and Ken which we may use in our final film in order a variation in location.

Branding/Marketing

In todays lesson we began to start thinking about our brand and marketing image. We started by looking at other female solo artists websites to see what images they were associated with that defined their individual image and style. One artist we really liked was Marina and the Diamonds, her bold yet quirky image works really well and we took inspiration from her clothing coming up with the idea of wearing contrasting clothes such as floaty dresses with preppy basbeball jackets. We really liked the girly yet strong image Marina portrays and like her individuality and vintage style.

Examples of Marinas makeup we liked was her adventurous lipstick this gave us the idea of using different shades and styles of lipsticks for each shot in Skinny Genes when she whistles.

Another artist who we took inspiration from was Jessie J due to her individual make up style. We are hoping to do this lipstick style ourselves as we feel it will fit into our London theme really well. Also we liked Jessies quirky and fun style and we feel we could have quirky fashion pieces similar to the image below.

Another artists branding we really liked was Kate Nash's. We loved the simpleness of the black and white of the website and took inspiration form the use of drawings and illustrations, also the bright bursts of colours such as red worked really well. We believe we could use aspects of illustrations in our own video as it adds to the quirkiness of the song. 

An idea we also liked and considered was the use of retro as after looking at Florence and the Machine's website we thought the scrapbook effect was really effective and the use of colours such as browns and dark reds looked subtle yet effective.

Here I have created a style board of looks that we are aiming for in our video consisting of vintage/casual blouses, denim shorts amd quirky pieces of jewellery such as the scrabble pieces. 

Practice Filming

In todays lesson we took advantage of the good weather and did some practice filming with our Ken doll. As one of our shots on our storyboard is a swing scene we filmed this scene and edited it into a short clip in order to give the audience an idea of what our video will be based on, which will be useful when presenting our idea to the class. We found today a success and made us excited to film the rest of the video, it also made us realise that the Ken idea worked well.

The Gaze

There are many types of gaze in the media. There are the 'male and female gaze' which regard how men and women are portrayed in the media in order to appeal to the opposite text whilst the other forms of gaze are how the spectator is viewing the text.

Spectators gaze- the spectator who is viewing the text. this is often us, the audience of a certain text

Intra-diegetic gaze- where one person depicted in the text is looking at another person or object in the text, such as another character looking at another.

Extra-diegetic gaze- where the person depicted in the text looks at the spectator such as an aside or an acknowledgement of the ''fourth wall''

The Intra-Intra-diegetic gaze- where the person depicted in the text is watching themselves, e.g on a TV screen

Regarding the gender gaze theory, theorist Laura Mulvey's argues "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (written in 1973 and published in 1975) which expands on the conception of the passive role of women in cinema to argue that film provides visual pleasure through scopophilia, and identification with the on-screen male actor. She asserts: "In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness," and as a result contends that in film a woman is the "bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning." Mulvey argues that Freud's psychoanalytic theory is the key to understanding how film creates such a space for female sexual objectification and exploitation through the combination of the patriarchal order of society, and 'looking' in itself as a pleasurable act of voyeurism, as "the cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking."


Whilst Laura Mulvey's paper has a particular place in the feminist film theory, it is also important to note that her ideas regarding ways of watching the cinema (from the voyeuristic element to the feelings of identification) have been very important in terms of defining spectatorship from the psychoanalytical view point.


Mulvey identifies three "looks" or perspectives that occur in film which serve to sexually objectify women. The first is the perspective of the male character on screen and how he perceives the female character. The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen. The third "look" joins the first two looks together: it is the male audience member's perspective of the male character in the film. This third perspective allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film.

Mulveys theory also links to voyeurism, the examples below show how the gaze and voyeurism are used in order to attract an audience.

In this Nat King Cole video the Male gaze is used, the video shows how Nat King Cole is using a waitress as his object of affection and she is portrayed as a slave as he is waiting for her to take his order. This shows that over time the male gaze has developed as today the gaze is portyayed in a more sexual light as the 50 Cent P.I.M.P video below shows but the idea behind a woman being shown in a sexual manner has remained the same over time.Voyeurism has been used here as Nat views himself on a televison screen playing the piano which shows he is watching himself in another way, also the Extra Diegetic gaze has been used as Nat also looks at the camera and acknowledges the audience.

 The P.I.M.P video by 50 Cent greatly contrasts the Nat King Cole video as the Male Gaze is used to extreme lengths as women are portrayed in a lot more of a sexual manner, and are shown to appear as slaves to men. Due to their lack of clothing and provocative mannner this supports Mulveys theory that media is used to sexually objectify women. The video used the Intra-diegetic gaze as 50 is often shown singing to women or whilst looking at their bodies, although the Extra-Diegetic gaze is used in parts such as when him and Snoop are singing to the camera. Voyeurism is also used at the beginning of the song where 50 Cent plays his song on his ipod which may be a represenation of his wealth and that he fits into the contempary society which appeals to a wide audience.

 The video to Rio by Duran Duran also uses the male gaze in order to appeal to an audience. The shots of the video focus on female body parts which supports Mulveys theory of appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact. The video shows alternate views about how women are portrayed, they on one hand are portayed in a negative way as they are presented in minimal clothing and as objects but they could also be argued to be presented as strong figures as they have control over the men in the video. Voyeurism is not used in the video just the Spectators gaze and the Extra-diegetic gaze.

In Open Your Heart Madonna plays the Male gaze but also contradicts this. Madonna is shown in a strip club in provocative clothing with men watching her dance. This plays on Mulveys theory about women being seen as sexual objects but Madonna also contradicts this as she is controlling what the men see as it is a peep show theme and a shutter goes down on the mens windows, therefore showing she is teasing them.Voyeurism is partly used as we see the viewpoint of the men watching Madonna, showing us the spectators gaze although she does sing directly to the camera using the Extra Diegetic gaze.This represents Madonna as a strong female who can control men but also as a woman who enjoys the sexual attention of men.

Pencil Full of lead presents both the Male gaze but also enpowers women. Initially the women in teh video are presented as sexual objects due to them all being dressed the same and in revealing clothing, being grabbed by the male charcatre. This fulfills the male gaze but this is contradicted as halfway through the song it shows the women being enpowering and controlling the male character and laughing at him. Voyeurism is used in this video as it gives the impression of the video being filmed for a TV station, showing the actual filming is being done for another production which is an effective method.

The Lady GaGa video presents women in an enpowering light which is unsual for music videos as Gaga and Beyonce are presented as villains that are manipulating and seeking revenge on a male character. Although they are shown in revealing clothing the message of the video shows that they are strong and powerful women. Voyeurism is used as CCTV footage of gaga is used and also a TV of a news station of the two singers. This is a clever way of using voyeurism and is called the Intra-Intra-diegetic gaze. In this video women are represented in a less naive light and are shown in a strong light which is a huge contrast to videos such as P.I.M.P.

Theorist Andrew Goodwin believes women are objectified through camera and editing and it is through iconography and visuals that illustrate this.

Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory.

View more presentations from PerrytheAlex

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

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Voyeurism

Voyeurism (from the French voyeur, "one who looks") can take several forms, but its principal characteristic is that the voyeur does not normally relate directly with the subject of their interest, who is often unaware of being observed.

In our video we are hoping to encorporate Voyeurism by the beginning shot being the girl looking through photos of herself from the day she has had, or either of her playing her song on an ipod/cd player. We are yet to decide yet but examples of voyeurism from other videos are Olly murs Heart Skips a Beat as the beginning shot shows the song being played on a record player. Another example is from Madonnas Hung Up video which features her playing her song on a boom box. These are ideas we have taken into consideration, but we are thinking of using more modern technology such as an ipod/iphone in order to fit in with the contempary style of the video. Although we may use a jukebox in order to fit in with the 50s style of the diner we are hoping to use in the milkshake scene.

Genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are often used in an undifferentiated way.
Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways. Due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and closely related genres often overlap. Many do not believe that generic classification of music is possible in any logically consistent way, and also argue that doing so sets limitations and boundaries that hinder the development of music. While no one doubts that it is possible to note similarities between musical pieces, there are often exceptions and caveats associated.

Kembrew McLeod, in an essay entitled "Genres, Subgenres, Sub-Subgenres and More",suggested that in electronic music, "the naming of new subgenres can be linked to a variety of influences, such as the rapidly evolving nature of the music, accelerated consumer culture, and the synergy created by record company marketing strategies and music magazine hype. The appropriation of the musics of minorities by straight, middle and upper-middle-class Whites in the United States and Great Britain plays a part, and the rapid and ongoing naming process within electronic/dance music subcultures acts as a gate-keeping mechanism, as well."


For our video we have chosen to do an indiepop genre as it allows us to do a quirky style of video and also as a majority of indie pop artists are female this worked to our advantage as we to are using a female singer.  Our chosen songs genre is typically a narrative as the lyrics tell the story of a relationship and in order to present this a narrative is needed in order to tell the viewers the story behind the song. 

The main generic conventions of a music video in our chosen genre are bright colours, quirky items and cool clothes. Artists similar are Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine and Marina and the Diamonds who often feauture individual fashion styles with loud images. For example in the Marina and The Diamonds video for Hollywood there is a reoccuring theme of America and this is played on throughout by using bright colours from the American flag and wearing cheerleading outfits.

Common iconography used is mirrors, often musical instruments and bright colour schemes such as red and blue. For example in the Kate Nash video abstarct items such as telephones and love hearts are used which add to the quirkiness of the video, and also red and yellow have been commonly used in order to present the happiness of the song. 

In the indiepop genre the location is often set in the city, which we are aiming to do in london due to the individualness of different parts of London which you would not necessarily find elsewhere. Also there is a commonly a set design made up of bright colours, similar to Marina and the Diamonds in Hollywood. Props are commonly used in order to fit in with the lyrics of the song, for example in Pumpkin Soup above by Kate Nash there is a common theme of love with love hearts, sweets and lips. And in Hollywood there are American related items such as the flag and cheerleaders.

Costume in Indiepop is always very fashionable and up to date with a quirky twist,  for example Kate Nash is seen wearing bright colours such as red, yellow and blue in the images above which make them eye catching and interesting to look at. Also stereotypical charcaters are formed such as the boy girl relationship which is commonly found in Kate Nash videos, and also the quirky and cool female who is independent. Common shots used are simple, often with close ups of the singer or panning shots as the walk towards the camera. Most shots are not very technical as they mainly focus on the singer rather than her surroundings.

Florence and the Machine is strongly associated with the indie pop genre as she is known for her trademark red hair and unusual powerful voice. These associate her with bright colours and soulful images that show off her lyrics and voice. Florence uses these images to show her power, and by doing this and showed she is the face of indie pop. 

Change of Idea

In todays lesson we had a slight change of plan and decided that instead of using a boy in our video, we are going to use a Ken doll to make the video more comical and imaginative. We came up with some great concepts such as using green screen to make the girl in the video the same size as the Ken, and we also had ideas such as them sharing the same milkshake in a 50s style diner and also a rain scene in which Ken hands the girl a cocktail umbrella which transforms into a life size one. Also from looking at the lyrics 'The yolk is in the middle and i'm chewing through the white' we had the idea of the girl cooking the Ken breakfast and him having a haribo sized egg in comparison to her normal sized meal. We believe this idea sets us apart from other candidates as it is original and creative and we're looking forward to developing the idea.

We got this original idea from looking at the Olly Murs video for Busy which showed him having a relationship with a mannequin. Initially we liked this idea and took using a mannequin into consideration, but realising this would be hard to achieve we changed our idea to a Ken doll in order to be more original and also as it was more achievable.

Contacting the producer for consent

In order to use the song Skinny genes we contacted the producer Matthew Prime to gain consent, here is a copy of the email.

Reasons For Song Choice

We decided to choose Skinny Genes by Eliza Doolittle as our song due to the quirkiness of it, we really liked the lyrics and feel we could use them to adapt parts of the video. For example we thought using the cliche of jeans could be a quirky idea, as well as it fitting in with the indie pop genre. We also chose the song as it is ung by a female and believed it would be easier to film amongst us rather than relying on another person to appear in the video. Also as it is quite an upbeat song we can make the video bright and fun and also fit it in and around London, also as Eliza Doolittle is a cool and individual artist we could play on this fact and set the video around her quirkiness by using abstract items that also fit into the indiepop genre such as bubblegum, scrabble pieces and also the obscurity of places in London, such as Camden and Brixton which we hope to use as possible locations.

As well as Skinny Genes we discussed other song choices such as Ed Sheeran, The City as we wanted to base our video around London and we thought the song was inappropiaten for this, but we decided against this idea as we would have needed a male performer in the video and this would not be ideal for us as we would have to rely on them for our filming, which we didnt want to have.

Overall, we feel we have made a good decision on our song choice and cannot wait to start filming.

Different Song Ideas

One of our song choice ideas was The City-Ed Sheeran. We liked this song as it was a song based on city life,and as we wanted to base our video in and around London we believed this would be a good choice of song. Also as Ed is a quirky singer and fits into the indie genre we thought this would be a good choice.
Although possible limitations of using this song would be having to use a male performer, this would be hard to rely upon during filming and using a memer of our own group would be easier.



Another song choice idea was Skinny Genes- Eliza Doolittle. We liked this song due to its quirkiness and upbeat message, we also could fit it into our desired London theme. Also as it features a female singer we could easily use a member of our group rather than having to rely on another individual which could possibly hold back filming progress. We also liked this song as due to its happy message we could use bright colours and use potential street art to add to the quirkiness ofthe song. Also as it is sung by a female we could potentially a male love interest to add a storyline for viewers to follow. Bad points about this is that we don't want to look to copycat to the artist or video, so need to think of original ideas that are not similar to the original video.



Another song idea we had was I Wish I Was A Punkrocker- Sandi Thom. We liked this song as it was upbeat and soulful and again found it would fit in well with our London theme. We also liked the original video and wanted to use a similar panning shot of the main character walking towards the camera. Although the bad point of the song is that the lyrics are very obvious and it was hard for us to think of ideas for what we could do with the song.

Video Ideas

I recently saw this video and really liked it, its really similar to what we want for our own video- set in London, quirky and creative. I love the opening shot of the bike wheel and want to do something similar, thinking we could hire a bike in London by the Thames as we want a shot of the character riding a bike. I also like the graffitti that is written on the surface as she walks, and want to create a similar effect perhaps using stop animation. I like the mixture of bright colours with the neutrality of the sky, such as the bright baloons and graffitti. Overall, i've taken alot of inspiration from this video.

New Ideas

In todays lesson we brainstormed and thought of some new ideas for our music video. We really liked the idea of using scrabble pieces as stop animation for some lyrics in the song. We also started to think about locations and liked the idea of using a colourful market to walk through such as Brixton or Camden. This will add to the edgy images of London and will be effective for the walking shots with the busy background. Also in these locations are alot of interesting graffitti which we would like to feature.

Summer Research Task

Ellie Goulding

Record Label and Musical History
Ellie Goulding was signed to Polydor records in September 2009 and made her debut single. "Under the Sheets", which was released in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2009, peaking outside the top 40. In October 2009 she toured the UK supporting Little Boots and appeared on Later...with Jools Holland, performing "Under The Sheets" and "Guns and Horses", this raised her profile and her single "Wish I Stayed" was available as a free download as the UK iTunes Store's'Single of the Week' from 22–28 December 2009 making people more aware of her music.
Polydor was well suited to Ellie as the label had similar artists of the same Indie Pop genre such as La Roux, Kate Nash and Duffy who were all successful, which Ellie aspired to be.

Ellie spectacularly rose to fame when her Elton John cover of Your Song became the song to the John Lewis Christmas campaign, the single became Goulding's highest-charting single to date, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted in some European countries in early 2011, showing her success.

Another milestone in Ellies career was performing at the Royal wedding in April 2011 after being personally requested by the royal family themselves. This proved how far Goulding had come in her career and also showed she even had a fan base within the royal family.

^{How they represent themselves in the media
Ellie Goulding represents herself very modestly in the media, portraying an innocent, wholesome nice girl image who purely just loves music. This innocence is shown through her image of being a clean cut, pretty and slightly quirky young woman who is often represented as an English rose. Pale colours such as white, pink and yellow are commonly used to show this innocence and peaceful image. as the photo shows.}

^{Although Ellie is portrayed innocently she also has a sexy, rebellious side which you can see on the magazine cover of her showing her sexuality and young age and perhaps showing she has a bad side due to her previous turbulent childhood in which she did not get along with her step father. She is also appealing to the male gaze in what she is wearing of revealing shorts and doing a seductive pose.  Ellie also appeals to her young target audience by collaborating with up and coming popular artists such as her feature in Wonderman with Tinie Tempah, this shows she is edgy and cool, and this is a way of increasing her popularity with a younger audience. Also as the magazine cover shows she is posing with a fellow quirky indie pop sensation Marina and the Diamonds, showing she is associated with these artists and as it is a young womens magazine she is appealing to her target audience and gaining more popularity as a result as it is raising her profile.}

Images, colours, symbolism often used in music videos

Ellie manages to portray different images of herself in her music videos. For example in 'The Writer' Ellie is very much an English Rose using pale colours, appearing very angelic and soft and being in a field, showing she is very calm and beautiful like nature. She also uses this uses this natural image so the message behind her music is not distorted, she'd rather be presented simply in order for the main focus to be on her music.

 

Whilst in 'Starry Eyed' Ellie appears to be less natural dressed in glitter, wearing visble makeup and appearing more provocative whilst dancing. This difference represents her as versatile and perhaps attracts both boys and girls towards her which allows her to appeal to a wider audience. Ellie also seems to be smiley and happy in this video, showing the difference between the two songs in rhythm and style. 'Starry Eyed' also features more colour such as blue and gold, making her seem more edgy and making the focus more on herself and trying to fit in the message behind the song by using stars and glitter.

This use of diversity in her music videos makes her more appealing as all fans are catered for, both boys and girls as they are seeing her attractive and fun side but also seeing her serious and natural side which is completely focused on the music in the background. She also wears feminine clothes in order to show who she is as a person but also wears the odd quirky piece to show her fun side.

Music Video Evaluation

I have chosen to evaluate  Gouldings video of Guns And Horses, as it is very different to her other music videos. The song is from her debut album, Lights (2010). It was released digitally on 16 May 2010 and physically the day after as the album's third single.
When asked what "Guns and Horses" was about, Goulding said:

''I wrote "Guns And Horses" about a romance that began online hence the lyric 'you found me, at a screen you sit at permanently'. I wanted the guy to feel more than he did for me but through no fault of his own he couldn't. It's a song about frustration essentially.''

Goulding is simply dressed in a checked shirt and leggings, showing that the attention should be paid to the strong images of war in the video and also showing how she is not involved or associated with it, showing her innocence. The background is in a forest representing Gouldings usual natural image, but this is a misrepresentation as the forest is full of soldiers and smoke and is very dark, showing the dark message of the song which Ellie states is about a bad romance. Strong images are used such as soldiers laying in the grass surrounded by smoke and this is continued with dancing soldiers all brightly dressed surrounding Ellie, suggesting she is peaceful whilst they are not.

A vivid image used in the video is Ellie standing in a patch of flowers showing her peacefulness, this is vivid as the flowers are bright whilst the background is dark, dismal and smoky. This represents Ellie as peaceful but her background is violent and a battlefield, but these flowers are the only bit of peace left.

A mixture of shots have been used for the video, many close ups are used of Ellies face but you can always see the busy background and also a lot of close ups are used of vivid images such as the soldier lying down. A lot of long shots are also used in order to show the scenery and what is happening around Ellie, particularly the dancers. The lighting is very dark in the video although many scenes have bursts of light when Ellie is alone singing, representing a surge of power which represents the meaning of the song of her moving on.

The shots are quite fast pace moving to different frames, in order to show all aspects of Ellies background; the dancers, herself and the powerful images of light and soldiers. A low angle shot is used of Ellie when she is at the flowers as she is surrounded by light and smoke, this shows her frustration and confusion as the camera begins to move around her where a dolly shot is used. Fast pace shots are placed inbetween this camera shot to create emphasis on her surroundings.