Talk with Video Commisioners from Polydor Records

Today we had a talk from representatives of Polydor Records. The commissioning process was introduced as the aim of the session. Once the track has had all its conformation, a team can be set up to brief possible sets, locations and budgets. The team consists of the artist, their manager, a director, A&R departments and marketing. It is important that both the artist and the director are happy with what is going to be produced, because both of them are trying to sell this image to the audience.

During this session the representatives taught us some very important lessons for when creating a treatment:
-Don't rip off brands- unless its going to benefit both the artist and the brand
-Styling references are key - especially for female artists
-Analysis at what people are looking at - even with similar bands and what those audiences are looking at
-Keep the idea simple, but the concept strong 


Then they showed us some examples of treatments and their music videos...

The treatment of  Bipolar Sunshine's song, Deckchairs On The Moon

- Because of budget - it was easier for the team to fly out to Tenerife and have a 16 hour shoot 

- Used a drone to film location shots
-The video lacks in a concept because the label didn't know who the artist really was and what his image was

The treatment of Ellie Goulding's song, Goodness Gracious

-Ellie has a greater reputation, and would therefore have a larger budget for - more pressure on the marketing team to get the video right
-Originally meant to be set in Miami, but because of the artist's busy schedule, they had to compromise and film in LA
-Video really compliments the song - good image for the artist






The treatment of La Roux's song, Kiss and Not Tell 

  

-You can actually call up the number and leave a message for the artist

-A simple but strong concept

- Lots of research around vintage telephones

Lion The Weak - Wasted Words

Lion The Weak

The band were formed at Exeter University, and all music is written and produced by Jack Shepherd, and played live by Jack, Tom Lambert, Charlie Homer and Sam Pitcher. I would describe their style as indie pop/rock.

Wasted Words:

This track is the one the band wants us to create a music video for. It has elements of pop and rock and even indie folk. We have played the track to many members of the Media Department and their reaction to the style has been very much the same. The core genres of pop and rock are core genres of the British music industry. Rock music has record sales of 33.8% in the UK and pop music has sales of 31% in the UK. Lion The Weak have intelligently targeted their wide Pop/Rock audience with innovative and unique music to which separates them from other bands/artists.

A Change of Plan

Although I did see this coming, our idea was rejected by Luke in our consultation. Luke believed that the song was too mainstream and Alt-J are too current to be able to pull off creating a music video and digi-pack for that band. By using Alt-J, our ideas for a star  image would have been very limited and anything that we create would be heavily compared to the original.


However, Luke did have an idea up his sleeve. Fin's brother is in a band called Lion The Weak. They are a fairly new band, that was formed at Exeter University. Jack, Fin's brother, has agreed to discuss with the band the possibility of using filming a music video for their for one of their songs.


Everything is yet to be confirmed, but we will continue to research and develop new ideas to pitch to the band in hope of their agreement.

Inital Group Ideas

The Group!

Now that we have decided our groups, in class Beth, Calum, Fin and I began researching more into the sort of songs and narrative paths we wanted to go down.

Fin and Calum have already created an idea for the song Fitzpleasure by Alt-J. We have expanded on the idea as a group. However, I feel a difficulty we might face is that both the song and band are very current and it may be hard to come up with an original image and idea. The idea is that an old man walks around in his head which is represented by a room with different pieces of his memory suspended from the ceiling. When the man looks at each object he is transported back in time to that memory when only a snippet is revealed. Then, there is a twist in the narrative, which turns all the expectations of the memories into their cruel reality.At this point in time we were thinking that all the memories could be based around his relationship with his wife, and the memories are of the significant points in their relationships, such as: first date, wedding day, a romantic evening. And the twist could be he comes across an object that reminds him of a bad encounter, and suddenly the audience are revealed the truth behind the relationship, which was it wasn't a fairytale love story, but a normal relationship that had its flaws. This could be shown through shots of them fighting etc, and the song Fitzpleasure is has good parts in the track that reflect that atmosphere.

The Band:Alt - J

One of the problems the group are considering is that because our idea is so heavily narrative based that we might be throwing ourselves so far into the deep end that we may not produce the best of music videos. So we may start to think about how to simplify the idea and make it slightly more artsy with some movement from the characters.

Chat with Luke

We had a briefing with Luke today about the music videos. He gave us a list of 'strands' we need to keep in mind when drawing up our music video.
Strand 1: Band - Lipsync
Strand 2: Choreography
Strand 3: A Narrative
Strand 4: Exploring a social issue
Strand 5: Band being controversial
it is absolutely crucial that we include lip-sync, because it ties the whole video together.

Luke also introduced to us a website called "Radar" which is a music video commissioning company. From this website many bands such as Alt-J and DIE ANTWOORD have had music videos created. Both the bands are completely different but have both had very successful videos created by members of Radar.  This showed us that you don't need to have an unlimited amount of funds and equipment to produce an amazing music video.

Research into Music Markets

In class we have discussed the importance of profiling markets. We went onto the BPI website to discover more about the industry in the UK.

BPI co-owns the Official Charts Company with Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). The Official Charts Company is responsible for the commissioning, distribution, marketing and promotion of the UK’s industry standard music and video charts and sales data. BPI is the largest music company in the country and the companies members account for 85% of all music sold in the UK.

"BPI represents the UK’s recorded music industry, which is one of the most exciting and thriving music sectors in the world. British artists account for one in eight albums purchased by fans around the globe."  The BPI Website

Useful Facts:

The UK is the 2nd largest source of repertoire in the world

The UK is the world's third largest music market 

The biggest selling album in the world in 2009 was by a UK artist - Susan Boyle 



Fickle Friends Advanced Portfolio 

Fickle Friends are a Brighton band with a 80's new-wave pop genre. Having released 3 singles already this year, they are the newest of the bands, so do not have an established image yet. 

Their bands official website is very basic, however it does tell the audience where the band are gonna be on which date. And this week, Fickle Friends are jammed pack with travelling round England performing in Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester.  

The VALS for Fickle Friends is that they are a fresh, new, dancey band targeting to young adults in England. By already having their songs on soundcloud and spotify the band are already pro-active about getting their sound out there by using methods that their target audience use. 

The Little Ones

Advanced Portfolio

The Little Ones are an Indie Pop band formed in LA, California and have been established since 2006. With 7 Albums and 1 Single, The Little Ones have had a successful career, including a highlight from when they supported Kaiser Chiefs on their UK arena tour back in 2007. The band have been signed to a number of different record labels including Heavenly Recordings, whom are from the United Kingdom. I would say that The Little Ones have a quirky and fun loving image, which definitely reflects in their 'infectiously happy music'.
I went on the band's official website, and there is very little information as to what the band are up to at this precise moment, and since the last time they were on tour was a year ago, this may be having some serious affects on their fans. This appears to be the same for their social media websites, which are updated more frequently, showing that they like to communicate their fans in a more informal way.

Below is a screenshot from Spotify of the band's profile. Argonauts is their top track, which also happens to be the song I picked for the music video ideas. Also below is a list of 'related artists', including Saint Motel which is famous for their song My Type.

From completely more research into the band and their image, I would say the VALS the band have are that they are a relatively unknown band that are very passionate about their music. I believe this from listening to a lot of their songs since 2007 their image has never changed and have not been affected by artificial star images to appeal to their desirable audience.

Advanced Portfolio of...
is a New Zealand Rock band formed in 2008. SIX60 have a quadruple platinum number one debut album with triple platinum selling single "Don't Forget Your Roots", two double platinum selling singles "Only To Be" and "Rise Up", one platinum selling single "Forever", and one gold selling single "Lost". "Forever"is the song that I choose for an idea for a music video. With many nominations and wins for their music, the band have been very successful in their home country. 

The Band Members

The band are currently writing their new album, which is being written about daily on their social networking sites, always keeping their fans in the loop. It has been a couple of years since the band has released anything, so they are trying to get back into the market. And the band have had a lot of positive feedback from their fans, posting comments and tagging friends in their updates. 

Screenshot from their Facebook Fan page

Matiu Walters, lead guitarist and vocalist, described their music as reflecting the fact they all come from different backgrounds and everyone in the group likes to be represented, either through a Reggae blend with/or soul-ful vocals. 

I would say the VALS for SIX60 is that they are a bunch of young guys with a rock and roll lifestyle. After being such a hit already in their home country and in Australia, after the release of their new album, the band could be going further than ever. 

A review from a fan in Australia 

Pop Video Ideas

Argonauts – The Little Ones 

The Man VS Woman idea

The woman/ wife is a robot and is controlled by the man/ husband and using montage the audience sees all the different ways that the female robots have all these expectations that they must followed because they are so dominated by men. I took this idea from Foster the Peoples song Houdini. The song has a good beat to it that the robotic movements could match the track. So by the end we watch the woman trying to take control of the man. The shoot could be set in the 50s in a classic white picket fenced tidy home that reflects the expectations of the wife.

Forever – Six60

The Song with a strong message

Just from listening to this song story lines such as a boy overcoming being bullied spring to mind, because there are lots of times where there could be stages of extreme emotions could take place and reflect the track nicely.

 

Swim – Fickle Friends

The Ultimate cheesy pop song Idea

This is the song where the vocalist of the band can take part is a totally predictable story line and goes through a series of emotions. Just a rough idea I had for a story line could be that the vocalist could take part in a speed-dating event, where she can meet a hand full of weird and quirky guys and just make fun of them. I believe there are lots of potential shots that could match the track. Although if I do listen to this song 50 times a day.. I might vomit.

 

Dancing Song – Little Comets

The song I like but have no idea for

A background into the music industry

Genre- the classification of a text according got its style, content, and possibly its form and manner of production.

It is safe to say that 'pop' music is by far one of the most dependent genres of music, and which includes the most wildly different genres of texts. 

However, genres are continually being invented, crossed and revisited, and the process of categorisation is an important one for the producers and fans of the music alike. 

Broadly speaking, most music can fall under one of these genres...

There are also sub genres that fall under the characteristics of genres. However, each of these genres has a key characteristic that differentiates itself from other genres, including: rhythm, instruments, melody, hair style and artists clothing range, album artwork, vocals and lyrics, space in which the artist/s perform/s. All these factors build up the image of the genre. 

The artists image can categorise them before they start singing or playing. Look can be as generic as sound: it can be hard to distinguish some pop videos and indie videos. 

An example of a music
streaming service 

In terms of sales, genre has always been a cornerstone of music retail because often customers restrict themselves to buying only music from a certain genre to keep their own image intact. 

Music streaming services rely on your past genre choices in order to keep playing new music that you will like, to keep the customer interested in buying. 

Overall, even if an artist disagrees with being pigeonholed into a particular genre, their image within a certain category does determine who their customers are and what they want, obviously leading to how successful the artist/s are through their sales.