Casting audition

We decided to meet the group at 3.10 in the studio. We waited for the actors to show and noted down their names and their boarding houses.

We began by taking closeup and wide shot photos of each actor.

George Acworth (A1)- Beatrice Webb

Felix Wood (A1)- Day House

Luke Seymour (A1)- Beatrice Webb

 

Casting auditions: 

The first part of the audition included having, whoever played the guitar, to perform a short song. This was to know who had experience as well to see how 'natural-looking' the actors playing were.

Felix and Luke knew how to play therefore we made them perform for around 20 seconds. In George's case we asked him to pretend to play for both parts of the audition.

George Acworth (A1) 

Felix Wood (A1)

Luke Seymour (A1)

In the second part of the audition, we asked the actors to pretend to play over our song "Grayson" to have a better understanding on who would fit the male role best.

George Acworth (A1) 

Felix Wood (A1)

Luke Seymour (A1)

I personally would cast Luke as our male lead as he suits the 'down to earth but edgy' look.

He also plays the guitar which would serve as a massive advantage since he wouldn't have to pretend to perform. 

Female lead casting

 For our female lead, we were already sure on who to cast- Blue- therefore we talked to her and discussed whether she would be willing to be our main lead for the videoclip. 

Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky's "End of audience" theory explores modern media and how audiences interact nowadays.

As technology develops so does the audience's consumption habits. Audiences are now selective of the media they consume and from whom. This is due to the fact traditional media has failed to meet our consumption needs.

Audiences are no longer passive as they now interact and produce their own media.

Prosumer- producer/consumer- is a technological proliferation and convergence has enabled consumers to be content producers too.

Due to this interactive media, audiences are now inclined to watch short videos/want expose to shorter forms of media.

Evolution of media communication:

One to one communication 

e.g. Printing press to hand out flyers, etc. 

One to to many communication

e.g. Radio (Surrey FM), (BBC Radio 1) or TV

Many to many communication 

e.g. Post on twitter/instagram

How do engage with audience? How have traditional medias changed in the way they are consumed? 

Traditional media have had to change their engagement

E.g. Films before the pandemic. Now people weren't able to go to the cinema. They had to change their consumption methods- Disney +

How did they adapt to change? 

For musician its through social media. Release album- Spotify, apple music, google music, services 

Technological convergence- technology advancing, merging and integrating.

Task-

 Girl In Red- Indie/pop

Instagram account- @girlinred

Fan's participation on the social media app 'Instagram'

Fan pages                                                                      Fan edits

TikTok account- @girlinred

Fan's participation 

  

                        link to video                                                                      link to video   

First draft of timeline

Notes on music:

• Performance introduction 
• 
  
• Narrative- first verse 
• 
  
• first verse- 32 to 58 seconds
• 
  
• chorus- 59 to 1.11 seconds
• 
  
• instrumental- 1.11 to 1.25 seconds
• 
  
• second verse- 1.25 to 1.52 seconds
• 
  
• chorus- 1.52 to 2.04 seconds
• 
  
• bridge- 2.05 to 2.28 seconds
• 
  
• third verse- 2.31 to 2.57 seconds
• 
  
• outro- 2.58 to 3.10 seconds

link to song

Group Discussion #4 -Potential casting

In today's lesson we discussed possible people to audition/cast for our music videoclip. 

                                        
Girls- 

• Blue Rowland
• Millie Fooks

Boys- 

• George Acworth
• Luke Seymour
• Felix Woods

We decided to audition the boys first on Thursday during Activities time (3.15) in the big studio.

We arranged to contact the people separately through Snap. I was in charge of contacting Luke and Felix to see how they felt about participating in the casting as well possibly the videoclip. 

We then all together sent a formal email regarding the details of how the casting would go. 

Content in email: 

"Hi guys!

As you probably know already, we think you would all fit the image for our music video and would love to see you in front of a camera.

We were hoping you could join us for a test shoot tomorrow afternoon (Thursday), 3.15pm in the TV Studio in which we’ll take a couple of pictures and videos.

You don’t need to prepare anything, but if you have a guitar, it would be great if you could bring it along.

If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to let any of us know.

Thanks so much,

Catherine, Luiza, Fed & Malaika"

The girls audition would take place possibly on Monday, 2.00pm, where the process will be similar except they must lip-synch the chorus of the song. 

Inspiration from other media

I did some small research on similar products/ videoclip aesthetics and elements I'd like to apply to my own videoclip.

Beabadoobee- Pop

Disappear- Beabadoobee

Elements I enjoy-

• Grainy texture
• Soft, pastel colour aesthetic 

Girl in Red- Indie

We fell in love in October- Girl in Red

Elements I enjoy-

• Projector scene
• Lyrics as yellow captions

Boy Pable- Alternative rock/indie

Every time- Boy Pablo

Group Discussion #3 -Concepts

Notes on possible concepts:

• Books/films 
• Layout of videoclip- square to look like film 
• Typewriter as prop 
• Projector not green screen 
• Indie artist videos- ordinary, 'retroish'
• Independent company 
• Stop motion 
• Artists creating their own music video
• Painting

Inspiration: 

"If you no that I'm lonely"- Fur

"Leave me alone" -Boi Pablo

Feedback to these concepts and ideas: 

• Sources of inspo are varied 
• Should to speak to people and be relatable 
• Could work if maintained VHS looks 
• Band should old school- DYI band 

Group discussion #2

Notes:

• What would be an appeal? What vibe? 
• What's the relationship between the two of them?   
• Artists need a personality- needs to stand out
• Consider their interests, fashions, etc.
• What would be their reason to get signed? 
• Decided on filming in the indoor studio 

List of elements we would like to include in our music videoclip:

• Arts and crafts 
• Low-key parties 
• Comfy sofas 
• Cake 
• Cozy soft feel 
• Skirts on guys 
• Library location 
• Cozy room 
• Down to earth but edgy 
• Friendship bracelets 

Workshop #2- Camera lens

In this workshop Matt taught about more about camera work- specifically lenses. 
In the actual shoot a black magic small monitor is used to see the action shot through the camera. 



WB stands for white balance. 

SA stands for shutter angle. 

Shutter angle is all about motion. A low shutter angle is used to capture fast movement, such as dancing or high-fashion things, to create a 'glossy' look. Shutter at 360 creates a blurry effect- usually used for an old fashioned sort of thing.

FPS stands for frames per second. In the UK, we shoot at 25 FPS- in the US it's at 30 due to the different electricity. 

Nikon lenses can zoom in and out. However, to get a better image quality, prime lenses are used. 

Certain lenses already are prepared in a wide, mid or closeup shot. To focus on a subject you must use a tape measure to measure the distance between the subject and the camera. 

 https://youtu.be/2RYJIjStPgM 

The Pictor zoom lenses are a mixture between prime and zoom lenses.

Potential cast- video casting

Girl 

• Blue Rowland (A2)
• Millie Fooks (A2)
• Zaza N/A (A1)

Boy

• George Acworth (A1)
• Felix Wood (A1)
• Bashy... (A2) 
• Max Wright (A2)
• Luke ... (A1)

Group discussion #1

We discussed potential ideas for our videoclip and its concept. 

We discussed the main themes we wanted to convey in videoclip:

•  Narrative mixed performance
• Vintage feel/ grainy texture 
• Indie genre 
• Soft, pastel colour palette 

We also decided that we would use Malaika's track "Grayson" and to have a band member of two: a singer (female role) and a guitarist (male role).

Final song choice

 Cameron Lane- Grayson

link to song

Henry Jenkins- Spreadable Media

Henry Jenkins is an American media theorist and communications expert. 

Jenkins is known for his book "Textual Poachers: television fans and participator re-culture" (1992) where he shares his interests for media in the online world and how the emergence of the Internet as a participatory, interactive media transformed audience/institutions and the nature of media products. 

Jenkins theorised that the current media world is all about spreadable media.

Spreadable media is media which travels across media platforms at least in part because the people the it in their own hands an d share it with their social networks

"If it doesn't spread, it's dead."

Jenkins' theory suggests there is a two way relationship between media and audience. He discusses this through three main aspects:

Textual poachers- explores the concept of how fans construct their own culture by poaching content from mass media texts which builds up a huge following.

Participatory Culture- explores how audiences are active and creative participants rather than passive consumers. They create online communities, produce new creative forms, collaborate to solve problems- "collective intelligence".

Fandom- refers to the social structures and cultural practices created by the most passionately engaged consumers of mass media properties.


Media 1.0 vs Media 2.0

 Video on Participatory culture 

Link to video

Fandom- argues that fans form part of a participatory culture in which audiences are active and creative participants in a text 

Engage in textual poaching too- selecting the elements which are most appealing to them and using these elements as the basis of their fan art, gifs, artefacts, cosplay, etc. 

The Wallows

The Wallows' Official Website- https://www.wallowsmusic.com

The Wallows' official website is a simple page used to announce their upcoming album/single releases and their dates such as their latest one "I Don't Want To Talk"- which will be released on the 30th of September. It's a fairly formal, unlike their other social media apps which are more interactive and personal with their fans.

Twitter account- https://twitter.com/wallowsmusic?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Twitter is a social networking service used to post and interact with 'tweets'- posting, liking and retweeting tweets. The target audience for this app is around the age of 25-34. The Wallows' Twitter account has 320.0K followers- less than followers than in their other social media accounts- due to Twitter's demographic being slightly older than the band's demo. Their tweets are similar to their Instagram's posts- their content.

Instagram account-

Instagram is a social network application where you can share pictures, photos and communicate with people. The target audience would be males and females of 18-34 years of age. The Wallows have 1.5 million followers on Instagram. This platform is mainly used to share upcoming album/single releases and BTS footage.

Participatory culture-

 

Fanpage created by @thewallowss

Fan art created by @mckameydesign

link to vid

Cover of "Pictures of girls" by @jacksonmooremusic

link to vid

Edit created by @aepdenver

Tik Tok account- 

TikTok is a social media app where you can create short videos. It has over a billion users and is available. The target audience for TikTok would both male and females between the ages of 13-25. The Wallows have a TikTok account with almost 2 million followers, where they create multiple casual videos following TikTok's latest trends and using their own songs- to promote. Audiences enjoy this type of content as it feels more personal to them- interactive. 

Participatory culture-

link to vid

Compilation of YouTube vides created by @onlywallows

link to vid

Edit of clips filmed in a concert by @dianaanddreazu

link to vid

Acoustic cover of "Are You Bored Yet" by @morganfkennedy

Analysing music videoclip

The Wallows- These Days

Link to song

The Wallows is an American alternative rock/indie band composed by Dylan Minnette (guitar/vocals), Braeden Lemasters (guitar/vocals) and Cole Preston (drums).

'These Days' is a song written by Cole Preston. It is part of their third album: 'Spring' (2018). The song 'These Days' questions "is she into me?". The videoclip shows the band, The Wallows, performing their song outside a girl's window who watches them unimpressed- suggesting a one-sided love situation. 

The videoclip consists of a mix between narrative and performance. However, they rely more on their simple plot rather than the performance as they are only three members and there's not much to shoot, performance wise. 

The videoclip's colour palette are mostly tones of orange, yellow and green and contrasting blues. These convey a bright and bubbly atmosphere.

Camera shots vary depending on performance or narrative cuts. Performance cuts use mostly wide shots to show all three performers and some closeups and extreme closeups on the instruments being played. Narrative cuts are mostly mid-shots and closeups on the lead female's facial expressions and actions.

The editing transitions are quite slowed paced to capture all actions between both lead female and performers. At times, it also includes comic book sound effects as such, to add on to the fun, animated concept/vibe of the videoclip.

Selecting tracks

 In Friday's lesson we had to select two possible tracks for our music videoclip- from our conversation last lesson we decided to going forward with Catherine and Malaika's ideas/songs.

After pitching both ideas, it was decided that Catherine's track had elements that would give more material to work with- easier to create a concept based on the music and lyrics.

Catherine's idea- Cameron Lane- Good morning Beauty Queen

Link to song

Malaika's idea- Cameron Lane- Grayson

Link to song 

Link to Malaika's presentation

Group's ideas + feedback

In today's lesson, every group member showed their presentation and explained their visions for their song choices in detail. 

After listening in on the group's ideas we noticed there were some occurring themes/ideas in everyone's presentations such as:

1) Old camera- vintage feel, grainy texture to video and shaky hand held shots

2) Aesthetic of videoclip- colour palette- bright, bubbly colours- tones of yellows and orange 

3) Casting a band

4) Mix of narrative with performance

Development of group's ideas

The day before we had to present our song choice to Matt and Stuart, Catherine realised her song "Good Morning Beautiful" had more than 10,000 streams/views. Therefore, we made the decision to potentially change the song but maintain the concept/main ideas. We placed Malaika's choice as our top one choice while we searched for a song with a similar genre to "Good Morning Beautiful". 

Further development of Pitches- "Out of the Normal"

Link to Presentation:

https://hurtwood-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/luiza_aranha_hurtwood_net/EREoqumcZOtHo2EZBSO_q0gBGmGKNmwfZUU35HWw_g1Cig?e=wbj5bR

Link to video of presentation

Workshop #1

Band vs solo artist

Unsigned artists with low stream numbers- musics don't have great quality, quite repetitive, similar genre, don't stand out.

Most unsigned artist are bands as they:

• don’t use much technology, 
• less instrumental players, 
• some genres can’t be performed in a band e.g. rap

Band industry goes way back- modern bands can’t outnumber iconic/old ones


How does music world look for people with big streams

Spotify 50 most streamed artists 2020 chart- Top 10 mentioned-

1. Bad Bunny 
2. Drake
3. JBalvin 
4. Juice Wrld
5. The Weeknd
6. BTS
7. Billie Eilish 
8. Taylor Swift 
9. Post Malone
10. Travis Scott 

Bands mentioned and their ratings-

#6 -BTS

#33 -Maroon 5

#34 -Queen

#36 -One Direction 

#39 -Imagine Dragons

#43 -The Beatles

#44 -Coldplay

Bigger streams- solo artists- higher quality, front person behind a team

Part of problem for unsigned teams/solo artists- don’t have enough people, team to help with the product/ not enough people working together

Music concert and festival attendances in the UK from 2012 to 2019



Festival wise- bands are more appealing
E.g. of festivals Reading leeds

Band’s revenue comes from live events.
Live performance is more intimate. 

Lead singer has a great impact in a band
Bands needs more personality to be noticed- usually relies on lead singer’s personality


Social proof/ social proofing

Socially he’s been preselected/ means they’re approved by audience. Average person once famous, audience becomes interested.

Music videoclip -analysing artists' music videoclip

A set up is a package of different shots- wide, mid and closeup shots- filmed in the same background.

*Set up is placed on the left side of the screen.*

Dua Lipa- Be the one- layout of videoclip

• Performance- only solo artist shots
• Rely on her beauty- shot composition looks like a magazine cover- visually appealing 

Link to 'Be the One' layout

Lady Gaga- Just dance- layout of videoclip

• Personality shown through performance, costume, makeup, hairstyles, etc.
• Not high budget- artist and her personality/performance carries videoclip 

Link to 'Just Dance' layout

Group placement for coursework

We were placed in groups of four. I was put with Catherine, Malaika and Fed. I enjoyed being put in this group as together we can all bring certain skills to produce a high-quality. I know Malaika and Fed from last year, in my A1 media studies class. Malaika can create/record some very visually interesting shots in previous workshops. Fed was the main editor for his group during the A1 coursework- opening sequence. He also works with graphic design therefore his computing/IT skills would be helpful. Catherine wasn't in my old group so I don't know much about her. However, I watched her opening sequence and I enjoy and relate to her style in terms of aesthetics, etc.

We decided to create a group chat on Snapchat as we use that app the most. We discussed briefly our ideas and we will work well as our visions for the videoclip and song choices (genre) are similar. Therefore, it will be easier to come up with a decision everyone can agree on.

Feedback on initial ideas

Today I presented one of my ideas/potential songs to the class to receive some feedback.

Link to feedback video (recording)

We discussed the artist's song- genre, views/streams and my vision for the music videoclip. We also discussed whether the videoclip would be shown as a narrative or a performance and if we would film the solo artist or include a band- as the beats to the song could be created/shown to be played by a band. 

Going forward with this I must consider the possibility to cast/include a band because of how difficult it is to record just the solo artist. As well as how I can convey the genre indie/pop through key conventions.

I believe I have two songs that seem promising "Out of the Normal" and "Don't tell  me". As I have more ideas for possible shots/montages, locations, costumes, etc.  

Pitches Presentation

Link to presentation

Link to presentation slides: https://hurtwood-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/luiza_aranha_hurtwood_net/EVu4AzdAqFtIkWJuvdUZo98BOdIqSyOWEsLLu8WSq3n9oQ?e=U8oK0v