G-Eazy - Still (A2 Media)

Costume Design inspiration (Pre production December 2016)

1. Vibrant Bomber jackets (black, blue, green, red)
2. All one colour outfits
3. Main character wearing all dark clothes with different colour jacket
4. Hair styles / Corn rows / Slicked back short sides
5. Black shoes
6. Black jeans with or without rips
7. Street wear (Hoodies, ripped clothing)

Shooting Schedule (December 2016)

Record Labels

Sony Music Entertainment is an American music company owned by Sony that is incorporated as a general partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. The company was first founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, following its acquisition by the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1966, the company was reorganised to become CBS Records. Sony Corporation bought the company in 1987 and renamed it Sony Music Entertainment in 1991.





As you can see Sony have a large amount of big name artists, people like ASAP Rocky, AC/DC and James Arthur etc. For a record label it is vital to have big name artists on board because it simply attracts more artists to want to work with a company such as Sony, Sony work with artists from what seems like a huge variety of genre's so therefore they aren't based on a specific type. 

Sony was founded in 1929 in New York in the United States. Their revenue in 2014 was estimated at 4.89 Billion US dollars. They have a few subsidiary labels such as RCA records and Columbia records.

Mood Board / Pre Production

Magazine advertisement may be falling in popularity, it is still one of the key elements used as a promotional tool which helps the band promote their identity in order to achieve the overall goal of gaining more listeners and therefore more revenue. Having a physical magazine to flick through is still what some people prefer and I think having a high quality image on a magazine is much more effective and the reader appreciates it more. However, a magazine contains many adverts who are all competing for potential consumers. With that said, a band must consider their target audience and use imagery that reflects what that audience is looking for. For example, you may show the band in a recognisable locations to capture the attention of a reader. 

Above is our mood board which is a collage of pictures that give us inspiration and a feel for what style of magazine advert we want to make. I came up with this style through what i thought was associated with the genre of song we are using for our music video. This includes black and white colour with plain backgrounds and vintage instruments - not to forget the VHS effect in the top left which replicates an old camera) This has really helped me gain an understanding for the band's identity and I can start by drafting some advert ideas.

Example's of Transitions

Photoshop CC 2017 Tutorials

I have just recently started using Photoshop so I wanted to find a tutorial video that would help improve my general ability on the application and i came across this video on YouTube and I found it really helpful in general.

ScHoolbody Q - JoHn Muir

This Video is important because it is our concept design for our music video. The video shows practically what we intent to do regarding placing the go pro on the left hand side of the rear wheel arch and it is going to be recording different scenarios the same way JoHn Muir decided to film the video. It's a concept I haven't seen used before.

Music Videos Theories

Modern Mystic Embodiments

• Commercial Exhibitionist - selling himself (e.g. Kanye West)
• Televised Bard - storyteller
• Electronic Shaman - special effects

Visual Rhythm

• This is when the music video is edited in time with the music/soundtrack.

Narrative and Performance

• The audience only tend to get a glimpse of the meaning of the song through the storyline and we tend to make up our own ideas.

The Star Image

• The star image can be described as a consistent look/image of the band or lead singer. The music video for 'Arabella' supports the idea of a star image throughout the music video.

Relation of Visuals to Song

• 'Illustration' which can be described as the music video portraying exactly what the lyrics say.
• 'Amplification' which can be describe as the music videos meaning and effects that are constant through the video, for example the storyline.

To conclude, all the theories of music videos are very relevant to us as we can learn how to improve our storytelling. The televised bard is particularly significant in our music video as we are going to have a storyteller who will compliment the performance aspect.

Group Communication - Pre Production

As a group we created a group chat on Facebook as it is the most effective and easiest means of communicating with one another when we aren't together in person. It means we can discuss shooting timings an dates quickly at any time. 
Organisation is a vital part of video production, however people are often busy so we can't talk in person, so Facebook allows us to message on the go whilst planning events without the need to be in the same location.
I believe working as a group to complete this trailer has been vital, the social media chats we have been using have been so helpful because they have allowed us to be able to contact one another even when we are not even physically present. Its been so much easier having been able to contact each other and organise dates and times for when we can do our shoots, its definitely been beneficial in our organisation of the project. 
A conclusion as to why I believe group communication is vital is that it is so important for us as a team to be able to easily contact one another. Its good because we don't need to all be in the same place physically instead we can arrange and organise our shoots and the dates for the shoots

Shooting Schedule - Pre Production

Test Shooting - Pre Production

Location Research - Pre Production

Storyboarding - Pre Production

Kygo - Carry Me ft.Julia Michaels (Music Video Analysis)

Kygo is a Norwegian DJ, songwriter, record producer, and musician. He garnered international attention with his remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran, which has received over 48,7 million plays on SoundCloud and 60 million views on YouTube and his single "Firestone" which has over 320 million views on YouTube with an additional 400 million plays on the music streaming service Spotify, as of August 2016. Kygo has accumulated over 300 million views on his music on SoundCloud and YouTube.
Kygo's debut studio album was released on 13 May 2016. Other collaborations were revealed to include Parson James, Tom Odell, Kodaline, Conrad Sewell, John Legend, James Vincent McMorrow, Foxes, RHODES, Matt Corby, Maty Noyes, Julia Michaels and Angus and Julia Stone
Cloud Nine is Kygo's latest album, carry me is one of the songs that was included in which he did a collaboration with American music artist Julia Michaels. The song itself gained large traction through the media and Kygo performed the song at the Rio olympics 2016 closing ceremony.

The very start of the music video we see a wide angle aerial shot most likely shot with a drone. The colours in the shot are very vibrant and life like and definitely gives off the summer feel to it. Its ironic how the song is called carry me and the video starts with people being "carried" by a vehicle. The way the video starts just straight away lets the viewer know that they are going to be gifted with incredibly good editing and cinematic shots that will put you in a good upbeat mood. 

This shot has the group of friends in the car and they are all smiling and laughing, once again it shows off the good go happy nature of the video itself. The colours in this shot once again are very light and this represents happiness and lightheartedness. The way the video opens it allows the viewer to think that the pace of the video will be upbeat and fast paced. I like how the video opens in a way that coincides with the rhythm of the song as well. This shot represents happiness which is exactly what Kygo and Jay Alvarez wanted to get across when creating the video.

The theme of this shot once again is portraying the happiness of the scene itself and straight away shows the viewer that the video is going to display a story of summer and how there are many scene's with different activities are going on. Such as this one where Jay Alvarez is sand boarding with a girl and Kygo and his friend watch on from the side laughing. 
In this shot Jay and the girl are centre frame as the camera follows them as the slide down the sand bank, they are centralised because in this video every activity is always centre frame so the viewer knows what is the key point in the shot.

The colours in this shot are of a dark blue ocean and the light grey of the cliffs behind, they contrast well to give off a bright effect and makes you think of summer. This shot is of Jay as he is doing water sports in the sea with Kygo who is on the jet ski. This shows the audience how they're all about having fun in parallel to still doing festivals and photoshoots.  You can see in Jay Alvarez's edits that his editing and shooting style is very cinematic and all about vibrant colours with plenty of natural light to make the footage come across as crisper and better light filled quality. 

This shot shows the group of friends hanging out on their yacht showing off their glorious luxurious lifestyle. Also with several Malibu rum towels. This is most likely product placement and they have been sponsored to show off some of Malibu's endorsement products because we can see later on in the video that there is a lot of Malibu products. In the video itself it seems like Jay Alvarez has been taking centre stage for the majority of the video, obviously Kygo is the DJ who created the song but he doesn't seem to be centralised too much until his actual festival scenes come into play. This may be because it shows us that Jay is shown doing what he loves and thats all the centre piece camera work and fun activities for filming and where as Kygo is the centre piece for the festivals. 

This shot is showing Kygo at one of his concerts, once again the shot represents the fun filled experience of the video, trying to emphasise the life of a DJ and Model/Photographer. The colours are very dark but with dark purples that make the experience more focused on the stage itself. Obviously Kygo will have strobe lighting and vibrant coloured lighting around him on stage to make the crowd focus on him. It sets the atmosphere with also the flame canons going off every time the drop hits in the song. The theme is obviously very apparent now in the video that this is meant to represent having fun and enjoying summer and events with your friends. It gives off much more of a pleasing cinematic affect other than simply telling a story.

This shot shows two girls being covered in water in their bikini's on the sun beds. This is in the video because its visually pleasing in terms of a male perspective. In music video's woman are mainly sexualised because its something that will gain views from a male market. Once again we see the Malibu product placement in here, its not got a big part but its clearly there as its more or less in the centre frame of the shot. The colour scheme aswell in this shot is once again very light and with lots of green colours, this will represent happiness most likely.

I believe that this shot represents the final part of summer and ending it on a high and enjoying yourself hense the use of Kygo being on stage performing in front of thousands of creaming fans. The colours are much brighter in this concert shot because its not all dark its all very light and red and purple colours. These colours give off a party atmosphere affect. Of course this was all actual footage from Kygo's actual concert so its not particularly staged.

Risk Assessment Table

A Risk assessment is a way of evaluating the area of shooting and the equipment and whatever may be involved within the shooting of a vide or photoshoot. For any activity the person in charge of that activity will have to assess the area and write up a risk assessment. 
Risk assessments are very important as they form an integral part of a good health and safety management plan. They help to create the awareness of the possible hazards and risks and identify who may be at risk (e.g. employees, contractors, public citizens etc). A risk assessment table helps diminish and evaluate potential risks before we start filming. One of the main factors of a risk assessment is to put something in place to minimise the hazard/risk. 
For myself and my group we will need to analyse the area of shooting and evaluate what will be the hazards and we will have to compromise if anything is putting us at risk. Things such as using a car in our shoot will be a reason to write a report on it and what the hazards will be that come with using a car. We will need to drive the car as-well so that is another reason to write it up in more detail. 

Album Cover Analysis 5 (Labrinth - Jealous)

"Jealous" is a song by English electronic musician Labrinth. Written with Josh Kear and Natalie Hemby, the song was released as the second singlefrom Labrinth's upcoming second album, Labrinth wrote "Jealous" in Nashville, Tennessee with Josh Kear and Natalie Hemby. It was produced by Labrinth and arranged by Gustave Rudman. The song, described as a "heart-breaking ballad" by MTV, is addressed to one of Labrinth's parents, who left the family when he was four years old. Speaking about the lyrical content of the song, Labrinth has offered the following explanation:

"A lot of people have been through that experience. It’s kind of written from the perspective of how my family felt at the time, but I wanted to write it so anyone could dig into the song and relate to it to their own situation". I like the cover art for this song by Labrinth because just by simply looking at it you can make up a picture in your mind of how deep this song actually goes, you can tell by Labrinth's facial expressions that he is deeply connected with his thoughts and he's reflecting on something very close and dear to him. When listening to the song the lyrics emotional affect the listener and it begins to strip down that person's emotional barrier and it makes you emotionally involved and connected towards the lyrics of the song as they are so meaningful and powerful. So many people view this song differently and choose to refer to it in different ways.  The colours on the art work aren't very bright and don't noticeably stand out too much. The writting "Jealous" in the top of the cover art is written in a sub dewed yellow, this could represent a low point in someone's life and their former light side being stripped down because of the emotional turmoil they may currently be involved in, hense why the yellow is much more dull than you'd expect, this yellow is also the border to the cover art.  From Labrinth's body language you can tell he is serious and he is very interested in his emotions, The lighting of his clothes however is light and he himself is the first thing that stands out when you see the album. This is a contrast towards the dark nature of the rest of the artwork, everything else is dull and lifeless except for labrinth who is light, this may metaphorically represent hope and for something bright to be coming.

Album Cover Analysis 4 (Coldplay - A Head Full Of Dreams)

Everything about this groovy disco-experimental album is uplifting as well as dance worthy.
Imagery : The album cover for head full of dream's massively stands out straight away because of the vibrant bright colours, the colour pallet chosen for this album cover stands out like a sore thumb to the audience. It gives off the impression to the listener that the album is relaxed and laid back and is a joyful album to listen to that'll put the audience in a good mood when listening to it. 
A very key factor in the artwork is that the visual's come across as a kaleidoscope affect, this is vital because within the album there is a song called "kaleidoscope", this could just be a clever marketing tool, but it also benefits the album cover because it makes it look full of life. Also the art work is covered with planets and life form's mainly birds. This album is focused on life and the universe all seen within a parallel spectrum, hense the use of the  kaleidoscope affect with the cover work. 
When researching the art work for the album, the key thing I noticed is that people are saying that the artwork doesn't necessarily go anywhere it just represents the cheerful nature of life forms in the world. The artist of the artwork saw it as his vision of a parallel of life forms all in one singular biome. Hense as to why planets and birds are in the same section in the art work. 

Album Cover Analysis 3 (Tinie Tempah - Youth)

For Tinie Tempah's album youth we can pick out many different things that are very important and are needed to be analysed because the album artwork itself has a deeper meaning than we first may think at first glance. The title "Youth" that is in the centre of the top of the album's artwork, its titled youth because Tinie is trying to get his message across about staying young and trying not to grow up and to still have fun. As we all know, ageing is inevitable but he's hanging onto his youth. 

The album work is given an old look to it with dirty creases in it. This is a metaphorical form of ageing and youth slowly slipping out of grip. The colours too are not very light, they are darker versions of the truer selfs. Such as the blue of the sky you can see its watered down and is darker. Its as if the cover art is an old outdated picture that has creases in and has been weather damaged. 

You can see from Tinie Tempah's body language that he is more down and he's hunched over with his head facing the floor as if as he's got older his confidence has dropped and we see this through his relaxed body language. On his left there is a younger brown skinned boy, I think this boy is a visual representation of Tinie Tempah as a young boy. Hense the inclusion of him in the cover artwork, considering the album is called youth, the younger form is someone Tinie Tempah is still trying to hold onto and not let go. They both have drawn on crowns on their head. This may represent the idea of them no matter what age they are they may sill be a king. 

Album Cover Analysis 2 (Jack Ü Album Cover)

Imagery: In this album cover it represents a collage of multiple pictures. I assume they are of moment of Jack Ü's life and with his family and friends at parties and having fun. Maybe that represents the upbeat nature of the album itself. The genre of the music in the album is dubstep, trap and electric house. All these types of music is associated with parties and friends and having a good time. On this advert cover, the album name is a yellow colour, made in order to stand out from the dark shadows in the picture. It works because the first thing you see when you look at the album cover is the Ü and that represents part of Jack's name. It also makes it look like a Yellow smiley face from a distance and that is used on art work for concert advertisements. Having an image that may be highly relatable to a lot of youngsters will create intrigue and engagement from the audience. A lot of the information is handed to you in this poster but at the same time, the attention is not drawn away from the image. This is achieved through the different sized text and the consistent colour scheme. 

Album Cover Analysis 1 (Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine ?)

This Album cover is a simple design of a purple vinyl record. Vinyl records are somewhat retro and it gives off a artistic and premium vibe that comes with the album cover and the song itself. Everyone refers to vinyl records to great artists with great songs such as someone like Elvis or Michael Jackson or a original rock band. Arctic Monkeys may be trying to adopt the premium retro look from their album cover for this song. In "R U Mine?'s"song its filmed in a basic manor that older artists would've used, something more basic but is just a singing video or a band set up etc. On-top of that the video has a black and white filter over the top so it gives off an ambience of even more nostalgia and simplicity taken from decades ago.
The art work is basic, that is what makes it so recognisable and good for a viewer, its simple. People like thing's when they are simple. It is a very nostalgic take back to the 20th century with record's and album artworks being incredibly basic and simple but that is the route that the Arctic Monkeys wanted to go down.

Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha - In The Name Of Love (Music Video Analysis)

Martin Garrix debuted the song at the Ultra Music Festival 2016 by playing it on his set in March 2016. He announced the release of the song on 24 July 2016 via his social media accounts and a Tomorrowland 2016 interview. In an interview, he said the 'album is finished' and this song will appear as the first single of his upcoming album which he said he was working on. It is also the first track released since his recent deal with Sony Music which will also be distributed by the latter
The video opens with Bebe Rexha wearing a red dress by a swimming pool on a springboard outside a mansion, surrounded by rushes of storm clouds and water explosions just after Martin Garrix comes into the scene by walking towards a springboard standing just few feet away from Rexha. He holds Rexha as they sink beneath the surface of water.


The music video isn't really that deep in terms of true meaning, people appreciated it due to the fact Martin Garrix and Bebe rexha were both in it. Not much is happening in the video and is pretty hard to follow. We can understand that she is in some way not sure about herself and that he is standing beside her and jumped down in the water at the same time as a symbol that he would always be there, maybe that is the case I don't know. Deep down I don't necessarily think that there have to be such a deep and powerful meaning to this song. The song is powerful as it is it does the job well and is a good listen. I think what this video does is that it's balancing out the song in a good way as the audio and the cinematic visuals work well with one another. 

In this shot we see Bebe Rexha in a red dress, obviously it stands out to a great degree. She is centre frame which obviously shows us she is a character of great importance to the plot of the music video. The shot is a wide angle shot which shows us not too much of the surroundings, just a big balcony in which Bebe seems to be waiting for somebody.

This shot shows Bebe standing over a diving board, we can only assume this is a call for help as she clearly is waiting for somebody to save her. Notice how there are two diving boarding and the doors to the building are centre frame as Bebe is shifted to the right hand side just like the spare diving board is shifted to the left hand side. The colours are all of a dark tone which lets us believe that something dark is going on in her mind, maybe the loss of something important to her or just a dark mental state.

Here we see a young man come out from the villa onto the balcony, suddenly the lighting is a bit lighter, maybe it represents a glimpse of hope The young man is centre frame and seems to be looking down towards the general direction of where Bebe's character is. Maybe he's the saving grace Bebe needed.

This shot is a flipped shot of one of the previous, we see Bebe once again on the diving board looking out into the vast distance, we see the darkness descend upon the area. We see a strike of lighting in the distance two. The colours getting darker making us seem to believe time is running out for her.

The young man joins Bebe on the diving board, he looks across to her but she doesn't respond. The title of the song is important here, 'in the name of love'. Maybe it means Bebe wants to find out how far her partner (the young man) is willing to go to save her from the darkness.

We don't see in this shot but Bebe jumped into the swimming pool and the man dove in after her as the water seemed to boil over in a dark red colour, the darkness was upon them. In this shot we see the two lovers embrace together as if they're saving one another from the darkness that is above them.

Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself (Music Video Analysis)

Synopsis:

In the music video, Mason plays the role of an actor while Gomez plays his stalker. The video begins with a handcuffed Selena Gomez writhing around on a bed, donning an engagement ring, a wig and black silk robe. Shots of marked maps and an image collage of Mason on a wall are then shown. Gomez later breaks into Mason's modern penthouse apartment with the intention of fulfilling a sexual fantasy of him. On arrival, Gomez takes off her robe and wears only spiked stilettos and black lingerie consisting of a bra and high-waisted underwear. She searches through his colour-coordinated closet and tries on one of his dress shirts. Dancing in the shirt, Gomez proceeds to smelling his cologne bottle.

Gomez is then depicted writhing around on his bed caressing herself as she imagines a love scene with Mason. In another segment, she is shown taking a hot bath, imagining him in a shower. Gomez also watches a marathon of movies in which Mason stars in. Tired, she proceeds back upstairs wrapped in a bed sheet where one of Mason's film posters titled The Obsession is shown at the staircase wall. Gomez then passes out on his bed. Mason later arrives home and realises that something is wrong and calls the police who arrest Gomez.In a plot twist, the video ends zooming out from the preceding events, showing Gomez and Mason happily cuddling on a couch watching a film called Hands to Myself in which they starred.

This is one of the first shots in the music video, this represents Selena Gomez's character's obsession with this mystery man. The vast array of pictures of him makes us believe she is more than obsessed, she may even be stalking him. A over exaggeration of your everyday fan.

This shot is around the minute mark within the video, it shows Selena inside of Mason's house in her underwear walking around his walk in wardrobe. You can see by her outfit, the black colours and the amount of showing skin that she maybe is rather promiscuous and has a lot of fantasies about Mason.

In this shot we see Mason, Selena's fantasy, Selena is watching one of his movies while she is lying on his coach. Mason is obviously centre frame because he is the main person involved within the scene of the movie and also the music video. It may not be a coincidence that he is shirtless, this resembles Selena's Fantasy of being with a HollyWood Movie star.

The shot here is in the middle of the video, its a visual depiction of Selena's desires of being intimate with Mason. The music video really works on the lyrics of the song and the tension building lines.

This is an important shot in the video, Selena is walking up the staircase and the camera flips round and faces this movie poster titled 'the obsession' this is a visual reminder that Selena is obsessed with this movie star (Mason) rather ironically placed on the wall by the staircase. This was obviously done on purpose because it is to add further proof about Selena's dying obsession for Mason. The colours are dark yet the title is in red which stands out along with his white/grey face in the poster.

We see Mason arriving at his home, realising something isn't right, he makes his way upstairs after coming across a piece of clothing. The stairway is lit up in Blue LED's, this may be a signal that there is somebody upstairs, of course it may just be coincidental but maybe the producers implemented it into the shot to add more depth.

The next two shots show us that Selena is going to get caught for trespassing and breaking and entering. We see two police cars pull up outside of the house front entrance, Sirens and lights on in dramatic fashion. Surely this is the end of the road in terms of Selena's little plan.

This is the closing moments of the video, what's interesting is that it seems to have been a movie within a movie, with Selena getting into the cop car the camera lens pans out and the frame widens and we see a flat screen TV appear and then we realise that maybe what we were seeing throughout the whole video was a movie sequence after all.



In the final shot of the video we see Mason and Gomez on the coach together. The music video led us to believe one thing when really something else completely different is going on. Looks like Selena got her fantasy after all.