This year I feel more comfortable with Media in general as I know what to expect having done a year of it already. I definitely hope to get a better grade and improve as there is always room to do better.
I know that this year so far with blogging I am doing a whole lot better then last year as I believe I am taking my blogging more seriously as this is my last chance to get the best grade possible.
Also, this year my media lessons are more interesting and informative as we are analysing music videos, something I watch a lot of. I think it will also be fun to film the music video with my group as we previously worked together during my AS coursework, this is good as we will be even more efficient then last year making the process a whole lot easier.
To improve I will keep up to date with my blogging and make sure I make my blogs as informative and in depth as possible using a variation of media technology.
By the time Jessie took over the internet with this rendition of her own song 'Mama Knows Best' she was already signed to a label for four years but had trouble getting off the ground and releasing her own original music which her label were against. Thanks to YouTube this video gained over 1 million hits in one week and Jessie J was able to get picked up by another label with an array of new fans behind her.
Although she was already sighed by this point and had her cult following, she did not stop giving back to the fans who supported her and went on to cover her original music and post the videos on her YouTube account.
This led to many of the original songs she wrote as a teenager ending up on her first album and being released as singles here we can see her song 'Nobody's Perfect' which she wrote at just 16 got promoted to her album and was given a high budget video due to the popularity it received from her acoustic rendition online.
YouTube allowed Jessie to breach out to the world and her original music continued to grow in popularity.
Comments from above video:
Weeks before the release of her debut album 'Who You Are' Jessie released this video of her covering the song on the same YouTube account which launched her career, with over 13 million hits this helped send the single Who You Are to the top of the charts due to it's premature popularity and acclaim.
Who You Are Music Video:
Jessie on career launch and how she got started...
This year I feel more confident with my blogging as I have had a year practice and I think I am more efficient with my blogging as I am keeping up to date and blogging sooner rather then later. At AS, I struggled a little with using a variation of different media technology such as 'Gifs' and prezi's, but this year I am making sure I am using something different every blog, which I have been doing and is going really well. Also 1 blog used to take me 2-3 hours to complete as it was hard getting used to the program and inserting images and videos to the blog aswell as organising them. However, now I have been getting on really well and completing blogs in less then an hour or just over depending on what I have to blog because of how familiar I am with the program and all the different links and things to insert. Here are some examples of what I have blogged so far and the variation of media technology used.
As I do more and more blogs, it is becoming easier each time which is helpful to me so I can blog more quicker, fitting in more time to complete more blogs.
I am happy with my blogging so far as I have finished all that I have had to so far for my research work.
I feel in my AS year I found research a lot more difficult to narrow down. This year I've realised it's easier and more efficient to keep things simple and have a maximum of two examples and only expand if I feel I need to. Last year I thought it was vital to have loads of examples stuffed into one post and found myself repeating the same thing but this year I have realised it's more about quality than quantity, because of this I am able to give more detail with only two comparisons. As we are researching music videos I find it a lot easier to contrast and compare as music genres are already so opposite in themselves and clearly sectored, when trying it's find an example for a point it's quick and easy. It's also been very interesting analysing the connotation of music videos and what they actually represent making the research fun as well as informative.
This year I find it a lot easier to blog and am able to do it more fluently. This is due to the experience I gained last year, It's a lot easier to gather what I'm trying to say as I now know many of the technical terms and it has become a normal habit to analyse visual consent like TV and music videos. With the use of gifs it's also become a lot easier to explain points as this modern use of visual annotation makes it more definitive. I feel I am doing well in terms of presentation, and my point are always backed up with a clear example followed by further analysis and am answering the questions accordingly.
I think to improve I should start to use a wider range of ICT as I've not presented blogs in different forms such as Prezi's and if necessary make blog post longer when needed. On an overall basis I would currently give my blog a 14.
For our music video remake last year we did Madona's Vogue. the 34 second clip that we did, we used 3 base tracks plus additional shots that were needed.
We think that this is a good song choice because it's not very well known as of yet and there is more than one person in the song so when filming there will be more variety because we will be able to use more than one person. Also rapping will make the video more varied and add a touch of spice to the video instead of it just being singing.
Rudimental are an urban based UK house group, this is music we can identify with and can be associated with our regional identity making it suitable fun & interesting. Also because both songs have emotional lyrics they give us an opportunity to create a story within the music video (Illustration).
AlunaGeorge
Just A Touch
AlunaGeorge is a house musical duo who recently just broke out as new artists. we liked this group and this song becausethere current and house music is the music that everyone is listening to and we feel like we could make a really good video to this song.
Disclosure
Me and You
We also chose this song because of the above reason, the group is current and the genre is famous with young people our age and it would be a really good opportunity to make a music video to a song that we really enjoy listening to
Mis Teeq
Scandalous
This song seemed quite the ideal song to pick for us because Mis Teeq is a trio and so are we and we all love this song. We think this song has perfect opportunities to fulfill the conventions of a music video and we could create a girl power female dominant music video.
Jessie J
Excuse my Rude ft Becky G
We chose this song because it's quite recent, the artist is well known and the song kind of has 3 different parts for us all to take part in e.g. verse, chorus and the featured Becky G rap.
This year I feel Like I am doing a lot better at blogging than i was last year. I think its because now i know what to expect. Last year when i first started AS media I didnt know how long blogging would take & when I started using it & I found out that the Images don't really go where you want them to go & it takes 2 -3 hours to complete 1 decent finished blog I became quite irritated when i actually did the blogs.
1 year on and knowing the knowledge about blogging, instead of complaining about it I just got stuck in and started doing them without any hassle. I would give my bloggings a 14, I feel like I'm doing well when it comes to presentation, structure and content, I'm using a lot of images, descriptive text & different ways of ICT but I think that I can do better I could get creative and use different colours when I'm blogging and maybe change up the structure as well
Since getting my AS grade I have been looking at my previous blog to see what i could've done to improve my grade. I feel like during my research i kind of stayed on the same page in terms of what i was looking for (during the resaearch) , the way I structured my posts and the kind of ICT that i was using. Now I'v kind of learnt from those blogging's, I bring much more life to my bloggings now I use much more and different types & of ICT, I've started Incorporating colour & moving images (Gif's) and I feel much more confident in my research blogs.
This is Ariana Grande when she first broke out into the industry. Before she became a fully established artist she was an actress playing the role of Cat in Nickelodeon's Victorious 2010 - 2013. In 2013 Ariana released her debut single 'The Way', and later her Debut album 'Yours Truly'.
After 2013
This is the image that Ariana Grande has created for herself, she has a small side fringe that is tucked behind her ear, the top half of her hair hung up in a pony tail and the bottom half down with the ends in curls. This distinctive image has made her a easily recognized artist because in all of her performances, posters, images, album covers etc.. she has this exact same hairstyle. She is an example of creating a Brand.
Cross Media & Synergy
This is Ariana Grande's Album Cover, We see her in like a boob tube top/dress, we see the long hair with the light curls at the end,, there are 2 different types of text, the first a light pink curly font and the other a straight tall skinny white font.
This is a clip from Ariana's interview with Jimmy Fallon for the promotion of her new album. As you can see like in the album cover she has her long hair with loose curls at the bottom and also a boob tube dress, and at the end of the clip we see Jimmy Fallon bring out the album cover itself.
This is a poster for the promotion of Ariana Grande's Album. As you can see the colour scheme (Grey, white and pink) has stayed the same and so has the font and the image.
This is the video to Ariana Grande's single 'The Way' ft Mac Miller, like in her album cover, promotional video and album poster she has the same hairstyle and the same kind of dress (boob tube). Also the colour pink has been involved in each element.
Nowadays, social networking sites play a big part in discovering new potential Artist. Such as YouTube and Myspace. An example of someone discovered on YouTube is Justin Bieber... Justin Bieber
Justin was discovered by his manager now, Scooter who got in contact with Usher to sigh him to several different record labels.
Justin Bieber's career in 5 minutes, and how he's become a worldwide superstar and is adored by many fans around the world today.
An interview of Justin talking about how he was found, the original inspiring story of how he became a big phenomenon of today.
Bieber has received numerous awards, including both artist of the year at several different award shows. He has a global fan base called 'Bliebers' and over 40 million followers on twitter. He was named by Forbes magazine in 2012 as the third most powerful celebrity in the world An artist discovered on Myspace was Sean Kingston...
Sean was discovered on Myspace by Tommy Rotem and Beluga Heights, and signed to the label in partnership deal with Sony.
Here is Sean's story on how he got discovered on Myspace by producers who worked with Rihanna and Dr Dre. So Sean knew getting in touch with these producers would help him build a career because of how much Dr Dre and Rihanna were a success.
Costumes usually show a link to the genre of the music video and sometimes can have a link to the location.
-For example little mix's videos , "wings" and "how you're doing" clearly show the genre of pop because of the bright outfits and colours all around. Also generally and all girl band wheres theres a lot of dancing and moving around would have a more pop feel to it.
As you can see, there videos are very bold and colourful showing there pop edge.
However, the location does not really link in with the costumes, as it look likes a basement, or underground location which doesn't really give off a clear pop feel to the video.
Another example is Drake's "started from the bottom" which is a hip-hop video, there are not as many costume changes as other genres such as pop because hip - hop videos are mover likely to show narratives.
As you can see, Drake raps his story of working in a department store to becoming a worldwide famous artist.
Where instead of stacking shelves, he is dancing in clubs and living a 5 star lifestyle where everything is at his service.
Props
Hip - Hop/ Rap videos portray more visual videos which could show a more violent, gangster perception.
Such as T.I's short 'film' music video "Addresses", which shows props such as Guns, alcohol and money.
These props are often shown in
Hip - Hop/Rap videos, this could be because most rappers have come from a poor, bad background where they grew up around guns or escaped that life style. Once again, this is more likely to be a part of narratives like Drake's videos.
Another example similar to this is Soulja boys,
"turn my swag on" which uses money as a prop continually.
This supports the Hip-Hop/Rap idea of money is flaunted about more in this genre then any other.
In contrast to this, Taylor Swift's video "22"is a Country/Pop song where you wouldn't see guns or money used as props. You are more likely to see what your average teenager gets up to, for example, parties.
As you can see there are pom pom's, glasses and balloons flying around.
This gives a more pop party feel to it. Also Taylor is a country girl so props such as Guns and drugs which are more likely to be in Rap videos are never to be seen in Taylor's type of videos ( pop/county )
Also later in the video, you see a party actually happening, presenting Taylor as your average teenager.
Location/Setting
Sometimes locations can link to song lyrics or have no link whatsoever.
For example, Katy Perry's "Roar" video, shows her lyrics connecting to the song as the song name "Roar" symbolises animals such as tiger which are featured in her video. Also her video location in the jungle where you find animals that roar is probably the most ideal music video for her song.
In contrast to this, a music video which has no connection to the song lyrics is Aluna George's "Just a touch" where what she is singing about, love and relationships has no connection to the video as there is just a black and white background.
If there was a connection to the lyrics and video then there would be more of a narrative with a couple who are having problems and break up then maybe get back together but this is no where to be seen. Just Aluna and a guy playing instruments, this could be because this video is there to sell her and her music to the audience.
Setting & Location: The video is set across several different studio rooms, all withholding different interior in fitting with the genre e.g flamboyant patterns, shouting colours and bright lights. This draws the viewer into the screen and is very common with videos in the Pop genre, as they are normally aimed at a young audience. The setting and location tells us that this is a big production with a lot of money invested into it as there are several changes in location.
Costume: Linking to the video their costumes also consist of bright colours and are tight fitted to show off the girls figures. There are several costume changes throughout the video in order to keep the viewer engaged and creates a sense of anticipation around what the next out will be (something young girls will appreciate).
Haim: Forever
As the girl band are a trio from L.A California it was important to reflect their background as this was their first video and their first single.
Setting & Location: The video is set in sunny California, throughout the video we see an array of palm trees, California hills and regional down town streets. In terms of enclosed locations they are still very communal and intimate, a local hair salon, and a living room (where band practice takes place). The simplicity enforces the girls overall image, the location tells us of their background and humble beginnings, also making them more relatable to the viewer.
Costume:
The girls are wearing very plain and casual apparel with only two costume changes throughout the video.Some of the clothes include jeans, biker jackets, shorts, trainers and baggy shirts. This image gives off a sense of comfort, giving the viewer a taste of their laid back California Cool here we can clearly differentiate the two bands audience demographic whilst Little Mix are obviously aimed at a much younger, energetic audience in the Pop genre and Haim are aimed towards an audience more relaxed and matured.
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