Saturday 19 December 2009

Images I Like


IMAGE 1
This image I found by typing in 'girl vampire' into Google.

Although the picture doesnt appear to represent what people would expect to be a vampire, I feel the image is very strong due to the colouring and the make-up used within it.

The image doesnt include fangs and capes like you would expect from a vampire which makes the picture original as it is representing a vampire without including the connotations of a real vampire.

I particularly like the hair in this image as I feel it stands out due to how dark it is against the vampires pale skin. It also appears to have white and purple streaks going through the hair which also stand out as they are brighter than the hair itself.

The make up of this vampire is also very bold and bright. The eyes appear very 'scary' and 'weird' and these stand out due to the unrealistic colour, as not many eyes are yellow. This is how you can automatically tell that this girl is not an ordinary female. I really like the colour of the lips that the girl has in this picture as I feel they look very 'vampire like'. The bright colour of them instantly stand out against her pale white skin and they compliment the yellow eyes and red cheeks well.

The girls pale skin could represent her being very cold blooded, like a vampire.

IMAGE 2
This image I also found by searching for 'girl vampire' in Google.
I was instantly drawn to the picture as it looks like a young girl with bright scary eyes. I felt as if her eyes were looking deep into me. I also like the effect of the hair blowing across her face as well as her bright red lips.

I particularly like this image as it creates an element of mystery towards the character and I felt there was a sad story behind this picture.

Music Video Analysis - Rihanna: Disturbia

The music video for Rihanna's 'Disturbia' was filmed on 29th June, 2008. It was directed by Anthony Mandler and was choreographed by Tina Landon.
The video was first released only on iTunes for 48 hours and it debuted in the UK on 1st August.

Although i had previously seen this particular music video many times before, when i looked at in in more depth, i was amazed by the many different shots and scenes that had been used, as well as many of the different effects. I then thought about how our music video would become easily transformed if we tried to use some of these effects within our own music video.
The clothing in which Rhianna wears represents the genre in which this music video represents as she tends to wear mainly black clothing throughout the video. Her hair is also short, yet almost appears out of place, representing herself throughout this.

Many of the shots within this particular music video include very little lighting and therefore they are very hard to see, however again, this relates to the particular genre in which this music video has been made for.
This shot is one of the first shots we see throughout the music video. It is an establishing shot so we can therefore see that the artist or main character is in the middle of the screen, however has the surrounding area visible so that we can see what is all around her. The lighting in this shot is quite dark which adds to the element of mysteriousness within the video as we cannot see the main characters face properly.
This shot was towards the beginning of the song as the beat of the song became more emphasised. I particularly liked this shot as it showed the main character throwing her head around whilst stuck in a cage which made me question why she was in the cage in the first place. The editing of this shot showed that it had been sped up which created even more of an effect as it looked like she was throwing her head around even faster.

This shot I felt was amazing as it captured three different images into one scene. Within this we can see a close up of the character as well as a body shot of the character with fire separating the two images. I really liked this image and was drawn to it and would like to experiment with this kind of shot within my own music video.


This shot within the music video I felt didn't relate to the rest of the video as it contained very harsh lighting when compared to all of the other shots within the video where the lighting is very dark and the character creates a sense of mystery.

This shot I felt was beautiful! I really liked the way in which the lighting captured the character from the side as she almost appears like a shadow. I never really noticed this image until I looked further into the music video and I would love to include this type of shot within my own music video.

Friday 18 December 2009

Previous Practise Video

This is a practise video that we made in Year 12 as an introduction to using the particular software in which we would need for creating our coursework.

We was given a title of 'The Journey' in which we had to create our own storyline and our own music video to within the timescale of 2 weeks.

Our group decided our 'journey' would be a transformation for a girl going from a 'geek' to a beauty. Our chosen song was 'She Moves in Her Own Way' by The Kooks.

From this task, we got an initial introduction into how to use the different equipment such as a video camera and a tripod. We also learnt how to use Final Cut which was going to be the programme in which we would use for our Year 13 coursework.

Here is our practise video:

Practise Music Video from Lucy Simonds on Vimeo.

Song Lyrics

Well it's six o'clock and v-v-v-vampire in the middle of the night.
Sweeping through blackness like a cape held under a sign(?)

Well it covered your body it was pulling you in, so I kicked and I screamed and I sank my teeth in.
You cried get off me, get off me, get off me please, but I drowned you out I was trapped inside the.

The nightmare, nightmare, oh the nightmare, nightmare.

We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on, you felt my heartbeat and help me til the nightmares gone. We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on

We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...
We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...

With my head on your lap you sat crying as I tried to explain, the tears from your eyes whisper sorrows my face looked ashamed, ashamed, ashamed, ashamed.

Oh it covered your body it was pulling you in, so I kicked and I screamed and I sank my teeth in.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for this oh please forgive me...

We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on, you felt my heartbeat and help me til the nightmares gone. We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on

We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...
We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...

We felt the blood stop, we felt the blood stop...

We, nailed, the shirts to the wall we kiss goodbye we're chemical...
We nailed the shelves to the wall we kiss goodnight and...

We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on, you felt my heartbeat and help me til the nightmares gone. We felt the blood stop, we saw the lights turn on

We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...
We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...
We felt the blood stop x3
We felt the, we felt the...

Target Audience

In order for us to create our music video and other products, we must have a target audience in which we will aim to create these particular products to meet the needs and wants of these groups people or stereotypes.

After looking at UK Tribes, it was obvious to us how our song choice and ideas for our particular music video was not going to be for the needs of the 'Chav' stereotype.

Although we could not subsidise a particular stereotype for our products, we found that there was a huge range of stereotype of which would enjoy our choice of songs and lyrics.

This segment of stereotypes has been classed 'Alternatives'. This includes the stereotypes of: Gamers, Scene kids, Emos, Skaters, Metalheads.

Members of the Alternative tribes are vaguely rebellious but don’t yet have a specific focus to rally against (their parents may well have helped shape their Alternative views, in fact). However, they are likely to conform with peers. While open-minded about music and fashion they are wary of the Mainstream tribes and determined to be different – together.

Alternative Tribes are predominantly made up of white working and middle class kids. It seems a huge proportion of teens in the UK have a hankering for something a bit different, and Alternative brands that have achieved massive traction include Converse and Vans. Kufiyas also feature heavily.

All Tribes within the Alternative segment are passionate about music, and their friendship groups, tastes and activities are largely defined online. Peer influence is a huge part of the Alternative scene, though new trends usually emerge outside the segment. The best way to reach these kids is through niche magazines and social media.


Young Alts is the gateway Tribe to the Alternative and Leading Edge scenes and is a massive group who snap up all kinds of media and accessories as they ape their elders. Metalheads and Skaters are much more rigid Tribes, adopting teens early and keeping them until their mid-twenties in small, fiercely loyal friendship groups. Both scenes are fluid about fashion but fanatical about their core preoccupations: rock music and skating. Emos and Scene Kids are heavily over-lapping tribes with Goth-derived fashion sense and US-led rock music tastes, although Emo kids are interested in angst while Scene Kids are more concerned with socialising and building massive online presences. Apart from Gamers, Scene Kids are the Tribe most glued to their computers, making the Alternative market the most web facing of the segments.

(UK tribes)

Thursday 17 December 2009

The Ghost Frequency

The Ghost Frequency were a UK band signed to the label City Rockers.

Members: Doran Edwards, Barney Ward, Anthony Murphy, Ross Colgan and Jason Adelinia.

The band formed in Spring 2005 and released their debut single 'Nightmare' which was released as a limited edition 7" red vinyl in August 2007. The accompanying video became a favourite on the MTV2 music channel, as well as on YouTube. The band also received extensive coverage in the music press and online, including an article in NME's coveted Radar Section.

In December 2007, 'Nightmare' was voted 2nd in NME's Club Chart of the Year, and the band was also tipped in other magazines "Tips for 2008" section.

In Spring 2008, The Ghost Frequency's drummer Ben Chetwood left the band and was replaced by Jason Adelina, however the band then went to split in Spring 2009. Some of the band members are now working on solo projects.

Chosen Song

We had a lot of thoughts for songs in which we could use, however for one reason or another, we decided against them. We then decided we would pick a theme in which we wanted our music video to look like. To which we chose a Nightmare.

We therefore did some research and even asked other people who perhaps had different music tastes to ourselves. We went through the different songs that had been recommended to us, however we couldn't find any that we particularly liked.

Because we couldn't seem to find any songs we liked that related to the theme of a Nightmare. I took the initiative to simply type in 'Nightmare' into YouTube to see what results we got.

To our amazement we got a lot of results that we liked and went through them all, expressing what we liked about them and what we didn't, and eventually after a lot of thought and searching, we decided on the song 'Nightmare' by The Ghost Frequency.

We liked the song as it was very upbeat. We wanted a more up-tempo song so that we could create a better music video, as apposed to a slower song which would ultimately relate to the theme of love like most slow songs do.

Instead, we decided to create our music video on the theme of vampires, as if the main character we have chosen is living in a nightmare which then relates to the title and words of the song.

Thursday 10 December 2009

Initial Ideas

To start off our brainstorming for a music video, we firstly tried to think of a song or an artist of which we all particularly liked or enjoyed listening to.

We firstly thought of songs by Lily Allen as we all particularly liked her and her songs as they were fairly upbeat and quirky.

The first song we looked at was 'LDN'. We liked this song as we felt it reflected a good story and could have included a video where there is only one character walking or skipping around London in a happy mood changing in and out of costumes. However, when we looked at the music video that Lily Allen had created to this song, we soon realised that our idea was very similar to the video itself which shows Lily going around London on a bicycle.

After further thought about this song, we soon came to a group decision that we couldn't really think of any other ideas of a music video to make for this song. We then decided that this song perhaps wouldn't be the best song for us to use.

Another song we looked at was 'Oh My God' by Mark Ronson which featured Lily Allen. We liked this song as we felt we could come up with a lot of random ideas relating to the Oh My God title. The song was also upbeat which we liked so we could therefore create a 'happy and quirky' video to it. The original video for this song features Lily Allen as a cartoon, so any video we created to this song would not me remotely similar.

However, after hearing the song over and over again, it personally started to really annoy me and so did Lilly Allen! I bought this up with the other girls and we discussed this and we all came to the decision that we would think of another song of which we all liked and could work with.

To me, this really showed good team work as well as co-operation as we all came to the same decision without a big fuss.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Brief

For this piece of work, we was told we could either work as an individual or in a group. As we were advised to wo

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- a website homepage for the band;
- a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
- a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).