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Monday, 29 November 2010

RESEARCH - Research for ancillary task


Looking at two pages of the King’s of Leon website I identified that the colour scheme is kept consistent for the entire website by using the warm colours (red, orange, yellow and brown) on every page.
Analysing the pages of the website has enabled me to identify the common features of a band website which has allowed me to gain an idea for what I will include in my website I am producing for this task.

I also looked at other band websites of a similar genre to investigate if they have a similar layout to each other or if they are different. An example is Kasabian’s website which I looked at and I discovered that it had a similar layout to Kings of Leon’s website.

Comparing the two home pages, their layout consists of three columns which list information about various topics such as the band’s latest news, music and videos. In addition, they have a consistent colour scheme and style used throughout the website which is a concept that I identified for Kings of Leon’s.


I looked at another website to ensure I had looked at a wide range to improve the accuracy of my research. I also looked at Muse’ website which included the same concepts of the previous two, these were the same layout and using the same style throughout the website.  



Researching into the features and styles of alternative rock band websites has allowed me to identify common conventions which means I can produce a plan for my website taking these into consideration and using the style that me and the rest of my group have established which we are going to use in each of our ancillary products to ensure they link together.

I also discovered the typical content of a music website which I have taken into consideration to produce a layout of what my website will include:


Tuesday, 2 November 2010

RESEARCH - Identifying music video codes and conventions

For my research I have looked into the different styles of music genres and the codes and conventions that are used in order to portray these different styles of music through their videos.

The genres I have researched are:
  • Alternative Rock/Indie
  • Rock
  • Hip Hop
  • Pop
  • Rap
ALTERNATIVE ROCK/INDIE
  • Tends to be in black and white
  • The artist/band is shown throughout the video
  • Use of extreme close ups and long shots are popular
  • Dark locations
  • Face paced
  • Some use of special effects
Example of this genre and these conventions are:

Kings of Leon:          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhairF_DS8
The Fray:                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY2INQnmRyk
Arctic Monkeys:        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30w8DyEJ__0

ROCK
  • Usually dark/ deep colours
  • Displays the band performing on stage
  • Usually no narrative
  • Uneasy camera movements
  • Hand-held shots
  • Usually no use fo special effects
Example of this genre and these conventions are:


HIP HOP
  • Location tends to be a party, club fancy location
  • Use of alcohol
  • Recognised brands and clothing
  • Expensive cars and houses
  • Camera shots tend to be long and establishing to show the money involved. Close ups to show the jewellery and assets of the artists.
  • Attractive women
  • Does not follow a storyline, only follows the genre
  • Artist(s) tend to be involved
Example of this genre and these conventions are:

50 Cent:                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss
T.I:                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK082mbeBZ0
T-Pain:                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui86peQZ74s

POP
  • Bright and colourful
  • Close ups to show the cheerful and upbeat emotions
  • Extreme close ups - these tend to show the purity and innocence in the personality of the artists
  • Aims at the teenage audience
  • Very upbeat
Example of this genre and these conventions are:

Britney Spears:       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brYTO6JHMHs
Madonna:               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTDR6ztcnQ
Alesha Dixon:         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-503QA6F08g

RAP
Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesized beat.

Conventions of a rap music video:
  • Discrimination of women in some sort
  • Fame
  • Money and personal wealth
  • Representations of ''Gangsters''
Example of this genre and these conventions are:

Lil Wayne:             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ohYsK5Y8Dc
Drake:                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLSQDCkcaA

Friday, 22 October 2010

RESEARCH - Video of pitch

RESEARCH - Advanced Portfolio in Media - The Beginning of Team Go For Gold

THE BEGINNING:
This blog is going to consist of blogs about mine and my team member’s progress throughout our Advanced Production Task. I am going to regularly update my blog to record the stages that my team members and me will undertake in order to complete this task for A2 Media Studies.

Our Group:
Our team is called Team Go for Gold and the members of this group are me, Kate Haycock, Vanessa Solomon and Louisa Marshall.

Brief:
For our Advanced Portfolio Task we have to create a promotion package for the release of an album which must include a music promo video.

Our Idea:
Our chosen song for our music video is ‘Kings of Leon – Use Somebody’ as this was the best suited song to match the narrative of our video. The concept of our music video is a lonely girl meet up with her friends, however she then realises she has been stood up and continues her journey around London. During the video there is an equally lonely boy who coincidently goes wherever she goes but they never notice each other.  The reason behind our story is that the girl is alone in a big city and this is where strangers are passing on a daily basis but always remaining anonymous. The story ends with the girl and boy noticing each other and as they smile at each other our video ends.

Our Pitch: APPROVED
The beginning stage for our group was to post a pitch for our idea which we undertook on Friday 15th October. For this task we created a presentation which explained the conventions of a music video, the story of our video and our research into the genre of our song. We also including information on our ancillary tasks which explained which member were responsible for each task and developed a style that would be used on each product to ensure there is a link between each one.

For the ancillary task my responsibility is to create stickers and a home page for a website. The other members in my group are creating a digipak, posters and merchandise products such as T-shirts.

Our PowerPoint Presentation:

Mood boards:
This mood board represents alternative rock with images of bands, venues and gig tickets. This enabled me to identify styles within the genre we are creating our video for.

This mood board represents London as this is our main location for our video.

This is a mood board for album covers from bands that come under alternative rock. This allowed us to identify similarities which will help us for our ancillary product when Kate Haycock has to create a digipak.

This mood board represents the concept of our story which is a lonely girl in a big city.

Story board:




Research into the artist:
The artist of our chosen song is Kings of Leon and I researched into them by looking at their original work such as their previous music videos, particularly the one for the song we have chosen, and their website and posters.

As I am creating a website as part of my ancillary task I looked at the Kings of Leon website to identify the conventions of a band website and particularly the style of Kings of Leon’s work. Below is the home page of Kings of Leon’s Official Website.
I looked at their whole website which enabled me to identify what a band website usually consists of and this is articles, events and tour dates, information about the band, a gallery and and other information such as the bands merchandise. 


I also looked into some of Kings of Leon's existing work such as their previous music video's. In particular i looked at their existing video for the song we have chosen for this task. Analysing their music videos enabled us to identify their style and the mise-en-scene they use. In addition this provided us with an idea about costumes, setting as we took into consideration the mise-en-scene for our own idea.

Kings of Leon - Use Somebody Music Video