Powder Paint

This is the music video from Madeon - The City. It is very similar to the idea we aim to achieve in our music video as the aspect of powder paint is presented. It looks really effective and creates a colourful, exciting and interesting video. Hopefully when we do it in our 'tribe' scene with a large amount of people in a smaller space (the barn location found), it looks this successful!

Star Project

“A star is an image constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) from a range of materials – eg advertising and magazines, as well as films and music.” Richard Dyer

So Ms Foster has asked us to research a big 'star' and look into how their image has changed over time. I have decided to focus on the woman who everyone knows, Madonna!
Madonna started her music career in 1979, from then on, gaining a huge fan base as it can be said that this period of time was perhaps her most prominent. However, Madonna is still in fact producing music and touring today, as well as collaborating with huge artists continuously building up her fan base and boosting her record sales. She also appeared in the 1996 film, 'Evita' taking centre stage as a lead role. This also made Madonna known worldwide, building up her legacy. The fact that Madonna also delves into various genres such as; pop, dance, electronic and rock was a leading factor in gaining such a huge fan base as these genres reach a wide audience overall.
  
Madonna has released 12 studio albums over the past years, the first few probably being the most successful and well known. Her first album being the self-titled 'Madonna' which made £10,000,000 in record sales, worldwide was also available for fans to buy on vinyl. However, her third album 'True Blue' made a large sum of £25,000,000 in sales worldwide, being her most successful album to date! She has also released 77 singles to date, 'Everybody' being her debut. 

Madonna was often on trend with fashion, as seen in her album cover 'Madonna' - supporting an 80's styles that she made very popular, many of her fans following her fashion trends, supporting her style. Whether its her music videos, song, look or celebrity approach, Madonna manages to appeal to her fan base. she often dresses provocatively, is outrageous in her style and sends out a message of her being wild and free. For example, in the 1989, 'Like a Prayer' video, caused a lot of controversy, one man from a record label stating "It's condemnable on the face of it because it exploits a symbol of evil [the burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan] in order to sell records." Her appearance has changed over time, becoming more modern, although she often is seen wearing dance wear in her videos, such as leotards and leg warmers (Hung Up) much like her previous fashion statements. We do a see a more provocative choice of clothing from Madonna, often wearing skimpy garments and limited clothing, perhaps to appeal to a male audience. 

Madonna often appears in the media, but her prime time was when she adopted two young children from Malawi. This caused a lot of publicity for her as well as good press, illustrating her motherly side as well as charitable and noble, promoting adoption, something a lot of celebrities followed in her footsteps with. She also often appeared in newspapers and press releases, as well as on talk shows discussing another factor - this being her yo-yo relationship with Guy Ritchie, the media often showing the ups and downs they faced, finally resulting in divorce after their 7 years of marriage. 

We have seen a great change from Madonna, watching her develop from a young age of 21 to 55 in the limelight. Her sound as well as connections within the music industry have changed, as well as her look and status in society overall. Still often causing controversy and appearing in papers, her fan base is bigger than ever and she is till seen as a 'Star' in many eyes.

Decision Making

So I previously posted songs that we were thinking of doing, however we decided against them as stated for each song below and went with Ellie Goulding's - Starry Eyed. Just a reminder, they were...

Two Door Cinema Club - Eat that up, it's good for you

We eventually decided against this song as we wanted a female lead singer instead of a male, as this would mean it would make more sense in our music videos and would look more realistic if we did include lip synching. Another factor that out us off this song, was due to the fact of having no narrative or concept for the idea and the fast pace of the song would mean a continuously fast pace video, something that could end up looking messy and not making sense. This song would perhaps have been more suitable if we were going to show shots of a band and concert/gig/festival events, creating a more authentic look overall. 

Lykke Li - Little Bit

Again, we decided not to do this song, as although it was a female vocal, something that we wanted, we felt that it was quite basic and not a lot could be done with it as her video is very simple, with an inclusion of a close up and dancing for the entirety of the video. As much as i love this song, it would have not been ideal as there is only one continuous beat throughout the song as well as not being as upbeat as intended, limiting us to shots to accompany the beat, again something that we were hoping to achieve. We found it hard to set a notion for this particular song, therefore this finalised our decision not to use it. 

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zero's - Home

Initially, i felt this song would have been fantastic for our music video as the lyrics and meaning, as well as the overall beat and song are so effective. We really liked the upbeat aspect of the song, however we found it difficult to decide on a narrative and angle for our video and just kept returning back to the idea of a montage of shots - boring and overdone! We wanted something tat would be creating and tell a story as well as a moral. The deciding factor to oppose against this song was due to the fact that although their is both male and female vocals present, we wanted solely female, something this song couldn't offer, therefore eventually decided not to go with this particular song. 

Starry Eyed lyrics

Oh, oh, starry eyed

Hit, hit, hit, hit, hit me with lightning

Handle bars, and then I let go

Let go for anyone

Take me in, and throw out

My heart and get a new one

Next thing, we're touching

You look at me it's like you hit me with lightning

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And everybody glows

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And my body goes

So we burst into colors

Colors and carousel

Fall head first

Like paper planes and playground games

Next thing, we're touching

You look at me it's like you hit me with lightning

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And everybody glows

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And my body goes

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Next thing we're touching

Hit me with lightning

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And everybody glows

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And my body goes

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And everybody glows

Oh, everybody's starry eyed

And my body goes

Ideas

Whilst scrolling through the latest news on The Guardian music reviews, i came across Mumford & Sons latest video for their song 'Whispers in the Dark'. Recently as a class we have had discussions about the use of a 4 split-screen and how it can sometimes look tacky and ruin a video. However after watching this particular video, my opinion has totally changed, seeing that it can work really well, making a successful video. i think its due to the fact of an arrangement of shots as well as the dark lighting, not poppy colours. This is perhaps something to consider for our music video if it was done how Mumford & Sons have managed. 

Background Research

It is evident that Ellie Goulding does in fact have mass appeal, resulting in a huge career as well as fan base! She has had numerous tours, 2 albums, 5 EP's, 12 singles, 18 music videos, 4 promotional singles, as well as featuring on various artists tracks, such as Tinie Tempah and Calvin Harris. All these aspects resulting in major sales and earnings for Ellie Goulding as well as the constant expansion of her fan base as it is apparent that it is worldwide.

Her music often appears on radio stations as well as her music videos constantly playing on television, due to often being in the top music charts, again helping to gain a larger fan base constantly and advertisement for her singles and albums. Ellie Goulding has also recently appeared in the new Marks & Spencer's adverts, which are often seen on television as well as billboards all around the UK, although for the main factor of helping to boost their publicity, it also promotes Goulding as her face appears everywhere, someone that most people in the public have heard of and recognise.

Background Research

When carrying our background research, i also looked at the record label in which Ellie Goulding was signed to. There were in fact four:

• POLYDOR - This record label is owned by Universal Music Group. it also has affiliations with                 Interscope, who does the US music releases, whilst Polydor focuses on the UK releases. Polydor was originally independent, however throughout the years has grown largely, therefore becoming a major label. Polydor has a wide market as they cover various genres, signing artists such as; The Jam, Beady Eye, Miley Cyrus and Eminem.   

• INTERSCOPE - Also owned by Universal Music Group, this American label is a major label due to these affiliations and not independent. 

• NEON GOLD - This independent record label is both New York City and London based. Again, Neon Gold cover various genres, however seems to have mostly signed alternative artists for example; Wolf Gang, Passion Pit, Gotye and Foxes.

• CHERRY TREE - This American record label was originally an imprint of Interscope, however they are in fact now a joint venture label. Cherry Tree have signed major artists, such as; Jessie Ware, Disclosure, Keane and The Police.

Through the accompaniment of these various record labels and other ventures such as production and distribution teams as well as many other aspects, Ellie Goulding has released two albums:

Lights (2010)  and the more recent Halcyon (2012) 

Background Research

So we have chosen to do Starry Eyed by Ellie Goulding, therefore needed to do a little background research on the artist.

Ellie Goulding's music often fits the indie pop/alternative dance genre, which we feel is perfect for our music videos as it is upbeat and flexible, to do a lot with. Other artists and songs that are similar to Ellie Goulding's music, in which we can gain inspiration from are:

Nike Advert

During our pitch for our ideas for our music video we discussed the scene of the lead role running through the woods (part of her journey on finding herself). We want to make this scene as powerful and realistsic as possible, so in order for this to happen we want extremely fast running, as well as others eventually joining this scene creating an 'outrunning' aspect, when in fact its a 'follow us' kind of scene. The new Nike advert campaign is a great example and inspiration for this idea as we especially see in the last clip (Outrun a movie star)!

Planning

Here are some of the masterpieces from Alice and Lucy, shots and ideas for our music video that we have all now discussed as a group and are really happy with them, so need to get cracking!


..and here is a story board of ideas for our music video overall. We are really happy with the concept of it and myself and Alice pitched it today to the class, with good feedback!

Song Choice

After a lot of thought and research on Youtube, we finally narrowed it down and have chosen our song, yay! We chose the classic, upbeat  'Starry Eyed' by Ellie Goulding as the song offers to sort of beats throughout, whilst the verses are mellow, yet still happy-ish, the chorus then produces a drop which we feel would work really well with the music video and we could do a lot with it. Also, the fact that it is a female singer helps when it comes to lip synching as well as the song being positive overall, as we didn't want to create a sad adele type music video. I am really happy with our song choice and think it will be a lot of fun throughout the process.

             

Miss Representation

Recently in class we watched this 'Miss Representation' documnetary, which is an overlook on how the media portray women and how society interpretd their roles. This particular video caused a lot of discussion within in our lesson and a lot of debating! However, i decided to include it in my blog, as it illustrates what we are not trying to achieve and illustrate in our music video, displaying the role of a woman as an image of sex and desire. Therefore, this video was really helpful when researching and planning in order to decide what notion we were aiming for. 

Music Video Effects

This song was also a consideration for our music choice for our videos, but we really wanted something with a female vocal as we thought it would look better in the video and match up to the voices better as we are all girls! However, the video for this song has goven off some great ideas. I love the use of video montages, creating a growing story as well as the effect of a rolling camera film to shoot, giving the music video a classic and unique look.

  

             

Lana Del Rey's remixed version of 'summertime Sadness' also uses this old film reel effect throughout and i think it works really well and worth considering for our own music videos!

             

Lykke Li - Little Bit

Throughout our search for a song for our music videos, we came across Lykke Li's - 'Little Bit' and thought it may work well, but after further consideration decided that it wouldn't be ideal for us as it is quite a continuous and basic beat throughout, therefore could be difficult to come up with good enough shot ideas that would create a successful music video that would be interesting to audiences.

            

The Naked And Famous - Punching In A Dream

I have found quite a lot of inspiration from this music video for our own project. Firstly, I like the use of the layering of two shots in order to go into the next scene, instead of having just two basic shots one after the other (00:15). Also another factor that i feel works really well is the use of really fast, flowing shots used (00:45) which creates a continuous yet unique look. The addition of slow motion alongside sped up shots creates an interesting and exciting music video, something that we are aiming for - therefore this particular video offers a lot of ideas to work from.

             

Wolf's Law

Here is a music video from The Joy formidable, Wolf's Law. The use of the continuous series as well as shots creates a simple looking, but in depth story and narrative throughout the music video, something in which our group is aiming for. I feel that the use of black and white would be really successful as it enriches the look of the video, going it a professional viewpoint for the audience. Also, the use of a series of shots being used throughout the music video, i fell, would work really well as even though it doesn't lead the audience with one particular storyline, it allows us to experiment and produce intriguing and unique cinematography, creating an in depth music video overall.