Creative Journey: Filming & Editing

The device I used to record the footage was my persona camcorder, a Toshiba Camileo x2000 as seen below







October 2016:Raw footage is recorded and imported onto my Macbook as I begin to filter out clips that won't be of use

Creative Journey: Planning

To gather initial ideas, i begun a mind map online using the software "Mindmup". This enabled me to create ideas about the themes, settings, miss-en-scne, props and more aspects of the music video. I could organise the sections to expand on in a clear visual manner, rather than writing this out on line paper for example.

Forming ideas

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines Textual analysis

The music video for Blurred lines pushed the boundaries for what could be said in a song and performed on screen. It received disapproval and angered some people who branded it to be a sexist and promote worrying attitudes towards sexual consent.

Although Thicke appears playful, alongside singer Pharrall Williams, the models strut past whilst the phrase "Blurred Lines"appears followed by "Thicke" with the latter appearing numerous times in the video. This would suggest he is comfortable with the lyrics and perhaps didn't mean for line such as " I know you want it" as dismissing consent. Whilst the women all wear forms of white clothing with gold jewellery, both Thicke and Pharrall wear predominantly black which immediately separates them. Perhaps this is to place more attention of the females who often look directly at the camera; this could be their way of showing they have power as the females display this assertive behaviour throughout. It depends on how the body language is interpreted and if the lyrics are interpreted to have an underlying tone about sexual consent.

A close up of a bottle of Remy Martin vodka shows expensive, high end taste which shows this video is intended for a more mature audience such as those in the early years of adulthood.

Print Artefacts Research

For the creation of our print artefacts, we drew inspiration from the release of  Tom Odelles 2016 album wrong crowd which incorporates simplicity with high quality in a close up of the artist from the neck up. The extreme close up creates a dramatic effect on his face enhancing his facial features such as eyes and mouth thus adding colour to the image and showing a focused look; this position breaks the fourth rule as the artists is not gazing off away from the camera. As well as this, it is effective in branding the artists music as we can infer the music on the album will be centred around his emotions and the exaggeration on stark colours on the face such as blue eyes is welcoming and effective in appealing to its intended audience (a demographic that is young, perhaps mostly female and relates to situations such as heartbreaks and fractured relationships which is the theme of many of Tom Odelles songs. The font made us realise the need to be clear what the album is called when making our own yet doesn't have to be obtuse or appear too ordered

"Youth" is the third studio album of rapper Tinie Tempah. Although this is outside our genre, the artists shares the same age for its audience (maturing teenagers and young adults) so we looked at how their albums are presented. Similar to Jack Garrets album Phase, the rapper Tine Tempah is also seen on his own album cover in a medium shot as he sits on some steps in front of, what could be inferred to be, his upbringing or a place he feels familiar in. The block of flats and clouds above symbolise reality and presents the artist to be true and genuine to where he came from which is important to our audience as this characteristic suggests the music will be raw and honest. Set to be released in March 2017, the album includes a song titled "Text From Your Ex" which was made using a combination of Facetime, emails and Facebook messages. Because of their topics in songs and discussing relationships as a solo artist, people who listen to Tinie Tempah would be likely to listen to Jack Garratt. In addition, they are both aired on Capital FM.

Tinie Tempah talks about his upcoming album Youth on Kiss FM

Task 4: Audience Research

Specifying our audience was integral when making both our main media product, the music videos and anciliary texts, (CD cover). I used YouGov to gather information about the lifestyle my audience would have which included factors such as income, brands of clothes they wear and their favourite sports.

As seen in the image below, the basic profile is similar to our initial preconceptions of Jack Garrets fans. The age is in a young bracket of 18-24 and the social grade is ABC1; Though I do agree the main demographic are higher incomes for his music, i feel grades D and E could also be included as E, as the lowest level of income earners, include students and in his live shows students make up a reasonable amount of the audience.

According to the profile, fans enjoy mainstream TV shows such as Coronation street and 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown. These are not particularly niche and don't attract small ratings which suggest the fans to enjoy popular entertainment. Meanwhile, their entertainment interests is overwhelming in pop culture. Adele, Calvin Harris and The Weeknd are all solo artists who have had records in the official uK music charts top 40 at some point in their career. From this, it would suggest those who enjoy Jack Garratt have an open taste to music and are not just a fan of Electronica and Trip hop, (Jack Garrets genre of music). Similar to the music aspect, their interest in celebrities includes those who are well known and have large followings on their social media such as Leanardo di capris and Stephen Fry. These are very influential people in their fields of writing and acting respectively. In their careers, they have been exceptionally talented which is the same for Jack Garrets music career who is renowned for his exceptional live shows, playing multiple instruments looped with a distinct voice. All the musical public figures have a demographic that is the same of Jack Garratt.

The top clothing brand favoured are hughstreet H&M, Barbour and Levis. For students, the first would be within their price range but I would expect some other brands would be aspired to such as Calvin Klein and other luxury brands as the demographic for his fans would typically be explorers (in accordance with Young & Rubicams model) so these would have an instant effect. Also, as many fans would be Reformers, this shows in good taste of transport as Seat as it is regarded as quality but not out a materialistic label for cars. I discovered Mercedes Benz was seven places below top place Seat which supports my demographic for Jack Garratt fans not being in financial bracket such as Social grade A as they do not typically own their own businesses or have enough money to afford a luxurious car like a Mercedes Benz.

Task 9: Filming Pitch

To put forward our ideas on creating the music video, we produced a powerpoint to present to our media class along with lyrics of the song weathered for other students to annotate. Pitching this einitia ideas enabled us to have real feedback such as questions on why we had chosen the actors, enquires about the artist we had chosen and also provided different meanings to the songs lyrics.