Website Analysis

This is a screen shot of the main page from Nero's official website. This site was completely empty much like their Facebook page, there has been no activity for a good few months I have put this blog post off for a while hoping that there maybe some sort of update on the website as well as their Facebook page.

So instead of using Nero's site I have decided to use a different site from a different artist like Skrilllex. As soon as I visited this website I could see that there was quite a lot going on. One of my favourite things about this site is that when you open the site you get a quick look at the sites home page and then the artists tour dates and locations. This is something that I think I could gain marks from, so I am considering making one of these and placing it on my own site as a pop up.


After closing the tour poster I am presented with the home page of the website, as you can see this is a basic layout. The navigation bar is quite simple but does keep  with the house style of the site witch seems to be white backgrounds and thin red lines to create borders between sections.







Here is some screen shots from the Skrilllex site, these pages display the albums that Skrilllex have created. I to plan to have a section in my site with some past albums that my group have created. I don't think I will display my albums as simply as it is done on this site, I could use a slide show to display my album cover.

















This is a screen shot of the online store for Skrilllex on their official site. It is always a great idea to have a store on your website, I think I could come up with some designs for products such as t-shirts, hats, jackets and shoes. There will also be the more predictable products such as copies of albums, posters and limited addition merchandise.

This is a shot from Skrilllex's Youtube channel, a link was provided in the navigation bar on the official site. There was also links to their Facebook, Twitter and Tumbler accounts.

Twitter Analysis

Just like all artists Nero's Twitter page pretty much has the exact same posts as their Facebook page. " Sorry to have left you in the dark for so long. The 2nd album is coming 2014." This is the exact same post as displayed on their Facebook page, This isn't surprising as it is important that their fans all receive updates from them across all forms of social networking so that they feel reassured.

Facebook Page Analysis

This is a shot of the official Nero Facebook page, there doesn't seem to be a lot of content. The last post was in November of last year apologising for the lack of updates and state that the new album will be coming in 2014. I shouldn't be surprised as their website was the same, there wasn't any updates relating to their music except one telling us that the new album will be released in 2014.




As  I entered the photo albums for their Facebook page there was large portfolio of images ranging from old album art to photographs from their concerts. This is nothing surprising as all artists collect photographs from their shows as well as using past album covers in their portfolio.






I could stage some photographs for my own portfolio but I doubt I will be able to get the same quality images as seen in Nero's images. I will have to use a hall or some sort of stage and have people pose, I will end up running these images through photoshop to attempt to create the same sort of light and lazer effect like on these images to the left.




This is one of the final sections of their Facebook page, this is almost like a little forum for the fans. So they can ask questions on such things as tour dates and releases of new albums. Again I believe that this is something I could do for my page, it should make it more interesting than just a normal Facebook page.

Risk Assessment

After looking back on my plan for this video I have realised that there are some things that could go wrong during the filming or prep. Hopefully nothing will go wrong but just in case I thought I could make a list on what can go wrong so I can be ready for it.

• Camera could die whilst filming
• May not be able to compromise a day all the actors in my video to be on location
• My main actor for video could back-out
• The location may be quiet busy when filming (HOPEFULLY NOT) 
• Bad weather, but may make my video better

These are quite minor issues that may happen, as I have stated in earlier posts there will be free running in my video. This can be a major issue if there are any problems, hopefully not but my actor could injure himself in the middle of filming. This is why I have spoken to him about if there are certain stunts that he is unable to do as I know that he has injured himself in the past with certain stunts. This will probably cause the most worry for me whilst filming but I don't expect him to do anything he  cant handle.

Worries

I am still yet to start filming my music video, this is worrying me as I am running out of time. I should have most of the shots for my music video by now but unfortunately I do not, My actor is still busy with other business and still tells me he wants to be i the video but I am not sure how much longer I can wait. I need to start filming within the next week, if not I may have to think of something else.

Music videos with free running

This may not be an official music video but it does link with my own work through the free running content. I decided to do this as I thought it would good idea to see what sort of shots and camera angles work with these types of videos. This example seems to show quite a few clips that  are slowed down creating more effect while they perform. It would probably do me well to do the same to some extent, to be honest i fell it would have been better if they slowed it down just a little bit more so I think I will slow it down even more.

I feel this is a more interesting video and a better example to use, as I stated before I would prefer the video to have much slower clips. This video has a lot slower clips as well as other effects that the other does not. For example there was a clip near the start of the video where a clip just paused for a couple of seconds, I thought this was interesting. Im not so sure that this effect would work in my video but I will look back and listen to my song again to see if there is somewhere I can fit this effect in I will.

Film Trouble

Unfortunately I am yet to begin filming on my music video, the actor I want has a rather packed schedule so therefore i have not had the chance to gather footage. I have spoken to this person and he has assured me that he will be free to work with me within the next few weeks, hopefully there wont be too big a gap between filming posts in the future.

Questionaire

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aswXLFovQG77t5GIMk_hxKKEacJEXYP_jHZTil8-tFc/viewform?usp=send_form

Lyrics

The genre my song is from is Dub step, therefore there is hardly any lyrics in my song but there is some. The only lyrics that are in the song are 'Innocence' and 'You'll never be mine', as it is important for performance to be included in the video I will be sure that there will be lip syncing so there is at least some sort of performance.

plan of action

I have spoken to the person I want to be involved in the video, I have explained the idea of the video and as I hoped it to be a rather active video so I have gone through the certain stunts I would like to see in the video with him to see if he would be able to perform them.

I have asked if will be able to perform stunts such as

• front flips over people as they run at him 
• free running over certain objects such as walls
•  benches 
• large drops

He seemed fine with everything I have asked of him and he himself has given recommendations to what I could do and certain things he can do in my video to make it more interesting which is great to hear.

The next step will be to look for locations that suit mine and my actors needs
I will have to look for locations that allow my actor to easily work with for the video which have objects that he can work with such as

• Brick walls
• Large Drops
• Slopes 
• Fences
• Poles
• Large Trees

The next thing to do will be to actually start shooting the video, as I am making the video I will take pics of the location and the actors working. These images will be posted on my blog as well as filming updates, hopefully these will be quite often at least two posts a week just for updates. 

After I have enough footage for my video I will begin to edit my video together (the part i'm dreading) again when it comes to this point I will edit small parts of the video together and post them with the appropriate verses from the song. Hopefully this will keep you interested in my project. Once my video is complete I will post it on the blog with all the marketing objects such as album cover, posters and ticket designs.

mood board

These are just a couple of small mood boards I have made, most of these images are from albums that Nero have created or images from their music video for Innocence. Other images are related to dubstep in general such as posters or logos.

I decided to create a small mood board displaying free-running movements as I thought that since it has become the main focus of my video it would be best to do some research into it. I plan on dedicating future blog posts to free-running looking at how the movements can fit in with the music and see if there have been any other music videos that include free-running to see how they dealt with the challenge of incorporating it in the video.

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unofficial-Blackout/581503285299321

Band Name

Blackout-

Equipment

If I am going to make this video I will need a range of equipment that will aid me in the creation of my music video and make it easier for me. To start, the most vital piece of equipment that I will need for this project is a camera. The better the camera the higher quality the video will be, as this is supposed to be passed off as a professional music video it will not help if the camera I use makes the video look poor.

Try-pod- There will be a number of times in the filming of this video that I will need a steady shot, a try-pod will come in very handy for this. There will be quite a few shots where the subject will be running across a field or from a far distance and so the try-pod will effectively keep the shot steady making the shot look professional.

If there are any further pieces of equipment that can and will be used I will be sure to update this post with teem.

Locations

 St John's gardens will be one of the locations I will be visiting to shoot my music video. I thought this would be  a good location to use in my video because I think that I could get some great shots of my actor free running over the walls around the garden. I also thought that I would be able to include some shots that have some colour in from the many flowers in the garden. The only problem I think there could be with this location is that St John's gardens is normally quite busy, I don't really want a lot of people in the music video. I understand that this is highly unlikely to happen when I am filming in public places like the gardens. Hopefully if I film this part of my video during the week there wont be a lot of people in the shot,

Story Bored for Music Video

Here is the story bored for my music video (Pardon the awful drawings), the story of this video is split into six main sections. The overall storyline for this video is about a teenage boy trying to reach a girl, this story plays along great with the lyrics of the song. I understand that this story does not differ much from the plot in the original video but hopefully my individuality in my video will show through and will create a very strong visible difference between the two videos.

Song in the Media

It was dificult to find an example of Neros Innocence being used in the media, I was searching for days and I couldnt find a thing. Until last night when I was watching Misfits and I heard the song being played in the background, this was done to go with the character in the scene who sems to think that he is in a game. Unfortunatly it isnt a very long clip, the song was only used for bout 10 seconds.

Chosen Song

'Innocence' by Nero is a great tune, I believe that I can do a lot with this song. The drops in beat for this song are great, listening to this I can clearly see where and what I can have done in the music video. For example about half way through the song there is a section where the beat jumps for a few seconds,  the stopping and starting of the beat gave me an idea to convert the footage for this section into images and as the beat keeps picking up I can have video display another image making it look like a flip book animation. As this is lyrical dub step the song focuses on the music instead of lyrics, because of this there are hardly any lyrics.

Ideas for Music Video

I hope to be creating a rather fast up beat video for my song, I feel if I create a fast interesting video the viewers will not get bored as they may if I decided to create a slow depressing music video where there is not a lot of things going on in the scene as well as the music itself. I have come to this conclusion after looking at many music videos, the idea to create a fast paced video was most definitely inspired by Rudimental. Their interesting and active videos have inspired me a great deal to pack my video with as much activity as possible, this is why I am going to begin looking into such activities as scatting, free running, dance and creative and expressive arts in general. There are plenty of areas around Liverpool that will be perfect locations for my ideal music video.

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

In todays lesson I had an introduction into Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory, he splits his theory into six different conventions within a music video. So I spent the lesson learning about his theory by reading through his conventions.

Theory
"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds. A music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning"

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.

This convention relates to how the artists actions in the music video can have a direct contrast to the lyrics in the song or it can have a similarity. There is an example of this in the music video below,

As you could see from this music video the group used hand signals during the song which was relevant to the song lyrics. The hand signals in this particular music video go along with the lyrics, this shows a clear connection between the lyrics of the song and the choreography in the video. The fact that they have done this it just supports the lyrics giving visual examples aswell as the music and lyrics.



2. Thought Beats: seeing the sounds- The relationship between the music and the visuals, which illustrates, amplifies or contradicts the music.

This is much like the first convention but this time you focus on not the lyrics but on the music only, this is where the choreography becomes important for the video. To have a great dance routine your actions must make sense with the music. The beat has dramatic affect on how the music video should be edited, for example if there is a fast paced beat it would be wise to use fast edits and jump cuts so that the visuals and music go together.


3. Genre-related style and iconography present. (This helps recognise the genre of music)

Iconography is when either an artist, group or music genre is excepted to be recognised through either certain objects or styles.
Slash has had his top hat since 1985, when he decided to shoplift it from a store. At the time, he was still extremely poor and didn’t have the money for it, so he just took it. Luckily for Slash, the hat didn’t have any sensor to set it off as he left. When he got home he decided the hat was a bit boring, and added one of his belts to it for a little flavour. It has been a trademark part of his look ever since. 

Now when I think of Guns n Roses the first thing I think of is Slash's top hat, this is an example of iconography. His unique trademark has separated him and the band a part from the rest of the bands and artists who share the same genre.

4. Multiple close ups of the main artists or vocalist: the creation of a star image to promote a recognizable brand image. (Male Gaze)

Do you trust someone you look up to, marvel and respect? The most common answer is “yes,” and brands gladly use this weak spot of their consumers to sell more by teaming up with celebrities, who actually ‘advise’ you to use some products. This tried-and-true strategy usually delivers nice results, since it builds on the traditional approach—if you like somebody, you trust them and so you are more positive about things they promote. When brands enlist a well-recognized person for their advertising campaigns, they rely on his or her flawless image and perfect relevance with the target audience, put people (including Hollywood A-listers).

Intertextuality

In todays lesson I have been studying Intertextuality, it is recreating a piece of media text and turning it into a different form such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers did with their music video for Californication. The combination of these two media texts (Music Video & Gaming Animation) created a new form of media unique.



To be more specific intertextuality is using the basis of something and changing the media form such as a story line from a film turned into a music video.

There are three specific areas of intertextuality, these are Bricolage, Parody and Pastiche.

Bricolage

The term bricolage is used to describe a work that is made from combining existing materials, independent of their original purpose.

Parody

A parody, in current use is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialize an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice."Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms),animation, gaming and film.

Pastiche

Pastiche is a literary piece that imitates another famous literary work of another writer. Unlike parody, its purpose is not to mock but to honor the literary piece it imitates.

Album Covers

I have decided to explore further into CD covers and their historical background. From personal experience I can define how an album cover is used to attract buyers due to the artwork on the front cover, whether its simple or just effective, as Music, and CD’s sell. I also know that they act as a protective sleeve for the CD. I have extracted some information from ‘Wikipedia’ to generalise the definition further and explain its purposes:

‘An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10″ and 12″ 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12″ LPs, sets of 45 rpm records (either in several connected sleeves or a box), or the front-facing panel of a CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks.


The cover serves three main purposes:

1. To advertise and identify the contents of the music product.
2. To convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists
3. In reproductions of the artwork, to serve as a primary image in the promotional efforts surrounding the product, as an identifiable image associated with it’

Over the decades since album covers were revolutionised, there have been many controversial album covers. Aspects of artwork associated with sexuality/nudity, religious beliefs, trademarks have been either banned or dismissed due to violence, graphical content or plagiarism.


 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS- MOTHER’S MILK (1989)

The album cover features a black and white photograph of the band sprawled across the arms of a proportionately larger naked woman. A rose conceals one of her nipples while Kiedis’ standing body conceals the other. Several national chains refused to sell the record because they believed the female subject displayed too much nudity. A stricter censored version was manufactured for some retailers that featured the band members in far larger proportion than the original.

 Appetite for Destruction released on July 21, 1987

Album's original cover art, based on Robert Williams' painting "Appetite for Destruction", depicted a robotic rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger. After several music retailers refused to stock the album, the label compromised and put the controversial cover art inside, replacing it with an image depicting a cross and skulls of the five band members (designed by Billy White Jr., originally as a tattoo), each skull representing one member of the The band: Izzy Stradlin, top skull; Steven Adler, left skull; Axl Rose, center skull; Duff McKagan, right skull; and Slash, bottom skull. The photographs used for the back of the album and liner notes were taken by Robert John, Marc Canter, Jack Lue, Leonard McCardie, and Greg Freeman. The original cover was supposed to be on the 2008 re-pressing of the vinyl, though the record label replaced it with the "Skulls" art at the last minute. The re-pressing of the vinyl, though, is the first Guns N' Roses release to have the Parental Advisory label printed on the artwork; previously, like on the CD, this was a sticker on the cellophane wrap and later (on the CD and cassette releases) on the case itself.

With the increasing popularity of digital music downloading services and the inflating cost of conducting business, the purpose and prevalence of the album cover is evolving. While the music industry tries to keep up with technological and cultural shifts, the role that packaging (and thus the "album cover") will play in consumer music sales in the near future is uncertain, although its role is certainly changing, and digital forms of packaging will continue to surface, which, to some degree (and to some consumers) take the place of physical packaging. Both MP3 and WMA music files are able to contain embedded digital album artworks (called cover images or simply covers) in jpeg format. As of 2008, physical music products, with a physical "album cover", continue to outsell digital downloads.

In August 2008, album cover designer Peter Saville, responsible for cover art on albums by New Order and Roxy Music, suggested that the album cover was dead.

Alternately, some artists have used Internet technology to generate even more cover art. For instance, Nine Inch Nails initially released its album The Slip as a free download on the band's website, attaching separate but thematically connected images to each individual track. On February 14, 2013, rapper Tyler, The Creator announced his new record Wolf (Tyler, The Creator album) would be released with three different available album covers.

One digital solution is the iTunes LP format for interactive album artwork introduced by Apple on 9 September 2009.

Album art is still considered a vital part of the listening experience to many such as myself, and despite the less-tangible nature of digital images, there are still many collectors trading cover art and music.

How I would design the video 3

Melancholy Hill is my favourite song by the Gorillaz, this is because I find it to be relaxing and enjoyable to listen too. One of the reasons why I love the Gorillaz is because of their interesting and unique music videos. I have always been drawn into their videos as it is the art and the animation that has kept me interested in the group as they make the video humorous. As I said this is a relaxing soothing song I believe, therefor I believe it deserves a relaxing video. It is hard for me to design a video for this song as to me it is perfect, but if I were to design it I would like to think a fairground scene in the night would be nice compliment to the song, I would shoot the video in the pitch black at the beginning and as the music starts slowly have the fairgrounds power come on for all the rides. This would go with the pace of the music I think, I would have my cast on all the rides using different shots for all giving me a selection of shots when it came to editing.

How I would design the video 2

Now this is more of an upbeat song, again I believe that the video matches the song perfectly but there are some aspects that I would change and add. To start the video I would have the band exiting an airport in Tokyo, this would have much greater beginning for the song. I wouldn't of used the day scenes in the video as those scenes attempted to add humour to the video which I do not believe it did. Instead I would have an all night theme to the video of them not just in clubs and bars but of maybe in open spaces in Tokyo. I believe that this would make the video more interesting whilst still keeping in key with the original music and lyrics. This is not all, I would have them in some scenes in a heavily crowded area of Tokyo maybe on a road as I believe that this would go well with the lyrics of how they want to go back. To finish the video I would have them in the middle of a crowded area as I have just stated and as the song ends I would lift the camera to view the landscape of Tokyo, this I believe would complement the song.

How I would design the video 1

As this is one of my favourite songs and one of my favourite music videos I believe that the music video for this song is as close to perfection for this song as can be. If I was the one to design the video for this song I would definitely make sure that I had an empty scene throughout the video so that the visual aspect connects with the song, such as a beach, field, park or an empty highway to emphasise the sorrow of the song. For the time scale in the video I would have the focus point of the video (singer) travel threw the day from sunrise to sunset, this again will strengthen the idea of loneliness.

What Makes a good Music Video

Now as soon as I knew that I had to start looking at existing music videos for ideas and to find out what makes a good music video, I knew that I had to use 'Sledgehammer' by Peter Gabriel. I love this music video and I believe that it is a video that I can gather a lot of inspiration from. this video. As good as this video is, it is clearly an extremely difficult video to make. As the music video has to be completely my groups creation, to make something like this would be nearly impossible to make in time for the deadline thanks to all the animations. I do like the idea of maybe using some short animations that seem to be random but makes the music video more interesting.

Semiotic Theory

Semiotics is the theory of the production and interpretation of meaning. It's basic principle is that meaning is made by the deployment of acts and objects which function as "signs" in relation to other signs. Systems of signs are constituted by the complex meaning-relations that can exist between one sign and another, primarily relations of contrast and super ordination/subordination (e.g. class/member, whole/part). Signs are deployed in space and time to produce "texts", whose meanings are construed by the mutually contextualizing relations among their signs.

There are two major traditions in European semiotics: F. de Saussure, semiology; and C.S. Peirce, semiotics. Saussure's approach was a generalization of formal, structuralist linguistics; Peirce's was an extension of reasoning and logic in the natural sciences. 

Parody s and Pastiche

At the beginning of this lesson I was told that I will have to research two styles of post-modern media that I had not been taught yet in the course. I was handed an envelope containing the two post-modern style that I had to research, these were Parody's and Pastiche. Pastiche to me was a respectful imitation of somebody else's writing or music. "Parody" implies making fun of something. 

Pastiche is a new word for me, but that's how I understand the difference: pastiche was a friendly tribute kind of imitation and parody was somewhere on the negative continuum, somewhere from gently teasing to out and out insulting.

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist, he was born in  Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk. Cunningham often works with the same types of artist and his work is very recognizable as he uses the same style throughout his videos, breaking the limitations of traditional music videos. Chris Cunningham made his directorial debut in 1997 with the music video for "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin, which was instantly praised, banned, and raved about by many people in the business. He followed up by making the music video for "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin, and the astounding "All is Full of Love" video by Björk. Recently, he made his short-film debut, "Flex,". His incredible style alone makes him a director to watch out for in later years.

Analysing my Magazine in relation to the concept of audiences

I created a music magazine as part of my Coursework in AS, here I will be analysing my magazine as an official Rock magazine. I will be focusing on the audience of my magazine, I will look at aspects such as the age range of my audience. I will also focus on why it is that these specific people would be interested in reading my magazine.

I created a magazine named 11, this is a Classic Rock magazine focusing on older artists and bands such as 'Black Sabath, 'Jimmie Hendrix' and 'ACDC'. As my magazine is based on classic rock I realised that target audience will most probably be men over the age of 30.
After deciding this I had to be sure that all of the content in my magazine were based on classic rock, and so I began research into classic rock bands. This was all to be sure that I had a wide selection of classic rock bands that I could include in my magazine.

When I began my photo shoot for my magazine i had to be sure that the models clothing was suitable to be used in a classic rock magazine.

Music and Me Class Reflection

After completing my blog post on music from my past and present (Music & Me) we where excepted to share our chosen songs with the group showing the music video also. This was an interesting and productive lesson, I found it hard to share in front of the group as on the blog post I spoke about a subject I have nerve spoken to anybody about. This was about how I felt when my dad was away in Iraq, I used the song 21 guns to show how I felt in this period.
It was interesting to see the difference in musical tastes throughout the class, there where genres ranging from Rap to Dubstep, Rock to Pop. This allowed me to learn more about the students in my class to see how their minds would work when creating a music video for their genres and so I could see that there will be a huge difference in our music videos.

Music & Me

21 Guns- This is the song that reminds me of my childhood, when I was young my dad was a part of the TA. I didn't have much understanding when it came to the army, all I knew was that it was there to protect us. When I was 6 my dad was deployed to Iraq, he served in a six month tour. Although I was 6 at the time I still understood what war was and that people die in war. I was terrified all the way through his tour, it was during these six months were I began to develop my hatred towards war and conflict. I understand that this wasn't a particularly large portion of my childhood but it was most definitely one of the most memorable and will be a section of my life that I will never forget.

Lip Syncing Reflection

Lip Syncing Video

What makes an Effective Music Video

There are thousands upon thousands of music videos out there today, with so many flooding the market, originality has decidedly gone down the tubes. However, there are some artists that still live up to what fans expect from their music videos. 

But what makes a great music video? 

1. Must be unique- This is one of if not the most important thing when it comes to creating a music video. Its boring when time and time again I see music videos for slow sad songs where the artist or group are walking down an empty beach or a lone room to promote sorrow and loneliness. If the video is unique hopefully the more people will like it therefore it will become more successful, this is something that I will have to keep in mind when designing my video. 

Such as this Coldplay track 'Yellow', this would be the original for me when looking at sad music videos. The loneliness of this video is/was unique, this has been done a quite a few times since.



2. Tells a story. It can be a bizarre story that doesn't make much sense until the end, but the viewer must feel satisfied at the conclusion. It does not always have to be a story straight through the song, as long as the music and lyrics seem to suit the video and there is not too much contrast. 


This is a good example for the statement above, there is a clear straight forward story for this video. A high percentage of lyrics for this song are meant to be a conversation between the artist and a fan. This works perfectly for this video as it matches perfectly.


3. The artist or director must not feel confined to matching the visuals of the video perfectly with the lyrics. While good in some cases it tends to be a sign of a novice video director as it can seem like the video is following a step by step video template.

4. Makes a lasting impression and/or is memorable. This applies more to the older music videos, the forerunners to great music videos, that might not have the best production values but people still remember them and are often sampled by other artists & mediums. Sabotage by the beastie boys is one of these memorable videos, they were a funny and talented group and this shows through all their music videos such as 'Sabotage'. 

 I need to realise that a great music video does not mean a great song with a mediocre video, but a great music video can have a mediocre song. There are some amazing and iconic songs with okay music videos. The questions I need to ask myself are, Do I think of the music video long after i've seen it, even if i've only seen it once? Did it captivate me when I first saw it? These should be the questions I ask myself when determining whether it is great, so I can incorporate the best bits into my video.

Introduction

This is my introduction to my A2 course Blog, in this course I will be focusing on music videos and will eventually create one of my own. As well as focusing on music videos I will also be researching the way new albums or singles are promoted in the media with the help of promotion schemes and cover art. This blog is a diary of my thoughts on this topic and so you should except the posts to be focusing on reviewing existing music videos to start to see how a music video should be put together. I will then move onto my own relationship with music to see what style of music is best to use when creating my own music video, as the the more you enjoy the song your using the more thought you will put into how to design the video to compliment the song. After I have covered this area I will then move onto music video theory's so I can learn more from others on how to do things such as take a video and dismantle it to see why the director has decided to do certain things wether it is to use certain signals or signs in the video so that it goes hand in hand with the lyrics or how the choreography is important for different lines in the song. It will then be up to me to plan and design my video from  song choice to cast, as I am working alone on this project the planning for my my own music video will be on the same blog as my research.