Permission

I still haven't had a reply from the publishers that I emailed the other week to get permission to use the track by Various Cruelties. I am now going to assume it is fine to use the track. I am definitely going ahead with using 'Chemicals' as my song which is great!

Survey- target audience

I created another survey, which I have asked people to complete, screenshot and email back to me. i have found that this may be be easier as some people were finding difficulty accessing survey monkey to complete the other survey I made before.

Target Audience

In my opinion, the target audience will be teenagers to young adults in general. More so girls though. I am yet to do a questionnaire to research my most likely target audience but from common knowledge of bands similar out there in the industry, young adults are the most likely to be interested in this particular music type. I am going to create some questionnaires, for both young people and adults to quiz them on their music tastes.This will help me get some valuable research to identify what my primary target audience will be and how I will cater to the needs of that audience.

Taking on board the comments below, I have now uploaded the survey that I have created that I am going to ask a range of people to fill in and see what information I receive and if it is some valuable research. I will then, when I have received all the survey back, upload the research I have gained and what the results are.

Album Cover Idea

The album covers I have researched into have all had a pattern in choice. I want to create an album cover which has a random background which has absolutely no relevance to the music on the album or the style of the band. This will be accompanied by block font over the top in  the middle with the name of the band. I am going to find an image that I find interests me and experiment on photo shop with it to change the effects about and the filters to give it a different look and then decide from there.

Here is one example of a mock up, using a primary source image. Of a photograph, where the filters have been altered slightly and the text has been added and a border has been created around the edges. I included my own name as when it was created, I did not have a band name sorted yet.

My ideas for the concept of my video

In my video, I will be filming a performance based video with small narrative. I am thinking of filming a band playing and singing the track but I haven't finalised on a location yet or what type of location yet e.g. outdoor or indoor. The band will consist of vocalist, guitarist(s) and drummer. I want to include different effects such as filters and different colours, into my video when I edit it to make it look interesting and edgy and effective. I also want to include typography. The typography will be broken parts of the lyrics to the song displayed on the screen in a variety of fonts. In my preliminary task, using the song 'Don't', I inserted some typography, using parts of the lyrics of the song with some basic colours and a white background as a template, just to give an example of what I mean and how it would be set out in the final video. I want to use typography as Various Cruelties did in their music video and it came across very effective when editing to the beat. My video will be made up extremely short and quick paced shots as it worked great in the original video for the song and that's how I wanted to edit my music video, to an upbeat, fast paced song. Using fast paced shots links very closely to the the style and genre of my band. This is as various bands of this genre, use this effect also. Below I have picked a few examples of music videos associated with my genre, that use fast paced editing. Using fast paced editing, creates a tension of excitement and this is something I want to represent through my video. My band will be an all male band as all of the bands I have researched on my blog, have been all male band members and I want to carry this on. Also the singer in the song I have chosen is male and I cannot use a female for this role.




Here in this video for Coldplay, the music video is edited very fast paced. Throughout the whole video, shots only last up to about 3 seconds each. This proves to be effective as it creates tension.



Here in this video for Greenday, it has been edited very fast paced and quick. This is used very effectively to create a big sense of excitement and to hold it throughout the video. The song is very fast, and the editing compliments this to support the feeling.

Album Artwork

The front cover of the album is something that I have found pattern in with various bands of the same genre and style. They seem to have an image of some sort such as a landscape or a random object or person and it is filtered to give an edgy effect. The name of the band is the main focus on the album cover as it is put over the top of the image right in the middle in bold text, usually in a bright colour such as white or sometimes black, depending on the colour of the background.

I have researched into some bands that have designed their front cover of their album this way as this is the type of design I will be using to create my own cover.

The artist I have looked at are:

• The 1975
• The Neighbourhood
• Vampire Weekend
• Two Door Cinema Club
• Miles Kane

As you can see here by the following images, the concept of the design is very similar and very effective in reaching the goal of bringing the artists name to attention straight away and the focus staying there.

Codes and Conventions of an Indie Music Video

Various Cruelties

Various Cruelties by Liam O'Donnell in London, England, in 2010. Formed in 2010, Various Cruelties received early acclaim based on a self-released limited edition single, “If It Wasn’t For You," and signed with Mercury Records. In 2011, Various Cruelties released three singles, and in October of 2012, they released their debut album on their own label, Almanac Recordings. Genres they are associated with are Rock, Pop, Soul and Indie Rock.

Albums:

• Various Cruelties Almanac Recordings, October, 2012

Singles:

• "Neon Truth" Mercury/Universal, April, 2012
• "Great Unknown" Mercury/Universal, January, 2012
• "Chemicals" Mercury/Universal, September, 2011
• "Neon Truth" Independent, May, 2011
• "If It Wasn't For You" Independent, January, 2011

Asking for permission to use my chosen track

Here I have sent an email to the publishing manager of Various Cruelties to ask for their permission to use their track in my project. hoepfully I will get a reply! And it will be good news! Please click on the photo for an enlargement.

Choice of song

I have decided on a final song for my music video. I have chosen to go with 'Chemicals' by Various Cruelties as it is an upbeat song and meets all the criteria for my ideas. I have already analysed the music video by this artist and posted it on my blog but I am also going to do a timeline of the video to demonstrate the continuous extremely quick shots as this is something I want to feature throughout my own video.

Deciding on the perfect song for my video

There are a wide range of bands and artists that I really do love. I have a huge interest in Bands like The Arctic Monkeys, The Neighbourhood, Various Cruelties, The Last Shadow Puppets, George Ezra, Miles Kane, Bombay Bicycle Club, Basement Jaxx, Foster The People, ALt-J, I love indie rock, pop rock, electro and dance and love the different types of music videos that are created by all of these artists. I would love to be able to combine these into my project as some band are based on more than one genre combined.

On the otherhand, I am very into older music, released before I was born. Primarily because I was brought up having a father of excellent music taste. I absolutely love Primal Scream, The Clash, Joy Division, New Order, Red Hot Chilli Pepper's (my mams favourite band), Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, the Ramones, The Beatles, U2. And the list goes on. This has made choosing a song extremely difficult as I am a very indecisive person and have the problem having very different tastes in music.

Action Plan

Action Plan

So far in my A2 media course... I have researched and analysed certain existing music videos by artists that are linked within my genre. I have filmed and edited a short rough edit of my vague idea on what my final piece will be absed on and also include. My genre is Alternative which allows me explore a wide variety of artists and songs. But the main one I am going to focus on for my video is slightly indie rock/pop.

At the beginning of my project I filmed a quick preliminary task that let me express my first initial ideas, showing what music videos I liked and the different effects and overall style I favoured.

What I plan to do next in the following few weeks:

• finish off any music video analysis required
• complete my pitch planning
• Research into branding