Band or Solo Artist?

Whilst editing our music video, the production team and I were starting to think about the artist/s of our song due to the fact that this issue is relatively essential when designing an album cover. We are taking into consideration the image of the artist/s as we have specific target audience criteria to work in collaboration with for example the age group and gender we are trying to attract.

Ke$ha

Kesha is a contemporary American pop artist who began her solo career in early 2009. She was originally a backing singer for bands such as ‘The Veronicas’ and solo artists such as Britney Spears. Her fame mainly began when she appeared to be featuring in the debut song ‘Right Round’ with Flo Rida, then in late 2009 became even more popular amongst the youth when she released her single ‘Tik Tok’. In my opinion Kesha has the typical image of a pop/rock star. Her image would relate me back to the song to our music video ‘Superman’ as her individual style relates to our music genre. Also, she attracts the target audience which we are aiming to grab attention from as well.

Paramore

Paramore is an American rock band that is well known in many countries. The members consist of 3 boys and a girl who is the lead singer. This particular band had caught my attention when looking for rock bands which could have a similar genre to that of our production team due to their multi-coloured outfits and the lead singer. This is because in the song we are promoting, we also have a lead female vocalist. However, in the majority of their songs they have dominant beating of drums, this again reminded me of our song as we also have dominant beating of drums at the beginning and throughout the song. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that if the group and I decide that our song would be promoting a band, they would have a similar image to that of Paramore.

Even though the majority of my artist research is based on solo artists, for example Avril Lavigne, I feel that a band would be a more suitable way of promoting our song ‘Superman’ as bands are more adaptable to peoples personal taste compared to solo artists. Additionally, due to our song having many instruments being played that are immediately distinct, a band would get more acknowledgement and recognition from the audience for playing their own music instead of using the help of Garageband.

Some of the most famous album covers!

Nirvana : Nevermind

Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records. Frontman Kurt Cobain sought to make music outside of the restrictive confines of the Seattle grunge scene, drawing influence from groups such as the Pixies and their use of loud/quiet song dynamics.

The Nevermind album cover shows a baby swimming toward a US dollar bill on a fishhook. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with Grohl. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen's art director Robert Fisher. Fisher found some stock footage of underwater births but they were too graphic for the record company. Also, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby that they subsequently settled on wanted $7,500 a year for its use, so instead Fisher sent a photographer to a pool for babies to take pictures. Five shots resulted and the band settled on the image of a three-month-old infant named Spencer Elden. There was controversy about having a naked baby featuring on the album cover therefore Geffen found an alternative to have a sticker covering the baby's genitals.

Pink Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon

The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, and bore Hardie's iconic dispersive prism on the cover. For The Dark Side of the Moon Richard Wright instructed them to come up with something "smarter, neater—more classy". The prism design was inspired by a photograph that Thorgerson had seen during a brainstorming session with Powell. The artwork was created by their associate, George Hardie. Hipgnosis offered the band a choice of seven designs, but all four members agreed that the prism was by far the best. The design represents three elements; the band's stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design. Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgerson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, facilitating interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops. The light band shining out from the prism on the album cover has six colours, missing indigo compared to the traditional division of the spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A normal prism would also exhibit a continuous spectrum with no defined boundaries between colours, and coloured light within the prism. Inside the sleeve were two posters and a sheet of pyramid-themed stickers.

Herb Alpert : Whipped Cream and Other Delights

Whipped Cream sold over 6 million copies in the United States and the album cover alone is considered a classic pop culture icon. It featured model Dolores Erickson wearing chiffon and shaving cream. The picture was taken at a time when Erickson was three months pregnant. The cover was so popular with Alpert fans that, during concerts, when about to play the song "Whipped Cream", Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you!" The art was parodied by several groups including once A&M band Soul Asylum, who made fun of the liner notes along with the back cover on their album Clam Dip & Other Delights, comedian Pat Cooper on his album Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights.

Editing Cont...(Part 2)

On the 16th of December the whole media group and I went to the City Learning Centre to gain more essential information about the new software 'iMovie' which we found difficulty using since it was drastically more updated compared to the version which we used in the previous year. A few months prior to the 16th of December, we went to the City Learning Centre to gain confidence in the understanding of the use of the programme 'Garageband', however we did not put this programme to use due to reasons explained previously. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our trip due to the fact it gave us the amazing opportunity to have inspiration with editing techniques when composing our music video together with a person which had many years of experience with the Mac software.



Firstly, on our own, we assembled the clips to have transitions which we in time to the beat of the music at the beginning of the music video. We then gained feedback from the person who was training us with this software and he explained to us why our transitions were too slow and not exact to the beats of the music. Regardless of this, our assistant enabled us with a new technique which ordered us into doing this technique effectively by adding time markers to each beat of the song we wanted the clips to change on resulting in our timing being much more efficient towards the beats of the music.



Another problem which we managed to overcome was the transition which we gained influence from Blink 182's music video. We came to realise that the iMovie software did not cater this transition therefore we had to reassemble our thoughts, and in the end we concluded with the 'wipe' transition from left to right with certain clips to help reassure the audience with each character making them unconsciously noticing their different stereotypes.

Editing

Today's date is one of our first whole lessons to attempt editing our now uploaded promotional music video. Again, we researched on YouTube a variety of videos which could help us to have an even more profound understanding of how to use the version of iMovie which we were still not 100% confident with. One of our first tasks which was essential in the editing of our scenes was to crop them to make them immaculate. There were a few scenes which we recorded that had areas of certain rooms showing which made the overall image of the scenes inconsistent and disheveled. Therefore we researched specific videos on YouTube which was giving tips for cropping, and as a result we successfully managed to crop the scenes that we intended on doing. Also, we adding in specific transitions after experimenting with them in the process of uploading the film. In certain scenes such as the ones consisting of lip synchronization the production team and I decided that adding in a cartoon transition would be most effective in the efforts to enhance the 'Superman' cartoon like feel towards the video as we relate Superman to the Marvel comics.

History of Album Cover Design

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 has 3 main functions:
1) To advertise 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.

Early History...

Around 1910, 78 rpm records replaced phonograph cylinder as the medium for recorded sound. The 78 rpm records were issued in both 10" and 12" diameter sizes and were usually sold separately, in brown paper or cardboard sleeves that were sometimes plain and sometimes printed to show the producer or the retailer's name. Generally the sleeves had a circular cutout allowing the record label to be seen. Records could be laid on a shelf horizontially or stood upright on an edge, but because of their fragility, many broke in storage.

More Recent Design...

The cover became an important part of the culture of music at the time. As a marketing tool and an expression of artistic intent, gatefold covers, (a folded double cover), and inserts, often with lyric sheets, made the album cover a desirable artifact in its own right. Notable examples are The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which had cut-out inserts, lyrics, a gatefold sleeve though a single album; and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon which had gatefold, lyrics, no title on the sleeve and poster inserts. The move to the small (less than 1/4 the size of a record) CD format lost that impact, though attempts have been made to create a more desirable packaging for the CD format, for example the re-issue of Sgt. Pepper, which had a cardboard box and booklet, or the use of oversized packaging.

The Beatles : Lonely Hearts

Pink Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon

Uploading Our Film

In today's lesson the production team and I uploaded our filming onto the Mac computers to enable us to begin making a start on our editing using the most updated version of iMovie. The team and I were very confused to begin with since the new version of iMovie was very different to the one in which we used last year. We went onto YouTube to look for videos which could possibly give simple instructions on how to do simple effects as we did not even know how to do something as simple as that. We finally found a YouTube video which helped us to understand more about applying transitions. We experimented with the transitions and applied a few even though we were not intending on actually using them as we just wanted to feel more confident about how to use certain transitions and how to apply them effectively. We accomplished how to use them after a while and we all felt relatively comfortable, however we wanted to make certain scenes tinted red, but we soon managed to realise this would not work due to this not being an option.

Filming Cont...

- Today, the production team and I made the effort to finish off filming our last scenes for the music video after realising we did not have enough tape to cover the whole three minutes we were aiming to produce for the music video. Our original storyboard had scenes altered and deleted and what we proposed doing was to finish off filming the areas we added in so that our final outcome would match our new and updated storyboard. However, this meant we had to carefully think of the locations we were intending on using.

- Reena ( main girl character) made an attempt to film the 'Superman' scenes with Krishna ( the male playing the part of Superman ) and herself enjoying each others company and having fun with one another to show their fun and young relationship they were building on, as part of the storyline. We all agreed that domesticated areas such as living rooms and bedrooms would be most suitable for these particular scenes to emphasise the comfort found in one another by both characters.

- Another scene was set in a park in the childrens' play area. The change of setting symbolises the changes in their relationship as their relationship is growing stronger the more they get to know each other and spend time with one another. Therefore, the settings regards their perspective of each other. Also, the childlike play area shows that they are able to have fun together and act immature - this can relate to marvel as an inspiration that we researched into when choosing 'Superman' as the name of our song.

- Furthermore, the costumes allocated for each character are similar to what was worn in previous scenes, however some areas of clothing are somewhat different. This is also another aspect of a change in the relationship which is being built, however this could appear as a non-continuity error. An aspect of the character's attire is that the girl is wearing 'Superman's' cardigan whichs symbolises a sense of sharing in the relationship.

Filming

On the 5th of December, the production team and I began our filming for the production of our music video. We had made a schedule to begin filming at 10am however this did not materialise due to many complications. One of the difficulties we managed to swiftly overcome was our plan to film at April's house in her living room due to it being very spacious and convenient for our 'dating scenes', however this resulted in being very disruptive towards the family which resulted in us not being able to use that location we intended on. Therefore, we had no choice but to change the location. This proved a hassle as many aspects such as the mise-en-scene and the lighting were going to be very different to what we originally had in mind. Nevertheless, we all reconsidered the design of these particular scenes and reshaped them to what would mould perfectly into the mise-en-scene of another production team members bedroom. The angles were slightly different, however still overall successful for us to be able to begin filming at approximately 12pm. This consequently gave us a sufficient amount of time to get the majority of the main scenes filmed as we had already planned to make a huge effort on filming most of our scenes on this date. We also wanted to film the majority of the films on this date because this would enable all of the characters to look exactly the same in every shot and it would also contribute to more time for editing once filming was over.

Here in an example of a scene we managed to film. We managed to film all three male characters walking down the road to emhance their role and stereotypes. We used this as a way of creating a jump cut effect to create the massive contrast between the various personalities. This also makes it unambiguous that all three male characters are going to the same place - enhanced through jump cut effect.

Here is an example of a complication we managed to overcome. This is an example of a 'dating scene' which we had to change. This location apparent here is that of Reena's bedroom which was our last resort. As a result, the scenes were grainy and not as clear as what they would have been in our first considered location. On the other hand, the grainy image could work in collaboration with the idea of a romantic feel.

Extreme close ups were other shots we managed to film which helped to emphasise each characters attire, for example, here is a screen shot of the 'Geeks' bow tie which helps the audience to accommodate themselves with the stereotypes before seeing each character as a whole.

Album Covers

As part of one of our ancillary tasks, we have to produce an album cover for our music video production. Therefore, to make a start on album covers I thought it would be productive and constructive if I were to take three album covers from my music genre and analyse them. By doing this I will gain inspiration for the album cover I am hoping to produce as I am hoping to develop an album cover which will directly catch the attention of all audiences. The album covers I decided to analyse is Pink’s album ‘Funhouse’, Katy Perry’s album ‘One Of The Boys’ and lastly, the artist I am following – Avril Lavigne’s ‘The Best Damn Thing’.

Here are the analysis's I have made of the following album covers...

As Avril Lavigne is the artist I am following throughout my project, I have decided to compare her most recent album to one of her older ones. Firstly, here is an analysis of her album cover for the front of the album and the back also.

Comparing Avril Lavigne’s album ‘The Best Damn Thing’ to her first album ‘Let Go’, there is a difference in the use of generic album cover conventions. For example, Avril Lavigne’s name on the front of the album cover does not stand out against the name of the album. This could possibly be challenging the album cover conventions compared to ‘The Best Damn Thing’ as usually the artist’s name would be somewhat striking compared to the album name to immediately catch the attention of the audience when placed on a shelf next to a number of albums.

A similarity between both album covers in which Avril Lavigne has proposed is that she appears to relatively still have the same style of a punk/rock girl due to the colour scheme of her outfits. However, her use of fashion in more recent years tends to become more colourful but only slightly as she tends to where the colour white more often. This could possibly be illustrating that as time goes on she is growing up and becoming more of a woman who sees the world through a more clear perspective. Whereas on the album cover ‘Let Go’ she is wearing all black which could hold connotations of someone who is mischievous and gets into trouble? So, the slight colour change could be demonstrating the process of her maturing.

The background of the album ‘Let Go’ is blurred and gives the audience a sense of dizziness. This could possibly be a way of demonstrating the feeling of being drunk or possibly on drugs. Avril Lavigne’s sense of fashion and public image would link to the background and the audience would associate this with people of the same stereotype.

‘The Best Damn Thing’ does not particularly challenge the conventions as much as what ‘Let Go’ does because her older album does not necessarily appear to be an album cover at all as the artists name is not striking in any way, there is not the name of any well known songs which has the chance of catching the audiences eye and there is not the use of bold colours which are prominent. Whereas her most recent album ‘The Best Damn Thing’, commit more so to the generic album cover conventions due to the striking image of Avril Lavigne, her name is noticeable next to the album’s name and the album would generally stand out to the audience’s attention when placed on a shelf compared to her older one.

List of Props

We made a list of props that we would need to bring for our shoot day. By doing this, it helped us to put into words the materialistic things which would help to keep up the image of each character and the scenes we are hoping to propose.

Commissioning Music Videos

Although the music business changes with alarming speed, one thing remains constant: The record label's responsibility isto its artist's music production and to the marketing and sales of the music. Each label seeks out recording artists they feel will appeal to a wide audience, which, in return, will allow the label to sell a lot of music. The label then negotiates a recording contract with the particular artist. The contract outlines the artist's responsbilities to the record company as well as the company's responsibility to the artist, such as royalties. The label specializes in helping their artists develop the highest possible sales potential through marketing the artists and their music via the Internet, radio play, and television video networks and shows, and then selling their music through a vast array of audio and visual distribution outlets, such as Internet and iTunes and ring tones.

The record label-artist relationship is co-dependant. The reason an artist signs with a record label is three-fold:

1 - Firstly, the label advances the artist money to pay for recording their music, aswell as for album artwork and marketing campaigns such as videos and commercials. It may also go towards basic living expenses. It has become increasingly prevalent for the label to negotiate deals that involve merchandising.

2 - Secondly, an artist will sign to label due to their vast array of contacts in the music industry, as well as their know how in the business arena. Labels develop and market artists and act as a mentor.

3 - Thirdly, the label's prestige is an important factor. Record companies are reliant on artists putting out their albums and artists rely on them too. Labels exist only to promote the artists vision as long as that vision conforms to the label's goal of achieving financial gain through music sales.

Record Company's Role in the Video Project

Although creating music videos is a team process, each record company operates differently. While every department within a label has a specific role in the process of creating the music, certain departments are more involved in the video process than others. Every record company has an Artist & Repertoire department where its executives seek out new talent and sign them to a contract to record exclusively for their label. In return, the artist receives the guidance and financial backing of the A&R team, in addition to sharing in the profits the artist makes for the label. Some of this allows the artist to write, produce and record their music. Some A&R people get involved in the video process and some do not; it depends on the persons, the relationships and the label.

Theories on Representation

Other media texts as well as music videos offer excellent material for analysing the processes of representation of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, culture and place and of messages and values relating to aspects of personal and political life, for example attitudes to war.



Voyeurism:



This idea comes from the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud which originally refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object. While watching a film, we are all voyeurs, it is argued, but film presents us with variety of pleasures and not necessarily all of them sexual.

Laura Mulvey (1975) suggested that because the filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in film is often solely for the purposes of display. The purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators which is mostly known as the ‘male gaze’, some may consider this to be quite a controlling gaze at the female on display who is passive and objectified.

This has been used in Duran Duran’s work. Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star. In male performance videos too, the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent, with the use of dancers as adornments to the male star ego.

The idea becomes more complex when we see the male body on display – the post-feminist ‘female gaze’ where women are no longer just objects of the look, but exercise some power by looking at men as sex objects too.

The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music video through a system of screens within screens – characters shown watching performances of others on television via webcam, images on a video camera screen, on CCTV. The proliferation of such motif has reached a point where it has become almost an obsession in music promos.



Exhibitionism:



The more powerful independent artists of recent years, from Madonna on, have added to the complexity of the politic and gender/cultural debates, by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of, and inviting a sexualised gaze – opposite to voyeurism (exhibitionism).

All these areas, together with the notion of a ‘queer gaze’ pose interesting questions on the diversity of audience experiences of music video and the contradictory messages and values its representations it may evoke.





Star Construction



Useful inter-related notions are ‘star image’, ‘star vehicle’ and ‘star power’.

“A star is an image constructed from a range of materials” – Richard Dyer (1979)



For pop music, these materials include:

- The songs (their lyrical themes and musical structures/genres)
- The record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present)
- Media coverage (from interviews about career and private life through to tabloid gossip)
- Live performance (the image through the stage show)
- And arguably most significantly the music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in the other materials.



Star Image



How a star is perceived by the audience and the characteristics ascribed to him/her may be a combination of conscious construction by the media for which s/he works and of extra textual publicity in other media. The star is always constructed through a mixture of textual and extra textual factors and can only be controlled by the star and his/her employers up to a certain point, particularly in the age of celebrity when magazines and newspapers or ‘tabloid TV’ can take advantage of any weaknesses. The music promo also has a significant part to play in creating an image by creating an iconography.


Star Vehicle



A product constructed around the image of the star in order to promote that star, a music video is an obvious example. Each video may also draw upon its predecessor both in reinforcing the star’s existing image and in taking their image further, or even seek to subvert the image to create a new one. This is particularly necessary in the case of a lengthy career as a star age.



Star Power



This takes several forms:

- Economic power through earnings generated by the sale of associated product (cinema tickets, CD’s, etc)
- Artistic power (creative control of their own image and how it is used by/appears in the media)Ideological power in terms of their influence upon the audience, which may take the form of style or attitude.



By looking at an artist’s retrospective collection of music videos is a useful way to analyse the development of a star’s image. For example, 're-invention' to help maintain careers can be found in the work of Michael Jackson and George Michael.

Filming Problems

Today the team and I were scheduled to begin our filming. On the morning of the 28th of November we had all the props prepared and ready to start shooting for the scenes we were planning on doing this weekend. However, at the very last minute we were contacted by two members of the production team to find out that we were unable to begin shooting as two members were unable to attend due to emergencies and illnesses. We thought about continuing to film, but we realised that these were main characters that were not present, therefore making it rather difficult. Due to this, we rescheduled our shoot day to the 5th of December. This might prove quite a problem because this only enables us one last weekend to film before the deadline. We considered meeting after school for a few shoot days, but because we need the daylight, this also will prove a problem because by the time school finishes and we set up our scenes it would be near enough evening. Also, the production team and characters have other responsibilities to attend after school in the evenings, so that would be an extra issue.

Arranging Props - Lesson 27/11/09

In today's lesson, the group and I thought it would be a constructive idea to make a start on the organisation of props. We began by making a 'Saucy Single's Speed Dating' sign. This was a main feature we need as it will give the audience the sense of atmosphere we are trying to create. The colours of red and white help to give it a feel of romance however the provocative symbols such as the devil horns and hearts help to give a comical feel to it.

Finishing Our Storyboard

As today was our final lesson to finish our storyboards, we made much effort to complete them and we succeeded. We completed all drawings with annotations to match it. Each frame was annotated with/and Camera angles, Movements, Instructions, Transitions and lastly Lighting.


Here are the annotations we made:

Avril Lavigne in the Public Eye

Avril Lavigne is well known in the public eye, especially with the teenage generation. She has been on the front covers of numerous magazine covers as well as appearing in television programmes and interviews. She is usually represented as a punky/rocky type of teenage character which likes to have 'fun', which helps her to appeal to mainly the teenage generation of today. She is also represented as out going, somewhat childish in some aspects and generally aspiring to always carry on producing music.

Here are a few magazines which she has appeared on:

Here is also an example of Avril Lavigne being interviewed by a puppit. This would most likely be aimed at the younger teenage generation. This also portrays Avril Lavigne to be on the same wavelength as her audience to show that she can relate to them.

Sound and Vision in Pop/Rock

The relationship between sound and image evident in the use of song and underscore in film is also evident in pop videos. A great deal of research carried out on pop music reveals that pop is concerned with the issues brought up within the narrative. Alf Bjornberg argues that there are two structural aspects to popular music, narrative and epic, both of which are derived from Richard Middleton's studies of popular music, and his distinction between the two categories of musical syntax. In contrast to the narrative category, which privillages difference, there is what we can call an "epic mode, where the focus is on repetition and varied repetition; and inbetween comes a "lyrical" category".Bjornberg defines a narrative musical syntax as having "linear" properties, in which there is no repetition in the music so the music is continuously moving forward, while an epic syntax has "circular" properties which is most common in Pop music. He says "...Most popular music depends on repetition of some kind, be they musical riffs or hooks, chords, sequences arranged into sections such as verse and chorus or even vocal repetitions."The most common kinds of musical syntax evident in pop songs are therefore "epic" or "lyrical" structures, with musical "narrative" structure being much less common. This is the area where the sounds and visuals of pop music videos differ most greatly. General music videos may make great use of linear narratives, but pop music videos are just as likely to make use of a circular visual narrative.

The Value of Sound

Much of the research on music video makes only fleeting references (if any) to the music, causing one to question the value of sound in music video. Many music videos such as Madonna's Material Girl video from 1985 incorporates iconography and images from Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend film. There are obvious links between music videos and films, especially considering that many current chart hits are used to promote a movie rather than the the artist's own album. Recent examples are Guns'n'Roses You Could Be Mine from Terminator 2.
This features extensive film footage in their accompaying promo clips, and UB40's (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You from Silver has been filmed in a style relevant to the themes of voyeurism and hidden cameras that dominate the movie it is taken from. However, music videos that apply film footage and similar filming techniques rarely follow the song lyrics and music.

Genre Related Artist - Avril Lavigne

Born: 27 September 1984
Birthplace: Napanee, Ontario, Canada
Best Known As: 'Skater punk' singer of "Complicated"

The Early Years

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born to a French-born father, Jean-Claude, and a Franco-Ontarian mother, Judy, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Her father named her Avril after the month "April" in French. She has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle. Lavigne's mother was the first to spot young Lavigne's talent. A daughter of a regular working-class Catholic family, Lavigne, at the age of two, began singing church songs along with her mother. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.



In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That". She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd, who invited her to contribute vocals on his song, "Touch the Sky", for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She later sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow up 2000 album.



Biography Information

Born into a devout Christian household in the small town of Napanee, Ontario, Lavigne sharpened her vocal talents in church choirs, local festivals, and county fairs. She began playing guitar and writing songs in her early teens, focusing her early efforts on country music and contributing vocals to several albums by local folk musician Steve Medd. Arista Records caught wind of the singer and brought her aboard at the age of 16, with CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid personally taking Lavigne under his wing. She quit high school, relocated to Manhattan, and set to work with a handful of prime songwriters and producers, but the partnerships only produced country songs -- not the rock music in which Lavigne had become increasingly interested. Arista relented and instead sent Lavigne to Los Angeles, where she fashioned her melodic, edgy debut alongside such writing teams as the Matrix. Released in 2002, Let Go was the polished product, and its four high-charting singles -- "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi," "I'm with You," and "Losing Grip" -- led the album to multi-platinum status within its second month of release. Lavigne became the youngest female musician ever to have a number one album in the U.K., and she supported the wildly popular disc (which eventually gained eight Grammy nominations) with a tour of Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia.



Other areas in which Avril Lavigne has worked



- Film Career



Lavigne made a cameo in the film Going the Distance and also appeared in an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, performing "Sk8er Boi" with her band. Lavigne made her film debut in the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge, which is based on the comic strip of same name. She voices the character Heather, a Virginia Opossum. In August 2006, Canadia Business magazine ranked her the seventh top Canadian actor dominating in Hollywood in their second-annual ranking Celebrity Power List. She is ranked second with the most web hits, and sixth in TV mention.


Lavigne acted in the Richard Gere film The Flock as the girlfriend of a crime suspect. Lavigne appears in the film Fast Food Nation, which is based on her favorite book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.


The British publication The London Paper reported that she recently landed a lead role in an upcoming film. Lavigne revealed, "I've got a film role coming up – something you wouldn't expect from me, something deep and dark.



- Entrepeneurship



Aside from musical and film career, Lavigne ventured into entrepreneurship. Lavigne launched the clothing line Abbey Dawn in July 2008, featuring back-to-school collection. It is produced by Kohl's, which is the brand's exclusive US retailer. Named after Lavigne's childhood nickname, Abbey, used as an alias when she started her recording career, Lavigne designs for the company and concepts emanate from her. Kohl's describe Abbey Dawn as a "juniors lifestyle brand", which includes apparel and jewelry with skull and zebra patterns similar to the artwork featured on The Best Damn Thing. Lavigne wore some of the clothes in her line at various concerts before the launch. The designs were also featured on the internet game Stardoll, where figures can be dressed up as Avril Lavigne.



On September 14, 2009 Lavigne took her latest collection for her clothing line 'Abbey Dawn' to be a part of the New York Fashion Week one of the most important fashion shows around the world, designer Tommy Hilfiger, olmypic gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin and friend heiress Nicky Hilton were there to check out and support Avril's threads.



Lavigne released her first fragrance called Black Star, created by Procter & Gamble Prestige Products. The fragrance was announced via Lavigne's official website on March 7, 2009. Black Star, which contains notes of pink hibiscus, black plum and dark chocolate, will be released in summer 2009 in Europe, and later in America and Canada.It's expected to generate $50 million in sales.



How Avril Lavigne Represents Herself - Public Image



In Lavigne's official MySpace page, she affirms that her music genre includes pop and pop punk. According to Allmusic, her styles encompass adult alternative, pop rock, pop punk, post-grunge and teen pop. According to MusicMight she is alternative rock, alternative pop, pop punk, pop rock and post-grunge. Avril Lavigne considers that she is definitively really into rock music, where her heart is, and it's the music she is going to be creating.


Lavigne has been influenced by blink-182, The Distillers, Alanis Morissette, Goo Goo Dolls, The Cranberries, Marilyn Manson, Cumbawamba, The Beach Boys, Archies, The Beach Boys, Janis Joplin, Courtney Love, Green Day, and Sex Pistols. She has been followed by Busted, Tomoko Kawase, Hilary Duff, Brie Larson, Aly and Aj, Danielle McKee, Misono, Yui, Done with Dolls.


Lavigne has been featured in a comic series Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes. She stars as herself, a rock star who is idolized by the protagonist of the story

Avril Lavigne's Record Label

RCA Records (originally The Victor Talking Machine Company, then RCA Victor) is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America (later renamed RCA Corporation), which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986.

RCA is the name of three different co-owned record labels. RCA Records is the pop music, rock music and country music label. RCA Victor is the blues music, world music, jazz, musicals and other musical genres which do not fit the pop music mold label. RCA Red Seal is the renowned classical music label with a reissue sub-label called RCA Gold Seal.

Defunct labels include budget labels RCA Camden, RCA Victrola and RCA Custom, famed for issuing record compilations for The Reader's Digest Association as well as pressing records for other record companies.

Currently, Legacy Recordings, Sony Music's catalog division, reissues classic albums for RCA.

Final Storyboard (2) and Discussions

Today’s lesson was very constructive as we continued with our storyboarding. We made progression with the sketches and annotations however we were unable to fully complete them. On the other hand our meeting was still very productive as we made discussions on what would help to maintain the high standards of not only our storyboards, but our entire project.

What we discussed...

- We discussed the angles of specific scenes, especially the scenes which accompanied the sharp beats at the opening to the song. The chosen angles were used to convey a specific attitude. For example the shot of the girl's earring illustrates the character's stylish persona.

- We also confronted a problem since we realised that the software we will use to edit our film does not have the specific editing technique we wanted. This proved a problem for our aspirations to edit three different takes into one shot. It is for this reason that we decided to change the filming technique of the scene instead.

- Furthermore, we discussed the reliabilty of the characters and have agreed that if the actors are not available on more than filming date, we must find another actor. This is due to the short time period that we have to film.

Music - Why Are Albums Getting Louder?

For years, producers have been using compression techniques to make music sound louder and harder. Some people may notice that television adverts are louder than the programme you are watching, and sometimes older records are quieter than the newer ones. This is all due to compression. The producers use this technique to help grab the audience’s attention as they want to be noticed.


What is compression?

Compression is the inbuilt volume in a track. It controls how loud the music sounds, whatever volume you have it at, levelling out the peaks and troughs of a track to a higher overall average.

More and more of us are listening to music on the move because nowadays, we have the ability to do so due to new and modern technologies such as iPods, mobile phones, car stereos and much more. Record labels want their music to be heard above all the background noise of the outside world, and so very slowly – over a period of decades – our favourite tracks have become much louder.

Many sound engineers feel under pressure to make records sound unnaturally loud, however, Ian Shepherd of http://www.productionadvice.co.uk/ believes that this is not a new phenomenon. He quotes that:

“…modern digital technology allows people to take excess compression to new extremes…Mastering always used to do the job of the mastering engine. But there is always temptations to make things louder – the ear naturally hears things that are slightly louder as sounding slightly better. So, over the years, levels have crept up.”

One of the main reasons we are making records louder is because the way we consume our music has changed. We no longer listen to music passively at home, through big speakers – we listen to them on our MP3 players while out and about, or sat in front of the computer whilst doing homework. Speakers we use are not as powerful as that of a stereo therefore more and more record labels and artists want their records to reflect this change in listening habits.

Many artists and labels have taken this approach and reaped the rewards. Albums by the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen have used dense compression technology to give their sound more bite, and have sold a lot of records as a result of this. However, many fans have made complaints as their favourite band’s records are being mixed. Metallica is an example of this with their new album ‘Death Magnetic’. Fans were not satisfied with this and were unhappy with the final mix of the album.

But why isn't louder better?

For starters, prolonged exposure to loud music can bring about a condition known as tinnitus. This is an inner-ear condition which affects the tiny strands of hair (known as stereocilia) which pick up sound vibrations and essentially transform them into tiny sounds you hear. These can be easily broken which can cause the brain to produce a ringing-sound. In serious cases the listener may find it extremely hard to hear above the ringing. In addition to this, listening to over-compressed music can tire you out.

Also, it is known that CD's have an absolute maximum level which cannot be exceeded, and pushing the level up too high can ruin the sound.

What can be done to combat this?

An organisation has been set up by Charles Dye called 'Turn Me Up', which promotes responsible audio practices and is anti-compression.

Canadian dance artist Deadmau5 released the first fully-remixable album for the iPhone. This application which was created by Irish software developers Future Audio Workshop, allows the listener to mix the record to their own specifications, making certain sections louder or quieter, and add new effects to the track.

Five Loudest Records of All Time

1) The Stooges - Raw Power (1997 Remaster)

2)Oasis - What's The Story, Morning Glory (1995)

3) Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication (1991)

4) Metallica - Death Magnetic (2008)

5) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2005)

From AS Media to A2

Factors that the production group and I have decided to change from last years production to this years, is how we are going to become more organised and how we will make our planning more sustained. The reason why we decided to discuss these issues as a group is because we wanted to make sure that everything goes to plan and runs smoother than what the production did last year. On the other hand, when we were shooting last year, everything such as the weather, the days we filmed and what days we arranged to meet up as a group ran relatively in progressive order. However, in this years A2 course, we are aiming for everything to be continuous – therefore I have come up with a list of factors which we will aim to accomplish:


- We are going to become more organised with the cast and arrange clearly with one another the days we will meet up, as in last years production there were specific days that the cast were unable to meet up. To be able to accomplish this we will plan two weeks in advance the precise days we are hoping to meet up on shoot days. Therefore hopefully resulting in everyone turning up at the correct time.


- The weather can be a factor which may ruin the mise-en-scene of particular scenes. To overcome this, we will make sure that we check the weather forecast of each day we are going to shoot to make sure that the weather is similar if we are unable to shoot all of our scenes outside on the same day. This way, there will be more continuity in the final outcome.


- In last year’s production, we had problems with finding someone’s house to shoot in at last minute. Therefore, we have already planned to film in the house of one of our production team members.


- Also, another factor is the props, because last year we had problems finding props that were as suitable as what we actually imagined. So, we are going to meet up as a team and buy a few props which will enable our cast to appear precisely how we imagine our characters to be.

By taking into consideration all these factors, there should be a noticeable continuity in the production of our promotional music video compared to our production from AS. Hopefully this will enable us to produce a smooth running media production which will turn out to be at a noticeably higher level.

Locations for Shooting

The team and I have begun to discuss the difference areas of which to film in. We have already come to realise that the majority of our scenes were domesticated; however, we also wanted to shoot in areas which were relevant to our narrative as well as relevant to each character – this led us to look into various regions of London. To investigate the different regions in which we are considering would be appropriate, we decided it would be a good idea if we took photographs of the areas at different angles so we are able to decide what different camera angles would be best to make the area as familiar to our audience as possible. Also, by discovering the most appropriate angles, this would help to emphasize connotations which relate to each character.

For example, we came to the conclusion that Camden Town would be best suited to reflect the character of the 'Punk'.

The Gym helped to connotate the egotistical and vain attitude that the 'Arrogant' character had.

Finally, the Library emphasised the 'Nerd's' hobbies.

As we have arranged to stage the dating scenes at a speed dating event, we found that it would result in problems as we would not be able to attend a real speed dating occasion, therefore we have decided to simulate our own convention of this particular scene in a production team members residence, this enables us to be able to emphasise the mise-en-scene and create the atmosphere of a speed dating event accurately as to how we please.

Costume Designs

Today, the production team and I discussed the costume designs for the protagonist characters and what particular image would be suitable to help reflect their personality. We all studied the iconography of each individual character in depth and came up with a montage of images which helped to imply each characters individuality. Hopefully, by doing this, we are able to come up with a clear image of what is iconic for each character. Also, as we did not do this in the planning for last years AS production, our images of each character should come out more precise compared to last years outcome.

We analysed this characters costume through the study of semiotics. This characters personality is shown quite obviously through the fashion of her costume; the casual look helps to portray this characters personality as being quite ‘cool’. Additionally, it is clearly shown that the style of this characters clothing is like the majority of teenagers. Plus the costume design also gives the hint that this character has a general interest in fashion.

This character pursues the role of a punk. The use of black clothing helps to hold connotations of a sinister personality. However, this character is going to wear black make-up which could help to symbolise the lack of confidence that this character has.

In the first glance, this character may appear relatively similar to the main female character due to the sense of fashion. However, with a closer look, this character’s image holds connotations of an arrogant and ignorant nature.

This character’s image is stereotypically known as the ‘geek’. This characters costume appears old-fashioned which helps to portray his boring lifestyle and personality. On the other hand, this changes as the music will begin to progress. His confidence will develop and then he will turn out to be the ‘Superman’ – hence the Superman costume.