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.