3 Unsigned Artist: Initial Ideas

This is my own 3 unsigned artists that I previously chose before when I was working in another group. These were all the artists I considered working with up until I joined this group then started working with the band The Fergies'.

This task helped in me knowing the artist I potentially wanted to work with along with getting me to think about how compatible it was with me working with them depending on things like location and the ability to contact them.

Production Company Logo

This is the production company logo I have created for a music label, PR records. I believe its suitable for sponsoring the band we are working with The Fergie's as it encaptures their youthfulness and beauty within their image as well as music, along with conveying the sometimes dark subjects they touch upon in their music- such as the track we are creating a video for 'Clumsy' being about a boy who suffers child abuse.

Doing this task has helped in knowing the congruency and the precision that is needed when marketing an artist even from how the record label associated with them looks like. Additionally, it has also given me an opportunity to work with Photoshop becoming more comfortable in editing with pictures in the process of doing so.

Inspirations. Videos and Artists.

One of our main inspirations would be "The Civil Wars." Both in artist and video.The Civil Wars have the over all package that we want to create for The Fergies. They sing about touching and vulnerable matters and are taken as serious musicians. 

Also, we found some inspiration for our Music Video from Chase and Status's 'Time' and Linkin Park's Numb. Both videos center around the idea of abuse, therefore giving us inspiration for how to film our own video. For example camera angles, lighting and so on. 

There is also a band called Cimorelli on YouTube. They started off in a similar way to The Fergies, therefore we look to them for inspiration for how YouTubers promote themselves to receive that kind of attention.

By completing this task we gather more insight on what we are able to create for a video and the over-all package we could create for our artist.

Storyboard (Animatic)

The Task:

This is the Animatic for our song 'Clumsy' by The Fergies. We have cut and captured our work to timing of how long we would like it to appear in our music video, so that when we begin filming, we will not divert from the task, and be able to keep to the timings we have set for ourselves.

 In conclusion, we have learnt through this task the importance of time keeping and planning, and this will help us in the near future, as we will be able to organise ourselves to work to set deadlines and tasks set aside.

*1:44: The shot number is 44.5 instead of 44.

Music Audiences & Subcultures

This task is based on music audiences and how videos for musicians are presented to appeal to certain audiences. The way music videos are shown is to convey the subculture of particular groups. For example the use of turntables, graffiti and dance used to represent hip-hop culture shown in the Common - I Used To Love H.E.R. 

Scene Kids: Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance

Chavs: Dizzee Rascal - Old Skool

Hip-Hop: Common - I Used To Love H.E.R

Ravers: Afrojack & Steve Aoki ft Miss Palmer - No Beef

Hipsters: Friends - I'm His Girl

Metallic: Slipknot - Psychosocial

Punks: Greenday - American Idiot

Skaters: OPM - Heaven is a Halfpipe

 

This task has helped in establishing what to look for with certain conventions in creating music videos for certain music subcultures depending on the genre of music the video could be and the subculture that matches with the genre. This will help in deciding the ideas that I will contribute to my group music video depending on the subculture target audience we are aiming for.

Track Time Code & Structure

The actual song is 4 minutes, 22 seconds which we take into account for planning out the video and the amount of footage acquired on the day of the shoot. As our music video will be a narrative that links to the song Clumsy by The Fergies it will progress through the child's abuse they suffer with continuous cuts to a chess board representing characters as chess pieces and each move correlating to the movement of the story.

This is just a rough plan/ idea that we see our music video following:

0:00 - 0:30: Multiple shots of the abused victim walking through the videos locations - school, home,

·        woods and a dark room. Also shots of people enquiring about the boys injuries in school to be shown.

 

      0:31 - 1:01: The start of the revealing of the teenager being abused - first showing neglect from his mother and then an introduction to the physical abuse is shown from the father. Along with a few reaction shots from the boy and cross cutting with the chess board between narrative. As explained above the chess board concept is to have chest pieces that represent characters and as they move so does the narrative to represent these characters.

1:02 - 1:32: Continuation of the physical abuse and neglect the boy suffers from his parents with this and his negative emotions (reaction shots) escalating in intensity. More high angle shots of parents to show their power. School friends also begin to suspect something as boys injuries are more noticeable and common. Shot of boy crying in school whilst he isolates himself. Continuous cross cuts of chess board to go along with the narrative.A few lip syncs of boy singing lyrics from the song that are said as if they are part of a conversation with someone. Lyrics like: You'd show me your scars/ I could see they were deep/ I asked where you got 'em/ You said you were just clumsy; these are examples that can be lip synced as the boy is in conversation (maybe with a friend) and this can also go well with the videos narrative. This fits well as both performance and narrative complement one another.

1:33 - 2:03: More of a focus on the boy suffering from abuse he endures, and less action from the parents. Shots of the boy in a dark room and his mood of being distraught sees him shaking on the floor with the amount of fear he builds from what his parents might do next to him. Much more isolation with the boy crying in the woods and in his room which will be lit to provide a very dark look.

3:04 - 4:22: A mix of the boy seen rising above the abuse he suffers along with ambiguous symbolism. Shots of the pawn (representing boy) and the king (representing dad) and queen (representing mum) with pawn covered with red paint representing both life (colour of blood and fire) and death. Wide, long shot of boy walking through woods, a long shot so his facial expression is not revealed adding to the mystery on his status of being abused or not.



New ideas that will be in the video:
Flashing lights (police)
Police line being drawn
Blood on the floor
Boy (flashback) sitting on a checkered floor (similar to chess board)
Each character with their own chest pieces
Teacher moving chest pieces and mother goes to the school and sees teacher moving the chest pieces.
Boy goes to the kitchen to get a knife and walks into a dark room.

Completing this task has helped give me more of an idea on how our music video will look along with what we will be shooting that will create the narrative to our video.

Music Video Pitch

Here is our music video pitch for The Fergies song 'Clumsy'. We outline the basis of how we envision and are going to create the music video.

Artist & why?

Our artist is The Fergies, who are an Australian band made up of 5 siblings. They are Youtubers. We knew that choosing a band that is not British would be difficult, but choose to ask anyway and then create a video concept around the fact the artist would not appear. They accepted the idea and gave us creative control. This also allowed us a lot of flexibility. The track we choose is called Clumsy, which is one of their more serious and slower songs. The Fergies are a pop group but we wanted to explore a sadder and more layered song as we felt we could do more.

Their image is very family friendly/ kids next door and our main goal is to create a much more serious image for them while expanding their YouTube audience. Being signed is obviously a goal but, as YouTube is the new entertainment industry, we believe broadening their audience will be more beneficial.  As there are many Youtubers who make a living just from uploading a video every week. For example Michelle Phan, uploads a weekly make-up tutorial and is a millionaire who now owns her own company and make-up brand, while working along side companies such as Loreal. Being signed isn't the only and best option in today's entertainment industry.

Ultimately we have chosen to create a narrative and conceptual video.

The Idea & Concept:

For the narrative side of the video, we took inspiration from the artist’s story behind the song itself. They wrote the song with a friend in mind who suffered from abuse, who then chooses to hide it from everyone and make excuses when asked about his injuries. Taking this on board we decided our story circle a young boy of 14 or 15 who has an abusive mother and neglectful father. He goes through day-to-day life living two lives until ultimately it becomes too much. The concept side of the video will be the hyper real idea that humans are chess pieces. A chessboard will be shown with characters representing pieces and every move that’s made reflects in the story. Every move we make has consequences but its not always the bigger pieces that win in the end. The teacher and friend comfort the boy throughout and it is later revealed that the teacher and mother are actually very close friends. The chess shots that will be featured are actually moves the teacher is making, whom is playing chess when the mother arrives in a scene later in the song. The video will end where the video opened. The first shot will be of a crime scene, with flashing blue lights and police. In the last few scenes we will see the boy taking a knife from the kitchen and walking into a dark room (which will be used also to represent his state of mind). It will be open to interpretation on how the story truly ended.

Cinematography wise, we have chosen to stick with the theme of black and white with red being the only other promenade colour. Black and white representing the good VS bad aspect and red representing blood, pain and anger. But also love, from his friends and teachers.Within the scenes of the dark room we will create a black and white tiled floor representing the chess board to clearly show the audience the direction we are going in.  The locations are fairly simple:

·         School

·        Home

·        Woods

·        Dark Room

·        Giant chessboard.

     Costumes will be modern but working class.

Inspiration:

Civil Wars.

The Time- Chase & Status.

Linkin Park- Numb.
Cimorelli- Also a band of siblings who make YouTube videos. They were signed last year and we look to them for inspiration on how to make it from a YouTube platform. 

Selling Point of the Artist:

The Fergies are Spokes people of serious situations, that don’t usually get looked upon enough. This will make the viewer or fan feel like they can relate to them and don’t be alone if this is happening in their own lives. Also as Youtubers, they are able to connect with fans on a much larger scale then a regular artist.

Audience:

Teens-early 20’s. Young enough to navigate around the YouTube community.