POTENTIAL MUSIC CHOICES

For my media coursework we need to make a music video and due to copyright restrictions we need to find copyright free music and get permission from the artist to use it or use copyrighted music with proven consent for use from the musician. Therefore I have started to look in sites such as Soundcloud to find unsigned artists and have even looked on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to look at friends that are musicians.

ARCTIC MONKEYS

Arctic Monkeys were formed in 2002 in a suburb of Sheffield called High Green. They are an English indie rock band who consist of four current members and have released five albums, four of which are studio albums and the other is a live one. As a band they are known as one the first group of acts that via the internet have come to the public attention, this created speculation from commentators that there was potentially a change in the way new bands are promoted and marketed. Unlike the majority of other musicians, the band allowed their fans before deciding to purchase it or not to actually listen to the entire album instead of samples on their website. They are a very successful band as they became only the second band in history to debut four albums in a row at the top of the charts and they've still got a lot of music left in them with there most recent performance broadcasted to millions at the closing ceremony of the Olympics. They are represented essentially as a band across all their media texts with Alex Turner, the lead vocalist usually standing further forward then everyone else. In a way they are represented as 'jack the lads' and come across quite old fashioned in the way the photos are edited as they look like they're taken on film cameras and even the clothes they wear and even the hair styles they sport. I think this is done on purpose for the bands image as their sound is reflective of this style.

JAKE BUGG

Jake Bugg is a singer songwriter from Clifton in Nottingham, the genre of his music is folk/country with a real old fashion sense of rock and roll as his songs straddle melancholic folk and bluesy rock. He's sound is distinctive and at the age of 18 his music sounds a lot older than he is. He is influenced by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Oasis and Jimi Hendrix and has been playing the guitar since he was 12 years old. As a relatively new face onto the music chart scene he has already performed at festivals and supported acts such as The Stone Roses, Lana Del Rey and Michael Kiwanuka, and after reading some articles online it's clear the media feel that he is set for big things. As an artist he is represented to be 'the next dylan' and a definite one to watch with his debut album coming out on the 15th of October this year. In photos of him, Jake is shown to be a teenage boy and in many of the photos I've seen of him he has his guitar in hand which portrays his singer/songwriter character. He's represented to be a casual guy and some what easy going as he dresses in jeans and hoodies. In some pictures his dress sense comes across as quite old fashioned and 'vintage' and so does his hair. This goes well with his sound as well and Jake himself said that 'I would of liked to be born in the 60's' this statement fits in well with the image that is represented of him. In newspaper articles he seems down to earth and honest and not big headed even though the interviewers tell him he is set for big things. This cool persona makes him well liked and easy to relate to. The image created is then portrayed throughout his gigs as essentially what you see is what you get, in pictures he wears casual clothing and in gigs he doesn't change his image. The photos are edited to give off an old fashioned feel and are quite soft images.

In his video for 'Lightning Bolt' the reasons behind the choices in camera, editing, set, costume and props.

BEYONCE

Beyonce Knowles is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and dancer. She was born on September the 4th 1981 and was raised in Houston, Texas. She is known mononymously as Beyonce but also performs under the name of Sasha Fierce. Her genre is generally R&B mixed with pop and hip hop.

Beyonce herself is heavily portrayed in the media across all platforms and mainly for good reasons, I can say this because I've never personally read a bad story on her, or ever seen a bad picture of her in any magasines, online articles on blogs or on tv channels to name a few. In fact the only bad one I can remember/think of is the rumored fake baby bump. Also unlike hundreds of celebrities she hasn't been lured in by the openness of twitter although she does have an account with over 5 million followers she's only tweeted 4 times and doesn't bring attention to herself and share really personal stories and photos on the site which could be a factor to why she mainly has really good press. If you type 'Beyonce' into google you are presented with 'About 213,000,000 results in 0.15 seconds.. basically a lot. The top result is her official site which is her way of keeping her fans up to date with her personally.

She is represented across all her texts as a new mum, a wife, an actress, a singer and a woman with lots of sex appeal. This is done through mise en scene, her outfit choices, make up, hair and even facial expressions within photos across cross media platforms. In a lot of photo shoots she is portrayed typically as woman are in magasines, wearing little clothing to ooze sex appeal while still capturing her fierce personality and reaching out to both women and men as women want to either be her or look similar to her and men essentially fancy her. The reasons behind choices in editing, and costume, props, make up and hair in images of her are to portray her as Beyonce, the image that she wants the world to see of her through the media. She's airbrushed and edited in photos to be almost unreal with flawless features and curves. 

I've actually been to a Beyonce concert and her performance as a whole definitely did not disappoint. Her choices of costume for her concert sets are very sexy but look like something performers wear as well. They are all very short, and very eye catching as they are sparkly and in your face so that she is the center of  attention on the whole stage as it is usually a big stage this is necessary because she needs a lot of stage presence. Her stage name is also Sasha Fierce so these choices in outfits could be to represent that. The reasons behind choices in camera, editing, set, costume and props in her music video Run The World (Girls)..

PROGRESS FROM AS TO A2

Although I was interested in media related topics, Media Studies as a AS subject was completely new and exciting to me and I was able to learn about many terms and throughout I feel that I have been constantly progressing. Within the AS part of the course and especially during the practical the creative side it is one of my strong points for example, the design of my groups blog and the logos of our company were created by me. I think it also was beneficial not just to me but to the rest of my group that I am organised and I was able to really structure the blog keeping it tidy which resulted in lots of detailed blog posts and by writing to do lists for us all it abled us to reach our full potential and succeed in completing all the necessary blog posts and more. I'd say this was one of my best points which I hope to carry forward into the blogs at A2 as by keeping up to date and on top of the quantity and quality of my blog posts I will be able to do well but keep all my ideas and thoughts and planning in one manageable place, this will only benefit my learning. I also have some knowledge of using Photoshop so this was also useful in the upkeep of the blog. I feel that some of my best points during the practical were the setting up and compositions of the shots we were trying to capture as I have some amateur knowledge of Photography the framing of shots came naturally to me and I think I was able to portray some really lovely shots. I feel made adequate input throughout all parts of the group work as being artistic and creative really was beneficial for this part of the course. Throughout planning, filming and editing I was very involved with all aspects so therefore these are some of my best points.

I would say I am quite academic however a bad point of mine is essay writing as I tend to waffle on a lot and  if anything I feel that this could let me down grade wise however for the exam I did lots of revision on case study notes which I made sure I kept up to date in order to learn as much as possible about our chosen British film company and after lots of practice essays I felt confident enough that I made all the points necessary. I also made sure I thought about a lot of CEMS in the build up to the British drama essay exam, this was beneficial in the exam as well.

From the two practical tasks I've done for this years course, the digipack for an indie band and a remake of Ben Howard's music video I've learn't various things, mainly how important planning really is. During the remake of the music video I became comfortable using the camera equipment again and remembered how important steady and well composed shots are. The first time I filmed something was for my AS preliminary task and the difference between this and the music video I made is a lot so evidently from the AS prelim video not being very successful, I was able to learn and improve from this. I feel that my groups A2 preliminary video couldn't of come out any better, I know that we did a lot of research and planning not only into the video and artist but into the genre. We also looked around to find the best possible location and made sure we had everything we needed with us on the day of filming, along with the equipment we even brought a laptop which had the original music video downloaded on it and a detailed shot list print out. If we complete all of this preparation and more during our final A2 music video I'm very excited to see the outcome as it has potential to be really great. Again I found doing a lot of research into the indie genre was really crucial when planning our digipack for an indie band and we had some really good ideas and took some great pictures but the decision of our final one was rushed and we forgot to think about all the font being the same and our front and back cover don't necessarily link together that well which is unfortunate as the potential for a really amazing cover was there but as it was only a preliminary task I have learn't to spend more time on the final product choosing what goes well together.

I've learn't a lot about the research and planning aspects of the coursework and especially how vital and important it is to do sufficient amounts as it makes the whole filming process run so much more smoothly and it feels good going to do something you know exactly what you need to do in order to get it done. After not planning much for the AS preliminary task, you could really see that we didn't through the execution of our shots and even editing, this did however give us a lot to work on and evaluate. I learn't a lot from the lack of planning for this and when researching into and planning our thriller I made sure I did a lot of both! This proved to be one of the most helpful things to do as when filming we were not only ore confident using the equipment, we knew exactly what we wanted. The result of planning was apparent in the contrasting quality between the two, During the planning for my groups preliminary task for the start of A2, we all did a lot of research into the indie genre which was really useful and when planning our remake of Ben Howard's music video without all of the planning we did it wouldn't of gone anywhere near as well.