Storyboard

Here is my 10 shot sequence of the storyboard of shots 11-20 (in the boudoir)

Inspiration from other music videos

We took inspiration from other music videos that were similar to ours in narrative and genre.

The video that gave us the most inspiration was Christina Aguilera's 'Aint no other Man', as this video shows a strong, female figure, who is similar to our main character. The video, although not the same genre as our track, uses similar locations, such as boudoir and bar, which we used to give us ideas for shots.

We were also inspired by Moulin Rouge 'Lady Marmalade' and the makeup that Christina Aguilera wore, as well as creative shots, like silhouette dancing. Other music videos in the same genre as our track are Shakira's 'Hips don't Lie', in which Shakira wears an outfit, similar to our main character's.

The video for Ricky Martin's 'Livin La Vida Loca', also inspired us to film girls and boys dancing, as this is a common theme in Spanish/Latino music, in particular Salsa music. Another similar and inspirational video is Geri Halliwell's 'Mi Chico Latino', where Geri Halliwell dances, surrounded by men, which we incorporated, having our main character dancing whilst the boys dance around her, to show how she is fun, dominant and desirable.

Spanish/Latino Music Videos

We decided to use a song called 'Takin it over', which is a lively and upbeat Latino/Spanish song. Our idea for the video is to show a strong, dominant female, who dances regularly at a Mexican bar. Similar Spanish/Latino music videos are:

Shakira - 'Hips don't Lie'


Geri Halliwell - 'Mi Chico Latino'


Ricky Martin - 'Livin La Vida Loca'


Jennifer Lopez - 'Aint it funny'

A list of possible songs

This is a list of songs that i think we could use, as they are unique and upbeat and none have a music video.

Darude - 'Sandstorm'
Trisco - 'Musak'
Shaft - 'Sway'

The first song, 'Sandstorm', is a club/dance track and we could possibly use it, although the song is quite repetitive and it may be hard to make a music video for. The second song, 'Musak' is also a club track, and the music is quite dreamlike, although again it is very repetitive and may be difficult to make a music video for. However, the last song 'Sway' is more of the Latino genre, and is very upbeat. The opening of the song sounds like monkeys, and it would be a good song to use for our original idea of having people dressed up in monkey costumes. This song, although having a few repeated lyrics is predominantly music-based and is also repetitive, which may make it hard to sustain audience attention.

Latino genre in Music

Latino/Spanish music, comes under many catorgories, such as Salsa, Samba and Latin freestyle, taking influences from various countries, predomninantly South American. Salsa is a dance-orientated genre, and is described as the "essential pulse of Latin music", being the most played style at Latin dance clubs. However, like most catorgories in the Latino genre, Salsa is mixed with other styles of music, such as pop, jazz, rock and rnb.

Salsa is a combination of Spanish and African music, adapted by Latin musicians with 'diverse musical tastes'. A salsa song begins with a 'songlike section', followed by vocals and interspersed with instrumentals and jazz solos. It is popular amongst youths due to its dance vibe. The percussion in a Latino song is the most important instrumentation and includes claves, cowbells, timbales and conga. The other core instruments are trumpets, trombones, bass and guitar, with usually minimal lyrics.

Spanish/Latino musicians:

• Jennifer Lopez
• Shakira
• Ricky Martin

Examples of Myspace marketing

Here are three examples of artists, ranging in genre and style who have used Myspace to market their music, and have since increased their fan base remarkably.

1) 'Caleb' - Caleb are an indie group, and since joining Myspace, have had more than 30,000 song plays, gaining thousands of new fans every month, nearly 24,000 fans, just from Myspace.

2) 'Black Star and Frost' - are an 'alternative pop duo', who have also achieved global exposure on Myspace, leading to managers and radio promoters offering them gigs in the USA. As the duo have an alternative music style, described as "mellow, modernist, country gospel", Myspace has proved beneficial for reaching the niche audiences.

3) 'Mesh29' - are an acoustic rock group, who have had almost 70,000 song plays, since joining Myspace. The band were lucky to appear on Myspace's 'featured artist', selected from thousands of artists, which helped to increasingly boost their popularity.

Myspace Promotion

Myspace is used by millions of people worldwide, and is a free, fast and efficient way for artists to market their music. On the artists homepage, they can upload tracks, which can be listened to, downloaded or added to other users myspace page. They can also include information about their band/self, such as who they are, their genre and information about gigs they are playing.

The website is one of the most popular ways for artists to market themselves, and has been used by such artists as Lilly Allen and the Arctic Monkeys, although some fans set up their own page, dedicated to artists.

Myspace is such a popular marketting method, due to it being easy to use. Viewers, searching for a band/artist, can go to the music homepage and then search by genre, location or name. According to one music promoter, 'myspace is more personal than official websites', as the artist is updating their myspace page themselves.

Music Magazine - Mixmag

Mixmag is a leading music magazine dedicated to clubbing and dance music, set up in 1982 and has a readership of 304, 000. The magazine focusses on dance/club events, as well as music reviews and artist features, targetting people who enjoy club music and the dance culture, and claims to have created the words 'superclub' and 'triphop' . The magazine is a monhtly edition and supplies readers with a mix CD of different artists/ djs.

The magazine, having launched in 1982, was relaunched in 2006, with a new design set to target both males and females and an older readership than previously. The editor of the magazine had said it's previous focus was "on a young, committed hardcore nutter clubber, but is now a magazine for the entire world of dance music." Mixmag covers a wide range of dance music, targetting audiences who like "hard boshing music", chill out music, or people who like to keep in touch with the music but have grown out of clubbing.

According to Mixmag, the UK dancescene has "grown up", reconnecting with it's roots in glamour and underground, and so the magazine is committed to new music ranging from electronica to house urban providing a guide to its cultured/elitist readers on great nights out.

Mixmag describes its readers as 'the leaders in clubbing' who are the first at 'cool new clubs', 'informed about the top djs' and 'are the biggest downloaders of music in the UK'.

Music Video Director - Nima Nourizadeh

Music video director, Nima Nourizadeh has a very different style to Ras Kassa, and one of the latest videos he has worked on is Mark Ronson feat. Lilly Allen 'Oh My God', where Lilly Allen is a digital character. Nima, like Kassa, had always been interested in art, and also enjoyed photography, and from a young age had wanted to work within the creative industry. Nima approached production companies with a showreel of his various works and started working on low-budget tracks, which led him to setting up his own collective with two of his friends and signed with production company, Partizan, who later signed Nima on as a solo director. He describes his work as 'diverse', where people tune into his ideas, rather than a style, provided with a blank canvas when he listens to songs and opens Nima up to different types of music.

Nima's work on the Mark Ronson video combines animation with live action and is a unique style to him, which he also uses in Hot Chip's video 'Colours', which is entirely CGI.

Music Video Director - Ras Kassa

Ras Kassa, also known as The Guru, is the first Jamaican music video director, working with artists such as, Damian Marley, Willie Nelson and Gentleman. Ras Kassa was born in Jamaica in 1974, and always had a keen interest in art, considered a gifted painter, which reflects his creativeness in the music videos he directs. He describes that the best part of making a music video is "going into the fountain of creativity after listening to the song.", explaining that he listens to the instruments for inspiration.

The video he created for Damian Marley's 'Welcome to Jamrock', which he edited and coloured himself, was an international success and is now studied in universities in North America and the Carribean. Ras Kassa is a creative director, well known for his 'feral directional style', vibrant emotion and maintaining the reggae culture in his videos.

Indie Record Labels

Record labels are used in the music industry to brand and market bands/artists. It is also the company that manages the band/artists promotion and copywriting of their music, however they differ from the band/artist's manager. The record label may be independant or international, and the research i did on two Indie Record Labels are both independant.

Beggars Banquet

An independant British record label, which began in 1977 after founders Martin Mills and Nick Austin were inspired by the punk movement and their DIY attitude and opened a chain of record shops. The consistent success of the label with groundbreaking records secured the formation of "sister labels", such as 4AD Records, signing artists from other genres, such as dance. The Lurkers, a punk rock band, were the first on the Beggars Banquet label, with current artists such as Biffy Clyro, The Cult and The Dylans.

Chemikal Underground

Chemikal Underground are another independent record label, set up in 1994 by Scottish rock band The Delgados. The label was set up by the band so they could release their own songs and then later signed Bis, who were hugely successful and enabled the label to expand. Current artists signed to Chemikal Underground are The Radar Brothers, Aereogramme and Sister Vanilla.

Analysing a music video

This is the music video for the Arctic Monkeys - 'When The Sun Goes Down', directed by Paul Fraser, which is illustrative and narrative based.

The song begins with just vocals and simple guitar chords as the characters are introduced, with the clear lyrics being very illustrative with the visuals. For example 'Who's that girl there' is cut with a MCU of a young girl who we then see prostituting herself (leaning on the car window) which illustrates the subtle lyrics 'I doubt she does receipts'. There is then an artistic shot of a square-shaped spiral staircase from the bottom of the stairs looking up through the middle of the staircase, which could be a reflection of the creative image the band want to portray of themselves. We are then introduced to 'Scummy man', again with an illustrative relationship between the visuals and the lyrics as the handheld camera tracks forward to a MS of the man with his arm round the young girl followed by him taking food off her plate 'He'll rob you if he can'. The video then goes deeper into the narrative of the young prostitute trapped by the 'scummy man', who appears as sleezy as he swaggers up in a black shirt and then carries the young prostitute towards a taxi.

The music then increases in tempo, as does the visuals and the camera is a POV shot from a car window (possibly from the view of the girl), which speeds along the road and the shots are mainly of blurred traffic and street lights. The shots are cut to the music, for example the girl walks to the beat of the drum and the shots are cut on time with the beat, which makes the video more flowing and ties the visuals to the music. There are further illustrative visual and lyrical shots, such as when the girl 'makes a subtle proposition' to one of the Arctic Monkeys, and this is the first time we see one of the members from the Arctic Monkeys although there are later shots of the whole band loading their equipment into a car, allowing for the band to be recognised.

The visuals and the lyrics are less illustrative as the young magician is introduced, although we still get the sense of the scummy man jealously interfeering with the young prostitute, as he interupts her meal with a man and puts his arms on her shoulders as if to take claim to her and when he beats up the magician who makes her 'delighted when she sees him'

Even though this music video is about a young female prostitute and there are often CUs of her, she is not presented in sexual way as for most of the video she is draped in a coat with tied back scraggly hair and without makeup to make herself look pretty, but instead she looks tired and supressed.

Inspirational ideas for music video

For our music video, we talked about having people dancing that are comical and humerous. This video has two men dancing who are quite funny and possibly inspirational for random dancing.
Le tigre - Deceptacon



The other idea for our music video was to have people dressed up in animal costumes and this video, although it's a bit pervy, has people dressed in bear costumes.
Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb

Childlike Album Covers

Here, Bjork's album cover for 'Army of Me' states on the front of the cover that the music on the album is directed at children who have suffered due to the destructiveness of nature. The album consists of fans different versions of Bjork's song 'Army of Me' and the childlike drawing is assumably of Bjork. She is well known for her dreamlike and often mesmerizing music, a childlike trait who at a young age are full of dreams and easily amazed. However, despite being a very childish drawing, the sinister facial expression and holding the world - connoting controlling the world - as well as the sharp edges, draw out the darker meaning of the song, which is the destructiveness of nature.

The album cover for Captain Beefheart's 'Doc at the Radar Station' also has a very childlike image, although it is unclear what the picture is of. The simple and scruffy pencil drawing dominated by the black scribble on top of the picture reflects anger and irritation possibly from the artist or a reflection of the music. The black creates a sinister/ confused edge to the cheerier yellow, which could be a connotation of the sun and a child's happiness.

Punk Rock album covers

These three covers from punk rock bands have connotations of rebellion and aggressiveness - associations of the punk culture. The main similarity between these three covers is the photograph of the band, standing tightly together and in a similar pose, connoting unity. The locations are all reflective of the rebellion punk culture, train track, pub and by a wall covered in graffiti, further portrayed in their distinct clothing, such as tight trousers, ripped clothes and unique hairstyles, although there is a greater sense of modernity in The Paddingtons.
The band poses are very unviting, most often standing with their hands in their pockets and not smiling, again reflecting the aggressiveness and distancing from 70's rock of the punk culture.
The title font on The Clash album cover is simple, in the style of army font anchored by 'Combat', and the title 'Combat Rock' seems to show the direct purpose of their music. The font for the Sex Pistols and The Paddingtons, however, is much bolder and stands out from the photograph, creating a contrast between the bright font colour and black and white photograph.

Similar album covers

This is the album cover for Black Grape, 1995, which is bold, vivid and eye catching. The fluorescent yellow and large sunglasses dominate the cover and are reflective of the rave/electro genre. The image has been edited to make it look like an Andy Warhol style portrait, famed for his creative and individual art (pop art), therefore also portraying the band as creative and funky. Black Grape were formed by members of 80's band Happy Mondays and their music is known for it's humerous lyrics, 'It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah', title of the album, presenting the band as comical, amusing and lighthearted.

Calvin Harris' album cover is very similar to Black Grape's and again reflects his uptempo/electric music. As Calvin Harris was influenced by music from the 80's, the distinct similiarities between his album cover and that of Black Grape's, (former 80's band members) associates his album and music with electro/dance. The image of Calvin Harris isn't as large, providing room for his name, in a digital/techno font. Calvin Harris' lyrics are also humerous, 'I Get All The Girls', and his album title reflects Clavin Harris' reinvention of disco.

Album Covers

Features of an album cover

Title of album
Name of artist/band
Photograph or graphic image, normally of band/artist both on front and back cover
Track list
Barcode
Record label
Place of market/distribution
Copyright
Website link to band/artist

Function of an album cover

To market the album - eyecatching, bold, photograph of band/artist
To attract consumers
For artist/band identity - e.g use of logo/style of font
To represent the genre of the artist/band
To identify the style of the artist/band

Categorising album covers

By era
Solo artist/band
Photograph/Graphics
Self titled/album name
Colour/black and white