Island Records

Island Records are a huge institution who manage a number of very successful music artists. The label was founded by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall in Jamaica in 1959. It then came to be based in the UK and is owned by the Universal Music Group, however they are based in many other countries, including America and Australia.

John Newman was signed at teh age of 20, amongst other artists including:

• Jessie J
• Dizzee Rascal 
• Disclosure
• Bombay Bicycle Club
• Drake
• Avicii
• Ben Howard
• Dappy
• Mumford and Sons
• Nicki Minaj
• The Wanted

It is clear to see that they support a wide range of genres, from Ben Howard's indie style to Dappy's hip hop/rap clique. They have grown to be one of the leading record companies across the globe and are well recognised by both musical talents and the public alike. 

Director Case Study: Shane Drake

Shane Drake is an American Director who's experience involves directing over 50 music videos as well as co-producing three films. Early in his career, Drake spent time working as an editor and cinematographer with such bands as Poison the Well, Deftones, Thursday and many more.  He now spends most of his time directing and is the owner of red Van Pictures, a Los Angeles-based production company. 

Drake has directed videos spanning the genres of Pop, Rock, Rap and Country, He has worked on music videos for artists including Timbaland, Paramore, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Flo Rida, Will I Am, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Daughtry and many more.

As well as working with multi-platinum artists, Shane has also helped shape some of the original visual styles for new bands that have also gone on to see great success, the most notable of these acts being Panic! At The Disco. Since the band’s inception, Shane’s work with them has earned several VMA nominations and won “Video Of the Year” at the 2006 MTV VMA’s for the video “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”.

His style wavers more towards indie/rock/pop combinations which are genres where his most iconic music videos can be found. Here are some more examples:

 

Synethesia

Today we learnt about the concept of synaesthesia, which by definition means, "the process of picturing sounds in the mind's eye". It is often seen as the joining of senses, for sensations in one modality (e.g hearing) produce reactions in the form of a sensation in another modality (e.g. colour) as well as it's own. These experiences are not often driven by sensory representations, but more so by symbolic ones, such as letters, numbers and words. It can also be known as, 'thought beats' or, 'seeing sounds in your head'

Andrew Goodwin is a contemporary theorist and on the subject of synesthesia in relation to music videos, he believes the most succesful sort is:

"A clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual assosiations"
                  ~ Andrew Goodwin (1993)

I like his ideas; he is basically saying that when the visuals of media content complement the features of the sound, it all seems to come together and exaggerate what the visuals already in place. Also, when you are able to take in and understand the information your senses relay to you, you tend to have more interest in the content you are viewing, which in turn make the content more popular.

Steve Archer also provided many of his own ideas and opinions on the matter in the February 2004 edition of MediaMagazine. He believed that in order to judge appropriately, you need to fully be aware of the music and how it makes you feel.

HOW WE USED SYNAESTHSIA TO OUR ADVANTAGE
We did a task whereby we were asked to draw patterns, lines or markings - whatever came to mind - on paper, whilst listening to a certain music track. We basically had to draw what the music made us feel or what we felt represented that track to us the best. This would give us a better understanding of how the feel of the song affects the visuals that come naturally to us when listening to a particular type of music, which reinforces the importance of identifying and applying conventions of a certain genre. 

These are the two tracks we listened to:

Tina Moore - Never Gonna Let You Go
Being an upbeat and dance sound, our page was filled with jagged lines and short, snappy swerves which represented the repetitive, catchy beat. It was a very loud and dynamic page, filled with energetic, bouncy markings which demonstrated that the track made us feel so.

Phoria - Red
This track in comparison had a much slower pace and less energy. The marks we made were much more flowing, continuous and spherical. It is still a powerful song, but uses it's impulsion is different ways to the above song. The marks we made became more dynamic towards the end when the son increased its pace and energy, giving a sense of empowerment.

I thought I could adopt this approach within our music video, so I put my headphones in and had a go whilst listening to our chosen song, 'Love Me Again' by John Newman (UCF Remix). The result looks dynamic and filled with energy, which links to the song itself - being a dance/pop combination, it is designed to raise your heart rate and effectively motivate you to get up and dance. I think this is reflected in my own synaesthesia where there are lots of spiky lines and big shapes which represent the loud, pumping energy within the song.

Todorov's Theory

Narratives must have events or happenings that are structured by causality (the relationship between cause and effect)

Todorov suggested a slightly more complex description of narrative structure than the simple situation - problem - resolution scenario. Instead he suggested these five stages:

1. Equilibrim: A state of balance at the outset, although doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to work
2. Disruption: Disruption of the equilibrim, usually by the action of a villian
3. Recognition: The characters and/or audience recognise the disruption
4. Repair: An attempt to fix things (i.e defeat the villian)
5. Reinstatement: Equilibrim is regained, although it is usually a new equilibrim to the original one.

Todorov's recurring stories
~ The Quest: Where the hero is sent to sent to challenge evil and save the kingdom etc
~ Redemption Story: Where the central character sins, but redeems himself by self sacrafice
~ Journey to another world: When a character goes somewhere different and in turn changes
~ The Beast transformed by love: as title really e.g. Beauty & The Beast
~ The solving of riddles: Where there is a mystery to be solved e.g. Sherlock Holmes
~ The 'biter bit': Where the oppressed rise up and throw off the tryants
~ The Stranger Saviour: The stranger comes to town and acts as a catalyst for the residents to overcome their fear
~ The rise and fall: a family's or empire's rise to power and subsequent decline in their or it's fortune

We could use this in our music video when considering the narrative that will accompany the visuals.

Narrative, Plot and Storyline

Within one of our exam questions (1b) we are required to select one of our own productions and evaluate it in relation to media concepts. These concepts include:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

At first glance, the only one which seemed a little unusual to me due to the fact we have specifically studied it yet was 'media language'. However upon further inspection, it became clearer that actually 'narrative' was a concept in which held scarce knowledge about; you just assume it means the story.

So What is Narrative?
~ What distinguishes narrative from other forms is that it presents information as a connected sequence of events.
~ Progression - it links it all together.
~ The most basic narratives are linear - arranged in a straight line-like sequence (ABCDE). It is structured logically and is easy to follow as everything seems to make sense.
~ Many narratives sturcture their sequences causually; each event logically follows on from the previous one; each event causes the next event.
~ The majority are recountedin past tense.
~ Narative Hook: it should serve to intrigue the audience and give them a reason to keep on watching. This is often achieved through the use of an Enigma or McGuffin.
~ Most contain 'seeds' of the theme, which develop and grow later on.
~ Films which do not follow the conventions of a familiar genre can be harder to get into, as they have the potential to alienate the audience
~ Whilst sometimes it is the Director's intention to alienate the audience, most film openings incorporate generic conventions.

What is the difference between a story and a plot?
~ Films usually consist of events which are explicitly shown onscreen and events which are inferred to have happened off screen.
~ The Plot: everything that the film explicitly shows
~ The Story: the chronological order if all events explicitly shown and inferred.

Boris Tomashevsky
~ He suggested that the plot can be seen as the aesthetic arrangeent of ideas that teh firector wishes to bring to the attention of the reader.
~ So effectively the best bits of the characters' lives.
~ I think it is easy to follow this theory, as often with any film you watch, it is the conventional markers you see which move the plot along; you don't see the fill in bits of everyday life - which is just aswell really as you'd need the film in constant realtime, and would end up with a year long film!

Lion King
~ Is a good example, as we don't see many of the back stories - such as how Pumbaa and Timone met, how Scar and Mufasa were like as cubs, how Zazu became Mufasa's assistant etc.
~ We natually fill in the missing parts and details
~ However they did make some sequels following the success of the first film, so some of the holes are filled, but of course not all.

So it is now a whole lot clearer to me what measures to take when elaborating on the concept of Narrative within my exam question - there's a lot more to it than I thought!

Director Case Study: Director X

Director X is a Canadian director who has been working in the music video industry for over 15 years. His career as a director began with him directing the music video 'Richter Scale' by EPMD. He has worked with some huge names in the music industry including:

• Drake
• R. Kelly
• The Wanted
• Justin Bieber
• Nicki Minaj
• Sean Kingston
• David Guetta
• Ludacris
• Rihanna
• Usher
• Jay-Z
• Alicia Keys
• Little Mix

He generally directs music videos within the genre POP/R&B therefore the music videos he creates match the conventions of such perfectly as he is so experienced in what these are. They often carry some sort of message or narrative which stick quite closely to the lyrical representations. Furthermore, they all include the actual artist, who is usually the main feature/focus of the video. 

Here are some examples of his work: 

The Creativity Debate

As part of a refresher task we were all asked to define what creativity is. I think this is always a challenging and thought-provoking discussion seeing as everyone's thoughts and opinions are so different; you can learn a great deal simply through listening to other interpretations.

I have gathered some quotes from a range of people who have shared their views on what creativity is:

"The ability to share, improvise, invent, discover and create entities through any kind of source in any different way. It is not a pretty painting - it is a process which may or may not result in some kind of outcome"
      - Selina Swift
~  This is my own definition which I came up with at the beginning of our class discussion. I wanted to eliminate this idea that creativity is art, because although creativity helps with art, it is certainly not limited soley to that activity. Creativity has a part to play in absolutely everything.


“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people" 
      - Leo Burnett
~ This quote particularly caught my eye as, being a curious person myself, I can account for the fact that wanting to know about something often automatically consequences in taking (creative) action to satisfy the question. It evokes a kind of child-like sense of wonderment, which Burnett is implying the majority of people lose. 


“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try" 
     – Dr. Seuss
~ I really like this definition because it is poetically creative within itself. Also, it is suggesting not to confine yourselves into a narrow minded way of thinking; you should consider every aspect and beyond


I think the mistake many people make is trying to concretely define something which is so broad, that it is effectively indefinable within one sentence. To experience creativity is the best shortcut to understanding it externally.

Director Case Study: Emil Nava

Emil Nava is a British director who works with lots of well known artists including:

• Jessie J
• Rita Ora
• Paloma Faith 
• Ed Sheeran
• Katy B
• Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding

He is in the UK urban pop industry for music video directing. Since making it into the industry, he has also come to direct adverts too, such as the L'Oreal adverts with Cheryl Cole promoting for the company, and the vitamin water advert featuring Jessie J. He has had a great success with Jessie J; her video for Price Tag received over 180 million views on YouTube and was the #1 viewed video in the UK. Emil Nava also won best video for Jessie J 'Do It Like A Dude' at the 2011 Q Awards. When asked why he loves making music videos as opposed to feature films currently, he said: 

"I think it’s just having such an open playing field to work with. When Ed Sheeran comes along with a song simply about love, it’s such a wide canvas try and make your video. So you really get to express really strong narrative on some, conceptual ideas on others or simply just a really strong, cinematic look. You get to express many different areas of your creativity and get to show it off a lot"  

His music videos are mostly narrative based and they have an edgy, fast cutting style which grabs audience attention. Although he enerally sticks to the genre of pop, this can be at any end of the scale; from Ellie Goulding's raw, edgy sound to Tinchy Stryder's street rap style, so he has to adapt the conventions of these sub-enres. 

In my opinion, they are all quite predictable videos in that they are what you expect to see when you hear the song, which obviously shows he is meeting the genre conventions successfully. 

Here are some examples of videos he has directed:

Genre Investigation: Rock

Rock music originated in the 1950's as 'rock and roll', after being heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. It also drew strongly on a number of other genres, including blues and folk and incoporated influences from jazz and classical sources.

Musically, rock is centered upon the electric guitar, usually as part of an ensemble including bass guitar and drums. Song structure-wise, rock is usually within a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, with heavy, dramatic guitar and/or vocal solos. However, it has expanded in conventions ever since it's roots; some of the greatest songs were musical experiments which became known for their originality and innovation.

Like pop music, the lyrics are often inspired by romantics/love tales, but also addresses a wide range of other themes including those more socially or politically based.

The generic conventions of rock music videos include:

• Documenting live footage - adds energy and focuses on the talent of the musicians.
• Often focuses on the lead singer, close-up shots of them whilst the rest of the band are represented through more-so through wide shots and mid-shots.
• Focus on the instruments used and the musical element within the piece
• Strong links between the visuals and the music - often cuts to beat.
• Often fast paced to recreate the energetic live performance.
• Shots of the audience/crowd
• Expressing strong emotions such as anger, love, depression or regret.

Modern rock videos appear to be swerving towards creating a narrative within their videos, perhaps to try to gain more popularity through crossing genres, however it is no doubt that the most generic and successful rock videos are heavily performance based. 

Textual Analysis of Little Things - One Direction

'Little Things' by One Direction is a mellow, romantic ballad which reached number 2 in the charts, after falling behind Gangnam Style. Originally written by Ed Sheeran, it is an cross between pop and indie, holding conventional features of both:

• There is a high performance element
• Lots of close ups of artists
• Repetitive guitar riff
• Puts you in a good mood
• Steady tempo

The music video is shot entirely in black and white, which gives the video a raw, simplistic vibe. It focuses is shot in a recording studio and shows the boys in an extremely stripped back light. It includes many close up shots shots of them looking directly into the camera, so as to appeal to their audience - as if they are singing it directly to the person watching. It also shows some wide/mid shots of them messing around with each other and being 'normal' - again so as to widen their appeal, for they are just like the, 'boys next door'. It has a real personal touch and you feel like you get to know each band member better as the video goes on. This combination of shots keeps the viewer captivated by the boys and thus makes them want to watch more and/or buy the song. It works well because existing fans see the boys as they know them and can recognise their personalities, and new fans get a glimpse of the boy's characters and can make a decision based upon this. 

As a heavily performance based video, the lyrics relate to the visuals in the fact that they are being sung. However there are some smaller references to the lyrics within the visuals too, for example, with the lyric, "You can't go to bed without a cup of tea"- there are several mugs of (what I'm assuming is tea!) placed around the studio. Another reference is made to the first line, "your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me" during the opening shots, where there are a range of shots focusing on the boys' hands, itching their face, pushing a slider on the music deck, plucking the guitar strings etc.

The song as a whole relates to the visuals, as the concept of noticing the little things about someone is the simple thought behind it, and the fact that it is all shot in black and white adds to this rather minimalistic representation of the band members. Another major reference is made to guitars, with all of the boys having shots of them playing/holding a guitar at some point. This matches the main guitar riff/chords that are consistent throughout the whole song, and further emphasises the acoustic, natural tone of the video. 

Arguably the most powerful and significant entity within the music video is the star image motifs used. The band are represented as being normal teenage boys, and perfect boyfriend material for the intended audience. Each have their own individual style/look outside of the music world, but this is transferred through the costuming etc so they appear to be in their natural environment. It is arguable that this sense of normality is what is convincing for the audience, as it actually seems like a possibility to marry one of them as opposed to the likes of Robbie Williams or Justin Timberlake who sometimes appear unreachable/fantasy. This particular video is very different from their other music videos purely due to it's relaxed, mellow tone; usually One Direction create energetic, pop tracks such as, 'What Makes You Beautiful', 'Live While We're Young' or , 'Kiss You', so it is refreshing to see a nonchalant side to the band.

There is absolutely no reference to the notion of looking, in fact it is quite the opposite! You get the impression from the video that these are the kind of boys that would look after and appreciate you rather than use you for pure sexual attraction of any kind.

The music video is largely performance based, however there are some narrative elements within the lyrics, but they are not transferred directly into the visuals. 

Overall, I absolutely love this music video. I think it suits the song and the band perfectly - it is something I could put on repeat, watch all day and never get tired of. 

Genre Investigation: Dance

Periods of Western classical music
Early
Medieval	(500–1400)
Renaissance	(1400–1600)
Baroque	(1600–1760)
Common practice
Baroque	(1600–1760)
Classical	(1730–1820)
Romantic	(1815–1910)
Modern and contemporary
Modern	(1890–1930)
20th century	(1901–2000)
Contemporary	(1975–present)
21st century	(2001–present)

Dance music is music composed specifically to encourage or accompany dancing, and has carefully expanded into a huge genre with different sub-genres, such as house, techno and drum & bass regularly emerging. It has has to quickly evolve to keep up with the audience demands and modern trends as can be seen in the table to the right.
In terms of it's music videos, the genre of dance has developed many conventions of it's own, including:

• Handheld camera shots - rarely any static shots as the movement gives it a more dynamic and intimate feel
• Energetic
• Colourful
• Large variety of camera framing and angles, however there is a large use of close ups within the videos which again makes teh audience feel involved - as if you were there yourself.
• Often set in a nightclub/urban setting, this being a common concept of dance videos, however there are notable exceptions
• Other settings include summer settings, such as at the beach, pool parties etc
• More than often are shots of people dancing - be it street dancing, cheer leading, roller blading - anything that is energetic and inspires people to dance themselves.
• Modern teenager/young adult stereotypes, such as alcohol, drugs, fashionable clothing and sometimes sexual references.
• Representation of women - often voyerism, girls in bikini's/very little clothes. Male gaze theory comes into play
• High key lighting
• Lively atmosphere
• Repeated basseline beat to keep the audience engaged
• Techno/electric sounds

EDITING:
The editing within dance music videos is ususally fast paced and choppy - usually cutting to another shot every 1-2 seconds. This again is designed to raise heartrate and encourage movement. The editing usually tells a narrative, with common themes including love, gang culture and holidays/escapes.

Here are some examples of popular and conventional dance music videos: