Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Editing Journal - Day One
So we have finally reached what will be the blood sweat and tears of our music video - the editing. It is so important when editing a music video, (as we have found out) that the pace and lighting and angle of the shots have to be so carefully worked out in order for it to be a success. But the good thing we didnt have to do was put it in chronological order like we did in our film. We were in a way more free to mess about and experiment with different ideas and places to put different shots.
So during day one, the goal was to upload all our footage that we had shot from dayone of our shooting and just place the very bare bones of our music video in creating a skeleton to work with. The video upload was a success, but as youcan imagine took forever! So as we were waiting we decided to watch back on all our footage. One thing that we did notice with this, is the the fact that some of our shots came out really dark in Final Cut Pro eventhough it came out really bright on to camera. This meant that we definatly had to go back to Langley Park to re-shoot some things.
Once we had finished uploading our footage, we decided to focus on the main goal that we had set for today and place in some shots that we definatly knew we wanted. We found this really challenging as we hadn't uploaded the mp3 of 'This Beauty' into Final Cut, so we were just guessing most of the way.
By the end of this session we had completed the following:
-Uploaded all our footage we have so far
-Looked over our footage and found areas and shots that we would have to shoot again
-Made a rough skeleton of shots that we knew we definatly wanted in there
Friday, 13 December 2013
Editing Textual Analysis - Go Back ~ Marketa Irglova
Title: Go Back
Artist: Marketa Irglova
Director: Unknown
Release Date: October 6th 2011
Genre: Folk/Indie
Intro
This song is made entirely out of reversing clips and is very effective with such simple editing done to it. I like this music video because it challenges the conventions of its genre and I really like music video's that can tell a story.
How Many Shots Are There In The Music Video?
Surprisingly there were 49 shots in the music video which is shocking because I expected it to be more because of its type of genre. The shots tend to fade into one another almost merging but not quite.
Where Were The Cuts In The Music Video?
When we first listened to the beat, because of the time signature being 4/4, we thought to make it even and in time the shots would cut on the beat but we found when listening to a certain layer of the music or taking a layer out, the beat sometimes cut to the rhythm of that. So technically it was still in time but in different instruments in the music. We found that the music video was full with jump cuts as it was interchanging with different scenes of objects in different stages of reversing.
Did The Music Video Shrink Or Expand?
From a first glance the music video looked like it was shrinking time because obviously the reverse sequence makes it look like its shrinking but when we looked at it again, we realised that it was indeed expanding time because the objects and actions that were happening have been slowed down like the reversal of the match lighting up and candle burning.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Editing Textual Analysis - Yellow ~ Coldplay
Title: Yellow
Artist: Coldplay
Director: James Frost & Alex of The Artists Company
Release Date: June 26th 2000
Genre: Alternative Rock
Intro
Coldplay are a very popular band that have played all over the world and in many exciting venues. They even played in the Olympic opening ceremony which is a very big thing to do. I came across this band when I was a lot younger and I always liked the inventiveness of their music videos.
How Many Shots Are There In The Music Video?
The entire music video is one continuous shot of a performance based music video, which captures the essence and emotion of the song. The audience feel a really deep connection with the artist as he sing directly to them.There is not much at all going on in the background so this one continuous shot is just directly about this artist singing.
Where Were The Cuts In The Music Video?
Since it was just one continuous shot there were no jump cuts or cuts in general to comment about. But he did do certain things on the beat of the music like run or slow down or glance at the sea beside him.
Did The Music Video Shrink Or Expand?
Looking at it from my point of view I think it did both as the background was changing from night to day about three or four times which obviously resembled different parts of the day. But the music video had a feel overall which made ir feel like it was expanding time because of the amount of slow motion that was used.
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Actors Research
We have decided to use me as the acting 'Amanda Rodgers'!
We all decided that we would take an anonamous vote on who suits the image of Amanda better, so we took a class vote and a VKLC vote and decided that I would be acting Amanda Rodgers as I have the most acting experience within the group, and i like performing.
Acting is a very hard thing to do as you are basically trying to embody and repesent a compleatly different person to yourself, which is why I think actors and actresses are under rated. It takes so much method acting and Researching your role into depth to create a beilieveable performance and character. You also have to captivate the audience and get them interested whirlst also marketing yourself which is mainly seen in music videos.
Upon researching music videos and looking at the behind the scenes on set of them, I have noticed that when doing scenes that involve lip -syncing, the actor/actress always sings along to the song instead of miming to create a more real and believable lip-sync and to make it look like they were actually singing it live. This also helps with continuity errors, as by singing them you are getting the right mouthing action, where-as when your miming it is completely different.
Becoming Amanda Rodgers...
When becoming Amanda Rodgers, looking deeper into her personality and artist history was very helpful as it helped me have a good understanding of role she plays in her band and how she carries herself. I discovered she was very hippy-like and free so to show this we had to choose costume and make-up very carefully to represent a nature-saving care free spirit.
I also had to look into creating a connection with the audience and to do this I researched videos such as 'Yellow' by Coldplay as he chooses to stay in close-up for the whole music video. This therefore makes the audience feel like he is choosing to embrace them on his journey through out the music video and that he is only singing to them. The intense eye connection he has with the camera only expands this point further. The fact that he also uses slow-motion as well makes the connection stronger and makes the video more intense and meaningful.
Other things that I had to consider is marketing Amanda Rodgers to the audience i had to do this by making sure that I was sending out a good message to the audience and by having a positive track to work with made it a whole lot easier. I had to sell myself to the audience and make them like me and the only way of doing that is being likeable, unforgettable and original. This also links with having to create a connection with the audience and the amount of close ups that appear in the music video.
Some-thing else that I thought would help me into becoming Amanda Rodgers is looking at videos of her live performance to see how she connects to her songs and what actions and gestures she uses by looking at the following video:
After seeing that I noticed that she puts a lot of her emotions into the song, starting off weak and finishing strong. She closes her eyes and gets into the zone expressing herself. She is truly singing from the heart on a subject that probably means a lot to her, and she lets the audience see that delicate vulnerable side of her that works in her favour. By letting the audience in to what almost seems like a diary entry song, she is captivating them and getting her message across.
So to wrap everything up, I have to keep a strong connection with the meaning of the song to connect to the audience and maintain that young innocent carefree spirit that Amanda seems to portray.
We all decided that we would take an anonamous vote on who suits the image of Amanda better, so we took a class vote and a VKLC vote and decided that I would be acting Amanda Rodgers as I have the most acting experience within the group, and i like performing.
Acting is a very hard thing to do as you are basically trying to embody and repesent a compleatly different person to yourself, which is why I think actors and actresses are under rated. It takes so much method acting and Researching your role into depth to create a beilieveable performance and character. You also have to captivate the audience and get them interested whirlst also marketing yourself which is mainly seen in music videos.
Upon researching music videos and looking at the behind the scenes on set of them, I have noticed that when doing scenes that involve lip -syncing, the actor/actress always sings along to the song instead of miming to create a more real and believable lip-sync and to make it look like they were actually singing it live. This also helps with continuity errors, as by singing them you are getting the right mouthing action, where-as when your miming it is completely different.
Becoming Amanda Rodgers...
When becoming Amanda Rodgers, looking deeper into her personality and artist history was very helpful as it helped me have a good understanding of role she plays in her band and how she carries herself. I discovered she was very hippy-like and free so to show this we had to choose costume and make-up very carefully to represent a nature-saving care free spirit.
I also had to look into creating a connection with the audience and to do this I researched videos such as 'Yellow' by Coldplay as he chooses to stay in close-up for the whole music video. This therefore makes the audience feel like he is choosing to embrace them on his journey through out the music video and that he is only singing to them. The intense eye connection he has with the camera only expands this point further. The fact that he also uses slow-motion as well makes the connection stronger and makes the video more intense and meaningful.
Other things that I had to consider is marketing Amanda Rodgers to the audience i had to do this by making sure that I was sending out a good message to the audience and by having a positive track to work with made it a whole lot easier. I had to sell myself to the audience and make them like me and the only way of doing that is being likeable, unforgettable and original. This also links with having to create a connection with the audience and the amount of close ups that appear in the music video.
Some-thing else that I thought would help me into becoming Amanda Rodgers is looking at videos of her live performance to see how she connects to her songs and what actions and gestures she uses by looking at the following video:
After seeing that I noticed that she puts a lot of her emotions into the song, starting off weak and finishing strong. She closes her eyes and gets into the zone expressing herself. She is truly singing from the heart on a subject that probably means a lot to her, and she lets the audience see that delicate vulnerable side of her that works in her favour. By letting the audience in to what almost seems like a diary entry song, she is captivating them and getting her message across.
So to wrap everything up, I have to keep a strong connection with the meaning of the song to connect to the audience and maintain that young innocent carefree spirit that Amanda seems to portray.
Artist Representation Process
Amanda Rodgers markets herself to the audience as someone who loves nature and has a humble soul, being that she has advertised on her website that she is a vegan. By wearing dresses and flowers in her hair, she is marketing herself as someone that is rather an underground artist than wanting to be in the public eye changing with the poplular styles, for instance some-one like Miley Cyrus does this. She markets herself as the same as she markets her songs and she shows a lot of her personality through her lyrics and melodies. Many people have said that she resembles what a child of John Lennon would look like and do, advertising herself as more hippy than the average pop singer. Being compared to John Lennon is quite challenging, therfore saying that people think that you would resemble the daughter of John Lennon she must be good as an artist to be compared to someone so great.By being a vegan and advertising it with a picture on her website she markets herself as one with nature and presents herself to be very natural, hence the long hair and pure dresses in colours such as white. You can definatly tell just by the way she presents herself and her songs/lyrics that she loves nature and wishes to proserve it.
When I look at Amanda Rodgers, I see her as quite hippy and not bothred about what is in the heart of online media and what is mainstream. She looks to me like the small voiced girl who just got on with life and is happy whatever. Furthermore, she looks like an only child and someone who doesnt talk to a lot of people and likes enjoying her own company and her family. She kind of presents herself very hipster and indie. Being that not many people have heard of her and she doesn't do massive concerts and she is more the type to sing at festivals says to me that she is not a very out-there sort of person and is almost shy in a way. On the other hand this could empower her and show that she doesnt stick to the popular things and doesn't want to be what everyone wants her to be, she just wants to be herself.
How her career has changed her..
Her music career started off being quite dark and she sung about very dark sadening things and stuff that annoyed her. Her image hasn't changed much. I'd say she got less indie and went more pop based changing her genre to fit herself and becoming indie-pop. In this photo she looks a lot more dark and grungy using a lot of eye make-up and having darker hair. Also simple the fact that she had taken photos in black and white back then shows that she was a very sort of conceled person and sort of lived with her music.
Looking at the picture of her now, she shows a lot more colour in her cheeks and has sort of gone a bit girly in a way. She has changed the colour of her hair to a lighter colour and it is obviously longer. She has less black make up around the eyes and showing the trees and nature bhind her shows that she likes being natural. The picture is also taken in colour showing that she has opened up a bit more now to her audience and widened her audience also. It shows that she has slightly gone a bit more mainstream, but is till true to her image and conveys it across in every way she can.Props Research
Red String
We have decided that we would have some red string in the video that our actress would follow which would slowly lead her to what she thinks is the true beauty. We thought that we should have everything connected by the the red string would be really effective and would help our ideas and locations to link more smoothly. we thought that we could have a shot where it shows all of us in the group even if it's just a snippet of us or just our lips or something, which would work well with our red string idea to show that they are all connected and the beauty is in all of them no matter how different they are, there is beauty in everyone.
Red Heart
We had this idea that the red string would lead to a red heart echoing the Heartwood album and also the 'Heartwood tree' which is where our protagonist would end up in the end. another idea that we had was that the protagonist could be following this red string which leads to the Heartwood tree and she then finds out that the heart is attached to her but she could not see it all this time, linking to the fact she is in fact the true beauty, and she has been searching for the true meaning of beauty and she had found that is is in herself hence the heart.
Photos In The Tree
We thought that having photos attached to the tree showing what the media thinks is true beauty, so bits from magazines and air-brushed models tied to a brown string because it will look quite natural. This idea was influenced by Taylor Swifts music video 'Mine' where she is in the forest with photos hanging all around her. We thought that we would have a shot of our protagonist ripping the photos off the tree to show that she is angry and doesn't want to believe that this is the true beauty that she is searching for.
We have decided that we would have some red string in the video that our actress would follow which would slowly lead her to what she thinks is the true beauty. We thought that we should have everything connected by the the red string would be really effective and would help our ideas and locations to link more smoothly. we thought that we could have a shot where it shows all of us in the group even if it's just a snippet of us or just our lips or something, which would work well with our red string idea to show that they are all connected and the beauty is in all of them no matter how different they are, there is beauty in everyone.Red Heart
We had this idea that the red string would lead to a red heart echoing the Heartwood album and also the 'Heartwood tree' which is where our protagonist would end up in the end. another idea that we had was that the protagonist could be following this red string which leads to the Heartwood tree and she then finds out that the heart is attached to her but she could not see it all this time, linking to the fact she is in fact the true beauty, and she has been searching for the true meaning of beauty and she had found that is is in herself hence the heart.Photos In The Tree
We thought that having photos attached to the tree showing what the media thinks is true beauty, so bits from magazines and air-brushed models tied to a brown string because it will look quite natural. This idea was influenced by Taylor Swifts music video 'Mine' where she is in the forest with photos hanging all around her. We thought that we would have a shot of our protagonist ripping the photos off the tree to show that she is angry and doesn't want to believe that this is the true beauty that she is searching for.Lyrics Analysis - This Beauty ~ Amanda Rodgers
This Beauty - Lyrics
When your words
Come too easily for me to believe
And this paint goes on too thinly
To peel away
I will find
A silver lining sometime
Blur my vision
And I'll be fine
And I'll be fine
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
An imperfected me
Will not be seen
When your words
Burn forever in my mind
And those greens
And those blues
Seem too perfect to be true
I will light a fire every time
I think to myself
I will be fine
I will be fine
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
An imperfected me
Will not be seen
But I'll go on silently
and I'll be strong fortunately
This beauty is not clear to me
This beauty is not clear to me
To me, to me, to me...
To me, to me, to me...
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always...
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
This beauty will be clearer to me, to me, to me...
Analysis
Verse 1
Verse 2
Come too easily for me to believe
And this paint goes on too thinly
To peel away
I will find
A silver lining sometime
Blur my vision
And I'll be fine
And I'll be fine
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
An imperfected me
Will not be seen
When your words
Burn forever in my mind
And those greens
And those blues
Seem too perfect to be true
I will light a fire every time
I think to myself
I will be fine
I will be fine
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
An imperfected me
Will not be seen
But I'll go on silently
and I'll be strong fortunately
This beauty is not clear to me
This beauty is not clear to me
To me, to me, to me...
To me, to me, to me...
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always...
Burn the pages of the magazines
I hate the way they look at me
With every smile and every laugh
There's something I will always lack
And maybe, just maybe
This beauty will be clearer to me, to me, to me...
Analysis
Verse 1
The first verse
talks about the fact that she is finding it hard to believe that people look at
themselves and the way that people comment about her inner and outer beauty
almost bullying her. She talks about paint going on too thinly and peeling away
which she is trying to get across that she has had enough hence the expression “you've
spread your paint too thin” which means your sort of pushing the limits in what
you’re saying, like you’re about to burst in a way. She says that she will find
a silver lining in all this mess and she will come out shinning on top. “Blur
my vision and I’ll be fine...” hints to the audience that she wants her vision
to be blurred so she can’t see what is going on around her and then she will be
fine and she won’t be competing with the image of beauty in the media.
Chorus
The chorus is
basically talking about the fact that
the image of beauty these days in the magazines and the media is way too
stereotypical and judgmental. The “something
I will always lack” line implies the fact that she is never good enough for the
media’s image of beauty and her imperfections are always being pointed out. So
she hopes that one day there won’t be such a judgmental image of beauty and
then all her imperfections won’t be seen and pointed out because she can just
be herself and not what everybody else wants her to be.Verse 2
The second verse
talks almost about her being bullied and being brought don’t by what people are
saying to her when she says the first line “when your words, burn forever in my
mind”. There is a hint that she is talking about the beauty of nature and how
people now-a-days take it for granted and they can’t actually see the real beauty
around them which is nature; “and those greens and those blues seem too perfect
to be true”. She goes back to the idea of burning what people are saying to her
with “I will light a fire every-time”. After she has burnt all these words and
images she knows she will be fine as she
says the lines “I think to myself, I will be fine...”
The Bridge
What I call the bridge
of the song talks about her fighting her battle of bullying and the judgmental
image of beauty. She is saying that she will be strong and not let them break
her and turn her into something that she's not in the lines “But I’ll go on
silently, and I’ll be strong fortunately”. She then talks about the fact that
the beauty that is present in the media now is corrupted and it is not clear to
her because she does not understand why anyone would want to be like that, and
she does not fit the criteria to be beautiful in this day and age: “this beauty
is not clear to me...”
The Ending
Right at the very end the lyrics change to “and maybe , just
maybe this beauty will be clearer to me...” She is basically saying that once
she’s done all she can (burning the photos etc..) she can live happily and the
image of beauty will be ‘just to be yourself’ and not what everyone else wants you
to be.
In Conclusion
The lyrics have a very natural feel to them and is about the beauty if being yourself and the conformity of beauty these days.
What I learnt to apply to my music video..
From analyzing the lyrics I thought it would probably be best to have a natural setting, and very natural style makeup and costume ti represent that she is not all caught up in the image of beauty. There needs to be some form of ripping a photo or magazine to show the anger that Amanda Rodgers has for the beauty these days.
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Jimmy Eat World - live performance - audience analysis
The band performed all their songs live and included the crowd in also, breaking the fourth wall which tends to be a natural thing at a concert. They definately made the stage their own which i think is an important thing when it comes to the selling and marketing of the band and audience.
I noticed that they were selling merch at their concert which included Vinyls of their album, signed CD's and t-shirts. By selling this merch at the consert, they are widening their target audience in the online media today.
(The video footage is my own, excuse the screaming!)
Overall, seeing them live has helped give me an insight to the type of performance techniques they used such as using their instruments to get the crowd going and this is a common feature used in performance based music videos. The usage of lighting was very important in creating the right atmostphere. For instance when they played their more ballad style song such as 'Hear You Hear Me' they a more gentle feel which was echoed in the lighting. It was soft colours such as a deep purple and pink with a smoke machine whch made it look like they were singin on clouds. This was really relevent to the song as the lyrics consist of "may angels lead you in" and abviously angels connotate with the clouds and skies. For their more upbeat song such as 'Sweetness' there were more greens blues and yellows. They also used flood lights that shined into the audience almost including them in the song as the lyrics read "If you listening whoaaaa, sing it back whoaaaa". The lighting is encouraging them to sing it back to them. So from looking at the lighting at the concert, it just goes to show that the right lighting can create the right atmostphere, and so much thought and effort has gone into doing all these small things that most people don't notice.
Seeing as ive never heard them before, taking in the type of audience they were and the location of it, I could tell that it wasnt going to be some next boy-band One Direction type music! Delving further into audience research this type of genre definately had a certain sort of image that their followers portrayed. Thie included slighty grungy and rock clothing. The audience was mostly aged from 18 upwards and mostly the audience consisted of the male gender. Following up on this, the crowd also consisted of mosh-pits which I was unfortunate enough to get stuck in, which was mostly males.
In conclusion I really enjoyed myself last night at the concert bearing in mind that this was my first time hearing them play live. I thought that they performed well and it has helped me see that performance is so important and vital in a music video so they can make that connection with their audience, therefore selling/marketing themselves further.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Amanda Rodgers - Audience Research
Amanda rodgers has a very Indie -pop based genre set to her songs and the the way she presnts herself. So therefore her target audience would be people that like that kind of genre of music video.
What is Indie Pop?
It is a sub-genre of alternative rock and Indie rock, it is said to have originated from the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980's. The genre of Indie Pop is extremley diverse and open consisting of subgenre's such as lo-fi, dream pop, sadcore, emo and many more. Being a subgenre of Indie rock, it is said to be a lighter version of it and less depressing than most Indie rock.
The Indie Demographic
You tend to think of the Indie scene as cool hipster kids that listen to music that isn't in the mainstream or the pop charts. Thier music usually consists of songs that relate to things like nature and that of the sort. The artists that they listen to aren't very big and do small giggs. the term Indie and Hipster are very closely linked.
From looking at many different kind of people, I have decided that many Indie-pop supporting people tend to use the social networking site called Tumblr and have a certain dress code which seems to be in the eye of fashion at the moment.
The fashion seems to be related to things such as going to festivals and eating healthily such as becoming vegan. This is an important point because our Artist Amanda Rodgers plays in festivals and is a vegan herself. This shows that Amanda is her own taget audience.
What is Indie Pop?
It is a sub-genre of alternative rock and Indie rock, it is said to have originated from the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980's. The genre of Indie Pop is extremley diverse and open consisting of subgenre's such as lo-fi, dream pop, sadcore, emo and many more. Being a subgenre of Indie rock, it is said to be a lighter version of it and less depressing than most Indie rock.
The Indie Demographic
You tend to think of the Indie scene as cool hipster kids that listen to music that isn't in the mainstream or the pop charts. Thier music usually consists of songs that relate to things like nature and that of the sort. The artists that they listen to aren't very big and do small giggs. the term Indie and Hipster are very closely linked.
From looking at many different kind of people, I have decided that many Indie-pop supporting people tend to use the social networking site called Tumblr and have a certain dress code which seems to be in the eye of fashion at the moment.
The fashion seems to be related to things such as going to festivals and eating healthily such as becoming vegan. This is an important point because our Artist Amanda Rodgers plays in festivals and is a vegan herself. This shows that Amanda is her own taget audience.
Record Company Research
Amanda rogers has worked with many record companies in her musical journey in life. some of these companies are listed below.
>2nd Records (Germany)
>Immigrant Sun Records (Brooklyn, NY)
>Make My Day Records (Europe)
>Do It Together Records (U.S)
2nd Records
2nd Records is a record label from Hamburg in Germany which publishes music since 2000 between Poland electronics, guitar music and HipHop. Amanda first came about this record label when she was touring as a supporting act and this record label released her records 'Something borrowed, Something blue' and 'Daily News' on this label so that her musical audience could widen and she could take on Europe. The record company stated back in 2005.
Immigrant Sun Records
Independent hardcore label from NY, USA; active from 1996 until around 2003. Their releases stood out through beautiful and sometimes extensive and costly artwork.
[to be continued..]
Make My Day Records
Make my day records was founded 2002 and is part of starkult promotion. Apart from that they run a publishing edition with Warner Chappell called Edition Josey Wales / Warner Chappell. They try to deliver a perfect service for their bands. Mainly built on trust, hope and general understanding of the Artist situation. Their main territory is GAS (Germany ,Austria , Switzerland) but since their distribution partner Alive has enlarged it’s service they can cover most countries in Europe. Their goal is: good music for good humans and the company is completely independent.
Do It Together Records
D.I.T. is a record label and boutique agency dedicated to promoting indie artists of all kinds. Many of their artists are self-reliant and have had much success on their own. D.I.T. is set up to provide its roster with a promotional team and a vast industry network that works together to facilitate bigger and better opportunities. “For Artists, by Artists.” is it's catch phrase featured on its website. Amanda was signed onto this label and released the album heartwood which features the song we have chosen for our music video on it.
>2nd Records (Germany)
>Immigrant Sun Records (Brooklyn, NY)
>Make My Day Records (Europe)
>Do It Together Records (U.S)
2nd Records
2nd Records is a record label from Hamburg in Germany which publishes music since 2000 between Poland electronics, guitar music and HipHop. Amanda first came about this record label when she was touring as a supporting act and this record label released her records 'Something borrowed, Something blue' and 'Daily News' on this label so that her musical audience could widen and she could take on Europe. The record company stated back in 2005.
Immigrant Sun Records
Independent hardcore label from NY, USA; active from 1996 until around 2003. Their releases stood out through beautiful and sometimes extensive and costly artwork.
[to be continued..]
Make My Day Records
Make my day records was founded 2002 and is part of starkult promotion. Apart from that they run a publishing edition with Warner Chappell called Edition Josey Wales / Warner Chappell. They try to deliver a perfect service for their bands. Mainly built on trust, hope and general understanding of the Artist situation. Their main territory is GAS (Germany ,Austria , Switzerland) but since their distribution partner Alive has enlarged it’s service they can cover most countries in Europe. Their goal is: good music for good humans and the company is completely independent.
Do It Together Records
D.I.T. is a record label and boutique agency dedicated to promoting indie artists of all kinds. Many of their artists are self-reliant and have had much success on their own. D.I.T. is set up to provide its roster with a promotional team and a vast industry network that works together to facilitate bigger and better opportunities. “For Artists, by Artists.” is it's catch phrase featured on its website. Amanda was signed onto this label and released the album heartwood which features the song we have chosen for our music video on it.
Amanda Rogers - Musical Backround
Amanda rogers arted her musical career in 1999 with her first ever recordings of her album 'Here and Nowhere'. the album consisted of pop songs with a hint of garage rock about teen angst, love, emotions and life of teenagers. In her second album she decided to go darker nito her song choices choosing to incorperate her past and upbringing into her song writing with her good friend Grant Capes for help. After Amanda had done many shows at local bars and pubs, busking and scoring low time giggs, she was introduced to friends of the 'Immigrant Sun Records' which was based in Brooklyn, New York. She showed them her work she had done with grant and soon after that, she was off to record her first Indie-Label recording. She then flew to California to record with her friend Grant for what would be her album ' The Places You Dwell' which was released in 2003 which she attracted many big record labels with her organic, analog, lo-fi experience and sound. She recalls that she "wanted the album to be haunting" and said things like "i wanted the listener to feel like it was for their ears alone". After this Amanda started her touring more and attracting more attention by the media and big record labels.
In 2004 Amanda went to record 'Daily News' her next big hit. The record hit high with a lot of attention from the radio, tv and press. She was becoming her own sound as her songs were maturing with her strong lyrics and interesting melodies and harmonies. You can hear her many inspirations and influences of blues and jazz in her music. Amanda then decided to do some touring supporting many emo, hardcore, pop-rock, and punk bands which are all very famous and in the eye of media, around the U.S, Canada, and Europe. When she was touring in Germany she made friends with people at the record company '2nd Records' which released 'Daily News' in Europe helping her music to be heard more. All this success and news was very rewarding for Amanda who was also her own manager, booking agent and accountant. In 2005 she was later offered the opertunity to tour and join their band with her well-known friends from the band 'Jupiter Sunrise' in which she said yes. For almost two years she lived and toured with them in a vegatable oil powered R.V in which they completed nealry 500 shows. In this same year she went and did some more recording with her friend Grant Capes in which she released 'Something borrowed, Something blue' which featured 5 songs, two of which were covers and the other were original which showed her love of art-rock and indie roots, this fulfilled Amandas deal with the record company 'Immigrant Sun Records'.
In 2006, the band Jupiter Sunrise decided to call it a day and Amanda had to re-new her solo career again deciding to move to LA, California in 2007 to record again with producer Warren Huart (who has also worked with big names such as The Fray, Anna Nalick and Augustana.) Dan Rothchild (who has worked with Tonic and Fiona Apple) and an amazing back-up band with David Levitta on guitars, Dan Rothchild on bass and Travis McNabb on drums. This record was promised to be her most positive and upbeat album to date.In Jaunuary 2012 Amanda decided to back to her musical endeavors recording her album 'Hope from the forgotten woods'. This album was recorded over a few weeks at Mt. Hollywood Studios in Vermont. Everything was produced, mixed and made up by Amanda herself. The album was released on April 27th 2012 through 'Make My Day Records' based in Europe and 'Do It Together Records' in the U.S.
The album in which the song we decided to do was from her 'Heartwood' album released in 2008. This album was produced by Wareen Huart and Dan Rothchild and Amanda herself. The lyrics were written by her. This album was said to have been Amanda’s most positive record to date,written from the darkest gloom…where seeds of song inspired hope, strength, and change, and roused her from the death-like sleep.
“Forever inspired by the mysteries of the universe, and forever propelled by the laws of Quantum Mechanics, Amanda is on an endless path of creativity so you can always expect to find her up to something new and unusual.” - Quote from Amanda's website.
Friday, 15 November 2013
Lighting And Colour Research
Lighting
The lighting for us is going to be an issue considering we are shooting in a forest so we will have natural light for all of our shots. This is something that we will find chaellenging when coming to shoot as keeping the same light and colour to make it flow and look like it was all shot on the same day at the same time. So we thought that if we shot early in the morning then we will get that first rising sun look on all our videos. Another thing that we have to worry about is the weather. This will effect us if its all cloudy because the lighting will be darker and as a whole effect will make our video seem very negative and bland. Although in our orginal ideas we wanted bright suns and bright lightings, we thought that knowing our luck we will be stuck with horrible weather and really dark lighting. We thought that this caught work in our favour because its almost like the rain is washing away all the bad stuff and almost purifying her. So either drastic rainy weather or bright sunny weather and we will be fine!
Another thing that we thought we could use if it gets too dark is to use the plug on light that was provided with the camera to use as an extra bit of lighting if we're filming under a tree and we need that extra little bit we can use it. It is also helpful that this light has filters nthat you can put over the light such as a pink; for a warm feel and yellow; for a bright sunny feel. I think that when coming to close-ups we will find it really useful to use thia extra light.
When sketching out our ideas, it was very clear that we wanted sun spots somewhere in our music video to create a natural, 'sun bursting through the trees, natural beauty' look. We thought this would help echo Amandas personality and also the personality of the song. Obvisoualy on the day if its bad weather we won't be able to get this effect, but hopefully if we leave early in the morning, we can catch that first sunrise effect.
Colour
For the colour which was already discused in the costume research, we were hoping for a pale palette for the costume to connotate purity and innocence and obviously at one with nature (as Amanda is a vegan).
For the colouring of the video we wanted bright colours because when Vicky and I did Syneasthsia to the song we drew with lots of bright colours and ovbviously because the song is quite pop and fast paced we saw lots of different colours so thats what we decided to do for the video and have a bright colour palette. This will also refelct on the mood that we have to our piece of music and the overall 'nature is the centre of everything' feel. We feel that by having this kind of colour in our music video that we can convey not just a music video, but a postive message out to people who watch it because that was the whole idea we wanted.
The lighting for us is going to be an issue considering we are shooting in a forest so we will have natural light for all of our shots. This is something that we will find chaellenging when coming to shoot as keeping the same light and colour to make it flow and look like it was all shot on the same day at the same time. So we thought that if we shot early in the morning then we will get that first rising sun look on all our videos. Another thing that we have to worry about is the weather. This will effect us if its all cloudy because the lighting will be darker and as a whole effect will make our video seem very negative and bland. Although in our orginal ideas we wanted bright suns and bright lightings, we thought that knowing our luck we will be stuck with horrible weather and really dark lighting. We thought that this caught work in our favour because its almost like the rain is washing away all the bad stuff and almost purifying her. So either drastic rainy weather or bright sunny weather and we will be fine!
Another thing that we thought we could use if it gets too dark is to use the plug on light that was provided with the camera to use as an extra bit of lighting if we're filming under a tree and we need that extra little bit we can use it. It is also helpful that this light has filters nthat you can put over the light such as a pink; for a warm feel and yellow; for a bright sunny feel. I think that when coming to close-ups we will find it really useful to use thia extra light.
When sketching out our ideas, it was very clear that we wanted sun spots somewhere in our music video to create a natural, 'sun bursting through the trees, natural beauty' look. We thought this would help echo Amandas personality and also the personality of the song. Obvisoualy on the day if its bad weather we won't be able to get this effect, but hopefully if we leave early in the morning, we can catch that first sunrise effect.Colour
For the colour which was already discused in the costume research, we were hoping for a pale palette for the costume to connotate purity and innocence and obviously at one with nature (as Amanda is a vegan).
For the colouring of the video we wanted bright colours because when Vicky and I did Syneasthsia to the song we drew with lots of bright colours and ovbviously because the song is quite pop and fast paced we saw lots of different colours so thats what we decided to do for the video and have a bright colour palette. This will also refelct on the mood that we have to our piece of music and the overall 'nature is the centre of everything' feel. We feel that by having this kind of colour in our music video that we can convey not just a music video, but a postive message out to people who watch it because that was the whole idea we wanted.
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