Music Video - Permission Email

Shown below is the email that I sent to the "Selected" YouTube channel asking for permission to use their song Bounce as the track for my music video. This was a necessary step in order to avoid any copyright issues that could occur if I used their song without gaining the correct authorisation beforehand.


Hi, I am a student at Landau Forte Academy Tamworth Sixth Form and am planning to create a music video for the song listed in the subject of this email (Bounce by Calvin Harris). I will be creating the music video for my A2 media studies coursework but need permission from the songs uploader in order to proceed with creating the video. The video will be used for educational purposes only and will not be used for any monetary gain. Please reply letting me know whether or not I have your permission to use this song for my coursework.

Regards,
Dan Price
Student: LFATSF

Pitch feedback

I like the ambition of re-mixing a song yourself. Keep it to 4-5 minutes.

How will you brand the artist in the video.  Who is the artist and what influenced the way he is portrayed?

You need to make your ideas clear in the web-log with detailed planning and research.

What music videos have inspired your ideas?

Research the genre of music to see how other artists are branded.

What is the USP of your artist and outline where your brand lies in the market.

What camera shots will you have

Can you share some drafts of print products and storyboards

Outline the narrative of your story further so that we can see the dream sequence. 

Lay the audio track down on the timeline first. 

Task 4: Audience Research

The target audience for my horror film will be any horror fans over the age of 15, as this is the age certification that my film will have.  The film is aimed at people of any ethnicity, sexuality and gender. Because of the genre of the film, it will be aimed at horror fans, who are likely to be mainly teenagers and young adults, but can be of any age over the age of 15. The audience for my horror film are likely to follow the passive audience behaviour theory, but people that go to view the film at the cinema and are expecting to be scared will be behaving actively. as it will directly affect them by scaring them. There are multiple different ways in which I cold choose to circulate my product. These include film posters, which would be useful when placed inside cinemas due to the fact that they will be viewed by people who are going to watch films at the cinema, which is the target audience that we are aiming our product at.

Another way that I could market my product would be to make film trailers to be shown either or TV or at the cinema in the trailers that are shown before a film starts. This way, the trailer will be seen by a large amount of people as a lot of people go to the cinema to watch films and even more watch TV so will see the advert during advert breaks. This is a passive behaviour because the audience will see the advert on TV and this may make them want to watch the film or learn more about it. These audience members would be experiencing the hypodermic needle theory, as the product is affecting them without them actively looking into the product. The behaviour of audience members in different age ranges may be affected differently upon viewing my horror film. This is because older audience members are likely to not get as scared as younger members, especially if the older people a have been horror fans for a long time as they will be used to getting scared by horror films. Despite this, younger people may get more excitement and a larger adrenaline rush out of viewing my film, due to not being as used to experiencing fear from a film, especially if they are not a fan of horror films. The gender, social class and ethnic background of the members of the audience that watch my film is unlikely to affect how they behave upon viewing it in any way or how they respond to the product. I would expect that younger viewers would have a better response to my film due to the fact that they are likely to be more frightened of horror than many older viewers.

Task 2: Lady Gaga - Bad Romance: Textual Analysis

The opening of the music video for Lady Gaga's Bad Romance shows the characters that are involved in the music video bathed in a bright white light, ensuring that the video will capture the viewers attention from the outset. In this opening shot, Gaga is shown sitting on a white chair, which could also be described as a throne, in order to make her stand out from the rest of the characters on screen and to show that she is to focus of the story and the most important character. To add to this effect, Gaga is shown in gold coloured clothes and heels, while everyone else is wearing either black or white, more plain clothing. The main thing which stands out in the background characters are the headpieces that some are wearing, using masks to cover their faces. The fact that the background and floor are both coloured white with black stripes also ensures that Gaga will stand out as much as possible, as some of the other characters almost seem to blur with the setting of the shot. As this opening scene continues and cuts from the original pan shot to a close up of Gaga's face, it becomes apparent that the glasses that she is wearing are made of razor blades. This is likely a metaphor for Gaga being dangerous or unsafe and shows that she is capable of acknowledging this fact. This is also shown in the way that she is wearing what looks like some kind of metal mesh over the tips of her fingers, meaning that she has a dangerous touch. This close up of her fingers also shows some product placement, advertising a speaker made by a brand named Parrot.

 
The next scene begins with a shot of a yellow light becoming the centrefold of the shot with a black background heavily contrasting with the light. The light then begins to fill the setting of this scene, with a soft yellow light bathing the contents of the room that we are shown. The viewer now sees a line of what look like pods, each of which says Monster on the front of it. After this, a white light is turned on and lights up the entire scene, at which point the pods open and people start to emerge from inside of them. When put into context, this scene seems like an awakening, as the yellow light from the beginning of the scene seems to wake up the people inside of the pods, like the rising sun waking people up from their beds in the morning. The "Monsters" from inside of the pods are dressed in all white, matching the background of the scene, and begin to dance stiffly once they have all emerged from the pods. One of the following shots to this shows Gaga looking in the mirror, now in a setting with dimmer lighting and dressed all in black, including sunglasses and a large black crown. This could serve to show that she has changed in mood or personality, or that she has a darker side to her than what we have been shown in the previous shots.

Narrative Theories

Tzvetan Todorov
5 stage narrative theory. Todorov developed this theory in 1969, and believed that this theory could be applied to every film, as he believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern.

1. Equilibrium.
2. Disruption of the equilibrium (conflict).
3. Realisation of disruption.
4. Attempt to repair damage caused by disruption.
5. Restoration of a new equilibrium.



Roland Barthes
5 narrative codes.
Action code: Conflict
Referential code: Audiences external knowledge
Symbolic code: Symbolism
Enigma code: The main mystery/unknown of the story according to the audience
Semantic code: Additional meanings



Ferdinand De Saussure
Binary oppositions
A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. De Saussure also states that people cannot understand the concept of good without understanding evil, so binary oppositions are necessary for language in general.
E.g. good vs evil, young vs old, protagonist vs antagonist.

Rutherford feedback

You have made a positive start to research. Now step it up and complete blog posts. Begin your planning and ensure it is documented on the web-log.

Targets

Complete research into the short film (Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay)

Establish the purpose and codes and conventions of the short film

Complete the analysis of Lady Ga Ga videos

Personalise the research by looking at texts that you have chosen.