Jodie Butcher

Ideas for our ancillary tasks and research into other artists

As we have now completed the music video, we need to start working on the ancillary tasks we have been set. Our group decided we wanted to create a digi-pack to go with our song and a magazine advert for the song. We have already decided on a few ideas:

As the artists we are definitely going to be on there. It is essential for girl bands to have images of themselves on advertisements so they can target their audience.
We want it to look as professional as possible so we are going to go all out on the hair and make-up.
We don't want people to be distracted from us by other elements of the digi-pack and magazine advert - therefore we aren't going to directly relate to the lyrics.
We want it to be as eye-catching, bright and interesting as possible.

Examples from The Saturdays

This image of The Saturdays has been taken from a magazine where they are meant to be promoting body spray 'Impulse' rather than one of their songs. The Saturdays have created their own brand identity and they use this in most advertisements they do. Each member wears a very similar outfit but differentiate themselves by colour. In this example they are all wearing the same catsuit, except all in a different colour. By doing this they have made themselves unique and easily identifiable to their target audience.

Here is an example of one of The Saturdays digi-pack covers. 'Just cant get enough' was a single they did for comic relief. In this image they haven't directly related to any lyrics within this song (which is what we weren't going to do either). Instead they have related it to the song by making the digi-pack playful and fun which is similar to the song. The image has been super imposed together, this would have been done by each girl having their poses shot individually then they would have been super imposed together on a computer.

Examples from other genres

The example I have chosen is a band called Lostprophets who sing rock music.

Here is the magazine Kerrang! which Lostprophets were featured. They did a photo shoot for the magazine and decided to put the lead singer in the front and the rest of the band towards the back. This is typical of male rock/indie bands as unlike in girl groups where each member has an equal amount of attention, male bands tend to have a lead singer with the rest of the band either no singing or hardly singing at all. Therefore they portray this in their band pictures as people normally only recognise the lead singer rather than the rest of the band.

This image is the bands digi-pack cover for the single 'For he's a jolly good fellow'. The band have chosen a theme of smart and upper-class which is contradictory to their 'hardcore' normal image. Once again the lead singer is more at the front than the others and can be seen easiest due to his bright white shirt. This image is a typical 'indie' band image as it is simple and consists of all the band members.

Our last shot

For our last shot we decided to use the one of the 4 of us in Epping Forest on a fallen tree, in hysterics of laughter. We decided to use this because it is an interesting shot with the tree and the background and includes all 4 of us having a good time. Although the tone of our song and video is more sad, we thought it would make a good ending to finish with a typical girl band shot of everyone looking happy.

Feedback from final cut

We presented our finished music video to our media class and teacher and received their feedback.
Feedback was given in 2 different categories - strong aspects and weak aspects.

Strong aspects in terms of:

Camera Work
Mise-en-scene
Editing For Meaning
Sound

The shot of the glass smashing on the floor then piecing itself back together is interesting and clever. (Although Mrs Allison was not sure about it reversing and piecing itself back together and whether it was relevant).
All round good camera skills in terms of match on action and shot reverse shot.
The mise-en-scene was well thought out and didn't look out of place.
The 'Citizen Kane' scene was an effective use of intertextuality.
The heartbeat sound effect used at the very beginning was good as it built up the drama and intensity.
Use of transitions were good, not too over the top and not too common.
The standard of lip-syncing was high, no glitches or timing issues.
The performances by our actors and us as a group were impressive
Our effects were used with restraint such as the zoom we used. Being selective meant it didn't look too cluttered or rushed.
Lighting in most shots were good (except for the one where I am lip-syncing under a tree and appear rather dark).
We took the genre seriously and tried to represent it as best as possible. A quote from one of our class members - 'Masterful'.

Weak aspects in terms of:

Camera Work
Mise-en-scene
Editing For Meaning
Sound

The speech between Joe and Emily at the beginning is a bit different. Joe seems to sound much louder and clearer than Emily.
Mrs Allison particularly didn't like the abrupt jump cuts where Emily is in the car and drives off. Possibly transitions may be needed.

Final Cut

Here is our final cut of 'Missing You'. Although our project is not complete as we still have to do the ancillary tasks. There is still time to edit and change our video as this is not the deadline but we there is no allocated lesson time to do this

Fascination Records

Fascination Records are a UK based record label which is owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as an imprint of Polydor Records. The label was launched in spring 2006, and is managed by former TOTP Magazine editor Peter Loraine. It concentrates on a relatively small number of pop acts and will complement the re-activated Fiction rock imprint.

Here are some examples of established acts owned by Fascination Records:

Obviously The Saturdays!
A five piece girl group, The Saturdays consist of Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman, formerly of S Club 8, along with Mollie King, Una Healy and Vanessa White. They have supported Girls Aloud on the tour for their Tangled Up album and fellow label mates Jonas Brothers at one of their recent live dates in London. Their first single, "If This Is Love" was released on 28 July 2008 and peaked at no. 8 in the UK singles chart. The follow up single, "Up" was released on 13 October 2008 and peaked at no. 5 in the UK singles chart. Up has become their best selling single, shifting over 300,000 copies.

Sophie Ellis-Bexter
Shooting to fame as the singer of Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", Sophie went on to score a string of Top 10 singles. Her multi-platinum album Read My Lips peaked straightly to the UK Top and was a success throughout many European Countries and Australia.

Girls Aloud

Having become the first all-girl group ever to score 20 consecutive Top 10 hits with their first set of releases (as part of Polydor), taking the record from Destiny's Child who had 11 to their name, Girls Aloud are one of the most successful girls bands in the UK with all albums being certified platinum and having 4 number one singles. Girls Aloud moved to Fascination for the release of their greatest hits album The Sound of Girls Aloud which went triple platinum and selling over1 million copies the UK.

Cheryl Cole
In the hiatus of Girls Aloud, Cole released a solo album, 3 Words, which charted at number 2 in Ireland and at number 1 in the United Kingdom. Also her debut single charted at number one in the UK and also in Ireland. The single "3 Words" has been released under the Fascination label in the UK and under the Polydor label in Ireland.

Fascination handles the UK releases of several acts who are signed to USA label Hollywood Records

Here are some examples of artists from America:

Demi Lovato
The Camp Rock star is releasing her music in the UK with Fascination. Her first UK release was "La La Land" from Don't Forget, it peaked at 36 on the UK Top 40. She released her second album on the 5th October 2009 called Here We Go Again.

Miley Cyrus
The Hannah Montana star released her debut album Breakout in the UK with Fascination in 2008. On the 9th November 2009 she released her new album The Time of Our Lives, with the lead single being "Party in the USA".

Jonas Brothers
Fascination are releasing the UK singles and albums for the three piece American pop rock group. Their debut UK single, "SOS" was released in June 2008 and peaked inside the UK top 20 at no. 14.rs

Selena Gomez
The multi-talented star's band released their hit single "Naturally" on April 12, 2010 and their album Kiss & Tell the following week , the single debuted and peaked at 7 on the UK Top 40 and the album at no. 12.

Here are some examples of the sound tracks and complications:

St Trinians

The soundtrack to this film (which featured the label's own Girls Aloud singing the theme from the film) was released through Fascination in December 2007. Fascination also released the soundtrack for its 2009 sequel, St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, which featured contributions from Fascination artists such as The Saturdays and Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding and five new songs produced by Xenomania from The "Banned" of St. Trinian's - who released their debut and only single, Up & Away for digital download on 30 November 2009.

Mamma Mia

The soundtrack to the film version of the Abba musical was released through Fascination in July 2008.

Skins

The soundtrack to the Channel 4 drama series was released on this label in September 2007.

Britannia High

Fascination in collaboration with Globe (the TV production arm of Universal Music Group) and ITV1 released the soundtrack to this new Fame-style TV series, that went to air in the UK on 26 October 2008.

Re-formed Artists:

Bananarama

Bananarama have signed a deal for a new album titled Viva. Viva is the tenth studio album recorded by the British vocal duo Bananarama. It was released by Fascination Records on 14 September 2009 in the UK.

Former Artists:

Tokio Hotel

The German punk pop band released their debut UK single "Ready, Set, Go!" under the label on 27 August 2007 but could only reach no. 77, and were dropped from their label in April 2008.

Girls Cant Catch

Girls Can't Catch are the newest artists to join Fascination Records. They have released a song, "Keep Your Head Up", on August 3, 2009, and peaked at no. 26 on the UK Singles Chart, their second single "Echo" peaked in the top 20. It was reported on 12 July 2010 that the band had been dropped by their record label

Rumoured Artists:

It is rumored Rachel Stevens is set to relaunch on the Fascination label.

Television Tie-ins:

Connie Fisher
The winner of the BBC1 show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? released her debut album Favourite Things on Fascination on October 9, 2006. Her debut album peaked no. 14 on the UK Albums Charts

Lee Mead

As with Connie, Lee, the winner of BBC1's Any Dream Will Do has been signed to this label. His debut single of the same name entered on downloads at no. 18 before peaking at no. 2 the following week behind "Umbrella" by Rhianna feat. Jay Z.

Facts About Fascination Records:

Fascination Records is Polydor Records' boutique pop division, which basically means it's on the same floor as Polydor but has its own logo (and some other more complicated things but that's the long and short of it).
Fascination was invented four years ago (it is 2009 at the time of writing) by Peter Loraine, who'd overseen Girls Aloud's career from its very beginning and at Fascination helped steer their career to a record-breaking run of 20 consecutive Top 10 hits. In his previous role as Polydor's Marketing Director Loraine helped drive the successful careers of many artists including S Club and Boyzone, having joined the label several years earlier following his editorship of BBC Worldwide's phenomenally successful Top Of The Pops magazine. He knows pop inside and out, from its top to its wonderfully pert bottom.
By the fall of 2009 Fascination had clocked up sixteen top 10 singles and twelve top 10 albums, having opened for business in 2006 with only two acts in the shape of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Girls Aloud. Both those acts are still a huge part of Fascination and jolly good they are too.
Perhaps rather more by accident than design, Fascination has also become the UK's unofficial home of the girlband with Girls Aloud, The Saturdays, Girls Can't Catch and even Bananarama on its roster. This, ladies and gentlemen, is surely what all those women threw themselves under horses for.
Fascination are in charge of the terribly important business of looking after the work of LITERALLY THE GREATEST POP BAND OF ALL TIME. The label oversees all Abba's UK music comings and goings, from ‘Mamma Mia!' and 2006's ‘Number Ones' album through to the more recent tunes from The Benny Andersson Band. Unfortunately Fascination is not in charge of bullying the band into making a comeback. It's never going to happen, is it? Very sad. Very sad indeed. But what wonderful songs they gave us in their time together. *Dissolve to late-1970s footage of Abba strutting around on stage, fans a-wailing etc*

Differences between us and 'The Saturdays!'

The Saturdays version of 'Missing You' has definitely influenced the way our production has been made. Although it is important that we make sure our production has not been copied from theirs and that it is not too similar!

Similarities

The use of nature

In both videos there is a significant amount of natural environment shown. For example, in The Saturdays video they use a natural beach, where-as in our video we use a forest. Both the videos feature the girls in the natural environment individually as well as in a group.

The use of close-ups

The Saturdays use a lot of close-ups when lip-syncing. There is a close-up of Frankie at the beginning of the song where it looks like she is laying on the ground and the camera is laying next to her. We have a similar shot to this at the start of the song where Charlotte lip syncs to the words 'I miss missing you'. Although instead of a close up we used an extreme close up of just her lips.
Group choreography in the natural environment

The Saturdays dance to a complex routine on the beach in front of the sea which looks very effective and beautiful. We also do a dance routine in our video - although it is much simpler!

Differences

Our use of flashbacks to do represent our story

When you watch The Saturdays music video you can see that there is no story in their video and consists of them solely singing in different parts of the beach. However we decided that we wanted to make our version a bit more interesting and create a story that is a visual representation of the lyrics. We did this because we thought it would be more appealing as the video may have looked boring if there was just us 4 girls singing the whole way through.

Despite our same use of nature, we have used completely opposite locations

The Saturdays decided to film their video in a hot country, which we would have loved to have done, but was simply not possible so we brainstormed other natural environment locations we could use. We came up with the idea of using a forest as this is also a very aesthetically pleasing, although not as glamorous as a beach. We would have liked to have used a summery scene, but we realised the time of filming was during autumn so the shooting in the forest would suit the weather and look effective. The Saturdays only use 1 location through-out the whole video which is the beach, where-as we also included another location which was a very big, beautiful, old house which meant the backgrounds to our shots were all different and interesting.

Outfits & costumes

Our locations obviously influenced what we needed to wear in the video as it would have looked funny with us wearing nice dresses in the middle of a forest. However in our video we use 2 completely different outfits (the autumn casual and the smart black dresses) where-as The Saturday's 2 different outfits are very similar (summery/flowy dresses and casual summer clothes for example denim shorts and bikinis).

The anti-climax part of the song

Where-as we tried to make this part of the song very dramatic and quick paced, The Saturdays have gone for more of a calmer feel and created a party scene. One of our first ideas was to have a party scene inside the house, but we decided against this idea as we realised it would be too complex to compose and even wouldn't have looked professional enough. When we actually completed our film we realised what we had created for the anti-climax part was very fitting with our video and we wouldn't want it any different.

Editing 3-12-10

Today was a good day as we managed to completely finish editing our final production!

What happened today:

We edited together the sequence where Emily and Joe are sitting at the table and they get further apart. We cut down each shot to around 2 seconds each and edited them in.

These shots were separated by individual close-ups of each of us girls against a brick wall and wearing white tops. We made the transitions smoother by using dip-to-whites in between every shot.

We edited the rest of the song to the end. Rather than super-imposing we used a different editing technique where we left a shot on for longer while the other appeared. This editing process wasn't too complicated and we found that it was what we were looking for and that it looks very effective.