Pixie Lott

With the chosen song being now from Pixie Lott rather then Example, I am having to do some artist research on her so that when it comes to interpretating her in our music video, we have the right style/image/mise en scene as to what she would have, but at the same time, making it unique and our own.

Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott (born 12 January 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, dancer and actress. Her debut single "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)" was released in June 2009 and went straight to number one in the UK Singles Chart. Lott is often credited for her live performances and style. Lott appeared as a guest judge on The X Factor, covering for the pregnant Dannii Minogue.
Lott was born in Bromley, south-east London. Her mother gave her the nickname Pixie because she was "such a tiny, cute baby who looked like a fairy". She started singing in her church school and when she was five she attended the Italia Conti Associates Saturday school in Chislehurst, she went onto the main school at 11 Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts where she was awarded a scholarship. At the age of 13, Lott moved with her family to Brentwood. During her time as a student she appeared in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, and in BBC One's Celebrate the Sound of Music as Louisa von Trapp

Pixie Lott - Factfile

Birth Name - Victoria Louise Lott
Stage Name - Pixie Lott
D.O.B - 12th January 1991 (age 19), Bromley, South London
Origin - London, England
Genre - Pop, soul, electro-pop, dance-pop, R'n'B
Occupation - Singer, songwriter, dancer
Instrument - Vocals/Piano's
Year's Active - 2006-present
Labels - Mercury/Interscope
Website - www.pixielott.com

Richmix trip - the day in film

From previous posts, I have written about what I have learnt from the trip to Richmix studios. As we brought our flip camera with us, we were able to film the days events and together, myself and Elle have put together a "montage" of clips from the day.

We put "Supergrass - Alright" as we thought this went well with the days outing, especially the "see our friends, see the sites, were alright!" as we were all friends and on our way to the trip, we managed to take in many sites of london, enjoy the video!

Change of Song choice

After visiting the Richmix Studio trip, our group was having concerns that the song we had originally chosen "Example - watch the sun come up" was going to be too challenging in the time that we had to film and so we decided to go with "Pixie Lott - Like a Broken Arrow".

Here are our new song lyrics. This song is about a girl talking about her current or past relationship. As I listened to this song I could picture our ideas fitting, hense why we decided on the song. We can still use the idea of a happy couple, with their happy times; meeting at the park bench (As if it is their first date) along with a shot of the fireworks and sparklers together. Also the scene at Southend where they are messing around and walking down the front with the candyfloss etc, as it all fits in with her lyrics of reminicing as if it is all a flashback of the relationship she is missing.

We could possily use animation like Kate Nash does, with objects coming together or appart to imply the couple either happy or not. Possibly a heart, or the couple drawing their names in the Southend sand, then an arrow breaking that up to reflect on the songs title.I also imagined the video to be in black and white. I took this influence from Pixie Lott herself as she does a lot of effective video's in black and white. I think this will look good and apply to the mood she could possibly in as she has just potenially split up with her boyfriend of partner for instance as so she is feeling very black and white, yet happy as she is thinking back and reflecting on her past times.We also wanted to make it look more professional and film the girl recording in a studio, still keeping the 'home video' effect, possibly holding the lyrics on a piece of paper and singing to the microphone. So the camera will film the girl singing in the studio the lyrics to the song, and possibly fade into the next scene of her with her boyfriend as she sings and looks back on her past over the years.

Then to show that it is all a flashback, we film her finishing in the studio and saying bye or the makeup artist fixing her hair before she sings, to keep the reality of it. This could be an idea for keeping all the seasons like we wanted to use in our old song. For instance, we would film different parts of the year- supposedly, and have them as a flashback; summer, valentines day, the day they met, birthdays, random days etc.As the opening comes in, there is no lyrics for 10seconds, this part we could fade from white/black into a close up of the girl getting reading to sing. Maybe a makeup artist brushing blusher on her face quickly, or a director giving the all clear and thumbs up, then as the lyrics come in focus on the girl singing (9seconds later), until about the third or fourth line where there could be fades in of pictures from a holiday or previous happy times of her and her boyfriend, or just her boyfriend. Then when the chorus comes in 'And you're sitting in the front row' - This could be when the different parts of the seasons and memories comes in, possibly the park scene when they first meet.I am going to meet up with my group tomorrow and continue storyboarding.

LYRICS
What do you do when you're stuck,
Because the one that you love,
Has pushed you away,
And you can't deal with the pain,
And now you're trying to fix me,
Mend what he did,
I'll find the piece that i'm missing,
But I still miss him,
I miss him, i'm missing him,
Oh I miss him, I miss him i'm missing him

And you're sitting in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow.

He's the thorn in my flesh
That I can't take out
He's stealing my breath
When you're around,
And now you're trying to convince me,
He wasn't worth it,
But you can't complete me,
It's the thought that he's missing,
I miss him, I'm missing him,
Oh I miss him I miss him,
i'm missing him,

And you're standing in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Live a broken arrow,
Like a broken arrow.

What do you do
When your hearts in two places?
You feel great but you're torn inside.
You feel love but you just can't embrace it,
When you found the right one at the wrong time.

And you'reStanding in the front row,
Wanna be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow...

Audience Research - Questionnaire

In order to put together a successful music video, we need to know what a variety of different people like and dislike. So, as a group we put togehter this template for a questionnaire:

1.How old are you? 12 – 16 [] 17 – 19 [] 20 + []

2.Gender? Male [] Female []

3.Do you prefer a music video which is… Funny [] Serious []

4.Do you prefer abstract videos or ones that go with the lyrics? Abstract [] Goes with lyrics []

5.Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations etc? Yes [] No []
Why? _______________________________________________________

6.What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch? ____________________________________________________________

7.Do you prefer… Calm/slow music videos [] Lively/fast music videos []

8.Do you like to see dance routines? Yes [] No []

9.What’s your favourite music video? _____________________________
Why?____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________

10.What’s your least favourite music video? ________________________
Why?_________________________________________________________________
____

11.What charts do you go by? (radio 1, kiss 100, UK top 40)?_________________________________

12.Do you prefer to watch narrative or performance video’s?
Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew Goodwin - Theories

Although I have already goen into detail what Andrew Goodwin thinks makes a good music video, here are the 6 key points summarised together:

Andrew Godwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)
1. Music video's demonstrate genre charecteristics. For example, stage performance in metal video/ dance performance for a boy/girl band all need their set stage directions.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between music and lyrics; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.


4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens telescopes) particularly voyeurism treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv, music)

Method of Analysis - Andrew Goodwin

Taken from his book written in the early 1980's about the music channel MTV,
Andrew Goodwin came up with a method of analysis about what is often found in most music vide os and what effect this has. There are 5 points which he covers which are:


- Genre Characteristics
- Visual relationship with lyrics and music
- Needs to sell the artist as a 'star'
- Voyerism
- Intertexuality (referring to something of a different media medium e.g Film/TV/Adverts)

Genre
There is always a certianstereotypical music video fro a certain genre characteristic. For example, Boyband videos are always considered as "cheesy" and usually are performance based rather then narrative. Also, in terms of mise en scene and costume, they are usually all dressed very similarly and are singing in the countryside or an open space.




Visuals and Relationships

Relating back to the candy shop video, the title of the song is a metaphor. He isn't buying any "candy to eat", but the candy for him is simply the half dressed girls in this "candy mansion". The popular 80's band "Madness" had a successful hit with the song "our house". In this video the band dress up as a whole family and show them living inside a house. This makes the visuals and relationships funny to watch as the band members are all male and so some have to be dressed as female characters. Also, the single "Thriller" from pop legend Micheal Jackson, is more of a horror music video then thriller. Thriller usually isn't as graphic as this video is as it includes zombies and scary sound effects etc and so this is a way in which Micheal Jackson "played" with the visuals and relations of his video.


Star Image
It is always very important for a music video to make a good impression to the viewers of the artist/band who is singing and performing. Whether its a performance of narrative video, it should always include plenty of close ups of the artist/band and so that the image projected to the viewers watching is positive. According to Andrew, at least 50 close up shots should be included per minute of the song.


Voyerism

This is the technique used within music videos which had a "screen within screen basis". This is shown in within many music videos such as candy shop - 50 cent. In this video, the girl in which 50 cent wants to "be with" she appears in photos along the corridor and they start to "come alive". In Jay-Z's most recent video "99 problems", before walking underneath a subway to catch a train, he is shown singing within an advertisement poster singing, this too is a symbol of voyerism.

Voyersim has been around for a while but it all began back in the 1940's with the famous soul singer Nat King Cole. The act that in his music video he is sitting in a cafe singing, you then see him watching himself, on a video screen, This was fascinating back in the 1940's as it was a "moving image within another". Since then it has been popular ever since.

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts, so in terms of a music video, when an artist is borrowing something from a film or TV programme they have seen and make the "theme" of it their own. It is used very cleverly in videos so that the public who watch them would have already seen something similar before and will therefore grow to like it straightaway.

J-Lo and Geri halliwell both used this concept in one of their videos. They took the opening scene from the popular dance film "Flash dance" where they walk in by them self which what appears to be some kind of dance audition and putting the needle on the record to play their song. Geri however takes a more comical approach and falls over during her dance and says "can I start again?" and then it to her music video of "It's raining men".

Robbie Williams hit single "millennium" in 2000, had intertexuality in relating to the theme of James bond. The casino champagne, white suit etc. James Bond is a film loved by many people of all different ages and Robbie thought this would attract a variety of different people to watch his music video.

Similarly to this, Madonna has also used it in her video Vogue by using the concept of "diamonds are a girls best friend" by Marilyn Munroe.




User Generated Content
This is when things that already exist in a music video are changed into something else. There are lots of examples of this on the Internet, but here are the most popular:

This is a remixed video of Jay-Z 99 problems with a famous Beatles song. The way they have used voyersim in the video makes it look like this is the actual original video created.



This is a send up of Micheal Jacksons video thriller, but is by a group of Asian prisoners

Artists of today

Today, 25 years on, MTV has become one of the most popular music videos across the world with over 4 million viewers a week. It was so popular, it now had 3 sister channels, MTV Base, MTV hits and MTV dance. This is better because now the music videos can be categorised and watched separately. They plays such a wide variety of artists, it has proved very popular all over the world.

Jay-Z
One of the artist they play are black African rapper/hip hop artist, Jay-z. He has had many hits from 2000, when he had his first breakthrough, and his latest single "99 problems" has just been released. The video is so effective, I really like it. It's only been released for a couple pf months and already has over 3 million hits on YouTube and is proving to be a great success. I really like this video because it's all filmed in black and white and slips away from the stereotypical "rap" video. It deals with issues such as violence, drugs, racism etc and is shown very well through the camera angle and mise en scene in this video. Jay-Z is with the record label "Rock" and he produced and directed this video and to this labels joy, it has been a huge success. This was one of the most expensive music videos Jay-Z has ever done costing a lot of money and including over 350 cast members.




50 Cent
50 cent is another example of an American rap/r'n'b artist and is very popular with many of today's music channels and radio stations. He has had many number ones including albums and single both in his home country America and here in the UK. Amongst all of his singles, one that caused much controversy was the song "Candy Shop". It was spoken to be "one of the most expensive and extravagant black music videos of the decade". It was a video which had classic conventions of drama in which a music video needs to draw attention to the public. This "drama" included his big mansion, his sports car, sexuality from the girls and then of course the whole "it was all just a dream" concept at the end. Although it is looked down upon by some people, it still has over 24.5 million YouTube hits.

1980's

Big hair, bright jewellery and wedged platforms where all in fashion in the 1980's. However, in 1981, the launch of MTV was shown to the world. This meant that music promos first started showing on TV. The First music video ever shown on MTV was the Buggles' 80's hit single "Video killed the radio star". MTV specifically chose this as the title of the song reflected the launch of the music channel very well. It may not have been one of the best videos, but it definitely launched the channel with a great start.



The 1980's was an era in which many artists first started. For example, Madonna and Micheal Jackson were both very popular with their music video promos on MTV. Madonna worked with many different music directors throughout the 1980's to fit many of her different music videos she produced. One of the most memorable and watched was "open your heart" released in 1982. This video really started her career in the music industry.



Micheal Jackson was a very popular artist on MTV. The fact that he was the first ever black artist to be played, he has supposed to of "made history" within the music video industry. He had many famous singles, but his biggest and most memorable breakthrough was the hit single "thriller".

The 1970's

Not only were the 1970's famous for flared trousers and flowery shirts but it was the decade in which one of the most memorable early music videos was created. Queen. A legendary band which had many number ones, not forgetting one of their most famous, Bohemian rhapsody.This music video was almost a "kick start" in the music video industry and was a huge influence for other bands and artists in this era. It used visuals that went along with the track which appealed to the Queen fans and was a huge success. Even today it had over 12 million YouTube hits and is still known as "one of the greatest music videos of our time, even 35 years on.

The 1960's

The 1960's was a great era of both music and and music videos. The Beatles were a very popular band in this decade and were famous for their weird and wonderful videos that they had produced.








This video for their number one single, "Cant buy me love" is a simple video of the four of them running around in "private property" doing different shots. Such as helicopter high angle shots and simple handheld ones.



Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and The Who were also too different band that were popular across this era and they also did similar things with their music videos.







Bob Dylan was also a very famous solo artist in the 1960's. he too, was famous for his quirky videos. In a certain video, It is simply him standing behind The Garrick Theatre, looking directly at the America just holding signs with some of the lyrics written on them. This confused people, but proved a great success.

With all these artists mentioned, it was great because if they couldn't make a TV appearance on for example, Top of The Pops, then the TV programme would simply play their music video instead.

History of Music Videos

It all began in the 1940's which was known as "the Soundies" era. "Video Jukeboxes" were a common thing found in many diners/bars and were a promo video for the song. So, people would put there money in and select a song and the video would play along with it.

Nat "king" Cole



This music video is mostly performance as it shows Nat himself watching himself on the video jukebox. These video jukeboxes died out as it was seen as inappropriate and too expensive. However, in the 1960's France created a similar thing, but better then the original. It was known as the "Scopitore". This was popular all across the world and antique ones can still be bought today.

From MTV to You Tube

What is a music video?
It's something that lasts the length of the song or sometimes seen longer and features the artist singing along and sometimes playing an instrument to the song, but the artist isn't always shown. It can tell a story, but doesn't have to and it should always be memorable to the viewer and should be worth "repeat viewings" so that once watched it can be looked at again.

1930's experimentation
Where did it all begin? There was a 1930's experiment called "A Colour Box by Len Lye".



This experiment was very much about putting film to music, which was where the whole concept of a music video began. It included trying to fit the images in time to a specific beat or rhythm or tune. This was also shown as an advert for The Post Office throughout the 1930's and was usually shown in cinemas.

The Go Team



This was one of the first music videos made. It doesn't have a narrative and instead is just lots of random images such as scenes of New York and even a group of professional "skippers". It also include lots of found advertising brands and different landscapes and locations. It was a success and was what "kick started" the music video era.

Richmix Studios - Media Trip

On Tuesday 9th November myself and my media class visited Rich mix Studios in shore ditch, Bethnal Green, East London. The trip was for us as a class to gain a better understanding of the A2 media course and to learn how to create a successful Music Video.

The Schedule for the day was split up into two sessions, morning and afternoon. The morning session included a welcome by Thalia Cassimatis, the Rich mix Education officer. This was then shortly followed by a presentation and clips from Pete Fraser, the head of the media department for the OCR examination board. His presentation included the history of music codes and conventions and top tips for making our own pop promos.

In the Afternoon session was a presentation and clips with Lis Kessler, who has been working in the industry and commissioning and producing usic videos. After that, was a question and answer session with Corin Hardy, who too has worked as a music video director. I will divide the next few posts in to the different topics and conversations that were covered and talk about what I learnt from them.

Audience theory

Audience theory is an element of thinking that developed within acaemic literary theory and cultural studies. With a specific focus on rhetoric, some, such as Walter Ong, have suggested that the audience is a construct made up by the rhetoric and the rhetorical situation the text is addressing. Others, such as Ruth Mitchell and Mary Taylor have said writers and speakers actually can target their communication to address a real audience. Some others like Ede and Lunsford try to mingle these two approaches and create situations where audience is "fictionalized," as Ong would say, but in recognition of some real attributes of the actual audience.

Effects Model

The Hypodermic Needle Model - The intended message is directly recieved and wholly accepted by the reciever.

Two-step flow - The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.Uses and gratifications -People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.

Reception theory - The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences

Obstinate audience theory - This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message

Hypodermic Syringe Effect - The hypodermic needle model (also known as the hypodermic-syringe model) is a model of communications also referred to as the "magic bullet" perspective, or the transmission-belt model. Essentially, this model holds that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is largely considered obsolete today.

Discarded song choices

Theses are all the songs we choice not to do. Some of the reasons where because it would simply be too difficult, the existing video would b too hard to compete with or simply because the song didn't fit with our chosen genre well enough.

Katy B - On a mission


Eminem ft Rihanna - Love the way you lie


Magnetic Man ft Katy B - Perfect Stranger


Inxs - Need you tonight

Audience Feedback Wordle

After our media class had watched our treatment presentation and seen all our ideas, we asked them to write 3 or 4 words which fitted our music video theme the best and then also to make a few comments on what could be improved or changed and why. This was the final result of our audience feedback wordle:

There was also a few comments that were made to:

- the whole "couples" concept was a good idea
- excellent choice of locations to film
- good themes that fit with the song
- this music video has great potential for different shots and editing techniques
- conforms to our genre well
- fabulous song choice
- slight confusion as to how things will fit together
- try not to follow every shot filmed to the relating words in the song as it will be boring to watch

Wordles

Wordles are a great way of getting "all your ideas down in one place" and making it look fun and quirky at the same time, We created as a group, 2 wordles. Our first one was when between the 4 of us, we each wrote 5 or 6 words that we thought summed up our music videos the best. These words ranged from all different things such as "fun" to "quirky" and "romantic" to "flirty".


After typing all the words in to the website (www.wordle.net) this is what are wordle looked like:

The larger the words appear on the wordle, it means the more they occured and so the stronger the oppinion we felt that word fitted with our music video.

Meeting log 4

This meeting between the group was all about the possible locations in which we can film at for our music video. We wanted to think about practical locations in which we would have permission to film at, we could access easily and more then once.

Considering we will be filming the material for our film in the months of November December and January, we have to think of the weather conditions that will more likely to occur and that it will be dark earlier, so all of this will have to come into consideration when choosing our locations. Here is a list and description of the suitable locations we came up with as a group where we think we would be able to film:

1) Alexandra Palace - With it;s picturesque views of London in the distance and great landscape, this would be a perfect for filming the couple together. We could film at this location at both day and night and still get some great footage for our video. Also, with the horizon view we could film the sun coming up, or setting in to night and then speed it up when it comes to editing.

2) South end-on-sea - Candyfloss, popcorn, fish and chips and funfairs and all things which you accociated with a good visit to the seaside. However, I think that going to the funfair and doing these things is an ideal day/night out for a couple and so we decided to chose this as our second locations. Walking hand in hand on a beach or even having fun on a funfair ride brings the "fun" side to our music video and shows what a good time couples have when in a relationship. We also thought that we could even write something in the sand or from their footprints and speed it up as we thought this would look good and fit with our initial ideas of it being fun, quirky and flirty

3) Enfield Playing Fields - One of the biggest open spaces in Enfield it would be almost weird to not want to film here with the trees, grass etc. However, there is one thing as a group we particularly ike and that it the main entrance walkway. A wide path surrounded by trees and fallen leaves on the ground from the seasons of Autumn/Winter will really make a nice setting for a romantic shot of the couple on a "stroll" together.