What We Will Need For Filming; Actors, Possible Props/Costumes

We need to consider specifically what we need when we go out filming, this would be on terms of actors, costumes, props etc.

Firstly, the only actors we need are the 2 main characters, one male and the other female. However we may need a few extras involved because we are thinking about doing a scene where the female character is flirting with a group of guys. However we are not final on this so these actors may or may not be needed yet.

There are several props that we may need to use during the filming of our video. These include;

• a mobile phone, for the female character because we want her to come across as very flirtacious so, we can show this by seeing lots of texts of guys on her phone
• a cigarette, this is a very literal translation from the lyrics "hotter than a cigarette and everybody's smoking"
• bumper car, as we are planning to go to southend, the characters will be going on various rides in adventure island, a main one of these would be the bumper cars. This is because we can really highlight how horrible the girlfriend is (by ramming into him from behind)

 

The final big thing we need to think about will be costumes. This is a very  big decision because it can change the whole perception of a character just with what colour they are wearing etc. For the main male character the clothes he will be wearing is just casual going out clothes, this is because we want him to come across as the average guy. However for the female character, we need her to be dressed in red sort of clothes because this represents lust and flirtaciousness.

                                                      

Focus Group Findings

Focus groups can also clarify terminology used to describe what is being investigated. Many evaluators use both focus groups and surveys. Focus groups may also be used in the creation of surveys. It can illuminate key points about the topic so that the survey is comprehensive enough.

During our focus group we had found out a lot of ideas and different perspectives of our song. The initial thoughts of the song from our audience was that its an upbeat love song, also that it creates an image of madness with people "running around in a crazy fashion" another evaluation of the song was that they didn't like it because "it didn't make sense" and they "couldn't understand the words".

Some of the words that people associated with the song was; upbeat, exciting, unique, energetic, unusual and colourful.

After hearing the song we asked our audience to compare it to other bands that they have heard, this way we can look at some of their videos and use some of the ideas that they did. Some of the bands compared to ours was; Scouting for Girls, Green Day, Vampire Weekend, The Ordinary Boys and Madness.

 

Focus Group - Video

Here is our focus group video:



The reason why we have created a focus group is to get outside ideas and a different perspective on our song, which would hopefully be different from what we had already thought of because we may not have realised something about our song which we could involve in our music video.

Mood Board

Here is a mood board I created, I have made this to give me inspiration on what I want the music video to look like. Theres no point explaining whats on it because you can see it down there. Although what I will say is that each member of our group made an individual mood board to get a broad version of what everyone wants in it, also to give us many ideas of locations, props, actions etc. Anyway here is my mood board:

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 14-minute music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson.
Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture, and was named "a watershed moment for the [music] industry" for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units. In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant

Greatest Music Videos 10-1

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
2. Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
3. A-ha: Take on Me
4. Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
5. Madonna: Like a Prayer
6. Robbie Williams: Rock DJ
7. Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
8. The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
9. Madonna: Vogue
10. Nirvana: Smells Like Teen

Productive Team Meeting - Expanding Our Ideas

Today in the group we brought together all of our ideas and wrote them on an A2 sized sheet so we could get all our ideas together. By doing this we found out possible locations to film e.g. a beach, party scene and a few more.. But the main thing we come up with is the story line: we are going to have a relationship between two people which behind closed doors is not very loving and the female is always doing things to annoy her boyfriend, we are going to portray this in a very comical way because we feel it will compliment the lyrics and beat of the song. We are very much looking forward to filming the video.

Research Findings - Wordle

After finding out some target research from using survey moneky and various other techniques I have made this wordle, which sums up in one all of my findings.

Although it is only short it gives the group a very strong platform to build our video on and we have found it very useful in developing our ideas etc.

Survey Monkey - Our Results

After sending out our survey and allowing a sufficient of number of people to respond I have decided to collect our results. Anyway here they are:

Here is an example of what our results look like, coming from the first question. By looking at this I have discovered that the majority of people answering this survey (and in turn viewing our video) are 16-25 year olds, this tells me that our target audience will be for the typical teenager.

The second question asked was "When hearing the song 'Low Down Ho' what sort of things would you expect to see in the music video?" this prompted some very important answers as it would be a major help to us when deciding what to put in. Some of these answers were; an indie band, upbeat characters and high tempo couple scenes.

Another question was "What is your favourite music video?". This would be useful to us because we could see which music videos are popular and maybe even steal a few ideas from those videos. The videos we got were; Flo Rida - Good Feeling, Ok Go - White Knuckles, Bruno Mars - Lazy Song and Rihanna - We Found Love. All of the songs mentioned in our survey had people singing in them, which made us realise we needed singing in ours too. Also some of them had crazy stunts/clips in them which also let us know that we could possibly do the same.

The final question asked was "What is it that you enjoy about your favourite music video?" the answers that we found valuable to us were that it was funny, had a storyline to it and had lots of random clips to it.

Overall I have found survery monkey to be very useful to us because we have firstly found out our target audience, then got opinions out of them which we will try our hardest to incorprate into our video to make them happy.

Colplay - The Scientist

"The Scientist" is the second single from British alternative rock band Coldplay's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. The song was written collaboratively by all the band members for the album. It is built around a piano ballad, with its lyrics telling the story about a man's desire to love and an apology. The song was released in the United Kingdom as the second single from A Rush of Blood to the Head and reached number 10 in the UK Charts. It was released in the United States as the third single and reached number 18 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks.
Critics were positive towards "The Scientist" and praised the song's piano ballad and falsetto. Several remixes of the track exist, and its riff has been widely sampled. The single's music video won three MTV Music Video Awards, for the video's use of reverse narrative. The song was also featured on the band's 2003 live album Live 2003.

Greatest Music Videos 20-11

20. Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood
19. Madonna: Material Girl
18. Beyonce: Crazy in Love
17. Blur: Coffee & TV
16. Outkast: Hey Ya
15. REM: Everybody Hurts
14. Chritina Aguilera: Dirrty
13. Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
12. Michael & Janet Jackson: Scream
11. Coldplay: The Scientist

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

Greatest Music Videos 30-21

30. Weezer: Buddy Holly
29. Electric Six: Gay Bar
28. Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
27. David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
26. TLC: Waterfalls
25. Madness: Baggy Trousers
24. Radiohead: No Surprise
23. Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
22. Justin Timberlake: Cry Me a River
21. Queen: I Want to Break Free

Song Lyrics

Here are the song lyrics for 'Low Down Ho' we need to know these lyrics because we will need to be singing along to it when we are filming the band element of the video and if we are unsure of the lyrics we will have to keep stopping to check our lines, for this reason we are going to start memorising the lyrics. Here they are;

You would always be the one
To try and keep a brother happy
Lately Maybe I've been feeling kind of crappy
Low down ho
Yes I admit this shit just makes me sick
If I come quick she's out the door
Man I dont know

So why'd you have to be that way?
Hotter than a cigarette and everybody's smoking

She leaves me once again I dont
know why she had to go
She's got my CD's, VCR, TV
and remote control at the pawn store

So why'd you have to be that way?
Hotter than a cigarette and everybody's smoking

So get to stepping woman you've got me feeling low
She's trifling and scandalous I'll miss
the loving but she's stepping on my toes
Low down ho

Why'd you have to be that way?
Why'd you have to be that way now?

Low down ho.

Chosen Artist Profile - The Big Hurt

Band Members:

• Billy Martin - Vocalization Scientist                                       
• Will Sutton - Noise Bringer
• Tim Johnson - The Low End Specialist
• Matt Costello - Percussion Master
• Germ - El Scratchini
• Jamie Kelley - The Layer of Beats
• Joe Mysko - Disco Mysko

The original core of The Big Hurt began On Kent Island, MD in 1998. Early on, Billy Martin, Will Sutton, Tim Johnson and Frank Kanady began to fuse elements of Rock with Reggae, Funk, Acid Jazz, Ska and Punk with Drum-n-Bass, Go Go and Hip Hop Beats. A couple of chance responses to “musician wanted” ads brought veterans Jamie Kelley and Matt Costello to the fold and right away an amazing chemistry took form. Joe Mysko joins as keyboardist in 2007, who not only brings the most experience to the band but also gives many new directions and possibilities. 


The result is a sound that can be attributed to a wide variety of musical influences, improvisational skill, and a simple love for good music. 


Here is a Message from the Band: We pride ourselves in creating good vibes and great music that is accessible to a diverse range of people. We have strived over the years to carve out a sound that will be distinctive in the industry and we always try to capture that feeling live - so if you have the opportunity… come see us. Also, please continue to check out our site from time to time for where and when our next performance will be. We are working hard to make a name for ourselves and appreciate every one who makes it out to see us. Spread the word and continued thanks to everyone for the love and support…. Billy Martin, Will Sutton, Tim Johnson, Frank Kanady, Matt Costello, Jamie Kelley and Joe Mysko - The Big Hurt. 

Eminem - Stan

"Stan" is the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP, by American rapper Eminem featuring Dido. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Eminem and Dido on track 5 and on track 17 as a live Performance from the 2001 Grammy awards featuring Elton John. The song was produced by The 45 King, and uses a slightly modified break from Dido's "Thank You" as its base sample. The track also samples the opening lines of "Thank You" as its chorus. Coincidentally, both songs were released as singles in late 2000. "Stan" has been called one of Eminem's best songs and is considered one of his signature songs. Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Stan" at #296 in their list in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was also listed at #15 on VH1's list of the greatest hip hop songs of all-time. In April 2011, Complex magazine put together a list of the 100 Greatest Eminem songs, ranking "Stan" at #2. The song was also performed with Elton John at the Grammys

Idea Time

Today Charlie and I sat down in our free lesson and wrote down on several pieces of paper some specific ideas of what we want in our video.

Greatest Music Videos 40-31

40. Missy Elliot: Get Ur Freak On
39. Pulp: Common People
38. Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice
37. Guns N Roses: November Rain
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give it Away
35. Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2U
34. The White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl
33. U2: The Sweetest Thing
32. Chris Isaak: Wicked Games
31. Eminem: Stan

Our Survey (SurveyMonkey)

Here is the link to our survey, we are hoping to collect a lot of responses which will help us find out what sort of thing people will want in it.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/73685LY

Hereis the link to our song; http://www.unsigned.com/thebighurt please listen to this before completing the survey.

Detailed Outline of Ideas

Today in class we decided that we nneded to knuckle down and get some ideas together. So what we did was sit in class isolated from everyone else and came up with ideas we thought would work, we then wrote down the good ones.

The purpose of this was to make sure we knew we could get ideas and actually make a music video out of the song we chose. Because although we think it is a good song we might have struggled to put some ideas in to make a good video, this would save us a lot of hassle at later dates in case we needed to change songs. However we believe we have sufficeient ideas and will make an awesome video.

Copyright

As we are going to be using somebody else's music there are certain copyright laws that we have to abide by. Here is the idea of the copyright law;

"Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other, related rights. Copyright initially was conceived as a way for government to restrict printing; the contemporary intent of copyright is to promote the creation of new works by giving authors control of and profit from them. Copyrights are said to be territorial, which means that they do not extend beyond the territory of a specific state unless that state is a party to an international agreement. Today, however, this is less relevant since most countries are parties to at least one such agreement." 


(www.wikipedia.org)

Kylie Minogue - Cant Get You Outta My Head

"Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a song by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue, which was released from her eighth studio album Fever (2001). The song was released worldwide as the lead single from the album, which was released on 8 September, 2001. The song was written and produced by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis. "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" is an uptempo dance-pop song, containing elements of nu-disco and a slow house beat.

Greatest Music Videos 50-41

50. Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al
49. Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
48. Johnny Cash: Hurt
47. The Prodigy: Firestarter
46. Adam & The Ants: Prince Charming
45. Aerosmith: Crazy
44. Kylie Minogue: Cant Get You Out of My Head
43. Dire Straits: Money for Nothing
42. Bjork: Its Oh So Quiet
41. The Spice Girls: Wannabe

Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Praise You" is a song by English big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released as the third single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, in 1999. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1999 and No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States on 11 May 1999. It also reached No. 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks.

Greatest Music Videos 60-51

60: Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams
59. Abba: Knowing Me, Knowing You
58. The Cure: Close to Me
57: Meatloaf: Id Do Anything for Love (But I Wont Do That)
56. Eminem: Without Me
55. Fatboy Slim: PRaise You
54. Daft Punk: Around the World
53. Wham: Club Tropicana
52. Massive Attack: Teardrop
51. Run DMC & Aerosmith: Walk This Way

Storyboard Animatic

Here is a storyboard we made. We made this so when out to film we know exactly what were going to be doing and don't waste any time. Also we needed to make one so we could find out what props we might need and where we are going to film it. Overall this animatic has been very useful and thankfully we made one before we are going out to film.

Music Video Success Criteria

What is the purpose of a music video?

Them, some of these purposes could be:

There are many different types of music video and they all have a different purpose behind

• -Advertisement
• -Draws attention to the music/song
• -Illustrates the song
• -Appeals to a visual audience
•  Express an individuals emotions
• -Tells a story
• -Markets an image
• -Promotes the artist/single/album
• -Persuade audience to buy/download the song
• -Raises the audiences awareness of the artist
• -To make an artistic statement
•  Product placement

How can we measure the success of a music promo video?
There are many ways in which we can view music videos and this has changed a lot, mainly the way in how we can judge if a music video can be considered successful. Some of these ways could be:

• views on youtubeSales of the song
• amount of requests on a music channel-
• position in music charts
• Word of mouth
• Newspaper/Tv reportsAmount of publicity-
• Downloads (Legal/Illegal)
• Awards

Productive Team Meeting

Today the group and I got together and listened to our song repeatedly, whilst listening to it we each wrote down our individual thoughts at what should be in our video and what the song could represent. We each did this separately so we could all get our own ideas across without being influenced in any way, we thought this went very well for us.

Aphex Twin - Windowlicker Analysis

Greatest Music Videos 70-61

70. The Police: Every Breath You Take
69. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Two Tribes
68. Madonna: Ray of Light
67. The Beastie Boys: Sabotage
66. Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues
65. Aphex Twin: Windowlicker
64. Bjork: Human Behaviour
63. George Michael: Outside
62: Blur: Parklife
61: The Prodigy: Smack My Bitch Up

Basement Jaxx - Where's your head at

"Where's your head at" is a song by British electronic dance music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released as a single from their second album, Rooty, in 2001. The song was recorded in early 2001 and is based around samples from Gary Numan's songs "M.E." and "This Wreckage". The song peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the band's only charting single on a non-dance music chart in the United States.

Greatest Music Videos: 80-71

80. Radiohead: Just
79. New Order: True Faith
78. Godley and Creme: Cry
77. MC Hammer: U Cant Touch This
76. The Beatles: Strawberry Fields
75. Duran Duran: Rio
74. Wu-Tang Clan: Gravel Pit
73. Basement Jaxx: Where's Your Head At?
72. Robert Palmer: Addicted to Love
71. Bjork: All Is Full of Love

Jamie Thraves: Case Study

Jamie Thraves is a british film writer & director born in 1969. Although now he is soley doing films he did start off as a music video director, for this reason I have decided to find out about him and see the type of things he does in his own work and maybe try and incorprate it into my own.

At university Thraves made short films and used an award winning film he made as a 'calling card' to get a 'foot in the door'  with the video production company 'Factory Films'. He began his music video career by shooting 3 very low budget videos costing around £5000 each. Obviously these videos went very well because he was the chosen director of possibly the biggest british bands of our time, Radiohead and Coldplay. These two videos combined cost £300,000 and made in 3 days each. This is a massive sum of money and a lot of time to put into a music video nowadays, as currently the average cost and time of making one is £20,000 and 2 days.

As I have said before Thraves only wanted to make music videos to get into the film business, this has been very successful as since then he has shot 3 features; The Low Down, The Cry of the Owl and Treacle Jr. Although mainly a film director Thraves does still enjoy making the occasional music video, for example in 2010 he directed Dizzee Rascals 'Dirtee Disco'. Overall Jamie Thraves has made 20 music videos (4 of which being last year) & 10 films, all of these being since 1991.

In an interview with Thraves he's tips for making a good music video was to: use the lyrics but not too literally, and to go with the emotion of the lyrics. As he is a great, British music director I will be taking these on board and try and use this in the one I am currently working on.

Finding Music - Unsigned .com

To get a song for our music video we need to find an unsigned artist, to get these we are going to look on 'unsigned.com' we're hoping that we find an upbeat song which we can mess around in  with the music video as we are not looking to do a completely serious video.

Here is what the 'unsigned.com' homepage looks like:

Unsigned.com is owned by First Beat Media Inc., an online entertainment media company that is "committed to being the best source of information to discover unsigned artists".

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime Analysis

"Once in a Lifetime" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Remain in Light. The song was written by David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth, and produced by Eno. It received critical acclaim, and was named one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century by National Public Radio.

Greatest Music Videos: 90-81

90: The Pet Shop Boys: Go West
89. Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight Tonight
88. Elton John: I Want Love
87. Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime
86. The Streets: Fit But Dont You Know It
85. Sid Vicious: My Way
84. The Boomtown Rats: I Dont Like Mondays
83. Shakespeare's Sister: Stay
82. 50 Cent: In Da Club
81. Ultravox: Vienna

Brimful of Asher Analysis

Greatest Music Videos: 100-91

100. Musical Youth: Pass the Dutchie
99. Supergrass: Pumping on Your Stereo
"Pumping on Your Stereo" is a song by Supergrass, released as their first single from their self-titled third album, Supergrass (1999). The single reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart. Though the title of the song is "Pumping on Your Stereo," the band thought it funny to actually sing the word "humping" in place of "pumping," and this is how it is thus heard on the recording. In live performances, the band has sung "pumping" instead.

98. Bronski Beat: Smalltown Boy
97. Cornershop: Brimful of Asher
96. So Solid Crew: 21 Seconds
95. The Cardigans: My Favourite Game
94. Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Heart
93. The Rolling Stones: We Love You
92. Herbie Hancock: Rockit
91. The Specials: Ghost Town

100 Greatest Music Videos

I am just about to start watching the '100 Greatest Music Videos' which was shown on E4. I am going to watch this for quite a  few reasons. One major reason is to give me some ideas for my own video and possibly steal some of them - if it worked for them it is more than likely to work for us. Also I would like to know in general how music videos are set out whether its in the form of a story or random clips put together. A third reason is just through curiosity as to which artist has got the number 1 spot and whether I recognise some of the videos myself. I look forward to watching all of the music videos and will of course be posting them on my blog describing some of the techniques used and what I liked about them all.

Editing Our Preliminary Task

The way we are going to edit our music video is completely different from how we did our thrillers. Instead  of cutting in the clips we wanted and doing it from there, we put all 3 of the clips we shot on final cut express at once - beneath eachother - then used a tool which allows you to fade out one clip so the second clip (or clip beneath it) plays instead.

I think the preliminary task on the whole went very badly, mainly because it was a completely new concept for us. The first part that I thought went badly was the singers in it, although the female singer did quite well and moved about naturally the male singer (me) was very stiff as I was forced to take one for the team and be in it just so it could be completed. Although the lip syncing for both of us was very good the movement and chemistry between was lacking. We have all noticed the same problem so we think it would be best if we wasn't in our final music video together.

As the editing was also completely different from usual we were all very much outside of our comfort zone because we had to use new tools that we had never used before, because of this the editing part of our video wasn't up to scratch either. However we have learnt from this and hope our final video is much better than this and becomes a success.

Preliminary Task Finished Video!

Here is our finished video for 'Dont Go Breaking My Heart' we hafd a lot of fun filming it and we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did.

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task that we were set was to create a music video for the song "Dont Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee. We didn't do the whole song, just about a minute, which made it easier for us.

The first thing we had to do was bluetooth the song from the Mac to our phones so we could play it out loud when filming, this was so we could sing along realistically and make our mimes synchronised with the song. When filming we had to do it in one continuous take which was pretty hard because we needed to remember all of our lyrics.

Mood Board of Ideas

Here is a mood board I have created in 'One True Media' this is a short snippet of what I want to have in my music video. These are only initial thoughts so there are not many of them, but here they are:

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

How the Process of Making a Music Video Works Professionally

Here is how music videos are produced in a professional manor, I feel this is important background knowledge that I should know for this task.

Firstly a song is obviously written and recorded etc. then a commissioner from a record label sends the track to between 5-10 directors. Each director then submits their own treatment of what the video will look like. This stage for the directors is unpaid. After each treatment is submitted by all of the directors the person from the record label chooses the 'best' and commissions it to make the video. After the last stage is completed only then is the director paid.

Nowadays it costs around £20,000 and 2 days to make, however some videos such as Coldplay's 'The Scientist' cost £200,000 and 3 days to make, but it is thought that only a couple - if any - videos will cost this much in Britain these days.

Music Video We Found - Strange

Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
This is a music video me and my group found, this proves to us that music videos do not have to relate to the lyrics at all. This is very helpful to us because it shows we dont have to be too literal when creating our video as this video has had 8 million hits on youtube.

Asking and Receiving Permission to Use Our Song

Due to copyright infringements etc. we have to ask permission to use any song for our video. This meant that we had to track down our band to find out their contact details then ask them for permission to use 'Low Down Ho'.

This meant that if they straight out said 'No' we would have to find a whole new song which obviously is not ideal for us. However thankfully this was not the case as you can see below;

As we are now allowed to use this song we are going to start planning our ideas and create storyboards etc.

Purpose of a Music Video

There are many reasons why artists make music videos for their songs. Here are just a few of the reasons I came up with;

                      - promotion of the song

                      - gain interest

                      - interpretation of lyrics

                      - express meaning and emotion

                      - target a particular audience

                      - tell a story

                      - for people to watch

I believe if directors combat these then the music video will be a great success and bring in a lot of money.

We've Found Our Music!

After looking through unsigned.com vigorously, trying to find the perfect song we have found one that we think is great! Its called 'Low Down Ho' by The Big Hurt. We have already come up with a few ideas of what could go in our video and will email them as soon as we can.

Here it is (youtube):

My Favourite Music Video

My all time favourite music video would have to be Kickstarts by Example. Here it is:



"Kickstarts" is a song by British rapper Example. This is the third single from Example's second album, Won't Go Quietly. The song was available to download on 13 June 2010, with a physical single release on 14 June 2010. Production was handled by British drum and bass musician Sub Focus.


I think  "Kickstarts" is an especially good video because it follows a narrative about the on and of relationship that every couple faces and has been cleverly directed and edited to show this.


The characteristics of Example and the Kickstarts video are very relationship and fashion bound. For example there is a shot towards the beginning showing his creps which tells us he has a lot of style because they are brand new. His fashion style shows his character - rapping and singing. He wears a hoodie but does not look rebellious. Which shows he is very different from everyone else which makes him stand out, also in the video he treats his girlfriend very well which is also different from other rappers - making him stand out yet again. Another thing I noticed was that the girl in the video has 'example' on the back of her t-shirt at the end, clearly showing his name for promotional purposes which is typical of an up and coming artist in one of his early songs.


The visual images on screen relate to the lyrics very well for example, 'might be holding your hand but I'm holding it loose' this is a very literal image on screen because they are holding hands and slowly move away. Another visual image the video uses is using many different faces with fast cuts which shows me that this song is one many people can relate to and this happens to many people. Another thing that I saw whilst watching the video was that at the start of the video it showed Example's feet with trainers on which tells us perhaps he is about to go out, whereas at the end of the song it shows Example's bare feet which tells us he is staying at home - presumably with his girlfriend.

The reason I have decided to analyse 'Kickstarts' is because it is firstly my favourite video which I can watch over and over again just for enjoyment, but the second reason would be that I can steal some ideas from it to put in my own video I am doing now, for example keeping the camera cuts in time with the music, or doing split screen like 'Kickstarts'.

Coursework Brief

Our task is to produce a music promo video which is up to 5 miniutes long either working on my own or in a group - I have chosen to work in a group.

We also need to produce:

• a 'digipak' (cover only) for its release on CD 
•  a magazine advertisement for the 'digipak'
• create/produce a critical evaluation on a blog which includes research and planning

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my A2 Music Video Blog, I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading all about the journey I am about to embark upon!