Record Company/Website Research

As we were thinking about making our artist independent, I looked into record companies who gave away their music for free, and made money by donations from fans. One example of this is Quote Unquote Records

Although we are an independent label, I don't feel the website is as aesthetically pleasing as it could be. We want our site to look more professional which is why I went on to look at other websites (in the dance genre), such as THISISNERO.

I really like their website as it has a wide range of content available for the user to interact with, and the layout is simple but effective. I can see us creating something similar to this when making our own website, as it reflects the dance genre really well. I also like how big the title is at the top of the site, immediately letting the user know who the artist is. I also think the consistent theme works really well in establishing artist identity.

Example shoot schedules & shot lists.

This is a shoot schedule that we used in order to make our shoots as stress free as possible.

Tuesday 22nd November Shoot Schedule

This is a document we created which breaks down the narrative we wanted to film. It meant our shoots were much more organised as we knew exactly which shots we wanted, and it helped us get the idea clear in our heads.
Narrative

Audience Research

Our target audience is 16-24 year olds and so I decided to do some research into that age range to find out how we could most effectively target our audience. These tables (from this site) show the sort of sites young people use, and as Web 2.0 is incredibly popular among our target audience I felt it was necessary to find these figures out.

I also found out that 'A new survey from communications regulator Ofcom says that 16-24 year-olds value their mobile phones and the web more than television, and that under-13s are flouting Facebook's rules by setting up accounts.' This shows that in order to appeal to our audience we need to include a viral aspect to our video (hence the Panda & dance routine). Everything is moving online utilising Web 2.0 and this was extremely useful when planning our video, website and album cover.

Shoot Reflections

When making our music video, we had many shoots as because we changed our idea we were short on time and we needed to film whenever possible.

We filmed at multiple different locations such as Ridge Avenue (Gregg's shop), Bus Stop, Train Station, Alex's house and at/around school. Luckily I was able to drive us about from location to location and we used all our free periods to make sure we got all the necessary footage. We took turns filming at each location and although we couldn't all be at every shoot due to other restrictions, we shared the filming and directing as much as possible to give everyone an equal chance. I feel that I became more confident using the camera as the project went on, and I was also able to try directing at some points as well. I was even the female panda at the last shoot, which required me to use my non-existent acting skills! We made sure on each shoot to get lots of versions of each shot, so that we weren't stuck when editing, and overall I feel our shoots were really successful.

Dance Planning for Shoots

With our first idea of the panda dancing in the park, we asked the media technician Chris to be in the panda suit for us as he is quite a good dancer. This is a video of Sam teaching Chris the dance we wanted to have in our video. We were really lucky that Chris was willing to be in the panda suit, even though we didn't end up using that idea.

This is the final dance tutorial we posted on Facebook enabling our extras to learn the dance before hand meaning shoot time was maximised as we didn't need to teach the extras on the day.

Change of Idea!

After our first shoot, we captured the footage, made a rough edit and watched it back as a group. We then decided that we didn't feel the video was to our best standards and that if we were to alter the idea slightly, that we could come up with an idea that provided more of a narrative. (Here is a post on the group blog with our reflections on the first shoot)

After talking to our teachers we decided that instead of the Panda's journey just being through the park ,we wanted to take this idea further and have te Panda on a longer journey, perhaps on the way to school. We then planned the possible scenario's that the Panda could go through such as:

• Waking up in the morning
• Stealing a bike
• Catching a train
• Riding a skateboard on the back of a car
• Getting breakfast
• Greeting others along the way

However, the one part of the first video we felt worked really well, was the dance sequence at the end. We wanted to include this in our final video, and so instead of it being in a park, we had the dance in a school gym which made shooting especially easier (no weather issues to worry about!) and meant that the lighting was easier to control. We kept the same dance routine which also meant we didn't need to make another dance tutorial video.

Although it was a tough decision choosing to start pretty much from scratch without much time left, we felt it was necessary for us to create a great end product and I am really glad we took the initiative to make the change carry it through.

Final Song Selection

After a lot of discussion, we decided to scrap our other idea, and instead go for something completely different; a panda.

These were our original options for the song choice: 

• Daft Punk - One More Time
• Livin Joy - Don't Stop Movin
• 2 UNLIMITED - Tribal Dance
• Everybody Dance Now

After listening to each song multiple times, we decided on Daft Punk - One More Time. It's in the dance genre, and has a very fun and upbeat feel to it which we felt worked really well with the panda costume idea.