Copyright of the song

In order to avoid any copyright infringement, we had to the following email to the owners of the song. 

Hello Jason and the whole of Bombay Bicycle Club,

I am writing to you to request permission to film a music video version of your song 'Always Like This'. This forms part of my OCR A-level Media Studies course where my task is to record a music video to a song of my choice. It is only for assessment purposes and will not be used for any commercial or profit seeking purposes. I acknowledge your copyright of the material and will not use it for any other purpose than that stated above.

If you require any further information or clarification regarding the use of this material for educational purposes please contact my teacher Mr Welch (welchch@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk)

Thank you for taking time to read this and I hope to see the band doing what they do best soon.

Yours sincerely,

Ben and Lewis

What song we have chosen and why?

The song we have chosen to create a music video to is Always like this by Bombay Bicycle Club.

Bombay Bicycle Club are an English indie rock band and we have chosen this band because we like the different sound that they produce when they sing. The lyrics to this song depict a relationship where the girl has preconceived perceptions of the boy and struggles to  believe what he has to say. 

However we want to go for a more visceral and want to focus on how the sound of the song and beat of the song makes you feel. We believe that the music has connotations of happiness due to its upbeat nature and we would like to use this as a basis for our music video. We feel that we can apply memories that people had as a child to this song which will give people a connection to our music video. 

Brief textual analysis of band website - Scouting For Girls

Planning our A2 music video

After having the feedback, we believe that the areas we need to improve upon on are location scouting and early drafts. This is because we will need to ensure that where we want to film is appropriate and will work in our final production. With reference to early drafts, we need to ensure that we do this so we know if the feel to the film is right and if not then we can make corrections and adjust it until we have the feel we are looking for. Also, we need to thoroughly plan our storyboard in detail so we know exactly what we need to go for when filming and how things could look. However we still need to be able to add content to our production of the opportunity rises and it is not on out storyboard.

Why planning is important

After reflective feedback on the planning process of our AS thriller task, we know the importance of planning when it comes to our A2 music video.

We looked at 7 areas of planning and rated out of 5 how well we kept with this area.

1. Storyboard the most of/all of the entire opening - I gave us a 4 out of 5 because we had planned out and drawn how we wanted our thriller to look with details about the camera shots etc but it could have been in more depth detail like length of shots.

2. The finished film resembled storyboard - I gave us a 4 out of 5 because we did include everything on our storyboard and then we added an establishing shot and various other shots to show the mise en scene.

3. Stuck to risk assessment - I gave us a 5 out of 5 because we stuck to the risk assessment we had carried out to ensure the safety of every person involved.

4. Shot list/shooting schedule - I gave us a 3 out of 5 due to the fact that we didn't have a shot list but we had a shooting schedule for the purpose that everyone involved in the thriller would know where to be at what time so we could get filming completed.

5. Screenplay - I gave a 3 out of 5 because we had one but it was not in depth detail in order for us to know exactly what we need to be shooting etc.

6. Location scouting - 0 out of 5 because we did not look at our location we just hoped that it would turn out successful which it did.

7. Early drafting - 0 out of 5 due to the fact that we did not have an early draft we just made the finished product and made little adjustments after feedback.

Knowing the criteria - Video 2

Analysing student music videos continued...




I gave this music video 29 because i thought it had a variety of shots and different sizes of shots along with good editing. You could see that they had tried with the mise en scene as they had a clear image of what they wanted to achieve. However, in my eyes it would not achieve higher due to the repetitive nature of some shots and other shots seemed to be prolonged when they didn't need to be. 

This video actually got 28 because The music video reflects the genre well and the mood and pace are appropriate to the song. Technically it’s proficient. The camerawork is steady and the framing generally good, although there are some focus and exposure issues. They pay attention to mise-en-scene. There’s a good range of shots. The material is appropriate and there is an understanding of the conventions. The editing is fairly straightforward but with fair pace and an attempt to synchronise.

Knowing the criteria - Video 1

During today's lesson, the task involved reading the mark criteria and applying that to real A2 music videos. Below I will show you the videos shown to us, the mark I gave it and why, and then the actual mark given.

I gave this video a score of 35 out of 40 for a number of reasons:

- I thought it had a variety of shot types and sizes and you could tell that they had payed attention to framing.
- I thought they had a variety of shots sizes such as the close ups of the instruments which meant they had to pay close to detail to the mise en-scene.
- There was a good use of editing and a lot of cuts and effects to make the video look better.
- The reason i didnt give any higher was due to the shakiness of some shots and the fact that some shots looked out of place and dragged a little.
- Overall though i thought it was a very successful piece of work.


The piece actually scored 38 which i thought was very generous but after closer loom you can see why it scores that highly and the reasons as to why it doesn't reach top marks.

Audience task - Reception theory

Reception theory

 

Stuart Hall’s reception theory suggests that producers encode their media texts with a meaning. The audience then decodes this message.

However, Hall believes that the audience is more active and either accepts the meaning the producer intended, partially accepts and rejects it or completely rejects it (opposition)

Hall believed that the audience response depended on their culture (age, ethnicity, values, social status, gender etc)

In relation to our music video, the coded message that we are trying to give out could fit into all 3 models. From research and explaining our ideas to other students in the class we found that some students accepted the encoded the message which was to value happiness and memories over material goods. Others in the class partially accepted and partially rejected the message. Then a few people completely rejected the encoded message and believed the video had other connotations and meanings.

Audience task - applied uses and gratifications

 

This uses and gratifications theory developed by two theorists (Blumler and Katz) suggests that audiences uses media texts for various reasons. The reasons are listed below.

In relation to our music video, we believe that there are aspects which will be suitable and aspects that will not. For example, we believe that the audience will use the video as a diversion and a way of escaping everyday life. They will be able to escape due to the upbeat nature of the song. Additionally, the audience will be able to use the music video as a means of relaxation, enjoyment and emotional release because they will be able to reminisce about childhood memories and have an emotional connection with the video because of this.

One page pitch video

This is the video where we pitched our ideas to Mr Welch to see what he thinks of our ideas and areas we need to work on and any concerns that he has.

One page pitch

The following picture is one page of ideas that we used as a help when pitching our music video to our teacher.

Introduction to our group

For our Music Video task, I have chosen to work with Ben Locking again for a numerous amount of reasons.

1. We are friends and we know that we can challenge each others ideas without arguing.
2. We have worked together in the past in creating a variety of successful pieces of work.
3. Within our previous work we have identified the strengths and weaknesses when working together and what we can do in the future to better ourselves and our productions.
4. Because we are close, it will be easier to get together and organise when we need to plan, shoot, and produce our music video.

History of music videos

Practice Album Cover - Tom Vek

 

Music regulation

Artist profile practice shots

 The 'serious' artist

 The 'tortured' artist

 'I'll smash your face in' artist

 'The icon'

 Not looking into the camera

 'Your mum will like me' artist

 Not to be seen, just a reflection

One minute music video

Recreation task

This was a recreation of the music video A punk by Vampire Weekend. Enjoy!

Textual analysis of iconic music video

Californication storyboard

For one task, we had been asked to create an alternative storyline to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers song Californication. We had chosen to do a storyboard where we planned alternative ideas to the previous song and our ideas are presented below.

Introduction

Welcome to my A level Media blog and our task this year is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options (ancillary tasks): a website homepage for the band / a CD inlay for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package) / a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)

Enjoy the ride