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Blog Task - Our 3 Options

Foals - My Number 



Our reasons for potentially choosing this song..

1) The song is up-beat with a feel good sound, which as a group we'd previously discussed was our desired genre and sound of music for our video.

2) The song is modern and contemporary as well as the band being new to the music industry, the lack of mainstream awareness for this song and band attracted our group as a song that isn't so well known perhaps allows us more freedom, due to lack of knowledge people would have on the original Foals music video.

3)This song would allow us to take numerous routes in our music video, due to the lack of direction and lyrical story the song has, this would enable us to brainstorm a creative and original music video idea, due to the lack of direction the song possesses.

And, are reasons against choosing Foals..

1) The fact that this song is from a male band would raise some difficulties as well perhaps taking away authenticity from our music video, due to being unable to lip sync to male voices; as well that our characters within the music video would be female. This negative factor is probably the most influential one to choose another song, due to it seems, us creating difficulties for ourselves when we could simply choose a female artist and this problem would be erased.

2) The sense of repetition within this song may create a difficulty in creating our music video, as it may cause our actions and potential sequences within the music video to feel constant and repeated and may cause a lack of audience appeal.

3)Similar to the second point, we feel due to similar sound throughout the song, there is no sudden change in the song, e.g a drop in the beat, this we believe may make our music video a little boring and simple, where there is no sudden change, in order to hold the audience's attention.


Corinne Bailey Rae- Put Your Records On



Reasons why this song appealed to us...

1) The female artist would allow us to being able to include lip syncing in our music video should we want too, as well as creating authenticity with our female character(s) within the video. Through choosing a female artist, we believe we eliminate numerous problems that occurred when looking at male artists.

2) Unlike 'Foals - My Number' this song was released in 2006 and is easily recognizable, however although this song is old and would be known to an audience, the idea of both reinventing and reintroducing it to the audience appealed to us, where an audience would perhaps be reminded of an 'old favorite', instantly creating an appeal without perhaps even seeing our video.

3) The genre of this song appealed to us through the calmness and mellow sounding, which is interestingly different from our other two options, however all songs incorporate a feel good sound, which is an element that is important to us within our music video.

As well as reasons why we are put off...

1)Undoubtedly this song has a strong summer vibe and sound to it, it is important to consider our weather conditions that are now available to us. With this in mind, should we of chosen this song, we perhaps could have caught bright autumnal days, however summer is now over and therefore the song and video may contrast and not look as good as we'd wanted.

2) The strong narrative is clear through the lyrics of this song, therefore it perhaps would of been difficult to interpret this song in our own way due to the clear story within the song. This may hinder our creative approach to this song, due to finding it difficult to move away from the original story.

3)Although this song incorporates a feel good sound, which definitely appealed to us as a group, it is however a slower song than that of the other options. This slower sound may restrict us in the music video, where we may perhaps be unable to create an upbeat and fun video due to the slower sounding song and it is particularly important to us this year that we are light hearted and fun with our project, due to the seriousness of our film opening last year, therefore we want to challenge ourselves with a new approach.


And finally, our chosen song.. One Day/Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)



Why we've decided as a group to go forward with this song..

1) The song is extremely upbeat, loud and lively which is all important elements we wanted to incorporate into our music video. As well as this, the song immediately starts with a strong beat, which allows us to go straight into our music video, hopefully creating a strong narrative piece and holding the interest of the audience due to the heavy and loud sounds.

2) Although the song does have a narrative, which becomes clear when reading the lyrics (of which I will post below) the narrative is in reference to 'One Day' which allows us the creative freedom of choosing the events within our 'One Day', unlike, say our second option where the narrative was clear and allowed no room for interpretation.

3) Through not choosing the original version of this song, 'Asaf Avidan - One Day' we are perhaps introducing this version to the audience. We ultimately decided to go for this version rather than the original due to the much faster pace than the orignal, furthermore although the song is new, we feel the remix version brings a contemporary sound and a modern beat, which appeals to us as a group to do both modern but yet somehow not mainstream and in this song, we believe we have found that.


As a group we made our final decision to move forward with this song due to the class pitch we did, where this song against our two other options was the clear winner.
             The narrative to this song also allows us a lot of creative freedom which is definitely appealing to us within the production of the video. This creative freedom is instantly evident when just looking at the genre of this song which includes Folk/Ethnic, House, Rock, Electronic and Dance. In consideration of this, we now feel we can move forward with creative ideas and concepts for our music video.  
                The upbeat sound of the song allows us to use quick transitions and interesting shots. As a group we've discussed how a split screen shot appeals to us at some point during the video, although we are not sure as yet where it may fit in, however the upbeat and liveliness of the song perhaps allows us to incorporate a variety of different and adventurous camera angles and movements. It's safe to say we are most definitely still at the 'drawing board' stages but so far, location wise we've discussed the possible use of parks, open spaces, residential areas, party scenes, as well as city locations.
               The concepts includes the journey throughout 'One Day' which therefore allows us to use numerous locations that are characters are travelling through. Our angle and take on this song is the concept of characters, most probably the four of us, looking back on 'One Day' that they wish they could re- live. At the moment, we are discussing the idea of the music video beginning in our mundane jobs and current situations, which are then contrasted to the care free and freedom filled day that is reflected on, ultimately creating a contrasting of 'then and now'.


Website link to our chosen song's lyrics
http://www.lyricsmania.com/one_day_reckoning_song_lyrics_wankelmut.html

Star Project

I chose to research further into the English indie rock band, Florence and The Machine, I particularly chose this due to this artist falling into a similar genre of our chosen song, 'One Day Reckoning Song Wankelmut Remix'
Although Florence And The Machine is a band, often the main focus falls on lead singer and main vocalist, Florence Welch rather than the fellow band members, that often go unseen.
The bands debut album, Lungs was released on July 6th 2009, interestingly the BBC played a large part in the bands ruse to prominence by promoting Florence And The Machine as part of BBC Introducing.


Florence Welch has been compared to other female singers such as Kate Bush and Bjork, however during an interview Welch commented that Grace Slick is her 'influence and hero'. During this research project I found Florence's style to be dark and romantic and also refreshingly unsexualised, with this in mind, I thought it interesting to research into a female artist of similar age in order to strike a comparison..Both Avril Lavinge and Florence Welch are 27 years old and fall within the indie rock genre and yet present themselves differently to the media. Florence often presents herself in a way that perhaps allows her music to take the lead, often dressing in an understated yet classic way, this strikes an interesting comparison to artist Avril Lavinge who perhaps advertises her style and sound of music through dressing provocatively in order to create a media buzz around her, interestingly Avril Lavinge may be presenting herself as advertisement where she herself is perhaps the 'product' in which fans download and listen too, unlike Florence Welch who perhaps does not want fans to 'buy' her as product, rather to simply listen to the music.
Florence Welch pictured here in 2009 as a new artist is perhaps attempting to grab media attention through her dark, rocky style in order to stand out as a new artist. However yet again rocky style in order to stand out as new artist. However yet again Welch chooses not to advertise herself in a sexualised way, which is often a popular route by artists attemtpting to create a media buzz through their appearence, rather Florence dresses in her own unique dark style to promote and represent her own individual style which mirrors the dark and rocky genre of her music.
The album artwork of the debut album 'Lungs' seen below, once again represents Florence as an artist rather than a product of her music and the media. Florence is seen on the front centre of the album amongst a natural background of flowers and green, once again perhaps presenting herself as different, furthermore the focus of the lungs may represent her desire for listeners to focus on the music and sound, hence 'Lungs'.

This perhaps represents Florence Welch's desire to be known and respected for her music, rather than her appearance, it is perhaps a brave and well respected move by Florence to deny the usual occurrence of an artist becoming a product of their music and a product that is perhaps owned by fans. Instead Welch interestingly appears to move away from media conventions and presents herself as an individual to the media, a brave move that has seen her grow substantially in the music industry, gaining respect and acknowledgement for her work. This research raises the question of whether artists can be known and commended for their talents within the recording studio, rather than their 'talents' in appearance and presentation.

Florence And The Machine performed live at The Royal Albert Hall on 3rd April 2012 this well respected performance and famous venue perhaps represents how Florence not only produces continually popular music, where the bands second album 'Ceremonials' debuted at number one in the UK Album charts, but yet also successfully and continually presents herself in the image that she is comfortable with, hence her individual, fashionable and respectable choice of presentation, which so often is unseen by young twenty something artists who attempt to create media attention on themselves in order to promote their music, however Florence perhaps represents how good music promotes and advertises itself and that alone makes a star in their own right.

Florence in action, in her current music video 'Spectrum'

An ever evolving process

Pitching To The Class

During yesterdays lesson all groups pitched their chosen songs and beginnings of ideas/possible narratives to the class. It seems that although the class liked our chosen song, the issue was raised that the artists are male,; obviously as a team we were fully aware of this but it is fair to say that the class raised the truthful issue of perhaps making our video making process more difficult through choosing not only a single male artist, but a male band. Although as a team we have discussed possible ideas for the song such as the use of balloons, shadowing, split screens and plenty of colours, ultimately being 'organised fun', though these ideas fit the genre and upbeat sounding of the song it is true to say that as a team we did not pitch with firm ideas, narratives or direction.
      Personally, for me the pitch highlighted the difficulty of potentially choosing this song, where some ideas included using large groups of people, with potential flash mobs and interesting colour use; I'm beginning to think whether these ideas are in fact a little unreachable, as well as the class raising the issue of the male band, it is fair to say that my faith in this song has perhaps been taken away, as I am forced to agree with the class and to accept the lack of current direction we have.

        The class then suggested we listen again to 'Asaf Avidan - One Day/Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)' having seen it posted on our blogs previously. It is true to say that both the class and Miss Foster where far more keen on this song, rather than 'Foals- My Number' due to numerous possibilities this song allows, as well as this remix version not having a firm narrative in its lyrics, therefore perhaps allowing far more freedom within our music videos where we could potentially attack it from any angle.

       I think as a group we listened to what the class were saying albeit a little disappointed but acceptant of, what I believe to be, the right advice. It seems that once again this year we are the group that find it difficult to immediately fall upon a great idea and direction, where we often change ideas, however hopefully, as we did last year, we eventually fall onto the right track.

Although it is important to me to have the support of both the class and Miss Foster however ultimately it is up to us as a group to discuss this issue and act accordingly, so it seems for now we are perhaps back to the drawing board...

Final Choice

Firstly, the biggest news is that we have finally chosen a song for our music videos! After what felt like months of trailing through numerous genres and eras we have finally made the decision to go ahead with Foals - My Number
Having continually been stuck between an indie and mellow sounding song like Bastille's Bad Blood track and an upbeat, chirpy and lively sound such as MIKA - Grace Kelly we feel we have somehow reached a very happy medium with Foals - My Number. The sound is both chirpy, with a happy and upbeat sound, furthermore as the song has been in the charts we feel that the song is well known and therefore is modern and contemporary, with a high energy upbeat sound that allows us to be creative with fast paced numerous camera shots.

Ideas

It seems that we have most definitely underestimated the difficulty of choosing a song that we are all happy with, with so many songs listened too it is becoming increasingly difficult to decide upon the final choice whilst ensuring that all group members are happy with it.
Today we explored the possibility of using an older song in Rusted Root - 'Send Me On My Way' , Bastille- Bad Blood, as well as the opposite in Asaf Avidan's contemporary and modern 'One Day' remix version.
Perhaps this contrasts demonstrates how we are very much in the middle of the research stage, as well as this as a group we want to ensure that we are choosing both the right genre and era for our final song, therefore we feel it be important to explore different avenues.








This remix version is definitely today's strongest contender, with the more upbeat sound and faster movements attract us as a group in terms of a creative direction allowing us to play around with fast paced movements and perhaps a more exciting music video, unlike the original song version which we believe is more serious and slower and therefore perhaps gives us less to explore

Hours On YouTube

After being reunited after the summer, MAC 4 is back in full force ready for the struggles and excitement involved for music video making!
Currently our groups number one priority is conducting the endless research involved in choosing a song for our music videos.

At the moment were attempting to agree upon a genre and era for the music, after being on YouTube for hours we've decided we're all drawn to a calming yet upbeat preppy sound along the lines of Corrine Bailey Rae and Mika rather than a heavy beat.
Here's a few ideas were currently discussing..