GROUP POST: History of the Music Video

Music video from 1960 2016 from Morganbullock

GROUP POST: History/Inspiration of the song 'Gravity'

The history of the music video gravity from Morganbullock

GROUP POST: Mise en Scene (Costume)

To analyse the costume of a music video I decided Taylor Swift would be the perfect music video with her 'Shake It Off'. This being due to in the music video her exploring all the different styles of dance and there costumes.

 The music video first starts with Taylor in a ballet class at a ballet bar, as all the other ladies are bending over she appears a few people back and starts to sing. Her costume her at the stat is ballet tights, a leotard and a sweatshirt over the top. The costume is typical clothing to wear to a ballet rehearsal.

 The scene then changes to another ballet section but this time the group is preforming a dance routine. There is no props used in this scene like in the previous but still obviously ballet due to the outfits and the pointe shoes. The costume here shares links with the popular ballet 'Swan lake' due to the white feathered tutu's and the feathered head dresses. And again the stereotypical ballet tights and shoes.

 The song then changes to a different style of dance. Now it is contemporary dancing. This is clear to dancers due to the costumes worn. The costumes shown above are typical of this genre of dance. Also it is noticeable how the costumes differ on gender and there was no males in the previous two shots but in this contemporary one males are present. Another feature about this shot that is interesting is the use of the positioning of people. In this shot they are spread out around the stage but looks a lot more naturally spaced whereas in the previous two shots for the ballet the positioning has been neat and accurate reflecting the genre.

The fourth change we get is into gymnastic attire. The gymnastic/ribbon twirling genre is apparent due to the use of the prop that Taylor is using. This costume is completely different to the other two also due to being of a different style and a lot more colourful.

 The song then continues and Taylor changes into the disco genre. This genre appeals to older fans of Taylor due to disco music not being a popular genre nowadays. Blumler and Katz in their theory talk about personal identity and about people own identity. Especially in this music video of Taylor Swift it is evident that even if people have a clear identity can vary greater. For example people have Taylor's identity as being a pop star, but here in this video she demonstrates her doing numerous others skill in the form of dance and being a performer. So it's evident that people's identity's are varied and flexible.

This costume is different to all the others which are worn throughout the music video. For this section of the video there is no exact music style due to the dancers in the back ground just 'twerking' and Taylor at the front just moving her arms about. I feel this section of the video is targeted at a large target audience due to 'twerking' nowadays being seen all over the television and everywhere so it covers a large target audience. However the costume I feel is targeted at a teenage audience due to it being to revealing for a younger and adult audience so I feel its targeted at a teenage audience.

This section in the video is unusual due to being unlike any of the other sections in the video. For example all of the other shots used in the video are relevant to dance and the different genres of dance, whereas here the shot is of Taylor singer with a band which is how the stage would be positioned if she was doing a concert for example. Also the costume here is all black which is a feature that is unusual for the video due to the rest of the costumes being bright and out going. However this is adhering to conventions due to being the artist shown singing with the band.

The last costume we see Taylor wearing is a cheerleading outfit where we see her attempting to do a cheerleading routine. The costumes that are worn her are very obviously female and are targeted at the teenage audience due to the difficulty of the routine they are performing.  This is a contrasting outfit to others that are so in the video for example compared to the denim short and leopard print jacket. This are contrasting due to the cheerleading outfits being very feminine and girly whereas the other being clearly feminine but not very girly to the chains and excessive jewellery. After this costume the shots change between all of the previous costumes where Taylor is seen performing that genre dance but in her own style, so it doesn't look strictly correct but is in the music video to make it entertaining to the viewer which this music video certainly is.

GROUP POST: Sara Bareilles

This is the homepage for Sara Bareilles. There are numerous different tabs to be opened from the homepage of her webpage such as: tours, news, music, video, store, sign up, social and share. Also there is six different pages that rotate advertising different articles and information about Sara.

 Also on the homepage of the website it advertises the release of Sara's book. She is releasing a song that explains the journey of her creating music and writing her own music.

Another feature of the homepage is that it advertises the musical 'Waitress' this is a musical in which the score for the musical was produced by Sara Bareilles. This is a great advertisement to put on Sara's webpage due to advertising the musical but also intriguing people who like Sara to go watch it due to being music by her which features on the musicals poster.

This is Sara Bareilles image. She is 36 years old. This is an older music artist in todays society. Considering she is older the the average pop star she dress very modern and in 'trendy' clothing. Sara  in 2007 released her song 'Love Song' which featured on her album Little Voice which 3million copies were sold and was nominated for two Grammy awards for Sara. In 2004 was when Sara released her first single which was 'Gravity'. During Sara's musical career she has been nominated for numerous awards, shown in the table below.

From the table it is very clear that Sara has been nominated but been unsuccessful in receiving any of them. But her latest three nominations are yet to be released to whether she has won or not. Her latest three nominations are for her musical soundtrack 'Waitress' which is a new broadway musical with the score and lyrics created by Sara.

Here is the tour page of Sara's official website. There is a large amount of synergy between this and the homepage due to sharing the same house style. The whole page looks identical to the homepage but this page only has the one image of Sara whereas the homepage has a rotation of different things on a timer. Sara is not currently on tour and does not have any plans regarding a tour which is stated on this page.

At the top of the website there is all the keywords that lead you to other parts of the website. Apart from when you select the 'Social' button. After selecting the social button the social media icons appear at the left hand side, this are all shortcuts directly to Sara's social media pages. This is making it easy for fans to find her on social media and places like iTunes and Youtube.

Sara has recently released a biography "Sounds like me my life (so far) in song" which is shown above. In Sara's book it goes through her journey as a music artist and all of her previous albums. Having a biography is a great way of informing fans and others of the work she has done and about all of her albums.

Above is all of Sara's albums that she has released. It is clear from the amount of albums that she has released that she is a successful music artist. Eric Rosse is Sara's music producer as he is the co-president of EMBR music aswell as being a composer and producer.

Filming on Location

To practice filming our music videos, all of our media class collaborated in filming and acting in a joint music video for the song ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey; however we performed the Glee version. This was a very useful experience as we learnt about directing the actors to show them what we want them to be doing, as well as what shot types can be used to show more emotion and which show more of their movement.

We all met at the Media classroom at Brigg Sixth Form on the 12th of July at 1:15. We split into the groups that we will be creating the music, and each group was given a camera and tripod to practice using. For the actors, we took turns in filming shots and being in them and so everyone got a chance to experience filming, directing and acting so we had experience when it comes to creating the actual music video. The song that we filmed for was the Glee version of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'.

The first thing we did was arrive at a possible location, and then we set up our cameras to start the first shot. At this point we had to look at the framing, for example using the natural framing of a bridge, tree and fence. This helped to make the shot interesting, and meant that the focal point was the actor being used in the first sequence. We also looked at the type of shots we could use, and what looks most effective. The close up shots rely on the actor having good facial expressions and the long shots require the actor/actors to be well directed in movement so it does not become stilted or awkward.
Something I personally found difficult about directing was when attempting to convey the ideas you have in your head to the actors so they can bring these ideas to life. 

Chosen Song

The song that we chose is 'Gravity' by Sara Bareilles.

These are the lyrics:

Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long
No matter what I say or do
I'll still feel you here 'till the moment I'm gone

You hold me without touch
You keep me without chains
I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love
And not feel your reign

Set me free, leave me be
I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am, and I stand
So tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me

Oh, you loved me 'cause I'm fragile
When I thought that I was strong
But you touch me for a little while
And all my fragile strength is gone

Set me free, leave me be
I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am, and I stand
So tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me

I live here on my knees as I try to make you see
That you're everything I think I need here on the ground
But you're neither friend nor foe though I can't seem to let you go
The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down
You're keeping me down, eh ooh
You're on to me, on to me, and all over

Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long

The reason we chose this song is that when deciding what song to us for our music video, each member of the group spent time individually looking at songs which have meaningful lyrics that we could think of a possible narrative to set the music video on, and then voiced these suggestions to the other members of the group. We then shortlisted possible songs that we could collectively think of ideas for and that would provide an interesting style in our music video. One of our main ideas for the video was to include some sort of dancing, and so we needed a song that we could choreograph a dance to. Gravity has emotive lyrics that we could all think of good shot types for, plus Amy and I could put some classical and more contemporary dance moves to, as we are both graded dancers.

'Don't Stop Believing' lyrics and storyboard

GROUP POST: Email: gaining consent to use Sara Bareilles 'Gravity'

For our music video we wanted to use the song 'Gravity' by Sara Bareilles, but before we could do this we had to gain consent to use the song due to it already having a music video. We searched online for contact email so we could gain consent to use the song. 













All we could do then was wait for a reply and look forward to hearing there response. Finally after three days we got an email with an answer for us: