FGMB - Song Choice

The group and I selected a variety of songs we wanted to use for our A2 music video and took it to a vote on which one we would pick. We all ranked each song out of 10 and totalled up the scores we gave it in order to decide which song we would use.

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Brief Ideas for Preliminary Task - 1 Minute Music Video

When deciding on which song to pick, my group and I thought it would be best to choose a song with a simplistic beat to allow easy cuts and a possibility for new, creative ideas. This decision then linked us to 1970s-1980s songs as they usually have a less complex beat then that of a modern day song. This is due to the lack of computerised editing and input. In addition this time period's songs weren't attempted by past students as much, setting us aside from the rest of the year/class. Eventually, "Earth, Wind &Fire - September" became our choice based on its popularity, but lack of recreation. Released in 1971, it's a stereotypically upbeat song from that era and we believed we could put a bit of a modern day twist on it with our music video, yet keep the classic vibe of the song.

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FGMB - One Page Proposal

FGMB - One Page Proposal

Song Choice: The Jacksons - Blame It on the Boogie

Genre: The genre of our song is pop or more specific dance/funk.

Length: The song length is 4 minutes.

Target Audience:

·       Age: 10+ - This is not because the song is inappropriate in the language or anything of bad nature however it would apply more to this age group and above because it is very much an upbeat song that would mostly be played at disco’s etc.

·         Lifestyle: There’s not a set lifestyle for this piece of music however because it is very much up beat it would suit a person that is more active and fast paced as it suits to the songs beat.

·         Income: Income is not a factor which really comes into play with this because everybody in today’s day and age has some sort of access to the internet through a device, in which they can get onto YouTube where they can see our music video.

·         Culture: Obviously the songs dialogue is English, however like all music it can be played all over the world as English music is one which everyone listens to whether it’s for the beat or the song behind the lyrics.

·         Bias: Some people may argue it is bias as the actors/ artists in the music video are all male. However I don’t think it is a big factor as people are more interested in the song itself.

Reasons for Song Choice: One of the main reasons we decided to go for this particular style of song is because it follows on from our practice piece ‘Earth Wind and Fire – September’. ‘September’ was made in 1971, the same decade as Blame It on the Boogie (1978) and follows a similar style of very upbeat and dance focused. We believe are practice piece was a reasonable success and this high tempo, fast transition song/music video style suits us and we hope to recreate a similar style in our final piece.

Music Video Ideas: We have been thinking as a group that instead of completely copying our practice piece, which is mainly performance based and showman ship to the camera. We want to have some sort of story or concept behind or music video. We don’t have any particular ideas or areas of focus as of yet however we have discussed this is something we want to incorporate and demonstrate we can do in our final piece. We understand this may be a greater challenge due to the song being upbeat and fast, however we hope to be able to link the story in some way to the lyrics.

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Song Choice

We decided that we wanted to go for a 1970 – 1980’s dance song, because we wanted to venture out and challenge ourselves with a less contemporary song choice.

When we finally agreed upon ‘Earth, Wind & Fire – September’ which was released in 1971 we had the idea of wearing suits along with the fake afros to match the typical mise–en–scene of that particular era however this was only a preliminary task and therefore we held back. We also tried to incorporate some of the different types of instruments that can be noticed in the original music video.

I think that this was a fairly successful song choice and that we can learn from our mistakes and improve upon our skills in areas such as lip synching and timing. I think that the song choice was perfect and it put all of us into a genre of music which we weren't familiar with which really challenged us and helped further develop our skills but also work to our strengths and traits.

FGMB - Practice Piece - September

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Introduction to A2 Media

Throughout the course of AS Media, I believe I have gained a lot of experience and developed a variety of skills which could help me be successful within the A2 section of the course. The main task this year is to create a 1 minute music video and design the CD display. Personally, I think the entire task sounds like a fun one that will allow creativity and imagination to be put into place as well as creating an opportunity for further skills to be developed. Continuously throughout year 13 my class mates and I will analysing music videos and deciding what effect they have on various audiences. In addition, we'll learn about several different theorists and the impact they've have upon the world of media. For example, the first theorists we're already beginning to learn about is Andrew Goodwin and his theory of the 6 Features of Music Videos.

From a personal perspective, my favourite music videos are: Move Your Feet by Junior Senior and, much more recently, Waiting For Love by Avicii. The reason being "Move Your Feet" uses a large sum of pixilation effects combined with a variety of colour, creating a very positive and up-beat atmosphere. Whereas, "Waiting For Love" uses very unique and complex technology to allow it's viewers to have a 360 experience of what's happening around them. If on a handheld device, the audience are able to adjust and change what they're looking at by simply rotating their screen or spinning on the spot. Although these effects are unlikely to appear within my music video piece, it's very useful to see what level of popularity originality can create.