Pitch of Idea

Name of Band - The Factory
Genre - indie/alternative rock band.
Star image - Performer - more about the music. Like everyone else (ordinary).
Target audience - teenagers/young adults both male and female.
Track Choice - Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent

Concept for video
Their career experience from playing in their bedroom gradually through stop motion moving to studio with lights etc.

Represents ‘making it big’ and how far they have come.

Focused on ‘lad’ culture and the unity of the band. We would like to use stop motion similar to : Passion Pit - Sleepy Head (Stop Motion)


Star Image
Costume – buttoned up polo shirts/shirts, skinny jeans, adidas trainers, chelsea boots etc.














Locations
We would use a messy bedroom and use stop motion to turn this room in to a studio by taking objects out and replacing others.











Performance, Narrative and Thematic Elements
The performance aspect is the band playing in the bedroom followed by a studio with lights, full band kit perhaps guitars. The thematic element is the bedroom changing from bedroom to studio. This represents the transformation of the band from normal life (ordinary) to becoming performers (extraordinary).


Ordinary Boys - Boys Will Be Boys
The ‘laddish’ culture


The Maccabees - Love You Better
The projected effect


Passion Pit - Sleepy Head (Stop Motion)
The stop motion aspect


The Kooks - Shine on
The bedroom aspect

Reseach into Real Similar Artists

Maccabees


The Maccabees are similar in the ways that The Factory looks. They wear the same style of clothes.







Foals


The foals have a similar genre of music to The Factory.











The Kooks



The Kooks have a similar look to The Factory and they have the same genre of music.











Libertines




The Libertines are similar to The Factory in the way they act. They follow a ‘laddish’ culture.




All of these above artists are similar to The Factory. Some of these artists are similar because of their look, dress and ‘laddish’ culture and some because of the style of music.

Feedback

You have made a start by posting your initial ideas, Amy, but it is disappointing that you have not fully followed the instructions for this first set of postings. There is no sign of your thumbnai of your hypothetical act, nor of the research required into similar real bands and their star image, audience and institutional contexts. To benefit fully from the coursework unit, you need to work hard to meet all of the research and planning requirements.

James

Initial Ideas

To start with we each needed to come up with three initial ideas, my ideas consisted of song called ‘Ambling Alp’ by Yeasayer, ‘Embers’ by Just Jack and ‘Only Man’ by Audiobullys.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

The star image of this band is quite alternative and quirky. This band is similar to Grizzly Bea, MGMT, Temper Trap and Placebo. Yeasayer are an experimental rock, psychedelic pop band based in New York, America. Their target audience is teenagers and young adults both male and female.

In this video, I would like to paint the band members in blue and blue screen them so their body and other features disappear. I would like the lead singer to have the eyes and mouth showing. It is important that his mouth shows as he is singing. I would like the drummer to have his hands showing with the drumsticks in his hands as it is important that the audience knows that he is playing. Similarly with the guitarist I would like his hands showing and perhaps his shoulder the instrument doesn’t look like its floating in mid air.

I would like it to do this as I think that the song is a bit mysterious and would therefore like the video to follow this idea. The idea of body parts could gradually be revealed towards the end. As a background story I would perhaps the members walking/running through woods and up a hill with hopefully a grey shy looking playful and tight as a group of friends.

Just Jack – Embers

The star image of this artist is indie/alternative/dance pop. Just Jack is an English musician who comes from Camden Town in London. This artist is similar to Artic Monkeys, Kings of Leon and the XX. Although the similar artists are all bands, I think that Just Jack sounds and looks similar to these band members. I would dress the person we use for this song in skinny jeans, chelsea boots, a buttoned up polo shirt or checked shirt and a leather jacket. The target audience for Just Jack is teenagers and young adults both male and female.

In this video I would like four duplicates of the same person singing the four different parts of the song. This could be on a cube rotating or in a line, or even around a camp fire since the song to me has a festival feel. These images of the four duplicates could be strong when singing and faded when not. I think that the artist could possibly spin or stand in front of a screen with an image of him on. I think that the idea of using a campfire represents the song title embers. The background story could be a man walking through a festival or around a campfire with tents around.



Audio Bullys – Only Man

The star image of this band is of the dance/indie/pop genre that is well known for their electronic pop style. The members are good looking, clean cut young males who look like they live an expensive lifestyle. They are similar to Justice, Groove Armada, Crookers and Calvin Harris. Their target audience is teenagers and young adults which will be mostly females but males would also like this music.

In this video I would have the members on a running machine sideways which are going alternate ways so as they walk across they will be going left to right and right to left. I would preferably like to blue screen the handles out so it is not obvious they are on a running machine. I would cross cut to half naked/good looking female dancers. There could also be a background story of the members in a sports car to highlight their lifestyle.

There could also be one girl dancing in a clear box with multiple men running towards trying to get into the box to represent them wanting her. Basically, there is a long obstacle to get past to reach the hot girl.

A2 Media Studies Brief

Advanced Portfolio in Media (100 marks)- Produce a main artefact, two ancillary artefacts and an accompanying blog containing our research, planning and evaluation materials.

Critical Perspectives in Media (100 marks)- An exam in which we will need to show our understanding of media theory as it applies to our own product and to real media texts.


Advanced Portfolio

Multimedia production based in the Music Industry.

Create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
• A website homepage for the band
• A cover for its release on DVD
• A magazine advertisement for the DVD

The deadline for production work is the end of the Autumn term (December).


Critical Perspectives in Media

There are two sections to this paper:
• Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
• Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)


Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Question 1a will involve analysing your own product using the following concepts:
• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts


Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Question 1b will involve analysing your own product using the following concepts:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language


Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

Question 2 will involve discussing a key media concept using a range of texts from two media.

We will be looking at the topic of Media and Collective Identity

Specifically, we will be looking at how the notion of Britishness is constructed by the media that we consume, using examples from:
• British crime cinema
• British broadcast news