Shoot Preparation

The group has two planned shoots over half term, and in order to prepare for these, Despina, Anisah and I met up outside school to prepare. The meeting was very productive and we managed to get together a solid shoot schedule and draw together the storyboards we had worked on individually. Unfortunately, Joe couldn't make the meeting but we updated him on what happened afterwards.

Shot List

Group Developments

Today we decided that the singer would have four distinctive looks in the video. We've split the video up into sections based on her styling and designated each group member a section. We have to storyboard our sections and do a shot list each - this way we will get it done a lot quicker and it also gives us a chance to direct a scene in the video each.

I've been given the last section in the video. Liv will be wearing the same clothes as in the Ally Pally Lip syncing section of the video, with a leather jacket and skinny jeans. The thought behind this is that she changes clothes throughout the video, changing personality as well as outfits, and in the last section she resumes her natural self, with nothing pretentious about her.

My section of the video will be shot in Trafalgar Square - Lexi will be sitting on the fountain swinging her legs, looking natural and happy. To make the most of the reverse technique, Lexi will flick a coin into the fountain, so when edited it looks as if a coin is flying out of the fountain and into her hand. This scene is supposed to show Lexi having fun and enjoying being in London, she will get up and walk away from the fountain and up some stairs, then I'm going to have her sitting on a ledge looking out over trafalgar square. She'll be appreciating the iconic view and watching people walk by - backwards).

Artist Update

Although Tara and Abi were both good choices for our lead singer, the group re-analyzed the image for our singer and decided that they didn't fit the "edgy" look we had in mind. So we had another brainstorm of actresses and decided upon Olivia D'Lima. Liv fits the part well as she can pla the role of cute. Liv looks like a typical London girl, and with cropped brown hair and a pretty face we think she is the ideal girl to be our artist. We've approached her with the role and Liv seemed very enthusiastic about playing a part in our production and we are confident that with our media skills and her drama skills we can create the artist we are trying to achieve.

As a group we've also decided on a name for the artist. We're going to call her 'Lexi Grace'. We looked at the names of similar artists already in the industry like 'Pixie Lott' and 'Lily Allen' and decided that the name had to be short and easy to remember. We decided that Lexi should be short for Alexander, which will be her real name. This makes it easier for the audience to identify and relate to her if they know that she isn't performing under a stage name.

Location

We've decided that we want our video to be set in London. While we want to feature iconography of London, we are going to try and avoid making it look like a sightseeing tour.

These are some images of the look of London we are trying to achieve;

Traditional red telephone box

Trafalgar Square

Carnaby Street

Soho Square Garden

Neal's Yard

Independent Research

Today an artist I really like and have listened to for the last three or four years, JME, released a new album called Blam! JME is a grime artist who is well known within his genre and is very successful in what he does, reaching a genre that has quite an underground, niche target market. He co-owns an independent record label with his brother Skepta and has established himself as a big artist in the industry in the last five or six years, having a well known distaste for the big record companies that sign up artists and take their most of their profits. I've found several of the marketing strategies used for the album very interesting and in my opinion they are all valuable points to take on board for this project.

The strategy for releasing the album has played to the strengths of the artist, using free social networking sites to promote his album at no cost to him. JME has a huge twitter fanbase, with over 30,000 people following him online, and he has used this to promote the album since May, creating a massive hype around the album and letting his fans know when they can expect the album. This is definitely something we could take on board when releasing our album as it is extremely cost effective and uses modern technology to promote the album to the correct target audience. He talks in a personal way to his fans online, allowing them to feel as if he is talking directly to them when promoting the album.

Tonight he also presented a live contest where people could enter a competition and get the chance to win signed prizes and merchandise. The contest was streamed via a video link on ustream.com, and there was live voting from people watching; prizes included signed t-shirts, posters and the album, as well as the main prize which was a signed iPad worth £600. The whole competition was very personal and gave the artist a chance to give something back to his fans and show his appreciation for their support. I think the personal touch is very important, especially for less well known artists as they need to show that they really do appreciate their fans for buying their music.

The album cover for Blam! is very eye catching. Bright colours are used and there is an artist's impression of JME on the front, in a cartoon design. This helps the album stand out when it's on the shelves which is also important as it would grab the attention of people who wouldn't necessarily know who JME is.



All of these techniques are really important to our project in my opinion. Although we are making a video for a different genre of music, like JME our artist will not be well known as it is a debut appearance. Therefore it will be important to grab the attention of the audience and also to reward the fans for supporting us. It is also a very clever marketing scheme because although the prizes for the giveaway will have been relatively expensive, the means by which they are given away, and the general hype created around the album itself was all produced through free means like facebook and twitter, meaning all sales of the album will result directly in profit. JME's marketing campaign has definitely been a success as on the first day of release it has managed to reach number 4 on the iTunes album chart - meaning there have been a lot of sales on the first day

Group Progress

Since been given our final groups, myself and my other three group members have started developing the idea for our music video. Admittedly we had a slow start but in the past week we've really progressed with our idea and it's coming together well. So far, we've come up with a shortlist of possible actresses to play the lead role in our video; we then whittled that down to a possible two whom we now plan to approach with our proposed idea and audition them for the role. The main reason for doing so is to give us a clearer direction with the process ahead - by having actors in mind we are all able to see a clearer picture for the video, making it a lot easier to all think in the same way.

We've also started to come up with some solid ideas for the storyline. By basing our music video around a themed narrative - with the girl carrying out indoor activities outside (getting dressed, eating etc.) - we can come up with some more appropriate ideas for the piece and also have a better understanding of what is realistic and what isn't. So far I feel the group dynamic has been really positive - we all seem to have an optimistic approach to the project and although there have been times where we've wondered if our idea is too unrealistic to achieve, we've managed to get over these doubts and find solutions to the problems that have arisen.

We've already had thoughts as to where we can shoot our video and once we have our actress confirmed we can start to sort out shooting arrangements more solidly. In my opinion targets we need to achieve for the next week are confirming our actress and location for the shoot and then to sort out times and dates that all members of the group can attend.