Proforma For Obtaining Copyright Permission

City & Islington College
Angle, Goswell Road
London EC1V 7LA
Thursday 30th September 2010

Moshi Moshi Records
Rhoda street
London E2 7EF


Dear Moshi Moshi Records,

Request forf Copyright Permission to use part or whole of: Pumpkin Soup by Kate Nash

I am a student of A Levl Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledge in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropiate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully
Shekira Boyd-Little

Copy Right Letter

29^th September 2010

 XL Recordings
One Codrington Mews

London

W11 2EH

Dear XL recordings,

Request for Copyright Permission to use part or whole of: M.I.A – Paper Planes

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publically and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song i should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully

Jasmin Emmanuel

Review Of Student Work

Group 24 - Love

A group video which was very effective was group 24 who did a song about love. Their style of music was pop and I feel that their video reflected this. The whole video was in black and white apart from any thing red within the shot. This included the singers earrings, red lip stick, buses and ink on posters. The colour red was used as it has major connotations with love and romance which was what the song was all about - as it repeatedly used the word 'love'. This was effective as it wasn't it went against the usual 'pop norm' of bright colours and girls in little skirts dancing around the video.

In this video they used just one singer who danced and walked around oxford street with red earrings and lipstick. They used a variety of shots including long shots to get the crowd in the background in and extreme closeups on her lips singing the song. They also got the public involved as they made them hold sings with lyrics from the songs. This showed how much time and effort they put into the making of the video as they had created signs and really thought about what they were going to do with them and how they were going to go about doing that. 

I feel that this video is aimed at a younger generation, particularly for females, as the cast was mainly females and the song is about love and romance which we mainly assume would interest females rather than males. I say a young generation audience as the video seems fun and upbeat, which would interest younger viewers, in an area that they are most probably familiar with.

In relation to Andrew Goodwin's theory I think that this video is an example of amplification. This is because it breaks the norm and adds many layers of the meaning of 'love'. The use of the colour red shows the connotations with the word and the lively engery of the singer makes the audience assume thats how it feels to be in love.

I believe this video worked really work because of the team effort, time and thought put in to making it. The singer was engergetic, interesting to watch and 'sang' the song with enthusiasm, realism and emotion. Also the editting was done almost perfectly, where the clips would change on every major beat and the grey scale plus the red colour was very eye catching. All in all it just proved that you don't need big mansions, blinging jewellery and half-naked girls to create an effective and memorable pop video.

Adam, Lisa, Nasima & Sayvita from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Lip Synch Tutorial

Lip Synch Tutorial

In the lip synching activity we learnt how to appear as if we were actually singing the track. to do this we had to actually sing the song, when filming, and later remove the sound on final cut pro and attach the original backing track - if successful the words on the track would play at the same times as our mouths moving.

A challenging aspect of this task was editting. This was due to the fact that we had misunderstood the filming part of the task - we had not film not one clip of the whole song, instead, we stop and started filming at different parts of the song using different camera shots which wasn't the task. This made marking difficult as we could not have just one mark as if was not suitable for all the clips so we had to use two. This then made it even more difficult to match the song words with the clips perfectly. To solve this issue we pressed 'alt+arrow key' to move the clip (by frame) until it matched the song.

A new tool that we learnt to use was the 'Marker' tool, which helped us match a word in the song from the same word sung in the filmed clip. This ensured that the lip synch was in time and matched. To do this first we took the sound track and pressed 'M' when a specific word was sung (in this case 'freak out'). We then dragged the soundtrack on to the timeline, we knew it had been marked as a red arrow appeared at the time where 'freak out' was said. We then chose the longest clip and made that our base clip. We watched it and pressed 'M' when we sung the words 'freak out' in the clip to mark it. This was then dragged on to the timeline where it was automatically matched with the other marker on the soundtrack. This then synched the clips together to make it seem as if the soundtrack was actually being sung by us. We did this with the rest of the clips until we had about 6 layers of clips. Using the razor blade tool we cut several of the clips, not touching the base clip, and erased some parts of each clip. This was so that it changed to the different camera angles at specific times in the song.

The editting of a music video differs from the producing of a thriller film as it requires more attention and concentration. This is because the lip synch has to be perfect otherwise it looses the realistic manner of the music video as the words and mouth actions wont be in time.

On-shoot freakout photos

Analysing Lat Years Pop Videos-Lesson 4

In class we watched the last years A2 students pop videos, some of them worked really well they had some good shots and costume but some of them were just really bad and looked like they had been filmed last minute.
One video that i really liked was really simple it was a girl in oxford street, singing to the camera and different shots of people holding signs.
The video focused on one main colour red, everything else was a neagative effect this worked really well because the song was about love and red is a colour you associate with love,there were close up shots of the girls red lips and red accesories and things in the backgrouns like red buses, it looked good because it wasn't to colorful and the red wasn't too vibrant it was suttle and suited the girl. You could tell a lot of effort had gone into the video they had strangers off the street in the video but they fitted in really well holding signs that the group had made, there was a variation of shots of the girl like close ups of her lips full body shots and wide shots so you could see the background aswell as seeing her,there were also different shots of the location they were filming in, shots of steet signs and different parts of the location such as parks, the main street and outside a tube station. The lip synching looked really good aswell because the girl had learnt the words and she really got into the song, she looked right for the video. The strenghts of the video was that the shots were framed really well and the video was stylised just right it wasn't over the top it was suttle with a splash of colour so it looked simple and unique at the same time. In realation to Andrew Goodwin's theory i would have to say that this video is an amplification because the video went with the song the theme of love was obvious, there people hugging, holding signs saying "Everybody needs love", and a the colour red, but the girl singing alone could add a new meaning, it could mean she's spreading the love or shes looking for love.
Overall the video was really well edited and looked fun, i wouldn't know what to call the genre of music but if i had to say i would call it a house/pop genre.

Lip Synch Task

Andrew Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin is a music director and his beliefs were that all pop videos had a completely different structure and dont apply to a traditional narrative analysis, however Andrew Goodwin says that pop videos were just approching and choosing different ways to novels and films.



Reasons for different narrative structure:

pop videos approch narrative from different views to novels, and the video will not cover the traditional narrative structure.



Normally Artists are used as the narrator and takes part as being a character in a short film.



Artists look drectly at the camera attempting to involve the viewer and to engage with the auidence and to let the audience know that they are a important charcter in the video this is to also interact with the auidence. Pop songs and videos have a form of closure so there is a clear structure shown within pop videos.


Pop videos always rely on repetition. Sometimes, the video repeats images in the same way that the song repeats choruses or verses. Also repetition in, songs of parts or rhythms of other songs means that we become familiar with the genre and have a certain expectation of what the viewer is about to watch. Repeating certain images in their video in the same way automatically triggers familiarity to the audience and these Music videos provided visual pleasure, which encourages repeated viewing which promotes the music really well.



-There are three types of relations between songs and videos


Illustration:were the video tells the story of the lyrics








The way Katy B narrates and also participates in this music video illustrates the song very well. The song On a mission is about nightlife, set in an arena talking about music being apart of her letting everything go and sinking into the music. There are various screens conveying different parts of the song, drum bass hard core eletric funky music
She uses the mise en scene in the video to express the mood of the song. The editing and freestyle choreography makes the video very illustrative that it is rich in visual aspects. Which is why I believe that this video represents Goodwin's illustration law.

Amlification:When the video introuduces new meanings that dont contradict with the lyrics but add many layers of meaning to it.

I think this is a good example of amplication because in this video she talks about a person that she loves and that her love is sent from heaven, the mis en scene is set on an beautiful island with waterfalls tropical plants deep blue sea and an amazing sunset which most people could relate to this by being a utopia allowing the audeince to understand and develop there own stories and meaning to the video. providing you with a broad imagination but the lyrics and imagery still go togther allowing you to understand the whole concept of this video.


Disjuncture: This is where there is no connection between the lyrics and video, where the video contradicts the lyrics



Little connecton between the lyrics and video the video contradicts the lyrics

Beyonce-'Why dont you love me Analysis'

Beyonce is an American RnB Solo artist an the song is called 'Why dont you love me' by the title of this song you can already iagmine what it is going to be about.

Narrative: Throughout the song, Beyoncé, is dressed in retro-looking outfits, alternates between cleaning a retro-looking house and crying into a retro-looking phone.
In celebration of the revival of all things early '60s, Beyoncé's “Why Don't You Love Me?” is packaged in this period piece of a video with Being a housewife. As a hotpants-hottie, car-fixing, slick (then downward-streaming) eyeliner-sporting housewife named B.B. Homemaker. Could the narrative be based on reality? No. Personally I think It's another manifesto, it potentially subverts the idea of the perfect housewife of that era.

Genre: This is a pop music video involving drum and base with african drums and also guitar the main focal instruments that are used in the instrumental. Its very upbeat,fast, funky and has an obvious influence in sound from the 60s.

Representation: Beyonce reinacts the role of a typical house wife in the 60s, I know there were certainly upper-middle-class women of color in the ’50s and ’60s, but this image of the happy-but-secretly-unhappy housewife is stereotypically white. By virtue of race, Beyonce is twisting, developing and changing that sterotype.

this twist is very political. Consider this: In American politics today, the “perfect” mother is one who does not work and stays home with her children. Unless she’s poor. Poor women who want to stay home with their children are called lazy, welfare cheats. If you’re poor, you can only be a good mother by working.
Because race and class are correlated in U.S. society, and the “welfare queen” is a race-specific trope that usually refers to poor, black women, this video might very well challenge the white-middle/upper-class-homemaker argument.

Media language: In this video there are various shots medium, close ups, long, extreme and quite a few dismembered shots of beyonces body in this video.

Setting is in a nice middle class home, retro interior influenced by the 50s&60s, there are someSFX when beyonce is dancing seductively infront of a black screen with projected stars on the wall.

Ms Dynamite - What You Talking About Analysis

Above is a video to the song "what you talkin' about" By Redlight Ft Ms. Dynamite.

Analysis;

Narrative - The video itself doesn't differentiate when it is the verse or the chorus but it is made clear in the lyrics. Ms. Dynamite is the main participant in the video.

Genre - The genre of this song varies; electronic, Dance and Drum&Bass would come into the equation. This can be represented through the fast pace of the video cuts. The costume shows the urban fashion scene, and the bright lighting and the bright setting also contribute to this.

Representation - You cant really relate to the video as she is behind a green screen with moving imagery.

media language - In this video, there are loads of effects. The artist is put onto a green screen. There are a lot of images that are put on the green screen and make this video complete. It isnt to cheesy and it is not over 'effecty'.

British Music Artists- Lesson 3

This is a British music artist called Dotstar, this video is called 'She's killing me', it's obvious from the title that this song is about a woman or women.

The narrative voice is Dotstar singing to the camera about how sexy the girls in the video are and how their metorphorically killing him with their beauty. Even though there are more women then men in this video the men are still seen as dominant because they are fully dressed whereas the women are walking around half naked or dressed with large areas of the body showing and jumping all over the men ecspeacilly Dotstar who is the main perosn in the video. The women are represented as sexy objects and the men are seen as gods who get all the women, this video is from a males prespective.

The video is set in a night club and some scenes are in a car but the cars not on a road, it's not a big fancy sophisticated club it's more of an underground rave scene and everybody there seems to be 18 to about 25, so the people probaly represent a young working class generation. The people in the video are most probaly a mirror of the people who listen to and buy Dotstar's music. The genre of this music is a funky/grimey one and the video fits in well, the dark location with bright colourful lights, people dancing to the beat and having a good time.

Karaoke Lip Synch Excersise- Lesson 4

Last lesson we got our first excersise where had to practice skills that are esential for the A2 practical project, we also had a reintroduction to Final Cut Pro so we could edit sound and mouth movement and we also got a chance to develope our camera skills.
For the karaoke lip synching excersise we had to use a CD player and large sheet of lyrics to film people out of the group singing along to the song we chose, we chose 'Chic Le Freak'. The people out of the group had to sing and not mime so it would be easier to edit the mouth movement to the music later on.
We had to film at least 3 times from start to finish with out stoppin, but we wern't able to do this a just filmed and paused where we felt nescessary so it would be easier to edit. We used a range of angles, close ups, pans and tracks.
This was all done holding the camera, I found that when it comes to actually shooting the A2 practical it's much easier to learn the words and set up the different angles before filmining.

Blogging Task One - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feeks that traditional narrative dont really apply to pop videos. there are a number of reasons for this.

1. Pop videos are built around songs - and often songs do nt pose traditional narrative structures (normality - problem - resolution)
2. The pop video usues the singer both as a narrator and as a character
3. The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is an extension of performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with performance.

Pop videos rely on repetiton. Sometimes, the video repeats images in the same sort of way that the song repeats choruses or lines.

Also repetition in, songs of parts or rhythms of other songs means that we become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. Lastly the video would be played on tv, the song would be played on the radio and there might be an advertising film or tv tie-in making the song very familiar through repetition.

Some videos are autonomous from the music they spring from. The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which then promotes the music. Sometimes the videos might be promoting other commodities such as films. That then means it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos; illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

illustration - when the video tells the story of the lyric. Dance is oftten used to express the feelings/moods.

Amplification; Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

Disjuncture; This is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics.

Andrew Goodwin Task (Amplification)-Lesson 3

Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

Straight jeans and fitted- Vybz Kartel

This video has a lot to do with the lyrics of the song, Vybz is singing about having expensive things like G-shsock watches and white t-shirts and it appears on the screen.

Andrew Goodwin Task (Disjuncture)-Lesson 3

Disjuncture

This is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the video.

Man in the mirror by Micheal Jackson

This video Micheal is singing about self realistion and how people should change but the video is about poverty and starvation is 3rd world counteries, the video and song have little in common they contradict eachother.

Andrew Goodwin Task (Illustration)-Lesson 3

Illustration

This is where the video tells a story of the lyrics, dance is often used to express the feeling/ moods in the song.

If i were a boy-Beyonce

This video tells of story of role reversal, Beyonce is singing about being a boy and how a boy would feel if they were treated the way a woman was. Beyonce is expressing her emotions through slow dance and speaking to the camera.

Andrew Goodwin Task-Lesson 3

What Andrew Goodwin is trying to say is that pop videos aren't like traditional videos such as 'TLC- Im Pretty' where the video relates to the song and there is a structure, pop videos dont have the normal structure of videos which is normality-problem-solution, they can be based on anything have no structure and the video doesn't even have to realte to the song (many Lady GaGa songs can apply to this).

Pop videos rely on image rather than song lyrics to promote their music for example 'Chris Brown's-I Can Transform Ya' repeats the same image of grafitti, this was to promote his new album 'Grafitti'. Pop videos these days can even promote commodities such as film.

Therefore it can be said that there are three types of realations between songs and videos, these are called illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

Andrew Goodwin Task

Andrew Goodwin was a music director and organist for Bangor Cathedral for 37 years. He believed that pop videos were becoming daring and swaying from showing the traditional narrative aspects of the song. However this was not the case – pop videos were just choosing to deliver the narrative in a different way than novels and fillms.

Reasons for different narrative structure:
1) The pop videos are based on the songs which usually do not have a specific narrative structure – therefore the video will not cover a traditional narrative structure. The pop songs of today usually focus on normality, problems and resolutions
2) Usually in pop videos the artist is the narrator and plays a character within the short film
3) The artist engages the audience by looking directly at the camera which makes them feel involved with the performance


Pop videos use the simple technique of repeating certain images in their video in the same way the song repeats the chorus or lines to trigger familiarity to the audience. Also intertextuality between songs means that audiences being to recognise the genre and know what type of video they want to see when it comes to that particular genre – expectations. Finally, through further repetition through advertisement the pop song would become very familiar to audiences – the video will be shown on television, song played on the radio, etc.

Not all pop videos stick to ‘telling the story’ of the song, sometimes the songs meaning is interpretated into something that provides visual pleasure for the audience. The audience will watch it again and again which then promotes the song. Sometimes videos set out to promote films aswell.

Three relations between songs and videos:

1) Illustration – where the video tells the story of the lyrics

TOK - Footprints

This is a good example of an illustration relation between a song and music video. This is because within each verse it shows the clip of how the character, who they are singing about, is behaving. For example, in verse one they sing about a mother who has lost her son in war and the audience can see how the mother is reacting to receiving the letter that her son is dead.

2) Amplification – this relation introduces new meanings to the video without swaying away from the meaning of the lyrics – it adds layers of meaning

Dizzee Rascal - Holiday

This video does not follow the ‘story’ of what Dizzee is rapping, however, it sticks with the theme of holidays by setting it at a pool party and making the atmosphere seem lively and fun.

3) Disjuncture – this occurs when the video and song lyrics share little or no link, sometimes even contradicting the lyircs.

La Roux - Im not your toy

This video is an example of the above relation as it visual image has nothing to do with the lyrics. It shows the singer with a microphone and backing dancers in a green house – which sways greatly from the topic of being used by the ones you love.

Another main feature of pop videos is how women are disembled and presented for ‘male desire’. They are not encouraged to play a passive role either within the video, instead they flaunt their assets and look directly at the audience to engage them. This attracts a male audience and also a female one too as some aspire to look how the celebrities do in the videos.

Lesson 3 - Analysis of british music video

N-Dubz – Wouldn’t You

N-dubz firstly began as a grime group consisting of 3 members. However, as they began to become more popular and known in the media their music became more commercialised and catered for a wider range of audience. Their new music now covers an R’n’B genre and this genre is reflected in their music video ‘Wouldn’t You’.

Firstly, the setting of the music video represents a very stylish and high life. It begins with a blacked-out car pulling up outside a mansion. This already tells the audience that the artists are very wealthy and feel the need to show off their wealth by including these extravagant things in their videos – typical R’n’B artists. The first group member, Tulisa, enters with a glamorous dress, stylish hair style and heels which is to make her look attractive to the audience and represents the typical ‘pretty-pop star’ in the pop video. The males in the group, however, are dressed more casually in work clothes, as they are participating in the story of the song, as workers. One is in all black and the other in all white which still sticks to the classy vibes of a R’n’B artist. Also, they are all heavily kitted with jewellery and designer clothes to show off their riches.

The artists narrate the story with a clear verse-chorus-verse structure. I also feel that the artists, to a certain extent, participate in the story as they are actors within the short video. They create a storyline on the basis of the song words to show the effects of ‘love at first sight’ and how easily it is to give in to the beautiful lady that catches your eye – typical R’n’B music theme.
Representation- I feel that we are encouraged to identify with the group as some shots are point-of-view shows which make the audience feel as if it is them looking at the other people. Also, the storyline may encourage the audience to reminisce or think about their ‘love lives’ or people in their lives who relate to the song.

The music video does not have any special effects; however, there is a constant use of a line of light throughout the video in some shots. I think this is reminiscent of the shining light off of jewellery which emphasises the high quality of their lifestyles and wealth. The light gives a glamorous and rich look to the music video. Also at the beginning they use text over a shot of the ground with the name of the group – N-dubz. The text is written in the font that ‘N-dubz’ is known to use and shares a link to their posters, CD covers, etc as it is found there also. They use quick edits throughout the video on the beat of the music, changing the shots to each of the different artists within the group which gives them equal time on screen. There are also many close-up camera shots on the artist who is singing/rapping which gives the audience a clear view of who is speaking. Freeze-shots are used in black and white at the start of each verse. I think this is to alert the audience that someone new is going to narrate and to show them what is happening in the new scene. Finally, the videos ends with a circle fade-out which I feel is a very classy and stylish way to finish

In conclusion, I chose this video as I feel that it represents the R’n’B style that so many artists choose to show in their video (i.e. with the big house and attractive women).