Site Purpose: Mac Miller is an independent artist that hasn't conformed to using the music video link: VEVO. One purpose of this site is to present his fans with an exclusive hub so instead of going to youtube and struggling to find a video, they are all in one place. The URL is http://www.wix.com/kittygrew/macmillermusic this means that it's easy for someone to find the website directly as it had the name in it. The purpose of my site is to inform fans of recent information on my artist and to enlighten people that come across the site as to who Mac Miller is and what his music is like.
Site Goals:
To inform fans of recent information
Enlighten people that come across the site as to who Mac Miller is and what his music is like
Give the public an opportunity to purchase merchandise, songs and videos on my website
How My Site Would Be Distributed: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Youtube. Mainly, fans sharing the link between themselves. Generally, Mac Miller is well known, there are many forums in which he's been compared to other artists such as Asher Roth, Sam Adams and Wiz Khalifia. On Youtube, Mac Miller is in the related box to many of these artists. This is one way his music could be distributed. One main way, would be by his friend and collaborator, Wiz Khalifa. Links to Mac Miller Music would be posted on his personal fan site exposing Mac's music to a wider fan base. One reason that these means of distribution is that they are all free. The fact that Mac Miller isn't signed to a major label means that he doesn't necessarily have a lot of money to spend on advertising. This is a free, easy yet effective way to distribute his music.
Website Plan: The text will be very elegant similar to Edwardian Script to create a simple, consistence theme to match the digipak. The basic theme is simple yet elegant. I'm going to create a black and pink/white colour scheme. The homepage will have a fade in effect as will each other page. I've chosen this simplistic theme because I want all types of fans to be able to access and use the site. MAC MILLER will be at the top of the screen at all times. I have 8 headings that are also always present at the top of every page called: Home, News, Events, Music, Videos, Gallery, Links and Contact Us.
Narrative- In regards to narrative theories, I found that mine was most relatable to Todorov's 5 point theory. This theory suggests that that
there are five stages to every narrative; the equilibrium, disruption, climax,
resolution and re-equilibrium. I found that although it was slightly relatable, in the sense that it starts in equilibrium with the lack of colour and slowly a new equilibrium is established where everything is in colour. The difference with this video is that the narrative initially follows random people, the link being that they are sad. Then the new equilibrium follows people having a good day. The other 5 point narrative aspect is the disruption of the equilibrium. This is first show when the first shot with any colour is shown. This video does not fit succinctly with the theory. Here the narrative is not established by what is in the shots but by the use of colour. I think this is because music video narrative has different conventions from other video genres. The narrative does not particularly end, just the new equilibrium is established but its never really shown the effect of this. This is because music video narratives are incomplete they never show an entire plot just a segment of a wider story that inspired the artist to write the song.
Audience- In regards to audience theories, specifically the Income/bracket Status Theory, which suggests that audiences are grouped in order of their class. I based this assumption on the basis of the music video and Asher Roth's music in general. Although he is a rapper, his music doesn't conform to basic, aspirers' idea of what a rapper's lifestyle is. The song is about poor people finding some inner happiness and strength and carry of going. I think that this was most relatable to classes D and E, the lowest classes. Asher Roth grew up in a working class background and it's likely that the majority of his music videos are targeted at the lower classes as his lyrics are easily relatable to them.
Wiz Khalifa's Music Video
Audience- In regards to audience theories, specifically Young and Rubicam's Four Consumers Theroy, I believe that the main target audience for this would be aspirers. In terms of this theory, an aspirer 'wants status and the esteem of others. They like status symbols, designer labels ect. live off of credit and cash'. I think that this is an accurate description of the target audience. I think this because I feel that the video represents a typical rapper lifestyle which connotes, girls, money and generally expensive things. The sunny day represents a positive atmosphere, the protagonist of the music video gets to be with the conventionally good looking girl at the end, Wiz Khalifa sports expensive clothes and jewellery throughout the video and there are shots of him talking to people to represent his popularity. The combination of these aspects show a 'euphoria' for aspirers. Wiz Khalifa seems to fulfil the desired person to be if you're an aspirer.
Narrative- The video starts
with two separate scenes, a group of girls and wiz. The narrative runs
parallel with wiz performing as live. The narrative follows the story of wiz
and the girl. Quickly interacts with her and the As live elements blend with
the narrative and what he's singing is obviously addressed at the girl. This
directly link the audio and visual aspects of the song. The locations of
the narrative and as live sections are very similar. This makes it feel as
though wiz is telling the story about his day.In this
video there are only 2 main characters. Using Propp's character theory they
would be the "hero" and the "princess" respectively. The
only other characters that have recurring roles would be the girls friends,
however they have no real purpose in the story and i don't think they fit into
the model. I think music video narratives have different conventions from that
of a traditional narrative. They are often incomplete while todorov would argue
stories are supposed to being and end equilibrium music videos never show the
resolution to the story they are telling.
There is a part of my film that the title needs to disappear, so I decided to create a sequence on livetype to help it blend in better. Here are some pictures of how I did this:
Kitty
Sunday, 26 February 2012
I've added in the titles. Here are some pictures to describe how I did it:
I've finished my rough cut of my film. There is still a lot to edit. But here is my rough cut of the video:
http://youtu.be/gYNBBrfyJZw
As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. Later on today I'm going to add in the text to their different signs to explain their issues. The phrases I need to edit in are:
The first thing I filmed was the scene with Rory and his classmates. I used a range of shots to show him messing about with his friends then looking sad. I think it went well in the sense that I got a range of shots and was able to edit it together as I imagined it. A downside was that the memory card was full and at the time, I didn’t know how to fully earse the images/videos. This meant that I could only have short shots. But luckily, I didn’t need any long ones. Here are some print screens of what I've edited of it.
Next I filmed the shot with the girls. Again, I used a range of shots. One issue I faced was that I’d forgotten how to use shallow focus, so I ended up with different shots than I wanted. However, I still got a nice range of shots. Here are some examples:
The next week, I filmed the love scene between Niel and Naomi, this went really well actually. I got a nice range of shots. I think that it was successful because I was fully prepared this time. For example, both batteries charged, memory card fully deleted, and therefore didn't face any technical problems. I can't think of anything that went wrong. Although I didn't completely stick to my plan of shots, I think that this worked out in my favour. Here are some shots from the shoot:
The day after I filmed the scene between Rory and Lily. I think that one big issue for me was relying on other people. Loukas was going shopping and couldn't film, but I needed him for the crossover. I made it work by getting a point of view shot. I later went on to get a point of view shot from Rory and Lily's point of view so that I could put the two together in crossover. It also started to rain, which was very irritating. However, I think it went well and again, I was prepared. Here are some example shots from this shoot:
And finally, a few days later I filmed with Loukas. My range of shots was broader than all my other shoots and for the first time, I used 600mm lens, which was a good experience for me. However, I think that sometimes using these shots wasted time as they didn't look good. However, overall it went well. Here are some example shots:
This Friday, I am going to film my dads side of the story. I found that the boys were messing about too much. So I decided to change the story to be with my dad. I thought that this would work out well as it meant that my concept would be more '3D'. By this, I mean that it would give me a wider range of age groups in my video. I decided that my dad's storyline would be: 'I'm bored of routine'. He'll be typing on his laptop then decide to shut it and go to a restaurant and a cinema by himself. I decided to do this because I wanted to show that happiness can come from within, that you don't have to rely on other people to be happy. I decided to have him by himself in a cinema laughing. I called the Rio Cinema 020 7241 9410. I asked to talk to the manager and spoke to her about possibly filming at the cinema. She said she'd have to call in a projectionist to come in early to project light onto his face. She said it was fine. So me and my dad are going there on Friday morning. So I'll post some screen shots soon and I can start filming.
