My pitch for 'Off The Radar'

My powerpoint presentation for the track "Off The Radar"

Rebecca off the radar 1

View more presentations from Kemisha Graham.

I have received positive feedback for my pitch stating it was detailed and well planed although there are too many ideas going on at once. For the group treatment I will use less special effects to create more impact instead of over complicating the video. I will also simplify more of the editing techniques, such as keeping mirroring effects to make the video interesting without over complicating it.

The six criterias for music genre

What affects a music genre?

The sound
Audience
Image
Camera Shots
Mise-en-scene

Kembrew Mcled states, 'The naming of new subgenre can be linked to variety of influneces. An example is the rapidly evolving nature of the music accelerated consumer consumption'.

The six criteria’s for music genre

-: Art music
Is music that is mostly instrumental work of art where lyrics are added in a poetic, political or religion. This is mostly discussed on public radio for music education i.e. The BBC Radio Four.
-: Popular music (pop)
Popular music is for the general public for mass media economic markets. These are sold on profit commercial stations billboard charts and uses music producers as opposed to singers, songwriters and composers.
Traditional music
-: Folk music was expanded to include a lot of non traditional material.
Oral transmission passed sown or learned through singing, or cultural basis derived form and is part of Art music.

Time periods
-: When it is defined by the decade or era i.e. the 80’s
Regional and national Distinctions
-: It is possible to categorise music geographically i.e. Southern states, Africa, Asia (India, China, Japan, ect.)
Technical aspects and instrumentation
-: Some technical aspect including the instrumental used.
-> Rock; electric guitar, Classical; violins, Club; synthetics and drum machine
-: Fusional origins
Mixing genres and styles from pre-existing genres for example blues rock, Latin jazz.
-: Sociological function
Sociological function is aimed for certain events, i.e. weddings, Christmas or any other events.

Genre Study: Indie and sub genres

Indie music was orginally known as 'independent' music where the artist or band are not signed to a major label and either signed to an independent label or the band manage and promoted for themselves. This movement again mainstream music really began to surface in the 1980's in Britain and America. Indie music is usually mixed with a sub genre such as indie rock and can make it difficult to esatblish to whether a band is actually 'indie' or not.

The Smiths




The smiths are an early example of an indie band, although it is a blend of alternative style and post punk, making it hard to define them to a genre exactly. When 'This charming man' was released the band was signed to independent label Rough Trade, classifying the band as indie, as their music oppossed mainstream at the time which was mostly synth pop. The video also shows that they are indie as the video has low production value, with set in one room although the room full of flowers is effectual as it relates to Morrissey star persona. The video also uses simple camera movements such as panning shots of the band playing, not distracting the audience from the music and creating a DIY video effect.



Vampire Weekend



The Drums





However now days, indie music has developed into a more mainstream version of it's orginal self. In mid 2000's a recent surge of indie bands, consisted of the conventions of white males in the attire of skinny jeans and playing guitars, with it being the prodiment sound within the track. A DIY asetheic is still common within some videos, where they are mostly performance videos of the band. However more are becoming conceptual and bright colours are used within the costume and videos. A good example of this is Vampire weekend and The Drums. Both are bands who are all male and white and wearing the conventional attire of an 'indie band'. Both bands fuse with other genres to be labelled as 'indie rock' or indie pop', again showing that indie has more become of a style as well as the music. Both videos contain simple mise-en-scene drawing focus on the band, especially main focus on the lead singer. This is usually done via beauty shots, however in these videos, the lead singer is postioned in the foreground.

The Noisettes



A band that goes against indie conventions is The Noisettes. The lead singer is a black and female which is more rare in this genre. This song has been described as indie pop- again a sub genre although this has a 50's fusion to it. However, it also conforms to certain conventions as guitars being prominent within the performance based video. Other bands that subverts conventions are The Brunettes that feature a lead female vocalist and Operator Please which has a mixed raced lead singer and mix gender band.


Variations of the Indie genre

Indie is often fused with other genres, creating sub genres. This includes indie punk (Blood red shoes), indie folk (She & Him) and indie dance (Ladytron). The most popular sub genres are Indie rock, with artists such as the Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads and Indie pop, including artist such as Kate Nash. Artists who genre is indie pop also tend to use electro elemtents, 'Indietronica' (Ellie Goulding/ Ladyhawke/ La Roux). We have decided to put our band Changing Modes between a fusion of indie pop and indetronica. See blog 'Sub genre:Indie pop/'Indietronica'/Changing Modes.'

Inspiration...

Ladyhawke


New Young Pony Club


Mystery Jets


All of the three videos have special effects that we would like to try within our video. For Ladyhawke's 'Back Of The Van' we would like to recreate the backgrounds of stars and galaxies while also practice the editing of mirroring effect. New Young Pony Club's 'We Want To', had very good mise-en-scene, where costume plays a large aspect to the video creating an 80's feel. We would also like to recreate this. Finally Mystery Jets' 'Two Doors Down' use green screen effectively of different colourful patterns which effectively creates an 80's feel to the video. We also aspire to use similar colours that is reminiscent to the New Wave/New Romantics scenes. All three heavily rely on colour to portray the 80's theme, in which we will to recreate for our video.

Analysis of past students work

DVNO is a performanced based video.
Mise-en-scene: There is good use of costumes, where the miltary jackets with metallic eye make up creates star persona, suggesting of fun and that the artists are within the clubbing circuit. The star persona could also represent a more electro element and is similar to the band Empire of the Sun.




Set in studio, it gives a professional look to the video and the use of lighting, LED lights in background spelling the name of track, reflective on electro/pop genre. The use of props such as coloured cables, creates an 'underground effect', as if the the video is part of a secret underground movement. The use of colours of the wires such as greens and reds, demonstrates the conventions of a pop video, via the use of bright colours. The use of backing dancers are very impressive, showing that time and effort has been used in to create choreography and another convention used in pop/electro videos. The dancers outfits denotes of glitter tops, conforms to pop genre. The outfits are all matching, creating an uniform and looks effective. The use of lightingis quite dark and minimal with the exception of the LED lights and use of flashlights on the dancers bodies. This creates the atmosphere of a club scene, in which is a location where the tack would definitely would be played.
Editing: Fast pace cuts in tempo with track, and longer takes on the main performer than DJ to connote star persona. The use of reverse motion on models, gives the video a quirky edge, as well as going in time with the music. There is various use of zoom in and sped up motion throughout the video that goes in tempo with music. Cuts are also used which is a convention
Camerawork: Contestant of use of beauty shots on lead performer, conforming to star persona. The close ups on dancers bodies ,ie, stomaches conforms to the theory of exhibitisom where females are seen as sex objects. There is also several varies with long shots of studio, esp with dancers creating the exciting atmosphere of full club. There is also use of forced perspective, over the shoulder shot, where the main star is in the foreground and the DJ is towards the back ground showing star persona.
Overall, I would give this video a high level 4. It is very effective with use of mise-en-scene to convey conventions of a pop/electro video and denotes of clever camera work. The editing is well done with the pace and sharp cuts going in time with music. However I felt perhaps using one more location instead of just one would of made the video even better, by showing they have scouted for other locactions.