Monday, 27 September 2010
Images that made me think of calexico
These images were taken from google images, they helped us create a very emotional atmosphere and gave us a variety of different ideas, as to what we wanted to have in our final pop promo.
Friday, 10 September 2010
copywright letter to label
To the copyright holder
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:
Black Heart by Calexico
With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.
The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.
Yours sincerely
catrina kirby
Hurtwood House School
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:
Black Heart by Calexico
With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.
The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.
Yours sincerely
catrina kirby
Hurtwood House School
our record label
Our chosen record label is Touch and Go Records which is an independent record label based in america. Touch and Go Records started in 1980. In early 1981, Touch and Go Records was officially born. Corey Rusk, for the first couple years of Touch and Go Records' life, ran the business part of it from his bedroom in his grandmother's house in Ohio, and Tesco Vee ran the promotional part of it from his apartment in Michigan. Then Tesco moved to Washington DC, leaving the label in Corey's hands.Touch and Go began to move beyond the hardcore genre, while also increasing the frequency of its release schedule. Releases during this time period included albums from Die Kreuzen, Big Black, Killdozer and many others. In 1990, Touch and Go began to provide manufacturing and distribution services for other independent labels who shared similar ideals. Over the past 15 years, Touch and Go is proud to have provided manufacturing and distribution services for such influential labels. In keeping with 1990 being a pivotal year, Quarterstick Records, Touch and Go's "sister label," came into being, releasingmany successful albums. Since its inception, Quarterstick has developed its own individual, eclectic identity through the releases of groups such as the Bad Livers and Calexico.
institutional context
1. What is the history of the band?
The band is a new band and is only 2 years old, thus the band is new in the scale of things however having been around long enough to break away from stereotypical conventions. The band came together in Nashville however the band moved to Austin, Texas where they performed in the South by South west music festival. The music festival discovers big bands and promotes them and makes them better known. The band has broken away from the stereotypical country western genre. The atmosphere of the band that has been created is a rather sinister, heavy and dark one due to their lyrics and the tones they use in many of their songs.
2. What genre(s) of music do the band/ artist fit into
The band fit into a country western genre however a modernised country western thus they break away from stereotypes of old southern musicians.The band relates to other country western artists such as Jerrod Niemann George Strait, Blake Shelton. The band creates a modern version of country, so with this, their modern look will help their star image. Becoming modern opens up a target audience for the band as certain types of old country is for a very niche audience, however by modernising their music the band can further the range of people they target into a larger audience.
3. What record label are the band/ artist signed to?
Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of the Big Black and The Jesus Lizard
.4.
Who are the band's audiences?
The audience would be about 20-30 or 50 plus because the country western is modernised younger people may be interested. Peple who are interested in country/folk/indie country
5. What kind of visual images has the act/band created for themselves?
The band is a new band and is only 2 years old, thus the band is new in the scale of things however having been around long enough to break away from stereotypical conventions. The band came together in Nashville however the band moved to Austin, Texas where they performed in the South by South west music festival. The music festival discovers big bands and promotes them and makes them better known. The band has broken away from the stereotypical country western genre. The atmosphere of the band that has been created is a rather sinister, heavy and dark one due to their lyrics and the tones they use in many of their songs.
2. What genre(s) of music do the band/ artist fit into
The band fit into a country western genre however a modernised country western thus they break away from stereotypes of old southern musicians.The band relates to other country western artists such as Jerrod Niemann George Strait, Blake Shelton. The band creates a modern version of country, so with this, their modern look will help their star image. Becoming modern opens up a target audience for the band as certain types of old country is for a very niche audience, however by modernising their music the band can further the range of people they target into a larger audience.
3. What record label are the band/ artist signed to?
Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of the Big Black and The Jesus Lizard
.4.
Who are the band's audiences?
The audience would be about 20-30 or 50 plus because the country western is modernised younger people may be interested. Peple who are interested in country/folk/indie country
5. What kind of visual images has the act/band created for themselves?
Initial ideas
For our music video this year we intially decided to have country western as our genre, one of our group members also had the idea of modern jazz ,however after putting our heads together we finalised are decision to do country and western yet with an edge of modern style to it. We all thought of various ways to break away from the sterotypes of country western music as we are modernising it slightly. we thought of initially using fire and a burning house to dramatise our video. we also wanted to create a sinister type atmosphere. we looked at numerous country western artists and below are some images of people we thought of using such as ryan adams calexico and kieth urban.
All four of us came up with various ideas as a genre and theme to our music video. even though we ened up with country western there were some other fantastic ideas. cate hoare, a member of our group thought of heavy death metal as a genre the band she proposed to us was called man of war below is an image of teh heavy death metal band.
Another member of the group called ellie came up with an old school jazz theme yet with a modern twist. Ellie used the shirelles as an example
Our production group
our producton group consists of myself,
catrina kirby
cate hoare
james burke
ellie mcgreggor
and assistance from matt and luke
catrina kirby
cate hoare
james burke
ellie mcgreggor
and assistance from matt and luke
Conventions of the video promo
Conventions of pop promo
Common Generic Conventions of Popular Music Promo Videos
Although pop video is fairly freeform generically and artistically it still employs several common conventions.
These include…
The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement
Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
A possible narrative structure
A possible performance element
The flexibility to disregard Realism
Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)
As music journalist Annabelle Jankell said, “You have three and a half minutes to make an instant impact on people’s eyeballs, instantly!”
Common Generic Conventions of Popular Music Promo Videos
Although pop video is fairly freeform generically and artistically it still employs several common conventions.
These include…
The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement
Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
A possible narrative structure
A possible performance element
The flexibility to disregard Realism
Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)
As music journalist Annabelle Jankell said, “You have three and a half minutes to make an instant impact on people’s eyeballs, instantly!”
background to the music industry
Background to music industry
• Dominated by 4 transnational corporations
– Universal
– BMG
– Warner Bros
– Sony/EMI
• Known as ‘The Majors’
• Most majors also own, or licence, a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre
• These companies are known as ‘major-independents’
• Finally, there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors
• These companies often concentrate on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry
• Known as ‘independents’
• It is misleading to see the industry simply as a ‘hierarchy’, dominated by the majors
• A better description is a ‘web’ of companies, whose connections allow:
– smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets
– bigger companies to gain access to new artists and movements in popular music
In turn, most record companies organise themselves internally into several key areas:
– Artists and Repertoire (A&R)
– Marketing/Artist Development
– Promotions
– Legal
– Financial
• The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media
• Radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media
• Synergy and symbiosisMedia video
Expansion of background to music industry
Musical taste can be a controversial topic- almost to the point of tribalism.
It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act.
However, all commentators agree that Music and its trends - sit at the epicentre of popular culture.
Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity but to the extent the global community can be changed by Musical Trends
Key tensions
It is this ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces of underpins the success of this vast media business.
A tension between the organic and synthetic
Another feature to consider is the music industry ‘synergetic connections’ with other media forms – this codependence with other media means that a ‘mutual reliance’ can be productive and but also risky.
• Dominated by 4 transnational corporations
– Universal
– BMG
– Warner Bros
– Sony/EMI
• Known as ‘The Majors’
• Most majors also own, or licence, a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre
• These companies are known as ‘major-independents’
• Finally, there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors
• These companies often concentrate on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry
• Known as ‘independents’
• It is misleading to see the industry simply as a ‘hierarchy’, dominated by the majors
• A better description is a ‘web’ of companies, whose connections allow:
– smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets
– bigger companies to gain access to new artists and movements in popular music
In turn, most record companies organise themselves internally into several key areas:
– Artists and Repertoire (A&R)
– Marketing/Artist Development
– Promotions
– Legal
– Financial
• The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media
• Radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media
• Synergy and symbiosisMedia video
Expansion of background to music industry
Musical taste can be a controversial topic- almost to the point of tribalism.
It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act.
However, all commentators agree that Music and its trends - sit at the epicentre of popular culture.
Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity but to the extent the global community can be changed by Musical Trends
Key tensions
It is this ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces of underpins the success of this vast media business.
A tension between the organic and synthetic
Another feature to consider is the music industry ‘synergetic connections’ with other media forms – this codependence with other media means that a ‘mutual reliance’ can be productive and but also risky.
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