A2 Level Media Studies

Alex Day

Alex day is a 21 year old from Essex who is a 'famous YouTuber' and has over 260,222 subscribers to his channel.

Alex has released two full-length albums and two EPs, selling over ten thousand copies of his music physically and digitally.

Alex has attracted over thirty million views to his YouTube page ‘nerimon’, gaining over two hundred and forty thousand individual subscribers who are updated every time he puts out something new. “Holding On”, the debut single from his first album “Parrot Stories”, gained over 250,000 views in its first week online, as well as earning a feature on the worldwide homepage of YouTube. From his EP “117% Complete”, Alex released a video for “Pokémon What Happened To You”, which is his most successful video to date with 1.1 million views worldwide. The three songs on the video-game-inspired EP sold 5,000 copies in its first month on iTunes.

Alex has also worked with other YouTube musicians; with Charlie McDonnell he formed Chameleon Circuit, a band focused on songs about the TV show Doctor Who, whose self-titled debut album sold a thousand copies in its first week. Charlie and also joined forces with Tom Milsom and Eddplant to form Sons Of Admirals, who’s first single “Here Comes My Baby” will be released under a licensing deal with Universal Records on October 25th.

Alex cites Green Day, Lady Gaga and The Beatles as his influences. He is continuing to write music while promoting his existing releases on YouTube.

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For my music video I have decided to work with my fellow classmate Ellie Eady (http://elliemedia.tumblr.com/. Together, we hope to make a video that involves animation and/or stop-motion.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/xMini_Mariahx/College%20Stuff/mb.jpg

Ellie and I have decided to go with a 'cutesy' theme and style for our music video as this will go well with the song we have chosen. With this moodboard we show the kind of imagery, colour and style that we wish to use.

The Youth Culture we are aiming our Video at are 13-20 year old people, who listen to Indie/Pop music and want something different from mainstream.

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This is my transition music video. I played the Wizard in the video and also helped with the editing in Adobe Premier. I had a lot of fun making this video and it really helped give me ideas for my next A2 music video.

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With Burza's music videos, I find that there is usually a number of things:
Splashes of colour.
Food (Particularly “cute” food like cupcakes, strawberries and sweets).
Flowers.
Obscure, almost creepy things (such as giant Kitty costumes or over-done make-up).
Lots of shots of the female body.
A vintage style or vintage items.
A lot of lense flare.
Most of the videos also feature a lot of lip-syncing.

All of these aspects give a very distinct style to Burza's videos.

Burza's stylistic influences seem to come from the 80s. The majority of her videos involve a kind of 80s feel to them (In LadyHawke's music video for 'Back Of The Van', Burza even used Tube cameras which were the most popular broadcast quality cameras used to film live performances in the 80s to film it), and usually have props and costumes which reflect the 80s era. These stylistic influences connect all of Burza's music videos giving them a distinct and noticable connection; making it easy to tell Burza's videos from other directors. Burza's editing style doesn't seem to be very complex and it usually consists of simply putting the shots together or greenscreening. Although in some videos there is a good amount of special effects; for example in Kate Nash's 'Foundations' video, there is some stop-motion involves. Also in Marina and The Diamond's video for 'Oh No!', there is some adding of 90s cartoon effects.
Burza's videos usually invole a narrative that are usually based around the song rather than going off on a tangent as some music videos do. However she does use a lot of live performance, and in the majority of her videos the artist lip-syncs to their song; mainly in between cuts to dancing or the narrative.
I really like Burza's videos due to her unique style and the fact that you can spot her videos out from others. I'm really drawn to her use of vintage style and bright colours and the fact that she has done many of these videos on next to no budget at all but still manged to keep them looking proffesional. I also like the fact that her style is very noticable without overshadowing the artist's style in the process.

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Mr Moon by Bonnie scott from Bonnie Scott on Vimeo.

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4Minute - Muzik

This video and song is performed by a Korean Pop Artist Group called 4 Minute, the song is called 'Muzik'.

The genre of this music video is definitely pop, portrayed with choreographed dance and the fact that they’re wearing fashionable (and similar) clothes.
The video is very simple in style; just some choreographed dancing on different sets with different outfits and make-up. What makes this video interesting however is the quick-jump editing, the bright lights and the dance moves themselves.

In this music video, there is a lot of sexualisation; this is shown with the provocative dances moves and the short skirts that the band members wear. To me, this shows that the band are perhaps trying to attract a male audience and trying to sell their music this way. However, the choreographed dance moves, the stylish girls and the use of catchy music could also appeal to a female audience too.

There is also quite a bit of materialism in this video. At the very begining the girls walk around an expensive looking car (A Nissan 370z coupe) which is also seen the background at times while they're dancing, and during the video they're seen wearing designer clothes and accessories. To me, this shows that the director of this video wanted the audience to think and assume that these girls were 'High class' and perhaps 'high maintenence'. This could make them appealling to all audiences (though maybe just the shallow people!).

I think that this music video is a fun one, that doesn't take itself too seriously but still has an underlining message of wealth and sexuality which shows through the products and choreography used. I think this music video is mainly to perhaps advertise the band rather than the music itself as the music (despite the title!) isn't as important as the band's image.

Spice Girls - Viva Forever

This song is performed by the British pop band The Spice Girls. The video was directed by Oscar winner Steve Box of Aardman Animations. Box was the key animator on Aardman's film Chicken Run, which also used stop motion animation.

In the video it starts with a storybook that opens and shows two boys running around the woods when they encounter a pod that opens and reveals a toy chicken. The two friends chase the chicken until they see another pod, which opens by itself, and five fairy-style Spice Girls come out. One of the boys run away and the second boy stays and the fairies play with him. Then they fly the boy to another place in front of a giant Rubik's Cube. The fairies dance on the cube to the song, until the middle of the cube opens and the boy climbs inside.
The younger boy sees the fairies about to close the cube but by the time he gets to the it his friend is gone inside the cube, and it becomes toy-sized. He then sees a giant coin-vending machine which contains other pods. He puts the solved Rubik's Cube inside a case and throws it in the coin vending machine and walks away.

Although technically the genre of this song is Pop, the video doesn't seem to follow the typical codes and convention associated with pop videos. There isn't any feature of the actual band (though they are portrayed in puppet form) there isn't any choreography and none of the actors or band members are wearing particularly fashionable clothes.

This music video is very symbollic and full of meaning (which is very unusual for a pop band). According the the director this video can be interpreted as one about coming to terms with the loss of a friend. Whatever the cause for loss, the person struggles with their emotions (represented by them trying to solve the Rubik's Cube). By the end, they have placed the cube in a case and placed it in a giant vending machine, which symbolizes that they will keep "forever" these memories as they move on.

Compared to other Spice Girl Muisc Videos such as Spice up Your Life and Too Much which involves a lot of sexualisation and materialism, this video is very down to earth and different. I think that this video is very well done

Marina and the Diamonds - Oh No!

This song is written and performed by Marina and the Diamonds (Marina Diamandis). The video was directed by Kinga Burza. It's influenced by 1990s cartoons and the old "zany neon" MTV graphics. The concept of the video follows the lyrics of of the song which references being obsessed with success, money and fame.

The genre of this video is very obviously pop. This is shown through the dance routines, use of colour, use of graphics and style. Marina is seen wearing many different outfits throughout the video, and joins in with the choreographed dancing. There is also many different cuts to a 'Pop art' style graphic.

There is quite a bit of materialism in this video. Many times Marina is seen surrounded by many possesions and wearing lots of different outfits (one styled on the American Dollar) and coloured nails. despite this, the materialism cancelled out by the lyrics. I think that the director is trying to convey a sense of irony and hypocrisy related to consumerism and materialistic behaviours by showing an opposite image to the lyrics.

This music video is very different but still has a recognizable sense it and so makes it appealling to most audiences. I however feel that this video is mainly aimed at young girls with it's use of bright, feminine colours and 'empowering' lyrics. Overall, I really like this music video & I think it's fun and cute but doesn't overdo the graphic effects and bright costumes.

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This is our group's editing excercise.

Made in Adobe Premier.

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2NE1 - Try to Follow Me

Try to Follow Me is a song by the Korean band 2Ne1. The Artists use a mixture of Hip-hop and reggae in this song.

I like this music video due it's use of bright colours, modern sets and costumes and it's overall playfulness that makes it look like it was a lot of fun to make.

The band are all very stylised and all seem to match their surroundings which makes this video very asthetically pleasing.

Kelly Osbourne - One Word

One Word is a song by the artist Kelly Osbourne (Daughter of singer Ozzy Osbourne). This song is very 80s in style and is very similar to the song Fade To Grey by Visage.

I like this music video due to it's use of narrative and film noir style. The style of the video make the story of it seem very ominous and creepy. I also like the use of costume and make-up, which makes the video look very authentic.

Chameleon Circuit - Type 40

Type 40 is a song by the the band Chameleon Circuit (A Doctor Who based band). The song is based on the fictional time machine in Doctor Who called the TARDIS and is relatively indie in style.

I like this video due to it's artistic use of stop motion and animation. Although it's a very simple and cheap idea, it's really nice to watch and makes me smile.

The use of typing and fonts give the video a real Sci-Fi feel that matches the song really well.

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