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Excellent Effort - Well done.  Your response is detailed and through and you have been creative with your blogs, I particularly like the use of image/text and embedded video.

You have a secure knowledge and understanding of who you want your artist to be signed to; perhaps you could link this further by stressing the advantages that your artist has signed to the particular record label.  Your clearly identify your target audience and have profiled them well - this could be developed by adding some psychographic profiling..  Good research into CD covers and you could have a wide range of examples - this would really benefit your rersearch and planning.

The design of our own front cover and digipak

To give an idea of what influences and what our ideas are for our final CD-cover we did a flat plan of how the front and back might look like. But since we right now don't know what people we are going to use for our music video and how they look like the idea is more of a brief idea that could influences our final CD-cover.The biggest influence was to use the colours representing the mod culture but also the the UK in a way, but the sketched people on the front cover are there to represent they actual people that we are going to use in our music video.

Digipak covers used by similar artists.

To make a fair and helpful research into digipak's I looked at some similar artist before starting to plan our own cd-cover for "infernal". So I looked at similar artist such as the kinks, the who and the clash which all are from the UK and have that special mod style about them. However a good representation of Mod style album covers are established by The Sex Pistols, who inconveniently where a punk band. 


The reason I chose the two above as representatives is predominately due to their essence of possessing traditional aspects of the british society but evolving and in some cases exploiting them to suit the bands own class status or belief system, which is primarily what the Mod generation achieved through their style and fashion. 

What institution would are band "Infernal" be associated with?

“Infernal” is a representation of what the majority of the modern day music scene has slowly forgotten, being that they are artist striving to be as organic and natural as possible, never considering of concealing there style for the benefits of financial elevation, they believe in original, intricate and concise songs which have something useful to say in a poetic way, not plain and basic beats that activate your body but leave nothing for the mind to digest on. In the modern day predicament a band with such a morality can only function in independent institutions, most likely having to inevitably be fed via one of the higher ranking majors such as BMG, Warner etc. It’s unlikely that the band will achieve the stereotypical definition of success in the industry, which is predominantly a vast economic interest provided for each of the musicians, given that primarily it is the majors to which this vastness is obtained. Effectively, the band is then placed into the category of being a subsidiary. The band would most likely not draw into the fan base masses, I believe it’s fair to say, given that the masses are unfortunately not drawn into the bands outlook on there music being food for thought due to popular music today upholding a new purpose of providing food for action, essentially dance.

Notes from The Music Industry by Cath Davies

The Music Industry


The manufacture of music is based on a structure consisting of record companies that produce and distribute products via retail outlets such as high street record stores, the internet, eyc. Record labels take on the costs of producing a song/album that the company will own. The record label is responsible for making copies onto a CD/vinyl format and then distributing the artefact to retail outlets. The record company will invest in promoting the artist and track via advertising and other stratergies that will gurantee that the audience will have as much access as possible. Companies' roles are, therefore, to manufacture, distribute and promote new products in order to make a profit on their initial investment. The constant flow of production from record companies makes a sustainable buisness that is frequently producing music.


The Majors


New entries in the charts and recognisable artists in music all belong to the most successful record companies. The music indusrty is dominated by four major companies-EMI, Universal, Warner music and Sony BM, who all own a collection of smaller record labels. Each label has roll-call of artists who have signed a recording contract. The record companies are responsible for an eclectic mix of music artists and production. No company specialises in one style of music; the individual labels often fulfill this function. This synergy assists in the promotion of music within other media formats.


Characteristics of major companies' strategies 


The music industry's product is costly to intially secure, but the reproduction of the product onto CD/DVD due to new technologies, is cheap to manufacture. However, it is a precarious industry and a record company cannot always guarantee that new artists and their music will appeal to a wide-enough market to make a profit.Companies, therefore, prioritise a small group of well-established artists on their labels and invest heavily in their product-promoting new material excessively with multi-media spectacles re-releasing back catalogue 'Greatest Hits' on CD and DVD, large scale tours to promote the album and so forth. Repackaging the familiar is apparent in major companies' preoccupation with easily-identifiable genres of music. If an artist's style of music is popular, then companies will often sign a range of similar sounding artists who can then be sold on their connection to other bands. Like film and TV, a music genre allows a product to be promoted easily based on familiarity. Genres are marketed to existing audiences via 'niche' advertising strategies. The identifiable target audience are given access to artists and bands via radio, the music press and TV channels that 'Specialise' in similar genres and products. 

Research into real artists of a similar type

The Rolling stones 

An English rock band established in 1962.

Considered one of the best rock bands in the world.

Genres; Rock, Blues, Rock and Roll.

Members; Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood.

Ranked number 4 in the "Rolling Stones" magazine's "100 greatest artists of all time".

Mod Style (Mick Jagger was roommates with Peter Meaden- a prominent figure in the English Mod subculture in the 1960's). 

They are probably the most photographed bands in the world. 

We also considered the Who.

The Who's Mod genesis inspired Mod rival bands such as The Jam, as well as later bands of the Britpop wave in the mid-1990s, such as Blur and Oasis. The band has also been called "The Godfathers of Punk" due to their loud, aggressive approach to rock and the attitude evinced in songs like "My Generation". 

Task 2 Narrowing down ideas

In this blog post I am going to present our proposal for the music video and first developement ideas:

Name: Infernal

We thought of a name of the band and due to the fact that we wanted a meanigful name, which would actually symbolize something and people might have specific assiociation with it we chose the name Infernal. Since we decided that we wanted to concentrate on Mod style we thought that a modern, but also different name might be the right for us. It is a synonym of "limbo" and I suggested that it will be suitable for our concept because it would remind the audience of hell, which is concept needing further research. However, an additional meaning to it is a very intense and uncontrolled fire. I did some research on theMod subculture and found out that in the late 1970s there were some mod rivals, which would suit the name as well.

There is a link to the article in wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(subculture)

 Genre: Mod

We are thinking of Mod style, which is very interesting because the modern interpretation might aspire to creative decisions within the music video we would like to shoot.

Type of act: live performance

Our initial plan was to shoot a live performance with audience and fans. However, in order to be more innovative we would like to include a narrative/abstract approach to it, which we still have to discover. Nevertheless,, my personal opinion is that we should put a message across disregarding the song we are going to choose because it is important to be clear about the influence and the impact we would like to have on the audience.

Star Image: Mod style based

The clothes will be quite important (Mod often included tailor-made suits). The concept used to be continuous reinvention - mod = modern.

The picture is the Royal Air Force roundel, a mod symbol

So, our idea which we had to shoot the video in black and white with red accessories also suits the mod symbol of that time.

Target Audience:

The target audience would be young teenagers who are interested in a different type of music, like older music and prefer this type of music rather than the conventional pop or synthetic images which are created nowadays. So, a niche audience is the target one. I think that both female and male audience would be interested because teenagers usually like to be different and rebelious which is exactly the concept we would like to approach, but still not limit ourselves.

Choice of track:

The track we chose at first was The Kinks - All of the Day and all of the Night because it was quite up-beat and we all liked it. However, we thought that the lyrics are not very long and the song was too short (under 3mins). We would not have been able to be as create as we would like to be if we cannot interpret the lyrics due to the fact that there is not enough material in them. So, we decided to do another song by the Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else. We really liked the fact that it is slower at the beginning and then gets faster, which means that we could interestingly use the variation in the beat. The lyrics are also interesting and there are two important themes we would like to explore and I find engaging as well - love, identity, personality. The song also symbolizes and rises some of the important themes of the mod subculture.

The Brief

The Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: 

• a website homepage for the band;

• a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD package); 

• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD package).

All material for all tasks to be produced by the candidates with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video/radio work. Further guidance will be available in the support materials. For music video, permission should be sought from the artist for use of the audio track.

The centre will be expected to allocate marks according to four levels for each of three categories: 

• Research and Planning 
• Construction
• Evaluation

Music Video - The Concept

Music Video - The Concept

Task 1

Today we began working on our music videos. My initial group was Laura, Natalya and Rebecca and originally we were considering metal as a genre, but this was soon ruled out as metal videos are notoriously difficult to combine with good narrative. Next we analysed the song My Medicine-by The Pretty Reckless and presented the perceptive of the song being stereotypically about drugs, which sparked the video concept of following a chosen drug's journey round a party. However a dispute was made on my behalf, that this initial interpretation of the lyrics was stereotypically conforming to teenage cliche, which I personally was trying to avoid. I the project the idea of doing a video under the song Stuck in the middle with you-By Stealers Wheel, with concept being it would be politically orientated around a parliamentary atmosphere, with jokers on one side of the political bench, clowns on the other and an infant child as the essential 'Mr speaker' in judges chair. I then offered the idea of replicating the introduction scene of Stanley Kubricks-A Clockwork Orange with the opening shot of the child's eye and then panning out to show the clownish peers beside him. Unfortunately a transfer was made in groups and i am in team in which our primary focus is around the subculture of the Mod movement, and the song in consideration is I'm Not like everybody- The Kinks.

What is a music video?

Music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one-Andrew Goodwin, 1992


Part of the construction of the image of a particular band or performer (part of the process of construction stardom)


A creative artefact of interest in itself 


The chief raison d'être for music television channels 


Marketing for other media products such as films 

Music Video analysis

Summarised lyrics

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son

If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know no you don't

I wanna shine on in the hearts of men Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
I need direction to perfection

Help me out

don't you put me on the blackburner

help me out

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier

Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done

The central protagonist is most clearly the bands vocalist, Brandon Flowers, given that he is undeniably the only mouth piece for the narration of the song’s essential tale. However the video does not portray a one man band, and identifies a strong air of apparent brotherhood via the cowboy costumes, establishing a gang aspect, but also the visual impact of seeing them walk to the camera at the same pace as one another, giving further evidence of the bands unity.

  

•Fundamentally the video reflects a objective character identity, given that the majority of the screen time is given away to the bands vocalist, as suppose to dividing it up amongst all the members of the band.

 

The singers attempt to ride a midget donkey, portrays him as rather ridiculous but also gives symbolism to the songs theme of men unsuccessfully trying to mount there boyhood activities and having to finally grasp the responsibilities of their actual age.

Given their surroundings being a desert and the vocalist carrying around a set of colourful light bulbs, it identifies a metaphor for the songwriter’s described attempt to fill an inner empty space inside of him with colour.   However it also brings to attention the bands background being Vegas.