Production diary - 19/09/14

In my free time at home I've been looking at a selection of music videos from a variety of different genres of music as I found myself still unsure on what song I want to use for my final music video. I've also been looking at music videos which include a narrative sequence as I am now thinking of producing a narrative music video. I believe this will be more effective than my initial planning ideas of  a performance based video as an narrative sequence will include a story behind which I can convey through the visuals of my video. From my research, I really like the song 'Afire Love' by Ed Sheeran as the song was recently released earlier this year and is not overly popular which I like. Furthermore, the song does not include a music video which I believe is beneficial as this will not influence me on the production of my own music video. 

The song entails the story of the tragic death of Sheerans' grandfather who had suffered with Alzeheimer's disease for twenty years and how Ed wishes he knew him better. The song involves a slow melody as he explains the aftermath of his grandfathers death, with his family reuniting for the funeral, and describes his heartbreak and sorrow. Sheeran did not finish writing the lyrics of the song till the funeral.

As I have come up with my final song idea I can now begin to plan my initial planning ideas for this particular song. After I have completed my initial ideas, I will then analyse the lyrics of the song to see what else I can include which is emphasised in the lyrics of the song.

Production Diary - 16/09/14

This week for homework I caught up on research tasks that I had not completed in lesson.I first finished Music Record Labels which I found very interesting researching the different major and independant music record labels includng the 'Big Four' - Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group and Warner Music Group. I believe looking at different music labels was essential for the research of my final music video as it gave me further information on how the music industry works and the business aspects of why artists make music videos. It also gave me a better understanding as to how a music video can provide branding and identity as well as how the music industry is doing currently regarding loss of profits.

I also completed the research task 'Music Festivals' looking at different festivals relating to the theme of music. I first looked at Glastonbury Festival, a five -day music festival that takes place every year during the last weekend in June. The festivals is known as one of the largest greenfield festivals in the world and is now attended by around 175,000 people. I also looked at other festivals including Download Festival and Creamfields. Download Festival is a British Rock festival which involves music from the genres of heavy metal, rock and punk. The festival is held every year at Donington Park in Leicestershire and is considered to be one of the two major and most popular British summer rock and metal events.  Creamfields is also a big event featuring a wide range of DJs and live acts from all over the world. I also looked at V Festival which is represented by the Virgin Group and is sponsored by the mobile, television and broadband service Virgin Media. Overall, I found this task very helpful as it gave me a better insight to the different music festivals targetted towards different genres of music which will hopefully help me decide corresponding to my own specific target audience for my music video.

Music Channels

Music Record Labels

Music Festivals

Similar Product Research

Production diary - 11/09/14

In class today we were given a tracking sheet where we had to write down all of the research tasks which we needed to complete by certain dates which I have been working on in class and for homework. I also looked at the updated coursework checklist and saw my research of a digipak had a low grade and so decided to improve and film my own video explaining the basics of a digipak for homework.  My teacher kindly lend me one of his examples ' The Twilight Sad', a Scottish indie rock band which was published in 2009.  Before filming my video I did some general research, outlining what was included in a digipak and the conventions of one. I then used my camera - Canon 700D and filmed my sister giving a tutorial of the different panels included in a digipak. I also did a voice-over instructing the viewer of the different parts and pages involved in this digipak.