Copyright Clearance

14 Dukes Avenue

Wealdstone

Harrow

HA1 1XP

To Daniel Bond (member of Tarantula)

As we discussed, we are a group of students studying A2 Media Studies at Harrow Weald College. As part of our A-level cirriculum, we are making a music video and hope to use your song "No More". This would involve posting the video up on YouTube.We would like to request your permisson to use your band and music to produce a music video and digi-pak.

Kind Regards,

Ameera Tayabali
Producer

Ray Poole
Media Studies Tutor

Professional Production Team Roles

Our group roles are as follows;
Ameera Aziz- Producer

Alexander Bradbury- Director/Assistant Producer

Daniel Bond- Video Editor

Gavin Man- Cameraperson/Operator



Producer

Responsibilities
Producers generally have control of the entire film production and their primary responsibility is to create an environment for the cast and crew to best utilise their efforts. Therefore, the producer is held accountable for the completed film’s overall success or failure. The producer’s responsibilities extend over all four production phases:

Research & Development- Producers have the responsibility of selecting screenplays, securing rights, selecting the screenwriter and story editing team, raising the development funds and overseeing the development process.

Pre-Production- Producers bring together the member of the creative team (i.e. Director, Cinematographer and principal cast) and raise the finance for the production. Then, they choose key personnel (i.e. Line Producer, Associate Producer and Production Manager) and Heads of Department (i.e. Production Designer, Editor and Composer). They also partake in location scouting, and endorse the final script, schedule and budget.

Production- Producers are in constant consultation with Directors and approve all script changes and cost reports.

Post-Production and Marketing- Producers constantly communicate with post-production personnel (Editor, Composer and Visual Effects staff). They then consult with all production staff for approval of the final print and are most often involved with marketing and distribution of the completed film.

Skills
Producers must be good motivators and negotiators and must be determined to do whatever it takes to get the best out of the film. They must be highly-skilled communicators with thorough knowledge of the narrative as well as all creative aspects of the film-making process (i.e. screenwriting, directing, editing, and composing music). They must know how to prepare a budget, secure finance for the production, control the overall production planning, control finance expenditure, ensure compliance of safety regulations, monitor progress of production and supervise the editing of the final film. Producers must also be able to work efficiently under massive pressure.


Producer’s Assistant

Responsibilities
Assistant Producers are highly proficient administrators who work closely with the Producers throughout the entire production process. They must be highly organised and flexible and have a good overview of the production process. Assistant Producers responsibilities are specified by the Producer daily throughout production. These can range between any of the Producer’s duties for which they need assistance or cannot see to at that point in time.

Skills
In addition to the basic skills of a Producer, an Assistant Producer must be adept at organising, planning and time management, as well as have strong communication skills. They must have excellent clerical skills and have a strong sense of loyalty, responsibility and confidence.

Director

Responsibilities
A Director may either write the script or develop an early draft to create a vision for the film. They then select the cast, crew and locations for the film, as well as direct rehearsals and performances of the actors. The Director also manages the technical aspects of the production process (i.e. camera, lighting, sound, effects etc). During post-production, the Director works closely with the Editor to reach the final visualisation of the film.


Skills
A Director must possess strong creative and visionary skills to be able to constantly create something original. They must be passionate and committed to the film and the industry. Directors must have strong leadership and interpersonal skills to be motivational and inspirational to get the best performance of all members of the production tams. They must also have widespread knowledge of the entire film-making process, both technical and creative. A Director must have a high capability for intensive work, attention to detail and strong determination.


Cameraperson/Operator

Responsibilities
A Camera Operator works with on-set equipment and utilises complex technology with creative skills to produce the desired picture for the Director. Activities of the Camera Operator consist of;
• Preparing and setting up equipment (i.e. tripods, monitors, lighting, cables and leads, and headphones) on-site prior to filming.
• Suggesting how to best shoot a scene.
• Planning shots that would be difficult or tedious to recreate (i.e. Explosions)
• Practising for pre-determined shots.
• Studying the scripts.
• Finding solutions to technical and practical problems.
• Taking instructions from the Director.
• Working quickly and efficiently.
• Taking full responsibility in situations with one camera.
• Keeping up to date with development of new filming methods and equipment.
• Repairing equipment.
• Staying aware of health and safety issues.

Skills
A Camera Operator’s main asset is technical skill and relevant experience. It is helpful for a Camera Operator to have;
• A good theoretical and technical knowledge of cameras;
• An interest in lighting, video, film or theatre;
• Excellent hand-eye coordination;
• Good hearing and colour vision;
• Knowledge of editing;
• Patience;
• Attention to detail;
• Knowledge of sound engineering.
It also helps for a Camera Operator to possess a driving licence and understand the maintenance and emergency repair of filming equipment.


Video Editor

Responsibilities
Video Editors work closely with the Directors to meet their requirements for the film’s vision. The Editor’s skill determines whether or not the vision can be realised. The video editing process consists of two stages;

Offline Editing- Working with the raw shots from the set in a relatively low cost editing suite. Includes sorting, rearranging and forming a digital rough cut according to the Director’s wishes.

Online Editing- Working with high cost equipment to create a more polished version of the final product. The Editor must be extremely technically competent, as the minimum requirements are set for broadcast standard. Any extra effects and materials for high-resolution are added here.

Skills
Video Editor’s must be prepared for performing the most tedious tasks of all. They must also be skilled with the necessary editing software packages. Personality traits crucial for a Video Editor include;
• A keen eye for detail;
• Reliability;
• Perfectionism;
• The ability to listen to others;
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.

Target audience feedback

We played our video to some of our target audience and here are a few quotes as to what they thought of the video

‘’I thought it was really good actually. The way the story and the performance like blend together, it’s pretty clear what the message is and it’s shown beautifully. The black and white effect used was really good making the story like more significant”

“Yeah, it was pretty good. The lighting used in the performance bits impressed me a lot because of the way the shadows worked with the story line, like the guy ‘shadowing over’ the girl. Also the different coloured lights I think you used gave it a good effect.”

“I like how the editing goes in time with the beat of the song, it’s like proper in your face and fast paced. It goes with the domestic violence because that’s supposed to be like really aggressive just like the editing. It’s brilliant”
“I liked the different shots used, like there was a lot of close up of the lead singer like elaborating on the lyrics and stuff. I would’ve liked to see more effects like shaking the camera around. But overall it is still a really good video, put well together”

We then asked them to look at our print projects and this is what they said

“I like how the colour of the band title matches the colour of the song list at the back, it links the digipak together, I also like the use of black and white to make the orange standout and I like how at the back the images look as if they photographs”

“The spine of the Digipak is very unique, I like the way the spider is hanging from the word Trantula. I do like the layout, but I don’t really like the colour orange”

“I really like the look of the magazine advert it looks like its advertising a rock song, because off the colours and font, and the logo looks cool”

“I didn't really get why there was a rose on the front at first, but now I think it's kind of clever, the colour theme is good”

Representation Issues

Music videos generally reveal messages and values from the film-makers perspective. This is good to analyse how representation issues are portrayed.

Music videos generally use the “gaze theory” to attract and capture the interest of their audience. The gaze theory is related to Sigmund Freud’s concept of Voyeurism to refer to the pleasure that can be gained by looking at a sexual object.

One version of the gaze theory is the “male gaze” that is to do with using a female body in a video to create a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display. An example of this is Christina Aguilera’s 2002 hit; Dirrty. Mulvey 1975 suggested that women are often solely used for display rather than for a narrative purpose to increase the predominately male profit margins. Goodwin (1992) argues that female performers are often objectified in music videos through camerawork and editing with body shots to emphasis the sexualised treatment of the star. This suggests that women are used in music videos just for a sexual purpose, suggesting they are not equal to men. Also he also notes that in male artist’s videos there is a similar representation of women where women are used to boost the male star ego.

Another version of the gaze theory is the more complex “female gaze”. The female gaze is used to empower women and is used to describe when women look at men as sex object. Exhibitionism is a term used to the independence of female artist such as Madonna. Allot of research has been written about the representation of women and race. For example in rap music, the explicit Jamaican dance-hall moves show female-body confidence has influenced mainstream performance styles.

All these areas, come together to describe the notion of a “queer gaze” where representation is used to grab the attention of male and female artists to appeal to a homosexual audience.

Moving on to how an artist’s star image is representation; it is all about how an artist is perceived by the audience. Richard Dyer (1979) quoted “A star is an image constructed from a range of materials”. Within pop music, these materials include the songs – as in what they sing about and their musical structures like genres. The image they present in their singles and albums. Another material used to promote their star image is their media coverage; this involves what they say in their interviews about their career and personal life and most significantly their music videos, which helps draw up the image presented in the other material. Artists use each music video to reinforce their existing image. There are certain characteristics used to differentiate the artist from other celebrities in the scene. This is related to iconography which refers to visual features that regularly accompany a performer like Michael Jacksons glove on his left hand.


An artists’ star power refers to how much power they have over their career and it can take different forms. The first is economic power, which gives artists a status that allows them have artistic power, to have creative control over their own image and how they are represented in the media. Furthermore certain artists use their ideological power to influence the public. This can be in the form of their unique fashion trends such as Madonna or attitude towards the audience such as Bono from U2.

Final DigiPak Cover

What we learnt from our Similar Text Analysis

Before planning a script for this music video, we analysed other music videos to give us a more skilled approach to our own project. We looked at different music genres, like Hip Hop, R ’n’ B and Punk and found that they all had their own distinctive characteristics. For example in 50cents video –I get money, includes the common Hip Hop convention of lots of good looking women dancing around, a form of voyeurism; and in Hinder’s lips of an angel, characteristic of “grudge” music included the band presented themselves as no different from minor local bands ( i.e. not with a large audience in a big stage).

Other similarities I found was that in all the videos we looked the, the artist took a main role in the narrative as well as the performance depending on the structure style. This suggests to me, that in our music video the lead singer in the band should take a role in the narrative we decide to produce.

In addition music videos are a way to publicise an artist and their star image is important to represent in music videos. For example In Rihannas Take a bow video, she’s making a statement that she’s not a little girl anymore, which also works well with the title of the album “good girls, gone bad”. This tells me that when we construct our video, we should take into consideration, what kind of image we are trying to give off, in terms of dress, attitude and behaviour of the artists on screen.

Furthermore, music videos tend to have a fast pace and have lots of jump cuts. Also in terms of camerawork, there is a range of shots, including lots of close ups and tracking shots. I think camera movement is important in music videos to make it more interesting and this gives me an idea about what kind of things we need to add in our music video.