Censorship ~ William Dixon

Censorship is when a part of a song or video gets filtered out to cover up anything inappropriate. This can either be something visual or audio. To cover up audio, you can have either a “beeb” sound over the top of the sound or mute the sound out completely. Also, if it is a word such as a swear word, you can simply change the word completely into something with a similar meaning. For example, In James Blunt’s song “Your Beautiful” in one version a lyric in the song is “you can see from my face that I was, f**king high…” and in the censored version it’s “you can see from my face that I was, flying high”. In video, you can either: blur out something, put a black box over it, or cut out the clip completely.

With songs and music videos, there will sometimes be two versions of the song/video. One version which they will only be allowed to play after 9:00pm on live T.V/Radio which will be the uncensored version and then the censored version which they will can play anytime as it’s appropriate for all audiences. An example of a music video which does this is Chase and Status’ “Pieces” Featuring Plan B. And a song with two versions, which I mentioned earlier, James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”

Here is a link to the uncensored version of “Pieces”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJreihOW3ZA

Here is a link to the censored version of “Pieces”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MJspL232c8&noredirect=1

You can play “You’re Beautiful” the uncensored version below by clicking play



And you play “You’re Beautiful” censored below by clicking play



With our music video, we don't plan to have any inappropriate content that will need to be censored so with regards to our Music Video, we won't be needing to censor out anything.

Digipak Analysis ~ William Dixon

Digipak: Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns on Prezi

Digipak - Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk ~ Luke Leadbetter

Digipak - Hugh Laurie's Let Them Talk on Prezi

This sound clip is myself talking about what this digipak has made me think about in relation to our own.

Using Photos in Prezi ~ William Dixon

Prezi ~ Luke Leadbetter

This is just a demonstration of software we will use to present our ideas and planning.

Test on Prezi

Questionnaire ~ Jess Hitch

Questionnaire

1-    What electronic communications devices do you have at home?

-       Television

-       Mp3 player

-       Desktop/laptop Computer

-       Mobile phone

-       Landline phone

-       Router

-       Tablet computer

-       E-reader

-       USB accessories

2-    How often do you watch music channels such as VIVA and MTV?

-       Never

-       Rarely

-       Occasionally

-       Often

-       Very often

3-    Do you prefer music videos with a modern/futuristic theme or a retro/old-school theme?

-       Futuristic

-       Modern

4-    Are you more likely to watch music videos online or on TV?

-       Online

-       On TV

5-    Which of these items would you have in your room if you could?

-       Fairy lights

-       Lanterns

-       UV paint

-       Glow in the dark stars/planets/aliens

-       Hanging objects such as planes, spaceships and helicopters.

6-    How plain are the walls in your bedroom?

-       They’re a plain colour and have nothing on them.

-       They’re a bright colour with nothing on them.

-       They’re a plain colour with posters and shelves on them.

-       They’re a bright colour with posters and shelves on them.

7-    Do you have a desk in your bedroom?

-Yes

-No

8-    Do you have a single bed or a double bed?

-       Single

-       Double

9-    Do you prefer music videos set in exotic places or closer to home?

-       Exotic places

-       Close to home

This questionnaire will tell us how we can better relate to our target audience in our video and what their interests are regarding technology and music. It will also help us to create an image of what our target audience's bedroom looks like so we can recreate that as our setting in the video.

Graphs to show the results of this information will be created in my next blog.

       

Shortened Song ~ William Dixon

For our music video, we have made the decision to shorten the song from 4:58 to 3:58. We have done this by putting the song into Garage Band and cutting down the Loops and then finally adding a shorter Fade Out at the end which in total shortened the song by a minute. We did this because we felt that if the song was shorter we could keep the video more interesting in a shorter space of time. Also, this is quite a common thing for artists to do, for the same reason. Here is a list of songs that have done this: Bon Jovi’s Dry Country, Owl City’s Fireflies, Slipknot’s Before I Forget, Pendulum’s Watercolour and even Daft Punk’s Around the World.

Here's the original song, click play to hear it

And now, here's the new shortened version, click play to hear it

Potential Songs ~ Jess Hitch

Potential songs

Song title	Artist/band	Opinion: Luke	Opinion: Jess	Opinion: Will
Teardrop	Massive attack	Luke liked this song “because it would have made a good abstract video.”	I didn’t like this so much because it was already used in a TV drama. I also thought it was too slow-paced and a bit boring.	Will thought it was all right but he thought it was a bit slow paced.
British mode	Goose	Luke liked this one because they haven’t had many videos made.	I thought the intro was too slow and I also just didn’t like the singer in general. It also already had a video for this particular song.	Will thought it was shallow and pedantic.”
Galaxies	Owl city	Luke thought it was great because it would have made a good, upbeat video.	I really liked this song because its really upbeat and I’m a big fan of Owl city. It would have been ideal too because it doesn’t already have a video made.	Will loved this because it was really upbeat and probably would have made a good video.
Picking up the pieces	Blue October	Luke liked this video because it’s different from many songs and could have made a unique video.	I really didn’t like this video because it was too depressing and I just didn’t like the band in general.	Will didn’t like this because it was too boring and depressing.
Television rules the nation	Daft punk	Luke thought that this would be a good song to choose because it fits in with the genre we were aiming for and would have made a good abstract video.	I didn’t like the lyrics at the start of this song and I also thought it was a little bit boring.	Will liked the upbeatness of the video and he liked how it fit in with the electronic genre.
Tommy Gun	Royal republic	I showed this video to Luke a while back and he thinks the song is great. We wanted to do this song for our preliminary but it was too simple and we thought we could do a more interesting and complex video for this song.	I loved this song, it’s really upbeat and the singer is really good. I thought the original video could have used improving and we thought about taking this song forward to our final task but it wasn’t really the genre we had in mind.	Will really liked the song too but again, it wasn’t electronica. We had a fairly fixed idea as to the kind of song we wanted for our final video.
Digital Love	Daft punk	Luke loved this song because he thinks it’s really great and really modern. It also doesn’t have a video so it would be really great if we could come up with a technological themed video to tie in with the title.	I really liked this song because it’s cute and upbeat and still fits in with the genre we had in mind. I also agreed with Luke about the theme for this song.	Will liked this song because it features lyrics and has a narrative that we can play around with.

Our final decision on song choice for our music video was Digital Love by Daft Punk. All of us were fans of Daft punk and we all really like their music and we thought that because the song is called ‘digital love’, we could create a narrative that revolved around the digital and romance themes. The digital being a common occurrence in Daft Punk’s songs but romance lacking so we decided to include that into the video. We loved how this was the kind of genre and sound that we had in mind, which makes it easier on us because all the ideas we had in our head can be placed into the video with fairly little tweaking.

Consumption/Inception ~ William Dixon

Consumption

Consumption is form of how the audience will take in a text in any form e.g. Music, T.V, Film. Consumption is when the audience will literally just take in what is given to them. For example, in the music video Let it Go by Chase and Status, if the reader just to consume the text

Inception

Inception is when the reader has to create the meaning in their own mind. This would be when a text doesn’t just have a basic storyline to follow. It’s generally in the more abstract Music Videos such as ‘Around the World’ by Daft Punk. In this video, there is no storyline only dancers and images being presented to you. This is because they want you to create your own meaning. This is what inception is, having an idea placed in your mind and then you develop the idea into your own creation.

Eletronica Genre ~ William Dixon

Electronica is the genre of music Daft Punk is based around.

Electronics’ first origins began with Electronic Dance Music which came about in the 80’s when instruments like the synthesiser were invented. Electronic Music was produced primarily for the purpose of the club scene, where distinctive beats and bass were needed for people to dance to. The first origins of Electronica Music are believed to have been with artists such as Madonna. The early 90’s is when the Electronica image began to come into mainstream music, with artists such as Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk. Electronica later inspired artists such as Deadmau5, The Prodigy and Skrillex. 

Consumption VS Inception ~ Luke Leadbetter

Is meaning created at Consumption of a text? Or Inception?

In my own opinion this can be argued either way, of course there is a meaning that is given to you by a text, but whether or not you choose to accept that meaning is up to the reader.

Terminology involved:

Preferred reading - What the producer of a text wants you to interpret

Negotiated reading - Some aspects of meaning taken from both the texts intended meaning as well as the readers own reading

Rejected Meaning - The intended meaning of the text is completely rejected for the readers own interpretation.

In our video, the preferred reading we are going to put across for our audience to consume is that of the video representing Daft Punk's beginning. We are also going to attempt to represent Daft Punk's use of their alter ego as a puppet to keep them out of the public eye.