Being an Extra in Weekender

On Thursday 23rd September 2010 and Saturday 25th September 2010 me and my media group were extras in a new British film called 'Weekender'. The summary of the film is taken from IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706470//title/tt1706470/. The films well known actors are Jack O'Connell from Harry Brown, Skins and This is England and
"The film is set in 1990. The rave scene has arrived from Ibiza and warehouse parties are exploding across the UK bringing phenomenal wealth to the organisers. In Manchester, best mates Matt and Dylan are in their early 20's and long to be more than just punters. As the government moves to outlaw the scene, it's now or never and they quickly rise through the ranks to join the promoting elite. They are taken on a wild journey from the exclusive VIP rooms of London clubs to the outrageous parties in Ibiza super-villas and the hedonism of Amsterdam. It's everything they dreamed of and more. But as their success continues to grow, they attract a more dark and sinister world. Matt and Dylan start to drift apart as they are forced to question the dreams they set out to achieve and their once solid friendship".

We filmed in a Warehouse in Bethnal Green, the warehouse was near London Fields Pub. The photograph on the left shows the location of the film, we was told that the scenes that we was filming were in a Manchester Underground Rave which explains the english graffiti.

On Thursday we filmed walking in to or out of a club I found it very interesting that there were about twelve shots which overall took just over an hour. Everyone had to same in the position each time we came out again for continuity, there was a fight scene between a gang and security and each shot they had to stay in the same position.

On Saturday we filmed numerous scenes of us in a rave and when the characters spoke the music stopped and we still had to keep dancing. A main prop for the rave were torches which people were told to swing in the air in different directions, in one shot there was a wide shot of just the torches in the air and the UV lights.

This is a photograph of the light and the speaker equipment which was used to pick up what the actors were saying and to only focus on the actors conversation whilst everyone was mumbling because it was meant to be a 'happy' rave were most people knew each other.

The photograph on the right shows the clothing rack which was for extras, although we were told to bring 90s clothes. Below is the list of what we was given to bring.

Weekender Email:

"IMPORTANT - Please do not wear any logos or brands later than 1990 as we will not be able to use them. We can use the following brands: Adidas, Sergio Tacchini, Ellesse, Chipie, so please feel free to wear these.

COLORS: Please bring bright colours (like purple, green, orange, yellow), day-glo colours, black, grey and any metallic colours you might have. Please try not to bring pale colours like white or crème. If you can bring a choice of colours, it would be really helpful!

Clothing Suggestions-

*if you have vintage 1980's items, please bring them!

For Men:
Baggy hoodies, sweatshirts
Baggy tracksuit bottomsJean shorts for men
Baggy T-shirts (with no large logos)
Baggy jeans

Waistcoats

Rayban style sunglasses or old style shades

Headbands and sweatbands

For Women:
Fitted crop tops (think of a small sports bra)

Swimsuits tucked into jeans

Leggings

Cropped denim jacket

Tight fitting stretchy dresses/body-con dresses

Vest tops

Cat suits or body suits
high-waisted jeans or jean shorts
mini-skirts
Shoes can include: plimsolls, Adidas trainers, unbranded trainers & high tops, Converse, Kickers.

If you have a few bits of the following, it would be great if you could bring them (if not, it's ok!!):
Clown masks
skull masks
viking helmets of any kind
helmets with antlers on
military parka coats
biohazard t-shirts or items with biohazard logos
t-shirts with frowning faces on
ripped or shredded t-shirts
hi-viz waistcoats"

I brought a bodycon dress, denim jacket (which I wrapped around my waist) and plimsolls. Whereas Emily and Jessica bought a variety of options consisting of converse, colourful tops and skirts but the costume designer gave them something else to wear. At the end of the day the costume designer take photographs of people three at a time showing what they are wearing because if they film that shot again they need to get some people wearing the same things.

On the right is the make up station where the main cast got there make up done and only a few of the extras. The extras had neon painted on their face to make it seem like it was a 'rave' atmosphere. The make up station was at the end of the room in the corner which was near where the director was sitting I think this was to make sure that the director liked the make up. Also, no one was allowed a side parting so many people had to have their hair in a pony tail, fringe clipped back or bunches.

We were lucky enough to be on the set and to meet the director Karl Golden who has directed The Honeymooners, Belonging to Laura and Pelican Blood. We also met and took pictures with the cast, the photo on the right is with Henry Lloyd- Hughes who is from the BAFTA award winning programme The Inbetweeners and Harry Potter the Goblet of Fire. Below is our photograph with another actor who played the m

ain security guard. From this experienced I learnt that we have to film more shots in a variety of angles and the importance of continuity.

Group Meeting Log (Three)

Log 3

NERD

In school I joint Envision where we created and promoted our charity, the charity that we created was called NERD which stands for Necessary Education Requires Determination. We earnt money for education in India, we did numerous cake sales to raise awareness. Later we decided to create a dance to perform in a school assembly to raise awareness and to raise money, we took inspiration from the hit series Glee which is a world wide success. We wore our old school uniform, high waisted kilts, knee length socks or lights, big glasses and we had our hair in pony tails or bunches to give us a 'geek' persona.
We used songs from Glee soundtrack and mixed them together to include different emotions and we included some of the dance moves from the show but we mostly created our own choreography. I filmed the performance and then my friend took over whilst I ran to the stage to perform Don't Stop Performing and Crazy in Love. We uploaded our video to YouTube to gain more publicity and awareness of our charity. From the dance we earnt a lot of money and we were very happy with our performance.
Below is our Glee Performance.

Teenage Dreams Ideas

Originally we had two ideas of where we could film we thought about Brighton or Bournemouth, the majority of the shots will be filmed at the beaches so we wanted to find a beach that we thought will suit our video. In the end we decided to film in Brighton,the picture on the right is of Brighton Beach. We liked that Brighton had pebbles instead of sand so the rough contrast and scale of the pebbles would we very interesting. We think that Brightons club scene would suit our 'pop' genre as club lighting is usually very bright and if we go to Brighton on a weekend the clubs will be busy. We really liked the architecture in Brighton as there is a contrast of modern buildings, old buildings like the Royal Pavillion and vintage shops. Plus, Brighton will be better for us to go there as it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes whilst driving and 45-1 hour on a overground train.
We believe that the song is about a girl feeling like she is a teenager again because she feels like this man is her first love, first kiss and she wants everything with him hence the title 'Teenage Dreams', we want our narrative to be about a couple and portraying their love for one another.
When reading the lyrics and peoples opinions about the song we became aware that this song was controversial as a lyric is "Let's go all the way tonight, No regrets, just love" which could be interpreted that the couple are going to have sex. It is controversial because the song is about teenagers in love and people think the song it promoting teen sex because there was an implied sex scene in the music video. However, many people do not agree including our group, this is an opinion from some one on Song Meanings http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858836257/ "She's not promoting teenage sex. The song is about two adults. She's singing about how her boyfriend makes her feel like a teenager" This could be interesting for us to get other peoples opinions about the song who are a range of ages. This could be a limitation for us because people may disagree with the lyrics and we do not want to imply a sex scene.

We thought about having an old couple who was in their 60s-70s reversing time to when they were younger, our inspiration was Jason DeRulo- What If

We really liked the shot of the clock reversing which is at 0.56, we thought we could do a close up shot of the clock rewinding time and then a wide shot or a mid shot zooming out to show the girl getting ready for there date. Also, we liked that the end was at the beginning and the music video matches the lyrics.

We liked the idea of showing the couples life together, this is inspired by John Lewis advert.

I loved that the advert shows the womans life as a baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and an old women. I love the emotions portrayed in the advert because it is happy and the audience see the process of aging and the process of the couples relationship, though with our music video we would reverse time. However, a limitation of showing the reverse of time is the time period because we would have to have a location which did not seem modern and because we want to film in Brighton which is a large populated place we cannot control what people in the background would be wearing.

For the lyric "You are my missing puzzle piece" we wanted a puzzle of the couple and for the pieces to come together to represent that the couple is 'one'. On the right side is an example of a custom made jigsaw pieces, we could purchase the puzzle from http://www.jigsaw2order.com/. We would shoot this scene by a high angle shot and leaving the camera rolling and match the pieces together, we would have to edit this to make it seem like it flows instead of jumping. I really liked the idea of the puzzle piece because the lyrics match the idea, this may look a little bit animated however we do not have the computer software to make animations.
Although, we are using Kate Nash- Foundations as inspiration to make this scene seem animated.

We really love the socks curling in to eachother at 1 minute and 10 seconds because it symbolises love or the man is over powering in the relationship because his sock dominates. Also, the toothbrushes moving away from eachother symbolises the seperation. Also, I really like the bright light shining on the couples hands at 1 minute and 2 seconds, I think we should try and shoot this scene because our location is on a beach and it would make our video seem more like a 'dream'.

To gain inspiration for our video or to include in our video I think we should film many couples talking about how they met, most of these couples would be middle aged or older to talk about their life together. Also, we should ask people who are teenagers in love before we storyboard so we could get inspiration or to know how we should portray the love story. Our inspiration for this is the movie Paper Heart (2009) it is a film about a girl who does not believe in love and she travels asking people how she met their partner.

The peoples whose story I loved the most in the film is from 3 minutes and 37 seconds till 7 minutes and 57 seconds. I found this story really romantic and interesting because in the beginning they both talk about divorce, the scene later talks about the women meeting her future husband on her first day of work, her boss forced her to go on a date with him and a week or two later there it was heavy raining the women bought new Gucci shoes which cost a lot and the man told her to wait under shelter and he drove his Jeep on the steps under the porch and he told her to "Get in" and he drove her to her car. Also, I think the puppets which are re-creating the story is a brilliant idea because it reinforces their youthfulness when they fell in love. I think we should use this as inspiration to find a romantic story and we could film a couple talking about how they met or the girl watching this part of the film in her living room and then go in to the narrative.

Group Meeting Log (Two)

Log 2

Katy Perry Merchandise

I found this T-Shirt on http://www.bandstores.co.uk/shop/katyperry/proddetail.php?prod=30471002.

The website sells other Katy Perry merchandise such as T-Shirts and shorts, all of the merchandise promotes Katy Perry and her concerts. The bears on the T-Shirt is very bold as they are all different colours, there is synergy between the bears on the T-Shirt and the California Gurls music video which makes people realise that the T-Shirt is by Katy Perry. The star on the top left corner on the T-Shirt symbolises America, this conforms with the title of the song promoted on the T-Shirt. The title of the song is promoted on the T-Shirt to promote Katy Perry, some one will instantly recognise the single because it got to number 1 in six countries. On the top of the website where you can purchase this T-Shirt there is a still shot of Katy Perry from the California Gurls music video. The T-Shirt is unusual which suits Katy Perry as an artist.

Katy Perry's Music Videos

These are Katy Perrys music videos from her early days and to her most recent music video. After watching all of the music videos it becomes apparent that a constant theme through her music videos are relationships and sexualising women by the female gaze.

2008- I Kissed A Girl

2008- Hot 'n' Cold

2009- Thinking Of You

2009- Starstrukk (with 30H!3)

2009- If We Ever Meet Again (With Timbaland)

2010- California Gurls

2010- Teenage Dream

Katy Perry- Teenage Dream

Teenage Dream is the second mainstream and third studio album overal, by American singer-songwriter Katy Perry. It was released in the United States on August 24, 2010.
This information is from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Dream_(Katy_Perry_album(Katy_Perry_album.
Katy said she would "definitely keep it pop. 'Lovefool' by the Cardigans meets 'Into the Groove' by Madonna but a little more meat on the bones lyrically. I'm not just gonna talk about the beat and just dancing, I like to get into the meaning." Katy said that its compositions are more mature and honest about the songs of One of the Boys. In an interview with Associated Press, the singer commented that she reserved the details of the album for her and not for interviews, as used to do, saying that her perspectives have changed.
The album worked with numerous artists and producers including Greg Wells, Guy Sigsworth, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Rivers Cuomo, Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell, Greg Kurstin, Benny Blanco, Darkchild, Cathy Dennis, Ester Dean, The-Dream and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, who told Rap-Up magazine in December 2009 that the sound of the album will be pop/rock, the same sound as One of the Boys. He added: "It’s a different gear for me. This is a very important project for me ’cause people are waiting to see what I’m gonna do".
California Gurls featuring rapper Snoop Dogg was released as the album's lead single. It was sent to U.S. radio on May 7, 2010 and became available as a digital download on May 11, 2010. The song spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has sold over three million digital copies to date.
Then the title track was released as the second single and sent to radio stations on July 22, 2010. Jocelyn Vena of MTV said it "picks up right where 'California Gurls' leaves off. With a strong beat to back her up, Perry sings about a boy who makes her feel like a teenager again" after hearing it at a listening event in New York City. The following day the single was released via iTunes. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty. It has reached its peak of number-one on the chart, marking Perry's third number-one.
According to Billboard, "Firework" will be the third single from the album and is due for release in October 2010. The music video is set to include competition winners from eastern Europe. It was said on her website and twitter account that she has been doing the music video for the shoot, but has no official info about the video.
Prior to the release of the album, three promotional singles were released exclusively on Apple's iTunes Store as a countdown to Teenage Dream. "Not Like the Movies" was released on August 3, 2010, and made a debut of 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 before falling from the Hot 100 the following week. "Circle the Drain" was released on August 10, 2010, as the second promotional single and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at 58. "E.T." the final promotional single was released the following week on August 17, 2010 and charted at 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.There were many positive reviews for example, Leah Greenblatt wrote for Entertainment Weekly, "Beneath the fruity outfits and fart jokes, Perry is clearly serious about the business of hit songcraft; that doesn't make Dream nearly cohesive as an album, but it does provide, intermittently, exactly the kind of high-fructose rush she's aiming for". However, the most negative one was from Slant Magazine said :"Perry's ironic persona—all gum-smacking, eye-rolling sarcasm—signals that those tracks are, if nothing else, shallow by design; it's the album's second half, when Perry dons her serious artist face, that Teenage Dream transcends its own middling crappiness and becomes truly, remarkably shitty".
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 192,000 copies. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart selling 26,000 copies. In Australia, the album also debuted at number one, as well as having been accredited with a Gold certification for sales of over 35,000 copies. In the UK Teenage Dream debuted at number one with sales of 54,176, doubling the sales of Eminem's Recovery.

This is Teenage Dream track listing:
1. Teenage Dream
2. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)
3. Californa Gurls featuring Snoop Dogg
4. Firework
5. Peacock
6. Circle the Drain
7. The One That Got Away
8. E.T.
9. Who Am I Living For?
10. Pearl
11. Hummingbird Heartbeat
12. Not like the Movies
13. Californa Gurls (remix)
14. Teenage Dream (remix)

This is the music video to Californa Gurls which was the first single released from the album.

Katy Perry- One of the Boys

One of the Boys is Katy Perry second debut album, in this album she changed her style to mainstream pop and she changed her surname. The album was released on the 17th June 2008 on Capitol Records. The album earned Perry two Grammy Award nominations in 2009 and 2010, and has sold 5 million copies worldwide. The information about the album is from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_the_Boys_(Katy_Perry_album
Perry has stated that she had been working on the album since she was eighteen years old. Katy was influenced by artists and bands like Queen, The Beach Boys, Heart, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper and Alanis Morissette. All songs on the album were written by Perry - who was assisted by musicians Greg Wells, Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Cathy Dennis, Desmond Child, Andreas Carlsson, Dave Katz, Sam Hollander, Ted Bruner, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.
The album's lead single, "I Kissed a Girl" was released in early May and soared up the charts. "I Kissed a Girl" was a commercial success. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the 1000th chart-topper of the rock era. The song has since become a major worldwide hit, and along with the United States, it has topped the charts in more than 30 countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It has sold over 3.8 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of June 2010.
The second single, "Hot n Cold", made it onto the chart after the album came out due to digital downloads. It was released in early September, and peaked at number 3 on the US charts, making it Perry's second consecutive top 5 single. On November 14, the song became Perry's first number 1 on radio airplay. It also became number one on the iTunes comprehensive charts. It is officially one of the ten best-selling digitally downloaded songs of all time. It has sold over 4.4 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of June 2010.
"Thinking of You" the penultimate single, which was originally planned to be the first single from the album, but was scrapped for "I Kissed a Girl" due to its surge in popularity. "Thinking of You" received a video in late April 2008, but the video was removed from YouTube and replaced by a new video after the single was re-released as the third international single from the album. Perry shot the second video with director Melina Matsoukas in the first week of December 2008. The video for the single was released on December 23. The track peaked at #14 on the iTunes comprehensive chart and peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of February 12, 2009 where it remained for the next two weeks before declining to #31 in its seventh week on the chart. It has sold 864,000 digital downloads in the U.S. as of August 4, 2010.
"Waking Up in Vegas" is the fourth and final single from the album. It went for radio adds on April 21 in the U.S. It was released to Australian radio on March 23, where it became the fourth most added song in its release week. Perry performed it on American Idol in May, resulting in a surge of sales for the song and propelling it all the way to number two on the iTunes comprehensive chart. The music video was shot by Joseph Kahn during March 2009 in Las Vegas and officially premiered on the iTunes store in the U.S. and Australia on April 28, 2009. The song has sold over 1.82 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of August 4, 2010.
The title track "One of the Boys" peaked at number #40 in Australia Singles Top 50 for five weeks until January 2009. "If You Can Afford Me" peaked at #28 in the Top 40 New Zealand, where it remained for three weeks.
The album received positive reviews from Billboard magazine who claimed, "not since Jagged Little Pill has a debut album been so packed with potential hits."However, there are more negative reviews such as NME who wrote that "Madonna and Perez Hilton may be fans, then, but if you’ve got even a passing interest in actually enjoying a record, don’t buy this one".

This is One of the Boys Track List:
1. One of the Boys
2. I Kissed a Girl
3. Waking Up in Vegas
4 Thinking of You
5. Mannequin
6. Ur So Gay
7. Hot n Cold
8. If You Can Afford Me
9. Lost
10. Self Inflicted
11. I'm Still Breathing
12. Fingerprints

This is the music video to Katy Perry- I kissed a girl which was her first single from the album and the aong reached number 1 in 30 countries.

Katy Perry- Katy Hudson

At the age of 15 Katy Perry signed to the Christian music label Red Hill, under which she recorded her first album to a christian label Red Hill. Katy's album was self titled 'Katy Hudson' it was a gospel-rock album this was before she switched to mainstream pop music. The album was released on 23rd October 2001, the album received a good reviews from Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today, who applauded her voice and songwriting and called her "a remarkable young talent emerging, a gifted songwriter in her own right who will almost certainly go far in this business." However, people who wrote reviews on Rate your Music disagreed and said that the album was "not as interesting as her follow-up, but a far stronger vocal performance and a lot more varied sound".
The album did not do well on distribution and the album ceased after Red Hill Records folded at the end of 2001.
This is the track list of the album:

1. "Trust in Me" (Katy Hudson/Mark Dickson) – 4:46
2. "Piercing" (Katy Hudson/Tommy Collier/Brian White) – 4:06
3. "Search Me" (Katy Hudson/Tommy Collier/Scott Faircloff) – 5:00
4. "Last Call" (Katy Hudson) – 3:07
5. "Growing Pains" (Katy Hudson/Mark Dickson) – 4:05
6. "My Own Monster" (Katy Hudson) – 5:25
7. "Spit" (Katy Hudson) – 5:10
8. "Faith Won't Fail" (Katy Hudson/Mark Dickson) – 5:14
9. "Naturally" (Katy Hudson/Scott Faircloff) – 4:33
10. "When There's Nothing Left" (Katy Hudson) – 6:45

This is a song on the album called Trust in Me


(this is the link to Rate your Music- http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/katy_hudson/katy_hudson/)

The Early Years of Katy Perry

Katherine Elizabeth Hudson who is better known by her stage name Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She was born in Santa Barbara, Californa, on the 25th October 1984. Katy was raised by her Christian pastor parents; she grew up listening to gospel music and she sang in church at the age of 9 to 17. Katy yearly attended church camps and christian schools. Perry's maternal aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry, through whom she is also related to Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Katy Perry was not allowed to listen to the music which her mother called 'secular', Katy went to dance classes she learnt Swing, Lindy Hop and Jitterbug dance. Katy's parents took her to voice lessons at the age of nine till sixteen, She enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short time.

At the age of 15, Perry's singing in church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills. In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar.

Pop Genre Research

Pop Genre comes from the term popular, it is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple love songs.

This is taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music

"Musicologists often identify the following characteristics as typical of the pop music genre:
an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms
The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, and a chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions.
Harmony in pop music is often "that of classical European tonality, only more simple-minded." Clichés include the barbershop harmony (i.e. moving from a secondary dominant harmony to a dominant harmony, and then to the tonic) and blues scale-influenced harmony. "The influence of the circle-of-fifths paradigm has declined since the mid-1950s. The harmonic languages of rock and soul have moved away from the all-encompassing influence of the dominant function. ...There are other tendencies (perhaps also traceable to the use of a guitar as a composing instrument) – pedal- point harmonies, root motion by diatonic step, modal harmonic and melodic organization – that point away from functional tonality and toward a tonal sense that is less directional, more free-floating."

On the right hand side there is a photograph of Madonna who is known as the 'Queen of Pop' and Michael Jackson whos the 'King of Pop'.

Brighton Secondary Research

These secondary sources are from search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The images portray the Brighton nightlife and the atmosphere at night in Brighton for example, there are raves, hen
dos, stag do's and I was interested to see the Brighton Pier and the Royal Pavillion at night to make sure that the lighting was bright enough because we wanted to film at night in different places located in Brighton.
The photos of people in a club with there hands in the air represents the fast beat of the music which enables the audience to relate the song to dance. There are many people who are dancing together which shows the closeness of everyone and the feeling that Brighton is a close community, we could include this in our video to create a feeling of a nice and close community.
Emotions of happiness and love is portrayed in the photographs which are shot in a club, as the use of pink, purple and navy lighting conforms to the club and pop genre as it represents the crowds feelings of happiness and it gives a joyful feeling to the photographs. In the club photographs and the poster of Hat Trick people are wearing red and 'Komedia' club and the restaurant has red lighting, this could be very useful in our video as red symbolises love.
The bright lighting shows the upbeat and fast tempo of the song as people are dancing and the bright colours make the club seem fun.
The images from hen and stag parties are used to show the 'type' of people who go there on holiday because there are many special deals for stag and hen parties to go to Brighton which could portray the target audience.
Also, Brighton is very well known for its gig arena Brighton Dome where Katy Perry in 2009 had performed, I thought it was relevant to include a photograph of Katy Perry performing in Brighton as we are going to film our music video to Katy Perry- Teenage Dream there. In Brighton there are many raves with 'underground' DJs which is regularly promoted in University and on traffic lights, however Brighton has DJ festivals where well known DJs perform like Fat Boy Slim.
The images of the pier, royal pavillion and the street represents another side to Brighton which is very quiet, we could film in a quiet street if we wanted the characters to speak or to focus mainly on the couple and the location. I think we should film a low angle shot of the Brighton Pier title as I think it is very interesting and it tells the viewer where we had filmed.
Secondary Source Brighton Nightlife

Brighton Primary Research

This is my primary research of Brighton where we have decided to film as we feel that it will fit our 'quirky' and 'happy' vibe. I took these photographs during the day time so this mood board represents day time in Brighton. I have used my Photography AS Coursework because I went to Brighton and I am using these photographs as cross curriculum.
We could use these photographs to help us decide where we want to use as a location for our music video for example, the beach, brighton pier, royal pavilion or the brighton fountain.
In these photographs I have mainly used close ups to focus on one object at a time to draw attention to the subject, also Brighton is such a busy place it was hard to take photographs where people were not in the photograph, this is something that our group will have to decide if we will want people in it or if we want a quiet location.
I have made these photographs all in focus because I wanted to make Brighton recognisable to the viewer. However, if we want to film in focus depends on our target audience if we decide that we will want to attract an English audience we may film long shots and in focus so the viewer could recognise Brighton or we could make our music video seem American and use a variety of close up shots and blur the background so the viewer will think that the video was not filmed in England.
I think we should use a wide shot of Brighton Pier because the couple could walk in to Brighton Pier because originally we thought of filming the couple at a fun fair and the boyfriend winning the girlfriend a toy, this is romantic and very typical in the romance genre.
However, with my photographs I used photoshop and I zoomed in to focus on the subject and many of the places where I took photographs had fences because you had to pay to get in such as the Royal Pavilion and the rides.
This is my Primary Source Mood Board of Brighton.
Primary Source Brighton Location

Email to Capitol Records

We have emailed Capitol Records to make sure that we are allowed to use Katy Perry- Teenage Dream and to ensure them that it is only for educational. If we did not email the record label and they saw our music video they could block our video from YouTube.
We found it very difficult finding the producer of the song 'Teenage Dream' because the song and the album are both called Teenage Dream when we used search engines and websites such as Google and Wikipedia every producer of the album said Teenage Dream. Then we decided to get in touch with Katy Perrys current record label Capitol Records.
This is our email.

Dear Capitol Records,

We are writing to ask for permission to use your song ‘Teenage Dream’ by Katy Perry; our names are: Michaela, Jessica, Dominique and Emily.
We are currently studying media studies as an A level at Enfield County School, and as part of this we are making a music video for our coursework. We would very much like to use your song for this. We assure you that we have no intent to sell our video and there will not be any copyright issues as it will be solely used for educational purposes.

Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Faithfully,
Michaela Carberry, Jessica Priddle, Dominique Shiells Edwards and Emily Bowe.

Lyrics to Katy Perry- Teenage Dream

These are the lyrics to Katy Perry- Teenage Dream.

You think I'm pretty
Without any make-up on
You think I'm funny
When I tell the punch line wrong
I know you get me
So I'll let my walls come down, down

Before you met me
I was a wreck
But things were kinda heavy
You brought me to life
Now every February
You'll be my valentine, valentine

Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love
We can dance until we die
You and I
We'll be young forever

You make me
Feel like
I'm living a Teenage Dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's runaway
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

My heart stops
When you look at me
Just one touch
Now baby I believe
This is real
So take a chance
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

We drove to Cali
And got drunk on the beach
Got a motel and
Built a fort out of sheets
I finally found you
My missing puzzle piece
I'm complete

Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love
We can dance until we die
You and I
We'll be young forever

You make me
Feel like
I'm living a Teenage Dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's runaway
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

My heart stops
When you look at me
Just one touch
Now baby I believe
This is real
So take a chance
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

I might get your heart racing
In my skin-tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight

Let you put your hands on me
In my skin-tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight

You make me
Feel like
I'm living a Teenage Dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's runaway
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

My heart stops
When you look at me
Just one touch
Now baby I believe
This is real
So take a chance
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

When reading the lyrics we immediately thought of many ideas and symbols for our music video for example, "You think I'm funny when I tell the punch line wrong" we thought of the girl telling a joke in front her group of friends and the love interest is the only one who is laughing. During the line "My missing puzzle piece" we thought of having an aerial shot filming a puzzle set which has a picture of the couple, when filming we would put one piece together and then we would edit it to make it seems smooth. Our inspiration for this idea is Kate Nash- Foundations as she includes animation in the video to create two tooth brushes moving next to each other as a symbol of love. Also, we thought of having an older couple looking back on their relationship because the song speaks in past tense, the song expresses the artist feeling like she feels like she is a teenager again "You make me feel like I'm living a Teenage Dream" which expresses that her boyfriend is her first love and first everything.

Final Song Decision

For our music video we have decided to make a video to Katy Perrys-Teenage Dream. However, originally I did not like the song due to personal reasons such as the song is very 'over played' as the song is it reached number 1 in America, Ireland and New Zealand. Also, the video to Teenage Dream was recently released so we were worried if we would copy the video without us knowing, though after a long discussion we decided that when we made and edited our video it would be an 'old' song. In our group we came up with many ideas which we could use for the video for example, an old couple going back in time to when they were younger which was inspired by Jason Derulo- What If video. We all agreed that we wanted to use this song to create our music video.
This is the video to Katy Perry-Teenage Dream

The Final Three

We finally narrowed our song decision to three different songs Pink- Runaway, Example- Fast Cars and Katy Perry- Teenage Dream.

Pink- Runaway

We think that Pink- Runaway could make a good music video because:

• With the lyrics we could make an interesting story of a girl struggling with her life and wanting to runaway. We felt like everyone could relate to the video of wanting to get away from their life "Run away life don't make any sense to me" this could work to our advantage as people will empathise and understand the girls feelings.
• We feel that this video would suit the night time in a busy area as we could use a variety of close up shots and split screen to show the girl frightful, as she is in a city that she does not know and the other screen could show people walking towards her and looking at her strangely "I wonder if it was a mistake" could emphasize her feelings of regret with fast pace editing.
• We could imagine the girl smashing photograph frames against the wall and the floor which would match the beat but we would have to do this when editing.
• The lyrics are dark and emotional "You go your way I meet you in hell" this could make our video stand out because it is not a typical love story and it could put a twist on the pop genre.

However, the bad points to Pink- Runaway is:

• The camera shots would be too repetitive as the song is about a girl running away and we would mostly have pan follow or close ups.
• The video may be too depressing that the viewer would loose interest.
• The verse has a slow beat and the editing will be slow pace this could be a limitation as the viewer may loose interest and we could loose marks.
• We thought that we could film the girl living on the streets though we later realised that the lyrics for a verse was "I could sing for change on a Paris street, Be a red light dancer in New Orleans" however we do not have to actually film in Paris and America we thought the video was about dreaming so it would of been better if we did.

Example- Fast Cars

We think that Example- Fast Cars could make a good music video because:

• Their is a male and female vocalist which could be interesting to have both male and female different view points.
• The song is not popular in comparison to Examples other songs but Tracey Chapman- Fast Cars which is the chorus is very popular this could be an advantage as we could create our own interpretations to the song meaning.
• We could use a local area to film as our location as the song talks about not bring in Hollywood and not having a glamorous lifestyle "This ain't hollywood, need a jolly good line" this could help us with our low budget.
• The song we could be interpreted in many ways for example, three quarters in to the song a tyre screetching is played and the lyric "Shit, I should of missed her" represents that the man who was driving had run a women over, before that part of the song the artist sings "You have seen a killer with a smile this hard" which says that he killed some one or it could of been conveyed that it was a dream as the artist is singing about his dream girl "Angelina Jolie" and his dream car a "Ferrari".

However, the bad points to Example- Fast Cars is:

• It could be very difficult as the song is aboutcars and living the dream lifestyle, we can't drive and we don't know any one with a Ferrari or a Porsche which the boy in the song is driving.
• We would have to rely on a man acting and performing in our video, we would have to trust them to attend meetings, filming and to be on time.

Katy Perry- Teenage Dream

We think that Katy Perry- Teenage Dream would make a good music video because:

• We could use a variety of camera shots like an high angle shot to show puzzle pieces and we could edit the footage to make it seem animated and like the footage flows.
• The song is upbeat and we could have fast pace editing like shots of the male and female point of view.
• Good narrative story as it is about teenage love and feeling like the couple feels like teenagers in love.

However, the bad points to Katy Perry- Teenage Dream is:

• The song is well known so we could disappoint fans.
• The music video was recently released so people may be expecting our music video to be like the original video.

Genre and Sub Genre

What is Genre?

Genre divides musicians in to categories based on common elements for example, pop genre includes catchy, different clothing style from other artists to make them 'icons' and flamboyent live performances which contrasts to heavy metal genre which consists of screaming, rebellion and black clothing. Daniel Chandler (2001) argues that the word "genre comes from the french (and originally latin) word 'kind' or 'class'. The term is used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive types of text."

What is Sub-Genre?

Sub genre means genre within a genre to make the music more narrow to target a specific audience. There are many different interpretations of what sub genre means such as Barry Keith Grant (1995) says that "sub genre means dividing the genre into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics". However, it is argued that sub genres change over time as music popularity increase, Steve Neale (1995) stresses that "genres are not systems they are processes of systemization for example, they are dynamic and evolve over time". Sub Genre is usually associated with production companies who make the artist target a particular sub genre to earn money from that particular audience. Jason Mitchell (2001) argues that "genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry audience and cultural practices well." Many companies use sub genre to sell music to that specific audience, media producers use that familiar code and conventines to target a potential audience as the company knows the cultural reference to their audience knowledge of the society they live in. Music videos appeal to the youth mainly due to sub cultures as the compant reinforce the generic elements of that particular musical genre. The company also needs to promote the artist to appeal to the audience for example, Dyer (1995) says that "Music videos are post modern texts whose main purpose is to promote a star persona".

Group Meeting Log (One)

In our group we have created a meeting log using Microsoft Excel, during these meetings we will discuss the ideas we have for our music video, inspiration and organising when we will record. I will colour co-ordinate each week with different colours so we can look back at how our ideas have changed and developed throughout the construction and production. In the table we have labelled date of the meeting, time of the meeting, venue of the meeting, attendees and the minutes (what we had done in the meeting) and actions (what we are going to do before our next meeting). We will try and meet up each week in side and out side of school so we are prepared for when we will make our video.

This is our group's meeting log:

Meeting Log 1

Original song ideas

In the beginning everyone had different ideas on what songs we wanted to produce a music video to as everyone liked different genres. These are the songs that the group had wanted to do.

Example-'Fast Cars'
Lady Antebellum-'Need You Now'
30 Seconds to Mars-'Beautiful Lie'
Pink-'Runaway'
Beyonce-'Halo'
Christina Aguilera-'Oh Mother'
The Script-'For the First Time'
Florence and the Machine-'Dog Days are Over'
Alica Keys- Unthinkable
Katy Perry- Teenage Dream

However, in the end we decided not to pick any of these songs as we could all not agree on one particular song such as I did not want to create a music video to Pink- Runaway, even though it is a great song I felt like we could not make a good music video to it. The song is about a girl running away from her home life and I think that we would of kept repeating the same scenes in most of the song so we would not have a variety of locations and camera shots, we did not have the budget to make the music video. Originally we had the idea that we would film the girl living on the streets though we later realised that the lyrics for a verse was "I could sing for change on a Paris street, Be a red light dancer in New Orleans" even though we did not have to actually film in Paris and America we thought the video was about dreaming so it would of been better if we did.
All of the songs that we had wanted to do would of been extremley difficult as most of them have memorable music videos anyway and we did not want fans of the artist to be disappointed in our video.

In our list of possible songs I wanted to create our music video to Example- Fast Cars as I felt that we could of done a lot with the song and the song has both a male and female vocalist which would of been interesting to get both view points. The song is not very well known in comparison to Example's other songs, this could of been an advantage as no one could of compared our video to the original. I thought that with the song we could have interpreted in many ways for example, three quarters in to the song a tyre screetching is played and the lyric "Shit, I should of missed her" represents that the man who was driving had run a women over, before that part of the song the artist sings "You have seen a killer with a smile this hard" which says that he killed some one or it could of been conveyed that it was a dream as the artist is singing about his dream girl "Angelina Jolie" and his dream car a "Ferrari". I played the song to the group and they did not think that the song would of been good to make a music video too as it would of been very difficult as the song is about cars and living the dream lifestyle, we can't drive and we don't know any one with a Ferrari or a Porsche which the boy in the song is driving. I was disappointed that we did not choose the song though I later released we could of made a video to the song as we don't have the budget and we would ultimately disappoint fans.

Finally, we chose to create our music video to Katy Perry- Teenage Dream as we had many ideas on what we could do for our music video and we all agreed that our music video would be more successful if we choose this song than the others. Although, the video was recently released and people will know the song we thought this could be an advantage as people cannot be disappointed with the video as we will include Teenage love which is the main story in the song.

Pop Genre Secondary Research

The Secondary Sources represent the pop genre which are from search engines such as Google and Tumblr and OK magazine. The image in top left hand side shows a person dancing this portrays the fast and catchy rhythem of pop music which enables the audience to relate the song to dance, as pop music is played at weddings and parties. Most of the pictures are bright and colourful which represents the pop genre as the artists usually sing upbeat songs. Emotions of happiness and love is portrayed in the pop genre as many pop icons are females for example, Madonna, Lady GaGa and Katy Perry who sing about love like Madonna- Papa don't preach which tells the story of a young girl in love but the father dissaproves of the boyfriend. Pop artists usually spend a lot of money on the music videos to make them memorable like Michael Jackson Thriller which is often considered the best music video due to the dancing, theatre production and the comparison of the lyrics to the video "No one's about to save you from the beast of the night" the video shows zombies attacking a couple. Pop is known for the big stage productions and creating fashion trends such as Lady GaGa and her recently contraversal meat dress which she had worn at the VMA's and Madonna's outfits which she worn during the 80s for videos 'Like a Virgin'. Many pop artists such as Britney Spears and Katy Perry appear in a lot of gossip magazines like OK magazine which gains the artist publicity. Ideally, when we create a music video we would love a big budget to have a massive production and costume design though realistically we would have to make do with what we have. Pop music is a very mainstream genre as it is played on the radio and MTV a lot and many people who listen to pop would shop at high street shops like River Island. Many pop artists collaborate on songs such as Lady GaGa and Beyonce- Telephone, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson- Scream and Gwen Stefani and Akon- Sweet Escape which enables the artist to get more radio play as the song may be more popular.
Dom Media

All Time Low's Merchandise

All Time Low's merchandise has risen over the ears due to their increase in popularity. In 2008 a graphic T-shirt would cost $20, a hoodie would cost $30 and a poster would cost $10. However, in 2010 a graphic T-shirt costs $25, a hoodie costs $40 and a poster costs £15.

I think that the prices have increased because of the popularity of the band has increased and they are playing bigger venues. All Time Low's DVD, Straight to DVD comes in different packages so a regular version which includes 1 CD and 1 DVD would cost $15, the second regular version which includes 1 CD, 1 DVD and a T-shirt cost $25, deluxe edition which includes 1 CD, " DVDs and a 32 page hardcover book cost $35 and the second deluxe edition which includes 1 T-Shirt, 1 CD, 2 DVDs and a 32 page hardcover book costs $45. With the packages the person would get a better deal for there money though the editions run out very quickly.

All Time Low's fan club which is called the Hustler Club costs $25, this includes a welcome Package which includes the exclusive All Time Low Hustler membership t-shirt and Hustler wristband. 24/7 access to the members' only fan club site. First access to pre-sale tickets, before the general public. Opportunities to meet All Time Low. Members' only, private message boards and community. Contests with exclusive prizes and random giveaways. Access to Hustler exclusive merchandise.