Continued Revisions To Story Boarding

Due to the scale and shere popularity of Battersea Powerstation, alot of trouble cropped up. For example; there was a lot of work involved with the health and safety aspect of the preparation.



Due to the restriction on times etc. we had another location on stand by just in case we needed more shots. This location being one of our casts house.



Many problems occured with the story and casting of our music video. Due to the uncertainty of whom our main actor would me, our star image kept changin due to the image of each actor varying. Options included Simon Wood- a rugged looking, mid 40's man with past experience of the music industry, Hamish, a mid 20's student with a slightly rugged look with more sex appeal and Sam Hoare, A man in late 20's with sex appeal and with the complete package. Due to many complications with the casting. We decided to use Sam Hoare as our main man.



However, this caused us to change our story idea. Due to the star image of our artist changing to a younger man, we thought it would be better if the story involved around a relationship. Our original idea was to have Sam walking through battersea (the location where people were kept in the past in captivity) and having shots of the 'gools' as Sam searched for his girl friend (Paula). This then slightly changed as we wanted to keep the stereotypical inspiration of a country song- about relationships and heartbreak. So we then decided to have sam walking through Battersea Powerstation, at the end was Paulas grave. As he walked through, we would then cut to flash back of the violent relationship. Ending in a scene with lots of people round her grave. However, after decision, we decided it was best if we just had Paula and Sam in the story. It would still revolve around a relationship, but would be much more affective with less people. We also took inspiration of this idea from a Kylie Minogue video.



After many weeks of looking at pictures of the location, we finally did a reccy of the location. This enabled me to visualise where we wanted each shot to take place, as well as looking at the location in order to get some shots of this iconic building.



However, due to a sudden amount of snowfall on our shoot day. Our shoot had to be postponed to another day. Because of this, we know have to recast our main man. But this is also a postive note as it allows us to have more time to fully develop our plot.

Stars and Stardom

Keith Negus

THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

When keith first started out, he was more about going and finding new bands. He sits there and thinks 'there's really a gap in the market for this kind of project...' But he doesn't go out to gigs to find them, infact he gets bands through various writers and producers. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe he have the front person who he want to launch into the market but doesn't have the songs. So he puts the two together.

A record company executive ones quoted "What im looking for is a working act. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; and they're still making records. Theses are acts that are career acts." In basic terms saying he wants and act that can stay around for a long while.

IDEOLOGIES OF CREATIVITY

Keith Negus (producer of pop) indentifies that there are two ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry. These ideologies shape the way in which their careers are developed and their image is made. These two types are The organic ideology of creativity and The synthetic ideology of creativity.

• Organic Ideology Of Creativity 1

A naturalistic approach to artist. The record company are responsible for nurturing the artists and enhancing their image, aswell as letting them naturally progress through their career.

• Organic Ideology Of Creativity 2

Their music is many aimed at older and more sophisticated consumers, with the record label emphasising the album sales in order to create a successful back catalogue. Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

• Synthetic Ideology Of Creativity 1

The image of the artist is oftern creatde by the record company, and executives in this company attempt to construct successful artist and songs at their disposal. A combinatorial approach to artists and material. The artist is given a short time to prove them selves before other combinations are tried out.

• Synthetic Ideology Of Creativity 2

Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audience membersm, whith emphasis given to single sales and promoting their first album. The profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company.

In practise, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts. Most record labels will try to balance between the two in order so secure funds available for day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making.

In terms of promoting organic and synthetic acts there is large difference. Firstly, the clear distinction between the way in which the dfferent types of artist are represented to tensure short term or long term sucess. Organic acts are oftern sold on their 'aunthenticity', both musically and socially. Their image will appear unconstructed (although it actually is carefully constructed). Synthetic acts are often sold on their 'look' or personalities. the image of the arist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

RICHARD DYER

Richard Dyer is an extensive writer writing about roles of stars in films, tv and music.

In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars. The word 'Star' refers to the semi-mythological set of teh meaning constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media- magazines, Tv, radio , the internet- in order to construct a marketable image to their target audience. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:

A star is a image that is constructed out of a range of materials (e.g. advertisment)

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on a strength of their meanings

Some common values of music stardom consist of:

Youthfulness Creativity/Talent

Rebellion Agression/Anger

Sexual magnetism A relation to drugs and inpolite behaviour

An anti-authoritarian attitude Consumption of sex, drugs and goods

Originality Success against the odds

Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes

Paradox 1

The star must be both extraordinary and ordinary at the same time.

Paradox 2

The star must be both absent and present

THE STAR IMAGE

In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image but is always left unclear. Meaning the audience continue consuming the star in order to complete their image.

The star image acn be used to position the cinsumer in relation to dominat social values (hegemony). Dependant on the artist, it may seem that the audience are postioned outside the mainstream, but only to a limited degree.

Quote: " In these terms it can be argued that stars are the representation of persons which reinforce, legitimante or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such a conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualing stress involves a separation of the person's "self" form his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society. On the other habd society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are approproate to given groups would now wish to contest ( e.g. the stuggles over the representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years). Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated."