Pursuit - Opening Sequence - AS Media

Hello examiner and welcome to my media blog. The clip posted above is my final piece or what is commonly known as the main task. throughout this blog you will also see the evaluation questions and some blogs which regard planning for the main task and researching various media techniques and how to put them into practice. Hope you enjoy the blog.

AS Media Evaluation Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6

As Media Coursework Evaluation Questions 1-7

These are all my media evaluation question except for question 5 and 7. the questions 5 and 7 are on different posts as they were made on different formats.

 

AS Media Evaluation Question 7

This is my Evaluation Question 7 were we were asked to look back at our preliminary task and make comparisons as to how we have learned new techniques and skills and how this has lead to the progression of our skills in our main task.

AS Media Evaluation Question 5

This poster is my answer to the media evaluation question 5. Posters are a very common way of attracting the audiences and can sometimes be cheap if they are produced on smaller pieces of paper such as A4 or A3. There are other forms of advertising which can be done including trailers and billboards but as our production was low budget, this would have been very difficult to do so we decided to go with the cheaper option.

Music Industry - YouTube Artists

Picture of Tyler and Alex in 2013

A few weeks back, we were given a handout by our media techer which regarded YouTube music artists and how they are becoming increasingly popular and our gaining more subscribers than musicians such as One Direction, Katy Perry and Beyonce. I decided to look into this as like many others, I have a taste preference with music and I have been listening to some of the YouTube artists for quite a while now. Two examples of artists I have been following are Tyler Ward and Alex G. I first found out about these two when I watched a collaboration of a song that Tyler wrote back in 2012. Tyler was already a popular YouTube singer at the time with around 700,000 subscribers but Alex was relatively new to the whole music scene after being helped and mentored by Tyler. As a result of her inexperience, she only had around 15,000 subscribers.

Since then, both of their channels have grown rapidly and this has been shown through Tyler hitting 1,500,000 Subscribers and Alex has amounted to 1,100,000 Subscribers. The pair have continued to produce music together and have had big success with covers of songs such as Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Timber by Pitbull ft Kesha. Tyler has recently signed a contract with Sony Germany as that is were the biggest part of his fanbase is situated whereas Alex has been focusing on releasing her debut album which should be out in the next month or two. Tyler has also recently been helping other YouTubers with their careers and has signed them to his own personal record label. Artists include Two Worlds, Black Prez and Eppic.

Below is a clip of one of their most successful cover duets and their individual websites.

Tyler's Website - http://tylerwardmusic.com/

Alex's Website - http://www.alexgofficial.com

Casting Choices

Casting Choices:

With our main task, we were unsure as to who would be good for casting, especially for the antagonist role. For our protagonist we had a clear idea frrom the start who we wanted it to be. We brainstormed ideas on a powerpoint through looking at similar films to ours and the actors that had been used in these films. We then compared the similarities and differences of these characters to find out what qualities we wanted our actors to have. In the end we chose to base our characters on the following two:

Protagonist - Natalie Portman:

We originally didn't find many films similar to ours which had Natalie Portman included in it but we then had a look at the film Black Swan. The film was not similar in terms of plot but it was very similar with genre. Also, Natlie Portman played a very similar role to what we wanted our protagonist to play which meant that we were able to identify what qualities here role included and how well she played them. Overall we thought basing our protagonist on Natalie Portman was the best idea as it was easily comparable to our protagonist which meant we don't have to implement anything.

Antagonist - Sir Anthony Hopkins:

Our choice for our antagonist was a lot harder as there are many different ways this role could be played which meant there was a lot of variety in terms of actors. We looked at some of the more well known horror/thriller films to see what types of chracteristics the antagonist has (age, height, facial features etc.) We ended up deciding we wanted our antagonist to be like Anthony Hopkins. We decided this through looking at the film hannibal and thought someone of his stature and age would work perfectly.

Investigation into Soul Jazz Records

For part of our music industry side of the course, we have to look into an independent music label. Therefore I decided to use Soul Jazz records as a research tool and found the answers to some questions asked by our teacher.

 

What kinds of music do Soul Jazz Records produce?

The genre of music which Soul Jazz Records produce is predominately black music such as reggae, soul, dubstep, funk/soul, jazz and hip hop. It is clear that the music that they do produce is niche rather than mainstream chart/pop, and may only appeal to certain audiences.

What strategies do Soul Jazz Records use to promote and distribute their music?

The main strategy that Soul Jazz Records use to promote and distribute their music is through their website, which is used as an online store for each artist that is on the label. The website allows them to promote music by giving updates through the news section about up and coming tracks from previous artists, or new artists breaking through. They can also offer previews of the tracks before a customer purchases the music. Also by offering different ways of purchasing the music through different formats, as they have CD's, Vinyl, LP's, and MP3 it targets a wider range of audience to suit their demands. The website also uses multimedia platforms, as it advertises 'coming soon' DVDs with tracks on it from artists on their label.

Who is the audience for Soul Jazz Records?

There isn't one particular audience for Soul Jazz Records as it offers a wide range of genres which essentially targets a wider range of audience. As everyone listens to different types of music there are going to be different niche audiences for the different genres that Soul Jazz Records have to offer. Soul Jazz Records also have sister labels on their website, such as Universal Sound, which once again offers an even further range of genre again reaching a wider audience.

What is the relationship between Soul Jazz Records and the mainstream music industry

There is no obvious relationship between Soul Jazz Records and the mainstream music industry, as Soul Jazz Records target their distribution at niche audiences rather than the mainstream itself. Their website allows you to sample the music before you actually purchase it, whereas a 'Big 4' label such as Universal wouldn't. An example of Soul Jazz Records not targeting the mainstream would be their decision not to use social networking sites, but instead having their own blog through the website. This may be a disadvantage as they aren't reaching mass audiences when they have the ability to do so. However, one similarity between the mainstream and Soul Jazz Records is that they are keeping up with technology and allowing MP3 format files of their music to be purchased, which is just basically keeping up with modern trends.