VLOG #2

Don't say I didn't ask permission!

Here are screenshots of the websites (to which I found the contact details) and messages I sent to both AlunaGeorge and Dj Snake. They are just to ask permission to use the music we would like for our music video (AlunaGeorge - You Know You Like It [Dj Snake Remix]). I've sent these emails so that there is no copyright problems in future and to simply inform them why we have used their material for our music video- it is strictly for educational purposes.

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Aluna George - You know you like it (Lyrics)

"You Know You Like It"

Some people want me to be heads or tails
I say no way, try again another day
I should be happy, not tipping the scales
I just won't lay, letting my life get away

I'm no fool, no, I'm not a follower
I don't take things as they come, if they bring me down
Life can be cruel, if you're a dreamer
I just wanna have some fun, don't tell me what can't be done

You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but you're scared of the shame
What you want, what you gonna do?
You know you like it but it drives you insane
Only 'cause you know that you wanna feel the same
You know you like it but it drives you insane
What you want, what you gonna do?

If you wanna train me, like an animal
Better keep your eye on my every move
There's no need to be so damn cruel
Baby you got nothing to prove

I'm no fool, no, I'm not a follower
I don't take things as they come, if they bring me down
Life can be cruel, if you're a dreamer
I just wanna have some fun, don't tell me what can't be done

You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but you're scared of the shame
What you want, what you gonna do?
You know you like it but it drives you insane
Only 'cause you know that you wanna feel the same
You know you like it but it drives you insane
What you want, what you gonna do?

You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but it drives you insane
You know you like it but you're scared of the shame
What you want, what you gonna do?
You know you like it but it drives you insane
Only 'cause you know that you wanna feel the same
You know you like it but it drives you insane
What you want, what you gonna do?

Star Project

Robyn Rihanna Fenty (or as known by her stage name, Rihanna) is a Barbadian R&B, Pop, Reggae, Hip hop and Dance sensation. February 20^th 1988, she was born in Saint Michael, Barbados, and began her career after being introduced to Evan Rogers through a mutual friend in late 2003. Being a record producer, Evan Rogers guided Rihanna through recording a demo tape which was then sent to numerous record labels. Luckily, the demo tape reached Jay Z, who just so happened to be the former president of Def Jam Records and is a successful musician himself. Soon after, she managed to record her Debut Album in 2005 called ‘Music of the Sun’.

From the title, to the album cover, everybody had an idea that this album was going to be infused with Caribbean flavor. On August 30^th, Def Jam Records released Rihanna’s debut album, ‘Music of the Sun’. Although she was complimented for its dancehall and Caribbean-inspired tracks, she was also criticized for lacking creativity. Rihanna was compared to Beyonce. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the lead single ‘Pon de Replay’ as “a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé Knowles ‘Baby Boy’”. Rumour has it that Jay-Z molded Rihanna to have aspects like Beyonce. Although some believed Rihanna was an imitator, some critics thought otherwise. Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic commented that the album introduces Rihanna as "winsome rather than [a] wannabe". 

Her second studio album ‘A Girl Like Me’ was also released through Def Jam Records on April 2006. As well as her previous album, Rihanna continued sticking to her Barbadian roots and projected her love for where she comes from, through her music. Because she was criticized in her last album for being too safe, this time, she also featured dance-hall  R&B and reggae tracks. She didn't even stop there, as she also incorporated elements of ballads, but music critics were uncertain about them.

Although Rihanna was only in her teens when this album was released, her voice was mature. She was inspired by artists such as Alicia Keys, Beyonce Knowles and Mariah Carey. While her singing remained strong, her video’s and look were still age appropriate. Rihanna still incorporated her Caribbean flare to what she wore. She kept her attire fresh and young, usually paring her crop tops with her low-rise bottoms.

Here is the music video for 'If it's lovin' that you want' from Rihanna's 'Music Of The Sun'. You immediately get the Caribbean feel to this video due to the exotic location and the costume worn by Rihanna and her dancers. This is the video that got compared to 'Baby Boy' by Beyonce. After watching the video, I can now see what the critics are talking about (when she dances on the beach, I can see the similarities). 

Also from the 'Music Of The Sun' album, whether it be the up beat instrumental or her sequin covered (but didn't manage to cover) top, this club banger by Rihanna caught more people's attention. It's successes included a number 2 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart and the UK Singles Chart.

With this song, Rihanna continued with the dance-pop ambiance. The video for 'SOS' from her 'A Girl Like Me Album' is most remembered for her signature glittery, golden skin again the bright green leaves. Her glittery, short skirt also couldn't be ignored. Although quite young, Rihanna had a little bit of sex appeal in this video.

Also from her 'A Girl Like Me' album, Rihanna toned it down with a heartbreaking ballad called 'Unfaithful'. A lot of her maturity is expressed in this video... like that little life of the bra... she's just making sure everyone knows she wears one and she's a big girl now, thumbs up.

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 After being compared to all these other musicians, Rihanna had had enough, so took a completely different approach to her as a musician, as well as her sense of style. “I basically took the attitude of the bad girl and I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it—I didn't want to listen to anybody. I didn't consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself.” She told The StarPhoenix. The ‘Good Girls Gone Bad’ album was her way to perish the old image she had in her previous albums. She achieved this by chopping her hair off and dying it jet black... as shown in the next few images...

Umbrella-Ela-Ela-Eh-Eh... okay, I'll stop now. This song is where it all started. From her 'Good Girl Gone Bad' album, Rihanna broke out of her shell and revealed her new look through this iconic video. From her pixie cut to her un-walk-able high heels, she has opened herself to a more mature fan base. She wanted to come back to the music industry with a bang, and I think she certainly achieved that... everybody was talking about the 'it' girl. 

Later, Rihanna received much media attention due to the assault ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, had committed. After these unfortunate events, she had taken a long break away from music to reinvigorate. But just as the public thought she couldn’t be more ‘dark’ than ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ she came back with her fourth album, ‘Rated R’, in 2009. This album was almost like a ‘come back’ to what her then boyfriend had done- her way to tell the public that she hasn’t fallen off the pedestal, but has only came back even stronger. This album featured ominous and distinctive tracks. ‘Russian Roulette’ and ‘Rockstar 101’ is a couple of the successful songs Rihanna has caught the public’s attention with.

Rihanna was really living up to her 'badgal' status in these video's. All of which came from her fourth album, 'Rated R'. Her serious and edgy approach to her music left people gobsmacked but interested. All of the video's above include dark and morbid elements to them. Rihanna loved to include electric guitar's on these tracks... I guess without them, they wouldn't have that 'rockstar' feeling to them.

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Little grey fairy tales and little white lies...

AlunaGeorge, one of my FAVORITE groups, have come up with this amazing song and even a more amazing music video. 'Attracting Flies' is a perfect example of the whole fairy tale aspect we wanted to include in our music video.

   

From her basket of goods to her red hooded jumper, you can immediately tell that Aluna is playing little red riding hood in the beginning of the music video. The original story of little red riding hood has a young girl as the protagonist and is dressed quite modestly. On the other hand, in this music video, the protagonist is dressed quite provocatively. Her short, skin-tight and red dress is something you wouldn't expect the original red riding hood to be wearing.

In this still shot, you can see the 'evil' following her in the darkness. In the actual music video, this figure doesn't do anything but stand there. I would assume he's there to either harm the red riding hood character or steal the basket from her.

The red riding hood theme wouldn't be complete without the big bad wolf! In this shot, the white wolf is in the car with George and they are playing the 'thirsty' character's. Their eyes follow Aluna whilst she walks though the dark alleyways- alone and vulnerably. Their gazes do not break and it looks as though they are ready to pounce on her.

Another issue AlunaGeorge wanted to raise in their video was the growth of illegal substances. In this case, weed. The first fairy tale aspect you think of with the idea of being 'over grown' is Rapunzel and her long hair. Because of this, the video used her hair as a metaphor for the weed. As you can see, the character here is pulling hair off the weed plant, rather than the leaves itself.

It is noticeable now that Aluna has the role to play the main character in each sketch. Here is a clear image of her playing the role as Rapunzel as her hair is long, hanging out the window. Earlier on in the video, the hair was a symbol for weed. As her hair is over grown, it could be representing the greed and endless desire to have drugs in her system.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears... but in this case, the three huge and scary looking men. We can tell this scene is representing the Three Bears as they are all eating a bowl of porridge and there are three of them. This is different to the original take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears as the location looks more uneasy to be in and 'Goldilocks' is sat next to 'the three bears' (the are actually enemies in the original version.

A lady with an achy back on a pile of loads of mattresses could only mean one thing... princess and the pea! Here, Aluna is representing the princess in the story and George is trying to figure out what it is that is making Aluna feel uncomfortable. The dark lighting makes me feel like it isn't something positive...

... just as I suspected! It all looked 'normal' until this next shot reveals what was under the mattress. Of course, the original pea that would've been in the fairy tale has been replaced with a pill.

Here is a shot of Aluna again, laying down, asleep on a mattress... so of course, she is representing sleeping beauty. She is dressed in white; the candle's are lit; the sun beams are shining down on her and the room looks relaxed. All these aspects make me feel like she is in a better place in her mind.

Later on in the music video, this is revealed. It is a book that would've been read by people that have been suffering from depression and a load of pills beside it on a table. This makes me suspect that 'sleeping beauty' has taken her life away by over dosing. This then explains to me why it looks like she is in a better place in the previous screen shot. She must of suffered from depression when she was alive and decided to leave this world and go to a better place.

Finally, AlunaGeorge have ended their video on a powerful note. Here is a long shot of Aluna with seven 'dwarfs'. Really, they are just hoodlums with weapons such as bats and hammers. They are dressed as your stereotypical gang members and Aluna looks like the lead 'Snow White'.

VLOG #1

Song Choice THREE (our final decision)

Aluna George - You Know You Like It (DJ Snake Remix)

AlunaGeorge have an original version of their song ‘You Know You Like it’, but we chose to use the DJ Snake remix, as the beat is more interesting and gives us wider options of what we can do with it (in terms of editing) with our music video footage. From the second the song begins, I’m already captivated. The instrumental begins by sounding mystical, but then builds itself into an up tempo beat. Another reason why this song would be easier to work with is because the lead singer is female, whereas the other two songs we chose had male singers. This way, it would be easier to find somebody to lip sing as we both know more women than men who’d be up for it. Also, it’s a song we both love equally! (Finally) Another important reason why we chose this version of the song is because it has no music video to it, so we wont be tempted to copy anything.

No dislikes, we’re definitely sticking with this song!

“Taking the boom and glitch of British bass culture and allying it to the slick sweetness of classic American SWV or Destiny’s Child-style R&B”. AlunaGeorge is a group made up of two members, Aluna Francis (vocals and song writing) and George Reid (production and instrumentation). They are part of two labels, one being an independent label and the other being a major label. This is probably because they were founded by the independent label, Tri Angle Records, at first. But after their songs became publicized, major labels wanted to contact them and make them ‘join the team’. So that’s what they did, joined Island Records also. In February 2013, AlunaGeorge released their debut album ‘Body Music’. I think they chose to call their first album this so that, everybody that doesn’t know their music, immediately has the idea that they like to make dance music. I feel AlunaGeorge create ‘underground’ kind of music, sound wise, but are designed to have mass appeal. This is due to the fact that they are signed by a major label and are already on music channels on the television. 

Song Choice TWO

Arctic Monkeys – Why Do You Only Call Me When You’re High?

I heard about Arctic Monkeys, but I never gave it a chance… until Elena introduced me to this song. I was pleasantly surprised! It has a great beat to it that we could influence shots into. Also the video displays the effects of drug use, which is exactly what we want, as our video will also be about the outcomes and reasons for drug use. Another aspect that appealed to me was how the music video had a story line to it and was meaningful. The music video didn't start with the song ‘Why Do You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ but instead began with another Arctic Monkey Song called ‘Do I wanna Know?’ (which btw, I also love). ‘Why Do You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ is almost like a follow up to that song.

‘Why Do You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ is a perfect example of the kind of features we want to incorporate in our music video… but that is the problem. Because this music video is already drug influenced, we don’t want to make yet ANOTHER drug influenced music video to the same song, which is why we have steered away from it.

In 2002, Alex Turner (lead vocals, lead/rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm/ lead guitar), Nick O’Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals) formed this English Indie Rock band called ‘Arctic Monkeys’. There was also a former band member named Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) that left in 2006 after their debut album was released. They are part of an independent record label based in London called Domino Recording Company. Their latest studio album ‘AM’ was released this year and is now their 5^th album. I’d say this album was pretty successful as it managed to reach number 1 in the UK Albums Chart, selling 157,3289 copies! Arctic Monkeys is one of those bands who started with a small fan base- sharing files over the internet, and evolved into sold out shows and over 57 million views on youtube. Although their fan base have grown, they remain the same. I feel like they have chosen to treasure the fact that they are underground and want to keep their material raw without popularizing it. 

Song Choice ONE

Clean Bandit - Dust Clears

Well, to be honest, Elena wasn't too fond of this song. Maybe it’s a bit too unusual for her liking's. But I loved how the song had a variety of tempos and had clean transitions between them. It would've looked great on what I envisioned. The violins in this song were also a great touch. I like the fact that it has a classical aspect to it, but still sounds contemporary. Also, the fact that not many people have heard it keeps me pealed and willing to listen to more of their music.

The main reason to why we are disregarding this choice of song is because Elena doesn't like this song as much as I do. We've agreed to pick a song that we both like the sound of and can picture a video for, and she wasn't too excited over the sound and feel of this one.

Clean Bandit is a group made up of four artists- Jack Patterson (bass, sax and deck), Luke Patterson (drums), Grace Chatto (strings) and Milan Neil Amin-Smith (strings). They belong to an American major label record company called Warner Music Group (also known as Warner Music) based in New York City. After researching, I couldn't find any information on an album that they have produced, I could only find out about their mix-tape. Mix-tapes are usually underground CD’s and are a bit more personal than actual albums. Because on this I feel their music is dedicated more to their elite, underground fans. 

Song, Where art thou?

Elena and I have different tastes in music, so it was difficult to find songs that we both loved. Although I’m really more of a rhythm and blues kind of person I am still really open minded with songs and different genres. So we decided to both exchange different songs and artists and see which ones we both agreed on. We went from electronic music to baroque pop music. Here is the list…

Ellie Goulding – Tessellate (Alt-J Cover/ Remix)
Neighbourhood – Say My Name/ Cry Me A River
Sam Smith – Nirvana
SBTRKT – Wildfire
Tuesday Born ft. Dnae – Wake (Two Inch Punch Remix) 
Aaliyah – One In A Million (Urban Noize Remix)
AlunaGeorge – You Know You Like It (DJ Snake Remix)
Arctic Monkey – Do I Wanna Know
Clean Bandit – A&E
Clean Bandit – Dust Clears
Cosmo Sheldrake ft. Anna Roo – Rich
Arctic Monkeys – Why’d you only call me when you’re high?

 …I think I’ve mentioned all the ones we have discussed.From these songs, we'll think of a top three and hopefully get our final decision from them.

Dina Goldstein

With age, you realize that stories can also be unhappily ever after. Thanks to Walt Disney, when some of us were young, we always thought of being the princesses and having to play the role as damsels in distress, waiting for our princes to save us (and weather it was fighting a dragon, or having to save us from a wolf, he always did so). Although some fairy tales have got quite sad story lines, they always seem to end on a high… but what if this was not the case and we were just told to believe so? Of course, as a child, fairy tales were entertaining and motivating, but as you grow older, your mind is opened to reality and you understand that the world can have an evil side to it and not everything ends on a joyful note. Knowing this, it made me wonder what life would be like as those fairy tale characters, but this time, in the 21st century. 

My friend sent me a message of this article that caught my attention. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2385475/Dina-Goldsteins-Fallen-Princesses-shows-Disneys-Snow-White-Cinderella-unhappily-after.html I was not the only person who felt that the stereotypical view on the ‘happily ever after’ of fairy tales was shocking! Dina Goldstein expresses the same views through her photography. She says “My Fallen princesses’ series was born out of deep personal pain, when I raged against the ‘happily ever after’ motif we were spoon fed since childhood”. Goldstein placed well known fairy tale characters in modern day scenarios and broke the usual fairy tale imagery we are familiarized to. She achieved this by switching up the locations and situations they were all in. Instead of typing what she has accomplished… I’ll let her photographs speak for themselves…

OUTTAKES!

Let the outtakes speak for itself :')

MY PRELIM - 212 (Azealia Banks)

My preliminary task!! It was a great laugh to record as my family was easy to work with and they all have outgoing personalities. I used the song '212' by Azealia Banks as it's location wasn't too hard to imitate and the song was upbeat, which i loved. I'm glad I also got some outtakes to look back on and remind me of all the hilarious moments in full effect.

Elle Varner Featuring J. Cole - Only Wanna Give It To You

I've always been in love with this song; the old school hip hop feel to it is perfect. When thinking about the actual music video, I've realized how cleverly the director switched to each scene using significant props to transit to each shots. By doing this, Orson Whales had made the video have a swift movement and make it stand out from others. Also, when Elle Varner sings "digital...." at 1:13 until 1:21, i loved the use of editing and graphics here and how the shots looked like they were part of a cassette (sticking to the old school theme). At 3:26 until 3:28, the way the backgrounds switched but the lead singer remained in the center was appealing to me. Especially the way the background switched to the beat. All in all, this is a 'feel good' song, and I intend on creating a video for a positive song too.