Synergy In The Music Business

Synergy is when the interaction of two or more forces working together creates a greater effect than the sum of their individual errors. Media Synergy is the way in which different elements of a media conglomerate work together to promote linked products across different media platforms. A music video helps to provide synergy for the artist starring in it; a popular music video helps to expand their audience but also serves to increase their power in the industry.

An example is Wiz Khalifa's song 'See you again'. This song exists across different platforms and they advertise each other through it. The song promotes the film 'Fast and Furious 7', and it does this by using clips from the film in their video to give it a bigger advertisement. From the power of the industries it allowed 

Reflection on Progress (Planning)

So far I have managed to get a draft of my music video and show it to the class. From this, I knew what shots I had to change and what shots looked good within the video. I also gained some feedback which said I should add some narrative to my video and this is what my next steps are going to be to make it more successful. I have gone back and added some more detail to the rest of my posts, this way my audience can understand more about the topics in which I have discussed. I also did some research into the Digipacks and I now understand what I have to do to make mine a success.

Three improvements:

1. I think I need to keep track of what I am doing a bit more so when it comes to reviewing what I have done, I can easily know.                                                                                                            
2. I need to make sure that I use all of the feedback I have been given and apply it to my work to make it more successful.                                                                                                                  
3. Finally, I think that I need to not rush anything that I am blogging because I don't want the standard of work dropping as my blog increases

Test Shots and Performers

This is one shot of one of our actors, it shows a rough performance of what the actor can do and it also shows one of our locations which clearly suits the genre. As you can see the actor is wearing all black which is traditionally done by grime artists. Following the actor with the camera was tested in this shot and me and my partner decided that this was a good idea.




This is one shot of our second actor, it shows a rough performance of what the actors skills are. As you can see both videos have not been edited which is why you can see our actors have made some mistakes in which they both have corrected now. From this clip, you can also see that this actor is also wearing black which allows both actors to link together and relate the genre clearly.

Digipak Analysis

This is the front cover for JME's album 'Famous?'. It only  has one strapline which includes the name of the artist and album. Also a simple close up of the artist. This manner of production for the album cover could have easily been produced by anyone who has access to Adobe Photoshop. I think that this close up of JME is very powerful due to him looking like he has some control over his audience, he does this through looking directly at the camera and making no facial expressions. The target audience for this album would be from 15-24-year-olds. Along with this cover, all of the artists are on the covers of their albums and are looking straight at the camera in an intimidating fashion showing no emotion which is common within this genre. Also, the mise-en-scene of most artists is common as they are wearing casual clothes.

The back of the Album cover is a very simple idea which is just the back of his head which has the song list advertised over the top. This would be a really good idea for my Digipack but I think I could do something different from the back cover to make it look more effective.

I think that when it comes to creating my own Digipack, I could include graffiti as the background and I could do a mid shot of the artists which are involved. 

Risk Assessment

The following is a risk assessment that details the possible risks associated with my shoot. The main risks on my music video came from filming outdoors and on a public street. This creates problems when it comes to possible conflicts with the general public. Also due to the weather being cold so the cast needs to be aware of this danger by wearing or bringing some warm clothing just in case.

Hazards	Harm	How likely?	Precautions
Weather  Risk Rating: 8/10	This can harm the camera and can also interrupt the performance and waste a lot of time.	Due to filming in January/February the weather is not the best so it is may have a bit of bad weather.	It may be wise to check the weather before going to film. Could also have a second plan just in case it does rain.
Members of the Public and animals Risk Rating: 7/10	They may accidently interrupt filming by getting in front of the camera. Also, animals may come near the setup and may disturb the performers or even knock over the tripod.	Due to filming in a public area, it is very normal if there are any interruptions. Also, due to filming near the city centre, it will be quite busy.	Search for locations which may not be as crowded and you can get a lot of filming completed.
The surface Risk Rating: 8/10	The surface may be slippery or uneven which may cause the actors or camera to fall when being placed down.	A wet floor surface can be easily missed, same as an uneven one. It is likely that there are a few uneven surfaces.	Suitable footwear should be worn. (should have grip) Everyone which are out should take care.

Lighting Risk Rating: 7/10	Can be difficult to see everything so there is a higher chance of tripping and falling over.	It can be very likely to  trip over due to not having full vision. It can be likely that the filming may come out poor afterwards if the camera and lighting are not set up properly.	To avoid this, there could be a check to see if there is anything in the way of the surface.   Also, make sure all lights work so there  is never total darkness.
Weapon Use Risk Rating: 9/10	For instance in our music video, we are using a BB Gun with no bullets but the public, however, might think we are doing something violent so you have to make sure that everyone is aware that it is a fake gun with no bullets. But they may feel threatened by this so it may be best to film away from the public.	It is very likely the public will see this as a threat and may start to ask some questions about the video. It is probably safest to film when there is no one around and that way there can not be any complaints made about it	could possibly inform the public whilst we are filming the specific scene where the gun is needed and tell them that the gun is not real and they can watch by all means if it reassures them.

Editting Software

The editing software which I chose was Final Cut Pro X. The reason I chose to use this editing software was because I had it available to me on my Macbook Pro and therefore, I could just edit on the go and be able to share it a lot quicker and easier. In my opinion, I believe that Final Cut Pro X is a very good piece of software to use when creating a music video because It has all of the different features which make it unique.It comes with a range of video transitions and a range of video and audio filters such as keying tools. Clips can be edited together in timelines called sequences. Sequences can be nested inside other sequences so that a filter or transition can be applied to the grouped clips. I found that, by allowing me to have access to many different layers I was able to edit more efficiently.

Within the music video, we used some colour filters which created a darker atmosphere to suit the genre and I also changed the exposure on a few shots due to it being rather too low or too high. I find that using this software is a lot easier to edit on than Adobe Premier Pro due to having past experience using this software to edit other pieces of work together.

In our song, we have 2 performers, in between both of them we use a simple transition as we had to separate them whilst they were performing, we also used transitions at the start of the music video when we were showing our different locations we used. I found that sticking to a theme made the editing easier due to knowing what style I had to follow. For example, at the very start, I stuck to graffiti everywhere in black and white which really fitted the genre.

At the very start of the music video I used slow motion in order for the shots to go with the beats and I also wanted to show the different contrasts between the fast rapping by our actors.

Grime Moodboard