Fact File: Jack English

Jack is our main male lead. He meets Olivia and Josie at a party and is instantly enticed by them. At the start of the song/music video, he feels like he can be in control of the two girls, by being their puppet master and in charge of their actions/emotions/behaviour. But when this power is subverted and the girl are in control, Jack is so taken by the female leads that he just follows them by a lost puppy. Still he continues in his ways to try and get the girls attention, simply because they are not interested. Towards the end of the video Jack slips both girls his number, who look at him with a sigh and tear it up in front him.

Fact File: bass guitarist

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Band member name: May Winter

Age: 20

Relationship status: single

Favourite colour: Dark Red

Place in band: bass guitar

Hair Colour:

Skin Colour:

Shoe Size: 6

Dress Size:

Eye Colour:

Favourite Song: Florence and the machine- you’ve got the love

Favourite Movie: all art house films

Favourite Book: taming of the shrew

Talents: can style/dye hair

Hobbies: gardening, playing guitar, directing

A Secret: I am a scrabble champion

Inspiration: My dad, who paid for all my guitar lessons

Favourite subject at school: Media Studies

Least favourite subject at school: geography

Fact File: drummer

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Band member name: Andreia Stone

Age: 20

Relationship status: Single

Favourite colour: Dark blue

Place in band: drummer

Hair Colour: Brunette

Skin Colour: Slightly Tanned

Shoe Size: 5

Dress Size: 10

Eye Colour: brown

Favourite Song: Marina and the Diamonds- power and control

Favourite Movie: Spiderman

Favourite Book: Romeo and Juliet

Talents: bend her knees backwards

Hobbies: drumming, cooking, writing poetry

A Secret: I dream of going to study performing arts at university

Inspiration: my mum, who has been there for me since I was born

Favourite subject at school: philosophy

Least favourite subject at school: history

Fact File: guitarist/back up vocals

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Band Member name: Olivia rose

Age: 19

Relationship Status: Dating Kieron Smith

Favourite colour: Navy

Place in band: guitar and vocals

Hair Colour: Blonde

Skin Colour: Ivory skinned

Shoe Size: 5/6

Dress Size: 10

Eye Colour: Blue

Favourite Song: Taylor Swift- I knew you were trouble

Favourite Movie: Finding Nemo

Favourite Book: In Cold Blood

Talents: Sings

Hobbies: guitar, singing, song writing

A Secret: Still sleeps with a teddy bear at night

Inspiration: my older sister, who kept me strong when I felt lost

Favourite subject at school: English

Least favourite subject at school: science

Fact File- lead singer

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Band member name: Josie Diamond

Age: 19

Relationship status: Dating Nate Parker

Favourite colour: Dark Purple

Place in band: Lead singer

Hair Colour: Brunette

Skin Colour: Olive tones

Shoe Size: 5

Dress Size: 10

Eye Colour: Green

Favourite Song: Mumford & Sons- winter winds

Favourite Movie: Harry Potter

Favourite Book: Looking For Alaska- John Green

Talents: singing, dancing, acting

Hobbies: gymnastics, swimming and shopping

A Secret: I have a secret tattoo

Inspiration: My best friend, she is always there for a hug and with chocolate

Favourite subject at school: Drama

Least favourite subject at school: Maths

Fact File: percussionist (aka symbols)

Band member name: Michaella Sparks

Age: 18

Relationship status: has a boyfriend of 18 months, Jamie Carter

Favourite colour: Green

Place in band: symbols

Hair colour: light brown

Skin colour: light tanned

Shoe size: 5

Dress size: 8

Eye colour: brown

Favourite song: Rhianna- California king bed

Favourite movie: p.s I love you

Favourite book: The perks of being a wallflower

Talents: I’m a good sketcher and sculptor

Hobbies: ice skating, running and making cookies

A secret: my guilty pleasure is singing show tunes

Inspiration: my nan, always believed in me and supported me

Favourite subject at school: Art

filming schedule

This is a message to everyone we have asked to star in our music video, arranging times and dates that we can begin to film. Because we are using the drama studios at school, we have to make sure that A) everyone can make it, B) the studios are free (which i have double checked that they are) and C) that it is after the 10th.

Other Inspirations:

Even though this video clip is not from a music video, it is from the film Coyote Ugly, the stereotype we are trying to imitate the male lead is the same. This scene portrays the women behind/on the bar being in control of this easily manipulated man.
We cannot stress how similar our themes are, and how we hope to create a music video with similar attributes to this clip.

filming schedule

Today we created a filming schedule. It was harder than we thought it would be because we had to consider a lot of members of our band and those involved with our music video. That is the problem with having a big production, but we have worked around it and have managed to fit in times and dates.

Producion Company (by May)

WWSD?: What Would She Do?
I came up with this name late one night whilst brainstorming other possible production company names. I then researched the top 40 music video production companies ever and looked at what came up. This gave me a higher chance of inspiration when trying to come up with a name of mine. Then I reflected back on our theme, and knew I wanted something that was in-sync with it. Now the essence of female control and power grows every day, and then I read something on Twitter that I know a strong Christian would say about their leader Jesus, What Would Jesus Do? And that gave me the inspiration to think clearly about our own company name. I decided to change the words 'Jesus' to 'females' but then thought about making it more specific to us, and by changing 'females' to 'she'- I have created a stronger connection to the audience, with a thought process of 'if she can do it, do can I'. This saying can be used in every day life, such as the work place, as well as in casual situations like a party, which is the setting of our video.

Idea Adapatation: (By Olivia)

In today's lesson (15th November) we decided that adding a 5th girl member to our band would be a good idea. The point of having a 5-member edgy girl band is to amplify the theme of female control, and how women can have the upper hand in certain situations, only if given the chance to. For example, having a 5th member increases the girl to guy ratio, which is now 5:1, and in this instance our guy (Jack) doesn't know which way to look, and that causes him grief. It also adds a 5th character, and so our target audience and one more person to relate to. We have done this for our audience because it stretches our target to wider prospects. However, we had sturggled to come up with an instrument for our 5th member, but after lsietning to the song on repeat, we have discovered that our new band member will play the symbols. So now our band consists of: a drummer, a symbolist/percussionist, a lead guitarist, a bass guitarist and a lead singer.

Album Art

In today's lesson, my sole focus is our Album Art. We have decided to try and be as creative as possible, by initiating similar photos that have been reflected in our music video. For example, we have found a photo of lots of pairs of lips, coloured brightly in red lip paint and each holding a different pose. We know we are going to be using close ups of lips, with bright lip paints so we thought we would add that to our album cover. (This photo was found on a tumblr site, credit goes to the owner.) We also plan to crop this photo, and only use two or three of the pairs of lips.

 A photo of our four member band would also be useful, which will give the audience a personal connection with who they're listening to. We have decided to do a 'photo shoot' with the band, using my Nikon SLR camera, getting both natural camera shots and posed photos for our album cover. We have also decided that inside our album case, our booklet will have the lyrics of the song, and fact files on each member of the band. We have chosen to do this because it shows direct address with the audience, and they can decide who they connect most with and can each have a favourite member.

Theme/Idea Changes (by May)

After close analyisis of the song lyrics (Rogue Traders- Voodoo Child) we had a sudden change of idea. Instead of having the female star in control of the male star, we have thought to not only add another female character, but to also have the male in control at first, and having the females 'gaining the upper hand' and subverting the power to be in their favour.

We decided to add a female character so that when the control/dominance is subverted, the effect takes its toll on the audience in a much bigger way. For example, by using a second dominant female charatcer, it gives the audience a more detailed specification of power and also the spectators can relate to the different stars, in related and unrelated ways.

The reason we decided that the guy would take some control in the beginning of the video is because it is a more realistic situation, having the guy be the dominant figure, especially with other recent media types that have been around lately, and to then subvert the power via the main girls. Also the song enlists a line saying 'play me like a puppet' and so we are adapting our theme around the explicit lyrics.

In today's lesson we looked very closely at the lyrics of VooDoo Child by Rogue Traders and we have now decided that although the video will mainly be about female control, for the first two verses the boy starring in the video will be in control and Josie and myself, the girls in the video, will be dressed as VooDoo dolls/puppets. We also decided that I would be added to the main characters in the video. 

Music Video Directors

James Ash:
'Voodoo child' by Rogue Traders was originally recorded in australia, made it in the 2005 charts in uk.

James Ash joined Austrailian radio station 'Hitz' in 1993 and became a DJ in local clubs in late 1993.

Since 1994 Ash has released over forty remixes and original productions under names including:

Faith In Technology, Thunderchild, Elan, Union State and Rogue Traders.

I would choose James Ash to be our music video director as he co-produced and was a member of the Rogue Traders band, so therefore he already has experience with the song and would understand how we wanted to do things. He also has various music experience, which is very helpful with a theme as broad as ours, so he would be helpful and a very professional and structured man to work with.

TMS:
TMS produced Little Mix's song 'DNA' which has a very similar themed video to our idea so the producer/director would be a good and professional person/group to use as we have seen successful evidence of their video and the production company doing a good job.

TMS are an English song writing and record producing team, originating from West London. Tom Barnes, Ben Kohn & Peter Kelleher are all a part of the TMS production team, associated with genres such as: electronic, pop and hip-hop.

Their name derives from a local graffiti crew and the acronym has various meanings. Their first studio was a converted garden shed in Ealing, from where they initially started releasing UK garage pop on their own imprint.

I personally would thoroughly enjoy working with TMS, given the success they have had with other mainstream artists, and some indie artists too. The Little Mix song 'DNA' is a huge success for my group because of the similar themes that are portrayed in the video.

Other media texts that influenced us (by olivia)

Themes from:
Books: (house of night, 50 shades)
Films: (grease, grease 2, hairspray)

The 'house of night' novels are written by combined authors PC and Kristen Cast, a mother and daughter duo. The main narrative of these books are of vanpires and the supernatural, but the themes from the main character Zoey Redbird, relate to those we want to use in our music video. For example, Zoey has a strong character, she is looked up to and idolized, which our main star will be too.

Similarly, 50 shades of grey have similar themes that we are focusing on in our music video, only we have initiated a role reversal. In the book, Christian Grey is the character with the power and has control over Ana Steele, whereas in our video it is the female with the dominant role. (Obviously 50 shades is an inappropriate book to focus on, we are just relating themes to our video.) My group and I have just related certain themes from the previously mentioned books to our music video, in a minor way.

50 shades mainly, but also the 'House Of Night' novels, also include a variety of voyeuristic traits, which we also wish to relate in our video.

We had the idea to use intertextuality in our music video, and for this we have decided to use similar themes and costumes and settings from Grease, which we know was a popular era/decade and would also broaden our target audience by inviting a new type of spectator to enjoy our themes. By using similar costume/clothing to Grease in our video, we are introducing a specific type of consumer to become a part of something inclusive.