Keith Negus Theory // Organic and Synthetic

Negus theory is about Organic and Synthetic ways of promoting artists.

Every artist out there has been through the process of being marketed in a specific way. Fx. Adele is an Organic produced artist. They are selling her image by telling girls even if they are not model skinny they can make it as a singer. She seems like your everyday woman in the way that she has the occasional cigarette and her songs are mostly played with a piano playing and her singing. Girls look up to her and feel they can relate also through her songs, but this is an image that has been formed for her. This is the way she is most sellable. If they had marketed her with the style and image of Nikci Minaj that would not have gotten them the money they have now.

If you are a Synthetic artist, or a boy band like One Direction, the record company makes there money by selling one-hit wonders. It’s is very pop, often dance music that captures people in. One Direction as well as appealing to teenage girls also appeal to younger kids because there music is quite “Soft” as in one of their songs they sing “baby you light up my world like nobody else” and is friendly. They boys have been formed by the record company to appeal to the audience they way they do. They are very big stars, fx with a synthetic star like Lady GaGa she is so famous that she is out of reach, and people aspire to see these stars as they are so known and hyped over the world. 

Account of preliminary music video shoot

We all met up in the studio to film our prelim music video. First we were all taught a couple of fact about the cameras we were going to use, it was more of a refreshment for our memories since the last time we properly filmed was our thriller. We were refreshed about the white balance, exposure, focus etc. Then we all split into groups of around 5, my group was Anne-sophie, Lavinia, Genevieve, Genevieve and Myself. Our given song was Jessie J Feat. B.O.B – Price Tag, which we before hand had learnt the lyrics to.

They had three different set ups that we could use. The first set we used was to create a tracking shot. That is where you have a camera and a chair attached to it, where it is attached to a kind of rubber rope and you can slide it forth and back and shape it however you want. We all had to try being the different roles of directing, acting and operating the camera. So for this first shot Anne-sophie and I were acting/singing together we filmed as so: First I was filmed walking from the one side where they tracked me then I hit the other side of the wall and they tracked Anne-sophie walking the other way, then half way back again where she met me again. Later on I tried being behind the scene of the tracking and found it rather difficult to control the camera in tact with everything else, but I learnt that if you use marks and have an agreement of how fast the people in the shot will be moving it makes it easier to know how to film in tact with them.

The next set we did was a still camera up lined up in front of the wall. In this shot we found it easier to get close ups as the actors had space they could move in and because we have worked with camera standing still before. Our next set up was quite similar, but the background was a green screen, which would be helpful if we had to use a different backdrop. The problem here was that the one actor in the shot was much taller than the other actor, so we solved the problem by putting the tripod up as high as we could ant tilted the camera slightly to the right. Following we did a couple more takes and it was a rap.

We then went to the editing room and put all our footage from the different groups on to the computer. We used final cut pro to edit.  We then sorted the files into three different groups: track, green screen and wall. We then were taught how to make the videos synch with the actual track from Jessie J. In the beginning of every take we took before we started the playback there would come three beats. We then took 8 clips that we all dragged on top of each other where the first beat started. Then we put down the Jessie J track for the audio and locked it so that it wouldn’t be taken out of time and so that we could delete the audio from the other video clips so we could get a clean sound. Now that all of the videos and the music were in tact we could edit in between all the different clips as they were in top of each other we could easily use the “B” key for blade to cut in the clip and then “A” key for arrow so we could delete the excess and pull back the rest of the clip. This was done throughout for the chorus of the song, which we were doing; we cut in between the different sentences between the different sequences and I’m very pleased with the end result.  

Lately we have been looking at literal videos, and are in the process of making our own which is very fun. The idea with this is that someone has chosen a video by either a pop star or pop performer and redone the lyrics to the music and have re-recorded it. One of our examples was Bonnie Tyler's: Total eclipse of the heart

And here is another example with the singer James Blunt: You're Beautiful

Christina Aguilera Pop Star

This is a powerpoint i have done about the pop star Christina Aguilera where i have followed her career through time and incorporated the ideas of Keith Neguus Richard Dyer.

A Narrative Music Video

Here's a powerpoint I have done of a narrative music video, to present the typical aspects that are in it and the different meanings.

A2

I’ve started A2 and we have begun to learn about the music industry and discussed and studied the ideas of Richard Dyer and Keith Neguus. We have been taught about the difference between the “pop star” and the “pop performer”. Following we have looked at different music, music videos and types like a narrative music video. We’ve begun to look at this because later this year we are going to create our own music video where we will use all the theories we have learnt. We have also worked on album covers and what image they are portraying from the fonts, the picture and weather it is an organic or synthetic image. We will use this later as we will create our own album cover.

This year i expect to learn a lot about the industry and how the different images are created and what theories are behind these ways. I’m looking forward to creating a music video, i know this will be a challenge because it is a different challenge then our thriller, as the way we will be editing will be different because it most likely will match the song in the background, and because this is the case we have to create a very detailed storyboard to follow, and the continuity throughout the sequence. I’m also looking forward to making a CD cover as it will be fun to create you’re own image and to see how you could catch peoples attention by the cover of the album you are putting out, as this will be the first thing people see if the walk past it in the store.