Planning : Music Video Pitch For Frank Hamilton "Summer"

Planning: Creating An Online Mood Board

Click here to view my mood board.

Here is part of my mood board, simply move your mouse over the image to see reason why I have chosen to add each picture to my mood board as shown below.
I have made this mood board to give the idea of how Frank Hamilton is represented and also general pictures that give you a feeling of what his songs are about.
From looking at this mood board you should be able to get the general idea of what Frank Hamilton's songs are about and what he is like without listening or doing any research into him.

My Chosen Song

Research : Lyric Analysis : Frank Hamilton 'Summer'

To give me a better understand of the song I have chosen I did some lyric analysis, I found the lyrics on the artist's website. From the lyrics to this song I interpreted that when he is talking about 'summer' this is a girl that used to be his girlfriend but they were separated some how and he wants to find her. I know this because at the start it reads 'summer where have you been' then it follows on to say 'I've been trying to remember how you feel on my skin', this tell us that Summer is a person that he then goes on to express how he feels about as the song continues on.
Throughout the song he then goes on to sing about how he feels about her with the chorus implying he will never change how he feels about her.

I have made notes and went into detail about the lyrics some more as shown here:

Afterwards I then went on a website called WordItOut which I entered the lyrics of this song into and made a map of the lyrics with the most used words being the biggest. From the word map you can see  that the most used words are 'summer' which is the name of the song which is a convention to see the song name used a lot in a song, 'change' and 'hope' were also used a lot which are usually used in love songs.

Research: Who Are The Target Audience For My Artist?

James is 20 and was born in Corby, but is currently living in Leicester studying Media at University. James loves Media Studies but is mostly interested in the music aspect of the course as James lives and breathes music; listening to it when he wakes up, when he goes to sleep and everywhere in between when he can. Peter has a huge CD collection including most genres but mainly artists such as Ed Sheeran and Frank Hamilton. Even though James loves his CD collection he still uses Spotify as a way to easily find up and coming artists such as Frank Hamilton who is his favorite artist. James dresses very smartly, like Frank Hamilton, usually with a nice shirt and jeans as he looks up to him as a role model.

Expanding on Frank Hamilton being James' role model he also loves to play the acoustic guitar just like Frank does, and he loves to learn songs from his favorite artists to play with his friend who would sing whilst James plays the guitar. Just as much as James likes to perform he also loves the atmosphere of live performances and attending them himself, as he gets to see how his favorite artists act and behave as they are his role models. James has a lot of friends that like the same music as him, and is always the one to organize days out to see their favorite performers live.

James, like most people his age, is very much into social media. He loves to follow his favorite artists on social medias such as Facebook and Twitter where he can keep up to date on important dates and their life outside of music. He also likes to watch interviews on YouTube a lot as he can find out important dates through these, life events of artists and also just keep up to date on his favorite artists in general. There is information about his favorite artists that he finds out through reading music magazines and other articles also, not just social media, and usually it is more detailed in magazines with articles dedicated to his favorite artists that he can read.In his spare time James likes to play video games whilst listening to his music as this is how he likes to relax during his down time. As James is currently at university he has a lot of revision and research to do and he also likes to listen to music whilst doing this as it helps him keep relaxed and focused.

Research Into Existing Music Video: Jack Garratt - Breathe Life

The music video that i have decided to look into is "Breathe Life" by Jack Garratt. The opening shot of the music video is a shot of what looks like a rocky beach and this shot then pulls out and goes underwater where you are able to see Jack Garratt.

This is only for a small amount of time though. At 19 seconds his head appears from the water and at 21 seconds there is a birds eye view of Jack as he begins to sing his song still with only his head out of water.

At 41 seconds it then goes to a side on shot of Jack and still he is within water and only his head is visible. 

At 1 minute 10 seconds you are able to see a figure in the water with Jack for a very small amount of time.

At 1.13 the beat kicks in and 6 synchronised swimmers jump out of the water surrounding Jack.  Until 1.13 there is only a very slow beat and there is a sad feeling that is within the music.

At 2.06 there is another beat drop and once again the swimmers jump out of the water as the beat drops within the song. This is as if the swimmers are in time with the music throughout the song. At 2.45 it seems as if Jack is giving up and he is now upright within the water and is looking worried. At 2.50 you get a shot of the back of his head and you want to know what is happening to him. 


From 2.50 to 3.18 there is a very strange beat in the background that i think is meant to represent his heart beat as he tries to breathe within the water. Then at 4.01 Jack doesn't sing anymore and starts to fall in the water and the swimmers are there to catch him and take him back to shore which could entail that the swimmers are Jacks angels. At 4.30 the shot begins to crane up and then you just get a look at the open and empty lake.

Overall, I would say that the music video is slightly random as i don't really get what is going on with it. But i do like how when he is within water he is surrounded with the swimmers and how they are synchronised with the beat of the music throughout the whole of the music video.

Research Into Existing Music Video: Ed Sheeran - Bloodstream

Here is a picture of the notes that I had made whilst watching the music video.

The music video that I have decided to look into is "Bloodstream" by Ed Sheeran. The reason that I chose this music video to research this song is because Ed Sheeran is a very similar artist to Frank Hamilton who is the artist that I have picked to use for my music video. Researching this music video will help me a lot as it will allow me to pick out codes and conventions to use in my own music video.

At the start of the music video you can see what is going to happen to the actor in the music video at the end of the story, and as the audience it makes you think how has he got himself into this position and makes you want to watch the video and find out. I think this is a very effective way to intrigue people and get them to watch the whole music video.

From 0:01 until 1:15 in the song you can really get a sense of what the actor is feeling, with the slow music and slow cuts along with the depressing scenes such as the one where he is in a big room around a big table, by himself. You can see that the actor is depressed and lonely in his big house by himself and you can tell that this is could be what drove him into the state that you can see him in at the start.

At 1:15 onwards until near the end of the song you can see that he has decided that he has had enough of feeling depressed and lonely therefore he has started to use his money to host huge parties and the slow motion effect shows this happening throughout. At this point you can really understand his path.

Throughout the song there is a lot of cutting to the beat which really makes you feel engaged with the song that you are listening to and the music video that you are watching. At 3:12 there is an example of this where the actor shoots glass and it cuts along with the beat at this point. This happens a lot during the song and is definitely something I will include within my music video.

At around 3:50 in the song the pace of the music starts to get really slow therefore the cuts and slow pans follow in the music video, whilst still cutting to the beat so that you still feel really engaged with the music video. At this point you can see the whole story come together, from slow and depressing music along with slow cuts and pans up to partying with fast cuts and music then back down to a depressed actor again. 

Overall, I love this music video. When you listen to the song without a music video you just enjoy it for the lyrics and rhythm however when you have the music video along side the music you feel like you are a part of the song and you know the story behind it which I find to be a great way of engaging the audience. After watching this music video I would want to watch another of Ed Sheeran's music videos and enjoy those.

Research Into Existing Music Video: Frank Hamilton - Summer

Here are the notes that I made whilst I watched the music video several times.

The music video that I have decided to look into is "Summer" by Frank Hamilton. The reason that I chose this music video is because it is by far the best music video that Frank Hamilton has made and this is the song that I am going to be creating my own music video to. Researching into this music video would help me a lot because I will be able to pick out codes and conventions to use in my own potentially.










At the beginning of the music video there is an establishing shot of the location of the artist now and then a cut to the child and the location of him as well, clearly showing the link between the characters. For the shot of the artist in the street there is only ambient sounds, which are diegetic, but as the song cuts to the beat to the child you can see there is a colour filter on the screen that are warm summer colours as he even sings the word "summer" first.






During the song there is a few times where the pace of the song gets faster and when this happens the children are running and the cuts pick up and I found that this really engaged you in the video throughout. This is the same concept when the pace of the music is slow therefore the characters are usually walking or sitting. The picture I have chosen shows at the start when the music suddenly picks up in speed and the character runs fast then shortly after it cuts to the artists and the picture projected over him is also moving fast to match the pace of the music.


Throughout the music video there are several shots of the artist singing and this is one of the more common features in a music video, being a feature talked about by Andrew Goodwin in his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Family'. Having shots of the artist like this is very good because it is good for the audience to have a visual representation of the singer and this may make them want to watch him live as they know who they are going to see and how they will perform.







The mise-en-scene throughout the music video is very good and links to the story of the music video very well. The girls outfit is a very stereotypical outfit for a young girl and this is the same with the young boy who also has a stereotypical outfit. You can clearly see the necklace of the girl and the woman is the same as well which really involves you in the love story.






Overall, I really like this music video. There are several conventions that are used in this music video from the love story sort of genre. The conventions were very effective because they kept me, as the audience, involved and interested in the story. The music video also represents the artist, Frank Hamilton, very well as he is dressed smart throughout and does nothing negative giving people a good idea of how he will perform live and will want to go watch him.

Research: Detailed Research Into Chosen Artist/Band

Frank Hamilton is an English singer-songwriter and producer who is currently living in London. Frank Hamilton was born in October 4th, 1985 and is 29 years old.

Frank took an early interest in music with Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly as his the artists he looked up to.

Frank first tried both trumpet and drums but failed however he then got an electric guitar on his 16th birthday and started to write songs.

Frank is most well known for his #OneSongAWeek album that he did back in 2012 which he wrote, recorded and released himself. This album went to number one on the iTunes singer/songwriter section overtaking big names such as Ed Sheeran.





Frank Hamilton also can several media outputs:

Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Website
Soundcloud
Instagram

Here in an interview with Frank Hamilton:


Here is a Frank Hamilton music video:

Reflection on my AS results

My overall grade in AS media studies was a D. With my coursework being a B and my exam being extremely poor. I wasn't expecting such a poor exam result as I thought I did pretty well afterwards, writing a lot with a lot of media terms. I must have seriously miss-read the questions or talked about the wrong things for too long.

For my A2, as I am on my own for coursework, I am hoping to get myself an A grade or at least a B again and perform better in the exam ofcourse.

Research: Detailed Research Into a Potential Artist/Band

Ed Sheeran was born 17th february 1991 and is an English singer-songwriter and musician.
He was born in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk.

Ed moved to London in 2008 to pursue his music career by joining the Artist Development course at Access to Music.

Ed, in early 2011, went on to release an independent expended play called "No. 5 Collaborations Project" which got the attention of both Elton John and Jamie Foxx. He was then signed by Asylum Records and his debut album "+" was certified 6x platinum in the UK.

Ed won two Brit Awards for "Best British Male Solo Artist" and "British Breakthrough Act" in 2012.

Ed Sheeran released two albums with his record company called "+" and "X".

 

"+" being his first album with Asylum Records (2011) and got him international attention and a awards as mentioned above in 2012.
His second album being "X" which won the Brit Award for "British Album of the Year" and performed it across the world selling out three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium in July 2015.

Ed Sheeran has several media outputs:
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Website
Soundcloud
Instagram

Interview:


An older music video:


Newest music video:


As you can tell even by the difference in production value in his music videos how far he has come as an artist.