record label analysis

Polydor Records

Polydor Records is the record label that the song 'Nine 2 Five' by The Ordinary Boys and Lady Sovereign was produced. Polydor originated in Germany and is now owned by the Universal Music Group and is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Here is a link to the official Polydor website: http://www.polydor.co.uk/

In the early 1970s, the main source of income for the label was probably the enormously successful UK band Slade. Later, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the label was also home to The Who and The Jam , and successful British glam rock act Sweet signed on in 1977. 

Polydor remains one of the strongest labels in the country — with artists such as Take That, Girls Aloud, N-Dubz, La Roux, Cheryl Cole, Nicola Roberts, Duffy, Klaxons, Delphic, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Saturdays, James Morrison, Kaiser Chiefs, Boyzone, Alphabeat, The Courteeners, S Club 7, S Club 8, Rachel Stevens and Ellie Goulding. Polydor also has a strong indie roster through the Fiction imprint with acts such as Ian Brown, Bright Eyes, Elbow, White Lies, The Maccabees, Kate Nash, Snow Patrol, Filthy Dukes, and Crystal Castles.

It also acts as the UK label for American-based acts such as Eminem, Queens Of The Stone Age, Limp Bizkit, Timbaland, The All-American Rejects, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Black Eyed Peas, Weezer, Marilyn Manson, Pussycat Dolls, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Sheryl Crow, Dr. Dre, Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga. 

In Spring 2006, Polydor launched Fascination Records, a music label dedicated to pop music. Both Girls Aloud and Sophie Ellis-Bextor transferred to the new label and created groups such as The Saturdays and Girls Can't Catch . Several teen pop acts from US label Hollywood Records, such as the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez & the Scene were also signed to Fascination.

Day 2 of Filming

Yesterday we filmed the main bulk of our lead male role in the song 'Nine 2 Five' by The Ordinary Boys. Our actor was playing the role of the lead singer of the ordinary boys, and we filmed all of our footage in a local park using various different shots and locations within the park.

We are still planning to film more of the lead male role in different locations (e.g car park, urban locations) and we also need to re-film some parts of Lady Sovereign's role and band performance. The next step will be uploading the footage we filmed yesterday onto final cut and then to begin fitting it to the track.

editing lady sovereign footage

After we had finished filming all of Lady Sovereign's involvement in the music video we set about editing our footage on Final Cut Express, we chose to use this piece of software over I Movie as it is a more professional piece of software and there are more different effects and editing options. Here are some screen shots of us editing our work:

Whilst we were editing we discovered the difficulties of matching the lip-syncing to the music with a rap artist, as the pace that Lady Sovereign was rapping at was sometimes quicker than that of our actor. We also realised that we would have to re-film some parts of Lady Sovereign's scene to make the video flow better and to also re-film any shots that did not quite go according to plan. We also need to move onto filming our lead male role and band performance scenes

Music Video Analysis 3 - The View From The Afternoon

Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon

This music video for the song 'The View From The Afternoon' by Arctic Monkeys is based in one location throughout, a deserted council estate with the only common feature throughout is a drummer situated in the middle of this deserted council estate. Firstly the opening shot is a long shot of a man walking through a deserted scene establishing the themes that will continue throughout the music video as a whole, the black and white colours used also add to the sense of emptiness. The first recognition of the drummer in the video also perhaps establishes what genre of music the song is in, as the drum kit and the way the man playing the drums looks has a relevance to rock music, which is ofcourse the genre that Arctic Monkeys are a part of. 

There is also the use of a black and white cut-away a few times, I interpret this to be showing the drummer zoning out before he prepares to play the drums which would make sense as he is playing the drums non-stop for such a long period of time. Most importantly for this music video the drummer hitting the kit is in time with the music, there are several long shots of the drummer and his kit emphasising a sense of isolation. The switch between night and day time makes it clear that he is playing the drums for a long period of time and that he is very dedicated, perhaps reflecting the bands ideology towards their music. In this music video they show the drummer from several different angles (e.g close up, long shot, from behind, overhead) and they also use lots of different shots to establish the council estate location (long shots of buildings, close ups of signs + people on their balconies). 

The shot of the three men tormenting and throwing things at the drummer adds comedic value and also shows how focused the drummer is, also as if he is addicted to playing the drums and nothing can distract him. The music video ends on an uncertain ending leaving the viewer wanting to know what happens next.

Music Video Analysis 2 - 212

212 - Azealia Banks

The music video for the song '212' by Azealia Banks is based in one main location, against a brick wall. The main focus of the whole music video is Azealia Banks as a musician and an icon for modern-day hip/hop music. A close up of Azealia Banks mouth is used repeatedly throughout the video, this emphasises the importance of lyrics in rap music and also points out the fast pace she is rapping at it in points of the song. A effect used in the music video I like is how the video becomes blurs when the music does too, linking the on-screen action to the song itself.

The mid-shots of Azealia Banks on her own and the general movement of her during this replicates the attitude of her as an artist and matches the tone of the song. The two male actors in the music video only have very small and insignificant roles in comparison to Azealia Banks once again showing her importance as an artist. The fast pace of the cuts at the end of the music video match the pace of the music giving a good flow and tempo to the on screen action. The limited use of locations adds simplicity and focus on the artist.

Possible Locations 1

Asides from the locations we have already used in our Lady Sovereign scene, here are some other places we were looking to use in our music video for both the lead male role and band performance scenes. We have stuck to the same basic idea of following the urban genre that the song portrays by using urban locations.

Here are some images of possible location shots:

Day 1 of Filming

In our first day of filming we shot the majority of Lady Sovereign's involvement in the song, we did all of her parts down and alleyway and in a park to emphasise the urban genre that the artist is related with.

We started off filming down an alleyway using a range of different camera angles and shots whilst Lady Sovereign was rapping, so we could cut and edit them during editing to give a flow to the footage in the music video that matched the fast tempo of the lyrics in the song. We then continued our filming in a park where we shot some of our footage against a brick wall with a tripod, we could then use this shot as the base of Lady Sovereign's involvement in the music video and cut away to different angles and shots in different locations. It could be seen that this was influenced by Azealia Bank's music video to the song '212' as it is shot in a similar way.

We may go back and re-film some of the footage as it did not come out quite as I would have like it to and also film a few other ideas to give ourselves more of a range of shots to play with in editing.

Here are some photos from our 1st day of filming our music video: