Script Addition - Seyi

I found vital information today to add to the script which contains more current news. I remembered watching TV, and the news was Taylor Swift removed her music from Spotify. I retrieved formal information, such as quotes and more from the Rolling Stone website and the Independent website. Below is my addition to the script. My next post will be the new 3 column script.



In November, Taylor Swift, removed her catalogue from Spotify last year, because she believes allowing listeners to play her music for free undermines the value of her “art." She states, "I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music." she then goes on to say "I felt like I was saying to my fans, "If you create music someday, if you create a painting someday, someone can just walk into a museum, take it off the wall, rip off a corner off it and it's theirs now and they don't have to pay for it," she said.

Her record label president, Scott Borchetta, refers to her decision as a "big fist in the air" that other prominent artists are sure to follow. He then goes on to say "If a fan purchased t
he record and then their friends go, ‘Why did you pay for it? It’s free on Spotify,’ we’re being completely disrespectful to that superfan."
So was Taylor right to remove her music from the streaming service?
According to Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, Swift's fans have since been listening to her music on YouTube, making the whole idea pointless.

Ek told Billboard "her YouTube streams went through the roof, What that tells me is the audience that was listening to Taylor Swift on Spotify went on YouTube to do it instead.

Vox Pop Question - Seyi

1. Who is your favourite artist and how do you listen to their music?
2. Do you think paying for music is fair?
3. Do you prefer Soundcloud (free access to music, and easier access to unsigned artists) or Apple Music/Tidal (high quality sound, live shows, buying tickets, easier access to all types of music)

GUIDE

• Give this to interviewees beforehand
• Make sure you get answers in full sentences, such as 'I use Apple Music to listen to Solange,' but yet short and simple
• For question 2, we need different types of people. Such as:
• the person who is concerned about their pocket
• the person who thinks it's fair for the artist
• the person who believes its fair as long as you're getting your money's worth
• the person who thinks it's fair for themselves, etc.
• For question 3, we need answers such as 'I prefer ___ because ___'
• possible answers:
• Soundcloud - because it provides... free access to music, and easier access to unsigned artists
• Tidal - because it provides... high quality sound, live shows, buying tickets, easier access to all types of music, get to listen to certain things before anyone else, sometimes give their consumers free tickets to exclusive events (e.g Yeezy Season _ fashion shows

Publishing website - Arman

Today I have added finishing touches to the website and decided that it was time to publish it.  Starting from today there will be weekly news updates on the site in accordance to independent british artists, the site is far from perfection, however keeping the readers of the blog in the dark was a bit harder than we thought.  So we thought that we might as well let you guys in on the site.   And add some small changes to the interface over time.







http://independentmusicnewslondon.weebly.com

html coding for the Weebly site - Arman

I'm currently working on the weebly site trying different html codes in order to create a sidebar which isn't applicable with the normal website builder.  I have run in to a few errors and problems.  I am unsure as to how long this could take but a rough estimate is 2 days hopefully
 here is a sample of what has been done so far:
 <div class="left">{content}</div>
        <div class="right">{sidebar:content}</div>

This should hopefully end up creating a divide between 2 articles, as I am currently attempting to make a independent side of the news and a global section, keeping both on the same page but divided.  Keeping the independent music news in the centre and the global news smaller to the right hand side of the page.  

Interview script for reporter and interviewee - Arman

Here os a preview of the script I am working on for our final video for when The formal interview takes place with music producers.

Real life comparisons - Seyi

Complex News

Central Question

Logo & Opening Sequence

• 2 seconds long 
• It's logo only has 3 simple colours. This brings about brand recognition, as the colours let their viewers know exactly what they are watching.
• The opening sequence is a simple graphic with the logos coming out like one blossoming out of the other.

Presentation

• Greeted with: 'What's up guys, Nadeska here for Complex News.' Signed off with: (reference to where you can contact them or access more information) 'I'm Nadeska for Complex News.'
• The topic, comes up as a simple title, and a photo relating to the title above it. With music news, there is celebrity always mentioned, so having a photo would be more meaningful to the viewer. 
• The presenter introduces herself after the question. 
• Her twitter handle fades in, after she says complex news, and the 'complex news' titling fades out, below her name, this is because complex news has a contemporary aesthetic, and their viewers are teenagers and young adults.
• The background is a simple camo style backdrop. This may be because colour is used to keep their youthful and contemporary aesthetic, something too natural or simplistic might ruin it

• In the screenshot above, in the top left hand corner is the news programme's handles for all their social media platforms, for viewers to reach out to them, this may also be for the same reason as to why the presenter's handle appeared in the beginning
• When photos related to what she says comes up, it either zooms in or jump cuts 

Vox Pops

Unlike other niche or even mainstream news packages, Complex News has an unconventional and modern take on vox pops.

Introduction

• A series of jump cuts from music videos in the background, and simple white titling to introduce what the vox pop is about. 
• Mise-en-scene - most of the videos in the background are all in dark shades, until it gets to the album which the interviewee is talking about, then it becomes light, in order to distinguish the topic from the opening sequence.

Presentation

• Their name and job title appears under their name
• The album picture appears before they say their opinion, and pictures and videos related to what the person is saying also pops up
• Videos relating to the artist they are discussing are playing in the background. So, rather than the conventional street and people in the background, there was a simple backdrop in order to satisfy aestheics
• Interviewees are dressed casually. Even though they work their viewers are sure of the news channels informal nature which reflects on their work attire.

Interviews

Introduction

• Greeted with: 'What's up guys, Nadeska here for Complex News, and I'm hanging out with the one and only Gucci Mane. Thank you for joining me.' 
• Names and handles of both the interviewer and the interviewee appear below them

Presentation

• There are only 2 shots:

A mid shot...

... and a close up shot of the artist. There is no close up shot of the interviewer, because the artist holds the most significance in this conversation.

• Mise-en-scene 
• Props - there is a balloon palm tree and a cushion Notorious BIG on the window sill. There is a pillow on the couch with the logo on it, the logo is also on the cue cards in Nadeska's hand. There are posters of Jordans and covers of previous Complex magazine issues, and christmas/fairy lights on the wall.
• Costume - casual attire
• Lighting - high key lighting
• Setting - A small informal room, with one couch to show a civil relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee

• There are jump cuts to images and videos relating to what he is saying 

Website

• The homepage has mostly links to news articles. The top part of the homepage was large photos with the headline under or on it.
• The logo is really small in the top left corner of the webpage, while on the top right corner are links to their social media and a search bar.
• Then editor's picks bar with links to articles recommended by the editor
• Then below this are links to latest stories and laters videos
• The lower toolbar contains links to their main social media profiles: Facebook and Twitter. In the far left corner there is the logo and a link to their style website.

VICE

Introduction

• Rather than have the standard opening sequence or a greeting from the interviewee, the video starts with an not even an infographic, but information in text to introduce the topic at hand.
• Greeting - as thins is an interview in his domain, the interviewee greeted him with "You must be Ed. New Jersey Weedman," and his name and occupation comes up below screen.

Presentation 

• When the interviewee did not explain the temple he was referring to right, then there was a voiceover of the interview giving further expiation.
• Interesting shots relating to the matter are shown. For example: the American flag connotes their critique of the American government legislation. There are shots of people smoking weed and congregations to represent the happenings of what goes on in the temple
• There are also news story and social media images appearing to support the facts said by the voiceover.
• Mise-en-scene
• Costume - Casual attire and Ed in his work uniform, blends in with the theme in his store
• Lighting - natural, however high key to support the positive image of ed and his business attempting to be portrayed
• Setting - Ed's weed store and temple, the court house and the court room

Although the video above is not an interview, I gained inspiration from this. The video starts with music, then a killer first sentence to commence the interview. His voice is turned into a voiceover, while the visual is of him doing the work he is talking about. Then the video is returned to him seated and talking. - I felt this would be good to include in our news package, because some of our footage was a bit unsatisfactory, considering the lighting and camera movements and angles.

Musik

The video above also gave me inspiration on how to manage footage which is not up to standard.

Opening Sequence

Opening sequence is just 3 seconds long with just the 'Musik' as the only titling
They then used a filter, as one can tell they have a colour scheme of yellow, black and white. This shows, as when they show the artist's music video it is split into natural colours and a yellow filter. It also shows where they write the interviewer and interviewee's names.

Interview

• It has their music video playing in the background
• It also has the interview footage in the centre in a portrait box. I can tell they had originally shot it on a phone in portrait orientation, so to solve the issue of using poor quality footage, they cropped the video as if it were intentional, and used their music video in the background to distract viewers from concentrating on the quality.





• this gave me inspiration on how to handle Samit's phone footage, this way we may not waste it.
• I also noticed the use of graphics played a significant part in narrating the questions from the interviewer
• The colour scheme never fell out of place

Clevver

Introduction

• Started with just an overview of what they would be discussing. They had done this by laying out all their central questions and supporting them with images related to the topics. 
• These are supported with pictures relating to the topic. 
• The audio over the images has an animated tone, everything said with excitement - informal manner.
• This is then followed by a 3 second opening sequence with graphics containing short one second clips of celebrities
• Their central colour is purple, and this is shown in the logo, opening sequence, graphics and setting.

Presentation

• They had used graphics to create a bar containing their names at the edge of the glass table and beneath that is bar containing their social media handle.
• Greeted with 'what's up you guys, and welcome to the Daily Hollywood Rundown, I'm hanging out with Emile,' The rest of the presentation is followed by jokes, accent changes, opinions, hugs, laughing and squeals. This gives a sense of a friendly and hyper environment, and emphasising on the informal theme.
• When reading out quotes, they are shown on the screen in a small centred text box. It also has a blurred music videos behind it.
• When a fan video was used, it was also placed in the centre, with the background as the blurred version of the actual video.
• All the videos and images made large to support the news, are used with a quick glowing purple flash filter and dramatic transitions (with sound)
• Mise-en-scene
• Costume - the presenters are dressed informally in casual clothing
• Lighting - high key lighting
• Props - on the table, they have papers on the table to prompt them with the next thing to say. Their phones are also placed on the table
• Setting - There 2 are screens with simple graphics and 1 screen with just the logo. there is also a fake window, making it look as if their studio is behind the HOLLYWOOD sign

Ideas I Drew From These Conventions

• For our vox pops - rather than do it on the streets, it would be unique and edgy to take a leaf out of Complex's book and get people seated in front of a green screen and make it look like staff interviews, and then  use music videos as the background.
• In order to keep Samit's phone footage, or any other portrait footage, we can place it on the centre of a blurred duplicated background
• We need a central colour (I discussed this with the group, and we chose purple, based on the Flume footage used at the end of the opening sequence)
• Mise-en-scene
• Costume - casual outfits only
• Lighting - high key, we should use extra lighting for higher quality footage
• Props - we can use cue cards, and have our phones in the shot. In fact, we can use our phones just like how phones were used in my footage from my Chip interview footage
• Setting - we should use a background of graphics, like in Complex News to maintain simplicity
• As for the website: I feel like no complexity in the homepage, however fill it with links. Pictures would be nice, to keep it edgy.

Planning for 2nd Interview - Rye, Arman & Samit

As of right now, we have had no response from our original client and so we are currently working on an alternative solution for our second interviewee. As a result we've decided to find an upcoming producer around our age,  this will more relatable to our target audience as they themselves are highly likely to be attempting to get in the same industry so having an interviewee that is young and is new to the industry will get create a greater connection. Our current producer that we are looking to interview is 'MC Teetoe'. We hope to get a swift response allowing us to progress with our newscast