Artist Website

This is the website that we have created for our artist, Dean Moriarty. We tried to make it as similar to websites by other country artists as possible, by making it pretty simple and not really very good at all. It includes album promotions, a gallery with the photos we took in Guildford and a photo from Simon's Dakota Stars days, contact information, tour dates, merch and a biography of Dean. Lillian mostly dealt with the website as Anna and myself were busy editing. Apart from a few of the pictures, the website is all in black and white so that it looks dreary and depressing, just like our song. It's a little bit more towards the alternative end of the scale as opposed to the country, but then again if it was country, this would be a playbill and not a website in the first place. We may or may not have done away with the sweaty close-up by now; see for yourself.
http://annaspyropoulos.wix.com/deanmoriarty 

Front Page, don't sweat it Simon

I don't think we have the same picture anymore and included on the front page are the album release dates and promotions.

Biography

And here is included a brief, concise biography of Dean.

Gallery

Pictures of Dean, mostly from Guildford.

Online Merch Booth

A selection of some of the Dean merchandise you can buy including clothing and accessories.

Contact & Tour Dates

For just in case you want to see or get in touch with Dean.

Test Shoot

We went into the studio today to do a test shoot of our video and get a general idea of how the shots are going to work on shoot day.  This was an important stage for us, as we all learned to use the new camera, a SONY FS100. Although the idea we went into the studio with changed, it was good to get a feel for the space and how we can change our initial idea.  We ran through several of the scenes that we did keep, including the bar scene (although slightly altered) and the 'all is vanity' skull. We had no extras in to act as the various characters that appear in the video, so I was the barman, Lillian was the 'all is vanity' skull, Anna filmed and Bob was in charge of moving the set pieces.  This is a key point in the planning stage for our video, which will give us direction on the shoot day and solidify our art direction concept.

Providing Lyrics To The Cast Member

Here is the song which our star will be learning for the day of the shoot.  It is essential that he knows the lyrics to make the lip synch more convincing:



It should be noted that our song is cut down from six minutes to somewhere around the three mark, due to it being a promotional single, meaning that not all of the lyrics below are included in the song. We had to cut down the length of the song in order to retain audience interest, as music video watchers are unlikely to be able to pay attention to a song for an entire six minutes. The lyrics are as follows:

Woman When I’ve Raised Hell:

Woman when I’ve raised hell, you’re gonna know it
There won’t be a shadow of doubt in your bright little mind
No pictures left hangin’ only lonely unpainted nails
Ah Honey you’ll connect those dots read the writin’ on the walls
Woman when I’ve raised hell, heaven knows you’re gonna know it
Don’t make me rule this home with the back of my hand
Just let me sit alone in this chair, my own make believe little throne
Ah Honey and collect the thoughts that’ll help me to stand
Honestly, why can’t you just let it be
And let me quietly drink myself to sleep
I said honestly, it’s not what it appears to be
But only memories that ain’t got shit to do with you
Woman when I’ve raised hell, you’re gonna know it
There won’t be a shadow of doubt in your bright little mind
No pictures left hangin’ only lonely unpainted nails
Ah Honey you’ll connect those dots read the writtin’ on the wall
Woman when I’ve raised hell, there won’t be a star left untouched in your sky
When my lightening crashes across that night
No shadows of doubt or of turnin’ in that questioning’ little mind
Just a burnin’ rekindled truth and one single agonizin’ blinding white light
Cuz honestly, Honey you are the Queen
But you had better leave or I will be forced to be King
So now quietly, without questions or screams
Just gently leave it well enough alone
Woman when I’ve raised hell, you of all people are gonna know it
There’ll be nothin’ not nailed down left unturned in this home
Then your old friend silence will creep back into this pettiest of all places
He’ll ask you again, “Which is better or for worse, livin’ with me or livin’ with all my ghosts?”
Honestly, why can’t you just let it be
And let me quietly drink myself to sleep
Honestly, it’s not what it appears to be
But only memories that ain’t got shit to do with you
Woman when I’ve raised hell, heaven knows you’re gonna know it
There won’t be a shadow of doubt in your bright little mind
No pictures left hangin’ only lonely unpainted nails
Ah Honey you’ll connect those dots read the writin’ on the walls

Album Cover Designs

We started to plan and in my case sketch out some album cover ideas. We took our initial inspiration from Jonathan Wilson's 'Fanfare' and Daughn Gibson's 'Me Moan'. These albums had the necessary elements of Americana to define them as country, such as blue sky, white clouds and churches whilst giving the impression that both the artists and their listeners are loners and outcasts by being quite dark and aged looking as well as featuring naked women and references to drug usage through the way that the pictures are often blurred, distorted or in lurid colours.



Original Cover Design Sketches

The aged look creates a sense of nostalgia prevalent in Americana music which will attract a large quantity of our target audience, as a large quantity of our target audience is aged and will be able to relate to low quality cameras and photographs sometimes developing a bit wrong, on the album however, this will most likely be done in Photoshop in order to make it look more authentic and original, produced independently and a bit DIY as opposed to backed by buckets of record label money.



The Coffee Pot/Diner Idea

 By using elements of these various album covers (though sadly no nudity, this being a school and everything), we can convey that our artist is of the more sophisticated country variety, rather than the Taylor Swift 'Pop Country' or the more banal 'Bumpkin Country' where the singer tells us about the cow he bought at the market, or was it his wife?






Our 'Open Road' Idea

Talk With Emily From Polydor

A representative of Polydor records came in to talk to us about music videos, record labels and the music industry in general. Her name is Emily. Emily commissions music videos for Polydor and oversees the process of creating a music video, managing the process from budget, filming and production. The budget for a music video can vary widely, anywhere from £1,000 to £150,000, but are typically around the £20-30,000 mark. The budget may change due to external corporate sponsors who are looking for product placement in music videos in exchange for a massive pile of money. Here is an  only slightly relevant, but none the less entertaining clip to help me illustrate the point:

After the budget has been determined she seeks out an appropriate director, often a well known one that she has worked with before, but sometimes she needs someone else to bring something to the video. Any potential director has to present their idea, including the narrative and mood using pictures and video clips. Once she has a director, she has to cast any actors who may appear about the video and arrange a crew, tickets and accommodation. The shoot itself usually lasts one or two days, post production is indefinite. Emily has produced several videos including Ellie Golding's 'Burn'.

Choreographing The Dancers

On Thursday, we had a meeting with all of the dancers that we've picked for our video. Upon devising the choreography, I was pleased to discover that they are a very competent and capable bunch, so it really couldn't have been much better. We also established a few things, that we were going to have to do the Dali skull on the ground and that if we were to do that, we will need dojo mats (but black) so that none of the dancers injure themselves on the hard concrete floor of the studio. We told them the skull motifs that they had to form, and they figured out how to do so by themselves with a little direction from us. Very efficient.

Planning

The Skull

We did try it vertically, but to no avail, which is fine.

Album Photoshoot Guildford

Simon

Paul Weller

Today, the group went down to Guildford to take some pictures of Simon and bet costumes for the dancers. This is about the photo-shoot though, for which Simon, for some unfathomable reason decided to wear a particularly unflattering wig which he has decided he will wear for all shoots including the video. We really tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't relent. There goes any element of seriousness to our video. Anyway, we can pass him off as a Paul Weller lookalike, so we are just going to do that and leave it. We got a bunch of different pictures from Guildford, I have placed an example below, the rest are on Lillian's camera. The pictures are going to need some heavy cropping and doctoring, but they'll do. We decided to go for the urban alt. country thing in the end, because the costumes are in Guildford and it's the only place Simon can be bothered to drive to. It's a shame I didn't get more time to scout more locations, but I have A Levels to do. There are pictures of him in all those urban hangouts that look a bit seedy, alleyways, fire escapes, dodgy looking bars, you get the picture (har har).





Bloodshot Records

To find out more about the label and it's artists, click on the picture to view the label's website.

We decided that our artist would most likely be signed to Chicago-based alternative country record label bloodshot records. There are several artists similar to ours in their repertoire including 'Moonshine Willy', 'Whiskeytown' and 'I'm Not Jim'. Just looking at the label logo, it is clear that this is the perfect record label for our artist, the old western font fits in perfectly with his alternative country image. We think that if he was going to be signed by and label, it would be this one without a shred of doubt, as the values and ideals of the label and it's artists perfectly match those of our artist and video.

Photoshoot Locations

The way I see it, for our album shoot, we can go one of two ways really, either urban or rural Americana type of thing. At the moment, its all up in the air as to what we will actually end up doing, as both of these options are possible and relatively easy to achieve, as there is a major town nearby to our school, which is situated in some fairly dense countryside. There is also a cemetery close by that could be a possibility, as well as some railroad tracks, although they are in use which could result in death, which would be slightly awkward.

Here is the entrance to Peaslake cemetery, I'm not sure if we will actually be able to use a graveyard for a photo-shoot, but it would make a good picture and more than fit in with the artist's gloomy image. It will also probably be raining, which will add to the dreariness.

 This is the kind of shot that would fit in so well with the rural country genre so well, a chap in a Stetson reclining across the railway tracks. Of course, the issue with this is that there aren't any disused lines in England that still have rails due to the price of steel, and the trains run far too regularly to use live ones (though never when I'm on them).

 Going more urban here, I thought the clock tower in Guildford would do nicely for a photo-shoot, it being quite old and everything, it would work for alt. country nicely. Guildford is quite busy though, which means someone would have to lie down to take the picture at an angle like the one above, but it could easily work.

And of course, the classic Americana neon sign in front of a dive bar. There's got to be at least one in Guildford right? If not there should be an abundance of neon signs. But then again, we are in England. Difficult one for image really.

Account Of Shoot Day

In the days leading up to the shoot, we had to prepare for it by issuing blue cards to all of our dancers and actors so that they could get out of lessons, as well as making sure our set pieces were  there and in order. We also went and got the costumes for the dancers, which weren't our original choice, but much more cost effective. Of course one of the most difficult things was getting our performers our of their lessons, but we pulled it off in the end and everything was okay. I think the scale of the shoot that we were undertaking only really occurred to me on the day, due to the complexity and scale of some of the sets and shots. In addition to this, we realised that in order for the skull images to be seen on camera, we were going to have to acquire some white shirts, as most people were wearing black, which wasn't going to work. I was on that particular day, so I make a brief appearance in the video, I'm in the kissing shot with my girlfriend. In the end we managed to find some shirts, which meant that they were recycled for different people in different scenes (but not mine!), which was fine, if not a bit sweaty. I feel that we pretty much captured the kind of imagery that we wanted, especially with all the dancers, we are still undecided whether or not to make the video black and white or leave it in colour. That's something we will figure out during the editing process. In order to get everyone doing something, we took it in turns operating the camera, and each of us also helped with setting up the sets and visual direction of each shot, seeing which angles the skull imagery would work best from. In the end we did a little bit of everything, camera, directing and extras. Bonus!

Me on the camera and Simon on the screen.

 Our shooting schedule was fairly appalling; it was completely neglected, not deliberately I might add, but it meant that we had our dancers hanging around all day and they ended up being the last thing we shot that day. Organisational things like that we could have done much better, but watcha gonna do? Still, when we did get round to them, they were absolutely brilliant and worked really well, which I'm ashamed to say I thought might not be the case. I'm not sure if the same could be said of some of our extras however, nor our singer. After a while, the song began to grate on members of the crew, and many of us grew irritable and short tempered, which probably wasn't good. Little did we know what was to come in a few days time. The shots were difficult to line up, Simon complained of the lyrics being hard to sing and our bartender kept overacting it, swirling the apple juice around in his glass even though you don't swirl whiskey and looking incredibly pained for some reason. I can't really blame him for that, although it did look like he was critically constipated. It basically went downhill from there. In the end, there was a unanimous group decision that Simon should shoot himself, and so he does at the end of the video (and yes, that is included on the final cut). We had to go back and shoot the next day as well, although I can't remember which scene/s, they all just blur together in sorry tangle of suicidal cowboys, apple juice and death threats. I really liked my cameo and operating the camera though. I'm not really too sure that my group worked as a team at all, more like a collective of drafted individuals, which is exactly what we are. I think the main thing I learned from this video to make my next one more successful is to not do a next one, and if I did for some reason, be in it myself and play a song that I wrote or that I wouldn't mind playing over and over again for hours on end. Just leave the producing to someone else. And never country. Never again. Ever. When the words "It's a wrap" were uttered I may have collapsed. I think that following the dreariness, sweatiness and the montage of Simon boozing that made up our video, the website and artwork make him look much too, well, clean. I made an album cover that reflects our video and how much sweat there was much better, but it got rejected on the grounds that the writing was too hard to read. I'll let you be the judge.

New Cover

My Original Cover

Editing Our Music Video

Editing our music video has been the hardest thing about the entire process, apart from perhaps these blogs, but certainly far more painful both physically and psychologically. The first thing I had to do was sort all of the shots into the log and rush bins in Final Cut Pro; all of them and all of them that could be potentially used respectively. This involved watching every single clip and deciding if any part of it could be used, which is always a debatable matter anyway. After a while the slow, droning, moaning song really sinks into your skull and makes you want to kill yourself, but that was only the beginning of my strife. Aligning the time codes so that the lip-syncing matched was another arduous task, worsened by the fact that even though the time codes were in line, human error broke through again, as the lip syncing was still out of time and regularly not even present. I have to admit that the process took much longer than it ought to have, but I feel that it is adequately justified. Continuity was also a complete nightmare. To the point where the video is almost unsalvageable, to me anyway, perhaps someone who knows what they are doing might be able to fix it, my with my limited knowledge of computers, there was little I could do. It meant staying in the editing room for free lessons, lunch breaks and evenings till ten, but achieving very little with the hand we unwittingly dealt ourselves when we filmed the video (which ran overtime as well! We had to shoot over two days). Thanks to the efforts of myself and Anna and the patience of the edit room staff, we now have something that resembles a video sort of. If you were wondering what the narrative is, don't lose any sleep over it, we don't know either. I think there are some shot transitions that we have to do and some tweaking in After Effects, but apart from that, I think it's basically finished. Thank God.

Photoshoot For Digipack

Myself, Anna and Simon headed up to the photography studio in order to attempt to take some half decent pictures of Simon for our digipack cover and, with the aid of a borrowed camera and a 'borrowed' guitar, it actually went pretty well. There are several good pictures, usable even. There are a variety of shots, varying from the more depressed country singer look to a more lively rock n' roll singer/guitarist who thinks that he can take on the entire world. Either of those styles could fit in to our alternative country genre, although because of the son, the first on probably more so. I think that we could possibly use more than one of the pictures, one on the cover, one behind the disk, and one (or more) in the sleeve booklet. Anna directed the shots, Simon was obviously in his element, and I got really angry at the camera. Standard procedure; Snafu. Here, Anna has documented some of the shoot, myself fuming over the camera and one of Simon's many poses.

Johnny cash

The Clash



Simon Posing

Burlesque Cowgirls

The  dancers in our music video were originally going to be wearing white morph-suits seeing as we couldn't have full frontal nudity for the skull motifs, but the idea has changed so that we will now be having burlesque cowgirls to dance, because apparently that will fit in with the style of our video better. That does mean that their clothing will need to be white in order for them to still be able to make the skulls. White clothes can look pretty trashy, however (with and luck) our video will be in black and white, meaning that this will be far less conspicuous than if it was in colour. If not, we will have a lot of covering up to do. The idea is that we want our dancers to fit in with the rest of our video. These dancers will appeal to our target audience of older men as found in the qualitative research that we conducted on target audience. However, young people

Defining Authenticity In Country Music

Although authenticity is a construct, as defining authenticity means that in binary opposition, we are defining something else as being inauthentic or unoriginal. In country music, authenticity is usually derived at by incorporating the following elements;


1. Acting naturally, this means  a naturalness in the performance, showing emotion and heartache. Our song is about a man's turbulent relationship and possibly the regret that he feels because of it, though possibly at his own misfortune rather than his significant other's. Either way though, there is definitely heartache in there.


2. Incorporating elements of a bluegrass style, this means using acoustic instruments. Our singer will have an acoustic guitar, because the song is an acoustic one.


3. The authentic voice in country music is the slightly gravelised and naturalised tone, and possibly slightly out of key too. The point of country is not being in key or 'singing pretty', remember the first country singers were working men.


4. Signifiers of the country genre, for example Cowboy boots, shirt, Stetson, rhinestones and jeans. Our singer will be wearing most of these things, possibly not the rhinestones because he just isn't happy enough to warrant them.



5. Regions of the mind, traditional country music conjures up images of rural and rustic Americana. We are using the signifiers of this, the bar, the freeway, the open road to evoke this region of the mind of traditional country music.


6. Naturalisation, country music should appear natural and draw on traditions of American society. by incorporating the five previous components, we will be evoking a collective memory of country's past to create an illusion of authenticity in our artist.

Western Look: Nudie Suit

The Original And Post '63 Logo

Nudie And One Of His Cars

The flamboyant, rhinestone-studded, brightly coloured attire often associated with contemporary cowboy types actually originated from a Ukrainian born man named Nudie Cohn in the 1940's.  Nudie started out by making western-style suits, but then moved on to things like cars, which would make him extremely famous in later years. He made suit for almost everyone who was relevant in music, Keith Richards, Gram Parsons, ZZ Top, Hank Williams, and of course Elvis Presley with his gold lamé suit to name a few.

Gram Parsons



Elvis' Gold Lamé Suit

Nudie became well known for his bright colours and quality designs and materials. No expense was ever spared where Nudie was concerned, with some of his suits being worth over $10,000 for the materials used alone.

Retro-authenticity is a key construct in creating our artist. We want him to appear original and authentic, whist at the same time contemporary. We want the retro look and feel to our music video, which is where the 'Nudie' style fts in.

Animatic Feedback

Making and then watching the animatic for our music video actually really helped to establish how long shots needed to be, and we found that our video should be much slower paced than we initially thought. Our song is meant to be quite solemn, which means really slow cuts, and we currently have cuts that are five seconds and under, much too quick to portray the desired effect. We however have now edited our animatic (which you will shortly be able to view on this blog) so that the cuts fit the song a bit better. One of the main reasons for it being much faster-paced than it ought to be, on closer inspection, was because some of the shots that were too short were ones that were a continuous shot that had been drawn more than once. We have also extended the performance element at the start of the video to about thirty seconds rather than the five or so that it currently is. All in all though, it gave us a fairly good idea of what our video would look like (at least in terms of cuts) and helped us to see what will work and wouldn't work, which is essentially the point of the exercise.

Storyboard

 

This is the storyboard for our thriller, drawn by Anna and photographed by Bob and Lillian. This is what would become our animatic later on. This depicts, shot by shot the narrative of our music video and the various angles and shot types that we well use.