Lip Syncing Exercise

We created some lip syncing videos, as practice for when we film our music video. We decided to film two to highlight the difference between lip syncing song vs rapping.

The Internet - Under Control: Lip Sync

This is the chorus of Under Control, the song we're planning to film our music video to. We felt it was important to get some experience with lip syncing before filming.

The chorus itself is quite slow which made lip syncing fairly easy to do. The technique we used was playing the song out loud and lip syncing to that; when it came to editing we matched the music to the video, which didn't take too long. When filming in the locations we plan to, especially London Underground and Camden, it might prove difficult to do so as the location is loud which means listening to the track will be hard. This is something we can't do anything about for now, as it depends on how busy the location is when we arrive. One idea is to use speakers when filming in loud locations, but then it might be difficult to place them out of shot during filming. I've noticed that I found it difficult to look directly at the camera when filming, which is something I'll have to improve on when we actually film as it's crucial that in music videos there are shots where the audience can clearly identify the artist and therefore build a relationship with them, which is a theory Andrew Goodwin states. 

Overall, I found lip syncing to this relatively easy, which gives me hope for when we film. 

Nicki Minaj ft. Beyonce - Feeling Myself: Lip Sync 

This is the chorus to Feeling myself, we chose this song to highlight how different it is lip syncing to a fast paced rap compared to a song. 

The chorus is fairly fast, but I didn't find it too difficult to rap to, I found that it was a lot easier to lip sync at the camera compared to Under Control. 

There was many challenges we faced as this was the first time I had ever lip-synced on camera. We decided to play the song from my phone which sat next to me out of frame; this worked as we were alone, but when filming in Camden which will most likely be busy - it might prove difficult to use this method when filming the music video as the background noise might be too loud to hear the music. Another challenge we faced was the weather conditions, it was quite windy when we filmed which wasn't too much of a problem but again when filming in a busy location if the weather isn't that good such as rain or wind, this could have an adverse affect on our filming and delay us. Although there is no real way we can control the weather to suit us when filming; we can plan our filming schedule so that if it does happen to rain, we can film some shots inside and wait for the weather to improve. We have the benefit of creating a conceptual music video which means that we've decided not to have a set narrative but rather aesthetically pleasing shots that all together create the similar feeling of the music.

Artist Inspiration: Syd tha Kid/ The Internet

When creating our artist we used the front woman of The Internet, Syd tha Kid, as inspiration for costume decisions and overall look.

Syd dresses in an quite an androgynous way and so we similarly wanted to style our artist like this so that our artist would be accessible to the majority of our audience. We didn't want to exclude certain demographics of our target audience by projecting a hyper feminine or hyper masculine look. Detailed further in this blog post, I talk about specific outfit choices and explain the reasoning behind them.

The Internet have quite a distinct sense of style and something we tried to replicate. As a group, they give off a chilled, relaxed atmosphere which is reflected in the music they produce and so we tried to recreate this by combining all the members' individual styles into our solo artist.

Often in their music videos, they feature shots of the group playing music instruments and despite the fact that our artist is solo, we consciously decided to stray away from this convention as we wanted there to be distinct parallels between our final media product and several of The Internet's music videos.






Sticking to basic colours and branded logos helps our artist establish themselves and their individual style, which would resonate with our target audience. It also would allow for possible marketing opportunities which would further help us market and promote our artist to a larger demographic of audience.

Artist Style Mood Board

We created this mood board to display many of the inspirations we had for our artist style.

Our general look is a casual look that fits the multitude of locations we plan to film in; Camber Sands, London Underground and Camden. We decided not to go for a strictly feminine fashion style, hence why we included some photos of men for inspiration; an androgynous style would appeal to a larger audience and is more inclusive of a wider variety.

Keeping both hair and make up quite simple fits with both the music style, genre and theme of our music video which is something we hope to do.

The leader singer of The Internet, Syd tha Kid, has an androgynous sense of sense and overall look about her; which fits well with the type of music they create - which is why we hope to stick to this.

Music Video Inspiration Mood Board

After gathering more of an idea of what we wanted to include in our music video, we created more detailed mood boards.

We created this mood board to highlight some of our inspirations for our music video. We aim to make something aesthetically similar to this.

Filming on location means you can never be sure of what is going to happen in terms of weather and setting; so some of the inspiration reflects this. As we're going for an aesthetically pleasing music video, a lot of the shots we aim to capture will be ones of the scenery and the location hence some of the outside pictures where the location is largely seen.

We aim to capture the protagonist(s) doing mundane things whilst creating good cinematography which fits in the style of the music video. There isn't much of a narrative storyline to the music video and so this gives us more of a chance to use a variety of shots, editing techniques and special effects.

Having a running theme such as pastel could be beneficial, but rather than aim to have a theme and once we film not be able to achieve it; keeping it as inspiration is best, as it's something we can perhaps incorporate but don't have to stick to it.

Clothing is important as they often match the music video and location; which is something we'll have to take into account now we've decided a location. In all of these music videos, the fashion style matches and helps fit the aesthetic of the overall video, which is something we aim for.

Copyright Permission

After deciding upon our chosen musical track, we need to ask the record label for Copyright Permission in order for us to be permitted to post our eventual non profitable music video onto social media, such as YouTube.

Here is a screenshot of my email I wrote and sent to Sony Music, as Columbia Records is a subsidiary label.

Our Chosen Record Labels

We decided to chose two record labels to sign our artist with.

Young Turks 

We chose Young Turks for various reasons, mentioned in the previous blog post.

Working with an Independent British record label will mean that they know how to introduce the British public to a new artist, they know how to best promote them and market them. A lot of their artist, whilst slightly older than ours, promote to a similar target audience as we intend to and so in the future their support can help us.



When creating our digipak, we plan to include a song where we have worked with FKA Twigs as often in the music industry when trying to promote a new artist, record labels will have them perform collaborations with well known, previously established artists; so they they can use their fanbase to promote us.




This is what we intend to do as this is a well known music marketing strategy, which could create synergy - something Iggy Azealia and Rita Ora did with their song Black Widow. Their song reached the top 10 music charts in various countries around the world, was featured on popular video game, Just Dance 2015 and was certified platinum in five different countries.

Odd Internet

Odd Internet is an independent record label we created in order to help us gain exclusive promotion and marketing for our artist.

Gaining this idea from Odd Future Records, we released a good idea it would be for us to create. Dedicated to initially solely promoting Lia Tamera, we could grow this record label and eventually sign other artists. It's also a good way for our artist to work with other artists, make collaborations and gain connections throughout the music industry; which is crucial especially being a new artist and furthering her career.

This record label would be a subsidiary of Beggars Group, the company that founds Young Turks. They own and distribute a variety of record labels in the UK such as Rough Trade Records and XL Recordings; which means that through cross media convergence, our artist could possibly work with artists and groups such as The Libertines, M.I.A, and Peaches.

XL Recordings sign artists that link back to Young Turks such as The xx and FKA Twigs, but not only that but they also sign Tyler the Creator; who was our inspiration for creating our own dependent record label.

Choosing A Record Label

When creating an artist, it's important that you study a range of record labels and weigh out the pros and cons of each before choosing which one suits your artist best.

1. Universal Music Group (UMG)
2. Sony Music Entertainment (Sony)
3. Warner Music Group (WMG)

These are the 'Big Three' major music record labels which dominate the music industry as they have signed the majority of artists and groups that are in the current music charts. Whilst they would be best for promoting our artist, we think that they might overlook her, especially being a new artist.

We decided to focus our attention on UK record labels/companies. According to Guardian, these were the top ten biggest British record labels in 2014:

1. Hyperdub (Dubstep) - Burial
2. Marshall Teller Records (Various) - The Vaccines
3. PMR Records (Indie) - Disclosure
4. Death Waltz Recording Company (Various Metal, film soundtrack based) - John Carpenter
5. National Anthem (Various) - HAIM
6. Soundway (Global, African, Asian, Caribbean and Latin) - Ibibio Sound Machine
7. Lucky Me (New Electronic Hip Hop, Pop, Rock, Underground Dance) - Cashmere Cat
8. Pink Mist (Varies from Pop Rock to Math-Rock to Sludge Metal) - Pulled Apart By Horses
9. Young Turks (Indietronica, Indie Pop) - The xx, FKA Twigs, SBTRKT
10. Type Records (Techno, Experimental) - Yellow Swans

After studying these different record labels, we felt that Young Turks would be the best for our artist to sign to. Managing only a handful of artists means that they'll be able to give Lia Tamera equal attention and support when she releases her debut album and digipak.

Their artists have gained international fame, such as FKA Twigs, whose EP's gained critical acclaim this year. Collaborating with an artist such as herself would help our artist in terms of marketing and promotion. 

Young Turks we feel will be able to promote Lia Tamera well, alongside BBC Introducing as they've proven this with their artist's music being seen, used and heard in various places. The xx's music has been used in many episodes of E4's Misfits, a British TV show, which won a BAFTA. Having the opportunity to do this would allow our artist to been seen on a larger scale and promote cross media convergence and hopefully synergy.