Self – Asessment for Media Industries 1
Throughout the semester I have been designated the task of investigating the legal and business side of the music industry within my group. My role in the project was to gather as much information as I could that may be relevent to new and upcoming artists wishing to break into the music industry in Melbourne and Australia.
I decided to do my research on the growth of indie music.
My first interview was with Tom Collins, manager of Sophie Koh, an indie act signed to in-fidelity recordings in Australia. This interview was highly insightful in terms of giving me a perspective on the Australian music industry for an indie act. The most relevant thing to remember here is that Australia is a small market for the “music business” in contrast to the U.S., Asian or U.K. markets. However, our music scene esspecially in Melbourne is highly vibrant. There are ample bands and artists constantly gigging and releasing records throughout the year in Australia that creates a great atmosphere for any act to be apart of. This information allowed me to feel some satisfaction that our research would be relevant to many young bands and artists trying to find their feet.
I really believe that an artist can achieve so much without the help of a label at the beginnning of thier careers. I have found that there is nothing more exciting than being in a full band room when an artist has buzz about them. This site aims to make our artists in Melbourne and Australia self-sufficient in self promotion and making sure that when thier wonderful music reaches the major labels they have leveraging power and they can negotiate a deal that will be sustainable and beneficial for them.
Lesson learnt 1: Majors have always relied on Indie labels to find new trends in popular music. Nothing has changed.
Out of the interview I learnt:
Triple J radio doesn’t have the best ratings but it’s incredibly important to have their support. They focus on finding new music and are responsible for many of the major successful acts in this country.
A great releationship with your indie label is incredibly important. Budgets are significantly smaller, but an enthusiastic team of willing staff at a small indie label can make all the difference in having a great release.
Touring is impeccable for an act, a grass roots following means a sustainable career. If an act comes from nowhere, they run the risk of dissapearing to nowhere just as quickly. Support slots are important
Tom stressed that indie acts maintain credibility and his aim was to be in a position to licence records to majors so that his artists maintain creative control but may obtain the benefits of a higher budget release and that the release would be a priority in terms of distribution.
The next interview was with Sybilla Stephens of Writer Services at APRA
APRA is a service that collects royalties for songwriters. If a public space is using music to generate an atmosphere for their clients, they must pay a licensing fee (undetermined) that is then distributed to any songwriter that receives airplay at any given time in a financial year. Songwriters should be a member of APRA so that they can begin to recieve royalties for thier original songs. They can also recieve royalties for live performances.
Much of my research centered around the legal side of the industry. What’s involved in record contract, what to expect and what to do and what not to do. The main point to stress is to hire an entertainment lawyer at all times if your unsure and always seek out an offer that suits you best.
Myspace and all these music sites are connecting people in new and exciting ways and serves indie music perfectly. There are new ones popping up all the time.
I hope I wasn’t cynical at the presentation. I’m so optimistic about the future of indie music in this country and I believe that it is undoubtedly the way of the future. Embrace it!
The value of this course is ample. To learn about how the industry works and how we might appraoch it in the future. I feel that this course has encouraged me to pursue my own interests and to not be afraid to work hard to what I want to achieve. I’ve learnt that the media industry in Australia has many opportunities for creative people and I would love to be involved in that. Collaboration, Creativity and Networking are incredibly importantl. I have learnt this.
I enjoyed the group dynamic but I definently could have pulled my weight and assisted and communicated with my team members a lot better. I feel that this was my downfall in this particular project. A communication break-down. The assignment could have held a lot more relevent information and facts and statistics that I could have provided. There was a great dynamic in the group however and we were all very interested in what we were researching.
I award myself a Credit for working solidly on my end of the project and providing relevant information and working with my group whereever I felt possible.
An idea realised.
Ok…I am the king of procrastination…I’m not kidding myself here. Lets be honest…no lets be deceptive. I really know nobody is reading this..but this blog is an affirmation of my thoughts, dreams and desires for the course.
So…
I have decided to make an album of spoken word poetry, and I would really like it to be 10 poems from Doris Brett’s, “The Truth about Unicorns.” She’s an incredible poet, very introspective, very intelligent, emotionally, and her words, I feel communicate a reality that resonates with me.
So I need the go ahead. Not long hopefully till I can start on this thing.
I feel inspired, and charged and ready to go!
Change of plans
There is a wonderful Melbourne based poet by the name of Doris Brett. Her work is incredibly unique and introspective. She was my initial choice as a poet, but I thought if I was pitching this as an idea that needed a market maybe her profile wouldn’t be large enough. Doris Brett released a book in 1984 called, “The Truth about Unicorns.”
The truth is…I want to make a short film about one of her poems called, “Berthing”. It’s incredibly sad and about love…all the things I really like in a poem.
I think I’ll get in touch with her first…
Techincal specs
Technically speaking, I will be employing a few technologies to make this project come to life. Imagine…Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” to sound?
It could be quite incredible I think. I have a pro-tools set-up (Mbox 2) and a laptop, a dodgy midi controller, a few guitars, a broken mandolin, an egg shaker and…a plethora of musician friends that may be all to happy to contribute to the cause.
Ok, so this is a possibilty. Imagine listening to this.
Poetry in Motion
As far as I can see and there isn’t much to find…but copyright seems to be a tricky issue in relation to poetry. How can I find out if Walt Whitman’s stuff can be adapted to music for a university project?
I have also been thinking that I would just use Walt Whitman’s poetry as opposed to a mixture. I really like the idea of reinventing his works with all sorts of modern, wonderful musical texture.
“Leaves of Grass” was an excellent book that is filled with all sorts of great works. I would very much like to work with that in particular. Hmmmm…..
More on copyright soon.
How about this?
What about asking for poetry to be submitted by people so that they may have the opportunity to have it set to music? Hmmm….Could be a long shot. It could also be a way of involving the community.
When I was in Dublin recently at a William Butler Yeats exhibition I experienced his poetry read by him and others but set against ambience and synths. It was highly inspiring stuff: Heres my dream list:
Charles Bukowski: Young in New Orleans.
William Butler Yeats: When you are old
Walt Whitman: A Clear Midnight
Richard Leigh: The Eccho
Rumi: No Self
John Forbes: Lullaby
There you have it! Some great works there!
Production Project concept #1
firstly, I should say that I am aware that my blog entries are all being posted at once. I have been keeping a written journal – that’s right the good old way!! So here is my concept and I hope you enjoy it immensly.
You know…if Walt Whitman was around today I guarantee he would be a songwriter of sorts. You know what I mean when your reading poetry and you think…geeez, theres something missing here. We are used a a full sensory experience when we engage in art. Most of this comes from the cinema, so we need to enhance many of the old means of engaging the cinema. I am planning to have 6 poems set to ambience and appropriate music, maybe even sung by the right reason.
The concept came from a recording that the fabulous Irish songstress Mary Black did of William Blake’s poem “Poisen tree”. I really enjoyed her interpretation…It really got to me…esspecially when I was in ireland. I love the idea that some incredible words may be given a new lease on life. A new way of being interpreted for a new generation. I am looking forward to composing music, creating ambiences that will swish and swirl thier way around some of my favourite poems. I just have to check if the copyright is ok on this. Otherwise I will have to look at using the work of local poets, put to music.
I think it would be a fascinating way of seeing the way words and phrases are given new life. Would it work…Would it not? i guess it’s an experiment of sorts. To begin with, to what extent has song replaced poetry?
Anyway, I’m going to clear copyright and get back to you.
Shoot Number 1
Although things were a little hectic today, many things were pointing in a positive direction…I suppose we just didn’t want to focus on it. We’re not the biggest bunch of optimists! For one thing, the weather was a perfect overcast day with small patches of harsh sunlight but apart from that it was all-good. I suppose the biggest hurdle was trying to accommodate actors. Each performer had to come and go at different times of the day so it was stressful to try and get a shot done before a certain time.
Lesson Learnt # 1 – Schedule bloody everything. Shot lists are more important that I thought.
The amount of times we had to change the cameras position to do another shot just because actors had to leave got a little bit ridiculous by the end. Although I don’t blame the actors… It was around exam times. Everyone worked on a Sunday. Oh and did I mention they weren’t getting paid? But that’s cool…. All experience I guess. All in all I was so overwhelmed with the performance. Especially Angus, played by Quang…What an amazing dude. Very funny!! On the spot he decided he wanted to improvise a bit and ended up improving the dialogue 100%…it sounds more natural now and more in the moment. Sarah, wow she just hit the nail on the head and got the hell out of there!
Chris is an incredible actor, his performance was incredible and accurate but more importantly he showed a great amount of patience and as a close friend I appreciated this the most. This day was a 10-hour shoot, and while we were setting up different shots he just sat still and waited. Very good kid!
Lesson Learnt #2 – Designate roles more clearly next time! I was on Sound and it should have been my duty only to move my sound equipment around to the different locations and capture really good sound. Most of the time we would be crowding around the camera, each of us asking if we can help…it just created a lot of issues in terms of being time effective.
I’m glad we had a very assured director. Iryna just knew exactly how she wanted each shot to look and feel. Great vision! As a result, her perfectionism, which at the time…I won’t lie to you felt a little bit ridiculous has made sure that nearly every shot is composed very beautifully. Oh…and thanks for letting us shoot in your house. It was perfect.
We still have another shoot next week (See Shoot number 2) but all in all it’s looking very positive and I’m glad as hell to get that out of the way!
What Goes around
I have to hand it to you Lewis. What Goes around is a terrific script and is a joy to edit.
Big thanks to Iryna! Geez girl you are taking on alot! Great direction and the set was very well coordinated when we were shooting.
The worst thing about being a TV student…Lugging gear. I had to lift 4 different cases over 4 different 500 trips. Just horrible. I could have died. Luckily I’m still alive to blog the tale…
I’m really looking forward to the screening. I think people need to laugh.
Shoot number 2
The second time around we were much better at our roles. All in all we were more comfortable and able to execute our particular roles with alot more expertise.
The film is shaping up to be yards better than I could have imagined. It’s a light hearted comedy and I’m so glad about that. So many student films take themselves too seriously. Why can’t this be ridiculous? Of course, there are serious undertones. But take from it what you want! It’s a great film and I’m proud to have been involved in it’s production. I’m also really glad I was given the opportunity to choose the actors. This film rests very strongly on the performances from the actors because believe it or not the script is challenging. There was a lot of creative licence. Seriously…comedy is hard to pull off. Anything can be art. Not everything is funny.
Capturing sound is alot harder than you might think. You have to creep under people and hide and point this weird furry thing in the right direction whilst avoiding it appearing in the frame. It really is an art in itself. I’m currently working on the soundtrack/music for the peice.
Lots of droning synths…lots of active panning sounds that give an experience to the viewer. Its gonna be great! Not long now!
