Audience Feedback: Questionnaire

We decided that alongside a focus group we conducted that we'd also send a questionnaire to 30 people to gain an understanding of the feeling about our music video and whether it was successful. We did consider just giving our questionnaire to our target audience, however decided against this as music videos are available for a much wider target audience to see so we wanted to know whether people outside our genre would find our music video successful.

Audience Feedback: Focus Group

As we have now finished our main media text and the two subsidiary tasks we decided to ask our target audience for their opinions of our work. We did this to gain a knowledge of how succesful our media texts were in engaging the audience and also how conventional the target demographic found our work. We did face a problem when collecting the audience feedback, people didn't want to be filmed or their voices recorded, to overcome this we made the decision to record their responses and then transcribe them. We chose to ask them four main questions that covered every aspect of the video and three questions that related to our website and digipak. We asked six people within our target audience, both male and female between 17-25 years old, these in depth questions.

1. What did you most enjoy about the music video?

- My favourite part of the music video was the beginning when the two met in the bar; this was because it was really believable and is relatable to the audience. Also, I liked that they met in a pub because it looked like a typical local pub which is where people from the Indie genre would generally meet. 

-Personally, I really liked the live section of the music video because it gave you a clearer idea of Billy as an artist, especially if you were an Indie fan who hadn't heard his music before. 

-I most enjoyed the acting section of the music video because it told a story which made me think about my relationships, therefore showing that it is very relatable for the audience. I also liked the fact that they were very typical of an Indie couple and didn't need to spend loads of money on dates etc. they could just be themselves- I think the story was told really well.

-I feel that the music video was really entertaining and believable, I most enjoyed getting to see how the relationship of the couple developed and how natural they were around each other. Additionally, I liked the section where Billy was singing because it showed him as an artist and made the story section more believable. I like how this is conveyed through the website and CD pack you have created.

-My favourite part of the music video is the very end when the light is shining through the middle of the couple hugging because it looks like something you'd see in a film you want your life to be about, making it realistic. 

-I really like the use of black and white because it looks traditional and conveys a true passion between the couple which has lasted a long time. 

2. Did you feel it was typical of an Indie music video?

-I definitely believe that your music video created a stereotypical and conventional Indie music video and I can see the comparison between this music video and others that I have seen such as Ed Sheeran. 

-Yes because they are usually in black and white because it shows a traditional sense and they meet in a typical 'Indie' manner conveying that you have payed a great deal of attention to what usually occurs in Indie music videos.

-I really did, it is so similar to other music videos I have seen in the Indie genre, yet really stands out and shows a sense of individuality, showing that you have really met the true purpose of an Indie music video.

-I personally believe that it is so typical of an Indie music video by having scenes in black and white, and showing the artist singing live. Additionally, it shows a typical Indie couple in clothes that would be associated with Indies showing a sense of who they are without caring what other people think.

-Yes I do. It looks like what I would expect to see when watching an Indie music video and the video itself links really well with the song; thus showing the two are successfully linked and are typical of an Indie video.

-Yes because everything about the acting section is typical of an Indie music video by showing the couple and how they meet, then showing the progress in relationship. Also, the fact that it is in black and white is highly conventional of Indie music videos. It is definitely what I would expect to see when watching an Indie music video.

3. How well do you think the transitions worked between the scenes?

-I felt the transitions between the scenes worked well because it helped the video to flow smoothly.

-In my opinion the transitions helped tell the story and emphasised a change in time/day. Also, it allowed for there to be no jumping so there wasn't any distractions away from the video itself.

-Between each scene there is a transition which helps the whole thing run much nicer and smoothly. The transitions between the black and white and the coloured sections work really well in the sense that you can hardly tell it's changed and you don't suddenly think 'woah wait, what's happening'.

 -The transitions are really successful and help the video flow well without any jumps and random changes between dates of the couples. If it wasn't for the well chosen transitions then it could become confusing to the audience as to why the couple are in different clothes etc.

-I personally really liked the transitions. They show changes in time and make the video flow without cuts and distractions from what is happening. 

-I think they worked well because it kept my attention and represented a change in time, therefore showing how the relationship has progressed. The fact that they are done so smoothly show that they are hardly noticeable and are done really well.

4. Was there anything you would change or suggest could be improved about the music video?

-If I'm going to be really pedantic, I would suggest you could have tried some different camera angles on live section purely to try and make it more interesting, nonetheless I really enjoyed it and think it's great as it is.

-I think that I would have liked to seen the whole music video in either all black and white or all colour, preferably all black and white because it makes the whole video appear more classical.

-There isn't anything that I notice needs changing or adapting, but for suggestions on if you were to create it again, I think that maybe you could try a different colouring as opposed to black and white to see what it would look like. Overall, it was amazing.

-I loved the music video so much, the only thing I would change would be to make it longer! I want to see how the relationship pans out etc etc etc!

-Some different camera angles on the live section would have been nice to see, however it could have just looked too fussy as the sections aren't very long- maybe it could have worked.

-I really wouldn't change anything about the music video, I can't think how it possibly could be made any better, I really liked it and the song was great.

5. What do you think of the digipak?
-I like the fact that lyrics are including in the digipak because then we can learn the songs and feel more connected when we sing along to his songs. I also like the range of pictures that are chosen because it shows me what he is like outside of work as well as within.

-I think that the album links really well and conveys a true sense of Billy as an artist. I really like the picture chosen for the front cover because it shows he is strong and wants a place in the music industry.

-I like that you have used a hand drawn background because it kind of conveys the sense that Billy is a hand made artist who is fresh and original.

-I really like that there are pictures of the fans behind the letter to his fans because it shows that he really  cares and is a true and genuine person. 

-I like that it is simple and easy to understand without too many complicated and loud colours distracting away from the purpose. I think that it is a conventional digipak and is something that I have seen from other Indie artists.

-I like the fonts that are used because although there are a couple of different ones they all link really well to what they are being used for. They are simple yet related to what they're for.

6. Is the website typical of an Indie artist?

-The website looks really conventional and has similar features to what I have seen on websites such as Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard by using a very simple colour scheme added with a bright colour to show that they are new and upcoming. 

-Yes because there are numerous pictures of the artist included which is what you would typically find and it looks like other Indie websites I have been on.

-Definitely, the fact that his music videos are included is something I would definitely expect to see.

-Yes especially because there is an information page and a page with his music videos on because these are the first things I look for when on my favourite Indie artists' websites. 

-It is similar to what I have seen from other Indie artists' due to there being a blog so his fans know what he is up to and can get a real sense of who he is as a person when not working.

-Yes, the fact that there are features such as tour dates included is key because this is a main purpose for Indie artists' websites due to them not being announced on the radio etc. 

7. Do you think the music video, digipak and website link?

-They all definitely link because they all show elements of the same colour scheme and it is clear they are related to the same artist. 

-The fonts used across all three are pretty similar, the font used at the end of the music video is similar to that used on the front cover of the digipak and relates to those used within the website also. 

-Stills from the music video are clear in both the digipak and on the website which shows a systematic link between all three.

-A true British sense is conveyed through all three of the texts, they show a traditional artist through the use of colour and a bright burst of red.

-The fonts used really link and convey a true sense of similarity between all of the products which I really like. It is clear that they all link and are for the same artist.

-They all have black and white and bursts of red which shows they are all clearly related.

Subsidiary Task: Final Website

This is the final draft of our website.
The general look of the music artists website is very similar to the our first ideas and our initial drafts, however after finishing our digipak and looking at existing websites in more detail we decided to add an advertisement for the digipak that we created so the advert uses the front cover of our digipak with a banner across it stating 'OUT NOW'.
Instead of just creating the homepage of the music website we decided to create the whole website as it enabled us to explore more conventions and look in depth at existing music websites.
Overall I am extremely pleased with the outcome of the website as it contains intertextuality of both the music video and the digipak creating a link between all three texts.
This is the link for an interactive view of the website: http://chloef-x.wix.com/billylockettwebsite

Subsidiary Task: Final Digipak Draft

After careful consideration following our first draft of our digipak I decided that it wasn't of a professional standard and therefore reconsidered how to create a more realistic digipak that had a house style similar to the website and the music video. This is the final draft of my digipak and I believe that it links well and is a successful digipak. 

Our Final Music Video

This is it, our final draft of our music video.

Subsidiary Task: Digipak changes

Although we initially felt that the cover of our digipak should be something that is quite obscure and random with little relevance to the album title or the artist we have changed our minds. After creating our first draft with the love heart sweets as the basis to our design we felt it wasn't extremely conventional and it did not have the desired effect we wanted it to have. Therefore we have looked into other indie artists album covers and concluded that it is best to use an image of the artist as our album cover. This is a much more conventional style of album cover and will allow us to create coherence between the different media texts much more easily.

Subsidiary Task: Website Construction

For one of our subsidiary tasks we have chosen to create a website for our chosen artist. This is going to be created on wix.com I have used wix before and found it simply and easy to use therefore it seemed the best website generator to use.

We had already analysed other artists websites and had a list of clear conventions of our genre that we feel are best complied with.
We have chosen to use a grey and red colour scheme, this is because on other websites we looked at the background and general fonts were simple colours and there were some bright colours that stood out against the duller colours. We felt that red was a good colour to choose as the narrative to our music video is about love and red connotes love. The grey, black and white colours are basic and create a simplistic design, also the colours are coherent with our other tasks. For example our music video will have a large majority of the clips in black and white, making you concentrate on the storyline and the more important elements of our video.
After analysis of the other music websites we were able to recognise some very common pages to feature in the menu bar of the website and we felt that the most common positioning of the menu bar is generally across the top horizontally. Therefore we chose to position our in a similar place to be placed under the artists name which will be displayed across the top of the page. Also on our home page we intend to include the main task; our music video. We realised after looking at different music website it was conventional to have their latest music video placed on the home page and as we are creating a music video we felt it was probably best to use this on our home page to create continuity between the texts.
The pages that were most common on other existing artists music video were:

• Info page
• Gallery
• Music

Subsidiary Task: Digipak Draft 1

This is our first draft for our digipak, we decided to explore the idea of the love heart sweets and this is the outcome

This is the front page, the artists name and the album title is incorporated.

This is the back cover of the digipak with the list of songs and a barcode

This is this inside left page, and is a letter to the fans

On the reverse side there are lyrics to the songs on the album, they cover 4 pages

After thought we have decided that this doesn't really have the correct link and continuity with the other media texts that we would have hoped to create. Therefore although this draft has taught us a lot about the layout and design of the digipak, we will not be using this style. However the layout will be kept similar.

Changes to Filming

We made some decisions to changes to scenes on the story board when filming. They were only slight changes, they were:

1. Instead of using the concept of the couple walking their dog in the park we decided to not use the dog and to just have the couple having fun on a romantic walk around. 
2. We chose to remove the scene were the male character gives the female a key because although it linked the idea of them moving in together, in the time limit we had it would have been difficult to convey what they were doing.

Subsidiary Task: Music Website Research

In order to complete my subsidiary tasks to the most conventional of the genre we need to analyse existing music artist websites in order to obtain clear conventions of music websites.

Interview With the Artist

In order to gain an insight into the type of person our whole music video and subsidiary tasks were about when we filmed our live footage of him we had a quick interview.

Q. How old were you when you first started playing?
A. I played piano at 8 and played guitar when I was about 14

Q.What was the first song you wrote?
A. It was really, really, really bad. It was about a nightmare.

Q. Who's your all time favourite artist?
A. Bob Dylan

Q. If you could play anywhere in the world where would it be?
A. Paris

Q. Why?
A. Because I've never been and it looks pretty suave.


This interview, although the questions seem pointless and don't seem to help the coursework tasks, we feel that it has allowed us to get to know the person we are trying to replicate in our digipak and website.

Live Footage

Finally we managed to film the live footage for parts of our music video. It took a lot of organisation but we eventually got there. The footage has turned out well. However whilst we were there we tried to take pictures of the artist but because we were unable to use flash they did not turn out as well as expected. Therefore we will use a few of these for our subsidiary tasks and the others will be from our filming process and pre-existing images.

Filming and Editing schedule

Subsidiary Task: Researching Album Covers

Recce

Before filming for our music video we decided it would be a good idea to do a Recce of our locations to check they are suitable.

1. Wicksteed Park: This location is going to be perfect because it is in the countryside and in the autumn/winter when we are going to film it will look how we want it to for our genre of music.















2. The Donkey: this is where we will be filming the live footage of the artist. It is a pub and there are places we can set up the camera that will give us a good view of the stage without obstructing the view of the audience. Also the lighting and stage layout suits the typical venue an indie artist would perform in.



3. House: the inside part of the house will be filmed in Alice's spare room. Although it doesn't look like a room that people with little money would own, it will be fine to use because we are hoping to put it in black and white. There is no/little furniture in the room making it easy to use as we needed an empty room.


4. Pub: we needed a pub that was fairly empty so we didn't disturb too many people. We feel like this was the best place to use because it was easily accessible to all of us and is not too busy. Also we gained permission from the owner to use it to film. This will be the location where the couple meets for the first time.


5. Street: this is going to be used to film the male character leading us through the story with an opening and an ending. This is a road that isn't busy and looks quite quaint and in a little village.


6. Moving in: we are using the back of our friends house to film the scene with the two characters moving in because it isn't a busy road and parking isn't too much of an issue.

Actors, Props and Locations

For our music video we are planning to have two 'sections' - live footage for the chorus of the song and the second an acted story for the verses. The live footage was quite simple to film, all we needed to do was turn up and position and set up the camera and then film. For the second part of the video we will have to organise actors, decide locations and gather props.

Actors
We need a male and female character for the role of a couple who convey our interpretation of the song.
The male we are using is Alex, we believe he will be the most reliable person to use and is 17 years old and is interested in fashion so can relate to the target audience well. Because he can relate to the audience it gives the music video a personal feel. As we needed a couple with chemistry or they must act like they are in a relationship we used Tamsen. This was because her and Alex were good friends and were comfortable
together.

Costumes
We need to consider our target audience and how to relate the costumes to this audience, they also need to be relatively 'fashionable' but because of the story behind our music video they are quite poor therefore no brands or major labels.

Empty room scenes-

Male: casual t-shirt, red jeans

Female: black jeans, jumper and a waistcoat

Street scenes-

Male: chino trousers, black coat

Female: leggings, denim shirt and hat

Bar Scene-

Male: suit jacket and trousers

Female: dress, more formal hair
Park Scene-

Male: purple jeans, t-shirt, coat and hat
Female: jeans, denim shirt, parka coat and hat
Moving In Scene-
Male: checkered shirt and chinos
Female: yellow jumper, jeans and hair up

Props

There aren't a great deal of props to consider, however we will be using a guitar for the male character to use walking down the street and in the house. For the park scene we want to use a dog to show a romantic walk in the park. However we will need a number of different props to make up the mise en scene. 

Locations
This was definitely the most difficult of all the factors to consider. We knew we wanted believable mise-en-scene, but some of our ideas were realistic, for example a 'derelict' or old house will be very difficult to find and then there would be legal issues. Therefore we will film the inside of the house in a house that we do have access to and the outside scenes will be filmed outside a property that is quite old and affordable for a young couple. Also quite a few of our locations will be open for public to use making it quite difficult to plan our filming precisely, but we want to film in these locations to make the story more believable. 

Roles within the group

Director: Sofie
Camera operator: Alice, Chloe and Sofie (We are all going to hope to take a part in the filming process, when Alice is not being filmed she will be helping and operating the cameras)
Actress: Alice
Producer: Alice, Chloe and Sofie (We all thought of the vision for our music video therefore we are all producers)
Creative Director: Sofie and Alice
Editor: Chloe

Subsidiary Task: Digipak Planning

As the image shows when the digipak is fully constructed the inside right panel will hold the disc in a pouch.
The back cover will have the songs listed and their order on the CD this is conventional to nearly as digipaks I have seen, as is having the album art/cover design  on the front page that conveys a message or suggests something about the music or album. The inside left panel will have information about the artist alongside a personal message/letter of thanks. As this template would open out like a book on the opposite side there will be a variety of pictures and lyrics for the tracks on the CD.
In order for our digipak to be conventional to the style of music our artist plays, we have decided that it would be best to create a piece of cover art for the album ourselves, therefore we will begin to look at existing covers to see the typical conventions.

We have thought of a few different ideas to use for our cover art of the album.

1.  We will take this image ourselves and edit the photo to say 'Balance' on the main focus.

Although it does seem like a random idea that has no connection to the song and the type of artist. We feel it does. Firstly the song 'Balance' is about the progression of a relationship through which there are a number of different emotions felt, these are conveyed by the pile of love hearts. The main focus is of just one love heart that shows that one feeling overcomes all the others love, which is why we feel the sweets 'Love Hearts' were a good object to use.

2. There will be the words 'Balance' and the artists name Billy Lockett somehow connected on a scrabble board
This was a fairly obscure idea that came from Alice. The idea being that as a young new couple they may play games like this as they have little money and little to keep them busy.

3. This is an extremely simple example of what we want to achieve. We are going to use real fridge magnets with some of the text in capital letters and of varying colours.

This idea came from the idea of the couple moving into their first home, but we also wanted an element of randomness to the image. So we thought that fridge magnets were a good idea because as a couple they may leave little messages to one another.

4. We have the idea also of having someone draw/sketch this type of thing with a guitar balancing on a stool. This is a rough example and the end result would be much better than this.

After looking at examples of other indie artists album covers we realised that it was quite conventional to have a drawing/artwork as oppose to a photograph. We googled balance and an image of a elephant balancing on a stool appeared, this immediately intrigued us so we started thinking about ideas we could develop from this. We came to the idea of a guitar balancing on a stool, and we have asked an art student to replicate this image but better.

Decisions about the Music Video

We will begin the filming of our music video in the half term, where hopefully we should be able to film all of the footage leaving us the remaining of the time to edit the video and complete our subsidiary task

Ideology

Ideologies are a system of values, attitudes and beliefs that help define and explain the world around us. They are important or true to an individual or group. 

Dominant Ideologies
These particular ideologies are repeatedly used by big institutions for example; the government  the media and education systems. They can be ideas about gender, social groups and even the economy. Although we aren't aware of it, they exist in our day-to-day lives and we except them as normal and not many people question the 'norm'. 

How does this relate to media?
Like everything else media texts have representations and beliefs which we aren't necessarily aware of. Media texts will generally convey ideologies and even create them occasionally because they are available to so many people nation or world wide. For example the portrayal of women within the media through time, traditionally females were seen as vunerable and weak. Although in recent media women have become much stronger characters.
Media texts are able to convey certain ideologies because of their connection to the mass audiences, in several different mediums. According to audience theories like 'Two Step Flow' and 'Hypodermic Needle Model' the mass audience absorb this information and are influenced by this.

My Coursework
There are some ideologies that can be considered quite controversial, therefore for my media text I wanted a positive portrayal of both the characters. My narrative has generally equally represented the two genres.

Target Audience

Age:
15-25 years old as they are more likely to listen to the music and have the time to go to gigs. Also this face range fits with the demographic of radio stations that tend to play music by this artist.
The artist themselves are within this age so consequently appeals to those of a similar age to himself.

Gender:
Mixed gender as there is nothing that stereotypes genders. His songs aren't "pop" songs that attract a mainly female audience because of the nature of the artist and the songs. However he is not singing songs/his music that will attract an only male audience.

Lifestyle:
Generally will be students who have a part time Jo therefore have time to attend gigs. They will refe local smal gigs as opposed to pop concerts in big arenas. They are therefore interested in music that isn't mainstream but has the potential to become popular. They will most probably have a small group of friends with quite a similar music taste, that will quite regularily attend small music festivals. Also someone within our audience range will often use music sharing websites like spotify. 

Interests:
They may play a musical instrument and be generally quite artistic because of the style of music. Also they will be intellectual to understand some of the lyrics, but most of all they need to be interested in music!

Socio-economic group:
The audience for this particular artist/style of music would be in group D & C, this would be down to the fact that they have a lack of money to spend on songs and gigs. We have already stated how we believe that the age is likely to be 15-25 and they are generally to be university students. This relates to the grouping as students are automatically in group D.

Why?
The genre of music we have chosen to represent in our music video is a growing style of music that used to attract small niche audiences that would only grow through the word of mouth. However now this particular genre is becoming more popular due to the increased publicity of artists within the genre like 'Mumford and Sons' and ' Ben Howard'. So the growing popularity means it appeals to aq wider audience that it ever has previously.

First draft of our Storyboard

Influential Directors

Ruskin Kyle
He is part of Rivers Rush film and photography production and he has directed music videos as well as film trailers.
His popularity increased after he directed Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' which reached 25 million you tube views that reached global audiences.
He seems to direct music videos for Indie artists similar to the style of music we will be creating a music video for, therefore I feel it will be very important to look at some of his work and see the style of music videos he creates.



Charlie and Joe
This production company make commercials, music videos and fashion films. They have clients like topshop for adverts which is good to look into because the target audience for our genre of music is likely going to be the same type of people to be shopping in topshop. This means that even though that particular example isn't a music video I could still take away features that connect with the target audience.
They have directed music videos for Aiden Grimshaw and The Maccabees, which both fall under the indie genre of music, similar to our chosen artist.

Subsidiary Task: Digipak Research

A digipak is a paper or card case that holds the disk, it also provides the customer information that is relevant. For example lyrics, images of the artist, sometimes tour dates, information and occasionally a message from the artist. A digipak is more environmentally friendly than a plastic CD case and does not crack or break as easily as a plastic case. 
  

 

Ideas for the song

After listening to the song our first ideas became quite clear. We all interpreted the song in the same ways but all had varied ideas that we were able combine to create a good basic plan to our music video.
The concept being that we have two different sections to the music video; a narrative part and a performance element. The two sections will have different characters and we believe this is quite conventional to the genre and this style is becoming much more popular.

1. Close up of the guitar
2. Walk away from the camera to show a story.
3. The two characters meeting in a bar/pub
4. They walk towards the camera and it cuts to the next scene
5. Walking through a field with dog.
6. Back to walking down the street with the guitar.
7. Live Footage
8. Unloading the car and moving into a new home, he runs back to get the guitar.
9. Sitting in an empty room
10. Photoframe of pictures of them together
11. Live Footage
12. She cheers up the male character
13. Walking down the street with the guitar
14. Holding hands and spinning
15. Trampoline, stop motion photos.
16. Live Footage
17. Undecided
18. Two of them in shot.

Subsidiary Task Choices

Alongside our music video we musty choose two subsidiary tasks to complete. As a group we have decided to create a website for the music artist and a digipack for the artists album. We choose to do these tasks as we felt they would challenge us to work the hardest we possibly could to create a professional looking product.

The basic concept

After to listening to the song several times separately and creating the ideas in our head and how we picture the music video to look like. Then as a group we took it in turns to express how we picture it and then adapted our ideas to conclude that in the music video there will be:

• Live footage
• A relationship progressing
•  No lip-syncing other than the live footage

Song Lyrics

I'm not a wild man
And I'm not a crazy guy
But I know I'm genuine
So sit and watch I'll tell you why
And I'm not a superhero
And I'm not a movie star
But when you're around
I make you feel like you are
Like you are

So let's go to the attic
Let's go to the shops
Let's grab the old red carpet
Wear the dress with polka dots
And pretend that we're stars
walking down Leicester Square
Or actors in a movie
On a secret love affair
Love affair

So stick by me and I'll tell you
There's light at the end
Stick by me and I'll show you
That all you need is a friend
So don't balance out the window
And smirk with your eyes
Don't balance on a spindle
And smile when you know I'm uptight

We're sitting in this empty room
With no furniture
And the money's running low
And the future is a blur
And I know it won't be easy
But please just wait and see
One day we'll be where we want to be
Want to be

So stick by me and I'll tell you
There's light at the end
Stick by me and I'll show you
That all you need is a friend
So don't balance out the window
And smirk with your eyes
Don't balance on a spindle
And smile when you know I'm uptight

Take my hand
And spin me around
Dance like a fool
Dance, dance around
Take my hand
And spin me around
Dance like a fool
Dance, dance around
Take my hand and spin me around
And dance like a fool
Dance, dance around

So stick by me and I'll tell you
There's light at the end
Stick by me and I'll show you
That all you need is a friend
So don't balance out the window
And smirk with your eyes
Don't balance on a spindle
And smile when you know I'm uptight

The lyrics have been the basis of most of our ideas, when unsure of what should come next initially in the planning of our music video we used the lyrics to link with the visuals on screen. This is something that Andrew Goodwin lists in his method of analysis music videos and something we all viewed as important. The lyrics to the song had to relate to the story/narrative in the video otherwise you leave the target audience confused and unsure of what is happening.  

Our Chosen Song

I have chosen that I will work as part of a group for this coursework task. This is because I believe that splitting up tasks and having a group creating ideas will make the music video the best it can possibly be. I am working with Alice and Sofie to create this piece and we are all very reliable people and therefore should work well together as we are all very dedicated to making this the best it can be.

Our chosen song is one that we all agree on and the artist is unknown. He describes himself as an Indie rock/pop artist. His song Balance is a great song and one that does not have a music video, meaning that all of our ideas will be individual and original as they have nothing to be based upon. Although they will be original we will take influence and ideas from existing texts of a similar genre as it will allow us to make a great music video.
Balance

Digital Technology

Andrew Goodwin's Method of Analysis

Andrew Goodwin in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' describes characteristics of music videos.

1.  Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics: a dance routine for a pop artist

2.  A relationship between the lyrics and visuals: this can be subtle or it can be very over exaggerated

3.  A relationship between music and visuals: some will contradict the song but most will amplify the feeling of the song

4.  The record label will demand inclusion of close ups and develop a visual style and motifs throughout: many music artists will have a visual style for their videos

5.  References to particular erotic treatment of the female body: This is quite apparent in rap.  in my opinion this is dependant of the genre and sometimes men are used similarly. 

6.  There are often intertextual references: this can be to a film, TV programme or other music videos.

Conventions of different genres

Today we looked at conventions two different genres; rap and indie. They have a very contrasting ideas and very different audiences therefore this shows the importance of knowing your target audience and making something relevant to them.

Rap

• Cars
• Glamorous girls
• Hand gestures
• Big crowds
• Objectifying women
• Urban settings
• Black people
• Sportswear

Indie

• Instruments
• Well dressed
• Calm and not aggressive
• Simple video, with a random concept
• High production
• Artistic and imaginative
• No sexism

The two genres we looked at are complete contrast  but it does prove that there are clear conventions to genres that often come from the type of person the artist is.

History of music videos

A music video is simply a short film that accompanies a piece of music, generally a song. The more recent music videos are used as a marketing device to promote the artist/song. They become popular after the first music channel, MTV, in the 1980's. Different music videos have varied techniques for example; live footage and animations.

1902-1917: The phonoscène era:Phonoscene was an early version of a music video where sound and film were combined with actors lip syncing to the sound recording.

1926-1959: Talkies, soundies, and shorts:A number if shot films were produced due to the arrival of 'talkies'. The first musical video series was Spooney Melodies in 1930. Also early forms of music videos were referred to as "promotional clips'' in the 1940.

1960–1967: Visual innovation: A visual jukebox was invented in France meaning many french artist began creating short films. "Travelin' Man" was directed and edited by Ozzie Nelson for his son in 1961 and it linked the lyrics with the images. Jan & Dean's "Surf City" was one of the first top 40 hits with a video. This was shortly followed by The Animal's "House Of The Rising Sun" which had the group lip-synching.

1967–1973: Promotional clips grow: A clip for Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues" was featured in a film documentary Don't Look Back. 

1974–1980 –Music television: The British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos although restrictions were put on the amount of 'outsourced' videos. This meant that a good video could increase the sale of a song so that viewers were able to see the video again the next week.

1981–1991: Music videos go mainstream: In 1981, MTV launched with "Video Killed the Radio Star" and this was the first 24 hour a day music video channel. This meant that more focus was put onto artists music videos. In 1983 an influential and iconic music video was released "Thriller" by Micheal Jackson, this video set standards for other music videos of the era having cost $500,000 to film.

1992–2004: Rise of the directors: Towards the end of 1992 MTV listed directors with the artist and song credits, meaning that the focus had turned to the director. It enabled some of the music video directors to go on and direct feature length films.

2005–present: The Internet becomes video-friendly: Youtube was launched in 2005, which made viewing online videos much faster. This even resulted in some unknown artists who posted their work onto youtube to become successful as a result of mediums such as YouTube.
2005 saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video much faster and

 

Music Video - Textual Analysis 3

The music video for this song proved extremely popular, and continues to be influential for many artists. It breaks conventions by having little lip synching, relying on the narrative to tell the story of the song. The video guides us through the lives of the stories, compellign us to feel emotion for every character, through the use of flashbacks and interestign camera angles/editing techniques such as establishing shots, cutaways and extreme close ups. These explain the lyrics and guide the audience through the song. I really like the use of flashbacks and emotive themes, and plan to emulate this in my own work. 

One convention which is adhered to is the exploration of a relationship - although this is a little more complicated than most (with more than two main characters), and this matches the lyrics of the song. 

Personally, I found the 'live' section of this video particularly effective, where the band is seen to be performing the song in a believable setting, as it fits smoothly with the song and provides more interest for the viewer. I plan to use this idea in my own video - using live footage of the artist (collected personally) for certain sections of the song, as this can be used instead of lip synching in order to create a professal looking video; if lip synching is not done properly it has the tendency to look amateur. 

Music Video - Textual Analysis 2

After watching the music video to Daniel Powter's 'Cupid' several times, certain conventions have become apparent to me and have inspired some ideas for the music video that I will be creating. 

The video has three sections to it, showing the development in the relationship of the couple. As well as this, there are another two parts to the video but in a different way; the first part is the lip-syncing of the artist and the second is the 'story' which the artist is telling through the song, shown on screen by the talent. 

The video opens with a panning shot on the female talent but cuts to the artist, Daniel Powter, lip-syncing on the beach. The fact that the artist is on the beach whilst singing is symbolic of the idea that he is taking the viewers on a journey of his relationship; the story which we are shown of the talent, portrays the flashbacks that the artist is having. This is a convention used in many music videos for love songs and is a convention which I think would help our music video to be successful due to the fact that if the song is about a relationship, as a general rule, the audience will want to be shown the relationship. It will help the audience to understand the real meaning behind the song and hopefully convey the message we intend; 'no matter how little you have, you'll always have each other'.

I like the convention of the artist taking the audience on a journey of the relationship; in 'Cupid', Daniel Powter is singing the song on the beach whilst the audience see his 'flashbacks' of his life. I think that we are going to use this convention in a very similar way in our music video; this is because 'Balance' is a love song, so we are going to have the male talent playing his guitar walking down the street, taking the audience on a journey of his relationship.

Another convention used in 'Cupid' is the presence of the artist in the video. There are some Indie music videos which choose to not have the artist in, such as Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team', but mostly they tend to have the artist. I personally like the presence of the artist in any music video because I think it portrays the 'story' better. We will be using this convention in our music video as it is one which is used in the majority of music videos, and due to the fact that we are aiming to make a successful music video, I think it is important that we follow such crucial conventions. As Billy Lockett, the artist of the song we are creating a video for, is unsigned and is from our local area, it was fairly easy for us to get in contact with him. We explained what we had to do for our coursework and he invited us to film him singing live in concert in October (FROM THE SIDE OF THE STAGE!!). 

When the talent are in the bedroom, half of the shot is cut off by the sun-shining through the window. The first time I saw this kind of thing happen in a music video I didn't think anything of it. However, as I have watched hundreds (literally) since then it has become apparent that it is a convention which many music videos, made for a love song, use. I think it is to symbolise the happiness of the relationship, due to the fact that the sun is associated with happy memories. I really like this convention, not only because of the representations, but because it just looks so good..not really a reason to use it, but then again people these days are drawn to music videos because of their looks and not just the song. 

The talent in 'Cupid' only ever make eye contact with the camera once, and this is when they are looking at the house they have just brought. We will definitely stick to the convention of not having the talent look at the camera because they are supposed to be in a 'flashback' rather than 'performing' to the camera. In addition to this, as we are using live footage rather than have the artist performing to the camera, he will rarely look at the camera either as our music video is the idea of the artist remembering how his relationship started whilst making it vivid enough for the audience to be taken on the 'journey' too. 

Lastly, a convention used in 'Cupid' which I really like is the fact that the talent 'get older' to portray that the couple have grown old together. I think that this is a really nice touch and a great way to illustrate the message of the song. This however, is not a possible convention for our music video as we do not have such a vast talent available to us. If we were to have a longer period of time and even some sort of budget, it may be possible, but with the criteria we have, we're taking a different path. 

Overall, I think that Daniel Powter's 'Cupid' music video is a really good example of the kind of music video that we would like to create and the message that we would like to send to our audience. Therefore I think that we will be referring back to this quite a bit when storyboarding, producing and editing our own music video.

Music Video - Textual Analysis 1

Aiden Grimshaw- Curtain Call

By analysing the contents of this music video we can see there are conventions for this genre of music. Generally this style of music will have a lack of lip synching and direct eye contact with the camera. I believe that they lack this direct contact because it is a convention of pop music, like One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" and Jessie J's "Price Tag". It seems like this particular genre is trying to avoid being a pop genre, and trying to be different to the pop music videos. From analysis of this music video and watching others more generally another convention is to have a story behind the video, for example in this they are having fun and falling in love. However this genre seem to do this slightly differently to other videos, for example performance style videos still have a story behind them usually where the artist is portraying the overall feel of the song. Although in a Narrative style video, like this, there is usually parts of no lip synching where other characters will run alongside the song to tell a story.

The cuts in the music video seem to work with the beats of the song. At the start of the video the music is quite slow and therefore so are the cuts, as the song builds momentum the cuts become faster and the clips become shorter. Also the start of the video is quite dull and dark lighting wise, whereas as the song builds momentum the sun comes out and the lighting is much brighter. This is something we would wish to achieve in our music video because it seems to have more continuity if the cuts match with the song. Our song seems to stay at the same level all the time and therefore we may not be able to reciprocate the cuts becoming faster when the song is faster.

Another convention I have established in narrative music videos is that although the song is only a couple of minutes long, the story lasts a longer length of time. For instance this one seems to be a whole day or a few hours with the characters. For our music video we hope to create the time frame of a year or two which is longer than this particular video does but is similar to other videos we have seen.

We have learnt a lot from this music video, we feel that the narrative characters acting out a story alongside the artist performing the song works well. However we would only use one story-line to run alongside it because if we had three like this example, it could become difficult to film as there will be a lot of organising of talent and we would need to spend a large amount of time on the filming of our video in order for it to work. So we would only have one set of characters that are continued throughout the whole video. Most importantly this music video showed us that you do not have to include lip synching throughout the whole video in order for it to be successful. Throughout the whole 4 minute video the artist only appears for roughly 30 seconds of it. This is becoming a convention of this style of music and is something we wish to reciprocate in our own music video.