Component 3
Star Image – The Performer
The performer of our song is the musician Claire Cottril, known professionally as Clairo. We focused on the way that she portrays herself, particularly on social media, in order to gather an idea on what the conventions of an indie star are and how these play into the metanarrative surrounding her. A metanarrative could also be described as the packaging of her entire brand, and it plays a major role into how they deduce who their target audience are and how to appeal to them.
Richard Dyer came up with the reception theory as a solution to how a star should present themselves to their audiences. His theory outlined the idea that stars should appear to be relatable to their audience in order to retain their attention as fans, while still remaining as an unattainable ideal, also described as being ordinary vs extraordinary.
Test Shoots
In order to experiment with some shots and angles that we could potentially use in our music video, we did a test shoot to get a vague idea of what will work and what won’t. This was helpful as it helped us to put together a stronger idea and a more helpful plan for what we would actually do when we got to filming the actual video. This task also helped Sylvie to become more comfortable with being on camera, and allowed her to practise her lip synching a bit more than before. Since we are planning on filming a lot of our video outside, we shot outside of our school in location that looked similar to the places we were planning to shoot. This task also helped us understand the editing software Premiere Pro a bit better, and helped to familiarise us with some of its basic video editing features.
Performance Test Footage
What went well
- We added in a title card for the song using Premiere, which both familiarised us with this feature of the software and solidified our like of the idea
- The footage was well cut together
- We managed to test out a few of the shots on our shot list, which showed us what we liked and could work well, like the arial shot of Sylvie in the grass, and what might be more difficult to achieve
- The lip synching has improved
Targets
- Further improve the lip synching
- Try out a wider array of shots to add more variation to the video
- Experiment more with effects and editing techniques
- Practise the use of the sock puppets and make sure they’re positioned correctly in the frame, as we struggled to keep them in shot a lot of the time
Visual Shot List for Shoot One (Performance)
In order to find inspiration for our music video, we had a look through some various other music videos from our genre, as well as some from former students. This helped us to visualise some of the shots that we could use in our own music video, and inspired us to consider some shots that we hadn’t before. Through this, we’ve been able to identify some shots that we’d like to include in our music video, shown in the padlet below.
Permission from Artist
Due to copyright purposes, in order to use our chosen song for our video we must first ask permission from the artist; even if they do not see or reply to the message, they must be notified of its use. To do this, my partner sent a direct message to the artist, Clairo, on Instagram, as shown in the screenshot below.
Pitch and Feedback
Mini Pitch
Music Video Pitch
Feedback
- Liked the main theme of childlike wonder that we’ll incorporate into the video
- Our teacher thought the sock puppet idea added to this childlike, innocent feel
- He liked the idea of the ‘bedroom pop’, which has a very lofi, almost surreal, dreamlike nature – this idea of surrealism will allow us to play around with less naturalistic elements in the video
Targets
- Need to hone in on the ideas more specifically, and figure out our direction more clearly in relation to shots/locations etc
- Decide on the significance of the sock puppets – from this, we have decided that the sock puppet shots represent the star’s memories of the past relationship, giving the video a playful, childlike feel
- Reconsider the idea of side by side shots suggesting flashbacks to the past relationship – shots like these could become cheesy and fake, so we’ll focus only on the sock puppets in the flashbacks instead
Describe Your Audience
In order to create as successful of a music video as possible, I need to determine who my target audience are. This is important because by figuring out the other things that my audience enjoy and the other types of music they listen to, I can determine what elements I should cater to, ensuring a more successful music video overall.
Collage of interests for our target audience
The audience that we’re aiming for are teenagers and young adults, aged between around 13-25, and since our song is in the indie genre, we hope that it will cater to the audience’s interests of more alternative cultures, music, and brands. Also, our audience tend to have an interest in fashion and more alternative styles, so we will try and take this into account with the costuming of our star.
YouGov data for our genre
Above are the top 10 most popular artists of our genre in our target demographic. One artist among these is the Arctic Monkeys.
Below are some of the other interests that fans of the band share. It appears that our target audience enjoys comedy and female actresses, which we will take into consideration when deciding on the direction of our music video.
Final Song Choice
Pretty Girl – Clairo
Sylvie and I decided on this choice together because it’s a song that both of us already really liked, and we both like Clairo as an artist. On top of this, it’s a genre that we both enjoy, indie pop, which puts us at an advantage because we know the nature and conventions of it. The song has a very pleasant and floaty feel, and I feel that the almost childlike and dreamy outlook on love suggested through the lyrics and sound could lend itsself very well to the creation of our video.