June 17

Describe your Audience

Introduction

To fully understand the target audience of the music video, we had to look back at the Blumler and Katz theory of star image and how they can be portrayed differently in the media. Star image is so vital for success in the music industry as it adds to the portrayal and design of the music video and leads to income from audiences and fans, the type of audience that is interested in a specific type of music will be different from another type of audience member interested in a different genre.

It is very important to know your client and audience so that you can develop an idea and product that they will not reject and fits into their lifestyle, you need to ensure you know what they want from the artist and product you are trying to sell to them. To perfectly produce a product that the target audience will like you need to encode specific aspects within the product so that the audience can then decode the product and gain satisfaction from the product, the aim as someone creating a product for an audience will change depending on that type of audience both their demographic and psychographics.

Understanding

  • What platform is your production to be accessed on?

Platforms like youtube and social media will effect the music videos views and success.

  • What is the product’s function? (What is it trying to do or achieve?

The product is trying to get the audience to understand that as humans we can develop interests for people we may never really know, they remain as strangers such as audience members loving celebrities.

  • What genre(s) does your artist typically work in?

The artist works with Pop music and R&B music to evoke emotion and interest from the audience.

  • Who is the target audience?

The target audience is teenage girls from age age 13 to 19.

We then looked into the following features of our audience:

  • Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?

Other artists the audience would like are: Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, The Vamps, One Direction, Little mix and Ariana grande.

  • What other media would they consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences…

Other media the audience would consume is social media and influence from youtube and friends, they would like pop music and have interests in fashion and make up.

  • What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them?

The main importance to this audience is social status and relationships, a presence on social media would be important to these individuals. As 21st century teenagers they value their online lives a lot more as technology develops.

  • What broad demographic groups do your audience fall into (gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, cultural background)?

The age of this audience would be 13 to 19 year old females, going to school and perhaps having a few relationships as teenagers. As a young audience the image of the star would be important to these girls so that they can accurately judge the artist.

  • What ‘communities’ do they belong to?

Online communities and social circles would be very important to these audiences.

Mood board Of Audience

June 17

Final Song Choice

Dazed & Confused- Ruel 

You came in swinging like Apollo
I’ll be feeling it tomorrow
No, I ain’t seeing straight, hyperventilate
Knees begin to wobble
You cut my brakes and hit the throttle
I couldn’t stop it if I wanted
Dizzy silhouette, makes me break a sweat
I’m in trouble
Oh, I’ve been dazed and confused
From the day I met you
Yeah, I lost my head
And I’d do it again
Either I’ve seen the light
Or I’m losing my mind
There’s something ’bout you
That’s got me dazed and confused
Dazed
Dazed and confused
Dazed
I bet you know just what you’re doing
You’re not the type that’s used to losing
First, you build me up, then with just a touch
Leave me here in ruins
Something ’bout your eyes
I can’t even walk in a straight line
Under the influence
Oh, I’ve been dazed and confused
From the day I met you
Yeah, I lost my head
And I’d do it again
Either I’ve seen the light
Or I’m losing my mind
There’s something ’bout you
That’s got me dazed and confused
Dazed
Dazed and confused
Dazed
I don’t know if this is real life, real life
What happens if I open my eyes, my eyes?
Will I ever get my head right, head right?
I don’t know if this is real life, real life
Oh, I’ve been dazed and confused
From the day I met you
Yeah, I lost my head
And I’d do it again
Either I’ve seen the light
Or I’m losing my mind
There’s something ’bout you
That’s got me
That’s got me dazed and confused
From the day I met you
Yeah, I lost my head
And I’d do it again
Either I’ve seen the light
Or I’m losing my mind
There’s something ’bout you
That’s got me
Dazed and confused
Lyric Video

 

Reasons why chosen
We have decided on the song dazed & confused by the singer Ruel as we have thought of a simple but effective narrative that matches the lyrics of the song, the main themes of the music video will be obsession from love for the girl. The video will start as a normal video of love and affection but as it develops the theme of obsession should become clearer to the audience. The target demographic for the music video and song is teenage girls, and should powerfully convey the emotions of obsession and should be repeatable so that the audience can further understand it.
June 17

Perfect Production Group

Group Production Agreement

 

Purpose

The purpose of completing the group agreement shows how we will work together on the music video, and share the responsibilities to create an effective music video for a target audience. As a group we will work effectively and close together to get the best results from this piece of coursework in media A level, we have agreed to a numerous amount of rules and agreements so that we have to do our very best in this project to get high results for successful grades.

March 20

Initial song ideas for a video – Mini pitch

Song ideas

For the music video, I will create in the future I have developed a few brief ideas that could be used. I think some idea would be more effective than others but I think some of the chosen songs are not very well known so do not have famous music videos. Below is a PowerPoint of five songs that I have created ideas for, I have noted down the narrative and performance for the ideas as well as themes and locations.

 

March 19

Green Screen Studio Filming

The shoot

How to film a green screen

When we went to the college of further education and got access to the green screen studio that they have, I learned many facts about the screen and how to effectively use it. Before filming the lip-syncing videos the class got an explanation of how the green screen works and what you can and cannot do with it, for example using bright lights with colour will not work as the green screen removes everything in the background so that they can put different backgrounds in.

Green screens allow any backgrounds to be added into the screen to make powerful effects, the bright green colour is the easiest to use at it stands out from costumes and other coloured objects. But sometimes there are green objects so a different colour screen is used, from going to this place we also learned about camera techniques and lighting effects which were useful for the future music video.

Focusing forward I would like to use the green screen studio as it would be effective to then put other backgrounds into the video to give it more power, I would use it in the separate shots of the star so that it focuses more on then and takes the focus away from the narrative.

March 13

Favourite Music Video from Former Student

Music Video 

Positive Points

  • Good lip-syncing
  • Powerful editing to the beat in the chorus
  • Smooth transitions
  • Nice, the accurate composition of the shots
  • Gives a strong vibe
  • Very classic frames and shots
  • 50% performance and narrative
  • A love story between a couple is displayed
  • Stages of a relationship
  • The star values love and relationships
  • The star has a chill, calm attitude
  • She is cool
  • Star is portrayed as rich and stylish
  • She is relatable to teenage girls
  • Going through a life situation
  • Playing with hair shows she is like any other girl
  • She is portrayed here as a relatable ordinary star

 

Commentary

Why I like it

I really like this music video from 2019 as the narrative is easy to understand and the actors were well selected, the idea of the relationship is natural as the two actors were in a relationship at the time allowing the video to be very effective. The filters used on this music video add to the themes of love affection and romance, the vintage filter used in many scenes emphasize the dreamlike quality of the story and narrative. The range of different shots in the video gives better depth to the whole video, the scenes of both inside the house and outside give contrasting vibes and feelings.

Breakdown

Whilst the inside of the house shows the star as very girly and posh the outside scenes with the boyfriend display her as caring and affectionate, the edition of the dog within the video can easily emit an emotion from the viewers as the dog is immediately cute. The lip-syncing in the video is good as the actor actually knew her words which makes a big difference to the quality of the video as a whole, the shot of giving the rose is very powerful as it is a clear sign of love and the powerful connection between them. The closeup shots of the star and her boyfriend give an intimate feeling and the audience really gets to see the connection between them, the repetition of shots and scenes throughout the video shows how the relationship remains strong until the height of the song where it begins to appear broken.

Negatives

However, I do think that the story of the music video is a very common theme and issue music videos display, the acting could be better and express the feelings in the video in a deeper sense. From watching the original music video the music video here very similarly mirrors the original video and the themes shown within it, further showing how difficult it is to produce a music video when there already is one. Even though the narrative is common it is then easy to display as everyone knows what is going on and how it will most likely end making it easy to understand but also predictable. Overall it is a very powerful music video and uses a range of multiple effects, camera shots, and mise en scene to provide a clear narrative and story for the viewers and target audience.

March 11

Detailed Music Video analysis

Introduction

From analyzing these music videos I have learned how important all the aspects in the video add to the narrative and make it powerful, all music videos have different messages in them that all audiences can notice and possibly connect too. With different camera angles, shots and distances they can help paint the star for the audience and what the stars value and feel. The mise en scene is equally as important in music videos as it gives a stronger portrayal of the star, all editing, performance, and narrative techniques give a very strong display of themes and promotion of the star.

Music video 1

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Music video 2

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Overview

All videos have different themes and ideas that emit different reactions from the audience and lead to different opinions on the star, if you deeper into all music video there will be many aspects that people and audiences do not see. Most music videos are a mix of performance and narrative, but those songs with strong lyrics will use all narrative videos and it will be very effective as the themes will be clear and obvious. The colours in the music video will match the themes and ideas presented in the music and lyrics to highlight the song and the meaning behind the lyrics, music videos really do promote the star in specific lights as well as reflect the song genre.

Focusing forward

Focusing forward towards the music video I will create, I will think about how camera work can alter the portrayal of the story and how mise en scene is vital to get correct and on point to give the correct themes to the audience. The editing will have to be clean-cut and smooth for the story to have a clear flow and rhythm, I will also think about the percentage of performance and narrative in the video that will help the portrayal of the star. Every part in a music video is vital and needs to have meaning, the effects of lip-syncing and different scenes will be thought about carefully to help make an impact on the audience and everyone who watches the music video.

March 11

Music Video Form & Conventions

 

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Reflection

From doing this music video analysis I have learned how important it is to understand the messages behind the videos, through camera work and mise en scene different emotions and themes can be displayed in music videos. I have discovered that the whole point of music videos is to promote the star in a certain light in the media, it is a promotional piece of cinematography and is used to get as much money as possible.

I further understand how technical conventions such as lip-syncing and editing to the beat make a powerful effect for the audience and help to display the star, these techniques help to emphasize the music video style either performance or narrative. Either style can really help to give a stronger portrayal of the singer and themes within the narrative, whilst a full performance video gives the audience a clear view of how the star is in the media, narrative music videos give a stronger sense of story to the lyrics. However, most music videos are a mixture of both as this is the most effective, you can see the story behind the lyrics but also get the singer in the video helping the portrayal of the story.

Conventions in a music video have to be specific to help the correct narrative and story come across to the audience, many videos leave an unclear ending drawing the viewer to go back and watch the video again giving the company more money. The editing techniques in music videos also help to reinforce the ideas presented in the music video, intertextual references make the video more relatable and make the audience able to understand the story in the music more.

Music videos will be illustration or amplification or a mix of both as both styles display uses in music to make them more inviting and powerful, very few videos will be disjuncture as they are hard to understand because the music video has no relation to the lyrics.

In conclusion, I will use many conventions that are seen in other music videos in the music video I will make in the future, by learning the importance of everything in the scene and how the star is portrayed I understand that music videos need to be very specific and show certain ideas and themes.