A target audience is a particular group of people who are intended as the recipients of the product, in this case a music video for a specific genre. It is key to identify a target audience and to keep them in mind throughout the whole production and planning process. By doing this, you are likely to have more success as you will have ensured you have included all elements you know appeal to your chosen audience.
Primary Research For our primary research we created a list of questions and asked 20 girls for their answers. This allowed us to gain an understanding of what people like and gave us an insight into things that put people off music videos and genres as well as what draws them in. We now have a better understanding as to what we need to do for our own music video. The answers they gave were interesting and allowed us to go back through our plans to make sure we had made the right decisions about what to include and miss out to ensure we have the most success with our own music video Results We asked 20 girls aged between 16-18 to fill out our survey, these are the results we concluded; 14/20 girls said they preffered dance music over any other genre. 17/20 girls said there favourite type of music video is narrative, so one that is a story. The results varied when asked how much music they listened too every week Secondary Research To gain an understanding of who our target audience would be accoding to the internet, we researched into who is the target audience of dance/electric music. After looking at various websites and looking at surveys that other people have carried out, we found that teenagers are the most popular target audience for dance/electric music which we have chosen to make our music video too.
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I will be analysing two past students work and will be looking into the videos in terms of Mise-en-scene, camera work and editing. I will compare and contrast the differences and similarities in these videos.
The song Wake up by Jay Hardway is a Dance/Electronic Song. The song Stuck by Canopy Climbers is a Pop/Indie song. Editing - When viewing the two student music videos it is very apparent that two different editing techniques have been used. This is usually done to project the type of music video it is and what type of music the audience is consuming. The First video begins with short shot duration takes with a seemingly fast paced tempo to the song. The shots reveal that the character has been declined from a job opportunity. At this point the shots become even shorter as the character is trying to escape his situation. In terms of transitions cuts are used a majority of the time to help the audience feel the panic the character is going through. Any other transitions like dissolves or ripple effects would have given the video a slow feel, so this was not used. The main editing technique that has been focused on is the level of continuity. The video is a narrative based video which means continuity is very important to help the audience make sense of what is going on. Throughout the video, a lot of match on actions are used. For example when the character wakes up from his bed and turns the alarm off to get ready for the job interview. Finally, it is noticeable that there are some eye line matches; this is so done so that the audience can see what the character is looking at. It is important to use this technique so the viewers can feel part of the story. The second student video is very different to the first one in terms of editing. This is actually obvious from the first shot. Long shot durations have been used to portray the main character and the peaceful surrounding. This video is spilt into two types, narrative and performance. This automatically makes the editing techniques change. Where in the performance sections long shot duration is used to convey the emotion on the artists face in the narrative sections some short shots are used to establish the storyline. In the narrative there is a part where the female and male character are arguing, here the 180 degree rule has been used to position the artists in the correct way so we can see that they are standing opposite one another. As the video and the storyline are quite dark and negative a lot of fade to black transitions have been used to set the scene. Finally, it is apparent that again continuity has been used throughout the narrative part of the video. Camera Work - The song Wake Up starts with a wide shot of where he lives, which looks like a rough area and then jumps to a close up of all the mess in his room to show how messy his life is. There is then a shot looking over his shoulder of a picture of a sunny pool, it then jumps to a close up of the picture. A wide shot of his surroundings then is shown whist he runs and then is shown a close up of his rejection letter. A panning shot show him running away and then cuts to a super wide shot of him running on the beach. A close up shows him going under water and then a wide shot shows him coming out of the water and everything is then colourful. A panning shot is used to show the island scenery and there is a lot of point of view shots of him in the water doing water sports and swimming around and lots of wide shots of him exploring the island, showing him enjoying himself. There is a long shot of him coming out the water back onto the grey beach and then the shots repeat themselves; the close ups of his messy room and where he lives. This shows the repetition in his life and how boring and grey and dull it is doing the same thing everyday. The song starts with a wide shot of a boy walking along a field. There is then a time lapse of the clouds moving which could show time passing by and it then cuts to a close up of two boys sitting on the field drinking alcohol. The shot then jumps to a close up of someone wrapping cloth around there fists. A wide shot of him arguing with his girlfriend is shown and then a mid shot of half of the boy with a fire in the background, which may represent anger. There is a lot of wide shots in this video of the landscape, which is similar to the first video. There is loads of close ups of the fight and then a wide shot of him walking across a field again but alone, which may show that he is feeling sorry or remorseful for his actions. There is then a wide shot of him throwing something into the fire and after that a lot of dark shots. There is then a close of him crying and sweating and the video ends with a mid shot of him in a dark room. The dark shots may show how that he is feeling sad and dark inside and he may feel alone. Mise-en-Scene - The song Wake up starts with a clip of a very messy room. Its extremely small and cramped, like prison. This may be reflective of his messy life. He then gets changed into a suit and cleans himself up. The shot changes to show the rough estate he lives on. This is a juxtaposition to the way that he's dressed. More and more bad stuff keeps happening to him: he gets run over and doesn't get the job. This is a reflection perhaps of messy life and how unlucky he is. As the music drops he drops the letter and runs.The Mise-en-scene changes when he goes under water from dull and dark to bright and colourful.There is then reference to the picture at the beginning because the image that was seen at the start is where he now is. At the end it repeats the beginning again but this time the picture he was looking at in the beginning, he is now sat in. It goes back to grey colours as he repeats his daily routine. In the start of the video the actors look really relaxed and they are outside in the bright sunshine. But then everything starts going grey, similar to the video before. A pair of boys dressed like thugs then are running away from something like they are in trouble. The next shot is an image of him looking sad, guilty and remorseful. He is surrounded by all black around him. He is then arguing with a girl and looks very agressive and forceful. He goes from arguing with his girlfriend to then beating some boy up. This boy looks really hurt and revered and then he starts boxing and you can see the determination on his face to train harder. The scene goes back to the main boy and is now in a uniform crying, which makes him look very vulnerable. These videos in similar is the sense of dark dim lighting throughout the videos, however the first one has a easier story to follow and one involves one person, whereas in the second video its confusing to recognise all the different characters. There is a lot of low lighting to express the depressive mood of the boy. Our genre, dance/electronic has a very distinctive mise en scene in every music video. In a dance music video it is often you will see a lot of energetic dancing and bright revealing clothes. Boys will often have chains on and a hat on their head, girls will be wearing small shorts and crop tops and sunglasses, their hair will often be braided or tied back and big hoop earrings. Both males and females will usually wear trainers. A perfect example of this is In Justin Bieber's video to 'Sorry' the whole video is a white back drop with a group of female dancers wearing luminous clothing, this makes the audience feel energised when watching. For our dance music video we have decided to wear big jewellery like Taylor Swift in the video below, but have decided against the revealing bright clothing but it'll still be clear to the audience that it is a dance genre music video.
Auteur Theory is the theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. Auteur Theory suggests that a director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush. Arising in France in the late 1940s, the auteur theory was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. The film theoretician, André Bazin, explained that auteur theory was a way of choosing the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard of reference and then assuming that it continues and even progresses from one media to the next. The platform can allow for more creative and artistic expression than film making, Auteurs may use music videos to showcase a distinct style, iconography (symbolic codes), technical codes, repetition of themes and contributing music artists in their work. You should be able to draw clear connections between their work, similar to how you can with film directors such as Tim Burton and James Cameron
You can see Hype Williams signature style here in the song All of the Lights by Kayne West as he includes a lot of bright colours and flashing images. Another of Hype Williams' signature styles is the fish eye lens effect as seen in the video by Missy Elliott. Another thing that he was known for in his earlier work is using a wide screen ratio whilst a second shot is split and placed where usually there would be black bars above and below the video. His recent work shows the scene rapidly switching between shots so you're able to see both at once.
There are 3 different types of music videos: -Narrative -Performance -Conceptual. Narrative Music Video: The way a story or tale is told so that the elements are structured and organised in such a way that it makes sense to the audience. It has also been described as how events are unified in time and space. A narrative music video usually acts out the words in some way. This style relies on Imagery to produce a story for the audience to follow and some narrative videos include clips from films that the song has been featured in. This seems to be used in a lot slower songs. An example of a narrative style music video is Coldplays 'Paradise' in which we see elephants escaping from the zoo and seeking freedom in Africa. Performance Music Video: A performance video focuses on showing footage of the artist or band either in a casual environment i.e. socialising with friends or performing (live or staged). This style of video uses the band /artist/group throughout the majority of the production and the artist/band members are often miming the words to the song. The most common genres that feature such music videos are indie and rock. The costing on this type of production are also most likely to be the lowest as the producers are in effect giving the audience the most realistic image of the band as it is the only thing they are showing. The downside of this is that the band will need to be relatively established to pull off the video else interest will be lost by the audience. Concept Music Video: Concept based music video are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. This unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in. They are usually combined with one of the other two music video styles: Narrative or performance. A successful concept video music video will keep the audience entertained and constantly looking at what or who is on the screen. No particular genre or type of music is more likely to use concept videos, in fact a range of artists covering all genres have used concept/art videos. We have decided to apply Goodwins Theory to the song 'Girls Like' by Tinie Tempah ft Zara Larsson. We have chosen this song because it is an electro-pop genre. Genre Characteristics This is the use of costumes worn to demonstrate the electro-pop genre. The artist is shown wearing black, white and pastel colour. When watching other electro-pop music videos i have noticed that it is the countertype of dance/electronic bright fluorescent clothing. Relationship between lyrics and visuals There is not always a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, the relationship os shown only a couple of times throughout. When Tinie sings 'Go low, everybody go low' the dances drop down. Relationship between music and visuals The relationship between the music and visuals is strong throughout the music video. For example, towards the end when the music becomes slower and more distort at the end as well s the visuals as the shot durations get longer and the visuals get blurred. Record label demands The record label demands are hard to identify cause most viewers don't know the artist on a personal level. However, i have identified that Tinie Tempah is wearing a gold watch, a gold chain and gold sunglasses with his hawaiian shirt and shorts. This could mean that the record label demanded him to wear it to show his wealth and fame. Notions of Looking This is when the directors emphasise the body to attract gaze. This music definitely has examples of this, the female dancers are wearing revealing clothing to show off their bodies and are dancing in a certain way to attract the male gaze. Intertexual references When analysing the music videos i was unable to identify intertexual references however, there must be a hidden intertexual reference. Structure
There is no narrative for this music video, which means that there is no storyline because the lyrics don't convey a message. Goodwins theory states that there are 5 key aspects to a music video: 1) Music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characteristics. e.g. a video of a stage performance is typical for a metal video, a dance routine typical for a boy/girl band and bikini clad women by a pool and flashy sports cars in a rap video Music videos can also link to film genres, this is also known as intertextuality. eg many heavy rock songs are influenced by horror films. 2) There are frequent references to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The notion of looking includes men or women being portrayed seductively or if there is eye contact with the camera. The notion of looking can also be referenced by the use of props. eg mirrors, tv screens,cameras, telescopes, binoculars and magnifying glasses are all references to, these are commonly used. Voyeurism is widely used to sell the artists music through sex appeal, a recent example being Miley Cyrus. Voyeurism today is only shown at one angle. You never normally see a male doing that, only women. 3) There is a relationship between the music and visuals. e.g. either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting. This can be seen in killer/papa was a rolling by George Michael. 4) A record label which the artist is assigned to tends to have certain demands. They often include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist will have a visual style which recurs across their work. e.g. An example of a visual style could be Lady Gaga as she is always wearing weird and wonderful, quirky clothes. She dresses in a way no one else does so its easy to recognise her by what she is wearing. The 'fourth wall' is broken almost always when the video is a performance. This is direct address and it seems like they are singing to the viewer. 5) There is often intertextual references. (to films, tv programmes, other music videos ect). Audiences enjoy knowing the 'in joke'. e.g. Destiny's Child doing Independent Women referencing to Charlie's Angels. Or Will Smith doing men in black in the film for men in black. Intertextuality in The Wombats video for My Circuitboard city referencing a video game. The Genre of our song is Dance/Electronic. We analysed the similarities between different songs of this genre to find the common codes and conventions of Dance Music. The songs we compared were: Avicii - Wake Me Up Zedd - Stay the Night Showtek - Booyah Calvin Harris & Alesso - Under Control There is a similar Location for most of these songs such as big outdoor spaces and landscapes. They also film a lot of shots in busy city areas and nightclubs. The Costume worn in these types of music videos is quite bright quirky hipster outfits with messy hair but also have glamorous make up. In Dance/Electronic Videos they use similar Camera Work such as: Quick Cuts, Wide Shots, Close Ups, Panning of Landscape and blurry images. The Lighting is usually either Bright and Bold with sunlight suing down or Dark with flashes of multicolour lights coming through. Dance videos tend to include Props such as alcohol, instruments, etc. This image shows the Location of a City in the song Wake Me Up. We want to include a Location like this as our video is about 4 girls who live in the city. This image shows the Location of in a Nightclub in the song Wake Me Up. This also shows the Lighting as this is filmed in a dark atmosphere. This image shows the Costume being quirky and bright with glamorous yet messy hair in the song Under Control. This image shows the Camera Work as this is a Close Up shot and also shows the Costume as she has glamorous make up and messy hair in the song Stay the Night. This image shows the Camera Work as this wide shot shows the Location and also Pans the Landscape in the song Under Control. We wanted to include a shot like this in our music video as most of our locations are outside. This image shows them using Props such as Alcohol. Alcohol seems to be a main prop in most Dance/Electronic Music Videos and we plan to use it as a prop in ours. We decided as a group that our preferred genre of film was Dance as it would provide a fun and entertaining music video. Lyrics in this genre of film are also quite generalised meaning we wouldn't be limited to what story and images would be shown in the video. To get some ideas of what Dance Music Videos feature I am going to look at similarities and differences between two specific videos: I Took A Pill In Ibiza - Mike Posner and How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris. By doing this I am hoping that our group will gain some inspiration of what our video should include whilst also finding ways in which we can make it different and individual. Mise en scene The most obvious difference between the videos is that 'how deep is your love' features a female main character wearing dresses and feminine clothing and 'i took a pill in ibiza' features a male main character wearing stereotypical masculine clothing such as a leather jacket. The actress in how deep is your love is sexualised in skimpy clothing, attracting a lot of male attention. Another difference is that one of the main features in Mike Posner's song is a giant mask and there are no props like this in Calvin Harris's. A similarity is that both videos feature extras in places such as clubs and use props like glasses. The lighting in both videos is mostly different. the majority of how deep is your love is filmed outside and therefor is very light and bright with natural lighting, whereas i took a pill in ibiza is filmed completely in a dark club therefor more artificial lighting is used. Both songs feature lighting effects such as bulbs and strobe lighting to capture the club scene as realistically as possible. Editing: Similarly, both videos have a lot shorter and faster cut shot durations during the chorus when the music's tempo increases, this means the shots are parallel with the music which captivates the audience. In how deep is your love they have used different colour filters along with fast shots of the main character. This represented the main female character being almost non human which matches the narrative of the song. I took a pill in ibiza also features red filters. Camera Work
Both videos feature close ups as well as long shots and pan shots to show different scenes. |
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May 2017
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