Audience research

My research

To find out what my audience like I carried out multiple surveys to get the best possible results. I put a poll on my blog to find out what type of videos people liked the most. I made a survey using survey monkey because that was a good poll to send to people from different areas and it has a good way of showing the results. I also did interviews with members of my target audience to find out what they think is involved within the genre of music I am making my music video for. In my survey monkey, I also asked people that liked similar genres so that I could appeal to a much wider audience.

Poll

My poll research is good when I am looking for information based on what fans of the genre I prefer like because they are following the blog because they like similar things to what I do. It gives me an understanding of what the current fans already like about it, rather than looking for new fans and how I could make it appeal to them.
 

In my blog poll, I found that the majority of the voters said they watch power pop music videos the most. This shows that the most popular genre of music videos is Power pop. I also found that half of my audience is male and half of my audience is female. This shows that there is no particular target gender needed in my video. I also found that the majority of my audience prefer narrative music videos. This shows that my video will have to have a story line and follow a narrative for it to appeal the most to my audience.


Survey monkey

My survey monkey results are mainly about getting information from random people and finding out what it is that they like, and getting ideas on what the general public like rather than a specific group of people. These results allow me to add/change things that will make more people from other genres watch my music video.

 

These results show that in my music video, if I want to appeal to a large target audience, I must have the following things:

• A wide range of camera angles, locations and other elements of mise-en-scene.
• Relevance to the chosen song, such as the video representing what the lyrics are saying.
• An interesting storyline that the viewer can follow. This will keep the viewer entertained.
• The musician from the band must be featured in the music video.

Interviews

My ideas

Music video ideas! from joewilson1997

Conventions of genre of my chosen song

Conventions of genre

power-Pop - Power pop is inspired by rock music from the 1960's. In power pop you are likely to find: A strong melodie, very crisp and clear vocals, and some guitar riffs. Some of the genres thatb are derivative of this are: Brit-pop, Pop-punk, Noise-pop, Indie-pop, mod revival, and jangle pop. Another convention of power-pop is that when recording, a technique that is used, is that a lot of compression is used on the vocals, this may be used to stop the vocals distorting at loud parts of the song. The most common instuments used within Power pop are: electric guitar, for the catchy guitar riffs and the strong melodies, Bass guitar, also for the strong melodies, Drums, and sometimes, synthesizers will be used. Them difference between this and pop-rock is that it is a lot more agressive. Some popular examples of some songs that a4re of the power pop genre are:
- Weezer, buddy holly
- Jimmy eat world, The midddle
- Fountains of wayne, Staceys Mom



Rock - Rock is the most popular alternative to pop, its main differences are that it uses guitars and drums to push the music forward and is often considered heavier than pop. And there are many types of sub genres within rock, such as metal or indie. An average rock videos main convention is a lot of movement and editing. this is because of the fast paced beat of the song and the editing being done in time with the beat. Another convention is also for the musicians/actors to not be clean cut and fresh, they are often associated with being gloomy, sweaty when playing instruments and not well kept, maybe due to drink/drugs. It is also conventional for the musician to be passionate about their music, such as the singer when singing, if it is a screaming/shouting part of the song, the singer needs to look like they are shouting/screaming as a part of the band, otherwise it will look different to the video. Below is an example of the musician acting like he is really singing the song.

Textual anlysis

lyric timings

"(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To"

The moon was shining on the lake at night - 0:03 - 0:07
The slayer T-shirt fit the scene just right - 0:08 - 0:12
Your smeared mascara - 0:12 - 0:14
I looked into your eyes and saw a light - 0:14 - 0:18

You told me stories about your chickadees - 0:20 - 0:25
They didn’t like BB guns or stupid archery - 0:25 - 0:29
And charmed the lifeguard - 0:29 - 0:31
He let them use the pool all day for free - 0:32 - 0:35

Then the conversation stopped - 0:37 - 0:40
And I looked down at my feet - 0:40 - 0:43
I was next to you and you were right there next to me - 0:43 - 0:46
Then I said - 0:47 - 0:48

Girl, if you’re wondering if I want you to (I want you to) - 0:48 - 0:54
I want you to - 0:54 - 0:56
So make them move (make them move) - 0:56 - 0:58
cause I ain’t got all night - 0:58 - 1:02

The rest of the summer was the best we’ve ever had - 1:04 - 1:08
We watched titanic and it didn’t make us sad - 1:09 - 1:13
I took you to Best Buy - 1:13 - 1:15
You took me home to meet your mom and dad - 1:16 - 1:19

Your mom cooked meat loaf, even though I don’t eat meat - 1:22 - 1:26
I dug you so much, I took some for the team - 1:26 - 1:30
Your dad was silent His eyes were fixed to what was on TV - 1:31 - 1:36

And the conversation stopped, and I looked down at the ring - 1:39 - 1:43
Your folks were next to you - 1:44 - 1:45
And you were right there next to me - 1:45 - 1:48
And I said - 1:48 - 1:49

Girl, if you’re wondering if I want you to (I want you to) - 1:49 - 1:55
I want you to (I want you to) - 1:55 - 1:57
I swear it’s true (swear it's true) - 1:57 - 1:59
Without you my heart is blue - 2:00 - 2:05
Girl, if you’re wondering if I want you to (I want you to) - 2:06 - 2:12
I want you to (I want you to) - 2:12 - 2:14
So make the move (make the move) - 2:14 - 2:17
cause I ain’t got all night - 2:16 - 2:22

So much pain may come our way - 2:23 - 2:31
There may come a day when we have nothing left to say - 2:32 - 2:40

When the conversation stops and we’re facing our defeat - 2:40 - 2:44
I’ll be next to you and you’ll be right there next to me - 2:45 - 2:48
Then I’ll say - 2:49 - 2:50

Girl, if you’re wondering if I want you to (I want you to) - 2:50 - 2:55
I want you to (I want you to) - 2:56 - 2:57
I swear it’s true (swear it's true) - 2:58 - 3:01
Without you my heart is blue ooooooh - 3:01 - 3:06
Girl, if you’re wondering if I want you to (I want you to) - 3:07 - 3:3:13
I want you to (I want you to) - 3:13 - 3:15
So make the move (make the move) - 3:16 - 3:17
Cause I ain’t got all night - 3:17 - 3:24

Lyrics analysis

The history of music videos

In the 1950’s, televisions were becoming more and more popular due to them being able to be rented and the amount of channels increasing. By 1963, a lot of homes had a television and this is the year that The Beatles had their first live TV performance. This performance was on the Ed Sullivan show in America and almost 85 million people watched the show. It is reported that at the time of the show there was no reported crime in New York and after they had 10 of their songs in the top 20. This shows that TV had a massive impact on The Beatles and on the music video industry because it showed how much people cared about seeing their favourite bands. This was the first real music promo video and it was the breakthrough in America for The Beatles.

 

 

 In 1965, Bob Dylan released the first real music video, with Subterranean Homesick blues. This video features bob Dylan in an alley way with cards with the lyrics of the song on and he is changing the cards when the lyrics change in the song. The song and video is very anti-establishment, because it is speaking about drugs and is taking a dig at the government. It is also shot in black and white and has poor mise en scene and is only one shot, this shows that there was not much money put in to the video because it was sensitive topics. Later that year, The Beatles released a music video for paperback writer, which was in colour, had multiple shots and featured lip syncing and had mise-en-scene relating to instruments. This shows that there was a lot more money put in to this song because the Beatles were very popular and the song was less about the government and was about an author instead. This means more people would listen to it and it would be less controversial.

 A few years later, in 1967, Love is all you need by the Beatles was written and performed live on the first global television link. This performance was watched by 400 million people in 25 different countries. On Boxing Day, The film ‘Magical mystery tour was featured. The film was made with lots of trippy effects and colours but due to it being aired in black and white these didn’t work and it was considered boring. This era was a very strict era and it was later banned because in the film it uses the word ‘knickers’ but no one realised that at the end of one of the songs, there is a chant that says ‘oompa loompa stick it up your jumper’ and then changes to everyone smoke pot’. This is anti-establishment because it is telling people to do things that the government didn’t want people to do.

In 1975, Queen recorded a video for the song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody”. This video was a big step in the recording of music videos as it was the first video to ever be recorded on to tape, which was also a very expensive method of recording. This video included lots of editing and it also had an effect where it looked like their heads where cascading away, which was done by pointing the camera at the monitor and using visual feedback. Queen also used a variety of fades and other editing techniques.

In the 1980’s, MTV was created. This was the first channel on TV that was purely dedicated to music videos. Most artists that featured on MTV were ones that were very popular and had money to produce a video. The first ever video featured on MTV was The buggles’ ‘Video killed the radio star’. In its early days, between music videos the screen would go black while someone inserted the next VHS. One of the main problems with MTV at this time is that not many bands/artists could submit music videos so it had to repeat the same ones which made them somewhat boring after a while, but as they became more popular, so did MTV.

As music videos were becoming more popular, artists were making much more elaborate music videos and even some short films, such as Thriller by Michael Jackson. The video for this song was 13 minutes long and it had $500,000 spent on its production. It featured hundreds of actors and used the best prosthetics, make up and costumes and eventually sold 9 million copies.

With technology also advancing along with the popularity of music videos, much more complex videos can be made, such as the writings on the wall by OKGo. This video is all filmed in just one shot using one camera on a special device called a Fig rig which is a camera stabilization device that let the director get all the shots and different movement in the video.

 

A2 Media Brief

1) A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD)

• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD)

Evaluation - Question 6

6) what do you like the most/least about your product?

What I like most about my project is the accuracy of the shots to the original video, such as the use of close ups or long shot sands even the use of slow motion, because I feel that is a difficult thing to do and we pulled it off well. I also think the video has been synced with the audio very well and the are blended together very well. What I don't like very much about our music video is that all of the shots and the set ins very cramped and it is all shot in the same place whereas I would have liked it to be a bit more spread out and it to be filmed in a larger room so we could move the set around a bit.

Evaluation - Question 5

5) how do you feel about developing onto A2 level after completing this task?

After completing this task I feel a lot more confident about continuing on to A2 studies because I feel I have been able to learn some of the techniques needed to make some good quality work and it has given me an idea on the amount of work I will need to put into my work in the second year. It has also helped give me some inspiration as to what I could do for my second year project and given me ideas I could use in my own music video, for example, the different lighting techniques used in say something such as the spotlight effect and the lights around the outside of the room are good effects that I could use in my own video.