Music poster deconstruction

Audience research - Questionnaire and results

Out of a sample of 30 random people on the street, 15 males and 15 females, 25 were of the age bracket that my target audience for my music would be in, which is 17-25 year olds. All 15 males were of the correct age bracket and the other 10 were female. 5 of the males were students at college/sixthform and 5 were in full time employment and 7 females were at university and 3 were in part-time employment. The genre which attracted the most attention was alternative, closely followed by indie. The most thing that people did in their leisure time was listen to music on their own by friends and others browsed music or went out to venues where music was played. From these results, I have managed to look around at what people like from the type of age group I have chosen. 

Who is my target audience?

Age, gender, lifestyle, interests socio economic group

My target audience is the older teenager to young adult. The gender will be predominantly male but there will be a small number of females who enjoy listening too.  The age range will be around 17-25 and possibly studying at college or university or maybe in some sort of employment. Their lifestyle will be quite laid back and enjoy quite a wide variety of music; they enjoy going out with friends who share similar interests in music and possibly play musical instruments themselves. They have traits which make them stand out from others but at the same time do stick to convention in many areas. The socio-economic group in which my target audience reside is C1, which are people who are lower down in work order. For example, they are the assistants and trainees. A few people may be in the B category,  which is jobs like teachers or people in administrative jobs who have just come out of university with a qualification and gone straight to work. 

An Alternative Rock video analysis

This music video for Creepin' Up The Backstairs by The Fratellis is shot in a similar way to which I would like my music video to come across. There is a large use of jump cuts, and the video is cut to the beat, which is a technique I feel would work well with the music I am looking at using. The video has either been edited to look old or an older camera has been used. The use of lens flares is something which I like and I think I will use during my video. The clothing worn by the musicians is relaxed and casual and is something which they all look natural in. The setting is around a city location; somewhere which looks hard hitting a nitty gritty, and shows that there is little money around the area. This could be something which make people relate to the singers because they themselves are from a background which is working-class. The location in which the band is playing like a pub or social club, and this could mean a lot to the working class society because they spend their social lives in that type of establishment.

Technology I will be using

I will use a Canon 650D DSLR with an 18-55mm lens. I will not film in 1080p but 720p because the frame rate is higher and still of a decent quality. I will use manual focus on the lens, so I can control my own racking focuses for example. The reason I like using the 650D is because it has a flip out and rotatable screen, so the parts I am filming for myself, I can see what the shot looks like without having to keep going back behind the camera. 

I have another lens along with the 18-55mm lens and it is a fisheye lens. This will be used possibly for shots inside the car, because it is quite a confined space. A fisheye lens is in effect a wide angle lens, but it differs because a fisheye is a very wide-angle lens with a field of vision covering up to 180°, the scale being reduced towards the edges. Fisheye lenses are often used in rap videos with artists where they rap down to the camera because it makes the artist seem superior, but they can also be used to capture footage which is not acted, and by that I mean that it can be used to capture 'extras'.   

The tripod is not really a piece of technology, but it is important to use to stabalize the camera, which is the technology. The camera can become very sensitive to little movements and shakes, so placing the camera on top of the tripod will make the shots look smoother and blend better together.

This piece of technology is called a GoPro which is an action sports camera. It can be used under water, which is where I want to use it. There is a permanent wide angle lens on it, which is similar to the fisheye, but does not give as much as a wide view.

Posters for my music video

I have been playing around with images that I took to use on posters for my music video. I did not just want to have a standard photo which is slightly edited, turning it sepia or black and white. I looked around at other images which are in the alternative market, and the idea of space arose a couple of times. As it is successful, I have chosen it for a background to my image. I placed the photo which I took on top of the space scene after removing the background of the original, but I wanted to add something else to make it stand out. I decided to go with the idea of an animal, and that idea was a cat; I like the idea of the cartoon cat face. Covering the eyes is what looks like a popular brand, but instead I have found the found which the brand uses and put my own name in the logo and I think this is effective because it will draw people in who are interested in that certain brand. The one thing I did play around with is the colour of the space scene. The original colours were purple and blues, but I feel that this was too bright and it drew attention from the cat face with the logo across the eyes. I changed it to the lighter blue colour because it worked well with the colour of the artist and blended well to create a good background. The bright red of the cat face and logo are the objects which attract the eye straight away and this is the effect which I wanted to achieve. I am currently working on the digipak and adding other elements to the main task of my music video. I may add some more text to my poster as it quite empty and plain, but this effect works well because it makes people wonder what it is all about and then they themselves have to enquire and find out what is behind the image. 

Footage being edited

I am starting to edit the footage I have recorded. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and I prefer this to using Final Cut Pro because I have familiarised myself with it and have better knowledge of how to work it. 

This is only a small proportion of my filming on the timeline, but the parts of I have filmed and edited have all the effects added I would like. There are a few things which I do not know, so I am going to have to use tutorials on the internet to understand what to do. I'm sure that there will be some changes during production; I get new ideas or feel something doesn't work, so if I have to change something, I do not have to pull apart the timeline and make too bigger changes to the other clips around it. 

Health and Safety

During my filming, I will have many times in which there will be some hazards which I will encounter. For example, there are various hazards such as corners of walls and the stairs, where I will be walking up and down multiple times. The main hazards I will encounter however are outside. There will be some shots done in the garden and I will have to look out for things I could trip over such as plant pots and garden ornaments. The brick walls are very rough and the corners are also rough so I will have to be careful not to walk into them. I would maybe like to do some shots of driving and it is clearly very dangerous and illegal to do, so I am going to have to ask a friend to sit in the passenger seat and film me while driving, or set up the tripod on the back seat and have it looking through the front windscreen or maybe set up the tripod in the passenger seat and have it looking at me the driver. I will have to make sure that I am concentrating fully on what is going on around me while driving. The other additional filmer will have to be wearing a seat belt at all times, but apart from that, I am doing the filming and acting all by myself so I do not have to worry about anyone else being in danger of getting hurt. 

Images for inspiration

Here we have some images which I have chosen which I feel are good inspirations for the video that I will create. Firstly, the image of Netsky in black and white has a mirrored effect and I like this because I want to try and play with editing to recreate myself on the same shot, so there are two or three of me on one screen. The next image is a long exposure of a dual carriageway, where the shutter is left open while the camera is on a tripod so the image stays still but light is blurred. I would quite like to film a shot using a road and playing with the passing cars headlights in the shot and in the editing. The radio image is a very important one because I would like to use it as an object which will signify a very important message in the song. Like in drama, I will mark the moment to make sure the audience understand and realise that the object will have an important feature in the song. The silhouette image is something I want to achieve in my video, because it will link in with the radio. The idea is that you cannot see the person on the radio, so the silhouette will show the audience it is a person who the main character is after but the audience cannot see who it is. The guitar in a case is a prop which I have, and I will use this because the main character will be playing it while writing love songs. The wall image and the graffiti image are uses for settings I would like to portray the character in a hard hitting, sort of rough location, to make the audience feel emotion towards him. The blond radio presenter photo is in the collage because at the end of my video, I may actually show the identity of the radio presenter that the audience have not seen and that the character is lusting after. It may possibly give the audience closure as well, leaving the audience and the mood of the video on a high note. The final image is of the man in the elephant costume from the Coldplay music video Paradise. I like this image because the sign on a piece of tatty cardboard to me is powerful, more powerful than someone stood talking to a camera. 

4 Point Action Plan

For my coursework, I had to start at the very bottom and begin my research. I looked at a previous students work, to get a basic idea of what I would like to do and what conventions are used in a music video. 

1. I looked at things like Mise en Scene, and what editing techniques are used. The Mise en Scene is heavily focused, with clothing and setting being key features. I would like to focus on setting more as I feel this would create a more memorable video and the shots used will have more interesting features on them, instead of having locations that have little to look at and are dark. The clothing worn is not very important, however I would like the main character to appear smart and be quite well dressed, but make the audience feel slightly sorry for them, because it's clear they've tried but not done very well.

2. The quality of video to me is important. Student work will obviously not be filmed in the same industry standard quality, but the camera used and the software used to edit it needs to be of a reasonable standard, because nobody wants to look at a pixelated video. Also lighting needs to be acceptable, because for example at one time in the video 'Stronger', the sports woman is running down the road at night and she is hard to make out clearly, and along with the lower video quality, the scene is almost redundant.

3. The video needs relevance, which is something I feel the 'Stronger' lacks. The narrative is partially told; a sportswoman training, but we never find out what for, which leaves the audience wanting more. I would like a storyline which is not a cliche, but is something to which the audience to relate to.  Everyone has felt the longing for someone before, but they are very far out of reach, and this is the angle I would like to take. It is a challenge for me because I really do not want a video that is just one big cliche.

4. The number of characters involved is important I have found, because in 'Stronger' there is only one character, and yes it is good because we can focus on the single character, but after a while, the audience become uninterested and need someone new to relate with. However, having too many characters can make the audience lost and they immediately switch off from what is unfolding in the video. 

Advanced Portfolio: Beginning to construct .

Sophie Mullet - A2 Media - Fighter

1.) Is there controlled use of camera work?

Yes - There are shots that have been clearly shot on a tripod, and shots that have been clearly thought about, like for example, the shot of the sun peaking through the trees has been clearly thought about and obviously had to be arranged at a certain time to get the shot.

2.) Are there a variety of shot types?

Yes there are a variety of shot types, and one that stands out for me is at the very beginning of the video, where the camera pans from the bottom to the top of the door, eventually revealing what is hidden behind it, the sportswoman. This is a good camera shot to use because it builds suspense, making the audience to see what is hidden. While it is panning up, there are other shots mixed in, like long shots of a basketball being shot into the hoop. This gives the audience a little clue to what is behind and what the music video is going to be about.

3.) Is there close attention to the use of Mise en Scene?

Yes - The costumes worn by the sportswoman are basketball kits, running kits and normal everyday clothing. The basketball kit is worn when the sportswoman is training out on the court, the running kit is worn when the sportswoman is running and the normal everyday clothing is worn when the weather has turned bad and there is snow on the ground.

4.) Is the meaning clear to you? For example, is there a narrative?

Yes and no - Yes, there is a sportswoman training hard to become "stronger" at basketball, so the audience are able to see her progressing through training. However, the sportswoman does not seem to progress to anywhere in particular, meaning that the narrative ends with no real achievements made.

5.) Have they used a variety of shots, transitions and other effects?

There is a good use of jump cuts when the sportswoman is running down the road towards the camera, however the camera gets moved so the effect is ruined slightly.

6.) Do the images and sound work well together? For a music video, have they lip synced effectively? For the trailer, is the sound in sync with the action? Have they used sound to create meaning?

There are various moments in the video where the sportswoman is lip sycning, and it is timed well, with a little room for improvement however. The images work well with the music, for example the sportswoman takes on a "macho" pose at the words stronger in the strong, which shows that the effort being put in during the training is maker her physically and mentally stronger.

Analysis of an Alternative Rock music video

The first video I looked at in my genre of music was Wonderwall - Oasis. This music video is now 18 years old, so there has been many changes since then in style of music and music video. The Mise en Scene of the video says a lot about the band. The way the band are dressed shows the audience that the presentation of themselves is not highly important and they they are rebellious and do not care what people think. The setting of the video is in a warehouse, which is a big open space, which could be linked to the openness of their minds. The expressions of Liam do not give much away about how he is truly feeling, where as another  member of the band is smiling which is a clear indication that he is feeling happy. The music video is filmed in black and white, with some objects such as the odd guitar and a clowns hat in colour.

There are moments during the music video which mimick The Beatles and one of them is an editing technique where the original image is duplicated on the screen and then tiled. This is an effect which was regularly used by the Beatles and Oasis used it because they modelled themselves on the great band. The attitude given by Oasis would suggest that they are free spirits and society haters, but they have used a technique which was used by a band which at one point was "bigger than Jesus".  

A music video from the genre of music I have chosen

Here is an example of the style of music video from the genre of music I have chosen:-

This music video is is now over 6 years old, but is still a good example of a simple but effective music video. The lyrics are created in a visual form, so they tell the story of what is being sung. The video is filmed in black and white, which is already showing it is different to mainstream videos, as most are presented in colour. The use of black and white gives a music video a "timeless" feel to it, like it is a classic. The video mainly features shots of the band playing their various instruments on a street and the girl inside the apartment, Henrietta, which is also the title of the song. The use of switching between these two shots may seem dull, but it creates a good storyline for the audience to become engaged in. Also, The Fratellis make their video a performance, by pulling various facial expressions and directly addressing the audience, as shown in this photo of Mince Fratelli playing the drums during the video.

A music video which is heavily out of my comfort zone is the one featured here:-

This music video is very dramatic, and to me, very, very strange! It is definitely is a perfomance video, with the singer talking directly to the audience through the camera lens. It features a young disabled boy, which is unconventional, and the main colours used are black and white, but the video is filmed in colour. The setting appears to be a young girls bedroom, with a bed and a side table, but the walls are covered in graffiti, unlike a stereotypical girls bedroom. This writing on the wall could be the thoughts that have spilled out of the girls head, and like her head, they are all over the place. The costume of the girl is styled on a typical school girl, but her uniform has been "tarted up" and is more revealing.  The main rapper is shirtless with a bandana on, and this could signify that he does not need to dress to conform to society so wears as little or as much as he wants to wear. The editing is mainly jump cuts, which are quick and easy but effective, and there is a lot of rapping into the camera, and the type of lens used is a fisheye which the rappers can address the audience through because it makes things look bigger. 

Analyse work of previous student

Mise en Scene, Shots angles and movement, editing and sound. 

The first music video I have chosen to deconstruct is a students take on the song "Fit But You Know It - The Streets". The video that the student made for this song focuses heavily on Mise en Scene, with the main character dressed in a flat cap and mod type jacket, and this look gives off a "Jack the lad" vibe which fits the genre of the song well, which is alternative, almost sounding like spoken word in some places. The props used in the video include cans of lager, cigarettes and other objects which make the character appear like he is a bit of a rebel against society. The girl he is after in the video has heavy make up on and wild hair, and the clothing appear tatty but actually fits the alternative look, so the overall presentation of the girl fits in with the genre of music in the video. The setting of the video is placed around a run down town in Britain, so the lager and the dress code work well to create a general picture of a "rough and ready" type of video.

The video uses a variety of editing techniques, including jump cuts and fast motion. The fast motion is used when the main character is sitting in the pub with a pint, and the video shows him quickly drinking it. This effect works well because it lets the audience further know about the character, and from this we can tell that he does not hang around and is the type that always has an empty glass which is ready to be refilled. There are a lot of close ups on the subjects in the video and one is used where the main character is seen singing directly to the camera like he is adressing the audience and telling us about this girl which he is so infatuated with. The is not a lot of moments in the video where one of the characters is not doing something; the man always wants to be around the girl trying to win her over and the woman is always trying to avoid the advances of the man. Most of the shots during the video are stabalised with a tripod, like when the audience are being adressed. However, when there are shots of pints being drunk or just the character stood looking at the camera, then there is no tripod and the camera is hand held, which gives the view that you are an onlooker watching the events unfold in front of you.

Sound in the music video is non-diegetic, which the main character lip syncing to the music. There is not any diegetic sound during the video, however this is effective because the song chosen is close to being spoken word, so the story is told without the need of additional sound.

This is a piece of work which if I could achieve similar quality I would be more than happy. The wide range of camera shots and angles along with the song lyrics paint the picture for the audience clearly of what is going on.

History of the music video

1894 - First example of an illustrated song.

 

1926 - Arrival of "Talkies".

 

1930 - The 1930's saw the introduction of musical films.

 

1930 - "Screen Songs" introduced.

 

1930 - Ancestor of the music video. many artists featured in dramatized performances of hit songs.

 

1956 - The ride of popular music was tied with the rise of television as the format exposed new stars.

 

1964 - The Beatles set the stage for the modern music video with the motion picture "A Hard Days Night".

 

1965 - The Beatles use promotional films, and they film 10 films which are used to promote album relases. This kicks of video promotion.

 

1981 - MTV Launched and a 24 hour broadcast means that music videos begin to play a central role in music marketing by the mid 1980's.

 

1983 - Michael Jackson's most successful and influential of all time music video Thriller, was released.

 

1985 - The launch of VH1 showed softer music and catered for an older demographic, widening the audience of videos.

 

1995 - "Screm" by The Jacksons cost $7million dollars, which was the most expensive music video ever.

 

 

2005 - YouTube allows people to watch videos online. New artists see popularity rise through the internet.

 

2005 - Allows music videos to be downloaded from the internet. After 20 days of iTunes, there was one million downloads made. 

 

2010 - Lady Gaga's total music video views reaches one billion. Her song, "Poke Face" saw 375 million views alone.

 

2010 - The number of music videos which have been viewed online reached 34 billion, with the viewer count reaching 183 million views.

 

 

Research and identify purpose of chosen texts

There are two main purposes of a music video - to promote and to be artistic. The more modern music videos appear to be aimed prodominantly at the younger generation. They feature artists girating all over the place, which suggests the videos are more aimed at boys, but the female artist girating is often a "role model" to girls. Music videos also are quite commercialised, with many of them advertising products. For example, some artists will take a drink of Coca-Cola halfway through the video, not making the advertising blatent, but more subliminal.

The genre of music I have chosen to focus on is alternative, as I feel that chosing this genre will open up a whole new range of original ideas. In the genre of alternative, the music can range from the very strange to the very normal, so choosing the right song which will give me good achieveable ideas is a great place to start from. Mumford and Sons popularity has boomed in the past year or two, however they are still classified as alternative. 

The brief I have chosen for Year 13 is.......

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

• a website homepage for the band;
• a digipak for the album's release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

I have chosen to create a music promo video, with a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak. The reason for this choice is because I have a real passion for music and listen to a wide variety of it, from Alternative music to dance music, form electro music to rock. I enjoy spending time on various video sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion watching music videos from around the world, so I feel that I have good knowledge of different styles of music, and different techniques and camera angles used in music videos. The use of a fisheye lens is quite common in a rap/hip-hop video because the artist can rap down into the camera, and the curvature of the lens makes the artist look bigger. Another skill I have acquired from watching music videos is looking at the mise-en-scene in them; the types of clothing worn by the artist, the type of setting the music video is in and the type of expressions used on the faces of the artists. For example, if an artist is wearing a long black cape and has lots of piercings in the opening shot, the audience can start to understand the genre the music will be, and the type of person who the artist is.

From Year 12, I have learnt about magazine publishing, so creating a digipak for my music video should be not easy, but I have a basic understanding of what magazines about music look like, after creating one for my Year 12 coursework. Creating an advert and a digipak are quite similar in a sense that both involve graphic design. They both need to be attractive to the audiences eye, and look like something they would want to look at regardless of the genre of music that they are into. 

What modern myths do Mumford and Sons embody?

Mumford and Sons present themselves as a cool and young group, producing music which reaches a wide target audience. The instruments they use bring more of a rustic feel to the band, because it is not technological like most songs today. They wear quite traditional clothes, nothing garish, but if i'm brutally honest, they could be purchased from a charity shop. There are a few swear words in various songs, but the lyrics are memorable and good sing-along songs. 

Rise Against are an American punk rock band, who are very different in comparison to Mumford and Sons. The songs they sing are very loud and fast, with the odd song slower.  Most lyrics are shouted and if listened to enough, could possibly be learnt. The videos use a lot of jump cuts, and on one video use very harsh images, such as animals being slaughtered. The body language presented by Rise Against give off the bravado that they do not care about the world. Clothing worn by the group is quite tatty and lazy and they do not look like they take pride in what they wear. The overall  message given off by the group looking at their music and image is that they are tough and do not care what society think, however in some songs they tackle issues such as the needless killing of animals. 

1 Minute day in the life of.... 1st Draft

This is my first draft for the preliminary task of my A2 Media course. I have made a short film about a boy who has a horse head, and escapes the life of pain and misery and leaves for the sunny skies of the countryside. I hoped to have an element of Comedy in the film, but also parts that make the audience feel the pain of the horse headed male.

1 Minute day in the life of short film

For this task, I have been thinking about what is really different, and that has probably never been done before. I was thinking about a day in the life of a fridge, and looking at all the different people that go in and out of it. I then changed to a day in the life of a BMX, and started to create short clips ready for the video. However, I felt this idea would be dull and boring, and not have many comical elements, which is one thing I am looking to have. Scouting around my room, I found my rubber horse head (don't know why i've got one!) Anyway, I had lots of ideas buzzing around my head so have put some of these into practice and captured a few clips for use in my short film. Here's a preview poster! Hope you all like it!

Back for A2!

After a some time off from exam leave, I have been able to reflect on my works of AS Media, creating a Music Magazine. After finding out the tasks for A2, I am definitely looking forward to what A2 Media has to offer!