Planning: Audience

Planning: Audiences

In the process of creating a music video it is important that a specific target audience has been identified to aim the music video at as this will decide upon the type of micro elements you will use in order to appeal to them in hope to form a relationship. By knowing the exact target audience you’re aiming your product for, you can then manipulate they’re reactions/perspectives of things.

Audience categories:

The audience category for my music video will be from C2 and below as this is a niche genre of rap which wouldn’t appeal to those in Category C2 and above due to factors such as annual salary and age differences. In addition, you wouldn’t associate a doctor nor lawyer both in category A listening to house genre rap music.

My Music Video Audience Category:

Age: 16-30

Gender: Unisex

Race: Diverse culture

Audience Category: C2 Below

Income: 12-40k

Hobbies & Interest: Music/Dancing/Graphic designs

The music videos category however may vary depending on the song and the artist who is singing it as for example, ‘Suit & Tie’ by Justin Timberlake may be given the same categories as my video however, the age may be slightly different along with audience category as this could hit category B or below. In addition the income bracket could be also increase significantly.

 Audience reactions:

The music video I plan to create will use all of the audience reactions to an extent however, identification and placement will be at focus. The reactions allow the audience to feel as if they can relate to the music video and the artist based on his attitude of being so laid back and relaxed. We will use mise-en-scene elements in order to promote the artist clothe and lifestyle in hope to turn him into a commodity. Our audience may also reaction differently depending on their perspective of the text, cinematography such as close ups will be used here to portray the audience in a different light in order to promote star image.

Conclusion

Identifying the target audience for my music video is very effective as it allows me to plan a clear outline of what I plan to do in order to ensure that my music video, digipak and magazine advert all are able to relate to my target audience thus appealing to them whilst meeting their expectations.

Planning: Final Idea

From close analysis of the three initial music video ideas I choose along with my group, I chose the most conventional music video that I thought would be most effective and appealing towards the target audience. The song I chose to re-create a music video for was that of Ben Pearce’s song ‘What I Might Do’ which belongs to the house genre. I choose this as it was the best choice in terms of performance and narrative based.

Ben Pearce – What I Might Do

The Lyrics:

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me
To every dude in sight
Look like you working up an appetite for the night, check it
By then I just sat at the back
Peeping you out, the way you act
It was drinking time, getting out of line
And I'm taking you back at your place
All is well and all is cool
Stay in your place, don't be no fool
We'll get along alright
You look like the type that would try to fight
Best off being a friend to me
You don't want to offend me
Better play it cool, don't know what I might do
[x4]

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl
Appetite for the night, check it

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl
Appetite for the night, check it

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl

One of the main reason behind my decision to choose this song as our final idea is due to the lyrics as they were repetitive and somewhat meaningful which would allow us to really compliment the video when editing it and putting everything together. However, the artist and the actual song aren’t seen as mainstream as they are from the house genre. The lyrics are repetitive which allows the audience to learn it very fast. ‘’When I heard you say what you said to me’’ is repeated quite a lot during the music as it allows the audience to relate to this line as they can then convey emotions of them and someone very special in their life. In addition, this helps form a relationship between the artist and the audience.

Star image

The artist star image are together one of the main and most important elements within a music video as they both help create a positive response from the audience in hope to visual appeal and attract them to watch the music video. There were many star image motifs used within the music video in order to make the artist recognizable and easy to identify by the audience. A variety of different camera shots were used such as close ups, mid and long shots in order in order to capture a different perspective of the artist. These benefits Ben Pearce’s as it promotes his image. Furthermore, I’ve decided lyrics and pace of this song will suit the narrative I have planned for this music video as we plan to film two young kids in a transition from their young dancing days to the older version of them in a dance battle. I believe this song will best compliment the visuals as it doesn’t have to share any relation between the lyrics and visuals due to how repetitive and catchy it really is.

Mise en scene

The Mise-en-scene in this video was used effectively as the artist and characters hair and make-up as both artist and character had an afro style hair which looked good against their formal suit and dress. This allowed the artist to look sophisticated and casual out. From looking at this I’ve decided the main character that my character will wear casually smart clothes preferably black in order to relate to the genre of the music which is Rap/house.

Lighting

Low key lighting will be used throughout the music video as it helps set and maintain the atmosphere of the scenes. In addition, this decision was made with the audience’s expectations in mind as they’d expect House genre music to be very dark. However, high key lighting will be used during the first verse of the artist first appearance as he will be singing against a wall. This is effective as it promotes his star image as he will be the centre of attention.

Video Content

The video convent I plan to implement for the song is very conventional as I aim to follow Michael Goodwin’s theory of music videos being performance, narrative or concept based. I plan to make mine performance based in order to help boost my artist star image in hope to visually and lyrically appeal to my target audience. I believe keeping my video performance based with a little bit of narrative will fuel my audience’s interest as well as making the artist recognizable. I plan to implement a bit of Mulvey’s Male gaze theory within the music video as we plan to have a mix gender of characters in order to visually appeal to our audience.

Music video influences:

Disclosure - Voices

‘Voices’ by the Disclosure was one of the music video which influenced my decision to create my decided music video. This is because of the conventional elements it used such as low key lighting which relates to the genre of the music. I also liked the fact that a good and well thought of narrative was put together which allowed the artist star image to be clearly seen in order to make the artist more recognizable and appealing towards the audience. In addition the uses of editing were very familiar to that of our planned music video as a lot of jump cuts and Montage shots were used. Cinematography was also used such as long shots and close ups in order to promote the artist star image. Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory was also exploited during this video as it consisted of all women we were all dressed explicitly which relates to the representation of them seen as sexual objects to visually pleasure men.

My second music video influence is Groover Armada ‘Madder’.

Groover Armada - Madder

'Madder’ was another music video influence to my video as the lyrics were very descriptive which gave me loads of ideas of how to film certain aspects of the video I have chosen. In addition, the genre is not part of the mainstream genre like my music video which will allow it to look very professional when pulled off as it is different.

However, my decisions have all came from a combination of different video influencs and also the questionnaire that I created in which I was able to receive specific answers from my target audience as I was able to ask them specific questions. I’ve decided upon elements such as performance and narrative as I asked my audience what music structure best compliments a music video and performance and narrative were seen as the most popular. This contributes to the idea of me having a narrative of two kids and their transitions from playing in the park to growing up and entering a dance battle with one another but on other groups.

Conclusion



Planning the final idea of my music video has allowed me create a clear outline of what my music video will contain and how these elements will have an effect upon my audience. In addition, micro-elements are also easier to plan due to this clear outline.

Planning: Questionnaires and Graphs

During the planning process of creating my music video my group came up with three potential idea's in which we'd use for our main idea. However, as there were three we needed to decide upon one idea and to do this we created questionnaires and produced graphs based on our idea's different genres. I created a questionnaire filled with 20 questions with the audience feedback just below it, I chose specific questions to ask the audience as these 10 questions were most useful in giving me effective information back.

Questionnaires

Graph Feedback results:

Furthermore, the feedback I have received from my questionnaire has been most useful as it has given me a clear insight on the consumer audiences perspective such as their expectations and what does or does not appeal to them etc. This then allows me to implement certain features in order to meet those expectations and appeal to my target audience if I do go ahead with my chosen idea.

Conclusion

This planning post was most beneficial towards my groups and my chosen idea as it allowed us to receive beneficial feedback from our target audience on what will improve if not better a music video. The feedback has also allowed us to compare and merge each others different feedback in order to help create an effective yet appealing music video which in hope will be consumed by all.

Planning: Copyright letter

As part of my planning music video, I was made to create a copyright letter which I’d send to the record company of Ben Pearce music regarding the usage of one of their singles.  In addition, this letter allowed us to state our reasons why and how this single will contribute towards our A Level grades. This copyright letter is very important as it clarifies our intentions and stops the company from taking any legal actions such as getting sued.  

I used a variety of different methods in which I contacted them in order to receive a reply regarding the copyright letter. Receiving a reply was very important as without their approval, this would result in my media production having to be changed in order to avoid copyright implications.

·         YouTube

·         Vimeo

·         Twitter

·         Facebook

Conclusion

In order for me to avoid any implications which may occur during this copyright letter process, I will regularly update my response to the record label in order to make sure they receive my copyright later. This is important as it rules out any understandings which may occur within the time.

Planning: Initial Idea's

Planning initial idea’s allows a group of people who are participating in a project together to place all their idea’s forward. One chosen idea or an idea along the lines of it would be picked to be used in the actual project.

Idea 1

Artist: Don Omar

Song title: Danzo Kuduro

Genre: Dance/Reggae

Video structure: performance and narrative based.

Video content: Video firstly begins with the main character in bed waking up to his alarm clock. Due to the exploitation of the camera and its many angles, he will then be viewed with women either side to him. This then allows him to gain an almost immediate representation of a pimp.  The song on a whole is quite repetitive which made me plan to use a series of moving images with different locations and scenarios in order to accompany the lyrics and also to provide visual entertainment to the target audience.

Advantages

·         Creates a great atmosphere (Music video)

·         Catchy – able to appeal to most

Disadvantage

·         Spanish rather than English

·         Finding suitable location

·         Song is fast and may be hard to lip sync

Idea 2

Artist: Groover Armada

Song title: Madder

Genre: Electronic Music

Video structure: performance and narrative based.

Video content: Party animal on his typical day out. Starts off with character in his bed. Wakes up to his alarm clock with two women either side of him. The first verse becomes very descriptive so in theory we would fool the lyrics E.g. ‘read the bread while I toast my pay check’,’ start jogging when I hit the pavement’, and ‘cops say stop cause I aren’t Caucasian’. Chorus is very repetitive so we would have a series of moving images with different locations and scenarios for example scene we could have him staggering from being drunk and another scene we could have him running from the police.

Advantages

·         The verse is very descriptive so it would be quite easy to get ideas on what to film

·        The genre is very unique and would look very professional if pulled off

Disadvantage

·         The song is very long at 5 minutes and 22 seconds so we would have to edit the song which means more work

·         The song is quite fast so it would be hard to lip sync

·         The transitions would be fast too so we would need a lot of footage

Idea 3

Artist: Disclosure

Song title: Voices

Genre: House

Video structure: Performance/Narrative

Video content: Band singing star imagine female singing until certain part of the song when you have someone running errands, getting ready for a party, fixing up their hair and make-up, costume and having people dancing with the character playing the role of the narration.

Advantages

·         Good narrative

·         Easy to lip sync

·         Clear image of the character

Disadvantage

·         Getting the instruments and setting/locations.

• Might not find the right character to fit this image

Conclusion

This post has been very effective and useful in terms of my planning for the music video as it has allowed me to pick one chosen idea which we will work on in order to create a music video which is able to visually attract and appeal to our target audience.

Research: Censorship and Music Videos by Jemar

what is music censorship?

Censorship is the act of altering certain words, statements or visual content in order to conform with and abide by rules constructed by laws in society. Music Videos are often banned or cut due to the explicit content it contains which may be seen as disturbing or inappropriate to the viewers. Music videos can be banned from a certain country or cut as may times as possible until it is appropriate for global marketing promotion. E.g. Rihanna - We found love.

Music video contents get censored in order to keep the audience away from the content which may be seen as too explicit to broadcast which is why often cuts are forced upon in order to release the video.

Discuss the difference explicit content and explicit lyrics.

Explicit Content

·         Explicit content tends to be when the video emphasises the likes of drugs, sex, controversial actions such as rape, violence and so on, this is normally included in a music video in order to visually appeal to the audience. This is also done to relate back to the video lyrically.

Explicit Lyrics

·         Explicit lyrics are similar to content however, this is when a music video is banned or cut due to the explicit lyrics it contains. These lyrics range from swearing to racial or sexual abuse. Lyrics that are found to be too explicit for promotion use are often blanked out in a music video however, this may change the meaning of the lyrics.

What things get censored?

·         Violence

·         Graphical representation & realism

·        Sexual contents

·         Animal cruelty

·         Discrimination

·         Racism

·         Drugs

·        

·         Political views

Difference between cut and banned.

Banned

·         When a music video is Banned it is removed from the viewing due to explicit visuals or lyrics it may contain. This is usually done solely to protect the audience from any harmful material that they'll be exposed whilst watching the video and listening to the lyrics.

Cut

·         When a music video is sent to be Cut, some bits of the video is then either edited to change certain explicit contents or just completely removed the scene is considered harmful. This is done to make the video more appropriate for audience viewing.

Advantages of censoring music videos

·         Promotes political awareness

·         Shields morals of society

·         Restricts explicit content

·         Protects public

·         Keeps industry clean

Disadvantages of censoring music videos

·         Changes the meaning of the lyrics

·         Artist emotion cannot be represented

·         Creativity restricted

·         Control people

Conclusion

From my evaluation of censorship I now know that it is in fact very important as anything seen to be harmful such as explicit lyrics and contents towards the audience can be censored for viewer’s safety. I will now make sure my video is clean and to a high standard in order to make a good impression for my artist.

Research: Audience identification by Jemar

What are audiences?

Audiences are a group of people who are targeted to create a product in which to appeal to them. Audiences are often splint into different categories based on their occupation and class. This allows the process of creating a specific video for a specific target audience in mind easier. Categorizing audiences is essentially a way of targeting the specific audience for a music video.

How might some audiences be categorised?

Audiences are categorized by being segmented into different groups based on them and what they hold. Audiences can also be categorized based on their different ages or gender. For example, one direction targets young female teenagers as their product appeals to them the most. This is done as it allows the creation of a specific product able to target and appeal to the specific target audience.

Advantages of categorizing audiences?

• ·         Know who you are appealing to (Specific product)
• ·         Idea of the money to be made
• ·         Use information for advertising
• ·         Knowledge of audiences interest

Disadvantages of categorizing audiences?

• ·         People are all different despite similar jobs
• ·         Don’t consider peoples interest just income
• ·         Targets a niche market (specific audience)

Different genres have different audiences.

Different artist of different genres all have their own specific target audience in which they aim their products specifically to target.

 – One direction ‘’Live while we’re young’’

This one direction video is an example of how different genres target different audiences, they are from a pop genre of music. Firstly, one directions song name ‘’Live while we’re young’’ relates to a young audience as it is telling them to make the most of their young live. This is also reflected in the film as we see the boys having a lot of mucky fun such as driving a truck around a field and also partying.  In addition, the fast pace music along with the random teenage extras in the background is also an indication and reminder of who this video is targeted at and hopes to appeal to.

 – Adele ‘’Someone like you’’

Adele is British artist from a soul genre of music who creates deep, meaningful music as a product to appeal to her audience in hope they can relate to her. Adele targets more of an older target audience compared to one direction due to her age and life experiences. She sings about her life with meaning in hope to create a sympathetic response amongst the audience in order to form a relationship with them whilst appealing to them. The music used in her videos such as someone like you is slow hence the target audience compared to one of one direction videos which are all mostly fast and upbeat.

Furthermore, audience research is seen as highly important to all media institutions as research should be done at almost all stages of production and once produced, the audience will be continually monitored in order to see whether the product has appealed to them.

What do you need to know about your audience?

• ·         Income status
• ·         Age
• ·         Race
• ·         Gender
• ·         Location

Audiences all have different reactions to products given to them, this is how Audience reactions are measured.

• ·         Audience engagement – This is the description of how an audience interacts with different media text. Different people will tend to react in different ways to the same text.
• ·         Audience expectations – These are the expectations an audience may have on an audience and their music, For example audiences expect certain aspects in a music video to be met from different genres.
• ·         Audience Foreknowledge – This is the background information the audience know about the music artist and their song/video.
• ·         Audience identification – This is how an audience is able to relate to an artist.
• ·         Audience placement – This is how the media producers use a variety of different techniques in order to target a particular target audience and make them feel a sense of importance by making the music specially ‘for them’.

The Audiences reactions in relation to theorist and their Theory’s?

Hebdige’s Theory – Links with Audience engagement

·         Factors such as social background can lead to different readings of the same song by people which are not port of one ‘mass culture’

Dyer Theory – Links with Audience identification

·         Stars are manufactured by their record company to appeal to a specific genre of audience by manipulating them into thinking they are given true art but instead an artificial image produced to mark money.

Goodwin’s Theory – Audience expectations

·         Products are created and made to follow a conventional music product in order to appeal to a specific target audience.

Conclusion

This research post of audience identification has helped me be able to perform a more detailed and precise identification of my target audience based on the genre of my music and my star. Identifying the audience is seen as one of the most important stages in the music industry as targeting the wrong audience will lead to failure to appeal to them and a loss of sales.