Focus Group- Audience Feedaback

Final A2 Music Video

digipak Final Version

This is our digipak for the album. In the front cover we used a shot of Kim standing by the shore with the beach at the background, it is effective because it makes her stand out from all the other objects around. On the front cover we also have a logo stating "special edition" to make it very unique. We wrote the title in a pinkish background to give the "crush" felling. The back cover involves a shot of Kim sitting at the seashore and beside her is is all the songs from the album. The name of the song is written in brown to match the colour of the stones on the shore. Kim's dress is also favoured with the colour of the background. At the bottom of the song list is the bar code. The name of the production company is also mentioned on the bottom of the back cover.

The background of the inner cover has petals of roses and is in a pink background. The pink background once again represents the "love" and "crush", whilst the idea of the roses came from the shot- where Kim is spinning round in Lavender fields whilst roses are falling upon her. The name of the production company is once again mentioned below in light blue letters. The informations in the inner cover tell you everything about the song, and the opinions from magazines and newspapers like "The Sun".

In the inside, where the CD is held, we have a picture of Kim on the background. It is not edited because it will be very effective without any effects added.

Weekly Updates

Week 1

We planned our locations and we were working on our pre-production work. We had alot of suggestions for where we are to film and also had different song selections. We all settled on the "Sun is Up" by Inna at the end.

Week 2

We started to work on the cast and crew. We decided that Ashley and Daniel were the cameramans and that myself and Syed yake over the editing. We asked Ashley's dance teacher to be in our video, therefore we went to see her, toask if she was able to feature i nthe video.

Week 3

The dancer teacher couldn't feature in our music video, therefore we were on the search for another female, who had the same timetable as us- so that they can film with us. We asked some of our friends to be in our music video, but some didn't have time or weren't interested. We however tried our best to convince them, but still they couldn't do it.

Week 4

We finally found someone who could feature in our music video, it was Daniel's sister, Kim, we had to convince her to do this role because she was really shy. After 4 weeks of searching we found a good artisit, and we started to take off filming. We started to film at Lavender fields first, and then planned to film at brighton over the weekend.

Week 5

We went to lavender fields to film all the section from this location. There were very good scenery, we took a lot of good long shots. Kim cooperated very well with us and we got all the shots done in a few goes.

Week 6

We filmed all the Brighton section today, however I couldn't make it due to personal reasons. When I looked at the shots afterwards, they were to a good professional standards, with the low budget we have.

Week 7

We planned to get our London scenes done this week, but due to everyone's busy schedule and deadlines, we couldn't make it.

Week 8

This week we got our London scenes finished, and started on the editing works, we used "Final Cut". We didn't do much editing this week, because we had to get used to this software. However we were playing round and got very good effects.

Week 9

This week we started the editing works with full dedication, we start chopping off unwanted bits, and shortened any shots that were long. There were difficulties, when we had really good shots, but someone get in the way, so therefore we had to scale the shots, and some even though were good we couldn't use it, because even after scaling the shot had disturbance.

Week 10

Some of the shots taken in Lavender fields didn't come out well, therefore we had to go film again in Lavender fields, however I wasn't there in this occasion because I wasn't able to make it.

Week 11

We had all our editing work put in the right order, and now just add effects to it, however we encountered a lot of difficulties trying to shorten bits down, and to get the myhming right.

Week 12

We finished all our editing and the music video is all finished and all it is, the post production work to be done. We need to do our director's commentary and focus group- audience feedback.

Week 13

We finished all our post production work and the entire coursework is finished.

Progress Report

So far we have filmed in Brighton and Lavender fields- Oaks Park. We have done our major portions, however there is only a little portion left to film in London. As a group we discussed all the shots we want to shoot, and used different kinds of shots in ever scene. However I couldn't make to the filming in Brighton, due to the fact that I had an University opening day. Ashley and Daniel still carried on and came back with mind blowing shots. When we started editing the scenes, we were able to realize how good every shot was. We assume that after every shots have been edited, the entire video would look professional.

However, when Ashley and Daniel were filming at Brighton the weather didn't favor us. The sky looked very cloudy, but we expected it to be very clear and blue. We plan to finish our filming- the shots in streets of London by next week.

Preliminery Focus Group

Storyboards carried on

Storyboards

Analysis Of Music Video

California King Bed- Rihanna

At the start of the video we identify a medium shot of Rihanna laying in grass. As the video progresses there are alot of close-ups seen, which shows us to see all the information- like tattoo's. The close-ups show all the emotions of the artist singing. Editing wise the video contains lots of elements, such as fading which brings the video to live. Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" theory we look at the artist from a heterosexual point of view. Her clothes are very little- symbolizing her as a angel, and that she shouldn't be left alone. the video is slow paced- which brings all the emotions out, and the lyrics are also slowed down to synchronize with the video. There are alot of sex appeals, due to her attitude in the video- touching her body as if someone else is. The uses of feminine colours suggest that her target audiences perhaps are women, and young teenagers.

Lighters- Bruno Mars ft. Eminem

The video opens up on Bruno Mars on the piano, the location is very unique because you wouldn't expect a person playing a piano in a garage. The room Eminem is seen in, follows the stereotype of low class people seen as unclean. The room is all spread out with mess, and not cleaned up, clothes everywhere. He also seen wearing hoodies, which brings back the "bad boy" image. There are locations such as tunnels, where thugs are seen, in this video Eminem is seen as the "bad" person and Bruno Mars as the innocent one. The video is also fast paced, with collaborates with the lyrics. The editing is also fast paced. Royce is seen in a prison, which symbolizes his dark side, due to the uses of lighting. They have used wide range of camera shots to make the target audience interacted. It is very amazing to see the contrast between a person playing a piano, and then a few shots later there is two people who are identified as "criminals". When there is low lighting- dark, the mis-en-scene refers back to the name of the track "bad meets evil", due to the fact that the dark lightings suggest evilness. When the person is in prison, on the walls graffiti is seen, which stereotypically shows that the low class people are involved in street graffiti.

Representation Of The People

The people in our group are going to be represented in a way, which teenagers will love to see the video. We would include all the elements that you could see in a B, C1 and C2 social demographic video. The locations we also picked would be seen as a comfort zone for the target audience. The people involved in our group are all of the same age group, which we are intending to attract interest from. We will represent them in a similar way to how the media would, however in a positive way rather than in a negative role.

The target audiences will be very pleased with the fact that we have showed them in a positive role. We will try and break the law of showing teenagers in a negative role, and give them a "new look".

Shooting Schedule

First shooting- 19th Monday- Practice filming.

Second shooting- 21st Wednesday- filming at Lavender fields, Oaks Park.

Third Shooting- 24th Saturday- filming in London streets.

Fourth shooting- 26th Monday- Lavender fields.

Fifth shooting- 28th Wednesday- filming in London- scenery

Sixth shooting- 1st Saturday- Brighton beach

Research On the Music Industry

Usually the studio recorded version is played through a speaker while the artist/band play along with their live instruments. Without this it is found out to be very hard to sync it all up. It is mentioned that a couple of directors use tricks like playing the song, and having the artist/band playing the song at a double speed, and then slowing it down to normal pace, which allows it to fit with the studio version of the song.

The main purpose of the producers producing music videos is to:

1. show different talents- in Michael Jackson's "Thriller", he showcased his other talents such as acting and dancing.

2. to entertain.

3. to sell the record.

4. mainly for advertising purposes, to expand the artists profile.

by selling and making songs the artist will be earn so much money and also become well known.

Construction Of Mis-En-Scene

House Party

1. The way the character is dressed.

2. Plastic cups.

3. Bottles.

4. Lights with dark background.

5. DJ.

6. People.

7. Casual smart party wear.

Club

1. Bottles.

2. Bar.

3. Furniture/seating.

4. DJ.

5. Smart clothing.

6. Lighting.

Beach

1. The Pier.

2. The rides.

3. The scenery of the sea.

4. Huts.

5. bikini type clothing.

Lavender Fields- Oaks Park

1. Floaty dress.

2. Wooden seating area.

Detailed Description Of Target Audience

The target audience for our music video are "Pop lovers", however they don't have to be interested in the Pop genre, because our music video will grab attention from all directions. They could be Pop-Rock, or just Pop fans. We are mainly aiming to target both male and females between the age of 16-20. This is due to the fact that at these age groups most teenagers will tend to be clubbing, drinking etc, so our song will straight away grab their attentions. However the older generation can also listen to it, since the music brings a sense of joy, and there isn't a specific age to music.

The social demographic is where people are placed into groups, according to their interests and class- high class, middle class and low class. In the social demographic standards, we are aiming to target the groups B, C1 and C2. This is due to the fact they are the middle class people, and they have a job where they get paid a fair amount. It could however attract some kind of attention from the lower class, due to fact that, they are teenagers who are interested in drinking, smoking etc.

The audiences could also like other music- Michael Jackson's "Thriller"- which was a massive hit among every person, we aim to bring the same dilemma but mainly aiming people from ages, gender and class as I've mentioned above. We also aim to attract interests from all ethnic groups. To be honest, people who are a "clubbing type" will love this music video, because it is based on their situations.

Props List

Below are the list of props, we'll be needing in to use in our music video:

1. Actress

2. Extras- People who are there already, or people who we invite

3. Alcohol

4. Mini bar- If we don't get to go to the clubs

5. DJ- incase we don' t get the chance to go into the clubs

6. Beach- props are already there

These are the props that we are intending to use for our music video, however there could be more props added later on.

Equipment List

1. Cameras

2. Lighting

3. Tri -pods

4. CD player

5. A3 sheet of paper, with the lyrics on

6. Speakers

Location Lists

Below are the locations which we are planning to use for our music video:

1. Possibly a club in London, if not we'll host a Party.

2. Brighton beach- Night/Day time, due to the fact you get the best effects.

3. Lavender fields, near Oaks park.

4. London streets, outside clubs- during Night/ Day time.

5. outside of clubs- to show the real reaction of how people are reacting.

We will mostly be filming in these locations, however if we come up with different locations in the near future, we'll update the blog. We chose these locations because it combines well with music type we are going to film- Pop/ Dance.

Goodwin's & Laura Mulvey's Analsis Of Music

Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin has stated in his theory that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating the lyrics, as well as mentioning that there is also a relationship between the music and the visuals. In his theory it is also mentioned that record companies mostly demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or bands. He also stated that voyeurism is present in many music videos, and lastly that there are likely references to intertextuality.

How its going to apply to our video.

Our video will show characteristics from "Pop" genre, since the music itself falls under the Pop genre. There would be relationship between the lyrics and the visuals at different intervals, however it can't be seen the whole way through. Since we are planning to shoot the video in a night club (majority of it) i think that there will be a relationship seen between the music and the visuals, since the song is a very fast beat type. The editing will also be fast paced to keep up to speed with the visuals and the music. We are not sure whether we are going to show voyeurism of the female body in our video, however there are ideas. We haven't thought about using any intertextual references yet.

Laura Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey came out with a theory called the "Male Gaze", which basically is when the audiences are put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. Her theory also stated that sexism didn't only exist in texts, but also on the way they were presented.

She came out with three "looks" that occur in films to serve to sexually objectify women.

1. The first "look" is how a male perceives a female character.

2. The second "look" is how a spectator feels seeing the female character on screen.

3. The third "look" combines the first and second "look", and allows the male target audiences to take the female character as their own personal sex object, due to the fact that they can relate themselves to the male character, whom they believe they re looking through.

How its going to apply to our video.

We are going to have a male character, whom is a flirty, player type therefore the male audiences can relate themselves to the male character, since the location is mostly set in a night club, the target audiences can relate it to themselves and feel as if they are with the rest of the cast.

Intertextuality In Music Videos

Intertextuality is when one type of media refers to another type of media. Music videos borrow ideas from other music videos, movies or video games.

For example Shania Twain's "Man I Feel Like a Woman", she borrowed ideas from Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love". This type of intertextuality uses other music videos to get their ideas from. There are occasions when music artists use scenes from movies, to apply in their music videos. For instance in Madonna's "Material Girl", she has used ideas from the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blond"- the dance sequences, and has applied the same idea to her music video, with identical costumes and props. Another way of showing intertextuality is by grabbing ideas from video games- The Red Hot Chilli Peppers's "Californication" uses ideas from the video game "Grand Theft Auto" due to the fact that the audiences (like myself), think that the band members are controlling the scenes on the visual. An advantage of using ideas from video games is that it can attract interests from young generations, since they are mostly involved with gaming.

List of people involved

These are the people I am going to work with for our music video, including myself. We wanted to work together due to fact that us 3 (Daniel, Ashley and I) were in the same tutor groups since year 7, and we know each others well, and also we are really comfortable working with one another. Syed joined us in year 9, and has already made very huge impact to the group, with his ideas.

1.Ashley

2.Daniel

3.Rakulan

4.Syed

Analysing Digipaks

Jessie J- Who You Are (2011)

Jessie's album cover for 'Who You Are' is an example of an album which is very strong and effective- because it focuses mainly on the artists facial expressions and appearances. They have also used very effective colours like black and gold for the title. The gold writing for the title gives a thought that this album is very precious and priceless. It also gives the artist a "gangsta" look since her facial expressions don't show a smile or a sense of joy, instead it brings a type of "scary" feeling as you get when you see teenagers wearing hoodies. The gold writing also gives it a RnB style look due to the fact that it is gold plated. I will take these features into account, but we might not use style of the album title since our video song falls under the POP genre.

Katy Perry- One of the Boys (2008)

Katy Perry's album cover for "One of the Boys" is sexually shown, therefore it would catch the audiences eyes in the high street. She is showing her figure- which will attract the muscular side of the sex. The cover uses feminine colours of bright pink and baby blue- which symbolizes that this album's main audiences are females. They have used a long shot to allow the audiences to see her surroundings- which are also very feminine e.g. flowers etc. The title of the album is written in an "joyful" way which kind of brings a environment with happiness, unlike the one above. We will certainly use this idea, since it falls under the same genre as ours.

3 Main Categories Of Music Videos

Performance Based Video

These are a type of music videos which feature the artist/band/group performing the song through most of the video. It’s the type you would choose if you were under a low budget, like us for example. A good example of this is would be "Grenade" by Bruno Mars since he appears through out the video.

Narrative Based Video

This type of music category tries to tell a story through the video. Usually involving the artists themselves or maybe even other characters. The story is sometimes linked with the lyrics of the song, but there are exceptions. These type of music videos tends to be shown in a song which may have appeared in a movie, which can be easily realized. A good example of this is "Rio" song by Taio Cruz

Concept Based Video

This type of music category is based on a particular concept or idea. These types of videos are seen as unusual due to the fact that they have used a particular editing or filming technique.

Questionnaires For Music Video

Questionnaire

1. Male [ ] Female [ ]

2. Age: Under 18 [ ] 18-25 [ ] 26-35 [ ] 36-40 [ ] Over 40 [ ]

3. Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations?Yes [ ] No [ ]

Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. Do you like to see dance routines?Yes [ ] No [ ]

6. What’s your favourite music video?

…………………………………………………………………………………

Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7. What’s your least favourite music video?

…………………………………………………………………………………

Why?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Letter to Music Company

To Play and Win Studio,


For our A2 Media project we are considering using Inna’s song ‘Sun is Up’ as you are the relevant copyright holder and hold the rights to Inna’s material we are requesting your permission to use the album version of the song in our final piece. The title ‘Sun is Up’ and the name will also be used on our adverts and digipaks but they will not be used for promotional purposes or monetary gain and will simply be used as a piece of non-profit work.

The music video won't be released or be sold in any way, shape or form. The music video will only be seen by the OCR Exam Board and anyone in my media class but no one outside this circle.

Yours Sincerely,

Rakulan Sivapalan, Ashley Groom, Daniel H, Syed Ali-Shah

Music Video Conventions

These are the 5 main elements which go into making a music video.

The Lyrics: are there to create a kind of mood or to show an emotion. In every genre of music there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics, within the video, with the visuals trying to explain what is going on with the lyrics.

The Music: The lyrics do not always match the pace of the music therefore the editing can be seen as to were they match.

The Editing: always follows the pace of the music and so if the music is slow then the editing is slow and if it is fast then the editing will also be fast paced.

The Camera Work: will change depending on the genre of the music. The movement, angle and shot distance would be very different between genres of music videos.

The Genre: of the music exposes the conventions used in the video and the target audience. There are many different genres of music now days and they all have their own set of style and sense which a viewer would expect to see. The mise-en-scène, lighting, editing and camera work would be different to every single video depending on the genre of music is playing, e.g. a Rock video would not have bright colours and the artist will not be expected to be seen in highly branded clothing like Hip Hop videos.