Defining Audiences

At this current time, I haven't got a set idea of what Music Video I would like to create, however, I know that I want to have a target audience of the young, around the ages of 13-18 as this is an age gap I can do multiple things with. I would also like to aim my music video to those of the ABC1 which stands for the Upper Middle Class, Middle Class and the Lower Middle Class. The reason as to why I would like this target audience as I think it gives a range of things to what I can do.

The main-stream group are another audience I would like my music video to suit as they make up 40% of listeners who like the security and belonging that is attained within a group. This audience has a very wide range of music and styles and will allow me to have a large audience to aim at. Within the Values, Attitudes and Lifestyle, I would like to aim my music video towards those who are action-orientated as they are guided by a desire for social or physical activity, variety and risk taking. 


I would like to aim my video at actualisers, which are people who are successful with what they do, sophisticated and active. These people have high self-esteem and seek to explore, develop and grow. They consider image to be an important part for expression of independence and character and so they will value the image that I try to reflect in my video. I will also be looking at the free bird audience that is mentioned in the LifeMatrix. These are active and altruistic.

Music Theorists

Theodor Adorno (1903 - 1969)

Adorno
Adorno was a strong believer that we, as the audience, didn't have choice in the media we consume and that it was controlled by capitalists, whose aim was to control the public through media. He had a very Marxist view on the whole industry and said that people had a false need generated by the industry which was then satisfied through the capitalistic system, which made people forget about their actual needs.

Richard 'Dick' Hebdige (1951 - present)

Hebdige
Hebdige has a totally opposite view to Adorno. He believed that the audience had their own say in what we choose to consume. He argues that consumption of media is an active process in which different audiences' social and ideological construction lead to different readings of the same media products. Therefore, the audience can resist the power of large companies by ignoring, undermining or finding alternative products to consume.

Richard Dyer (1945 - Present)

Dyer
Dyer wrote extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. he believes that stars have key features in common; A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials; Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. Fundamentally, he believed the star image is incoherent which, according to Dyer, is because it is based upon two key paradoxes. Firstly, the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. This lets the audience look up to the star while also letting them aspire to be like them. Secondly, the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. This means that the audience needs to feel like they connect with the star even though they will most likely never meet them.

History of Music Videos

When music videos were originally created, they were very daring and explicit similar to modern videos. They had very high levels of female display which got the attention of the male audiences. French films had highly suggestive sexual content predominating, with highly sexualised dance routines and close up shots of the female (covered) crotch, frequently bordering on pornographic films, in many ways prefiguring the over sexual display of contemporary music videos.

Music videos predominated because the TV industry needed it in place of studio performances so artists wouldn't need to appear in studio. This allowed them to spend more time developing their music and made it a lot more convenient for themselves. This is when artist started becoming more popular and also more big headed. They would often get the celebrity vibe where they think they are the best.

Image is now a key factor in making a successful artist. Some may even argue it is more important that the music now. Main stream artists that are signed to large music companies will have a core focus on image which then keeps people interested. This is why modern artist are often in the headlines of tabloids and online news pages. They focus on their image to entice people to buy their content rather than their musical talent.

When music TV channels were created, which consisted of only music videos and an occasional advert every few songs, advertisers saw a great opportunity. Since the majority of the viewers that watched these music, channels such as MTV, were young, this meant that they were easily influenced as to what they should buy since they would often not have a biased opinion towards a certain company or product. They would also usually have disposable income as they would not have to be paying for bills etc. This meant that advertising companies would pay a lot of money to have their adverts played in between songs.

The rise in popularity of music videos started in Britain where bands would need to make a music video to accompany their song if they wanted to get sales. Artist would often spend a lot of money in making big and expensive music videos which would then help for their sales to rocket. This popularity was then carried over to America where their artist started doing the same and spending lots of money on creating music videos. By the 80s, music videos were needed if an artist wanted their music to be successful. The price for making a music went from around $8000 in the 1930s to $2million in the 1990s.

Music videos started to propel some acts into mega stardom, which started bypassing the traditional live performances. An example of this was Madonna, whose music videos were always interesting and innovative. She and a host of other female artists had a rise to prominence which was undoubtedly precipitated by the availability of music video to showcase their talents. Image, performance, choreography and the use of the close up have suited the success of female acts in particular.

Pete Fraser, Teaching Music Video (BFI, 2004)

Shot Count Analysis

Track: Lego House                                                

Artist: Ed Sheeran                                    

Director: Jake Gosling                                 

Release Date: 20/10/2011

Length of video: 4:05

Number of shots in entire video: 104

Average length of shot: 2.3s

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Number of shots in 30 second segment:13

Within the 30 second segment there are:

Number of CU:3

Number of ECU:0

Number of LS:4

Number of MS:5

Number of panning shots:0

Number of tilts:1

Other shots: 0

Shot number	Shot type	Shot length	Description	Edit to next shot
1	Close up	3s	Rupert Grint's back	Straight cut
2	Close up	1s	Hands of the crowd in the air	Straight cut
3	Mid shot	2s	People in crowd	Straight cut
4	Long shot	1s	Guy on someones back in crowd	Straight cut
5	Mid shot	2s	Rupert Grint's back	Straight cut
6	Long shot	1s	Crowd	Straight cut
7	Long shot	1s	Crowd	Straight cut
8	Tilt	4s	From Rupert's waist to his head	Straight cut
9	Mid shot	4s	Rupert Grint from front	Straight cut
10	Close up	2s	Phones in the crowd	Straight cut
11	Mid shot	1s	Rupert Grint's back	Straight cut
12	Long shot	3s	Rupert Grint from front	Straight cut
13	Mid shot	5s	Rupert Grint from front singing	Straight cut

Analysis - what have you learnt from this process? 

I found out how many shots there are within a short time.I learnt that a general convention in music videos is fast editing with short shots. It is rare for a shot to last over 3 seconds. Narratives are also a common convention in music videos as it makes it entertaining for the viewer and gives them something interesting to watch while they are listening to the music. The narratives can also help for the viewer to connect with the artist and the song. When it is a solo artist performing, the editing will generally keep switching between the narrative and the artist singing. This video was a slight exception as Ed Sheeran only appears at the end of the video and Rupert Grint is meant to be portraying the artist.

Preliminary Task | Lip Sync

Introduction

For this preliminary task, I had to work in a group to create a lip syncing music video. This was a new and challenging experience and taught me a lot which will help me when I do my final music video task.

Planning

The cover for the single

For this task, I was in a group of 3 with Esha and Chiska. Together we had to create a lip syncing video to the song 'Burning Down the House' by Tom Jones & The Cardigans. Before the task, none of us had heard this song so it was more challenging to do as we all had to learn the lyrics. We got in contact with each other before the day of filming and came up with a few ideas to use. We also decided that we would go with monochrome clothing and then whenever the song mentions fire, we would use some pieces of red clothing and lighting. Since we didn't have much time to plan, most of the planning was done on the morning of the filming when we could all meet up.

Filming

When it came to filming day, we were lucky enough to have a chance to film at Giltbrook Studios. This gave us the opportunity to work with proper filming equipment and in a real studio. My group and I decided to use the infinity cove as the backdrop for our music video. This gave us a chance to use lighting as a tool for our video. In the shot we used a drum kit, a keyboard and a microphone on a stand. I was in the middle with the microphone and was stood slightly in front of the other two. Esha was to my left on the keyboard and Chiska was on my right with the drum kit. We decided to film two full run throughs of the song at a wide shot of all three of us. The first run through was in monochrome colouring and the second was with the red accessories and lights. We could then use these two shots to fill in gaps in the editing later. This was also a fail safe in case we ran out of time for filming, we could then just use these full clips in place of any missing clips we didn't manage to get. We also wrote the lyrics on a large piece of card which was placed just to the side of the camera so we could read the lyrics in between shots without needing to leave our places. After we had done a few takes of the wide shot we then went into doing different solo shots. These included close ups of us singing as well as close ups of the instruments being played. We did this for both the monochrome colours and the red accessories. We also had the music playing in the background so we could all keep in time with each other.

 Editing

On the day we were meant to edit, Chiska was unable to make it to the lesson so Esha and I shared out the editing between us. All of the editing was done in Adobe Premier Pro and was then rendered and uploaded to YouTube.

The first thing we did was get our raw footage from the camera memory card and put it into a folder on the computer we were going to edit on. I then looked through all the footage and named each clip so we could easily sort through and find the footage we needed. In the name I generally included what shot it was and who was within it. I also said if it was with the monochrome lighting or the red lighting. This made the rest of the editing process a lot easier. We also got the segment of the song we were using and added this to the folder too.

We then imported all of the clips into Premier Pro so we were ready to start editing. The raw footage was meant to have the music in the background so we could then sync that video to the separate music file but something went wrong and the sound was corrupt on our footage so we had to scrap it. This meant that it took a little longer to sync the video to the music. We started by first placing the music file into the timeline to use as an anchor for our clips. We would do cuts in the video but leave the sound as a constant. We locked the sound clip so we couldn't edit it and moved on. For a second anchor, we added in the two full takes of the video to use as the basis of our editing. We would then add different clips over the top of these full takes and cut different parts of it out. This helped us to keep organised and also meant that if we ran out of time to edit then at least we still had footage to play in the background.

We then started looking through our separate shots to find the right ones to use. This was the longest part of the process but once it was done it made it a lot easier to edit the video. When looking through all the shots, we would add them into the editor on Premier Pro which would let us cut the clip down to what we wanted before we added it to the timeline. As we cut the clips down we would add them into our timeline in the rough place that we wanted it so we could then fine tune it later. Once we had placed all the clips into our timeline we then went on to finalising the video. Esha and myself took it in turns to fix different parts of the video.

The editing between each clip consisted of practically all straight cuts. At one point during the song there is a shot of Esha and Chiska facing slightly towards each other. This was actually done with two different solo shots of Esha and Chiska. I flipped one of the images so it looked like they were facing each other and then cut the size of the image down so the both fit into one shot. I then changed the colours so both videos blended well and made it look like they were both in the shot together.

Throughout the video, every time that the fire theme was mentioned, we would use the clips of us with the red lighting and accessories. We kept this consistent throughout the video to give our own feel to the music.

Once we had finished all the editing, we rendered the video in a 1080p setting and I uploaded it to my YouTube account. I then sent the link to Esha so she could add the video to her own blog.

Finished Video

Evaluation

Looking back on the prelim task, I see that there are a few things that could have been improved and I will learn from this to make sure I do better in my official task.

I realise now how much planning needs to go into the filming before you actually start filming. Before we went into filming, we didn't have much of an idea of the different shots we were going to do and most of it was just improvised. When I am filming my official music video, I am going to need to a put a lot more time into planning out the different shots and all the clips I am going to need from a certain location or shoot because once I go to start editing, it is a lot harder to go back and get more footage. So time management is a big improvement that I need to make before I do my music video.

Lighting and sound are also two large parts of making the music video. While the sound in this task was provided, we still had to think of how to match the shots to the sound. This will also happen in my music video as I will have to match different cuts and scenes to the sound of the music. Lighting was a big thing while at the studio. Luckily we had the help of the manager of the studio who knew how to use all the lights. When I am doing my music video I may be out on location for filming and this is much harder to get the correct lighting compared to in a studio. I am going to need to plan out the lighting carefully before we go and do and filming on location or in studio. This once again falls under planning which is the keystone for making a successful video.

The final thing that I noticed from the prelim is the acting. Obviously none of us in the video are proper actors and therefore we did not do an amazing job at making the video entertaining. However, in my music video, I am going to need to put a lot of thinking into who I want to have to act. Since I have to do the filming and the camera work, it means that I cannot be in the video and therefore I am going to have to ask someone to act for me. This will take a lot of planning as the performance ofthe actor can make or break a music video.