Both of our actors/actresses are under the age of 18 which means that we will need them to sign a model release form and also be signed by their parent or legal guardian.
This is purely for the protection of the actors/actresses so that all footage will only be used for the making of this film and that they won't be perceived negatively.
The digipak for Bastille - Bad Blood is very simplistic but very good a representing the style of the band. The indie cover which was talked about in the Advert Task, shows that Dan, the main singer, is running away from the camera and this shows a lack of love for the fame and the money of it all but just the music.
The CD is once again very simplistic. I think that they were trying to recreate the look and style of vinyl which has now become very popular again. This would then appeal to the pop target audience.
The back cover of the CD case shows the car that is shining its headlights onto Dan. This shows that he is being chased or hunted down which links to the album title 'Bad Blood'.
The song list is very simple. However, the letter A has been replaced by Bastille's signature 'A' which is seen in the band's title and all over their tour posters or CD cases.
THE KOOKS - Inside In, Inside Out
This digipak conforms more to a pop music CD case as it includes a page which is dedicated to some of the bands photos. However, they have completed in an individual way. They have used film strips that are used in analogue cameras and they have been layed out like a contact sheet to see all of the photos from backstage or on tour.
They have also included a page which has credits on which is very common in all types of popular CDs. However the band's picture has been overlayed with another image which partially blurs out their features.
The CD case is quite bold compared to the rest of the CD digipak. I think this may be a way of saying that the music is extremely good compared to the quite low key case.
BAND/ARTIST IMAGE - This shows Dan, the lead singer, running away from the camera. This shows that as an indie band, he doesn't care too much for star appeal and his own fame. Like most indie bands, he is shown to be doing it only for the music.
TECHNIQUES & COLOURS - The washed out filter applied to the image is typically old and related to indie. If you look on indie style Instagram accounts you will find a lot of photos with this filter. It looks as though it is a worn out analogue photo.
MISE-EN-SCENE - His attire is simplistic and doesn't draw a lot of attention to himself. He is seen running down the middle of a very quiet road. The lighting almost makes it look like he's being chase by a car as it looks like headlights illuminating him. This could be in relation to the album title 'Bad Blood'.
FONT DESIGNS - The font is typically normal which is surprising as, as an indie pop group, you would expect something different. The sizing however is very important as you can clearly see who the headline act is and who is supporting.
LAYOUT & CONTENT - The content of the poster advert is full of tour information and if the dates have sold out. The bright red banners hiding tour dates is very important as it shows that Bastille have a lot of appeal and are very popular. Having the band's information at the top means that that is the first thing you see, instead of the support acts below.
THE KOOKS - Album Release Advert
BAND/ARTIST IMAGE - The kooks are seen as a very British home grown band. They are shown as being among the likes of Arctic Monkeys and films like This Is England in the media world.
TECHNIQUES & COLOURS - This poster for a show they are performing in is quite plain apart from the extremely obvious large British flag draped over the band. This shows that being British brings colour to themselves as a band.
MISE-EN-SCENE - The guitars in the shot have been placed there to show, much like Bastille, that they are all about the music and not about the fame or money. The large flag also shows how true they are to their country and it definitely shows how their fans perceive them as being stereo-typically British.
FONT DESIGNS - The font colours are red, black and blue which cohere with the large British flag. The title is very large and would be hard to miss if you saw it in the street. This is a strong advertising technique which definitely conforms to the conventions of a band.
LAYOUT & CONTENT - The layout is very simplistic and this is very important to this band. As stated earlier, their heritage is very special to them and so having a very simple white backdrop and simple text, bring the focus all onto the flag on top of the band.
Our main feedback came from a female opinion with only 40% of responses being from males. It is also predominantly from people from the age bracket of 17 and under as 61.54%. This is probably because we posted this survey from Survey Monkey onto the social networking site Facebook which would mainly have younger people on due to our own age and demographics.
Pop and Indie were both extremely popular when looking at the results and we predicted this beforehand when we were making our music video survey. The part we are most interested in however is that Indie was favoured by nearly 18% of the sample which is very impressive. This will make it easier when looking at the other results for any advice we can take onto our video.
30% of people listened to music when they were relaxing which we see as very important because when relaxing the most preferred music is calm and light. This means that if our music video is quite calm and not over active or has too much going on, it will appeal to this demographic.
Almost 35% of people wanted both a narrative and performance element to the music video. This is very improtant data as it will decide what percentage of our video will be narrative or performance. The over all winner was story line with 43%. This means that we will focus on the story line aspect of the music video a lot more and we will focus greatly on getting the emotional message across to the audience.
How does copyright work in music? When a song or piece of music is written, the person who wrote it owns the copyright and therefore has the right to decide how and when it should be played. Music is released, allowing individuals to purchase a song or piece which they can play at home. However, if an individual wishes to play that piece of music to a wider group of people, for example on their business or organisation’s premises, it is classed as a public performance. If you want to make a public performance you must first seek permission from the copyright owner of that song before you do so. This permission is known as a licence. That is a brief overlook of how copyright works with music with means that we will have to contact the label/band/artist to ask if we can use their music for our own means. However for educational means we can use copyright music as long we have asked. As long as they don't reply saying that we can't use it, we are free to use it as much as we want. So we will email the label/company and post the screenshots in a follow up post.
We think that, due to the nature of our music video and its genre, our target audience would range between a 16 to 30 age bracket and consist of an equal amount of male and females. We believe their lifestyle could be seen to be quite downbeat and thoughtful as opposed to care free and wild.
The age bracket was determined between the 16 to 30 age bracket due to the age of the actors and actresses, as well as the rebellious nature that we would want to impose on the audience. The age bracket comes from research that we did into the pop/indie genre of music and who listens to it. It was a particularly young age category, and we suspect this is due to the nature of the song and its messages. Although, we do believe that the fact that our characters our 18 and look like young adults to the audience, means that the audience will be able to relate specifically to the character and their actions. This is important to us as we want the audience to feel involved and within the music video itself.
Also, there is a rebellious nature within our plans for our music video. The lyrics are quite daring and refer to prostitution and smoking various drugs, which is what we would like to portray within our video but in a subtler style. We want to show smoking and sex being a large selling factor as that is what sells within today's society, unfortunately. We will show a non conventional couple that a younger age bracket will specifically relate to as that is the sort of relationships they will be experiencing (not specifically prostitution, but non conventional). An older age bracket would be less interested in this as they would see this as unhealthy and unnecessary for our age. This will be because they will most probably be in long term, healthy relationships and feel that their way is the only conventional, and right way.
We believe that the audience will be of a mix of female and male watchers as we think that there are certain parts of the video that will appeal to both sexes. We think that the rebellious nature of prostitution and smoking will appeal greatly to the male target audience as they will want to seem cool and above others by acting out. They will not want to be seen looking at different love stories within videos as society has pressured males to become more manly and not relate to those topics.
This aspect of a love story however, relates perfectly to the female audience. They will enjoy looking at a love story unfold before them, however unconventional it may seem. As a whole, whether male of female, old or young, the indie/pop audience are all quite thoughtful and rebellious within their actions as they are stereotyped as being rebellious and different from others. They will want to be able to relate with the unconventional nature of our music video and so this will be the perfect video for them to relate to.
Richard Dyer's theory on star image states that the star should be seen as ordinary yet also different. This is so that the audience can relate to the star but also still be in awe and admiration.
WHAT IS A STAR?
A star is the main figure in a music video which the producer will want all of the audiences attention focussed on. It is very important to have a star in a conventional music video as otherwise there would be nothing for the audience to focus on. As a star, they are most probably quite popular in the music industry and the audience/fans will know a lot about them already. They will know their likes or dislikes and possibly their love life and style.
EXAMPLE STAR?
For an example I have done research into the star Calvin Harris. I have looked at his style and how the music videos he appears in creates a strong star.
In his music video 'Outside' featuring Ellie Goulding, he is shown wearing a casual shirt and jeans. This is very important as it relates to Dyer's theory of the star having to be like us so that we can relate to him. The casual attire is what is seen on many boys across an incredibly large age bracket.
He is also seen doing 'wheelies' on a motor bike which is commonly seen on TV or biking programs but is definitely not something you see everyday which makes Calvin Harris seem less ordinary than the audience.
The narrative plays a huge part in this music video for Calvin Harris. As he is involved in the narrative it makes it very easy for the audience to relate real life situations to the video. He is shown arguing with his presumed girlfriend and getting extremely angry. This is very common in most relationships and this means that a large amount of people will be able to relate quite closely to this video for sure.
LIGHTING A STAR?
Typical lighting of a star would be all of the lights focussed on the artist which would then highlight the features that are admired by his fans. This is very obvious in the music video 'Outside' as the low key lighting highlights the outline of Calvin Harris and means that he is highlighted almost in an 'angelic way'.
Our music video is 'Bastille - What Would You Do'. We chose this song because of the indie/pop genre and how wide that leaves our possibilities of filming abstract and emotional scenes. It also has an extremely strong underlying narrative which we really think we can use in all of our shots.
Our narrative consists of the main star alongside a female actor. They have a relationship which becomes apparent throughout the music video as it transpires. The female character is essentially a prostitute. This will be made clear through costume and props which are stereo-typically associated with prostitutes and their line of work. This will be done subtly as we are predominantly searching for the emotion from the video as opposed to focussing on the nature of the job.
The target audience is definitely within the young adult and teenage bracket as a lot of Bastille's music is very popular with that. This works in our favour as we are young adults ourself and can add elements that we think would appeal to us. We were then also able to use characters that are from that age range too which is especially helpful when we have a lot of strong performers and actors at hand to us from our school.
We predict that our video will have a strong dark nature to it. This will include the collection of props, the settings and the lighting. We will use low key lighting along with a low saturation level in post production so that the audience can experience the sad feelings that will be coming from the actors and actresses. The costume already has quite a dark nature as the clothes are predominantly black or grey with parts of white or in the case of the female character, the showing of skin will be the only other colour we see from her.
I have done research into this music video as it is of a similar style of the video we wish to create ourselves. The theme is quite dark and gloomy which is what we would like to recreate, This is seen firstly through the colour correction which is particularly desaturated to create an eerie style to the song.
As a group we have decided that we would like to start our video with slow mo 'club' clips which are cut between fast paced clips that change to the beat of the music. This can be seen in the music video 'Greek Tragedy' right at the start when the main girl is swaying with her arms out wide and it has been slowed down to look like she is in some sort of trance. This is what we'd like to do with the dance scene within the club as we feel it would look like the whole club is in a trance and unaware of the situation that is unfolding within.
Another part of this music video that I feel would translate well into our own clip would be the fast paced sequences which appear between the slow mo shots at the beginning. This would be good as it would show the tension and intensity of the situation and how pressure is being focused on the main character.
Our own sequence would consist of many different clips that we would use from throughout the music video but it would be in time with the beat of the music at the beginning of the song which sounds like three knocks against a door.
I have analysed this music video because the style and narrative is quite close to our own when depicting the scenes of her living on the streets and being a prostitute. Firstly we would like to replicate the shot of the girl sitting on the street whilst other people are moving around her. It is done as a time-lapse which makes the girl seem isolated and lost within the crowd.We would do our own shots on the streets of Cambridge as the street lights and lights from the buzzing night life will make her seem even more alone.
Another idea which we particularly liked was when she is scene looking in the mirror before she goes to meet her client.
We like this idea because it shows her reflecting on herself and possibly realising what she is doing to herself. We would do this with our main female character but we would make it seem as though she is cleaning herself and getting ready for a better life. This would be when the lyrics are saying 'Get up off your feet and stop making tired excuses.'
- Hall believed that the audience could take one of three main positions when watching a film/music video.
- DOMINANT - This means that the audience will read the text the author has intended them to do.
- NEGOTIATED - The reader will partially believe the message but sometimes modifies to to suit themselves and to see it in their own way.
- OPPOSITIONAL - The author's message places the reader on the opposition. The do not accept or believe the code.
JUDITH BUTLER - Butler believes that gender is performed as opposed to biology. This means she believes it is part of our identity and personality instead of genetics.
- This leads on to her objectification of the notion of 'voyeurism'. She believes that the concept isn't just specific to men objectifying women.
LAURA MULVEY - Mulvey believes that there is a visual pleasure in the media which is defined as 'voyeurism'. She believes that women are only there for male pleasure.
- This has been highly criticised recently as current new trends consist of a lot of feminist topics. Which has slightly changed a woman's appearance in the media.
This
music video is a sure fire pop genre due to its many stereotypical traits. This
is down to the different aspects of mise en scene which have been used. For
starters, much like the Anna Sun music video, there is a red cup party which is
focused on a lot. This is done because drinking is seen as ‘cool’ and the
‘cool thing to do’ and so it would have to be in a pop music video so that
people could relate to it easily. Whilst the party is going on, there is a
large focus on the male female dancing that is occurring, this is because love
is a large part of a pop music video as it almost gives the viewer and
favourite and someone to root for, much like a film.
Focusing
on certain aspects is different in every music video. In the walk the moon one,
there was a large focus on the surroundings and the misfits dancing. Whereas in
this video, there is a huge focus on the main singer as that is what the
viewers are there to see and they would want to make the singer appeal to
everyone. However, the camera is not the only person/subject that is following the male
singer. The females in the video are all seen to be touching him or staring at
him the majority of the time which shows the viewer that he is attractive and
lusted after by others, almost competitive.
A large
object that occurs in almost all music videos is the cars and the girls. There
are almost always cars and in this music video it is no different. There are a
large amount of posh expensive cars which show wealth and power within the
group of men.
This
music video is of the indie pop genre as that is Walk the Moon’s style of
music. To start with, the viewer would notice straight away that the filming is
somewhat amateurish and it has a slight VSCO cam or old movie style filter.
This shows that it isn’t as clean cut and full of harsh dark and bold colours
as pop music videos seem to have. This is a lot softer and shows through that
alone that indie music is slight less offensive and abrupt. Alongside this, you
can even tell it is an indie music video just from the setting. In pop videos
you are normally paired with bright lights and a studio set up, whereas this
video is set outdoors and starts with views of the skies which show that the
music is almost ‘dreamlike’.
Secondly,
the people involved in the video are a collection of what society would call
misfits and this is to illustrate the lyrics. The video is all about being a
child and wanting to stay a child, almost a ‘Peter Pan’ style. They are dressed
individually and very expressively. This is very important as it is almost
highlighting the fact that they are the misfits but together they don’t have to
worry about judging from society, they can all be individuals.
However,
despite this being an indie music video, certain aspects are particularly
stereotypical of a pop music video. A few scenes are shown the misfits drinking
from red cups which are a typical American party ideology. This shows that they
still conform to pop stereotypes possibly to show that we are slight misfits in
our own ways. Also, much like the Bo$$ video, They are seen to be doing a
well-choreographed dance which is a common trait of pop music videos as people
are certain to try and copy it.
This is a very popular music video which has been widely acclaimed for its power for women. Different aspects of the music video converge to the strong topic of feminism that is around in today’s society and how it is looked upon. This is shown firstly in this video through the mise en scene by their costumes. They are seen to be wearing suit jackets which are stereotypically seen on men to demonstrate power and authority in the workplace. But here it is seen paired with revealing shorts or skirts which shows that women have power whatever they are seen to be wearing. As recently women have been criticized for their attire in the media and so this would be a perfect in for a pop music video as it creates sex appeal whilst also providing links to popular topics.
A dance routine is very typical for a pop music video in association with a girl or boy band. This is because an extremely wide audience will be watching this genre, and so this video, including younger female generations. And young girls are constantly seen wanting to learn the dance moves from the new ‘hottest’ songs, much like young boys are eager to follow fashion trends which they see in pop music videos also. The girls in the music video are seen to be doing dance moves that are quite provocative but are used to show power and dominance of the female generation. This is shown because they are dancing on a stage with nothing around them, all focus is on them. This will be particularly popular as it means a younger generation will look up to these girls when watching this video as they will see them as strong and powerful and not afraid. It would be different if these girls were seen to be doing ballroom dancing or similar with a man; it would show that the woman is depending on the man instead of being independent.
Following on from the idea of independence and feminism, this is also shown when the girl group challenge the group of boys to an arm wrestling competition. These boys are seen to be wearing hoodies or tight vests with snap backs which is seen a lot in male music videos as it makes them see, “hard” or “scary” in some cases. The girls in the video are however showing that this isn’t the case. The girls are seen beating the men in the competition which once again exerts power for females.
BAND/ARTIST IMAGE - The kooks are seen as a very British home grown band. They are shown as being among the likes of Arctic Monkeys and films like This Is England in the media world.
As a whole, whether male of female, old or young, the indie/pop audience are all quite thoughtful and rebellious within their actions as they are stereotyped as being rebellious and different from others. They will want to be able to relate with the unconventional nature of our music video and so this will be the perfect video for them to relate to. 
As a group we have decided that we would like to start our video with slow mo 'club' clips which are cut between fast paced clips that change to the beat of the music. This can be seen in the music video 'Greek Tragedy' right at the start when the main girl is swaying with her arms out wide and it has been slowed down to look like she is in some sort of trance. This is what we'd like to do with the dance scene within the club as we feel it would look like the whole club is in a trance and unaware of the situation that is unfolding within. 
Our own sequence would consist of many different clips that we would use from throughout the music video but it would be in time with the beat of the music at the beginning of the song which sounds like three knocks against a door.
Firstly we would like to replicate the shot of the girl sitting on the street whilst other people are moving around her. It is done as a time-lapse which makes the girl seem isolated and lost within the crowd.We would do our own shots on the streets of Cambridge as the street lights and lights from the buzzing night life will make her seem even more alone.
We like this idea because it shows her reflecting on herself and possibly realising what she is doing to herself. We would do this with our main female character but we would make it seem as though she is cleaning herself and getting ready for a better life. This would be when the lyrics are saying 'Get up off your feet and stop making tired excuses.'