Target Audience Diagram

This diagram shows a silhouette of my target audience, on the outside of the drawing is what i need to consider about my target audience and what i should think about when creating my product. On the inside of the silhouette is what is specific to my target audience such as their interests, socio-economic group and age. I also included the theory of Blumler and Katz and their uses and gratification theory, the two which i feel are most appropriate my my product are personal identity and diversion.

Audience Interview Storyboard

Video Editing

To adjust the background of the film, i went into the 'video effects' and then into 'adjust' then dragged the 'auto colour' across to the footage. This allowed me to change the background of the footage from a dirty white colour to a bright white colour, it also improved the lighting of the image and made it look more professional. i will be using this tool when i make my music video as some of the shots will be done with a white background, this tool will help me to get a true white background and improve the image colour.

Audience Documentary

I created this 'Audience Documentary' in order to do extensive research of people who may be in my target audience for my product and another reason was to get used to using the camera and trying out different angles in practise for my final music video. By doing this i also got used to the video editing program Adobe Premier Pro, i learnt new tools which i will be able to apply when editing my music video. i interviewed three people as part of my audience research, James (who appears first), Kelly (who appears second) and Annabel (who is last). From the research i found out about what they are looking for in a music video and interests surrounding this subject. in the editing process, i changed the lighting of the footage to make the background behind the speakers lighter, i also sharpened the images to make the footage more clear as i discovered what i had filmed has been slightly out of focus when i transferred the files onto the computer. i chose to interview both males and females because my target audience of bother males and females form the ages of 14-35 which the people who i interviewed fit into the category of.

Communications with Cast Members

Peer Feedback

Do you disagree with any feedback?
i generally agree with most of the feedback that i received, although i disagree with some of the comments within some of the feedback sheets i have received such as 'try looking at other artists such as Taylor Momsen instead of just one'. I disagree because i looked at 3 inspiring females in my research and not just one. Furthermore Taylor Momsen is not the kind of artist i would want my front woman to be compared with as she is not the kind of role model i want my lead singer to portray to the audience.

Has it helped and why?
it has helped me as i have been given new ideas which i could use to improve my blog, such as creating a mock CD cover as part of one of my preliminary tasks. furthermore, another feedback which helped was one suggesting that i look at different camera shots which i could include within my music video.

How will you act on this feedback?
i will act on this feedback by using the relevant feedback in order to make improvements to my blog work. I will also use the feedback to help give me a guide as to what other ideas i can include within my blog to help put my idea across to the audience. I will take the advice of one of my peers and start to include possible camera angles and shots. I could i could go out to the possible locations i have chosen and create test shots in order to gain knowledge of the kind of angles,shots and lighting which will work best for my video. Furthermore, i will go into more detail about my audience like one of my peers suggested as this is a very important aspect of my product.

Preliminary Task - Album Inspiration

Album Art Research 

In addition to the main task of the music video, i must also produce two preliminary tasks along side it. The two i have chosen to create is the CD cover and a Website Homepage for the band.
I have created a collage of images from Google of a large range of band's CD covers. By doing this I aim to conclude the similarities and see which techniques and features i could take from this to produce a successful CD cover.

One of the similar features which i found while doing this research is that a lot of the bands have a logo to represent their band and create a recognisable figure which can be linked back to their band. For example the band 'Metallica' use the same logo on many of their CD's so they can be easily recognised, I think that this is a good approach to promoting the band. Furthermore other bands such as 'Iron Maiden' also use the same font in the same colour in to of their CD's seen above, this creates a house style running through their album art to create a brand unique to their band. 

Inspiration

Existing music videos

This video by the band Guns and Roses for the song November Rain is one of many inspirational videos that i have seen. It is a mixture of both Narrative and Performance and is also the same genre (rock) as my music video will be. The narrative is about a love triangle between the main singer Axl Rose, his bride-to-be and guitarist Slash. The lyrics of the song fit with the video perfectly 'nothing lasts forever, even cold november rain' links in with the narrative that the love Axl Rose's bride-to-be had for Slash didn't last forever. The performance aspect of the video shows the band performing on a stage, which is something i would like to include in my music video. Furthermore, the narrative within the video is mainly based around a love story, which is something i am thinking about doing for my music video, showing the relationship and heartbreak of the relationship. For example at 3:32 which shows a close up of the lead singer and his bride kissing, advancing the narrative, as the guitarist (Slash) from the video walks out of the church when this happens it suggests that they used to be romantically involved with each other and he is still in love with her.  




Another music video that i find inspiring is 'Love bites (so do i)' my the band Halestorm, this video is a performance based video which is shot in black and white. I feel like this song could easily be made into a performance and narrative video due to the lyrics in the song. The lyrics imply that the girl in the song can steal men from other girls such as 'i slither like a viper and get you by the neck, i know a thousand ways to help you forget about her'. The narrative could be a direct influence of the song title and lyrics, having the main character in the video as the boyfriend stealing girl that is sung about in the song. Furthermore, the lead singer of the band is a female, which is another inspiration as i would like for the lead vocalist in my music video to be a female as it is not often that rock bands are fronted by women.Throughout the video the main shots seen are Medium and Long shots which show the lead singer usually singing into the camera, looking at the audience in an inviting way for example at 0:15 within the music video. These are the type of shots i am looking to use within my music video as there will be a large emphasis on the lead singer. The lead singer also plays the guitar which is something stereotypically associated with males, showing she is challenging the stereotype as she is also dressed in a feminine way, for example at 2:21 shown in a medium shot.



Performance Ideas


Try our video maker at Animoto.

The images and videos used on this video were taken by myself when I saw the band featured in the video(Paramore) in 2010. I used videos and images I have already taken from a concert to give me an idea as to how the performance part of my own music video needs to look and how i need to get the people within the video to act.

Pitch for chosen Brief

Music Video

Target Audience

The target audience for my music video will be people of the age 14-35, this is due to the fact that the main subject of the music video may be appealing to that of in their teens and that of people in their thirties. The primary audience of the music video will be males aged 14-35 this is because they may find the front female appealing. The secondary audience of the music video would be females of the age 14-35 this is because they may find the front woman of the band inspiring and may aspire to be like her. The social class i would aim my music video at is B-E because stereotypically you wouldn't expect people in A such doctors to be listening to rock music. I have aimed it down to group E because most students are put into this category as they are classed as unemployed. I am aiming at the video to the working class, unemployed (students) and the middle class as i believe these classes have a broad range of people with a range of music tastes.

Genre

The genre of music I have settled for to be in my video is Rock music. Rock is my favourite genre of music as it has many different platforms and capabilities, in other words it has the ability to make you feel different for example happy, sad, angry and excited. I also like going to see bands perform rock music live, which is why i have decided that for the performance part of my music video it may be a live performance featuring a crowd. Furthermore, the lyrics in rock songs tend to be written by the band themselves and based on experiences in their life which may make it easier to create the narrative side of the music video.

I listen to a wide range of rock bands such as Guns N' Roses, Paramore, You Me at Six, Kiss, Metallica and Iron Maiden. These bands all have different styles of rock music and all have different costumes when they perform, which gives me a range of ideas as to what the people in my video will wear. the images below are of the above listed bands, as you cans see there is a lot of black seen in the costumes which is a colour stereotypically associated with rock bands.


Costume Ideas


I have created a mood board of costumes with images from google of the lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams. I would describe her fashion as 'mild punk', this is due to specific items which she wears such as Dr Marten boots, creepers and tartan clothing. It has given me an insight as to how the lead vocalist in my music video should dress in order to create a strong leading female character. Hayley has vibrant hair which is usually orange, pink or red this has become her trademark, because of this I have realised it is important to create trademark for my leading female in the video. I would like to dress the vocalist in my music video against the general stereotype of a rocker(someone who wears black) similar to how Hayley dresses as i believe it will make them seem more approachable and intake a larger audience.














Prop Use



Inspirational Females

I would like the lead singer featured in the video to be a Female, this is because there are not very many female lead singers in rock bands. This would make the music video more appealing to both male and females audiences as she could be someone who other girls can aspire to be and who males may find aesthetically pleasing. These women make up what i hope the lead singer in my music video to be, confident, strong and likeable. it is key that the part takers in the video tick these three boxes as it will produce a more believable final piece. Three well known female lead singers in rock bands are Hayley Williams(From Paramore), Amy Lee(From Evenescence) and lzzy hale (from Halestorm). (seen in ascending order below)



Possible Locations

Proposal for chosen Brief

The brief that I have chosen to pursue is Number 1 -
 "A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
-A Website Homepage for the band
-A Cover for its release as part of a digi-pack(CD/DVD package)
-A magazine advertisement for the digi-pack (CD/DVD package)"

I chose this brief because it was the most appealing to me as I enjoy listening to music and watching music videos, so it gives me the change to make me own music video. Out of the 3 options given, I have chosen the website homepage and a Cover for a CD. I chose these two options as I think that I will be able to get creative and produce as good website and CD cover. i will be able to use photoshop to create both the CD cover and website by using the skills that i acquired when creating my magazine for my AS level coursework. Furthermore, by choosing to create the website is a challenge for myself as I have never created a web page before. I will learn new skills and techniques which will enable me to experiment with different tools to get the best possible results in creating a successful web page which .

The genre of music which will be featured in the music video will be rock music. I have chose rock music as it is my favourite genre of music and i believe it gives you more freedom for creativity with the music video as i could either make a narrative or performance video or both. i chose rock music over another genre such as dance music as i think this type of music limits what can be done in the video.

My music video will be a mixture of both Performance and Narrative as i think that these types of music videos draw in a wider audience as people may not necessarily like the band but may want to see the video.

Reflection on AS Coursework

   

The image above is my final edition of my AS level production task, which was a music magazine. My magazine was aimed at the target audience of both male and females aged 16-25.

 I think that the images i took worked well with the magazine as its main genre was rock music. using images that i took of myself was quicker than trying to get friends to pose for my magazine, which allowed me to pick the best images quickly without any disputes. I tried to make the genre obvious by the choice of the house style colours seen throughout the magazine, especially with using black which is a colour that is commonly associated with stereotypical rock music. while doing this production task it helped me realise how important research is when creating a magazine as it allows you to get ideas from a range of magazines and include some of them in your own magazine to make it look more authentic.

An improvement i could have made to my final product is make the cropping of images more smooth to give a more professional final piece, although this was difficult as the backgrounds i placed the images on were dark which made any un-cropped areas more visible than they would have been on a lighter background.

By doing my production task for my AS level coursework i have gained a number of skills such as how to use the basic tools on photoshop for what i needed to create a magazine. This has allowed me to become more comfortable with the program which will help me when i come to create new pieces of work for my A level coursework.