Target Audience feedback

For our social media feedback, I asked members of our target audience to answer these questions:


1) What do you think of our music video?
2) What editing do you think if the most effective to our target audience?
3) As a member of our target audience do you think that our digipack and magazine ad meet the codes and conventions that you would expect from a album in the indie-pop genre.

From this feedback from our target audience, we have been able to see which elements of our video, digipack and magazine ad they like. This has also allowed us to see which elements that they think that need improving in order to meet their expectations.

Work in progess

We have completed stages up to completing our design for our digi-pack. This has allowed us to have a better idea of how we are going to promote our music genre and song to our target audience. As well as this, audience feedback has allowed us to improve our music video in order to be able to effectively meet audiences expectations of a music video in our indie-pop genre.

Individual ad design- Post creator

Magazine advert discussion

In this video we discussed our initial designs for the magazine advert. We have decided to go with Neamh's design of the image showing the artists back with scars on it. This photo is the same as the photo which is on the back of our digipack. This is a convention that many artist use and it will create a sense of familiararity for our audience.  The font and colours we have decided to use are very bright and colourful which will draw in the audience as their eyes will be initially drawn to the magazine advert. The audience still get a sense of the overall concept of the song through the name of the album and the photo on the magazine advert. The name is 'Love scars' and this is clearly shown through the scars in the shape of a love heart on the back of the artist.

Analysis of magazine advert in our genre

Brand identity- Digipack

The artist is called Jorja Winter. The decisions we have made regarding colour include, We have decided to use pastel colours which we though would fit in with our genre of indie-pop, therefore reflecting the genre. The overall concept of the album is about love, loss and heartbreak, which is why we have decided to call it 'Love Scars'. We will show this through the images and fonts we use on the digipack. It links to our audience as it will appeal to listeners of the indie-pop genre, as they should be able to recognise straight away what the genre is as it would be similar to what they are familiar with. The audience would be sympathetic of the artist as they would be seeing them in a negative light as they are heartbroken and destroyed. The artist is essentially stripped back and the audience can see their true colours. The genre is shown through the use of conceptual pictures and not specifically people, this is typical of the indie-pop genre as the images we see as audience members sometimes are not what we would expect and they are slightly alternative. The codes and conventions that we will use are a symbol of our record label, NC records, the artists name on the front and spine, we will also include a barcode on the back to make the product appear more professional. This will link to our other two products as the music video is a song about love and loss and this fits in with the album concept and title 'Love Scars'.

CD Covers

This is the album cover for the band 'Earth Wind and Fire'. This cover stood out to me as it is bold and makes a statement towards the audience. This also stood out to me because of the idea of religion that it holds. The use of bright lights and praise symbols, such as the artists arms raised and the use of powerful animals pointing to the bold colour highlights the nature of the cover.

The album cover very much meets the audiences expectations as Earth, Wind and Fire use very bold and very colourful, much like the album cover. As well as this, the band have the name of the album and the name of the band on the front cover of the case.

 

 

 

Hozier's album cover looks at different aspects of colour and unusual creativity. Hozier's album cover consistently uses similar colours through out the cover, especially over the middle two compartments of the case, following the idea of natural beauty. The front of the case still uses similar colours of orange and black to the middle two compartments of the case. However, it also uses the idea of having no identity, shown by the lack of the characters face with this linking to the audiences expectations of not using the artists face in the music videos or the album cover. 

 

The Queens of the Stone Age album cover links back to the title of the album 'Villains'. The title of the album links back to the use of the devil on the cover relates to the idea that villains control choices and decisions made, However, the use of religious imagery contradicts this idea as it opposes the classical idea of what a villain is portrayed like.

As well as this, the choice in colours that have been selected, red and black, for the album cover places more connotations of the name of the album which is significant when trying to reach the specific target audience.

Work in progress

Looking at the screenshots that can be seen above, we have used the opacity tool in order to layer shots. This complimented our genre as it is a technique that is used in other indie-pop music videos. We have also used fade in/out transitions between shots to create a smoother transition and it means that the video is not so jumpy as that would not fit with a slow paced song. We used colour isolation in order to highlight the female's isolation and almost showing how her soul has been taken out of her. We have sped up shots in order to keep in time with the lyrics ("let's explain this" on the whiteboard) and slowed down shots to create dramatic effect (running through the woods). A blind effect has been added to the shot of the lightbulb to make it appear as if it is in a dark room with blinds and it gives it a lonely effect.

Animatic

From completing our animatic, we found the specific areas that need improving in our music video. This has been hugely beneficial for us as we hadn't considered which elements most meet our audiences expectations, and what most fits within the music video genre of indie pop music. One area that we had not considered in our music video is the sections of the song that are not covered by lyrics [00:46-01:06, 01:38-01:43]. Doing the animatic has allowed us to consider what to fill these gaps with in order to most attract our target audience. One of the main elements we can consider is Todorov's theory of binary opposites which coincides with the theme of dreams against reality. This is one of the more important elements that we would have to consider when thinking what we can fill the gaps with in order to attract our target audience.

As well as this, we have been able to consider how the music video that we have planned fits within the genre, based on the images we have chosen to include. This has allowed us to see whether the images that we plan to include fit with the music.

In depth analysis of music videos by A2 students

Unconditional- Kehlani

This student music video fits the convention of the indie-pop genre. The video fits the narrative genre but has elements of concept as well, both of these work well with the lyrics. Popular and trendy clothing has been chosen to add to the pop element of this song and a subtle makeup look compliments this well. Editing techniques such as a split screen has been used to show both of the main characters emotions and their relationship to one another. Another great editing technique that they used was to put a shot of a traffic light turning green at the same time as the beat dropped in the song. This not only was very seamless but it also signalled when the song was about to pick up pace. The main character is seen to be positioned to either the left or right of shots until she is reunited with the person she loves.  The locations that were used were areas in London which fitted in with the indie-pop genre as there is a number of creative places in London. They made use of graffiti and coloured houses to show this. One shot that i liked in particular was a close up of the female character typing a song lyric into her phone. We have adapted this idea and used a similar approach by using a phone to type out "I miss you" and then deleting it. 

Love runs out- One Republic

This music video fits in with the genre of Indie-Pop for a number of different reasons. Costumes, hair, makeup and props play a huge part in this music video. This is because in the video the audience is watching some sort of chase, the male character is following the female through London as she passes through portals. Each time the pair of them go through one of these portals their appearance changes as well as the location they are in. This allows audiences to distinguish clearly when they are in a new location. When travelling through these portals, editing has been used in order for it to look like they are actually going through them. This is done by using a warping transition to the next scene as well as editing a moving graphic of a portal which appears to be similar to the one that can be seen in the programme 'Primevil'. A rewinding effect is used at the end to recap to the audience the journey that they have been on. Panning has been used near the end of the video to capture the moment when the two are finally with each other standing still. This allows the audience to see both their emotions at once. 

Let her go- Passenger

This music video fits in with the genre of Indie-Pop for a number of different reasons. This music video follows Todorov's three stage theory; where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored. Dim lighting has been used to show the performance side of this video which highlights that it is not the main part of the video but more of a voice in the characters head. This is played out by the end when the boy who is doing the performance comes to comfort the main character who has been acting. The location of London has been used to show how the couple met in an everyday manner, on the tube. Invisible cuts are used to show the transition of time moving forward and this could be a feature that we could incorporate into our own music video as it has the same genre as this one and we will be showing the moving forward and backward of time throughout. After the two characters break up the males costumes change to winter clothing and the lighting becomes darker and blue looking. The audience are then shown flashbacks to when they were together sitting in the same place as he is now alone. The different clothes and colouring in the shots create a clear distinction between them. 

Wordle and deconstruction of lyrics

From creating the Wordle and the deconstruction of lyrics, we have found that there are common themes that come up in which we can include into our music video. For example, when looking at the Wordle that we created, the common words and phrases that stand out the most to us include: 'Kaleidoscopes', 'Truth', 'See', 'Satisfied', and 'Dreams'. This then further emphasised the concept of dreams against reality, which also further follows Todorov's argument of binary opposites. Todorov's theory has had a large impact on how we chose a concept to follow as we felt that the idea of binary opposites fits well within the genre of the song. Also, the deconstruction of lyrics allowed us to break down the song in to the key elements that we wanted to include in the music video. For example, the key words that stood out to us that influenced our choice in the genre for the music video include:  'Satisfied' and 'Dreams', again linking back to the idea of dreams against reality. A disadvantage of using Worlde for the deconstruction of our lyrics was that common words such as 'me' and 'if' would also be picked out which are not the types of lyrics that we would want to stand out as they don't highlight anything of importance. Similarly, it also picks up punctuation like question marks which are also unnecessary.

Record Label

This is our planned Record Company label 'NC Records'. We decided to choose this look for the record company as it stands out and is unusal compare to other record companies that we have researched into. This is due to the fact that the colour of the font is neon pink which definitely makes it stand out and it also fits the pop side of our genre (indie pop) as it is girly and fun. The font is similar to that of handwriting which makes the record label seem more personalised. The fact that the first two characters are in lower case gives a less intimidating view and by have 'records' starting with an uppercase gives the audience the impression that it is professional and important.

Levi Strauss and Vernallis theory

In the video we chose to explore the different ways in which different theorists explore different ways in music videos.

Levi-Strauss:

Levi-Strauss talks about the idea of having binary opposites which can be used to emphasise the impact of a range of opposites used and what impact that they can have on the audience.





Binary opposites: up and down

Todorov:

Todorov looks at the idea of how chronological order affects how the audience perceive a music video

Vernallis:

Vernallis looks at the idea of unruly media, which consists of the idea that a music videos visual response may be a narrative, but the narrative may not always be completed in chronological order, like Todorov argues. As well as this, Vernallis says that the music video may not always be partial and may not quite fit and appear in fragments. This is following the idea that a narrative doesn't have to follow a full storyline.

Iconic directors of music videos

One iconic director of music videos in Eric Wareheim, who directed music videos including Beach House, 'Wishes' and MGMT, 'The Youth'. In both of these music videos, Wareheim decided to use bright colours in the music video, which fits with his comedy act of Tim and Eric. Wareheim is an iconic director as his music videos are very distinctive and bold, matching the comical element of his personality. This can be especially highlighted in the music video for MGMT's 'The Youth', where is it relatable to the 80s.  As clearly shown in the music video for 'The Youth', the members of the band have bright clothing with glitter, which is relatable back to the 80's.



Another iconic director of music videos is Floria Sigismira, who directed music videos of bands including: The Runaways (Cherry Bomb) and The Tea Party (A certain slant of light). In the music videos that she produces, there is a certain element of a gothic nature about them, linking into the rock genre of music. This is very distinctive and relatable to her.

Existing record label company research

Record label: Warner bros

They don’t particularly specialise in any genre of music but have covered a range of music genres including; Pop, Emo, Funk Rock, Pop rock, Hip-Hop and many more. They have also produced albums for artists including:

-       Madonna

-       Prince

-       Red Hot Chilli Peppers

-       Rod Stewart

-       Ed Sheeran

-       Clean Bandit

Record label: Aftermath

This was founded by Dr Dre and specialises in Rap and Hip-Hop. They have produced albums for artists including:

-       Eminem

-       Kendrick Lamar

-       50 cent

-       The Game

Record label: Cash Money Records

They specialise in Hip- Hop music and have produced albums for artists such as:

-       Lil Wayne

-       Birdman

-       B.G.

-       Juvenile

Record label: Atlantic records

They don’t particularly specialise in any genres; however, Pop music does seem to be a popular genre. They have also produced albums for artists including:

-       Wiz Khalifa

-       Twenty-One Pilots

-       Bruno Mars

Record label: RCA

Appear to specialise in the Pop music genre and they have produced albums for artists including:

-       Elvis Presley

-       Taylor Swift

-       Chris Brown

-       Sia

-       Brittany Spears

When considering the record labels that I have looked at, I think that the artist we have looked at may be best suited to Warner Bros or RCA records as they cover a large variety of music genres.