Interview Questions

To gather information from the audience about the music genre, Indie, I created  interview questions to ask members of the public, at different ages. The reasoning for interviewing people is that according to the results, the music video that we produce will be based on the outcome of the audiences wants and needs. 


1) What clothes do you wear?


2) Do you follow indie artist's style?


3) Do you see indie artists as an icon/Role model


4) What key aspects attract you to indie music?


5) Do you go to gigs on a regular basis? 


6) When was the last gig you went to?


7) In indie music videos, what do you expect to see? And why?


8) Do you expect different things from different indie artists?

Ideal Audience Member

Ideal Audience Member - Indie Pop


Name: Laura Brown 
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Hair: Blonde/Brown 
        lose curls - middle parting/fringe
Makeup: Dark eyes, pale natural lips, light blusher
Clothing: Lose Dress, black leather jacket, Ankle boots, shoulder bag

Fashion: Reads magazines, follows trends
Celebrities: Alexa Chung is her main icon 

Interested: Indie music, friends, festivals (Mainstream), Music gigs, Independent bands 
Films: Trainspotting, Never let me go, Breakfast at Tiffany's 

Education: University, Art student 
Bands: Velvet Underground, Happy Mondays, The kooks, Cage the Elephant 

Internet: Facebook, Especially YouTube, Owns a Blackberry

Intertextuality

Notes made to create a greater knowledge for intertextuality

What is intertextuality?

It is the refrence of other media texts within another peice of media

Theorists

Goodwin believed that there were intertextualites to other music videos, films or TV. For example, Madonna used parts of a film in her music video - 'Diamonds are a girls best friend'

Stewart believed that there was a visual refrence in music videos that came from a range of sources. The three most frequant:

• Cinema
• Fashion
• Art photography

So many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point, since their directors are often film school graduates looking to eventually move on to the film situation

Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk reqrences and often the use of supermodels e.g. George Michael used this strategy in 'Father Figure' and 'Freedom'

STEP - How to create a good blog

Style - How are you posting this? Picture form? Prezi form? All text? Hyperlink? Video Clip?

Topic - What have you found/done?

Exploration - Why is this important? What is the effect?

Production - How will this new information affect your production?

What does the Audience Want?

What does the audience want?

• Aspiration/Role Model
• Connection/Commuinication
• Relation
• Entertainment
• Icongraphy
• Identify
• Belonging
• Visulation
• Awareness

Plan of Audience Research

To gather audience reasearch I have thought of a number of ways of how to collect the information. From my experience last year I thought that 'Survery Monkey' could be appropiate for the responses of the audience.

I could interview various people to gather their honest opinions of what they feel about the music. If they accepted I could film them while interviewing to vary my presentation and vary my skills.

Due to the fact that Facebook is so common within society, this could work to my advantage and require peoples opinions or create a group within Facebook. However, my main reason for using Facebook is to look at the artist profile and collect the demographics of the majority of their fans.

Another way of gathering information, is You Tube. The reasoning for this, is that I could look at the comments the public has made and see overall how people feel about the song and artist.

Media Language

1) A digi pack is all the elements with in a CD. For example, front and back cover along with the inlay. Along with the covers and inlay, there is often special bonus, and added effects and photographs etc

2) Intertextuality can be used to market a video by promoting the video through cinema. For example Madonna used clips of the film 'Diamonds are a girls best friend' in one of her music videos

3) Intertextuality could be used to market a digi pack by using an already existing icon or image and interpreting that through the digi pack e.g a boy band dressing as men in black

4) Goodwin said there were three possible relationships bewteen lyrics and visuals which were:

• Illustrating
• amplifying
• condradicting the lyrics

5) To develop star image using iconography, you could produce an image or create a hand gesture for the 'Star' e.g Lady GaGa uses the 'little monster' sign. This can be developed over time, in and out of a music video which becomes part of the star image.

6) A record company demands for lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist on the video.

7) A video features many aspects including the narrative, which include of:

• Mise en scene
• lighting
• props
• setting/ background

8) The elements of question 6 and 7 can be used in a digi pack by combing them both to add a unique apprearance to the CD cover. For example: The record comapnys demands coukd be used for the image of the artist on the front cover.

Finding a Song

As a group, we emailed a number of unsigned artists to require their permission to use a song. The genre that we decided to use was indi, as we felt that this genre was easier for us to create a video and digi pack. After a couple of days asking the artist 'Audrianna Cole' wether we could use one of her up coming songs, she replied asking which song. In response we asked to use the song 'Misplaced.' Now waiting for a deffinate response.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59h2QuZwPhg

Filming Process on Mock Video

Due to the fact that both other members of our group were on holiday it left me to fill in all positions in the group; creating the ideas, taking photographs for the digi pack, and analysis a music video in which has to ultimately be filmed. With these tasks to be completed and more, unfortunately I could not complete all the tasks that were required as I couldn’t perform all the objectives in time. Before the members of my group, we decided on certain aspects that we could do together when they came back. After the holiday, we began to film some aspects of the film for Rick Astely ‘Never going to give you up.’ However, due to the rapid progression we made as  a team, we did not complete the task.

Research for creating a Digi Pack

The genre of music that we were given to create a digi pack was "Boy Band'. While the two members of my group were on holiday, I created a brain storm to gather ideas and the conventions of a boy band. 

Planning for mock Digi Pack

We thought of some ideas for the Digi pack that we had to make to fit the genre of a boy band. The idea that I came up with for the front cover of the Digi pack, was a group of four boys dressed in the similar outfits, preferably suits, to mimic the conventions of a boy band. I took the idea of making the members of the band stand out from the background of the Digi pack. With this in mind, I decided to position the boys in front of a brick wall to create the effect of them standing out. 

Once the pictures had been taken, I then decided that I would use photo shop to create a black and white image using a filter. Along with the monotone background, I decided to use a bold, bright font. The reasoning for the use of the bright red font, on the album cover is to make the artist and album name stand out. 

Essay Question - Summer Work

Essay question – Explain the methods you used to attract you audience in your AS coursework

One method that our group used to attract an audience was the sound aspect. One member of the group created the music for the thriller film to build and create tension. The use of the instruments and slight repetition created a great starting position to build suspense within the video. 

At the beginning of our music video, we grabbed the audience’s attention by using a clip that we filmed that appeared like dripped blood within a sink. It almost looks unrealistic and abstract, giving a false impression that could be interpreted by each individual viewer. However, after this short shot of the ‘blood’ the camera zooms towards the sink where it now gives the clear impression of what the director is implying – Blood. 

The font that was carefully chosen as a group was used to keep the audience watching the thriller, never knowing what is expected. The spooky font however was not cliché but more original to give the viewer something new. 

 One of the main features of the thriller film that attracted the audience for the coursework was the simple idea of filming a large part of the thriller in a ‘normal’ location – inside one of the member’s house. The reason for why we chose this location for the majority of the thriller was the fact that the audience can relate to the film due to familiar locations. The effect of this was to allow the audience to put themselves in the actor’s situation to feel how they do. 

During certain parts of the thriller clip, we used a washed out black and white affect to give the idea that these areas happened a while back. I believe that it was successful and that our group managed to perfect this aspect of the filming, for example the army marching. 

We used the cutting rate to our advantage to create more suspension of a thriller film. We varied the rates throughout the film, however the majority of the cutting rates were fast to match the speed of the film and create the tension that was needed. Along with the creation of tension, we also used the speed of the cutting rates to create confusion for the audience. 

Overall, I believe that our group filmed the thriller successfully without many criticisms; however there are ways that we could improve this clip. If I could re make this film I would shorten the credits as I believe that the audience may not have a complete idea for what out group was implying. Also, we could have perfected the editing of the match cuts, although this is not a huge aspect that I would change. 

Examples of Boy Bands

Examples of Boy Bands

Busted

West life 

Take That

N Dubz - Rap/R&B

• For this album cover, the three members of the band are photographed in a sunny hot place, this implies wealth due to the hot country.
• The two men are either side of the lady, this implies that she is self reliant and in power.
• She is wearing a white dress, this symbolises purity. However, with the long dark hair, heels and red lips, it creates sex appeal.
• The icons in the image is mainly created by Dappy. The hat and chains that he is wearing is icon to the band along with the vocals, however this can not be shown through an image.
• Another huge icon is the name of the band 'N Dubz'. When the band use their name, they always use the same font, making it iconic.
• The dress code for the boys is rap, with blackout sunglasses, chains and large belts. The only woman in the band has huge sex appeal so that the band can appeal to both sexes.

Summer Work - Research and Understanding

Jessie J - R&B

• The deonation of the image is the artist, Jessie J - the reason for this is to allow all of the focus on her. This is one of the first albums for the artist, so therefore she wants the public to familiarise themselves with the 'new' artist.
• The font of the artists name is large and bold with the colouring being gold. The reason for the font to being bold is to grab the public's eye. The colour gold symbolises wealth but also being 'edgy' for a music artist
• The font of the titles name is smaller and white. The reason for using a smaller print is to allow all of the focus on the artists name, again referring to the fact that Jessie J is a new found music artist.
• The layout of the album cover is a white background with a close up of Jessie J herself. The white background is used, again to allow the focus to fall on the artist with no distractions.
• Her sightlines are looking directly at the camera to form a bond between the public and herself. Another reason is to show that she is not shy or vaunrable - she is ready for anything.
• The album image is cropped to strengthen the frame.
• Black is the colour used for her nails and colouring of her lips. This is to symbolise her indiviudality and independence. Also on her lips is a gold symbol of a rose across her bottom lip. The gold colouring of the lip connects with the colouring of the artists title.
• Jessie J has her lips open, this creates sex appeal as its associated with kissing.
• She is wearing black, to link with the lips and nails for the same reasons as why they have been chosen.