Target Audience Research Feedback

 These are the results of my feedback - the answers for multiple choice questions only as the other questions varied in answers so they have been shown in the picture I made using Wordle. These results show the answers from a random group of 10 teenagers - my target audience. 

* (second question in the lilac coloured option should be Pop music but for some reason isn't in the list.) From these results I can see that a large majority of the people surveyed listen to Pop music and do take notice of music videos.

With these other multiple choice questions we see the most popular reason why people watch music videos is when nothing else is on - it is important that videos have a lot going on in respects to the colours/costumes/narrative as people's attentions are instantly grasped by excitement and wanting to see the end. A music video should be like watching a mini film and this is what I intend to create. From the above results I see that it is also important to have dancing so I could work something into this as I know a few dancers. The least important thing seems to be seeing the band perform so I might not have to include that in the video at all.

As for the last question where I asked people to submit ideas, a lot of people said that my ideas were good but some people suggested the use of humour and cliches which would suit the narrative of the video. I agree with this and will refer to this suggestion later when making my storyboard.

CD Sleeve Analysis 2

 

LIGHTS BY ELLIE GOULDING

Genre: Ellie Goulding is a very alternative style of music with her earthy sounds mixed with Pop-py, techno, dance-y backing tracks.

Generic Conventions: Her alternative music is reflected in the way she represents herself, even on this cover we see the originality of her personality with the use of the lights in her hair. This converys to people that she is quite a bright and sparkly personality. The main focus is her face and the way she is presented makes us think she is pretty - maybe even magical
Connotations: Clothing -The black top she is wearing fades into the background, the image is mainly a headshot and this is because she is the artist and the image makes us focus our attention on Ellie's face and the bright lights in her hair.
Colour - The colours used are bold, yellow lights against black, stands out. Yellow is a very bright and happy colour which contrasts against the connotations of black which is quite a dark and morbid colour. Maybe this suggests Ellie has a darker/more serious side to her personality behind the happy and sparkly front she puts on for the audience.
Mise-en-scene - The only mise-en-scene shown is the lights. Lights semantically link/remind us of stars, lights around a celebrities dressing room mirror etc. All things we can link with fame and being "a star". Therefore we are given the impression that Ellie - even though she is quite a new and up and coming artist - is already as star in the making.
Font: The font is very glowing and golden which is not only eyecatching but also looks very "cool" almost like light-up signs you see in new york or on the west end. This interlinks with the idea that she is a star and also defines her as an artist to look out for because she has big potential.

 

Questionnaire Results - Wordle.net

As well as making pie charts showing my results I decided to use a website called Wordle to highlight important factors of information I got from surveying my target market. These words shall inspire my work - the story board especially.

Lyrics

So here are the lyrics of the song Electric Shocks which my video will be used to interpret visually.

Electric Shocks Lyrics

Friday nights, electric shocks feel the relentless optimism of the next twelve hours ahead,

Yet the fact is, games such as this,

They’re better played, not on my own but with you, running by my side instead,

When reality’s in doubt, in doubt, reality’s in doubt,

When reality’s in doubt, in doubt, reality’s in doubt,

All these electric shocks, they’re just things I start thinking of,

When cheaper energetic shocks, fall hard and fast, they’re scattered all around,

With fire and lightning bolts, their eyes fixed to the ground,

Confronted, lonely, lost our souls, find courage hard to shout, to drown about,

We drown the night, we drown the night, to drown them out,

When reality’s in doubt, in doubt, reality’s in doubt,

When reality’s in doubt, in doubt, reality’s in doubt,

All these electric shocks, they’re just things I start thinking of,

When cheaper energetic shocks, fall hard and fast, they’re scattered all around,

With fire and lightning bolts, their eyes fixed to the ground,

Confronted, lonely, lost our souls, find courage hard to shout, to drown about,

We drown the night, we drown the night, to drown them out,

We drown the night, we drown the night, we drown the night to drown them out, oh to drown them out,

Start, stop, electric shocks

Start, stop, electric shocks

Start, stop, start, stop, electric shocks, electric shocks

If there should be someone required to reaffirm faith in the land, let it be some nerdy, desperate type with courage hard to shout to drown them out, we drown the night, we drown the night, we drown the night, let’s drown our night tonight.

MAGAZINE AD ANALYSIS

In today's lesson we looked at and analysed 4 CD magazine adverts. I was given these 4 cd adverts:

I then analysed these adverts and created a table analysing the images used, how the advert links to the CD sleeve, the font and text used and any quotes from well known music reviewers.

TODAY

After making my questionnaire I handed it out, picking a group of ten teenagers in my target market. I will put up the results soon in the form of pie charts. I aim to find out as much as possible of what my target audience would typically expect from this genre and also what things they would want in the video after hearing the ideas I have. It is important to include my target audience in my work as they are who the video is aimed at and they would be the ones to go and purchase the song if it were to be shown on a music channel. Music videos can be a making or breaking point for a song as it is the visual representation of the song. Whenever you hear a song you are usually reminded of the video (if you have seen it).

Music Video Analysis 3

Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers

The music video begins with this animated shot from a very low angle, I am guessing it is looking up at the sky above all the skyscraping buildings in a city with a big light showing the letter H - referring to The Hoosiers band name and also using intertextual refences linking to the Batman comic book series, where a light like this is used to alert the comic hero that Gotham City needs his help.

Within the Hoosiers video they use a lot of animation techniques referencing towards comic books, using large onomatopoeiaic words which are commonly found within this genre of book.

Portraying themselves as superheroes also tells us a lot about the band themselves as in reality they look quite geeky and do not look the conventional stereotype of a 'superhero'. This shows they have a sense of humour as they are poking fun at themselves.

Within the video they also use the voyeuristic perception of women as being "tropheys", during a scene where they are receiving praise from the mayor we see a two shot of two blonde, pretty girls leaning forwards with autograph books. They are stereotypical representations of the fan girls that would be swooning over the superheroes and the band have used them to demonstrate this.

The band use stereotypical scenes from superhero films such as Superman where Superman is "flying" across the screen and where the newspaper the Daily Planet spins onto the screen producing headlines that link with the plot of the episode.

The Hoosiers also use postmodern references through mise-en-scene such as in the image above, a little sign that says "Hoosier Gonna Call?" referring to the famous slogan from the 1984 film Ghostbusters "Who You Gonna Call?"

 Again in the image above we see a possible intertextual reference to the film Toy Story where Sid straps Buzz Lightyear to a rocket.