Evaluation Research Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our media film, our conventions were mainly based of Andrew Goodwin's theory. He stated that all music videos could be broken down into six Features. These were; 

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop) [this is also known as iconography]
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There is often inter-textual reference (a relationship between two texts or films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

For the purpose of our evaluation, when we put together our response to this question, we will break these points into five just to make it easier to discuss. These are;

• Thought through beat (Seeing what the lyrics mean in your head)
• Relationship between the song and visuals
• Narrative and performance of the song
• Technical aspect of a music video (Mise-en-scene, special effects, sounds and editing hold together the video.
• Star Image (The artist’s image/appearance/reputation)

In our music video, we have used these conventions by first having our cuts in time with the beat. Although this currently isn't the case as we have only put together our first rough cut at this present moment, we aim to achieve this and mention it in our evaluation.
We are linking the song to the visual by having some of the lyrics being played out on screen. The first example you can see us do this is when you see a track shot going down a worn down road while the lyrics play 'in this torn up town...'. Linking to this and the narrative, we decided to show the difference in classes to show how Lorde feels when she says that they will never be royals but then goes on to say that they don't care. Our group of lower class people are more carefree but at the same time, sometimes when we see them during our video,  they may not seem as happy as the group of upper class people.
We have created a star image by having our lead singer the main star of the video by having many shots of just her in front of a white wall just like Lorde in the official music video for 'Royals'. Celine is also dressed in a similar modern costume including a grey jumper and skinny jeans. We also wanted to have her hair curled like Lorde's hair but we were short on time and we didn't get any hair extensions as planned but we did get the make-up similar to Lorde's.

Perhaps we could create GIFs from our Music Video to answer this question?

Analysing Our Target Audience Research

In the first graph, you can see the proportion of ages of the people that we interviewed for our research. When analysing the data we can clearly see that in a way our research is bias as we mostly interviewed 16 to 20 year olds. However, we did still get plenty of of responses from 21 to 25 year olds and people over 31.
This graph also shows the gender of the participants in ratio to their age. For example, you can see that more females were willing to take part in our survey then males.

The next graph shows us people's favourite genre in relation to their gender. For example, we can see that nine participants liked pop and all of which are females so we can clearly see that our target audience is most likely to be females.

Because we could see that females were more likely to listen to pop, we also analysed the age of the females so we could relate our music video to an age group as well as a gender.
Here we can see that five females aged 16 to 20 liked pop as well as two 21 to 25 years olds and woman over 31. So for the sake of being specific, we will assume that girls 16 to 20 are more likely to watch out music video. 

To make sure we got it right we also investigated what gender were more likely to listen to Lorde and we found out that three more females said that they would listen to Lorde than males. However, five females also said that they did not know who Lorde is. On top of this, two males said that they would not listen to Lorde but only one female said that she wouldn't.

In this final graph we wanted to show the age group of people that would listen to Lorde. This does not relate to gender but is an over all view of the age groups which are likely to listen to Lorde. From this graph, you can see that about five sixth's of the over all percentage are ages 16 to 21 and the rest are aged 21 to 25 and 31+.

After getting all this data together and putting in into graphs, making it easier to see and analyse, we can clearly make out our target audience. Considering the fact that we did not ask an even amount of people from each age group, we can still clearly see that our target is teenagers or woman aged 16 to 20. This will be taken into consideration when we make our music video by asking girls from that age group to give feedback on our video as we get closer to completion.

- Celine Dior

Target Audience Research

A while back we created a survey to find out to whom we should aim our music video. We hypothesised that young women aged 16 up to 25 would be the most likely to listen to Lorde. Here are our Tallies; 

Gender
Male - 5
Female - 10

Age
0 - 10 - 0
11 - 15 - 2
16 - 20 - 7
21 - 25 - 3
26 - 30 - 0
31+ - 3

Genre (multiple choice)
Pop - 9
Classic - 1
Rap - 3
Alternative - 4
Rock - 5
Dubstep - 1
Other - 1

Would you listen to Lorde?
Yes - 7
No - 3
Don't know who she is - 5

Now we have this data we are going to analyse it and put it into graphs to put the data into perspective so we can see who is most likely to watch our music video.

Digipack (Front Cover)

Here you see an album cover for the album 'Pure Heroine' made as research. Obviously we wont be using this as part of our final digipack but this is of course our first step to completing our ancillary tasks. You can see that I have used a grey background to match the cover of the original case. I then used a layermask tool in photoshop to add Lorde over the top which followed by adding the text in the same font (Myriad Pro).

For the actual cover, we will be keeping the text and background but having my face over the top as I am playing the role of Lorde in our music video. As for costume and makeup for the photo of me for the case, I will have the same style makeup as lorde and will be wearing a grey jumper.

- Celine Dior

Past Work Analysis - Can't Hold Us

This music video for the song 'Cant Hold Us' by Macklemore was created by past students. In the shot I have used as the opening image to my research, you can already see the thought that this group put into their work. This alone makes the video perfect to analyse as it makes me want to reach the same standard of work in my own video. 

In the establishing shot, you can see that they have already thought about the presentation of their video by adding a transition rather than just having it cut straight from the group's names to the video. This puts a little more creativity to the video right at the very start. You also get to the narrative straight away with the first scene of the video as you get to see what happened to cause the song in the first place. This allows us as the audience to understand what is going on the rest of the video.

In this shot, the group has decided to make this section almost like a comic book. Not only does this imply them telling a story but it also adds a comedic feel to the the entire video by making it feel as though we are reading a comic book which has come to life. We also see this effect again at different points in the video. This makes the video stand out to me as its not like other music video which are mostly just dancing.

Mise-en-scene;

In this shot, we can see the costume of all three of the main 'characters' of this music video. I call them characters as I feel this music video is very good at telling a story rather than being for music, however, I do think that the song they have chosen for this narrative works well as it suggests that they don't want to be held in prison.
The two guys at the back are wearing black and white striped shirts as if they are criminals. They also have black masks and black hats to add to their costume so we can clearly see that these are the villains of the story. The one we can see at the front is wearing a suit (a shirt and tie in this shot) as if he is a wealthy business man. Through out the video, we can assume that this character is the protagonist as he is running from the villains.

Theory;

With this in consideration, we can see that this group has included Vladimir Propp's narrative theory by using character rolls. In this video, we clearly see a hero and two villains. Although there isn't any other characters featured in this video, we still have two character rolls. On top of this, Hero is the binary opposite of villain (good and bad) which clearly shows that they have also included the Levi-Strauss binary oppositions theory. This again stands out to me as I can clearly see the thought this group has put into their narrative theory which is what we want to include in our music video as a group.
In terms of Andrew Goodwin's theory, we can see how they have included a narrative by the story like presentation of the video as previously mentioned. We also see that they have linked their video to the lyrics of the song. For example, the lyric 'cant hold us' suggests that the villains are speaking and they are saying that they can't be held in prison.

HA! Comedy...

In these shots of the last scene, we see that the protagonist has opened the bag that belonged to the villains to see what they stole. In the first image we see the confusion in his face that he was not expecting a chicken to be in the villain's bag. As the audience I was also just as surprised to see that the villains had stolen a chicken. I assumed that the villains stole money or some other kind of valuable loot and by looking at the protagonist's face, I can tell that he thought the same thing.
This adds a comedic feel to the end of the video because it goes against all expectations and a chicken, of all things was what the villains were trying so hard to get back from the protagonist. The fact that the video pauses on a circular transition of the chicken just adds to this as they decide to also play the loony toons theme as they close the video.

- Celine Dior

Analysis of Lorde Royals (US Version)

The first location appears to be a car driving down the street with a camera looking backwards. We then see Lorde in front of some window curtains, the song is playing the background, however Lorde herself is not singing. After this the location appears to be in a house. The camera stays in the house for a while. We first see the camera aimed at a bed with the cover off suggesting that someone has got out of bed. We then once again see Lorde in front of the curtains and this time she is singing suggesting that she is in a house. The camera then shows curtains. It could be that they are the curtains in which Lorde is singing from. It then shows a very small living room consisting of just a plant and a television. Lorde is then shown singing in front a plain white wall. It then cuts to a person sitting up in a bed then quickly cuts to a person leaning over a shower with water pouring over him. It then shows the man sitting in bed wearing a chain necklace. It then shows the man eating his breakfast. I think this because from the previous shots, I think that this person has just woken up in the morning. We then see a television set which is just showing static. We then see the person dressing himself in gym clothing. We then see the man biting on his shirt in a close up. It then zooms out to show the person underneath a basketball net in a hall. We then see the person in some type of water and it appears to be raining because we can see the rain droplets and we can see the water splashing. We then see a very quick shot of a camera pointing at telephone lines and it appears to be going at some speed. It then switches to the person throwing small punches with boxing gloves. We then see two people wearing boxing gloves walking around each other. We then see the person in a bathroom with a head shaver in his hand suggesting that he has just shaved his head. He is then seen lying on a sofa with headphones. He is then seen in the bathroom fully and is shown to be shaving his head. Another person is then seen to be shaving his head. These two people look similar suggesting that they could be brothers. We then see a neck of one of the people but not for very long as it very quickly cuts to one of them in a swimming pool. They are then seen to be boxing again but it looks like they are messing around because it looks like that they are laughing. One of them punches the other one but it still looks they are having fun because they are both still laughing. It then switches to one of the brothers sitting on a chair next to the television which is still showing static. There is then a shot of a swimming pool which is empty. After this there is a very quick shot of one of the people and then it very quickly changes to a moving shot of a camera looking at telephone lines. We then see one of the people looking in a mirror and his mouth is covered in blood. There is also blood on the mirror. This could be the person that was punched from earlier in the video. It then shows a complex of flats from a relatively long distance. It then shows one of the brothers looking from left to right. At this point it looks like he is outside because the background looks like buildings or grass. He is then seen lying down next to train tracks. He then seen sitting on a bench with three other people. The one on the far left is the same one that was lying down next to the train tracks and the one in the middle with the hat is the same person who looked from right to left. These four people might be friends because it looks like they are socialising with each other. The next shot is of the same four people but at a different angle. This shot makes it look like they are sitting at a bus stop or waiting for a train. The next shot is of the person who was on the end of bench is now on a bus or train with his head resting on the window. I would say that he is more likely to be on a train because it looks much brighter than a bus. We then see the other brother on possibly another train with him also looking out a window. The video then finishes of with the same shot as the beginning but going up the road instead of going down it.

Narrative Theory

For music video, we have investigated and considered a few narrative theories that we can include in our music video.

Andrew Goodwin;

Andrew Goodwin stated that most music videos had a narrative to them but creating a story within the lyrics which is played out in the music video.
We know that the lyrics for our song already contains a story even though they are not our lyrics. Lorde speaks about not having much and quote; "I'm not proud of my address, in this torn up town, no post code envy". However, she does not care so she is trying to tell the audience to be happy with what they have. they may "never be royals" but they still have their friends and can still have a good time.
We will link this to our music video by having parts of the lyrics acted out so it all links. For example, we will be including a shot of a worn down street to show that the artist is not happy with where she lives. This shot will will be shown during the line "I'm not proud of my address..."

Levi-Strauss;

Levi-Strauss argued that most, if not all narratives could be narrowed down to Binary Opposites. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect values, beliefs and myths of a culture. His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts. For example, some basic binary oppositions are;

• Good - Bad
• Wealthy - Poor
• Weak - Strong
• Christian - Pagan

In our own music video, we will be using binary oppositions between the wealthy and the poor. We want to do this to show the difference between classes in today's society. We will be doing this by showing the contrast between the lifes of a group of higher class people and a group of lower class people. For example, we intend of showing the wealthy group going shopping and being happy while the other group are sitting at a train station waiting for a train. To follow this, will will have a shot of one of the poor group members leaning against the train window while the camera is in such a position we can see his reflection in the window (without getting the camera in the shot). We will also be having shots through out the video of the two groups walking towards each other.

Audience Research

So we can work out what our target audience should be, and audience demand, we have put together a small questionnaire to get the opinions of a variety of people and what song genre suits was group. The questions of this questionnaire includes;

1. How old are you?

• - 10
• 10 - 15
• 16 - 20
• 21 - 25
• 26 - 30
• 31 +

2. What is your gender?

• Male
• Female

3. What is your favourite music genre?

• Pop
• Jazz
• Classic
• Rap
• Alternative
• Rock
• Dub-step
• Other ______________

4. Despite your answer for question three, would you listen to artist 'Lorde'

• Yes
• No
• I don't know who she is.

Star Analysis - Meghan Trainor

- Celine Dior

Analyzing A2 Music Video- Rolling in the Deep

Rolling in the Deep by Adele- A2 Media Music Video

I love the way this music video starts. It's simple yet very effective. The use of the clapperboard and the way the colour fades out, to make the rest of the video black and white is really good! And when it turns black and white, about 13 seconds in, the music starts.
When the shot changes to the girl with the boy behind her, there is a smoke effect which I find quite effective too.
There are some shots where you see her singing and other shots where you don't. In these scenes she is sort of 'acting'. She adds these shots, varied throughout the video, possibly to add narrative. The whole music video represents the song quite well. Both the Video and the Song link together perfectly, in my opinion. Both the Song and Video are saying that the boy and girl could of  "had it all" as referenced by the song and shown by the video.
Another good effect she uses is in some scenes where there are two scenes sort of 'blended' together making one of the scenes kind of transparent?
As the intensity of the song increases, the shot paces and transitions speed up. This is another reason why the video fits perfectly with the song.
At the end the final shot is of the girl with the boy behind her, then it fades out.

Katie Tancred

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Acoustic

• Acoustic music videos tend to be filmed in isolated locations away from everyone else. This could be because they want to show their emotions or because the artist/s wants to make themselves the main point of focus.
• Acoustic music videos tend to be very slow and have very slow movements. This could be because acoustic songs are very emotional and the artist wants to show their emotions and how they feel.
• Acoustic videos tend to be edited into black and white or to make them look old fashioned, possibly by using a sepia tone. Acoustic artists may do this because this type of music video fits in very well with the genre.
• acoustic videos tend to generally have a lot of close of the artist and their instruments. The artist/s may use close up shots of their face because they want to be recognised if they are seen again or their song may be emotional so they may want the viewer to their emotions. they may use close ups of their instruments because they want to show the viewer that they are playing it and not playing along to a recording.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Jazz

• Jazz music videos tend to contain bright lighting. This could be because of the type of music. Jazz music tends to be very upbeat and the lighting would work with that. Another reason could be because is the artist wants to see everything that is going on.
• Jazz artists clothing generally consists of them wearing very smart clothing such as wearing suits. This shows that they are classy and sharp and show their class within society.
• Filming locations of jazz music videos tend to be in street scenarios or in run places. This could be because jazz artists want themselves to stand out from everything. This is done by them wearing a suit and filming in a run down area. Another reason why jazz artists film in streets and run down areas could be because they want themselves to be seen as if they was a normal person who lives in a street with a normal day to day job.
• Sometimes jazz music videos can be filmed in large open areas. This could be because they want their videos to represent the freedom to move about or they use the space for the purpose of their ideas.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Folk

• Lighting of the music video is generally very dark. The lighting is usually focused on the main artist/s. This could be because the lighting only wants you to focus on the artist/band and not on the background.
• Folk music videos usually contain close up shots of the artists/bands face/s and instruments. This could be because the artist/s want the audience to recognise their faces if they are seen again. They may take close ups of instruments because they want to show the audience that they play their instruments.
• Folk music videos tend to have a lot of black and white shots to them. This could be because folk music sounds very old and they want the video to coincide with each other. Another reason could be that the genre wants to stand out from other music videos and genres, they want to be unique.
• Folk music tends to be over exaggerated meaning that folk artists tend to go over the top with their music and can be very loud and very fast. For example Mumford and Sons.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genres Codes and Conventions - Dance

• Dance music is generally upbeat. This could be because dance songs are used in happy environments so dance would music would further increase the emotions.
• The music videos of dance songs tend to be rather fun and have a quirky sort of style to them. This could be because dance artists want their videos to look unique compared to other types of genres. It could also be because dance musicians want their audience to have fun whilst watching their music videos.
• Dance songs generally have a dance routine to their videos. This would link in to a dance songs, also a well choreographed dance routine can be very impressive so dance artists want their viewers to enjoy watching their videos and to be wowed.
• The dancers performing the dance routine will generally be wearing the same type of outfits. This could be because if the artist is wearing a different outfit then they wouldn't want to look the same as you wouldn't be able to tell who is who. Another reason why the dancers where the same outfits could be because if every dancer is wearing the same outfit then you would be able to tell that they are the dancers.
• The colours in the video tend to very bright and colourful. This could be because dance artists want their music videos to be lively and fun to watch. Bright colours could also make people feel happier and bright colours also make the video seem more interesting. Bright colours can also make the music video seem different to other genres which generally use very dull colours in their music videos.
• The type of environment that dance songs are set in is usually party settings. This could be because party settings allow the dance routine to happen. Another reason why dance songs are set in party environments could be because parties are usually where dance songs are made.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - R'n'B

• Lots of R'n'B music videos tend to have a lot of close ups of the artist/s. this could be because the artist want to promote themselves and so that people recognise their face/s.
• The music videos tend of have a lot of use of special effects. This could be because that R'n'B artists want to make the videos look fancy and give a certain flair to their videos that no other genre may use.
• The environment for these kind of music videos tends to be in a house with a massive party going on in the background. This could be because R'n'B artists do not have a care in the world and go around having parties all the time.
• In R'n'B music videos money can be seen extensively. This point can be related to the last one. R'n'B artists have so much money that they spend of insanely expensive things that they don't necessarily need. 
• Most R'n'B music videos tend not to have much input from the artist throughout the video. The music video tends to contain more of a narrative than the artist. This could be because the song may need more of a video than the artist so that if fits in with the video.
• R'n'B music videos sometimes have a narrative. This means that some songs within the R'n'B genre have a meaning behind. Narratives do happen in R'n'B music videos but it is not that common.
• Some R'n'B music videos have a dance routine. This could be because a lot of R'n'B songs have parties in the background so they may want to get the people to dance. Well choreographed dance routines can also be very impressive so R'n'B artists may do this to wow their audience.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Rap

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Indie

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Hip-Hop

• A lot of hip-hop songs are usually set in a party environment. This could be because that the artists who create the videos don't care about life and just have parties all the time.
• A lot of hip-hop music videos such as Eminem tend to have a lot of shots of them in their music video. This could because that hip-hop artists don't put much money into their music videos so they just use themselves or that they don't put much effort to go out to places to shoot their music videos. Another reason why hip-hop artists use themselves in their music videos is because they want people to recognise their faces and so they can promote themselves.

• A lot of hip-hop artists wear branded clothing which looks very casual. This could be because that hip-hop artists don't care what they wear and don't take pride in what they wear so they just wear any clothing. Another reason why hip-hop artists wear casual clothing is that they want to look like normal everyday people, they want to blend in with the crowd.
• The main object in hip-hop music videos is money. This may be the main object because hip-hop artists have so much money that they do not care about it. Another reason could be because of the amount of money they just throw it around and spend it on ridiculous items.
• A lot of hip-hop music videos feature items such as cars, mansions, jewellery and alcohol. this could be related to the previous point. Hip-hop artists have so much money that they spend it on insanely expensive items.
• Some hip-hop music videos contain other artists in their videos despite the fact they might not sing in the video. This might be because the artist may fit better in the type of music video or they might be trying to promote other artists.

Lewis Gollop

Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

The Auteur Theory is a theory of film making in which the director is viewed as the main creator in a motion picture. 

It became apparent in the late 1940's in France and was named by an American film critic, Andrew Sarris. The theory had been inspired from the cinematic theories by Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. The Auteur Theory largely came from Astruc's explanation of the idea of the 'camera-pen'.

The Theory believes that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of a motion picture, is more to be considered the "author" of the movie, rather than the writer of the screenplay. Basically certain visual elements such as; camera placement, blocking, lighting and scene length convey the message of the film rather than the plot line.

To be classified as an "auteur", according to Sarris, a director must show efficient technical knowledge in his technique, personal style in terms of how the movie looks and feels, and interior meaning.

A Music Video Director that uses the Auteur Theory

Hype Williams

Hype Williams was born in July 1970 in New York, USA as Harold Williams. He is a music director and was very well known for his music videos in the 90's.

 His style was using editing techniques and effects such as fish-eye lens work, saturated colours, wide framing, cinematic references and slow motion sequences. He is considered as the strongly influential hip-hop music director of the 90's. Although he is quite well known in this decade too for certain artists such as Kayne West, Nicki Minaj and Pharell Williams.

In 1996 he received the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the year as well as the Jackson Limo Award for best Rap Video of the year

And in 1998 he received the MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".

In 2006, he won a BET Award for Best Director for Kanye West's "Gold Digger".

He works a lot with Kayne West nowadays. In fact, as of 2014, Kayne West holds the artist record for working the most times with Hype Williams. They both have collaborated on twenty music videos, beginning in 2005 with the music video for "Diamonds from Sierra Leone".

Katie Tancred

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Metal

- Celine Dior