weekly update

As we didnt manage to finish our music video before the christmas holidays me, Laura and Viki came in on the first monday of the christmas holidays, however Steph could not make it due to the bad weather conditions. During this session we finished editing our music video and started our digipack, which we will finish along with the poster when we return to college after the christmas holidays.

Experimenting With Backgrounds For Our Album Cover

In this post we have experimented with various tools from PhotoShop to use for our album cover. Here are some examples which I think proved very effective.

Case Study for Album Covers without the artist

In this task we will plan and investigate a range of album covers which haven't got the artists actually contained on the front cover or in the centre folds etc. From this task we wish to gain more of an understanding as to why this happens and reference these discoveries to our task.
One example of the absence of artists on album covers could be:
Coldplay's "Viva La Vida"

Coldplay’s Viva la vida, released on the 11^th June 2008. The album’s title “Viva La Vida” is a Spanish phrase which translates to “Long Live Life”. This is appropriate as the album cover shows life, death and war so the message of “Long Live Life” is a message of hope against today’s society of somewhat despair. The album cover essentially expresses the bands combined creativity and results in this. The album’s art cover is an 1830’s painting created by Eugène Delacroix. He named the piece as Liberty.

Below is the album cover which offers an alternative message in the album name to the artwork used.

 

In conclusion to the post, we can see that some artists may not use themselves in the album cover as they wish to use a more significant image to demonstrate the connotations of the album which is shown above.

Weekly Update Post

This week we plan to begin the ancillary task and have it finished by next week. For this we need to have photos obtained from our video footage and will now finish any posts relating to Digipax and CD covers.

Raw shots for our

Here are the raw shots before we have edited them for the inside cover our digipak

Digipack ancillary task Mock Up

Feedback

You would do well to do a bit of housekeeping with your posts - some need a little re-ordering to make the research sit together and the planning after it. Can you also check the labelling is accurate - I can't believe all the joint posts have actually been done jointly.

You also need to get moving with your video - get the rest of your footage and work at it, as it is worth 40% of the available marks! As well as this, you need to be getting on with the print tasks.

Codes and Conventions of the Indie Genre

To be specific for our chosen genre, Indie I will need to anaylse the codes and conventions of Indie music to gain more knowledge of how we will progress on with filming.
Here are the general codes and conventions of our genre:

• As in all genres, lots of close ups of the artist. For our genre, close ups of the band and their equipment is consistently used to keep the audiences attention. 
• The settings are usually relaxed, for example a forrest. This may differ once the music kicks in properly.
• Colours of the mise en scene will vary depending on the lyrics, narrative etc. Generally, bright colours aren't really used. And low key lighting is generally the popular choice, unless locations are at a party, gig etc.
• As the Indie genre can tend to be very random there are no specific locations. 
• 
  

Week Update Post

Although I wasn't able to capture the footage I was meant to this weekend due to my absence on Friday, I have updates as much of the blog as I could do. The footage I have to get will be shot at the next available chance I can get it

Socio-economic,physcographic and Demographic and Profiling of our target audience

Based on the questionnaire we created here is an analysis of physcographic and demographic profiling for our target audience. These studies are very important to us as we need as much information about our target audience as possible in order to produce a good quality product whichis relevant for our target audience.

I am first going to analyse the use of G.R.A.S.S (demograpic profiling, and the term for socio-economic status). G.R A S.S. is used as a simple way to help us associate different classes essentially in order of their earnings. For example, the highest group, Group A would contain people such as higher management or a profession such as a surgeon.

G.R.A.S.S

Gender - Both sexes as we want to reach a good margin of the revelant audience.

Race - Any race which likes Indie style music

Age - Teenagers as they can relate to our music and is therefore revelant to today's feelings and society.

Socio- economic Status - C1, C2 , D categories. Anyone who can afford to purchas music.

Maslow's Hierachy of Needs followed by Demographic Profiling

This type of profiling is useful to us as it rightly assumes that audiences are fairly complex and have certain needs which need to be fulfilled. For example, a section of today's music videos contain lyrics of heartbreak which relates to some teenagers in the target audience who have recently suffered from a loss.

Here is a diagram to demonstrate the purpose of Maslow's Hierachy.

                                                                    As the diagram shows, some of these vital needs are reflected

                                                       through today's music video. Although self-actualization and                       esteem are not essential parts of our lives such as breathing, they are parts of our lives we need which allow us to feel good about ourself and help us progress on. These needs can be reflected through songs like : "Help the Hero'" by XFactor as it allows us to look at anorther person and see how we ourselves are so lucky.

I am now going to move onto a theory which could help us with advertiseing our product (such as the digipax) I will come back to this, through my section of Digipax.

Advertising and Marketing (AIDA)

AIDA is an acronym which marketing people use to describe a common list of events that are used when a person is selling a product:

• A - Attention (Awareness) attract the customer. This could be demonstrated through lots of close ups of the main artist to attract the audience to watch the video.
• I - Interest - raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits. This might be used through using one of the most well known singers to attract interest. Could also be used with branding, through customers associating matching products together.
• D - Desire - Convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs. Again a company may create a single or an album that is so desirable that everyone wants one and if you don't buy the product that you will be the only one who doesn't have the product. This will make the customer have certain emotions and pleasure from the product and the person without will won't have these.
• A - Action - lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing. This could be recognised through branding. All products need something which will attract a customer towards it, so it needs appropriate advertising and action in order to succeed and be a major part of today's chart.

From these theory's we know that for our product must relate to our needs. As we want our product to be for our generation of target audience we have focused attention and opinions on our age groups through the questionnaire and these theories support the questionnaire.

Establishing Shots Of Major Locations In Our Music Video

This week we plan to get shots of the main people who are present in our footage and shot locations of the major locations in my section of footage. This will help our audience be able to identify the locations easier.

Update of Footage gained this weekend

This weekend I got a good chunk of work. Although I wasn't able to get the busy scenes I got some footage which would be suitable for the lyrics of the song.
For example for the lyric "and our blood still runs young", I was able to video my family running down the street to symbolise this.
I also managed to film a section of my brother's birthday party to link to the youth of the song.
Finally I filmed my little brother holding my two word cards in front of two different locations, my house and the front of the a local park which contributes to the realism of the video.
Over the remainder of the week I am planning to film a busy city centre as well as any other footage which would contribute relevant meanings into the filming.

The Role Of An Album Cover

The primary role of a album cover is to promote the artists and their music. It also conveys the artists interests and emotions of their song through the colour and design of the cover. It also acts as a way of branding and associating the artist with their product. The album cover and the exterior of it also offer a protective layer.
Here is a little history on the album cover, which could help us progress through to the digipak stage.
CD's were first commonly made in the mid 1990's in the formation of the common known plastic jewel case (digipaks) Digipaks were created from cardboard and plastic. In these years and even now the Album cover has become a vital part of music and it's associated culture. They are used as a clever marketing tool and express the artists feelings and intentions of the album. The contents of a digipak were a folded double cover (also known as a "gatefold cover", inserts (containing images) and also the lyrics so the audience could sing-a-long to the song.
In conclusion, our album cover will be used to promote our music and will reveal a number of factors through the formation of the pack. The pack will need to not only promote our music, but the connotations which are provided with it and the emotions which the audience should feel when listening to the music. 

Institutions

The institutions surrounding music videos help budget and create music videos for artists all around the world. There  


As institutions are growing and changing rapidly, our product will need to be current and up to date. Our music will have to be easy to access for our audience to be able to purchase it. For this we need record to research music album sales. 

update of obtained footage

I took a camera home with me yesterday and was able to get footage of the sun setting which we as a group are going to speed up and use in our music video as well as footage of my little sister dancing to go with the lyrics "a moment". I am currently making the signs "a dream", "a laugh" and am going to film these and my other designated shots (shown on the film schedule) sometime next week.

StoryBoard

Props List

Here is a list of props which we will be using for our music video:

• Vinyl Record Player
• Word cards which will be used for specific words of the lyrics
• A train station platform

As we are filming different aspects of people's lives we do not need any specific costume and make up requirements. We are asking all actors involved to wear their normal and everyday clothing so that the video contains realism to the real world we live in.

Filming Schedule

Here is a list of dates so far which we have all agreed to meet at in order to film:

Equipment and technologies we will use

Here is a list of the technologies we are going to be using to produce our work:

• Video camera
• Tripod
• Final cut express
• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Digital stills camera

Feedback

You need to do a lot more work on this blog. Use my feedback posts to improve your research work - the main issue is that nothing is tied in to your own product - you must reflect on what relevance this has for your own work or it will gain very little. There is no planning evidence here at all and I want to see evidence that this has been addressed by next week. Use the tick list in the back of your yellow booklets to see what needs to be done and divide the work up between you. You need to put a lot of work in outside of class and also get on with the filming.

Video analysis for "We No Speak No Americano"

I have chosen to analyse "We Speak No Americana" due to the fact that the video itself does not feature the artists itself and is therefore anominous from the video. I also chose to anaylse this video as, this is the first video I have seen yet that uses this much anominicity to create such a powerful effect. From this anaylsis I hope to gain more of an understanding to why the video is created specifically the way it is and how it can help me and my group progress on. 
(NEED VIDEO EMBEDDED) 
The video begins with the obvious convention of "Man rescues and gets the girl". The scene opens with our protagonist who is new in town and is very happy discovering his new town. The lighting is high key with a distorted lens to create a vintage effect for the video. The mise en scene of the video also reflects a vintage effect through Western type building and costumes. The protagonist approaches a small innocent girl (this is shown through her mise en scene of a white dress to reflect purity). and takes a white flower off her, clearly expecting romance. 
The protagonist then sees a young woman being treat badly by her boss and then instantly wants to rescue her from this ordeal and flash-forwards to their marriage in black and white. (still remaining vintage). She smiles and stares at him trying to impress her, to her humour and his unknowing that there is a police officer behind him. The "princesses" boss is amused by the fact that the protagonist is being beaten and told to leave by the officials. We then cut to a shot inside the boss' bar of a pianist and his mistress/wife drunk and making a disgrace of the bar. They then get fired and a sign in posted above the door saying:
"Piano player wanted now will pay well". A stranger then puts a rug on this sign unaware of his actions. And now says: 
"Piano wanted now will pay well" the protagonist then sees this as a way to earn money and win his girl. This only further more gets him in more trouble with the officials. We then see a sequence of comical dancing which is in beat to the music and becomes infectious. He then hides in the back of the princesses cart and live happily ever after, we are told this through a flash forward of them married in a black and white background. 
From this anaylsis,we have learnt that by not using the artist in the video, the video can still be very effective and that our video will not feature the artist.

Sweet Disposition video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKjOOR9sPU&feature=&p=D4C7F48B6E4D8FD7&index=0&playnext=1

Sweet Disposition Lyrics

sweet disposition
never too soon
oh reckless abandon
like no one's
watching you

a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh

chorus
just stay there
cause i'll be comin over
and while our bloods still young
it's so young
it runs
and we won't stop til it's over
won't stop to surrender

songs of desperation
I played them for you
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh

chorus:
just stay there
cause i'll be comin over
and while our bloods still young
it's so young
it runs
and we won't stop til it's over
won't stop to surrender

a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs (won't stop til it's over)
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs(won't stop til it's over)
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs (won't stop til it's over)
a moment, a love
a dream, a laugh
a moment, a love
a moment, a love (won't stop to surrender)

Acceptance Email

Hi Laura,

As long as this is for internal use only (ie not published on a website or anywhere public) this is fine.

Good luck with the project!

On 5 Nov 2010, at 14:03, Laura Baldwin wrote:

Dear Infectious Music Record Label,

I am currently studying A2 level Media Studies at St. Mary's College Blackburn and have been asked to create my own music video. One of my favourite songs is Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap and I have created many ideas for a music video involving the song. I would like your permission to use the song Sweet Disposition as I feel it would help me achieve a high grade towards university. If I was to use the song for my music video it would be for education reasons only. I am looking forward to hearing back from you.

Yours sincerely 

Laura Baldwin

infectious info

info@infectiousmusicuk.com

digipaks codes and conventions

"Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging. Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. The patented Digipak is designed as the perfect replacement to the traditional plastic jewel box. Digipak is a self-contained package that protects the disc. It is shatter proof and allows for greater graphic display and market impact."


Ultimately the digipak is to protect the CD and sell the band, it needs to be visually attractive and be recognisable to the target audience (band recognition) so that fans will immediately know who the band are, this can be done through a band logo, colour scheme, font or through the art work.

Feedback

You still need to act on what is in the previous post - explain why you are analysing these album covers/ videos etc and conclude by focusing on what you can learn from them and use in your products. A few pointers and reminders:

• Music Video research - tidy up your last reflective post
• Audience - need to add an analysis of your questionnaire findings and what this means for your project; you also need to define your primary target audience - GRASS etc.
•  Indie Research - Kiera's entry is really about branding and album ads! You need to find images of indie bands and indie videos and comment on the common features in terms of costume, pose, instrumentation, performance, colour, media language etc and extrapolate what this implies for your product...
• Digipak post - define what a digipak is ; comment too on the typical features you will need to include on the front and the back cover and add some images from indie CDs - look at the inside and outside coverwork and comment on common traits.
• Need a post on album adverts and what features are required/ typical... 
• Branding - still needs typing in to what you can learn from it
• Institution - still have nothing on this

This should be complete by now and I will need to see all your planning material on here - use the tick list in teh yellow booklet to guide this - pp141-2

Branding, album adverts

After completing our questionnaire and deciding to definitely go with the indie genre we are now going to look deeper into indie conventions. I have choosen to to look at this particular advert as its use of colour is significant to the genre, the tones of green highlight their style and the picture focuses on the bandmembers features. We can also see the band's name at the top of the advert to signify that this advert is to promote them. I have also copied a picture of their album 'Notion' which again focuses on the colour green.  This also shows branding as they frequently use this colour so we know to assoiciate it with them. I have also found photographs of performances by the band where the backlights are green, to again signify the bands brand and image.

Feedback

This still needs quite a lot of work to keep you on track.

• General post on music video conventions - the Goodwin features need a little more explaining and, at the end, you need to state that your next posts will explore music videos from a  range of genres
• Music Video analysis - all of these posts can be improved - start by seeing if and how all the Goodwin elements apply and then look at what elements seem distinct to the music genre. I like the idea of a summative post after this but you need to sum up what you have learnt about music videos and what genre you have decided to use
• you then need some more specific research into this genre - use album covers or artist/band shots to establish the look of the performers, their instruments, type of songs, mood, setting, style of logo.... you could then add a few videos from the genre to see what the genre features of the video is and sum up what you will have to do as a result of this research if you are to get it right.
• Audience - you need to analyse your survey and state what use it will be to your product. You also need to define who this audience is - use GRASS etc.
• Institution - you need to add this - album sales etc to prove this type of music makes money; what type of record label your artist would have and the role this plays in making the video; how and where they would position the video and what they would want tit to achieve; what other marketing strategies they might use to promote the song...
• Branding - the post on this needs an intro - what is branding and how does it apply to music? why is it important. Then state that the Sex Pistols are a case study and analyse how their image is built up out of visuals, logos and performance and news stories etc and kept consistent over time. How will this apply to your artist?
• Ancillary Tasks - you have some detached research into album covers - at present I am not quite sure what you are trying to show with this - is it research into genre codes or digipaks???? You need to make it clear in each post what you are looking at and why and to end by stating what you can learn from it/ use from it in your own production... You also need to investigate album adverts.
• Planning??????

You need to work really hard over the next week to ensure this is sufficient and does not mean that you fall behind.

Branding Analysis

What is branding?
Branding is creating the identity of a specific product, in our case a music video. Branding varies. It can be presented through similar designs, slogans, colours etc. Branding is a valuable concept in advertisement and this is the reason I am researching this. Looking after a brand is called brand management and this is how we see consistences through bands like the Sex Pistols. 
I am going to anaylis The Sex Pistols are branding. This is my case study for Brand analysing.  This is because they have a vast array of music products, as well as promotional products which are all very silimilar in the following aspects:

•   All of the products have been created with the same Mise en scene, for example: the Queens head is used frequently throughout the products to promote "The Clash". Also the same font is continuously used which all round makes each product very simialar and recognisable.
• The products all use the same colours, which makes them easier to associate together when audiences want to buy the Sex Pistols products and gets attractive to other merchandise available on the market.
• These contributing factors create a specific market, which is the younger market. This is because the younger market (ages from about 16- 24) has disposable income, so can therefore afford to purchase items, like CD'S, Purfume, T-shirts and just any merchandise associated with the band.

Below are a few examples of the Sex Pistols Branding which link cohesively together:


                                                                        This is the Sex Pistols CD cover for "God Save The

Queen" from the 1970's.
The mise en scene is very typical of our Country, with the English flag based in the background followed by the Queens head in a oval shape in the centre. The centre of the CD is black and white degraded which shows age and authenticity. The text : "God Save The Queen" is placed over the Queens eyes and mouth and is in various fonts. This is to reflect that The Sex Pistols are a very different band.

This is a promotional T-shirt from the Sex Pistols. As shown the background contains the Union Jack as does the CD cover. The shirt also reflects back to the CD in form of the font, but this time the font colour is in red. This is to make the Sex Pistols name stand out from the black background of the T-shirt and help promote the band. This is accupanied by "Sidvicious" and the band member playing guitar coloured in white, maybe reflecting purity?

               This is the very defining  Sex Pistols Purfume. This is very simialar if not in the exact design as the above products. The fun and different mise en scene is thouroughly maintained and all connotation of the previous products are still represented through this product.
www.sexpistolsofficial.com/

Here is a reference to the Sex Pistols online website. There is still a coherent connection of brading throughout the website and the other products. The websites image is abit rough around the edges with the torn edges but this adds to the image of rough rock stars and the colours contribute to the fact that the members are fun and outgoing.
In conclusion, the Sex Pistols are in my opinion the perfect opinion are spot on for the ideal spreading of branding. With the branding so simialarly produced for each product you know instantly what each product represents. And in result, tempted to purchase other products from the range.
From this case study  I have learnt the following factors:

• For a brand to be easily recognizable through it's series of products, it must have certain consistences throughout. These consistences could include similar colour schemes, graphics, and font styles. This must occur throughout a range of products otherwise the audience will not be able to identify one product to anorther from the same range.

For branding to be consistent they also need to aim for the same target audience. For example the Sex Pistols aim for the younger generation, if the products were targeted to the older generation they would not be able to recognize the product, therefore resulting in loss of sales. 
This case study can help us a group to identify the conventions of a typical brand similar to our genre, resulting in a brand which consists of the same conventions and quality and will be easily identified to our target audience of the teenage generation. 

top 40 album chart

Looking through this weeks top 40 album chart there are a number of indie albums including Kings of Leon "come around sundown" at number 12, The script "science and faith" at number 21 and Mumford and sons with "sigh no more" at number 39.
Therefore from this research we can see that this music is quite popular at the moment.

Questionnaire for music video

We carried out a questionnaire and handed it to 15 individuals to find out what genre of music people prefered and to get an overall idea of what people like about music videos. Results showed that people generally thoiught that indie was the best and most popular genre at the minute, We also asked people what styles of music videos interested them and what colour schemes they thought suited the genre. Here is an example of one that we have scanned in.

• We found the most popular music genres to be indie and Dance with 13/15 rating one of these as their favourite genre and under 50% mentioned rock or pop or r&b.
• We also found that these two were said to be the most popular genres at the minute. Particularly with people our age as they dominated our questionnaires and said"indie is popular due to an increase in gigs and festivals" and "dance is the main genre associated with teenagers and going out at the weekends".
• We found colour schemes varied quite dramitically and the majority of colours were mentioned, however darker colours seemed more popular from our questionnaires, such as blacks, greys, reds and blues.
•  Finally we asked the question " when watching a music video do you like to see narritive, performance or both?" here we found only 3 people enjoyed purely performance, whilst 6 people picked both and the other 7 just narrative.

Analysing a Classical Musical Album Cover

Analyse of Katherine Jenkins Album Cover - Believe.

This album cover shows Katherine being used with a medium shot. The mise en scene is simple and classic. It  The cover is simply composed of Katherine's face in a side posture to reveal the purity of her. The whole of the cover is black and white, using low key lighting and a black background to focus on Katherine's features.
The font of the writing isn't complicated but still has curves, which shows simple, and classic. The overall appearance of the album cover would appeal to the older generation of audience. This is due to the fact that the album cover wouldn't nessessarilty appeal to the younger population as it isn't colourful in comparison to the albums out in the market which are specifically targeted towards the younger generation.
With Katherine Jenkins being so well known in the Classical Industry and being so well published on this cover, the classical audience will instantly recognise these conventions of the album cover and feel comfortable with purchasing the album.

Feedback

This is progressing nicely. Here are a few suggestions to add a bit more depth in places:

• Action Plan - add time frame for this and who is doing what.
• Add a brief post defining what a music video is and what they are for and outlining Goodwin's ideas about their codes and conventions and link to next phase - you will all analyse one to see how this works - add the post and I can help you move it to where it should be!
• Music Video analysis - all need a reflection piece at the end - what can you learn from this? What can you sue from it? Kiera - add a gap between each para to make it easier to read - add a few still images? Laura/ Viki - need more detail in analysis - add examples to illustrate your claims, link to Goodwin more thoroughly; Steph - link to what you can learn for your own video development.....
• Album Covers - possibly add a start post for this section - what is the role of an album cover and what are its key codes and conventions - what elements do you find... think, too, about the back covers and inside covers.... in individual analyses, you need to end by reflecting on what you could learn or use from these examples...

Then you need to move on to analyzing the genre conventions for the music genre you will be promoting, teh audience and institution....

Analysing A Pop Single Cover

Analysis of Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me 

This cover is for the single 'Club Can't Handle Me' - Flo Rida, the picture is very simple showing a medium shot of the artist, and his name in a large font over him with the name of the song. It also shows a DJ in the background which conforms to the genre as it shows that the music is played by DJ's in nightclubs etc. To make the cover more interesting, shots of coloured lights are placed behind the artist, this also conforms to the genre as it is like being in a club with the bright lights and lasers, the light is centred around the artist to show that he is the main person.

Analysing album covers and digipaks for the indie genre

This cover is very basic but still gives us an insight into the bands image, the colours represent their simple, yet classic image (black/white)this shows us their casual style and the man's face being the centre focus suggests a closeness to the band, that the songs inside the album will be meaningful and give us an idea of what goes on in the band members lives.

Again this arctic monkeys cover is very simple and i can see through looking at different indie bands that the covers always seem to be quite basic, however they still show us the bands image and give us an insight into their music style. This cover suggests that the band are quite rebellious as the man is smoking it also conveys that they are unique and don't stick to traditional conventions when it comes to their music. The black and white again shows their indie style and it looks as though he may be in a photo booth as he looks straight at the camera which gives us an insight into personal life.

This is the only image i could find similar to a digipak that was done for an indie band, this shows that a colour scheme has been used and maintained, to give it a brand image.

Analysing a dance music album cover for initial genre ideas

Analysis of David Guetta - One Love album cover

This album cover is that of David Guetta's One Love. The genre of the album is dance shown by some of the media language used. 

The mese-en-scene of the album cover contributes greatly towards both selling the track and telling the audience what genre it is. The photo on the album is black and white colour grading, yet a bright pink colour is used for the font. This indicates the genre is very black and white as there are a lot of musical dance artists around, yet there is an element of excitement shown with the pink font indicating the album is different from any others drawing an audience in. The character on the front of the album is David Guetta himself wearing sunglasses to show he is maybe of importance. By David Guetta being on the front cover it attracts an audience who listen to dance music as he is a well known DJ and so if you're into dance music you will know who he is. 

A reflection of music video analysis

After looking at several types of music video we have reflected over our findings and come up with this conclusion:


Laura - Dance: After looking at the dance music video 


Keira - Indie: Indie is an ideal genre for our music video, I looked at the video 'Always where I need to be' by the kooks and found that a lot of the footage they have used was taken outside in different locations, this would be ideal for us as we may film some of our video in college time, and so we may want to use outdoor locations. I have also found that indie videos don't always stick to typical conventions of music videos, such as linking the music with the visuals and the visuals with the lyrics, therefore we could be quite experimental and try out different effects and ideas with our project.

Viki - Pop:


Steph - Classical:








Overall we are drawn towards using an indie genre as it seems to give us the best opportunities in presenting our skills and being experimental. It also gives us the chance to use different locations and seems to challenge typical conventions and so we could try out different effects and ideas with our project.

Analysing A Pop Music Video "Club Can't Handle Me" - Flo Rida

I have decided to analyse a pop music video, by doing this it will help me and my group decided which genre we would like to use for our final product.

The video shows 'Flo Rida' singing to the people in the club, this can relate to the target audience as they can relate to that feeling of watching one of their favourite artists perform. The main setting used in this music video is the inside of a nightclub, this is the perfect scene for the 'pop' genre, because these songs are the kind of music people will listen to before a night out or once they are out. Performance is used a lot throughout the video, and we see a lot of close up shots of Flo Rida, this appeals to the target audience as they want to see the artist in the video.

The lyrics throughout the video, relate well to the visuals we see throughout the video. For example, the lyrics are "to make em' stop and stare," Flo Rida is stood up in the middle of the crowd, and all the crowd are staring at him. Another set of lyrics are, "bottles, models, standing on chairs," as he says this, three girls walk in front of him with bottles in their hands. Another set of lyrics say "take you up out of this club," and as he says this he points out of the club. The last set of lyrics say, "paparazzi trying to make me pose," as he says this he poses right in front of the camera with his arms folded.

Analysing a classical music video - Katherine Jenkins "Angel"

To analyse Katherine Jenkins "Angel" music video, I am going to use Andrew Goodwins's narrative conventions which are:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)
- There is a relationship between the music ans the visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)
- Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (such as live performance in heavy Rock)
- There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/ vocalist.
- The artist may develop their own iconography (in and out of their videos, over time which becomes part of their star image)
- There is likely to be reference to voyuerism ( particularly in the treatement of woman, but also in the terms of "looking" e.g screens within screens, cameras etc)
- There are likely to be intertextual references (either to other music videos, films or Television texts.

I will now begin my analysis using the conventions above. At the beginning Katherine is sitting on a white chair and waiting which links to:
" Spend all your time waiting for that second chance and pray that will make it ok".
Video is mainly relaxed, based in only two, maybe three locations. This reassures the audience that no unusual conventions of other genres are going to occur (for example, rock music would show dark lighting, louder music etc).
The locations always consist with Katherine included, keeping us focused on Katherine and not turning/ switching the music off.

The music is very calm and relaxing (typical of the classical genre). The visuals are soft and gentle, set in black and white and Mise en Scene reveals Katherine in a white dress, linking to the song title of "Angel" through purity. Although there isn't a strict link for the visuals and the music, both obtain the same pace and mood.

The classical genre is generally always soft music, with attractive people acting as as the vocalists. The genre always stays true to it's conventions, so doesn't contain any other sections of alternative genres (e.g rock music = loud music, low key lighting etc). This is because we wouldn't be reassured or recognise the music genre and therefore not purchase the product. As a Music Company, they want genres to be very clear so that they do not loose profit. The genre is generally calm with a pleasant content which most of the target audience can relate to, therefore the audience is satisfied.

During the whole of the video, there are a number of close ups and medium shots of Katherine. This is to demonstrate her emotion and her body language, so we as an audience can get a close up of the star! Almost capturing a section of her personal life out of the music bussiness. These keep the audience focussing and therefore continue watching the video.  She is represented as "pure" throughout with visuals such as delicate Mise En Scene (furniture to complement her white dress). We also see a number of high angle shots to make Katherine appear quite innocent and captivationg.

Over the years of her carreer, Katherine's iconography has been created as a gentle angelic young woman. This is developed through her attractive flawless appearance, respectable clothing and of course all of her classical music. When in the public eye, she is well behaved for example, doesn't get drunk or act inexusably.

In the music video, the only reference to voyerism would be the close ups of Katherine, appearing innocent. These could be seen as "eye candy" to the male audience, which could lower Katherine's reputation. Other than this, there are no other references.

Throughout the video, there are no refereces of Intertextuality, as the video is focussed on the "Angel" track rather than promoting other texts.
Now that I have analysed the album cover using Andrew Goodwin's conventions, I will now use Media Language conventions to complete my case study of a classical music video.
Editing
The editing is of a average pace.





Cinematography
Throughout the music video lots of close up shots are taken. This is to keep our attention focussed on Katherine and also shows a "male gaze". The "male gaze" is for the gents of the audience, hense the range of close ups to keep the male audience attracted to watching as Katherine is an attractive woman.

Colour

The main colours used in the music video are blacks and greys. There is no bright and vibrant colours present as the video is simple and classic with just the blacks, greys and the white colours. This is a general conventio of the classic genre as the classic genre wants to maintain a simple look which we know we will be able to associate with the classic genre.

Lighting
The lighting combined with the colour gradience is high key. It allows detail of the mise en scene and Katherine's body language to be recognised





Mise en Scene







Sound

This research will help us progress on as a group as we now know the main conventions of the classical genre. This will help us decide whether the genre's conventions are suitable for what we want to create as our music video. Our main conclusions are that although this helped us determine the conventions of the genre, we will not be using this genre as a basis to work from in our music video. We will alternatively use the indie genre as we think this is the most revelant genre to our target audience. (Teenagers).