A Music Video For Who?

All media texts, whether it's film, animation, print etc. has and needs a target audience. This is a specific group in which the product is aimed at. To determine what our target audience we have composed a questionnaire with questions about their tastes in music and their views on music videos in order to work out the target audience for our project. This will enable us to meet the conventions, stereotypes and general viewing pleasures of that particular audience in order for us to make a more successful product!

More Deconstructions

Laura, Charlie and Alex have also produced their own deconstruction's of a music video. Laura has focused more on the conventions of a music video, as have Charlie; where as Alex chose to look more at the style of the video in order to find inspiration for our video.

We thought it would be most beneficial for more than one of us to deconstruct a music video in order for us all to gain knowledge and understanding of how a music video works.

A Short Deconstruction Of A Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsq3iNW60us

The video I looked at was Love on the Line by the indie/pop/electro band Crazy P. There were many different aspects which made the video successfully and interesting to watch.
Match on action such as the turning up of the volume as the song volume level rose at the beginning of the song, gave a sense that the person was really turning the volume up, creating a sense of the audience being on the video. Also a typical convention of music videos according to Goodwin is the visuals illustrate the lyrics. This is not evident in the video as a whole as it is an abstract, non-linear narrative, but occasional hand gestures by the lead singer does in fact reflect the lyrics.
A variety of camera angles are also used, such as the basic mid-shot but also more creative shots such as a high canted angle. This gives the video an edge by using a large variety of shots, keeping the audiences attention. Another convention of all music videos is the use of close-ups. Love on the line was no exception with close-ups on the lead dinger and band playing their instruments remind the audience of the dominant performance element, which is the main feature of the video.
The use of iconography is also effective within the music video. The mise-en-scene is simple, with the band being the only feature to white background, which makes them stand out. This is typical of an indie video as the most important part of a band, is the band, rather than making a display for everyone to see. The clothing is also everyday, western attire, using the basic opposites of black and white. The only exception is the lead dinger who has a strip of pink, making her stand out as the lead. The only props are of two large cassette tapes which are iconic symbols of music.
The video Love on the Line by Crazy P, follows many of the typical conventions of a music video, all of which I think are aimed at a young adult audience, due to the fun-natured tone of the video.

Conventions Of A Music Video

Conventions are a set of generally accepted norms or criteria. All types of media carry there own set of conventions and music videos are no different. I researched the conventions of a music video and listed below are the most common and universal.

Lyrics: establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than a meaning
Music: tempo often drives the editing.
Genre: might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.
Editing: the most common form is fast-cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.

Another alternative but with similar ideas is Andrew Goodwin's theory:
· Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music
· Genres often have their own music style/iconography
· Close-ups should always be included
· Intertextual references are also popular

The Age of Stupid

Along side our project, in preparation for our exam, we are studying postmodern media. Yesterday, I got the opportunity to watch a screening of "The Age of Stupid" a new film about global warming by director Franny Armstrong. It is a post-modern film, about a man living in 2055, looking back at present footage of the factors that lead to global warming, practically destroying the planet.
http://www.ageofstupid.net/

The fact that the film was post-modern was beneficial to me, as we are studying post-modernism for our A2 exam. I noticed different aspects which made the film post-modern.

We watched the film in a local independent cinema, Cinema City. It's different from a major company cinema as it's smaller, meaning there is less distractions as there is less people. However, personally, I did not find it any different than in a larger cinema, but I acknowledge that for some people it would be preferable.
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_home_date.aspx?venueId=nor

Update

We have now received the completed questionnaires which we will upload and analyse. This will enable us to deconstruct a few current music videos which relates to the answers the band gave (artists mentioned etc.), in order to find out the conventions of a music video and other techniques such as lighting etc.

Band Questionaire Answers and Analysis

Here are the answers we received from the band and Alex added a small bit of analysis along side to help us understand the band more enabling us to produce a music video to suit their style and also to get a better picture about the band we are produng our entire media project around!

Grilling The Band

We were planning on conducting an interview with the band to find out their influences and more about their style of music. However, due to timing and work commitments this is not possible, so we are going to email each band member a questionnaire instead. These are the questions which we shall include in our questionnaire and send to The Carpet Monsters:

• How would you classify the music you perform?
• Who are your influences?
• Are there any current music videos which you like and would like your video to be like in any way?
• If you could compare yourself to any artist, who would it be and why?

We have made our questions quite open, giving the band the opportunity to elaborate their answers, giving as much detail as possible, so we can work to their ideals as well as our own.

The Carpet Monsters?

The band we are filming are The Carpet Monsters, the band members consist of:

Laura Hooper - Vocals
Matthew Castle - Guitar
Simon Durrant - Bass Guitar

They've been together since 2005 and play at local pubs, and beach festivals.

They have an album named 'Down to the Cuboid' and the song we have chosen in called 'Keep On Rolling'.

Check them out on Myspace!

A New Beginning

After discussing the options available to us, we have made the decision to join and work on the project with Alex Castle.
We came to this decision because we were finding it difficult to find an original artist who was able to commit to working with us as it would have taken up a lot of their free time. Alex, however already had a band in mind and as one of the members is her brother, we know he will be more reliable and easy to contact.

Together, we will now conduct research into music videos and begin drafting ideas for our own video.

The Best Place To Start Is The Beginning

The hard task of finding a suitable band to use in our production may be over but the hard work begins now!

Before we can even think of beginning our production, we need to research and plan first. As a group we decided it would be best to find out conventions of a music video to begin with as well as finding more about our band in order to create a suitable music video to suit their tastes and style.

We have decided to work together before giving out separate tasks so we can all receive the basics understandings before it gets too complicated.