Audience research results

This audience research enabled us to see what our target market want to see from our production, we found out that people do care more than we thought about the name of songs, we found that people were not really interested when it came our name. 

We also found out where it would be best to go to if we wanted some feedback on our work, the top sites were facebook and youtube.

We also found out that people are very interesting in other artists in our genre, this is good news that people are very interested in it but means it would be harder for us to enter our artist into the market as there will be more competition.

We found out that our target audience has plenty of disposable income which means that they will be able to buy our products, one limitation of our audience research is that we only did it from our friendship group which means that the age range we asked our questions to was narrow, this means that it will be hard to work out what older people would want to listen and what they would want to see from a artist like ours. 

Music video ideas/similar produducts

Music Video Ideas on Prezi

This prezi shows other products that are similar to ours and ones we can help inspire us to produce and direct our own product

Digipak video analysis

Frank Turner/Similar Product

I would say that Frank Turner to what we are trying to make our artist be like, we are in the same genre and then in the same sub genre, which is indie singer songwriter. I would say he would say he doesnt take himself to seriously aswell, and is also there to make music and gain critical success rather than selling mass's of his product.

From this shot you can see that he is carrying his guitar with him, which suggests that he always carries it with him, which would then imply that that is such a big part of his life, we also have done the same in our video as we have shots of him having his guatiar with him, even if he is not playing it, just to suggest is more of a life style and a passion rather than a job.


As you can see they are walking along with no singing, its just a natural shot. What does differ between the 2 shots is location, this is manly due to the lyrics of the song and we have both employed illustration, which is a direct link between the lyrics and the image, and in franks it talks about being near the English channel, and we have gone for the nutella theme.




As you can tell from the image to the left, it is a rather random shot of him sitting on a chair in the see, with a guitar splashing around in his clothes, this would suggest to his he is rather random and quirky, this is used again to try and make him stand out from the crowd and really make a link between the lyrics and the images.




What we did was not the same, but i feel it has the same effect, we added in something rather random to create the same image of our artist as Frank has tried to do which is to create the image that he will no take himself to seriously and isnt afraid to have have a laugh. This should in the eyes of the consumer make him more relate able, which means they will understand where our artist is coming from and feel there is a connection.

 The reason i have pulled these 2 shots are to show that both of artists are going against the conventions of a indie artist having to be serious and emotional all the way through the video, the way in which the effect of serious is meant to work is that people will feel that its there life and they are writing about whats happened to them, to it shows a personal link.

What happens when you turn that convention on its head is something very different with a very different outcome, this is the idea that you can create a artist in the same genre, he can be successful but he doesnt have to be serious, he can be a cheeky chappy. The benefit of making the artist a cheeky chappy is the fact that boys can relate to him, as all boys think they are alittle cheeky, and the females always have a little crush on the kid that mess's around and doesnt just stick to the rules

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Magazine analysis

What i have noticed with posters is that they always seem to have a strong link with the digipak of the artist. This is for a simple reason that the poster is meant to advertise the digipak and making a strong link between the two media texts means that someone is able to visually when they walk into a shop, know what they are looking for.
What a poster normally has on it is the name of the artist, obviously this is important as you need to be able to put a name to the face of the artist, and its a good way of creating a image or the use of 'star theory'... also along the lines of image is the actual picture you see, all different types of pictures would represent a different genre, for example the tower blocks for London and the artist in the foreground would tell us it was rap, on the breach by yourself would be singer songwriter or a pop band. James Morrison has gone for a cobbled street, which gives a authentic look to him, shows he is a little old fashioned which would appeal to his passionate fans he brought with him from the indie scene into the new pop/mainstream.
Editing has been heavily used in this picture aswell, but it has been cleverly done, by this i mean it does not look like it has it would just look like its old fashioned, but that is the look they are going for.
The text is also very important when it comes to linking the poster to the artist and also to there other media products. The text he has used is short and to the point, for example telling us the name of the album, which you need to then go and find it, also the release dates which just informs people. They also  say about a certain track that has been included, this is most likely going to be a very popular song that would want to make people go and buy the album even more, or it could be a special feature that you could not get anywhere else which would make people that really like him have to go and buy it. There is also small print under it just for legality which is very important as it makes the poster look official.
Costumes are important as well, this is due to the fact as it once again goes into adding to the star image, James and his people have opted to go with the old school brown leather jacket, which makes him a little quirky and sets him apart from the rest of the artists in his genre, the jeans and shoes are stylish, which would appeal to the main stream section of his fan base and show that he isnt stuck in the past.

Music video analyasis

At the start of this video you see him sitting in a old room full or antiques, this in contrast with other music videos that are more like pop and main stream where money and new things are everything and showing off your money is important, this is what is different about indie artists, as these type of shot try's and sets them apart from other artists, and makes the audience think its not really about the money for these artists like James Morrison, its all about inspiration and the music. There is limited lighting here, and the shot rely on ambient lighting, this is to try and create the effect of that his work, and in this case his music video doesnt seem to have been heavily editing and there wasnt like a huge load of work that went into this, it just kinda happened. The slightly closed curtains give the impression he likes to be by himself and that he doesnt need anyone else, just him and his thoughts.

This shot is typical of a indie artists music video, a close up of there face, it shows them as just being very human, shows there is nothing different between us and him. This type of shot makes us listen to the lyrics a lot more, due to the fact there is nothing to distract us from the music. Seeing his face allows us to see the passion on his face.
What happens a lot in indie music is that there is a blur between the the narrative and the performance, this means that the part where you see him singing, which is the performance merges into the narrative, this is normally shown by artist movement and in this video a match cut is used from him looking out the window and then you see what he is looking at, and it is the narrative.
The cutting rate is are normally rather long, this gives the music video a smooth feel and there are no sudden cut that you dont expect.

In this shot you see him trying to push his way through a crowd of people, this could suggest that he has had to try and fight his way through so many obstacles to try and get where he is today. It could also signify that he is trying to go against what everyone else is doing, hence why he is a indie artist.

In this shot you can see that people have started to lay down along side the 2 main characters, this could meant hat finally after long time of struggling to try and be accepted he has finally got what he wanted, which are people to try and fall into place with him, it also also suggest that he was ahead of time so he had the right idea before people realized it was the right idea.
James and his co actors costumes are very basic, just a white T-shirt, jeans with a jacket, this shows us once again he doesnt do what he does for the fancy things and money.

The only thing that doesnt really fit into the singer songwriter category he is in that he has no instrument, but apart from that he goes along with all other conventions.

Genre Prezi

Genre on Prezi

Indie scene

Indie artist are known for being critically more successful rather than chart successful, this is because they appeal to a more niche audience, this means that most people wont hear there songs, which means that they will reply on winning awards. The big names in the music industry are Q magazine and NME....
Recently there has become a blur between pop and indie, now known as indie-pop, this is because indie artists are now getting main stream but they are still winning awards.
Also what has helped the blur has been radio 1 and 4music coming along and doing this like acts unsigned and giving unknown artists the chance to perform in large festivals.

Indie artists

What makes a Indie artist?


A indie artist was originally a artist that has not made it to the big league and usually hadnt been signed. Now things are very different, it has now become more of a image that is used my the marketing team to try to make there artist stand out.
The typical indie singer songwriter is a plain simple person, nothing crazy like lady gaga. There main selling point is there passion for there music, due to this they normally have a musical instrument, normally either a guitar or a piano. You can see this in he picture to the right, ed is hugging is guitar which shows us that he loves music and all that he needs is he guitar.

Band

We have decided to use a Band called 'Hope and Social'------->http://www.hopeandsocial.com/

As you will know from my previous posts, this is a indie rock band, which by definition is unsigned. This band is known for its blue blazers and quirky style, they have a upbeat attitude to life which oozes out of there music. They are most used to film bright high key videos, but due to lack of funding are low in quality, but, due to there style this does not effect the end result.

We feel this is a guy band to use as it means we will not have to use so many effects which due to the limited software we have would not look great. Having this type of band means we are able to focus on the types of shots and the performance and narrative rather than how we can edit it, this should mean the core of our video will be solid and mean we could pass our version of the music video could actually could be used by the band,

Genre research

We have chosen a band which we have found it very hard to place in one specific genre, this is because they do not a line to just one, I would most liken them to a indie bands, but they use other instruments which are not normally associated with this genre... for example brass instruments.

Indie ------> After doing research, i have found out that Indie is technically a genre, this is because 'indie' is just short for independent, this means they are not attached to any label's this may mean they do not want to be tied down by the industry, they have not been discovered yet, or simply they do not have what it takes to get into the business.
Never the less, i have done some more digging and have managed to get the gist of what is now come to be known as 'indie'.... Some people have come to associate indie with the style of the band,

'now pretty much...any eccentric, skinny, glasses wearing band of college-agers'    Or as i would call it quirky dressing.

The common recognised genre closest to indie is called indie rock, this can be described as fun upbeat music but has quirky qualities that does not let it fall into what is now known as 'pop' (which also isnt really a genre) indie rock is often referred to as underground music, which simply means that it is not widely known. Indie rock is also heavily associated with the youth and is mainly a British based genre.

Conventions of a digipack

Our group task is to design and produce a digipack for a new artist under the genre of R&B or Hip Hop, we have decided ti choose Hip Hop, similar to other artists.

Through research we have discovered that often on the CD covers of Hip Hop artists there is a variety of conventions:
artist on the front cover
face shots
lego, for example dr Dre
tyres/car items
flags
cartoons
old fashioned glasses
destruction
TV - children watching it
Streets and urban areas
Parental advisory stickers are often found.
American Flags

The wikipedia link offers more indepth detail about the origins and conventions of Hip Hop which I have read and intend to involve with our Media Digipack, the link to the website is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music.

We originally planned to stick to the comic style of the construction of a Hip Hop CD Genre, we produced the front cover involving the artist called 'Lil Crunk', an artist who we aimed to be a younger adult, just breaking into the music indistury; his CD cover involved a Plastic doll of a baby wearing the architectual 'Gangsta' Clothing. Ufortunatly this iconic cover was not suitable as it had to involve a photo which our group had taken personally.

From these conventions research and first attempt I have learnt the steriotypical conventions and styles of CD/Digipacks that are involved with the CD and artist, I plan to stick to this style strongly.

Audience research

Looking at the Hope and Social's website they have links to twitter which means people can leave comments, and also they have a slide show of official magazines and newspapers reviews.

These are reviews that i found on there website, so of course they will only put up what they want people to see, but the fact that these big names are taking notice of this relatively small band is impressive. 

I also went and looked on Youtube for comments left by people that have no vested interest posting nice comments.

These in many ways are better than the official comments that are on there web-site, this is because people have had to go to the effort to leave these comments, and its also mostly done by the people that they are targeting. Also Hope and Social are not able to pick and chose what they want they want people to see on Youtube.

These are useful as it shows us what the world thinks of this artist, as these are not selected by the artists PR team, and they are useful for us when it come to planning our video as we can take the good points which are spoken about about the video, and then we can see the points that people did not like and then try to improve apon them.

prezi - camera

Camera Conventions on Prezi

In this prezi i explore the types of camera shots and transitions used in music videos and how and why they are used.

Camera + Editing

On this photo they have put her in the forgorund/infront of a black background, which has been used to make us focus on her face alot more. This is used to draw our eye to the subject. It also could be suggested that she is coming out of the darkness into the light, and may show us that we don't know what;s been in her past which would make the audience what to know more about her, which would involve buying more of her products, r even just creating a interest for the artist which would stir up media interest, which is free publicity

There are alot of mixed signals given from this photo, firstly we have the plan simple look, and by this i mean she doesnt have much make up on, which gives us the idea that shes all about the music and nothing really else matters to her, this is back up by the fact the only prop on show is the mic... this is also a old fashioned bit of kit. The effect on the audience is that it makes her look like its just her and the music, there was no huge production team behind her (or so it would seem) this give her like image that she is pure and that she isnt in it for the money and fame.

In contrast to this there is the subtle eye liner which defines the eye and then the open mouth which is saying to us that she wants us... this challenging the male audience to try and get her which would encourage us to go find out more about her. Also there is the bling on her hand, this is subtle but enough for us to tell there she is well established as she already has has enough money to buy expensive things, it also make her seem more mature, as little girls do not have bling like that

Sex appeal

This is the CD front cover from Rihanna's single hard.

Sex appeal is shown in many ways from this picture.... Firstly with the clothes she is wear, and lets face it there isnt much... this tells us that she is naughty, and that she does not care what people think about her, her boobs are also popping out which is very racy. This is done because of the target market she is trying to appeal to, by this i mean she to men is someone that we all wish we could meet and could be our girl friends, so by not wearing much it rekindled the lust a male would have for her. On the flip side for a female not wearing much shows how sexy she is and makes them want to be like her, and also makes them feel they can be like her.

There is also the position she is in. She is sticking out her bum to show it off, and to also show people her curves. The photo is also side on... which shows the 2 sexiest parts of a women... the breasts and bum. She is looking down away from the camera which makes us feel like she is being shy or innocent, which contrasts with everything else in the frame.

She has her arm up and folded behind her head, which would show us that she knows the camera is on her, and she is trying to seduce us. Having the arm up exposes more skin and shows the side of her breast, this is down to give the effect like its a picture from a lads mag, which would appeal to the male consumer.