Target Audience - Artists Social Networking sites

I looked at Forerunner's Facebook and Twitter to gain a better idea of who has given them 'likes', is on their friend list and who follows them, in order to profile the target audience me and Nicole should be marketing to.

Age
On their Facebook page it had the number of likes which is 1,876 and from statistics on the page, it showed the most popular  age group to be 18-24 year olds however, due to this being the particular age range of Facebook users, hence making it biased, Nicole and I are going to broaden this to 18-28 year olds.

Gender
From looking through the page, I looked through likes on their comments as you cannot look through the list of people who like the page, from doing so, I found that there was a mix of females and males, therefore I decided it would be best to aim for both genders.

Style
The style of many of the members of the page was overall 'Indie' therefore I determined the target audience's subculture to be Indie. I looked at the people who liked the group on Faceboo.

Target Audience: Age, Gender and Subculture

Our target audience: 

Age: 18 - 28

Subculture: Indie

Gender: Female and male

Here is a collage of the subculture, age and gender of our target audience.

Contacting copyright holder (Forerunner)

In order to use the band's song we had to contact them in advance, as it is their song they ave copyright over it and have to give permission for anybody to use it. Luckily for us, the band agreed to let us use the song. 

Chasing Aces - Forerunner: Final Idea Brainstorm

 Nicole and I have sat down and discussed our song ideas and have made an agreement on 'Chasing Aces' by Forerunner who are located in London, as it is a great song to put a video to as it has many conventions which we could both visualise and put into action. The band have a Facebook, Soundcloud, twitter and their own website. 

From the very moment you hear the first line, even if you didn't know the title of the song, you can envision playing cards from the lyrics, 'You hold in your hand, the perfect royal flush', however the danger with this song is taking the lyrics and making them too literal, but I think as a group me and Nicole understand the metaphors behind the lyrics. The song is also guitar and drum driven, so therefore we feel it would be right to have a performance element in the music video. 

From the ideas me and Nicole discussed and came up with individually and together, I composed this brainstorm with our final ideas on it.

Peer Feedback

In class we alternated around the room so that one member from each group could listen to our track and write down some feedback and ideas about said song. In turn we did the same for the other person. First of all Katie listened to mine and Nicole's chose song 'Chasing Aces' by Forerunner. The task was to suggest ideas and intertextual references for our song.

Katie thought the title of the song would have great significance to the music video, and suggested that the video should incorporate playing cards whether they just be in shot or people playing card games. She listened to the beat of the song and determined it to be very drum driven and hence suggested we use a close up of the drummer as he plays in the video. From listening to the lyrics she envisioned a narrative to the song, which involved a love story, and from 'chasing aces' she interpreted that this could be a metaphor for a woman or man chasing their love. In reference to intertextuality Katie suggested we watch a clip from the film 'Mr and Mrs Smith' where there is a poker scene where the protagonist wins the heart of his love interest after the game. 

From listening to Katie's ideas, I have taken into consideration that having a love story narrative to the music video could work very well and could promote a desirable image of the band. Also, the intertextual reference led me to watch the clip in question and decided it could fit into the music video and image of the band we are trying to achieve, as our themes included isolation, being lost and hope. 

Here are her notes: 

Second of all, Alex listened to our song ans gave me some feedback and ideas. Here are her notes:

Alex also envisioned a love story for the narrative of the song and seconded Katie's idea of using playing cards in the video. However, she put across the idea of incorporating playing cards into the costumes of the band and actors in the video, from this me and Nicole brainstormed some ideas and thought maybe we could use the band's logo on the back of the playing cards, which would promote them further. In addition, Alex thought outside the box and thought of a crossroads whilst listening to the song, which could be a metaphor for the protagonist feeling lost and trying to figure out the right path to go in life. In reference to intertextuality, Alex referred to the poker scene in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and to a card game called 'Chase the Ace' 

Here is the clip in which Alex was referring too:

Idea Generation

Here is an idea generation in which my class all contributed too in order to understand what we need to apply to music videos.

Analysis of 3 videos by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

In lesson Mr Barton played us three different music videos, which followed one after the other and told a narrative along the way. The first one was 'The Death of You and Me', then 'AKA What A Life!' and lastly 'If I Had A gun'. We had to analyse the music videos one by one.

Here are my notes:

1) The Death of You and Me

Sunshine at the start denotes life and happiness

There is a narrative to the music video, where a waitress is the protagonist.

The waitress is dressed in a costume which resembles the one Dorothy wears in the Wizard of Oz, therefore we have our first intertextual reference.
As the waitress falls into a full swimming pool, this could denote she is born again
Noel Gallagher is presented in white which signifies his is good whereas when the carriage is introduced into the video, it is black along with the clothing of those walking by it, which presents a binary opposition.

2) AKA What a Life!
In this music video, we are presented we another binary opposition Noel Gallagher's angelic character and Russell Brand's dark character, who in one shot his skeleton flashes through, and could denote he has not soul and signifies the devil.
Also, around Russell's character there is fire, whereas with Noel's there is water, another binary opposite.
The owl has now appeared in two out of three music videos, and like Noel's white clothing, the owl is white also and comes into shot after Noel, therefore this could signify that the owl is a metaphor for Noel being wise.
In the video, unlike the first video, the swimming pool is now empty.
The plot has elements of Propp's narrative; the hero, princess and the villain.
Another intertextual reference crops up, when the waitress is taken into the carriage, this is taken from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

3) If I had a gun
Once again the owl reappears
The pool is once again full, denoting that the waitress is saved once again
The balloons on the swimming pool could signify that they were once lost and now found, like the waitress.
The diner is called 'Last Chance' referring to the waitress' last chance.
The first music video starts off at the diner, and this last video does also, creating an equilibrium.

Coming up with concepts

All That I Had - After The Ordeal
When listening to the song, I closed my eyes and imagined I was the band and what the lyrics signified to me. From doing so, I pictured a possible music video;
I envisioned that the lead singer of the band was lip syncing to the song whilst appearing in mirrors and other reflections whilst a story unfolds. I thought that the story could be about a man who has lost a lot of things over a short space of time, such as his girlfriend, his friends and made mistakes. Therefore by having him appear in reflections with his story unfolding and him appearing in the video in 'flashbacks' this could draw the audience's attention and sympathise with the singer. This in effect creates an image for the band.


Dream world - Jordan-David Copping
As I was listening to this song, I listened carefully to the lyrics and determined the song to be about a life someone used to have but circumstances changed. Therefore, if I was to do a music video for this song I would have a young man as the protagonist who sees people smiling at him while walking around school or in the street, believing his life to be going well. Also, the protagonist envisions his family to be together; his mother and father in love and his sister all in the front room laughing and enjoying themselves, however this is not reality. In addition, he has a girlfriend in his 'dream world' who we see appear in his dreams and flashbacks. In the end of the song, I pictured him back in reality where life isn't as brightly coloured as he believes in his dream world.


Let That Go! -Luke Paul Jackson
This song is about a life the protagonist had let go and regrets it. I envisioned fast paced editing with the singer lip syncing into the camera, directly addressing the audience. He paints a picture with his lyrics, describing sights and sounds such as rain and his guitar, which paints a picture of him sitting in the rain playing his guitar, to add to this, I imagined him singing to himself in a flashback. When the lyric 'I wanna let that go' I saw him 'grabbing' the flashback and letting the wind take it away as if it was paper.

Hyper-Reality

Hyper reality is:

1. involving or characterized by particularly realistic graphic representation
2. distorting or exaggerating reality
3. pertaining to or creating a hyperreality

Hyper                                        Reality

Exaggerated                               Mundane
Heightened                                 Everyday
Distorted                                     Authentic

Postmodernism

We want escapism!

Analysis of Massive Attack - Teardrop

In class we were assigned the task of analysing Teardrop by Massive Attack, in order to do so, Mr Barton asked us to close our eyes and imagine what the lyrics were telling us, among the beat and voice of the song, which mean we were only relying on what we heard. From listening to it, I determined that this song has aspects of a few different genres in it; Hip Hop, Electronic and Trip Hop.

As I listening to the song I thought of a few images and idea in my head: 

After I had analysed the song, sir played us the video which was far from what I had pictured.The video had a baby inside it's mother's womb lip syncing to the song. However from the beat I determined heartbeats and the singer's voice was angelic, emotional and soft, and when watching the baby inside the womb in the video, it all fit.

Bastardo - Charlotte Hatherley

In this video she demonstrates hyper reality as she uses two english actors; Simon Pegg as a waiter and David Walliams as 'Antonio'. She has a one night stand, where Antonio steals her guitar, therefore by using David Walliams this could signify she is imagining David Walliams as her conquest. Also, the use of the two actors is intertexuality. In reference to notions of looking; she primarily uses a 'Jackie' style book which derived from the 70s and 80s, therefore this is also intertextuality. In addition, she uses many types of media in the music video; magazines, comic strips, newspapers and a crossword.

Bands/Artists -Songs

I have been looking at the following bands/artists due to the fact I have met them, seen them play live, am able to contact them via Facebook and MySpace, plus I have an interest in their music.

All That I Had - After The Ordeal http://www.myspace.com/aftertheordealuk
Let That Go! - Luke Paul Jackson www.lukepauljackson.co.uk/ or www.myspace.com/lukepauljackson
Dream on - Jordan-David Copping http://www.youtube.com/user/jdboh1993?feature=watch


**** Need to screenshot websites and contact ****

Analysis of Dani California by Red Hot Chili Peppers

For this analysis of Dani California, we were instructed to put the headings Genre Signifiers, Image and Mise-en-scene, we had a limited time to complete the analysis. Me and Katie worked as a group in order to identify the genres in which were being shown in the different clips, then to state what signified the genre to us, furthermore we identified the imagery and what we interpreted to be the meaning behind it. Also, in reference to mise-en-scene, we identified key colours and props, in which made the video a certain genre or contributed.

The reason for carrying out this task was to help us to begin to understand what signifies a certain genre of music and in addition, this helped me and Nicole to gain a better perspective of which genre we would like to use for our music video.

Identifying conventions

In lesson today we were asked to watch four music videos and determine what type of music video they were in order to gain a better perspective of the different types ans to develop the ability to spot them.

In the picture are my notes on the videos and what type of music video I thought they were and why I thought this. For the first video 'Robyn - Killing Me', it was very clear it was conceptual.

Secondly, Rihanna - We found love, at first I assumed it was a narrative based music video, however when we were challenged by sir it became clear that it had elements of performance in it also, I had not realised that lip syncing and dancing into the camera would count as performance, but I was wrong!

Third of all,  when watching Pendulum, I instantly assumed it was conceptual due to the fact it was not clear what was going on, however I realised after that I had misunderstood the meaning on concept videos. As there was a narrative to the song and aspects of performance also, therefore this video is a narrative.

Lastly, by watching Kasabian's Days are forgotten, I became very confused as the video was centred around performance, however it incorporated aspects of conceptual as well, but came to the conclusion that due to the video being primarily based around the performance of the band, that it was in fact performance.

By doing this task, I found it very helpful to start to understand the different types of music videos and what signifies those types.

Firestarter - The Prodigy

The irony of this video is that the visuals do not actually illustrate the main focal point of the song, and title 'Firestarter', and does not include any actual fire, but a small clip of sparks on the train tracks. However, the beat of the music and actions of the artist are in a sense 'fiery'.

Genre

I chose this still due to the fact the genre is punk, and his clothing, piercings and makeup helps signify this.

Lyrics

I chose these stills as the lyrics 'I'm a firestarter, twister firestarter', come in at different arts of the song, he uses different actions to signify this, the first by twisting around with ropes and the second, by using his hands to gesture. 

I chose this still as it is the only visual of 'fire', and is shown as he exclaims 'I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator', therefore by having sparks, this signifies that he is a ticking bomb until he starts a fire.

Music

When the lyric's 'hey hey hey' come in, the lights come on in unison, to the lyrics and the beat, and second of all in the second still, he is head banging to the beat.

Close ups

I used this close up as it demonstrates his instability with his facial expressions. Also, the close ups show us in more detail his devilish hairstyle, thick black eyeliner and facial piercings, which create the 'punk' image and an anarchist.

Four Frameworks: The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

Genre

I chose this still as it is an indication of the genre, 'electronic dance'. The record represents the screech in which is common in this type of music, and in relation to the song, the song is like a broken record. 

Lyrics

As the lyric comes in 'He was white as a sheet'

And he also made false teeth', this visual is used to illustrate the lyrics.

Music

I chose this still at it represents the performance of the music visually.

Close ups

I chose this still at the lyric comes in 'the boy needs therapy' and therefore due to the title of the song being frontier psychiatrist, the close up illustrates the lyrics.

Music Video Analysis

Target

My target was B1, however the score I received from my exam and coursework combined, was 175 out of 200, therefore I obtained an A1 which was 3 stages above my target grade.

My score at AS - 175/200 - A1: 3 stages above target

Target - B1

Foundation Production: 87/100 Grade A

Tv Drama: 88/100 Grade A

What can I do to improve? 

I achieved higher than my predicted grade by 3 stages, however I got 175 out of 200 for my overall grade, therefore I could have earned 25 more marks. In order to have obtained the outstanding 25 marks; 12 from foundation production and 13 from tv drama, I could have added additional research and planning, or I could have taken more care and time when evaluating our foundation production, such as having sufficient relevant information. Also, with regards to the exam, I could have revised for longer and found a case study sooner rather than later in order to prepare myself in full.