The Cultural Studies Approach Perspective on Audience

This was developed by David Morley and attempts to understand how the media might be powerful and influence audiences. There are three different readings an audience can take, a preferred (or dominant) reading meaning that the audience relates to the text and accepts them as natural and correct. There is the negotiated reading where the audience recognize the values in the text and acknowledge them and accept them in general however they change their reading of the text to fit in with their feelings and experiences. The last reading is the oppositional  reading whereby the audience fully understands the values of the text but disagrees with them and rejects them.

I think audiences will take a preferred reading towards my print work because I have used natural images and none that have connotations and represent anyone or anything in an inappropriate way. They will not cause offence. Most audiences will take a preferred reading towards my music video however there will be some shots of alcohol and cast possibly drinking it (we will actually use water!) so therefore some of the elder audience may take offence by this as they feel young people drinking is a bad idea as they binge drink and turn into yobs. Most audiences will view this as a normal thing and accept it.

Research and Planning: More Feedback

I have had some more feedback regarding my advert and digipack.

Advert feedback:

Digipack feedback:

Research and Planning: Focus Group

This is the focus group me and Jack did together. We collected a few people we thought were in our target audience and asked them a few questions. The answers we received were what we wanted to hear.

They guessed who our target audience is and thought that our print work all tied in well with the theme and genre we are going for. Our type of character/star image appeals to them and they also believe this fits in with the genre. When we showed our focus group the three videos which helped inspire us it was interesting that they thought the last video (Viva Brother - Buds of May) didn't fit in well with our theme and the other videos. However they did say it had good influences.


Overall the focus group has helped me and Jack determine that our ideas and genre all match together well and the target audience agree which is what we need. 

Research and Planning:Costume and Props

As you can see our costume is just laid back casual wear that a 16-24 year old would wear. We need to dress the performers in the way that the target audience will like and relate to. We will just get the actors to wear their own clothes as these will be suitable.

Stu will be shot playing the guitar in some parts of the video, he will provide and use his own guitar.

We would like to shoot some scenes outside on a sofa to give the video a different feel, Jack has sourced one we can use from a family member.

We wanted to do some tracking with the camera and thought a good way of doing this would be to use a shopping trolley. We will contact a local supermarket and seek permission to borrow one before we carry this out.

Research and Planning: Performers and Casting

We have contacted the artist we are using for our video. He has happily agreed to come down to Worcester for when we want to film and he will be the star of our video. We have decided that we don't need to have any other male performers as this will take attention off our star.


We may decide to use a female performer to relate to the name of the song, 'She Don't Know'. We still haven't completely decided on this but we have a performer in place just in case. See below.

Just in case the worst comes to the worst and due to travel and weather we can't get Stu to be our main performer we will use Laurie. See Below.

We have chosen reliable people that we know and have already arranged for them to be in our video so we know we won't be let down when it comes to performers.

Research and Planning: Audience Profile

Research and Planning: Locations, Permission, Health and Safety

We intend to film in 3 different locations. 

Location 1: Woods near college grounds

Location 2: Cripple gate park in Worcester

Location 3: The weir near Jack's house

Back up location: Mine and Jack's houses.

As all these locations are public places so we automatically get permission to film there.

Research and Planning: Time plan

Final Digipack & Advert

Deadline

Due to a strike our Digipack and Advert deadline was extended to today, the 6th of December. I have finished well ahead of the deadline and have made all the improvements I was advised to and also got some good quality feedback.

Research and Planning: Feedback

I have shared my digipacks front and back covers on my twitter.

One of my friends replied with this feedback:

Iam really pleased with this reply, as I wanted my digipack to be as professional as possible.

Feedback for Advert

I uploaded my first draft advert that I had designed to twitter to ask my followers for their thoughts and improvements. This is one of the replies I received. I also uploaded it to Facebook and got some replies there too. 

Inspiration for Print Work

Research and Planning: Location and Heath and Safety

I have decided to shoot in a rural location near to where I live. I have several in mind. They are all public footpaths or public parks so I do not need to get permission to be on the land. As we are now well into the winter months I may have some problems with the weather. If it is raining I wont be able to shoot as I can't risk getting my camera wet. Also if it is foggy this may cause visibility problems however I think it could also have quite a nice effect. 

There are little things that could cause a heath and safety issue on my shoot I have listed 2 which may however be a problem and what I need to be careful of.

Research and Planning: Print Time Plan

These are the times and deadline I have set myself to complete by the 2nd of December. I am confident I will be able to meet these deadlines comfortably.

Research and Planning - Relevance of Digipacks and Adverts

Our world as we know it is constantly taking a digital shift. From records to tapes to CDs to now the digital download technology and music is constantly changing and with this change we are saying goodbye to the relevance of printed album covers. Less people buy albums then ever, most people turn to the digital download. This maybe eco friendly (less plastic and paper used) but it means less room for artists to produce a product you can actually hold. Many new artists cannot afford to produce a printed album so they are turning to iTunes because this means they can release their album with out a physical copy at a cheaper cost. However I do believe it is very important to have a good digital cover for an artists album because it is the imagery at the end of the day that grabs peoples/customers attention.

Research and Planning: Digipack Adverts - Print Research

Advertising albums is very important in these current times for the music industry because more and more people are turning to illegally downloading music. Advertising the album and showing special offers and offering hidden tracks will tempt more people to buy the actual product. 

This advert is for a album from a band called Battles. I think this is a great piece of design, its ever so simple but stands out is very unusual. The picture is hard to make out which means your eye is drawn to the strange shape and the bright colour. I think the target audience for this  advert is people who appreciate unusual indie music and interesting elements of design. I think its aimed at an older generation then say an advert for current pop band. The advert its self is half a page as they are an established experimental band. Due to the bright colours used in the photo, the font colours and choice are plain and in monochrome. The only information displayed is the release date, a review and a website.The advert is definitely redundant there is nothing unexpected. The band are not using their star image to promote their album as they are not present in the advert.

This is an advert for the album 'Rome' from Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi. This is a simple advert with no photography used, just graphics used to create a visual. The bold black heart makes the advert stand out on the page. The other colour that's used is red making the most important areas of text stand out, for example 'Out now' and 'Rome' very important details. This advert displays more information than the one above. To tempt people to buy it featured songs are listed on the advert. The formats you can buy the album in are noted and there is also a Amazon logo so you know you can purchase it there. The design and font used for this advert give no clue as to what the genre is. The image used has no relation that I can see to the title of the album. I had to google the album to find that it is infact an indie rock album. So from this I can conclude that it is an entropic advert. Again this advert was half a page.

Research and Planning: Digipack - Print Research

This is an album cover for Birdy's self titled album. The shot is a simple long shot of the artist, Birdy. Her star image is very relaxed she is seem as a genuine artist who is about the music not the fame and money, the simplicity of the shot, typeface and mise en scene reinforce this, she is not flaunting anything or trying to look like something she isn't. She is an alternative artist and I think her album cover matches this genre. The mise en scene is vintage and old looking which fits in with the alternative scene. The cover doesn't display any information other then her logo/name. This cover is definitely redundant, I can tell this from the way everything is related, her clothes are quite quirky and her posture makes her look innocent. The surroundings as I mentioned earlier look old and shabby and these things all tie into the indie genre which is what the music is.

This is the digipack for Paramore's first album. The shot of the sofa outside is dark, mysterious and alternative and this is relates to their music which is alternative pop/punk/rock. The back panel has a shot of the band, here it shows their attitude and star image as a young teenage band who just care about making music and looking like 'rock stars'. Again this back panel uses dark lighting which highlights that the genre is rock. On the front cover we can only see their logo and the name of the album and on the back we see the names of the songs and a bar code. I think the target audience for this album is young teenagers who are into the rock and roll scene and go to lots of gigs. It is definitely a redundant digipack the lighting, the shots and the fonts used all connect together to present us with the genre. 

This is inside the digipack it is using the dominant colour from the front cover the turquoise stands out however is a little plain because there is no imagery and it is simple it doesn't really tie in with the genre and the front cover. It does however display all the information on the record label and the thanks from the band in a clear and concise way which is nice. The actual CD its self is white which I find strange as white is seen as a pure colour and this is challenging the bands image of a rock and roll band who are edgy and rebellious. 

This is a digipack for a classical/folk street band. The front cover is just a picture of their instruments but I think this shows their star image also, it connotes the fact that they are all about their instruments and nothing else, it's all about the music and not them as people. This is very much how most artists are in this genre unlike pop artists who are used to advertise their music with their appearance. The font used on the cover is simple and colours used are bright giving a sense that the music is cheerful and relaxing. The back panel again doesn't directly show the artists it just shows their shadows but they are not without their instruments. The font on the back in simple and easy to read and displays all the information we need to know about the album. As this is a independently produced album it has no barcode, itunes link, etc.

This is the inside of the album we see the first image of the band and as you can see it is a distant shot, the editing of the photo makes it look old and rough looking which matches their style of genre. This digipack is definitely redundant because it is extremely easy to predict the genre and style of music. The design on the CD also ties in with the simple style I like the graphics used.

This is the inside of the digipack sleeve. We see another picture of the band but closer up, you really have to look hard to see what the band actually look like, they are very distant. I think it would have been nice if more of the information was displayed on the inside instead of the back panel.

Prezi Pitch

Summary of Feedback

After delivering our pitch to the group they all filled out a feedback form giving their thoughts and opinions on our ideas.


Suitability for stated target audience: All feedback we received on this point was very positive no one said they thought we had the audience and idea completely mixed up. Here are some examples of the responses we got - 'The target audience is correct fro their video' - 'Very good, showed the audience the specific audience and idea'. 


Originality of the idea: The general feedback on this section states that people think our ideas are really good however there is nothing original about them. We need to have a twist to make it different to other videos out there. Examples of peoples responses are: ' As long as it's not the same as other videos it will work well' - 'Inspirational and the idea is very good, simple but effective'


Logistical arrangements: On this particular question everybody mentioned the weather as the key issue. Jack and I have discussed this and we know that we can film in any weather except the rain, it doesn't matter if we film on a dull day and in some respects we definitely need a dull day to film some of the shots anyway to give it the urban feel we want. Another issue people mentioned was our idea of filming our artist in a boat. Jack owns a canoe and we know for health and safety reasons our artist will have to wear a life jacket but we have planned for this and are prepared to make this scene work. Some of the comments we received were: 'Could be cold to film outside' - 'The boat scene will be very hard to organise'


Technical aspects of idea: For this section most people thought our ideas were do able so we know we don't need to tone down our shots etc. Some examples of comments include - 'Seems achievable although could be difficult filming on the boat' - 'Will be really hard and take a long time to get right' - 'It seems suitable for the technology being used' 


Does the idea sound realistic: For this everyone again agreed and said yes they thought it was a realistic idea and will work well. Examples of comments - 'Yes, it may need a lot of live performance to make it really feel like a music video' - 'It sounds like its from the big 4'


Overall: Everybody seems to think our idea is exciting and achievable if we put effort and time in to it. We will take all the comments in and we have already created a plan b if our artist or the weather lets us down.

Research and Planning: Pitch

Research and Planning: Sven E Carlson Theory Video Research

Amndrew Goodwin is not the only person to come up with a music video theory. Sven E Carlson also has a theory that is called modern mythic embodiment. His theory contains three different types of mythic characters or forces that the music video artist will embody. These are, commercial exhibitionist, televised bard and electronic shaman. An example of  a commercial exhibitionist is Britney Spears in her music video for the song '3'. Carlson's theory says that the performer is selling themselves to be in the spotlight. This is definitely present in this video as Britney is seen to have risky outfits on, in effect selling her body for stardom which is what Carlson talks about in his theory.

Research and Planning: Creativity - Planning

Creativity is when you let your mind wonder free and you run wild with your ideas and let there be no limits. It is the ability to see something in a new way and think about things in ways you haven't explored. 

I study Art and Graphics for my A levels, these subjects require me to be creative in order to get good grades. For example I have to create designs for posters, cd's and magazines in graphics which means I have to think of new ideas that no one else has done before and in art I have to paint and recreate images in exciting ways all of which require creativity.

This week I have been creative and have been capturing some ideas and the overall feel I want my music video to have. I did this by going to outside locations to take photos. My partner and I took some photos of possible close ups we could use in our music video and we looked at ideas for the print work too. All in all we were coming up with lots of ideas and bouncing them off each other to develop them further in order to have some brief ideas of what we want to achieve with our video. 

Sometimes at college my creativity is limited, for example we can't leave college grounds so it is hard if you want to film something that you want to look a particular way. Also being able to set up locations, costumes and props so they look really professional costs a lot of money so this therefore limits our creativity and we have to think of ways around that issue.

Research and Planning: Andrew Goodwin - Music Video Analysis Research

The audio has not been used to influence the visual in this video, instead it focuses on the narrative. The verses and choruses are shot the same, I cannot see a difference between the two. However in the bridge we see a change in location and the editing does become a faster pace.
The lyrics are about cars but if you look at them carefully then you can see they are actually sexual metaphors.  The narrative video follows the star working on some cars and then conducting a race between two males in their cars. Through out this the shots are sexualised and the male gaze is used. This means the video combines the literal meaning of the narrative and also the hidden meaning, which is very clever. Obviously the hidden meaning of the story is hidden because that would mean the video would be to explicit for her younger fans. It has been in the news recently that Rihanna's newer videos have had some complains for being to sexy and unsuitable for younger viewers. See this MTV news article for the story: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657250/rihannas-sm-video-director-responds-controversy.jhtml
Andrew Goodwin's theory also looks at star image. Rihanna is the star, who is thought of as a young sexy woman and that is how the video portrays her. Nearly every shot has her in it, including lots of close ups of her face and body parts, such as her legs. Rihanna is also thought as to be a strong female character and I think this is represented by the fact that she is working in an environment that is usually male dominated. Showing that the view of women being strong is emergent.
I think this video is amplifying, the hidden meaning of the song is represented through the shots of Rihanna's legs etc where as the shots of the cars and car garage amplify the obvious meaning of the song.

Research and Planning: Andrew Goodwin - Music Video Analysis Research

This song has a definite change in tempo between the verses and chorus's. The verses are slow and the chorus is fast and very up beat, the video represents this well. The shots for the verses are longer then the shots in the chorus. When the front man starts singing there is a change of location to a party scene which links to the lyrics. Synaesthesia is represented well in the chorus when the beat becomes faster the shots becomes very fast and there are lots of lasers and bright lights which is how I see the music. Andrew Goodwin suggests that seeing the sound is a key aspect of a music video. This is definitely present in this video when the beats get faster so does the editing. 
The lyrics talk about liking techno music, there are two locations. One where the band are playing in what looks like a factory space and another where the front man is at a party. He looks uncomfortable while everyone else is partying and having a good time. This relates to the lyrics, "She said I should come over
Though the music's not my type". So we know he's gone to his friends party and is not feeling comfortable because the music and setting is not his type. 
Goodwin's theory also talks about star image.The band are represented as the star image as for over half the video it is them performing however it does not tell you anything about the band e.g how they became a band or how they got famous. We know from the video which member of the band is the front man and this is down to his star image being represented in the video. He is the only member seen on a different location and most shots are of him and there are also lots of close ups of him making him seem like the important star in the band.
There is a huge variety of shots and in the party location the camera is always moving and the lighting and costumes really make it look like a real party. The way they capture the essence of the song is all in the editing the fast and slow editing that match the song make the video great. 
Using Andrew Goodwin's theory I have come to the conclusion that this video is Amplifying because the meaning of the song is added to through the visuals although on the other hand people may think that is is slightly illustrative but it doesn't follow the lyrics word for word so that is why my choice is Amplifying. 

The band in the main location performing and showing their star image.















One of the shots of the party location in the chorus when the cuts are really fast.











Shot of the front man looking awkward at the party location.

Research and Planning: Andrew Goodwin - Music Video Analysis Research

Mumford and sons are a folk band and the music video defiantly represents this. In the chorus we often see a similar shot: the band being hit with flying leaves and walking into a wind. In between the gaps of verses and chorus's the video has been edited with a fade to black shot, to define the difference in each part of the song. In the verses we see lots of different shots in different locations, some of the whole band and some close ups of individuals. The cuts between shots are all on the beat, due to the genre being folk synaesthesia is present because the way the shots have been edited and filmed fits in with the music and genre. When I think of folk music I think of acoustic guitars and fields, things which are present in this video. Lots of outside locations are used. 
From Andrew Goodwins theory I have decided that this video is disjunctive. The song is, like most songs, about love and a girl. We do not see any girls present in the video all the shots are of the band. The video follows the bands growing success and at the end of the video we see them on a journey to a festival and eventually perform to fans. This has no relation to the lyrics. However the shots of the band being blown by leaves however does relate to the name of the song 'Winter Winds', it also has been edited to look cold and like winter. This is the only relation I can find. 
The star image obviously in the video is the band. Most of the shots are of them together or individually. The video follows their journey as a band which is interesting to the viewer and gets them interested in the stars story. 

This is a fade used separate the verses and chorus's.
























Guitar and field here a present which helps relate to genre.
















The band on location giving out their star image.
















The wind which relates to the name of the song.

The band performing again enhancing the star image of the video.

Editing

I think editing went really well. There was no need to capture clips any more we just had to put the camera card straight in the computer and they were all there, this made editing quicker and easier.

During the editing of this task I learnt that rendering your work every so often will help the video play smoothly.

There were some parts in the video that we needed to speed up so this tool was very useful.

Production

To shoot this Busted video we used a HD video camera which are new to college so these were different to use compared to last years cameras.

The new cameras are defiantly easier to use and are much quicker. During production I learnt that to listen to all members of the team is very important and to correct peoples mistakes to make sure you get the perfect shot. It is also best to try different angles and shoot the different shots a number of times so you have some variety when editing.

During this school year I wish to work with the lighting when filming and learn how to use these to their full potential. Our shoot was very successful however to make it even better some people weren't too sure what they were doing, I think we should have directed these people and maybe done a few more practises of the group shots.

Research and Planning

For research and planning we did a number of tasks to help us with this. The best was the story board and detailed shot list we wrote.

These showed us the different shots we needed to create and I think it shows in our video that we copied the shots as best we could. I think to make our video better we needed to have planned our props and costume a bit better. If we were all in full uniform and had real 3 real guitars, I think it would look a lot more professional. To do all this research we had to watch the original video a fair number of times. Here is a link to the original video so you can compare it to our remake.



During this year for A2 media studies I expect to do a lot of planning to be able to complete a professional looking music video. I expect to a lot of research by looking at existing videos in my chosen genre. I will also need to look at the type of person who will be interested in that genre and get to know what they like and dislike so I make sure that my video will appeal to them in the right way. Casting, costume and props will need a lot of planning and organisation as this will have a big effect on how professional the music video will look so this therefore needs a lot of thought. Story boarding and shot lists will then be the key element to make sure the shots are planned out properly and so I know exactly what I need to film to avoid confusion.