Music Video Evaluation

The brief we were given was to create a music video, which lasts at least three to four minutes long. The requirement for this project is that it must consist of the conventions of music videos. An example of these conventions in our video is that we have close-ups of our artist and that our video is concept/performance based. Before we started filming our video, we researched other artists with similar material to Lana Del Rey. We also analysed a variety of music videos along with Lana Del Rey’s own, to outline any similarities and differences between them. This is so we could grasp a wider understanding of how to shot the video; this is in order to capture the true essence of a sadcore music video. The initial aim for our music video was to create a sadcore video with a mixture of concept and performance based ideas, which includes shots of natural/rural areas, to illustrate the videos distinctive mise-en-scene. The genre of our music video is sadcore and indie-pop. To capture the visual requirements of these genres, we tried to present our video as a quiet, thoughtful form rooted in mournful despondency and lingering despair. The primary target audiences for our video are female students whose ages range from sixteen to twenty six.

In our video, we have been careful to include Andrew Goodwin’s codes and conventions. We have included conventions such as: a relationship between our lyrics and visuals, lots of close-ups of the main artist, our artist develops her own star iconography; we have reference to voyeurism, there is an apparent relationship between the music and visuals; our video is performance based and our particular genre have their own video style and iconography. Our music video sustains an artistic and unique theme throughout; this attracts our target audience as it is the style of music video that they enjoy. Whilst our model is in the shot, she is set in a rural environment, this appeals to our target audience because she is conveyed as abstract, which is what they think of themselves, so it helps the audience relate the star to themselves.

We have represented our model through the camera shots as suitable to our target audience.

We have used high and low angle shots, which helps convey how our artists fluctuating authority, by which she is sometimes seen as vulnerable and confident. This is because in the low shots our model dominates the screen, whereas in the high angle shot she doesn’t. The lighting ranges from dark to light, which symobolises our artist’s mood changes.

Our artist is wearing abstract clothing, which helps her stand out from the natural climate. This helps represent our target audience, as she resembles them. She doesn’t wear derogatory clothing, heavy make-up and is not presented as a sexual object, which makes it easier for her to be considered as an inspiration on how to present themselves, by her audience.  Her facial expressions vary. She is sometimes seen in pain or simply blank, this helps her seem more realistic as she isn’t afraid to express her pain.

Our artist has partially challenged the stereotype associated with our genre of indie-pop. This is due to the fact that our genre needs to cater two types of audiences and follow the pop and indie culture. Our music video represents the indie culture through being unique, but has challenged the pop culture. This is because our model is not illustrated as those in the pop industry usually are.

The TV channels that our music video will be shown on are Q and MTV Rocks. It will also be available online on YouTube and social networking sites so that our audience can leave feedback and communicate with our artist and her producers.

Our music video uses a range of original and found shots. This will result in our video being affected by the copyright laws. The owners of the various other shots in our music video will only be aired once we seek permission from their owners.

OFCOM, the regulatory body for television, have many codes of practice that is deemed necessary to oblige by. One fundamental requirement underpinning these rules is the application of the watershed, which applies to television only. The watershed starts at 21:00 and material unsuitable for children should not, in general, be shown before 21:00 or after 05:30. The watershed is a concept well understood by parents and carers as the time which signals the move towards adult content on television. Another is that it is recognised that music is a fundamental component of radio programming. In addition, they recognise that there is a tradition of certain genres of music including potentially offensive lyrics in songs. In line with the broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression and the audience’s right to receive information and ideas, it is important that broadcasters have the editorial freedom to broadcast potentially offensive content, provided it complies with the Code. Where lyrics in songs might cause children or their parents’ distress or offence, broadcasters should consider taking measures that may mitigate any potential offence e.g. the possible use of track remixes and edits. Broadcasters should take particular care when broadcasting music tracks at times when children are particularly likely to be listening. These codes of practice will result in our music video being aired after watershed hours due to the use of derogative terms. However it may be broadcasted during the day after the offensive language has been edited out.

The use of shots other than our own could be recognised as a weakness of our music video. This is because of the laws of copyright and how it affects our video. Due to this law we would have to ensure that all owners of the other footage are aware of its use in our music video and provide their consent, thus creating extra labor. Although there is a weakness, there are also strengths; one being that it is appropriate for our target audience. This is illustrated through the artistic side of our video, which implies that it consists of codes and conventions that are different to what it is usually seen in generic music videos. This applies to our audience as they are made up of unique individuals that share an interest in the arts and enjoy the depth of music. As well as that another strength of our music video is that we included a variety of shots; such as close-ups, full body shots, bird’s eye view and even our model standing on a rock in the middle of a dirty pond. To conclude, our music video caters to our audience of 16-25 year old females. It’s suitable for them as the song itself is about love and relationship, which helps them relate the song to their own situations. Moreover, our artist is within the same age range as our public domain which further allows our target audience to relate to her.

Analyses of the Key Conventions of Music Videos

I will be analysing three music videos and find out which conventions of Andrew Goodwin they follow. The music videos I will be evaluating are: MIA- Bad Girls, Lady Gaga- Paparazzi and Azealia Banks-212.

The first music video I am analysing is MIA- Bad Girls. This music video features specific hip-hop characteristics, such as: cars and jewellery. It also contains many close-ups of the artist. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are noticed throughout the video. An example of this relationship is through the lyrics “living fast” at this point a car is seen speeding down a highway. Another example of this correlation is when MIA says continually “chains” which she is seen to be promoting throughout the video. As well as that, there is a relationship between the pace and tone of the music and the visuals in the music video, this is made apparent when the fast beat kicks in as a fast car is in the shot. The music video is clearly performance based as the artist is generally in all the shots and singing the lyrics. In the beginning of the music video there is a reference to the notion of looking, as the men are not aware of themselves being filmed.

The second video I am going to study is Lady Gaga- Paparazzi. The specific genre characteristics that this music video contains are: dancing, skimpy clothing, expensive settings, jewellery and a car. All of these characteristics are generally found in videos from the pop culture or pop sub-cultures. There are many close-ups of the artist and her body is displayed often due to her lack of appropriate clothing, which is considered a norm in pop-videos. When the artist sings the words “snap snap” flashes of light are seen on the screen. We can assume that these flashing lights represent the cameras of the paparazzi, which is associated with the chorus and title of the song. The relationship between the pace of the music and the visuals is evident when the beat of the music jumps, as so do the shots in the video. It is obvious that the music video is narrative based, however it also contains elements of a performance based video.

Finally, the third video I am going to scrutinize is Azealia Banks-212. This video does not feature any specific hip-hop characteristics conversely it does challenge it. Instead of presenting inappropriately dressed women and cars, etcetera, the artist is dressed very casually and is always on her feet. There are many close-ups of the artist, the whole video is mainly focused on her dancing and singing the lyrics, which is why it is noted that the video is performance based. Some lyrics appear on the screen, suggesting a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in the music video. As well as that the relationship between the pace and tone of the music and visuals, is made apparent when the music slows down. This is because when this happens the artist also slows down her pace (she is not as jumpy as she is in the rest of the video).

To conclude, these music videos follow most of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions. However, the one that all three of these videos failed to feature in their video is intertextual references to other media texts, but this may simply be because it is not the artists did not wish to.

Final Advert

ADVERT EXPLANATION

The ideologies attached to my advert are that is should be trendy desirable and good quality, this is because it is a designer brand with a range of excellent clothes.


My advert appeals to my primary target audience, which is teenage to middle aged women who are into fashion and are placed in the social class of A to C1 and that, have a lifestyle category of trendies. My advert appeals to this target audience through persuasive techniques and the use of colours to attract buyers and by having the different styles of clothes being visible on the models. This will push them forward and encourage them to buy my clothes.

Referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, I have addressed the following in my advert; from self-actualization: creativity which is expressed through helping people chose what to wear, from esteem: self-esteem, confidence, respect of others and respect by others, all of which are expressed in similar ways in the advert.

The persuasive techniques I have used in my advert to attract a wider audience are admiration, social appeal, personal appeal and stereotype. This is so i can widen my audience range.

With the three people in my advert, I have tried to present them as unique, to create a sense of freedom. They are set in the wilderness as it creates the aroma of festival season, which is the crowd of people that my brand appeals to. The representation of my models enables more people to find an interest in my brand.

These are the images used in my film poster

Changing of Stars Image

I have chosen to analyse Mcfly and to see how their star image has changed over time. Tom Fletcher, the founder of McFly, originally auditioned for another band - Busted. When he didn't make the final cut, he stayed friends with James Bourne, a Busted band member. He went along with the band and taped auditions they were holding for a boy band, which later became V. Danny Jones, who thought he was auditioning for a rock band, went in with his guitar and sang "Bittersweet Symphony". Tom liked his audition and pulled him aside to discuss starting a band their own band. Danny, who was still in school at the time, met Tom in a hotel room every weekend, which acted as a sort of music studio, and began work on their first album - Room on the Third Floor. They still needed a bassist and a drummer, however, so they held auditions. Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter auditioned on the same day. While they were waiting, they talked and became friends. They eventually both made it into the band. McFly were once known as "Baby Busted", but have proven to be anything but. Beating the Beatles' record for youngest band to have a #1 debut album, Mcfly have skyrocketed from small name to one of the biggest bands in the UK.

When Mcfly first came they had a squeaky clean image and their original genre was pop rock/pop punk. An example of this is found in their song ‘five colours in her hair’. This is a good example of their squeaky-clean image because it shows them as fresh and young. Another example of their original image is shown in the song ‘please please’.

The band took a break and came back in a new era of music. Their whole style of music changed to a more mainstream kind of pop. Their videos always consist of them performing but with a narrative. Their visual motifs vary from their hair to the instruments. All of their hair is quite unique and represent their personalities. The concept of their style is quite like the spice girls, in the sense that there is one McFly member for each kind of male. For example, Tom is the sweet guy, Dougie is the grungy guy, Harry is the muscular yet normal looking guy and Danny is the well groomed and cares a lot about his image type of guy.

The record company attempts to sell the bands image by using all of their individual styles to attract a wider fan base. The bands hairstyles and costumes/clothing, as I have said before, help to sell their image and expand their fan base, due to the band member’s individual style, which attract other individual to unite. As well as that, their record company managed to find a way to gain an American audience. The band starred in a major motion picture, called Just My Luck, which helped promote the bands image and songs, worldwide.

In the more recent videos more camera effects have been used within the video. This is different to the older videos because, in the older videos it was more about entertaining rather than having great quality.  

Having shot to prominence in 2003 they have gone on to become one of the biggest pop-rock acts that Britain has ever produced, successfully remodeling and rebranding both their sound and image as their songwriting continued to broaden and mature.  As well as that, they were popular at their time due to the fact that bands similar to them were doing very well. I think the wider cultural significance of the band is hard to narrow down to one or two words. I think they are more like the spice girls in a way, due to their friendship being a key part of their image, as well as the fact that they are strong individuals joined together.

In conclusion, McFly have developed their stars image over time. Their music videos have become more modernized. They are about partying and drinking and there isn’t much of a narrative behind it, whereas before their videos had stories behind it, in which they played characters. Although the bands individual style has pretty much stayed the same.

Trailer Analysis

The typical codes and convections of film trailers are; key moments from the film (not to much as to give the whole film away), the title and date of release are generally shown at the end of the trailer, the names of the main stars are put on the screen earlier in order to allow the audience to  know who to expect to see in the film, sometimes the names of the director or producer are included this helps the audience make comparisons on whether the directors last film was successful, many mainstreams films use a powerful voice-over that draws the audience’s attention to the key points of the film, it may include on screen text that gives important information about the film (including stars, director/produces, tagline, title and release date) and music which is essential in trailers as it can suggest the genre, style and plot of the film.

The target audience for this trailer are varied from young to children to fantasy loving and parents. The unique selling points that this film that this film uses is the harry potter books. As the books themselves are well known books which draw people to watch the films. This trailer uses persuasive techniques such as; celebrity endorsement, it has famous actors/actresses to make people want to watch the film; emotional appeal, it makes the viewers feel certain emotions to grasp their attention; a little bit of humour, to make the viewers laugh and show them it isn’t all serious; slogan, a catchy phrase that sums up the movie without giving away too much; cliff-hanger, this means that the trailer shows enough information to make the audience want to know more without giving away too much; and loaded words, using words with strong connotations. The trailer gives away a few clues about the narrative and the main stars are visible in the trailer. The information about the release date is placed at the end of the trailer but there is no voice-over with it.

The genre of the film has been represented through the characters, as they are school children, the setting of the trailer includes a school and a graveyard, the lighting and colour includes a range of colours from bright scenes to dark scenes, the music on the trailer is dramatic to show that there is a lot of drama, and the camera shots, movements, angles and editing show that the film is dramatic and mystical. All of the above show that the films genre has something to do with drama, magic, school children and a big change.               

You get a better idea of what the film is about from the trailer than from the poster as there are clips from the movie in a sequence that enables the audience to understand what the film is about without actually giving away the whole film, this makes the film more desirable to watch because it leaves the audience at a cliff-hanger, which makes them want to find out what happens, this is a very good persuasive technique.

The advantages of using an internet trailer to promote a film over using a poster campaign are that the internet is global and most of the population have access to it, which will enable the film to do well internationally. Also, it presents visual context in which the dialogue takes place, action accompanying speech, and they show gestures, facial expression, and other body language appropriate to the dialogue, they are short with very concise, catchy dialogue, having highlights of the entire movie, and its free, readily available from the Internet.