Planning

Brainstorm


Permission

I e-mailed Jodie Jones requesting permission to use one of two songs and she e-mailed me back with the below reply -

Why I chose my track

I chose to use the track London Town by Jodie Jones because the song seemed very open ended. The lyrics were closed, yes, but the actual music itself could either lead to a happy or sad video. This meant lots of creative possibilities.

Also, the song was sung by a female artist meaning it would be easier for me to gain performance points as I would not have to find a male willing to be filmed and mime (I have plenty more female friends willing to be filmed than male).

Location Choices

For my filming I have chosen to main locations: a public park near me and Andrea's bedroom. Both are close by to my house and college and so therefore allow for easy access for filming/re-filming. The public park also has several different "settings" I can use making it a natural choice to allow variety of shots in my music video.

Risk Assessment

Performer choices

The person I chose to be the main female protagonist is Andrea Grimley -

- Andrea is a good friend and so therefore I know she will work hard and agree to dress/wear what is necessary

- She is conventionally "girly" and so therefore fits how I picture the main protagonist to look

- She is slim and will wear makeup to enhance her image - therefore in the video this will sell her image to the consumer rather than the music

Costume

Due to the nature of the track I feel dressing my protagonist provactiely, as is conventional for popular music videos invovling female artists, is innopropraite. Instead my main protagonist will adopt the "girl next door" look with plain white tee, blue jeans and Converse All Star shoes. This look, although dressed down, still allows the audience to relate to her therefore still selling her image to the consumer.

Webpage Mockup

CD Cover/Inlay mockup

Storyboard

Above is my storyboard for my music video accompanied by the track I am using. The storyboard does not run in time with the track however.

Treatment

After listening to the music track several times I have planned out a storyboard and come up with a final idea for my music video. The video will centre around the narrative of the lyrics and will therefore involve and boy and a girl falling for each other.

The video will open on the girl fixing her makeup in a mirror before receiving a text message asking her to be somewhere in 5 minutes. The name of the sender and the reason for meeting will be left ambigious in order to indulge the consumer and in order to enable the narrative to work effectively. The girl will then be seen leaving her house and walking down the street whilst miming - therefore incorporating the performance factor into the video. She will be seen to arrive at another house but it is not shown who opens the door.

The video will then cut to the girl with a friend looking at a guys Facebook profile. Who the guy is will be left ambigious but it should be pretty clear from the end of this sequence that the main protagonist is interested in this person and from the lyrics of the song that she has fallen for him. I then plan to incorpoarte some stop motion animation involving a piece of paper unfolding from being screwed up to reveal a love heart with a question mark. This piece of paper unfolding will become the main way for the audience to figure out the main protagonists emotions during the video.

The main protagonist will then be seen sitting under a tree with her friends - potentially talking about the guy. Her phone will be shown with a picture of the guy on it and her friends will show their dissaproval and at obsessed she is with him - again portraying her emotions for him to the audience. This will be followed by her writing notes, getting distracted and drawing a love heart which she then procedes to screw up and throw in the bin. Again, with the stop motion portraying her emotions the screwed up paper unfolds to reveal the heart she drew break.

The girl is seen to go and sit on a bench and mimes again to the camera as the guy comes and sits next to her. He begins to flirt with her and they end up leaving together - portraying the story the lyrics imply. The stop motion finalizes off the video with the screwed up paper now showing the audience just a whole heart - the couple have ended up together.

Research into Genres - Popular Music (Pop)

What is the definition of popular music?
"Music accessible to a wide audience, distributed through the mass media as a commercial product. It tends to be associated with urban rather than rural cultures, and is performed by professional musicians." - http://www.music.princeton.edu/~jeffery/Ellingtonvocab.html

"As a rule, pop music is music which is less rocky than 'Rock', less danceable than 'Dance', less heavy and metallic than 'Heavy Metal', less easy to listen to than 'Easy Listening', less blue than the 'Blues', less jazzy than 'Jazz', less funky than 'Funk', less jazzy and funky than 'Jazz-Funk', more musical than 'Spoken Word', and less likely to make you slit your wrists than 'Country & Western'." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A156520

When was it defined/How long has it been around?
Popular music began in 1954 when Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right Mama" at Sun Studios, Memphis.

"There were rock'n'roll records before this one, nearly all of them by black artists, but this is the moment when the embryonic form found its perfect embodiment." - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/may/02/popandrock

In October 2003, " for the first time since the dawn of rock'n'roll 50 years ago, none of the artists in the official Billboard American Top 10 was white. " If popular music "has a figurehead, it is Beyoncé Knowles, the only woman in that Top 10 and currently the biggest pop star of the new century." -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/may/02/popandrock


What are the typical conventions of this genre of music videos?
"From a theoretical standpoint the popular music video has long been considered the ultimate example of the post-modern text. Music video is a depthless world in which musicians lip synch in simulated depictions of musical performance or act out the fragmented narrative elements eluded to in the lyrics." - http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415448239/rock-party.asp


Who is the typical target audience?
12-17 year olds (female biased)
http://www.mtvnetworks.co.uk/channels/music

In general the target audience is younger teenagers however popular music is usually marketed at the mass' in order to obtain maximum profit.

Research into the Industry

- I have chosen to use a track by an unsigned artist called Jodie Jones

- Jodie is 19 years old and is from Devon, UK.

- Jodie began songwriting at school and released her home recorded debut album in 2005

- Jodie lists "Suzanne Vega, Bruce Hornsby, Vanessa Carlton, Avril Lavigne, Counting Crows" as her influences on her Myspace Music page

- Her lyrics are upfront and confrontational

- As of yet Jodie Jones is an unsigned artist. However, if she were to be signed to a record label it would most probably be to a major record label such as Sony Music Entertainment or EMI

- She would more than likely be signed by a major record label because her music would largely be classified in the pop genre which appeals to the masses and potentially would bring in a lot of profit for the labels

- Major record labels have certain genres they would not sign e.g. alternative rock because they do not fit in the image of popular, widespread music that the company has created for itself

Research into websites

The two website homepages I have analysed below are relevant to the homepage I aspire to create myself. They are both of single, female artists appealing to a mass audience.

Reseach into Target Audiences

For my target audience research I decided to ask a series of 5 questions which would directly influence the style and content of my final music video. The 5 questions asked were as follows –
1. What is your age?
( ) Under 15
( ) 16-18
( ) 19+

2. Do you often watch music videos?
( ) Yes
( ) No

3. Do you prefer –?
( ) Narrative based music videos (ones that have a storyline)
( ) Performance based music videos (ones that show the band performing
( ) Bit of both

4. Would a music video made from stop-motion animation/containing stop-motion animation appeal to you?
( ) Yes
( ) No

5. In a music video featuring a woman is it important that she is provocatively dressed?
( ) Yes
( ) No

I asked the first question so as to pick out relevant results from non-relevant results. Anybody under 15 or over 19 would not fit into my target audience category and so therefore their answers would be less significant in influencing my final project.

I asked the second question so that, again, I could accurately pick out those answers that were relevant and that be helpful from those who wouldn’t – i.e. people who don’t often watch music videos won’t have as much experience in what they like from music videos and their effect.

I asked the third question so that when I make my final project I know I am appealing effectively to my target audience. Depending on the results given from this research I will alter the editing of my video to either contain more performance, more narrative storyline or an equal amount of both.

I asked the fourth question as making a video entirely from stop-motion animation, or even partly, was an initial idea I had. Therefore, by asking my target audience what they prefer I can see whether this idea is suitable or not – whether it would appeal to my target audience or not.

I asked the fifth and final question to help me decide on the costume for my protagonist female character. Although my target audience are girls aged 16-18 they may find videos with females provocatively dressed more “normal” in modern day context then videos where women are dressed down. Therefore, these types of “sexy” videos would appeal to them more – they would idealise the main protagonist/artist. However, they may also be put off by provocative dressing of the main women in videos, feeling that it downgrades them.

I conducted my survey over Facebook, a social networking site, so as to gather as many respondents as possible in a short space of time.


Results
Of all respondents 7% were not in my target age group and so their answers were not wholly relevant although they will still be taken into account/considered at the planning stage if I plan to appeal to the masses.

Of the relevant results 23% preferred narrative based music videos, 8% said they preferred performance based music videos and 69% said they preferred a bit of both (narrative and performance) in music videos.

From this result I conclude that my video will aim to be half performance half narrative as this seems to be the most effective type of video to appeal to my target audience.

Of the relevant results 54% said that a music video made from/containing stop motion animation would appeal to them compared to 46% that said music video made from/containing stop motion animation would not appeal to them.

From this result no result is overtly clear because the percentage for and the percentage against are so close. Therefore, because the percentage for was slightly higher than the percentage against I’ve concluded to use little snippets of stop-motion animation in my music video to either heighten the mood or had important humour a.k.a “feel good factor” to my video – if a video has this factor and is positive it is more likely to appeal to an audience than a depressing video.

The results from my final question are as follows –
30% Yes
70% No

These results are pretty conclusive and so therefore from these results I conclude that my main protagonist, although she should not be dressed down, does not have to be sexually dressed to attract my target audience. However, if I were to sell the image of the artist to a more mass audience, including males, then I may want to take into consideration the female protagonists interest to the male audience and what would entice them/attract them to watch the video.

Research into CD/DVD covers

- Both the first and surname of the artist are shown clearly. As it is his actual name this creates a sense of involvement with the consumer - they feel like they know the artist and feel closer to him
- His name is written in sans-serif font which portrays masculine traits
- His name is coloured red which portrays it's important. However, the fact it is red also connotes that the artist is hot and dangerous - appealing to the sexuality of women and selling the image of the artist.
- The artist pictured is looking directly at the camera and so therefore the consumer feels they are looking directly at them. This creates a sense of involvement again with the consumer and draws them in.
- The artist is the only image on the cover portraying him to be important and dominant. This CD cover sells the artist's image rather than his music. This appeals to the target audience because many of these albums will be sold on how he looks rather than how he sounds.
- The artist has a shadow down the left hand side of his face. If he were shown completely lit than this would portray innocence and purity. As he is shown with a shadow down the left hand side of his face connotations that he is mysterious can be taken. Having a mysterious side could be seen as appealing to the sexual nature of women and so therefore again, selling the artist rather than the music.
- The artist's clothing also helps reinforce this mysterious image that the record label are trying to create - black and grey compared to white which would portray innocence.
- The artist's hair is messed up and gelled. This portrays a rebellious image which appeals to the sexual nature of women and therefore sells his image. Which according to Richard Dyer is creation of the star image.

-Both the first name and surname of the artist are shown clearly - this gives the consumer a sense of involvement with the artist - they are on first name terms with them
- The artist's name is written in pink portraying the fact she is a "girly" girl - likes to dress up, wear make up etc.
- The title of the album is written in a handwriting style portraying that the artist herself has written it. As the title of the album is "Autobiography" to have the title handwritten again makes the consumer feel involved with the artist as is portrays she has personally written this autobiography.
- The artists pink bra is clearly on show but is mainly covered up with the artist's arm. The fact that it is a pink bra renforces the early connotations of her being a typical girl who is innocent and "girly". However, the fact that her bra is on show appeals to the sexual nature of men - therefore selling her image as an artist rather than the music.
- Her image is further sold to the male population by the fact she has messy, perhaps "after sex" hair and is in front of a background of graffitti - both these factors would appeal to the sexual nature of men, portraying her to be a rebel.
- The artist is looking directly at the camera therefore when the consumer looks at the album cover it feels as if the artist is looking directly at them and so therefore they, again, feel involved with the artist.
- The artist's face is airbrushed so as to hide any impurities - this again sells the artists image rather than her music - she is portrayed to be perfect.