Audience research - What it told me

From undergoing my audience research I am now able to cater my production specifically to the needs of the audience in order to make my production a bigger success. The research I underwent was an online questionnaire filled out by my primary target audience and also secondary research which was found on the you.gov website which gave me statistical information on the profile of the individual who listens to the artist who's song I have chosen. This information has given me an idea of what the audience is but also what they are interested in, what they want to see and how they want to see it. This has allowed me to specifically engineer my work towards that type of individual so that they will have maximum satisfaction when watching the music video.

What I learned from this research was that my primary audience consists of primarily young working class males. I was then able to learn that through my questionnaires, my audience likes to see realistic issues being explored and even explained in an attempt to raise awareness of these issues within UK society today. This coincidentally ties in with social realism very well allowing me to support my own personal beliefs that social realism should be incorporated within today's media indefinitely.  

Genre music video analysis 3

I have again analysed a music video from the underground dance music, I have chosen to analyse the song Close by Drumsound and bassline smith. This song is conventional of this music genre as it has not entered mainstream culture. This music video has only 2,000,000+ views which suggests its level of success is not very high. The video is what you would regard as a narrative video as it follows a specific story line.

The aesthetics of the video are either bland or dull within this music video which creates the relevant atmosphere intended for the viewer, this atmosphere is one which is sinister and dark which has been reached primarily through the lighting and the colours used within the video. These colours are primarily dark or dull which can connote a level of sadness which runs throughout the video. The camera work also signifies this level of sadness especially within the protagonist of the video, an alien who is literally alienated by everyone he comes across. The camera work achieves this by constantly reminding the audience of his sadness by showing close ups on his face often portraying a sad facial expression. This is also achieved by filming the protagonist from a high angle which gives the audience a perspective that looks down on the character which can cause the audience to literally subconsciously also look down on the character.

The narrative of this video explores an alien who works at an office job like other people but is still discriminated against because he is an alien. This Narrative can link the visuals to the lyrics in the sense that by rescuing a female alien from torment by humans, the alien has been pulled close to another alien and potentially his lover.

Genre music video analysis 2

For the second genre music video analysis I have decided to use DJ Fresh's - Gold dust. This song is a narrative video which depicts a recreational play area where the black community within America are going about their daily leisure activities which include stuff like playing basketball, dice and even skipping. This music alike Wilkinson's afterglow is unconventional because of the fact that it is popular. This popularity has earned this video 36,000,000+ views on YouTube with a staggering 149,000+ likes. This is unconventional as most music videos of this genre do not even reach the 1,000,000 view mark due to the music genre on the whole not being apart of mainstream society. 

The editing of this video utilises the slow motion effect on most shots as it allows the video to place emphasis on important aspects. These aspects primarily include the activities in which the people are undergoing. The cinematography of this is also used specifically in order to achieve a certain goal. This goal is to show the happy emotions of the characters by using endless close up shots on the faces of individuals. This allows the audience to understand the vibe and atmosphere of the scene which in this case is happy and euphoric. The aesthetics produce a sense of simplicity in this video as the kids do not have expensive technology nor flashy clothes yet the happiness on their faces is still there.

There is a clear correlation between the lyrics and the visuals when I interpret them personally. The lyrics go on to suggest that there is no need to be scared of the black community and that if one was to fight this fear and join them that they would be surprised at how much fun they would have.

Vodcast - 27/12/16

Here is my vodcast which briefly explains my feelings towards the progression I have made on my coursework up until this point in time.

Genre music video analysis 1

In this music video analysis I have stayed with the drum and bass/underground dance music genre and used Wilkinson's Afterglow which is arguably one of the most successful music videos within this genre of music, this is down to its level of popularity among the social media site YouTube. This music video gained a staggering 54,000,000+ views and 300,000+ likes.

With specific regards to technical details in this music video. It is blatant from the offset that this video has been filmed with a high level of professionalism due to the clear quality of the camera and the fluent nature in which the video runs. The video is a narrative video which makes this video unconventional due to the fact that underground dance music videos despite their rarity, often have concept music videos in order to match the spontaneous and weirdness of the music. The video depicts a young white couple and then lists their stats within their relationship which includes things such as how many goldfish they have had to the number of anniversaries.

This music video has a specific aesthetic to it as it uses primarily vibrant and solid colors, this gives an uplifting effect to the audience as the mood is initially set on the visuals and the vibrance leads to a vibrant outlook on the video. The editing of this music video is done in a way to create a montage style effect by having lots of short and quick clips. This ties in with the cinematography as the camera shots are chosen so that the visuals have relevance to the writing on the screen. This is done as it is a narrative with a statistical style. There is no elaboration on the text or the videos making the clips statements which tell the audience what has happened. This is a dictation to what the audience can see and take away from the video in terms of thoughts and feelings.

There is a solid and concise link between both the visuals of this video and the lyrics used in the song. This link is to do with the love the two characters have for each other. The lyrics reiterate the point that the two lovers don't care what happens as they are so happy living in the present moment with each other despite all of the negatives such as the arguments and the fights. The visuals show this as they show negative aspects of the relationships immediately followed by more overwhelming positives aspects of the relationship. 

Influences

Alike my AS media coursework, I engineered this project towards the social realism movement. This movement captures realistic social issues which isn't glamorous and lacks frequent inclusion within today's media products. As for many people within today's society, life can be viewed through a grim and horrible perspective which contrasts completely to the way life can be often depicted through the means of media. I morally believe this is wrong as it creates a sense of hyper reality and people then drift away from a realistic perception and consciousness. I am therefore a strong believer for the inclusion of social realism within media, I believe that more substantial moral issues within society could be illustrated and made more aware through this and that this would therefore help society in revealing the problems we face today rather than ignore them. This has been a massive influence on why I have decided to create the video with the chosen narrative as it reiterates the idea that even I can help make a difference with the above issues by creating this music video. 

In terms of other media products which have influenced me into creating this specific music video there are many which aided me with regards to aesthetics, the story line and even the character profiles. These media products include:
- Weekender (Film)
- Blk and Blu - chase and status (Music video)
- This is England (Film & T.V series)
- Skins ( T.V series)

All of these media products have mutual themes which explore contemporary youth by using drugs and music as a means to escape reality. I have also followed this type of narrative by basing my story line on the rave culture of today. I believe that as most of these films were set in the 1980's/90's rave culture, this has influenced me further to explore the less explored and to raise awareness of what is happening today within the UK specifically.

Copyright request

Here is the letter I sent to the publishing company which published Chase and status' song Blind Faith requesting the permission to use the song in my media coursework in an non-profitable way.

My production update 8/12/16

I am now at the point where I am mid-production, I have now successfully shot and edited scene 1 in Kyle's house. I am happy with the footage I have got as it will allow me to build on and more easily string together the scenes so that it looks aesthetically pleasing and also professional. I am now at a point where I have organised a production schedule and have also consulted characters with regards to time management when filming. I am awaiting the dates where the production is planned, in the mean time I am working on planning and researching in order to get the filming done as specifically and effectively, to the visual picture I have in my mind, as possible.

Production schedule

Here you can see my production schedule which has been created in both a table format and a calendar format on the computer. This has been done in an attempt to organise the shooting so that I have sufficient time to get the required footage needed in order to stick to deadlines and produce something of a professional standard. I wrote down the location, date, time, characters and props which is all the relevant information needed to make this shoot a success. Also as you can see I have given a sufficient amount of time to do the shooting prior to the deadline incase of the event where the shooting goes wrong or it is unable to take place, this will leave me time to amend the mistakes made and not have to rush it which again ensures that I will complete this shooting to a professional standard.

Animatic storyboard

Here is my animatic story board, this is how roughly the shots will be shot in terms of timing and matching up with lyrics and beats of the song. This is here to roughly show me how the video will look in terms of order of clips.

My production update 24/11/16

Since my last production update which was done 2 weeks ago todays, I have come along with the planning and research on my task. I have now successfully confirmed which people I am going to use for my characters along with the locations I am going to use for each scene. I am very happy with how far I have come and how well I have evidenced it within my blog. I have completed my storyboard and call sheet so that I now have a clear visualisation of what the production is going to look like and whether it will be effective or not. I now know what I need to do in order to succeed within this task, which is to conclude a production schedule and actually produce it.

Props and costumes

With regards to the costumes of the characters, each character will be in 2 costumes throughout the whole production. One of these will be their school attire/uniform which they will feature in until the scene at the park where they will be in their clothes for going out in.

Costumes

Kyle:
-School: Black jeans, White shirt, blazer, tie and black trainers.
-Going out: Black jeans, long sleeved polo shirt, smart trainers.

Jordan:
-School: Black jeans, White shirt, black windbreaker jacket and black trainers.
-Going out: Blue/Black jeans, sweater/jumper, trainers.

Luna:
-School: Black skirt, black tights, White shirt, black padded jacket and school shoes.
-Going out: Funky leggings, bright and funky top, trainers

Props

Kyle's house

- Certificates

- Trophies

- Folded and neat clothes

- Report card

Luna's house

- Phone

- Fairy lights

- Paintings

Jordan's house

-Wine bottles

-Cigarettes

-Ash tray

-Dirty clothes everywhere

School

-Cigarettes

-School bell

Shed

-Fake drugs

-Alcohol

-Cigarettes

Park

-Car

-Cigarettes

-Fake drugs

Club

-Fake drugs

Storyboard

Location scouting

So with regards to the locations I would like to use, I have already got a visual image in my mind of what I want each scene to look like. I will list the number of locations below.

Locations:

Jordan's bedroom/house
I am going to use my dad's flat to film this scene as he is going to be playing Jordan's alcoholic dad. We will have to mess up the flat a bit to get the right level verisimilitude within the scene. I will attach screenshots of what I would like it to look like. This place, essentially, is going to look dirty and uncared for as if there is no pride in the environment his dad lives in.
 









Kyle's bedroom/house
For this location I am wanting to use my own bedroom. I will try and make it look as neat and tidy as I possibly can and I will be using props that I already have for the scene such as trophies and certificates etc.

Luna's bedroom/house
For this location I am going to be using molly's bedroom as I believe it has an artistic setting with the use of fairy lights, mirrors and canvas paintings. This is also the same house where the shed is, so with regards to getting the shots done quickly this will be advantageous for me.

School/school gates
I am going to use my school, Ilkley Grammar School to film this as I have access during the week and within my frees to get the relevant footage shot. I will also be allowed to bring in my friends to do some shooting without going against safe guarding rules within school.

Streets
For this location, I am going to use a set of streets within burley which is actually relatively close to the shed so it will be efficient filming. This area is a predominantly working class with terraced, newly built homes giving it that right level of verisimilitude. This will be incorporating social realist elements into my production by using realistic settings and not setting simply there to please an audience by the aesthetics.

Park
The park is simply a park, my local park within the village I live has perfect features which I can use, I am only using this location for about 4 shots so it isn't the most important scene. I need a bench where Luna and Kyle can sit and wait for Jordan to get the drugs. A bench next to the bowling green is used for that exact purpose by local youths so by using this spot would present the watcher with a real life view on picking up drugs.

Club
With regards to the club, I have emailed the wire club and asked if it would be possible to undergo some filming within their venue. I have chosen this venue as I believe it has the spooky and dark vibe in which my production needs to properly get the narrative to be as blatant and effective as possible.

Shed

With regards to the shed I will be using Molly's outhouse which will have all of the necessary props needed to make my production match the visual image I have. This is because of the sofas and homely atmosphere it has despite the fact it is not a part of the house.

My final idea

 I have decided to recreate the music video for chase and status' blind faith ft. Liam Bailey. My narrative idea consists of using 3 young adults to illustrate how music allows them to escape an oppressive reality in which they live in. This coincides with the lyrics of the song as it states: 

Sweet sensation

I am a man with a heavy heart, and I dare not turn the pages
Fighting with automatic self destruction
It's a blind faith, a cruel waste, one bitter taste
So I know I need this sweet sensation

Sweet sensation
The music that we play will ease your mind
[x2]

What is a man now to do with his mind when it's working overtime?
The best I can do is now dance with the devil
I keep my soul sane, I won't waste this time and space
So I know I need this sweet sensation

These lyrics can be interpreted specifically to follow the narrative of my production. The narrative is basically the characters living within their oppressive realities and how they use the music as a source of temporary escapism from life itself. This will be filmed in a montage using effects such as slow motion to add to the build up of the music and to add to the intensity, specifically, when the drop comes in. When the song is about to reach a climax, all of the characters seen so far are depicted coming together and getting ready to go out on a night out. They have gone from being dressed in school uniform and being treat like children with adult responsibilities to going out and not having a care in the world apart from the atmosphere and mood they are currently living in, in that specific moment. A major sense of euphoria is reached with the help of taking illegal drugs and dancing in a dark warehouse. The music is the sweet sensation described in the lyrics of the song. The anti-climax of the music will result in the characters returning home from the rave at about 5am when societies awake again, and they have to come back to civilisation and face reality once again. This will be depicted by the sight of all of the characters walking in an empty street with the birds chirping, girls holding their shoes and wearing the boys jackets, the boys with hands in pockets trying to keep warm and the constant yawning and monged out state of the characters will be shown through constant close ups.

Character profiles

My production consists of 3 main characters: Luna, Jordan and Kyle. Each of these characters are very individual.

Kyle - Kyle is the most fortunate character out of the 3 as he comes from a wealthy background , always has food in the fridge and a mum who loves him very dearly. Kyle's older brother was sent to prison for armed burglary which has resulted in his mum being over protective about Kyle and in particular how well he does at school. This is because she simply does not want a repeat of what happened previously and she hopes for Kyle to live a life of luxury but by abiding by the law. Kyle feels as if his mum puts too much pressure on him with regards to his school work and he feels as if he needs to escape. You would argue that Kyle is stylish, always wearing nice new clothes, has good relationships with his peers and a love life to envy. He is good looking yet arrogant and often angry, despite this he loves his 2 best friends Luna and Jordan who you would not consider to be as popular or cool as Kyle.

Luna - A very weak but strong individual who feels like life is going against her, her pursuit for normality renders her exhausted. Luna is a lesbian and has been for as long as she can remember despite her often attempts to convince herself that she is straight. Luna has never really been able to fit in with girls at school and has distant relationship with her parents. Her relationship with Jordan and Kyle comforts her however as she is able to be herself around them. Luna often experiences discrimination against her sexuality and has now learnt to ignore it despite the fact it takes a chunk out of her every time. She feels like she is still trying to work out why she is different and ultimately working out who she is. Luna also feels as if she needs to escape.

Jordan - Arguably the most oppressed character, Jordan often feels worthless and hard done by. Jordan's mum died when he was young and his dad has been depressed ever since, this has lead to addictive habits and is also the reason why he is unemployed. Because of this Jordan is incredibly poor and very rarely has clean clothes to go to school in or a clean environment to live in. Jordan is ultimately quiet and shy, he has never kissed a girl and doesn't mind. He believes that he has had the misfortune of having stability and happiness taken away from him for such a long time. Jordan often uses a concoction of drugs to suppress the negative feeling inside of him, he is scared that he is going to end up exactly like his dad: alone, scared and insignificant. Jordan needs to escape more than anyone.

Below I have got photo's of the potential actors in which I would like to use for these roles:

 Max: I believe that max would be able to fulfil Jordan's role effectively as a passive individual himself, I have lots of trust within this guy so I believe he will take it seriously and not let me down.

 
 Darcy: I believe that as she's full of life and always got something to say, she will fit Luna's role perfectly as she will bring a vibrance to the production.

 Danny: I think that Danny will be able to fulfil the role of Kyle very well as he is also a very bubbly individual who's often centre of attention, alike Kyle. I trust Danny indefinitely to undergo the shooting and filming.

Here you can see from each conversation, me asking the individual if they would like to be apart of my production. On each occasion the individual said yes meaning that I have now successfully got my characters.

I have also managed to persuade both my mum and my dad to play the characters of Kyle's mum and Jordan's dad.

My production update 10/11/16

It is the 10th of November and I would say that I am fairly confident with how my planning of my production is going so far. I am however worried at there fact that the wire club are yet to respond to the email I sent them regarding the possibility of filming within their club, because of this, I have conversed with Sir and we have come up with some back up plans in case they do not get back to me.  Despite this slight hiccup, I am well on with organising the production overall, I have got lots of potential actors and locations, a narrative and visual image in my head of what i want my initial production to look like. I am now looking to finalise all of the planning and then basically crack on with filming and putting my production together.

Shot list 2

Audience questionaire

I uploaded a questionnaire by using the online survey website 'survey monkey'. Here I conducted a survey which had generalised and specific questions on genre and music videos. I wanted to find out specifically from anonymous sources what people thought. I chose anonymous because I believe that when people know its anonymous they are more likely to be true with what they are saying and not make it up to please the surveyor.

This is the tweet I put on twitter from my own personal twitter account in an attempt to retain answers from people who are likely to be within my primary target audience.

As you can see below, here are the responses to my survey show statistically.

The above question shows that the people who carried out this survey do tend to watch music videos meaning that the whole concept of them are not redundant and that they do have a purpose.

The above question shows the popularity of each genre amongst the people who carried out the survey. From this information I can tell that more contemporary forms of music are the most popular suggesting that the people who responded to the survey are from the younger generation.

The above question illustrates the point that people are not dismissive when it comes to other music genres and even if my music genre is not the favourite of the audience, they might still be inclined to watch and listen purely because of the video itself.

Above, the question illustrates the point that both narrative and concept videos are effective in enticing an audience however, narrative is more popular which is good news for my production.

Above, this question shows that on the whole people do prefer the music video when the lyrics and visuals have a recognisable relationship.

Above this question's response shows me that people are both open and closed to the idea of it being almost a performance. Many people expect to see the artist but I think this is down to the fact that it is conventional to see the artist so by having the artist not present it would seem weird.

Here it shows that the split was 50/50 with regards to wether they would want to see music videos which are closely related to them.

Shot list 1

Pitch version 2

I decided that I would re-do my pitch to the class with the goal to make it better and to provide the listeners with more of an understanding. I accomplished this by providing visual aids for the audience which will allow me to manipulate the audiences mental image of what it is going to look like. 

Initial secondary audience research

Here I have used the website: https://yougov.co.uk/results/ to research the audience of Chase and Status, the artist who's music I used within my music video.

This suggests that the secondary demographic group of people who like chase and status are generally working class females aged 18-24. The likely regions are East Anglia, South coast and the north east. In terms of politics people are usually left wing and their professions tend to be Advertising, Translation or Fashion design. People normally have a disposable income of around £125 to £499 per month. 

This suggests that people are usually online for around 36-40 hours per week and watch TV for around 21-25 hours per week. Tv shows consist of American Dad, Family Guy, Live Ford Super Sunday and Champions League Highlights. The most common read newspaper is The Sun.

This suggests that these people enjoy buying and selling online, our quizzes and watching live music. Favourite sports include motorcycle grand prix and archery. General interests are usually video games, mobile applications and sex and relationships. Niche interests consist of German, Spanish, Motorcycle Grand Prix, English National Football and Japanese. The most likely pet is said to be a cat. 

This suggests that people who like Chase and Status would describe themselves as Geeky, Spontaneous and Loyal. But... on occasion would describe themselves as Nerdy, Selfish and Forgettable.

This suggests that these people would be the customers of Twitter, Mccoys, Virgin Media, Collect, Play Station, Hermes, Snapchat, SKY.COM, Vans and mainly shops at Tesco supermarket. Clothing brands such as Zara, Urban Outfitters and Firetrap are popular. In terms of bank these people would use Natwest and the top make of car is Seat. 

This suggests people favourite movies would be Zoolander 2, Inception, Dirty Grandpa, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Big Short. Favourite TV shows consist of Russel Howards Good News, Ninja Warrior, The Undateables, Making A Murderer and Take Me Out. Peoples favourite music artists are The Prodigy, Florence and the Machine, Kendrick Lamar, Dislcosure and Major Lazer. Favourite celebrities are Sacha Baron Comen, Gordon Ramsay, Louis Theroux, Jonathan Ross and Leanardo Dicaprio.

The Top Facebook Pages related to chase and status are Chase and Status, Brian Badonde and The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 2004-2012.

Browsing history includes websites such as ARCHIVE.ORG, WWWNHS.UK UPLOADED.NET,IGN.COM and THECHIVE.COM.

Top Twitter follows are @Dynmomagician, @GaryLineker @SkySportsNewsHQ. @SkySports and @piermorgan.

This suggests that people who like Chase and Status are likely to have mobile applications such as Snapchat, Vine, Talking Tom, Angry Birds Space and My Town 2.