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.