Target Audience: Presentation response.

Chantelle Swain - Music video presentation from chantelleswainmedia

My media studies class has formed a focus group on music videos.

Target Audience: Make Up.

I have used Twitter so ask my target audience (young people of both genders) which make-up should be sued in an alternative rock video.

A) Gold-Brown blend:

B) Brown-Black Blend:

Responses:

Research Conclusion:

Most of my target audience favours the gold-brown blend because its morre subtle, and not as dramatic. This helps to conform to the norms of indie / alternative rock videos as the female main actors in them don't often wear very much makeup. I also like the idea from "Dom" about using darker make up for more dramatic scenes. I plan to use blend B for the bathroom scene as it is much messier to remove than blend A, which will create a more dramatic scene.

Target Audience: Transition editing.

I have posted gifs of two types of transition editing (fade out and straight cut) from Running Up That Hill and Cry to Tumblr to ask which type of cuts they prefer in alternative rock music videos. I have used this website because it is popular amongst young indie and alternative rock enthusiasts which are my target audience.

Responses:

Research Conclusion:

My target audience for the most part liked the straight cuts better. One of the respondents even found the fade outs old fashioned, which is very helpful information to find out, as I need to please my target audience and attract other viewers to the band, as advertisement is one of the biggest uses of music videos. It has also been suggested that I could use fast fade outs in other parts of my video. I will encoroprate these findings when I begin editing.

Research Into Similar prodcuts & Drafting & Planning: Music Video Effects & Editing

The results from my survey monkey last month shows that my target audience does not like normal lip syncing very much. However, I need to keep an element of lip syncing in order to have the desired effect in my music video. To fix this problem, I have investigated some music videos which contain lip syncing by multiple people so that I can make my music video more interesting for the target audience.

Godley & Creme - Cry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtPRF6NG7I

Throughout this music video, a continuous close up is used, with slow fades to transition between actors. Although I will definitely not use the black and white effect, I really like the transition. This could fit well into my music video, as it could represent how faces of strangers that you meet on the internet almost blend together because users do not get to know them well enough to distinguish them from their other friends.

Placebo - Running Up That Hill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-mYX0qKkB8

In this video, mid-shots and close ups are used while the supporting actors lip sync. For the most part, straight cuts are used to transition. This editing effect could also be very useful in my music video as straght cuts often represent a disconnect, which reflects on the line "I'll never be there for". In addition to this, I like the idea of using different backgrounds for every actor that takes part. Background ssuch as these would also help to represent disconnect between social media 'friends'.

Research Into Similar Products: Analysis of Indie CD covers

Although Placebo leans more towards alternative rock in the album Loud Like Love, which is the album in which Too Many Friends features, I have decided to analyse these CD covers, as the visual style of indie rock and alternative rock artists are often similar.

Research into Similar Products: Analysis of Alternative Rock CD covers.

Organisation: Film plan.

Supporting Actors lip syncing sequence:

The first element of filming will be the lip syncing with the supporting actors. This is the first recorded sequence as a number of the supporting actors do not attend the same Sixth Form as I do, and so will need to be done on weekends instead of a time during the school week, which means time needs to be out aside for potential re-shooting. This is a continual process, which means I do not have a specific end date for filming.

Path sequence:

The path sequence in which the protagonist can be seen typing out a message on her phone and deleting it will be the next to be filmed. This is because the scene needs to be done at dusk, and for the safety of the actors and camera-men I need to film this before it gets too dark and late in the winter. It should also be noted that I am filming this in the holidays as it allows more time for the crew to set up tripods and re-shoot than a school day or weekend could offer as many of my crew are working.

Bathroom sequence:
This will be filmed in mid-November. This will be a difficult scene to film, as I need to ensure the camera man is not visible on the camera. Filming in mind-November will allow me another month to re-shoot if filming fails on the first try.

Skirt Sequence:
This scene will be filmed when the actress is available. This will most likely be filmed on a study day, providing we have permission,

Protagonist lip sync:
This will be filmed a short while later, as I need a background that is located in school, meaning it cannot be filmed in the October holidays.

All filming should be completed by December, to give me enough time to edit the footage.

Research into similar products: Analysis of mainstream CD covers

Similarly to my magazine advert analysis, I have decided to analyse mainstream music CD covers in order to broaden my understanding of the common codes and conventions of CD / Digipak covers. 

Analysing these covers was useful because it now allows me to decipher whether the indie and alternative rock music CD covers that I will analyse in the future conform to the common conventions of CD coves, or against them.

Drafting & Planning: Music Video storyboard.

I have chosen to storyboard my music video per line of lyric to give myself a strong guideline for filming: