Audience research analysis

After letting people fill out our questionnaire I then broke down each question and analysed them in deatail so it was easier to refer to when completing our planning for our music video and digipack.

Taking all of this research into consideration our main target audience will be mainly females but will apply to males as well between the ages of 13-18 (making them students) with some ages being out of this range as our type of genre typically applies to a diverse range of people. However, we have chosen this particular age range as this is the field where the genre is most popular. We will creatively target this audience by the use of colours, high key lighting, editing and performance to keep them constantly engaged and not bored. We will have to create a high standard music video which will consist of unconventional locations, high key lighting, wont have a narrative and other aspects which we have found out from carrying out this survey. 

Audience research

Below is a questionnaire which my group and I created to gather valuble information and research into the genre of 'Disco Pop':


The purpose of this questionnaire was to ask a variety of people for their opinions and interests on the genre of 'Disco Pop'by asking questions such as 'What do you expect to see in a Disco Pop music video?" After completing the questionnaire we sent out the survey to multiple people, the vast majority of them were people in our year so we expected the age's to be between 17-19, with a few being older as we sent them to some teachers as we wanted to get a different view from different ages. This will help us greatly when it comes to planning our music video and digipack as we can refer back to the answers to help us to create a successful product in which our target audience will enjoy and take interest in.

Advertisement research

Record Label research

CD cover research

After analysing these three CD covers and looking at an array of others I have come to realise and establish the similarities and conventions of Pop artists (Disco Pop in particular):

Conventions of a Pop music video

 

 

Further analysis of Pop videos

Moodboard on chosen genre

Here is a moodboard I created on my groups chosen genre of 'Dance Pop'. From a glance at the moodboard you can clearly identify that the genre itself is an energetic and happy one due to the vibrant and vivid colours seen, also within it you can identify popular artists that are assosciated with the genre such as Jessie J, Ke$ha and Britney Spears. When collecting images for this I noticed that the costumes that are used really incorporate the artist's own style as well as fitting in with the mood and atmosphere that is created within the video; this is so that the public and their fans can easily recognise them. The use of lighting is key in building up the energetic atmosphere that we commonly see within dance pop videos, such as bright white spotlights to highlight the artist and to also create a flashing, strobe effect to go with the pace and the editing so that the overall video looks really effective and engages the audience successfully. Other colours can be used such as vibrant pinks and purples as they don't only go together but they can be linked to the colour of the costumes in some way or another, once again, in order to really build up the club, energetic type atmosphere/ mood. The main camera shot that is seen in disco pop music videos are close ups to really show off the artist to the audience so that they are continuously focused on them, their performance and their facial expressions which make the audience feel just like the artist themselves are, in turn helps to keep them engaged through out the whole piece due to the editing not staying on one shot for too long. 

Andrew Goodwin (Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992)

Andrew Goodwin on Prezi

Carol Vernallis "The Kindest cut: Functions and meaning in music video editing"

Carol Vernallis analysed how editing in music videos and Hollywood films differenciate and was able to identify distinct approaches to each of them. The table below shows a summary of what the theory covers:

Here is a quote of which Vernallis said:

"In video our attention to the song shapes the way we percieve the image, but to an equal extent what we attend to in the image helps to determine how we hear the music."

In this quote, Vernallis is saying how by hearing the music we can almost build up an imaginary image of how we would percieve the meaning of the image and same as the video helps to build up the communication of the song.

When trying to find examples to go with the text found in the table I found one which could potentially cover the majority of them. This video is 'End Of Time' by Beyonce. When watching this video look out for how there is no clear path or narrative to this music video as the video itself is a collection of her concerts put together to create one big performance. There is no sense of continuity as the costumes of our main singer (seen as the dominant focus in the video) continuously changes costume and location by the use of cutting from one to another. The time, space, character and narrative are revealed but not in the sense where it makes us completely focus on them as the editing is continuously taking us from one place to another, one costume to another, one time to another.



In addition to this when thinking about 'Visual hooks' a very clear representation of this is the music video that I earlier analysed 'Domino' by Jessie J. The use of the background constantly changing draws the audience in a large amount as it's animated and you're eyes are drawn straight to it. In addition to this, the editing and cinematography used helps with creating pace and interesting shots which in turn helps keeping you hooked throughout the whole of the music video.



Another thing that Vernallis said was that shots of singers will encourage the audience to piece together what we think the artist looks like, a 'Phantasmagorical Body' (a body of which is made up in our mind of all the shots of bits of bodies we see). An excellent example of where we see this happening is at the start of 'Unfaithful' by Rihanna.

The pictures in action:

Bordwell and Thompsons Theory

Low budget ideas

From watching past A2 music video's I have learnt that sticking to the conventions of music vidoes are key in making a creative and effective video. I have noticed that the lip syncing has to be done spot on and in time otherwise it makes the video appear less profession and in a way less interesting due to this. Another key tip I have realised is that performance is key so that the right atmosphere and mood is created, which in turn helps to establish and get the meaning of the song and lyrics arcoss to the audience. If this doesn't happen then the audience will feel disconnected from the video and could get the wrong understanding of it. An excellent example of how performance can have really build up an atmosphere is the A2 video of 'Hot n' Cold':



The editing that is used in a video can create really good visual imagery on top of what has already been shot. The editing and shots have to link and be appropriate to the song so that is creates meaning and brings the song to life. If editing is done to a very high standard then it makes the overall video so much more professional. An example of this is 'A-ha!':



Other tips I found were:

• Capturing the audience's attention straight from the start gives the audience a good impression which then hooks them and then makes them want to carry on watching the rest of the video.
• There has to be a range of camera shots and movements so that it shows variety and makes more of a visually interesting video instead of it being just two or three.
• The costumes, mise en scene and locations have to all be appropriate as it creates meaning, mood and an atmosphere.

Conventions of a music video

Examples of the conventions:

• A variety of different shot types:

 

• Effective and relevant lighting:

 

• Visual effects:

• Locations link and relate to song lyrics

 

 

 

• Suitable costumes

• Relevant colours to represent genre

 















• Narrative/ performance:
• Maroon 5 - Payphone (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRaWnd3LJfs)
• Taylor Swift - We are never ever getting back together (www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64)
• Beyonce - If I were a boy (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M)