Atlas Hands - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

This is one of my favourite songs and when I watched the music video, I found some similar qualites to what I've been inspired by for my music video, eg. natural lighting. The beach location is something which I'd love to use, especially with the sunset; it creates a very mystical atmosphere. This would be good for my video, as it would feel quite magical, mirroring the love that the characters feel. The slow editing fits with the pace of the song and creates quite a dreamy effect, particularly with the use of natural lighting. I really like the close up of the boy's eyes at the end because it makes you feel a connection with the character. There's a scene in my music video where the girl first sees the boy in which we will also have a close up of her eyes. I can use this video as inspiration for that particularly shot.

Rihanna - We Found Love

This music video was directed by Melina Matsoukas and presents Rihanna's relationship with her boyfriend as being like a drug and how their addiction to each other results in the singer leaving her boyfriend because of his possessive nature. The video received a mixed response from critics, with some praising its cinematic feel, whilst others criticized some of the explicit material featured. 


Visually this song has great significance as it has a faded blue, brown and green tone at times - something that we want to experiment with. There are many jump cuts and this highlights that we are on track with out editing ideas. 

Relating back to the previous comment about this video holding a cinematic feel has given us confidence as we would like to create this with out video. The beginning of the video does not feature the song 'We Found Love' but a monologue with a piano backtrack. Me and Emma have been thinking about doing something similar to this (possibly having childhood videos with a eire backtrack?) and this video is evidence that having a 'story'/opening sequence before the music video itself can be successful as this particular video has 19 million views in just under two weeks on youtube!

Below are some screen shots that me and Emma found to be inspiring: 

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

 This music video Yoann Lemoine
Yoann Lemoine

Album Cover Research

These album covers inspire us because they hold the vibe, that we want to create: kooky and original.  We love the layering of mediums (eg scrapbook and photo montage) and the vintage feel. They all are simple, yet engaging to the eye and this is something that we aspire to do. We are going to experiment with incorporating The Beach Boys logo (two down) into our album cover/poster. We understand that it will be hard to create a modern for a old song, however it is timeless and iconic meaning we a wide target audience to market for which excites us! We have researched both modern artists and vintage artist, and we can see similar codes and conventions in both and we now understand that these conventions are important to follow, giving us some structure to our work.  

These three sperate adverts for the film [500] Days Of Summer are of great inspiration to us as they hold a certain vibe - nostalgia, romance, cute and youth.  Although these advertisements are not for a music album, the film has been significant throughout our planning process. 

The colours are clean and neutral (mainly blues and beige) giving of connotations of vintage memories, and this realtes to out video as we are using a vintage song "Wouldn't It Be Nice" By The Beach Boys. The use of mediums in these posters are effective as they add a new visual dimension - We both really like the use of photographs as it gives a sense of montage, and this is something that we want to incorporate into our final product cover.  

Media Consumption.

I think it is relevant to explore how my audience would consume my music video. Giving that the 21st century is brimming with new technolgical advances, espically online my audience would most likely consume my video online, through site such as youtube, and one of my target audience memebers (Rachel Beaney) said this is how she watches and keeps up to date with new releases


I found this insigtful youtube video called 'Social Media Statistics & Facts 2011' and it highlights the power and popularity of social media.

"Nearly 2 hours of video is uploaded to youtube every every second" was a statistic that really stuck out to me as it shows how easy and popluar it is to be a producer of media, not just a consumer. One can then share their work, or others work using other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and this can lead to a worldwide phenomenom.


Another thing I find interesting is that the video is made in Australia so it is very biased, especially when it labels Australia as the number 1 prolific user of social media in the world.

It surprised me to realise that Myspace is no longer popular, with users "cutting ties and fleeing to other social sites" such as Facebook and Twitter. I decided to do further research to find out why this is the case and found this really interesting article - 3 Reasons why Myspace has lost popularity

Twitter has become a huge phenomena. It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. Daily user estimates vary as the company does not publish statistics on active accounts. As a user of Twitter myself, I find that I do not use it as much as Facebook and I think many of my friends would agree. A lot of people my age that I know prefer to use Facebook and some don't even have Twitter accounts.

I found a article on the Gaurdian Business Blog that explores the "increase in number of hours public spends watching TV, playing video games and using the internet"
The Gaurdian - Article

The pie chart below shows what online sites are most popular for sharing information, such as music videos.

If I was creating my music video for a company, I would create many pages on social networking sites, such as a fan page on facebook, and this would most likely increase the popularity of my music video.

Audience Theory

In response to my post about 'understanding your audience' I have researched audience theories, which will allow me to understand their possible perceptions of my video, thus how allowing me to cater to their needs.

1. THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. As you can see from the diagram, this theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted   via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking. Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.

2. TWO-STEP FLOW

As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts.

3. USES & GRATIFICATIONS

Throughout time, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

In 1970, Halloran said, "We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do with the media." In other words, the consumer now has a say in what they want from the media.

C. Wright Mill decided the four functions of the media for the audience are:

• To give individuals identity
• To give people aspiration
• To give people instruction
• To give people a form of escapism

Researchers Blumler and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (ie uses and gratifications):

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

4. RECEPTION THEORY

Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.

When considering these theories, I will make sure I use recognised codes and conventions in my music video to grab my audience's attention. I know now that the codes I use will be interpreted differently, so I am expecting a mixture of opinions when my product is completed. I will also make sure I get audience feedback throughout the process so that I can give my target audience a product that they want.

Target Audience

Emily is 17 years old. She enjoys reading and hanging out with friends. Her favourite genre of film is rom-coms and she loves anything romantic, from books to songs. Emily likes listening to indie bands such as Noah and the Whale, Warpaint, Bombay Bicycle Club and Animal Collective. Her fashion is also very indie and she's often seen wearing unique brands of clothing. She could easily relate to the female protagonist in our music video because they have similar personalities and style.

Steve Jobs

My teacher showed me this speech made by Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. To me Steve Jobs was a defining person in the media, as he changed we communicate and create to and with one another. This speech also highlights the importance new media technology and the role it has in the world. It has given me inspiration to create great media and have an impact and influence on my target audience. 

Risk Assessment.



Costume - Girl

We are now starting to think about what our protagonists will be wearing when we are shooting. Considering that out USP (Unique Selling Point) is telling a classic 'boy meets girl' story, with a kooky and quirky vibe, we must assure that the costume follows this trend. When looking at previous movies that we take inspiration from, and in this case [500] Days Of Summer, you can see that the costumes connote cute, originality and indie.          
Frills and bows are featured, suggesting a girly girl, which is something we want to portray. The colours are subtle, suggesting the girl may be slightly reserved and innocent. There is a definite vintage tone, again highlighting the quirky vibe we want to capture.  

These are some other dresses that we think our female protagonist would wear. Again it shows that she has a quirky personality!

Is our narrative strong?

I have been advised to think about how to summarise our music video, simply and effectively.

The narrative to our music video is the classic 'boy meets girl' romance/young love story, however the story is subverted and the relationship leads to a eventual break-up. It plays with the theme of nostalgia and it holds a certain quirky kooky vibe.

Audience Feedback

Emma and I decided to film some audience feedback to make sure that our focus accommodates our target audience's desires. We asked three people of 17 years old; one boy and two girls (as our target audience is mainly female) about their views on music videos and their opinions on the concept for our music video.

We learnt that...

- A strong narrative is vital, as it engages and entertains the audience. 

- Our ideas do appeal to our target audience, as all feedback was positive. 

- Despite the fact that one person had not heard of the song, 'Wouldn't it be nice' by the Beach Boys is widely recognised and in general, a good choice of song. 

- The connotations of the song are nostalgic: "summer", "childhood", "young love", "beach"...

- All three agreed that our narrative and song choice go well together, thus creating a sense of resonance. 

(We also edited this footage using iMovie, which is a programe that we can use when we come to edit our music video. It was really helpful creating this short interview as we learnt how to use iMovie meaning we are now confident if we wish to use this in the future. )

We are very pleased with this feedback and we are confident with our ideas, and excited for the future!

Understanding Your Audience.

I found this mnemonic acronym last year when doing my AS coursework, and I thought it still applies to our present coursework, as we are marketing to a niche target audience.

• Analysis: Who are they?
• Understanding: What is their understanding of the subject?
• Demographics: What is their age, gender, background, profession, and so forth.
• Interest: Why are they interested in your genre?
• Environment: Where will they be viewing, and what are the conditions?
• Needs: What do they need from you?
• Customization: Do you need to adjust things for any special needs or interests of specific audience segments?
• Expectations: What does your audience expect? 

We are going to respond to these questions throughout our project, so we will gain a understanding of our target audiences needs and desires.