Recce Shots

This is one of our recce shots taken at the Lickey Hills, where our opening sequence is filmed. We chose the sunrise to open our video as we thought this represents a new begining and a fresh start, which is what our artist is going through in the release of this album.

This recce shot was taken on lacation of where we filmed the penultimate parts of our narrative. We chose a park as it is a likely setting for the actions that take place in the sequence and coincide with the conventions of our acoustic video and genre.

Shot List

This is our groups shotlist, this details every shot, in order, including; the shot number, shot type, description of the shot, action in the shot and an approximate durartion. This will help us when filming because we have a list to follow and also when editing as we know how the shots will be followed and by which shot.

Storyboard

Here we have scanned in our storyboard for our music video. We have decided to create a video with both performance and narrative forms, edited together.

Audience Theory

Segmentation
Audience Segmentation is used by industries as a way of categorising audiences for particular products. The audience profiles are split up into three segments known as; Geographic, Demographic and Psychographic.
By splitting up the audiences into these segments and having more specific groups makes it easier for industries to aim commodities at their audiences.


Geographic

Region - This is where our music video will be viewed and watched by our audience.
As a group we decided that our music video will be available to be viewed on a global scale through many different media players, such as TVs, the Internet, Mobile Phones and MP3 Players. We decided this because there has been recent convergences in media making media products available through may different players and in many different formats. This means there will be a wider access point for the video for people all over the world.

Size of Area - How large the area is that will view it, small villages to cities etc...
Our group decided it would be people who live in larger areas, such as large towns to villages as they are more likely to have the access to media players and connections that would be required to view the video. For example the TV and Internet signals are not the strongest out in smaller country side villages compared to the access capabilities of larger towns.

Climate - The climate where the product will be used, and in places where it is being made or manufactured. This part of the geographical segment does not particularly apply to our product however would be more appropriate for items such as outdoor products etc.

Demographic
The demographic segment differs from the geographical segment as it is more specific to the audience as individuals rather than a wider community.

Age - Our group decided that our video would be aimed at target audience of teenagers, but more specifically, people within the age range of 13 to 20 years old. We chose this age range because the issues raised in the song, typically relate to teenage life, meaning that our audience would be able to relate to our video and the narrative it follows.

Ethnicity - White British Teenagers, however, this does not mean that other ethnicity's would not be able to view, or even enjoy viewing our music video. This is because other ethnicity's generally enjoy different genres of music compared to the acoustic genre we had chosen. We chose white british as our targeted ethnicity because our video is filmed and set in Britain and our artist is British.

Gender - Our group decided that our video would be aimed at females. This is because of our song choice, the narrative that goes with our song choice and our artist. The song is sung by our female artist and is our narrative is one that would be associated with one of the female gender.

Generation - We have decided to aim our video at the younger generation of teenagers. This does not rule out older generations viewing our video it is just the generation we have chosen to aim our video at as we feel that they will be able to relate to the video as a whole the most.

Social Class - We are aiming our video at people within the middle class. This is because they are the people who are most likely to relate to our song, narrative and artist.

Psychographic (targeted at the inner qualities of a person)

We decided as a group that our video will be targeted at people within the 'Puritans' and 'Utopians' groups. These people wish to feel virtuous and want the world to be a better place. We chose this because it almost perfectly represents the people we are aiming our video at and the way they live their lives and the views they have.

Personality - The personality traits of our target audience are laid back and calm. This is because it is a common trait of the acoustic genre. A second personality trait of the audience is that they would be a romantic. This is because we have chosen a song with a romantic narrative and lyrics.

Our Chosen Song and Lyrics

Our final choice for the song we will use was 'Use Somebody' Covered by Pixie Lott.

To the left you can see the lyrics to her song that we printed off and annotated. The annotations are rough idea's that our group can develop into events for a narrative in the video. We have also annotated the lyrics with images that came into our head when reading through them.

Choosing A Song

From the beginning of the project our group had wanted to use the acoustic genre to create our video for. We had conducted research on the genre and listened to various artists on the Internet and on Cd's. When our group started to choose a song we were willing to listen to our first chosen artists own songs and see what we thought of them. After listening to her CD we decided that her songs were not exactly what we wanted for our video. Our group started researching songs again and picked a select few that we liked the sound of and thought that she would like to cover. The list read:

- Foundations by Kate Nash
- Break Even by The Script
- Thinking Of You by Katy Perry
- Somebody by Kings of Leon (Pixie Lott's Cover)

The groups final decision for our song was 'Use Somebody' originally by Kings of Leon, but we wanted it in the style of Pixie Lott's cover version. We chose this song because it was exactly the sound we wanted and we believed that this song gave us the potential to create a music video to the best of our ability and with an interesting and captivating narrative.

Choosing Our Artist

When the group chose our first artist, we chose an unsigned female acoustic player who had given us a CD of a small sample of her songs. After listening to her CD we decided that we liked her voice but the lyrics on the CD were quite muffled which meant we could not hear the lyrics clearly and what she was saying. We then suggested a list of songs for her to cover. The list was made up of the following songs:

- Foundations by Kate Nash
- Thinking of You by Katy Perry
- Break Even by The Script
- Use Somebody by Kings of Leon (However, we wanted it more in the style of Pixie Lott's version).

On receiving her second CD we discovered that she had only recorded one of the songs we had requested. Though this is the case, the clarity of the lyrics in the song had increased but led us to discover that her voice didn't fit the song we had chosen as she had a more 'Kate Nash' Style voice.

We then had to choose another artist to cover this song so that we could use it for our video. We had already chose an actress, Lucy, to appear in our video who has had previous singing experience and has a very talented singing voice so we gave her the choice to cover the song for our video and she said yes. This will make the whole process that little bit easier for our group as our actress will be more comfortable miming to her own voice and it will be easier for us in the editing stages.

Our group has also found a guitarist that we can use when recording the song, but she will not be appearing in the video as it is not required.

Change In Groups

When we started this project, we were in a group of four people. In the first session we started to discuss our tastes in music and what genre we wanted to create a music video for, the outcome of this discussion was that we would use the acoustic genre. The next step we took was to discuss our choice of song and artist but while doing this there was some disagreement within the group. This ended up with one of our members leaving to form another group in the class. My group now have chosen a song, artist and performer and we are now ready to make the next step in our work.

Personally, I think that the decision that we made as a group, ending with our group becoming three, was the right decision to make. This is because if we were having disagreements at one of the earliest stages then when it comes to making the bigger, more important decisions if we did not agree at this stage then our final product would suffer and it would not be of the best possible quality. Now all our group members have the same opinions and are open to compromise we have managed to choose a song, an artist and an actress for the video and we have even drawn up a rough narrative to coincide with the lyrics of our chosen song.

The blogs of my group members can be found on the following links:
James - http://www.jamesproctor-owen.blogspot.com
Coleen - http://www.coleenbrodericka2media.blogspot.com

Tour Poster Analysis 3

This poster was created to advertise a gig by Jason Mraz. The first thing we see that lets us know this is the large black text at the top of the poster, which says ‘Jason Mraz’. The text is in large black font that is easy to read and stands out from the background well. This enables passersby to quickly see who is performing the gig so even if they can’t see the rest of the details they will be able to search the artist when they get home. The text below and to the right also lets audiences and fans know the date and the venue of the gig, this is essential on tour posters because it lets the fans know whether they are free to go to it. The text below and to the left of the main heading is written in a different font from the rest of the text. This suggests to us that these are different bands as they are in a smaller font and a different font to the main artist. This can also suggest that they are supporting band, having them on the poster also helps raise their fan base as well as their popularity. Existing fans will also recognise that the main picture is of Jason Mraz and this is mainly recognisable through his iconic trilby hat that Mraz wears in many of his appearances. We can also tell from this tour poster, if we did not already know, that Mraz plays acoustic music and featuring this on the tour poster can increase the audiences to his gigs.

Tour Poster Analysis 2

This is a poster for one of James Morrison’s gigs. The poster is effective in many ways; firstly, the name of the artist is in a very large, clear font at the top of the poster. The name of the artist is in a font that is regularly used in products containing his name including albums and different posters etc. This helps existing fans to recognise the artist quickly and also people who are not aware of him as others realise who he is. The colour of the text – white - also helps it stand out from the blue background, making it easier for audiences/fans to see.
Just underneath the artists name is a small tagline saying ‘with special guests’. This lets the audience know that they not only get to see James Morrison but possibly other artists. The fact that the poster does not tell us who the special guests are this adds mystery and suspense in going to see him as you are not sure what else you are going to get.
Positioned in the middle of the poster are details of the gig including a date and the venue. This is also in white text which again helps the details stand out to the audience and passersby.
Featured at the bottom of the poster is a small picture of the artist’s latest album with a small note saying where fans can get the CD and also find out more about the gig, the artist and his music.
We can also see that the main image is of the artist, and this image can tell us a lot about him and his music than we first think. Firstly, the audience can see what genre of music James Morrison plays as he is quite clearly holding an acoustic guitar. We can also see by his facial expression that he is very keen about his music and gets into it a lot. We can also tell that this figure is the main artist for the gig as the spotlights from multiple directions on the stage. The blues in the background also suggest to us that the artist is very mellowed and his music is very pure.

Tour Poster Analysis 1

This is the one of Reel Big Fish’ tour posters for the tour that ran alongside the release of their album ‘Monkey’s for NOTHIN’ and the Chimp’s for FREE’. This is clear to see as there are very clear similarities between the front cover of the album and the poster on the left. One of the main similarities being the font and position of the band name, and the cartoon graphics of the monkey astronaut and the aliens.
One of the first things that you notice when you look at this tour poster is the name in the top left corner of the poster. This is in a similar font to the album cover and lets audiences and fans easily recognise who the band is and even for passersby who have perhaps not heard the band’s music but have heard of the band, this large text can catch their eye and make them think about attending a gig.
The next thing I noticed, looking at this tour poster, was the bottom strip. This was because it was a bright yellow colour, making it stand out from the rest of the poster. As well as this it follows the style of the album cover further as this bottom strip is featured on the album cover too. The bottom strip of this tour poster is very effective as after it has grabbed the attention of audiences/fans, it hold important information such as the date and venue of the specific gig and also the bands website which people can visit to purchase tickets and can further raise the popularity of the band and increase their fan base.
Also featuring on the tour poster is a large image of the band themselves. This is useful to get their faces out into the world and to help people associate them with the band. The tour poster also has a small tagline underneath the band name that says ‘with special guests STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO’. These are the supporting act for the gig and are a less well known band then Reel Big Fish. This helps the band Streetlight Manifesto also get more popular as they are the supporting band for RBF then their music is very likely to be similar to the band they are supporting. This means that existing and new fans of Reel Big Fish are likely to look up and listen to the supporting band.

Video Analysis: Rusted Root – Send Me On My Way

This video accompanies the song ‘Send Me on My Way’ performed by Rusted Root. The music produced by Rusted Root is more commonly categorised as Alternative Rock however they have also have said to be influenced by Native Americans and Indians. This is clearly visible throughout the video, mainly through the costumes that are worn by the band in the video. These are things such as animal skins and blankets etc. There are also traces of Native American influence in the instruments that the artists use such as drums and recorders etc. The appearance of the band themselves can also give genre characteristics from Alternative Rock as they have the ‘hippie-like’ appearance and a sort of ‘rugged’ look that people often associate with Alternative Rock.
During the entirety of the video we can see a lot of links between the lyrics of the song and the visuals that we see in the video. One example of this from the very beginning of the video where the lyric ‘On my way,’ is repeated over and over again, there are camera shots of a character taking a car journey through the middle of the desert, this could imply that the character in this sequence is going on a journey that is directly narrative parallel to the lyrics. There is also a lyric in the song that says ‘And how we will run away’. This is directly matched to the visuals that we, the audience, see in the video of the whole band walking and running across hilltops and mountains.
We can also see through the whole video that there are clear relationships between the music and the visuals in the video. We can see this mainly through the way that in the video the artists are playing their instruments and this obviously matches the song that accompanies the video. These two factors of the music video also have a relationship as the music that is being played is very lively and has an upbeat tempo; this matches the bands dancing on the mountain top, which is also very lively and upbeat.
Throughout the video there are lots of close ups of the artists in the band and this helps them get noticed and also put their face out into the world and get them to be more popular. The video also contains the notion of looking where the character at the beginning of the video looks at the door and then we see the door accompanied with the lyric ‘Send me on my way’. The video is a mixture of both performance and narrative based.
I like the way this video is set in an unusual setting and the band are playing on an open mountain top and am likely to use an unusual setting in a video of my own, I do not like that the narrative part of this video as it was very confusing and am likely to use a more clear narrative.

Video Analysis: Newton Faulkner – Badman

This video was made for the song Badman, coming from Newton Faulkner’s second album ‘Rebuilt by Humans’. The music produced by Faulkner is heavily acoustic; however, there is not much reference to this in the video for Badman. For example, it is a common convention of the genre for an acoustic guitar to feature somewhere in the video but there is no appearance in this video. Though this is the case, the artist is a white male with dreads and a beard. This gives him one of the stereotypes that are linked with the acoustic genre that he is a hippie-like character. This stereotype is also hinted it at through the lyrics of the song which are made up of the artist asking someone to run away from civilisation to ‘fields and tree’s’.
Throughout the song there a various links between the lyrics and the visuals in the video. Firstly, the artist sings about fields being built upon and sings ‘shopping malls from meadows’ while he sings this he is walking through a meadow-like forest, surrounded by trees and greenery. The whole video is made up of the artist running through forests and fields to get away from civilisation and where everything is being built on and this relates directly to the chorus of the song which is made up of the repeated lines ‘Do you want to hide inside your house?’ and ‘Please just run away with me’.
Links are also made between the visuals in the video and the music, the most obvious of which is near the beginning of the video where there is a steady drum beat and the artist steps and bangs his feet in time with the beat of the dream. It would also usually be expected to see an acoustic guitar somewhere within the video however there is not one in this video.
There is one long continuous shot of the artist throughout the whole video and varies between mid-shots and close ups but the video contains mostly close ups of his face, this helps him include and emphasise emotions in his music and video. The video also includes the notion of looking as the artist looks straight down the camera at various times in the video. The video does not really include any intertextual references at any point in its duration.
The video is quite unusual for the acoustic genre; it is very abstract as it one continuous shot of the artist walking through a forest however, he has no body and he is a giant head with his dreads in boots. Though the video is quite obviously abstract there is a small element of performance as the artist is lip synching the words while walking in the video.
In this video I quite like the sense of abstract as this is not commonly used in acoustic videos so I think it is something good to use when producing my own video and think it helps set the video apart from others of its kind and helps give it something unique. What I don’t like about the video is that it is just the one long tracking shot of the artist and I think a variety of shots could have been used to increase the quality of the video. Also, I feel more locations could have been used, particularly more adventurous than just fields and a forest.

Video Analysis: Paolo Nutini – New Shoes

This video is made to go with the song New Shoes, which is taken from Paolo Nutini’s debut album ‘These Streets’. Paolo Nutini is quite a popular artist and has just released his second album ‘Sunny Side Up’. The music produced by Nutini can be categorized into a number of different genres but is mostly classified as acoustic. There are characteristics of the genre within the video to back up that the music is acoustic. One of the most obvious of these is the fact that around halfway into the video there is a character who is playing the acoustic guitar, aswell as this the video is quite upbeat, which can also be considered a characteristic of the acoustic genre.
Throughout the video there are many links between the lyrics and the visuals that we see. One example of this is when the artist gets into his kitchen and finds the party the music becomes slightly more upbeat and the drumbeat more evident. This change in music helps lighten the mood of the video and coincides well with the genre. Another evident link between the music and visuals is that there are characters within the video that are playing the instruments to make the music accompanying the video.
There are also many links made throughout the video between the visuals and the lyrics. Mainly, these links are just actions that are undertaken in the video that link directly to the lyrics. A prime example of this is when the lyrics ‘Oh, short on money but long on time’ are sang, the artist in the video checks his pocket where there is no money to be found and then proceeds to check his watch, where he looks for the time.
Close ups of the artist are used quite regularly throughout the duration of the video as it is based on a narrative surrounding him. The close ups aid the emphasis on certain components of the narrative such as lyrics and the emotion of the character. This can be done by having a close up of the artist when singing a specific lyric. Close ups of the artist can also help increase recognition of him as the more often people see his face, the more recognised he will become.
The notion of looking is widely used in the video where the artist looks down the lens of the camera in various shots, this makes the audience feel more personally involved in the music. It is also used with the lyric ‘as I focused on the time’ where it focuses in on the alarm clock. The video is mostly narrative telling the story alongside the lyrics however there is a small amount of performance in it where the artist lip synchs the words.
I like the way they have used a narrative way of making the video and will consider using this when producing my own video. I will also use the elements of a performance based video that these producers have used.

CD Cover Analysis 3

CD Cover Analysis 2

CD Cover Analysis 1