Vox pops are an informal way of interviewing an open audience and questioning them on simple questions you would ask in a survey. So as a group we went around asking members of the public, general questions about what their favourite type of music is and about the types of music videos they have an interest in. We used this as part of our research as we thought it would be very helpful asking our target audiences what they would enjoy watching in a music video. Therefore when it comes to recreating our music video we will know what to include to make it enjoyable for our target audience to watch. We questioned both males and females as it gave us a more varied response on what females enjoy in a music video and what males enjoy watching in a music video.
After questioning 40 different people about the types of genre and music they enjoy listening to and the music videos they find entertaining to watch, it helped us decide what type of music video we would like to create to engage our target audience and make it a video they find entertaining to watch. Below are pie charts that we have created with the results of the questionnaire we received.
The results we received will help us a lot when creating our music video as we now have a lot on information on what to include and what not include, specifically to suit our target audience and what they will like too see within a music video. The pie charts just set out the results from the questionnaires much clearer for us to see the results. As a group it has helped us a lot when planning our music video as it has given us a clearer understanding of what our target audience would enjoy seeing in a music video. So if we base our music video around the results we received, I believe that our music video will be extremely sucessful.
Questionnaires are an effective ways of getting information from a target audiences about what type of music they like listening to and what they enjoy watching in a music video. This information is helpful to us because it will be a guidance to creating a music video that our target audience will thoroughly enjoy. There are two types of questions in a questionnaire which are open and closed questions. Open questions are usually used to gather qualitative data which allows the audience to answer with anything they want where as closed questions are used to gather quantitative data which only give the audience an option to choose one answer from the limited 5 choices offered. As a group we created this questionnaire using both open and closed types of questions and asked 40 different people the questions below.
1)What is your gender?
:- Male
:- Female
2)How old are you?
:- 14-16
:- 17-19
:- 20-22
:- 23-25
:- 26+
3)What music genre do you prefer?
:- Pop
:- R&B
:- Indie
:- Rock
:- Other
4)On average how many music videos do you watch
a week?
:- None
:- 1-5
:- 6-10
:- 11-15
:- 16-20
:- 21-25
:- 26+
5)What aspects of music videos do you find most
effective?
:- Performance
:- Narrative
:- Concept
6)Do you prefer music videos that are
conventional or diverse?
:- Conventional
:- Diverse
7)Have you heard of James Arthur?
:- Yes
:- No
8)If yes, what is your favourite
single?
:- _________________________
9)What editing style do you prefer?
:- Fast paced editing
:- Slow paced editing
:- Colour tints
:- Green screen
10)Do you like music videos that feature a
motif (any recurring element in a story that has symbolic
significance)?
:- Yes
:- No
Analysis
As a group we separated and asked about 40 different people these questions of different age groups so we could get a wide range of answers from different types of people. This investigation also helped our group realise which age group preferred to listen to James Arthur more which then allows us to focus our recreation of a music video on what our target audience would want to listen to.
My A2 media group consists of Jamie, Jagoda, Lauren and myself. As me and Lauren worked together last year in our AS media project of creating a thriller opening we found that we worked very well together, so therefore decided that working together this year as well would be a good idea. We then decided to pair up with Jamie and Jagoda as all 4 of us had the same idea of what sort of music video we wanted to re-create Jagoda is the creative one within the group, so this will be beneficial as when we create our narrative for our music video, she will come up with good ideas to make our music video very interesting. Jamie has very good editing skills, so when it comes to editing the music video after we have filmed it, with Jamie's help at editing, our music video will come together nicely. Lauren has good organising skills, so this would be beneficial seeing as she will be the one keeping all our group paperwork safe and also she will be good when it comes to organising group meetings. In the group I will be the one that's good with the filming so therefore when it comes to filming our music video ill know what camera shots will be useful to use at what parts.
Research for video inspiration
I wont let go - James blunt
This music video consist of both performance and narrative within it. We used this as an inspiration for our music video seeing as the story line was the same as ours, which is about a couple splitting up. So this allowed us to see how they created the video to get the message across. Also it shows the couple in two separate locations whilst they are showing the performance at the same time so this helped us get ideas for our music video as well. Another reason we used this as an inspiration is because of the effective camera shots they use. An example of this is the close up shots used in this music video to show the facial expressions of both male and female.
Summertime - Lana Del Rey
This music video consists of Lana Del Rey in the narrative and performance bit of this music video. This is one of the things we would like to use in our music video, which is the artist in both performance and narrative bit of the video, so this helped us get ideas. Also within this music video it shows the artist standing on top of a cliff about to jump of, and the exciting landscape shown which grabs the audiences attention was also one of the conventions we wanted to use within our music video. After watching this music video it helped us decide that we will be using the jumping off cliff scene within our music video too.
Mise - En - Scene
Settings
We will be using many settings within this music video to keep the audience intrigued as using the same setting throughout comes across as very boring. One of the settings we will be using most often throughout this music video is a cliff top. This will be significant because it will be used to symbolise the death of the girl and would also show how she is 'high up in heaven'. Not only will it show a sense of freedom but its also a beautiful background which will look good in our music video.
Another setting we will be using is a homely environment. This will contain of a living room as one of the settings where the couple will be playing a game of cards, which is also part of the iconography we will be using. This is significant to our music video as it gives a better impression of the couple and how laid back their relationship was.
The other setting we will be using within the homely settings is a bedroom. This will be used because it gives us the chance to dress the girl up really casually so we could show of her body as well. Also a bedroom is a very conventional setting to use within a music video about a couple seeing as the bedroom signifies couple behaviour.
Iconography
The main iconography we will be using is a pack of cards. This will be used to show how the couple are actually playing a love game with each others mind and it is also a representation of their relationship. We will be showing this through the use of the king and queen of hearts as the king and queen will be symbolising the couple and the hearts will be symbolising their love. Another iconography we will be using is a guitar. This will be used to show the audience that it is a pop song as usually a guitar is one of the conventions of a pop song. Also it gives the artist something to do whilst he is getting filmed.
The fire will be used to burn the cards which will symbolise the 'burning' of their relationship. So it will define danger, pain and anger as they are the 3 main emotions couple feel when they are breaking up .
Costume
As we are creating a pop music video the clothing will be very casual as this is conventional to the pop music genre. This will consist of the artist wearing something as causal as jeans and a shit. Where as on the other hand the girl will be changing into different outfits throughout the music video and the different locations they will be in. Her costumes will consist of causal clothes, such as a baggy jumper and leggings or even a dress.
Lighting
Throughout our whole music video we will be using mostly high key lighting. This is because majority of our video will be filmed indoors and the part of it that will be filmed outside on the cliff top will be in broad daylight. Low key lighting will only be used to show the performance part of our music video. This will be when the artist is playing the guitar and singing. Low key lighting will be used to keep the artists identity slightly closed up and also because he is singing about love and how its impossible, the dark and dull atmosphere would help the audience realise how he is feeling.
Positioning
The artist will be places in the centre of the screen during the performance part of this music video. This will be to emphasise all attention on the artist at that particular moment in the music video. During the narrative aspect of this music video the couple will be centre of the frame at all time.
Editing
When editing our music video, one of the editing techniques we were planning to use is a slow pace whenever they show the female character which will be the narrative aspect of our video. This is because it will allow the audience to concentrate more on the narrative/story line than the performance part of it. Its also a great way to show the emotions within this music video of the 'couple'.
Another editing technique we are going to use is fade, so between most individual scenes they will fade in to each other. This would be good seeing as it will emphasise the relationship between the artists and his 'partner'
Cinematography
One of the camera shots we will be using the most throughout this music video will be close up shots of both the artist and the girl so it can allow the audience to build a relationship with them. Also it helps the audience emphasise on their facial expressions more so therefore the audience will be able to relate more to the video.
Another camera shot we will be using is a panning shot at the beginning of our music video showing the artist as it is conventional to the pop genre and also it will show him playing the guitar which we feel is a vital aspect within the performance part of our vide
Music video theory
Goodwin's Theory - This theory will be shown within our music video to show the relationship between the visual and lyrics. As the song we are recreating is a pop song, we will be using conventions of a pop music video to put within our recreation of our music video. We will be doing this through using performance and narrative.
Group meetings
This snapshot below is one of the storyboards we completed in our group meeting. It contains the information about what will be happening in the first part of our music video.
