Editing

In our lesson on 14th December we took a trip to the City Learning Centre to make use of their iMac equipment. The purpose of the morning was to receive help in the editing of our music video from a proffesional user of the iMovie programme and to gain progress in the final stages of the editing.

We encountered many problems on the day though. We had agreed earlier on that we wanted to use the transition applied in Blink 182's music video "Always", but it was not included in the iMovie software and so this would not be achieved which we were disappointed about. Instead we will use the "wipe" transition in it's place.

Our shot transitions we were told, were too slow and we were adviced that the transitions should occur on the sharp beat. This was achieved using a technique on the keyboard that cut each clip with precise timings for the beat by adding time markers.

Famous Album Covers

The album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico is recognizable for featuring an Andy Warhol print of a banana on the cover. Early copies of the album invited the buyer to "peel slowly and see"; peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh-coloured banana underneath. A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers, but record label MGM paid for the costs, figuring that any ties to Warhol would boost sales of the album. The reissued vinyl editions of the album don't feature the peel-off sticker and so the original copies of the album with the peel-sticker feature are extremely rare collector's items. It is also notable that the original release featured Warhol's signature.

Nirvana's Nevermind album cover shows a baby swimming towards a US dollar bill on a fish hook. According to lead singer Kurt Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a programme on water births with drummer Dave Grohl. It was mentioned to art director Robert Fisher who found stock footage of underwater births, but were deemed too graphic for the record company. Also, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby wanted $7,500 a year for its use. Instead Fisher sent a photographer to a pool for babies to take pictures. Many shot's were taken and the band settled on the image of a three-month-old boy. The image is one of the most iconic in rock history and caused controversy where supermarkets refused to sell it. Cobain compromised by allowing a sticker to cover the baby's genitals.

The Grammy Award-winning album packaging for The Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band features a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover. The Beatle's themselves, in the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, are dressed in custom-made military style outfits. According to designer Peter Blake the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park, but gradually evolved into it's final form as shown. In keeping with the park concept, the foreground of the scene is of a floral display incorparating the word "Beatles" spelt out in flowers. There are also several affectations from the Beatles' homes such as small statues belonging to John Lennon. The collage itself depicted more than 70 famous people, including Edgar Allen Poe, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Bob Dylan.

Editing

The lesson on the 11th December was our first where we were able to make process in editing of our music video. Clips had to be cropped as the group noticed the white background was visible in some shots and not others. So in order for there to not be any mistakes with continuity it was vital this is was done. The music was then to be added to the iMovie programme from iTunes in order for us to apply it to the correct timing in the music. This was quite difficult as the song has strong. sharp beats and our transitions had to take effect at the timing of the beat. We managed to complete the introduction of the song.

Extra Filming by Reena

As mentioned before, on the main day of our filming, due to time-keeping we were not able to complete our day's shoot as thought. Reena therefore took the camera on a free weekend and filmed the last remaining scenes to our music video. It was also noted that we didn't have enough material for the requied minimum time of 3 minutes.

Reena was able to film "superman" played by Krishna and the female character played by herself, together enjoying themselves in the setting of a bedroom. Domestic settings like this give the audience a sense of familiarity and comfort. In terms of the narrative, it shows the relationship between the two "blossoming".

Filming - 5th December

We began our first and only day of shooting on Saturday 5th December. We had arranged to film at my house due to the setting for the speed dating scene as we felt my living room would be an ideal venue. However on the morning of filming we realised that my living room was infact too small and moving furniture around proved to be too difficult, and so relocated to Reena's house instead. The group agreed with this decision and we felt that we would be able to shoot the majority of our music video in one whole day. We had around 6 hours to film, but problems surrounding time keeping meant that filiming the rest of the scenes would have to occur at a later date.

Our first shots of the music video that we filmed involved shooting the characters walking from a distance towards the camera. This would create a jump cut effect between the characters. We wanted to use this shot not only to show that the three male characters making their way to the speed dating but to also reveal the different personalites through their style, walk and other actions.

We filmed the speed dating scenes which were originally meant to be shot at my house in my living, but due to the last minute set change we filmed them in Reena's bedroom. The lighting became a problem as it was quite dark and led to the shots looking quite grainy. The main shot used for these scenes was the Two shot not only to emphasise that the characters are "couples" but to highlight the connection or lack of between them.

Extreme close ups were used to emphasise certain aspects of the male character's attire. Such as the bow tie of the "geek", the lip piercing of the "punk" and the muscular physique of the "hunk". This technique would allow the audience's ideas to be influenced about the characters and their characteristics.

Our final shots of the day's filming were of our male characters, using a medium long shot. It is supposed to mimick a dream sequence used in many other Pop videos. It was to show the female protagonist comparing her three dates in their style and body language. It also allows the audience to compare them aswell.

Uploading for the First Time

In the Media lesson today, we uploaded all our footage from filming to begin editing on the iMac. We only began to experiment with transitions and effects as the software had recently been updated and the production team didn't feel as comfortable using it and so we did this to gain knowledge in more detail. We realised we were not able to apply a colour effect, in this case a red tint to make the scene appear more romantic, but we soon discovered other effects in replace of this.

Lily Allen Merchandise and Products

As mentioned in a previous blog, it is currently becoming more common for record labels to create merchandise to promote their artist. This is no different with Lily Allen. In May 2007, she launched a line of dresses, shoes, and accessories entitled Lily Loves.

Synergy is used as customers who may not have orignally brought Lily's music, but enjoy the range of clothes she is promoting may be influenced by this to then explore Lily's music and find out more about the artist. Therefore this promotes the artist even more.

Lily Allen in the Media

Since Lily Allen's rise to fame, she has appeared on the cover of many magazines both music and gossip themed due to her musical talent and sometimes controversial personal life. Her portrayal in magazines and the tabloid newspapers has not always been positive but nonetheless is still media attention for the artist, keeping them in the spotlight.

Lily in Heat Magazine - Focuses on the personal side of her, in this case her differing hair styles. Although not hugely negative press, the article focuses on a small issue (Lily's hair) to maybe try and demoralise her and have the public judge her.

Lily Allen on the cover of NME- Focuses on the musical AND personal side of her.












Lily on Later With Jools Holland


Allen was included on the NME Cool List for 2006. She was voted the third coolest person of the year in NME Magazine She ranked "Number One Reason to Love '07" and "Hottest Woman of Pop/R&B." in Blender magazine. Evening Standard columnist Nick Cutis wrote that "Lily Allen and Madonna have arguably done more for female equality with their 'unladylike' swearing in public than with their singing careers."
In 2009 she was the subject of cover stories for both Spin Magazine and Q Magazine. MTV said in February 2009 "She seems less like the model of a 21st century pop star and more like the kind of girlfriend you'd have when you're 22 – the awesome kind you'd go backpacking around Europe with, wear a sarong with. She is perfectly imperfect. Which is why she's probably also the most interesting pop star ever created." Allen's album It's Not Me, It's You has been praised for trying to define the times. Allen said that she does not write songs with a big picture in mind. Allen was on Esquire Magazine's list of 60 "Brilliant Brits 2009".

Finishing Storyboarding

On Monday 23rd November, the group finally completed the storyboarding to our music video. The drawings and annotations for each frame were completed and were annotated with camera angles, instuctions and transitions.

Location For Music Video

Although the majority of our scenes are set in the domestic environment of our houses and the familiarity of our own street, we felt as a group to focus some of the scenes in the video beyond this. We considered different parts of London that could reflect the narrative and the personalities of our characters. Finally, the locations we concluded with were:

Camden Town - A place known for Punks and Goths, it reflects the personality of our punk.

The Gym - represents the arrogant character's egotistcal attitude, cares what he looks like.

The Library - reflected the Nerd's hobby of reading.

Making Music Videos

Commissioning The Video
Although the music business changes with alarming speed, one thing remains constant: The record label's responsibility isto its artist's music production and to the marketing and sales of the music. Each label seeks out recording artists they feel will appeal to a wide audience, which, in return, will allow the label to sell a lot of music. The label then negotiates a recording contract with the particular artist. The contract outlines the artist's responsbilities to the record company as well as the company's responsibility to the artist, such as royalties. The label specializes in helping their artists develop the highest possible sales potential through marketing the artists and their music via the Internet, radio play, and television video networks and shows, and then selling their music through a vast array of audio and visual distribution outlets, such as Internet and iTunes and ring tones.

The record label-artist relationship is co-dependant. The reason an artist signs with a record label is three-fold:

1. Firstly, the label advances the artist money to pay for recording their music, aswell as for album artwork and marketing campaigns such as videos and commercials. It may also go towards basic living expenses. It has become increasingly prevalent for the label to negotiate deals that involve merchandising.



2. Secondly, an artist will sign to label due to their vast array of contacts in the music industry, as well as their know how in the business arena. Labels develop and market artists and act as a mentor.



3. Thirdly, the label's prestige is an important factor. Record companies are reliant on artists putting out their albums and artists rely on them too. Labels exist only to promote the artists vision as long as that vision conforms to the label's goal of achieving financial gain through music sales.

Record Company's Role in the Video Project

Although creating music videos is a team process, each record company operates differently. While every department within a label has a specific role in the process of creating the music, certain departments are more involved in the video process than others. Every record company has an Artist & Repertoire department where its executives seek out new talent and sign them to a contract to record exclusively for their label. In return, the artist receives the guidance and financial backing of the A&R team, in addition to sharing in the profits the artist makes for the label. Some of this allows the artist to write, produce and record their music. Some A&R people get involved in the video process and some do not; it depends on the persons, the relationships and the label.

Prop Making

In Friday 27th November's lesson the group had the opportunity to begin making props for our music video. We painted the sign we needed for the speed dating scenes which read "Saucy Single's Speed Dating".The sign has connotations of the devil, who of course appears in the scene.

Props we need...

One member of the production team, Reena, created a list of items which the groups needed in order to make our characters and setting appear verisimilitude. These items would be classed as the Mise-En-Scene, which plays a large role in the representations portrayed. For example, the use of candles at our speed dating setting suggests a very romantic atmosphere. It will also add soft lighting to the characters making them look dream-like. Secondly, the black attire worn by the 'Punk' will reinforce his dull personality and ambiguity as his role is very reserved. The use of glasses, and braces worn as the Geek's attire conform to the stereotype of a geek, which emphasise his supposed nerdy personality. Finally, the mirror and comb that the 'Hunk' character brings with him reveals his self loving, self obsessed personality.

Artist Inspiration

Pop sensation. Voice of her generation. Fashion designer. Political activist. Queen of MySpace. Lily Allen has been called all of these things and much much more and at 23 is Britain's most consistently engaged and engaging pop star, as well as one of our must successful. Lily Allen was born in May 1985 in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of film producer Alison Owen and actor Keith Allen. It was an uncoventional childhood but not one without its compensations, and it made Allen wise beyond her years and tremendously motivated to carve her own place in the world. Raised alongside her sister and brother in Bloomsbury, Shepherd's Bush, Primrose Hill and Islington, she attended 13 different schools in total before abandoning her formal education at 15 and embarking on a teenage odyssey of innocence and experience: clubbing in Ibiza, studying to be a florist, always hoping to break into the entertainment industry.

She knocked on record company doors from the age of 16, and her first deal came in 2002 with Warners, who pushed her in an uncomfortably folky direction. It was two years later, working with producers Future Cut, when Allen began to find her feet as a songwriter. In 2005 she signed to Regal, and frustrated by the slow pace of the music industry, began to post demos on her MySpace page. Meanwhile, a series of live appearances at the Notting Hill nightclub Yo-Yo in the spring of 2006 whetted press and public appetites.

"Smile" was her first compostition, a song so appealing it prompted the producer Mark Ronson to fly her to New York where they collaborated on "The Littlest Things". "Smile" later won a BMI songwriting award. Ronson and Greg Kurstin were the crucial collaborators on "Alright, Still", which eventually sold 2.5 million records, broke into the Billboard top 20 in America , earned Allen 5 BRIT nominations and a spot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2007.

It wasn't all plain sailing. The backlash, when it came was ferocious. Allen has been frequently and somewhat hysterically pilloried in the tabloids and on gossip websites for her peceived misbehaviour. She has had spats with fellow popstars. Her relationship with the papparazzi might be politely described as fraught. Her private life has been made public. Meanwhile, a series of personal traumas have occasionally threatened to overwhelm her.

Her second album, "Its Not Me, Its You", written and recorded by her and Greg Kurstin began its life in 2007. After a week and a half they had six songs and a new sound had emerged: darker perhaps, definitely dancier, clearly more mature. The album debuted at number 1 in the UK charts.

Allen signed a one year contract to present her own BBC Three TV show entitled Lily Allen and Friends based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career. In May 2007 she launched a line of shoes, dresses and accessories called Lily Loves. Lily has taken an interest in environmental and social concerns. She performed at a benefit concert for War Child.

Due to her outspokeness, Allen has been the subject of many controversies. Disparaging remarks about musicians Bob Geldof, Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry have all garnered major press attention. She later said that making fun of other pop stars was due to a lack of confidence. Photos of her drunk and topless at the Cannes Film Festival were also widely covered in the press.

Drawing Storyboard 2 and Discussions

On Monday 9th November lesson our team continued to produce our storyboard. Discussions took place as to what ideas could still be added to the storyboard and for filming, although our storyboard sketches and annotations remain incomplete, the meeting was still productive.

1. The angles of specific scenes, especially the scenes which accompany the sharp beats at the opening of the song. The chosen angles were used to convey a specific attitude. For example the shot of the girl's earring illustrates the character's stylish persona.
2. The iMac software used to edit our music video does not have the specific editing techniques we would like to use for certain shots. This proved a problem for our idea to edit three different takes in one shot so we have decided to change the filming technique of the scene instead.
3. The reliability of the characters and an agreement that if the actors are not available on the filming date, we must find another actor. This is due to the short time period we have to film.

Costume Designs

Our team have discussed the appropriate attire for the protagonist characters in our music video. As our characters are of the stereotypical punk, hunk, geek and girly girl character traits it is important to portray their personality through their costumes.

Reena has studied the iconography of each character and created a montage of images that reflect their implied qualities.

The personality of this character is apparent through her casual clothing which reflect her cool attitude. Like a majority of teenage girls, it is apparent this girl has an interest in fashion.

This is our punk character. His black clothing reflects connotations expressing a sinister appearance. The heavy make up however could act as a disguise, revealing that the character is not at all confident in themselves.

The hunk appears to be similar to the female character with their trendy fashion and modern clothing. But the various designer items have connotations of an arrogant attitude.

This is our geek character. This is because of his old fashioned style, which reflects his lifestyle and personality stereotypically. However his traits change drastically throughout the video as he becomes more confident and eventually makes his transformation as Superman. He is a reference to the character of Clarke Kent in the Superman comics and films.

Characters and Cast

As filming begins as early as in two weeks our team have already begun to discuss and consider the characters in our narrative and the remaining members of the cast. The final decisions are based upon factors such as the ability to stay in role for long periods of time, availablity to film and general image. The general image to us is the most important factor as it is essential the characters appear within the age range of ten to nineteen. This makes them easier for the audience to relate to, so understanding the characters within more depth.

Characters
(Protaganist Characters)

1. Female - Reena Chadee
2. Boy Date (Punk) - Robyn Oliver
3. Boy Date (Hunk) - Mike
4. Boy Date (Geek) - Krishna Mootoosamy

(Characters)

1. Young Boy - Cameron
2. Devil - April McKay
3. Screaming Girl 1 - Laura Fredericks

Using, Developing and Challenging Conventions

To analyse the ways in which our storyboard uses, develops and challenges the conventions of pop music videos, I have compared it to three popular pop videos; Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me, Miley Cyrus' Party In The USA and Jonas Brothers Burnin' Up.

You Belong With Me



Party In The USA


Burnin' Up


Conventions:

• Many scenes exaggerate humour, which appeals to a young audience.
  
• There is a balance of domestic and public scenes, which relates to the stereotypical lifestyle of young adults.


• The artist/band might want to develop their own star iconography, which becomes their star image.
  
• Pop artists usually promote themselves in music videos by starring in the video themselves.
  
• Edited transitions such as fades and wipes are used in order to create a surreal atmosphere .


• Mise-en-scene in all the videos for example the street dancers, bikes, couples and clothing style are all associated with youths.
  
• Long shots are utilised, revealing the costumes and Mise en Scene which appeal to youth culture, as well as close ups illustrating the emotions behind the songs.
  

Although our song was created using computer software, the variety of instruments and vocals gives the impression that a band was involved. In this sense, our video is challenging the conventions of a pop band's video. The artist/band usually appear in their own video in order to promote themselves, sometimes as a part of the narrative, sometimes separate. However our team have decided not to have a band feature and focus rather on the narrative as it is quite strong to carry the whole video through and address the audience through its comic elements. We made use of lip synchronisation, close up shots and the repetition of chorus scenes. This engages the audience and repeating scenes will allow the video to flow better as it links the different verses.

Drawing Storyboard 1

On Friday 23rd October our team began to draw up our official storyboard from our previous notes. However, we have decided that the information regarding camera angles, movements and transitions would be left blank until a later date due to the idea that there may be last minute changes to this section.

Beginning to Storyboard 2

In our next session, our group met to finish the final outline of the storyboard and make some minor changes to the previous days work.

Beginning to Storyboard

Our team have finally had the chance to begin working on our storyboard for our music video. We had many ideas, but they were general ideas rather than specific which made the ability to begin the storyboard confusing. Therefore we decided to plan our storyboard in a different way that we hadn't used last year at AS. We played the track many times to learn the lyrics and then timed each section, (for example 0.54-1.10) and applied a specific scene to it. However after a while we realised this was becoming time consuming but was still a productive way as it would help us to film the exact details and timing of the scenes aswell as to starting our storyboard off and gaining some clear ideas into how we want our music video to go.

Sound and Vision in Pop/Pop Rock

The relationship between sound and image evident in the use of song and underscore in film is also evident in pop videos. A great deal of research carried out on pop music reveals that pop is concerned with the issues brought up within the narrative. Alf Bjornberg argues that there are two structural aspects to popular music, narrative and epic, both of which are derived from Richard Middleton's studies of popular music, and his distinction between the two categories of musical syntax. In contrast to the narrative category, which priveleges difference, there is what we can call an "epic mode, where the focus is on repetition and varied repetition; and inbetween comes a "lyrical" category".

Bjornberg defines a narrative musical syntax as having "linear" properties, in which there is no repetition in the music so the music is continuously moving forward, while an epic syntax has "circular" properties which is most common in Pop music. He says "...Most popular music depends on repetition of some kind, be they musical riffs or hooks, chords, sequences arranged into sections such as verse and chorus or even vocal repetitions."

The most common kinds of musical syntax evident in pop songs are therefore "epic" or "lyrical" structures, with musical "narrative" structure being much less common. This is the area where the sounds and visuals of pop music videos differ most greatly. General music videos may make great use of linear narratives, but pop music videos are just as likely to make use of a circular visual narrative.

Sound and Vision

The relationship between sound and image evident in the use of song and underscore in film is also evident in pop video, but with one main difference according to Phillip Tagg - "the pop video is a "visualisation of music rather than sonorisation of image". He also suggests that listeners of pop music already "visualise" the music they hear using a series of semantic connections they hear created by the text. A mini-movie therefore appears in the listener's mind, and each version is different, since people react to music differently.

Will Straw sees promotional videos as a threat to the listener's individualtiy and that it seems to take away the responsibility of visualising the music. He states that the use of the music video is "diminishing the interpretive liberty of the individual music listener who, when presented with a promo clip, seems to have visual or narrative interpretations of song lyrics imposed on him or her".

Accoring to Goodwin "the debate about whether or not the video image triumphs over the song itself needs to take account of where the emphasis lies in the visualisation, and whether or not it ILLUSTRATES, AMPLIFIES, or CONTRADICTS the meaning of the song.

Amplification introduces new meanings that do not conflict with the lyrics but that add layers of meanings.



llustration uses visual narrative to tell the story of the song lyric.




Contradiction has the visuals contradicting the narrative of the song.

Interaction With The Audience

Serious attempts have been made to emulate the films; Madonna employed both a movie director and actor Christopher Walken for the clip for Bad Girl (1992), while David Lynch was employed to direct Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy in 1990. The trouble is, as is the case with the clips taken from movies, is that the music has very little to do with the images presented. Andrew Goodwin states that "songs are not the movies". He argues that music videos should incorporate lip-synchronization so the performer is addressing the viewer directly, as apposed to the distance between actor and audience in a movie, brought about by ignoring the camera in an attempt to act "more natural". This brings a voyeuristic quality to watching movies that doesn't manifest itself in music video, where lip-synching sees to embrace the viewer, bringing them into the action. An example is Massive Attack's Protection (1995) set in an apartment block, into which we are looking from the outside. Any feeling of intrusion is calmed by the regular appearence of Tracey Thorn who seems to sing directly to us.

Massive Attack - Protection

The Value of Sound in Music Videos

Much of the research on music video makes only fleeting references (if any) to the music, causing one to question the value of sound in music video. Many music videos such as Madonna's Material Girl video from 1985 incorporates iconography and images from Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend film. There are obvious links between music videos and films, especially considering that many current chart hits are used to promote a movie rather than the the artist's own album. Recent examples are Guns'n'Roses You Could Be Mine from Terminator 2.

This features extensive film footage in their accompaying promo clips, and UB40's (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You from Silver has been filmed in a style relevant to the themes of voyeurism and hidden cameras that dominate the movie it is taken from. However, music videos that apply film footage and similar filming techniques rarely follow the song lyrics and music.

Guns'n'Roses - You Could Be Mine

UB40 - (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You

Superman - Barrie Gledden Lyrics

He struts his stuff like his the Mac daddy,

He's one of a kind, invincible and ready,

To take on the world, He's got sex appeal

The man is a dream, the devil did him a deal,

Unstoppable, incredible, irresistible and powerful,

The one and all number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's Superman,

That man's got style, that man's got flare,

Try to compete, oh don't you dare,

He's got the moves, he makes me shiver inside,

And he knows it, yeh he knows it,

Unstoppable, Incredible, Irresistible and Powerful,

The one and all, number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's superman,

He struts his stuff like his the Mac daddy,

He's one of a kind, invincible and ready,

To take on the world, He's got sex appeal

The man is a dream, the devil did him a deal,

That man's got style, that man's got flare,

Try to compete, oh don't you dare,

He's got the moves, he makes me shiver inside,

And he knows it, yeh he knows it,

Unstoppable, Incredible, Irresistible and Powerful,

The one and all, number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's superman,

Superman[superman]

Ehhhhhhhhhhh

C'mon Superman [superman]

Yeh he knows it

[superman]He knows it [superman]

Influences for Music Video

I feel that Blink 182's music video for their song "Always" is a strong influence for my group's own music video. Firstly the narratives are quite similar, in that it features a female protagonist with three males competing for her affections. The frame is cut into three horizontal sections, each portraying a different outcome for each boy. It succeeds in helping the narrative to flow in a unique way and it is something the group would consider when it comes to the final stages of production for our own video.

Narrative in Music Video

After deciding between two songs for our music video, we chose the song ‘Superman by Barry Gledden’, which is an upbeat tune, with a catchy positive chorus and female vocals about the relationship between a girl and her superman lover. We came to this conclusion since the team had brilliant fun and exciting narrative ideas for the lyrics. The lyrics have also given us the opportunity to express the humour in our video, as the lyrics are very metaphorical, and exaggerated. We have created an outline of what we want the narrative in our music video to include.

• Female looking for the right boyfriend.


• She goes on dates with a number of different boys from punks, to gangsters to geeks, in the same restaurant, at the same time on different days!


• The scene in the restaurant remains the same but the boys change, and the roses seem more wilted in each scene.


• But of course she chooses the best looking boy, but he ends up to be the most big headed boy, and doesn’t really care about her.


• However, the Geek that she dated really likes her and is the ‘real superman’. (He is seen in the background of most scenes wearing a baggy superman t-shirt)


• As the video goes on, the geek appears to be better looking.


• The girl begins to notice him again.


• After a number of awful dates with her new boyfriend she is bored and leaves him, he doesn’t care as he is too busy looking at himself.


• Finally she gets with ‘Superman’!


• Want the video to also include animated shots, which have been influenced by legendary comics and Superman cartoons. For example, speech bubbles and signs that stress the sounds

Influencing the Audience

If audience is a mass, it raises all kinds of questions about the power of the media to influence people - not just individuals, but whole sectors of society. There have been a number of theories over the years about how exactly the media work on the mass audeince. Two I will outline are called The Hypodermic Model and The Two Step Flow Model.

The Hypodermic Model

It grew out of what is referred to as The Frankfurt School, a group of German Marxists in the 1930s who witnessed first hand how Hitler used propaganda to influence a nation. According to the theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced - in other words, you watch something violent, you may go and do something violent.

This theory has been particularly popular when people have been considering violence in films. There have been films such as The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange which have been banned in the past, partly because of a belief that they might encourage people to copy crimes within them. On the other hand no-one has ever really claimed that everyone will be affected by these texts in the same way. Many people have therefore seen the theory as simplistic because it doesn't take any account of people's individuality and yet it is still very popular in society in areas such as politics. Every time a young person does something violent and makes the news, newspapers and MPs will try to link their crime to video violence.

Another interesting example of the theory in action is the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Before every one of his murders, he watched a clip from his favourite film in order to get himself excited. This is the kind of fact that might seem to prove the hypodermic syringe theory.

The Two Step Flow

The Hypodermic model proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. 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 campaign and published their results in a paper. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the mind of is audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active asociates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and 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.

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory

According to this, while any one media text does not have too much effect, it shows that although one viewing may not have a big effect, viewing constantly over time has a greater effect on people’s behaviour, making them desensitised (distanced from ones emotions). Therefore the result being that violence in the media means children become less shocked by real life violence. On the other hand many may become more sensitised, this is where the viewers are shocked by the violence, therefore becoming more aware and emotional.

Gratification Theory

According to this theory, we all have different uses for the media and we make choices over what we want to watch. In other words, when we encounter a media text it is not just some kind of mindless entertainment - we are expecting to gain something from it: some kind of gratification. In this model the individual has the power and they select the media texts that best suit their needs and attempts to satisfy those needs. Researchers have found four kinds of gratifications individuals recieve:

1. Information: we want to find out about society and the world, we want to satisfy our curiosity. This would fit NEWS AND DOCUMENTARIES.
2. Personal Identity: we may watch television in order to look for models for our behaviour. So, for example, we may identify with characters that we see in SOAPS.
3. Intergration and Social Interaction: we use the media in order to find out more about the circumstances of other people and help us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others.
4. Entertainment: sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment, relaxtion or just to fill time.

Reception Theory

This theory is based on the idea that the audience create their own image of media texts, meaning that although a number of people watch the same programme, individuals interpret it in their own way. This can be influenced by the our individual upbringing, the mood we are in, the place where we are at the time or all kinds of other factors. David Morley classes the varied readings of people in three groups, which are:

Preferred Reading: what the media producers hope the audience will take from the text.

Oppositional Reading: audiences from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message.

Negotiated Reading: audiences acknowledge the preffered reading but modify it to suit their own values and opinions.

Constructing an Audience

Pop music is a genre that was created as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll. The pop rock genre emerged and acted as a fence which satisfied an audience with an admiration for both pop and soft rock. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs, dealing with the wide range of emotions from physical or emotion love. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music. Since the pop genre is extremely broad, different levels of pop are admired by diverse audiences. Therefore our team have created a questionnaire, to be able to establish our target demographic.

Foundations By Kate Nash & Directed By Kinga Burza

Kate Marie Nash (born 6 July 1987) is an English singer and songwriter based in London. She had a UK #2 hit "Foundations" in 2007, followed by the platinum selling UK number 1 album Made of Bricks. Nash started her career in 2006. After several gigs, Nash uploaded her music to MySpace. She found a manager for herself before seeking producers for her music. On November 14th 2007, Kate Nash celebrated her debut album 'Made of Bricks' going platinum. Whilst playing a sold out show at Shepherd's Bush Empire the news broke that her album had passed the 300,000 sales mark after Fiction records conducted a massive sales check. The album currently sits as 2007's second best selling album.

Foundations


Kinga Burza
Kinga was born in Krakow, Poland and raised in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia before moving to London in 2005 and signing with respected film production company Partizan of Michel Gondry fame in 2006. She completed a BA at the University of New South Wales, before she went onto postgraduate studies in Theatre and Film at UTS in Sydney. Whilst studying at university, Kinga began teaching herself by making amateur videos for her then boyfriend Sydney musician Jack Ladder and many other friends she had in bands. Since being in the UK, Kinga has shot videos for M.Craft, The Thrills, The Rakes, The Teenagers, Calvin Harris, Kate Nash, Ladyhawke and recent Billboard No. 1 newcomer Katy Perry in LA. Promo Magazine has dubbed Kinga to be among 'the next wave of up-and-coming directors' while both I-D and Dazed and Confused Magazine have also run features on her. She was nominated Best New Director at the CAD Awards in 2007 and won a Young Gun award for Music Video Direction for Kate Nash's "Foundations" in 2007. Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" reached No.1 on the BillBoard charts. In 2008 Kinga won Best Pop Video at the UK Video Music Awards in London for Kate Nash's "Foundations".
I thoroughly enjoy watching the video to Foundations at every available opportunity. Its light-heartedness and simplistic techniques (excluding the animation) is something I would like to incorporate into my own music video. The humour used with simple camera angles and editing techniques I feel would appeal to the audience I am trying to reach, i.e teenagers around 14-18 years old. I believe it would create light hearted and at times humourous connotations throughout the video.

Criteria of Advanced Portfolio

Our criteria for our Advanced Portfolio explains what is to be included in our promotion package for the release of an album. The three main tasks are :

• Main Task: Produce a music promo video
• Ancillary Task One: Produce a website homepage for the band.
• Ancillary Task Two: Produce a CD/DVD cover for the release of album as part of a digipak.

Our research, planning and evaluation involves the use of our blog where we will evaluate and reflect on the creative process and experiences of our production.

We must answer the evaluation questions. These are:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and acillary tasks?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Questionnaire Results - Music Video

When collecting the data from our questionnaires I inputted the information from the questionnaires into Microsoft Excel in order to create a tally or a graph. This would help us to see clearly the results and decisions of our demographic.

Gender and Genre

In order to determine the preferred genre among males and females, our results depicted that the genre of pop (our group's chosen genre) was most popular, particularly among females, with half of our participants from both genders choosing it. It seems though that the target audience for this genre will be females, with 7 out of 20 choosing the genre compared with 3 males.

Target Age Range

As the group have chosen Pop as our preferred genre for our music video, we wanted to investigate how popular this genre was depending on age and therefore who our target age range would be. Out of twenty people, it seemed the age bracket of 14-18 deemed Pop one of it's preferred genres with over half choosing it. This concludes the question that our target audience for our music video will be between these ages.

Attraction to Music Videos
When asked what attracted them to a music video, people included the answers of storyline, setting and humour. As the graph depicts, storyline proved the most popular answer with males and females with nearly 3/4 of participants including this in their answer. The second and third most popular were humour and SFX. While SFX may seem the more difficult and time consuming to include, we will have to go buy the effects we have on an iMac computer. However storyline was deemed the most important and as a group we had discussed previously that a storyline would prove integral to our production.

Preferred Album Cover

One of the future ancillary tasks is to produce an album cover and so it was important to begin thinking about this. Our questionnaire highlighted that Mika's album proved most popular, but only with females. Whereas Groove Armada's was only popular with males.