These for me are the main generic conventions that I feel my target audience will associate with the Indie genre:
Acoustic guitar
Male
Dark colour clothing
Casual clothing e.g. Vans
Derelict buildings
Natural lighting
Stool (often associated when the artist plays the guitar)
Mid-shots
Addressing the camera
I would want at least the majority of these generic conventions within my music video as it is these that connect with the audience and provide a strict understanding of the genre. Knowing the crux of your video to be within a specific genre, this can then lead to understanding the narrative and performance, the two things that a crucial to make a successful music video.
These is a demographic and psychographic to give me an idea of my primary audience that I am appealing for. Before I start doing the coursework, this is a good structure to look at whenever I need to use more conventions. This allows me to succeed in the kind of conventions my target audience would like by reading this information.
Despite us doing a Target Audience Questionnaire, I liaised with individuals within the 16-26 age bracket (as that was the majority who wrote completed the questionnaire) to ask them the questions on the questionnaire and why they would chose that.
As you could see from the previous post, the answers I received had a strong proportion on one or two answers which evidently made me aware that it is these media elements that speak to our audience. This is also similar with answers I got as to why they chose that option. Here are the most common answers I got from different questions, also showing what were the most common answers in the questionnaire:
What genre suits you best? - The music genres Indie, Pop and Rock were the most popular.
"Because I have been brought up with pop music"
"I like the sound of a acoustic guitar and so the indie genre appeals to me the most"
"Classic rock is something that everyone likes surely?"
"The indie genre is becoming more and more known by the day"
"It depends what mood i'm in, but it can be a mixture of pop and indie"
2. What would you expect to be in a music video? - Varied shots and narrative were the most popular.
"Become easily bored if you have the same shot on for a long time"
"Narrative makes the video much more fasinating, not just the song"
"If you used narrative, it would have to relate to the lyrics"
"Something constant that would keep your interest - like narrative"
3. Do you think narrative is important and why? - Everyone who took the questionnaire said yes!
"It doesn't need a story if the lyrics don't mean anything"
"You can bring in celebrities or something that means getting lots of views, even if they don't want to listen to the music - they are still publitising the artist!"
"You can create them into something iconic"
"Yes because, it generally makes you feel more interested, and if it is really good you are more likely to share that music video with friends and watch it repeatedly on YouTube"
For me, the main thing I got out of doing this is that, not all of the individuals I asked were actually into the indie genre, but they still agreed that varied shots and a narrative are important which allowed me to think that the music video may be enjoyed simply through the video and not necessary through the music.
IIIII IIIII IIIII - 15 people saying yes, which means that everyone thinks it is important!
From looking at this, we know that having a narrative, choreography and varied shots are important to the public and we need to keep this is mind for when we shoot our video.
Target Audience Member
Anjola Delano is a typical target audience member for our music video. Anjola's favourite film genre is comedy which fits in with our narrative. She also enjoys horror and thrillers. Her favourite film is "She's the Man" directed by Andy Fickman and she loves actress Drew Barrymore and Ryan Reynolds. In her spare time she enjoys shopping and visiting the cinema. Another thing which she enjoys, is watching video channels, particularly The Hits and VIVA. Artists that she listens to on a regular basis would be Aled Jones, Rhydian Roberts and Paolo Nutini. All of whom are accoustic singers. Along with Nutini being one of her favourite singers, his single Candy is a favourite music video of hers because she likes his performance he delivers. Her favourite radio station is 'Indie Rock Radio' - SKY.FM, she particularly likes to listen to this radio station when she is in an upset mood as it makes her feel much more relaxed.
Because the brief is to create a music video, it was important that the footage that is used, relates to my chosen genre which is Indie. I asked my partner (George) from AS if he would like to work with me in our advanced coursework as I felt that we both worked well last year which was reinforced by us gaining a good grade. He has experience in the media industry through work experience in year 12 and has certain software at home such as, Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop which allowed me to feel confident when going into the planning of the coursework.
From the research we have done, I wanted to stick to the Indie genre as action match could be used from different videos but also other generic conventions we had ideas about when looking at Joshua Radin's 'Brand New Day'. For example, the clothing that he used was rooted from an indie's perspective with the dark coloured tee and black jeans. From this, it enabled me to want our main character to be wearing a dark tee and casual trousers.
I thought it would be appropiate if we researched a variety of music videos to broaden our ideas of what we could produce. An animated music video is something which we looked at in more detail and came across Kayne West - Heartless. However, this is something which I thought wouldn't be best suitable for the video which we are doing and won't be as funny because the people aren't real.
I asked George if he could post a message on Just Jacks official page to show that we thought of copyright and can have that message for a back-up just in case anyone thinks that copyright has occurred. We were very pleased to have a reply within the same evening saying "Go for it George, good luck". This is a print shot of the message no Just Jacks official facebook page.
Me and my partner (George) have chosen to have two elements in our music video: the narrative and the performance as this is a popular technique which tends to make music videos a success. We looked at various videos to get an idea or what kind of genre we wanted the video to be like. We both agreed on the genre to be comedy as this appeals to both of us and I thought we could get a good audience response e.g. people laughing. This also relates to the target audience for our video to be, which is teenagers as this is something which personally we can both resemble to and achieve the best reviews. Josh Radin's video "brand new day" is a video I constantly looked at for research as it is funny and has the same target audience. Also, he isn't hugely famous which is something I feel we should take into account for when we choose our song as having the video compared could be an issue.
There is an establishing shot at the beginning of the video where a police woman interrupts the performance of the video. This is very controversial in a music video and something which I thought was clever as it grabs the audiences' attention straight away. There are plenty of establishing shots to reveal the setting as they play a big part in the performance of the video. The locations are in a populated, urban town/city which plays with the incidents that occur to him throughout the video.
Learn to Fly is the first single from Foo Fighters third album There is nothing left to lose back in 1999. The lyrics are about jumping into situations however difficult they are, but desperate to seek help along the way. Dave Grohl (the lead singer) sings longs such as, "i'm looking for the sky to save me". According to Wikipedia Foo Fighters musical genre is Alternative Rock and post-grunge.
The video is set on a plane with the three band members playing multiple roles as they board the plane. All of the characters being played have a comical objective with they use e.g. Grohl plays a teenage girl who wants to speak to the band as "she" is a huge fan. The majority of bands have their lead singer being portrayed as the "star" of the band which has been done in this video with Grohl playing more roles than the others (6), therefore, having more footage of himself. His roles are:
Himself (0:51)
Flamboyant flight attendant (0:07)
The pilot (2:25)
Teenage fan (1:00)
Overweight lady (0:37)
FBI Agent (4:19)
The opening shot uses rule of thirds to emphasise Jack Black looking in the direction where there is space on screen. Having a huge star in your opening shot is clever because the audience instantly have something which they understand and know through him being a huge celebrity. The pan going in down in the first shot contributes in revealing the location; an aircraft. The quick, pacey cuts relate with the fast, upbeat rhythm the song has. This is something I find interesting to have for my music video.
I chose to research this song in more detail because of the comical genre I want my music video to possess. Multiple characters are popular with the public for humour (especially when a converting genders), as known trough pantomimes. Keeping the action flowing in every shot is something I would like to portray like this video as it keeps the audience engaged and relates to humour. E.g. Stereotypically, if someone was happy, they would likely be moving around a lot.
I need something is on Newton Faulkner's first album hand built by robots back in 2007. The lyrics are about someone who has left him and he is overcoming what has happened with the chorus repeatedly saying "i don't mind anymore". Newton Faulkner is known for his acoustic, folk and alternative music which is personally what I think this genre is.
The video doesn't have a narrative, only the performance element where Faulkner is sat singing whilst playing an acoustic guitar. I think the video could have been simplified with just him in a dark room to express his negativity about being by himself. However, at 1:27, lamps are shown in the background through panning which symbolise light, hope etc as he is overcoming the past. This relates to the lyric "i don't mind anymore".
The opening shot is a close-up of Faulkner playing the guitar which instantly grabs the audiences' attention for wanting to know who the artist is. The next shot has performed rule of thirds which allows the audience to distinguish the artist clearly against the black background. Faulkner plays to the camera (0:10) and conveys vulnerability which adds to the mood of the lyrics.
I chose this video to research because I like the performance aspect and is something which I shall take on board for my music video. Using lot's of close-up's on the instrument itself which for Faulkner is iconic because he is also known by the public for being a brilliant guitarist. This video reveals and tells me that sometimes "less is more" can be better.
This video is up for research because of the positive feedback it has been given through many media technologies. Beyonce Knowles released this first single along side "if i were a boy" in her third album "I am... Sasha Fierce" in October 2008. The reason for it's whole hype of the song is due to the iconic video. This is a brilliant way of understanding that a music video is a brilliant way to promote a song. This video has had (and counting) 124,857,107 hits (with this being just one of many of the music video).
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with these two options:
A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).
