Video Location & Permissions

My video is mainly going to be set outside in different locations to make it look varied. Some of the locations I am considering are:

• Manor Park (Toton)

[Insert photo]

• Tesco Express (Chilwell)

[Insert photo]

• Highfields/University Park

[Insert photo]

• Woods near Manor Park

[Insert photo]

The only place out of these I really need to get permission for is Tesco Express, I will email them to ask permission, if not I shall search for another location that I can use.
By using different locations it won't be boring and the audience will be able to exnjoy the characters in a varied amount of places.

Storyboard

These two images show my basic storyboard plan for filming my music video. They will be a good aid when t comes to the days if filming.

Research - Target Audiences

I made a questionnaire to ask people about their preferences in music and music videos and their ideas on what works well. The questions I asked were:
1. What age group do you fit into?

• 0-16
• 17-25
• 26-40
• 41-60
• 61+

2. What gender are you?

• Female
• Male

3. What would you consider your favourite genre of music?

• Indie/Acoustic
• Rap
• Electronica/Dance
• Rock
• Pop
• Soul/R&B

4. What do you prefer in a music video?

• Narrative
• Performance
• Mixture of both

5. Do you prefer the lighting in a video to be bright or dark?

• Bright and colourful
• Dark and ominous

6. Do you think that a music video must have the band in performing?

• Yes
• No

7. Do you watch videos more than once?

• Yes
• No

8. Out of all the music videos you have ever seen, which is your favourite? and why?
- open response

These questions will help me think about my target audience and who I will aim my music video at. I think that the target audience for the song and video will be both male and female and any age up to around 41.

From my research I have discovered that people enjoy watching music videos more than once.

They also wrote the reasons for this:

There are varied responses for wanting to watch the video and I will think of these when it comes to filming my video and whether people will want to watch the video again.
Other questions I asked like whether the band should perform in the video or not, came out with more repsonses that it should have the band. However because the band I have chosen is too far away I will not be able to film them for my video and will need to concentrate on making a good narrative for my video to entertain my audience.
A lot of people answered that they would watch a video for than once, this means that I need to make my video interesting enough that people will enough watching the video over and over again.

When asked what there favourite genre of music was, 33.3% answered theirs was Indie/Country music. This helps me promote my track and music as their genre is Indie/Country meaning it could become a popular track. 

Research - Music Video Directors

Chris Applebaum [Website]

Chris Applebaum is a music video director from America and has worked with a lot of stars like:

• Rihanna
• Hilary Duff
• Natasha Bedingfield
• Britney Spears
• Fountains of Wayne

In the two videos I have chosen the performance is intergrated within the narrative, Fountains od Wayne are performing on the television in the video and Miley Cyrus is performing with all the people she is partying with. Also in these videos I have noticed that he uses a lot of colour to keep the videos bright and happy with the theme of the songs.

 

 

Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne

This song is the story of 12 year old boy that goes out with a girl at school to get to her attractive mother, Applebaum uses the lyrics to make a narrative out of the video; the video conventionally uses performance as well.

By making the video comedic and follow a narrative that some viewers may even relate too, it is likely to make the audience want to watch the video again. Applebaum cleverly chose the model Rachel Hunter to play the mother of Stacy; the video uses a lot of voyeurism over Rachel Hunter. This is done to attract the male audience to this video, as they may want to watch it again if a hot model is in it.

Party in the USA - Miley Cyrus

Applebaum also directed the video for Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. Just like the Fountains of Wayne track he keeps the video to a narrative, however most of the video is a performance as she is always lip syncing and singing the song.

Shane Drake [Website]

Whilst researching Shane Drake I have discovered he has stuck to indie/emo/rock type bands or artists when making music videos. He has worked with bands like:

• Paramore
• Panic! At the Disco
• Avril Lavigne
• Fall Out Boy

In the two videos I have chosen, I noticed that the performance and narrative are shared out equally for the audience to enjoy.

Paramore - Monster

Overall this video is quite simple, it involves performance of the band and also a mysterious narrative. The narrative involves all of the band members running around falling buildings as if everything is quickly falling apart. It also has scenes of the band laying in water lip syncing and looking lost. It is very strange and doesn't particularly make any sense therefore may make the audience want to go and watch the video again to try and make more sense of it. They are also performing as a whole band in a simple room to keep the element of mystery. Also part of the performance, the band are laying face up in water, holding hands and the lead singer, Hayley Williams is singing to the camera. The whole video is quite confusing and doesn't particularly make much sense.

Avril Lavigne - Smile

This video uses the conventions of narrative and performance combined. The performance is acting out well by Avril Lavigne as she sings directly to the camera and acts well, interacting with the audience and showing her emotions well when she's singing. It also has a narrative that fits well with the songs lyrics and shows in black and white, Avrils character walking around a city and picking up pieces of red glass which eventually are put together to make a complete heart.

Music Video Conventions

Conventions of Music Videos on Prezi

Research - Genre

A genre can be defined as "A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter." Source

Specifically "A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music." Source

The Art/ Popular/Traditional Distinction

This is a distinction of music that Phillip Tagg calls a "axiomatic triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics." They each have a certain criteria.

Art Music [Source]

Art music refers to classical traditions including contemporary as well as historical classical music forms these focus on formal styles, invite technical and detailed deconstruction and criticism, and demand focused attention from the listener. "Art music is generally instrumental, and when vocals are present they have very explicit poetic, political, or religious overtones."

Popular Music [Source]

The usual representation of "popular music" is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media.

Musicologist and specialist in popular music Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects:

"Popular music, unlike art music, is conceived for mass distribution to large and often socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, stored and distributed in non-written form, only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and in capitalist societies,subject to the laws of 'free' enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as possible of as little as possible to as many as possible"

Maroon 5 would be an example of Popular Music

Traditional Music [Source]

Traditional music is the modern name for what used to be called "folk music", before the term "folk music" was expanded to include a lot of non-traditional material. The defining characteristics of traditional music are:

• Oral transmission: The music is passed down, or learned, through singing and listening and sometimes dancing
• Cultural basis: The music derives from and is part of the traditions of a particular region or culture.

A traditional Irish band.

Modern Music Genres

There are a lot more genres now as there are so many different artists and performers that need to be broken into categories. Here are just a few modern genres:

• Pop

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. [Source]

• Rock/Indie

Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US, and then Britpop bands in the UK, broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. [Source]

• Electronica/Dance

Electronic dance music (EDM) is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment. The music is largely created for use by disc jockeys and is produced with the intention of it being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set; wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or "mix". [Source]

• Rap/Hip Hop

Hip hop music is an American musical genre that developed as part of hip hop culture, which is defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, breaking/dancing and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing. The term rap music is often used synonymously with the term hip hop music, but rap vocals are not required for music to be considered "hip hop". [Source]

I think that the band I have chosen for my music video, The 99s would fit into the Indie and Country genres of music, which is quite popular at the moment. Bands like Mumford and Sons fit into this category too and they have become very popular in 2010/2011.

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F9341816"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F9341816" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/craigadampowell/mumford-and-sons-the-cave">Mumford And Sons - The Cave</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/craigadampowell">CraigPowell</a></span>

Research - Artists and Record Labels

The band I have chosen is from Manchester. I found them on unsigned.com, however they have a contract on iTunes and have an album out already. I have their permission and they seem very happy to let me use their track for my music video.

The 99s is made up of three members:

Johnny West - Lead singer/guitars/bass

• Adam Quigley - Drums, Percussion
• James Loughlin - Bass/Backing Vox/Guitars

Record Companies are the most important part of the music industry in the 21st century. Record labels are companies that manufacture and distribute recorded music and promoted that music (or at least hire people to handle the promotion. All artists need to find a record company that will take them on. There are two types of record company: indie labels and the major labels; the big

four.

The big four have a lot of control over the music industry, they are the Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group. I think that the 99s could quite easily fit into Sony BMG however they may be better suited to an indie label. However if they were to get successful they would need to find a record company that is closely related to the big four industries.

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