Genre Analysis

Genres

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By understanding the different genres of music we can create a music video that tailors specifically to one genre 

Target Audience Research

We performed some research to find out what people like about music videos, and then to find a target audience for ourselves too. the results were as follows:

51% of respondants were male, 49% female.
20% aged 14-16, 48% 17-19, 10% 24-27 and 22% older.

Most importantly it seems that most people watch music videos every day and use websites like youtube and vimeo, rather than TV these days, with 90% of respondants saying they use youtube. Respondants said that this was because it was the easiest, most convienient method and they could whatever they want straight away.


we then found that most people like rock or pop music, this reinforced our decision to create a music video based around a rock band. 

Finally we asked people what they thought made a good music video, here is a selection of responses that were more popular

This helped us learn about our target audience and what type of music video to produce to gain the largest possible audience

Analysis of previous A level music videos

This gave us an insight into how other A2 Media students, like ourselves went about constructing and producing a music video.

History of Music Videos

From this we learnt how the music video industry has changed over time. This helped us adapt our work for a modern day audience, as we were able to see the change in codes and conventions.

Music Consumption

By understanding contemporary music video consumption in conjunction with our audience research we would know how best to advertise our products.

Analysis Of Music Videos

From analysing professional music videos we can understand the codes and conventions needed to create a music video, and see what common themes there are.

Evaluation of Preliminary task

For our preliminary task we had to work with a group to create a music video for Annie Lennox's A whiter shade of pale. This was part of a 2 day workshop that we undertook at school so that we could learn the basics of videography and how to properly construct a music video with all of the technical elements as well. This would mean that our preliminary task could have more focus and we could learn more from it, rather than attempting to make a video that although would teach us about the technical elements of using the camera, composing the shot, lighting etc. It would be lacking in context when trying to evaluate what we had learned and applying it to a music video, which is a very niche area with several key components.


Before we created our video, we were taught the key areas which often always appear in music videos, they are:

a link between the lyrics and visuals a link between the music and visuals genre specific iconography close ups of the artist(s) voyeurism intertextuality


Our group spent the first day brainstorming ideas, creating a treatment, then story-boarding the video, as well as creating a list of necessary locations and props. the remainder of the day was spent beginning the filming. On the second day we finished filming and then began editing our video.


I found the 2 days very useful. The knowledge we gained about the theory of music videos was and will be invaluable in creating an authentic music video and my group paid close attention to this, making sure we got all of the elements into the video.


Working in a group was useful also, we had not previously thought about making a music video on our own when we had heard that this would be the coursework, however after the preliminary task, we found that it would nigh on impossible and the benefits offered by working in a group, far outweigh the cost of doing this alone. When working in a cohesive sensible group allows for increased organisation and a greater pool of ideas from which to choose from, thus giving better creative and technical freedoms. It also means that more than one thing can be done at once and giving more momentum to your work, getting it done to the same quality but faster. However this relies heavily on a group that can work together and get along without clashing of egos and having the ability to be able to compromise.


We have also learnt about the technical side of videography, about framing a shot, lighting and how sometimes we have to deviate from the story board sometimes, either because the shot doesn't look good, is not possible, or because we have thought of something else to add/alter while on location/set. Labeling your tapes is also a crucial thing that we have learnt and then leaving them somewhere safe so that none of your footage is lost in the time between finishing filming and downloading al of your footage onto the iMac.


As well as learning about the cameras, we also learnt about Final Cut, the program that we will be using to edit our footage. We have all already used an iMac so that was not a problem, but Final Cut was important to understand, we feel that we very quickly picked up how to edit the clips in a way we wanted them. However adding effects to clips, such as making them Black and White (B&W) is something we need more practice on, and if necessary we will ask someone with more knowledge than myself to help me.


Overall we felt that we have learnt a lot from the preliminary task, but still have much more to learn and improve, thus improving our work too.