A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio planning, research and evaluation
During our first Media Studies lesson we had to organize ourselves into groups of 2-4. Once we had done this Mr Van Straten gave us the catalogue of topics which we would be producing our media studies project on. The selections were: documentaries, a mini film, trailer, radio advert or music video.
We began brainstorming ideas of what we could do for each of the topics we were given and what we could visualise as having the best outcome and final effect. We all wanted a challenge of something new and a project where we could learn the most new skills. After much deliberation of each theme we chose the music video, with the ancillary tasks of a magazine spread and DVD cover, as it was certainly something new: providing us with a great challenge; giving us a chance to learn a lot of new skills and would require us to use our imagination to produce a dazzling video.
Once we decided on the music video, we had the task of finding an unsigned band who were willing for us to use their song in our video. Therefore we resorted to myspace, the unsigned music hot stop. After some searching we found a few bands we liked, so emailed them via myspace asking for permission to use their videos.
After we had done this, Dannie showed us a band called 'Tramp Etiquette.' (http://www.myspace.com/tramp_etiquette) Where she knew the bass guitarist, Tom, from playing poker. After listening to a selection of the songs on their page and liking the sound of their music, Dannie text Tom asking if they were interested in us making them a video. We arranged to meet them on 8th October, meaning we didn't have long to get our plans on paper to present to the band and get their feedback.
Ideas and Brainstorming...
We have now begun to get our ideas on paper. To help us, the band sent us the song in an email and the lyrics so we could listen to the song properly and get the full flavour of what it was about. To ensure we encapsulated everything, the audience desired within a music video, we decided we would need to carry out some audience research. Initially we carried out our questionnaire on our media studies class:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0u44TXpoFovF7eIbUgRGED29CSstFFB7I9G-z3mgXQPTwH1Drze0X3Ue3vnkANcOw61esb68gNAksn9CiXWWPSZJqEGP2UdhO9mlo0WnRLeXn8IAgvBS4KW2RN2CKqgSzG9YGc5rBEn8/s1600-h/quetionair.bmp
But requiring a larger audience to establish a greater feel for our target audience, I put together a questionnaire on Google Docs and sent a post on facebook, so a variety of people were able to take part in our research.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/formResponse?formkey=dHgtNG1MOXVwUG1CT2NCVWZQbjZHcVE6MA&theme=0AX42CRMsmRFbUy1jZGZhYTJjOC0xYzc1LTQyYzEtYWM3MC1mMjQ1YzEwYWM3NzE&ifq
From our audience research we were able to created graphs and analysed the information!
Question 1 - What is your gender?

The band describes them selves as, “Everything you love, but slightly better!!!! It's not for us to tell you who we sound like - that's entirely a matter for you, so feel free to paint your own influences and references on the Tramp Etiquette Sound. Alright, we're a blend of Girls Aloud and Dumpy's Rusty Nuts. But no doubt that'll change next week.” Therefore they reach a large audience, encapsulating all genres. This means we are making a music video for everyone. From this graph we can tell the majority of people taking part in our questionnaire like indie music, which is lucky as this is the main genre of the group, resulting in us making our video to suit Indie music as the majority, while taking into account the tastes of other genres as we want the widest possible audience for our video and the band.
Question 2 - How old are you?

This question told us that most people listen to music everyday. Consequently we will need to choose a catchy song, which won’t become too repetitive to the target audience, and one they will enjoy for a long while. It must be up beat and fresh to ensure the audience shall enjoy the music video and other media products to their full potential.
Question 3 - What is your favorite music genre?

Question 3 shows us that our target audience's top three favorite genres are 1.) Indie 2.) Rock 3.)R&B/Hip-Hop. This means that we must find a band which is either one of these genres, or a mixture between them to fulfill our target audiences desires.
Question 4 - How often do you listen to music?

Graph 4 shows us that people like to listen to music everyday. Therefore we must choose a song which is catchy and a video they won’t get board of.
Question 5 - How important are the lyrics in relation to the music video?

Graph 5 shows that the lyrics are ‘very/quite’ important to the target audience within the music video. Therefore, from this we have learnt that having the lyrics of the song relating to the video and storyline on screen is very important to the target audience to ensure they are fully pleased with the final product.
Question 6 - When watching a music video, what appeals to you?

This graph is very important to the creation of the video as it tell us what our viewers want to see within the video. It shows us that there is an even balance between the storyline and the band. Therefore we will need to divide the song up so both the band and our storyline get equal showing in order for our video to best appeal to our target audience.
Question 7 - Do you like a storyline in a music video?

Graph 7 shows us the storyline is very important to the target audience. Therefore we must ensure that the video encapulates the audience and keeps their attention throughout the video, so they watch it repetitively.
Question 8 - How often do you want to see the band in the video?

The information established from this question informs us that we must have the band within the video at some point, as no on likes to not see them. The majority of people want to keep the band to the chorus. As a result this will free up time in the verses, allowing us to run a storyline then, with the band being limited to the chorus, fitting the desires of our target audience.
From our research and our own views, we wanted to have a storyline running perfectly parallel to the lyrics of the song ensuring it would easily make sense and be effortlessly comprehendible to the viewer. This would ensure that the listeners would be able to relate to what they are seeing and hearing in a corresponding storyline, rather than a random one, giving a more pleasing experience for our audience. This meant we had to create a story revolving around the lyrics, which wasn’t hard as the song is about a girl cheating on the boy, and the boy gaining power and getting over her through this song. We therefore wanted to replicate this power and control he was overcoming his feelings within our video.
Through brainstorming we came up with a few ideas which we could incorporate within our video:
I came up with the ending to the film, as I felt it was a nice ending to the storyline. Throwing down the pictures and watching them burn was a symbolic way of ending the relationship and for the boy to finally get over the girl.
The beginning with the photo’s being thrown down came from a previous A2 video we had watched were a druggie walks past himself in the future. After coming up with the end, I suddenly got the idea that the boy can be flicking through the pictures at the beginning, meaning the video becomes him going through the relationship and remembering all that had happened.
I came up with the idea of the boys sitting on the sofa and change places from the Next advert where the ladies clothes changes. We checked with Mr Van Straten and he created a mock up of our idea to ensure we were on the right page so he could help up. Our idea being the same he said it was possible but would require a lot of work.
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Doing some further research we also found out the opening credits to 'Scrubs,' the TV sitcom also had characters changing places, in this case it was the Doctors, changing places with one another while walking along with an X-ray.

The point where all the pictures of the different boys flick up at once came from Bobbi. She has an Andy Warhol picture of Marilyn Monroe on her bedroom wall, and she got the idea from this.
From these ideas we wrote a synopsis of our video. It is a basic outline of this what our video will look like.

After working out our synopsis, it meant we could analyse, in greater detail, how the music video would work and pan out (which shots for which lyrics, and camera angles). To help us do this we broke down the words in the songs with the timing in which they were sung, enabling us to assess how long each camera hold could be and how everything would fit in with these timings. This facilitated in creating a clear picture in our heads about how the video would pan out, and helped our ideas merge together to become aligned, lending a hand to make our video the best it could be.

Research into music videos...
Once Dannie got in full contact with the band through texting, we were able to establish that they were incredibly enthusiastic for us to make a video for their song. Subsequently, we were able to arrange a meeting with them so we could run over our idea and the plans we had for the video. This will be on Thursday 8th October.
With the date set up, it meant we didn’t have long to create a detailed plan of proposals for their video. We wanted to ensure it would encapsulate the atmosphere and mind set of the band, meaning we would need to do some research into them... From their myspace we discovered they were quite a fun, cheeky band who liked to have a laugh. This can be seen by the way they describe themselves...
1.)
“Everything you love, but slightly better!!!! ... feel free to paint your own influences and references on the Tramp Etiquette Sound... But no doubt that'll change next week.”
2.)
From the Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus:
‘To Tramp:
1: To walk heavily or firmly
2: A heavy or rhythmic tread
Etiquette:
1: ‘A conventional code or practice followed in certain professions or groups.’
This shows them amusing in an educated way. It is sophisticated humour, showing they are smart, but like to be entertaining with it.
3.)
They them have another ‘definition’ of their band...
‘Mummy, what's aTramp Etiquette?
Well, dear, it's the act of four, disturbingly fertile young men, leaving heavy and rhythmic tracks across the conventional highways of mediocre rock dross. Now go to your room and listen to the Feeling instead.
But Mummy, I'm bored of the Feeling. Daddy says they're too safe. He says Oasis have lost their edge, the Pigeon Detectives are crap and that modern British Rock and Roll is too safe. Is Daddy right?
Yes, dear, Daddy's right, thank the Lord. Rock and, indeed, Roll has finally become a safe place for children to play; a nice, neat and tidy adventure playground. Take my advice, daughter, and stay away from those shady trees where the likes of those Tramps reside and stick with the squeaky clean swings and roundabouts of the Feeling.’
This illustrates the band's humour. They are giving their interpretations of the music genre and describing themselves in a comical manner.
4.)
‘...a good band to invest in. You need to back a winner now and again.’ This gives you the idea the band is cheeky and fairly confident about their ability.
With this representation about the band, we knew we needed to make the video amusing, energetic, mischievous and exhilarating to capture its essence. Bearing this in mind we began to do some research into comparable bands.
This lesson we researched other Cheater song videos, with a common top ten being repeatedly seen.
1.) I heard it through the grape vine – Marvin Gaye
2.) Jolene – Dolly Parton
3.) Me and Mrs. Jones – Billy Paul
4.) Lips of an angel – Hinder
5.) It wasn’t me – Shaggy
6.) Secret lover – Atlantic Starr
7.) Cry me a river – Aerosmith/Justin Timberlake
8.) Careless Whisper – George Michael
9.) Before he cheats – Carrie Underwood
10.) Jealous guy – John Lennon
These videos helped to give us a feel for videos about a boy/girl who cheats on the partner or who is found cheating. A recurring theme within these songs is someone who has been hurt and is grieving, but who is getting over the problem/becoming stronger within the song. We wanted to portray this message within our video to follow the conventions of these love songs. We therefore needed to subtly hint this message throughout our video, scattering it in different scenes, so the audience pick up this sense of the boy getting over the girl and overcoming this hurdle without wholly realising it and it being obvious to the audience. To do this we will faintly need to do it in a multiple of scenes.
The first will be when the boy walks in on the girl with the other guy. He will not get angry or cry on screen, encoding constraint and an emphasis on his strong personality into the video.
Following this, the audience must not see the boy crying throughout the whole video, meaning there will be no decoding of weakness or fragility of the boy.
The final glimpse the audience will see of our boy being mentally powerful and letting go of the girl will be at the end, when he is throwing the pictures of them on the ground proceeded by him setting them alight and walking away before they are entirely burnt. This encodes that the boy is over the relationship before it has ended completely, giving a positive message to the audience. It is a powerful scene to end on because the pictures being thrown down and burning represent the path of the relationship and the abrupt painful end which it has come to, with the words ‘STOP’ being the finale, as if the relationship has ended with him saying this word to the girl, resulting in a powerful closing image for the audience to think about. We felt this was particularly ideal for our video as the words of the song are strong, about revenge, overcoming the girl’s behaviour and relationship and finally moving on with his life without her.
We researched a number of Indie/rock music videos but the ones we got most of our conventions and examples from were:
1.) Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco
2.) Kings of Leon - use somebody
embeding disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhairF_DS8
3.) The Fray - How to Save a Life
embeding disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY2INQnmRyk
4.) Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
embeding disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIcDYJbpg6Q
From our music video research we discovered there are a few conventions which our media audience would expect to see:
1.) Shot at life performances/on stage

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This is a common trait seen in an indie/rock video, which audiences will expect to see at some point within the video. It helps to give the audience a real feel for the bands energy and help them feel apart of the action, as well as helping to re-create and mirror the atmosphere the audience at the gig would be feeling, for the people watching the music video. Our research has shown us that nearly all the bands have themselves performing onstage in their video and our market research has shown us that the target audience desired to see the band playing in the chorus of the song. Because of the desire of the audience, and the convention of the genre, we will have the band playing through the entirety of the chorus.
2.) The artist/band is shown throughout the video / Structure is performance based
This convention within the indie/rock genre could make our media product fairly boring. Our market research also told us that the target audience only wanted the band to be in the chorus and not through out the entirety of the video. Therefore, to test our editing skills, and create a more interesting video, we will minimise the band to the chorus.
3.) A dark location / black and white – which emphasis a particular mood within the video
With the use of colour, we can alter the filters of most of the clips in the editing stages so they will became darker and more saturated which will create a dejected, disheartened feel to the video, reflecting the mood of the song.
4.) Use of camera angles vary throughout - extreme close ups and long shots are popular
Our research has shown us that Indie/Rock bands have a mixture of different camera angles of the band within the chorus. These included:
a.) Single shots
This is a common convention used within real media product.
The guitarists…



We feel having individual shots of each band member will give each one a little more lime light and ensures the entire band are seen on the video. It will also add more variety of different angled shots into our video means it will become more interesting and help to maintain the audience’s attention. The extreme close up shot of the guitar adds detail to the mis en scene shot/video as well as helping the audience focus on the action being performed. The shot magnifies the object showing how important the guitar is to the performance which helps link the music they are hearing with the video they are seeing
b.) Group shots – high and low angle



When the band is playing onstage in indie/rock music videos there are always group shots of the band, from a variety of different angles. This is a common convention used in real media products which we believe will be a good idea to incorporate in our video as it will show the audience the band united and as a whole. Long shot a also emphasises the background which sets the scene and establishes the shot. It helps the audience to locate the band at a gig and stops them becoming confused when watching the video from the constant band/storyline switching.
c.) Close ups

A common camera angle used in indie/rock music video is a close up of the singer. This is to show the emotion of the singer reacting to the lyrics and influence the audience’s response to the words. It also helps reflect the words of the song and movement of the artist’s lips, creating a further connection with the audience.
We also learnt that special effects is a common convention used in music video’s:
At 0.59 seconds of The Fray, the image turns into a blur and pulsates. This is used as it helps to recreate the feeling of the audience crying, having lost someone and not being able to see properly. This fits with the lyrics of the song about loosing someone, i.e. mum, dad, granddad etc which makes it an effective dissolve for the song as it lends itself to putting the audience in a feeling of vulnerability and fear which is felt when crying.
At 0.30 seconds of Kings of Leon there is a slow dissolve of the city into a close up of the lead singer. At this point the musical interlude is slow, which means the dissolve is appropriate to that the audience are hearing. The close up shows the emotion of pain and frustration on the singers face.
At 1.59 of the Arctic Monkeys, the editing is fast forwarded, slowed down to read the signpost, then fast forwarded again. The music at the time is fast paced and quick. This clip being sped up helps emphasis time passing and creates the illusion of the viewer being in a car.
At 1.05 seconds of Gorilla’s, ‘Feel Good’ there is one figure on view, and another dissolves is next to him. This gives the feeling of a hectic scene, with a lot happening at once.
To just from one clip to another we have decided to use some special effects throughout our media product.
-To jump from the chorus to the storyline in the verses, and visa versa, we have used additive dissolves to help the images onscreen flow with more ease. The disolves emphasis time passing and helped the audience get a sense of how long the affair had been going on. We used quick dissolve to stay with the pace of the music and ensure it kept the atmosphere energetic and lively. The Fray, ‘How To Save a Life,’ use slow dissolves, which makes the picture blur before revealing the next shot. This is effective for the song as it is slow paced and fits with the feel of the song and rest of the video, whereas our music video is fast and energetic, needing quicker dissolves to keep up with the pace of the song as well as the storyline which goes alongside it.
Another thing we have discovered is how the identifiably of stereotypes is vital in the portrayal of music video narrative. The viewer only has a small window of opportunity to look at the character and identify what they represent. They need to only look at the character and immediately know exactly what type of person the producer is trying to portray through the connotations of certain aspects of their dress, appearance and behaviour.
In Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ video there are three main characters:
The Girlfriend – a moderately dressed, ginger girl with glasses. The audience automatically labels the girl as being a boring nerd, who is fridgid and is a good girl, not liking trouble or upset.
Avril’s character - a black haired girl who wears eye liner. She is wearing black skinny jeans and a black top. Our stereotype of this girl is the grungy/skater type, who is mischievous and goes looking for trouble, starting fights with other people for no reason.
The boyfriend – is has an appearance like Avril. He is wearing skinny black jeans, a black top, with black hair. Our stereotyping therefore categorises him as a skater/grunge stereotype.
From the appearance of these characters and their presentation, we can tell that the boy and Avril seem to be better suited to each other and should be together, showing how representation through costume achieves different looks as we automatically stereotype different characters within a narrative.
In our video we were looking a stereotype of a cheater. Our brainstorming lead us to someone who was attractive enough to magnet a variety of guys and who looked fairly materialistic. We thought this girl would have dyed hair, fake nails and a tan, to allow the audience to quickly recognise the ‘type’ of person being portrayed within our video. For ease, our initial idea was to use Danni, as she is very pretty, has blonde hair and fake nails, creating an illustration of a materialistic girl. Unfortunately, Danni pulled out of being in the video, so instead we used her sister. Luckily she was as pretty as Dannie and could pass for a materialistic girl. This change made it seem more realistic as indie lovers are less likely to have blonde hair, thus meaning our character appeals and talks more to our target audience better than our original casting girl, Danni.
Extreme artificial lighting is most common within music videos, e.g. Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight for this Love’ extreme lighting is used to emphasis her as a newly single singer as well as her flawless completion.
At 1.25 seconds of Avril Lavinge’s ‘Girlfriend,’ extreme lighting is used to highlight her in the centre of the gang dancing. This shot is powerful in portraying the message that she is all the boy is thinking about and he can’t get her off his mind. It is a strong shot for her, putting her in a position of power as the other women. This was not necessary within our film as the only person we wanted in a position of power was the original boyfriend. We didn’t want the girl to be the only thing on his mind as it is a video about him getting over her and would have shown him in a vulnerable position not being able to forget the girl.
CASTING
After listening to the song a few times and to create some detailed planning of how we want our video to pan out we started to think about who we want in our music video. We obviously want to conform to certain ideas, conceptions and connotations of a cheating girl to the audience. Therefore we wanted someone who was obviously pretty enough to acquire a variety of guys and who looked fairly materialistic. She had to convey the stereotype of a cheater to the audience immediately, so they could decode and quickly recognise the ‘type’ of person being portrayed within the video as there is a short window in which the audience has to recognise this character. For convenience, we wanted a close friend/someone in our media class/our group. Therefore we chose to use Danni as she is very pretty and has blonde hair and fake nails, creating an illustration of a materialistic girl who liked presents and attention.
Next we needed two guys who looked different enough for people to tell them apart in the small scenes they would be featured in. For ease we chose Jerome and James, two of our friends in the same lesson. This would allow filming to be easier as we all had the same lesson to do filming in. Also, being in our lessons meant we were constantly exchanging ideas to enhance our film and deduce the best ideas possible, so the boys knew our filming plans and ideas fairly well.

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Meeting with the Band
Dannie and I had the meeting with the Band and their Manager. We brought our folder with our plans for the video, and gave them a quick brief on how we were forecasting it would pan out. This meant they could read through our proposals and give us some feedback and their own input, as it’s their song and we want to fulfil their desires and thoughts of how the video would go. We thought this was important as it is there song and the video would be put on you tube in their name, adding to their reputation. They seemed to really keen on our ideas and like the themes of our video:
-the band featuring in the chorus with a storyline running to fit the verses
-the pictures being shown at the beginning and the end of the shot the emphasis’ time.
After some discussion on casting, they said they knew a model called Amon, who would be happy to be in our video. This is necessary as James had a hair cut, making him closely resemble Jerome, and thus deeming himself unsuitable to be cast in our video. The band got in contact with Amon straight away with great success. We exchanged email addresses with him so we could contact him about filming times etc.
With the band, we set up a date for filming. They were unable to do many days due to gigs and recording sessions they had, so the date set is Sunday 11th October.
After meeting with the band, and receiving there input about the film, the manager sent us written conformation for us to use their song for our video the very next day!

This means we now have the go ahead to plan the finer detail and exact plans for the video and begin filming!!!
Storyboarding!!!
We can now proceed with drawing the storyline, consisting of what camera angles and shots we will be using in our video to encode different message within the video. We can also complete the exact timings of the video knowing that we don’t have to change anything. This means we can start creating more detailed planning of the video and begin to look at the logistics of filming.