In the planning section of this blog, find included:
- Choice of song & Lyrics. [Including artist name/genre/record label]
- Direction of approach with refernce to research and the influences they impose on production.
- Storyboards of video timeline.
- Technology needed and used.
- Production timeline.
- Audience and focus group feedback of ideas
Lyrics:
We wrote a prelude
To our own fairy tale
And bought a parachute
At a church rummage sale
And with a mean sewing machine
And miles of threadWe sewed the day above L.A.
In navy and red
We wound a race track
Through your mom's kitchen chairs
And fought the shadows back
Down your dark basement stairs
I lit a match, then let it catch
To light up the room
And then you yelled as we beheld
An old maroon hot air balloon
And you'll be out of ideas
Pretty soon
So let's spend
The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon
Leave your jacket behind
Lean out and touch the treetops over town
I can't wait
To kiss the ground
Wherever we touch back down
La la la la la laaa
La la la la la laaaWe drank the Great Lakes
Like cold lemonade
And both got stomach aches
Sprawled out in the shade
So bored to death you held your breath
And I tried not to yawn
You made my frown turn upside down
And now my worries are gone
I'll be out of my mind
And you'll be out of ideasPretty soon
So let's spend
The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon
Leave your jacket behind
Lean out and touch the treetops over town
I can't wait
To kiss the ground
Wherever we touch back down
I'll be out of my mind
And you'll be out of ideas
Pretty soonSo let's spend
The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon
Leave your jacket behind
Lean out and touch the treetops over town
I can't wait
To kiss the ground
Wherever we touch back down
Brainstorm
This is my rough notes of my initial ideas for my music video,I did this to see if my ideas were feasible. Media encoders and producers are influenced are influenced in many different ways and I found this in our initial ideas and what restrictions we would have.ed.Outline of ideas
• Toys coming alive by themselves, lights turning on, cars round a racetrack
etc.
• Magical and sense of a fairytale
• Light hearted and portraying innocence
• Lots of edits for fast paced video
• Some lyrics visually shown through writting on toys
• Use of camera angles to give the impression of going up or coming down in a hot air balloon
The resources I will need? (actors, props, settings etc.)
• Video camera
• Digital camera
• Tripod
• Child’s bedroom – my boyfriend's little sisters room
• Toys ; race track, lights, cars, robots, Lego etc
• Balloons
Justification of ideas in relation to genre and artist
The genre of Electropop is normally quite an innocent sound of music, it is very upbeat and childlike, and owl city’s music is very much like this, this is why the idea of using toys in an innocent way would fit well with this type of music. Electropop is also a genre that doesn’t have strict conventions, its is experimental with its videos and are often dramatic visual spectacles such as la roux’s ‘bulletproof’ video.
In relation to Owl city its self the idea of using toys throughout the song and setting the video in a child’s bedroom relate to the lyrics and the majority of owl cities music. His lyrics are often simplistic and innocent, with an upbeat and cheerful rhythm this is why using toys to portray that childlike innocence fits perfectly with this genre and artist.
Identifying common forms and conventions of Electropop
After researching a previous video by Owl City, 'Vanilla Twilight' and 3 other songs by artists in a similar genre I found a few typical forms and conventions:
* Fast-cut montage - providing a professional look/ leaves audience wanting to see it again
* Unique and bold - Very stylish sets and mise-en-scene
* Concept and narrative based
* Appear quite modern and bright
* Light hearted and relaxed atmosphere
* Use of bright colours within video
* Original ideas - videos within this genre don't like to stick to safe ideas they seem quite experimental
After identifying these forms and conventions, I will take some of these into account when planning my own video. I will stick to some of these conventions such as using fast-cut montage, use bright colours and create a light hearted and happy atmosphere, I will also have a concept video but I am not having performance within my video as I feel it will detract from the innocence and fairytale being created, within this genre I feel I can challenge conventions as this genre is all about being unique.
Andrew Goodwin
When researching Andrew Goodwin's 'features of a music video' I found all of his points useful. However there were 4 of his elements which I found most important for my own video to concerntrate on, these were:
*Demonstrating specific genre characterisitcs = this was an important factor for me to considerate before starting my music video as decoders can normally tell by the common forms and conventions, what genre a song normally is by its video. I wanted to stick to some of this typical characteristics to make sure that my target audience took the dominant reading from my text by understanding the genre of my music. This is why I researched other music videos within the Electropop genre to discover forms and conventions and I then applied some of these into my video.
*The relationship between lyrics and visuals = I think the relationship between lyrics and visuals in a music video is important even if they are contradicted. I chose to illistrate some of my lyrics, by literally writting them on toys and spelling them out in the song. The rest of the time the relationship between lyrics and visuals was mainly amplified.
*The relationship between music and visuals = The relationship between music and visuals is also really important, thats why I let the beat of my music determine my editing, all of my cuts were in beat with the music to create a more professional fast-cut montage and to provide syntagmatic connotations for my audience.
*Intertextuality = Seeing as my concept is all about toys coming 'alive' I found the reference to the film Toy Story was constant throughout my video, even without trying to be. I also used the intertextual references of the idea of fairytales with toys coming alive while people are out the room, to create an interesting paradigm.
Looking at Andrew Goodwin's work has provided me with a deeper understanding into music videos and helped me with important elements to concerntrate on withing my own video.
Steve Archer
Steve Archer's 8 elements to a music video gave me a better insight into factors that make a successful music video. I found some of these elements more important than others when producing my own media text:
*Music = The music was a main part to my music video as it drove my editing, I wanted all the cuts to be in time with the music, even though this was difficult at lining up the image with the music - for example when spelling out the lyrics on toys, my cuts had to be just right otherwise it wouldn't have worked.
*Camerawork = After shooting my first piece of film for 'Hot Air Balloon' I found some shots way too dark,unsteady and that I hadn't shot enough long shots to establish the scene. I then realised how important camerawork is to a video. I went back and re-filmed some scenes and found it was so much more effect when they were brighter and steady, it made my video look dramatically better. I also realised that playing around with different angles provides more of a visual spectacle for the audience.
*Editing = Editing was really important to me for my video. I think this is the the element that made my video look so much more professional as I have so many cuts due to my video being all performance. I have used fast-cut montage throughout my video and this has given me a great finish to my video and provided syntagmatic connotations to the audience.
*Lyrics = The lyrics were quite important to me through this production as I was trying to amplify there meaning through my video, its all about being 'in a cold, hot air balloon' which I took as reminising on old memories of youth, I depicted this interpretation by using toys throughout the video 'coming alive', as its unrealistic and so is being able to relieve memories.
Steve Archer's theory of the 8 elements of music videos has really helped me, especially these 4 factors which I found to greatly help my construction and planning of my music video.
Mise-en-scene
After analysising different music videos I found that the mise-en-scene was an important element in all videos to make it successful. Mise-en-scene refers to creating an image within a film, so it would be the set, lighting, costumes etc. Mise-en-scene in my own music video is extremely important as if I don't set the mood of my music video how I want my audience may not decode the right meaning of my video and it could also make my music video look amateur.
My whole concept of my music video is toys 'coming alive' so I have to portray this really well to make sure my audience can get the dominant reading from my text. Instead of using a normal bedroom and then adding lots of toys to create the idea of a child's bedroom I spoke to my boyfriend and his family let me use his little sister's bedroom. She is 5 and has the epitome of a kid's bedroom, plus it's a large room so there is a lot of room to move about with the camera and equipment. Luckily my mum throws nothing away so I still had lots of mine and my brothers old toys. I brought these toys round aswell to make sure I had lots of toys covering the floor.
I laid them all over the floor and positioned them as if a child had messily scattered them over the floor. I did this to add to the sense of a child's bedroom to make sure it looked realistic.
Another factor I had to take into consideration was lighting. In my video as an opening sequence I used a variety of lights and lamps turning on to lead into my video, because of this I had to have the room dark enough to show the lights turning on but light enough to make sure my filming wasn't dark or distorted. To do this I pulled down the blinds but used extra lights that I borrowed from my cousin who is a photographer and used them for some scenes to create stylised lighting where I needed it.
I had no actors in my video so I didn't need to worry about costumes, hair and make-up so my main focus was on the set design to make sure it was believable as a kids bedroom and created a sense of magic.
Storyboard
I created a storyboard to plan my camera shots,angles and the position clips would take in my film. I did this so that when I begin filming I will already know what I am doing and will be able to film effifiently. I obviously haven't drawn every shot but I just did some main ones so I give myself a good idea of what I plan to achieve.
Technology needed:
I comprised a list of all the technology I would need when filming to make sure I didn't forget anything:
• Video camera
• Video camera charger
• Clean tape
• Tripod
• IPod speakers
• IPod
• Extra lights – brighten shots
• Digital camera for pictures for the blog
• Laptop
• Firewire cable to upload filming
First filming session
First focus group
After my first filming session I screened my early rushes to my focus group (comprised of my media class and teacher Mr Morris)
Points to work on:
* Some of the shots were too dark and fuzzy (bonnie,Mr Morris)
* A lot of the shots shaky and unsteady (jake)
* Not enough long shots to establish the scene (Mr Morris)
However they all commented on how well I had created the mise-en-scene to fit the child-like paradigm.
After hearing this feedback I went back to do some more filming, this time bringing a tripod to hold the camera steady and using some extra lighting to make the shots brighter and more of a high quality picture.
2nd filming session
2nd focus group
In my 2nd focus group I screened some of my editing, It was only about 40 seconds long but I wanted to get an early opinion on how the decoder was reading my text and if there was any improvements to be made.
They commented on how the shots were much steadier and brighter since they last saw my filming, so im glad that I have improved on the quality of my shots. Everyone took the dominant reading of my text, which meant they all understood and agreed with what I was portraying
Points to work on:
* Use more cuts - as video is purely concept based it needs a lot of cuts to make it effective (Mr Morris)
* Use more of lyrics being visually spelt out, when in time with music looks very effective (Jake and Mr Morris)
Final focus group
Here I showed my focus group (media class and teacher) the final screening of my music video.
They were all really impressed with my use of montage and mise-en-scene and found this successful, again they all took the dominant reading of my text, showing that the understand what I am trying to portray.
After this I then showed another focus group my video. This group comprised of 10 of my friends that would fit into my target audience for my product. I did this to see if my media product gave decoders in my target audience the dominant reading or because they hadnt seen my video develop over time like my other focus group they may not get it and could possibly take the aberant meaning to my text.
I showed my video and then handed out a questionnaire. I ask them to do this in silence and told them they were annoymous so that I would get more of an honest answer. My questionnaire and my results are shown in the posts above.
Audience feedback questionnaire
1. Age: [ ] 14-17 [ ] 18-21 [ ] 22- 25 [ ] 26+
2. Sex: [ ]Female [ ]Male
3.What genre of music do you most often listen to?
[ ]Indie [ ]Rock [ ]Pop [ ]R’n’B [ ]Electropop [ ]D‘n’B
[ ]Other (Please state)............................
4. What is your favourite music video?
.......................................................
5. Why does this one stand out to you?
.......................................................
6. Having watched our music video for Hot Air Balloon – Owl City, what did you like about?
........................................................
7. To what extent did you understand the relationship between the music and the visual?
1 – Completely understand [ ]
2 – Partly understand [ ]
3 – Understand a tiny amount [ ]
4 – Haven’t a clue [ ]
8. To what extent did you understand the relationship between the lyrics and visuals?
1 – Completely understand [ ]
2 – Partly understand [ ]
3 – Understand a tiny amount [ ]
4 – Haven’t a clue [ ]
9. When watching music videos, what grabs your attention the most?
Editing [ ]
Setting [ ]
Lighting [ ]
Special Effects [ ]
Combonation between visuals and song [ ]
Other [ ]
(please state) ....................................................
10. Do you feel our production fulfils its purpose as a music video?
1 – Yes [ ]
2 – Almost [ ]
3 – A little bit [ ]
4 – Not at all [ ]
Posted by Emily's Media
Audience feedback results
After handing out my questionnaires I made some pie chart graphs of some of the questions to make it easy to see how many people had said what, and what effect this had on my media product.
I wanted my focus group to reflect my real target audience seeing as my main target audience were mainly females aged between 14-25 i choose of my focus group to fit this criteria, even though it is aimed mainly at females Owl City do have some male fans so I had 3 males to give me a better idea of thoughts.
This graph shows what type of genre my focus group mainly listened to, from the graph its clear that not all of my focus group listen majorly to electropop music, this is good because if they still take the dominant reading from my text but don't normally watch these sort of videos I will know that my media product has been recieved well by people outside of my typical target audience.
This graph shows how people understood the relationship between music and visuals, I created this question to suggest the 4 types of reading in the encoder/decoder model, from this graph I can tell that all but one of my focus group took the dominant meaning from the relationship between visuals and music and that the other person took the negociated view, which is really good. I also asked if people understood the relationship between visuals and lyrics and this got 100% of my focus group saying the completley understood, again showing that all my focus group took the dominant reading of my media text.
I asked this question to see what people found most entertaining from a music video to see if this particular section of my music video worked well,61% of my focus group found the setting really important to a successful music video. I found that from my previous focus groups that feedback on my mise-en-scene was extremely positive and helped me reach the dominant reading from the decoder.
I also asked if my focus group if they thought my media text fulfiled its purpose as a successful music video, all of my focus group answered yes to this,so im glad that people who would be within my target audience all took the dominant reading of my media text and felt it worked well as a successful music video.
Bi-weekly log
Week 1 – October
After being given my brief I wrote down some initial ideas with my partner. After this we decided upon our song ‘Enough For Now’ by The Fray and began planning our ideas for our video. We quickly decided on a narrative and performance based video typical of the Indie-Rock genre. This is when we found people wanting to take part within our music video and then decided on our location for filming. We carried out our first filming session, focusing on the narrative side of the video. To finish of the week we uploaded our first set of posts to our blog.
Week 2 – October
After screening our initial rushes to our focus group (consisting of my media class and teacher) we found that the audience were taking the aberrant reading to our media text due to its complexity, this was disastrous because if our audience takes the worst possible meaning from our text, completely not getting it we were in trouble. This is where my teacher said that it would be easier to start again without such a highly complex song and idea. This week we basically just decided on a new song choice ‘Hot Air Balloon’ by Owl City and our initial ideas for the song.
Week 3 – November
After deciding on our plan of action filming took place, I spent a whole day at my boyfriend’s house, using his little 5 year old sister’s bedroom to film the majority of my music video, to create the childlike paradigm. After the filming took place I uploaded all my footage on to my laptop to begin the editing. I also uploaded more research and planning onto my blog.
Week 4 – November
I had the first 40 seconds of my song edited and in place, looking good. This week I just focused on continuing with more editing and finishing the research section of my blog
Week 5 – November
1.05 min of editing completed, I showed this to my focus group (media class) and all took the dominant reading, so my video at the moment appears to be a success, they did however give me feedback on some of my filming saying it was too dark and sometimes a bit shaky so this week I went back to my filming location to re-shoot some scenes and also to take some more long shots as that had also been criticised.
Week 6 – November
Still 1.05 min of editing but all the filming I re shot is now up and loaded on to my laptop to begin changing some scenes and making any improvements. I also began on the finishing touches of my planning section of my blog.
Week 7 – December
My video was now up to almost 2 minutes of film and screened this to my focus group to see if what they criticised in week 5 has been improved and made any difference to their viewing. It was all positive feedback so this week I carried on with editing. I also started thinking of my ancillary texts but only in rough ideas. At the end of the week I finished off the planning section of my blog.
Week 8 – December
My editing is almost finished with my film at 3.00 min only about 20 more seconds to go. I began research into previous CD covers by Owl City and other CD magazine adverts. I draw up 3 designs for a CD cover and 3 designs for my magazine advert and put these on my blog.
Week 9 – DecemberI finished my editing on my music video and began making notes on 2 of my evaluation questions. I also took the photos for my chosen design of CD cover and magazine ad. I created ‘pages’ on my blog with different headings such as ‘research’ and ‘home’ to make it easier to navigate my blog and find particular sections.
Week 10 – December
I screened my finished music video to a new focus group comprising of my main target audience to see if their understanding of my music video was the same as my media class. They all took the dominant reading and I received positive feedback on my product. I began creating my CD cover on CorelDraw and wrote up my first evaluation question and put it on my blog.
Week 11 – January
I made finishing touches to my CD cover and began creating my magazine advert. I also wrote up my 3rd and 4th evaluation questions and put them on to my blog. I also read through my research and planning section and made some adjustments.
Week 12 – January
I finished both my CD cover and my magazine advert and put these up on to my blog. I also started writing my 2nd evaluation question.
Week 13 – January
I had given my work to my media teacher to assess and see what could do with improving. I had a couple of shots within my music video that were still too dark so I changed these. I also had to improve my magazine advert, one of my evaluation questions and my target audience post needed some adjustments.
Week 14 – January
Finished up the points I was told to improve on.
My class had previously been working on the same blog but uploading our own individual work but my teacher wanted separate blogs so I was in the process of uploading everything from my old blog onto my new blog.
How I aimed my music video to my target audience
My target audience are mainly:
•Females
•14-25
•White
•American/European
•Social stratification was difficult to find as they are mainly young people they probably won’t have high paying jobs, but that’s not to say their parents don’t so I found social stratification didn’t matter in this case.
I found this out after researching Owl City’s main target audience online. I have tried to aim my product at a younger, female fan base how are mainly white, American/European. I did this through a number of different ways:
•Using a little girl’s bedroom instead of a boy’s, this provided me with a more feminine look to my mise-en-scene through colours, toys and textures.
•The whole concept of my video is childlike innocent and magic which reflects well on my target audience who are mainly teenagers and young adults who would relate well to the concept of childhood and innocence.
•Through camera angles I have provided a sense of being close to the action which covers one of the aspects of the uses and gratification of wanting to feel involved
•The concept of my music video is generally aimed at white, American/ Europeans due to trying to create a childlike paradigm which would work well within this particular target audience.
•I have created syntagmatic connotations through the use of montage, to provide an order of events that appear to make toys ‘come alive’ this fits well within my concept and would appeal to a younger audience.
•I have used a variety of camera angles to provide more of a visual spectacle for my audience and to make my video look more dynamic, this would appeal to my young target audience as they would often be on the internet and if my music video is interesting to look at they will want to watch it again and again instead of getting bored.
•I have also used a furry puppet within some of my scenes to create a like comical feel to my video which would appeal to a younger target audience.
•The setting of the little girl’s bedroom worked brilliantly for aiming my product at a female audience as a lot of the toys, cupboards etc were baby pink and purple providing feminine colours throughout my production.
How my music video followed typical characteristics of the Electropop genre
Common forms and conventions of Electropop:
•Fast-cut montage - providing a professional look/ leaves audience wanting to see it again
•Unique and bold - Very stylish sets and mise-en-scene
•Concept and narrative based
•Appear quite modern and bright
•Light hearted and relaxed atmosphere
•Use of bright colours within video
•Often quite childlike
•Original ideas - videos within this genre don't like to stick to safe ideas they seem quite experimental
After researching these specific genre characteristics I tried to incorporate them into my own video so my music video was obviously seen to be the Electropop genre
•The main editing technique used in Electropop music videos is fast-cut montage; I used this within my own music video and found it made my video look much more professional as no clip was longer than 3 seconds. This leaves the audience wanting to see more as they won’t get the full grasp of the video at first as the clips are too short. This also helped as my video was purely concept based, I needed a lot of cuts to make sure the audience wouldn’t get bored
•I used a lot of bright colours within my music video which fits with the Electropop genre and also helped with creating the childlike paradigm, I used brightly coloured toys such as building blocks and cars; I hung up fairground style flags in different colours and also used some balloons.
•Electropop is all about being experimental with their music and videos, and I feel I was extremely experimental within mine, due to the fact my video was purely concept based with no people in my video at all which is very different from the norm. I also feel that making the toys appear to come ‘alive’ was also a unique idea.
•They also have an particularly effective mise-en-scene, and this aspect of my video is what I think worked best
•A common characteristic of Electropop music videos are a light-hearted and relaxed atmosphere, the use of the toys and light colours helped create this and also the use of the furry puppet creating a comical aspect of the video, providing even more of a light – hearted atmosphere.
•Also most Electropop music videos are either concept or narrative based so my video being purely concept based helped with following some of the typical conventions of the Electropop genre.
