Initial Ideas

 

These were some initial ideas that my group discussed about the music video and we came to some conclusions about the outlining concepts of our video. I thought that the use of balloons was a good idea because this is something I often see this in music videos and it's a very cheap way of dressing the set and making it look conventionally pop and girly. All of the ideas were purposefully to make our video more feminine because we thought that the song would be able to relate to younger females as the lyrics are about the common problems that teenage females might have experienced. Initially we have been thinking about which locations would be good for shooting and we thought that places where younger people might go with friends could work effectively so places like an ice skating rink, cinema or bowling alley would work for our video because people will recognize places like this and imagine themselves in the same situations. We thought that these places would allow us to create more dynamic shots and use the fig reel to follow our artists. We thought that close up shots to introduce these locations slowly and build up the imagery until we get a strong visual of what is going on in these scenes, we thought that introducing the locations and characters slowly would build up more tension so this is something we want to experiment with. A graphic match would show off sleek editing skills and would emphasise that the situation occurring in our video, we want to use this to create a sense of foreshadowing. We thought that using this technique could put ideas into the audiences head and give connotations that the two objects are connected. We thought that we could use this to show a boy and a girl interacting with the same or similar objects to show the differences in their personality and the way they react will play a big part in telling the story.

Initial Idea for Costume Style by morichan featuring hair bows

Elise Ryan cocktail prom dress
glitzyangel.co.uk

Christian louboutin pumps
£590 - christianlouboutin.com

Sterling silver pendant necklace
£19 - dailylook.com

Hair bow
newlook.com

This is a mood board that I created for costume to display some of my thoughts about the sort of costume we could include in the video. After speaking to my group we thought that a pink outfit would work well to create a more feminine and youthful look to our artist. The artist should wear a bow in her hair to highlight her innocent personality, we think if we but a bow in her hair this will appeal to younger girls and show that she is a good role model for younger girls. It also gives a sense of normality so that girls feel like they can relate to this person and they might want to copy their hair style because its unique from other pop stars. I wanted to give the costume a glamorous feeling too so I thought that she should be wearing high heels that can be either nude or pink because this would match the cute dress. Also I thought to accessorize the costume we could have small pieces of jewellery which would add a pretty inflection to the costume.

Lyrics Annotation

 
Lyrics annotation
My group looked at the lyrics and annotated it to see what initial thoughts we got when looking at the lyrics and how we could portray them in our video. We thought of the sort of props we could use that would be effective in showing the lyrics in a not too literal way that makes it look tacky, we might include the use of phones to show the communication between the subjects in the video and this could create a deeper meaning of the links between the people.
We had lots of ideas of how to use locations so they would be cohesive with the lyrics. This was a very useful exercise for my planning because it gave me some good ideas about what to include in the video and we decided to not be too literal with our gestures and props because this might look tacky and make it look like there has been no thought put into the symbolism of the video.
We also had a chance to think about the lighting as we thought that spot lights could be used on the floor during the performance parts which could fit to the rhythm, they can flash on and off as the lyrics change to make the video seem more dynamic. We thought that at the end of the video we could pop the balloons to show a final fun point as the video ends, this could work well to end the video abruptly because the editing will be very quick so this will also match the editing of the video.

Image annotation

Roles

Group Roles
These are the roles we chose for the group, we talked and collectively decided that these were the best roles to suit our personalities within the group. For my role I will be concentrating on Mise-en-scene as the creative director, this means I will have a big responsibility in the group to make sure it looks conventional and how a pop video should look. My main roles will require me to be very organized and make sure that my group has all the correct costume and props. I plan to make my set look vintage as I think that this would suit the aesthetic of the music video, I thought that a slightly 1950's sort of style would be inkeeping with our theme and it would give our video a very sophisticated but girly sort of style.

Song Choice

Cher Lloyd - I Wish

In this presentation, I am discussing the reasons why we decided to use 'I Wish' for our final song choice. I go into depth about why we chose this song and the conclusions we came to for our final choice.

Analysis of data from questionnaires and focus group

 

Questionaire Results Analysis from mollyly

FOCUS GROUP

I conducted a focus group of 8 people of varied ages to see what they thought of the song choice, I played them the song and got feedback from a questionnaire about what they thought of the song. The people I surveyed had never heard the song before and I did this on purpose to get their initial reaction the song because I thought this would stop them having any preconceptions before doing the survey.

 

This male is from a slightly older age group so that could be why he didn't enjoy the music, he found it to be lively but I think that he found it a bit too lively for his taste and this tells me that to appeal to an older male audience the song choice could be too much for some people. I looked very closely at my questionnaires from the focus group to decipher whether the video should be aimed more at male and females, I saw that of the three males that I asked, only one of them actually enjoyed the song when all five females interviewed actually enjoyed the song and seemed to be very excited by it, which leads me to believe that the music video should be aimed at a predominantly female audience because they seemed to be able to identify more with the lyrics.

 

 

Out of the people we surveyed, most of them enjoyed the song and not surprisingly we noticed that the females were the ones that enjoyed the song most. This told me that females will be more attracted to our video so we need to include things that they will be expecting to see in a girly music video. We need to find locations that are relatable but they look high budget and classy because the image is very important.

This questionnaire came from a female and she said that the song made her happy, this gives me the impression that the video we make around this song needs to be very upbeat and lively, we need to make sure that the imagery also comes across to match the feeling that people such as this female get from the video. This female is from a younger age group which tells me that the song could definitely be relatable for a younger teenage audience because of the simplistic lyrics it is something that young people can sing along to, we could also include a catchy dance phrase that younger people might want to recreate or watch to give the video more appeal.

 

I made a pie chart which displays the thoughts that people had about who they could imagine singing the song if they had no idea about who was singing the song in the first place and the results were very substantially leaning towards the artist 'Pixie Lott' who has a very fresh and clean style but she comes across as a slightly more grungey pop artist because occasionally she will be seen wearing more edgy fashion which sets her aside from other female pop artists. I thought that this was interesting because my artist will have a more unique style, to give her a bit more of an appeal we need her to be a trend setter and switch it up to give her a very statement image that comes across as independant but a style that is appealing to younger females that might view her as a role model, so the look won't be overly provocative to give her a bad image.

 

Most people we asked said they would be interested in buying the song, this tells me that we need to give the video an expensive feeling so that it sells more CD's and downloads. The image in the pop genre tends to be very important so to give the song more of an appeal we need to make sure that the artist and the location has a very unique and expensive appearance.

 

Of all the people in the focus group, most of the people said that they would expect to see a male and female plot line that includes some sort of plot that has a problem that will end up being resolved by the end of it. There was also lots of ideas about using a restaurant scene to show a conflict between the couple or show the couple together so you get more of a feeling about the two and how they act around each other to give the idea that there is more chemistry between them.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

For the questionnaire we chose questions that would help us to get a good idea of what we need to inlcude and what people are attracted to so that we can form our video around what the public want to see.

Pop Music Video Research

One Direction - Kiss you

• The artists are very familiar with each other in the video and I think this is important because it shows they are having a fun time in the video which will help them sell more songs. The performance is very convincing and the performers have lots of charisma, my group would need to find performers that will give a realistic performance to make the video more involving and enjoyable for those watching it.

• The artists pose for pictures during the video which gives a sense of travelling and this adds more interesting camera shots to the video, the freeze frame gives more of a chance to see the change of setting so it is a good change from the cut aways. The quick cuts in the video are useful in transitioning the cuts between the scenes, this makes it all very hectic and the boys in the video seem to be having lots of fun.

• The vigorous costume and setting changes make the video very streamlined and exciting to watch as it is more appealing to the audience to watch something that changes so quickly. The costumes here have been thought through very well to make the audience familiar with them, the use of hawaiian shirts and christmas knit jumpers is something that audiences may identify with and this helps add to the fun, family image that One Direction tends to have.

• There are lots of quick scene changes which gives the impression that the artists are travelling very quickly, this adds to the dynamic of the video and it tells more of a story about the song. The scenery that was chosen for the video shows how tourists may react in the same scenery and there is so much excitement during the performances, the change of scenery gives a chance to give different performances because the surfing scene and the driving scene are forms of travelling but entirely different so the artists get a chance to show how they would react to the different set changes.

• The costume changes are also very fast and the costumes used are all very cohesive, they may all be apart of the same colour scheme or the same uniform and this brings the group together to make them look like more of a band.  The whole video incorporates very quick movement and changes to make it all more exciting and dynamic to watch.

• The use of powder in the background creates a new sort of textured image within the video and it gives us more of a gritty image, the costume also highlights a very floaty sort of style which in the style of the video gives a more magical sort of style which would appeal to a younger female audience because it might give connotations of disney, princesses and fairies.

• The song doesn't continue throughout the whole video and i think the dramatic build up between the song helps with the dramatic edge of the video. The starting up sound makes it very tense and the build up works well to create a more fantasy sort of style because this gives a sense that something is about to happen and the artist is about to do something magical.
• The use of the wind machine makes the artist look more dynamic and gives the artist a very vicious look that makes her look more dark and deepens the edge of the music video making it all seem more striking.

• The lighting used in the video is very varied and it helps to match the tone of what the video is trying to evoke, the image of the artist is very dark in the video but the lighting helps to vary the tone. The use of high key lighting also gives a sense that the artist has both a dark and light image that she is trying to contrast.

• The costume for the video is very lavish and the image for selena has turned quite gothic which is a different image from her past and i think this is why the video might be so powerful is because she is trying to make a new image for herself.

• The lyrics cut to the beat in most cases but i found the off beat cutting very effective in a sense that it helped to show the dance as more of a linear thing that isn't as punchy and more elegant.

• The video includes three persona's of the main artist which contrast with each other to give the audience three styles which will both appeal to the target audience, all are quite provocative which is what is conventional for a pop artist as it is more about the image for them, this is what sells. The two lighter images give more of a stereotypical image of the artist and the other more darker persona shows a different side to the artist which switches up the image they might want to give, it gives the artist a chance to try a new image to see how people like it without completely changing their style.

• The mise en scene is very imaginary  although there are recognisable settings which the audience can relate to, there are elements that make it look very imaginary and i think this is down to the editing of the video with use of different filters to make it look more like a cartoon and i think this works well for the video because it also tells a story, just as a cartoon would, its also a similar plotline you might find in a comic book or a cartoon, not a full narrative but it gives a good summary of what the story is about, which suits the song.  I thought that the quick cuts in the video worked well in speeding up the story and this helped the video to not linger for too long on certain areas.

• The main artist is the most important part and i feel like she has been represented really well as a powerful sex symbol. The costume used is very revealing which shows a more sexual side to the main artist. The video seems to be more aimed at a male audience and this is apparent through the sexualised nature of the music video.

• The artist is a female which shows a view of the female gender that is somewhat provocative. This is a very stereotypical representation of artists in the pop genre because pop is more central around image so the sexualisation of females is often seen as a way to sell records and to raise popularity females and in some cases males have been dressing in certain ways to shock audiences.

Analysis of Pop CD covers

Analysis of Pop CD Covers from mollyly

Conventions of a Pop Music Video