Genre of music video

Within our group, we are having difficulty deciding on which genre to do our task on. The genre of the music video and the ancillary tasks have not yet been been decided and this means that the research and planning of our coursework is very broad at the moment. I will carry out some independent research into different genres and link these to some analysis of researching products to help aid a decision on the genre we will be influenced by
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Audience research ideas

In lesson, we used the time to look effective audience research and how we can make the most of it to better our task for our coursework. There are two main ways which we looked at how to get audience feedback and they are both very effective given that they are conducted the right way. The two methods are Questionnaires and focus groups

Focus group: A small group of six to ten people led through open discussion by a skilled moderator. The group needs to be large enough to generate rich discussion but not so large that some participants are left out.

The focus group moderator seeks disclosure in an open and spontaneous format - the aim of a focus group is to collect a large amount of ideas and opinions from as many different people within the time given. The time aim for a discussion would be around fifteen minutes.
Focus groups are structured around a set of questions, the amount of questions vary but usually no more than ten questions per focus group. The discussion is not limited or set but in contrary, free-flowing. What usually happens is one persons comment in the group will stimulate and influence the thinking of others and they will then contribute their thoughts, however this can influence the thoughts of others so they change their original ideas. Some people in the groups then might find themselves changing their opinions during the group.

There are three types of focus group questions:
Engagement questions: Introduce participants to and make them feel comfortable with the topic of discussion.
Exploration questions: Get to the meat of the discussion.
Exit Question: Check to see if anything was missed in the discussion.

Questionnaire: You have to set out at the start that you are researching.
There must be a clear purpose behind each question. You may be aiming to:
Determine what's popular
Determine what pupils like about their artist and what appeals to them
Determine where they feel there is a gap in the market
Determine what values they feel are important in the genre.

There will be a maximum of eight questions and the questions will be a mixture of multiple choice, closed questions and also opportunities for comments.

Research - Existing media products



 When we decided as a group that we wanted to do a music video, Eboni and I decided that we would research some already existing music videos from previous A level students doing the same task as we have chosen. We went on YouTube and had a look at the majority of the uploads on there, however we mainly focused on the A grade videos as that is what we are hoping ours will compare to in terms of quality, standard and creativeness. We came across many good videos and took some ideas from them which we think will help us with our music video when we come to plan it and pick a song choice. Here are a few which we thought were the best and liked the ideas of:

 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkJXibuJYF0



The first music video we watched was the best one we came across. It was awarded full marks and so got an A Grade. It was clear that the video had been thought out very carefully and precisely. The music video wasn't boring and instead shot in numerous amount of locations. It included several locations such as: fields, towns, at home etc.. It also had more than one person in it as it followed a narrative throughout the song. What I liked was that it followed a clear and interesting story as the music went on and the shots clearly linked to the song lyrics and so it was obvious that there was thought that was out into the video and what shots would go with which lines of the song. It also featured numerous different camera shots and camera movements such as a tracking shot running through the town. The best shot which featured at different points throughout the music was the time lapse of the sky which changed appearance at different points of the music video to fit the mood of the song which linked well and carried out the narrative nicely. The quality of the camera was what made it so professional and also the lighting which was adjusted specifically for each shot to fit with the mood and the point in the narrative. For example: here in this screenshot its darkly lit to fit with the lyrics of the song and the mood the "artist" is feeling. The last thing I noted was that the whole song didn't feature the "artist" lip singing and followed more of a story through the different locations - we thought this would be a good idea as it means that we will have less chance of it looking unprofessional. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpBNqqPGsmc

The second video which I liked was to the song "Macklemore" which is a popular mainstream pop song which is still widely liked today. The thing which I liked the most was the narrative in it. It featured three people throughout the video and it stayed with the same narrative making it a story for the audience to watch. What made it stand out from the other music videos was the humour which they based it around. The whole music video was humorous and this gave me the idea that this would be something we could perhaps incorporate into our own music video. However, the problems with this is that it has to be thought about very carefully as its hard to get humour right and it to not be funny. The music video looked very professional and the quality of the video was just as good as the narrative. What I liked about the video was the way they engaged with the locations. They didn't just base it in one secluded location, the makers of it went out to different places, public places and did silly things whilst still having the ability to stay professional and serious about the situation which can be hard to do when you have a camera and the public are looking, it can be off-putting for the actors featuring. They also used the use of cartoon effects which worked well as it was based around robbers, it gave an artistic effect such as pop art which inked well with the pop song they chose and the vibrance of the song.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llYZ0l3cEEA

The last video which I particularly liked was to a song called "Express Yourself" by Labrinth. This is a popular song which is lively and upbeat which was mirrored through the visuals of the music video they produced. The first thing which I found intriguing about the video was the fact that they went out and made the most of the locations they had, for example: they videoed some dancers in the middle of a city centre which linked perfectly with the lyrics "express yourself" - this is something which our group could consider doing in terms of using people around us who aren't actually participating in the video.

 

Another thing which I liked in this video was the humour which draws the audience in, they go to places such as fitting rooms and make the most of simplistic places. The ending of the video was a typical ending to a lot of music videos where lots of people come together and enjoy themselves and the location fitted very well with the song. Another thing was the editing by where it appeared the second character was performing magic by clicking his fingers and disappearing etc. The editing also featured cartoon silhouettes singing on the background of different colours throughout the song which looked vibrant and professional as many other up tempo music videos also feature.



SWOT analysis

 Here are the images of the SWOT analysis that we did as a group. We had a look at the briefs we were thinking of doing and then assessed the:
S - Strengths
W - Weaknesses
O - Opportunities
T - Threats

We found that there a few things that they had in common and also it got us thinking about the troubles we might face and also the opportunities we would have given we choose that task.

Task choice

In our first lesson of media, we were given the 15 briefs for A2 media available for this year. Both our teachers decided on four briefs that they though would be most suitable for us to choose from and what they think we would be able to do the most effectively. From the 15 briefs, the four advised for us to choose from were:

- A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo, alongside a digipak for the album's release and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.
- A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with a film magazine front cover, featuring the film and also a poster for the film.
- A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with a listing magazine front cover and a poster for the soap.
- A selection of materials related to a children;s TV drama, to include a title sequence of the TV programme, together with a DVD cover for the series and a front cover to a magazine for the series.

My initial choice after only reading through the briefs was to do the music video for the coursework and after speaking with Adam and Eboni, they also thought the same thing. In the following media lessons, we used the lesson time wisely to look at two of the briefs closely as a class. We did some work on both the music video brief and also the new film. In lesson time, we looked at past coursework from previous ALevel students and also we did a SWOT analysis of all four of the suggested briefs (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). This made us thoroughly think about all the aspects of each brief and what problems we may face alongside all the opportunities we would have if we picked the brief.

After the lesson time where we got to look closely at all the briefs and make an informed decision, it was clear that we all wanted to do the music video still. The reason for this being that we all have a keen interest in music and a great knowledge about different genres of music and what certain genres include in their music videos. Also, due to the fact that we all did media at GCSE, Adam and myself both did the music brief where we got to make an album digipak and poster alongside social media webpages and so we have already had experience with all the ancillary tasks alongside a great deal of research in the tasks and so we already have a vast background knowledge of what s included in music poster and album covers etc. We also found the music video the most interesting and all knew that we would enjoy completing this brief the most.

For the ancillary tasks, we have chosen to do the digipak and also the magazine front cover. This is because we have already had experience with these from GCSE media and are most comfortable using these skills that the tasks will require.