Discussion of Focus group

Focus group from bethanysymonds24

Year 13 Focus Group

Focus group - Upper school consent

As we have chosen to include some of the upper school in our focus group, we have to ensure that we aren't crossing any school guidelines as we will be filming the discussion and posting it on our blogs meaning that they will be online. Therefore, we have had to write a letter to send home to the parents of the year 10's and 11's as they are under 16 so parental consent will have to be gained.
We wrote out the letter and then gave it to the school office so that they would print it on the official school paper.
In the letter, we wrote about:
-What we are doing and why
-That their children would be taking part if they consent
-That the focus group will be recorded and so their children will be featured in a video being posted online
-Asking for their permission and for them to sign

Here is the completed letter we will be sending home to the parents:

Consent forms - Year 13

Due to the fact that the pupils who will participate in our focus group will be being filmed, this means that they must be aware of this. I did some research to find out the age of filming consent and found:

Before anything takes place (filming, questions etc) we will give them a consent form to which they must sign, printing their name and giving a signature to say that they understand the focus group and that it will be filmed and that it will be put online.
This shouldn't be a problem as we are hoping to use all media students for the sixth form focus groups, so they should understand what it's for and there shouldn't be any issues with consent or the filming as they are doing similar things themselves.
Here is the focus group consent form for year 13:

Focus Group - Change of questions

It has recently been brought to our attention after showing our questions to our teacher that they are a bit too general/broad now that we have decided what genre we are doing.
We have decided to make them more specific to the genre as now we know what we are doing we can craft the questions to the focus group to allow us to get as much knowledge as we can for our music video and make the most of the opportunity of the focus groups.
The original questions were general in the sense that they were just asking their favourite artists and why etc, however this would be no help to us in the making of our music video as we had already decided the genre and who will be in it etc.
There will now be R&B music videos featured on the powerpoint made and so the focus group participants who perhaps hadn't seen many, if any music R&B music videos. This will allow them to see a variety of different videos and layouts and therefore the participants in the focus group can tell us what they think of them and then give us feedback which we can use to help us craft our own music video.
Here is the planning of the questions (updated):

R&B Music video initial ideas

I decided to make a mind map of all my initial ideas, I split it into four sections:

Mise - en - scene

Character / lead role

Genre / music conventions

Narrative of R&B music videos

I found that this was a more organised and visual way of presenting the initial ideas I had for the music video and when we decide as a group what to do, I will put some of these ideas forward.

Audience profile

Now that we have finally decided our genre, I have decided to do some research into audiences.

The typical R&B audiences are usually young adults aged 15-25, usually females. This type of audience is attracted due to  the explicit lyrics the songs have (including swearing and to do with drugs etc), the attractive artists and the type of music and what the music videos include within them (attractive males and females, drugs, alcohol and sexual nature). The genre also usually attracts females due to the fact that they are mostly songs about being in love and heartbreaks which will appeal to young females as they can relate to them. Faster paced R&B songs will also attract women as they involve fashion and synergy within the narrative.

It is also obvious that the audience this genre mainly attracts are mixed race due to the fact that the majority of R&B artists are of this ethnicity.

MALE

Name: Lucas

Age: 22

Class: Working

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White/Black

Education: GCSE's

Job: Waiter

Likes: Going out with friends, buying new clothes from high street stores, trainers, R&B and rap music, travelling, expensive watches, parties

Dislikes: Pop music, loud people, festivals, bright clothing, 

Profile: This male is a typical mainstreamer who is striving for success and wealth. He gets entertainment and inspiration from R&B artists such as Chris Brown and others who he admires. He uses most of his free time listening to music and will constantly have his earphones in listening to the latest and also the classics of R&B.

FEMALE

Name: Renee

Age: 20

Class: Working

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: White/Black

Education: Currently at first year of uni studying English Literature

Job: Sales advisor in a clothes shop

Likes: Going out with friends, latest fashions, mainstream clothing from high street shops, parties, R&B, singing and dancing.

Dislikes:  Pop music, loud people, festivals, maths and science, ignorance, healthy food, mainstream music.

Profile: This female is a fan of R&B. She spends a lot of her free time listening to artists such as Rihanna, Chris Brown and more classic R&B artists such as Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. She is also extremely creative and will spend a lot of her free time designing and create new designs and fashions. She looks up to artists such as Rihanna who have the lifestlye of wealth, fame and a massive fan base which is all of which she desires. She loves dressing in the latest fashion and also singing and dancing in her free time listening to R&B as the females are what she aspires to be and the males are attractive to her.

Lead Role chosen

Now that we have decided on the genre of the video, it was time to decide on who we would have in it.

The easiest decision we have made is who we would want in our video even before we decided on the genre, this is because he is a friend of all of us and is interested in music and pursuing it as a career. We knew that using Tavonga in our music video would be an extremely good idea due to the fact that we knew he would have an interest in doing it and therefore would take it seriously as he has done similar things to this before.

Over the weekend, I messaged Tavonga and explained to him what we were doing as well as asking him if he would like to be in the music video and he replied saying that he would and he is also doing media meaning that he already has knowledge and is doing the same thing shortly after us.

Tavonga has a keen interest in covering and writing music. He fits perfectly with the genre we have chosen to do (R&B) and was very happy to help us.

Having a keen interest in music and a passion for pursuing a career, he already has an account set up to help him gain interest and recognition and here are two of the videos which I feel express him as an artist and his interest in music.

Change in focus groups

When we planned our focus group, we decided upon certain people which we will gather and ask our set questions to. 

This was our original focus group:

6 x year 8 pupils (12-13)

6 x year 10 pupils (14-15)

6 x year 12/13 pupils (16-18)

Older audience (25+)

However, since we have chosen our genre of R&B, we thought that it would be best for us to change our focus group age range due to the fact that people aged 12-15 generally wouldn't listen to R&B music and so therefore we are changing the ages to higher and using the upper years of school as well as sixth form.

This is our new idea for a focus group:

6 x year 10 pupils (14-15)

6 x year 11 pupils (15-16)

6 x year 12 pupils (16-17)

6 x year 13 pupils (17-18)

Older audience (25+)

Decision of genre

After a long process of decision making, we have decided to make a decision of what genre we will be doing for our coursework.
We asked if we could go in a separate room and then spent a whole lesson deciding and debating upon which genre we thought would work the best for us.
After a long process, we came to the decision that we wanted to do R&B for the music video and ancillary tasks.
I will now begin my specific research into R&B to ensure that I have a full understanding of the genre before I start the coursework.

Focus group ideas

In today's lesson, Eboni and I planned the focus group which we will be carrying out next week.
We had a discussion on what type of people we will be gathering together to ask and put forward a plan of our ideal focus group.
6 x year 8 pupils (12-13)
6 x year 10 pupils (14-15)
6 x year 12/13 pupils (16-18)
Older audience (25+)

We decided that we would have to carry out our focus groups with the lower years during school times to make it easier for both us and them and will also ensure we get the right target audiences.
Here are the questions we made up:
- What is your favourite genre?
- Who is your favourite artist?
- What do you like about them?
- What is your favourite music video and why?
- What do you like in a music video?
- Do you like special effects? why?
- What's the best/most memorable video you've seen?
- Do you prefer performance or performance based music videos (explain concepts)
- Has your taste of music changed as you've grown up?
- Would your opinion of  a song change once you have seen the music video?
- Have you ever seen anyone live?

However, due to the fact that two of these focus groups will be with lower school years, it does mean that we will have to send out a letter for parental consent so that they will be able to participate in the focus group. This will take a while to create and send out then get a reply so we will conduct the discussion once we have the reply slips back in.

  

Purpose of a magazine ad

Due to the fact that I have never created a magazine advert before, I thought it would be beneficial to do some research into it. This includes the conventions, types of magazines, and what is included in the ad. To link this to my coursework, I used the red pen to explain where this will come into use and how I will use this research in my own work:
Here is what I found:

Purpose of a music video

Due to the fact that I have no experience in the making of music videos, I have decided to start researching them and also the purpose of them and what they aim to achieve. This will help me understand what will need to be included in the music video to ensure that it is successful. I also help it will provide some inspiration and ideas of what to include in our music video.

I found that there were five main purposed to a music video:

1.) To sell the song in a memorable way, in a way that the audience will remember it.

2.) If the video is narrative, it will give the audience a better understanding of the lyrics.

3.) To entertain ( perhaps link to the uses and gratifications theory ) - this is an opportunity for the artist to show off any other talents which they may have including dancing or acting.

4.) Creating a memorable music video increases its chances of selling and therefore a music video is an opportunity to sell the song and the single/album.

5.) To get the artist known is the last purpose of a music video - to raise their profile.

Although these are the main factors of a music video, some people would however argue that the only reason for a music video is promotion. The visual is an opportunity to sell the artist and the song and serves no other purpose.

An example of a successful music video which totally sold the artist and the song is Gangnam Style:

I researched some facts from the music video release and this is what I found -

-The first online video to received 2.5 billion views so far on YouTube

-The music video won best video at MTV Europe Music Awards

-Social networking held responsible for making the video popular on such an incredible scale

-Led to possible collaboration opportunities for PSY with other artists e.g. Justin Bieber

-Caused the share price of the record company to increase by 568.8%

The video was extremely successful and raised the artists profile in just weeks from unknown to being worldwide famous and recognised due to the humorous and unusual not to mention, memorable music video.

Music video theory - Sven E Carlsson

Sven E Carlsson's theory says that binary oppositions drive the narration of the music video forward, for example, the black and white theme. He also says that there are two main types of music video: performance and conceptual. -Performance clips where the video mainly shows an artist (or artists) singing and/or dancing.
There are three main types of performance clip; song performance, dance performance and instrumental performance. A way of telling if a music video is a performance clip is that the artist is likely to be shown in more than one setting.
- Conceptual clips are where something else is shown during the song's duration which may have symbolism or an artistic meaning.Carlsson believes that the performer is sometimes made into a materialization - 'commerical exhibitionist', this is where the performer sells their music video. They come across as someone that fans often aspire to be and the visuals will be extremely high in quality and have a gloss to them. Another type is the 'televised bard', which is a singer telling a story and uses on screen images instead of more personal images.The final type is the electronic shaman.

An example of a performance music video is: 
Taylor Swift - Shake It Off:

The reason that this is a performance based music video is because it features the main artist throughout in more than one loction. Taylor Swift is selling herself to her audience and fans - Consumerism.

An example of a narrative music video is:
Ed Sheeran - A Team:

The reason that this is a narrative based music video is that it features a clear story which relates directly to the song itself. It doesn't actually feature Ed Sheeran and instead the visuals focus on the woman who is in a struggling situation and brings the lyrics to visuals.

Music video theory - John Bergers

John Berger devised a theory - "Ways of Seeing" (1972).

In this theory, Berger analyses the way in which men and women are represented, and the consequences these representations have on the public and viewers. In Berger's theory, he claims that the representations of men and women in visual images, such as music videos are different: he identifies that men look at women in an objective way and also women look at themselves being watched by men.

In his theory, Berger argues that the woman are always self-conscious and aware of her own presence in every action she carries out. Berger says that he thinks a womans self value is measured through the way in which she is portrayed to the world in not only her own eyes but also in others' eyes and most importantly in men's eyes. 

On the other hand..."Men, Berger identifies, survey women before they relate to them and the results of this measuring determine their relation to the woman." Berger has the opinion that the way a woman would like to be treated (presumably by a man) is portrayed through her actions and her appearance. He carries on to say that a woman's actions show the way she would like to be observed, this is contradicted by a man's actions which are just actions in themselves. 

Berger sums this up simply by arguing that "men act – women appear". Women look at themselves being looked at. "The surveying woman is a man, the surveyed woman is a woman, and by this the woman objectifies herself as a subject of a gaze, this is the meaning of Berger's title "Ways of Seeing" – essentially meaning that there are different ways of seeing man and woman."

Music Magazines research

I decided to do some research into music magazines to gain a further understanding of the ancillary tasks involved in our choice of coursework.

 Q MAGAZINE:

- Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. 

- Founders: Mark Ellen and David Hepworth ( The two were concerned by the music press of the time. They felt that it was ignoring a generation of older music buyers).

- Q was published by the EMAP media group in October 1986.

- In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more".

- Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), however, this name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for another magazine. 

The magazine includes:

"An extensive review section, featuring: new releases (music), reissues (music), music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star-rating system from one to five stars; indeed, the rating an album receives in Q is often added to print and television advertising for the album in the UK and Ireland. Much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists."

NME MAGAZINE:

- NME stands for New Musical Express.

- The music magazine is a British journalism magazine which has been published since March 1952.

- The main genres it focuses on are: rock, alternative and indie music. 

- First British paper to include a singles chart, in the edition of 14 November 1952.

- In the 1970's,it became the best-selling British music newspaper.

- During 1972-1976, it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism.

- Although it started as a music newspaper, it eventually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, it then changed from newsprint in 1998.

"We're the magazine that bands read. There isn't one magazine guaranteed to give an as truthful, honest, informed account of what's going down in music as NME. And we do it because we don't want to be lied to either – after all, this is rock'n'roll we're talking about, it's too important for that."

 VIBE MAGAZINE:

- Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine.

- The magazine is based in NYC

- It was founded by producer Quincy Jones.

- The magazine mainly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers.

- The magazine was shut down production in Summer 2009.

- "Vibe was then purchased by private company - InterMedia Partners and is now issued semi-monthly with double covers, with a larger online presence."

- The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture.

- It was in 2014 that the magazine moved online.

- The magazine became highly successful as it began featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors.

- As of June 30, 2012, Vibe has a circulation of 300,943, of which 202,439 was paid, and 98,504 was non-paid.

- Vibe Media is a premiere destination for urban music, entertainment and culture. Vibe lends its authoritative voice to create solutions for advertisers looking to engage consumers 18-54 via music, entertainment, and lifestyle.

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE:

- It was originally headquartered in New York City.

- Billboard is now owned by Prometheus Global Media.

- It was first published on November 1, 1894.

- It is distinguished as being among the oldest trade magazines in the world.

- The magazines original focus was on bill posting and outdoor amusements before switching to the music industry in the 1950s.

- Billboard maintains several internationally recognized record charts, which track the most popular songs and albums across several categories on a weekly basis.

"The world's premier music publication, Billboard has served the entertainment business since 1894. Beginning as a weekly for the billposting and advertising business, Billboard and its popular music charts have evolved into the primary source of information on trends and innovation in music, serving music fans, artists, top executives, tour promoters, publishers, radio programmers, lawyers, retailers, digital entrepreneurs and many others."

Music Video theory - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin from bethanysymonds2

Existing products research analysis images

Here are some of the existing products which i analysed and blogged about previously:

Research - Ancillary tasks

The task that we have chosen is the music video. This includes three tasks. Alongside the music video is two ancillary tasks - a digipak and a magazine advert. I'm order to understand the concepts and what needs to be included in both these products, I decided to research existing products for the genres we are considering doing for the coursework. I found this quite easy due to the fact that in GCSE media we did a piece of coursework on both music promotion and a magazine front cover. I researched both posters and album covers for the genres we are looking at and then printed them out so that I could analyse them and identify the conventions they all share and what are specific to individual genres. The research really helped me understand what to include in my magazine advert and also the advert and what conventions I may want to challenge or conform to to attract the target audience we are looking for. I will attach the images of my research in a separate post.