Audience Feedback

We are currently editing our music video with the footage we previously filmed, however, we still feel as though we need a narrative incorporated into it. Because we were stuck for ideas on what this could be, we asked our class to watch what we had already, and give us some feedback to what we could improve on and what the narrative could be.

Most of our feedback said that our editing so far was really effective, but the shots were very repetitive, so a narrative was definitely needed. So, we came up with a narrative as a group which we will film soon. This is the list of adjustments we need to make and a blog of me and Emily explaining what feedback we received:

Inspiration from Existing Media Products

While we have been planning our music video there have been many music videos that have inspired us and helped us with ideas. I have been researching into already existing music videos of our genre to help us come up with creative shots and editing techniques that we need to make our music video fit our genre and to ensure it appeals to our target audience.

The first music video I have been using for inspiration is the video The Kooks' song, 'Bad Habit'. Not only have we taken inspiration from the fact that this music video is in black and white, but we have also been looking at the nature of the shots included within it. For example, there are lots of close up shots within the video, which is typical if this genre, however, in particular we liked the close up shot of the girl's feet while she is walking, and have decided this is something we also want to incorporate this into our music video in some way.

Another music video that I looked at for inspiration was the music video for 'Take Me To Church' by Hozier. The reason I took inspiration from this video was mostly the natural settings, for example, the use of the two men being by a lake, and also the woodland and forrest settings. Alike this video, we want to use these settings as a form of irony as nature is usually associated with being free, however in our music video we want to use these settings to portray how trapped our main protagonist feels in her everyday life.

Lastly, I also took inspiration from Lana Del Rey's music video for 'Blue Jeans'. Her video is of a completely different genre and narrative/message to our song and what we want to portray in our music video, however there are elements of her video that, if adapted, I think could look effective. We have been debating weather to add a narrative into our video, and we have come up with ideas regarding suicide with water, as we want to keep to a natural theme. In this video Lana Del Rey is submerged in water, and we want to add a similar aspect, as our lyrics portray imagery of suffocating, which we can interpret as drowning. The shot below is close to how we would add in water and drowning shots to our narrative.

Final Band Brand

Now we need to focus on researching for and producing our digipak, so we have finally decided on our band brand! We used lots of name generators but managed to come up with our band name on our own, as Stef suggested the name 'Dysphoria', and we all really liked it. As for our song name we decided to stick with the name 'Static', as the first single from the album, also named 'Static'. The track list I uploaded before has not been changed, as we all agreed that we liked the number of songs and the name of each song.

Record Label and Industry Reserch

Digipak Research

A digipak is a type of packaging for CD's or DVD's, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. Some typical conventions included in a digipak are:

• Visual/key image to the production 

• Band/artist name to allow the audience to identify the band or artist 

• Album name on the main cover and on the spine 

• Track list of album 

• Background information of the artist/band

• Reviews from magazines and newspapers

• Pictures of band/artist 

Front Panel: 
Usually includes the album name and artist/band name in a loud and bold font to catch the audiences attention, and an image of the band or artist.
Spine:
Names of band/ artist and album name, sometimes the name of the record label or company.
Back Cover:
Track-list in a readable and contrasting font to the front panel.
Fold in Panel:
Often a image of artist/band, however if its a long fold out, the fold in panel would be a continued from the Front and Back Panel.
Inside Panels:
CD, maybe even a booklet. Often images of artist/band or something symbolic/iconic printed inside, behind the discs. There may also be information about the album and quotes by the artist/band written inside the digipak.
Colour Scheme:
Usually reflects the mood of album or the genre of the tracks/songs on the disc.

These are some digipaks that are from my genre that I can use for inspiration for my own digipak:

Inspiring Music Videos

Whilst researching into the codes and conventions of music videos of our genre, I came across two music videos that have conventions that can be built into our music video. The first example is Florence and the Machine's 'Dog Days are Over', as is set in a rural locations with lots of natural elements included in the mise en scene. We like the idea of having our mise en scene based on natural scenery, so we will use this throughout the video. Two Door Cinema Club's 'Something Good Can Work' also has elements of this, as mentioned as my previous post.

The second video that inspired me was Arctic Monkey's video for 'Arabella', as it is in all black and white which we will be using throughout our video, as we think this will be effective along with our natural elements theme. We also like the focus of Alex Turner, the lead singer, as the star of the music video, which can be applied to Richard Dyer's 'Star Quality Theory'. We will also be using this and conforming to Dyer's theory, as we plan to include many close up shots of Stef, our star, which is also a prominent feature of music videos of our genre (indie/rock).

Target Audience

From our research, people that enjoy the indie rock/pop music genre, and therefore are our target audience, are generally young males and females in their teenage years, aged around 16-24. Most of my research shows that these people are usually from working or middle class backgrounds and are in education, with general interests in music, fashion, photography, gigs/concerts/festivals and piercings/tattoos. Other media products that they enjoy seem to be of the horror/thriller genre for films and TV shows. The reason this audience listens to indie/rock is not only because they enjoy gigs and festivals, but also because they can identify with the lyrics of songs, as they are sometimes deep and dark with a strong meaning, which young people can easily identify with and be influenced by. This applies to Blumler and Katz' uses and gratifications theory, as this is not what the lyrics does to our target audience, but applies to what our target audiences takes from them themselves.  We have also found out from researching that our target audience can usually be reached through social networking sites and through magazine adverts/spreads, therefore we will use a magazine advert to advertise our music video and song.