Ed Sheeran - A Team

One of the answers given from my survey regarding favourite music videos included this music video by Ed Sheeran. I really like the black and white effect and I will be considering using this same effect when I come to edit my own video. I also believe the narrative is successful due to the clear story line. Please comment on my blog to share your opinions on the video, it would be greatly appreciated.

Promoting my blog

To get feedback on my blog I decided to promote it to my friends on Twitter and Facebook as these social networking sites are mostly directed to the audience that I want to direct my music video to. Hopefully by putting this on my Facebook and Twitter I will be able to get some positive feedback or criticisms of how to make my blog more successful.

Video Questionnaire

Here is my video questionnaire, this was my most successful way of getting answers as they are more valid however the responses I got from this were similar to the ones I gathered through my written questionnaire and online survey which is why I will not be analysing the video.

Examples of answers from my questionnaire

Here is my second questionnaire. The questions are similar to my survey but I will be giving it to only 10 people as will also be using the results from my original survey and therefore do not need as many participants. I will also be filming some of the answers to show it in a different medium form. The reason I have done this second questionnaire is to collect more valid data and not have 'joke' answers from participants.

These answers show different genders and age ranges. I selected these 3 as examples because of this as it shows that I have a wider range of participants. Looking at all the results, all of my participants watched music videos either frequently or sometimes. This demonstrates that I asked people who are more interested in music videos and therefore have more of an idea about what they like. For my next question, I had a big mix of answers about the genres they like however like my survey, most of the results came out as either pop and chart or acoustic. From each of my questionnaires, the results demonstrate that although people like abstract filming, most enjoy music videos that follow a story line.

Giving questionnaires out was a successful research method as I got more valid results and I will use these answers when deciding on certain elements for my own music video.

Questionnaire

Here is my second questionnaire. The questions are similar to my survey but I will be giving it to only 10 people as I am using the results from my original survey. I will also be filming some of the answers to show it in different medium forms. The reason I have done this second questionnaire is to collect more valid data and not have ‘joke’ answers from participants.

How old are you?

10-13

14-17

18-20

20+

Male or female?

How often do you watch music videos?

Frequently

Sometimes

Never

What Genre of music do you like the best?

What do you look for in a music video?

Do you prefer music videos based on...

The lyrics of the song

An abstract theme

         What is your favourite music video?

         Band:                                     Song:

         

         Why?

Log Diary 2

Having completed my research by creating a survey online and posting it on social networking sites to receive a larger response, I am able to decide that the genre I will be looking at for my music video is acoustic. Although most of my participants preferred pop and chart music, I believe the acoustic genre will give me an opportunity to create a great music video. 
Although my survey was successful, I will be carrying out a few written questionnaires or interviews as due to the survey being anonymous I got some 'joke' answers and therefore could not use them when analysing my results. 
I have also started on my format research which will give me inspiration for when making my own video, advertisement and website homepage.

Survey Analysis

For my research I created a questionnaire using Survey Monkey and came up with a variety of questions so the answers could help me when making my own music video and deciding on details such as genre and target audience. I posted my survey link on Twitter and Facebook as well as asking my friends to fill it out. This gave me a wide range of people which was great as it means I had more of a representative sample. Overall, I was able to get 30 people to do the survey however some people unfortunately skipped some of the questions as well as people putting ‘joke answers’. I will not use these answers when analysing results. The results I have got from this I will use however I will also question more people on video as it will give me more valid results, they won’t be able to skip questions and will also show me using different medium forms.

My first few questions were on the type of people they were so I could see the range of people I had asked and this would give me an idea of what demographic I could direct my video towards. The majority of the people who filled out the questionnaires were aged between 14 and 17. 7 were aged between 18 and 20, 2 were between 10 and 13 and finally 4 were 20+. This was quite good as I would like to direct my video towards an older audience and therefore this will give me insight to what they think and what they would prefer in a music video. My second question showed that 63.3% of the people who filled out my survey were female and only 36.7% who filled it out were male. Because of this, I will ask more males when doing a video interview so my results aren't bias towards the female gender. The next two questions on my survey showed that the majority of people watched music videos in their spare time. This is good because they would have more idea about what they like as they have seen more videos as well as the fact they enjoy to watch them. My fourth question asked how often they watched music videos. The results showed that 24.1% frequently watched them, 65.5% sometimes watched them and 10.3% of people never watched them. 1 person skipped this question. Although I would have preferred people who frequently watched music video, I still think it was good to get a variety of individuals to carry out the survey. I then asked if watching a music video had an impact on whether they bought the single or album or not. 2 people skipped this question however the overall results came out as 50/50.

My questions were specifically on what the audience like in music videos and what they’d want. Two options were available for the question ‘what genre of music you like the best?’ The two most popular were ‘acoustic’ and ‘pop & chart’ followed closely by ‘indie’. Although pop and chart were the highest rated with 60.7% of people preferring it, I will most likely chose the acoustic genre to shoot my media video because personally I like the relaxed genre and the videos can be more narrative than pop and chart. I then asked what makes the music genres my audience picked enjoyable. A few examples included “Being able to understand the words that people are singing.” And “Up beat and cool”. Because of these answers I have decided to choose an upbeat acoustic song which audiences can maybe relate to or there be a narrative behind the lyrics. My next question consisted of what the audience looks for in a music video. I believed this was an important question as it will show me what may be the most important feature to include in my video. According to the results, narrative was the most important feature followed closely by comedy. Due to the genre I have settled on, I will not be including comedy however I also believe story line is important in a music video and should relate to the lyrics. I believe narrative was the most popular as videos which have a set narrative can be more gripping for the audience due to it almost being like a short film. An example of this would be 'You belong with me' by Taylor Swift which has a clear and strong story line, this music video went on to winning MTV's video music award for best female video. Here is the music video below.

On this question I also had an ‘other’ option. A few examples that my participants filled out were ‘clothes and fashion’ and ‘shots’. I will insure I will consider these when planning. My 9^th question asked my participants what there favourite music video was and why. I got 24 responses for this question however some were not serious. A few examples were “Spice Girls Viva Forever - when I was younger I would sit and watch it for hours on end, thought it was very creative, no music video has made me feel the same way since”, “Beyonce - Countdown. Really good and interesting effects, like the artist etc”, “Anything by Britney Spears - iconic costumes and choreography” and “Ed Sheeran - A Team - The story line relates well to the lyrics”. These examples of responses were really helpful and I will regard them when thinking of things I could do when making my video. My final question was “If a band/artist produced a bad quality music video would it put you off the song?” 69% of participants said no and the rest believed it would. Although I most of the participants said it wouldn't  I will still try create a high quality music video which won’t put my audience off the general song.

Although my questionnaire had a few flaws and some answers were not serious, the results I have gathered and analysed will really help me when deciding on some aspects of my coursework.

Survey results - Open answers

What makes the genres you picked enjoyable?

Because I like to listen to them

Just good music in general

They stimulate my emotions

The meaningful soft lyrics

Good sounds

FANTASTIC TO LISTEN TO

They entertain me

Upbeat and relatable songs. (Would have picked more genres if I could have).

I usually like songs due to the artists

Being able to understand the words that people are singing.

They're not boring

Everything is varied within the genres and its generally good quality music and easy to listen to

They are the type of music I enjoy playing, and they are fun to listen to.

Interesting

Up beat and cool

Just amazing

Jolly Tunes

The melody of the songs

What is your favourite music video and why?

Michael Jackson - Thriller - It’s got different dance content and acting scenes in it

Psy - Gangnam style

Muse - Knights of cydonia - it’s hilarious

Trouble on my mind

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Rihanna - rude boy

All over the house – Skepta

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT - BECAUSE IT IS FUNNY

Psy - Gamdan style - It has a good dance

Spice girls - Viva forever - When I was younger I would sit and watch it for hours on end, thought it was very creative, no music video has made me feel the same way since

Beyonce – Countdown - Really good and interesting effects, like the artist etc

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version

Biffy Clyro - The Captain - Simon Neil looks ridiculously good in it

Thriller - Michael Jackson - Incredible dancing

Anything by Britney Spears - Iconic costumes and choreography

Without a doubt/Virtual Insanity – Jamiroquai - Incredible! So clever, unlike any other music video, and something you can watch over and over again.

Beyonce - Countdown

Knights of cydonia – muse - It is cool and like a western style mini-movie

JessieJ - who you are - it’s emotional

Rihanna- what’s my name – it’s just really good

Ben Howard - Only Love

Ed Sheeran - A team because the storyline relates well to the lyrics

No answer – 6

Survey results - Pie Charts

Social Networking...

I used different social network sites to put the link of my survey up. This was to ensure I would have a range of people of all ages to answer my questionnaire. 

Survey Link

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KSPZQDH

Log Diary 1

This week I researched the history of music videos and put together a couple of time lines after looking at different websites. I got all of what I needed to do on time and found out some interesting aspects about music videos I never knew before. This week I will be doing research to decide on my genre and what my audience may like in a music video, as well as starting my format research for website homepages. I will hopefully get this done on time so I can start with my format research on magazine advertisements for the week following.

Chosen Brief

From the research I have done so far on music genres and the history of music videos it is clear that I have chosen the brief of making a music video. The two other tasks I chose were to create a magazine advertisement of the album and a website homepage. I did this because I have a keen interest for music and believe that it will be an interesting yet challenging task.

I will create a survey which will help me decide on my genre of music I should concentrate on, as well as the target audience I should direct it to. From this, I will start my format research where I will look at other artists work which could inspire me when shooting my own video and creating my own advertisements and website homepages.

MTV

MTV stands for Music Television and is an American television channel which is based in New York. MTV was launched on August 1, 1981 with the song ‘video killed the radio star’ however the beginning of MTV was in January 1977. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs (Video Jockeys) However in now MTV primarily broadcasts a variety of reality and scripted television programs targeted at a younger audience. The original purpose of MTV was to be "Music Television", playing music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, guided by on-air personalities (video jockeys). The original taglines of the channel were "You'll never look at music the same way again," and "On cable. In stereo." Nowadays, MTV no longer plays music videos 24/7 however several of its franchise shows such as MTV Hits and MTV Jams do. In addition, viewers can play music videos on-demand at MTV.com.

History

MTV was a very important channel in the early 1980s as it broke the ‘colour barrier’ where other ethnic groups were on TV. During the first few years on the air, barely any black artists were on the channel; however those in rotation included Tina Turner and Eddy Grant. The very first non-white act played on MTV in the US was UK band The Specials, which featured an integrated line-up of white and black musicians and vocalists. The Specials' video "Rat Race" was played as the 58th video on the station's first day of broadcasting.

In 1987, MTV was launched in Europe; it was the 24-hour entertainment cable and digital television network. Initially, the channel served all regions within Europe being one of the very few channels that targeted the entire European continent. Today, the channel only serves a selection of European countries as MTV Networks Europe began to regionalise its network in 1997.

By the early 1990s, MTV was playing a combination of pop-friendly hard rock acts, chart-topping metal and hard rock acts such as Metallica, Nirvana and Guns N' Roses, pop singers such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, 2 Unlimited and New Kids on the Block, and R&B quartets such as New Edition, Bell Biv Devoe, Tony Toni Tone, and Boyz II Men, while introducing hit rappers Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. MTV progressively increased its airing of hip hop acts, such as LL Cool J, and Naughty by Nature.

On the 1^st of August 2001 MTV celebrated its 20th anniversary, beginning with a 12-hour retrospective called MTV20: Buggles to Bizkit, which featured over 100 classic videos played chronologically, hosted by various VJs in reproductions of MTV's old studios. The day of programming culminated in a 3-hour celebratory live event called MTV20: Live and Almost Legal, which was hosted by Carson Daly and featured numerous guests from MTV's history, including the original VJs from 1981.

In January 2009 MTV started to edit a number of videos which removed references to drugs, violence, homophobia and many other issues. Many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

Information from

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-mtv

Music genres mindmap

This music genre mindmap is to help me look at some genres that interest me which will enable me to decide what I want to look at when doing my format research and video shoot.

Little bits of analysis - Music videos

The Buggles – Video killed the radio star (1979)

Genre – Pop

Audience – All

Lyrics – Relating to relationships

Camera – Zooming on to instruments and televisions

Mise en scene – Futuristic clothing, white setting with three pianos,

Editing – Quite a lot of shots

Dire Straits – Money for nothing (1985)

Genre – Rock: Often shows band performing

Audience – Males

Lyrics – Lyrics relating to visuals

Camera – Mix between long shots and close ups

Mise en scene – Neon lighting and clothing, 80’s standard clothing when performing

Effects – Cartoon effects

Editing – A lot of transitions, framing shots

Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)

Genre – Pop

Audience – Getting a wider audience instead of children and teens as his fan base due to Michael Jackson starting off in Jackson 5 as a small boy

Lyrics – The lyrics relates to the zombie atmosphere

Mise en scene – (Film bit: 80s standard clothes, dark at night, in woods) Music – Smoke/fog, dark, red leather clothes, grave yard, zombies – effects with their make up and blood.

Effects – Smoke effects

Editing – Film style, 4 minutes before music even starts

Timeline - History of music videos

Before MTV

History of music videos

A music video is a short film mixing imagery with the song which is used to promote the song for the artist and now is produced as a marketing technique. Original music videos date back much further however they were mainly used in the 1980s when MTV started to base their system on the medium. Before the 1980’s music videos were usually referred to as an ‘illustrated song’ or a ‘film insert’. Although music videos date back as far as the 19^th century, 30 years ago, it was considered the music video ‘heyday’ when MTV famously aired ‘The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” on August 1^st, 1981. Below is that music video which has gathered 3,630,997 views on vevo - it was uploaded late 2010

Music videos use a variety of styles of film techniques such as animation, live action filming and performance based approaches like abstract film. Some music videos even take two techniques and blend them, for example, animation and live action blend. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it more fictional than expected and other music videos may not have a set concept and being simply a filmed vision of the song's live performance. The first example of an ‘illustrated song’ was in 1894, it was still images set to the live performance ‘little lost child’. Following that many musical short films were produced featuring many bands, vocalists and dancers. In the 1930s screen songs were introduced – this included cartoon films which encouraged the audience to sing-a-long. A step up from this was when the first promotional clip was introduced; they were short films of the band on a movie-set. This was one of the first times; music videos were used as a marketing technique. In the mid 60s The Beatles set the stage for the modern music video with the motion picture “A Hard Days Night.”  This was only the start; they followed to making 10 films which promoted their album releases. By the 80s MTV was introduced and the 24 hour broadcast begins to play a role in music marketing. Michael Jackson in 1983 made the most influential video of all time. “Thriller” was a narrative music video and had a storyline to the song he was marketing. After that, music videos became a big medium used to promote singles and albums and it grew bigger due to things such as youtube and downloadable music videos on iTunes.

Propp's Narrative Theory Applied to 'Spider-man'

The narrative theory can be applied to the film Spider-man made in 2002. The story consists of the outcast Peter Parker in love with Mary Jane. Peter Parker suddenly gets super human power and is able to climb up walls, jump off buildings etc. Although each character may carry more than one role, Propp's theory applies to the film. The hero in Spider-man is Peter Parker, as well as him being the seeker hero in which he helps others, he slowly starts to become the victim hero as he becomes the centre of the 'Green Goblin's' attention. The Green Goblin is the villain as well as being the false hero. This is due to the fact as well as playing the Green Goblin; the character also plays the dad of Peter's best friend Harry. Harry's dad acts like a father as such when Peter's uncle dies. The princess in this film is Mary Jane, not only does she have the love of Peter Parker she also seems to convey the 'damsel in distress' role when getting caught up in the action and therefore Spider-man must rescue her. Peter's uncle and aunt both act as the donor and dispatcher in this film because although they do not know he is the super hero he is, they still offer advice which helps in the resolution of the narrative.

The purpose of trailers

A trailer is an advertisement that is used to preview a different film that would later be shown in the cinema. The term “trailer” originally came from the fact these previews would usually show at the end of the films however this did not last for long as it was realised people actually left when the film finished so the trailers started being put at the beginning of films. Trailers shortly became part of the cinematic ‘ritual’ as the audience would expect them to show. Film trailers are now also used on DVDs before the menu to the film and are watched a lot online.

The purpose of trailers is to market a new film to the public. Generally the trailer was all about first impressions to hint the storyline to the audience however some trailers would give away more than others. Each trailer would have to be interesting and unique due to the strong competition in the film industry. Through the 4 micro elements it would entice the audience to go see the full film and through manipulation, the marketing team would decide how they would want the audience to perceive the film and therefore making it look better than it is. Over all, trailers help people decide on what they want to see.