Media Idea Pitch

 

Music Videos for Inspiration

 1) If you want to - Beabadoobee 

This video is a good example of having both narrative and performative levants to a music video, and it has  an established storyline which relates to the lyrics in a way. It also has quite cool graphics and cinematography and even contains a small animated elements, which I would like to attempt in my own video just to make it more interesting. It also does a good job of selling beabadoobee's personality and style, which come forth throughout the adverts and playful, cartoonish drawings featured throughout the video. The use of lighting is also quite creative and creates a really nice effect which could be achieved relatively easily and would be a great addition to my music video.

2) Casual - Chappell Roan

This is a good example of a more narrative based video, which more or less tells the story of the lyrics, but with a fantasy based twist. The cinematography and colour grading in this video is really nice and quite a saturated colour grade, which fits with the sort of vibe I would like my video to have. The creativity of the video is also something I really like, especially the underwater play setting, which looks really pretty and cool.

Industrial Context

    Music videos started as Tv became more popular and bands. became global. They are an efficient way to reinforce the brand identity or star persona of the artist (Richard Dyer), to spread a message/the performers values and ideologies, to promote their tours or merchandise (which due to the digitisation of music, is now one of the only ways for artists to create revenue), to boost their stardom, create and active audience and stand up to repeated viewing and even attract fandom and chatter from the active audience or reach new ones. (Henry Jenkins participation theory).

History of music videos:

    In 1894, music publishers Joseph Stern and Edward Mark created the first illustrated composition and were helped by electrician George Thomas. It was around 10–15 images attached to the song, which was projected onto the wall during the live performance.

    The first music video appeared around the same time that the sound appeared in films. And the first to star in such a video were Bob Witt and guitarist Cy Berg. They sang three unnamed songs to showcase the latest technology from the Vitaphone film company.

    The first to call the performance a music video was American rock musician Giles Perry Richardson Jr. who was also known as Big Bopper. His work ‘Chantilly Lace’ was first called a ‘music video’, although nothing much happened in the video, just a conversation on the phone with a girl. Some people argue that Elvis Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ video, which was released a year earlier, was much more dynamic and well known, even including dance elements. But on the other hand, Big Bopper was important in the first place because it brought a new concept to everyday life. It is also believed that the first music video was filmed by another legend Tony Bennett, but there was no evidence of his video ‘Stranger in Paradise’ existing.

    It is difficult to say with certainty who shot the first video with the plot (from a script written). Although the English rock band ‘The Kinks’ was one of the first performers to do so.

Later, the adventures of unlucky working-class funerals inspired the group ‘Oasis’ to create a black and white music video however The video was not allowed to run on BBC (although there was no official ban) because it was considered tasteless.

Pivotal Moments:

• 1935 - the first music video 
• 1940’s - scopitone
• 1960’s - Beatles Feature film
• 1960’s - Bob Dylan video (homage and parodies made by Stormzy, love actually etc.) Postmodernism - people don’t recognise the original text.
• 1970 - technological advancements
• 1970’s - top of the pops
• 1975 - queen: bohemian rhapsody
• 1981 - MTV set up. First video played was ‘video killed the radio store’
• 1983 - Micheal Jackson ‘Thriller’
• 1986 - Peter Gabriel ‘Sledgehammer’ video. Stop-motion.
• 2016 - facial recognition (the chain - fleetwood mac)

Audience Research

 Name: Ella Copeland

Age: 17

Occupation: Student and working the counter in a pharmacy 

psychometric group: The succeeder/the resigned

Interests: reading, physics, sleeping, listening to music

Favourite genre: Pop

Favourite music video: Feather by Sabrina Carpenter - “I love the outfits and it has an actual storyline that relates to the lyrics”

 

Name: Evie Taylor

Age: 17

Occupation: Student 

psychometric group: The explorer/the reformer

Interests: Watching films, playing videogames, reading, playing guitar, listening to music, musical theatre, clay art/jewellery

Favourite genre: Mainly older music like rock from the 80s (eg new wave and goth.) I also like some metal genres too

Favourite music video: Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode because it is beautifully shot, with contrasting black and white studio shots of the band and bright natural landscapes of the narrative.

Name: Jess Miller

Age: 17

Occupation: Student and working in a golf range

psychometric group: The struggler/the mainstreamer 

Interests: sleeping, going out with friends

Favourite genre: Indie and pop

Favourite music video: Hot to go by Chappell Roan because of the upbeat fun nature of the video.

Name: Samee Mirza

Age: 16

Occupation: Student 

psychometric group: The aspirer/the mainstreamer/the succeeder

Interests: economics, MMA, finance, brazilian jujitsu, politics, music, and history

Favourite genre: RnB

Favourite music video: Jimmy Cooks by drake because it has really high-end cinematography, for example int he background of the first verse it has a futuristic background making the video much more interesting to look at.

Generic Audience Research

The target demographic for my music video is 16-25 year olds of a middle-market audience who like to be entertained.

Age:

Since this target demographic is younger (Gen z) it is most likely that they will have been raised as technology became more advanced, therefore making them what we would refer to as ‘digital natives’. They are more likely to have a better understanding of technology and a vast understanding and usage of social media - frequently using apps like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat etc. and would also have a good knowledge of how to use the internet and search for whatever they need. Moreover, due to digital convergence, most music is online now and available for low prices or even free, meaning that this younger demographic is going to have more variation between the types of music that each one of them listen to, and also would likely have access to a lot of older music too, which quite a lot of it seems to be making a comeback. 

• nearly 1/3 of all instagram users fall under the 18-24 age bracket (31.8%)
• around 60% of TikTok users are in the 16-24 age bracket 
• around 51.1% of all users of snapchat are gen z

This shows that the younger generations have a much wider access to anything the could want to know, and also a lot of access to any information regarding wider social, economic, political and pop culture news. This can result in the younger generation being more aware of issues with the world and can be more emotionally mature when considering the fact that they will have been exposed to more mature topics such as news about genocides and wars, and also stories regarding the problems women face in todays society. Because of this more people in younger generations are more likely to partake in social activism and the spreading awareness of certain issues thought communities on social media that may have been disregarded before such as mental health or the environment, and whilst this is a good thing, it is described by older generation by the derogatory term 'wokeness'.

The increase in technological advancements also means that anything that happens, can be shared quickly and easily and reach a much wider audience even reaching across seas, and some of these moments could be to do with celebrity culture hence resulting in 'iconic pop culture moments' such as videos of celebrities doing something funny that happens to be filmed, for example Jojo Siwa saying her iconic line "Dream guest on my podcast? Lets spice things up probably one of my exes!" which was a recent occurrence but has since been quotes all over the internet and has been quoted by many people who are gen z, and will most likely only be understood by a younger demographic who use social media much more frequently and are more likely to have seen it and all of its responses rather than a millennial or boomer.

Middle-market:

A social group consisting of mainly well-educated people, in the BC1 demographic. This consist of people who may have occupations such as doctor, banker, lawyer, teacher, architect, computer programmer, shop manager, office worker, social worker etc. 36% of people brits consider themselves middle-class with 42% of 18-24 year olds considering themselves middle class. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-mobility-barometer-2021/social-mobility-barometer-public-attitudes-to-social-mobility-in-the-uk)

Like to be entertained:

The want to be entertained in this context means that the audience want to be able to watch a music video to a song that they like and be invested int he video and enjoy watching the video. This means that they will want to watch a video that appeals to them and their interest as a whole and not just something that is specific to the artist or the creators interests, which usually means that when making. music video, the artist looks at their audiences preferences and includes what they would like to see or enjoy to watch, for example, Taylor Swift when releasing the video for her Speak Now vault track 'I can see you' features her ex boyfriend Taylor Lautner who her fanbase had been talking about nearer to the release of speak now (Taylors version) due to the fact that the album was about him, and having him in the video created a buzz and caused the fanbase to be much more entertained by the premise of the video due to the history surrounding it.

Mood Board

 This is a mood board I made summarising what sort of vibe I am going for with the video, and also what colouring and shot types I would like to include.

Chosen Song

For my NEA I have chosen Pressure to Party by Julia Jacklin:

I have chosen this song because it is one of my favourite and I think it has quite a nice pace - not too slow and the lyrics are quite accessible with motifs such as isolation and the idea of trying to love again. The song is classed as ‘indie-rock’ which is a sub-genre of rock. The mood of the song (although having sadder lyrics) is quite upbeat with an upbeat and ‘lively’ guitar riff, and I made sure to choose a more ‘upbeat’ song because I don’t think I would be able to do an angry or sad music video without it seeming cringey. I already have some ideas, for example having shots where everyone around the main character is happy and dancing but the somber main character has direct address with the audience and is lip syncing the words etc.

Initial Ideas

 Brief 4 - Music video and online

I chose this brief because it seems like a great opportunity to try something new and explore my ideas and test my abilities. Last year for GCSE I chose magazine website so I think it would be interesting to try something different. I have some experience making short films but I have never done a music video before and believe this will be a great opportunity to develop my skills. I also quite like the genre rock and believe that it is broad enough for me to have a range of options with different tones.

NEA Options:

1) Only happy when it rains - Garbage

2) Hanging on the telephone - Blondie

3) Little miss - Boa

4) Talk - Beabadoobee

5) Pressure to Party - Julia Jacklin

6) You’re not the only one I know - The Sundays

7) Kyoto - Phoebe Bridgers

8) My Honest Face - Inhaler

9) Inbetween days - The Cure

There may be some other options but these are just a starting point of some songs that I like.

things to consider:

• opening lyrics need to be sung
• the opening sequence should be impressive and organised
• take care to compose shots (use natural frames)
• remember to include intertextuality (could use CD’s or band t-shirts)
• look at the big picture, think of the whole concept
• Need a master shot, where the ‘band’ sing the while song so I can use this then add cutaways
• Include playing of guitars to reinforce rock genre
• the video should be a combination of performance and narrative
• lots of cutaways
• use of reflections could be interesting to use
• make sure to use a motif to reinforce brand identity
• write down a shot list so I know all the shots I may need (shoot some extras too)
• film the clips from different angles and multiple times over
• use a tripod to get steady, even shots
• represent 2 different social groups
• shoot extra footage, it may be needed

Past Work

 

Burn the Witch Practice Music Video:

This is the music video that I made, I think it was good practice for the main music video and made me realise how much time it may really take to film the video, and also showed me the importance of having extra footage and a clear plan of what shots to do and the narrative of the video. I was at a slight disadvantage as I wasn’t there on the day we shot the footage and had less time to edit it which proved quite tricky and time consuming, I think it was a good way for me to get a taste for how prepared I will need to be and to see weather I would enjoy it or not.

The Big Issue Style Front Page:

This is a mock-up of that I made in the style of one of our set texts 'the big issue'. I quite enjoyed this experience and and very happy with my final result and so I do believe that it is a possibility for me to choose the magazine brief as i really enjoyed this and was able to produce a piece of work that not only fits in with the brand values of the magazine, but is aesthetically pleasing too.

Beauty Product Advert

This is an advert I made for the revolution beauty eyeshadow palette. I took inspiration from more old-fashioned adverts that used humour as a selling point for the product. From this I learnt that it’s important to look at the whole image and not just focus on one section then move on, as I found that the piece as a whole can look disconnected and not cohesive. I also learnt to choose the colour of tex that will most stand out, as I almost used black text for the copy over the image, but it wasn’t very visible. Overall I am quite happy with this piece but I do think that the text - especially on the right - needs to be bigger since it is arguably the most important part from a selling standpoint. I developed my photoshop skills and also leant about colour theory, and which colours will best contrast each other or look best together.

GCSE Coursework: Magazine Website

Home | My Site (18-smir.wixsite.com)

• From this I developed my website designing skills which is incredibly useful since I will need those skills when doing the websites for this NEA also.
• Another skill I learned whilst doing this is some photography skills and how to edit those photos so they don’t look dull or flat. I also learned that more photos than you think are needed, and it is useful to do photoshoots where you take much more photos than you think you need in all variety of poses, even though it may not seem necessary.
• I also learned some basic video editing skills, which I have since developed and do belive that my piece could have benefited from a better edited video and also more variety of photos throughout the website too.