Mindmap of Song Choices

Reasons for song choice

A place in this world- Taylor Swift

I chose to do a pop song for my music video because I enjoy listening to pop and therefore felt I would be able to relate to it and enjoy completing the task if I liked the music. I also like pop because it has quite an upbeat pace rather than a very slow pace. However the pace of the song was a major factor in helping me decide on what song to use because I wanted to do a fairly slow song rather than a very fast dance music. I wanted to do a slower song because I want to create a narrative music video and ensure the lyrics fit with the visuals. I felt this could be achieved if I had a slower pace song because I won’t have to worry about fitting dancing in with the beat of the song- I can just create a story.

This song has many actions which I can pick out, for example walking down the road when it’s raining, blue jeans and the radio. This means I can link the visuals with the lyrics to ensure it is a successful narrative video.

Mrs D

Well done for hitting your first deadline Danielle and you have already started your planning. Keep up the good work.

Analysis of song lyrics

I thought it was important for me to look at the underlying meanings of the song lyrics so that I could try and link the visuals with the original ideas. For me, the main meaning of the song is that Taylor Swift is new to the music industry and she is trying to settle in and get used to becoming a well- known and famous artist. 

Email Request

Mrs D

Danielle, this is a good start and you have got some good research here. Well done. For you music promo RMAs you explore the narrative and concepts effectively and provide detailed egs. You need to be a bit more technical to improve- although you do start to mention camera techniques it is often descriptive. You need to link to promotion of the star and album too. Look again at editing - one of the most important features of music promos. You mention 'an editing devise' at one point. Define it and explore the effect. 

Product Placement

I will display my music video on numerous places making it accessible for my audience.  Firstly I would create a website for my artist which will allow her to upload her new releases before it is put on YouTube/music channels so that fans can preview it on the site before any other place. The website will provide a place where fans can comment and talk about the artist/video with each other. This website will provide a good marketing tool for the artist as the internet is such a powerful source as millions of people use it daily. This will ensure my artist is constantly being promoted as the fans can access the site at any time.
I would also like my artist to promote themselves and the music video via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These websites are used by millions of users worldwide so I feel it would be worth using these sites to promote the artist as it will reach a wide audience. An example of an artist who has used the social networking site Myspace to successfully promote herself and her music is Lily Allen. Lilly Allen’s Myspace provided a site where users could play games, comment and watch her new music videos.

Due to my song choice being pop and the results from my questionnaire I have decided to play my music video on music channels such as The Box and Kiss. These two channels mostly play pop and hip- hop songs which is why I think my music video would be appropriate for these channels as it will attract people who are interested in this music genre. The two channels proved to be the most popular in my questionnaire which is the main reason why I have chosen these channels as the audience will watch the video and therefore the artist will be promoted to as many people as possible. There would be no specific time which my video would be played but I feel it should be played mostly in the evenings because that is when my target market (female 15- 18 year olds) are most likely to be home and able to watch the videos. I also think playing my music video on radio stations such as Radio 1, Kiss and Capital will help promote the artist as it will reach a wide audience who may not listen to music channels very often.

For my digipak I will place this on the artists website so that my audience can see it and therefore know what it looks like for when they want to buy it from the shop. I will sell the album in the specialist music shop HMV aswell as supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s. I think it is important to sell in supermarkets aswell as shops such as HMV are getting less popular with the increase of downloading music online. Supermarkets still stay popular because of how easy it is when doing a weekly shop to pick up an album rather going out specially to buy it from specialist music shops.

RMA Digipaks and Promotional advert

Kelly Rowland- 'Here I am'- Digipak

This digipak has a blue effect on the front  and back cover of the album. This effect gives a ‘cool’ and mysterious feel to the album because it isn’t the usual effect used for an album cover. The effect makes the album look sophisticated possibly to reflect Kelly Rowland herself but also looks distinctive so that it stands out from other albums because it challenges the usual codes and conventions of a digipak. The disc is much different from the front and back cover because it hasn’t got the blue effect on. Instead there is a brown effect used almost like a sepia effect.

All 3 parts of the digipak include an image of Kelly Rowland to show that she is the main focus of the album and she is the main thing trying to be promoted.

The close up of the artists face shows her expression and makes the audience feel more connected with her because they feel closer to her. The eyes are looking directly at the audience to again make a personal connection to the audience and make them feel like she is looking at only them and no one else. The artist’s lips are slightly open similar to Rihanna on her album. This slight open lips could provide a sexual appeal . The artist’s cheek has water droplets on perhaps to link to the blue effect and water.
Unlike the front of the digipak, the back of the album has no image of the artist’s face- instead a medium close up from her waist up of is used. The artist is topless which defiantly provides a sexual appeal because she is known to be an attractive woman. The blue theme is continued with the thin white writing for the track listing. This font is fairly unclear on the blue background because it’s showing that Kelly Rowland is the focus- not the songs.

Katy Perry- 'Teenage Dream'- Digipak

This digipak is much more brightly coloured than the other albums I have analysed. The main colours used are light blue and light pink. The whole digipak has the theme of pink fluffy clouds, blue sky and sweets.  These light colours are possibly used to show that the genre of music is pop rather than heavy rock where mostly blacks would be used. The pink fluffy clouds could resemble candyfloss to fit in with the sweets theme but also clouds link with dreams which therefore connects it to the title of the album ‘Teenage Dream’. One of the discs is made like a doughnut and the other like a lollipop.

The front cover has an image of Katy Perry lying amongst this soft fluffy looking cloud, maybe trying to represent her as being an innocent person. A long shot is used in order to fit her whole body in. Katy Perry is wearing no clothes and she is just relying on the cloud to cover her up. This adds sex appeal to the artist and shows off her figure. Her dark hair contrasts with the light pink cloud to make her the most important item on the front cover. The swirly font used for ‘Katy Perry’ looks like strawberry sauce which again fits into the sweets theme of the digipak. The ‘Teenage dream’ font is different to the font used for the artists name but still has the same theme running through but this time it looks like the pattern of a candy cane or lollipop.

In the centre of the digipak there is a large close up of the artist on the left side which takes up the whole left side of the cover. This is in order to promote the artist as she looks pretty and innocent in the expression she has.

The back of the album cover has the pink fluffy cloud theme on to link with the front cover to ensure that the audience know that it is from the same album. The font is all in upper case and in a dark pink to stand out from the light pink background. The ‘o’s’ on the back of the album cover are all smaller versions of the candy cane patterned disc to show continuity of the sweets theme.

This promotional advert shows Rita Ora in a medium close up rather than the typical close up’s used on album covers. Her pose looks directly at the audience to make it more personal to them. The colours used on the advert are black, white, grey and red. These colours seem popular amongst female album covers and adverts perhaps because they are the most effective and because all of the female artists have an attractive and seductive side to them, therefore red is used.

The artist is wearing a plain white top so that the focus isn’t taken away from her face and the name of the song that it is advertising. The masculine black hat shows that she is a strong women and isn’t afraid of being different from the stereotypical female.

The background of a grey brick wall may resemble Rita Ora’s background and how she has worked her way up from being on the streets to being a famous artist.

The font of ‘How we do’ is different from ‘Rita ora’. The font for how we do is larger and bolder to emphasise that this is the main purpose for the promotional advert- in order to promote the name of the song. The ‘Rita Ora’ font is in a less clear, smaller ‘Aztec’ font because the audience already know that it is Rita Ora from just looking at the image. The red font of ‘Rita Ora’ and ‘Party’ links with the red lips to connect the image with the writing.

This promotional advert for Rihanna’s album ‘Loud’ has the main colour of red. The faded red border links with Rihanna’s bright red hair therefore making the advert all about Rihanna, emphasising that she is the main focus of this advert. The red has connotations of romance and adds sex appeal to the artist

The white font used is very clear and upper case letters are used to catch the audience’s attention even more and to show that it is important information.

Two images are used on this promotional advert. One image is a medium close up with her not looking at the camera and the other image is a close up used for the album cover, again not looking directly at the camera. This challenges the codes and conventions of typical images of artists on album covers because they usually look directly at the audience to make it more personal.

RMA Improvements

This is the first draft of the Nicki Minaj music promo analysis. I have made these improvements on the second version which I uploaded on my blogger.

RMA Music Promo's

David Guetta (Feat.Nicki Minaj)- ‘Turn me on’- Concept

This music video is a concept style due to the unusual objects and scenes shown throughout the video. Interestingly the lyrics do not fit with the visuals hardly at all apart from  a couple of parts, one being when it says ‘My body needs a hero to come and save me’ and where she talks about needing a doctor and cuts to a medium short of David Guetta which makes the audience think he is like the doctor. This is the only section of the video where the visuals actually link directly with the lyrics.

At about 17 seconds into the video there is a close up of a pair of white lips which aren’t meant to look like real lips. The lips move in time with the words however it isn’t coming from the artist’s mouth; instead a material object. There are then a couple more close up's used of metal hands and legs tapping to the beat of the song. These continuous close ups of different parts of the metal body may represent she is gradually coming alive and each part of the body is being built. The camera then pans down the artificial golden metal body to show it lying down and that it ‘needs a hero to come and save me.’

At the chorus is another part where the visuals do link with the lyrics; where it says ‘Make me come alive come on and turn me on’ This links with the visuals because it is a non-human object singing this therefore its showing that she wants to come alive and ‘turn her on’ to become a human.

At about a minute into the video, during the first chorus the non- human object suddenly gets turned into a plastic body rather than just a golden metal figure. This again links with the lyrics as he is ‘making her come alive.’ Gradually through the video this metal figure transforms into a plastic version of Nicki Minaj and then finally Nicki Minaj is shown after about 1.20. This gradual transformation builds tension as Nicki Minaj is such a well known artist and therefore excites the audience because they know she is going to come on the screen but they don’t know when.

Once Nicki Minaj is finally shown, she has long pink hair, a black top hat and wears a long black dress covering up most of her skin apart from her chest where a diamond shape is cut out. The reason why she may have pink hair is to show lust but also her unique personality as not many people have pink hair.  The long black dress suits the dark, dull and eerie atmosphere that is portrayed in the video due to black being associated with death and funerals which again links with the lyrics of ‘I’m too young to die.’ The diamond cut out slightly showing her chest area contrasts with the rest of the dress because it is not a revealing dress, it also differs from her other videos because in her other videos she is sometimes shown to have very tight or skimpy clothing on which is why the video has unique feel to it. However the small cut out is not too revealing and sexual but still keeps the slight sexual appeal which she has in her other videos.

At about 1:58 there is a close up of Nicki Minaj dragging an axe across the concrete floor. This close up of the object again links to the mysterious atmosphere to the video but none of the lyrics directly link to the weapon.

The lighting is very much dull with a yellowy tinge and is an artificial light of torches and flames rather than daylight. This dull artificial lighting adds a dull and mysterious feel to the video and perhaps makes the audience feel on edge rather than happy and safe.

Taylor Swift- ‘You belong with me’- Narrative

This music video is a narrative style because it is telling a story throughout the video with the visuals constantly linking with the lyrics. The basic storyline is that Taylor Swift is in love with a boy but he has a girlfriend. The girlfriend is seen to be more popular than Taylor and she gets upset that she can’t be with the boy, but she tries to show him that he should be with her. However in the end the boy falls in love with Taylor Swift and chooses her over his girlfriend.

The first example where the lyrics link directly with the visuals is in the first 15 seconds where medium shots are used to show that the boy is talking on the phone whilst Taylor is looking at him: ‘You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset’. Another example of where the lyrics fit with the visuals is where it says ‘She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers’ and it shows the girlfriend in her cheerleading outfit and Taylor in her outfit. An establishing shot is used at the beginning of the video to show that both the boys and Taylor Swift’s house are next to eachother. This is important to include because the following parts of the video only would make sense if you know that they live next to eachother because otherwise the audience wouldn’t understand. At 1.30 a close up is used of Taylor Swift to show her upset facial expression that she can’t be with the boy she loves. A point- of- view shot is used at 2.30 to show that Taylor Swift is watching what is happening and make the audience more engaged because they can empathise with her.

A reaction shot is used at 2.30 to show the audience that Taylor Swift has seen the boy and the girlfriend have an argument on the football pitch. In the first 30 seconds of the video various long takes are used to show that the boy and Taylor Swift looking at each other through the window. The long takes are used to set a slower pace as the song has just started and then short takes are used when the chorus begins to match the faster pace of the chorus. The long takes used may also show that they are constantly thinking about eachother.

The lighting in this video is made to look bright and natural to resemble the up- beat pop genre of music that the video is and that Taylor Swift is young and feminine.

Rihanna- 'Where have you been'- Performance

This video starts off with a wide angle shot of Rihanna in a murky lake. This shot is used to allow the audience to view the surrounding area and if there are any particular props used in the background which may link to the lyrics/theme of the video. At about 12 seconds in a close up is used of the artist to show her serious emotion, however the rest of her face is still under water apart from her eyes. The serious emotion is used to set the solemn atmosphere and emphasise the theme of the song that she is trying to find someone.This is an unusual shot which resembles the uniqueness of the video and the artist’s edgy style. The close up also shows her make -up smudged around her eyes from the water making her look mysterious and quite scary looking also emphasises by the serious an sombre expression she has on her face. There are a number of close ups used in the first 40 seconds of different parts of Rihanna’s body coming out of the water and a close up of her stomach is used. This may be used to add sexual appeal as she has an ‘ideal’ figure and could provide an idol for other females.

At the start of the video there are three different ‘looks’ for Rihanna: the first look is the Rihanna coming out of the water with smudged make- up and a stern facial expression, the second is a more innocent and glamourous looking Rihanna and the third there is an egypitan desert look used. These different looks could resemble Rihanna trying to find who she is looking for in all these different places. At 1.30 a fourth look for Rihanna is used. The lighting in this scene has a yellowy tinge to make it look like they are dancing in the sunset and the dance routine in this scene is different to the dance in the Egyptian scene. Throughout the video Rihanna wears many different outfits making her look glamorous and attractive which is another reason why it is a performance video

At about 50 seconds into the video it is clear that it is a performance based video because Rihanna begins to dance to the audience. The upbeat dance routine links with the upbeat pop tune of the song and backing dancers are used to perhaps emphasise that Rihanna isn’t looking for someone on her own.

The editing used to make the video judder at 1.05 is used while Rihanna is enthusiastically dancing. This judder is used to emphasise the dance moves even further and show the audience how fast she is dancing. At 1.08 an superemposition is used where two different images of Rihanna are overlapped and the pace is sped up as the song is getting to the chorus. The fast pace editing give a lively and fun vibe. Various short cuts are used throughout the video, particularly at 1.24 where Rihanna is dancing. These short cuts provide a fast pace which makes the audience feel the dancing is even faster and better than it is.The video involves exciting dance moves and bold outfits and the choreography of the dancing is done very well and everything is in perfect timing making the video look skilled and professional. At the end of the video it reverts back to Rihanna’s first look of her being in the murky lake.The end of the video echoes the start of the video to show completion and that the 'journey' has come to an end. This flashback is perhaps used to show that she hasn't found the person she is looking for and she is still in the same situation as she was at the start of the video.Despite being a performance based video it also has elements of a narrative video due to it ending the same way it started.

Target Market

My target market is going to be female 15- 18 year olds. At first I wasn't going to aim at a specific gender but after considering it, I have chosen to do mostly females because I feel the pop genre suits females more than males.

I am going to interview 3 people from my focus group. I will ask a very small number of questions including:

• What their favourite music video is and why
• What they like in an album/digipak
• What location would best be suited for a pop song
• What design could be used for a pop genre digipak

Questionnaire Analysis

1. I chose to give my questionnaire to 20 people and 13 of them were female with 7 being male. I am going to target my music video at females because I feel I can relate to this audience more.

2. 17 out of the 20 people I surveyed were aged between 15- 18 so I will try and ensure that my music video will appeal to this age group. I also feel that I will know what music this age group enjoys as I am in this age bracket.

3. In this question I asked my audience what their favourite genre was and the majority of them said pop. I am glad with this result because pop is one of my favourite genres of music. Hip hop had 4 people say it was their favourite, R&B had 3 and country had 2 people. The other genres such as dubstep, rock,  indie, metal and alternative were the least popular so I won’t be making a music video in any of those genres.

4. Interestingly the majority chose pop again as their most interesting genre of music to watch in a video. 16 out of the 20 people I surveyed chose pop as their most interesting video. This is probably due to the upbeat and fast pace of the song making everything more exciting and interesting to watch. From the pop genre being so popular in my questionnaire I will take this genre mostly into account for my music video.

5. The following videos were quite popular within my questionnaire: Nicki Minaj starships, Taylor Swift you belong with me and katy perry last Friday night. The main reasons why  Nicki Minaj was popular is because they thought it was an unusual video because of the alien space ship and they said that they thought bright and vivid colours made the video more interesting and eye catching. They thought that Nicki Minaj’s hair was unique and therefore made them focus more on her because she is different from any other artist. This obviously promotes Nicki Minaj as she ‘stands out from the crowd’ and the audience will be more likely to remember her. My audience said that Taylor Swift and Katy Perry’s song were the videos they most enjoyed watching because there was a story to follow. By having a narrative video the audience are less likely to switch off halfway through the video because they want to know what happens at the end of the video whereas performance based videos  often have a choreographed dance routine which gets repeated throughout which can get slightly boring.

6.  Some people in my questionnaire said that they would like Taylor Swift ‘Stay beautiful’ to have a music video. By looking at this result I will look into doing a Taylor Swift song for my music video. A few people in my survey also said they would like ‘Automatic’ by Nicki Minaj to have a music video. I may think about doing a Nicki Minaj however I think Nicki Minaj will be a hard video for two reasons: I would have to get someone to dance and sing at the same time which is hard to do and it has raping parts of the song which would make it difficult to ensure the lip syncing is matched up perfectly.

7.  Most of the people who I have surveyed have said they mostly enjoy watching narrative music videos. The main reason for this is probably because it takes the audience on a journey and makes the audience not want to change channel because they want to know what happens in the ending of the music video. My opinion is that performance videos are good if the artist is well known and well liked because if they are liked then the audience is more likely to continue watching them and not get bored. Concept videos are interesting purely because they are so odd and unique. However not everybody enjoys concept videos as this is reflected in my survey.

  

8. In this question I asked where my audience mostly watch music videos. Both YouTube and music channels were equally as popular. This is probably due to how easy it is to watch music on TV and how easy it is to find whatever song you want to listen to on YouTube. I would have expected these two formats to be the most popular however I thought YouTube would have been slightly more popular because the audience can choose whatever song they want to listen to and avoid having to wait for the song on a music channel.

9. In this question I ensured that I included a wide range of music channels with different genres so that it would be appropriate for everyone involved in my questionnaire. The Box and Kiss were the most popular and these channels are pop orientated so therefore will look into making this type of genre for my music video as it was proved the most popular.

10. From question 10 I can see that the artist is a very important if not the most important factor within the music video. 11 out of 20 people said that the artist was the main influence to make them watch specific music videos, therefore if the artist is well known the audience are more likely to want to watch their videos. In my video I will ensure that the artist is portrayed well in order to promote them.

11. I wanted to include a question to help me with my ancillary task. I asked my participants what colours would most make them buy a digipak. Most of them said that a mixture of both bright and pastel colours would attract them. This is probably so the album doesn't look too overpowering with all the vibrant colours- but still has enough to draw attention to the album. The pastel colours will help tone down the album so it doesn't take the attention away from the artist.

12. From this graph I can see that a close up is the most popular choice. I expected this result because close ups are mostly used for album covers because it is the most sucessful shot in order to promote the artist. The audience is able to connect more with a close up shot because they can see the emotion on the artists face and therefore empathise with them.

13. I asked this question because I felt I needed some information about what to include in my digipak. It is clear from this question that the lyrics are a popular option for the inside of the cover. However my participants also liked the idea of having more photos of the artist inside so I may think about including more photos inside, in order to promote them even more.

Checklist

Checklist

RESEARCH
Questionnaire: Smaller questionnaire- not too many questions

Questionnaire Analysis: Graphs and analysis

Focus group/target market: Explain who my target market is and why- 3 or 4 teenage girls to watch a video from real media artefacts and ask them questions about it (interview and video their responses)

Real media artefacts: Analyse music videos, digipaks and promotional posters etc

Interview: Interview target market about what they think about the music video and why they like it. Video and upload.

Product placement: What music channel would the video be played on? What time during the day will it be on? Would the single be sold in music shops such as HMV? Supermarkets?

How research will inform my planning: What has it helped me to decide?

Research deadline: 27th September

PLANNING
Ideas: analyse song lyrics, meaning of the songs, camera shots which could be used

Pitch the song choice: Why have I chosen this song?

MES choices: Photos of many different location ideas, filming session without actors to know where lighting is, test shots, analyse locations why/why not there suitable

Layouts: 3 layours for album and 3 for poster/magazine advert

Storyboard: Draw storyboard for song including the camera shots which will be used in each scene and upload with song track.

Letter of acceptance to be filmed: Upload email which I have sent to record label and a letter to the cast who will be in my music video

Filming schedule: Calendar showing dates of when I am going to film

How planning will inform my construction: Why have I used the planning stage? What was the most useful part of this stage and why?

Planning deadline: 11th October

MAIN CONTRSTUCTION
Filming and editing of first draft: 22^nd October

Ancillary tasks first draft: 12^th November

Filming and editing second draft: 19^th November

FINAL DEADLINE: 29TH NOVEMBER

Deadlines

Questionnaire

I have chosen to do a small questionnaire with 10 questions because I feel this will help me to see what genres are the most popular and to help me see what audience's enjoy about music videos.

From Q3. onwards please tick all that apply

1. What gender are you?

Female
Male

2. How old are you?

14 and under
15- 18
19- 22
22+

3. What is your favourite genre of music?

Hip- Hop
R&B
Dubstep
Pop
Country
Rock
Indie
Metal
Alternative
Other (please specify)

4. Which genre of music videos do you find the most interesting to watch?

Hip- Hop
R&B
Dubstep
Pop
Country
Rock
Indie
Metal
Alternative
Other (please specify)

5. Name your favourite music video and explain why you like it?


6. Are there any songs (without an already exisitng video) which you would like to have a video?
(specific examples)

7. Which music videos do you most enjoy watching?

Narrative (which tell a story)
Performance (where the artist performs/dances)
Concept (where the lyrics aren't always linked to the lyrics. Often weird and unique objects used)

8. Where do you mostly watch music videos?

Music Channels
YouTube
Artist's own site
Other (please specify)

9. What music channels do you normally watch?

MTV Base
MTV Rocks
The Box
KISS
Magic
Flava
Channel AKA
Starz
Kerrang
Clubland TV
Other (please specify)

10. What influences you most to watch music videos?

Reviews
The artist
Friends
Posters
TV adverts
YouTube

Mark Scheme