Final Proposal

After undertaking my research, I know have a clearer idea of what I am going to create. When given the choice of what media products we had to create, I knew from the onset that I wanted to do a promotional music video. It appealed to me the most as I enjoy watching music videos and therefore have a fair amount of experience and interest with them. From my reseach I have concluded that Pop music is the most favoured genre, and so have decided to pick a song from that genre. As it is the most popular genre, I had a lot of choice in picking a song. Referring back to my questionnaire results, the equal amount of people enjoyed both performance and narrative types of video, when asked why, they stated it was because of the 'comedy'. I believe choosing either one of these types of video will prove favourable as they were the most popular. As a way of trying to incorporate comedy into the video for comical value and to make my music video more enjoyable for the audience, I have decided to choose a song with lyrics that the audience will find comical and will be able to relate to, as viewer satisfaction is vital for my media product to be successful.

The song that I have decided upon is, ''Merry Happy'' by Kate Nash. It is an optimistic song about being single after you've been dumped/broken up with someone, portraying a positive message about not needing the other person and enjoying the pleasure of your own company. It is very light-hearted and I believe that the audience will be able to familiarise themselves to the situation the artist is singing about. A typical pop video usually includes performance and narrative, although not a common choice, very rarely pop videos can be abstract. As the lyrics allow me to do a lot visually regarding effects that can be applied in editing, I have decided I will be doing a performance based type of music video with use of effects. I feel the use of effects will help make my product more visually interesting.

Although the song is sung by a female artist, I think that the lyrics and meaning of the song may also be relatable to males too. However, I do think that females will enjoy it more, as it is sung by a woman and therefore from a womans perspective - so my prediction is that it will be more popular with females rather than males. In regards to the age of my audience, I will be aiming my products at those who are aged between thirteen and thirty, classified as group 2 (11-15 years), ranging to group 5 (26-40 years). This is because it is about the decline of a relationship and being single, and usually at about this age is when you start to experience relationships, also, generally about the age of thirty is when you settle down. This defines my potential target audience as female and over the age of thirteen years, varying between a broad social spectrum of: group B (middle class) to group E (residual and those of the lowest levels of subsistence).

I think my music video will be broadcast on most channels, such as MTV, The Box, TMF, Smash Hits and 4Music, as these channels play mostly Pop (popular) music alongside a variety of other genres, hence promoting my video more, as it will be seen by more people. These channels also have certain times that they play only new songs, giving people a chance to see the video. As MTV is the most popular watched TV channel for music videos, I think my production would be most suited to be shown on this channel so that it is promoted the best it can be.

The song I have chosen is quite upbeat and is happy with a positive message. As the song is about an experience that many can relate to, I have decided on using locations that people can also relate to by using familiar settings, such as the park, using shots of my character walking in the park. The album that I am promoting alongside the song release is called 'Made Of Bricks' and the song 'Merry Happy' is taken from this album. I am going to incorporate the use of this imagery into my video, due to it's relevance and link. I will do this by getting the actor in the video to perform the song standing behind a brick wall.

Role Allocation And The 'Auteur' Theory

Role Allocation:
As I am working individually, I will be adopting the roles of the: Director, Cameraperson and Editor. I will be adopting these roles as an 'Auteur'. By working by myself I feel I will be able to portray my personal, creative vision for my music video more thoroughly.

The 'Auteur' Theory:
The Auteur theory is based on the work of a group of cinema enthusiasts who argued that films should show a director's personal vision. Filmakers that they advocated as 'Auteurs' of their films included: Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir.

Research on The 'Auteur' Theory:
Applying this theory to my coursework, I have researched an 'Auteur' of their own music videos. The 'Auteur' that I have researched is Hype Williams.

Hype Williams is now a widely reknowned director of music videos, over the years he has acquired his own signature style. When he first started out in the 1990s and early 2000s, Williams began using the 'Fisheye' lens, whereby the camera view is distorted around the central focus. Williams' innovative idea was used to great magnitude, focussing on recording artists and props (such as, cars and sunglasses). A good demonstration of his work using the 'Fisheye' lens, whilst also showing his focus on props is the video for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" by Missy Elliott.

Video link: Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)

One of Williams' other signature styles popular in various urban music videos is where he places upper shots in regular widescreen ration, whilst the second shot is divided and placed in the upper and lower bars. A fine example of his work using this effect is "So Sick" by Ne-yo.

Video link: Ne-Yo - So Sick

Storyboards

Audience Research: Questionnaire Results And Summary

Question 1:
The answers I recieved for favourite genre of music were quite spread out, showing that out of the ten people I asked to fill in my questionnaire, the music listened to was quite diverse. Through the answers to this question, I can establish that rock was the least popular genre and the most popular of the genres was pop.

- 10% chose Rock as their favourite genre
- 20% chose R&B as their favourite genre
- 20% chose Hip Hop as their favourite genre
- 20% chose 'Other' as their favourite genre
- 30% chose Pop as their favourite genre

Question 2:
I asked this question to see if their favourite song had any correlation with their favourite video, out of the ten people who filled in the questionnaire, only three people stated that their favourite song was also their favourite video. The favourite songs were all fitted to the genre chosen in question one, apart from one person - although they stated that their favourite genre was R&B, their favourite song was of the pop genre. This shows me that there are people out there who are open to listening to songs that are not perhaps from their favourite genre, but are still maybe willing to listen to them and hence, watch the music video to the song.

Question 3:
My main reason for asking this question was so I was able to see which type of music video people would choose but also to see if the song sung by the artist of their favourite music video also made their favourite genre of music.

- 60% chose a performance type of music video
- 30% chose a performance and narrative video combined (hybrid)
- 10% chose a narrative (storyline based) type of music video

- 40% chose a song that was sung by the artist of their favourite song, with two people putting their favourite music video the same as their favourite song
- 60% chose a music video by an artist different to the one that sang their favourite song

These answers show me that many people are open to listening to a wide variety of music from different genres, here is an example of this from the questionnaire...

"1. What is your favourite song?... Westlife - Flying without wings"
"2. What is your favourite music video?... Michael Jackson - Smooth criminal"

This example also shows me that the genre of song from their chose music video is the same as their favourite song.

Question 4:
Out of the people questioned, the 60% that gave an example of a performance type of music video for their favourite music video said that they liked the performance in the video and for the majority this was what why they liked the video, other reasons as to why they liked their chosen video are:
- "nice, bright colours - visually pleasing"
- "It's simple and the performance allows you to focus on the music more"

For the 30% that chose the performance and narrative (hybrid) type of video, they said that they liked it because:
- "It's funny"
- "It provides comical value as well as performance footage"
- "The storyline of the video is enjoyable to watch because it's funny and I like how the artist is performing as well"

For the 10% that chose narrative, they said they liked it beacause:
-"It's very powerful storyline that has an impact on you"

These answers show me that out of all things in a music video, most people enjoy performance based type of videos, purely because they enjoy simply watching the artist perform the song although a lot of people, on the other hand enjoy it if there is narrative added to the video as well as performance, so that the video in return is funny.

Question 5:
There wasn't a huge variety of different music channels picked by people, which shows me that many people watch the same channel - with the majority tending to watch channels that play a range of different genres of music.

- Choice of favourite genre from question one was pop, these people gave the answers: "MTV, MTV, The Box"
- Choice of favourite genre from question one was Hip Hop/R&B, these people all picked the same channel, which was "MTV Base"
- Choice of favourite genre from question one was Other, these people gave the answers: "KISS, The Box"
- Choice of favourite genre from question one was Rock, channel chosen was: "Kerrang"

These answers show me that the most popular channels include: MTV Base, MTV and The Box.
MTV Base specialises in Hip Hop and R&B, so it is therefore clear to see why those people that chose Hip Hop/R&B as their favourite genre chose this as their favourite channel also. As MTV and The Box both play a variety of different musical genres, this is why those that stated Other and Pop as their favourite genres watch these channels, as they cater for everyones musical taste. The one person that picked Rock as their favourite genre chose Kerrang as their favourite channel, which mainly specialises in broadcasting music videos of the Rock genre. Through this question, I have been able to see how someones favourite genre of music influences what channel they choose to watch music videos on.

Question 6:
I asked this question to see just how often people watch music videos and to see if a music video is still significant to music fans.

- 10% watch music videos 1-5 times per week
- 30% watch music videos 6-10 times per week
- 50% watch music videos 11-15 times per week
- 10% watch music videos 16+ times per week

I can see from the results that a music video is still significant to music fans, with the majority watching music videos 11-15 times per week.

Question 7:
When asked where the preference was to watch music videos, the answers showed me that the source preferred by many was TV.
- 70% said TV whilst 30% preferred to watch music videos online

I believe that most chose TV as the majority of music channels play certain genres and it is therefore easy for someone to find a music channel tailor made to their favourite genre, e.g. MTV Base specialises in urban music only, whilst MTV specialises in all genres.

Question 8:
From this question, I concluded that the most popular types of music video are performance and narrative, both equally.

- 40% said their favourite type of music video was performance
- 40% said their favourite type of music video was narrative
- 20% said their favourite type of music video was abstract

Question 9:
I asked this question as I wondered if colours in a music video were important to anyone and whether they were noticed. I wanted to know this, so I could use the right colours in my music video in relation to the song. The answer was a resounding yes, with everyone saying that it was considered important. This has definately made me think about which colours to use.

Question 10:
The majority of people said that it didn't matter if the video was of low budget or high budget, my reason for asking this question was to see if people cared more about the song or the video. The answers have shown me that even if a video isn't a big budget venture and is relatively low budget the majority of people would still watch it. This is good for up and coming artists who may not have the money to fund an expensive video.

- 90% said that it didn't matter about the budget of the film
- 10% said that it mattered if the video was low budget

Audience Research: Questionnaire

As part of my audience research, I have created a questionnaire to help me understand any contextual issues before creating my media product (music video). I asked ten people to fill in my questionnaires, leaving some open answers, so that their answers weren't restricted, whilst also including quantitative and qualitative questions, so I had both types of data.

1. What is your favourite genre of music?
 Pop  Hip Hop  R&B  Rock  Dance  Other


2. What is your favourite song?
______________________________________________


3. What is your favourite music video?
______________________________________________


4. What do you like about this video?
_______________________________________________


5. What is your favourite channel to watch music videos on?
_______________________________________________


6. How many times do you watch music videos per week?
 1-5  6-10  11-15  16+


7. Where do you prefer to watch music videos?
 TV Or  Internet


8. What is your favourite type of music video?
 Performance based  Narrative (storyline)  Abstract/artistic


9. Do you think colour is important in showing emotion when used in a music video? (E.g. bright colours to portray happiness)
 Yes  No


10. Does it matter to you, if the video is of low budget or high budget?
 Yes  No

Mind Mapping Of Initial Ideas

To help me gather my ideas for my music video, I created mind maps. Writing my ideas on paper, helped me to think more about them and compare them. From looking at the mind maps I was able to decide which I idea I liked best and then develop upon it.

The History Of Music Videos

Where it first began:
1926 saw the arrival of sound films and talkies, where many musical short films were first produced. The series entitled ‘Spooney Melodies’ is considered to be the first true musical video series, featuring various shots of the performer singing the song. The term ‘music video’ first came into use in the early 1980’s, when the major music channel MTV launched in 1981. The first video to be aired on MTV was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. MTV sparked a whole new concept of 24 hour a day music on television – this was the beginning of an era. By the mid-1980’s, thanks to MTV, music videos began to play an important role in popular music marketing, with many stars owing their success largely to the appeal of their music videos and also the clever construction, courtesy of the video directors.

The greatest music video ever’:
Musical films or ‘mini-movies’ are important in terms of influence regarding music videos, as several well-known music videos have been based around or have been influenced by the idea of a film. A prime example being Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, directed by John Landis; Landis is a famous American film director who has worked on many different horror projects. This is a very iconic video and also the most expensive video of its time. An innovative music video, fourteen minutes long - It captured the audience through its storyline and is often referred to as ‘the greatest music video ever’, setting the boundaries for other artists and music directors to follow.

Music videos at present and their future:
Nowadays, many people are viewing music videos on the internet, with an increase in video sharing sites, such as YouTube, Metacafe and VodPod, accessing different videos has never been easier, whilst also being convenient e.g. if there was one particular music video that you wanted to watch, by simply typing in the name into YouTube, within seconds you would be able to watch it, in comparison to watching it on television whereby you would have to wait for it to come on. As MTV is beginning to focus more on playing programmes rather than devoting the channel fully to music videos like it did when it first came out, the internet has now become the chosen source for watching music videos. Most importantly, however, this still proves that people enjoy watching music videos and although it can be tricky to determine the future of the music video, this proves that there are still people out there interested in the videos, maybe as an artform. Considering that music videos began as a promotional tool, I have realised whilst undertaking my research that they have evolved slowly but surely into a craft of their own.