Location Scouting

When looking back on our primary research we thought we were going down the live concert scene. In our school we have a performing arts department and their settings are linked well to the lyrics. If look at the bottom left picture it is a picture of the stage from the front and this is where we would have our band performing. Additionally the bottom right picture is the picture of the drama room we believed we could use this as a meet and greet room. When choosing the song we have we wanted to have it look like an "Access all areas" video. When artists/ bands go on tour they always tend to make vlogs and let us see what they have been up to, we want to take this to another level and turn the music video in a access all areas video. Additionally relating to the uses and gratification model by Blumer and Kat they say that "individuals use or watch a certain text for different purpose" Some of these purposes link in with our music video. One of the purposes are personal relationship this is when you get to know the person and you grow and attachment and feel sympathy if something bad happens. Another one is Personal identity; personal identity is when you see yourself in the artist/ band. When doing the music video we are doing and the costume choice we have chosen it is more likely people will relate because they see them in a "natural" environment and also the clothing are casual and this is what the target audience would wear anyway. 

Costume choices

Costume choices

In our music video we are planning to link costumes to other case studies we have used. For example when I was analysing earlier music videos they all show the “natural” look. In the picture below it shows Joel (Lawson Guitarist) wearing a simply but still quite popular outfit. When I have been looking at soft rock / pop rock music video I see that skinny jeans are an occurring thing used in them, another thing is the denim top or shorts. When we are filming in the music video they tend to do close up of instruments, when they do close of their instruments it does glance past their clothing so clothing is important but not the most important aspect.

From the song we have decided it is originally written by a band so unlike other music videos we need more than one person to dress. I this shot we can see the drummer wearing a leather jackets with a simply white top underneath. Another thing which is recurring in this genre is the inner and outer top. This is when they wear a simply top underneath but have a denim shirt on top. Another reason why they do this is to relate to its audience, this is known as personal identity. When people are watching music video sometimes they watch them because they can relate to the person.  This shot underneath is again from Lawson (Adam). So looking at another case study, room 94’s tonight, in this shot we can see all the band members are wearing skinny jeans and simply clothing which the audience can relate to.

 When looking a bands there always tends to be 3/4 members, When looking at pictures of bands together we always see some similarity in the clothing, not matching but either all skinnies, or all in inner and outer tops, or it could be wearing jackets that can be either denim or leather, etc.  In the shots of Lawson here we see all of them are wearing some shot of jackets and they don’t fully match but you can they are united and are in the same band together. Although you can’t see in this shot during the music video learn to love again they are all wearing different types of skinny jeans.  Another case study I can look at is the script. In this shot we can see all members standing on a field, when looking at their clothes again it portrays that “natural” look.  The main singer Danny is wearing black skinnies and black jackets and neutral coloured top. Additionally drummer, Glen is wearing all black unlike Danny but we can still see that they are together in a band together because they are both wearing black skinnies. When looking closely on Danny’s wrist we can see a little black band on his wrist again the same applies to glen. Although we can’t see marks arm we can probably assume that he is wearing the same. When looking at mark he is basically wearing the same jeans as the other two and he has a similar top to Danny but we can tell he is an individual by looking at his jacket. His jacket is both different to Danny’s and glen isn’t even wearing one. So although in a band they tend to be similar in clothes worn, it is still significant to have individualism.

Finally one last case study I will look at before deciding my look is the band 30 seconds to mars. In this shot of the band we can again see the similarity between the members, it isn’t as obvious to the other case studies but the colour scheme between them is simple but fashionable. As said earlier this genre of music tries to work with the “natural” look.  In this shot again we can see all the band members are wearing jackets with skinny jeans.  

In relation to our music video I believe that it should be simply but fashionable. When asking people in the questionnaire they said would they buy the magazine pop out if the band were featured they said no because it’s about the music not the image. So that is why it isn’t significant to make them wearing reveling or funky clothing. Unlike pop music videos when looking at pop music videos they tend to be wearing more designer/ revealing clothing. In this genre they try to relate to their audience through clothing. I believe this is very affected in a music video; one problem today is people feel the need to change for music video, so when seeing clothing in this genre they tend to act normal and believe being they is good.

When asking people what do they want to see the artist/ band wearing most of them said something that fits to the genre and causal. When going into further research I asked people in person why they want them to wear casual. 90% said because then they don’t feel like an alien watching the video. Additionally one person went on and started to talk about how they feel more relaxed at a concert when the band are wearing casual clothing because then they don’t feel like they are hiding. They said it shows more of a natural talent look.

Song Choice

When looking for a song we decided to pick Arrows to athens - Alive. In the desciption box it says that this song is uncopyrighted and we can use it whenever.

When listening to this song we believed we could use the lyrics to make a good music video.

Below Is the lyrics to the song we have decided to pick.

Arrows to Athens - Alive Lyrics

There are clouds on the horizon,
So take a breath here in the calm before the storm.
If only for a moment-

Close your eyes and feel the thunder,
We can't hide or run for cover anymore.
It's time to take a stand together, oh.
Oh...

Hold on, 'cause the tide is strong-
It can't erase the fire in our eyes.
(Fire in our eyes.)
Let the walls break-
What we have they cannot take.
And if all that's left is you and me tonight-
No, they won't take us alive.
(No, they won't take us alive.)

We dream about tomorrow,
Know that hope will always come to those in need.
The best of us is left
After the storm has shown his anger,
And the skies have tried-
To bring us to our knees.
We are standing, we're still standing.

So hold on, 'cause the tide is strong-
They can't erase the fire in our eyes.
(Fire in our eyes.)
Let the walls break-
What we have they cannot take.
And if all that's left is you and me tonight-
No, they won't take us alive.

(No, they won't take us alive.)
(No, they won't take us alive.)

Before the waves are over our heads-
(No, they won't take us alive.)
Over our heads.
(No, they won't take us alive.)
Don't be afraid-
(No, they won't take us alive.)
We'll make it through this.
Make it through this-

So hold on, 'cause the tide is strong-
They can't erase the fire in our eyes.
(Fire in our eyes.)
Let the walls break-
What we have they cannot take.
And if all that's left is you and me tonight-
No, they won't take us alive.
(No, they won't take us alive.)
(Over our heads.)
And if all that's left is you and me tonight-
No, they won't take us alive.
Whoa, whoa.
Whoa...

Intail song choice

When hearing the song, alive by Arrows to Athens we believed this would be a good song to use for our music video. When looking into more depth I read the description box below and it said that "This is song is uncopyrighted, feel free to use where ever you want". Although they did this we still thought we needed to get proof that we asked them. In the description box, below that sentence it said "follow and support them at Facebook etc." I thought Facebook would be the easiest option to get in contact with them because when looking on their page they had a lot of status's which suggested they used Facebook.

In our Group, we chose one person to email them and check if this was ok. Although when asking our teachers they said we don’t need permission but we wanted to be clear. When sending this email, we didn’t actually get a reply but we have the proof that we tried.



Links to lyrics

When finding the song we wanted to do, we decided to start analysing the lyrics to see where we could link the lyrics to the music. Since we are planning to do mainly performance based having the lead singer doing a significant move is quite significant. When reading through the lyrics, there are some lyrics which are repeated a lot, we thought that if we are going to use links to lyrics this would be the best time because it will stay in people heads and then they will enjoy the song and want to buy our digipak.

I decided to look at some videos to see if links to lyrics were important and they are.

For example in the video Hall of fame by The Script there is a lyric where they say “king Kong banging on your chest” as this is being sung Danny (lead singer) is banging on his chest.

Another example could be Bruno Mars’s video treasure, in this music video he sings “she finds to fine” as he is singing this he makes a woman shape out of his hands.

A final example could be; Hailey Williams video Airplanes, as B.O.B is singing “like shooting stars in the night sky” they both look to the sky and the setting is dark just like a night sky.



Group planning

When finding our song, we needed to look at group planning so we done two A3 sugar papers of ideas. Although we may not stick to the initial ideas it was still important to make sure we had done it. 

The top one is more detailed and the bottom one is less detailed but easier to understand.

Questionnaire Analysis

For my primary research, I decided to send out questionnaires to see what the trends at patterns were for the music video target audience. This was important to do some primary research because then I know the information for the topic I am doing. When sending out questionnaire I aimed to get 20 responses and I managed to get 20. I believe 20 is good sampling size because it is reliable and valid, but additionally it is representative to my target audience. Although I didn’t even amounts of each social group I believed that I still had a good sample size.

The first question I asked was, “Are you male or female?” I believe this is a significant question in Primary research because it is important to realise what gender your genre is based to. For example a stereotypical view for pop is girl and for rock is males, so when sending out the questionnaire we were hoping that pop rock would appeal to both males and females. From this questions some negative which occurred was we asked to many boys and didn’t get enough girls but I still don’t believe this was a dramatic effect in my end results because when doing the focus group I will just make sure I ask  more even sampling size or make sure I ask more girls.

Another important question I needed to ask during my primary research was “How old are you?”  This is an important question because when looking back to my case studies I realised that knowing the target audience is important because during pop rock music videos the audience tend to be in them. Additionally when looking at Goodwin’s theory he mentioned about the balance between performance and narrative. But after further research I found that in the genre I have chosen to do that having more performance is important. One of our ideas is doing a live concert scene so having the audience in the crowd is important. Toc conclude knowing the audience is important because I need to know what they are for the music video.

During my primary research is important to do both qualitative and quantitative data, I decided to include a scale so I could see “How often people was pop music?” Although in my results a lot of the response doesn’t watch them I still found this to be a positive. Some people could critic this and say it is representative. But I find it as a challenge. When asking this people who don’t watch the videos they said it was because they don’t know what the genre was or what artists are. When telling them The Script, Lawson etc. were pop rock they were in shock and a lot of them said they do watch it but don’t understand they are. I think this is a challenge to do a sub-genre because most people said they prefer to get a unique different song than the same old music video. To conclude in this question I realised that pop rock wasn’t a well-known genre but people were interested to find out what it was.  

The next question asked was “Would you buy the CD when you hear a song you like?” With this question I want so happy with the results because 60% said no and this was worrying considering during the course we have to make a digipak. 40% said they would if it was cheap. So I went on to ask the people who said no would you buy it if it was cheap and the packaging was more appealing. They said they would consider it. Additionally they said that they don’t feel the need to buy the CD because they like to watch the video and the can watch that on YouTube and this was a good response because it showed that people do still watch music videos.

Another question I asked is “where do you watch music videos?” I thought this would be a very important question in my primary research because; I need to know where people watch videos to see what videos they show and what music videos look there. 10 people said they used YouTube, this was a positive response because, when finishing making and editing our music video It would be uploaded to YouTube t hearing that is where most people go was a huge positive. When people said they watched it on social networking again this could be a positive thing because it isn’t that hard to upload a video. In recent t years more and more people have found it easier to make and produce their own videos, film, etc.

I knew the next question could have ethical problems because some people don’t feel like they can be honest because they feel like they will be judged. The next question is “Would you rather illegally download or buy the CD/Song?” I gave three answers in this a illegal, a buy, and a both box. 50% were honest and said they would illegally download because it is cheaper and easier to access. 30% said they would do both, they don’t really care, but the smallest percentage with 20% was buy. Recently people don’t buy CD’s because they are so dear and they would rather download it onto their phones, tablets etc. This could be a problem if I was to sell my digipak.

“If the artist/ band are featured in the music video, do you find this more appealing?” 60% said yes, this was a positive thing to hear because in our music video we are planning to have the band all the way through, we are aiming to make a concert scene and have the band playing the song 80% of the way through and the narrative is still going to be them getting ready and having a meet and greet with the fans. We wanted to stick with Goodwin’s theory in this area, and have the star image running all the way through. When looking at case studies each member has the equal amount of shots but the main singer tends to make more close ups and variety of shots.

“What do you expect to see on a CD?” There was some variety on answers in this question. But one trend o managed to see was that people like to see the band or dramatic picture of the band. When asking participants this they said that the band is the most important thing. This links back to my case studies where I said in the pop rock conventions that star image was important because they have to create the “Natural” Look. The other answers weren’t as popular but still they got on vote for example; Lyrics on back, picture of band, image illustrating album, and some indication of what genre it is. To conclude I believe we are going to stick to the star image for our front cover.

I wanted ask the question “If the artist/band are featured in a magazine pop out, would you buy it?” A massive amount of 80% said they wouldn’t. I believe this was an odd one in my study because in the previous question it said they love the star image and it amazing but in this question they are basically saying that they don’t care about this. This doesn’t follow the trend of the other questions but it still could be useful in the planning stages.

To support what I said in my evaluation, I asked people if they said no then why? A lot of people said “not bothered” because they felt that then they isn’t continuing with natural look, they are trying to become pop stars. 4 people said “It’s about the music not the image” This was a good thing in a way for my music video because our music video is very simple and nothing to wacky or crazy. Although it can be a negative because when creating a digipak we are planning to have the band on the front so this could uninterested them. 2 people said “don’t lime the image, waste of money”. This is a negative thing when looking at the digipak.

“In a music video, where would you like it to be set?” In this question I had some very varied answers but one which stuck out the most was “depends on the song”. When looking at similar case studies they are also set in studios or concert setting. This is relating well to our chose of setting. When going location scouting we thought that setting a live scene would be the best option. Another answer which was close was “Place that links to the song” this is good because, they gives our group to take our view and import it into the song.



In a music video, what would you prefer the artist/band to wear?” A larger amount said “Something that fits” This is very important to the audience to see the band wearing clothing that looks good on them. Some lower chose answers were “cool” an “unique” this were not good results to get because when researching our genre it said they don’t were different clothing, they wear simple and fashionable but not designer. A few people said “Casual” this was positive answer because when looking into costume choices I want to look into jeans and jackets, very simple but can relate to the artists still.

To conclude my primary research has mostly supported our initial ideas but there were some responses which may have affected my choice. For example when asking where people want it to set, they said somewhere hot in our group we will be trying to challenge this because we don’t believe they understood it. When sending out a focus group we aim to show the people the music video and ask them to tell us what they would do.

Lawson - Make it Happen

Lawson - Make it Happen

In the music video Lawson, Make it happen the social group which is being portrayed is teenagers. Throughout this music video they are different shots and sound which emphasis the point that Lawson, make it happen is aimed for teenage girls.  video some key ideas which are portrayed are that teenage girls go crazy and scream for boy bands. Additionally in this video it is heavily star image based. According to Goodwin he says that “The creation of character identifies identification for the audience which is especially important when lyrics often lack depth.” So Andrew would approve this video in that sense. Another thing which Andrew Goodwin says it that the Performance and narrative should be balanced throughout a music video but Lawson, Make it happen haven’t done this and had completely Performance. One reason why Lawson’s video is significant is because of the genre chose, when I was researching soft rock/ rock conventions it says that they tend to be heavily performance because they want to create the mood of a ‘natural’ setting.

In this music video the director has use camera angles to emphasis the screaming teenage girl’s appearance. In the video there is 10 second close up of one of the girls faces, she is screaming as the band is playing. This creates the image that Lawson is amazing. As well as this they also have shots of her singing along with the band. When first listening to this song the first thing which stuck in my head which was the amount of close ups on the audience and how they are represented. Another reason why audience is significant in the video is because, this music video isn’t actually a music video it is a live concert in Koko. This is very effective I believe because only the target audience are going to go to their concert so it is very obvious who the target audience is.

Another thing the director down is show the band to be “natural”. In this music video they jump to shots of the instruments and as they do the song is playing along to it. So near the end of the song there is a bit where one of the guitarists (Joel) has a solo and during this clip all we can see is close up shots of Joel’s guitar. This isn’t the only shot of the song playing along to the video. As the main singer (Andy) is singing, we jump to shots of him singing into the microphone. I believe this is a very effective representation. People could critic this and say they get bored of the shots of instruments. Additionally they could say it is hard to pick a representation/ key aspect because there is no narrative.

When they are singing they always make the crowd join in when they sing “We gotta make it happen” This relates to Goodwin’s theory when he talks about thought beats. In Goodwin’s theory he talks about the types of thought beats and one is in very close relation to this video. In Andrew Goodwin’s theory he says “First step – This is when the audience listens to the song and interprets it, this involves looking in to the chorus and verses. “ Furthermore the lyrics “we gotta make it happen” is a chorus and is repeated a lot through the song and this causes the audience to interrupt the song.

Representation of Women

Analyse the representation of women in Rihanna's, stay video and Jessie J's, Wild video. 

In both of the videos there is a strong representation of women. But they are both represented in different ways I believe it is too complex to say the representation of women is positive. In this essay, I will discuss the camera angles, Mise en scene, sound and camera shots. 


In Jessie J's video, wild, she is shown to be a strong, proud, and independent woman. But this can be criticised by, saying the clothes she wears could connotation a sexual objects. The clothes she wears are plain black and very short. Although they look like under wear it has a masculine twist to it. In Jessie J's video, she is also dancing with other men which again support the idea that she is a sexual object to men. At one part of the video, Jessie J is wearing a skin coloured, skin tight suit. This again can portray the image that Jessie j is a sexual object. 


On the other hand, in Rihannas video she is also shown to be a sex object. But in a different way. In this video, she is laying naked in the bath. Within the video there are particular shots what could be seen as only being there for the "male gaze" theory. In this video Rihanna is shown to be more femine than Jessie j. Another representation is the "innocent" view. Rihanna is laying in the bath completely exposed which shows the inn innocent view, additionally Rihannas make up is very little which again shows the bare face which could relate to the childlike/innocent connotations. 


Again looking back to Jessie J's video, the director has used camera angles and shots to emphasize how they want the representation to be like. Throughout the video there are lots of close ups used towards stereotypical female places like; lips, chest, hips. When these shots are being displayed Jessie j herself is in a very sexual pose. This can be linked to Rihanna video because in the same way as the director from Jessie js video, rihannas director also uses close ups on these body parts which again relates to the sexual image. 


To conclude, I believe the representation of women to be a negative one because, of the exploitation of women. In most pop music video, women are shown to be sexual crazes. The thing what could criticize this is the fact that these women chose to do it and this means they have authority.