Target audience - secondary research

Secondary Research

From my market research, through both primary and secondary research methods, my primary target audience is males aged 16-25 and my secondary audience is females aged 16-25. [1]

I am targeting males as the artist performing the song is a male and the two characters in the narrative are also male and therefore a male audience already has an established connection with the characters.On top of this, from my secondary research I found out the the audience of alternative rock music is predominately  male, due to the fact that many of the artists within this genre are male, for example Arctic Monkeys, The 1975, Alt J and The Neighbourhood to name a few, therefore the audience finds it easier to connect with the target market due to this.

From this secondary research I found out that the target audience of this genre are generally students with a smaller percentage within a small time/part time job. This could be due to the fact that the ideologies of this genre glorify anti establishment and rebellious behaviour therefore the target audience may not have jobs due to this and living a different kind of life style. On top of this, since the target audience is 16 - 25 year old's, the legal age to leave education is 18 and and the number of people going to university in the UK has increased as "the number of university applications has exceeded the record set before the rise in tuition fees and poorer pupils are now more likely than ever to apply"[2] Therefore from this information this shows why the target audience is mainly students as the target audience of 16-25 year old's are most likely in high school or university. 

Through this research, I have found that the target market of alternative rock music enjoys music videos with both narrative and performance which suits my music video as I have planned to have a music video with both.

Audience profile

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Disposable income: Low

Values: Friends, family, music, socialising, technology, adventure 

[1] https://infogr.am/Target-audience-research-analysis

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11377594/Record-number-of-students-applying-to-university.html

Market research

My questionnaire sample was taken from a range of people of different ages and different interests and musical tastes therefore I got a wide number of responses from different people and different peoples interests and ideologies. 

The first question I asked was 'what is your preferred genre of music to listen to'. I asked this question to get an understanding of the respondents answering the questionnaire, enabling me to differentiate between the responses from people within the target market and the people who aren't in my target market through understanding who is interested in alternative/rock music. 

The next question I asked was 'what ideologies and themes do you like to see in music videos, to with the respondents chose between a range of the ideologies offered with 60% of the respondents stated anti establishment themes and ideologies were the ones they like to be shown in music videos, 50% stated rebellious behaviour was the theme that they like being presented, romance received 40% friendship received 50%, family received 30% whilst wealth and success was the least popular with 20% of respondents stating that that what a theme/ideology they wanted to see in music videos. 

The second question I asked was: In alternative rock music video what do you expect to see?

The largest response, being 50% of the answers was a mixture of the two. Since this is what I have planned to do in my music video, this gives me confidence that I have chosen the right structure for my music video. 

The second question I asked was: what is your preferred genre of music to listen to? I asked this question because I wanted to find out what type of music my sample likes so that I could justify the answers to understand so that I am producing something that my target market actually has an understanding and interest in. 

The third question I asked was: In the performance of an alternative rock music video, what do you like to see? In hindsight I could have worded this question better, however I got the answers I needed so that isn't a big problem. The two responses that were the most popular were direct mode of address and lip syncing, closely followed by close- up shots and live performance. Therefore I have planned to use lip syncing and direct mode of address to break the fourth wall and give a more personal experience to the audience. 

The fourth question I asked was: What ideologies and themes do you like to see in music videos? This most popular answers of this question were anti establishment ideologies, rebellious behavior, and friendship which are all themes and ideologies I plan to demonstrate in my music video through scenes of shoplifting, spray painting and stealing a trolley and pushing each other around on it. This has shown me that the ideologies I am planning to portray will suit what the target market wants to see.

The last question I asked was: In a digi pack, within an alternative rock genre, what is important to you? The largest response was a shot of the artist, closely followed by vibrant colourful artwork and simplism, all of which I am planning to put across in my digi pack. 

Copy right

"The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the way in which their material may be used. The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as he author and to object to distortions of his work" [1]

Since I am using a track that I don't own, I have emailed the Manager of X Ambassadors to ask for permission to use their song for my music video. I will also put a disclaimer in the description box of my final piece stating the owner of the song. 

[1] https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

Directors

 ENDS

Zack Sekuler and Daniel Inglesias Jr. are a directing duo creating music videos such as Sweater Weather and Let it Go by The Neighbourhood, Unsociable by X Ambassadors and many more. The music videos they create are very stylistic and aesthetically pleasing to watch, which is inspiration to my music video as it creates a better watching experience.

Looking at their other videos such as Let it Go, the lighting is very interesting as it is the main element used to construct the mood and to create an atmosphere. The lighting used only highlights a small part of her face in the parts of the narrative that are darker emphasising the dark tones creating a more sinister effect. The way that the music video is lit creates an easier way for the audience to understand the narrative as she appears to be artificially happy in the sections where she is with other people suggesting she is pretending to be okay when she is around them and then when she's on her own she seems to go off the rails which is also shown through her make up and her gesture codes as well as the fact that the scenes are lit differently with high key lighting in the 'happy' scenes and low key lighting in the darker scenes. This is something that has inspired me for my music video as it has showed me the impact that the light has over creating a mood and atmosphere for the audience and although I many not have the same equipment, I can at least try to create a similar effect when choosing how to light my music video. 

The ENDS duo also created music videos for the band that created the track I am using for my music video, X ambassadors, which shows me the stylish and the techniques they use have an impact on the audience that I will be targeting my video to and therefore this will come into consideration and has given me a wider understanding of how to make a product that the audience will like and want to watch through seeing how they have constructed something that the audience likes. 

Digi Pack Analysis

The Neighbourhood

The Neighbourhood are an American alternative rock band. The album cover ins in black and white which is a theme that runs through their music videos as they are also in black and white. On the left, is the front album cover showing a shot of what appears to be storm clouds with three symbols that signifies three different messages. On the left is an upside down eye of providence symbol, which represents the eye of God and suggests that  he is watching over human kind. The lead singer of the band (Jesse Rutherford) has this symbol tattooed onto his neck which suggests that one of the reasons it is on the cover is because it holds personal significance to him. he is watching over human kind, the lead singer of the band (Jesse Rutherford) has the symbol as a tattoo on his neck, suggesting that it holds some sort of personal significance to him. In the middle of the album cover is a heart, which is used to represent love as the title of the album is 'I Love You'. Lastly the upside down house is the bands logo and is used to represent them. 

The music videos of the band suggest that they find simplism to be important as they go for a more artistic appearance of their music videos rather than a crazy appearance with a lot going on. This is a trait that the alternative/rock genre holds as one of the ideologies of rock music is that the music is what is most important therefore the simplistic nature of their texts enable audiences to focus on the music rather that the exterior appearance. 

There are aspects of the album cover that will definitely be carried through to mine as they are conventional aspects of all album covers. This includes the bar code and if my track had any explicit content I would also use a parental advisory lable however my track doesn't need this as it doesn't have any bad language or explicit content.

Style

Music video styles

There are three different styles of music video, abstract, narrative and performance. My music video will hold two of these styles being narrative and performance as the track I have chosen is in the rock genre therefore I want to use some of the genre conventions being live performance as this will be something that the target audience will look for. 

Abstract

An example of an abstract music video is Skrillex and Diplo's music video for Where Are U Now with Justin Bieber. One definition of abstract is an art form "relating to or denoting art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colours, and textures." This is shown throughout the music video as drawings have been edited over the top to create an effect and create an atmosphere for the audience. 

Skrillex and Diplo-Where Are You Now with Justin Bieber

Narrative

Narrative music videos are music videos that have a plot, an example of a narrative music video is Oceans by Seafret. This music video solely focuses on the narrative, there isn't any lip syncing instead at the start there is dialogue. This music video feels almost like a short film as the audience are following along. The narrative is of a girl who is getting bullied, this is shown at 0:36 through a medium shot showing that she has looser written on the back of her shirt. She then puts on a cape which automatically makes her feel stronger and more powerful, and when she puts the costume on she has powers. This is a narrative that the audience can relate to and empathise with as they are covering an issue that has had an impact on almost everyone at some point in their lives. My music video will be a narrative based music video therefore I have taken inspiration from this.

Seafret-Oceans

Performance

 

An example of a performance based music video is Nirvana's music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit. The music video consists of all live performance as this is what their target audience wants to see because it is a convention of the genre. The music video doesn't have a narrative therefore it is purely based on the performance which is what the audience wants. This is a convention that I will use in my music video as the genre of my music video is indie/alternative rock. 

Filming Course

On Sunday the 4th of October, I went on a filming course in London to learn more about my camera (Cannon 750D) and technique. On the course I learned about white balance, focusing, Light exposure, appature, ISO and shutter speed. 

White Balance 

The left shows when the lighting is is tungsten and the white balance setting chosen is daylight. As the white balance is set to daylight when the lighting isn't daylight, the camera picks up warmer tones which makes the white appear to be yellow to the eye, our eyes have a way of correcting this so we see white however the camera doesn't therefore I learned that you have to change the setting to          correct this. 



This shot on the right shows when the white balance setting was on tungsten and the lighting was tungsten therefore the colours appear to be white as the white balance setting corrected the yellow undertones. 



The lighting in the shot on the left is daylight lighting whilst the white balance setting is tungsten therefore warm undertones appear and the shot appears to be an off white colour. 




As the lighting on the right is daylight, the white balance setting is also daylight therefore the shot appears to be a white/blue white shade to the eye. 

Focusing 

On the course, I learned about the difficulties of focusing whilst filming on a DSLR. The first thing I learned was that while filming it is important to never have the camera on manual focus as this will mean that most of the shots filmed will show the camera struggling to focus on the subject. To resolve this while filming to ensure that shots are in focus zoom in on the shot multiple times to ensure that the area that you want in focus in the sharpest it can be. 

Light Exposure

The histogram is very useful while filming to check the exposure of the shot as it prevents you from underexposing or overexposing the shot, ideal exposure is when the histogram reaches from one side to the other. Over exposure can't be fixed in post production and when filming outside it is hard to see the LCD screen therefore I will use the histogram to measure the exposure to ensure that my shots are at an ideal level of exposure. 

ISO 

The ideal ISO is from 100-400 anything above can cause noise to occur and the quality of the shot to decrease. I tested this with my camera from 100 ISO to 8400 ISO to see how the volume increases throughout. This has shown me that when filming my music video I need to make sure that my ISO is set to 100-400 as this is the safe zone and anything higher will cause some disruption to the shot. This is shown in the video below as I tested out how the noise increases as you increase the ISO.

Shutter speed

In Europe, the number of frames per second is 25 therefore the shutter speed should always stay at 1/50 unless for stylistic purposes you want to change that. I did an experiment to see what happens when you change the shutter speed. As shown in the video below the shutter speed begins at 1/50 and increases throughout to the end showing how the motion blur disappears with the increase of shutter speed and noise also appears creating shot that isn't so sharp. 

Artist Research: X Ambassadors

X Ambassadors

X Ambassadors are an American alternative rock band, they have three albums such as: Love Songs Drug Songs released in 2013, The Reason EP released in 2014 and VHS released in 2015. 

How theory will apply to my music video

Theory 

Goodwin's theory will be applied in my music video, this will be shown in areas such as: genre conventions, as my track is within the rock genre I will have genre conventions such as live music, anti-establishment ideologies and rebellious behaviour. As well as this, another aspect of Goodwin's theory that I am going to use in my music video is rhythmic editing, as it will build up anticipation and to add to the pace.

Audience Profile

Audience Profile

Star Appeal 

Star appeal will be important to my target audience as the genre of the track I have chosen is Rock therefore the artist will be being presented as a star through some of the aspects of Dyer's theory as one of the reasons that a star is a star is because they are presented as talented to the audience, this creates something that the audience can idolise and look up to. I plan to present star appeal to the audience through many techniques. This includes through having a live performance portraying talent to the audience as well as having a variety of close-up shots and camera movement to keep the sequences interesting. 

Genre Appeal

The genre appeal will come from a variety of conventional aspects that I will bring into my music video. As the track is considered to be in the genre of alternative/indie rock, I will be tying in anti establishment ideologies as the two boys will steal from a shop and rebellious behavior as they are young teenagers running away from  home. This will present a representation that the target audience can associate with therefore creating an appeal with the genre.

Representations

The main representation in my music video will be of rebellious youth and anti materialism as the two children will be running away to try and live  more minimalist life, creating the ideology that friendship overcomes all and that it is what is most important. This representation will appeal to the target audience as it is a theme that is associated with the rock genre therefore the conventions will be something that the audience can relate to in some way.

Fans of similar music/artists/bands

My target audience will be interested in similar artists/bands being: Alt J, The 1975, Wolf Alice, The Kooks, Foals and Arctic Monkeys. Generally interested in bands of the Rock/Indie rock genre as they all portray similar ideologies in their music videos and consist a similar style. 

Demographic profiling

My target audience will typically be of working/middle class backgrounds as the ideologies present and settings in my music video are locations and aspects that my target audience can relate to and have a connection with. They will generally have a lower amount of disposable income and won't be materialistic. 

Psycho-graphic profiling 

The target audience for my music video will be interested in a variety of things, such as Youtube, technology, socialising, friends and family. My main theme in my music video is friendship therefore the target audience should have a connection to this. 

Star Image

Star Image

Richard Dyer believes stars to be a constructed artificial image made purposely for financial gain and that stars are both 'ordinary and extraordinary'. Stars are presented to the audience as being normal however they have something different about them that makes audiences idolise them, this could be their talent, their beauty, their confidence and so on. Dyer believes that stars are manufactured to be brands, becoming household names and selling a large range of products from a variety of platforms such as merchandise and so on.

Josef Salvat 

Josef Salvats early music videos present his star image through a variety of techniques. In his first music video for 'This Life', star image is shown through multiple close-up shots of Josef throughout. This suggests his importance as he is the focal point of the music video. 

In Josef's early music videos, such as This Life and Hustler, his star image is presented through live performance and close-up shots, suggesting that the music is what is important, however there is a strong narrative to most of his early music videos also which suggests he is trying to send a message to the audience in his music videos making them think, such             as in Hustler the message isn't clear and it is up for interpretation which creates a different experience for the audience when watching his music videos. 

Salvat's star image has developed through each of his music videos, he is always playing a character such as in his music video for Open Season and Hustler, he is playing a role. As well as him playing a role, he is also performing in his music videos as in every single one he lip syncs. Josef is sold as a star to the audience through a variety of methods, such as close up shots in This Life and Hustler. This suggests his importance to the audience as it makes him the focal point of the piece whilst using direct mode of address to break the fourth wall creating a more personal experience for the audience. Salvat is often clothed in formal wear such as a suit and tie, presenting him as being powerful and important and also suggesting wealth, however he is only dressed like this on the performance side of the music video when he is lip syncing, however in the narrative portion he is often clothed in more casual wear such as a t-shirt denim jacket and dark jeans, which is shown in Josef's music video Till I Found you. I believe that Dyers theory comes into play here as although in his performance he is presented through his talent and beauty, he is also presented as normal and having problems like the rest of us in the narratives of his music videos therefore 'presenting him as being normal while they have something different about them'. 

Theorists

Laura Mulvey's theory

Laura Mulvey's theory 
-The male gaze (audiences view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male)
-Women sexualised and portrayed as objects
-Women are there as visual pleasure 


The music video for Applause by Lady Gaga supports Mulvey's theory 


In Lily Allen's music video for Hard Out Here, she makes fun of the gender roles in music videos of females. The girls are clothed in variations of black leather leotards and bralets and bikini style pants. Since they are wearing minimal clothing, they are conforming to the gender roles used in music videos of being sexualised and objectified. The cinematography used, exaggerates the gender roles as close up shots of the females pelvic areas and breasts are used to present the females in a sexual light. On top of this, props are used such as money and a champagne bottle in a similar way as one of the women is stuffing money in the other womans bra and another woman is pouring the champaign on herself as well as someone elses bottom which is used to exaggerate how women are sexualised in music videos. This music video is making a statement about how women are there as visual objects for males an example of this is at 1:48 as the director of the video shows Lily what she is supposed to do with the banana and how the banana is used to portray a sexual act therefore sexualising the female artist for the heterosexual male gaze.

Goodwin's Theory 

Andrew Goodwin's theory 

- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

- Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals 

- Relationship between the music and the visuals 

- Star image 

- Voyeurism 

- Intertextual references 

In the 1975's music video for Sex, the video portrays the genre characteristics of a rock music video. One of the key characteristics of rock music videos is live performance, as the idea that the music is what is important and is what should be focused on rather than a dramatic narrative or a glamorous setting, they focus on the realism of the band. 

Judith Butlers theory

-"There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results.' (Gender is a performance not who you are) 

In Lady Gaga's music video for the song Applause, the theory that gender is performed is shown. The costume is used to suggest her femininity as she is often clothed in a bra and a bikini pant, therefore sexualising her whilst presenting her feminine qualities. The performance of the music video also suggests that gender is performed as her movements and facial expressions are stereotypically considered feminine. 

Stuart Hall's theory 

-Dominant reading (Where the audience fully accepts the preferred reading)

-The negotiated reading (where the audience partly agrees and partly modifies their own reading)

-The oppositional reading (The reading that wasn't intended by the creator, when the audiences 'social position' makes them have the opposite response to the dominant reading. 

Voyeurism

Miley Cyrus  - Adore You 

Voyeurism is present in Miley Cyrus' music video for Adore You, and is presented to the audience through the mise-en-scene and the cinematography. Miley is clothed in a nude bra and nude underwear, this is suggestive to the audience and supports Laura Mulvey's theory being that women are there to be looked at and objectified. Close-up shots such as at 1:02 showing Miley stroking her stomach is very sexually suggestive to the audience supporting Mulvey's theory, and at 1:33 a close up shot of her chest with her hand on her breast is also used to be sexualize the artist which is enhanced through direct mode of address as she is constantly looking at the camera such as at 2:01 which is used to break the fourth wall. Close-up shots are used throughout the music video to present voyeurism such as at 2:17 a shot of Miley putting her hand in her underwear and then cuts to a close-up shot of her putting her fingers in her mouth is purely used for sexualization and for the visual pleasure of the audience as Mulvey's theory suggests. A high angle medium shot is used at 2:31, which shows Miley to be naked with her hands covering her breasts and a close up shot at 2:47 of her lower body which is also being used for the visual pleasure of the audience and objectifying her as a sexual object. The prop of the video camera is used to make it seem as if Miley is filming her self which is used to create a more personal experience for the audience, this is shown at 4:35 and at 0:24. 

Nikki Minaj - Anaconda

In Nikki Minaj's music video for Anaconda, a large amount of voyeurism is present supporting Mulveys theory that women are there to be looked at. This is presented to the audience in a variety of ways, through the cinematography and the mise-en-scene. At 0:29, a close-up shot of Nikki's bottom is used and at 0:23 a shot of Nikki on the floor looking at the camera whilst doing sexually suggestive movements is used for visual pleasure, supporting Mulvey's theory that the camera 'lingers on the curves of the female body' and that media texts are presented to be viewed by the perspective of a heterosexual male. This is presented throughout the music video as all of the females are dressed in very minimal clothing, almost looking like underwear while the male character at 3:30 is fully dressed and sat on a chair whilst Nikki Minaj is crawling on the floor and being sexually promiscuous.