Mise-en-scene list

Props:

• Instruments (guitar, microphone, drum kit, bass guitar) - shows the role of each band member. also appeals to the target audience as rock fans enjoy watching bands perform
• Clocks - Element of disjuncture. The main theme in the promo is the loss of time. Smashing clocks at the end of the video will illustrate our character's hatred for his loss of time
• Hammer/bat - will be used by protagonist at end of promo to smash the clocks

Costume:

• Protagonist/singer will wear a lighter denim jacket with a TShirt and dark jeans - conventional to rock genre as it is realistic; not extravagant or expensive looking
• Guitarist - Leather jacket with TShirt and jeans - target audience expects a rock band to be wearing leather jackets
• Drummer - TShirt and jeans - casual, realism

Actors:

• Protagonist/singer: James Girard - has extensive drama experience, will take main stage
• Guitarist: Andy Cartwright - has experience playing the guitar
• Drummer: Michael Montgomery - plays the drums

Lighting:

• Medium-key lighting in the 'clock room' - an aggressive scene. Doesn't want to be too light to spoil the mood of the scene. Also doesn't want to be too dark so that we can not see what's going on
• Low-key lighting in studio - we want it to look professional so we are choosing to use spotlights to illuminate band members

Setting:

• Studio - where the band will perform. Looks professional and we can perform with space in the studio
• Quiet street - Where the protagonist will wonder. We want it to look like a realistic, every-day setting
• Clock room - Where the protagonist will aggressively destroy the clocks at the end of the promo

Pitch

• present imaginatively
• have logo
• not a lot of text

• introduce who you are
• what are you doing
• who is your typical target audience
• how will you promote your artist?
• - media convergence
• - which platforms will be used?
• - how will you use synergy?

• what is media video concept and USP?
• what is digipack USP?
• - how are you creating synergy?
• poster USP?
• where the poster is featuring

• why will the band be good in long term
• future plans for the artist?

Magazine advert and CD cover analysis

Job roles

These are the several jobs that have been shared equally between each member of the group. We have spoken in length about the strengths of each group member and decided on which role each member was given. Although each member now has their own role, we will still work as a team and help with what the others are doing. This will ensure that we complete each job before we reach the filming process of our production. By doing so, we know that we will be ready to film our music Promo.

Cutting to the beat

The lyrics for our chosen song:

 

These are various shots and editing techniques that we could possibly use throughout our music promo. We have analysed the lyrics of the song, and thought about the possible shot types that we could include. These shots will used to represent the ideas of our promos narrative and the performance of the band. This process will make it easier to plan our production and will give us a guide line of shots when we begin the filming process.

(close ups of the instruments) Gets out of bed

and looks at the clock (close up of the clock)

sees the time

there's no tick and the tock

he was just in time

instead of walking before the chime.

 

That lonely midnight wanderer (mid shot of male walking down a street)

sets off walking in search for an answer

(mid shot of the bands performance) he left everything from home to business

that lonely midnight wanderer.

 

He used to live the perfect life

Nice house, great kids but a botch of a wife (Cuts/flashbacks to argument in the narrative)

she left him for an Italian fling

left him on the streets without a thing.

 

That lonely midnight wanderer

sets off walking in search for an answer

he left everything from home to business

that lonely midnight wanderer. (shots of broken clocks)

 

(slo-mo shots of clocks smashing)That lonely midnight wanderer

sets off walking in search for an answer

he left everything from home to business

that lonely midnight wanderer. (Zoom out from the clock broken around character)

We will use the timings of the song as a continuous way of editing the shots we have filmed. Doing so, will make sure that once the editing process is finished, the music promo will run smoothly and will prevent any parts that stick out for the audience. 

Midnight wanderer - song timings

Timings of our song

0.09 -Rhythm guitar begins playing

0.27 – 1^st verse of singing starts

0.36 – chorus starts

0.45 – 2^nd guitar solo begins

1.19 -2^nd verse of singing begins

1.36 – 2^nd chorus begins

1.53 – 3^rd guitar solo begins

2.26 – last chorus begins

2.44 – singing ends

Permission and artist concent

Focus group video and analysis

Focus group analysis

1.    What characters do you expect to see in the narrative for our genre?

Answers:

Band members

Male protagonist

Female love interest

Rock stars

 

From these results, we have learned that the audience expects to see quite conventional characters in our music promo. From this data, we now know which characters to include in our video. We will include the requests of our audience; this will benefit us because the audience will be seeing their preferred characters.

 

2.    Is this an original idea for a rock video? (1 being original, 5 being unoriginal)

2 people gave it a 2/5

1 person scored a 3/5

1 person scored a 4/5

 

We scored quite well on originality for our target audience. This is good for us because we want to produce a music promo that is unique and interesting for the viewer to watch. Furthermore, as we did not score badly, it means that we do not have to change our idea; the target audience was pleased with our promo idea.

 

3.    What kind of clothes would you expect to see?

Leather clothes

Long hair

Face paint e.g KISS

Low cut shirts

 

We chose to ask this question because we wanted to see what the style the audience expected a rock band to perform in. the responses were mostly conventional for the rock genre; the audience is looking for a sense of realism and wants to identify with the band. The target audience expects to see everyday clothing; they don’t want the band to look materialistic or manufactured, they want them to look real.

 

4.    Would you expect the band to be wearing similar outfits? (thumbs up or thumbs down)

Everyone one gave a thumbs up

 

The target audience for our music promo expects the band to be performing in similar outfits. They want a general house style that the band should cohere to as it makes them look like they are part of something.

 

5.    What type of environment would you expect the band to perform in?

Music studio

Music studio

Urban setting

Garage

 

The majority of our target audience wanted to see the band perform in a more professional looking environment; a music studio. This is ideal for us as it will provide us with the necessary props – instruments – and lighting that we need to produce an effective and realistic music performance.

 

6.    What kind of lighting would you expect to see throughout the video?

Low key lighting

Spotlights

 

The target audience expects there to be low key lighting in our music promo. This is because our target audience is interested in realism and a darker grittier style that is conventional within the rock genre.

 

Vox Pop video

Vox Pop analysis

Q1) What  attracts you to a CD cover?
The results:

• Something that stands out, recognisable and attractive
• The colours and the standout picture
• The music
• the colour
• The image that's relatable and the background

From the results we can see that the main points that were brought up were colour and a image. From these results we are going to design our digipak with a colourful and eye-catching cover that will be synergised throughout our media productions. This will allow the house style to remain the same and also the brand image of the band will develop and become recognisable by the target audience of 16 - 28. This will benefit us because the more people that recognise the brand image the more potential profit can be created.

Q2) What is your favourite music video and why?

The results: (Song + Artist + Reason why)

• 'Can't Stop' - Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Its different, unique and there's disjuncture in it"
• 'Rari Workout' - Lethal Bizzle - " Theres fast cars and hot women in it"
• 'Give me all your lovin' - ZZ Top - "Its stylish, which i like and theres hot rods in it"
• 'Teenage Dirtbag' - Weezer - "There's hot girls in it"
• 'Coffee & TV' - Blur - "I like the story and the animation in it. I also quite like the humour too"

From the results from this question we can see that the main reason why the target audience liked their favourite songs so much was because they were aesthetically pleasing, it looked good. Also another answer that came up less commonly was the fact that there were women in the promo. From the answers given we can say that we will use high quality footage in the promo to make it more professional so its aesthetically pleasing. Also we plan to use a main idea but also play around with it, so this will incorporate amplification to create messages behind the visuals and also disjuncture so that we can make the promo fun and original.

Q3) What makes a music video memorable?

The results: 

• "It needs to be different and away from the normal conventions"
• "Something that gets stuck in your head"
• "The cars and the narrative"
• "The Story, it has to be relatable"
• "Something that stands out. It needs to be original and have new conventions"

The answers given were all pointing towards the promo standing out and being original. From the results we will plan to use a wide variety of shots to get away from the normal set on conventions used in most popular promo's. By doing this we will be subverting everyday conventions and becoming original by not doing anything that has been done before. This in turn will make the promo standout because it will be so different then anything thats been done before. 

Q4) Where do you watch music videos?

The results:

• "At home, on YouTube"
• "On my phone or laptop using YouTube'
• "On YouTube"
• "Nowadays at home on YouTube"
• "On YouTube"

From the results its clear to see that everyone who watches music promo's uses modern technology. We will definitely Put our music promo on YouTube because its world wide and allows for our target audience to grow. Also if we put it on to YouTube it will technically converge with every platform that has internet access and access to YouTube. 

Technical Convergence

Q5) What would your ideal music video contain?

The results:

• "Women, fast cars and cool bikes"
• "Women, parties and cars"
• "An interesting storyline"
• "Cars and women"
• "A bit of performance and an original narrative"

The two main answers that can bee seen from the results are women and cars. This shows us that we need to include some sort of female character in the promo in order to attract our target audience, this will help increase our band image and increase our recognition. Also an answer that came up less frequently than women and cars was a interesting narrative or storyline. We will have to use an idea from the lyrics to come up with a narrative which we can play around with. This will then allow us to use amplification and disjuncture too. 

CD cover analysis - Kid Cudi 'Man on the Moon II: The legend of Mr Rager'

 

Magazine conventions

Magazine advert elements to include:

• band name
• release date
• CD title
• single/album
• purchasing information
• website
• what's included - special edition
• record label
• logo
• reviews

Focus groups

This is the groups research into the audience/focus group for our promo. We interviewed people who fitted our target audience specification and asked them questions regarding our genre and chosen style. The aim of this task was to find out what our target audience expects to see on our music video and how it will make it more entertaining. We got several clear ideas of what they expected to see in our production including mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing expectations. 

Digipack

A digipack is a 6 - sided casing for a CD. It usually contains artwork, the band's name, track listings and information about the band.

Influences for our music promo

Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Can’t stop’

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ (RHCP) ‘Can’t stop’ music video is inspirational to our music promo. The way in which this video is shot evokes a sense of playfulness and joy from the viewer. This style shall be heavily used throughout our performance in our music video as it is entertaining to watch. Furthermore, The RHCP’s video is mostly footage from a performance; this is inspirational to us as our video will also heavily feature performance. Through watching this video, we were able to see how real artists behaved during their music videos to inspire our movement and attitude while filming.

 

Moreover, whilst watching the video, we looked out for the mise-en-scene and location used. This video is shot in a warehouse looking building that is empty. This is inspirational as we will be shooting our promo in a large empty studio; it helped us to know what to do with the space.

 

Silent Sundays - 'Midnight Wanderer' lyric analysis

The lyric analysis shows that there are several messages behind the song, about losing the most important things in his/hers life & being alone. These lyrics are always start on the beat and finish off the beat, this then leaves the guitar and drums playing in the background that keeps the audience entertained. 

But the 2nd verse starts off the beat and finishes off the beat. This could mean that the pause is meant to emphasised and exaggerated. This makes the audience think about the lyrics and their meaning, this makes the song more sophisticated and the fact that the verses are repeated reinforces the meaning behind the lyrics.