Six Shot Analysis and Pop Video Conventions

In today's lesson we looked into pop music video conventions and learnt how to analyse pop music videos keeping conventions of pop videos and media terminology in mind.

 Below I have embedded a prezi presentation where I have analysed six frame's from Jessie J's music video for 'Pricetag'. My prezi also includes pop genre research as I've linked pop conventions presented within Jessie J's video to a wide range of pop music videos.
This research task has helped me gain a better idea of what I should try to include in my music video, to make sure that it meet's the expectations of the pop genre.

Audience Questionnaire

To help learn more about our target audience my group had decided to ask members of the general public to fill out an online survey with questions related to music videos and their content, as well as a few questions about Jessie J, a musician, who's music we would ideally like to use within our final project. The data gained from this questionnaire can help my group gain and develop ideas of the type of things we can include within our music video. For example a narrative, or a colour scheme can be established.

Below is a short animation I've created using GoAnimate. Within the embedded animation, I've used three young teenagers to represent my target audience. I've chosen to use two female characters in the animation and one male to denote how my target audience is made up of mostly females, which is something I learnt from my questionnaire results. Also, in the animation the three character's are asked 'How they would describe Jessie J?' the answers provided in the clip were the three most popular responses in my group's questionnaire. This question is important as it give's me as someone making a music video inspired by Jessie J and her music and idea of what Jessie J's listeners like most about Jessie J. Taking this feedback on board, I can incorporate some of the words describing Jessie J into the narrative of theme of my group's music video. For example, I could have an inspiring storyline or narrative.
In addition, the character's are also asked 'What their favourite colours are?' in the GoAnimate clip,this question again is answered by the character's with the three most popular answers from the questionnaire. This question is a key piece of demographic information. Further more, the results of this question can be applied to choosing a colour scheme for my music video.

Audience research by s_tak on GoAnimate


In our audience research questionnaire we also asked the 'What is the most outrageous thing you've done?'. This question was asked to see if any of the responses from the question could be help inspire a narrative or theme for our music video. We chose to ask about the most 'outrageous' thing people have done as my group felt Jessie J is a confident and daring musician.

Copyright

Recap of what I learnt during my lesson:
In today's lesson I learnt the importance of copyright within the media industry. Copyright laws and rules prevent people from having false ownership of media products. For example a copyrighted song, prevents listeners from saying they have wrote the song and also prevents them from selling the song and gaining profits. So, copyright also prevents illegal sales and downloads of music. 

In relation to the video task, it's key to recognise copyright rules as my group will be using a pop artist's song within our video for educational purposes. To avoid being mistakenly seen as trying to make profits from our music video my group have decided to write a letter to Jessie J's record label to ask the rightful owners of Jessie J's music for permission to use her music in our educational video. Below I've enclosed my copyright letter to Universal Republic Records

Copyright letter about creating my music video:

 Sixth Form@Swakeleys

Clifton Gardens

Hillingdon

Middlesex

UB10 0EJ

Monday 21st October 2013



Universal Republic Records

1755 Broadway

New York

United States

10019

Dear Mr.Lukasz Gottwald,

My name is Simran Takhar and I'm currently studying A-Level Media Studies at school. Part of my coursework this year requires me to create a music video to a song of my choice as well as a digipack. So, I would like to ask your permission to use the song 'Dominio' by Jessie J an artist you represent.

I can assure you that the song will only be used for educational purposes and we will not be gaining any profit by using the song in our final music video project. Further more, we won't be claiming any ownership of the song and we fully acknowledge that the song belongs to Jessie J and Universal Republic Records. Our work will need to be moderated, and hence our video with Jessie J's song will need to be online on our blogs as well as youtube pages for three months. Following this time period, the video can be removed if you have any problems or issues with us using Jessie J's song.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear a reply from you in the near future. I have included my contact details below if you have any further questions on the matter.

]Mobile number: 07813104397

Email address: s_tak@hotmail.co.uk

Yours faithfully,

Simran Takhar

Swakeleys Sixth Form student



Audience Profiling

During lesson time as a class we discussed the importance of audience profiling when music videos are created, as it helps musicians meet their target audiences expectations. We talked of both demo graphics and psychographics being key in grouping audiences. Demographics are general brackets people fit into for example their age and their  gender come under demographics. On the other hand, psychographics focus on social groups audiences can be associated with based on their life styles. An example of a psychographic would be 'strugglers'. Strugglers are people who feel alienated within society and  have a lack of resources, they live off impact and sensation. In addition 'strugglers' are heavy consumers of alcohol and junk foods.

After the lesson my group worked together creating a Prezi presentation to audience profile Jessie J's listeners. This helped us realise what type of people Jessie J's fans were and therefore allowed us to distinguish what viewers of our video would like to see. Within our audience profile demographics, psychographics and dedicated brands fans are highlighted.

Applying audience theories to a video of my choice

After learning a few audience theories in lesson, I decided to apply the audience theories I've learnt to a music video of my choice. I've chosen to look at the music video for 'Same Love' by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. This video is about how a young man has struggled to become accepted by his family and society because of his sexuality. Below I have embedded the music video for 'Same Love' as well as writing about how the Uses and Gratifications Model and the Effects Model.

How the Uses and Gratifications Model can be applied to the video:

• The video can appeal to viewers in search of their personal identity. For example the two gay characters denoted in the video standing up for their sexual orientation, may provide teenagers confused or bullied because of their sexuality, with role models.  
• Also, the music video may help viewers gain insight into their own lifestyles and their views on love between same sex couples. In addition, the video also covers the taboo topic of homosexuality, hence providing viewers with a topic of conversation; which relates to media texts appealing to viewers as a form of social interaction. 
• The storyline of the main character overcoming homophobia, may also allow people to gain insight into the circumstances into other peoples lives. Allowing audiences to reflect on their problems as well as comparing them to other peoples hardships. 
• The video is made like a short film and even features closing credits at the end of it, lasting a total of around 7minutes. This is not always the case with music videos and they usually last around 5 minutes. The cinematic look of the video may encourage to watch the video as a form of entertainment. Viewers may be drawn into watching it, and film enthusiasts may see it as a short film.

How the Effects Model can also be applied to the video:

• The video features scenes of homosexuals standing up for their beliefs and lifestyles. This may influence viewers into thinking that they should stand up for what they believe in. 
• Additionally, the video has a happy and hopeful ending even though at first the young gay character's family doesn't support him due to his sexuality. In the the main characters parents slowly grow to accept him for who he is, this lets viewers know there's always hope when you're going through struggles in life. 
• Also, the video may influence audiences into accepting homosexuality openly, as there are various scenes denoting gay couples and people accepting homosexuality in society within the video. 
• In contrast, the video also shows the main character going through a lot of hardships in his teenage years whilst discovering his sexuality. This aspect of the video may cause viewers to think that teenagers confused about their sexuality can be victims. At the end of the video the gay couple gets married in a church and people are shown celebrating the union. This shows viewers that homosexuality should be accepted in our current society.

In my opinon, both audience theories have aspects that are true yet in the end how a music video is perceived is down to the viewer and their opinions. In one sense, the Effects Model is correct in the fact that sometimes what people see they seem to believe. However, sometimes audiences have their own morals and beliefs that will give them control over what they are influenced by, which also stops viewers from being 'powerless'. On the other hand, some viewers like young children may have weaker opinions and hence may be easily influenced and manipluated. In this sense the Effects Model can apply to impressionable viewers.
As a regular viewer of music videos, I can relate to the Uses and Gratifications model. I choose to watch certain music videos as a form of entertainment as well as a social interaction. For example sometimes music videos become very popular and a topic of conversation drawing me into watching them. They can also be quite inspiring to watch which relates to my personal identity. Consequently, I may unknowningly be inflenced by the effects model and music videos may 'mediate' me when I see certain role models and celebrities carrying out actions in music videos.

In relation to creating a music video for my final project it would be a good idea to keep the Uses and Gratifications Model as well as the Effects Model in mind. Both models relate to how audiences perceive music videos. Being aware of both audience models, the overall message within our video should be clear and strong, in hopes of making sure our audience understand our video from our perspective. Audience members can be quite impressionable so, my group has to be carful of how we create our music video.

Audience Theory

In class today we looked into audience theories linked to media texts and how they relate to music videos.

One of the main theories we looked at was the 'effects model'. This theory consists of the idea that people who view media are passive and powerless when watching media texts. Therefore, the theory argues that consumers of media become influenced by messages portrayed in what they watch. This relates to music videos as moving images within music videos, for example gang violence, may influence viewers, causing people to mimick what they see within music videos. The theory suggests that what you see in media can change peoples thought processes and can change their thoughts on society. A key example of this is Bobo Doll experiment which links into children watching adults being violent towards a doll and then copying the adults actions. This again suggests that aspects of music videos will influence viewers.

On the other hand, we also looked at the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory by Blumer and Katz. The theory argues that there are four specific reasons as  to why people consume media texts. Media texs are said to be produced to appeal to specific needs and desires. More so, unlike the 'effects model' this theory suggests that people have more control over their consumption of media texts and so they aren't necessarily powerless. One of the key needs media texts fulfill is providing viewers with information. Media texts are said to help people seeking out advice, learn and fulfill ones curiosity. Another key desire is personal identity, a music video may help reinforce ones personal valuses and help them find a role model. In addition, another aspect of the theory was social interaction. Its said that people choose to watch music videos because it's part of being sociable, starting a conversation, gaining a sense of belonging and gaining insight into others circumstances. The final argument in the theory is that people choose to watch music videos because its a form of entertainment.

In class we also looked at Chase and Status' music video for 'Time' as an example to help link the two differing theories to music videos, I've embedded the video above.

How the video links to the Effects Model:

• On one hand, the video highlighted that forms of help are available for people in domestic violence. This is clear in the video through the story line when one of the characters calls a help line, and is again reinforced at the end of the video when a help line and company information is shown on screen. 
• Also, the video represents men as being aggressive and violent whereas, women are shown as being weak and vulnerable. This is connoted through the scenes of a husband beating his wife and the woman crying and pleading for him to stop, yet she never stands up to him. Linking back to the 'effects model' this may influence peoples mind set, causing them to think that men are over powering and sometimes dangerous to be around. 
• However, towards the end of the video the teenage daughter in the family is denoted phoning the police and getting her mum out of danger. This suggests that women can also be strong and overcome abuse.  
• In the long term, the video encourages people to help stop domestic violence. This is obvious as the video is from the point of view of the teenage girl who tries to stop violence in her home, and hence the girl becomes a symbol of how anyone can stop domestic violence.

How the video links to the Uses and Gratification Model:

• The argument that people use media to gain information can be linked to the video through the information shown at the end of the video. An domestic violence helpline and phone number for children and women from the organisation Refuge is shown in the last few moments of the video. This clearly informs viewers of how they can combat domestic violence. 
• In addition, viewers may consider the teenage girl who calls a helpline in the video as a role model. This idea of a role model relates to the concept of people watching music videos to help their personal identity. 
• The music video arguably explores the taboo issue of domestic violence. The serious subject matter of the video may spark social interaction and conversation. 
• Also, the video may be considered a form of entertainment for some viewers who are interested in filming and cinematography. The music video is filmed with varied angles and and this may be fascinating for film lovers.

Introduction

Hey, my name is Simran Takhar a seventeen year old student, candidate number 3206 and I'm in my second year of A-levels at Swakeleys Sixth form.

Last year we covered a range of topics within the as-level course. In the exam unit we looked at both representation within TV Dramas and the Music Industry and its Institutions  
Within TV Drama's we looked into the representation of age,gender,regional identity,sexuality,race,class and disability. With these sub topics we also linked representation to technical media codes such as editing, sound, camera and mise-en-scene. 

Additionally, our second topic covered the music industry, specifically how record labels and the music industry works. We looked into the the production chain, arising issues within the music industry such as illegal downloading and piracy, and new developments within technology and media that can be linked to the music industry such as technological convergence.

More so, my filming and production skills were tested in the coursework unit. The coursework unit required us to plan, film and evaluate the opening credits and scene of a film of a film.

This year I'll use this blog to keep a record of my work and progress through out the year. Specifically I'll blog about my coursework; requiring me to create a promotional package for an album release and magazine advertisement including a promotional video for a digi-pack.