Perfect Audience Member

This is Iza Rosa Conray, she is our perfect audience member- she is 18 years old, and from the USA. She is originally from Massachusetts but has recently moved to New York for the summer for an internship at a record label, she is interested in new and upcoming music (the reason she got the internship at the record label) and is constantly looking for something risky, edgy and exciting to do, or listen to: she moved to New York because she seeks a more wild life style, se wants to constantly be excited by people, music and things. This can be shown through her Facebook cover photo- it shows Iza at a festival, loving life, looking sassy, sexy and free. This conforms to the VAL of our audience members: our VAL is the ‘The Experiences”- they are young, enthusiastic, impulsive and rebellious. They seek variety and excitement, looking for the new, the offbeat and the risky. Still formulating life values and patterns of behaviour they quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are just as quick to cool. They hold an awe for others wealth, prestige and power. They find outlets in sports, outdoor activities and social activates. They are avid consumers and spend much of their income on clothing music and film. This VAL relates to Iza because, firstly, she is ‘young and rebellious’- this is shown via the fact she is at a music festival. Secondly, it can be shown in her profile photo: in the video you can see that she is not wearing the generic clothing; she is wearing off beat 'indi' clothing- supporting our VAL- as they would not dress like everyone else, they would find clothes that are different, new and exciting.

She is further displayed as our perfect audience member because of the comment by her friend Camilla Mills. The fact that they are shopping at Camden, a edgy, off beat clothing spot in London shows that she will be our perfect audience member and she conforms to our VAL. Camden is a spot where new, edgy and off beat trends emerge from, so by her shopping there, it directly conform to our VAL. Further more, what makes her a perfect audience member is the fact that she is sharing with her friends her love for Azealia Banks- she expresses 'love' for the new song; as our artist is very similar to Azealia Banks, it shows that she will be a perfect audience member as the music that is being produced by Elina is similar to that of Azealia. Furthermore, Iza expresses that the dancing is 'sick': edgy slang for being impressive. As our video includes dancing, it will act as a pre-sold element as  she will be impressed by the dancing.  

Furthermore, Isa is our target audience member because of her choice in film. She enjoys the themes of after life, psychological elements and the themes of partying. Both the films the Life of Pi and Silver Livings Playbook explore the themes of psychological problems and something that not every human experiences- these share similar themes to our music video. Furthermore, the film Sliding Door's is about what happens if a girls life splits in half: how it can go one way or another, this shares a direct connection with our music video as it is about a girl's life either going one way or another, either life or death. Lastly, the film Project X- a film about when a party is taken out of control shares similar themes as it is about dancing and the party lifestyle, and as our music video includes dancing she will enjoy it.

Lastly what makes Iza a perfect audience member is her taste in music. These are some of the artist that she has liked. You can see that she has liked artist such as Azealia Banks and Nicole Sherzinger: these are artists that share similar themes to Elina, they are both ethnic females in the business who's music contains elements of their countries background- and as Elina's music has elements of her Egyptian roots in, she will enjoy her music. Furthermore, she enjoys artists like Clean Bandit who's music videos contain many dancing sequences- and our our video is mainly about dancing she will also like the video. Further more, the artist which mainly relates to Iza's VAL is the fact that she has likes Miley Cyrus, who in this day and age is known for rebelling, against her past face in the industry as "Hannah Montanna"- this rebellion is what attracts Iza to her music, and what will attract her to our music video because the music video is about rebelling from death. 

Album Artwork

Here is our first idea of what we might use as out album artwork, posters for our artist, or potential website imagery. The first thing about this which we took from our Facebook and album research is the bright colours; this was chosen because the bright colours would attract new audience members to the album cover. Furthermore, we took inspiration from the hand written words which are commonly used in both Rihanna's and Azaelia Bank's Facebook pages- this adds a relatable element to her album cover,  it will almost mimic an autograph which fans always want from their singing icons. Moreover, the most impactful thing about this album cover is the Aztec print which boarders the image- this was taken from Azealia Banks and MIA-This aztec pattern is very popular in pop-culture and will directly attract to our target audience. What will be successful about using the themes from MIA's pages is that MIA's target audience and Elina's will be relatively similar as the music will be similar- both having foreign elements to them. So by using similar ideas from MIA's marketing tools, it means that Elina's marketing will be successful as it has already been tried and tested by MIA- this is a pre-sold element which will increase the audience for Elina as MIA's fans will also enjoy Elina's music.

Studying Facebook Pages of Similar Atrists

The first artist that is similar to our artist is Rihanna. The first thing that strikes you about Rihanna's page is that fact that everything is gravitated around her. Her cover photo is striking, looking into the audiences eye- this is done to entice the audience, engage their attention and almost force them to look at the rest of the Facebook page. The font which is used on this Facebook page is mainly that which appears to be written, as it Rihanna has written it herself, both on the cover photo and the profile photo (which is her album cover), it is written. This further gives a more personal feel, giving the impression that Rihanna cares about her fans and does things for the fans consequently appealing to her target audience. The colours that have been used are very lust full, she uses a base of black and white, with overtones of dark purples, and pinks- these colours are very provocative and concur with Dyer's theory that sex is what sells the artist. The way that Rihanna is presented on her page is again very provocative, where there is a lot of her body, and not much else on: this again confirms Dyer's theory that sexual exploitation sells an artist. It can be seen in her album cover, which is especially provocative, showing her body, with certain parts covered up with text, leaving little for the imagination. This exposure of skin not only relates to Dyer's theory, but it also is done to attract her target audience and expand her audience, it means that men will want to be with her and women will want to look like her.

This displays how Rihanna not only relates to Dyer's theory with sexual exploitation, it is a further way of creating hype for her music video- the main use of Facebook for artist is a way of marketing for the artist. With her 80 million fans on Facebook, how she can post photos and get this global audience at the click of a button is instant global marketing. So by her posting these photos, especially about how sexual they are- it will entice her audience, hoping they will continue to follow the process of the music video and song development- consequently,when the single is released to watch the video, and buy her song. This relates to our artist because when we create Elina's Facebook page we will be posting progress shots of the music video being made- creating hype for the release of her single, raising awareness for the artist so they will buy her music.

The second artist that relates to our artist is Beyonce. Concurring with Rihanna's Facebook page is that everything revolves around her- more over with Beyonce than Rihanna is that her page is more about her brand than her as a person. With her profile photo being just of the letter "B", this is expanding her awareness as an artist, she is no longer recognisable by a photograph, but now she will be recognised by a single letter- this is all a marketing tool about raising awareness and creating hype for the artist. Further more, in Beyonce's "Photos" we are able to see that she has got a #BEYGOOD- this is again a marketing device to try and create hype on the site of www.twitter.com, expanding the awareness for her as an artist and also accessing another website so those who are not users of Facebook but are on Twitter, this means they can access the news through both media sites. The fonts that have been used are quite classic, possible Times New Roman; this font is chosen to add a more classic element, as Beyonce is a renowned artist, she is now focusing on the 'old money' element, she is trying to appear more conservative and less about her body and more about her music- this is further reflected by her appearance in her cover photo, which is in a conservative had and a coat. This is very different from Rihanna's cover photo, where she is highly exposed. However, what ties them both together is that there are no distractions, it is about the artist, rather than anything else. On Beyonce's page, there are little colours on the initial images of her page, however, this is also a tool to entice the audience down the page, as they see a spark of colour so they are drawn to it, for example this image.

These are images which expresses Dyer's theory- firstly, she is dressed fairly provocatively, accentuating her curves- this will appeal to a male audience because they see her as 'sexy' and want to be with her. Also women will look at her as 'sexy' as well because men see her as desirable, also, what Beyonce does to appeal to a wider audience is that she is not 'model skinny', she has curves which make her more relatable- women will see her as personable because her look isn't unreachable unlike many singers who are stick thin. This relates to our artist Elina, because like Beyonce, she has curves, this means that she will appeal to a wider audience because she will seem relatable as opposed to someone who's look is unreachable.

Another artist which is like our artist is Azealia Banks. The first thing which strikes your about Azealia's Facebook is the image at the top right of the screen- this cartoon of herself relates directly to Dyer's theory, that musicians are almost mythical creatures of rebellion and sex appeal- this directly relates to the image at the top of the screen. The fact that she is a mermaid, is saying that she is almost other worldly, like she is untouchable because she is of some form of myth. Furthermore, the fact that she has stolen the pirates gold gives a sense of rebellion, another theme of success stated by Dyer. Another thing which strikes you about this page (unlike Beyonce's), is the excess of colour which covers the page. This is because, unlike Beyonce who is well known, Azealia is not well known, so she needs something eye catching to grasp the attention of the target audience. The colours which are most used are the pinks and the purples, this makes it clear that the target audience is mainly females- this then segregates potential male fans, this is something we will take on board when making a Facebook page for our artist- we will use colours that are are not specific to any gender. Another comment to make about Azealia Bank's Facebook page that is similar to Rihanna's is that the font of her name is almost been written; this again adds a more personal effect to the fan page, making the fans feel like they are noticed by the artist- attracting and retaining an audience.

When designing our own artist Facebook page, we will bare in mind that many successful artist use their own handwriting on their page- adding a personal effect. Further more, Dyer's theory is expressed in the profile photo- the photo which is mainly of the artists bum, this is directly appealing to his 'sexual exploitation' notion- that sex sells: which is true, for by her having such an explicit photo being the face of her page, people will see the image, be shocked by the content and want to see who is behind the image. It is true that 'sex sells' in this business, so we will keep that in mind when designing our Facebook page. What is interesting about Azealia Bank's page is that she has used similar editing themes that we will be using in our music video, for example the layering of the image and the vivid use of colour- this means that the style which we will be adapting will be similar to the themes used by people who are successful in the industry, hopefully appealing to the same target audience and becoming a pre-sold element for our music video.

The last artist that is similar to our artist is MIA. She is very similar to our artist because she is from a foreign background much like our star, being from Sri Lanka, she not only allows her heritage to be involved in her music, but also in her album covers, and the colours and style she uses for her Facebook page. What is initially eye catching about her page is the vibrant colours she uses, this is firstly done to attract a younger audience: which is her target audience, as she is a rapper/singer, she will not be appealing to the older generation, so by using these bright colours she is instantly appealing to her target  audience. Further, she has used the same theme as Bank's in the sense that as a new artist she must use bright colours to attract an audience, something that is eye catching and will engage someone who has not heard of her before. Further more, she has used images on her cover photo to display her heritage, by being in the traditional Indian praying position- this is also similar to our artist as we will display some of Elina's Egyptian heritage in her artwork, including on her Facebook page.

The fonts that were used are not consistent, they mix and give the sense of chaos- the neon lights which are used also give the sense of a party atmosphere- attracting a audience who wants to listen to party music. We will keep these thoughts in mind when designing our Facebook page for our star- as the music is dance music, we will incorporate bright lights and patterns. This image of the book MIA released is very similar to the patterns that we will be using for Elina's Facebook page and marketing. This aztec pattern is very popular in pop-culture and will directly attract to our target audience. What will be successful about using the themes from MIA's pages is that MIA's target audience and Elina's will be relatively similar as the music will be similar- both having foreign elements to them. So by using similar ideas from MIA's marketing tools, it means that Elina's marketing will be successful as it has already been tried and tested by MIA- this is a pre-sold element which will increase the audience for Elina as MIA's fans will also enjoy Elina's music.

Reasons for Casting

We cast Elina because she has the Dyer paradox of being aggressive and having a rebellious streak. She will simultaneously appeal to her target audience because they will feel that they can be her whilst at the same time present an attitude and spirit that you would expect from a pop star. We don't want her to be some anodyne, X-factor type Lenona Lewis singer, we want her to have spark and sass. Another singer who exploited their sass and sex appeal while simultaneously being someone that the audience could aspire to be in the early part of their career was Madonna.

This is an image of Madonna in the mid 80s. At this point she was rebellious and cheeky, with a girl-next-door characteristic. There was not much to her voice, she sold herself on her attitude and sex appeal, this is a lot like Elina who we are selling on similar attributes. We felt the casting of Elina was ideal in terms of appealing to our target audience of teens girls who want to be her, and teen boys who want her, she also fits into the genre of synthetic pop.


We cast Lelia because she is a talented dancer and choreographer, but not only that, she wont draw attention away from our sassy star. Because she is painted in either black or white, we only focus on her dance moves not her image so attention is not detracted from Elina. A similar star who uses dancers in her music videos is Kylie Minogue. Kylie sings at the front and uses the dancers behind her in order to help create a narrative strand. This way they do not draw attention from Kylie, they just support the video's narrative.

We cast Harry & Kalvin mainly because they are both great dancers. Secondly they will serve the video as people who are adoring Elina and dancing for her so that Elina appears more appealing. Another artist who uses adoring male backup dancers is Lady Gaga. She dances up front while her men support her from behind. This helps create the mood and story of the video without drawing any attention from the star.

Cast List

ELINA

This is Elina, who will be the star of our video. She will be the girl in our performance element and hence the girl who we will be aiming to market and promote. We feel Elina is appropriate for the part because she is an ethnic, Egyptian girl with soul and sass. Dyer says that a key component of a star is that they are somewhat anti-authoritarian and rebellious, Elina fits that description and this is how we will market her. She is also a talented actress so she will be able to portray the distress and confusion of limbo accurately. She does theatre studies A-level thus she is used to being required to learn lines, this means the demand for her learning our wordy song will not be too demanding on her.


LEILA

This is Lelia, she is our female dance star who will be dancing solo and as a group with the boys. The main reason we chose Lelia is due to her impeccable dancing talent, she is also a very talented choreographer which is perfect as we have told her the dance style we want and have shown her the music so she can create a dance routine that will work well with what we want. Dance is something that is a key component of a music video based around a synthetic artist. 

HARRY

Harry is going to be one of our male dancers, he will not appear as frequently as Lelia or Elina, so attention is not drawn from Elina who is ultimatly our star and the most important person. Harry is a talented dancer who does dance AS-level thus he is good at taking direction and he will be more likely to be in sync with the other dancers during the dance breaks.

KALVIN

Kalvin will be our second dancer. Kalvin is also a talented dancer who is in the dance company at our school, this shows that he will be good at dancing with other people and he will take direction from a choreographer well.

Conventions of Website Artwork

Props List

Research into Album Covers

Santogold is the aritst whom which our song orginates. The themes of her album covers have an 'out of this world' element with the repeated figures and unusual writing. The colour scheme is dull yet interesting as if there something hidden underneath the surface.

Pia Mia's album covers are colourful and exciting. They have a sort of exotic nature and we apply this to Elina's cover as Elina is an ethnic exotic girl so this colour scheme will apply to our star.

A Tribe Called Quest's covers are effective in the way that they use figures, so that you cannot see facial expressions, which will be an element in our video. Secondly, the negative colours used are that of what we plan to use in our video so these covers would be appropriate for Elina.

Lighting

Email Requesting Permission to use Track

Audience Questionnaires & Feedback

We wrote the questionnaires for our target audience to fill out. We printed out numerous copies of this questionnaire and ask a large group of teenagers to fill it in for us so that we would gain a better understanding of how teenagers (our target audience) view music videos and what they would like to see in a music video so that we can compare their thoughts and opinions to our music video to see if we have what they are looking for and if there are areas we need to rethink or add more to.

We got a variety of feedback from the questionnaires, but overall we discovered that pop is the most popular type of music amongst our target audience, this is beneficial to us as our song is a pop song so should appeal to the target audience. Further more, one person states that their favourite music was ‘Egyptian garage funk’- this is perfect as our artist is fro Egypt and the music has Arabic, Egyptian elements- this is perfect for our target audience. We noticed that most of our target audience enjoy having something to follow when it comes to a music video, this is a slight issue as we feel our music video's story line is not very clear as it follows a theme of limbo which is an unusual area that people don't know much about, so in order to improve this aspect of the video I think we will have to clarify the story line slightly, we could do this by making some connection between Elina and the limbo state so that the audience are aware that it is her limbo experience we are watching. Although the story line is not blinding obvious and generic, there is still a story line, about a girl who gets hit by a car and is trying to come back to life- this is similar to the theme of a Rudimental video ‘Tell Me That You Need Me’, which one of our audience members said was their favourite music video, which is about a boy who has a cycling accident and then his journey to regain his strength. This means our video will appeal to the same audience as Rudimental and hopefully be a pre-sold element to our music video.

The age bracket we chose for out target audience stated that what they are looking for in a music video is first of all dance, they wanted something that will be visually pleasing, something that will excite them and make them want to watch the music video over and over again- further, many people say they want something that is ‘unique’ that they have not seen before; this relates to our music video as the theme of our music video (life vs. death and limbo) has not been explored in many music videos. Our audience further stated that the presentation of the artist in the music video is very important, that “people take a lot of inspiration and ideas from the way the artist is presented in the music video”, furthermore, “they should be the center point of everything”, and this is also reflected in our music video as Elina will be the center point of the music video- she will have the most screen time- moreover, she will be wearing three different outfits which will appeal to the audience as people take inspiration from our artist. Furthermore, many people state that the look of the artist is crucial in the selling of their music, for in they are not attractive and not presented well, their music will not sell (especially in pop)- one of our audience states “the artist appearance will get them attention and recognition which will cause their music to sell”. Another states “their look is their image, and their image is their marketing, and especially in today’s industry, where pop culture and social networking is the beacon of the selling of music, their look has to appeal to the teen market, or else their music will not sell”- this directly relates to our music video as our star is very attractive and will attract both male and female audience members, the women will want to be her friend, and the men will want to be with her.

What many people think makes a music video unique is their costumes, dance routines and the general concept of their music video. They want something that “has not been done before”, which can “catch their eye” and “leave an impression”, this is exactly what our music video provides. Firstly, the costumes we have are very different to any others in music videos, as most videos do not use paint as the costume- this unique feature will attract a wide target audience. Furthermore, many people think interesting dance routines make things interesting, this is exactly what our music video provides, the dancing in it is not the generic ‘pop’ dancing that is seen in many other music videos, it is different, there is an Egyptian twist to it, it is very old school commercial with a modern foreign flare to it- this will appeal to our target audience as they will be attracted to the uniqueness of it. Lastly they feel that a unique concept makes for a good music video- again this is reinforced with the unusual narrative we have taken- a state between life and death, appealing to our target audience.

 It is also apparent in our research that the music video is very important in the selling of the actual song, for example, one person said “it is very important, it shows what the song means to the band, what they look like, and how they are expecting us to feel about the song”. Furthermore, it has become apparent, especially now a days, that the music video is also a massive publicity stunt, for example Miley Cyrus’s music video for “Wrecking Ball” and “We Cant Stop”, were scandalous and were frowned upon, but they also create hype, to the point at even 2 months after the video released, people are still talking about it- this caused both the 2 singles and the album to become number 1, world wide. This shows how important the music video is to the selling of the artist- especially artist who are in the pop industry, which our artist is.

However, people have expressed that what they do not like about the music video is when the artist goes to far with what they are doing, for example, Rihanna has just released “Pour It Up”, which was banned from www.youtube.com 10 minutes after it was published because it broke to many conventions, it was to revealing, had explicit themes and could not be shown publically. This means that the music video could not be seen by all of her fans, meaning that her music will not be as widely known because of her lack of music video- this means that with out music video, we must ensure that it sticks to the conventions of www.youtube.com to ensure that it is not to risky or provocative. Furthermore, people dislike when they are predictable, and not interesting enough- we have accounted for this in our music video as at the end of the video- the girl effectively gets hit by a car and in slow motion returns back to life- this will engage the audience and they will not predict that will happen. Lastly, people do not like it when the artist is not shown in the video.

All this feedback we have taken on board and will take note of when creating our music video- for we want to appeal to our target audience as they will be the ones viewing, sharing and publicizing our music video.

Location & Set Designs

Perfect Audience Member

In a media lesson, we looked at reflecting audiences, attitudes, and families’ beliefs. We want to look at how VALS can be placed within the context of our music video. When coming up with the concept for our music video we wanted to reflect VALS profiling. Our music video reflects the VAL ‘The Experiences”- they are young, enthusiastic, impulsive and rebellious. They seek variety and excitement, looking for the new, the offbeat and the risky. Still formulating life values and patterns of behavior they quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are just as quick to cool. They hold an awe for others wealth, prestige and power. They find outlets in sports, outdoor activities and social activates. They are avid consumers and spend much of their income on clothing music and film. This VAL relates to our music video because, firstly, they are ‘young and rebellious’- this is shown as firstly, everyone in our video is young, it will attract a young audience who rebel against the rules. Secondly the theme of the music video is also rebellion, rebellion against death. Further, they seek ‘excitement’- they are looking for something off beat and risky, this is what our music video provides. Its about the state of limbo, between life and death, there is nothing generic about our music video, which is something experiences do not like. Furthermore, the song its self is ‘off beat’ and has Arabic influences, which are not generically used in music, especially not pop music, therefore they will enjoy this song. As they are quick to latch onto new things that are quick to be cool, our music video is going along with their lifestyle- they will realize that Elina will be a star and will follow her instantly.

Here is an example of our perfect audience member. She is called Pia Mia and she is 17 years old. 

Pia Mia is a classic example of our perfect audience member because she is young, rebellious and does't follow the trends. You can see by these pictures that she conforms to our VAL- there are images of her jumping, skateboarding and doing handstands in unlikely places: this clearly displays that she is young and rebellious. Secondly, her dress sense suits our VAL, what she is wearing isn't the generic outfits that you would see in teenagers, she is ahead of the style; being unique, by finding the 'off beat' trends- she wears old baseball jackets, and over sized classes and flat caps. This all relates to our artist and song, because our song is not generic, it has an 'off beat' style to it and is ahead of the trends, that is why Pia is out perfect audience member. Further more, elements of Pia Mia which relate to our artist is the fact that she has indian/arabic heritage and grew up on the island of Guam- these elements of culture mean that she will enjoy the arabic/indian undertones of the song. Further more, as she is the leader of a wide social group, she will spread the news of this song as it is interesting and original, and soon all her friends would be listening to it. 

Evaluating our Animatic

After filming our Animatic, it was time to edit it. We uploaded our footage onto Final Cut Pro along with our track. We initially put the track onto the timeline and we then put in the clips based on our story board timings and cut them to the beat.
The animatic helped bring our music video to life so that we could see what areas worked well and what areas needed to be improved. It also gives us practise using the cameras and editing so that we are prepared for when it comes to the real video. Such areas that appeared to work well were the quick cutting towards the second dance break and then more quick cutting between black and white Lelia during the dance break, so this is something that we will emphasise in the end product. A second area that worked well was cutting to the beat, so it is essential for us to get our dancers to have a slick routine so that we can cut accurately in the dance sections.
An issue that was raised during our animatic was that we felt the video was quite boring and moved fairly slowly, so we decided to incorporate more fast cuts in order to keep the video moving so that the audience to not get bored. A positive comment was that our animatic successfully portrays the chaos of limbo, we were worried that this idea would be difficult to portray to the audience with limbo being such an usual theme, but the animatic made it clear that this will not be such a problem.
Initially we didn't really see the point of the animatic, but once it was completed it revealed areas that were good and areas that needed improving and this will be helpful in the running up to our shoot day. The animatic also got us really excited for our shoot day as it revealed the potential that the real video has.

Here is are animatic, filmed, edited and completed:

Filming our animatic

Story Board

This is the story board showing our music video idea shot by shot with the timings and angles and mes noted along the side. This process not only is essential when making a music video for showing how the video will look but it was also useful for us as a group to really make clear what our idea was and that we were all thinking along the same lines. Very often people have incredibly different visions of how they think something will look or should look but by doing a storyboard it makes it come to life a bit and we can all see how it will start to look. Obviously the video will not look exactly like this, this is just to help map it out for us and is one of our first big steps to making the video.