Evaluating Music Promo Portfolio

Research and Planning

Rory Nash

How our concept was developed

– Initially, we based our idea on a young, troubled woman who had just woken up after a heavy night drinking. The music video would follow her as she walked through four rooms, each of which represented a different stage in her life. We were influenced by existing songs such as Tove Lo’s ‘Stay High’, a music video where the camera appears to be fixed to her body, pointing at her face. We investigated themes such as trying to attract a young audience by using a striking main character, as well as using an indie-pop genre to attract young people to watch the video

My Research

Chelsea Lanks' album 'Down For Whatever' features a simplistic picture of the artist's face, in monotone. Her hair is flowing and the focus is fully on her face. This is exactly the kind of style that would work with our album cover. The dark colours yet soft lighting connotes music that is gentle but deep at the same time.

Another artist that I could draw inspiration from is Phoebe Ryan. Although this image is much more colourful, it shares many properties, such as the close-up of the artist's face, as well as simplistic design. Seeing these album covers has made me think that it would be a good idea to have a solitary shot of the artist, perhaps with some balloons in the background.

What we did, and why we did it– Researching the different artists ensured that we had a better

understanding of what the music genre is and how it has evolved. In addition to this, it also gave us an indication about how to create our digipak, because as we now understand the conventions of the music genre.

– We compared the artists that we researched to the one that we chose to use for our music video, in order to see what similarities there were, and adapt our digipak to match.

Researching the target audienceIn order to get a better understanding, we researched our target audience, and who we wanted our music video to appeal to most. It was this age group that we used to gain feedback at various different stages, such as at the rough cut stage of our music video, and adjusting our work accordingly.

We noted that YouTube holds an enormous potential audience - YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. This is why we wanted to target a younger audience for our video.

Researching conventions and real media texts

Convention (what we expect to see):

– Lots of shots that confuse the audience and create the feeling that the singer is intoxicated

– Simplistic website with light colours

Actual media text’s researched:

– “Stay High” by Tove Lo

– Ellie Goulding’s website

What we learnt about researching for our music video, and how it informed our concept– We learnt a variety of different things, which would most likely

have affected the popularity of our music video

– For example, we discovered that fans of this music genre preferred the shots to be much longer than they would be on a genre such as rock or electronic

– We also found out that much of our target audience would be females, so we tailored the colour pallet of our video in order to cater to the stereotype of ‘feminine’ colours

– Finally, it was noted that indie-pop fans preferred simplicity, so we used a white background with basic lighting arrangements for this

Research into Location, Props, Costume & Set design

– We wanted to film all of our music video at school. Most of this will be done in the TV studio. This location is very convenient for us because it means that we do not need to travel anywhere. It is also a professional-grade studio where we have the help of technicians available to us.

– Due to the large number of latex balloons we used in the video, it was important for us to work out how many we need, how they are going to be inflated, and how much this will cost. Looking at balloons, I found a supplier on ebay that would sell us balloons for £3.19 per hundred. We estimated that we will need around a thousand, putting the cost at £31.90 for the balloons alone.

– We decided that the dancers should all be wearing tight-fitting clothing, with the star wearing a loose dress, in order to attract a young audience. Also, it meant we didn’t have to buy and clothing because our cast already had clothes to this specification.

Planning of my set design and locationPlanning the set was vital to the efficient production of our music video. This is because we only had a few hours to build our set, meaning that if we had not already designed it, it would have been unlikely that everything would have been finished in time; even if it had been, it is unlikely that it would look very good. We planned to film in the studio at school where we had access to professional-grade lighting and technicians available.

Planning

Storyboarding & Animatic

– Storyboarding was invaluable to the process for us, because it meant that we were able to plan our shots in advance, and prepare the necessary equipment in order to take the shots, before the shoot day itself.

– The animatic not only helped us to see the lengths of the shots and what they would look like, but also helped us to gain valuable feedback about the effectiveness of the shots in the video.

Why we made a record of our planningIt was important to us to make a record of our planning because it means that we can see exactly how far our work has come. For example, it can be seen that the pictures on the storyboard on the left has nothing to with what the artist is actually doing; because plans change, but that’s OK, as long as it is documented.

Provide two examples of planning which was important to your shoot

– We decided on who we wanted to use for our music video. Grace is our main performer, who we chose because of her capabilities as an actress, in addition to fitting the profile of what we want to see in the music video. For our dancers, we have chosen Romany and Tash. We chose them because they are both taking Dance as an A-level so are very capable, as well as both of them looking similar due to their oriental ethnicity.

8:30-9:30: Set up in the studio/FULL CAST

9:30-11:00: Corridor set up (filming)/ANJULI

11:00-1:00: Colourful room/FULL CAST

1:00-1:30: Lunch

1:30-3:30: Balloon room/Anjuli, TASH, HANNAH

3:30-4:30: Finishing shots/CREW 

Cast planning was important so that they knew when they needed to get time off school. The shooting schedule was vital because it meant that we could plan ahead as to when we needed our cast.

Campaign Research

– Having had a look at some of the artists similar to the one we are using, I found a website which may be useful for us to base our digipak on. The web page for the indie artist Chelsea Lankes is very dark and mysterious, which I like, but at the same time it is also functional, with links to other pages up at the top, meaning that the audience can see that she is an indie artist but at the same time can also access her media.

Evaluation

• Our research played a major part in the production of our music video and digipak. There were many things that we looked at which influenced how our final piece would look, such as looking at similar artists of the same genre, and seeing how simplistic their media is; we reflected this in our own production.

• Generally, our planning went well, however we did not effectively follow the shot list when it came to the shoot day, meaning that many of the shots that we took were improvisations, which although looked better in the long run, made it much harder in the editing suite because we had to make executive decisions about how the video should look.