Influences to our music video

Camera Work

My partner and I have decided that when we shoot our music video, we will use a hand-held camera.  This decision was influenced by the American TV series as well as independently made music videos such as this one - "Love $ick" by Mura Masa.

This video seems unpolished, but it's refreshing because the intention of the video is not to portray the life of a celebrity. It shows the live of normal youths from London which is relatable for most of the audience. Relating to the video is a raw and fresh experience in my opinion, and we want to cater this experience to our audience. Also the use and gratification of our video will be tension release. Audio-wise, our song covers doubt and mistrust which our audience will most likely be able to relate to, so an ordinary unpolished camera technique works to me.

6 Key Features

Our music video will feature the first three features of Andrew Goodwin's Six Key Features theory. 

The first key feature is: music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. The genre for "All Night" is hip hop and as hip-hop derives from African-American music and is flaunted mainly by black Americans, we've chosen to style our model with a hairstyle originating from Africa. Whilst in the past black celebrities have 'white washed' and altered their features to appear more European, a lot of popular artists today are styling their hair naturally or traditionally.

And so we have briefed our actress to either do an African hairstyle or to wear her hair naturally (which is afro textured).

Hip hop is also adored by youths in western countries and is quite mainstream so we've instructed our actress to dress ordinarily (in minimalism) as we want her to look like any other teenager.

The second key feature is: there is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics. Our original interest in this key feature was motivated by this web-series: Going There. We loved how the creator made visuals that related to what he was saying and how some of them were literal and some metaphorical.

The key concept of our video is doodalism. We were influenced by Skrillex' video for "Where Are You Now?" where he also used the second key feature with illustrations that show his lyrics.

Some of our overlays will relate to the lyrics, such as when Chance raps "You just wanna talk about politics, Chicago shit and rocket ships", perhaps we'll doodle Donald Trump and a constellation from space...

The third key feature is: there is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. The tone of our song is upbeat and jumpy, so our actress will be dancing around in the footage. Even though the meaning of our song isn't so positive, the atmosphere is due to the rhythm, and so the atmosphere of the video will be happy.

Movement

When we film our video, I'm open to spontaneous decisions and will go with the flow, however a cool video which inspires me in terms of movement is Radio Head's "Man of War". I like the simplicity of the actor simply walking.

Questionnaire Feedback and Analysis

 Section 1 - “Facts”


Section 1 of my questionnaire asked participants questions concerning their social status to help give my audience an identity. I distributed my questionnaire via random sampling to a sample size of 30 people, at my school. I distributed based on sexuality, and so gave it to 15 boys and 15 girls. And I also distributed based on age. Each age quartile has more or less 10 participants. Ages are present below:

I am fortunate enough to go a very diverse school so evidently in the chart to the right hand side, my audience is extremely ethnically varied. I asked my audience of their ethnicity because I believe this contributes a lot to telling us about their up-bringing and identity.

Section 2 - "You and Music Videos"

Section 2 essentially explores the audience's connection to music videos. I asked the consumer how many hours they typically devour a day to watching music videos. I was keen to know this because I know, personally for me I spend a great deal of time watching music videos and I derive a lot of satisfaction from videos. However I also know some people who simply listen to the audio and don't watch. This question is useful because it indicates how much the audience care for the video. The results were as I expected. The majority of my audience spend less than an hour watching music videos, but still a considerable amount of time. After that, a lot of people watch music videos for one to two hours, and then a portion of people simply don't watch music videos. A minor amount of six people watch the video for three to five hours.

I asked our audience what their passions include as our video will appeal to them more if it features themes of things they enjoy. We found the most popular options that we listed were video gaming, art, and dance.

Questions nine and eleven were added for a similar purpose. Results are as shown:

Section 3 - My Music Video

Question thirteen asked the audience what the title "All Night" reminded them of. Answers did not vary greatly and common replies were 'parties', 'being out', 'fun'. This question was necessary as these themes (partying, being out, fun) are themes which our music video will explore and we want our thinking process to be uncomplicated.

We finished our survey by asking the audience if they enjoy dance based videos as "All Night" is a dance song and that will be an element of our video.

Narratives • Planning

Target Audience

Questionnaire

In order to learn more about my audience and to ensure that I'm correctly targeting what they'll like, I've created this questionnaire which I will hand out to a random audience

“All Night” Music Video Questionnaire

Please tick (✓) the box which applies to you. Tick only one box unless an asterix (*) is added.

Facts: 

1. I am
Male ☐    

Female ☐     

Prefer not to say ☐

2. I am

14 or less years  ☐

15 - 19 ☐

20 - 24 ☐

25 - 29 ☐

30 + years old ☐

3. My ethnicity is ……………

You and music videos:

4.  How much time on a daily basis do you spend watching music videos?

No time whatsoever ☐

Less than an hour ☐

1-2 hours ☐

3-4 hours ☐

5 + hours ☐
5. Please tick which of the following forums you use to discover new music?

Youtube ☐

Vevo.com ☐

Facebook ☐

Spotify ☐

Soundcloud ☐

Apple Music ☐

Tidal ☐

Google play ☐

6. My favourite genre of music is
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7. My favourite music video is 
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

8. My passions include: *

Video games ☐

Art ☐

Literature ☐

Dancing ☐

Sports ☐

Music ☐

9. Videos that appeal to me the most have: * 

A cool scenery ☐

Artistic direction ☐

Simply, a singer singing their song. ☐

A plot ☐

Something else, please specify ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

10. Do you like your music videos to be politically and/or ethically correct?

11. What do you value more

Context ☐

Story line ☐

Aesthetics ☐

10. Do you think the music video has to suit the song (- lyrics, rhythm)?

11.Why do you watch music videos?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I will be producing a music video for the song “All Night" by Chance the Rapper. The song falls into the hip-hop genre of music, and with the jumpy beats and a fun mixture of singing and rapping, it is very easy to dance to. The song is based on how Bennett feels that now he's famous people leech onto him for favours. The following questions directly relate to my project:

12. What does the title “All Night” make you think of?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

13. Do you listen to Chance The Rapper?

Yes ☐

No ☐

14. Do you enjoy music videos that include dance?

Yes ☐

No ☐

Pinterest Mood Board (click logo)

Popular Culture

Theodor W. Adorno was a german psychologist and philosopher who created the critical theory in society. Ardorno judged jazz music and pop music, claiming that these are aspects of the culture industry and that they contribute to the sustainability of capitalism by rendering it "aesthetically pleasing", and also that culture as an industry is not "true art". He critiqued the culture industry for providing society with false needs. Then, capitalists suffice our fake needs after creating them, and this overwrites our true, legitimate needs. This is relevant in the music industry because musical products are simply commodities, sold to the audience who believe they are consuming a genuine emotion, however Adorno suggests that these emotions are purely cathartic.
I agree with Adorno in that I think that popular music is sold to an audience with the false-belief that they are also getting an emotion from the piece. I think this relates to Dyer's star theory and particularly the star as a commodity and construction. It relates to the star as a construction as it sells an emotion which the artist behind the music doesn't neccessarily feel, and it relates to the star a commodity because these emotions are manufactured and presented as an item to be sold, yet they're not real. However I disagree with Adorno because in my opinion jazz and popular music are not cathartic, as generally cathartic music should be calm and slowish, which jazz and most pop-songs are not. Jazz and pop are hyped and so for me, they don't relieve emotional tension. This is what I consider cathartic music:
- as it's slow, calming, and minimal, which is very unlike pop.

Dick Hebdige is a British media theorist and sociologist who opposes Ardano's argument for several reasons which I whole heartedly agree with. Hebdige points out that music consumption is a choice made by the audience and specific needs differ among the audience in accordance with their social and ideological status, as well as other things. He also argues that society is free to resist power of large companies by simply ignoring them or more commonly, finding different alternatives. The result of these alternatives, is the audience make their own content or find non-mainstream content, thus creating subcultures. Inevitably, conglomerates tailor their commodities for subcultures, which force the audience to accept these products or resist further.
I agree with the point that needs are diverse depending on the audience, because if you compare the sort of music a 12 year old white middle-class girl from London listens to, versus what a 22 year old working class black boy from Compton, America listens to it would obviously (based on stereotypes) be very different. Therefore I don't think Adorno cannot honestly expect us to have similar needs, or even for an artist to suffice our needs in similar ways. If we look at Sia's music video for elastic heart, some people think it portrays Sia trying to leave her past-self, yet other people have perceived it as the friendship and the breakup of a daughter and father. In a more simple way, some people perceive it as Sia growing emotionally and some perceive it as a story about her family.

I agree with the statement that society is free to resist power and ideologies injected into us by capitalists. I admit that music is a very popular form that large companies use to force-feed us with ideas, however I think that people can for sure ignore these ideologies. If we take love as an example for an idea that's fed to us, because it is very often (e.g: "Side to Side" by Ariana Grande, "Passionfruit" by Drake, "911" by Tyler the Creator), the idea that's presented to us is that it's intrinsic to have a lover and we should be dependant on them. However, this ideology can easily be ignored. There's a range of music that combats this notion ("1 Night" by Mura Musa & Charli XCX - discusses independancy in loving for a short amount of time, "High By The Beach" by Lana Del Rey - converses how love isn't vital and how Del Rey can live with and without it) as well as music that doesn't even mention this notion, television and movies which oppose this notion, and real-life experiences which oppose this notion. I also agree that nower days, it's becoming increasingly easy to find non-mainstream music with indie labels and music forums like Soundcloud, Youtube, etc.