Storyboard Idea

As a group, we have been thinking of a few ideas, which we decided to move into the style of a storyboard. This is an image of that storyboard so far.














The ideas shown in the picture we did decide to change, so another image will be posted later on. We are not changing too much from this idea, however, the initial 30 seconds of the each band member getting hold of their instrument we believe could be an extended 30 seconds before the video actually starts that is very unnecessary. It may prove to be tedious rather than a interesting beginning. Each band member instead will start with their instruments in hand, playing along with the music. We believe this to be easier to watch for our demographic, especially for possible new viewers who have never heard of the band, they are more likely to want to get straight into the music.

'Lonely Hearts' - Belingo

We have come to a final decision to use 'Lonely Hearts' by Belingo, (George and Myself's band) as the recording to use for our music video. We believe the recording quality is far better over the other option of 'Let Us Be Known'. Moreover, we find that 'Lonely Hearts' is far easier to generate and create theme for the video, for instance, following a theme of a heart break in reference to the title. As we feel that animation will be best suited for our video, we believe that this song would be the most appropriate for that technique, as well as any others we decide to use along the way.

Main Product Planning - Flowchart of Stages

The brainstorm sheet has allowed us to gather our ideas, and we have now processed them into a flowchart, which we can now use as a guideline for our production tasks.

Update: Aiden noticed that the storyboard was not mention in the flowchart. We decided it will be the next stage after choosing the song and features that it will include.

Main Product Planning - Brainstorming of Ideas

After researching various different forms of audience and product details and information, we began to start planning the main product of our A2 production. Here is an image of our brainstorm sheet:

Belingo - The band for the video

Belingo, the band George and myself happen to be a part of, are the most suitable band for us to use for our A2 production. As we have a recording of the song we wish to use and own the rights to it, we will avoid any issues or problems we may have had trying to find another band, song or performer due to permissions and licenses. The music is original, therefore, it follows the brief. Initially, when George and myself asked the three other members of the band about their thoughts of doing it, they were happy to help out. We spoke with them again recently to confirm this and it was okayed. George sent an e-mail to Aiden informing him.

(Click to view an enlarged image)

Things are going according to plan so far with the band willing to participate.

Questionaire - Graph Results

After recieving a fair amount of data from our questionaire, we have collaborated our entries together to gain an understanding of what the audience would like to see in a music video. This post shows the graphs of results, the anaylsis that follows and our decision whether or not to use the audience feedback provided for our video.

The graph displays the results of the age of the participants. The majority of them chose between the ages 16-19. This provides us with the information that this age group are the most important to us when creating the video, and have to keep them in mind as a top priority, as they are more likely to be the judges of our production package. Aiden found some secondary research that supports our graph's results. The research found that the age bracket 12-19 on average spend £37.55. (Found from http://www.theregister.co.uk/). Our graph results, and the secondary research suggest that our demographic is going to consist mostly of this age bracket.

 Evidently, the graph above shows the results of the gender of the participants, which are clearly shifted to being mostly male. There are a few females however which will hopefully keep a reasonable balance.

The results of our graph put the majority of the participant in the region of £41+, with an almost equal amount from £11 - £20 & £21 - £40 collectively. This is likely due to digital download and access to music videos. No one in the questionaire selected £0 - £5. If we were to sell this single, we would have to give the best quality that we could do to insure that we would satisfy our demographic.

Over half of our participants agree that music is more accessible when it is accompanied with a supplementary video. Obviously, we cannot ignore the section of people who choose 'no preference', showing that the music video is not important to them, in terms of accessing music. But, to please the majority, we will need to make our video to the best quality that we can.

Like the previous, this graph has the majority in the categories 'yes' and 'no preference'. This gives us evidence that people would more likely prefer to have a video that accompanies the music, as it would help them feel more involved with the music, as the question suggests. The minority that answered 'No' lets us know that music videos are not always considered necessary to be part of the music. This may be from a selection of people who do not usually listen to music with a music video, or music that has no music video (e.g. On the radio). Although, according to our graph results, it is more likely for our following to buy the music along with the video.

This graph shows that people usually watch videos fairly frequent during a week, in some cases, daily. Although the previous graph showed that people do not find music more accessible with it's music video, this graph helps to prove how useful music videos are in the distribution of music and its accessibility. It is important that we create the best possible video for the best possible results.

From this graph we discovered that 84% of people that completed this questionaire use the internet or the TV to watch music videos. For us, the internet would be the only realistic option, seeing as gaining access to TV music video can be highly expensive and far to complicated for time we have left. However, the internet is by far a sufficient enough medium for our group to distribute our video to our demographic. It has proved to be successful for other musicians.

This graphs displays the participants response to their favourite types of genre. The results favour Rock & Indie, but do display a fair amount for all of the others. Belingo, being of the folk/indie genre, generally fits quite well with these results. As our group also like folk, indie and rock music, it will be enjoyable to try to create a video based on these genres.

This graph presents us with almost equal results. 43% prefer it when a band is directly invovled with a music video, leaving a large percentage who did not mind whether the band were directly involved with the video. Therefore, we are considering implenting roles for each of the band members, seeing as our demographic find it a popular convention.

Animation is a feature our group all like in a music video, and as the results show, so do the majority of the participants. It is also a lot easier to implentment than other categories, such as, special effects and fantasy. Realism is another feature that is popular in the results, we could try and use this in conjunction with the animation, to maximise our production to how our demographic would enjoy it.

 

According to these results, it appears that the participants prefer the music to have some sort of story line intergrated into the music video. Story lines are a common theme, along with animation. 42% however, have said they have no preference or prefer it when a video does not contain a video. So it is up to our group to decide whether we think it is necessary or not. Looking at the previous graphs, I think we prefer the idea of animation and/or realism as a feature.

The questions we added at the end that required the participant to write an answer opposed to multiple choice. This meant we could not create accurate graphs for the wide range of response we got from the wriiten answers. However, we analysed them here:

What is your favourite music, and which feature(s) of it appeals to you?

After sifting through the different answers we got to these questions, two videos stuck out clearly and popular. The videos were 'Here It Goes Again' by OK GO, a popular music video involving stylised movements on treadmills which became hugely popular on Youtube, and the other 'Feel Good Inc' by Gorillaz, which Gorillaz are well known for the animation based videos and characters, which this video also provides. The reasons these were popular were because of the creativity and originality, and the quality of animation. Animation being our group personal favourite, we are considering it a lot. 

The questions based of the representation of male and female overall gave a general 'no preference'. This gives us freedom to representation both genders as we wish. However, we will aim to display both genders as close to how typical media texts of this genre do, to help draw in our demographic, of both sexes.

Product Research: Forms and Conventions - Progessions of Band Music Videos

Our group and I have furthered our research of forms and convention, specifically into the progression of music videos that bands produce. Undoubtly almost all signed bands have more than one music video, and these music videos can show the progression of the band into the fame and recognition by the public. We can see this by the type of video, inclusion of special effects and band members visable in them. For instance, an example we researched, that I will go into further detail on is the band, Bloc Party. The progression of their videos start with the band members visable, so the viewers can fimilarise themselves with the band. The videos then gradually change, from the band being seen, to animated, to not in them at all. This is just one example of bands that, with the increase of fame, start to choose different forms and conventions, such as, actors, storylines, computer generated material, possibly even world events or other videos. Here are some examples:

BLOC PARTY

Silent Alarm - (First album)

So Here We Are - There are various close ups of the band. This allows us to familiarise ourselves with the band
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Pioneers - Features members of the band in animated form, similar to the music videos by Gorillaz. It is possible that Bloc Party maybe trying to recreate the success of Gorillaz’ videos; since they’ve won 11 major awards since they were established in 1998, and been nominated for a further 24.





Weekend in the City - (Second Album)

The Prayer  - The first song released from their second album, features several other actors in the music video, though still revolving around the band members.



Hunting for Witches - This contains shots of the band only, in a dark area.



Intimacy - (Third & Latest Album)

Flux - One of the bonus tracks on the album. This video does not feature the band, and instead, displays robots causing chaos in cities. With the band fully established at this point, having been nominated for several awards, and winning the PLUG Indie Rock Album of the Year in 2006, they no longer need to play a role in the video as their fan base has been established, and are aware of who the members are.






THE TEMPER TRAP

Conditions - (First & Latest Album)

Sweet Disposition - Being their first single, Temper Trap have used computer generated images with at one stage or another, included the faces of each band member, allowing the viewers to see what the band look like, as at the early stages of their career, it will be unlikely for them to be recognised.



Fader - The video includes the band once again present, insuring that the audience can still familiarise themselves with the band. They are in dark setting with bars of light pulsing and flashing on and off.


Love Lost - The band do not appear in this video, an example of there growing success and their ability to be recognised by their audience. The initial success of their first two singles (Sweet Disposition won Drum Media Writers’ Poll’s ‘Single of the Year’, as well as Time Off Writers’ Poll’s ‘Single of the Year’, and also APRA Music Awards’ ‘Single of the Year’) allowed them to explore and experiment with different types of vidoes and techniques. 'Love lost', their third single, contains a story motivated video of young boys running for their P.E. lesson in a country area. Actors lip sync the song and perform actions. These conventions can be seen in many music videos, such as  Bombay Bicycle Club’s video for “Evening/Morning” and The Drums song “Let’s Go Surfing”.