Audience Research Proposed Questions

This is the written up questions we brainstormed in a media lesson in preperation for when we create our audience research questionnaire.

P!nk

Pink is a solo vocal artist in the 'pop rock' musical genre, she is a talented musician with the ability to play multiple instruments enabling her to create a more unique style to her music.

Pink has a rebellious reputation focusing her songs on emotional feelings related to brakes in relationships; she also has a unique 'rock' style look with leather costumes, extreme hairstyles, and tattoos.

Things I Expect To See In Pinks Video

• Cars
• Aggression
• Brutality
• Rebelling
• Unique Style

Things I Expect To See In A Pop Video

• Expensive possibly explicit clothing
• Relation to a story line
• Clean styled hair
• Attractive people
• High budget video
• Solo performance

Things I Expect To See In A Rock Video

• Performance shots
• Instrument shots
• More realistic
• Rebellious activity
• Faster editing
• More aggressive acting & lyrics

P!nk - Don't Let Me Get Me

In the first shot of this video we see a mid shot of P!nk in a school setting as seen by the costume and surrounding characters; instantly we are able to see that P!nk is a rebellious character due to the writing 'ME' on her shirt relating to her real name of 'Alecia Moore'. Her colorful hair and facial expressions stereotype her to a stroppy teenager and makes a clear contrast between her and the girls in the background. The fact that she is sat down whilst other people are playing basketball behind her shows that she may have been left out and this can relate to the lyrics of the song being about a teenager feeling depressed.

In this shot we see P!nk segueing with herself in the mirror which relates to the fact that she doesn't like herself and also relates to the lyrics 'Everyday I fight a ware against the mirror, I cant take the person staring back at me'. The depressive feel to this song and its lyrics is something more stereotypical of a rock genre rather than a pop genre; however the narrative about a single character showing no band shots is something more stereotypical of a pop genre.

In this shot a smart dressed man is shown to be teaching the elements needed to be a pop star and emphasizing the fact that being a pop star is not simply about being talented but also focused on your image. This relates to how young girls idolize pop stars and feel pressured to follow their footsteps instead of being happy with how they are and the way they look.

Hardcore Punk Expectations & Inspirations

Audience: The target audeicne for this genre of music is people around the age group of 15 - 25, primarily young males.

Stereotypes & Inspiration For Live Performance

Your Demise




Trapped Under Ice



We like the clothing that 'Your Demise' wear and the messy style setup in a lower class 'DIY' venues that both bands use, such as: small clubs, halls, barns, buildings.

Main Inspirations For Our Video: Clothing, Venue's, Setups.


Stereotypes & Inspiration For Narrative

We Are Fiction

This video uses a mixture of liver performance and narrative throughout the video which fits in very well with the 'Hardcore Punk' genre. We like the way in which this video uses live performance to assist the performance rather than purely narrative or performance; this helps to keep the video interesting whilst still ensuring that it fits in with the genre. We also like the lighting in this video and aim to produce something similar for our live shots with a mixture of back and front lighting creating some interesting effects, the smoke in this video aids the lighting effects and is also something we shall look into using in our video.

Main Inspirations For Our Video: Alternating between live performance and narrative, Lighting, Smoke.

Album Cover Research - Hardcore Punk

With the 'Hardcore Punk' genre it is conventional that the album covers are not a choreographed photo of members of the band and tend to focus more on artwork that will gain a link to the band. By incorporating band logo's and titles they can still create a cover that will represent the band and are also able to create a band image by keeping these elements similar on other artwork. 

Gallows - Grey Britain

This is the album cover for 'Grey Britain' by 'Gallows'. This is conventional as it doesn't consist of any image of the band members and its main focus is of a logo that will relate to the band. By keeping artwork simple they are able to create band merchandise from the same artwork, which is related to this heaver genre where the fans are generally more dedicated to supporting a band. The font used for the writing of 'Gallows, Grey Britain' is very unique and could easily be recognizable on other albums as part of the bands icon. 

The color pallet is extremely limited on this album cover and although it relates to the album name of 'Grey Britain', it is also a conventional aspect to this genre as they tend to be deep, bold, meaningful, and emotional, rather than happy and upbeat with lots of color like a pop song.

While She Sleeps - This Is The Six

This album cover also conventionally focuses on artwork of a band logo rather than constructed images of the band or other settings and situations. Similar to the Gallows cover is uses no color but just tones of grey; however this album cover does not feature the band or album name which is an unconventional aspect as only fans of the band would recognize it by this album cover. This may have been done to create a mysterious identity that may intrigue people but consequently makes the album simple and easy to look at without lots of bulky text. A vintage style has been adopted for this album cover which could easily be incorporated into future artwork.

Billy Tallent - Billy Tallent III

This album cover looks slightly different from the other two instantly due to the fact it uses more color, however it still refrains from using any photographs and focuses on artwork that can have resemblance to the band. Similar to the other two covers this one also possesses a slightly old/vintage style to it with un-neat edges and bold, textured fonts. The logo here is very basic but would is memorable alike the others enabling a link to be created between the album cover and the artist without the need for images of the band. 

Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal

This album artwork is a totally different approach to the other three but is still conventional to the genre due to the stereotyped tattooed scruffy styled males with depressing facial expressions relative to the genre of music and depressing lyrics. The colors on this album cover are toned down and the composition of it is still very basic with the only thing in the shot being the band members stood in front of a vintage style backdrop / wall. The fonts used on this cover go from a classic formal font to a more rough looking, hand written style font. 

This is the style of cover I think we will focus on creating so that we can create instant recognition to the band with a well composed shot. I think that for a band that is trying to gain popularity, this is the best choice of artwork in order to create a known identity of the band before a relation between logo's is made.   

Hardcore Punk Genre Research

Hardcore Punk is a genre that has been created by the merging of much heavier rock style music with a punk style; this genre started to develop in the late 1970's but has recently gained is popularity in the music trend of the younger generation.The hardcore punk genre is much faster tempo with a heavier and more abrasive sound that regular punk rock.

In the musical style of the hardcore punk genre it is common that the vocalists will scream, shout and chant lyrics among with heavy distortion on guitars using a powerful drum beat with almost certainly a double bass pedal. Breakdowns are another element that make up the parts of a hardcore punk song and act as the 'bridge' of the song but consist of a tempo change, possibly a key change to create a dramatic part in the song where solo's may be present.

In concept of music video the common conventions of this genre of music is primarily on performance much as with other styles of rock/band type music; hover the shots seen in this style tend to be more violent and explicit if imitating an atmosphere of a gig due to the stereotypical 'mosh-pit' style dancing linked to this style. An enthusiastic stage performance may be the main setting of the video but in a music video there can be multiple settings, these are conventionally places such as: Abandoned Buildings, Churches, Woodlands, or possibly underground settings that help to create the atmosphere in relation to the music style. 

Conventional Hardcore Punk Music Video: Your Demise - Miles Away

In the opening shots of this video we see playing of instruments in a live situation, imitating that of a gig; this shows musicianship and talent and also gives the audience an insight of what a live gig by the band would be like in order to sell the concept of going to see that band live. These elements are conventional in this style of music as live 'gigs' are a stereotypical and traditional concept of a rock style band and they can dwell on their musical talent of the shared abilities to write songs and play multiple instruments including vocals.

Again supporting the previously shown elements we see a crowd dive into a very lively and possibly violent crowd; this shows the atmosphere of a live gig and the enthusiastic dare devil style of the performers as the launch themselves into a hyper crowd whilst still attempting to perform the song.

The lighting in this genre of video is also similar to that of a live gig situation among with the casual costumes of t-shirts and shorts much like a stage performer would wear due to the heat whilst performing. The tattoos are a stylised icon to this genre relating to old rock identities with leather look clothing and tattoos. The performers are always shown to be giving it there all in a crazy kind of way in this genre. 

Conventional Hardcore Punk Music Video: While She Sleeps - Our Courage, Our Cancer

In the start of this video conventions are instantly portrayed in relation to the genre with the setting of the video being an abandoned house, it is very common for hardcore punk bands to film in derelict / abandoned buildings and warehouses to create a harsher and colder atmosphere which relates to the usually negative lyrics of this genre. The main shots used are also very stereotypical of this genre as they tend to use a lot of close up and mid shots along with fast paced editing, long shots are rarely used as they take away some of the pace and fast movement from the video and are rarely needed as the videos are usually based around a performance style rather than narrative. 

 The performance of the band in the video is similar to that of a live gig in this genre and shows the musicians putting a lot into the performance and in general going a bit crazy with the careless swinging of instruments. This is a element related to this genre as any live performances of a hardcore punk band would feature the band and the audience putting a lot of effort in to go crazy with violent 'mosh pits'.
The colour of the shots in this video is very saturated and most of the colour has been removed into a kind of sepia effect, this additionally makes the atmosphere a little more dense to suit into the genre. 

This video is mainly based around live performance in a derelict setting however cutaway clips are featured acting as a very simple narrative relating to the lyrics, this video is created using amplification which is the most common for a hardcore punk video. 

The cut away clips looking back into the past are to emphasise the deep lyrics and also help separate the performance shots so that the video does not get consistent and boring. 

Unconventional Hardcore Punk Music Video: Architects - Black Blood

It is clear to see the contrast between this music video and the other conventional videos I have looked at in the 'hardcore-punk' genre, as the video starts we see that there is no clear footage of band members or shots relating to the lyrics but instead the lyrics are being presented on screen through computer generated image (CGI). This is more common in the pop genre and is very unconventional in a hardcore genre as usually shots of the band performing are used to gain the band interest for future 'gigs' and also for pace of the video to fit along with the music. Instead this uses CGI that manipulates and moves around very quickly along with quick cuts to different  scenes which are then overlaid with lyrics.

As the video goes on it becomes more apparent that there is not much relation between the background CGI / shots and seems that the video has been based around disjuncutre, this is unconventional as it does not allow a band to present their image as well and gain themselves an identity through the video. Even though the backgrounds are not necessarily related to the lyrics, they still help create the deep emotional atmosphere and the lyrics on screen help to emphasise them and leave the audience to make their own interpretation of the concepts behind them rather than influencing / narrating them through the video. 

It seems a possibility that this music video is very low budget however it is very memorable due to its simplicity and how unique it is compared to other video's in its genre. I still feel like this is a good video however I think that due to its simplicity, viewers would not be as interested in viewing it a second time as their would not be much more to see after watching it again. 

Ed Sheeran Lyric Annotations

The main concept behind this music video is a man doing sign language to the lyrics. This makes the audience listen to the lyrics more as they are not engrossed in a complex narrative but instead trying to create some relation between the sign language and the lyrics. Although this is very simple it continues to interest the viewers as they are constantly trying to make the link between the lyrics and the hand movements. This is an unconventional concept as usually pop videos feature some kind of narrative relating to the artist, however Ed Sheeran is not the main character in this video. 

This shot is more conventional showing the artist playing their instrument and demonstrating talent and musicianship. This lighting in this shot and throughout this video is very mysterious and creates a lot of shadows cutting the viewer from seeing everything in the shot clearly. This relates to the lyrics in the way that he is emphasizing he can sell with his talent alone and not from his image as he is only in a few shots in his video for small amounts of time. 

This is the only shot in the video where you get a clear view of Ed Sheeran, this again relates to the fact that his image and the music video doesn't need to be factors of his fame as his fame should come from his talent, musicianship, and the work he has put in to work his way up to the top and become successful. 

In each of the shots we see everything is kept as simplistic as possible by there only being one focus point; there is also no color through the whole video which also makes there less visual information to the audience to take in. I feel that this is effective because is allows the audience to focus on the talent of the artist and the meanings behind the lyrics because they are not engrossed in a complicated narrative. 

Our Song Lyrics + Analysis

As media group member 'Kieran' is vocalist for the band we are recording it was much easier for him to analyse the lyrics as he knows the exact meanings behind them.

Because we intend to use amplification in our video, it is important to know the meanings behind the lryics for the ability to create the best concepts for the video that is true to the lyrics.

Choosing Our Track

The first stage of planning for our main task was to choose the song that we would use to create our music promo for; this song would need to be a track from any unsigned band to ensure we do not infringe any copyright on signed tracks also cutting the need to request copyright permission on a track which could potentially waste a lot of time waiting for a reply.

For the genre we chose 'Hardcore Punk' as we all enjoy this style of music so we would not get bored with it whilst editing our video to the track. Due to the fact that all three members of our group are currently doing a course in music we have decided to use a track we composed and recorded called 'Broken Knees'. We are hoping this will play to our advantage as we will be able to get lip and instrument syncing much more accurate when filming as the genuine performers will be playing.

The Band
The band is called 'Two Hundred Kings', they formed in the summer of 2012 because of their love for this genre of music. This members of this band are keen to film this video and will aid them in increasing their popularity.

The inspirations for this band are 'Basement' and 'Last Witness' however the band would like to develop their own unique and definable style of song writing. They hope a unique sound will be achievable from the unusal voice of the lead vocalist. The style of this band will be of a typical 'hardcore punk' song wearing band T-Shirts and jeans.

Here is a link to the first rough recording of our track which we will develop along with the music video and record in better quality with finalised composition.

Broken Knees (Rough Recording)

Group Choice

The group I will be working in for the main task consists of:

Me: Strengths are general ICT skills, Good understanding of editing software, Organisation skills, Experience in music/sound.

Kieran Hill: Strengths are experience in filming and photography, Good understanding of media concepts, Experience of playing in a live band.

Matthew Jones: Strengths are operating filming equipment, Understands technical aspects of different recording equipment, Experience of playing in a live band.

One of the main reasons we choose to work together in this group as we felt that we had all the skills within the group which would be required to create a professional music video. We also all like the same styles of music so will be able to choose a track that all of us are going to agree on; additionally we all are musicians and would all be able to feature in the music video if required. Due to our musicianship we would be able to play the instruments in a realistic fashion in order to sync to our chosen track. Our talents cover all main instruments of: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Piano, & Drums.

Across our group we have a variety of equipment which we also feel will benefit us for this music video.

Kieran Hill - Cannon DLSR 550D, Variety of Lenses
Matthew Jones - Cannon 7D, Cannon 500D, Variety of Lenses, Macbook Pro featuring 'Final Cut Pro X'
Dan Harris - Range of lighting equipment, Variety of stands, Variety of sound Equipment

With our range of equipment and skills we feel that we have the potential to create a professional music video. Our main advantages of working together is the ability to use 'Final Cut Pro X' over iMovie which is very limited on editing features in comparison.