Planning

What you should have when it's completed:

- Brief details about your band/artist, including which record label they're signed to, what their ideology is and who their target audience is (audience profile)

- Moodboard

- Synopsis of the video, including details of performance and/or narrative elements, location shots, costume/props images

- Shot list for each sequence

- Storyboard

- Aim for an animatic

- Explanation of how you have used Goodwin's elements within the video OR how they are subverted. Explanation of how you have used Vernallis' points.

- Explanation of WHY you have decided on this concept and HOW it will appeal to the target audience and 'fit' into the music industry.

– discussion of any influences you have had.

- Keep asking for class and teacher feedback as well as target audience feedback. This must go your blog and you must adapt your ideas accordingly. Use questionnaire or/and focus groups. Use social media / online survey.

- Your audience research should include a consumption profile of your target audience. It should also refer to Uses and Gratifications Theory.

- Actors / Casting / possibly auditions

- You should conduct a recce.

- Schedule.

Ask for hep at any point and remember to support each other. Below is a little more help to help you define your research.

1. Gathering more information on your target audience. Here is a link to the media pack published by a magazine:

http://www.mhpromo.co.uk/MP_11.pdf

Look through the pack to see how the target audience is described in detail.

Also look through last year's blogs to see examples of Audience Profiles and Audience Consumption Profiles.

2. Example of an ANIMATIC




3. Example of storyboarding:

Audience research 1: Initial questions and theory

Uses and Gratifications

UK Tribes (Channel 4): Essential booklet

https://www.channel4sales.com/globalassets/resources/c4_youth_tribes_booklet.pdf

Audiences

Demographics (Audience) from npamediastudies

 

Audience from Andy Wallis

Research and early planning - Up-to-date blogs BY MONDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER

WHAT YOU SHOULD ALL HAVE BY NOW:

- One post looking at Goodwin's concept of illustration, amplification, disjuncture

- Three detailed analyses of music videos using Goodwin's points
 
- At least two detailed analyses of music videos using Vernallis' points - see reference sheet I gave you all. There are spares by my computer.
 
These posts should be labelled RESEARCH and ANALYSIS

- At least one post looking at a variety of music videos that inspire you - could be the camerawork, set, costumes and make up, lighting, use of close ups, dance sequences, performance etc. Make sure you have screenshots and explain in a few words what it is that you find interesting.

This post should be labelled RESEARCH.

- One post featuring the songs you may want to use and why they are good choices. 

- One post on your selected song and why you settled on it. The post should feature the song itself, the lyrics, preferably annotated with early ideas, and a couple of similar artists and the kind of videos they use to promote their songs, and a paragraph about the music genre and its conventions.

This post should be labelled EARLY PLANNING.

- Some of you have already started looking at lighting in specific music videos - You should look at the range of music videos with a focus on lighting.

- One post looking at the audience profile of your 'similar artists' (use uktribes.co.uk) and early market research (which platforms, channels, music mags feature similar artists)


These posts should be labelled RESEARCH and AUDIENCE RESEARCH 

- Start creating your artist (name, profile, potential actors etc - start recruiting/ auditioning very soon!) 

LABEL: EARLY PLANNING

NEXT STEP: PREPARING THE TREATMENT AND YOUR PRESENTATION.

Example of a student using Vernallis' theory on their own video

A good example of Vernallis analysis 

A good example from last year of Vernallis analysis

Technical Codes in Music Videos - Reference presentation

Technical Codes in Music Videos from Hélène Galdin-O'Shea

Getting it all started

Hi everyone and a warm welcome back!

Before I go on, Issa James has posted the great post below with plenty of links to music videos that we want you to look at. It is crucial that you spend time becoming familiar with different genres and that you pick up ideas from a wide range of videos. Of course, there are other sources of inspiration such as films, TV drama and books!

But before I go on further, let's go back to basic information.

1. Once again, the coursework accounts for 50% of your final grade and we usually finish filming and rough editing by Christmas with a little time in January/February to complete the edit and evaluation.

The brief is to create a promotional pack for an upcoming album (you will have to invent an artist/band), including a magazine advert, a music video for the single coming out, and a digipak for the album (6 panels minimum). So, 3 products this time around!

2. You need to understand that there are many genres of music videos, usually dependent on the music genre being promoted. Overall, there are Performance videos, Narrative-led videos, but the majority include a mix of both.
Two key theorists who will help you deconstruct and analyse videos are Goodwin and Vernallis. I will provide templates summing up the main conventions they have come up with to support your analytical work and we will of course go through their key points together.

Starting with Goodwin, here are the key points:

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography
- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. Videos allow artists to present and modify their 'Star Image' to the public.
- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc.
- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts; these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

Please use these to get started with your music video analyses. It goes without saying that you will need plenty of screengrabs!

3. We will be completing some preliminary tasks to teach you a few skills in preparation for shooting and editing your own videos. The lip-synch task will take place Thursday 17th September. You will need to be ready to shoot a lipsynched song of your choice. You can work in pairs.

You must:
- bring the printed lyrics
- have learnt the song lyrics before the lesson
- bring any prop you might want to use
- be able to play the song during the shoot.


Here are examples from previous years: