Week 7 Audience Theories

Understanding Media Audiences by Kayla Lockington

Music video practice

 Lip Syncing Practice 

This is the sound for our music video, because of some vulgar language I am unable to upload the original music video where it shows animations of Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer, the singers of the song. The name of the song is 'What other people say', because it is a sad and slow song we have chosen to use mood lighting with blue and purple hues for when we are in the sanctuary. In the music video sample below we have tried to configure the type of setup that we would ideally have for our final project, the only problem was is that at the time the sanctuary wasn't free to film in so we had to use the auditorium for the time being.

This was just a quick rough edit to practice overlaying the sound and trying to match it with the mouth movements. This is good practice before our final edit as we will know what to do. For a first attempt, I feel as though it wasn't terrible but there are definitely aspects of it that could be improved. An example would be the lighting on our actor's face, it is quite dim and you can't really see very many details making the shot look blurry and amateurish. 

We used one of our team members, Levi Wijohn as a practice 'artist', I was happy that we were able to get a different angle and I think it made the whole video more interesting to watch even though it may only be 15 seconds. A key thing for us when we go to film our final product is to make sure our transitions are smooth and trying to incorporate it all together so that it all actually makes sense.

In the example video, we took the technique of how you play the song while shooting your music video and get the actor or star to physically sing themselves in order to align with the words and define the pronunciation, helping with the verisimilitude and making it a lot easier when going to edit our music video. The second shows tips and tricks to try and make a professional-looking music video when you have a low or no budget. Small things like taking advantage of the free resources around you can help with saving money for example since one of our scenes is shot on a road we should try finding a street with a decent amount of lights, just enough to make our actors visible. This can save our team a lot of time and hassle, rather than having to set up the lighting with all the cables and trying to move it every time a car comes. 

 

Mood Board

Earthy Samples Mood Board Social Media by Kayla Lockington

Questionnaire for pitch

By Kayla Lockington by Kayla Lockington

Responses

Mum (45+):

Pop

Pop and Rnb

Yes, on the TV music channel (doesn't have a radio) 

Very good, a bit long

Grandad (70+):

Country 

talkback radio 

No, doesn't know how to

"yeah good" 

Tia (18, cousin)

Pop and rap 

Pop and rap 

Yes, they are fun to watch

Too long, couldn't be bothered watching the whole thing

Jayden (20, cousin)

Dnb

A version of pop

Sometimes, if I see them on TV or if I heard there is something interesting about it

didn't watch it 

Jessica (8, friends child) 

Pop 

Pop "I like dancing music"

yes because I like watching the singers sing 

it was boring 

If I was doing a professional pitch I would try adding more color and visuals, rather than just a video of me sitting and talking. Some people that did watch it said that the music in the background added a little bit of 'flavor' and that the setting looked more professional or interesting. Next time I would try not to look down at my notes so much and try not to be as nervous and fumble my words, hence why the scenes were so short and each snippet was only a couple seconds, then I pasted them all together, which just ended up being more time-consuming.

I am happy with the decision of doing a pop genre music video as it seems to be one of te most popular genres amongst different ages. It would be almost silly to target an older generation with a music video as a lot of the time they do not know how to go and watch a music video on a streaming service such as youtube. 

Survey Results by Kayla Lockington

Representation Research

Representation by Kayla Lockington

Artist and Branding research

Research 

7 Musicians that nailed their branding campaigns 

01. Taylor Swift 

She is one of pop's biggest and most influential artists. Has been since the 1989's. Practically reinventing herself for each new album release, a lot of them containing polaroid-heavy and nostalgic themes, all created by boutique agency ST8MNT. According to the article Taylor received some black-lash in comments after being accused of being a "back-stabber", she then took action by deleting her Instagram feed and replacing it with images of snakes, teasing fans, letting them know that instead of being toxic she is plainly ruthless. 

02. The 1975 

British indie band. Their digipacks/album covers consisted of mostly plain and basic shapes Creative director, artist, graphic designer and photographer, Samuel Johnson is responsible for most of their designs. A lot of them often included a rectangle around their name making a statement that keeping things clear and simple can "work wonders". This has made for easy campaigning as fans started tattooing this simple design onto their bodies. 

03. Paramore

Paramore had a shuffle in team members. They released their 2017 album after laughter, which completely changed the band's image from pop-punk kids to a "glossy, 80s inspired group". After Laughter used a lot of different toned colours as well as clashing patterns amongst others, this was created by LA designer Scott Clearly. Much to die-hard fans' dismay, the group has completely changed their image to vibrant and radiant colours with bold actions carrying through into their music videos. This was to attack mental health issues which were very beneficial to them. 

04. Slowthai 

He titled his album 'Nothing Great About Britain'. This was a political statement and was plastered all over billboards in the UK. These had facts about the problems and hard issues that were happening in Britain, for example, homelessness, hate crime, mental health issues, etc. Encouraging fans to send photos of the billboards was a smart way to engage with fans and create buzz around the album before its release. 

05. Christine and the Queens 

Christine and the Queens kind of changed her name (branding image) as she then changed her name to just Chris a fluid identity. By releasing her first album with Christine and the Queens name scribbled out and had just the name Chris below, automatically creating a buzz. 

06. Ariana Grande 

Ariana Grande released her album 'No tears left to cry' with an upside-down image of her as the main image. Jessica Severn was the designer of this upside-down branding image that extended through her music videos. She also released her own Instagram filter for the branding campaign, which was a fun way to engage with fans. 

07. Ed Sheeran 

After taking a break Ed Sheeran came back to social media posting a picture of a blue square which sparked interest amongst fans. The use of one bold colour a long with a plain divide symbol became one of the singers most successful branding campaigns, designed by Adult art club.  

Branding Power 

The two main points are to make sure it is accessible and shareable

• Become more than just a 'singer' gain the public eye e.g. develop a well situated social media presence. 
• Portray an image they want to be seen as and a brand they created themselves 
• make public debuts, keep in the public eye for some parts. 

Accesiable :

• The accessibility of an artists music video or song is vital to their branding development and creates a longer lasting image in the public eye. 
• Use things such as the internet to their advantage, making sure they keep their fans updated.
• The internet can compliment artists that are constantly releasing new videos e.g. how Wiz Khalifia got 60 million views on a music video he shared. 

Shareable :

• the usage of social media has propelled the sharing views of music videos 
• Can be used to enter a new target audience e.g. how Justin Bieber wanted to evolve to an audience that includes adults when he released his video 'As long as you love me'. 

Demi Lovato digipaks' 

You can see over the years how Demi Lovato's imaging has evolved. She goes from being a teen friendly image, using pinks and 'girly' fonts targeting a younger generation. This may have been to entice girls that were in their adolescent years, she came across as a figure that they would someday want to be or be like. A common theme is the colour black and how it is represent through each album colour, it gives a mysterious vibe but may also indicate how some of her songs may be sad or meaningful looking into deeper or darker topics (depending on the age she is targeting in each album release). As we get to the more recent one there is a clear depiction of selling her body or body image rather than the songs themselves. You cans ee a clear social standing in how she is trying to conform to mainstream trends where in order to be successful asan artist or celebritity you have to show a lot of skin. She deems the album cover 'Confident' but people could argue that it may only make people of teen or young adult years more insecure in that to be confident this is the standard you have to live up too. She has changed with the years and the generations still trying to keep up with trends of teens, where before it was bright coloured lipstick and some type of jewelry with maybe a 'cool' top, nowadays selling 'sex' is the most relied upon way to gain hype or fame, conforming to the way in which teens in the 21st centuray dress with tank tops and short skirts. She is always the main feature in each cover, highlighting her brand image and keeping her face in viewers minds. This is almost a free way of publicity in a way that someone might rethink about the digipak cover they may have seen in store and follow up on that enquiry. It makes her easier to recognise, so people can put a face to the name, hence why she may be so famous now in regards to her being a prodominant face in the film and music industry. 

Media Theory 3rd March

 Media Theorists

Media Theorists by Kayla Lockington

Song details (2nd March)

 Song Details:

As previously shown we have chosen 'What other people say' By Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer. The song was released on the 4th of February and already has over 2 million views on youtube.

This mid-tempo pop song is trying to target a younger audience, either the i-gens or gen z. The music video whilst containing a lot of colour and pictures the song itself wouldn't be suitable for younger kids, only because the lyrics of the song have a deeper meaning than just the images on the screen, one that people of a younger age probably wouldn't appreciate. The song itself relates to a lot of teens or young adults as it does talk about real-life struggles saying in the lyrics "when I grow up" as if she isn't fully aged yet.  

• The composers of this song were Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer as well writing the song they also sing. 

• The first time the song was ever heard/ had a snippet released was when Sam Fischer posted a small sample of the song on an application called Tiktok, where the audio was used over 15,000 times in different videos before its official release. 

• Fischer wrote the song years ago, initially intended for another artist but said he knew the song was always destined to be a duet, he was apparently "blown away" when Demi agreed to sing with him. She said that the song is "a confession realising how far away you can get from who you are in an effort to be liked". 

• The record label that produced the song was RCA Records 

• The song is about two people coming together to connect and find solutions to their problems

• In the music video (lyric video), as well as containing the words of the songs, also featuring the common 2000s board game 'Guess who?'. It says it is to match the lyrics and shows Demi and Sam as cartoon characters displaying the different emotions that people can experience. 

Production email 

To whom it may concern,


I am writing on behalf of the A2 media students of City Impact Church School. We are using the song 'What Other People Say' for educational purposes and wanted to inform the production company as to not think we are corroborating plagiarism. This is guilelessly for a school music video. Thank you for your coaction.


Kind regards,
Kayla Lockington

2nd March Classwork

 Tuesday Classwork

Practical tips:

• Having different locations. By having a range of different settings and changes in the environment, it can add more depth and excitement to your film e.g. inside, outside, warehouse, gardens/forest but have one main focus location.

• Play the song you are going to use while you are filming. This helps to keep the rhythm of the film and make sure that timing isn't too much over or too less. Also helps with lip-syncing. 

• Get the artists to actually sing when filming the singing shots, helps keep it realistic (verisimilitude). Make sure to get 'scratch audio' audio doesn't have to be great. 

• On a certain location try to get a longshot of the surroundings as well as a close-up to mix it up.

• Define scenes and angles in editing adding differentiation to the images. 

• Once everything is loaded on the computer label the different scenes.

• Esier to sync shots as you have the audio as well as the people singing. 

 Treatment 

By Kayla Lockington

We are filming a music video so we didn't think our characters required a specific name. We have tried our best to create a certain ambiance for both characters in the video. We have chosen both boy and girl characters, because of the fact that the female singing sounds like a white voice we have chosen to go with a typical caucasian blonde woman. This adheres to the sound of the song as it wouldn't match the sound and vibe of the song if we had used a colored or ethnic female. Our female character is representing how people go through changes in life, for example, going to church as a little girl reading her bible with her mum by her side living a

picture-perfect life, but as the film progresses we then go on to see that things may not be what they seem. The male character is seen as not only representing the male voice but acting as a companion-like figure. He is introduced
and we see how before, Phoebe was alone, but now she has someone else going through the darkness with her literally and figuratively. 

The overall ideology is attacking real-life situations that help to relate to our target audience of i-gens or
Gen Z. It develops the verisimilitude of our music video helping to keep people engaged, the more realistic it is, in my opinion, the more views it will get. We have tried to get diversity when it comes to the characters because Demi Lovato is singing she is a white female meaning that if we had got an ethnic actor with a darker complexion it may not have matched with the voice or the way the song is sung. We have tried to bring in a colored male just to bring in the cultural differences as pop is usually stereotypically seen for 'white people' in contrast to the hip hop genre that is target towards youth in struggle and pain usually coming from an ethnic or diverse background. We have

tried to challenge this alleged accusation in how black people can often be seen as aggressive or dangerous, but in our video we see this stereotyped male be gentle and loving, a friend guiding our girl character out of the dark. Not only have we used a woman because of the song but because girls/woman are often seen as weak or more emotional than men making it easier to believe that she is going through all this visible hurt where men are usually shown to hide their emotions or often conveyed in films, they are supposed to express their feelings in anger or physical violence. 

For our camera shots, we want to try to get a lot of long and mid shots during the beginning to try and conform to the ideas of how with a long- shot it is hard to see what the character is feeling. With long shots, the audience is only able to see the surroundings or where the character is and where the scene is being set. 

Long shot example on road:

This is useful at the beginning because it helps to give a better sense of what is going on and doesn't make the video so cryptic to try and follow. We will most likely use long shots for when Phoebe is on the stage and when she is walking along a dark and lonely road (literally and figuratively). Mid shots will be used

when we are seeing shots of the little girl with her mum at the beginning reading the bible or at the beach, not only are we able to see facial expressions and the surroundings but it helps to confirm and establish the relationship between the mum and the daughter making it give more of a hard-hitting impact when we see Phoebe at her grave as if losing her best friend, losing a part of her.

A lot of close-ups will be used towards the end of the video and possibly at the start. This is to see the feelings and emotions of the different characters. Since we have already established the surroundings

through the long and mid shots close-ups will be used to display the faces through our montage, it adds a deeper sense of emotion and almost passes it onto the audience because of how intimate and personal the shot is. To display Phoebe's sadness we will use a lot of these shots, showing the intricate details for example the smudged mascara under eyes possibly being an extreme close-up.

For our lighting, we are wanting to keep dark hues and shadows throughout a lot of the scenes where Phoebe is a grown woman/young adult. In our establishing shot, we will see a picture-perfect image where the little girl is sitting reading a bible, this will be illuminated with natural sunlight or a yellow giving the feeling of warmth and sanctity. This then contrasts to when she loses her mum and everything becomes dark and drab with bland colors and a world without sun like her mum was the light in her life. We will

film her walking along a road at night as if representing her life and how she feels like she is on a long dark pathway with no light at either end, almost like a visual metaphor and/or symbol. When our characters are on stage we want to try and get purple and blue lighting like a spotlight on our two characters adding a dramatic presence, emphasizing the actions of the people on stage. A lot of slow movements will be used especially when we are filming our scene at the cemetery, like time itself is moving in slow motion. It helps to grasp everything that is and has happened.

This video explains some good lighting techniques and how we can stage a dark scene without it looking amateur and grainy. Since we are wanting to have a lot of shadows and dark feels in our video, lighting direction and the amount of light will be crucial to make it look as realistic and professional as possible. 

The overall themes of our music video are lament and nostalgia. To bring this across in the film, we will have to show a lot of emotion and create a raw and vulnerable situation. The scene in the cemetery will be a key part of our narrative as it is kind of the plot twist but also the revealing point for why this has happened and why our characters are the way they are. We will display these themes when Phoebe is holding her head in her hands in despair.
The main plot or storyline of our video is when a young girl is innocent and care-free living a normal stereotyped life but then something happens and we see everything go from sunshine and rainbows to a dark and eerie tone. Something has taken a turn for the worse and what was in now no longer. A lot of our scenes will then turn to Phoebe walking down streets in the dark by herself and driving her car with mascara smudged under her eyes symbolizing that she has been

crying. We then get introduced to our male 'singer' and he is shown first singing (lip-syncing) on stage with her then slowly becoming part of her life as if he is going through the same things and we start seeing him walking down this dark road with her and driving in the car but instead being a passenger along for the ride. Halfway/towards the end of the video, we will see a shot of Phoebe kneeling in front of her mum's grave. This is the turning point in the video as now the audience knows exactly what is happening and why. Depending on how the music video looks, we will put our montage either over the chorus or right at the end where the

the song starts to slow down again. This is just showing how everyone goes through different emotions and that people go from being a stereotypical child where they will be seen in a close-up shot smiling and happy to a young adult looking miserable/have almost lost the spark of creativity and freedom.  It will also represent how she is not alone in what she is feeling and that millions of people all over the world may be struggling with the same situation or something different. 

This is a short video of an easy way to configure a montage with multiple clips. It shows the timing of clips and how they would all go together.

Pitch

Pitch planning

My name is Kayla Lockington and I am doing a2 media studies at city impact church school
Doing a music video project

Artists Name & Track Title
What other people say by Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer

Directors Name
Grace Watson

Camera
Levi Wijohn

Lighting
Kayla Lockington

Sound
Hunter Look

Talent
Phoebe(singer), Ethan(actor/dancer), Amene(child), t.Tracey(mum) as well as possible extras
Wanting extras so that we may include a montage of different aged people going from young
Happy children to now miserable and burdened adults/ young adults.

Overall themes
Because of the lyrics we wanted the feeling of lament and nostalgia, from the perspective of a young girl, carefree, reading the bible in the sanctity of her home with her mum by her side then slowly growing up and facing the burdens of the world. Towards the middle/end of the video we see an image of the mum's grave giving the audience the source of all this pain and sadness.

Lighting
Dark and gloomy lighting throughout the beginning and most of the middle - mimicking the feelings being presented by the characters/actors.
When on stage purple and blue-hued lighting give a dramatic presence helping to conform to the conventions of a pop music video with theatrical and over-the-top gestures. Purple and Blue being cold colours with blue being a symbol of sadness and tears.
White/ bright natural lighting at the end when we see Phoebe walking away in a white dress as if all her troubles and darkness has been removed.

Costumes
We want to keep basic clothing to help keep to the verisimilitude of someone who is almost feeling depressed, meaning you wouldn't usually see them walking around in a ball gown or suit with a full face4 of makeup and dress shoes. We will have mostly neutral-colored clothing just basic black jeans with maybe a white basic t-shirt, the same goes for our male character. The one major costume that will be noticeable is when phoebe is seen wearing the white dress.
Small things such as smudged mascara to give the idea like she has been crying will help to add effect as it usually relates to someone who has been crying
One major prop will be filming the scene in the car obviously having to be aware of your surroundings and making sure we are safe.
The bible is seen at the beginning of the music video

Shots
We want a lot of slow shots as if life is moving in slow motion. We will have a lot of long shots in the beginning like we can't see the full picture then as the video continues we will slowly start getting closer taking a deeper look into our characters life and the pain she is going through for example a lot of mid shots and possible close-ups, like when we do the montage we want the main focus to be on the facial expressions.

Album sales
With over 15 million streams on Spotify and over 2 million views on youtube after only being released on the 2nd of February 2021, this song is slowly making its way up on pop billboards.
Demi Lovato has a strong media presence with over 99.8 million followers on Instagram and Sam Fischer having more than 103 thousand, being one of the most followed Australian singers in the 21st century. This made for easy publicity as the duo had an established presence in the music industry with demi Lovato having sold over 20.8 million songs and 3.5 million albums in the United States alone. Sam Fischer created a strong reliable presence after releasing his most popular single ‘This City’ which now has over 200 million streams on Spotify.

Target audience
Our target audience would be the i-gens or gen Z. We would want people who have a more mature understanding to watch otherwise younger kids might not be able to grasp what is really happening in the video and wouldn't be as entertaining to them.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this isn't supposed to leave the audience feeling gloomy and disheartened but instead uplifted due to the convection and stereotyped ‘happy ending’. A tale of a girl going through life feeling alone but then slowly opening up, hence why another character is introduced, not only to match the sound of the song with a male singer but to provide a companion-like figure. We are trying to keep it simple yet entertaining trying to still relate to the audience through real-life situations.