Props list

Shoes: the dark coloured shoes will draw the audiences attention to the artists feet, especially when his feet are seen running or walking. This represents his journey, and longing to escape.

Music player: This will be used at the begining of the video to show the artist pressing play to start the music. This will create a direct link between the music and visuals and this follows Goodwin's rules.

Instruments: We will be using a four piece band to be in keeping with the song. We will use a microphone, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar and Drum kit.

Costume, make-up and hair planning

Costume:
The costume worn by our artists (Matt 1) during the narrative parts of our music video will be dark colours, heavy material and layers. He will wear a zipped up dark jacket and dark trousers- this represents his isolation and entrapment.

Matt 2 (free Matt) will wear white/light clothes to represent his freedom.

Make-up and hair:

Because our artist is male, we will not be using fashion make up or extravagant hair styles. We may experiment with using make-up to make Matt 1 look pale/ill when he is isolated and tormented by his mind; where as Matt 2 will not wear make-up because he will look healthy and strong because he is free. We would not use as much make-up as the image below, but it is a idea that we can work from.

Deconstruction of Lyrics

Using wordle allowed us to identify the key words in the lyrics, this enables us to know what ideas and concepts to focus on when creating our music videos. For example, the words 'disorder', 'feel' and 'pain' show that the lyrics are very personal and meaningful which means we will need to show that in our music video for it to be successful. We could do so by using close-ups on the artist to show his emotions as well as lip syncing, we could also film and edit in such a way that the idea of pain and disorder is illustrated (e.g desaturated to show pain, fast paced or disoriented shots to convey disorder). The words 'window' and 'world' inspire the idea to use windows and reflections. 'World' could also suggest just the artist's normal life and routine, so perhaps shots of towns and people going about their routines could work well. 'Dust' and 'across' inspire the idea for a shot where the artist stamps on the ground and cause dust to fly across the shot. Another example would be the matching the word 'skyline' with a panning or normal shot of a skyline, or simply including the shot of a skyline in out music video to relate to the lyrics.


Examples of words that appear often are, as can be seen in the wordle; dust, disorder, window, skyline, world, pain, feel, across etc.

Todorov and Levi-Strauss Sequences (Narrative)

Chronological

Out of order

Todorov and Levi-Strauss Story Boards (Narrative)

Levi-Strauss, Binary oppositions:

Todorov's equilibrium, Three Stage Theory:

In-depth analysis of another students video- 'Do I Wonna Know' by Arctic Monkeys

Analysis of Indie Rock Music Videos

Audience Research - Popular Genres

For our research it will be useful to explore how popular our chosen genre is in the charts to find out whether it has a chance of succeeding. I took screenshots from the Radio 1, MTV and iTunes charts which are three of the most reliable charts available.

Radio 1 UK Top 40

In 1st-place is Cheryl with I Don't Care which is a pop/dance song.
In 2nd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 3rd-place is Meghan Trainor with All About That Bass which is a pop/doo-wop/blue-eyed soul song.
In 4th-place is John Legend with All of Me which is an R&B song.
In 5th place is Taylor Swift with Shake it Off which is a pop song.

This chart shows that at the moment pop and R&B are the most popular genres for people in the UK with no indie rock songs within the top 5.

                   MTV 

This is a screenshot from http://www.mtv.co.uk/music/charts/the-official-uk-top-40-singles-chart that shows the top 5 most popular songs in the UK according to them as of the 9th of November, 2014.

In 1st-place is Cheryl with I Don't Care which is a pop/dance song.
In 2nd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 3rd-place is Meghan Trainor with All About That Bass which is a pop/doo-wop/blue-eyed soul song.
In 4th-place is John Legend with All of Me which is an R&B song.
In 5th-place is Taylor Swift with Shake it Off which is a pop song.

This chart is almost identical to the Radio 1 chart with the top 5 consisting of exactly the same artists with just the top 2 in a reshuffled order.

iTunes Top 100 Songs

Below is a screenshot from the iTunes top 100 songs list as of the 13th of November, 2014.

In 1st-place is One Direction with Girl Almighty which is a pop song.
In 2nd-place is Gareth Malone's All Star Choir with Wake Me Up which is a cover of Avicii's original song which is part of the EDM/soul/folktronica genres.
In 3rd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 4th-place is One Direction with 18 which is a pop song.
In 5th-place is One Direction with Steal My Girl which is a pop song.

This chart shows us some new artists but none from the indie rock genre either. The top 5 is made up generally of pop songs much like the two previous charts.

Conclusion

In general the most popular songs in the top 5 of each chart I have investigated are pop songs from pop artists. There are not any indie rock artists or indie rock songs within the upper levels of any of the charts. This shows how niche the indie rock scene is. There's a hardcore group of dedicated fans that may not be in as many numbers as the pop fans but they are just as, if not more, dedicated to the genre and supporting its artist's.

Audience Research - Promotion Strategies

When promoting videos YouTube gives you advice on how to build your fanbase, keep fans coming back and how to expand your audience amongst much more. You can find their strategy points here - https://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/music.html#yt-creators-topics-strategies-card-7

The image to the left shows the points that YouTube offers to content creators on how to build their channel.

Some of the key points are -

• The time of uploading the video should considered. Releaseing a video when it is most relevant will gain it the most views whereas releasing it when no-one is interested will not gain many views.
• Lyric videos are very effective at garnering interest as viewers prefer to be interactive with the video. Offering samples could also build up hype surrounding the video and this is a key tool we could use.
• Using effective and meaningful metadata can help gain lots of views as more will be searching for it. Having this is the description and title will help.

Audience Research - Vlogs

A video log or "vlog" is a form of blog that is produced in the form of a video. The first vlog was posted online on January 2, 2000, by Adam Kontras and since then it has become a hugely popular way of delivering various forms of media.

YouTube is a high-traffic site for vloggers who's main aim is usually to get as many views as possible on their videos. Out the 100 most subscribed to channels on YouTube, 17 are vlogs. The YouTube Partnership Programme has given many vloggers a great platform to increase exposure and gain money from making their videos. In 2013, the highest paid vlogger earned $720,000 for the year.

BFvsGF

One of the most popular vlogs on YouTube is BFvsGF who have over 5,000,000 subscribers with a total of 1.22 billion views on their videos. They aim for satire and viewers can follow certain parts of their lives through their videos.

Jenna Marbles

Another very popular vlogger is Jenna Marbles who like BFvsGF she aims to deliver funny and interesting videos to viewers with an insight into her life. She has over 14,000,000 subscribers with over 1.59 billion views on her her videos. Most of her videos are aimed at girls, mainly teenagers, who want to be like her.

Music Vlog example

A great example of a vlog based around music is Misty's Music Vlog, from the YouTube channel Clevver Music, which aims to bring music lovers the "hottest young adult pop hip hop music news every day".

She has a variety of videos on her account which focus on music news, predicting awards and responding to comments. 

Her account focuses on her love for music and this is shown in her image which is of her by her computer holding a ukelele. This instantly shows what she's about and it's an effective way of showing the audience that she enjoys music.

The vlog has a very logo that enhances the experience for the viewer who will be able to see that it's a serious and professional account. It's a good idea to have this to come across effectivley and understood well.

Audience Research - Promotion Strategies

Youtube offer lots of strategy advice for music artists and album promotion, as shown below. You can find the list below at https://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/music.html#yt-creators-topics-strategies-card-7

Main points to remember:

• Uploading a lyric video will increase interest for our music video, offering video 'samples' (short footage of the music video) may also promote our music video, these could be regularly uploaded to maintain interest. 
• Naming and describing videos with easy to search words can make it easier to find online. And creating playlists helps viewers navigate through our channel contents.
• We can make it easy for fans to access more information about the music video by linking to blogs, Facebook pages, subscription button and other playlists on our Youtube channel.
• Time of uploading should be considered, we should aim to upload the final video when we will have the most viewers. Uploading time should be a set regular time if we are updating regularly so that our viewers know when to expect a video from us. 

Audience Research - Popular Genres

MTV Hits Playlist:

1) Bump & Grind 2014 by Wace & Odyssey [Electronic Dance Music]
2) Break Free (ft. Zedd) by Ariana Grande [Electropop]
3) Blame by Calvin Harris [Electronic Dance Music]
4) I Don't Care by Cheryl [Pop]
5) Glow by Ella Henderson [Pop]

The MTV charts show that Pop and Electronic are very popular genres currently.









BBC Radio 1 UK Top 40 Singles Charts:





1) All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor [Blue-eyed-soul, Pop]
2) Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran [Acoustic Pop, Folk]
3) Bump & Grind 2014 by Waze & Odyssey [Electronic Dance Music]
4) Bang Bang by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj [Soul, Pop, Hip-hop and R&B]
5) Shake It Off by Taylor Swift [Pop]


Similar to the previous chart, the BBC Radio 1 Top 40 charts show that Pop seems a very popular music genre of music nowadays.




 iTunes Download Charts:

1) Changing (feat. Paloma) by Sigma [Drum and Bass]

2) Pusher by alt-J [Alternative Rock, Indie Rock]

3) Warm Foothills by alt-J [Alternative Rock, Indie Rock]

4) The Gospel of John Hurt by alt-J [Alternative Rock, Indie Rock]

5) Garden of England by alt-J [Alternative Rock, Indie Rock]

Unlike the previous two charts, the iTunes top downloads chart shows that Indie Rock is also a popular genre. Our song fits within the Indie Rock genre so this shows that our music video has the potential to be popular as well.

Audience Research - Vlogs

The definition of a Vlog: A blog in which the posts are primarily in video form.

There are many blogs across the web, most of them are found in Youtube channels. The blending of video and blogs originated in the early 21st century and has become very popular in the recent years. A reason for the sudden burst of popularity for vlogs could be due to the appearance of Youtube in 2005.

Examples of popular Vlogs on Youtube:

With 2.3 million subscribers and nearly 500 million views, John from the vlogbrothers describes his channel as 'raising nerdy to the power of awesome'.



With 1.2 million subscribers and just over 100 million views is Jenna Marbles, her vlogs are mainly focused on comedy and her dogs.



With 3.2 million subscribers and just over 100 million views, Alfie from PointlessBlog vlogs about advice challenges and collaborations with other vloggers.



Music Vlog example:
A good example of a music vlog is 'Misty's Music Vlog' from the Youtube channel ClevverMusic. Misty makes weekly posts about a range of topics concerning the current and popular music and music artists.


Misty always presents the vlog in the same setting; sitting by a computer with the ClevverMusic channel showing on the screen and music props such as a ukelele. Using the same setting makes the audience feel familiar with the vlog if they are frequent viewers.

She shows the viewers the cover art of the songs she promotes in her videos. Showing the cover art might help the audience identify the song if they come across it in a shop or online store, e.g.: iTunes.

Cover art for 'Little Talks' by Of Monsters And Men. (to the left)









Cover art for 'We are Never Ever Getting Back Together' by Taylor Swift. (below)

The Vlog also has a logo that the viewers can identify the videos by. Having a logo also makes the vlog look more professional.

Additionally, the vlog also included links in the description to their pages in other social networks and a link box at the top of their video for viewers to subscribe to their channel. This is a good method of promoting a page/blog/vlog.

Audience research- Promotion strategies

https://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/music.html#yt-creators-topics-strategies-card-7

We could use strategies: 

1. We could build interest with samples of our final music video and 'bloopers'.  

2. We can upload the lyrics of the song in the description of the music video making them easy to find.

3. Our channel will focus on our final music video.

4. We can optimise our music video making it easy to find, link it to the other videos on our channel and the official Crash Island channel. 

5. We can create a playlist of all of the videos on our channel. 

6. We can spend time making our channel clear and aesthetically appealing.

7. We can make our music video easier to find.

9. We can regularly upload samples and work-in-progress videos. 

11. We can link our blog and our channel.

13. We need to consider when we upload our final piece and when we promote it- e.g time of day.

Audience research- Popular genres

Radio 1 Top 40 singles chart

Top 5:
1. All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor = Pop, Doo-wop, Blue-eyed soul
2. Bang Band by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj = Pop, Soul, R&B and Hip hop
3. Shake it Off by Taylor Swift = Pop
4. Changing (feat. Paloma Faith) by Sigma = Drum and bass
5. Blame (feat. John Newman) by Calvin Harris = Electronic dance music

Pop dominates this chart, this leaves from of our Indie-Rock song to enter the popular music scene.

iTunes download Charts

1. Changing (feat. Paloma Faith) by Sigma = Drum and bass
2. Pusher by alt-J = Alternative, Rock, Adult Alternative and Indie Rock
3. Warm Foothills by alt-J = Alternative, Rock, Adult Alternative and Indie Rock
4. The Gospel of John by alt-J = Alternative, Rock, Adult Alternative and Indie Rock
5. Garden of England by alt-J = Alternative, Rock, Adult Alternative and Indie Rock

Unlike the Radio 1 chart, this chart is dominated by Alternative, Rock and Indie Rock. This shows that the Indie Rock genre is popular.

MTV Hits playlist

1. Glow by Ella Henderson = Pop

2. Break Free (feat. Zedd) by Ariana Grande = Electronic dance music and Electropop

3. Blame (feat. John Newman) by Calvin Harris = Electronic dance music

4. Black Widow (feat. Rita Ora) by Iggy Azalea = Southern hip hop

5. Bang Band by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj = Pop, Soul, R&B and Hip hop

This playlist shows that Pop and Electronic are popular genres. Like the Radio 1 chart it shows that there is room for our Indie Rock song. 

Audience research- Vlogs

Vlog

vlɒɡ/

noun

noun: vlog; plural noun: vlogs

1. a blog in which the postings are primarily in video form.
2. 
   

A Vlog is a blog that mainly contains video entries. Some vlogs are posted on separate blogs, but most vlogs consist of videos on YouTube channels. Vloggings popularity has been increasing rapidly over the past 10 years, the creation of YouTube in February 2005 could have been a significant contributing factor. 

Popular Vlogs

Zoe Sugg 'Zoella': Is 24 years old and is best know for her fashion and shopping vlogs. 

She has 4.8 million subscribers on her YouTube channel.

Marcus Butler: Is 22 years old and is best know for his 'challenge videos'. 

He has 2.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. 




Music Vlog

This music vlog video starts with advertisement/promotion. The artist clearly displays her name- Marie Wilson, where she's from- Australia and her style/genre- Rock Chick. This shows her audience who she is and then they can decide of they want to listen to her music. Her website is also displayed at the bottom of the screen, this allows the audience to find out more about the artist.

This tool bar on the video allows the audience to find the artist in may different 'stores' and also buttons allowing the audience to find the artist on Facebook and Twitter. These links allow the audience to easily find more information about the artist and her songs.

Record Label company logo

This is the logo we have created for a record label for our song.

Pitch: Analysis and Feedback

This first feedback form shows that we have met our peer's expectations fully on our choice of song, our ideas for mise-en-scene and also our choice of record label. 

It shows that we may need to increase our research into and analysis of our target audience; this could be done through research into our target audience's expectations of the Indie Rock genre.

It also shows that we need to spend more time analysing the lyrics of our song (Across the Skyline) and develop more detailed and specific ideas for the narrative of our music video. 

Lastly it shows that we need to add more detail to our editing ideas; we need to include more detail

on the transitions and visual effects that we may use. 

This second feedback form shows that we have met a majority of our peer's expectations fully on all but one of the categories.

It also shows that we need to spend more time developing our narrative ideas.

This third feedback form shows that we have met our peer's expectations fully on our choice of song and we have met their exceptions almost fully in most of the other categories (similarly to the first form, we need to add detail to these categories). 

It shows that we need a lot more work on our narrative ideas; we will need to look at our lyrics, the codes and conventions of the Indie Rock genre and our audience's expectations in order to develop detailed narrative ideas.  

The key feedback we have taken from this peer evaluation is that we definitely need to work on our narrative ideas and we may need to add some more detail to other areas including target audience and editing. 

Pitch Presentation

This the video of our pitch

Pitch

(Our editing ideas were not included in our filmed pitch due to a technical error, but it is included in the slide share presentation)

A3 Pitch Plan

Audience expectations of the Indie-Rock genre

We have asked three of our peers what they would expect to find in an Indie-Rock music video, this is their feedback:

This feedback is useful because it has shown us what our audience will expect form our Indie-Rock music video. We have taken on board the feedback and will implement it in various parts of our video. For example we will make sure our band are wearing appropriate clothes and accessories for the genre- dark, plain, no branded clothes. We will also try to make the setting for our narrative as realistic as possible, to highlight the serial aspects of it, by filming groups of people who are acting naturally.

Existing Record Label Company Research

Existing Record Label Company Research

Click to enlarge

I can use this research to choose an appropriate logo and name for our record label.
Most of these logos use dark colours in their logos, this shows that popular Indie-Rock record labels use colour to attract their audience.
Vertigo have used an optical illusion in their logo to link to their name. The optical illusion will confuse the audience and links to the symptoms of  the medical condition vertigo.
Cherry Red Records have also link their logo to their name, a cherry red colour has been used to link to the companies name. This creates cohesion in the logo.

Existing Record Label Company Research

Blumer and Katz- Uses and Gratifications Theory

Diversion-
The audience may watch our music video to escape for everyday life, they could immerse them selves with in the video and feel free from their daily struggles.

Personal relationships-
They may use out music video to substitute for really social interation. They may feel that the artist is sharing his struggles with them and they may feel comforted by his attempts to break free.

Personal identity-
Because our song focuses on the artists personal struggle, a large majority of our late teens- early 20's will be able to identify with the artists issues.

Surveillance-
This aspect of the theory is not connected with our music video.

Conventions of the Indie Rock Genre and Audience Theory