Radio Stations and Listener Profiles

Miley Cyrus- Video Analysis

Miley Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter, usually conforming to the genre Country Pop. Miley's music has influences of both pop and country, with different songs varying in genre approach. She has a handful of songs that are more Country, and less up-beat, however she also has  a lot of songs that have a big pop influence. These songs are more up-beat. Our artist's song 'Falling Hard' is very similar to Miley Cyrus's more up-beat Country Pop songs. 

In the majority of the video, Miley is captured outside, linking to the Country Pop genre. Through extensive research we have found, that outdoor location and settings are very common in this genre of music. The editing in this video, 'The Climb" is very complex, and interesting. Although the video is outside in the mountains- which creates a 'country' outdoor atmosphere, the editing techniques have changed the outdoor colours, making it more 'pop' and contemporary, and less natural.

Carrie Underwood-Video Analysis

Carrie Underwood is an American country singer, songwriter. She was raised in a rural area, on a farm in Oklahoma. Her music reflects he rural upbringing, and she sings a lot about being isolated and alone, away from lots of people.

Her music is very emotional, and always has real meaning relating to her life experiences, making the audience relate to her as a person. Carrie Underwood has many similarities to our Artist, the genre of Country pop is identical to our genre. However, although there are similarities,  Carrie Underwood's song are a lot more emotional, and our Artist tends to create more pop, up-beat songs, typically like Taylor swift. 

Carrie Underwood's music videos often conform to the theories of the media theorist, Steve Archer. He states that music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song, which is demonstrated through the artist. In Carrie Underwoods song 'Blown Away' this theory is very evident. 

In the first shot, the video has been edited through the use of black and white. This gives a solemn and melancholy feel to the initial shot, as well as creating a run-down, cold and musty image of the artists location in the video. This immediately sets the mood for the video. The diegetic sounds in the video, of Carrie Underwood pouring a glass of water, moving a chair and walking are exaggerated and emphasised to create tension and suspense. The initial shots in the music video reflect that of a film, linking with Steve Archer's theory of the Artist telling a story. 

Once the initial first shots have finished setting the mood and scene of the video, it is evident to the audience that the video is telling a story of a girl and her father that do not get on, and clearly have emotional issues. Once the music starts being played, the editing of black and white changes to sepia, this could show the difference in the girl's mood, when she is singing on her own, and free from her father's control- the colour change could be an expression of her change in emotion. In the shot the camera captures the girl close up, from the side of her face. In doing this is captures her emotion and facial expressions, and focuses on her singing. 

In this shot, the girl is captured outside, looking up at the sky. In the background you can see the clouds, and by using the editing technique of black and white, it makes the sky look gloomy and dark. The shot has religious connotations, as the girl is looking up at the sky- this could suggest she is in pain and is looking up in the sky to ask god for help. Her hair is blowing backwards, this also shows the windy weather, and makes the girl look as though she's 'fighting' against something, like she is desperate to achieve something, and her inner strength is being portrayed. 

As soon as the girl in the video starts singing, she looks directly into the camera. This shows raw emotion, and shows her 'calling out' to whoever is watching-showing a degree of disparity. By singing into the camera, it reveals to the audience, she has a story to tell-linking to Steve Archer's theory. 

In this shot, the girl is captured outside, maybe in a woods-due to the trees and forest in the background. This links to the country genre, of nature and freedom. She is shot alone, walking around the trees singing to herself. Behind her there appears to be gravestones, this creates a somber and depressing atmosphere. In the shot she is singing to herself, as though she is in another world (a world of her own).

When the artist sings 'Daddy was a mean old Mr' in the video the camera cuts to her father inside peering through the blinds on the window. The shot is in black and white again, contrasting to the previous shot of the female alone outside. The lyrics are directly portrayed in the video, this links to Steve Archer's theory of the artists narrating a story and performing it to. 

Again, when the artist sings 'Mamma was an angel in the ground' the camera cuts to the girl walking past a gravestone a stroking it. This shows the narrative relating to what is filmed in the video. 

After carefully analysing Carrie Underwood's 'Blown Away' video, I have identified various techniques that would work well in our music video, and also techniques that wouldn't fit as well. Although there are many similarities in this Artist as there are in ours, there is also many differences. We will take all research into account while planning for our music video. 

Taylor swift Audience Research

I came across a website which took information off of famous peoples fan pages, facebook pages, twitter and tumblrs. It is basically a massive piece of gathered information taken from the types of people that regularly visit Taylor Swifts Pages. There are a range of people ONLINE that search for Taylor Swift but the majority are females between 18-24. 

This shows the daily visits onto her fan pages. This data is not only taken from people in America, but it is global so counts for most of the world. 

Above is a list of words that Taylor Swifts audiences have also searched. This shows a very feminine range of words which gives us another clear indication that Taylor Swifts audience is made up of mostly females. 

Another interesting observation that there are a variety of ways to access Taylor Swifts pages but technology has a massive influence which could give us a clue that a lot of the younger generation listen to her more as the use of technology comes easier to younger generations generally. 

Country and Pop Conventions

Country music is one of the oldest genres of music to date. It originated in the 1920s in Southern parts of the US, and it has slowly spread to all parts of the world. Country music is the most popular genre throughout the United States and often wins Grammy awards over the majority of other genres that we would consider 'mainstream'. The defining characteristic of country music is an acoustic guitar, with just the vocals of the singer to accompany it. Country music has changed over the years, adopting a more modern style, mixing with other genres in order to attract a larger and more diverse audience.

Forms and conventions of country music videos

- Tend to have a strong narrative aspect

- Set in very stereotypical locations, such as rural areas

- Mise-en-scene tends to be very traditional or set in an elder generation, e.g. Victorian

- The artist usually features within the video

Modern day country genres, like many other genres are mixing or being influenced by other genres, 'Pop' being a popular choice. The U.S.A seems to stay true to the original country roots, but other countries, such as the UK welcome many songs influenced by pop as well, such as Taylor Swift. 

Modern day country songs, that have pop influence are more about love and a 'high-school crush.' These types of songs attract a specific audience. After research that is presented on the post, Lia and I have found out that the target audience is mainly females, aged 18-24. We believe this is because they can relate to the artist, and their lyrics. 

Similar Existing Artist's

Our chosen Artist's song, 'Falling Hard' is a country pop song. Because of this, we have focused on existing country and pop Artists, and also researched country artists.

Taylor Swift

• Taylor swift is a female singer-songwriter from America. Often described as America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift is known for her hook-laden, narrative songs about her experiences as a teenager and young adult. Because of this, it makes her songs attractive to a particular audience, and equally we can target our 'Falling Hard' song to the same target audience. 
• Taylor Swift's grandma was a big influence in her musical life. Marjorie Finlay (Swift's Grandma) was a famous American Opera singer, but also loved her country music. Taylor Swift was inspired by this, and channeled her music to country pop genre. 
• Taylor Swift also has great influence from Dolly Parton, a singer-songwriter of country music. 

Dolly Parton

• Dolly Parton is a female singer-songwriter, best known for her work in Country music. 
• She began performing from a very young age, being played on the radio at the age of 9 and appearing on television programmes. 
• Dolly Parton also sings song's about 'love' and 'freedom'-linking to the country conventions. Her songs are emotional one's and have a very specific audience. 

Choosing our Song

When we set about choosing our choice of song for our music video, we did have some pre-conceived ideas and thoughts. I knew that having an acoustic song would be easier to fit a music video to it, and I had some ideas in mind. However I didn't want to be the same as every other year, and I wanted to do something creative and original. We listened to several different Artists, but when one song's tune we liked, the vocals we didn't and vice versa. We eventually found an Artist called Adelee and Gentry, and listened through all of her 10 songs. We liked all of them, but decided on 'Falling Hard.' We decided on this one because of the lyrics and the story behind the song, being about a love story, and falling for a boy. We felt this would be interesting and good to replicate and reflect in our music video- instantly we had all sorts of ideas. 

Task 1-Summer Work

When I first started my AS media coursework, I wasn't very good at using blogger, or any technical software used to make our opening film trailers. However, I watched lots of youtube tutorials and I was good at applying myself to succeed. After a week I was able to use blogger, final cut express and photoshop confidently.

However, I did find it difficult to organise my posts on my blog and make sure i had everything I needed, in date. Although my blog work wasn't awful, I believe that if I'd have organised it better I would have had all the posts I needed for an A. I learnt a lot in my AS practical tasks, many of which were technical things, with camera angles and shots, and lighting. Another main thing I learnt was the importance to communicate with your group members regarding the organisation of filming. I began to learn that planning ahead with every detail was vital because so many things had to be taken into account, e.g, weather, props, costume, location, general availability of people/rooms etc. With this knowledge I was able to put it into practice and write up lists of things we needed, deadlines, and date, shot lists, costumes and props. After realising the importance of planning I went back onto my blog and added all the planning posts I was missing.

The research side of things I found really interesting and I enjoyed learning about the real process of making films, and all the reasonings and justifications behind them. It was useful to learn simple, but fundamental things like, credit orders and film conventions. Because I enjoyed it I took lots of detail in, thus learning a great deal.

I learnt that the majority of your research had a direct influence in your planning for your opening film sequence. This is what opened my eyes to the importance of research, especially when our product had to be as real and authentic as possible.

At the beginning of my A2 coursework, I felt much more confident than I had the previous year. I had learnt a great deal from year 12 and I knew it would be very useful for year 13.

When we were given our genre for our album covers, my group was given Country and Western. I was pleased because immediately I had many ideas. Because of this I really enjoyed doing all the research into my genre. I learnt a lot during my planning. By the end of my initial research and planning for the album cover, I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve, however, putting this into reality I found more difficult than I had imagined, and I wasn't as confident using Adobe Photoshop. With the help of my group and youtube tutorials I was able to edit the album cover successfully. Although it wasted time, having to get a grasp of how to use Photoshop, and this used up practical time, in future I will prepare myself and be ready before starting a practical task.

Research and Planning was really important for our re-creation of a chosen music video. Because of my previous AS experience I knew we needed to plan everything to be ready to start filming.

Something I need to improve on is posting progress updates, so that I can be aware of what there is left to do and what I have already achieved.

I will make sure I take all I have learnt into my A2 practicals, and develop and improve in areas I am weak in.

Task 2-Summer Work

3rd Genre and Artist

Pop - Michael Jackson

As the well known 'King of Pop,' Michael Jackson was renowned worldwide for his incredible talent to both sing and dance, with all routines choreographed by himself, his dancing become as iconic as the music of which he was famous for.
With such diversity to his talent, Michael had an equally diverse portfolio of videos to match; from cultural and ethical videos such as 'Earth Song' and 'They Don't Care About Us,' to the suave and sophisticated videos of 'Smooth Criminal,' and 'You Rock My World.'

Props

The extended video of 'Smooth Criminal' was made in light of Michael Jackson's feature film titled 'Moonwalker,' which provides a more extensive view of the props used within the video.  The video overall is very elaborate which fits nicely with the time of which it is set.

Costume

To capture these images adequately, all aspects of costumes and props were tailored to fit the videos. As an example, in the video to 'Smooth Criminal,' the aptly created set involved 1950's-style 'Gangster' clothing to re-inforce the nature of the song, set in a typical dark and smokey bar full of villainous looking characters.

Video Analysis and Representation

At the start of the video, Michael Jackson enters into the scene and immediately the viewers attention is cast upon him due to the angle of the camera, capturing his whole body and suave clothing. He is wearing a black suit with an orange shirt and a black hat. His suit trousers are shortened and his white socks are visible, an iconic image seen within many of Jackson's videos.
Michael's clothing in this shot reflects the diversity of his music and this new adaption of pop, due to the unusual style that he presents.

 In this shot, Michael Jackson is captured dancing, which was a usual occurrence for him in the majority of his videos. It reflects the rawness of his music, and the down to earth, realism of his musical ideas and passions. It also show cases his talent as a dancer as well as a singer, giving him a performing status, which was very important to him and his pop genre. The camera is looking up at him, with a low angle shot, this makes Michael look larger on stage and really emphasises his talent.

In this scene, Michael Jackson has just flirted with the female at the bar and taken her behind this red screen. It is obvious to the viewer what his intentions are, however the use of the editing technique of the red screen, makes the shot more secretive and represents Jackson as a bit of a lady's man, marketing not only this particular song, but Jackson as an overall artist. He is seen to be charming and flirtatious, this is the image he wants to portray in his videos as it fits with his cool, and sophisticated style of pop.

Task 2-Summer Work

2nd Genre and Artist

Rock - Linkin Park
This gritty, hard-edged American rock band brought forth a new sound of rock, infused with hip-hop elements that made them one of the most successful and unique rock bands in the world. With an interesting mixture of talent in the band they managed to keep to the stereotypical rock image with striking hairstyles, rip-effect jeans, skate shoes or converses, a vast number of facial piercings and a rebellious attitude. However, underneath the band's primary image, the collection of it's members talents meant that they were far from a usual rock group. With a DJ and his PA system using live technology to add to the music, rapped verses typically heard in R'n'B and Hip-Hop and well sung choruses and middle eights, Linkin Park seemed a world away from being labelled as rock.

Props
In their videos Linkin Park perform as a group using the 'usual' instruments seen such a bass guitar, electric guitars and a drum kit but due to their unique approach they also have the aforementioned PA system and the accompanying DJ. The band also boasts several well pieced CGI graphics and other intricate graphical effects within their videos.

Clothing
Linkin Park represented a worldwide fashion image seen amongst teenagers and young adults of the time that exhaled an outcry of rebellious young people who cared little about themselves or others. This selflessness could clearly be reflected by the lack of consideration for self-image, and their negative, rebellious attitude towards others and society, letting music become a dependency of self-justification.

The correlation between image and attitude is clear by viewing certain items of clothing and accessories this particular group of individuals wore. As mentioned above, striking hairstyles and facial piercings are just a minute handful of different attributes that evolved into teenage society, where the consistent battling between public expectation and these young adults' personal preferences occurred.

Pictured Right:
The stereotypical image associated with the band.

Task 2-Summer Work

1st Genre and Artist:

Dance - Tiesto
As a worldwide superstar in the clubbing scene, Tiesto appeals massively to the young generations of modern times and he has therefore become an independent icon from his music, with a recent accessories collaboration with Guess watches and his own 'Club Life' merchandise on sale for those who follow him closely and admire his music.

In his videos there is a clear 'party' message being broadcast to the viewers to reflect upon the feel good vibe and atmosphere that is one of the fundamentals of dance music since it began. In a lot of his videos, Tiesto is featured DJ'ing in a club which portrays a vibrant, eccentric and party-starter image. However, many videos that feature his songs focus mainly on the artist or singer performing it. They also focus on actors to tell a mini-story in connection with the music, lyrics and vibe - of which it is a typical night-life club atmosphere.

Props
It is evident in Tiesto's videos that there is not a vast amount of complexity with little or no special effects or CGI intervention being used like there is in many modern music videos.
It is clear that the prop list in Tiesto's videos isn't extensive but there has been much thought in capturing the correct image to fit the music and overall ambience. The most commonly used props are a DJ booth with Tiesto on the turntables, the club in which the film is shot and the attendants being filmed dancing.

Even though this does not sound elaborate, the end result is by far the opposite with a glitzy, glamourous and high-energy video that fully captures the 'high life' element that is so predominant in all types of dance music.

Costume
Much like the props list, there isn't a vast list of different costumes as seen in many more eccentric music videos, which makes it quite difficult to categorise it as 'dance music.'

Quite frequently Tiesto will appear in casual clothing in his videos such as a t-shirt and jeans, and a lot of the time he will be wearing his own merchandise to market the completed package even more. However, the club's attendants, and more specifically the female selection of clubbers, appear dressed-up and glamorous reflecting a culture of impression setting amongst young females in modern times.

Featured right: A typical picture related to the ambience of a Tiesto concert.

Preliminary Planning

Costume:
In the re-make of the video, there will be 2 different costumes for our acting artist paige to wear. When the artist is standing on the drama blocks, she will be wearing a grey dress, to try and represent the silver moon. Then when the artist is standing in front of the white screen she will wear all white, to relate back to the initial video.

Location:
We will shoot all of our shots in the drama studio, as its a big black room with no natural environments or props, thus relating to the studio look of the original video. The drama studio  also has a large white curtain that we can use for the shot of the artists in front of the white background. The drama studio also has all the lighting we require for the shots, and we can control various spotlights to try to re-create the original lighting as best we can.

Camera angles and shots:
We have a variety of shots to re-create, all are different angles and positions, and different distances from the artist. We are aware the camera will have to move around a lot, so we will plan appropriately.

Props:
We will need white helium balloons for our twenty seventh shot, and also a bubbles mixture so that we can blow bubbles in this shot also. An important prop we will need is two large black boxes we can put next to each other as a platform for our artists to stand on instead of the moon in the original video. In a couple of the shots the artist will have to sit down on the boxes as well, so we need to take this into account. We will need to buy strings of silvery glitter to lay on the black boxes to try and re-creare the sparkling, white moon. We will also use them for the scene when the artist stands behind the white background.

Lighting:
Although we are going to use the lighting box in the drama studio for our spotlights and adjusting light deterioration or gain in different shots, we may also need extra plug in spotlights due to the size of the room. This is something we are going to research and figure out.

Preliminary Planning

In the twenty seventh shot of our video, we have to release helium balloons. Caroline's mum bought us a dozen white helium balloons for our final shot. However we realised that it may take a couple of goes to get it right, and once the balloons are let off we cannot get them back. Because of this Caroline bought a coupe of spare balloons for us to have a few practice shots with. This enabled us to practice the angle of the shot, the distance away from the camera the balloons had to be etc. Through this process we managed to get a clear idea of how we were going to capture that particular shot, so that it was most authentic.

Caroline came up with the idea of having bubbles at the same time as the balloons were let off. We believed this would add creativity into the shot, and relate and fit in nicely with the balloons. Due to the fact we could not make our video identical, we thought this would be a nice twist on the original, and perhaps substitute the smoke on the ground in the real video.

Preliminary Shot List

My group and I decided to re-create the first part of Florence and the machine's, "You've got the love" video. 

After analysing the video, we realised it had a good variety of shots and lighting effects and would be an interesting video to re-create. 

Shot list

Shot 1: The first shot in the video starts with a close up of the side of her face, the camera then slowly zooms out and the artist turns her face towards the camera. Throughout these shots the lighting is dark on her face and it doesn't reveal any detail or facial features. Then the light shines directly onto her face and reveal's and shows her more prominently. This whole shot lasts for 17 seconds.

Shot 2: The second shot is of the artist standing up, the camera captures her whole body. In the room there are a few spotlights that shines the light from behind the artist, this enables the viewer to see the artist clearly, but not great detail on her face. This shot lasts for 2 seconds.

Shot 3: The third shots is then another close up of her, from her head down to her shoulders. The light is now much stronger in this shot and the audience is able to see the artists face clearly. This shot takes about 2 seconds also. 

Shot 4: The fourth shot is a mid-shot of the artists body, from her head down to the tops of her thighs. The camera captures the mid-shot from an angle, coming in from the left. In this shot there is just one strong spotlight that shines directly from behind her, it's so strong that is blurs detail, however it creates a mysterious effect, as you can see the artists body outline only. This shot lasts for 3 seconds. 

Shot 5: The fifth shot is then the artist standing up again. It captures her full body. There is one very strong spotlight directly behind her head, which blurs her face, and then a few other spotlights dotted around to shine light onto her body, revealing her shape and figure. This shot only lasts for about 1 second.

Shot 6: The sixth shot shows her face down to her waist, it appears to be slightly zoomed in on her, emphasising detail. The spotlights are not visible to the audience, however you know they are on in the background as the light is strong and you can see the artists clearly. This shot also lasts just 1 second. 

Shot 7: The seventh shot moves around the artist, showing different angles of her posture. The camera is slightly zoomed in, as you can see the artists face clearly and part of her upper body. This shot lasts 2 seconds.

Shot 8: The eighth shot is a shot from the side of the artist, capturing the artist flicking her hair back. The shot is zoomed in, thus emphasising her hair flicking backwards. There is one strong spotlight on, which is shining directly from behind into her hair and face, this creates a blurred effect, preventing the viewer from seeing fine detail, however is shines on the colour of her hair and emphasises the movements. This shot lasts for 1 second. 

Shot 9: The ninth shot is a shot capturing the left side of the artist, with one leg up. The shot captured the majority of her body, apart from her left foot, and lower right leg. There is again one strong spotlight shining from behind onto the side of her hair and face. Her body is very clear to see, and the strong light reflects the strong colour in her hair. This shot lasts for 1 second. 

Shot 10: The tenth shot is more zoomed in, and captures directly the front of her, showing her face and top half of her body. The spotlight cannot been seen, however the light is visible, and it is shining down from the ceiling behind her, and then shines directly down onto her face, blurring the audience's visibility of her face. This shot also lasts 1 second. 

Shot 11: The eleventh shot moves around the artists body, from right to left. It is a shot of her head down to her knees. The main spotlight is visible behind and above her head, this makes her body clear to see. This shot lasts 4 seconds. 

Shot 12: The twelfth shot shows the top half of her body, the camera is positioned slightly to the left of her body, but still manages to capture the front of her too. The spotlight shines directly onto her hair, showing her flicking her hair back again. This shot lasts 1 second.  

Shot 13: The thirteenth shot is very similar to the last one, but from more of a side angle. This also lasts a second. 

Shot 14: The fourteenth shot is a close up of the artists face, the camera is angled slightly to the left. The spotlight is visible in the shot and is positioned behind her left arm, however it is not too strong and doesn't over power, enabling the audience to view the detail on the artists face. This shot lasts or a second. 

Shot 15: The fifteenth shot shows the top half of the artists body, the camera moves around the artists top half slowly, starting on the left, moving round to capture the right side. Two spotlights are visible in this shot, one on the left one on the right, both of which are fairly strong. This shot lasts for 2 seconds. 

Shot 16: The sixteenth shot shows the artists full body, standing up. There are several spotlights dotted around in the background, however they are not over powering, and there purpose is just to give minimal light on her body. The camera moves slightly to the left, but not a considerable amount, and the shot only lasts 1 second. 

Shot 17: The seventeenth shot is more zoomed in to her face, however some of her upper body is visible, this shot is from the opposite angle to the previous. It only lasts 1 second. 

Shot 18: The eighteenth shot is of the front of her, however the camera is slightly angled from the left. The shot captures the artists face down to her thighs. This shot is of the artists dancing. There are two spotlights visible, however they are to either side of her and do not blur her face or body. This shot only lasts 1 second. 

Shot 19: The nineteenth shot captures the artist from the right side, looking to the side/back of her as she flicks her hair back. There is one spotlight visible, which is at the top right side of the shot, it gives light to the whole shot, but does not over power the artists image. This shot lasts 1 second. 

Shot 20: The twentieth shot captures the side of the artist, and shows her top half and face. This shot lasts for 2 seconds. 

Shot 21: The twenty first shot is a close up of the artists face, the camera is angled slightly from the right side. There is a spotlight shining from behind and is very bright. This shot lasts for 1 second. 

Shot 22: The twenty second shot is the camera zooming out, capturing her full body dancing. The spotlights are still the same as the previous shot. This shot lasts for 3 seconds. 

Shot 23: The twenty third shot is even more zoomed in, but at an angle. It shows her head down to her thighs, this shot is of the artist dancing still. The spotlights are still the same. This shots lasts for 3 seconds. 

Shot 24: The twenty fourth shot is then zoomed out, it shows the artists full body. The camera moves around slightly from left to right, and right to left. The spotlights are the same. This shot lasts for 1 second. 

Shot 25: The twenty fifth shot is more zoomed in, so that the artists face and upper body is only visible. The artist is captured dancing. The spotlights are still the same. This shot lasts 2 seconds. 

Shot 26: The twenty sixth shot is of the artist standing in front of a white background, the camera only captures her head down to her shoulders. The camera is slightly blurred due to the bright white and silver colours, however the artist is still visible. In the shot glitter appears everywhere, including her clothing. The camera moves slightly from side to side, capturing the artists waving her arms about to the music. This shot lasts for 8 seconds. 

Shot 27: The twenty seventh shot shows the artists sitting down with her arms by her sides and her left leg crossed over her right. The camera is slightly lower down than her, and it looks up at her full body. Helium balloons are released in front of the artist and camera. In the shot, the artists watches the balloons fly up. The camera gently zooms out to capture the whole scene. This shot lasts 4 seconds. 

Shot 28: The twenty eighth shot shows the artists back in front of the white screen, the camera is slightly blurred, but the artist is still visible. The camera is zoomed in on the artists face, and is slightly angled from the left. The artist moves her arm, and then looks directly into the camera. This shot lasts for 3 seconds. 

This is where our re-creation of the video will end.