PRODUCT RESEARCH-PINK 'FAMILY PORTRAIT'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kwu8kanyFw Pink-Family portait

This is the link to one of the video's that I am looking at for my product research, since I cannot embed it.

The reason why I have chosen to look at this video is because I think the camera shots are interesting and the use of ambient lighting really sets the narrative.

The music video starts off with a birds eye view of the artist lying in bed, which cuts to numerous shots of her in different positions and a close-up to portray her feelings.

The video has a strong narrative that fits in with the song itself. It is about a young girl coping after her parents getting divorced and wishing for a happy future. A lot of people may be able to relate to the song and more importantly the shots used in the video to demonstrate pysical emotions. The artist is shown to be realistic, and that she is an ordinary person.

The day-to-day scene of the bedroom, kitchen, living room etc. prove popular to a mainstream audience. The originality comes from the use of low and high angle shots when the artist is doing daily activities such as eating breakfast. The varied midshots used throughout and the synchronised editing with the lyrics lets the audience come to terms with the situation at hand.

This music video, I believe has high production values as it is a mainstream artist, but the video is portrayed as an everyday scene in which children may be going through difficult times. This gives the video an ideology and lets the artist relate to a much wider audience.

The genre can be defined as urban pop, however the artist has a variety of songs in a range of genres to suit her multiple personality.

The video has influenced me in making decisions about the construction of my video, in which I will use as many different shots as possible, to get as much as movement as I can.

I believe the editing process will be equally as important, as I will try to get the song to be synchronous with the action taking place.

I am also aware of the fact that the ambient/dark lighting shown may have been created by professional lighting and this will be hard for me to achieve. However I will keep in mind that lighting is vital in a music video, and try to create a similar style that been achieved in this video.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: KEY FINDINGS OF QUESTIONNAIRES

• Key Findings:
  Most of my audience are male and female, between the ages of 15-21, and of mixed ethnicity.
  Psychographically my audience can be defined as outgoing, rebellious, loud and being individualists.
  Popular music television channels amongst my audience are MTV, T4 Music, Kiss and Channel U.
  The genre of music that appeals most to my target audience is eclectic range of hip hop, rock, indie and jazz.
  My target audience believe that the way a music video is edited is extremely important so that it synchronises with the soundtrack and narrative.
  
  Key decisions based on my audience research:
  I will use an artist that has an eclectic range of music, so that I am able to appeal to more than one genre.
  I will construct my music video so that it does not have an incredibly complex narrative, however still manages to challenge the viewer in order to make it an enjoyable view.
  The mise-en-scene will be important part in constructing the music video, so that the audience are able to relate to the surroundings depicted. Nevertheless I will still include shots in which the audience can also aspire to be like those featured in the video.
  I will use varied camera shots ranging from close-ups to portray emotions and master shots to show the mise-en-scene. I will also include tracking and panning shots to add a variety of movement.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP RESULTS

This is a copy of my questions for my focus group, in which one of the students filled out.

I then typed up her answers so that I can put it up on the blog.

The focus group proved more helpful than the questionnaire that I did as most students that I gave it to did not fill it properly.

However with the focus group, they took it more serious and I got exactly the answers that I need to do a well constructed music video.

I will now be looking more into music videos of an eclectic genre so that I can get some ideas on camera angels and lighting etc.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP

As a result of my focus group I have decided that I will be doing a music video.

The feedback from my focus group was precisely what I was looking for.

After the students watched the videos they commented on what they liked and disliked and what they thought was unique about the videos.

I showed the two videos which are on the blog, Estelle '1980' and Sunit & Raxstar 'In perspective'. The third was a previous students work which resembled what I wanted to do.

All in all, it was succesful and I shall put up the results on a chart.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

I am going to be doing a focus group soon to try and find out what exactly my target audience are looking for.

I will be getting a range of students from the ages of 15-18 and showing them 3 videos and getting feedback.

I will also be doing questionnaires for my audience research and asking them about the appeal of music videos.

Audience research is crucial, so that I can base my music video upon popular ideas, that my target audience themselves like.

PRODUCT DECISION

With the ever rising rate of knife crime and teenagers being perceived negatively, I think it is a important issue to show the positive side.

As well as a music video, I am also thinking of doing a documentary which looks at a much more optimistic side to youths in London. I could focus on a few teenagers who have stayed onto education after GCSE's, and are changing their life around.

It could be shown on Channel 4, as part of a series that looks at people building themselves a future. Also, as a 3 minute wonder before a prime time show.

The target audience for this documentary could be teenagers themselves, who could aspire to be like those featured in the show. An older audience could see a positive side to young London rather than just the stereotypical negative stuff they hear on the news.