Hypodermic Needle Theory

Here is a Prezi I created on the 'Hypodermic Needle Theory' to show how this theory applies to spreading certain messages throughout my music video...

Audience Research

As part of audience research I did a focus group to get a few ideas about what my audience will enjoy and if the ideas I have to do for my music video are something that would work for my target audience.
The questions I asked were...

• Do you like music videos to follow a certain narrative or do you prefer them to be abstract videos? (As my music video is not going to follow a set narrative it will be quite abstract, I wanted to find out if this is something that my target audience still enjoy watching... I found that my target audience think it depends on the song that the video is for and how you make it work without a narrative) 
• Do you think songs with a more influential meaning need to follow more of a structure than other songs? (as the song I have chosen to do is quite an influential song, I wanted to find out whether my target audience think that for them to enjoy the music video it needs to follow a structure)
• Has a memorable music video ever made you want to buy an album or made you more interested in an artist? (This was not a question to find out something for my music video, I just wanted to find out in general how influential music videos can be to an audience)
• Do you like music videos that use a variety of different locations, settings, people? (As I plan on using a mixture of settings and locations in my video I wanted to find out if this is something my target audience enjoy watching, or if it is something that may put them off a song)
• Do you think music videos need to have performance aspect to them or not? (I asked this as I am not going to have performance in my song and I wanted to make sure that this is not a major aspect of a music video that my target audience look for- I found that they think it depends on the song the video is for and how else you make up for not having an aspect of performance such as miming or dancing in the video)
• For my music video I plan on doing a stop motion type film, have you ever watched any stop motion films and if so what did you think of them? (I asked this to find out how popular stop motion films are and how many people have watched them or will be up for watching them and if my approach to a music video is something that would interest people... luckily they said that it would be interesting as it is a different approach to take to it so it would be interesting to watch)

As well as a focus group, I also placed a poll on my blog and emailed all of the A2 media classes and asked if they would complete it...

To get the view of people outside of college and from a different age range I asked a group of people a series of questions via a handout questionnaire.
First there was a set that was just to find out more about them personally and their preferences when it came to music videos. I did this in order to find out more about what the audience enjoy about music videos as I am trying to appeal to a variety of people and to give me an idea about what people would want to watch in my music video.

• Male or female? (Please circle)

      Male     Female

• How old are you? (Please circle)

15-19   20-24   25-29   30-34   35+

• What would you say is your favourite genre of music? (Please circle)

Indie     Rock    Pop    Rap    RnB    Alternative    Other (Please specify)

• Do you enjoy watching music videos or would you rather just listen to the song without any visuals? (Please circle)

Enjoy watching videos    Prefer just listening to the song    Mixture of both

• If you enjoy watching music videos, what do you usually watch them on? (e.g. YouTube/MTV etc)

YouTube     MTV    Other TV Show    Other online site    Mobile App 


RESULTS...
From the 20 people I asked, there was 12 females and 8 males. The age range varied from 17-45. 
Here is a graph showing favourite genres of music...

(Series 1 indicates favourite genre of music)

(Shows that the 8 people enjoy watching music videos and 8 people like just listening to the song. Which shows that people I asked do enjoy watching videos, so if I asked the same people again to give my feedback on my finished video they won't mind watching it)

(Series 1 is which application the people I asked watched music videos on the most. From these results I can see that YouTube is the most popular thing to watch music videos on, which shows that if my music video was posted on YouTube then it will be accessible to a lot of people meaning it should get a lot of views)

Target Audience

As Arctic Monkeys are a young band, their target audience is teenagers, around 15-25. They are role models to younger males for example in the way they dress, and younger females may look up to them and enjoy their music because of their popularity. So this is the similar age range I will aim my music video at.

3 Initial Ideas for my Music Video (Old song choice)

These are my 3 initial ideas for my music video...



Out of these 3 ideas, my personal favourite out of all 3 ideas is idea 1 (the stop motion type video) as I think it is a new and different way to approach making a music video. I also think it would be a good way to create the right ambiance for this song as it is quite a tense song so by doing stop motion it will create this tension for the audience whilst they are watching it, which will also be further reinforced by it being a montage collection of images. 

Lyric Analysis of my first choice of song

This is the lyric analysis of my chosen song, from analysing and looking further into these lyrics and the meaning of them, it gave me more insight to the song and also inspired me with some ideas for my actual video. 

Overview of Textual Analysis'

3 videos I analysed...

1. The Kooks- Always Where I Need To Be
2. Oasis- Wonderwall
3. Arctic Monkeys- R U Mine?

Genre Conventions...

• Presenting themselves in a rebellious way (going against conventions of the other genres, for example- not having a video that is solely based on the performance of the song or how popular and good the artists look- focusing mostly on the lyrics of the song by having them singing in places where not many people will be watching- e.g. the Kooks on a rooftop or the Arctic Monkeys who are listening to their own song on the radio and pretending to be performing it in the car), whilst still trying to stress the importance of the meaning of the song and its lyrics
• Spreading their own ideology through the video and it's lyrics; that music is not always about performance and making the artists look good, they stress the importance of the song through its lyrics. Tim O'Sullivan's theory suggests that it is only extremely powerful groups of people that can spread their certain ideology, however, in videos such as these, bands and artists can spread their ideology through their videos and lyrics, through many aspects of the video such as mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography.  
• Do not focus too much on their own image, but the audience can still tell that they want to look good, in some ways this is the conventions of their image- that they do not try too hard.
• Locations- subtle but still enforcing their success and fame. e.g. in The Kooks' video they cut from them performing in a small apartment, to a rooftop with the NYC skyline in the background. And the the Arctic Monkeys video the radio station may be a shabby looking place but it still shows that they are famous because their song is being played to all the listeners. These artists also use social realism, in not only this video but in the majority of their videos. They present the working class way of life in a more realistic way (the term social realism came about in the 60s, and it meant that not only in the music industry but also in many other media forms the working class were starting to be presented in a more realistic way, with more and more working class artists having their realistic image put out there). They show that to be successful you do not need to lead a lavish lifestyle- for example in the R U Mine? video they have their song playing on a radio station that looks shabby but the main idea is that their song is being played and thousands of people will be hearing it. 

Form Conventions...

• All 3 videos use lots of different shots, for example, all 3 use close ups (focusing on many different aspects of the video. For example in The Kooks' video it has close ups of iconic buildings and locations, instruments, as well as the artists... and in the Arctic Monkeys video when they are miming we are shown a close up of their faces to reinforce the lyrics of the song). 
• Long shots and establishing are also used, which help promote the artists image because it helps show how far they have come- representing their fame to the audience; such as the rooftop with the NYC skyline in it in The Kooks' video.
• The Kooks' and Arctic Monkeys' videos both have fairly quick editing, cutting from shot to shot many times in each video- as a convention of all music videos, however, because they edit to the beat of the song, the Oasis video is edited a bit slower compared to the other two as it is a much slower song, so each shot lasts longer than the other day- I will take this into consideration when I am doing the storyboard for my video as it is also a slow song, meaning the editing will not want to be overly fast, otherwise it will look out of place with the song and would not follow conventions of music videos. 

Textual Analysis 3 (Arctic Monkeys)

My 3rd analysis of a music video is Arctic Monkeys 'R U Mine?'

The introduction of this video starts off with it being introduced as if it were a radio show, by introducing the band and the song this way, it is constantly reinforcing the name of their band, getting their image out there to the public, allowing them to be recognised by this song.

 Followed by the line 'Take it away boys' (which is not part of the actual song- which is an example of making diegetic sound fade into the non diegetic sound- a convention of sound in music videos) it edits to this scene of 2 people in a car, we are shown them sorting out the camera so we have them in a 2 shot medium close up, pretending to play the drums to the songs. This also follows the conventions of the previous rock music videos I have analysed because although it has some aspect of performing the song, the entire video is not based around the performance; just certain sections are. The mise-en-scene is very basic in this video, with black and white setting (similar to Oasis' video, suggesting that music is a simple thing that people turn into something complex that it doesn't need to be) the lighting is quite dark, giving connotations of the dark vibe this rock music has. With both the 'performers' having sunglasses on (despite it clearly being dark outside) again gives connotations of their celebrity status, perhaps they are trying to hide their faces because they do not want to be spotted by paparazzi that may be following them. So although they are not performing a big stage in front of thousands of people, we are still reminded that they are celebrities.

The editing throughout this video is very clever, whenever there is a section in the song when there is more than one singer, the 'camera man' who is also the performer switches the camera framing back to a two shot. Then it cuts back to a shot where only he is visible, in a close up this time.
As with most rock music videos, this one does not have a clear narrative, although we are aware there is one there, it does not appear to actually tell a meaningful story relating to the lyrics. It is mostly about the performance, expressing the 'alternate rock' image that this band is trying to give themselves.
By cutting to this shot, the lighting suddenly changes (still black and white, just a lot lighter) and we are shown this shot of a man with his arm around 2 girls in cowboy hats and masks, again not relating to the lyrics, it is more about how they have presented themselves.



This video is fairly different to the other two videos I have analysed, as this one is a lot more performance based than the previous one. This video focuses a lot more on the image of the performers who are represented as typical 'rock stars' who want to look good for their audience and spread the ideology that they are different from other rock artists, but still whilst fitting in with the conventions of their genre.
The way Arctic Monkeys have edited this video will appeal to their target audience as the alternate, individual approach to their video will attract the audience that would listen to this song. The audience will probably be people around their own age and those who are younger who will be influenced by aspects of their image such as the way they dress. The ratio to males and females will probably be fairly equal because the males will aspire idolise them, and females may be attracted to them which would encourage them to listen to their music and enjoy their videos- which is another reason why they may still care about their image, even though it may not be one of the main aspects of their video. This is how they are represented in order to appeal to their target audience; they know that young people will idolise them and will like their image, therefore, they make it work for them without making it a major part of their video.