Pitching my First Digipak Idea

Animatic

This is the animatic made from my storyboards and ideas for my music video.

Interviews

In order to gain a more universal insight into what people expect to see in a music video, we each conducted a handful of interviews with people of different ages and genders. So far, I have managed to interview three people, who all expressed different opinions, which was useful as it provided ideas and perspectives which I hadn't considered myself. 

Firstly, I interviewed my classmate Joel, as I figured it would be useful to hear what someone my age thought about music videos. His perspectives on the themes that I wanted to include differed to mine in that they were a little more down-to-earth, a little more realistic, indicated for instance when he suggested expressing my character's frustration through his body language. He mentioned that he'd expect to see a stereotypical 'happy family' in a suburban setting which was interesting because it seems obvious, but I hadn't considered including a family for my protagonist which could add another comedic dimension to my video.

Next, I interviewed my Mum to see what someone older than myself might expect to see in a music video. Understanding that frustration is not as easy to convey as it might otherwise be when there is no dialogue and the character's face is totally concealed as in my music video, she suggested that I could use jarring visual effects in time with the music as a visual metaphor for frustration. However, as nice an idea as this is, I think that technically it is something that I will not be able to achieve given my knowledge and ability with visual effects.

Lastly, I interviewed my Dad, and I would say that this was the most interesting, thought provoking and enlightening interview of the three. He wanted to see things in music videos that were surprising and had not been done before, if the song is supposedly "telling me something I haven't been told before". He interestingly pointed out, after I asked him how he might expect to see suburbia represented, that he wouldn't expect to see suburbia represented in any particular way. He didn't see the point in his own personal depiction of suburbia presented to him, and thought it would be better for me to present it in a surprising and challenging way, something I will definitely consider when producing my music video.

First Storyboards

These are the first two pages of storyboards that I completed for my music video. There's a very loose narrative here, but more narrative elements will be added when I have appropriate ideas.

Update

Since pitching my idea to the class, I have been conducting a loose, impartial questionnaire, the purpose of which is to highlight anything I might not have yet considered for my music video, and also to potentially give me some totally new ideas. I have asked both men and women of a variety of ages. The questions are as follows: 

What would you expect to see in a music video?

Do you have a favourite music video? And if so, why?

With the narrative taken into consideration, how might you expect to see alienation/frustration/suburbia represented in my video?

I understand that these are fairly broad questions, but that was the idea, as the purpose of my questionnaire was to provoke discussion rather than to get short, sharp answers. From conducting the questionnaire, I have learnt that an audience feels that there are certain conventions that they expect to be met within a music video; the basic premise of lip-syncing being included in there somewhere, for instance. However, I have also learnt that it is important for conventions to be challenged, and for an audience to be surprised; this is what would make for the most entertaining and memorable music videos. I feel as though I am currently hitting both of these criteria with my music video idea, but that there is still scope to include more surprising and unconventional elements - the challenge will be to assure that the video remains consistent and not too farfetched that it seems slightly inappropriate, or not serious.

Music Video Pitch

This is the presentation I gave to the rest of the class where I pitched my idea for my music video. As a result of the feedback I received, I have decided that the next step I will take in this process is to crowd-source further ideas for the music video by conducting a loose, impartial questionnaire. I will put forward themes from the video and even just words that relate to it, such as alienation and suburbia, to find out what first springs to mind with people in my target audience. The hope is that this will bring to light some new ideas for me to include in my video that hadn't occurred to me, as that way I can guarantee that my video will appeal in some way to members of my target audience. After I have done this, I will begin storyboarding to decide on the structure of my video. 

Pavement - Shady Lane: Video Pitch

Reach for the Stars Lip-Syncing Exercise

As a class, we undertook a lip-syncing exercise in order to familiarise ourselves with this technique for when it came to shooting our own music videos. Due to a few unforeseen absences of various members of the class, we didn't have time to film the entire music video, so we decided to just use what we managed to film in one lesson. In editing, we had to speed up various parts of the footage accordingly, and trim other parts, in order to assure that everything was correctly in time with the music. For this exercise, we were required to lip sync along to the song as it played from an external source and then mute the footage. This allowed us to be perfectly in time, and was a useful thing to practise as it is the technique that we will be employing when we shoot our music videos.

Textual Analysis of Music TV Logos

Kerrang! TV

Given that Kerrang!'s logo is written using block capitals, a 'smashed' effect and actually has an exclamation mark, I think it's fair to assume that Kerrang! magazine's music video television channel, Kerrang! TV focuses on broadcasting loud, distorted sub-genres of rock music. The TV station's playlist mainly consists of nu-metal and pop punk/skate punk, but with some unusual exceptions such as Limp Bizkit, who receive higher-than-average play rates, due to large numbers of text requests.The logo seems to suggest that the channel is aimed at an audience of any age that enjoys loud, distorted and provocative music, given that it employs the sort of aesthetic that can commonly be found within various platforms of that style of music.

Tiny Pop

Tiny Pop's logo is very brightly coloured and features a purposefully scruffy, handwritten-type font, both of which contribute to the playful, innocent nature of this logo. I was reminded of balloons or even Smarties by the circular shapes incorporated in the logo, both of which are things associated almost exclusively with children. From this, I assume that Tiny Pop broadcasts pop music with the intent of their channel being viewed by young children, presumably under the age of seven. After research, I discovered that Tiny Pop is a channel that broadcasts cartoons and pop music videos on Sky and Freesat, and that its target audience is children aged from four to six. Given that I made these assumptions almost exactly, I think that this logo is serving its purpose perfectly.

Magic

Magic's logo looks very sleek and neat, featuring bright, eye-catching, but not necessarily 'loud' colours. The font reminded me of an old, American-style diner and the shape itself looks a little like a neat fingernail, giving an overall 'retro' impression. From this, I assume that magic plays music from years gone by, and after research I discovered that Magic focuses on easy listening music from the 80s, 90s and 00s.

Given that Scuzz's logo employs a metallic colour, I would naturally assume that Scuzz airs rock and metal music. This is also implied by the stylised S and second Z, which have sharp corners, implying hard, possibly industrial-esque music. Scuzz defines itself as a rock channel broadcasting mainstream rock, pop-punk and metal, but particularly specialising in the hardcore and metal core genres. As this is the case, I would conclude that Scuzz's logo is effectively serving its purpose.

Case Study: Pavement

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Only In My Dreams Analysis

NOTE TO MODERATOR FROM CLASS TEACHER: This video is a voiceover commentary of a music video. If this video does not play, please try viewing in a different browser. I can certify that this video has been viewed by myself. A transcript of the voiceover has been provided below if playback is unavailable due to copyright holders block access. 

Transcript: Firstly, narrative. The premise for this video is really quite simple. It stars Ariel Pink himself, who gets kicked out of their home by his girlfriend, and is immediately replaced by another man. Following this, he has dreams about meeting other girls and is seen to be waking up alone each time, which inspires him to go and work it out with the girlfriend at the end of the video.

The video is 100% narrative based, but with a small performance section incorporated towards the end as part of the narrative, presumably portraying one of Ariel Pink's dreams, and given that this song was only released with the video in 2012 I think it's possible that it could be a parody of music videos from the 90s, as it has a goofy, parodic, possibly satirical feel to it, with the camera quality and set and deliberately obvious acting? Which leads me nicely on to my next point about the production values. It is evidently a pretty low-budget music video, though with this irony in mind that I mentioned earlier I'm pretty sure this is deliberate. This low budget, DIY ethos mirrors that of Ariel Pink's music, as he's known for recording at home and playing most instruments himself, so I suppose this music video might appeal to people who are keen on DIY ethics in music at it certainly seems to reflect those ethics.

Most importantly, I'd like to address representation and any instances of stereotyping. Ariel Pink himself is obviously a man, though he displays sort of androgynous characteristics in his long, pink hair, what with pink for whatever reason being stereotypically thought of as a 'girl's colour'. Other stereotypically masculine characteristics are challenged in the narrative itself, as he seems very reliant on female affection, challenging the stereotype of all "real men" being strong, independent, comfortable in their own skin etc.

I think this video also quietly gives off certain signals that could possibly be considered sexist against women. The girls in this video are viewed kind of only as things from which love and affection can be earned, little else. I know it's only a music video but they don't seem to serve much purpose other than something for Ariel Pink to fawn over, and the fact that it starts and ends in a bedroom, y'know, it could possibly be considered slightly degrading.

Further Music Video Research

In a classroom-based lesson, we analysed three music videos and discussed what made them different from each other. These music videos were: David Bowie - Life on Mars?, Queen - I Want to Break Free and Bon Jovi - Always. After talking things over, we concluded that they fit into three distinct categories, which are as follows:

Performance: a performance of the song by the artist(s). The artist(s) will often break the fourth wall and address the camera directly. It can also feature other elements, such as a dance routine.
Abstract/Conceptual: the video may be influenced by the song's title or directly by its lyrics. There will be little to no narrative, with most of the emphasis being placed on visual effects, imagery, symbolism, iconography and visual metaphors.
Narrative: the video will feature a clear story/plot which is easily understood by the audience. It will commonly feature a mostly linear structure, and may also feature shots of the artist(s) performing the song aside from the central narrative.

Other, more recent examples of these types of music video include: 

Performance: Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm

Abstract/Conceptual: Cheatahs - The Swan

Narrative: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - So Good at Being in Trouble

The Music Video