Research into music labels- Miss Georgiou

Research into music labels

The major record companies are those that have attracted the biggest music artists and who bring in the most revenue due to the amount of fans that these high profile artists have.  The larger companies can also own subsidiary record companies who may be more unique and so attract different artists.  There are many major record such as the Universal Music Group , Sony Music entertainment which are both located in America and EMI which is based in the UK.  The bands which Universal Music Group have signed to them  include huge artists such as Imagine Dragons , Jay Z, Katy Perry, Neil Diamond, Queens of the Stone Age and Will.I.am. Whilst Sony has artists such as Calvin Harris, Daft Punk , Michael Jackson , One Direction , Ozzy Osbourne , Shakira , Taylor Swift , The Script and Kings of Leon. Finally the artists that are signed to the UK company EMI are artist like The White Stripes , Snoop Dog, Gorilliaz , Blur and Robbie Williams. All of these artists are hugely popular and  have very large amounts of fans and attracts large audiences which overall make more money for the record companies.

These big conglomerate record companies own many smaller record companies which can project a different image for the artists than a large company.  For example with Universal Music Group they own many companies such as Def Jam Recordings which focuses on urban music, Interscope record which makes Hip Hop, and Capitol records which has a range of music from Katy Perry to the Red Hot Chillie Peppers. Sont Music Entertainment has subsidiaries such as RCA record , Epic records . Syco entertainment and Legacy recordings. Finally EMI has the subsidiary companies such as Enigma records, Gold Typhoon and EMI music Japan.  These big conglomerates have only the biggest music artists who have a wide audience base and can generate lost of money for these companies. Some of the big artists that these companies have are One Direction , Rihanna, 50 cent  and Coldplay and they are much bigger when compared to the independent artists.  

There are many links within these companies and different forms of media. EMI has a rock magazine which it helps publish the bands that it has signed and helps bring new bands to become signed to EMI records. Furthermore EMI sponsor festivals which promote the bands which they have signed, this will help the bands become more popular and achieve more sales for there music. Additionally Sony and Universal use their connections with the other industries that they both have to increases the popularity of their signed artists .

Independent music labels 

There are many different independent music records companies in the UK,  such as 3 Beat Records, Creation Records and Mute Records. 3 Beat records was started in 1989 in Liverpool , England from a dance music record shop by Jon Barlow , Dave Nicholl and  Phil Southall, and focused on dance music in the 90's. Creation Records was established in 1983 by Alan McGee , Dick Green and Joe Foster by getting a £1000 bank loan , they started the company to bring together projects that they had been working on and were nearly exclusively made up of Alternative Rock  and Pop. Finally  Mute records was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller in Manchester. The label was started after Miller started recording music and getting foreign artist to perform inside the UK. They signed artist such as Depeche Mode, Erasure and Fad Gadget which are all alternative and indie rock artists , so this label specializes in the genre. These record labels cannot sign big artists so they get smaller artists and try to grow them and get artistic to try to become as big as their conglomerate signed counterparts. 

From a music point of view it is not right that only 4 conglomerates control a huge amount of artists and the music they make. They can control what music that people listen to through ways such as  TV channels and radio stations that they have connections with such as Sony entertainment  , and what is mainstream for the music industry is decided by them. This is due to people buying into whatever is the most current mainstream music at the time, this means they can decide who becomes successful and who doesn't.   This limits the creativity of artists as they could easily be persuaded what music to make and what not to, furthermore if they are not liked by these 4 companies it will make it much harder to become a successful artist. This makes the music industry limited and that people do not decide what they actually listen to. I believe that this limits the industry and that whoever is in favor with the companies gets to become the successful star. This makes the industry full of people who may not be the most musically talented but are backed by the companies, and so the potential of the industry is not at its best.

You cannot judge who is more successful between the independent and the large companies as they are too different. The large companies have huge amounts of money such as Universal entertainment who made $6.5 billion in 2013 whereas smaller companies have a very small amount of money to work with. Furthermore the independent companies make successful artists  whilst not having the connections and the bigger corporations, this would make the more successful. However the big companies do have more money put in every project so the risk is greatly increased with each project. For example the independent companies may put £100,000 into a artists album , a bigger company may put £2 million in every project. So the companies are too different to be comparable, furthermore independent companies tend to be more focused on smaller genres rather than the mainstream music which the big companies represent. However it is the case that the smaller independent companies cannot sign big artists so what they will try to do is grow them to a size where they would be at with a conglomerate company. Although this would be a much longer process than what the conglomerates can do in that they can sign a successful artist who regulary sells records. 

The independent companies bring many things that the big corporations cannot, they can make music that are niche as they can target a small audience. This makes them more likely to sell music to the audience of that genre and so they have less risk. Furthermore they can take risks as they will put less money into an artists, so they  can go for artists which may be much bigger in the future as they will lose less if the gamble does not pay off. Lastly they can make any music that they wish as they are not held back as much with having to make a huge profit and pleasing shareholders, this would make them free to pick the artists they want.  So in conclusion there are many advantages to the music industry with having independent companies and help the industry to become more varied and that they can help smaller artists become much bigger. Although conglomerates are just as important in that they make the highly succesfull artist as they have the financial backing to sell them to the audience. 

Planning cinematography - Miss Georgiou

Planning Cinematography

 Cinematography in music videos is essential for many reasons , one reason is that it can keep the audience entertained while watching the music video. This could possibly want to make them watch the video again and not get bored of the song if they see it more than once. Another reason is that as cinematography makes the video interesting the video will be more memorable, this will make them more likely to listen to the music again and buy the music. A further possible reason is that it can help to tell the narrative to the audience, for example if a artist is sad then they could do a close up of his face which will make it clear. This could help get rid of any confusion that the audience have about the emotions of the video. This makes it obvious that cinematography is a key part of a music video and can make the video clearer and much more memorable to the audience, which will make them more likely to buy the music.

Handheld Reverse Close-Up -  This camera angle is where the camera is facing the persons face whilst they walk around and we see the background and the movement.This camera is unconventional to the genre of psychedelic rock as it has not been used in any of the videos that we have seen that are conventional the genre. However as psychedelic rock is about having a unique view and a different way of seeing, things this would be a good camera angle to use as it is infrequently used. So it could be said that it is unconventional, yet it fits with the themes of the genre. This will also make it unusual for the audience which will hopefully make the song more memorable.  The shot in the scene represents the artist as seeing the world differently as at this point the artist in our video has take drugs. However it also shows the artists face which shows his emotions of being depressed while he is walking around London, which we get from the movement of the camera.  This will go very well with the lyrics " every part of me says go ahead" as we see him continue to walk after a girl and see if it is his girlfriend.

Ark Shot - This shot is where we have the camera moving around the artist which shows all of the background and the artist. This shot is not conventional to the genre of psychedelic  rock and has not appeared in any similar bands videos, even though it is not commonly seen in music videos at all. Although again it bring a different angle of viewing for the audience which can be seen as complimenting the themes of psychedelic rock. This camera shot represents the artist as partly lost in thought as we can see the background around him although he is not looking at any of it and is looking dead ahead. It also shows his emotions of being sad of the brake up with his girlfriend as we can see his face from all angles. The audience will feel sympathy for him as at that moment he is in a very depressing place which will want to make them keep watching as they want to see what happens to him. This particularly shot would go very well with "but i hear it inside my head every day" as we can see that he is thinking deeply about what he is going to do now that he has broken up with his girlfriend.











The tracking shot- is when a camera , sometimes on a track, moves over a distance while filming the person moving either running or walking. This is very conventional of the psychedelic rock genre as it is used many times to show the movement of the scene and the artist. This also is used as it keeps the music video active and interesting, which will make it more memorable to the audience so they are more likely to buy it This camera angle also helps show the artist as he walks through London , and shows how he is contemplating whilst being alone after his break up. This is a very good shot to use as we can see the background where he is walking, which also keeps the audiences interest. Again this would go well with the lyrics "every part of me said go ahead" as we can see he continues walking which ties in very well.

High angle - This angle is where the camera angle looks down onto the artist, this is quite conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock and is used in many videos where they want to make a person look small. This angle is used to make the subject look small, helpless and insignificant, as they are put in a very vulnerable position. The camera shot presents the artist as small and unimportant as he is still thinking about his brake up, during this time he is also on drugs so it makes the experience better. This will make the audience feel sorry and take pity on the artist as he at that time is lost and confused. Furthermore this will make it more memorable and they will likely buy the music as it has given them such a situation. For this particular shot we could use the lyrics " When I realize im just holding into hope maybe"  and we can see that he is vulnerable from the shot. 

Long Shot - The long shot is also used in the music video to show, this shot is using the big skyscraper background along with our artist. This is very conventional of the genre and is used frequently to show the exotic background that are often used in psychadelic rock genre. In our scene it is differnt from our other camera angles and we can only see the artist from a distance and not close up , which means we do not see his emotions. This shot will present the artist as very alone as in this shot he is isloated from everyone else, this will give him again sympathy from the audience. Furthermore we will see the city behind him which will show how small he is compared to his surroundings. This will again bring him sympathy and the audience will now be concerned about what he will do.

Overall the audience build a very strong relationship with the artist, they see him as in a vulnerable and small, this is done by using high shots and making him look small against a big background. Furthermore this will bring added sympathy which will make teh audience want to keep watching and listening as they now have a relationship and care about the man. This will also make the song more memorable which means they will more likely buy the album.

Lyric Analysis-Miss Georgiou

Lyric Analysis

The hidden meanings in this song are fairly easy to spot and reveal a deeper meaning to the narrative of the song which we can us win our video.  For example in this song it is focused on a brake up, one hidden part is that the girl he is singing about does not feel the same way as he feels about her, which is not apparent from the face value of the lyrics. This however is reflected in our own narrative as we have used this as our key theme, this will make the video seem deeper than if we did not use it.  Also with the brake up this shows how he is physically and mentally confused with the situation that he is in, which we also reflect in the video using colour tints .

Our group has annotated the lyrics by separating the lyrics up and analysing each of these individually which make up the song. Then we try to find the meanings behind the lyrics which can make up a new part of the narrative in the video. Then we try to see how they relate to each other and put them together to make a narrative. This will make a song that both is interesting to the audience and still is somewhat conventional to the genre, whilst still following the narrative of the lyrics in video.

Our annotations will assist us in many ways and will help us make a successful video. The style of the lyrics is quite sad and depressing with themes of braking up, this helps us with the making of the video as we can now make it conventional to the mood of the song. Such as making the artist wear dark coloured clothes and making the video she it is going dark , both of these give the impression of unhappy scene. This also helps the audience infer what the music video will be about before anything even happens in the video.

The lyrics also give the idea that the music video is for an older audience with the themes that are included in the lyrics. The themes of brake ups are for a more mature audience as they are more likely to understand the emotions of the video. Furthermore there are themes of rejection which young people will not be able to comprehend as it is just too mature.This is why we have target our music video to the ages of 15 to 35 as we believe any younger and they would simply not understand, however any older and it may be simply uninteresting to an older audience and they again may not understand it.

With this we can now see that our narrative has a person that has just broken up with there partner and they are at fault. He then leave and from this he is thinking about her and sees her in various places and will eventually take drugs, while this is going on we are going to use London as it is very accessible and will be a very good setting and backdrop. From this we have decided that we want the main character to commit suicide as we believe that this will be a big shock and make the audience pity the character. This will be the basis of the our narrative and we can improve and work on it from this point. We will follow the conventions of this genre by using lots of editing and bright florescent colours to show the effects of the psychedelic drugs.

The conventions of the song are also based around the annotations which we have made. For example we will be using colour tints after a certain point in the song as they are conventional to psychedelic rock, however we use them after a certain point in the lyrics as we can see his mood changing. We are attributing this to the narcotic drugs that he will take in the video which is also very conventional of  the psychedelic genre.  Another is the way that we have used a unique location to go to, we have interpreted from the lyrics that she has left him and he needs to go to a place to think. This is why we have used London as a location as it is exciting and interesting for audiences , this is very conventional with the psychedelic genre as they often use different locations.

Planning Setting and Iconography - Miss Georgiou

Planning Setting and iconography

Setting and iconography are extremely important within music videos for many reasons. One reason is that they help keep the audience interested in the scene, such as using interesting locations such as a beach or expensive house, this can also be done with iconography. This may be trying to make an audience aspire to the life that the artist has, this can also be changed to make the artist more relatable to the audience which builds a relationship.

The locations that our group will be using are a House,train station,  Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street, Docklands, Stratford City Centre, London City Airport. We have used these locations as they are some of the very best in London which will make for an impressive location for the video. Furthermore many people do live around London so for them particular people it could be very relatable, even people who have not visited London can make a connection as it is very iconic.

The house we feel is a very good starting scene as it sets up the narrative while giving the video a starting point. This will be extremely relatable for many people as it is not the mansions that are usually used in videos just a normal house. This will also help build a relationship with the artist as he appears more normal and therefore relatable. In this location we will have the start of the scene with an argument taking place. There are very few limitations for this scene as we have permission to use it and we only will be filming for a short time there. There may be tripping hazards around the area but we can easily fix this by clearing the area of all possible dangers. This is one of the only hazards for this location as it is relatively safe. The weather will not matter too much in this scene as a majority is filmed inside the house.

The train station we will be using will help to show how  our artist gets from the house into London where the rest is set. This will make the narrative easier for the audience to understand and too make the video flow. This scene will only be a very short amount of time and will show only him getting on a train. The limitations of this scene are that we have not tried to get permission to film there which means we could possibly be stopped. The main hazard are the trains which can cause injury and death and will be be a constant hazard while filming at this location. To make sure we dont get injured we will move all tripping hazards and not film too close to the track , this will prevent any accidents. This also will not be limited by the weather as we will be filming inside the station and the platform has a roof. Furthermore this is very relatable as many people have been on one and it can be easy to feel that the artists is a real and normal person, which will increase the emotional connection, through this way it supports the genre as well.

We will be using Canary Wharf and the docklands as it is a very impressive place with skyscrapers and the dock all around the location which will bring an audiences interest. The action taking place will be him looking around and thinking about what has happened in previous scenes and him walking from one place to another. The limitations of this location could be that we have large amounts of people in the shot , taking the focus away from the artists. Also some people may possibly not be happy about being filmed, which could mean doing multiple shots. For this area the main danger is water as there are many water ways around the area, this however can easily be avoided by not filming too close to the side of the docks. Th weather could be a limiting factor here , however the weather if bad may add to the film as it will reflect the emotions of the artist at the time. When the lyrics sing " Feels like we only go backwards" we were planning to have a train going into a station and then back as a visual meaning to the lyrics , so that they audience understand.

Liverpool Street will be a central focus for us and will be important in the overall film. He will again be thinking and walking along the street while we film him looking around at the sights of the location. There are some possible limitations such as people not wanting to be filmed and as there are often crowds it may be difficult to do a scene. Also there may be many health and safety problems, one is that knocking people over and tripping people may be a problem as filming will take our focus away. There may be weather limitations with this location as it is very open so the weather could affect filming, but this also could be good as if the weather was good in a scene before and is bad after it will show time passing. When the lyrics sing " Every part of me says go ahead " we will have a shot of our artist walking into the distance as if he is walking into the city. This will give us a place for our artist to aim for and it gives a literal meaning for the audience when watching.

Stratford city center will be a relatively short part in the music video , but will still add to the video as it is now a new location of London. In this scene he will be walking and roller bladders will be going around him and he will be looking around again at the location. The limitations of this scene are that we need the help of the roller bladers and that again people may not be happy about being filmed for a video. This may be one of the longest scenes as many thing possibly could go wrong, such as not finding a quit enough place to shoot. The hazards of this scene are being possibly knocked over by a roller bladder , although we will try to make sure this does not happen, and that there are may busy roads around the area.The limitations of this scene about the weather are small as most of the area is covered with roofs so it will be unlikely to get slippy and wet. This will support the genre as we will see lots of unique people in this area and this will be very conventional to the psychedelia rock genre in that it has the theme of being individual.

London City airport will only be a long shot and so will be far away , this will just be a scene to break up the scene of the artist walking London. In this scene we will see a plan taking off and another coming in to land. There are few limitations and the only one being that it may get dark very quickly which may cut short our film time.There are very little hazards in this area as we will be filming from a long distance. The weather limitations may be a factor as if it is very bad planes may not be taking off , and with cloud we may not be able to see the plane. This is a very unique shot and will give the theme of individuality that we can use with our video as it is such a unique location. With the lyrics "feels like we only go backwards" we will have a plane coming into land , but in reveres will give us the link between lyrics and visuals.

The iconography used in this scene is very basic with the only things being used are a train ticket/oyster card a mobile phone and a tablet. We want to have limited iconography as we feel it will take away attention from the artist. The ticket will be used as he is entering the train station and will allow him onto the platform. The mobile phone he will look at throughout the scene as he want to hear from his girlfriend but there is no reply. Th tablet is to represent narcotic drugs which will be taken in London and will change things about the video such as the colour tints we will be using. Also this is a major part of the psychedelic rock genre so we felt that it was an essential part to include.

Magazine Advert Analysis - Miss Miller

There are many reasons that an artist will put an advert in a magazine for their album. One reason is to promote the album and the artist to the magazines audience , this will help new fans to see the artist and maybe want to buy the artists album, while still keeping the interest of old fans. Another possible reason is to increase the sales of the album , this will be done by the increased publicity and awareness of the album as it can be seen by more people. Furthermore if an artist want to move there music into another genre then it may help by putting an advert into a certain magazine. For example if an indie artist wants to move into the rock genre then they may advertise in a magazine such as kerrang magazine. Additionally the magazine also shows the audience what the artists album looks like, this will make it more recognizable for the audience which will help as if they see it they are more likely to buy the album as it is memorable.

The magazine advert that I have chosen is Pink Floyds album Delicate sound of Thunder which was released in 1988. The band can be seen as very conventional to the psychedelic rock genre in many ways. For example the man in the advert is wearing very unusual clothing in that he is wearing a costume with spikes, this conforms very much to the genre as this is typical in nearly all psychedelic rock videos. Furthermore the advert has a location in a very unusual place, which is very typical and conventional of the psychedelic rock genre , other music videos that I have researched have used similar unusual locations such as a forest and a desert similar to this. Overall this video is very conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock. This will help the artist in targeting a bigger audience as they cover there genre without becoming too extreme which may put people off, especially as this was in the past where artists were more conservative.

The connotations given in the advert are very unusual in many ways , one being that the artist is alone in the middle of the desert. This is different from other adverts who often have there artists surrounded by people to show their popularity , which helps with the brand image. This can also be seen with the man in distance looking down on the presumed artist in the image. Another connotation is that the artist is different from everyone else, this is done by the clothes he wears in that even though it is in 1988 the clothes are unusual and are unique for that time and ours. This again isolates him in that he is different compared to other people, who may dress more normally. 

The colors used in the video are also very conventional with the psychedelic rock genre, the colors used are bright blues , black, white and a yellow. This is very similar to other videos which use other bright and vivid color and it is used as it makes the advert stand out when compared to other music genre adverts that may be darker.The choice of image is also very conventional for the genre of music, most of the time psychedelic rock genre have the artist in the image but have them in a surreal location. So the artist being in the middle of a dessert does follow the genre, as other have done things such as being on a mountain. 

The design of the  layout is relatively simple , for example at the top of the advert we can see it is done by the band Pink Floyd and then just below it there is the album that they are selling. Then there is the main shot of what the album cover will look like to help the audience remember it. Furthermore below that in bold are the word "out now "   and a magazine quote of " the very best of Pink Floyd" which will also make people want to go and buy the album. The style of language is quite emotive with it saying things such as "out now " which give it a very positive style , however the language is very short and sharp with there being no unnecessary words. This helps with reading and makes it memorable for the audience and will help them remember and possibly buy the album later if the come across it. Overall the language is very effective and gives all of the information needed, whilst being memorable and trying to get the audience to see it and buy the album. F

The typography of the advert is very simple but effective, it makes it clear who the artist is and what album they are selling. There is only one type of font used which is a simple basic font which is thin , however there are differences in colour such as the main title of the band Pink Floyd being in pink. The rest of the font are simple in that they are white and gold which make the words stand out against the black background. The language used is very positive for the album such as the main " the very best of Pink Floyd " which will make the old fans who know there previous work want to buy the album more. The rest of the language is quite straightforward and does not really have a specific style in that they are very short such as "out now ". This gives it necessary effect of the genre of not giving lots of information away whilst still interesting the audience and being memorable. 

Overall this will be extremely helpful in creating my own magazine advert for our band Tame Impala. This research has helped as we can see other artists that are in the genre and how they present their albums to the audience. This is something we could try to replicate which will make our own magazine advert successful. For example we would very much like to use the surreal background in our own album as it will make it more interesting and memorable for audiences.  We can also gain some ideas from these album covers which would be useful in our own album which would make ours better and more conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock. Another point we would take inspiration from is the layout , it is very simple and yet is easy to read and gets all of the information across. Furthermore it is easy to see at a distance and can be seen at a glance and is memorable. 

In this advert the colours are quite dull compared to the normal florescent colors of psychedelic rock which often have colours of blue , pink, yellow. This advert had browns white and oranges which are quite unconventional , yet they still give some of the effect of the genre. The picture however is conventional in that it is very unusual as there is multiple pictures of the same men, overlapping each other. Furthermore the smoke in the background gives it an eerie feeling which is again conventional , as the genre is about being different and unique from the normal and mainstream. However it could be seen that the clothes they are not conventional to the genre in that they are not especially different , they would not be considered now although when the album came out it would have been considered normal dress. This advert would also link to other adverts Pink Floyd has done in that it is unusual and yet there is a sense of normality about the advert. This gives them a common link which people can remember about the adverts. 

The connotations in this advert is that the men in the advert are very different from normal people even though they look it. They may be wearing ordinary clothes but the multiple faces shows how they are unique and different compared to others. Furthermore we get the connotation and impression that these people have many aspects to them from the way that they have multiple sides.This can be related back to the psychedelic drugs which are a main theme in songs of this genre and it gives the impression from the multiple faces and smoke surrounding them that they are almost dreaming. This can also be reflected in the choice of image in that it is completely unique and no mainstream artist would have it , as it could simply alienate people and put them off. However the image is very eye catching and so could bring people to buy the album as well as it is so unusual, as they simply may remember how unusual it is. 

The typography of the advert is very conventional to the genre , it is wavy and uneven and yet we can read it clearly. It is bold and and takes up much of the advert and this gives it a simple and effective look, that the audience would like as they can clearly see who the band is. Furthermore the wavy lines give an indication of what type of music the band is and that it is a psychedelic rock band from the wavy title which is like the effects of drugs. There is very little style to the language and is very plain and gets the necessary information across, this makes it easy to read and can be read from a distance.The layout of the advert is simple with a main picture taking up all of the advert and a simple title which lets the audience know the band. The title of the band "Pink Floyd"is at the bottom so as not to cover the picture , and that is all that it is on the advert and is very simple. Additionally from the second advert I think we could take the different front cover idea as it may be memorable as it is so different , this will help sales as it is so eye catching. However it has the chance of alienating people which may reduced sales from people who are more mainstream , however the genre is not mainstream so we can afford to be different. 

Planning Artist Image- Miss Georgiou

Planning Artist Image

An artists representation is essential to the music video for many reasons. The main reason is that the audience can tell what genre of music the video is by and who the artist is. For example a indie video with casual clothes would be conventional whereas a pop video with casual clothing would not as they often wear outfits. Furthermore the genre of the video will be very hard to understand without some representation which can help with understanding ,  Another possible reason for the artist image is that it helps the audience understand the narrative, which otherwise may be confusing to them as it can help help see what kind of mood and emotion the song is about. Bright colours being for happy and dark colours possibly being for sad or angry.

Jazz

Trainers , Jeans , T shirt,  Jumper
No make up

Robyn

Jumper , Jeans , trainers

normal make up

The representation in the of the artist is very unconventional for our genre of psychedelic rock with our artist wearing casual clothes.  Normally the artist in a psychedelic rock video is wearing very unconventional clothing and often wears strange outfits such as an animal costume with complicated make up which often is different. Furthermore the clothing worn is often made of bright and vivid colours which make the artist stand out in a otheriwse ordinary scene. In our own video we have our artist wearing everyday clothing such as jeans and a t shirt which helps the audience relate to the artist more than a strangely clothed artist which would cause confusion for the audience. Also many people would be put off with the unusual clothing which would make them not want to watch the rest of the artist.

 The colours the man is wearing are not bright colours which would normally appear in a psychedelic rock video as conventionally they are very bright and colorful. We are going to use these darker colours to show the mood of the video, where a man is upset as he has split up with a girl.  Therefore he is wearing dark clothes to reflects his mood, furthermore the girl is also wearing dark clothing as at the time they are having an argument which helps the audience understand what is going on. This also helps the audience build a relationship with the characters as the audience feel sympathy for them, and so they care about what happens to them. This would make them want to continue watching the video as they care about the outcome of what will happen to the characters and whether anything goes wrong for them.

In the first scene when the character is a with his girlfriend he is in his t shirt and jeans and has no shoes on. When he leaves the house after breaking up with his girlfriend,  he puts on his black jacket which remains on throughout London and the rest of the video until his suicide , and puts his shoes on which also remain on for the rest of the video. The only other point where he has different clothes on is during his flashback half way through the video where he is seen in his t shirt with no shoes again with his girlfriend in the house , thinking back to a happy time. His girlfriend is seen in the same clothes throughout as she is only in the opening scene and in the flashback she is wearing the same thing as the beginning scene. Overall their outfits change very little apart from going form indoor to outdoor wear for the artist.

Planning lighting and colour - Miss Georgiou

Planning lighting and Colour



There are a variety of lighting styles and coloures used in music videos for many reasons. One reason is that the lighting helps portray a certain mood for the audience, for example low key lighting for a depressed mood. or high key lighting for a happy mood. This helps the audience understand the video without there being any music to show the mood. Another reason is that we can see what the most important thing in the scene is as the brightest thing will have the most importance. Furthermore the lighting can do the opposite and make things in the dark seem insignificant.

In my own video we will be using mainly low key lighting with a small amount of high key for certain parts in which he has different moods and feelings. Furthermore we will also be using colour tints which we will add in the editing stage of our video, the tint colours are green, red, blue and purple. This will bring a sense of diversity to the video which may be unable top do without the different colours used.

Low key lighting is not conventional to our genre of psychedelic rock as in most conventional music videos of the genre the lighting is often bright and vivid. We plan on doing low key lighting as we want to make our music more main stream due to the very unique genre that our video falls under. The colour and lighting helps to represent our artist as in the video he is unhappy and angry that he and his girlfriend have split up. Therefore we can tell the mood of the scene before anything significant even happens. We will be using this throughout the video and was due to us filming at night as the video goes on , to give the impression of time passing. We would be using this in all scene after the artist leaves the house , apart from them in when he goes inside the tube station.

High key lighting however is conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock, but we do not want to follow  the genre closely as we want to make it more main stream. We will use this particularly in the places  of the video that he feels better, and at certain points that he is distracted.  This will help build a connection with the audience as they will feel sympathy for the artist at these points in the video which will help them care about him. This is used at the train station station and inside his house at the start of the video , both of these are needed as we want to see the emotions on his face as these are the points that set up the emotion and narrative for the rest of the scene,

For the tints that we will use in the video it is very conventional to the music genre and is used in many other music videos.  The tints we will use are the colours green,red, blue and purple which will be added in editing. It represents the artist in the way that he is having  a range of different feelings and emotions and this shows the way in which they change quickly and have no order. This will bring a connection between the artist and the audience in that he is having a range of emotions which puts him in a sympathetic place for the audience, and they will feel sorry for him. We will be using this after he has taken psychedelic drugs and we believe this will bring another aspect to the video which mainstream videos will not have. Furthermore with this we can show the audience what the artist is seeing at the time whilst he is walking around London, for example when he is walking down the stairs. 

Research into chosen artist - Miss Georgiou

Research into chosen artist 

As a group we decided that we would pick the song "It feels like were only going backwards" by Tame Impala. We decided to pick this artist as we like the type of music that the artist makes and the genre of psychedelic rock is one that interests us as it is unusual compared to other genres. Furthermore as the song is very unusual our group felt that we could make a good video for the video and that it is very open to interpretation which will make it easier for us to make a video about.

Tame Impala is an Australian psychedelic rock band from Perth, who are made up of Kevin Parker, Jay Watson, Dominic Simper,Cam Avery and Julien Barbagallo. The band was started in 2007 and its first single Sundown Syndrome was released in 2009 to much critical acclaim. The bands most recent album Lonerism was released in October 2012, it won the 2012 J Award for Australian Album of the year and was nominated for  grammy for best alternative album. Furthermore in 2012 they headlined festivals such as Coachella festival and Sasquatch festival in America. The band Tame Impala are currently signed to modular records recording company which was started in 1998 and is also based in Australia the same as the band.


Half Full Glass of Wine - Tame Impala

This video does follow Goodwins theory to some extent in different ways. For example the video does follow the conventions of the genre of psychedelic rock using bold colours such as pink and green. They also have surreal editing going on constantly in the video, things such as  band members playing even though we can only see the outline of them in the scene and they are coloured in with colours such as green or blue. However we can not see them very well or the instruments so it could be seen that it is unconventional to the rock part pf the genre. There is nearly no connections between the lyrics and visuals as the visuals are nearly random and have little to no meaning with the songs lyrics. On the other hand there is a link between the music and visuals for example when the tempo of the song increases the editing of the visuals also increases in turn.

The video is mainly made up of narrative with a small amount of performance included,  but the narrative  in the video is very confusing and open to interpretation by the audience. The performance is very short and we can only see cartoon edited versions of the man singing whilst the music is playing. The target audience age for this video would be from 15 to 30 as any younger and the video would simply be too confusing for them as there are many complex parts to the video. The artists is not seen through most of the video however when we do see him we can tell he is the artist as he is central in the screen. He is presented as a mystery as we cannot actually see his face however we can see the emotions on his face of being relaxed and calm. This can make him more relatable to the audience as he seems to be normal when compared to other music stars, one pint in which we can see him is in the picture below in the form of a carton.

Mise en scene is used in different ways during this video, however there is no setting as it is nearly all based around editing and changes so frequently there is no definite location. This is a big contrast to other music videos which often use exotic locations such as mansions or beaches. This could be part of the genre in that they are trying to be conventional and different when compared to the mainstream videos,  or that he is pointing towards constantly changing in the music video. For example in the scenes below the change has happened in under a second to a completely different scene which is unrelated.

 Furthermore there is very little in the way iconography as there is only a guitar and drum sticks, so it does not contain much in the video. The camera angles used are a close up , mid shot and a long shot although with the amount of editing used it is hard to see the change between them in that the change happens in under a second and the new scene will only lats for three seconds. The lighting that is used in the video is high key which helps keep the bright colors seen and makes the editing easier to see and then suddenly goes dark. This could be seen ass a theme of the psychedelic drugs which are a key concept of the genre or simple reflecting on the change in mood of the song and the tempo. For example in the picture below we can see the colour changes over a very short amount of time going from low key to high.

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Tame Impala- Expectations

In the video Expectations Goodwins theory is use throughout the video in various ways. The video does follow the conventions of psychedelic rock in many ways. One way is the editing used which makes the screen blur into itself which makes it very confusing to watch. Another is the way that is uses flares to show the bright and bold colours, both of these things are extremely conventional to the genre and make the video fit the genre. However there are way in which they do not conform in that there are no colour tints used through editing which are synonymous with the genre. Again there is little connection between the lyrics and the visuals with the location being a forest , however there is a small amount of connection between the music and visuals which match the beat of each other in the video. 

The video is exclusively made up with performance with them playing all the way through , and having no concept or narrative within the video.  This conforms to the rock part of the genre where performance based videos are very common and have little of any other type. The artists is again represented in the video as very relaxed as he stands in a slouched way and wears casual clothing. Also his facial expression is one that makes him seem as he does not care and cannot be fazed by his situation.  This makes him seem more relatable to the audience as he shares common things with them, this may not always happen in other videos with artists wearing expensive brands. We can see the artist in the picture below playing in the forest with a distorted background. 

The target audience age would be the same again at 15 to 30 as it may not appeal to an older audience however it maybe confusing for younger audiences that cannot understand the situation. This age range could be lowered with this video as there is not much unusual editing used in this video. With this video the Mise en scene is used frequently , the location being in a forest which gets darker and darker over time. The iconography used is just the bands equipment and later in the video two flares which are used to change the visuals of the scene. The lighting changes through the video such as at the start the video has high key lighting and as the video goes on the lighting gets lower until its nearly completely black. The camera angles used are a mid shot, long shot, close up and a low angle. Throughout the video the artist is always central which focuses the audiences attention in them. 

This research will help the planning of my own video in many ways as I can see what other videos the artist has and what style they have used for them. This will be able to make my video better as we can follow the conventions of the genre closer and please the audience with the conventions from the genre. However we could also make it  unconventional which would please a larger audience which would make it more mainstream. One of the micro elements I would like to include is the constant changing editing , however this would be very hard to do and very time consuming. Other inspirations I would like to take is having a running theme throughout such as the doves as it tells a story whilst having other scenes which make it interesting for the audience. Overall this has helped me greatly in deciding if I will be conventional or unconventional to the genre and what inspiration I can take from these videos.

Target Audience results- Miss Miller

Target Audience Results 

Our group carried out research in the form of questions to people so that we could use it to improve our video and add things that they think would improve it. This research would make our video better as we could use ideas that they preferred as well as what we wanted. We used a group of 40 people as this will give us a wide range of opinions and will help make our results more accurate and will make our video better when we make it. The questions that our group put together focused on our own genre which would help us gain knowledge of what people liked and disliked about the genre of psychedelic rock. 



1) How Old are you?
2)What genres of music do you listen to most regularly?
3)Do you prefer Concept, Narrative or Performance based music videos?
4)Have you heard of Psychedelic Rock?
5)What makes a music video enjoyable?
6)What makes a music video unenjoyable?
7)Do you prefer you artist to be in the music video, Why?
8)Have you heard of Tame Impala, if so what do you think of their music/videos?
9)Have you seen any of his videos, if so what do you think?
10)do you prefer the use of CGI/special effects in music videos?

McCraken theory paragraph

Question 1 tells us the ages of the people that we asked the questionnaire to, and that the majority of the people we asked were in the 15 to 19 range with 37%. With the other category having the lowest with a tiny 5%. From this we can tell how our results are for different ages and that we have  majority of young people so it applies for our video. 

Question 2 shows us which of the genres of music is the most frequently listen and so which they generally prefer to listen to.  The biggest proportion of people went for pop at 30% with Hip Hop and rock coming in at 22% and 20%. This is encouraging for our own video as it is a sub genre of rock and as the third most listened to it had a relatively large audience. 

Question 3 is one of the most useful in our questionnaire, it shows us that a majority of people want to watch a narrative based music video with 42%,  which is very helpful with our own video as it could give us a base. However a large portion also want a performance based video, and as our genre is rock this could be a thing we use in our own video. The smallest portion of people want a concept based video which would also work with our video as we have a psychedelic genre so we could experiment. 

This question is not as encouraging however with a much larger amount of people being asked this could add up to a significant amount of people. However this could also be helpful as we are not limited to a typical genre so we can change as much as we like to make the video stand out. Furthermore the genre is very diverse in its videos so we are again not limited and so we can be very creative with it.

Question 5 is very important as it will help us to include things that people enjoy in the video, the most enjoyable thing in a music video is the actual music. This is good as we already have the song so this part is done, the second biggest being the the sexualisation of women. This would need to be planned into the lyrics of the song and see if it is viable for the video. 

This question is very useful as it shows us what we should not include in our own video. For example an unconventional video is very unpopular, however with the genre we are doing this is very often used as the songs are unconventional when compared to other genres. Our lyrics do not contain any swearing so we do not have a problem with what 30% of people do not like. Furthermore we do not have any offensive connotations, however our narrative may be unclear as our song has many hidden meanings.

This question shows us that our audience clearly do want to see the artists in the video. We will incorporate this into our video which will make the video more popular with people, however we will also put in some narrative as this helps get the meaning of the song across to the audience. So we will have both performance and narrative in our video which will please a majority of people which will make the video more popular as it is enjoyed by a wider audience. So we have a clear indication of what we need to do with our video , and how we go about doing it. 

Overall there are not that many people who really like Tame Impala, although it is a unique type of music so this can be expected. However 20% of people did like the music so this is positive in that there is a group who could like our video. Therefore over a larger amount of people this portion would be a large amount of people. Therefore we will cater our video towards these people which will make it successful as we are doing what our target audience wants. From this we will try to make our video as focused on the people who like it as possible. 

This question again has predictable results as Tame Impala are not a well known band, so 62% of the 40 people we asked have not seen any of their videos. However there are 25% of people who do like the music video which makes what they want clearer as the music video is unconventional compared to others. This makes making the video easier as now we know what they expect and want with the video. Although there are still 13% of people who have watched the video and not liked it, so although some people do like the video there is still a lot who do not. 

Lastly we have the question of whether the people liked special effects and CGI in the video and as expected it is fairly mixed.  This makes making the video harder as there is no certain answer however this may make it easier as we can see no matter what we do there will be people who are happy. This also makes it open to interpretation as we have no limits now with special effects. From this we can see that we are open to do either as we can only please so many people, and so we have creative freedom making the video. 

To help with the planning of our video we made 5 more vox pops which would give us further information which we could use. Most of the people that we asked had very little knowledge of our band Tame Impala or psychedelic  rock the genre which it belongs to. The 5 questions that we asked to the people were :

1) Do you like Tame Impala

2) Did you enjoy the music video, why?

3) What elements did you enjoy about the video?

4) What elements didn't you enjoy about the video?

5) What improvements would would you implement?