Digipak Research - Analysis of CHVRCHES' Album Cover

Digipak Research - Analysis of Noah and the Whale's Album Cover

Digipak Research - Analysis of Vampire Weekend's Album Cover

Digipak Research - Analysis of The Vaccines' Album Cover

Digipak Research - Analysis of Bombay Bicycle Club's Album Cover

Digipak Research - Mood Board

Research & Planning - Lighting and Colour

As our chosen track is quite upbeat we thought that high key lighting would help to reflect upon the song and therefore represent visually what the audio is portraying.

For the colours, we wished to use a lot of greens and yellows in order to display the new and happy relationship of the couple within the narrative. Usually, yellow has connotations of being happy and summer, just what king of feeling we wished to create in our music video.

Research & Planning - Location

Shoot 1- Performance

Due to the song having an upbeat tempo, it seemed only fitting that we should film somewhere in the sun. The only problem with this is that we rely on the weather. To cause the least logistical problems with the band, we thought it would be easiest to film near them. Initially we had the great opportunity to film in a warehouse belonging to the lead singer's family. However, this became problematic since there was work that would be occuring on our planned weekend and so would be quite distruptive. Hence, we decided to film in a nearby forest and in their practise studio in a bandmember's house. The only problem lay in the fact that I would have to film on my own due to work commitment, but this was mostly resolved by grabbing another pair of hands to help myself out with the shoot itself. The band's performance studio initially looked quite bare and so we bought nice looking backdrops and fairy-lights in order to make the space look more fitting for a music video.

Most importantly, we wanted to make sure that the setting was light and therefore would fit with the genre of Littlewing's music. Luckily, the woods provided a lovely setting for the light-hearted nature of the song, as well as consistantly providing the green/yellow colouring which we wanted to display throughout the music video. It was also key for us that we had good weather for this day. Without good weather, the entire music video would appear almost unconnected to the song. For example, if we were to have dull, rainy weather, it may be better suited to a song that had a saddened, deep meaning. In order for the meaning of the music video to be clear, ideally we needed sunny weather - connoting happiness. 

Shoot 2 - Narrative

In order to make sure that the music video flows nicely we decided to film on national trust land or 'woodlands walk' as to appear as though the couple are on a romantic sunday walk. The colours therefore would hopefully match to the performance shoot and therefore not appear jarring.

Research & Planning - Casting

Since we wish to make a narrative and performance based music video, we needed to find extra cast. Firstly, the main performance is the band themselves and in this way, they could mostly manage their own image. For the narrative we wish to create however, we needed ideally to have a girl who was similar looking to the lead singer. This is because we wished to create a narrative whereby the audience believed that the girl is in the relationship with a boy was infact the lead singer, however, it is revealed at the end that, in fact, the girl is not her. This had to be changed since we were unable to logitically fit in such a big narrative into the music video which is supposed to be mostly performance based. 

Also, we were unable to meet up with the lead singer to shoot some extra shots in order to make the narrative clear. In this end we ended up using myself, since it came to our attention that I look the most like her. As for the boy in the relationship, we decided to choose a friend who would feel comfortable acting in such a situation. It was important that we had a young cast since the band themselves are quite young and as such have a young target audience. The song itself also proves to be about a young first relationship. 

Research & Planning - Costume Ideas

Since 'Littlewing' are a small indie/alternative band, we wished to keep their look very simple as many indie bands create an image which is patricularly 'relatable' to a yound audience. This kind of attitude is perhaps displayed through Wolf Alice's presentation.

With bands of the same genre, clothing remains very casual, we wanted to continue with this:

Wolf Alice's Target Audience

Looking target audience for our chosen band 'Littlewing' is easier when looking into bands who fit into the same genre, since our band are still quite small; however, they do still seem to have the same target audience. Wolf Alice are a indie rock/alternative band whose target audience is mostly teenagers/young adults.

A journalist writes:
"Like Peace, Wolf Alice are unafraid to discuss a range of weighty topics. Unlike Peace, Wolf Alice have the sophistication and subtlety to pull it off. They address depression, anxiety, jealousy, nostalgia, isolation and mortality over the course of an album that never feels content to fall back on clichés. These are issues that will be at the centre of the lives of wolf Alice’s target audience – teenagers – an audience who are used to being patronised or ignored. Wolf alice never do that."

In this way, their target audience is perhaps defined by what their songs are actually about, since it is evident that young teenagers would relate to such topics, perhaps most painfully mental health issues. Despite this, it is clear that Wolf Alice and our small band 'Littlewing' do connect and thus their target audience consists of people mostly between the ages of 16-25. 

Creating a music video for this demographic is perhaps made easier by the fact that we fit into this category and so have more insight into what works well. 



How does Wolf Alice appeal to their audience?

Roswell said to the Guardian that what people connect to in 'My Love is Cool' is the idea of "coming of age" "not like 16 but the wobbly ages of 18 and 20". Alicia Carter writes, "there is sense of the band emerging into adulthood and realising they can't escape the feeling of being trapped". This transition to adulthood engages their teen/young adult audience since they relate to this directly. Also, due to the band being led by a female, it can be argued that their audience is perhaps more female. Recently, at Reading Festival it was evident that the majority of bands had male lead, therefore making Wolf Alice stand out more, providing a strong female lead which is perhaps not so common. In fact, the lack of female leads at Reading Festival has been a subject of controversy in recent times. Consequently, female audience may relate to the band more out of a sense of female empowerment, as well as relating to their lyrics.

As a band originally from Camden, it can also be argued that the band have a lot of British following. Building a British fanbase enabled the band to go onto a US tour in 2016. Perhaps why the band are so popular in the UK is the fact that some of the band's music is similar to 80s grunge/punk, particularly their single 'Fluffy' which is very reminiscent of 80s Sex Pistols. Thus, the inter-textual reference allows the band to engage in British punk ideology which the 'Fluffy' music video demonstrates. 

Audiences and Genre

Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

34% of Vevo music fans say they pick and choose amid many music types, although 25% are just locked into one kind. As a group, Vevo points out, millennials report they watch more Netflix than they do cable, though for Vevo the point seems to be that “visual content” is doing well with this age group. (Another chart shows the upticks for Instagram, Snapchat and less so, Vine.)

Interestingly, our music genre, alternative, was the leading genre in sales in the United States with over 50 million albums sold each year (3 out of the last 5 years).

Digital has vastly changed the way audiences consume music videos. The number of digital music downloads that occurred in 2004: 4.6 million. More recently, there were 118 million digital music downloads that occurred in the United States alone in 2013. The most popular internet service to access music is YouTube, with 91% brand saturation.

Target Audience 

We decided that for our chosen, young band, that our target audience would be teenagers (around 16-25 years old), after looking into indie band target demographics, it is evident that, generally, indie/alternative bands have 'younger' audiences. Similarly, since we plan to distribute our media product on YouTube, it is evident that the site is perhaps most popular with this demographic for watching music videos.

Audience Research

What do audiences consume?

Indie Music

The term 'Indie' is used to descibe any music independentally produced or working within the network of independent record labels and underground music venues. Our chosen band, 'Littlewing' (a 3-piece indie/alternative band from Buckinghamshire), perfectly suit the genre. Consistantly, indie bands provide a genre of music which is very authentic and often described as DIY. Indie music is for anyone and everyone to listen, not just the so-called niche indie fans.

How do media industries target those audiences?

It is evident that within our chosen demographic, young adults, social media and digital media is largely how music is accessed.

Interestingly, our genre displayed the largest amount of distribution online - 24%. Thus, this is why we think it would be relevant to distribute our music video on YouTube, now a massive platform in music distribution.

Perhaps unusually, some lesser known artists have the highest earned media value for the brand. For instance, while Taylor Swift has 25x the number of followers on Facebook as Sam Smith, and 15x the audience overlap with Target, the brand saw $1.8 million in earned media value in the month following the Sam Smith release, compared to only $663,000 for the Swift release. 

An interesting statistic following online distribution displaying how much it had progressed over recent years:

TOTAL PLAYS

+363% from 2012
+95% from 2013

Sources: Spotify, YouTube, Vevo, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Rdio

434,695,663,626

Similarly, fans have been able to be increasingly involved in the following of their favourite bands. Social Media platforms have enabled fans to directly contact artists as well as feeling more involved in the making of their music.

TOTAL FANS

+202% from 2012
+186% from 2013

Sources: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vine

17,335,824,480

Warren Fu - Director Analysis

Warren Fu is an American music video director, illustrator and designer. He has directed promos for Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, The Strokes, Haim, The Killers, Depeche Mode, Weezer and Mark Ronson. Fu is signed to Partizan Entertainment worldwide for commercials and music videos, and Creative Artists Agency for feature films.

"With a background in Art Direction, Warren Fu’s style is very visually orientated. Before stepping into music videos he was designing and developing imagery for LucasFilm, and through this work he’s refined a retro-futurist aesthetic that has carried over to bands. Fu is famous for his use of large-scale signage, with huge illuminated signs acting as the centerpiece for many of his productions." A good example of this is Haim's 'If I Could Change Your Mind'. This level of influence shows just how much respect he is afforded in terms of shaping a band’s image – no small thing when the names involved are as big at the ones he’s working with."

Illuminated signs seem to define the band's iconography, as well as serving as a perfect tool for getting the band's name out there in a memorable way. This is arguably particularly useful for less well-known bands.

Robert Francis Muller - Director Analysis

Robert Francis Muller is an actor and director particularly known for his music videos for 'Years and Years' including 'Real' and their single 'Take Shelter'. 

As a director he has created a music film for U2 in collaboration with the artist Chloe Early and Co-founder of Dazed magazine Jefferson Hack, which is available to buy on iTunes. He has also directed two music videos for the band Years & Years, which feature talented actors such as Ben Whishaw, Emily Browning, Tuppence Middleton, Nathan Stewart-Jarret and the front man of the band and actor Olly Alexander. These two videos combined have received over 46 million plays and counting on YouTube.

Although Robert Francis Muller is not an "established" music video director, his style is already becoming evident as his use of colour is often prevalent and stands out. While directing 'Take Shelter' Muller stated that he worked with the band "on a bizarre story-line that evolved through out production"-

Muller also appears to always have the camera moving, whether that be with circular shots or pulling out as the band run towards the lens. In this way, Muller has already to build this distinct style of using colourful colours, particularly colours which are relevant to the artist/band themselves. For example, 'Years & Years' have a colour palette of greens, reds and blue. Hence, in the majority of their music videos, certainly Muller's, these colours are used to great effect. The use of colour is particularly prevalent in Years & Years' 'Real':

Jake Nava - Director Analysis

Jake Nava is a director of music videos and TV commercials, having created award-winning works over the past decade for some of the best-known artists and brands worldwide.

Whilst completing his film degree, Nava began his professional career directing music videos and films for MTV Sports. He went on create videos for various artists, including Britney Spears and the Rolling Stones.

Here are a few of Jake Nava's music videos, perhaps the most 'iconic' being Beyonce's 'Single Ladies':

Nava presents many conventions of typical music videos, particularly in the 'pop' genre. Perhaps the most common convention being the voyeuristic treatment of the female body. This is mostly displayed through women's lack of clothing as well as their dancing.  Conforming to a previous blog most on the importance of matching visuals to the lyrics, most of Nava's music videos display this and in this way is conventional of typical music videos.

Jake Nava - A Summary:

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's key features applied to music videos:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example, a stage performance in metal video or a dance routine for boy/girl band.
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals: either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
• There is a relationship between music and visuals: either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
• There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc).

All these features will be useful towards the assemblement of making our music videos and analysing the key conventions which are conveyed in them overall.

Editing in Music Videos

Editing

The process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Editing is usually considered to be one part of the post production process — other post-production tasks include titling, colour correction, sound mixing, etc.

Match on action -matching on action refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action.

Shrinking time - throughout a music video time can be shrunk depending on the pace of the track. This can be completed through using quick cuts and even speeding up the image.

Expanding time - similarly to 'shrinking time' time can be 'dragged out' and expanded through slowing down the image.

Finding the rhythm - rhythm in a music video can be established through having cuts on the beat of the music, or on the drum etc.

Types of music videos:

Narrative - A video that features a visual story that is easy to follow. Narrative music videos can also use diegetic sound, particularly if there is dialogue between a few characters. Perhaps a good example for a narrative music video is 'Money' by Peace:

Concept - Concept videos are usually based around a single idea or concept and are often unusual or even surreal for the audience. This unusual content often draws the audience in and is attractive to them. They often have no storyline and sometimes no relation to the lyrics of the music itself. The perfect music video for demonstrating a completely pointless but utterly brilliant music video is OK go's 'Here It Goes Again':

If there was any other music video that embodies what a concept based video should be, it is this one.

Of course, music videos do not all have to fit in one category/type. An example of a performance and concept based music video is Vampire Weekend's 'Cousins' which displays the band performing while on a set of train-like tracks:

Performance - A performance based video shows the artist/band/group performance throughout the song and sometimes can play throughout the whole video. This type of video is good to use on a lower budget. Swim Deep's 'Honey is a good example:

There are three main types of music videos: narrative, concept and performance. Depending on the type of music video, which can be a 'hybrid' of the two or even all three, editing can be different. For example, match on action is perhaps more important when creating a narrative based music video, whereas in a performance based video this is not as important. In this way, many music videos are narrative/performance based, concept/performance or all three. Another example of this is Noah and the Whales 'Life is Life':

Music Video Research - Deconstruction

As part of our research into how to create a music video we watched different music videos decontructing them almost scientifically; counting the amount of cuts used, medium close up and in and the amount of shots/set-ups.

We started this process with Ed Sheeran's music video 'One'. What made it particularly difficult to count the number of different shots was the fact that the camera was not on a tripod and so was constantly moving, making it seem like many shots were different where they we in fact cutting back to the same shot. We counted around 15 different shots with approximatley 64 cuts which in comparison to the other music videos is quite low. However, the overall pace of the music is very slow and so this amount of cuts seems conventional. The amount of shots that were medium close-up and in is expectedly high, with these types of shots taking up most of the video at 58%.

To display the variety between different paced videos we looked at The Vaccines 'If You Wanna'. We counted around 22 shots altogther, similar to Ed Sheeran's video, there was not any non-moving shots so when there was a cut back the angle would be slightly different in the shot which was used earlier in the music video. Unsurprisingly due to the quick tempo of the music there was about 132, almost twice the amount used in Ed Sheeran's music video. Also, 60% of the shot used were medium close-up and in, showng the importance of using these shots to ensure that the audience connects with the band/artist quickly in the around 3-minute period of the music video.

McBusted's 'Air Guitar' music video displayed a similar pattern. There was 19 different set ups and (yet even more cuts) 153 cuts with 64% of the shots being medium close-ups and in. 

Royal Blood's music video 'Little Monster' displayed the same conventions. There is around 15 different set-ups and a grand total of 245 cuts. In this way, the amount of cuts reflects the fast pace of the song and in turn the music fits in perfectly with the visuals and hence does not appear jarring. Conforming to the other music videos I looked at, around 73% of shots were medium close-up and inwards. This helps to create a sense of intimacy between the audience and the band and therefore create a connection between the two.

In conclusion, from the research above it is evident that generally music videos use shots which are medium close-up and in and this is perhaps used to create a connection between the band and the audience. The amount of cuts also depend upon the pace of the music and therefore, the faster the music, the more cuts. It can also be said that there are usually between 15-20 different set-ups.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia
noun
The process of picturing sounds in the mind's eye.


"A film that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations."

- Andrew Goodwin (1992) - Dancing in the Distraction Factory

We completed an exercise in class in which we listened to the music alone, without any visuals, and had to draw what we 'saw' through the music.  Firstly we listened to 'For Your Love' by Josh Record. The music to me seemed quite romantic and so, stereotypically, I drew a starry sky above a busy city. To be it seemed like a very John Green 'Fault in Our Stars' kind of romanticism and so the influence for my drawing definitely stemmed from almost the reverse of the film poster or the moment in the book where they lie on the ground gazing at the stars, totally in love.

Surprisingly, the actual music video was a little different to what I envisaged. Instead it was still centered around the theme for love or perhaps, in my opinion, obsession as the male character watches the female love interest. Maybe the reason for my visualisation of the music video was different as I only listened to just the music rather then the lyrics. The main lyric that did stick out however was 'For Your Love', the title of the song.

Secondly we repeated the task just with 'Intro' by the xx instead. This time it seemed to really work accurately since I almost imagined the whole music video correctly. Similar features were present in the official music video which I had not even previously seen. Some reason the music just reminded me of being in a car at night, while looking at all the street lights as they flew past. It also made me think of dark alleyways, barley lit with ominous looking people down them.