Research Group Post : Target Audience 2 Analysis

We conducted target audience research using Flickr. By doing this we could receive comments of the public on our photographs. Gaining positive and/or negative responses.

Positive Comments:

• A much better exposure. Could you frame with the supports across the river?
• A lovely shot, it would make a great CU in the music video
• Like - no clutter in the background!
• A super, clean shot with just a little burn out from the flash. I like the diagonal composition.
• I love this shot - great for the music video, you could really get the light to play around and flicker on and off the blade.
• The strength of this is the diagonal composition. You may be able to add artificial flare if you wanted to highlight such.
• I like the location but not sure about the plant and intrusion of the metal on the left.
• Excellent job of keeping the shadows out.
• A lovely shot - could be intriguing if you put blue screen in the mirror and then added the male star moving in it...
• I like this - two objects - two people/ stars - a couple! 
• I particularly like this one - but what about the partial plant? I presume that is intentional?
• A lovely shot - you could get this cropped on final cut pro x into an ECU
• What about filming this and highlighting/ emphasising the 'forever' - would that work with your lyrics anywhere?
• Nice shadow less shot. Just need to photoshop out the top right corner.
• A lovely shot - I think you could film this - maybe where there are problems in the lyrics you could separate the cards and show them messy?
• I like this medium shot pose however, she doesn't look very happy, she looks quite bored. I like the dungarees and mustard coloured top too - the make up is good on the female however, the male has very red eyes- perhaps some foundation is needed for him too.
• A lovely shot and I like the way her hair is blowing. Could be really nice cropped for use on the digipak
• I too like the hair blowing. She looks quite worried. A lovely shot
• A lovely expression and pose- could be good for the digipak. It may benefit from cropping.
• Really expressive - I love this shot. Cropping it to just below his hand would really draw their eyes into the shot and to the audience
• A great costume - I think this would be a good costume to use in the music video. She's not looking into camera which you need for promo materials so I wouldn't use it on the digipak or advert.
• A lighting issue here and quite aggressive. He looks washed out.
• This is somewhat better and has attitude. It depends really on what your intended/ preferred meaning is [Hall reception theory]
• That's a nice shot, I like the way he's leaning into her. Very subtle and well posed. It may work on a pane of the digipak
• A lovely shot, nice angle and could be cropped to a great medium shot
• A great shot. Crop it to a medium close up perhaps as the house in the background is distracting
• Back to back shots can have all kinds of 'not seeing eye to eye' connotations. If they are singing, it might be easier for them if they stand in a slight V rather than fully back to back.
• I love this location and think it is really atmospheric. You could place your star in either light or shade. Is his name Jay?      

Negative:

• Are you planning on using this? Is it disused? Remember it is illegal to trespass on used railway tracks!  
• The jacket/costume on the male star isn't very effective - it looks too big for him. The lighting washes them out and expressions do not connote positivity.
• A lighting issue here and quite aggressive. He looks washed out.
• Strange pose and expression - quite off putting! 
• Why the back of a clock, the ornaments, the shield etc? There is a bike in the shot as well
• For a promo video - it's not very attractive.
• No. What age is your target audience?

Response to Positive:

From what can be seen here in the positive feedback we have received it is clear that our principle photography roughly adheres to the conventions of the Indie genre when looking at the comments and making comparisons to our music video research. I think all but one of the costumes used adhere to conventions of an Indie music and they also attract our TA. We have linked some of the costumes to semiotics and also used them to create synergy for the plans we have for the colour scheme on our digipak. In addition to this we also have reached out to our working class audience by having our artists wearing cheap, casual clothes. We also have a broad range of locations which has also received good feedback, we have a range of different locations that are urban, suburban, busy, abandoned, compact and out in the open so we have near enough ticked all of the boxes for this,  we can also link some graffiti at some locations which provides our TA with a small, extra story line within the narratives which may unfold some of the unknown. Some of the poses by our artists within the principle photography adhere to indie conventions yet they also begin to raise questions to the TA, e.g. Why does the female look confused and sad whilst staring into the distance?

Response to Negative:

The first negative comment highlights the fact that it is illegal to walk on train tracks as it is deemed as trespassing and dangerous, therefore we cannot use it in our video which is a shame because we were going to use it as a discrete method to represent journey and how you can roughly predict what is in the near future, but cannot even begin to imagine the long term future. We think this would've been very effective when supporting the narrative towards the TA, we still intend to use it if we can get permission from the owners of a railway that is temporarily out of use in Louth.

The jacket also isn't effective on the male star in the image pictured above and this is understandable, it doesn't really have any colour towards it and looks bland and dead, this could be a reflection on the spirit of the male star in the narrative in the video however this could be portrayed more clearly using semiotics and linking it with clothing. The pose on the photo is also very off putting and I think it washes away the emotion and story lines in the narrative, therefore I agree with this and we will use another image of them for the behind the scenes images that portray them in a different light rather than what is shown on this image.     

Research : Institutions 6 (Time Inc)

Time Inc from RheanonGreenASMedia

Through the research that I have done on institutions, Bauer is the ideal company to feature my advert.

Planning Group Post : Star Name

We thought about possible names for our stars a while ago, but never came up with something successful, however, today, we thought about keeping our actor's last name 'Champan' and Ryan thought of the name Chase to compliment it, which we all agreed on, as we thought that it sounds catchy and interesting.

Planning Group Post : Photoboard

Dominant colours: 

Yellow
Red
Black
Cream

These colours will help with the synergy in our music video, as one of the most dominant colours is yellow. This colour directly links with the lyrics of the video, as the title of the song is called 'Old Yellow Bricks.' The representation of joy and happiness within the colour can also be used when positive aspects in life are addressed through lyrics and visuals.
The red that is used within the props and the costumes  represent the danger, passion and sex appeal. The relation to Mulvey and the male gaze will be a theory that we will be adhering to with the colour and the voyeuristic costumes/movements, and we rely on the colour red  a lot in order to use this theory.

The use of black and cream in the shots are used to link to the lyrics which refer to nostalgia, and the thought that things were better back then. So we use these colours to try and represent this longing for nostalgia.
The black links more to the neutral/ earth tones within the costumes and the props/locations, as the dark colour links heavily to the rock overtones within the song that we can either pursue or ignore.

Costumes:

We used some contrasting costumes for both stars in order to show diversity and make the costume change meaningful. For example, the first costume on the male is a dark green/black costume which links more to the grungy/rock side of the song, and the neutral/negative parts of the song due to the darkness within the costume. We also have a slight costume change when the neutral shirt can be replaced with a black one, and during this, when we took photos we decided to give the star an aggressive expression and a vulgar gesture of the middle finger. Therefore, the dark dominant outfit can signify the negative and the aggressive side to the song.
We also have a navy/dark green flannel top which creates a more rural look for the male, however, we felt like the costume was missing something, and therefore, upon reflection, we will incorporate the red scarf in order for the singer's costume to tie in with the female's.
However, to contrast both of these costumes, we also asked the star to wear something yellow, which is the opposite of the dark outfits we have seen before. There is no back, as the colours that the star is wearing consist of yellow blue and brown. This can link to the more cheerful, hopeful lyrics and show the more content side of the star. We also decided to use the yellow in order to get the visuals to link with the lyrics (Goodwin's theory).

The female also has four costumes, which compliment the male's. The first costume consists of a Yellow jumper and a blue jean pinafore, which links to the male's yellow outfit. However, we will not have the two actors wearing yellow at the same time, as the costumes will clash too much and be too bright. I believe that we will use them when we would like to accentuate on one of the actors more than the other.
We also got the female actress to wear a red, voyeuristic outfit which will be used more when we would like to appeal to the female and the male audience (Mulvey) by using our female star.  The use of red could be linked to the more romantic, passionate moments in the music video which can relate to the symbolic meanings behind the cards that we will use. Not only that, but we decided to use this outfit with a very calm dark green one from the male, and we thought about adding a small red component to his costume would link the two together really well.
To compliment the dark outfit that our male star has, we got the female to wear a complimenting, feminine black outfit that consists of black heel boots, black knee high socks, a black skirt and a black top. Because black and black does not clash as aggressively, I believe we could possibly use the two dark costumes together if we needed.
Finally, the female has a more casual denim costume which consists of a dark green striped top, a denim jacket, distressed black jeans and chunky black boots. This outfit could go with the male's khaki shirt top, as the colours are in tune and together, which can symbolically show that they are in tune with their emotions, and stable.


Location :

Even though the rail road links to escapism we will be unable to use this location as it is illegal and highly dangerous. The path seen in the bridge image links to our target audience as this is seen of a sense of journey/travel, as our target audience are aspirers they seek travel and change. Many of the locations adhere to the conventions of indie as these are easily accessed places. Furthermore, the bridge and the alley way will give the music video a grunge/rock appearance, which we know the target audience like due to the questionnaire. We had decided on using more rural locations as we can access these and challenges the conventions of indie music videos, as they are usually urban. However, we are adhering to an aspect of this convention, as these locations are also low budget, just as they usually are in indie music videos.


Props : 

We decided to use a red lipstick as this connotes danger, love and sex appeal which links to Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze'. The yellow spray paint and paint links to the song title 'Old Yellow Bricks' as well as the costumes worn by the actors. Furthermore we plan on using the yellow paints in a rebellious and teenagst way, which is used to portray youths in our music video.

Research : Institution 5 (Bauer)

Planning : Principle Photography Stars & Costumes (Greta & I)

This is a photo board of all the photographs Greta and I had taken on Monday 2nd October. I collated all these into a board as this is an easier way to view all the images. During the photo shoot Greta and I directed the actors by instructing them to do certain poses and facial expressions, as we wanted them to appear a certain way.

Planning : Buying Products for our Music Video

We will need to buy products for our music video as we do not have what we need. The costumes for the actors are provided by them as they wear the type of clothing that we need. However, the props will need to be bought as we do not currently have them. The props that we will buy are :

Yellow Spray Paint
Yellow Paint