Assessment of Guitarist performances

As I am a guitarist in our music video, I will research professional performances as to create a more believable performance.

Audience Feedback

From our audience feedback, I found a number of different answers that will help develop our music video in terms of narrative and performance.

I found that our audience research produced results that insisted on us using constant close-ups of the band playing and of their faces. This is to get a stronger connection between us and our audience. They also us to be energetic with our performance, which is a convention of rock music videos. This performance may be laddish, so we will aim to convey this in our narrative side of our music video. They also saw that our band should be seen playing frequently, as they saw the narrative as the main source of entertainment and for us to connect with our audience. However, it is a convention for a band to playing during a rock song, as it allows the band to express themselves through music. 

For the narrative, they suggested that it should be laddish, yet also serious. This will help make the narrative interesting and enable us to create an energetic performance. They also want our visuals to match the lyrics, as for their to be a greater connection to the band's meaning. Although, they expected something more serious as to convey meaning, they did want some light-hearted moments to create entertainment. 

Influential Music Video

Mallory Knox - Ghost in the Mirror

This music video has helped to influence our music video, as it contains aspects we find appealing. The lighting is great, and useful for us. The music video is set in a simple setting that appears to be an abandoned warehouse that is poorly lit and grim, which can convey the band's emotions. I feel this setting sets the tone for the music video, and by trying to re-create this, we can affected what our audience feel before the music video get going.

The band performance is inspiring for us, as we need to make it as believable as possible. The guitarists move to the music, conveying their enthusiasm as they play. The lead singer also uses his performance space to keep the audience entertained. This we will have to copy to get a successful music video.

There is a basic narrative and more emphasis on the band's performance. This may be better for us, as we are trying to create an image in three minutes worth of footage, whilst the narrative will keep our audience entertained and help convey the emotions.

Target Audience

Our target audience:

I believe that our initial target audience shall be teenagers of both genders, and young adults from 18-25 years old. This will be due to the band's image that will be easily related to by youth, rather than people older than 25. The band's image will be fairly laid-back and will convey their youthfulness, that will attract teenagers as they feel they can relate. Moreover, teenagers generally want to see a light-hearted, yet in a sense serious band, where they mean what they say, but in the music video there might be light-hearted visuals. People aged between 18-25 will appreciate our music, as must people in this age group still listen to popular music and all forms of rock. Songs such as 'Someday' have a meaning of reminiscing in the past, on the band's youth, therefore this age group may connect with this song, as it means something to them having grown out of their teenage years. Indie/garage rock is highly popular amongst teenagers, that is why they are our primary audience. They like the laid-back tones and they also like the almost counter-culture approach of the band; something they find interesting. People aged between 26-35 may listen to our music, however our music is likely to be played on youth radio stations, where this age group our the secondary audience, so it would be unlikely that they would discover our music. They may also be too mature to understand the meaning of the songs, and understand the band's persona. Therefore, our main target audience is teenagers of both genders and people aged between 18-25. Although, girls tend to listen to pop music, there is a greater trend towards them starting to listen to indie/garage rock. The Arctic Monkeys have a huge female following, and as we are in a similar sub-genre of rock, I see that this will also be the case with us. However, boys will remain our majority audience, as rock is typically more popular amongst them.

Initial reaction to our idea

I believe that our initial pitch for our music video is strong and conventional of a music video in our genre. I see the idea of having scenes of the band playing as a must, as it is conventional and also enables us to get close-ups of our band, to make it more intimate for the audience. The use of lighting will help create an atmosphere for the song, we intend to have half the face covered in light, whilst the other is shadowed. This helps to explain the meaning of the song, in terms that the light represents their past, where they were carefree, and the dark represents their mood now, where they wish they had used time more wisely. This helps the audience get a greater feel for the lyrics, also the meaning of the song. Our subtle narrative is also conventional, as with a rock song, a heavy narrative is not what our audience is expecting; they just want to see the band playing, an have something to entertain them along the way. Our narrative shall be the band in the past, we will film a day out where the band will just act and do all the things a teenager may do when out with friends. This will help connect to our audience, who are most likely to be teenagers and young adults, so they can relate to the music video. Also, it gives us the chance to demonstrate their emotions now, as the band will realise they have grown up, and now they have got to move on.

I believe the setting of Brighton is good for our music video, as there are plenty of locations that will enable us to film believable footage. An example of this is Brighton Pier, as it is now more of a teenage location as it had become more commercialised, yet it also has connotations of the rock genre, as seen through the mods and the rockers in Quadrophenia. It also allows the band to explore their inner-child that will help with the meaning of the song, in looking back on the past and trying to grow up and move on.

The costumes will help represent the image of the band, as they shall not be mainstream clothing as to differentiate from other forms of rock music, such as pop rock. It will also give a laid-back, simple approach to the band to convey their past lifestyle and represent how they are a sub-genre and not a mainstream artist. Most of our audience will have adopted this style of clothing, especially our indie rock and garage rock fans; so we are more able to connect with them in this way.

I see our music video as being conventional to the genre we are trying to convey. By doing this we shall attract and communicate with our audience, helping them to get involved with our video, and also making our video more believable and conventional to our audience's guidelines.

Inspirational music video

Scouting For Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead

The music video has both aspects of what we are looking for; it has the performance side and a subtle story. We intend to include a subtle story as to keep the audience interested; this will also match our genre as it others something else other than the band performing. The lighting is good in this music video and the performance is convincing. The storyline is interesting and gains the audiences attention, however as it is subtle, it doesn't take up the whole music video, thus allowing there to be scenes where just the band are playing. There is a match between the visuals and the lyrics, something we intend to do, as it will make our video more believable and interesting. The storyline is based on the lyrics and is simple; something we need to copy. There is enthusiasm in the performance, which adds to its believability. Moreover, there are close-ups to make the video more direct to the audience, by allowing them to form a relationship with the lead-singer.

Inspirational music video

Don Broco - You Wanna Know

This video, I believe, has some aspects that would be relevant in the making of our music video. For a start, the genre is the same, so there is a performance aspect, which I believe will be influential to my group. The band are incredibly enthusiastic through this video, which helps them to give a convincing performance; we will have to do the same. Their performance conveys their passion for the song and the lyrics, something we should copy. The guitarists and the drummer look convincing, as they look as if they are actually playing, something that a enthusiastic performance would give. The close-ups of the lead-singer are also something we will have to replicate, as it enables the audience to get close with their star. It also helps transmit emotions to the audience, something that is very typical of a rock song. We also are planning to have different lighting in the background, to add various effects to our music video and make it more entertaining. We plan to have a silhouette of the band playing, as having the band playing is something conventional to a rock song. In this video there is very interesting lighting that creates almost the effect we are after; this is what made it an inspirational video for us. The lighting can be used to resemble the mood, and in this song the lead-singer is giving a very emotional performance. The red background conveys his anger, whilst the blue conveys his sadness,which is very effective as it helps add emotion to the song and a persona to to the band.