Here I created another questionnaire to give to 10 different students asking them what they would look for in a Digi Pak and a Magazine advert, this will help us when we have to create our own so that we know it will attract Dance-Pop fans.
1.What colours would you associate with the Dance-Pop genre?
I decided to look at two videos within the dance pop genre, this kept me focused on our chosen genre, and i was able to research more, not only by looking at what a music video of dance pop, was like, but i specifically looked at an amateur video, and a professional video to the same song. I chose 'Katy Perry's' video - Teenage Dream'.
I watched the professional version first, this allowed me to see and get a feel for what the music video included, and what was different to any other genre, and making it come under the dance pop genre. I could see that with this particular video a narrative was told mainly through the lyrics, but related to the visuals making it a narrative based video. The narrative is linear as it tells a story from start to end. Whilst watching the Amateur version a narrative is also shown which is similar as it's also linear but it is clear which one is the professional version and which one is the amateur's, although they both tell a narrative and share the same song, you can see that the professional one is of better quality due to the high quality camera, and a wider budget. For example in the professional one a car is used, and you can see the choice of location is much more exotic, and is clearly not filmed in England. Whereas the amateur's version uses a much more simpler location of a house and film in Paris, you can still see the amateur version is also of high quality as they were able to reflect the exotic location, by using well known landscape - the Ifel Tower, this allows the audience to recognise straight away were the music video is filmed. The use of this location in the amateur version also keeps the video fun and creative which is definitely what the professional version has displayed, through the use of the beach and the number of people involved. Whereas the amateur's version doesn't use as many people.
Other aspects within both video's that have been useful to see, is were the Professional version uses, lighting very well, to show the different time of day, which is what you'd expect to see, in the amateur version there is no change of lighting according to the day, and the whole video is filmed in the day time. This could be partly due to the amount of time, the professional version can use, and the limited time the As student might have had to film in. Time is very important in filming any production, and if shots are needed to be re filmed the lighting is something that could be noticed clearly, especially with natural light as you can never count on the same light another day.
The lighting comes under the Mis en Scene which is also very important and featured in every music video for a purpose. In the professional video, the use of hair and make-up and costume is chosen specifically to suit the narrative, and fits well. With the amateur version you can see that costume has been chosen wisely i.e the pyjamas, for the house scene, and normal clothes for being outside, and they have interpreted the costume to match the location, and also to stay similar to the original professional version, as they have noticed this is something purposely chosen.
Both versions have used a male as a part of the main subject and main character, to match the lyrics. You can see with the Th professional version that the choice of people used is much more wider, and can pick someone that is well suited for the position, masculine, and tall and a typical stereotype role to play the boyfriend that the narrative needs to display the song. With the amateur version obviously demonstrating a similar story, the male role is not particularism big and masculine, and this is something that is easily noticeable and makes the amateur version so amateur, and you can tell it's not professional as an audience we expect to see a greater, you could say a male that most teenage girls would relate to, as it's something you stereotypically relate to within a song. However the amateur version has followed the typical boyfriend scenario, allowing the video to be targeted at the right audience, of teenager girls. Which follows the Dance Pop genre.
Overall it is clearly noticeable which one is the professional and which one is the amateur version, and this being so obvious allows the audience to recognise the difference between two high quality video's but why they are so different and what makes this so noticeable. In which case, it allows me when producing my own music video to focus on what elements make a video look professional. This has been very helpful, to notice the differences from a professional video and an amateur version as i will be able to work on elements that will not be so easy and professional due to time, and money, and limited location but also enable to see what elements can be strongly achieved and even allow the video to stay modern and within the dance pop genre, specifically costume, hair and make-up. Another specific element i picked up on was the lighting, which also gives me an idea of how important the time of day and the continuity of the video is to make it look professional and be successful to most importantly the target audience of the video in my case - Teenage females.
I created a mood board, to help gain inspiration for our music video. I used photos of well known Dance-Pop artists and gathered them together so that as a group we could identify the different aspects that stand out from the other photos. Some of the artists featured within this mood board are ones we have preivoiusly done further research into as we found there ideas motivating and ones that could provide us with the inspiration we need to create a unique digipak & magazine advert. I also usued photos of geeks found on the internet as these are what we would want our character to look like.
Here I have done further research and compared the differences between two music videos of the song ‘Alright’ by Supergrass. One of these videos had been created by an amateur and the other is the original professional version.
The song in the amateur’s productions does not start until 1minute and 20 seconds has passed, during this time I had lost focus and did not understand the meaning of allowing a music video to have such as long introduction. Where as with the professional version we are introduced to the band within 10 seconds of the video beginning, this is a huge difference between the two videos. When looking at the locations of the two videos the professional version travels around different scenes such as the beach, the woods and also in a small village. The amateur version on the other hand is set mainly in one location; a football field. Things such as the location help us to identify where more money and time has been spent in these two productions.
The amateur version contains a lot more characters as a pose to the professional version that mainly shows the 3 band members. From the opening sequence we can see the clear high class media techniques from the professional version, the amateur version would have had a limited amount of resources. This shows throughout the video as many of their editing techniques and transistions a rough and jumpy, although the amatuers do try to use small techniques, many of these do not compare the that of the professionals video. Another thing that shows from the budjet allowance is the use of props throughout the video, Supergrass use props such as bikes, a piano, phones and a pretend living room where as the amatuers use small props such as cigarrettes, a food container and an old car.
When first looking at these two videos, we can clearly see the difference in camera quality. Even on the paused image we can see that the professional’s camera is at a higher quality, it appears that the amateur’s camera is out of focus. When looking at these still images from the two videos we can clearly see the difference in mise en sene. The colours of the costumes used within these videos are very different, the professional version contains very rusty colours which is something we would expect to see in the 1990’s when this was filmed.
Where as when looking at the amateur version, which is meant to relate to the original, the costumes contain more modern day fashion with colours such as greys and blacks being worn as the main outfits. The hair sytles also relate to this century as it was fashionable back then to have long hair where as in the amatuers video it shows that it is filmed in todays modern society.
However due to the low budget and the short filming time the group would of had, their music video is of a good quality for that of an amatuer who would not of had a big, if any budget. Both videos have created a fun theme within their videos and continued to follow on this throughout the duration of the video.
Befor filming we had to consider the different locations that would be suitiable for our music video being a danc pop video here is a mood board that i created, showing the different types of locations that we could have used. These locations are the sort of locations that give a good feeling and are very bright which relates to our chosen genre, as we want our music video to include a variety of locations, these paticular locations can be very fun and creative.
Whilst filming our music video we made some changes to what props we would use. As we had planned to use lipstick when writing on the mirror we thought that keeping this shot would allow our music video to be different. We also kept the idea of using bottles when showing our fast cuts, these help the audience to understand that she is drinking whilst getting ready for the party. A main prop throughout our video was a flower that the geek holds, this is helping to symbolise that he is trying to gain her love and will not give up.
We had intended to use a water pistol but when it came to filming we could not have our character dancing and then pulling it out as it was difficult for her, we came to the conclusion that she should just use her hand to symbolise the gun. Another prop we did not use was the spray paint, we found it difficult to find something that would not leave a stain on the wall, so we decided to use lipstick again and have our character surrounded by the words of the song. We did not include a note, this is due to the fact that we felt we had already used the words ' N N N Neva Baby' continuously throughout the video, and this would not fit into our video as well as we had first hoped.
