A setback i needed to overcome

Throughout the production of my music video there were some complications and minor setbacks that i needed to overcome. The first being a major setback in my filming time, with an unreliable model my filming dates was pushed back by 6 weeks, within this time i decided to benefit my production i would need to change my model. Changing my model, to someone reliable and motivated I had to change the narrative and idea behind my production. Changing my the narrative of my production wasn't difficult on the ideas however was time consuming on changing my work to benefit and conform to the new narrative and ideas. After i changed and updated all my blog work i was able to film all my scenes and begin editing them. After filming my scenes and and through the process of editing them, the feedback conveyed that i needed to make some slight improvements in order to increase and improve my grade. To overcome this i have planned more scenes which provide a stronger sense and insight into the narrative for my target audience to encode; i have planned the day for these shots to be completed and will edit them into my existing footage in order to overcome the setback and succeed my grade.

Mise-en-scene in my production

the mise-en-scene connotes and decodes two very opposing moods throughout the duration of my music video. The mise-en-scene is made up of different components that the target audience and demographic see on screen; this ranges from lighting to props and costumes used in the shot.

For the majority of my scenes (within my music video) signify the emotion of happiness and love in a loving manner, this is decoded from the mise-en-scene. Throughout the duration of the production high key lighting is used this is a natural light source signifies the happiest shared between the two characters and by it only being natural lighting connotes that the emotions felt between them is natural and real. The use of different props conveys and signifies as a sense of time passing, symbolises the length of the relationship between them. For example a vibrant blue camera was used in some scenes signifies happiness through the vibrance-ness of the camera while connoting at ideology of the scene being in the past thinking back on memories. The facial expressions play a huge part within the mise-en-scene to signify and portray the happiness or sadness felt by one person. The close ups of smiling mouths in the archive footage connotes the happiness and comfort felt in each others presence.

I also have the use of low key desaturated lighting to convey and signify the emotion of lost and depression in certain parts of my music video production. The use of the necklace conveys and connotes the a sense of memory and realisation of what the character has lost, only to be enlightened by the end when her love is restored as her significant other returns to her. However as previous said facial expressions are a primary source of showing emotion of the audience to encode and decode in the production. Within my music video they not only symbolise and denote happiness but also conveys and connotes hurt and lost from the close up shots of the tears falling. The body movement is another factor the clenched fists conveying and connoting the anger within waiting to burst out leaving the demographic with enigma as to why and when the explosion of fury will happen.

About the Music Industry

The music industry is made up of companies and individuals that earn money by creating and producing music. This can happen is a range of different ways from recording a song in a studio to performing at a live concert or gig. Nielsen SoundScan in their 2011 report noted that the 'big four' controlled roughly 88% of the market. The companies are the following in parallel with their statistics.

1. Universal Music Group (USA based) - 29.85%
2. Sony Music Entertainment (USA based) - 29.29% 
3. Warner Music Group (USA based) - 19.13%
4. Independent labels- 12.11% 
5. EMI group- 9.62%

From the results within their report, it can easily be concluded and connoted that USA based companies control the majority of the market, this can be signified due to the American Dream and the ideology of American lifestyles conforming to audience's needs providing them escapism from their everyday life- linking to the uses and gratification theory. 

As Ariana Grande produced the same genre music as i am creating for my artist, i used her and her record companies as an financial example for my artist. Ariana is signed with Universal Music LLC and Universal Republic Records of which both are subsidiary companies to major record company; Universal Music Group. Universal Music Group is an American - French based worldwide music corporation. This is a good company to use to produce my artist's music as does it not only have smaller subsidiary music companies that focus more on my genre (with the major company to aid fundings) but also is a worldwide company ensuring that my artist receives and targets a mass audience globally.

Music videos from the artists that are signed with this record company for example, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber can be found on Youtube, a free app and website accessed by via internet. Youtube is free and global, again ensuring that my artist receives a mass demographic as my target audience won't have to pay for their unlimited access and use to the music video which is debuted globally and can easily by spread and shared- widening the audience further. There are many purposes to a music video, it provides escapism and voyeuristic pleasures conforming both The Male/Female Glaze and uses and gratification theories. However the music videos act and signify a marketing technique, it markets the artist themselves and their music production,  it also markets the production company and their quality of music they produce- encouraging other inspiring artists to work with them in the future. Props and costumes used within a music video markets outside companies of which may be sponsored or in partnership with the artist. As the audience look up to the artist they will fill obliged to copy what they follow, therefore bringing costumers to other outside companies, e.g Chanel and Nike.

Social Media, on the other hand, as dramatically effected the music industry. Where has the variety of social medias are free and easily accessible to everyone globally it not only encourages people to follow major artists and their companies but also gives light to independent artists and their music production. Social media is a primary source to the music industry and it is highly used by the younger generations (their target audiences) therefore it is their source of marketing their productions, widening their niche demographic to a mass.

Documentation of the props, equipment and people involved

Below is a brief documentation of the props and equipment needed in the production of my music video, and also the people and their roles on the production.

Roles: 
Jessica: I am, the director, camerawoman, scriptwriter and editor, location manger and prop organiser. However not only this i am also the female artist and protagonist in the production itself
Jake: Jake is the model whom as agreed to take part as the male character in my music video.

I have only used two characters as i develop on relationship and the emotion between the two, my audience are fully able to focus on the couple and their relationship with each other either good or bad.

Props: 
Photographs: The photographs bring an element of time into the production, where memories are connoted.
parinod camera: This is used to make the memories, conveying and signifying a flashback.
Traditional black and white camera: This is used to compare to the new camera, symbolising old and new, or the ideology of two different people overcoming differences and working together.

There is a lack of props used in my production as i focused on the relationship between the two lovers and their struggles that they overcome with each other.


Equipment:
Tripod: The tripod will steady my shots as i am the camerawoman and also the character
Camera: To be able to film the scenes for the music video
Studio space and lighting/ backdrop: In order to create professional shots for my music video.

Planning my digipak

Above is a photograph of my digipak that i have planned, the front cover is the top right hand box, denoting two people kissing in front of a sunset, the use of skyline of trees and blackened figures is highly used in my digipak in order to create the sense of the everyman, signifying that by listening to or watching my music everyone can experience the emotion of love in it's rawest form. The sunset portrays and connote the emotion of love as the deep red and orange tones calm the audience, slowing their heart rate before listening to the music, therefore it connotes as already putting them in the mood for the music to be enjoyed. I decided to use the inside 3 panels to all connect, this shows an element of lack of change, signifying the length of the relationship my two characters have been in- no direct image of the artist is shown, signifying the song isn't only about her but her involvement with the other human, denoted on the front page. On the CD disk the the pattern continues- however in reversed colours signfiying a change or conflict thats occurred within the relationship. Once the CD is moved the sun and it's previous connotations can be connoted, likewise once the conflict (disequilibrium- conforming to Todovor's theory of narrative) is resolved equilibrium and normality can be continued.

Feedback from my Questionnaire

After posting my music video questionnaire on my blog and sharing the link on my social media in order to prompt people to take the time to answer it, i then analysed my feedback which is documented below;

Gender:
The first question of my music video public questionnaire, is asking the member of public their gender, as evidently shown in the screenshot to the left. An equal amount of males and females answered my questionnaire- signifying how just and unbiased my questionnaire results are. Not only does this show the equality but also rules that both sexes and genders can enjoy my music production, based on the overall positive results from the quiz. This connotes how my production dominantly signifies stereotypically 'girly' concepts of love, but subverts the hegemonic view of only being restricted to the females.

Age: 
Second question, asks about the age of the viewers, a large scale of my feedback i conformed and connoted, the ideal target audience will be 17-24 year olds as my questionnaire portrays that these ages not only get the most feedback but bring positive feedback to the production i am creating. As i shared my questionnaire on social media rather than carrying out the investigation orally, it hints and connotes the reasoning behind the large portion difference in the feedbacks ages. However, this works within my favour, as my production which i am inspiring to create will be debuted on youtube, a form of social media platform- by sharing my questionnaire only on the internet, i am also analysing who the virtual world is globally made up off. From my results i will target young 17-24 year olds, has they tend to use social medias the most, i will use them as a primary audience to expand my niche to a mass audience by sharing with different demographics.

Music Industry: 
As my production is a music video, i needed to adapt my questionnaire to get all the answers i needed to know to target the right demographic that will bring success to my production. Across the board, the results where fairly equal, where 30% of all the people that answered the question, watch music videos between 1-12 times a week, with roughly 15% whom watched none. This connotes that roughly two people answered that they didn't watch any music videos- therefore these
people will be the people that i don't target for my demographic- however i could use them as my secondary target audience in order to prompt and encourage people to start watching music videos, however this is very unlikely as they will never see my music video if they don't attempt to find and watch it.

Within music videos: 
My results was made up of 3 different answers;

• narrative
• camerawork
• protagonist (artist) 

Where the most popular answer was to watch music videos in order to see the artist, this connotes that within  my production i will need to take a great deal of consideration and focus on the artist of my production (this includes what actions they carry out within the music video or what they wear). By having a positive artist or protagonist it will bring a positive outlook into the target audiences lives, especially if my target audience is made up of the younger generation (connoted from previous question results) as they are more manipulated from the use of social media and it's expectations. Second most popular answer was, narrative. This signifies that i need to focus on my narrative, exciting and engaging the audience from beginning to end- i will do this by developing a narrative that everyone within my target audience can relate to connoting and conforming to the uses of gratifications theory. 

Music platform: 

The results from this question was really simple, 100% of the people that answered my questionnaire would or do listen to their music on youtube, a social media site where music, and various other genres of films are created and debuted. 

It is a perfect source to air my music video as it is free and distributed globally, allowing my audience and demographic to automatically grow from a niche to a mass audience. It will also ensure i will get a high percentage of new target audiences, as it is a website or app used globally and throughout all ages, genders and languages.

 Music genre: 

On a average 80% of all the people that answered my questionnaire thought that love pop was a appealing music video to them personally, this connotes that my music video questionnaire is aimed and being answered by the right demographic, this conforms and reinforces the previous connotations and results where a demographic and target audience is going to be. 

Favourite Music genre: 

Asking my questionnaire audience, 'what is your favourite music genre?' is an important question when developing and creating an idealistic target audience for my production, as it wouldn't be effective if i were to produce a rock song and only have a primary target audience aiming my production towards classical lovers. As my production is pop, this works in my favour as pop is the most popular genre of music in today's society- where the top 40s playlist is dominantly if not only pop or form sub-genred pop songs/ music videos. 

Features of a music video: 

In my music video, the artist and surrounding character alongside the narrative, is a strong feature that i have been focusing on- however, if i used these features and they don't conform to the needs of my target audience, by production will not only have a box office equivalent fail. Therefore i asked in my questionnaire what aspects of the music video is most important to them, as the artist was the outstanding and top result i will focus more detail onto the artist to conform to  my target audience where it appeals and they are able to enjoy the production more. 

Style of music video: 

A large scale of my results, people said that they preferred music videos, that portray a happy and energetic emotion as while as second most popular answer of quiet and slow music videos- my music video and production will signify and connote both these aspects within a mixture, where my production will portray and connotes the happy and energetic atmosphere in a quiet and slow editing manner. As i am mixing both of the two main answers together i am (as a result widening my target audience). 

 Reasoning behind the choice: 

As my last and closing question, i ask why the people answering my questionnaire why they prefer that style of music video. This does two things, one being it breaks down a wall  from myself and the audience where i am able to get the feedback and responses of the target audience and also allows me to focus on the smaller details of that style in order to achieve success on my demographic. This is important and significant in my production as scientists have discovered that smaller details appeal more to an target audience where, they don't notice these 'psychological tricks', Steinbeck (1950). I have chosen to ask in a text box as it allows the freedom of speech for my demographic to answer fully, as multi-choice and tick boxes do not.