Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting

In marketing and advertising a target audience is a specific group of people in the target market; also referred to as the demographic.

Gender

Various things appeal to certain genders, for example, to attract a male audience a magazine may contain pictures of somebody like Mila Kunis modelling. This will be important, considering my song is about a promiscuous female passing away, depending on how I represent said character and circumstances will determine whether or not the video will appeals to males, females, both or neither.

Age

Age is another one. One would not place a song by Stormzy in a television show to appeal to older audiences. Being sure the age range is clear will assist me in making a successful music video.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle and interests of the audience will have a big sway on what the products they are likely to interact with. One must design a product for a specific culture, as in a film designed for goths would not contain any form of K-Pop.

Demographic categories –

Social grade/social status/occupations

A) Upper class/upper middle class – higher managerial administrative or professional.

B) Middle class – intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.

C1) Lower middle class - supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.

C2) skilled working class – skilled manual workers.

D) Working class – semi and unskilled manual workers.

E) Those at lowest level of subsistence state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers.

Psychographics -
Psychographic factors are more fluid and subjective in nature and relate to the psychology or behaviour of a group.
Determining the psychographic profile of a group would typically be useful for market segmentation.
Psychographic measures include values, opinions, political views, lifestyle, behaviours, leisure activities, desires, entertainment preferences, cultural interests and social activities.

Audience Classification Definitions -
Mainstream -
Mainstream can be seen as a product of mass media; where media work reflects the most recent or current trends within a society. Originally it opposed high culture, but now is considered pop culture. It is more associated with highly consumable, easily accessible, transient media products. For example, currently, films about comic book characters are popular, and thus Batman vs Superman would be considered a mainstream film.
Alternative -
Alternative are media which are not considered 'traditional' or 'mainstream'. An example of this would be Nick Cave. Unlike Taylor Swift, whose new CD could be found in any shop and could appeal to anybody, it would be very unlikely to find a Nick Cave album in anything but a specialised record shop.
Niche -
A niche audience is a small one. It will generally be for a very specific type of consumer or user. An example of this would be if I were to upload a video of my personal band, the partisans, to youtube.

Moodboard

The song is by my friend, Zena. Thus, she should appear in the video, as most artists do, both as the protagonist, and the bands singer; this implies that I would like the band to appear in this song performing the song, much like in the music video of "Fifteen Feet of Pure white snow". but combining that with a side storyline, inspired by the lyrics of the song. Nick Cave is a particular influence of mine, as I believe he does this relatively well, but in a different style to my own. He tends to have the story and the performance played simultaneously, such as in the following images.

In the screenshot above, you can see that the band are performing in front of a live audience who are, in fact, the part of the video designed to provoke thought. 

In the two shots above, you can also see that the performance aspect of the video has entwined with the story, as throughout the whole video the members of the band are performing and dancing in costumes that correspond to the lyrics.

Individual Analysis 3 - Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

The first shot is of a group of dancers seemingly stretching on a pole. Taylor Swift, the artist, stands upright and proceeds to sing. It is a medium shot. The editing promptly becomes fast paced.

The singer turns to face the camera and begins to sing. The manner of which she is singing and the loud nature of the song seem inappropriate for the setting, which appears to be a high brow ballet class. This gives the video a rather humorous aspect. The following shots are of her trying to look at the camera whilst singing. The other characters appear oblivious to this.

This is a medium close up. Goodwin's theory suggests this is the request of the producer, to promote the star. There are many shots of this nature, revealing her. This show specifically has her motif - the red lipstick. 

As I previously mentioned the pacing of the editing in the video matches the fast and energetic nature of the song. In this long shot the star is doing what appears to be the main dance of the video, a silly improvised dance. Once again, this make the video funny as she is standing next to a group of hip hp dancers. Her dance is out of context, once again. This is a theme that remains similar throughout the video. Additionally this is the perfect example of the relationship between the lyrics and visuals - the lyrics are about the singer being different, a non conformist. Throughout the video she is seen with a variety of different groups not fitting in.

This is one of many long shots of various dancers. In each of these shots the dancer does something impressive, which is then replicated poorly by Swift. Throughout the video the background remains plain, to draw attention to the dancers.

 As far as conventions go, this video generally mocks the genre conventions of most other genres. In this scene it is looking at a more artistic crowd. The dull grey clothes and the placid expressions on the motionless background characters gives off an almost Nick Cave vibe. Taylor reaches her arm out in a dramatic fashion stating the irony of the situation. The music remains the same as always. However, some conventions can be spotted, such as the male gaze. All the people in this video are young, physically fit and wearing tight clothing with the women showing a lot of leg, and the men mainly shirtless.

This is reinforces the silly nature of the video. Interestingly, the artist is always in the centre of the frame, in every shot.

This is an intertextual reference to Lady Gaga. The more eccentric style of dress and the sunglasses.

In this medium two shot the artist is dressed in her usual style, with the glasses and sweater. Another motif of hers.

This is another intertextual reference to Nikki Minaj, specifically the video anaconda, with the twerking and short shorts. This continues with the mocking and ironic theme of the video. 

 This is the performance aspect of the video, with the extreme long shot, this shows you what it would be like to see the artist live.

This is a shot, once again, selling the artist. This is a medium close-up as to reveal both her movements, the microphone and her face.

Individual Analysis 2: REM - Losing My Religion

Here we can see the protagonist of the video sitting down on a chair looking rather sullen, with a man standing next to him. As the next few pictures show, he is seen walking away. It is raining outside. This may be a pathetic fallacy, the rain representing how he feels.

 As the figure in the waistcoat walks away, another person appears. He is jogging. The camera begins to pan, observing the movements of the running man. He is looking towards the sky.

 At this point the panning and the tracking stops. What can be seen within the frame is a glass off milk. I must also mention this shot has been continuous, and so far there have been no transitions or changes of shot. This has simply been a 14 second shot, establishing the theme of the video. The music has not started yet. The camera zooms into the milk.

 The glass falls, and breaks. Concurrently, the music starts. I believe this to be symbolic of the protagonist's emotional state, believing that there is no use crying over spilled milk, and begins to move on, starting the song.

 Upon the start of the song, shots begin to rapidly change, as the following images show. Here is a shot of the people performing the song. The video is synchronised to the song. Shots change on every crotchet beat.

 There is of course, one deviation of this, however. This shot lasts two crotchet beats. It is of the mandolin player playing the main riff of the song, and one of the most iconic and easily recognisable aspects of the song/band. This is both a medium shot and a two shot. You can see the mandolin player in the foreground playing his instrument, and another person in the background. Noticeable, the rule of thirds has been in practice for a lot of the video, with most shots being from a more dynamic angle. Hardly any shots have been of just one person in the centre of the frame. In this shot, the depth of field is in deep focus.

 To send a more powerful message to the audience, in this closeup, the depth of field is in shallow focus, with the protagonists face out of focus, the hand appearing consoling him is emphasised, giving the audience a feeling of melancholy. In terms of mis-en-scene, a lot of opening shots contain the protagonist, along with the other characters, looking down, towards the floor. This further pushes the idea of sadness to the audience. Each character looks gloomy, bored or upset in their own way.

This shot contains foreshadowing, if one would put it that way. This shot is also seen at the end of the video, but longer and clearer. This distortion of the perception of time adds to the artistic style in which the video is narrating the story.

 Moving past that, this now shows the mandolin player playing, adding to the performance aspect of the video. This lasts for a while, allowing the audience to settle, and prepare for the expected singing that is to occur.

 This is a close up of the previous shot, zoomed into the mans hand on the protagonist's shoulder. This reinforces the idea that he is consoling the character.

This next shot is of a character holding his arms up. He had just waved them in an outwards motion, responding to the words bigger. It is a medium long shot to ensure the audience is able to track his movement.

Here shows the protagonist pacing. Pacing is what somebody would do when they are either anxious, upset or stressed. Although it responds to no specific lyrics, he is dancing whilst pacing, showing the element of a dance in the video.Here the is shown to have a set of wings on/behind him. This is seen as an angelic feature.






Once again, this is a medium long shot to expose the entirety of the wings. This may have been symbolic of Hellenistic mythology, specifically that of Icarus - the story is about a boy, Icarus, who could not fly, as he was a human. However, his father, a master craftsman named Daedalus, made him some wings and warned him not to fly to close to the sun. Icarus ignored his fathers instructions and did it anyway, thus the wings melted and he fell into the sea and downed. This may represent how the protagonist feels, considering the time of the songs release. Seeing the singer of the band was a homosexual, this may have been symbolic of despite the warnings his fellow christians gave him he embraced his sexuality, thus feeling like he had turned his back on his religion.

This is a medium shot of the protagonist on the floor. The character sings the lyrics "Oh no, I've said too much". He has a hand on his head, a sign of frustration or dismay. He isn't clearly visible in terms of lighting, and he's sat on the floor. This is also a longer shot, possibly to let the feeling of sadness settle with the audience, almost saying that he looks desperate.

What we have here is a long shot of the workers previously shown. This shot specifically is foreshadowing, and does not last very long. There is an anvil on the left hand side of the frame, implying there up to some kind of manual labour.

This is a representation of the story of doubting Thomas, a biblical story. The story goes upon Jesus' resurrection Thomas does not believe that Christ has resurrected, and believes him to be a fraud, despite his physical ailments. In the end, he put his finger inside the wound, and established he was, in fact, Jesus and he did resurrect himself from the grave.

This may represent that religion is man made, due to the wings being made of steel, however this also references the story of Icarus, seeing as Daedalus was a blacksmith. This is a long shot of the blacksmiths and the steel wings. This also potentially is stereotypical of the artists' sexuality as muscular men in uniforms are aesthetically pleasing, stereotypically at least.

Individual Analysis 1: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow

The opening shot of this video is an establishing shot of a building, presumably somewhere in Russia due to the Russian text captioning the shot. This is followed by a series of establishing shots of the building from the inside. This shot, itself, is an establishing shot. Every time the picture changes a white flash appears on the screen accompanied by the noise of an old fashioned Polaroid camera. Not a single shot contains a person, and the rooms are generally empty, with the exception of a few which have paper on the floor. Interestingly in future shots a man with a camera can be seen in the background. This shot specifically relates to the lyrics and title of the song "Fifteen feet of pure white snow".

This is a long shot of the artist and his band, Goodwin's theory suggests this will be at the request of the producer; this is very possible as it includes Nick Cave's signature motif, his eccentric dancing.  They are all dressed in a very dull, dated and retro style which gives off a 70s vibe. Back then, it was assumed most rockstars were on drugs, and the theme of the songs is the negative effects of drug use, so this may be an intertextual reference.

This is a medium shot of the people not on stage dancing in a bizarre and eccentric style, however none of the people dancing in the video are smiling. All of them seem placid. This could be symbolic of them being under the influence. It is also in a minor key, which people usually associate with sadness. However the ostinati of the piano one minute into it is reminiscent of a dance.

This is a close up of one of the members of the bands instruments, representing the artistic nature of the artist and video. The following shots are also close ups of the musicians playing their instruments.

Once again, the style of clothing worn by the people in the audience are outdated too. They don't appear to be the youngest of audiences either, but young people from the era of which they likely grew up in (the 70s) dressed like that and were deemed as cool. 

As the song progresses it gets more aggressive. In the chorus there is a crescendo and the drummer specifically goes from playing rim clicks to opening the hi-hat and using the actual snare. As this happens the artists movements and gestures become more aggressive just as the song does towards the end.

This is a close up shot of the star, as expected. This is a convention of the genre and also another aspect of Goodwin's theory - this would be a request of the producer.

This is an intertextual reference - the singer for Pulp, Jarvis Cocker. He is a well known drug user, thus in a song of this nature it is natural for people like him to appear. Additionally he is dressed as he normally would be, so it could be said that he has a major influence in the style of this video.

This is a medium shot of Jason Donovan. Donovan is a very famous figure in Australian culture. Nick Cave is from Australia, thus his presence possibly makes the video more personal to the star. He is from the TV show Neighbours, so people may recognise him thus have more of an incentive to watch the video.

This is a medium close up of the artist. The following shots contain the other celebrities making appearances in the video also alone in a dark room with a smokey background. He is looking upwards, and is alone. This is relevant to the lyrics and the meaning behind them. Noticeably, lines for the song are "Where is Mark?", "Where is Mary?" and so on, and these are all figures from the bible. In this shot he is looking upwards, towards the sky as if to be looking at a deity. He is alone because symbolically, the song is about his losing his religion through use of cocaine, but literally the song is about people disappearing. This is towards the end, meaning he is all alone. At this exact moment he sings "Doctor, Doctor, am I going mad?" as if to say that he needs help.

This medium shot of somebody using a smoke machine brings the video back to earth, maybe suggesting that the previous scene was just in his head.

The rest of the song is Nick Cave aggressively shouting "Save yourself", as if there is no true saviour. That the only things that can liberate you is your own actions. This could be his warning the audience that god will abandon those who abuse themselves, either that or that there is no god. This theme is typical of Cave, a motif of his if you will. Constant intertextual references to religion and death, two things that fascinate him. Each of his songs is about something that makes him him, thus he is more an artist of whom is appreciated by alternative audiences rather than a commercial artist.

Finally, there are the credits, which is unconventional for a music video. Not credits in general, but rolling credits at the end of a video. This is more typical of a movie. Nick Cave is more likely to see his work as an artistic film rather than just a music video, so this is once more, a motif of his. The names of mentioned are written strangely too, Nick being spelled Nyk, and other Scandinavian characters are used.

My rough idea

So far, upon pondering my coursework, I have decided to write a music video for my friend's song, Said composition will likely be either pop or country, but I cannot image it deviating from one of the two genres. In response to this I am to look research other pop and country music videos, as to discover their conventions and formulate my own plan of creating the video. It will likely to be partially recorded in school, but mostly outside of the grounds. I'm almost 100% sure that the music itself will be recorded on logic, and the video will be edited using adobe premier. The video will more than likely contain clips of the band playing their instruments, but mainly focus around the singer, who will also be the protagonist in the more theatrical side of the video. This way, both the conventions of the song showing what it would be like to see them live and general story will both be adhered to, thus making it more interesting and potentially getting me more marks. A slight issue would be the positioning of the instruments in the classroom and the angle of the shots, and for an acceptable collection of shots to be recorded I will most likely break the 180 degree rule on several occasions, as to avoid any unwanted scenery such as the person sitting in the studio recording it all, or any posters or windows. Considering it is a church school I may have lucked out, considering a lot of country songs contain some sort of religious symbolism. Reconsidering it, I believe the song she will give me would be her most recent composition "Only Young", which is about death. I personally prefer darker themed thing so this would be preferable.

Definitions

Technical code - What something in an image technically is, with no room for argument or discussion, for example, blue is a colour.
Symbolic code - a meaning or interpretation behind an image, for example blue represents sadness.
Signifier - The connotation refers to the literal meaning of something.
Signified - the denotation refers to the associations that are connected to the something or the emotional suggestions related to it.

For example, the picture above is of Batman and Robin. Technical code would mean that Batman is dressed in dark colours, and Robin is dressed in brighter, more vibrant colours.

An example of symbolic code would be Darth Vader. He is dressed in black with a red lightsaber, the black representing evil and the red representing danger.

A signifier is the literal meaning of something. As we can evidently see, without question, Donnie Darko is stabbing a barrier.

This is an example of the signified denotation - the audience will assume that Twist is sad due to his reserved body language and the fact that he is crying.