Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback Question One

Comments
Very good
Really good
Good mimiming
Good song
Needs more connection
More emphasise on them being a couple needed
Didn't see a storyline
It doesn't flow 

Audience Feedback Question Two

Comments
Story good and clear
Very sweet
Good style
Clear song
Indie video
Lots of guitar
Tells a story
Concept and setting fits the genre
Guitar playing is bad
Good
Similar to others

Audience Feedback Queston Three

Comments
Obvious mostly
A little
Some extent
Lyrics fit with what's shown
Good lyrics
Narrative works well
More close ups of 'Hold' 

Audience Feedback Question Four

Are There Any Improvements We Could Make To Our Video?

Improve performance (mainly improve lip syncing) 13
No 3
Yes 2
Make narrative slightly clearer 2
Improve last shot
Improve the bedroom shot of our girl actor
Less repetition
Vary shots
Less variety

Digipack Images

Here we have taken seven still shots of our artist in various locations and different poses. Some of these photos will be used for our front cover, back cover and inlay of our Digipack. All these photos are outside shots with him playing or just posing with the guitar. We chose to keep it outside to match our genre of indie acoustic as if you look at similar artists lots of there front covers are of the artists playing or either just posing with the guitar in the background.

Similar Artists- Narrative

In this post i'll be looking at Ed Sheeran's A Team music video to look at the structure of the video , looking at what happens and why:



In this video we follow the narrative a prostitute that is struggling to get by in life.

The video starts with some shots of her looking sad with no music playing, only hearing diagetic sounds. This is used to set the scene of the video, and we may use a similar idea as we are also going to be doing a narrative video.

The black and white effect is being used here, a technique that we are contemplating using ourselves. It does seem to be a common theme in these narrative videos.

This video uses an amplification technique, where the shot do not literally display what the artist is saying, but they amplify the lyrics by showing it in a different way, sometimes metephorically and sometimes just by giving the audience the jist of what is occuring.

In this video at 1:38, the illustration technique is used, as the screen shows the word 'angel' whilst 'angels' is being sung by Ed Sheeran. This is an idea we have had with our video, we like the idea of showing one of the words that the artist says, just to emphasise its importance.

From 1:48 they use the fast-forwarding technique. This is also an idea that we may use as it shows time passing as if the character is not a part of the world.

Throughout the video the cutting rate is very slow, we feel that our cutting rate ill be faster as it has a higher tempo.

Similar Artists- Image

In this post I will be having a look at the messages given out by the artist Obadiah Parker and how they're created.

 The top image on the right is an album cover of Obadiah Parker. The message given out from this cover is that Parker is artistic and is interested in nature. This is significant for the fans of this genre because they like the idea of the artist as not trying to be mad and mainstrea, but to concentrate on their work and to be proud of their individuality. This is represented in this image because it shows that Obadiah Parker is keen to use art to show his product and he's not just saying 'look at me' like most pop artists do.

In the second image the overall message given out by Parker is that he's proud of how he looks. His ginger beard being the centre of attention is not something that mainstream artists do. This will give his fans pride in how he is unique and not giving into mainstream. Also, the colours and writing give it an authentic feel, this combined with his 'farmer' style look emmit his image of being unique.

In the third picture on the right we can see Obadiah relaxing with his friends. Here the audience get a glimpse into his social life and see that he hangs out with average looking people (no offence). This gives off the message that he is social and not too different to the average indie-acoustic fan. The background is a tree, yet again showing his country background, showing that he's not urban like most artists currently in the market.

Similar Artists - Look - Joshua Radin

Joshua Radin

Here i'll be looking at images of Joshua Radin and i will pay particular attention to his clothing, style, pictures, poses, sightlines, colours and props.



In the picture on the right we see the cover for radin's song Closer. We can see that his clothing is simple, just a plain t-shirt which gives the impression that he's not too bothered by how he looks. We will not be sticking with this idea with our artist, as we want him to look like he has a certain style, but this look was an option that we considered, but we decided against it as it is not the image we want our artist to follow.

His sightline in this picture is looking beyond the camera. This makes the viewer feel like he's in the proccess of making the song, as it doesn't look posed. He uses veyeurism to great affect here. He's allowing the audience to get a glimpse into 'the making of' a Joshua Radin song.

In the second picure we see him performing live. His clothing here is different to the first picture and more like what the look that we're going for with our own artist. The checkered shirt is an option that we plan to be using, it's a common look that you see when looking at typical indie artists.

The third image on the right is one of his album covers. It has a unique style, with the black and white effect, only showing the colour red. This effect  draws the audiences attention the the bucket and spade rather than the artist. This combined with the pose of the artist and his direct sightline, creates the impression of vulnerability. The bucket and spade and the red show his connection with youth which also relates to the album name 'Simple Times' which also makes the audience think of times when they were younger.

His outfit in the third picture show that he does have a certain style. The braces that he's wearing with the top button undone and the messy hair shpw his messy nature. This is common in this genre and we may use it ourselves with our artist.

A common prop in the first two images is the guitar. It is essential that in our advert and our digipack that we have a guitar in the shot. Followers of this genre like to  see the artist actually performing.

Also a common theme is the black and white effect, used in botht he first and third image. This is an effect that we are considering to use for our video and maybe the digipack too.

Ed Sheeran - Narrative.

Here is Ed Sheerans music video of You Need Me, I don't Need You as it is based around a man signaling sign language to match the lyrics of the song. There is a lot of cuts to many other things within the music video which also match the lyrics but that is later on. To start with its just the man doing his sign language jumping to Ed Sheeran himself but you only see very short clips of him so the audience know its him but don't actually get a clear shot of him until the end of the video this is to keep the audience glued in and waiting. There is also a lot of change in background of just shades of blacks and whites this is because if it was just a plain background it would be such a boring video.

This is a video that is not the normally for this sort of genre so Ed Sheeran is giving the audience the latest video for this certain genre which they will look to follow. Because the man who is doing all the sign language has to do it so fast in the parts of the song it sort of looks like he is dancing therefore later on in the clip they start of by bringing one dancer in and then a few more just to keep the audience entertained and not get bored with just one person dancing. Many things like standing on the pedal and blowing the speaker and showing a couch after singing the line 'plus i live on a couch' so these are direct links between the lyrics and showing items that are included within the lyrics which is giving the audience a better understanding of the song as its linking the words with the items they really our. So they don't just think about what's being said they actually get to see parts.

There is also a link the his debut album as they show + win white with a black background, its a very short shot but its just linking back to his album to gain more popularity and promoting it for the audience that don't own it or know it but when they see it they will remember the video. Right at the end it is a slow title shot of the camera moving up and showing Ed's body and face off and then dissolving into the darkness. He does this as throughout the video there were short snip shot to him playing but you never saw him properly so he is giving the audience what they want at the end as its showing off himself. The audience want to see him as Ed is the person they want to be following or looking up to and its hard to do that if you don't get to see him within the music video.

Image On Digipack/Adverts/Videos

Here are 3 artists we are mainly focusing on Ed Sheeran, Frank Turner and Joshua Radin, from all these images and albums front covers between the three of the you can see they all vary in there own way but they all are portraying similar messages that they are a bit messy and love to just strum away on there guitar which you can tell by the clothes they are wearing. But they can clean up when they want to and pull off wearing a suit which is shown in the picture of Frank Turner. Main things that are carried consistently across the genre is the messy, I don't care that much attitude you can see all 3 of these artists showing this off in pictures above. Acoustic guitars are carried consistently across the genre as well purely because its the main instrument used within this particular genre therefore it is always going to be used. Sight lines within images above there is at least one picture from each artists where they are looking directly at the audience to connect with them and they feel more involved by doing this.

 All three music videos have there own separate narratives but there all from the same genre. They all three relate together by the lyrics of the song matching and relating to what is happening within the music video also another key reference to the genre is in all three videos there is an acoustic guitar included and the artists is playing it. Having a narrative along side a mini performance helps for audience enjoyment as when we did our audience research we found out it was most popular to have a mini performance running alongside a narrative in this particular genre.

Ed Sheeran - Look.

Clothing and Style- Very messy, standard jeans, hoodies, t shirts and trainers. There normally very dull and a bit ragged clothes as you can see from the picture shown above but there is also an image of him in a suit which also shows to us that he can clean up quite well if he wants to but he wants to make it look like he hasn't made much of an effort and just got out of bed. His hair is all over the place to match the style of a messy teenager.

Props- Within many picture and even if you saw Ed Sheeran out on the street the only prop you would ever see that he is associated with would be an acoustic guitar. He tends to only use very basic props within his live gigs as he wants the main focus on him and his guitar not other flashing things all going on in the background.

From the pictures above there are two where his sight lines are looking directly at the camera to connect with the audience. But within the other 4 he is looking away from the camera so the main focus is on something else for example in the picture where he is wearing a suit because he's got a cheeky smile and is looking to the right like he is hiding in his suit. The audience don't get the strong connection as his sight lines are not looking directly at them but they still have some connection but the main focus isn't on his eyes its on what he is doing instead.

He's not really the sort of artists to pull many big poses unless he is probably told to like the image above of him in a suit. The other 5 picture don't show him posing in any really way to gain audience attention, he is more of the sort of guy that had a brilliant reputation built up already around him he doesn't really need to pull off fancy poses to get noticed as he isn't that sort of artists. He likes chilled environment not one when everything is hectic.

Ed Sheeran - Image

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran was born on 17th February 1992 and is an English singer, songweiter who is currently signed to Asylum/Atlantic Records. Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team' debuted at number 3 on the UK chart.


He is a messy teenager from West Yorkshire who likes to make his own music and get high with friends. The image he is creating as a star is very laid back, not really bothered about the political and economic climate as it doesn't bother him therefore he has no interest in it. His interests are mainly just dossing around and playing his guitar, possible before he became a huge star he would have place a few bars gigs and done some busking. As a person he is a lovely guy but as a star he is appearing as someone who isn't bothered about much. 

He gives the impression he likes to get high and you get this message from listening to his music as he talks about getting high within his lyrics. You can tell he is a messy teenagers with a serious talent who doesn't care about all situations going on by his dress sense. Obviously he is fairly intelligent but he doesn't care about school his main focus use to be get high and play his guitar now its to please to get and play gigs. Many teenagers love this image as they think smoking weed is cool as its illegal unlike if it was legal it wouldn't have the same hype.

Frank Turners Record Label

He is signed to a Epitaph Records. As Frank Turner is more of a loud acoustic artists he is signed with a company that mainly focus on bands and there is a big variety. From Weezer all the way to Bring Me The Horizon that are a very well known screamo band. Therefore this label supports the louder typical head banging music as they also have signed The Blackout and Escape The Fate. So not many indie acoustic artists are likely to be signed by this record label as they focus firstly on the band side of things furthermore they don't really focus on our genre therefore it is a bit odd to see Frank signed with this particular record label and you wouldn't really expect others in the genre indie acoustic to follow Frank and get signed by Epitaph Records.

Our artists is much more likely to be signed to a record company like Mom + Pop Records as they sign artists that play much softer music like our artists does. Even though they don't sign all indie acoustic artists they have signed Metric and Tokyo Police Club who both of these artists play much softer music. They have also signed Joshua Radin who is very similar to our artists as he is also a indie acoustic artists so we would be much more likely to be signed by Mom + Pop compared to Epitaph.

Possible Locations

These are some possible locations we may include within our music video as they are quiet areas which are pleasant to the eye and they will match the nature of our song. They are in Cambridge.

References We Plan To Include In Our Music Video

The main reference we tend to include in our music video is the idea of having a narrative running along side a small performance of the artists as when we did our audience research we found out having both happening in the video was most popular. Another reason we think it is a good idea as many other artists have done it such as 'Frank Turner' and 'Joshua Radin' so if we include this into our music video its not only what the audience want it is also a reference to the genre acoustic indie. 

The other main reference we want to include is the lyric matching the actions of the video as personally I believe if you hear the lyrics of a slow song and the video is also complementing it, it allows the audience to gain a greater perception of the video as they can hear it and see it. This is a good way of creating the look of your artists as the audience will see him and how he reacts within the video and then this can also determines or help to build/change his star image.

We will also stick to the main idea of clothing but might slight aim for the younger crowd by making the artists wear a designer polo by 'Fred Perry' or 'Lyle & Scott' as the fans that will recognise the designer polo will be flattered by it as they own clothing from the same brand so this is a good way of getting more loyal fans just by showing off our artists in a designer polo.

Ed Sheerans Record Label

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Both of these Record companies are part of the Warner Music group which shows a good example of horizontal integration. They are also both American record labels which shows Ed Sheeran is expanding into new markets & trying to achieve a wider fanbase in different parts of the world.

Atlantic Records

''Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz.Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.

In 1967 Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music, signing Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Foreigner. The label also has a number of deals with previously independent labels such as Must Destroy (which brought Goldie Lookin Chain and The Darkness into the label) and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.''

This is an unusual label for Ed Sheeran to be on as it has no reference to indie/acoustic music but it is a rather large and well established record company as it has quite a wide span of genres.

Asylum Records

Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Geffen, and partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked as agents at the William Morris Agency. Founded specifically to provide a record contract for Jackson Browne, the label signed Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan for two albums. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records.

After various incarnations, today it is geared primarily towards hip-hop, along with rock and Alternative Metal. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and is currently distributed through Warner Bros. Records.

This Label also does not have much connections with the indie-acoustic genre although Ed Sheeran does have some link with rock & Alternative metal as they all include in instrument which is a guitar although in Alternative Metal an Electric Guitar is predominantly used while in our genre the acoustic guitar is used.

Risk Assessment - Cambridge

Possible risks we may encounter whilst filming within Cambridge:

• Camera being dropped or knocked. 5/10 Take care when handling the camera.
• Camera being robbed. 2/10. Don't flash it around.
• Weather conditions affecting filming. 7/10. Check weather before going out. If it rains then we'll find shelter.
• Losing the camera. 1/10.  Always keep an eye on where it is.
• Tripod damaged. 2/10. Use it correctly.
• Falling over. 2/10. Don't act silly when filming.
• Delayed transport. 3/10. Have a back-up plan.

Risk Assessment - Michael's House

We are off out to Michael's House to film some bedrooms scenes. The risks that may occur are:
The camera being dropped 2/10 Be carful when handling the camera.
The tripod being bent 1/10 Make sure it is used in the appropriate way.
Tripping over camera wires 4/10 Make sure before we begin to all wires are tucked out of the way.
Traveling by car 3/10 Drive safe

Risk Assessment- Cafe/ Bus Stop scene

When we film the bus stop scene and the scene with the girl at the cafe, these will be the risks that we will encounter:

• Weather conditions affecting filming. 7/10. Check weather forecast before setting out.
• Dropping or knocking over camera. 3/10. Make sure we are careful when handling the camera.
• Falling over whilst filming. 2/10. Make sure we a careful when traveling to the location.
• Camera being stolen. 1/10. Don't flash the camera around.
• Losing the camera. 1/10. Always keep an eye on where it is.
• Tripod being damage. 2/10. Make sure we use all equipment properly.

Filming Update

Here is an update on how far along we are on filming:

Last week we filmed some shots in the Drama Studio of our artist playing his guitar and singing along to the song. We filmed some good shots of myself playing the guitar, but we had problems with lip-synching. The shots that we were happy with were successful because the angles and lighting were just right for the look we were going for. However, with lip-synching, I had trouble with the lyrics and keeping in time with the song and showing emotion when singing. We will continue filming in the Drama Studio at a later date so that we have completed the whole song.

We also filmed some bedroom scenes at my Dad's house. This turned out just to be a practice shooting due to the fact that I forgot to bring the correct costume. However, next time we will know to bring the correct props for the shot.

Complete Product

What does our artist need to have?
 
Our target audience for our artist is 15-25 student males. They like to socialise a lot but they also care a lot about their studies. They're normally set in their ways and care a lot about their music, as they're not open to all genres, only this. So the artist's costume has to stick to the theme of the genre, wearing the correct outfits in the music video, digipack and in all of the adverts. A typical indie-acoustic artist would wear skinny jeans, checkered shirt/ casual t-shirts with a hoodie, looking a bit rough. A guitar needs to be the main prop in pictures of him performing as it is rare to see an artist in this genre without a guitar.


Purchase

Many students struggle for money so they're going to be more inclined to online downloads rather than buying them in stores, as they are generally cheaper. So we'll concentrate more on advertising online, than advertising in store.

Marketing

Marketing is when you identify and supply customers' needs and wants, and future needs profitably. To do this we'll identify our target audience's wants and needs and meet them as best as possible. To do this we'll make use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube adverts as our target audience are up to date with technology and spend quite a lot of time on the internet. Therefore, Youtube adverts will be cheaper than TV adverts and should create greater appeal for our audience.

Repeatability

Maintain the genre with costume, props, attitude and music style. The costume needs to stay fresh so that the fans have a fashion sense to follow. A guitar is the mainprop for this genre and if he doesn't have it it would seem like he is changing genre. He will need to keep a laid back attitude, as this seems to be the style of most acoustic artists. This is all important because the target audience need to feel like the audience is connected to the genre, as they can relate to the artist.

Overall Appeal


The overall appeal of our artist is the casual attitude, jamming with his guitar he is not influenced by the outside world. The audience which listens to our artist or similar artists usually enjoy socialising in a chilled and laid back environment usually with friends. The guitar used is iconic to the indie acoustic genre and our artist it symbolises that the artist has wrote the music himself and is talented at playing his/their instruments.

Our Lyrics

We were thinking about typing them up but to relate more to our genre we decided to write them out on a piece of paper as that is how they would be presented if you saw an indie acoustic artists learning his lyrics.

Our Storyboard

This is our storyboard that identifies how long each shot is going to last and what is included within that certain shot. This is a key factor and has to be done whenever creating a music video because if you have no plan it will just make everything so much harder to create and piece together.