Analysis of other videos.

For this part of the course i have to pick two other music videos to analyse, the purpose is this is too see what is a common feature in other music videos that can relate it to its genre and what works well that i might like to include in my music video or what is unique and perhaps different equally it will show me things that i should avoid and allow me to take the band into new territory and down different paths.

For my first music video i decided to chose a band called 'Razorlight' a rock band formed of both English and Swedish members they have released 3 albums. I will review one of the songs from the debut album 'Up all night' called 'Golden Touch'.

Here is a YouTube link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arRHp5FTCak

The video starts out with a shot of the lead singer and rhythmic guitarist, Johney Borrell. They show this to start because his haircut and particular style has become iconic of the band its shown all over the posters and the cd covers to provoke interest and create attention. He is shown in a black silloute like edit with a background changing, probably to keep people interested and to contrast the black at the front.

As the song picks up in tempo and the more instruments are introduced we can start too see other members of the band. They are also shown as black silloute-like figures. One of the members closer to the camera is holding a camera and is almost taking shots of the audience.

The colour of the background starts to change we can see new colours introduced like blue and the white is more frequently used. The video also excretes new patterns becoming allot more hypnotic. Edits show the band members moving abouts primarily closer and further away from the camera.

There are lots of shots of the instruments that are being played, perhaps to show play styles and to keep relating the music video to its genre. I'd like to include this in my video.

The silloutes of the band are shown to almost fuzz alot and become static, kind of like what you would see on a 70's televison perhaps with this and the camera they are playing games with who is watching who. The patterns in the background and the colour schemes are also what i would expect to see in a 70's music video.

At 1:24 in timeline of the video it starts to play the chorus for the first time. The band members move about alot to create atmosphere. There is now a golden background which relates directly to the colour in the song name. The edits move with the beat to the song for example as the guitarest strums 3 times, 3 clones appear of the guitarest. More spirals and lagging clones appear later in the chorus again giving it a edgy and funky feel.

During the second verse there are shots of a television style camera its on a manikin of legs. This shows the band to be artistic but perhaps it maybe means that we are all kind of walking cameras to store videos and still images. It shows the band reading books, maybe because in society people prefer television of books this is the band being unique and different.

In the later leg of the video around the 2:50 area it becomes more and more funky with different coloured clones in a black background, theres also the introduction of the green colour. The shot rate of the video is faster and there are constant zoom ins and outs. The song itself is becoming louder and more settled, its repeating the chorus.

At the end of the video it starts to slow down allot like a typical outro would. A violin plays perhaps to zoom the viewer out of a day dream. The camera also zooms out to show the outline of a box, perhaps this was the television we were expecting?

Overall i thought the video itself was pretty fun to watch, it was lively and not boring. I'd like to include a few ideas that are promoted in the video such as the speed of editing and the shots of the band but the song itself is sending a different message than what i will be sending in mine.

The kooks - Naive

So for my second video, i chose to analyze a band called the Kooks. They are a Brighton band and we're formed near where i grew up. They became famous and active within the charts since 2006 with their first album Inside in / Inside out it got to '2' in the album charts. The Kooks have often played at gigs along side Arctic Monkeys and are within the same music genre, i will look at the video for the same reasons i looked at Razorlight, to get an insight on what really works and what perhaps didn't appeal so much or work well.

The song i will be analyzing is called Naive, it was released on their debut album. Here is a Youtube link to the music video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-KnNVoFsCc

The music video is introduced to us with one of the band members walking down the stairs with his hands in his pockets, promoting a casual body language. Again their hair is iconic and matches that which is in fashion of the music genre. The lighting is fairly bright to begin with until the youngster leaves the building onto the street.

The camera tends to follow the man and is introduced to his surroundings. The actor / band member doesn't make eye contact or addresses the audience viewing the video, he often has his back to the camera perhaps giving a careless approach.

It is located in a typical area, the props and house itself is pretty ordinary and affordable. It is located in a built up town area, we can see this from when he moves from the building he started in, into the other house with traffic showing in the back ground.

As the video plays on we are introduced to a narrative. There is a shot of a young girl looking urn-happy, she then stumbles out of her room over one of the other band members who was asleep in the doorway of the room on the floor, again a careless attitude. The lead singer enters a dark room, probably a club or a pub, there is little lighting to show his face, i'd like to make sure that in my video i include lots of lighting to make sure my viewers can understand and follow it without loosing the focus. He walks through the crowds, the crowd is young and mixed between male and female this is identifying their target audience. We then keep jumping back to the narrative, this is what i will be doing in my music video with the shot of the band playing and the narrative of the actors telling the story. In this case we can see a argument between the lead singer and the blonde girl who is likely to be his girlfriend.

We can see the girl vulnerable and drunk, the band member takes care of her in the video this might be relating to the lyrics perhaps she was too trust worthy? My music video will be constantly involved with the lyrics because it helps tell the story both visually and through listening to it.

Overall the video itself is just a big narrative short movie with short and slow edditing, i will be including this inter-linked with the band playing on Seaford beach. I think comparing music videos has helped me gain some tricks and tips which will be useful when filming.

Target Audience.

One of the methods i learnt at AS to identify a target audience was using magazine covers and looking at readerships to understand who buys the magazine, how old they are what gender they are and what they enjoy.

I researched magazine covers with the Arctic Monkeys and i found these magazine covers:

NME Magazine



Q Magazine



To understand who buys these magazines i went to www.NRS.co.uk, they provide estimates of the number and habits of people reading newspapers and magazines. The survey of June 08' to June 09', the most recent survey, i found the following figures:

Q Mag
666,000 copies sold in total, 14Th most popular monthly general magazine in the UK.
513,000 men
153,000 women
572,000 aged 15 - 44
94,000 45+


NME Magazine
388,000 copies sold in total, 16th most popular weekly general magazine in the UK.
296,000 men
91,000 women
339,000 aged 15 - 44
49,000 aged 45+

By looking at these figures we can see that it is probable the majority are male aged 15 - 44 however it is important to note theres still a big market for males aged 45+ and females of all ages, they shouldn't be neglected.

I can now find out the demographics of people, demographics are the statistical data of a population showing income. Here is a graph from the NRS website showing how they categorise people:


I will now look and record my findings on the demographics of the readership of both Q and NME magazines.

Q Magazine:
ABC1 - 250,000
C2DE - 137,000

NME Magazines:
ABC1 - 444,000
C2DE - 222,000

We can see that generally people who buy both magazines have a larger income and lots of disposable income. Usually people in higher ranks and important jobs are more mature and clever. However again i shouldn't forget about the smaller % of audience which would be in the lower bands of the demographic chart.

Reviews

After looking into magazine covers which gave me a rough picture of who my target audience is, i should now look into reviews from critics on previous songs and music videos this will help me again find out who buys and watches the video and how i should shape mine.

here is a review from the daily telegraph's website after reviewing the band at a concert, they are talking about the lead singer and song writer of the Arctic Monkey, Alex Turner.

"He has also traded the street-level observations of old for a prettier, more adult, cryptic style of wordplay."

This tells me the band is changing their direction and helps me identify the target audience, i now know that i need use crpytic messages in my video to relate to the newer wordplay and it needs to mature for adults to enjoy.

"Alex Turner’s crew have moved beyond the dispiriting arena of action and reaction, into a zone where they’re allowed to exist simply as an excellent band, guided by sure-footed artistic vision."

This quote shows Artic Monkeys need an artistic music video this is brilliant because i had, as shown in my planning section, artistic ideas to incorporate in my video such as greyscale editting and an array of camera shots.

Fans

Furthermore to understand the bands target audience i researched their fan base and go straight to the heart of what im looking for. Firstly i hit two popular social networking sites popular with all ages of people it will give me an un-biased account of the audience.

Here are screen shots of random fans from www.facebook.com\arcticmonkeys





and heres some from www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys





from both photos is shows young fans, mostly male which fits in however i massive point i have found from looking at this, shows that fans are from all across the world not just sheffield or the UK. My music video has to attract the mass market and mass fan base of the Arctic Monkeys. I can now start to build a target audience with the evidance i have obtained but finally just to make sure im appealing to right market i will look at the Arctic Monkeys website, ArcticMonkeys.com.




There is continuity shown between the Myspace page and their home page, same colours and graphics shown. They are shown in black and white again working well with my gray scale. The colours are bold they are not faded and they're curvy and modern, young audiences would like this. On the website it shows photos of the band playing live at concerts the audiences in the crowd look modern and young proberly of the same age as the majority of the readership of the magazines i researched earlier on the in page. It backs up from what i found when i looked at the networking sites as it shows the band are playing concerts across the world and at large venues that are sold out quickly everywhere, this shows mass appeal and i will need to relate to this in my music video.