Practice Editing

Before starting the editing process we thought it would be a useful task to understand how the editing technology works. Therefore we shot some short clips in order to practice editing techniques we will be using when we start to edit our film.

 

 

 

In our practice editing we tried to use techniques that we would want to use in our music video. Firstly we changed the pace, in order to make it slow motion. In our video we have planned to use this effect to add emphasis.

Secondly we changed the effect of the clip making it into black  and white, whilst in the process we saw the other effects which can be used. We added a fade of the end this will be a key editing concept to grasp, as it will be used a lot through out our video.



Magazine Albumn Advertisment Analysis

Font Analysis

Chase and Status are the band who's song we have chosen to use. Therefore, by looking at the fonts they use we can gather which font will work the best for us. This font is modern and edgy which helps to represent the genre. The font is bold and in a blocked format with slices in the letters, this is a font in which Chase and Status have used regularly so can easily be associated with them. The black and orange colour scheme is both striking and mysterious and gives the font an edge within the dance music industry.

This font works in a similar way in the fact that it is modern. The paint effect on this works well to show the creative element of music, this however appears to be like street art which does fit with the genre, however, we would like a more professional font.

This font is very affective in the way it looks creative but also proffesional. The font is similar to one used by "Chase and Status" and therefore links to the modernism of the band. A memoralable font is key because it allows an audience to remember the band easily and associated the font with the band with out it having to remember the exact name, but only the style of the writing/font.This font is similar to other artists along side "Chase and Status" such as "Avicii".

This is a very alternative font and is very different to other fonts used throughout the dance genre industry. This is a positive in the fact that it sets the artist/band out to be different to others which works well with the dance music genre. On the other hand it can be seen as negative because it is very different to other fonts used so it might not be easy to associate with dance music.

Magazine Advert Fonts

 

ATM magazine is one which has featured Chase and status on its cover so we therefore know that it fits with a our genre. It is also a magazine that contains information and updates on the latest dance music. The font is very modern and futuristic which works well alongside the dance music genre as it is very bold and it stands out, something the dance genre does within the music industry. This cover is very attractive to an audience because we can see the two music artists in the right and centre thirds both of the eyes stand as they're looking directly out to the reader, creating a direct mode of address.

 

 

Our Magazine is going to be called "RDA" which is an acronym for 'Raving Dance Anthems we have chose a similar font to the one on the "ATM" magazine. We want a font that is going to stand out but also looks trendy and modern.
 

 





 

 

This font is one which fits out brief however the font is not easily read, it could be mistaken for other letters which detracts from the recognisable brand as we want people to know our brand.

 

 

 

 

This font is similar in the way that it is bold and modern so it fits in with the genre and other fonts which artists have used before. When we use this font we would like to use a blue colour as it is brighter and has connotations of youth.

 

 

 





Social Media Research

Chase &Status

To find out what type of audiences we will be targeting our music video at I researched into the social media aspects of the of the music we are using. I did this by looking at social media accounts of the band chase and status who performed the song ‘Alive’.

 

Twitter accounts:

44 following- the majority of the accounts the band are following are also fellow electronic DJ accounts, for exampe 'Avici'. Following their competition to keep up to date.

328.8K followers- these followers are mixed ages, majority 18-25 both male and female this suggestest that this is their target audience.

They have mainly English/American followers, hoever also have european followers from germany and poland. This suggests where their music is most popular, England and America.

 

Facebook:

1M likes- this suggests that they are very popular with the public.

London uk (based) conveying the language they speak and also showing the target audience of mainly English speaking countries.

 

Instagram:

17K followers- shows the audience are interested in following and looking at images and videos of them touring and keeping up to date with their music.
 

Lyric Analysis

Logo analysis

After creating a mood board this allowed us to come up with two logo ideas for our record label "Aura Studios". We showed this logo to a group and allowed them to chose which they preferred.

 

Mood board

Aura Studios

Definition: the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place.

 

Decided Song and Asking for Permission

The song we have chosen to use is Chase and Status' song 'Alive'

Song Choice

To decide upon which song we wanted to use we asked a group of people to listen to each song we were thinking of using. Each person we asked decided that 'Alive' by Chase and Status was the best song and suggested that was the one we should use.

Questionnaire Analysis

From the questionnaire we got some interesting results which can help us with what to include in our
video and who to aim it at.

 

The first question asked on our questionnaire was "Gender" this helps to find out about our target audience. From this we can see how many girls are interested in dance music and how many boys are, this would tell us if we have a mass audience for our music video or whether by doing dance music we would be cuting out one gender.

 

 

Question two was age, asking the age is a very useful question as by finding out what age people listen to dance music we can target our audience by adding age appropriate content . The people we asked were either under 18 or up to 25 and it appeared they liked dance music..

 

Question three asked people if they watched music videos. Everyone who aswered our questionnaire said yes, this is useful because we know by doing a music video we are attracting a lot of people.

 

 

An interesting thing we found out from question four is that people don't just watch music videos on the television but on the internet as well, therefore this is a platform that we need to target aswell. Many of the people watching videos on the internet watch them on websites such as YouTube. The people watching this user generated content are majorly young adults, again enabling us to make age related content.

 

Our fifth question was asking which genre of music people liked the most people, in our questionnaire it was apparnant that dance music is a popular genre as 4/5 of the people we questioned said they liked the dance genre.

 

We asked people what their favourite video was and why, although finding out what video they liked was useful it also allowed us to understand that if a video stands out then it will be remembered. We can do this through iconography.

 

Asking people what kind of video they liked out of; performance, narrative, concept and all three was so that we knew what kind of video we wanted to create. No one alone said they liked performance videos. This allowed us to eliminate this kind of video for our production, the majority said narrative which is very useful. When asking about types of videos we also asked whether an audience prefer serious or funny music videos thus meaning we know to make ours serious as no one said they liked a humorous music video.

 

There was a mixed response when we asked about what people looked out for in music videos whether it was mise-en-scene or the music artist, so if we did either it would detract an audience.

 

Our last questions linked to our iconography as we wanted to make sure that we had picked all the recurring themes in dance music videos and whether people like to see these in music videos. We decided upon the same themes as people selected in the questionnaires, therefore we know we have all the righrt themes to work with.



Questionnaire Template

Gender:

Male

Female

Age:

Under 18

18-25

26-35

36-40

40+

Do you watch music videos:

Yes

No

Which music channel do you use the most:

MTV

VIVA

Other

How often do you normally watch music video:

Every day

Every week

Every month

Other

What is your favourite Genre of music:

R&B

Electronic (Dance music)

Drum and Bass

Pop

 

What would you say your favourite music video is and why?

          

Do you prefer a narrative, performance) or concept based (e.g live performance) driven music video:

Performance

Narrative

Concept

All three

Do you like music videos that are:

Funny

Serious

What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch:

Mise en scene

Music Artists

Do you like to see party scenes in electronic music videos?

 

When listening to dance music what do you expect to see in the music video?

 

 

Album Cover Analysis

 

 

 

This is a good example of a dance music album cover- simple yet effective. The bright pink and black colours help to represent the image in the background of the text. The image resembles graffiti, this complements and links to the genre of music (drum and bass) as graffiti is associated with young adults (dance music target audience) and is often used in dance music videos. The album title is emphasized by the plain background. The font used is also not your typical times new roman; block capitals are used to resemble graffiti, just like the background image.

 

This album cover from Ministry of Sound is a perfect example of an electronic dance music album. The bright multi colours represent the rave party culture. The background is a black and white image of a crowd in either a club or a festival of some sort. This instantly tells us what genre of music it is and where you are likely to hear it before you even listen to it, as party culture is stereotyped with dance music. The effect of black and white is seen as professional and simplistic, therefore this could be a technique Ministry of Sound are trying to use to capture their audience. The black and white effect is also shown in the media world to present a sense of realism because it captures the moment, something that is done perfectly on this album cover. The text on it says “Eat sleep rave repeat” the word “rave” instantly brings the idea of a party atmosphere. In addition, this cover does not seem  to follow the rule of thirds.

 

 

 

Avicii is a typical electronic dance music DJ. The lightening or electricity shocks at the top of the album cover Touching the text "Avicii" complement the genre of music being electronic. The Background shows multi coloured lights these lights suggest a party theme (dance) this instantly tells the buyer what genre of music this album is. The font used for the artists name is edgy and bold and instantly sticks out, Avicii also uses this font as his logo therefore it is used on all of his album covers. The font used for the word 'Levels' resembles paint, this links to the genre as graffiti is associated with the dance music genre. Furthermore, the word levels makes use of the right hotspots in the rule of thirds.

 

 

Sigmas album cover isn’t a typical dance music cover. The background image is a picture of a beach. This in a way complements the genre of music as dance music is often related with summer (holidays, festivals ect…). In addition, this album doesn't suggest the genre of music as well as the others however still has an element of it.




In conclusion, the majority of CD covers we have analysed include bright and contrasting colours. Therefore, when we create our own CD cover we shall aim to replicate this.

Music Magazine Analysis

 

This ATM magazine features Chase and Status, the background image is a photograph of the band. They are made to look rough and edgy relating to the genre of music. Both band mates are either wearing a black or white t-shirt these are extremely contrasting colours. High key lighting is used to give the magazine a young fresh theme linking in with the band and genre of music which is widely listened to by young adults. “Chase and status” is written in a red colour to contrast with the background giving it an edgy feel.
 

 

This USA top magazine ‘Billboard’ that features Avicii; the background is a photograph of the artist. Avicii is a worldwide top selling DJ which instantly tells us the genre of music featuring in this magazine. He is seen to be wearing headphones- this immediately complements the idea of a ‘music’ magazine. The colours used are neutral along with the high key lighting giving a clear photograph.

 

 



 

 ATM is typical music magazine. This magazine features Magnetic man. Magnetic man is electronic DJ set. Blue colours are used a lot on the magazine. Blue emphasises the electronic genre of music. The text ‘Magnetic man’ is in white writing white makes it stand out and bold.

 

 

In this version of the Billboard magazine features Rihanna a top dance music artist. The background image Is a photograph of Rihanna, her hair is a bright red colour, this conveys a bright and fiery look. Red contains connotations sex, lust and danger; all of these aspects are contained in dance music videos.

In conclusion, in every music magazine we have analysed the artist is always the main feature. Therefore, when we create our own music magazine front cover we would like to replicate this common feature. In addition, high key lighting is always used, this is not stereotypical of the genre of dance however helps to highlight the artist.

Textual Analysis Summary

Through the research we gathered from the textual analysis' we found some common themes and techniques in which are included throughout all of the videos. These common themes and techniques are:

Themes such as:

• drinking
• smoking
• sexual references
• relationships
• party culture
• drug use

Techniques such as:

• low key lighting,
• close up shots
• Shallow depth of field
• Slow motion
• Bright multi coloured lights
• Head and shoulder shots

Our group has selected a number of screen shots that represent these common themes and techniques.

Themes:

Drinking is often included in dance music videos as this genre is stereotypically played in clubs ands at parties where a lot of alcohol would be consumed by young adults varying from the ages 18 to late twenties. Including drinking in dance music videos allows the target audience to relate to what is going on. Furthermore, in our music video we would like to include scenes of alcohol being consumed so that we will be able to reach out to our target audience of young adults(18+) the way the music industry does currently when creating dance music videos. We believe this will help further enhance the professionalism of our music video.

 

 

 

 

Smoking is also included in a lot of dance tracks, this is because like drinking, it is associated with becoming an adult because there is an age restriction on drinking and smoking, so therefore by having smoking included it relates to young adults(18+). This is another feature we would like to include in our music video as it stereotypically relates to the genre. The shot below showed a particular interest to us because we thought the effect of the smoke coming out of the girls mouth looked unusual. This, again, is something we would like to replicate in our music video.

 





 

 

Another common theme relevant to dance music videos that we have found while completing our textual analysis's is sexual references. Sexual references are usually included in dance music videos due to the fact they show young adult experiences and help to connect the audience with the video because it is something the audience will be able to relate to.

 

 

 

 

Relationships are always included in dance music videos. This is because relationships are a major part of young adult life and are often what the dance music videos focus on, the narrative behind the relationship. In our own music video we would like our main focus to be a relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drug use is found in every dance music video we analysed and is often an important part of the music video as it is something that is stereotyped with the genre of dance. Drug use is something our group would like to emphasise in our music video.

 

 

 

 

 

Techniques:

 

Low key lighting is found in every music video we analysed; this may be due to the fact that dark dim lighting is linked with party culture and also the negative aspects to dance music videos such as drugs. Our group would like to include a variety of low key lighting. We were particularly interested in how low key lighting was used in the Chase and Status music video 'Alive'.

 

 

 

 

Close up shots are another technique that are widely used in dance music videos. we found that close up shots were mostly used to focus on the theme of alcohol or drugs, we aim to replicate this in our own dance music video. The close up of the woman's face in Ed Sheeran's 'A team' is of particular interest to us as we believe it be unusual and effective. the close up shows her eyes in which are dilated to show she is high on drugs. Our group would like to use a close up of someone's eyes and to make them appear dilated in our own dance music video.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shallow depth of field is a technique that appeared in a few of the music videos. It was often used to highlight a specific feature of the music video. This, again, is something our group intend to replicate.

 

 



 

 

 

Slow motion was used frequently throughout Tove Lo's music video 'Stay High With Me' to enhance the theme of drugs and show that the girl in the video was not of her own mind. Slow motion was also used in Chase and Status' music video 'Alive'. We will use this technique in our video.

 

 

 

Lots of multi coloured lights are generally used in dance music videos. This links to the theme of party culture and helps to enhance the dance music feel. Our group would like to include a party or club scence in our music video so that we may include this type of lighting.

 

Head and shoulder shots are frequently used in every music video we have analysed.