Pitch

In our lesson we have been given the task of pitching all our ideas and research to our teacher. We have to present everything that we have done so far. To do this we need to start thinking about the locations, mise-en-scene, camera angles, camera shots, characters and the storyline.

Before we can think about all the different aspects to our video we have to finalise our storyline. To do this ellie and I have sat down and analysed the lyrics, so we can fit our ideas to the lyrics. Once we have done this we will start to fit the other aspects into the video.

Initial Ideas

Now that we have decided on our song choice, we have to started to take some initial ideas. Ellie and I sat down together to think of ideas for things we can include in our music video.

VH1

VH1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1 1985, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music. The channel was originally created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. Both VH1 and its sister channel MTV are currently part of the MTV Networks division of corporate parent Viacom. Today, although VH1 still plays many music videos, its most recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related reality programming, with the channels overall focus being on popular culture.

MTV

MTV is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. At one time, MTV had a profound impact on the music industry and popular culture. MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. (MTV Dance, MTV Hits, MTV Base, MTVX, VH1 Classic etc), and affiliated channels internationally. MTV's moral influence on young people, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years. The original purpose of MTV was to be "Music Television," playing music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The original taglines of the channel were "You'll never look at music the same way again," and "On cable. In stereo." Although the concept of playing music videos 24/7 has long been abandoned, MTV US still promotes and plays a limited selection of music videos on its TV channel and website. Internationally, the station continues to support a broad selection of music including 4 channels in the UK that broadcast 23 hours of music video per day.

From 1997, the airing of rock videos was reduced on MTV, with skeptics saying 'Rock is Dead.' From then to 2004, MTV made efforts periodically to introduce more pop/rock videos to the channel. They have been playing pop/rock music on the channel ever since, however today most of the airtime is devoted to pop and R&B videos on MTV.

Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

Codes - Equipment used cameras, also symbolic codes for example what the person is feeling and how we see that.

Conventions - The way things are done things are done within the music video, this also describes the genre of the music video.

The conventions of music video's can vary depending on the specific genre of a music video. However there are some general conventions of music videos:

◦ The artist/band are shown in the video, and usually predominate the video.

◦ The lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video, what we see emphasizes the lyrics.

◦ The pace of the editing fits the pace of the music.

◦ The mise en scene reflects the mood of the music.

◦ There is often a mixture of the artist performing, as well as a narrative story line.

◦ Close ups of the artist/band.

These can be placed into certain categories:

◦ Narrative – A music video has a story/theme to it.

◦ Performance – Where we see the artist/band performing live.

◦ Mixture – With a mix of both narrative and performance qualities.

◦ Cameo – Where the band or the artist is featured in the narrative but doesn’t perform.

◦ Animation – Where the video contains digital features such as flash and stop frame.

Now we are clear on the general conventions of music videos, we can use these and ensure that we apply them to our own music video.

Snow Patrol

Snow patrol are a rock-pop band form Northern Ireland. The bands first three records were unsuccessful and were released by the independent labels Electric Honey and Jeepster respectively. The band then signed on to the major record label Polydor Records in 2002. Snow Patrol rose to national fame with their major label debut, Final Straw, in 2003. The album eventually sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Their next studio album, Eyes Open, (2006) propelled the band to greater international fame.

Target Audience

Now we have chosen our song, we need to identify who our target audience is going to be. It is important to understand our target audience, as we need to make sure we are appealing to the right people. Our target audience would be males and females. We can gather that it would appeal to teenagers of ages around 13-20, however it would also appeal to 20+ people. This is a very wide range of people, and this is because pop-rock music can vary quite a lot; from slow music, to upbeat and fast music. Pop-rock music is not as specific as genres such as rock, indie, hip-hop or dance, which means it has a much wider target audience. Although our genre of music can appeal to a wide range of people, we think that the main ages of people will be ages 15-25. This is because the song we have chosen has quite a serious meaning to it, and the younger generation often take themselves quite seriously. Also as this song is about the breakdown as a relationship, many young people will be able to empathise with it. Because of this we think the younger generation will be able to understand and interact with this song better. The teenage generation like to be extremely up to date with music, and so although we need to adhere to the typical conventions of pop-rock music videos, we need to make sure the video is new, fresh, up to date and trendy. As most of the younger generation watch television, use the internet and read magazines, that would be a clear way to reach out to our specific target audience. However we still must not forget that the music itself will appeal to a larger scale of people.