Understanding Audience

I found this mnemonic acronym last year when doing my AS coursework, and I thought it still applies to our present coursework, as we are marketing to a niche target audience.

• Analysis: Who are they?
• Understanding: What is their understanding of the subject?
• Demographics: What is their age, gender, background, profession, and so forth.
• Interest: Why are they interested in your genre?
• Environment: Where will they be viewing, and what are the conditions?
• Needs: What do they need from you?
• Customization: Do you need to adjust things for any special needs or interests of specific audience segments?
• Expectations: What does your audience expect? 

We are going to respond to these questions throughout our project, so we will gain a understanding of our target audiences needs and desires. 



Audience Theory

1. The Hypodermic Needle Theory

Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. As you can see from the diagram, this theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted   via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking. Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.

2. Two-Step Flow

As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts.

3. Uses & Gratifications

Throughout time, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

In 1970, Halloran said, "We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do with the media." In other words, the consumer now has a say in what they want from the media.

C. Wright Mill decided the four functions of the media for the audience are:

• To give individuals identity
• To give people aspiration
• To give people instruction
• To give people a form of escapism

Researchers Blumler and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (ie uses and gratifications):

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

4. Reception Theory

Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.

When considering these theories, I will make sure I use recognised codes and conventions in my music video to grab my audience's attention. I know now that the codes I use will be interpreted differently, so I am expecting a mixture of opinions when my product is completed. I will also make sure I get audience feedback throughout the process so that I can give my target audience a product that they want.

Power of Moving Image

I found a really interesting article about the power of moving image which is highly relevant to my process to creating a music video, as it allows me a great insight to the influential nature a moving image holds.

"Moving image is the most powerful way to put across any message. According to web business consultancy firm Odysseyuk.co.uk, people remember 30% of what we see, 20% of what we hear but 70% of what anything we watch and hear at the same time. Phrases such as: “a picture is worth a thousand words”, “actions speak louder than words” or “I’ll believe it when I see it” exist for a reason.

Moving image is the most recipient friendly and convincing way to put across any

message."

This quote really summarises my point about it's effective, and manipluative power.

Source

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't it be Nice

Me and Rach have made a decision about what song we'd like to use for our music video - 'Wouldn't it be Nice' by The Beach Boys. Not only is this song relevant in both it's lyrics and summery vibe, it is also universally iconic and greatly liked by people of all ages.

Here are the lyrics:

'Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was neverending
Wouldn't it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby'

From an editing point of view, this song has a lot of potential because of its change in tempo towards the end of the song. This means that we can experiment with faster editing such as jump cuts, and slower editing for example using fades. This will allow us to explore a range of different editing techniques.

Deconstructing a Music Video

Me and Rach are very inspired by this music video, directed by Roman White, as it is close to our own ideas, thus we have screen shot key moments of the video to help us gain a deeper understanding of the conventions of a romantic music video.

1. Extreme close up of male protagonist.    

There are extreme close ups of both the male and female protagonists, and edited to jump cut several times in this opening sequence. This establishes the relationship, and the audience can read the attraction that both male and female protagonists hold for each other. It is also in a subtle sepia tone, connoting warmth and comfort, something that one feels in a happy relationship too. Me and Rach want to experiment with tones when editing our work, to achieve a sense of nostalgia for our target audience.

 2. Thread of photos.

I really like the idea of hanging threads of photographs, so me and Rach are very happy we found this video! It relates to the previous post about the connotations of photographs, and creating memories. This has given us the green light to use photos as a visual motif, as this video is successful. The tone has also shifted as it is now brighter, and in higher contrast.


3. Two shot - beach location

This has inspired us to use the beach as a key location. It connotes romance and natural love, something that we want to portray. The clothing and makeup is very neutral, and this had made us think about our costume in advance. The proxemics of the shot clearly demonstrate the romance between the couple as she is laughing - connoting happiness, and he has his arms around her.


4. Walking along the beach

I noticed a darkened haze framing the shot. We liked this idea, as it gives the impression of a fairytale story. We will experiment with this during the editing process. The female's dress is white, and she has a flower in her hair, connoting innocence and purity - we want to create a similar image to this, thus we will experiment with various costumes. Interestingly, the male is dressed in black and has a tattoo on his forearm, contrasting with her delicate portrayal. We like the location shot again, especially the sea in the background connoting peace and harmony.                                    
                                                      
5. Dancing silhouette

Me and Rach really liked this shot! The use of lighting is really effective, creating a silhouette of the happy couple. We find this shot to be a powerful shot because it's so simple, yet riddled with hidden meaning. If it is possible to explore lighting when we are shooting we would like to try this out.


  6. Hug
This shows the unity of the couple, and we realise that love is growing. We also understand the importance of non-verbal communication between the actors as this screen shot itself tells a story.



7. Close up hands - Jewellery
This clearly demonstrates the genre of romance, with the ring and the touching of the hands being obvious signifiers. Hands, again could be a recurring visual motif, because of the meaning it holds: love. Rather than a ring, we are thinking of using a necklace as a prop to symbolise the couples' love, so when it is taken off the love that they once shared  is over.


8. Over the shoulder shot

We are planning to have many over the shoulder shots, as they give the audience a POV perspective, so they can empathise more with the charaters.




   9. Fighting

Here we see tones of blue, connoting sadness. These shots are also edited to be in slow motion, which is an extended metaphor for a relationship slowing down, and coming to an end. This is something we wish the explore. Again the non-verbal communication is strong, again highlighting the importance of choosing our actors carefully.


10. Extreme close up/two shot

Throughout this video, these shots are often used. Reasons for this are because of the audience reading: establishing the mood, and understanding the relationship between the characters. This is an intense shot of the couple - you can almost see fear in her eyes, showing that she is scared to lose him, whereas his stare is more reassuring, conveying the intensity of the love at this specific point.

By deconstructing this video, we have learnt to think carefully about each individual shot as if it were a photograph because each shot has meaning, and the meaning needs to be conveyed with ease to the audience.

Photographs

Me and Rach are planning to use photographs in our music video as an visual motif, as the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph are memories and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships and emotions. A photograph is a very personal and powerful object, as it can hold so much meaning to whoever it belongs to. We want to play around with our characters making memories of their relationship, so we'll be using lots of hand held camera shots and POV shots, almost so it looks like home footage. This works to our favour, as we can still make a realistic looking music video without the use of high tech cameras which we don't have access to. We'll be using a polaroid camera as a prop to show the memories being made. 

Magnum Photos

Magnum photos is a photographic co-operative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities. Through its four editorial offices in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, and a network of fifteen sub-agents, Magnum Photos provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries and museums across the world.

Whilst browsing through the website at some of the work, I came across a few images that particularly inspired me: 

I think this photo is beautiful as it evokes a sense of happiness. The composition of the picture is great because it establishes the location as well as focusing on the woman as the main attraction. The black and white tones make the photograph appear sophisticated and elegant. I'd like to use this photo as inspiration when I'm taking pictures for my video, as photographs are going to be very significant in representing the couple's relationship.

 To me, this is an amazing photograph! The silhouette of the man leaping in the air is so effective and makes it such a powerful image. The Eiffel Tower in the background is slightly faded which makes it seem like it's not there. It's almost as if it's a fantasy land, a place that doesn't exist. I find the simplicity of this photo stunning.

This photograph links to our idea, as it portrays a couple in a relationship. It captures the moment just right, because we can feel the love between them and we understand that they are tired from their positions. I like how this photo is in black and white because it creates a sense of nostalgia, and this is something that I'd like to experiment with when I take some photos of my own.

Love Lost - The Temper Trap

I found a song which I feel could relate very well to our idea of a happy relationship that slowly deteriorates. It's called 'Love Lost' by The Temper Trap and the lyrics are very simple, yet powerful: 

'Our love was lost
But now we've found it
Our love was lost, was lost
And hope was gone'

Although it's not exactly linked to our idea because the love is found, it still holds the same meaning. Interestingly, the music video to this song doesn't seem to have much relevance to the song, as it shows a boy running and growing up. However I feel that this holds some hidden meaning, as the director must have wanted to make the audience think about what it could mean, rather than it being obvious. The song is quite fast paced and I can imagine quick jump cuts of montage clips if I was to use this as my song for my video.

Ideas

I have decided to work with my friend Rachel to create my music video. This will be more beneficial than working on my own because we can combine ideas. When discussing our thoughts on how the two main characters (boy and girl) should meet, we both immediately thought of the 'match.com' adverts, where a couple meet by chance who are perfectly suited for each other, insinuating 'fate'.

Although this 'perfect' portrayal of a couple meeting for the first time is fairly unrealistic, it will still be very useful when it comes to helping us plan/ shoot the main characters meeting in our video. I'm really keen on the camera angles, particularly the over-the-shoulder shot, where you can see the other person in the background. This draws attention to them, foreshadowing that they are a significant character. I also like the extreme close up of the girl's face, accentuating her beauty; I felt that it was a very romantic shot, and one that could be used in our video. I love the fact that the couple are facing away from each other but can obviously feel each others' prescence. At the end, they both turn their heads at the same time to meet each others' gaze, and despite this being quite cliché, I think it works really well to get across the mutual feeling of attraction.

In this one, I really like how the two people are opposite each other at a train station and they subtly notice each other, continuing to make eye contact until they finally meet in person. It shows the instant attraction between them and that's what I'd like to portray in my video. 

Target audience

Emily is 17 years old. She enjoys reading and hanging out with friends. Her favourite genre of film is rom-coms and she loves anything romantic, from books to songs. Emily likes listening to indie bands such as Noah and the Whale, Warpaint, Bombay Bicycle Club and Animal Collective. Her fashion is also very indie and she's often seen wearing unique brands of clothing. She could easily relate to the female protagonist in our music video because they have similar personalities and style.