examples of videos which work and some which dont

The BBC at the forum are holding a Music video festival with the company Hot City Sounds. This is a way for recently signed bands to air their videos to the general public. They are being aired at fusion which is 'europes largest permanent public access digital screen gallery'. I was able to view around 21 of these videos and saw some which where exceptional but others which were not very well edited and didnt fit well with the music. This then gave me ideas as to what i should and whouldnt be including within my own music video. As well as making sure my video is engaging.



Artist: The lost Levels Single: The Early Sheets

This video was one of the better ones out of all that we watched. This is due to the fact that it follows a clear narrative structure which enables the audience to become engaged with it. But this engagment within the narrative of the video has a negative impact as it distracts you from the actual song. The lyrics and visuals tie together really well as the opening line refers to eyes 'going square' as the theme of the video is a computer game. It also links to the fact that todays culture is based around technology and people are using the advancement of technology such as the cross convergence of new generation consoles and the internet which allows gamers to now socialise as they play games and therefore are losing touch within the 'real world'.
The video also doesnt make much reference to the band which makes it harder for the audience to feel a connection to their music.
When making my video I will incorporate ideas from this video, particularly the idea of narrative structure as I want my video to advertise the music but also have a film like quality.



Artist: Punch Dance Single: Girl In a Thunderbolt

This video had potential to be really good as it was edited well at the beginning that the girls dance moves went with the time of the music. However as the video goes on it all becomes out of sync and therefore makes it just appear cheap and gives the band the impression they rushed the video. However the theme of her dancing goes well with the genre of the band which is according to their myspace psychedelic where as I would class this particular song as dance/disco as her dance moves are quite cheesy and generic which people often associate with this genre.
The song used on this video is good and upbeat but due to the fact the video is not quite so good it gives an amateur feel towards the band and dampens the quality of the audio due to the poor visuals.
Therefore when making my own video I will make sure to spend a good amount of time on editing and making sure the shots work well with each other. I also need to make sure the video is original as I found out that this video is actually footage found of a girl dancing in a field which the band then aked permission to use.




Artist: Le Tetsuo Single: Your Elbow

This video was good due to the fact it was made on a low budget but had the feel of a well produced video. This was due to the fact that it had an interesting camera technique which follows them around the house party. It also uses different situations within the video which allows the audience to become more engaged. For example it suddenly switches from the house party to a scenario invloving a group of dancers and the band doing a routine. It also uses a surreal end as it falls out of a wardrobe. This also allows the audience to recognise the band as being a quirky individual punk group who wont conform to a generic structure and are willing to break the boundaries. An aspect which is also found within their song which involves the band screaming.
This video gives me the idea to use different locations within my structure as it makes the audience feel more involved which also them to remember the band as well as the song.

Music Audience Research

We went out onto the streets of Norwich to ask people some questions on music and which genre bands etc they prefered. We filmed each individual person so we would be able to make it into a mini documentary and enable us to see different stereotypes within the industry.
For example when we approached the stereotypical 'trendy' their favourite genre was mainly indie. However certain people surprised us by saying their worst genre was RnB as this is quite a popular genre at the moment. We asked 10 people overall 5 female and 5 male. We tried to vary their ages by asking people over 20 and under 20 and we were surprised about the results. We also made sure not to ask our friends as this wouldn't give us the best results as we already know the genre our friends like to listen to. Therefore by asking the public we were able to be surprised at the answers the people were giving us and make us look at the results from a different aspect.

Here are the questions we asked the public:

1) What music do you listen to?

2) How do you listen to your music?

3) Are you going to any festivals or gigs coming up?

4) What is your favourite genre of music?

5) What is your least favourite genre of music?

6) When do you listen to music most?