Audience Gratification From Our Genre

How does the audience get gratification from our genre ?

• Entertainment/ enjoyment

The way that the audience gets entertainment and enjoyment from our genre is the fact that our genre is associated with playing live this helps the audience get more in contact with the artist as they can actually go and see the artist in the flesh rather than hearing them on a recording.

• Connection to the music/genre

The connection that our audience gets from our genre is that the artists seem like normal people which gives the impression that you do not have to be a superstar or something special to be famous it gives the impression that ordinary people can make it. Our genres lyrics/songs talk usually talk about everyday life which is something that the audience can connect to as they will probably have had similar encounters for example love, friends & having a good time.

• Relationship/communication with the artist

The artists of the acoustic-indie genre usually play lots of intimate concerts to have a closer connection with their audience and are usually happy to have pictures taken with fans and sign autographs. The artists also talk to the crowd during live performances and get them involved in the performance in some way this makes the audience members feel like they are being directly talked to by the artist.

''Sheeran put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden. Over 1,000 fans turned up to see the show, so Sheeran ended up playing four different shows to make sure everyone saw a gig, including a gig outside on the street after the venue had closed.''

This shows that he is very dedicated to his fans as he played 4 free shows just because he didn't want anyone to miss out on seeing him as he understands that his audience wants to see him play live and he catered to the needs of his audience which makes the audience feel like he cares about them.

• Icon,style, attitude, role model

Indie Acoustic the indie part is all about rejecting the mainstream and being different therefore to give the audience the indie along side the acoustic music we need to make sure our artists are dressed up a typical indie artist. The artist is usually dressed in slim/skinny jeans,shoes like vans converse or nikes, a t shirt is also worn that has a wacky message or a hidden meaning. For the male gender mid/long length hair is also common. These rub of on the fans as this is what the audience usually dresses like

• Latest in genre

The audience likes to feel like they are getting the latest in the genre to keep their image fresh the typical indie-acoustic usually appears on Radio 1 to do an interview and livelounge performances for example Ed Sheeran  this keeps the audience up to date with new songs/covers of other artists songs and makes them feel like they are getting new content from their artist. An interview also gives the audience an incite into whatthe artist is actually like in person.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/sessions/2011-09-08_edsheeran

• Identity (part of the group)

Going to see an artist live is a group activity which means you go with your friends who share similar interests to you the audience of the indie-acoustic genre is a very social audience which means they enjoy going to concerts/festivals to see their favourite artists this makes them feel included in terms of social status. Also the artists of the indie-acoustic genre interact with their audience making them seem part of the band. Some indie acoustic atrists throw items into the crowd e.g beach balls, peices of clothing. This makes the audience feel like they are taking partas they are hitting the beach ball throughout the crowd. Peices of clothing are even more influential as the lucky person/people who catch that item actually have something from their favourite artist which makes them feel more intouch with their artist.

Ed Sheerans Record Label

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Both of these Record companies are part of the Warner Music group which shows a good example of horizontal integration. They are also both American record labels which shows Ed Sheeran is expanding into new markets & trying to achieve a wider fanbase in different parts of the world.

Atlantic Records

''Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz.Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.

In 1967 Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music, signing Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Foreigner. The label also has a number of deals with previously independent labels such as Must Destroy (which brought Goldie Lookin Chain and The Darkness into the label) and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.''

This is an unusual label for Ed Sheeran to be on as it has no reference to indie/acoustic music but it is a rather large and well established record company as it has quite a wide span of genres.

Asylum Records

Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Geffen, and partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked as agents at the William Morris Agency. Founded specifically to provide a record contract for Jackson Browne, the label signed Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan for two albums. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records.

After various incarnations, today it is geared primarily towards hip-hop, along with rock and Alternative Metal. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and is currently distributed through Warner Bros. Records.

This Label also does not have much connections with the indie-acoustic genre although Ed Sheeran does have some link with rock & Alternative metal as they all include in instrument which is a guitar although in Alternative Metal an Electric Guitar is predominantly used while in our genre the acoustic guitar is used.

Similar Songs.

This is Matt Lungley- Lady Of Glass it isn't his music video but the song link very well with ours as this is a key example of indie acoustic right here. The slow melodic acoustic guitar played by a solo artists. The lyrics within the song are all about him and a girl which also links to our song as its is all about the boy holding onto his girlfriend.

Failure To Film.

We organised our filming schedule but this has been completely ruined due to our camera only working when being plugged into a plug socket. Therefore this is going to push us back behind our original dates and we are going to have to work really fast and effective in this week coming.

Final Cut Express.

When it comes to editing, us as a good a quite good as it is but to make sure we further our editing skills so I have watched a few tutorials to learn new skills which I can later use in our own production when it comes to editing.

First Ideas For Song Names.

1. Intro
2. One More Day
3. Hold
4. Kiss me
5. Sober
6. Being Young And Stupid
7.

To be continued......

Shotlist.

Drama studio

• close up on hands, face
• over the shoulder shot of the guitar
• longshots of him walking
• medium shots of him playing
• high angle of him sitting with a guitar
• close up on lips
• lying on the floor
• establishing shots

House

• close up of hair
• medium shot of me looking in a mirror 
• medium of sitting on bed/buttons up

Girl house

• close up brushing hair
• mid shot throwing bag/coat down
• mid shot throwing clothes down
• mid shots of different outfits
• leaving/entering house - long shot

Her day

• her entering work - mid shot
• serving customers - close up 
• Bus stop - establishing shot - close ups
• Leaving work - mid shot
• longshot of her leaving cambridge 
• her watching him - mid - long shots distortion 
• her eating/watching on a bench - over the shoulder
• Fast forward of people walking past - long standstill shot
• Her looking at the phone - close up - over the shoulder
• Her looking up - shot/reverse shot

His day

• Train - cambridge - tuning guitar - high angle 
• side shot of him/window
• long shot of him leaving cambridge station
• Him playing in cambridge various locations - Long medium over the shoulder, close up
• side up bridge with guitar - low angle long shot
• close up of rolling a cigarette - smoking it ?
• close up of mouth singing
• he looks up - shot/reverse shot 

Our Storyboard.

This is our storyboard that identifies how long each shot is going to last and what is included within that certain shot. This is a key factor and has to be done whenever creating a music video because if you have no plan it will just make everything so much harder to create and piece together.

Our Lyrics.

We were thinking about typing them up but to relate more to our genre we decided to write them out on a piece of paper as that is how they would be presented if you saw an indie acoustic artists learning his lyrics.

Complete Product

What does our artist need to have?
 
Our target audience for our artist is 15-25 student males. They like to socialise a lot but they also care a lot about their studies. They're normally set in their ways and care a lot about their music, as they're not open to all genres, only this. So the artist's costume has to stick to the theme of the genre, wearing the correct outfits in the music video, digipack and in all of the adverts. A typical indie-acoustic artist would wear skinny jeans, checkered shirt/ casual t-shirts with a hoodie, looking a bit rough. A guitar needs to be the main prop in pictures of him performing as it is rare to see an artist in this genre without a guitar.


Purchase

Many students struggle for money so they're going to be more inclined to online downloads rather than buying them in stores, as they are generally cheaper. So we'll concentrate more on advertising online, than advertising in store.

Marketing

Marketing is when you identify and supply customers' needs and wants, and future needs profitably. To do this we'll identify our target audience's wants and needs and meet them as best as possible. To do this we'll make use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube adverts as our target audience are up to date with technology and spend quite a lot of time on the internet. Therefore, Youtube adverts will be cheaper than TV adverts and should create greater appeal for our audience.

Repeatability

Maintain the genre with costume, props, attitude and music style. The costume needs to stay fresh so that the fans have a fashion sense to follow. A guitar is the mainprop for this genre and if he doesn't have it it would seem like he is changing genre. He will need to keep a laid back attitude, as this seems to be the style of most acoustic artists. This is all important because the target audience need to feel like the audience is connected to the genre, as they can relate to the artist.

Overall Appeal


The overall appeal of our artist is the casual attitude, jamming with his guitar he is not influenced by the outside world. The audience which listens to our artist or similar artists usually enjoy socialising in a chilled and laid back environment usually with friends. The guitar used is iconic to the indie acoustic genre and our artist it symbolises that the artist has wrote the music himself and is talented at playing his/their instruments.

Filming Update

Here is an update on how far along we are on filming:

Last week we filmed some shots in the Drama Studio of our artist playing his guitar and singing along to the song. We filmed some good shots of Tobias playing the guitar, but we had problems with lip-synching. The shots that we were happy with were successful because the angles and lighting were just right for the look we were going for. However, with lip-synching, Tobie had trouble with the lyrics and keeping in time with the song and showing emotion when singing. We will continue filming in the Drama Studio at a later date so that we have completed the whole song.

We also filmed some bedroom scenes at my Dad's house. This turned out just to be a practice shooting due to the fact that Tobie forget to bring the correct costume. However, next time we will know to bring the correct props for the shot.

What The Audience Get Out Of Watching Music Videos.

The main factors that any audience would receive from watching an artists music video that they are interested in would be:
-Entertainment/Enjoyment
-Connection to the music/Genre
-Relationship with the artists/Communication
-Icon, Style, Attitude, Role model
-Latest in the genre
-Identity of being part of the group
-Escapism/Dream, Fantasy

For the indie acoustic genre the main aspects that the audience would get out of watching a music video would be latest in the genre as they always like to be different like the latest things that is happening within the genre i.e new fashion senses, styles. Another key aspect would be the connection to the music as all indie fans listen to the music as its slow and they can relate to the lyrics of the song. The last main aspect would be relationship/communication as the fans like to build a strong exclusive relationship with the artists as he is unknown and different.

Horton and Wohl's Theory:
The idea that fans have a relationship with the artists they like, particularly when the artists uses direct address i.e. real names and cultivate fan appreciation. The grow in the internet has allowed there fans to see, access and link to there favourite artists.

Risk Assessment- Cafe/ Bus Stop scene

When we film the bus stop scene and the scene with the girl at the cafe, these will be the risks that we will encounter:

• Weather conditions affecting filming. 7/10. Check weather forecast before setting out.
• Dropping or knocking over camera. 3/10. Make sure we are careful when handling the camera.
• Falling over whilst filming. 2/10. Make sure we a careful when traveling to the location.
• Camera being stolen. 1/10. Don't flash the camera around.
• Losing the camera. 1/10. Always keep an eye on where it is.
• Tripod being damage. 2/10. Make sure we use all equipment properly.

Our Song

This is the song that we've chosen to create a music video for:

Risk Assessment - Cambridge

Possible risks we may encounter whilst filming within Cambridge:

• Camera being dropped or knocked. 5/10 Take care when handling the camera.
• Camera being robbed. 2/10. Don't flash it around.
• Weather conditions affecting filming. 7/10. Check weather before going out. If it rains then we'll find shelter.
• Losing the camera. 1/10.  Always keep an eye on where it is.
• Tripod damaged. 2/10. Use it correctly.
• Falling over. 2/10. Don't act silly when filming.
• Delayed transport. 3/10. Have a back-up plan.

Audience.

Audience Engagement: As we are targeting an indie acoustic genre the ways in which the audience would normally interact with this particular genre would be to follow the fashion sense and attitudes of the artist, sing along and be motivated to play there own acoustic guitar.

Audience Expectations: Indie acoustic audience expectations would to be see normally a solo artists performing, cross cutting with a narrative of something that is going on in his life which also amplifies the lyrics of the song. In some cases they may be a direct illustration of the lyrics. We plan to amply our song as a direct illustration is more for falling in love or losing someone. Ours is based upon him wanted to 'Hold' his girlfriend.

Audience Identification: They ways in which we plan to get our audience to connect to our artists and our music video would be to include certain conventions that are often shown in similar music video within our genre. We will start by including a performance cross cutting with a narrative, we will include a checked shirt and a acoustic guitar. We will show our artists directly expressing his attitude and lifestyle so audience members can relate to him and connect with out artists.

Audience Placement: This is the little bits that are included within a music video to make the audience specially feel its for them, we plan to do this by including certain aspects like nike shoes, a battered acoustic guitar and a indie girl to phrase our target audience and they will realise that our music video is for them.

Audience Analysis/Research

We are going to carry out a small survey by asking individuals that are interested in indie acoustic and gain valuable information from their thoughts on the genre and what they expect from the genre.
We are going to ask questionees if they think these aspects should be included in our music video we will then rank them out of 10 depending on how many people said that aspect should be included.

1. Favourite props included within an indie acoustic music video?
a) Acoustic Guitar 9/10
b) Rugged Clothing 5/10
c) Microphone 3/10
d) Ciggarettes 4/10
e) Diary 3/10
f) Smart/Casual Clothing 8/10
g) Trainers 8/10

2. Favourite Settings within an indie acoustic music video?
a) A City 9/10
b) Countryside 6/10
c) Fields 4/10
d) Forest 3/10
e) Studio 7/10
f) Beach 5/10
g) Cafe 6/10

3.Audience Preference?
a) Narrative on it's own 5/10
b) Performance on it's own 5/10
c) Cross Cutting between a narrative and a performance 9/10

4.How the lyrics are related to the video?
a) Disjunctive (no obvious link to lyrics) 2/10
b) Illustrative (the narrative to the video is literal, could be classes as denotations) 6/10
c) Amplifying (performance and narrative are not always literal but you can interpret the links between the lyrics and the video, can be classed as connotations) 7/10

5.Effects/ideas which are similar to other artists in our genre
a) Ed Sheeran - The A Team (Black and white, Shots which are sped up to show time passing) 7/10
b) Joshua Radin - Id rather be with you (Cross cutting between his and her day, Narrative) 9/10
c)  Frank Turner - Photosynthesis (Dark studio room) 8/10
d) Frank Turner - The Road (interacting with fans) 5/10
e) Ed Sheeran - You need me (artist does not appear in the video as the main focus) 2/10

Analysis of our results


1. In question one we had Acoustic Guitar with a score of 9 out of 10 which is ridiculously high and shows to us this is the key prop that needs to be included within an indie acoustic music video this is why we will include this in our music video for our A2 Coursework. We did not use many factors like the Diary and the Ciggarettes and they were not scored high enough, but we did use the idea of Smart/Casual clothing and trainers as we found out that jeans, polo shirts, checked shirts and nike trainers especially nike dunks were our audiences preferences.

2. In question two we looked into the audiences favourite locations on where our music video will be based. The option of a City was the most popular choice with our audience followed up by a  performance in a Studio from this it would be unwise to not include these locations. Other locations which also seemed quite popular were the Countryside and a Cafe which both equally scored 6/10 from this we know that we have to include these two locations in some way but these will not be the main focus of our video.

3. In question three there was a clear winner which was Cross Cutting between a narrative and a performance. This shows that we have to include this in our music video as it is what our audience want to see.

4. In question four we asked our audience how the lyrics should relate to the video there was not a decisive outcome but there was two with similar results which were Amplifying and Illustrating this shows that we should use both of these methods of relating our lyrics to our music video.

5. From our results the effects we plan to include are:

• Ed Sheeran - The A Team (Black and white, Shots which are sped up to show time passing) We are going to pick this effect because we think it will be effective and make our music video more unique as we think that the effect used in Ed Sheerans video is powerful so we would like to replicate this within our own video.

• Joshua Radin - Id rather be with you (Cross cutting between his and her day, Narrative) This is a key idea that we want to include in our music video as we want a clear narrative and many acoustic artists use this convention. We also would like to illustrate our lyrics within part of our music video to show how the writer of the song is feeling about his girlfriend.
  

•  Frank Turner - Photosynthesis (Dark studio room) This idea was the second highest scored which means our audience would love to see this idea put into place. They would like to see a performance aswell as a narrative this is why we will use this idea.

Audience Research.

Our audience is indie acoustic and the from the research we have done we have come to the decisions that indie acoustic is mainly targeted at males between the ages of 16-25, they are normally very well educated and have certain political view upon things. To please our real target audience would mean our artists has to be very exclusive and unheard of as indie kids like music that is hard to get hold of and different. They also admire the indie fashion sense so to please our audience we would have to make sure our artists is always wearing the right clothes and portraying the correct attitude.

Many indie artists like Ed Sheeran and The Killers started out very small with a very indie fan base until they became very popular and now they have become very mainstream. As soon as this happens the original indie fans that liked the artists in the first place now hate them as everyone has heard of them and is listening to them. Ways in which artists can stay very indie is by playing small gigs and being very exclusive.

Risk Assessment

We are off out to my dads house to film some bedrooms scenes. The risks that may occur are:
The camera being dropped 2/10 Be carful when handling the camera.
The tripod being bent 1/10 Make sure it is used in the appropriate way.
Tripping over camera wires 4/10 Make sure before we begin to all wires are tucked out of the way.
Traveling by car 3/10 Drive safe.

Gratification Of The Audience.

Indie Acoustic the indie part is all about rejecting the mainstream and being different therefore to give the audience the indie part joking along side acoustic music we need to make sure our artists is dressed up a typical indie kid. So we need to dress our artists up in black skinny jeans with a white lace used as a belt, slip on vans/ converse and a t shirt. To also please the people that are listening to the music not to be different there listening to it because the like acoustic music we need to include the standard acoustic guitar and him performing in one way or another throughout our music video.

So indie acoustic gratifies the audience by giving them a fashion and attitude to follow. The audience find this sort of music very relaxing therefore they will get entertainment out of watching it as it will relax them so if there having a bad day they may find by listening to some indie acoustic music it helps relax them.

Here is a good role model for an indie kid to follow, this is Zac Farro from the band Paramore but many indie kids would follow this sort of fashion. It is more of the younger crowd who want to be known as an indie kid are more likely to follow thing fashion sense. But the ones that are more geared to the acoustic music would look more like Joshua Radin with the rough look. Therefore we need to get our artists looking somewhere in between the two.

There artists builds a connection with indie acoustic artists as there are lot of shots where they are facing the camera and singing to the audience. Here are 4 printscreen shots taken from music videos firstly Matchbox Twenty: 3Am, If You're Gone then Frank Turner: I Still Believe, Peggy Sang The Blues.

You can see in all 4, the artists are singing directly to the audience to create that connection between the lyrics, the artists and the audience and then connection back to the genre through clothing, lighting and hairstyles. This also helps to build a relationship between the artists and the audience as they gain a better perception of the artists. Within many indie acoustic music videos there is a girl included which also relate to how some people many be feeling so it allows them to dream of the girl they like/want so this is another way they gratify the audience.

Miles Hornsby: Hold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VFMIMG-8IIY
This is a link to our song, it is written by our friend Miles Hornsby and titled Hold.

Frank Turners Record Label, Details.

He is signed to a Epitaph Records. As Frank Turner is more of a loud acoustic artists he is signed with a company that mainly focus on bands and there is a big variety. From Weezer all the way to Bring Me The Horizon that are a very well known screamo band. Therefore this label supports the louder typical head banging music as they also have signed The Blackout and Escape The Fate. So not many indie acoustic artists are likely to be signed by this record label as they focus firstly on the band side of things furthermore they don't really focus on our genre therefore it is a bit odd to see Frank signed with this particular record label and you wouldn't really expect others in the genre indie acoustic to follow Frank and get signed by Epitaph Records.

Our artists is much more likely to be signed to a record company like Mom + Pop Records as they sign artists that play much softer music like our artists does. Even though they don't sign all indie acoustic artists they have signed Metric and Tokyo Police Club who both of these artists play much softer music. They have also signed Joshua Radin who is very similar to our artists as he is also a indie acoustic artists so we would be much more likely to be signed by Mom + Pop compared to Epitaph.

Plan

Location: Cambridge, Newport Drama Studio

Actors: Tobias Osborn, Katie

Narrative: Boy in love with girl, doesn't want her to leave him. Him alone in Cambridge singing/playing guitar with flashbacks of him with the girl in another location. He performs alone in a room on a stool the main focus being on his hands playing the guitar and his mouth. He'll be performing in various different places in Cambridge on his own.

Costume: Chinos, polo shirt, slip on shoes and possible sunglasses.