Permission for song - Foo fighters

As I joined with Zak at a later stage of development he had already contacted the band to ask for permission to use the song the Pretender. Above is the email sent by Zak to there official message board asking for permission to use the song, as we haven't recieved any news we assume that they fine with us using the song for our media coursework.

Target audience

Demographics profile

Gender: both Male and Female but more tailored towards males
Age: 15-19
Ethnic Background: non specific this is due to the songs message of rebellion of youth then ethnicity
Income: low to medium or B2/3
Education level: low to medium
Cultural background: in western cultures e.g. uk, usa etc
Religious background and beliefs: atheistic/agnostic 



Psycho-graphics profile

Interests: less mainstream music
Values/Opinions: Opinions differ from main stream norms and values, but still cold core ideals 
Attitudes: Alternative attitudes and into main stream Interests may include, anime, music

Political convictions: more liberal
Hobbies/Recreational activities: alternative and more individualistic hobbies 
Musical preferences: alternative rock, rock, less mainstream music, music from different cultures
Entertainment preferences: mainly computer based as well as television and occasionally consuming for main stream within cinema

Results from the Second Questionnaire

Results from the Second Questionnaire 

Question 1

What do you expect to see in a 'rock' video?

Click Graph to enlarge

The qualitative data I've have collected and analysed shows that the connotations expected by the audience in a 'rock video' are: 

• The band
• referencing specific instruments used by band - drums and guitar
• The band members usually have long hair
• The band often destroys instruments such as guitars near the end of the music video
• A lot of focus is on the singer
• That the band members should be performing actions such as head banging
• There have been general refferences to the instements so this would suggest they expect instruments in the music video
• The use of special effects such as smoke have been suggested
• Close up's and quick editing have been suggested  i belive that we will take this into consideration during the production and editing process
• The suggestion of loads of speakers i believe has already been incorperated into out music video as i have designed a background that if filled with speakers but will still take this underconsideration

Question 2

Would you prefer a video that meets the conventions of rock videos, or one that challenges them? 

Click Graph to enlarge

The graph above shows that people preffer when a music video meets the conventions of a rock video. Therefore we will try to create a music video that meets the conventions of the 'rock' genre.

Question 3
Which of these are your favourite 'rock' artist

Click Graph to enlarge

From these results the overall outcome shows that the preffered artist of our auidince is the Foo Fighters. Luckily we have chosen to do a Foo Fighters song - the pretenders. So the results would seem to support our artist choice as it is most popular choice of our target auidience.

Question 4

Rate the importance of the following in a music video:

Vocalists, Drummer, Guitarists,Bass Guitar, Synths and Keyboards 

Click Graph to enlarge

From the results of question 4 shows that the vocalists, drummer, Guitarist and Bass Guitarist are the most important band members in the music video accoring to the participants. This would suggest that during our own we should include some if not all of these.

Question 5
What music channel would you expect to see an animated music video

Click Graph to enlarge

We asked where our participants would expect to find an amimated music video on Music telivsion channels like Kerranf and MTV Rocks. So it may an idea to research a some of animated music videos that have been shown on these telivsion channels to see what makes them so apealing and comershal

Question 6
What icons/signs would you most expect to see in a 'rock' video?
From the following- band logo, Amp, Instruments, Band performing, Audience Low key lighting.

Click Graph to enlarge

The results show that the band performing, instruments and amp's are the  most popular signs/icons the audience expect to see in a 'rock' music video. So with regards to the results we till try to incorporate Band performing, Instruments and Amp's within our music video

Results from the First Questionnaire

Results for the First questionnaire.

Question 1 

What gender are you?

Click to enlarge

From the results of the  first question i can see there is not an even response from males and females therefore the results of the questionnaire can be considered gender bias. I believe this will not affect our results as we are aiming our music video towards males rather then females so the sample can be considered representative.


Question 2

What age group do you belong to?

12-14, 15-18 or 19+

From the results of question 2 the graph shows that our respondents ages are between 15 to 19+. The results would then show that the age groups are the ages of our target audience, Teenagers and young adults.  

Question 3

What 3 genre(s) of music do you like most?

The results from that the most popular genre is the 'rock' genre therefore we will try to do a 'rock' genre song for our music video. 

Question 4

What style of music video do you prefer?

The results show that 4/10, the majority 40% of respondents prefer and animated based music video. From the results of this question and our initial ideas we have decided to go with an animation for our music video.

Question 4 part 2

Why?

• I love anime
• Its clever and gives a good effect 
• Bored of usual videos
• I like different ideas
• Probably live action as i personally find it more interesting
• i would find it more interesting  
• I like bands
• Because i like seeing the band play 
• It gives a personal face to the band, you get a view of the artist and feel for their personality through the way they perform

From the qualitative data collected it seems that participants prefer animation as its different to the normal live action performances and gives a good effect.

Question 5

Would an animation-based video appeal to you?

We asked  the participants whether a animation based music video would appeal to them as its an idea we have thought of doing an animation for our music video. 80% of participants felt an animation would appeal to them, this supports our idea to do a animated based music video.

Question 6

What type of video to do prefer?

The audience would prefer a music video with both performance and a narrative.  

questionnaire

today we gave out questionnaires

The first questionnaire was to establish idea of which music genre to use and weather or not the idea of an animated music video would appeal to the audience

Click to enlarge

The Second questionnaire was to elaborate on the rock genre of which we have chosen and to get ideas on conventions that the audience associate with a rock  music video and to find out how important the audience rates different members of the band

Questionaire 2
Target Audience Questionnaire 2

1, What do you expect to see in a ‘rock’ video?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2, Would you prefer a video that meets the conventions of rock videos, or one that challenges them? (please tick)

Meets conventions

Challenges conventions

3, Which of these are your favourite ‘rock’ artist?

Foo Fighters

Nirvana

My Chemical Romance

Biffy Clyro

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Green Day

Queens of the Stone Age

Kaiser Chiefs

Why? …………………………………………………………………………………

4, Rate the importance of the following in a music video (rate 1 – 5)…

Vocalist                                    Drummer                                  Guitarist

Bass Guitar                               Synths                                      Keyboards      

5, What music channel would you expect to see an animated music video (AMV) on?

(please tick)

Kerrang!                                  Q                                             NME TV

MTV Music                             MTV Rocks                             Viva

4 Music                                    Scuzz                                       Kiss

6, What icons/signs would you most expect to see in a ‘rock’ video? (pick 3)

Band logo                                 Amp                                        Instruments                  

Band Performing                       Audience                                  Low key lighting

Analysis of rock video

I will be an analysing a variety of rock/alternative rock genre  music videos to assist in the development of our own project and may include some aspects of them in our final piece.

• Graphics introduce the singer
• Zoom and reverse zooms on different media outlets e.g. phones, TV and gaming platforms
• The cuts are quick and reflect the pace of the song in general
• Focuses only on the singer and doesn't include and band members
• Use of different costume and make up
• surreal - reflecting different genres of films for example between 1:04 and 1:05 the singer appears to shoot his arms like rocket launchers this appears to fit into the sci-fi genre
• The zooms pan in a jerky motion to the different phones and TV's
• Reuses shot locations and possible shots
• At the beginning time appears to be reversed approximately between 0:04 and 0:17
• Lighting varies and alters depending on location but to start with the lighting is dark and becomes lighter as the  music video continues
• Performance piece
• The use of different genres may help it reach a wider audience.
• A filter is presented throughout the music video that changes the shape of the video from a rectangle to a square. This may present the different genres and reinforce the idea of film making it look like a television screen. Also this could be used to keep the audiences attention.

Red by The Gazette

• uses a variety of shots, close up, mid shots and groups shots.
• setting in an empty bar/club - could show that the band is down to earth and like everyone and perhaps identify with audience members that go to empty/club.
• Graphics show name of the band, this could be done to give a graphics match and help promote the bad and raise interest.
• The use of dark lighting meets conventions of the alternative rock genre and helps add to the atmosphere.  
• The quick cuts  and lack of transitions could symbolise or emphasise the songs lyrics and meaning to the audience. 
• use of costume draws attention to singer.
• screen time is equal this differs from other music videos which are less balanced. 
• The use of tilts i feel adds to the atmosphere and promotes mystery. 
• The focus throughout changes and becomes softer for short periods this may add variety. It could also  keep attention of audience also adds a sense of surrealism.
• the use of slight zooms may change the audiences focus, and adds an element of distortion.
• use of cut away could help show the setting and help establish where they are playing.

Conventions of our chosen genre - Rock

While researching alternative rock music video's i have found some conventions that are presented:

• reference to violence - committing or emotional violence and pain
• Odd and mystery's settings - surreal
• Shouting and loud music
• Often have a narrative
• editing (cuts) reflects the pace of the song
• The pase of the is song is usually fast but pase changes at impact points during the song
• Shows band members as well as singer e.g. drummer and guitarist
• colours used are often black and reds these have connotation's of danger and evil.
• lighting is dull to start with becomes more intense when the song begins
• fog/smoke is introduced possibly to add a sense of mystery
• an atmosphere is created, this may be done by showing fans enjoying
• The alternative rock genre goes against the norm either with lyrics, bands dress, make up or music video narrative
• The focus is usually on the Lead singer
• Can involve a rebellious element e.g. social or political injustice

Cut away

Today i decided to draw a pair of speakers to be used for cutway. This is to be used to add variety to the music video and also if nessisary be used to fill time if needed.

If this is used i plan on fading the background colours as if it were pulsing to give th illusion that they are moving/vibrating

Final design and making of the Second Guitarist

I decided to reproduce the earlier concept drawing for the final design.

I decided to use a graphics tablet to create this drawing as its easy to use and can change/alter the image at a later date if necessary.

I will be using the drawing programme Sai because i have used this programme before and have gotten used to the controls/tools also with it i am able to produse high quality pictures and images.


- Firstly i drew the basic body shape for the second guitarist adding in joints, hands, and head.

- Next I drew in a guitar

-I then began to draw in initaial body shape using blue.

-Then using the basic outlines i was able to draw a detailed body shape/outline

- Next i started to add colour and shading to the clothing

-After that i added the head and shaded it






-Then i added the hair

-Next i added the mask - which only covers half of his face

-After the mask i added shoes

-Then i added in the guitar and coloured it red and shaded it

-I then added arms using a different layer, i only drew the left arm as its difficult to position the arm correctly. i will do this at a later stage

-I drew the second arm over the guitar this was difficult as it was hard to position

-I then drew the arm in two different position to give the illusion of movment

This is the completed version showing all 3 arm movements together  i will add eyes and facial expressions at a later stage.

Charecter design - Second Guatarist

I have decided to an initail concept for the second guatarist:

• It will be a male guatarist
• They will be wearing some sort of mask. This is to keep in line with the song as it talks about "pretenders" and about this i believe masks are a good representation of pretending/not revealing the persons true identity manifested in a phyical form
• They will were dark cloths, to promote the idea that the genre is a rock and reflect the mood of the song.

Below is an concept drawing

Backgrounds and settings

We have both decided to create backgrounds for the music video in which the 3 charecters will be in. This is firstly to share out the work evenly so that we both are involved in the production and design proccess and secondly we plan on switching backgrounds throughtout the music video to keep the auidience interested.

Below are some examples of backgrounds and settings that we may plan on using

A stage/theature, i thought this idea would match well as the song talks about "pretenders" i believe that the theature share this conitation of pretending.

This idea is based on Shibushen/DWMA from the Anime soul eater.

This Idea is based on an early conversation me and Zak had regarding backgrounds. The wall of speakers show the band to be loud and breaking differnt as the speakers are of differnt size and shape.

Charecters

Myself and Zak have decided to invole 3 characters:
>A main singer based off the original lead singer of the song
>A First Guitarist based on Maka Albarn
>A second Guitarist from an original design

We have decided so far that i will design the second guitarist and Zak will design the First guitarist.
below are some initial concepts.

Ideas for animated music video and Final Choice

After deciding to work in the same group Zak and i have come up with some initial concepts for the music video as shown below.

We discussed a range of songs these were:

• Houki Boshi - a Japanese song i suggested  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHjWZpiT_bo
• The Pretender -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjQ9tuuTJQ&ob=av2e  
• Papermoon -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a-8fl0_1ew
• Resonance -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUN9tpZhnzA
• 1000 words -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4voJjkJevs
• Breaking the habit - Linkin park -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acgvRle07GI&ob=av2n

From these song choices we decided on focusing on the following genres:

• rock genre
• alternative genre
• Japanese pop genre

Ideas:

• Fight scene narrative
• Performance based
• Animation
• Live action

We have decided to base the animation and drawings on anime/manga art styles will we try to involve anime such as soul eater in the design of charecters and backgrounds.

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We Later decided on a final choice for our music video, we chose 'The Pretender' by the Foo Fighters



We chose this as we both enjoyed the song and felt it would be interesting to create an animated music video based off the lyrics the song is an Alternative rock genre. We have chosen to do a performance based animated music video.

Problems and changes

During the duration of the school holidays i planned to film but unfortunately i was unable to find someone to step in for the singer. Therefore i wasn't able to film, instead i have decided instead to not continue with my original project and joined together with another media student and work together on a Animated music video. We have decided to continue with Zak's original song, the Foo Fighters -the Pretender.