Thursday, 25 September 2014

REASON FOR OUR IDEA

REASON BEHIND OUR IDEA AND IDEOLOGY

We will be using the song Hot Natured - Benediction, the whole purpose of our music video is the idea of the main character actually working towards achieving a benediction which is the utterance of a blessing usually performed at churches,We thought that taking the name of the song and its actual meaning and implementing it into the video would be a good idea.. We will be following the life of the main character and how the loss of his mother and heavy drug use has lead him into finding god.


It is apparent that we will break the common codes and conventions of Deep House music videos, however dancing may be included within our video. 



BBFC

BBFC 
The British Board of Film Classification is a non-governmental body which has been classifying cinema films since the year 1912 when it was first set up. It is important that the BBFC classification standards are in line with what is expected with a deep house music video. 

The music video that we will be creating will include some of the following:
  • Drug taking
  • Discriminatory language and behaviour
  • Strong violence
This is a reason why we feel we may have to class our music video as a 15, Mainly due to the reason drug taking is included and the character is shown to be enjoying it. At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail).The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15. 

Video Recordings act 1984


Under the Video Recordings Act 1984, some video content does not need to be rated by the BBFC. It is mentioned by the BBFC that under the Video Recordings Act 1984, that they assign ratings to all video works created in the UK apart from projects that are created to educate, instruct or inform and projects that are concerned with sport,religion or music. Our product falls under this category. However, the exemption for our video will be lost as it may:



  • Promote violence or threats of violence
  • It depicts or promotes the use of alcohol and tobacco
  • It includes swearing
OFCOM

https://themediaclass.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/ofcom-regulates-explicit-videos/


This website explains the guidelines of the regulation of music videos, and it states that OFCOM are becoming more stricter on the enforcement of watershed rules of sexually explicit videos. The new guidelines came into action mainly due to the X Factor performance in 2011 of Rihanna and Christina Aguilera, which recieved 4500 complaints due to its raunchy nature.

OFCOM also have the support and backing from the government, in which they published a report in the summer. Involved was the Mothers’ Union chief executive, Reg Bailey, which called for tighter control of sexualised imagery including raunchy music videos.

Friday, 12 September 2014

TARGET AUDIENCE

TARGET AUDIENCE

Our target audience?

Our target audience is aimed at Males and Females aged between 18 - 30. These people would obviously be interested in the Deep house music genre. The music video we are creating is based on love, religion, spirituality, evil and good we will try to implement all of this into the video. The reason it is aimed at Males and Females between the age of 18 - 30 is that this kind of age group associate themselves with events such as clubbing, house parties, these events generally play deep house.

Below is a picture of a typical audience for a rave in which Deep House music is being played, the image is about being young, wild and free and having a great time this is apparent when looking at the picture.As you can see from the photo most people that listen to Deep House and rave to it are most commonly youths, and individuals with a unique style and etiquette. 


In this day and age Deep house has become very mainstream and a lot of our society listens to it, where as initially it was quite a niche category of music, so it would be easy sectioning out the target audience but now it is very difficult due to all types of people listening. However, even though there may now be a greater audience, typically these audiences share the same attitudes.






Psychographics

So my demographic of people is males and females aged 18 - 30, the type of people that fit into this category are classed as ABC1 category where as individuals who would typically listen to Hip-Hop/Rnb are in the C2DE category. With every genre of music there includes individuals who just listen to the music because everyone else does, and there are individuals who listen to the music to try and fit in with the crowd, and then there's those individuals who are avid fans of the music genre. This relates to the Deep House genre, because of its big impact into the mainstream scene.There are certain groups of people which relate to the Cross- Cultural Consumer Characteristics, and thats the Mainstreamers, Aspirers, Succeeders and Reformers, when looking at the Deep House genre it is full of Succeeders. This is because individuals that follow the Deep house genre mainly use their image to reinforce their feelings and power.


Questionnaire






























Graphs


From this pie chart you can see that the most common age group within the participants of my questionnaire is 17 year old. The least common age group are 16 and 19+. We targeted a specific age bracket due to the narrative of our music video, this is because the partying lifestyle is included which we feel is more appropriate for this age group.





From this pie chart you can see that the genders are pretty much equally balanced this is purposeful, due to the fact that our music video is more aimed at a specific attitude and lifestyle rather than a certain gender.




This graph suggests that the participants in our questionnaire are very diverse, in reference to the lifestyle matrix certain groups that are included in our questionnaire these are Tribe wired (Happy, outgoing, crazy, creative) and Fun/atics (funny, crazy, creative). However, there are a few anomalous results which included participants saying they were indecisive and flawless.






This graph shows that the participants within our questionnaire are mostly Deep House fans, as it was done randomly this shows that Deep House is quite a well liked music genre, meaning that the tribe wired and fun/antics people have a correlation to the deep house genre.





This graph shows that dancing has a big influence on the Deep House music genre and its music videos, automatically the participants who even dislike the genre feel this way, showing that although they are not fans they are aware dancing is heavily associated with Deep House.





Romance is a very key factor with in the deep house genre, as a high percentage of the music videos in the genre include romance, However this graph suggests that even though more participants said 'Yes' a little less than half said 'No' showing that people have mixed opinions on whether it should be included or not.




































Tuesday, 9 September 2014

CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Genre - Codes and Conventions

House music is a type of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois in the 1980's. Early house music was generally dance based music characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats and rhythms revolving around drum machines, and synthesized baselines with use of hi hat cymbals. There are around 30 different categories of house music with one of those being Deep House.

Our genre is Deep House, common codes and conventions within this genre include clubbing, dancing and having a good time. Deep House mostly promotes positive vibes, however occasionally it includes consciousness and real life meanings away from clubbing/dancing. The music videos usually contain certain recognisable conventions. for example, they contain a lot of romantic themes, glamourising romantic relationships and raving scenes for a great deal of lighting. 

The music video below is a song that is produced by MK a DJ that makes deep house music,  you can see within the video that it includes the common codes and conventions of the genre such as dancing and having a good time, however it is very unique in the aspect that it is not set in a nightclub or a party. In terms of the image of the characters involved in the video they are dressed in streetstyle in urban areas which include items such as bucket hats, hoodies patterned sweatshirts/T-shirts, nike/puma/adidas sneakers etc.I feel as the characters are dressed in these items of clothing because it represents the youth culture of today, which links to the genre of music as a lot of youths in this generation listen to Deep House.



In terms of the camera work there is no particular camera shot or angles which actually link to the Deep House genre, however parts of this music video was a one take in an actual setting when the characters are dancing on the train. This could link to the idea of being a DJ because they only have one chance to not make any mistakes as they play towards a live crowd in nightclubs and music events.


There has been an extremely recurring theme in the deep house videos being released in this day and age, and that is the fact that it moves away from the common stereotype of clubbing and parties and adapts a more experimental and unique music video narrative. This is seen through the examples below:




This video by Duke Dumont breaks the typical conventions of Deep House videos, romance is significantly reduced through this video, where as other Deep House videos contain a great deal of romance. Even so, women are still within this video for males to gaze and lust. Dancing is apparent in the video which is common for deep house videos, however the narrative in this video is very surreal an example of this is when the main character has a boom box lodged into their stomach. The editing also fits the pace of the song, so the video makes a lot more sense.



Secondcity's video for 'I Wanna Feel' also breaks the common conventions of Deep House videos although it contains a significant amount of dancing, flashing lights and disco balls it is still set in a very different surroundings including the desert, gas stations and a barber shop. The reason it breaks common conventions is due to the fact the narrative of the video is an old man on a moving vehicle which holds a boom box and flashing lights, this is a very surreal thing to be contained in a deep house video.

Deep house videos usually have a set of recognizable conventions, it is usually very uncommon for the videos to be performance based they tend to be consisting of a more conceptual, abstract and artistic idea and tend to have no direct correlation to the actual lyrics and meaning of the song. The artists that have created the track usually don't feature in the videos themselves and usually lip syncing does not occur, However when you look at Kiesza's video for Hideaway this breaks the common code and convention as she is the main focus in the video and lip syncs the words.




This video by Kiesza is also a in one take, which yet again illustrates the idea of being a DJ, as you are on the spot and only have one chance not to make any mistakes. It also shows culture,style,fashion, love and dancing which are all big influences in the house music genre. However, something in this video that challenges usual forms and conventions is that the female has the power in this video and is the leader, when usually females do not usually hold the main role or power in most house music videos.




Camera work and editing

When viewing music videos made specifically for house music, you can clearly see that camera work is a very big factor in creating a certain vibe the audience may feel. Typically a house video that that is created for a fast paced song usually includes quick editing e.g. fast straight cuts and jump cuts. A more down tempo house song will include slower paced editing to fit the atmosphere that the song creates. Medium/long shots are often used in order to establish a relationship between 2 characters, usually showing their romance for each other.


The Underground scene

So far I have mentioned deep house mostly in its place within mainstream culture, However like the majority of music in this day and age it also includes an underground scene. What I mean by underground scene is that music which is not topping charts and not recognised by most of the population. The audiences who listen to Deep House in its underground and less recognised form tend to be more passionate about the music and really appreciate it, usually making it part of their life and researching the latest music and getting to know the DJ's who make the music.


Individuals who listen to Deep House in the chart list will not have a great understanding of the genre and are no way near as passionate about the music compared to individuals who go into the deep abyss of the genre. These audiences who are passionate about Deep House usually express their passion by attending DJ sets at venues such as nightclubs or festivals. There are also nightclubs which strictly only play house music and only open when DJ's come to perform.



Mixmag is a Dance music and clubbing magazine which posts information about upcoming events and performances a DJ is going to make, it also creates information to provide its fans with news about the genre etc. Something that is great about MixMag is that in their offices they have created a venue called the MixMag Lab which DJ's come every week to perform to the staff that work there they also send out invitations to individuals to attend. This gives us an example of an underground scene,because only people who are invited can see the DJ perform so they tend to be passionate fans of the music. Below is a performance by Hot Creations artists at the MixMag lab.







Boiler Room Music Project Logo.jpeg

Boiler Room is a music project created especially to provide underground music, they host live music sessions with an invite only audience in private locations across the world, streaming the performances live on the Boiler Room website and through video streaming services such as Youtube and Dailymotion. Deep House DJ's always perform at the Boiler Room providing their passionate fans with performances, new mixes and new tunes. Below is a performance by a deep house DJ at Boiler Room.




So altogether, away from the mainstream scene you can really see extreme diversity from mainstream and underground, However most of these DJ's may not promote their music to a wider target audience as they feel their passion is meant to be underground. Not a lot of music videos are created by certain DJ's, So I am unable to comment on the codes and conventions of the music videos however the underground scene does include common codes and conventions, as it takes place mostly in a club, and includes people who are having a great time dancing, drinking and socialising and there is always a DJ playing and mixing the tracks on the decks.





Friday, 5 September 2014

Genre and group roles

MEDIA A2 - MUSIC VIDEO

Genre
Deep House

Members roles
Our group of three have decided to be diverse, each member will participate in every aspect of production from camera work to acting. We feel we are very diverse and have the ability to create just as good as each other. However, although I am the main actor, I will take part in the filming of certain scenes that I will not be included in.