Kirsty's Evaluation

The piece I created is a music video for the song Heartless by the band The Fray. This challenges some conventions of the music video genre, one of which is that the main character is male. This is in itself is often seen in music videos; however, those songs that portray heartbreak are typically from a female perspective. My video shows a male moping around his room and reacting in a stereotypically female manner. This opposition is shown in the Taylor Swift video You Belong With Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw) which shows heartache from a female point of view. Although this video does not represent heartbreak, it is a good comparison because it shows similar emotion and proves that my video challenges this convention.

Not all aspects of my video challenge convention. I decided to use continuity editing in the beginning scene of my video. This is typical of music videos that tell a story. This exemplified in the video Stylo by Gorillaz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs). On the other hand, this is not used for the entire film. During the flashback scenes, I chose to use cross fade transitions to move from one shot to another. I made this decision because the shots do not follow a typical sequence, for example, they do not appear in chronological order. This is because they are specific memories that do not need any further information and the background knowledge is already given in the initial scenes and the lyrics of the song. The use of transitions in music videos is a typical feature, an example of this is the song Quiet Times by Dido (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQkrhTrQKg)

A further feature of my video is the use of green-screen. This is commonly used within the music video genre, however, where I used it ap pears to be unique. Many videos use green-screen as the main background, with shapes and colours super imposed behind the artist. An extreme example of this is Rhianna’s video Rude Boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A). In this video bright colours and backgrounds have been used in the style of many 1980’s/1990’s videos. In my video I have used green-screen in photo frames, in which the images move, portraying more than simply a photograph. This has worked well in setting a mood and showing more background information than a traditional photo would. It also acts as a good way of moving the action from the bedroom scene to the flashback and memories.

To further exaggerate the transition between present day and the past, I have used muted colourings in the present day and brighter colours in the flashbacks. Using colour to show this difference is a typical convention in film, however, it is usually used in opposition. For example, the past tends to be in muted colours and the present in full colour. I chose to use it in the way previously stated to represent the depression and mind state of the male character, it shows that the past was a happier time.

I chose to do the magazine advert and digi-pak for my ancillary tasks. I feel that the advert successfully targets the same audience as the band does in its colourings and layout. The image also exemplifies the music video I have created. Similarly the digi-pak emulates the video in its construction. The image on the front cover clearly represents the male’s heartbreak and the scribbles show his emotions. Furthermore, the hand-written, doodle-style of the image shows the age of the characters and also the target audience. Doodles are typically associated with school and college, the characters are about 18 or 19 years old and so are within these boundaries. This age range is also the younger limit of the target audience for both the band and the video. This makes the cover successful. In addition, the inner pages include images of the broken couple, furthering the theme of love and heartbreak. It also links the video into the digi-pak on a literal level.

I also made a bold decision to put a blurb-style summary of the video in the digi-pak. This decision was made to encourage people to buy the physical CD as apposed to downloading it. Digi-paks have to have a sense of being unique and include such details as an incentive to buy this CD above the others on the shelf. Overall, I feel the digi-pak is successful in representing the style of music and the video.

Once completed, I showed my video to other people in my class. I shoes this group as they would watch the video with a critical eye and spot technical issues a non-specialist audience would not. Furthermore, they are of the age and social status I aimed to target and so if they liked it, so would the public. Most of the feedback was positive, with comments including how they liked the technical issues such as the green-screen and colourings. They also appreciated the characters and acting, they related to both characters, especially the male. This was most pleasing as this was my main aim when creating my film. Furthermore, many comments were on the subtleness of the mise-en-scene how it is successful in creating the semiotics of emotion and location.

However, some constructive criticism was given on the limited locations and how they would have liked to see more varied flashback scenes such as restaurant scenes. Looking back I feel this would have been a good idea, I also feel that a shot of the couple in the room shown at the beginning of the video would have solidified the reality of the memories. Overall, the feedback was mainly positive making the video successful in its purpose.

Many technologies were used in the research, creation and evaluation of my piece. Some are obvious for example the use of the internet to find research on the band and music video theory. I also used the internet and specifically YouTube to watch and analyse existing music videos. This also helped me to study The Fray’s usual style of video. Additionally, I used digital cameras to record the footage and the software Final Cut Express to edit the video. Within Final Cut I used its functions to delete the specific green colour of the card in the photo frames and changed the size and angle of the footage, which I then moved to position in the gap created when deleting the green colour.

I have also made use of links, screen shots and images in this evaluation, only made possible by the blog format. A blog also makes it easier for teachers to mark the work and means it is accessible to other groups in the class.

In conclusion, I am very pleased with the piece however; I feel there are some minor points which could have been improved. I could have spent more time working on the ancillary tasks and making them more audience focussed.

Final shot list

1. Long shot of women walking away into distance. Fades out to white to show memory.
2. Exteme close up of eye as it opens, looking around.
3. H sits up, head in hands, medium close up.
4. Close up of icture frame, surrounded by bottles and cans. picture not moving.
5. Medium shot of guy on edge of bed. Picture frame in shot, he then bends down.
6. Close up of his hand grasping a can on the floor and lifts it out of shot.
7. He drinks it, shakes it, hes drunk it all so he throws it away - away from the camera.
8. The can flies into shot,landing next to picture frame The first glimpse of the oving picture as the picture in the frame starts to move - close up.
9. He stands up, walkin towards camera, medium shot.
10. Close up of his hand reaching for an empty beer can.
11. Medium shot of him tipping the can, not a drop is left.
12. He places the can back down and walks off close up.
13. A flash back, hazy lensed camera, medium close up of kissing between main character and girlfriend.
14. Close up of him walking away.
15. Medium shot of him sitting on chair, head in his hands and looks at photo frame.
16. Medium shot of photo frame between screen - past when they were together.
17. Back to him and he looks at the photo frame again.
18. Close up of photo frame, green screen of them kissing.
19. Medium shot from behind him as he reaches for the photo frame and sits on the bed.
20.Over the shoulder shot of him looking at the photo frame. Green screen of the two kissing in the frame.
21. Cross fade into larger shot of the two kissing.
22. Then goes into the flash back through the frame.
23. Medium shot to a long shot of them walking away.
24. Establishing shot third line, the couple hugging in front of a lake.
25. Long shot of the man on thebridge, walks off.
26. Medium shot of the couple walking to a bench and sitting down.
27. Exstreme close up of hearts hanging from a marriage tree.
28. Long shot of them together looking at the stars.
29. Close up of photo frame. Green screen of moving picture, the two characters are kissing.
30. Medium shot of man looking away and putting head in his hands.
31. Close up of man, sat on the bed, head in his hands.
32. Medium shot of man sitting on the bed looking at the photo frame, throws it to one side and lies down.
33. Exstreme close up of girl walking away in the photo frame, fades out.

Helen's Evaluation

Coursework Evaluation:

Use of Conventions:
In our music video we used many conventions of media. Firstly the most obvious was the use of romantic setting. We followed the conventions of a love song and created a romantic setting in order to follow this. Although we also go against the conventions of media forms due to the twist within the use of the footage, we had a song about a man who's heart has been broken and used the romantic footage to pose as a flashback therefore giving the footage a sad tone. This creates a juxtaposition within the footage and the lyrics of the song. This screen shot is a good example of this juxterposistion.

Our use of costume and props within the flash back contrast with the sad lyrics of the song we used. For example summer cloths and tranquil landscapes clashed with the sense of heartbreak within the music. In contrast with this the scenes representing the present day linked with the lyrics. For example muted colours within the scenes and baggy dark cloths fitted with the idea of hurt and depression coursed due to a breakup. This screen shot of one of the present scenes is a perfect example of the changes between the past and present and the change in tone and colour.
Our aim with our video was to portray a breakup by presenting the happier times this was achieved by our use of flash backs and green screen.

Combination of Main Task and Ancillary Products:
Within our product package there is continuality as we have tried to stick to a similar colour scheme to fit the mood of the song, we have generally used muted colours. We have used images of the two actors within our CD covers and posters in order to keep the theme continuous. As a group because the idea is heartbreak we have tried to use a theme of a heart cut in half (broken) throughout most of our package ideas. This has created a sort of symbol for the target audience to recognise our product. This is an example of one of our adveretisment ideas, the heart symbolises the heartbreak within the video.
Our product would need to be advertised on TV and the internet for example YouTube, also posters that could be put up for example on billboards. Also advertisement on online magazine and shelf bought magazine especially music magazine would target our idea audience.

Audience Feedback:
Our target audience is 17-24 I believe we catered for our target audience by the package we produced. When we presented our video to our class they all responded well and said they believed it targeted their age group. They thought the use of green screen was inventive and interesting therefore making the video better. This also made the use of flashback more effective due to our use of using green screen through the photo frame to take us back to the past. In this screen shot it shows an example of our use of green screen and the effectivness of this within the video.
The group commented on the effectiveness of our editing technique, they said they liked the way our shots of past and present linked and faded into one another making the piece more interesting. They believed as a music video it went together well and fitted the genre of romance and heart break. We were concerned the video would become repetitive but with the many different shots our audience said that it flowed well.
Our weakness maybe that we could have made the music video longer and if we had more footage the audience believed we could have continued the story on.

Use Of Media Technologies:
I believe the use of a blog to document the development of our work was very useful it was also easier to get feedback from other class members, and teachers about our work via this and enabled us to make necessary improvements and changes. I believe this also meant the group kept a better order of work by using the blog rather than the group having to be responsible of a folder.
Internet access and research was also made easier by the use of the blog as we could upload information and include research such as online videos. The weaknesses of the blog was that it was not always simple to uploads videos and pictures which slowed us down occasionally. Also if we had problems with the computers it meant we could not continue our blog work which again could slow the process down. As a class we experienced some problems with accessing the blogger site via Apple Mac computers which took up time.
The new editing software on the Apple Macs was very effective and easy to use the effects were also very useful for our video.

Layout for the Fray “Heartless” advertisement

• The advertisement needs to be colourful
• Bold and interesting font
• Creative layout
• Colours to represent the mood of the piece so reds, blacks and greys to symbolise a depressing mood.
• Snap shots from the video and pictures to give the audience some context.
• All this is important in an advertisement as it draws attention to the music and the artist and makes the product accessible to the audience.


Some samples of colours that would be good to use in the advertisement are:

Music Adverts

I really like the Chris Brown Graffiti album cover because it is bold and colourful; the masculine figure at the forefront of the cover makes a bold statement. In contrast to this the actual context of the cover is very simple and I believe this is what makes it even more effective.
The Nickelback album cover is interesting because it is looking forward and the cover gives the impression that the object is moving. The contrast of colors from the top to the bottom also make the cover stand out, the orange colour of the sunset compared with the dark sweeping effect of the road.
I don’t like the Destiny’s Child album cover because I think the colour are too similar and so it makes the cover boring and everything fades together. Although the use of all the singers’ faces close together is effect I think it is a boring and too simple album cover.

Music Adverts

All these music advertisements are very colourful and creative and so give great examples of how advertisers can draw buyers into there product by creating appealing advertisements and in music magazines such as NME the advertisers are targeting there ideal audience. These advertisements range from advertising music gigs to advertising individual artists. The design and appearance of the advert is crucial to the success of the product, as it must make the consumer interested in the product, the bright colours and loud fonts draw the attention of the audience making it successful in its purpose.

The Main Uses Of Music Advertisement

Music can fulfill several tasks when it is used in advertisements. David Huron therefore chooses six categories in which “music can serve the overall promotional goals in one or more of several capacities.” Mostly the use of music is not only intended by one of the following attributes but they are interdependent and interrelated to each other. The categories he claims are described as follows.


Entertainment

The entertainment aspect of music helps making an advertisement more appealing to the viewer by simply making it more attractive respectively more aesthetic. By this increase in attractiveness an advertisement is able to engage more attention. From this point of view “music need not necessarily manifest any special affinity with a particular product or service in order to play an effective and useful function.” The music functions more as bridge between viewer and advertisement in this case.

Structure and Continuity
Another basic attribute of music is to support an advertisements structure and continuity. Therefore “music is used to mediate between disjoint images” Also it can emphasize dramatic moments within the advertisement. Accompanying i.e. a TV commercial music structures the told narrative, can tell a narrative itself or function as anchor, which completes the overall meaning. It can i.e. create antagonist and protagonist within this narrative by giving them typical musical figures, harmonies or melodies.


Memorability

It is far more likely to memorize a piece of music than spoken language or images because “music tends to linger in the listeners mind.” “Early advertising music also had different aims. Music then was primarily used as a mnemonic device. Rhyme and reception were enlisted to keep a brand name in mind. ‘Singing commercials’ or jingles made up a self-contained genre.” Huron adds that it is “the most common musical technique for aiding memorability and hence product recall.”[7] Companies use these for example to make the customers remember their phone number, webpage, their company name or at least a catchy slogan linked to the brand. But also non-jingle music can perform this task and stick in the customers mind.

Lyrical Language

In contemporary adverts the advertisers must overcome the viewer’s skepticism, which developed over years through desensitization. This can become a pretty hard task. But since advertisers favor mostly poetic, emotional appeals over logical, informational appeals due to the shift from modern to postmodern advertisement music turned out to be a perfect tool to reach this goal. Music can provide a message without the customer consciously noticing it. For providing rational facts in the same time “mixtures of speech and song provide advertisers with opportunities for both logical, factual appeals [through spoken and written language] and emotive, poetic appeals [through music].”


Targeting and Authority Establishment

Different types of music can be attributed to certain kind of groups or life styles which makes it possible to appeal to these groups over using certain kinds of musical genres. Music can therefore function as a “nonverbal identifier” for certain groups with different musical taste because it is “arguably the greatest tool advertisers have for portraying and distinguishing various styles.”


Looking at these contributions of music towards advertisement it becomes obvious that these attributes work together in inseparable ways. Of course there could be added other categories. There is for example a difference between diegetic (the source of the music is visible) and non-diegetic (the source of the music is not visible) use of music, which can have totally different effects in result depending on the adverts context. The overall task of advertisers nowadays should be to develop a “considerable practical experience in joining images and music to social and psychological motivation” and by this process create meaning, which appeals to the target group and helps the advertisement to succeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_advertising

Green Screen! The Avatar Way of Thinking!

Pictures tell a lifetime of stories, they give us a view of the past and strengthen the memories we may have lost or forgotten. Many pictures allow us to reach back into our minds and relive those moments. This is exactly what we have tried to illustrate, by showing several shots of moving photos dotted around the room where we filmed. These photos showing our main character with the stories lost love, using several shots we filmed in the summer, they portray how vibrant and full of life his past was. Bathed in the dull glow of his ragged and untidy bedroom, depicting our main character as depressed, showing him remembering his past as a relief from the life he lives. So we aimed to attack the veiwer with subtle and cleverly placed shots of memories, i used this by filming these shots with the piocture frames coated with green card. This created the well known 'Green Screen' effect, where i could edit the film on Final Cut Pro and render a small movie within the confines of the picture frame. I used this many times throughout the film as i tried to fully portray the extent of his mourning for a past love

Initial Shot List

This is a very rough first idea of the ordering of shots. Many of our shots were spontaneous as we came up with a lot of ideas for shots when we were on location, therefore, this list states types of shots and when they will be used. 

The names Dan and Helen represent the male and female characters in the film.

L shot - Long shot

M shot - Medium shot

ECU - Extreme Close Up

CU - Close Up

OSS - Over Shoulder Shot

The shots of the couple together will be colourful and possibly slowed down to show passage of time. The colours represent a happy time, and good, positive memories. 

Shots in Dan's bedroom will have slightly muted colouring to show his depression and gloomy mood.  

We will complete a more detailed shot list once we have all of the filming uploaded and we know exactly which shots are useful and which do not make sense to the plot and theme.

1 L shot Helen walking down a path, into darkness provided by trees, slightly slowed down to create a memory like effect

2 Cuts to a M shot of Dan's bedroom, him asleep, slight pan

3 ECU of Dan's eyes opening, and him waking up

4 Several shots of Dan moving around his bedroom, moping, sad, looking to see if beer cans are empty, green screen photo frame in background, slightly slowed down,

5 CU of can being thrown, lands next to photo frame, image moving inside the frame 

6 M shot of Dan sat on a chair, rubs eyes and sees the moving image in frame, double takes and leans over to frame

7 L shot of Dan picking up frame

8 OSS of frame in Dan's hand, slow zoom into frame and moving image within it

9 Cross fade into the moving image as full screen

10 Shot changes several times to show many different comforting moments of the couple, very much in love

11 Cuts back to OSS of the photo frame, frozen image, not moving

12 Dan puts the frame back on the side and lies down, looking nostalgic and hurt

Production Diary

Date	Location	Scenes	Equipment	Actors	Props	Mise-en-scene
5/09/09	Will’s Garden	Zip line   At the pond   On the grass   Walking through paths	2 cameras   2 tripods   Zip-line invention   Camera Chargers	Dan and Helen	Bench   2 Mobile Phones	Statue   Flowers   Summer Clothes, Sunglasses
6/09/09	Consall Gardens	Old Pyramid   Under Wedding Tree   Walking Down Several Paths   On the Bridge	2 cameras   2 tripods   Bottled Water	Dan and Helen	2 Mobile Phones	Flowers   Summer Clothes, Sunglasses
1/12/09	Shopping for robots and instruments, Festival Park, S-O-T and Leek town centre
19/12/09	Will’s Bedroom	Robot walking around bedroom   Girl in bedroom   Green-screen	1 Stills Camera   Tripod   Green-screen	Kirsty	Robot   High heels   Fishnet tights   lipstick	Typical teenage boys room, modern furniture, tidy with some clutter
5/01/10-8/01/10	Editing and post-production
9/01/10	Dan’s Bedroom	Dan moping around bedroom   Green-screen in photo frame	1 charged camera   Camera Charger   1 Tripod   Green Card	Dan	Empty beer cans   Photo frame   Laptop   Magazines   Pizza Box	Messy teenagers bedroom, bed unmade, rubbish on the floor, magazines scattered   Dark room
11/01/10 onwards	Editing and post-production, research and creation of ancillary tasks, scripting and producing presentation for analysis

 

Character Profiles

Dan

The male character is a teenager who has clearly been with a girl for a long time. He is in an unhappy place after she broke up with him and is trying to come to terms with everything but is finding it hard to understand what has happened. He has stayed in his room for along time and is in a state of depression causing sleepless nights. He drinks a lot and his room is a mess because of this. The music video is focused around him and how he has been affected. The reason we decided to focus on the male opinion is because most love stories focus on the female side and always puts men in the villain role. We went against the representation of this and challenged it.

Dan fits this character profile because he is of the same age and stature that we had in mind. Also he has been in this situation himself and so understands the emotion we wanted to portray. When we filmed, his movement fitted with how we wanted to represent the character and the audience which would relate to his situation.

Helen

We see only a little of the female character in flashbacks due to the fact the song focuses on the male’s opinion of a brake up. However, we need to portray that she is heartless in only a few shots. On the other hand, because many of the shots are of the two totally in love, the implication is that she finished the relationship for poor reasons.

Helen fits this profile because she is young, good looking and fits the stereotypical representation of women in music videos though not scantily clad. This will target male viewers and show the audience that she does not act as innocent as she looks.

Furthermore, the two fit look good together, they have similar coloured hair and, because Dan is taller, the two fit the stereotypical couple. Also because they are good friends their chemistry works well. Finally, we found it useful to use people working within our group as actors, lessening the risk of actors dropping out. It also meant it was easy to organise everyone and find days where we could all film.

Album Cover Research

The Fray has had a big impact on us with their music and their album covers. This is because they do simple things that send a big message to their audience. This was their first album cover; a light bulb that has been shattered but still has light reflecting off it. I think it gives a warm feeling but also give the audience that things are easily broken but can be fixed. We think this is because the light is reflecting from the roof, so the bulb shattered and was replaced. It may also represent the fragmentation of society emulating the title ‘How To Save A Life’

In these two covers they have used light beams continuing with the light theme, because this is a common theme through several covers it would be fitting for us to copy this idea and incorporate it into our album cover.

The cover to the right has been taken on a slow shutter speed as people walk past which gives the effect of ghosting and that time feels as though it is assign slowly. This may be representative of how much people walk around with their eyes closed, and that maybe we should take time to notice the smaller things.

The cover to the left is on sand and again uses light beams. It looks a slightly sinister with the dark sky and thick cloud coming over to the light area. This is furthered by the desolate environment, but undermined by the power cables, they must lead to some sort of civilisation. This could emulate the title ‘You Found Me’, and how difficult this task may have been. They also took The Fray’s logo from the album and put it on their singles covers, starting off their own house style. This would also be good to use in our cover.

This is the song cover for “The Fray – Heartless” and as u can see they have continued with the shattered light bulb theme. This is similar to their first album cover with but with this one it has a different meaning behind it; that people can be heartless and also the feeling of being heart broken. So the shattered red bulb in the shape of a heart is very symbolic, it has a lot of meaning behind it so we should look to find an image which has a lot significance to the lyrics. It is a sad song but it gives meaning and values to life; it is said that your first love always hurts the longest but after time you begin to deal with it, this is one of the meaning behind the song.

Mise-en-Scene

As a group we decided that the mood of the film needed to represent sadness and depression as we are representing the brake up of a relationship. We used props in the bedroom scene, which we knew would represent this. Empty cans of drink were scattered around the room and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s half drank. We also used a pizza box to add to the lack of care and attention the character gives the room dirty clothes spread across the floor also reinforce this idea. Pictures of the couple are scattered across the desk and a picture of the two is the background of the characters computer. This adds to the depressing mood of the film and the sadness the character feels. The colours throughout the room are neutrals consisting of browns and beiges, this adds to the simplicity of the room in order for the feelings of the character to be the main focus. We also wanted to use the device of green screen and so had a photo frame in the background with green paper in to use in order to see the flashback of the relationship. The use of having a sofa bed in the scene instead of a real bed also adds to the feeling of depression and lack of money, an unhappy lifestyle.

We dressed Dan in simple everyday wear, jeans and T-shirt with a hooded jacket over the top to signify comfort and give the feeling the characters priorities aren’t the way he’s dressing in the bedroom scene. In the flashback scenes the costume had a lot to do with the time of year that we filmed in because it was very hot, this works very well as it shows the passing of time from the memory of the relationship to the present day. Helen is wearing denim shorts with a vest top and light black short-sleeved cardie. This gives a relaxed feel to the scene and a happy atmosphere. Dan is wearing a vest top and three quarter length trackies, which again creates a laid back atmosphere.

The film set in gardens was used in order to create a romantic feel and a peaceful atmosphere. We believed this would be a dramatic contrast from the dull scene set in the bedroom as the lighting is completely different and so creates a different tone in the scenes.

Textual Analysis

Aerosmith – I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing

The video begins with an establishing zoom beginning the other side of the moon and ending in a city on Earth; this fades into the singer’s face. The closeness of the shot creates an intimate feeling for the audience; it is personal as though he is singing to them (stereotypically romantic). This shot takes the audience away from reality and puts them in a studio-style situation.

They have used extreme close-ups of professional performance lighting, these are switched on flooding light into the room, giving the audience more of an idea of what the room looks like.

A voyeuristic shot of a door knob reflecting the room and the band makes the audience feel as though they should not be watching, as though it is a private performance or rehearsal, this furthers the idea of intimacy, romance and privilege. This is furthered by using shots of the sound technician changing shots and moving sliders.

There are also shots of people watching the video on their own TVs; this illustrates their popularity. These shots also show audience’s reactions to the song; some are shots of couples that are affected with a positive, loving emotion. Others are of single women who look sad as though they miss their partners or wish they had them.

The Fray – Heartless

This is the song that we are creating a video for, therefore, to study the original video would be useful; we can either follow a similar idea and use some of the same conventions, or we could take these ideas an invert them totally.

The video is based in a classroom setting. They have portrayed this image cleverly, without using an establishing shot. The close ups are of a partial ticking clock, a hand holding a pen, a note pad filled with doodles, all of these icons are stereotypical of an American classroom setting often portrayed in films.

The doodles on the note pad begin to move and represent the lyrics in a cartoon form. This shows the children’s boredom and creates a sense they are daydreaming and fantasising. A common character in the doodles is a walking heart that is put through a lot of torture, yet survives though battered and bruised. For example, the heart is attacked by a bird but dropped from a height, which saves it from being eaten. This emulates the idea of heartbreak.

There are close-ups of a young boy’s eyes as he looks towards a girl, the shot cuts to an extreme close-up of the girl’s lips and cheek, as though he is thinking about kissing her either a fantasy or reminiscing the past.

The doodles are released from the note pad when the boy screws up the paper and throws it on the floor. The camera then tracks the doodles as they expand and travel the length of the wall. This represents the hallucination entering reality.

The children do not move in the shots, they are almost stills for the most part, the most movement is in the animation. This draws the audience’s attention to the dream state the young boy seems to be in.

Finally, the girl is shown to be angelic, the last shot is of the back of the girl’s head as the doodles surround her. The drawings can be seen as wings expanding from her body and a crown and beams of light leaving a beating heart that represents a halo. This idolises the girl and illustrates the boy’s love for her, and so hints at how huge his loss is.

Target Audience

Before setting our idea in stone we looked at exactly who our target audience is. At the beginning of the project we decided that the MTV generation was who would be viewing our video most. However, when we came to think about our audience in detail we realised that we didn’t know who this was. Our initial idea was that we were targeting people of a similar age to ours and a little older, however, after a straw pole within our class, only 3 of the 7 people who had access to MTV actually watched it, meaning we were targeting the wrong age group. We then researched MTV’s audience demographic and came across the following article; it clearly explains MTV audience in detail and describes the power the channel has and how sought after their advertising space is.

The network's identity
   

MTV is more than a cable network. It’s an easily identifiable brand that advertisers know reaches the coveted but tough-to-find young adults the broadcast networks have for years struggled to attract.
   “MTV has a great story because they pretty much own the young-20s college-age niche,” says Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom. “They obviously got away from music videos, which was their bread and butter when they first started. But there are other places to get that. People are streaming them from the internet, and Fuse network is now what MTV was when it started.” 

The network's target audience
  

MTV, its music-focused offshoot MTV2, and its online site target people 12-24 almost to the exclusion of other demographic groups. Still, MTV is a high-rated network in most other demos.
   “Our notion is to stay perpetually young,” says Graden. “Viewers at a certain time in their life may watch a lot of MTV and then perhaps move on to other things. That is why our median age has stayed around 21.”

The network's ratings
   

MTV isn’t merely a targeted cable network. From the perspective of viewers, it’s simply a network like Fox and the WB are networks.
   In fact, MTV shows such as “Real World: Philadelphia,” the series’ 15th installment, and specials like “They Wanted a Famous Face” pull ratings among 18-24s that are comparable to those for programs like Fox’s “The Simpsons,” the WB’s “Gilmore Girls,” UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model,” and even CBS’s “Survivor: Palau.”
   In the week of March 7, MTV had three shows, including top-10 ranked “Real World,” among the 30 highest-rated cable and broadcast programs in the 18-24 demographic.

The network's competitive set
  

MTV is the highest-rated network among people 12-24. But it stands on top, not alone. Other networks are competitive in the demo, including the comedy-focused TBS, Comedy Central, Nick at Nite, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Spike TV, USA, BET and ABC Family.

What’s new for 2005/06
 

MTV will continue to roll out new shows pretty much all year round and it has annual events like its Music Video Awards and the MTV Movie Awards.
   Graden says MTV’s new and upcoming programs are moving beyond pure unscripted reality shows.
   “Our next wave of programs tend to be adventurous. Some are reality hybrids with integrated writing and acting along with reality elements,” he says. “'Laguna Beach' was shot like a drama, so it blurred the lines between reality and drama. We try to not to repeat ourselves.”

The network's upfront outlook
   

MTV’s story this upfront is likely to be a familiar one. And that’s not a bad thing.
   The network will focus on its young viewers, hot new shows, good ratings and the seemingly endless cross-promotional deals offered by its parent company, Viacom. MTV will offer advertisers packages with MTV2, which has a slightly more male skew than the flagship network, and its online site. But there are many other deals available with Viacom’s other properties, including VH1, Comedy Central and young-skewing broadcast network UPN.

The final prognosis
  

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent: 4.5.
   MTV is sitting pretty. It has strong ratings in a demographic advertisers are hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Moreover, several of its new shows, like “My Super Sweet 16,” have generated some of the network’s best ratings.
   Still, MTV faces minor challenges as it meets with media buyers this upfront. Its current lineup is heavy on female-targeted programs, tipping its typically even balance of male and female viewers. And media buyers say because the network is constantly burning through programs there’s often an uneasy sense that the next step MTV takes will be the one that trips it up.

Kevin Downey – 2005

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2005/mar05/mar28/1_mon/news3monday.html

Although this information is relatively out of date it details its popularity. The increase in access to the channel and its multiplatform approach (magazines and websites) suggest this popularity is growing. This article has shown that we were right to target the same audience as MTV due to its known respected name and therefore its demand within the industry. Our next assumption was that The Fray (the band whose song we are creating a video for) target the same audience as of MTV. We then chose to research into The Fray’s audience demographic, we did this by contacting Epic Records (the label The Fray are signed to) via email. Unfortunately, even after many attempts and a lot of pestering, Epic Records did not respond. We then decided that the most crucial feature of The Fray's audience demographic was their age, so we asked 10 people from every age group whether they listened to The Fray. From this we worked out an average of those who do listen from each age group, the results were as follows.

Age	Listen to The Fray	Don’t Listen to The Fray	Average That Listen to The Fray
<>	5	5	50%
17-26	8	2	80%
27-36	4	6	40%
37-47	1	9	10%
> 47	1	9	10%

 This table proves that The Fray have the same target audience as MTV. This means that our initial prediction was correct. We will target this audience by using many of the same conventions used by professional videos shown on the channel.

Furthermore, we have used characters that are of the same age as the audience. This allows the viewers to easily relate to the characters and so the plot, fulfilling an audience pleasure.

We have also used a stereotypically male bedroom, shown in the mise-en-scene. Empty beer cans, an unmade bed, a laptop and stereo are all indicators of the personality of the male character. These are obvious links that allow the audience to read the text with ease, meaning the audience can watch as a pass time, with relaxation and entertainment as their purpose, while still relating to and understanding the characters.