Showing posts with label Unit 2 Research Techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unit 2 Research Techniques. Show all posts
Monday, 6 June 2016
Friday, 13 May 2016
Effective ways to present and evaluate research methods
Before beginning production on my music video, I conducted enough research to further my understanding and to become more knowledgeable on the different codes and conventions used within music videos, and what directors of music video wish for their audience to gain from the music video. My first point of research which I conducted was taking notes in lesson from a powerpoint, this helped to give me a brief and clear understanding of music video conventions. I was also introduce to 2 theorists who specialise in music video theory, Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin. I was then able to away and research these 2 theorists via webpages and books, I was then able to transfer the information onto my blog to contribute towards my work. I was able to gain information from Andrew Goodwin's book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' and different websites including articles from the guardian, these are both very retable sources.
Although I view music videos regularly, whether that be on music channels or on you tube etc. I have always viewed them passively and have never really viewed them to try and devote meaning. By researching Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goowdin's theories I was then able to apply these theories to music videos of my choice, by doing this I was able to expand my knowledge of music videos and which conventions were used in which genre of music video, this helped in the production stage of creating my own video as I was knowledgable on music video conventions.
After conducting research over the course of 5 music videos I felt I had developed a clear and broad understanding of different codes and conventions that were used in each genre and each music video. This reach helped me to gather ideas as to what style of video I would create, however I felt I needed to conduct more primary research so I held a focus group with my fellow HNC students to listen to their ideas, by doing this it helped me to come up with more ideas and further my knowledge of music video as I was gathering more information and data from a primary source. Before the focus group took place I was certain I wanted to produce a narrative based music video but was struggling to pick a song for it, the focus group helped me to decide on Jake Bugg - Seen it all.
As well as a focus group I also produced a survey and put it up onto my blog so people were able to fill it out and I was then able to gain some results to help me with the production of my music video. The survey can be viewed by following this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PVHHPC. The survey helped me to gain information from my audience and therefore helped me to work out things such as which music genre I would use, what type of video I would create and where people watch music videos so I would therefore know where to upload my video to. Below I have placed screenshots of my results that I had gathered by releasing my survey.
The First question which asks "What is your favourite genre of music?" the chart below clearly shows that overall the people to fill out my survey like Rock Music the best, due to this I chose a rock song to create a music video to, this song being Jake Bugg - Seen it all. However due to problems with filming I had to change my music video idea and therefore change my song, so instead of sticking with rock I decided to change and go for my second most popular music genre which was Dance music.
Another question I asked was "What genre of music video do you view?" as the result clearly stated that amongst my audience narrative based music videos were the most popular I decide to aim to make my music video as narrative based as possible. However due to the fact I had to change my song I was unable to create a narrative based video and instead ignored my survey results and went down the route of making a video that was more psychedelic and involved creative and colourful imagery, as I felt that it went well with the song I had chose which was Jamie xx- Girl.
Another question I asked in my survey was "Where is it you mainly view music videos?". For this question there was a very obvious popular answer amongst my audience which was that they viewed music videos the most on YouTube. Therefore when I had completed my music video I uploaded it to YouTube, this made sense to me because it is where the majority of my audience view music videos and so therefore would be able to view mine on there too.
Conclusion
Overall throughout the course of this study, quantitive research methods such as questionnaires did not fair well in bringing me results which were both of good quality and reliable. The aim over this research project was to gain inspiration and find ways of being more creative for when I started making my music video, however by just asking questions, it didn't really give me any solid ideas or enable me to become more creating with my ideas. One thing that the questionnaire was good for however was being able to tell me what my audiences favourite genre was, and helped me to pick the song which was used within my music video. My questionnaire also helped me to decide the best place for my video to be uploaded and which genre of music video was most popular amongst my audience, making it easier to pick what style of video I created. I felt that qualitative research methods such as focus groups were one of the most successful ways of gathering research and ideas, this was due to me being able to talk freely and openly to a range of people in a room and constantly bounce new and inventive ideas off of one another. It also helped me to gather primary information in the form of student opinions and ideas that really did go on to help produce my music video. I also felt that by studying music video theorists such as carol vernallis and Andrew Goodwin and applying their theories to music videos helped further my understanding of music videos in general. I used books and internet search engines to help myself gain a strong understanding of these theories. It is evident throughout my research that internet sources have been very valuable to the improvement of my overall knowledge throughout the music video production, however it needs to be noted that not all sources are reliable, as some can be written and changed by anybody e.g. Wikipedia and SlideShare. To ensure sources are correct, check them against retable sources such as a book or a webpage such as the guardian or a university page.
Improvements to be made
- Be sure to record audio and possibly film from focus groups in order to back up my results
- Increase the amount of questions and change the style of questions to help me gain more ideas about my actual video production
- Include a higher amount of students in the focus group in order to increase the quantity and the quality of ideas and to gain more results to help with video production
After conducting research over the course of 5 music videos I felt I had developed a clear and broad understanding of different codes and conventions that were used in each genre and each music video. This reach helped me to gather ideas as to what style of video I would create, however I felt I needed to conduct more primary research so I held a focus group with my fellow HNC students to listen to their ideas, by doing this it helped me to come up with more ideas and further my knowledge of music video as I was gathering more information and data from a primary source. Before the focus group took place I was certain I wanted to produce a narrative based music video but was struggling to pick a song for it, the focus group helped me to decide on Jake Bugg - Seen it all.
As well as a focus group I also produced a survey and put it up onto my blog so people were able to fill it out and I was then able to gain some results to help me with the production of my music video. The survey can be viewed by following this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PVHHPC. The survey helped me to gain information from my audience and therefore helped me to work out things such as which music genre I would use, what type of video I would create and where people watch music videos so I would therefore know where to upload my video to. Below I have placed screenshots of my results that I had gathered by releasing my survey.
Another question I asked was "What genre of music video do you view?" as the result clearly stated that amongst my audience narrative based music videos were the most popular I decide to aim to make my music video as narrative based as possible. However due to the fact I had to change my song I was unable to create a narrative based video and instead ignored my survey results and went down the route of making a video that was more psychedelic and involved creative and colourful imagery, as I felt that it went well with the song I had chose which was Jamie xx- Girl.Conclusion
Overall throughout the course of this study, quantitive research methods such as questionnaires did not fair well in bringing me results which were both of good quality and reliable. The aim over this research project was to gain inspiration and find ways of being more creative for when I started making my music video, however by just asking questions, it didn't really give me any solid ideas or enable me to become more creating with my ideas. One thing that the questionnaire was good for however was being able to tell me what my audiences favourite genre was, and helped me to pick the song which was used within my music video. My questionnaire also helped me to decide the best place for my video to be uploaded and which genre of music video was most popular amongst my audience, making it easier to pick what style of video I created. I felt that qualitative research methods such as focus groups were one of the most successful ways of gathering research and ideas, this was due to me being able to talk freely and openly to a range of people in a room and constantly bounce new and inventive ideas off of one another. It also helped me to gather primary information in the form of student opinions and ideas that really did go on to help produce my music video. I also felt that by studying music video theorists such as carol vernallis and Andrew Goodwin and applying their theories to music videos helped further my understanding of music videos in general. I used books and internet search engines to help myself gain a strong understanding of these theories. It is evident throughout my research that internet sources have been very valuable to the improvement of my overall knowledge throughout the music video production, however it needs to be noted that not all sources are reliable, as some can be written and changed by anybody e.g. Wikipedia and SlideShare. To ensure sources are correct, check them against retable sources such as a book or a webpage such as the guardian or a university page.
Improvements to be made
- Be sure to record audio and possibly film from focus groups in order to back up my results
- Increase the amount of questions and change the style of questions to help me gain more ideas about my actual video production
- Include a higher amount of students in the focus group in order to increase the quantity and the quality of ideas and to gain more results to help with video production
Thursday, 7 April 2016
Carol Vernallis
Carol Vernallis is a theorist who specialise in audiovisual aesthetics, digital technologies, film music, popular culture and production practice. Things which Carol Vernallis did include:
- Providing a theoretical account of genre in the publication 'Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and cultural context'.
- She was the first person to articulate a theory of how music, lyrics and image can be placed in relation.
- She was also the first to provide analysis of individual music videos and explain how sound and moving image work together in a temporal flow.
- Carol Vernallis states that a clear convention involved with music editing is that the music video may disrupt or break different conventions, including continuity editing.
- She also states that establishing shots are one of the key features involved in a music video and are the most frequently used shot types throughout a video, alongside close ups.
- Providing a theoretical account of genre in the publication 'Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and cultural context'.
- She was the first person to articulate a theory of how music, lyrics and image can be placed in relation.
- She was also the first to provide analysis of individual music videos and explain how sound and moving image work together in a temporal flow.
- Carol Vernallis states that a clear convention involved with music editing is that the music video may disrupt or break different conventions, including continuity editing.
- She also states that establishing shots are one of the key features involved in a music video and are the most frequently used shot types throughout a video, alongside close ups.
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin is an Australian theories who came up with a theory in the 1990's that applied to music video's. After years of anallysing the music industry he put together a set of key features which can be applied to all music video's. Not all features can be applied to every music video out there but atlas one of his features can always be applied. Goodwin said that there is always a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals and what can be seen on screen, this can either be, Illustrating, which is where music videos use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genre, Amplifying, this where the meanings of the lyrics are added to that of the visuals and the visual aspects provide an extra layer of meaning, finally contradicting where the meaning of the song is completely ignored and the visuals take on a whole new narrative and or meaning. Goodwin also noticed that some music videos use the idea of cutting visuals to the music, this helps for the video to become very aesthetically pleasing.
Goodwin also discovered that each music video demonstrates genre characteristics, not just the genre of the music, but a genre for the music video itself. These include Stadium performances and studio performances, this mainly includes the visual of simply just a band playing and no narrative. The the others include location, where the video is set in a certain place to help devote meaning, narrative where the lyrics of a song can help to build a visual representation of the song and create a short story and finally conceptual/ experimental were the band seek to create a visual that is different an something nobody has ever seen before.
Goodwin also said that key features of music videos are close ups of the artist, this is due to the fact that record companies require the artist to be strongly featured within the music video. Some artist however also develop a range of motifs that can be seen frequently in different videos of theirs. These include things like artistic branding, celebrity culture, artistic portrayal and implications on looking good. Due to artist close ups, star iconography can be linked to this, this is something each star will develop in their music videos, this could be through branding, style, brand visuals and unique selling points.
Goodwin also applied the concept of voyeurism to music videos, meaning that the audience viewing the video will see something that they wouldn't usually see. This can be done n the form of nudity, near nudity and revealing clothes, which links with Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze which can be used to attract a male audience. The male gaze focuses on presenting visuals that can be seen as appealing to the eye of a male viewer, this often includes the objectification of a female. The artist can also occasionally looking directly into the camera to help the audience feel more connected with the artist.
Goodwin also discovered that each music video demonstrates genre characteristics, not just the genre of the music, but a genre for the music video itself. These include Stadium performances and studio performances, this mainly includes the visual of simply just a band playing and no narrative. The the others include location, where the video is set in a certain place to help devote meaning, narrative where the lyrics of a song can help to build a visual representation of the song and create a short story and finally conceptual/ experimental were the band seek to create a visual that is different an something nobody has ever seen before.
Goodwin also said that key features of music videos are close ups of the artist, this is due to the fact that record companies require the artist to be strongly featured within the music video. Some artist however also develop a range of motifs that can be seen frequently in different videos of theirs. These include things like artistic branding, celebrity culture, artistic portrayal and implications on looking good. Due to artist close ups, star iconography can be linked to this, this is something each star will develop in their music videos, this could be through branding, style, brand visuals and unique selling points.
Goodwin also applied the concept of voyeurism to music videos, meaning that the audience viewing the video will see something that they wouldn't usually see. This can be done n the form of nudity, near nudity and revealing clothes, which links with Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze which can be used to attract a male audience. The male gaze focuses on presenting visuals that can be seen as appealing to the eye of a male viewer, this often includes the objectification of a female. The artist can also occasionally looking directly into the camera to help the audience feel more connected with the artist.
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Andrew Goodwin -
Foo Fighters - Something From Nothing
This music video contains illustrative ideas, this being a representation of the lyrics in a visual form. For example in tho music video when the lyrics are sung they also appear on screen. This style of music video was typical to the foo fighters album 'Sonic Highways' as each video includes the lyrics appearing on screen whilst the band is performing.
The fact the lyrics are shown on the screen also indicates that they are very important as the lyrics were written whilst touring different areas of America, and are reflective of the experiences Dave Grohl and the band had and the stories they were told. The making of this song and the writing of the lyrics was shown in an episode of Sonic Highways, the video is shown at the end of the episode. By the lyrics appearing on screen it gives the audience more of a chance to read and connect with the lyrics.
This video takes place in a studio and shows the band simply playing together. Throughout the video we see the camera go to close ups of each musician playing an instrument, including guitar, bass and the drums. This typical of the foo fighters star image, we are able to see that they are a proper band, playing real instruments and making real music, which is a lot different to the majority of posters around at the moment.
Mike Posner - I took a pill in Ibiza
Andrew Goodwin
This particular video by Mike Posner shows ideas put forward in the theory by Andrew Goodwin that he discovered whilst analysing music videos. The video itself illustrates the song lyrics, the opening line "I took a pill in ibiza" is reflected via the music video as we then see Mike Posner taking a pill in front of a mirror. It can also be stated that this video shows star iconography as we are able to see Mike Posner and recognise that its him starring in the video however this a negative way of portraying himself within this video as it shows him taking a pill.
Andrew Goodwin also believed music videos create certain genre characteristics, due to this being a dance song, it is set within a club where dance music would be played, and has people dancing around to the music. Voyeurism can be discussed as part of this music video also, exhibitionism plays a large part in the dance genre and is showcased throughout this music video. It is evident throughout this video that girls are constantly throwing themselves at Mike Posner, there is also a higher number of girls in the club than males. There is a specific scene in the music video where Mike Posner is having sex with a girl, this is shown whilst the lyrics "I already blew my shot" is sung, a line that can be interpreted as sexual. The part sown in the music video shows an intimate act happening in a intimate location . Overall the video is good for accompanying Goodwins theory of narrative and performance and the lyrics are well illustrated via the video.
Jake Bugg - Seen it all
Andrew Goodwin
The video for Jake Bugg seen it all illustrates between lyrics and visuals as the general consensus for the music video is that the protagonist walks around seeing strange things, hens the saying and the song title "seen it all". An example of this is when the protagonist walks into a random corridor to see a ping pong table with Jake Bugg standing there, they then play ping pong before Jake Bugg then disappears, again backing up the idea of the saying "Ive seen it all".
In terms of genre, this video features a few conventions which Goodwin discovered, one of these conventions is that the video is narrative based. In this video it is as if Jake Bugg is telling a story from his past and uses the lyrics to link in the with the visuals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)