Ellie Goulding and Lenka Comparison

Ellie Goulding and Lenka Comparison

Audience Conclusion

After speaking to people we have gathered information such as what artists people are in to and why. We also found out why they like certain music videos. We have taken this feedback and our final decision is to choose a song that is by a female (as it will be easy to film as I will be the performer)and we are going to pick a song which we can do a good narrative too in our music video. The two choices we have are Ellie Goulding 'The Writer' or Lenka 'The Show'.

Audience Focus Group

I asked ten people of the ages 17-24 about their music and music video interests. It was a casual conversation that I had with them as I feel the participants are more relaxed and speak more openly when it is informal questionnaire. I chose four of the people's comments as they were all similar and these are the ones we have taken in to consideration for our music video.

'I like artists such as Ellie Goulding Red Light, James Morrison and Beyonce. I listen to these artists because I just like listening to them in my spare time and I can relate to a lot of their songs. In a music video I like it to be memorable so I like strong performances and story lines. I also think the costume and image is a major part of the video as people style themselves on certain artists.’

'Um, my favourite artists at the moment are Florence and the Machine and Ellie Goulding. I like these as they make me feel happy and put me in a good mood. I particulary like music videos that have a good story to them and fancy costumes. A big budget always seems to make a difference with locations, costumes and props.'

' I'm into Coldplay, The Script, Ed Sheeran Kanye West at the moment. The songs they perform have a good beat or something special about them that makes me like them. I like things to be quite simple with a music video such as Ed Sheerans 'A Team' is simple with black and white film and the story relates to the song- this is a must. I don't like videos that have no link to the song, it just puts me off everything about the song.'

' I am definately into the indie rock genre. Kings of Leon, Travis and The Kooks are perfect examples for this genre that I love! I like music that is different to the charts so I dont listen to the same as everyone else. It's all boring and repeated and I just like difference. I watch videos now and then through YouTube and they have to be really quirky videos that have a good story that kinda makes sense but doesn't. I also like videos that have interesting shots and angle but these would usually have to be big budgeted videos.'

Concluded Research

Overall from looking at the genre we have realised that the conventions that are most common are:-

Shot Types
Close up's, mid shot's, long shots are the most common shots used.

Shot Time
The average shot time for indie music videos are 2/3 seconds long.

Narrative/Performance
Most indie genres have more performance shots over narrative. However there is always a story conveyed through the video's narrative shots.

Costume
The costumes usually represent the artist in an individual way. Florence and the Machine is the best example for this. Due to these conventions we are going to have certain items of clothings/accessories that are recognisable features of the artist.

Music Video Research Kate Nash

Kate Nash

Music Video Research Lily Allen

Lily Allen Power Point

Music Video Research Florence and the Machine

Florence and the Machine PowerPoint

Music Video Research

The music video industry is a massive one that is led by music channels, the radio and websites such as http://www.youtube.com/ and ITunes. There are many genres of music such as:

- R&B
- Pop
- Indie
- Indie Rock
- Rock
- Drum and Bass
- Soul
- Country/Western
- Electronic

Depending on the genre of music the videos differ. The genre that most appeals to me due to the different styles is Indie as the videos are 'quirky' and do not always match the song. Pop is another genre that interests me but would be harder to do due to the styles and 'perfection' that is percieved through the way they look, the shots, locations and story lines. We might go for indie pop as this is usually can be created easily with our equipment, time etc. It is also usually a very fun genre to create so can be a fun task that will be memorable and we can do a really good narrative to match the song.

Ideas

We have had several ideas for the indie music video. Some of the artists we have looked at our:

- Ellie Goulding
- Florence and the Machine
- Lily Allen
- Kate Nash
- Jessie J
- Lenka
- Paramore

All of these artists are female (main singers) and this is because one of us would be the leading singer. These artists are all indie or indie pop, which will be an easier video to make.

Short Film Research

Short films are mini films that can be up to 40-45 minutes long. They can be to inform or to entertain.

Moments is four minutes and seventeen second short film that simply shows loads of 'moments' in one go. They use different settings and different people to show what a 'moment' is. For example, a newborn baby, a child flying a kite and someone waking up. Natural lighting is used to go with the scene and a instrumental song plays over the top. Moments is a entertaining short film that makes you think more in to detail about what a moment is.

It could easily be done for a project by getting a topic and basing it all around what people think it is. You can then add people saying the answers at the beginning followed by a series of short clips put together which will then describe the moment. Me and Shiv have discussed about doing a short film and if we were going to do one this is what we would base it on. We would pick an idea such as Love and have a question such as 'what is love?' for people to answer. We could then film them in the studio or other settings showing what they think love is. Such as talking about it, acting it, drawing etc.

Our Group

I have paired up with Shiv who has similar interests for this project-either a short film or a music video. I think we will work well together due to us both having different skills that will help us get on with all the tasks. For example, Shiv has more experience with filming and editing while I have used Photoshop more and don't mind being the performer.