Costumes and Props

These are the props and costumes I plan on using within my music video

First off we have the letter and notebook the character uses to right to his sister. The notebook is basic and has lined paper inside, the outside won't be shown so the blue colour doesn't have any significance. 

Reccee Shots

The first area I plan on using in my video is the above bedroom. I chose this location to be used for the scenes where the main character portrayed is in bed in the first part of the video. I chose this room as it is quite small and I wanted to show the character's loneliness whilst still showing that someone had been in his life previously, shown by the double bed to signify 2, and the flowery wallpaper which isn't stereotypically associated with masculinity. I plan on making the room messier to enhance the idea that he is depressed.

This second room is what I plan on using for the scene where the character looks under the bed. I chose this particular room as it is more feminine whilst having similar wall paper to show how the two are connected. I will remove the towel rack and tidy up the room, hopefully achieving the idea that it hasn't been touched in a while.

This is the corridor the character walks down.

This is the staircase. The curtain at the bottom could potentially be used to create an interesting shot by rapidly changing the lighting as the character walks past.

Here is the graveyard I hope to film in. It is easily accessible and with few visitors so hopefully filming there won't disturb there. I took this photo in the evening in order to create the eerie effect I hope to portray in my video. I chose this particular graveyard as all the graves are lined up which should make it obvious where the character is. It is also surrounded by trees so no cars or vehicles should ruin the mood of the shot.

Storyboards and Shot List

Before creating my storyboards I prepared a shot list so I knew what i was doing.

I had ___ shots in total, as presented below.

Email to Ed Sheeran's Manager

I sent a request to Ed Sheeran's manager, via the email I found at rocketmusic.com. I asked them whether or not I could use Ed Sheeran's song as part of my music video and have stated I will give full credit for the song to the artist and company and will not claim the song as my own.

31st October 2016- As of the 31st October I have not yet received an email reply from Ed Sheeran's manager..

Lyric Analysis - Photograph

"Photograph"

Loving can hurt
Loving can hurt sometimes
But it's the only thing that I know
When it gets hard
You know it can get hard sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive

The first five lines of the songs are pretty self explanatory, stating how the singer can see the both sides portrayed through the words "hurt" and "feel alive". On one hand he is saying that love can be painful and difficult to deal with at times. On the other hand he is saying its amazing and you won't truly feel alive until you experience it. Despite how much he gets hurt it's the only thing he knows so he sticks with it. The repetition of the words 'hurt' and 'hard' as well as 'loving' put emphasis on the idea of the two being linked. 

We keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves

These next two lines focus on the idea of holding onto the greater moments of a relationship through a photograph as it truly captures the love you feel at the time it was taken. There isn't really any metaphors or connotations to be discussed from these lines as they are pretty self explanatory. 

Where our eyes are never closing
Hearts are never broken
Times forever frozen still

The next three lines almost create three juxtapositions which suggest that love can make the impossible happen. It is impossible to keep your eyes open forever. It is impossible to never have a broken heart at one time or another. It is impossible to freeze time. These three lines put emphasis on the previous two lines by conveying how important it is the capture and remember the loving moments through means such as a photo.

So you can keep me
Inside the pocket
Of your ripped jeans

Holdin' me closer
'Til our eyes meet

You won't ever be alone
Wait for me to come home

"So you can keep me" and "wait for me to come home" suggests that the singer is going somewhere so he is given or gives someone else a photograph to remember him by in the hopes that their eyes will "meet" again. "You won't ever be alone" is a metaphor for how the photograph will mean whoever gave it to him will always be there in memory.

Loving can heal
Loving can mend your soul
And it's the only thing that I know (know)

"Loving can heal" refers to how they use memories/photographs to mend the sadness of the separation. 

I swear it will get easier
Remember that with every piece of ya
And it's the only thing we take with us when we die

"The only thing we take with us when we die" refers to the memories they have made and shared together. It suggests that when people die the only thing they take with them are their memories.

We keep this love in this photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closing
Our hearts were never broken
Times forever frozen still

So you can keep me
Inside the pocket
Of your ripped jeans
Holdin' me closer
'Til our eyes meet
You won't ever be alone

The pre-chorus and chorus then return, with the music intensifying accentuating the emotion and therefore strengthening the message.

And if you hurt me
That's OK, baby, only words bleed

Inside these pages you just hold me
And I won't ever let you go

These 4 lines show that despite how much he is hurt by the person it's OK because only the words hurt him and not her and whats important for her is that they love each other. The metaphorical pages that she holds represent a part of him and she has captured him so strongly it's as if their relationship is a story that he never wants to end shown by the line "and I won't ever let you go"

Wait for me to come home [4x]

The "wait for me to come home" line is then repeated 4 times which one again emphasises the line and shows how much he wants the relationship to work.

Oh you can fit me
Inside the necklace you got when you were 16
Next to your heartbeat

Where I should be
Keep it deep within your soul

Here he is saying that she should keep their memories as close to her heart as possible because where he belongs is as close to her soul as possible. He is basically saying they are soulmates and nothing should ever separate them.

And if you hurt me
Well, that's OK, baby, only words bleed
Inside these pages you just hold me
And I won't ever let you go

This is repetition of the previously stated

When I'm away
I will remember how you kissed me
Under the lamppost
Back on 6th street
Hearing you whisper through the phone,
"Wait for me to come home."

The final lines show how he will always remember the little things about their relationship, no matter how far apart they are. The backing track also slows down and simplifies a bit which intensifies the words. He remembers the way she used to talk to him on the phone and once again repeats "wait for me to come home" showing how he wants the relationship to last.

Contemporary Media Landscape

Throughout recent years media, across all platforms, has developed and adapted to fit into culture at increasing rates- an example being the vast increase in online streaming or purchasing music via apps such as Spotify and Itunes, as opposed to buying an physical Album/ CD (or DVDs when it comes to films). This is becoming more and more obvious due to the great development in online abilities and the wider access to media online. As new media technologies are developed people's interest in media experimentation increases, making online access to media more convenient, e.g buying a £10 membership for Spotify each month for unlimited music access is much cheaper than purchasing separate physical albums. Spotify subscriptions have increased from 10 million in 2010 to an average on 68 million in 2015. The recording industry now only makes 39% of their revenue from physical copies due to the increase in popularity of digital albums which make up 45% of their total revenue.

 Music is more accessible due to devices such as mobile phones.

However, despite the huge rise is the popularity of online media outlets, there was a 64% rise in the sales of vinyls in 2015 due to Rock sub genres becoming more popular as retro style vinyls becoming ore popular whether it be for the box art or the vinyl itself. Sales of music on vinyls generated more income for UK artists in 2015 than the social media site Youtube, with British singer/songwriters such as Adele and Ed Sheeran accounting for one in six of all albums sold globally. Ed Sheeran is also the most streamed artist in 2015.

Vinyl sales continued to grow in 2015 with 2million+ LP's sold just in the UK- whih is the most since at least 1994. In the first quarter of 2015, Vinyl sales increased by 69%, which is three times that of that first quarter of 2014.

Audience Questionnaire Results

As I have collected the results to my audience questionnaire questions, I have made graphs to show and summarize the results.

I picked four questions that I thought were most important to look at when it came to making and advertising a music video/song to turn into tables/graphs

The first graph I made was asking people whether they prefer Digital or Physical copies of music. 80% of the people I questioned said Digital whilst the other 20% preferred Physical. The reasons given for preferring digital copies of music were majorly because it's easier to access or harder to lose which suggests people enjoy having music with them at all times whenever they need it. The people who said they preferred physical copies were more attracted to the box artwork, which is normally also apparent when viewing music on apps such as Spotify.

The next question I turned into a pie chart was 'How do you hear about new songs?' I thought this was a good and appropriate question to turn into a pie chart because it relates to the above question in terms of the results- which both hugely favour digital copies of music. The four results I received for this question 

  

The third graph I did showed the mixed opinions on whether or not people like pop music as it is the genre of music I am focusing on. Out of the people I asked, the majority of people enjoy listening to pop music but over a quarter said they did not enjoy the genre.  This suggests that although people do enjoy pop, it may be a good idea to have a sub genre to satisfy those who don't, or at least entice them into watching the video.

My final graph shows a variety of artists that people have listed as their favourites from the pop genre. Out of all the artists given, Shawn Mendes was most popular with 6 votes, closely followed by The 1975 with 5 votes and Ed Sheeran with 4. This links back to my target audience research where the target audience was primarily female. Most of the people I asked were female, suggesting they prefer male artists as all three of the previously listed artists are male/male bands.

The majority of the artists listed on by the people asked are chart leading artists who have had a hit in the top 10 at one time or another. I am surprised that a wider variety of artists weren't listen, due to over

Music Regulations

Next I am looking at music regulations and how it is regulated for the audience.Unlike films and video games, which are regulated by BBFC and PEGI, the music industry (in the UK) is mostly self-regulated meaning either the artists themselves or the record labels/companies  regulating the videos.

However, BBFC does help regulate some online music videos in partnership with YouTube and Vevo by age rate all music videos by artists signed to Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK that are unsuitable for younger children (under 12s). Record Companies submit any music videos the the BBFC that they would expect to receive atleast a 12 rating. The BBFC then rate the videos based on factors such as language, sex refernces, behaviour and sexual scenes/nudity. These videos are then posted to Vevo and/or Youtube.

The UK Copyright Collective is in order to make sure copyright law between artists is upheld. Some companies may have an agreement 

Ofcom

Ofcom, short for Office in Communications and UK copyright collecting agency is a body which regulates the copyrighted music and makes sure that the artists get royalties for the use.

Research- Related Artists

I have now tried using the website music-map.com to find artists that are similar to the ones I previously looked at. The closer the artists are together the more related they are.

First I looked at bands associated with Hailee Steinfeld. This shows that Hailee Steinfeld doesn't have a lot of chart topping artists that are similar to her- an example being Ellie Goulding which is one of the furthest away. She does however have quite a large group of artists chunked around her, with a variety of different pop sub-genres insinuating that she appeals to a wide variety of the pop audience.

Next is Shawn Mendes who's graph is more close knit than Hailee Steinfeld's which suggests he appeals to a more focused target audience. He does however have more well known artists surrounding him, such as One Direction,  Justin Beiber and Ed Sheeran. Hailee Steinfeld also appears on this list which suggests they have somewhat similar target audiences.

The sub-genres of pop are less but become more apparent as you work your way out, such as Bridget Mendler who is somewhat of a Soul Artist as well as Indie Pop.

Audience Questionnaire

Next I made a set of questions aimed at and to ask the target audience that are relevant for the genre and artists I am looking at doing.

The questions I have decided to ask are:

1.  Name
2.  Age
3.  Gender
4.  Interests
5.  What is Your Favourite Genre/s of Music?
6.  Who are your 5 favourite artists from the above Genre/s?
7.  How do you normally access music? e.g Spotify, Youtube, Itunes etc...
8.  Do you have a favourite music video?
9.  If so why? 
10.  What do you think makes a good music video?
11.  How do you hear about new songs/music?
12.  Do you enjoy Pop music?
13.  If so who are you favourite Pop artists? (Maximum of 5 only)
14. Do you prefer physical or digital copies of songs?
15. Why?
16. Do you have any brands you have/buy frequently?
17. Do you have a favourite genre/s of film?