M1 – justification of content

When making my music video, to ‘The Night We Met' by Lord Huron, I need to assure that it is suitable to the genre of Alternative/Indie. When looking at the genre of my music video I need to take into consideration Andrew Goodwins music video conventions theory. This theory states that the visuals in the video should link with both the music and the lyrics the audience is hearing, making sure I have a clear style, intertextual references and looking at the characteristics of my genre to intentionally follow or subvert. For my video, I am going to follow the general conventions for the alternative/indie genre as I believe this will suit my song the best and the artist tends to stick to this genre in all their other music videos, especially because this genre is very fluid and interchangeable depending on the song. Alternative/indie videos often follow a narrative style, my video is following the protagonist who is shown to be dealing with the end of a relationship and how that is affecting her. This genre often shows more upbeat and vibrant videos and sadder and downbeat videos depending on the theme of the video/song. I am creating a sadder tone with my video to reflect the tone of my song. This melancholier tone also links in with Lord Hurons existing music videos, which although span a wide range of styles including concept and more artistic styles like stop motion, have a darker and moodier atmosphere. The duration of my music video fits my song, it may go over the song a little bit to enhance my narrative style I am creating, this again links in with the artists existing videos such as the video for 'Fool for Love'. This narrative style should link in with my target audience of 15-40 (younger audiences brought in from new albums and popularity with the artists music on shows like '13 Reasons Why', and older audience who started to follow the artist in their early albums like 'Lonesome Dreams') because the narrative I am following is very relatable to everyone. Following the end of a relationship means that not just a certain segment of the audience will be able to relate to it, everyone despite their age, gender, interests etc can relate to the storyline. This is especially important considering I am creating my video with the purpose for the audience of escapism and enhancing their personal identity by making the able to identify the characters on screen. I will be using a female actor as the audience for my video is equal with gender, and female actors are available to me so this should not influence the way my audience view my video too much. The second party of the relationship, who is only shown briefly on the pictures (my prop) that the main character is looking at, is going to be genderless. This is to include my whole audience and make sure that everyone can relate to it and not take away from my sadder theme and message. It also means that I am doing my best to avoid stereotypes of relationships shown in media and try and represent people in the best way, I do not want the pain of my protagonist to be taken away by the distraction of the other party despite their gender. I will be using bright colours in the middle, most lyrically and musically dramatic section, of the video to represent the increasing emotion of the protagonist and contribute to my mise-en-scene that I am trying to create. this also means that I can link into my music genre conventions by using bright colours and editing which is included in most alternative/indie video to represent a mood. To ensure the target audience I have identified is correct I have looked at YouGov at similar artists (e.g Marron 5) to try and get the most similar audience I can however my artists isn't incredibly popular so isn't on this website. I have also looked at discussion groups online of fans talking about the artists audience. Using these discussion groups not only helped me to identify my audience but also showed how the audience watches the music video to enhance their personal relationships (in reference to the Uses & Gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz), people find friends and a community in their support for an artist or a music video and are able to enhance their relationships with other people because of this. Both sources meant that I am trying to get the most accurate target audience to ensure that I am targeting the correct people for my video to therefore be successful. I have also identified my target audience to be lower middle class, around category C1 and C2, this means I need to make sure to represent this audience in my protagonist. I will make sure to not dress the actor in any designer clothes and show any luxury lifestyles which may not be relevant to this audience, I want to portray the normal lifestyle for these people so they can relate to the character in the best way. If I don't target my video to the correct audience then it may not be viewed in the way I have made it for, people may dislike it and it could not be successful . The market for music videos is becoming increasingly more popular, and so by doing all this research on specifics of my target audience I can make sure my video reaches the right people, so it gets noticed. Because my music video Is being played at music video vamp festival, where a wide audience will be viewing It so I also need to make sure my video Is friendly to all audiences, however targeted at mine. For example, I cannot exceed a BBFC age rating of higher than 12A so I will make sure not to include any inappropriate/triggering themes. I am covering the theme of loss and suffering but not in a triggering way, we see the protagonist be sad but not distraught or depressed, we also don’t see any adult themes eg swearing and nudity which would not be appropriate for my audience. To further meet the client brief, I have made sure my song has no existing music video. I am also making sure my video is at least the length of the song and comprises of at least 70% original footage (and making sure that any other sources footage is copyright free and ok for me to use in my video). I will make sure that my video complied with all relevant legislation/regulations by researching which occur to me, and making sure I fill out all appropriate paperwork before filming and creating my video. I also need to export my video at 25pfs and HD (1080), so when I’m filming my video, I will make sure that all the setting on my camera are relevant to this. To complete my work by my deadlines I will make sure to plan my time correctly, allowing time for contingencies. Managing my time correctly means that I can work productively and efficiently, especially as I am working with outside sources like actors, I need to make sure that I get my filming done on time so that I can get on with editing. This means I can send my client the early version of my video on Friday 13th of January and my final video on Wednesday 25th January 2023, ready for the festival on the 18th/19th February.

 

M1 - Marketing and Distribution 

Marketing:

To market my video, I will be using different forms of media. I will use more new media for example social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to target to my younger section of my audience (15-30). To target my younger end of my audience I will be using popular social media for younger people. I will create short teaser clips to release on TikTok and Instagram, which are popular with younger audiences (15-30). These will help the audience to be excited for the release of the music video. Using these popular platforms means I can gain popularity and a wider audience much easier. If I include a specific section of my video which I feel will become the most popular with the audience (most played part of the song, or the most visually interesting section) people may watch it more and share it to their friends which can gain a huge amount of popularity for the video. I will use more traditional media mixed with social media to target my older audience (30-40), I will use radio adverts and releasing clips on platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well. This is because my audience will use these specific platforms and keep track with announcements from Lord Huron but may not use these new platforms like Instagram and TikTok that aren't popular and don’t cater to their age group because this would be a failed attempt in trying to access my audience. I will also release shorter clips of the music video; I may also release posters that can be posted on these platforms giving all the information of the music video. When releasing all these things, I will make sure to include a message in the description to the audience to encourage them to share it with the friends and other people who might like the music to increase popularity and a buzz coming up the video. I might do these things a few weeks before the release of the music video as I don’t want to drag out the marketing too much in case the audience becomes tired waiting for the release, and not be too close to the release date so that I am able to make a sufficient buzz for the video. Therefore, I think that a few weeks will be sufficient for this. I will not be using any form of Guerrilla marketing because my artist is not incredibly popular, so it could be quite hard to cater directly to my audience in such an obvious and loud way. There is a chance that the marketing could backfire and create a negative buzz on social media instead of a positive one which I would be aiming for if the marketing gets the attention of the wrong audience; which it could easily do being so exposed and obvious to lots of people. 

Distribution:

To distribute my video, I will be releasing these short clips on different platforms of social media a few weeks before the release of the music video. My music video will also be playing at the Music Video Vamp festival to a large audience which will really bring popularity to my video, at this same time it is also streamed worldwide on YouTube which will also help to get my video distributed to my audience who may be viewing the festival or the livestream after seeing my marketing strategies. I will also be releasing the full music video on Lord Hurons YouTube, as well as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter which I will have been marketing previously on. These will help me to correctly reach my target audience as lots of Lord Hurons fans will be following these platforms and keeping up with new releases, meaning these people (my target audience) will watch my video when they see it has been released. After the release, I may also use clips of the artist or pictures of the artist telling people to watch the video, these will bring lots of popularity on social media platforms and will help me to continue to bring in my audience to watch my video even after the initial release. Using these social media platforms mean that the whole of my audience can access my video on all sorts of devices like phones, laptops and tablets so it is accessible to everyone. Using social media platforms also means that it can carry on gaining popularity over time with trends coming and going which means it can stay relevant to my audience for a while. This means it will be continuously reaching new people all the time and gaining popularity. Also, when Lord Huron releases new music the popularity in the video will go up as people will be visiting Lord Hurons social media pages more frequently. I can also use music platforms on YouTube to help distribute my video such as Vevo, which has seen many music videos gain tremendous popularity from using this popular platform (some videos up to 83 million views such as the song ‘Reload’). All of these things will help me to get my music video to reach my target audience so they can watch and support it.