Planning: Zing – life at full throttle

I am working on the launch of a brand new TV channel aimed at the criminally underserved youth market. My target audience is both male and female, ages 16 to 24.

The name I decided on for the channel was Zing. I chose this name because it represents a youthful freshness that I believe would strike a chord with my target audience and is also slightly unorthodox, something I feel this audience would respond to.

This is the logo my channel would carry as its on-screen identity and on its advertising.

The colours are designed to add to the unique, modern feel of the channel. When you think of ‘zing’, one of the first things that comes into your mind is likely to be ‘lemons’, as in zest. The yellow on the logo represents these lemons. The green covering the ‘Z’ is there to put emphasis on the letter, as a ‘short’ version of this logo would just carry this letter. The slightly mellow yellow at the top left continues the fresh theme.

The font was constructed by using Myriad Pro, by erasing the ends of some of the letters. This gives the logo its own identity and professionalism.

Being a channel for young people, I would fill the channel with dramas such as Skins and comedies such as Peep Show and How Not To Live Your Life as well as a range of quizcoms like QI and Mock The Week.

I would run the channel on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) – Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media, and BT Vision. The aim of this would be to reach as big an audience as possible.

Plan and research

For my research, I have looked at a music video from four different genres of music – pop, r’n’b, indie/alternative and dance.

The pop video I watched was ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ by The Saturdays. From this, and my knowledge of pop videos I found that they conventionally involve the artist(s) perfoming the song. There are also usually many different special effects. For example, there were lots of different transitions in The Saturdays’ video such as fading in, fading out, split screens and wipes. Also, the lyrics appeared on the screen as they were  being sung. I assume this is to allow interactivity with the audience, as it enables them to sing along and involve themselves in the music, as well as to know what the song is about.

The r’n’b video I watched was ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Beyonce. This video also features the artist, which is proving to be a common convention within all genres of music video. It also seems that r’n’b music videos do not seem to follow much of a narrative, which I have learnt from my past experience of watching other r’n’b music videos.  The artist of the song, if a woman, is usually featured wearing very little, dancing and singing, as in the ‘Sweet Dreams’ video by Beyonce. If the artist is male, he is usually shown wearing expensive clothes, singing, and surrounded by women wearing very little. An example of this is in ‘I Know You Want Me’ by Pitbull.

 Indie/alternative videos seem to be very different to the more popular r’n’b or pop music video. For example, I watched ‘Niave’ by the Kooks. Although the video features the lead singer of the band, it seems like it’s made on a much smaller budget, as there are no special effects. However, I find that it is still an interesting video, as it includes a story to follow, even if it does have a smaller budget. The fact that this video is based on a narrative draws the audience in, and interests them, making them want to watch until the end.

 Dance videos have very strong conventions. For example, I watched ‘All I Ever Wanted’ by Basshunter, and it involves many scenes in clubs, people dancing and having fun. All of the people appear succesful, are attractive, popular, relaxed and confident. A lot of dance music videos follow these conventions. Dance videos use these conventions as it appeals to the target audience, as they enjoy the atmosphere presented and this is what most people in the target audience would aspire to; to go out, have fun, be popular and succesful.

 I have three ideas for my music video, each of which I will pitch to the band involved, and they will choose which idea I will produce. The band I have chosen is called ‘Crescendo’. I have chosen this band as I know the members, so it would be easy to involve them in the video, and I enjoy their music. I wanted to use a local band of around my age, to promote local teenagers, as I believe that they get a very bad press for the majority of the time. Teenagers are also stereotyped as ‘hoodies’, violent and disobedient, and I want to challenge those stereotypes. I have chosen the song ‘Long Goodbye’ as I was looking for a more ‘upbeat’ song, as it would have more appeal for a debut single, instead of using a slower song. The target audience for my video is 13 – 25 year olds, both male and female. This is because this is around the age of the band members, and also there are two members, one male and one female, so it would appeal to both. I believe that many of my target audience will be able to relate to the lyrics of the song, as they are about leaving a loved one. I also think that the lyrics are about emerging self-awareness as, in the first verse, the song talks about looking inside yourself, and in the second verse, it says ‘listen to your conscience’. I think these kinds of values would be important to my target audience, as it is around that age that people begin to discover themselves and to grow up. However, I also think that the lyrics of the song can be open to interpretation, so it appeals to a wider audience

My first idea is to film a member of the band throughout the day, doing every day activities. For example, I will film them getting up, getting ready for Sixth Form, going to Sixth Form, in lessons, going out with friends etc. This will give the audience an idea of the band’s personality, and show a different, positive representation of teenagers, compared to that in the news.

My second idea is to film the band playing the song in different locations around Norwich. For example, they will be playing in front of places like the Cathedral and A ‘Welcome to Norwich’ sign. This will show that the band is local, and will also give the audience an idea of their personalities, as it will show places where they like to go.

My third idea is to film the two members of the band running through and past different locations in Norwich. This will give the video more pace than my second idea, as well as showing their personalities.

With this music video, I am going to to show a different representation of youths of today. I want to show teenagers to be decent people, with positive values and ideology. My first idea shows the values of the band to be education and friendship. The second and third show that the band values creativity and their local identity, as well as representing our cultural values.

The signature colours for the band are going to be white and a bright purple. I have chosen these colours as they can appeal to both genders, which suits my target audience. I have chosen a bright purple, as my target audience is young, and this represents the freshness of the age. For the bands logo, I have decided to keep it simple by just using the band’s name, but with it getting bigger, so the ‘C’ is small, but the word gradually gets bigger. I have also decided to have the band colours of white and purple to fade into each other, with the ‘C’ at the beginning being white, gradually growing into purple. The reason I have done this is to represent the actual band name, Crescendo, as the word means ‘a steady increase in intensity or force’. This is a copy of my band logo:

Who’s Who Lyrics

You just keep telling me

Theres nothing left for you

Why don’t you listen and I’ll

Tell you what to do

Theres not a thing left for you

Take your time for you

Is it me or am I unsure who is who

Why does the same old thing keep

Happening to me

Is it you or is it me

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down down

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down Down

When Im torn between you two

You two

I just don’t know what to do

To do

Theres not a thing left for you

Take your time for you

Is it me or are you unsure who is who

Why does the same old thing keep

Happening to me

Is it you or is it me

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down Down

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down Down

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down Down

Why won’t you let me be the one

The one who catches you when you fall

Down Down

Down Down

Down Down

Explanation Of Lyrics

• Love story,
• Speaks of one person always being there for the other,
• Audience could relate to these lyrics as in many relationships you would expect your loved one to be there to help you in your time of need and to pick you up when you are down,
• The line ‘Why wont you let me be the one’ could refer to someone wanting to be in a relationship with someone or someone who has recently split up with someone and wants to be back in their life.

Lyrics for ‘Long Goodbye’

When you try so hard,

you just can’t look inside.

Someone’s in your face,

you just want to run and hide.

H. G Wells once told me,

try to be satisfied

or I could find myself lookin at you from behind.

 

Listen to your conscience,

you may just be surprised,

what you may find,

singing in the lullaby.

Your might can be kind,

you need to satisfy.

Lennon is my father,

this is just my long goodbye.

 

What’s it all about, singing things you’ve never sung before?

All the clouds come down, you and me can never talk no more.

 

Someone’s in the room,

trying to make it with a broom.

Whats your problem, soldier?

Have you not got a clue?

What’s your rank and number?

I’m just too tired to loom.

Do you like it here?

And have you ever been away before?

 

What’s it all about singing things you’ve never sung before?

All the clouds come down, you and me can never talk no more.

 

What’s it all about, sining things you’ve never sung before?

All the clouds come down, you and me can never talk no more.

 

What’s it all about, singing things you’ve never sung before?

All the clouds come down, you and me can never talk no more.

Brief and Research into Music Video

 For this piece of coursework my task is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video together with two of the following three options:

1. A website homepage for the band;

2. A cover for its release on DVD;

3. A magazine advertisement for the DVD.

1. Cover for DVD – I plan to use PowerPoint to create my cover for the release of the DVD
2. A magazine advertisement for the DVD – I plan to research advertisements of this genre to establish the conventions of what would be acceptable and not to put on an advert. As I have already studied advertisements at GCSE I do know a lot about what is acceptable or not by the Code of Practice of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The Video – I have watched a number of different music videos from a number of different genres, and my conclusion is that a music video either needs to be entirely random or have a meaning shown through a narrative behind them. Below are 4 music videos, all of different genres, R’n’B, Alternative, Acoustic and Pop. I have analysed the different videos and will show how videos abide by or challenge the conventions of a music video. Below the explanation of the videos is a YouTube link to the video itself.      

    One video I watched which was entirely random was The Strokes’ video for the song ‘Hard to Explain’. In this video there are a number of different clips of video from several other genres of film, as well as images from cartoons, images of rocket launchers . Although all these pieces of video had nothing in common the video worked, as the images and clips were synchronised to the music which is what a music video needs to do to be successful. This video both challenges and conforms to the conventions of a music video. It challenges the conventions of a music video by  not having a narrative or ‘story’ so this may confuse the audience. However looking further into the music video in relation to the title of the track. ‘Hard to explain’, there is a themed link between the two.  According to Goodwin’s Theory, it shows that there is an illustrative relationship between the title of the track and the music itself; with the craziness of the music video, it is ‘Hard to Explain what is happening.  Furthermore, the speed of the shots in certain parts of this music video  are synchronised to the speed of the lyrics and music, with the tune speeding up matched by the images on the screen. This video would not be seen as a stereotypical Alternative band music video as it only shows the band playing in small amounts of the video, whereas most alternative bands do appear in their own music videos i.e. Muse, The Killers and The Kooks.     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfDTkxV-X2w

    Another video I watched was Lady Gaga with the song ‘Paparazzi’. This video did have a narrative throughout; it was more like a miniature film, which showed how a famous husband and wife had been corrupted by the media not leaving them alone and in the end the wife finally kills the husband by poisoning him. It is a stereotypical R’n’B music video as a lot of music videos of this genre have a narrative behind them. Again, according to Goodwin’s Theory, the video shows  intertextuality (do you mean intertextuality here as this means that it has to refer to another media text, not genre – see page 145 of your OCR book)as it like a short film. By doing this it enables the musician, Lady GaGa in this case, to show off their acting skills as another facet of their talents and create an added dimension to the video. This music video is a typically conventional R’n’B video as it shows a woman scantily dressed,  dancing and straddling objects and men.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKrzdaDQMw

The music video to ‘Beautiful’  by James Blunt doesn’t have a narrative and the lyrics do not really relate to the music video in a way which is recognizable. James Blunt is an acoustic artisit, being stereotypical for a second, usually acoustic artists are very relaxed and laid back when creating their music videos.  This video does challenge the conventions of a music video as it doesn’t actually show the artisit playing his instrument. This is not common in an acoustic music video as, conventionally, artists are usually seen playing their instruments. There are slight transactions (explain this)between shots and there is not a wide range of shots used in this music video. According to Goodwin’s theory, the demands of the artist’s record company would require lots of close ups of the artists to enable the artist to develop motifs which then recur throughout the rest of the artist’s work.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oofSnsGkops