I saw the advert for Orange RockCorps the other day and I thought it would be a nice incorperation to my 'lots of people - lots of places' idea. So I went off happy snapping round college. (everyone gave their permission!)

Lilleshall shoot!

Took some nice pictures: including some guitar playings and tap-footing. Exciting! Got some scenic shots in aswell, which gave me an idea for the last half a minute of my music video. (lots of moving scenic shots, thought it'd be nice to rotate the camera and see how it turns out!) In keeping with the country feel I made sure she and I whipped out all things denim.

I have put away some time this week in order to do some more shooting. I intend to walk up to Lilleshall, where there are lots of fields (and hopefully it will be a nice day), and take some scenic shots. I will ask my friend if she will help me out! Will update!

After looking at a selection of music videos, I have decided to go against the generic 'singer' focused music video. I want the music video to be about the song, not about the singer. I think this will allow me to reach a different type of audience by taking away the stereotype of Dolly Parton and indeed country music.

Looking at Music Videos: We Have Band - You Came Out

We Have Band are an unsigned ‘Crunk and Disco’ group from London and Manchester, UK. They’re first official music video was ‘You Came Out’, Directed by David Wilson in collaboration with Fabian Berglund and Ida Gronblom from Wieden + Kennedy. Produced by Blinkink. Shot over 2 days and stop frame animated from 4,816 still images without a single moment of video footage.

The song is about the excesses, and what can happen if things don’t go well on a night out. The video portrays the extremes of the song, without taking away the fact it is a disco, techno and party song.


The video uses all three band members, using their faces as ‘canvases’. This takes the limelight away from the lead singer and focuses more on the band as a whole, something most music videos fail to do.


As the song gets quicker and more intense, the imagery gets more violent and brighter. The lighting in the scenes change with the faster music, where at the start of the video (picture 1) the lighting is softer, yet still bright and the music is fast but not as intense. The lighting towards the middle and end of the song changes rapidly, the lights begin to flash and the movement of the people becomes faster and more violent, as do the face paintings. This portrays the feeling of terror and paranoia the song depicts when things go wrong.

Looking at Music Videos: The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, released on the 7 September 1979 on Island Records. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped several music charts and has been covered by many recording artists. It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 12:01am on August 1, 1981 and has been widely parodied in popular media.


From first glance, the video is in keeping with The Buggles’ pop, techno genre. There are neon lights, techno glasses, and very much a depiction of what people thought people would dress and look like in the future. The futuristic theme is carried on through-out the video, focusing on the loss of the ‘golden age’ of radio to the much more colourful TV scene.


The two backing singers in the video are representative of the dying radio scene and the flourishing television craze. The one on the left, a plainer, dressed down woman, represents radio. While the brightly coloured, ‘sexier’ woman represents television. At the end of every line the singers sing, the radio singer lowers her head, suggesting the death of radio. During this, the television singer carries on dancing, suggesting she is the livelier, better version of the two.

In this scene especially, the radio singer is shown to be inactive, while the television singer is shown to be a little in front of her opponent, and, especially taller.


The stance between the two back up singers show hostility, during this and another scene, the two are scene facing each other, as if trying to out sing, out perform each other.



During the song, the camera focuses strictly on the radio singer, while the lyrics ‘Oh radio star, Oh radio star’ are sung. The radio singer then turns to the television singer and the camera pans out, accusingly, the lyrics ‘Video killed the radio star’ are sang repeatedly, the television singer remains unfazed and entirely glamorous.

At the end of the song, the television singer is the only singer to be facing the camera, aware of her victory. She is shown to be happy, the focus is kept on her as the camera zooms out and pans away.

The setting of the video is simple, on a stage with two microphones and three singers. Below the stage is the keyboard player in the band. There is a crowd formed around the stage, but none of them are looking at the main singer or backing vocalists. This suggests the crowd are unaware to the changes the song is about, and unaware of the mini-feud between the singers on stage. The lead singer is present in most of the scenes, although he never moves except to sing, and although the focus is kept on him a lot of the time, the scene forming behind him is obvious to the audience as more important.

Target Audience

‘Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music. In the four-and-a-half decades since her national-chart début, she remains one of the most-successful female artists in the history of the country genre which garnered her the title of 'The Queen of Country Music', with twenty-five number-one singles, and a record forty-one top-10 country albums. She has the distinction of having performed on a top-five country hit in each of the last five decades and is tied with Reba McEntire as the only country artists with No. 1 singles in four consecutive decades. She is known for her distinctive soprano, sometimes bawdy humour, flamboyant dress sense and voluptuous figure.’

Wikipedia

I started out by looking at the typical target audience for Dolly Parton's music. Recently, with the introduction of artists such as Taylor Swift and 'Hannah Montana', country music has reached a younger audience. Typically, Dolly Parton's music is aimed at an upper-middle aged, working class, female audience. Alot of her songs are about hardship, lost love and work - typical for a working class audience.

Changing the target audience:

1. Fill the video with people at an age at which a selected target audience can relate.
2. Use bright colours.
3. YouTube!