The nature and purposes of research

Primary Research:
Primary research can be defined as information you gain from a first person source. This type of information is what you would get if you were to get the information from someone else, rather than a product such as a book or online. Primary research is usually gained from interviews, questionnaires or just being at the location of research yourself. For example, if you were to research about the beach, and went to the beach to study it, this would be classed as primary research. Primary research , in some cases tends to be a much more reliable way to gain information, although their can be some bias information given to you if interviewing someone.

I used primary research in the course when doing my ''Refugee'' documentary. In this documentary, i interviewed some random college students in order to get their views and facts on the ''Refugee Crisis''. We decided to use primary research for this documentary because it helps to make the documentary more factual, and its much more reliable then getting peoples views online. The reason for this is that getting opinions and facts of people we know would be more relivent as it gives the viewer a rough idea on what people around our area think about that particular topic.

Here is a shot from the documentary that we produced. From this screenshot you're able to see that this is an interview, which shows primary research being gathered for the video.

Secondary Research:

Secondary research is research that doesn't specifically come from a mouth to mouth conversation, and doesn't come through you experiencing something in person. Secondary research is research pre-written or documented by someone else, such as books, magazines or online forums. Secondary research is helpful when you want to get a general view on what people think of a topic, although there can be a lot of bias and false information, which means that you have to be careful when gaining and studying from secondary info.

Secondary research was used when studying the chosen song for my music video, and finding out what the lyrics mean. Because the notes used were gathered from different forums, all of the research for this was secondary.

Here's a screenshot which displays some of the notes I used for my music video.

I also used secondary when doing the Music video project, as I research different type of song genres. This could also be used as secondary research as it was all gathered from online.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is research gathered from the ratings of different type of media. For example if you saw a show with 2/5 stars, you would assume that the show isn't that great. The information rating which told you how good the show was would be Quantitative research. Quantitative research could also be gathered from questionnaires and other peoples opinions.

This is a piece of my ideas page for my 3MW video. Here you can see that I've written out questions for a questionnaire that I asked different students around the college. Because the result information all came from questionnaires, this would be considered as Quantitative information. Quantitative information is what i felt was the best option for my video, as its a much faster way of researching and gathering information, as you're able to get peoples opinions at a much faster pace.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research tends to be research and information that is gained from sources such as reviews or fan websites. This information tends to be peoples opinions are is more likely bias rather than factual. Although bias, this information is very good when you want to report on something, as it can give you a rough idea on whether something is good or not, for example a game or a movie. Although everyone has different opinions, if 20 people say something is bad, and 1 person says its good, the chances are its going to be bad. Reviews tend to be listened to by a lot of people and bad reviews will decrease the demand of someone wanting to watch a movie, or play a certain game.

I used reviews in my research for the ''Card Game'' video that I did with my group. We asked people general information on their opinions and ideas on card games, including which they liked and why they liked them.

This is a clip from the video of people playing card games, and the audio behind it is the reviews about the card games.

Data Gathering Agencies

BARB - Barb is a company which deals with the ratings of different television programs. The information that this company gains is mostly Qualitative, as they work of reviews they get from other people. From these reviews, they put together an average to give television shows and programs what they think would be a reasonable rating. The ratings are usually measured from from many people have watched the Media, and how popular it is, instead of how good the movie is itself.

Another company that focuses around the same job role as BARB is IMDB. IMDB is a much larger company for movie and TV reviews, and has more customer trust. Different companies have different amount of trust, as some reviewing companies give alot of unfair reviews and put people of watching good movies, because the company presents the movie as being bad or unworthy. It's unlikely that any company would rate something as one star, but they have been known too in the past. Another difference with IMDB, is that they dont just rate movies based on popularity, but they also base their information of how high quality the movie is. They will rate the quality by following the 1-5 star system, and will present a result based on that. The public will then view the star the website has given a movie to help them decide whether or not they're interested in watching the movie.

There are infact hundreds of different agencies that all share the same job role when rating different movies and products. Sometimes these agencies will use information of each other but this is avoided most of the time to avoid argument.

Audience and market research

Audience and market research tends to be information that you can see yourself by seeing how much or little a product sells, or how small the products popularity is across the public. Information about certain things can also be seen, especially media by the channels that they're displayed on. For example, something shown on BBC1 is most likely more popular than something you'd see on channel 200, because the BBC is more popular is people know its more likely to show more entertaining programs.

The only time I came close to using this type of research on the course was with the Adverts I had to review during the music video topic. During this course I looked at different TV adverts and was able to tell how popular the adverts may have been. and what their aim was.

Here are two adverts that i had to review when doing a class presentation. I gave information about the popularity of the adverts as well as what channels they were displayed on. I was able to give a rough idea on how popular i thought these adverts were by the channels they were broadcasted on.

Production Research

Production research is information that can be gained about the product itself. For example, finding out where the production will increase/decrease in profits, or whether it will gain more of less popularity. Production research was used for most of the films we did in media, because we had to work out the budgets for them. Budget information also counts as production research. Here is a screenshot which shows the information and budget forms of one of my groups productions.

Demons Music Video

The Synopsis of demon

First verse 

With in the first few words of the song I will make it a slow intro from a black screen to someone on there own trying to get through life with a piece of paper in there hands to crumple it up and chuck it in the bin

Chorus

With this main chorus kicking in I ill show some editing by showing a black ball within someones body to show some light coming from the ball fading the darkness

Second verse

In this verse I will start off from curtain's opening up to the actors. Then have a close up on there face on only white masks to show that were one but were not.

Chorus 

From the second verse I will show some horns on a friend/ family member of the person to show that we aren't all the same and that theirs evil in all of us.

Third verse

With this one I will show that even we can get over our troubles so long as we have someone to help us but show through editing that the person is taped behind bars in there sole being opend up.

Chorus

on this one show that the small light that was fading starts to get brighter to show they are trying to get out as well as showing a small second light that helping them.

Imagine Dragons - It's time

'' So this is what you meant, when you said that you were spent'' 

These lyrics suggest that the person being sung about is feeling down/depressed and feels like they have no life or energy left inside of them.

''And now it's time to build from the bottom of the pit''

These lyrics are about the singers life during his early stages of college. He had plans to drop out due to depression and anxiety, and this was the most dark and worst stage of his life.

''Right to the top''

The Artist is saying that it's time to rebuild his life, and to make himself feel positive again. Getting to the top is his goal, and he wants to achieve it.

''Don't hold backPacking my bags and giving the academy a rain check''

These lyrics are describing his decisions to leave college, and to pursue his passions outside which will like described before, make his life much more positive and happy. His passions here is singing and songwriting.

''I don't ever let you down''

The artist in this cases says this, to show that he doesn't want to fail his parents, or to make them disappointed. He says this because college is what his parents wanted him to pursue in, and he dropped out of it to pursue a passion which had only just begun.

''I don't ever wanna leave this townCause after allThis city never sleeps at night''

Dan (The artist) and the rest of his band are from Las Vegas, which is where they don't want the leave. He uses the quote ''This city never sleeps at night'' because Las Vegas is known as the city which never sleeps.

''It's time to begin, isn't it?I get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admitI'm just the same as I wasNow don't you understandThat i'm never changing who I am''

Soon after leaving college, Dan and his band became more known and popular. In these lyrics, he's saying that all this fame and stardom aren't going to change him as a person. Because this quote is the main chorus, I believe that he recieved alot of crisism about how fame would change him, so repeating this quote will show people that he really means it when he says fame will still keep him the same person. It could still be considered that this fame isn't improving his depression, which he could still possibly be facing.

And I am left to sail
The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell
Right to the top

So this is where you fell'

The path to heaven describes the path he's going to take to the top of fame. However this path is clouded and closed by bad decisions that he's made. While he talks about someone else falling of and making the wrong choice (Probably leaving the band), Dan is left to continue to the path of fame alone with his positive choices and dedication.

''Don't look backTurn in the rags and giving the commodities a rain check''

At this part of the song, Dan is saying that he's not going to be a singer who only cares about money and wealth, but will do it because that's his passion.

''I don't wanna let you down 

I don't ever wanna leave this town

Cause after all

This city never sleeps at night

It's time to begin, isn't it?  

I get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admit

I'm just the same as I was

Now don't you understand

That i'm never changing who I am
It's time to begin, isn't it?

I get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admit I

'm just the same as I was

Now don't you understand

That i'm never changing who I am''

''This road never looked so lonely''

The road to fame is more lonely and solo based than him and other people believe it is. The dedication and hard work needed gives little free times and isolates him and the band from spending time with others.

''This house doesn't burn down slowlyTo ashes, to ashes''

During this quote, I believe that the artist is trying to say that the house here is metaphorically fame, and that once you achieve fame it's hard to lose it. This could also means that the fame he has is sucking him up and preventing him from doing what he wants.

''It's time to begin, isn't it?I get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admitI'm just the same as I wasNow don't you understandThat i'm never changing who I amIt's time to begin, isn't it?I get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admitI'm just the same as I wasNow don't you understandThat i'm never changing who I am''

During this whole song, each verse is sung at a calm and slow based. pace for everyone to understand. This gives us knowledge that the artist really wants use to listen carefully to this song in hopes that we as the audience will understand how much all of this means to him,and to let us into what he feels, and what his life is like.

Clothing/Costumes:
During all of the imagine dragons music videos, the clothing they wear is casual, day to day clothing. It's nothing to flash or eye grabbing. The reason that they choose the dress casual, as well as for simplicity could be to show that fame isn't going to change how they are, and they're not going to changing how they dress.
Although the band doesn't use makeup, they get stylists do sort out their hair before shooting music videos. I found out this information from an interview on TV with Dan.
Tone Of Existing Videos:

Locations In Existing Videos:
In most of imagine dragons music videos, the area where they're located is mostly landscape based, build in with special effects. For example in one of their videos, they film in a dessert and use special effects to make it look like an abandoned stormy/ end of the world scene. The reason that they possibly use these landscape locations for their music videos is because it makes it seem and look more amazing for the audience.
Concepts/Narratives:

Music Video Production Handbook 2

In concert and ''as live'' footage
In concert music videos, that music videos that show the band playing at a live event. This is done by a variety of different artists in the attempt to persuade fans and viewers to go see the artist perform live. The example that I chose for this is ''Paradise City', as it's the first song i thought of, and best represents old school concerts.
 

AC/DC thunderstruck is another popular song which displays the band performing live at a concert. The difference here is that this is ''in concert'' footage. This means that instead of the video being naturally taken from a previous concert and stuck into a music video, the concert is instead performed purposely for this music video. This could also include better editing and camera shots as the band is more aware and alert that they're being filmed for a purpose.



Narrative and interpretive
A Narrative music video is a video which has a story behind it, mainly shown in the music video. The video that I chose to represent a narrative is Data-Dont sing. The story behind this is that everyone has their own thoughts and fantasies, but as soon as something disastrous happens, they all come together and care. (Basically that no-one notices or cares about one another until something bad happens). I decided to choose this song because it has a strange yet more entertaining narrative than the other songs I found.


Interpretive Music Video

An interpretive music video is a video which relates to the song being sung. Although this is used by many different artists, there are only a music videos i were able to find which suited this category well. The example that I decided to use was ''Benny little game''. This song is about breaking gender roles, and the music videos shows a boy and girl being ''punished'' for showing interest in the stereotype of the other gender. For example, the boy touches a doll (A stereotypical girls toy), where as the girl tries to open a book, which breaks the olden days posture tradition.



Surrealist/absurdist
The word surrealist comes from the term ''surrealism'' which is essentially an old tradition where someone would express their thoughts and dreams. Therefore, a surrealist video is a video where the artist shows how they feel, or what they want to feel. Surrealist videos can also be where the video relates to impressionist videos in the sense that its being linked to what's said.
The music video that i decided to use, to show realist was ''Coldplay-Up and Up''. This video just talks about peoples imagination and shows a bunch of edited videos which are quite bizarre, and also display the dream and imaginary effect of surrealism.

An absurdist music video is a music video which doesn't make much sense, nor does it tell the story of what's being sung in the song. Although they're mostly strange, viewers are mostly attracted by the uniqueness and randomness of what the videos contain. The video that i used to show absurdist is Daft Punk - Technologic. I'm fully unable to say what the song or the video is about, as they're both random and don't really have much story to them. But it's these factors which gives it the absurdist effect.


Impressionist:
Impressionist music videos have a purpose of giving the viewer the impression of what the artist feels when singing the song. It also helps us know what the artist is feeling. The song that I used for this was ''Why dont you get a job'' by the Offspring.

Intertextual:


Synergy:
When Synergy is linked into music videos, it's when the music video produced matches the atmosphere of the song. The example that I used for this was ''Happy'' by Pharrell Williams. As well as talking about being happy, the actors in the msuic video also give the vibe and intention that they're happy. This is where the synergy is included.
 
Parody:
A parody is where the non official artist of a song, produces a cover version of a song, with a mix up version of the lyrics. The main purpose of this is to give a song a comedic effect. The example im using this is a parody of ''Closer'' by the chain smokers. The parody is by Bart Baker.


Homage:


Pastiche:
A pastiche music video is a music video based around the idea of fantasy, and not reality. The example that I decided to use for this was ''Vogue'' by Madonna. I decided to choose this is it gives a real view on Pastiche and shows it better than other songs.

Allusion:
Allusion in music videos is simply where the song relates and tells a different story to what the song is about. This is very similar to the intertexual style of music videos.


Animation:
An Animation music video is simply a video that contains a cartoon animation. The animated characters are usually the ones singing the song, or given the impression that they're singing along. This provides a larger source of entertainment for the viewer, especially those of a younger target audience. The example that ive used for this is ''Lone Digger''.

  Lip Sync:
Lip syncing is an extremely popular factor which crops up in music videos a lot of the time. It's essentially where the artist or another actor will mime the song being sung in the background, to give the impression that they're the ones singing the song. The song i decided to use to show Lip Syncing is Uncharted. In this video, it's not the artist who lip syncs but instead actors. I decided to use this example because it's the best video to show lip syncing and is obvious to spot.


Cutting to beat:
Cutting to the beat is where the scene in the music video changes every time a new line or singer begins. This is done to give the music video a fast paced effect, and too keep the viewer entertained. The example that in used for this was Wings by little mix. In this video, they change scenes every couple of seconds, and there's always a new singer singing at the beginning of a scene. Not once in the music video does the singer show up in two scene in a row.
 

The Purpose Of Music Videos

Music videos can best be described as a video which accompanies a song or soundtrack. Music videos were first introduced as a main source of entertainment for the audience. Music videos allow the audience of the artists’ music to get a visual story of what the song is about, and can give the audience the effect of actually feeling the emotion that the artist feels when singing the song. In this essay, I will be discussing other ways music videos can benefit not just the viewer, but can also help to promote the director of the music video and other large brands/companies.

Other than for the purpose of entertainment, music videos can also assist to promote the band and to give them the main role in the videos. This will overall increase the bands' recognition to the public which could result in more fame and popularity. An example of a song which requires a promoting music video would be ''Two Door Cinema Club - What You Know''. In this music video, the band is visible in most of the shots as they're the main topic of the video. Music videos can also be used to promote the director, as well as the band. The director doesn't have to necessarily appear in the video to be promoted, but the style and the uniqueness of the video can give the director a good name. An example of an artist who has a music video promotes the artist is ''Bjork''. Bjork's videos have a very unique and weird setting, which is how they've gotten so much recognition by people over the years. The videos for these artists songs are directed by ''Michel Gondry'', who has also gotten a strong image of recognition from these videos.

 When it comes to music videos, they're not known to always represent the song that's being sung that's either being sung in the video, or in the background. The music industry has quite knowingly had a motive for the style, as well as the narrative of the video and artist. In relation to this, there are a wide variety of strategies which music producers have used in order to increase the number of sales they achieve, as well as to increase the popularity of themselves and the artist. An example of this could be through selling merchandise and performing at live tours. Artists are usually marketed differently depending on their producers, and there are three major producers when it comes to the music world. These three producers include the major record label, the artist, and the independent music label. Here is some more information on the three main producers;
Major Label
The major label is the music label which directly focuses on more ''mainstream'' artists. These mainstream artists are the ones who have the most popular songs which break numbers in sales and make it into the charts. These types of labels are also the ones with the bigger budgets not just for the music video, but for other forms of promotion such as products/merchandise and concerts. The genres that major labels fall under are RnB, as this is the genre that caters well to most audiences. A main advantage of being a major label, is that your music videos will be able to contain famous actors/stars to perform, increasing the views you get. The reason for this is that the audience and public gain more interest in music videos when they see their idols take part in them.
Independent Label
An independent label is merely opposite to the major label. Independent music labels tend to be much smaller, which results in them having a much lower budget. This lower budget then means that they have less money to spend on promoting themselves. In other words, independent labels will have less expensive and lower quality music videos, and may not be able to produce as much merchandise as a major label would. Although any genre of music can fall under an independent label, it's usually the dance/indie genres that are more common. Independant labels are unlikely to be able to add celebrities and stars into their music videos, which puts them at a dissadvantage when compared to a major label.
The Artist
It's not uncommon for artists to want to manage and make music videos themselves. This is a common way either for a new artist to start up their careers, or because they don't want a label changing their ideas. Because the artists won't have any company help, the budget for the artist will be dependant on how much money they have to put into it, which is usually less than a label could offer. Distributing and promoting as an independent artist will be much harder, as it's less likely for you to be able to organize a concert, and you may have to result off luck to even become noticed by many people, however, it's not impossible. An example of an artist who produced their own videos and because popular was Justin Bieber, who now works with a major label.

The amazing thing about music videos is that even after years of being released, they are still looked at by new fans who can bring more popularity to the artist, which can result to them gaining more income. However, the amount of popularity the video gains after release depends on how rememberable the video itself is. Because most the income gained from music videos is from gaining publicity, there are multiple ways that artists and record labels promote their work to the world.

Other than YouTube, there are a variety of different ways that music videos are promoted and shared around the world, and all of these ways can help to increase the popularity of not the just artist, but also the record label. It's important that a record label looks good when promoting an artist, and it can result in other artists wanting to work with them, which will obtain them more money. It's quite commonly known that a lot of record labels will work with different companies in order to help promote their artists songs. For example, MTV, which is a popular channel for music might work with a record label, and in return, MTV will play the record labels song on their channel. This way, the music video, and artist gain more publicity, and MTV will always have content to show which will also help attract viewers also. Another example could even be in TV shows. By this I mean some TV shows could parody a music video for entertainment. An example of this could be family guy where they parody ''Take on me'' by family guy.

Here's the original Music video for comparison;


Synergy:
When talking about music videos, synergy is where two areas of media collaborate with one another. For example, it's widely known that some music videos contain clips from movies, with the song in the background. This is quite popular if the soundtrack happens to be from the movie being presented, and can promote the artist at the same time it promotes the film. An example of this is the song ''See You Again'', which features clips from the fast and furious movies.

Although this song was mostly a tribute to the actor ''Paul Walker'', the song has widely promoted the fast and furious franchise as well as the artist.

There are a clear majority of reasons for why I think music videos are popular, however some of the reasons stand out much more than the others. The main reason I think music videos are popular, is for the entertainment purpose. As someone who watches music videos myself, I can say that it’s entertaining to watch a music video, as not only are you getting to listen to the song, but you can also see and understand what the singer is singing about. Although there are a lot of music videos with a less interesting video, that are a lot which not only show stories, but also personal incidents and decisions that the artist has had to make in their lives. I also believe that the growth in the music industry has caused music videos to become much better with special effects, and the large number of sexualized videos help to grab a lot of attention from viewers. I personally think that music videos will always stay popular, and will continue to grow as time continues. The second major reason for why I think music videos are popular is because of the weirdness and uniqueness of the videos. A lot of music videos trend if they’re completely out of the ordinary or don’t make much sense at all. An example of this could be ‘’Gangnam Style’’ from the artist known as ‘’PSY’’.

Corp Video Analysis

 Camera Shots: There are many different types of shots that you can take with a camera, and each one can effect the way the audience views your work. Different shot types help build effect in a film, and can also help it emphasis the action that are going on. When doing our corporate video ,we used a wide variety of different shot types to help us build effect. For example, one shot which we used was a close up shot. This is where the camera is close up to either an object, or one of the actors. This helps the audience of the video get a clear understanding of what we're trying to show in the video, and to help the audience understand what our video is about. As our corporate video was based on different services around the college, most of our close up shots show software, and gym equipment.
Another shot type that was used in our corporate was a long shot. We used a long shot when we were showing areas around the colleges campus. Using a long-shot allows the audience of the video to see more than just one specific area of the college, and they can possible feel how large the college really is. Thirdly in our short film, we mostly used medium shots. Our medium shots were mainly used during interviews, where the teachers were telling more in-depth detail, about their key areas in the college, and enlightened us on how it could help students in the future.
Camera Angles:
Higher camera angles are camera angles from high up, for example on the top of a building or large object. Low camera angles are camera angles that are taken from lower down, for example the camera will be on the floor and the person or object being filmed will look much higher than the camera is. We used high camera angles in our corporate video, only so that we were able to pan down on the close up shots of equipment in the gym.
Mise-en-scene: Mise-en-scene is when you use props, or you dress up   in your film, to fit the type of character that you're playing. It's also when you choose a specific location to film. Many films use this technique because without props, the film wont have as much affect. For example you probably wont see an action film without a prop such as a gun, or a bad guy in a suit. Mis-en-scene came into play during our corporate video, as we specifically chose locations to film, based on what information the teachers were talking about. For example, when the gym teacher was talking about gym services, we filmed in the gym.

Corp Video - Pre Production