Target Audience of Artist

To research the psycho graphics, demographics and socio-economic classifications for my artist Lady Gaga, I went on NRS.co.uk (National Readers Survey), as I used in my AS coursework, and looked through the latest top line readership figures for magazines in which Lady Gaga had featured on the cover of. I chose 4 magazines, all with different target audiences to give me a larger range of data to work with. I used the latest figures that had been published, which was July 2009 - June 2010.

The first magazine I looked at was Vanity Fair which Gaga featured on the cover on in September 2010. Vanity fair has an estimated readership of 293000 readers. Out of these readers the most popular age group readership was the 15-44 age group with 212000 readers compared to only 81000 44+ readers. This shows me that Vanity fair appeals more to a younger audience. It is also more popular with the socio-economic group ABC with 217000 readers in this band compared to only 75000 in the CDE band. From this magazine I can see that Lady Gaga appeals to the younger audience and appeals to people in high professions and in the higher socio-economic groups. The photo on the front of this magazine is a fashion photo. Although Gaga is appearing nude in the photo, she is covered and they use the main colour white as it is a pure colour and doesn't make this nude photo not sexy but fashion and iconic. Her pose with the 'peace' sign also shows this.The second magazine I looked at is Elle magazine, which is a similar genre of magazine to Vanity Fair. These figures seemed quite similar to Vanity Fair's but Elle has a larger readership of approximately 739000. Once again the majority of readers were in the 15-44 age band with 587000 readers. But there is still a large amount in the 44+ age group with 152000 readers. The socio economic classifications also showed a higher readership in the ABC band with 499000 readers and lower in the CDE band with 240000 readers. This is still a very high readership in the CDE band as this is around three times the amount then in Vanity Fair. So from this I can see that Lady Gaga is popular with both socio economic groups and still more popular between the 15-44 age group. Elle uses a quite revealing photo for their front cover. Gaga is known for her outrageous styles and one of a kind pieces. But this photo is more fashionable and shows a sophisticated but still sexy side to Lady Gaga which would be intriguing to the reader as it is a different side to the Gaga they know in the media.

I have also looked at a slightly different genre magazine, whereas the first two were fashion magazines, this one is more of a female gossip magazine about celebrities and beauty and style tips. Look is very widely read with approximately 532000 readers. This magazine is also more read by the younger age range of readers with 458000 between the ages of 15-44. And only 74000 readers who are 40+. With the socio-economic groups the amount of readers is fairly close in comparison with the other magazines. They had approximately 317000 readers in the ABC band and 216000 in the CDE band. Look has a picture of Gaga as the main photo but it isn't a photo from a photoshoot, but instead a more natural, unstaged photograph. This matches the genre of the magazine as it isn't souley about style but more about celebrity life instead.
The fourth magazine I looked at was Q magazine. Q is a magazine about music that is considered targeted at men. Q has a very large readership of approximately 666000 with the vast majority (572000) in the 15-44 age group and only 94000 44+ readers. Most of the readers are in the ABC group with 444000 readers in this band and 222000 readers in the CDE band. The picture on the front cover shows Gagas diverseness to fashion and how she likes to stand out from the crowd. She matches the layout to the magazine with the dark colours and the white hair. Gagas pose is quite sexual as she is topless and is posing in a suggestive way. This matches the target audience of males as an attractive women would appeal to the men as well as her musical background.

I have looked on Lady Gagas videos on www.youtube.com and looked at the demographics for who has been watching her videos and where in the world they live.I looked at her video Bad Romance and from the world map you can see that the dark green areas are where her videos have been watched most. I can see that Lady Gaga is most watched in the UK, most of Europe, South and North America, Austrailia and Russia as well as some other parts of the world. A grid at the side of this map also tells me which age groups this video has been most popular with. I can see that Lady Gagas video to Bad Romance was most popular with females aged between 13-17 and males aged between 35-54.

I have also looked on social networking sites to see Lady gagas popularity and audience. From looking on her official Myspace I could see that she is extremely popular with people across the world with 1,368,748 friends. I could also see her music was very popular from the play count on her media player. Her song Bad Romance has had 19,817,903 plays. And her profile has had 64,562,649 views. Her Myspace also has information on her tour dates and media appearances.


The 2nd social networking site I looked at was Facebook. Lady Gaga too shows that she has a wide range of fans spreading across the world, with 18,510,975 fans on Facebook. Gagas Facebook lets people find out where she is and what she is up too. There is updates on music releases and links to Gagas other sites such as her twitter and official website.

To try and get to know why my friends liked or dislike Lady Gaga I made a facebook page asking them to give me their opinions and why they liked Lady Gaga. The feedback I got was that she is popular due to her outrageous and quirky style and her uniqueness. People also commented on her superb videos and her catchy lyrics.

Lastly I looked up Gaga on Wikipedia to see about her record sales to see how popular she was. Her first album The Fame has sold over 12 million copies worldwide which is quite an achievement in the current situation in the music industry with illegal downloading at its highest and making money through record sales is becoming increasingly harder. Lady Gagas second album The Fame Monster was also very popular worldwide, selling over 1.241 million copies in the US alone. This is an especially good achievement as Gaga released the two albums in the space of one year.

From all this information I can see that Lady Gaga appeals to people across the world. The magazine readership figures show that Gaga was mostly popular with the younger generation, this could be down to her style and music style. I know now in my music video I should try and target a younger generation and try and get a unique style in my video to appeal to her fans.

Permission

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to ask your permission to use the song Teeth by Lady Gaga in my music video coursework at A2 Media at Sussex Downs Lewes College.

I understand that copyright at Interscope Records and in the music industry is a large importance and that without these copyright terms people would be less willing to share their new ideas and innovations with the industry and it would be a hard struggle to succeed in the music industry. However my music video will not be shared with anyone apart from the exam board and my college teachers and I will not be making profit or privately showing the videos to members of the public. I plan only to use the music only as part of the coursework.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear your verdict soon.

Yours Sincerely

Chloe Deadman

Film Production

Today in my film production lesson with Dan, we learnt about the basics of using the college video cameras.

Firstly we looked at how to set up a basic tripod.

The reason we use the tripod is to give the video camera stability and to prevent movement whilst we film. The tripod has three collapsible legs with a centre post. These legs can be raised and lowered to give you different heights for filming. At the top of the tripod is the head with the camera mount (a detachable mount) with a thumbscrew on it that holds the camera in place on the tripod. there are several joints on the head of the tripod that let the user pan or tilt the camera and a handle to do so with fluidity and without giving the movement a shaky, amateur feel.

Dan taught us how to load tapes into the camera today and how to correctly name and label the case and actual cassette. This is to help us when we get round to editing out footage. If all tapes are labelled with the correct shot and take, we can refer to our shooting script to know which pieces of footage we want and which pieces did not shoot well or did not work out as planned. Our shooting scripts are key in helping us at editing stage. This is where we write about what happens in each shot, which is numbered, and which take goes best and which go wrong and don't need to be used in our final editing. If we make detailed notes it means if we need any extra material at editing stage, we know which bits are completely unusable and which bits can be used. We should be filling out our shooting scripts every time we film anything. Another worksheet we are to be filling out prior to filming our videos is our stroyboards. We looked at the different shots in Teenage Dirtbag and made comments on the shot number, shot type, a description of what was happening in the shot, the cameras movement or direction, the location, costume and props and a description of the audio. This was just a taster of what we will have to do when planning our own music video.

Today we also learnt about the white balance on the video cameras. In an inside setting where you will be filming under artificial light, the cameras will pick up the UV light and this will give your image a blue tinge to it. To stop this happening you must adjust the white balance on the camera. The same happens in an outside setting but instead of a blue tinge, you get an orange tinge. This means every time you change the setting you are filming in, you must adjust the white balance. It should also be the first thing you do when you turn on the camera. The settings available are AWB - Auto setting, but this cannot always be reliable to give a good colour quality. There is also a outside setting labelled with a symbol like a small sun, and a inside setting which is the symbol of a small light bulb. The last setting is manual setting which is a symbol of two small triangles with a line above them. In our lessons we will mostly be using the outside and inside options.

We also learnt the health and safety features of using the video cameras and how we should correctly put them away after use.

If we are to move the camera and tripod even just a small distance, we should take the camera and its mount off the tripod and transport them separately. This is to prevent the camera falling off and getting damaged, as they are very fragile. We are also to check the that nothing has got stuck in the legs of the tripod before we collapse the legs as this can cause damage to the legs. Before we put our cameras away after use we must make sure we have taken all our tapes out of the camera otherwise this could lead to loss in footage and a waste of time when re filming it. We must also make sure we have put all the equipment labelled with the same number all back in the correct bag, to avoid confusion when they are next used. If we are trying to preserve battery we should use the viewfinder on the camera instead of the LCD screen, this is because the viewfinder uses less battery.

Song Choice

Me and my group made a brainstorm of possible bands whose songs we could use for our Music Video coursework project.

We brainstormed bands of all genres firstly then decided what sort of genre we would like to do, this meant we could narrow down our choice of band. We decided to go for a pop song by a popular artist that would appeal to a large audience. In the end we decided to do the song Teeth by Lady Gaga. The song has good lyrics and we felt that it would make for an interesting and diverse video that we could make a creative video to.

Don't be scared, Ive done this before

Show me your teeth

Show me your teeth

Show me your teeth

Don't want no money (Want your money)

That shits ugly

Just want you sex (Want your sex)

Take a bite of my bad girl meat (Bad girl meat)

Take a bite of me, boy (Show me your teeth)

Let me see, you're mean

Got no direction (No direction)

I need direction

Just got my vamp (Got my Vamp)

Take a bite of my bad girl meat (Bad girl meat)

Take a bite of me boy (Show me your teeth)

The truth is sexy

Tell you something that'll save me

I need a man that makes me alright

(Man who makes me alright)

(Just tell me that its alright)

Tell me something that'll change me

I'm gonna love you with my hands tied

Show me your teeth

Just tell me when

(Show me your teeth)

Open your mouth boy

(Show me your teeth)

Show me what you got

(Show me your teeth, teeth, teeth, teeth)

Got no salvation

(No salvation)

Got no salvation

Got no religion

(No religion)

My religion is you

Take a bite of my bad girl meat (Bad girl meat)
Take a bite of me, boy (Show me your teeth)

I'm a tough bitch

Got my addictions (My addictions)

And I love to fix 'em

(And I love to fix 'em)

No ones perfect

Take a bite of my bad girl meat (Bad girl meat)
Take a bite of me, boy (Show me your teeth)

I just need a little guidance

Tell you something that'll save me
I need a man that makes me alright
(Man who makes me alright)
(Just tell me that its alright)
Tell me something that'll change me
I'm gonna love you with my hands tied

Show me your teeth
Just tell me when
(Show me your teeth)
Open your mouth boy
(Show me your teeth)
Show me what you got
(Show me your teeth, teeth, teeth, teeth)

Show me your teeth

My religion is you

My religion is you

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

(My religion is you)

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

(My religion is you)

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Help, need a man now show me your fangs

Tell you something that'll save me

I need a man that makes me alright

(Man who makes me alright)

(Just tell me that its alright)

Tell me something that'll change me

I'm gonna love you with my hands tied

Show me your teeth

Just tell me when

(Show me your teeth)

Open your mouth boy

(Show me your teeth)

Show me what you got

(Show me your teeth, teeth, teeth, teeth)

Show me your teeth

It's not how big, it's how mean

It's not how big, it's how mean

Show me your teeth

(Show me your teeth)

Show me your teeth

(Show me your teeth)

(Open your mouth boy)

Show me your teeth
(Show me your teeth)
Show me your teeth
(Show me your teeth)

(My religion is you)

Show me your teeth

(show me your teeth)

(I just need a little guidance)

Show me your teeth

(Show me your teeth)

Show me your teeth

(Show me your teeth, teeth, teeth, teeth)

Exploring the Music Video

VIDEO 1 - PRAISE YOU by FATBOY SLIM
Praise you is a dance song by Fatboy slim from 1999. The video was extremely different to other music videos at the time of its release as it was shot guerrilla style (shot on location without asking permission from the owners of the property). The director of the video was Spike Jonze. Jonze appears in the video with his fictional dance group, the Torrance Community Dance Group. In the video the fictional dance group turn up outside a cinema in Westwood California in front of puzzled onlookers. The dance group then start dancing along to a boom box they have, the dance is choreographed beforehand. The owners of the cinema reportedly kept turning the boom box off during the performance but a small amount of money was exchanged and the group were allowed to continue. There wasn’t an actual film crew, just a few hidden cameramen in the crowd of onlookers, as well as Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), videoing the dancing. This video was so unique as it had no special effects and very little editing. It also only cost 800 US dollars to be filmed. This was a very small amount for a music video. The quality of the filming is also a lot more inferior to normal camerawork for music videos. The video won three major awards at the MTV Video Music Awards including Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Choreography.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiXg_70rMeM&ob=av2n

VIDEO 2 - THE SCIENTIST by COLDPLAY
The Scientist is the 2003 single from British alternative rock band, Coldplay. The video is highly popular for its reverse narrative. Lead singer, Chris Martin, had to learn the lyrics to the song in reverse in the space of a month. The video directed by Jamie Thraves starts with Chris Martin walking backwards through a town, then the suburbs and then through a forest. He picks up various pieces of his suit on the way. He then arrives at his car which is crashed; he gets in and passes out at the steering wheel. You then see his girlfriend who is lying in front of the car reversely fly out of it. The car then rolls back up the hill and drives backwards on the road. The video then reveals that Chris Martins girlfriend (played by Irish actress Elaine Cassidy) has taken off her seat belt to remove a sweater just before the tragic accident that leads to her death. The video then plays normally so we see the crash for real and realise what has actually happened. The theme of death in the video is quite shocking for the audience as not only do we see the terrible crash in reverse but also in real time and the audience is unknowing of the crash until the very end of the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjPrdTNxQ0&ob=av2e

VIDEO 3 - COMMON PEOPLE by PULP
Common People is a 90’s Britpop single by the band Pulp. The video has a guest appearance of the actress Sadie Frost and includes a ell known dance routine improvised by Jarvis Cocker on the day of filming. The video is set mainly in two settings. A nightclub kitted out as a 70’s dance floor/student disco and a supermarket. The dance floor scenes play homage to the Eleanor Rigby sequence in Yellow Submarine where you see people dancing stuck on repeating loops for less then a second. In the supermarket scenes we see Jarvis Cocker being pushed in a trolley by Sadie Frost, Jarvis is a miniature of his real self, and the trolley shows the teenage frustration of feeling trapped in love. This scene communicates the main meaning behind the song, of the frustration teens get over love and life in general and the difference in cultures between the higher and lower classes. Common people is aimed at a teen audience with lyrics that can be related too and teen culture shown in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgXzPfAxjo

VIDEO 4 - TOXIC by BRITNEY SPEARS
Toxic is a electro pop song by the worldwide artist Britney spears.The video to Toxic is directed by Joseph Kaln. The video is set in a futuristic setting and starts on a aeroplane with Britney Spears dressed as a raunchy stewardess. The next scene shows Britney in a skin tight leather suit and shocking pink hair. There is also a highly controversial scene where Britney is seen in nothing but a white Gstring with small diamonds glued all over her. This made the video get classed as too racy for daytime rotation. We also have a scene where Britney triggers a laser trap that she skilfully manoeuvres round with some elaborate dance moves. During the video there are guest appearances from celebrities such as Tyson Beckford, Matthew Felker and Martin Henderson. This video shows a change in Britneys image, at the beginning of her career she was seen as a sweet innocent teen star and these new more raunchy videos show the transformation into a women. This transformation also shows a change in audience, from being a role model to young girls to being more appealing to an older audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9kVZ1Zperc&ob=av2e

Introduction

This year I will be producing a media portfolio which includes a music video and two print items. I will be presenting my research, planning and evaluation in the form of a blog. This is a development of my skills from my magazine design coursework in AS Media where I produced a front cover, double page spread and contents page for a music magazine. Below is a link to my AS Media Coursework blog.
http://sdcmediaaschloedeadman.blogspot.com/