Audience Research - A Liar's Autobiography

I looked into audience research to see how other markets have promoted their media products and to get information about how best to promote my production. I looked on the BFI website to research case studies that they had produced on the ways that they promoted texts.
One case study that I found was based on "A Liar's Autobiography", an animated, factually incorrect biography of Graham Arthur Chapman, one of the founding members of the comedy group Monty Python. From the research I learnt of different ways they promoted their product and therefore got useful information about how I could promote my own media product. Here are my main finding from the research:

Marketing Approach:

• The marketing strategy was straight away decided to be based upon the Monthy Python popularity and legacy
• They wanted to appeal to younger audiences; those generations who may have heard of Monthy Python from their parents
• They didn't want the animated film to move too far away from the Monthy Python fans, they wanted to attract a new audience as well as keeping the loyal fans interested to appeal to big sector of the public.

Target Audience:

• They created two target audience; the 'core' audience and the 'broad' audience

Core:

• 35+ years, male  - loyal  fans and those who grew up watching the series
• 20+ years, male and female - animated enthusiasts and professionals: both old enough to have grown up with the series and young enough to be enthusiastic about animation
• 25+ years male and female art house audiences

Broad:

• 30+ years principally males but females too - fans of British comedy
• 25+ years male and female, may not have been film fans but heard about them through publicity

Overall Distribution and Marketing Strategies:

• simultaneous theatrical and VOD release, closely followed by DVD and BD release
• Support from Adobe
• www.liarsautobiography.com Official website an interactive and innovative site; it received over 13k unique visitors in the UK.
• www.facebook.com/aliarsautobiographymovie Official Facebook Page: became the main ‘hub’
  for all on line activity and distribution of an array of content: including clips, links to YT videos e.t.c.

Conclusion:

• I need to decide what genre and style my music video is so when marketing the single I can aim it at the right audience.
• I then need to decide specifics of my audience (age, gender, social group e.t.c.) for both a broad audience and a core audience. By aiming my production at two audiences I can get as broad audience as possible.
• I then need to decide suitable ways to market my production - this will be connected to the target audience criteria (e.g. am I aiming it at the 'online generation'?

To read up on their audience research Even further visit and click on the top left link in the table ('A Liar's Autobiography) http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/lottery-funding-distribution/insight-reports-case-studies-audience-research/new-ways-reaching-audiences-distribution

Planning My Time

In class we have made a rough plan of what we need to do and when we plan on doing it by, I will edit this copy as I move ontp different stages and complete differnet areas of the course.

I have also created a detailed breakdown of each scene and dated what time I will be doing differnet thuings; see a copy below: 

Song Choice

The song I have chosen to use for my music video is 'Clouds' by Newton Faulnkner Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner (born 11 January 1985); an English singer-songwriter and musician from Reigate, Surrey. He is known for his unique, percussive style of guitar playing.

I initially chose this song because I like it, I am fan of Newton Faulkner and I decided to listen to his album for some inspiration on what song to use for my A2 music video. After listening to both 'Hand Built by Robots' and 'Write it on your Skin' I liked 'Clouds' the most.

When looking more deeply into the song and its meaning to try and fit a message for my music video around it I conducted some further research. Some of the lyrics slightly contradict each other and the message isn't completely clear when looking at the lyrics. To help me identify the meaning I found a video made by Newton Faulkner to help me research his interpretations; he said the main message of the video was that things get better if you just staty possitive and persue things. The video has since been taken down from his website but below is an article that I found that gives a further in-sight to the meaning of the song from an audience persepective. http://glipho.com/rnbryant/stop-looking-down-at-the-ground-just-pick-it-out-of-the-clouds

Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/lyrics/newton-faulkner/clouds

Music Video Genres

There are different styles of music video that artists can use.

Performance:
 

This is where the video is based around the band/artist and shows them performing and their gigging lifestyle. It's a common genre with new, up and coming artists that are trying to establish their place in the music industry and make themselves known to the audience. An example of a music video that has used the performance genre is 'Let Her Go' by Passenger; please see bellow.

Storyline:

This is where the song and lyrics are used to tell a story. This is a very common theme among many music videos and allows for the artists interpretation of the song to be conveyed to the audience. An example of a music video that has used the storyline genre is 'The A Team' by Ed Sheeran; please see bellow.

Dance:

This is where the music video is based around people dancing to the music, it is often used with 'upbeat songs' for a feel good effect. Often, the artist or band are the dancers in the music video.  An example of a music video that has used the dance genre is Love On Top' by Beyonce; please see below:

 

 

 

Conceptual:

Conceptual music videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. Conceptual videos are often quirky.  An example of a music video that has used the conceptual genre is 'Needing/Getting' by OK Go; please see below:

Special Effects:

Special Effect videos are often disjointed, they allow for a slightly surreal feel to the video. An example of a music video that has used the special effects genre is 'Safe and Sound' by Capital Cities; please see below:

 

Animation:

 

Animated music videos can range from the images being hand drawn, created by computer graphic ot moulded out of material such as plasticine. This style of music video is very creative and visually entertaining to watch. An example of a music video that has used the animation genre is 'One More Time' by Daft Punk ; please see below:

 

 

Practising Shots

Another shot that I wanted to do was a sunrise Time lapse.

I have the idea of starting my video with a person sat on a hill side watching the sun rise, this will be the male protaganist in my music video who is trying to better his life. I will then end the shot with the male in the same place but he will be sat next to a female. I think it will link the story together well and give it a romantic feel.

Here is an example of a dunrise times lapse that I've found (skip to 10 seconds when the time lapse starts). I also found a still picture of the end shot that I envisage.



Practising Shots

On thing that I'm really keen on doing when filming my music video is playing with the depth of field on some shots. I want some shots that go from being blurred to focused and vise versa and I want some shots that have a blurred background whilst the focus is on the main feature of the shot. Above is a video that I found with lots of examples of the kinds of shots that I want to try when filming my video.

I have also found another video where it is specifically the fairy lights that are blurred, this is a shot that I have in mind. It's 'let her go' by Passenger. I plan on using an SLR camera to create these shots as I feel they will be very effective when adjusting the depth of field


Finally I have taken this idea and tried to create my own shot. I have used a Nikon SLR camera to film some  fairy lights using different depths of focus.

'The Bridge'

In Fridays lesson we watched another documentary called 'The Bridge'; filmed in 2004 by Eric Steel. It shows the results of one years filming along the Golden Gate Bridge and the 23 jumps and several suicide attempts that happened over the course of the filming. It also has additional footage of interviews with the families of those who jumped and a survivor; Ken Baldwin. The inspiration for this documentary came from an article in The New Yorker; 'Jumper' - Tad Friend.

There are many controversial issues that are surround this documentary, the main being the sensitive and strong content. We thought of some questions in the lesson based more around the treatment of the documentary rather than the content of it.

Do we have the right to see this?

This, like 'The boy who's skin fell off', is a very sensitive issue. However, 'the boy who's skin fell off' promoted a related charity and helped to spread awareness of the condition; I feel 'The Bridge' didn't look at the issue in the same way. I think it was based more around suicides linked to the Golden Gate Bridge being a regular place that people commit suicide rather than spreading the awareness of the issue and promoting a way of helping such as a charity). Having said this I think the treatments made viewers aware that 'everyday people' are suicidal and helped to spread awareness that it can happen to anyone, I also think it helped to express the importance of not ignoring symptoms and therefore I believe it did promote some parts in a good way. Finally, I think it gave a strong message to people who are feeling suicidal. We hear  Ken Baldwins story in the documentary and his attempt of suicide that he immediately regretted. I think this gives a positive message and a feeling of hope.

Why has the documentary got an 18 rating?

Film classification is based on violence, bad language, sex and nudity and taste and decency. This documentary has a high rating, this is due to its taste and decency. I personally found the documentary very hard to watch due to its harsh reality. In the documentary you watch a real life suicide and many reenactments along with verbal accounts and photo graphs from people who have seen people jumping off the bridge or climbing over the railing. This can clearly be disturbing for many viewers and therefore a high rating was needed so that an audience that was too young didn't view it as it's likely that they'd have found it harder to deal with.