A-Level Media research into practical project of creating a music video and other such ancillary products.

1. Music Video Primary &
Secondary Research
Morgan Redman

2. Primary Research

3. Sundara Karma: A Young
Understanding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KdXoNDtpGo

4. Genre:
o What genre does the song belong to?
o The genre of the music video, as a result of the genre of the song, is
Indie rock with the combination of ideas of youth, pastel and grunge
aesthetics.

5. Video Type:
o What type of video is going to be produced?
o The video that we intend to create is a hybrid of multiple video types.
o Our video will have a loose base narrative with strong underlying
currents of thematic alongside small introductions of symbolic elements
related to ideas such as representation.
o The genre conventions will conform to that of the indie style.

6. Conventions:
o What conventions of the genre will be conformed to or subverted?
o A genre convention we plan on subverting is the live performance segment
of the video.
o We will, however, be conforming to costumes, props and shot types. For
instance, we will also employ lots of cuts between close-up shots and
wider shots such as mid two shot as this is a convention often used in
indie music videos. Although, this convention is often used in cohesion
with performance in that a wide angle shot of the band will then cut
into a close up on a hand strumming the guitar or the singer speaking
into the microphone.
o Synchronous shots will be employed to keep in time with the rhythm and
pace of the music where necessary although this can easily be over used
so we may only implement this idea when the pace of the song is highly
significant such as the chorus.

7. Artist:
o How will the artist be represented?
o Our artists will not be the direct artists responsible for the song that
we plan on using. In our video, instead, we will be employing actors who
will represent the ideologies of our video that we believe are in
cohesion with the lyrics.
o Such representation will be included through the clothing and props
used. We will be conforming to Indie forms of dress such as denim,
oversized jackets, chunky shoes etc.
o Props that we will implement also include cigarettes, alcohol, bonfire,
baseball bat for games, playing cards, powder paints, polaroid camera,
skateboard and other such equipment that will help to convey our
artists/ talent as rebellious fun youths.
o Shots we will use to represent our video and ideas include lots of cuts
between close-ups and shot transitions that keep pace with the music.
For instance, one shot could be a mid two shot of youths sharing a
cigarette and then cut in close-up of the hand holding the cigarette.
This is a replacement of the ideas of a performance video where the
close-up focuses on the performing artist, as we are not including
performance elements.

8. Representations:
o What representations will be included?
o Representations we plan to include involve various genders in non-
stereotypical roles as questionnaire analysis found that 25% of the
recipients placed it as a 10 in reference to importance.
o Additionally, we also wish to cast actors of various ethnicities and
cultures as we placed high significance upon this even before the
audience reinforced this idea; with 50% placing ethnicity as a 9 or 10
when discussing importance of representation.
o Mostly, our casts age will be teenagers from 16-19 simply due to access
of actors and the target audience of the video despite age
representation not being considered extremely important in the analysis
of the survey.
o Sexuality is also of importance to us and despite our aim to steer clear
of explicit romance in our video, between any sexualities, we aim to
include subtext and implicit ideas of support of the LGBTQ+ community
through symbols such as the pride flag.

9. Distribution:
o Which record company would release the video?
o The company under which Sundara Karma are signed are RCA Records and
Believe Recordings.
o Other such bands within the same genre are signed to labels including:
300 Entertainment, Grand Jury Music and Virgin Records.
o As a result, it would be likely that a company known for supporting
indie bands would distribute our music video. RCA records are extremely
diverse and support mostly popular music artists as opposed to Indie so
smaller companies would be more likely to support our independent music
video.

10. Distribution Continued:
o What channel would distribute the music video?
o There are very few, if any, music video channels that relate directly to
the Indie music genre and there are multiple reasons for this; one
reason being that often small independent artists do not have music
videos for their songs. Although, as is more often the case, Independent
artists are not as widely listened to by the masses who follow popular
culture which means that TV, aimed at those who follow popular culture,
do not have the demand for it and therefore do not create the product
this has meant that most Indie artists self-promote on social media and
also by supporting larger artists at gigs within the same genre.
o Despite this, online websites and magazines dedicated to the Indie
lifestyle occasionally promote artists and their music videos. Some
examples are “Under the Radar” magazine and another example is “INDIE”
an independent style magazine that often specialises in promotion of new
upcoming and representative artists. Whilst Indie does not relate
directly to music, a specific example is the “LABEL TO WATCH” or
“PHOTOGRAPHER TO WATCH” posts that promote brands including
representative producers such as Oloapitreps that are a genderfluid
clothing company.

11. Questionnaire:

12. Focus Group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5jNmmcMxE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyNykewzE6I
&t=13s

13. Logo Production:
o We began with initial name drafting and came up with a multitude of
ideas including:
o Blackwater Productions
o Nebula Productions/ Studios
o Orangutan Digital
o Electron Studios
o Ragnarock Productions
o Folkvang Studios
o Phasma Productions

14. Logo Production:
o I then drafted some designs for our final cut of names:

15. Logo Production:
o After deciding that on Phasma Productions I drafted another set of logos
to fit the new finalised production company name:

16. Logo Production:
o We then decided as a group our favourite design from drafts for the
company with our finalised name before I began transitioning it into a
short animated logo to feature at the beginning of our video:

17. Secondary Research

18. Target Audience: GEARS
o G.E.A.R.S. relates to audience segmentation demographics within the
categories of gender, ethnicity, age, region and socio-economic group/
status group.
o G: There is no definitive gender that our piece will apply to as it will
feature people of multiple genders.
o E: We are hoping that our music video will be representative of multiple
ethnicities through the casting of our actors and therefore should be
inclusive in reference to the audience (also understood by region whilst
race is considered a distinctive physical feature).
o A: The age of our target audience will be youth of 15 – 19 due to the
nature of our cast. Although, older age groups may be secondary audience
members due to the possibility of reminiscing their own youth.
o R: There will be no specific relation to region or nationality which
would often be exemplified through accent and dialect but there will be
no dialogue in our final piece and thus the region is not an important
section of representation in comparison to another segmentation such as
age.
o S: Due to the age of our target audience it is likely that our socio-
economic target audience would be of the lowest social grade, E,
according to Young and Rubicam’s traditional segmentation model as the
audience of 15-19 year olds are most likely to be students.

19. Target Audience: Socio-
Economic Class
o Socio-economic class is part of the G.E.A.R.S. audience
segmentation model and was further expanded upon by Young and
Rubicam’s 4C model.
o The 4C model is divide into:
o A: Upper middle class: High managerial, administrative or
professional
o B: Middle class: Intermediate managerial, administrative or
professional
o C1: Lower middle class: Supervisory or clerical, junior
managerial, administrative or professional
o C2: Skilled working class: Skilled manual workers
o D: Working Class: Semi and unskilled manual workers
o E: Lowest: State pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual
or lowest grade workers, students

20. Target Audience: CAGES
o C.A.G.E.S. relates to audience segmentation within the categories
of class, age, gender, ethnicity and sexuality.
o C: There is no exact class bracket for our video in that the actors
are of various class statuses although the themes are more often
stereotypically associated, either wrongly or rightly, with the
working classes. Or, in some cases, the middle class youth
expressing a sense of rebellion.
o A: The age of our target audience will be youth of 15 – 19 due to
the nature of our cast fitting within that age group and the themes
of the video. These themes include alcohol consumption, smoking and
relationships. Although, older age groups may be secondary audience
members due to the possibility of reminiscing their own youth.
o G: There is no definitive gender that our piece will apply to as it
will feature people of multiple genders.
o E: We are hoping that our music video will be representative of
multiple ethnicities through the casting of our actors and
therefore should be inclusive in reference to the audience.
o S: The representation of sexuality won’t be explicit in means of a
relationship featured within our piece as we wanted to focus more
so on friends than romance; although, we will be featuring hidden
symbolic features such as a pride flag.

21. Target Audience:
Psychographics
o Psychographic segmentation is a method of dividing target
audience into their social class, lifestyle and personality.
o An example of a psychographic model that can be applied to our
piece is Young and Rubican’s model relating to lifestyle and
audiences in advertising.
o The Explorer: Driven by a need for discovery and/ or challenge
o The Aspirer: Materialistic/ care more about what others think
about
o The Succeeder: Self confidence/ strong goal orientation/
organised
o The Reformer: Values their own independent judgement/ anti
materialistic
o The Mainstream: Largest group/ core need is security/ live in a
daily routine
o The Struggler: Seek escape/live for today few plans for
tomorrow
o The Resigned: Aim to survive/ predominantly older people

22. Target Audience:
Psychographics Continued
o In relation to Young and Rubicam’s psychographic audience
segmentation model our music video is mots likely to apply to an
audience within the categories of:
o The Explorer: This persona is driven by discovery and challenge
which links to the protagonists of our video exploring the
boundaries of youth and the world whilst experiencing the
challenges of a world which has no place for adolescents as is
voiced in the song “We Try But We Don’t Fit In” by Day Wave.
o The Reformer: The reformer values subverting the norms of society
and materialism which is conveyed through the subculture of youth
rebelling as an artificial tribe.
o The Struggler: The struggler’s characteristics include a carpe diem
attitude of living in the moment which conforms to Gould’s theory
of youth as nihilistic as is conveyed through the reckless smoking
and drinking of the protagonists in our music video.
o Whilst the characters are not exact examples of audience
representation it is an inference of the target audience. Although,
music is often a process of everyday life and thus the audience
could be part of ‘The Mainstream’ psychographic model.

23. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

24. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

25. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

26. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

27. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

28. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

29. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

30. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

31. Target Audience:
Photographic Examples

32. Case Study: RCA Records
o Artist: Nothing But Thieves
o Album: ‘Nothing But Thieves’ (Self Titled)
o Released: 2015
o Genre: Indie rock, alternative rock, psychedelic rock,
experimental rock, math rock, noise rock and dance punk
o Video Type: Narrative, some elements of symbolic
o Sound: Compared to ‘The Neighbourhood’, ‘Radiohead’ and ‘Foals’

33. Case Study: Key Visuals
o The artists themselves only feature briefly in video through the use of
the TV screen so key visuals revolve more so around the protagonists and
symbols.
The first image features the
symbolic sign of the
crucifix.
This links to the theory of
women and domesticity that
places females as housewives
or mothers. It also links to
Vern and Bonnie Bullough
(1993) with the feminine
gender role as the mother.

34. Case Study: Key Visuals
o The artists themselves only feature briefly in video through the use of
the TV screen so key visuals revolve more so around the protagonists and
symbols.
This image features the
performance aspect of the
video which could infer the
influence of media on youth.
The above image shows the
youth smoking to get high in
an attempt to see his dead
mother. It conveys youth as
self-destructive as part of
Ann Gould’s youth theory.

35. Case Study: Other Artists
o RCA records have an eclectic blend of music genres represented under
their label some of which include:
o David Bowie (Art rock, new wave, pop rock, glam rock)
o Kodaline (Indie rock, indie pop, folk rock)
o Foo Fighters (Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock)
o Wolf Alice (Alternative rock)
o Kings of Leon (Indie rock, alternative rock, garage rock)
o Walk The Moon (Pop rock, indie pop, dance-rock)
o Britney Spears (Pop, dance, electropop)
o Ke$ha (Synthpop, electropop, pop-rap, dance)
o Justin Timberlake (Dance-pop)
o Labrinth (Contemporary R&B, hip hop)
o Miley Cyrus (Pop)

36. Case Study: RCA and Indie
o In what way do some of the outlined artists fit the genre?
o Artists including Kodaline and Kings of Leon both fall under the overlapping titles
of indie despite also falling underneath other titles such as rock.
o How does their image meet the audience expectations, are they stereotypical or
counter stereotypes?
o Sundara Karma themselves do not conform to gender stereotypes in that the lead
singer Oscar Lulu often wears make-up including eyeliner and clothing such as fur
coats. One single titled ‘Flame’ features cover art with two of the four members of
the band dressed as females in a family portrait.
o David Bowie also did not conform to most conventions of the time but aligned more
so with glam rock conventions of males wearing glam make-up including the Ziggy
Stardust period.
o What ideas on the visuals could be applied to your video?
o We could include ideas of subverting costume and prop conventions of most music
videos and conform to ideas such as challenging gender ideologies whether with the
means of make-up.

37. Case Study: Other Record
Companies
o Catfish and the Bottlemen: Cocoon
o Island Records (Universal Music Group, founder Chris Blackwell, 1959)
o Communion (American independent company, founder Ben Lovett, 2006)
o Moose Blood: Gum
o Hopeless Records (American independent company, distributor Alternative
Distribution Alliance, 1993)
o No Sleep Records (American independent company, founder Chris Hansen,
2006)
o The Vaccines: Post Break-Up Sex
o Columbia Records (Sony Music Entertainment, 1888)
o Marshall Teller Records (Independent company, founded and run singularly
by Marshall Teller originally a member of the band ‘Great Ytene’, 2010)

38. Case Study: Artist Images
http://faroutmagazine.co.uk/sundara-karma-are-setting-
the-week-alight-with-flame/
http://notionmagazine.com/tag/sundara-karma/
http://www.clashmusic.com/features/sundara-karma-
review-the-singles
http://www.1883magazine.com/music-features/music-
features/sundara-karma