Development of Planning

Its clear through research and analysis of different Indie videos, that certain shots, editing and types of mise-en-scene would suit our video perfectly. 

One of the ideas that came through recently was split screening, by having the artist telling the story on one side and having the protagonist and the narrative on the other side. This has been used in a number of indie videos and in addition they use narrative as well. 

Another idea is to contrast Urban and Natural, by reflecting his feelings and the mood of the song. This is used in Jason Mraz's song 'I'm yours' which is a great example of the convention working well, by showing the bad and good things in his life (Binary Opposition). 

Another idea that we have come up with for our video is a 'God figure' (http://aimeekmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/omniscience-god-figure-idea.html) , this has also been used in a number of genres and a countless number of videos. Daniel Powters 'Bad Day' is an example where the artist plays a godly figure and narrates the story. 'Divine intervention' is also a possibility as it would mean the godly figure has a part to play in the story and not just a narrative role. The 'godly figure' also works well with the split-screen as seen in the 'Bad Day' video.

Music Video Techniques... Omniscience/ God Figure Idea

An idea that our group has had for our Music Video is the effect of Omniscience or a God Like Figure; which is a Micro-Element of Music Videos and Media Studies. Omniscience means 'having total knowledge' of the situation, therefore in the scenes of a music video the omniscient narrator will know what is going on in the narrative and tell the story through the lyrics of the song.

We will use this in our Music Video by having the singer as the narrator of the narrative but the characters involved will act like he is not there. An example of a Music Video that uses this is 'Bad Day' where the singer Daniel Powter is the narrator of the love story.

One of the main features we liked about this Music Video is editing technique of the cut between the narrative and the performance in the same location. This consisted of the singer and the characters on the same train but the editing of the video made it seem as if the narrator is singing non diagetically, but from the audience's point of view they are aware that the lyrics are relating to the couple and the situation.

To address this in our music video, we will include this at the start of the song where the lyrics say 'Go to sleep my love, I'll watch over us'. This will help us introduce the idea of the narrator being separated
from the narrative of the video by showing he has the knowledge of the story through the lyrics and use of lip syncing.

Mike Dignam Demographics

As our chosen artist is Mike Dignam, I decided to look into his demographics and get to know his audience and how he has developed his appreciation and type of audience. At now 23 years old, mike has received a lot of attention through his music and has highly developed his popularity through Web 2.0 as social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been widely used by his target audience, therefore giving him an advantage in gaining followers. I first found Mike when I was scanning through Spotify where I was listening to some similar artists and Spotify suggested some artist that were related to his style of music. I watched a few videos of his work via YouTube, of him singing some covers of songs which I really enjoyed. 

Focusing on his way of gaining popularity through Twitter, he has over 11,500 followers, which shows that he is fairly known around the UK.

From looking at his followers and picking a random a bunch of them, I found out that the majority of them are girls, perhaps due to the love songs he writes and his masculinity. It appears only a few males follow him.
I then looked at his YouTube page and discovered that he is fairly known through YouTube as he has gained over 8,000 subscribers and regularly updates his page with recent gig videos and covers that he has made of popular songs in the charts. Looking at the representation of his YouTube page, it seems that he has provided his fans with a UK "Heart to Heart Tour" where he travels around the UK not only performing to a small number of people but meeting and greeting them which gives the pleasure of him and his fans of gaining appreciation.

I also took a look at some of the comments some of his viewers and fans have made below his videos. I looked at one of his most popular songs 'Great Escape' which has gained over 56,000 views. The comments include positive opinions such as; "Wow this is amazing", "Can't wait for the tour!", "Quality" and similar others.





All these positive responses say that Mike is a popular musician with a reliable fan base and this shows that our audience is of a similar type and age.

Similar Artists to Mike Dignam Part II

John Mayer
John Mayer is an American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist and producer; his genre is Folk Rock/ Indie which is similar to our Artists, Mike Dignam's, different songs. As Dignam John Mayer has a certain individuality and diversity in his music, but is still using the stereotypical convention of Indie, a Guitar; although he performs with a mixture of Electric and Acoustic. Like Josh Radin, John Mayer has been associated with Columbia Records, who are more 'mainstream' but have not always been signed by them as he also worked with Arista Records and Aware Records.

John Mayer's career started way back in 2000 where he started gaining major label and commercial success, throughout his rocky music career he has released many CD's, EP's and Singles. He has also won many Grammy and MTV Music Awards.


'Wildfire' is one of John Mayer's recent releases, so I have decided to look at the video on YouTube and see the views, responses, comments and likes that it has received; this will give be an insight into his Audience and Demographics.

Unsurprisingly due to his success, the video has already received over 1.2 Million views, over 9,000 Likes and 1,224 Comments. These comments are by Males and Females with the Ages being between 20-28.

Similar Artists to Mike Dignam

Ben Howard

Ben Howard is a British Singer/Songwriter, his genre is Indie Folk which is similar to our artist Mike Dignam, as he has a soulful voice and includes his guitar in most of his songs; additionally as you can see he is using it in his live performance. Howard is classed as an Indie Artist firstly of his music, image and overall look and because he is not signed by a 'mainstream; record label; his record company is Island Records.

Since 2008, Ben Howard has released several singles, EP's and has released an Album which has lead him to win two BRIT Awards and he was Nominated for a Mercury. He is only one of the few 25 year olds that have cracked the US and taken America by storm.

'Keep Your Head Up' and ' The Wolves' are popular singles that he has released, and all charted. Ben Howard may be the most famous British Folk Singer of his time, which makes him a similar Artist that Mike Dignam may aspire too.
Demographics

I decided to look into the statistics of his song, Only Love which has over 5 Million views, and over 2,500 Comments. These comments seem to be more commonly from Females, but as Ben Howard is one of the biggest British Indie Artists he is very popular by Ben also; these females seem to be between 13-24 and then males are between 18-24. I believe the lyrics and meanings of his songs attract many different age ranges as they are about love, relationships and tough times, which is easily relate able.

I looked on Ben Howard's Facebook page and you can see his like page is very popular due to over 500,000 people Like this, and over 8,000 have talked about him. The most popular fans on his Facebook Page are ages between 18-24 again, which links to the Demographics from his Facebook Page.


Through this fans are able to keep up with his Tour Dates, upcoming new music and any personal updates. A lot of the younger generations use these social networking sites so it help to keep in touch.

I had a quick look at Ben Howard's Twitter and Twitter followers, which are more than 345,000, not as many as Facebook but are still a large about. A mixture of males and females are shown to be Following him, with a small collection of Indie Artists and Indie Radio Station DJ's, such as Fearne Cotton

Josh Radin

Josh Radin is  an American Recording Artist/ Songwriter, his genre is  Acoustic Indie, and he   also uses a guitar in most of his performances and songs along with his whisper, silver bell voice. Radin's career started in 2004 as he was signed with Columbia Records ,which issued his Album 'We Were Here' in 2006, he was then signed by Mom + Pop Music, an independent record label based in New York.

Josh Radin decided in 2004 to take a stab at  songwriting and played one of his earliest compositions 'Winter' to his friend Zach Braff. Braff to an immediate liking to the song and as an Actor /Director he eventually used it in  his hit television show 'Scrubs'. After fan were requesting more music  from him, which encouraged him to  pursue his career in the Music Industry by making it his main job. 

One of Josh Radin's marketing styles that he made was in 2006 when he exclusively released his Album ' We Were Here' to iTunes for a month, before attracting attention from Major Labels. From this Radin has received high reviews from  magazines such as Rolling Stones. He has released several Ep's and 5 Albums, four by Mom + Pop Music; additionally his music has appeared in several T.V shows and Films.

Demographics

I decided to look into Josh Radin's song 'I'd Rather Be With You' and the demographics of the video. It has over 3.5 Million views and 1,500 Comments. These comments again seem to be slightly more female based but there is an obvious mix of Females and Males comments, indicating he is the 'Ben Howard' of America as he attracts a wider range of Genders and Age's. His YouTube Page initially helped these fans find his new and upcoming Music, these fans seem to be of a younger Age that would spend a lot of time on YouTube, these seem to be slightly older than Ben Howard, 18-27.

I looked on Josh Radin's Facebook Page and this page is not as popular as I would of imagined but I believe it is because the Audience are slightly older than Ben Howard. Over 330,000 Likes and nearly 4,000 People have talked about this, the comments again are from the age range we found on his YouTube.

This page again can  help him keep in contact on all media platforms.

I also looked at Josh Radin's Twitter Page and unsurprisingly found that he has again not as many Followers, but less generations use Twitter as their social Networking site. He has nearly 73,000 Followers, who again are a mixture of Males and Females. Radin also has a celebrity follower, Ellen DeGeneres, which looks good for his Audience.

Meeting and Early Planning of Music Video

In our most recent video out Group Brainstormed and deliberated on our Music Video; we came up with the conclusion that we need to deliver 360 Degree Branding. Thanks to technical and media convergence 'stars' and Artists need to work harder than ever to advertise their image and represent themselves.
This means being consistent across a range or all media platforms.
We started thinking about- How are we going to 'market' our Product? and What 'overall' appeals are we going to have?

We started by Brainstorming and Initially getting an idea of our music video, how our Artist wants to be seen, and what conventions will be used.

This is our Brainstorming Board-

May have found a song?

Our Group have managed to find a song that we may be able to use to create a Music Video. We have contacted the Artist himself to see if we can use his song which we found through Spotify; The song is called I'll Lie Here by Mike Dignam. Dignam is not well known but Artists that can be compared to him are Ben Howard and Daughter, the Genre these Artists share is Acoustic Indie, but this specific song can be classed as Indie Pop Due to the Upbeat Tune.

This is the Emails that have been sent and received in order to gain permission to create a music video for the Artist, Mike Dignam's Single.

Due to the lack of a music video already we can be creative in making an original Music Video for this Artist. We will portray the individuality and personality of the Artist as best we can and represent him in the way he feels is 'him'. The Lyrics can create a narrative for this song as the Indie Acoustic Genre focuses on the Lyrics and meaning of the song more than showing off the Artist and Creating a image for them, very alike Pop does.

Album Cover Genre - Indie Acoustic

By researching into the Indie Acoustic theme our group created a mood board which we felt best represents the theme overall. Examples of the Artists we found who use the Indie theme are Lucy Rose, Kodaline, Haim and Angus & Julia Stone.

As you can see the images that feature on the Album cover are extremely artistic and photography seems to play a big role in the Indie Acoustic genre.

The majority of the Albums have a bright but soft colour palette which gives the Albums a feel of calm, light and vintage feel which seems to be a familiar convention of a Indie Acoustic cover or image. The sun seems to play an important role in a lot of these covers also, which gives the covers a natural and organic feel without boarding onto Folk and Country music.

Although two of the covers as shown are in Black and White giving the intention that it has a 'back to basics' feel and that the music is all that matters, but the Artists are still very dominant on the cover showing that it is their voice and their music. Lastly the middle image is has a completely different feel to it, as the background image of the Artist is in black and white, but his name is multi-coloured in paint running down the wall.

I feel I have touched upon some of the Conventions of an Indie Acoustic cover but here are some more -
+ Unique
+ Artistic
+ Western
+ Country
+ 1 or 2 People, unless it is the Artist