Questionnaires

Linkin Park was the rock band that people were more familiar with than any other - this confirmed the choice of using Linkin Park as our band. We know that people are aware of the band, this shows there is a target audience that will be interested in our video.  

Majority of people said they have or do listen to rock music, Jahquani also went around and asked people whilst they were filling out the questionnaires. Those that do listen to rock music said they listen to it regularly- at least once a week.

In our generation we listen to music everyday intentionally or not, for example when we walk into shops music is playing.

This question shows that there is a target audience for a rock video.

We rarely see rock artists solo- therefore we associate Instruments with rock bands. There is a lead singer, guitarist, a drummer and a pianist. For example this is the band dynamic for Linkin Park. 

Dark, gothic, demonised items or places are related to rock and heavy metal music. We are going to follow the convention.

This question was based on Richard Dyer's utopian theory 

This is  Music videos providing solutions or compensation for inadequacies for the public. The question featured some of the inadequacies that Dyer outlined-exhausted. We didn't include any of the others as we believed that they weren't relevant for the rock video idea we had. 

The results show that the majority of those asked answered that rock music videos make them feel Energetic. This could be down to the bass and tempo of the song and the instruments being heard- as they are up tempo. Also we associate rock concerts with lots of jumping around and loud music, we expect to see the same in their music videos. 

We are not specifically focusing on making our target audience energetic or make them jump around whilst watching our video; we will try to incorporate things that will make them use their brain

(What is coming next).

The results also show that a lot of people thought rock videos make them depressed- we have taken this into account and have incorporated this into our storyboard/plans. For example we have the basic idea of showing the narrative of a boy who is 'One step to the edge'.....

Concerts are energetic

After discussions with the group we decided to use the song One step Closer. As you can see 52% of those asked said they had heard the song for but nearly an equal amount said they hadn't (48%). 

This song featured on Linkin Park's first album- Hybrid Theory. Many successful songs came from this album, one reason why the song we chose may not have been that famous is because it was overshadowed Numb.  This is a very popular song by the band.

On the other hand people may have bought the album because of numb, therefore hearing the song.

As we have evidence that our target audience know the song we will continue to use it.  

The people who answered questionnaires chose bold and colourful as the lighting they prefer to see. I think we should use this to show a contrast and go against the codes and conventions of a rock video. We are used to seeing dark, black and white videos- using colour will be unique. 

dark

Majority of people said fast pace transitions- this would be a effective way of showing the theme of the song.

The song we have chosen is upbeat with an edgy feel, fast pace transitions would compliment the anger, frustration that the character is feeling.

Majority of people said no- they don’t think rock videos portray women in a negative way. This included seeing them being sexualised, portrayed in a stereotypical way, or seeing them as being weak. Many rock video don’t contain images that sexualise women, they mainly focus on men. These men can be part of the band or be the main characters in the narrative story however in Linkin Park - Numb the main protagonist was a girl.

One person in particular wrote on their questionnaire this isn’t R'n'B; this shows that the audience have already associated the sexualisation of women with another genre.

We are sticking with the codes and conventions of rock videos as we are not choosing to portray women in a negative way. Our main protagonist will be male.

Categories of Music Videos

There are three main categories of Music Videos:

1.    Performance based videos

2.    Narrative based videos

3.    Concept based

1.     Performance based video

Performance based videos consist mostly of the band performing throughout the video, showing the band at live performances or in a studio.

Linkin Park uses this in their "Faint" music video.

The video, directed by Mark Romanek and shot in downtown LA, consists of the band performing in front of an audience and a floodlight. This puts them at the centre of attention showing that they  need to be heard even though they aren’t seen concealing mystery towards them as to why they don’t want to be seen. It can also be a representation of them not being seen within their record label as who they actually are. The silhouettes show them as figures performing for an audience as if they are programmed to do it. The audience is consisted of members from the LPU. Almost the entire video is shot from behind the band, allowing the strong lighting to portray them in silhouettes. Therefore, the faces of the band are not shown throughout most of the video, except at the final chorus where the band is then shown from the front after Chester shouts the last chorus shouting that they are there, they will be seen, they will be heard as them the representation of Linkin park. They perform in front of a derelict building structure with graffiti, such as a monstrous version of the Hybrid Theory Soldier and some Linkin Park symbols. The wall symbolized the background of them; they've worked from the streets up to concerts which is the audience and flashing lights in front of them and now they deserve the recognition as Linkin Park not the product of a record label.

2.      Narrative Based Videos

Narrative based videos have a story line throughout the whole video; it contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through moving images. The story is sometimes linked to the lyrical content.

Within Linkin Park’s ‘Crawling’ video narrative based concepts can be seen.  In the video he says ‘I can’t find myself again the walls are closing in’ the video then shows a girl surrounded by a transparent sharp objects that are closing in on her as if she is trap like the lyrics say.  Another lyric says ‘ I've felt this way before so insecure’ the actor in the shower on the floor going into a tight ball implying that she is insecure and scared. Therefore throughout this video lyrics are portrayed to the audience.

  

                                                                      

                    

3.     Concept based videos

These music videos are usually based around one concept or idea. these types of videos are fairly unusual or utilize a particular editing or filming technique.

A video that applies to concept based videos is Linkin Parks ‘Catalyst’.  The idea is to show some sort of battle field between the civilians (public) and masked persons who represent the police force. Its has people consumed by smoke running around, through colourful powder, people wearing gas mask, Chester singing in water with the camera angles being rotated around and in symmetrical view showing a reflection on the water whilst Mike is hooded in a car singing then to the band playing in the smoke as well. Whereas the lyrics say:

‘God bless us everyone
We're a broken people living under loaded gun
And it can't be outfought
It can't be out done
It can't be out matched
it can’t be out run

No’

This is a contrast to the lyrics making it random.