Digipak Analysis

Target Audience

Using my audience research survey results and my own knowledge, I have compiled information about the target audience of the music video I will be creating. 

Below/right: Photos of my chosen artist (Halsey) with some of her fans. 

My target audience will be people aged 16-20: teenagers and young adults. This group will mostly consist of females, as the artist I have chosen to make a music video for has a predominantly female fanbase. My target audience will be mostly students, (whether that is university, school or college), as people within my target age group are more likely to be students than to have any other particular occupation.  I also noticed that 'Student' was the most popular occupation in the results of my audience research survey, which backs up my decision to have a target audience consisting mainly of students. 

I searched 'Halsey with fans' on Google, and the majority of photos that I found showed the artist with young, female fans. This supports my decision to aim my music video towards a mostly female audience between the ages of 16 and 20, as the majority of the fans in photos with the artist fit into this demographic. The majority of people who took my audience research survey were females aged 16-20, which means that I have the most firsthand information on the interests and opinions of this demographic, making it easier for me to produce a music video and digipak tailored to them.

I created the set below using Polyvore to demonstrate the style of clothing and the general aesthetic of a typical Indie Pop music fan. As Indie Pop is quite a new and innovative genre with sonic and lyrical influences from past decades, I tried to make the clothing set I made reflect this.

I created this music magazine cover to represent the interests of my target audience. I used Lorde as the cover star as she is currently the most well-known Indie Pop musician around, so would attract a wide audience, including people who were not familiar with the genre. My audience research revealed that most people watch music videos because they are a fan of the artist, which is why I included the mention of the artist I have chosen to create a music video and digipak for on the cover of the magazine. I also included several other Indie Pop artists, to emphasise that my magazine is aimed at people who enjoy this particular genre of music.
On the left side of the image, I have included a cover line of 'BFI Film Festival 2015'. This would appeal to my target audience, as people who are interested in Indie Pop music are likely to also be interested in Indie (independent) films, as they support the idea of not selling out to major corporations. My audience research survey also showed that the main entertainment interest people had was films, results indicating that films were 7.14% more popular than TV shows and 23.81% more popular than music videos. This was another reason that I included mention of something film-related on the cover of the magazine. The cover line underneath the mention of the BFI Film Festival- 'When Youth Takes Over' has been included to represent the age range of my target audience. Underneath this, the feature mentions 'young creators'. I think that this represents my target audience as young fans of a genre as interesting and innovative as Indie Pop are likely to be quite creative and individual themselves, so reading about people who share their interests would be relevant to them.
I chose a simplistic colour scheme, font and layout for this magazine cover as I wanted it to reflect the typical style of an Indie Pop music video. The soft-toned and muted colour scheme of my magazine cover matches that of an Indie Pop video, and the simple font doesn't distract attention from the cover image, which I think is the most important feature of my magazine cover. I used the tagline 'Independent Music. Innovative Ideas. New Perspectives.' underneath the masthead of my magazine to give an overall summary of what it is about. I think that this really sums up the genre of Indie Pop and what it stands for, so as a result, the magazine would appeal to an Indie Pop fan. 

FILMS THAT WOULD INTEREST MY TARGET AUDIENCE: 
My target audience would most likely be interested in independent or 'indie' films such as the examples listed below. As I mentioned previously, people who are interested in Indie Pop music are likely to be interested in this particular style of film as they support what the term 'independent' stands for in the entertainment industry.

Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 2014)

Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)

Stuck In Love (Josh Boone, 2012)

Planning My Music Video: Storyboard (Shots 1-15)

Planning My Music Video: Animatic Storyboard

Permission From Our Chosen Artist

In order to use the song 'Colors' by Halsey for our music video, we had to be granted permission by the artist, their label, or the copyright holder. Our friend sent Halsey a direct message on Twitter, asking for permission on our behalf. As you can see in the screenshot below, Halsey is happy to let us use her song!

Audience Research- Outcomes and Feedback

Having created an audience research survey and collected a significant number of responses, I decided to use meta-chart.com to present my data in a way that was easy to interpret and analyse.

GENDER:

This pie chart clearly shows that the majority (81.4%) of my respondents were female. This result is also representative of Halsey's fanbase (which has a female majority), so indicates that the information gathered from my survey will be especially relevant and useful when making our music video. A notable amount of my respondents were male, so I think that it is important that we aim our video at both genders, so as not to alienate the male audience. We will subtly gear our music video more towards the female majority by having a female lead.

AGE:

The most common age of my respondents by far was 16-20 years old (claiming 46.51% of the vote). This result also represents the majority of my chosen artist (Halsey)'s fan base and is the age range that I myself am a part of, meaning that I will be able to use my own views, experiences and opinions in order to make our music video appeal to this age group. 

OCCUPATION:

My survey results show that the most popular occupation amongst my respondents was 'Student'. Given that the most common age range of my respondents was 16-20 years old, this result did not surprise me. I want to be sure that our music video will appeal to this demographic, so it will not be over-produced to ensure that the video is relatable to them.  

INTERESTS:
I asked my respondents what their favourite form of entertainment was, given the choices 'TV Shows', 'Films', 'Music Videos' and 'Other'. The majority (48.84%) of the voters chose Films as their preferred form of entertainment, with TV Shows following closely with 39.53% of the votes. In order to appeal to these interests, we will try and include editing or filming techniques that are reminiscent of these forms of entertainment. 







REASONS FOR WATCHING MUSIC VIDEOS:

This portion of my audience research survey revealed that the majority of respondents stated that they watch music videos because they are a fan of the artist. The second most popular answer was enjoying the style of the video (for example, concept, narrative, performance etc.), with a significant difference between the two most popular choices in terms of the number of votes. This result shows that it will be important for us to follow the artist's aesthetic when making our music video, as statistically, fans of the artist are the people who would be most likely to watch the video. This means that we need to pay attention to what fans like about the artist and her work and ensure that this is not lost when creating our video and digipak. 


I asked participants what particular qualities they liked about music videos, and some common responses were:

• New and interesting concepts that capture your attention
• Originality
• Clear and skilled camerawork
• Something that is memorable and thought-provoking
• Imagination
• Relation to the lyrics
• Good atmosphere

Similarly, I asked participants what qualities they did not like about music videos. The most popular response by far was 'the sexualisation of women'. Some other common responses were:

• Lip synching
• Dance routines
• Cliches 
• Violence
• Sexual portrayals/innuendos/too much nudity

This part of my audience research was especially helpful, as I now know what qualities to include and what qualities to avoid when making our music video. Typically, the genre of Indie Pop is not known for the overly sexual portrayal of women, and our own video will not be excluded from this. Having a target audience that consists of mostly young women would mean that including the sexual exploitation of women in our music video would cause them to feel violated and uncomfortable, which is something we do not want. 
Our aim is to make our video appeal to a demographic who find it increasingly difficult to relate to stars and celebrities due to the mass increase in the widespread use of social media to share the apparent extravagance of their lives. To achieve this, we will ensure that our video is shot in an everyday, relatable setting such as on a street or a train. We will still use high quality camera equipment, however, to ensure that our video retains a professional quality. 
To prevent our video from being overly cliched, we will try and make sure that our ideas are creative, original and interesting. We will provide creative interpretations of the song's lyrics for our audience in order to fulfil their expectations of a memorable, attention-grabbing music video. 

Audience Research Survey

Survey Maker

Intertextuality Within Music Videos

After conducting research into intertextuality, I have decided that it will be unlikely that I will include any significant intertextual references in my music video. While including references to film and pop culture in music videos has the benefit of increased recognition and memorability, I don't think that this particular feature of a music video will fit well with my chosen song and genre.