Influential texts and questions

As I have chosen the ‘alternative’ genre for my music video I require audience feedback, to do this it needs to be rich in data, facts and statistics; therefore I will ask questions that will produce lots of qualitative data alongside my chosen examples. This is because I want to know exactly what the audience think of my chosen genre and influential texts, as well as existing music videos, so I can gather a greater understanding of what I will need to do to reach my target audience’s expectations.

This is Eliza Doolittle’s video to her song ‘Pack Up’. I have chosen this as one of my influential texts/videos because it contains similar codes and conventions to what I want to feature in my own video – for example the beginning of the video it is set in a field, I want this convention to feature in mine because I like the way in which it looks once edited and pieced together.

This is a piece of art work by an artist called Sonia Delaunay. I really enjoy looking at her work, because it’s unique and entirely different to many other pieces of art work you usually see. I feel this is extremely influential for me as it provides me with a different type of inspiration other than a music video or song; I get to look at colours, style and presentation – for example the background used is only plain but a vast amount of bold colours have been used too, to make it stand out more. I feel these kinds of ‘alternative’ and ‘distinctive’ elements are what I would like to feature within my own music video.

This is the music video to Florence and The Machine’s song ‘Rabbit Heart’. Although the narrative running throughout the video is totally different to my chosen song, I believe many of the codes and conventions are similar and therefore have an influential effect on me; for example: the fact that there are many uses of close up shots and extreme close up shots, I like this aspect of filming as I believe you can get a clearer image of what the actor’s emotions are and what they’re thinking too through their facial expressions. Also I like the way in which there are ‘angel’ type characters featured throughout the video too, not only does this give an eerie aspect to the narrative and performance, but it adds a unique element only featured within the ‘alternative’ music genre and this is what I’d quite like to feature in my own music video too, proving this video’s influential character.

This is the film trailer to the 2010, Tim Burton adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. The mise-en-scene features within this trailer are somewhat similar to what I would like to include in my music video. For example the strange and wacky make-up; hairstyles and costumes all connote the alternative market in which I want to reach out to. I also like the way in which there are many hidden tricks and features that are not visible on first glance such as the patterns on the toadstools and the detailed amount of food on the dining table. Unfortunately I cannot use animation in the same way Burton has and therefore the props I use and other mise-en-scene attributes as well as editing and cinematography techniques too will add to the quality of my production.

 
Looking at each of these influential texts; I now need feedback of the audience’s thoughts and feelings about each of them by answering these questions:

1. What is most appealing about each of the texts you have seen?
2. Looking at the two music videos what are your thoughts about the editing techniques used, what about the quality?
3. Do your expectations meet what you first anticipated for the two music videos and the film trailer?
4. Looking at all of the texts would you change anything about any of them?
5. Do you prefer something with abstract, narrative, performance or animated connotations? You can choose however many you like, please elaborate which and why.
6. Do you think the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film trailer is good influential text to use and base some of my music video ideas on?
7. What type of visuals do you see when you listen to my chosen song?