Target Audience for Jenny & Johnny

Who is the target audience for your genre?

My group has chosen to make a music video for the song ‘Switchblade’ by ‘Jenny & Johnny’. The genre for this song would be ‘Alternative Rock’. This genre is most common for teenagers and young adults in an age bracket of 13-25, the song appeals to both males and females but would be probably listened to more by females.

What will your target audience expect from your music video (genre expectations)?

As described above the target audience is of a teenage/young adult age. This means that they will expect a certain ‘feel’ from the song and the music video. The conventions of ‘Alternative Rock’ music videos are as followed:

The themes of the videos are either very performance based and are located on some random setting, for instance performing on a mountain top or in the middle of the street or are very low key and are based in a more enclosed backdrop such as a rehearsal room. The actual themes of the videos are varied by each band; each band seems to have their own style which they stick to. For example, a theme on sex, drugs and alcohol could be mainstream for one band where as a form of a love story would be the usual for another band. However any themes normally have so form of twist on them, e.g. a love story between household appliances.

The camera shots that would be expected from an ‘Alternative Rock’ music video would be close ups on the band members and on their instruments if they have any. Extreme close ups are also used to show for example the lead singers mouth singing the main chorus line. Panning shots and wide shots are used to show the location of the video along with hand held shots that are shot to look very amateurish as the style for the songs are laid back.

The editing of ‘Alternative Rock’ music video generally has clean cut transitions with straight cuts with lots of shots to create a fast pace that goes to the music beat. More technical wipes and transitions are used to great effect in this genre’s music videos however if used too much they eventually becoming bland and boring.

The band members styling isn’t usually that abnormal. As the genre is very casual and laid back the artists will be styled to appear that no styling has taken place and that they have just worn whatever they like. For example, a lead singer wearing a t-shirt, jeans and skater shoes. The colours of an ‘Alternative Rock’ music video tend to be dark colours such as browns, blacks and greys. But using stand out colours can be used very effectively, such as creating a black and white music video with the artists dressed in red.

Johnny & Jenny At Home - Spin Magazine Interview

This is an interview we found on YouTube of our band at home. In the video the band talk about personal items that are important to them and have some kind of sentimental value to them which shows a more personal side to them than their fans would probably be used to seeing. I think this would help their fans connect with the artists but because the items are quite quirky and vintage (the cassette tape, for example) they maintain their usual image.

Jenny & Johnny Interview

Jenny & Johnny talk about the influences for their songs for example how a random thing such as a car sticker can give a album name. They also talk about their relationship outside of working together as a band.

Wordle Fact Graphic

As described in the post below, in class we were shown a website www.wordle.net. By inputting a block of text it picked out the most recurring words, and those with appeared importance to the band Jenny & Johnny. The colour scheme was focused on the 1950's/1960's in the retro bright colours. The text font is quite scribble like to look like its casually done.

In our media class today we used wordle to create a cluster of words that related to our band by using a article on the band from there website. We changed the font, layout and colour of the text to make a good composition that reflects our artist style. During our research into Jenny&Johnny's style we discovered that red, blue, black and white are recurring colors which is why we decided to use them for our text. 

Taking photo's

Today I went out to take some photo's of a location that we might be using for our film. I didn't take as many as I hoped as there were some people on the band stand, that made it hard to take some good photo's. This might be a hard place to shoot as there might be a few people around when we shoot. But when we shoot at the right time of the day it might not be so bad.

Possible Video Influences

In our music video we are having a street scene and instruments being played. We are also having a scene in a bedroom. In the following music video for the song 'Whistle for the Choir' by The Fratellis, the opening 40 seconds shows the lead singer lay in the road, appearing to be waking up before singing and playing the opening of the song. As a group we could use this video as influence for our own street and sleeping scenes.

Choosing Locations

For our music video we require three seperate locations, a house, a street and a park. As a group we have been considering the best locations to use for this. So far we have decided to use my house as our "house" location, particularly because it is close to where our actors live therefore it is more conveniant for them and means we don't have to worry about arranging transport for them. We also think that it is aestetically appropiate for our video. The second location we have chosen for our video is Victoria Park in Ilkeston for our park scenes. This is because it is conveniant for most of group members and actors to get to and it also looks the part. We also liked this park because it has a bandstand which we think will lend itself to some really interesting shots. At the moment we are still debating between two possibilites for our street scene so I will blog about that when we come to a final decision. Happy Wednesday :)

Filming Dates

Last week our group met up to decide on a date to film the first part of our video. We chose the afternoon of Wednesday 9th October as we were all free on this date. We confirmed that the date was ok for our actors and location and were all set to go ahead. However, when speaking to one of our actors today they informed me that they would no longer be able to film on this date as they would be too busy. They were very apologetic and we understand that sometimes circumstances change and this was unavoidably. We are now hoping to shoot on Tuesday 8th October instead.

Beth's CD Covers

Belle & Sebastian - If Your Feeling Sinister



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Bronwyn CD Covers

Best Coast

Best Coast CD cover is suitable for their genre of indie rock, as first look on the CD cover you know it's not a pop artist, as they don't have a photograph of them on the front cover. Where as most pop artist do. And you know it's not heavy rock or metal, as it doesn't show dark colours or consumption for that genre. We know it's going to be indie as it has that quirky old school style to the cover as they've used a pop art effect. 

The pop art affect it effective as they've used collage to design their cover. It's different to other CD covers, as it's got no reference to music as it's a beach with a cat on it but it has a reference to their name, as 'Coast' in their band name means a part of land near the sea. The lettering of the bands name (Best Coast) is cut out of a map, which works with the theme of their band name being a place and it works well. The colours are colourful and eye catching, as they are bright. 

It's a good CD cover as they've followed the theme through out the CD. With the CD having the cat designed on. And the back using the same collage parts from the front cover, with the titles of songs written in old typewriters effect to keep with the old school vintage look.

As the CD cover doesn't have the band on the front cover it shows they are a niche band as there not in to having the focus on them it's all about their music. They are probably signed to an independent label as when studding the music industry last year. Artist that were signed to a big recording label had them self but on the CD cover too.

Florence and the Machine

'Florence and the Machine' have a slightly different genre style to 'Jenny and Johnny', although they are an indie band they are still more pop and it's a British indie band where as 'Jenny and Johnny' are American, so there's going to be some difference. 

Florence and the Machine CD cover for the album 'Lungs' is artistic and vintage. It fits with Florence vintage image with the clothing she's wearing and the background of the mise-en-scene is a vintage old curtain with birds and flowers in the background. The colouring of the front cover has a pastel effect and the black background makes the colour stand out. It's got an artistic look as the album is called 'lungs', Florence has a lungs necklace on her chest to represent the album covers name. With her being on the front cover it does show she’s more of a pop artist and that she is signed to one of the ‘Big Four’.

The theme of ‘lungs’ does follow through the whole album cover as at the back they’ve got a sketch of lungs drawn on a black board. I like how they’ve been artist again by labeling the songs to different parts of the lungs as if it’s a diagram at school. 

 

Digipak Cover Research

Wye Oak



Wye Oak's digipaks are all appropriatte to their genre which is 'indie folk' and 'indie rock'. Their music has been described as "earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream pop". Wye Oak's folk background is shown in the digipak through the use of the natural settings such as the tree branches and the silouettes of the children pointing towards the wood. This isn't a typical digipak that a band such as the Artic Monkey's would produce though even though they are classed in the same genre, 'indie rock'. Wye Oak's image isn't depicted on the digipaks but their photo shoots show pictures that are uncommon. For example the picture below right, shows the bands members faces dubbed onto each others faces and blurred, this creates a whacky sense that their music creates aswell. The other photo shows them upside down which isn't the usual way of photographing a band as it is very casual and a playful way of taking photographs. This shows that they want to stand out and be recognised by what they believe and what they stand for, not just what is the fashionable pose or style of digipaks.






The Futureheads



The Futurehead's digipaks are very basic in designs as their image portrays a very casual band that like to have fun as shown in the images of the band below. The appropriatness of the digipak to their indie rock/punk rock genre is very good, quite specifically to the indie genre as the alternative aspect makes their image very different to that of say pop music. The digipak shows the word 'AREA' in very large font with the text coloured by images that show the casual lifestyle that The Futureheads' depicit through their music.
The Futureheads' are known for black and white pictures or ones with sepia effects. Even though the band pictures below are neither the poses that they are photographed in show that they aren't the usual boyband. This is also shown in the contrast of the cd front cover to the back cover, the front cover shows the text 'AREA' with the back showing the consumer the details abour the single/album in full. The digipak sells the artist very well by showing the consumer that they will get pure music which fits within the genre without the extra perks that try to sell the music for what it might not be. The image of the band isn't compromised to be the lastest big thing, as they know that they have a certain image and the digipaks and photo shoots relay that image well.