Focus Group Responses To The Rough Cut Of Our Chase And Status' Music Video

Focus group on first video

person one's main comments: narrative is confusing at times; like letter boxing done but perhaps make the section chosen bigger so can see more of the fag being put out and perhaps lighten it so you can see more of what is going on; like the sped up scenes through london at night and going through the underground

person two's main comments: more of argument scene; shorten clips in pit gig to keep up with tempo of music; love how it starts and ends with chloe being upset.

person three's main comments: when fading harrison in, fully fade him in so you cant see so much of the date scene; really like the shot of harrison at the end where the camera goes from a stage light down to him singing on a block.

person four main comments: cut the pit rave in time with tempo; love the ending where chloe and harry are seen using a steady cam looking back on their relationship.

Person five main comments: like the fast cuts and drug scenes as well the feel of it being cheaply made as It fits to the steroeotypical way of looking at a conventional drum and bass music video.

Through these comments me and molly can now move on and improve more of our video to suit the target audience the most we can. 

Focus Group Responses To Chase And Status' Music Video

I gathered a random group of people from the sixth form and asked them what they thought of the chase and status video and the music, showing them the video first of all then listening to their feed back. I asked 4 different people the same questions...
whats your favourite genre of music?
what do you enjoy about this music video?
what do you dislike about this music video?
and...
what do you think would be good ideas to include in my version of this music video?

Horizontal And Vertical.

Within our music video we have made two intertextual links to other music videos and films through horizontal and vertical intertextuality. We feel this allows us to connect to our target audience more as we share the same target audience within both of these examples.

Chase And Status Pieces.

Within our music video we plan to create a scene in which the girlfriend and boyfriend are messing around together having fun and reflecting on how happy they used to be as he kisses her on the cheek using a steady cam, which is similar as to what happens in the music video we are using (Chase And Status Pieces) where he is looking back on the time him and his girlfriend enjoyed together and how happy they were having fun whilst he kisses her on the cheek during his birthday party.

Date Night (film)

We also plan to use vertical references to the film 'Date Night' in which there is a couple seen on a date enjoying themselves, looking loved up and happily chatting away over a candle with dimmed lighting, we plan to use this shot as the girlfriend is seen cheating on her boyfriend with another male having a candle lit dinner in her house. 

Audience Research - Youtube.

Audience research and statistics from Youtube.

Chase And Status Ft. Plan B - Pieces Statistics. 

Sub Focus - Rock It Statistics.

Sub Focus - Airplanes Statistics.

Nero - Lost In The Jungle Statistics.

This Research has shown me the main target audience and fan base is within Males of a age group of 18 - 24 and a small majority of Females aged 13 - 17 and with most of the videos getting quite high views and little dislikes it connotes the popularity of the 'Drum and Bass' industry and a wide fan base. With this research it is easy to know who our target audience is and how to accompany to their wants and needs.

Audience Research

Here are some screen shots from various fan sites on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as fan clubs on Chase And Status personal 'Members Area' page and youtube.

 This has shown me that they have a very wide fan base and could be said they are very mainstream (within the ages of older teenager / young adult) people as they seem to be up to date with the new technology and advertising on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which are famously known for being very popular within the younger generation.  

How Gender Is Represented In Chase And Status' Music Video

Within End Credits we see Plan B speaking down to the female police officer 'Fuck You' with a smirk on his face pronouncing his complete disrespect for the opposite sex and further in force's this ideology by going on to violently attack a woman in a alley way forcing her to kiss him reflecting his though process of women been seen as a object.


This video again reinforces the ideology that women are objects whilst they are laughing at the police whilst they drink, take drugs and attend illegal raves exclaiming their total utter disrespect for the law.


This video Let You Go see's women in a lower class role reflecting the status of those women who appear on Jeremy Kyle as well as being seen as a object. As a parody of the british tv drama Jeremy Kyle giving a vertical intertextuality link the music video pronounces the idea that use of drugs sex and drink is good for you.


Within my chosen music video the women are seen as the antagonist and again playing a lower class role with drink sex and violence involved the woman are constantly pronounce as the main problem. This has shown me a good representation of how i should play out the roles of men and women within my narrative. Due to the fact these videos have represented women in a lower class role, involving sex, drugs and violence with the women seen as the antagonist and the problem to most men, as our target audience is mainly male I feel we should include these stereotypes within our music video to satisfy our target audiences wants and needs.

Target Audience

Here is a questionnaire I found on the internet in which she asked people what genre of music they liked and if thy liked drum and bass what they did on their Saturday night and what was their personal view on drugs, the results told me the majority of people who liked drum and bass would spend their Saturday night partying and thought it was cool to do drugs and would advise other people to do it. Therefore this has given me a insight as to what to include within my music video, which is why we are probably going to have a a gig scene where the main male in seen partying and is seen selling drugs to abide by our target audiences wants and needs.

After watching a few of Chase And Status' music videos (for example their song Pieces) it became apparent that the female is usually seen as the antagonist within many situations which occur within their videos, therefore me and Molly have given the role of the antagonist to our leading female as we believe it will work within our narrative and appeal to our target audience.

Four texts which are of similar genre or form to our music video.

Genre Type: Drum and Bass - Similar Genre

Song: Modestep - Sunlight
Genre : Drum and Bass.
Genre Theory :
How It Links To My Music Video : Same Genre.
Analysis :


Song: Matt Cardle - When We Collide. Performance and Narrative.
Genre Theory: Macro Genres
How It Links To My Music Video: It involves a narrative and a performance in which me and my partner wish to include in our music video.
Analysis: This music video is a Hybrid Genre containing both elements of performance and narrative. The narrative can be seen cut in and out throughout as we follow matts journey through the x factor and how he got to where he was. We also see him singing on a stage with no-one else but him and his guitar which is what signify's him as a person. This fits in within macro genre theory's as 2 of the 4 possible options creating macro genres (being narrative, performance, experimental and animation) are involved within the piece.


Song : Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) Performance And Narrative
Genre Theory : Macro Genres
How It Links To My Music Video : Last Friday Night consists of narrative and performance just like my music video,
Analysis : This Hybrid Genre contains elements of performance and narrative within it. The performance element is seen when Katy and her friends are drunk and dancing to music as well as when she's singing at the beginning "theres a stranger in my bed" whilst sitting on her bed after partying the night before at 0:57 seconds in, however the narrative develops throughout as we see her knock on her next door neighbours house and enters the party, we then go on to see get drunk and bring everyone back to her house, this narrative takes us across a series of events which slowly become apparent throughout the media text. The use of narrative and performance has allowed me to analyse the media text within terms of macro genres as narrative, performance, experimental and animation come together to create macro genres on a whole and narrative and performance are a big part of the majority of music videos and in particular my music genre of Drum and Bass.

generic conventions, from my AS film intro.

Add caption

 Horror Film Conventions And Code:

Generic conventions are the features shown by a media text that allow them to be put into a specific genre categories for example almost all horrors use the iconography of darkness, death and isolated settings.

Horrors are stereotypically known as "unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers" Therefore i have used these codes to create my own horror.
By using a pan around of a deserted playground it intertwines with the same codes and conventions as other horrors for example (pictured in High Tension ^.)

 "Captured"        Screen Shot from my production>
The use of the pan around reflects the emptiness of the playground and the contrast between 5 seconds early from the children playing and laughing and the obvious movement as if the laughter has been sucked from it with the hidden toy secretly swinging on the swing which pulls on the emotions creating a fear in wonder as to what has happened to the children (protagonists). By challenging the emotions and thoughts of womans motherly insinct there is parts in which our horror challanges the codes and conventions of that of a horror.

The Close - up creates the focus clearly on one subject controlling the audience's thought matter, The use of dark and limited light creates a dark and dull atmosphere creating tension and anticipation on the viewer, wanting to know what will happen next and where the only light source will lead them obeying the original codes and conventions of a horror film.

Get Ahead OCR Media

Today we went onto the OCR media get ahead blog to help us understand what the moderator was looking for, we looked at the vixens and how everything worked for them and how much planning it will take and to remember to record everything, I really liked the amount of time and effort they put into planning and how it made things run so much more smoothly because of planning everything...


I saw how they has a good use of editing such as letter boxing...

Letter Boxing Technique.

Use of Black and White.

Good Use Of Colour Whilst Appropriately Matching Personalities with Clothing.

and how you don't have to do loads of editing due the costume changes, amount of changes in the music and so much going onto screen in meant the majority of the cinematography used was pretty basic although it still worked very well therefore when i am working on my video i need to concentrate on whats going on in the music and match it to the tempo and not go overboard with editing and make sure i have enough footage to not have to fill in bits with editing and overall making it look worse. I was inspired by the Vixens as how much thought they'd put behind their costumes being based on the deadly sins, their use and choice of a male manikin to show woman dominance, their detailed planning down the make-up and hair right up to location, lighting, cinematography and even the editing, as it makes you believe you can do it yourself you just have to apply your creativity and time.

Class Task : Analyasis of Artists Who Relate To Pink

As a class we watched Pink - 'fucking perfect' and discussed how the narrative and how it engadged the audience...

The Narrative:

• Reflecting her childhood
• She herself was her target audience at her age. 
• Teddy connotes her inner girl, reminding herself of her childhood.
• Narrative is expected as there is a consistancy throughout all of her videos. 

Engadging Audience:

• Can relate to her and what she is going through
• Hard hitting - but not explict
• Shock factor - holds attention of the audience
• Sex at beginning catches instant attention.

I chose Kelly Clarkson - 'Because Of You' because they both talk about they're childhood and how people had hurt them, they both seem angry as well at how they're childhood turned out. Therefore I decided to look into the Narrative and how it Engaged the Audience...

The Narrative:

• Looking back on her childhood and how she doesn't want the same childhood for her daughter, perhaps referring to how her mother or father treated her.
• comparing her childhood to her daughters.
• Wants to be a good mother and blames her mother for how she is now.  

Engaging Audience:

• the climax near the end the shots speed up and become cut quicker
• Their is constant moving in some shape or form of either the camera or the actors.
• The need to want to follow the story line as it starts off with an argument you want to know how it turns out. 
• Can relate to her and what she went through.

Researching into Music Videos.

I chose this video as i love the simplicity of it and all the close ups of random objects such as a train ticket to help along the narrative giving the audience little clues and how natural everything is as though she isnt performing it is just an insight into her life. Although i enjoy the calmness of the music i think i would struggle with using this song as its so well know and i know the video so well although i do like the ideas of it to perhaps use in another song as well there is no significant drop in the chorus which is what i would want to include however i do like the ideas and narrative creating this music video.

Research into Music Videos.

I enjoy the strong beat this song instantly creates as soon as it comes on and the massive drop leading into the first versus creating an impact on the audience when Skepta enters the song. As well i like how the rhythm is so fast and there is so many possibilities with a song like this you could branch into although i feel like this video is mainly based around performance and i would personally believe it would work better with a mixture of a narrative and performance. However i also like the idea of the fact that whilst they are performing they have a use of a vibrant and constantly moving because although the camera isnt moving a lot the background is which keeps the audience focused. I also liked their use of mise-en-scene and how it connotes the singers lifestyles

Researching into Music Videos.

I chose this video as i admire how they have their use of black and white which almost has an instant effect on you making you think why is it in black and white and close ups during the beginning of him splashing water onto his face creating a narrative then as the tempo rises they move into a performance scene of everyone raving at a party and dancing and jumping up and down which is what me and my partner were talking about wanting to create in our video, the use of black and white works well in this scene and i believe wouldn't have such an effect as if it was in ordinary colour as it making the lighting more prominent.

Research into Music Videos.

I love this video because me and my partner want to include a lot of editing and try to make it work well, and i love the lego men in this one as they dance around as well in the opening they almost zoom through streets which i like the look off and how as if every think is fast forwarded which is reinforced by the quickening music. I also love the build up to the chorus and how it flows into it instantly getting louder and creating a whole different atmosphere as the chorus and versus are so different.

Here are some of the editing parts to the video in which drew me to it...

Research. Barthes Code: Action

Title:Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Seen Gone.
Genre: Performance And Narrative (Pop)
Barthes Code:Action Code.
Textual Example: Throughout this hybrid genre we see Kelly in two scenarios , the first sitting in her bedroom on her own represented as isolated and lonely and the second her getting angry whilst performing and tearing apart bedding. This follows the lyrics from the start "we started off friends...since you've been gone" explaining the story, we therefore follow onto the chorus and listen to the events of her and her ex boyfriend splitting up throughout the break up and after leading to consequences such as anger towards her ex boyfriend "How come i never hear you say, i just wanna be with you" therefore taking her frustration out on the situation by saying how suffocated she felt throughout the relationship "since you've been gone i can breath for the first time" reflecting a action code as we follow the the events that occured and therefore the consequences because of that event.

Research. Barthes Code: Symbolic

Title:Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie.

Genre:Performance And Narrative (Hip-Hop, Rap)

Barthes Code: Symbolic Code.

Textual Example: Throughout this video we see certain elements coming together reflecting a symbolic code such as the conflict between the opposing forces (woman and male). The woman seen as the protagonist being almost bullied by the male seen as the antagonist within their unhealthy violent relationship although the it becomes apparent later on in the video (during the chorus) that the woman enjoys how the male treats her as she becomes intimate within him whilst the lyrics "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn, but that alright because i like the way it hurts" play, however still enduring that constant conflict and betrayal. 

Research. Barthes Code : Semic

Title:Katy B ft Ms Dynamite - Lights On
Genre:Performance Only (Electronic Dance)
Barthes Code: Semic Code.
Textual Example: I feel because of the lifestyle she is living within her video she is connoting to her audience and fans the type of party, fun filled life she is living and quite clearly denoting her song title and lyrics "I keep on moving with the lights on" whilst dancing with the mise-en-scene of bright lighting.

I chose this video as me and my partner have been thinking about doing a katy b song as its very up beat and got a dance rhythm to it as we are thinking on including people dancing then it needs to link in. I also like the use of two different voice tones but they work so well together, as well the mise-en-scene works well with lyrics as the lights brighten the atmosphere but are not over powering.

Research. Barthes Code: Cultural

Title: Big Brovaz - Baby Boy
Genre: Performance And Narrative (Hip-Hop)
Barthes Code: Cultural Code
Textual example : Within this hybrid genre Big Brovaz have created a Pastiche through vertical intertextuality to the well known TV sitcom Friends through mise-en-scene, editing, characters, cinematography and even sound as they use the supposed audience laughing in which friends is also known for using whenever one of the characters says or does something funny. However for me the most obvious cultural reference is within their establishing scene in which the same mise-en-scene, typography and colours are used for both, giving the audience an expectation of having the knowledge and understanding of the link between their music video and Friends, a well known American sitcom.

Research. Barthes Code: Enigma

Title : Kanye West - All of the lights
Genre: Narrative and Performance (Hip - Hop, Rap)
Barthes Code : Enigma
Textual Example: Within this hybrid genre enigma is represented within the intro when the daughter is on her own however you are unaware of who she is until later on in the video when Kanye exclaims " she needs her daddy" connoting the little girls role.