Music Video Critique #3: Blank Space - Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is an American singer, songwriter and actress from Reading, Pennsylvania. With album and song sales exceeding 30 and 80 mission, respectively, she is one of the world's best-selling music artists. Her work has earned her seven Grammy Awards and seven Academy of Country Music Awards, among other accolades.

Taylor released her first album, Taylor Swift, on October 24th, 2006, with Big Machine Records, who are an American record label specialising in country music artists. Currently signed artists are Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts and previously Reba McEntyre. Taylor first single, named Tim McGraw, was released in June 2006 and spent most of the year radio touring to promote her album. Since then, Taylor has released another 4 albums, all specialising in country music, apart from her most recent, 1989.

Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now and Red all specialise in country music, whereas 1989 is upon the pop genre, and has become Swift's biggest selling album in her own records, and was the biggest selling album overall of 2014. Her latest album, entitled 1989, was influenced by some of Taylor's favourite Eighties pop acts, including Phil Collins, Annie Lennox and "Like a Prayer"-era Madonna. The album was executive-produced by Swift and Max Martin, with whom she first collaborated with on her 2012 single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

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Blank Space is the second single released from 1989, and the music video to go with it has a hidden message that nobody was expecting. Throughout her career, Taylor has been the media's key topic for relationships. She's famous for writing about previous boyfriends, whether they ended on good or bad terms, and in my opinion, with this music video, she's given the media exactly what they've been treating her like. She's portrayed herself in the video, like the media have been portraying her for years.

"I'm all too aware of the jokes made about all of my ex-boyfriends and how I like to include them in my song writing, and I want to address the general thought of me in a video where I play the crazy villain."

I adore videos that actually have a narrative; a story line; a purpose. It makes them more intriguing and actually have a way of promoting the specific song. I've watched this video so many times now and I'm still not bored of it, because she's over emphasising her personality and I just love it. It's kind of hilarious. When interviewed about the video, a magazine columnist asked if Taylor was 'boy-crazy', in which Taylor responded, "For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that's taking something that potentially should be celebrated - a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way - that's taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist." However in this video, Swift performs the very unflattering image that the public has foisted upon her, as if to say "You want boy-crazy? I'll give you boy crazy!"

The main thing I noticed, as a media student, when I first watched this video, is the colourings throughout. In the past, Taylor has given us very bright and colourful videos that fit the themes of the song, take Shake It Off, for example. With this video being set in a fairy-tale looking home, the video and story is far from the stereo-typical 'princess' themed narrative. 

Throughout the video we see a number of long, medium and close-up shots which fit within the sensitivity of the lyrics at certain points of the video. The concept of the dominant female is portrayed with what she's wearing, her body language, facial expressions and tone of voice throughout the video. Although she's almost playing to the media in terms of giving them boy crazy, she's doing it in a clever way. There are a number of lyrics which match with the actual script of the song, as if she is physically speaking them to her 'boyfriend'.

If you've seen Taylor's past videos, there is always links either to a real life situation, or videos of hers that have been created before. There are a number of features within this music video that link to her previous songs from other albums, which is a really unique feature Taylor does. With this, she's constantly bringing out new music and videos, but her loyal die-hard fans will never be able to forget her original music, who made her the artist she is today. It's also a nice feature to have as when people watch the video, they may relate to a previous song or video, and this will then give them a reason to go and watch her older material, which keeps it current and still in the public eye.

There are a number of shots within this video that I absolutely adore. The setting, colour grading and angle are absolutely amazing and I fully commend the director for this video. When it was first released, I couldn't stop watching it. One that I did keep my eye on was the in depth content of the picnic they were having. All it consisted of was champagne and sweets. Thinking about it, they're two particularly slim people - eating junk. Does this mean that even though they're nice to look at, they're ugly on the inside? Hidden messages in videos are great.

Overall, I absolutely love this video. I love the narrative, concept, sassiness, colour, song, and camera work. Everything about this video is great and I genuinely wouldn't change 1 second of it. It's so cleverly thought out, with the links to her old music, disney films (Snow White - with the apple), metaphors about them being ugly on the inside. Everything. Genius. High five, Taylor! 

- O

{Sources:}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift

http://www.bigmachinerecords.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_Space

Music Video Critique #2: Paul Weller - Wild Wood

Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Starting out with the band The Jam (1976-82), Weller branched out to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983-89), before establishing himself as a successful solo artist in 1991.

The Jam were an English punk rock/new wave/mod revival band. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries. The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes, and they incorporated a number of mainstream 1960s rock and R&B influences rather than rejecting them, placing The Jam at the forefront of the mod revival movement.

The Style Council were an English band, formed in Woking in 1983 by Paul Weller himself, (the former singer and guitarist with The Jam), and keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. As with Weller's previous band, most of his London based outfit's hits were in their homeland, although the band did score six top 40 hits in Australia, and seven top 40 hits in New Zealand.

Weller went from The Jam to The Style Council as he wanted a change from the "power pop" style to the more soulful style and it gave him the chance to infuse jazz/soul/funk and even a little rap into his songs. In terms of target audience and fans, Weller tended to have a strong fan base from the beginning that followed his every move between bands and onto his solo career.

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Paul Weller released his first solo album, Paul Weller, in 1991. After leaving label Polydor in 1989, Weller formed The Paul Weller Movement in 1990, releasing a single, Into Tomorrow, on his own Freedom High record label in October 1991. Its success - reaching #36 in the UK chart, led to Weller being offered a new record deal with Go! Discs, and the resulting album was released on 1st September 1992, reaching #8 on the UK album chart.

Weller's second album, Wild Wood, was released in September 1993. It made it to number 2 in the UK charts, and contained three UK hits; Wild Wood, Sunflower and Hung Up, all reaching within the top 20. The music video I will be critiquing is Wild Wood, which is a single from the album. At the time that the video was released, Weller was signed to Go! Discs, which was a London based record label launched in 1983 by Andy Macdonald and Lesly Symons. Shortly after the launch, Go! Beat records was launched as a subsidiary for dance artists like Beats International, Gabrielle and Portishead. In 1992, Paul Weller signed.

Throughout this video we see a number of different filming and editing techniques that were very common within the particular era of music videos. Time lapses, cut aways to the artist singing in a different location, traffic marching and point of view shots within crowds of people. All of these features tend to match with the theme and genre of the song, which is very blues-y feeling and calming. In other circumstances, the scenes also are the complete opposite, with the busy crowds within the city and manic scenes.

Time lapses are often seen during the instrumental parts, as it's completely contradicting the part of the song; calm and relaxing to hear, manic to look at. The whole video is a metaphor. "Finding your way out of the wild, wild wood" could be another way of saying "Finding your way out of the crowds", so in this sense, the people are the woods.

In terms of a narrative, there isn't really one at all. This video is just a collection of clips that tell the story of a particular lyric line, rather than from beginning to end. I quite like it, because it makes the video fun and quirky, rather than the stereo-typical love story we normally see in videos these days. As well as the time lapses, there are also image distortions throughout which coincide with the time lapses and create a warped scene. This happens during the shots during the city scenes, and cities are more often than not busy places, which to some people, could be quite a scary place; often leaving their image of a city slightly distorted. 

Overall, I do like this video. It's quirky and different to any I've seen before, and that's what I love about Paul Weller's music and videos. They're not copied, they're completely his own and that's what makes a good musician in this day and age. He may have been inspired by others, but his work is a class unique act.

- O

{Sources:}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weller#Solo_career
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Style_Council
https://vimeo.com/38030651

Music Video Critique #1: Faith Hill - American Heart

Faith Hill is an American country-pop singer and occasional actress. She's one of the most successful country artists of all time, selling over 40 million records worldwide. Faith is married to country singer Tim McGraw, with whom she has recorded several duets.

American Heart is a song written by Jim Beavers and Jonathan Singleton, and recorded by Faith herself. It was released on September 30th, 2012 as the second single from her upcoming seventh studio album. The song was announced on her Twitter account and distributed for airplay the following day. For the Twitter debut, Faith responded to questions with the hash-tag #AskFaith prior to her weekly performance on NBC Sunday Night Football that night.

As well as the song itself, a music video premiered a month after the single was released. The music video was directed by Trey Fanjoy, who is a well known music video director in the country music industry and has worked with the likes of Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. The video reached the number one position on the GAC countdown in early December, and in the following May, was nominated in the Female Video of the Year category for the 2013 CMT Music Awards.

The video kicks off with a series of short interviews with a group of kids. All of them are talking about what being American means to them. "We're different on the outside, but we're the same on the inside", is the big takeaway message from the video - and you get that before the music even starts. Faith shared the stage with 10-year-old T.J Jones, as they put together a choreographed number that's worthy of a broadway stage. At various points in the song, Faith steps back to let T.J. take the limelight. 

The concept of the video came from the line in the song, "it bleeds, it scars, it shines when times get hard." Director Trey Fanjoy explained in the behind-the-scenes film that inspired by the lyric, "We have created a 15-foot illuminated 'American Heart' full of red, white and blue stars and stripes. There's a really special metaphor found in all of it, and each of the bulbs represents a different part of our country and a different spirit in our nation. Together, they form something that's bigger than all of us."

I really like this video as it's such a simple concept with a strong message. Studio-based music videos are always a winner in my eyes as you can do so much with them, and I love how both Faith and Trey chose to keep it simple. It's important for songs with a large and special message to keep the video to a basic structure, as the artists don't want all of the attention to focus on the video. Involving the children at the beginning and T.J within the video really shows Faith as a family-friendly artist, and this may be the image that she is trying to portray - and in my eyes, it worked! 

This video falls into the "video using band/artist in a creative way" category. This category consists of 2 main features; the artist being one of the main features during the video, and being creative visually with the lyrics and song itself. With her both performing/lip syncing and acting during the video, it creates a natural and personal feel for the audience watching that the particular artist has put their own spin on the video and has a real input within the choreography.

This video is one of Faith's most involved choreography in a video yet. "When I first heard the song I was brought to tears. I not only knew I had to record it, but I almost immediately saw it visually. It's awesome and so appropriate to be able to share it with my fans first, because they've been so supportive of me throughout the years." 

The beginning of Faith and T.J's appearance originates with them getting ready in what appears to be a dressing room, with T.J. almost assisting Faith as her little companion. This is portraying America, to other countries around the world, as a very friendly place, and ensuring the message is one that can be remembered. No matter how old or young you are, you can still appreciate America in all it's glory and show your appreciation, in this case, through music. 

There are a number of shots that I really like during this video and they all take place within the studio, and by the looks of things, it's all down to the lighting. Silhouette's are absolutely beautiful in any music video, and create a mysterious feel to the whole production. In this video, there are a number of silhouette shots, and I have picked 3 of my favourites. I really like the way they make both Faith and T.J. complete silhouettes, and the bright blue background behind them really emphasises the shapes and dance moves they're performing.

There are a number of different lyric counts within the song, and the shots and views that are used tend to match eachother really well. For the silhouette segment pictures above, the lyrics "cause it beats like a drum down in New Orleans..." which is an upbeat, happy lyric, and the dance moves portray this throughout the video. Silhouette's also create quite a mysterious atmosphere, almost like a cover up of who a person or act really is. 

Other shots I love are the mid-shots of Faith and T.J. during the entire video. They tend to appear near the chorus section and show the loving and affectionate relationship for eachother, which puts a nice family-orientated feel out for the video. This could then foreshadow the upcoming album that this single is on, and show old and new fans a snippet of what her new sound and image is, seeing as her last studio album was in 2005.

Overall, I really like the way Faith channels who she is within the song and lyrics and portrays her love for America throughout the video. Like I said, studio based much videos are always a winner for me as they are unique in their own way and portray the artist for who they really are, without taking the attention away from the song itself. The song reached at #26 in the US Country Airplay charts and is believed to reach #1 when her full album is released. 

- O 

{Sources:}

http://tasteofcountry.com/faith-hill-american-heart-video/

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=27258

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/474246/faith-hill-returns-with-american-heart-video-watch

The State of Music Video

The State of Music Video is an article that was published on Creative Review, a magazine that champions art, design and media. Creative Review is a monthly magazine targeted on the commercial arts and design scene. It has a circulation of around 20,000 readers and focuses content on media originating in the UK, US and further through Europe. The magazine was launched in 2008 and is published by Centaur Media PLC.

Throughout this post I will be discussing what I think the "state of music video" actually is, via content in the article.

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In my opinion, artists make music videos to portray a clearer image of what the particular song message is about. Listeners can sometimes judge a song without knowing the real meaning, and there are artists that are stereotyped for songs in particular, and this could deeply effect their image and portray them in a particular light that isn't well loved with some audiences. Music videos are a great way of promoting an artists' identity and brand within the record they are trying to sell. It's more or less a given now that 90% of music videos are to a single that artists are releasing, thus giving them more exposure and recognition. With the record itself only available to listen to on things like iTunes and Spotify, music videos give the songs an extra platform to be viewed on, such as MTV (Music Television), Vevo and YouTube.

The Creative Review article states a number of facts about the music directors importance and what they're expected to do for the artist, producer and record label. Sarah Nixon, head of music video at Partizan, who represent several leading music video directors, explains it this way: "I think the state of the business has never been worse. What labels expect for what they pay is huge. A director no longer has any freedom - even with no budgets."

In this industry, beggars can't be choosers. You can't expect a director to create this amazing video with unlimited technology and computer generated graphics, for free. With a few honourable exceptions, most music directors have to have a second job to have a decent lifestyle. In late 2002, it was estimated that music directors in the USA made approximately $800,000 a year. This going rate has significantly dropped in the past 5 years and music directors are now struggling to cope with the downfall in profits. "More people than ever want a visual to go with the music. Artists want a visual to go with the music. They need to express themselves, to lift the song, to feed the internet", explained Liz Kessler, head of music video at Academy Films.

In terms of music video budgets, we're looking at less than 10k nowadays. "It's not 30k for an artist anymore - it might be 5k", confirms Mike O'Keefe, head of video at UK major Sony BMG. "Gone are the days of 150k budgets. Those jobs are now at 80k - but we expect the same production values as before, and that's obviously difficult." It's difficult for experienced music video directors to work with such a low budget when they've been used to working with sometimes three or four times of the amount in previous years. Taking it on the other hand, new and upcoming music directors are more experienced with working with extremely low budgets.

Take David Wilson for example. He is an English music video director and animator from Wells in Somerset, currently living in London. David has been responsible for directing and creating a number of music videos, from The Bay to the ever-famous Titanium, with the original song being produced by David Guetta. Wilson has a number of artistic processes that he undertakes when directing and animating music videos. "What I aim to do is respond as personally as possible to music. I work mainly with music videos, so it's mostly about trying to find those right projects where a musician will give me free reign to feel and respond as appropriately as possible to the music."

In a recent interview, David Wilson stated that his video Titanium for artist David Guetta was completely his idea and he was given no direction from Guetta. "Their brief was, 'We want a David Guetta video that doesn't feel like a David Guetta video.' I wrote a very different script before submitting this one," explained Wilson. "Up to then, they had been only doing David Guetta: the featuring artist, always in it. David would be there on the decks, the lady or man vocals would be dancing in front of the camera - it would also need to orientate around a performance." 

As the audience can see, David Wilson stepped away from the stereotypical Guetta video and added his own stamp and trademarks onto it. The video opens in a deserted, destroyed hallway with the main character sitting on the ground. The main character is ultimately running from a SWAT team and ends up in the woods. The boy is caught, but the video ends with the boy using supernatural powers to push the men away in  a burst of power. It's all very far-fetched compared to everyday life but that's what makes it so watchable and enjoyable.

The Titanium music video was very popular on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook in terms of its originality and had over 3,000,000 hash-tags dedicated to it within the first 12 hours of the video being released. This just shows how much social media makes an impact on how music videos spread around the world and how many people they reach within such a small amount of time. Most music videos released in this day and age are bound to reach 1,000,000 in a short amount of time, all due to people sending them to their friends, and so on. By putting a link on Twitter, it could reach a vast amount of people in a short space of time due to the power of re-tweets.

Top US director Chris Milk, states that "It's always the intention for people to forward it to their friends. The main distribution of videos is the internet, and the demographic becomes the distribution channel. If they like it, they distribute it. You've got to do something better than just shoot a band playing." What's more, this tailored distribution system is now also starting to reap financial dividends. YouTube is now signing deals with all the major labels, offering per-view percentage points - very small, but representing a proper revenue stream when it reaches significant views. This gives the artist a platform to upload their music video for free, and earn money, therefore earning a larger profit than what they would without a music video. "YouTube is fantastic for videos", declares Mike O'Keefe. "With the sheer volume of people watching them and distributing them. The number of people watching videos must be greater than even MTV at its height." 

Through personal experience, I use YouTube as a viewing platform for music videos more than any other. I very rarely watch Music Television, and the only time I do is when I have company at home, and we need background noise. I don't sit there watching it, because watching numerous music videos on repeat does get really boring. I use Twitter pretty much every day, and if there's a new music video that I haven't seen on my news feed, then I'll watch it. I have sent videos to various people before, and the most recent one was Taylor Swift's Blank Space. This was a recent world-wide phenomenon. Trending for over 48 hours, the hash-tag #BLANKSPACEMUSICVIDEO was the pinnacle of the success of this video.

Ultimately:
Yes, the music industry does still need music videos, as artists need more platforms other than iTunes to promote themselves, and they like to have visual representation of their lyrics.
YouTube is the starting line of music videos' success, with them being able to spread easily on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and added benefits are artists being paid for their videos per-view.


- O

{Sources:}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_(song)
http://www.intuition-online.co.uk/article.php?id=3207

What is a Music Video?

A music video is a is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

The History
The first ever music video, known then as a "promotional film", was said to be recorded by the English rock-band, The Beatles. The song Strawberry Fields Forever was released in early 1967, along with the music video which was first aired on 25th February 1967. Directed by Swedish television director Peter Goldman, the video took 2 days to film and entailed a number of different conventions such as; reverse film effects, stop-motion animation and jump-cuts from day to night. Along with another Beatles hit, Penny Lane, the two music videos were selected by New York's MoMA as two of the most influential music videos of the late 1960s.

The popularity of music videos really started to increase in the 1980s, when MTV (a television channel that broadcasts popular and promotional videos) was launched in 1981. The first music video ever aired on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Having a music video meant you had a means to ensure your music was heard all over the world. The majority of videos produced were for British acts, which is why in the 1980s, there was an increasing number of British acts in the American charts. This is a perfect example of the importance of music videos and how they impact the listeners and viewers.

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In terms of style, there a number of different ways to portray a music video and they hold a number of different conventions and themes:

• Studio Performances - A music video shot entirely or mostly in a controlled environment (studio) with lots of props, costumes, green screen and artificial lighting. Usually, these types of videos don't have a true narrative, but rather just add a visual experience to the music without much meaning. They are mainly simple, fun, easy to make videos. (e.g. Faith Hill - American Heart)

• Surrealistic - These music videos are very abstract, and may or may not have relation to the music itself, these videos are very artistic and creative and usually contain a mixture of live footage and animation to add surreal effects or distortion. They appear to be influenced by visions or dreams. (e.g. Faith Hill - Mississippi Girl)

• Interpretive/Impressionist - Similar to surrealistic music videos, interpretive music videos can be abstract and may or may not have a direct relation to the music. The main difference between the two is that interpretive videos don't usually contain distorted, or unreal imagery, they aren't intended to be surrealistic but rather focuses on adding a creative visual experience to the music in which viewers can interpret differently.

• Animation - Animation based music videos are simply partially or entirely animated music videos. This style of music video is usually cheaper to produce since it is entirely digital, and props, venues, cameras and other equipment aren't needed. This style of music video can also compliment a song as it may suit its mood, or can attract their target age group. (e.g. Faith Hill - This Kiss)

• Narrative - Some artists want to portray the meaning or message of their song through the music video. These narrative music videos can either be a literal representation of the lyrics, can be metaphorical or can even be a completely unique storyline not related to the lyrics, or the music. (e.g. Tim McGraw - Highway Don't Care)

• Concert/Live - This style of music video captures the experience of seeing the artist performing live. They can be either staged performances produced in the studio, or can be actual live footage captured during the real performance. This creates a realistic feel and gives the viewer an experience unlike the other form of music videos. It is often used to show the emotion, and attitude of the artist as they perform the song to give the viewer a better feel for the music. It is also used as a marketing tool to promote concerts and tour dates. (Tim McGraw - Southern Girl)

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Music videos are produced for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is to promote the artist to the public. Music productions tend to bring out an artists' personality and gets them noticed. Through music videos, artists can promote their ideas and themes, maybe put in some personal beliefs. People generally watch music videos for the entertainment it provides and a chance to get a look at the artist from a different point of view.

Music videos tend to be produced when the artist wants to release that particular song as a single. This way, the song can be reached on all platforms. Radio, iTunes and Spotify are all purely based for the digital song, whereas places like Vevo, YoutTube and television channels are able to play and release music videos to help boost the sales during the release. Artists with big record labels such as UMG and SME, they are more likely to have a partnership with Vevo and exclusive access, meaning listeners and viewers will be able to first view the music video on Vevo. Vevo will then allow YouTube to broadcast the video a short while after, and this is the platform where artists can generate income.

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YouTube videos are a great platform for artists and their music videos as it's yet another way for them to generate a solid income with their videos. All official YouTube channels for artists tend to be somewhat linked with Vevo, so the names would be TimMcGrawVEVO or TaylorSwiftVEVO, etc. It is estimated that each music video on YouTube makes $2 per 1,000 YouTube views, and this can be a number of different ways, not just the artists promoting themselves, but also viewers.

YouTube also offers a different approach called 'Content ID'.  This means if someone was to upload a wacky wedding video with a particular song in the background, then the artists record label can agree to cover the thing with ads and take a cut of the royalties. YouTube is also the home for new and upcoming music artists that want to make an impact and a career from singing and performing, and this is yet another way artists such as Taylor Swift, for example, can make even more money. If the upcoming new artist was to put their own spin on one of her songs, and it reaches a certain number of views, then Taylor herself, and also the new artist, would make a profit from this also. Take this cover for example. Here is Tyler Ward, a musician based on YouTube, singing one of her songs from her new album:

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In terms of promoting new music from a particular artist, it's a great starting point for branding a new album or genre that they're going for. One example is country artist Tim McGraw. He's recently released a new album, Sundown Heaven Town, and he's been using social media to create a trend of #NewYearNewMcGraw. On January 1st, this hashtag was created, and he teased fans with music video trailers and lyric videos to enhance his new sound and album, that was released on 16th September. Using Instagram to upload 15 second clips of his first single from the album, Lookin' For That Girl, he gave fans a taster of what his new album would be like. 

By promoting teaser clips, Tim McGraw had a steady fan base and interest in the album. He released these before the first single was released, then had upcoming singles lined up before the release of the album. By releasing the single and music video before the album was released, it almost foreshadows as what's to come for the new album and how Tim McGraw wants to brand himself differently in comparison to his previous albums. It's good for artists to do this sort of thing as it keeps them in the public eye throughout the lead up to their new releases and will give them a solid platform to promote on when the music is finally released.

- O

The Big Blog: Phantom TV

Channel Genre: Paranormal

Potential Channel Names: Unknowable TV - Spirit TV - Mystery TV - Abnormal Channel - Fantasy TV - Phantom TV - Paranormal TV - Cryptic TV - Unknown TV

Target Audience:

When it comes to creating a television channel, it's really important to start with deciding your target audience. When you've decided who you want to watch your channel, you can then begin designing the logos, names, idents and programs to fit the specifications. With me creating a channel specifically for paranormal programs and films, it was pretty clear as to what age range I would be aiming this at. Through personal experience, I began watching TV shows like Most Haunted from the age of 9. This may seem pretty young, but staying up late on a Friday night with my Mum on Halloween, watching a bunch of people talk to ghosts was awesome.

I will be aiming my TV Channel at Adults 16-34. This target audience group has some factors that I have taken in to consideration, such as:

• 16-34 Adults watch 2 hours and 44 minutes of linear TV a day, 2 hours and 2 mins of this is commercial TV
• Young adults unsurprisingly time-shift more than many other audience groups, yet 91.6% is still viewed as the same day as the live broadcast
• Spend more of their time watching TV whilst using other devices than the average adult

It's quite hard to justify why I chose this specific target audience, as I guess it's not just adults within this age range that watch it. My ident, logo and trailer will be a very dark and mysterious theme, which will contain *beeped* out swear words if necessary. This then gives the audience a slight insight as to what the TV channels will contain, and may not be inappropriate for the younger generation. Not only due to the fact there are possible swearwords, but it may also be quite scary, as I plan to put horror films on the channel after the witching hour.

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What my ident will say:

Font and Use of Text -

The font I will be using for my final logo is Albertshal Typewriter, which I downloaded off dafont.com. This creates a old-school and haunted font which will obviously fit in to my television channel. Although it's quirky, it's still easy to read and identifiable. I will only be using 'PHANTOM TV' in my logo and throughout my ident, as I feel this is quite catchy and easily rememberable. 

Throughout the ident, there will be a set font that I will use, no matter how many idents I proceed to make. I want there to be a strict theme throughout, as like I said before, I want the channel to be indentifiable. For example, when people see the fonts, I want them to think of my channel or a certain programme straight away.

Graphic Imagery:

As such, there will be no graphic imagery used in my idents. Adobe After Effects will allow me to experiment with certain design aspects for my third ident idea. My first and second won't be needing any graphic imagery. I plan on making my idents quite simple, as I'm a perfectionist. So if I make them simple, yet effective, then I can perfect them and make them look as professional as possible.

Size of Text vs Size of Image:

The text on the ident that I plan on producing will be situated in the centre of the screen. It will be easy to read, bold and the centre of attention as this is the main part I want people to remember. The text will be white, with an outer glow of a green noise and this will contrast well with the background.

Colour Scheme:
The colour scheme of my ident will be a night visioned video with very dark and gloomy colours. The logo on top will be white so it contrasts and stands out.

Movement:
The background of the ident will be the 'walking through the woods scared', so this will happen quite quickly, as if it's a victim running from something. The logo will be slightly jolty to give it extra movement on top of the background, as I feel if it didn't move, it will look quite dull compared to the background.

Soundtrack:
Sound effects will be downloaded from various different sound effect sites. There are a number of sound effects I would like to try but it all depends on how the filming goes, and what sort of shots I film, and I will then work out what sounds and timings I use from there.

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I uploaded this image to my social networking sites to ask people to give me a number, choosing their favourite, and I would then use this for my final logo. Almost like a survey, people responded pretty quickly. There was a clear winner when it came to the viewers choice, and that was number 1. I feel like this is the right decision and my favourite, because the logo is focusing mainly on 'Phantom', and not TV. Number 2 and 3 were too crowded and didn't have much depth, where as Number 1 worked well and would look good in any ident, and on other pages of promotion such as social media, websites and posters.

I altered it ever so slightly by making the outer-glow larger and adding more 'noise', which creates the static effect and ties in with the 'ghostly' theme the channel has. The 'TV' is less prominent and this would mean if the logo was to ever change for promotional pages, or I completely dropped 'TV' and just stuck with 'Phantom', it wouldn't affect it too much.

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Another part of my research was to contact someone in the 'Paranormal television' world and maybe get some tips and information from them. I took to Twitter and tweeted Yvette Fielding, producer and presenter of the ever-loved Most Haunted, which has been going for 8 years now. She kindly gave me her email address and agreed to answer some of my questions:

1. What is the main target audience, in your eyes, for Most Haunted?
The target audience was females 16yrs-40yrs but over time and many programmes the audience has changed to both sexes from children up to 60yrs.

2. What is the best way to promote Most Haunted? Is it social networking, a website or on TV?
All social media, press, television and radio.

3. Does the feedback you get from fans of the show almost persuade you to do more? (Especially after your long break away from filming!)
The show is driven by fans, especially the live shows. The reason the programme was brought back was because of high demand from the fans via email and social media.

4. Throughout the years, you have down your own reality shows - Living With / In Bed with Yvette and Karl. Do you think this show has helped your audience figures increase when it comes to Most Haunted?
Filming 'In Bed' was fantastic fun and was very successful with fans. Yes it helped more people to watch Most Haunted who had never seen it before.

These answers have really helped shape my television channel and what it will contain for the viewers. Yvette's answers prove that social media has a huge impact on her show, and in this day and age social media is always going to take a big role in the promotion of televisions shows and channels. I chose to incorporate social media into a possible television schedule which would give the programmes and idents a way to interact with fans online.

Above is just a rough sketch I put together of a possible television schedule that would run on weekdays for Phantom TV. It's pretty basic as viewers that choose to watch this channel won't want much more than the bog standard original ghost hunting programmes which they've learnt to love over the past 10 years or so.

Viewers clips / Behind the scenes:
What I thought about doing here was giving viewers a chance to send in their own personal clips of sightings that they have maybe seen or witnessed with a group of friends. Ouija boards, ghost hunting nights and horror house experiences are such a popular thing to do in this day and age, people are always wanting to showcase them online and get them out in the open for people to see. I thought that people could send in their clips via email/post and Phantom TV could play them throughout the duration of the day, when most of my target audience will be at work.

Behind the scenes clips would work slightly differently. These will be the bloopers and making of horror films that will be shown on the channel later that evening, to give people a taster on what the films will be about. This could attract audiences that are out of my target audience by word of mouth, as there may be a film advertised that someone is watching, and they could let their friends know about it. It's just a case of trial and error.

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My final ident was quite a simple idea, and I would put most of the features in the editing such as music, sound effects and video effects. The general idea I had was I would take a number of different shots of trees, both close up and far away, and incorporate them with different layers in the editing process.

The filming process took half an hour. I took myself up to a graveyard near my house and filmed a number of different shots, such as; a bench, running looking at feet, grave stones, trees, bushes, the grass. I figured it would be easier to do this, then I would have more to experiment with when it came to editing. I filmed with a Canon 600D and used a light on top of the camera, as it was pitch black when I filmed. In total, I took 30 shots and used 10 in the edit. There are a number of things I'm happy with in the final ident, and there are a few things I would change if I had the editing skills I desire!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my final ident as it's clear what the TV channel is portraying and the audience will be clear on the content of the channel in terms of genre. The most challenging part was adding the logo to the quick pan of the tree at the end of it. I had to use two programmes to make this work - Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe After Effects. On After Effects, I followed a tutorial which would mean the logo would stay in the same place as a particular point I chose, and in my case, it was the centre of the tree in the final quick pan. 

Adobe After Effects allowed me to create a process called 'tracking' which would allow the logo to stay in the same place and almost embed itself into the video and move in synchronicity with it. I followed a tutorial online which made it fairly easy and with the help of a good friend, it turned out pretty good. I feel like this tracking method is something I would definitely use in future productions as it's such a simple technique, yet looks really effective when the whole production is finished and put together.

On Premier Pro, the editing method again, was pretty simple. Putting two different clips on top of each other and lowering the opacity of the clip on top created a ghostly effect that would obviously incorporate with the TV channel's theme which is paranormal.

My Premier Pro set up was pretty straight forward. Import the clips, import the music, and put them on the timeline and make them work with each other. It took a while to get the timings right, and work out which clips looked good on top of others, but after 6 hours at the computer screen I finally mastered it, I think. I just chose two clips that I thought would work well together, and put one on the above layer, lowering to opacity and making it a higher frame rate. This insinuates that it may be the point of view of a person 'running through a woods' like in a generic horror movie.

I added the night vision as this is also a key factor in paranormal television. It emphasises what the channel will consist of and give viewers an idea of what is upcoming on the channel. Television shows like Most Haunted and films like Paranormal Activity will be the overview of what will appear, and with both of these being predominantly in night vision, it portrays it well. To create the night vision styled filter, I added a green layer over the top of all of the clips and again, lowered to opacity.

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Incorporating the final ident to advertise television shows was quite tricky as there was a specific theme I wanted to keep to and the font seemed to be hard to read no matter what position I put it in. The layouts proved to be quite tricky as there are a number of obstacles that I had to overcome, but the main one was the tree. As tree was the main feature of the ident, I had to work around this and try and make the text readable to all viewers. I still wanted to make the ident a 'scary' and 'paranormal' theme to incorporate the upcoming shows and again, give the audience a taster of what's to come.

The safe-zone is practically non existent in the above idents and I completely forgot about it when I was designing them. The safe-zone is a really important feature that all television channels must bare in mind as it could make or break their idents and advertisements. It's where there is an invisible boarder around the edge of the frame to ensure that no matter what viewing platform the ident or advertisement is being viewed on, none of the important stuff is cropped out (i.e. text, important images). So for example, if the above idents were going to be aired on television, there is a high chance that numbers 2 & 3 wouldn't work, as the text is so close to the left and right hand side of the frame.

This is the type of design I would use as an ident to advertise what show was coming up next. The ident would be around 10 seconds long, with moving text and a short clip of the upcoming show (shown above). The voiceover will be a crystal clear voice, as this will be easier for my target audience to understand (especially as it's possible that the older generation will be watching) and this way, it gets the right message across.

Voiceover:
"And now get ready for some scary scenes with Yvette and her paranormal team as they indulge into their next spooky location. Some scenes may contain strong language and flashing images."

These idents are well situated in terms of the safe zone as they're all very central based and will in no way overlap, no matter what the viewing platform. I also decided to mix up the logo, as the original one was very long and was an awkward shape to add any more text onto it. People should easily identify it as all I've done is make it a little more quirky and slightly changed the layout, so it's three letters per line. I focused on keeping the font the same throughout all the advertisement campaigns as I feel it's quite distinctive, and I want people to see the font and instantly know it's Phantom TV.

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Overall I'm quite pleased with how this project turned out. I feel like I have improved my editing skills on both Premier Pro and After Effects. The tracking method is something I would definitely use in the future and it's a really simple feature, yet works really well.

My favourite part of this whole project was filming shots for the ident and picturing how they would all fit together in editing. It took around half an hour to film the shots in a local graveyard and editing them took a little longer, as I wanted to make it the best I could. 9 seconds isn't a long time so I wanted to make it as good as I possibly could, so it looks professional and to the best of my ability. 

- O

Idents: Successful and Unsuccessful

Throughout the years, there are a number of television channels and film companies that have made some successful and unsuccessful idents. One television channel in particular stood out for me over the rest, and the change in the idents over the years made a huge impact on the audiences' views and opinions.

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but it tends towards more the 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television license and is therefore commercial-free. It is a comparatively well-funded public service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public service networks worldwide.

Over the years, BBC Two have had a number of different idents which advertise upcoming shows on the channel, and the channel itself. Nearly all of the identity packages used since the channel's launch in 1964 have featured a prominent numeral '2' in the design. Before this design, the word 'TWO' was the official logo. 

This was the BBC Two logo of 1986. I think it's incredibly basic, and has almost been unedited. The RGB makes it very scripted, and the drop shadow makes it look cheap and a little bit tacky. The key to a good ident, in my eyes, is lots of movement throughout both the foreground and the background, and this is very still. It's not very memorable at all, and the lack of excitement is a real let down.

When former controller of the BBC, Alan Yentob, read the research, and realised the audience perception of BBC2, it confirmed in his mind the need for a new identity as quickly as possible. Audience researched revealed that the packaging for BBC2 had not kept pace with the changing product. 'Quiet', 'middle-class', 'snobbish' and 'boring' were the words that came to mind with viewers. The BBC2 identity, a 'TWO' logo, did nothing to convey the channel's newly-developing, more pluralistic personality.

"I realised that the TWO identity was a problem as soon as I took over the channel. It was obvious that the logo made absolutely no impact. It was singularly unmemorable and it told you nothing about the channel... I think people love the new '2'. It has received lots of fan mail and correspondence. We will definitely be renewing its contract!" - Alan Yentob: Former controller of BBC2 - now director of programmes, BBC Television.

After the new '2' logos and idents were launched in 1991, the public took a shine to them and started believing in BBC2 a lot more than they used to with the old TWO logo. The 1991 '2's featured a serif numeral '2' being at the centre of an initially art-related scene; however the idents moved away from this style later on as the station's style changed. Although highly praised, this expansive set of idents was ended in November 2001. The BBC corporate logo was updated within the idents in October 1997, though the idents moved away from the original viridian colour scheme in these latter years.

"The BBC2 identity was mould-breaking. Everyone warmed to it. It was a six-lane highway that could take you anywhere you wanted to go. It offered no limit to what you could achieve. BBC1 was much more difficult. The flagship. It really was where angels feared to tread. It was like the designer being assigned to the next series of Dr Who. Who would dare update the original titles?" - John Aston: Former head of graphic design, BBC Television.

The new look for BBC2 was launched on 16 February 1991. Just a few months before, the new piper identity for British Telecom by Wolff Olins had leaked out and received a universally awful press. It was sneered at by the broadsheets and mauled by the tabloids. The Sunday Times had published a feature on bow-tied, corporate-identity con-men taking gullible corporations for an expensive ride. It was not a great time for the BBC to be launching new identities and we were frankly awaiting the hostile fallout. The BBC decided this would be a low-key launch. Three journalists turned up to the launch announcement and one of them was the BBC's own media correspondent.

The BBC" figure because a talking point, perceived as sophisticated, witty and stylish. The BBC's own designers were swift to see the creative opportunity of the character that ran with it. They were encouraged to make their own films, many of them destined to be award winners over the next few years.

I really like the modernized BBC2 idents and logos as I feel each one is very unique in its own way. On 18 February 2007, BBC2 launched their new set of titles called Window on the World. By 2007, BBC2 needed another thorough rebrand as the previous idents were starting to lose their purpose. A new set of idents were therefore commissioned by advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, and was produced by Red Bee Media, who made the current idents for BBC One. The new design needed to work, both on television, but also online, as a website and as live streaming feed.

Overall, I really like the way BBC2 have changed their logos and idents throughout the years. The change from TWO to 2 was a really good idea as it completely changed the image of the channel for the better, and it's been proved by the audience themselves that it worked in the BBCs favour.

- O

Idents: The Purpose and Nature

Idents are the small segment of media shown at the beginning of a specific television show or film. Stereo-typically, it will be a 10-30 second clip highlighting the main subject of a television channel or film company, and will grab the audiences' attention.

There are 6 main reasons as to what the purpose of television idents are; identity, branding, marketing, packaging and re-packaging, scheduling and segmentation within scheduling. These are extremely important to think about when thinking of the purpose of the ident, as they will ultimately give the audience a cemented idea as to what the television channel is like.

Firstly, television idents are created to make the channel identifiable to the audience watching on the television. They're made to stand out from other channels and to give themselves that staple image. Idents are mostly seen on the television, but it's important for other points of media such as posters, flyers and websites.

As above, idents often have their own color scheme either matching the channel as a whole, or in some cases, specific shows. E4 have the traditional deep purple colours, whereas BBC One has the red ring outline with the blue capturing the main feature, in this case, the surfer wave.

This BBC One ident is one that I don't think anybody could ever get bored of. That opening music chime that comes just before the main feature of the person in the red cape on the bike is so distinctive now, that without even looking at the television, my whole house knows what's coming. For me, when this comes on, I know The One Show is just seconds away.

The main colour scheme for BBC One and BBC One HD is post-box red. This ident mirrors this as the first colour we see on it is the red, worn by the bike rider (top left screen-cap.) A couple of shots later, the colour red starts intertwining with the traditional 'rainbow' colours, revealing a number of people riding bikes in a circle. This then ties in with the next significant feature that BBC One have, which is the circle.

The circle could just be a random shape they came up with, but with being the media student that I am, my guess is that a lot of thought went in to it. I've researched the lengths and depths of Google and I cannot find anything, but I'll just make an assumption. To make the ident identifiable to everyone watching, it has two have two distinctive features; colour and shape. With the colour being red, and the shape being round, it has a distinctive look that no other TV channel has. The circle could possibly indicate the 'O' on the word 'one'. Comparing it to BBC2, this seems possible, as BBC2 focus on the number '2' in their ident design.

Focusing on the ident subject, the bikers in the rain with multicoloured capes, this could be a significant feature to when the ident was broadcast on television. This ident was first seen on BBC One at 9pm in August 2009. According to the UK Met Office, the rainfall for this time of year was "above normal". This could possible coincide with the design and it being focused on the rainfall, as the camera partakes in a few shots of puddles and raindrops on the ground.

These are just 6 of many idents that BBC One have created for their pre-television show adverts. As you can see, all 6 of them focus on the circle motion, giving it the distinctive look again. The 6 themes used are also very modern, which could attract the younger audience, as well as the adults.

Commonly, there is a slight theme with these idents. I normally see the fairground one on a Saturday night, before an entertainment show. The hippos/kites are normally seen before things like Countryfile and The One Show. I think it's really important to have a certain target audience with idents, as it gives the viewers an insight as to what the show coming after it is possibly about.

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Designing idents with ITV

Matt Rudd had the responsibility of designing a brand new ITV logo that would appear on the television, website, advertisement posters, social networking sites, etc. "I wanted the ITV logo to get off the fence and stand for something. Alongside the informative BBC and the provocative Channel 4, ITV is friendly and warm. It brings about shared emotional experiences. I felt that the logo should be based on handwriting, and that the letters might be lower case joined up."

Rudd began sketching down his initial ideas to create a platform on which he could take off from. With the joint handwriting, the logo could be easily made into a moving image and look as if somebody was writing the text. This would then begin to match with his specification of "ITV is friendly and warm". It's important for graphic designers to keep their designs as simple, yet effective, as possible as this will give the ident as much lee-way as needed when creating short clips to put in-between television shows.

Incorporating logos into idents is a very significant feature that all television channels do, as it gives them a distinct and unique image, which people will associate with their favourite channels. Keeping them simple is also a key way of the audiences remembering the channel and who it is associated with in general. 

These are the first digital copies of the newly branded ITV logo. Rudd stated "I wondered whether the use of symbols within the V might work across the sub-brands", such as ITV Love, Be, 2. In my opinion, I think this does work. The block colours make the logo and segments stand out compared to other brands, and has a warmth to it with being quite smooth, as the others tend to be quite square.

Above is a look at the new marque alongside other broadcasters' logos. Rudd felt that it was distinctive and legible, but the heart symbol was too much. The typography alone had enough warmth to it. At this point, Rudd started to work with Fontsmith. He added "it was great getting into the detail. As well as considering the weight and proportion, we wanted to formalise the marque so that it had authority and gravitas, whist remaining its human DNA."

Designing the logo in the way Rudd did is such a clever idea, especially how he then compared it to other broadcasters'. It gives a clear sight of how it looks in comparison, and whether it's the right way to go with it or not.

Rudd then continued to design and play around with the ITV logo to see how it would look with different themes and how it would work across the sub-brands. From the beginning of the project, Mark Rudd and Rufus Radcliffe, group director of marketing and research at ITV, talked about the idea that the main channel would have many colours whilst other, more specialist channels, would have single colours. "Multiple colours would speak of the varied content on the main channel. In the first place, we looked at using the silhouette of the new logo as a window on an animating world of swirling colour."

The final job for Rudd was to pick a hero set of colours for use. The upbeat and modern colours are picked from across the colour spectrum to suggest the network's wide range of content.

I really, really like the new logo. As Mark Rudd stated, it captures the variety of content that ITV provides for its audience. The black may represent the crime dramas, whereas the green and orange could represent more upbeat shows such as reality entertainment shows, suitable for all ages.

I will take into consideration the design concept of Rudd's process when creating my logo and ident as it gives a clear step-by-step method that makes creating the final ident a lot easier, and it becomes more effective.

- O

{Sources:}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_BBC_television_idents

http://www.logodesignlove.com/itv-logo