Initial Ideas

• Our first thoughts when we listened to the music and watched her video was to do a narrative video to do with going out on a "Friday night" and how she can't dance.

• We thought of the possibility of having dancers in the same outfits doing a choreographed dance around the main singer and performing some acrobatic flips and gymnastics around her in a sports hall, but with dancers as we thought this would look more coordinated and professional.

•  We then thought further about this and we realized this was to plain and ordinary. We then thought about having something more original but with a group. Then we thought about having a hockey theme dancing and performing with their sticks and coordinating outfits. We could then still have our main focus on one particular girl who was really bad at hockey and took out her anger on the ball.   

• Then we looked at the video from a different angle and thought about having a group of people in an unusual situation singing the song. This is when we thought we could dress up a hockey team so they're matching with war paint on their faces, doing different drills, having close ups of them singing and and hitting the hockey ball.

• We would then cut to a different scene of the same girl singing on stage in a different out fit and a whole different atmosphere. We thought we could have a theme on the stage of what was happening in the song and have the contrast of the two locations. In the background of the stage we are having 3 dancers in morph suits doing a choreographed dance and moving around her to make her feel uncomfortable and small while she's singing

• However, when we relooked at the idea we thought of having the other location in the changing room with the main girl dancing around singing into the mirror. We thought this could coordinate better with the song.

Further ideas of shots for the main singer

• High angle shot of Abi on the floor, moving her arms and looking at the camera as she mimes the lyrics to the first verse.

• Another shot we had for the first verse was Abi getting ready for her "hockey match". This included close ups of her pulling up her socks, putting on her headband and her face paint. We ask had shots of her singing in the mirror with a over the shoulder shot so we could see he reflection in the mirror.

•  For the music at the stat of the music video and in between the verses and chorus we had a shot of her in different positions which is good for the upbeat tempo.
  

•  Fr the lyrics "i got a feeling that i look absurd" we had a medium shot of her throwing off outfits because she didn't like any of them.

• To show that she was "having a fit" we had a full shot of her tearing off the clothes and hitting down the hockey equipment because she's angry which we are going to speed up and slow down for a bigger impact on how upset she is.
  

The outfits

The picture below shows the kind of outfit we want out dancers to wear, with matching accessories such as head and sweat bands and socks, with high waisted skirts and tucked in polo shirts.

Ideas of Shots

Have a before and after shot of the stage - what is it going to look like when we've done it up and what are we going to have in he background?

Over the shoulder shot of girls doing make up in mirror

Girls walking down stairs in twos, with one on their own at back.

Screenplays - Here are some of are initial ideas using screenplays to plan out each shot. We will do more details plans later on and make sure we have planned our shooting schedule.

Questionnaire - Audience Research

Results

We handed out 20 of these questionaires around are school to different age groups to try and get different views on tastes and styles of music and music videos

Age

< 16  (4)

17-25 (10)

25-45 (3)
45 > (3)

The average age group that took the questionaire was cleary high in the 17-25 bracket, although this is our primary audience for our music video and artist we also needed to give questionaires to different age groups. For the higher age categories we gave questionaires to teachers and parents. For the below 16 category we gave questionaires to people in the younger years

Gender

Male - (11)
Female - (9)

Although our target audience for the music video and advertisments will be young females, obviously males will be interested in this alternative style of pop. Therefore we still gave questionaires to males and decided to give more to them to see a wider range of taste and style in music.

Favourite Genre of Music

Pop - (6)
Rock/Metal - (4)
Classic - (1)
Alternative - (5)
Hip Hop/R&B - (4)

An important question to consider is the most popular genre of music. Looking at the results from the questionaire we can see that although the results are spread across the 5 different genres, Pop and Alternative are the most popular choice, which matches Kate's style of music. Her genre is best described as alternative pop and therefore it is a popular genre and will have a major sized target audience.

Enjoyment of Music Videos

Although there was a range of feedback from this question, most of the answers were 'laid back' answers about how "it was something to do", "if nothing else was on". However there were also some very helpful answers that considered why someone would watch music videos. Such as "to find out and view the artists style" or "to see how the music is portrayed in a video". Finally there were other answers that wanted to find out more about the artist and her music.

Narrative or Performance

Narrative -(13)
Performance - (7)  

These results slightly effected our choice of a narrative or performance music video. Before the result of the questionaire we were certainly deciding on creating a performance video, however due to the popularity of narrative videos we have decided to do a part performance, part narrative, but our music video will certainly have more performance aspects to it because this was our first feeling when hearing the music.

Regularity of watching music videos.

3 or more times a week - (7)
Less than 3 times a week - (8)
A month - (4)
A year - (1)

Media Institutions and Demographics

Kate Miller Heidke is fairly unknown in the UK and in America when compared with other artists we have talked about before. However she has not taken this approach to the music industry and is in fact very popular in her home country - Australia.

This is clearly shown with the number of nominations in the 2007 ARIA awards.

Kate further shows her talent and popularity in Australia in the 2009 International songwriting competition where she won the grand prize.

Year	Event	Award	Result
2007	ARIA Awards	Best Female Artist[9]	Nominated
2007	ARIA Awards	Breakthrough Album (Little Eve)[9]	Nominated
2007	ARIA Awards	Breakthrough Single ("Words")[9]	Nominated
2007	ARIA Awards	Best Pop Release (Little Eve)[9]	Nominated
2009	International Songwriting Competition	Grand Prize (with Keir Nuttall) ("Caught in the Crowd")[10]	Won
2009	APRA Music Awards	Best Song (with Keir Nuttall) ("Can't Shake It")[11]	Nominated

Kate has become very successful in Australia and therefore is under a major record label -Sony Music.

The Music industry has 4 Transnational Corporations - Known as The Majors .

• Universal 
• Sony BMG
• Warner Bros 
• EMI

Due to Kate's record label being one of the majors she has clearly had a lot of success in Australia. Her popularity in Australia is further shown with the number of live shows and touring that she does with and without her band.


Her target audience is also an important factor to look at while researching due to the fact we will need to choose our own target audience and demographic for our music video.
We will therefore look at these socio economic demographics and the four C's for our video. When looking at Kate's target audience it is also important to look at the fashion of the artist and how she promotes herself.


These demographics are based on the National Readership Survey's socio-economic grades:

A: Higher Managerial, administrative or professional - doctors, sollicitors.

B: Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional - bank managers, teachers.

C1: Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional - 'white collar' office and bank staff.

C2: Skilled manual workers - plumbers, builders.

D: Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers.

E: Casual labourers, unemployed, on state benefits.

However we cannot use these categories for choosing our target audience, there are problems with these categories especially because of our age demographic will probably be the younger generation due to Kate's quirky attitude and upbeat vibe. Therefore we need to look at the 4C's (see below) to choose what type of personality our audience will be, which in turn will also be the target charter of Kate's target audience.

The 4Cs: Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation

Resigned	Rigid, strict, authoritarian and chauvinist values, oriented to the past and to Resigned roles. Brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy. (Older).
Struggler	Alienated, Struggler, disorganised – with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). Heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.
Mainstreamer	Domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big well-known value for money ‘family’ brands. Almost invariably the largest 4Cs group.
Aspirer	Materialistic, acquisitive, affiliative, oriented to extrinsics… image, appearance, charisma, persona and fashion. Attractive packaging more important than quality of contents. (Younger, clerical/sales type occupation)
Succeeder	Strong goal orientation, confidence, work ethic, organisation… Support status quo, stability. Brand choice based on reward, prestige – the very best. Also attracted to ‘caring’ and protective brands… Stress relief. (Top management).
Explorer	Energy – autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect – the first to try new brands. (Younger – student)
Reformer	Freedom from restriction, personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring, support growth of new product categories. Select brands for intrinsic quality, favouring natural simplicity, small is beautiful.(Highier education)

When looking at these different cultural categories it is clear that Kate's genre of music fits into 2 clear groups - The Explorer and The Reformer. This is due to the quirkyness and independence seen in Kate's music and her overall energy found in each song and music video. Therefore explorers will definitely be interested in Kate's style of music - they have energy and are not scared to try new things, also are mostly students which further links in with her target age group. Reformers will also like Kate's music not only because of their independent judgement but also for their feeling on favouring natural simplicity and show support to new product categories. Therefore because Kate is seen as quite a small independent artist they will appreciate her work.

Past Albums & Discovering New Music

 Circular breathing
 Little Eve                                          
 Telegram

Kate Miller-Heidke's first album was EP, Telegram which came out in 2004. Then in 2005, Kate began her career as a lead opera vocalist, but soon found herself dreaming of advancing her solo career, releasing Circular Breathing in 2006. But it wasn’t until late ‘06 that Kate returned to the studio to commence work on her first full-length album.

Unquestionably extraordinary in every sense of the words, Kate has definitely gone outside the box when producing these wacky songs with each original song having a defined but diverse message. This is shown in her next album Little Eve, which combines her uniquely individual lyrics with amusingly uplifting melodies, creating a collection of intriguing theatrical musicality. Also featured on her album are Kate’s band members, who she has been playing with for three years, and their chemistry is unmistakable.

As one of our tasks is to design an album cover it is vital to look at previous albums of Kate. All of Kate's album covers are simplistic and concentrate on the artist with not much else happening on the cover. Surprisingly there is a lack of colour and instead of the vibrant colours seen in videos such as 'Can't Shake It' and .... the primary colour is a dullish yellow or black and white in Little Eve. Although this simplistic approach is still effective we will probably base our album around the main theme - Hockey. Therefore it is likely that it will be colourful and have interesting costumes also seen in the music video. However Kate's newest album - Courioser follows some of the themes in Can't shake it - Big hairstyle, wierd obejects, lots of makeup (red lipstick and eye lashes) and colour across her face. We think that this will be the album cover that is most similar to our own design.

History of Music Videos


Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back further, they came into their own in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional (promo) clip" or "film clip".

MTV was therefore life changing for all artists in the music industry, it created a huge amount of promotion for the stars and in the 1980's stars such as Madonna, Adam and the Ants and Michael Jackson gained a huge amount of success from their music videos alone. Michael Jackson's music video 'Thriller ' Is one of the most famous music videos there is. While researching music videos it is obvious to look at the importance of MTV and how it has affected every music artist since the 1980's. Although MTV affects the world today with around 10 different channels, when it was first created it was only one channel in America and was not broadcasted elsewhere. Therefore countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia were not able to watch music videos on MTV till 4 years later in 1987. This meant British people needed to find out about the top music in a different way and therefore relied on ' Top of the Pops ' on broadcasted on BBC. 

However the music video industry has expanded since the days of Top of the Pops and now the public are able to watch music videos on hundreds of different channels and thousands of different websites. Meaning there are unlimited ways to discover new music.

Discovering New Music

Websites such as Youtube, Myspace and Yahoo Music are obvious places to find music videos but to discover new and interesting music different sites are used which are simple and easy to use. Sites such as Last FM are able to find artists similar to your favourite artists that you might not have heard before. This is very useful to discover artists you might not have known about but still like their genre of music. Furthermore there are many websites which are updated daily about new pop music / artists / news / events in a blog style. This is another way to discover new music and Pop Justice is a great example of this.

Comparison of Kate Miller Heidke with other well known artists

Pop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It is mainly focused on commercial recording and is aimed towards a youth market. Generic pop songs were known to focus on relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilizing key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. Whereas in the 21st century new generations of pop are known to concentrate on more unique ideas and has resulted in a number of sub genres. These include dance-pop, electropop, pop rock, pop punk and others such as teen pop and urban pop.

Similar Artists

• Lady GaGa
• La Roux
• Bat for Lashes

Lady GaGa - Kate's approach to making analbum is different to following the

mainstream of pop music, although Kate can be seen as similar to artists such as Lady GaGa she shows a different vibe of initiative and style in her music. However her style of appearance is somewhat similar to that of Lady GaGa. This is shown in her music video for "Can't Shake It" compared with Lady GaGa's popular and well known songs such as "Just Dance", "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi". Lady GaGa's appearance is vibrant, loud and what she wears is described as "outrageous outfits". Her different array of outfits can be seen on this fashion website and is clear in her first bestselling single "Just Dance". Furthermore both Kate and Lady GaGa write there own music and lyrics. This makes both there music very orginal which is shown in both their albums and shows that both artists have become popular through self promotion. Lady GaGa even wrote songs for other popstars such as The Pussycat Dolls.

However Kate's other songs show huge differences between herself and Lady GaGa, which also shows that she has changed her style in different albums and songs, where as Lady GaGa shows to stick to the same theme and style in all her music videos, however this is the style Lady GaGa choose and is clear in her album. Her songs do in fact vary from the fun, celeberity vibe in Just Dance to the passion that is shown in the softer track Brown Eyes, said to be influenced by Queen . When comparing Kate with Lady Gaga it is obvious that there are many differences between them. A clear difference is the way both artists advertise themselves and how one is seen in a completely different way to the other in the media and public. Lady GaGa has sold over 3 million copies of her album "The Fame" and had three number 1 hits. Whereas Kate Miller Heidke has now realesed 3 albums which are unknown when compared with Lady GaGa's The Fame.

La Roux - has recently become a successful female artist with her current hit "In for the kill”. Both La Roux and Kate have different sub genres, such as La Roux's music being electropop and Kate’s music as dance pop.

Bat for Lashes - Another new female artist “Bat for lashes” who lives in Brighton got inspiration for writing her songs from her art school education and has been influenced by Steve Reich and Susan Hiller. As a young singer she shows the future of music being more inspirational and kwirky. She has similar aspects to Kates music videos, however, they still have individual traits which make them popular and unique and still avoid being mainstream. The female artists have also been popular because of their music being personal to themselves and creating their own image such as "Bat for Lashes" being portrayed as a 'fragile young singer' with Kate Miller Heidke shown in a simular light, "singing honest, confessional, raw lyrics." As she says she thinks that this has "always been her main way to expressing herself and her emotions."

In Kate Heidke's music video 'The Last Day on Earth' we see similarities and differences to Natasha Khans video 'Daniel'. Although the artists have different styles with Kate wearing alot of brightly coloured dresses and Natasha wearing more casual clothes, they have both written and produced their own music. In the videos they are both focused on themselves in a different setting with Natashas flashing back to different objects but, at the same time with close ups of their face showing lots of emotion. The two songs are both mellow and slow with the lyrics talking about someone they loved. Natasha used people in black to dance and move her to create an erie strange atmosphere, they are also used to represent the person she was singing about. However, with Kates video she was in her dream alone possibly in the house of the person she is singing about.

On Natasha Khans website they promote all her live performances as well as selling their tickets and having a map of the venue for their fans. Where as on Kate's website she has not promoted any tickets for her.

Alternative Pop Fashion

Here are some examples of song alternative pop artists and the type of fashion and personalities they have. They all look different and individual, but still have similar aspects of there overall appearences. All of the examples have tried to make their image stand out of the crowd with striking clothes and make up.

The Types of Clothing 

Conventions In Kate Miller Heidke's Music Videos

Words



Kate released this single titled "Words" in the Spring of 2007, her first single of the album "Little Eve" was described as being 'Incisive, fun, personal, confident' with 'poetic lyrics delivered with a vocal performance that is nothing short of masterful, 'Words' is one of the most memorable songs you?ll hear this year'. "Words" clearly has many similar attributes to the single "Can't Shake It" and therefore is very important for us to study carefully and analyze the main themes and ideas that Kate used in this music video, so that we can incorporate them in our own video.

Therefore we will be looking at how the music video was filmed, edited and how the aspect of mis-en-scene is vital in every music video.

In all music videos camera work creates the depiction of the artist and how they want to be portrayed in the song. Kate's video is a performance music video.

Conventions of a Performance pop music video

• Lip sync close up's
• Unusual camera shots and angles
• choreographed dance routine
• First person mode of address

Kate's video 'Words' is in the Amplification genre for music videos. This means performance and narrative may be used, however rather than simply illustrate the lyrics or sounds this director will amplify both with creative interpretation, unusual ideas and surrealistic approaches. However there is still a direct link to the song whether it is the beat, sound or connotative link to part of the lyrics or song title.

There is a clear change in the music video from the slow pace of the typing at the start of the video to the hectic madness seen in the middle of the video. Mid shots and close ups are regularly used at the start and the position of Kate is generally in the middle of the screen with no abstract angles. Her face, body and specific objects are made the centre of the music video and a therefore a central part of the song - light bulbs, typewriter.

However during the chorus the camerawork is much more shaky and whip pans, fast dolly track shots and handheld camera shots are used to represent the madness and insanity of Kate (a mental patient) in "Words".

The editing is obviously an essential part of any music video, the timing of the cut with the beat of the music makes the music video what it is and with bad editing a video can become a disaster. The slow editing incorporates with the lack of movement from the camera at the start of the music video to represent the beat of Kate typing the letter to her lover. However the extremely fast cutting rate of the second part of video further denotes the madness of Kate due to this man. The fast cutting rate certainly links in with the flashing of specific images within the videos.

Finally the mis-en-scene creates how the artist is presented and if a narrative music video how the story is presented. The costumes of Kate Miller Heidke's portray her style and are similar in her other videos. They are bright, vibrant and loud and in "Words" she changes her dress perhaps representing the change in feeling from calm to mental. Similarly the changes from normal to flashing lights to dark at the end of the video further represent the change in feeling. Obviously setting further links with the main theme/idea of the music video. The whole music video is set around a padded room in a mental hospital which is an original idea further advancing the idea of gone crazy over a boy.

However the music video all incorporates strange random ideas and objects which is similar to that in Lady GaGa videos. in "Words" strange ideas such as red strings, school boys and hunting rifles are used.

Compared With "The Last Day On Earth", both these videos are very different in there style and genre. Although this is because both songs sound different, there are also clear differences in the music video itself especially its conventions and techniques.

 This is seen with the difference in camera work between both music videos. Unlike in Words and Can't Shake it Kate takes a different approach to her style of video. The camerawork is mostly stable with slow movements and few oblique angles are used compared to Words. This is due to the serious theme of the video and instead completely concentrates on Kate's emotions. However the most common shot throughout the video is the mid shot which is also used in Kate's other videos. This is to show Kate's emotion while singing especially towards the middle and end of the song when her emotions are clear and to make it obvious she is crying. However the speed of the movement such as the tilts, pans and zooms is consistent in "The Last Day On Earth", it always keeps a slow steady speed when concentrating on either Kate or the background around her. Although the camerawork is very different in both videos, the fact that they  both stay consistent due to the theme of the song shows that Kate's videos are filmed in this particular way. The use of close up's is also very interesting in The Last Day On Earth, different parts of Kate's body are concentrated on and also specific objects around the house she is singing in. This goes back to the random objects that are seen in Words and therefore perhaps represents important objects to Kate. Another noticeable difference in both videos is the position of Kate and the fact that she looks at the camera considerably less in The Last Day On Earth compared with Can't Shake It. Kate is mostly made the centre of the screen in both videos but in The Last Day On Earth she can be seen in a lot of the shots to the side or at a slight angle. This is shown when she is by the fish tank to further represent the loneliness, which is the main theme of the song and video.

The editing is the clearest difference between each video and is certainly because of the beat of each song. The slow pace of the song means that the cutting rate does not have a fast pace unlike in Words.
The Mis-en-scene in The Last Day On Earth is very important similarly to that in Words. It creates the narrative parts of each video and portrays Kate in completely different ways. This is certainly shown with the lighting differences of each video. The lighting in The Last Day On Earth is very important because it further shows the emotion of Kate. Some parts are much darker than others, especially when going round the house it is set in. This further represents the loneliness of Kate and the emptiness of her house. This is very different to the lighting in Words where the lighting is bright on a white setting and strobes are used. Similarly in both videos the setting plays a vital part in both videos. In Words the setting of a padded room obviously links in with the theme of madness and in The Last Day on Earth the setting of an empty house links in with the theme of loneliness and isolation.

Introduction to Kate Miller Heidke

We have chosen to make a pop video on Kate Miller Heidke's alternative pop song "Can't Shake It". The reason we have chosen this artist is because while researching the different songs we could use we recognized the vibrant colors and original ideas that Kate uses in her own videos and therefore thought it would be great to incorporate in our own. Furthermore we established the clear beat of the song in which we felt we could easily edit the video with the beat of the song. Here is a 30 second preview of Kate's single "Can't Shake It" in which we hope to re create in our original idea.

Cant Shake It - Kate Miller-Heidke


 And here is the original music video for "Can't Shake It"

Kate is known for her individual approach to creating her music which is shown by her last album in which she describes as having "a huge burst

of inspiration'' and stating that she had no ideas for her second album instead she "went into this album with a vision". Kate makes sure that her albums are unique and states that before she creates the album she ensured the music was aesthetic and that the music had "spirit'. Kate even describes her music as "experimental, hooky, unashamedly pop". Our main aim in this coursework is to create an individual and original idea that incorporates some of Kate Miller Heidke main themes and ideas that are seen in her videos. During our research we intend to analyse the image and style of the artist, investigate her recent videos and examine the history of pop music and the sub genres that are very popular in the music industry.




















As well as making a music video for the single "Can't Shake It" we will also be making a CD cover and magazine advert for the song. These two secondary tasks will be based around the main theme we choose in our music video and therefore costumes and props will be vital.
To make these two products we will be using Final Cut Pro. We are looking forward to learning how to make such vital pieces of advertisements for our music video. Without advertising products such as magazine posters and CD covers the artist's image would be completely different and would get no where near as much recognition for their image.