Preliminary Research

This is my preliminary research for the music video project.

At the start of the project I want to research a variety of genres. Here are a few different genres that I looked at.

Song, Artist	Genre/ Genre Conventions of music videos	What issue/social group was being represented? How was it being represented?	What did you like/dislike about the music video?
Yura Yunita - Dunia Tipu Tipu (2021)	Indonesian Pop + Indonesian language Indonesian people + Loud motorcycles (smoke coming out)	People who are in relationships (family, husband and wife, friendships) Comfortable looking background, white tent, push in camera angle to highlight emotions and then long shot to give them space to express their private moment.	I don’t like how it is just in a tent and it lacks background diversity. I find it boring. I don’t like how the singer sings after a private moment.
Harry Styles - As it was (2022)	Pop + Money + Lamborghini (fancy cars) + Sexy dancers + High budget + Flashy	People who are in love More performative to show the connection between man and the women (using the rotating surface to emphasise how the man is chasing the women.)	I dislike the man using a dress. I like the song in the music video and it looks creative but it's too expensive to replicate for us.
Jamie T - Zombie (2014)	Indie + Band playing the instruments + Lower budget	Zombies were represented Band performers were acting and looked like zombies. The use of blood and limbs tearing apart. Background actors don't care about the zombies.	I don't like the song because it sounds too repetitive. I like the props used to show that they’re zombies, and I like their acting, which makes it more believable and adds to the realism.
The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (2020)	RnB + Warm colours + Singing into a microphone + Romantic scenes	Violence, masculinity, and his relationship with the women were being represented. Fast cars, the use of the colour red, blood, fighting, running away from something. The use of fast paced editing to create energy and excitement.	I enjoyed the song. I like the use of the colour red to emphasise that he is in danger or is danger himself. And the change of the sound to make it more deep for that one scene made it more engaging to the audience - which I also enjoyed. I disliked the violence in the beginning but I understand why they use it (to further show the colour red).
The Beatles - Now and Then (2023)	Rock + Sharp pointy objects + Mow-hawks + Using the colour black	Friendships, past and present were represented The use of colourful costumes, band playing the instruments, fans cheering, and the use of AI to make it seem like the dead person ,who was in the band, looks like they are playing with the rest.	I like the use of AI to connect the people from the past with the present. I like how they subverted from the rock convention and used bright coloured clothes.

Based on this research and after some discussion with my team, we decided to choose Indie as our music video genre as we believe it simpler to do since we have limited budget (which is a convention of Indie music videos) and we enjoy the mood that Indie song creates.

Self Reflection:

This preliminary research exposed me to all the different type of songs and genres in music videos. It gave me a wider insight of song genres that we could potentially use for the project, including its conventions, and briefly contains what I like/dislike about it. After consideration with my group, we choose the Indie genre. A problem I faced was that some of my research wasn't as detailed as I hoped it would be, meaning it wouldn't be as useful when choosing a genre since I didn't have enough information to make the decision. Due to that, in my free time, I rewatched the music video back and inputted more information about it to ease the decision making process. This improved my problem solving skills as I needed to find a way to finish the research. In the future, I would straight away make the research detailed, during class, so that there would be more time available for me to finish the other blog posts in this project.