Audience Vodcast

PP - Audience Research

Websites:

Wiki search for pussycat dolls

The Pussycat dolls have appeared on many Websites They have appeared on Wikapedia telling us general information about the pussy cat dolls .This is the website with the most views for the pussy cat dolls as it probably contains the most information. There however are other websites containing information such asStarPulse containing info on the bands latest news, twitter feeds and myspace.They have also appeared on promoting websites such as contact music this also contains biographies and background info on most bands widely. As well as these sites the pussycat dolls also appear in the news online such as the Express,scottish daily record and the daily mail. This does show our secondary audience due to the daily mail being aimed at a slightly older audience than Tweens.

Radio:

The pussycat dolls have been played and interviewed on many radio stations they are most commonly played on Last Fm.They have also been interviewed on radio 1 before they broke up last year. Another popular station they are played on is tune in. As they have however all gone there seperate ways now . At the time they were interviewed on several radio stations such as these now there is single interviews of the artists themselves.

Tv and Film:

X Factor performance

They have produced there own reality tv show calledgirlicious released in 2008. This was an american tv show before the girls became famous in Britain. This however was not a success and they only produced one series. They also produced Search for the next doll released in 2007. This also wasnt released in Britain however was popular in US. This however did restrict there audience. They also made a series of online shows produced by kim kardashian. They also have performed on tv shows such as loose women, this morning, Jonathon ross dancing on ice and x factor.

Jai Ho

As well as producing reality tv they also did star in films . They are most popular in englan for starring in jai ho at the end of slumdog millionaire. They produced the dance and song to choreograph at the end of the film due to Nicholes close relationship and her background with india. They also made a documentry called thepussycat dolls . They have also produced short films for openings at there concerts as well as there music videos.

Magazines and the paper:

They have featured in many magazines from last year and years before due to the sudden break through and popularity in Britain. They have featured in papers such as the daily mail, the sun , the mirror , the express and the independent. This a variety of audience however they all do cover different topics from the group such as the news , the big break up. The sun however focuses on the band being new and male gaze. they also have a lot of bad gossip on the break up. They have also featured on a lot of magazine covers such as Blender, OK!, FHM and Pride magazine. These all represent different audience however mainly the male audience due to fhm and blender being mens magazines this shows another audience to consider.

Coverage recently:

I asked peers at home at school and online if they thought there had been any coverage on the pussy cat dolls. My over all outcome was that today it mostly seems to be about nicole rather than the other girls they have there own careers now but not as big as hers. They however said around this time last year they remember the girls breaking up and releasing there final album they also said they remember the break up and everything that went with that within news papers and tv.

Covers of there songs:

They have had many covers of the songs such as being sung on x factor and many talents show by other famous people. There songs have been covered on x factor by girl bands and individual artists this does appear to a wider scope of people such as familys and younger children. They also have covers done world wide such as on youtube . There music is very mainstream and is today widley recognised.

PP - Improvements and Ideas from Feedback

Younger PCD
From our sample video we had the idea suggested to use younger girls as the younger version of the PCD in our video. From this we now need to audition and cast these younger girls. To increase verisimilitude we want these 5 girls to look as similar to the older girls as possible. To do this we have asked the drama department and we are putting up posters around school for year 7 and 8 girls (roughly 12 - 14 year olds) to come and audition. We have also been brainstorming what the younger girls will wear and their appearance. We plan to get footage of them applying make up badly and have their hair in quite a child like way, e.g plaits.

Set Ups
From feedback we realised we have to come up with a lot more set ups so we have plenty of footage to work with, even if we don't end up using it all. One idea we are interested by is the younger girls shopping maybe in a charity shop.

Colour Association 
Across both the younger and older girls we have decided that each of them should be recognisable by a certain colour throughout. The Saturdays and Atomic Kitten are just a couple of the many girl bands that do this and we think it looks really effective and will nicely bring the narrative together.

Mise-en-scene
As the girls are revisiting their childhood we need to take into account the mise-en-scene of the time when they were little. For example, we will need to set dress with older technology and boy band posters for it to be accurate to the time.
We are also going to try and get hold of a red carpet to use to anchor the girls fame further.

PP - Choreography Clips

Here are some clips from PCD videos and the dance sections from these. By looking at these we can get the idea of how they dance and from these it can help us to create our own choreography inspired by their past videos.

Podcast Week 3 - Week Planning 21/10/13

This podcast is about what we plan to do during the rest of this week.

TD - Characters, Costume & Make Up

KH - Intertextuality & Relationships Vodcast

Editing Style Vodcast

KH - Narrative & Performance Vodcast

Influences Vodcast

Influences
Our video has many influences. We were influenced by previous Pussycat Dolls videos such as Don't Cha, which features a mixture of narrative and performance, with an urban feel. We were also influenced by girl band The Saturdays, who wear different coloured dresses to signify the different personalities in the group, and we have used an idea similar to this in our music video. The Spice Girls also influenced the idea of individuality in our group.

PP- Locations & Mise-en-scene Vodcast

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene will be used throughout the video to help anchor characters and representations throughout the music videos.

In the bedroom setting posters of boy bands will be on the walls, along with girly young features such as a jewellery box and pink walls. These will help suggest the girls age, and increase verisimilitude. In the setting with the older PCD's they will be shown getting out of a limo or a posh looking car. They will also have magazines and their smart phones to anchor their fame.

Locations

One of the locations we plan to use is a girly bedroom. This is easily accessible as we can adapt any of our bedrooms to make them look more childish. There will also be a bathroom with a large mirror that you see both the younger and the older pussycat dolls in.

Other locations include an outside urban area such as leeds where the PCD can see themselves as famous on billboards and other forms of media. Another location is the performance section. Similar to a couple of the other PCD videos and blue one love they perform in alleys or urban settings, We thought it would be effective to use a large brick wall as a background.

Sample Video - Audience Feedback

Kate, Poppy and I re-pitched our idea for The Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up to the class, and we also asked some members of our target audience to watch the 21 second sample video. We received a lot of constructive criticism from other members of the class. One idea that was suggested was colour differentiation throughout the whole video for each member of the band to signify individuality. This is a convention used by many girl bands previously, an our final idea was that a different colour would be used for each girl both in the shots when they are younger and when they are older. 

Our original idea was to play ourselves as the younger girls, however this idea was quite unpopular and it was suggested that we use younger girls from the years below to create more verisimilitude. 

Our idea for the performance footage was to be performed in front of a plain brick wall to give the video an urban feel, and it was suggested that we film some sample footage in a number of different locations so we could look back at the footage and decide which would look more effective in our music video. 

Originally, we had planned to have the shots of the younger girls in two places; a bedroom and a bathroom. However, it was suggested to us that the video would be more engaging for an audience if in the video the younger girls walked/were filmed where the shots of the older girls would take place. Some suggestions of places included a record shop where the younger girls could look at a CD of the band, or in a clothes shop where they could be trying on clothes.

Podcast Week 2 - Idea Development 13/10/13

Over the past week we have continued to develop our idea following on from feedback from the class. We are going to cast younger girls as the younger version of the pussy cat dolls to try and increase verisimilatude. This week we also filmed and edited a 20 second piece of sample footage to experiment on ideas and also editing and effects we may wish to use in our final product. From this we really liked the effect of the 5 girls being represented by their own colour and we plan to use this again.

Over the coming week we are planning in more depth production areas such as characters, costume, location and mise-en-scene, narrative and performance, influences, intertextuality and editing style guide. We plan to do these in vodcasts format so they are easily accessable and we can give visual aids of what we want to achieve. Along with this we will start to gather more audience feedback from our primary target audience.  

KH - Sample Video: Editing

Glow and Isloate effect

To signify the pop genre, we wanted our video to look light and bright, with bright colours. When experimenting with the enhance effects, we came across Islolate. This enhanced the bright colours in the shot, and dulled the neutral colours. It worked well on the fan shot and the ending shot with the writing on the mirror, as it made the pink and red stand out to the viewer.

Sped up ending shot

The ending shot was sped up by 200%, as it was a long shot so keeping it long would have disengaged the audience. The writing 'famous' signifies the theme, so we thought it would be best to enhance the shot wit the Islolate and Glow effect.

We applied the Glow effect to all the narrative shots, as it brightened the mise-en-scene which is the look that we wanted. It made the walls of the bathroom appear white rather than the dull purple that it is, and it made the characters clothing and accessories appear more vibrant. At the start when the 5 members all turn around, we used the Colorize effect which tinted the entire screen one colour. Each member was cast a different colour to differentiate between the different personalities, and to make the video more vibrant.

Final edit

This is the video after all the editing was complete. The video was 21 seconds in total.

KH - Sample Video Shoot

Our shoot took place on the 9th October 2013. Because we had a short period of time for filming, we shot our footage in school. We only used 2 locations due to a lack of time and room availbility, however there will be many more in the final cut. The cast included Poppy, Tilly and myself, as well as two others outside of the group (Alys & Alice). Millie was our cinematographer. Because the footage was shot during school, there was no opportunity to change the mise-en-scene to signify the age differences. In terms of locations, we had issues using the preferred location of the gym, as it was in use. We therefore had to improvise and use the school car park for our performance footage. For the narrative section, we used the school toilets, and because we shot during a free period, it was not busy which therefore made it quicker and easier to get the required shots.

All in all, the shoot went according to plan except from the change of performance location. We used props to signify the ages rather than clothes and make up, and we plan to edit the footage to make it appear more bright and girly.

Sample Video 1

KH - Track Timing Sheet

Track timing from poppypadgettmedia

Podcast Week 1 - Our Group and Idea 8/10/13

Pitch 1 - Idea

Track: That Girl
Artist: McFly
Released: 2006

ORIGINALVIDEO:


LYRICS

My chosen track is That Girl by boy-band McFly. My idea is a mixture of narrative and performance, as this is usually what boy-bands do in their videos, like Busted's Air Hostess.

The narrative part of the video will follow the four members of the band as they walk through a town e.g Ilkley, and the lead singer would see "That Girl" and ditch his friends to walk through town with her, whilst the rest of the band watch him and shake their heads to fit in with the lyrics 'you're never gonna get that girl'. The performance footage would be intercut with the narrative throughout the whole video. 

Cast
The cast would need to be 4 boys to be the members of the band, and a focus on the main singer in the narrative part of the video. Then there would be another boy who isn't a member of the band to briefly play the boy in the video with the lyrics in the song "but she was with another guy". Then there would be the blonde girl in the video, also to fit in with the lyrics of the song, and obviously to play the main girl.

Costumes
The costumes would be normal teenage clothes such as jeans and a plain t-shirt/ plaid shirt, as the audience of the video would be teenagers, so the costumes should reflect this. The girl would wear a short skirt and possibly a revealing top like in the original video, to attract a male audience, using Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory.

Performance Footage
I think that the performance footage should look as realistic as possible, like in the original video we can see wires from the microphones. I would like to do this in my video as it creates verisimilitude and keeps the audience more interested. The performance footage will be inter-cut throughout the whole video, and the first shots would be appear at about 10 seconds. 

Locations
The location in the original video stays the same throughout. However I thought multiple locations would work best for my video. The main locations would be Ilkley, and then a house to briefly film the narrative that goes with the lyrics 'Went round to see her". The performance footage will either be shot in an outside location with Ilkley as the background, or inside on a stage. 

Pitch 1 - Supporting Video