Unit 2 - Reflection and Furthering

Reflection on Research Unit

From the start of the unit until now I feel as though I have learned a fair amount about research, it's terminology and practice. This unit we applied research techniques to a genre of music video to gain knowledge and to know how to get other opinions and proof of ideas. I employed a few sources go primary (original or own sourced) and secondary (Websites, books, interviews etc.) sources to find the themes of my chosen genre Brit-pop.

The original analysis

Good points I found multiple video examples to analyse from the appropriate time and genre, Had to leave out a few as they did not fit (either before Britpop era or after) Anallysis was quite noticed. Challenges as far as it goes I need to include more discussion of technical aspects, by looking at types of shot and the framing as well as lighting and sound would have improved it.

The theorists

Looked at the theorists and gained a base understanding of them But not of Versallis. also needs to find sources for quotes or reputable secondary sources. by finding more sources I can give evidence that I have read the theory although the understanding of that would only be shown through analysis of video. Be more in-depth with the theories too with out losing conciseness of points.

Theorist analysis

application to the videos using theory is good and already has helped boost my knowledge of the genre and of its validity. the validity is starting to be shown as these are conclusions drawn by utilising experienced professional theorists and drawing similar conclusions from my own basic analysis. Improvements would be to criticise the theories and there appropriateness to the task at hand.

Quantitive Questionare

The questions were linked to the units tasks and were closed but showed options suitable for ease of users answering questions. difficulties arose when it came to the amount of people who would take the questionnaire as the known pool of people that would also fill in the form was small. taking small sample size into account the answers were that which could be represented which was good. improvements, more refined questions would be more appropriate and give some information but again only some. get a larger sample pool by online or postal means.

Qualitative Focus Group

Good planning and questions to be asked. nerves whilst asking gave garbled on non answerable mess. group used was not too interested and were not willing to answer when prompted. With better control over nerves, clearer questioning and a more willing or focused group would have helped immeasurably the results from this were only salvageable thanks to some written answers which again only gave vague ideas. I can improve by gathering a better aimed group of people based on age more appropriate to a movement 20 years old and structure the sheets given with a frame work encouraging answers linked to the questions I would decide to ask.

Unit 2 - Outcomes of Research

Unit 2 - Research Outcomes

The outcomes of my research came in three parts:

• That of my original analysis
• Results from my applied research
• The Correlated results

My original analysis of Brit-pop music video brought forward themes of British stereotypes, local British accents and visualisations of the youth in Britain. Technical aspects tend to be quite low when produced giving it an almost amateur feel but that then high tens the british feel as we kind of feel home made and seeing a street that could be any in Britain is interesting.

Second exploration into the music videos when applied to Theorist such as Andrew Godwin Laura Mulvey or Carol Vernallis garnered more information. The results I found to be evident is that the videos didn't follow the music fully very often, some of the narrative was generally connected to the song with maybe a theme on the musicians miming a performance. Technically the cuts were not always tight with the music following the flow of visuals primarily. 

From my Questionaire I gained these results - Younger participants felt energy was very important older ones knew more of the subject and gave opinions on the elements of music video and Brit-pop. I drew from this that if I were to aim it at older people who lived through the movement my analysis starts to line up. My questions can be improved by choosing a better set of extended questions framed more openly using prying and stimulant words the Why does this effect you? keeping them open ended. In my reach for participants printing and collecting may be more appropriate to gain the audience who would have knowledge or experience of the genre because they will not only have an opinion they will have their own strengths, weaknesses and preferences.

From my Focus Group I Gained these results - The key elements were that younger people are a lot more technically focused and were baffled by some of the things shown in my presentation. They were not receptive in what I was asking them but that was because I was feeling nervous and had recently abandoned my prearranged questions. They caught the themes of Intertexuality which lined up with my own research which I am taking on board and hope to include some of my own. What was wrong was that my prepared questions were too specific like what was the fashion of the British youth in the mid 1990s when whilst it would help in costuming for my music video I should have been open and talked about the character or band visuals. Band imagery would have linked back in with my analysis using theorist Andrew Goodwin and how it was included into the music videos.

Correlated from the compilation from these results have resulted in the conclusions Brit-pop video should include a range of its themes and conventions.

Unit 2 - Process of Research

Research Process

For this unit we were tasked with following a logical procedure to research, analyse, gather data, correlate and synthesise ideas to inform and influence my own music video production. Along the way we were required to investigate and show evidence of what we did, what we learned and how we could improve on future research projects.

To look into a genre of music video first I decided on what to look at. After careful consideration at what genres I already knew a little about and what I liked, knowing it would catch my interest more, I decided to look at Brit-pop. The first part of knowledge gained was the historical context of the genre, looking into musical influence timelines; the culture of the artists and by knowing when the videos were made. The name "Brit" references Britain and "Pop" is a nod to the popular culture this movement was a celebration of things that were British. 

What was gathered next were some examples of music videos through internet resources although the content was near 20 years old and the medium of release would have been. I then reviewed the content for its suitability for purpose, analysed the music videos to find common themes and conventions. This was evident in textual and subtextual themes in which many videos had a load of stuff that can be considered narrative. 

In order to gain a deeper understanding I looked into a couple of theories looking at internet sources again. The secondary sources that I used helped with more general understanding and application of the theories. 

Then I applied the knowledge learned through theories to the Music videos again to have a differently structured analysis for the topic. 

I then wanted to have some of my conclusions validated and to do that I decided to employ both Qualitative and Quantitative research. I created a questionnaire based on what people would expect to see in music video, what would engage with them today and what they would believe would be included in a Brit-pop inspired music video. I handed it out and e-mailed it to various people I knew and waited for results, pursuing them after a week. For the Qualitative research I did a focus group in which I would show them clips from Brit-pop music videos, particularly those of which I had reviewed, to gather more in-depth results to correlate to my inferred beliefs and to validate my interpretations.

Qualitive Research - Music Video Focus Group

Qualitive Research –Focus Group

The Britpop Music Video

These are to be the questions that shall be asked to the Focus Group.

11.     What is Britpop? (Do you know what it is? how would you describe?)

22.     To know more about Britpop we must know where it emerged from (The Smiths, Stone Roses – Influences. Shoe gazers, Grunge e.g. Nirvana roots and reaction to) knowing how these acts were like how would you expect a Britpop band to be? (Chipper, still with angst but finding refuge in our more pessimistic humour)  are the themes shown visually in the music videos?

33.     British culture and that of a more urbanized British youth are represented how? (Red white and blue colours, Lads.)

44.     The sound of the music is quite familiar but what features make this? (Local accents, Influence from previous British musicians)

55.     What are the themes shown visually in the music videos?

66.     From what I have shown there is a lot male gaze and perspective, what elements of this could be used to create a new music video and why does it grab your attention?

77.     From What you have been shown, what are the kinds of locations that would be typically used in Britpop Music video?

88.     What fashion is being portrayed or even promoted to influence the British youth?

99.     There are references to past creations is a postmodern way how are these portrayed? Did you get the references? (Jovially and Queen the Beetles a Clock work orange)

110. There is usually a contained narrative progression to the music video what has been employed to quickly give you some story progression. (Stereotypes)

111. Using this brief barrage of information on Britpop music video what would you say are the key elements that must be included to create a reflective British young feel?

Music Video clips:

            Blur –There’s no other way (British family meal stereotype)

            Blur – Coffee and TV (Street scene, British Location)

            The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (Intro – Street location, Narrative refrence musically to old Rolling Stones song.)

            Oasis – Don’t Look Back in anger (2:18 short British Imagery)

            Oasis – Morning Glory (City life scenery)

            Blur – Girls and Boys (Male Gaze)

            Blur Country House (male Gaze Stereotypes)

            Blur – Parklife (Stereotypes, Intercontextuality)

These questions were overly specific and when it came to the actual Focus Group I had less time and simplified to these semi-improvised question topics.

Questions : Themes, Music, Editing, Lighting, Modern Application.

Focus Group HNC Research Unit 2 from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

Above is the whole focus group session. From it I got responses about the videos contained British stereotypical and intertextual references. Whist not the most agreeable session there is some information that I can take from this mainly from the employment of sheets given out for some written answers. The validity is supported by this above video of my self conducting the focus group but its reliability is not as strong. The focus group consisted of young persons aged 17 and 18 who were not born at the time of Brit Pop and their knowledge of the genre was little to none. There was useful information although most of it negative the fact that we can infer this movement of music does not interest this sample of the age group and that music video of this kind is not inspiring or interesting to them. The usefulness of the information is limited also by the lack of answers linked to my evaluations of the codes and conventions of Brit Pop but what answers I did get challenged them and there was very little agreed between their opinions and my interpretations. there was some negotiated points as mentioned before, on the sheets and briefly mentioned vocally there was acknowledgement of the intertextuality of older media in homage but no linking to movements like post modernism which can be cited as certain inspiration to some of Brit Pop's work. An example of this is in Blurs Country House Music video in which Damien Hurst was its director (a Post-Modernist artist) and it contained references to Mousetrap the board game, Benny Hill in a chasing sequence (featuring Matt Lucas from then Shooting Stars fame) and a reference to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (with the four floating heads).