Audience Profile based on 'Find Your Tribe'

Mosher's

What is 'Find Your Tribe'?

Find Your Tribe was started by Channel 4 in an attempt to gain insight into the UK youth so they could direct better advertising at them. The UK youth is split up into many different types of people which Channel 4 named as tribes, there are 5 main sections (Mainstream, Leading Edge, Alternative, Urban and Aspirant) and each have tribes associated with them. The reason that UK tribes have so many tribes under these 5 main sections is because the youth culture have a tendancy to group where they find people with similar values, if there is one large tribe whose members can be further divided by a difference in opinion then two seperate tribes are born of this one original tribe that share many values but differ in others. This is why there are now so many sub tribes of metal of example. Each of these tribes, while sharing some values, have some different ideals, and it is targetting these ideals that makes advertising so easy to adept to a niche audience. Channel 4 used an online survey of as many young people as they coulod get as well as getting people out in the street to question young people on their likes, dislikes, media usage and so on until they could find a tribe for them to belong in. Each tribe has some specific markers that make it unique, and it is this that media marketers need to know.

The results of the survey gave marketers a guide that showed them how to appeal to thier target audience for the 16-26 ages. For example Metalheads prefer listening to radio over going to the cinema so advertisers could use that to target Metalheads by using radio advertising, while for Geeks, or PC World tribes using the internet would be a better way. Channel 4 wanted to set themselves up as a key player in identifying new niches for advertisers to use, and they hope to stay in this position by constructing an up-to-date guide to the every-changing dynamics of youth culture.

Costumes and Props

Ryan:

Drummer, Semi-formal attire.

Ryan is the least formal of the three band members, wearing a rolled up shirt and blue jeans. The blue jeans don't matter too much because he is behind the drums so his jeans can't be seen in the video. As he is in the picture above he does not look like a metal genre drummer because he is wearing light coloured clothes and as I have written below about the drums, the dark colour is important. However when metal genre was first created it was about being rebellious and Ryan does defy the metal convention here by wearing a light colour as opposed to dark. If Staz's clothes are considered beside Ryan's, Staz also has a light shirt and as he is in the foreground of the band performance so Ryan would be lost in the dark if he didn't also were a light colour to stand out against the black background and drums. The obvious face that the boys in the band are wearing light colours and Julia is wearing a dark dress draws attention to her and this colour difference also creates a contrast within the band so they don't all match and this brings across the rebellious ideology of the metal genre again. I didn't want the band wearing all the same colours as this would lose thier individuality and make them look conforming which is a big part of army life, I wanted the difference as it would metaphorically give the lead singer (and band) two opposing aspects of personality (order and chaos), this is another part of the metal genre's original ideology of going against convention and giving indiviuals a choice, in a sense creating chaos from order.

  

Staz:

Lead singer/guitar, semi-formal.

Staz is in semi-formal clothing, a bright shirt which is not tucked in disrupts the conventional funeral look, makes him stand out in the background and also makes him look quite pale and deathly, considering his status as a dead soldier in the music video this look ties the narrative and performance together very well. As a person he does not look like a metal genre musician like Julia does (with her red coloured hair she stands out and long coloured hair is very common for metal fans). While a common look for metal fans is dark colours and band T-shirts, that look would serve no purpose in the music video, a new band would want to make a new name for itself and not promote other bands so the absence of metal paraphernalia does not mean a lack of genre-specific apparatus, I have used other methods to give the audience a sense of the genre, most notably the props for the band and the dark setting of both the performance and the narrative (a forest can have many negative connotations, especially with eight army cadets in it which adds a sense of uncertainty and danger).

Julia:

Bass, Semi-formal.

Julia is wearing a black dress which is formal and converse shoes which are informal so her attire is semi-formal. The dark colour is a representation of both the genre and of the narrative. While the story line needs the performers wearing camo, I thought it might lose the dark edge of the lyrics which is why I have the band wearing funeral outfits (the funeral type outfits also tie in with the fact the main singer in the narrative is dead), however the shoes and red hair represent the rebellious side of the metal genre. Metal genre always stays away from social convention, espeically in the early stages of the genre's creation. So the addition of some quirks keeps the band in the metal genre so as not to lose itself completely when faced with the song which is about war (soldiers are very conventional in a sense of clothing, training, behaviour in war, hairstyle, etc) and adding some typical metal genre aspects makes it more relatable to metal fans.

Cadet Uniform

The army cadets in my music video have DPM (disruptive pattern material) tops on and charcol colours khaki trousers, while the general has a full DPM uniform on. I did this so the audience could differenciate between them. While most army cadets have the full uniform on when training I thought it would cause confusion, however in pictures the trainers/generals/teachers do make themselves stand out, such as the picture below, which again is likely for the sake of the viewers of the photograph. I decided to have DPM tops rather than trousers because music video's have many close ups and having DPM trousers would not be seen as much in the shots while the tops will so it reinforces the army theme that runs through the video.

Photograph from 'Army Cadets and The Award' website:

'Ghost' Soldier Uniform/ General's Uniform

The ghost and the general in the video have the same uniform on which is to tell the audience that both have been through war, the ghost died and the general survived. Thousands of cadets are trained to go into war each year and despite all the training many still die. No training could ever could ever prepare soldiers for war, emotional turmoil of the death of friends and enemies alike, PTSD, injury and friendship between squad members is something that cadets are obviously told about but the real thing must feel more than can ever be explained. I think that the retrospective tone to the song is what gave me the idea of the training senario, When a soldier has been in real battles, they must think about thier training and the differences between then and now, about how real it is for them compared to when they were cadets. I think the difference is what makes the narrative follow the anti-war theme so well, especially as the main performer is dead, so the video is like a flashback of better times in a way. The costume is a very big part of creating the sense of the soldiers past and in his own mind his cadet training would have been a bit 'soft' which is another reason why the cadets are not in full uniform because in his mind he wouldn't remember himselve as being a 'proper' solider at that time in his life. Overall I believe the difference between the solider and cadets costume is a key part of the plot to differentiate his past and present self for the audience and for himself in his own mind. .   

Music Props

Drum set

The drum kit follows the metal genre with the black and silver and the drums could be considered to be a literal representation of the genre. The black represents the dark aspect of metal, when metal was first created in the late 1960's many of those first bands focused on the depressing and morbid aspects of life, sub cultures of metal change or add to these basic ideals but the darkness involved in metal permeates throughout metal and all its subcultures which is why black and dark colours are such a staple of the genre. The silver edges of the drums are very loud and contrast with the black, and this is many ways represents the lyrics of metal songs. The dark nature of the metal lyrics gives the idea that depressing means slow paced, introspective music but the fast tempo and deafeningly loud music of the metal genre creates a contrast to what would be expected. I think the drums have a huge impact on setting the mood for a song, the drums are the beat of the song and the placement of the drums on a stage often puts them near the back (mostly because of the size and how loud they are), but always in view of the audience. The drums are much larger than the performers and have a huge presence in a stage performance which I why I think they are important in a song, especially in metal as a genre because of the emphasise placed on the tempo and beat of thier songs.

ACDC current drum set for performer Phil Rudd:

Black Sabbath drum set for Bill Ward 

Both well known bands follow have similar drum colours because of what they mean to the genre, changes in the colours often represent changes in the band ideology, so subgenres may have slightly different colours but the same basic ideals are shown by the drum kit. Most metal drum sets will be dark in some way, whether through colour or by shining different colour spotlights on it in performances.  

Guitar

The lead singer's guitar is a simple black and white compared to the bass, as most of the attention of the audience is focused on the singer, he doesn't need a loud flashy guitar to draw attention. Many of the well known metal bands have simple lead guitars when compared to the bass, although both can still be very unique in design, a general rule is that the bass guitar is more so. ACDC's lead guitarist Angus Young has a black guitar:

while his bass counterpart Cliff Williams:

The bass guitar in ACDC is very colourful in comparison, in concert with a dark background this guitar would stand out to a much greater degree than the lead guitar.

Bass Guitar

The red and black bass guitar with the flaming heart in the bottom left of the instrument is very similar to guitars used by metal bands which links with the genre of my video. Colourful attention grabbing bass guitars are a staple for metal genre bands, for example Metallica:

Metallica has a silver bass guitar which suits the band name as well as drawing attention when contrasted to the black clothes and background of the stage and performer. The bass guitar in my band performance is very similar in that it is a stark contrast to the dark background and my performer, Julia, who is wearing black. However the guitar also has a similar colour to her hair which gives the performer and instrument a connection which links them in the shots where she is playing and draws attention to her.

Location 2 - Band Performance

I have decided to shoot the band performance in a room to contrast the forest and use cross dissolved images of the graveyard in the background to create a link between the narrative and performance. The music video is fast paced and so the imagery should match that. If I do this it gives me more freedom to experiment with different scenes in the background and adds more movement to the steady long shots of the band playing.

Having the band play in a room makes an urban link between the soldiers and civilians, an urban link gives the audience a sense of how close war can be to them, especially as many training facilities are close to towns and cities. So this shows the audience that war affects them, despite being far away from the action and this reinforces the antiwar theme.

Story Board

This is a storyboard of the narrative only, the band performance becomes a part of the narrative at the end of the song which is why it is included then. Between the narrative shots will be cuts of the band performing which will include a long shot of the band from different angles as well as close ups of the band and the instruments they are playing.

Location 1 - Forest

Good for an iconic memorable shot, (POV or over the shoulder shot would also look interesting, giving the audience a sense of running into the unknown which real soldiers face daily), the scene looks claustrophobic and puts the audience in mind of entrapment, something which happens to team 1 in the music video. This shot would look good in the first scene where the general is giving orders to the two teams before sending them off down the path. I will probably use the rule of thirds in this scene with the general on the right, the two teams on the left with the tunnel in the centre. The camera would be a medium shot of the actors before moving into close ups of all the performers. I would also most likely use an over the shoulder running shot when the performers are running down the path.

A dark and winding road; an iconic image. Good for a long shot or a POV shot as both will show the scene well but the POV shout will make the audience more involved, I would prefer a log shot of the scene because it would show the teams better and contrast the close ups of the band and ‘ghost’ solider.

Either of these shots would be good as a long shot with the trees between the camera and performers, as it gives a sense of separation, which is something soldiers would feel if they were deployed, another interesting view would be a long shot but have the camera following them from a distance as it would give the audience the idea of trying to be included but aren’t because of the situations soldiers find themselves in can be isolating.

This view is to the side and above the shot 0968, this shot will have the teams running past in the centre between the tree’s and will have the ghost of the soldier watching from the other side to show the audience that he is an observer like them.  

This is another shot where I could use thirds rule, the camera will be still and the teams will run past from behind, two members on either side. The camera could also be with the performers in this shot as a POV or over the shoulder shot.

A high angle shot for the camera to show the scene and make the team look vulnerable; this scene will most likely be put just before the ambush. 

This shot will be one of the last, when the ‘ghost’ is walking away from the scene through the trees as the music fades out.  It will most likely be a long shot but have close ups of the band performance cutting over while he walks away.

This is the tree where the ambush will be set for team 1, this would be a good low angle shot as the team runs towards the tree, sees the trap and then jumps out of the way.

These shots are two angles of the same area, a small dugout in the valley. It isn’t a good hiding place but the shots from inside the dugout look like they are from a hiding place which gives a voyeuristic aspect to the music video.

Checking how the camera looks with POV shots at different speeds.

Talking about one of the scenes in my storyboard.

This is me trying another POV shot of a winding path.

Looking at some angles with the camera

Actors

Staz - He is the lead singer I cast for the band, he will also be the leader of team 1 in the narrative and the 'ghost' of himself. He has short hair which breaks the metal stereotype but male soldiers are expected to have short hair so he fits the narrative perfectly. He is the right age for joining the army at 18 and this also means the target audience would connect with him. Staz is taller than the others on his team and he stands and acts like a leader which is why I chose him for this role, becuase of his height and how he acts he would be memorable to the audience which is why I chose to have him play the main character in the narrative as well as being the band singer.  

Julia - She will be on team 1 and has also been cast to play bass guitar in the band performance. As a female she represents the women joining the army, it is only in the last 40 years that women have been alllowed in the army and they are still a slight minority, Women in the army are becoming more common however so to balance the teams I have added a female to team 2.

Ryan - He is in team 1 and will also be playing the drums in the band performance. As a member of the band for the video he will feature heavily in the narrative as well as the band performance, the metal genre like to show off thier members as much as possible to help promote the band.

Shane - He is in team 1 for the narrative, he makes up the fourth member of the team, the most well known team combination in military operations is teams of 2 and teams of 4, Shane is the fourth member of the unit although he is not in the band performance.

This is all of team 1 together, Staz stands out the most which is needed as he is the leade singer and leader of the team.

Jack B - He is part of team 2, this team aren't as featured in the music video as team 1 because they are against them in the training simulation which means the camera will be following team 1 more than team 2, many of the shots will be long and medium because they are not the focus of the video but they are a part of the narrative which makes them important as the opposing team.  

Star - She is part of team 2, she is the female of this team which balances them out with team 1. Star is also wearing the top that both teams will wear but not the trousers, which will be charcole colour. The style of military top both teams will wear is called DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) and is a style the army actually use, however they will only be wearing the top, the trousers will be dark grey (charcole) because this is a training simulation and must be differentiated by less formal clothes, this way the comparison to the "ghost" Staz in the full soldier gear will be obvious.

Jack S - He is the third member of team 2

Alex - He is the fourth member of team 2 and he is also theleader of the team.

The whole of team 2 together.

Sam - He will be the trainer/general that is in the beginning and end of the narrative giving instructions to the two teams, he needed to look slightly older than the others and will also need to show an air of superiority in the music video. He will wear a full soldier uniform in the DPM stlye to make him stand out in the scenes.

This is a picture of both the teams together, they are all sporting the tops that will be worn in the music video. I asked for a picture of all of them so I could see how they looked together as well as to see how the DPM tops looked on camera compared with the tree's and plants. 

Treatment

My chosen song, the Price of Glory is an anti-war song, looking at the lyrics nothing about the war is glamourized, the verses are very graphic, they paint a picture of a fight. The first line “standing on the field of valour” could be either taken in a literal sense or as a dwelling on an event that has already happened. I decided to do my music video as the latter, so the verses that describe a scene are a memory , the chorus on the other hand follow my idea of a memory better because it looks like hindsight.

The music video will feature two teams of army cadets doing a training simulation in a forest; the leader of the first team will be the lead singer; however it is not the cadet version of him that will be singing it will be a version of him that is older, a full soldier. I have decided to do this because I have taken the memory approach to the song and decided that the lead singer will be looking back on his life, how he reached that moment on the battlefield which he is singing about. This means that soldier version of him will be like a ghost in the training scenes and will not be noticed by his younger self or any of the other performers in the scenes (aka: his memory). The band will perform in a graveyard; this will give the audience the knowledge that the soldier is dead, so the training scene will actually be seen more like his life flashing before his eyes. I decided that a narrative and performance based song will work best because the genre is metal/rock and one of the main ideas of metal is a performance-based video while anti-war songs generally have narratives to support the lyrics.

The target audience is males and females between the ages of 16 and 28, the age at which most people would join the army; the actors in my narrative will also be this age, between 17 and 18. This is because the song is more about looking back on a battle and it has the feel of a person telling a story to others to prepare them. The song is very graphic and I think that this is why it should be targeted as younger people because they are the ones that are going to be living it if they join the army or we have another world war. Young adults are the ones that will be in charge of the world within the next 20 years and will be the ones who have to deal with a war if it happens. The metal/rock genre aspect of the song will also appeal to young adult audiences as it is more targeted at rebellious people who are generally adolescent.

The locations are just the forest and graveyard; I will use natural lighting because it will give more realism to the narrative and performance. The training scenes in the forest are meant to be about giving army cadets a taste of real life situations they might get in so I think using the natural light and shadows of the forest would look more realistic and give the audience a better feel for the mise-en-scene and make them feel more included, I will also do this by doing some POV shots and having the lead singer sing directly at the camera most of the time, while at other times he will be watching the memory of himself training. The band performing at the graveyard will also have natural lighting, I intend to do the filming during the morning when the light is brightest so it will contrast with the forest scenes, the graveyard scene will also have mourners in the background and they will play a part near the end of the song which makes the band a part of the narrative just before the song finishes.