second part of evaluation

I believe that the target audience for my music video would be the explorer/mainstreamer. I feel like the specific text would be appealing the aspirer because this video lacks the conventions of a normal video, it decides to tackle the darker side of a teenager’s life. Teenagers are represented as fun and life living young people, while our music video decides to show the more sombre side and how life can have an effect. This would appeal to the aspirers because it is able to challenge their needs as an audience and enable them to explore new aspects to life, it also provides new sensations and instant effects, enabling them to respond to this media text. However, this music video would appeal to the mainstreamers as it allows them to be entertained through the form of emotion. It challenges their needs for protection, as they're able to connect and empathise with the character in the narrative, it also goes them the chance to escape from their daily routine and reinforce their need for security. 

This music video has many uses and gratifications, for example it is used for escapism/entertainment. This is done through the dramatic elements used within the video. The extensive use of POVs and extreme close ups exaggerate the music video, making it become tenser and more realistic to watch. We get to empathise with the character, enabling us to understand her feelings and in some sense helping us understand what she is going through. The pain and despair she is going through challenges our need for protection, entertaining us in an emotional way. This can also be used for escapism as it drags us away from reality for a while, helping us into the life of the girl in the music video. This video can also be used for personal identification as it is a common occurrence sadly in todays society, this means that audience members watching the music video will be able to personally identify with the character and what she is going through, this once again enables the audience to empathise with the character, helping them identify. This media text portrayed its ideologies through the encoders. The encoders of this music video wanted the audience to decode in a certain way were the audience would be able to see through the characters eyes, they wanted to get their views and opinions across through the help of the character and this is commonly done throughout all media texts. The target audience is supposed to take a 'preferred' reading to this text however it isn't just about liking the text, the purpose is to understand the text and agree with the beliefs and ideologies of the text. This music video has the ideologies that not all people are happy, despite what they show and also that a teenager's life can be very challenging. The target audience is teens/young adults and they will take this text as a preferred reading as they're able to understand the situation and agree with the ideologies put forward. There are many narrative devices used in this media text to convey a message, for example in the scene were the friends are getting a group picture together, the encoders have reversed the shot later on in the music video, this was done to another shot of the girl while she is getting hugged by her boyfriend then she is pushed away. This was done to the shots to show that even the happy times throughout the girls life are snatched away and she is regressing, being left with nothing except the suicidal thoughts in her mind. Another technical code would be the use of slow motion in the video, this was done to show that her life is coming to a close, the slow pace of her juxtaposes the fast pace of the song and the shots making it become more apparent to the audience that she is becoming more and more unhappy, having a lesser grip of reality. The audiences response to this should be empathy as it challenges their need for protection and in some cases it also challenges their need for nurture. 


When doing my music video research I was inspired by a lot of them and they helped me when decided what narrative codes and techniques to use and also what conventions to use. One of the videos that is similar to mine is Chandelier by Sia, this is similar to mine as it uses the unconventional technique of a child star, which helps the audience empathise and challenge their needs for protection. Another video that mine is similar to would be Biblical by Biffy Clyro as it uses the same narrative techniques and codes. They both use slow motion and reverse techniques to show a different path of life, whether they go down a good one or a bad one.