Audience Research

MEDIA PROFILE- PUSSYCAT DOLLS

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.

EG22: The Pussycat Dolls - Hush Hush

single cover

ACT:  The Pussycat Dolls

TRACK: Hush Hush
YEAR: 2009
DIRECTOR: Rich Lee
GENRE: R&B pop
AUDIENCE: 15-24

SUMMARY:
From this video we can get inspiration from..

• The costumes
• Make-up
• Hair
• Dancing
• Lip syncing

hushhush lip syncing

Relationship between Visuals and Lyrics

The repetitive use of 'Hush hush' is mimed throughout the song, but there is no real reference to any other lyrics. It is mainly a performance video, and the majority of it takes place in a disco club. Part way through the song it changes into the song I will survive. There is no narrative or concept related to this song either.

lead singer

Genre Characteristics

Like many other music videos their is one clear lead vocalist in the group and the others still lip sync but don't have much singing parts. There is also a lot of dance involved in the video which is very typical of girl bands, especially this specific band. They also coordinate their outfits well and they aren't the exact same, to represent they have some individuality.

Performance

dance section

There is lip syncing and a lot of dancing in the video. This happens in the majority of the set ups throughout the video, however the slower start of the video in the bathroom has no dancing. There are no instruments or microphones shown in the video, however there is a DJ playing the music in the club section.

big hair

Costumes + Mise-en-scene

The costumes in the video are very disco and accurate to that era in the club, with the rollar blades and disco balls. The mise-en-scene also helps represent this. The big hair also helps anchor this era.

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.

MJ 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.

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.

TD - Characters, Costume and Makeup Vodcast

 

Charcacters:

We will have 5 girls like in the original . We will however not have one star as in the pussycat dolls. At the start of the video we plan to have the younger girls dreaming of what they want to be when they grow up. For this we will need younger girls (with similarities to us ) . To find these girls we are going hold auditions and talk to the drama groups to see if there are any year 7+8s willing to take part in our video.

Costume :

At the beginning we are going to have the younger girls wearing pink and fluffy. This is things really girly like pink pyjamas, joggers teddies etc. However in the future we are going to have the girls wearing  similar dresses but in different colours linking with the theme. The costumes will change as appropriate to the scene. Such as when the girls are on the red carpet they will be wearing fancy dresses compared to hip hop dancing like in the original.

make up:

There will be no makeup on the younger girls as we are trying to create an image of innocence. The older PCD in contrast to this will wear a lot more make up.

MJ - Editing Style Vodcast

KH - Intertextuality and Relationships Vodcast

I

KH - Narrative & Performance Vodcast

MJ - 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.

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.

Podcast Week 2 - idea development

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 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.

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.

Timings Sheet - Original

Sample Video 1

This is a 20 second sample video of footage we are experimenting with for our music video. Having a limited time to film and edit this, we didn't have the perfect locations that we would have wanted. For the dance section we wanted to use the gym which has an urban looking brick wall as a background. In our actual video we want an urban setting, however for the purpose of the sample video a car park is the best option we had. This is also not our final cast with make up or hair done how we would like it.

In the bathroom section, we plan to use props like shown here to help anchor the age of the characters. It was hard to differentiate the ages here due to the lack of mise-en-scene and costume change.

We added coloured effects to part of the performance section which we thought looked very effective. We also added a bright effect to the bathroom and and effect that drew out the pop of colour in the shot.

Re-Pitch

Narrative Idea
The main narrative for the video is The Pussycat Dolls revisiting their childhood and when they wished to be famous. We plan to cut between them in the same locations but younger and as adults. As the younger version of themselves they will be trying on clothes that stereotypically make them look famous. Their age will be anchored through their clothes and the mise-en-scene around them. As the older version they will see billboards, magazines and other kinds of media of them now famous. They then get to the performance section where they have a dance break. Lip syncing is only shown through the older versions of themselves.

Mise-en-scene
To help anchor their fame we are going to use a limo type car for them to step out of. Boy band posters and young girl mise-en-scene such as dolls and flowery things will be shown in the bedroom.

Target Audience
Our primary target audience is 12-24 year olds. Our secondary target audience will be the tween audience.

Costumes
Before the group begin to try on the fancy clothed, they will be wearing casual, plain clothes which young girls tend o wear, such as bright tops with pictures printed on them. The clothes they try on will be too big for them, to signify their age, and they will also be different to the current trend, to signify the ellipsis. During the performance and other footage, the costumes will be current and modern. The dresses will be sparkly and 'fancy' and will need to be tight and revealing to attract and engage a male audience, The dresses will be different styles yet similar and the characters will each have a signature colour when they are young and old. As well as the dresses they will wear high heels for the performance section. During the narrative, they will be wearing shoes that too big for them, to again signify their young age.

Locations
There will be four locations throughout the whole of the video, The first one will be a typical young girls/teenagers bedroom, with posters on the walls and typical mise-en-scene. The majority of the shots from the younger years will take place here. The next location will be a bathroom with a large mirror. There will be shots of both the younger girls and then them as they are older, looking into the mirror. The next lovations is for the travelling section, and this would take place possibly in Leeds. The last location will be just a plain brick wall for all the dancing and performance shots., as it is simples yet effective, and is a common convention in music videos to give it an urban edge.

Podcast Week 1 - Our Group and Idea

 This podcast is introducing our group, our idea and track, why we chose it and what we plan to do over this week. The members in the group are me, Tilly, Kate and Millie. The track we have chosen for our music video is 'When I Grow Up' by The Pussycat Dolls. We will be doing weekly podcasts from now on discussing our progress and ideas as they develop.

Pitch - Pussycat Dolls

My Pitch Idea

TRACK: When I Grow Up
ARTIST: The Pussycat Dolls
YEAR: 2008
DIRECTOR: Joseph Khan
GENRE: Pop/R&B
MAIN AUDIENCE: 12-24

The song I want to pitch for my music video is 'When I Grow Up' by the Pussycat Dolls.



My idea is that the video will have aspects of narrative and performance. At the start you see the girls individually looking very plain and boring and not at all the 'girl band' look. Each of them are trying different things on which they stereotypically makes them look famous. By the time it gets to the chorus they look glamorous and they are all wearing slightly different but coordinated things. They then each travel and gradually meet up to get to the 'performance' section. This performance location I imagine being outside and quite dark but with some artificial bright lights in the background. As they get to the location they see pictures of themselves on magazines and billboards. When they get to the performance section there is a dance break. At the end they could all wake up like they have been at a sleepover or something and looking like they did at the start after they've dreamt what they could 'grow up' like.

The costumes at the beginning of the video will be boring and slouchy clothes like joggers and hoodies and glasses, and then dresses and shorts and tops and heels for the performance and main narrative sections.
The locations needed would be a bedroom for each, or a couple of bedrooms that we can make look different. The travelling section, a lot of back streets and urban setting and the performance area which just needs to be a large outdoor space where we could take lights too.