Music Video: Audience/Actor Research

We were once told that to create a successful video, the two most important things to consider are "who you cast and where you place them" (Emil Nava). 

Actors

Throughout the process we have be  going through in the pre-production stage of our music video, we were envisioning ideas about whom to cast as Amanda Rogers. Evidently when we came to discussing our ideas openly, we all had different visions. Initially most of the group was heading in the direction of either Keeley (second photo down) or Cary (last photo) as we thought they were close to resembling Amanda's features. What we were forgetting was the ability of our actress to portray Amanda- the acting part. Our final decision (which was decided upon after a vote and the consultation of our classmates) was Lorna; since she was taking drama and felt more than comfortable in front of the camera we decided she was most appropriate for portraying our main protagonist and artist Amanda Rogers. This decision also meant that the roles in the production of our music video would be most appropriately distributed. 

Keeley Burridge

Cary Banks

Audience 

It was important for us to chose an appropriate actress not only to represent Amanda but also to fit in with the representation our target audience will expect. I've already mentioned the difficulty we're having in fixating upon a specific genre, particularly taking into account the diversity of audiences for music genres in the on-line age. However, we thought the most probable listeners would not only be fans of indie music, but perhaps more specifically fans of the more mature genres from which Amanda is influenced- Jazz, Blues, Rock. For this reason, older listeners are most probably going to be a part of our market. On the other hand, the lyrics and particularly initial albums evoke a sense of inner teenage turmoil Amanda experienced as she developed into her star image today- "This Beauty" in particular discusses an issue experienced without a doubt by most teenagers. In this respect young listeners perhaps between the ages of 14 to 27 are also a prospective audience.