SW - Q1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Deconstruction of Music Video

Genre Characteristics

- Using dyer, our music video follows the main genre characteristics of an indie rock music video.
-The main characteristic of a music video is the band involved playing instruments and there are many clips of this as our music video is about 70% instrumental as the band are performing at the garage and at the big venue.
- Other characteristics usually in a music video of this genre are a predominant love story continually happening throughout.

Links between music and visuals

- In our music video there is a very strong link between the visuals and the lyrics.

- This is mainly shown in the chorus and in the title of the song. Throughout the music video there is a narrative of how the band started off playing in their garage and joking about how they want to be someone and then the audience sees the band performing on a big stage.

- In the song there are lyrics that say 'I'm gonna make you love me' and this is where we have involved the girl in our music video and showed the relationship between them.

- We also used one direct link to visual and lyrics at the beginning of the song where the lyrics say 'I loosen my tie, i loosen my tie' and the lead singer is shown at the same time loosening his tie.

Close-ups and Star Image Motifs

We used many close-ups of the different members of the band to create a relationship between the audience and the band. We found that by using our lead singer as well in the love story it allowed him to have more screen time therefore enhancing his star image motif.

Intertextual References

There has quite a few intertextual references, such as:- The dreamy like girl in our music video has intertextual references to the girl in The Killers - Mr Brightside video. This is quite fantasy like and therefore enhancing the post-modernism style of the music video. The band shots in the garage is very intertextual of the indie rock genre.

Performance-based, narrative based or concept based?

Our music video is about 70% performance based as there is the performance part in the garage and in the venue, however this is because it is part of our narrative also, however they just are performing as well. It is about 30% narrative based showing the story between the girl and the lead singer and how the band is outside of performing.

Semiotics in our Print Work



Visual Signs
- The image of the girl in the naturalistic location connotes ideas of geniality and represents the band as true and down to earth.

- The image of the girl holding up the sign saying ‘Only by the Night’, is influenced by the style of artist Gillian Wearing. This artist likes to allow random people to express their deepest thoughts and their emotions suggesting that the Kings of Leon are genuine people who do not have their heads in the clouds and that they are down-to-earth people. This is the main theme of the digipak.

- Throughout the other pages of the digpak there are references to nature which therefore connotes pureness and individuality.

- Even though the picture was simple yet classic, we took the picture in black and white as we thought that it would make the picture look professional and glossy which is representing the band well.

- Using the girl for the front cover of the digipak and for the advertisement is quite controversial because there are not any girls in the band, however because the girl is wearing quite cool and indie clothing she conforms to the conventions of the indie/rock genre.

Linguistic Signs
- The name of the album is 'Only by the Night.'

- Usually artists use a song title in the album as the album title however the name of the album is completely original.

- This connotes ideas of darkness and therefore enigma of the band. This suggestion of 'only by the night' suggests how the band only come out at night suggesting that they like to keep themselves to themselves and don't want to be in the public light.

- There has been a continual theme throughout the digipak and the advertisements with the same font.

- We chose this font called 'Minstral' because we thought that it connoted ideas of individuality and class.

Social myths reinforced or challenged?
- The advertisement and digipak is easily readable and emphasises how the band are real and authentic.

- The professional image and simplicity of the image emphasises the success and easy listening of the album, which would therefore appealing to a wide audience of all ages.

Post-Modernism

Music Video
- Our main postmodern effect is the intertextual references to other music videos. The main intertextual references are from The Killers - Mr Brightside and The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime around Midnight.

- Our music video could also be considered as postmodern because of the love story going on as it is a typical role of a music video of the indie/rock genre.

Digipak and Advertisement
- Both of them could be considered as postmodern because of the image that has been used as the front of the digipak and the image on the advertisement.

- This image is controversial to the standard indie/rock genre print because of the we found that the images usually on the front of this genre’s print advertisement is a random graphic, however it also reinforces the how using the band is absent from the front of the digipak therefore creating mystery and enigma. This is Dyer’s second paradox - the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. Therefore, easy to understand but enigmatic

SW Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media Technologies that we used in the Planning Stage

- Blogger allowed us to present all of our research and findings on a interactive site, so that our work can be moderated easily. It allowed us to present our work easily and effectively and post our research well.

- Youtube allowed us to carry out our research further by being able to deconstruct current music videos and finding music videos easily. For our technical analysis, youtube was very helpful when pausing and analysing the current videos.

- We also used the camera's in our planning/research stage to familiarise ourselves with the equipment before going straight into filming our video, as a kind of preliminary task.

- We did this by doing a location reccie in Brighton where we practised different camera techniques and ideas such as the notion of looking and making sure that the frame was exciting and considering all of the mise-en-scene in the clip.

- We used Microsoft Powerpoint to create our Music Video Pitch.
- We used this programme to collaborate all of our research to our class which would be a task that would take place in the music industry.
- The presentation involved:
- information about the narratives in our video
- a mood baord that showed locations and costumes and other props and mise-en-scene
- a slide with information about our audience research and ideas for our digipak.
-We then uploaded our presentation onto a website called slideboom.




- We also used Adobe Premiere to edit our Practice location Reccie and to edit our anamatic and was then uploaded onto youtube.


Media Technologies that we have used in the Production Stage of the Music Video

Music Video

- Whilst filming we used the camera

- For editing we used a programme called Adobe Premiere. This programme allowed us to change the contrast and the saturation of the clips, which we used for the girl.

And change the garage clips into black and white by making the saturation zero.

Digipak and Advertisement


- We used a digital camera to take pictures for our digipak.

- We also set the photographic settings to black and white on the camera as we know this was the style that we were going to use.

- By using a digital camera, it was the simplest way of getting our image onto the computer so that we could edit and chop and change it.

- We uploaded the image onto photoshop so that we could use different effects to edit our picture.

- We slightly increased the contrast and the brightness to enhance the quality and contrast of the picture. We then imported the images that we were using onto Microsoft Publisher so that we could lay out our digipak in a booklet form.

- On Publisher we added text and we could import images such bar codes.

- Our advertisement was also designed on photoshop so that we could easily import images such as logo's and text and images.

Media Technologies that we have used in the Evaluation and Post-production of our music video

- We used youtube to upload our music video onto so that we could retrieve our audience feedback.

- We also had to carry out audience research and we found that the easiest site to use which is easily accessible to an audience was survey monkey.

SC How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Deconstruct the band/artist 'brand' image (or anti-brand image!)

We tried to create a fashionable image for our band in order to produce the most successful music video that we were able. The clothing style we chose for them was 'indie' (skinny jeans, chequered shirts) the connotations for this style are quite cool, scruffy, down to earth and easy going about life. Also, indie characters are also known for being passionate about music, which was a point we were strongly trying to portray about our band.
The advertisement was designed to run in NME magazine, due to the genre of the music and style of the band. We chose to design a stylish page advertisement in order to make the band seem successful, glamorous and most of stylish. We used visual motifs to reinforce the individuality of our digipak. We did this by using an abstract image that is the style of artist Gillian Wearing. We main focus of our advertisement is the photograph, followed by the artist name and album name, and the 3rd most prominent subject are the 5 stars. We carefully planned this out so that the consumer would be drawn in by the unusual and abstract photograph, then see the artist and album, followed by the consumer seeing that the album has been rated 5stars.
The digipak also conveys a similar abstract feel as the advertisement. We did all of it in black and white. The front cover was the same picture we used on the advertisement, however we cropped the picture for the advertisement. We did this in order to link both the print works together. The inside covers are naturalistic photographs to reinforce the raw and natural talent of the band and the back cover is a photograph of some feet on some grass in black and white. We also have the album tracks and song producer labels on the back.
Both texts link to the video due to the clothing style worn by the girl and the band members, as this is both indie, and by the use of black and white which is a prominent feature of all 3 texts.

Use Dyer to discuss how the 'star' persona is constructed of your artist/band through the three texts.

'The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer'
'The star must be both present and absent for the consumer'

Music Video
- fast cutting rate meaning that the viewer doesn't have a lot of time to focus on the band members, making them present, yet also absent.
- the music video is predominately made up of performance shots, however there are a few shots of the lead singer laughing/smiling/joking around
-this shows a glimpse of personality and a different side to the band member, also creating intrigue for a viewer.
- using the girl shows the lead singer is a regular, ordinary guy, who has the same feelings as normal people allowing the consumer to relate with him. but the fact he is famous and in a band makes his love story seem much more than a regular person could ever experience, making him seem extraordinary, desirable to both boys who want to be him and girls who want to be with him.

Digipak and advertisement
- no picture of the band on the front cover
- intrigues the consumer in as the band seem mysterious and absent and the consumer wants to see more

SC What did we learn from audience feedback?

How did audience research inform your concept development?

WHAT WE DID AND WHY
* We held a focus group to help us to gain ideas for our music video, advertisement and digipak.
* We asked people how they think music videos of the indie rock genre are presented, and how the band members are portrayed.
* We held a focus group as we believed the intimacy of it would make people feel comfortable, and therefore make them more expressive with ideas

THE RESULTS
* Dress sense should be 'indie style' i.e. chequered shirts, skinny jeans
* Black and white was an effect that many people felt would be effective + fit into the genre
* For the digipak and advertisement again everyone said black and white would be effective
* Also many agreed to keep it simple and stylish

How did audience research inform rough cut/draft development?

WHAT WE DID
* Screened our music video to our media class
* We had edited it up to a point where we had all our main ideas, colour schemes and editing styles completed.
* From the screening we received positive and negative feedback

THE RESULTS
* not enough close up shots of the mysterious girl
- audience not having a connection with her
- consequently not understanding the strength of the love initially felt when noticing each other in the hotel scene.
* We then re-shoot some close-up footage of the beautiful girl and inserted it into our music video.

* The fact that there were 3 narratives running through our music video was criticised for being confusing
- narrative 1, band starting of small and working their way up
- narrative 2, the love story between girl and lead singer
- narrative 3, black and white shots of random people gazing off into space, dreaming and wishing they could 'be somebody'.
* Many found the 3rd narrative hard to grasp and confusing
* Got rid of it leaving our music video much simpler and less confusing
* Another problem that was highlighted was the first shot
- Slow zoom towards lead singer lying on a bed
- 7 seconds long
- Didn't fit in with fast cutting rate of rest of the video
- Decided to break it up with shots of lights and crowds, as if the lead singer is dreaming of those things - strongly fitting in with the ideas for our music video.
* From our audience feedback we were strongly complemented on our lip syncing
- had to make sure that we were extra careful to keep them in place

How did audience research on your finished pieces show how successful you were in constructing meaning/band image, amplifying the track and promoting the release of the album?

WHAT WE DID
* Uploaded our music video onto YouTube
* Created a survey with 8 questions on 'Surveymonkey.com'

* Sent out questions to friends and family who had viewed the video

THE RESULTS
*Q1. What impression did you get of the band from watching this music video?
- many used the words cool and successful
- on individual used the phrase 'they are just ordinary boys chasing a dream
* We were extremely pleased with these responses as this was the exact look we were trying to portray for the band
*Q2. What do you think the narrative of the music video is?
- nearly everyone responded to the love story
- less noticed the progression of the success of the band throughout the video
- a few stated the band became famous, but didn't notice the contrast between the garage band and stage narrative
* would rather the success to be more prominent in our music video as that was the main story behind our narrative, rather than the love story
* Q3 was a chart in which we asked the audience to rate our location, costume, lighting and 'professional look'.
- averages in the top 4 and 5
- professional look and costume lay in number 5 - pleased as we tried extremely hard to make both these things work and look effective
- location could seem tacky to viewers as it is a local building which is know for its low level, low
key, and scummy facilities.
- Hard to turn this image around and make it stylish for our band
* Q4. Do you think our music video fits into the indie-genre?
- 83.4% yes
*Q5 we asked to expand on the previous question if they had answered yes.
- because of costume mainly
- camera angles
- black and white effect
- locations
* In our final 3 questions we asked if the viewer enjoyed watching the video and if they would watch it again.
- For both questions over 80% answered yes
* If they answered yes to watching it again we asked them to specify why
- many found it interesting
- appealing sure to the love story, and fast cutting rate of performance
-'the fast cutting rate draws me in as it makes the band absent as you have to watch carefully to fully see the band members, also by watching it again i am sure to see more shots that i haven't seen before.'

DIGIPAK & ADVERTISEMENT
* in order to collect audience feedback on our completed digipak and advertisement, we printed off copies of them both and asked people questions about them.
- we asked what genre they think the prints fit into
- majority said indie, a few said classical
- we asked if they felt the black and white was effective
- over 90% agreed and felt it looked effective
- one commented that it helped it look stylish, which was what we were after.
- the other 10% felt that the black and white was boring and didn't stand out against other CD covers.

* A main feature of our digipak is nature. All of the sides have shots of nature on them. We explained our reasoning behind this and asked what people thought of the idea. We explained that it was to show the pure, and naturalness of the bands raw talent, and therefore an insight to the natural and powerful, down to earth songs that the album beholds.
- many liked this idea and said that it made the digipak a success
- one also commented that by the using dyers theory by not showing the band members (present and absent) it would help entice consumers in. as our aim so we were very pleased with our results.

SW & SC review of editing

Before beginning to edit, we studied and analysed many different music videos of the same genre of our own song for our music video. Our genre is indie-rock and we found that the majority of music videos from this genre used black and white clips, an extremely fast cutting rate and occasional use of slow motion. So in order to fit in with the typical style of the genre, we made sure that we included all three of these aspects in our music video.

To begin with we decided to put all of the shots of the band playing in the garage in colour, and when they are playing on stage in black and white. After watching this over however, we realised that due to the garage being full of old junk, there were many objects in the background that averted the eye away from the playing band members.


We then decided to change these shots around and make the garage shots in black and white and the stage performance shots in colour.

This worked well as it gave the performance shots on the stage a glossy, successful look as we used red and blue lighting, and turned the contrast and brightness up to make it looks rich a strong in colour. Also this then gave a nice comparison to the black and white garage performance shots as it made them seem more low key, emphasizing the progression the band had made from the garage to the stage.




In one of the early shots of Adam (lead singer) and the mysterious girl in the hotel, there was a long shot of Adam walking down a hallway. To make this more interesting we decided to put jump cuts in, which turned out to be very successful.



We also used some slow motion in this scene when Adam sees Alix (the mysterious girl) for the first time. This is to highlight the emotion that Adam is feeling and as we are seeing Alix from Adams perspective it is almost as if his mind is put into slow motion for that short moment of time because of her beauty.



We decided to put a lot of contrast and saturation on the hotel scenes as we wanted them to seem almost dreamy and unnatural. This was because it is a dream of the bands to reach success and so we were trying to portray that. I think the contrast worked extreemly well as the colours of the hotel that we used complemented the rest of our music video and the shots seemed somewhat dreamy and hazy after the contrast was changed.






























We also changed the colours later on in the music video when the whole band are in the pantiles walking around together, showing they are a united band. We changed the colours here to add a contrast to the black and white scenes that ran alongside these scenes. Initially we put the contrast and saturation right up to match with the hotel scenes, however there was too much going on in the background and the bright colours seemed tacky and out of place. We then decided to dull the colours right down, still giving contrast to the black and white shots but not looking too out of place at the same time.



We used an extreemly fast cutting rate. Even though this was very time consuming i believe it was very effective in the end. It helped the music video fit perfectly into the indie-rock genre, and kept it interesting and alive. To begin with we had trouble syncing all of the shots up with the song. So we initially got all of the shots that we wanted to use down onto the timeline before sorting them all out. Our storybored helped us vastly at this stage as we had already planned out all of the shots for each section.

SC & SW Final Day of Filming

Our final day of filming was spent going to a gig up in london where we were going to film large audience shots and lighting. Luckily, we had organised to go with Alix so that we could film some shots with Alix in the audience to show how the lead singer notices her watching the gig. Getting the right shot for the video of Alix was really difficult as there were many people around us, jumping around and this made it difficult to film just Alix. Also, we were not sure what to expect with the ligthing so we just had to film what we thought was good. However, overall the final day of filming was really successful and we achieved some really great footage from the trip!

SW & SC Third Day of Filming

Our editing had nearlky been completed, however once discussing with our teaching we realised that there were not enough images and close-ups of the girl. Therefore we needed to do one more shoot in a dark room of the mysterious girl. We had to take many shots to make sure that the shots was perfect for the video. In the end, the close-ups that we shot were very effective. We made Alix (the mysterious girl) to turn with her back facing us and for her head to turn round and face the camera in a close-up. These shots were to be used throughout the video to show reference to the girl and show how she was present in the lead singer's life. We did not have issues with weather condition as we used a room at our school to do the filming so there were no restrictions for our filming.

Time Planning and Organisation of Filming

Call Sheet for London Shoot

Diary of Time Planning in November

Risk Assessment for taking out cameras

SW & SC 1st November - Second day of Filming

Our second day of filming took a whole day to do, as we wanted to get it completed with all the band members there.

We first started at The Forum, where our band were going to perform on stage to show their success and popularity. This worked really well as the people helping us at the forum were really helpful and sorted us out with playing our music through speakers and providing the lighting to make our band look really professional and successful. We completed the filming quickly and effectively because we were only filming the 2 chorus's in that location. We decided to have the band playing the different chorus's over and over and we would focus on each band member in each chorus, so that we got many shots of each band member! We also found that handicam and jolty filming also looked a bit abstract and interesting therefore we tried to get a few takes of the whole band in this style.

The weather was terrible when filming the Forum takes and we thought that we wouldn't be able to film the shots in the pantiles because the weather was so bad, however it had cleared up by about lunch time and therefore we managed to get some filming of the band interacting and seeing other clips of the girl and the lead singer noticing each other.

Our third main location that we used for some more performance shots of the band, was inside a friends garage. This venue was to show how the band used to be unsuccessful and just having band practices in a dingy garage, therefore emphasising the transformation from then till now. This set up was really good and considering a few of the band members had never met before, we thought that they interacted really well with each other and the camera. The shots that we were filming in the garage were mainly for the verses of the song, however we just made the band perform the whole of the song so that we could take clips form different parts of the performance for the music video. This worked really well because the band actually looked like they were playing live.

Our final location was the hotel shots which we filmed in the Spa Hotel. The main problem that we encountered with the shots that we wanted to create were when we were using the lift. This was difficult as it was hard to get the exact right timing for when the doors were closing with the filming. However, we took several takes and therefore the footage should be okay.

The day was very successful and everything was completed quickly and effectively allowing us to only need one main day for filming. We were very impressed with how the band interacted with each other and how serious they were about doing the filming properly and realistically.

SW & SC 28th October - Day of Filming Black and White clips in London

Our first day of filming in the half term was up in London where we were expecting to film many different people meaningfully interacting with the camera wanting to be somebody! Our aim was to go up to different types of people making them do what we wanted them to do and we thought that this would be easy. However, many of the people who we were asking to do the acting for us were embarrassed to partake and said ‘no’. We first went to Camden Town as we thought that there would be many different types of people willing to help us with our video; however it was proving more difficult than we expected. Therefore, we had to have a ‘Plan B’ and we got the tube to Covent Garden, which is usually very busy and would be interesting to film in. When we reached Covent Garden, we came up with the idea of filming the street-performers, as they are interesting and obviously want to make a change in the lives by amusing and entertaining the public. We found some very interesting and unique street performers such as a man in a costumes made of bottles and a robotic guitarist. We thought that these images would be interesting for our music video. We also saw this older guy, who was playing this guitar type thing in the underground tunnels in the tube stations and he was very happy to help us and to be involved in the video.
The day overall was very successful and it helped us to be more confident in approaching different kinds of people and we got some really different clips that will benefit out music video and make it more inspiring and emotional.

Animatic of Storyboard

Kings of Leon - Be Somebody - Animatic

SW & SC Evaluation of Pitch

Sammy and Sarah's pitch for Be Somebody Music Video

View more presentations or Upload your own.

We thought that the pitch was very successful as we thought our ideas were thoroughly thought through and well presented to our class. The presentation helped to demonstrate and explain our narratives that are going to be going on in the music video. We told our class about the 3 narratives that are going to be present in our video. Also, I thought that it was helpful to give our class visuals of the band and the girl used in the music video by showing actual images of them.

Showing the moodboard that we had collaborated of our ideas together then explaining the different techniques that we had picked up from completely our research and showing the class of the types of costumes and props that we are going to use and to visualise them. Also using images with specific lighting techniques that we were interested in helped our class to understand to look that we are trying to achieve.

The video's that we analysed technically and as a product analysis, helped us to explain where we got our inspiration from and the ideas that we have and are trying to recreate for intertextual purposes. The technical analysis really helped explain the certain shots that we are trying to achieve in our music video, especially in the Air Traffic 'Shooting Star' video where the band are performing in an empty room all performing to each other. This is a layout that we want to pursue in our garage scene to suggest togetherness and a close relationship between them.

The powerpoint also helped to explain the ideas that we had from carrying out the audience research. Our main achievement from the carrying out this research focus group, was the ideas that we had for our digipak and it was really great to explain how the focus group helped us achieve this idea for the cover art. We wanted to entwine an image from our music video with the cover art and having the discussion in the audience research allowed us to achieve this.

The powerpoint presentation also helped us to show visually the locations that we are using for our music video and the props that we are using.

Preparing and performing the pitch to our class allowed us to become more detailed and to make more fixed decisions about what we propose to do in our music video and helped us realise the best ways to promote our band in the best way. We found that the deconstruction of current videos was the best way to plan ideas and gain inspiration from because it helped us realise what is successful in the current industry.

SW Visual Ideas

This shot is taken from the 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers music video. This is the girl that was used in the love story and she is very glamorous and innocent looking. Therefore, we have found a girl in our love story who is unique and beautiful.

This shot is from the music video Shooting Star by Air Traffic and I regularly saw how they would do a close-up of the band member playing the instrument then the shot would cut back to a mid shot of the artist with the instrument and i thought that this was very effective and interesting.

This image shows a picture of the band - the Kings of Leon - looking casual and shows them early in their career. This is a similar look to the look that our band are going to be wearing when performing in the garage.

This image shows similar smart clothing that we want our band to be wearing in the performance shots in our music video on the stage to represent their high-status and class from having made it in the music industry.

Kings of Leon

The Kings of Leon are an American Rock Band from Nashville, Tennessee. They formed in 1999 and the band consist of 3 brother's and their cousin. The band have had 4 albums, however their most recent album has had the most success, with popular songs such as 'Sex on Fire', 'Use Somebody' and Manhattan. The first album was heavily influenced by southern/ garage rock, however their style now is alternative rock and they have a unique and edgy look and style with their music.

The song 'Be Somebody' is from the latest album and is a typical song to represent the band as it is edgy, exciting and very well produced musically. The song has a very predominant drum beat throughout the song, therefore the drummer is going to be a key person in the music video.

The video is going to be extremely exciting to make because of the exciting and upbeat track. The music video is going to be finished to a high-class style and will have a fast cutting rate, to keep in time with the music.

SC & SW Audience Research Analysis and Results

From carrying out a Focus Group for our audience research, we were given more ideas from the group that we worked with. We had a group of 15 people (girls and boys from the ages between 16-21, as we thought that this age group is would be a great representative of the target audience for our music video of 15-24) who were all extremely enthusiastic about the prospect of being involved with the research.

We first played the track to our Focus Group and the group all came up with thoughts of narrative ideas, mise-en-scene, locations and characters. Some of the ideas that came up after the song was listened to were:
- love story's
- Images of love letters
- Black and White images
- Performance shots with bright lighting behind therefore creating silhouettes.
- Shots of people smoking
- Performing in a run down area.
- Close-ups of instruments
- People in love
- Letters being ripped up
- Close-ups of tears
- Girl running toward guy
- Many people said how the lyrics and visuals should link e.g band member loosening tie their tie because the lyrics in the first verse are - 'I loosen my tie, I loosen my tie.'
- Fast cutting rate.
- Close-ups of lead singer singing

Everyone then gave there ideas to us and the rest of the group and it was really useful as more ideas were being branched off and becoming more detailed, which we found very useful in a group discussion. All this feedback was very encouraging and creative and really helped us to develop our ideas and fill more shots for our music video. We particularly liked how the focus group were considering lighting as well as props and locations.

We then carried out a brief pitch to the focus group by showing them our ideas that we made on a powerpoint presentation for our class pitch and this helped the Focus Group to really understand the look and ideas that we wanted to carry out (after the focus group, we then added ideas onto our pitch for the class from the feedback that the focus group gave us.) The power point presentation involved showing images of our band members, the locations that we are considering, the props that we were think, costumes and the style that we are trying to achieve. The feedback of our ideas so far was very positive and the group thought that the ideas were unique and original. One issue that we thought would be a problem, being an all female production team, is that our ideas would be too girly and romantic, however from discussing with the focus group (including boys) they thought that our ideas were pretty neutral and interesting, which was really good to hear.

When we explained to our focus group about the narratives that we had thought about in the music video, we explained how we were going to use stills of random unique people in black and white shots throughout the chorus' of the music video wanting to 'Be Somebody'. When it came to discussing digipak ideas, someone came up with the idea of having one of those stills as the digipak cover as it creates some kind of mystery for the consumer, however it gets the message of the some across to the audience. We thought this was a really good idea and are considering pursuing it as an idea.

Overall, the focus group to find out audience research was extremely helpful in developing our ideas and inspiring us to be creative with our music video.

SW & SC Break down of Song

Intro - 00-0.07

Lead singer in Hotel room lying on a bed.

Intro Instrumental - 0.07-0.21

Performance Shots of band in Garage

Verse 1 - 0.21 - 0.36
Taken to the floor
with the reach to the sky
i loosen my tie
i loosen my tie
locking down the door
with the rhythm and rhyme
i loosen my tie
i loosen my tie

First sees girl in hotel. Shots of band in garage performing.

Instrumental - 0.36-0.43

Shots of band in garage performing.

Verse 2 - 0.43 - 1.11
trying to recall
what you want me to say
i shake it your way
i shake it your way
counting on the night
for a beautiful day
i shake it your way
i shake it your way
and i say,you can't get enough
now you can't get enough

Walking through pantiles as a band, being noticed by girls.

Chorus - 1.11 - 1.41
given a chance
i wanna be somebody
if for one dance
i wanna be somebody
open the door
it's gonna make you love me
facing the door
i wanna be somebody

Performance shots in Forum and Black and White images of random people wanting to be somebody. Shots of audience including girl involved in the love story.

Instrumental - 1.41 - 1.54

Performance shots in garage.

Verse 3 - 1.54 - 2.23
Now it's your time
And you know where you stand
With a gun in your hand
With a gun in your hand
Now I'm no longer an ordinary man
Was this your big plan,
Your gun in your hand?
And i say, you can't get enough
Now you can't get enough

Chorus - 2.23 - 2.52
Given a chance
I wanna be somebody
If for one dance
I wanna be somebody
Open the door
It's gonna make you love me
Facing the door
I wanna be somebody

Performance shots in Forum and Black and white images of random people wanting to be somebody. Love-story narrative seeing the girl in the crowd

The bridge - 2.52 - 3.06

Be somebody
Be somebody

Ending - 3.06 - 3.49

SW Music Video Analysis – The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfLM-LwTurQ

Genre and Narrative
The Airborne Toxic Event is labelled as an indie band and I think the music video for Sometime around Midnight reinforces this. Typical characteristics of the indie/rock genre are the band playing instruments, displaying their talent and diversity, therefore a performance-based narrative and indie songs usually have a story being told and therefore the music video can also be narrative based. These characteristics are all present in this music video, as the band are playing on the stage as this love-story is going on at the venue where the band are playing. The link between the lyrics and the visual is very obvious and is therefore an example of illustration. The video could be considered as art as the clips of the band performing are very crisp and professional; however during the video some very grainy images are used in the video. This could also be considered as inherently commercial because there is not many risks being taken for the ideas in the music video as there is no evidence of concept ideas in the video. However I think that it was an obvious decision to use a fully narrative based music video because the song is telling a story.

Media Language
The visual techniques that have been used in the video which are typical of the indie genre are the different panning shots used of the band whilst they are performing on stage. These were very useful shots and made me think about similar techniques that we could use in out music video. The mise-en-scene is very important in the music video and this is shown in the costumes that have been used. For example, the band is dressed in suits and smart clothing, which is the similar type of style that we want are band to have too. The girl used in the music video is also wearing a pretty, grown-up dress which is a costume that we are going to use. The lighting is a key factor in the video for the performance shots as the silhouettes of the band are important and create a glossy feel to the video and it shows professionalism. The lighting used are white lights, which adds class and sophistication to the band and the video.

Representation
The band is being represented as being professional and serious about the music that they produce. This is shown through the costumes that the band are wearing as they are all wearing smart clothing adding to their meta-narrative of being classy and successful. This image challenges to average ‘rocker’ as the band are shown to be clean-cut and proper. The image of the actual band shows a cool, edgy looking band which appeals to many different audiences, which is emphasised in the video and therefore creating a broader audience for the band.

Institution and Audience
The video might be consumed on indie/rock channels such as MTV TWO and VH1. However, because the video is very commercial the video could also be shown on other pop-based channels as well and would appeal to that audience too. I think that the video could be consumed by ambient and focused viewers as it is a very interesting video to watch with the story being told as well, however it could also be a video that could be turned onto and an ambient viewer would enjoy it, half-way through the song. The video could also be appreciated by solo and communal viewers as the song could be played in the background of people chatting, but could also be appreciated by a person on their own. For this promotional text for The Airborne Toxic Event, the record label would make sure the band are represented as well as they can. This would be done by showing regular close-ups of the band to show the bands faces and making sure that they show as many images of the band playing the instruments therefore showing the talent and skill of the band.

SC Music Video Analysis 2

Muse - Feeling good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inW91qRDGwI


Genre and Narrative.
Throughout this music video, there is no strong defined narrative shown, and it is predominantly performance based. However there are shots of people with morphed faces that look confused and upset and as if they want to get out of their surroundings. The band are playing in a red room that is clearly enclosed and towards the end of the music video the morphed people come into the room and start climbing up the walls in order to escape. This links in with the lyrics ‘it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life’ as it is as if they are trying to escape to start something new. This is also reinforced with the fact that there is blossom falling down constantly throughout the video, in every shot, this evokes the idea of spring and new beginning. The video is strongly dominated with the colour red, all of the walls are red and so is the blossom that is falling. This makes the video seem euphoric, strong and powerful, which is also a connotation of their genre of music, Indie-rock. Close ups of the instruments is also a connotation of the genre indie-rock as it shows the passion the artist has in their music, and these are often used in music videos of this genre. Post modern ideas are apparent throughout the video; the people with morphed faces is a challenging idea, and also links with many horror films that have been released, for example ‘I Am Legend’ in which all of the people turn into evil creatures with similar morphed faces, that are trapped in America.

Media Language.
At the beginning of the music video, there is an initial establishing shot of the red room with the lead singer and instruments in, it is a few seconds long and slowly pans around to the right. There is then a shot of the broken window on the ceiling with blossom falling through it which instantly explains where that is coming from to the audience. Throughout the music video there are many mid-shots and close ups of all of the band members playing their instruments, focusing mainly on the lead singer. This shows the passion that they all feel when playing, and the concentration that they have. The 3 band members are all dressed in casual day to day clothes. At one point in the video the lead singer is shown in darkness singing into a megaphone, this implies that the band are shouting out and trying to be heard.

Representation.
The band members are represented as very passionate about their music. This is shown through their appearance and emotion on their faces. The fact that they are simply dressed in casual t-shirt and jeans implies that they are literally only there for the music and don’t care about their appearance or making themselves look ‘cool’, they just want their music to be heard. The people with morphed faces are representing people wanting to escape and break free of their surroundings. This could relate to many of the bands target audience (which is typically 14-25 in the indie rock genre) who are teenagers and who are dealing with pressures of growing up.

Institution and Audience.
I think that this music video would be shown on rock channels such as MTV and VH1, and would mostly be viewed absently as there is no real narrative running through it. However i think it would be used for focussed viewing if the video was being watched by a dedicated fan of Muse.

SW & SC Location Reccie Planning and Evaluation

This image is the Hotel du Vin and is sophisticated and modern inside therefore we thought that it would be an ideal location to shoot the love story between the lead singer and the girl meeting each other and catching each others eye as it is a romantic setting and visually beautiful.

The forum has had some very well established band performing there therefore it is a perfect location for the band to be performing in to show how they have achieved so much and got so far in the music industry.

This is the Graffiti wall in Brighton and we are considering using this location for one of our black and white stills that are going to be shown throughout the video.

This is an image from the pantiles. An alley that we thought would be an interesting shot and interesting to shot through.

This is an image of the pantiles, a wealthy and classy area of Tunbridge Wells which we thought would be a good representation of how far the Kings of Leon have got.

SW & SC Audience Research - Detailed Plan for Focus Group

Plan for Focus Group

We will carry out the focus group discussion at school in a room where everyone will be able to hear the song clearly and be able to imagine ideas and inspiration from listening to it. We will carry out this discussion with about 15 people, so that we can get a wide range of results and feedback.

1. Listen to the track that we are going to make a video for – Kings of Leon – Be Somebody. Whilst listening to the song the group are going to make notes of ideas they have.

2. The group are going to discuss the ideas that they have and what they expect to see in a music video, one at a time and Sarah and I are going to make notes about everyone ideas.

3. We will then pitch the ideas that we have come up with so far (including showing pictures of locations, characters, certain props and we will explain the style that we are trying to achieve) and discuss with the focus group whether it is what they expect to see in an indie/rock music video.

4. We will then ask the focus group to draw a rough sketch of what they would expect the see on the front cover of the digipak from inspiration from the discussion.

5. Then each person will share the ideas that they have come up with in the group. By carrying out this research it allows us to keep the images and ideas that people have come up with in the group.