Directors: Danny, Shannon, Ally, Leah Filming: Danny, Shannon, Ally, Leah Shot Choice: Danny, Shannon, Ally, Leah Actors: Ally, Shannon Props: Phone, Guitar Costume:
Shannon costume 1- Beige boots, black leggins, white vest, black top, beige jacket and scarf.
Shannon costume 2- Black shoes, denim jeans, white top, beige jacket and scarf.
Ally costume 1- Black & white shoes, beige chino's and red blue and white checked shirt.
Ally costume 2- Gray shoes, brown chino's and blue and red striped top.
Ally costume 3- Black & white shoes, beige chino's, black top, white sweatshirt and navy gillet.
Ally costume 4- Blue shoes, denim jeans, white top, blue jacket and navy gillet. Shot Locations: Danny's bedroom. Ally's front door. Brasenose Drive, Kidlington. Lyne Road, Kidlington. Gosford Hill lecture theatre. Gosford Hill english classroom. Cutteslowe Park, North Oxford.
What Is A Digipak?
They are typically a gatefold style either made out paperboard or card, they have a plastic tray on the inside capible of holding the disk. The digipack casing is usually used for a single or for a special edition, they have been brought in by the major record labels instead of using the ordinary cd case. The dikipaks wanted to be made enviromentally friendly and so the plastic used on the inside tray has all been used from recycled waste.
I believe that camera angles and work have been carried out very well in our rough cut. We have used a majoirty of different shots and angles although i believe at some stages in the piece we may have used a few to many. With regards to the begging of the rough cut, from the bedroom scene of playing the guitar to ally walking down the road after locking the door. This part of the cut is out of time, and the camera is also very unsteady, this was because the clip had not been stabilised, a tool which is available on the editing software that we are using called iMovie. Also there are alot of gaps that i believe should be filmed, for example were the main character ally comes out of the door
I believe that the target audience of our music video is going to reach out to people around the age of 18 to about 40, i believe this because once you hit 18 you are now becoming an adult and are to have likely come across some kind of heartbreak whether it had been a younger age, or an older age. It still effects people in the same way and they always say that "your first love hurts the most".
As our video is about love and having bad luck with it, i belive that females will be able to relate to it alot more than males although i belive a number of males will still watch it. Although the video is going to be at a slower pace due to the tempo of the song, i belive that this will play no huge effect on who watches the video, as a number of major stars have done this and still the same audeince watch it, if anything i believe it would catch more peoples attention as it will be out of the ordinary, and will bring in a slighly older audience. This has happened with the likes of Chris Brown, Rihanna, Adele and also The Script.
I dont believe we should stereo-type the type of people that are going to listen to the song, although the younger generations are more likely to listen to Drum and Base, RnB and pop i dont think we should count them out from listening to this song as everyone goes through the same things such as heartbreak and missing someone which the song focuses on.
I believe that the main background behind this song is heartache, whether it be personal to the singer with a real life experience, or if he is generally just came up with this song. Throughout the song there are a number of lines which suggest this to me including the title of the song "When Will I Be Loved". There could also be another concept behind the song which would be that he hasn't actually had heartbreak, but he feels that he is never going to find someone that will love him how he wants, or just not love him atall.
My crown of roses
Is filled with thorns
And the sleeve where my heart is
Is old and worn
I guess the time of my life
Is running late
And I don't know how much longer
I can wait
The line "and the sleeve where my heart is, is old and worn" suggests to me that the singer has had previous love which has not gone the way that had been intended. Also the following line of "I guess the time of my life is running late" tells me that he feels it is time to settle down with someone, prehaps that he could see himself spending the rest of his life with, and time is moving on and he still hasn't found this special someone which he feels he may never find.
For your phone calls, four walls, at night fall in your bed
So my bruised ears will not hear this one clear thought in my head
When will I be loved
This part is the chorus, i believe this is speaking about a previous love which he is missing, he is thinking about a number of things "for your phone calls, four walls, at night fall in your bed". I believe this is relating back to the time they used to spend together speaking on the phone and also the nights that they would spend together. The tempo of the chorus also changes slighly more lively.
The older I get
The younger I want to be
Why do I fall
So Easily
For me this is a very important verse, this tells me alot about the singers story, the line "the older i get, the younger i want to be" suggests that again because he has nobody by his side, he feels the older he gets the less likely it will be that someone will settle down with him. So if he's younger he has more chance of getting someone. There is also a personal reference in this verse with him refering to himself saying "Why do i fall so easily" giving the impression people have let him down to what he thought was going to happen.
For your phone calls, four walls, at night fall in your bed
Now my bruised ears can just hear this one clear thought in my head
When will I be loved
When will I be loved
Another repeat of the chorus with an extra line at the end for me emphasising the importance of him questioning himself about when will he be loved and find the right person.
Let's dance in the dust
Of another one of our days
I hope that tomorrow
I will find a way
I'll find a way
This seems to be the most up tempo of all of the verses, giving us the impression that he has found hope in himself supported with the line "I will find a way, i'll find a way". With the reference to "another one of our days" tells me that they spent prehaps alot of time together and thats why the heartache has been quite alot to deal with.
To your phone calls, four walls, at night fall in your bed
Now my bruised ears can just hear this one clear thought in my head
When will I be loved
After the upbeat verse previously, it again slows right down to give the full effect of what the chorus is trying to explain to the audience. It gives me the impression that although he is begining to think alot more positvely about what he can do for himself and what he's going to do in the future, he keeps coming back to the thoughts about this figure that played an important role in his life. but he cant quite shake the feeling of heartache.
In this, i will be looking at a particular director and take a look at the different videos that he or she has directed. The directer that i have choosen to look at is, Jonas Akerlund, swedish music video directer he also plays the drums. He is known for his stylish music video's and has the opportunity to work with the likes of; Pink, The Prodigy, Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera, David Guetta, Lady GaGa, Beyonce and Britney Spears. Below are some of the videos that he has directed;
Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger (2011)
David Guetta ft Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over (2009)
Lady GaGa ft Beyonce - Telephone (2010)
Before coming a music video directer, he had previously done a number of films including a number of show's of Madonnas which he had put onto DVD's and also two others Horsemen (2009) and Small Apartments to be released in 2012.
Jonas's music videos are known for getting a very good reception and also known for being very different, individual and not falling into the usual stereotype. Other videos that Akerlund has directed include;
Madonna - Music (2002)
Robbie Williams - Come Undone (2003)
Pink - Sober (2008)
Who's That Chick - David Guetta ft Rihanna 2010
One video that has given Akerlund particular contraversy was the 1997 video by the Prodigy for drug use, nudity and violence.
Alex Goodwin wrote a book on the rise of MTV in 1992, he identifies a number of key features which distinguish nusic video as a form;
1. Music video demonstrate genre characteristics?
2. Is there a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals?
3. Is there a relationship between the music and the visuals?
4. The demands of the record label - including the need of close-ups of the artist, and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work?
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking?
6. The use of inter-textual references?
7. Icongraphy developed by the artist might become part of their image?
I believe that in the three videos below that i have analysed, i have looked at all 7 points and have written and considered about what i belive is there and what is not there.
Jessie J, real name Jessica Ellen Cornish at the age of just 22, is a British singer songwriter signed to Island Records. She was lucky enough to be able to go to the Brit School, and graduated from there in the same year with the likes of Adele and Leona Lewis. After starting her career of as a songwriter she has been privlidged to be able to write songs for the likes of Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus, including her hit song 'Party In The USA'. Jessie J has also had a number of hits for herself including 'Price Tag' which hit the UK number 1 spot, and also 'Do It Like A Dude'.
Jessie has also been lucky enough to be able to go on tour with the likes Of Katy Perry on her UK tour and also Cyndi Lauper. Performing at some of the UK's most notorious festivals including; Glastonberry, V Festival and has also been lucky enough to perform at the 2011 VMA's.
Winning awards such as; Best Female Artist, Best Newcomer, Best UK Act, Best Song and also Best Album. At the age of only 22 i think Jessie has certainly made a great name for herself. She also joined N-Dubz female vocalist Tulisia on the X-Factor as a guest judge at 'Judges Houses'.
In my third and final star analysis i will be looking at Jessie J's video 'Who's Laughing Now' directed by Emil Nava. For me this song has two main genres that have clashed to create the song, i believe these are Hip-Hop and Pop. The song is based around Jessie taking a look back and laughing at all of the people that never believed she would be able to make it in the music industry, and now she is having the last laugh. Characteristics that help me to believe that the song falls into these genders include, the bright colours of pinks, blues and yellows and also the school setting lead me to thinking about the pop side. For the Hip-Hop side characteristics include; the hand movements and looking towards the camera from Jessie herself between 0.57 - 1.15.
There is a very strong link between the lyrics and the visuals as the both the song and the video tell a very clear story. The song is telling us about how Jessie J has been able to beat the people that always told her that her dream wasn't going to happen. And the video shows us a video of a girl being bullied at school for what she looks like and then those bullies wanting to be friends with her once she had made a name for herself. Examples of the strong link between lyrics and visuals include at 0.29 - 0.38 show a clear link as for when they say "pull my hair" and "took away my chair" both actions are preformed by the bullies. Another way in which lyrics are amplified include at 2.27 - 2.28 the line is "your like way to late" shows jessie j pointing to her watch and laughing. Giving the audience the impression of, if you had of taken the time of day to speak to me back then, then maybe i would have time for you now.
The video is very much cut along to the beat, this again shows to me an element of a pop video where the video runs along very smoothly. There seems to be a continuous pace throughout the song that only seems to change twice, once for a very more 'rap/Hip-Hop' type effect which takes place at 2-19 to 2-38. Straight after this the beat and pace drop dramatically to a calmer effect (2.38 - 2.48) after this the song graduates back up to its original pace giving the effect that the main character in the video is in some kind of day dream about whats happening to her. I also believe that there is no instrumental pieces in the song which again seems to give me greater belief in the two genres that i have choosen for the song,
I believe that the record company are trying to sell the track through the concept of the song and the video. I believe that they are trying to encourage young people that if you have a dream you can do it, and if people believe that you can't, then prove them wrong. With the uses of lines such as "who's laughing now" and "let the haters hate". There are a majority of close ups on Jessie J herself, and they have also styled the main character in the video to look like her so the video is based upon a real story that has happened to her. For me the image that is being sent across about Jessie J is that she is quite a 'tough cookie' and isn't going to let what people say bring her down.
Most of Jessie J's videos all have the same style including, Do It Like A Dude, and Price Tag. They all seem to have that outrageous and different style that Jessie J wants to represent. Including things such as hair, make-up and costume. Alot of her music that she has written about aswell seems to all relate to real life experiences or things that are going on in society. For example Do It Like A Dude is written about how males seem to be more dominating, and how woman can be just the same if not better. She likes to use alot of hand movements and gestures in her videos which i believe contributes to the Hip-Hop effect which is carried out throughout.
For me Jessie J isn't on sexual display in her videos, she is used more as a role model image. Her costume and make up all seems to be kept tame. Although there are a lot of close-ups and mid shots of her singing, but i believe this is because she is sat down in the video.
I believe this video is partly narrative based, partly concept based and performance based. Narrative based and concept based play the biggest roles with the performance based covering the least. As i said previously i believe that the concept and narrative play the biggest roles due to the message that they are trying to get across to the younger generations. Also i think that Jessie J is trying to get across that she knows she has done well for herself and showing that anyone can do it if they try.
In conclusion, i like the idea of the concept and i would like to be able to make it as clear as it has been in this video in my own music video. I also like the idea of having somebody else tell the story in the video with the singer taking parts for small parts of it. Things that i feel could have been improved in the video would have been to have had more use for the different adults in the video inlcuding, the teacher, the canteen lady and the cleaner. I think they should have been given more of a role in the video if they were going to be there, if not they seemed that they were there for the sake of it. Overall i do feel that the message it brings across beats any of the negative aspects that it may have.
Ed Sheeran, real name Edward Christopher Sheeran is signed to Atlantic Records. Breaking through into the music scene in June 2011 with his top ten him 'The A Team'. He is a home grown artist started playing small gigs in 2008 when he moved to London. In 2010 he was spotted by Jamie Foxx after going to LA playing many 'open mic nights'. From this Ed's fan-base grew starting to appear on YouTube and also hit artist Example asked him to open up is UK tour, he also grew attention for the likes of England football captain Rio Ferdinand and world renown singer Elton John
In 2009 Ed Sheeran gave himself the challenge of wanting to perform as many gigs as he could in one year, a previous record set my James Morrison has managed a healthy 200 gigs but Sheeran was determined to do better. He manged to preform a staggering 312 gigs in one year successfully beating Morrison.
Sheeran has also preformed at a number of festivals including Reading Festival, Glastonbury, Jersey Live Festival and also Bestival. He also plays the guitar which he learnt at a very young age which he plays on a lot of his own written songs. Sheeran has also covered many different kinds of genres in the 6 years he has been an active artist including grime with artists such as Wretch 32, JME and Devlin and also over genres covering soul and acoustic.
In my second video analysis i will be looking at Ed Sheerans single The A Team. Directed by .. The genre of this music video comes across to me in two different ways, the backing of the music comes across as being very folk like with the guitar, almost like it should be backing an acoustic cover of the song. In also comes across to be as being quite soulful with what the song and its actually meaning. I believe that the video has been made so that it goes along with the narrative of what Sheeran is actually singing about rather than what you would usually expect from these genres. You can feel the folkness coming through with the heavy guitar strings in the background, you can hear the soulness of the song with the way Sheeran plays on the lyrics singing them in quite a gentle way.
There is a very strong link between the visuals in the lyrics, the song was written by Sheeran after doing a gig for a homeless shelter and wanted the video to tell a narrative about what can so commonly happen to the homeless. From 2.46 in the video to 3.05 esspecially the line "sells love to another man" plays on the fact that she is now going to have to go outside and sell her body to be able to get money to stay somewhere for the night and that this is probably not the first time that she has had to do this.
There is a negative change of pace at 3.50 in the video, the music slows up and the words seem to be strung out longer. With a close up shot on the womans face in the video, also shows a change of emotion and the video begins to take a turn for the worst with the woman going back to her flat, it seems to me that she could have taken drugs or an overdose, which wouldn't be able to be shown on the video. This leads her to fall on the bed looking to be unconcious, this is also shown at the start of the video so i believe at the beginning they have shown the impact that can happen and tell the story of how it did. To me the video doesn't cut to the beat, i feel like the music is just there to be a narrator to the images, the cuts do become quicker when the pace picks up, and slower cuts when backing is more calmer.
In this video Ed Sheeran only appears for a short amount of time, 1.20 - 1.30, he does it in most of his videos if he does appear atall including ones of his newest songs 'You Need Me, I Dont Need You'. It gives me the impression of he feels he doesn't need to be in them because the lyrics can do all the talking, he doesn't want to give the impression that he is using himself to sell his music through what he looks like or how he cant dance. Also the majority of his videos are in black and white and quite simplistic, no huge special effects or name dropping of other celebrities that he has had the chance to work with.
For me the music video is 100% narrative based. As mentioned earlier, the song was written after performing a gig for homeless and thats where the idea for the song came along. In my perspective the video tells a story of a drug-addicted prostitute, trying to gather money through selling magazines and selling themself to be able to afford more drugs and somewhere to stay. I believe the video was made to show people how lucky they are and not to take anything for granted.
In conclusion the most important things i have gained from this video to help me in the process when i am making my own is that i really like the black and white concept. I feel that sometimes less is more and that not making things over to top and too complicated can have more of an effect on people and keep them more interested for longer. I believe that the images could have been abit smoother with the music and cut more to the beat, but for an artist just making their way onto the music scene i feel it makes a very good statement.
The Script are an alternative rock band from Ireland signed by Sony Music, consisting of Danny O'Donoghue (lead singer), Mark Sheehan (guitarist/singer) and Glen Power (drummer). Their first album called 'The Script' released in 2008 reached number one where it then went on to stay for 11 weeks. The group have also won a number of different awards including; best selling irish act, best irish band, best album for 'The Script' and also best live performance. In their home town of Ireland their album managed to go 5x platinum and in the UK it also went 2x platinum.
There music has also managed to feature on a number of different US and UK television shows including 90210, The Hills, Eastenders, Waterloo Road and also The Vampire Diaries. The band have produced a number of well known songs around the world including; We Cry, The Man Who Can't Be Moved, Before The Worst and also Breakeven.
They have performed at a number of well known music festivals including; Radio 1's Big Weekend, V festival, iTunes Festival, Oxegen and also the Isle Of White Festival. Performing at all of these has managed to boost their reputation even more.
The video that i am analysing is The Script's, Before The Worst. Directed by Paul Minor the video sees the boys performing in an empty arena seeming to be getting ready for a gig that they are just about to preform. The genre that I would put this group into would be alternative rock/pop, I would say this down to the setting of the video and other videos that they have done in a more suburb area.They also wear rockie kind of clothes including skinny jeans and t-shirts and leather jackets.
Relationships between the lyrics and the visuals seem to have no direct meaning, from what i have seen i can grasp that the concept is about everything being before. For example is shows him walking down the road before anyone else is there, and also it shows them practicing before there performance. Everything that they are showing seems to be 'before' what you would expect to see. Examples of this include having a sound check before a show what you would expect to see them doing, also walking down the road before the show and also before all the fans that will be coming to see the show.
Relationships between the music and the visuals are very clear, the music goes along to the beat, as the band move to the beat whilst playing their instruments, this is shown in a particularly good way at 0.40mins through to 0.54. A change of music rhythm at 2.23, bring the song down a lot slower and also brings a change to the lighting making the background much more darker almost in black, with the band being put into the bright lights. Also at 2.50 the song goes into an instrumental where the visuals turn to flash back images, my interpretation of this is that they are flashbacks of him walking along Grafton Street which is mentioned in the song (although i have never been there) when he was happy with the female he is talking about in the song.
There are alot of close ups of the lead singer, this suggests to me that they are trying to use the looks of the singer to help draw in their target audience, Also the size of the auditorium that they are using to shoot the video, shows that they are a successful band and that they will fill it, its not like they are playing in a small town pub. The way that the group interact with one another, also shows that they are not some kind of manufactured band, that they seem to have know eachother for a considerable amount of time and that they feel comforable around one another, they seem very down to earth.
This style of video that they do is shown in all throughout all of their videos, including The Man Who Can't Be Moved and also Nothing. All of the videos are seen to be in a very suburb area, seeming not to be too over complicated. In all of the videos they seem to be wearing the same sort of clothes, again suggesting the type of genre that they are from, leather jackets and dark jeans. The majority of their videos also seem to be about lost love, or breaking up with someone, again i think this helps to bring in their target audience of young females.
Throughout the video, i have a sense of that they are using the lead singer singer as sexual display. They have a lot of close ups of him compared to any of the other members of the band, and also he does all the main singing about breaking up and now being single, making the audience feel that they have a chance with him when obviously they dont. For me costume has nothing to do with making the video more sexual as they are all in normal clothes with nothing to provocative. I do feel that camera angles play a role, as the majority of them are close ups of him (Danny O'Donaghue) or also mid shots, showing from his waiste upwards.
There are some inter-textual references in the scripts videos, in The Man Who Cant Be Moved, there are news reporters interviewing him about why he has been sat there for so long waiting for this girl. In the same video also it shows him live on television with news crews reporting on him, so this shows a screen on a screen. Those are both different kinds of media. In the video Before The Worst, they are about to perform at show having their soundcheck, this again is a inter-textual reference for the video.
The video that i have been analysing, Before The Worst, in my perspective is majoritly performance based with the concept of the 'before' running through out as the perfomance is 'before' there show that you would of expected to have seen. In all of The Scripts they all have a small perfomance section so i believe they want to continue this in all of their videos. I believe that the video is about 70% performance based and 30% concept based on what i have seen, although the concept does run all the way through, for me there is not enough images and signs to make it overly noticeable to just anyone, you would need to watch it more than once to understand what they are trying to acheive.
In conclusion, the most important things that i have gained from watching this video is that you need to have an interesting first 30 seconds to keep the audience wanting to watch more of the video and also to watch is again and again. For me they could have gotten into the perfomance alot quicker, but i do feel that as the video is more simplistic than some of their others, it allows you to listen to the lyrics more understandably. I also like the idea of them being able to show in their video how comfotable that they are round eachother, this gives a really friendly atmosphere to the video and proves to us that they don't just look like some manufactured band, it all seems very comfortable which i would want to come across in my own video
When deciding who we should choose to use for our media video, we went with the idea that something slower would have a lot more effect than something that was very fast, upbeat and alot harder to cut to. To find our artist that we wanted to use we looked on websites such as Unsigned.com and also Youtube.com. In the end we decided to go with a man called Erick Baker. We found him on Unsigned.com and is from Knoxville in America, for me is genre of music is a cross between Slow Rock and Folk. Whilst listening to the song for the first couple of times, we immediatly had images of videos such as the script, with the dark colours and lights.
