C1-10 Group 8: October 2010

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Our Storyline

As we decided we our video would have a slight narrative, it would also be dysjunctia to the overall video. As we had a clear idea that we wanted to use the idea of a narrator telling the story of a prostitutes’ life, we used a news reporter as our narrator. As are new reporter supposed to be unbiased to the issues they are discussing we wanted to show the view a clear contrast between him, the prostitute and her pimp. In order to do this we decided the mise-en-scene should be in “scummy” places such as alleyways and under the canal. This paralleled with what the lyrics of the song were about.

Inital Shotlist

Shot 1- Begins with a close up of the news reporter with a background of Manchester city centre

Shot 2- Camera will cut to the mid shot of the pimp

Shot 3- Establishing shot of the canal and surrounding area

Shot 4- Pan up prostitutes body

Shot 5- Extreme close up of prostitutes face focusing on her eyes

Shot 6- Cut to a long shot of the news reporter in an alley with the prostitute in the background (rule of thirds)

Shot 7- Over the shoulder shot of the pimp collecting money of the prostitute

Shot 8- Cut to an extreme close up of money being exchanged and counted

Shot 9- Close up of the pimp face

Shot 10- Long shot as the pimp walks away from the prostitute

Shot 11- Cut back to the news repoter in another location as he fixes his clothes

Shot 12- quick cut to the mid shot of the prostitute stood on a street corner with people walking past her.

Shot 13- Establishing shot of sunset

These are just a couple of our intial ideas we had for the opening of our music video, the shot and ideas may change throughout the course as we have not tried them out yet to see how effective they will look and some of the shot maybe difficult to shot . For example, the establishing shot of the sunset will be time-consuming as we will have to ensure we film it in one continuous shot.

Costumes and Props

For our video we had the idea of a news reporter narrating on the life of a prostitute this therefore meant their costumes had to similar to what viewer would associate with the character, however with the prostitute clothes we toned it down in order to get the largest viewing audience possible. We decided to make the pimp look slightly ‘scummy’ as it links with the lyrics of the song, we decided think about the costumes, and how they would contrast, which would fit in with the mise-en-scene of the video.

Initial Ideas and Storyboard

Firstly we wrote our instant ideas that we thought were relevant to the lyrics of the song. By doing this, it gave us a springboard for what to include in our shot list and when filming the video. We included some locations that we felt would be fitting for the mise-en-scene as looked dirty and fitted our vision for the video. In order to work out how long the footage for each verse would have to be we wrote do the times for them, which gave us a visual of roughly how many shot we would need.

We then decided to make an animatic Storyboard in order to visual see how our music video would finally look. In order for us visualise our final video we drew characters in the settings we wanted to film in as it gave true representation of what our overall video would look like.

Location Shots

We chose to film part of our music video on a secluded backstreet and use this location for a few shots as the setting fitted the piece and worked with the idea we had for part of our video. The lighting in the location did not worked particularly well as we filmed in
the afternoon, this meant the shots were too bright but we felt if we had filmed later in the day the cameras would not have picked up all the facial expression on our characters. The shots we decided to film in this location were used as part of the performance element but also for the narrative.

As we felt that using a sunset in our video would be fitting as both an establishing shot but also as a literal image since the song is called “When the Sun Goes Down.” As we were on top of a car park we had the best chance of filming the sunset in one continuous shot as there were few cars or pedestrians walking through the shot.

When we came up with concept for the music video, the main themes appeared to be the news reporter would commentate through the lyrics about Roxanne’s life leading us to film in places, which had a grubby environment. We came across these locations in and around Manchester City Centre that were used for both the performance and narrative of our video.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band which were formed in 2002 in a suburb of Sheffield. The band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and John Ashton as a touring member (keyboard, guitar, backing vocals). Their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Elastica's Elastica and remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band in the UK.

"When the Sun Goes Down" is the second album be released by the band on 16 November 2005. The song is about a prostitution in the Neepsend district of Sheffield, was originally known as "Scummy" following their debut single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to a UK Number One. The track is featured on the band's debut album, "Whatever People Say I Am ,That's What I'm Not", which was released soon after.

Music Video Analysis - The Enemy

As this song is a similar genre to Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’ (Brit Rock) we found the video to be similar in the aspect of both music videos being mainly performance based. What separates the two videos is how ‘Had Enough’ has a much stronger narrative with Main characters played out by more than just Band Members like in ‘Processed Beats’.

Although ‘Had Enough’ has minimal post production editing effects we found the camera techniques rather advanced with a arrange of shots from simple close-ups of band members to more technical long ranged tracking shots which would have most likely been shot using a crane.These shots continue throughout the music video with simple close-ups and extreme close-up’s of band Members and their key props such as Liam Watts (Drummer) used his drumstick, Andy Hopkins (Bass) strummed and Tom Clarke (Guitar, Vocals) sang. Shots included the actors also had close-ups and extreme close-ups to help show the emotion the characters were feeling, these shots also helped give the narrative depth as they engaged the audience to what would otherwise be a shallow and tedious plot.

What we found different between this music video and Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’ was the use of camera angles, within this video we found that a token of low angled shots were used throughout the video in comparison. We felt this could be due to the locations used as they are all based on a working class estate.These vast amount of high camera angles were only used for the characters help increase the depth to the narrative as low angled shots give the audience the sense that the characters are inferior, this worked well with the plot of the video as main characters were made to look small. The editing was rather interesting within this music video as when being compared to ‘Processed Beats’ we found the editing to be at a basic standard. With simple cuts and little post production effects, the most advanced parts of editing involves getting the lip syncing correct as well as changing the rate of cuts (much faster rate of cuts when band members are performing when compared to narratives slow rate of cuts). We also felt the Mise-en-scene was very interesting as costume and location match the narrative exceedingly precisely as baseball caps, tracksuit bottoms and other similar clothing mixed with the locations of council estates really did help give the music video a deep sense of a working-class plot. This was also helped by the strong performances acted out within the narrative as well as the basic lighting of sunlight giving the music video an intense gritty feeling. This therefore is a music video which combines both narrative and performance. (location are similar for both narrative and performance)

The typical genre of this type of song (Brit Rock) is normally downbeat and based on social realism(definition) . ‘Had Enough’ follows suit in this case as both the performance and the narrative parts are based on working-class council estates. The narrative of the story is mainly based around a male aged around 17-25 as the video follows him around a day in his life involving his friends and generally things the protagonist would pursue throughout the day. Constant inter-cutting of the band performing and narrative was a common factor within ‘Had Enough’, the performance part takes place in similar surroundings to the narrative to show the bands relevance to the meaning of the song.

Although performance is used regularly within the music video we found the narrative to be the main emphasis. Due to this we thought there was a strong narrative when compared to Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’. It is for this reason that we found The Enemy’s ‘Had Enough’ an effective video with aspects of performance to support the strong narrative.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPTBu9hD57U&ob=av2n

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Music Video Analysis - Kasabian

As the music video our group are looking at is ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ by Arctic Monkeys we thought it would be useful to look at other artist who have released music videos with the similar gritty feeling which ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ possesses. As the song represents strong social realism within British culture we thought it would be better if we analysed music videos which come from a working class British background, for this we have chosen Kasabian – Processed Beats, The Enemy – Had Enough and Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before The Lights Came On.

Kasabian - Processed Beats

We found this music video was heavily performance based with little narrative. The majority of the video is taken up by performances from band members, this is matched by a lot of low angled camera angles to give the band a sense of power within the video but only when singing. Another similar camera technique was the hand held pan which helps give the music video its gritty appeal. With the hand-held motion giving a shake to the shot, the location can become more personal to the viewer. Close-ups were also used within the music video along side Extreme Close-ups to show the emotions of band members while performing, these emotion were mirrored when low angled shots were exercised to shows the band members anger, these emotion relate to the lyrics of ‘Processed beats’.

The editing was the most interesting aspect within this music video as fast cut rates that were not in time with the beat, lip-syncing used and post production effects were also evident, especially towards the end. The simple filters that were used help create a surreal feeling to the visual, as unusual shades from a range of colours were apparent. ‘Processed Beats’ also lacks a narrative and with mainly performances from band members I find the video to be simply classed as a performance video.

We found the costume to be unsurprising as the music videos location is a gritty warehouse and a forest so dirty shirts, jeans, etc would be what is expected. As the locations are gritty we felt the props being keep to a minimal is necessary but also key props such as the dirty fridge along with burned-out chairs and even cockroaches and other insects crawling round help set the mood for the rest of the video. Lighting was interesting within ‘Processed Beats’ as the spotlights in the background of the forest would normally be hidden. This was a deliberate ploy by the director as establishes a disjointed feeling, which in turn matches the lyrics of the song.

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

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Target Audience

Our Video is aimed a young adults between the ages 15-24, as the lyrics of the song talk about a prostitute and one of her clients which may not be suitable for young children.

the main audience for our video will reflect the fan base of the band (indie rockers and info about).

However it may appeal to older aging rockers who enjoy the music due to the genre and similar artist such as The Kings of Leon and The Enemy.We decided that it will it be not gender specific but will portray all characters of the song in order to appeal to the widest viewing audience possible.

If we were to promote the album, we would like the poster to appear in music magazines such as NME and Kerrang as the people that read these magazines are more representative of our target audience. We would also want it to advertise it on television after the watershed as some songs have a warning of parental advisory and that is when the audience is mainly young adults. Our music video was inspired from music such as The Libertines and Oasis which to have an indie following, where not many not many young children would be aware of the band, and if they are it would be through older siblings and parents.

When The Sun Goes Down Lyrics

Who's that girl there?
I wonder what went wrong
So that she had to roam the streets
She dunt do major credit cards
I doubt she does receipts
It's all not quite legitimate

And what a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes,
Yeah, that he's got a driving ban
Amongst some other offences

And I've seen him with girls of the night
And he told Roxanne to put on her red light
They're all infected but he'll be alright
Cause he's a scumbag, don't you know
I said he's a scumbag, don't you know!

Although you're trying not to listen
Overt your eyes and staring at the ground
She makes a subtle proposition
"I'm sorry love I'll have to turn you down"

He must be up to something
What are the chances sure it's more than likely
I've got a feeling in my stomach
I start to wonder what his story might be

They said it changes when the sun goes down
Around here

Look here comes a Ford Mondeo
Isn't he Mister Inconspicuous?
And he don't even have to say 'owt
She's in the stance ready to get picked up

Bet she's delighted when she sees him
Pulling in and giving her the eye
Because she must be fucking freezing
Scantily clad beneath the clear night sky
it doesn't stop in the winter, no
Around here

They said it changes when the sun goes down
Over the river going out of town

What a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes that he's got a nasty plan
I hope you're not involved at all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-M0q8GgzZM

Deciding The Final Song

Firstly we looked at a range of different songs from various genres in particular R’n’B and Indie Pop, as we felt they had narrative to their songs, which therefore could translate into our own video.

We did consider using a Dubstep song such a Kode9's Nine Samurai, in order of making a more Art House video. However we felt that a song with an element of narrative and/or performance would be perferred.

Eventually we decided to us the song When The Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys as the lyrics engaged a large modern audience when it was released in 2006.