Finished Video

Above is our finished music video of Undercover Martyn, which now can be found on youtube. This was a huge step from our first draft of our music video and is definitely better. We found out that from our first draft that the video dragged on at points and some parts were boring and didn't relate to the music genre or the music. We needed to make sure in this video that we used conventions of the indie genre and we showed stereotypical of what the indie bands are like in this day and age. When editing this video we also wanted it to be upbeat and fast paced, so we made sure when editing that we included quick cuts and made sure it was to the beat of the music. We also wanted a variety of camera angles and shots, so throughout the video we made sure we used different camera angles and had a variety of shots. I personally think we worked extremely well as a group as we only had a short amount of time to reshoot this and edit it as well. I also think we all contributed extremely well to make the video to the best that we could. My favourite bit in the video is at 1.41 when the cuts are really quick and we moved around, it works really well with the music and beat. As a group we think we have performed really well as we had to re-shoot and edit only in a short space of time. We are pleased with the end result and we hope you enjoy watching it.

Final Tweaks

Before completing our music video of Undercover Martyn, we made some final tweaks to make sure we could get the best possible grade we could. To do this we made sure that we edited the music to beat and pace of the music. Also as the song was fast paced throughout the majority of the song we made sure that we kept a good pace throughout and faster at parts when the song's pace rose. As a group we decided that once the final tweaks were done we needed to render the video and then convert it into a quicktime video so that we could upload the video onto youtube.

Finished Inside Digipak

Above shows the two inside cd covers for our digipak, we found it harder to create a good inside cover then a front and back CD cover. We decided to use a original but basic photograph for the first inside cover, so we came to an agreement to select a photo of all of our feet. The photo was too big so we had to crop it down to size so that it would fit on a CD cover dimensions. Once we had done this, we then decided to change the contrast and brightness of the image, we did this by selecting this tool and experimenting to find a good contrast between the both. When we found a good contrast and brightness for the cover we thought it would be good to add some text into the image, so we decided to add the bands name and Callan had a good idea and we decided to put this on the sole of the white trainer. We also added a diffuse glow to the white shoes to make them stand out more and so that the text could stand out against the shoes. We also added the album name once again and also put strokes on both of the titles. 

The other CD cover where the CD actually goes, we decided to use a photo in which we were messing around the the noise effect. We found one that look good and work extremely well, a red light dominates the image and it will catch the audiences attention. We then decided to add a CD outline of where the CD will actually be put. Once we had decided how big it should be we then added the Two Door Cinema Club title to the CD. As a group we feel that this looks good and we were happy with the final outcome. 

Finished CD Digipak

This is the final album cover, which shows the front cover and the back cover of our finished digipak. The front cover shows a bold image of us with a noise effect used to make the background seem blurry and us seem still. We thought we would use this effect as it is original and also looked very good and unique. Once we had put the image in photoshop we then cropped it to make us take up the majority of the front cover. We then decided to go on a website called dafont to find a font we could use for the titles , we found some two fonts which we really liked as used this for the title Two Door Cinema Club and also Tourist History. After we had found the fonts and put the titles on the front cover, we finished off by adding a white line down the side and used the opacity tool to made it blend it with the background. 

The back cover of the CD cover shows a photo of the props which are used throughout the video. The song list is shown on the back of the album. We decided to put this in the bottom right hand corner as this look the best with the contrast to the background. We then added the barcode into the bottom right hand corner to make it look more professional, then added a couple of music logos which play Two Door Cinema Clubs music. we added strokes to the songs to make the stand out from the background.

Finished Magazine Advert

This is the finished magazine advert which we have edited on Photoshop, as a group we came to an agreement that this photograph would be the best one for a magazine advert. We then wanted to make sure that the bands name was the biggest and boldest thing on the page. This can be seen at the top of the magazine advert. On the bands name we added a stroke to make it stand out from the page more than the other words on the advert. Once we had added the title on we then added the song name that we did for our music video and then put the album name. We made sure these were the next two biggest and boldest things on the advert. We then added when it was going to be released and added the NME and Glassnote logos as these are record company's of Two Door Cinema Club. The last thing we did was added the bands website address and stated what the album can be brought on or downloaded from. We also made sure we had the digipak of the album in the bottom right hand corner.

Functions and Conventions of an Advert

While making our magazine advert we feel it is important to consider the functions and conventions of them and will do this by analysing them. First we discussed what they were. This will help us realise the key points when coming to our advert. It will make sure that we have the specific information thats needed with the conventions, and hopefully appeal to our target audience for our genre.
Functions are:

• To Promote the artist
• To sell the song
• To be eyecatching- visually striking

Conventions are:

• Song/Album title
• Visual links to videos- Intertextuality
• Reviews (Newspaper, Music press, Celebrities/DJ's- Trend Setters)
• Condensed information on content
• Release date
• Artist name
• Where is it available to purchase (HMV,Amazon)
• Record label logo

NME Logo

 

These two NME logo's we are going to use for our Ancillary Tasks and music video. We dicussed as a group that NME are a huge indie/alternative company that advertise and play a wide range of indie and alternative music. We researched and found out that NME have advertised Two Door Cinema Club in the past and have also played their music, so we came to an agreement that we would use this logo for these purposes. We would use the NME logo for the CD Covers and the Magazine Advert and would use the NMEtv logo for our music video. We also thought that this would make our video and ancillary tasks look more professional and look more eye catching to our target audience. This is because many people who listen to indie and alternative music know the NME logo, as they are a well know company throughout the music industry. 

Ancillary Task Planning Sheet

Above is the picture of a sheet which we individually filled out for our Ancillary Task, this needed to be done so that we could plan out what we were going to have to achieve when createing our digipack and our advertisement poster. This sheet included what the artist's profile is, which we described the band as a young Irish three-peice making brillantly hooky, melodic guitar pop/indie/alternative music. We also had to include the target audience in which we are going to aim our Ancillary Tasks to, we decided as a group that are target audience for these tasks are mainly males in the age region of 17-30. We then also had to decide what we wanted to include on our CD Cover, we came to a decision that we needed a bold image, which was orginally to take over the front cover, along with intrustments and the correct mise-en-scene. We also stated that we would have to inclued the Artist Name and Album Name to make it look professional. The back of the CD Cover we dicussed to have on was going to be a different but similar concept to the front of the CD Cover along with the track numbers and names of the songs included on the album.

It is very important that we plan our digipack before creating for it as it means that we have a base to work on and also allows us to follow a guideline in the research we have found out. This planning has helped us to understand what is needed to be shown on the front of a CD Cover and the back of a CD Cover, of a band in the alternative/indie genre.

Editing

 

The two programs in which we used to edit our music video of Two Door Cinema Club was Sony Vegas 8 which was used throughout the stages of creating our first draft of our music video and then after we decided to re-shoot we cam to an agreement, that we were going to use Final Cut Pro to edit the music video. We found out that it would be easier for a group as I was the only one in the group which had Sony Vegas so we needed to make sure we were always round my house. So that is why we decided to edit in school using Final Cut Pro, also we found using Final Cut Pro a lot easier than using Sony Vegas. Below are some printscreens of us editing our music video of Undercover Martyn.



A few photos for Digipak

After taking the photos for our Ancillary Task, we had to decided a Front Cover for our bands digipak. Out of the 200 photos in which we took for this we came to an angreement that it would be out of these three photos in which one would be used for our front cover of our digipak. We decided to go with the third one at night as we feel this is really orginal and hasn't been done before. We needed to make sure it was orginal as it will be caught by the audiences eye and they will want to buy it. We also loved the effect we used on the photo which was used on the camera.

Location Shots For Undercover Martyn

Locations

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In the presentation above you can see that we have taken pictures of the locations that we are going to film at. As a group we dicussed that it would be the best to look around for locations before filming as then we would have a better idea of what to film. Not only that but we tried to find what locations would relate best to our storyboards. On a whole we decided to film surronding the Windsor Lesuire Centre as there were a lot of different unique and urban locations in which we could film at. We decided that we were going to have this locations for this reasons:

• The area's are urban, which relate really well with our target audience, which is prodomantly male, as this area's can be related to by males from the ages of 17-30 as many of them walk through this kind of area's to get to work etc. Also it gave that urban feel which relates really well to the indie/alternative genre.
• We also chose these locations due to the fact that they related really well to our clothes and it made us stand out when filming. Our clothes are indie/alternative clothes and stand out really well, in the dark urban area's in which we filmed in.
• Finally we selected these locations as many other indie/alternative music video's have similar kinds of locations in their videos and we wanted to relate to that concept and we felt that these locations worked perfectly for our music video of Undercover Martyn.

Storyboarding for Undercover Martyn

Storyboards

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As a group we had to come up with and idea for our music video Undercover Martyn, after having a few ideas brought up we decided on one finally. We decided that they music video was going to be mainly and hugely performance based, as many other indie/alternative music videos are similar to this concept. We started to start storyboarding by changing the bands position and location quite a lot as this would go well with the pace to the music and we could adapt the editing to this. We also added random shots in there but unfortunately we couldn't obvisouly storyboard this as we were going to have to wait until we were on set, to see what footage which could film.

It is really important that we storyboard as it means that we have a guideline for when it comes to filming for our music video. Not only that but also by planning the music video before it means that we have already made life easier when coming to filming as we now know when and what to do in each scene of the music video. On a whole we came to an agreement that a storyboard helps you:

• Define the parameters of a story within available resources and time
• Organize and focus a story
• Figure out what medium to use for each part of the story

Locations on Google Map for Undercover Martyn

This is a image on Google Maps of the location in which we filmed Undercover Martyn for, this is the main location in which we filmed at, and we couldn't get any any location of the other places we filmed at on Google Map. As you can see from the map you can see we filmed at Windsor Lesuire Centre and we filmed around this main area.

Ideas for Ancillary Task - Digipak

We wanted to research some other digipaks so that we could understand what was needed from an alternative/inde digipak. When we were researching we found these two digipaks very eyecatching and wanted to produce something of these two digipaks. The Kooks Inside In The Inside Out is a very eye catching digipack as the band are involved througout it. The front cover shows the band wearing very stereotypical clothing for the indie genre. They are also holding/playing their instruments which also shows a very stereotypically indie group. The back cover though was the same photo by slightly zoomed in to show more detail. The other front cover we research and analysied was Noah and The Whale's CD The First Days of Spring, this shows the band taking up much of the front cover and shows the lead singer with a camera, its a very orginal photo and works extremely well for the indie genre. On a whole we have learnt that we need to take a orginal photograph for our digipak and make sure that it relates to our target audience.

Risk Assessment for UnderCover Martyn

Risk Assessment

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As you can see from above, this is our Risk Assessment for our music video Undercover Martyn. It consists of six potential risks or hazards we persued when filming for our music video. This is a very important document as it shows where the location was, what was the potential risk/hazard, the level of the risk (L/M/H) and the action taken when filming. Throughout filming it was enjoyable but annoying as we came across these hazards/risks which needed to be dealt with so that we could film safely and securely. The worse risk/hazard as a group which we thought was dangerous was when we filmed above a tunnel which was 10 meters high, we had to make sure that we were safely sat down and the equipment was in a safe place or attached to us. Risk assessments are very important as they form an integral part of a good occupational health and safety management plan. They help to:

• Create awareness of hazards and risks.
• Identify who may be at risk (employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, the public, etc).
• Determine if existing control measures are adequate or if more should be done.
• Prevent injuries or illnesses when done at the design or planning stage.
• Prioritize hazards and control measures.

After completeing this document, we then had to look at the footage we had filmed and start editing our music video for Undercover Martyn.

First Draft



This is our first attempted at our music video of Undercover Martyn. By analysing the video we believe that there is room for improvement. We thought that the video was too long in parts and that made it boring and dull for people to watch. Although we did relate to the concepts which needed to be involved to relate to the target audience in which we were aiming the video at. On a whole we came to an agreement that we wanted to re - shoot the whole thing.

Analysis of a Magazine Advert 2

Above is a magazine advert of Jay-Z and well know Hip Hop rapper, and it shows the front cover of him and also an advert in the middle of his album at the moment in time coming. The front cover shows a dominant picture of him and shows him taking up the majority of the page, he is also wearing stereotypical clothing of what a hip hop artist would wear. Also his name his shown on the front cover and this is in a different colour so that the audience can quickly acknowledge that this magazine is about Jay-Z. There is also some other writing involved around the image, which also the audience get a glance of. There is also something original about the advert as Jay-Z is standing behind paper towers which relates to his album called The Blueprint which can be related to paper.  The advert is shown on the left hand side and shows an original image and states the artists name at the top of the page which in this case is Jay-Z, also the paper image is repeated but in a different concept here and with the name of the title and date of when the album is coming out at the bottom. Also the advert is very clever as the three red lines throught the middle of the advert relate to the album's name which in this case is called Blueprint 3. By analysing this advert we need to make sure we include an original image which we have taken, make sure it relates to the band or their album and also make sure we play the part, so mise-en-scene is crucial to make the advert look good. As group we will need to go out and take photographs until we find one that suits our genre and is related to the video.

Analysis of Magazine Advert

Above is the Two Door Cinema Club Magazine advert and the conventions of a magazine advert for the indie genre are shown here extremely well. An image of the band are shown here and this dominates the advert which is good as you want to show who it is about. We want to make sure we use an image that is bold and original and covers the majority of the advert. Also analysing the advert the text of the title Two Door Cinema Club, is also bold and eye catching which is good as the audience want to know straight away what the advert is about. Other text is used around the image but it depends on what information needs to be involved. We need to make sure that we make the title of the album and the bands name eye-catching and bold. Also the logo or magazines name is used on the advert and this is used to also catch the readers attention. We will need to make sure we use logos which are well known in the indie genre so that the audience can be interested in the advert straight away. As a group we need to make sure that we have a bold image which will show the band, a bold and eye-catching title and then also add logos when necessary. We will also need to add the digipak on the advert so the readers and audience also can see what the album looks like. 

Permission in Using Undercover Martyn

Twitter image

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To make sure we were aloud to use the song Undercover Martyn we had to contact the band somehow, we came up for a few ideas in how to contact them and this were through two social network sites or website. We came to an agreement to choose either contact them through Facebook, Twitter or The Two Door Cinema Club website. We research all three of these sites and came to a decision that we were going to contact them through Twitter as we found the lead guitarist Alex Trimble. We used Ricardo Leamans twitter page to contact Alex to ask him and the band permission to ask if we could use their song of Undercover Martyn for a A2 music video.

Time Management - Calendar

Calendar for project management

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As a group we came up with a calendar for our time management for our project for our music video of Undercover Martyn. This shows our most productive month which was October, it just shows a insight of what us as a group have been up to in the month of October. On a whole in was a really tough month as many things that happened during that month for our project of Undercover Martyn.

Shot List For Undercover Martyn

Shooting schedule final

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As you can see from the table above this is our shot list for our music video of Undercover Martyn, in which will be using throughout our music video. It is important in that we have done this as it means we can have a schedule to remind us when we have to film and what parts we are going to be filming. We came up as a group a schedule of when we were going to film so that when it came to start to film we knew what time and where we had to film. It is important that we are organised as it means that we don't have to worry about tackling through obstacles when approaching them. As a group we came up with this shot list, which includes where the scene is, the date/time, the location of where we were going to film, the people/characters involved in the scenes/shots and also states what equipment and props were going to be used. We had to make sure that we completed this before we went off to go a shoot for our music video of Undercover Martyn.

Location for First Draft

Location

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These are the locations shots for our first draft of our music video of Undercover Martyn. We wanted to give a feel to the audience that the video shows normal young adults just wanting to play their music. We researched by watching a few other indie videos and came up with a few locations in what we wanted to use for our music video of Undercover Martyn. First of all we decided that an urban house would be a good starting point to the video, we then explored around our local area and found places in which to film, we wanted to give an urban feel to the music video and to do so had to find good locations. As a group we came to a decision on the locations which can be seen above in the slideshare presentation. It is important that we researched locations before filming as we need to make sure we are relating to our target audience and need to make sure that we were using areas that related to other music videos.

Pratice on Photoshop for CD Cover



I decided to pratice on photoshop so that I could learn skills for when it comes to designing our CD Cover for Two Door Cinema Club. I started off with a green and black crowd picture and then started having a go with different tools on Photoshop to find out what kind of things could be done to pictures. The first thing I done was desaturated the photograph so it was black and white. I then created a new layer and coloured in with any colour a little part of the photo and the changed the settings of it to colour. I repeated this a few times and then finally added a lens flare to finish of the photograph. I found it resonable hard at the start as I didn't really know anything about Photoshop, but as I kept exploring I started to reliase what to do and then finally came up with the photo above. On a whole I believe that this was really good pratice early on for my ancillary task of my digipack as it has improved my Photoshop skills a huge amount.

Costume/Props/Casting - Undercover Martyn

Props,Costume,Characters

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Before we started filming we needed to make sure that our characters looked and acted the part for our video of Undercover Martyn. We first of all discussed what props will be used throughout the video to make the video look realistic and as indie/alternative as possible. We also needed to make sure that we related to our target audience so that they can relate to what the props are and make the them feel like the video is in the alternative/indie genre. The props in which we had come up with were guitars, amplifiers, a mic and other little things to make it look just that little more indie. Once we had come to an agreement on what props we were going to use we then had to come to a decision on who was going to cast and what part in the music video. Callan suggested that all three of us played the band members and we didn't hesistate to say yes. So we agreed on myself playing the bass guitarist, Callan playing the lead guitarist and Ricardo being the lead singer. This then made us come on to what costume to wear for the music video. We researched into what kind of clothes indie muscians wear and by doing this we just searched into google indie clothes. Once we had selected some  clothes to wear, which were jeans. chinos, graphical t-shirts etc, we decided then we were ready to start to film.

Started Filming

We have just started filming today at Windsor Lesuire Centre for our music video Undercover Martyn, the first place in which we filmed was on these stairs were Callan sat at the top of the staris, Ricardo sat in the middle of the stairs and I sat at the bottom of the stairs. We filmed the whole song at this location to make sure that we had enough shots. We then moved location and filmed at the river and filmed the song a few times. This was done as we wanted to move our posistions when filming so that when it came to editing we could relate this to the pace of the music. It is really important that we over shot footage when filming today as it means that when it comes to editing we could make sure we had enough camera angels, different shots and random shots that we could use in our music video.

We filmed for 2 hours today and made sure that we had filmed what we had included on our shooting schedule. We also made sure that when we were filming that we kept looking at our storyboards making sure we related to them. Overall filming went very well today.

Our Chosen Video - Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn

This is our chosen video for our Music Video and we will be storyboarding in the next few days for this music video. We have decided as a group to pick this music video because as a group we really love listening to the band. We also agreed on this video as it is our favourite song out of all their songs on their album. Throughout the process of making this video we will need to do some target audience research which we already have and we will also need to storyboard the video, along with risk assements and shooting schedule.

Target Audinece Research

Two Door Cinema Club targets an audience of Alternative, Indie, Electropop music enthusiasts. As the music does have a dance/electro edge to it, it would also appeal to dance and pop music fans,making the single quite dynamic and to appealing to a range of listeners.  Me, Ricardo and Callan decided to do some research to help truly identify the groups main target group, and to do so we looked at a source who are currently promoting the band - the music magazine NME. The magazines target audience is mainly males between the ages of 17-30 with 75% of their readers male. Therefore we can approximate the majority of Two Door Cinema Club's fans follow the same trend. As well as this on Two Door Cinema Clubs website, they have stated that they are currently touring round the country performing in clubs and bars, which shows them to be targeting the teenage/young adult market segment. Because of this we must make our music video target mostly male 17-30 year olds who are interested in indie music. A website called UKTribes tells of how they believe that todays 'Indie Kids', would be the ones to listen to and purchase Two Door Cinema Club's music.

The demographics of Two Door Cinema Club are social classes C2 and C1, which are the lower middle class and skilled working class. We believe that these are the social classes of the band as the band were from this social class backgrounds. Not only that but as a group we have first hand seen the band twice live. From this experince we reliased what the demographics were of the band. The social classes C1 and C2 state:

• C1 - Lower middle classs - Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses,
  specialist clerical staff etc
• C2 - Skilled working class - Skilled workers, tradesperons
   (A, B, C: white collar)

We also believe from our own experience and from research from looking on Fan Websites like their Facebook group, you can see that a large handful of the people which are commenting and joining the group are students, which are from the demographic social class E. So we also believe that a large section of the bands target audience are from the social class E.

By relating to the target audience of Two Door Cinema Club's demographics, we have come to an agreement that the physcogrpahics of the band are Explorers and Reformers. We believe this by relating to Young & Rubicam's system. The two physcographics Explorers and Reformers according to Young & Rubicam state that:

The Explorer
These people are driven by a need for discovery, challenge and new frontiers. Young in nature, if not
in reality, Explorers are often the first to try out new ideas and experiences. They respond to brands
that offer new sensations, indulgence and instant effects. In short, difference is what they seek out.
Their core need is life is for discovery.

The Reformer
"Don't tell me what to do or what to think" says the Reformer, valuing their own independent judgement.
Reformers are the most anti-materialistic of the seven groups, and are often perceived as intellectual.
They are social aware, and pride themselves on tolerance. Reformers seek out the authentic and the harmonious, and are often at the leading edge of society. However, unlike Explorers, they will not buy things just because they are new. Their core need in life is for enlightenment.

From our Target Audience Research we have found out that we will need to include certain factors into our video. We need to make sure that are video is up pace and that we make sure that we are including things that the male gender will like. Also by looking at the demographics and physcographics we need to make sure that we make the video basic but effective to show that the video is enlighting and allow the audience each time watching it to discover something.

Analysis of CD Cover (Digipack) - Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

The album above is from a band called Mumford & Sons, with the album title called 'Sigh No More'. You can see by looking the cover, that there is a dominant image of a white house, which has been taken from the road. This dominant image makes the album cover look simple but effective, also the main colour is white, which is plain and doesn't make the cover look complicated. The band can also be seen in this image, which is related to most indie/alternative CD covers as most bands like to be shown in their covers. The band can be seen in the house/shop window wearing very stereotypical indie clothing. The concept of this CD cover is that it shows a group of normal, average life males, just wanting to show their love for music and that it is not about the fame and being noticed. The text has also been put on the CD cover very well; it looks very simple but works extremely well with the image. The bands name is larger the name of the album and the text used is simple and can be read easily. The band have put the text on a lighter part of the CD cover, which is a light grey and due to the fact that the text is black, it makes the text stand out. Dominant colours have been used to make the album stand out the colours which have been used are mainly, white, black and grey, which are the three main primary colours. On a whole this CD cover as been really well presented and also relates to the characteristics of the indie/alternative genre extremely well.

Research into Similar Texts Presentation

Research Presentation

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Above shows a presentation which I did after analysising 3 similar texts, which talks about the genre, mise-en scene, editing, camera and the relationship between image and lyrics. All of this topics are a huge part in music videos and by analysising them it has helped me to come to a conclusion of what I will need to include in my music video. I have come to a decision with my group that we will need to make sure that we include a variety of shots and camera angles in the music video as this can be used well to edit shots to the beat of the music. Coming onto our next point that we need to have fast and paced cuts to get the audience interested and also so that it is to the beat of the music and up to its pace. We also need to make sure that our mise-en-scene has coventions of the indie genre, which means including good costumes, eg shirts, jeans, chinos etc. We also need to make sure we choose urban locations which are very stereotypical of the indie genre and also have props for instance guitars, amps and fags as these are also stereotypical of the indie/alternative genre. If we can include these things in our music video we will be sure to create a stereotypical video of indie that has the concepts of indie embeded in it.

Textual Analysis 3 - The Killers - Mr Brightside



For my analysis, I have chosen to analyze the video Mr Brightside by The Killers. The Killers are an American rock/indie/pop band from Las Vegas.

 Jealousy is the main theme in the music video as it narrates the story of a man who is overcome by it. The video starts with a long shot of the band. The colors of the costumes are red, black gold etc. that suggests that the people have some significant wealth. The setting appears to be a club of some kind. The first few shots are establishing shots as it sets the scene. There is then a sudden close-up of the main actress in the video, which captures the audience’s attention. There is then a slow zoom towards the band and the music starts.

The shots then increase in speed as fast medium and close-up shots suddenly appear. The shots are constantly switching between the band and the characters. The shots are mostly of the woman flirting with the men in the club. Notice there are low angle shots of the band members, which makes them look more dominant. The shots are mostly directed at the main singer Brandon Flowers. This might be due to the popularity of Flowers and that the audience would want to see him more. This links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of frequent close-ups of the main singer.

Throughout the video, there are frequent shots of Flowers with the main actress and the actress with someone else. There are also shots of another man gazing at the main actress. He also appears to be in love with the woman and the gaze shows jealous

There is also a shot of the two men playing a game of checkers. (2:58-3:03) The montage technique is demonstrated in these 5 seconds, as there is a shot of the woman blended into the scene. This symbolizes the two men clashing with each other for the woman’s love.

The video ends with a shot of Flowers leaving the girl. This shows that he has given up and that jealousy has overcome him.

The song Mr Brightside is seen as a rock as the instruments, performance have a relation to rock etc. The use of an Electric Gibson guitar and a drum kit signify the rock genre as it is typically used in rock music. The concept of live performance in the video also links in with the rock genre. This displays Andrew Goodwin’s theory that music video demonstrates genre characteristics.

Intertextuality is also represented in the music video as the video relates to the film Moulin Rouge. Evidence of this is shown in the costumes of the characters and also how they act.  This shows Andrew Goodwin’s theory of intertextuality in music videos.

The lyrics and the visuals also coincide with the music video. For example, when the singer sings about jealousy, the visuals quickly turn to the actress. There is also a link between the visuals and the music as the music speeds up when the shots become more frequent. This supports Andrew Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between the visuals, music and lyrics.

There is also voyeuristic treatment of the female body as there are frequent shots of woman dancing in the club. This also links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory and Laura Mulvey’s male gaze.

I think the main target audience would be the male gender as the video consists of many voyeuristic shots of woman. The video would also appeal to woman or others who have been in the same situation of jealousy before. The video would also appeal to teenage girls, as they would find the band members attractive.

I think the video Mr Brightside is effective in attracting the attention of the target audience. It is also successful in conveying the story of the music video.

Textual Analysis 2 - Kings of Leon - Pyro

Kings of Leon was formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee by brothers Nathan Followill (drums, percussion, vocals), Caleb Followill (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jared Followill (bass guitar, vocals) and their cousin Matthew Followill (lead guitar, vocals). The bands current album 'Come Around Sunshine' was released on October 15, 2010 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.  In the UK, the album sold 183,000 units in its first week as well as breaking the record for biggest first week digital album sales by selling over 49,000 album downloads. It was the 11th biggest selling album of 2010 in the UK with 694,300 sales. The album had only four singles released from it which included, Radioactive, The Immortals, Back Down South and Pyro. Pyro was the second single that was released from the album on the 9th of December 2010. Kings of Leon main description of the song/video is that it is about a guy that was kind of fed up with it all and he thought that the world that he was living in wasn't the perfect world to him so he kind of goes and burns it down. It's just one of those songs where it's like it starts out with someone thinking they know how it's supposed to be and at the end it's like, 'I can't even be that way. Pyro falls into the Indie/Rock genre, which is a huge, broad genre, which is full of characteristics and motifs. Pyro expresses some of these characteristics, with lyrics relating to a topic of social concern, which is in this case about life itself. The video shows a man walking into a scummy bar, not knowing what life is really about, and the song continues to then reveal that the real side of life is being there for one another and helping each other, by the man walking around in the bar and noticing things provides a narrative part to the video.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals are sometimes abstract but really illustrative. The core themes of the song are obviously death/suicide and the loss of a loved one(s) coupled with the realisation that you will be around to support them no longer. The opening verse indicates an arsonist or someone who wants to start a fire and closes with the calling of the fire brigade (emergency service!). The video reflects this with the lead character bursting into the bar and immediately picking a fight with someone who can obviously hurt him or even kill him. In real life this would cause the barman or people around to call the emergency services (e.g police/ambulance). The lines 'single book of matches, gonna burn what's standing in the way' emphasises the character bursting into the bar, making out that he wants to cause a problem or start a fire eg. Fight, like a fire bursting into the room. This illustration continues throughout the video, and the words in the second verse 'bury all the pictures, and tell the kids that I'm okay, If'n I'm forgotten, You'll remember me fore today' emphasises the fact that everyone must die and we lose a love one, and this shown later in the video, where certain people around the bar become spirits and rise toward the light, metaphorically in this case heaven. Not only that but the people surrounding the spirits look like that they don't even notice that they are not even there eg. Looks as if they have lost them at an early time in their lives. The main character though doesn't have anyone one with him and doesn't fight back, which relates back to the first two lines showing that he doesn't give a care weather he lives or dies. More illustration becomes adrift when the chorus comes in stating 'I, I won't ever be your cornerstone’ relating once again to the fact the main character doesn't want to live anymore or be around anymore. Throughout the video there are most illustrative relationships between the lyrics and the video. There is a slight contradictive part in the video, where its states 'Once the show gets started, its bound to be a sight to see', where it shows a girl dancing on the stage and the main character getting beaten. This is contradictive as in normal life a show would be a positive eg. Seeing a band live etc but in the video they show the main character been beaten to death which in this case is the show and that it is going to be a sight to see. There is also a slight part of amplifying in the video as when the man dies in the video, you see him with rising up towards the light but at this time, you see other characters rising up the light with him, amplifying that they are all going towards the light, which in this case is heaven.

Kings of Leon have done an absolute amazing job with the editing of this music video, changing the visuals to the pace and tempo of the music. The first 17 seconds of the video, the music is gentle and calm and there is one whole cut which emphasises this, but as soon as the man enters the bar, the guitar and drums kick in relating to the lyrics also where he is bursting into the bar not caring. For the first minute of the video, there is just one shot, which tracks around the whole bar, showing the audience where the video is set and what it is about. After the tracking shot has been used it then cuts to a slow motion shot of the man being punched, once again relating to the lyrics at the begin, the guy entering the bar not giving a care and picking a fight with someone he knows he doesn't have a chance with. This is in coloration with the lyrics as there is a long holding note sung by the singer which really links well with he slow motion shot. It then cuts a few times to relate to the man getting beaten, which relates to a fight making it as quick as possible, but the slow motion shot is still continued to relate to the audience so they can understand what’s happening, and also to once again collates with the lyrics. The tempo of the song throughout now is at a steady pace but the editing has still quite slow cuts along with the slow motion effect still being used. This relates to the lyrics in the song as the singers talk about death and about that life doesn't always end up as everyone assumes it is and that everyone is going to die eventually. Also when the singer sings 'When the show gets started, I’m sure it will be a sight to see' the camera cuts to a women dancing relating to a show, which is going to be good to see but the reality in the video is that the show is actually the man getting beaten to death. There is also a very good and amplified cut of a women screaming with tears falling on her knees and this links really well with the lyrics as he screams the word I and it sounds like someone screaming their tears out. The music changes slightly with the dynamics and tempo as the song slows down when a man throws a baseball bat to his friend, giving the impression that the main characters time is up and that he is going to die and the change in music emphasises this. Then there are many cuts showing his body rise upwards, this is extremely clever as it shows that it is spirit leaving is body. This is amplified more as when it cuts to the mans face you can see that his face heals and it has been said that when your spirit leaves your body it is they way that you want your body to be. This is more amplified when other people around him then start leaving the ground and moving upwards and cuts link with the tempo and beat of the music to show each person leaving there loved one relating once again to the meaning of the song. There then is a really emphasised cut where the audience can see the a women and the man in shot looking at this light in the middle of the shot, emphasising that when you die, you see a bright light and go towards it. For the majority of the song, a slow motion technique is used throughout, although this doesn't relate to the tempo and dynamics of the song but it works as cuts occur when the music changes. Not only that but it relates to that death is quite and peaceful relating to the slow motion making out that it is calm and quite. Overall Kings of Leon and took a subtle idea and turned into something so personified to really emphasise the way of life.

Many people know what Kings of Leon look like as it many previous videos they have released, they are present throughout. They created an image showing that in most of their videos there are just performing with their instruments, as this relates to the people that they are and relates to the characteristics of the genre that they are in. Throughout the video the audience see the band many times playing the song within the set, but there are wearing clothes which relate to the setting that they are in, so they contrast between being the band playing a live gig there and looking like normal people in life. Both the video and the song give the viewers the feeling of the band being a school American band but they have a country and present influence with them in how they perform and what they wear. The record label for this song has focused on both promoting the single and the band themselves.

There is a slight intertextual reference to the song with the bright light being shown at the end with the film 'Ghost', where Patrick Swayze is a spirit without the film and then a bright light appears and light takes him from earth, this relates to the song as you can see at the end where everyone is spirits and moving towards the light. There is a saying where people say that when you die you see a bright light and it takes you from earth. This intertextual reference is a very good way to help the audience understand the idea and meaning of the song.

Textual Analysis 1 - Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn

Two Door Cinema Club are an indie rock band from Bangor and Donaghadee, County Down in Northern Ireland. Formed in 2007, the band is composed of band members: Sam Halliday (lead guitar, backing vocals), Alex Trimble (vocals, rhythm guitar, beats, synths) and Kevin Baird (bass, backing vocals). They released their debut album 'Tourist History' on March 1 2010. It was released on 26 February 2010 in the Republic of Ireland and on 1 March 2010 in the UK and was released in the USA on 27 April 2010. Undercover Martyn was the third single released by Two Door Cinema Club and was released on18th February 2010 by the French record label Kitsune Music which the band are signed to. Undercover Martyn was of the singles that was released from the ablum and it was seen as a slightly different video to what most indie/alternative bands produce. The video has been described as energetic, colorful and danceable by many of their fans. The video shows the three band members on a black canvas floating in mid air, along with their instruments, which is a characteristics of the indie/alternative genre. Throughout the video it continues to show the trio performing their music and having fun, along with some simple transitions and clever editing it makes the video enjoyable and fun to watch.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals mainly visual and peformance based and there is rarely any illustrative throughout the video. The main theme of the the video is showing that the band want just want to play their music and be different from other bands out their in the alternative/indie genre. The video starts off as with the group against a black background, but it seems to the auidience that they are standing but actually the camera angle has been changed, the band are actually laying on the floor and being held by numerous people who are all dressed in black and blend into the background. The first two lines of the song are 'And she spoke words that would melt in your hands, And she spoke words of wisdom' These lyrics have no revelance to the visuals which are shown at this part in the song, all it shows is a close up of the lead singer singing these two lines. The next couple of lines, where the singer says 'to the basement people, to the basement'. When the word basement is sung, the letters of basement come up behind the band. Throughout the song the lyrics of the song have no connection with the visuals of the video.

Throughout the video the band play their guitars and the middle person who is the lead singer singsalong,with very little movement other than tapping their feet which then looks a little strange as if they were standing up they would not be able to move their feet that freely. As the video progresses the people holding them up proceed to turn the band members whole bodies around and take their guitars off of them as they do so, however as we are not supposed to see the people in the background it looks very peculiar. The people behind also pass through very long colourful bits of material in order to make it look like a special effect but in its most basic form.  The key concept of this video is to make it look as basic as possible and to not feature any high-tech camera work such as CGI’s. This then links to the Indie Genre as it portrays its characteristics of just featuring the band and making them and their instruments the main focus point rather than anything else within the video.

The lighting is kept the same throughout, however at one moment they use a special lighting which then makes the clothes and guitars look as if they are glowing and the rest of their bodies are completely blacked out, this then changes from this to normal very quickly and repeatedly to add special effect.

This then links to the editing that has been made within the video. They have used a lot of fast shot changes to make it more enticing to watch as the band are being flipped upside down and around very quickly.  Other than this there has been no other editing made as the rest of the movement of the band and other features of the video is all done by the numerous people who are holding the band members and continually are doing other things such as holding up letter cards spelling out the song lyrics and passing round the colourful material. This makes the whole video more intriguing to watch as it is all done by people and not by the use of computers.

There is also not a lot of camera work used, the angle is kept the same throughout positioned facing the whole band and occasionally producing close-ups featuring just their shoulders and heads. This again adapts to the idea of the indie genre music videos as they try to keep it as simplistic as they can to meet the sound of the music being produced.

The clothes that the band members are wearing are very smart casual, again meeting the requirements of an Indie stereotype. As they are all wearing quite tight fitted clothes such as chinos,  with the same kind of cool look about them. A lot of Indie listeners tend to dress the same as they see specific band members wearing particular clothing and their proceed the wear the same in a aspiring way.

Initial Idea's

Ricardo, Callan and myself want to find an artist/band which will be good to use for the music video we are going to be producing. We don't want the band to be too well known as they will already have many music videos promoting themselves. Last week we got set an essay for our first piece of research which helped us a lot into who we are planning on choosing. We researched 'Something Good Can Work' by Two Door Cinema Club, as this video is basic but effective. After thoroughly going through the video, we found many different techniques which we could use when producing our video to make it as good as possible. The black and white saturate with a plain colour background we both thought worked really well with the band and the song, therefore this might be an idea which could be included within our video.

We now know that Two Door Cinema Club are the band we are going to use for our video, not only as there video's are very clever and unique but also we both throughly like listening to their music.

Hi I'm Luke, I am in year 13 continuing the second year of my A-levels in Media Studies and  Double AGCE ICT. Throughout my blog I will be uploading posts commenting on the production process working towards a final piece of complete coursework on a music video, which will be submitted at the end of the year. I enjoyed Media a great deal at A/S working with Booom Productions to produce 'Flashback', and I'm aiming for a high grade in my A2 to hopefully achieve an A at the end of the year in both my coursework and exam. 


For my coursework I have decided to work with Ricardo Leaman and Callan McCauley. We are currently deciding on a name for the record label and undertaking research which will help us decide on a band which will be suitable to use for this years project.