Goodwins Anaysis

Judging by Goodwins Analysis we have identified all of the 6 key characteristics of the music video and have applied it to this theory.
Gene characteristics relate to the certain 'traits' that are followed by different genres of music and the indie genre of our music video and song shows elements of genre characteristics throughout. For instance the old effects of the editing and the deep saturation of the video has been regularly seen in independent videos to give it an 'old and dated' feel. The clothes worn by our cast don't particularly follow the characteristics as we wanted to put our own party feel on it due to the narrative of the video. We have used a stage performance in our video which is commonly seen in rock videos and some indie videos but we wanted to concentrate on the instrument side of the performance rather then to sell the band.

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual in our video which can be seen in the title 'Post Break Up Sex' and the shots of a couple in bed looking frustrated. This is also seen as the video cuts to a shot of this as the chorus starts with the lyrics 'Post Break Up Sex'. Although the storyline of the main protagonist doesn't really fit in with the visuals of the video it gives it some narrative as it allows the audience to follow him through his routine of waking up and finding the mess of the night before.

The link between the music and visuals is apparent throughout also. The fast editing of the video and the beat of the drums is on time throughout some of the video but there is a bit during the song where there is an instrumental and the editing becomes slower with added panning shots on time with the start of the instrumental. Which gives it a laid back feel.

As the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups we have added a few into the video but not for marketing reasons. The song contains a lot of emotion and can occur and appeal to a wide audience due to the narrative of the song and we felt adding closes up of the regretful, unhappy and nervous faces portrays the emotion a lot more and allows the audience to follow the main protagonists journey more intimately. For instance the faces of the couples in bed and also as he Sam walks down the stairs to notice the mess of the night before.

There aren't really any notions of looking in our video as things such as telescopes and screens with screens are not used. And there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body in our video even though there is shots of females in there underwear this is not voyeuristic in anyway its simply just to demonstrate what had happened the night before.

There is intertextual references to in our video but only to the video on the song we have taken the music from as we wanted to keep the same idea of 'post break up sex' but as said before we wanted to add a more modern feel to our video with the morning after a party. Looking at our video you could also say there is some references to the teenage TV series Skins that was aired on Channel 4, due to the outrageous costumes, Alcohol and drugs and the 'Out of Control' modern teenager.

Our video shows some elements of all the 6 features stated in Goodwins theory.

Transition for AS to A2.

A2 Media has proven to be more of a challenge than AS Media on a lot of scales. Things such as a longer time line, more equipment and the complexity of the editing along with a range of other things had to be taken into consideration when we were preparing to film our production but overall we all wanted to push ourselves and show we have used and also advanced the skills we had learn t at AS level. The are extreme differences between the opening to a film and a music video for instance the shots in the our music production has to fit in the the lyrics of the song depending on the relationship between both lyrics and visuals.

The first thing that we had to do was to improve all aspects of the techniques we used in last years project as we needed to show we have acquired skills in the previous year. During filming we had to do twice more extra footage as firstly the video has to be over 3 minutes and 30 seconds and we felt its better to be safe than sorry and not having enough footage or back up clips. Due to the ambitious nature of our video and the number of cast members we wanted it was essential we had back up footage as it was a hard task to manage every body's schedules in the first place and would of proven even harder to arrange meetings again. We were at a disadvantage and an advantage with being able to film in the half term as people wanted extra shifts at work etc, we overcame this and had the majority of our filming was done outside of the college premises. When we edited our filming we felt we needed to 'jazz' it up a bit and decided to film clips of our band and add it in, this was done in the college studio.

Filming also had to more advanced and more techniques had to be explored. Some of the shot types we used last year we used this year to show we understood them and that was the only aspect that was kept the same as well as the usual camera and tripod. We used a crane in our band shots in the studio and used 3 different high tech cameras and then cut between each of them to gain more a music video, professional feel. Things such as the 180 degree rule wasn't necessary in our music video as there was no dialogue in the videos lyrics and didn't really follow a narrative.

Editing again was so much more advanced and professional as one of our group members, Jake Perry Gardner has had years of experience using Final Cut Pro and thus putting us at an advantage. Editing was more complex due to the time line as a lot of footage was needed and also the lip syncing had to be very precise, down to the millisecond as any shots that didn't fit could not be used which was proved a task in itself. A lot of effects were added such as the due saturation affect on the band shots, a slight flicker has been added to give it a 90's old feel a long with cross cutting to give it a smooth transition throughout. Time management hasn't been much of a problem in our group as we are all quite organized and as soon as we were allowed to film we took the opportunity to get it done and out of the way which meant we had more time for the blog and the digipack. We also felt that if one person was more advanced at a certain feature that they should have the majority of the time working on that feature. For instance Vanessa and Peter were assigned onto the blog and Jake and Caitlin edited. This worked well for us as we didn't feel we needed more time or were pressured by the deadline. This helped us to juggle all of the tasks evenly and we were always on task, for example at the moment the editing is close to be finished and then a production meeting take place on ideas for our cover.

Arctic Monkeys 'Humbug' Analysis

Analysis 3: Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
The first thing that strikes us on this particular front cover is the bands stereotypical clothing which could be associated with indie musicians due to there denim jackets and plain t-shirts which highlights their genre of indie rock/alternative music. This album cover incorporates a vintage element as the color of the image is quite faded giving it that old vinyl look. If you were familiar with The Arctic Monkeys it would be apparent that they don't dress to meet a certain criteria which is seen as the album cover is quite simplistic.The bands name, the ‘Arctic Monkeys’ is written in a stylistic ‘quirky’ font and is placed over a contrasting colour to make it stand out against the background. This is effective in that it will grab the attention of their target audience.

On the back of the album there is a list of songs which are features within the album ‘Humbug’ . The font used on the back is the same font as used for the title of the album, this shows consistency. The back of the album contains some record label information; including the rights of the record company, the record label logo and where the album was manufactured. Unlike with many albums, the back of this cover is just a plain background with no image, which makes the text stand out and may grab the audiences eye. The large bold font of Arctic Monkeys could be used to represent the bold quirky side of the band itself. This will appeal to their target audience and it shares similar characteristics of a young indie audience.

Other Arctic Monkeys albums:








Both albums strike me as unusual whether it be the cardboard background of the simple back and white picture of a man smoking. The mans outfit again fits in with the bands laid back indie genre which shows the designs of there albums and singles are consistent and you could say that they haven't been swayed to the stereotypical music industry today. Both fonts have been used which supports the consistency but hasn't been used on the there more recent one 'Humbug' but the font is again unique so they haven't strayed so far.

Bombay Bicycle Club Advertisement Poster

This is the poster advertisement for the well known indie group Bombay Bicycle Club. The poster is advertising the new realease of their 'Flaws' the album. They have used the same picture that seems to be an elegant oil painting of a girl that is on the cover of the album which gives the audience an obvious link. They have also used the same font as on the album cover. Looking at the album it seems to me that if someone didn't know the band they could tell what kind of genre they were due to the sadness and the effect on the picture. By stating were to pre-order the album on amazon may be looked upon as giving the band a popularity boost as some people may think by amazon selling the album they are a well known band. I do think they could of added more features like The Vaccines have done such as a positive review or the record company's logo but this may be cause the band is up and coming and has big hopes.

The Flaws Album cover:

The Vaccines Magazine Poster

This magazine advert for The Vaccines "What did you expect?" album has used the same font to give the advertisement consistency so the audience can link the album cover to the advert. The image that makes up the background of the advert is an edited version of the image that appears on the album cover. I cant really link the light pink color to the artists advert as myself would pink a red color to match the boys shirt. A small thumbnail version of the album cover is printed on the lower left corner of the advert so that customers are able to identify the album in shops, magazines or on websites. The advert has also used a positive reviews from a very recognized indie magazine which shows the band in a positive light and gains them more popularity. Overall using the same picture and font gives obvious links to the album artists and the advertisements. We also liked the way the date of the album released is clear. They have also cleverly linked the album name and the bands name to make "What did you expect from The Vaccines" which could be looked at as a rhetorical question and grab the audiences eye. Another feature on includes the records label logo which will create more publicity the band as its a well known and big record company.

The Vaccines Album Cover Analysis

The other album cover we will be analyzing is what did you expect from The Vaccines, is the debut album from indie-rock group and was released through Columbia records. This album cover appeals to the group as its from the band our music production is based on so the album cover relates to the music on the album which is very much about the same thing, heartbreak. As with The libertines album cover its indie and not like the other stereotypical 21st century covers such as the artist Britney Spears albums. I think we will take the idea of the girl hugging the boy and try to make it our own, for example black and white edits etc but we do like the look of the girl as she seems a bit sad or like she is clinging onto the boy and we have some similar shots in our production as stated in the other analysis. We also like black frame around the picture which gives it an old feel as it was usually seen in days when records where used. It will have to be changed a tad as as we have said we have put our own modern and wild touch on it. In my opinion they have and haven't followed the stereotypical indie design.The picture has been edited to look old which is something you possible would see a lot in the genre and maybe the big black border around the picture.

This is the back on the album cover for the album as stated before we feel that they have gone for the old vinyl cover look as the effects they have used make the cover look worn. They have gone for a different approach on the back of the cover as usually its just a numbered track list which avoids the cluttering the back but The Vaccines have gone for a bullet pointed track list and have also added a picture of a girl alone. This supports the albums theme of love and heartbreak and doesn't counteract the picture on the front of the album.

Other Albums:

All albums are consistent throughout which is very unusual.

The Libertines Album Cover Analysis

Before planning the album cover and leaflet for our production we have done some research into other indie artists and there covers and promo posters. This should help us get some ideas of the indie album covers as they are very differernt from the more popular music.

This is the album cover for The Libertines album released 2004 it was the second and last album from the band. At first glance the 2 men look wasted and are showing off their tattoos which say 'The Libertines' this shot of the 2 main protagonists was taking after a drunken night out and can symbolize the relationship between the band members which was very rocky. They were renound for the drink and drugs use and here in this image we can see dilated eyes, a cigarette in one of their hand. This obviously shows that they are very much about the party scene and that they like to enjoy themselves however dangerous it may be. The bands indie sound and genre is shown on this cover as they haven't followed the music industry stereotype and they did what they wanted to. This picture has been negatively criticized as it was said to be 'a bad influence on younger people'. Despite having negative reviews they kept the picture.
This obviously isn't the original picture and has been edited quite a bit. This may have been done to create the feel of maybe taking some kind of drug to affect the persons vision.We like the idea of the black background behind the lettering and this is something we are considering using on our album cover. I also like the effects of the editing. We were already originally thinking of editing our picture to a black and white effect but this is something we all have to discuss.

This is the back of the album from The Libertines. They have kept the same laid back style which is portrayed very strongly by the image. As stated before the image on the front cover was taken on a night out and was not a planned photo shoot, this looks like its been carried out onto the back as the boys are not posing for the photo and have given the bad boy image again. The font used looks extremely hand written and has not been used on the front cover. We feel that maybe the band should of used the same font as on the front as it looks like its a totally different album as the writing on the front is bold and striking and the text on the back is soft and kind of elegant.

Other Albums:

Rooms used in the Producation

We have used 3 rooms in the making of the production. As there are several different scenarios all about the same situation and we wanted to get the feel of the main protagonist walking into different rooms at separate party's. We did face one set back which was that we were unable to film at Yemi's house as we weren't allowed so we had to use Jake's room and Jake's dads room so it looked like we had filmed at another location as the room at his mums house looks similar to the one at his dads. This made it easier for us as it was one less location for us to travel to so the problem was easily overcome

Ellie's Room:
We have used several rooms in the production of our filming to give the the idea that the main protagonist is walking into several different situations. We have used Ellie's room due to the bright pink walls, the posters in the background and the messy atmosphere as it gives off a teenage vibe and sets the scene.




Jake's Room:
Jake's room looks a like it is owned by an older teenager around the age of 17-19, this doesn't really matter as the room also looks messy like its been lived in. We could of added things such as party string, and more empty bottles of beer could of been added around the room to add the party feel.






Jake's second Room:
A lot of things could of been added to this room to make it look more teenage, like the other rooms used but this couldn't of been done as we had to use this room at short notice as one of the original rooms could not of been used. We were a bit disappointed about this but it didn't affect us dramatically and we were able to overcome the problem.

Use of Technology

Our music video was filmed with only a digital video camera and a tripod which helped us to achieve the whole project. It allowed us to instantly pay back our footage so we good check if they were appropriate to use. Instantly playing back our shots didn't really influence us dramatically during filming meaning we didn't delete any shots we didn't want to use as we wanted as much footage as possible in case we needed any back up. This decision was influenced by previous experiences last year. It did help us to correct any camera issues, such as the position as we were allowed to watch it back and solve the problem along with evaluating the quality of the footage. We didn't use a fig-rig at all during filming and some shots were filmed hand held as the bedrooms used were just to small to fit the tripod in a way that wouldn't effect our shot.

The editing of our footage will be done with Final Cut Pro, which is a high end editing software for mac computers. All the group have had experience with this program as we all did a AS Media Studies course last year although one member in particular, Jake Perry-Gardner has more experience as he has been using it for 4 years so the majority of the editing will be done by him as we want the best possible effects.

After having a team meeting we decided to take advantage of the facilities at college and add an element of performance into our video by adding clips of the band onto the video. This allowed us to use 3 top of the range cameras and also a piece of software that allowed us to cut between the cameras smoothly. We also able to use back lights, a crane and high quality speakers to play the song through to make sure the lip syncing was on Que. This enhanced our music video massively allowing us to add close ups of guitar playing, and allowed us to capture the band at different angles just like they would of a top of the range, expensive music video.

Costume Inspiration

The chosen video 'Post Break Up Sex' by The Vaccines inspired our production due to the 'morning after' feel vibe it gives off throughout. We felt it would be enjoyable to replicate this video and also adding our own modern interpretation to it as the decor of the video seems dated. This seemingly fits in with the independent and uniqueness of The Vaccines video and we felt adding the modern day teenage feel would mix it up a bit. For example our main protagonist Sam Massey-Edwards is dressed in a leopard print dressing gown and pirate hat, suggesting the night before was crazy as people think teenagers party's are. The costumes vary throughout the video to highlight the fact it wasn't a fancy dress party it just got out of control. For instance there is one scene of one of our extras Yinka Ranger who is passed out in the bath in a military uniform and then there is another shot of Sam Tierney passed out of the settee who is wearing normal clothing but with a cowboy hat on.

As our music video is about post break up sex there are some scenes where couples are in their underwear but are under the covers obviously suggesting they have had sex the night before. We have kept this element of the costumes similar to The Vaccines as the feelings about the sexual encounter the night before are portrayed the same way due to the same emotion being felt by both casts. I wouldnt say that we particularly had any inspiration for our costumes, as we just felt it being a party the cast could come as they would normally go to a party whether it being formal or non formal. We have researched into the tv series skins which has give us some ideas on costumes but hasnt influenced it completely. The partys in skins would be very hard to recreate and although there are shots of some forms of nudity were have decided skins supports our costumes more than The Vaccines video itself.

For example in this picture the cast of Skins are dressed up and this is what we have tried to recreate, the party atmosphere of skins is also what has inspired the theme of our production. Above are pictures of the cast in our production.