Initial Storyboards

New Props and Locations *Revised*

This prop of a vodka shot glass was used during my music video to help represent the negative connotation of the abuse of alcohol in youth culture. I didn't use Vodka as the actors in my music video would have not been able to perform as well if they were intoxicated by alcohol.

This was the original white mask I used in the making of the masks for my Music Video. To make them look a bit edgy and link with the graffiti images that are present throughout my music video, I used paint splatters (colours red, yellow, blue and green) as pictured below. The masks will be worn by all of the characters in my music video and will be used to represent the influence being drunk, intoxicated by alcohol, which will hopefull derive a negative representation of alcohol abuse in youth culture.

These are examples of the effects of paint splatters and sploges on a white and a black background, this is a significant testing process as it allows me to see which is most effective and which ideas I will take forward to the creation stage of the masks. The white background is most probably the colour I will use becuase the masks are already white and the paint transfers look bolder and more eye catching on the white background.

Rumble Strips- Music Video Analysis revised *

Music Video Analysis
The Rumble strips: Not the only person
The Rumble Strips are a predominately alternative rock band, with a strong lead male vocalist. As a British band, it is clear through the mise en scene of the video that they want to express this with culturally specific British locations and props.
Set in the urban outskirts of London, we see the singer walks past train tracks, street lamps and walls covered in graffiti scribbles, all of which portray the culture and society within lower classed areas and social classes. As the video goes from dusk into night time, the vulnerability of the singer is increased, walking still in deserted areas, long alleyways, and larger exaggerated shadows. Finally a dead end of which he is trapped and faced with a gang of hooded lads which are often associated with the stereotype of people who mug, rob and perform other such antisocial behaviours, thus the video strongly communicates the contempory issues of youth knife and gun crime.
The narrative of the video is simple but well expressed. Using a linear narrative structure, the singer is being followed throughout the video by hooded characters, with stubble and in dark colours. As they follow, it is understood that they are thieves. The intimidation of the hooded characters becomes stronger as the number of them grows against the singer, creating an uncomfortable atmosphere.
The opening sequence starts as a calm and peaceful equilibrium setting, whereby the character is walking alone with the sound of birds singing and the distant rumble of a train, an abandoned shopping trolley and the monochrome low key lighting connotate urban decay. As the tube train becomes closer, the sound becomes faster and louder; creating the pace and beat of the video, whilst indicating the bands cultural roots. The main character is faced by a hooded character and bumps into him. As this happens, the lyrics of the song are synchronised with the connection between the two characters. As the singer carries on walking, the hooded figure follows him silently. The camera tracks the singer as he carries on his journey, gaining more and more hoodies, following him. As the numbers of hoodies grow, the intimidation levels grow, creating tension for the audience. The Shadows are used to intensify the sense of menace and nightmare, one that the audience and identify with. As the character is constantly moving, so is the camera. None of the shots are static, helping to add to the pace of the video. The additions of hooded characters are captured in many different ways. The multiplying of these hooded men are shown using shadows, using high angled shots and strong chicascuro lighting. As the shadows draw into the main character it portrays the closeness and paranoia that the followers are creating for the main character. The characters journey is also shown using shots from behind him creating the feeling that we are seeing him from the hooded men’s point of view. A medium close up of the main characters hand is used to show him dropping a twenty pound note for the followers. This action can be seen as a way of getting the people to leave him alone, or on the other hand it can be used to usher them in. When we finally get to a confrontation between the main character and the hoodies, we see the hoodies become transfixed and paralysed by an extraordinary ray of power that explodes from the chest of the main character.
Throughout the video we are shown a run down, vandalised and area that is run by hooded people. The only people we meet within the video are aggressive and rough looking males, all of which are wearing hoodies and caps. This casual but well known look is usually associated with criminal behaviour and yob gangs. Creating the stereotype that all hooded and capped people will be aggressive and likely to commit crime. The world represented in the video is recognizable to everyone who watches as it deals with problems within society on criminal behaviour especially within Britain. The video shows a threatening situation, which could happen to anybody and raises social awareness to the problem. The video is appealing in this way as it can be related to whilst also portraying the situation as a tension filled dangerous situation.
As the main character is the lead singer of the band, people will notice him as the face of the band. Throughout the film, the singer does not show fear or react to any of the followers until he confronts them. These strong shots of constant walking give the band an image of being fearless, strong and iconic. The main singer has created representation of a messianic image where his status draws people in to his presence, taking them to where he wants them to be. Whilst showing a strong side, there is some implications amateur behaviour introducing a slight comic side of the video where the female supernatural presence stuns the thieves using a high pitched melody. Creating the joke that the singers voice is like a female’s vocals, therefore taking the mick out of his own voice. This creates a very likable brand. By using an interesting storyline, it draws more people to watch, as they get interested in who the hooded men are and what they want, allowing the audience to feel the tension that needs to be resolved.

When looking on amazon.co.uk, other artists are shown that people who bought the rumble strips songs had also bought. Some of these included; The Maccabees, Florence and the machine and Franz Ferdinand, showing that all these band have roughly the same target audience. The demographics of the target group for these bands range from 14years to the late 30’s predominantly females, as shown on the Rumble strips comments on Myspace.com/therumblestrips. Though when looking at reviews of the band’s album, more males were commenting on the band than females. This shows that the band has a diverse target market. The band is successful as a diverse band due to their soft rock sound, as many people enjoy this genre of music, as the lyrics are usually thoughtful and about everyday problems, allowing the audience to relate to them. This video works well to attract their target audience, as the video includes a storyline. Storylines work well for these types of songs as the songs themselves normally have a narrative, which helps the audience to relate to them. The storyline used for this Video includes the idea of being paranoid and trapped yet breaking through this intimidation with comical and quite strange tactics. Most age groups enjoy these aspects, so therefore would be very popular. In addition, the band is fashionable, attracting all age groups due to their formal smartly dressed style that has a slight edge to it, allowing both younger age groups and older age groups to be attracted by it. The indie genre has become a very popular genre within the last few years, opening up a expectation that includes good fashion, soft rock, deep lyrics and interesting videos. The rumble strips tick all of them boxes, creating a good Indie band.
The band has all of the social network sites that their target audience would want to track them by, including “Facebook”, “Myspace” and “Twitter” along with their own official websites. All of which the target group can find information about new songs, videos and tour dates, also the chance to listen and download songs or watch music videos. These websites are the major way of the age groups to find out about bands and a very successful way of promoting, fast becoming the strongest tool of promotion used today.
The rumble strips are owned by Island and Allido record companies. These companies also own; Florence and the Machine, Frankmusik, The Bombay bicycle club, U2, and Keane; All of which are all from the same genre of music and are also successful bands. This shows that the company is a very good company to promote this type of music. Island Records are a major record label within the music industry, promoting mainstream artists and music. They have been very successful with making unknown bands big in the game.




Jakob Montagu-Shaw

Shooting Schedule

First Shoot- Friday October 9th- 2-3 hours

I was able to get most of the footage from my original ideas, including the park scene with just klinton and then a bit of the walking scene, but I wasn't altogether happy with the footage as I have already explained.



I went back to the drawing board and created some new ideas, with a major change in the props and try and use more stereotypical genre connotations for my mise en scene especially focusing on the setting and shot locations.



Second shoot- Thursday November 12th 3-4 hours

This will be predomintly filmed in the new locations: Wills bedroom and the Grapes Hill underpass. It will also inlcude the new props: Face masks.

Music Video Re-think

After doing my first section of filming I was a little disappointed as it hadn't turned out as imagined it, so I went back to start and thought of some new ideas. I didn't want to change the whole idea already existing, so instead I thought to improve and adapt my original plan.
I watched a number of Music Videos to get some ideas, here are a few that gave me most inspiration and had main influence of my new idea. The music videos I watched were by bands that I felt were in the same genre as my unsigned band: The Prodigy, Madness, Rumble Strips, this gave me some inspiration and some ideas to improve my music video.
I thought that my music video was a little bit bland so I decided to bring in some new props which would improve the mise en scene of the piece and also make it more aesthetically pleasing and interesting from audience. I tested my new theory to see if my new ideas would improve my video from the target audiences perspective, so I asked five people in my media group to watch the footage I had so far and then told them about the changes I was thinking of making and asked for their opinions. All 5 participants agreed that by adding the content I would offering it have an all round positive affect on my music video and improve the entertainment from an audiences perspective.

Location Scouting- 23/09/09

This is a prime location for my music video, with so much opportunity for a range of shots, an example being high angle shots from the bridge or long shots up the hill from the darkness of the underpass. It also adds that edgey, mysterious feeling walking into the darkness, and there also is a suprise when they reach the underpass, as the tunnel is full of amazing street art which link directly to the stereotypical punk scene, for example in the music video by The Prodigy "Take me to the Hospital" .

The graffiti theme feature throughout, but this is the point were we first see it the the video. This is a key signifier for the music video as it represents rebellious attitudes, and popular culture, the audience will be interested in the underground theme, and it also links to the Indie record label- unsigned bands being unproffesional, risk-taking and individual.

This is a shot from inside a car, again I would use it as an onlookers point of view going past at a normal speed (30 mph) then slowing down and maybe reversing to take a closer look at the group, observing there strange behaviour .

This is a good location to shot from at the end of this road, the still shot looking down the hill, shows a brilliant vantage shot looking across norwich into the direction that the group are going to take. Also the end of this road opens up into a T-junction with plenty of opportunity for a range of shots, i also know a few friends that live around this area, so I able to use their houses to get high angle shots from second floor windows like the house oppostite on the road.

the various shots above are the first roads that the main guy from the music video walks down this is a shot from the start of the video. This location was selected as the road is in a relatively quiet and has alot of access, also as you can see from 3 shots above, the window photopraghed is that of my friends, and is one of the locations i was going to use, for a shot from inside the house looking onto the street.

Track Link- Changed my mind (Heavy Duty Remix)

http://www.myspace.com/stebzinsession

Locations Map

This is the planned route for the filming of my my music video, including all the areas and locations that i have taken pictures of in my blog. The reason i have used such a large area for my Music video as i attempting to make a continuous feel to it, as the characters are constantly walking throughout the video. I have also decided to use these specific locations for a number of reasons which i will explain:

1. Firstly, i will be filming out of the window of one of my friends houses which is upon this route (shown in my locations pictures)
2. Secondly, the start of my music video needs to be in a place with wide open spaces and trees near a road, their is an ideal location in the form of Heigham park which is a location i know well so will make shot choice easier to plan.
3. As the band are from Norwich i felt including a famous monument of Norwich would add a nice touch but in a subtle way that will be noticeable by local audience members.
4. The final reason for choosing this location is that their is a small underpass i am going to use, which has some really good street art on the walls and will change the contrast of the video.

Character ideas- Casting- Revised*

Main Guy- Klinton English

Masked ?- Nick Smith

DJ ?- ME

Masked ?- Will Flynn

Masked ?- Klinton English

During the first plan of my production I had planned to use about 8-10 cast members, which for a small production like mine is a rather large cast. This would have meant at the time I would have not had the option to do auditions or be to selective about my cast. The role of the majority of the cast is very similar to one another and doesn't require great deal acting skill so I decided the best method for casting was to do a volunteer system, I found alot of people in my media class were willing to help as they are in similar situations and understand the importance. Although after I decided to re-think my music video plan, one of the major changes I made was to revert to a smaller more manageable cast size which would only involve 3 cast members including myself which wasn't ideal but it hadn't possible to implement such a large cast size. Also having an all male cast had not been what I wanted and from an evaluative perspective would be a weakness in my music video.

Killmonjambo- changed my mind (heavy duty remix)

I actually came across this version of the song by accident, at first I wanted to make a music video of the original track, but unfortunately for me they already had a music video. Although this wasn't such a bad situation, after getting in contact with the lead singer of the band, he sent me a remix that the band had had done to go on their EP coming out on the 3rd of October. The remix was of the genre of breakbeat/dubstep which is a interesting and useful genre for me to make a music video of, as it is the main type of music I listen too and also not many music videos have been made around this genre, which gives me the opportunity to work without conventions.

Electronic music is often linked with anination music videos, a prime example being the hit dubstep track, by Benga & Coki- Night, two of the pioneer DJ's of the Dubstep scene and something else interesting about this track, is it also the first Dubstep song to ever be played on radio one in 2007 and was also voted track of the year by Radio one's Gilles Peterson and his listeners.

The idea for my music video does not involve animation, but doesn't drift to far away from the Electronica Genre conventions . Utah Saints released Something good 08 which involved a fantastic music video to go along with it. It involves a man dancing in a peculiar fashion to the song in a bar and without any communication or interaction people begin to join him mirroring his exact dance moves. The feel the main characters in my video and in Utah saints play similar roles, like they are both possessed by the music with the most important part being no interaction with anybody else. The Utah Saints video did inspire me and I pay close attention to the shots used in this video when designing my shooting map.

costumes/props

The costumes for the characters in this piece are going to be pretty similar, to help show the sequence of all the characters doing the same actions in the video.

Main Character(male)- I have an image in my hood of what i would like this character to look like, and making sure his costume is appropriate will be influential to the success of the music video. A list of key items needed:

• A black hooded jumper is essential (opening sequence of video)



• A pair of jeans or maybe tracky bottoms either will be fine.



• A pair of trainers, although the design or style is not really important.



• A pair of headphones(part of props)

There will be approx. 9 other characters all together in the video, they will be wearing similar outfits to the main character, quite casual clothes, although some uniqueness is also required.

At this moment in time, I only have a few props i wont to use in my music video, the first being a trumpet, a trumpet is important as it is a key signifier of the original band throughout the track. The trumpet will be played in a variety of sections of the video, some points being the beginning and when the trumpet is played in the track.

The other main prop I will use is a bike, in more detail a man riding a bike. This will be used in the music video when a man rides towards the walking group but stops when he has passed them gets off his bike, takes off any equipment, leaves it all and also begins to follow them.

storyline- Music Video

The music starts with a hooded figure sitting upon the ground, at first it seems that he is acting strangly, almost disconnected from the rest of the world. He sits on the floor, holding his knees close to his chest, seemingly waiting for something. He abruptly stands to his feet, and draws back his hood revealing his face for the first time, he also withdraws some headphones from his ears, it at this point that the music starts. Again, completely still he stands like he is waiting for something or someone, all of the sudden he starts walking at a rather brisk pace, in a hurry to get somewhere.

The next scene sees him walking down a street pavement, again not interacting with anything or anyone, not stoping, acting like he is possessed. He turns into another street and keeps on walking, then someone walks out of a house behind him and starts to follow, although does not seem to interact with him at any point. The follower acts in the same possessed way as the first man. They turn another corner and are on a new street, more people this time 2 walk out of different houses, and follow with the first follower. The group begin to draw attention to themselves and people are looking at them funny, a few shots from inside peoples houses highlight the group strange activity.

Treatment for your music video

Name of Artist: killamonjambo

Title of Track : Changed my mind ( Heavy Duty Remix)

Outline of ideas: The scene starts with a hooded figure sitting on the floor with his hood up holding his knees tight, alone, the camera slowly rotating round him focusing on him at all times . no music can be heard at this point.

As the guy stands to his feet and takes off his hood the music starts playing he stands and stares for a few seconds, then he starts a brisk walk. The camera follows him hanging about 10 metres behind.

The scene cuts to him walking down a pretty standard street then out of nowhere some walks out of a house and without any contact with the man starts following him. They walk like they are in a hurry to get somewhere with only the want to reach there destination on there mind.

As he walks down different streets/ road people come out of their houses and start following him, with the same attitude as the first follower and the guy. Posessed by the music leading them somewhere.

It will also have occastional cuts to instruments and people singing the words when the play in the song .

They keep on walking till they reach a door they all go inside and the door closes behind them. then the camera point of view opens the door and walks in behind them to find themselves at a gig with everyone dancing.

Early Problems that arouse when choosing my unsigned band!

I have had some bad luck to the run up for selecting a unsigned band for this years A2 media coursework. My first problem arouse finding a good enough unsigned band to use for my video, the reason for the importance to have a good band is that i am going to have to make a music video for the song I choose. An example being a boring song is going to be difficult to turn into an interesting music video.

After getting some advice from my subject teacher my first choice was not going to be appropriate to allow me to get what i wanted out of my music video, so I started to look again to not much more success. I looked at bands like the Kabeedies and the Neutrinos but i found that they were both signed to record labels and both already had music videos for some of their tracks.

Then finally, I found a group which were great: Killamonjambo, a Norwich based band, who in fact the lead of this band I knew reasonably well as he was a family friend. Although another problem arouse when i found out my first choice song from them changed my mind, they had already made a music video for, so I hope I am still able to use them, except I will have to use another song which I am investigating currently.

First blog of Music Industry A2 Unit

This is my new media for the A2 unit of the course which is based around the music industry. There will be certain sections in particular we will be focusing on the effect of music market and industry as a whole, and the development of new technologies, we will also be looking at the use of music to form personal and group identities.