Whilst listening to the song, the first ideas that came to mine included quick close-ups of gin or smashing the bottle in slow action to fit in with the "meet my lover gin" which is quite a conventional way to express the rock stereotypes, which would be rebellious which stereotypically include fighting, drinking and drug use. Also, the beginning starts with drum symbols being hit, which they have made very clear and obvious, therefore I think it would be a good idea to have the beginning of my song shot in time with the drumbeat in the song, although this wouldn't be consistent throughout, it would be mainly just to give the video the performance narrative and "rock" feel and would probably only be a few seconds.
The line "Since you hate everything I feel", gave me an idea to repeat a scene evertime that it comes up, which would be my artist singing into the mirror, as I thought it might be a certain image a lot of girls are familiar with and may be able to relate to.
Another initial idea that I got was for the line "you can take everything I've got", which could either involve a long shot of my "artist" taking off her shoes and throwing them at a boy walking away. Although, I know this is more conventional for a Pop/RnB video but keeping mise-en-scene in mind and cinematography I think it could work and fit in quite well. Another shot that could work with this line would be my artist smashing a guitar against a wall in slow motion infront of the boy (who she would be singing about) or something along those lines, as I think the song expresses getting her emotions and bad temper out of her system (although, not realistically breaking the guitar).
Also, as my artist is an independant artist which is clear through her music, self image is quite an important factor, therefore I know that my artist (actress), will be seen a lot throughout my video.
My chosen genre, being American Rock has many different conventions that belong to it alongside codes and conventions which today are very stereotypical and big in the eye of the media.
Rock and Roll originates from the 1940s, although primarily being a combination of blues, country and jazz, this genre of music has evolved through the different eras becoming heavier and maybe now, more of a style than a stereotype like it used to be. In the 1940s Rock and Roll would include the trend “teddy boys” and be associated with artists such as “Buddy Holly”, they would also wear leather jackets alongside tight jeans, taken as inspiration from idols at the time such as Elvis. Although this era was over 50 years ago, the fashion of this Rock and Roll era has kept on coming back today and has been extremely popular in the last couple of years. As metal music started to evolve, people would associate the Rocker fashion with that too. As the instruments got heavier so did the increase of black clothes and heavy make-up, for example rock turned into metal rock (which is a lot heavier). Lady Gaga demonstrates a good sense of Rock in her music video “Telephone” where the video is based around a prison cell, in which all of the girls in that cell are wearing black clothing of some sort with heavy make-up, leather jackets and leather gloves, ripped up trousers alongside Lady Gaga who wears a very studded leather jacket. Therefore showing how Rock and Roll has now been given a widespread social impact. Although, “rock” as a whole has been given a negative stereotype by some people, as it is apparently associated with sex, drugs and violence.
Conventions of Rock Music usually include a heavy solo piece, but the song I have chosen has more of a classical Rock/Post-Grunge sound rather than heavy Rock (which includes a lot more heavy solo pieces) such as AC/DC or Led Zeppelin, whereas with the classical, the drums and guitars are more consistent and throughout the entire song. Also, Rock music videos are usually performance or narrative pieces, through my research it is very rare that abstract has been used.
Furthermore, the camera movement is a lot more focused on a lot more in Rock music videos than camera shots, whereas in performance videos seen in the more mainstream artists videos, they use a lot of both and concentrate on shots that will emphasise and exagerrate the artists performance and image. For example, some shots are used to emphasize the importance of the band and the “musicianship”, usually extreme close-ups and close-ups of the artist singing into a microphone.
Posture and movement is also very important with Rock Videos as the artist needs to look and have the attitude expected. For example, with females it could go two ways, the posture can be very lazy looking and a “can’t be bothered” attitude which is the case with Taylor Momsen in the band The Pretty Reckless (my band choice). Or in contrast, the artist can also have a more upbeat, fierce attitude (Hayley Williams from Paramore). Also, posture and gestures would include factors such as the singer screaming into the microphone and either pulling it close or leaning into it. Also, even in the editing of music videos, there are some aspects which are seen as conventional to Rock music videos in particular, for example, styles such as quick cuts are mainly used in Rock videos, to give it the “edgy” look/feel, instead of long atmospheric long shots which wouldn’t work and tend to be seen more with artists such as Ellie Goulding who have a mainstream pop/indie/electro genre.
Mise-en-scene is extremely important when it comes to Music Videos as it pulls in the whole “look” and creates the artists image and sense of individuality. For example, the make-up used in different rock genres such as death metal, emo, goth rock are associated with lots of dark black eye make-up and pale faces to give a stark contrast. Today, this has been more modernised such as bright red lipstick and either black dyed hair or peroxide blonde (or even white in some cases), now being quite conventional to the rock look. Usually in the rock genre, black will be quite a dominant colour in some way shape or form, for example the setting and lighting might be dark throughout, or the artist will be wearing black clothing. Although, it all depends what sub-genre of Rock, as Pop-Rock has become more mainstream and doesn’t necessarily follow the conventions of the typical Rock Music Video that we’d expect, such as shots of the band performing in the video.
The Pretty Recklessare a very recent band, that only started around 2 years ago and have been labelled as American Rock. The main vocalist Taylor Momsen, is probably the only "mainstream"/popular female rock artist in the charts today (in the UK). In which she previously made a hit with "Make Me Wanna Die" in 2010.
Judging from statistics on Youtube, most of The Pretty Reckless's videos target mainly females of an age between 13-17 and 18-24. Also, males 18-24 but on rare cases and only on the video below. Although, when asking a few male friends, they said they wouldn't watch the video on Youtube because they liked the music, just because they like the lead singer..
Furthermore, when it comes to what class would listen to this music, I would say it's a music genre open to any. Although, the singer herself is only 18, therefore I think because of that factor the band will target quite a niche audience consisting of teens of a certain background. On the social class hierachy I don't think A-C1 would listen to this music, espiesially in the UK as they are not hugely sucessful and haven't exactly dominated the music industry yet like the more mainstream artists such as Lady Gaga. Also, this music may not appeal to the people on that end of the scale as the genre "Rock" and the image that goes with it, can be labelled in negative ways associated to crimes such as drug use and theft (which are more in the past), although this is no longer necessery the case and is more of a style than a stereotype.
Language - The long shot used at the beginning of the video has been used in this video in order to show the mise-en-scene and setting clearly for the audience, showing it is obviously very important the way the long shot moves onto close-ups of important objects in the room and on the table such as the skull on the table, big gold candles, the big old fashioned light, the food on the table, the black nail varnish and the pigs head, all reinforce what genre of music the band plays and also shows their image isn't the typical mainstream look. Also, the setting obviously has some past and history to it because of the setting, and the huge old fashioned table. Although through research I couldn't find where they got the idea from and why it has been used. Although, I personally think that it could be to do with something about Jesus and the last supper, as the first shot is extremely similar to the last supper image:
Although looking at the lyrics, I'm not sure whether they relate the story behind the last supper therefore I think it may have just been taken as inspiration for viewing purposes.
Institution - This band inperticular has quite a niche audience in the UK, although they are more famous in the USA in which they come from and are signed to Interscope. The band consists of four members, but the singer is the main focus of the band.
Ideology - I think the band as a whole come across in a slightly negative way for young children as they reinforce factors that are maybe a bit "out there" in terms of conventional rock stereotypes, for example, the way Taylor places herself on the table in this video and the way she dresses has purposely been created to create a more sexual image. Although, hopefully I will be able to create a more positive image through my video which will show strong and more dominant women, without the image Taylor Momsen has in this particular video.
Audience - I personally think the audience for this song and their first hit "Make me wanna die" differ. For example, I don't think this video targets males as much as her first hit, which was more performance based with the band on stage. Without sounding sexist, I think the fact the vocalist is a female and is the main focus of The Pretty Reckless, may effect why the male audience is so quite low. Whereas if their was a frontman, such as in You Me At Six, The Killers, etc, I think it would be a different case. For example, when looking on Youtube at Paramores videos, 80% who watch those videos are females and only 20% are male. Choosing a similar genre of music, but with a frontman instead (You Me At Six) the percentage is still dominant to girls with 60%, but still leaving double the amount of boys watch those videos (40%).
Also, I don't think males are that interested in the classic rock sound anymore, or if they are it's still quite a low percentage as it's very 70's/80's and they seem to be more interested in alternative/indie or pop/electro/rock. Therefore, overall the majority of viewers have been females so I know that my video will be the same due to the sound of the music.
Representation - I think as the song I chose talks about a past relationship, it will be something girls would stereotypically be more drawn to, rather than the male audience. Therefore, I hope my video will be quite a big statement in terms of women not being as sensitive as males assume, and that they can't "walk" all over our feelings. Also the point that women don't always take on the stereotype of being so sensitive and upset over a break up. So, a positive representation for girls I personally think. Furthermore, as the reference to the last Supper has been used which is biblical history, it shows that the artist Taylor has broken "the rules" in a sense and has took that to a whole new level, by the way she's dressed in which she is wearing a wedding dress, suspenders and lots of make-up which suggests her sexual attraction and connects to Mary Magdalene. The way she climbs along the table dressed that way, reflects the rebellious attitude, which is what the band want to represent in terms of how their audience see them which is a factor I will be hoping to demonstrate in my music video through the use of the mise-en-scene. Furthermore, the rebellious, rock image comes across with the use of the vibrating camera movement which has been used during certain parts of the song where the instruments are more heavy and dominant, giving the video an edgy feel.
Over the years, media has become a lot more visual. For example, one main source of media, television, has been taken 'advantage' of in a sense and maybe even taken over by music today, as it is being used as a marketing device for promotional and artistic purposes, and enables producers today to make sales out of it by creating certain channels which will their target audience will watch, which now has been split over more than 50 channels featuring all different genres of music. Although, before music videos were as advanced as they are now, artists would be in feature films, which looked a lot more like "documenteries" in which an artist/bands song would be played at parts. This developed more and more into looking like actual music videos.
For example:
Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back 1965
This was a short clip featuring Bob Dylan which was put at the beginning of the film. For what purpose? To make music visual, so that the fans could see Dylan, making music today more centered on image and appearence today rather. In terms of mise-en-scene it isn't very conventional in what we see in todays music videos, as the long shot is very stable and doesn't move around at all throughout the whole song. Furthermore, the cards are the only thing that are moved around in this shot, making us focus on the certain lyrics written on the card.
The Who - I Can't Explain 1965
A promotional clip. And in comparison to todays music videos, very simple.
Although, It wasn't until 1974 that music on Television was actually taken notice of. The TV shows, Countdown and Sounds played a very significant part in music behind heard on the TV. Therefore when Top of the Pops started in 1975, it became extremely popular as it enabled people to see their favourite artists perform. When Queen released the video for Bohemiem Rhapsody in 1975, the performance and mise-en-scene in the video became very important, and now very conventional with todays music videos. In Bohemiem Rhapsody the emphasis given on the performance is shown by using certain shots involving the instruments and quick camera shots. Furthermore the dramatic costumes, which today is a very important part mainly in mainstream music (RnB, Pop) as it creates the artists image or even their character in a sense. Lady Gaga is a very good example of this, as she takes the performance and imagery in her videos very seriously, hence the millions of album sales and views on YouTube across the world.
Although, Michael Jacksons "Thriller" in 1983 was the most successful beginning of the mainstream trend, being a whole 14 minutes long with a clear story/short film in the video, which todays stars have took on board, hence why most mainstream videos have a story included in them instead of them performing, for example Ed Sheeran - A Team. In contrast to the more Alternative bands, which usually do just have the video of their performance in high quality.
All Time Low - I Feel Like Dancin' 2011
Music videos have majorly evolved for the purpose of selling to make money (which was it's original purpose) even for bands such as The Beatles, but not to the extent of today. This video explains how the music industry and artists have become more central and even selfish in a sense, on just making money, rather than focusing on the musical talent, hence why so many catchy, meaningless dramatic mainstream songs and videos seem to sell more today (1 hit wonders). For example this video shows that, product placement, sex appeal and copying other artists image/ideas is too common in todays music industry. Although, in this advert they are suppose to be making fun of product placement by blatantly advertising an energy drink, but they are actually subliminally advertising it to us, reverse psychology?
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with a cover for it's release as part of a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.
To assess your ability to plan and construct media products using appropiate technical and creative skills
To assess your application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work showing how meanings and responses for an audience are created
To assess your ability to undertake, apply and present appropiate research
