Specific Album Art Analysis #5

Jay-Z - American Gangster

I have chosen to analyse this artist, because I did not mention any of the Rap/Hip-Hop genre that is being really famous in United States. Jay-Z is very successful artist and I think that his album artwork has a lot of symbolism included in it. The first thing we realise after looking in the centre is the artist who is wearing a suit. He has that "Man in Black" look and walk. This is made on purpose to show the kind of person the rapper is and to show his character in depth. In the front of him as well as at the back there is a lot of smoke which creates an image of him being a supernatural person/angel that has come from the above to save the world. People might feel that when they gonna start listen to lyrics they are going to feel like all the problems are gone and world is just a perfect place. Another thing that might be very important is the simplicity of the colours used. The only colour you can visually see are: black and white. This might be done this way to show the simplicity of the album and the songs that they are on the album. You can hear sometimes people saying that :"This is so easy, like black and white". So this is maybe where the idea came from. The last point that I have links to the title of the album and the surrounding of the artist in the background. You can see that the title is "American Gangster" and every chair and the tables in the back look like they have been cleaned up by someone which may signify that the American Gangster that the artist represent may be sorting things out wherever he is. Also the cover links a bit to American Western Movies when we look closely on the floor and the style of the chairs.

Specific Album Art Analysis #4

I decided to analyse One Republic's Album Cover. The album is called "Waking up". The first thing we visually see are the number of different colours. If you count them properly you come up with 5 different one. This actually links to the number of band members that One Republic consists of. So we can see that there is already some symbolism in case of the whole band. The colour might also represent each member of group by their character and what kind of person they are. As there is not a lot of green colour, we may assume that the band member who the colour is assigned to may be a bit shy etc. Another thing I came up with during analysing process is that the cover looks like a fountain which can relate to ideas or what might be happening in our head in the morning. I analysed this in that way, because of the title of the album which is "Waking up". So I assumed that the cover might represent what happens in our head when we wake up. The red colour of the font may represent that the "waking up" process is something that people might not like etc... The background is kept really simple which may also link to the simplicity of the band and the songs they are making. The front cover does not give away anything about the music inside. In other way, we can also interpret the fountain of colours by saying that they represent different kind of music styles put together on this album, but if we want to find out about that more we need to buy and listen to the album. So it is right to say that the album art work is appealing to wider audience.

Analysis of Album Art [DIGIPACK]

Rihanna - Loud (Album Digipack)

The digipack consists of CD and two dicks that contain Rihanna's music on it. It is made up of three sections.The CD opens to both sides (right and left). In the centre part of the CD there is a plastic part which holds the discs. This digipack is used as an inspiration for parts of my final thing. The main part that influenced me was the inside of it. The effect is created by a one image of an artist appearing in all three parts and therefore it makes a whole photo. The main theme colour of the digipack is red which shades of white. It is all combined with roses all other the photos. The roses represent love, romance etc. She is laying across the roses, exploring her sexual side as you can see bug parts of her body uncovered.  So this is another inspiration, because in my artist's art work I can use a symbol like: bottle of beer etc...to represent him and his life. Another digipack that may influence us more is : SUPER JUNIOR M's Front Cover. This is because I think that the band has some similar features to the artist we want to create. 

You can see below that the front cover shows the main artist biting and apple which may represent the Adam and Eve concept. At the back of the album you can see the other band members which is perfect for us as we want to show our "Letdowns" who help Freddy on the instrumental side of the album. In the middle there are two versions of song and it can be helpful for us as we can have normal songs and the one with censorship put on them for the younger audience between the age of 14-17. 

SUPER JUNIOR M's digipack!

Band Logo [Reflection]

The Main Logo of the Band - Production Company

When it comes to the logo, I think that it fairly represents the overall "image" of the band and is doing its job when it comes to attracting the primary audience (over 16 year old). The smoke in the background represents the youth culture of the people at the same age as well as our artist's. But on the other side I think this is too general and mono dramatic and the colours that are being used in the logo are not really representing the overall mood of the production company and the whole music video. Also it does not use the photo of our artist, so audience might not know who the connected with. So I have tried to create different types of logos after discussing it previously with my group peers.
Below I uploaded another design:

Another design of the band's logo!

For me this design it too suttle for the kind of music video that we are making. It looks very modern and has different variety of colours. We decided as a group that this logo is not saying anything about our artist and if it is...then the message that people are going to get is not our intended one. So we decided to combine both of the logos together and see what might happen.
This is the final outcome:

Final Logo of the Band

As you can see on the final logo it combines things from both of the previous designs. It has black background, but because the writing is white and there is no smoke coming the writing is more clear and visible when it's put onto the album cover. The writing "FREDDY" is made bigger on purpose, so when people walk around and look at the cover the first thing they are going to see is the name of the main artist. The writing below was made to look like it is hand written so it may relate to the letter in our music video which is what ignites the whole music video at the beginning. The last point that I have about the logo is that the "&" that has been added there looks like the symbol used by musicians. So this is open to many other interpretations.

Casting Discussion

During our group meeting, we were discussing what we want our actors to look like in order to make the music video realistic and original. As we already had an image of the main artist, we have chosen 3 things that we are looking for:

• clothing/style
• behaviour
• their age

We think that we don't have to look for the main actor for a long time, as the style that we want our artist to have, a lot of people share and their fit withing the boundaries of the music video. There are a lot of people around the school that have the same style, so when it comes to choosing the right actor we have a lot of options. We can choose the one that has better acting techniques.

When it comes to rest of the actors we did not have put any restrictions when it come to appearance in front of the came. We want to portray the girl in the music video as a medium class/party/sexy person, so the audience don't label her when they see her the first time, but actually make a opinion about her - good opinion! So in order to do we have use rich looking clothes.

The rest of the cast: The Kids are going to be ordinary kids from the neighbourhood. It doesn't make any difference how they are dressed because it is us who are going to give them the costumes, so it will completely change their look.

During discussion, we have also discussed the rest of the band casting options. We decided that the rest of the band will have similar look to our main artist, but they don't have to be ready to perform in front of the camera because we are going to see them only for about 3-8 seconds. So they don't need to be talented when it come to the "performance&acting". 

Specific Album Art Analysis #3

I decided to analyse a cover of ColdPlay's Album "Parachutes". I have chosen to analyse this band's album artwork as this falls into our main artist kind of music in some way. ColdPlay delivers alternative music and if we listen to both of the artist, we can realise some of the similarities. The album mainly uses two colour: black and orange/yellow. Those are warm Colo's which may signify that the music that we will find inside will be written and sung in the same mood. It may also signify a love songs that are put onto the CD even tho there is no red-ish colours on the front of the album which may relate to that. The picture of globe in the centre may be most likely linked to the title of the album which is : Parachutes. It may send us the message that during listening of the album we may feel like we are orbiting the earth using Parachute and that we are able to reach places we were never able before. The dark background may signify that there is still more places to be discovered and there are just under our reach.

Analysis of Music Video no. 4

In this post I am going to analyse One Republic's Music Video for one of the best known songs of 2008: Apologize. The are two Official music videos for this song, but I have chosen something that differs from the other analysis that I have done. This video purely represents symbolism of things related to the lyrics and it links well to the Godwin's theory of representation. Whatever the singer sings in the background we can it happening or there is a symbol appearing that makes us think and link everything into one piece.

We are being introduced to the music video by seeing a pen writing "Apologize" on the letter. This might be for the audience, to make them aware that the music is about to start or just simply to a person writing a letter to the one he/she loves. When the music comes in we see a variety of shots focusing on the woman reading the letter and crying. The tears are the black ink which drops onto the letter. This means that the person writing the letter at the beginning was a guy.

In the next shot we can see males hands hitting the piano to the beat of the music. Because the music video is so full of symbolism, I think that the hitting and the beat that we can hear in the background might represent the heart beat of the person to another person in the music video. 

After for about a minute we are being introduced to all the symbols that surround the lyrics. On the screen we can see a pen, ink dropping, feather which represents the old style pen, old style phone which also represents talking to another person, light which might represent change and evolution in something. The symbols are presented in the montage so the audience can take every one of them into account and come up with the idea and message the music video is trying to pass.

In the video we don't really see the main artist. The only that we can see him in is the one when he is singing to the hanging telephone. This was shot to represent him looking like his singing all the lyrics to the person on the other sing. And in the other bit, where we can see the same shot the song goes: "I'm holding on a rope" which may represent the link between him and the telephone handset. In the next shots we can see a variety of flowers that are all in different colour. They are all well grown and looking really nice and fresh which might represent the relationship between the two of the people before everything went wrong. There is also a shot of plastic hand which has a wedding ring on a finger (woman's hand).

When the lyrics of: "It's too late to apologize" are heard, we can see a shots of flowers opening and growing and juxtaposition of the woman crying and letting her tear drop on the letter that she got which is the letter from the right beginning of the music video. Her tears are from ink. The ink tears might represent that the words that have been written by the ink on the paper hurt her so much that her own ones turn into the same material.

 As we watch the music video further we can see that all the symbols that were before represented as rich/precious/fresh/gold are not starting to burn and are getting destroyed. So in my opinion the symbols that were represented in the video are making up their love together and we can see the letter and her crying that straight away put a message in our head that the love has disappeared. The same happens with the photo frame where we could see their own photo. It breaks and drops on the floor. The feather pen is burning as well which may imply that he will not be writing any more letter to her.

At the right end, we can see a shot on the letter burning with the only two words left on it which are: "...love you." This creates a confusion for the audience because we don't really know now who is the letter from. If the letter was sent to her from him, maybe she did not read the last few words and this creates an unanswered question. Overall, the music video is very original and contains a lot of symbolism and meanings. It is very open to interpretations.

Moodboard of My Ideas

Jamie T - Ike and Tina (Moodboard of ideas surrounding the music video)

Above you can see the Moodboard which includes all the ideas that we are planning to add to our music video. It includes ideas of the clothes that the artist is going to be wearing. The further information about the way our artist is going to be dressed can be found on our group blog: Click here!

Analysis of Previous Student Work #2

I have chosen to analyse another previous student work which is quiet different to the first one. This music video is in completely different music as well as editing style than our Jamie T's Ike and Tina, but when you watch it couple of times you can realise some of the elements that link very well with our preliminary task and the whole concept of placards. It contains very good shots including close up not only on the lead singer, but also the rest of the band which is quiet important in the music video. It is very easy to guess what is the name of the band. It's very visible in the background during the performance section. MAYBE MAYBE is written in red colour which most likely represents blood, love, romance and from the first second of the video we know that it is going to be a song about love, romance etc. Although the lipsing is not the best, the cut aways to different people and placards fulfil the gap and during watching of the music video you forget about all the mistakes. There is no overall story included in the video, but as the viewer you get to know it from the lyrics and the words that are written on the placard during the section of cut aways. As I said before this song is about love/romance, so you would expect this music video to be quiet slow which compare to our one is completely different. This is why I chose to analyse this one, to show that as a music director I am aware of all the things I need to work on, change, edit, analyse to improve my own work and be able to look at it objectively and see all the mistakes that I have made.

Music Website Analysis [band]

For music website analysis, I have chosen to do Arctic Monkey's website as I already analysed their album artwork. So I know their background information and I researched their music and their overall style. The link for their website is:  Arctic Monkey's Official Website - Click here!

The Arctic Monkey's Main Page of their website.

Above you can see the main page of the Arctic Monkey's website. The website is really organised and kept really simple for the fans. It is using only two colours: black and white, which might reflect the simplicity of the group and how organised everything is kept. At the very top, you can see the main page menu which is really easy for the viewer to navigate. It is divided into main section, so the viewer does not have to look for something for such a long time, but can be just click away from it.

On the right side of the website we see a column called: GIGS. This is very useful thing for the fans and people that want to see the band, because they just go on their website and see the nearest shows. Where they are, when, the status of the availability and you can also buy them straight away from the website. It is very visible and you notice it straight away when you enter the website.

The Gigs column seen on the right hand side of the band's website.

The website is very rich in material like: photos/videos/music videos etc. When you click on the section photos, the page comes up when you can see all of the photos including those private from the tour. You can choose between the years and the places where they were doing their gigs. For the fan of the band this is just perfect, because not seeing them live he/she can be just a click away from them and watch them on the videos as well. You also get access to the Fan's Forum and share everything with you fellow fans and the band.

The last section of the menu is STORE. When you click on it it re-directs you to Arctic Monkey's Official Store. On the new page, you can buy their newest album just sitting in your room. This is amazing and the website is full of this nice features. It is so packed with everything that you can become the fan of the band just by reading/watching or looking at some of the material that has been added on to it. This is the kind of website me and my group are planning to create for our artist and his band. 

The website where you can buy the band's newest album or just a separate songs. 

Investigation into Star Image from chosen artist

Below you can see a variety of very interesting images and photos of an artist that we are creating a music video for. Jamie T's style is different to the other artists who create the same style of music. His visual image and style is interesting because it is a creation of simplicity. His visual outlook shows a simple, on the line of style clothes that are not falling into any particular category at all. It is very successfully representing to us a image of a typical 21st century teenager who can be influenced by many other pop-culture ideas for example: rock, indie etc or subculture...

The artist image is a whole package. Starting from the visual style that our artist is showing and wearing(fashion)  up to live concerts, filming of music videos and even designing an album artwork. The initial style of Jamie T will help us in order to create an artist which will be our own, but will not stand out from the main idea of "simple and ordinary artist". This will make it easier for us to make the decisions on our own as there is no pressure to make our artist looking completely the same. 

Jamie T - Artist Image

Jamie T during one of his concerts showing his artist image.

Mindmap of My Ideas

Above you can see the mind map of my ideas about the music video and the band that I am going to set up!
Click on the image to enlarge it!

Video Diary [Day by Day]

Tuesday 20th December: Initial planning. Group meeting, where we finalised decisions about costumes and props, and bought/collected any that we would need over the next few weeks. We also filmed a few cutaway shots, but without our artist there was little we could do, and did not want to shoot too much that would then not be usable.-

Friday 30th December: Location research, discussion followed by a scouting adventure. See post for pictures.

Friday 6th January: Filmed the 'sex scene'. Experimented with lighting. Did some photos for artist image. Followed up by shooting the scene outside of the clinic, but due to tiredness/boredom/fatigue, the material we had wasn't as good as we hoped.

Saturday 7th January: Went to London with the camera and cast hoping to capture some of the atmosphere of more claustrophobic city areas (like Brick Lane and South Bank) to contrast the comparatively bland suburban scenes we planned to shoot. However, lack of light became a big issue which ultimately ended our excursion.

Friday 13th January: Due to unavailability of cast members, we were unable to continue shooting, instead deciding to review the material we had already shot to determine any pickup shots we would need to do and the quality and quantity of what we had already shot.

Tuesday 17th January: Re-shot the clinic scene, much better this time. Began shooting the main performance bed of the video, but unfortunately low camera battery cut our day short.

Friday 20th/Saturday 21st: Weather dictated that we couldn't continue filming the performance bed this weekend, so instead we worked on putting the blog together.

Tuesday 24th January: Began uploading the footage we had, and over viewed it to ascertain how our shooting techniques can be improved upon for the next chunk of performance bed filming.

Tuesday 31st January: Shot all the footage required for the party scene, using the school Drama Studio where we had full access to extraordinarily manipulable lighting equipment. We used readily available friends as extras, which took some time to organise (and we weren't able to get quite as large an enthusiastic group as we hoped) but after weeks of waiting for the Studio to become available, we took the best chance we could, and adapted our filming techniques to fill the frame as often as possible.

Thursday 2nd February:  Uploaded the footage from the party/club scene. Despite first thoughts after re watching the footage on the small camera screen immediately after shooting, upon full review we found the footage to be entirely suitable and that there would be no need for a re-shoot (with much relief, after how long it had taken to book the studio and organise a reliable 'cast').

Saturday 4th February: Begun the long process of filming the performance section for the music video in Roehampton.



UPDATE: Friday 24th February: Half term holidays, unavailable equipment and unreliable cast members are all attempting to draw the process out, but nevertheless we have been working on completing filming and slowly piecing together short individual sequences on the music video. Only one more section needs to be filmed, as well as one short pickup shoot.

UPDATE: Friday 23rd March: Filming was completed earlier this month, and now the editing process is finally drawing to a close. Meanwhile, we have been working on the ancillary products of album artwork with photoshop, and of course keeping blogs updated.

Tuesday 27th March: Music video and ancillary tasks have been completed!

Star Image [Costumes]

When creating an artist and his artistic image, clothing is very important as it introduces the signer visually to the wider audience. This also helps the band or artist in selling themselves on the music market. After researching of  Jamie T's clothing (the original artist) and any other artist that have the same style of the music, we decided to take some test footage for different number of outlooks in variety of locations. Our intention was to use several costumes and still be able to communicate the artist's style to the fans and other people. We came up with many other options, but because we wanted our artist to also be able to communicate some message to the "ordinary" people, we thought that more varieties would confuse the target audience.

Jamie T (Our original artist)

Freddy from the band (Sam Barnham)

But in the music video there are many other costumes that stand out from the crowd. One of the examples is: Devil Costume which brought some kind of humour into the video. Another set are the police costumes used for the kids. 

This was used to pass a message of dready/maturity/age which links to our artist. This was also used to show people contrast between Freddy and the kids playing the police men. The girl's leopard jacket was meant to show seduction/animal instinct side of her and it made her look like she was not the person who would pass him the disease. 

Star Image [Props]

 During filming of our music video we used a number f different props to add some kind of realism into the shots we were making. Most of the decisions were made in the last minute. This is because we had to many options when it came to the props and we wanted to make out of the symbolism of the the props too. The props we have used are:

1. Bottles at the pub scene
2. Cigarettes [only as cut aways]
3. STD letter/envelope

There were also many other things that added symbolism to the whole scene like eg. the colourful block used in the club scene. This was used on purpose to symbolise and imply the character's drug use and the way he sees the world. 

The block in the Club Scene [back]

The block in the Club Scene [front]

We used a number of props to add realism to the shoots, with much of the decisions being made instantly and incontestably, such as the empty bottles at the pub, cigarettes to add to the self-destructive character of our artist, and the STD letter envelope. We were not allowed to show any smoking/alcohol consumption or drug taking in out music video, as the result of it being right to watch by our target audience.

Star Image [Make-up]

An example of Artist applying make-up on to their face!

Because we wanted to make our artist suit the teenage reality as well as represent masculine image, make-up was not a big concern for us when we were creating the music video. This is because we thought that by him having make up on his face would create an mental image of our artist and people might not take him seriously. Another point is that people would have concentrate more on his look rather than the overall artistic side eg. music/music video. So we decided to create an effect using great lighting which was also more important for us.

Specific Album Art Analysis #2

This time, I have chosen to analyse Rihanna's Loud Album Cover. This is because I did not want to fall into one music style category and by exploring different styles like: Alternative/Pop/Hip-Hop, you can get the sense of different interpretation of symbols/colours etc. The front cover is full of red colour and the only thing that we can visually see is the artist face. By this we may think, by her putting the face on the front cover, she is reassuring us and guarantees us about the quality of the album and that everything we find there is worth buying it. Another point is the use of red colour. As we know the red colour signifies love/sex/romance. In this album cover she is having purely red lips which are "sex" symbols in some way. This may be used to attract wider audience mainly focusing on male between the age of 18+ or even lower. The other thing is the hair she is showing us which is also red. This is the same symbolism that appears in case of the lips. So the front cover is full of the sexual symbols which are really easy to sell to random individuals. Having her eyes shut may make us feel that she is hiding something inside and that it will be all revealed when we buy the album and listen to the music. Another thought is that she is hiding all the emotion behind her shut eyes. The name of the album " L O U D " at the bottom shows the simplicity everything is kept. The white colour of the writing may represent the purity of the songs/artist which is complete contract to what is visually seen above.

Company Name Brainstorm

Below you can see the Production Company Name Brainstorm!
Note: Please zoom in in order to read everything!

Intertextuality and Music Videos [illustrated]

The music video that are being made in today's society are most likely to be considered as postmodern videos. They are likely to be focused on the existing text and media from industries like:
1). Television
2). Cinema
3). Theatre
4). Videos
5). Costumes
6). Fashion/Art/Photography

This is used to inspire new ideas and authors are most likely to be influenced by the things listed above. This then impresses and attracts the existing and new audience. So therefore some of the existing music videos may be related and contain the references of the list already mentioned by me. It can reference to the text/genre. This might create greater pleasure for the audience when they watch the video they like.

Intertextua references may also be presented in many other forms. They may be presented as parodies which are:

1). Humorous
2). Satirical
3). Mocking

The idea of intertextuality was introduced by Julia Kristeva who is Bulgarian-French philosopher. She was arguing against the idea of a text as a isolated medium which operates withing self-contained manner. She says that: "Any text is the absorption and transformation of another". 

The examples of the music videos are:

Analysis of Previous Student Work #1

The first music video I have chosen to analyse is made by a group of student from my school. Throughout watching the whole music video we can see a good editing techniques. The thing which is not perfected and is very evident during watching is the lipsing of the lead singer. At some point the movements of his mouth are completely off the lyrics and if this would be perfected, the whole music video would look better. Another point that I have is the narrative in the music video. This one does not have it at all. The only thing that we can watch on the screen is the performance of the lead singer at three different location which links most likely to the outlines of the preliminary task that was done in Summer 2011. I think that we must not only hear, but also see what is being sung through the lyrics of the song. The editing is really good and it is sticking to the beat of the song. It is using couple of close-ups which are meant to sell the artist. If that music video would be made to just sell the artists image, it would do it in 100%, because it just focuses on him and no narrative is included. We get just fly-by shots of the other band members, but they are not that frequent.

Analysis of Music Video no. 3

This video is almost completely narrative - performance is limited to just the vocalist - telling the singular story of a bank robbery gone wrong by the band. They ignore music video conventions by having no relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, and shooting in a continuity rather than a montage style. Also, there are almost no cutaways from the main narrative to any other location or storyline, making the promo feel more like a film or TV drama than a music video.

Through the camera movement, editing pace and use of colour, the director manages to 'split' the video into sections linked to the sections of the song (ie verse/chorus/bridge). The first verse has slowed-down footage, with a sepia, heat-haze effect applied, with lethargic camerawork and editing pace. The chorus breaks into black and white CCTV footage, with chaotic and exciting fast editing across the action of the bank robbery, despite the limitation of static cameras. These two sections are repeated for the second verse/chorus, then in the bridge it changes into blue-ish footage of the safe, enforcing the diegesis of the setting and storyline. The video ends with a 'shootout' and the getaway. Despite not following the stylistic conventions of a music video, 'Fire' still uses plenty of close ups, especially of the lead singer - enforcing his star persona.

The key memorable concept of this video is the gimmick of using instruments instead of weapons during the bank robbery. This seems entirely original and is completely effective, yet is actually a sly intertextual link to the video for 'Breaking the Law' by heavy metal band Judas Priest (link).

It is also important to recognise where this song falls in Kasabian's release history. 'Fire' was released as a comeback single from their award-winning third album. In a shot towards the end of the video, it shows that the band were not stealing money, but sheet music, fitting the idea that they are "taking back the music". The video helps to not only reestablish the band, bust also create the new image to go with their new album.

Analysis of Music Video no. 2

               Madonna - Sorry

I have chosen to analyse Madonna's popular music video which is "Sorry". It is very interesting, because it shows really strong image of masculinity/strenght/militancy showed by women who are trying to combat the male race in many different ways. The music video also contains all the symbolism that is needed in order to attrack the wider audience. The sexual symbolism is used a lot of times which might attrack attention as well as the quick cutting techniques between the scenes which make it look like it's a tape from school/city disco. 

The music video starts with the close-up of the main artist (Madonna) singing in Italian which is her native language and the country she was born in. The colour of the background is very feminine and might represent and introduce us to the world of woman. It is really detailed to say it, but the dots at the back seem like maybe every each of them might represent a woman and the image shows their unity and sticking together. By dancing and being very attractive she is being "labelled" as the main sexual attraction and symbol of the whole music video. The lights make it look like she is on the stage and is about to reveille her real face. This happens exactly at the same second when the main beat comes in.

After we jump to a wide shot of Madonna and the rest of her "girl team" walking down the street just after they left the party which represents them being very independent and don't really need men to have good fun, the only thing they need is themselves together and the music which is played from the old tape player which is also the symbol in the music video. After the group gets into the old white van which also creates contrast between the simple colour white and the variety that they are wearing as their clothes. There are many more close ups on the tape player which also implies its importance again and the artistic image.

 In the image on the left, you can see that the music video creates a lot of sexual symbolism even more when you see the main singer undressing and putting herself into very tight costume. This creates it even more shocking. This happens in the scene inside the white van, the editing and the music which is nearly coming to the chorus makes it seem like something is going to happen there. The artist undressing and putting herself into other costume might represent the preparing for the fight/battle that she is going to experience. The green colour of the cloth represent the calm image of her.Later she also wears white which represents purity of her as a character and a person.

Different kind of people are being dragged into the car which is meant to represent all the types of man, or the way women see men. In the music video you can see:  
 - black rap/hip-hop type
 - obese man 
 - little mixed race kid
 - really strong (muscle) man
 - boy focused only on education
  
If this is what the music video is trying to say then it is really critical of man and old fashioned, because in today's society a lot of things have changed. In the lyrics Madonna is singing: "You're the man, you think you are". This implies that she thinks she is stronger than all the men and they got everything about themselves wrong. The image below represents that image quiet well.

On the image you can see the women sticking together very closely, looking sexy in the new costumes and attracting the audience, mostly male by the sexy movements they are doing. This shot was made on purpose to show some contrast between them seating on one side of the van and all the types of men seating on the other waiting for them to be judged by Madonna.

 

 In the other scenes, more men appear in the van. Madonna is trying to seduce them but at the same time play with them which represents the weakness of men and the strength of the character she is and the kind of music she is making. You can see it in the images on the left.
Later the music video jumps to a scene with cage fighting involved in it where we can see Madonna and all the girls fighting/dance fighting against male race. This scene was made on purpose to show that there is a lot of disagreement between the two kinds of people and the only way to resolve the problem is to do by the way of dance fighting which can also lead to real street fighting.

As we approach the finale of the video, we are introduced to a scene/shot where all the men and women are dancing on one floor which might represent that the agreement was reached and they can all co-operate which each other in some way. Even thought the image of men is shown in a good light, we can see some cut-aways where the music video is taking mock out of some of the characters.

 So the overall message of the music video is to say that all women are stronger than men and there is doubt about that and we need to accept it, so as Madonna says: "Please forgive me".

Initial alysis of song lyrics

This scan of the lyrics is only evidence of the work. When working in the class, we used hard copy to  combine all of the ideas for the music video which was then later transformed onto a storyboard.


The scan above shows how our lyrics are linked to music video plan that we have. This means that whatever is sung in the lyrics, the audience are able to visually see it on the screen during watching of our music video. 

Final Song Choice

During our next group meeting we have decided on making the song choice list a bit shorter. This would make it easier for us to make a decision on a final song that we are using for our music video. We made a shortlist of bands and solo artists who's songs we have listened to for the past 2 weeks. The next step in out brainstorm was to choose a song which actually does not have any music video associated with the song at any point. We found out that the song (Jamie T - Ike and Tina) has no music video made for the song and it fits perfectly to our criteria. So this is our final selection:


The first idea that came to my head is that this song will let me and my group to explore new ideas and give us more space to experiment with the camera and the angles as it has very specific style. We have also chosen this song as it stood out from the other ones that were included on our list. Jamie T's song had its own style which is what we wanted as well as pace and tempo. In case of the style of the music, we have also decided on choosing it, because we felt that it also reflects on the style of our artist that we are trying to create on the line with the music video. Choosing this song, we had to do more research about different type of music video with a rapper in it which would give us more ideas on the process of film making. We decided to only focus on the most important aspects of a rap/hip-hop music video which are the performance of the rapper and the lyrics of the song.  We decided on ignoring a "normal" type of music video with cut-away to the band member or a musical instrument, because that would waste a lot of valuable time in which we can show/reflect more of the lyrics by just using the rapper performance. 


  

Specific Album Art Analysis #1

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nighmare

I have chosen to analyse the artwork of this band, because through doing wider reading about them I found out that they actually have the same style of music as the artist we have chosen by group - Jamie T. The band falls into a category of indie/rock and the their first album actually examines human behaviour in the clubs, which links to some of Jamie T's lyrics eg. Ike and Tina. The album art work uses very limited colours. It is mostly dark and in the windows of the house, we can see colourful painting which may represent the style in which the album is written in or the whole story of the band. In my opinion, the house represents the front of the album cover and what we see in the windows is what we will experience during listening of their songs.

Fragmented Narrative Exercise

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We began by quickly creating a slightly disjunctive narrative idea for the Little Red Riding Hood brief given to us, and sketched out a full storyboard. We then removed roughly half of the frames at random, creating a fragmented narrative with lots of space for other shots, such as cutaway. This slightly montage technique, with some elements of narration and an (on paper at least) chaotic storytelling style is extremely conventional for a generic music video.


Finally, we chose four frames out of these, which we then storyboarded in more detail to discover the actual number of different shots we would need to have filmed if we were doing this for a real video. This was an eye-opening experience for us as to the amount of footage we will need to shoot if only for a single second of video, let alone the whole thing. This exercise also taught us much about the types of shot used in conventional music videos and the way that a narrative idea can be presented in a fragmented fashion to create enigma and maintain interest compared out work last year with conventional dramatic narrative storytelling in films using continuity editing techniques.