This is a story board including the narrative structure of our music video as well as the shots used in each scene and the diegetic and non diegetic sound that we will use. Through the most part the sound used will be the non-diegetic sound of the song 'How you remind me' by Nickelback. Our music video will be a mix between performance and narrative shots. When editing we plan to add fade to black/fade to white cuts between some shots and to put a black and white filter over the performance as well as other editing techniques. Our story board is helpful as it helps us stick to a plan and keep a clear vision of what our final product will look like; We may digress from the story board if we need to but it's key that we follow these guidelines to give our music video clear stability.
This mood board denotes many different pictures which signify inspiration for our final piece. As you can see there is various images of bands, we aim to use these bands videos as inspiration for our own. Festivals is a huge inspiration as they allow the bands who we study to become well known as well as propelling lesser known bands who we take inspiration from into the limelight. A recurring theme on this mood board is the theme of alcohol and substance abuse, this is because somewhere in our video we would like to have shots of our protagonist being at his worst, these shots also tie into the images which signify people being down and distraught as we want the protagonist to be drinking excessively due to his emotions. Furthermore there are shots of music studios, this is where we aim to shoot the performance based shots of our music video, as well as shooting the narrative based shots in both a park and in a pub. The final piece of inspiration is the clothing, as the band we want to dress stereotypical of our genre and so we will wear predominantly black clothing.
Filters (performance) 'Strife' By Trivium The music video for 'Strife' the 2013 single from the band Trivium can provide inspiration for my video due the fact that i believe the use of a grey scale filter over performance shots looks highly effective. One reason why it is effective is because the grey filter further connotes the meanings of the lyrics of my chosen song, as the lyrics will be pessimistic therefore the grey scale would identify with the lyrics and exaggerate their meaning in order to make them seem heavy in emotion. Although this video changes between both colour and grey scale I will just keep grey scale in my video due to the fact that the performance shots are a much lower proportion of the music video than in Trivium's 'Strife'
Mise-en-scene Setting (Performance) 'Nothing Else Matters' By Metallica After watching the Metallica video for their song 'Nothing Else Matters' I've realised that if we film our performance shots in an actual recording studio then they can make the video look incredibly professional as it will make the band in the video look like they're used to being in a recording studio and therefore the band will look more realistic. Furthermore, if we ever need any filler shots for our video a location such as this offers many as already connoted throughout this example. If needed we can get shots of guitars being tuned and equipment being set up in order to fill any time slots we may have in our video.
Lighting (Narrative) 'Bittersweet Memories' By Bullet For My Valentine In the shots where the male protagonist is reminiscing the females face the lighting is high key, i think this would be effective if we were to use this in our video during scenes when our protagonist is having a flashback. Using different lighting over flashbacks symbolises to the audience the juxtaposition of the protagonists past and his current state. As well as this using high key lighting connotes happiness due to the fact that its bright, in contrast to this low key lighting connotes the characters misery. I believe it would be effective if we used low key lighting in shots which denote misery in the characters and high key lighting in flashbacks of when they were happier.
Mise-en-scene (Cast) 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' By Green Day Much like in the video 'wake me up when September ends' by Green Day, I want my video to have a male and female protagonist who can both fit the male and female gaze theories of Laura Mulvey. This will attract both male and female audiences to watch the music video due to their voyeuristic needs. The video also brought up the idea of whether or not the video could have a prologue before the music in which it is just purely narrative. However, we feel like the song we have creates our narrative quite well anyway. Also, both of the characters in this video seem to fit the stereotypes of their genders as the man is seen to be quite powerful (going to the army) and the girl much more emotional than him. Although this may not link to the stereotypical audience of a Green Day video it does result in drawing in a much wider audience and as a result will make for a much more appealing video. I also believe that the characters in this video dressing the characters in casual clothing is quite effective as it makes them more relatable rather than glamorizing them for a video and making them 2 characters in which fewer people can relate too. This is important due to the use and gratification of personal relationships as audiences can relate to characters.
Rise Against's 2011 single Make It Stop was released as part of an anti-bullying/anti-suicide campaign for teenagers, which meant that the video was created with the intention to be extremely emotional and gripping to audiences in order to prove the point of the campaign.
The mise-en scene of the band is stereotypical of the genre as they are all wearing black tops with jeans and converse/canvas shoes. However, i don't believe they are dressed like this in order to relate to a specific target audience, instead i believe the band are dressed quite casual and generic as it means that they can relate to who the campaign is aimed at, teenagers. By relating to as many teenagers as possible the video will allow for personal relationships to form with both the band and the characters in the narrative parts of the music video meaning that audiences will be more likely to take in the information as they feel more related to the characters.
The use of editing during the performance shots is quite fast paced in order for the cuts to be synchronous with the fast tempo of the song. However, during the narrative shots i believe the editing has been made slower in order to deliver the narrative to the audience without it being too overwhelming. This is important in delivering the message in the video as they wouldn't want any fast paced, eccentric editing techniques taking away from the video's true aim. On the other hand they have made the performance shots faster in order to conform to the bands star image as audiences wouldn't want the stars playing at a slow pace as the reason why they are so well known is for their high tempo'd music.
I also believe that Todorov's Equilibrium theory is used throughout the narrative scenes as the music video starts with the 3 protagonists in a calm environment, then it changes into the chaos of their bullying and being about to commit suicide, and finally it reverts back to calmness as it connotes that in the future the characters have become successful. This gives the audience the belief that they should never give up due to the fact that they never know how successful they could become in the future and that they should stick to their beliefs and to being who they are because that won't take away from their potential.
The plot of the story symbolises the bands beliefs and values as they are clearly against bullying and suicide and have used their fame and status in order to raise greater awareness on the issue. I believe this is a good thing for the band and the 'it gets better' project, which is mentioned at the end of the video, due to the fact that it is synergistic; both the band and the project will gain publicity for each other which will increase the awareness of both of them. Furthermore it is good for 'Rise Against' as they will get recognition for the work that they have done even by audiences who may not be fans of the Rock/Metal genre of music, and although this may not increase the number of people who like the genre, it will lead to a much larger chance of the band winning accolades for their work.
During the narrative scenes much of the camera work is fairly basic, there is very little use of pans or other camera movements for the same reason as in editing, the video needs to be delivered to audiences without being too overwhelming. The lack of camera movement continues throughout the latter half of the video however in this we see more varying shots and especially a use of close-ups in which the audience can see the emotion in the 3 characters faces as they walk home, but also as they are about to commit suicide. These use of closeups have been used to pull on the heart strings of the audience and are highly effective in creating support for the 'It gets better' Project. The performance shots on the other hand are a direct contrast as many of the shots feature camera movements such as panning shots, zolly shots and others. This is used in order to keep the traditional audience of the band interested as they would be used to seeing much faster paced editing and camera techniques than that which are used in the narrative shots so the performance based shots are included to satisfy Rise Against's established audience.
The music video for the single 'I Disappear' by thrash metal legends Metallica first off carries the inter-textual reference that it was used on the soundtrack to the movie Mission:Impossible 2. This means that audiences will recognise the song from the movie and vise versa therefore making audiences feel knowledgeable. This inter-textual reference is concluded at the end of the video as you see the protagonist of Mission Impossible 2, Tom Cruise, climbing the mountain which the band were performing on.
A warm filter has been used over the performance shots to create a connotation of the heat in the desert, this allows for the audience to show empathy for the characters who appear to have been driven to having to perform in the desert due to the fact that they were chased away from their realities during the narrative shots. This is a direct contrast to the narrative shots which use a much colder filter featuring much more blue lighting. One reason why you wouldn't expect to see a colder filter used in the narrative shots is that the colour red usually symbolises danger, this in my opinion would be better suited to the narrative shots due to the fact that all 4 members of Metallica are shown to be in danger.
In terms of mise-en scene Metallica in this music video are as close to the rock/metal stereotype as you can get. They are predominantly wearing black with very little care for their appearance as further connoted by their facial hair. Furthermore they are wearing tight jeans which are stereotypical of the genre and in one stage vocalist James Hetfield is depicted driving a muscle car. Muscle cars have largely been associated with the rock/metal genre as the cars are seen to be extremely 'american' and this link is made due to the fact that the genre's both originated in America and so can be seen as part of the 'american' stereotype.
The music video follows two theories as there is the Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory, due to the fact that there is the juxtaposition of the emptiness of the desert alongside the hectic overcrowding in the city scenes. Secondly there is the enigma codes of, Why are the band being chased? and Who are they being chased by?. In this video the 2 enigma's aren't answered so this may be a promotional technique in order to get audiences to watch the movie Mission Impossible 2 in order to see if that answers any enigma's that arise from this music video.
Camera and editing techniques have both been used throughout the music video in order to make it increasingly fast paced as any camera pan shots quickly pan rather than panning at a slower pace and in terms of editing there are many jump cuts and cross cuts in order to connote that all of the scenes were happening at a extremely fast pace to the audience. There is also the overt editing of the ground breaking and rising whilst James Hetfield is in the car scenes. Another example of overt editing is when the drummer, Lars Ulrich, jumps out of the building and is free falling, this adds the Use and gratification of escapism/diversion to the audience as it isn't something they would be used to seeing in their daily lives. This scene has obviously been edited in order to cut out any evidence of equipment such as wires, which would have given the impression that Ulrich is falling and also to hide the fact that the building he jumped from was actually just the image on a green screen. However these shots do all tie in with the rock/metal genre as it is stereotypical for videos of these genres to connote endangerment and various hectic scenarios to the genres target audience.
This music video looks both into the creation and delivery of the title track of the album 'This is gonna hurt'. The first thing that needs to be mentioned is the inter-textual reference that the album was released alongside bassist Nikki Sixx's book titled the same name. The book aimed to look into the lives of people who are considered to have abnormalities and in this video scenes of where the inspirations from the book are denoted in the narrative shots.This ultimately connotes to the audience that the band are sensitive towards many issue's such as abnormality and this could help the band to reach out to an audience which wouldn't usually listen to their music. Furthermore it connotes synergy between the book publishers and the band due to the fact that both of the pieces of media text interlink with each other and therefore this will create greater publicity as people who have read the book will want to listen to the album and visa versa.
In terms of costume the vocalist and lead guitarist are both stereotypical of the genre as they are represented wearing jeans and plain tops whereas bassist Nikki Sixx's costume is much more eccentric and over his huge career he has became an icon for many reasons including this. This also carries the inter-textual reference that Sixx is also part of the band Motley Crue who would all often wear highly eccentric costumes. However, his 'wild' hair as well as many aspects of his costume have led to many audiences copying his style and so this links in many ways to the uses and gratification of escapism and personal identity as audiences may use this costume style as inspiration to escape from their usual identity. In many ways this contrasts to the message of the music video due to the fact that it is trying to tell people to embrace their identity no matter what their own flaws are.
Furthermore the overt editing of a greyscale filter, used during montages of footage denoting characters with abnormalities, makes these shots seem extremely effective as the filter foreshadows the grey message in which the song is trying to deliver. These scenes are clearly not directed at passive audience members as the band are trying to get people to think about what they are seeing and to be emotional about the abnormal characters. To add to this it connotes that the band refuse to conform to the stereotype of having 'normal' characters, who would better fit theories such as the Male/female gaze, or who the audience would be likely to build personal relationships with; instead they aim to use abnormal characters that challenge the media's concept of beauty/normality. In fact this actually leads to a much wider target audience as the video isn't just directed at a specific demographic profile and instead can be effective with audiences of different age/race/gender etc.
Throughout the video there is fast paced editing which is stereotypical of a music video of the rock/metal genre. This fast paced editing can mainly be scene during the performance shots as it connotes the intensity of one of the bands gigs. This feeling of intensity is further created by the lighting as many of the colours are saturated and the natural colour of the performance shots are darkened. This takes away many of the flashing lights that you would expect from a rock show and instead replaces them with the idea that the song/band isn't about flashing lights and fame but instead delivering the deep and intense message that the lyrics of the song intend. The editing is synchronous with the tempo of the sound in the music video and this creates ambience for audiences when they are watching the music video.
Editing has been used in the music video
for ‘Numb’ by Linkin Park in order to show a passing in time. This has been
done by the use of time mapping. This makes the audience feel as though the
protagonist is portrayed to be lonely and dislike as throughout the sped up
scene she is not seen talking or interacting with anyone as the long shot isolates her. This idea is further
developed, as mostly all the camera shots of the girl are high angle shots.
These shots give the girl very little power as they
connote that she is always being looked down upon by society for whatever
reason.
The symbolic codes of the video include her
costume; she is denoted as wearing dark clothing,
which would be stereotypically described as
gothic. Stereotypically gothic clothing gives the character a much darker and deeper persona, which she is singled
out for. Her feelings about this issue can be connoted through her lack of
facial expression, and also the application of her
makeup, as she is quite pale. Her pale motionless face leads the audience to
believe that she appears dead but furthermore it has
the symbolic meaning that she appears dead inside.
"The terms 'pop performer' and 'pop star' have become interchangeable"
The first of Richard Dyer's 4 rules of the star theory is extremely applicable to the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl as, although he isn't a 'pop' performer, he is still just as well known for his personality as he is for his performing. The bands management would be highly fond of this due to the fact that the front man of the band is scene by the audience as a 'star' and some would even go as far as viewing him as an icon. This is also important in advertising the band as the fact that Grohl is a star means that various chat shows would be keen on interviewing him which is always great for the bands publicity.
"Stars are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being 'real people' experiencing 'real emotions' "
In my personal opinion Dave Grohl doesn't comply with this rule of the star theory as he has been in multiple bands who are managed by different individuals. This means that if his image and emotions were all constructed, then across his career he should have various personas due to the fact that the different managers he would have had would all have had their own ideas on how to make him more appealing to the fans. The fact that Grohl has maintained his image for multiple decades since his time in Nirvana to now being in the Foo Fighters , and all the other bands in between, connotes to me that he is genuine and that his persona isn't artificially modified in order to please the audience.
"Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audiences"
You can't deny that the music industries main aim is to make money out of audiences. However, these same aims are often not shared by the stars who the industry work with; this is because the aim of most stars is to share their music and to share their work with a wide range of people in order to become popular, not to just make money. You would argue that bands such as the Foo Fighters, who like to be extremely experimental with their work are not in the category of stars who are just out to make money. This is evident due to the fact that if the bands sole purpose was to just make money, the easiest thing for them to do would be to make music which follows the trends and which is along the lines of music which is currently popular at the time. For this reason i disagree that Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters comply with this rule. This is due to the fact that they not just experiment with their music, But also because the music industry have very little say on the recording of the bands albums. For example, the songs on the album "Wasting Light" were recorded on tapes rather than through computers as Grohl believed it would provide a much better sound, even though the tapes would be much more expensive.
Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology.
All bands/musicians in my opinion have to have certain values, attitudes or ideologies. I believe this because if they didn't then their lyrics would be meaningless to them and that wouldn't allow them to address them as intended to the audience, furthermore without values or attitudes a musician would only be a "Pop performer" as there would be very little substance in their persona to make them a "pop star". One thing which the Foo Fighters express at their live shows is to not take life to seriously and to enjoy it whilst you can, this is just one ideology what the band try to relay to audiences world wide. An attitude which all members of the band share is that they are now heavily against excessive drug abuse. This view was installed in all of the band following their drummer being close to death a few years ago due to drug abuse. All members of the band are now sober and many are married and have kids so this connotes that they represent a straight edged lifestyle and that they value family in their lives.
Humorous – Dave Grohl is presented with a humorous identity in various scenes, one example of this is where he is dressed as the large lady and is struggling to sit in the airplane seat. This signifies to the audience that he is willing to take any criticism or backlash that he receives if any audience members become offended.
Multi-Talented – he doesn't just act out one role in the music video; instead he portrays numerous different characters with various personalities. Furthermore this shows that he is a comfortable actor as well as a world famous musician. His talent goes even further though as in his career he has been in many bands such as ‘The Foo Fighters’ (on vocals) but also he was the drummer of ‘Nirvana’
Confident in himself – The roles which Dave Grohl portrays in the video shows that he is comfortable in himself as he doesn't mind dressing as an overweight character or as a character of the opposite gender in order to apply his persona to as much of the video as possible.
Popular – This video gives an incite to how popular the musician is, not just to the fans, but also to his peers in the music business as the video features the band ‘Tenacious D’ who Grohl is friends with. An even more recent identification of his popularity would be the fact that Prince Harry personally invited him to do the closing ceremony of the ‘Invictus’ games.
Genius - Dave Grohl in my opinion is a genious as he uses his knowledge of technology in order to make sure that his music is delivered to the audience in the best way possible. One example of this would be that he decided to record the album "Wasting Light" on tapes rather than recording them using modern studio equipment as it made the songs sound better.
Pioneer - Grohl is a pioneer in many ways, first of all his original band Nirvana are without doubt the most popular band to associate with Grunge Rock due to the fact that they, along with a few other bands, invented the genre decades ago. Furthermore, he decided to do what hardly any stars have done, and that was to record the album "Wasting Light" in his garage. He decided to do this due to the fact that the walls were a better barrier for the sound than the walls in a music studio, and since then many other bands have done the same.
My group consisted of me and Kyle, we both shared the common interest for the Rock genre and so going with this genre was an easy decision for us. Both me and Kyle were extremely hard working and had worked together in a larger group last year. We both had many opinions on certain decisions but were always capable of coming to an agreement by deciding what we believed would be the best choice for our production based on our knowledge of our target audience and the genre. In the group we would often share tasks such as both taking turns to direct and both taking turns to film, E.g Kyle filmed the park scenes and I filmed the cafe scenes. This teamwork allowed for us to work efficiently and get our work completed to a high standard as we both wanted to achieve the best grades we could get.
