Influences for my Digi pak

The reason that this is a good example for a digi pak, is because at the time this CD was released, Leona Lewis was a new artist; therefore this was the first digi pak released. As a result, because I and my group have the task of prommoting a new band/artist, this is a good example of how to successfully promote a new artist.

To begin with, you straight away notice the mise en scene of the close up shot of Leona Lewis's face. This allows fans to walk past in shops, and notice her CD straight away because it stands out. By using the close up, this promotes Leonas image, therefore her fans will gain familiarity with her and her image. However, Leona Lewis is made to look very seductive on the front of the album;hardly a pure image. To begin with, her lips are emphasized making them appear sexy, thereby appealing to perhaps males. Alongside her hair and make up being heavily made up, consequently making Leona look like she should be either appearing in a glossy magazine cover or perhaps even a shampoo advert. However, the glossiness of the image is a reflection of the producers targeting a mainstream audience who are likely to read glossy magazines, such as "Cosmopolitan."

The white typography of Leona Lewis's name stands out against the mise en scene, so it is therefore noticeable to an audience, alongside the yellow typography of the word "spirit," obviously indicating the name of the album. The main attraction of this album cover though is that it is simple, and not overly detailed with a complicated mise en scene or something happening in the background. As a result, it makes the album cover look simplistic, yet attractive and appeals to an audience. Especially the feature of Leonas hair, as it fans out across the album cover, catching the eye of a passing crowd in a record shop.

Digipak Covers - Ideas

Recently, I have been researching digipak covers, and have been playing particular attention to The Kooks because they are the same genre as New York Fund; the band which we have been promoting. The Kooks are also a British band. However, because me and my group don't know our band we are promoting "The New York Fund," we have to use either myself or our male protagonist Tamas to be on the front cover of our digipak.

With the first digipak cover, what stands out above all is the chiraoscuro lighting. For example, the mise en scene is obviously The Kooks standing outside a club, with the lighting standing out strongly and contrasting against the band, so they stand out to a passing audience in a shop. The way around the outside of the digipak cover is dark, connotes mystery and night time, therefore the white typography of the bands name contrasts strongly against the dark mise en scene; again making the bands name stand out to there fans. The camera angle used is simply a mid-shot, however, this is effective because the mid shot enables the audience to view all band members and there choice of costumes.

The second digipak cover differs from the first in terms of camera angle and choice of lighting used. To begin with, the mise en scene is simply a plain white setting, perhaps in order to make the band stand out against the white. Furthermore, the band members themselves are edited in black and white, which connotes a sense of darkness in there music. Also, what particularly stands out is the fact a close up shot is used of a couple band members playing their guitar, which enables their fans to see them actually in action of producing their music; which appeals greatly. Furthermore, what you notice is the drummer being filmed with a long shot, which could be interpreted the guitar players being perhaps more important, or that on stage the drummer is always positioned at the back, connoting a hierarchy of importance. Traditionally, the drummer is always positioned at the back of the stage when performing, which suggests an order of importance.

Simba and his campaign for Presidency!

Simba is a character from the Lion King and son of Mufassa. Simba would be a great president because of his morals and beliefs. For example, Simba is an angelic, lively and ambitious Disney character, who always stands up for their friends. Furthermore, Simba deserves to be king of Disney because he is innocent and doesn't resemble a character from Disney who is perhaps racist, or resembles social class issues, because being a lion, these issues associated with Disney don't apply.
For example, there are many arguments associated with the issue of racism from Walt Disney. However, this could just be a result of the context and era in which Walt Disney was alive and creating Disney films. For instance, segregation was still apparent in the 1960's, thereby this would have influenced Walt Disney. As a result however, certain Disney films such as Jungle Book has been criticised for portraying racist views. Therefore, Simba would be a perfect character as king of Disney because racism and social class issues aren't an issue in the film.
Simba is also innocent and doesn't intend to hurt any other character throughout the film Lion King; and thus is very popular with young children as they will look up to Simba. He is also a young lion, therefore he has a eager mind to learn new things and has the energy and ability to become president of Disney! Also, Simba would be a better candidate for becoming president of Disney than characters such as Hercules, because Hercles is a typical strong male "hero," who is full of himself. Where-as Simba isn't over confident, yet he is un-aware of his abilities. Furthermore, females wouldn't be able to identify with a character such as Hercules because he would only relate to males who would aspire to be like Hercules. On the other hand, Simba would appeal strongly to both genders of all ages, so there is no chance of gender bias.
The type of morals Simba has is that he believes in friendship helping you get by, and most importantly he looks up to family which will portray a positive message across to young children, influencing children to realise the importance of having family and friends around you in order to succeed.
However, although audiences may suggest that there is representation of a class system in the Lion King because Simba and his father Mufussa are king, this isn't represented in a negative way. For example, the characters of Mufussa and Simba are kind and wise, therefore they treat other characters in the Lion King as equals. There isn't a character in the film that is looked down upon as lower class or judged for being "beneath them," therefore the class system is represented as negatively to an audience. Perhaps this is because Disney films are aimed at young children, therefore producers of Disney wouldn't want to influence young children into believing there is a social hierarchy.

How are contemporary media issues changing the "music video?"

Audience Profiles

Storyboards

How Goodwins Theory is Applied to Music Videos

To begin with, Goodwin's theory consists of a music video having to demonstrate genre characters (e.g. a stage performance in a metal video or a dance routine for a stereotypical pop band). There also has to be an amplifying relationship between the lyrics and visuals, as well as between the music and visuals. This relationship has to be preferably illustrative and contradicting. Due to demands of the record label, the music video has to include plenty of close up shots in order to promote the band/artist, and the artist may develop motifs which shall recur across their work. Goodwin also proposes that there will be frequently referenced to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Finally, there is often inter textual references to films and TV programmes etc. For example, with an "Indie band," such as Razorlight "Wire to Wire" uses the image of a match which is contrasted against the black mise en scene and close up of the lead singers face. This is a sign of using shots to promote the artist, thus also a sign of amplifying the relationship between the lyrics and visual. The use of the match is also very symbolic and connotes a theme of love and passion.



Furthermore, the contrasting light show an amplifying relationship between the music and the visuals. The way that the shot is continuous so you can permanently see the lead singers face of the band is exactly what Goodwin proposes in order to make a successful music video, as it makes the face of Razorlight become well known and consequently successful. As a result, people will recognise them, thus making them more popular. This also results in more record sales, concert ticket sales and overall a popular band.

Leaving the Death Ambigious (Revised)

After much consideration as a group we have decided upon leaving the death ambiguous to the audience. Reasons for this being that because we are promoting a new band, perhaps having our male protagonist shoot himself and commit suicide would offend an audience, and promote our new band in a bad way, resulting in not popular record sales. Therefore, in order to achieve a higher grade we will work on filming more close up shots, and instead elaborate on the grave yard scene and have our male protagonist "walk into the light" but not actually shoot a death or use recurring images of a gun. Therefore we can focus more on filming higher quality shots.
Leaving the death ambiguous will also be more appropriate, as the lyrics of the song suggest our male protagonist searching for a lost love; in our case a death which is never revealed. Leaving the death ambiguous is a common theme in films, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) where the male actor does not discover he has died until the end of the film. As a result, this builds tension with the added result of shocking the audience when they find out the truth.
We have also decided upon using Madonna's "Like a Prayer" music video as inspiration for our female protagonist to act like.



We are using Madonna as inspiration for our music video because she looks seductive, classy yet she resembles a very strong female character. Above all, throughout the music video there is plenty of close up shots of her face, which helps promote her as a solo artist. Therefore, we shall follow in the lead of this video in terms of filming more low angle close ups and high angle close up shots to help promote the image of our band. Furthermore, our group will try and portray our female protagonist (myself) as a strong representation of Madonna, whilst also being a strong female character.

Possible Alternative Endings

As a group, we have made numerous changes to the narrative of our music video in order to make it more interesting than just having our male protagonist walking down streets. The main change being that we have decided to introduce a twist to the plot. The twist being that our male protagonist is in fact a ghost chasing after our female protagonist, as he is in reality dead.
In order to achieve this, we have decided to have connotations of death which give a clue to our audience that our male protagonist is dead. For example, at points in our music video we are going to use cross fades between both our female and male. For instance, we have our female protagonist over looking the bridge into the water, and then the shot will cross fade into our male protagonist looking over the bridge in the exact same position. Also, we have a "dream scene," where toward the beginning of our music video we shall have our male protagonist knock on our female protagonist door, then the dream part is that our female protagonist opens the door and he is standing there waiting for her and he goes in. However, then the shot will fade back into reality where our female protagonist opens the door, yet no-one is there. In order to distinguish the dream scenes from reality, we shall have a blue tint in the dream shots, to signify a change.
Another idea is that whilst filming, we have filmed plenty of shots using strong slight, and a shot which we will use towards the end of our music video is going to be our male protagonist walking down a lane into very strong light, which is a connotation of heaven, and signifies an idea that our male protagonist is his girlfriends "light." Therefore, by having our male protagonist walk into "heaven" at the end of our music video, we hope that our audience will understand that he has been dead the whole time. We are also planning on developing this idea of light by editing the colouring of the mise en scene throughout our music video. For example, in the shots of our female protagonist, we shall make the lighting of the mise en scene dull, as it signifies that she is grieving and un happy, therefore in the scenes with our male protagonist we shall make the mise en scene bright and happy as it signifies heaven.
Furthermore, towards the ending of our music video, we shall have a sequence which is filmed at a graveyard. For example, me and my group have decided that we shall shoot both our female protagonist entering the graveyard, followed by our male protagonist entering. As a result, we will play on the idea of our male protagonist grieving over him at his grave, yet our male protagonist will be looking out for her in spirit, as he follows our female protagonist as she walks around the graveyard. We have also decided on using plenty of cross fades between low angle close up shots of both our actors to quicken the pace and build a climax before it is revealed to the audience that our male protagonist is in fact dead. Just before the shot of our male protagonist "walking towards the light," we shall have a close up shot of him walking into a grave stone in the darkness, in which bright light is reflecting of it, to signify our male actor walking to rest in his grave stone.
As a result, we haven't decided yet on how we are going to shoot our male protagonist killing himself. We have decided upon our male protagonist committing suicide over his love for our female actress, as he believes that she isn't in love with him anymore. The first possible alternative ending is having our male protagonist shooting himself with a gun. The problem with this however is how to get hold of a realistic gun and using it somewhere which isn't very public. However, another alternative ending is to have our male protagonist drown himself in a bath tub. as we have a running theme of water used in our shots throughout our music video. We haven't decided yet which one, so as a result we may film both then see which ending looks more effective.

Change in Female Actress

Originally, Izzy Davies was going to be our actress for our music video. However, despite the fact that Izzy did fit the profile that was needed for our actress, we encountered some problems. The main one being that Izzy unfortunately didn't have enough time to be able to film what we needed. Furthermore, after the changes which we made to our narrative in order to make it more interesting,we discovered that we needed our female protagonist more than we thought so. As a result, we decided upon finding a new actress to play our female protagonist which still fitted the profile we needed and also had enough time to come and film our music video.

We found this more difficult than we thought so, due to the fact that not many females we asked were willing to perform in our music video. Unfortunately, no-one with good acting experience had time to also be our female protagonist. As a result, we have decided to use myself to be the actress in our music video. (Photo of myself below.)
Reasons for choosing myself to be the actress and play the female protagonist in our music video is that I fit the profile that is needed. For example, I am of correct height as I am slightly smaller than our male actor Tamas, me and my group originally wanted an actress with curly hair which I have got, and ultimately I have the time to be able to film the scenes because I am in our group.

Therefore, I will be participating in both the directing of the music video and playing our female protagonist. This way I will be as involved as possible in making our music video the best that it can be, and by using both myself and Tamas as the actors, it ables us to have more time and say over when we can film, as we don't have to reply on when our actors are available.

Prop List for Shooting

For the days in which we are shooting scenes for our music video, we need certain props in order to do this. For example we need the following:

• The camera - Obviously the most essential prop item in order to be able to film our music video!
• The tripod - Very important piece of equipment as we need the tripod in order to hold our camera up steady so we can film smooth shots, and so that they are not jerky.
• For female protagonist, red coat, black leather shoes, black tights - These items of clothing are essential for our female protagonist to wear, since as a whole these items make a good outfit. For example, the red coat signifies romance, yet also death; which are the two themes associated with our music video. The connotation of a red coat will also appeal to our audience, in terms of popular costume. For example, the colour red matched with black patent, brogue shoes mix well together, and would therefore appeal to our female audience as they aspire to dress in similar clothing. The costume of the red coat also represents a certain type of female fatal. For example, it represents strong women, who are very individual, seductive and above all confident. For example, the colour red is bold and stands out above the crowd and is a colour which makes a statement.
• For male protagonist, Polo Fred Perry Shirt - This shirt is what we want our male protagonist to wear throughout our music video. Furthermore, similar to our female protagonist costume, the outfit will appeal to our audience in terms of our male protagonist looking attractive for a female fan base. The look of skinny jeans (reflecting popular culture) and a Fred Perry Shirt which is a well known designer will be a look that teenage males will relate to, and aspire to dress like. This type of costume represents popular culture which is the reason for choosing this look, and is similar to what other males wear in Indie Bands, e.g. Razorlight, The Killers and U2.
• The tape - Another important piece of equipment as otherwise we wouldn't be able to film our music video!

Images of me and my group creating storyboards

The photos below show the construction of our storyboards, in which me and my group all pt an equal amount of effort in in terms of drawing the pictures and arranging a sequence. We made the storyboards by drawing on plain pieces of white paper, cutting them out and sticking them upon black paper to make the drawings stand out. Then we shall write about each shot next to each picture.

Music Video Analysis - Taio Cruz "Break my Heart"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOg_IHwXWsk - the URL to the music video as unfortunately I cannot embed it.
(Revised)
Media Forms and Conventions
The genre of “Break Your Heart,” by the artist Taio Cruz is Hip Hop/R&B, and the music video is very stereotypical of that genre in terms of the choice of imagery. To begin with, the mise en scene is of Taio Cruz being portrayed in an expensive sports car with an extremely pretty girl, in the location of somewhere hot. Already, an expensive sports car is very generic in terms that it allows a male audience who may watch this video to idolize Taio Cruz and the expensive life style he leads and the success he has with attracting beautiful girls. The close up shot of Taio Cruz placing sunglasses on his eyes symbolize that he is wealthy, which alongside the panning mid shot of his expensive sports car allow the audience to gain full view of his lifestyle. The female performer in this music video is conveyed as typical women who are seen many times in R&B music videos. For example, the panning long shot which keeps altering so the women is shown in full view to the audience, allows the audience to that she is only wearing a bikini top and tiny shorts; connoting a sex symbol which will instantly attract a male fan base of perhaps between 14-18 years old. The costume of Taio Cruz himself is him wearing an expensive real leather jacket, which is a symbol of the “bad boy,” such as characters like John Travolta from Grease, which is ironic because the name of the song is “Break Your Heart,” which connotes men who lead women on and consequently end up hurting them. Therefore, this suggests the reasoning as to why Taio Cruz is wearing a leather jacket, so he conveys an image of himself being the type of man who plays women to there advantage.
The lyrics within the song which are amplified repeatedly, “Break your heart,” are linked with the visuals in terms of every time these lyrics are sang in the chorus, images of Taio dancing and kissing different girls are played. For example, within the first repeat of the chorus, as soon as the lyrics change to “break your heart,” the mise en scene switches to Taio Cruz on a speed boat surrounded by about 6 girls who are all over him. Therefore, the lyrics aren’t contradicted by the images, instead the images are very stereotypical of the song, and consequently the narrative is very generic. In terms of how the actual music is linked with imagery, the video tends to fast cut to either a different shot type or mise en scene along with when the lyrics change beat. Furthermore, the focus is never on any type of musical instruments, yet during the first chorus, a panning long shot of Taio Cruz the woman from the beginning of the music video is used of them both on a speed boat. Again, the use of the speed boat is a symbol of the wealthy lifestyle Taio leads. The purpose of using the technique of switching shot types whenever the musical beat changes to stop the music video from becoming to boring by changing scenery. For example, by having only a simple narrative of girls chasing after Taio, the only way to stop this from becoming boring to an audience is to have regular changes of imagery.
With the use of lighting in the music video, at first because the mise en scene is somewhere very sunny such as Los Angeles, most of the lightning comes from the bright sun which shines directly into the camera. The effect of this is that it’s almost trying to show of to the audience, and Taio Cruz boasting to everyone about where he is and how hot it is. It’s also a way for the audience to idolize more about there glamorous life style. On the other hand, when the mise en scene changes from day time to evening time when long shots of a party on a boat is conveyed to the audience, the lightning is darkened to natural evening light to fit in with the theme of a party. The signifiers within this music video are however, culturally specific. For example, it is blatant that the location for the music video is in somewhere such Los Angeles in USA, due to the palm trees, beaches and weather portrayed. Therefore, the signifiers such as speed boats and expensive cars are culturally specific, as the natural association with LA is wealthy lifestyles. This is due to the fact that a majority of film stars live in LA, whether they grew up there to begin with or moved when becoming better known. Furthermore, this image is also conveyed due to TV programmed such as “Laguna Beach,” which is a reality TV show on MTV showing the rich life styles of teenagers living in California. The purpose of these signifiers in “Break Your Heart,” is that it promotes and markets California as being a fantastic place to live at, and if you move there, your life will be wonderful.
Certain generic signifiers such as women chasing after Taio Cruz and the women being extremely beautiful conform to the generic footprint. For example, nothing in this music video challenges the stereotypes of women just conveying there bodies in order to become a sex symbol, as the females in this music video aren’t portrayed as being smart or strong minded. Instead, they are shown dancing provocatively in order to win over the attention of men. Furthermore, the character which Taio is playing is very generic, as he is simply being chased by females. However, the director most likely portrayed gender roles like this, due to the fact this is what appeals to Taio Cruz’s fans. For example, men would watch this video as they can look up to Taio and enjoy watching half naked girls.
This music video is purely narrative based; with no shots of any type of performance. However, the narrative structure is linear, with a simple narrative of a women chasing after Taio Cruz’s affection and love, whilst Taio flirts and dances with other women; thus making this music video extremely generic in terms of the genre. For instance, a vast majority of other R&B music videos is women chasing and dancing for the attention of men. However, the purpose of using this narrative structure is that it provides plenty of imagery to use to make it seem less boring, yet it does make the music video very repetitive. Although, the appeal is that the music video does link in with the beat of the song and lyrics. For example, the narrative is easy and quite fun to watch as the audience can admire the location, which matches the fact the song, is quite happy.
The features within the music video of expensive symbols such as speed boats, sports cars, sunglasses and expensive clothing relate to a lot other music videos of similar genre. Just a few examples would be “Candy Shop,” by Usher, “Get Rich or Die Hard Trying,” by 50 Cent and “Milkshake” by Kellis. Therefore, these features relate to the artists as much as other music videos because Taio is being portrayed as a man who every women desires, which is similar of how star’s such as Usher and 50 Cent like to be portrayed in there music videos to. The purpose of this is most likely so they can be deemed powerful and in control. The expensive symbols consequently also relate to TV programmes such as The OC, which is a hit TV series following the wealthy lives of teenagers living in Orange County, as the symbols such as expensive cars for them are a way of life, and they don’t know any different.
Representation
The type of world which is being represented in this music video is recognisable due to other media texts like TV programmes such as The Hills, The OC, and Laguna Beach, as most audiences have been exposed to the rich lifestyle of star’s who live in California. Maybe not even through TV, yet through magazines such as HEAT where they write stories about the type of stars who live this culture such as Jennifer Anniston, and take photos of expensive symbolic items. However, this adds to the appeal of the music video, as the location represents a world where most of us would love to live in, as it is portrayed as being exciting, fun and a place with no worries. Therefore, Taio Cruz’s video almost represents a fantasy which we would like to be taken of to.
The artist Taio Cruz is being represented in many ways in order to strengthen the promotion of his records. For example, throughout the video there are many close up shots of his face, which promotes his image to his fan base. Furthermore, there are close up shots of attractive females, which promote an image of the artist being popular and wanted by the opposite sex. This helps with selling the track because if the video represents a fantasy world with an attractive male artist, then both females and males will be inclined to buy the track. The image of Taio Cruz which is being offered to an audience is of him in his element being surrounded by females, consequently the image of him being strong and very sexually attractive. This also helps him entice a female fan base as well as males, as there are attractive performers from both genders. However, similar songs performed by Taio Cruz such as “Like a Star,” are also similar in terms of the image it is representing of the artist.
Whilst watching this video, you defiantly gain a sense of watching sexual interaction between males and females. To begin with, Taio Cruz is presented as a man who is sexually desired by many women, as he is conveying an image of a heart breaker who leads women on. This is achieved by dressing Taio in expensive clothes such as a leather jacket, and shot types permanently showing Taio surrounded by other females. Consequently, the costumes that the females in the video are wearing imply sexual innuendos, as they are all half naked wearing skimpy clothing, which is not competing against the female stereotype what so ever. Through long shots of the performers having a party on the boat, the audience are shown to watching women dance provocatively in order to gain the opposite sex attention, thereby implying that a lot of sexual tension is happening on the boat between performers. The social class which is being represented through there actions is however quite middle class to high. This is due to the blatant expensive costumes and jewellery which the females are wearing, yet at the same time the fact that they are dressed in such miniscule clothing hints at the performers behaving in a crude way, as obviously they are only thinking about having sex with Taio Cruz. However, because it has been acted out in such a harmless manor with the music video not actually showing any sexual scenes, it is impossible to offend any audiences as the most erotic a scene gets is Taio Cruz kissing another girl. Therefore, the actual scenes aren’t really negative, more so the message being portrayed is to “just have fun.”
Throughout the music video, there aren’t really any values or attitudes and beliefs being represented, apart from portraying a belief about not taking life too seriously. The music video contradicts against any ideas on feminism, as the females in the music video aren’t behaving strong minded at all, instead they are conforming with there stereotype. Although, the production as a whole reflects contemporary society, and doesn’t articulate or expand on any concerns that are associated with the population. For example, the music video reflects young culture with young adults simply enjoying themselves on the music video, with no visual images of them worrying about world health concerns such as green issues. In fact, the music video is completely contradicting this by showing them driving expensive cars which of course contribute to global warming.
Overall though, the music video is like reverting back to early 1960's, where women are still fighting for rights and freedom, as they are still perceived and treated as sex objects by males. Therefore, this music video is extremely degrading to women as there portrayed as simply begging for Taio Cruz to have sex with them; a movement which we thought we have moved on from. Above all, the music video is sexist and capitalist, yet also degrades Taio Cruz as a singer as his voice is actually good and in tune. Therefore the music video doesn't do his voice justice, as the women dancing in a provocative manor distract attention away from it.
Taio Cruz "break my heart" is also a classic example of the Male Gaze Theory, whereby Mulvey is concerned with exploring through psychoanalysis the representation of women and how they are perceived in society. The male gaze refers to the act of looking upon women as objects and adopting the role of the spectator. Here, this particular music video relates because women are looked upon as purely sex objects and is a representation of how part of society still perceives women by even producing a music video like this anyway. Therefore, this shows a downfall of feminism, as although for many years feminists have been fighting for women's rights this music video proves that women are still flaunted for their bodies.
Audience
The target audience for this music video will be teenagers of both genders from the ages of 14-19years. This target audience has been established from listening to the radio stations in which this genre of music is played on regular basis such as KISS radio, reading message boards and reading comments which have been left under the music video on Youtube. An example of a comment left by a female with the username “stellaborovje” who wrote “he’s not ugly, OMG he is so hot,” and by a male consumer who had written “yeah his boat is slick,” indicating that young teenagers do indeed idolize this lifestyle. The appeal to the target audience is that the music video shows of the latest fashion trends, and shows an expensive way of living which young teenagers aspire to have one day. Furthermore, the fact that both genders displayed in the music video are very good looking, it appeals sexually to a female and male target audience. This aspect would therefore satisfy fans, are there is no imagery that would offend a consumer, yet fans would enjoy watching the culture which is displayed. Audiences can access the music video by Youtube, radio stations such as KISS, Heart and Radio 1, and also TV programmes. For example on the 10th October 2009, Taio Cruz appeared on Xtra-Factor as consumer of the programme who wanted to voice his opinions on the final 12 contestants.
Institutions
Taio Cruz is the founder of the institution he is signed up to: C .E.O. of Rokstarr Music London which is appropriate because Taio Cruz is originally a British Star. He is also in a partnership deal with Umusic Companies, Republic Records and Island Records. All these are appropriate record labels because they are known for signing up this genre of music, and are responsible for artists such as Amy Winehouse and are responsible for similar types of music genre.
Technology
New technologies have strengthened the marketing of Taio Cruz, as due to new technologies such as the Iphone, his fan base have been able to legally download his singles more easily, and convert them onto portably devices. Furthermore, downloading sites such as Itunes promote new singles which are in the charts massively, and when “Break Your Heart” was first released, it was advertised on the site with a massive photo, thereby promoting Taio Cruz’s music.

Alterations in Narrative

After much discussion with my media group, we have come to a decission that the narrative for our music video of focusing on just the male protagonist walking is too broing. Therefore we have decided upon tweaking our narrative in order to induce more hooks.
To begin with, we have decided that there will be a murder in the storyline. Our initial idea is for our male protagonist to be driven by such insanity, that at the end of the music video he is driven to shoot our female protagonist with a gun. Therefore, throughout the music video, there shall be recurring images of a gun to connote death. For example, at the beginning of our music video we have decided that there will be a close up shot of the gun smoking, to signify murder. This also introduces a very film noir effect within our music video. We are also going to include plenty of cross fades. For example, we shall have one shot tracking our male protagonist as he steps onto a bridge, then our next shot will be that he cross fades into our female protagonist stepping of the bridge. Therefore, this will mean that it signifies them as a couple, and represents how they used to be together and in love. We shall also have a shot which shows our female protagonist crying over photo's of them being together in the past, and we shall use a close up of her tears.
We also have possible alternative endings for our music video. These include:

• We end in a scene of a grave yard. We have our male protagonist standing by a grave, and he turns round to a girl walking past him wearing a red coat (what our female protagonist will be wearing), and because he thinks she is ignoring him, our male protagonist shoots her. However, after the shooting he will walk over and discover that in fact the girl isn't his girlfriend and is in fact a stranger.
• We have a simpler ending, where we have both our male and female protagonist standing by a tree with autumn leaves surrounding them. Then we shall have the camera focus on simply our male protagonist with a medium shot, then the camera will pan back onto the space where the girl is standing, yet it is now empty. Therefore signifying that the girl has died.

Nobody's Home by New York Fund - The Lyrics

Well I woke up on a Monday
With the morning streaming in,
And I rode over just like I always do

Cos when I sleep I keep forgetting
You don’t live here no more
And when I wake I keep on thinking of you

So I was walking down the street
Get myself some company
For so long I getting ready to die

The girl up in the store
Says you don’t come round here no more
She ain’t seen you for quite some time
Quite some time
Quite some time

Oh baby where did you go?
Where the lights went off
There’s nobody home
Where did you go?
Oh baby we got so close
My darling where did you go?
Where the lights went out
And there ain’t nobody home
Oh where did you go?
Oh my baby we got so close



I got my finger on the trigger
Got your number in my phone
I wanna call, I wanna say
Baby wont you come on over?
And I hear those bells ringing
I hear my devil start to sing
He says ‘

So you can find me on the street
Where I been dragging my feet
Yeah I been dragging them round all night
I went back up to that store
And that girl don’t work there no more
She ain’t been working there for quite some time
Quite some time
Quite some time

Oh baby where did you go?
Where the lights went off
There’s nobody home
Where did you go?
Oh baby we got so close
My darling where did you go?
Where the lights went out
And there ain’t nobody home
Oh where did you go?
Oh my baby we got so close?

History of the Indies

The History of the Indies diverts all the way back through time, and is a genre of rock music which originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 80's. The genre of Indies represents Independent music, which once a upon a time, it probably was. Originally, the term Indie in the 80's was more or less synonymous with indie rock. Bands such as The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Mary Chain were directly influenced by Indie Music. Back then, Indie Music was considered to be original and admired, yet as the years progressed into the new millennium, Indie Music simply reflects popular culture.


For example, walking around a city nowadays, a majority of male teenagers are wearing they think are Indie clothes. (Checked shirts and skinny jeans). Although, ironically, back in the 80's this particular style was considered unusual. Bands who dared to dress like this such as The Smiths stood out, and skinny jeans were in fact a laughing stock and were believed to queer. As a result, Indie music weren't usually signed up to major and current record labels, and instead were in charge of producing, marketing and selling there own music. The whole point of the Indie label was to be different from current trends, and bands thrived on appearing more individual than current artists. Below is a video by The Stone Roses performing a song called "Begging you," which are an example of an Indie band from the 80's. The actual video juxtaposes the idea of normal and illusions, as the video is quite different and conveys unusual images.



However, in modern times the label Indie might as well represent a completely different meaning. Instead, if you watch music videos now by bands such as U2 and Razorlight, they are all similar to each other in terms of story lines, locations and shot types. Also, the massive genre that is Indie has been squashed into a tiny representation of Indies simply being males who wear skinny jeans, shirts and enjoy playing the guitar, where in fact Indie used to mean so much more than this.

Shooting Schedule

Me and my group have been shooting material for the past week now. However, we haven't been able to come up with a set shooting schedule due to the fact we have to rely on when our actors are available to film, therefore the day we will be able to shoot will alter each week. Although, we shall use periods 3 and 4 when we have a double media lesson with ms Barton every Monday to shoot, as that two hours is valuable time in which we can cover shooting a fair amount of footage. The times for these periods are as follows:

• 11.20-1.20pm every Monday
• Evening shots 7.00-9.00pm

Furthermore, we are trying to spend at least around two to three hours a week of filming footage for our music video, until we have finished and can move onto editing and producing an editing schedule.

Male Actor

Unfortunately, our group have suffered with finding an appropriate male actor with enough time to be able to film footage for our music video. Our male protagonist was going to be a sixth form student called Jonny Lawrence, yet unfortunately he didn't have enough time to be able to participate in our music video. Therefore, our new male protagonist is Tamas Dalmay, who is actually in our media group to begin with. We chose to use Tamas because of him being in our media group, we know he has the time to act as our male protagonist, as we can use valuable media meeting sessions to film, or double media lessons we have in which we are allowed to go out and film in. However, Tamas is still a suitable person to use, due to the fact he is a good looking guy, therefore it is easy to visualize him with a girlfriend. Also, he has the right style which we are looking for, and he is of appropriate height that fits our profile for an actor.

Development of Ideas

Below are photos of me and my group discussing possible ideas for when we film our music video. Here we are in Starbucks, and as we were drinking coffee we have come up with certain techniques and hooks to make our music video more interesting to watch, as we have decided that our music video will be based purely on narrative.
We have decided that we shall use different movements within our video. For example, as part of our narrative involves our male protagonist walking down a street in his search for our female protagonist, we could have him walking backwards down the street. From this, we developed an idea of our male protagonist being shot lying down on a cobbled pavement, and then we film our actor through a panning mid shot of him walking backwards alongside the pavement. With the masked idea, we have also begun to think that to add a warped affect to our music video, we could have the odd mask appearing from time to time throughout the first verse of the song, to increase the spooky feel.

Furthermore, throughout the rift part of our song, we thought that in the location of a church yard, (which there is a photograph of in another blog post further down) we could have our male protagonist being invaded by about ten masked creatures, and as they circle around our male protagonist he could faint and perhaps even black out in the middle of the circle, which will be shot by a birds eye view shot if possible. If not then we shall shoot this scene through a long shot.

Finally, the next idea will become more clear through our storyboards, but as an idea we thought that at one particular point in the music video, we could have our male protagonist actually punch the wall in his frustration as he can't find our female protagonist. We thought that this could be achieved through perhaps editing this into slow motion to add to the effect that he has lost hope. This would be filmed through a close shop, and then the shot will cut into a shot of broken glass and our male protagonist hand bleeding. This would signify our actors pain and suffering and feeling of desperation.
The genre of our music video is "Indie" which although is a diverse and large genre, it is also one of the biggest currently in the world of music.

Conclusion of Media Investigation

Over the last few months, I have been investigating into how music influences individuality, and if males consume music on order to collect a constructive identity more so than females. I have researched this topic through a number of methods such as questionnaires, interviews and reading around the subject.

From researching this topic, I have found that in fact females and males equally listen to music and form a certain identity from it, but this has only occurred within the last few years. To begin with, this theory has first became apparent through my blog post "The Difference In Gender Roles," which came from a book written by David Gauntlett, as it discussed how over recent years the typical female stereotype of the "pretty little housewife" is no longer taken seriously. This idea that the girlish image that has been associated with females for many years is now slowly changing, indicates that this can link into the music industry. For example, if the image of this stereotype can alter, then perhaps females are slowly starting to adapt and grow more independent. This suggests that within the past few years women have been growing more individual which can reflect on everyday life such as how females consume music. Furthermore, David Gauntlett quoted how during the 90's "gender roles within television seem to be becoming more equal and non-stereotyped," which indicates a slowing change in attitudes towards females, and that they are being perceived on a more equal par to men. This relates to my topic of how males and females consume music in order to collect a constructive identity, as to begin, based on my own opinions, I believed that males did in fact consume music and respond to it with more individuality and females just copied the same music as there friends liked. However, after carrying interviews I discovered that this is in fact not completely true.

For example, when I carried out my interviews to both a male and female participant, I was expecting more of a contrast in there answers. Instead both there answers were in fact similar. For instance, my first question to them was "Do you tend to listen to the same genre of music and bands as your friends," to which my male participant stated that "I would never pretend to like a band just because my friends like them," and my female participant claimed "my music taste is very different compared to other friends." During my interview, I found that my third question produced the most interesting results, as I asked " In your opinion, do you think that females listen to music to construct a collective identity, or do you think that females just listen to the same music as their friends to become “part of the crowd?”My male participant (although when speaking sounded unsure) said how he believed "females taste are largely influenced by their friends, and they use it to bond," where-as my female participant contradicted this by saying "I know plenty of females that have completely different music taste to their friends. Maybe perhaps some girls do listen to music to not form an identity, instead they listen to music to fit in, yet with most of my female friends this certainly isn’t the case." Despite my interviews being carried out through a small sample size, the demographic was two seventeen year old sixth form students, which suggests that other teenagers would have similar views. What my participants responses show is that females are judged differently by males, and are automatically thought to just follow the crowd, where-as this certainly isn't almost the case.

Furthermore, everyday females are encouraged to become more and more individual and to make different choices from there friends. An example of this would be TV shows such as Ugly Betty which I carried out some research on. What I found was that ordinary teenage girls had been moved Betty and her quirky, strong personality on the show, and has indeed influenced and encouraged females to be more different in the choices they choose to make in life. Shows like this sound out a positive message to females and help them form a more constructive identity. This theory however suggests that because only now females are beginning to branch out, that around ten years ago females were more under stated and males were perceived as being the stronger more independent sex. Indicating that males maybe did always contain strong minded opinions and that the females role in society was to just "agree with whatever the men thought." Although as our society grows forward, this isn't the case anymore and gender roles are now considered to be more even.

This also links in with what pleasures audiences receive from watching programmes such as Ugly Betty. For example, females may gain a constructive identity from watching programmes where a female is in power, because a female audience may receive a feel of empowerment themselves, making them feel good about themselves as they watch. Therefore, males may construct a collective identity whilst listening to a song where the lyrics are about a male who is in power, because a male audience will receive pleasure from listening to these lyrics, because it makes them feel strong themselves. Therefore, females and males both listen and watch media in order to feel good. By also engaging in media texts such as watching clips on Youtube, audiences are hoping to gain a relationship with others, and help form an identity. This will be the same for both males and females, because when looking through comments underneath the clips, there is an equal amount of females and males leaving there opinions, in hope to find someone else with the same opinions as them so they can form a relationship with them. Thus resulting in both genders looking for ways to construct a collective identity.

However, there are implications of my findings in terms of how it can affect the music industry. For example, my research proves that if for example more females than males watch shows such as Ugly Betty, then that show is loosing out on ratings because males wont watch the programme as much due to the fact they receive no pleasures in doing so. Therefore, it could cause implications as well to the music industry in terms of a band only appealing to one gender, thus loosing out on the amount of sales they have because the other gender isn't interested in there music. Furthermore, these findings could affect my own media productions, because if our music video doesn't appeal to both males and females, then this causes our demographic to be of a small scale. Hence resulting in us promoting a band which isn't that popular to a large demographic.

Furthermore, throughout this investigation I have discovered that audiences receive certain pleasures from consuming music with groups of friends; whether you are female or male. For example, by listening to muisc together it allows you to create a bond with that other person, and share veiws on whether or not you enjoy that band. Therefore, both sexes can use consume music to make new friends, as well as forming a constructive identity. For example, on Youtube, the comments which are left under the media texts are an indication that participants enjoy leaving their veiws and comments about a peice of music, in hope to find someone else who shares the same opinions, so you can form a friendship. Therefore, listening to music isn't just about forming a sense of identity.

Overall, this concludes that the answer to my original question "Do males consume music in order to construct a collective identity to a greater extent than females," is that no, females do in fact listen to music and form a collective identity as much as males do.

Location Maps

Below is a map showing the location of Colegate Street:
Below is a location map showing Princes Street:

Below is a location map showing Tombland, which is surrounded by streets with possible locations that we could use for filming.

Below is a photo of Elm Hill, which is possibly one of our most important locations, due to there cobbled streets:

Costumes

As a group, we have decided that because the band New York Fund is an Indie band, we need to base our costumes on what an Indie band would wear. Stereotypically, this would be that our male protagonist would be wearing clothes such as skinny jeans, checked shirts, waist jackets and accessories such as trilby hats, which are items of clothing that particularly make the Indie style stand out to an audience. Below is a picture of a jet black waist jacket, which would either be worn over a checked shirt, or perhaps over a plain white t-shirt. The best colour to use would be black as it stands out against the shirt.




Below is a photo of skinny jeans, which is the main item of clothing which is essential for our male protagonist to wear, as skinny jeans are a classic signifier for Indie bands to wear, and when you watch music videos by bands such as "Razorlight," "U2," and "Pet Shop Boys," you always see them wear skinny jeans. Fortunately, our actor Jonny Lawrence owns skinny jeans to begin with, therefore it wont be a problem for us to get hold of some. Skinny jeans are also a symbol which reflect popular culture amongst young teenagers at the moment, and for the time being they are very much in the trends. Whether or not next year the trends will stay the same next year is a different matter as they could be the considered a laughing stock, yet at the moment they are an important item of clothing to include in a music video as they symbolise Indie bands as the members all wear skinny jeans at concerts and in music videos. More "Indie" bands which are an example of this include Rosalita, which are actually a local Norwich group. I've been to see Rosalita perfrom live at The Waterfront (a Norwich Gig Venue) and they were the spitting image of an Indie band, due to there dress wear consisting of the league singer wearing skinny jeans, checked shirts, and a waist coat.



The next photo shows a picture of a trilby hat, which although isn't an essential item to have our male protagonist wear, it tops of the Indie look, as a trilby hat is quite individual and stands out to an audience. A trilby hat would also stand out on a music video because it looks unique and makes our male protagonist stand out and look more eye catching. Furthermore, the most important reason is that a hat will help make our actor look like he defiantly belongs in an Indie music video.

The final photo shows a checked shirt, which as a group we thought would look stylish with a black waist coat over the top. Checked shirts are always worn by members of Indie bands and are very current at the moment in terms of teen trends. For example, when logging onto an online shopping site such as Topman, it is flooded with checked shirts. Therefore, as a result checked shirts like skinny jeans reflect popular culture at the moment, and every time you see checked shirts teenagers associate them with Indie bands. Therefore as a group we decided it was crucial to include a checked shirts.

Below is a link to Topman, which shows how skinny jeans anc checked shirts reflect popular culture. For example, Topman is a very current shop where a huge amount of teenagers shop and buy clothes from. I know this because I work for the Arcadia group which owns Topshop and Topman, and we make a huge amount of profit, in which we have to rely on teengers who are our main target auidence to buy the clothes:

http://www.topman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=17551&storeId=12555&categoryId=38981&langId=-1&top=Y

Meeting Schedule

At sixth form we work over a two week timetable, therefore on the first week we have four hours worth of media meetings, (not including media studies lessons) and on the second week we also have another four hours worth of media meetings.

In this time, we discuss exactly what we are going to film, where we are planning to film, (which mise en scene we shall use out of our choice of locations) and plan and make sure our storyboards have been finalized. Furthermore, we shall also use these meetings to edit our music video after we have finished the filming process, as well as using editing time during our media studies lessons. Time to film our music video will be sometimes used in these meetings schedules so we are able to get as much finished as possible.

The exact timings in which we are meeting are:

Week 1: Wednesday = 10.00am - 11.00am Thursday = 10.00am - 11.00am Friday = 12.20pm - 1.20pm 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Week 2: Monday = 3.00pm - 4.00pm Wednesday = 12.20pm - 1.20pm Thursday = 10.00am - 11.00am Friday = 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Update on our Actor

Unfortunately, our actor Guy Walker who was going to originally play the part of our male protagonist is no longer able to take the part on. However, we have found another actor "Jonny Lawrence" who has agreed to play the part instead. We chose Jonny Lawrence because of his good style and how he fits the part of playing our male protagonist in an Indie genre music video. For example, Jonny has good style and wears clothes such as skinny jeans, checked shirts and cardigans; exactly the type of style we were aiming for. Below is a photo of "Razorlight" showing the members of the band wearing the type of clothes we need our male protagonist to wear:

For example, what particularly stood out with the band Razorlight, is the shirts with their buttons done up right to the rim of their necks, which is a classic Indie music video signifier. Another classic signifier is the skinny jeans which the band are wearing, emphasizing their "Indie look." These are the type of clothes which Jonny wears, which is the reason why he would be a good actor to play our male protagonist, perhaps even more so than our original actor Guy Walker.

More Photo's of Possible Locations

Above is a photo of a cobbled street, which is a perfect location for us as a group, mainly because we need a variety of interesting and picturesque streets, as walking along a street is what our music video is based around. Above is a simple mid shot of the street, which is the shot type we were thinking of using for our music video, so the audience has a clear view of our male protagonist walking.

This is a photo of Elm Hill, which is most likely to main our main and most used location due to its authentic buildings, and most importantly, the street doesn't look commercial. This is a key point for us, as we most defiantly don't want commerical shops in the background, such as "Jarrolds," or "Just Add Water." We also like the tree in the background, due to the fact it makes the mise en scene look pretty; perfect for a romantic storyline. This is a photo of a Willow Tree, which as a group we defiantly would like to include in our music video, as it is very pretty, and as a result, perfect for a love story. What's nice about the mid shot we have also used is that you can see the river in between the Willow Tree. As a result, it's a possibility to have our male protagonist spying at our female protagonist through the trees as she's running on the opposite side of the river.

Above is a mid shot of a river, which we could use as a possible mise en scene for one of our shots for our male protagonist to walk past, as it looks picturesque with a nice red brick building along the side. This particular scene our group thought would look effective in either a blue filter or in black and white film noir, as the scenery as a whole will look perfect for a love story. This river is also next to a bridge which we can have our male protagonist running along in his search for a girl.
Above is a photo of a massive old building which used to be a factory, but has now be turned into offices. This building is impressive and looks nice with the willow trees covering it. We are hoping we could perhaps use a long shot of this building in our music video because it is an older building and doesn't look commercial in any way. Therefore the audience can be transformed out of Norwich and believe that they are in another place altogether.

This is a long shot of the river and we liked this shot type because of the bridge which shows how we could use this location in our music video. Our initial idea is that we can have our male protagonist run across the bridge, then stop, and look like he has given up and as if he is in despair. We are also thinking about having the odd mask appear around him with our female protagonist face on it to spook him out.

Above is a photo of again another cobbled street. We may not use this as a location, because compared to our other locations with cobbled streets, this is the one we like the least, simply because the buildings don't stand out enough compared to the ones of Elm Hill and the cobbled street by the river.
This is a mid shot of the bridge which is the same bridge as an earlier photo. However, this shot shows in a clearer vision what could be achieved in terms of effectiveness. For example, we think that this bridge is perfect to use in a love story, as it doesn't look as if we are filming in a city, yet it gives of an impression we are filming in a more obscure location like a romantic countryside.

Out of all the photos taken, this is my favourite because of the candy floss coloured buildings, and the symmetrical shaped cobbled path which is a perfect location to use in our music video! Also, it is by the river so it a romantic setting to use for a love story. To use this street, I think a long shot would work best, due to the fact the audience can see down the whole street and all the buildings, almost resembling "Yellow Brick Road." This scene also looks very authentic and not modern in any way, which is perfect for what we need. Above is a long shot of a normal road, which our group picked to photograph due to the old buildings, and the way it doesn't look too modern so we can use it as a possible street for our male protagonist to walk across in attempt to find our female protagonist which he is lusting after.

This is a possible location we thought we could use during the rift part of our song choice, but not in this particular part as it's too dangerous as the it's filled with broken glass. Yet around the side of this church which is shown in the photo below, we could use when our male protagonist is being chased by the masked extras and he feels trapped by them.

This is the courtyard of the church, which is the location we are going to use for the rift part of the song when our male protagonist is cornered by our masks. Reasoning for this is that we liked the way that when you use a long shot of the archway, the shape matches up perfectly to the church window in the distance. This is effective and a church is a great setting for our music video as it's an old piece of architecture. Furthermore, we plan to have our male protagonist perhaps faint when he is cornered by the masks, and have him black out right in the middle, whilst using a long shot so it captures all the building.

Overall, all these shots are of British cultural references, especially locations such as the river and the old English church yard.