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.

Response to our letter asking permission to use Nobody Home by New York Fund

What are your idea's for the music video?

Please contact me

This wasn't the best response we could have had, as they haven't given consent yet but we will email them our ideas and hopefully they will like them and give us permission to use Nobody home.

More Locations for Music Video

This street is of a good location near the shop "Just Add Water," and we liked the mise en scene of it because of the authentic looking street and older style buildings, which will look good for certain scenes in our music video.

This is another back street, which we liked because of the red building as it connotes passion, love and danger. We could also use this street for filming various shot while our actor is chasing our female protagonist.

We decided as a group to photograph this following street, mainly based on the colours and architect of the buildings, as we think they will stand out and look effective for the audience. Especially the yellow colour of the building above. We are also thinking about maybe including colour filters; such as blue in the music video, to signify a mood change of the single.

What really stood out to me in this photograph is the white and black old building to the side, which is perfect to use as a mise en scene for our music video, as me and my group decided that we wanted only older looking buildings and not modern ones.

This is just a photograph of the name of one of the streets we shall use to film, and we took a photo of it so we could remember the name of the street. A photo of a tunnel which is on the street is shown below.

In the photo above, we liked the way the photo has caught the light against the dark mise en scene, as again it looks like it would fir the mise en scene for a spooky music video. The shot also looks claustrophobic and you can visualize the image of masked extras crowding the ally way, which would look stunning shot in black and white, inspired by a film noir image.

The above picture is a photo of the tunnel in daylight, as we wanted an image which showed us a way in which we could use light effectively, as some of the lyrics in our song references light.

This is a photo of "Old Post Office Court," which we liked because of the tunnel at the end which has a claustrophobic feel to it, which we thought we could use when the faced masks are chasing our male protagonist, and he feels trapped as he has almost reached a dead end.

We shot this building because of the winding staircases, in which our male protagonist can run up in an attempt to run away from the masks ans chase after our female protagonist.

This is a high angle shot of the staircase, to give us an idea of the shot types we can use in our music video. For example high angle and low angle.

This a photo taken from the building with the staircase again, as we were experimenting with the variety of shots we can use in our music video, to make it not seem boring.


Both these buildings together look very authentic, and we liked the green colour of the building as it will make out music video look more interesting to watch if there are more colours involved.

This is another picture of the building, but obviously taken with more light, so we could experiment with what lighting would look best and more effective for our music video.

Overall, all these photo's show possible locations for our music video. We have so many as we are trying to include a variety of different locations so are music video will keep our adueicnes interest. We are also attempting to use locations which will make our music video contain a warped atmosphere about it, as the new theme of our music video is going to be scary, with recurring images of masks. Warped atmosphere means our group aspiring to make our msuic video contain a quirky yet sinister edge. For example, giving our music video the illusion of it not conveying normal life. We particuarly like the use of the stair case in the building above as we could use it as a mise en scene for our actor being cornered by the masks and he feels that there is no escape.

Inspiration for our Music Video

For the coming up of using the idea of switching between reality and dream scenes, this was partially inspired by the dream scene's used in the film American Beauty (1999) directed by Sam Mendes. In total on YouTube there are four different dream scenes, all using the recurring image of red rose petals, which of course connote love and sexuality. The first dream scene is of Lester Burnham (actor Kevin Spacey) lusting after the female protagonist Mena.



This first dream scene sees Mena conduct a very sexual dance in front of Lester, with Mena in a Cheer leading outfit. This image of Mena doesn't argue against the typical female stereotype that females are in fact strong minded and not only judged on by how they look, as Mena is clearly manipulating Lester and teasing him. However, this dream inspired us by the way that Lester is clearly idolizing Mena, which is how we want our actor to look in our music video about our female protagonist Izzy Davies. This lusting after Mena is portrayed in all four dream scenes, and what we particularly liked as a group in this first one is the recurring images of roses. As in our music video, we are planning on using a recurring image of masks throughout, to connote a warped sense of reality. What we also liked in this clip, is the way the female protagonist is shot against black, which looks very effective as it makes her features of the typical blonde hair, red lips stand out, making Mena resemble being on a pedestal, and Lester lusts after her. This video clip also inspired us for our opening beginning shot, of Izzy being dressed in vibrant red against black scenery, as we wanted to begin our music video of portraying an image that Izzy is strong and powerful.



What particularly stands out in this second dream scene is the first close up shot of the red rose petal falling down from we learn to be the ceiling. As the bright red stands out boldly against the black mise en scene, and the petal is made to look delicate and picturesque. Again, Mena is made to resemble a sex object in which Lester is clearly idolizing after her petite and "perfect" body, which represents an idea that males do really look at women like sex objects. However, the whole scene is shot very artistically, which is the type of angle which we want to use when shooting our music video, as we want to portray Izzy in a tasteful way, and not dirty or ------. Whats also good about this clip is the way Lester is portrayed to look completely infatuated by Mena and obviously can't take his eyes of her, which is achieved by using a birds eye view shot of Lester and his bed, which exchanges throughout the clip to another birds eye view shot of Mena on the ceiling coated with rose petals. Ideally, in our music video we would like our actor to wear the same expression of infatuation, as it looks effective to the audience.



This third dream scene is again shot very artistically, as the whole scene is shot through a close up of Kevin and Mena's kiss that they share, as the camera pans round them, engaging the audience into the intensity of the moment. Like all the previous dream scenes, the mise en scene is jet black, making Mena's stereotypical blonde hair and red lips stand out. If we do decided to include a kissing scene in our music video, we would use this as inspiration; thereby having the camera panning round them, and the kiss being portrayed as delicate, yet intimate. At the end of the scene, again the image of the red rose is used, as we see Kevin draw just one out of his mouth. By watching all the previous scenes, you now begin to link the symbol and beauty of the red rose with Mena, as clearly this is how Kevin thinks of Mena throughout this film; beautiful, strong, bold, and delicate.



This scene is by far my favourite, as what particularly stood out to me and my group is the powerful lighting used in this clip. For example, the light streaming in through the window allowing the audience to focus purely focus on Mena in the bath tub, is very effective as it connotes an idea of Mena being perceived as a shining angel by Lester. The way that Mena is sexually spread out in the bath tub and her intense expression adds to the idea of Mena portraying the image of a beautiful angel. By the fourth scene, Lester is clearly filled with sexual frustration as he is lusting after her. The ending of this clip where she beckons him into the bath tub and his hand is drawing near her, is made very intense for the audience at home as we are left with the experience of watching the intense build up finalise into a climax. The idea of the shining light has inspired us to perhaps use some sort of lighting system for the beginning of our music video, as the lyrics at the beginning of the song reference shining light.

Overall, there are very strong debates associated with the idea of the female protagonist in American Beauty being portrayed as simply a sex object. In our own music video, we shall employ voyeuristic shots in order to represent our female protagonist as very attractive and being desired by our male actor, exactly like it is in American Beauty. The debates associated with this theory is whether or not females should be objectified, and whether it is demeaning to portray females in such ways. However, stereotypically, females are always a object in males imaginations.

Developments of Music Video Idea's

After much discussion, me and my group have decided that our idea of using a narrative of a guy chasing a girl is a cliche, and over used. As a result, we have decided upon tweaking the narrative and developing upon the idea of using a spookier theme that haunts the actor in our music video as he searches for the girl.


For example, we have come up with an idea of using face masks, (which are print of our actress's Izzy's face) and placing them on around 10 extras. Then these extras will haunt our actor and they will be recurring images which keep appearing throughout our music video; basically an idea of the man dreaming and entering a bizarre world. Furthermore, this idea of a warped and spooky image will be mixed in with an idea of reality, which is where the masks shall fade away, leaving Izzy just standing there, and our actor will continue to try and find her. We have also decided upon not using Norwich Train station anymore, yet instead we shall use these following locations:

• Elm Hill - The cobbled streets shall give a feeling of wariness and shall enhance a spooky atmosphere, as Elm Hill is very traditional and has a very authentic aura. Elm Hill will juxtapose the idea of illusion and reality, which is what our group mean by wariness. For example, Elm Hill is a perfect location to mix up the idea of what normal really is, and whether or not it is just an illusion.



• Colgate Street - Again, this street in Norwich is very old, and has the ability to draw our audience into the atmosphere of a spooky theme, as using any modern street in Norwich will look out of place.



• Mulbarton Ally - A member of my group live in Mulbarton, and this ally is particularly nasty, with a really thin pathway big enough for just one person to walk down at a time, with grime brick walls either side, giving the appearance of being rather shoddy. As a result, filming in the dark will increase this warped atmosphere.

More locations will be added as we go along, as we are planning more trips for location scouting. However, we have decided that the ultimate theme we are basing our music video around is the switching between "dream scenes" and reality of the man chasing after the woman; with recurring images of masks with Izzy's face on them, as a way of showing how Izzy taunts him permanently. In another blog post I will be showing clips of Dream scenes from American Beauty as that is what influenced our idea of defining the difference between reality and dreaming.

Casting for Music Video

With much discussion with my group, we have decided with a female and male actress and actor for our video; with the narrative of the male protagonist chasing after his "girlfriend." However, we have certain profiles for our cast. For example, the female protagonist has to be of course pretty, preferably with longer hair and a slender figure. We have found an actress for our female, Izzy Davies. She fitted our profile perfectly, as she was tall and pretty, also she has had previous experience with acting, as she played a female protagonist in a previous thriller for another group in year 12, therefore we know that she would be up to the task. Izzy is also reliable, so we know that she will turn up for shooting.

For our male actor we have found Guy Walker. We had a certain profile for the male, for example we need a strong male protagonist who is handsome, but also has the ability to act out a part in chasing after a female. Although, with both our actor's we have to make sure that they don't look to young, and too much like sixth form students. However, Guy comes from a background of acting as he has been part of a Drama group for many years and has acted in various plays, therefore he knows how to act in a mature manor which will be perfect for a love story.

Overall, we are happy with our two main protagonist, and now all we need to find is extras to play the part of the "masked creatures" which will follow and haunt Guy Walker. We have decided that we need around 10 extras, and they will have to be dressed in pure black to leave there real identity hidden and left as a mystery to the audience. Therefore we can have both males and females.

Possible Locations

Me and my group have been discussing possible locations for our music video. One of our idea's so far is Norwich Train Station which is where we decided we could use as our ending scene, where the man finally finds the woman yet she is running away on a train without him, leaving the music video as a cliff hanger. The reasoning for choosing Norwich Train Station is that we think it looks authentic and the actual building is very attractive. In black and white the building would look impressive, and once inside Norwich Train Station and through the barriers, the building continues to look authentic, therefore an idea would be that the girl could run away on the train and we could film the train going away. The train is also a location which is often portrayed in certain music videos and films, as it's a good setting to use for a love story which ends in tragedy.

So far, our main idea of filming locations is using Elm Hill, as we feel it is an idea location to use for the man chasing the woman. Especially as Elm Hill contains an authentic feel, perfect for Film Noir inspired music video. Below is a picture of Elm Hill to show the location of our film:

A particular feature of Elm Hill which stood out to us as a key location is the cobbled streets, which is perfect for our music video, and the buildings look older which would look stylish in black and white. The buildings also look very British, which is obviously a key element for our music video. We are thinking of using Elm Street for the man looking for the women, and we will use a range of shots to film him, such as pan, track and close ups. However the shots we will use shall be planned fully and displayed in our storyboards.

Email to Permission to use New York Fund

Below is an email that we sent to the band asking for permission to use there song. We haven't received a reply yet, but hopefully we will get some answer.

Hi,

I'm a sixth former at CNS, Norwich, and for my Media Studies Project this year I am required to make a music video of a song by an unsigned band. I noticed on your page that you're currently unsigned and if this is true then I'd love to use your song "Nobody Home" for my project. All I ask from you is permission to use the song, but otherwise you don't need to do a thing.

I apologise for wasting your time with this, good luck with everything for the future.

Ugly Betty Challenging Female Stereotypes

I have decided to look into the topic of Ugly Betty, as this show is all based around identity, and my media investigation is based on how females and males identify themselves in terms of music. However, despite Ugly Betty being a TV programme and not a music show, it is fascinating to investigate as females identify with this programme greatly. Whether because females like to think they can connect with how Betty permanently feels unattractive, or they simply like to identify with the fashion which is involved with the programme.

Ugly Betty was launched in autumn 2007, and quickly became a hit TV show in over 40 countries; winning numerous awards. Despite in usual circumstances and audiences not taking a huge amount of notice over titles in TV programmes, Ugly Betty’s stands for an important message. The moment that the audience are hypnotised into the lovable “kooky” character of Betty Suarez, you are introduced into massive gaudy letters spelling out UGLY BETTY across the screen. This title represents the fun loving character, which however happens to be permanently judged by the actress’s appearance upon screen, which is how Ugly Betty was introduced to the world. On pilot on the first season, you are introduced to the shocking appearance of Betty, yet as the show progressed, you realise that the character of Betty is more complex and complicated than just her looks. For example, the producer’s of the show gave a statement about Ugly Betty which sum’s up her character perfectly: (ABC’s Ugly Betty’s website, 2007)

“In the superficial world of high fashion, image is everything. Styles come and go, and the only constants are the super thin beauties who wear them. How can an ordinary girl – a slightly plump plain – Jane from Queens – possibly fit in? If you took a moment to get to know Betty Suarez, you’d see how sweet, intelligent and hard – working she is. But few people do, because in the world of high fashion Betty is the over sized peg in the petite round hole.”

However, the show Ugly Betty is still un-realistic the sense that yes, Ugly Betty is just average looking in a glamorous setting of a high class fashion magazine full of beautiful stick thin models, and beautiful fixtures, yet Ugly Betty is actually a conventionally attractive woman; taking if her added over exaggerated eyebrows and braces. Realistically, the producers wouldn’t dare place a rough, butt ugly heroine as the female lead, despite being nice or not. Although, despite this, the show Ugly Betty has indeed promoted good messages that beauty is only skin deep, and has been successful in challenging the helpless female stereotype, as Betty does on fact become very strong and independent as the series progresses. The show also makes a nice change from the over used themes in TV shows such as murder and mystery. It is also obvious that Ugly Betty has made a major impact upon female audiences, as the actress who plays Ugly Betty, America Ferrera, said in an interview in 2007:

“Just last weekend, I read a letter from a young girl. I did the cover of Cosmo Girl, and she was thanking the magazine for putting me on the cover, because, “When I watched Ugly Betty, it was the first time in my life that I felt beautiful.” That was overwhelming for me. All you can ever hope to do in this business is touch one person, and yet I’m sure there were others.” (Quoted in Stranchan, 2007)

Overall, Ugly Betty is obviously a show that connects to feminity, and the comments which are shown above indicate that some women have been quite moved by the show in terms of it giving them hope to make a difference in buisness/work etc. Furthermore, females are shown to connect and identiy with the female characters shown within the TV programe and idolize the character Ugly Betty herself.

The Difference in Gender Roles for A2 Summer Project

After furthering my knowledge, and wider reading skills, it has become apparent that the difference in gender roles doesn’t just stop at music. Yet, the issue of gender has in fact been one of the most talked about topics when it comes to TV and film. For example, after reading “Media, Gender and Identity,” by David Gauntlett, the issue of gender is explored in great debt.

To begin with, Gauntlett describes how “Advertisers have by now realised that audience’s will only laugh at images of the pretty housewife, and have reacted by showing women how to be sexy at work instead.” This one quotation proves how the diversity between the expected roles of men and women have changed within the past few years, as it shows that the typical female stereotype of the “pretty housewife” is no longer taken seriously, and that the expectations of the roles of women have changed. The way that he describes that women are now shown as sexy at work however, still promotes a demeaning image, as surely they could have reacted and shown women to be in another way at work such as strong and powerful, not sexy. This determines that women are still treated differently from men, and that men still obtain the upper hand within the work force.

Furthermore, the chapter in Gauntlett’s book titled “Gender and TV: Turning the corner in the 1990’s,” explains how during the 1990’s, gender roles within television seem to be becoming more equal and non-stereotyped, however the majority of lead characters were still male. For example, in programmed such as Doctor Who, it started of with the male Doctor always being more prominent than its female sidekick, however in more recent series the female sidekick has in fact grown more powerful and is shown saving the situations in more episodes. This indicates that as we move into a new millennium, gender roles are increasingly changing. In fact, one of the shows that began airing in the 90’s which did in fact have all female leads was Sex and the City; a show which is now massively popular and even developed into a film. Sex and the City is a continually series which viewed women as having the upper hand against men, and were in fact stronger, smarter and independent without them. Sex and the City stood by promoting the message that female leads made just a TV programme just as successful as any other with a male lead, and thrived upon challenging the gender stereotypes.

The link between gender roles in TV and music industry is that watching the TV could affect the way that males and females respond differently to music. For example, from watching TV programmes which only have male leads, women are encouraged to almost take a step back, and therefore when it comes to music, they only listen to certain songs in order to bond with their friendship group as a way of making them feel more secure. Yet males are encouraged to be more opinionated, therefore tend to listen to music which they enjoy, not thinking about weather or not there friends like it to. For example, males define themselves through their discriminating approach to music, whereas females instead define themselves more through there friends, and as a result don't discriminate themselves through genres of music.

Initial Idea's for Music Video

Over the past week, me and my group have been planning initial ideas for our music video. We have chosen our final song:
New York Fund - No body Home
We found that this song had a good beat and interesting lyrics, which has the ability to give us good idea's for making a strong narrative, which is the reason we chose this song over The Shining by The Alps, as as a group we came to a decision that the lyrics were far to competitive and grew boring. Furthermore, the genre of the New York Fund is Indie Rock, therefore for our film, we will try and find actor's to personae the band, however we need to find serious actor's so it doesn't come across to the screen that we just found a "bunch" of sixth formers to play in a school gym, as they wouldn't work at all. Or, instead of finding a band which may be hard to find, me and my group are considering finding a protagonist which links are narrative to a storyline. For example, an Indie man just strumming a guitar on the street, such as a busker.
Arguments Against using a band to impersonate the New York Fund would be that:

• The band would most likely be in a setting of a garage, making it hard to link the narrative of a man chasing a woman, and the man walking across the screen at a garage when he walks past the band "looking for a girl."
• It would make editing very difficult, as we would have to time the bands miming with New York Fund perfectly, as a result making the music video look not as effective.

So far, our ideas are raw and the storyboards will be completed after a few days when our ideas have developed to create a strong storyline. Firstly, we decided to base our music video on the theme of film noir, i.e. giving our film an authentic atmosphere; basing the narrative on a storyline of a man and woman's relationship. We thought that we could use the narrative of the boy chasing the girl, and them ending up at a train station and the girl running away. As a group we came to the decision that we could have two narratives playing at the same time, one storyline following the girl running away, while the other focusing on the man chasing her. As a way to portray this across the screen, an idea of editing our music video into split screen could be a possibility. As a result, this will make an effective mise en scene, and the black and white of the music video will give the video a quirky effect.

Below are images of Film Noir, which is what inspired the theme for our music video:

Furthermore, below is a link to a website which shows the type of split screen we can use in our music video. This website explores most type of split screens which will be possible to make.

http://www.splitscreen.us/

Analysis of MGMT and Girls Aloud's Album Cover

Firstly, I think that straight away MGMT's album cover is individual, and slightly different from other albums that I see from the shelves of HMV. The main reason for this being the way that MGMT are dressed, representing an image that males can consume a constructive identity from music. The album cover itself is simple, with a mise en scene of what is obviously sea water, and a not over stated album title which is only outlines in white, and lays clearly in the middle of the cover so it catches an audiences attention.

The two men's dress sense is clearly making a statement to it's target audience that they intend to stand out from a crowed, and not typically be like everyone else. In particular, the man on the right who is wearing face paint and numerous items of bright and colourful clothing round his neck and body. This makes him appear bright and confident to a primary audience, and furthermore, the other member of MGMT is wearing a colourful scarf tied round his neck, which is made to stand out against his half naked body. His red shorts worn on his lower half connote boldness and danger, which make him appear also confident and quite "cooky."

Overall, the way that MGMT are dress, suggest to an audience that there music is intended for people who wish to also be slightly individual, and don't depend on the charts to tell them which bands to listen to.

Secondly, the Girl's Aloud album cover represent a completely different image compared to MGMT's. For example, each female member is dressed up in mini, colourful yet "girly" dresses, and none of them contain an individual look about them. In contrast with MGMT, who obviously stand out as unique. Therefore Girl's Aloud are representing an image that all females are girly and like to dress up in glamorous dress wear; not in anything "wacky" or different. Each member is also wearing high heels, which promotes that type of look to a female audience. Although, even if you weren't familiar with the band Girl's Aloud, if you looked at there numerous album covers, you would straight away guess that there genre and type of music would be very "pop" and cheesy. (A genre which already doesn't connote individuality.)

Finally, what's interesting about these two album covers is that MGMT which is the more individual album cover of the two, is a male dominated band, where-as Girl's Aloud is obviously a female dominated band, with an obvious mass market of young teens. Therefore, this suggests that males are perhaps expected to have both a taste for individual and alternative identities, whilst still are accepted into the mainstream genres of music. However, females are only accepted into the mainstream genre if they live up to female stereotypes, such as exposing there gender in a sexual way to flaunt there bodies in order to gain attention, thus them taking on homogenised identity. Hence resulting in an obvious difference in how males and genders are perceived differently by audiences.

Textual Analysis of Sugar Magazine

Researching into what message magazines such as Sugar send out to female audiences is significantly relevant to my project. To begin with, because my topic is investigating into whether or not males listen to music to construct a collective identity to a greater extent than females, these type of magazines being sold suggest that males in fact do. Reasons being that females are almost drawn into having to buy these magazines, which all contain the same content of publicizing the same pop bands, such as Rihanna and McFly. Thus suggesting that females from a young age aren't encouraged to have individual music tastes, yet are twisted into liking the same bands as every other female girl.

Sugar magazine represents an image that suggests all females contain similar interests in idea's about fashion and music tastes. Therefore suggesting that females don't really have a personal identity. For example, straight away the audience notice a mise en scene of Rihanna; a famous pop star. This indicates that a vast majority of the English female population aged 12-16 years listen to music artists and genre's such as Rihanna, and enjoy reading interviews with her. Therefore raising the question that maybe females have similar identity to each other, in terms of style and how they dress.

For instance, when you flick through the pages of Sugar magazine, they advertise similar clothes each month, coming from shops such as Topshop, H&M, New Look etc. Yet they rarely advertise clothes from more vintage or charity shops, which some females would dress from in order to look more individual. Also, to the left of the magazine, there's a headline stating "Celebs share their secrets," which indicate that young teens would actually be automatically interested in celebrities and their opinions. The typography of the actual lettering "Sugar" is stereotypically shaded in girly pink, connoting a very female image. This suggests that this magazine targets a mass market of a sample group of young teenage girls, and automatically assume that females have the same taste in music genre. Therefore as a result, females don't form a constructive identity from music; as this magazine is almost telling them to admire pop artists such as Rihanna, and furthermore only dress in clothes from the high street.

Overall, when you walk into your local newsagents or supermarket and wonder over to the magazines and comics section, you are bombarded with dozens of magazines like sugar. For example, Bliss, Teen Vogue, Cosmo Girl etc, and every single one of them have similar headlines, cover girls and "dippy" story lines jam packed inside them. Each magazine clearly has the same target audience as Sugar, therefore suggesting that a majority of females read these sorts of magazines, and get influenced into liking the same bands and artists as every other girl, simply because there isn't much choice of any other type of magazine to read.

Interview's I carried Out for A2 Summer Project

Over the past few weeks I have been going round and asking my friends of both genders, questions to do with the way they listen to music. For example, I interviewed one of my male and female friends, and asked the following questions: (The demographic and occupation of my male and female friend's were 17 year old A level students, and I interviewed them in the city at the forum during the summer holidays, in order to find out their own personal opinions.

1. Do you tend to listen to the same genre of music and bands as your friends?

Male participants reply: “Well, it depends, for example if a friend recommends a band to me, I’ll listen to them and give them a try. However, I would never pretend to like a band just because my friends like them.”

2. Do you like to think that music gives someone a sense of their own identity?

Male participants reply: “More than anything, I think that listening to music is a personal thing, and that yes, music can help someone gain a sense of identity, as a person can relate very heavily to song lyrics."

3. 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?”

Male participants reply: “Judging purely just from my female friends, I believe that females music taste are largely influenced from their friends music tastes, and they use it to bond. For instance, If I look through my female friend’s Ipod’s, I bet that there play lists are very similar."

Furthermore, I also asked a female friend the same questions, and these were the responses that I was given:

Female participants reply to question 1: “Hmm I like some of the same genre’s as my friend’s, yet at the same time my music taste is very different compared to other friend’s. I also became friends with people from meeting them at gigs.”

Female participant’s reply to question 2: “Yes, I do think that music does give someone a sense of identity. For example, some of my friend’s who are Goths, emo’s etc, have all formed there identity in dressing that way from music bands and artists such as Marilyn Manson."

Female participants reply to question 3: “I disagree with the comment that females listen to the same music as their friends just to be part of the crowd. 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."

Both these interviews show both similar and different opinions, for example, with the first question more or less similar answers, that they don’t listen to the same genre of music as their friend’s do just because they want to follow them, yet instead they do have similar tastes as certain friends, and use it as a talking point. (When my female participant stated that she met some of her friend’s from gigs.) Furthermore, with question 2, both participants said that they do indeed think that music gives you a sense of identity. However, when it came to question 3, my male participant thought that females tended to just “follow” each other in terms of music tastes, yet my female participant disagreed with this by stating that this wasn’t the case at all! Also, in terms of question 3, the type of language used could be taken as "bonding language," from words used such as bond and identity. This shows that males believe that females tend to listen to music in order to form relationships with other people, where as males seem to enjoy music individually. The type of language also indicates that audiences receive certain pleasures from listening to muisc constructively with a group of friends, as it is a way for you to bond with your peers, and form relationships based on having the same opinions as another person. This overall suggests, that perhaps males don’t listen to music in order to construct a collective identity to a greater extend than females, yet more interviews would have to be carried out to prove this theory.

Evaluation of Methodology
The evaluation of using interviews however, is that my participants may have acted differently due to pressure of having other audiences hearing their replies, therefore making my results from this part of my investigation not as reliable as they could be. However, using the method of interviews is quicker and easier compared to the method of questionnaires. This is because with questionnaires you have to wait until the participants have filled them in to receive the answers, as opposed to interviews where you just record their voice, Furthermore, interviews allow you to interview as many participants as you like; thus making it quicker than handing out dozens of questionnaires.