JJ - The Streets Video Analysis

I’m going to analyse a song from The Streets called Could Well be In, this band are a British rap band. I thought that this is similar to Jamie T’s music.



Using Goodwin, what are the forms and conventions evident in the video? The song is a narrative/ performance based piece. Therefore the visuals are mainly based on the narrative. We open to the lead singer, Michael Geoffrey Skinner, walking down the hall singing to the camera. We then have a shot of him ordering a drink singing about the girl he met, as this is happening the girl walks past him to the same character but from earlier in the evening. The audience then realises that the first Michael we see is narrating what happen that night. He summarises the night while on looking. There is a link with the song and visuals as well as lyrics. In the openening few scenes there is a piano player playing, we get the idea that he is in fact playing the beat of tune of the song. On the line "she didn't look too bored with what i was saying" we see the girl laughing at his jokes and smiling as he is talking. With the line "she had her fingers round her hair playing" the girl then play with her hair. "i felt my hair looks shit, wish i had it cut back last week" he then comes in to the toilets and checks his hiar. The line "if she plays with her hair then shes probably keen" this is part of chorus and most times it is played she plays with her hair.

How are the band/artist represented? Does this add to their 'meta-narrative' in any way? How does it help sell their product?
Skinner is represented in a good way which conforms to his typical look. He is seen wearing a Fred Perry polo shirt with the collar up and wearing a silver wrist chain. This conforms to this type of music and his audience. He is wearing a pair of jeans with white trainers. Even his hair is typical of the genre “Short back and sides”.

Is this an example of illustration or amplification? Or disjuncture?
This is an amplification of the band, this is the sort of video they would normally produce. They often do songs about love and girls. However in this song there is no mention of drugs where as in most of there other songs there are references or scenes of drugs. This song is a lot more light hearted than the others and this is shown by a slow cutting pace and little typical mise-en-scene.

Is there any intertextuality / references to popular culture? How does this create meaning for the audience?
There is no obvious intertexuality or reference to popular culture particularly. Other than the mention of football scores this could be considered a reference due to the people that listen to this type of music typically like football. This shows the audience that this rap star is like them in many ways.

What is the ideological discourse?
In this video the lead singer is a male and he is wearing typical youthful clothes. He has no stereotypical traits of a youthful male though. He sits at the bar having a drink. However we do see the lead singer on a date, when in the toilets he fixes his hair and then puts money in a condom machine. This is quite a "ladish" thing to do on a date so this is quite stereotypical. This video is shot a expensive hotel where there is a piano player playing the beat that we hear. Towards the end of the song we see the girl and the lead singer buying a rooom at the hotel. This is challenges his financial situation as earlier in the song it is mentioned that the girl works in "J.D Sports", so we also thing that he hasnt got much money.

How might the video be consumed?
It is probable that the video would be consumed on a major music channel suhch as MTV as when this song was releasd it was in the charts. Therefor would have a high demand from the public. This would need focused viewing as the narrative doesnt make much sense until the end couple of scenes plus the audience wants to know what happpens in the date.

Animatic - Jamie T - Back in the Game Group 6

This is our animatic. It was a useful project as we found how much time per shot we need. It has helped our overall progress of our video and how we will edit the video.

JJ - Evaluation of Pitch

Pitch

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When we first did our pitch we did not immediatly get the green light for our idea and we were asked to re-think some ideas. We then spent a night working on it together and we thought of some new ideas and then re-pitched and our idea was accepted. This was a great proccess as we found that our original idea wasn't as flowing as we had hoped so when we thought of the new idea we were more comfortable with the new idea.

HG - The Maccabees video analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5i3-8RWvFA

I have chosen to deconstruct a music video by The Maccabees; the track is called No Kind Words. I chose this track because it has a simple video but however is still unusual and the audience is able to get a narrative from what is seen. The track follows the genre of which we are doing our own music video to and follows some of the ideas we have created so far.

Using Goodwin, what are the forms and conventions evident in the video? Discuss links with visuals, genre, narrative, notion of looking.
The distinctive links between the visuals and the narrative is about conversing with someone, hence the title of the song, 'no kind words'. this is shown it the way that the characters in the video are sitting opposite each other and begin to talk. This slowly turns into an argument, which is evident from the mannerisms and expressions of the characters. The anger and confrontation is also shown in the animations which are displayed in between the characters heads. The animations in the video also fit in with the genre as it is a mix of retro games, and images from 'old school' games. The genre is indie which uses the idea of taking music and fashion ideas from different later eras, and making them 'in' again. There is no use of the notion of looking as none of the band members are present within the video, and there is use of two unknown characters. However one of the characters used is famous himself, Matthew Horne, which shows that this famous young man enjoys their music, and wants to appear in their video, showing the audience their connections and could almost be an incentive to listen more if someone is a fan of Matthew Horne, and wasn't a fan of The Maccabees to start with.

What visual techniques are used and why?
There is a simple layout and convention's to this video as it uses a plain black background and the characters are dressed in light coloured shirts, and are dressed to fit in the genre. The animations used also fit, in a way, with the genre, and the song meaning that even though it is a very simple video, with not a lot of things going on, its style and layout works with the track and the mood conveyed. The kind of techniques are used to give the audience a visual stimulus. The tempo of the track subtly fits in with the animations seen above the characters heads, in a way that the lyrics make it work with what the audience is seeing, giving a sense of understanding to the video. This still could be seen as a vague understanding of the video linking with the lyrics. There is also use of colours , mainly primary colours, (below), seen in in the shots of the animations that are above the characters heads. The coclours blue and red also represent the calmness of one character compared to the red anger of the other.




How are the band/artist represented? Does this add to their 'meta-narrative' in any way? How does it help sell their product?
The band is not seen in the video, however the genre and the representation of the band is still evident. This is because of the typical style of the characters used , even down to the haircut of one of the characters and the clothes worn to express the certain genre. The band is shown in a way that shows the typical conventions of the indie genre and how their audience should perceive them within the music industry. The meta-narrative is a very subtle one, as the band isn't present in the video and so how the band are and how they perform and are seen by the audience is hard to see because of the simplicity of the video.

Is this an example of illustration or amplification? Or disjuncture?

The video shows signs of disjuncture as it is not a typical archetypal video that the band would normally produce. It shows an amplification on how the band is percived and what view the audience takes from watching the video as there is still some evidence of the type of band 'The Maccabees' are and the genre of music they fir into. The amplification shown is one of childish games and the emotions shown on the characters faces, and also the argument that the two characters are in, and that the audience is connected with the situation even though the audience cannot hear the words spoken, just the song.

Is there any intertextuality / references to popular culture? How does this create meaning for the audience?
There is no obvious reference to intertexuality or popular culture as the video has a very set narrative with no performance. This means that the only visuals that the audience has are of the two characters and what they are talking about, and then the animations of the 'old school' games that are representing the characters argument/disagreement.


Could this video be considered art? Does it present any challenging ideas? or is it inherently commercial? Why is this postmodern?
The video could represent art well because of the animations shown , and even though there is little acting there is still a lot of visuals for the audience, keeping them interested and enough visuals to work the narrative out. The animations used are post modern as in comparison of some of the computer games used today, they are much more high tech. And so the images of the games that are shown are less up to date and so the audience associate the band with more retro styles, which is very popular at the moment, and also fits in well with the genre and what the band themselves are like.

How are different social groups represented through the video?
The only social groups represented are ones of the indie genre that the video is done in. This is because the only people present in the video are two characters who aren't from the band, are representing the song and what it means to the audience.The main theme in the video is confrontation, and the representation on the genre and the way that the images used show what the video is portraying.

How might this video be consumed? Channels? Ambient or focused viewing?
This video would be consumed through music channels and radio. This is because it is a well known band and is well established, and so being able to get their music played, and videos seen on music channels wouldn't be difficult for the band. The video could be either ambient or focused. However i feel it is more ambient viewing, as the video has no location, costume or character changes and there isn't a huge amount of things going on for the audience, and so could be affective for background music, instead of for the main purpose of the video.