1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our product conforms to the conventions of media in as much as our video is linked to the style of our music. The dark themes in our video, along with it having a more narrative format, are associated with the rock genre. Strong examples of this include the videos to songs like Bullet For My Valentine’s “Bittersweet Memories”, Green Day’s “21 Guns”, and one of the videos I reviewed, Theory Of A Deadman’s “Hate My Life”. I also feel that the fact that our main video not showing the umbrella image from our ancillary products (especially the album cover) is conforming to these standards, as in many rock music examples, the front covers of albums are often abstract images which seemingly don’t relate to the rest of the albums’ products in any way. Examples here which inspired our album cover include Biffy Clyro’s “Only Revolutions” and 30 Seconds To Mars’ “This Is War”.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
While the main image of the umbrella which was central on our album cover was not represented in the video, we still used linking themes to make sure the products matched up.
The main theme was simply an air of mystery. The front cover of the album which we developed pictured someone holding an umbrella towards a camera, meaning only the person’s feet were visible, while our video was shot in a point of view style, therefore leaving the main character almost completely unseen (the only shots in which any of the character was visible simply showed his hand). This air of mystery was something which we were keen to maintain as we felt it not only provided a link between the products, but conformed to a genre standard, as often rock music’s lyrics and videos has an unexplained, vague edge to it, or sometimes is even meant to deliberately confuse the audience.
One way in which we subverted these conventions while still having a link was by creating a strong contrast between the two themes. There is almost no colour whatsoever used in the video, with most of it taking place in an urban train station, thus creating a generally grey, concrete backdrop to the events. We even filmed these shots on a dark, cloudy day to keep this colourless feel. In contrast, the album cover is flooded with colours. This is such a strong contrast that it is actually memorable as a link. We even further drove this point home by titling the album “Spectrum”.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The main thing we learned from our feedback was that we needed to plan more carefully with reference to the length of the song. By not having too many incidents pre-planned for the storyline of the video, but rather a basic plotline, we fell foul of timing and had to have an extremely long middle section which drew criticism for being dull and killing the momentum from the first section of the video. Another point which arose was the need for clearer explanation – we expected with our video that people would pick up on the theme of the character’s depression, and thus grasp the reasoning behind the ending, but not making this clear enough meant that some people branded the ending of the video “confusing” and “unnecessary”, whereas we felt it fit with the plotline very well.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research & Planning: During the research and planning section of our project, the main sites we used were YouTube, Google Images and deviantart.com. YouTube was the resource we used to look at videos which were in a similar genre or style to what we wanted our final product would be, while likewise with Google Images, we looked for album covers and tour posters for artists similar to the style of music we had chosen. Finally, deviantart.com was where we found the original images which inspired our own final album cover, after narrowing it down from several possibilities.
Construction: We used a basic handheld video camera for our filming process, with no tripods. The reason for this was that it would add more realism to the idea of our point-of-view style of shot. The shaky handheld effect made it seem more like the viewpoint of our character rather than a cameraman’s filming, plus it gave us the grittier style which fitted with the darkness in our video’s theme. We edited the video using Adobe Premier Elements. The ancillary products were created by editing a single original image in Adobe Photoshop CS5 in several different ways. The website vectormagic.com was also used to change the styling of the image before editing.
Evaluation: Once again, the usage of YouTube came up here, as we showed the video to a group of classmates for Part 1 of our audience review using this video sharing website. In the first Audience Evaluation post, there is also a “word cloud” of some of the most common phrases used to describe our video, which was created using the website wordle.com. Part 2 of our Audience Evaluation used Premier Elements again as we used it’s function to export a product to DVD, burning a hard copy of our video and showing it to several different people to gain more detailed comments.
Monday 16 May 2011
Audience Evaluation - Part 2
The other part of our audience evaluation, aside from the focus group of students in our class, was to take a version of the video that we rendered out onto a DVD and show it to various friends who could comment on the video, giving us a further level of evaluation on our video, going past just one viewing in class. We had the following rough set of questions as guidelines for the viewers:
1) How do you think we could improve the video?
2) What particularly did you like about it?
3) What particularly did you dislike about it?
4) How well did the music fit the content of the video?
5) What age group do you think this video suits best?
6) If you saw the video with no sound, which genre of music would you think it belonged to?
7) What gender group do you think this video suits best?
8) How powerful an effect did the end of the video have?
There was an almost universal opinion for the first question, that we could improve the video by either putting in an extra section in the middle, or having some sort of incident happen to the character while he is walking towards the train platform. This tied in with the responses to the third question, which labelled this central section as the part most people disliked, with comments of it being “too drawn out” and “boring after a while”. However, one aspect which was commented on as being liked was the effect we put on here, by overlaying two versions of the same clip with a slight time difference, and reducing the opacity of one, we created a blurred, “drunken” visual effect which helped towards establishing the physical state of the character as he enters this final decision.
The music was pretty well complimented as fitting the video, particularly by the people who I explained some of the lyrics to, who said the incidents happening in the video matched well with the lyrics of the song, and also that the generally dark feel of the video went well with the title of the song, “Rock Is Cursed”, and it’s general storyline of someone being out of luck and at the end of their rope. Most people accurately said that if they just saw the video with no audio over it, it would probably still reflect the rock genre, with other answers being the metal genre, as it is often darker, and one suggestion of punk rock. Due to the themes of alcoholism and depression in the video, along with the dark ending of the character’s probable suicide, most viewers said the video was best aimed at a slightly more mature audience. The almost universal thought was that the video and music suited males more than females, with a girl who the video was shown to commenting that it was “too depressing”.
People’s opinions on the end of the video were varied. Some who saw it thought it was indeed very powerful, and had tremendous shock value, while others thought it was unnecessary and made our video depressing. Overall, we feel that the ending was a good decision, as it makes out video much more memorable, and really pushes to the forefront the effects of depression on our central character.
1) How do you think we could improve the video?
2) What particularly did you like about it?
3) What particularly did you dislike about it?
4) How well did the music fit the content of the video?
5) What age group do you think this video suits best?
6) If you saw the video with no sound, which genre of music would you think it belonged to?
7) What gender group do you think this video suits best?
8) How powerful an effect did the end of the video have?
There was an almost universal opinion for the first question, that we could improve the video by either putting in an extra section in the middle, or having some sort of incident happen to the character while he is walking towards the train platform. This tied in with the responses to the third question, which labelled this central section as the part most people disliked, with comments of it being “too drawn out” and “boring after a while”. However, one aspect which was commented on as being liked was the effect we put on here, by overlaying two versions of the same clip with a slight time difference, and reducing the opacity of one, we created a blurred, “drunken” visual effect which helped towards establishing the physical state of the character as he enters this final decision.
The music was pretty well complimented as fitting the video, particularly by the people who I explained some of the lyrics to, who said the incidents happening in the video matched well with the lyrics of the song, and also that the generally dark feel of the video went well with the title of the song, “Rock Is Cursed”, and it’s general storyline of someone being out of luck and at the end of their rope. Most people accurately said that if they just saw the video with no audio over it, it would probably still reflect the rock genre, with other answers being the metal genre, as it is often darker, and one suggestion of punk rock. Due to the themes of alcoholism and depression in the video, along with the dark ending of the character’s probable suicide, most viewers said the video was best aimed at a slightly more mature audience. The almost universal thought was that the video and music suited males more than females, with a girl who the video was shown to commenting that it was “too depressing”.
People’s opinions on the end of the video were varied. Some who saw it thought it was indeed very powerful, and had tremendous shock value, while others thought it was unnecessary and made our video depressing. Overall, we feel that the ending was a good decision, as it makes out video much more memorable, and really pushes to the forefront the effects of depression on our central character.
Friday 6 May 2011
Choice of Image & Permission For Usage
After viewing the literally titled first drafts, the group had to decide on which image to go with as the final choice. I at first pushed for using either the image titled "Some Kind Of Bird" or "Man On Bridge And Gloomy Weather" for the darker connotations which I felt fitted the genre, but after some thought, the group decided to use the "Rainbow Umbrella" image, in it's original colour rather than the black and white version, as it fitted with the sense of mystery we had introduced in the video by never showing the main character. Jobe got in contact with the artist of the image and gained her permission with the following messages:
Jobe:
Hey Mary,
I have a favor to ask.
As part of my college course, I'm required to produce a concept for an album cover. It would be fantastic if I would be able to get permission to use one of your pieces as the main artwork, namely "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
Of course I fully understand if you want to refuse. I know someone asking this out of the blue probably seems a little strange.
But yeah, if you can get back to me with an answer as soon as possible, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for your time.
Mary:
it is ok, you can use it
Original Stock Image: "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
Jobe:
Hey Mary,
I have a favor to ask.
As part of my college course, I'm required to produce a concept for an album cover. It would be fantastic if I would be able to get permission to use one of your pieces as the main artwork, namely "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
Of course I fully understand if you want to refuse. I know someone asking this out of the blue probably seems a little strange.
But yeah, if you can get back to me with an answer as soon as possible, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for your time.
Mary:
it is ok, you can use it
Original Stock Image: "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
Album Cover First Drafts
At this point in the project, the group split the responsibilities between us. while myself and Paul concentrated on filming and editing the video, Jobe moved onto the graphics work, and created several draft ideas from images found on deviantart.com. While we were waiting for permission to use some of the images, and deciding on our final album title, he simply made the drafts using literal titles.
We asked a group of our classmates to watch and comment on our video during one Media lesson. There were comments that the video was thought provoking, and that the ending was quite powerful. However, the ending was also said to be unclear. The main cirticisms were of the section with our main character walking towards the train platform as being too long, although the effect we put on to enhance the connotation of him being drunk was complimented as being effective. The other major criticism was of a filming error, when during the first section of the video, Paul is clearly seen putting his thumb over the mouth of a bottle before taking it back to drink from it. This was the worst filming error we made, but we unfortunately noticed too late into the editing process to go back and re-film this segment.
Album Cover Ideas
While thinking about our album covers, it became clear that due to Spy Catcher's commitments to recording their upcoming album, they would not be touring soon, and thus we would not have the option of having an artist photo on our album's front cover. However, this did not present a problem, as we had already been thinking that our album may be more suited to a cover without an artist picture, as this seemed to be a common option in our chosen genre of music. We saved a collection of album covers which displayed this fact to use as inspiration for ideas. A selection of these covers which closely inspired our final choices included:
Every Avenue - Picture Perfect
Green Day - American Idiot
Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
You Me At Six - Hold Me Down
Every Avenue - Picture Perfect
Green Day - American Idiot
Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
You Me At Six - Hold Me Down
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Crew & Equipment List
We only used one handheld video camera for our video, a Panasonic SDR-S26. The reasoning for this was that the Point-Of-View shooting style that we used didn't require any more equipment, as the shot was taken from a hand-held position for realism, therefore meaning we didn't need any items such as gorilla pods, tripods or multiple cameras. In the first portion of the video, the necessary crew was limited to two members, due to multiple shots of the unseen character's arm and hand, lifting a bottle, opening letters and opening the front door of the house. Therefore, while one member of the group was holding the camera, a second walked next to him, as a "hand actor", actually performing the actions where a hand was visible on screen. For the second half of the video, the actor remained entirely unseen, and therefore only one crew member was necessary, simply to hold the camera and film the final scenes.
Artist Info
Spy Catcher are a four-piece rock band from Watford, United Kingdom formed by former members of Gallows, Cry For Silence and Haunts. It is made up of the following members:
Steve Sears Jr - Vocals/Guitar
Mitch Mitchener - Guitar
Stu Gili-Ross - Bass
Alistair Gordon - Drums
'Music That My Dad Likes' received BBC Radio 1 unsigned track of the week and featured in Kerrang's 'Ten Songs You Should Hear Now'. They have produced and rcorded all their own releases, including their debut EP "Rock Is Cursed", which came out on August 10th 2009.
The band have been known to distribute music for free; a digital version of the rare demo was given away for two weeks after selling out of physical copies before disappearing altogether and the title track of 'Rock Is Cursed EP' is also available.
Discography:
Untitled Demo (2009)
"Rock Is Cursed" - EP (2009)
"Honesty" (2011 - Upcoming)
Steve Sears Jr - Vocals/Guitar
Mitch Mitchener - Guitar
Stu Gili-Ross - Bass
Alistair Gordon - Drums
'Music That My Dad Likes' received BBC Radio 1 unsigned track of the week and featured in Kerrang's 'Ten Songs You Should Hear Now'. They have produced and rcorded all their own releases, including their debut EP "Rock Is Cursed", which came out on August 10th 2009.
The band have been known to distribute music for free; a digital version of the rare demo was given away for two weeks after selling out of physical copies before disappearing altogether and the title track of 'Rock Is Cursed EP' is also available.
Discography:
Untitled Demo (2009)
"Rock Is Cursed" - EP (2009)
"Honesty" (2011 - Upcoming)
Wednesday 16 March 2011
Early Stages Of Planning
The group's planning started off pretty easily, as after discussing between ourselves what styles of music video we liked, and what we thought would fit the style of our music, the idea of a P.O.V. video was originally decided. This inspiration came partially from one of the most well known videos in modern music, The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony", which depicts the band's leaad singer Richard Ashcroft walking down a road whilst singing the song. The concept we originally had was seeing a similar, abstract video, but from the singer's point of view. However, this idea soon ran into problems in the way of disagreement within the group. Jobe had the idea of changing the continuous, one-shot method into a series of images put together into a stop-motion style video. This friction created a temporary stop to production as we debated on which style would be more effective, with myself putting forward the case for the original P.O.V. idea and Jobe supporting the stop-motion effect. However, the decision was originally made to stick with the original concept, due to the agreement that this style would present less problems during filming, and would also suit our music more than the stop-motion idea. However, during these discussions, we also decided that it would be a better idea to have more of a narrative theme to the video rather than the original abstract theme, as it would help us to produce a better storyboard, and therefore would make the filming process simpler as we would have a clear idea of what and when we needed to film. The story was then written for the video featuring an unseen main character, the character who's point of view we are ostensibly viewing the video through, whose life is clearly on a downward spiral. Taking the inspiration for our story almost entirely from the lyrics in the opening verse of our chosen song, we built a picture of an alcoholic man who has spiralled almost out of control. The opening line of the song gave us the idea of our central character, as it opens the theme which runs through the lyrics, of someone being "down on their luck". The images we see in the first section of the video, the internal house shot, are themed almost entirely on the lyrics of the video. The mentions of alcohol in the lyrics gave the theme of our character appearing to be an alcoholic, and the line "I've never had so many bills to pay" directly gave us the idea of having the character have bills hanging out of his letterbox, and them being thrown onto an increasing pile of bills on the table. We then ran with the idea of the character we had created, and in search of a powerful, enigmatic ending to our video, came up with the final shot of him throwing himself off of a train platform. However, our original idea was much removed from the final product. In our first plan, the character was going to spend less time in the house than he actually did, and the camera cut used early on where he laves the house and looks into the sky was going to come down in a city centre, rather than a local station. However, we eventually changed this as the local station was an easier location to film in, and we had more ideas for the scene inside the character's house. However, the ending of the video remained constant, as we had always thought this would make for a strong, effective ending which would make our video much more memorable.
Friday 4 March 2011
Song Lyrics
Spy Catcher - Rock Is Cursed
I'm down on my luck what can I say?
I never had so many bills to pay;
And I won't change that around in a night;
Trouble seems to flow out of a guy like wine;
An hour here and we'll feel fine;
We'll drink our woes goodbye;
Get in a round and I'll swing by;
We're changing for the worse;
Say you'll just be there to wave my hearse.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is rock and that is roll.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is just rock and that is roll.
I'm down for the race what can I say?
I heard that loads of people die that way;
and I won't change that around in a night;
Trouble seems to flow out of a guy like wine;
An hour here and we'll be fine;
We'll drink our woes goodbye;
get in a round and I'll swing by;
We're changing for the worse;
Say you'll just be there to wave my hearse.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is rock and that is roll.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is just rock and that is roll.
That is rock
That is roll (Repeat)
And I'll be there...
I'm down on my luck what can I say?
I never had so many bills to pay;
And I won't change that around in a night;
Trouble seems to flow out of a guy like wine;
An hour here and we'll feel fine;
We'll drink our woes goodbye;
Get in a round and I'll swing by;
We're changing for the worse;
Say you'll just be there to wave my hearse.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is rock and that is roll.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is just rock and that is roll.
I'm down for the race what can I say?
I heard that loads of people die that way;
and I won't change that around in a night;
Trouble seems to flow out of a guy like wine;
An hour here and we'll be fine;
We'll drink our woes goodbye;
get in a round and I'll swing by;
We're changing for the worse;
Say you'll just be there to wave my hearse.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is rock and that is roll.
They say time it takes its toll;
Well that is just rock and that is roll.
That is rock
That is roll (Repeat)
And I'll be there...
Song Choice & Permission
The reasoning behind our choice of Spy Catcher's "Rock Is Cursed" was due to my existing relationship with the band. I'd contacted them a couple of times in the past through Facebook after having seen the band live, and therefore it was easy for me to get in touch with them and ask for their permission to use their music. I contacted the band through both their official Facebook account, and the band's e-mail. I also had some contact with guitar player Steve Sears Jr. through his Facebook account, as he supplied me with the lyrics for the song. Originally, we had wanted to use a different Spy Catcher song, "Nobody Listens", but the band asked us to use a different song as for legal reasons, they did not want us to use an upcoming single for our project.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Video Analysis 3: "Good Charlotte - Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous"
Link to video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKyvG9xpJcw
The video for Good Charlotte’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” is a video which contains both performance and narrative aspects. The opening section of the video is almost entirely performance, however it does introduce a relation to the narrative section, as the very beginning of the video shows an aerial shot of a helicopter shining a spotlight on the front of an unidentified building, with a news-style caption of “Beverly Hills – Breaking News” in the bottom corner, clearly showing that whatever is happening is some sort of important story. The camera then cuts to the front of the building, where Good Charlotte are assembled and begin to play. An effect is applied to the video of a newspaper page being ripped aside, accentuating the idea of the video being a news story. There is a side-on shot from a CCTV camera shown, raising the possibility that the band’s actions are being considered a crime. After quick cuts between another aerial shot of police cars complete with the news caption, and the band performing, the scene changes to an interrogation room, with lead singer Joel Madden sat opposite a police officer, still singing the lyrics. A few quick cuts are made here between several previous shots, such as the CCTV camera angle and a close-up on Madden as the band perform. We then see various members of the band in the same interrogation room, being shouted at, pushed and generally mistreated by the police. This is as a statement of how police are biased towards celebrity, which will unfold further later on in the video. At this point, a theme is introduced which runs through the rest of the video, as a shot of Madden singing is frozen in frame, with a solid colour filter over the shot, in this case white, with the word “week”, which Madden has just sung in the lyric “I’d like to see them spend a week”, spelt out in letters made to look like they have been cut out of newspapers in the ‘poison pen’ style. This is a theme which has a twofold effect – firstly, it refers to one of the lyrical themes of the song, namely the media’s bias towards famous figures and censorship of anyone who stands out against them. Secondly, this is also a small piece of intertextuality. Good Charlotte are a band who perform in the punk rock genre, and this ‘poison pen’ style of writing they use is a tribute to a band many perceive to be the original punk rock band, The Sex Pistols, who were famed for using this style of writing on album and single covers, perhaps most notably on the anti-monarchy anthem “God Save The Queen”, the cover of which also displays the censorship aspect which Good Charlotte’s video has as a central theme. The remainder of the bridge section is shown in the same style, with quick cuts between the various members of the band being interrogated, along with a wide shot of the band’s performance on the steps outside the building seen in the opening shot. As the song hits the chorus, the band are seen to have been arrested, and are sharing a prison cell in matching uniforms. They are pressed against the bars as if trying to appeal for release, while Madden, at the front of the group with his arms and face through the bars, sings the lyrics towards the camera s it zooms into him. The shadow from the central crossbar is across his eyes, obscuring them from view, in a parody of the classic form of photo/video censorship of a black line across the eyes. The remainder of the chorus is viewed in a mixture of performance shots of the band on the steps, and shots continuing the narrative, showing the band singing in a prison cell, along with various prison interior shots. The second verse contains with a fast montage of various representations of the poison pen and newspaper style shots across the screen, all synched in as visual representations of the lyrics of the song, such as money flashing into the shot when the line “as long as you’ve got the cash” is sung. As the song enters the bridge for the second time, the narrative is moved on with a shot of the band being led into a courtroom in chains, with a faked “Trial TV” logo in the corner of the shot, continuing the lampooning of the media which is the central theme of the video. The trial is then established by showing shots of the characters of a lawyer against the band, and the judge sat at a table. Spliced in alongside more shots of the performance which runs through the video, Joel Madden is seen walking into the courtroom singing at the assembled people in the room. As the bridge finishes, there are several guitar chords played in a row. With each of these, the shot cuts to a different person or set of people, including the judge, lawyers, public gathered in the courtroom, jury and the band themselves, all with the censorship black bars across their eyes, mouth, or both. The trial is shown to begin at the start of the chorus, with Joel Madden shown in the witness stand, singing the lyrics as his testimony. The lawyer is heard shouting over the lyrics, declaring “that’s not music!” and yelling “I object” as Joel’s testimony, the chorus, finishes, while Joel is pushed to the ground by a courtroom officer. This is meant to parody the mass media’s ignoring of certain styles of music, and the fact that Good Charlotte were not seen as “mainstream” artists. During an instrumental section of the song, the lawyer calls witnesses for his side of the case. Two characters immediately shown are those who the band are showing as being the media’s supposed favoured types of people, a clearly rich man who identifies himself as “Chadwick Merryweather Hardick The 3rd”, and a blonde woman who is clearly meant to portray the “bimbo” character, responding when asked her name with “Can I get back to you with that?” They then proceed to state the opinions which Good Charlotte face from the mainstream media, including the first character insulting their supposed fashion sense despite his own questionable dress sense. The video then shows the supposed idiocy of the media by showing the lawyer strongly asking “Is it true, that the accused treated you like a dog?” The shot then cuts to a dog on the witness stand, before showing the band in shame at their supposed actions. The instrumental ends with the foreman of the jury being asked for his verdict. He states as the instrumental is coming to it’s very end, “We find the defendants...” but the verdict is not announced. The video cuts to the band exiting the courtroom all now wearing tuxedos, which is what they are wearing in the performance shots. The media are shown interviewing the blonde woman from the trial, but running away from her to interview the band instead. She looks visibly shaken and upset. The remainder of the shot is a mixture of the band being interviewed and the performance shots. The narrative order of the video is therefore left deliberately ambiguous, as the performance which we assume to be the start of the problems could in fact represent the end of the story, and the verdict of the jury is also never explicitly stated, although we can assume they were found not guilty due to their exit of the courtroom at the end of the video.
The video for Good Charlotte’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” is a video which contains both performance and narrative aspects. The opening section of the video is almost entirely performance, however it does introduce a relation to the narrative section, as the very beginning of the video shows an aerial shot of a helicopter shining a spotlight on the front of an unidentified building, with a news-style caption of “Beverly Hills – Breaking News” in the bottom corner, clearly showing that whatever is happening is some sort of important story. The camera then cuts to the front of the building, where Good Charlotte are assembled and begin to play. An effect is applied to the video of a newspaper page being ripped aside, accentuating the idea of the video being a news story. There is a side-on shot from a CCTV camera shown, raising the possibility that the band’s actions are being considered a crime. After quick cuts between another aerial shot of police cars complete with the news caption, and the band performing, the scene changes to an interrogation room, with lead singer Joel Madden sat opposite a police officer, still singing the lyrics. A few quick cuts are made here between several previous shots, such as the CCTV camera angle and a close-up on Madden as the band perform. We then see various members of the band in the same interrogation room, being shouted at, pushed and generally mistreated by the police. This is as a statement of how police are biased towards celebrity, which will unfold further later on in the video. At this point, a theme is introduced which runs through the rest of the video, as a shot of Madden singing is frozen in frame, with a solid colour filter over the shot, in this case white, with the word “week”, which Madden has just sung in the lyric “I’d like to see them spend a week”, spelt out in letters made to look like they have been cut out of newspapers in the ‘poison pen’ style. This is a theme which has a twofold effect – firstly, it refers to one of the lyrical themes of the song, namely the media’s bias towards famous figures and censorship of anyone who stands out against them. Secondly, this is also a small piece of intertextuality. Good Charlotte are a band who perform in the punk rock genre, and this ‘poison pen’ style of writing they use is a tribute to a band many perceive to be the original punk rock band, The Sex Pistols, who were famed for using this style of writing on album and single covers, perhaps most notably on the anti-monarchy anthem “God Save The Queen”, the cover of which also displays the censorship aspect which Good Charlotte’s video has as a central theme. The remainder of the bridge section is shown in the same style, with quick cuts between the various members of the band being interrogated, along with a wide shot of the band’s performance on the steps outside the building seen in the opening shot. As the song hits the chorus, the band are seen to have been arrested, and are sharing a prison cell in matching uniforms. They are pressed against the bars as if trying to appeal for release, while Madden, at the front of the group with his arms and face through the bars, sings the lyrics towards the camera s it zooms into him. The shadow from the central crossbar is across his eyes, obscuring them from view, in a parody of the classic form of photo/video censorship of a black line across the eyes. The remainder of the chorus is viewed in a mixture of performance shots of the band on the steps, and shots continuing the narrative, showing the band singing in a prison cell, along with various prison interior shots. The second verse contains with a fast montage of various representations of the poison pen and newspaper style shots across the screen, all synched in as visual representations of the lyrics of the song, such as money flashing into the shot when the line “as long as you’ve got the cash” is sung. As the song enters the bridge for the second time, the narrative is moved on with a shot of the band being led into a courtroom in chains, with a faked “Trial TV” logo in the corner of the shot, continuing the lampooning of the media which is the central theme of the video. The trial is then established by showing shots of the characters of a lawyer against the band, and the judge sat at a table. Spliced in alongside more shots of the performance which runs through the video, Joel Madden is seen walking into the courtroom singing at the assembled people in the room. As the bridge finishes, there are several guitar chords played in a row. With each of these, the shot cuts to a different person or set of people, including the judge, lawyers, public gathered in the courtroom, jury and the band themselves, all with the censorship black bars across their eyes, mouth, or both. The trial is shown to begin at the start of the chorus, with Joel Madden shown in the witness stand, singing the lyrics as his testimony. The lawyer is heard shouting over the lyrics, declaring “that’s not music!” and yelling “I object” as Joel’s testimony, the chorus, finishes, while Joel is pushed to the ground by a courtroom officer. This is meant to parody the mass media’s ignoring of certain styles of music, and the fact that Good Charlotte were not seen as “mainstream” artists. During an instrumental section of the song, the lawyer calls witnesses for his side of the case. Two characters immediately shown are those who the band are showing as being the media’s supposed favoured types of people, a clearly rich man who identifies himself as “Chadwick Merryweather Hardick The 3rd”, and a blonde woman who is clearly meant to portray the “bimbo” character, responding when asked her name with “Can I get back to you with that?” They then proceed to state the opinions which Good Charlotte face from the mainstream media, including the first character insulting their supposed fashion sense despite his own questionable dress sense. The video then shows the supposed idiocy of the media by showing the lawyer strongly asking “Is it true, that the accused treated you like a dog?” The shot then cuts to a dog on the witness stand, before showing the band in shame at their supposed actions. The instrumental ends with the foreman of the jury being asked for his verdict. He states as the instrumental is coming to it’s very end, “We find the defendants...” but the verdict is not announced. The video cuts to the band exiting the courtroom all now wearing tuxedos, which is what they are wearing in the performance shots. The media are shown interviewing the blonde woman from the trial, but running away from her to interview the band instead. She looks visibly shaken and upset. The remainder of the shot is a mixture of the band being interviewed and the performance shots. The narrative order of the video is therefore left deliberately ambiguous, as the performance which we assume to be the start of the problems could in fact represent the end of the story, and the verdict of the jury is also never explicitly stated, although we can assume they were found not guilty due to their exit of the courtroom at the end of the video.
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