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 However, the decision was originally made to stick with the original concept, due to the agreement that this style would present less problems during filming, and would also suit our music more than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.

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...

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.

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.