Digipack

Tried to represent the mood of the song and album with the dark colours and desaturated images.

Magazine Advert

This is my magazine advert for The Streets fictional album Dry Your Eyes.

The Finished Article

Here it is, the result of many hours of editing and trying hard to be serious on camera. Leave your comments on the blog post or the youtube video, all praise and criticisms welcome!

Digipack Front Cover Image

This is the image I am going to use for my front cover. The morose facial expression along with the de-saturated colours reflect the sombre mood of the album.

Technical Analysis of a Music Video

Technical Analysis of a Music Video



The second video I'm going to take a look at is the video for the Foo Fighters song Learn To Fly. I've chosen this as it is a very amusing video and, although it's nothing like our video or the song we are using, it is good to see people putting on a show in a music video, and Dave Grohl is arguably the best of the business in that department right now.

Grohl puts in a fantastic comic performance in this video in many guises, the camp male flight attendant, the jock-ish pilot, the awestruck teenage girl, the cheerful fat lady and, of course, himself. He has always been a source of comic relief in his band's music videos, dating back to when he was a drummer in Nirvana, and his videos are often opportunities for him to express his flamboyant nature.

Digipack Images So Far

Just a couple of the shots I'm using for the digipack. Trying to create a sombre morose mood, one of frustration and isolation.

Call Sheet

Cast/Crew of Production 

Humayra Khan - Editor
Contact number - 07572354647
Email address - humayra.k@hotmail.co.uk


Elizabeth Mensah-Tandoh - Director/Cameraman
Contact number - 07932044157
Email address - emensahtandoh@gmail.com


Dan Smith - Leading actor/Editor
Contact number - 07944738736
Email address - dan-da-man-92@hotmail.co.uk


Tamara Birch - Sound 
Contact number - 07931654833
Email Address - tamarabirch94@hotmail.co.uk


(Extras)
Melissa - Leading actress
Contact number - 07723554487
Email Address - melissa93@hotmail.com

Production Update 3

Minor crisis, our actress wasn't going to be available enough for us to complete the video. So we took it on ourselves to find a new star and we decided on Melissa, plus she goes to the college so is readily available. Got a lot of happy soppy shots and also shot the argument that is depicted in the song.

Production Update 2

The first time filming with our actress, Lauren, who is playing the singer's estranged ex-girlfriend. Got some good shots and our actress was very serious and had to play an extremely difficult role, pretending she fancied me! All in all a decent days shooting.

Animatic

Production Update 1

Started filming today and one of the main problems we encountered was my stage fright! Once I got over myself it all went swimmingly and we picked up some good shots for the ending and some other generic shots that we will place when we start to edit. Overall, a successful first day out with the camera!

Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine Advert Analysis

The first magazine advert I am going to look at is the advert for the album Dirt by Kids in Glass Houses. I think this is a very interesting advert as it uses contrapuntal imagery and interesting typography.

The first thing to look at is the main image, which is also the name of the album, Dirt. The word dirt conjures images of filth, poverty and just generally negative thoughts. The word Dirt in this advert is spelt in flowers, which suggests beauty and femininity, almost the complete opposite in terms of connotations to the word dirt. The two contrasting factors combined suggests maybe a hidden beauty, or possibly shady characters in disguise. It is a very eye-catching use of an oxymoronic image which could carry a number of intended meanings and connotations. There are also flowers arranged around the top and bottom of the ad, further indicating positivity amongst the dirt.

The typography used for the bands name is a basic one with a few tweaks. The font is a contemporary one, but the filled in gaps on the D, A and O in the words could suggest that they are closed off, which could mean that music is where they can express their feelings and emotions. It could also suggest a hidden side or quality, or perhaps a hidden element to their music that makes it unique. This suggestive style, along with the main image, contribute to a surprisingly thought-provoking advert.

Lyrics

Dry Your Eyes Lyrics

This song chronicles the breakdown in the relationship of Mike Skinner, The Streets, and a girl he meets earlier in the album named Simone. The themes in this song are dark and morose, as Mike desperately tries to win Simone over and get her to reconsider her position.

In one single moment your whole life can turn 'round
I stand there for a minute starin' straight into the ground
Lookin' to the left slightly, then lookin' back down
World feels like it's caved in - proper sorry frown
Please let me show you where we could only just be, for us
I can change and I can grow or we could adjust
The wicked thing about us is we always have trust
We can even have an open relationship, if you must

This is the first example in the song of conversation between Mike and Simone, and quickly shows his feelings on the break-up as he demonstrates the lengths he would go to to keep her. The suggestion of an 'open relationship' also shows the desperation of the protagonist.

I look at her she stares almost straight back at me
But her eyes glaze over like she's lookin' straight through me
Then her eyes must have closed for what seems an eternity
When they open up she's lookin' down at her feet

Dry your eyes mate
I know it's hard to take but her mind has been made up
There's plenty more fish in the sea
Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now
It's over

The hook is an important part of the song as it is almost as though Mike's conscience is telling him not to throw himself at Simone and leave himself at her mercy. In the line 'I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts' also references the difficulty in which Mike, and men in general, have in expressing emotional pain towards a female, due to the fact that crying still challenges the hegemonic represenation of masculinity. The idea that this is his inner-monologue is also an interesting thing to film, and we are toying with the idea of having our lead talking to himself in the shot, if we can figure out how to do it that is!

So then I move my hand up from down by my side
It's shakin', my life is crashin' before my eyes
Turn the palm of my hand up to face the skies
Touch the bottom of her chin and let out a sigh
'Cause I can't imagine my life without you and me
There's things I can't imagine doin', things I can't imagine seein'
It weren't supposed to be easy, surely
Please, please, I'm beggin' please

Desperation can be seen again with the second exchange between the estranged couple, as Mike goes as far as to beg Simone to take him back. The interesting thing about this song is that Mike is the sinned against party in this relationship as he discovered that Simone was sleeping with one of his best friends, a revelation which comes in the song What Is He Thinking? It is therefore surprising that Mike is the one who is begging Simone, atypical considering the fact that he is the one who has been cheated on.

She brings her hands up towards where my hands rested
She wraps her fingers round mine with the softness she's blessed with
She peels away my fingers, looks at me and then gestures
By pushin' my hand away to my chest, from hers

Dry your eyes mate
I know it's hard to take but her mind has been made up
There's plenty more fish in the sea
Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now
It's over

And I'm just standin' there, I can't say a word
'Cause everythin's just gone
I've got nothin'
Absolutely nothin'

This short excert shows the depths of Mike's desperation, and the very emotive language shows that he feels truly empty and lost without Simone. This references the theme of alienation and also the theme of desperation, and is very effective in showing the listener the intensity of Mike's depression over the loss of a woman who he was in love with.

Tryin' to pull her close out of bare desperation
Put my arms around her tryin' to change what she's sayin'
Pull my head level with hers so she might engage in
Look into her eyes to make her listen again
I'm not gonna fuckin', just fuckin' leave it all now
'Cause you said it'd be forever and that was your vow
And you're gonna let our things simply crash and fall down
You're well out of order now, this is well out of town

This is the part when Mike really begins to lose composure. After spending the song begging and pleading with Simone, his frustration with her cold shoulder boils over and he wants to know how she could walk away from him in spite of what she's done and what he's said. The swearing, 'I'm not gonna fuckin' just fuckin' leave it all now', shows his anger, which is the method he and many men resort to when trying to express his pain without crying. This is when the listener realises that it really is over, as swearing and shouting rarely results in restoration of equilibrium.

She pulls away, my arms are tightly clamped round her waist
Gently pushes me back and she looks at me straight
Turns around so she's now got her back to my face
Takes one step forward, looks back, and then walks away

Dry your eyes mate
I know it's hard to take but her mind has been made up
There's plenty more fish in the sea
Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now
It's over

I know in the past I've found it hard to say
Tellin' you things, but not tellin' straight
But the more I pull on your hand and say
The more you pull away


Dry your eyes mate
I know it's hard to take but her mind has been made up
There's plenty more fish in the sea
Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now.

The lyrics to this song present various settings for us to film in, with the conversation between the couple being in a restaurant or pub of some kind, the chorus hopefully showing the lead telling himself to let go, and the remainder of the song being shot in various places a man might go to ease the pain of heartbreak.

Contact With the Artist

Tweeting the Label

Thought it would be a good idea to Tweet the record label rather than the conventional e-mail, will update if we get a reply!

Target Audience Research

This is the video of our audience research. The questions and answers were all geared towards giving us an idea of what our video should include and look like.

Moodboard

The song we are using, Dry Your Eyes by The Streets, features a very sombre mood. Themes of heartbreak, isolation, desperation and pain are all present in the song, but are represented in a very masculine way by the way he holds back and doesn't fully let go of his emotions except for an angry exchange near the end of the song.

Star Analysis - Marshall Mathers/Eminem/Slim Shady

Eminem

Eminem is an artist whose impact on the hip-hop scene has been mammoth, and his unique style has opened the door for white rappers to be taken seriously in a genre that has previously been exclusively black. With his inimitable flows and his powerful thought-provoking lyrics, Eminem will go down in history as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Whether its' his darkly humorous depictions of violence, his brutally honest auto-biographical ballads, or his uncompromising critique of his country's Government, you'll be hard stretched to find a more widely popular recording rapper in the World right now.

Influences


Em has identified various rappers, some well known some obscure, as influences for his style. Lyrically, Eminem notes old-school MC Big Daddy Kane as one of his biggest inspirations. Kane's experimental style of rhyming and use of multi-syllable rhyming has been taken to another level by Em. He also notes that The Beastie Boys were an influence in developing his techniques. Other rappers he includes are Run DMC, Ice T, Newcleus, Kool G Rap and many more.

In a book entitled 'How To Rap' Guerilla Black says "Eminem listened to everything and that's what made him one of the greats". Having such a diverse taste in hip-hop allowed him to take various aspects from these artist's success and put his own twist on them, creating a style that is already being imitated by emerging recording artists.

The Personas

Eminem has created three unique personas and these have been heavily assisted in their establishment is his use of music videos. These three personas are Slim Shady, who is the drug-taking murdering side of Eminem. Marshall Mathers, whose songs are generally autobiographical and are about Marshall's hard upbringing and poverty-stricken life. Finally there is Eminem, who is Marshall's commercial persona and his songs are usually the ones that end up being released.

The first video I will look at is the video for the song Without Me.

This song and video is typical Eminem, with its' ruthless ribbing of various deserving and undeserving celebrities as well as mocking some who have spoken against him in the media. This is something Eminem utilises in public arguments brilliantly, as the comments against him are generally in interviews whereas his damning verdicts on his critics are immortalised in songs that are usually high-ranking chart hits.

Another aspect of Eminem's videos is that he is never afraid to send himself up as well as his adversaries. I think that this is another recognisable feature of Eminem's personality compared to the other two characters who are both more aligned with much darker themes. It also endears him to the public more as they recognise that although he does insult other people he isn't afraid to taste his own medicine, even if it is self-administered!

A video for an Eminem song in the persona of Slim Shady is the video for the song Role Model.

Slim Shady is the darkest persona Eminem has in terms of content and humour, yet his songs are some of Em's most lyrically brilliant and he experiments a lot more with different rhyming schemes, sometimes borrowing from artists as far back as Big Daddy Kane. Although his songs are much less well-recieved than any songs in the other personas. This is because whilst Eminem gains notoriety for roasting his critics in his songs, Slim Shady courts controversy in a much more direct way in both lyrics and videos. This video features him frequently rapping in a vicar's robes and reinforcing negative stereotypes that were very much in the newspapers around the time of release. This screenshot shows him on a bed with a small boy lifting his robe up. This particular video is the uncensored version but it was easily viewable on late night music channel request shows and on the internet and it caused a massive media and public backlash. It is one of Eminem's earliest releases and videos as well as being one of the most controversial.

 In this screenshot Eminem is rapping in the video and he says the lines: "me and Marcus Allen went over to see Nicole (Brown-Simpson), when we heard a knock at the door, must've been Ron Gold, jumped behind the door put the orgy on hold killed them both and smeared blood on her white Bronco". This is a very controversial part of the song which was unsurprisingly ommited from the radio edit, and references the killings of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Gold and Slim Shady claims he killed them with Marcus Allen, who was a professional footballer. It's a line that even the most controversial of pop-stars could ever have dreamed up and even if they had they would never have used it, but Eminem is not afraid of lawsuits, bad press or even the scathing criticisms he got from various publications and groups.

The third video, which is for a song very much in Marhsall Mather's territory, is the one for the song Cleanin' Out My Closet.



This is one of Eminem's most popular releases and it captures the emotions of Marshall Mathers very well. It is an autobiographical song which is mostly about his mother but does also reference the problems he has had with the media and the public over his more controversial songs. The style in which he raps his lyrics is a lot more emotive and his voice is raised, which is a style that dominates his latest releases.

This shot shows a real protest that happened concerning Eminem's music being a bad influence on children. These protests were a regular occurrence when Eminem first started out as some young criminals cited his music as the reason for their misdemeanours. When he references these protests in the lines "have you ever been hated or discriminated against ? I have, I've been protested and demonstrated against" he says them as though he is hurt by these protests. The whole 'does rap music instil violence in to its' listeners' is summed up brilliantly in this quote from Colorado Springs rapper B. Serious, in which he says "if two cowboys got into an argument in a saloon, went outside and had a draw, nobody blamed the music that was playing in the saloon." Eminem's influence on children has always been a hot topic, although he dealt with it in his own way with the Without Me video in which he plays a superhero who sets out to stop a child listening to his album without his parent's permission.

The other topic of this song, the main topic, is Marshall's relationship with his mother, Debbie. He has always written songs referencing their highly dysfunctional relationship, but this song sets out to tell the whole story as a very public battle had been ongoing between them in which Debbie was trying to sue Em for $10,000,000 for his various songs against her. By the time this song was recorded the lawsuits had been settled, giving Eminem more freedom to talk about his childhood in candid detail, such as his description of when his mother used to give him pharmaceuticals without him knowing. This is illustrated in the lines "victim of Munchausen syndrome, my whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't 'til I grew up now I blew up it makes you sick to your stomach doesn't it." This is a veiled reference to Eminem's accusations directed towards his mother that she used to put prescription-only painkillers and sedatives in to his food or she simply forced him to take them. Eminem has gradually become more and more daring in his attacks on his mother and this reached a crescendo on the Relapse album in songs such as My Mom and Insane. 

The Image/s

Marshall Mathers/Eminem

Marshall's style is centred around a deal with Nike, who used to sponsor him, hence him often being seen in Nike tracksuits, tanktops, trainers and hats. This is known as streetwear, and Eminem would have worn these sort of clothes growing up on the tough streets of Detroit. Due to him feeling more comfortable in this style it is no surprise to see that his outfits for concerts frequently see him wearing this style of clothing.

Slim Shady

Slim Shady likes to use his clothes as another tool for courting controversy and ripping his rivals, and is never afraid of looking a fool in the process. An outfit he wears often on stage is the hockey mask, dungrees and chainsaw ensemble. He comes on revving the chainsaw and is sometimes splattered with fake blood before belting out a Slim Shady song. When he first used this outfit he was lambasted in the media and it was a very successful tool in gaining more media attention.

Technical Analysis of a Music Video

Technical Analysis of a Music Video

Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip?



I have chosen to analyse this video for two reasons. The first of those reasons is that it is a video for a hip-hop song and the music I will be using for my video will be either hip-hop or something similar, so it is useful to see some of the conventions that directors use for that genre. The second reason is that this was a video clearly filmed on a very low, if not no, budget, yet it still manages to be an engaging and humourous video. As well as this, the video was also directed by the critically-acclaimed Spike Jonze, so it is useful to see what techniques the top directors use.

The opening of the video is very good use of their limited resources. The first scene is an out-take in which a little boy punches Fatlip ahead of his cue. The opening of a video is very important as it has to engage the viewer and keep them from switching off, and it is a part of the video that directors can spend lots of time on and still get it wrong. Fatlip's use of the out-take to open the video fits with the low-budget but it works very well as it is a very funny clip and it sets the light-hearted mood for the rest of the song.

The clip illustrated in the picture is another clip I thought was a very good technique and another example of how to create an aesthetically interesting video on a low budget. Fatlip is rapping and then as the camera pulls away we see he is upside down on monkey bars. As he lets go and uprights himself the camera rotates with him and the shot is back to normal. This is a shot that I'm interested in replicating as it an interesting shot and something that is simple enough for us to use in our video.