Mise-en-Scene

The following props will be necessary for the shots in my video:

Because the video i am creating is intending to be apart of the trio of video already on the blog similar props and costumes will have to be used to achieve this look.

Props used in the existing Arctic Monkeys Videos:
-'Dangerous Dog'
-Cat
-Cigarettes
-Motor Bike - My dad owns a motor bike that would be suitable for shots were the main character is servicing the bike.

Props used for the imagery of lying, deceit and guilt:
-Mouse trap - a shot of the mouse trap shutting will signify the snap in tension when someone is found to by lying

-Tv Set - a television set with Pinocchio's nose growing will show lying 

-Wine Glass - a wine glass smashing will illustrate lives being shattered due to a betrayal

-Dagger 

-Pencil - the main character snapping the pencil will show his anger to his partner being unfaithful.

The following are a set of costume ideas for the music video:

Costume used in the existing Arctic Monkeys videos:

 Other ideas:

Items of clothing that are suitable and available to me:

'Lead and supporting male roll'

By cutting the sleeves off this cheap shirt i managed to recreate the classic motorcycle gang bad boy look that Matt Helders (drummer and lead i the music videos) pulls off in both everyday life and in the music videos.

The band are often seen wearing their own T-shirts and often wearing T-shirts from bands that they are inspired by or that they enjoy so these two Tees would be perfect as part of one of the costumes.

Alex Turner and Jamie Cook (Lead singer and guitarists) almost exclusively wear boots and dress shoes now that the have matured their style since the days of wearing trainers and shell suit jackets.  

Denim and tweed are some of the preferred materials that the band wear and I feel that these two jackets could replicate the conventions set by the style of the band.

Planning and Research

Song: Dance Little Liar
Artist: Arctic Monkeys

I have chosen this song for the sound track to the music video because i find that the lyrics are concise and lend them selves to one theme. The lyrics also contain beautiful imagery that could be replicated in the video. In order to make the video as in keeping with the bands previous videos i am going to create the video in the style of the band's new direction.

The Arctic Monkeys were formed in Sheffield by a group of school friends who started out playing together after receiving instruments for christmas. The band started out playing pub and club around Sheffield such as 'The Grapes' which rumoured to be the venue of their first gig. The band went in to Yellow arch Studios (http://www.yellowarch.com/) where the band recorded their first demos that were passed among friends and unofficially called 'Beneath the Broad Walk'. After this the band went viral and began to build momentum, when the were then signed to Domino Records (http://www.dominorecordco.com/). The bands debut album 'What ever people say I am that's what i'm not' went straight to number one and the band was credited as one of the UK's greatest bands. The band went on to record another album that received similar feedback, but I won't go into too much depth. It was the bands next album that leads me to the point of their change in direction. The lead singer alex tuner said in an interview that he was tired of 'writing song about stand outside chip vans'. this and the collaboration with Queens of the Stone age's lead singer Josh Homme as their producer on the album Humbug. This album contains the song that I wish to create a video for (Dance Little Liar). The band only made three videos from this album, and they do not follow any sort of theme which is why I will be shooting the video in the style of the 6 video from the album 'Suck it and See'. These videos do fit to a theme as they all contain similar and sometimes a few of the same shots, and contain variations of the same characters and locations. Obviously i do not have the characters or locations from these videos at my disposal but i believe through carefully selecting similar types of locations and by profile the characters in the same way as the band then the video will be in keeping with the task i have set my self.

Possible Locations:

Bristol Suspension Bridge:

The Bristol suspension bridge has stunning views and a historical look to the area which could give the music video the production value that is needed to look like a 'hollywood' music video.

M-shed/Bristol Docks:

This location was a possibility for one of my locations for shooting because of the run down industrial look of the area. In the Arctic Monkeys videos i looked at the locations included an old scrap yard, a prison and mechanic shop which all have the same cold metallic rust feel to them that the M-shed Bristol could replicate.

Beech Cathedral Blaise Castle

The beech cathedral is another example of a locations that has stunning views to add to the production value of the video. However the trio of videos that i am trying to add to, do not contain any locations that feature this kind of natural landscape.

Portishead Lake grounds beach (Sunset)

In the music video 'Brick By Brick' shots of the band on an Australian beach are featured in the video, so this would be an appropriate location to use because it is similar to one already used by the band. The light house could also be and interesting place to shoot part of the video as it shares the industrial run down look of the bristol docks.

Questionaire Results

I carried out a survey on my piers to get a better understanding of the audience expectations of music videos as a whole and to better understand popular trends and platforms for viewing music videos.

Here are 8 examples of the 20 people asked, results are as follows:

Age	Gender	Frequency video viewing	Genre	Expectations	Platform
17	Female	Couple times a week	Pop and Hip Hop	Dancers, women, bling and cars	Youtube and Starz
17	Female	Daily	Indie/Alternative	Romance, tragedy, scenery, relationships	Youtube and MTV
17	Female	Daily	Pop	Colourful, provocative clothing, dancing	4music
17	Male	Daily	Pop	Band logo, dancing provocative clothing	Youtube and viva
17	Male	Daily	Pop	Flashing lights, women, product endorsement	Youtube
21	Male	Monthly	Rock	Instrumental, Storylines, dark clothing, long hair	Youtube
17	Male	Daily	Hip Hop	Women, Money, Gold, Bling Cars	Youtube and 4music
18	Male	Daily	Hip Hop	Spoken to the camera, Riches, Cars	Youtube and Veva

It seems that people have the same expectations for the same genre. Popular music videos are expected to contain flashing lights, dancing and women, where as hiphop differs slightly as they also contain dancing and women but are more focused around cars and gold possecions.

The amount of people who watched videos online was significantly higher than those who watch their videos on the television.

Veiwing Frequency

Platforms

Conclusion of the Music Video Analysis

The three band that I researched, The Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, can all be categorised as Indie/Poprock. I have identified conventions of the genre from analysing the bands music video and the conclusion I gather for the expectation from a video in this genre is as follows.

Aspect	Convention
Mise-en-scene
Props	All the props used in these videos are concise and suit the locations where they were shot. It is a similar case with the costume however breaking this convention gives an interesting effect for example the use of casual clothing contrasting with the formal wear of the rest of the band in the stroke video for ‘Under cover of Darkness’.
Location	Each of the video only used between 1 and 3 locations, and each of the locations did not contrast with the others featured in each individual video.
Lighting	No clear convention could be seen from these three videos as one used only natural light another used only artificial light and the other a mixture.
Characters	All the video featured band members and two out of three featured instrumental shots of the band. Not all videos featured additional characters but the majority did, so a convention has been identified of casting actors in the videos.
Editing
Cuts	All but one video only used straight cuts except the stroke video which used cross fades and wipes, therefore only using cuts is a general convention of this genre.
Effects	Few effects were used any of he videos except for the use of black and white filters and degrading the film to make it seem much older.
Camera Angles/Shots used	All the video that I analyzed used a mixture of shots, including, close ups, point of view, zooming in and out, panning, high shots etc. all the video used close ups to show emotions or provoke imagery foe example in The Vaccines video they used close ups to show the anticipation of the young boy and in The Strokes video they used a close up of cards being dealt to provoke the imagery of chance and luck.
Sound	Most of the video used synchronous sound techniques within their content, for example the arctic monkey used a series of extremely fast shots during the drum role in ‘Evil Twin’ and the Vaccines timed the end of their song with the main character jumping in the river.

The Strokes

Artist: The Strokes

Song: Under Cover Of Darkness

Label: RCA, Rough Trade

		What is used?	Screen Shot	Why it is used?
Mise-en-scene
Props	Props: Playing cards, metal chalice, clock, instruments, conductor’s stick. Costume: all of the band members are dressed smartly in all in black tie attire.  But the lead singer Julian Casablancas is seen wearing informal clothes in alternate shots.			The ticking clock could show the pressure that the band are under right before going on stage, and the fact that they are all dressed to the formally maybe be a reflection of the way the band sees them selves, as musicians not superstars.
Location	The setting for this strokes song is in a lavish concert theatre. The rooms include the lobby, backstage corridors, on stage and a dining room. All of the walls are covered in ornate golden fixtures and carvings and there is hard wood and red carpet in nearly every shot.			This location could have been used to represent how far the band has come form playing clubs and bars in New york to performing in this expensive setting. Using a concert hall in particular could alternatively be a joke about how seriously other bands take them selves.
Characters	There is no narrative story to the video and so the only people who feature in the video are the band member and a few extras (the card dealer and the conductor)			This is the case for most of the strokes music videos and could perhaps be because they want to be recognized and remembered for their performances. ‘Last Nite’ is a prime example of this as the whole video I shot from one side of the band as they perform the track.
Lighting	The lighting use in the video is always from above the subjects leaving some of the face or body in darkness. Almost all the sources of light are in the shot such are the chandeliers, candles and lamps.			The song is entitled ‘Under cover of darkness’ so the choice of lighting from above could be to reflect this title. Placing the lights in the shot could represent the band being under the spot light of the press, their fans or there partners as the theme of the lyrics seems to be about a woman.
Editing
Cuts	The start of the video feature a series of extremely fast cuts of a scene of the band drowning while performing. Throughout the rest of the video the cuts vary according to the music. Longer shots are used during the guitar solos and faster shot are used when the drum beat picks up			These shots may have been included to carry on this theme of the band feeling pressurized before playing a gig hence the drowning. And the speed of the cuts between shots could represent the panic and chaos of drowning. Using synchronous editing makes the video flow with the tempo of the song and helps the action move forward.
Transitions	In this video there are three transitions used, the cross fade, fade to black and wiping right to left.			The right to left wipe is used to eventuate the movement of Julian as he walks across the screen the movement is matched as the one shot is peeled away from the other. Cross fading the shots allows the setting to softly change rather than a quick abrupt cut.
Effects	The beginning sequence where the band is ‘drowning’ has a dark filter that cover the edges of the shot and only leaves the center visible.			This effect could be used to portray someone one blacking out due to drowning as if the darkness is spreading around a person’s vision.
Camera Angles	The camera is always at head height looking straight at Julian but as for the rest of the band the camera is either tilted up or down, or just sweeping past them in a brief shot.			This is because Julian is the front man of the band and generally the focus is on him as he sings, unless one of the other members is performing an instrumental solo.
Shots	A long zooming out shot is present in this video on more than one occasion, through the hall way and away from a long dining table. Then shots zooming back in on Julian follow. The video has a lot of movement using panning and zooming.			The zooming in and out shots could represent the surveillance they are under being a very big rock/blues band. The movement in the video is key as it give the track momentum and gives the video a beginning middle and end.