White Girl and identity

The story of White Girl shows how the identity can be changed and adapted. The girl, Leah, moves to her new house with the identity built around her family, and heavily influenced by their beliefs. In the beginning we can see how Leah is incredibly unhappy strives for change of this identity, though is unsure how to come about this change. As the story unfolds Leah’s identity develops and changes, a change influenced by the Muslim community she is surrounded by. Paul Ricoeur’s idea that the identity is built from the narratives of a person is represented by White Girl, as Leah’s identity is changing as her story unfolds and new narratives are built.

In the same way, White girl is representative of the ideas of Anthony Giddens and Michael Bakhtin, who propose that we create, maintain and revise our narratives over time. Our narratives are never static, and are always changing. It is these narratives that shape and mould our identities, so, as our narratives are always being revised and changed, as are our identities.

Ricoeur, Giddens and Bakhtin all suggest that identity is post-modernist. This relates back to Leah, as she is shaping her own identity, moving it away from the modernist identity that was initially formed for her by her parents. This shows that identity is not inherited; it is made by the individual.

White Girl presents youth modernist identity as broken off and disconnected, mainly from past modernist identities and the family identity. Leah is moving from her modernist identity, which her father is trying to push upon her, where identity is stable and fixed, and the identity that has been given to her becomes who she is. She is moving away from that concept and adopting the post-modernist concept of identity. 

Ending plans

Ending plans:

Because my narrative throughout the music video goes from reality to day dream, I decided to end the video with a slightly ambiguous mix of the reality and day dream.
In the beginning of the video, Dan is seen boarding a train where he first sees the girl, Paige, and begins his day dream of them being together. I thought, to end, Dan should be seen exiting the train alone, so that the audience can identify this as the first location of the music video, the end of Dan's day dream about Paige. From here, I decided to picture Dan walking alone, to further help the audience identify that them being together was just a dream and this is the reality. Dan would then cross a bridge (I chose this location as it is scenic and is another metaphor of the journey, crossing bridges that suits the genre and would attract the artistic side of the audience) passing Paige who seemingly doesn't recognise him. The cut will then dissolve into Paige turning round as she passes Dan, showing that she does recognise him, and again this will dissolve into Dan turning round to look at her. This will happen as the final words "Oh my beautiful girl" play in the song.

This ending has an air of sadness to it, as almost all the video is of them being a couple, being in love and the happiness that brings them. This ending in some ways contradicts this, because the reality hits the audience that it may not have even happened, or maybe that the couple have had a fight and as a result are acting as though they barely know each other.

The ending could, however, be considered hopeful. The narrative tells us that Dan and Paige do not actually know each other, but that Dan wished they did. As they walk past each other in the end, the image of Paige turning and stopping at the sight of Dan gives the audience a spark of hope that they might begin the relationship they'd just witnessed and make Dan's day dream a reality.

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis:

This is a short clip from Control (2007 film) by Anton Corbijn. I will use this idea of the male character walking towards the camera to achieve the same sense of character's emotion and situation. Although in this clip, Ian Curtis is given the sense of attitude, rebellion and lack of care by the way he walks, his costume, the music, and his smoking, the continuous shot, with Ian following in the camera's tracks, is successful at reinforcing these connotations. I could use this idea with my video ending, except connoting the sense of loneliness and sadness, emotions that would be appreciated by the audience and suits the genre. 

Final scene from The Third Man (1949) by Carol Reed 

This ending, mainly the final shot, depicts very strongly the emotions felt by Anna simply by the length of the shot and her actions. The audience partly expects Anna to walk towards Holly, as he is waiting for her to the left of the shot, but she instead walks straight past him. This shot and her silence, more than anything, shows her feelings about Holly.
I will use this idea to capture the twist in my music video's ending. As Paige walks across the bridge, I'll use this idea to capture the same devastation the audience feels as the Anna walks past Holly and out of his life in this clip. I will, however, lift the spirits of the audience, by having Paige turn round and look at Dan which will be unexpected by the audience, like in The Third Man.

What Michel Maffesoli would say about FindMyTribe.com

I am Michel Maffesoli. To me, FindMyTribe.com is an easy, accessible way of identifying the “tribe” of an individual or an audience group. There is a wide range of options and outcomes available on the website, which give detailed overviews of each individual tribe. The tribes are constantly being updated by users of the website, giving the site validity in relation to ecology as real-life users are interpreting their views and experiences of society. FindYourTribe reinforces my theories, presenting how modern day is the time of tribes. Its results show how culture has disintegrated, fragmented into many tribes from other tribes. These are organized around the basis of brands, consumerism, sound-bites and catchwords.

 However, where the site loses its validity is the realism of the outcomes. The questionnaire has no scientific basis, therefore no real data to backup the results. The matter of which tribe one belongs to is completely opinionated: the opinions of other members of society and most importantly the opinions of an individual. If a person considers themselves “indie scenester” they will adapt their behaviour, fashion, social group, media interests and consumption in order to “fit in” with that group. Individuals are constantly adapting themselves as the ideologies of a tribe constantly adapts, and so the tribe of an individual cannot always be strictly determined, as FindMyTribe.com is trying to achieve. 

Audience Profile: Overview

In terms of appearance, my male target audience wear denim jeans, plain and print t-shirts, chequered shirts, hoodies, skateboard trainers, and have a typically casual style. The female members of my target audience would wear floral dresses, denim jackets, jeans, leggings, tights, and Toms shoes.

They value highly their independence and personal strength, as well as their passions for creativity and the arts. They also highly value their social lives. Being out with friends, making new friends and developing relationships is a big part of their lives.

Their ambitions include going to university and becoming successful. Musical members of the target audience want to perform, record and tour. They also are interested in travelling, both around the UK and around the world and experiencing different cultures. They’d define themselves against celebs such as Britney Spears, Cher Lloyd and P Diddy, but find role models in Ed Sheeran and Jessie J due to their success and passion for their work.

In terms of media, my target audience use the internet to express themselves and communicate with their friends. Their favourite sites are Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr and Blogger. Their choice of TV and film are usually American, and E4 is a favourite channel because of programs such as Friends, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, which reflect how socialising is a large part of their lives. As well as this, T4 and 4 Music represent their interests in music. Mainstream American comedy films are favourites too, such as The Hangover.

My music video is designed to attract my target audience as it uses only actors of the same age, ethnicity and fashion as the audience. The actors are white teens aged 17, the male being very similar in look and fashion to the artist in order to represent him and his genre.

The storyline of the video will attract the audience due to the theme of love and relationships, which is a key interest of the target audience. The social interaction side of the video links in with this, and it represented throughout the video with the couple spending time together in the city, and at the seaside; typical date-like destinations or even destinations where groups of young people such as those of the target audience might choose to visit or hang out. The activities, or instance playing on the beach and using the arcades that are shown in the video attract the audiences’ fun, lively side, but this is combined with the actions of the couple, for instance laying together on the sand and walking hand in hand, which could be considered more mature actions. This is a desire of the target audience as a young-adult group; to become more mature and more importantly to be considered as mature people. 

My (Paige's) costume

The costume for Paige we planned to be casual, high-street fashion. By doing this we aren't drifting from the fashions of the genre of the music, which suits the storyline of the music video. We kept Paige's costume neutral and simple but still fashionable. 

Alaysis of music video - 1st draft

Textual analysis of a music video

“You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” by Ed Sheeran, released February 2010

Sheeran challenges the hip-hop, rap, street genre by rapping about something not usually expressed in rap songs. He also challenges the genre by combining his usual genre of acoustic genre with rap, which is rare but very effective, doubling the audience by attracting audiences of two genres. The performer and costume are both identifiers of the hip-hop genre. The performer is young, black, he wears baggy jeans, trainers and a leather jacket that are typically trendy and stylish amongst youth. His general look is associated with the London based hip-hop youth. This is also presented in the street dancers’ costumes.

 

In a way there is a constant link between the lyrics and visuals, illustrated by the solitary male character performing the song in sign language. This character is generic of the hip-hop genre in appearance, black skin, wearing leather and low cut jeans. As an audience, we expect him to dance and perform in a way that matches the hip-hop genre, however the sign language challenges this expectation. It, in a way, conforms to the genre as the way the man does his sign language looks like a dance, and looks like the way some rappers gesticulate when they perform.

There are also specific examples of links between lyrics and visuals, such as “I’m selling CDs from my rucksack”

The cutting of the video changes with the beat of the song, particularly visible when there is a very fast beat, and cut-away shots are used incredibly fast. There is also a link between the music and the visuals, seen within the changes in lighting. As well as cutting to the beat, the lighting changes to the beat too. A very strong beat, at the end of the verse for instance, is accompanied by a bright flash of light that fills the screen. This very fast, bright white light creates the impression of a negative image in contrast to the previously all-black images and because of this is very effective.

The music video is performance based, though only brief split-second glimpses of the artist are actually seen. In these shots, close ups of the guitar Sheeran as plays it, or a silhouetted image of him, are shown.

Instead, it is the young black signer that is performing, and it is an alternative dance performance accompanied by a street dance rather than singing. This relates to Goodwin’s theory as the hip-hop genre is demonstrated by the dance routine.

Following on from this, Sheeran has developed a motif by appearing as a cameo in his videos. Within this video and his first video, A-Team, he has only appeared a few times. He was a reasonably unknown artist (in the way that more and more people were hearing his songs and learning his name, though many of those wouldn’t have known what he looks like) he is, in a way, playing a game with the audience. Some would watch both videos without noticing that these brief glimpses are of the artist himself. This is very effective, especially in this video, as the final shot is a slightly longer shot of Sheeran standing alone. By using this shot he has given the chance for the audience to identify him, furthering this by using that final image as the cover of his debut album.  In this way, he is promoting his debut album.

The video does this in other ways too, with other visual motifs, firstly with Ed Sheeran’s signature image paw print as an identifier of his work. This image has appeared multiple times in his work and is easily identified by his fans.

Also, this symbol flashes on the screen by use of a quick cut within the video. It is imagery from his debut album “Ed Sheeran”, thus promoting the album.

There is a brief inter-textual reference to Rufio from Disney’s film “Hook” within the imagery and the lyrics: “never growing up, call me Rufio”. This character, in the film, is a boy with big punk-styled hair, and is rebellious in both personality and appearance. Sheeran has used this as a metaphor for how he can be rebellious and childish in the way he writes his songs. He uses this as a way to create a quirky identity for himself.

The location of the video stays the same throughout, yet it is surreal and unidentifiable. It seems safe though there is nothing to indicate neither safety nor danger.

Throughout the video, there are many close up shots of the main character with a powerful stare. He is looking directly into the camera, which draws the audiences’ eyes straight to his. This relates to Goodwin’s theory which states “there is frequently reference to the notion of looking”, creating communication between audience and the performer.

Ed Sheeran’s fashion sense is very much high-street fashion, “townies” can identify with his casual but trendy fashion. The hip-hop street fashion of the dancers and the main character will attract other groups of people, as those who dress similarly to Sheeran might not necessarily like the fashions of the dancers, and vice versa.

The audiences of Ed Sheeran can easily access his music from places such as YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify. Sheeran’s music can also be listened to on multiple radio stations, from Heart to Kiss FM, and his videos are played on TV based radio stations such as VIVA and 4Music. Apart from this, his official website offers free viewing of the videos, and an occasional Live Stream, which would greatly attract the audience to his web page.

Music Video ideas

Our video will have only 2 characters; main character Dan (played by Tom) and a female stranger (played by myself).
It'll open in a train station, Dan is waiting at the station for his train. He gets on the train alone, and sitting across the train from him is a young girl. He sees this girl, stares out the window as the train pulls away to start the journey, and begins daydreaming.
In this daydream, he imagines himself with the girl. They are a couple and are very much obsessed with the relationship. It is apparent in the daydream that the couple think of nothing but each other. They act happy, content, and have fun as a couple in various locations: city centre, parks, plays parks, and the beach.
The video will be a split-screen, such as that in Aloe Blacc's "I Need A Dollar". Whilst the daydream is happening, the audience will see Dan playing the guitar to the song in the other side of the split-screen. He will be sitting alone by the window of his room. This gives the impression that Dan wrote the song after seeing the girl on the train and dreaming about her. This side of the split-screen will also be in black & white or decreased saturation, as this emphasizes and distinguishes that the two sides are taking place at different times.

Mood board

This mood board represents the style and personality of my target audience and chosen artist.

This is a link to my costume design for the main character in my music video/the artist:

http://jennabolingbroke.blogspot.com/2011/09/toms-daniels-costume.html

FindYourTribe.co.uk

This is the result of my "Find Your Tribe" test, done on http://findyourtribe.co.uk/. This site asks a series of questions designed to analyse your personality, then works out a concluding "tribe" that best suits you.
The site says this about the social group it gave me:



"You are a Scene Kid! Your hair is your life – it moves from blonde and spiky, to jet black and asymmetric and on to a neon pink beehive, sometimes all in the same day. You need to update your look when you’re moshing at three or four shows a week and documenting it for your public on MySpace, after all. Clothes-wise, you stick with a formula – superskinny jeans and a kiddy tee. Let the hair do the talking."

This is the result for my target audience.



"You are a Townie! Your job might be a bit boring but it brings home the bacon and helps you save up for those two weeks away to Spain. Your weekends are set in stone – trip to the shops in town, buy yourself something nice, head to the All Bar One with friends, have a laff, maybe go for a club, as long as there’s none of the indie weirdo music. Keep it straight, you say."

I'd say that the most appropriate group for my target audience is:



"You are an Indie Scenester! You are at the forefront on the indie scene – you know all the major players. You’re always ahead of the game – moving on to the next thing once everyone joins in. You like to look good and your icons go beyond the centrefold of the NME – your current look is James Dean meets Grace Jones. Just wait – everyone will be wearing it in a year’s time."

Marketers could use this information as a general overlook of what their target audience are interested in, the way they dress, how the behave, what their beliefs are and how they interact with others and society. This is necessary when trying to attract the target audience to their product. In relation to a music video, marketers can build an idealistic world within the video specifically for the target audience of the music genre. They can design costumes that are representative of the audience’s fashion styles, display beliefs that are representative of the audience’s beliefs, use age/race/ethnicity/gender appropriate actors, and make them do activities that would interest the audience. All in all, the marketers can manipulate almost every aspect of their product in order to suit their specific target audience.

Townies!

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Shooting schedule

1st shoot: instrumental only
Saturday 17th September
All day

2nd shoot: train station, train, beach shots
Monday 26th September
9am-3pm

3rd shoot: city centre shots
(Undecided) 27th September
9am- 11.20pm

4th shoot: city centre shots
(Undecided) 1st or 2nd October
All day/ 4pm

Tom's (Daniel's) Costume

 The costume ideas for Tom derived from images of artists similar to Daniel Cope. This is a picture of our artist:

His music and his fashion has similarities to Ed Sheeran:

 


Ed Sheeran's style is generally jeans/ trainers/ zip-up jumper. His fashion is very casual and comfortable, which reflects his music style.

Daniel's music is also similar to Mumford & Sons. This is Country Winston, from Mumford & Sons:

He, too, has a very relaxed and casual way of dressing. The chequered shirt is something that Daniel Cope would wear. 

This is our final choice of costume for Tom:

We chose a chequered top, with a plain white t-shirt underneath, as this matched closely to the style that Daniel Cope wears. It is casual and in-keeping with the genre.
Tom's prop is his guitar. We kept it acoustic to match the sound of the guitar in the song, and chose one with a simple design.

Location number 1

This is one location for the music video. It is a plain window and a chair, in a bedroom or a house. Here, the boy (Daniel) will play the acoustics to the song. This will identify his character as the person singing, thus the lyrics become his words.

We chose this location as it creates an isolated, personal area for the character. This could, perhaps, be where he writes the song, or where he comes to think and daydream. The blank, bright window creates strong, powerful lighting. This helps to exaggerate the emotions written into the lyrics of the song.

This window location can be seen in other music videos:

Aloe Blacc's video "I Need A Dollar", where the artist sings to the window. The image is black and white, and the lighting is chiaroscuro, very strong and contrasted. These help to emphasize the strength of the artist's lyrics.

Plain White T's video "Hey There Delilah", where the artist is singing and playing acoustic guitar in front of a window. The room in empty and filled with strong, bright light from the window. The saturation in this image has also been reduced to almost nothing. Again, the isolation and loneliness that this creates emphasizes the emotion in the lyrics of the song. 

It is this effect that we want to create within our music video.

I've adjusted the colour of these shots to show how we could adjust the colour of our video:

Saturation -70:                                         Black and white:

   

 

 

                                             

   

Audience Profile: Music Profile: Festivals and other bands

Similar Artists:

Below are some artists/bands that are similar to Daniel Cope's music.


MUMFORD AND SONS







"Since they formed in December 2007, the members of Mumford & Sons have shared a common purpose: to make music that matters, without taking themselves too seriously. Four young men from
West London in their early twenties, they have fire in their bellies, romance in their hearts, and rapture in their masterful, melancholy voices. 
Mumford & Sons are: Marcus Mumford, Country Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane."
Taken from the Mumford And Sons official website http://www.mumfordandsons.com 


Mumford And Sons are a very popular folk rock band from the UK. They use a range of instruments including guitar, drums, mandolin, keyboards, accordion, banjo, dobro and vocals. 
They've performed at festivals such as Glastonbury and Latitude Festival, thus targeting audiences of festival-goers and particularly people of the teens and early 20s age group.
Their music is of the same acoustic genre as Daniel Cope's, mainly uses the same instruments of guitar and vocals.


Fan sites:
http://mumfordfans.com/ The Unofficial Fan Site
http://forum.mumfordandsons.com/
http://www.facebook.com/mumfordandsons
http://www.mumfordsons.com/

This is the album cover for Mumford & Sons Sigh No More. It has an artistic, photographic feel as well as being quite retro, suiting the band. It also shows the band themselves. 




BON IVER





Bon Iver official site: http://boniver.org/


"Bon Iver is a folk band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. It includes Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago independently in July 2007. " Taken from Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Iver

The instruments used by Bon Iver include vocals, drums, piano, baritone & acoustic guitars, and bass. Bon Iver have also played at Glastonbury Festival.


The acoustic/vocal genre of Bon Iver is very similar to the music of Daniel Cope.

This is Bon Iver's album cover. It is primarily a photo, which reminds me of those shared on Flickr. The writing is in white on a black background, and in a font that looks handwritten. The whole album has an artistic feel.

Ed Sheeran







Ed Sheeran is a young singer/songwriter, thus similar to our artist Daniel Cope.
He uses vocals and acoustic guitar, the same as Daniel Cope.
He is incredibly popular amongst teenagers, fans of festivals, and people in their 20s. This is the audience that Daniel Cope would attract with his music.

The album cover for Sheeran is very simplistic, showing the artist himself. The image has very strong lighting. 

Again, the cover to paolo's album Live Sessions is simplistic as it is black and white. Importantly the image shows the artist himself. He also has another album which contrasts to this, As it is a cartoon drawn of Paolo, very colourful and artistic.

Festivals: 

Click to Enlarge...

The festival I have chosen which best suits my artist is Latitude Festival, because it’s a traditional festival, with mostly independent music acts, artists and bands. It is well known for the wide variety of genres that perform on its 4 arenas. This festival suits our artist, Daniel Cope’s acoustic pop genre well. Similar acts have played here, including Ed Sheeran and Paolo Nutini. 

The website reveals that the audience is of the age range 16-25. This is notable by the links at the top of the page, to Facebook and Spotify, renowned for its use by young adults. However there is also a link to Twitter and forums, which suggest use by a more mature user and possibly families. 

The website is very creative and arty as it is drawn using computer graphics of plants and flowers, rather than photographs. This reflects Latitude festival as a fun, creative and inspiring event, and emphasizes the hippie-ish style it has adopted from the traditional 1960s festivals.

The festival takes place in july every year at Southwold, Suffolk.               

The location is a calm seaside town where families can go to escape urban everyday life.  Southwold is surrounded by fields and countryside, further emphasizing the traditional feel of the festival in comparison with some other festivals. 

Music video - song ideas - DANIEL COPE

These are the top 3 songs I've selected, due to how good I feel they are and how strong I feel they would be in relation to making a music video from them.


Find more artists like Daniel Cope at Myspace Music

Find more Daniel Cope songs at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Daniel Cope at Myspace Music

These three songs (above) by Daniel Cope are my favourite from the list. This is because I find the vocals in these songs are the strongest, making them stand out against the others. Also, the instruments, both piano and guitar, in all three songs are superb. I feel that Daniel Cope's music has great potential for our music video.

Here are some more songs by Daniel:

Find more Daniel Cope songs at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Daniel Cope at Myspace Music

Find more Daniel Cope songs at Myspace Music

Find more Daniel Cope songs at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Daniel Cope at Myspace Music

Find more Daniel Cope songs at Myspace Music

Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin’s theory!

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Ideas and inspiration for music video - Split Screens

Possible artists

Find more artists like Harry D at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Harry D at Myspace Music

This music video in conventional because it uses the artist within the video. Professor Green lip-syncs the words, and the storyline matches the lyrics. In this way, there is a relationship between lyrics and the visuals of the video and so is a conventional music video. There is also a relationship between the music and the visuals, because of the editing; the cuts match the beat of the music.


The most important factor that makes this video conventional is the relationship between the music and the visuals, recognised by the fast cutting which match the strumming of the guitars. This is noticable immediately. The band is represented by the masks that are worn by other people, and so in this way the band is present in the video. There is no lip syncronisation as the main characters are wearing masks, those the faces of the masks change when the lyrics change. The visuals match the genre - there is a sense of mischief and causing chaos that relates to the rock genre of the song. The band may have adopted this as a motif, recognisable to them.




The song is quite slow and smooth which is complimented by the smooth motions of the artist in the zero-gravity and the camera movement. The astist is the character in the video and lip-syncs the words of the song. The cuts and the fades match the beat of the music.

First post!

Hellooo my name's Jenna and this is my A2 media blog! :)