Media Representations within our music video

My analysis of M.I.A's music video showed me that a music video can be interesting, successful and popular without voyeuristic treatment of the female body (for example, the way she doesn't wear clothes that sexualise her body.)
When we first planned our video we agreed on a skateboarding theme and as we planned our cast we realised we hadn't included any females. This shows the way current media conventions don't tend to promote females in unglamourous locations or underground activities such as skateboarding. The hobby does seem to be male dominated but we want Smaller Than You to appeal to both males and females.
We agreed to challenge this issue by including attractive yet unsexualised females within our video. This meant a large focus on what our female cast wore. We decided on skinny jeans (which also fit in with Ska and skateboarding conventions) and bright or black and white tops (also to fit in with the Ska genre). (Gwen Stefani from Ska band No Doubt also often appeared looking unsexualised before she became a solo artist and began wearing more revealing clothes).

The way we have challenged modern music video conventions of sexualising women also fits in with the Ska genre as it formed from yet challenged and changed original genres such as Jazz and Blues.
We are going to keep a clear focus on this as it is important to us to get the right balance between keeping within generic conventions and not forming crude stereotypes.

Our target audience is both males and females between the ages of 15 and 25. To appeal to our target audience we needed to include successful ideologies. We attempted to do this by choosing cast members who were between these ages and including skateboarding, something that appeals to many young people and has underground, rebellious undertones. It is also becoming increasingly popular for young people to become interested in older, past bands (this is reflected in the way high street stores that target young people such as NewLook and Topman have started to sell 'retro-look' intertextual clothes featuring artists such as Blondie, David Bowie and The Clash.)

Our pictures fom sunday :)

Tilt shot of Chris doing a skateboard trick that could be a recurring theme throughout each skater in the video. We want as many different tricks as possible so that our music video looks professional. Chris' skate trainers, beanie hat, jeans, and white tshirt are generic Ska clothes.



This is Ross and Chris together. We asked Chris to wear a iconic british band Tshirt as we want our music video to have depth and meaning and we felt we could do this using intertextual references.



High angle mid shot of Ross and Chris's skateboards which we wrote the band name and track on and our groups names. This shot is perfect for the way we want to promote the band as they are wearing skater trousers and skater shoes and holding skateboards. The way we can't see their faces gives mystery (this reflects the mysterious track title 'who knew') and it also shows the way we don't want to sexualise any of our cast (especially the females). This also helps because Ross and Chris's faces could confuse fans of smaller than you because they are not in the band and wouldn't be recognised.



We chose Anglia Square as one of our locations because it reflects the underground, alternative nature of Ska music. However once we got there we found the best place to film lacked vibrant or interesting graffitti. We decided we wanted recurring images or graphics to promote Smaller Than You and so (with permission) we drew their name on the wall. However we did this halfway through filming and realised we couldn't include it because it wouldn't fit in with the continuity of the film.



This is another close up of Ross and Chris holding the skateboards with our graffitti behind them. We included Ross's body in this because of his intertextual Tshirt.



We have discussed using this close up as a still at the beginning or end of our music video to introduce it or for closure and to help the audience remember the band and track name so they can search and download it.

Our Cast

Daniel
Daniel is the lead singer of the band we are promoting, smaller than you. He appears at the end of our music video. We have chosen Daniel because he is in the band, can skateboard and promotes the look the band are going for.


Jasper
Jasper plays the bass in Smaller than you. Similarly to Daniel, Jasper conforms to a conventional skateboarder look. He can also skateboard.


Jake
Jake is the drummer in Smaller then you and has been skateboarding for years. We have chosen him as our main character for the music video. We know he looks confident and good when he is being filmed because we used him for our AS coursework last year. He has a recognisable look and this is important because the audience need to recognise him as the boy from the beginning at the end of the music video.



Martha
Despite not being able to skateboard, we chose Martha because she is typical to the female look we wanted. It was important to us to find someone who looked feminine but was not sexualised as we wanted to challenge these conventions. When we were looking for people to cast, Martha's enthusiasm and commitment to helping us stood out and we knew that she would give a good performance.



Chris



Ross

We found Chris and Ross through someone that works with rachael. They are experienced skateboarders, have filmed in other skateboard videos and have a wide knowledge of good locations to film skateboarders in. They can also do more trcks than our other cast mambers and so can make the video more exciting.

Also appearing:

Hannah



and Izzi

Hannah and Izzi are in our media group and therefore are very reliable and both know exactly what is required (in both action and costume).


*All of our cast are between the ages of 15 and 25 because this is the same age group as our target audience and this therefore creates realistic ideologies for them.
*We decided not to hold auditions because last year it took us a lot of persuading people to appear in our films and we felt people wouldn't feel keen enough on appearing in the music video to come to our auditions. We also felt it was a high priority that we had a reliable cast that would attend when we needed them. We knew our cast that are band members would be reliable because they are excited to get a proffessional quality music video.
* All of our cast members our smiling or are being humourous in their photos. This reflects the personalities that we wanted within our cast members as we plan our video to be funny and lighthearted and this should be reflected in the actors.

Characters/artists/celebrities that have influenced the image we had in mind for our cast members:



Alex, the protagonist in both the novel Paranoid Park (2006) and the film (of the same name(2007)) . Alex is a 16 year old skateboarder who struggles with being a teenager and accidently kills a security guard. The majority of the film is set in illegal skateparks.
The book is classed as 'young adult' and the film also has a target audience of young adults (15-25). This coincides with our target audience for Smaller Than You. The film chose a 16 year old actor to play the main character to appeal to this age group. This shows for our film to be successful and appeal to this age group we too should choose a young male (15 to 18 years old) to star as our main character.



Travis, a character featured in the sub-plot of hit american teen movie Clueless (1995). Travis is passionate about skateboarding and is the character that provokes the most humour within the movie (something that we want to include in our music video) and gets the new, popular girl at the end of the film, in which their is a long scene of Travis at skateboarding trials. Though Clueless is a older film than Paranoid Park, this also shows young male skateboarders appeal as characters to a teenage or young adult audience.



Bam Margera, proffessional skateboarder (and coincedently music video producer). Bam has his own show 'Viva La Bam' on MTV. Although Bam (30) is older than our target audience, he appeals to young adults and teenagers. His show is shown on MTV, which targets this age group, and is shown at the same times as programmes such as 'My Super Sweet Sixteen'. This shows that although Chris and Ross are older than the other cast members, it is their attitude that will make them appear young and appeal to 15-25 year olds.

filming schedule

Before we began filming it was my individual responsibility to get the camera and Izzi's responsibility to bring the tripod.

Friday 18th September:
Action: Shooting of Jake coming out of soundclash and Hannah snatching it, location shot, practise moving shots (predicted sunny weather)
Location: Soundclash, around norwich city center.
Individual responsibilties: Hannah take tripod, Rachael take camera

Sunday 20th September:
Action: Shooting of skateboarders Ross, Chris, and Will.
Location: Anglia Square, City Center including the Cathedral and the castle
Individual responsibilities: I took the tripod and Hannah took the camera

Monday 21st September:
Action: Shooting of skateboarders Jake, Jasper, Daniel.
Location: St. Benidicts street, The Art Centre
Individual responsibilites: Izzi took the camera and Rachael took the tripod

Monday 28th September:
Action: Filming Hannah in Jimmy's car
Location : Cecil Road to Anglia Square.
Individual responsibilities: Rachael took the camera.

Costume ideas for our music video

Click image to see enlargement

Girl Costume Ideas



Boy Costume Ideas



We want our music video to have post modernist influence and include intertexual references to bands that have influenced Smaller Than You within our costume. This is a sucessful aspect of many band's costumes, arguably most noticabely with Amy Winehouse, who is most commonly recognised by her thick flicked black eyeliner and a beehive, inspired by influential artists such as Tammi Terrel and The Supremes.

Our target audience is both males and females between the ages of 15 and 25. I have noticed to way it is becoming increasingly popular for young people to become interested in older, past bands (this is reflected in the way high street stores that target young people such as NewLook and Topman have started to sell 'retro-look' intertextual clothes featuring artists such as Blondie, David Bowie and The Clash.)
examples of this:





(Mens, Both Topman)



(Womens, Newlook)


Our costume needs to fit in with Ska/skateboarder generic conventions and yet still be fashionable to appeal to a mainstream audience.
The skateboarding theme has been used a lot recently in modern media productions, as can be seen in this fortnight's More! magazine in a feature photoshoot (below).
More! is a women's magazine with a target audience of 16-30 ( a very similar age group to our target audience) and this photoshoot represents the way skateboarding is seen in 2009 as rebellious or alternative yet, importantly, fashionable. The title of the fashionshoot is 'Wild at Heart' (and features different animal prints). This animalistic theme and the name of the shoot reflects the way skateboarding is seen in modern culture as 'wild': rebellious and different.













I think we will encorporate the male skateboarder's look that features on these pages, for example the Vans Tshirts, because they are contemporary and fashionable and a generic convention. The costumes the male models wear are very similar to Ross and Chris's costumes last sunday, for example the beanie hat, jeans, logo or band Tshirt and skate shoes.
However I don't think we should encorporate the costumes of the female model or the way she is being presented. She is extremely sexualised, wearing short dresses and heels, and also is presented in a very passive way, ( for example just standing posing or looking pretty as the male models are in the real action around her). This is what our media group are trying to challenge within our music video, and so this has given me some thought to what we should be avoiding.
However, the female model's makeup (pink lips and dark eyes) is involved within the Ska convention and we could bare this in mind when dressing our female cast members.

Music Video StoryBoard

warm lighting/ natural day lighting
It is important that we have continuity throughout our film as it is a linear structure that is meant to look like it is filmed throughout the day. The end shot needs to be slightly darker as it is meant to look like it is the evening and so we will film it when the sun begins to set (at around 7 o'clock).


Shot One: Wide shot/ very long shot, deep focus, of Jake standing outside Soundclash with drumsticks in his hand.

Shot Two: Zoom, Close up of Jake attaching a smaller than you ticket to the drumsticks with an elastic band. Behind him is a poster for Smaller Than You (the band we are promoting) playing tonight. Suddenly we see a hand come out and snatch the drumsticks from him.

Shot Three:
1) Midshot of a boy on a skateboard skating off with Jakes drumsticks.
2)Long shot, (birds eye view if manageable) of Norwich Forum. Boy we previously saw is now at the forum. There is another poster behind him. The drumsticks are then snatched again.

Shot Four:
1) Mid length shot of boy skateboarding with the drumsticks in his hand.
2) High angle(if possible), two shot of sticks being passed/snatched by a girl outside the castle. She then skates away.

Shot Five: Mid length shot of the girl waiting at a bus stop.

Shot Six: Close up of girl sitting on the bus. The sound goes muffled as she puts her headphones in.




Shot Seven: Long shot. Sound is no longer muffled. Girl is off the bus and by a wall with lots of promotional Smaller Than You posters. Two shot, sticks are snatched again.

Shot Eight: Mid length hand held track shot of boy skating with the sticks.

Shot Nine: Close up as sticks are snatched again.

Shot Ten: Mid shot as we discover it is Jake holding the sticks once again.

Shot Eleven: Long shot as Jake goes through a door.

Shot Tweleve:Door closes behind Jake. Zoom to a close up of a poster saying 'Smaller Than You play here tonight'.