Primary Research: Lawrence King Introduction

Our group is in a unique situation compared to our other classmates in regards to our chosen artist; we discovered Lawrence King as he is a friend of Nicola and she had heard his music. Although this gives us an advantage as we can contact him directly for research it also means he is not yet fully established and so we cannot gain inspiration/direction from previous music videos.

A quick introduction to Lawrence King

• Lawrence is 20 years old


• He is currently a student at the University of Hertfordshire


• He studies Music Technology


• His music is predominately in the Electronic genre


• You can listen to his music on his MYSPACE, LASTFM, SOUNDCLOUD


• Many of his inspirations and music collection are listed on his DISCOGS page


• Lawrence networks on his TWITTER page to share ideas and feedback with other artists.

Analysis of a Music Promotion Package

Invaders Must Die, Prodigy

I have chosen The Prodigy to analyse there promotional music package as they are main stream artists within the electronic/ rave genre, quite close to our artist Lawrence King.

The above image is from their newest album Invaders Must Die, released in 2008. The style of text used for the prodigy is very angular and has a lightening effect to it. The style of text used for the album name looks as if it's graffiti, relating to the street audience that it appeals to. The main focus of the album artwork is the retro war aircraft which has a sinister/sci-fi edge to its style. The people gathering around the aircraft tell us that it shouldn't be there and is the 'invader'. The image as a whole is purposely grainy, giving it an aged effect.

The advertisement for the Invader Must Die tour continues the grainy resolution of the album cover and coupled with the use of an old fashioned air raid siren and signal control tower it creates a feeling of nostalgia. The Texts used for artist name and album name are again the same for continuity. The colours primarily used are red, black and orange which give connotations of danger, fire, and doom. the metal tower in the middle helps create a feeling of war, which fits in with the Prodigy's ideolody- us vs. the establishment.

The above music video, is for the title single of the album, Invaders Must Die. The video takes an anti-establishment stance, with the protagonist entering private property- what would appear to be a disused army aircraft/ naval camp. The barren location with disintegrating property and eery army buildings instantly creates a feeling of the 'scary unknown.' A recurring theme within the video is a drawing of an ant, which the protagonist draws at different points around the location as a warning to stay away. This allows for some interesting cinematography to reveal the ants, such as a high angle shot at the very end revealing the drawing on a helipad. The shot of the helipads shows clearly the expanse of space in the location, and is a scenic ending shot. The protagonist is played by an actor but the band appear in several shots that last for a couple of seconds each, for the benefit of fans who can recognise them. Although the video has no clear narrative this adds to the feeling of mystery, and encourage people to watch again to understand further.

Production Meeting 2

Today our task was to finalise our music choice. We had listened to some Lawrence King tracks in the week on Last.fm and the whole group enjoyed the music. Lawrence sent us some tracks that he thought were particularly suitable for a pop promo. We decided on the track - Gravity and Habit- as we felt the change in styles and tempo throughout the song would make for a more interesting pop promo.

Our initial ideas was a nature vs. urban idea, shots of the city and of nature. After speaking to Jon we realise we need to incorporate a stronger narrative in the promo. So for next week we are all going to come up with individual ideas which include a narrative and research what similar artists have done for their music videos.

Our roles within the group have been decided..

Maya Mathias- Cinematographer
Nicola Wright- Art Director
Jessica Hayward- Editor, Producer

Music Video Textual Analysis: Boards of Canada

Dayvan Cowboy



The Boards of Canada music video was created using existing video footage from nature documentaries and sport action shots. As Boards of Canada are a relatively small band and only ever achieved modest success, they never produced many music videos. The music video for Dayvan Cowboy was therefore low-cost and quite simplistic, although it has received over 700,000 views on YouTube as popularity for the video grew.

The music video begins with footage from Joe Kittinger's record-breaking skydive and grainy shots of the world from above the atmosphere. Seeing images on such a grand scale gives the video an epic feeling, and enhance the feeling of the music being outer-worldly. The introduction of more instruments is marked by Kittinger's jump out of the plane reflecting the increase in adrenaline. Video footage from Kittingers harness is used as he descends towards the atmosphere, and as he begins to pass through it this in parallel with a lower tempo in the music. The director, Melissa Olson, has done this to make us feel like we are going on a journey with the skydiver.

As the music takes a break and changes, the images switch to a wide shot of the ocean, with alternating shots of Kittinger falling from his parachute into the ocean. The rest of the video is a series of footage, edited in slow motion, of Laird Hamilton surfing. It can be assumed by the viewer that it is the same man falling from the sky and into the ocean and surfing, a complete journey with nature. The video end with an interesting POV-style shot of the sunset in the ocean which gives the effect that the viewer is sitting there watching it, with water splashing into their eyes.

I believe the video promotes the electronic duo very effectively. The music video ensures the viewers concentration is just as much on the images as the sounds, as the two work together seamlessly. The inspiration for their music as a whole has reportedly been the National Film Board of Canada, which produces nature and sporting documentaries, and this obviously comes through in the film. I believe the audience for this music video is actually very broad- 18-55 as the images are relaxing to watch and of extraordinary sporting feats.

Music Video Textual Analysis: 30 Seconds to Mars

The Kill, 30 Seconds to Mars (2007)

The music video for The Kill, from American rock band 30 Second to Mars, enjoyed widespread popularity and became a YouTube hit. The band was awarded with an MTV2 VMA for best music video for the song.

Intertextuality runs firmly through the video as the narrative is largely based up the film The Shining, Stanley Kubrick (1980). Many scenes are directly sourced from the film, including a man dressed as a bear performing a sexual act and the woman in the shower. This will helps give viewers a sense of familiarity with the music video, even if they have never seen it before, assuming they have seen The Shining albeit.

Cinematography at the start of the music video helps to emphasis the expanse of the hotel with wide and long shots. Imparticular, the tracking shot of the guy on the skateboard helps give a sense of foreboding to the long corridors. Performance scenes of the band often use low angle shots, giving the band a sense of importance and separate them form the narrative within the music video. The lead singer Jared Leto, however, is often shot with high angled shots, making him look more susceptible and weak. In my opinion this helps reflect the nature of the song, of someone being troubled and victimised.

The title 'The Kill' appears at the start of the music video, giving it the feel of a feature film. Scenes are often cut and jumped forward, for example at at 1.15 the Leto progressively makes his way towards the table in jumpy cuts and the same is repeated again later in the corridor. This helps add confusion to what he is doing, what is he trying to find? Towards the end of the film, scenes are edited into a split screen. The use of this editing technique further supports the idea of split personalities, as well as giving the hotel guests an eerie and supernatural feel.

The film is structured mainly as a narrative but with performance scenes throughout. The performance scenes are in itself a genre characteristic of rock music videos. Other features that are typical of the genre are alcohol, women and sex. However, these are not shown to excess in a conventional rock style way, and many scenes like the ballroom are not typical of rock videos at all. Close-up's of the band represent them as more alternative rock, as there make-up and hair is styled quite gothic. This fits in with the image of the band outside of the music video as they don't aim to be mainstream. I believe the intended audience for the music video is the 15-30 age bracket. The older portion of the audience will enjoy the bands exophoric reference to The Shining.

Music Video Textual Analysis: DJ Shadow

The Organ Donor, DJ Shadow (2005, Colin Arnold)

For my next video to analyse I chose The Organ Donor by electronic artist DJ Shadow because it relates more closely to the type of music I will be creating a video for. DJ shadow has enjoyed rave reviews amongst critics but is still quite underground and therefore the video was made on a limited budget.

The Music video is concept based, and draws inspiration from the homonyms that can be pulled from the title. Firstly we have the literal 'Organ Donor' a person who donates organs. The opening of the music video shows a creepy looking undertaker man who works in a church with the dead, removing there organs to be sold or donated. The other meaning of 'Organ Donor' relates to the musical organ and the way in which samples of someone playing the organ have been donated to this new track which DJ Shadow has mixed. There is no narrative as such, but there are performance segments. The performance scenes of the undertaker on the organ and the DJ mixing aren't the actual artist, but look to replicate the way in which the music was made.

The video is made in the visual style of a horror film and can almost be criticised as being guilty of genre characteristics overload. We see iconography of the horror genre such as Churches, crosses, graves, bloodied knifes and dead bodies. The opening of the video uses the diagetic sound of the church bells ringing, smoke machine on a dark street and creaky doors to immediately give us a sense of horror and foreboding. The undertaker begins to play the organ parallel to the music track but as the track begins to scratch and break down at 3.00 we switch to watching a vicar DJ on modern decks. We see a record on the decks which is printed with 'Organ Donor', a reference to the name of the track. Although the video is based on the horror genre it is also intended to be humorous, evident when the undertaker begins dancing at 2.16.

Lighting and cinematography are both used effectively to add to the horror feel of this music video. At 1.16 the up lit strobe lighting on the undertaker's face portrays him as the typical horror film bad man. At 1.58 a key light backlights the undertaker to create a silhouette and mystery to what he is doing. When the vicar is DJing at 3.16 the strobe lighting and the LED lighting give the impression of a nightclub, but also of thunder and lighting depending how the audience reads it. Many portions of the video are edited so that there are series of quick cuts, such as around the 1.00 mark, to give a feeling of uncertainty and pace.

The audience can read this video as having an anti-Christian ideology. The religious imagery throughout, including Christ on the crucifix at 1.40, is not shown in such a manner as to promote the idea of Christianity but to challenge its importance and validity. Some Christians may find the idea of DJing and partying in a Church offensive. The undertaker is shown preparing absinthe by burning the sugar in a spoon, a highly un-christian thing to do in a church.

Production Meeting 1

Today the class were given their brief by Jon, and we discussed what was required of us. Our first task was to organise ourselves into groups for our coursework. Our group consists of Maya Mathias, Jessica Hayward and Nicola Wright. Jon asked us to discuss our options for the music track for our pop promo. Nicola mentioned a friend, Lawrence King, that is doing music production at university, and that it may be possible to use one of his tracks. For next week we will try to contact Lawrence and get some tracks from him.

Star Construction

In our lesson last week our lecturer gave us a brief history of music videos and screened some examples of outstanding music videos. We were also taught the importance of star construction. Here are my findings about star consturction...

With thanks to Maya for typing it up.

There are three areas:

1. Star image is how the star is perceived by the audience and the characteristics ascribed to him or her which may be a combination of a conscious construction by the media industry that they work for, and of extra textual publicity in other media. It can be controlled by the star up to a certain point, but however newspapers or magazines can take advantage of any weaknesses. Music promos play a significant part in the construction of image, by creating an associated iconography (visual features that accompany the stars performance such as costumes or settings).
2. Star vehicle is a product constructed around the image of the star in order to promote them (eg a music video). These can reinforce the stars existing image or try and change the image and create a new one. They showcase their talents, and play a large part in constructing and maintaining their image.
3. Star power takes several forms: Economic power through earnings generated by the sales of an associated product such as cinema tickets or CDs. Artistic power which is creative control of their own image and how it appears in the media. Finally, Ideological power in terms of their influence upon the audience, which may take the form of style (eg fashion) or attitude.

What makes a good pop promo?

In order for us to make a good pop promo package we had to investigate how others have created a successful one. We discussed this in class and looked at examples which are lecturer had told us were particularly good. I found the following were important factors to making a good pop promo-

• Concept- Literally an idea for a video that maybe related to the song or totally unrelated that does not rely on a narrative. Radiohead's 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' (1996, Jonathan Glazer) contains no narrative but relies solely upon the concept Glazer created. A scientific ultra high speed camera allowed scenes to be captured in extreme slow motion. Using just concept in this music video was effective because it created a solemn, reflective tone that allows the audience to study the lyrics.
• Performance- A performance sequence in a music video is often very important as it gives opportunity to show the band/artist performing their song as they would if you saw them live. In U2's music video for 'Where the Streets Have No Name' (1987, Meiert Avis) the band are shot performing on a Los Angeles rooftop. This was a live performance performed to a crowd unaware the event was taking place. The video is heavily edited to show the band getting in trouble from the police and then continuing to perform. Although in real life the stopped filming when asked to do so, editing the performance in such away created a popular music video and portrayed the group as 'living on the edge'.
• Narrative- Telling a story in a music video is an easy way to gain the audiences attention and top explain the meaning behind an artists lyrics. The song 'Cool' by Gwen Stefani uses a video that sticks close to the lyrics to tell a story (2005, Sophie Muller). The lyrics explain the narrator's relationship with her ex-boyfriend and how she has happily moved on and please to see her ex happy with a new girlfriend. Graphic match cuts compare and contrast the two relationships.
• Mise en scene- MES is important within any music video but will undoubedly vary depending on the concept, narrative or type of performance.
  
• Ideology, message and values- A music video is a good way for an artist to express there belief and values as well as raise controversial issues to put them into the public eye. For example, the video for 'Rabbit in your headlights' by UNKLE (1998, Jonathan Glazer) has created a lot of discussion over the underlying messages that the video contains. One reading is that the video appears to criticise the lack of care and consideration between human beings in the modern world, whilst another reading sees the video as promoting Christianity and the journey of Christ.
• SFX,CGI and animation- Special effects allows music videos to enter a world beyond reality. The video for 'Handlebars' by the Flobots is entirely animated. This gives the advantage of being able to tell the story more quickly than if it was shot in real life.
• Originality of visual style- For an artist to set themselves apart from other competition and attract a larger audience they must go further than the average artist to produce an original music video. The generic music video format of the artist performing with narrative running throughout is often more than adequate but artist who break this mould often earn more awards and success for their videos. Radiohead, Massive Attack, Weezer and Fatboy Slim are particularly noted for the original style captured in many of their videos.
• Intertextuality- The use of intertextuality in a music video is often inspired by films and helps to make a good pop promo as it engages the audience to spot what film is used and creates a feeling of familiarity. The video for Geri Halliwell's song 'Its raining men' (2001) directly uses scene and/or gains inspiration from the films Flashdance (1983) and Fame (1980)
• Similar linking themes- visual styles between music video, and print adverts/websites. Mika uses the same logo and similar visual style (cartoons and doodles) for his name in both CD cover and advertisement