Permission from artist

I decided to tweet SBTRKT asking for their permission to use the song Wildfire for our A2 media video.

Calendar

This calendar shows how we have effectively managed our time in the creation of our video.

Textual Analysis

ASAP Rocky - Peso

In this essay I will be analysing the hip-hop song ‘Peso’ by the rapper ASAP Rocky. The music video is conceptual with a sort of performance element to it but not entirely; ASAP Rocky does rap and sings in the music video however there are not visuals of him performing in a live gig for example. The video is about where ASAP Rocky and the whole of ‘ASAP mob’ grew up (Harlem) and he tells the audience that he as well as his mob are ‘going to make it in a second’. This was one of ASAP Rocky’s first videos uploaded onto YouTube on August 10th, 2011 and now has 14,183,277 views. Almost the concept of the lyrics, letting the audience know that they haven’t made it yet however just in a short time they are huge in the hip hop genre. The mob show exactly where they go out in Harlem for example as it looks like a fast food restaurant and the street corner where they play betting. This music video is directed to any type of audience that is familiar with hip-hop/grime or R&B.  

The video has very fast cuts, short shot duration cutting with the beat creating a very upbeat but slow hip hop music video. This fast editing style seems to have appealed to the audience; this is because by having fast cuts, it doesn’t allow any repeated tedious shot of the mob performing or socializing.

There are parts of the video where there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals such as when he says ‘blowing blunts, rolling doobies up smoking sections’ the visuals are of him smoking blunts and joints. Another example would be when he talks about his clothes ‘Raf Simons, Rick Owens is usually what I’m dressed in’ the visuals show Rocky wearing these particular brands. There is also a relationship with the music and the visuals as I breifly mentioned before thw visuals cut in time with the beat.

In the performance parts of the video they are primarily medium and long shots of the ASAP mob which promotes them as a group rather than just ASAP Rocky on his own, showing the audience who they are, their faces, fashion styles and what they generally do as a mob. Most of the elements in the video are typical of the genre, for example the mis en scene used is typical for hip hop videos for example, the location. In most American hip hop videos you will see the rapper on the streets (where he grew up) very often. However the clothes is and isn’t to typical of the genre, At the beginning of the video you see him wearing a gold chain, however about a third into the song he says ‘swagger so impressive, but I don’t need this necklace’ and hides it which kind of contradicts the stereotypical hip hop genre. You do see other rappers wearing gold chains and snapback hats like Rocky but his overall appearance is slightly different, he says he is dressing  weirder and weirder’ as he describes himself in a different music video when he finally makes it. Rocky is almost known for wearing circle John Lennon such glasses, a Supreme leopard print towel hanging down underneath his hat, sort of slim but baggy blue jeans and Adidas high top trainers with bones across the laces. The other rappers in the ASAP mob behind Rocky are wearing similar clothing. However it sort of does and doesn't challenge the conventions of hip hop videos, it does because in most hip hop videos you will generally see the same thing over and over, in Rocky’s videos which he directs himself, there are certain small differences for example the variety of locations used in Peso and the difference in appearances of the artists in the video. The lighting is very bright as the majority of it was shot in the day, even the night scenes the mob is brightly lit, contradicting the typical hip hop genre again.

This music video ‘Peso’ would appeal to target audience of teenagers and young adults, the majority being male however slightly older teenage girls from 17-24 would have also been included because it has involve everything that the stereotypical hip hop fan likes doing.

In the conclusion it is clear that the relationship between the visuals and lyrics are evident which is the main aspect of the video, trying to let people know around the world what ASAP mob is about by conveying this through the lyrics and visuals. The different camera shots of long shots medium shot, close up’s of Rocky allowing the audience to stay in contact with the video without losing interest, this music video evidently shows the genre of the music and promotes ASAP mob with a sort of but not directly performance based video.

SBTRKT live

These are some of the clips of SBTRKT performing live at Reading festival 2012. We decided to use short parts of the live footage in our music video near the end which we think is clever to have the real Dj's performing in our video. The clips were filmed on my touch screen phone so the quality isn't as good as we wanted it to be but you can get a good idea of what SBTRKT's live sets are like.

Shot list

Shot no.	Shot/ Framing etc.	Action	Info (costumes, props, locations, personnel etc)
1	High angle Close up	Hand on fruit machine spinning	Fruit machine, Pub
2	Extreme close up	Coins falling	Coins
3	Extreme close up	Hand putting wallet into pocket	Wallet
4	Extreme close up	Hands in fish tank	Fish (tank)
5	Extreme close up	Hand setting alarm	Alarm clock
6	Close up	Hand running along a person’s back	Person’s back
7	Establishing shot Tilt	Camera showing night sky	Night sky with stars, moon etc
8	Tilt Close up	Hands running along a running track	Running track, TVAC
9	Close up	Hand lighting a lighter	Lighter
10	Close up	Hand in lasso	lasso
11	Close up	Lasso rises taking hand	lasso
12	Close up	Hand going into a fist	-
13	Close up	Hands walking into sink	Bathroom sink
14	Extreme close up	Hands being cuffed	Handcuffs
15	Close up	Hand grabbing neck	Person’s neck
16	Tracking shot	Hands reaching for phone	Mobile phone
17	Camera moves into phone screen	Live footage of SBTRKT performing	-
18	Close up Tracking shot	Hand smoking	Cigarette
19	Close up Tracking shot	Hand sipping a pint	Pint
20	Close up Tracking shot	Person taking an ecstasy pill	Tablet

Textual Analysis

The Vaccines - Wetsuit Instagram video

The Vaccines are an English Indie Rock band, formed in West London in 2010. Their debut album ‘What did you expect from The Vaccines?’ was released through Columbia records on 14 March 2011 and reached Number 4 in the UK Album Chart. The Band have been compared to the likes of The Strokes and Ramones however the band say they have such influences from 50’s rock ‘n’ roll to 80’s American hardcore and good pop music. The Band were awarded Best New Band at the NME Awards 2012 and won New Music Award at XFM also in 2012. The band has supported the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Clash and the Maccabees. The director of the video Wetsuit Instagram Video Poppy de Villeneuve who is fairly small unknown director as there is no recognition of any previous work, the song falls under Indie genre, this genre is aimed at a fairly wide audience mainly in North/West London although it doesn’t fall under mainstream, there are not many conventions to Indie Rock video however there are a few within the video. For example the majority of the video is of pictures of people at festivals throughout a whole summer, Indie/ Rock bands are usually playing or at festivals. All the pictures are close ups of good times at a festival, allowing the viewer to see what people are like at festivals, the clothing they wear for example denim shorts big t-shirts, wellington boots, sunglasses, all with a very bright colour palette, allot of summer colours like oranges, yellows for example giving the message the summer vibe, theme of the festivals. The style of the video if to see what actions are being taken place at festivals, the style of video is to show how much people enjoy themselves at festivals. There is a small part of the video where you see the lead singer lip singing to the song, walking through Reading Festival. 

Some of the lyrics within the song are illustrated by the visuals on the screen, some of the lyrics are contradictory as he sings about putting a wetsuit on and the visuals show people wearing festival clothing, not wetsuits. However some of the lyrics are amplified. The lyrics ‘With a cool cool breeze and dirty knees the visuals show a girl sitting down at her camp site with muddy knees. Also the lyrics ‘I rest on childhood memories’ almost reminiscing over the good times he’s had at festivals, visuals showing good times at a festival. 

There is a relationship between the visuals and the video itself, when the song beat becomes faster the pictures of people on the screen cut faster, there is a small part of the video towards the end where the video shows The Vaccines play at a festival, It is mainly Long shots from backstage at the festival which is allowing the audience to see the crowd, what the band is wearing and the Instruments being played. Usually Indie Rock bands will do this to send the message to the audience that they are musicians if they are playing Instruments in the video.   

Textual Analysis

What is the function and purpose of music video for Hold On by SBTRKT in representing the artist? 

Hold On is a song by the musician called “SBTRKT” who’s real name is Aaron Jerome, following the hit single “wildfire” from the album; this song was released on 12th February 2012 in the United Kingdom and features SBTRKT’s main collaborator Sampha on vocals in the song. Hold On was described by some critics as “the highlight of the album”.

The song falls under the category of electronic house, this synthetic musical style is mirrored in the abstract and imaginative video for the song. As SBTRKT have only produced the track, and hired another artist to sing over it. Even though the artist doesn’t feature visually in the video, the images used strongly promote the image of the artist, as the video adds another dimension to the music behind it. As the genre is electronic house, a musical style which is more focused on the music rather than the lyrics, you can expect there to be an amplifying or illustrative relationship between the music and the visuals, and for the same to be seen between the lyrics and the visuals, which is the case in this music video.

This video is a narrative video, telling the story of a guy driving to a house to see a girl who is at home packing to leave, and how they narrowly miss each other. The theme of the video is a kind of love story; this is the first element of the film that appears to make it appeal towards the senses and feelings of the audience. 

The video starts with a high angle shot of the moon at night, the light from the moon shining through some clouds in the sky creating a gentle and sensual feeling for the viewer. This feeling is then further accentuated by the sound of the track, the soft notes that the song begins with do well to strengthen this sensual feeling in the viewer. The music and visuals on screen strongly combine to make the viewer feel particular emotions. In this way SBTRKT are promoting their image as real musicians, more as an entity than a public image, through the quality of music they produce and the effect this has on the viewer, not by how the editing and camera presents the artist as a character in the video.

The video begins to reach out and engage with the viewer’s senses initially through the mise en scene and camera work. The first 45 seconds of the video features an intercutting sequence of some shots of a house, the street outside and the interior of a car driving towards the house. The mise en scene of this section of the video is a soft, yellow, low-key lighting used in association with the house (the man’s destination).  This lighting gives the impression of the house being warm and inviting. In contrast, the shots of the car are filmed using a brighter light, and make the car, and the area outside the house seem cold. The mise en scene in terms of these two settings also appeals to the viewers senses. The viewer compares the cold looking car, versus the warm, appealing house and makes a decision on which they would prefer. The viewer then understand that the artist is telling a story about normal people experiencing normal emotions, making the artist seem more down-to-earth and in touch with the audience - the artist is showing that they understand emotion, maybe saying that the artists themselves have experienced similar emotions.  The camera work used of the shots of the girl in the house is important; filmed in slow motion this footage contrasts with that of the man, which seems to be slightly sped up through jump cuts. This may have been done because the narrative of the video seems to be that the male character gets home too late to catch the girl before she leaves. The slow motion makes it seem like there is time to catch her before she goes but it doesn’t matter how fast the man moves he still doesn’t get there in time. 

The video adheres to Goodwin’s theories throughout, the first few shots are edited in such a way that the shots cut in time with the beat,   this shows the close  and direct and illustrative relationship between the music and the visuals. Also the first lyrics of the song; “what do you mean, what do you mean you’re not coming back?”. While this is being sung, the woman has picked up her suitcase and appears to be leaving the house, this shows an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and the visuals on screen. Both these relationships prove Andrew Goodwin’s theories are being used and as they are illustrative relationships, this shows the artist’s intention of doing something that the viewer can relate to easily, furthering my idea that the artist’s intention was to make a video that appeals to the viewers senses and promotes the artist as someone who has gone through the same things that the viewer may have gone through, making the artist very accessible and in touch with their emotions. 

In conclusion, this textual analysis has made it evident that Hold On, by SBTRKT has used camera work, editing and the narrative style of music video to promote the image of the artist as someone who is in touch with their emotions and someone that can create a video that reaches out to the viewer’s emotions through colour palate, lighting, editing speed and camera work. This video also proves Goodwin’s theories with regards to the visuals on screen matching the lyrics and music of the song itself. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x6DmYxnBaI