Song Choice - The Pretender Analysis

In the end 'The Pretender' got the majority vote for the song choice of our music video. We took it into consideration and all decided to agree that 'The Pretender' is a good choice for our music video.

The song choice that we have chosen is The Pretender. It is is a song by the American alternative rock band Foo Fighters. It was the first single from the group's 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.

The music video ‘The Pretender’ by Foo Fighters shows several features of Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory. The video commences with an aircraft hanger this could be recognised to represent the scale of the band as they are very well received in the music industry.

There are several close ups of the band are used throughout; this is heavily enforced by the record label. It creates a personality for the band and helps them make solid motives that set them apart from other bands in the same genre as them. Low angel shots of Dave Ghrol (Lead singer) and his guitar at the beginning make him look tall and powerful signifying he is the most important member of the band.

Near the end of the video the wall of red behind them explodes and showers the room in a red paint. The red paint could be visually perceived to represent the emotion and anger being the musical composition, but additionally the climax of the video. Visual editing can be visually shown to match that of the tempo close ups of the instruments being played in sync with the music shows the audience that the band can play. This can also be applied to the lip-syncing

Although the video consist of mainly performance, linking together lyrics and visuals creates an idea of a narrative. “I’m what’s right, I’m the enemy” is showing they're going against society and the police in particular. This comes towards to the end of the video showing that whats holding them together has eventually snapped and that he has given up being in ill-mannered towards the police and has deiced to make a stand.

The performers have a wide stance while playing; this is commonly associated with rock music and is often shown in rock videos.  Additionally a tedious feature of music is the appearance of the band, they look messy/scruffy and wear their instruments low on the body this additionally promotes the wide stance they have. A widespread representation in music is a massive hefty reliance on a narrative; rock videos incline to have less of a narrative and more performance in their music videos.

Song Choice Survey

This is the song choice survey that we decided to go out and take. We went and ask several different people around school to get their opinion on what song we should choose.

Choosing Genre

Here are my brainstorms on figuring out what our genre should be for our music video. Firstly we started with a normal brainstorm and listed out several different genres that we were interested in. We then thought of all the sub genres that can be inputted with our one. After we had narrowed what genre we were picking, we made another brainstorm, this time comparing: Alternative rock and Indie rock. We began to name bands and research which ones fit in with which genre. This would later on help us decide a song for our music video. After naming bands we halved the brainstorm and started listing characteristics that the genres might have. In the end we decided on choosing Alternative rock with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Fallout boy and 30  seconds to mars as our influences.

Digipak conventions

These are the conventions of what should be in more digipak, I have listed all of the different objects/items, images and text needed.

• Album name
• Track listing
• Barcode
• Images
• Record Label Logo
• Record Label Information
• Band Name
• Lyrics
• Booklet
• Band Logo
• Copyright
• Bonus disc
• Main disc
• Band Photograph
• Band Poster 
• Leaflet for any upcoming events
• Website name
• Contact details

Sinead Feedback

Focus Group Recording

Locations: The locations that we have chosen that we might film in are an abandoned area, a forest, a marsh, a recording studio and a stage.

Costume: The costumes that we have chosen are casual clothes, skinny/baggy jeans, dark colours, hoodie and worn down shoes.

Photographer: The photographer that we have chosen is Nathan Hogben, he has experience in taking pictures since he takes up photography as an A-Level.

Actors: The actors that we have chosen are us, which is: Ben, Louis, Jonathan and Terry.

Digipak plan

This is my digipak plan, there are seven sections to a digipak, the front cover, the back, the inside, the first disc, the bonus disc and a booklet. Here on my digipak, for the front cover I have decided to make it a puddle which shows a reflection of a guitar within it. The back of the digipak will have a picture of the band all holding their instruments with the track list going down the side. The booklet will be similar to the back with a picture of the band however this time they will be in a different location. My main disc and bonus disc will have dark blue ripples of water. The text will not be in the ripples on the first disk but will be for the bonus one. The back will feature a building which will show part of the location that we are in. There is also the spine which will have the name of the band on it and would usually have an album name.

Artist Brief

Name of the Artist: Cold Liberty

History/background: Band of four all American, formed during high school and started out playing remixes of songs in bars/pubs. They was noticed by a small independent record label. Started out small and done a couple of gigs and one of their gigs went viral and a scout from Warner Bros music noticed the band. Band was asked by a couple of record labels but signed into Warner Bros.

Status now: Been with Warner Bros for half a year and the band is still starting out.

We are Signed to Warner Bros

Our Sound is Alternative rock

Ideology: Being original 

Our influences: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, 30 seconds to mars, Fallout boy, Foo fighters

Likes: Gaming, Messing around, being jokey, making music, Independence day

Dislikes: Musicals, imposters, drugs, abuse, pop  

Audience Profiling

Band Name Survey

Here is a survey for our band deciding on a name. We asked several people in our school to pick a name that they liked out of a list of names that we thought up early but couldn't decide on which ones to keep. The majority went for Cold Liberty, which we then all agreed is a good name for a band and that we will be using it.

Digipak Green Screen Analysis

List of song choices

Thirty Seconds to Mars
Night of The Hunter
Vox Populi
Hurricane
Kings and Queens

Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Cant stop
Give it Away
Scar Tissue

Linkin Park
What i've Done
Numb

Foo Fighters
All my Life
The Pretender
Learn to Fly
Long Road to Ruin

Fall Out Boy
Thanks For the Memories

These are our song choices, we will have to decide which one we like the most, we will most probably do a survey to decide on the song.

The Culture Industry Notes

Adorno and Horkheimer - They said that the culture industry showed off an "assembly line character" which could be seen in the fake method of turning out its products. They took the term "Culture Industry" to argue that the way products are produced is similar to the way other companies manufactures a large number of goods. Culture production became a routine, standardised repetitive operation that produced undemanding cultural commodities which in turn resulted in a type of consumption that was standardised, distracted and passive.

According to highbrow people, everything lowbrow is bad examples of low brow shows are: The X Factor, Soaps, Reality shows etc... this is because they are standardised. People of highbrow complain that everything is the same and nothing is unique.

X Factor is corrupting the music industry, due to the homogeneity. Capitalist corporations are all powerful and control everything.

Pseudo Individuality says that there are superficial differences, everything looks the same but they have a minor difference. Two examples of this are: The X Factor and The Voice. They both have the same premise but there is a small difference in the way the judges get to listen to the music. If there is anything that's different it will usually get changed so that it can fit the "norm" and get standardised.

Music Video Directors

Francis Lawrence

Francis Lawrence was born March 26, 1971 and is an American music video, film, and television director and producer.

Francis Lawrence's best music videos are:

"Gone Till November" by Wyclef Jean (1997)
"I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith (1998)
"Fortunate" by Maxwell (1999)
"Girls Best Friend "by Jay-Z (1999)
"I'm A Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears (2001)
"Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake feat. Timbaland (2003)
"Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga (2009)

His best movies were:
"Constantine" (2005)
"I Am Legend" (2007)
"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013)

Francis Lawrence, grew up in Los Angeles, showed an early interest in filmmaking. He wrote screenplays, shot Super 8 movies and took high school film classes. He continued to study film at Loyola Marymount University and after graduating, began to make music videos for a friend who owned a small record label.

Lawrence soon became a multi-award winning director, working with some of the biggest superstars in music, including Destiny's Child, Ricky Martin, Lauryn Hill, Jennifer Lopez and Sarah McLachlan. He has won several MTV Video Music awards and received the 2002 MVPA Director of the Year award. He also won a Latin Grammy in 2002 for Shakira's video "Suerte

Digipack Presentation