USE Preferred reading We felt that it was important to utilise media language to create a preferred reading for the

e text. For example, in our music video our main character is never shown with his feet in shot apart from the opening scene in which we see him put some comical slippers on. From then on, his feet arent shown until the very end when we clearly see that he has in fact been wearing the slippers throughout the duration of the video. Our preferred reading of this text is that he is free to live his life and do what he wants in a sense. This compliments the theme of our entire video. However, according to Stuart Halls theory, the audience may interpret this in an oppositional way and think that he is never really free but is always destined to return home. This variation of preferred reading is something that we incorporated in to our media product as we thought that it could result in more interest and intrigue in our product and therefore make it more successful. Linking on to this, an example of a real music video with a similar reading is that of Cousins by Vampire Weekend. This video shows the band playing their instruments and singing their songs frantically. Some could interpret this as chaos and erratic behaviour whereas I feel that the preferred reading is that they are simply having fun and enjoying life, similar to our music video. ! Looking - Our product compliments the theory of Andrew Goodwin in the way that there is frequently reference to the notion of looking. Whether that be: screens within screens or even telescopes. We incorporated this into our video as we think that it gives the video more of a three dimensional feel and doesnt just focus on a storyline, resulting in a more original product. We successfully did this in many ways such as displaying his phone within the frame as a window into his world, using a map as a prop to suggest he is always looking where to go next and having some shots display his point of view and the way that he views the world. (E.g. the angles when he is painting and we see a few shots from his point of view). Atlas Hands by Benjamin Francis Leftwich mirrors this idea as there is constant notions of looking such as the use of maps and a girl who looks through the shape of a letter box and down the camera lens. ! Editing is rhythmic Our music video lends itself to the interesting viewpoints of Carol Vernallis. Her theory stresses the importance of editing techniques within music videos and comments how there are much more

frequent edits than those belonging in a lm. She also observes that if editing is rhythmic, then it would bring out important aspects of the song. We chose to do this because we wanted our visuals to match the upbeat nature of the chosen song. We also made sure that our cuts were suited to the ways in which nearly every line of the music changes and ends. By doing this, I feel that we have added so much more relevance and meaning to our visuals alongside the music and therefore made our video much more effective. An example of a song that also utilises rhythmic editing is The City by The 1975 who consistently has different shots according to the beat of the song. ! Genre is hard to dene This theory; composed by Robert Stam states that genre is hard to dene, doesnt really exist and is just a concept made up by critics and theorists. To an extent, we agreed with this statement in our media product. Our song is noted as an indie pop genre, something which stereotypically only a small audience would listen to. However, we wanted to break down these boundaries of dened genres and blur the lines between dening factors. Our visuals were very varied and colourful, something which doesnt typically feature within indie pop videos. They are usually lmed in black and white and never really have a story behind the song (very stereotypically of course). So here, we felt that we mirrored Robert Stams theory and allowed the concept of genre to be hard to dene. A video that backs up this view is LA Calling by the Crystal Fighters. Their music is typically very hard to dene a genre for and this video ts this idea as it seems random in places and depicts them having fun, which holds similarities to our video. CHALLENGE ! No repeated chorus - each chorus has different visuals to provide a refreshing, uid and engaging feel. The Black Keys Tighten Up We challenged this convention of a music video and especially the conventions of the Black Keys music video by having our actor in different locations and engaging in different activities on each chorus. This was so that it wasnt repetitive or boring for the audience, and it resulted in the different sections of the video becoming memorable. This relates to Carol! Vernallis theory that a music video is manufactured. Examples of the different sequences we used during the choruses were our actor on the side of the road holding up the signs with the lyrics on. We used this for the rst chorus and it looked effective because we timed the editing precisely so that each

line was sung on a new panel. For the other choruses we used him lip synching in a different location and his phone ringing where we used all different camera angles to emphasise these events. We utilised extreme close ups of the phone and his lips as well as mid shots and long shots. Also, we used a door sequence as a literal part of the video in terms of the lyrics of the song. We had multiple doors appear on screen to the beat of the song and the nal door being his door. But the audience dont know this or realise this until the end. !!!!! ! Narrative intro without music: The Black Keys Tighten Up The narrative introduction used was to show the audience that our actor was getting prepared for the day ahead and leaving the house. We used this sequence because the song is about having a good and fun day, and through using Barthes theory of semiotics we wanted to present the fact that people could have fun! with their day. We challenged this because in The Black Keys song Tighten Up, the opening of the song is a child and his dad walking into the playground to meet their friend, where as we showed short fast clips of James getting ready for the day by putting on and doing up items of clothing such as his slippers and jacket. We still created a baseline narrative to the music video because this clearly demonstrates to the audience that he is getting ready to go out or for something. This sets the music video up for the audience so that they can nd out what is going to happen throughout the duration of the song. The narrative at the beginning is without music and after the door shuts (the last shot of the sequence) the music begins. This is the same thing that happens in the Black Keys music video, however the narrative beginning has dialogue in it and it last for 30 seconds longer.! !!!! Stop motion/time-lapse: Matt and Kim - Daylight Matt and Kim use stop motion in their video for their song Daylight during the instrumental section and we wanted to either emulate this or do something different that would still t in with the genre and style of our music video. Instead of stop motion we did a time-lapse of four different locations which again uses Barthes theory because we wanted to emulate the idea of having fun!with all the colours and different picturesque!landscapes we included. We shot in various locations in Bristol such as:the top of Park Street, from the observatory look out at the suspension bridge, the docks and also at the colourful houses from a lookout on the docks. We managed to capture different events happening in every single one of our time lapses, which also made our music video that bit more interesting, eye catching and professional. For example the balloons above the suspension bridge and also the boat coming into shot facing towards the docks. This portrays that we challenged it because we took scenery and surroundings and watched it go

by the camera, instead of having people or objects moving towards a specic location. This made the video more complete because the time-lapse suited the style of the video with all the different colours, as well as the music and genre of the song. It didnt look out of place, where as the stop motion in Daylight seemed random and didnt link the video together very well.

DEVELOP No choreographed movements - Archer states that movements are common features for music videos. We strayed slightly away from this, however further developed it by including a strict routine that the narrative followed. We needed our actor to move where we needed him to at certain points in the video. Therefore it has some elements of choreography, not in the literal sense. Ambitions by Joe McEldry seems to stick with a very choreographed video, something which we developed on. Andrew goodwin! says there must be a relationship between music and visuals - We took this very literally and added shots of the lyrics. One line in the song talks about an old payphone against a brick wall. Therefore we lmed an old pay phone against a backdrop of a brick wall.!This was inuenced by a simple shot in the music video for Our House by Madness. Another shot was of cardboard with the lyrics written on!(an idea which we were inuenced by this action within the music video Paradise by Coldplay. This helped to make all the scenes relevant.Vernallis states that the performance of the band can blunt the narrative. That is why we had an equal balance between performance and narrative to keep it interesting for the audience.