Research - Campaign Pitch Video

Luke's pitch from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Research - Campaign Pitch

Research - Branding

Genre

The genre I have chose for my project is a mix of Indie, Alternative and Britpop. I chose these genres because I feel as if I am familiar with the audience and the music's effect on them. In addition to this I believe that each genre has a specific style and 'look' that is related to it and these genres are the ones I am most well acquainted with.

The artist I have chose is The Stone Roses as I feel as if I can draw much influence from the late 80s/early 90s indie scene. The Stone Roses, born from the post-punk Manchester scene, essentially codified the Britpop genre in Manchester. Additionally, the 'baggy-generation' was thus created from the music of The Stone Roses with the help of other Manchester Indie bands such as Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets, thus making a sub-genre; 'Madchester'. The Stone Roses' music is very much inspired by 60s psychedelic indie music with the influence of punk. The term 'baggy' essentially derived from the sounds of indie, psychedelic, funk and house music. But not only was it the sound, but the appearance of these bands. The clothes and styles consisted of baggy clothes, mop hairdos and, generally, a lazy look. Furthermore, the entire Manchester 'rave' scene was formed with hits such as Fools Gold and Step On.
The Stone Roses' image was based on the art of Jackson Pollock; John Squire in particular drew influence from his work. In addition to playing lead guitar, John Squire took his free time to produce his own artworks. Squire incorporated his artwork in the band's sleeve design; he designed the cover for both of The Stone Roses' studio albums, their singles and the Turns Into Stone compilation album. I plan to have my project drawing influence from Jackson Pollock's work in particular, basing my band's style direction around his work and creating an overall 'art pop' look. The style and direction of my branding will be significantly different to that of the current indie scene; in the 90s the indie scene was popularized with bands wearing baggy clothing and being involved in the rave scene.

 









 An example of the style of clothing in the 90s.

















The Stone Roses, a band was seen to have a heavy influence on the popularization of the baggy scene.

 Current example of Indie trends


















 The Magic Gang, a current indie band, also giving an example of the current indie style.

The Stone Roses' logo is a bright, striking lemon that is used on their debut album cover and various promotional advertisements. However, I have chose not to draw any inspiration from this logo because I am trying to avoid copying from The Stone Roses too much as I believe this is their most recognizable symbol. I feel like if I were to use this for inspiration I would be risking my own artistic integrity. At this point I am unsure of my design for a logo, if at all. I would prefer my image/branding to be based a specific typography/or imagery used on the cover, as oppose to a striking logo.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Research - The Approach

For my A2 Media project I plan to create a music video, digipak and an advertisement for The Stone Roses. My idea for this project is that The Stone Roses have approached me, as a media professional, to create a music video for their single and to launch a branding campaign. I chose the music video task because I feel as if I am incredibly interested in music and the industry itself. The film trailer task however would require a plethora of good actors and would also be similar to last year's media task.

This project is planned to be an anniversary project of sorts for The Stone Roses, giving the branding for the band a very nostalgic aura. In light of this, I have given myself a wide target audience. There will be the older generation of fans who grew up with The Stone Roses' music, and there will be the fans who are listening to their music for the first time, like myself. A majority of this audience is ranging in the late teens-early twenties, whilst the older group can range from anywhere from 30-upwards. Furthermore, the project will act as a branding campaign for a completely new 'The Stone Roses' album, in which I will lead design.

For the music video, I will draw inspiration from the 'indie-Madchester' genre in particular. The Stone Roses' previous few music videos will provide a unique perspective into their music video style. Additionally, I would like to take inspiration and draw parallels with Jackson Pollock's artwork. John Squire, the guitarist, took a lot of inspiration from Jackson Pollock throughout his years in The Stone Roses. This included album artwork, promotional material and even the band's instruments.

For the digipak, I have come up with a few ideas regarding the front cover. For this I will draw inspiration from some minimalistic, conceptual album covers such as Unknown Pleasures, Dark Side of The Moon and The Beatles (The White Album). My initial idea is a half lemon atop a white canvas with no band name or album name. To have this work I must create two covers of the album the sleeve; the vanilla cover, and a cover in which the record company will assign stickers to be placed on the cover which can be peeled off if the audience wishes.

Research - The Beatles - Revolution Music Video Analysis

The music video is very similar to that of 'One Love' in the fact that it is purely a performance video. Similar to other Beatles' music videos, with the exception of Eleanor Rigby, it holds no form of narrative.The decision to make this video performance based could be due to the subject matter of the video, relating to the context of the Vietnam War and The Beatles' stance on violence. Furthermore, this could call back to the Beatles' touring years during the years 1962 through 1966 and their lack of performance since that date, allowing for a potential sense of nostalgia. There is a wide variation of shots for this music video with various long to medium shots of the whole band to intense close-ups of each individual member, particularly John Lennon, to match the intensity of the tempo. This stray away from the Beatles' usual style of music shows a raw, gritty style, particularly enhanced by the overdriven fuzz effect on Lennon's guitar. This theme is evident in other Beatles song 'Helter Skelter' from the same album, 'The White Album'. The genre for the song is Hard Rock and comes in at 45 rpm, uncommon for a majority of The Beatles' hits. This could be seen to adhere to the hard rock genre because of its heavy focus on the band and music itself, rather than a narrative to go with it. A number of close-ups are used in the video, one particular close-up seen at 2:39 sees Lennon expressing his political belief about the Chinese dictator Chairman Mao, this was a close-up specifically requested by John Lennon thus showing the artists value for the lyrics and their meaning. The band members are seen to be wearing their normal clothes, showing the lack of emphasis on mise-en-scene and more on the music. This is similarly evident on the lack of setting. The editing to the video is very quick, obviously used to match the fast paced tempo of the music. For inspiration, I would take the wide variety of shots and use of close-ups into account, rather than the performance based nature of the video itself.

Revolution was released as B-Side to 'Hey Jude' and later added to The White Album in 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw

Research - Pink Floyd - Learning to Fly Music Video Analysis

This music video seems to follow a very vague narrative, mixed with some elements of performance. The narrative consists of a young man having aspirations to fly after seeing various things in flight, such as birds and planes. The vast landscape and long shots in the video provide an insight into the grand scale of the imagery and mise-en-scene; linking to the idea of freedom in flying, The narrative often cuts to a live performance of the song by Pink Floyd, thus creating a relation and sense of reality to the audience viewing the video.  The video seems to have a fair variety of shots, but most showing an extreme long shot and its relation to the main protagonist of the video. Furhtermore, the helicopter/plane shots provide a link to the overall theme of the song and video, flight. The genre of this song is Progressive Rock, though songs of this genre are often seen not to have an accompanying video, particularly in Pink Floyd's music. Though the choice to have a conceptual narrative and scenes of performance adhere to the idea and theme of progressive rock. The vivid colours and landscapes used in this video could appeal to the audience because it allows for a sense of engagement and visual grandeur. The mise-en-scene in this video delivers the theme and concept of freedom; with the vast scenery, light emphasis on costume design and natural lighting. In addition to this, the feature of a performance in the video shows the sense of proffesionalism and importance of the band. A lot of flight imagery is evident throughout the video with various long shots of birds and multiple POVs of planes and the protagonist himself actually flying.
For inspiration, I will use the theme of the narrative and variety of setting for my video.

Learning To Fly was a single released in 1987 for the album 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVhNCTH8pDs

Research - The Last Shadow Puppets - Bad Habits Music Video Analysis

This music video is very different to The Stone Roses' One Love; the former followed a performance structure, this one follows a very ambiguous narrative. This video is the first in a 4-part story spanning across the four singles from the new album, 'Everything That You've Come To Expect'. The story of this particular video follows the two band mates performing in a bar, whilst frequently cutting to the story behind the performance, a bachelor party. 'Bad Habits', the lyrics which gives a name to the title, could potentially link to the wrong-doing the band seem to be carrying out (seemingly sleeping with the bride before a wedding). The video seems to have a sinister/psychedelic tone to it; evident through the use of dark colors and strobe lighting. The remainder of the videos follow the consequences of their actions; 'Everything That You've Come To Expect' shows the two protagonists of this story buried in sand up to their heads, 'Aviation' shows a flashback of the two essentially digging their own graves on the beach in front of the groom of the bride they slept with, and finally 'Miracle Aligner' shows the two who have seemingly escaped their own burial (clue being the tans off both men off being buried in the sand for so long.
The genre for this song is Indie/Alternative, the video could be seen to adhere to the modern conventions of indie-rock; the band being involved in some sort of narrative love story, whilst still being able to perform. The choice to make the performance scenes in black and white and the narrative in color could be used to help the audience distinguish between the two. Could also be an example of a trope used in films in which a scene in the past is black and white, whilst the present is in color. This would make sense given the chronology of the music videos. Furthermore, this technique could be used to appeal to separate audiences. The black and white scenes could help appeal to a younger 'indie' audience because of the focus on music and its performance, whilst the color could appeal more to an adult audience, give the adult nature of the themes, as they could feel more engrossed in the story. The sinister iconography appeals to the indie-rock genre, traits such as the extremely attractive girls getting with the cool, slick band members and the focus on the heavy guitar playing in between.
The mise-en-scene in this video is fairly abstract, particularly the frequent change of scenery. The narrative appears to take place in an American diner/bar, showing the band's capacity for off-the-cuff live performance. Whilst the narrative features a large mansion bachelor party and a 'Shining-esque' snowy maze. Perhaps used to add to the sinister tone of the video. The bachelor pad used could be seen as a symbol for the band's lad-like, rebellious nature of sleeping with attractive women without considering consequences. The outfits used for the main characters are slick, unbuttoned suits; fitting well with the cool, rebel look. The lighting, as explained before, provides a sinister/horror tone to the video. The deep reds and dark blacks connote the idea of death, lust and general misbehavior. The camera work uses a variety of abstract close-ups in the narrative sections, particularly the guitar solo at 2:05. Linking to the idea of mental detachment shown in Miles Kane's erratic behavior and delivery of his lines.

Bad Habits was released as the first of four album singles for the album 'Everything That You've Come To Expect' in January 2016.