The shoot - clothing

Many of the actors starring in the video (everyone besides the band who came early) did not know they were going to be in the video. We chose not to tell them beforehand so they came dressed as they would for a party without any intervention. This gives the video some authenticity as the characters are dressed appropriately.

Jamie - jumper and black jeans.

Matt - polo shirt and jeans.
Jack - grey jumper and jeans
Chris - black polo shirt and jeans 

Tyler - grey jumper and jeans
Amy - black shirt with cardigan and jeans

Ben - t-shirt and jeans

The shoot - lighting (and reasoning behind some shots)

As the video is set in a house at night, we had the curtains closed with the main lights on. This had multiple effects; one being the setting looked more natural for the characters, and the lighting was easier to control.

Even through we kept the lighting natural, we used some techniques to make some shots more interesting. For example, in the narrative section, the lighting got progressively more and more dark. This was done by starting off with the main light on, then just lamps in the room, and finally just the glow of the TV. This was done to show the passing of time and to be a metaphor for the worsening situation for the characters and the changing from a party atmosphere to one more serious.

A screen shot of a scene early in the video...

...and another from near the end. Although it is hard to tell (with the screenshot being taken with a cameraphone off of the Mac's screen), the latter is noticeably darker. 

The shots also reflect this shift in tone in the video, in both the performance and narrative aspects. The narrative section started with more high angle and longer shots that gradually turned to mid/close ups and low angle shots as the video wore on. This highlights the dwindling numbers of the characters and introduces almost a sense of claustrophobia to the audience.

The more common low angle shots are reflected in the performance aspect, but the lighting is constant to show the band are fearless. Their fate is hinted at during the chorus shots of the feet of the corpses framing the shot as the darkness of their shoes slowly fill in the frame. This ends with Ben and Jamie's characters legs filling the rest of the frame in the last scene.

The chorus after Tyler's character dies

And the final shot in the house where Ben and Jamie step in front of the camera. There is a shot preceding this where Tyler's and Amy's legs frame the shot, but I don't have a picture available of that. 

The only shot that we had to utilise the lighting in a more complicated way was the "we did warn you not to hear" scene. The homage to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody poster was the only piece of intertextuality we included in the video. We did this to emulate the seriousness and emotion of the line in the song whilst staying upbeat with the reference. We emulate the framing of the shot, a three shot from a slightly low angle with the tallest person in the middle, all looking down their nose at the camera slightly. As for the lighting, I had to hold a torch pointing up from the floor to provide the underside lighting we needed.

The shoot - props

We kept props to a minimum to keep the video looking realistic in relation to the location it is set. We used the following props:

• A deck of cards - used in early scenes to give Tyler's character a motive to go to the kitchen (following the game of Ring of Fire we set up).

• Bottles and cans - used to make the set look more authentic to that of a party and to provide a basis to film cutaways.

• Glasses - Filled and got gradually drank as scenes went on to give a sense of time frame and activity in the video. It shows that when the performance scenes are on screen, the party in the sitting room is going on at the same time.

• Larger bottles - Again, they serve the same purpose as the glasses, but they are also held by the characters in some scenes to give a focal point in the frame during the narrative scenes.

• The iPod and dock - Used in the first scene of the video and tells the audience that all of the events of the video happen within the few minutes that the song takes to play through.

• The instruments (drums,guitar and microphone) - They make the video look more authentic and allowed us to follow the conventions of the indie genre in terms of band shots easily.    

The Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter CD cover analysis

Duets: The Final Chapter is a rap album released in 2005, 8 years after The Notorious B.I.G. was murdered. The conventions of the rap genre are present, yet they are presented in a more solemn and respectful way than usual.

The message of the cover is that Biggie is finished with the industry and is fed up with all of the controversy surrounding him. This has been done through his tired eyes and his image being made up of, and surrounded by, newspaper stories. The use of the askew crown is telling; as it shows he is still the greatest but his heart isn't in it in the same way anymore. If the crown was upright, it would be more fitting of the arrogant, egotisical figures typical of the rap genre.

The only colour other than black and white used is red, which has connotations of anger and violence. The red leaks into his eye, implying that these stories and the rap game have physically hurt him. The font used is bold and sans serif which is complementary to Biggie's deadpan expression. Similarly to the crown, the text for the album and artist's name are slanted. This continues the theme of dejection and imperfection.    

Promotional materials

Since our song and music video are marketed towards teenagers and young adults, it makes most sense that our promotional materials are appealing to that group.

Our front and back cover used the same background, light and dark horizontal green stripes. This colour scene was chosen as it is easy on the eye and contrasts with the black, yellow and pink used elsewhere on the covers.

Throughout the materials, we aimed to keep a consistent theme in terms of colours, images, fonts and how the ban/song are represented. The newspaper headlines, silhouettes and police tape on the front and back covers have a tongue-in-cheek quality to them, expanded upon in the Digipak.

The light and dark green stripes from the covers and poster became red and orange stripes in the booklet. This was done for some visual variety and the red and orange contrasted better with the usually white newspaper headlines we used.

How small bands have used promotion to earn success - The Arctic Monkeys Story

While one of the more well known rags to riches stories, how the Arctic Monkeys promoted themselves in the early days shows the influence the internet can have.

AM circa 2005 - all of the members were still teenagers

Starting as many do, the Arctic Monkeys played small venues in their home town, Sheffield. The band gave away CD's to all of the audience members which gained them popularity; not only with their small fanbase but allowed their influence in the local area to spread. This made them stand out from the dozens of similar bands in the area. The Arctic Monkeys became more and more popular through word of mouth, with hundreds of fans singing along with songs that were not officially released yet.

MySpace - an early social media site that focused itself on attracting bands to create pages.

Along with giving away CD's, the band had their own MySpace page. The page had links to all of their songs and gave fans the option to download all of them for free. The band spoke to their fans daily from this page with information such as gigs, song releases and just chatting informally on a personal level. Such vigourous self promotion led to the Arctic Monkeys making their first TV appearance (on Jools Holland) before they had a record label and before their first album came out in 2005.

A screenshot of the early Arctic Monkeys MySpace page

In the months following their first TV appearance, the band signed up to Domino Records, who had signed Franz Ferdinand shortly beforehand. The hype surrounding the band led to their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, becoming the fastest selling debut album in British music history, selling 360,000 copies in its first week.

Actor list from our video

The following all had an on screen role in our music video:

The "band":

Jack Burton - lead vocalist (and other half of my media group). We chose him to be the singer as he knows the song and so it would save time during the shoot as he already knows the words to mime. 

Chris Gent - drummer. We chose him to be the drummer as he looked the most natural out of the three, being the most physical. What he lacked in drumming talent, he made up for with enthusiasm. 

Matt McQueen - guitarist. We chose him to play the guitar as he plays it in real life where the other two do not,  making him look the most natural (as well as it being his left-handed guitar so it made sense). 

The "victims":

Tyler Bailey - the first victim. We chose him to go first for several reasons. The first was practicality in regards to editing. As he was the tallest person available to us, it gave us more to pan upwards on later in the video when he is on the floor. Secondly, in our test shots it arose that Tyler wasn't very good at acting. Therefore, it made sense to kill him off quickly. The third reason I will elaborate on shortly.

Amy Dimbleby - the second victim. As she was the only female at the party who wanted to take part, we had her be one of the victims as it would be better suited for our promotional material later. Out of everyone, there is the biggest height difference between Tyler and Amy. This is significant one of ideas for a Digipak slide was silhouettes of the two corpses, and the height difference makes the two actors more recognisable as the same two actors from the video. Similarly, having a female play a vital role in the video and promotional material will increase appeal with the female audience. 

The "discoverers":

Jamie Pick - goes through and sees the bodies and comes back to alert Ben. As he didn't want to be in the video much, the role he plays for the most part (being involved in story links and cutaways) suited him as while we filmed the band scenes, he could do other, unrelated things. 

Ben Thorogood - gets alerted to the band by Jamie and goes into the kitchen in the final scene. As he was the most open to the idea of creating a lively atmosphere, most of the cutaways involve him in some way. Because of this, it made sense for him to be kept alive as it allowed us to use cutaways featuring Ben the whole way through the video without breaking continuity.