Rough Cut Video Feedback

As we can see from the graph we have been graded on the 2 - 3 boundary mostly with comment such as, “Good for a rough cut”, however this does suggest we need to make our video better before we finalise it.

There were many things about our video that our classmates and teachers liked. Most of our positive feedback contained and comment about how our choice of actors for the band and narrative were good, these were aimed more so at our choice for the lead singer. Comments such as “The main singer looks good” and that he looks “so realistic”.
A lot of our shots have been picked up on for being good. Our audience liked the point of view shot of the handle bars of the bike. This helped the audience get into the feel of the main character.
The end shot of the video when the main character and the ‘pretty visitors’ walk over the camera was also highlighted as a ‘killer shot’.
Although these shot were good our viewers wanted more like them. This is one way we can improve our video.

Our attention was draw to our band performance shots with a mixture of comments both positive and negative. The lighting of our shots “reflected the personality of the band”, if we have to re-shoot our performance we will keep the lighting the same.
Unfortunately our drummer got the worst of our negative feedback, however this is understandable as the shots are out of time and the drums are being played right. We will have to re-shoot the sections with drums in. Therefore we will either need to get our original drummer to learn the song or get a new drummer.

I feel the best choice to improve our video is to re-shoot the majority of the performance and narrative shots.
I think that we need to relocate our forest shots as the main feature in the footage at the moment is the metal fence as it is off-putting for the viewers. I think that cloaking the ‘Pretty Visitors’ is a must as it is unclear what they are. The need for more visitors isn’t a must but would give a better feeling of insanity to the main character.

I also feel a complete re-shoot of the performance would give an overall better affect to the music video, as we could improve the shots. For example we could raise the drums on a pedestal/platform with a new drummer as the drums get lost in the background of the shots. More close ups of the lead singer is also a priority as this is stated in Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory.

A possibility for a new location



Some of our Rough Cut Feedback

Rough Cut Video

Applying Todorovs Theory to our Storyboarded Idea

An explanation of Tzvetan Todorov’s theory:



Todorovs theory (also known as a ‘Hollywood’ / ‘classic’ narrative) states that all narratives start off in equilibrium, a period in which all is calm and as it should be. There is then a climax which causes an event which is a disruption to the normally calm equilibrium.
The problem is then solved causing the restoration of the event and bringing the narrative back to equilibrium.


I have applied Todorov’s Theory to our storyboarded idea.


As you can see from the image above, our storyboarded idea subverts the theory by having three separate disruptions (or events).
These three events are:

1) The main character see’s the ‘Pretty Visitors’ multiplying and walking closer to him. He then ‘wakes up’.

2) The business man sees the ‘Visitors’ again but they then change into work colleagues and commuters. Confusion, ‘wakes up’.

3) The man yet again is riding his bike and the ‘Pretty Visitors’ appear. He does not wake up this time. The hooded figures get closer and closer. The man is then cloaked by the ‘Visitors’.

The representation of him being cloaked is that he has reached a new state of mind, thus restoring the equilibrium of the narrative.

Questionnaire and Analysis

1) What is the most important attribute of a music video?
Performance ( )
Narrative ( )
Concept ( )
All ( )

2) Do you think that the pace of the video should match the pace of the song?

Yes
No

3) What type of tone would best suit the chosen song?

Serious ( )
Humorous ( )
Light hearted ( )
Other ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) Does intertexuality attract you to a music video?

Yes
No

5) What do you think is the most important element of filming?

Camera angle ( )
Camera movement ( )
Camera shots ( )
Cuts ( )

6) What is your favourite music video done by the artic monkeys?

Fluorescent adolescent ( )
I Bet You look good on the dance floor ( )
Crying lighting ( )
When the sun goes down ( )
Other -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Here Is Our Audience Feedback:







Our results show us that the members of our target audience prefer a video that is narrative based yet, a high majority also like a performance based music video, so we have put both of these attributes in the music video. Even though a small majority like to see concept based videos the majority, for the other two types, is higher, which mean more people will be interested in the music video and more likely to watch it.

We thought that the pace of the video should most defiantly match the pace of the song, we also asked our target audience about this to see what they thought and the results we got back were that at least over half think that the videos pace should match the songs pace. This is so the video doesn’t look random, mismatched and so it all flows.

To have a certain tone to the song will make the video more interesting and more watchable for the public, our results show us that the public like a humorous tone with a slight bit of seriousness so this will be added in, to make the video attracted to the public eye.

Intertexuality is an important part of music as the theorist Andrew Godwin says the key features to a music video include a reference to inertexuality either from a TV programme or even another music video. We asked our audience if this attracts them to a music video and over half said that it did.

Filming is an important part of making a music video. This is to get all the shots and camera angles correct as to make the video look professional. So we asked the public what they thought was the most important element of the filming process. Our target audience said that camera shots was the most important element, we will take this into account and have put some ‘killer shots’ into our video as to attract our target audience.

Florescent adolescent came up on top to the most favourite music video done by the Artic Monkeys. So we looked at this video and have tried to analyse and look at key features of how this video is so popular.

Storyboard And Animatic

Music Video Theory

Andrew Goodwin played a major part in music video theory. He suggested that all music videos have certain key features.
These features are:

• Demonstration of particular genre characteristics.

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

• There is a relationship between music and visuals

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

• There is frequent reference to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

• Often external references (to films, TV etc)

Goodwin’s theory was quite different to another key theorist, John Stewart.
Stewart was interested in the concept of intertextuality in music videos. He believes that the majority of visual reference comes from three areas:

• Fashion

• Cinema

• Art Photography

I have decided to analyse the Arctic Monkeys music video for ‘Crying Lightning’ using Andrew Goodwin’s theory.

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
Apart from the style of music the band are all wearing clothes that are typical to the ‘Indie’ genre that the band belongs to.
Also the instruments that are used in the music video demonstrate genre characteristics. Not just the use of the instruments but the make of them are a key feature to keeping the genre of the video correct.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
The only relationship that is shown is that there is lightning in the video and that it is mentioned in the lyrics.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.
When the solo is played in the song we see a large figure of Alex Turner rise out of the sea playing the guitar.
Another relationship is between the drumbeat and the lightning. After the solo, the rest of the band rise out of the sea, every time the drummer hit’s the cymbal on the drum kit we see a crack of lightning.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups and the artist may develop a motif which recurs across their work.
As the video is performance based, there is close ups of the band throughout. These close ups are mainly of Alex Turner, the lead singer. A motif that the Arctic Monkeys have developed is that they have weird concept based music videos.

5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and often voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The notion of looking in this video is when the band are looking from the boat at the larger figures of themselves that rose out of the sea. Also at the end when the drummer pulls out a telescope and watches the large figures sink back into the sea.

6. There is often external reference (to films. TV etc)
I feel there is no external reference to films, TV or any other media industry within this music video.

Analysis Of Arctic Monkeys Music Videos

Fluorescent Adolescent

The narrative of this video is a fight between two groups, Clowns and Non-clowns. The two possible leaders of each group are shown to have flashbacks of themselves together when younger. The only time the lyrics relate to the video is when the young clown sings to the young boy, “Where did you go?” other than this there is no real relation between video and lyrics. This would mean that this video is largely concept based.
The singer of the band says that he loosely based the song on the poem "Out of Control Circus" which is printed on the inside cover of the CD, this would give an explanation for the use of clowns in the video.When the Sun Goes Down

This narrative based film is about ‘that girl there’, who is implied to be a prostitute and her client, the ‘scummy man’. The video uses a lot of repetitive scenes possibly symbolising the repetition of her job. I do not think this is a particular good effect as it gets quite boring.
The song has intertextual reference to the song by ‘The Police’, ‘Roxanne’, a song about prostitution which was inspired when the band stayed at a seedy hotel in Paris, yet relates no reference to the video.

A view from the Afternoon

Shot in Arctic Monkeys home town, Sheffield, A view from the Afternoon is a concept based video yet it is also performance based as the videos main focus is a young man playing the drums backgrounded by high rise flats.
This ‘performance’ is intersected with different angles of the surrounding area and the people in it, such as a young girl wearing devil horns when the lyrics “wearing fancy-dress” are sang.
The video is mainly shot in black and white which gives it depth yet there is one scene in full colour is only 2 seconds long and is the drummer washing in shallow water as the fades into silence.

Our Pitch...

We Gave our Pitch presentation in class to our teacher, Mr Bland. I this we described why we chose our song and the reasons behind our ideas for our storyboarded idea.
It went well and we got some positive feedback on our thoughts and how we could improve on them.
Here is the powerpoint we used:

Arctic Moonkaays Our Pitch!