advanced portfolio in media studies

1. When we first watched the existing video for ‘Don’t look back into the
sun’, we liked the shaky, handheld quality of the camerawork. However,
when we were planning our video we decided not to do this as it meant
we had more opportunity to experiment with camera movement and
angles. This did not stray completely from existing Libertines videos as
‘What became of the likely lads’ is filmed on a high quality camera.
To keep some similarities to the original video, we used the male actor as
the Pete Doherty character and featured him on the digi-pack and advert.
This means that the audience can immediately identify him and are more
likely to be interested in a narrative that the lead singer is involved in.
Although this is not consistent in all Libertines videos, Pete Doherty does
feature in quite a lot of them, especially the earlier works.
We stuck to the conventional structure of an indie music video and
Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory incorporating a narrative and
having that as the main focus of the video. We wanted to incorporate a
story between a couple, as this is a common narrative used, however we
did not want to push the stereotype of relationships or romance cheesy or
too romantic as that would not effectively represent the band and its
ideologies. Instead, we wanted to focus on a couple having fun and
messing around, as typical young people do. This gives the video a more
light-hearted, laid back feel and is something that a lot of young people
(our target audience being aged 16-19) whether it be with a friend or a
partner.
In terms of actors, we decided to use a male and female
in order to appeal to our almost balanced male and
female audience. This also links to Laura Mulvey’s theory
of the male and female gaze and the idea of voyeurism
as the actors may appeal to either sex. However, staying
to the conventions of indie music videos, we decided to
not place a large focus on this and focused more on the
narrative and what the actors are doing. Our initial
research found that most independent indie videos may
use some elements that relates to the male or female
gaze however it is more usually videos from genres such
as pop or hip-hop that use the actors more primarily to
appeal in a voyeuristic way to the audience.

2. One way in which we followed convention of Libertine’s
videos was through the locations. Council estates are
locations found in multiple Libertines videos. (Don’t
look back into the sun, What became of the likely lads)
we decided to emulate this in our video in order to
reflect the ideologies of the band. The use of the
council estates could be to represent that The
Libertines feel that they are speaking for the masses. It
is also easy to determine that the locations used are
British estates, alluding to the band’s British roots. They
often feature establishing shots of locations with band
members in it so we decided to follow this and use it in
our video.
Another convention of indie videos that we followed
was the use of city locations. These can be found in
many indie videos, especially The Libertines (Gunga
Din, You’re my waterloo, Don’t look back into the sun,
Time for heroes to name a few). As well as The
Libertines, we also took inspiration for our locations
from other bands within the Indie genre such as the
Artic Monkeys.
One way in which we developed the locations used in the original music
video was by using more unusual locations such as the pool table, the
beach and the pool. However, these were not chosen completely at
random as we had taken inspiration from locations used in our initial
music video research. We thought the use of the pool in the ‘Snap out of
it’ video was effective and liked the brief use of a pool table and pub in the
‘Why’d you only call me when you’re high?’ music video. This is not
dissimilar to The Libertines as their ‘Heart of the matter video’ takes place
in a torture chamber, which is also quite unusual.

3. In terms of Andrew Goodwin’s theories on music videos, we followed
some of his conventions in order to make our music video more
authentic. We shot various close ups of the male actor as he was
essentially the lead singer and front man of the band. If we follow
Goodwin’s theory, this satisfies the needs of the record label (in this case
Rough Trade) and markets the band through the music video.

4. We decided to not include any live footage of the band, despite the main focus
of the original video being live footage because the vast majority of our
audience that were surveyed said they preferred a narrative structure. We did
include however, lots of camera movement, particularly tracking as the original
video featured many shots of walking, this is something we re-created in our
video. We also used a panning shot with the actors in it as a way to establish the
location.

5. We followed the convention of editing to the rhythm and prominent
beats or sections in the song in order to make the music video more
visually appealing. We made sure that when we changed locations in
particular, it was on the beat or a change from either the verse to the
chorus. We also used specific lines in the lyrics and edit transitions to
them . For example, we transitioned from the beginning sequence to the
next sequence on the loud ‘YEEEEEAH’. We used a go pro to film a fast
spinning shot that moved towards towards a bright light. At the end of
the song, we cut extremely fast between still shots of the pool to fit in
with the final strums of the guitar before the last note.
The cutting rate and speed was varied throughout, to match the tone of
the music. We had a fast cutting rate between the shots in the club
section in order to build the video to a climax before Doherty shouts ‘Let
me go!’ The cutting rate is slower in the verses as the tempo of the music
is more relaxed.
We recreated the dark lighting and the interior house
location in the first shot of the original video but
adhered more to Goodwin’s theory on narrative
structures by using a shot of them getting back into
bed at the end of the video so the piece has a cyclical
structure.
We also used the lighting to mirror the live footage
used in the original video in the club sequence. We
recorded the flashing lights of white, red and blue
seen in the concert footage. Going to concerts and
clubbing also fit in with the interest of our target
audience of 16-19 year olds.

6. We both followed and developed conventions of indie music
videos through the use of mise en scene. One thing that is
common throughout indie videos is that the clothing the actors
wear immediately relates to the genre of the music. However,
the clothes that the actors wear in our video is rather plain and
non-descript, mostly dark. Although, it does lean more towards
the indie genre. This is done however by other indie artists like
the Artic Monkeys in their video ‘When the sun goes down,
where the outfits worn are similar to those worn by our actors.
For example, outdoor clothing and the grey coat worn by our
male actor.This is similar to the clothes worn by The Libertines
apart from the red jackets. Because the clothing doesn’t stand
out as being only applicable to one genre, it means that the
music video can be accessed by a wider audience, especially as
the song is quite upbeat and not too rocky. This linked to our
target audience who had a variety of favourite genres.
In the night time shots, the female actor wears a red dress, this
is to replicate the significance of the red jackets often worn by
The Libertines. There is also the use red lipstick which is shown
and emphasised with an extreme close up. This subtly shows
the significance of the red and may also link to the idea of
patriotism as many Libertine’s videos feature British flags. The
red meant that we could continue this message without being
too explicit.

7. We decided not to use the posters in order to convey the
subliminal messaging that often seen in Libertine’s videos.
This is because when we filmed the shots that we had
planned, we felt that the posters and looked too artificial and
obvious and the shots didn’t fit with what the laid back feel
of the video. We thought thought that this wasn’t too much
of a problem as it is not a convention of indie videos in
general and is not in all Libertine’s videos.