Key Theories

Here are some key media theories that I could apply to my analyses:

• Todorov: Narrative Theory. This is where a music video will follow a distinct form when it is a narrative video. This will be the transition from an equilibrium, to a disruption, which is then resolved to restore equilibrium.
• Uses and Gratifications Model: this is the theory that audiences seek out the media that wish to consume, and focuses on what the audience does with the media text, rather than what the media does to audiences (which is another theory, the Hypodermic Syringe or Effects Theory).
• Reception Theory: The opposite of the Effects Theory, that sees media consumption as active rather than passive, and focuses on what audiences do to the media

I can apply each of these theories to my media analyses. Firstly, I can apply Todorov's Narrative Theory to the video of "Backroads" by Lonely the Brave, which I have analysed. The video adheres to the theory as first there is an equlibirum, and then a disruption in the form of the Kiev Riots, and then the restoration of equilibrium when the skaters return to being free.

Regarding the Uses and Gratifications model, I could apply this to my analysis of Deaf Havana's digipak for "Old Souls". The inside of the digipak is a completely clear blue sky and beach with nothing noticeable to the audience- this leaves the audience open to decide what it shows about the band, their music etc.

Reception Theory could be applied to my other digipak, Real Friends' LP "Maybe This Place is the Same and We're Just Changing" includes the Fearless Record label logo, and so some members of the audience, who may not know the band, will see this and listen to the music, hence why the designers chose to include it, to create label identity, and many of the choices Real Friends would have made regarding artwork would be as a response to the themes present in the Pop Punk genre that the audience has grown to expect from such a product.

Magazine Advertisement // Deaf Havana

Norfolk based Rock Band Deaf Havana are the band that I most liken to the Artist I will be working with, Abandoning Sunday, and so I have chosen to compliment my analysis of one of their videos and their digipak with an analysis of their Tour Poster for their October tour last year in support of their new album, "Old Souls". I feel analysing this artist's work will help inform me with regard to what I will be producing, as their lyrical style, appearance and music genre is similar to that of my artist.

This poster was created to advertise the tour that the band were undergoing around the release of their new album. When doing a tour around an album, it would be expected that the artwork would be similar to that of the album artwork, however besides the font type and colour, a different colour scheme is used. This may be due to the fact that, for the digipak, the band doesn't feature at all, whereas in this poster the band are all pictured. This has been done to show the newer audiences what the band actually look like as they will be seeing them live. The blue themes from the digipak were continued in the later UK tour in April 2014, which was subsequently dubbed the "Old Souls" tour.

The inclusion of the band at the top of the poster immediately captures the audience, with front man James being pictured centrally. At first, the audience is under the impression that they are all dressed formally, i.e. James is shown in a grey suit jacket, and other members are wearing waistcoats or shirts, whereas some members are just wearing plain coats. This could mirror the different audiences the band may have due to their styles- they still appear to some as a strong rock band, but the new singles that were released prior to this tour were influenced by some folk rock, and this formal appearance perhaps reflects the sophisticated nature of the band. Combined with the continued humble appearance, this will help to sell more tickets to the concerts, as more people will view the band and feel as if they will like them just from their appearance.

This impression of sophistication continues in the house style- the lattice style border that separates the image from the tour dates has connotations of wealth (which the band don't have, they cancelled a tour due to a lack of funds) and perhaps upper class. This could perhaps indicate the band maturing and becoming established. The background appears to have a wallpaper style, with the text having the same font and colour as that used in the digipak for Old Souls. The album has been included at the bottom due to the tour being done around the album, ultimately to increase sales of both the album and tour tickets.

Another way that the poster may help to promote the band and increase sales of the tour tickets is the inclusion of the support acts. "Very Special Guest" makes the support act seem very important, and former Busted front-man Charlie Simpson has had a very successful solo career exploring similar genres to Deaf Havana. If people who like Charlie Simpson's music, or recognise the name from Busted and the style that they had many years ago, more people will come to the gig, perhaps not to see Deaf Havana as a priority, but they will still see the band perform live and could grow to like them and purchase the album.

Although the poster helps to create slightly different connotations of the band and attract different audiences, I will probably try to avoid making something completely different and create continuity through my pieces, for instance if I was producing a tour poster for this band surrounding the album I would continue the blue colour scheme and coastal themes from the digipak, or maybe include a still from an associated music video. However, the advertisement does create strong links to what the band is like, genre-wise and personality wise, and gives a distinct message to the bands fans, which is something I will try to utilise - and I will just be producing the magazine advertisement for the digipak, not a set of tour dates, so I will try to continue similar themes across my products.

Generating Ideas for the Music Video // Track Confirmation!

Brainstorming Ideas - Treatment Draft

In lesson, we began drafting treatments for our videos. At this stage, I did not have the track that I would be using, but from knowing my artist well, I could still construct potential themes to explore, ideas, and potential cast. I know that I can utilise autumnal themes and use a forest or track for an opening "title sequence" and using a tape or CD with the track name or artist on it being played at the start before the music begins. I know from previous songs that my artist explores themes of relationships and love, as well as loneliness, being lost, depression and hope. For the 'lonely' part, I thought I could use one man playing the guitar on a cliff top overlooking the sea, and utilise other shots in settings, as well as exploring props and a narrative to develop the piece. Regarding cast, I have several options. I thought maybe my piece could follow the lives of many people and their daily struggles (due to the album being named "Struggle") but this depended on the song I would be sent. My main actor will likely be Ben, a guitarist who can perhaps even replicate the appearance of my artist. I could even use myself in the video, as an actor. Inevitably, a female will probably be involved lyrically, and so I have several options here, including a friend who has had modelling experience, a Drama Student, and even my sister. To appeal to my adult audience, my Dad could feature, regarding his struggles with coping with his business. One idea I had was having close ups of several different peoples blank faces, perhaps linking how the lyrics affect many people, again depending on the song.

Yesterday evening, I received an E-Mail from Michael, my artist, saying he had two songs that would fit this project that he would like me to consider using. As the album isn't out yet, I will respect that and not name the tracks here, but one was Acoustic, and the other Full Band. I have decided to go for the full band track, as it has a much faster pace, meaning editing will play a more prominent role, and ideas for narratives became apparent.

From this, and once my Audience Research Surveys have been completed and analysed, and I have more of an interpretation of the track from more listening, I will be able to construct a full Treatment regarding an outline to the narrative, shot list, casting, and can begin getting some footage recorded and planning for main dates of filming.

Main Themes of Human Traffic - Drug Usage

I will be exploring how drugs are portrayed in Human Traffic through three main areas- if the characters are shown taking drugs and why this is, how drugs affect the characters and if drug usage and culture is glorified or if is an example of social realism and that it is reality.

Firstly, the characters are shown taking drugs, but not in many scenes- for instance, the characters are shown smoking cigarettes and marijuana on some occasions, taking cocaine and pills. However, on the most part, the drug taking part is omitted. This reflects the submission of drug culture and how drugs aren't an acceptable part of society, but it still happens. Instead, the film focuses on the effects that taking the drugs has on the characters, both physically and socially.

At one stage, Jip and Koop are talking and one says to the other, "look at you're eyes... you're f*****", showing how the drugs have an effect on their appearance.



Moff's appearance also corresponds to this, in that he is wearing dreary clothes and seems on edge at all times. Similarly, the people that come into the record store, the hip hop listeners and particularly the jungle listeners, are very stereotypical in their appearance and their actions, and are clearly affected by the drugs they have taken as it is not the same as a 'normal' individual.



Socially, however, the effect the drugs has on them is positive during the high, in that they are more relaxed, open, and can escape from their weekday lives. This side of the scene glorifies drug usage and makes it seem as if this is the way people should lead their lives. The comedown period does portray bot sides and hence supports the idea of realism and that this is merely a representation of modern society, but I still believe that the film glorifies drug usage.

Audience Research - Music Video Survey & Questionnaire

As part of my audience research, I have constructed two surveys for my target audience to complete, regarding their personal music habits. The first, an online survey on website SurveyMonkey, will be able to reach a broad audience and as people can view it at home, it focuses more on the artist and aspects of music videos rather than lifestyle.

The survey can be completed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N5BRYPS

In the survey, I ask the following questions:
1) How old are you?
2) What is your gender?
3) What are your favourite musical genres?
4) How do you consume music?
5) How often do you attend musical performances?
6)

Here is an image of the artist I will be working with, Abandoning Sunday. What would you expect this artist to be like, style-wise? What impression do you get of the artist?

7) Have a listen to this track by Abandoning Sunday. How would you rate this song?

8) What type of music video do you prefer?

9) In your opinion, what makes a good music video? What is your favourite video and why?

Questions 1 and 2 help me to identify who it is completing my survey. From my audience profile I found my artist appeals to teenagers, young adults and adults alike, and both genders.

Questions 3, 4 and 5 are quantitative, closed questions, where I can see my audiences habits regarding music. If they attend lots of concerts, they are passionate about music, and their opinion may be more valued, and could form a good part of a focus group, especially if they select any of the four genres I identified in my Audience Profile (Rock, Acoustic, Pop Punk, Hardcore) as genres that are common interests for my artists fan base.

I decided to use an image question as it could be important when constructing magazine advertisements and getting a good image, as well as for digipaks, and it also helps the audience get an understanding for my artist. Question 7 is unique to the online survey as I can't show people the music video on the street.

Questions 8 and 9 will help me understand what my audience expects of my music video, or what they will enjoy in it, helping me on a commercial level.

The physical questionnaire will contain additional questions (and not Question 7).

These are:

- List three of your hobbies - this will help me understand the lifestyle of my audience, and perhaps what intertextual references will be beneficial to include.

- Who is your favourite artist at the moment? - Hopefully due to my placement when conducting the questionnaire, I will get relevant people answering my survey with the right music taste to help me, and this question will help me identify who will be more relevant, like the genre question.

- If you are willing to be a part of future research and form part of a focus group, what is your preferred contact detail? - Self-explanatory, to see who is willing to form my focus group.

Audience Research

To start my audience research into who I will be aiming my productions towards, I investigated the typical audience profiles of people who enjoy or will enjoy the music of my artist, Abandoning Sunday.

On his website, Thomas (Abandoning Sunday) lists his musical influences to include bands such as Jimmy Eat World, Yellowcard, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Killers and The Icarus Account. As these bands are listed as influences, Thomas' musical style will bare some resemblance, and hence I could list some fans of these bands as part of my target audience and get them to participate in some questionnaires so I can determine how to make my productions more appealing to them.

Abandoning Sunday is very active on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I looked through some of the bands followers on Twitter and determined the types of people who listen to my artist - I learned that in fact the band appeal to a wide audience, mainly of ages 13 upwards to young adult, and some older listeners who may be more familiar with the bands influences (Jimmy Eat World & Yellowcard have been about for over a decade).

From the younger fans "bios" on Twitter, I can gain an understanding of the other bands that fans listen to. Interestingly, when Abandoning Sunday is mentioned, he is amongst bands of different genres entirely- namely bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, Pierce The Veil and Sleeping With Sirens, who are typical of the more hardcore, bordering "emo" genre- perhaps due to the somewhat sad nature of the lyrics. Furthermore, fans of post-hardcore bands such as Architects, While She Sleeps and Counterparts  are following my artist, and the musical styles of these bands and Abandoning Sunday could not be more different. In other cases, fans have listed other favourite acts in their bios as pop punk bands such as The Story So Far, Blink-182 and A Day To Remember as well as rock bands like You Me At Six and Green Day. I list Abandoning Sunday as similar to Deaf Havana, Lonely the Brave, The Script and You Me At Six - showing that the band are accessible to fans of various genres, and it will be interesting to see how hardcore, pop punk and rock fans views combine/differ in questionnaires.

Other interests from my audience include singer/songwriters, perhaps more in favour of the acoustic side of the band, and a lot of his followers are gamers or small YouTubers who upload content to the website, and a few skaters. The band hence also appeals to a variety of lifestyles, for instance skating is seen as synonymous with the pop punk genre, among others, but that doesn't mean that all skaters have to listen to a certain music taste.

The older audiences don't give much away in their biographies on the Social Networking site Twitter but from Facebook, mainly older audiences appear to have seen him play live in small house gigs or in pubs, as that is where he plays the majority of his concerts in America, and most of the comments "You were great today in []" come from people in their twenties or upwards. Hence, when I am getting my study group for questionnaires, it will include:

- Fans of different music genres: Acoustic, Pop Punk, Hardcore, Rock
- A mixture of teenagers, young adults and over 18s
- People of different lifestyles: Working, Studying, different interests.

In these questionnaires, I will look to see which aspects of music videos my audience prefers in this genre, and which styles of digipak appeal to them more at first glance, as well as other aspects that will be vital to the production of my pieces.

Digipak Analysis: Deaf Havana // "Old Souls"

"Old Souls" is the third album by British alternative rock band Deaf Havana, an album which marked yet another direction change from the band to more classic rock, with hints of folk rock and chorus-driven songs. The previous record, "Fools & Worthless Liars", established the band from Hunstanton as one of the most popular current British Bands, but the change from debut album, "Meet Me Halfway, At Least" which featured the single "Friends Like These", seems like an entirely different band to what the Norfolk band's music is like today. That being said, the success of "Old Souls" is unparalleled - singles "Boston Square" and "Mildred" were Zane Lowe's Hottest Record of the World, and the album reached #9, the first Top ten album for the band. This is the original version of the Digipak, and it is one of the most simplistic designs of a digipak I own- however, it works in the bands favour and matches their ideals.

The front cover of the album features a small child running across the beach, with a small group of people in the background. The open blue skies and background create connotations of freedom. The text takes up a relatively small portion of the cover. Also the use of the child instead of an adult creates a sense of vulnerability but I see it as a humble representation of the band- themes are parallel to those utilised in lead single "Mildred" (see end), and could show that although the band face many difficulties (they recently cancelled a tour as they didn't have the funds), they still try to live a carefree life.

The inside of the digipak leaves a lot open to interpretation. It continues the themes created in the front cover by using the same background but it also contains no other images other than the open coastal scene depicted. The band hold close ties to their coastal hometown of Hunstanton (see analysis of Hunstanton Pier) and this could be why for "Old Souls" the band chose to use this coastal image. Other than this image it is blank, perhaps indicating that this is who the band are, there is nothing else to know about them, no secrets, it is all open to their audience - this matches the tracks as track "Caro Padre" is the first time that lead singer James opens up about his relationship with his Father, as well as other relations like in "Mildred", regarding an old friend. The lack of images of the artist also suggests that three albums in, the band do not need to portray themselves, despite their apparent change in style- perhaps the band could've included them wearing different apparel to connote the change from the post-hardcore genre to alternative rock, as they did in the video to "Smiles All Round" (2010) where the band are depicted wearing hoodies and appearing very "punk", but this was perhaps previously illustrated in the previous album artworks (see bottom.) An alternative consideration lends itself more towards the Uses and Gratifications model, which states that audiences seek out the media that they wish to consume, and focuses on what the audience does with the media text, rather than what the media does to audiences. Where other bands would perhaps overtly brand themselves over their covers where audiences are given a prescribed view, the blank canvas of the inside cover creates an open interpretation of the band for the audience to make their own "use" of, and decide what it symbolises in terms of the bands ideologies. This is a much more descriptive approach in which there is no set idea of the band given in the digipak, making them more accessible to wider audiences, who may feel that they can get in to the bands music for this reason.

The rear cover also continues the coastal theme and keeps the same background creating a sense of continuity to the digipak, making it aesthetically pleasing with a nice layout. The tracklist is in the same colour as the album details at the front of the digipak, and takes up very little space on the back cover, which is strange as it depicts no other scenes, so the tracks could take up more space, but the band clearly felt this was not necessary, probably as it continues the humble theme and ideals that the band creates - the audience know what songs are going to be on the album as the band have a very strong fanbase. For those who do not know the artist, again continuing the idea of the uses and gratifications model, this will not create a negative effect as it is still organised and clear, and open/revealing so the audience does not feel put off.The rear cover also has the record label at the bottom and a few copyright details, which again fit the house style of the digipak and are a common feature of any CD artwork. The audience may also recognise this record label and associate this with other acts, particularly those that do not know the artist, but knows of other acts on the same record label.

Here are the two previous album covers from the two prior LPs the band have released. Left, "Fools & Worthless Liars" (2011) contained singles "I'm A Bore, Mostly" and "Hunstanton Pier" . However, "Meet Me Halfway, At Least" (right) flaunted a much different Deaf Havana, that tended more towards heavier bands such as Enter Shikari both vocally and instrumentally. The single "Friends Like These" was the track that got the band well-known, but subsequently the bands style changed significantly, which is reflected in the artwork changes- the first album seems edgy, whereas Fools & Worthless Liars' artwork is more sophisticated, with a classic tone and much more humble appearance. The colour scheme is the more notable change from F&WL to Old Souls, with the dark colours being traded for sky blue, perhaps reflecting the change in mood of the songs, despite how some of them are still quite sad ("Everybody's Dancing and I Want To Die", "Caro Padre") - the lyrics remain quite depressing and sad yet the instrumentals are infinitely more uplifting and not as aggressive as in the earlier records. This could be a reason for the change in themes in the artwork over time.

It should be noted that the theme of children continues from the digipaks into the music videos. The video for the lead single from "Old Souls", "Mildred (Lost A Friend)", follows two children throughout the video, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to the same child used on the front cover of "Fools & Worthless Liars", It does depict the children as doing some adult tasks, such as working in an office, and does also feature several shots by a beach, continuing the coastal theme of this digipak. The video, like the digipak, also does not feature the band at all, (although "22" and most of their other videos have featured them, for instance Hunstanton Pier which I analysed) enhancing the humble representations suggested by the designs. Furthermore, it could show how the band, although tied down with day to day life, still live like children, in their own world (particularly shown by the very last shot in the video, where Earth is shown in the sky above the two "friends" that the song talks about). The song itself is about an old friend of the guitarist who they no longer see, as said in an interview on Radio 1, (contrary to belief that it was about Ryan Mellor, the screamer vocalist who left the band), and corresponds to what I was saying for the middle section of the digipak and Caro Padre, where the band are being open and have nothing to hide about themselves and their relations with others.

- Althusser - child - audience represent self in text.
- misrepresentation