Beggars by Mallory Knox: analysis presentation

The music video Beggars by Mallory Knox, a well known alternative rock band, is an example of an amplification music video, where the visual aestethics relate to the lyrics but not in a way that illustrates exactly what the lyrics are saying, for example the lyrics say "see if i can find a way out of my mind" and showing someone who seems mentally unstable. The video is a largely narrative driven,with The band chasing after the beggar however there are performance clipsin a performance setting of an underpass with close up shots of the lead and back up singer. This type of music video is interesting to the audience through a variety of exciting narrative and performance, therefore keeping their attention. The music video shows many examples of synaesthesia, where one thing usually the visuals stimulate another sensation eg: reminding you of something similar. It is also an example of Toderov's theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium where the equilibrium is that the band is a gang, then the disruption is when the beggar starts to run away fromthem, then the recognition of the disruption is when the gang starts to chase him, then theres the attempt to repair the disruption when the gang gives back the beggar's blanket, and lastly theres the new equilibruim where they are back to where they were in the beggining. Following this theory means that the music video has a familiarity in the narrative which the audience likes.

Sound
The whole song is similar to rock with alternative elements in the music,basically using the standard dums, guitars, bass and the lead singer with the backup singer. The Lyrics describe a story of someone who wants to save a loved one but is struggling internally with his mind, making reaching this loved one impossible.this is relatable to everyone in some sense as at some point everyone has internal conflict and confusing which usually relates to feelings towards someone else. Rock and alternative music almost always have strong, relatable lyrics about peoples struggles and issues. Audiences always prefer relatablelyrics so that they can invest themselvesinto the song itself and find an understanding of how they are feeling in someone elses words.

Mise-en Scene
 Costume is very important in that there is intertextuality with they are dressed as the gang in Clockwork orange (197) by Stanley Kubrik, however the narrative in the video which shows them protecting the beggar juxtaposes the film where the gang kills a bunch of people.

The lighting is also important in the underpass,perforamce clips creating shadows on the singers face and making the band look intimidating which is a common convention of the rock genre.

Editing
The editing is fast paced but chronological in a sense that its easy to follow the narrative which is split up in ellipses. this make it easy for the audience to understand what is happening but by being fast paced and swapping between performance and narrative means that they are still kept interested in whats happening.

Camerawork
The music video is largely made up of closeups and long shots and by switching between those the audience gets a good idea of where they are and what they are doing but also seeing the emotion and gestures in close ups.

Twenty One Pilots Digipak Analysis

The Twenty One Pilots Digipak includes their album art, their website, their music videos and their posters that are in magazines. The album itself has the signature, unusual imagary that they have on every album they have produced, which each mustve been produced by commissioning an artist and working with them to produce art that is interesting and also represents the bands image well enough to be recognisable. It is madeup of nine circles filled with patterns, each a representative of a song on the album, giving each song its own personal art. The use of colour is very important, as Twenty One Pilots are known for their use of black contrasted by bright colours, and the background for the album art is Black with the white and red contrasting that, as seen through their costumes on the website, music video and poster. They dress in these colours, particularly Black and Red as they are colours representative of inner darkness and are colours that stand out which is a common theme throughout the album. Having a particular style and colour theme in the Mise-en-scene is a convention of the alternative/ rock genre which Twenty One pilots have alongside the conventions of coloured hair, piercings and tattoos. On the poster, music video, and website they also have very stylised poses which evoke emotions of sadness, sombre, and anger which are common themes in their music and conventions in the genre. The website itself has the black and red colours set against each other alongside stylised typography and the album art which make it interesting to look at and very easy to read. There is also the photo of both band members in a close up which makes them the first thing someone sees entering the website, meaning they are going to be remembered and that is what artists want to strive for, for their persona to be memorable. overall there is a lot of synergy between the website, music videos, website, and digipak, which give them a theme and make them more memorable, something for their audience to follow.

Music Genre Shown Through Posters

Here we can see the differences in the genre shown through their different conventions on these music posters.

Alternative: Twenty One Pilots

 

The alternative poster, with the band Twenty One Pilots, shows the two band members sitting in a swimming pool in unusual costume's. The sitting in a swimming pool adheres to the convention that alternative posters usually have the artist in an usual setting whilst being casual, creating a normality for the scene. with their poses being casual and relaxed whilst being in a swimming pool outside gives meaning that this is completely normal for them, giving them an usual persona that follows through to their costume. Their costumes are skinny jeans and sneakers which are similar to rock and pop however they are wearing their signature balaclavas which are a memorable characteristic of the band. This is also unusual and makes them more recognisable as well as adhering to the unusual persona they are creating. The only writing on the poster is the Bands name in the bottom corner which creates a link with the identity and the name, making the band more memorable.

 

 Rock:

 

Here is the Rock poster for the Band Fall Out Boy, showing the members dressed in all black walking towards the camera .  The costume being all black adheres to the convention that Rock bands only wear black, and it is used as a stand out colour evoking similar emotions and such to their music. It is also used to make them seem more intimidating and "hard core", which is what Rock bands strive for in their look and music. The setting is off a road in the desert which is also an unusual location to have four men walking, which makes it similar to the alterative genre in that sense. The bands name is the biggest typography, being the part that needs to be remembered and recognised the most, then their album title is just below with the bands logo fading in the distance.

Rap/Hip Hop:

 

Here is a poster of the cover of Rolling Stone's magazine with Childish Gambino on the cover. The poster adheres to the conventions with rap/hip-hop with the artist being stern faced, not smiling and looking very serious. This is to make him look serious and intimidating. The cover is also in Black and white which is a common theme in Rap/Hip-hop as it adds to the serious and stern tone. His name is in a bold typography in the centre of the poster with the magazines typography smaller at the top and bottom. this gives him a high status identity with his name being so big and centred.

Pop:

 

Here is a pop poster of the singer Taylor Swift. The costume she's wearing is a common convention of the pop genre with the bright colours of her lipstick and hat as well as her bright blonde hair which create an upbeat, happy tone. The style of the typography and the colour adheres to this upbeat and happy tone by being bold and bright. The costume she denotes of the country style hat and dress connote how she is a country girl making her relatable and takes away the distance associated with stardom.

 

 

 

Music Promotion Notes

• Synergy
• CD/DVD
• Music/film/television/radio
• Album/magazine art

Audience can see the link between the music video, the album, their promos and TV and such and remember the artist through their consistency

Conventions:

• Name of band
• name of album
• typography genre
• mes
• layout
• main image of band
• release date of album/ tour
• logo of label
• where you can purchase
• reviews
• price
• features
• website
• age certificate

Magazine Covers

Two Door Cinema club poster

• the band
• title
• the scene
• its a public holiday
• ticket sales
• dates
• Phone number
• PUG (sticker peeling off)
• Institutions (record label)
• internet addresses

The image given through the poster reflects their genre.

Image has a direct link to music

• Pop= colourful/ boy band
• rap= crime/drug culture and stern faced/ aggressive
• rock= aggressive/ dark/ in your face
• alternative= unusual/ hipster 

Beggars Screenshot Analysis

The establishing shot of the music video is a long shot of all the band members walking. Using this shot and angle for the first few shots to introduce the narrative through Costume (Mise-en-Scene) and also promote the image of the musicians in the band, becoming more recognisable through being shown. All of this is before the lyrics which allows the audience to focus on the visual this shot also shows off the costume which references the well known 1971 film" Clockwork Orange", making the video intertextual.

Next, again before the lyrics, are a series of close-up shots of band members. This is used to show each band member. This is used to show each members individual look, which is an important convention in the rock genre, and make the members more recognisable. This is why the lead singer is shown more, as he is the face of the band and must be recognisable. The lighting in these shots focuses on the face of the band member by illuminating just their face and leaving the other member's in shadow. This is especially important when showing the singer, so the audience is not distracted by anything else in frame.

Here is a long shot of the "protagonist" of the narrative. He is an illustration of the title of the song and represents metaphorically some of the lyrics. After this shot there is a quick/ short montage of four shots of him standing, snagging his coat, and running from Mallory Knox.

Here's a close up of the lead singer performing. This is the only element of performance shown throughout the video, and is always shown through close ups and midshots in the darkened underpass. The backup singer is also shown at some points in the same way, However The majority of the performing shots are of the lead singer. The use of close ups focuses the attention on the lead singer and his gestures, and their relationship to the lyrics. For example in this shot he is singing "there's a devil stuck in my brain".

This is a long shot showing the beggar running from the band. The majority of the narrative shots are like this in close-ups, mid shots, long shots and extreme long shots , and they help represent the title and some of the lyrics. he is running here which links the chorus " You need me, but I don't know how to reach you".

Digipack

Album covers

• convention
• genre
• representation
• effectiveness

Muse=Rock/ indie= conceptual/ surreal covers
Pink Floyd+ ""
Beatles= very surreal cartoony
Meatloaf= hardcore, rock type

Artwork is important in their brand image

History of Music Video

Intertextuality is important in not just music videos but also most media forms
Simpsons is a huge user of intertextuality

The music video we're looking at, Beggars,  references A Clockwork Orange through costume

Intertexual references can be used for comedic effect and satire, but are mostly about entertaining, they are inclusive jokes, and are nostalgic

The audiences get a pleasure of recognition

Used to link genre and effectively shows the fluidity of genre

Fall Out Boy's Irresistible, with pop culture, and Madonna's material girl, with Diamonds are a girls best friend, they are examples of Music Videos that are intertextual


1960's

• Beatles: hard days night from full length movie
• Bob Dylan: subterranean homesick blues 1965
• Rolling Stones The top of the pops, 1965, film version of their performance
• The Beatles "strawberry fields together" 1967, first concept type music video
• The Monkeys, put together for a TV show, American Beatles but not as serious, established comedy and surrealism in music videos

1970's

• Queens Bohemian Rhapsody, just amazing at the time 1975
• David Bowie ashes to ashes 1980

1980's

• MTV 1981 started up production of music videos, white acts and male rock more successful
• Duran Duran wild boys $1 million video
• Duran Duran Rio 1983
• Thriller 1983
• Mtv ignored niche and threatening content and favourited others: such as black rap compared to white rock
• aerosmith and run dmc broke down the white dominance
• promo videos became the way to boost your stardom
• madonnas power of love very controversial
• 1984 Mtv has its own oscars for music
• spike jonze training ground music videos
• VH1 in 1980s
• MTV Europe 1987

1990's

• MTV became more lifestyle orientated and diverse with cartoons and reality shows

2000+

• Convergance with youtube and such nowadays
• wider based audience and availability

Our song choice Beggars cut to the beat

 

"Beggars"

One shot before music starts

/|/|||||/|/|/|/||||||/|/|/|||||||||/||/|||/||||

/The Devil's been stuck in my brain/
/|/|/|And /he's been living there seventeen days
/He said that I can't do better
But I know I'll / get better
I'll / do anything to feel something/

/The voices they are loudest / at night
/And they're so loud that they are haunting my /mind
Oh but it makes him /unsettled to know I'll get better/
If I / find that something deep within/|

/See I can't / find a / way / out m/y / mind

/Breathe /in, I'm coming to /get you
/You need me, but I don't know how to /reach you
/You know I'm gonna be the /one
(But I don't wanna be the one)
But I don't /wanna be the one/

Members: ·         1= Lead singer (ginger) ·         2= backup (brown skinny) ·         3= Sam Smith dimple ·         4= hot man jawbones ·         5= shrek boy

Key:

·         W=Walking as a group

·         S=Standing in Underpass

·         MS=Member of band Standing in Underpass

·         P=Performing

·         OS=Old man Sitting

·         OW=Old man Walking

 

Music Video Analyses

Music video analyses

Twenty one pilots: Stressed Out

This video is an amplification of the lyrics and the key theme in the song where they talk about how they are told to grow up and are stressed out now they are older with lyrics such as “wish we could turn back time… when our mama sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out ”. This is accompanied by visuals showing them doing childlike things with the Mise en scene, such as riding tricycles and drinking Capri Suns which are stereotypes of what children do. The whole video is synaesthesia of being a child, with the Mise en scene and lyrics reminding people of what it was like being a child compared to now. The video also has a chronological, linear narrative with sections of performance for the chorus; giving more variety to what the viewer is seeing with part storyline, part of the band performing. The bridge is also disjunctive with the abstract scene of them in a white room in bed surrounded by family and friends. The performance setting is the same in the chorus apart from the last chorus and the bridge.

 

 

Fall Out boy: Irresistible    

This video is a Disjuncture video with the video having no resemblance to the lyrics, however the powerful, victorious mood is sort of similar to the mood created by the song. The lyrics talk about how a girl is “Irresistible” and how she always hurts him with “I love the way you hurt me” whilst the video is of a basketball game that the band are losing but feel like everyone is rooting for them. The video is intertextuality with the multitude of references to internet pop culture such as memes and vines which are relatable and popular to everyone who is active on the internet. The video has a strong chronological narrative which follows Toderov’s theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium where they have equilibrium which they lose and fix and achieve a new sense of equilibrium. There is only narrative with no performance in this video but the narrative is good enough that it needs no performance.

 

 

P!ATD: I write sins not tragedies  

This video is illustrative with the video follows exactly what the lyrics say, such as them being at a wedding with the lyrics “pacing the pews of a church corridor” and people crashing the wedding with “I chime in haven’t you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door”. Whilst the visuals are quite abstract and exciting they still illustrate the lyrics with the setting of a wedding, and the people in costumes of suits and dresses. The story again has a strong chronological, linear narrative which is narrative overlaid with the singer performing throughout the wedding whilst it continues undisrupted by him. It again follows Toderov’s theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium with the equilibrium being the man being wed to his wife which is disrupted by the singer and then his wife to be kissing someone else which finds him at his new

equilibrium of being who the singer is.

A2 Music Video Production

This blog will document and evidence my coursework in producing a final music video.