What is Intertextuality?

intertextuality is the reference to other media texts within another piece of media.

Stewart believed that there were three main visual references that came from a range of different sources. These were:

-Art Photography

-Cinema 

-Fashion

Goodwin believed that there was intertextuality in other music video's, TV programmes and films. An example of this would be Madonna, who used a scene from "Diamonds are a girls best friend" in her song "Material Girl". She copied the theme of it, by wearing diamonds, wearing the iconic pink dress, having her hair the same as Marilyn Monroe and also by having the waiters surrounding her.

Storyboard.

We decided that we would use final cut express to create a story board so that we could decide on all of the shots that we wanted to use. We put the song on it and then started editing what shots we would use and what would be in them.

Costume + Props

More Planning

Here is another picture of some details of our music video that are crucial to our video.

In on of our scenes we are having our artist and his girlfriend buy an ice cream and mess around with it, and have her put some on his nose. This is a typical "love story" scene, showing that they are happy and like to have a joke with each other. It lightens the mood of the video.

We have decided that some of our footage will be filmed on Danielle's Iphone, because we want to make it look as if he has filmed her. We wanted this because we thought that it would look good if our artist is filming his girlfriend and showing that he wants to have footage of her to remember her when she is gone.

Our artist will have a scene where he is sitting on a brick wall at the beach alone. We wanted to show that now she is gone he doesn't know what to do with himself or where to go. He is lost without her. 

Our artist will have written the word "stay" in the sand on the beach, which the sea will wash away. This will be done to show that his attempts were in vein, and she will go and disappear no matter how much he begs and wants her to stay.

Magazine Advert. - Kate Nash.

Magazine Advert, Kate Nash.

Artist - The artists name is Kate Nash.

Album - The album is called "Made of Bricks"

Genre - Indie - pop

Photography - There is a dolls house which looks very unrealstic with the animal shaped bushes. It looks almost as if it is a cartoon and has all been done of the computer. It makes her look very youthful and playful and very childlike, almost as if she has never grown up.

Colour Scheme - They have decided to use all bright colours, and she stands out in her bright red dress. The use of the bright yellows, greens and blue reiterate the childlike and playful image that they are trying to go for. 

Fonts - Her name looks as if a child has written it. This all goes with the fact that the whole album looks very child like and as if she wants to show off her youthful side and the fact that she just wants to have fun. 

Front Album Cover Analysis.

Ben Howard.

"Every Kingdom"

This is the Ben Howard front album cover, for his album called "Every kingdom". They have decided to use white writing, which complements the blue background. They have chosen to not show his face, and just show someone swimming underwater. They have bright lighting, making it look very innocent and pure. His name is very large on the front so that it stands out and you can clearly see who the album is by and who the artist is. 

Two Door Cinema Club

"Beacon"

In the Two Door Cinema Club album, they again haven't chosen to show their faces, they instead have a very strange front cover of a girls legs coming through the ceiling.  The lighting is that the room is dimly lit, but does get brighter because there is a light coming from in between the girls thighs. The top of the room is brighter, maybe representing what they albums name is "beacon".

Jake Bugg

In Jake Bugg's album, he has gone for a black and white theme, and isn't looking directly into the camera. He is looking into the distance, maybe representing the fact that he is indecisive or is thinking about something important. The camera is positioned so that you can only see from the shoulders upwards, and it looks as if he is slightly hunched over. He isn't wearing expensive designer clothing, he is just wearing a simple coat, and we can't see what else it is that he is wearing.

The Libertines

In the Libertines album cover, both of the people in the shot look as if they are slightly off the rails, you can see that they have tattoo's and look as if they have been consuming either alcohol or maybe even drugs. They have chosen to make the bands name look as if it was done with magazine cuttings, which makes it look as if they have done it themselves and are independant. It is a lot darker lighting then the other album covers, maybe to show the darker side of their music and their lyrics. 

Noah And The Whale

"The first days of Spring"

None of the artists are looking at the camera, but they are all looking at the same thing. They have chosen to shoot this outside and in the open. This means that they have bright lighting showing that it was shot on a nice day. They also show that they are outside by having the corn coming up with them in the background. They are more blurred then the man who is nearer the front of the shot, he has been focused in, possibly to shot that he is the main singer and is the more important member of the band and the one that most people will recognise when they think of the band.

Planning

Some of the idea's that we have come up with for our music video.

 

 We have decided that we want our music video to have the theme of "love" and to have a romantic story behind it, with our artist being in love with a female who has to leave and can't stay with him.

 We have decided that in one of the scenes, we want our artist to be singing in the middle of the beach and to be surrounded by tea lights. We think that this creates a very romantic atmosphere, which is what we wanted seeing as our music video is all about a loving relationship.

 We are going to have some scenes where our artist is going to be sitting on the roof of a beach hut. We thought that this was a fun and quirky idea, and makes our video more interesting and seem more fun, rather then all being serious about his problems with his girlfriend.

 Our song is called "Hazel Eyes" and was originally written by a man called Rick Lown, who has given us his full permission to do a music video for his song. He said he would like to see it once we have finished.

We wanted our artist and his girlfriend to be flying a kite to symbolise that at the time they are free and don't have to answer to anyone. It shows that they are having fun. This will all change as the video progresses and it gets closer to when she has to leave him.

Audience Research.

I looked on Facebook at some Indie artists and created a small table on how many people follow them, and their average age group.

Two Door Cinema Club:

Likes:

1,122,846.

Sex/Age:

Majority male, aged 18-30

John Mayer:

Likes:

5,450,794 

Sex/Age:

Majority male, aged 21-31

Actors + Actresses.

We were going to use 2 people that we knew, named Sian and Mike. However, due to recent filming issues we won't be able to use them anymore.

However, instead, Harris and myself will take the role as the artist and the girl who is in the music video. Although this is a last minute decision, Harris already knows the lyrics to the song, and can play some guitar, and i know all of the shots and how we want the video to look.

Digipack.

As part of our coursework, we will also need to create a digipack. This means the front cover, back cover and the inlays of a C.D. A digipack is important because it shows off the artist in whatever way that they want the audience to perceive them. It gives the artist the chance to reach out to fans, by putting on the inlays their thanks to everyone who has supported/worked on the album. 

We thought that for our digipack, we would name our album "Tearing Back The Wallpaper" to represent the fact that our artist is tearing back everything unessential in his life, and looking at only the things that really matters to him, which in his case is his music.

Our front cover will be him standing against a wallpapered wall, holding his guitar. The next inlay will show him ripping off a sheet of this wallpaper from the wall. The next inlay will show the fact that there are the lyrics to his song "Hazel Eyes" on a brick wall behind the wall paper. The back cover will show his back, with him sitting cross legged on the floor, you can't see his face but you can see that he is staring up at the torn wallpaper with his lyrics behind it.

Audience Research.

I asked some people what they thought "indie" music was as a genre, and here are the responses that i got back:

Ross (19 years old)

"I listen to a lot of indie music. I'm really into a band at the moment called "Two Door Cinema Club." I really like their style of music. I would say that to me, to call something 'indie' is has to have a certain style. I don't think its all about how the band look, but more how they sound. To me, indie artists care more about the music that they are creating then the look they are giving off, or what they are wearing. They don't need fast beats and lots of instruments, all they need is good meaningful lyrics and good vocals."

Katie (19 years old)

"I don't listen to much indie music, and i wouldn't be able to tell you many indie artists. I think that indie artists are mainly acoustic though, and they seem to be small bands that i haven't heard about. My boyfriend listens to indie artists and normally i haven't ever heard of them before."

Andrew (15 years old)

"I think that indie music is artists and bands that have worked hard to get record deals and to produce their music. I think that it means that they have come from not much and have worked really hard by performing small gigs and stuff to get noticed. Although i am not a large indie fan, i do like some artists and bands."

Janis (51 years old)

"I don't think people from my generation really understand what Indie music really is. I wouldn't know what makes something indie, and what makes it different. However, i think that you can sort of guess by the abbreviation of what Indie means, which is independent. So i am guessing that maybe they have been independent in creating and publishing their music."

Practise Footage.

This is some of the practice footage that we filmed. We found a location in school and tried different shots with the dolly and camera to see if we could get any idea's from shots that we liked. We then put this footage on the computer and went over any shots that we thought were good and any that we didn't think would work or would be possible to do.

Because we are filming at the beach, this means that the sand will make it impossible for us to use the dolly. It won't be able to move around easily on grass or on sand, meaning that some of the practice footage that we gathered won't be able to be used in our music video.

We did however, gather a very nice shot of the fret board of the guitar. We decided that we wanted to use this type of shot in our music video. Practicing filming and shots really helped us understand what camera angles would work and which ones wouldn't. 

"Hazel Eyes" Shots.

Prelude Shots.

- mid shot of two in bed.
- high angle wide shot of bed.
- close up of heads on pillows.
- mid shot  of wind blowing through open window.
- tracking shot up from the bottom of bed.
- close up birds eye of heads "i have to leave" she says
- close up birds eye "just give me one more day" he says.
- close up of heads on pillow, his hand on side of her face.


Beach Shots.

- close up of holding hands. 
- establishing shot of beach with waves.
- birds eye shot, lying on grass looking to sky.
- POV shot looking up to sky.
- close up face on to camera.
- close up of feet in water.
- tracking of feet from slight angle behind.
- side on shot of her face.
- long shot from front, them spinning in sea.
- close up camera following them spinning.
- side on close up of heads, him saying the words to her.
- low angle of him sitting alone on beach wall.
- panning from back of head to side, see her in the background.
- close up of guitar looking up neck.
- performance side on of face. 
- performance face on mid shot.
- performance higher angle.
- wide shot, behind, walking hand in hand.
- panning from back of her head to front.
- performance panning left to right.
- performance close up of guitar.
- close up of hand holding.
- performance close up of face.
- slow motion her turning around.
- low angle of guitar.
- side angle of guitar.
- side angle of them looking at each other.
- side angle them looking at each other, him stroking her face.
- long shot from back, walking hand in hand. 
- slight side angle, them sitting on beach wall looking into distance.
-  performance panning from side.
- performance side close up him looking into distance.
- looking through heads taking photo on phone.
- using iphone him filming her.
- mid shot her grabbing phone.
- using iphone footage of both of them.
- iphone footage of her.
- performance super close up face on.
- filming on iphone side on her face.
- long shot from back sitting on beach in blanket.
- shot of them standing on beach holding hands.
- camera rotating around heads.
- close up of her eyes.
- zooming out to show her whole face.
- long shot from back sitting on beach in blanket.
- birds eye them lying together on beach.
- performance candle close up on bridge of guitar.
- performance candle close up on fret board.
- performance candle, low angle panning from left to right.
- slow motion her turning around.
- performance candle, close up of face.
- performance candle, nice guitar angle.
- high angle, "stay" written in sand.
- performance candle 2 o'clock angle panning from high to low.
- performance candle high angle wide (beach wall)
- performance candle low angle close up on face.
- performance candle, mid shot 2 o'clock angle.
- performance candle close up of face.
- performance candle, low angle looking at guitar.
- performance candle wide shot (showing tea lights etc)
- higher angle looking down at them sleeping on beach.
- performance candle,deep pan left to right.
- tracking behind them walking in sea.
- performance candle close up panning.
- long shot him along on rocks.
- mid shot, her looking straight into camera.
- iphone footage, close up of her eyes.
- long shot, walking down road, she disappears. 

Beach Hut Shots.

- sitting on beach hut, low angle performance shot.
- performance, low angle.
- performance shoulder upwards. 
- performance mid 2 o'clock shot.
- performance mid other side.
- close up low angle.


Rocks Shots.

- mid shot sitting on rocks playing guitar.
- performance shot of rocks, close up.
- performance shot, low angle. 
- performance shot, close up of guitar.
- performance shot of fret board.
- performance shot, side on slight high angle shot.
- performance, panning around face. 
- performance long shot.
- performance, face on.
- performance, 2 o'clock angle.


Car Shots.

- shot from back seat of car, her window is down.
- shot from back seat, him driving, smiling at her.
- mid shot in car, singing to the radio.
- wide angle from behind of car pulling up.
- wide angle from front, them getting out of car.
- shot of them walking past camera and joining to hold hands.


Kite Shots.

- mid shot handing her the kite.
- close up of hand holding kite.
- close up of holding kite.
- slow motion throwing the kite in the air.
- low angle them in corner kite flying.


Pavilion/Grass Shots.

- wide shot asleep on the grass.
- side close up of him saying to her "i just want to know why".
- mid shot him buying her an ice cream.
- shot of ice cream man smiling.
- mid shot looking lovingly at him.
- looking over her shoulder, putting ice cream on his face.
- panning, left to right, them laughing.

Storyboard.

This is a storyboard of every single shot and what will be in each shot. We decided to do this because we thought that it would be easier for us to look at when editing so that we knew the timings of each shot and what was supposed to be in them. This way we can also make sure that we haven't missed any of the shots out. However, we also have a written shotlist that we can take with us for when we are filming.

Lyrics.

Here are the lyrics to our song:

Hazel eyes why don't you come on down.
Sing the same songs to me, 
I realise my imperfections, 
What's the point in this mystery.
Pretty face why won't you still tonight, 
You burn the candle at both ends, 
I love you now i'll love you forever,
What will it be like in the end.

(Chorus) 

Is it okay if i speak?
Is it okay if i breathe?
Hazel eyes x4

Hazel eyes take this moment, 
And pass it up into the sky, 
I see your fear but no emotions,
Just wanna know why, why,
And pretty eyes i'll see you fall down,
When all you wants a cosy night,
Now's the time to come over, 
I'll turn your tears into delight.

(Middle 8)

Now i'm unaware,
Why you can't stay here,
The letters on the ground.

When we looked at these lyrics, it gave us some inspiration for things that we wanted to do in our video. We then decided that when he says "pass it up into the sky" we would have a shot of our artist and his girlfriend flying a kite. It has connotations of them both being care-free and out in the open. The sky is their limit, and they can do what they want. 

"I love you now i love you forever" - because this line in the lyrics is very personal and is directed towards the female he is singing the song about, we thought that we would have our artist actually say the words to the girl rather then sing them. It fits in well with the romantic theme of our music video, and also makes it look more personal to the narrative of the video. 

Arcade Fire - Ready to Start.

I looked into Indie artists that are similar to the song that we have chosen to do for our music video. Both songs are about the struggles with females. 

These are the lyrics:

Businessmen drink my bloodLike the kids in art school said they wouldAnd I guess I'll just begin againYou say can we still be friends
If I was scared, I wouldAnd if I was bored, you know I wouldAnd if I was yours, but I'm not
All the kids have always knownThat the emperor wears no clothesBut they bow down to him anywayIt's better than being alone
If I was scared, I wouldAnd if I was pure, you know I wouldAnd if I was yours, but I'm not
Now you're knocking at my doorSaying please come out with us tonightBut I would rather be aloneThan pretend I feel alright
If the businessmen drink my bloodLike the kids in art school said they wouldThen I guess I'll just begin againYou say can we still be friends
If I was scared, I wouldAnd if I was pure, you know I wouldAnd if I was yours, but I'm not
Now I'm Ready to Start
If I was scared, I wouldAnd if I was pure, you know I wouldAnd if I was yours, but I'm not
Now I'm Ready to Start
Now I'm Ready to StartI would rather be wrongThan live in the shadows of your sunMy mind is open wideAnd now I'm ready to start
Now I'm Ready to StartMy mind is open wideNow I'm Ready to StartNot sure you'll open the doorTo step out into the darkNow I'm ready!

The businessmen drink my blood - has connotations of the artist not fitting into the real world with other men. It shows that he feels like he is a loner, and doesn't belong around all of the materialistic people that he is surrounded by. 

Like the kids in art school said they would - has connotations of him thinking about his past, and how even as a child he didn't fit in and possibly got bullied by some of the other children in his class, for being different. This means that a lot of people might be able to relate to what he is saying, as they might of experienced the same sort of thing before.

And i guess i'll just begin again - makes you think that possibly he is opting for a fresh start, and wants to try and change his life and do things the way that he wants to do. He wants to try and start afresh. 

You say we can still be friends - this is the first part where the audience begin to realise that the song is about a girl, and it engages the audience into wondering who the girl is and also what the story behind the relationship is.

If i was scared, i would.
And if i was bored, you know i would.
And if i was yours, but im not. -The chorus tells us that he isn't the girls, meaning that he doesn't feel that she likes him, or it didn't work out, or something along these lines. It shows the heartbreak that he is going through, which is another thing that the audience might relate to. 

All the kids have always known, 
That the Emperor wears no clothes, 
But they bow down to him anyway, 
It's better then being alone. - Although the Emperor who wore no clothes is a famous children's story, this verse is just a connotation of what he really means. He is talking about the fact that everyone seems to conform to what they think they should be purely because they think that it is the right thing to do, and they don't want to defy from the rules. This might be telling us that he doesn't feel the same way, and likes to break the rules. 


Now you're knocking at my doorSaying please come out with us tonightBut I would rather be aloneThan pretend I feel alright - This now shows us that the girl is interested in him, and wants him to go with her out. However, we see that he doesn't want to, but we don't know the reasons for this. It shows that he is in a deep emotional state, and is expresses to the audience that he doesn't feel like he wants to try and solialise with anyone, just wants to be alone.
Now I'm Ready to Start - This tells the audience that maybe he is ready to move on with his life, and start living. He is ready to try and start moving into something happier for himself. 
Now I'm Ready to StartI would rather be wrongThan live in the shadows of your sunMy mind is open wideAnd now I'm ready to start - He is now sounding more positive about things. He is apparently breaking away from her shadow, which makes us realise that maybe the girl that he is talking about has always put him down and made him feel small. It shows us that he is rebelling against that, and doesn't want her to control him anymore. He wants to show her that he is done being treated like that, and is starting his own life the way he wants. 
Now I'm Ready to StartMy mind is open wideNow I'm Ready to StartNot sure you'll open the doorTo step out into the darkNow I'm ready! - The artist is saying to the audience, and the girl that he now does have his confidence back, and although it was once her knocking on his door, he doesn't feel that she will have the ability to keep up with him and do all of the things that he is planning to do with his life. He is going back to the fact that before, it was her in control of his life, and now it is him, taking the steps to change the way he has been treated, and do everything he didn't think was possible when he was with her. 

The song breaks the normal "break-up song" convention. Normally, it is female artists who sing about how in their previous relationship their male partner put them down and made them feel small. However, in this it is the male who has been in that sort of relationship with a female.

Costume and Props

Costume.

Our artist will be wearing Chino's, a denim shirt, and some form of casual shoe. It relates well to the indie genre and the age bracket of our target audience. We also think that it will make him look casual and comfortable which also relates to the indie genre, due to the idea of being casual in videos and public appearances, which greatly differs from a pop artist.







Our female will be sporting light blue jeans, which are able to roll up. This is so we can easily film the paddling scene. She will be wearing a wax Barbour style jacket.

She will also be wearing red vans. We have decided that we want her to be wearing these because they are practical and casual and go well with our indie theme.








Props


Guitar - By having the guitar is showing that he is a credible artist and can play his own music. it is also a key convention of the indie genre. 
Microphone stand- to show he is singing his own music and its not auto tuned or greatly tampered with. 
Ice cream and chips- cliche thing for couples in films, videos and television. also links with the beach location.
Tea lights- surround our artist to create a more meaningful, romantic atmosphere. also a small source of lighting.
Camera phone- to create a handheld effect. to emphasize intimacy and romance between the characters. 
 

 

Risk Assessment

After looking at the risks that might occur whilst we are filming our video, we decided that these are the following things we will do to prevent anything happening:

Risk 1.

Going in too deep to the sea, and the tide being dangerous.

In order to stop anything happening with this problem, we have decided that we will make sure that our artist and the female character will only be right at the shore of the beach, won't go in deep at all and as soon as we think that the tide is coming in a little bit too strong we will stop filming there, so that nothing can happen.

Risk 2.

Our artist falls off the roof of the beach hut.

In order to prevent this happening we have decided to assign people to different places around the beach hut to make sure that he can't slip. We also will make sure that if we think it is too windy which might be a hazard that we won't film him on the beach hut and will come up with another, safer idea.

Risk 3.

It gets dark and our artist falls over something on the beach.

We are going to make sure that when it gets darker on the beach 

Location.

Here are some pictures of the different locations that we will be taking shots. 

The first picture that you can see is a picture of Frinton Beach. We have decided that we want to film there because it fits in well with the idea's that we have about the story behind our song. There will be shots of them walking along the beach, of them playing in the sea, of them sat on the beach and also ones of him performing by himself on the beach. 

This is a picture of the beach huts that we intend to use in our video. We are going to have one scene where our performer is sat on top of the roof of one of the beach huts with his guitar, looking out and singing the lyrics. 

In the narrative side of our video, we are going to have our artist and his girlfriend be sat in the little hut that you can see in the picture. They are going to be eating chips and ice cream, and laughing and having fun showing how much they love each other and enjoy eachothers company. 

In this picture you can see the rocks over looking the sea. We were thinking that a possibility of one shot might be that he is sat on them looking out onto the sea thinking about the fact that his girlfriend has to leave him soon and he might not ever see her again. 

Digipack Analysis

This is a picture of a digipack that i analysed. It was James Morrison's album "songs for you, true to me" My teacher picked it out for me because it is similar to the genre of music that we will be doing for our music video. 

Some of the things that i noticed are that he is dressed very casually, and the colours that he is in are the same in the whole digipack. Browns, greys, and blacks, and this reflects on the back cover and the front cover too. The lighting is very bright which makes him stand up and makes him the only thing that you really notice on the front cover. They have cropped the front cover so that we can only see him and are instantly drawn to him. 

There are connotations of him sitting on the pavement by himself, it looks like he is either lost, or that he has no place to go and he is sitting there trying to figure out what he should do with himself. The back cover has connotations of him crossing to a new life, and going somewhere different. The birds eye view shot that they have used means that we can't see where it is that he is going, so it adds mystery. They have also positioned him right in the centre, which means that he stands out.

The font is large, brown and stands out. This matches with the overall colour theme that both sides of the covers seem to have. The fact that the album is called "songs for you, truths for me" makes it very personal to the audience. The "you" makes it seem like he has written and performed all of the songs for you personally, and the "me" makes the audience feel that they have a connection with him. 

His pose makes him look as if he is looking into the distance, assessing the position that he is in. The fact that they have chosen not to make him give direct eye contact to the audience makes it look as if he is lost, and doesn't know where he is going in life. This potentially might make the audience connect with him even more. He is doing a very natural pose, it doesn't look overworked, it looks like not a lot of effort went into doing it and that it is all very  natural. 

On the back cover, going up the side there is links to his Myspace and Facebook pages. This means that the audience are able to get some extra things and also look at pictures, tour dates and anything else that they might be interested in seeing. It just gives the artist another way to connect with fans and make it seem like he cares and understands what they want in an artist. 

On the other side, there is legal jargon. This has been placed specifically in this area because it means that it is out of the way and doesn't get in the way of the image. They don't want it spoiling what they have created, but it is essential to have all of the legal jargon on the cover of the album.

The song names fit in well with the look of the crossing. They have debliberatly placed the song names so that they fit in well with the striped of the zebra crossing. This makes it look more attractive and more in sync with everything else. 

The C.D choice of colour makes it look like the inside of a vinal record. This makes the C.D look like a classic, old fashioned record which fits in with all of the more toned down colours that they have decided to use. 

They have chosen to have record company at the top of the C.D, and it is quite large. This could show pride in the fact that both sides are proud of the album and want to have their name clearly at the top, showing support of the album.