Note to Examiner

Dear examiner/moderator,

I hope you enjoy looking through my A2 coursework, I had great fun producing work for this course and I equally hope you enjoy reading/looking at my work. Please use the labels on the right hand side  to navigate my/our work. Work has been split into three main categories; Research and Planning, Product, Evaluation and where work has been produced by just one group member it has been labelled with their name. I hope you enjoy reading through my coursework journey.  Bill and myself both hope you find our work to be of a high standard and that you see our enthusiasm and dedication towards our work this year.

Thanks, 

Nathan Simmons                                                        

BLACK SOX SCANDAL - THE AGE OF THE UNDERSTATEMENT

Evaluation 1

Ancillary Texts

Mood Board - Alternative Rock Genre

Audience Profile

Name: Jack Leventhal

Age: 19 years old

Occupation: Student at university. Has part time job at his local supermarket.

Likes & interests: Listens to a lot of new music, goes to see new bands a lot of the time. Has an avid interest in football and it's culture, plays regularly and supports his hometown club Coventry City. Tries to see them play when he has the time. Jack likes to be social; he likes going out at the weekends, enjoys sharing his views on bands and sports etc to his friends. He also partakes in social networking, with sites like Facebook and twitter. He also has slight interests in art, photography and a heavy interest in fims. 
He earns his money through a part time job at his local supermarket, that shan't be named, staking shelfs and occasionally working on the tills. He enjoys spending money earned on clothes, gigs,events and new technologies.  He also collects magazines which vary from music, film, fashion and sport.

Musical Preferences: He enjoys a mixture of most genres of music, but mainly indie/alternative music and his favourite bands being The Maccabees, Peace and British Sea Power. He's also partial to a bit of We Are Scientists and The Ramones. He tries to attend as many gigs possible and likes to keep up with new upcoming artists. 

Style: Has a simple taste in clothes, plain colours and patterns, jeans, trainers and shoes. He doesn't mind spending money on clothes and he enjoys adding to his vast shoe collection. Likes to shop at stores such as Urban Outfitters but he finds it easier to shop online.

Music Video Analysis - 'The Maccabees - Went Away'

The first video i chose to analyse is The Maccabees - Went Away (alternative video).

Genre Characteristics 

This is the video for The Maccabees song ' Went Away' taken of their album Given to The Wild. This song would be classed as indie/alternative. The band members in the video show the characteristics of the genre; with their fashion style, hair and performance. This song follows the indie/alternative genre, as being of varying musical approaches that are not really compatible with mainstream tastes, i think this songs fall within this. The video shows this too with the close-ups of the band members, overlaying images and soft and strong exposed lighting. 

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

Not much to say here as the lyrics aren't really fitting to the song. I suppose the title, 'Went Away' may connote to the video as it's showing London and this may suggest that the person the lyrics mention may want to get away to the city. I have no idea here, just something to fill this area i guess.

Relationship between music and visuals

The song itself, i think, is a fast paced and smooth. I think the video suits the song well with quick cuts that look smooth and crisp. Also every shot/camera angle is not static, meaning the camera is either panning across something (e.g. 0:56 - 0:58, the camera pans right, above the drummer) or zooming in and out. Basically the camera never stops moving, which fits nicely with the song.I think the facial expressions made by Orlando Weeks (main singer) shows the feel to the song and adds to the video. The lighting in the video is strong in parts, then soft as well. This matches the music, as in parts it's loud and then quite.  During a fast part to the song, a slow shutter speed video (or photographs) is used (2:12 - 2:15), this shows the pace to the song and fits nicely with the music. The mise en scene is fairly and shows the band performing in a auditorium sort of place or something.   

Close up of the artists and are there star image motifs?

Yes, there are plenty of close ups shots of all the band members. 

A couple of close ups featured in the video

Is there reference to the notion of looking?

There is no direct eye contact made towards the viewer in this video, this makes the viewer feel away from band and It seems that this video is made just for the viewer to watch and hopefully enjoy. 

Is the video concept based, narrative or performance based?

It is a performance video (illustration) as the band are performing their song. But is also in a way an amplification video as it is creative and quite unusual with its image over image video showing band members performing and landscape shots of London, the two are overlaid on top of each other, giving the video an abstract feel.