Thursday 31 March 2011

7. Similar music video analysis

The music video I am analysing is ‘blink 182 all the small things’. This is another band similar to ‘newfound glory’ and its genre, pop-punk. They are also signed to Geffen records, same as ‘newfound glory’.



The videos main stand out feature is the continuous parodying of artists that do not follow the same stylistics that make pop-punk. These consist of Christina Aguilera’s ‘genie in a bottle’ video, backstreet boys ‘I want it that way’ and more. This music video by blink 182 helps to establish them as a comical pop-punk band. After my continuous research throughout pop-punk music videos, this seems to be the style/look they all tend to strive for…..a humorous one. The interesting use of locations mimicking the artists they are parodying makes it interesting to look at as it entices you to see more as well as whom else is going to be targeted next. One that works very well is the evening shot of the band lying on the beach picking daisies together. This is the Christina parody shot. Specific dress attire used again mimics the artists they are copying such as the all white suits previously worn by ‘backstreet boys’. This is very beneficial as it makes the viewer instantly aware of who is being copied. Only the popular music videos are what’s being parodied as this will be easier for the viewer to notice. On most of the performances the panning shot is used (left to right and vice versa). Some including a fish bowl lens. Similarities of performance cinematography can be seen between the sum41 song ‘into deep’ and ‘all the small things’.


Throughout the music video the action that is seen on screen cuts to the beat of the song perfectly. This is something that every music video does simultaneously apart from the ones that are deliberately trying to make it uncomfortable, even then its pretty closely cut still. Solo instrumentals are specially used on the drummer and the majority of the artists singing along to the song. Its possible that the drummer is used due to the fact that they are usually at the back of the band when performing therefore not spending to much time in front of the camera. This way, the inclusion of him erases the possibilities of excluding him from the public eye.


This music video is to be sold as a parody of past artists music videos. Blink 182 have been promoted especially in this music video as a band that do-not take themselves too seriously. Something that has been stressed to the fans of the music also. Again, as mentioned before, pop-punk genre seems to follow this mantra through their music and music videos alike. If a newfound glory video were to be watched and then a blink 182 or a sum 41 music video next. There would be instant recognition that pop-punk is what’s being viewed just by the style of childish humour that’s gets expressed.


Voyeurism is rampant throughout the video, mainly of the band but also there happens to be a lone women in the shoot who just so happens to be semi naked and attractive. As well as this there also contains a lot of hip gyrating from band members to entice a sexual meaning from this, or to just take the pee out of past music videos. This video might appeal also to a gay following due to the alluring glances of the semi naked band even though it is all in humorous manner.


The use of Intertextual references is the main idea/purpose for this music video. As mentioned before, a large deal of the music video is filled with parodies of past music videos such as Christina Aguilera’s ‘genie in a bottle’. The way in which its used is by using aspects of the locations, lighting and clothes that were from the previous music videos and integrating them into the bands imitative take of it. Blink 182 music video ‘all the small things’ is performance based. It sees the band performing but to how the original artist they are imitating would have done so. Such as Christina Aguilera was laying by a beach surrounded by flowers. In this the lead singer of blink 182 does the same thing. Overall the music video promotes the band very well. They show what type of band your dealing with which in this case a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously and what’s to make pop-punk genre something where fun is all that is to be had. From previous pop promos such as ‘what’s my age again’ there seems to be a continually naked themed approach to some of blink 182 music videos. This helps to initiate their fun approach to music/life and this is also re-initiated into ‘all the small things’. This therefore keeps the audience/fans of the band understandable of what to expect when watching them.   

14. Group diary through the pre-production stage




  • January 2011 has begun and in doing so so has the planning for the filming of our music video ‘kiss me’ performed by house. So far the ideas from myself, Rita and Emily are being scanned through and an overall agreement will be made very soon as to which ideas will be used. First things are to correlate the whole pop promo making sure aspects that are to be used will have a matching style throughout. This will therefore make the overall pop package themed towards HOUSE making it easier to be made aware who and what your looking for.









  • Mid January:- After much deliberating we have decided to use Emily’s idea as the narrative. It follows a young couple through their relationship from the beginning through to the near end, transitioning between young couple and old. We will be including my idea of filming this via a split screen technique. This way we can focus on certain affections such as holding hands in one half of the screen and a sexual gaze/kiss from either male or female in the other side of the screen. Rita’s idea of mise-en-scene such as dress attire and locations were taken into account and an overall agreement on location was achieved. The location would be within a park and using a stand out object in the park such as a tree would be where our couple in love would continually go back to. This would also help show the transition from the young aged couple to old aged couple.






  • February:- The bands live performance has been shot!!! HOORAH The cogs have finally begun moving as the music video has moved in the production phase. We used the studio in the media department at 6th form and darkened in with black cloth. We then used lighting to develop shadows upon our band members faces and body and back lights to allow light to shine upon the groups figures. This gave out a nice effect especially on the lead guitarist. The only problem we seemed to have was that the studio was quite small therefore we couldn’t help but shoot some of the ceiling as well as some of the members of the band were extremely camera shy whilst others weren’t. This then made some of the shots of the awkward band members hard to use as it was quite dull to be seen!






  • Mid February:- Editing has been underway for a while now and the main cause for concern was that we hadn’t shot enough different shots of the bands performance. This wouldn’t have been such a problem if I song wasn’t so fast pace. This therefore needs constant cuts to the music especially when it speeds up during the chorus. This would therefore keep a continuous flow of music:visual, which would also be pleasing aesthetically. this in mind, we are still awaiting our couple of actors who will be playing the part of the narrative which means that more shot sequences will be on the way






  • March:- Disaster has occurred! The narrative contained flaws to the overall plan. This therefore has caused we, the group to rethink the whole narrative and approach it at a different perspective. The problems we had firstly were the technicalities of what we were trying to achieve in the sense of a split screen styled music video. Secondly we couldn’t find ANY actors young and or old willing to act romantically in front of the camera. Thirdly, we were running out of time fast. The final deadline for coursework isn’t too far away so our previous idea for a narrative had to be scrapped. The new idea is to collect a vast amount of shots of kissing couples from the general public. This will give the video a more natural feeling. Though the possibility of getting some very negative feedback from the general public is a given!  






  • Mid march:- Ok. Finally we have all the necessary shots that are required to finish of this music video production. With the inclusion of our kissing couples, the video not only will have this natural, comfortable feeling of seeing happy couples kissing but it will also contain a live performance of the band which should make it seem to the viewer that they are there watching this occur. that’s the idea anyway. After the editing is finally finished I will post an overview of what was good/what was bad and what needs to be changed after receiving feedback from the panel of viewers.  

Wednesday 23 March 2011

7.Similar music video analysis

I am analyzing the video ‘into deep’ by sum 41.
A band similar to ‘newfound glory’ who are the band that HOUSE have covered for our pop promotion.
The genre this type of music belongs to is Pop Punk. You can see this by the way the lead vocalists hair is styled which looks similar to how Sid Viscous used to have his during his days in the band ‘the sex pistols’.
The pop characteristics can be seen through how bright and colorful not only the video is but also through the clothes that the band and extras wear.

The visual stylistics throughout the video are to show a light side to ‘getting into deep’ in a relationship.
This is portrayed through the clothing worn through many people in the video. The clothes are almost all very colorful. The day is also sunny so I am assuming this is representing a typical college American atmosphere. The location is at a swimming pool which seems very fitting alongside the songs title.
The majority of shots are long shots, mid shots and close ups mainly to allow most of the narrative and band performance to be seen.
There are also large amounts of zooming in and out of the band performance possibly by the main camera being mounting on wire, capturing a wide range of shots of the performance.

The Relationships between visuals can be seen almost immediately when the band approaches the diving centre. From here you can see where this video is going, for instance “I’m into too deep” is followed by shots of the band vs. jocks in a diving competition.

The Relationship between the music and visuals is perfectly in sync throughout the video.
On certain drum beats the shots of the bands performance and the narrative change by jump cut. If this wasn’t the case then it would be quite messy and uncomfortable to watch because of its out of beat theme of style.
There are solo instrumental parts of the song that are highlighted to make them more visual when watching the video. The one in particular is when the lead guitarist does his dive into the pool and then raises out of the water to do his solo. Once completed he the sinks back into the pool.

The band sum 41 have been presented as a punk pop band due to there not so serious music videos and their light clothing that’s worn throughout most of their performances. This hasn’t changed for ‘into deep’ as they continue to be represented as a pop punk band. This is most probably done on purpose to keep those that buy into the band happy.
The type of music video is very different to their previous music video ‘fat lip’ in the sense of location, extras used and clothes worn.
Fat lip instead has a darker feel. The location is at abandoned land at the side of motorways, the band shave off a girl’s hair, teenage girls being sick behind dustbins whilst the general idea of the music video is to cause havoc amongst each other. Somehow very alike the genre pop punk and the ideology they pursuit.
All in all a completely different feel compared to ‘into deep’.
Though the lead singer keeps his ‘Sid viscous’ like hair style and the band stick to their colorful dress attire, so particular style motifs have been kept.

The video is a mixture of performance and narrative.
This can be seen by the division between the band performance and the diving competition between punk and jock!
The video promotes the band well in the sense that they can defeat the competition in the narrative, so why can they not defeat the competition that is the industry and the numerous amounts of bands and artists. On top of this the image of sum41 is further pushed as being a more colorful pop-punk band. This is achieved (as mentioned before) by the clothes that are worn and the location of the video which is a sun fuelled day in an American pool.
Still staying true to the punk homage by skulls being hung from the drum kit and certain hairstyles still being used.
The audience it is aimed at would be fans of the pop-punk genre. The age range would be from early teens to late 20’s.