JI: Brighton Recce

On 27th September we went down to Brighton with our media studies group for a recce, giving us an opportunity to explore with different equipment and our cameras in an exciting, photogenic location, with an urban feel. On arrival we were giving a number of different shot requirements we had to achieve throughout the day while experimenting different techniques of filming.

Here are a list of the shots we had to include:
MLS panning establishing shot for narrative/performance
Use of high/low angle for performance
Footage for sped up shot of character in crowd
POV handicam shot
360 pan
Tracking shot with character / performer in first person mode of address
A variety of CUs suitable for instruments
2 shots of your own design

These requirements allowed us to gain fresh ideas while filming, giving us possibly different shot ideas to which we had planned out. All these shots are common critical shots within music videos which are used to give the video interesting movement and repeatability for the audience.

To give us an authentic feel to the shots we were going to do we decided to wear costume which we would generally use within our music video. Here is a shot of me and Luca in our costume:



Here is a shot of One Direction in there latest video, 'That What Makes You Beautiful':



Through our initial research into boy bands we have taken some inspiration from One Direction who are possibly the most exciting new boy band in the music industry at the moment, and used similar costume from them to create an authentic boy band look.

Through this recce I feel it helped us getting a real feel for how difficult filming a music video was going to be, especially in a busy location. External factors while filming can prove to be a very influential factor while filming, and effect how the footage turns out. We found ourselves having to wait between shots for the general public to pass by which ultimately ended up being quite time consuming, so this is a factor we have to think about when choosing our location to filming.

I feel for our song 'Close to you - JLS' Brighton could be an appropriate location as it has a very iconic and memorable setting which would work well within our music video. Also with the presence of the beach it could help us bring out that fun, exciting feel to our boy band which is predominately shown amongst boy bands.



Here is a mid-production shot of us filming on Brighton pier:



Here you can see us experimenting with different type of shots, with this one being shot from a low angle to try and add different angles and movement into our filming to create a more exciting watch video. We gained inspiration of this from JLS' video 'Everybody in Love'. Here is a shot from that video of Aston performing:



Other troubles we had was permission while shooting footage. We had to get some indoor shots on our recce, however when we asked a few shops, we found that they took high precaution with people filming within their stores, so this meant we weren't able to get some good shots inside. We were able to shoot for a few minutes within the Churchill Square shopping centre in Brighton, however after a while we were told by security we had to leave. Luckily we had just enough shot footage to be able to achieve the footage of the character sped up in a crowded place. Here's a print screen of this footage:



Overall the recce was a really good experience for our group and gave us some good ideas which we can eventually use within our music video and a possibly an idea of a second location.

LF: Technical Deconstruction - Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness

1.      ECU of record player.

2.      CU- meet shot of kid cudi

3.      CU of extras hand with alcohol, early signifier

4.      LS of kid cudi drinking out of bottles, extras socialising around.

5.      Same shot however extras go into slow motion (brilliant effect)

6.      CU of another extra in focus, 2 extras out of focus.

7.      Cut back to LS of Kid Cudi sitting in chair again with champagne bottle.

8.      CU meat shot, with hand movements.

9.      MS out of focus fading into focus of two extras.

10.  CU Kid Cudi

11.  LS of Kid Cudi in chair

12.  CU kid cudi, slight dance moves.

13.  MS of torso of two extras holding champagne.

14.  LS Kid Cudi

15.  CU of Kid Cudi

16.  LS of Kid Cudi with props being thrown across room

17.  MLS of woman opening champagne bottle slow motion.

18.  LS of extras with glitter falling down.

19.  LS slow motion of 5 extras partying.

20.  CU of drake and Kid cudi

21.  LS of party with glitter falling

22.  CU of kid cudi

23.  MLS of hands and glasses, slow motion pouring champagne.

24.  LS kid cudi drinking out of bottle

25.  LS of extras partying

26.  CU of extra (woman) with glass half covering face.

27.  ECU of extra man

28.  Low angle shot of phone flying through air, sped up to LS of extras face.

29.  LS slow mo of extras face

30.  MLS of woman drinking champagne having a god time

31.  LS of DJ holding a kid cudi vinyl cover

32.  CU of kid cudi

33.  Sped up shot of Kid Cudi and drake ranging from CU-MS

34.  White fade leading to LS of Kid Cudi in chair with champagne.

35.  Sweeping shot of crown drinking.

36.  CU of woman smiling

37.  Panning left shot of extra very low-level lighting.

38.  ECU of Kid Cudi

39.  MS of kid Cudi sitting o bar stool

40.  ECU of Kid Cudi

41.  MS of Kid Cudi at the bar with people around him in slow motion

42.  CU of Kid Cudi-Meet shot

43.  Side angle CU of Kid Cudi

44.  Long MS of kid Cudi again with extras appearing in a different time zone.

45.  CU of Kid Cudi

46.  MS of Kid Cudi slight hand movments

47.  Low motion panning up shot of man raising hand with shot glass.

48.  MS of Kid Cudi, referring to lyrics with dance moves (dreams)

49.  CU slow motion of man doing shot

50.  MS of Kid Cudi

51.  CU of Kid Cudi

52.  MS of Kid Cudi

53.  Cuts to close up of man smiling after doing shot- CU

54.  MS of Kid Cudi

55.  ECU of Kid Cudi

56.  MS of Kid Cudi

57.  Slow Motion Low angle shot of champagne glasses colliding.

58.  Low lighting shot of extra with glitter falling down.

59.  MS of Kid Cudi and Drake with dark background.

60.  Slow motion shot of glitter falling.

61.  MS of Kid Cudi and drake

62.  MS of Extras Partying, followed by another extra holding a glass of champagne

63.  MS of Kid Cudi and Drake

64.  Slow motion low angle shot of a woman’s hand and falling glitter.

65.  Wide angle lense shot of Kid Cudi sitting on chair with extras in slow motion.

66.  MS of Kid Cudi/Drake, camera movement is minimal but a nice effect, bright white lights blind the audience for split second.

67.  ECU of kid cudi, with sparkling lights in the background, good use of Mise-en-scene.

68.  Final shots, Kid Cudi feeling the effects of the night before, effects include blurring, and de focusing.

• I chose to technically deconstruct Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness, although it is not a boy band song it is a commercial video which conforms to the conventions of the genre, and you can draw many parallels between the two genres.

• First of all one of the main differentials of this video is the cutting rate as there are a number of long shots throughout the video, nonetheless there are always very unusual effects during these shots which still captures the audiences attention. For instance the long shots of Kid Cudi sitting in the chair at times last for around 4 seconds however there is a lot happening in the shot.

• The extras standing around Kid Cudi are partying in slow motion whereas Kid Cudi is moving at a normal speed, I feel this effect is very unusual and if we can adopt a similar effect through our video we can gain top level marks.

• The use of slow motion is a common theme throughout the video and breaks up the tempo of the shots making it more interesting, furthermore the audience can truly take in the Mise en Scene and the quality of the framing. I feel is it crucial that if we do use slow motion we need to consider our set and the use of lighting extremely carefully.

• Moreover Pursuit of Happiness does push the boundaries of the video in some aspects such as a slightly slower cutting rate and long shots; nonetheless the amount of meet shots during the video is very high. Kid Cudi dominates a lot of the screen time and although he is a solo artist we intend to allocate a lot of screen time to the members of the boy band.

JI: Technical Analysis

For my technical analysis I deconstructed JLS - Everybody in Love.



Here are some screen shots of my technical analysis, broken down shot by shot:





This video is a typical commercial based boy band video. The deconstruction of this video has enabled me to look beneath the surface of a typical boy band video, and gain a real understanding and meaning of the production involved, which we will need to think about incorporating into our video.

While looking at this video it has allowed me to realise the clear fast cutting rate is crucial within a music video to keep the audience entertained and wondering where the video is going to go next. Without this it would lose the repeatability factor which is needed for an interesting video.

The large number of meat shots used also has shown me that these are crucial within a boy band, as a video is a marketing tool for the band, so there needs to be a large number of shots of the band to attract their target audience, which for us will be predominantly be a female audience.



Camera movement is crucial for keeping the video alive and entertaining for the audience, and it used to great effect within this video. Nothing greatly exciting happens within the video however the movement of the camera within the setting makes it enjoyable to watch. Although there are a couple of static shots the way they have integrated the rule of thirds within them and the mise-en-scene doesn't make them too dull for the audience.

Call Sheet , Risk Assessment for Brighton Reece

These pictures are of our risk assessment and Call sheet. (Top , Risk Assessment , below , Call sheet).

Group: Band name idea

With our names being James, Luca and Timo, we have come to the decision that our boy band is going to be called 'JLT'. Here is an idea for our band logo.



We have used the band name within the star to signify our star image being portrayed.

Reflection on Discussion (Idea's for our video) Group

• Our video is going to consist of mostly performence based filming , with the vast majority of our shots being close ups , conforming to the traditional boy band conventions.


• Saying this , we will include some sort of narrative to increase the chance of our video standing up to repeatability.


• We have not decided yet about how much of our film will be shot in black and white , we are almost certain we will include some but are not sure about which specific shots.


• It is likely our narrative will involve some female presence , but girls will not feature heavily in our video in order to avoid over doing popular stereotypes of as many girls as possibly simply put into the video.


• Our video will explore different camera techniques , we are confident with all equipment and are looking forward to using the equipment to create the desired camera movement , shots that we want.


• Boy band 'love songs' ( like ours ) do not normally have strong lighting , and use shadowing and darker tones to reflect the emotion on the persons face.

LF: Product Analysis

Boy band videos would have ambient and focused viewers. Ambient viewers may choose to consume the music videos through popular music channels such as MTV when the can simply play the music in the background. Music is also a good way to create an enjoyable atmosphere in the background of certain social events. Boy band songs tend to be easy to listen to and are often catchy making the popular on social occasions.


However on the other hand focused viewing would be more associated with dedicated fans who would purposely tune in to watch the new release of a video. Web 2.0 makes videos much more accessible for fans, websites such as YouTube allow fans to purposely view bands videos in a focused manner. Thus if fans wish to view new videos through music channels they are more likely to watch them on mainstream sites such as MTV hits.


Boy Bands are a main stream commercial form of music therefore they need to appeal to a large target audience, therefore I believe media synergy would be the best way of promoting their band image. Large media conglomerates would be the best way to branch out to a very large target audience. A perfect example of a new up and coming boy band are One Direction, they came through the extremely popular X factor show building up a solid fan base before they had even released a record. Nonetheless Simon Cowell took them under his wing with his part owned company Syco. Syco’s parenting company is Sony music entertainment therefore they can distribute all of one directions new song in different form of the media. For instance they can include tracks in recent films or adverts.

Theorist Andrew Goodwin states that features throughout a music video are either evident or absent. The features present throughout the video ‘That’s what makes you beautiful’ by One direction confirm the conventions of the genre. First off all there are lots of close ups of the band members one which especially stands out is the long close up of Harry Styles singing very close to the female actress. This reveals aspects of the bands characteristics of being slightly feimine and knowing how to treat females in a gentle romantic manner. This shot also relates to Roland Barthes work of narrative codes. A certain aspect of an enigma code is created after the shot has ended as the audience may wonder what happens next as the couple of seemingly becoming very close.

However aspects of the video challenge some of Goodwins work. For instance there is no clear dance routine throughout the video maybe re enforcing how one direction are trying to push the stereotypical view on boy band culture, and challenge the way in which they are viewed.

I do not believe this specific video is art, purely an effective way to try and sell the bands image and increase the target audience. The video is very commercial and conforms to normal boy band videos such as breaking the fourth wall to try and connect with the audience, there is a slight narrative to the video nonetheless it is centered around the band almost one hundred percent of the time.

The song embedded above ‘everybody in love’ by JLS, the video is a great tool in creating a star image. Steve archer states that ‘performance is vital to emphasize the supposed original qualities of the performance and we need to believe in the romantic art.’ Not only do the members of the band dominate almost all of the screen time but also there performance is extremely well done, this would infer that in fact JLS are trying to construct a new band image.

Stars need to be idolized, distanced from the public in terms of stardom. However they also need to have a core aesthetic, making them within reach to the public and desired by their fans. The narrative fuzz also helps JLS to construct their star image, the lyrics are sung with a soft tone portraying a meaning of love, which coincides directly with the lyrics ‘everybody in love’ which is also the name of the song making it the primary subject matter.

Furthermore I believe that Barthes symbolic code is present throughout the video and the lyrics proving that the mise en scene along with the lyrics have a deeper meaning as the majority of the fans at the front of the stage are female and have permanently got there hands raised. This could connote that the female fans are in fact not deeply in love but in love with the bands persona and there star image.

Throughout the video only one main social group is represented and that would be young black males as they dominate the screen time. The band are represented positively throughout the video with little challenge to current ideologies associated with typical boy band culture. In order to be a mainstream boy band success being desired by your fans is crucial, therefore the theory of hegemonic masculinity is a constant theme throughout the video.
 All of the band members are clearly attractive and are seen being successful with the opposite sex, these ties in with the whole of the standing crowd being female re enforcing how they are clearly desired. Thus the costume that JLS are performing in coheres with modern day fashion and exaggerates there body form as being attractive and desirable. Seen as all the members of the band or portrayed as being a success men in modern day society may be led to believe that they must try and conform with the visual implications that JLS perceive, and that in modern day society beauty is not only crucial amongst females, but males may now go out of there way to try and perfect they way they look to gain social status.

One of Richard dyer’s paradox’s states that stars need to be seemingly ordinary and extraordinary at the same time throughout music videos.

Nonetheless young females also play a small role during the video. I would say that apart from the dancers in the background and the crowd, young white males are relatively absent from the video however I feel as though JLS still conform to the typical boy band image of being good looking and athletic.