Lyrical Analysis of Classified - All About U

The song I finally chose for my project was All About U by Classified and Chad Hatcher. Stuck for ideas, I attempted to research into videos of the same type - acoustic/rap, but to no avail. To help me in the construction of my Movie, and to get some planning done sooner than later, I decided to analyse the lyrics of the song in an attempt to put images to the words of the song.


A theme throughout the song is that the lyrics by Chad Hatcher are more profound speaking of not getting yourself down, and trying to cheer up, whereas the lyrics by Luke Boyd (Classified) are more about getting through a bad time, and how he himself felt this way - it's rapped as more of a sympathetic view in contrast to Chad's advice based lyrics. An interesting point is that they both wrote their lyrics respectively and this shows in their separate ways of putting across the theme of getting through a bad time in life, or getting through life happily.


Chad Hatcher: Life’s not what you take, it’s not about the promises you make. It’s not about the friends you might of made or love that is gone. Life is what you give, it’s not about the stupid things you did. Its not about the way things could have been, it’s about moving on. It’s all about you. So every morning when you wake before the first step that you take, Just think it’s all what you make it, and you’ll make it through.

Verse Analysis - This is the basic introduction, it talks about not dwelling on things you've done, or promised to do, its cool because it talks about life not being what you take, but instead being what you give, basing its words heavily off of contrast. It's also a good point and sticks in your head because of the way its put across through rhyme as well as good lyrics, which makes it a powerful selection of words. This flows onto the chorus - It's all about you. It could be like an old movie style montage with images to portray the meaning behind the song, or perhaps something more literal to compare to the lyrics, such as "Every morning when you wake" being composed of a person waking up, and then "before the first step that you take" be composed of putting feet on the floor, not making a step away from the bed. It's like affirmation of something before you go into it - to build confidence, and this shows the warm hearted approach given by Chad's part of the song.


Classified: This life will leave you stressed out, left out, with your neck out, ain’t nothing changed. Real life, so we deal right, but it feels like its something strange. We wondering, the dumbest things, and let every thing get under our skin. Trouble again, trying to impress somebody else is fucked in the head. So do you. You’ll never make every one happy, it just won’t happen. But the end of the day when all say is said, you better be ready to go back at ‘em. I learn slow, my verse show’s my growth my wisdom. If your positive or you negative, It don’t make a difference not when you living. ‘Cause some of the most successful people on this planet, will kill them selves or somebody else. Life they really couldn't manage. Then we got bums, alcoholics on the streets. With no stress, no where to rest, no where to dress, no where to sleep. And they say: fuck my morals, I'm drinking away my sorrow, I’m living life and I’m happy, I ain’t thinking about tomorrow.


Verse Analysis: This verse begins with a rather bleak and pessimistic outlook on life - "life will leave you stressed out, left out, with your neck out". This is a major proponent of the idea that life is hard, and often not worth it, because if you actually try at life, you'll be left out, and stressed. The saying "with your neck out" refers to taking a risk for something, with the neck referring to the gamble - your neck being a weak and vital spot, thus illustrating the seriousness. The verse continues its sad trail of words by saying that trying to impress someone is pointless and "you'll never make everyone happy, it just wont happen". Which infers that Luke Boyd once tried this himself and failed, as this verse contains a lot of implication that it is based on personal experience. This is exemplified in the phrase "My verse shows my growth, my wisdom", which directly implies that all of this is about his personal experiences. The line "you'd better be ready to go back at 'em" is one of the first cheerful parts of the verse, perhaps keeping more realistic than optimistic, and trying to make the song come across as more serious and influential than just a rant about how bad his life was. He cuts of the verse with a talk about drinking away your sorrows, and how many people just settle for this sort of ending. At this point it is unclear whether he himself had tried to drink away his sorrows, but due to the personal nature of the verse, its highly likely.



Chad Hatcher: It’s all about you. So every morning when you wake before the first step that you take, just think it’s all what you make it, and you’ll make it through. It’s all about you. So every morning when you wake before the first step that you take, just think it’s all what you make it, and you’ll make it through. Life is what it brings, it’s not about cars and fancy things. (Cars and fancy things) Or hair salons and diamond rings girls. Don’t you lose no sleep. Life is all about, the things you’ll never figure out. It’s all about the people you love, and memories you keep.

Verse Analysis: This is technically the first non-chorus part of the song which Chad has involvement with. After the chorus, he drops into a rhyme based verse, with many words using "ings" in them. "ing" is the suffix to a verb, a doing word, this pushes home the idea that life is what you make it, and if you don't do anything, your life will go nowhere. This part of the song appeals to both genders, stating its not about "Cars or fancy things" whilst simultaneously talking of it not being about "Hair salons and diamond rings" for the girls. This also pushes home that whilst life may not be about "friends you might have made" or even "love that is gone", you should still keep your memories, and love people in the present and future. This is almost a complete contrast, based upon life not being about friends and love you've had, but still attempting to find love and love people now, and remembering everything you've done anyway. The way it could be interpreted is that all of the things you've done, though you shouldn't dwell on them, should help you learn from mistakes and keep living your life.


Classified: This here is life, so tell me who chooses what’s wrong and right? Is it what we see on TV, get a job raise a family? That’s how I was raised, how I was brought up, get a wife a son and a daughter. That’s how I was taught to be proper, never thought anyone can get caught up. But slowly I grew up, and the fairy tail quickly vanished. Realized that life’s a bitch, and shit you gotta be able to stand it. And you gotta be able to handle it, the stress and the pressure you channel it. And you learn to cope at the end of your rope, anyway that you can with liquor or dope. Or work hard raise your kids, strip clubs what ever it is. Smoke weed, shoot hoops. What ever you find your happiness through. It’s your life. Just make sure you know what you want when you go to get it. Keep doing this shit for you. Not your crew, or the dude you tryin' to impress kid. Life is simple, life is hard, and yeah life is fun. So enjoy the things around you. Before your life is done.

Verse Analysis: Another advice based verse from life experience of Luke Boyd. He raises many questions about life, such as what is right and wrong, and whether the idealism of a job and a big family are actually a life well spent. He also states that he found out that life isn't as perfect as was made out earlier, using the phrase "realized that life's a bitch". He pushes the thought that you should find a way to cope with it, no matter how illicit or illegal it is, based on the "Strip clubs, whatever it is. Smoke weed, shoot hoops". The verse ends with quick, short, snappy lines. These are very profound and are like facts of life, such as "life is simple", "live is hard" and "life is fun". Amusingly, he even adds rhyme to the end of it saying "So enjoy the things around you, before your life is done". This is staying true to the rap style which bases heavily upon quick phrases in succession which rhyme or have some form of similarity.

Chad Hatcher It’s all about you. So every morning when you wake before the first step that you take, just think it’s all what you make it, and you’ll make it through. It’s all about you. So every morning when you wake before the first step that you take, just think it’s all what you make it, and you’ll make it through.

Ending Verse Analysis: This finishes up the song nicely, in many rap based songs, they end on the chorus verse, with the rapper continuing to talk (instead of rap) for a few seconds, usually to give credit, or a heartfelt statement. This is not the case, due to the perhaps 'clashing' genres of the Rapper and the Acoustic Guitarist, with instead, a guitar outro almost identical to the main riff being played.

Poster - Final Version

Feedback from my first actual draft of my poster was clear - they thought that it was a good attempt at emulating the success of my mockup, but the quality of the pictures were not as good. As well as this, I was told that it should be slightly darker to match the shady styling of the artists, it was obvious I had brightened the guitar holder, as the picture was slightly grey as a side effect, and was also seemingly too bright for the situation he was meant to be in.

One piece of feedback I found particularly useful was -
"The way the person on the right was cut out was rushed"

Using this feedback I took the original photograph and using photoshop, properly edited and cropped it in a way that was non intrusive to the form of the person and his guitar. In doing this, I made a higher quality picture than the other one where I had to blur out my cutting errors and had only been able to use a large erasing tool which deleted parts of the guitar. Clicking the picture allows you to see in better detail exactly how much of an improvement is there.

This is what I came up with after the feedback, and because I have corrected all the problems which were found in my first draft, I have decided that this is my final draft of my product before christmas. Though I may complete some research over christmas, this is as far as my production goes till after the holiday period.

Poster - First Draft

This is the self made version of my poster. I replaced the actual artists behind the song I chose with me and my friend Slaine, and hid our faces accordingly. Using the advice given to me by the various people whom I handed a questionnaire to. Many mentioned the need for more smaller characters, or to increase the size of the existing characters in the foreground. Though nobody complained about the background, and the image was royalty free so I didnt have to replace it.

Poster Improvements

After making a questionnaire and handing it out, I got some surprising results from it. Nobody directly hated the poster, but I got a lot of feedback on small flaws, such as the sizing of the characters involved in the foreground. I will use these improvements and then create a final version with my own characters in, once I have consulted with the people who filled in the questionnaires.

Here are some of the actual comments, with names ommited for privacy reasons:

"I like it, but theres alot of spare space, can't you make the guys bigger?"

"It's a cool poster, I can see how its rap mixed with acoustic, but why is there like, a quarter of the page with nothing but sky on?"

"The poster isn't so bad, its just that the writing or something should be bigger to fill the page more, you might as well have just shrunk the size of the poster."

"Not bad, but you should make the guys and the font bigger, because they don't look important enough - you should probably do that with the record company logo too."

"The font should be bigger, and don't mix the F from Classified with the H from Chad, it looks stupid and childish, and doesnt really fit the genre too well."

"You should use more than just black for your font on the final version, because it's a bit too simple, you need to use a range of colours, probably some shine effects too so it looks 'bling' and suits the rap style."

Poster Mock Up

Here is a Mock-Up for my poster, I believe it is very conventional whilst still retaining some sense of uniqueness. Obviously it won't look like this in the end due to the fact I can't use the licensed images of Classified and Chad Hatcher, however, I can do something to the effect by using pictures which I take myself, then crop these and make them look more professional and like Classified, due to the fact he usually wears his hood up. For Chad, he is a guitarist, so someone with a hood up and with a guitar in their hands will suffice. The overall image is what counts, not tiny flaws in the image, as people shouldnt have to hold a magnifying glass to the poster and look for flaws, they should appreciate the poster as a whole.

Poster Plans

Based on various ideas which I have gotten from looking at existing posters, and trouble with filming, I have decided to start work on a poster for my project. It will have the title "All About U" in smaller print than "Classified" and "Chad Hatcher", with Classified being larger as Luke Boyd is the main artist in the song, with Chad Hatcher featuring alongside him. As the song is entitled All About U, I feel that the best thing to go along with it would be a city or a town, with people walking around, being busy, perhaps with a blur to add more emphasis to the 2 people (resembling the artists) at the forefront of the poster. I aim to have a mockup ready by tomorrow at the latest, as I have tonight free and am busy tomorrow, therefore leaving myself with little time to work on it otherwise, due to my plans to film over the weekend, and also do some more planning for my CD Cover during the later week.

Film/Story Plans

I aim to borrow a camera from school tomorrow, and then grab my friend Sam and make him sort out some definitive plans for when we are going to film the video. As well as this, I am going to borrow my friends guitar after school tomorrow in advance if he'll let me, because I don't want to have to come to access it and then find out that I can't get to it because hes not available.

The bad experiences of yesterday are testament to the fact I need to be better prepared during this project. My research is still going on to this day, and I believe that it will help me to better understand the video I am aiming to make.

Instead of filming, I have decided to put work into my poster before my Film, as this is easier and takes less preparation time, making it an ideal choice while I think about and work on ideas for my film

Problems With Filming.

Many Problems have arisen with the filming of my Music Video today. Almost all of the cameras at school were being used, and the one that was available was broken, leaving me with no camera with which to begin filming footage. Upon reviewing the situation, I felt that I could merely use my phone (a Blackberry Curve) as a camera, but the quality degredation when filming, in comparisson to that of the still pictures taken by the camera, meant that pixellation happened at standard definition resolutions (640x480).

EDIT: It doesn't matter anyway, Sam had a family matter to sort out, so I wouldn't have been able to used him anyway, forcing me to replace him. I can only hope that he is available the next time i require an actor to help me with my filming.

Another edit: As if it couldnt have gotten worse, my friend Slaine was at work today, and therefore I couldn't borrow his guitar for filming, I believe the next time I aim to film, I should do much more Forward Planning, lest my filming falls apart again, and leaves me massively behind schedule.

Planning - Filming Times.

I want to film my Music Video (or at least part of it) on the weekend, and so have planned out tomorrow as follows, in the vague hope that I can tailor to it and in the process, get the feeling of organisation in on my project -

08:00 : Camera setup in Chell next to the roundabout, this is a relatively good time as kids wont be around much yet, but the hustle and bustle will be starting to increase, with older people getting ready for work and going past in cars. This will be a good time to film the rap part of my song, where I plan to walk down a road lip Syncing to the song, then chopping pieces of it out and mixing in shots of day to day life. This is because I don't want younger people in my video because I feel that it will undermime the seriousness of dealing with Life - children haven't had enough life experience to go through a midlife crisis or a conflict of moral interests on where their lives are going.

12:00 - Filming in my house will be done at this point in time. I plan to film a quarter to a half of the actual final footage in here, as it can account for good interval shots between rapping and performance of the actors whom will be portraying the parts of the actual singers. I think that I am being optimistic with my timings due to the fact that it won't take 4 hours to film the rap scene and then come home, but I feel that setting times which are too strict will undermime the quality of the actual footage, so I'm playing it safe.

16:00 -17:00, as it gets darker towards 5 o clock in winter, I believe that this would be a good time to do a scene which would portray the end of the day, yet be free of the hassle which you would get from thugs and yobs around my area if you were to actually film this during the evening.

If all goes well, The rest of the evening will be spent reviewing footage, and Sunday may be used slightly for retakes.

Storyboard - Prequel & Actors decided.

I have completed a storyboard-style intro, which sums up the first few seconds before the song starts, and then the beginning 10 seconds of the song. As the song begins with a bit of random guitaring from Chad, I believe that I can stick 2 actors in a room and one playing guitar randomly, as the storyboard suggests, as a rapper walks in and does abit of casual chatting, before they set up for the song, and the Guitarist begins singing and paying the introduction of the song (which comes in at about 10 seconds after the song starts), I think that what I have decided so far can bring my video total to 20 seconds, but that isn't the whole 4 minutes of the song, which means alot more thought will be required.

I believe this gives a relatively good idea of the first part of the song, and is the best I can do to solidly describe the first part, becaus as It get's into the rap part after Chad's singing, I beieve major problems with storyboarding arise, and so the best description would be to post the lyrics of the song and state that the words will be loosely followed in a documentary style of a persons day to day life.

As for the actors, I have decided that Sam Nellist is to be playing Chad Hatcher, and I will be playing the part of Luke Boyd (Classified). This choice is made due to my friends imposing appearance, which is the complete opposite to how he is, and so I think it will push the lyrics further when trying to say that everything isnt how it seems, and life is all about you, not about what others think about you. I chose myself to be Classified as I know the lyrics best, and so Lip Syncing won't be an issue, and I make a good contrast to Sam, as Chad and Luke contrast in the actual video.

Storyboard - Ideas

I believe that my choice of song was well made, due to the relative simplicity of the song, however, the large amount of changing themes make storyboarding it very hard. I wanted a video that stuck to the themes of the story - living your life as you want it, and doing everything you feel is ea from day to day - but I wanted to portray this by a person doing things which stuck relatively closely to the lyrics. The problem with this is, it's going to be difficult to portray without alot of sheets of paper, or a complex animatic. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I do not have enough time to do either of these, and will have to settle for something overly simple, which will not give the best idea of what I am aiming for, and probably make my planning look poor, regardless of how much thought I have put into it.

I think I'll need to put some time into making a storyboard regardless, and have started drawing up an intro to the song involving actors doing various things in preperation for the song, as a setup, i.e a person tuning his guitar as the rapper walks in and says Hi, etc. I want to get a good effect for the video, using a wide variety of shots, but I fear that without alot of thought into it, I'll just be emulating the lyrics via acting.

Copyright Permission.

In using my chosen song, I must check for copyright issues and see whether I am allowed to use the intellectual property of the artist "Classified" or Luke Boyd. I sent a message to the email given on the Half Life Records website, and a copy of the message is shown below:


My name is Andrew Ward-Salt, and I'm doing an A2 Level Media Studies Course at Biddulph High School. The reason for my email is that an integral part of my coursework (to get my qualification) is copyright protection. I am using the song "All About U" in order to create 3 separate products - an album spread, a poster and a music video. As stated under creative commons licensing, no money will be made, and it's for educational purposes (as previously stated), which would also protect my material from being copied as a way around the copyright which you hold to your own intellectual property. Giving me permission to use this song would be brilliant and help me greatly, as well as saving me time searching for another artist and getting permission from them instead.

If you have any problems or questions, email me back and I'd be happy to relieve you of any concerns, my personal e-mail address is Drewbo@hotmail.co.uk. I need you to get back to me as soon as possible so that It's possible for me to fulfil the deadlines I have been sent, but as I said before, feel free to contact me at any time and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks in Advance,

Andrew Ward-Salt

__________________________

Just in case this email isn't replied to soon, I will take lack of response as permission, as I aim to start work on my products next month.

Final Song Choice

My final choice of song for my Music Video Project (from the Shortlist I created earlier) is "Classified - All About U ft Chad Hatcher". I chose this before the others because it is my favourite song at the moment, as well as the fact it has 1 instrument, 1 vocalist, and a theme that could simply be portrayed very effectively by filming my day to day life.

This song is still going to be a challenge however, due to my lack of money, a guitar, or at this point anybody to star in the film, the Storyboard is also up in the air so to speak, and I do not think that It will be done anytime soon in great detail. I have some ideas, but I shall give more on those later on when I have had some time to think about the setup of my Video.

Song Shortlist

Over the past few weeks, I have watched many music videos and listened to a large amount of music. From this musical analysis, I have created a shortlist of 4 songs. These 4 songs are both my favourites AND the ones which I feel will have a good shot at when creating a musical video.

1. Enter Shikari - No Sleep Tonight.

This song is a relatively recent song by Enter Shikari. It already has a video, which is based around a narrative of the song's lyrics as Rou (the lead vocalist) shadows a businessman. The and invited people to star in the video over Myspace, and on the morning a portion of people showed up, and from there they participated in the song my dancing and singing. I believe that this song would be fun to make a video for in my own Narrative style. I find it to be a soothing song whilst being a meaningful song at the same time. Not many people hear this, but I believe it could be made into a video which has strong political meaning.

2. Classified - All About U. (Feat. Chad Hatcher)

This is a more mellow song by the Rapper Luke boyd, whom goes under the name Classified. It's a predominantly Rap based group that tends to step into different Genres to get a different feel for the songs and variety. This particular song features the Guitarist Chad Hatcher on acoustic guitar playing on the background and singing the more chilled parts of the songs, whilst Luke raps along certain verses of the song. This has a good contrast method of different vocals, with the Rapping having just as much depth as the singing of Chad as he plays the guitar. I like this song because it has a deep meaning, and its a great feel good song. As well as this, it would be simple to do a total band video with Lip Syncinc, due to the use of a single guitarist and a single vocalist, making a 2 man band with an introspective view of a landscape a very easy yet effective possibility for a video. I believe this to be my best chance, and my favourite for the final choice.

3. The Benefits - Last Night (Acoustic).

This song is by a relatively unknown band from Denmark, whom made a hit song called "Physical" which propelled them to relatively well known status in their home country. Some of their songs are of a distinctly indie style, though the song "Last Night" is about a one night stand with a girl, and has soulful overtones, even past its guiaring and relatively 'indie theme' of being about a girl. This is a very meaningful song, and I would like to do a video of it simply for the fact it is a less well known band, and its a good song to chill out to. My other songs are for enjoyability, but I feel that this song would be one of my best choices because it's simple formation and lack of complex wording, instruments and even theme means it could be low budget and still give off a good professional effect.

4. Ghinzu - The Dragster Wave (Taken Cut)

This is a song by the pop/rock band from Belgium called Ghinzu. The song contains a combination of a classic guitar/bass rock composition, and a piano playing vocalist. These heavily contrasting themes make an interesting song, which currently lacks a Music Video. This means I have no ideas or inspirations for the video. However, the ranging tones and tempos from the song could make for a great story driven video which peaks and climaxes as the song comes to crescendo. The song begins with piano playing which builds up to include the use of guitar and vocals which makes the song more varied and interesting. This song is from the credits of the movie "Taken", and begins just before the credits begin, making it a song which gives a sense of finality. I like this song and would like to make a video which contained someone playing the Piano, however if I fail to recruit a Pianist, then my plans for this song may be ruined, making the other songs more viable due to the ready availability of the required band members.

Music Video - My Last Serenade

This is the video to My Last Serenade by Killswitch Engage. I like it for various reasons. This video was the last video made before the lead vocalist was replaced by Howard Jones. I also like it because of its contents. Not only is it the last glimpse of Jesse Leach before he left the band, but as a songwriter and the main source of inspiration for the band this meant the video came out the way it did.

The video is based around a woman wearing a white dress, though she first appears as just a black figure, in a pure white room (so its space is inconceivable without being there), which is littered with red furniture. The video mainly switches between the band playing in a totally black room with red columns, and the woman looking in. The idea behind this is that the pure white room has a small spinning box of some sort, which, when the girl looks inside, sees the band playing.

This gives an idea of playing to an audience, and ties in with the idea of where men used to serenade to women on a balcony above, looking down on them. The difference here is that the size difference is made as a metaphor alluding to the importance of the other person, and that they are playing to her. The room they are in is very much like a music box serenading the girl, which ties in with the song name. Instead of trying to go for a video which more literally follows the lyrics, it goes for the typical metal video, with lipsynced performance with some relevance to the song title.

I believe that if I were to apply these principals, my video would not be very conventional, due to the fact I do not plan on choosing a song from the Metal Genre for my final project, this being due to various reasons, ranging from the instruments going into it, to funding to make it look good.

Cover Art Analysis - Enter Shikari

Enter Shikari Analysis

View more presentations from Andrew Ward-Salt.

This presentation talks about the various album and single covers which compose the Enter Shikari CD lineup. I like Enter Shikari, and my shortlist (of 5 songs) will be composed of one or more Enter Shikari songs.

Music Video/Single Cover - The Prodigy

As I have already analyzed a music video based heavily upon story, and one focused on live performance, I wanted to focus on on something different, in this case a very fluid stop motion video.

This is the video to 'The Warriors Dance', It features a mix of puppetry and stop-frame animation, featuring three cigarette packets which are modeled around various logos of the band and its record label (TakeMeToTheHospital/BurningVinyl) which represent the three main members of the band (Liam, Keith and Maxim). The story begins with them coming to life, sneaking into a pub, then starting a miniature rave with other cigarette packages. As the song hits an interlude, one of the cigarette packets pours a flammable liquid in a line, and another cigarette packet lights the line of liquid eventually causing a fire on top of a table. As the line lights up, the fire spreads to the whole of the bar. The three cigarette packets then exit the house, leaving the rest of the dancing cigarette packages to continue burning. A man enters the pub to 'open up' the next morning, puzzled to find all the burnt cardboard remains.

I think this video is very innovative as it shows what can be done using different methods, and there are very few mainstream videos which are composed of stop frame animation. I would like to try this for my final product, however it is probably going to be too time consuming to attempt.


This is the cover for the single of Warriors Dance. It is very imposing and has a dark theme. This ties in very much with the video, which also has a dark and malevolant theme. It shows two makeshift warriors running to battle against eachother. It is an interesting picture as it is composed primarily of 3 colours - Red Black and White, this being a very good example of minimalistic design which ties in with the CD to become an interesting digipak.

Music Video/Album Cover/Promo Poster/Lyrics Analysis - Enter Shikari

For this piece of research into Music Videos I chose a more band orientated video, whilst also moving towards a Genre which I would like to explore for my final music video.

The video is by Enter Shikari, a "Transcore" band from the UK. Their style is unique, and for the first album, the songs were widely given a video of the band in slow motion shots, cloaked in darkness, with lasers and effects supplimenting the show and making it nicer to look at. The exception of this is the video to Sorry 'You're Not A Winner', shown below, which is based more upon an actual performance in a small room.

The video begins with a short introduction showing the band in a very small room, with a bunch of fans preparing for the song. As the song builds up, the fans begin to limber up, preparing to move to the song. This (if you dont know the song well) shows that it is a faster song which is more suitable to dance or move to than to just sit around and listen to. As the video progresses, the lights begin to turn on and off slowly and this shows the glowsticks and various glow-items activity, with rays of green and red. One of the reasons the song took on a more live video perspective is that the songs from Enter Shikari's earlier album (Take to the Skies) have less of a proper story, opting for a loosely defined tale.

I like this video as it is a good show of what a live video (without being on a stage from a concert) can be made into. I like the idea of this as well, they put an advertisement up on their myspace and got some friends over to feature in the video, thus simplifying the process and making it very cost effective. This kind of video is easily possible for my project, and so I will draw upon it for inspiration

Here is the lyrics to Sorry Your Not a Winner, along with some analysis of what I think they mean. The analysis is below each line, denoted by a hyphen when the analysis begins and ends.

Scratch card glory, waist low pleasure?
- I believe this line speaks of a life of pleasure and wastefulness, devoting money and time to hopeless causes and wasting your life. I also believe it could refer to himself being proud of himself for something meaningless -

Black eyes nose bleeds, don't look back now
- This infers that the life previously described will push you towards a dangerous path, one in which you can be beaten up and hurt dramatically -

My white abode, do you remember?
My white abode,
- The lines "my white abode" and "do you remember" infer that the singer/songwriter once devoted himself to this kind of life, however, White Abode is a racist saying in the K.K.K meaning a home without any other colours or creeds. This may infer that the life he took was not only empty and impractical, but lonely, cold and also hateful.

But it's such a thrill just to find out...
- The life that is described is a thrill to explore nonetheless. -

[Chorus]
Sorry you're not a winner
With the air so cold and a mind so bitter
- This line infers that in participating in this kind of life and racist activities, you only lose out, and never win, becoming a bitter and cold person. -
What have you got to lose
But false intentions and a life so pretentious?
- This could speak of two things, giving up the life of a loser and changing your ways, or going even deeper, saying that you cant lose anything more once youve lost everything -

Scratch card glory, waist low pleasure?
Black eyes nose bleeds, don't look back now
My white abode do you remember?
My white abode
But it's such a thrill just to find out...
- Reinforcing the chorus with the image that the life described is not all its cracked up to be. -

[Chorus]

Scratch card glory, waist low pleasure?
Black eyes nose bleeds don't look back now
My white abode do you remember?
I sweat I ache...
- The life he chose is very tiresome and is leading him on a downward spiral. -

[Chorus]

What? What? What?
Rawwwr
Insert your coin
Please try again
Insert your coin
Please try again...
- I believe these lines speak of being able to try again, without making the same mistakes, though it unfortunately could mean that you can do it all over again if you want. -


This is the album cover for Take to the Skies by Enter Shikari. It is very abstract, featuring trademark art from Enter Shikari, which contains greens greys and reds blending together. The album cover is very unique, tieing in with the unique style and sound of the band. The album cover features a picture of various strange cartoon characters holding up a shield with a picture of the earth on it, the earth has an unhappy expression. This is very meaningful, and has a somewhat protestful view of the environmental damage to the world, as some songs from the album features lines such as "a screaming from the earth, and I can't help but..." and "So this is a quest to save the world".


This is a promo poster for the album Take to the Skies. It is very similar to the album in the fact that it has the same picture and theme centrally. The main difference is the addition of the words "Enter Shikari - Take to the Skies" at the bottom of the page, grouping the details into an additional section for reference. IT also includes a label saying "Parental Guidance" on it, due to the fact the album does contain strong language in parts.

Music Video/Album Cover - Michael Jackson

This is the video to Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. The video is heavily based around horror and the thriller genre.

The Video begins without music at all, it is centred at a remote place in which Michael Jackson is the central character. He then procedes to turn into a werewolf and chase his girlfriend down. This is very stereotypical of a Horror/Thriller movie, with supernatural creatures chasing down unsuspecting prey. The scene quickly advances to a point where the Werewolf has caught the girl, and is about to maul/shred/ravage her, thus being the most suspenseful (and by proxy, 'thrilling') part. At this point, the scene zooms out and shows Michael Jackson in a movie theater with the same girl, but her being incredibly scared whilst he is enjoying the movie. From this point, the story changes to him taking his girlfriend out, and walking with her as he sings the story. This serves to lighten her tension from the previous scare. From then on, they are attacked by Zombies, and as they are encroached by the horde, the girl turns around to see Michael has become a really freaky looking Zombie. After this, the Zombies procede to Dance, with Michael Jackson changing between a Zombie and a regular human. The girl eventually runs up to a scary looking house (perhaps a referance to a haunted house) whilst the Zombies chase her there. Once she gets inside, they procede to batter down the doors and break in through the floor and doors. They have stopped dancing to chase her, and therefore this brings a strong element of seriousness to the song, whilst still being partially humorous. As the song comes to a climax, so does the story, with the Zombies breaking into the room and finally closing in on her completely, with nowhere for her to run, increasing the tension along with the climactic nature of the song.
A short blink happens, and the Zombie Michael is seen to be human, and the house to be a normal house, not broken down or creepy looking at all, when the music comes to a halt. She takes his hand and they stand up, and as they walk away, his head turns to face the camera, at this point, his eyes turning yellow and having a ghoulish appearance, making the irony of the situation that the whole thing was just alluding to his actual paranormal problem. The video comes to a close with the music playing and the closing of the movie on Michael Jacksons face, whislt credits show.

The reason I chose to analyze this video is not due to its genre, but is instead because I find the video interesting in the fact that it is unconventional. It has an introduction without music before the music video part starts. Along with this, it has credits, as well as a particular story, following the lead singer. The story is also sang by the character as he moves along, making it appear to be a narrative.This is a more rare form of expression in videos, with many Artists choosing to opt for scenes of a band playing, and whilst the singing is happening, a storyline which does not follow the lead singer lip syncing is in progress.

Overall, I believe this video to be highly inspirational, and in many ways a short film or musical rather than an absolute music video. Nonetheless, I find it interesting and entertaining, and would like a story driven video to compliment my choice of music later on in the project.


This is the album cover to Thriler by Michael Jackson. It shows him lieing on his side, in a white suit. This drastically contrasts the video which is all about evil, the occult, and darkness. The album cover is more representative of peace, goodness, and tranquility, showing more of a laid back image, with Michael Jackson (in white/light clothes) as a beacon in the darkness which surrounds him (a heavy contrast from the video where he is the Antagonist.

Schedule

Schedule

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This is a schedule which I hope to adhere to during the course of my Media Studies A2 Coursework.

Welcome To My Blog

Hello, my name is Andrew Ward-Salt, and I am studying Media Studies at A2 level at Biddulph High School sixth form. I have made this blog to fulfill one simple purpose - to hold all of the work which will go into m Advanced Portfolio.

During this course I intend to create a Music Promotion, composing of an Music Video, Album Mock up and a video. At the moment I am undecided when it comes to the music I will be using, or even the genre, and I will be working on ideas in the coming weeks.