Chad Whitehouse
Candidate Number: 4138
MS2 Report
RSA Academy Arrow Vale

Report
My task was to create a storyboard and a CD cover as well as insert. In order to accomplish this I had to research a range of music videos and CD covers that would relate to my genre of music. The genre that I have picked is alternative rock as I am most familiar with this genre of music and could express myself the most for this since I have an abundance of knowledge about this specific genre.
Whilst conducting my research, I looked at several contemporary bands such as: Kings of Leon, Linkin Park, 30 seconds to Mars as well as other older bands such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Nirvana. Bands are very conventional in this genre meaning I too would be creating a fictional band- not many solo artists are seen within this genre, with the exception of Suzanne Vega, Lorde etc. With all this information I have decided to opt for a fictional band as it would be more conventional as well as please the fans of the genre more since they persist on listening to bands compared to individual artists.
During my research I had discovered that the age demographic for my genre of music is 16-25 year olds. Just from this piece of information I can tell that most of the people who listen to this genre of music are in further education or had just started university- I can then tell that the type of music would be party related as this age group is stereotyped for partying during this social part of their lives. I also found a higher correlation between listening to alternative rock and being a male with 7 out of 10 of them being this gender; this was consistent across all of the research that I did (along with other irrelevant information such as people in south London listen to it the most…) For this reason I have chosen to include primarily male band members so that the demographic can bond with them well and relate to their music.
There is a great deal of genre conventions throughout the alternative rock videos. One that I have found predominantly is the convention of black and really simplistic clothing- this has roots all the way back to the 1950’s when rock band members would wear plain colours to stand out against the harsh colours that were in fashion back in the 1950’s. Wide spread tattoos are also found on a majority of their bodies as a portrayal of their creative sides. My inspiration for one of my pictures is from Linkin parks video, ‘What I’ve Done’.
Simplistic/black clothing, along with the same
Simplistic/black clothing, along with the same

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
As you can see from this picture, the use of clothing is a key feature in the bands videos. Another convention that I found was the hierarchical position that I always spotted the band members to be in. Principally, the lead singer is always positioned at the front with the other band members behind him/her in decreasing order of importance. I tried to duplicate this with one of my stills from my music videos, applying the key principles of the convention…
Narrative based videos are also very dominant in this genre with the majority of them portraying a story. The lyrics are almost the narrator telling the story as the video goes on. Concept based videos within this genre weren’t as dominant so I steered clear of this video type. Such videos that have a narrative driven video would be Linkin Park, Castle Of Glass. In this video it follows the story of a fallen hero after a devastating war accident- this music video also was used in the game Medal of Honour which again has links to the war background. An abstract representation video would include irrelevant video cuts with lyrics usually concerning social concerns- for instance, death, war, drugs… These types of lyrics are found throughout as it loosely links to the background of the music which was almost always about drug use. Such examples would include Red Hot Chilli Peppers song, Under the Bridge which has almost constant references to them, as well as the video primarily being about his drug ‘trip’.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Figure 3
Figure 3
Figure 5
Figure 5
A convention that I found in every music video, along with alternative rock would be the constant jump cuts from the band members and then to the narrative of the video. A good example of this convention would be in the Kings of Leon’s song, Use Somebody. In this video, the narrative is constantly interrupted by jump cuts to the band members playing. I have tried to incorporate this within my work with having the narrative constantly interrupted by jump cuts from the band playing their instruments within a dark setting. Another format that I could’ve had my music video based around would be live shots of the bands playing at arenas. This convention can be found in Kings of Leon’s, Use Somebody video. These jump cuts with the bands are replaced with the clips of the live events altering their affect making them more memorable. I incorporated them within my work to the best of my abilities making the jump cuts occur at regular intervals.
Whilst analysing the camera angles used I noticed that a variety of techniques are used in order to fulfil the effects on the viewer- these techniques are used commonly throughout the video. A precise example of this would be the constant low angle shots used in the Linkin Park song, Castle of Glass. These shots are used to show dominance within the video and to assert who the protagonist of the clip is; I included this shot in my storyboard in order to show who the antagonist of the video is, flipping the convention around on itself. Unlike high angle shots which are used to show how feeble a person is, these shots are used in contrast which is a convention that is dominant throughout the genre.
Editing within this genre