Samways

Samways is an English singer- songwriter from Suffolk. She is seventeen and is from a high class background. The artist is also an actress as well as a singer. The song My Revenge was written for a student film. The film was based upon an adopted child. The song My Revenge also has a partner song.

These are the lyrics for My Revenge:

So here's how it goes, One white lily and one red rose,I throw them down on your tombstone.It’s come to my attention,That all of my impulseses are out of control,Congratulations for cutting your own throat.
But it’s a shame, oh it’s a shame,I would have enjoyed hearing your last words.What would you have said, what would you say to me

Drop the gun, drop the knifeTake my lead, run for your life.Wheither you’re living or dying or burning or crying, I will find you.
Keep your heart still in tact,Don’t take my hand or I’ll take it back.Wheither you’re gliding or flying or choking or lying, I will find you.Someday. Someway.

So you thought you could out run me with a shotgun,
I’m pleased to say you was sorely mistaken.
I’ll bury your body with some dignity,
There’s nothing left for you to see.

Did you really think you could escape me?Did you really think you could fly away?I would of given you a helping hand, if you had asked for it.What would I say, what would I say?

Drop the gun, drop the knife
Take my lead, run for your life.
Wheither you’re living or dying or burning or crying, I will find you.
Keep your heart still in tact,
Don’t take my hand or I’ll take it back.
Wheither you’re gliding or flying or choking or lying, I will find you, find you.

Don’t cry too hard, I’m never far away.
When you think I’m gone, I’m never far away.
One step is all it takes.
I’m right behind you babe.

Treatment

Genre: Singer/Songwriter

 •“Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the folk-acoustic tradition. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano; both the compositions and the arrangements are written primarily as solo vehicles, with the material angled toward topical issues—sometimes political, sometimes introspective, sensitive, romantic, and confessional.”

Detailed Summary:

As part of our video we intend to use two different main characters throughout the video. Because the song is about murder it allows us to confuse the audience, as we are trying to give a sense of the unknown; not knowing who the murderer is or what actually happened. We want the video to have quite an uneasy feel as we plan to use intertextuality using ‘The Blair Witch Project’ which allows us to use out of focus shots using a hand held camera. We also plan to use a lot of close up shots on the two characters. We also intend to use a lot of atmospheric shots including a forest, a graveyard and a church. We also intend to use monochrome throughout which creates shadows giving a sense of the unknown. To create a star image we plan to use one purple contact lens which will be part of the digipak and the magazine advert to incorporate that image.


Our main inspiration is The Wolf by Phildel. We choose this as our main inspiration as we like the abstract/performance aspect of the video. It incorporates things we intend to use such as close up shots of the artist. The video also uses monochrome and is set in the forest. She also uses a sense of fear in her videos which is what we wanted to create throughout our piece. She also uses atmospheric shots which will feature throughout our video.  

For our star image we decided to have a simple down to earth image. However we want her to have one purple contact to make her original. This also gives her an unusual creepy image. We are able to create this image as we choose singer/songwriter genre it allows us to be more creative within the whole video instead of following the typical conventions of a pop convention.  We decided we don’t want her to have a sexualised image as it wouldn’t fit with the image of her being simple and down to earth. We decided this is so girls can relate to her as she is like an average girl.

Our target audience is largely a female audience from the younger generations as we feel young adults would be able to relate to the music more than on older generation would.  We also believe that the audience would be more English based, where the artist isn’t well known and isn’t signed so wouldn’t really reach to people outside of Europe.

Our target audience is largely a female audience from the younger generations as we feel young adults would be able to relate to the music more than on older generation would.  We also believe that the audience would be more English based, where the artist isn’t well known and isn’t signed so wouldn’t really reach to people outside of Europe.

Here are some pictures of one of the locations we would like to use. We also intend to atmospheric shots in a graveyard and shots in a church as well.

For the overall experience we intend to try and create an uneasy creepy for the audience. We intend to do this by using unknown dark images using naturalistic and abstract images. Using the intertextuality from ‘The Blair Witch Project’ we will be able to show themes of the unknown and themes of death and murder.



Questionnaire Questions

1.      How old are you?

2.      Are you male or female?

3.      Have you seen the Blair Witch Project and if so did it scare you?

4.      How does the colour purple make you feel?

5.      How do you feel about a star with one purple eye?

6.      What would you expect a female murderer to be wearing?

7.      Would you find it scarier to see someone being murdered or leaving you images with the power of suggestion?

8.      Which location would you find more scary; A forest at night or a graveyard?

9. What could we do to improve our video?

Star Image-Olly Murs

Oliver Stanley "Olly" Murs is an English singer-songwriter, musician and television presenter. Murs rose to fame after finishing as the runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009. He is currently signed to Epic Records in the United Kingdom, Columbia Records in the United States, and Syco Music. In May 2011, it was announced that he would return to The X Factor to co-present spin-off show The Xtra Factor with Caroline Flack. His autobiography, Happy Days, was published on 11 October 2012.

In February 2011 he participated in the BT Charity Trek, with other celebrities, as part of the 2011 Comic Relief Red Nose Day campaign. The celebrities spent five days in the Kaisut desert in north Kenya, covering 100 kilometres (62 mi) in temperatures up to 40°C. On 2 April 2011, he appeared in a celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? And won £10,000 for charity.

On 5 and 6 December 2011, he supported Gary Barlow at Barlow's Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, where they performed together on the Take That hit Shine. In March 2012, he performed at the 'Big Gig' event in Birmingham. On 24 March, In aid of Sport Relief, he performed alongside Rizzle Kicks, Vida and JLS at a special charity concert, held at The O2 Arena in London. On 19 April, a three-part documentary trailing him throughout his UK Arena Tour, entitled Olly: Life on Murs, premiered on ITV2. It drew over half a million viewers. On 22 April, he appeared on a celebrity edition of Deal or No Deal, where he won 50p for his chosen charity, Brainwave, a local charity based in Ollys' hometown that he became a patron of for children with brain conditions such as cerebral palsy or developmental delay. On 27 May, Murs played for England in a charity match for Soccer Aid at Old Trafford. He is also a patron for the Nordoff-Robbins music therapy charity, and more recently he has become a patron for the Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity, who grants wishes to seriously or terminally ill children aged 3–18 in the United Kingdom. In August 2012 he performed at V Festival where he did his own set and also joined Madness for a performance of It Must Be Love and One Step Beyond.

More recently, he has also been involved in some modelling/fashion work. He was the face of European clothing store New Yorker in March 2012 for their men's spring/summer 2012 range. Participating stores in Germany and Luxembourg ran a promotion in this period where customers were able to have their picture taken with a cardboard point-of-sale display of Olly. He has also modelled for the autumn/winter 2012 range of Robbie Williams' clothing label. Right now Olly is touring with Robbie Williams on his UK arena tour. Also on the 6^th July he performed with artists such as Little Mix and Labrinth at Alton Towers.

Olly is known for usually also wearing a hat similar to this one. He is also known for wearing tight trousers. He wears current in fashion clothing; however his clothing does not suggest any sort of price. He is also known for being quite cheeky and down to earth considering he is a celebrity. He is also known for wearing braces which isn’t a modern trend but is becoming more popular thanks to Olly. Like most artists Olly has his own range of merchandise which can be found on his own website. Fans are able to buy clothing such as t-shirts and jumpers. Fans are also able to buy little keep sakes such as a wristband, mug and key ring. Some items of clothing have recent tour dates on the back. However some of the merchandise is made to look like Olly. Take the picture below. Olly is famous for wearing braces. This t-shirt lets you ‘wear braces’ just like Olly. Olly has brought out 3 albums and has had four number one singles. Ollys albums and singles are also available to buy on his website as well as sites like iTunes.

Olly Murs's digipak conforms to his genre for his digipak. His use of multiple colour appeals to his younger audience, although the picture appeals to his older audience who view him as 'handsome'. However his first digipak was more indie looking with the use of balck and red. The use of a repeated image of him but in different poses highlights his star image that of being cheeky and having moves as well as a voice.



 

Textual Anaylsis Of A Music Video 3

I will be analysing ‘lose yourself’ by Eminem. It was released in 2002 as part of the sound track to the film ‘8 mile’ also staring this Hi-Hop artist. He wrote and produced this song. This music video belongs to the Hip-Hop genre; this can be seen through its many characteristics. Firstly the clothing is very urban, the men are all in oversized tracksuit bottoms and t-shirts, they are hooded up, and fit the typical male ‘gangster’ stereotype without the guns and weapons etc. This is seen through their clothing and Stance. Eminem wears nothing but oversized clothing and hats throughout the whole video. Hip-Hop music videos generally have the artist playing toward the camera with many close up shots to establish themselves. Strong back lighting is normally used, this can be seen when Eminem is standing in the road interacting with the camera as though he’s performing to the audience. Its pitch black outside yet the light’s behind him are extremely bright; the ‘8 mile’ sign is what’s most noticeable. The setting is very urban, this is shown by the graffiti and they are in which the video was filmed, most clips were taken from the film ‘8 mile’ which makes it much easier to establish the genre.

There’s an extremely close relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. Usually in videos there’s not such a close relationship but it is as though the visuals are annotating the lyrics. The mise-en-scene is also perfect. The lyrics and visuals continuously amplify one another, making it easier to understand the song as it is very fast and some people may not understand the whole concept however with the help of the visuals this is made possible. It begins in Eminem’s first verse ‘there’s vomit on his sweater already moms spaghetti’ this lyric is mirrored with exactly that image, Eminem vomiting down the toilet although you cannot the actual substance it’s very clear what has happened due to his facial expressions and the setting of a nightclub toilet.

The music video changes pace throughout at the beginning it starts of very slow with the piano piece, it speeds up as the beat drops and Eminem begins to speak but when he begins to rap it speeds up again. The verses itself have the same pace throughout, however they have a different range of cuts during the chorus however the pace changes continuously, an example for this is each chorus throughout the video, not one is at the same pace, it is as though it speeds up through the duration of the song.

To the audience it seems as though he has had a troubled life, the colours grey and black present a very bleak and troubled image which is mirrored in his lyrics, however the light behind him gives hope. The artist almost seems desperate when he’s performing because he’s putting his all into it, it’s clear as a viewer that Eminem as a character is working extremely hard he looks desperate to get his point across not only through his expressions but his body language. The video is similar to Eminems previous video ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ simply because it’s also bleak the colour scheme is the same, it’s also an emotional song which is illustrated just as well was ‘Lose Yourself’ through Eminems emotions. there’s a slight change in Eminem as an artist when it comes to ‘Lose Yourself’ his videos before then were generally quite sarcastic or goofy, ones where he makes fun of people or generally act stupid but in this video the motif is different he shows his desperation, his serious side, his vulnerable side and his strength all in one which he doesn’t usually do. This can either be because of a massive change in his life or the label taking him in a new direction.

Unlike other Hip-Hop video’s there aren’t any half naked women or sexual exaggerated dances happening. To put this convention in this video would define the lyrics and change the whole mood, turning it into a typical sexual video instead of a serious one. Without the sexual references I feel that the viewer pays more attention because they are not used to seeing this coming from this specific genre.

 

Textual Analysis Of A Music Video 2

I looked at Single Ladies by Beyoncé. The video was released on October 12^th 2008. It was directed by Jake Nava. The genre of the music video would be classed as R&B or dance-pop which would be the sub-genre. This video only contains a performance type mode, the whole video shows Beyoncé and her back up dancers dancing for the whole video.

The setting is clearly based in a studio with white drapes. However the studio is spacious for them to be able to have a lot of space to dance in. High key and Low key lighting was used in this music video. Depending on what part of the song was on the key of lighting would change. This is to add emphasis to the change of verse or chorus. Sticking to the theme of black and white, she may relate this to the audience that she’s targeted.

In this video, the camera techniques are very effective. It looks like they had one camera with more than one take and the camera was on a crane. It looks very effective when it looks like the camera does a 360 turn round the girls dancing but actually the studio is only a 180 degrees rule. But this worked because of the way the dance was choreographed to make it look like she is actually turning.. The camera had a lot of movement and the movements were very smooth because it had the advantage of it being on a crane. The camera shots had the choice to have a huge variety of shots but stuck to just being a long shot for the majority of the video but this was very effective and gave the impression to the audience of her having control.

The costume was very flaunting and figure hugging as she is an inspiration to all the curvy women and for this reason is a celebrity that many audiences look up to. She has stuck to the black and white theme by wearing a black leotard. She wore a slightly different type to her backing dancers to make her stand out a little more as she is the artist. Her hair and makeup is very big to emphasise her character, personality and dance steps. This follows her star image as she known for being curvy but at the same time she is known for being glamorous. Even though she is in a leotard she still looks glamorous. Her videos are known for her performance based dances as well. The main relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is the roboglove she wear on her hand. Whenever she sings about ‘Put a ring on it’, she points to her ring finger. The roboglove is also worn to complement Beyoncé’s alto ego, Sasha Fierce. The visuals have been kept very simple to emphasize solely on the performance.

 I think that there is a slight sense that the artist is on sexual display because the is simply a high cut leotard and high heels with her hair and makeup done influenced by a vogue shoot alongside two look-alike dancers. In terms of the dancing, the artist can be seen to be on sexual display as it includes a lot of leg and hip shaking while wearing high heels. However, the main intention is to attract the viewers' attention towards their hands and ring fingers.

Textual Anaylsis Of A Music Video 1

I decided to analyse The Longest Time by The Overtones. The song was originally recorded by Billy Joel in 1984.  In 2011, the Overtones recorded The Longest Time for their album Good Ol’ Fashioned Love. The song genre is a doo wop song and could also be classed as swing. As a musical genre, doo-wop features vocal group harmony with the musical qualities of many vocal parts, nonsense syllables, a simple beat, sometimes little or no instrumentation, and simple music and lyrics. The longest time follows these characteristics, with its simple beat and the use of not many instruments. The Overtones are a vocal harmony group which also follows the characteristics.

This song was written to be a love song. The longest time is a song about trying to keep a girl for the longest time you can. The video illustrates this in different ways. In the beginning of the video we see a girl who is dressed up talking to the boys, which shows the audience that’s who the band are trying to keep for the longest time. Then throughout the video we see all of them getting ready so they can try and impress this girl to take her out. Even though the video is modern, the boys are dressed in old fashioned suits which follows the style of a doo wop song. They almost fight over the present throughout the video to show there is competition between them to get the girl. At the end of the video to show the song has ended, we see that one of the boys has been lucky and has won the girl which shows he “intends to hold you for the longest time” which is a final lyric before the end chorus of the song.

Throughout the video close ups off each band member are used to allow the audience to see their emotions and also allow us to see their personality through their facial expressions as well as their facial features such as eyes and smile. The record company are trying to create the image that the band are gentleman who are almost looking for love and that they are willing to try and impress a woman dressing up in a nice suit with a gift. Previous videos also show the band looking stylish in a suit. Most of their songs are about love which follows the image the record company is trying to create. In my opinion their motif is wearing the suits and being in the wrong time period where there sing older song which maybe aren’t as well known as an old pop song for example. Singing a different genre of music means they are orginal instead of being like any other boy band.

I think that the video is trying to suggest that it isn’t all about sex. In my opinion I think that the band are trying to show how a proper gentleman should act, trying to impress a woman then taking her out on a date instead of just trying to get into bed with her. This can be seen through the use of costumes. The men are all in smart suits not trying to suggest sex. The woman although she is wearing a skirt she has tights on and a jacket which covers up any ‘sexy’ parts of her body.

The video is half and half between performance and narrative. This is because the band is singing to the camera whilst almost showing us how to impress a woman. It is more performance. I don’t think it is concept however because the video is based on a group of men trying to impress a woman so they can keep her for as long as they are able to.