Genre and Video Analysis

Youtube is an incredibly useful resource; it provides all the types of videos and information we could want to look for, suggests similar videos and also supplies the user with statistical information which is very useful when considering the other people who have watched the same video. From the music video of Lewis Mokler playing Nutella there are 219 views, from this statistical breakdown it is clear that the majority of views are from the UK, although there are some other international views. Similarly there is no negative feedback left on the video, leaving only positive likes and comments.

Having these statistics gives us an insight to how large and spread out his audience it; we know we need to aim for UK based audience members, although the element of being international is important. Using these statistics we can help influence the production of our music video and grow with our understanding of audience, artist and genre research.

Digipak Analysis

I decided to video my digipak analysis so that my speech and actions can be described and noted properly, according to what I am mentioning. Choosing the video allows me to point to certain elemmts clearer, although I did mention CD or Album instead of Digipak regularly. The digipak I chose to analyse was Chris Brown, Forever edition; he is one of my favourite artists, and I find this digipak particularly interesting as there is a lot of intertextuality and occuring themes throughout the layout.

Song Lyrics and Timings

One task was to download the song onto final cut express and add the lyrics to the appropriate timings, once this was done we uploaded it to youtube so others could watch, potentially gaining audience feedback. Also we made this video so that when we are looking back and trying to plan the content of our shots for our music video the lyrics are there, alongside the relevant timings so we know what happens where.

This is the video.

Lewis Mokler - Genre

 Lewis Mokler
Lewis Mokler's music and style falls under the style of Indie/singer songwriter, this is quite a common type of genre, and there is a large audience and fan base for this genre.

Singer Songwriters are a type of musician who write, compose and sing their own music. They base their lyrics generally on something that is significant or relevant to them, allowing specific emotions to be peformed with a 'personal touch'. Typically they perform the entire song using a guitar or piano.

Lewis Mokler is everything to do with this, he is well known on youtube and through England for his skills with writing music and his guitar playing; the link between the guitar and his voice is significant to is image as an element of 'star image'. He uses websites such as youtube, myspace and soundcloud to upload these songs, and has then been noticed by significant people in the music indistry who are likely to create a contract, many famous artists have social and online websites to thank for their path into fame. Lewis is in the middle of a contract with a recdording company in England, and he has been heard on radios throughout England, and his single 'Live for today' was released earlier this year. An artist extremely similar to Lewis Mokler would be Joe Brooks, he is the same age, and from a similar location in England; he started off by doing covers of artists similar to this genre and then uploading videos of his own compositions; he was found on youtube by a record label and is now touring worldwide, and in 2011 performed at the popular 'V Festival', this could be similar to Lewis Mokler in a matter of years.

Other artists who are similar to Lewis and his style are -


James Blunt  -











Ed Sheeran -








Joshua Radin











James Morrison











Goo Goo Dolls







 Plain White T's











The Fray -

 Joe Brooks

Lewis Mokler - Nutella

Lyrics..

Holding hands and making plans,
Telling stories to crazy fans,
Tickling backs and kissing necks,
Always then I forget my specks x2
Woah

Then I hold you tightly oh,
And then you ask me politley oh,
Can you move is what you said.
Cause your taking all the room in bed.

Always call you my lady friend,
Lets not rush and lets not pretend.
You hate rain Ive got an umbrella.
You like waffles Ill bring my Nutella.
Woah, Ill bring my nutella, woah

Kicking feet punching meat,
Asking me to make you tea,
Mario Cart Cap'in Man,
Fall asleep on your bedroom rug x2
Woah oh

Then I hold you tightly,
Then you ask me politley
Can you move is what you said,
Cause your taking all of the room in my bed.

Always call you my lady friend,
Lets not rush and lets not pretend,
You hate rain, Ive got an umbrella
You like waffles Ill bring my nutella.

I bring my nutella,
woah

Im the first one to admit,
When your back at uni it feels shit,
Can we lay in bed for a while,
And watch special people on Jeremy Kyle

Always call you my lady friend,
lets not rush and lets not pretend
You hate rain, Ive got an unbrella,
You like waffles, Ill bring my nutella,

Bring my nutella
Oh,
Bring my nutella
Oh,

Artist for our coursework

When having a discussion as a group and with our media teachers, we decided that although using Hope and Social was possible, it would be extremely hard to reach the standard which we aim to meet. As they are a very popular and well known band they spend the majority of their time touring around England and Europe, it would be incredibly hard to be able to get the footage and photography thaty we need to get to fulfill our standards. As they are an 'indie/accoustic' band, generally these types of videos consist of a lot of close ups of the band performing, especially hands on guitars, over the shoulder dumming, and close up of eyes and mouths of the singers; it is extremely important that if we have this genre of music that we use these camera conventions for our music video and final product to be realistic and as authentic as possible.

Instead, we did some research into indie music, and we found a few artists; one who specifically stood out was Lewis Mockler. He is a young musicisian who is 19 years old from the east of England. He is a singersongwriter
who writes his own music, he aims to break into the music industry soon, this is his own song Nutella, which we have chosen to use for our coursework.

SoundCloud - Lewis Mokler

Hope and Social

Our band is called 'Hope and Social', this is the official website for the band -  http://www.hopeandsocial.com/
They have been set up for approximatley 10 years now, but have been touring and performing with demand since 2008; their genre is indie/accoustic. They are not the steriotypical indie band, they portray the connotation of old fashioned style, maybe relating to jazz. This wear of blazers and white shirts shows a link of intertextuality with jazz and 'smart' performers. The fact that their blazers are a bright blue with white piping goes against the connotation of formal eveningwear of either a black or white 'dinner jacket' seen in famous films such as James Bond or action films; this idea creates the idea that the band are the 'alternitive' to the steriotype, making them more original and unique.

Another key feature of the bands image it the steriotypical 'Shaggy' hair look, the long and messy hair comes with most indie bands. The Kooks, the image on the right, portray the typical steriotype that is associated with an indie band, they have the longish hair, messy and unstyled with the alternitive clothing look. The similarity between the hair styles has a connotation; the longer hair creates the sense of freedom and a lack of caring. For me, the band are trying to create this care-free image to go with their free style music and the lyrics of their songs.

Music Development

As a group we have decided to use the music and the band of 'Hope and Social'. They are a group of 5 band members accompanied by brass instruments from Leeds; they have been a group together since 2000, but started touring and performing their music in 2008. http://www.hopeandsocial.com/

As progress of communication, I have contacted the band and they are performing in Bishops Stortford football club on the 21st october, it is a public concert and there will be roughly 100 people there; tickets are £10 each. The group members are going to attend the concert and ask whether we can record the performance of a song; this element of performance will be filmed in 3 different angles so we can show different camera techniques in the performance element. As we have not decided what will happen  in the narrative of the video, being able to see the performance we can decide what different elements we can use within their our video.