Richard's A2 Media Studies Blog: September 2014

The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

The music video for Handwritten by the Gaslight Anthem is one we are keen on taking inspiration from. The video uses both narrative and performance that blend into an overall story about the lifetime of a record. As a group we appreciate this video perhaps more than others as it has a film-like “feel” to it that I believe helps build on atmosphere and withhold the viewer’s attention throughout. You can see this in the image above with the opening of the video using a panning shot to broadcast the supposed lead singer and display the titles on the left-hand side of the screen, similar to that of an indie film. Another element that we’d like to use in our video is the separation of band members in shots; as shown above the lead singer appears to be playing the song but obviously there are more members involved in the music. We’d like to include this as to focus more on the narrative side of the promo rather than performance.

Another aspect of this video we like is the stripped down atmosphere that helps it seem down to earth and in touch with people’s emotions. This is essential, I believe, to the success of a good music video as it will be more memorable. In particular the story of the record being given to loved ones and eventually lost and found. We want to try and recreate this effect on the viewer as our promo will be about a man returning home, starting over and forming a band after an argument with his girlfriend. The argument scene will be shown as an introduction to the music video and so shares similarities with Handwritten also.

Jake Bugg - Two Fingers

The promotional video for the song Two Fingers by Jake Bugg is another video we will draw inspiration from and also shares similarities with Handwritten. As shown in the image below the video also has that indie film-like feel to it and it too has a small introduction.

The video includes shots of Jake in his hometown with his friends and doing what he considers to be normality when at home. As the song we have chosen is called “Home” we’d like to incorporate shots along the lines of these in addition.

There are scenes of violence and arguing in this video also. This is more than we would like to use in ours however, but again the down-to-earth feel and connection with people’s emotion is something we are eager to reproduce.

The video, in addition, houses a performance element to it that is used alongside the narrative. Likewise we would like to include footage similar to this.