TEXTUAL ANALYSIS-THE SCRIPT

‘THE MAN WHO CAN’T BE MOVED’

Genre characteristics • A common convention of pop/rock culture is that there is a live performance

of the band included in the music video. In the music video for ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ there is live performance snippets throughout the video as well as the added focus of the band playing musical instruments in the background. They do as well follow the convention of the pop genre with having the lead singer at the front with the two guys playing the instruments in the background of the clips where there is live performance. This can show the split between the two genres by still including the live clips but with putting the lead singer at the front.

• The costumes that the band are wearing, fit the convention more so of the rock genre. They are wearing dark colours such as black and dark grey, but the colours associated with pop are also fit in with the props they use such as the sleeping bag that he carries with him throughout the music video.

• Most pop music videos touch on serious situations and interpret them within there music videos, for example in ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ there is references in the narrative of homelessness, as the audience of The Script is mainly younger people it can show awareness to the audience about the topic and how they can help.

Lyrics and visuals• Throughout the video there is a lot of connections between the visuals and the lyrics;

at the beginning of the video it starts with ‘going back to the corner where I first saw you’ and in the narrative it shows one of the band members going to a corner of a street and looking around for someone. This is done in an illustrative way, the way the director of the video presents it in a really simple way this can make it easier for the audience to follow the narrative.

• Another example of a connection between the visuals and the lyrics is when the song says ‘if you see this girl can you tell her where I am?’ and to match the lyrics you can see Danny (the lead singer) talking to a man as if he is asking him to tell the girl where he is, while looking at him in a conversation manner. This is an example of amplified lyrics and visuals by taking the lyrics of him saying in the song ‘tell her where I am’ and matching it with him saying this to an elderly man.

• The final example is another example of an illustrative way of presenting lyrics and visuals is when during the video the song says ‘policemen say son you can’t stay here’ and it is then matched with the visual of a shot reverse shot of the lead singer and a police car; there is no speech coming from the policewomen just a shot reverse shot as it is imitating a conversation between the two, as it is then followed by Danny O’Donoghue saying ‘there's someone I'm waiting for if it’s a day, a month, a year’ reinforcing the conversation style.

Music and visuals• They use mostly natural light throughout the majority of the music video. Parts

of the film is set on location of the busy streets of a city where they are using natural lighting which is a common convention for pop videos. The lighting throughout rock videos tends to be a lot darker, they have tried to fit it in when the band plays live it is darker but you can also see the natural light coming through the windows merging both conventions together. The use of natural light is to show the audience that the band/artist is naturally talented.

• The overall pace of the music video fits with the music; at the start of the music video the tempo is very slow, so the pace of the shots at the beginning are matched with the tempo. As the music gets faster throughout the video the shots get quicker also. This makes it more enjoyable for the audience with it not being the same tempo throughout it gets quicker making it a little bit more exciting.

Close upsDuring the music video there is a lot of close ups used mainly of the lead singer Danny. The close ups used during the narrative part of the video show the emotion of the story and link with the tone of the lyrics and how he is looking for someone he loves. As well as using close ups of the people passing him in the narrative, this could replicate the audience response to the music video but they are also bringing in different diversities.

They also use close ups during the live segments of the video, this gives the audience of the music video a closer connection to The Script and making the video more interesting to watch. A lot of the close ups as well, have the actor or the band members during the narrative to look into the camera, this can be direct address to the audience and making it more personal. It also gives them as an audience a chance to connect with the artists and the song that they are singing giving them a personal preference. It gives the audience to connect and feel emotion for the artists.

Using close ups also adds a more dramatic effect to the song by showing his desperation while he is looking, as well as his passion for music when they use close ups during the live performance parts. It gives the audience chance to see the facial expressions of the artist as they are communicating the song to the audience giving the music video more of a meaning.

Digipak On the cover of the digipak there is an image of the band The Script, the lead singer Danny is at the front of the image and is the main focus of the cover; the rest of the band is placed behind him. The image is set of a location setting making the image seem more natural. Also with including the band on the cover of the digipak can attract the audience more and more personal, it also gives the audience more chance to recognize the band instead of just having some art work and not knowing who they are.

On the cover of the booklet inside the digipak and on the back of the case, there are two images of hands both in different positions, but both portray a strong message of being together and the idea of coming together. The writing on the back of the cover the writing of the song order is very small and doesn’t really catch the eye the attention is more on the image of the hand, for our digipak I think we will use a bigger text and stretch it out longer to take up more room and use a plainer background than what is on this one.

The CD design has an image on it making it very attractive to the eye instead of just having a plain CD, however the image doesn’t really have any connection to the rest of the theme of the digipak; it is a very nice design and is very eye-catching.

Album posterOn the album poster in the top left corner is the name of the band, this acts as advertisement for the band as it instantly tells you what the name of the band is. When someone see’s this poster the first thing they will be wanting to know is who the band are. It is also in a place where your eyes naturally fall, in the left hand corner.

The name of the album is in the top right hand corner; there isn’t much surrounding it but the size and the font are still eye catching and the colour fits in with the colour scheme of the poster.

The image of the band themselves is quite unusual and is very eye-catching to people who are passing the poster, by combining all three of the band members they have manged to make it look like just one head, when it is really three. This can also link into the name of the album ‘#3’ as that is the number of people in the band. At the bottom they have the main

information from the poster. It is presented on a black rectangle with the date the that the album will be released. They haven’t put a lot of information just the basics of when the album is released and that’s it.

At the very bottom in very small writing they have the official website for the script. This gives the website advertisement as well as giving the audience of the poster who maybe don’t know that much about The Script, the chance to find out more.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS- LAWSON ‘JULIET’

Genre characteristics

• In the Lawson music video for ‘Juliet’ they include the common convention of a live performance within their narrative, they are playing in the bar looking towards the women whom the audience would assume was Juliet. The lighting is dark and by using dark lighting that follows the convention of rock music videos and the costumes that they are wearing follow the time that they are aiming their video to be around. The same as in The Script music video the lead singer for Lawson is placed at the front with the band playing the instruments behind him.

• Even though the majority of the colour scheme is very dark colours, there is the placement of the colour red which is shown throughout the music video; in the curtains and Juliet's dress is red also, this can be the pop genre coming through adding a bit of colour to the music video as well as the colour red has connotations for lust and love and a lot of the song is about the love for the girl Juliet.

• Another convention of the rock genre is the close ups of the musical instruments and of them singing, there is a series of these throughout the music video showing the audience that as a band they are talented. This is also a common convention for pop but it is mainly known by rock bands to use their musical instruments.

Lyrics and visuals• During the first round of the chorus ‘no body does it like Juliet’ a shot of a female, who the

audience will assume is Juliet, is shown. At the start of the music video they don’t mention any name they just refer to her as ‘her’ there is no image given to the audience as to who she is just extreme close ups of her face. By giving the audience and image of her it makes the music video a little bit clearer and easier to understand giving it more of a narrative. Without any narrative it makes the music video harder to understand but having a hard narrative is a convention of rock music videos.

• Another link between the visuals and the lyrics is when the band sings ‘the way she does it is criminal’ which is then matched with her taking of her wig and revealing her true identity. The crime could be identity theft or she could just be pretending to be a completely made up person but whatever she is doing with her identity is a crimes and that is presented in a illustrative way to the audience as it is simply presented to them.

• During one of the final rounds of the chorus they sing ‘she knows’ and as this is sang she lifts up a gentleman's jaw that is hung open at the sight of her, this reinforces that she knows what effect her looks have over the male gender and how she can use that to gain power over them. This is amplified to the audience with the way she lifts up the mans chin as he is admiring her, as ‘she knows’ of her beauty.

Music and visualsAt the start of the music video the pace of the music is quite slow the visuals matched with the music are also at a slow cutting rate compared to when the song starts the pace picks up and so does the cutting rate. By increasing the cutting rate it makes it more exciting and a lot more interesting to watch, we can include this in our music video even though it’s a sad song it will make it more interesting for the audience to watch.

The genre of Lawson’s music, tends to be more rock than pop, the lighting used in a lot of their music videos is quite dark with only the use of artificial light instead of natural light. With our music video because the genre is alternative rock and pop we can use the combination of a lot of light as well as using shots where there isn’t that much light where the context of the shot is a lot more darker. Also by using natural light it can reflect the realness of the band to the audience.

Close upsThroughout the music video, there are a lot of close ups used these are used a lot when Juliet is in the shot; this can create a slight intimacy between the audience and the actress playing Juliet. It also matches with the personality of the character Juliet as she is presented to the audience as quite a flirtatious character and that is how the audience is perceiving her.

Also by using close ups of the band themselves, who are a part of the narrative themselves, this makes it more personal for the audience as they can start to feel a connection with the band themselves. It can also make them feel part of the story line with the band being presented to be part of the narrative. By them also including close ups of their instruments it can make a feeling of belonging to the audience as well. They can feel like they part of the action happening within the narrative. Making it easy for them to

Understand with this personal connection being created between the audience and the band. Furthermore by using close ups of each of the characters you can see the emotions being felt throughout the video. You get to see the lust in Juliet’s eyes as well as the amount of fun the band are having performing the song.

Reference to notion of looking and voyeurism

Throughout the music video there is a few referencing to what Andrew Goodwin would call ‘reference to notion of looking’, the music video presents this though the presence of mirrors, towards the start of the video we see Juliet admiring a dress in a mirror as well as towards the end we see the lead singer look in a cars wing mirror looking backwards at Juliet and one of her male companions in the back of the car it adds an artistic flare to the video and makes it more interesting than just looking into a camera.

Voyeuristic treatment of the female body happens quite a lot with the way that Juliet is presented to the audience for a small part of the video she is wearing a floral robe, but a third of the way through you see her take of her robe and is wearing a tight red dress and she takes of her blonde wig. Connotations of the colour red are quite sexy and lustful presenting the character of Juliet to be quite flirtatious and craving the attention of men. The way the gentlemen look at her as well show as more as prey and not a human.

Digipak For the cover of the digipak Lawson had individual head shots taken and released individually with there CD as well as having one with the whole band on. By releasing individual digipak’s, it allows the audience to connect personally with their audience as they feel like they are buying for their favourite member; people might not understand that with each of the individual digipak’s you get the same as what you get with the group one, so this therefore might increase the sales of the overall album.

For the booklet that comes inside of the digipak includes all the words and additional people who helped out with the making of the CD. This can give more information to the fans of Lawson on the band and everyone else involved and maybe on their favourite song on the album.

The front cover of the album is in black and white effect with only the name of the album being in colour, this makes it more effective as the audience remembers the name of the album because of the emphasis on the name and the colour. The back of the album has all the names of the songs with a decent size font, it also doesn’t have any image on the back with only a dark background.

Also included in the digipak there is an added plug of it coming with a guitar pick, this can make the digipak is more appealing to the audience with the added extra coming with the album.

The album comes with two CD’s with an added DVD as well as the music, this can also make it more appealing to the audience as well as the album being quite plain and simple but still effective.

Album posterIncludes the name of the band taking up a long strip across the top third of the poster, they also have the line going underneath making the ‘A’ stand out more; this is added for extra graphics within the name and to make it seem like a logo making it more memorable with the audience.

The overall image of the album is quite small in comparison to the image of just the band, I think with my poster for our album I will do it a lot bigger to draw more attention the album that is being released instead of the just the band. You can’t really see the album cover also, so it doesn’t really put an image in your head for what you should be looking for if you were to go out and buy the album.

Along the bottom of the image of the band telling the audience the names of the band members as well as telling them what their role in the band is. This can make it more personal to the audience like they are getting a formal introduction to the band and it could also be giving their fans more information that they didn’t already know about them.

The main image of the band takes up a lot of the poster, in the image each of the band members is looking into the camera directly this can make the image and the overall form of the poster a lot more personal.

On the very bottom of the poster there is a selection of brands and companies that Lawson are related to they show how you can purchase any of their music online as well as who their record label is, this gives more information to the people looking at the poster. It could also be taken as a slight bragging as they are involved with so many amazing companies like Universal studios.