Media Studies Advanced Portfolio: Summer Homework

Coldplay

 What elements does your artist use to identify themselves in their videos?

The music video of Coldplay’s ‘Paradise’ is slightly different from their previous ones, the band members do not show up in the music video, instead, several people who wear elephant masks are the main characters in the video. Also, performance is a common element seen in Coldplay’s music videos, but the music video of ‘Paradise’ contains both storyline and performance. Furthermore, they give performance with music instruments in the video, this could be an illusion of the band Coldplay, but to be honest no one knows if the elephant men represent the band. But the performance and music instruments are enough to allow audience to identify this is a band’s music video. But the locations at the beginning of the video include London underground and Heathrow airport; these give us idea that it is a British band. Unlike ‘Paradise’, the music video of ‘Viva la vida’ contains only scenes with the band playing and close ups of the vocal. Similar to ‘Viva la vida’, other music videos of Coldplay tend to have performance in an open area included and close ups of the vocal, Martin. Location wise, urban area like London is often seen.

What genre are they? How do they compare to other artists from their genre?

Genre of the band is rock, but compare to other artists in the genre like Arctic Monkey, Coldplay could be something beyond rock. Since their music could be referred as pop, or more accurately, post-Britpop. For example, in the song ‘Viva la vida’, they use instruments like violin and cello which are not common in rock music, such application of music instruments of other genre is one of the evidences to Coldplay’s dynamic music.

How has your artist changed over time? Choose specific videos to analyse and compare.

‘Yellow’, produced in the year of 2000 presents a common structure of band music: a vocal, guitar, bass, and drum. However, when it comes to the year of 2012, more instruments are applied in Coldplay’s music to enrich their songs, such as the combination between rock instruments and classical instruments such as violin. The song ‘Paradise’ is one of the examples. In terms of music video, the video of ‘Yellow’ is a very simple one, there is only one filming location which is a beach with the vocal singing in front of the camera from beginning to end, and I bet very little editing is undergone in the video. However, in the music video of ‘Paradise’, loads of location is included, they could even film in a zoo and the tarmac of Heathrow airport; location outside the UK is even used as filming location like a huge exotic grassland. This indicates the music video is a huge production which also implies the status and popularity of Coldplay have experienced a significant change.

What generic conventions are evident from their videos?

In most of their music videos, performances are frequently seen, such as the band playing in a big open area like a music festival with fans yelling their name. Narrative is also seen in their music videos but less frequent than performance. Narrative tends to appear in their latest videos like ‘Princess of China’ and ‘Paradise’.

 Has the film style changed over time? If so why do you think it has changed?

There is a slight change of film style in their videos, more camera angles, editing and effects are included in their latest music videos. This is mainly because of their growing popularity and the record company they signed: Parlophone, a subsidiary of a major corporation EMI, thus they have the influence and could afford the cost of producing large productions.

What conventional mise-en-scene (costumes/ locations etc) are used in their music videos?

Urban filming locations like filthy streets in London, underground and garage are frequently seen in their music videos. Also, performance of the band is one of the conventions they frequently use; especially their performances in a big open area with fans singing with them. In terms of costumes, they don’t normally have special costumes and styles for their music videos but urban style: leather jackets, checked shirts, chinos and T-shits. These identify them as an alternative rock band.

How does your artist use camerawork, editing style and effects to create meaning?

In their early work, camerawork and editing style tend to be simple, not much effect is found in their early music videos, this could be comprehended as their main focus is on music rather than the quality of music videos, so pure performance videos are frequently seen in ‘Viva la vida’ and ‘Yellow’. But in their recent videos, narrative is put in their music videos, it allows the use of many camera angles, editing and effects.

For example, in the music video of ‘Paradise’, quite a few filming locations and possibly overseas are used in the video, long shots of the locations especially wide areas like grassland, nature are frequently seen. This might imply to the band’s definition of paradise, a wide, open area instead of urban, city or ‘concrete jungle’.

Close ups of the elephant’s depressed gesture when it is still locked in the zoo indicates the band’s rejection of being trapped no matter physically or mentally. So abundant long shots of the elephant running to escape from the trap are seen, this could interpreted as a process of getting out of the suffocating city or urban to the real ‘paradise’ where running freely and music playing are not restricted. But this ‘paradise’ is presented by an exotic location which implies the way to the real ‘paradise’ is to escape and step out of our comfort zone. Fast editing of the video gives us the sense of speed and time, ‘escape is the only way to our paradise’ is further presented, where escape can’t be undergone slowly. Furthermore, it also indicates that we should kick off our journey to paradise as soon as possible and the journey is destined to be riddled with process of lost and found, so we could see the elephant getting lost and running to nowhere through the fast editing.

Does your artist’s video’s relate to other media texts (Films, TV programmes etc) why does your artist do this?

No. Since Coldplay is a rock band rather than pop stars, it is clear that the focus should be on their music instead of their influence in the media. So this is why they don’t attach much of their music to films and TV programmes. Even if they do, it is not their main focusing point.

Activity Two: Photographs

It is a location that looks like an abandoned chapel, where the band could do their performance part here. However, the location is actually a boutique so we will need to ask for permission to film here. If we can’t make use of the whole shop, we can just have our band standing in front of a wall that gives audience an impression that it is an abandoned chapel and some close ups of walls and decoration in the shop could make it looks like we are doing a performance in a chapel.

The pictures are taken in London underground, where tunnels and platform could be used for filming. We could have our band playing in tunnels as if they are street performers to depict an urban image of the band. Also, we could have one of the band members wandering through the platform like the Coldplay usually do for their videos.

The two boys in the picture are friends of mine, I think they would be suitable to act as two of the members in Coldplay because their figures and styles are resemble to the real Coldplay. Though the boy on the right is suited up, he wears this only because he was in a ceremony. When he is in casual wear, he matches the image of the band Coldplay.

Media Studies Advanced Portfolio: Digipak Design Research
Activity Two: Part one:

-Title

-track list

The latest album of Coldplay is very different from the albums of other artists in their same genre. There are only title and track list on the cover and back. This is a unique way to produce an album since institutional logos are seen as necessary on an album. This could be because of the status of the band in their record company allows them to have this unique presentation. The cover shows an abstract picture where a mixture of different coulours is seen, this could be interpreted as different elements the band has put into the songs in this album which allows audience to enjoy a wide range of music styles provided that music of Coldplay is getting more dynamic than their early works.

-Artist
-Title
-Track List
-Institutional logos

The album ‘Suck it and see’ of Arctic monkey adopts the traditional method to present an album where artist’s name, album title, track list and institutional logos are shown. This could be because the band is still in their process of development and their record company is still operating in a local scale which means the market is smaller than Coldplay’s. So the record company won’t take the risk of making the album too abstract since their target audience is probably niche audience in the UK while Coldplay is targeting the worldwide niche audience.

-Artist
-Title
-Track List
-Institutional logos
-Appropriate iconography

The pop rock band Lawson uses their own iconography as their album cover, it is not difficult to get the idea of them targeting their audience not only with their music but appearances. In the nutshell, pop music still dominates most of the music market, conceivably, rock bands transforming themselves as half-rock and half-pop is the most secure way to gain popularity.

-Artist

-Title
-Track List
-Institutional logos

Vampire weekend as a indie-rock band doesn’t need to make their appearances as one of the selling points. Evidenced by the cover of their album ‘Contra’, no iconography is shown and this draws audience’s attention back to their music.

Activity Two: Part Two

I’d use Photoshop to change the text on the symbol of Underground to Coldplay on its cover, then I would use the blur effect to blur the picture of motorway in order to make the glows on motorway form picture of mixture of coulours and glows. In terms of photographs, I will paint a picture with different coulours mixing together as the picture printed on CD. For the inside sleeve, I would take a picture of the inside of London Underground.