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 also follow the convention of the pop genre with having the lead singer at the front with the two other members playing the instruments in the background of the clips during the 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, which usually symbolises seriousness and possibly a depressing theme, these fit in with the alternative rock / pop genre as these bands usually create songs which have a sad / depressing theme and are often about heartbreak and breakups. The song ‘The Man Who Can’t be Moved’ fits in with this as the song suggests a breakup.

• Most alternative rock / 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 are references in the narrative of homelessness, heartbreak and sadness. The audience of The Script is mainly younger people, therefore it can show awareness to the audience about the topic and how they can help because it is common for young people to face heartbreak and breakups.

Lyrics and Visuals

• Throughout the video there are 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?’ this matches with the lyrics as the lead singer is shown 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. This illustrates emotion into the song as it suggests the character is heartbroken and feels desperate to find the one he loves.

• 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. This reinforces the idea that the main character is going to wait however long it takes to see his lover again.

Music and Visuals

• Natural light is mostly used 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 alternative pop / rock videos. The lighting throughout rock videos tends to be a lot darker, when the live performance is featured there is darker uses of lighting but there is also natural light coming through the windows merging both conventions together. The use of natural light suggests that the location of the video is in a natural setting ( outside, on the streets of a city). The darker scenes fits in with the sadness emotion that features throughout the song and represents how the main characters may feel and emphasises the lyrics about a breakup and heartbreak.

• 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 the video more intriguing and consistent.

Close UpsDuring the music video there are 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 as they show the character looking desperate and upset. This links with the tone of the lyrics and how he is looking for someone he loves after he has [presumably being split from his lover which has consequently made him heartbroken. There are also 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. However, the main use of this is to empathise how desperate the man looks, this suggests to the audience that the man is completely torn about the breakup and therefore is catching people’s attention on the street.

Close ups are used 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. It also makes the audience aware of what the band looks like and allows the audience to become familiar with the band. A lot of the close ups, have the actor or the band members during the narrative to look into the camera, this can be direct address to the audience making it more personal and therefore connects the band and the audience together, allowing the audience feel like they know he band on a personal level. 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, making the audience feel connected with the band and the song. 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. This empathises the who the main singer is. Also the main singer is the most recognised by the audience, therefore putting him as the main focus on the digipak would catch the audience’s attention more as they would recognise him. The location of the image is set in a desert type theme, making the image seem more natural. This could also indicate to the audience and new audiences what type of songs are featured on this album. For example, deserts are associated with loneliness which could infer that the songs are about heartbreak and being alone. Including the band on the cover of the digipak can make it 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, these 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 therefore the attention is more focused on the image of the hand.

The CD design features art which is attractive and different, instead of just having a plain CD. Despite the image itself not having much relevance / connection to the rest of the digipak, it does continue the orange / brown theme which makes the package more stylish and consistent.

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. It brings awareness to who the band are. It is also in a place where your eyes naturally fall, in the left hand corner, therefore this will attract the audiences attention. This is also the logo for the band, so this is a clever way of attracting the audiences attraction as the will recognise the logo.

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. This can also link into the name of the album ‘#3’ as that is the number of people in the band. Again this attracts the audience’s attention s they will recognise the members of the band.

At the bottom there is the main information on the poster. It is presented on a black rectangle with the date which the album will be released. They haven’t put a lot of information just the basics of when the album is released which makes it more likely that the audience will read it. The font is standard and quite large so it makes it one of the first things the audience will read as this convention makes the text easily readable. Also the white text contrasts well on the black background.

At the very bottom in very small writing they have the official website for the script. This gives the website advertisement.Also it gives new audiences 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 a 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 alternative rock music videos and the costumes that they are wearing follow the era which they are aiming their video to be based upon. 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 the colour of the women’ dress. This can be the pop genre coming through adding a bit of colour to the music video. Also the colour red connotates emotions of love and lust which features in the theme of the video as these feelings are suggested towards the women ‘Juliet’. Also the use of dark colours could suggest that there is a problem and not everything is perfect within the narrative of this video. Another convention of the rock genre is the close ups of the musical instruments and of the band singing, there is a series of these throughout the music video showing the audience that the band 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. Also 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 off 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 crime and that is presented in a illustrative way to the audience as it is simply presented to them. Also this could suggest she is hiding from someone as she may have committed crime.

• 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 Visuals

At the start of the music video the pace of the music is quite slow and the visuals matched with the music are also at a slow cutting rate compared to when the song starts to pace up pace and so does the cutting rate. By increasing the cutting rate it makes it more exciting and a lot more interesting to watch. It makes the audience want to continue watching as it adds a sense of mystery as the audience are unsure what is to happen next. 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. This compliments the theme of the video well as it has mystery and a sense of danger to it. 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 featured 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, 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. The women I the main focus of the video and she is very attractive, this may be to attract the male audiences as it is using the male gaze as a clever way to gain more male viewers. This is because they will find her attractive and a form of ‘eye candy’, which will persuade them to watch more of the video and talk about the video, which will widen the audience. This also attracts the female audience as they may also find the women attractive and therefore aspire to look similar to the women hersef. 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, this is done to vary the scenes of the same women and it would ensure the audience wouldn’t get bored of the women in the same outfit. 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 their CD as well as having one with the whole band on. By releasing individual digipak’s, it allows the each individual band member to connect personally with their audience and it also is a clever way of pleasing all of the audience as they are able to buy 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 audience about Lawson and gives advertisement to everyone else involved.

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. Also the contrast of the white and red text on the black background makes the text more readable. 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 as they may feel like they are getting more for their money as there is a freebie included..

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 because again they may feel like the digipak is worth their money as they are getting a lot included in the bundle. Also the album is quite plain and simple but still effective as it creates a sense of style.

Album PosterIncludes the name of the band taking up a long strip across the top third of the poster, which is used because it attracts the audience as they will recognise the name and the poster.

The overall image of the album is quite small in comparison to the image of just the band, In our 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 the audiences head for what they should be looking for if thy were to go out and buy the album.

Along the bottom of the image is the names of the band members an including each of their roles in the band. 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 to the audience as it creates a sense of connection

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 demographic of the poster. It could have a positive impact as they are involved with so many amazing companies like Universal studios which may attract more audience as they are presenting themselves as something big.