Lesson 33

In this lesson the started to edit the front cover of our digipak, it is taking longer than most of the other groups as ours is a collage and the front cover contains 12 pictures.

Lesson 32

In this lesson we started our hand drawn designs of the digipak, we did this to use it as a basis on our actual digipak, we put all of ideas on it and thought what looked the best.

Lesson 31

In this lesson we went out and took some photos of the band members and derelict areas for our digipak. We are thinking of using numerous videos on our digipak front cover to create an alternative effect.

Audience Research

Here is our audience research, this is based around our questionnaire we produced.

In this lesson we had a narrative theory lesson, then in the coming week we checked out blog and checked that it was all up to date and all deadlines had been met by everyone in the group

Lesson 34-35

In these lessons we edited the footage that we had gathered from both the narrative and the band performance for our final cut of the video, we spent time out of lessons as well making sure that the video was up to standard.

Brand Image

To create a developed and cohesive brand image, we thought extremely carefully about the mise en scene, lighting, costume and angles we used for the video and digipack/advert.

Drawing inspiration from British New Wave “kitchen sink” dramas, we looked to gritty, grey locations in which to film. Living in an ex-seaside resort, the now-abandoned seafront was the perfect location in which to do so. Empty other than the occasional dog-walker, the permanently off-season locations echo with the memories of 1960’s seaside holidays. The below video, a clip from the Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? film shows how it looked in the 1970’s. This style of filming and setting was very influential in our decision to set our video here.

Another huge influence on our style was the Richard Ayoade film Submarine, a film which Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner wrote the soundtrack for. It is also set in a grey seaside town, and this stylistic and musical link tied it closely to our work.

            The costumes used were influenced by the indie music genre, to which the Arctic Monkeys are a part of, and on which the 1960’s and 1970’s are a huge influence. This tied together all our influences, from the vintage films to contemporary music and music videos.

Lesson 34-35

In these lessons we edited the footage that we had gathered from both the narrative and the band performance for our final cut of the video, we spent time out of lessons as well making sure that the video was up to standard.

Lesson 33

In this lesson we gathered everyone that we wanted in our video then we got all of the equipment needed in our video and we went to the garage that we had arranged to film at and filmed our band performance. We used a garage to create a grim appearance as that is the main theme in our music video, dark and dingy, this is why we thought that a garage would be ideal for our band performance.

Lesson 32

In this lesson we talked to the people that we wanted in our band, we also arranged that we wanted to film it in a garage so we sorted that out, also we talked about getting the guitars sorted for the band performance.

Lesson 31

We completed the videoing of the main character in our narrative and then we discussed when and where we were going to do our band performance and we also discussed who else was going to be in our band as we wanted a four man band rather than a three man band so that it would be more based around the arctic monkeys.

Lesson 30

After a complete change of the second actor in our narrative we went out and shot her part of the story in our music video, also we got sections of the main character fitted into this lesson as we did some filming in our own time after school.

Lesson 29

In this lesson we went out to take photos of our re-shot locations so that we could use these new images on our digipak and for advertising the band.

Lesson 28

In this lesson we discussed the feedback that we got from our peers and teachers and planned on how we were going to act on what they suggested. We started to act on the feedback by agreeing that we needed to re-shoot a lot of our rough cut video as well as a complete re-shoot of our band performance video. We discussed in detail where and when we were going to shoot the new band performance bits as well as the majority of the actual narrative.

Lesson 27

In this lesson we watched the rough cut created by other pupils in our class as well as watching our own rough cut, then we got feedback from both the teacher and other pupils. They both gave us advice to get our music video potentially a better mark.

Lesson 25-26

In these lessons we gathered all of the footage that we had got and edited it to the soundtrack of The Arctic Monkey that we had chosen ready for the deadline of the rough cut video.

Lesson 24

After we discussed what we needed we went down to the seafront and filmed the rest of the footage for the narrative in our video. We made sure that we discussed it in detail so that everything would go to plan.

Lesson 23

In this lesson we looked at the footage we collated and then discussed what else we needed to get. Also we took some pictures that we needed for the digipak and for other purposes in the video

Lesson 22

In this lesson we went down to the sea front to start out rough cut of the music video, we sorted out all of the actors for the video and filmed the first few sets of the video for our narrative.

Lesson 21

In this lesson we discussed where and when we were going to shoot the other sections of the video in more detail. This was vital so that the group was organised and every one knew what was happening and when It was happening.

Lesson 20

We started construction on the music video rough cut after much planning in lesson time considering all of our groups suggestions towards the video, we went down to cullercoats first of all to shoot our band performance clips

Lesson 18-19

In these lessons we did a planning blog – all the other things including audience work. We also constructed a pre-filming advice powerpoint, and finally we had to check our blog again to make sure that everyone in the group had met the deadlines and upload all work in time, so that nobody was behind.

Lesson 17

In this lesson we had a narrative theory lesson, then in the coming week we checked our blog and checked that it was all up to date with all of the things that needed to be on it and that all of the deadlines had been met by everyone in the group.

Lesson 16

We looked at how to make a cohesive brand image for our band in this lesson. We also discussed how to make sure that it looked professional and was well presented.

Lessons 11-15

In these lessons we did the anamatic, we had to scan our storyboard on to the media disk box, we then had to crop every image drawn by us, then we added music, put them in order and created the anamatic.

Lessons 7 to 10

In these lessons we had time to start and finish our storyboards. We all did some drawings on our created story boards and when finished added some lyrics or more information on the image, we then scanned it and uploaded the finished storyboard onto the blog.

Lesson 6

In this lesson we created a planning timetable to keep the group organised, it covers all of the weeks towards the end of our project. We will fill it out on what we have done on particular dates and then upload it on to our blog.

Lesson 4 and 5

Once we had chosen our song we then put together and produced a powerpoint presentation on why we should do our song. We made an entertaining presentation with not to much text and we included some images about ideas where we might shoot our video. We then spoke in front of the class and our teacher and gave our pitch.

Narrative Theory

Tzevetan Todorov is an eminent philosopher, and proposes that a narrative consists of an equilibrium, a sense of balance, an occurrence that interrupts the balance, and finally a new equilibrium and the balance is restored. Claude Levi-Strauss proposes that narratives use binary oppositions, for example good and evil, light and dark, past and present.


In our music video we challenge Tzevetan Todorov’s narrative theory, in that there is no evidence of an equilibrium. As the video progresses it becomes apparent that there may have been an occurrence, however the video does not explain it explicitly so as to remain ambiguous and intriguing. At the end, we subvert the expectations as we leave the story line open for interpretation, which we believe the audience is more involved in the video which gives a better viewing experience


We follow Claude Levi-Strauss’ narrative theory because we use an ex-sea side resort which once boomed, now we set it as a derelict deprived place, we use the gloomy, grey area’s to paint a glum picture to the viewer.