Fall Line Logo

We decided we wanted a very simple logo, so it was straight to the point. Being so simple it would be easily recognisable and very appealing. We experimented through different colours but eventually settled on this.

Again this fits in with the rock genre of dark colours. This logo will be seen as very attractive within the genre. The text is also cracked relating to the distortion of the genre and dark themes.

Website Review

To help create our website we will be reviewing the website of the artist whose song we will be using, Linkin Park, to help with our research.



This website has multiple tabs at the top, which lead to the pages you expect to see on an artist's website such as tour information, photos and and music.
In my opinion, I don't think this websites stands out or has it's own characteristic feel. It uses basic colours and has no stand out features that wouldn't be seen on any other generic band's website.
Linkin Park have changed their sound with every recent release which have put off many of the older fans, and this website is telling that they are targeting new audiences who have became interested in the band in the last few years which is more late teens and young adults with their more electronically-focused sound. This is in contrast to their targeting of a younger audience when nu-metal was their primary genre in the early 2000s. The plain layout and colours would appeal to the mature new audience the band as, and is most likely a stark contrast to how the website would have looked in 2001.
This website would appeal fairly well to these fans of the band with it's various elements such as photos and music, as this would be what they can find use from on the site.

In conclusion, applying this to our own website. One positive aspect of this site I found is it has kept a consistent house style throughout all the pages, which we aim to replicate with our own website as failing to do so would look more unproffessional. However, this is also an indicator that we should aim to make our site stand out more and not be looked at as generic like Linkin Park's has, while also retaining the various features you would find on most band websites such as tour information, news photos etc.

Questionnaire Results

 Getting our questionnaire results back we found that most people preferred the genre of rock and metal. They were also least familiar with J Cole of the rap genre. This finalised our idea of going with a rock genre for our music video. Although more people suggested they expect a the main focus of the music video to be performance or equally mixed between performance and narrative, we have decided it is more convenient to centre our music video around narrative.

For the metal/rock genre most people expect dark clothing in the music video. This will heavily influence the fashion we use for our video.  It was a common suggestion to have dark themes for a rock album cover and something scary so we will use this information when making our own.

To the right are the results of our questionnaire put into graphs. We will use these results to base some of our decision making about the project based on audiences expectations.

Prop List

This is a list of the various props we will need

Camera - 
We will obviously be using a camera to film the music video, with one of a professional standard for the performance elements of the video and the photo shoot and a smaller digital camera to carry around easily and film the narrative parts and also some additional things.

Instruments - 
We will need instruments to be used in the performance scenes of the video, which are a guitar, drums, microphone and a bass guitar. The actors don't necessarily need any musical talent, but fast editing can mask this and still make it look realistic.

Mic stand -

We will need a mic stand for our vocalist, even if it won't be used in all performance scenes.

Clothing -

To fit in with the style and conventions of our genre we'll have specific clothes for the band members in both the music video and photo shoot

Treatment

Linkin Park is an American rock band from California. They are a very successful band rising to international fame with their debut album Hybrid Theory. This album has been certified Diamond and Multi Platinum in other countries. Over the years they have adopted many different genres and styles which include, alternative rock, nu metal, rap rock and rap metal. Due to their diversity they have formed many collaborations with other successful artists, perhaps most notably with rapper JAY Z. With whom they produced an EP, Collision Course.

Despite their success and worldwide fame they did originally have struggles in gaining a record deal. The band was originally formed in 1996 under the name, Xero. The band at this time consisted of 3 high school friends, Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson. After recruiting a few more members they changed their name to Hybrid Theory(where their debut album title came from), when agreeing to recruit vocalist, Chester Bennington. Again the band decided to change the name after still struggling to find a record deal. They originally wanted to change the name to Lincoln Park but had to use Linkin Park to acquire the web domain, linkinpark.com. Eventually they signed a deal with Warner Bros.

The song we are using, Papercut, is of the genre nu metal and rap metal. Considering this for our music video we will be taking the heavy rock/metal feel when filming. We will be using dark themes and have a general dark nature to the video.

Colour scheme example of black and white

Linkin Park follow a very dark colour scheme. They use blacks, whites and purples and blues. This will help us when we do our logo and website. We will follow a similar colour scheme to fit in with the genre.

Record Label

Linkin Park

Linkin Park are part of Warner Bros. Records, who are one of the biggest record labels in the world. It is part of Warner Music Group, who are the third biggest major music companies worldwide. They have artists from a wide range of genres signed to them such as trance DJ Paul Oakenfold, social conscious rapper Talib Kweli and hard rock band Disturbed.
Linkin Park signed a deal with Warner Bros after years of working independently, and released their successful first album Hybrid Theory on it a year later.

Our band

We have looked at a variety of record labels for Fall Line to be a part of, such as Epic Records, Universal and Sony. We ultimately decided on Roadrunner Records, who are a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. Founded in 1980, these have largely had a focus on signing metal and hard rock acts. They have many artists similar to Linkin Park in their roster, such as popular ensemble Slipknot, who also have nu-metal influences in their earlier work like Linkin Park, as well as lesser known more contemporary acts like Hail the Villain.

Facebook Page

To  go with our Twitter Page we also created a Facebook page to promote our band, Fall Line. 

These screenshots track the process of making the Facebook page. In the process of creating the page we included a link to our Twitter and will eventually link the bands website.

This is when the page was finally set up, when we have created our logo, we will add it to the profile picture of the band. In the description, we put a little background on the  band and told the fans to 'get ready.'

This is our first post promoting the new album of the band.
This is the link to our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/FallLineBand

Fashion

We are choosing our fashion we have decided to go with traditional rock style clothing. This is just lots of dark colours, such as black and grey. This fits in with the dark theme of the song we are doing and the genre itself. Our fashion will also emulate the style of Avenged Sevenfold. They almost always wear all black so this is another reason we have picked this particular style of clothing.

Avenged Sevenfold also like to pay homage to their idols and their musical inspirations by wearing their band merchandise. In our video we will also do this by wearing Avenged Sevenfold merchandise. 

We also like the style of Linkin Park. Again Linkin Park use a lot of blacks but also wear smart clothing which we may feature in our video as well. Linkin Park also like to wear leather jackets which we will do as well. 

Musical Influences

To influence our music video, we are primarily using the original source material in Linkin Park. The music videos released for their first two albums all had similar dark themes along with the lyrical content of the songs themselves, which we are using in the narrative for our video.

Thankfully, both of us are both fans of Linkin Park's earlier material so should be able to apply this accurately to our video. 

Another band we are taking influence from is the band Avenged Sevenfold. Their music video for 'Nightmare' has provided us with inspiration for how the performance scenes of our video will look and the dark lighting. We are both big fans of this band, and their style and general qualities greatly influence our fictional band on a more stylistic approach than Linkin Park do through their music.

Fashion Choices

Facebook Analysis

Facebook has risen to the 2nd most visited website in the world in recent years, with the ability to socialise with friends through status updates and noting your interests in media being a significant feature through pages. It has now became the norm for musicians, bands and celebrities alike to have their own page promoting them regardless of genre or target audience, as the more likes the page has the more people you will reach out to. Even people who don't like the page will see the content through their Facebook friends sharing it, and advertising the band even further and forming new opportunities to gain more fans.

Linkin Park have too got their own Facebook page, which is operated similarly to their Twitter account. 

They have 60 million likes, which is significantly more people that are viewing their content than the Twitter account which has just under 4 million followers.

They post often, promoting their latest music releases as well as shows/media appearances. They also post about their latest charity endeavours, which are likely to please fans which is evidence of them succeeded more with promoting their band through this Facebook account than the Twitter account. 

In regards to the style, Facebook pages have a house style and the same blue background for all their pages. which makes the cover photo the central area for bands to express their style. Linkin Park have used the same picture promoting their charity event performance that their Twitter account uses, while their profile picture is just the logo on a white background. While limited this is obviously the most they can do with the design, so our Facebook page will be similar in having a simple band logo as our profile picture and something eye catching for the cover photo. They also have the expected parts of a musician's Facebook page such as photos/information.

Overall I think this is an acceptable Facebook page from Linkin Park, with its easier layout and links to their other social media sits as well as where to buy their album standing out ahead of their Twitter account. Our band will follow a similar style and take inspiration from this for content and style for our own Facebook page.

Filming Moodboard

Props
Drums
Guitar
Bass
Amps
Speakers
Clothing/Accessories e.g hats
Microphone and Stand

Actors
Jack Sanders
Steven Brazier
Anthony Hill

Fashion
Hoodies
Hats
Jeans
Hi Tops
Other bands merchandise i.e Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt
Jackets
Scarf

Locations
Street
Alleys
Music Studio
Chinatown
House
Bedroom
Bathroom



Props: For the props the instruments were an obvious choice for the rock genre of the song. We also wanted it to feel authentic so we would position speakers and amps in shot to again suit the style of genre. We also decided to use a mic stand so the actor could throw it down to fit in with the destruction style of rock.

Fashion: For our fashion we went with simple choices as they were readily available. Also most modern rock bands often wear hoodies and are young. Hoodies are a staple to youth fashion. We also decided the actor should wear another bands merchandise as this is something we've seen Avenged Sevenfold do out of homage. We thought we'd do the same to them.

Locations: For locations we wanted to use streets and alleys, particularly in the rain to make the video have a dark and grainy feel. Again this is to fit in with the genres dark themes. We picked the music studios for obvious reasons for the recording of the performance. It is an ideal place.

Twitter

To help promote our band, we have created a Twitter page.
This is the link:
https://twitter.com/FallLine3

We added a biography as part of our profile promoting the purchase of our band's album, and we will eventually add the website name to this so people can access it.

The first tweet was also made for the band, in which we included a hashtag so people can find our band's tweets and generate more interest. We have followed other people in our media class as well as some other friends around the Sixth Form, and asked them to follow us.

Band Name

After some consideration we have decided on a band name of;

Fall Line

Before this we had considered other names which include, 'Bottom Line' and 'PD1.' We decided that Bottom Line had a nice sound to it but thought it may be too generic/cliche. After a few more suggestions we decided to keep 'Line' in the name and eventually came up with 'Fall Line.'

We think Fall Line suits the rock genre well as it is not bright like other genres such as pop. It is definitive and original, being more likely to stick in the mind of people who hear it than the previous names we had

Audience Moodboard

This a moodboard for our A2 coursework, and reflects the fashion sense and general interests of both us and our target audience. As our target audience is 16-19 years old, we felt that our audience would relate to our fashion interests and lifestyle as this is our age bracket. As a teenager we like to play game consoles and listen to heavy rock music. We would also go to concerts and be very fond of fast food and cool shoes.

Actor's Contract

This is the contract for our actors to sign, giving their consent and agreement to our guidelines to make our music video at the best possible standard.

Song in the Media

We could find one usage of the song we're using for our coursework, 'Papercut' by Linkin Park, in the media.

It was used on the 2001 action film The One, starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, and was part of the soundtrack featuring other nu-metal bands from that period such as Disturbed and Papa Roach. The connotations of the film's soundtrack was probably based around this genre which was popular at the time and dominated the music media through music channels and magazines like Kerrang!, with Linkin Park the most successful out of these bands.

Audience Profile

Our target audience will be similar to the audiences of the bands who influence ours and our musical style. First and foremost it will be people who are a similar age as us, which is 16-19 year olds. This is obviously the most logical solution as it is who we are most familiar with and can cater to the tastes of. We will target them by creating both a video that they can appreciate and find interesting to watch, as well as our fictional band being someone they can relate to as our actors will too be around the age of 16-19. While the bands that influence us stylistically such as Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold don't primarily target this age band, they make up the majority of their fanbase.

The interests of people we are targeting will mostly reflect our interests, which is mainly a broad taste in music and appreciative of all genres. There is more of a focus on the hard rock and metal genres culture-wise though, with a preference for black clothing, a casual laidback attitude (in contrast with the more extreme subculture of goth, who could be associated with our chosen genre of music too). Fast food is also a key interest of our target audience, and video games.

Their music consumption habits will be streaming services like Spotify and Deezer, as well as purchasing music on online marketplaces like iTunes. We assume music is a big part of their lives and they spend a lot of time talking about it, listening to it and attending concerts of many genres regularly.

Lyric Storyboard Complete

This is our finished lyric storyboard. This is a general outline of the video and may not represent all of the final product.

Copyright

This is our post that asks, Linkin Park's record label WMG for permission to use their song for our project. In the e-mail we sent. We made sure to let them know that it wouldn't be for commercial gain and for educational purposes only.

Lyric Storyboard So Far

In todays lesson we started working on our lyric storyboard.
Here it is:



















The finished storyboard will come in a later post.

Song Choice

We have finally decided on the song we are using for our coursework, which is:

Linkin Park - 'Papercut'


Vague Concept:
For the concept of the video we took inspiration from our original ideas from the J. Cole - Forbidden Fruit post. We took the idea of conscience from this to include in the video. Ideas of paranoia in the video also came from the lyrics. The video would be about a guys paranoia overwhelming him and how he loses control.
For this we wouldn't need many people, we would need the main character, a few pedestrians in the street who could double as band members in the performance section.

Indecisions

We couldn't decide between the two tracks and asked Miss Walsh to help us decide with her guidance.

However, after listening to our ideas and the tracks she came to a point and decided for both tracks the flaws outweigh the effort and dedication required.

With 'Forbidden Fruit', she seen the idea as too ambitious to complete in such a short period of time along with finding participants.

With 'This Means War', she seen the songs length as too long meaning it would require double the effort and work then what the rest of the class have done.

She concluded we should come to a compromise and try and pick a song that would answer both the flaws and limitations along with combining our interests and differing passions for music. 

The feedback we received from Miss led us to picking a song from Linkin Park and Jay Z's EP Collision Course. After looking at a few of these choices including Big Pimpin/Papercut we came to the conclusion that it would be hard for us to lip synch Jay Z's parts and also to fit in with an interesting narrative that relates to the genre. His verse would feel tacked on and would ruin the flow. As a result of this we went with the original Papercut song by Linkin Park. 

Song Choice Conflicts B: This Means War - Avenged Sevenfold (Anthony's Choice)

I would like to go with the song, 'This Means War' by Avenged Sevenfold. It is from their new album, 'Hail to the King'. This album is heavily riff based as demonstrated by the awesome riff in this song.

The song is about how there is nothing left in his life and how he has turned to drinking. He talks about how no one will care when he's gone. This song has very obvious dark themes which is well suited to the genre of the band. (heavy metal/hard rock).



Narrative/Performance
The video would have brief narrative before the music starts playing, it would open up with a medium shot of the lead guitarist of the band standing at a counter having a drink. He would turn to his friend saying, 'When are we getting the band together' It would then cut to the opening guitar riff being played by him on stage in front of an almost empty crowd. More performance parts would be for the solo and riff being played on top of a hill. For the narrative it would be the guitarist, going through the mundane events of every day life being fed up until at the end it cuts back to them performing in front of a full crowd to show they've made it.

Song Choice Conflicts A: Forbidden Fruit - J Cole (Ste's Choice)

My preferred song choice for our group is the 2013 single by J Cole 'Forbidden Fruit (feat. Kendrick Lamar)' from his sophomore album Born Sinner.

The track itself...

This is a hip-hop track produced by J Cole himself, and the production is based around a looped sample from 'Mystic Brew' by Ronnie Foster. It has a laidback old feel, and the lyrics are based around Cole's encounter with his girlfriend and fits in with the narrative of the album of his skipping church to be with her. He raps about other subjects and uses the Adam and Eve metaphor consistently throughout.
It features other American rapper Kendrick Lamar but instead of contributing a verse he sings the song's hook and bridge later in the song. The last minute or so of the track features dialogue related to the narrative of the album which of course would be edited out so the song fits with our idea, with the explicit language being removed too.

The narrative idea...

My idea for the video would start with the skit that precedes this track with short visual accompaniment of the members of the church wondering where our protagonist 'Jermaine' is, and why he isn't there. It would be a gospel church but doesn't necessarily need black people there, as long as the costumes and dancing is still there to make it recognisable.

As the main song begins it would start with a birds eye shot of the protagonist lying in grass in the middle of nowhere, as if he just woke up there recently. His clothes would look ragged and he would seem very shaken in both how he moves his face and looks. This is quite similar to the video for 'The Scientist' by Coldplay.

The main narrative of the video would follow the protagonist navigating or at least trying to find a way home, with various serious and humourous obstacles. Kendrick Lamar's hook would feature another character acting as the physical conscious of Jermaine, only featuring at the hook and bridge. The only example I have thought of would be the emergence of a girl from water in a bikini, with possible intertextuality to the famous entrance of Honey Ryder in classic Bond film Dr. No, as the supporting character representing Jermaine's thoughts speaks Kendrick's soft hook into Jermaine's ear from behind him.

The performance idea...

A basic idea for the performance scenes would be in a dark empty hall (Knotty Ash Community Centre?) with the band playing along with the instrumental and the singer rapping the main verses and all of J Cole's parts. Kendrick's hook will be confined to the narrative scenes, maybe just the band shown playing on his part.

Questionnaire

Please take the time to fill in this questionnaire (below) to help us with our research for our coursework, thank you. 

Action Plan

As a group we mind mapped some ideas of what we need to do to achieve our goals. Our main focus at the moment is to pick a song that we are going to use to create our video. Another important thing for us to do would be to pick the video setting.

Concept Ideas

Possible genres for us to use were:

Rock, Rap, Rap Rock, Pop and Hip Hop.
Artists we thought of were: Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Raleigh Ritchie, Alter Bridge and Evans Blue.


We came up with a few video ideas.

Our first possible idea would be of a band in 80s costume performing in an old empty hall playing to nobody. There would be a girl wandering around slightly seductively and the band pay no attention to her.

The second idea would be of a slow pop song cover, and the video would consist of a girl with her hood up walking slowly through the rain as everyone else moves past her. The song would be emotionally sad suggesting she hadn't moved on.

Another brief idea we had would be of a girl filled with hatred and jealousy toward a boys girlfrioend, she is obsessed with him. It is a sad song with a tragic ending.

We have narrowed our song choices down to these four:

Avenged Sevenfold - This Means War



Avenged Sevenfold - Requiem



Kanye West - Gorgeous



J Cole - Forbidden Fruit

Introduction and Background to the group

Our group for this consists of two people, Anthony Hill and Steven Brazier. Media Studies is considered our main subject and with the coursework being the most demanding, the one we'll be focusing on during A2.
We are both big music fans, with us going to concerts regularly and a lot of time spent listening to it as well as watching new music videos. We are both fans of a wide range of genres, such as heavy metal, rap and EDM. Sports such as football and basketball, as well as video games are also in our interests.

Anthony
Born - 18/3/1996
Anthony, mainly a rock fan, is pursuing a career in filmmaking so he will be the main influence of the technical and cinematography side of our production, with a more prominent talent in deciding the best framing/shots/editing. Linkin Park have produced some of his favourite videos, with them and their style being an influence.






Steven
Born - 20/11/1995
Steven, mainly a rap fan, takes more inspiration in the music itself and is the bigger fan of music in the group as opposed to the videos and TV/films. Because of his creative vision, the narrative and structure of the video will mostly come from his influence. Hype Williams is his biggest influence on creating music videos, who created many memorable and appealing videos for various artists.

Both of us have experience from a visit to the New York Film Academy, where we produced our own short clip and used professional equipment.