Pop Promo Analysis - (Chemical Brothers-Believe)

Artist and Song : Chemical Brothers – Believe, Director: Dom and Nic.

In this pop promo there are only four locations that the director uses which is: Forest’s, Tube Station, Street and the man’s work. The Director uses these type of locations because they are lonely, dark places. This makes the man more insane because there are not many people around and because he is the only one that can see the robots he becomes more worried. But that is only in the beginning when he just starts noticing the robots but at the end he is in a public place (on the street) with a lot of people around so which proves that he has gone completely insane.

When the man is going more and more insane there are extreme closes of his eyes and him sweating to emphasis his worry and frustration as he is the only one who can see the robots. Also when he is running up the stairs there is a point of view shot this gives the audience how scared the man is because he is running and the camera movement is wobbly.

The use of visual effects I can see is at the end when he is sitting on the street the cones of the building change colour and come down towards, also when the robots are coming closer towards him the traffic cones light up as well. The director uses these effects to try and emphasis that he is completely gone insane.

The only thing I can see is when the word “Believe” comes on he sees the robots. I think the director has done this because he is the only one who believes and sees the robots.

When there is a high pitch sound in the music they use things like the locker when he slams it, it goes “bing.” Also whenever the robots come on the screen it makes a sound but it goes along with it as when the robots move the music changes, this is trying to emphasise that the robots are actually like animals and that they have their own noise, like a cat says “meow.”

There are no genre characteristics this is a genre of electronica and I cannot see anything that makes it an electronic genre.

There is a narrative in this pop promo, and i think it keeps the audience wondering why the man is seeing the robots. Also the narrative keeps the audience wondering if he will ever be caught by the robots and also what do the robots want with them if they actually caught him.

This pop promo does not promote the band performance because you never see the band, but that is because it is electronica music and it would be boring for the audience to see some men tuning some electronic equipment boxes.

For me, I think that the intended audience are teenagers because of the music as well I do not think that older audiences like 25 + would listen to electronica music.

What makes a good pop promo?

Ø Visual Style (Originality)
Ø M-E-S
Ø Narrative
Ø Ideology(messages/values)
Ø Special effects,CGI,animation
Ø Concept – Idea
Ø Fun/Comedy, Drama
Ø Performance in video
Ø Intertextuality (Video based on a film)
Ø Genre Characteristics
Ø Promotes band and single.

Forms and Conventions of Pop Promos

· Andrew Goodwin identifies a number of key features, which distinguish the music video as a form:

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
2. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals.
3. Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography.
4. There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups pf the main artist.
5. The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which, over time, becomes part if their star image.
6. There is likely to be reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women.
7. There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.

· Lyrics – Key lines may play apart in the visual associated with the song but very rarely will a music video simply illustrate the lyrics wholesale.

· Genre – These features might be reflected in types of mise en scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.

· Camerawork – Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed. Camera movement may accompany movement of performers but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance, for instance. By constantly circling the band as they perform on stage.

· Editing – This might take the form of split-screens, colourisation and the use of blockbuster film-style CGI special effects.

History of Pop Promos

· The close relationship between music tracks and visual material can be traced back to 50 years earlier with the experiments of Oscar Fischinger in Germany in the 1920s and in the USA in the 1930s notably with his abstract synchronisations, or visual interpretation, such as the Disney film Fantasia (1939).

· Short films made to showcase the artist emerged in the relatively early days of sound filmmaking. Films of up to eight minutes in duration were used to display the singers from Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby, some showings were in cinema screenings as part of a full programme of newsreel, cartoon and main feature but mainly as reels on the forerunner of the video jukebox, the Panarom.

· Television coverage of pop music attempted to capture the new teenage audience from American Bandstand in the USA in the 1950s through Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops in the mid-1960s in the UK.

Brief for Pop Promo

During this year I have to produce a promotional Package for an album, which includes a pop promo for an album track, with two of the three options:
· A website homepage for the band
· A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD Package)
· A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD Package).

For making a pop promo we have to work in groups no larger than four people and each person in the group must explore different roles involved in the production. This pop promo will need to promote the image of the band and reflect the genre, pace and mood of the songs.Also we need to consider what of sort of institution the pop promo would sit within and the TV channels/Website could be distributed on. Also we have to consider the look and feel of the whole package (pop promo, website, A cover for its release as part of a digipak CD/DVD Package, A magazine advertisement for the digipak.