Cast

Daniel Tuffs- We chose Daniel as he is an extremely talented skateboarder and is the lead vocalist of ‘Smaller Than You’. This is significant as we wanted the band members to take part in the video to entertain the audience, reference their image and passion for music, and ,promote them in the video. Daniel is featured towards the middle section of the video, taking the drum sticks of Martha and finally ending in the resolution by giving them back to Jake (the rightful owner). Daniels image is significant to the video in order to connote youth. He is 18 years of age and looks fresh and young which is what we were looking for.



Martha Woodward- Martha isn‘t a band member and is a fundamental character who progresses the narrative further by participating in the relay of the drum sticks in our narrative. Martha steals the drum sticks at Anglia Square from the skaters Ross and Chris, she runs away with them leading to St Benedict’s where Daniel retrieves them back, giving them back to Jake. We chose Martha cause she is a stereotypical teen ‘indie-punk’ girl, through her youthful appearance and costume. We developed her appearance as quite masculine as females aren’t highly apparent in the genre of ska, this was effective as we were challenging the genre by doing this creating a post-modernist approach. Her attire was a checked t-shirt, which is distinctly male, with leggings and pumps. This ‘indie’ representation is drawn from contemporary culture and people who purchase items from ‘Topshop’ are seen as stereotypical individual ‘indie’ characters. This is significant as the way people dress and the music people listen to makes them who they are, part of their identity, which produces signs of a site of semiotic struggle when they aim to find themselves through this constructed certitude, especially within the media. This refers to someone trying to make meaning of themselves (semiotic= to make meaning), and also sight of subjectivity meaning that this character is subjected to these factors and messages. Although this means that the person has an opinion, they chose to be influenced by things and others around them who are similar which is where we build our identities, this refers back to the ‘indie’ character of Martha who fits into our society/culture by her appearance , as this is the stereotypical fashion at this point in time.












Chris Yemomans-We had heard of Chris through other skaters that said he was really talented, so we asked him to meet us on the day of the shoot. We purposely asked him to wear a beanie hat and baggy skater jeans to look like a 'typical skater', this is as culture portrays 'skaters' as wearing baggy Jeans, renowned sports brands for example- Nike, Etnies, DC’s and Animal clothing. This idea is drawn from the beginning stages of skateboarding in the late 1940‘s, this made a demand for suitable skating shoes, including DC‘s becoming very popular to skateboarders, where here we are reinforcing this. Chris, in the narrative, takes the drumsticks from me and ollie’s over walls on his skateboard (with other various tricks throughout the video), passing the sticks also to Owen and Ross. Ross leaves the sticks on the floor, which are taken by Martha, which develops the relay further. Animals clothing is aimed especially at people who are active in sports and have a ‘tom boyish’ nature to them, which we want to connote.










Ross Barber- Ross we chose for one of the skaters in the narrative as he looks like a youthful teenager, who would entertain youthful audience, and is someone the audience can identify with. Our audience is primarily Sk-punk which is male a dominated industry with a primarily male audience We wanted more male cast members for this male audience to identify with, but featured 2 females (Myself and Alice from the band) to develop a post-modernist approach to the genre. Ross's costume entailed him to wear a music orientated or sports orientated t-shirt, to connote the importance of music to the people in the video and the messages conveyed through the band. Ross also wore Nike sweatpants, which are a generic signifier of this democratic sport (skateboarding) as well as youth.











Jake Cummings- Jake is the main skater and motivation throughout our music video. He is extremely significant to our video as he starts and finishes the narrative, bringing closure to the video when he retrieves the sticks in time for his 'Smaller Than You' gig. We want Jake to wear a generic youthful ska-punk/skate-punk outfit which was a grey Venice beach surf t-shirt and baggy trousers with big DC trainers. Jake is the drummer of the band which is where our video was inspired by as we were able to from an enticing narrative with the band in central focus to promote them as much as possible. We got the idea of the video from him as he already featured in our thriller video for AS, and knew he would be able to carry out this image as it is tangible to him, as he skateboards, is 18 and interested in the genre (ska/punk). We knew he skateboarded so we based the music video around him and his young unsigned Ska-punk band. We have known the band for about 4 years so we have easy access to their music, Ep's and merchandise which was has been extremley useful tomy production and research.

Jasper Dumas- Jasper plays bass in the band, and also is a very good skateboarder which was significant for our video. He skates in his free time and is found anywhere when we needed him, and he is young looking and confident in our video. The audience wants to see this as they want an idea of the bands image and lifestyle and, Jake Jasper and Daniel develop this, and are all along promoting their bands name.





Isobel Winstanley- plays the part of someone standing by a lamppost reading a music magazine, Daniel Tuffs is then featured in the background in a deep focus shot and is seen skateboarding just after taking the drumsticks from Martha. We found this magazine at the Art House where ‘Smaller Than You' are featured on the inside cover. We thought this would be an interesting way to promote and advertise their name in an effective way using real media texts.

Hannah Ustel- The first scene I am featured in is the scene where my character steels the drumsticks from Jake, which leads to the scene of my character running, amplifying and connoting the fast speed of the music, genre and edit. This then leads to the car scene which again reinforces a chaotic fast paced lifestyle/world which progresses the narrative further, causing Chris (a skater) at Anglia Square to have the drumsticks at this point in the narrative.


Jimmy Blake- Jimmy is in short scene in our video. This scene has been recently filmed and planned as we felt we needed another location to the narrative to add variation and too also convey the fast paced music relating to the lyrics and edit, this consists of Jimmy driving my character towards the desolate Anglia Square. This also adds continuity to the video as it allows us to add this scene in the edit to link two scenes together, emphasising time has moved on, connoting fast movement, and a time of transition.




We are also promoting the band video as Jake, Jasper and Daniel Tuffs are all band members or Smaller Than You. Another idea we got from Smaller Than You was the upbeat music that went perfectly with the fast chase of the skateboarding.

Costume And Props

The costume for the cast and band members is generically reflected by the genre of ska-punk music and other underground music hybrids. Their attire will entail jeans or cropped shorts (skinny/baggy), a tight t-shirt which is either simple and plain or band merchandise (for example one of ‘Smaller Than You’s musical influences ‘The Aquabats‘ or a rock inleunce like 'Guns And Roses'),and generic sports/skating trainers such as DC's- Nike- Etnies and Vans. We are asking a few members to wear props such as, headphones and a beanie hat to add to a generic youthful ska-punk look. These props are typically seen as skater like or 'punk' as they are unglamorous and individual, and are signifiers either showing their passion for music, or showing they have no interest in the latest fashion. Although this doesn't apply to all skateboarders and punk/ska advocators/fans this is the general perspective people have of them, bands associated with this skate-punk/Ska mage are: ‘Mad Caddies‘, ‘The Specials‘, ‘Spunge’ and ‘Less Than Jake‘. The older generic British Ska image of smart suits with bowler hats doc martins were associated with this type of music in former generations and were associated with Skinheads, this image was formed by renowned bands such as ‘The Specials’ who are still as popular and influential to this music genre and scene significantly.
We are hoping for the cast and band members to look like any generic skateboarder, as well as fitting the prototype of the music and appearing to a young audience. This look is very important, as it needs to please and convince our audience they are young and talented. The audience will have their own image of what the video looks like and who will play, so we are choosing outfits and people who generically link to the music and costume of the generic conventions. This costume will hopefully emphasise and reference youth as a sub culture to the video, and by presenting the band as young teenage skaters will hopefully attract a youthful audience, interested in ska-punk.
Jake ( the lead cast member in the narrative) is going to be wearing large headphones around his neck, and all of them will often be seen with the same pair of drumsticks and one point in the narrative. This prop is fundamental to the continuity and aspect of our double based narrative as these sticks are the focus point which will be engaging our audience to watch as they are passed throughout the cast members through Norwich. Other props are ‘Smaller Than You’ posters which we are going to make as a sort of logo and signifer for the audience to be able to establish the band through, we are going to have these either dotted around the city of Norwich where we are filming) or featured in the performance based narrative, if we decide to have one.



Intertexutual References- To other bands images:


'SPUNGE'-
are a Ska-Punk band from Tewkesbury in England, and are the only band ever allowed permission by the Marley family to change the lyrics of 'No Woman No Cry' showing their successful status. This band are significant to my research into the hybrid as they are a renowned British band in the genre of ska-punk, which is one of a kind for Britain. Although they aren’t entirely mainstream they have supported the likes of ‘Green Day’ and ‘Bowling For Soup‘, both these bands being American rock/ska/punk acts. They are signed to Sucka-Punch Records and there lyrics entail songs of skanking (a generic signifier of the music), relationships and kicking pigeons!
Looking on their Myspace their influences are ‘Less Than Jake’ and ‘The Specials’ (both bands being the same influences also for 'Smaller Than You') and looking at their Myspace friends their audience demographic is from 18 to 22 and is primarily male. This band are significant as they share roughly the same audience demographic, and are like ‘Smaller Than You’, targeting a young male audience.





Their band image is what we are aiming for the outline of each cast members costume. Although the band members of ‘Spunge’ are not teenagers, they promote a good youthful message to a young audience. They were tanks, music t-shirts and basic jeans, with converse and old school sneakers like, Etnies. I especially like their bright attire as it relates perfectly with their vibrant merry and upbeat music with humorous lyrics.







MAD CADDIES:
Mad Caddies are another musical influence to 'Smaller Than You' and follow the similar image of costume we are hoping to utilise in the mise en scene of our video.

Music Video Planning

Our music video is going to be an upbeat skateboarding relay between several people. Jake Cummings the drummer of 'Smaller Than You' is going to be the main character and is going to start of outside Sound clash with 2 drumsticks and a 'Smaller Than You' ticket. Jasper (basist from the band) is going to skateboard past and snatch them out of his hands and its going to be a race through the city to get them back. We are going to film through the city shooting cultural places to keep reminding the audience of the location, for example the castle, and the Cathedral. This is an important cultural reference indicating the British roots of the band and showing the scenic old architecture and buildings. We are going to film at Eaton Skate Park as it has a convienient park and open space to film. Our cast is going to exist of one skate board girl Jessica Frere-Smith, and 7 other guy skateboarders. We’ve picked people we know and can rely on and are sorting out a filming schedule.

Our cast are going to almost have a relay of passing the props around the city and snatching them from one another. Jake gets a bus from castle meadow to the UEA skate park where we are going to shoot much more skateboarding and stunts. In the end Jake is going to finally retrive his drum sticks and ticket back and then is going to enter the gig venue shutting the door behind him showing a poster saying 'Smaller Than You Playing Tonight'.
Throughout the video we are going to show posters of the upcoming gig on walls advertising them and keep zooming on the ticket to advertise the bands name. This is effective as the audience will keep being reminded of the images and remember the bands name. We are going to shoot at the UEA, the city centre, a gig venue which hasn't been chosen (either the waterfront or art centre) and on a bus. When Jake gets on the bus he is going to put headphones on and the music is going to almost fade out and sound muffled, as if the audience is hearing from outside of the headphones. We are going to email First bus for planning and permission as this may be a problem.

Filming Schedule

Friday 18th September: Shooting Skateboarding, Jake shot outside sound Clash and some location shots and we are also going to practice some moving shots. The moving shots may be hard to shoot, as we have practised some fast movement on camera and it’s quite blurry, and as we need to show a gig ticket being snatched from one another we may need to improvise as it might not look as good.

Sunday the 20th: Shooting of skateboarders Ross, Chris and Will. Location Anglia Square.

Monday 21st September: More filming, getting the scenes done, and more shots the skateboarding.

Influential Music Video's And Artists

These artists below are significant to my research as they are all musical influences of 'Smaller than You', and have generic ska videos of having a comedic based narrative intergated with some sort of perfromance narative. They also have generic costume and band appearcnce to the genre which will be useful in my productions.

LESS THAN JAKE:

‘Less Than Jake’ are an American ska band from Florida and are a big musical influence of ‘Smaller Than you’. They are renowned for third-wave ska, ska-punk, and other hybrids of ska and underground music. There music video - ‘Does this lion City Still Roar?’ is significant in establishing the band in urban scenes in America, which is what my group wants to do with our music video but with Britain. These scenes in this video portray a desolate and unglamorous location full of fences, dumps and litter which is referenced through there lyrics, for example “The city feels like a cage“, along with references to “drugs“, “crime“ and lyrics connected to the deterioration of the city. Ironically this music video still manages to create and connote an upbeat, pessimistic and humorous atmosphere within the video, due to the pace of the music and mise-en-scene and engaging narrative. The location of New York is obvious through the visuals of art deco apartments and the lyrics of “There’s an overdose on 8th“, which is significant as according to Andrew Goodwin‘s theory there should be a distinct link between the lyrics and the visuals conveyed. This video is effective in promoting the band in the video humorously and vividly for the audience to see the band and engage with the music video. This band will be extremely useful in ideas for my production and how to promote a third wave ska band, whilst targeting a young audience.

SUM 41:
Are a Canadian punk rock band who fuse elements of ska-punk into their music. However, their predominant genre has been hard to determine by critics as they fuse complex combinations of different musical genres an styles together. They are significant to my research as there costume and video's are quite generic to the signifiers of ska music. This image below is extremely effective and could be a potential idea for my print productions. I think they have been marketed well here through their costume, image and the location they are being presented in. I really love the black and white graffiti background and think it conveys their rebellious teen image well.
Their costume is key to their music and image as it is a signifier of the genre and the young grunge/rock/punk audience they are targeting. Etnies and Vans shoes are extremely fundamental to the genre as they are worn by most underground musical artists, as seen here. The lead singer too the far left is extremely key to their image as he is the lead singer. Youth and punk/rock is reinforced through their costume, with the use of the tie, the cropped shorts, gelled colourful hair, sweat bands and simplistic t-shirts and band merchandise.

This video below: 'In Too Deep' by Sum 41- this music video contains dominant youth and punk signifiers through it's mise en scene, which is useful for my research into the genre. The narrative is interesting as it is humorous, engaging the audience as well as performance based, but still contained in one narrative and one location. The location is a signifier of the USA; a deserted swimming centre, surrounded by a crowd of high school teenagers holding up signs saying 'Jocks' with a line crossed over the top, connoting youth and America into this music video. This is significant as this band are dominantly targeting their music and this music video to young American teenagers, who are able to relate with the music video. The costume conveys a punk image due to the Iron Maiden band tops (referencing other renowned rock acts) and, again, the significant Etnies and Vans shoes amplifying the underground genre.

CATCH 22:
Are an American third-wave-ska band who are significant to my research into the genre and music videos as they are ska-punk, like, ‘Smaller Than You’. They have toured with other renowned third-wave-ska acts such as ‘Reel Big Fish’ and ‘Mustard Plug‘.

This video below is an example of a ska-punk band (catch 22) utilising costume, movement (skanking- type of dance associated with the genre), and the appearance of the band/cast members to establish and use the genre significantly. This video also effectively focuses on a humorous narrative as well as the band performing which is dominant in most ska-punk music videos. This video has a clear and simple edit which complements the many different and effective camera angles keeping the audience active and engaged. I particularly like this video, as well as Sum 41’s ‘In Too Deep’, as their grading is vivid and vibrant connoting an optimistic atmosphere.

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