Literary Which Informed Our Music Video

Music Video Analysis: James Owen Fender - The Cloud

Lyme Regis/The Cobb Research

 Lyme Regis and The Cobb have been iconically throughout history in literature and film. The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Cobb was used to show power, danger and the drama between the two characters in the film, as the film is about two actors in a film within the film, but they then become intimate in their present life. This shows a disjointed reality and conflicting characters and situations, much like our music video which is why the location fits so perfectly to our idea.

 

The iconic shots of Meryl Streep on The Cobb were definitely something we wanted to recreate and reference in our video. The flowing skirt was also an intentional intertextual reference in our video to this film as Meryl's costume is a long, flowing black coat which was filmed billowing in the wind at the end of The Cobb, a shot in which we attempted to recreate.

The Cobb and Lyme was also used as a location in the TV version of Jane Austen's Persuasion (1995) where it also references the Victorian ideology of the area and Lyme itself. The Lyme Regis museum describes The Cobb as, 'The 16th century Cobb was a miracle of engineering for its time, and described by the Elizabethan chronicler Holinshed as "a great and costly jetty". It required constant maintenance, and in the 1620s Thomas Gerard described how stones to reinforce the Cobb were carried there buoyed up by empty wooden casks.' Therefore, showing that The Cobb is a marvel in British engineering and has many connotations with the literature that was written at these times, such as Thomas Hardy's classic literature.

A drawing of the 16th century Lyme Regis and Cobb





Jane Eyre's book, Persuation, was also influenced by Lyme Regis. She was very fond of the area and in her novel she depicts a girl, Louisa Musgrave, who after a dramatic turn of events, jumps off the Cobb. This perfectly fits to our idea of using the Cobb and it also made the idea of Ava, our female character, jumping off the Cobb a more viable idea due to it being more than about the relationship because it is symbolic and intertexual.

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis and The Cobb are going to play a large part in the music video. The Cobb at Lyme Regis have had the likes of Meryl Streep standing on it, filming 'The French Lieutenants Woman', the BBC's version of 'Persuasion' and of course, Thomas Hardy's work was mostly written in the same area.

The Cobb is initially a sea wall to protect the harbour and the coastline.

By using the Cobb as one of our locations, it means that we can inter-textual reference it to other media filmed there, such as listed above.

The Cobb is a spectacular location to film at and hopefully the footage we film will compliment the Cobb.

Chesil Beach

Chesil beach is another great location we definitely wanted to use in our video. It is a strand of beach located in a quite rural and quaint area, perfect for filming.

Our plan was for some panning shots around the characters, for interest of shots, but also to utilise the locations; by using the hills and the sea either side of the beach.

It is the location furthest away from where we stayed, so we had to make sure that took almost a whole day just for the this location to make sure we had enough to travel there and get a lot of filming done. 

We had to walk along the beach to get to where the river falls behind the beach and have the sea in front of it as well so we could use as much of location as possible, meaning that planning ahead was vital.

Final Costumes

The Present day costumes will be as is in the pictures. 

Nile

Plain black T-Shirt signifying the 'dark side' of the relationship, the rocky argumentative side.

Grey Jeans highlighting that there were some grey areas of their relationship - not completely truthful. 

Grey DM Boots suggesting he HAD the upper-hand of the relationship. (the renowned and long lasting strength associated with Doc Martens)

Ava

White T-Shirt speckled with black the white suggests she wishes she could go back to it being how it was, however the black speckles are the parts which make her believe it was the right decision to go; like that she knows it could never be the same even though she wishes it was simple.

                                           Black Maxi skirt signifying the 'dark side' of the relationship, the rocky argumentative side.
                                           Brown buckled belt making the fact that there was some difference                       between the two characters stand out. one of the reasons Ava left.
                                          Black spiked shoes suggesting that Ava sometimes lost her temper and became quite 'prickly' with Nile.

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The Past or memories of the two characters costumes will be as in the pictures.

Nile

Blue Tye Dye top the pattern suggests a happy, fun and playful relationship, exhibited via the music video clips.

Blue Denim shorts again, a sense of fun and joy is represented via the colour.

Ava

Blue strap top delight and appreciation is shown through this colour on Ava in their relationship.

Black leggings highlighting that maybe there are a few things that Ava doesn't like to talk about/a secret kept from Nile. 

Nile
Turquoise shirt similarly to the other outfit, happiness and playful, featuring a minute pattern, showing small details in their relationship.
Grey trousers suggesting there may be one or two disagreements or situations that went wrong.
Grey DM boots similar to the trousers

Ava
Sky Blue shirt similar to before, exhibiting her contentment and happiness.
Grey Cardigan implying that there was/is some disagreement between the two of them
Dark leggings suggesting that there is something she is keeping from Nile or something she hates about 'him' or 'them'.
Black shoes similar to 'dark leggings'.

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We decided to go with a motif of black/grey/white (present) and blue/green/black (past) to signify a difference and contrast between the two time frames and show that there is a complete change in their relationship, not only as people but as a 'unit', so to speak.

The very simple monotone colours of the present outfits show the mourning nature of their emotional state, showing they are still wrapped up in this relationship and can't seem to escape, but perhaps Ava sees it more 'black and white' because Nile's 'grey' vision shows he is still yearning for the relationship to continue.

The motif of blue is to symbolise the relationship as pure, as the definition of blue in a conceptual sense is 'Blue represents truth, wisdom, heaven, eternity, devotion, tranquillity, loyalty and openness. The presence of this colour may symbolise a spiritual guide and optimism of the future and clarity of mind.' This shows that in that time they were optimistic and seeing their future together as bright and infinite.

However blue does lead itself into forshadowing of the relationship as it can also mean, 'An expressing a desire to get away or the colour blue may also be a metaphor for "being blue" and feeling sad.' Thus, showing that their relationship was finite and not enternal as they hoped beforehand.

The decision to have two 'past' outfits was to show the long jeverdy of their relationship and that it lasted for some time before falling apart. Also the first outfit is all blue, showing the connotations of blue, but then the second outfit starts to show the cracks in the relationship with the 'grey' areas of the outfits showing the 'grey' areas of their relationship.

Costume Ideas

The plan is to keep the costumes simplistic and representative or their relationship, the present and the past. 

Present

Black and white - alongside low saturation of video.

Simple clothing - nothing with excessive patterns/complex textures.

Nothing to detract from what is going on in the video.

Modest clothing - Clothing that covers a majority of the body. 

Flowing clothing - we wanted a skirt/scarf/dress that would flow from the female character's body to add drama to the shots.

Past
Simple clothing.
Bright colour - blue theme - co-inciding with the sea/river locations and the high saturation filters on the clips: connoting pure, innocent, dream-like state.
Vest tops/t-shirts.

Our aim was to have a distinctive difference between flashblack and reality in every way possible with the shots themselves, the editing and costume. The costume also adds a lot to the ambiance and mood of the video, adding to the contrast and drama.

Actor/Character Profiles

There will be only two characters in our video; a young female and a young male. We chose the two actors (Emily and Fraser) on their creativity, acting abilities and appearance.

We thought that knowing the people we were going to be working with would make the process easier and more efficient. If you know the people then their motivation, willingness and understanding will be greatly increased, as we found out from a very hectic, but productive week of filming. Emily had known Emily Greig since 2007 and we both know Fraser since we both started Sixth Form.

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ACTOR
NAME - Emily Greig
GENDER - Female
AGE - 17
HEIGHT - 5 Ft 7"
HAIR COLOUR - Chestnut Brown/Red tint
SCHOOL - Wymondham College
SUBJECTS - Media, Philosophy, Psychology

CHARACTER
NAME - Ava
GENDER - Female
AGE - 19
INTERESTS - Reading and Writing literature, Love Stories, Poetry, watching films, sight seeing, day dreaming, attending concerts, writing own music, camping with friends.
RELATIONSHIP - Ava fell in love with Nile, they were together for 4 years and were the perfect teenage sweethearts. Ava ran away from the relationship, like she runs away with her mind. She felt like she was not good enough for Nile and in the music video is trying to remember them and her old self, as her mind has changed since they were together. At the end of the video she tries to kill herself but fails, she watches him walk away from her (un-knowingly) on the beach.

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ACTOR
NAME - Fraser Stannage
GENDER - Male
AGE - 17
HEIGHT - 5 Ft 10"
HAIR COLOUR - Dark Brown
SCHOOL - City Of Norwich School
SUBJECTS - Photography, Psychology, ICT

CHARACTER
NAME - Nile
GENDER - Male
AGE - 19
INTERESTS -Writing own music, attending concerts, photography, drawing/graphic design, reading, devising film ideas, acting, being with friends.
RELATIONSHIP - If possibly, Nile was more in love with Ava than she was with him. Nile adored her. When Ava ran away from their relationship together, he was not going to let her go. In the music video, Nile tries to re-trace their steps in their relationship to see how he can 'find' her again. He gets close towards the end, but walks away from the beach. However his quest to find her is not over.

Casting

Once we had the locations in place and we had planned to travel down to Devon in late August, we thought that we had the casting sorted, but unfortunately the dates clashed with a family holiday so our female actor, Emily Chawawa, was unable to come with us. Our male actor, Fraser Stannage, was also at 'Reading' festival at the same time, but fortunately we were able to pick him up en-route.

We were then stuck without a female actress and after asking many of our friends at such short notice, Emily's friend Emily Greig volunteered to join us and help with out music video. It is a shame that Emily Chawawa, our original actress, couldn't join us due to the West-African connotations of 'Kankouran' and Emily being of African origin and coloured skin it would have worked extremely well, however we were very grateful for Emily Greig to step in at the last minute.

Emily also takes media studies at a different school so we thought it would be perfect so she could give her creative feedback on our ideas also and will also understand our intentions when making the video as she is making her own at the school she attends.