Staging:-

We decided that we wanted our performer, to be singing on a stage. We wanted it to look like he was almost performing but in an abstract way.

Clocks Lyrics:-

The lights go out and I can't be savedTides that I tried to swim againstHave brought me down upon my kneesOh I beg, I beg and plead singing
Come out of things unsaidShoot an apple off my headAnd a trouble that can't be namedA tiger's waiting to be tamed singing
You areYou are
Confusion never stopsClosing walls and ticking clocksGonna come back and take you homeI could not stop that you now know singing
Come out upon my seasCursed missed opportunitiesAm I a part of the cure?Or am I part of the disease? Singing
You areYou areYou areYou are
You areYou are
And nothing else comparesAnd nothing else comparesAnd nothing else compares
You areYou are
Home, home where I wanted to goHome, home where I wanted to goHome, home where I wanted to goHome, home where I wanted to go

The Narrative:-

When we chose the song, we sat down and listened to the song on repeat three or four times. Whilst the song played, each of us had paper and a pen and we brainstormed anything that came to mind in which we felt was appropriate, could be used, or could be built on.

From this we came up with various ideas and put them all together to create the idea behind our video.

We wanted our video to be quite abstract and very simple, in order to follow the genre.


Immediately, the idea of clocks triggered time- and so all three of us wrote down the word 'clocks.'
From this we decided that a clock would definitely be featured in our video.We then developed this to the idea of creating a time lapse.
The clock would continually appear throughout the video and different stages of its cycle showing a passage of time, we wanted to speed the movement up so it created a time lapse.

From this, I went on to think outside of the box a little more. I imaged a character trapped. And the trapped character needs to be free and needs to escape. However they are unable to do so, all the character can therefore think about is the idea of time. The fact that time is passing, time is being wasted and time is running out.
I liked this idea a lot and thought it was pretty versatile for us to work around when filming our video. I felt it could be incorporated into our performance element and we could also use the clock idea alongside this to make the idea stronger.

We then discussed the ending of the song; should it be uplifting or not? We thought it could go either way, the lyrics of the song are not very positive and the idea behind our video was not leading us more towards a negative ending wherein the character doesn't escape being enclosed. Or we also considered an uplifting ending where the character finds freedom before 'his time runs out.'

Costumes:-

Jeff;

We asked Jeff to wear something that was modern and casual. We wanted non-branded clothing that was very plain. In this we went for, a plain white tshirt, black trousers and white pumps.

We felt this look fitted with our genre and reflected the band, the bands atmosphere and the time period well.

Emma;

We wanted Emma to be less significant in our video. In order to portray this, we asked her to simply wear all black clothing in order for her to become more prominent in our shots.

Characters:_

There are only two characters in our video;

Jeff Leyland- 18
     male, brown hair, tall.

Jeff is our main actor, he is going to be featured as the singer of the band. We have filmed him numerous times miming the lyrics to our song.

Emma Claydon- 18
     female, black hair, tall.

Emma is the second of our actors and is featured playing the grand piano. We decided to fit this into our piece, syncing it with the music. Various shots were taken of Emma playing the piano, she is not however, featured in the video in any other way.

Locations:-

Having changed our video idea, we now have new locations for the new video.

As the main feature of our film will be performance, we have concentrated on filming our actor (Jeff Leyland) miming the song in order for us to use this throughout our video. He was filmed in college, on the stage. We kept the curtains closed behind him so as to have a plain backdrop.

We also filmed another of our actors (Emma Claydon) in the hall too, Emma however, was playing the grand piano in the centre of the hall.

We then filmed various different shots around college, in our houses and in the areas around our houses.

Rihanna Advert:-

Rihanna's album 'Rated R' shows the more fierce side of her. This advert shows Rihanna positioned on the third line wearing black clothing and heavy make up. She has a hard expression which helps to create the whole 'character' or 'persona' to match the album.

The advert is mostly in greyscale, but features some red colouring towards the bottom.

Here I noticed that the name of the album doesn't appear to be that important. The name of the artist is most prominent stated in larger lettering than the rest of the text. The names of two songs 'Russian Roulette' and 'Hard' are featured in red text making them seem more important. The audiences attention is drawn to the colouring of these words as it is the only colouring featured. The name of the album is in very small text across the lower part of the image of Rihanna herself. Here it is hard to see, the 'T' in 'Rated' is virtually impossible to see at a glance as it is masked by the image of  the artist.

Coldplay Advert:-

This advert is for Coldplay's album X&Y. The advert features the entirety of the band sitting in what appears to be a performance space surrounded by cables. The lighting is coming from behind the members and casting slight shadows infront of each individual. They are all wearing black suggesting they are all of the same importance within the band. Towards the bottom of the advert the album cover is featured in the bottom left corner. This is in colour so as to make it more recognisable for the audience. It is highlighted this way as everything else bar the record label is in black and white. Next to the album cover is the name of the band, the album title and release date in large writing. The font is simple and stands out well against the black background again making it much easier to read. At the very bottom in much smaller text, is the website address, the record label and the words 'coming soon.' These are of less importance to the audience.

The Kooks Digipak Analysis:-

The Kooks- Inside In Inside Out

Again this album is slightly abstract showing it is modern and contemporary.

The front cover states the band name and the album title in a bold font making it easy for the audience to read. There is an image of the band together showing the band members playing instruments, the image is in greyscale making it appear rather plain and simple.

Again, the back cover contains track listings, copyright and record label information and a bar-code. Both the front and back covers are rather simple and easy on the eye.

The inside covers however, become more interesting. One side contains images with a more comincal influence. Grabbing its audiences attention. The disc itself is also more interesting, a bright red with bold capital lettering stating the band name in black and then the album title in white.

Jessie J Digipak Analysis:-

Jessie J- Who You Are

The majority of this digipack is black and white, apart from the name of the artist, thus making it stand out more prominently from the rest of the album.

The front cover has a close up image of the artist herself, instantly making the front of the album recognisable to its audience. For those who cannot instantly recognise the artist from just her image, her name is stated below her face very bold, in large gold lettering.

The back cover is plain white with the track listing in a simple black font. Again underneath is the vital copyright information and bar-code along with record label information.

Coldplay Digipak Analysis:-

Viva La Vida- Coldplay

This is a perfect example of a Coldplay digipak. All of Coldplay's album covers are very simple, yet effective. The images, text and use of space create the abstract feel the band is aiming to create.

The front cover is an image of the French Revolution  this is rather memorable and famous image to many meaning the cover could easily be recognised and remembered.The use of the graffiti style writing over the top of the classic image adds a modern twist.

The two inside covers are both very simplistic. One containing a black and white image of each band member and the other simply states the name of the group and the title of the album.

The back cover follows the same colour scheme (black and yellow) and again is very simple. The back cover simply lists the track listing, a barcode and the copyright detailing. This would neither attract or detract an audience as it is vital information that has to be placed somewhere on the album. The best place therefore, for this information, would be at the bottom on the back cover. It is also in small print making it seem less important to its target audience.

Videos:-

Here are a few other Coldplay videos that we watched for some inspiration and ideas. We also analysed the videos briefly to establish what it was that we needed to do in order to make our video as close to the general idea and theme of other Coldplay videos.

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face;

> There are a few different shots of performance shown throughout the video.
> The video is quite empty and minimalistic during performance sections.
> The use of black and white is very effective.

EMI:-

Clocks Video:-

We have chosen not to watch the official Clocks video as to not take ideas from the original. We didn't want the video to resemble the official video in anyway. We wanted to make sure it was purely our own work.

Here is a video showing the lyrics of the song;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGr8Y0YTJzY

Band Members:-

• Guy Berryman – bass, backing vocals, harmonica, mandolin, acoustic guitar (1996–present)
• Jonny Buckland – lead guitar, backing vocals, percussion (1996–present)
• Will Champion – drums, backing vocals, rhythm guitar, piano (1996–present)
• Chris Martin – lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar (1996–present)

Musical Style:-

Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin once proclaimed the band's music as "limestone rock" in comparison to "hard rock". The band's music has been called "meditative" and "blue romantic"; it "[reflects] on their emotions" and Martin "endlessly examine[s] his feelings". Martin's lyrical wordplay has been called feminist, similar to Andrew Montgomery of Geneva.

The tone of the band's first studio album, Parachutes, was described as melodic pop with "distorted guitar riffs and swishing percussion" but also being "exquisitely dark and artistically abrasive". Such alternative rock style has been compared to bands like U2, Oasis, Radiohead and Travis. The band acknowledges the Scottish alternative rock band, Travis, as a major influence on their earlier material.

In their second studio album A Rush of Blood to the Head, the band draws inspiration from artists like Echo & the Bunnymen, Kate Bush, George Harrison and Muse. The songs in it were considered to contain "lush melodies and a heartbreak" and that they had a "newfound confidence." The music on their third release X&Y has been considered to be "ruminations on Martin's doubts, fears, hopes, and loves." It was particularly influenced by the artists Johnny Cash and Kraftwerk.

In Viva la Vida or Death And All His Friends, the group's style was moving towards art rock, being influenced by the bands Blur, Arcade Fire and My Bloody Valentine. The band experimented with different instruments including orchestras, honky-tonk pianos and further so.

Regarding their international wide success, the band's president at Parlophone, Miles Leonard has stated that one of their "secrets" is that they have never sounded like a parochial UK artist, saying: "Some bands are very proud to be British, but sometimes come across as being very ‘British’. Coldplay never aspire to that; on one hand they sound British but on the other they sound like a huge global artist. In 2011 Coldplay were hailed as 'Rock Statesmen’.

New Ideas:-

After spending several weeks on our initial idea (She Moves In Her Own Way) by The Kooks, we came to the decision that our video wasn't turning out as planned and therefore decided to change our idea completely. We felt our music video depicted too much of a narrative to be a music video, in that concentrating so much on the narrative had totally misled us from our genre and therefore we felt it didn't fit our specific requirements of that genre.

We thought long and hard over this decision because we weren't sure if we were doing the right thing. We debated restarting The Kooks video, refilming The Kooks idea or starting over. All of which were going to take a lot of work in a shorter space of time. Either way we felt it needed to be done as we were not satisfied with our existing product.

After seeking help from multiple teachers and the rest of our group we decided the best thing to do was to start over; as we felt the initial idea had come to a dead end and was no longer progressing in order for us to gain a mark that we would be satisfied with.

We knew by doing this we were creating more work for ourselves in a smaller time frame but we all decided we were willing to put in the commitment for the remaining time and finish off this piece to a standard that we would be happier with, hopefully within the same deadline as the rest of our group.

Artist Research, Coldplay:-

Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996.

The band is compromised of four members, lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland formed the band together at University College London and called themselves Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they then changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a drummer, backing vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, completing the line-up.

The band renamed themselves "Coldplay" in 1998, before recording and releasing three EPs; Safety in 1998, Brothers & Sisters as a single in 1999 and The Blue Room in the same year. The latter was their first release on a major label, after signing to Parlophone.

They achieved worldwide fame with the release of the single ‘Yellow’ in 2000, followed by their debut album released in the same year, Parachutes, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The band's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), was released to critical acclaim and won multiple awards, including NME's Album of the Year, and has been widely considered the best of the Nelson-produced Coldplay albums. Their next release, X&Y, the best-selling album worldwide in 2005, was met with mostly positive reviews upon its release, though some critics felt that it was inferior to its predecessor. The band's fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), was produced by Brian Eno and released again to largely positive reviews, earning severalGrammy nominations and wins at the 51st Grammy Awards. On 24 October 2011, they released their fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, which received mixed to positive reviews, topped the charts in over 34 countries, and was the UK's best-selling rock album of 2011.

The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career, including seven Brit Awards—winning Best British Group three times, five MTV Video Music Awards, and seven Grammy Awards from twenty nominations. Coldplay have sold over 55 million records worldwide. In December 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the fourth-best artist of the 2000s.

The band initially planned to record their debut album in the space of two weeks. However, tours and other live performances caused the recording to spread out between September 1999 and April–May 2000. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios, Matrix Studios, and Wessex Sound Studios with producer Ken Nelson, although the majority of Parachutes' tracks were recorded at Liverpool's Parr Street Studios (where they accessed three studio rooms). The mixing process on all songs for the album was done by American engineer Michael Brauer in New York. During that period, they played on the Carling Tour, which showcased up-and-coming acts.

After releasing three EPs without a hit song, Coldplay sparked their first Top 40 hit with the lead single from Parachutes, "Shiver", released in March 2000 to a number 35 peak position on the UK Singles Chart. June 2000 was a pivotal moment in Coldplay's history: the band embarked on their first headlining tour, including a showing at the Glastonbury Festival. The band also released the breakthrough single "Yellow". Having the role as Coldplay's first release to crack the top five, the song shot to number four on the UK Singles Chart and placed Coldplay in public consciousness. "Yellow" and "Shiver" were initially released as EPs in the spring of 2000. The former was later released as a single in United Kingdom on 26 June 2000. In the United States, the song was released as the lead single from the then-untitled debut album. In October 2000, the track was sent to US college and alternative radio outlets.

After the success of Parachutes, Coldplay returned to the studio in September 2001 to begin work on their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head, once again with Ken Nelson producing. Since the band had never stayed in London before, they had trouble focusing. They decided to relocate in Liverpool, where they recorded some of the songs on Parachutes. Once there, vocalist Chris Martin said that they became obsessed with recording. "In My Place" was the first song recorded for the album. The band released it as the album's lead single because it was the track that made them want to record a second album following a "strange period of not really knowing what we were doing" three months after the success of Parachutes. According to Martin "one thing kept us going: recording 'In My Place'. Then other songs started coming."

The band wrote more than 20 songs for the album. Some of their new material, including "In My Place" and "Animals", was played live while the band was still touring Parachutes. The album's title was revealed through a post on the band's official website. The album was released in August 2002 and spawned several popular singles, including "In My Place", "Clocks", and the ballad "The Scientist". The latter was inspired by George Harrison's title track to All Things Must Pass, which was released in 1970.

Coldplay spent most of 2004 out of the spotlight, taking a break from touring and releasing a satire music video of a song from a fictional band titled The Nappies while recording their third album. X&Y was released in June 2005 in UK and Europe. This new, delayed release date had put the album back into the next fiscal year, actually causing EMI's stock to drop. It became the best-selling album of 2005 with worldwide sales of 8.3 million. The lead single, "Speed of Sound", made its radio and online music store debut on 18 April and was released as a CD on 23 May 2005. X&Y entered the album charts of 20 countries at the number one position and was the third-fastest selling album in UK chart history. Two other singles were released that year: "Fix You" in September and "Talk" in December. Critical reaction to X&Y was mostly positive, though slightly less enthusiastic than that of its predecessor. New York Times critic Jon Pareles describing Coldplay as "the most insufferable band of the decade", whereas NME awarded the album 9/10 calling it "Confident, bold, ambitious, bunged with singles and impossible to contain, 'X&Y' doesn't reinvent the wheel but it does reinforce Coldplay as the band of their time".

In October 2006, Coldplay began work on their fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, with producer Brian Eno. Taking a break from recording, the band toured Latin America in early 2007, performing in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. After recording in churches and other venues in Latin America and Spain during their tour, the band said the album would likely reflect Hispanic influence. The group spent the rest of the year recording with Eno.

Martin described Viva la Vida as a new direction for Coldplay: a change from their past three albums, which they have referred to as a "trilogy". He said the album featured less falsetto as he allowed his voice's lower register to take precedence. Some songs, such as "Violet Hill", contain distorted guitar riffs and bluesy undertones.

"Violet Hill" was confirmed as the first single, with a radio release date of 29 April 2008. After the first play, it was freely obtainable from Coldplay's website from 12:15 pm (GMT +0) for one week (achieving two million downloads) until it became commercially available to download on 6 May. "Violet Hill" entered the UK Top 10, US Top 40 (entering the Top 10 in the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart) and charted well in the rest of the world. The title track, "Viva la Vida", was also released exclusively on iTunes. It became the band's first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and their first UK number one, based on download sales alone. This was also the first Number One in the UK Singles Chart to be based solely on download sales.

Upon release, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends topped the album charts worldwide, and was the world's best-selling album of 2008. It hit number one on the UK album chart, despite having come on the market only three days previously. In that time, it sold 302,000 copies; the BBC called it "one of the fastest-selling records in UK history". By the end of June, it had set a new record for most-downloaded album ever. In October 2008, Coldplay won two Q Awards for Best Album for Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends and Best Act in the World Today. On 9 November, Coldplay were named the World's Best Selling Act of 2008 at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo. They also picked up two other awards, World's Best Selling Rock Act and Great Britain's Best Selling Act. The band followed up Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends with the Prospekt's March EP, which was released on 21 November 2008. The EP features tracks from the Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends sessions and as well as being available on its own, was issued as a bonus disc with later editions of Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. "Life in Technicolor II" was the only single released from the EP.

The band finished recording the new album in mid-2011. When Martin and Champion were interviewed by BBC Radio and asked about the album's lyrical themes, Martin replied "It's about love, addiction, OCD, escape and working for someone you don't like." When asked whether or not their fifth album would be out by the summer, Martin and Champion said that there was plenty of work to be done before releasing it. They confirmed several festival appearances before its release date.

In an interview on 13 January 2011, Coldplay mentioned two new songs to be included on their upcoming fifth album, "Princess of China" and "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall". In a February interview, Parlophone president Miles Leonard told HitQuarters that the band were still in the studio working on the album and he expected the final version would appear "towards the autumn of this year".

On 31 May 2011, Coldplay announced that "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" was to be the first single for the fifth album. It was released on 3 June 2011. The band also presented five new songs at festivals during the summer of 2011, "Charlie Brown", "Hurts Like Heaven", "Us Against the World", "Princess of China" and "Major Minus".

On 12 August 2011, Coldplay announced via their official website that Mylo Xyloto is the new album title, and that it would be released on 24 October 2011. On 12 September the band released the second single from their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto entitled "Paradise". On 23 September 2011, tickets for Coldplay's European tour officially went on sale. Demand proved to be very high with most venues selling out in seconds. Mylo Xyloto was released on 24 October 2011, to mixed to positive reviews, and topped the charts in over 34 countries.

On 19 October 2011, Coldplay performed songs at Apple Inc.'s private memorial event for Steve Jobs, including "Viva la Vida", "Fix You", "Yellow" and "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall". On 26 October their "Amex Unstaged" concert at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid, Spain, was streamed by YouTube as a live webcast directed by Anton Corbijn. On 30 November 2011, Coldplay received three Grammy Award nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards which took place on 12 February 2012 in Los Angeles, and the band performed with Rihanna at the ceremony. On 12 January 2012, Coldplay were nominated for two Brit Awards. On 21 February 2012, they were awarded the Brit Award for Best British Group for the third time. The album was the best-selling rock album in the United Kingdom, selling 908,000 copies. The album's second single, "Paradise", was also the best-selling rock single in the UK, selling 410,000 copies. At the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards on 6 September, "Paradise" won the award for Best Rock Video. Mylo Xyloto has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

Coldplay headlined the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic games on 9 September 2012, where they performed alongside other artists including Rihanna and Jay-Z. To tie in with their performance at the closing ceremony, the group gave permission for bands who were participating in the Bandstand Marathon the opportunity to perform their 2008 single "Viva La Vida" to celebrate the end of the games.

In October 2012, the music video for Coldplay's song "Hurts Like Heaven" was released. The video was based on the story of Mylo Xyloto, a boy who grew up in tyranny ran by Major Minus. The fictional comics entitled "Mylo Xyloto" will continue on the story portrayed in the music video when the series is released in early 2013.

A concert documentary film titled, "Coldplay Live 2012," chronicles their tour in support of the Mylo Xyloto album. The film premiered theatrically for one night only, 13 November 2012, and will be released on CD and home video on 19 November 2012.