The narrative structure of the video is somewhat generic when compared with other Indie Rock videos; the equilibrium is the troubled life of the protagonist, followed by the disequilibrium of insomnia, repair through the dream sequence and a new equilibrium as the protagonist awakes. The convention of a live performance from the advertised band, as seen in ‘Brianstorm’ by Arctic Monkeys, is challenged and removed entirely, relying instead on the narrative of the video to spark interest in the consumer. This is executed on the basis that the story of the song and video is equally as important as the quality of the song itself, leaning in favour of a product which requires the audience to look deeper into its meaning. Focusing on the story behind the product provides a canvas on which the audience can impose their own troubles and concerns, due to the subjective nature of the song and the cause of the singer’s woes, which taps into the audience’s own worries, labelling the teenage age demographic as a possible phase of crisis, whether in a consumer’s place in society, desire to rebel against social norms or the contemplation of happiness and even existence. An example of a deeper meaning in real media products is Kasabian’s ‘Where Did All the Love Go?’ which carries a serious message on the nation’s emotional decline since the 1960s/70s, although the video for the single has little to do with the song’s subject.
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| Shaun in 'This is England' |
The story of the video itself also adheres to the genre. Some of Arctic Monkeys’ videos, such as ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ (sourced from the short film ‘Scummy Man’) and ‘Leave before the Lights Come On’, have a similar narratives which chronologically follow the actions of a handful of often troubled or disadvantaged characters (the prostitute Nina in When the Sun Goes Down and the two characters played by Paddy Considine and Kate Ashfield in Leave before the Lights Come On), as does Insomniac with the nameless protagonist, played by myself, who is contemplating suicide. Deviating from the format of the two Arctic Monkeys videos, Insomniac focuses entirely on the protagonist with no input from any other character, which accentuates the character’s isolation from the rest of the world. A film such as This Is England is appropriate in the theme of the disenfranchisement of youth and the reconstruction of identity through peers/tribes, as theorized by Michel Maffesoli, though the camaraderie found in tribal/gang culture is absent in the lonesome setting of Insomniac.
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| Sam Riley as Ian Curtis |
The protagonist is at a similar age to the lower end of the age demographic, and will therefore be easier to sympathise with. During the first few scenes of the Anton Corbijn directed biopic of the life of Ian Curtis from the formation of Joy Division, ‘Control’ Ian is still in education and is only 23 years old by his suicide in 1980. Various similarities in geography and age, coupled with the iconic status of the late front man make Curtis an easy individual to sympathise with for my audience, who may aspire to become an artist working in the music industry or other creative professions. Similarities can also be drawn between the character of Ian in Control (played by Sam Riley) and the protagonist of Insomniac, who himself is facing various troubles including the contemplation of suicide and an unhelpful prescription of drugs, which he neglects to use properly. Control also features several scenes in which Ian flees the situation at home to drink at the pub, which may point to alcoholism. Binge drinking is an issue often associated with British youths, and the protagonist of Insomniac worsens his health in the combination of his medication with alcohol continuously. These instances of contemporary teenage issues can be contributed to Lacan’s theory on identity, in that the audience can engage with the text through these aspects, in which they see parts of their own lives.
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| First edition cover of Catcher in the Rye |
Other characters from which inspiration has been taken include Holden Caulfield, the isolated teenage protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, a book that has become a symbol of rebellious and troubled youth and is still relevant in contemporary society, especially to Insomniac’s young, alternative audience. Holden struggles to adapt to adult life and is hostile to the ‘phoniness’ and loss of innocence in society. Like the protagonist of Insomniac, Holden is often under mental or emotional strain, and vaguely implies that he has been institutionalised for a temporary period at the end of the book after a probable nervous breakdown; The death of his brother, Allie, and classmate James Castle’s suicide whilst wearing Holden’s borrowed jacket are both traumatic events which could contribute to the mental state of the character. Whether or not a past experience has influenced the protagonist of Insomniac is not made clear, though Holden’s fixation on the trauma is similar to the protagonist’s frequent contemplation of death through the imagery of the graveyard, which culminates in his suicide attempt in the climatic shot. A graveyard also features heavily in the opening and final scenes of The Third Man (see left) as Holly (Joseph Cotten) attends the false and actual funerals of Harry Lime (Orson Welles). The narrow, maze-like and meandering streets of Vienna in The Third Man are also a source of inspiration for the locations during the dream sequence of Insomniac, filmed at Elm Hill in Norwich. The protagonist is lost in ‘streets (he) can’t remember,’ possibly within his own troubled psyche. The canted angles in this sequence are a postmodern revision of the technique used in The Third Man and other film noir material in the confusion and unease they create. These surreal elements are inspired in part by various sources; the Simon & Garfunkel song ‘The Sound of Silence’, which includes the line ‘in restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone’; the short story ‘The Music of Erich Zann’, written by H.P. Lovecraft, and the dilapidated and mysterious Paris backstreet of Rue d’Auseil in which it occurs; the frightened anticipation and disorientation created by the back alleys of Stockholm in the recent PC survival horror modification ‘Cry of Fear.’ These sources of inspiration and reference help to build an air of mystery in Insomniac, which appeals to the alternative youth demographic by subverting the generic format of a closed narrative, instead opting for an ending and composition open to interpretation. The audience is expected to debate the meaning of the video by using prior knowledge of popular culture gained by indulging in the more alternative, niche material such as cult films, an example of which is ‘Donnie Darko’, a source of inspiration in the surreal aspects of the video and the chronically medicated protagonist. The parents of the protagonist have perhaps contacted the authorities and arranged for medication to be prescribed; the protagonist’s background is affluent enough to provide him with comfortable accommodation in a suburban area, as the audience is most likely middle class.
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| Dark alleys in Cry of Fear, compared with 'streets I can't remember' canted angle shot of Elm Hill in Insomniac |
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| Jake Gyllenhaal as Donnie Darko |
The costume, consisting of a pair of blue jeans, unbranded black slim-fit shirt, cheaply sourced brown Velcro strap trainers and, briefly, a grey, fabric-lined jacket, is both generic to the target audience and fittingly casual for the protagonist. The protagonist cares very little for his image due to his solitary lifestyle; washing and shaving are the only basic activities he frequently partakes in, and the bland design of the jacket & cheap manufacturing cost of the shoes implies that he favours function over aesthetic appeal. The t-shirt and jeans are generic items of clothing for young men in the UK of the alternative tribe, specifically the sub-group of Indie, who seek clothing to wear comfortably on casual occasions (weekends, attending college etc.).
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| Costume in Insomniac (left to right) shirt/jeans, jacket, shoes |
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| Chaplin in 'The Gold Rush' |
The editing techniques applied in the formation of Insomniac give the action a frantic and almost comedic speed and enthusiasm. The speed increase makes it clear to the consumer that the events of the video, condensed into little below two minutes, take place over a much longer period of time, specifically a day. In feedback on the video the somewhat exaggerated and swift movements of the protagonist have been likened to that of a Charlie Chaplin film or other silent movies. The physicality of the part can also be linked with elements of slapstick comedy in film. These elements are especially prominent in the continuous shot of the protagonist stirring and failing to go back to sleep, with fast movement from side to side and a potentially humorous over-acted shift into a reversed position, as if the protagonist were a baby moving in a cot.
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| Bed movement scene in Insomniac |
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| Stair scene in Insomniac |
In following Goodwin’s theory, the final edit of Insomniac is cut to the beat and lyrics of the song. The fast movements and quick cuts move with the percussion and go through considerable changes in shot between guitar riffs and sections of the song. The point of view shot moving down the stairs of the house and into the street during the dream sequence occurs entirely in a musical break before the climatic verse of the song, with faded images of eyes appearing as two synthesized effects are heard. The lyrics are interpreted in the visuals, often literally, as lines and verses simultaneously sound with corresponding shots. The first half of the song, charting the difficulty the protagonist has sleeping, is heard with shots of his movement and difficulty settling; ‘mind astray’ is accompanied by a multi-layered shot giving the effect of a darting eyeball, followed by a contradictory shot of the protagonist falling onto the bed and ‘I won’t come down.’ Lyrics involving tiredness and the insomnia itself compliment shots of the protagonist looking tired and irritable; the line ‘chasing your shadows’ is played over various shots of wandering the streets, lending to the ambiguity of why the protagonist is in that location, followed by the canted shots of ‘streets I can’t remember’. ‘So take me home,’ like much of the song, is cut to the rhythm of the lyrics as well as the instruments and accompanies images of the protagonist’s home, specifically his bedroom. The line ‘wasting my lifetime on things I won’t remember’ runs with shots of the graveyard (‘wasting my lifetime’) and the abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs (‘things I won’t remember’). The second instance of ‘so take me home’ ushers in the suicide attempt, possibly to get home from the dream world. As the lyrics end and the song fades, the video follows suit.
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| Faded ending of Insomniac |
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| Cover of I am Legend |
Mental health difficulties are a contemporary issue which is particularly poignant in my audience of British youths, with as many as one in four UK citizens experiencing a mental health problem in a year and ten percent of children suffering from a mental health condition (statistics taken from the Mental Health Foundation
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/). It is likely that Insomniac’s audience has come across such issues, whether in their own fluctuations in mental health or in the experiences of a friend, family member or peer. Teen dramas on television such as Channel 4’s Skins similarly utilise this material to appeal to the target demographic, with two episodes in series one and two revolving around Cassie, a sixth form student diagnosed with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, who is implied to have attempted suicide prior to the beginning of the series. Insomniac instead uses a male protagonist to increase the appeal for the masculine audience. The issue of race is not covered in Insomniac due to the predominantly white audience; the rate of diagnosis in the black or mixed race demographic for schizophrenia is two to eight times higher than in other ethnicities (
http://www.mind.org.uk/help/people_groups_and_communities/statistics_3_race_culture_and_mental_health) , highlighting a clear problem with racial inequality in the mental health sector which has unfortunately not been covered in the video. Depression is a clear candidate for a mental health issue harboured by the protagonist, though he could easily also be diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder, which amplifies the isolation of the character and the indifference to other individuals who may or may not feature in his life. The potentially maddening isolation is inspired in part by Richard Matheson’s novel ‘I Am Legend’, though the mental strain of the protagonist of Insomniac is not a product of his isolation, instead being the cause of it. The novel’s detailing of Robert Neville’s pre-apocalyptic life also influenced the brief flashbacks to prior drug and alcohol abuse by Insomniac’s protagonist.
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| Kasabian - Velociraptor! |
The print production for the album of the same name, on which Insomniac is featured, begins with a front panel in the style of a colour print which has proved especially popular in audience feedback. Inspired by the Kasabian album ‘Velociraptor!’ the panel is formed from a variety of images edited with photo editing software (Abode Photoshop Elements 10) to feature very few colours. The print quality was inspired in part by the work of Olly Moss, a long-admired poster designer who has featured frequently in Empire magazine. His design for An American Werewolf in London, featuring simple yet bright and eye-catching colours, influenced my use of red in the design. The target demographic would appreciate the design in its potentially iconic imagery. The design’s jagged edges and various source images are reminiscent of Dadaist art or anti-art, inspired by collage and photomontage (see right - Hannah Hoch photomontage/collage 'Beautiful Girl') to create an image from various photos of featured props and scenes (the end result is much more a collage than a photomontage, though the piece could be described as a photomontage of objects from Insomniac). Pop Art, a successor of Dada, has also inspired the piece, especially the colourful prints of Andy Warhol (see below right - Andy Warhol - 'Campbell's Soup I'). The line of the bed cover, like the implied French coast in the movie poster, resembles a rip or hurried cut, reinforcing the bricolage elements of the image. The second panel is a rotated and similarly simplified image of the pillow on the bed of the protagonist. The colour palette used in the second panel draws from the same few colours as the front, as does the digipak in its entirety, creating a simple yet memorable design that flows through all four panels. The themes, locations and props from the video also feature prominently to make a clear connection between the products. The panel also features lyrics from the album’s songs, some of which are from Insomniac. The second quotation is from another song on the album, ‘Will I Ever’; the third if from the other listed single, ‘M. Valdemar,’ based on ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,’ a gruesome suspense story by Edgar Allan Poe about the case of a man suspended in a state of limbo through hypnotism. The fourth quote references the Ganzfeld Experiment, a procedure conducted in the 1970s on telepathy in which the participant listens to white noise with halved ping-pong balls over their eyes and facing a light until the participant experiences hallucinations likened to dreaming. The final two and first quotes are from Insomniac itself.
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| Olly Moss' poster design for John Landis' 'An American Werewolf in London' |
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| Digipak panel one |
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| Digipak panel two |
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| Back & front panels of 'In the Court of the Crimson King' |
The third panel, on which the CD is displayed, is a simple, dark design, intended to blend with the prior image, on which a number of stylised eyes are layered, one of which overlaps into the second panel to indicate the flow and continuation of the design - Such multiple-panel designs are often featured on progressive rock albums, such as King Crimson’s ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’. The image of the eyes, taken from a sketch of the second panel and edited to appear as a jagged print, feature elsewhere in the digipak, including the CD, spine and back cover, and are a recurring motif in both the print productions and the video. This motif carries with it a voyeuristic aspect linking to the notion of looking in Goodwin’s theory, as well as giving the audience a design to associate with the band. The CD itself features the gun held by the figure on the front cover, who is implied to be the protagonist, which has been doctored in a similar fashion to the eyes. The gun is important as it brings the concepts of death and mortality, which are so crucial to the video, into the digipak. The band and album name are displayed to minimise confusion if misplaced. Around the centre of the CD is the top-down image of the prescription drugs, with a ‘sealed for your protection’ message, which links the CD to the front cover. The text’s new, ‘edgy’ meaning when applied to the CD promotes the contents in an appealing way to the consumer. To make the design appear more authentic, generic CD labels such as serial numbers, disc format and record label are included. The spine of the digipak also carries these labels and all other necessary information so the product is identifiable when displayed alongside other DVD cases.
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| Digipak panel two with CD |
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| Digipak spine |
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| Back panel of Canadian copy of Iron Maiden, purchased by myself |
The back panel is topped with three star-based reviews from the music magazines Q, Rolling Stone and NME, most of which would be read or regarded as viable review sources by the indie rock demographic due to the magazines’ association with rock music. Two of the reviews are four stars and one is five, connoting the critical praise given whilst avoiding an unconvincing rave review. The commercial success, such as number one singles, has also not been mentioned, as the alternative audience would most likely shy away from blatantly mainstream and commercial bands. Zane Lowe is quoted which increases the appeal of the band on the basis of critical acclaim, and follows the general format for music and film advertisements. Lowe is an advocate of guitar music and is a trusted source for new rock material. The comparison to Kasabian also outlines the possible chart success and the basic genre characteristics of the band. The track list and duration confirms the contents of the product and plays to the general theme of sleep, with song titles such as ‘Night Terrors.’ Below the roughly cut space is a short list of three bonus tracks provided for buying the DVD digipak as a special offer or edition; ‘Lucid’ is listed as a bonus track, encouraging a further investment in the larger album and giving the consumer a feeling of exclusivity by owning the full package; the other tracks are both versions of what may be the most popular songs on the album performed at Reading Festival the previous year. Reading and Leeds are likely venues for the indie demographic to visit, with rock and alternative acts including Kasabian, Foo Fighters and The Cure headlining Reading in 2012. The image of the protagonist on the back panel is one of him performing with an acoustic guitar, presenting him as the front man of the band itself, which would in essence provide an image of the band to sell to the audience in the music video. The digipak is intended to be sold at music retailers, most likely HMV, and features a barcode with randomly chosen numbers for authenticity. Legal information such as copyrights and dates takes up the bottom left corner and follows a format sourced from a Canadian re-release of Iron Maiden’s debut album. The band is in turn signed to EMI.
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| Digipak panel four |
The magazine advertisement is designed to be included in either NME or Q to be consumed by the audience as they browse for new music in their chosen magazines. Only the five-star review is included in the design, as the advertisement is presented as if the digipak is yet to be released (on August 1
st 2012, during the summer holidays, when the young audience is most likely to be browsing record shops) and other magazines may not have reviewed the material. The review is also the highest rated and will therefore be the most efficient in selling the product. Further anticipation is built and the genre is made clear by the previously unused quote from Q, stating that The Jubilees are ‘2012’s best indie band’. Drawing in possible consumers from Kasabian’s fan base and capitalising on the band’s notoriety, the Zane Lowe quote features the name highlighted in red to draw attention. The central and most important image from the front panel is the main design of the advertisement, rotated slightly to fit and hint to the collage inspiration. The image of the album itself takes up the bottom right corner. Singles, released earlier in the year to build anticipation and notoriety, include Insomniac, justifying the production of a video and the Reading bonus tracks to promote the live material. The URL of the band’s
MySpace page is provided so the consumer can conduct further research into the band before buying the product, as well as the official page for the promotion of the album. The record label is promoted in smaller print as it is secondary in promotion to the band. I chose to sign the band to EMI Music because of the label’s association with rock and indie, from NWOBHM (New Wave of British heavy Metal) Iron Maiden to alternative rock Coldplay.
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| Album advertisement |
The protagonist is at a similar age to the lower end of the age demographic, and will therefore be easier to sympathise with. During the first few scenes of the Anton Corbijn directed biopic of the life of Ian Curtis from the formation of Joy Division, ‘Control’ Ian is still in education and is only 23 years old by his suicide in 1980. Various similarities in geography and age, coupled with the iconic status of the late front man make Curtis an easy individual to sympathise with for my audience, who may aspire to become an artist working in the music industry or other creative professions. Similarities can also be drawn between the character of Ian in Control (played by Sam Riley) and the protagonist of Insomniac, who himself is facing various troubles including the contemplation of suicide and an unhelpful prescription of drugs, which he neglects to use properly. Control also features several scenes in which Ian flees the situation at home to drink at the pub, which may point to alcoholism. Binge drinking is an issue often associated with British youths, and the protagonist of Insomniac worsens his health in the combination of his medication with alcohol continuously. These instances of contemporary teenage issues can be contributed to Lacan’s theory on identity, in that the audience can engage with the text through these aspects, in which they see parts of their own lives.
Other characters from which inspiration has been taken include Holden Caulfield, the isolated teenage protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, a book that has become a symbol of rebellious and troubled youth and is still relevant in contemporary society, especially to Insomniac’s young, alternative audience. Holden struggles to adapt to adult life and is hostile to the ‘phoniness’ and loss of innocence in society. Like the protagonist of Insomniac, Holden is often under mental or emotional strain, and vaguely implies that he has been institutionalised for a temporary period at the end of the book after a probable nervous breakdown; The death of his brother, Allie, and classmate James Castle’s suicide whilst wearing Holden’s borrowed jacket are both traumatic events which could contribute to the mental state of the character. Whether or not a past experience has influenced the protagonist of Insomniac is not made clear, though Holden’s fixation on the trauma is similar to the protagonist’s frequent contemplation of death through the imagery of the graveyard, which culminates in his suicide attempt in the climatic shot. A graveyard also features heavily in the opening and final scenes of The Third Man (see left) as Holly (Joseph Cotten) attends the false and actual funerals of Harry Lime (Orson Welles). The narrow, maze-like and meandering streets of Vienna in The Third Man are also a source of inspiration for the locations during the dream sequence of Insomniac, filmed at Elm Hill in Norwich. The protagonist is lost in ‘streets (he) can’t remember,’ possibly within his own troubled psyche. The canted angles in this sequence are a postmodern revision of the technique used in The Third Man and other film noir material in the confusion and unease they create. These surreal elements are inspired in part by various sources; the Simon & Garfunkel song ‘The Sound of Silence’, which includes the line ‘in restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone’; the short story ‘The Music of Erich Zann’, written by H.P. Lovecraft, and the dilapidated and mysterious Paris backstreet of Rue d’Auseil in which it occurs; the frightened anticipation and disorientation created by the back alleys of Stockholm in the recent PC survival horror modification ‘Cry of Fear.’ These sources of inspiration and reference help to build an air of mystery in Insomniac, which appeals to the alternative youth demographic by subverting the generic format of a closed narrative, instead opting for an ending and composition open to interpretation. The audience is expected to debate the meaning of the video by using prior knowledge of popular culture gained by indulging in the more alternative, niche material such as cult films, an example of which is ‘Donnie Darko’, a source of inspiration in the surreal aspects of the video and the chronically medicated protagonist. The parents of the protagonist have perhaps contacted the authorities and arranged for medication to be prescribed; the protagonist’s background is affluent enough to provide him with comfortable accommodation in a suburban area, as the audience is most likely middle class.
The print production for the album of the same name, on which Insomniac is featured, begins with a front panel in the style of a colour print which has proved especially popular in audience feedback. Inspired by the Kasabian album ‘Velociraptor!’ the panel is formed from a variety of images edited with photo editing software (Abode Photoshop Elements 10) to feature very few colours. The print quality was inspired in part by the work of Olly Moss, a long-admired poster designer who has featured frequently in Empire magazine. His design for An American Werewolf in London, featuring simple yet bright and eye-catching colours, influenced my use of red in the design. The target demographic would appreciate the design in its potentially iconic imagery. The design’s jagged edges and various source images are reminiscent of Dadaist art or anti-art, inspired by collage and photomontage (see right - Hannah Hoch photomontage/collage 'Beautiful Girl') to create an image from various photos of featured props and scenes (the end result is much more a collage than a photomontage, though the piece could be described as a photomontage of objects from Insomniac). Pop Art, a successor of Dada, has also inspired the piece, especially the colourful prints of Andy Warhol (see below right - Andy Warhol - 'Campbell's Soup I'). The line of the bed cover, like the implied French coast in the movie poster, resembles a rip or hurried cut, reinforcing the bricolage elements of the image. The second panel is a rotated and similarly simplified image of the pillow on the bed of the protagonist. The colour palette used in the second panel draws from the same few colours as the front, as does the digipak in its entirety, creating a simple yet memorable design that flows through all four panels. The themes, locations and props from the video also feature prominently to make a clear connection between the products. The panel also features lyrics from the album’s songs, some of which are from Insomniac. The second quotation is from another song on the album, ‘Will I Ever’; the third if from the other listed single, ‘M. Valdemar,’ based on ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,’ a gruesome suspense story by Edgar Allan Poe about the case of a man suspended in a state of limbo through hypnotism. The fourth quote references the Ganzfeld Experiment, a procedure conducted in the 1970s on telepathy in which the participant listens to white noise with halved ping-pong balls over their eyes and facing a light until the participant experiences hallucinations likened to dreaming. The final two and first quotes are from Insomniac itself.
I have emailed you re your rough draft of Question 1 with ideas to strengthen and access strong Level 4. A very promising start with excellent references to similar artists and inspiration texts. Don't forget to include print productions and media theory, eg: Goodwin, Genre, Narrative and Audience Theories.
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