Focus Group

Timed Analysis - Childish Gambino - Sober

 Childish Gambino - Sober

0:00-0:04 - High angle shot of a woman in a cafe drinking. You can hear the diegetic sounds of the cafe and her drinking through a straw
0:04-0:18 - Non diegetic music enters, diegetic cafe sounds can still be heard. The camera pans around her head to reveal Childish Gambino sitting on a seat in the background looking at her. The non diegetic vocals enter at 0:12
0:18-0:21 - Medium closeup shot of her as she notices him watching her
0:21-0:35 - Eyeline shot from over her shoulder as she looks back to her phone. In the background, he gets up and waves to get her attention
0:35-0:36 - cut back to the medium close up of her as she is on her phone not paying attention to him.
0:36-0:49 - over the shoulder shot showing him in the background as he walks towards the table. The camera pans across her shoulders to her right side, showing him having arrived next to the table. There is the diegetic sound of his shoes squeaking at 0:45
0:49-0:51 - cuts back to medium close up of the woman as she notices he's next to her
0:51-0:56 - Cut to previous shot perspective from her side as he is shown sitting down opposite her in the booth. There is a diegetic sound of the table crashing as he sits.
0:56-1:02 - Profile perspective mid shot them both sat on the table. He begins to try to communicate with her with hand gestures
1:02-1:05 - Close up tracking shot of his hand on the table as he mimics the moonwalk dance move with his fingers.
1:05-1:07 - Medium close up of her as she looks up at him
1:07-1:10 - He gestures while looking her in the eye. Midshot.
1:10-1:13 - Back to shot facing her. She looks back at her phone and you can see his hand moving in the foreground.
1:13-1:20 - A series of shots in which he keeps trying to get her attention before she gets up to move seats.
1:23 -1:39 - shot from the opposite side of the cafe as walks towards the camera and sits down.The shot is from the outside of the window, and the music changes to diegetic, as if it's coming from inside the cafe. She is in focus in the foreground and he's out of focus in the background.
1:39-1:58 - He is seen getting up in the background and he begins to dance while she doesn't notice him. The camera pans forward until it's back inside the cafe and the music returns to non diegetic
1:58-2:12 - The camera pans to the right, revealing him sitting down on the seat with his back to her. The vocals become diegetic, as he sings to her for a short period. The camera tracks him as he spins out of his seat so he is next to her, singing face to face.
2:12-2:20 - Shot reverse shot showing her looking up at him, then him pulling a dove out of his jacket. It shows her reaction to this before showing him again as he pulls an egg out of his top pocket
2:20-2:23 - Close up of his hand as he reveals the egg and tracking shot as he moves his hand towards the table, cracking the egg as he does
2:23-2:29 - Close up shot of her unravelling the paper in the egg, followed by a closeup shot of her face, then cutting back to the paper, which is revealed to say "I'm so high"
2:29-2:39 - Tracking shot from outside the window showing him pacing around and signing. Vocals become diegetic again for a short period
2:39-2:48 - Slow zoom wide angle shot from outside the window that shows him climbing onto a table while still signing
2:48-2:50 - Close up shot of his foot that quickly zooms out as there is a bass drop in the song
2:50-2:56 - A series of shot from long, mid and close up perspective that pan around in circles as he dances on the table. The lights in the cafe start to flash red to the beat of the song.
2:56 -3:02 - Some jumpcuts of different perspectives on his dancing. Ends by cutting to a closeup shot of his feet as he jumps off of the table. His shoes squeak as he lands, which is a diegetic sound
3:02-3:13 - Series of long shots and mid shots from in front of him as he dances closer to the girl. The camera pans in closeup to his face as he plays air guitar to the song.
3:29- 3:38 - He quickly transitions from the hip hop style dancing to pretending to play the keyboard as the song goes back to the verse. There are some long shot that pan around him as he does this, with some shots of the girl's reaction cut in.
3:38-3:43  He begins to dance again, showing a long shot from his front, as well as a shot from the table he was standing out which slowly pans out.
3:50-3:52 - Wide angle shot from outside showing her finally getting up to dance with him
3:52-4:12 - She walks to the counter to get the food she ordered and he follows her dancing. She walks out the door, smiling at him as she does, and the music fades as she leaves.
4:12-4:27 - Mid shot of him as the song cuts out and the diegetic sounds of the cafe can be heard again. The camera tracks him as he walks back to the seat he was first sitting in
4:27-4:39 - As he sits down, it cuts to the wide angle perspective shown when we first saw him sitting down.

Storyboard

Overall Plot

Overall Plot for the Music Video.

Opening Scene: No Music -

 The camera enters in the front of the church and moves down the aisle slightly. A few rows from the back is a man sat on a pew. The camera cuts to a pan across the man’s face.  Cut to a wide angle shot from the very front of the church. Cut to a pan across the church ceiling. High shot from the back of the church, wide angle, as the man gets up and walks out. 

Music Starts. 

Second scene: From 0:00-0:46 – 

The man walks around the church grounds, looking around. Camera follows his as he goes. Pulled focus shot from behind a gravestone. Close-up shot of the man looking at one of the gravestones. Shot/Reverse Shot as the man exits the grounds. He walks along for a bit and sits on a bench. Another man comes over and offers him a hand up.  

Third Scene: From 0:47-1:16

Cuts to a shot next to the river. The two sit on the bank. A few different camera angles as they sit. Walk along the bank and skim stones.

Fourth Scene: From 1:17-1:29

Cut to a wide-angle shot as the two walk along next to the train track. Several different angles as they walk. Cut to the panning shot of the scenery. 

Fifth Scene: From 1:30-1:42

Cut to the two climbing a hill, the camera follows them up and they celebrate at the top. They lay down and look at the clouds above, pointing out shapes. The camera cuts between them and the sky. 

Sixth Scene: From 1:43-2:00

Cut to the two walking around the town, make their way up to the roof of a building.

Seventh Scene: From 2:00-2:27

 They spend several seconds looking out at the scenery. Cut to panning shot. One beckons to the other and the camera follows them as they leave. 

Eighth Scene: From 2:28-2:58

Cut to them walking back to the bench. Pass through a park. Wide-angle shots as they walk along.

Ninth Scene: From 2:59-3:21

They shake hands and the second man leaves and the first sits back down to look back out at the sunset. Eventually he gets up and leaves.

Target Audience - About our production

What genre does the song belong to?

The song belongs to the genre of Alternative Rock

What conventions of that genre are you going to use/challenge?

One convention of Alternative rock is that music artists will wear casual clothes instead of the elaborate outfits that would be worn in the standard rock genre. Also, the alternative rock genre typically features performance based videos set in a gritty location, however, our video is planned to be a narrative based video which has no performance featured in it.

Which record company would release your video?

An example of a record company that would release our video would be Parlophone, as although our genre is alternative rock, Coldplay are not an indie band and Parlophone, despite having a range of genres under their label, have signed many of the more mainstream alternative rock bands

What representations are you going to include e.g. (independent woman image, stereotypical image of London, countertypical male character etc)

We are going to include representation of youth, as our characters will be around the age of eighteen. However, the youth representation will be a positive one, linking to Hebdige's idea of youth being fun. We have also included a counter typical male character, as he is representing themes of friendship, which are typically associated with female characters.

How will you represent your artist?

What type of video are you going to produce? (e.g. Narrative base)

We are going to produce a narrative based music video. We decided upon this as the song we are interesting in making a video for we felt would be well with a video that had a storyline with several locations. We felt that including any performance would take away from the viewers' connection to the character and the narrative.

What channels would your video appear on? (e.g. MTV, MTV Two, AKA, 4Music etc)

I feel that this video would be featured on a number of television channels. Although the genre is Alternative Rock, the song is relatively pop based and would fit into well into mainstream music channels such as MTV. However, due it being classified as Alternative rock, it would also fit in on some of the more independent music and genre specific channels such as MTV Rocks or VIVA.

Media Timeline of Music Videos

Music videos throughout history from Reece Hack