Music Video: Research & Planning

Music Video: Research & Planning
Jamie T - Sticks & Stones

My chosen track is Jamie T - Stick & Stones (2009). I chose this track because of the theme/pace of the video. I think its a perfect visual aid for the feel of the song. The colors, shot types and camera movements all add up to create a really good music video that matches the music. 

Jamie T spoke in an interview with Q Magazine in 2010. Talking about the track he said "I think it sounds a bit like The Police. Its about traveling on the train and reminiscing about things I've seen on the line, like running away from gangs down side alleys. On the website 'songmeanings,com' people discussed the track in a forum and one use posted "I like how it tells a short story of his life as he goes to visit one of his old friends. Basically its Jamie recounting his past and how times were better/worse. Later he realizes that he misses the old times a lot more than he thought he would". I like this interpretation because a lot of sense in correlation with the lyrics and fits the events in the music video. I think the start and the end of the song highlights this best when Jamie says 'boys like "him" don't shine so bright' at the beginning and changes it to 'boys like "us" don't shine so bright.

The official Wikipedia for Jamie T reads "21st May 2009 saw the release of the official video for his single 'Sticks & Stones'. In an email received by subscribers to his website, Jamie said, 'Just a little note to say thanks to everyone who's supporting Sticks & Stones. We just finished shooting a little video for the track the other day, so fresh out the edit room it is here for your enjoyment. It was a lot of fun to make and we hope you like it. Hope to see you all soon, Thanks, Jamie'. The video was shot in Wimbledon, and features scenes of himself and others including fellow band members".
- https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_T 

The video tells a narrative but in quite a hidden and discrete way. At first glance the shots all just seem like its Jamie T singing into the camera, however if you pay closer attention you start to notice smaller details. For example, in the first 60 seconds of the video there's not a single shot with more than one person. Its just Jamie T and this strange clown character. However as the track and the video progresses we start to see shots of Jamie T among a crowd of friends more and more frequently. This is telling the the viewers the story of him coming to see old friends and returning to his roots. The track is quite fast paced but the video does well to correlate this and suit the feel of the video. Features such as shaky camera movements, tracking shots and cutting to the beat are all incorporated in order to match the feeling of the track.

Researching The Artist - Image and Representation

To research the artists image and representation, created a mood-board of some of the artists work to understand the style/themes and ideologies. In this I included/thought about; photo-shoots, old music videos, new music videos, his clothing types, music video locations.

You can see from the mood-board the artist does have a certain image and theme. You see in 8/9 of the photos I found he's wearing a black jacket. Even in the bottom right photo which is a lot more recent compared to the other photo's, some of which are over a decade old. So from this you can conclude he's always stuck with this cool black jacket look. I noticed also that nearly all his videos are shot in very urban areas, generally rather more housing estates and pubs though than big cities and large expensive helicopter shots. So when making my video I will definitely set locations around these themes and try to follow the brown/grey/black color scheme.

Lyric Analysis

 

• In the first two lines of the song he says "When there's no one left to fight, boys like him don't shine so bright". I think this means that when someones run out of excuses or when they've been avoiding a situation their true colors will eventually shine through.
• In [Verse 1] he says "To see a friend I hadn't seen since I was drinking underage". After some research I found this is referring too a long time friend Jamie T hadn't seen in years until the making of this song/video.
• In another line he mentions a band called 'The Jam' The Jam were an English punk rock band active during the late 1970's and early 1980's. The Jam was the forefront of the mod revival movement. 

• In [Verse 2] he says "With the boys across the platform shouting lightweight prick, I'm a featherweight champion, cheap to get pissed". This is referring to the fact he gets drunk easily and his mates let him know about it. This is common is British culture among young people, taking the mickey out of the person in your group too get drunk, and lets us know more about Jamie's friends that they are that 'lad' type of group. 
• In [Verse 3] he says "As I travel down the track, all my memories flood back". This talking about him going back to his hometown on the train. As he travels closer and closer & see more sights he recognizes he remembers more & more about event that happened in his childhood.
•  He then says "We were running like infantry men back to my mumma's flat, it's the only place but home I feel relaxed enough to crap". Even though it is a 'crude' example its demonstrating that his mum's flat is the only place he can feel at home and safe at other than his own.