Asking Alexandria are a metalcore band from York and have a huge fanbase in England as well as many other countries they have toured.
They made a big impression in the 'metalcore' genre after touring the UK in 2008 and early 2009 when they recorded their first album 'Stand Up and Scream' at The Foundation Recording Studios in Indiana. After signing to 'Sumerian' record label they gained success in the United States after touring with some big bands.
Fan Base
The band have a large fan base in North America, UK and Europe with the average age most likely being 15-20 with both males and females being big fans. As the band have toured the world with other big metal bands they have played to a wide variety of cultures and races and therefore have become popular all over the world.
CD/DVD Images
Stand Up and Scream is Asking Alexandria's first album. The cover shows their iconic logo of their name in bold white at the top, standing out over the dark image below.
The imagine is of a microphone that is most likely used for live shows. It represents the genre and with the microphone on its own may mean the band are trying to stand out from the rest.
This second album cover is 'Reckless and Relentless.' The album title shows the attitude the band possibly have on life. Reckless meaning they don't care and do what they want and relentless meaning they will keep doing it for the enjoyment. The photo shows a woman sitting in a bleak room with an old television set smashed and completely ruined. The expression on her face is very relaxed and calm, as if she is used to this kind of situation and surrounding. Her outfit reminds me of a hooker or a lady that has been out partying too hard. This representation of women is quite negative from the bands point of view as it could hint that they see women as obects of pleasure and nothing else. The televsion set being smashed and the graffiti on the walls links back to the album title, suggesting they are reckless in their behavior and relentless in their motivation. Reckless & Relentless in an interview with Fallen Blue, Danny Warsnop said, "we wanted something shocking, so we had the famous porn actress, Belladonna, just sitting in The Dirty Room."
Music Videos
In this video of 'To The Stage' the video is full narrative which is quite unconventional for a metalcore video. It shows the band have been told their set for a live performance has been moved forward and so the band need to get together and get to the gig. Unfortunately the end up in a bar and one drink leads to another and Danny, the lead vocalist, ends up going upstairs with a woman, unknowingly having his drink spike and ends up having a fit and possibly dieing. The video is shot like a movie and features no performance what so ever, throughout the video the actual song plays but the narrative focuses on the band and ends with a cliffhanger.
This screen shot shows that the band are big drinkers with not only beer being consumed but also whiskey. This representation of the band shows that they are enjoying their rock star lifestyle. It shows that being in a band means that they can afford to go to bars and spend alot of money on alcohol. It also shows a negative view as consuming large amounts of alcohol such as this is very damaging to your body but they obviously have no thought for this. Again linking to their album title 'Reckless and Relentless.'
Here this shows a woman in a bar, she is dressed in very little clothing and a lot of make up. She is a stereotypical woman that is looking for a man on a night out. In the video she ends up taking Danny from the band upstairs. It shows quite a negative view on women as here she is represented as someone that spends her time in a bar drinking alcohol and has sex with a man she doesn't know.
In this screenshot it shows the woman, 'spiking' Danny's drink.The audience doesn't know what type of drug it is or what effect it will have if it is consumed. We can see that this woman is being represented in a very negative way as she is putting someone elses life in danger by putting a drug in their drink.
This screenshot shows Danny and the woman from the bar kissing. They have not met before and would not know each others name. This links to lyrics from one of their songs, 'Clothes trailing from the backdoor to the bedroom and I don't even know your name.' This representation shows that the band, especially Danny, see women as objects for pleasure and nothing else. The hand on her throat shows that this is a very lustful encounter and not passionate or full of love. It would be a 'one night stand' with no emotions. This shows that they probably have no real respect for women.
Lyrics deconstruction
Magazine Cover
This magazine cover from Kerrang! Magazine shows Asking Alexandria when they were touring America. The slogan above states ''We're taking over America.'' This possibly shows that they are very confident in their ability and feel that they are winning over fans in America. You could say they are arrogant as they believe they are taking over the metalcore scene in another country as nomrally it is quite hard for an English metalcore band to break through and become popular in North America as even though they are from the same genre, the bands are quite different in musical stlye.
Danny, the frontman, also takes over the band photo, he appears dominant and masculine at the front and is the main focus over the other band members. His metal 'pose' could represent his masculinity and the love for the music and his lifestyle now they are a signed band.
It also states ''they're off their faces in Las Vegas.'' This links to the video of 'To The Stage.' The narrative had an american location and although it was never said where it actually was, we could imagine it to be Las Vegas, a city renowned for alcohol and women. 'Off their faces' represents the band in a way that shows they enjoy the lifestyle of consuming large amounts on alcohol and the company of women and their friends.
As we are filming the track 'Step Down' by In Archives we are also using all the band members on filming day.
Zak Pinchin - Vocals
Kelly Pinchin - Guitar
Phil Moore - Guitar and vocals
Louis Grant - Bass
Richard Stimpson - Drums
Zak is the frontman of the band. His screamed vocals are very unique with a good range of high and low screams as well as speak-to-screams which are very effective in the genre. On filming day Zak is most likely going to wear skinny jeans and trainers as well as a band t-shirt or a wifebeater (pictured).
The band will be able to supply a microphone for the video as that is the only prop Zak will need.
Kelly is one of the guitarists of the band and also plays a huge part in the song writing process. His ability for writing up beat riffs and heavy breakdowns is impressive whilst also being a very talented guitarist.
On the day of filming Kelly will most likely wear a checkered shirt or band t-shirt as well as skinny jeans and Vans plimsoles.
Kelly will use his own guitar that he uses for live performances as well as bringing his own guitar amp to plug into for background use.
Phil is the other guitarist of In Archives and has alot of band experience. He also sings the clean vocals in a few of the tracks from the bands debut E.P. 'Traitors.'
Phil, on filming day will again most likely wear a band t-shirt, wifebeater and skinny jeans. He will use his own guitar for the performance.
Louie plays bass and has been good friends with the all the band members for many years. For the video Louie will most likely wear skinny jeans, a t-shirt and hoody, depending on the weather as it may be very cold.
Richard has been playing the drums from a very early age and has proven himself to very talented. He was also part of 'The Prophecy True' the metal band that also feature Zak, Kelly and Louie before 'In Archives' were formed.
Richard will use his drum set for the day of filming whilst also wearing jeans, a t-shirt and hoody.
We shot some practice footage using a very strong light that we may possibly use for our music video. We found the lighting to be very effective as the main focus was highlighted perfectly whilst dimming the rest of the location. We also filmed Zak miming some of the lyrics to the song whilst getting a feel for the camera, the movement and how much of the actor we want in the frame. Thirdly we filmed Kelly playing the bass guitar to get an idea again of how much of the actor and the instrument we want in the frame and how much movement the camera needs to go with the conventions of a metalcore video.
The camera we are using is of high quality and you can see here how good our footage will be. This close up of myself is very clear and we are planning on using lots of close ups throughout our video on each band member, whilst mainly focussing on Zak, the frontman. Declan has used 'After Effects' very well here, he has colour corrected the lighting, making it more moody which fits to our genre.
We are aiming to use lots of shots like this one here of Zak screaming the lyrics. This close up was panning past Zak as we were filming and the action was very smooth even though it was handheld. We have found that in most music videos from our chosen genre, the camera is never still so we took influence and used the same handheld technique. The lighting is again very effective, illuminating half of Zak's face whilst putting a dark shadow across the other side of his face.
This screenshot is of Kelly playing the bass, here we were again using the handheld technique but also trying out different ideas of how much of the actor and the instrument we want in the frame. We decided that we would probably use a close up or mid shot when filming the band members playing their instruments as we found that having the actor tight in the frame looked more effective and professional.
There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos
Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band
A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatablility' factor
The video opens with an establishing panning shot of the frontman of the band.
It pans forwards and goes past him.
The shots of the band members playing their instruments are very well shot.
The band member is very tight in the frame and the handheld camera works effectively,
the shakiness going with the aggressiveness and fast pace of the song
There are so many cuts in this video that it is impossible to count. A shot lasts no longer on screen than a few seconds. I find that the editing is fantastic and makes the video memorable.
Throughout the music video each band member is on screen for a fairly equal amount of time.
Some bands only focus on one or two of the members but this promo has the whole band alot of the time
with the frontman being the main interest at times.
The narrative is shot in slow motion for the majority of the time. It splits the performance and also adds more to the video.
The narrative amplifies the lyrics as the narrative shows a group of men acting violent to an uknown enemy.
The lyrics 'Fuck the law, we wrote the order, fuck the bridge because we built the border' are amplified by the men acting as they don't have any concern for the law and are doing what they want.
This is a quick test video that we did to see if we could pull off certain editing techniques we had seen from other music videos and were inspired to try and do the same.
For the first part where Zak Pinchin screams 'You've only done this to yourself' the lip syncing was done twice as fast so when we came to edit the footage, everything would be slowed considerably but the lip syncing would still fit.
The next part is Kelly Pinchin jumping just as a frontman from a metalcore band would on stage. We edited the footage to slow down and speed up at points and we think that it looks effective but can look alot better if we have more time to film and edit as this was a quick run through.
'Heartburn' by Architects is where we took inspiration to lip sync the lyrics twice as fast and then put a slow-mo effect on the footage. In the Architects video the band are walking along a desolate road and the slow motion looks really effective to capture the feel of the bleak landscape as well as having he front mans hair blow about. Whilst all this is happening the lyrics still lip sync perfectly to the actor and we really wanted to try and accomplish the same effective technique.
As we were limited to location we tried it in small classroom and only had one attempt at it but I believe that it looks good but could definitely do with some improvements. If we were to try it again with more space and do it a few more times we could edit it to fit perfectly but also add more slow motion to the footage.
The channel that would be best to show our chosen track would be Kerrang! TV. The channel is loosely connected with the magazine 'Kerrang!' The stations playlist genre is very modern with nu-metal and pop-punk being the most popular genre played. Other genres such as heavy metal are played but not as often as the channel doesn't want to veer too far away the mainstream choice.
The channel is owned by Box Television which also has connections with Bauer Media Group which publishes the Kerrang! Magazine.
Kerrang! TV follows the same principles as the magazine, showing new and exciting bands whilst also having programmes dedicated to showing classic rock. Many of the videos on Kerrang! TV are censored to remove any swearing, violence or references to God.
According to http://www.barb.co.uk/ Kerrang! TV has an average daily reach of 120,000. When you think of the target audience, the channel is extremely popular as there is a small number of people that listen to the genre.
Kerrang! Magazine was first published in 1981 but has since then flourished as a weekly magazine and now has its own edition in Australia and is also published in Spanish. Kerrang! also has its own radio station which broadcasts to the West Midlands of England.
Digipacks are used as packaging for a CD or DVD, they are an alternative to the jewel case that was originally used and are now the favored choice by major record companies. They are a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd and though they have no official name, 'Digipack' has stuck due to the popularity and effectiveness of them.
Digipacks consist of a gatefold, a book style opening made of paperboard or card. They have a gloss finish with a range of artwork inside and outside depending on the artist. There is also an option to have either a plastic tray or slot for the CD/DVD to sit in.
Pros
They are capable of holding more disks
Look more creative and professional
Space for more innovative ideas
Can hold more information
Environmentally friendly
Cheap to produce
More design options
Innovative premium product
Cons
Open to wear and tear
Plastic teeth that hold the disk can break
More expensive to buy
Can look old and ragged quickly
Trays can break and come away from the other packaging
In Archives are a 5 piece metalcore band from Peterborough. They were formed in 2010 and take influence from bands such as 'The Ghost Inside', 'Architects' and 'Parkway Drive.' They have released a 5 track EP with great local success.
We have chosen to use this band as Kelly and Zak Pinchin are both in our group and we decided that they would benefit from a music video as well as us for our A Level. They are a very experienced and talented band so filming them playing their instruments won't be a problem. The band will also have all the instruments and props ready to use, so we don't have to worry about getting them from somewhere else.
The song is called Step Down and was recorded in the summer of 2011, where they had previously recorded their 5 track E.P. The recording is very proffessional and wouldn't seem out of place on rock TV channel, 'Kerrang' or 'Scuzz.'
This second album cover is 'Reckless and Relentless.' The album title shows the attitude the band possibly have on life. Reckless meaning they don't care and do what they want and relentless meaning they will keep doing it for the enjoyment. The photo shows a woman sitting in a bleak room with an old television set smashed and completely ruined. The expression on her face is very relaxed and calm, as if she is used to this kind of situation and surrounding. Her outfit reminds me of a hooker or a lady that has been out partying too hard. This representation of women is quite negative from the bands point of view as it could hint that they see women as obects of pleasure and nothing else. The televsion set being smashed and the graffiti on the walls links back to the album title, suggesting they are reckless in their behavior and relentless in their motivation. Reckless & Relentless in an interview with Fallen Blue, Danny Warsnop said, "we wanted something shocking, so we had the famous porn actress, Belladonna, just sitting in The Dirty Room." 
