Research/Marketing a Band/ The use of the Internet/Postmodernism- The Midnight Beast

The Midnight Beast are now a well-established comic British band; the beginning of their carrer reflects an aspect of Postmodernism as their parody (mimicing the original) of Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' allowed them to recieve their teenage fans, in their thousands, today all thanks to the famous video sharing website YouTube.

The band consists of Stefan Abingdon, also known as St£fan continuining the parody mimicing the way that Ke$ha decided to spell her name, Ashley Horne and Dru Wakely. This trio are now an internet phenomenom in the teenage culture who specifically enjoy the Indie/Rock genre. The band are successful due to the clever marketting techniques aiming to the younger generation who are 'hot' with websites such as YouTube,and social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, and their own official website. It was in the bands knowledge of how successful they would be choosing this route into the industry; as it is an easy way to produce and market your own music without any legal hassel, the target audience who are following them on these sites will feel obliged to download their songs due to the parasocial relationships, choosing chart songs such as 'Tik Tok' and 'Down' a connection is instantly made, and as the target audience download their music as the indutry and way to purchase music has changed in this century.

Being a fan of this band I can express my own reasons of why I believe that they are so successful:

• The band are not serious- alot of bands in the charts topics of their songs can be quite sad picking up on on-going topics in the news or everyday life. It is here where The Midnight Beast's quirky comic music feeds on their success through the use of parody or sheer mad lyrics related to the topics puts a smile of the teenagers faces, and creating songs with such a catchy tune meaning that they will never leave our heads.
• The Midnight Beast mock the things that drive other artists to their success- either being their sense of no care in their image or that they never actually sing properly and that alot of the lyrics are spoken or that they use quite alot of effects in their music which is an on-going debate in the industry.
• The songs make me laugh- whenever I am down I can put on one of their songs and they will always put a smile on my face due to their hilarity.

Wikipedia Research into The Midnight Beast's singles

• Tik Tok (Parody)' was released on 13 December 2009.^[18], added to iTunes on 15 January 2010^[19]. ‘Tik Tok (Parody)’ is a parody of TiK ToK originally by American pop artist Ke$ha. The song portrays a live-fast die-young look on life of binge drinking and eating dessert before dinner, among others. The parody debuted on the Australian Singles Chart at sixteen, later peaking at four. It also reached number one on the Australian iTunes countdown.^[20] It has since peaked at #16 on the UK Indie Chart.^{[citation needed]}
• ‘Xxxmas Buddies (How To Get A Xmas...)’ (pronounced 'Triple Xmas Buddies...') was released on 22 December 2009^[21]. ‘Xxxmas Buddies (How To Get A Xmas...)’ is an 'adult' parody of All I Want For Christmas Is You originally by American singer Mariah Carey featuring Walter Afanasieff.
• ‘Down - Jay Sean Parody’ was released on 3 January 2010. ‘Down Jay Sean Parody’ is a parody of the song Down originally by Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne. In this parody The Midnight Beast sing about trousers falling down in the worst possible situations.
• ‘Walk With Us Skit’ was released on 27 January 2010. ‘Walk With Us Skit’ is an original skit. In this very comedic skit, Stefan and Ash decide to lyrically “go wherever their legs take them” in a children's-entertainment type start. The childish feel is carried as Stef and Ash sing down the streets of London Town. This is until along the way they find Dru, who has returned from a night “holding up the chemists” to “score drugs” where he also “drunk 20 whole bottles of Calpol' and goes into further detail about what he has been doing to which Ash replies, 'Dru, You've changed'. The song then goes back to the chorus, ending with Dru vomiting Calpol.
• ‘Ninjas’ was released on 9 February 2010^[22]. ‘Ninjas’ is an original song. In this song the boys start by saying none of them have any money, but nevertheless Stefan bets that he can get more alcohol than Dru or Ash that night. They then proceed to sing about being “ninjas of the dancefloor” i.e. stealing peoples drinks without them knowing. At the end of the song, Dru seemes to have won the bet as he is seen with much more empty bottles of alcohol next to where he is passed out, whilst Stefan and Ash laugh as the song ends.
• ‘Dubstep On My Mouth Skit’ was released on 5 March 2010^[23]. ‘Dubstep On My Mouth Skit’ is an original skit. In this skit “a strange bass line demon is roaming the streets of london... Possessing young boys when they least expect it...”. In reality, this means that Dru, Ash and Stefan randomly make “offensive noises”. After a while Ash sees Dru and Stefan making the “offensive noises” and proceeds to call a doctor. Then Ash also joins in. At the end of the skit Stefan simply says, “That was.. weird.”
• 'Fashion Innit Skit' was released (not on The Midnight Beast's YouTube channel) on 18 March 2010 ^[24]. 'Fashion Innit Skit' is another original skit. As said, this is not hosted on The Midnight Beast's Youtube Channel as it was a gonzo report for MTV Rocks (though the video can be found on YouTube). It is a skit about what is apparently 'fashion', with all of the 'fashion' becoming more and more ludicrous as the skit goes on. Fashion Innit was released on iTunes as part of the Booty Call EP.
• 'Lez Be Friends' was released on 25 March 2010^[25]. 'Lez Be Friends' is an original song. In this song Stefan sings that if a girl will not go out with him, then clearly she must be a lesbian - features Nicholas Hoult. Ash and Dru appear as "two boys looking for two girls."
• 'House Party' was released on 4 May 2010,^[26] to coincide with the election in 2010. 'House Party' is an original song by The Midnight Beast for BBC Comedy. This video again is not actually hosted on The Midnight Beasts' Youtube Channel, but on BBCComedy's as it was made to coincide with the election to try to get the youth of Britain interested in political issues. It talks about an alternative party that Stefan, Ash and Dru have made, known as the 'TMB Party'.
• 'Friends For Never' was released on 27 May 2010^[27]. 'Friends For Never' is an original song. It is about Ash and Stefan being best of friends, but who keep falling out and then making up again. They fall out in the song over Stefan's "Sunday roasts" but appear to make up again at the end of the song. Dru randomly comes in at the start of the 3rd verse and raps to them. He then goes away again. Friends for never also includes a reference to their sponsor 'Juicebox Clothing' at 3:28, on the stuffed animal's leg that Ashley gives to Stefan, there is a juicebox clothing band around its leg.
• 'Camden Crawling' was released on 30 May 2010^[28]. 'Camden Crawling' is an original song. This is another report for MTV Rocks so is not available on The Midnight Beast's Youtube channel but once again this video can be found if searched for. In the song, Dru tells Ash and Stefan about the Camden Crawl Festival. However, he misinforms them, telling them to take the 'crawl' a bit too literally.
• 'Daddy' was released on 24 June 2010^[29]. 'Daddy' is an original song. This is a song which expands on Dru's past where he says that his dad ran off with their Spanish cleaner on Christmas Eve when he was three. This was first mentioned 2:25 into their very first song 'Tik Tok (Parody)' and has also been brought up in many of The Midnight Beast's other songs including ‘Xxxmas Buddies (How To Get A Xmas...)’, ‘Down Jay Sean Parody’, and 'Friends For Never'.
• 'Booty Call' was first played on 1 August 2010 on BBC Radio 1 on the 5:19 Show with Tom Deacon. This single was released on 12 August 2010^[30]. 'Booty Call' is an original song. In it Dru and Ash have a sleepover at Stefan's and sing all about girls, nails, hair and Cluedo. The song also features a reference to another of their songs 'Lez be Friends' with "We are three boys, Not looking for three girls". It also references 'Daddy', as a Twix chocolate bar is seen in the opening credits.
• 'All Time Low (Parody)' was also first played on 1 August 2010 on BBC Radio 1 on the 5:19 Show, the final song by The Midnight Beast to be played on that show. This song was a parody of All Time Low by The Wanted and featured Tom Deacon. The song is about The Midnight Beast trying to get on the radio; the beginning of the song is a phone call from Dru to Tom Deacon asking if he could play something by The Midnight Beast. The band then start to play the song down the phone, talking about how they find it hard to reach the charts and wonder how they can get on the radio. It is also the only song by The Midnight Beast to have no music video counterpart.
• 'Just Another Boyband' was first played live at a concert and was also uploaded onto The Midnight Beast's Myspace. It was released on iTunes on the 20th of November 2010 and the official music video to accompany the song was released on YouTube the same day. The video involves Stefan, Dru and Ash mocking boybands, by imitating classically stereotypical boyband behaviour, e.g. Ashley pretending to be gay, and the group being unable to get along, leading to a break-up.^[31]
• 'Walk With Us Xmas Special' is a Christmas-themed parody of an earlier skit by the group. The events that occur throughout the skit are similar to those in the original "Walk With Us."
• 'Use Ya Head (Sex Education Skit)' Use Ya Head is a sex education themed song released January 19, 2011. It is a spoof of low-budget educational videos from the 1980s, and is in support of the safe sex organisation Have a Larc.

The Midnight Beast's Webpage - http://www.themidnightbeast.co.uk/

Editing- The Beginning/Update #1

After a couple of days of converting the film files so the are compatible for Final Express to begin editing. Today as a group we made a start of the editing side of the coursework. All of the files were organised so that it is easier to find certain shots that we intend to use in the timeline. From here we 'messed around' with some of the shots to get some ideas of where abouts we wanted to start the narrative and the performance (which is yet to be filmed). When editing we found out how to slow down and speed up the shots, and how to adjust the brightness and contrast. After messing around with the programme and editing we successfully created about 15 seconds of work.

Classroom Scene- Filming Tuesday 25th January

Due to technical difficulties on You-Tubes behalf, the shots that we filmed in school are only just being posted on the blog even though they were filmed on Tuesday 25th January. This blog can also be found on the group blog www.eljafproductions.blogspot.com
The classroom scene is part and adds to the narrative of the video as it adds to the negativity of the characters life. These shots consisted of:

• Over the shoulder shot
• Shot from the front/Low Angle
• Shot from the side
• Panning of the setting
• From the teachers point of view

Over the shoulder shot

This shot allows the audience to see what the character is writing, which highlights their frustration as they write the lyrics/title of the song down in anger. We purposely chose to write in red ink as this codes the anger the individual is feeling, and it is a conventional colour of the music genre rock.
Over the shoulder shots are frequently used in music videos and in films as they give the audience the idea of being involved and watching the action occurring.


Shot from the Front/Low angle 







Low angle shots are used frequently in music videos, this reminds the audience that they are watching a show/performance. Also by using this low angle shot allows the audience to see the characters facial expressions.
When filming, shown in the first and second video, we had some mistakes. Firstly Elliot was so eager to be in the film scene that he made a suprise appearance in two of them. Also in the second video Faye wanted to show off her amazing throwing skills and knocked Jamie (the camera man) out with the ball of paper.


Shot from the side



We like the idea of this shot, as it reflects that no one is surrounding her emphasising that she is alone. Also in this shot it clearly shows the action and emotions of the character.


Shot from the front/High Angle



This shot is slightly high angle, this gives the sense that someone is watching her every move and judging her.


Teachers Shot



By filming from this angle is reflects that she is in a classroom and also from this perspective puts the audience in a point of view, which can create empathy as we watch this character. 

Music Money and Hip Hop Honeys

One media lesson Jamie came in and told us about this documentary about music videos 'Music Money and Hip Hop Honeys' which was shown on BBC3. This documentary delves into the lives of women wanting to be a 'Hip Hop Honey' and how they are exploited in music videos and what lengths they will go to, to be in a R'N'B video. The video has no relevance to our music video as it is not the music genre we are producing, however it highlights the conventions of music videos and the sexual exploitation of women in them, for example Lady GaGa in her 'Telephone' video. 

Evaluation- Filming Sunday 6th Febuary

On the following Monday in our Media Lesson we watched back all that we had filmed the day before. Jamie being so organised had catergorised all the clips into named folders making it easier to edit and watch back as we can identify the scenes. Overall the clips show a good day of hard work as we had filmed the following scenes successfully:

• The suicide in the bathroom- this included the act in the bath; this meant that I had to get in a bath fully clothed and go under the water many of times which was not fun but I took one for the team!
• 'Adventures in Claybury'- what we filmed here can be used as snippits to show the characters fight for freedom. This involved me running around the open fields and sitting in the forest looking glum which was very hard for me!
• Taking 'Drugs'- putting paracetamol in my mouth numerous amounts of time resulted in the taste lingering in my mouth the rest of the day, not nice.
• Bedroom Scenes- this involved the three of us (Jamie, Elliot and Myself) cramming into my very small room and filming myself on the bed and in the mirror.

As a group I feel that we worked very well together getting this filmed and that we incorporated everyones ideas, which will hopefully mean a good end product of a music video. 

Sunday 6th Feb- Filming

Today Jamie and Elliot are coming round to film the following parts of the narrative:

• Bathroom Scene
• Make-Up/ Self Identity Scene
• Depressed in the Bedroom Scene
• Argument with a family member
• Taking Anti-Depressants
• Some shots in the forest running
• Running down the street

All of these shots will build up a sort of montage/narative reflecting the main characters depression. To show that these scenes have occured over a long period of time, in each scene the character will be wearing a different costume however not in the bathroom scene as this is in the present time.