Costumes and Props

Ryan:

Drummer, Semi-formal attire.

Ryan is the least formal of the three band members, wearing a rolled up shirt and blue jeans. The blue jeans don't matter too much because he is behind the drums so his jeans can't be seen in the video. As he is in the picture above he does not look like a metal genre drummer because he is wearing light coloured clothes and as I have written below about the drums, the dark colour is important. However when metal genre was first created it was about being rebellious and Ryan does defy the metal convention here by wearing a light colour as opposed to dark. If Staz's clothes are considered beside Ryan's, Staz also has a light shirt and as he is in the foreground of the band performance so Ryan would be lost in the dark if he didn't also were a light colour to stand out against the black background and drums. The obvious face that the boys in the band are wearing light colours and Julia is wearing a dark dress draws attention to her and this colour difference also creates a contrast within the band so they don't all match and this brings across the rebellious ideology of the metal genre again. I didn't want the band wearing all the same colours as this would lose thier individuality and make them look conforming which is a big part of army life, I wanted the difference as it would metaphorically give the lead singer (and band) two opposing aspects of personality (order and chaos), this is another part of the metal genre's original ideology of going against convention and giving indiviuals a choice, in a sense creating chaos from order.

  

Staz:

Lead singer/guitar, semi-formal.

Staz is in semi-formal clothing, a bright shirt which is not tucked in disrupts the conventional funeral look, makes him stand out in the background and also makes him look quite pale and deathly, considering his status as a dead soldier in the music video this look ties the narrative and performance together very well. As a person he does not look like a metal genre musician like Julia does (with her red coloured hair she stands out and long coloured hair is very common for metal fans). While a common look for metal fans is dark colours and band T-shirts, that look would serve no purpose in the music video, a new band would want to make a new name for itself and not promote other bands so the absence of metal paraphernalia does not mean a lack of genre-specific apparatus, I have used other methods to give the audience a sense of the genre, most notably the props for the band and the dark setting of both the performance and the narrative (a forest can have many negative connotations, especially with eight army cadets in it which adds a sense of uncertainty and danger).

Julia:

Bass, Semi-formal.

Julia is wearing a black dress which is formal and converse shoes which are informal so her attire is semi-formal. The dark colour is a representation of both the genre and of the narrative. While the story line needs the performers wearing camo, I thought it might lose the dark edge of the lyrics which is why I have the band wearing funeral outfits (the funeral type outfits also tie in with the fact the main singer in the narrative is dead), however the shoes and red hair represent the rebellious side of the metal genre. Metal genre always stays away from social convention, espeically in the early stages of the genre's creation. So the addition of some quirks keeps the band in the metal genre so as not to lose itself completely when faced with the song which is about war (soldiers are very conventional in a sense of clothing, training, behaviour in war, hairstyle, etc) and adding some typical metal genre aspects makes it more relatable to metal fans.

Cadet Uniform

The army cadets in my music video have DPM (disruptive pattern material) tops on and charcol colours khaki trousers, while the general has a full DPM uniform on. I did this so the audience could differenciate between them. While most army cadets have the full uniform on when training I thought it would cause confusion, however in pictures the trainers/generals/teachers do make themselves stand out, such as the picture below, which again is likely for the sake of the viewers of the photograph. I decided to have DPM tops rather than trousers because music video's have many close ups and having DPM trousers would not be seen as much in the shots while the tops will so it reinforces the army theme that runs through the video.

Photograph from 'Army Cadets and The Award' website:

'Ghost' Soldier Uniform/ General's Uniform

The ghost and the general in the video have the same uniform on which is to tell the audience that both have been through war, the ghost died and the general survived. Thousands of cadets are trained to go into war each year and despite all the training many still die. No training could ever could ever prepare soldiers for war, emotional turmoil of the death of friends and enemies alike, PTSD, injury and friendship between squad members is something that cadets are obviously told about but the real thing must feel more than can ever be explained. I think that the retrospective tone to the song is what gave me the idea of the training senario, When a soldier has been in real battles, they must think about thier training and the differences between then and now, about how real it is for them compared to when they were cadets. I think the difference is what makes the narrative follow the anti-war theme so well, especially as the main performer is dead, so the video is like a flashback of better times in a way. The costume is a very big part of creating the sense of the soldiers past and in his own mind his cadet training would have been a bit 'soft' which is another reason why the cadets are not in full uniform because in his mind he wouldn't remember himselve as being a 'proper' solider at that time in his life. Overall I believe the difference between the solider and cadets costume is a key part of the plot to differentiate his past and present self for the audience and for himself in his own mind. .   

Music Props

Drum set

The drum kit follows the metal genre with the black and silver and the drums could be considered to be a literal representation of the genre. The black represents the dark aspect of metal, when metal was first created in the late 1960's many of those first bands focused on the depressing and morbid aspects of life, sub cultures of metal change or add to these basic ideals but the darkness involved in metal permeates throughout metal and all its subcultures which is why black and dark colours are such a staple of the genre. The silver edges of the drums are very loud and contrast with the black, and this is many ways represents the lyrics of metal songs. The dark nature of the metal lyrics gives the idea that depressing means slow paced, introspective music but the fast tempo and deafeningly loud music of the metal genre creates a contrast to what would be expected. I think the drums have a huge impact on setting the mood for a song, the drums are the beat of the song and the placement of the drums on a stage often puts them near the back (mostly because of the size and how loud they are), but always in view of the audience. The drums are much larger than the performers and have a huge presence in a stage performance which I why I think they are important in a song, especially in metal as a genre because of the emphasise placed on the tempo and beat of thier songs.

ACDC current drum set for performer Phil Rudd:

Black Sabbath drum set for Bill Ward 

Both well known bands follow have similar drum colours because of what they mean to the genre, changes in the colours often represent changes in the band ideology, so subgenres may have slightly different colours but the same basic ideals are shown by the drum kit. Most metal drum sets will be dark in some way, whether through colour or by shining different colour spotlights on it in performances.  

Guitar

The lead singer's guitar is a simple black and white compared to the bass, as most of the attention of the audience is focused on the singer, he doesn't need a loud flashy guitar to draw attention. Many of the well known metal bands have simple lead guitars when compared to the bass, although both can still be very unique in design, a general rule is that the bass guitar is more so. ACDC's lead guitarist Angus Young has a black guitar:

while his bass counterpart Cliff Williams:

The bass guitar in ACDC is very colourful in comparison, in concert with a dark background this guitar would stand out to a much greater degree than the lead guitar.

Bass Guitar

The red and black bass guitar with the flaming heart in the bottom left of the instrument is very similar to guitars used by metal bands which links with the genre of my video. Colourful attention grabbing bass guitars are a staple for metal genre bands, for example Metallica:

Metallica has a silver bass guitar which suits the band name as well as drawing attention when contrasted to the black clothes and background of the stage and performer. The bass guitar in my band performance is very similar in that it is a stark contrast to the dark background and my performer, Julia, who is wearing black. However the guitar also has a similar colour to her hair which gives the performer and instrument a connection which links them in the shots where she is playing and draws attention to her.