A2 Media Studies G324 - Music Video Production: SECTION 5

NOTES ON BAND/ARTIST IMAGE

The Edible Zoo is a band based in Warrington. The band itself consists of three members; Marko Marafelias, Matthew J Mullan & Matt “Rugg” Price. They explore the more experimental side of rock, ranging from acoustic sounds to alternative rock to more heavier sounds through the use of many different instruments. Their songs contain extremely eccentric or unorthodox lyrics, with the themes of their songs varying from communism being great to nerds chasing butterflies.

ARTIST PERMISSION

"Thank you for taking interest in our band. We would be happy to give you permission to include and use the song "Army of Nerds" in your music video. If you need the band present, we can also be there for filming as well."
Matthew Mullan, The Edible Zoo

SONG ANALYSIS - BRAINSTORM

Before we start filming the music video we have brainstormed some ideas for the song 'Army Of Nerds' By Edible Zoo.

• Actual army of nerds
• Bird watching (both kinds of bird watching e.g. females and animals)
• Humour used throughout the video
• Bullies to bully the nerds
• Chasing butterflies as the lyrics say
• Playing chess
• Playing computer games due to reference to them in lyrics
• Sword fighting due to the reference in the lyrics of fantasy games
• Red vs Blue (team red, team blue etc)
• Sci-fi- Star Trek, Star Wars, classic Doctor Who.
• Computers and video games
• Space invaders
• Mario
• Dungeons and dragons
• War hammer
• Complex maths
• Wedgies/ nipple twisting
• Binary
• Penny arcade
• Set on field

SONG ANALYSIS - LYRICS

TREATMENT

Artist: The Edible Zoo

Song: Army of Nerds

Genre: Rock

Target Audience: 16 – 21 year olds, video game players

Outline of Narrative: The narrative starts with a 50's themed diner. A nerd, dressed stereotypically approaches the bartender and asks for a milkshake. A "greaser", dressed with a leather jacket and slicked back hair leaves the toilets and combs his hair. The greaser notices the nerd, grabs him by the scruff and asks him if he's done the homework for him. The nerd tries to come up with an excuse, but is quickly kicked out of the diner. At this point the music starts and the "army of nerds" march in, this time beating up the greaser.

In a different location, a lone nerd appears to be bird watching and chasing butterflies with a net. He climbs up into a tree with his binoculars and spies comically on a woman undressing in the house nearby. He appears to be dribbling and enjoying the sight until the woman notices him, at which point he falls out of the tree. The narrative then continues with him and a group of other nerds attempting to stalk her, hiding in various places. They are eventually found, and a group of greasers give them "wedgies" and "nipple twists". However, the army of nerds return and start a battle with the greasers in a comical style, with the nerds eventually winning. The girl that was stalked begins to like the nerd that defeated the greaser, and kisses him on the cheek. The nerd then faints.

Additionally, during the two minature storylines there are various scenes with the army of nerds messing around, including sword fighting scenes, gaming and a recreation of the Pong game.

Resources: Camera, Tripod, Binoculars, Small fishing net, Computer, Computer Monitor

Crew: James Allen, Kane Wright, Laura Henshaw

Time Required: 6 hours for filming, 6 hours for editing.

Budget:
Transport - £6
Red pencil - £0.20
Paper - £0.50
Glasses - £0.00
Cake - £2.50
Hairspray - £0.20
Lab coat - £0.00
TOTAL - £9.40

CASTING DECISIONS

Mad Scientist
• Matthew Mullan
We used Matthew Mullan as the mad scientist as he fits the role very well with both his looks and the way he acts being fairly eccentric.

Nerds
• James Williams
• Dan Brown
• Matthew Mullan

Greasers
• Dan Brown
• James Williams
• Matthew Mullan

Zombies
• Alex Wells

Reporter
• Danny Wood
We have chosen Danny to play the reporter because we wanted someone to stand out in this part of the video instead of using James, Dan and Matthew for this role as well as the majority of the others.

Female
• Jasmine Fox
We have chosen this person to play this role as the female as she looks like the kind of person that would have both the nerds and the greasers trying to win her over.

We used Dan Brown, James Williams and Matthew Mullan for the majority of the roles in our video as they are able to easily switch roles from nerd to greaser to zombie fairly easily through both acting and use of costume. We also did this as we had inspiration from the video ‘Learn to Fly’ by Foo Fighters as the band members all play multiple roles within the video.

COSTUME DESIGNS

NERD