Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your

media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

After the Presbyterian Church Of Koreas music video was
released, the record company Young Turks and the band were
approached. Canadian rock band Smashing flags and their record
label Universal studios Canada claimed that PCoK had copied
their music video for the song Hear It In The Cans from their
music video Maple Leaf. They said that despite the difference in
musical genre the video remained to show identical similarities to
their video and that PCoK even stole some shots entirely. This is
the letter that Young Turks sent in reply to the criticism of the
newly released video.

Dear Universal Studios Canada,

I can honestly say that I have never seen the Smashing Flags
music video before.

As we all know when a label wants to commission a music video a
process of phases must take place. Firstly the music of the band is
sent to a group of sympathetic directors. The directors will listen to
it and see if they can come up with any ideas. The video
commissioner will choose the best ideas and if the band agrees
the label will provide the money to create to project.

The bands themselves dont usually have much involvement with
the ideas for their music videos. There are different groups and
teams assigned to different task within the project and the video for
Hear It it The Cans was created by Alex Parr, Ryan Wills and
Young Turks productions.

There is not much behind a performance video, it is simply a case
of developing ideas and it is now almost impossible to create
something completely original. In its raw form a performance
video is just a band performing live. Really you could say that both
the PCoKs and Smashing Flags music videos are no different to
Blurs The Universal, The Thermals A Pillar of Salt, or
Metronomy - The Look, which are all performance videos filmed in
a completely white room.
Due to the fact that nothing is completely original anymore, our
music video has been influenced by many existing bands videos.

The first existing convention that we followed was the look of the
band, which was heavily influenced by the alternative indie synth
group We Have Band. We used three members, as this followed
the conventions of WHBs image and fit in with the instruments
played in the song Hear It In The Cans. We dressed them in all
black, which matched the image of WHB and portrayed a look
symbolic of our Indietronic genre. Also we styled each member of
our band to look like WHB. Emily makeup, George Beard, Alex
slick hair. We also gained aesthetic influence from The xx and
Hurts to create a simplistic and minimalistic look. As you can see
none of these influences come from the Smashing Flags video.











The bold statement made by Universal Records Canada that we
copied some Smashing Flags shots is outrageous. The basic idea
of our pitch was to create a minimalistic performance video in a
white room. In terms of performance within the video we further
followed conventions set by WHB. For the strange slow motion
dancing, we took inspiration from WHBs music video for OH!.

Also the way that we got the band to behave on camera mimicked
the behaviour of WHBs performances in their music videos and
live shows, this was a mixture of unusual dancing mid-shots and
intense close-ups, mixed with energetic long-shots.










Specifically the extreme close up of the lips in our video was not
copied from the Smashing Flags, which you alleged, but it was
influenced by the OH! music video also.










Also the close ups of the guitar were inspired by the Radiohead
video Creep where the lead guitarist plays the chords of the song
in synchronisation with the music and the camera shows of close
up shot of this, not dissimilar to either of our videos.


And the most obvious shot of all, that is unavoidable in a
performance video, is the long shot of the whole band performing.
The shot gives the audience a direct and central view, which
imitates the view of the band performing that you would get at a
gig. Thus adding to the performance factor of the video. The
inspiration for this shot came predominantly from The xxs video
shown below, obviously the lighting is different, but the shot is still
very similar.

Every shot above is a generic shot, each band does not use them
uniquely and none of which own any form of copyright to any
individual shot. Making a music video is not hard, it simply means
copying things that other people have done and making it your
own. The two videos that we have made are similar, yes, but
identical, no, our videos are similar to the other thousands of
performance videos that are out there, and if you wish to make a
case of our video you must then make a case of every single
performance video on the planet.

You may however have realised that every clip that I have shown
above is from a different band, which are of different age, genre,
ability, size, nationality, personality down to the finest difference
you can pick out about them, yet the way their performance music
videos are made make them all look similar. It is the conventions
of a music video that make them all look incredibly similar no
matter what the circumstances.

In summary the video was not commissioned by the band but on
behalf of the band, by people who watch music videos and indulge
into ideas used by other artists to use develop and challenge
conventions in their own videos.

I hope that this has cleared up any doubts or accusations that you
have implemented upon our music video.

Thank you,
Alex Parr Young Turks Records.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with
inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films,
music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random
conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds,
bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from
that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft)
will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is
nonexistent.
Jim Jarmusch