Through research and general interest I came across this performance, entertainment group called 'The Blue Man Group' and I immediately found relation and inspiration to my cutaway music video ideas. They are a very post-modern group of musician/entertainers and this is something I'd really like to include in my music video.
Now, if you're unfamiliar with who these blue men are then please take a moment to watch this amazing performance by them and you will soon understand the sheer awesomeness an influence for my metallic gold idea has come from.
How is that not awesome? Through synaesthesia I want to create that feeling of the music, the bass and the emotional behind the melodies. With paint drumming I think this is a very abstract and artistic way of doing it - not to mention messy and fun! I thought it would be fun to mess around on Photoshop and see the Blue Men Group become the Gold Men Group in order to see how it would look for my music video.
Does any one remember our AS media 'The Untold'? Well, I had the best team working on that and I think it's time we come together to produce another amazing piece of media work. So, I contacted my trusty friend Fozzard and below is our conversation on casting and being the laid back man he is, his short replies say it all. Through Facebook
I'll be sure to document our shopping trip for more Diary entries. The third and final member of the Triumphant Trio is Farhath! I contact her in the hope she would be the best camera woman of all camera men and women. And of course she was happy to obliged!
Belowis a moodboard of my desired props and locations for my music video. As you can see there isn't much I want to incorporate into my video as far as props and location go as my genre is synth/electro-pop; artists such as Kate Boy(who is one of my inspirations) their videos are very minimal and abstract.
To show my idea of minimalism as well as inspiration from such videos and artists I want it to be mainly studio based as this gives me the control over lighting and the simplistic backgrounds. However I don't want it to contain only studio locations as I feel this might get a little routine and boring for my audience. So, using our picturesque town landscape, we are fortunate enough to have a beach that goes on for miles, beautiful countryside and adventurous rock beds. Using these to my advantage I want to include some scenic shots of places such as Uphill, Marine Lake (rocks in particular) and the harbour by Uphill.
As for props, again, I don't want to involve lots of eye stimulating images as this could get confusing and messy. I really want to capture the minimalism and abstract nature of my genre. So things such as taps, speakers without cases, drums and abstract sculptures will give achieve this. In my song the words "everything we touch turns to gold..." I want to try and use this some how to portray Barthes's theory of music and lyrics shadowing each other to describe. For this I was thinking of using a type of gold metallic body paint and using it on certain areas of the body - perhaps in a Gotye - "Somebody I Use to Know" style.
There will be little to no narrative in my music video - the only thing that might follow a slight narrative would be the parts outside on the hill, but I wouldn't class it as much of a narrative as there is no Todorov style incorporated into it. It will be very much performance and abstract based but mainly abstract.
In class today we pitched out initial ideas and music choice to each other in order to understand how another audience will view and read our music genre. It was very useful in seeing how people view music and what they believe a song should look like through the music and lyrics.
As mentioned before my song of choice is Kate Boy's - "Northern Lights" and the class listened and gathered their thoughts on what they think it should look like. Many people said similar things to what I was thinking which was a great sign as it shows I know my audience well and will attract the right type of people through my choices. Someone mentioned an artist named Charli XCX which is someone I have influence from and want to use as image inspiration. Another few people said it sounded as if it would be very 'cat walk' and 'fashion' based as it reminded them of another artist, Lady Gaga who is always bringing new trends and fashion influenced music videos to the scene. This pleased me a lot as it was very similar to my original pitch and ideas (click hereto see full prezi from previous post) It's definitely in my interest that I want to follow the abstract and performance based approach over the narrative as it displays my genre more clear whereas a rock or typical pop based video would follow a linear narrative.
I think both mine and the classes idea of what should be in my video and what an audience would expect are pretty similar and I'm pleased it's not a lot for me to change in order to pin point my target audience even more.
Laura Mulvey was another music theorist who concentrated on the idea of 'the male gaze' But what is the gaze?
The gaze deals with how the audience views the people that are presented in a media text. Feature that are prominent in the male gaze are as follows:
The camera lingers on the woman's body, specifically her curves.
Regulates women to the state of objects
Women in many media texts are looked at through the male gaze and not only by men. The fact women get turned into 'objects' is reinforced by the dominant patriarchy ideology. In music videos this is seen regularly and many female artists are often put in the position of a 'voyeuristic' or 'sexual' manner.
Applying this theory to a recent pop stars video, Miley Cyrus's - 'Wrecking Ball'
it's clear the male gaze is being used as she swings nude on a wrecking ball. The way it is done looks as if she is 'riding' the ball in a rodeo which many males are fans of.
Her costume choices are also equally revealing and she parades around in a tiny cropped top and pants.
Throughout the video there are panning shots on her body, starting from her legs up in an aerial view this automatically sexualizes her as a male gaze would suggest this is someone 'eyeing' her up.
Another angle from a males gaze are the angles of her licking a sledgehammer - they are from a high angle as if being looked down upon - probably by a male.
It's very clear through these shots and throughout the video that the idea is to look at Miley in a particular way; although the video is very emotional and about breaking down walls in relationships - this isn't the image in which projects it in my opinion, the best way. Mulvey also said that through this 'gaze' women see three things:
1. How men look at women
2. How women look at themselves
3.How women look at other women
I think it's safe to say that being a women and watching this video and many others that sexualize and place women as an 'object' that it's hard to look at yourself in an appealing way. You judge yourself an other women highly based on this 'male gaze' and how you'd like males to look at you, like these stars. I find this theory to be very accurate and powerful when analysing music video.
Some other examples of women being used as sexual objects or viewed in from the male gaze are:
Rihanna - 'S&M'
Britney Spears - 'Toxic'
and Jessica Simpson's - These Boots are Made for Walking'
What is Sven's theory? Sven is a music theorist who believed music videos fell in to two categories:
1. Performance
2. Conceptual
A performance based music video is simple that - performance. The artist is singing, dancing ect in their video. An example of this would be Rihanna's - 'Rude Boy'
In this video we see the star (Rihanna) merely dancing and singing. There is no narrative behind the video other than performance.
A performance based video can be based on three things:
1.Song performance
2.Dance performance
3.Instrumental performance
The purpose of performance videos is to show the artist off as much as they can. Karlsson argues that the performer is often made in to a materialisationor 'commercial exhibitionist' - this is where the artist is made to sell an item; often fans find themselves wanting to be them, they desire to be the artist.
The performer is used to sell their music and advertise themselves.
Another type of performance video is the 'electronic shaman' this is where the artist is not seen but heard. They are invisible and only their voice anchors the visuals of what the audience sees. An example of this would be Gorrilaz - 'Clint Eastwood'
During this video there's no visuals of the actual band but only animated versions. 99% of their videos are of this structure where the band is animated and not real.
'Television Bard'is the next type of performance based video. This simply means a singing storyteller. Instead of a 'commercial exhibitionist' where their purpose is to impress and sell, a television bard is shown in the form of audio-visual imagery. Sometimes the 'bards' perform in their own videos.
An example of this would be Eminem's - 'No Love'
The genre is rap and which follows some narration with Emimem and Lil' Wayne telling a story of bullying and rising to the top through stages of rap. This version of a television bard the artists are seen within the video along side the narrative.
Moving onto a 'Narrative clip' a good example of this would be'Katy Perry's - 'Roar'
The music video is understood through the telling of Katy and how she has crashed with a useless man and becomes Queen of the jungle. We understand this through the narration and how the lyrics match the visuals. The story is predictable and easy to follow as the lyrics suggest she will come up tops - "I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar!"
Lastly, 'Art clip' this is where the music video contains no perceptible visual narrative and no lip-syncing it is just a pure art video. These styles of videos are much more modern and experimental - found a lot in electro and house genres. An example of this would be 'Massive Attacks's - 'Teardrops'
as the video is just of a baby growing in a womb and brings forth the theory of conceptual binary opposites throughout life (life and death)
I wanted to try out some slow lip sync techniques as it's quite popular in the music video scene. The band Coldplay first introduced this to me through their song 'Yellow' and since seeing it I've always wondered and wanted to try out how they managed to slow down the lips but still be in time with the music. So, one morning before Media I decided to be emotional and dramatic and lip sync to Miley Cyrus's- Wrecking ball and it's an emotional, slow song and I thought the slowness would accompany it quite well. I think for a first attempt it went well and I'd like to incorporate this into my actual music video as a new technique.
Todorov was another theorist on narrative and what he believes it to be. His theory is the one that most media forms follow but as always, there are exceptions.
His theory follows a very linear structure; this means it goes from one thing to the other in order e.g. A,B,C,D. His theory begins with an equilibrium - this is where everything is 'normal', no disturbances. His structure was based highly on fairy tales thus the "once upon a time..." line. Just because it was influenced mainly from fairy tales does not mean that the state of equilibrium is positive. It's not set to be a utopia it can be a state of dystopia where the protagonist is in a state of despair.
(Left: Utopia. Right: Dystopia.)
Then comes the disruption of the equilibrium, something that is upsetting the norm, taking out of normality and the balance. The hero will then recognise this disruption as it effects him/her leading them to try and repair the damage. Typically, the protagonist will then begin a journey in order to fix the equilibrium to it's normal state. Todorov's theory then ends when the restoration of the equilibrium is complete, but this isn't always necessarily how it began, sometimes better but in any case, it is resorted and thus the "...and they lived happily ever after." Narratives follow structures: the linear or non-linear structure. Modern film and video use narratives with a more non-linear structure and this means the narration is not in chronological order and things happen unexpectedly.
There are four types of narrative structures:
Narration also covers range, this is one of the main features of narration. The two features are:
Restricted - Which only offers the minimal information in regards to the narrator.
Unrestricted - There are no limits to the information which is presented.
Katy Perry - 'The One that Got Away'
An example that follows Todorov's theory of narration would be Katy Perry's 'The One that Got Away'
The music video follows a non-linear structure as it contains flashbacks of her as a young woman. It starts off with her entering a modern home and she is an elderly woman. As she sits at her table, she reminisces about the times of her younger years with a man she loved.
It's clear from the way her partner and her communicate in the beginning that their relationship seems 'off' or 'outdated' as he asks her "How was it" and she replies bluntly, "It was fine." His expression then looks tired. This could be the start of the equilibrium as we're introduced to her present life and relationships.
We're then introduced to the man she's singing about. "Summer after high school when we first met..." "...Never planned that one day, I'd be losing you."
This is her starting the 'story' of how her and this man met, how they fell in love and how she didn't expect to lose him. Thus, the title, 'The One that Got Away'. They seem to be in a state of happiness and the protagonist does not seem disrupted by anything. But through continuous flashbacks and flash forwards back to the present we can see an increasing amount of emotion fill the stars face as if something bad is remembered.
Then through a series of activities the protagonist is seen sharing experiences and events with her loved one. Still no disturbance has occurred.
The disruption then becomes apparent as we see the couple arguing over matters unknown - it looks like lack of motivation and disagreements with his work and this results in him storming out the house. The protagonist tries to stop him but fails.
The equilibrium is officially broken - the heros loved one gets in his car, becomes distracted by her item of clothing while driving and ends up driving off the cliff. This is where our protagonist is in despair. The equilibrium gets fixed and put back to normality when the protagonist then goes to the place of death and sees him one last time before leaving. Restoring balance once again.
Ronald Barthes, born 1915 was a French theorist, philosopher, critic and semiotician which is the study of cultural signs and symbols. He argued (in 1970) that a narrative text was not one thing, but infact, a weaving together of several different strands and processes. These include 'internal' things to the story, some making connotations to it's 'external' or the rest of the real world.
What this basically means is narrative is tangled up like your iPod's/phone's earphones (very annoying, I know) and so the 'strands' and 'processes' need to be unraveled. Once everything has been detangled and revealed it leaves us with many potential readings of that narrative - unravelling it from one view point and then continue to do so by reading it from another angle.
Barthes's had a formula known as his 5 Codes which 'activate' the reader, these are as follows:
1. The Enigma (or Hermeneutic) code: This is also known as the 'Voice of the Truth'. It's the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing anything. Creating mystery and sets up a major puzzle in order to be solved.
2. The Action (or Proairectic) Code: This is also known as the 'Empirical Voice'. A series of complex actions made 'readable' through small details so the audience don't need to have everything spelt out.
3. The Semantic Code: This can also be known as the 'Voice of the Person'. This is where all connotations built up around the characters and their actions are met and we understand what's going on.
4. The Symbolic Code: Otherwise known as 'The Voice of Symbols'. These embody the substitution of a small or concrete thing for a bigger, abstract one. Acting similar to the semantic code but on a larger scale; typically done in the use of antitheses where new meanings arise out of opposing and conflicting ideas.
5. The Cultural or Referential Code: Also known as 'The Voice of Science'. This anchors the text in its historicalcontext. Looking into the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideologies.
Radiohead - 'Just'
The song 'Just' by Radiohead would be a good example of what Barthes mentions as a 'open' narrative music video. This means a video that is open to interpretation by the audience - it doesn't have just one meaning it can mean as many things as the audience sees fit. It's able to be analysed from different angles.
We're introduced to this man - he has no name and we don't know his occupation or if he even has one. All we know is he looks depressed or like there is something wrong. He wears a suit and walks down the street. There's no telling where the video is going.
It then goes on to introduce the band, Radiohead, in what looks like an apartment block overlooking the man down on the street.
We then see the man we met in the beginning laying on the floor in a certain position. A man passing by then trips over his body and continues to get up and talk to the man on the floor. Again, we don't know why he is on the floor, how he got there or who this man is that has now entered the shot.
While this is going on Radiohead are observing while playing the song in the apartment block lyrics such as "you do it to yourself, you do" are occurring lyrics. This makes me as an audience member wonder what exactly that means in relation to the video (if there is any)
Here starts a conversation between the man on the floor and the man who got tripped. He's asking him questions we would ask if we was tripped by a man lying on the pavement. "What happened? Did you fall?"
The man on the floor then replies with "No I'm fine. Please leave me alone."
He then gets accused of drinking in which he turns down and says he hasn't and the man continues to question him. Throughout this dialogue as an audience we're intrigued as to his answers but still unaware of what's happening.
More people from the street begin to appear, also questioning him and not getting anywhere. He just replies with "Just leave me alone"
The man finally gives in after several attempts from the crowd but first tries to push them off by saying "Look, I can't tell you...it wouldn't be right." This is another sentence which hooks the audience in, we want to know, we want to know the reason he is on the floor and why it's made him this way. Maybe it shows us why he was looking depressed in the beginning of the video. What's the answer? As an audience, as humans we are always looking for answers to things; it's in our nature and this video toys with that urge.
The man lying down then begins to speak, telling them what it is but there are no subtitles so as an audience we're left to wonder what it is. The camera than changes to an aerial shot of the man on the floor then begins to pan to the right and we see that the crowd have to fell to the floor in similar positions as the 1st man. The music video then ends going to a black screen.
We're left with so many questions and not enough answers and this is why it is relative and supports Barthes's theory of an 'open' music video. Personally the lyrics "You do it to yourself, you do" make me think they are singing about the crowd - about the people trying to pry information out of him. It's as if we always need to know everything resulting in something negative, something unexpected and sometimes something we don't want to know. Such as the saying goes, "Curiosity killed the cat."
Coldplay - 'The Scientist'
Now looking at another video but in this case reflecting Barthes theory of a 'closed' narrative. Coldplay's 'The Scientist' could also relate to another theorist named Todorov who goes by the 'Once upon a time...' theory.
A closed narrative suggests that a music video/film/media text can only be read a certain way and not multiple ways. There's only one thread in which we can pull on to understand the meaning behind it.
The video starts with Coldplay's lead singer laying on a blue mattress in the middle of some pavement. We soon begin to realise that the video is in reverse as he starts moving and people around him are also moving backwards. This choice of filming an editing style mirrors the songs lyrics "I'm going back to the start" and suggest the meaning for him being in reverse is for him to back track to the beginning.
Throughout the song those lyrics are present and it's clear he is heading somewhere. There's no other reading other than he is trying to get somewhere and hopefully we'll see where/what is it he's leading us to.
There's then some cutaways of people doing random sports related things and this makes me wonder if what he wants to go back to is something to do with any of these activities or perhaps something to do with these people/sports/places.
The next shots are of him crossing the train tracks but he's not following them, he's breaking the structure by crossing them against the way they are going. Train tracks can symbolise many things; crossing them against the way they aren't suppose to be going suggests progress has been made - crossing from the wrong side into the good. Perhaps he's going back to a place that isn't good as this is shot in reverse and signifies a time of change negatively.
The following scenes get more interesting as the story starts to develop further and as an audience we're reading it the way it's only meant to be read. He's going back through the forest and finds his jacket. Why has he lost it?
In the first shot there's a mid hot of him walking towards a body on the floor immediately after is another shot of a young women and him getting into a car that has no wind screen. The body on the floor then begins to shake and the glass is lifted as well as the body and it returns through the screen on the car. It is now clear that this is a 'closed' narrative. It's only got one ending and one story. A crash.He wanted to go back to the start, to before the accident, to before losing someone close to him.
This initial hypothesis is confirmed when we see the accident playing in reverse. The car swerved off the road, thus causing the accident and the woman had taken her seatbelt off while removing her jacket so she crashed through the window. It's a very powerful, emotional video that follows a closed narrative. The meaning of something in reverse suggests whatever you're looking for in life is moving away from you - he's just lost someone and it's gone. He's looking for them but they're not there any more He wants "to go back to the start" another symbol of reverse is that you need to retreat from a situation in life; in this case his walking away from the accident to lay on the mattress in the beginning shows us that he's walking away from it.
