We used the website "MYSPACE" in order to track down a song within our chosen Genre - Grime/Dubstep.
We wanted something with a strong beat, that portrayed the streets and had a sort of grime effect.
Eventually we came across a song called... "Unfinished Business" by an artist called "Havok".
We sent Havok an email asking if we could use their music as part of our media project, we then got to work by listening to the song countless times, trying to see what ideas we could synthesise.
This is our chosen song, Luckily it does not already have a music video, but it is still on YouTube for us to share with you... We also have it in MP3 format for when we begin production.
Interestingly this song has no lyrics, which could be a disadvantage and an advantage.
It will be more of a challenge for when me and my partner have to think of themes etc. yet we don't have to worry about lip syncing and so on.
Our basic idea is that we want the camera to follow a young male character throughout the journey of his day.
We will show him waking up, getting ready to leave the house, and then him leaving the house. He will move through the city, meeting friends, and meeting people for "business".
Our character is going to be an illegal drug dealer trying to make his way.
We want to give our video an entropic twist, so we want to include something scary/thrilling.
I had the idea that we should include a creature/monster, yet something that isn't to childish and could be easily disguised with a sly and sneaky feel.
Eventually me and my partner decided that a zombie could be included into our character's scenario. The zombie will be wearing a hood over his face, and the zombie will hide in the shadows and follow our character without him knowing.
The video will have a similar feel to the one I analysed earlier, by Plan B.
Basically, the target audience for my music video are going to be a better behaved version of the main character within my music video.
What I mean is, like the character within my video, the target audience will be interested in fashion, money, girls and alot of the themes represented on my moodboard.
My target audience will be male, and around 15 to 19 years old.
They will go out drinking regularly with there mates and will work somewhere like Tesco or Subway.
They will own a BMX (probably stolen) but maybe a moped or a cheap car such as a Ford Fiesta depending on their age.
My target audience will listen to music in the genre of Grime, Rap and like my chosen song... Dubstep.
My intended audience will be inner city aspirers either in the working class or even below it. They would also be hedonists.
This is a very important video in relation to my work, for a number of reasons.
Firstly this video follows a similar narrative to what me and my partner had planned our video to have.
This music video follows the journey of a single character, using a variety of camera angles.
It uses restricted narration, as throughout the whole video, the audience only sees what Plan B (the artist) sees.
But, I plan for my music video to useomniscient narration, because my music video will have parallel action, showing more than one persons story within the situation.
Claude Levi-Strauss said that narratives consist of oppositions between "Right" and "Wrong".
I suppose this video does show "Good vs. Evil" in a number of ways, for example, when Plan B walks through the streets, the use of point-of-view camera shots show drug dealers and prostitutes which, represent the "Wrong side" within the narrative.
Plan B himself is actually represented as fairly neutral, yet I would say towards the end he is portrayed in a more negative tone, as his appearance and attitude visibly deteriorates.
To begin with, the video uses a couple of fairly long takes, lasting around three seconds each. Within the start of the video there are not that many cuts.
Then the tempo of the song increases, as well as the number of cuts.
The main character spends a lot of time staring directly at the audience, whilst walking towards them. This interesting camera angle makes Plan B appear in a sense quite threatening, which might have been the intention, in order to connote the violent themes being sung about in the song.
The genre of the video is very urban and could fall under the "Grime scene". It portrays violence as well as using references to drugs and prostitution.
The lighting throughout the whole video is quite shallow and low, there are only a few shots where sunlight is shown strongly.
Most of the time the streets are shown as shadowed and mysterious, this is even achieved when the streets are shown in daylight as well as night-time.
Characters within the footage are all wearing up-to-date clothing, emphasising the urban feel.
Within my music video, fashion will be incorporated thoughtfully, and the latest trends will be cleverly included.
Vladimir Propp's theory doesn't seem evident in this video in my opinion. This may be because the video doesn't stick to a solid narrative with an obvious middle and end.
This video simply follows a character walking through the streets from start to finish.
Furthermore, I wouldn't even say that Todorov's narrative theory is apparent either.
Todorov said that stories have 5 main stages, Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Recognition, Reparation and a new Equilibrium.
Whereas, this video doesn't really consist of any significant events. Although you could say the story has a new Equilibrium because Plan B ends the video in an injured state, unlike the start of the video where he is healthy and unharmed.
There is no diagetic sound present within the video, the only thing that can be heard is the actual track being performed by Plan B himself. This could be a way in which the director wanted to advertise the artist, and ensure all attention is paid to him and his music.
I would say the video connotes a lot of themes, the most obvious being the negativity within some teenage lifestyles within society.
The video is illustrating, because the imagery on screen portrays the words being spoken by the artist, therefore I suppose you could class this video as very redundant.
There are very little entropic factors within this video, except for the way Plan B physically changes appearance in the time it takes him to walk from one destination to another.
He becomes inured, and looks weaker in a very short amount of time.
This is unrealistic obviously, yet it represents the issues within the song, which is why it would have been included.
Andrew Goodwin said that in music videos, there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This is definitely evident within this particular music video.
The visuals within this video are illustrative of the lyrics. The whole video is based within an urban location, where drug deals and violence occurs, this is what the whole song talks about.
When Plan B sings "now the highlight of your day is masturbation" he uses an illustrative hand gesture, which proves there is obvious synchronisation between the audio and the visuals.
According to Goodwin, within music videos there is genre-related style and iconography present, this is true in terms of this video.
Goodwin also said that another key feature of music videos is there is multiple close-ups of the main artist. This is definitely true in this video, in fact almost the whole video is simply close-ups of the main artist!
The mise en scene of the whole video is dark and dangerous, this is very relevant when attention is paid to the lyrics being sung.
Dominant ideology of teenagers being trouble makers is being communicated, young people are being shown dealing drugs and up to no good. This sort of representation of teenagers probably has many opinions.
Someone with an oppositional reading would say that not all teenagers deal drugs and attack people! Whereas someone with a preferred reading might actually be a teenager who at some point has dealt with drugs etc. and understands how easy it is to fall into the wrong path.
The way in which Plan B gradually transforms is technically very successful. His transformation is smooth and unnoticeable, but when his appearance from both the start and end of the video are compared, significant changes have obviously occurred.
A Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging. Digipaks typically consist of a book style paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. They can come in a variety of styles, the most popular being 4 or 6 panel designs. The one below is 6 panel (6 sides) which is what I want mine to be like.
When the panels are opened the disc is revealed. On this particular Digipak the disc rests on the right hand side, whereasI want my disc to sit in the centre.
Below are a couple more examples of Digipaks...
Looking in more detail into Digipaks, I focused on the album "Recovery" by Eminem, which interestingly features one of the songs I analysed earlier. The images below show the Digipak front and back cover for "Recovery"...
The front cover is very simplistic, the only text included is the one word "Recovery", which is the name of the album. The artist's name is not even mentioned, I think this is a way of showing how successful he is. His name does not even have to be mentioned because apparently everyone will already know that it is Eminem's album.
The image has had no over the top editing, and appears very real and simple.
In addition to my point about Eminem's name not being on the front cover, a picture is not shown of him either. (except for one of him shot from behind walking into the distance).
This is the back of the album, it shows the list of tracks, aswell as a barcode, a website address, an anti-piracy logo and some other logos from producers etc.
The portrait image below is the poster which advertises the album previously mentioned. As you can see it uses the same imagery which was incorporated onto the album itself. I want to incorporate similar imagery and effects from my Digipak to my poster, yet I do not want to directly use the same images on both. I think if I use the same images on both my advert and Digipak, it will look repetitive and lazy, even though I can understand why it has been done here.
Andrew Goodwin was a theorist that identified some key features within music videos, they are...
A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. (The visuals will either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics)
A relationship between the music and the visuals. (The visuals will either illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.)
Genre-related style and iconography present.
Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
Voyeurism - Camera close-ups to particular body parts on women is often used. (The male gaze)
And finally, Inter textual references to other media texts may be present.
Within my video analysis, I have picked up on a few of Goodwin's points, and agree with alot of the things he said.
Music Video Narrative:
Narrative describes the way in which a story is told, it is the way the story's elements are structured and organised in a way that is understandable to the audience. (How events are unified in time and space)
Todorov's narrative theory...
The story is structured into 5 stages - Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Recognition, Reparation and New Equilibrium.
Basically, Todorov's theory says that all stories start with everything in order, then something disrupts that original order. Character's realise the order has been disrupted and attempt to fix the damage of the disequilibrium. Finally, the narrative ends with a repaired or NEW equilibrium.
Vladimir Propp's narrative theory...
The story is influenced by a variety of character roles. Primarily there is a hero who is sent on a quest by the sender. The hero has to overcome the villain, usually with the aid of a helper. In completing the quest and/or removing the villain, the hero gains a reward - often a princess.
Claude Levi-Strauss' narrative theory...
The story is motivated by a struggle between Binary Opposites. One side will be represented as the "Right" side, the audience should identify with and support this "Right" side.
Finally...
There are two key types of narration...
Restricted Narration - The audience is "tied" to one character, and only sees or knows what this character knows, building up suspense in most cases.
Omniscient Narration - The story is not tied to one single character, and the camera reveals things which allows the audience to know more than the character in the situation.
This also builds up suspense because the audience is waiting for the event to happen to the character.
The Auteur theory has influenced film criticism since the 1950's, Auteur is the french word for "Author"...
The Auteur theory is the way in which a Director's film reflects the Director's personal creative vision - As if he or she were the primary "Auteur". The Author's creative voice is distinct enough to be visible through studio interference, which create films in an industrial process. Auteur theory focuses on individual stylistic features, how texts are determined by artist's creativity and how texts emerge as part of an artist's body of work.
An example of a director with a visible auteurist style is Spike Jonze...
Film director, Spike Jonze, has created full length movies, as well as music videos and television commercials. His interesting style consists of a lot of hand-held camera effects and a documentary feel. As an auteur he also adds alot of twists to the tone of the video, such as a dark, uneasy tone suddenly flipping to a more optimistic, and sometimes even comical tone. As a genre his work is usually fairly entropic, and he also uses alot of CGI within his work.
He is responsible for film productions such as "JACKASS" and "Where The Wild Things Are". At 32 he directed the highly successful music video for "Weapon Of Choice " by Fatboy Slim; In this particular piece of work he only used 32 camera cuts all together - as he prefers to use long take editing.
Here are 6 videos by Jonze that I think represent his auteurist style very successfully...
The video above has initially a negative genre, almost all of the video is set in poor lighting (night time) and the rain is constantly falling giving the video a miserable tone. Non-diagetic, dreary music plays throughout the video which has a negative rhythm and sound, amplifying the sadness of whats happening on screen. The whole video appears dark and damp and the audience is made to feel sympathy for the lamp that has been put in the cold all alone. Then, typically of Jonze, he contrasts the initial tone of the video and catches the audience off-guard. He brings a character into frame with a humorous accent. The character brings the audience back to reality in telling them that the new lamp is much better and the one being thrown away has no feelings! This light hearted twist gives the video a comical feel and removes the negativity established at the beginning of the video.
Just like the previously mentioned video, this video uses similar techniques which build up Jonze's auteur style. Interestingly this video also uses contrasts in tone and genre, giving the video a twist in style and re-catching the audiences attention. This video begins negatively, using similar mise en scene to the IKEA advert above... The video opens with a dark, negative establishing shot of one of the locations - (the main character's home). The lighting is limited and once again non-diagetic, slow, negative music plays while the action takes place. The genre changes from a slow-paced, dark setting into a fast-paced action drama. The wide camera shots show society breaking down within the streets as car's crash, explosions occur and people run wild. The non-diagetic music picks up in tempo and mixes with the diagetic sounds of the mayhem. The combination of noises create the intended out of control atmosphere. Suspense is built up as the main character avoids the chaos around him. As you'd expect from Jonze, the tone unexpectedly changes once again. - a more optimistic scene blends into place and concludes the video, with an underlying sense of confusion and irony. The main character cheerfully passes another jogger, says hello and carries on running without a care in the world. The video is summed up by a giraffe walking past out of nowhere. Obviously this video is entropic, like alot of Spike Jonze's work, and I believe it works very well. It puts the advertised brand across with a humorous and memorable kick.
Unlike the previous two videos, this video has a positive tone almost all the way through. Whereas in the other videos, the last shot is the only optimistic moment. This video doesn't begin with a dark opening, it begins with an establishing shot of a police station, and some diagetic voices are heard. The setting then changes to a fast-paced conversation between two characters, this video has alot more cuts adding to the dramatic genre. The location changes a few more times, and interesting editing techniques are used such as titles shooting across screen and spilt screen etc. Something stereotypical of music video is "the male gaze" where women are shown as sexually available, although this is a television advertisement, it still incorporates the use of women as sex objects. The fun, and amusing feel to the video throughout makes it enjoyable to watch, and the audience find themselves immersed within the story and fully interested. The product being advertised is introduced right at the end, which is done alot in television advertisements. A male character looks at the main character from a distance, who is with a good looking woman. This gives the impression that the brand and the video is aimed generally at straight men.
Out of the six videos by Jonze I've studied, this particular one is probably the most relevant to my research, as it is actually a music video. The extraordinary use of editing and production of this video gives excellent visual effects.
Jonze got the rap group to literally lip sync and perform backwards. Everything else was recorded as usual, such as pedestrians walking past etc. Then when the video came to be edited it was reversed so that the music was the normal way round and the lyrics were in sync with the rappers mouths, yet the body movements and physics within the video were simply unrealistic.
Puddles would splash inwards back to place instead of up the rapper's legs, items would fly into their hands instead of being thrown away into the distance, and smashed glass would join back together all in rhythm with the song.
Another interesting aspect of this video, is that is uses very long shots throughout. The video only has 5 cuts within it making it very smooth and continuous.
This video emphasises Spike Jonze's entropic style and the technique works very effectively.
This video follows Jonze's entropic auteur, yet this video is alot more dramatic. The use of fast paced editing emphasises the story's drama. The interesting thing about this video is that it uses a cut once every one to two seconds, this keeps the audience interested the whole way through. The costumes and setting of the shopping centre are realistically portrayed. The combination of diagetic sound effects and the slightly humorous non-diagetic soundtrack make an effective partner to the mayhem happening on screen.
Like alot of Jonze's work, this video begins quite relaxed, and then the tone suddenly changes catching the audience's attention. This is an advertisement for "GAP" and like most advertisements, not just by Jonze, this one incorporates the advertised product at the conclusion of the video.
Finally, I believe this video concludes my idea that in alot of Spike Jonze's work, he uses two or more contrasting tones which switch unexpectedly.
This Adidas trainer advert begins with a calm nighttime scene, the lighting is very low and alot of shadow's are included to emphasise the darkness. The setting is a simplistic bedroom, and the single main character is dressed in pyjamas. The character moves to another setting where the whole atmosphere completely changes, and the change in the soundtrack makes the audience jump. The setting of the video switches from what was initially calm into something dramatic and exciting, amplified by the fast paced editing and increased volume and tempo of the music.
This video begins calm and suddenly changes into a dramatic atmosphere which is typical of Jonze, but interestingly, this video also changes tone again towards the end and returns to the initial tone of the video - calm, dark and simplistic.
In conclusion, I would say there is such thing as a an auteur theory. Through the six videos just shown, a strong correlation of creative style is portrayed and the same editing techniques and ideas are included. Spike Jonze has an obvious and successful auteurist style.
I have done some research into a handful of interesting music videos... Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
I think that this video could be classed as Illustrating , because most of the time, the video is quite redundant, and the images on screen are very much portraying the lyrics of the song. The video shows confrontation between a couple, and alot of burning and fire is incorporated into the music video. The fact that people are shown burning alive, and there is alot of fire used within this video might seem very entropic at first, but when attention is paid to the lyrics, the use of fire is very redundant. Something more entropic would be if the video was shot in Antarctica and not a spark of heat was shown!
There is romance between two people, a male and a female - this is very redundant and expected of most music videos. I think one of the most redundant features of the video is the consistent close ups of the artists singing the song. This happens a lot in music videos, and adds to the redundancy of the video.
This video uses a variety of camera shots and angles. One typical camera shot is a mid-close up shot of the artist singing some vocals. The camera focuses alot of the time on the face of Rihanna showing her neck upwards, sometimes shift in focus is briefly used, the depth of field varies but mostly the artist's eyes are directly staring at the audience throughout.
The narrative behind the video appears to be a male and female's relationship collapsing as they argue and fight, the video is concluded by them making up and rebuilding there love. Therefore, I would say the genre of the video is a dramatic romance.
I don't feel the video falls under a certain Auteur, I don't think the video shows any connection to a particular director or style that I know of, yet the style of the video is very mainstream and in the modern genre.
The editing is fairly fast paced, and a variety of settings are contrasted with eachother, the main location being the characters home where the fighting occurs. Rhianna's location isn't shown due to the extreme close up of the camera shot, whereas Eminem's is shot in enough space to be a two shot. Eminem's location is entropically in a corn field where the lighting is displayed as very bright, maybe representing Eminem as pure and good.
Some dominant ideology is present, for example, this video portrays the male as stereotypically more important, and the female as stereotypically a sex object, not only in the narrative, but also when the artists are shown singing.
The male character is shown as more powerful and his actions are what influence the story within the video.
The female is shown in not many clothes, and she has less "power" within the video. The video connotes alot of topics, such as love, sex, power, hate, anger and guilt. Overall, this video is fairly redundant, with glimpses of entropy. It follows a mainstream genre, and typically advertises the artists that are singing the song.
Eiffel 65 - Blue
"I'm Blue" could probably be classified as amplifying, as the video represents the original song's meaning, yet the video adds another layer of meaning. The song revolves around "Being Blue" and redundantly - the whole video is showing the colour blue, even the characters are blue! But, on the other hand, the video is quite entropic, because nowhere in the song's lyrics does it mention going outer space and fighting aliens, which this video's storyline is based around. Another entropic aspect of the video, is that the artist is very rarely shown within the video, unlike "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" where Kylie Minogue is constantly on the screen. The video portrays correct denotations, yet it also shows incorrect connotations which do not completely match the song's lyrics. Furthermore, aliens are usually stereotyped as being green, so I suppose it is quite entropic that they are shown as blue in this video, yet the entropy is contradicted by the fact that the video revolves around everything being blue.
Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head
I would say that this video is fairly redundant, it is amplifying, as it connotes lyrics of the song, but it also has entropic scenes, which add another layer of meaning, that does not really relate to the video. 2 examples of redundant features within the video are the synchronized dance scenes, and the one shots of the artist singing (Kylie Minogue). Another example of redundancy is that Kylie sings the lyrics of the song whilst driving a car; this isn't unexpected or extraordinary.
Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg - California Girls
This interesting video could obviously be classified as disjunctive, due to it ignoring the song's original meaning, and portraying abstract imagery. There are many redundant aspects within this music video, for example - There are ALOT of girls being shown as sexually available, through them not wearing much clothing etc. Another redundant feature within "California Girls" is that the many girls within the video are continuously flirty and cheeky, and the single male character (Snoopdog) is shown as dominant and in charge of the situation.
On the other hand, there is a fair amount of entropy within the video... Firstly, the video is not set in California, and doesn't connote California in any way. The whole video is set in a fantasy location, through the use of CGI where gummy bears come to life and swear, the characters have multicoloured hair and events take place such as characters being trapped inside a giant plate of jelly. One of the least obvious entropic aspects of the video, is that at the end of the video, stereotypical gender roles switch over... At the end of the video, the women become the dominant figure over the single man. This is interesting and unexpected because previously the male was shown as superior to the girls.
This is an animated fantasy, yet the artists that are singing are regularly advertised, emphasising the redundancy of the video.
