Feedback #3

Guys,

I am concerned about your planning grades so far. At the moment there are a number of gaps on this blog. You don't seem to be taking the deadlines very seriously and your analysis are still a little brief.

You need to seriously consider the grade you are aiming for in this unit and invest some time in improving your entries. I will review your current grade for the research element of planning as of level 3 (C/B) for planning ONCE more. All gaps need to be complete by the time you do your pitch.

Last chance to improve.

Textual Analysis,Chemical Brother Believe. (Appendix 21)

What have you learnt from this exercise?
Having analysed a narrative based music video which is the style of music video we intend to create, it has given me an insight into how a music video of this nature needs to be made, i can see in detail the type of shots needed to be used as well as being able to see how music is incorparated to match the track, it will make it much easy when coming to create our own music video, because we will be aware of the basic structure needed.

How long are the shots?
Most of the shots are between onw and three second shots, which consist of alot of detail, this helps to create an effective and believeable narrative.

How are they cut?
Most of the shots are very quick cuts from scene to scene showing the enviroment of which the video is shot in detail as well as giving the viewer a real insight into the video and helping them to be able to understand it in detail.

What shot size is predominantly used?
The main shot size within the video was Medium Close Ups, this allowed to give the main characters constant emotions, therefore alligning the viewer within as well as alos making it apparaent the goings on of the other charcters within the video and the background enviroment.

How does the camera move?
The canera rarely moves within the video it mainly showed static shots of the enviroment and the happenings of the video, when moving cams were used in tended to be a steady cam showing POV of the Man.

Are there any long static shots?
There are no long static shots the longest being about four seconds, this helps to create a detailed narrative, and really helps to bring the viewer into the narrative.

Relationship with lyrics/music?
The music throughout the song is linked towards the narrative, while changing the tempo and beat to match the masn emotions the subconsiously links the viewer towards the man, and therefore reinforces the narrative.

How is the narrative constructed?
The narrative is constructed by having many deatilied shots and it slowly builds up to the chase scene being man and machine, the music also helps add to the narrative as it is linked to the shots.

Are any types of performance shots repeated?


What will you now use from this when planning your own work?
When planning i will be able to use the ideas of how the shots should be and how to build up the narrativefor the planning of my music video.

Geering's Technical Analysis Evaluation of Teardrop (Appendix 20)

What have you learnt from this exercise?
I have learned that there are many different shots in a music video, more than expected. There are filler shots when required, for instance if there is no vocals or there is a drop in the music.
How long are the shots?
The shots vary in length depending on the desired effect from the director. The are some quick cut shots which last less than a second and some shots that can last up to 22 seconds. Each different shot has something to establish. Whether it is anchoring a beat in the music or it is showing the audience some lip syncing.
How are they cut?
There tends to be just straight cuts, although in the video i analysed there were some fades too. Howwever this is due to the dark setting and is relevant to the type of video we aim to shoot.
What shot size is predominantly used?
Close ups, be it extreme close-ups, medium close-ups or normal close-ups themselves, they are predominantly used. Yet for our video, we hope to do a sort of chase sequence where we will need to mix both establishing shots with reaction shots.
How does the camera move?
The camera mopvements arevery smooth which suits the song's tempo and rythmn. So again our will differ due to its fast paced beat and its drops in rythmn.
Are there any long static shots?
Yes, reaction shots are used combined with ECU's and when the foetus is 'singing' along with the track there are some long static shots. One 22 second shot at the end, one ten second static shot in the middle and a few 3 and 5 second static shots around the track as a whole.
Relationship with lyrics/music?
The foetus mimics / sings along withthe track in a lip sync-like manner.
How is the narrative constructed?
The fller shots of the uterus establish that the foetus is in a womb. Whilst this can all be inferred via ideological discourse that the foetus is being sung to by it's carrying mother.
Are any types of performance shots repeated?
No, although some shots are similar, there are alot of different angle of the foetus, giving the feeling that it is suspaneded in the 'weightless floatation' that is provided by the amniotic fluid.
What will you now use from this when planning your own work?
The fades are a brilliant idea in a darkened situation as they look vastly more subtle and help the narrative flow far more easily. The mixture of shots we will have to use has also come to light during this analysis. Our track has slow moments and fast paced drops in music, so we will have to uses shots accordingly.

Focus Group Results (Appendix 19)

We played our focus group our chosen track, and got them to write down anything that came into their heads related to the track.
- night time, street lighting was one response....
- another came up with 'the great binge' which we found quite interesting. So, we researched it.
'It is a term used by historians to describe a period from 1870 to 1914 when drugs were developed and widely consumed, alongside strong alcholic drinks. Which without todays prohibitions would be coonsidered excessive.'
The "binge" started in the 1860s, when Absinthe became popular in Europe. After the Franco-Prussian War, most French vines were destroyed by the phylloxera epidemic, destroying the supply of wine. This created an opening for the then new and unfamiliar drink.

other responses included ;
- clubbing
- friends
- drugs / overdose / tripping out
- eary voice

settings that were not asked for but were surprisiungly given were as follows:
- city / urban backdrop at night
- a club
- ibiza / kavos / magaluf
- house party
- a sports training session
- just pitch black... this final one we felt could be quite enigmatic and found the possible setting insightful as we hadnt thought of things like and intense training session for sport.
However, with the sporting idea it would be hard to tie in the line 'under the influence' which is repeated time after time. It may work well for an energy drink advert though!

By the time we had played it a second time, and shown the participants our mood boards...it was clear that our thoughts were on the same 'wavelength' to that of the rest of our target audience.

- street racing came up (our headlight idea)
- drugs came up over and over again...the name and the repeated tag line are hard to avoid, yet we feel as a group that any drug consumption my be very subtly touched upon if we are to include it in our video.
- alcohol was another reoccuring item on people's lists.
This, we feel could be a key part of our video's narrative. Alcohol combined with our character's binge drinkin behaviour could lead to many things, aiding in the completion of a four minute video.

We then asked our participants what music videos they have seen and liked. There were a mixed bag of genres, bands and artists...

- robbie williams (Rock DJ)
- adele (chasing pavements)
- chris brown (superhuman)
- chris brown (with you)
- aerosmith (don't wanna miss a thing)
- the script (the man who cant be moved)
- kardinal ft. akon (dangerous)

we then asked each person why they liked it.

Rock Dj :
- the 360 degree camera action
- he was my favourite artist when i was younger
- it portrays alot of his personality / attitude (cheeky chappy)
- the lion pants!

Chasing Pavements :
- like nothing seen before
- quite abstract, lying and moving with the camera facing down onto the pavement
- simply a great song
- quite a hard narrative to follow *negative*

Superhuman
- "Chris Brown and Keri Hilson's chemistry"
- Emotional song
- Lighting and texture of footage, (soft lighting, high exposure)
- "He's hot" (a female participant's p.o.v!)
- "Stylish"
- Well shot (keeps audience interested, and "i'd definately watch it again")

With you
- Jenny from the block like setting..."home town"..."boy next door type thing"
- "I love the way his jumper changes colour!"
- Smooth dance moves "I think he moonwalks!?"

Don't Wanna Miss A Thing
- "Just Amazing"
- "Bits from Armegeddon are in it and it's a fave of mine"

The man who can't be moved
- "The lyrics EXACTLY match the video" (visual and audio relationship)
- its a really sad song
- "it seems really real...like the news reporters"

Dangerous
- Classic R&B blingage on show
- "The girl is buff aswell as dangerous!"
- the collaboration is clear to see within the video
- "where its set looks nice and sunny"


We found this session really informative and we learned alot about how other people, both boys and girls perceive music videos and how we can adapt or collaborated ideas as a group to tap into the zeitgeist!

Feedback #2

Where is your audience research?
Deadline was Friday...

Textual Analysis #2 Goldfrapp-Happiness (Appendix 18)

"Happiness" is a folktronica song performed by British duo Goldfrapp. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory for the duo's fourth album Seventh Tree (2008). It was released as the album's second single. The music video for "Happiness" was directed by Dougal Wilson. The video features a young man, dressed in a white suit, jumping for joy through his neighborhood. The video begins with Alison Goldfrapp sitting on a stoop when suddenly the young man appears from a cellar door. Goldfrapp makes additional Cameo appearances in the video as a black haired bus traveler, a police woman, a bush trimmer, and a braided flower stand keeper. Will Gregory makes similar appearances as, among others, a trash collector and a mailman. The video concludes with the cast of background characters coming together along with the young man, who then jumps in a circle with young children and a dancing dog. In the final scene, two elderly people – Goldfrapp and Gregory – arrive to join.

The video undertakes a narrative approach, visually the video is clearly set in a residential area of London, this is apparent by the culture references dotted about the video, mainly through characters and occupations; binman, policeman and women, lollipop man etc. The video appears to be one continuous shot, but when analysed closely you can see cuts as objects pan past close to the camera. Light colours are emphasised as greyer and darker objects fade in to the background. The video features a digital technique to create the effect that the music is pulsating through the street. There is subliminal advertising of Goldfrapp throughout the video as both members appear as characters, with Alison mouthing the vocals, which adds a performance, shot but different to usual performance shots. The video is theatrical and although has a narrative video it still advertises the band and song, but manages to maintain a more artistic approach and look. There is a huge amount of cultural reference within the video. The video is about happiness and is set on what in what we could consider in today’s society, a normal boring street that is mundane and dull. The video challenges the representation of britain as a society, and the man in the suit bouncing represents happiness, and as he travels he spreads the happiness to others and makes joy out of normal tasks. The video is entertaining as it features classes and iconic social groups all joining together and dancing about which makes the ideological discourse.

The video was high in the charts, and all the is generically a smaller genre of music, but is technically POP. Goldfrapp is highly established within our society so they are recognizable.

Here is the link to the music video- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=So93Iny2HWI

Textual Analysis #1 The Chemical Brothers-Believe (Appendix 17)

"Believe" was the second single from The Chemical Brothers 2005 album Push the Button. The single was released in early May 2005 and peaked at #18 in the charts.The song features BlocParty's Kele Okereke on vocals.I chose to analyse this music video because it demonstrates an outstanding portrayal of paranoia and mental breakdown. It has a classic realist narrative, and I feel that the video really does the eery track justice. The track is electronic and the majority of the framework is constructed of mechanical noises and sound effects, so this CGI robotic twist is effective linear to the track.The music video, directed by Dom and Nic, Dom and Nic is the working name of directors Nick Goffey and Dominic Hawley. Contains scenes filmed at the now defunct MG Rover Longbridge plant. It starts out with a man watching women in an exercise video dance on a window TV in a store, this image is a parody of Eric Prydz ‘Call On Me’ video which has been criticised as ‘soft porn, not an art form.’ This is intertextuality and reference to popular culture.

The video follows a man's transformation from a responsible worker at an automotive plant to a paranoid schizophrenic, collapsed in fits of laughter on a public street. The man notices a group of welding robots pointing at him as he walks by. The man later catches one of the machines at a nearby park, drinking from the industrial river. The robot acts suprised, as though caught in the midst of an illicit act. The man continues to encounter the robot throughout the video in various courses of his dull day, with emphasis on the representation of blue collar worker's despair in capitalist society. Around him, people seem not to notice the robots, nor acknowledge him as they chase the him around the city. Towards the end, the man runs to the roof of a parking garage, a robot climbs up the side of the building and corners him at the edge of the roof. Just as the robot is about to attack, it vanishes. The man descends to the street. Robots are coming toward him from every direction and manhole covers and streetlights emit comet-like tails colored in iridescent hues. The triangular-textured wall of a building in front of him flickers into the same iridescent shades, before falling apart in a cascade of colored tiles. Laughing maniacally, the man falls to the street as his hallucinations blot out his last rational view of the world around him. These visual effects are used to portray his vision of insanity and it shows how despite grasping onto his sanity he eventually lets it slip, which I believe is why the tiles slip and fall as a visual pun.

The video is primarily a chase scene and in no way follows the meta-narrative of The Chemical Brothers themselves. The video is constructed of amateur handy-cam footage and CGI to re-enact the robots. The video has a classic realist narrative which is usually avoided by artists in their videos. Usually because they want to market there music and themselves as a brand name. Although they are not marketing themselves as a brand an image is portrayed of The Chemical Brother DJ’s themselves on the wallpaper of the boss’s computer screen. The selling appeal to the brand is the video itself, it is entirely original and holds the repetitivity factor- meaning that people will watch it over again sub-consciously taking in the video, if they want to or not. The video contains a constant grey wash to represent the man’s mundane and dull lifestyle, the characterisation of everybody except the man is repetitive which connotes his repetitive job and life. The video is post-modern as it takes a stereotypical cultured view of London and incorporates overrunning of technology and challenges dominant ideological discourse on mental health. The track itself is quite famous but only primarily in British pop culture, The Chemical Brothers main appeal is their live DJ sets and concerts, consumption of a video like this would be on less diverse/specialist music channels or over the internet, for example www.youtube.com.


Here is a link to the video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c_IkUysQASQ

Audience Research (Appendix 16)

We are going to perform a qualitative based research using a focus group, consisting of 8 varied target consumers. We will play them the chosen track and then give them a set of questions to gather in their immediate thoughts and ideas.
We are holding it after an english lesson so that we can use the diverse spectrum of social groups within our class. For doing this research, we will be able to determine how our favoured target audience will want to perceive our track. This will give us a larger awareness about how our current ideas will be recieved and from this we will be able to change some ideas as well as developing them.

Adam's mood board (Appendix 15)

Feedback grade #1

Adam, Joe, Will
While there are some interesting videos mentioned here, there are significant gaps in your planning. Will and Adam - you are missing a textual analysis and as far as I can see, you have not gone back to improve the first ones on the basis of my comments.

While Adam and Will have posted up moodboards - I couldn't view them, Joe's is missing and there was no evaluation of ideas.

You must tidy this up, improve and post a number of entries explaining your concept so far.

Currently planning grade at level 3.

Auteur Research 2- Hype Williams (Appendix 14)

Harold "Hype" Williams (born 1970 in Queens, New York) is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. The son of working-class parents, he grew up wanting to be a painter. Williams displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts, and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag. "That's probably what stimulated my interests in color," he says. "I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Haring of the streets."

Williams is notable for creating a number of groundbreaking and successful music videos for hip hop and R&B artists such as LL Cool J ("Doin' It"), Nas ("If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)", Missy Elliott ("The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "She's a Bitch"), Busta Rhymes ("Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See") and Jay-Z ("Big Pimpin').
In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Belly.
Williams "signature style", although it is not exhibited in all videos, involves shots placed in regular widescreen ratio, while another set of shots is placed in the spaces which would normally be left blank in widescreen ratio videos. Videos that use this style include "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, "In My Hood" by Young Jeezy, "Check On It" by Beyoncé, and many others.

Even today Hype Williams continues to earn accolades from audiences, critics and industry peers for his vibrantly entertaining work in music, film, photography and advertising he has shot over 200 music videos.

Hype is an auteur of the more comercially frameworked music videos, although he holds artistic merit a lot of his videos feature performance based styles that market the artist. And reinforces meta-narratives.

Simon Henwood...Music Videos, artforms? (Appendix 13)

Simon Henwood was previously more reknowned for being and artist/graphic designer, rather than a music video director. However he had done a director roles for artists such as Roisin Murphy, Imogen Heap and Badly Drawn Boy. He has though, added a world famous and incredibly popular artisit to his portfolio. Kanye West came to him for his new song ; Love Lockdown. The video adds an incredible idea to the song's meaning, the level of amlification is impressive, the stereotypical Kaye West video is started. With him in an almost trademark white outfit, as seen in touch the sky and gold digger.
Simon Henwood deals with quite abstract art. He plays with commercialism rather than conforming to it. So in terms of the question; Are Music Videos Art or Advertisements? I feel that he is a case for it being art. His artistic impressions and clear, abnormal perspective are inherent within his directed videos.

http://www.simonhenwood.com/flash/#

Mood Board 2 (Appendix 11)

Mood Board (Appendix 10)

Me and Joe found this in media today Will...THIS IS OUR TRACK!!! (Appendix 9)

(Appendix 9)
Listen to the chemical brothers : under the influence

just been talking about what we could do with it. It could be good

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Q5j9kXT_o
^ just the track

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L6hdTD_PM5E&feature=related
^ someone's video for it

Possible Tracks... (Appendix 8)

just been looking at some songs guys, try and have a listen to some and let me know what you think

daisy lane - stereophonics - pull the pin *album*
drowning - stereophonics - pull the pin *album*
we cant rewind - feeder - echo park *album*
oxygen - feeder - echo park *album*
Just a day - feeder

none have videos

and i found a few more of the type we had discussed but i cant remember them at the moment...yeah let me know boys

(Appendix 7)

Daft Punk, Around the World, 1997. (Michael Gondry)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K0HSD_i2DvA&feature=channel

Awesome song and video, great watch and beat and music i think are linked awesomely to the dancing narrative. The set of 16 characters are shown in the video and are depicted as robots, walking around a circular platform representing a vinyl record. The song is meant to be a visual representation with each charcter representing an instrument. The Androids as the voice, the rapidity of the athletes to symbolize the bass guitars ascending and descending, the femininty of the swimmers to be the high pitched keyboard, 'ichty' skeletons to serve as the guitars and the mummies to represent the drum machine. For me its excellent work of choreography how all the dancers are perfectly in time and it just flows against the music, although the music is very simple and rarely changes beat the video i think just makes the song.

The mise-en-scene of each dancer and the costumes they are wearing to reflect upon the instruments, added with the set design show how easily a great video can be created from something so simple, and how linking the music to the dancers really add to the track. Plus the flashing lights in the background are used to match colour with the beat of the song, and the phrase 'Around the World' which is repeated regulary matches to the movements of the characters as the walk around the record. the track works well as a subsidary media, by creating a really awe-inpsiring track and compels the viewer to watch more of Daft Punk's abstract style videos and songs. This track is to show how technology is progressing much like some of their other videos the including of robots, setting the video upon a huge circle depicting a vinyl record and then having the charcters represent the new instruments, shows the transition through technology from record player to CD.

Great video, and shows how well choreographed dancing can work so well against a simple beat.

(Appendix 6)

Hifana - Akero (+cruz)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OIcG4X5g5FY

Simple style video, meats shots of the singers in black and white, and they create a world around them in colour to match the movements of their dancing and singing. Works well and is very inventive, intriguing as colour as paint spurts shoot from their body's and mouths turn into snake tongues. Does have the present of female figures bodies, maybe to sell the video, however they are wearing ridiculous masks which takes the focus from their revealing bodies and makes it comedic. The video is visually intriguing with constant movements and bright colours flashing, simple techniques like distorting the singers and multiplying their images are used to make their movements with the beat of the track.To me this seems to be disjuncture because although the artists are shown to be in the video and meat shots of the singing are included their is no narrative to the video it appears to be random images strung together.

Throughout the track a almost cartoon world is shown around them, and is morphs to different shapes and things as the take proceeds, and many of the colourful cuts are timed with the music to create a match, and scenes when the two artists surf on a wave of colour shows how this video meets the postmodern style. It constantly uses visual effect to team music with narrative, however unrelated the narrative may seem it is still link to the song. For much of the verses we only see the main singer dancing and create streams of what appear to be black paint as he moves and finishes each line of the song, the white background which is apparent through the whole track helps to emphasize the blacked out character and his dancing. When the chorus hits the video breaks out in colour and a step through the narrative is shown, and transition from the city on a bus to the beach is made, where the girls with masks follow the two singers.

The video helps show a a relaxing feel as they depart from the city and reach the beach, and the fact that the half naked girls follow them the whole way reinforces the ideological discourse that women desire rich famous men with power, and this helps to represent the band as being successful and therefore boosting their status, this then clearly works as being subsidiary media and portrays the band positively to their target audiences.. Inter textual references are also shown in the cartoon like colourful style which can be seen as reflecting some of the art style within Japan where the band originate from. The Mise-en-scene and lighting of the video make it out to be one of those summer feel-good tracks, with warms colours and a relaxed narrative.
I think this video could be seen as art, because the bright colour reflects upon paintings and the inventive movement of paint spurts and floating heads shows it to be very original, is goes a step further and is very illustrative.

Based on Andrew Goodwin's theory of the features of music video this is how Akero matches to his six ideas.

1. Within the video it can be seen that Akero by Hifana shows some simple genre characteristics, it shows a basic narrative set on a cartoon world, with regular shots of the band members singijng and dancing, although there is no specific routine for the dance, it clearly shows that the band are being presented in order to sell the song.
2. As i have already said it is obvious that music and lyrics have been linked to the visuals of the video, and many of the cuts are shown to have been made to enchance certain words within the song and this also makes it more appealing to the audience, e.g. Cuts from CU of singer to a large word 'Akero', subconsiously focuses the viewers attention to the title of the song.
3. Much the same as 2. it shows how parts of the song are enhanced and made appealing to the viewer.
4. The video shows how the record label demenads are being met, by regularly showing the band members, this can been seen from the number of CU's and MS's, these shots also show a repeated theme of the artists doing the same thing, this repeated motif shows how they are being made iconic and regonised through their work.
5. Although there is no seperate screen within this video, there is the notion of voyeuristically viewing the female body, however this sort of objectification in two ways is changed, the female characters are wearing ridiculous looking masks which could either be seen to objectify them even more or to take the audiences focus from their bodies.
6. The cartoon like feel and design of the video is clearly a reference to japanese are of where the band are from.

Seems a good video to watch, to match the sort of postmodern disjuncture style we want to do, and we can get some good ideas about postmodernism and contemporary style of video directing from this.

Auteur Research-Jonathan Glazer (Appendix 5)

Jonathan Glazer was born in 1966 in London. He is an English director of films, adverts but predominantly music videos.
After studying theatre design, at Nottingham Trent University, Glazer started out directing theatre and making film and television trailers, including award-winning work for the BBC. In 1993 he joined Academy Commercials. He has directed popular campaigns for Guinness (Swimblack and Surfer) and Stella Artois (Devils Island). Since the mid-1990s he has directed a number of music videos, and was named MTV Director of the Year 1997. His work in these areas is often noted for its originality.

Music videos
Karmacoma by Massive Attack (1995)
The Universal by Blur (1995)
Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead (1996)
Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai (1996)
Cosmic Girl (Version 2) by Jamiroquai (1997)
Into My Arms by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1997)
Karma Police by Radiohead (1997)
Rabbit in Your Headlights by UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke (1998) As shown above ^^^^
A Song for the Lovers by Richard Ashcroft (2000)
Live with Me by Massive Attack (2006)

In 2006 he directed the second Sony BRAVIA TV ad, which took 10 days and 250 people to film. It was filmed at an estate in Glasgow, and featured paint exploding all over the tower blocks.
In late 2006 Glazer was commissioned to make a television advert for the new Motorola Red phone. The ad, which features 2 naked black bodies emerging from a lump of flesh as they rotate on a potter's wheel was due to air in September 2006 but has since being shelved by Motorola. Motorola have since reportedly stated that the ad will "never see the light of day". However the ad was available on YouTube although it has been removed several times due to violation purposes. The ad was to benefit several charities in Africa.

Here is a link to a piece of Glazer's work http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ1hhk966Gs&feature=related