Lilac City: September 2017

Thursday 21 September 2017

PODCAST 3: Production Schedule Update 2

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To summarise, in this podcast I will be discussing these points:

Collected all footage mentioned in last podcast but haven't done anything with that footage.
Done more research into artist, Astrid S.
Done more research into electropop and general genre conventions - completed 2 vodcasts for these.
Done more research into theorists which relate to A2 coursework and exam and thought how I can apply them into my music video.
Found more examples in GIF forms which will influence my work.
My idea is slowly becoming more thorough.
Media school trip planned to greenscreen place where we went last year for AS (year 12) - on this trip I plan to shoot more performance footage.
Planned the costume for the singer and shots I want to film.
Made 2 moodboards, 1 for singer, Astrid S and 1 for main male protagonist.

If you want, you can have a look at the script I made for this podcast below under the read more link:

NARRATIVE: Levi-Strauss' Binary Opposition

When we consider the use of stereotypes, it is often evident how a binary opposition is at play: how we describe a stereotypical poor or working class person, for example, is broadly the opposite of how we'd describe a middle or upper class person.

Scenes within dramas often reflect a use of this idea, with clashing pairs (male, female; rural, urban; rich, poor; heterosexual, homosexual; good, bad; dominant, submissive etc.) of opposites, in other words binary opposites, sparking conflict or tension.

The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between.

Queer theorist, Judith Butler (performativity of gender), also argues that the binary opposite of gender is problematic.

Binary opposition can be applied in the narrative of music videos. This can be seen in the examples Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking, Bring Me The Horizon - True Friends, Chase & Status - Flashing Lights etc.

In the music video for Chase & Status - Flashing Lights, there are two female characters, one is quite reserved, conservative with a fringe, connoting shyness; and the other is very confident, rebellious, extroverted, wearing a fur coat connoting egocentrism.

She is oblivious however, in her own world, always wanting to be rebellious and fun not being a realist about things. So in the end of the music video, she gets killed by the other girl from being drugged.

NARRATIVE: Propp's 7 Character Types

Vladimir Propp was a soviet scholar and folklorist who analysed the basic plot components of fairy tales to identify their basic narrative elements. He did this by breaking the fairy tales into different sections.

Through these sections, Propp was able to define the tales into a series of sequences.

At first he had divided them into 31 different sections. However, he soon realised that those 31 sections could be resolved into 7 broad character functions.

My own:

Wednesday 13 September 2017

VODCAST 1: General MVid Conventions

I will be discussing some frequent codes and conventions of general genre music videos in this vodcast. These general conventions cover narrative, performance and concept, mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography and sound.
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SOME OF THE SCRIPT:
EDITING
I looked at many different music video examples in multiple genres and discovered that the average amount of shots in the first 30 seconds was between 5-36, making each shot/take last between 0.83-6 seconds. I noticed that for the music video in the alternative rock genre, there were a significantly higher amount of shots per second. During the first 30 seconds, there were 36 shots, therefore making each shot last 0.83 seconds. This is an another example of a music video with a high amount of shots per second. I've learned that this is common to see in the alternative rock genre and the metal genre. Also, this is surprisingly a fan-made video.

I also discovered that there is a variety of pace in music videos. You can see this in the example Sigrid - Plot Twist. Also, the shots cut to the beat a lot of the time as you can see in the example Young Guns - Bones and also BMTH - Can You Feel My Heart. In some examples, you can also see use of the editing technique, layering. BMTH - Throne and Halsey - Ghost are good examples to look at here for layering.

I have also noticed that continuity editing is somewhat uncommon/countertypical for music videos. Therefore, the 180 degree rule can't be applied. Instead, there is a lot of use of discontinuity editing. Although, if the music video is purely narrative (on the verge of being a short film), with use of diegetic sounds, there is chance that continuity editing may be present, therefore the 180 degree rule is applied. Good examples to prove this point are Halsey - Now Or Never and Rihanna - Needed Me. I have created GIFs to show the slight use of continuity editing in these videos.

NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE
There are many theories you can apply here for narrative and performance. These are Roland Barthes' 5 Codes, Todorov's 5 Part Narrative, Propp's 7 Character Archetypes and Levi Strauss' Binary Opposition.

As you can see here, Roland Barthes' system of 5 codes includes:
the enigma code
the action code
the semantic code
the symbolic code
the cultural code

In the examples, Chase and Status - Flashing Lights, Rihanna - Needed Me, Halsey - Now Or Never the enigma code is present. This is a sense of mystery in the narrative. In the examples MØ - Kamikaze, Halsey - Now Or Never and Niykee Heaton - Bad Intentions, the action code is present. This is a sense of action in the narrative.

Now I will be referring to Todorov's 5 part narrative theory. As you can see here, this includes 5 parts to a narrative. You may say that since a music video is so short, you can't actually fit all the 5 parts of a narrative in it. Most commonly you will see the first part - a state of equilibrium at the outset, the second part - a disruption of the equilibrium by some action, and perhaps the fifth part which is the reinstatement of a new equilibrium. Todorov's theory can be applied in the examples Rihanna - Needed Me, Chase and Status - Flashing Lights and Matrix and Futurebound - Don't Look Back.

-Propp

Through these sections, Propp was able to define the tales into a series of sequences.

At first he had divided them into 31 different sections. However, he soon realised that those 31 sections could be resolved into 7 broad character functions.

My own:

These are the seven basic character types also known as archetypes:
From the study of fairytales:
1. The Villain (antagonist) - struggles against the hero.
2. The Donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The Helper - helps the hero in the quest.
4. The Hero - reacts to the donor, saves the day, weds the princess.
5. The False Hero - takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.
6. The Princess or Prize - the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and father cannot be clearly distinguished.
7. The Dispatcher - character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

There are 3 types of music videos: a music video with just narrative, a music video with just solely performance and a music video with a combination of both. There are two types of narrative that can occur in a narrative music video, these are linear and fragmented narratives. A linear narrative has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning, middle and end are presented in that order, as in fairytales. Whereas, a fragmented narrative, however, might have a beginning, middle and end but the components are in a mixed up order. This means that the narrative might start at the end of the story, go back to the start of the story, then end at the middle of the story. Two examples I looked at, had a fragmented narrative, these being The 1975 - Sex and MØ - Kamikaze. In both cases, the end is at the start. The majority of the examples had a linear narrative, such as Somewhere Else - Move Together, Matrix and Futurebound - Don't Look Back, Chase and Status - Flashing Lights and Astrid S - Bloodstream. This meant that the story is told from beginning to end, like a fairytale.

A performance music video is where the focus is put on the lead singer and their performance. Some great examples I looked at for this were, DJ Snake - The Half, Mabel - Bedroom, Sigrid - Don't Kill My Vibe and VENIOR - Sugar Rush; where there is no narrative. You see the artist performing continuously. However, in these types of music videos, the audience can't engage with the video as much and relate to the video. This is why these types of videos are not that popular. But on the other hand, the dance routines in these videos do attract some audiences, particularly female 'tweens' age 9-12.

Lip syncing performance is also very important for a music video in order to achieve verisimilitude. It also gives the audience the opportunity to sing along and engage with the artist. The use of dance routines in music videos is also an important characteristic. This further helps the audience engage with the artist.

Some music videos can actually be in the form of a short film, with a whole linear narrative (beginning, middle, end). Great examples of this are Halsey - Now Or Never and Tove Lo - Cool Girl. Halsey and Tove Lo are similar because they have created music videos which all lead on from each other, just like episodes in a TV show. Each music video will be apart of something bigger (one relatively large short film lasting 30 minutes or less). Halsey is only just in the process of doing this with some of her songs from her new album 'Hopeless Fountain Kingdom'. She has already made videos for the songs 'Now Or Never' and 'Bad At Love'. The narrative from the video for 'Now Or Never' is followed on in the video for 'Bad At Love'.

Another theory I will be looking at is Carol Vernallis' 'Experiencing Music Video Theory. You can see here what this theory involves. In brief, Carol Vernallis argues that music videos derive from the songs they set, that the music comes first - the song is produced before the video has been created - and the director normally designs images with the song as a guide. She believes that music videos have a nonnarrative.

NON-/DIEGETIC TITLES AND INTERTITLES

Another thing I noticed was that the majority of music videos in the electropop genre, that I had looked at, had a titles or intertitles at the start, which said the song or artist name or both.

MISE-EN-SCENE
Andrew Goodwin's theory of relationship between lyrics, visuals and music can be applied here. He argues that there are six defining, common characteristics of music videos. These are:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual references (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc.)

Mabel's 'Bedroom' is a good example to look at here for the 1st characteristic - music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. This is because the mise-en-scene (costume, make-up, props, location etc.) for this video clearly signifies and connotes the genre as being electropop. The artist is wearing glamorous, revealing clothing, lots of make up (mascara, eyeshadow, foundation, eyeliner, lipgloss) and has her eyebrows plucked and filled in. The location for this video is a studio, with a large bed floor covered in pillows. Also, the lighting throughout is purple. Without these genre characteristics, the genre of the music video would not be clear to the audience.

Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball is a good example to use for the 5th characteristic. There is frequent voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Miley Cyrus is frequently on display in this music video - appearing naked and half-naked at points.

COSTUME CHANGES, MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
Another common convention that I discovered was that there are a lot of costume changes in music videos and use of multiple locations. For example, in the video for 'Don't Kill My Vibe' by Sigrid, the artist wears 4 different outfits. The same applies for the videos Halsey - Ghost and ALMA - Chasing Highs.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
There are some common conventions of shots that are used in music videos. One of the main shots used is extreme long shot. This type of shot is either used on the artist to show their emotions or on some of the instruments such as the bass in the drum kit and the guitar. Also, it can be of large significance to show the cables connected to the musical instruments (e.g. the cable connected to the microphone) in a music video, because it creates verisimilitude, even though they are not actually plugged in.

REPRESENTATION
There were many examples I looked at which applied Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory. This theory suggests that the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A great example for this is Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. Miley is wearing a small white top with no bra, white underwear and maroon Doc Martens. She is also wearing lots of make up such as bright red lipstick, which has very heavy sexual connotations. She is being heavily glamorised with her body on display. This same theory can be applied to the video Prince Fox - Just Call (feat. Bella Thorne), the artist, Bella Thorne, is being glamorised with heavy make up, pink lingerie and jewellery. There are many shots of just her legs and body.

I will now be referring to a queer theorist, Judith Butler. You can see here a description of what Judith Butler's theory involves. I can apply this theory to the examples BMTH - Sleepwalking and Young Guns - Bones. These two songs are produced by boy bands. It is a stereotype that bands playing instruments in the rock, alternative rock or metal genre include just males. More examples of bands like this include Thirty Seconds To Mars, ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, You Me At Six, Onerepublic, The Script, The 1975, The Smiths, Arctic Monkeys, Motionless In White, Pierce The Veil and A Day To Remember. None of these bands include a female. Judith Butler argues that the reason for the absence of any females in a band is because it is brought on by society that this is masculine, not feminine. So, all girl groups you see in society don't appear to play instruments in their music videos, but instead, lip sync and dance, due to the fact that these girl groups are pop groups. Examples of girl pop groups are The Saturdays, Little Mix, Spice Girls, Girls Aloud, Destiny's Child, Pussycat Dolls, Neon Jungle and Fifth Harmony.

Another theory I can apply to this is John Berger's 'Ways Of Seeing'. He argues that "men act and women appear", that "men look at women" and "women watch themselves being looked at". "Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator". This theory can be applied to the music video examples Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball, Mabel - Bedroom, Katy Perry - Bon Áppetit and Niykee Heaton - Bad Intentions. The womens' bodies in these videos are on display, Miley Cyrus in Wrecking Ball is naked at some points and also wearing just underwear. Niykee Heaton in her music video is also wearing very small bikinis and bodysuits which clearly show her body.

INTERTEXTUALITY
The music video is noted for its postmodern style, especially borrowing widely not only from other videos but also from other media. Kristeva coined the term 'intertextuality' to denote the practice of utilising elements of other texts. As I have mentioned earlier in the vodcast, Andrew Goodwin identifies this as one of the six core defining characteristics of music videos. Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball and Blackbear's 'Do Re Mi' are good examples to look at for the this. Wrecking Ball has an intertextual reference to the music video for Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares To You' and 'Do Re Mi' has an intertextual reference to the film 'The Sound Of Music'.

Another theorist, Katie Wales, argues that 'genre is... an intertextual concept'. Therefore, genre exists in the relationship between texts rather than in the actual text itself.

Tuesday 12 September 2017

REPRESENTATION: David Gauntlett's 'Identities Constructed'

"Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated". Negotiated because identities partially depend on how others react to us (and how we think others think about us). We construct identities for ourselves through choices with hair, clothing, the media (music, TV, social media etc.) we consume. "Identity is complicated. Everybody thinks they've got one. Artists play with the idea of identity in modern society."

NARRATIVE: Kate Domaille's 8 Narrative Types

Every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are as follows:

1. Achilles: The Fatal Flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person e.g. Superman

2. Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. James Bond

3. Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman

4. Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. Terminator

5. Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g Wall Street, Devil's Advocate

6. Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss e.g. The Sixth Sense.

7. Romeo and Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.

8. Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle. Man loves woman... Unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Bridget Jones' Diary, Pretty In Pink.

REPRESENTATION: Chomsky's Propaganda Model/5 Filters

Gramsci links naturally with Noam Chomsky, whose 'propaganda model' argues that the media do not seek to accurately represent the world around us, or to fulfil the democratic function of providing information that enables us to make informed democratic choices and scrutinising the powerful - instead they exist to encourage support for the dominant elites at any given time. He argues that any counter-hegemonic content tends to be marginalised or excluded from most media, particularly the mainstream, mass media, through five 'filters':

1. Ownership
2. Funding
3. Sourcing
4. Flak - anything counter-hegemonic will be attacked and criticised by other media (wild, challenging ideas being attacked).
5. Anti-Communism (anti-left-wing) and Fear

REPRESENTATION: Gramsci's 'Hegemony'

Gramsci was a 1930's Italian Marxist. Like Marxists, he generally believed there is an elite which dominates wealth and power, and exploits the 'masses' to create his wealth. He argued that power is achieved and exercised not just through brute force (police, army etc.) but as much through culture. He suggests that the ideas which have become to be seen as 'common sense' tend to reflect the views and strategies of the elite, although hegemony is always unstable and open to counter-hegemonic challenge.

Sunday 10 September 2017

MVID: Cutaway Shots

I have filmed various cutaway shots that I would like to use in my music video. I would like to include beautiful nature in my music video. I would use these shots as cutaway shots and as establishing setting shots. It would be connoted that the couple in my music video would have visited forests and ponds etc. together because of how beautiful they are. The song is quite downbeat so I need the shots to also reflect this by experimenting with cold and gloomy colour effects etc.

At my house in England:
Valley Farm, Kersall,
Newark, Nottinghamshire
NG22 0BJ

1. Pond near my house.
2. Pond at my house.
3. Trees at my house.
4. Berries at my pond.
5. Grass swaying.

At Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire:
Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve
Edwinstowe
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG21 9HN

1. Various oak trees in the forest
2. The Major Oak
3. Branches of trees
4. Plants
5. General Forestry

Here is a video compilation of all these shots I have taken of the nature:
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I was influenced to film shots like these, by the music video Sigrid - Plot Twist,

Sigrid - Plot Twist

Tuesday 5 September 2017

WEBSITE & DIGIPAK: Images

Here are a few pictures I took during summer at my house in England. I took advantage of the sunny weather and took many pictures outside in direct sunlight. On top of this, I also took many images inside, in front of a greenscreen. I plan to use these images for my artist's website and for the digipak. I haven't quite decided which image to use for the main cover of the digipak, at the moment I am thinking to use either the 1st or 2nd image below:

I realised that these images were actually really hard to manipulate in Photoshop and crop the background out, especially since my hair is slightly green blonde in those images, the colour is too similar to the greenscreen background. Therefore, I took some more images with a different costume too - light blue long straight wig, black and white checkered mesh crop top, calvin klein bralette, pink lipstick. Here are the images I took (below):
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Tara Carosielli - Holloway Road album cover

I decided to pick this last image here below on the left. I liked the unusualness of it and the white closing in walls which created quite an isolated, box effect. I was inspired to do this body pose from this album cover example Tara Carosielli - Holloway Road

After I placed this image that I chose, onto my website and my digipak, I realised that the image wasn't going to be practical since the background of the image is plain white and grey and not all one colour. Also, there was a triangular section where the arm is placed up and this is difficult to remove the background from. So, I therefore decided to take even more new images of myself with a clearer contrasted background which is green (from green screen) with yet again a different costume (pink hair, light blue scrappy crop top) and a different, simpler body posture which wouldn't cause issues when cropping in Photoshop. You can see the images I took below:
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In the end I decided on using this image because there is direct audience address and I just like the way I look in this one the most.

Sunday 3 September 2017

INDUSTRY: Web 2.0

Web 2.0, simply, is what people call new ways of showing or using things on the internet (the current state of online technology).

It's considered beneficial because it is easy for people to publish their work, connect with other people and share and exchange information. Web 2.0 is mainly about user-generated and interactive content. e.g. wikis, blogs, social media.

Before Web 2.0, internet users could just read information on web pages. With Web 2.0, users can interact with the site and add information and also have greater collaboration among content providers, enterprises and other internet users. One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 (the traditional World Wide Web - WWW), the previous version, is that information on websites is not only written by the website author. Originally, data was posted on web sites and users simply viewed or downloaded content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature of the web content and in some cases have real control over it.

The internet technology which is used for Web 2.0 is not different from the old internet technology, but the ways people use the web/internet has changed.

Examples of Web 2.0
Wikipedia
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter

There are many theorists which explore the concept of 'web 2.0' and 'convergence' such as Julian McDougall (2005), Tim O'Reilly (2005), Dan Gillmor, David Gauntlett and Henry Jenkins.

AUDIENCE: Four Quadrant Theory

There are four quadrants in audience:

1. Males under 25

2. Females under 25

3. Males over 25

4. Females over 25

In the film industry, a four quadrant film is one which appeals to all four major demographic quadrants of the movie going audience. Films are generally aimed at at least two such quadrants, and most tentpole films are four quadrant movies.

The same can be applied to music videos. Although, the audience in mind mainly depends on the genre of the music in the video. So a song in the genre of electropop would attract an electropop audience (females under 25 - 2nd quadrant). The music video for that song would also have to attract this same audience because the song for the music video is in the genre of electropop.

The music videos for an artist, e.g. Halsey, have to attract Halsey's already established audience, which is females under 25 (2nd quadrant).

GREENSCREEN: Setting Up Your Own

While I was in England in the summer holidays I asked my dad to help me try and set up a greenscreen studio in one of the rooms in our house. I found a suitable room upstairs (rectangular shaped bedroom) which has entirely white walls and two simple windows. I decided on the wall to place the greenscreen sheet on.

Here are some photos of the greenscreen 'studio' my dad and I set up at my house in England:

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Firstly, to stick the greenscreen up on the wall, I had the idea of using bluetac. This idea did not work whatsoever. Then, I tried to use pins, this was even worse of an idea. Then, my dad came to help me and he had the idea of using masking tape. He stook some yellow/beige tape on the wall first so that he wouldn't be sticking the masking tape onto pure painted wall, otherwise the wall paint would come off with the tape. After he stook that on, he attached the grey masking tape half onto the greenscreen and half onto the wall, as you can see on the left. On top of this, he decided to lean some heavy things (wood and metal) onto the greenscreen so it wouldn't fall down.
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My dad also went to Screwfix to get an LED light/two LED lights on one stand for the 'greenscreen studio' which you can see here. After the greenscreen was set up on the wall, we brought in the LED lights and set the camera in position (I used a gorillapod here to keep the camera in the right place - I wrapped the gorillapod around the metal headboard).

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After this, I did some research into how to set up your own greenscreen studio at home. I watched a video about it and discovered that if there is a window in the room, you have to cover it with big black curtains. I figured we didn't have any black curtains so instead I found big sheets to throw over the lilac curtains and many dark things to cover up any light coming in.

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To improve this, my dad came up with the idea of using black plastic sheeting to cover the windows. He would cut the plastic sheeting to fit the window shape exactly. So we did that and it turned out exactly how I wanted. No light could get through.

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Once we had done all that, we discovered that the greenscreen still wasn't bright enough. So, my dad went back to Screwfix and bought a single Halogen light with a handle. These lights are extremely bright. Once we added this to the set up, the greenscreen was a lot more lit up than with just the LED lights, as you can see on the left. I had no idea that LED lights weren't actually that bright.

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Lilac City