Preliminary Task- Dido "Life for Rent"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-Si9zkCZQ

In order to practice my camera skills again, we created a "practice" music video from a song of our choice. The song we chose to use was Dido-Life for rent as we wanted to test the waters with a slower song in order to allow the lip sinking to be less quick and therefore more accurate. As a final result, I am reasonably happy with the final video and believe that the lip sinking was as effective as possible for a first attempt, and the range of shots were appropriate to the video.



Shown below are some screenshots of my video whilst being edited on "iMovie";

Information on Genre- Acoustic/Rock

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acousticmeans, as opposed to electric or electronic means. The retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the advent of electric instruments, such as the electric guitar, electric violin, electric organ and synthesizer.

Performers of acoustic music often increase the volume of their output using electronic amplifiers. However, these amplification devices remain separate from the amplified instrument and reproduce its natural sound accurately. Often a microphone is placed in front of an acoustic instrument which is then wired up to an amplifier.

Following the increasing popularity of the television show  MTV Unplugged during the 1990's, acoustic (though in most cases still electrically amplified) performances by musical artists who usually rely on electronic instruments became colloquially referred to as "unplugged" performances.

Writing for splendid, music reviewer Craig Conley suggests, "When music is labeled acoustic, unplugged, or unwired, the assumption seems to be that other types of music are cluttered by technology and overproduction and therefore aren't as pure."

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as bluesand folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.

Musically, rock has centred around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music with a 4/4 beat utilizing a verse-chorus forum, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music.

By the late 1960s a number of distinct rock music sub-genres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, and jazz-rock fusion, many of which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock influenced by the counter-cultural psychedelic scene. New genres that emerged from this scene included progressive rock, which extended the artistic elements; glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style, and the diverse and enduring major sub-genre of heavy metal, which emphasized volume, power and speed. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock both intensified and reacted against some of these trends to produce a raw, energetic form of music characterized by overt political and social critiques. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of other sub-genres, including New wave, post-punk and eventually the alternative rock movement. From the 1990s alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion sub-genres have since emerged, including pop punk, rap rock, and rap metal, as well as conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including thegrarage rock/post-punk revival at the beginning of the new millennium.

Rock music has also embodied and served as the vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major sub-cultures including mods and rockers in the UK and the "hippie" counterculture that spread out from San Francisco in the US in the 1960s. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music has been associated with political activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity.

Story Board

Music Channel Ratings

MTV was expected to be the highest rated channel, as it has many branch of channels such as "MTV Shows" and "MTV+1", and also more specific channels such as "MTV Base" and "MTV Dance"; which are more specific to a certain audience, yet still an MTV channel. Not only this though but it contains many different genres of music and therefore appeals to a wider variety of people. Scuzz for instance, has lower ratings due to its niche market, appealing to people who prefer a certain type of music, generally with a genre of rock/screamo.

Because of this, we would aim for our video to be put onto MTV's mainstream channel, as it is most popular and also mainly watched by people that meet our target audience. MTV's ratings would increase the success of the video and help to make the band more public.

" MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York that launched on August 1, 1981. At one time, MTV had a profound impact on the music industry and popular culture. Slogans such as "I want my MTV" and "MTV is here" became embedded in public thought, the concept of the VJ was popularized, the idea of a dedicated video-based outlet for music was introduced, and both artists and fans found a central location for concertmusic events, news, and promotion. MTV has also been referenced countless times in popular culture by musicians, other TV channels and television programme, films, and books." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV

Typical Audience

A typical audience for our music video would be teenagers, aged 16+ up to adults up to the age of around 30.

Our target audience will be able to refer to intertextual references from their culture which will appeal to them within the video, and also appreciate the narrative and shots in detail. They must have an appreciation for the genre of music itself, and contents involved within it such as live music.I aim to learn more about the target audience by producing a questionnaire.



Here is an example of a questionnaire that I made and gave to around 20 people of different ages;

My results are shown in graphs below;

From these results, I can see that their needs to be quite a few shots of the band within the music video, and the video needs a fairly strong narrative to keep the audience interested. The music genre of song we chose tneds to fit with the audiences opinion well so therefore our song should be reasonably appealing to many different people.

General Overview Notes

• Narrative is almost always subordinate to performance
• Songs rarely tell complete narratives (videos might)
• Music videos resist classic realistic narratives
• The audience consume the text in a more casual way
• Music videos have repeatability built into them
• Intertextuality- references to other existing videos
• Postmodernism- copying things that already exist, such as REM’s “Bad Day” references to the news
• Are the band organic (write their own music) or manufactured (have songs written for them etc)?
• Illustration: everything in music video is shown by song. Examples; REM “everybody hurts”, BLUR “park life”
• Amplification: retains a link with the song but constructs other meanings through signs and symbols. Examples; Coldplay “the scientist”
• Disjuncture: ignores the content of the song and genre of music and creates a whole new set of meanings. Videos don’t usually make a great deal of sense and often use abstract imagery- used to assert independence/imply a rejection to conformity. Examples; Radiohead
• Lyrics: establish general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than meaning
• Music: tempo often drives the editing
• Genre: reflected in the mise en scene, themes, performance, camera editing and styles
• Camera work: has an impact on meaning. Movement, angle, shot distance all play a part in the representation of the artist/band
• Editing: most common form is fast-cut montage, images impossible to grasp on first viewing, ensures multiple viewing. Editing uses digital effects, which play with the original idea.
• Not all audiences will spot a reference with intertextuality, so greater pleasure might be derived by those who recognise the associations and feel flattered by this.
• Exhibitionism: the apparently more powerful independent female artists of recent years have added to the complexity of politics of looking at general/cultural debates, by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of, and inviting, a sexualised gaze.

Steve Archers Theory

There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos

Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance by the band

A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artists performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the repeatability factor.

John Stewarts Theory

The music video has the aesthetics’ of a TV commercial, with lots of close ups and lighting being used to focus on the stars face

Visual references comes from a range of sources, most frequently cinema, fashion and art photography

“Incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar too, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings

The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can

Mise en scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an inspirational lifestyle

Freud’s Theory

Voyeurism- refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched)

Laura Mulvey’s Theory

Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display (rather than for narrative purposes)

The purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a “male gaze”

Narrative

CONNECTION- gives organisation/coherence to a series of facts/ images/

UNDERSTANDING- allows us to construct meaning

COMPARISON- we compare narratives to others

We expect;

BEGININNING

MIDDLE

END

In songs narrative is rarely completed and often fragmentary… therefore complete meanings/narratives don’t exist. Narratives are often non-linier

Roland Barthes

Enigma code- refers to an element that isn’t explained, and therefore, exists as an enigma, raising questions that demand explanation. Most texts hold back details in order to increase the effect of the final revelation of all truths.

Action code- refers to the other principle that builds suspense or interest on part of the audience. The action code applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.

Tzvetan Todorov

Believes narratives begin with equilibrium (harmony), then move to disequilibrium (disharmony) until a new equilibrium is restored by the end.

Vladimir Propp

Developed version of Todorov’s theory;

Equilibrium

Conflict

Disequilibrium

Partial resolution

Equilibrium

Claude Levi-Strauss

Believed constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness, movement/stillness) or conceptual, and to do with the soundtrack. Example, Katy Perry “fireworks”.

Theories within my Video

We are aiming to create a middle ground between Steve Archer's theory and John Stewarts', with

the videos being cut between a narrative and a performance by the band, with lots of close ups and lighting being used to focus on the stars face. However we will ignore the idea of  a carefully choreographed dance being part of the artists performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the repeatability factor as we fear it may take too long and the end result may not be that good.

Pitch Screenshots