Posted by Nick
- After watching several other music videos associated with the ‘Indie’ genre, we realised that the majority were performance based.
- Many bands chose to follow the ‘mainstream’ route, with many meat shots as well as the concept of breaking the ‘fourth wall’
- This allowed the audience to identify with the artist and thus, potentially, buy their music,
(a good example of this is You Me At Six’s video for ‘Save it for the Bedroom’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cidd5eBViA).
- As we wanted to challenge these ‘mainstream’ conventions, we decided that, although we would have aspects of performance, we would not shoot the whole video in this style, (we thought this would have been something that audiences have seen all too often). We then set about deciding how we could intertwine an artistic element into the video.
- We found that many videos had an artistic aspect which was completely irrelevant and not particularly associated with the music at all, engaging the audience with the unexpected, in a focused manner, thus creating an enigmatic video, the viewer to carry on watching to see the outcome,
(one such video that employs this theme is another song by our chosen artist, Jack Peñate, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SfrVnYsu1c)
- We decided to use ‘stop motion animation’ as, like the videos we had seen, it was not necessarily associated with our genre, and it also provided a great platform to experiment with.
- We used the idea of a snake, (made from three individual bed sheets, plaited together, with a sock for a head), casually rooting around in a woodland, (a location which was symbolic of the music’s organic sound, with lots of drums and guitars layered over one another, with a slight autumnal feel), until it finds the artist, Peñate, with a battle sequence ensuing.
(In the clip below, taken from our final cut music video, you can see the snake being formed, followed by the battle sequence.)
- Using Goodwin’s critical framework we can see that there are certain elements of videos which are recurrent throughout all genres, and like hundreds before us, our video has done the same.
- Primarily, our video has a strong link between the music and visuals.
- Many shots are cut in time with the music’s fast pace, denoting a lively and exuberant video, thus connoting a racy lifestyle of the artist, (one of Richard Dyer’s writings on the representation of ‘stars’ is that they lead fast and rebellious lifestyles which their fans idolise).
In the clip below you can see how the video has been cut in accordance with the beat of the music, we had to speed up and slow down sequences to achieve this.
- There are some sequences where the artists lip-synchs, thus bringing to relevance the form of a music video.
- Whilst our video does not have as many meat shots as one would find in, for example, a ‘boy band’ video.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJJEZdYQR_s , JLS’ video for ‘Beat Again’ is a prime example of a video with lots of close ups, obviously very heavily influenced by the needs of the record company).
- As a group, we have chosen to include a variety of shots, ranging from close ups to long shots, employing the notion of looking, (in one shot we look on from a distance at the artists performing, as if we are watching him do something personal), which all identify with the audience so as to promote the artist and the music, which was the main intention of the project.
- In the majority of close up shots, the singer is looking directly at the camera, thus establishing para-social intimacy with the viewer through a first person mode of address; the artist looks at their audience as if they are speaking to the individual directly, and this is also conventional of all music videos
- On listening to the lyrics we decided to go for a completely disconnected video as we felt the lyrics did not make a lot of sense, and illustrating or amplifying them would altogether make a very confusing video.
- We had hoped to achieve narrative fuzz through the two strands of our video, the first being the construction and later the journey of our snake, and the second being the artist performing.
- We edited our video so that towards the end, we had sealed off all loose ends of the narrative, showing the audience the reasoning behind the two characters being in the woodland; a face-off.
- The video reinforces the dominant yet residual ideology that all men are strong minded and capable of defeating any obstacle that is thrown at them, in the fact that, in a battle between the artist and the snake, Peñate wins, thus reinforcing this traditional male trait.
- Intertextuality is apparent here in the fact that we have used a similar idea to the ‘lone hero’ action movies, one sole man saving the world from any threat it faces.
- The narrative creates the idea of a ‘binary oppositions’ between the snake and the artist, as all through the video the audience is wanting to know what will happen and then at the end when we see the two battle we allow the audience to, theoretically, pick their side and thus watch the outcome play out.
(In the clip below one can see how through the two separate strands of our narrative, we have allowed our audience to pick who they want to see win the decisive battle.)
- Primarily our video creates a lively and fun atmosphere; the audience seeing the snake come to life and then later, rather comically, wrestle the artist, being postmodern and ironic.
- We edited our video in time with the music so that each shot which was intended to be comical, such as the fight sequence being emphasised by each beat.
- We do not directly show or explain to our audience that what is being formed is a snake; it is their own beliefs certifying that what they are seeing is a living snake. This is certified through the snake’s movements, intertwining through the trees, with many fast camera movements connoting speed and agility.
- If it wasn’t for these signifiers, it would be very difficult to convey to the audience what was being created, as our video is very lo-fi, we may have created a thoroughly boring video which the audience would have perceived to be three sheets and a sock moving around some woods, which is exactly what it is, however, this lo-fi technique, combining fast camera movements and mise-en-scene suspends disbelief.
(One can see, in the clip below, how the agility of the snake and the movement of the camera enabled us to connote a living thing made from something manmade.)
- We have also chosen to employ bricolage, combining two different styles, the first being stop motion animation and the second the performance, to create a video with a ‘postmodern twist’, using the idea of ‘avant garde’.
- Our video could also be said to suspend disbelief, as it is completely irrelevant and we have tried to distance ourselves from the boring videos which we believe occupy the music industry at the moment.
- Our somewhat playful take on the genres music videos is evident through signifiers such as the woods, where the artists performs by himself to nothing but an empty woodland, only occupied by the snake.
- this is starkly different to traditional ‘Indie’ videos where artists perform in front of large crowds. (The screen shot below shows our video, concept based, compared with a Kings of Leon video, performance based.)
- Looking at semiotics, we can see how the iconic image of the door signifies to the audience that we are moving to a new area or perhaps a ‘new world’.
- Every time the door opens, we are moved from one set of action to another, either from the snake to the performance, or vice versa, and this connotes to the audience that each area we go to is ‘new’.
(The door connotes moving to a ‘new world’, shown in the clip below.)
- The snake may also connote to the audience the idea of the ‘first temptation’, having religious beliefs attached to the idea of the snake tempting man, this being represented in our video, thus creating a binary opposition between man and snake.
- As the door has been placed in a setting in which one would not expect to find it, we have created irony whilst also keeping in with Peñate sounds, combining, music from classical instruments to sharp electronic beats, and this is reflected in the fact that we have a door, (something man-made), and the woodland, (natural)
- Our video is also very polysemic, by leaving certain aspects of our narrative out, we have allowed our audience to create their own reasoning as to why the two are in the woods, and this is very in keeping with the style of other videos.
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