Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Print Product draft
This is our first draft print product we produced but unfortunately we were unable to use it due to the image we had used. We wanted to use this image because we felt that it was necessary considering it features our chosen artist but as it was a copyrighted image, we were unable to use this draft product.
Technology Taking Hold
Source: Pop Music - The text book (Julia Winterson, Peter Nickol, Toby Bricheno) 2003
aking Hold
synthesizer bands
Encouraged by the falling price of technology and new instruments such as; programmable drum machines a new genre emerged which was fascinated with the emerging technology of the time such as the car.
Probably the biggest influence on futurism, was the german band kraftwerk (power station) they favoured synthesizers instead of guitars, they used technology infused lyrics and covered such non-traditional areas such as radioactivity, robots and the pocket calculator their sound combined their voice and a highly robotic synthesizer sound.
This genre was influenced by dada, Dada was an anti-art movement, bordering on the surreal and challenging traditional notions of what art should be. it emerged early in the twentieth century, born out of the horror of world war 1, and of disdain for the bourgeoise.
How can I apply this to my own work?
Our artist 'Danger' would conform to the above arguments, he uses synths and his mode of working could be tied to the anti-bourgeoise. This means he doesnt require a big name or label to get popularity, he made his own name and fame on his own without the requirement of a bourgeoise. Wealth and status aren't as important to him like other artist that hunger for fame and money.
aking Hold
synthesizer bands
Encouraged by the falling price of technology and new instruments such as; programmable drum machines a new genre emerged which was fascinated with the emerging technology of the time such as the car.
Probably the biggest influence on futurism, was the german band kraftwerk (power station) they favoured synthesizers instead of guitars, they used technology infused lyrics and covered such non-traditional areas such as radioactivity, robots and the pocket calculator their sound combined their voice and a highly robotic synthesizer sound.
This genre was influenced by dada, Dada was an anti-art movement, bordering on the surreal and challenging traditional notions of what art should be. it emerged early in the twentieth century, born out of the horror of world war 1, and of disdain for the bourgeoise.
How can I apply this to my own work?
Our artist 'Danger' would conform to the above arguments, he uses synths and his mode of working could be tied to the anti-bourgeoise. This means he doesnt require a big name or label to get popularity, he made his own name and fame on his own without the requirement of a bourgeoise. Wealth and status aren't as important to him like other artist that hunger for fame and money.
Analysis of conventions and genre in comparison to our film
Our music video is found within the Electric genre, and is a Narrative concept, rather than a Performance piece as we thought this would fit better for our genre.
As the Electric genre tends to not have many famous, recognizable acts, (the only “superstars” being Deadmau5 and Daft Punk,), we decided to use an Abstract concept which is common for videos within the Electric genre, used by artists such as Deadmau5 and Daft Punk.
Their videos tend to consist of ideas or concepts, like a short story with their music being the soundtrack.
We decided that as we were doing a Narrative piece we could relate to our chosen music much more convincingly, as a performance piece would seem out of place for our artist. This is against some aspects of Goodwin’s theory, as there are no lyrics in the track we have chosen,, there can be no relation to the visuals other than to the beat.
As it is not a performance video, there are no close-ups of singers or artists, and there are no references to other media texts present. The only aspect of Goodwin’s theory that our music video abides by is the relationship between the music and the visuals, as the only time the beat is stopped or not heard is when the action slows down or stops completely.
We decided that for our costumes we would go against the colour conventions, using a black shirt to represent the main character, a colour usually associated with villains, and white to represent the antagonist, a complete opposite of the convention portrayed in similar music videos.
The location was a contrast to the location and instruments of the Electric genre, using more natural and basic locations, I thought our film would seem more creditable and believable to the audience, as it uses locations generally familiar to the audience.
Our music video opens with a low angle pointed towards the sunlight, I chose this to open with as it seemed to establish not only the location, but the character, using the low angle portrayed our protagonist with a sense of power, which immediately was taken away with the following shot, showing not only his physical tumble, but his fall of power, showing that as he was “on the lamb” so to speak, his power was diminished, and he had become the prey for the nearby powerful predators.
Another significant shot is where Sam runs away from the car from a low angle. I chose to shoot it this way to signify Sam’s desperation to keep hold of the bag had finally been freed, the angle representing his self-worth being inflated, his back towards the bag as it doesn’t hold any ‘mental reins’ so to speak.
I decided to have a fast paced editing technique, using cuts rather than wipes, for continuity and for a fast-paced feel to the film. This was achieved with a variety of takes, edited together to give a the feel of a frantic, mad dash using hard cuts and splitscreen. The use of splitscreen was to show the audience multiple angles of the same event, and by slowing the speed of the video it allowed the audience to examine and achieve a preferred reading of our music video.
We decided against diegetic sound from the outset, but decided to include two pieces to add an extra feel to the film; realism. This was achieved by using the sound clips of Sam colliding with the camera and the car braking, I believed these helped the audience have a sense of realism, as these sounds were distinct enough from the music. We also decided that as the song had a strong rhythm, we could not stop the music and ruin the audiences reading of the film, and thus, edited a continuous chase, rather than have a period of silence interrupting the music video.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Andrew Goodwin's theory of Pop music videos
Andrew Goodwin's feels that traditional narrative analyses (using such ideas Todorov) don't really apply to pop videos, because pop video's aren't trying to be avant garde - it is just that they approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films.
The main reason for the different narrative structures is as followed:
1. Pop videos are built around song - and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures 9 normality-problem-resolution).
2. The pop video uses a singer both as narrator and as a character.
3. The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is and extension of (music-hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with performance.
Pop videos rely on repetition. Often video's repeat images in the same way music repeat choruses or lines. Also the repetition in songs of parts or rhythms of other song (intertextuality) means that we become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. Lastly the video would be played on TV, the song would be played on radio and there might be a advertising film or TV tie-in making the song familiar through repetition.
There are three types of relations between songs and videos: Illustration, amplification and disjuncture.
1. Illustration: This where the videos tell the story of the lyrics "pap don't preach" (Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.
2. Amplification: Occurs when the video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
3. Disjuncture: this where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where contradicts the video contradicts the lyrics. Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror is an example of this. The song is about self-realization but the video is full of radical world events.
I believe our music video to be Disjuncture, this is due to the fact that there is next to know relevance or connection between our song and music video, our song has no lyrics so its hard to fix a basis of a story for a music video with the song, as our song is purely instrumental. There is no repetition In our music video as there is in usual pop videos, our music video follows a story rather then repeating the video through the chorus. Our video isn’t built around the song in anyway really.
The main reason for the different narrative structures is as followed:
1. Pop videos are built around song - and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures 9 normality-problem-resolution).
2. The pop video uses a singer both as narrator and as a character.
3. The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is and extension of (music-hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with performance.
Pop videos rely on repetition. Often video's repeat images in the same way music repeat choruses or lines. Also the repetition in songs of parts or rhythms of other song (intertextuality) means that we become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. Lastly the video would be played on TV, the song would be played on radio and there might be a advertising film or TV tie-in making the song familiar through repetition.
There are three types of relations between songs and videos: Illustration, amplification and disjuncture.
1. Illustration: This where the videos tell the story of the lyrics "pap don't preach" (Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.
2. Amplification: Occurs when the video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
3. Disjuncture: this where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where contradicts the video contradicts the lyrics. Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror is an example of this. The song is about self-realization but the video is full of radical world events.
I believe our music video to be Disjuncture, this is due to the fact that there is next to know relevance or connection between our song and music video, our song has no lyrics so its hard to fix a basis of a story for a music video with the song, as our song is purely instrumental. There is no repetition In our music video as there is in usual pop videos, our music video follows a story rather then repeating the video through the chorus. Our video isn’t built around the song in anyway really.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Analysis of album covers within our chosen genre
In the electronic genre of music, it seems that albums covers tend to copy the same few concepts.
These usually connotate the artist being bigger than anything else in the world, deadmau5 taking it to literal extremes through his use of the costume head filling the entire album cover.
The majority seem to focus on the artist themselves, the exception in this case being the Cross by Justice, which focusses on a symbol instead.
The other album covers, such as 09/17/2007/ EP by Danger, 4x4=12 by Deadmau5 and Alive 2007 by Daft Punk all features atleast a few elements, or even the artist themselves. Deadmau5 uses his mouse head as the central focus of his album cover, using his already established image just as Danger does with his album.
Although Danger's likeness is the central focus point of the album, it seems to try and place him in a more localized environment, perhaps relating him more to his audience?
Alive 2007 by Daft Punk uses a simplistic image of the duo's live stage set, as it is a live album, but through the use of font and colour is still recognizable as a Daft Punk album.
Overall, well established artists tend to use their image or elements of their visual style on their album covers to attract an existing audience, whilst introducing themselves to a new audience as a brand. Newer artists, such as Justice don't have an established brand, and have selected a concept that has became one of their staples of live gigs, rather than the reverse of Daft Punk's album cover. This stark contrast to the others , as it contains no information about the album, nor the artist, the only indication the audience knows that the album is by Justice is a symbol vaguely linked to them.
Using this research we've decided to focus more on the image relating to the product, as it gives the audience a clear understanding of what or product is.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Research on our chosen artist - Danger
Danger is a relatively unknown alias of french music producer Franck Rivoire, who specialises in chip tune music. He is currently signed on Ekler'o'shock label.
His target audience would be those generally interested in the Electro/Electronic genre, as his songs consist of many synthesisers and fit with the conventions of Electro music.
Although not much is known about Danger, he has toured across the globe, creating a style where he is mysterious, unknown and unheard of, yet well-known and played around the world. This may be due to his style which is likened to other Electro artists such as Deadmau5 and Daft Punk, never revealing his true identity yet gaining popularity through his mask.
History of the genre we are working within
The song that has been chosen for our music video is Danger – 4h30, this song may not be a big mainstream piece but we feel that it fits in well with the concept of out music video, this song fuses electronica with dance
History of Electronica
Electronica was created through developments in music technology, these include; electronic musical instruments, synthesizers, drum machines, music sequencers and digital music workstation
Even though Electronica became a sub genre to Bitpop, Electronic sounds began to form the basis of a wide array of popular music in the late 1970s, and further on to the 1980s and 90s, spawning popular bands like; Daft punk, New order, Kraftwerk, Petshop boys and U2
.
I believe this to be a neglected genre of music, because it isn’t really a genre that is heavily promoted on TV and popular radio stations because music is constantly changes and adapting to new more ‘’fashionable’’ scenes of music and as new music becomes popular other genres feel the neglect and become less popular this is why the 21st century
The image of electronica bands was not based on star appeal
In performance there was often simply members of the bands pressings button and uses pre recorded sounds on computers.
So the bands developed other methods to promote them selves.
This is a screen shot from youtube of Daft punk’s original music video around the world – the video is a bunch of different dancers moving and dancing to the beat of the song which fits well, then a bunch of ‘robot’ like dancers come in and this really plays to the whole electronic feel of the song, I believe it to be a good concept for the song, its entertaining to watch as much as the songs good to listen too. The lyrics are ‘’Around the world’’ on repeat and as there being sang the dancers are moving in a full circle around the stage like area, which is in the perfect followment to the lyrics
Analysis of Magazine Advertising for Music
In my research of Advertisments for albums and singles, I have noticed that the format tends to lend itself into either of the following;
A bold image usually connotated with the album cover or infact is the album cover, usually accompanied by short strapline and review and release date.
The other way adverts tend to present themselves is depicting the band or artist themselves, using a well established brand, name or even image as the center-focus with details about their latest album below.
Both formats share essentially the same information, (Reviews, information on when it is released and a short description to entice the audience to purchase the product), and are yet so contrast to one another, depending on the genre of the artist of band themselves. The colours and font style usually reflect the artist or bands genre, usually atracting their target audience, as it's easily recognisable for them.
The advert to the right uses Gwen Stafani as the main focus of the advertisement, using a well established artist.
Whilst the magazine advert on the left depicts The Stone Roses but focusses upon alot more information and reviews compared to the poster to the right.
Analysis of Digipak format packaging
DigiPak is a format commonly reffered to "book like"designs of CD cases. These usually consist of 4 panels - A front, back, inside cover and inside back cover which fold out along with a spine
Usually, 2 extra sides are added to special editions of digipaks.
An advantage over CD's is that in most cases, artists will include a booklet only within a digipak, offering listeners a closer insight into the working of the album, even offering lyrics to all the songs on the album. A short biography of the band is also sometimes included in digipaks.
Usually, 2 extra sides are added to special editions of digipaks.
An advantage over CD's is that in most cases, artists will include a booklet only within a digipak, offering listeners a closer insight into the working of the album, even offering lyrics to all the songs on the album. A short biography of the band is also sometimes included in digipaks.
Music video reflection - Busted
Busted - What I go to school for was remade by our class which was filmed by me.
Filming produced a number of problems, the biggest of these being cast, as we did not have as many background actors as the original video, we could not replicate the original video exactly, and caused numerous continuity problems for different scenes, as we had to rely on same people to play different roles.
Everything else was already sorted beforehand, including the location and costume, which everybody was already prepared.
The overall time it took to shoot the video was alot longer than I originally thought, as I considered that filming a minute of the original video, albeit shot for shot, would take no more than an hour. But as we hadn't planned to do anything else during lesson time, I decided to slow down the production of the video remake to make sure that almost every shot we could do was possible.
I tried to include the original camera angles of the music video and I think I achieved it atleast 90%, as we analysed each shot beforehand.
I think we did a fairly reasonable job of remaking the video, which I enjoyed the performances of the cast, yet thought the greatest weak point was the amount of shots, as I think we lost a few shots due to a camera malfunction caused by myself, which bit me back later in the editing room.
Overall I would call this a success, as it acomplished what we set out to do at a fairly reasonable level.
Filming produced a number of problems, the biggest of these being cast, as we did not have as many background actors as the original video, we could not replicate the original video exactly, and caused numerous continuity problems for different scenes, as we had to rely on same people to play different roles.
Everything else was already sorted beforehand, including the location and costume, which everybody was already prepared.
The overall time it took to shoot the video was alot longer than I originally thought, as I considered that filming a minute of the original video, albeit shot for shot, would take no more than an hour. But as we hadn't planned to do anything else during lesson time, I decided to slow down the production of the video remake to make sure that almost every shot we could do was possible.
I tried to include the original camera angles of the music video and I think I achieved it atleast 90%, as we analysed each shot beforehand.
I think we did a fairly reasonable job of remaking the video, which I enjoyed the performances of the cast, yet thought the greatest weak point was the amount of shots, as I think we lost a few shots due to a camera malfunction caused by myself, which bit me back later in the editing room.
Overall I would call this a success, as it acomplished what we set out to do at a fairly reasonable level.
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