Dream World - Plausible? #4

   We decided that to make this music video that much better, we would add in some kind of fantasy dream world that the Protagonist would walk through. In order to create this 'dream world' I have decided that I am going to use a various different apps. CGI is a major asset in the Film world and it is at such a high quality that it becomes more affordable and a lot easier for the average consumer to work out how to use.

    However, I believe that I will be able to do most of my work on Final Cut Pro X myself as it has a very useful tool named 'Ken Burns'. I might have to do some work that is even more technical than FCP can handle, and if this is the case then I have decided to use the software Flash. There are also some other apps I will use in order to create artwork etc. and this video below will show everything.

 This is the YouTube page for the channel 'Best Green Screen'. As the title suggests, this channel is dedicated to producing and sharing free computer animated videos which are then imported into video-editing software and keyed.
   The videos will be very useful for our music video in accordance to the construction of the 'dream world'. The cartoon-ness of the objects within the video will emphasise the point of hallucination and also acquire that 'weird' element that many videos of today possess.

   However, the video won't be full up of these green screen videos as I believe that would disrupt the integrity and the originality that I am trying to capture and therefore they shall only be used as a vital necessity to the video's meaning and outcome.

How research has helped me with my planning

    From Carlsson to Todorov and Barthes to Neale, all of these theorists have had a huge impact on understanding the world of media; how it works, what's the key to it all, and what makes a good piece of art. But does research really need to be taken to such an extensive level?

    Research and inspiration I believe is an immensely influential element that needs to be taken very serious when you are setting out to produce something you can be proud of. In the modern day, it is even more important to explore the already-existing media texts on the market already, because there is so much due to the developments in the internet and online sharing, that originality is becoming less and less easy to come by. This is even more emphasised by the paths we take as individuals and the similarities in media consumption across the globe due to distribution of media from 90% of the world's media from six different companies being so excessive.

   As a partnership, my friend and I knew from the start what we wanted the end product to look and feel like, through years of inspiration behind us, but it was the research we did that helped us vastly in attempting to construct that product to a fathomable and enjoyable state. As the video itself would be composed around not just a performance, but most-importantly a narrative also, Barthe's and Todorov's  theories were vitally significant to us.

Barthes

In the music video 'Breezeblocks' by Alt-J, ominous, dark and
cold lighting is used to set the mood of the video and to
foreshadow the events that the audience will witness and
experience.

    The five codes that Barthes explains in his theory are very hard to understand completely and was something that we thoroughly had to think about when it came to creating the storyline for our music video. When it comes to producing the video we want to exploit the semantic code most of all, and this is because of many reasons. A lot of indie films/music videos at this time are all about the implicit references and uses of connotations within objects or speech etc. and are an essential part to the end result. That is why we wanted to create something with a very evident meaning to it and not something that could be analysed sufficiently through denotations but something that could be anticipated in many different and wonderful ways.

    For the planning of this video, we are going to try and represent the 'cultural code' being used sufficiently throughout with our general theme being the urban to country transfer. This will be created through the journey of the protagonist though different settings and it is an activation of the cultural code because a social viewpoint that is expressed a lot in the modern day is how people may feel entrapped within a city and have the urge to escape to the countryside. We believe that a theme such as this will help with the audience's sympathy for the character, but more importantly, to empathise with him and consequently this will cause a much greater significant impact on the audience.

Director Stanley Kubrick uses effects, such as slow motion,
and overlays video with classical music to show themes such
 as authority in A Clockwork Orange.

    The enigma code will be activated at the start of the music video with our main character entrance into the 'dream world'. This venture won;t give any clear indication of the direction of travel for the character but instead will give the audience puzzles to work out. The reason why there won't be many clues or hints dropped throughout this bit is to hopefully put across the character's story/journey and show how he feels. We want our character to be solely optimistic and yet have no idea himself where he is going to end up. The reason for this is because the conclusion isn't important but it is the emotion he feels and how he deals with the circumstances of losing his job that is most significant to us.

Todorov

    The opening equilibrium for our story I believe is only present for a few seconds at the start of the video. The 'firing' of our protagonist is the fundamental aspect that starts him on his journey and as this is the 'disruption' the few seconds before hand must be classed as the 'opening equilibrium'. There is yet again another disruption when the P enters the 'Dream World' through the puddle as the story's progression isn't clear. Clarity isn't what we wanted straight off because if the audience is able to emphasise with the main character then the emotion of 'optimism' will be expressed and felt a lot more powerfully.

    An attempt to resolve the disrupted equilibrium is then produced when our P exits through another puddle to what seems to be real-life again. I would see this as an 'attempt' because for the audience,

the music video's outcome starts to become a lot more clear due to the now recognisable urban-country theme.

    The end equilibrium is then finally met after the intense journey, and there is an ascending aerial shot to show it. The now-lying-down character  has finally reached a place of serenity, whereby he can live is solitude, peace, and happiness.

Steve Neale

   In many ways genre doesn't apply to our music video as much as another genre would, and this is exactly how we wanted it. 'Indie' is a new genre that is on the rise incredibly throughout many countries, and is most centred around media production. Indie games, films, music is all starting to emerge on the internet, and starting to be truly recognised for what it is, and what's so brilliant about the genre is the amount of creativity and uniqueness you can show with it. If something is indie, then it is most likely to be centred hugely around the 'artistic' form of the product, and this is self-evident in films and games.  


    Neale says that, "Genres are instances of repetition and difference." and our video will definitely have both of these elements. Repetition with the quirk-y elements that the genre Indie inhibits, will be existing throughout. This will be to emphasise and exaggerate points - some more than others will be exaggerated even further. Indie is all about difference and originality and this is what we aspire to achieve with the music video, but to make it still at the level of perceivable normality we are going to place shots in that would conflict with the 'dream world' as they will show what's really occurring in 'real-life'.

Michel Maffesoli

    Maffesoli's theories on tribes can relate to and corroborate with many strong points that Neale makes about genre, and so when we discussed our target audience these two pioneers came up in conversation multiple amount of times. 

     Different Tribes normally represent different genres of music and therefore our tribe for our target audience is going to be centred around the 'Leading Edge'. Our music video will have a very similar style to the two music videos that I linked to in the 'Maffesoli' post under 'Leading Edge. We want the video to be of dull, yet prominent colours, to have creative and unique camera shots/angles/movements, the lighting to be strange but intelligent and the costumes to be subtle but powerfully implicative.

Laura Mulvey

    Our video won't be accustom to any type of voyeuristic attributes with the characters so the theory here doesn't apply to us. However it was interesting to note the points given in her theories because it became clear to us what voyeurism is used for, and if that element wasn't existent in our video, what would we do to make up for it? I believe that this can be partly explained by the previous point about the detailed storyline that we are so eager to create. However, the USP for this video is definitely going to be the quirk factor about it and the feeling that accentuates and the meaning it possesses.  

Narrative, Performance & Location Decisions #3

I have devised and created these moodboard in order to show the ideas we have had for the Narrative and Location.

These are all the pictures we have first found either on Google images or Google Earth/Streetview. We wanted the location, particularly the 'Urban', to focus around a city - and the nearest city is Bristol. This is a perfect location for us because it has the mix of the docks and the skyscrapers, as well as some old, nice-looking buildings. 

     So this one is our Narrative & Performance moodboard and it contains a various amount of pictures. All of these images represent an idea or factor that we want to incorporate into the music video. However most of these concern the type of shots we like and the type of colours. The cartoon image is to represent the dream world that we intednd to create for our Protagonist to walk through.

   I have also created a mindmap/chart to show the exact storyline in which we want to create, so then it is easier to focus on the creation of it a lot more as it is definitely going to be a tough, time-consuming task. So here that is:

Granting permission from SubPop record company

After I finalised the treatment for my video and confirmed the song choice with my partner I consulted the record company that own the rights to the song Float On by Modest Mouse. Above is the email I sent to the company in order to gather that information. 

Treatment Change #2

Modest Mouse - Float on

  
  After discussing the video plans with the rest of the class we still became unsure on how it was all going to go - what was the narrative, how were we going to record it etc. I was also unsure on the song choice, as I felt there wasn't much you could do (in accordance to the lyrics) to relate to it that wouldn't be that not-'cheesy'.
   However, we still wanted to adopt similar aspects from the 'Research & Inspiration' post and the previous treatment, but to add to them and make them much more solid ideas. 

Therefore the Treatment shall be: 

• A Performance and a Narrative.
• Based on a Urban to Country transfer.
• A man gets fired from his dead-end office job and goes on a journey to re-discover himself.
• He goes through a type of 'dreamworld' though. As the song is about optimism we thought it would be good if the protagonist was hallucinating that the world was all 'good' - this idea is based on the song title 'Float On'.

This is a mind map that represents all of the initial ideas we had for the music video. 

Treatment #1

First Thoughts

Harbour side

Bristol

Bicycle

Trumpets

Rooftop/(or other) performance shot

So it starts like this:

Door opens on to a rooftop

The band come out and set up their equipment

Close up shots of the band drinking tea & laughing

Cuts to a person unlocking a bike and setting off

Starts playing guitar (close-up)

Trumpet starts to play

Close up of singer

More of the bike (close up)

Fisheye look up on drummer

Few more shots of drummer (close up on the bass, toms, and cymbals)

Close-up singer

Close up of face and P.O.V shot from the bike

Couple- OVTS you don’t see the guy, but there are close ups of the girl

Back to the band playing (obviously)

Guy on bike enters the woods close ups and tracking shots

Close-up singer and other band members

Bike again

Trumpet and Drummer

Then couple again

Guy on bike

Close up of band

...........................

END

Laura Mulvey

The Male Gaze

   Laura Mulvey is a feminist film-theorist that looks at many ways in which (mostly) women are used in a voyeuristic/sexual presence in order to sell the product. This is used throughout media, whether it is on a film, a music video, a television advert and even in magazines. It has been proven that using such 'sexual' pictures, as the ones shown in the video below, does actually sell the product very well indeed.

  "Influenced by Freud & Jacques Lucan, Mulvey sees the representation of woman in film & literature (and therefore society in general) as being dominated by a male point of view. Her belief is that the world is a patriarchy and that men have the ‘active’ roles and woman ‘passive’."



   Although it is argued that gender equality has been reached in the modern 21st century, it doesn't look like it has with the media. Mulvey says that Men normally play the 'Active Roles' in films - which tend to push the film along, and make the storyline. Whereas women on the other hand play the 'Passive role' - which often helps the man, but sometimes hinders plan which results in a dramatic and heroic save from the man. This all comes from the quote found above, and it all stems from the old-view that men are superior and women are inferior. Obviously it is a lot less controversial than that now, but it is still clearly evident, and I will use Mulvey's ideas to analyse and evaluate to use of 'sexuality' as an advertisement in the video 'Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus. 


Wrecking Ball

   Miley Cyrus is known for being a disney Popstar and is also known as Hannah Montana. Kids have grown up watching these shows and going to concerts etc. and that is the reason why this video has caused so much controversy. Even if it was only slightly promiscuous and sexual it would have cause quite a bit of uproar, but it is a lot worse than that in terms of the severity of the 'nakedness' and 'suggestiveness' of the performance that makes it that much more of a shock. 

   I would say that this video both did and did not work in terms of advertising the product (the product being the song/album). Because based on Mulvey's theory, the whole point of having a rather voyeuristic performance such as this is to advertise, gain audience and publicity to then make money on the amount of records sold. It didn't work because it was so ridiculous that people ended up disliking Miley to which she now has a negative reputation as a singer/popstar. However it did work, because of exactly the same point. No matter what way you look it, this video did get loads of hits and a lot of sold records and whether or not the audience liked it or not  it doesn't matter, as the money still goes to Miley Cyrus and her Record Company. 

    This is one of the many promiscuous shots in the video and relates to the lyric, "I came in like a wrecking ball.". Granted, Miley has hardily anything on in this shot, but it's still enough to cover up her sexual assets and not make the video go 'too-far' and make it not child-friendly. However the shot below, she is having to use her arms in order to cover up, which surely shows the extremity of her performance, and the ways and lengths in which she'll go to get publicity. 

  This takes Mulvey's ideas on the 'Male Gaze' completely to the next level, and makes the whole video about the suggestiveness of the singer, rather than showing it more subtlety. Mulvey says a lot of media's target audience is based on a heterosexual man, and in this case it clearly is. But due to it being target so immensely, it is argued that it is narrowing its audience even further to only men, and seeing as the audience a few years beforehand was mainly girls, this isn't a good decision.
   
     The lyrics themselves also enforce Mulvey's points. The song is about a breakup and the lyric, "I came in like a wrecking ball" (the word I being the most important) and the tears running down her face, show that the male in the relationship played the 'active role' to which she just stood there being 'passive', but is also the one who ruined it. 

Research & Inspiration

   
   I created this video to show all of the footage from all across the web that had inspired me. For this I'm not looking at the type of editing they use, but I'm looking at techniques focused around the 'filming' part to the production process. So I look a lot at Mise-en-scène and a lot at camera-work too. I really want to make a video that looks great, and looks professional. So this is why I have researched heavily on such video-sharing sites as YouTube and Vimeo to see what makes a professional clip that much better than an amateur clip, and what's the difference. You can always tell when a music video (or any video) was created by an amateur, and that's why this was so important to me to research. The main points I found was that you must colour-grade(correct) in order to make it look cinematic/film and the camera must never just be on a tripod, there always has to be some kind of movement, to make it look more realistic a and a lot more interesting. and of course, don't be boring with your shots. To get a 'professional-look' you have to be creative, this means - Reverse shots, slow motion, timelapse etc. This is all going to be taken into account further when I first develop my shot list and storyboard and then hopefully the outcome will be as glorious as my vision.

Sven E Carlsson

Who is he? And what does he 

have to say about all the Music Video business?

     Sven E Carlsson has a very strong theory, that can clearly be related strongly to almost every music video out there today. If I was to choose which type of performance and which type of 'Performer' I'd like to construct for my video than it'd have to be an Instrumental Performance and a mix between a Televised Bard and an Electronic Shaman. This is because I'd like to construct a mix of narrative and performance. There wouldn't be any dancing per-say but the performance would be based around a band. wouldn't want to classify it as a Televised Bard as I would like a strong narrative with my video, and not just some clips presenting meaning of the song, but then I'd also like a good set of clips showing the band. That's why I'd like it to be a mix - a bit like the music video Just by Radiohead. 

Michel Maffesoli

   Michel Maffesoli was a French Sociologist, and an Author of the book, 'The Time of Tribes'. He is one of the many theorists out that there consult and have links to the media and music videos especially. As shown in my previous post on the urban tribes found round College, the majority of 'Tribes' seem to originate from Music, so analysing Maffesoli's theory is going to be very important in order to captivate the right audience.
    Maffesoli says that urban tribes are,"Microgroups of people who share common interests in metropolitan areas. The members of these relatively small groups tend to have similar worldviews, dress styles and behavioural patterns." 

   Urban Tribes in the UK are ever-changing, but to (at least try) to keep up to date with them. Channel 4 has a webpage with all of the most recent tribes around the country.
   

   So hear we have the Tribes, and then we have sub-tribes (kind of like genre and sub-genre). So we have the 'Mainstream' people, the 'Leading Edge', the 'Alternative', the 'Urban' and the 'Aspirant'. Each of these tribes have a vast amount of sub-tribes within it. And here is a Prezi to show you all of these sub-tribes.



    The problem with this kind of stereotyping or grouping, is that it's so vast and yet not accurate. It's the most accurate you could get though, many people are a mixture of different tribes and many aren't one of these at all, but that doesn't matter that much because the type of music that an individual will listen too and like the music video as well won't be that different to what is already on the web. Therefore in order to make a more reliable judgement on how to target my audience I decided to match genre to tribe and list the music videos below in accordance to that.

Mainstream

Leading Edge

Alternative

Urban

Aspirant 

Urban Tribes

This collage represents the Tribes of my College. 

   Starting from the top left we have the notorious 'Lads'. The tribe 'Lads' has many different aspects to it that make is what it is, and here they are: 

• Costume/Appearance. Mostly simple. Jeans and a t-shirt (with a possible hoodie). In the summer they would most probably wear shorts and a t-shirt and footwear would include sandals or espadrilles. Although the title 'Lads' would suggest a sense of 'manliness', it's argued to be contradictory in terms of appearance. 'Lads' take a lot of care in their appearance, their hair, body etc. 
• Hobbies. Hobbies would include watching and playing football/rugby and going out at night.
• Music. Music taste probably situates around songs in 'The Charts'.
• Inspiration. TV shows such as Geordie Shore, The Only Way Is Essex and more.

    Onto the next tribe. 'Skaters' or possibly 'Hipsters' (if the two go together) is one of the fastest rising social-cultures at the moment. There are also a lot of aspects of this tribe that'll help you identify them. Here they are:

• Costume/Appearance. The most noticeable of the whole 'look' would be the skinny jeans. Other parts of the costume would chequered shirts and band t-shirts. Appearance would most likely involve piercings, tattoos and long hair.
• Hobbies. Obviously skating (clue in the title), but if they skate they probably play a musical (rock) instrument too. Nights out would most probably include going to gigs.
• Music. Music taste revolves mostly around Rock. However sub-genres of rock is probably the most favourable.
• Inspiration. Favoured bands.

   Of course and inevitably we have the now-old tribe of the 'Chav'. I think everyone has seen what a Chav is, what they look like and what they do, but here's some aspects of them to help describe the tribe even more so:

• Costume/Appearance. This tribe is unisex, and yet the costume is so similar. The tribe wears mostly tracksuit bottoms, baggy jeans, hoodies and tracksuit tops. Their appearance is very basic, no style has gone to mind, so hairstyles are typically short, or slicked-back for girls. This is very different to the previous two tribes as the 'Lads' hairstyle is typically styled with gel, and the 'Skaters'  have hair that is typically long, straight and black.
• Hobbies. The media would lead us to believe that all 'Chavs' do is hang around on the street and cause trouble. Although this may be true in some cases, the 'Chavs' are a very mysterious group, most of their generic attributes are un-known to us at this point.
• Music. Their music taste mostly dwells on Hip-Hop and Rap.
• Inspiration. Rap artists and others.

   Now we have the 'Gamers'. Similar to the 'Skaters' the 'Gamers' are becoming a lot more popular as a Tribe. They aren't that mysterious either. Here are some aspects.

• Costume/Appearance. Costume and Appearance is not cared for in the mind of the 'Gamers'.
• Hobbies. Also similar to the 'Skaters', the clue is in the name. Life revolves around Games and specifically big online multiplayer games at that. Life is mostly spent in darkly lit bedrooms also.
• Music. This is a mystery. 
• Inspiration. Games they have played. 

  

 'Fan-girls' is the next tribe on my list, and as always, here are some aspects of their nature:

• Costume/Appearance. Typical 'Girly' clothing, and of course Band & Film T-shirts.
• Hobbies. Researching, obsessing and having conversations about their favourite actors & band/singers.
• Music. Mostly Pop, but more recently there have been a lot of fan girls centered around rock bands.
• Inspiration. Fan-Girls is a term that has been used for decades, but it's down to the way marketing is used for certain stars in order to attract the 'Fain-Girl' type.

    And lastly we have the 'Inbetweeners'. This is a very popular tribe, and the people within in are the kind of people that don't belong to any other tribe. They are what society would like to call normal. They may, however, include a diverse range of aspects from all of the other tribes and that's why they're known as the 'Inbetweeners'.

• Costume/Appearance. N/A
• Hobbies. N/A
• Music. N/A
• Inspiration. N/A

Conclusion

    It is obvious to see that most of these tribes revolve around Music. With this in mind, it is even more important to follow conventions of genre for my music video, because the statistics show that I won't be able to get a good audience without them. 

   Costume/Appearance is a major factor too for these tribes, and in order for my music video to stand out I'm going to have to have a character wearing something relatable to that genre, and not just any old thing. 

   Hobbies is a factor that I think do not matter as much as the previous two. Unless I want to create a video where my target audience is going to be the 'Skaters' I'm probably not going to dwell too much on the hobbies. However I might make references to certain hobbies. If the target audience was the 'Gamers' then I'd like to make references to the game industry to intrigue the audience, much like the video 'Californication' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.