Creating an image and lyric link story board gives me
ideas of mise-en-scene in the props and locations that I could use and involve.
For example ‘Red Dress’ using a red dress as the costume on my artist when this
is being sung is an conventional feature. In my music video I am going to focus on
narrative and the lyrics do tell the story of my narrative so this gives the
lyric’s more of a voice through the use of the mise-en-scene making the ideology
of the lyrics be more of a focus.
In conclusion from analysing these videos I have learnt
not only appropriate alternative rock conventions for my genre and constructing my own music
video but looking at other genres made me learn about other music types and
their conventions to show how different they are to my genre. I have learned
how to use appropriate matching actions and miming with lyrics and how I can
represent genre though the mise-en-scene of costume, locations, props and
lighting. Also how to use conventional cinematography from camera movement to
camera angles.
Oasis-
Wonderwall Written by: Noel Gallagher (the band's guitarist and main song writer) Director: Nigel Dick with his regular collaborator DOP Ali Asad Genre: Alternative rock - Subgenre Britpop Structure: Performace, abstract/conceptual and small narrative
‘Wonderwall’
The song was released as the third single from the album
in October 1995. "Wonderwall" reached the top ten on 13 charts,
including topping charts in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. The
single was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and certified
gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Wonderwall" was written for Gallagher's
then-girlfriend, Meg Matthew as Gallagher told NME in 1996: "It's
about my girlfriend, Meg Matthews However, after Gallagher divorced Matthews in
2001, he said the song was not about Matthews: "the song was about an
imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself” therefore my
understanding and the ideology I felt from the music video gave me the message
that is was about his girlfriend and it tells me this through the lyrics. The
song has reached 80 million views on YouTube indicting its still being
successful.
I found the first scene effective as the use of the long
shot/ wide shot of an LP (Long Play), or 33⅓ rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a format for phonograph
(gramophone) records, an analog sound storage medium. During this you can hear
the diegetic sound of footsteps but cannot see it making the sound asynchronous
then the man walks into the scene. He touches the ‘on’ switch and the
cinematography goes to a point of view shot of this action and the diegetic
sound is emphasized to make it a key focus. It straight cuts to a close-up shot
showing that the vinyl is an Oasis record this develops the narrative more
implying the song is about to be played.
The long shot/wide shot appears again but a band member is on a stool replacing
the LP. He’s playing the guitar which is matching the instrumental music; this
is conventional of an alternative rock music video. The mise-en-scene of the
costume he is in black casual clothing and this is also a conventional feature.
At 0.37 seconds we see the Vinyl record spinning around clearly stating that
the song is in full motion. The editing has been done very clever here as where
it says ‘Oasis’ in the circle it fades into Noel’s Gallagher’s face as he is
looking into a circled mirror which is therefore showing us his reflection this
gives more of a personal feel and he is miming the lyrics as they begin. Also this is the use of graphic editing as two similar shapes come into one.
I wouldn’t say that
there is a main narrative but there is a small narrative which is the first
scene of a man turning the music on and then goes into the other narrative of
the band singing it when in the first scene they was only being played on a
record. It shows more performance and it’s more abstract and conceptual. As straight
cutting from the band members miming and to other characters and props makes
the audience feel a certain mood and feel. A alternative rock music video that
does have a narrative would film the artist/band miming and cut back to the
narrative and even though this music video doesn’t focus on a key narrative
very similar it films the band members and then cuts back to the props and
extras. Noel Gallagher is always at the front of the band connoting who is the
lead role for example 0.54 seconds the wide long shot has the band and
instruments behind the lead then at 1.10 close up shot the prop of the
sunglasses on Noel connotes the rock lifestyle. At 1.23 the visual connects
with the lyrics ‘ and all the roads that lead us there where winding’ the prop
of the black and white circled illuminate patterned back drop as Noel is sat
down and turning therefore trying to connote the winding effect, then again
editing fades to a close up of the guitar matching the music.
The use of the clown
throughout connotes that fun but childish attitude towards the audience. At
2.19 the mid shot through all the people you can see a dart board again
implying a relaxed and playful side. The music video is in black and white
however as the music video develops there is added colour, blue on the clowns
hat, blue guitar, green guitar, guitar yellow and there are random props and
extras in the music video for example, clown, swinging guitars, swinging saws ,
Go-Go dancer, ladder, darts board, and two men using a saw as an instrument
these may have no obvious message however these may be important messages or
stories behind these therefore these use of props make the audience feel a
certain way. A few times the camera pans the band members when they are sat
down, reinforcing it’s a band and basically showing the audience what they want
to see and that is the artists. At 2.41 I found that the choice of lighting was
effective as the verse says ‘ And all the lights that lead us there where
blinding and lights flash fast and frequently on Noel’s face of the medium
close up shot, this makes the lyrics more visual.
Also he has his prop of sunglasses on again
and through the reflection you can see the actual lights, this gives us as an
audience an insight of what lights he is looking at we can see from his point
of view as well. At 3.21 I found it interested that Noel sings in a close up
shot and fading in the back ground is all the band members’ faces flashing
again connecting with the lyrics showing that they are a unit and it is a band
not a solo artist.
Ellie Goulding-Your song Written by: Bernie Taupin and Elton John Director: Ben Coughlan and Max Knight Genre: Pop/Rock Structure: Narrative
‘Your song’ is composed and performed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by his
longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. The song was released in the United States
in October 1970 as the B-side to "Take Me to the Pilot".Eventually making the top ten on both the UK
and US charts. Therefore the music video I am analyzing is Ellie Goulding doing
a cover version of this song whose version reached number two on the UK Singles
Chart in late 2010.
The music video is a
shot in a home video look; it depicts Goulding's life on the road with friends.
Areas from Goulding's hometown of Hereford can be seen throughout the video,
including Hereford railway station. Ellie Goulding shows her personal life to
the audience in a narrative making the audience feel more of an intimate feel.
All the scenes show life experiences and friends but all results to her talking
about the male person who she loves.
Ellie Goulding who is the main artist is
acting as the main character in the narrative of the music video. It shows the
first location on a train, the close up shot of the artist takes up one third
of the screen connoting her to be the main character of the narrative. Also
through her arm shows the moving nature and woodland in the background
therefore implying she is on a moving transport travelling. Plus the high angle
close up shot shows the train ticket giving away the type of transport. The
editing cuts are fast which connotes her life style and there isn’t a stop and
start for her, she’s always on the move. Showing a wide shot of her on another
type of transport ,a plane, by her facial expressions and body language shows
she is having fun and with friends. It goes blurred at this scene for a half a
second giving that feel of the person who is filming isn’t a professional and
is a friend. The editing keeps cutting back to her and her friends having a
good time giving that feels of flash backs then straight cuts to a close up of
her singing along to the lyrics bringing it back to that she is also the
artist. The mise-en-scene of her costume shows that she dresses like everybody
else making it realistic and creating verisimilitude. Fast editing shots of medium
close ups and close up shots of leaves and nature showing the season of autumn
and the mise-en-scene of location.
The instrumental sound
of the piano links to the music video as you can see this action making it
synchronous sound. It isn’t just Ellie’s hands playing, there is another pair
of hands playing with her this is shown through the close up shot with deep
depth of field then another shot a few cuts after this, us as an audience look
like we are looking in on her secretly, this is shown as a wall takes up ¼ of
the screen in the mid wide shot her partner is playing and she has stopped.
Adding the male character develops the narrative more. The prop of a cat shows
they have a pet by this is a conventional pet for a couple before having
children. This links to the lyrics ‘I’d buy a big house where, we both could
live’.
The use of
cinematography of close up and medium close up shot’s is always looking at
Ellie and shows her facial expressions of laughing and smiling and looking at
her partner connoting positive attitudes towards her and the relationship. The
body movement of Ellie looking back and the eye contact to the camera implies
her partner is the one filming. The locations are all outside and the long shot
of the park showing a woman feeding the ducks shows the audience there having a
nice day out. The costume of Ellie wearing green wellingtons shown in the long
shot editing to a close up shot of herfoot wear in a small river connecting to the season and location choice.
It straight cuts to Ellie singing in a studio as the camera pans slowly to the
left showing that whilst she is singing the song she is thinking of all these
memories making the narrative have more of an ideology and emotion on a higher
and deeper level.Medium close up shots
of two trees that her and her friends have carved names and initials onto
connoting her childish side and is trying to leave a trial of territory to show
that she’s been there. ‘ I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words’ cuts
back the studio whilst singing this links the production and her personal
experiences together .
A conventional feature
is that the editing fits in to the beat and shows that as the dialogue and
beat/instrumental slows down the editing does. The mid shot at 1.40 seconds
shows that some of the scenes are a held hand camera from a friend therefore
gives reason for the blurred and unsteadiness of the camera shots. Depth of
field shallow and deep is used a lot to make the audience focus on a specific
object. At the start of the music video a medium close up of her Doc Martin
boots where shown then at the end at 2.53 seconds they are shown again and pans
to the left.
Over all I believe that
this music video connotes positive attitudes about Ellie Goulding’s life and
inside to the things she gets up to and it implies that she does the same as
someone who isn’t famous and in the public eye. Also
matching the lyrics to the narrative gave more of a vocal voice to the story.The cinematography of the held hand camera
involves the audience more and makes them feel more important as it makes you
feel like you was on that day out and making you feel one of Ellie Goulding’s
friends.
The music video has the special effects of being in black
and white instead of colour giving the video a sterner and 1950’s feel, making
it seem a video from the past not the present which also connects to the narrative
as it’s telling the story therefore it’s in black and white because it’s
happened before and is a repeated action. Also the colour scheme could
represent the differences and dynamics between the gender issues and shows how
different the male and female gender are. This has given me an idea for my
final product to be in black and white and go for the 50’s era theme.
Overall I believe it shows that if a female acted like this
it looks far worse and the video shows this therefore it states that as society
we stereotypically believe a man would do this, so the female in this role was
a shock. Analysing this video gave me sense of a great twist and how the shots,
cuts and narrative have been editing to create it. Also matching the lyrics to
the narrative gave more of a vocal voice to the story.
"Vogue" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her soundtrack album I'm Breathless (Music from and Inspired by the film Dick Tracy) and was released on March 20, 1990, by Sire Records. Madonna was inspired by vogue dancers and choreographers Jose and Luis Xtravaganza from the Harlem "House Ball" community, the origin of the dance Vogue, and they introduced "Vogueing" to her at the New York City club "Sound Factory". Jose Xtravaganza is featured in the Historic Art Documentary How Do I Look, directed by Wolfgang Busch. The song also appears on the 1990 greatest hits compilation The Immaculate Collection and Madonna's third greatest hits album, Celebration. The genre is dance-pop and house.
A theory which i have studied is Michael Shore (1984) he states ' Recycled Styles...surfaces with out substances...simulated experience...information overload...image and style scavengers...ambivalence...decadence...immedicate graficaiton...vanity and the moment...image assults and outre folks...the death of content...anesthetization of violence through chic...adolescent male fanasises...speed,power, girls,and wealth...album art come to turgid life...classical sotry telling motifts'
This theory connects to the music video Vogue as it is all dancing perforance and from Sven Carlsson (1999) this falls into the group of not telling a narrative therefore is abstract and conceptial concluding to making the audience feel a specific mood and feeling. The video is represented to seem that its set in the 1940's when it's currently filming in the 90's. It is all about image and the look ' image and style scavengers' . Madonna is vain and is self referencing and referencing to other famous 1940's actors and people. Therefore this is a video of 'surface with out substance' there is no ideology behind it. Showing high fashion and posing 'recycled styles' she portrades Marylyn Monroe’s style.
Music Videos
Before music videos occurred to be a popular media text
in the 1960’s music was seen in short films and movies then went on to now in
2013 to have music channels filled with music videos. Websites such as www.Youtube.comwhere you can search a music video of your
choice.
Bob Dylan- Subterranean Homesick Blues (Released March 8th 1965)
This music
video is a great example of how music videos have changed over time. This music
video is done in just one shot and the lyrics are shown on large pieces of
paper and the artist changing the paper. Now there would conventional be many
shots, have more of performance or narrative and the artist would be miming the
lyrics. It also shows how television has developed as it’s done in black and
white as now you have a choice for to be in colour , black and white or other
many developed editing special effects.
In 1926, with the arrival of "talkies" many
musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (produced by Warner Bros.)
featured many bands, vocalists and dancers. Animation artist Max Fleischer
introduced a series of sing-along short cartoons called Screen Songs, which
invited audiences to sing along to popular songs by "following the
bouncing ball", which is similar to a modern karaoke machine.
Early 1930s
cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in
live-action segments during the cartoons the early animated films by Walt
Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, which
featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music.
The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie
Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner
Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular
performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters.
Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short
film called St. Louis Blues (1929) featuring a dramatized performance of the
hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during
this period.
Later, in the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short
films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film
Lookout Sister. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke,
the "ancestors" of music video.
From the 1960’s promotional clips and others started to
appear. In 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day's
Night, directed by Richard Lester. Shot in black-and-white and presented as a
mock documentary, it interspersed comedic and dialogue sequences with musical
ones.
1974- 1980 was the beginning of music television then
1981- 1991 music videos went main stream In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV
launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and beginning an era
of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the
music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular
music marketing.
In 1988, the MTV show Yo! MTV Raps debuted; the show
helped to bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.
1992- 2004 was the
arrival and rise of directors in November 1992, MTV began listing directors
with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had
increasingly become an auteur's medium
In alternative rock music videos they have conventions
which are usually in music videos. There is a live performance from the song by
the band or soloist including playing their instruments. Also with the
performance there is a narrative which usually has the band, main artist or
soloist playing the main character role portraying themselves or fictional characters.
Within the narrative the video that either tells a story that follows the
lyrics of the song or the story and plot will have no relation to the lyrics
what so ever and therefore be something irrelevant and random. Or may hold a
meaning behind them but not linking to the lyrics in any way. A know ‘motif’ of
the artist and band is that their music videos are ‘movie like’. There are seen to visually see or hear the guitar or
instrument being a focus point which is powerful and overruling. The editing is
fast and cuts to the beat or the main instrument.
The lyrics in alternative rock tend to be more deep
and on topic of personal social concern making it more depressing then the
other genres in the music industry. The lyrics may be on topic of, drugs,
depression, alcohol, and love. There is no set music style for alternative rock
as there are so many subgenres however they all share that they are not seen in
society as ‘mainstream’.
The cinematography is usually close up shots of the
artist and long shots of the artist and band. Plus close up shots on the
instruments or main artist singing. The mise-en-scene is usually casual clothes
and dark coloured clothes.
These videos
include alternative rock conventions:
My chosen genre is alternative rock, it’s agenre of rock music that emerged from the independent music
underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. At times,
"alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from
underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any
music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock.
Alternative rock is a broad
umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound,
its social context, and its regional roots. It has subgenres such as gothic
rock, jangle pop, noise pop, C86, Madchester, industrial rock, and shoegazing. Shoegazing
is the subgenre for my sound track, shoegazing is named this because the
musicians in these bands stood relatively still during live performances in a
detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, hence the idea that they
were gazing at their shoes. Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that
emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s by bands such as My Bloody
Valentine, Slowdive and Ride. Having resurgence in the early 2010’s, therefore
my sound track was released in America 2012 then hitting the charts in spring 2013
in Europe.
The soundtrack that I have chosen for my product of a music video is Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey. The genre of this music video is alternative rock with the subgenre shoegazing. Lana Del Rey is aged 27 and born in New York City. She signed her first recording contract when she was 22 years old with 5 Points Records in 2007. Summertime Sadness is from her second studio album ' Born To Die'. It was released on June 22, 2012, by Interscope Records as its third single in Austria and Germany and the fourth single in Switzerland. Charting across Europe, the single the top ten in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. In the spring of 2013, "Summertime Sadness" became a number-one hit in Poland and Ukraine.
