(TBC) I've previously provided an extensive list of themes to consider, with notes on each of these. Having reviewed these, I've come up with a more streamlined list of 10, combining these and some additional aspects. These will help you evidence research/analysis/applied understanding of all 3 CIA (Conventions, Industry, Audience) and go a long way to preparing for your 4 evaluation Qs.
You can gather and build your research through any combination of posts so long as this eventually includes posts titled:
GENERAL CONVENTIONS1: Lyrics/visuals; Narrative GENERAL CONVENTIONS2: Genre characteristics GENERAL CONVENTIONS3: Intertextuality + postmodernism GENERAL CONVENTIONS4: Representations GENERAL CONVENTIONS5: Cinematography + Editing GENERAL CONVENTIONS6: UGC GENERAL CONVENTIONS7: Alt vids GENERAL CONVENTIONS8: Distribution, social GENERAL CONVENTIONS9: Branding/promo package GENERAL CONVENTIONS10: Possible influences SUMMARY
That's 10 research themes. For each one you need to indicate ideas/aspects you've seen that might influence your work (and then sum this up).
1-5 are conventions focused (+ incorporate Goodwin's 6 conventions), 6-9 go further into industry and audience, and 10 is simply an overall summary of which points are more likely to be reflected in your idea.
You will have some posts, including from class and homework, on individual videos, titling like this:
GENERAL EG1: Artist 'Track Title' (year)
This phase of pre-production is to help inform your initial pitch development. You will repeat the process with a similar list for GENRE conventions research.
Here's a simple example of the power of the green screen - one from 30 years ago, long before you could achieve instant green screen keying on a Mac as you can now (there's a term for that, a very important one, linked to digitisation: CONVERGENCE).
Once you have green screen footage - especially if it incorporates full body movement (as opposed to the maximum MLS dictated by using a single sheet unless you're very careful) - you have incredible creative freedom over how you use it.
LAYERING - which isn't always through green screened footage - is one of the fundamentals of music video, a very common device but not one seen much in TV drama for example.
I'd welcome your suggestions (as blog comments) on useful examples to add to this post from your own knowledge/research.
Another new twist in the web 2.0/UGC/convergence mode, this one reflecting the pattern that's seen lyric videos go from fan-made to official releases. The "former audience" indeed!
Headline story on Pitchfork - many more sites/e-zines followed suit
Depeche Mode, a huge selling act that comes high up concert revenue charts when they tour, have announced that fans can apply to be one of 365 who get to control their Facebook page for a day - a page with 7m followers.
This announcement has helped gain a lot of free, high-profile publicity.
I wasn't so sure myself if this was UGC or official, but apparently, yes, it is the 'real' deal!
A short post this one...
Its not the first time I've used Depeche Mode to exemplify postmodernism (or layering for that matter!) ... and, okay, I'm a fan so I'm more inclined to note what they do
But ... this is a great example of a band - amongst the world's highest selling, who have been selling global stadia for decades now - using something that has the look of a fan-made video, or UGC, as an official release.
I'm sure they've released a NEW video for a 1985 single too - but I can't find it.
Indisputably, in another sign of how YouTube is becoming key to monetising back catalogue, there have been REMASTERED videos issued through Warner-EMI...
NB: Some highly controversial videos are listed, including 'explicit' versions; some descriptions also contain some strong language.
See this post for some quick links on useful videos to consider.
As I've discussed analysed a great many videos, the list below is partial. The initial order reflects the order from the video below, with the 1st 20 selected to highlight some of the very, very many themes when considering not just conventions of but also reception for music videos. Most can be found in a playlist too - a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of videos than you are likely to be familiar with!!! More details after the list, but the 20 videos featured in the video (several times more in the playlist) are:
Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) [post] You do need to know the conventions ... but there is much more scope to challenge them than with, say, film, as videos like this, and the following Sepultura example, demonstrate. Rammstein and Rage Against the Machine have also produced examples I've blogged on, bringing Snow White and the Beach Boys into the extreme metal genre. Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) [animated] [post]
A great example of turning conventions and expectations on their heads, this is an animated video by the Brazilian hardcore thrashers! You should also take from this that inspiration can come from anywhere, including music genres (and other media, as with Morbid Angel) you may not be a fan of! [Wiki]
Here's a bonus, highly countertypical further example: old-school (these guys were well established pioneers when I was still at school!) death metallers Obituary, who for their latest single have turned to Flash-animation and a Scooby-Doo style cartoon ... be advised though: it is, nonetheless, gory. You can read about it and watch it here.
Heteronormative, objectifying; male gaze of Axl Rose?
Below: a playlist of various videos which are useful to demonstrate or at least discuss a range of gender representation terms and concepts. As the two fields are so interwoven, terms on sexuality are also included. Task instructions are also included.
Examples of music videos with clear cinematic influence: their media language is at least partly taken from cinema.
MORBID ANGEL >>> 6 x DEPECHE MODE egs >>> TRIPTYKON
A filmic or cinematic approach is one means by which you can make your video stand out from the crowd, and there are plenty of examples of that. Who could possibly forget the following, most unlikely, death metal video which takes its cues from 1910s silent movies?!
We discussed the idea of taking such a direct filmic influence (albeit one that can be applied loosely and still be recognisable/readable) as the French New Wave [tag] and applying to music video, looking at some possible examples, and inspiration seemed to flow...
... POLICY OF TRUTH
STRANGELOVE
using the bands' record label as a recurrent motif (leitmotif) is an interesting idea...
PERSONAL JESUS
A little bit like iconic UK Indie filmmaker Alex Cox's Straight to hell, here we have a spaghetti western setup with mixed signifiers of past and present and multiple film stocks used.
NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN (remastered video)
French New Wave influences to the fore ... Road movie, also featuring singer Gahan in a two-shot with an archetypal peasant. The shot where the wind going through the wheat field is timed with the music is a great example of not just cutting to the beat but matching the rhythm of footage to the track. We get not just any car but a mightily unusual car (and one that signifies a 60s setting too).
CLEAN
a decidedly odd video for a major act: we see a band member, Martin Gore, watching a movie with his gal of a couple in bed ... and thats it
A QUESTION OF TIME
A motorbike with sidecar. A baby. More babies (with a series of jump cuts). Sort of a road movie. A baby crawling around a clock face. Using the old-fashioned cop shades. Brilliant.
FINAL CUT PRO X CAMERA EMULATOR PLUGIN
As raised when looking at these, you can emulate super-8 and 16mm (etc) cameras by purchasing FCPX plugins (this one is $50 - you may need to buy it yourself and carry edited clips from your own Mac to a school one).
BTW...note that there's a REMASTERED DM vid above (Never Let Me Down Again) demonstrating the 'long tail' concept; the value of back catalogue - conversely the Celtic Frost is only 360p - their record label don't think there's enough money to be made from it to bother updating the quality of their upload.
In Aurorae we see a very specific, intertextualised (with Nosferatu - which you can watch on YT as well) simulacra of German expressionism here (338).
Three music videos were created for "One". The first, directed by Anton
Corbijn, was filmed in Berlin and features the band members performing
at Hansa Studios interspersed with footage of Trabants (an East German
automobile they became fond of as a symbol for a changing Europe) and
shots of them dressed in drag. Bono explained that the idea to
crossdress "had been based on the idea that if U2 can't do this, we've
got to do it!", and it was fostered by the group's experiences dressing
in drag for the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. However, the band
pulled the video, fearing the single's status as an AIDS benefit would
result in critics finding AIDS-related interpretations of the video. The
Edge explained, "We didn't want to be involved in putting back the AIDS
issue into the realm of sexuality... It wasn't worth the risk of people
imagining we were saying something about the AIDS issue through the
drag footage, which was totally not what we were trying to say."
Martin Gore drags up in Depeche Mode's Suffer Well
Use my playlist to explore the world of DMode vids!
I've mentioned this quite a few times - and would welcome any egs you come across yourselves as a comment to this post (including URL of any posts on this). I'll mainly ref DMode vids which you can watch from the DVD - there's also a DVD of Corbijn's vids for U2 for you to borrow.
Anton Corbijn is a notable example of a director who makes extensive use of the creative possibilities of the use of multi-layering, as the pics below from various DMode vids [see Wiki] show. However, he often diegetically projects on location rather than edits in afterwards.
Here's a term that will pop up frequently when analysing vids (and is linked to pomo): DECONSTRUCTIONISM
I'm going to use an eg of a Depeche Mode vid for No Good...
ACT:Depeche Mode TRACK:It's No Good YEAR: 1997 DIRECTOR:Anton Corbijn GENRE: Electro-Pop/Dance MAIN AUDIENCE:M/F 15-34+(both fe/male gaze, 2ndary 35-44 aud from 80s + aspirational tweens + younger teens [10-14])
Gahan ironically dressed as a 70s lounge lizard
META-NARRATIVE + INTERTEXTUALITY
Now, postmodernists argue there is no essential reality, everything is clouded as we view the world through symbols which represent symbols ... There is no such thing as quality; a Kylie Minogue lyric and a Shakespeare are of equal merit - there is simply no objectivity from which we can make such judgements. That poses issues for standard concepts such as genre. Being postmodern, some postmodernists would of course disagree with this depiction, as nothing can be truly defined! As for this song and video, its difficult to pin down what we're referring to when we say thetext:
The music video for "It's No Good" was directed by Anton Corbijn,
depicting the
Interesting vid; cheaply made, the vid relies on getting the most from the monochrome/B+W look, with a strange concept approach fitting the detuned dance track. The track itself is Joy Division filtered through Depeche Mode, which may partially explain the loudhailer (a common leitmotif in DMode vids and covers, both shot by Corbijn, whose influence on this vid is stark and strong), though described here as 'darkwave township house', adding a specifically S.African touch to two widely known genres within this hybrid. I'd read it as a play on race, with the white suit and whitening flour (black liquid is also applied) key signifiers, but could be entirely wrong!
The track, and vid, are featured on the website for the achingly hip mag Dazed and Confused.
