[JB] Evaluation (1)

• Goodwin’s critical framework (Dancing In The Distraction Factory, 1993) shows us that there are certain aspects of videos which are recurrent across all genres of music video, and our video is no exception - our video conforms to these genres. It has a strong link between the music and visuals.

• A music video is a tool to promote the song and artist it is made for. For this reason, the visuals are constructed around the song, rather than vice-versa. There are certain points during our video where this applies; stop animation is used for a playful effect, and in most occurrences each new frame is carefully synced in time with the beats and tempo of the soundtrack, thus conforming with conventions of the form.

• There are also points during the performance section of our video where we show lip syncing and syncing with instruments. This gives the video an ‘authentic’ feel because it makes it seem like the band is playing the music in the video itself as opposed to just on a soundtrack which has been placed over it. This, alongside the stop animation, shows that there is a strong link between the music and visuals.

• Another point to note is that the lip syncing is illustrated by use of close-ups and so-called ‘meat shots’ (close-ups of the singer’s face and mouth — often making use of a first person mode of address, although this is absent in our production). This conforms with the idea of a music video, because the close-ups used help to show the artist to the audience and thus, when they are represented through use of semiotics, it constructs a star image for them.

• We chose to feature a variety of shot types in our video, ranging from extreme close-ups to extreme long shots. We mostly used close-ups in our performance shots, to show the band to the audience, and we used long shots in our narrative where it seemed much more appropriate - and where there was more of a need to convey the narrative, rather than the people acting in this narrative.

• It is important to note that, although the vast majority of music videos feature heavily with the use of first person mode of address, it is subtly absent from our production. Rather, the artist appears to be addressing an unseen audience, within the fourth wall.

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. Our production takes heavy influence from the song name ‘Parade of punk rock t-shirts’ and the lyrics which feature in this song. In our video can be seen people wearing plain white t-shirts and not having much fun, contrasted with many clips of the same people but in very bright and expressive t-shirts.

• Another particularly prominent set of links between the lyrics and visuals are the points at which these lyrics actually appear on screen during the performance shots, as seen at precisely 0:40 in the clip below.

• In our production we aimed to achieve narrative fuzz to some extent - we hoped that by having a narrative which was not necessarily illustrative of the lyrics we would create a captivating & more enigmatic video in which the audience would like to continually engage, and view in a focused way.

• The video reinforces the dominant ideology that the youth of today enjoy having a lot of fun. The nature and tone of the video is lighthearted fun which is illustrative of this ideology, as it shows the band members enjoying themselves.

[DF] Evaluation (1)

• Using Goodwin’s critical framework (Dancing In The Distraction Factory, 1993), it is clear that our video conforms to many of the characteristics which are prevalent in the genre and many of the techniques which are used in music videos to generate a star image.

• The genre of our track, ‘Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts’ by Maritime, is indie rock. Characteristic of the genre musically are catchy lyrics and melodies, a relaxed or light-hearted tone and quirky or interesting aspects in some way (for example, an unusual vocal technique). The music videos for indie rock tracks are extremely varied, and tend to be anything from pure performance videos such as Maritime’s only other video for their song ‘Paraphernalia’ (Poltermann, 2011), to fun mixes of performance and narrative fuzz, for example in fun.’s video for their song ‘All The Pretty Girls’ (Director unknown, 2009), or even deep philosophical or political statements as seen in videos like Arcade Fire’s, for their song ‘The Suburbs’ (Jonze, 2010). In following these conventions, our video took a light-hearted tone with an emphasis on the fun, quirky and somewhat nonsensical concept aspect. This conforms to the genre characteristics in being quirky, slightly random and unusual. We also included a performance aspect, which, as per many other indie videos we investigated as part of our secondary research, tended to be quite ordinary, straight-up performances either outside or in as studio location (unless the performance was the core of the video, for example in Tegan and Sara’s video for ‘Call It Off’ (Kendall, 2008)).



A still from 'All The Pretty Girls' by fun.

• In terms of the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, our video was an amplification of the song in many ways, however some ways could be said to be more illustrative. For example, at some points we timed written lyrics to appear on screen in sync with the vocals, but aside from that our video simply amplified the mood, tone and pace of the song. We took the light-hearted tone of the lyrics and applied it to the video. We also sped up certain clips in order to fit better with the tempo of the song.

• As for the relationship between the music and the visuals, there are three key things we did. Firstly, we used the light-hearted sound and tone to the song as the basis for our concept. Secondly, we timed the cuts and edits of our clips with parts of the music, for example a change from the verse to the chorus, or from one line to another, or applying a zoom to follow a guitar riff, or more prominently with the stop motion sections which we cut to the beat. Thirdly, our performance is synced to the actual song, anchoring the sounds in the visual.

• There are many close-ups or ‘meat’ shots of the star, primarily throughout the performance. This generates a strong star image. One star motif could perhaps be the changing of T-shirts throughout the song – a key part of the concept.

A close-up of the lead singer's fact: a 'meat' shot.

• The video is primarily concept-based, with an aspect of performance. This makes the video perhaps a bit more enigmatic for the consumer, seeing less of the band performing and more of seemingly random clips.

• The form of a music video is apparent through our use of performance, syncing cuts to the music, ‘meat’ shots used to generate a star image, unclear or incoherent narrative and a variety of camera techniques and movements.

• The video also conforms to the characteristics of it’s genre by emulating the light-hearted tone, using quirkiness and humour and our use of bright colours. Similarly, our use of the camera and editing was conventional in that we included a wide variety of shots and camera movements and included effects such as reversal or time manipulation, which are common in the genre. In questioning whether or not we challenged any conventions of the indie genre, it’s difficult to answer, as the genre is extremely varied in terms of music videos. However, many indie videos have a slightly more linear narrative, allowing the video to feel like a story, and ours was far more conceptual.

• We also included lyrics which appear onscreen alongside certain lyrics, which is unconventional, but we felt set the performance apart from others, and emphasised certain lines which go along with our themes of youthfulness and energy, such as ‘between the places we messed up’ and ‘swallow fire.

Lyrics being matched with performance.

• The text could be said to be polysemic in some ways. It promotes the ideas of being youthful, energetic and fun, but simultaneously invokes feelings of longing through the lyrics ‘when you can’t break through with the one that you want’. This ensures that the audience are left wanting to view it again in order to build a coherent picture. Overall, I would suggest that these interpretations come together to promote the idea that being young is about having fun and using your energy, without worrying about relationships or the breakdown thereof.

• Other interpretations suggest that our video is primarily concerned with ideals of friendship and male rebellion. There is plenty of energetic, disobedient action which is portrayed in a happy, light-hearted manner.

• Using semiotics to deconstruct the text, it is clear that bright colours are an important signifier for the values of youthfulness, energy and fun. This connotes a similar meaning associated with the band. The setting also signifies through the vivid colours, outside location and bright lighting a love of fun and harmony with the world.

Vivid colours and T-shirts emphasise the youthful, energetic nature of the video.

• By association with coloured T-shirts, which can be said to represent youth, fun, energy and light-heartedness, the band are attributed the myth that they possess these traits and that they are desirable for a teenager.

• The video is postmodern in style in that it makes use of parody at times. For example, the video includes the common technique of stop motion in various parts, but parodies this technique by including sections where the stop motion has seemingly ‘messed up’, such as the second time the stair sequence appears, and instead of the final still there is a clip in which one band member has descended onto the wrong stair, to the amusement of the others. This approach is somewhat unconventional of the genre, which in our secondary research we found to not often use parody. However, it is not unheard of, as can be seen in the music video for Pharaohs’ ‘Drift Away’ (Porter, 2011) which mocks the (perhaps overly) energetic and passionate performances that many bands use in their videos by playing in bed, in their underwear and without much apparent effort.

 



Left: a still from Pharaoh's 'Drift Away'.
Right: a section in our video in which the stop motion seemingly 'messes up'.

 

• The video does not feature any females, and so this gender exclusion is the only discernible discourse on gender. This could tie in with our overall meaning for the video, that relationships are not important at a young age; the focus should be on having fun. This is, however a male-centric view.

• In a preferred reading, the video reinforces the dominant ideology that teenagers are rebellious and perhaps immature, but in a positive way. This is done through the use of humorous and light-hearted sequences, and the inclusion of signs such as ‘WET PAINT’ which are purposely disobeyed. However, an oppositional reading might be one of negativity towards the disobedience of today’s youth, together with complaints about their apathy.



[MP] Evaluation (1)

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  Using Goodwin's Critical Framework (Dancing in the distraction factory, 1993) Maritime are classed in the indie/rock genre and as such hold a DIY attitude to their music. This independence is shown in our video with the simple studio setup used for the performance aspect and the regular park in which the narrative is set. These factors contribute to the lo-fi feel of the video, removing the ties to wealth and chart ratings. Also, the outtake that features at the end of the song reinforces the meta-narrative of the band as simply playing music for fun, without any commercial influences or specific band image to uphold.

• The main link between the visuals and the lyrics is that of the T-shirts. ‘Infinite parade of punk rock T-shirts’ is the main hook, and is reinforced by the use of stop motion to highlight the coloured T-shirts that were donned by the actors in our video.

• The visuals link with the music largely through the cutting rate of the video. The cuts match the beat of the music, with the bass drum beat being adhered to strictly during the stop motion sequences. With the upbeat feel of the song, the visuals show the band messing around and having fun, creating a joyous atmosphere to the video.

• Close ups are a central part of the majority of music videos, and our lead singer has the highest number of these, taking screen prominence through meat shots of his performance. The other band members are also shown in close up to push the consumption of the band to the audience, although not nearly as much as the lead singer.

• Whilst there is no use of mirrors to reflect the band and increase consumption, there are a number of voyeuristic shots of our lead singer. This is shown by the dismemberment of the lead singer by showing his lips. This sexualises the lead singer, a technique that is normally used for female stars. This challenges the conventions of sexualisation. 

• Our video could be loosely related to the video for OK Go’s ‘End Love’ (Gunther/Lieberman, 2010), as bright coloured costume is important in both videos. However, the videos differ in the precise choreography in OK Go’s video and the more improvised style of our own video.

• [Performance, narrative or concept] Our video is an almost 50/50 mix of performance and narrative. The stage performance has the feel of a backstreet club which is where many small indie/rock bands start out, with The Forum in Tunbridge Wells being an example of one of these.

• Our production conforms to the conventions of a music video by having all of the main aspects that join together to make a music video. A quick cutting rate is used which is often in time to the music to pack as many different camera techniques into the video. This helps to sell the band/artist to the audience by only giving them glimpses of their idols, meaning that the audience will strive to complete the incoherence of the star. To continue, our production is about 3.5 minutes, the average length of a music track, and our lead singer lip syncs with the song, fooling the audience into believing that they are actually singing the recorded song.

• Our video is not one that possesses a specific narrative in particular, preferring to simply present the artist as they are in narrative fuzz. This fits in with the song not having any particular meaning, holding only the upbeat happy feeling that is pushed onto the audience by the music and the visuals of the band having a good time.

• Our production could be viewed as polysemic. It presents youthfulness, friendship and joy, whilst also pushing the feeling of sadness onto the audience with the lyric ‘when you can’t break through with the one that you want’. This juxtaposition of good/bad feelings creates the star incoherence that audiences wish to untangle, continuing their consumption of the star.

• The T-shirts in our video are iconic of the ‘fun’ feel of our video, with the bright colours emphasising the bands individuality from other mainstream artists. Throughout the performance, the guitars and mic also add to this angle.
• In Dyer’s terms (Stars, 1998), our video conforms by presenting the star in accordance with his two paradoxes. Initially, our star (the band) is most certainly present throughout the video, performing all parts of the performance and the narrative. They are also absent however, in that there is very little breaking of the fourth wall which keeps the band separate from the audience watching. What little breaking there is is very fleeting, meaning that interaction with the audience is very limited. To continue, the star is presented as ordinary by the normal park setting that is used for the narrative fuzz and their normal costume (with the T-shirts perhaps being a slight exception). On the other hand, the performance aspect of the video shows the star as extraordinary, as they are playing good music, a skill that many people idolise.
• Our video is postmodern as it adheres to the terms that define postmodernism. The band members are poking fun at themselves by falling in a fountain, jumping into trees and generally being silly. This is similar to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's video 'Can't Stop' (Romanek, 2003), which features strong postmodern aspects.
• It could be read that women are less important than men in our video as none feature (apart from the feet of one) in any prominent roles. However it is conventional for indie bands to be comprised only of males therefore presenting a dominant reading of heteronormative discourse.
• The preferred reading of our media production is a reinforcement of dominant ideologies in which the youth are explorative and excitable. This is shown with the use of fun and humour throughout the narrative sequences, including wearing a bucket as a hat and messing around on a fountain. An oppositional reading may be that the youth do not respect the proper use of objects and public places, instead wishing to disobey rules for their own gain.

[MP] Tour poster revision

After some discussion in class it was suggested that all of the band members legs be seen to stop it looking as though the two central band members were floating. The details of the tour have had a white fade backing added to them so that they can be seen agaisnt the black trousers of the band members. This was done by duplicating the text, enlarging the size of the bottom layer, changing its colour to white and blurring the edges.
A final change was to swap the two middle band members positions. This was because as they were, the pairs of trousers that were worn by the two members on the left were obviously lighter than those on the right, giving a lopsided feel to the compostition of the advert. The swap evens this out, making the viewing of the page more comfortable to the audience.

PICTURE HERE OF FINISHED PRINT WORK

[MP] Online Survey

Our audience research questionnaire which we carried out before starting our production resulted in a large number of immature and unhelpful responses from our audience. Because of this we have decided only to present quantitive questions for our feedback survey, meaning that the responses will be much more controlled. This way, the results will be much more valuable and usable for us.
This survey will be distributed via Facebook to friends who we know will complete the survey properly, as a further insurance marker in gaining useful results.

This is the link to our post production feedback survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FT5NMYZ

[JB] Open Questions for Focus Group

Here are the questions that we plan to ask on Monday to a small focus group of approximately 15-20 people.

1. What is the strongest part of the video? Why?
2. What is the weakest part of the video? Why?
3. How authentic is the performance, and why?
4. Explain the narrative.
5. What mood does the video convey?
6. Do you like the video, and why?

Our Audience Research questionnaire which we carried out before starting our production resulted in a large number of immature and unhelpful responses from our audience. Because of this, we have decided to ask our focus group the open questions, where we can actually see them face-to-face, making them very unlikely to give us silly responses. This way, the results will be much more valuable and usable for us.
We intend to ask the questions directly and we will video their responses.

[GROUP] Construction Completed

Our project is finished and above is the result. 

How have you met the brief in producing this music video?

The brief was to create a promotional campagin for a song, with a music video as the main product alongside ansillary texts. We have achieved this through the use of 'meat' shots and generation of a star image in order to promote the band. Similarly, we implemented Richard Dyer's paradoxes through the T-shirts and editing to create an incomplete and incoherent star image that creates enigma for the audience, enticing them to buy the track.

Outline the strengths of the production.
We feel that the strengths of our production are in the humour, seemingly random but interesting shots and re-watchability.


What areas could be improved or are a weakness?
We think that our performance could have been improved by a better eye for mise-en-scene, a more energetic and passionate performance and perhaps a better location. Unfortunatetly, time restraints required us to use the drama studio instead of the outside location we initially planned and got permission to film at.

[JB] Digipak Development

In order to create a band image, we have to not only create a music video but also promotional items to accompany it such as a digipak, an advert and a tour poster.

We came to the conclusion that we'd need to create cross-links and ties between the promotional media and the video itself if people would actually be able to relate the two with each other.

For this reason, we've used the same fonts in our video as we have in our digipak design, advert and tour poster. I've also included stills from the footage, as well as photos of each of the band members posing in their colourful t-shirts which they wore in the music video.

We initially started with 6 panes for our digipak design, and then realised that it would be difficult to fill up all of these panes and still make the design aesthetically pleasing. For this reason, we changed the digipak to a 4-pane design.

Here is the digipak design at a very near complete stage.

[DF] Drama Studio Shoot 30/11/11

Today we had our final shoot for two reasons. Firstly to get all the remaining bits of footage we needed just to fill up our timeline and make some parts looks a little better. Secondly to get the photos for our print ads and digipak. We set the room up in the same way we did for our previous performance to ensure continuity and consistency. Involved in the shoot were the band members from all the previous shoots and James Bedwell.


Fortunately we experienced no technical problems during the shoot and we got the footage we aimed to get. More specfically, we got a lot of 'meat' shots of our lead singer to further promote the band image and the importance of the lead singer.

[MP] Tour poster progress

30/11/11 Today I worked on my tour poster and have now finished. I used a range of techniques including colour picking to remove blue screen, fading the band members, and brushes to give the poster a full and complete look. 

This is my finished tour poster.