The last day of the summer holidays, Wednesday 5th September, we met Brian, our artist, in a local cafe in Norwich (Waterstones Cafe, Back of the Inns).
Here is when we showed him our ideas, I showed him my plan of the video (below), and Austen showed him his version, both were very similar, though Austens was a little more in depth than mine.
We discussed what we thought would happen, and ran it through with him. Brian was laid back in his direction of the film, and didn't mind how we understood the song, for himself, there was a meaning behind it but he didn't want to cloud our thoughts on the music video.
He gave his opinion in some ideas we had, for example, when we were explaining that he will walk around iconic places in Norwich, he mentioned that it might look a bit to "tourist-ie", which we took away, and made changes to the music video, in hope of making it look less like a tourist video.
Below is me and Austen with Brian, as documentation for this event.
From studying this festival page
on the internet, I have found many connotations describing the reasons behind
the layout of this page.
The magazine style of the webpage suggests a relaxed nature about the festival, that is cool imaginative, and hard working as when you see these webpages designed differently, like a note pad, or a magazine, you feel that the creators have put a large amount of effort into just this webpage, revealing that maybe they put effort into getting well-known, popular artists.
The tab on to the top which says
“Bars and entertainment” may reveal that this festival is more for the adult generation, this is reinforced with the artist who were at their most popular a
while back, like Noel Gallagher and James Walsh. The use
of the scrap book effect, like with the rolled up paper on the side, the pink badge and the effect that the the "latest festival news" column has been stuck on gives a rough, relaxed feel to the festival, possible connoting that this festival is supposed to be relaxed, hippie "like" this feel of "hippie-ness" can be seen again in the title and the pink badge/sticker, as it seems very free and swirly, with the use of very vintage and 1980s feel to the title, yet again, dating back to the hippie era.
The border around the "latest 2012 videos" suggest a circus touch to the festival, revealing this festival is fun, happy and laid back, this can also link up with the title, which gives off a circus feel to the festival.
The font used suggests a vintage feel to the festival, this vintage art can be seen again in the bottom right border, revealing that, again, this festival is aimed to the mainstream and older generation target audience, as the vintage style has come back into fashion and the artist performing would appeal to the adult generation, 30+.
Outside of the "magazine" , the back ground is grass or earth, suggesting that this festival is "alive" as the earth is alive and beating, it also reminds us of those hot summer days with a magazine and sitting on grass, perfect day.
Over all, this webpage connotes a fun, "chilaxed", laid back feel to the festival, appealing to the adults more than teenagers and "party goers" due to the artists performing and the impression of being relaxed and laid back.
Again, unsure of which label this post should go under.
The increase in the proliferation of music festivals has been created due to the diversification of revenue streams, this has been formed by the advancement in technology, meaning the fragmentation of mainstream and niche music audiences and genres can stop and combine identity at these festivals. These festivals attract corporate businesses which perform consumerism in order to promote a festival for their benefit, they would also promote market and audience segmentation to increase their revenue streams, also, individually, these festivals also lifestyles cultures and experiences to combine both in the music and in the audiences there.
The choice of
images can tell us that this genre of music is dance/hip-hop, this can be seen
by the opening shot of the Police car, with its sirens flashing, signifying
this is a hip-hop/dance music video, also the shots are taken from a downtown
area of a city, we can see rubbish in the alley way, and rundown buildings,
associating the music with the location gives us a well established idea of the
genre.
Also the increase
of the presence of law enforcers, first we see a Police car, with its “blues
and twos on” as well as the security guard who we see at first facing the
camera, then turns to reveal his true identity as a security guard, this again
reveals the genre of the music video.
The only link
between the lyrics and the music video that I can see is when the main
character grabs hold of a fence (see above) and the lyrics are “Let's get
electrified”, this is adds a sense of humourto the music
video, it suggests that the fence that the main character grabbed hold of could
be electrified and that he’s risking his life being somewhere where he doesn’t
belong.
The music is linked to the video in some ways, but there is
very high amount of random movements and actions done by the main character,
this may be done to confuse and add a sense of “rawness” to the music video.
But there are links to the beats and what appears on the screen, for example,
when the arm of the main character falls off and smashes to the ground the
music changes and the tempo of the lyrics becomes faster, it goes from “Let’s
get electrified, Let’s get electrified” to “Pump it, rockin'
it, stickin' it, funkin' it Africa”this is the first scene we see
that would surprise the audience, seeing a arm fall off a man and shatter, like
he was made of pottery, so maybe, with that and fastened tempo puts the
audience into a state of surprise, and they want to see what happens, the tempo
has increased, he’s falling apart, so, they think, the climax of the music
video must be soon, keeping the audience watching.
The lighting is ambient, the light is very grey and almost
monotone, the sort of light you would expect on a cold winters day, which is
the time and season seen on the music video.
This lighting gives off a very depressive and gloomy mood, it
makes the city look dirty, dark and cold to the audience, this may be done to
make the city look at its worst, to emphasise the underlying story.
The use of special effects is profound, despite there being no
CGI, throughout the video, the main character loses body parts as if he was
made of pottery, they smash into pieces as if they were fragile, possibly signifying
his fragility, and how hard and harsh the western cities are. (see right)
The location is in a 21st century American city, and
then the main character is from a poor country, with a lack of food and water,
judging by his appearance. This could be in the music video because the
director, Chris Cunningham, may be trying to make out that harshness of our world compared to
the main characters world and how we have become senseless to other people, for
example, when the main characters arms falls off, the man who caused that, just
stands and stares, before moving on, not a slight sign of remorse or guilt. This
may be a sign suggesting that the western world has lost touch with its
emotions and therefore the cultural signifier could be that the western worlds
have become hard, emotionless and out of touch from their real self’s.
Genre
The first signifier which
reinforces the hip-hop/dance and “Electro funk” is the Police car seen in one
of the first scenes of the video, with its flashing lights on, this signifies
that the music is hip-hop genre music, you would expect to see flashing lights
in hip-hop and dance music videos, this conforms to the genre. Another
convention that goes along with the idea of the hip-hop genre is the rundown
buildings which are seen at the beginning of the video, this reveals the
genre, as hip-hop and dance is sometimes a suppressed genre, which often
include racist, explicit or offensive terms in the songs, making this genre a
“quiet” or discreet genre, not often spoken about with ease at times. Also another generic signifier is the men
break dancing, in underground car park, both the location and men dancing
signify the hip-hop, dance genre. The men break dancing shows what is connected to hip-hop and dance music, and
what type of people this music will appeal to, this reveals that this music
video would appeal to working class people or people who are in that circle,
this idea is very stereotypical and does not occur in all people who like dance
or hip-hop music. The location also reveals that this genre is “underground”
and out of view from the public. With
the wet, harsh and non-ambient lighting of the car park it reinforces the
ideology of the genre.
Narrative structure
Unsure of what the question is
asking me to do.
The music video to me, is
narrative based, the video is played out according to the song, for example, at
one point it says “Let’s get electrified, Let’s get electrified, Let’s get
electrified….” Then at this point the main character grabs a metal fence, which
would have been electrified, revealing that the music video is narrative based.
Inter-textual references
Chris Cunningham , the director
of this video makes this city, most likely New York, look harsh and almost
violent. This video is very much like another video by Gil Scott-Heron called “New York Is Killing Me”, like this video,
it very much goes along with the ideology that cities are dark, gloomy places,
not for the faint hearted.
Also Cunningham also refers to “Blade Runner” where the main
character portrayed as a slave and
alien compared to other people. This is similar because in the black man in
'Afrika Shox' is seen to be alien from what he is wearing, how he acts and what
he’s wearing. This is also shown with the urban landscape, within both 'Blade
Runner' and 'Afrika Shox' there is an urban surrounding which is unfamiliar to
both the main characters in the music video and the film.
Also the film
“Metropolis” has been connected to the film, the characters are seen to be
lining up in a “zombie” state, like the main character in the music video.
These films
both appeal to the younger audience (found on IMDB), this would be the reason
why Cunningham has used these films to reference in the film, to attract a
younger audience, optimising the largest amount of viewers possible.
For our music video we wanted to create a sense of "unique-ness" and originality, rather than going for the common music video of the band performing the song.
We thought of getting the artist, Brian Korteling, to perform his song sitting down in a bandstand, creating a unique and different take on music videos, I got this inspiration from Alex Clare's performance of his single "Too close to love you". I wanted to aim for something like below, a location which is light, uses natural lighting and gives a sense of authenticity.
We thought using a bandstand would give this effect, as its in the open, and as its summer, performance of this would be feasible. We have a few locations of the band stands;
This bandstand is found in Eaton Park in Norwich, this is defiantly one of the most "classy" bandstands, but the issue is the busyness of it, many people go through the area above, creating an issue for sound.
This is found in Chapelfield Park, its in the centre of the park and is very busy at times if we were to shoot here, timing would need to be a priority as we may draw attention to what we doing when we're trying to film.
This is the bandstand found at Mousehold Health, this picture is taken in the winter, so the appearance of it will hopefully look more appealing in the summer.
Another locations have been taken into consideration, but at present, using a bandstand of some sort seems most ideal.
For our music video, as said before, we wanted to include animation, to make this video stand out from the rest, as animation mixed with real live footage of the artists playing isn't something that is seen very often.
I found this website which had a variety of stop motion animation (website link underlined) which is what we wanted to aim for my the end of it.
One of mine and the groups favourite video was the video seen below;
As this one seems to be most possible to create, a simple stop motion animation, with possibly words being written out with the hand or without it, and possibly creating images with maybe lego or newspaper cuttings, which would portray the idea of "information" which is what the song is called, though the artist, Brian Korteling, said that this song "is about leaving a situation with no clear idea if it is the right thing to do or not but going on gut feeling...." , we hope to incorporate this into the music video some how.
