In the lesson today we have started to look at the concept of Voyeurism. To start off with we watched a resent music video by 'Wiley ft. Ms D' called Heat Wave.
After watching the video we wrote as a class our thoughts and responses to the video. This is the results:-
We then went on to define Voyeurism and after looking at the definition on wikipedia we condensed it down into our own idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyeurism.
Here is my definition:-
Voyeurism is the act of spying on someone doing sexual activities e.g undressing or wearing revelling clothing. In context to media examples like 'Big Brother' and 'The Only Way is Essex' are looking into other peoples lives in a voyeuristic way. Music videos take a much more older route with showing sexual activities and examples of the male gaze.
A useful quote for this topic:
'There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (mirrors, screens within screens, stages etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body'- Andrew Goodwin-Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992).
In next weeks lesson we are going to go out and film examples of Voyeuristic camera shots and angles, so to start the process we have made a list of shots we could use:-
I have begun looking at lyrics from Ravenface and to cut them up and take a closer look at them and the meaning they portray. I have done this to Ravenface's song 'The Ressurection' as i do not have the lyrics for our chosen song 'This is Annihilation' yet.
I am going to do this to more Ravenface songs to see what style of lyrics they mostly use and the messages they like to give out. I am also going to look at similar genres of music to Ravenface and go thought the same process.
David Fincher, born August 28th, 1962, is an American film and music video director, who is mostly known for a dark and stylish way of creating both music videos and films. He directed big budget music videos for artist such as Madonna, Billy Idol, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Nine Inch Nails, Michael Jackson and many more.
I have decided to look at the music video 'Only' by Nine Inch Nails as I am familiar with the video and find it very interesting. Also Nine Inch Nails are put into the category of rock, which ties into my research of my chosen artists as they come from a similar genre. 'Only' was released as the second single from their fourth album 'With Teeth'. 'Only' reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart and stayed there for seven weeks.
The video starts with a close-up shot of stylistic desk, with a laptop, mug, speakers, Newtons Cradle and pin impression box. A hand then comes into frame and clicks the laptop- to start playing the song. The laptop screen lights up with again stylistic patterns. The mise-en-scene for this video is very neutral with everything in colours of grey, black and white and the lighting is coming from a window on the right hand side. The music starts off with a technical base beat. Cuts are quick and clean and are in time with the beat. There are examples of extreme close-ups of the speakers vibrating with the base of the music and a camera pans, moving around the desk to focus on the pin art box. Cuts move to the cup of coffee,which ripples in time with the beat and then to a desk lamp that is turned off. This could hint that it plays a bigger role later on in the video.
It then cuts to another extreme close-up of the pin box, where the pins begin to move, also reflecting sounds from the music. The video then takes a CGI aspect, where the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails appears indented in the pin box. The whole video focuses on him performing the lyrical side of the song using zooms, pans and more extreme close-ups with quick cuts to the other objects on the desk moving and 'coming live', including the desk lamp which turns on. Each object moves in time with the beat and tempo of the song and could be seen to represent each member of the band.
As the song gets 'angrier' the pin box moves as if the figure inside is pushing up against the glass. There are a variety of camera angles and shaky movements, almost to reflect the angrier more intense section of the song, and it seems at on point that the camera has been attached to the Newtons cradle.
The song ends with everything slowing down to a stop and then an apple from the desk and spoon from the mug fall over, the only sign that any of the movement of the objects actually happened.
Question:- The more you know how to do something the less creative you become. Agree or disagree?
e.g- The more technical knowledge you have of using a camera, the developed understanding you have of film results in less creativity because you are bound by the rules you have learnt?
This was a debatable subject that we were given in class the other day. My answer, and many others in my class, was that we neither agree or disagree as both creativity and knowledge feed each other, almost a vicious cirlce.We believed that you had to have a certain amount of knowledge or experience to park ideas of creativity and many concepts that are deemed as creative or original today would have been used several years back but we have put a new twist or spin on that idea.
In a media studies way of looking at it, many films, genres of music and technical understandings have all started from a beginning point and just evolved into new ways of doing it to that we don't tire of it. To create these new methods you use your creativity, but have to be aware of the rules an conventions of your inspiration. If you decide to go against these rules you should justify why you didn't follow them.
Everything is linked to something, and as our knowledge expands with time we get more creative and as we get more creative we use it as a tool to find new ways of gaining knowledge.
For research into how my chosen band represents themselves and how we should portray our actors i have looked at the style conventions within the alternative/metal genre.
Looking at today's metal genre in the music industry shows a completely different image to how it was a few years back. In today's industry, many alternative bands are very conscious of their looks and have the sex appeal. Bands such as Bring me the Horizon even have their own clothing company.
Bring me the Horizon clothing company
'Drop Dead'.
Bands today also have nicer hair, with full fringes and rich colours instead of the older syles of long, curly hair. The sex appeal helps to get more of an audience as girls want them and guys want to be them, this also applies to female fronted bands just the other way round.
Kellin Quinn 'Sleeping With
Sirens' vocalist, a great example of
nice hair and clothing.
Bands prefer to wear dark band t-shirts showing their personal taste and dark jeans, with converses or boots. Where as in later periods bands would wear t-shirts or old metal bands t-shirts with khakis and army boots.
Kiss
Bands also used to be more glam or theatrical a few years back, with bands such as 'Kiss' or 'Motley Crue'. However some bands today have gone for a more theatrical look with examples like 'Black Veil Brides' or 'Marylin Manson'.
Black Veil Brides
On the other hand I think that conventions from all ages have been used and only slightly changed today as bands from the 80s-90s where inspiration to todays bands.
Looking at Ravenfaces appearance and how they fit into the convention shows that they are not a theatrical band and that their image hasn't changed much in the past couple of years. They have a miss of long hair and full fringes and wear both old and modern band t-shirts. They also conform to the whole darker look.
This is a deconstruction of the music video 'One' by Metallica. I have chosen to look at this music video because Metallica are of a similar genre to my chosen artists. I have also looked at this video because this video is quite old and it gives me an idea of how music videos in the metal genre have changed.
Song research (sourced from wikipedia):-
'One' is the third single from American heavy metal band Metallica's fourth album. 'One' was also the band's first top 40 single, reaching number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is one of the band's most popular songs, being the most played song from the album. 'One'was written in N ovember 1987 by James Hetfield the bands vocalisst. The song was released in 1989 in their fourth album.
Here are the lyrics to this song, this includes lines from the clips of old films shown:-
The cerebrum has suffered massive and reparable damage
You never know what has happened to him
If I have not been sure of this, I would not have permitted him to live
Where am I? Father, what happened? I need help
What is democracy? What is democracy?
It got something to do with young men killing each other, Arthur
What if its my turn, will you want me to go?
For democracy, any man would give his only begotten son
It is impossible for any severed individual to experience pain
Pleasure, memory, dream or thought of any kind
This young man will be as unfeeling as unthinking as the dead
Until the day he joins them
I don't know weather I'm alive or dreaming or dead or remembering
How can you tell what's a dream and what's real
When you can't even tell when your awake and when your asleep
Where am I?
I Can't Remember Anything
Can't Tell If this Is True or Dream
Deep down Inside I Feel to Scream
this Terrible Silence Stops Me
Now That the War Is Through with Me
I'm Waking up I Cann Not See
That There Is Not Much Left of Me
Nothing Is Real but Pain Now
Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God, wake Me
Back in the Womb it's Much Too Real
in Pumps Life That I must Feel
but Can't Look Forward to Reveal
Look to the Time When I'll Live
Fed Through the Tube That Sticks in Me
Just like a Wartime Novelty
Tied to Machines That Make Me Be
Cut this Lfe off from Me
Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God, wake Me
Now the World Is Gone I'm Just One
Oh God, help Me Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death.
Oh Please God Help Me
Imprisoning Me
All That I See
Absolute Horror
I Cannot Live
I Cannot Die
Trapped In Myself
Body My Holding Cell
Has Taken My Sight
Taken My Speech
Taken My Hearing
Taken My Arms
Taken My Legs
Taken My Soul
Left Me with Life in Hell.
The perfomance based part of this video is entirely filmed in black and white to give a dark, sad and old feel. The video starts with a back shot of the vocalist with shadows of a fan sweeping dramatic shadows across the shot. There are sound efffects of falling bombs. There is another shot of the vocalist, showing him holding his guitar and then a dissolve cut to show his face. This then cuts to a wartime clip of trenches and an explosion signifiying the actual start of the song. The music quietly begins using more slow dissolve cuts of the guitar being played and shots of old films usong a low angle shot of doctors looking down on you. Diolouge tells us that someone has been terribly injured.
This cuts to clips of a group of people, including nurses, walking down a corridor and then shows a man, with a mask in bed. The over voice is tthe narrative from his perspective. The introduction to this song is very slow, again filled with close-up shots of the band playing with cuts to clips of people going to war and a young boy asking his father questions. When the band are performing there are a variety of camera angels such as birds eye view or high angle, wide shot and close-ups. As the song picks up pace the cuts get quicker and the band have used techniques called tapping that almost sounds like a machine gun, reflecting the theme of war. Throughout the band playing the end section there are clips of the man suffering in the hospital bed. The song ends with a shot of the man in bed repeating 'SOS, help me' then fades to black.
This music video is very atmospherical, moving the audience with disturbing thoughts and shots of life in war. The video is very simple, with the use of black and white and low lighting, which helps create that dark message and to keep the video raw with musical tallent and capturing messages.
In class recently w have been looking at branding and marketing and we have been given an existing band (Bedouin Soundclash) that we have to market. This is our package, including photos of the band, Wikipedia page and brief.
The three member band consisting of vocalist and guitarist Jay Malinowski, bassist Eon Sinclair and drummer Sekou Lumumba. They are a Canadian band base in Toronto. Their genre of music is described as Reggae or ska.
To start our marketing process my group and I started to list what concepts and relative themes are linked to this band. We did this so that for our music video concept and album artwork, we would have a basic idea of what other bands that are in the same context us and have. This would also help to draw in an audience to these music genres. We took into concept this bands probable audience an thought it would be from the ages of 16-30 and would mostly be of male gender.
We then went on to think up video concepts. We first thought on this bands image and thought that as the artists play reggae styled music, we thought to stereotype them, using beach themed clothing if they were to perform on a beach or indie styled clothing such as t-shirts and trousers for more of an indoor video. As we thought the lead vocalist was the most indie looking we thought to have him star in the video with a love story based theme in a pub or park in Toronto (based on their background of being from Canada).
Finally we designed a possible album cover. For this we wanted to base the album around Canada so we used the design of the Canadian flag. However, to keep to the conventions of an up-beat, reggae styled band we used bright colours. We then used a photograph of the band as this is also quite common among this genre. We also did this as we thought the band were quite good looking and are using their image as a sex appeal which many other bands and artists do today.
To get a feel for the type of music they do here are a couple of examples:-
Looking back at this task i havelooked at the creative decisions we had and what inspired these decisions.
In class our group have begun to storyboard the opening too our Music video. We are doing this whilst listening to the music. Here is what we have so far:-
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5
These may not be detail and have much information but it has enabled us to go out filming this coming weeked to gett establishing shots of the woodland. This is good because if we have this part edited or if later on in the filming it goes wrong we have some things ready.
Our group has started to plan our concept and ideas for our Music Video for Ravenface's song 'This is Annihilation'. Here are some ideas that we brain stormed.
We have listed some intertextuality that have inspired ideas for our concept such as the beginning part of 'The Devil Wears Prada' 'Outnumbered' song which has a interfeared newsreport that builds up loads of tension, which we like as we would like to have a threat shown in our music video (possibliy zombies).
However if we were to do this idea we would use a British voice to keep in context to it being a British video and British band.
As we have put we would like to have a threat in our music video for the narrative based side, showing the band actors running through woods and abandoned areas as well as defending themselves. However to keep the video from being 'cheesy' we are only doing to hint to the threat using shots of feet and hands or having the threat some what in the distance so that you can not quite make out what it is. We are doing this to build up enigma and suspence. We have also had the idea to cut up the narrative with some perfomance of our actors playing the song in a run down building, possibly in the dark and to have strobe lights.
For our research and planning into our music video we have to create an Album cover. As we are looking at a heavy metal band i have also looked at album covers for other heavy metal bands. A lot of album covers in the metal genre just depict designs that are relative to the album or to provoke audience/fans feelings. Here are a few good examples.
Avenged Sevenfold:-
Avenged Sevenfold or A7X are an American Heavy metal band from California. They were formed in 1999, consisting of M.Shadows (vocalist), Synyster Gates (lead guitarist), Zacky Vengeance (rhythm guitarist) and Johnny Christ (bassist). Their Album 'City of Evil' was released in 2005 by Warner Bros. Records. Co. The album cover is very interesting as it depicts a skeletal figure with bat like wings (hinting to their logo of the death bat) riding a horse over a dark city that is shown in the background. The sky is a swirling mix of blacks, purples and reds. All this matches the album title 'City of Evil' and the overall style of the album cover is quite eye catching and theatrical but not too busy.
Green Day:-
Green day are an American Punk rock abnd formed in 1987. The band consists of Billie Joe Armstrong (Vocalist and Guitarist), Mike Dirnt (bassist and backing vocalist) and Tre Cool (drummer). This is their 8th album '21st Century Breakdown'. The album cover is very styilized, depicting street art of a couple kissing infront of firey colours of red, yellow, and orange. This could create a feeling of dispair or destruction,and the black border around the couple also creates the scence of an end. This is linked to the overall theme for this album of corruption and pollitical wars that are effecting everyday lives. This album cover is very simple but has an effective message.
Trivium:-
Trivium are an American Heavy Metal band from Florida, formed in 2000. They are signed to Roadrunner Records. This is their 4th album named 'Shogun'. This album cover is very linked to the title as it shows Japanese drawings of dragons and ghouls, as well as having Japanese characters written behind the band name. It also depictes the Japanese mountain, Mt.Fuji in a red cirlce that could hint to the Japanese flag. This is all tied into the lead singers background as his Mother is Japanese. This Album cover is very interesting and it shows that album covers can sometimes have a lot of background context to the album title and members background. This is helpful because our group could do this for our Ancillary task.
Sylosis:-
Sylosis are a British heavy metal band from Reading who's record label are Nuclear Blast. This is their 3rd album 'Monolith'. This album is based around Greek mythology and the album cover depicts this by using a rustic design showing two women in robes and one of them having a ram's skull for a head. The album title is very small at the bottom so the album cover makes the audience focus on the artwork first. This design has keeped to a small colour palette of green, brown and cream so eventhough the design is intricut the colouring keeps the whole thing simple.
Another common design for album covers is to show the bands logo such as these:-
Thousand Foot Krutch
The End Is Where We Begin
Avenged Sevenfold
Self Titled Album
Whitechapel
Self Titled Album
My Chemical Romance
Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys.
Our group could do this by simply designing a logo for Ravenface however if we are Re-branding our chosen artists this would be quite difficult to do as we do not want to insult or copy the Ravenface image.
The final aspect for designs of an album cover are to depict the band members them selfs such as these:-
Escape The Fate
Self Titled Album.
The Rasmus
Dead Letters.
Billy Talent
Self Titled Album.
Pantera
Cowboys From Hell.
This would be the best design to do for our ancillary task as we could take photographs of the actors we've got for the music video and either have them on a plain background or to place them in a setting to do with the music video or our chosen song.
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