Audience Research and Profile

Here's my quick interview with a few people who listen to The Cure.
Questions: Name and age; Why do you listen to The Cure/how did you find out about them?; What other artists do you listen to? How do you listen to music?

These questions have just given me an introduction to my audience - the general trend I've found is that they're young adults, they've found The Cure through people, particularly through older family members. Other 80s bands include Depeche Mode, New Order, The Smiths, The Doors, The Who... The general way they listen to music would be through streaming, whether that be through Youtube or Spotify, but Will also listens to vinyls.

Below is my short presentation using my research and knowledge to establish an audience profile.  

Stranger Things - Interiors and Stylistics

I have embedded a short presentation logging some of my explorations into mise-en-scene I want for my music video. Stranger Things is an inspiring series showing a fantasy/drama based in the 1980s. What I'm drawn to most is the dim lighting, the costume, and the interiors of the housing we see in some shots. But also, the shots used in the series often have interesting codes attached to them for the audience to deconstruct into meaning.

The presentation is very much like my head - inconcise and random, but I needed to put some thoughts down, and I thought I may as well add it into my research.

Stranger things – Stylistics and Interiors from Kirsty Hamilton-Emery

Testing Camera Angles

Trying filming with deliberate camera angles to create more interesting picture. I have also bought some lighting equipment and have found a camcorder my parents bought so I thought I'd give that a try, and I needed to try setting up my lighting equipment too so I know what I was doing.

Reflection on Previous Practical Work

In the past I've created videos out of pure enjoyment, and I feel like this is a good time to revise over them.

In the summer, I took my camera on holiday with me in hope to create a cliche vlog of the holiday with the song 'Everybody's Talkin'' which I had initially wanted to do for my music video this year. When I realised I wasn't going to use the song, I didn't want the song to go wasted and decided to try to capture an emotional memory-jerking video of severe sunburn, heat stroke, bad food, dirty beaches, and expensive cocktails happy times that would bring tears to the eyes of viewers of such a beautiful holiday.


Another video was one I took a few days ago in hope to prove my amazing camera work to myself. I had no real plot in mind, just having my companion doing something cool on the beach, but it turned out he couldn't cartwheel, handstand, or really do anything.


In terms of my two videos featured here, they don't work. And they don't work because of the weak narrative.

In my research, I've found that videos, films, books, art work - they all have narrative. A series of pretty shots doesn't make a good video. We watch consume things hoping to read some form of story to interpret and explore.

I think it's a real shame my video in Majorca didn't work out because it was a very good opportunity, but this shows how important planning a video is (just like any form of art). Improv in terms of the whole narrative doesn't work out. I think my 'A Jump on the Beach' is better though, but it helps I had been revising over cinematography. There are different angles, but all the shots are a bit too long and are mainly of pretty scenery. But these two videos do show my 'style', and there are a lot of traits here I need to make sure I challenge if I want a successful music video.

How To: Visual Comedy

With my music video, I'm keen to have a comedy approach, but I need to do this visually as this is a music video, therefore I think researching directors like Edgar Wright, Buster Keaton, and Jacques Tati may really help. 

To  research into visual comedy I've turned to Youtube. Buster Keaton, 1895-1966, was an actor, director, comedian and stuntman. In the embedded video essay below by filmmaker and freelance editor Tony Zhou, from 1:00-4:43, we are given an introduction into Keaton's work and style which can be seen in many directors from then and now. 

'The first thing you need to know about visual comedy is that you have to tell your story through action.' - Back during the silent film era, Keaton avoided using title cards to help explain narrative, but instead relied on the visual codes. This is very relevant to me as I can't use dialogue which would be the modern alternative, but I do have the lyrics which help to guide some form of narrative or interpretation of the visuals.

At 2:10 of the video, the camera angles are looked in to and the rules of the world within the camera. Humour can be found within the reveal through camera angles, and it can be found through a 2D flat world within the camera frame (examples from 3:30-4:23).

I don't think the rest of the video is particularly useful for what I'm aiming to make, as I'm not trying to make a magic-show based video, or an explicitly humorous video. But by looking at the beginning of capturing humour on video, Keaton has helped me understand the makings of.

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Edgar Wright, an English director, screenwriter, producer and actor, is very well known for his comedic 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End. In terms of Wright's style, his use of creating comedy through visual codes is very intriguing. Many directors rely on the dialogue to produce laughter, but it's a skill to be able to incorporate comedic visuals too.

This video essay also created by Tony Zhou is very helpful to look into Wright's way of depicting a comedic approach in film. Tony Zhou explains how particularly American comedy films have 'lost their way'
'These movies aren't movies. They're lightly edited improv. Everyone stands still and talks at each-other in close-up. Almost none of these jokes come visually; they're overwhelming sound.' - Tony Zhou makes a really good point and introduction here in the video. From 1:17-2:25 Zhou juxtaposes a film with Wright's 'Hot Fuzz' to compare the use of cinematography between them. Wright has a clear talent with camera and directing - it's not just quick cuts.

'As Martin Scorsese put it: "cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's not in the frame." So think about the frame. And this isn't just a matter of smart or stupid comedy. Really if it works, it works.'

Tony Zhou's list of 8 things Wright does that other directors should do to construct visual comedy:

1. Things entering the frame in funny ways
2. People leaving the frame in funny ways
3. There and back again
4. Matching scene transitions
5. the perfectly-timed sound effects
6. Action synchronised to the music
7. Super dramatic lighting cues 
8. Fence gags 
9. * Imaginary gun fights

Finally, Andrew Saladino aka The Royal Ocean Film Society explores another classic comedian in film: Jacques Tati. Opening the video, Saladino reiterates Zhou's point of visual comedy being a lost art in modern film. 

Jacques Tati found comedy through:

Props. 'A good prop by itself can almost always get you a solid laugh'. I think this point also connects well with the scene from Hot Fuzz in the previous video in which Simon Pegg is travelling with only a plant. Saladino believes an everyday prop that acts as an obstacle is the most effective to use, examples from 0:40-1:56.

Sing Street (2016)

Sing Street, (2016). Directed by John Carney

Sing Street is a film that I has been on my mind every since I first watched it upon release. The film was released in 2016, but is set in Ireland in 1985. It's a simple narrative following a young boy who forms a band to win over a girl, but it's the transitions the band go through to find their style which I really love, and their home-made music videos. 

In the extract (5:30) below it's near the start of the film in which the band are making their first music video to their first original song. This is the sort of 80s rundown, realistic look that I really like; filmed in a backstreet alleyway the boys also encounter a short conversation with the school bully who we see is being abused by his father. I just really love this down-to-earth story of a normal group of kids just enjoying themselves. This film is a very good depiction of the 80s. 

This set up at the beginning of the filming of the music video is just SO 80s. The costume, the awkward postures. I love it.

The starring female of the music video, the model, she's dressed up in Japanese attire which is very random but it shows the spread in culture that the 80s saw. Fashion became something bigger and bigger, influenced by all factors.

These two shots are great examples of typical 80s music video shots. Shots of walking and playing an instrument; shots of people running down alleyways and looking about for something (anything?).

A typical scene in a car with the band members on/around it. 

If you haven't seen this film, I highly recommend it. But to sum up this post, I just had to share my love for this film and it's relevance in my ideas for my video. I would love to have similar 80s stylistics in terms of cinematography but I'm aware my music video must be proving my knowledge for music videos and how they've adapted over time, so I would have to alter parts. 

Analyses of Three Relevant Music Videos

For my music video planning, I have analysed other music videos that I feel are relevant to my own thoughts. I have chosen two songs made in the 80s (The Clash's song, and Wham!), and an 80s styled modern video released on YouTube in 2009.

 

Guess the Object - Trying Close Up Shots

This video was made so we could explore the degrees of close-up shots, but also practice editing to music. We chose an object to take close ups of to show in class so we could all take part guessing the object.

Music Video and Film: Theorists

This will be a visually uninteresting summary of key music video theorists

Joan Lynch

Lynch (1984) stated the three basic music video structures; a music video will contain at least one element of the following:

1. Performance - scenes of the artist(s) performing
2. Narrative - a story within the video/telling of a narrative
3. Concept - often influenced by experimental film, this may contain abstract or/and nostalgic elements with colour and pattern.

Jon Gow

Jon Gow identified six central genres of music videos which are defined in terms of their relationship to the display of the performance of the song.

• The anti-performance piece - no shots of performance of song
• Pseudo-reflexive performance - shots which display the process of video production
• Performance documentary - videos which contain 'verite' documentary footage of onstage performance and/or offstage activity
• The special effects extravaganza - videos in which human performance is over-shadowed by spectacular imagers
• The song and dance number - videos which focus on the physical ability of the dancing performer(s) and the vocal representation of the song, usually through lip-syncing techniques
• The enhanced performance - videos which blend performance elements with other visual elements; associational, narrative or abstract forms of motivation

Andrew Goodwin

Author of 'Dancing in the  Distraction Factory', Goodwin (born 1956) had an interest in visual language and imagery seen in music videos. After studying hundreds of different music videos, Goodwin found some key codes and conventions:

1. Music videos generally contain genre characteristics [e.g. boy bands having a dance routine/rock bands containing shots of performance]. 
2. A relationship between lyrics and visuals [e.g. singing about a breakup and seeing it or the obvious aftermath of it/singing about autumn and an autumnal setting].
3. A relationship between the music and the visuals [e.g. editing in time with beat/flashing lights to rhythm].
4. Demands form record labels on visual shots [e.g. close-up shots of artist]
5. Iconography or motifs from the artist. Artists may develop a specific style over time which is seen in each video [e.g. style of clothing/Michael Jackson's signature dance moves].
6. Often references to voyeurism. This often includes exploiting women for sex appeal and to typically attract heterosexual males [e.g. shots of women's bodies/seductive motions]
7. Sometimes there may also be references to other music videos, films, TV, artists and actors [e.g. in parody videos]

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey, born 1941, made a film theory which is that of a feminist. Mulvey discovered the 'Male Gaze' theory in which film and videos are often shot from the point of view of a heterosexual male. This means women are generally sexualised in a way to please the male audience, but it's important to note that it's only the 'male gaze' if women's bodies are particularly accentuated through specific conventions such as camera movement/shots and slow motion. 

 “woman as object the combined gaze of spectator and all the male protagonists in the film. She is isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised.”

Women were de-humanised in media through their stereotypical roles, and by having minor roles in film. Women's only roles in films and media was there effect on men and how the man's feelings moved a plot forward. While this is slowly changing, particular films to note are film-noir directors, and those of 'masculine' films aimed at men, such as Transformers, Springbreakers, Charlie's Angels.

I've embedded a video from Youtube below if you want some examples from film footage.