Research & Planning - Genre & Music Video

Land of Confusion - Disturbed

Animated/Spectacle music video.

Unlike most music videos this incorporates no footage of the band playing, and focuses entirely on a video to represent the songs lyrics and meanings. Although the songs meanings are displayed in an entropic manner with a stereotypical "fat cat" politician bursting into money, the intentions are redundant as the explosion of money represents their greed. The entropic elements in this are to attract the target audience and represent them and their video as satirical and clever. Although the message of the video will appeal to high demographics, the genre and animation style may deter them making this a somewhat niche video.

Comin' Home - City and Colour

Performance/Spectacle music video.

This video, despite having a spectacle element, portrays the musician as serious and devoted to his music through the soft focuses, saturated effect and numerous shots of him playing his guitar/singing. The spectacle aspect of this video is used to compliment the songs lyrics and emotional atmosphere rather than distract from the song and shots of the musician, making the video relatively redundant while maintaining a slight air of entropy for interest and depth.

Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns 'n' Roses

Performance/Backstage

This video of Guns 'n' Roses shows them to be a dedicated band through the footage of them both playing their instruments on stage as well as off stage setting up or playing out of pleasure. The use of grey scale also adds a serious side to this video and further connotes a redundant theme. There is very little entropy in this video as it all connotes relatively dominant ideology, making this a somewhat mainstream song.

Song 2 - Blur

Performance/Quirky

Despite this video being focused totally around the musicians it is extremely entropic. To begin with the musicians seem to be serious as they play their instruments, but one the song gets heavily into the beat, the musicians begin bouncing off the walls and playing on the ceiling. This makes is similar to the Black Stone Cherry video, in the sense it is a performance video edited to be interesting. This will be a higher budget production compared to Black Stone Cherry though, due to a more mainstream audience and bigger record label backing. This entropic style depicts them as slightly playful and quirky musicians, while the performance aspect maintains a theme of devotion to their music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI9KXK-X2Bo&ob=av2n

Redneck - Lamb of God
Performance/Spectacle/Backstage
This video is extremely interesting in the respect that it combines three main music video genre styles seamlessly into one. Since the band is messing about in a rockstar fashion/setting up a stage and performing on it, this video technically a performance/backstage video. But because of the sheer entropy/juxtaposition of scenario and location, this gives the video a huge spectacle element. The entropy here is used to exaggerate their rockstar approach to life and capture the attention of the target audience. Although mainstream viewers would see this as ridiculous, the target audience will see this as total dedication to music and boost respect.

Gay Bar - Electric Six
Performance/Spectacle/Spoof/Sexy
Out of all videos so far, this is definitely the most entropic and bizarre. Although it includes a member performing the song with vocals and guitar through the entire video, the main element are the spoof sexual scenes. These scenes are highly entropic and although may seem for niche appeal, it will probably target a wider audience because of its comedic value. This does not display the band to be serious and brooding as most artists will want to, but shows them as extremely wacky and funny, while maintaining a devotion to music.

From this post I can conclude that the majority of modern music videos employ entropy rather than redundancy in order to capture the eye of the audience. This entropy aspect sets them apart from every day life, adding surrealism and thus interest.

Research & Planning - Restricted & Omniscient Narration

Narration is an important aspect of a story that must be considered, it is split into two sections; Restricted Narration and Omniscient Narration. Restricted narration is when the viewer has restricted knowledge of the unfolding events or characters, this is done deliberately to create a feeling of mystery for the audience with an unknown outcome. Omniscient narrative is completely the opposite, this is where the audience is not bound to a single character or story line as the camera reveals elements which may not have voluntarily wished to. This makes the audience expect and wait for something, although the suspense of time is maintained.

Gives You Hell by The All American Rejects employs Omniscient narration, since we see both sides of the story and all the characters relevant actions. This is displayed via cutting from scenes of one household to the other in parallel action. As the audience witnesses the households acts of revenge, a story line builds up and we, the audience expect to see a form of confrontation finale. Although this video allows us to see everything we expect, the ending scene of swapping houses, wives and overall lives shocks the viewer as this was not expected (since no character expected this to happen either). This shows that shock elements are still possible within an omniscient narration as well as a restricted narration.

Research & Planning - Music Video & Narrative; Claude Levi-Strauss

Claude Levi-Strauss argued that story narrative is motivated through rivalry between binary opposites. One of these we, the target audience, are supposed to identify with and view as the right side, whereas the other side we should view as the villain.

This All American Rejects music video, "Gives You Hell" is a perfect example for Claude Levi-Strauss's theory as it clearly displays rivalry between two clearly opposite people. On one side there is a rather smart, posh man who lives in a very sugary life displaying the audiences perception of mainstream life. On the other side we have a rougher looking musician who represents the target audience, we immediately identify with this man and his household as it suits the genre of music and appeals to the genres audience. This video can be taken metaphorically to represent the push fight between youth and rebellion v.s. adults and establishment. By the end of the video though, the two men have swapped households, wives, and in effect lives. This creates an interesting scenario as the man who we initially identified as a form of enemy, becomes the accepted role for the target audience. This slightly unclear conclusion makes the video story challenging, showing this could be aimed at a less mainstream audience.

Research & Planning - Music Video & Narrative; Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp suggested that story lines are motivated by various character roles and functions. These Character roles consist of; The hero who is the centre of the story and will try and seek something, this person can either be a likely person who will be either stereotypically muscular and handsome, or a slight outcast who becomes the hero to earn their place in society. The hero is usually a male role, although it is possible to challenge this and use a female. The "princess" character function is the motivation for the hero to complete his challenge, the princess is usually a female although once again it is possible to be a man. The villain in the story is someone or something which will obstruct the hero, this prolongs the story adding interest and suggesting there will be a climax. A helper is a character who aids the hero along their path. This person may be aiding in heroic actions but is usually not considered as heroic as the main character. Finally there is a sender, this is a character who will send the hero on a quest, or perhaps send the villain to prevent the hero. This double role is also applicable to other characters such as the helper, who may help the villain. All together these roles help create a deeper and more interesting story line.

In this video for "Gives You Hell" by The All American Rejects, there are two houses. One contains a very smart man and his wife, the other contains a rougher looking rocker man with his girlfriend. These two houses rival each-other and therefore each man is a hero, as well as each-others villain. This creates an interesting story, since it depends upon whos' side you view the story from. The helper in this story is also, ironically the opposite man's wife, as in both households the wife opposes their man's form of revenge and seems to side more with their neighbour. This poses them as both the helper and the princess for either man. This unusual twist concludes with each man swapping lives/wife's, therefore each man conquers his quest, and receives his "princess".

Research & Planning - Music Video & Narative - Todorov

Torodov claimed that stories in general will follow a structure of five stages: The Equilibrium, which stands for the natural/accepted balance of life. The Disruption/Disequilibrium, which is where the equilibrium is challenged. The Recognition is where this disruption is recognised followed by the reparation, which is how the disequilibrium is begun to be the norm. This is finalised with the new equilibrium, to finish the story and suggest a conclusion.

All American Rejects - Gives You Hell (Full Narrative Version)

The equilibrium in this video is portrayed through the two houses and their seemingly normal lives within their own styles of living. This is shown through the expressions of the characters, against how we would expect their lives to be like judged by their appearance/surroundings. One household is very sugary, where everything seems perfect, the other contains rougher looking young men and a girl, living a rockstar musician life. The disruption here begins with the rivalry between the two houses, as the "perfect" house goes to sleep, the "rocker" household wakes up and begins playing music. This leads to each man attempting to annoy the other one in revenge for the previous act. This is continued through the entire video until a confrontation outside their houses is held, which leads to the recognition and simultaneously the reparation. During this show-down, each man seems to realise their lives are better off the other way around. Therefore they swap houses, wives and ultimately, lives. This quickly results in the new equilibrium as we see the smart man rocking in the band, and the rougher musician cuddling up in bed. Although the target audience would firstly identify with the rougher looking musician more, and view the other smart looking man as the disruption, the perceptions are drastically changed at the end showing that some things are not quite as they seem.

Research & Planning - Goodwin & Music Videos

City & Colour - Comin' Home

This video has an atmospheric relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which illustrate misery and despair, amplifying the songs message. It does this through a saturated filter and slow motion camera movements so that the viewer feels as if the situation is drained of colour and thus drained of joy, while moving at a slow and mournful pace. The watermarked post production effects create a sense of faint memories over the musician performing, allowing the video narrative to tie in closely with the verses. The numerous close ups in this video give a feeling of personality to the artist and that perhaps the artist has great a great reference towards the lyrics. 

Less Than Jake - The Rest of My Life

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals show irony by using children to act out an adult situations compared to the relatively serious nature for the lyrics. This irony though is explained by the opening quote, turning this irony into a metaphor for life. Although the lyrics do not always have a direct correlation towards the visuals, the pace and atmosphere seems to accompany them very well. To ensure the video and music are tied together, the child actors all take turns to lip sync some lines of the song. This also makes the lyrics seem further relevant towards the scenes being displayed, strengthening the relationship between the video and audio.

Research & Planning - Music videos and Redundancy/Entropy

Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim

This music video with a redundant theme of a relatively old looking, sharply dressed man man sitting in an empty and quiet hotel. However, when the song begins playing on the radio, it catches his attention and starts to dance, this shows us that the music video is entropic due to it's unusual surroundings (alone in a hotel) and the fact it's an older looking business man doing the dancing. The entropy escalates throughout the video, especially when he begins flying through the hotel. Although once the song endeds he sits back down in his chair and the video reverts to appearing redundant.

Vermillion - Slipknot

Although many aspects of this video contain redundant themes involved in daily activity, such as waking up or walking along the street, entropy is incorporated to make the video more surreal. This surrel effect is achieved through the peculiar main character costume of an old wedding dress, and sped up effect to make the viewer feel disorientated. The disorientating effect is applied in order to compliment the musics atmosphere as well as enforce a feeling of slight confusion, sadness and passive anger.

Black Stone Cherry - Blind Man

Despite this entire video being redundant in theme, the methods of shooting/cutting and location connote a sense of entropy. This entropy inserted to the mundane video theme gives a sense of interest and excitement to the viewer, yet doesn't distract from the song itself. This style also connotes the band are dedicated to their music since it is completely focused around them, but also have an energetic approach to their music. Without this element of interest the video would be rather boring for the reader and thus would negatively reflect on the band and song.

Coffee and TV - Blur

The video begins with a redundant theme of a missing person on a milk carton, but once the milk carton comes alive entropy is suddenly applied. However, we can see the carton then attemptys to find the missing person, which could be seen as a metaphore for "its photos purpose to search for this person" which slightly restores the redundant message.

Research & Planning - First Video Production Skills Audit

Although I feel comfortable and capable with my skills in producing both print and video work, I would like to improve on all aspects in order to achieve a higher level of professionalism and quality to my work. Despite this there are 5 areas I would particularly like to learn more about;

* Animation, this would give a unique feel to my video project since few other videos incorporate it. With animation skills I would be able to reduce continuity errors, create scenes which would otherwise be impossible and not be dependant on props, weather or actors. This would be a very interesting aspect to my video, although I feel that the animation skills I would lean will not be of a high enough quality in time to be key features within my video. I would still like to learn this skill for future use, but feel I may be too unfamiliar in time for my production.

* Although I am relatively confident in video editing, further transitions, filers, effects and editing skills will be useful to me in production, since it gives a wider range of techniques to choose from. This would lead to a far more professional outcome and can make me avoid using less suitable options.

* The rules on privacy are extremely important and is something I have not encountered before. These will pose as major obstacles in my project, and therefore must know the appropriate procedures to execute. This includes using images of people and their consent, using songs and being given copyright permissions as well as using appropriate locations for filming. These are highly important aspects to consider.

* I am a creative and resourceful person, but would like to learn current tried, tested and successful techniques for make shift equipment such as a dolly and track in order to save time. Once I am familiar with these designs I can develop them to be suitable for the jobs I need. Ideally these techniques should be as smooth as possible to achieve a high outcome quality.

* Finally I want to learn about current, professional music video time scales and how they are divided/allocated to specific tasks. Even though my video production scale will be far shorter, I will be able to scale the professional plan down to fit my time span, giving me a rough idea of the times I should spend on aspects of the production. This should result in a consistent and thorough piece, leaving me with a professional product.