CAROL VERNALLIS

Music videos break down visual, lyrical and musical elements to the smallest constituent parts - a prop, a colour, a gesture, a few words, an intriguing riff" - Carol Vernallis (2001)

Vernallis' theory is based around 4 ideas

Narrative
Editing
Camera Movement and Framing
Diegesis


Narrative
Whatever is on screen must reflect the meaning of the song/lyrics, thus creating a narrative. However she says the narrative doesn't necessarily have to be complete and it can be disconnected or appear in fragments.

Editing
Music videos do not have to follow a conventional style of editing, so they can break rules. It's acceptable for the editing to be noticeable, however it might only be found in niche music videos. This can be achieved by the following:

Cutting to the beat
Jump cuts
Breaking the 30 degree rule
Dramatic changes in pace
Juxtaposed frames

Camera Movements and Framing
If there was an instrument in a song that might go unheard if not pointed out, there could be a close up of it being used to draw attention to it. Another example would be, rapid camera movements when there is an extreme change in the song's pace.


Diegesis
Drawing attention of specific shots with fragmentation by using less relevant shots woven in. These less relevant shots will also sometimes be unfinished which will not really develop the plot in any way. Due to this, Carol Vernallis states that the diegesis of the music video will be drawn out quite slowly.


Sources:
- VERNALLIS, 2001
- The Kindest Cut: The Functions and Meanings of Music Video Editing

ANDREW GOODWIN

Andrew goodwins 5 aspects of music videos.

Thought Beats - Seeing the Sound
Narrative and Performance
Star Image
Relation of Visuals to Song
Technical Aspects


Though Beats - Seeing the Sound

Step 1 - Looking at the structure of the song, separating it into verses and chorus
Step 2 - The artist's voice. The trademark to the video and the song. Easily recognisable and helps with brand identity and star image.
Step 3 - The story the artist is trying to tell is complimented by the music video.


Narrative and Performance

Goodwin believes it is important for an artist to be in their own music video. He thinks it gives the viewer a better understanding of the song, as they know who's perspective it's coming from. A good example of this would be Foo Fighters - Run. The whole band features in the narrative and the lead singer is Dave grohl, the frontman. The anarchist themes fit in with the angry lyrics and rock n roll genre.






3. Star Image
When the the artist of the song is featured in the music video, they will be positioned in a way to make them unique from the others. This can be done though costumes, framing or lighting, in association with the music.

The Shoes 'Submarine' does this by making everyone but the artist have skin over their eyes and mouth.









4. Relation of Visuals to Song

A music videos' visuals must share similarities with the song, or show direct contrast. An example of this would be 'Warning' by Green Day. the character in the song goes through a police tape while a raid is happening just as the lead singer says "oh crap a police line, better not cross".





5. Technical Aspects
Godwin said that technical aspects help hold a music video together through mise-en-scene, camera shots / movement, editing, and sound. A great example of this is 'The music scene' by Blockhead.
Everything moves as the music does.

EVALUATION OF SURVEY

I should have included a larger variety of answers here.







These answers are far too specific, and there are not enough of them, however, this is fixed slightly by including 'other' as an option.




I should have been more specific, maybe including 30 seconds between the numbers.




This didn't really have a bearing on the music video so i could have left it out.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Hartshill Hayes is a public area so we had to abide by the safety regulations in the PDF's Paula sent us. Those in the video had to sign consent forms show below. This was to avoid legal action. We were also informed that normally we would have to provide a fee of £60 an hour for filming promotional footage on this land, but we were exempt since we are students and we were doing work for the council. 

Filming had to take place on sunny days to get the best possible footage. The downside to this is that there were more people in the Hayes at these times. We had to make sure we were not causing obstructions with our equipment, while also making sure we were not in remote enough places to have our equipment stolen. We worked around this well as we had three members in the team, so we always had one person with the equipment at any given time.

The Tamron lens is very large, we had to be careful with this, as without proper support it can break. We had to always have someone holding on to the large end of the lens, and also make sure the tripod was always secure.

TESTING FRAMES

ROUGH DRAFT

 

NEW VIDEO

Finley and Joseph;
-battle royale
-famous music video/film scenes
-finley is a crime boss

Possible songs;
-heads will roll

Crime boss idea;
-Fin is sat at the end of the garden with his two bitches
-Joseph drags conner up to him with bag on his head

drawing idea
-go over PROPFILM in after effects

STARTING AGAIN

First attempt was a complete disaster with most of the props now being useless, and the actors not being available again, so won't be able to try again.

FINAL SCENE WRITTEN UP

woken up, he’s in bed he sees lights

Hiding in doorway

police at door

focus on ARRONS face so you know it’s now from his perspective, and they’re nodding to the music and knocking the door to the music

then he runs to get the bag and then runs down the garden with a lighter and paper

tracking shot of in front of arron as he goes through house, you see the police come in behind him in same shot, and he leaves the shot

then shot of arrons face looking behind him then perspective shot of the police dancing towards him then another shot of his face

some cool shots of the dog freaking out too

arron runs down the garden, the same thing again where he turns and sees them dancing towards him

could do a shot from the dogs perspective where he can see the police actually running after him

he quickly tries to burn everything, then out of the corner of his eye he sees the dirt mound moving rhythmically

walks towards it, low angle, eyes pop out from ground close up, arrows eyes close up, policewoman shouting close up then quick squibs shot mid shot, merges into just dancing with the police.

FILM PLAN WRITTEN UP

00:02
11 static shot opportunities.

00:26 - 01:38
Weird crinkly shimmer noise.
Maybe a smooth one shot going through house to the garden.

01:38 - 02:07
Beat comes in, rhythmic digging.

02:07
Stops digging and moves away from mound, panting and wiping face covered in mud.
Face is dark with all the back lighting.

02:22
Bass comes in - he turns, shot from behind as he faces the camera, and he's in the light so you can see his face.
One shot, smooth, going up to the house.

Then that cool cinematic pan down thing.
Then a shot from inside the house on the floor by the door, lights off inside, you can only see the dog come in then you see his feet and he closes the door.
Then a shot from outside where you can see in the kitchen window

DATES

THURSDAY 06:30 - 10:00
-police coming in
-arron hiding
-arron burning everything
-final dance sequence

FRIDAY 05:00 - 09:00
-arron around house in various positions looking anxious
-arron leaving for work then coming back in
-mopey shots of jackson
-dream sequence of end of garden getting closer
-initial digging scene

SQUIB ATTEMPTS

Failure

Success

EFFECTS TO TRY

-Removing frames for fast scenes like in Mad Max
-Strobe lighting effects
-A DIY shoulder rig


-

FIRST TRY IN GARDEN FOR FIRST SCENE

ok from Willow Collins on Vimeo.

1. Needs more variations in shots for first sequence
2. Arron would be more frantic and exhausted and hunched over, mouth open
3. When he turns around, have it really zoomed in and not in focus, then focus and zoom out
4. Find a way to effectively do slow mo on certain scenes without sacrificing quality
5. When he turns around, try getting the shots as static as possible while still moving backwards

CASSAN DROPPED OUT

ANALYZING SURVEY RESULTS

To be fair i didn't include a very wide range of types of music videos, i did this as these are the types i'm capable of achieving to a good standard. I'm glad the most popular choices were experimental/nonsense and narrative, as my initial ideas match this perfectly.



This is also a great response as i had no intention of doing this, and i agree that it doesn't matter, despite the theories of andrew goodwin.




Supernatural themes won by a long shot here, however i feel as though paranormal music videos are slightly overplayed, i'm glad i'll be doing a spin on this to downplay the supernatural aspects.




The average length was 4 minutes. The song i'm using is around 6 minutes so i can easily cut this down.



This was spread out evenly between all submissions. I therefore choose to ignore these results and do the song i was going to do anyway.

EBAY UPDATE

GOT ACTORS!

Cassan

Molly

Arron

PROPS ORDERED AND ON THEIR WAY

These items are for the two squibs, and the uniform for the two police officers.

I went to a charity shop to get two white t-shirts and some jogging bottoms.
This is so that the main actor can get covered in blood in the first and last scene without worrying about ruining his clothes.

The t-shirt i've arranged for him to wear at the end is a mental health awareness t-shirt with a bit of blood already on it so thats really good.

FIRST HALF OF SONG MAPPED OUT

MOODBOARD OF SHOTS FOR MUSIC VIDEO

1. Lighting through dirty windows, one point of lighting in frame, large contrasts.
2. Close up chiaroscuro
3. Back lighting with fire
4. Rain from one side, large lighting contrasts
5. Shots of hands from dream sequence
6. Blurry long shots
7. Running around house, dark, tint
8. Dirty, shot of just mouth, panicking
9. Low shots behind people walking
10. Sudden arranged dance sequences

IDEA FOR MUSIC VIDEO

This song is 10 minutes so i'm going to cut it down to about 4.

Static/pans of a mess, just random things lying around

suddenly it’s him digging a hole and burying something at night time

loads of shots of him becoming obsessive over the thing in the garden, dream sequences of the end of the garden getting closer and closer to the house

police come and he hides, then kills them and burns them he’s happy about it now though, sets fire to stuff in the garden and dances around

ends with dance sequence putting each shoulder back and forth, swaps every other shot with him actually getting shot

MUSIC VIDEO SURVEY

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DFQWNLH

02/04/17 AMENDED VIDEO

FinalHartshill from Willow Collins on Vimeo.

CLIENTS RESPONSE TO VIDEO

FINAL VIDEO

29/03/17 EVALUATION

We chose Hartshill hayes country park for our promotional video as we know it well. It took a while to contact our client, we went through many different departments and used both phone and email. Maintaining contact with the team in charge of the hayes was difficult as they are also in charge of other country parks in the area.

We assigned each person in our group a different role for organisational purposes. I was in charge of editing. This included music, sound, and video. Abbie was cinematography/photography, and conner was directing. We all took part in communications.

Our first shot did not go well as we discovered there was a part missing on our tripod. This ended up working out quite well in the end as it forced us to get many handheld pan/tilt/ and tracking shots that we may not have taken before. Luckily it was only environment shots so we didn't require the tripod for an interview.

Time management was very important as we had to cater to the whole team, as well as the weather, and the constraints around renting equipment from college. When it came to interviews it was even harder. We tackled this by organising the interviews very far in advance, and setting up replacement days so as to ensure the shoot happens regardless of weather. Many of our interviews ended up containing too much information due to the amount of time we had set aside for them. This helped us, as we then had loads of footage to choose from when it came to editing.

We chose to first interview my grandma as we all knew her, and so we were comfortable that if something went wrong, she would be patient and understanding. This interview went well and it got us used to it quickly. Our third interview was with the countryside ranger, Mike Labram. We eventually set up the camera only to have it stop working due to a faulty SD card. Luckily, we had a spare camera, so we set up and made do. If we were to do it again, I would have abbie go over the equipment I brought so she could see in advance that the SD card was not compatible, as I have less experience with cameras than her.

Because of the camera constantly turning off and on again, the footage was fragmented and nearly unusable. Luckily, the sound had continued recording, so I managed to keep the sound going in the footage and insert various shots of the woods where the video was missing.

The hardest part of the video was editing. Because we used many different cameras and SD cards, once we uploaded all the footage to one computer, it was very hard to keep track of all the shots. We had over 4 hours of footage, that meant sifting through random folders in order to find one shot. Many technical issues also lead to the project not saving properly, this meant that we would open the project one day to find that some of the shots were missing, and we had to go through the computer finding them, then re-uploading them only to discover the mac isn't uploading all the footage we want.

If we were to do this again, we should buy two large SD cards, keep all the footage on them, and label each folder of footage so that it doesn't happen again. I would also like to make sure all the cameras had the same settings, as we often had to touch up shots to make them the same saturation/hue etc. A series of drone shots would also be useful for a project such as this.

Despite these issues I feel the promotional video went really well considering we had no idea how big the project was going to end up.

FINAL VIDEO

Film Studies - Lacan from Conner Merry on Vimeo.

Lorn - Acid Rain

Daylight/Bad dreams/It's a cool world/With cruel things
Hang tight/All you/Nothing like a big bad bridge to go burning through

The lyrics suggest suicidal themes, phrases such as "Hang tight" and "Bridge to go burning through", this suggests these themes are attached to the main female who is the focus of the video, this suggests that the main girl could have committed suicide, bringing her fellow cheerleaders with her. This is emphasised by the fact that she features in a 4 second clip at the end alone, her wounds are more visible and her sad expression can be seen, perhaps guilt?

The girls all dance in a very jagged, jerky motion, as if to show their bones breaking, or being twisted into unnatural positions. This represents the fact that they were all in the car crash together before you even see the final shot of them together. They also all leave the diner through different ways, with only the main girl leaving through the 'EXIT' sign. This suggests that perhaps she was the only one who died.

The iconography and mise en scene of the environment and the car suggests the era could be somewhere around the 60's. The diner and the car are very old fashioned, classic american iconography, however it cannot be earlier than the 60's as 'Little Tree' air fresheners were made in 55.

The reasoning behind the suicidal themes could relate to the era, for instance, the main female is seen twice clutching at her stomach. Not that this isn't abnormal since she was in a car accident, but she is also doing it in the slow zoom in front of the pool; attention is drawn to it since she stands so still and stares directly at the camera. This may suggest that she was perhaps pregnant, and unsure of what to do about it, as in the 60's abortion was a highly taboo topic, and being a single mother was almost impossible to do.

The fact that she is black may also be a reason she was drawn to suicide; the artist Lorn, has described in the past that he had been a victim of racism, so he may have deliberately cast an ethnic minority (for that time) to illustrate this issue.

Talking Heads - Once in a lifetime

The video consists of variations between a white background and a CGI water-y background, both of which feature David Byrne dancing with various close ups and strange angles, including him lying on the ground, or sliding, giving the impression of a backstroke.

When you first watch the video it appears as though it's just nonsense, but the lyrics actually coincide with the dancing. Brian Eno describes the lyrics as the "call and response" style of preaching commonly associated with American evangelists on the theme of "moving through life with little awareness or questioning". The repetition of lines such as "and you may find yourself..." is an example of a line they took straight off an evangelical radio broadcast. "Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down" is another Evangelistic, existential, and accepting lyric, which associates with the idea that those who give themselves to the church are supposedly giving their life away, and preventing themselves from growing as people.

These lyrics which associate those who subscribe to religion and social expectations ("a beautiful house/and a beautiful wife") with an empty and wasted life, coincide with the marionette style dancing. Byrne jerks and flings his arms around, not quite in time with the music. This suggests that those he talks about are manipulated and used, much like a puppet. The snippets of tribal dancing and rituals further accentuate the idea that he's referring to a mass accepted ideology such as religion.

Sigur Rós - Viðrar vel til loftárása

The song is set in 1950’s Iceland and features a man throwing his sons toy dolls into the ocean, and a boy returning them to him. There is then a football match between two teams of 10 - 13 year olds. The match ends with the two boys kissing and adults tearing them apart. The overall message is the reaction to homosexuality in the 50’s, and is amongst NME’s ‘most controversial videos’.


The setting is very simple and clear, surroundings feature high valleys and mountains, with bleak weather and bland, uncomplicated scenery. I feel that the white skies and damp environment reflects the overall mood of the video; Bleak and melancholy. The Swedish countryside is an excellent basis for a video with such a strong narrative, as it’s almost like a blank canvas leaving room for the story. Slow motion is used the whole way through on every shot, at least 50% speed - This effect is brilliant as it not only goes with the slow pace of the song, but it emphasises every facial expression and emotion, and portrays the narrative in very few shots.

 The iconic subjects in the video is the toy dolls the boy is playing with at the start, the Bible, and the contrast of innocence. The dolls flying through the air and the second boy looking over his shoulder represent the power the two boys have in their world, and how everything happens around them with no control of their own. The Bible is dropped on the floor as the fathers pull the boys away from each other, symbolising the false understanding of the text, and failure to live up to true christian expectations/or how their faith was The contrast of innocence consists of the pale 1st boy, with his white hair and clean clothes, and his father with yellowed crooked teeth and dirty wrinkled face.

In the scene where the two are kissing in the middle of the playing field, the music becomes climactic and orchestral, and we straight cut to flashbacks of the two boys playing together and hugging.

UNIT 2 RESEARCH TECHNIQUES UNIT 36 MUSIC VIDEO

INITIAL TASK ANALYSING MUSIC VIDEOS

Andrew goodwin
codes and conventions "dancing in the distraction facotry"

continuity doesn't exist like in film

actions v
compliment contradict or amplify

lyrics and visuals
-illustrate
-amplify
-contradict
-cutting visuals in time to music


genre exists in music videos
-stadium performances
-studio performance
-location
-narrative
-conceptual/experimental


artist close-up
-artistic branding
-celebrity culture
-artistic portayal
-implications on looking good

because of record companies
artists develop motifs


Looking and voyeurism
-nudity/near nudity/revealing clothes
-exhibitionism
-an intimate location like a bedroom
-frame within a frame

usually male gaze appeals to men as well as women in music videos
being able to zoom into a drummer
it's seeing things you wouldn't see


intertextuality
-taking things from other texts or iconography
-other music videos
-fims
-tv programmes


intertextuality


-thought beats - where do you see the sound
-narrative and performance
-the star image
-relation of visuals to the song
-technical aspects of music video

1. to look at the music itself we must take into account the structure of the song

2. the voice is expressive

3. artist is the storyteller, there needs to be sincerity

songs fail to give us the complete narrative
only get a gist of the meaning of the song then make up out own idea of whats being told
goldwyn that explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. artist as both narrator and participants helps to increase authenticity. features and easter eggs for people at all times so people watch repeatedly.

meta narrative with the star image

technical aspect

28/03/17 IMAGES FROM WOODLAND FESTIVAL

27/03/17 COMPILING INTERVIEWS AND MAKING A LIST OF THINGS TO DO

Heres a screenshot from the email from paula cheeseman where she lists what we need to do  in the video, we ticked off the things we included as we went along.

22/03/17 EDITING THE AUDIO FROM THE INTERVIEWS