Video Diary 2

I talk about the pitch and feedback received after it.

Dancing Inspired videos

After todays feedback we know for certain that are music video is going to feature a dance routine

This video is from 2002 and features just one main dancer who is occasionally supported by backing dancers. The routine, however is very complex and specific to the pop genre.


We like the idea of a big group dance going on, almost like a flash mob. The Cha Cha Slide by DJ casper is a grear example of this but obviously the video would have required lots of time and planning which we do not have. Although we like the idea of this as it is a massive performance revolving around just one artist/main performer; DJ Casper. Naturally this would be our Panda.



Party Rock by LMFAO is another great example of an alternative to a flash mob. The idea is that everybody is having a good time and dancing and we can take alot of inspiration from this video. Furthmore, our artist identity is a about a dj duo, so we can take influence from LMFAO.

Video Diary 1

 Here is the first of my Video Diary entries.

UPDATE

We are no longer doing fast fuse by Kasabian. After teacher feedback we agreed that the idea wasn't interesting enough and too typical of the Indie genre. We felt that the song is too restricted to its genre and my idea didn't help it is escape that. Our other idea, conjured by Narsishma although a brilliant concept was not suited to our strengths as we did not know a black lead singer.

Her idea is shown below

So back to square one on friday, less than a week before our pitch. Needless to say, this wasn't the position we wanted to be in, However between our group we spent 7periods of our 8 period day plus lunchtime brainstorming and talking to teachers about potential ideas.

Then with the help of the teachers, we saw the light, we all agreed that we just wanted to do something fun that we would enjoy, prompting miss to suggest 'do the absurd'. We'd seen a funny video in a lesson the previous day so I was quite open about doing a humorous video. Heres a diary of how Fridays crazy day went.

Aidan

• Periods 1 - Mrs Blackborow calls me and Alex in to suggest not doing Fast Fuse. Initially we are quite worried as we quickly figured that we had less than a week to think of an idea and pitch it.
• She suggests that we feature humour in our video, urging us to contemplate using my younger brother who everyone finds hilarious on camera.
• This developed into a video of Aidan (my brother) coming of age and transforming into me, however, I felt that after having trouble with my previous narrative based idea, I'd rather go all out funny, 
• I then suggested Aidan dancing, and drawing a crowd, as he brings humor to a screen, inspired by this Pendulum video.
  
• This somehow transformed into the idea of him dancing with Animals, to emphasise the absurd
  
  

Period 2- A hungry Alex and myself decide to go grab some breakfast in hope it helped us discover inspiration...

Period 3 - We come back to the media block to find a frenzy of excitement has erupted over our animal costume idea, however, in this period it transforms once more into a dance off between animals, performed by animals dressed in costumes.

Period 4-5 Narishma and Jess are made aware of the idea as they had lessons period 1,2,3 and work on developing it.

Lunch - We all agree on the idea that there is a dance off between animals, which develops into a routine which they embrase in together. This then turns into a flash mob, with dozens of people joining in. Everyone in our media block is buzzing about the idea and beg us to be in the video!

Period 7-8 As a group we sit down as a 4 and try to complete a concept for our video. Coming up with the idea of a dance off between a Panda and a Monkey, after the Panda rolls up with a Ghetto blaster and dances infront of the monkey. For the first minute of the video, the two have a dance off.
This develops into a performance by both the Monkey and the Panda. Passers by then start to watch and join in with the pair, thus forming a Flash Mob!!

Our notes from the meeting

Wow a flash mob, it was my dream idea for this project when it wasn't serious last year but I presumed it would always be too complicated to do. I'm so excited for the idea and nervous! Pressures on, I know we can pull this off.

Fast fuse inspirations

My initial idea was for a song called ‘Fast Fuse’ by a band called Kasabian. My idea consisted of a dual narrative, cross cutting between a band performing the song in an isolated enclosed setting and a journey of a male, potentially the lead singer travelling through urban streets reflecting a cocky and aggressive attitude.  This would be done by him bumping into people, knocking bins over, walking over a car and smashing stuff. However I then thought that this theme may be a bit inappropriate considering the recent riots, as well as difficult to shoot.

The song it’s self was is very fast paced, with instrumentals that offer a variation to the overall pace of the song, which works well with the aggressive lyrics.  I thought of the idea in the very early stages of planning and pitched it to be group who all liked the idea but helped me realise that the theme may be a bit inappropriate considering the recent riots, as well as difficult to shoot because of the extra vigilance for anti rioting.

Another group member, Alex decided he liked my idea of dual narrative with a male rock band  and seeing as my original idea had its flaws exposed though up a stronger concept with time codes. This reflected by original idea, in a more toned down way but I thought that I would still like to add my own touch to the idea. I therefore came up with a more solid and suitable concept which was also dual narrative.

The video would be half performance, half narrative based in a typical indie style.

The performance would feature a band, in a completely white room in an enclosed space with a black and white effect. The editing would be fast and choppy, reflecting the pace of the song.

The Strokes - Isolated white setting similar to our band

This would intercut with the a narrative between a boy and a girl, both of whom would be quite rebellious and individual characters, quite typical of the indie genre. The video would start with the boy and the girl waking up and travelling to a street corner where they bump into each other, coinciding with the slow start to the song.  The two characters movements would be in synch, using graphic matching and match on action to show how the two are connected.

Our two characters would be similar to Avril Lavigne (Right) and Chris from Skins (Left), both cocky and individual characters.

The pace of the song then gets faster and the narrative adopts an almost love story. The boy bumps into the girl who reacts badly, however the boy sees this a flirtatious move and telling the girl to ‘come get me’. She hesitates before following him, the boy then climbs onto a car and almost performs to the girl on top of it, trying to impress her with his cocky attitude. Holding his hand out to the girl on the line ‘It don't matter give me one, two, three’. The girl hesitates before running ahead of the boy, urging him to now follow her, she takes over the lipsynching singing ‘I’ve no time to love’. Here we see a role reversal with the girl now the dominant role, the whole video is somewhat inspired by ‘One that I want’ from the 70s music Greece, where we see two lovers taunting with each other.

The rest of the video would show the couple running around streets together, doing quite controversial activities, as illegal as we can practically do and within the rules.  The video would develop to a point where the couple are split, the male sings the line ‘How dare you’ to a man, who is perhaps the reason for the split. The girl could perhaps have been run over or attacked and the male is addressing the criminal. Throughout the narrative we would be cutting back to the band performing the song in their enclosed white space. 

Gender Representation

As part of my research. i analysed gender representation in music videos. I wanted to focus on women, and concluded that woman are either objectified or presented as empowering. We do not want our female DJ to be sexualised as the idea is that it is all about the artist.

Gender representation

Feminist/maneater

Rihanna – S and M

In this video Rihanna, takes the dominant role, displaying an ‘I’m hot and I know it’ attitude, this is all despite the sexual nature of the video, does not objectify her. Instead it is Rihanna, responding to critic’s reactions that she may be objectify herself and being over sexual in her presentation, in order to sell records,

Riahanna is the dominating and role and powerful from her sexuality

The scene of her being interviewed by the press is representative of critics reactions to her over suggestive sexual nature; this video is her response- she disregards the suggested ‘reasons’ for her attitude (‘daddy issues’), and puts it down to simple enjoyment of sex and liking being in a position of power. She is saying she enjoys her body and her looks, and is happy to show it off. This video; while easily misinterpreted as simply selling sex, is actually very empowering to females.

Riahanna like most female artists is sexualised. Goodwin's theory of looking can be applied here as there is clearly a voyeuristic treatment of the female body.  With our artist we would certainly look to break this convention. If she were to feature in her video it would be in a cool way that only shows off her natural beauty. 

Fergie – Fergalicious

This video can be interpreted in conflicting ways. One way is that she is conforming to the gender stereotype of women being nothing more than sex objects. She lies around in skimpy outfits looking hot, and the video is not much more than that. This could be seen as demeaning to women; suggesting their looks are their most valued trait; or could be seen as empowering to women; in that Fergie enjoys her looks and enjoys the attention she gets from all these guys. 

Fergie uses her sexuality to control men and make them buy her gifts

Objectifying

Akon - I wanna Love you

This video is the most obvious objectifying of women that you will see in music videos. The woman are all dressed the same, showing how they have no individual personality. Akon and Snoop Dogg appear to ignore the women, pretending they aren't even there and taking no notice of the attention they are receiving.

No individualality

Pitbull - I know you wan't me

This video is similar to the Akon one, focussing on the women and presenting them in a sexual manor. Once again, they have no personalities and are baring lots of flesh.

Objectifying Woman

Positive Portrayal - Ellie Goulding

Here is a female artist that goes against Goodwin's theory of Voyeuristic presentations. Goulding's body is not focussed on, instead there are CUs of her face and wide shots of her having fun. This videos slow editing style also conveys a sense of innocence, contrasting the above vidoes with their fast cutting which may connote that the women in their video have no control. Although perhaps not through cutting, if Absynth is to feature in her videos I would want to emulate Goulding's innocent style yet still maintain the cool and trendy DJ image. Perhaps it would therefore be best to focus more on the image rather than how it is created as the two genres are fairly contrasting.