Planning the dance routine

We plan to have a complicated dance routine for the first 40seconds of our music video.

Some of the videos which influenced our routine were

Teaching

Research into having animals and stand out characters in videos

After deciding we were having a Panda in our video this is perfect. I'm a bit sceptical about pulling this off as I always imagined doing a lip synch but I hope this research task will broaden my horizons.



This video is very funny, and the animal in it is in the form of a puppet. What makes this video funny is the fact that the Dinosaur performs the song, when the viewers connect the lyrics to the visuals the absurdity of the video is emphasised, thus making it funnier. This means there is lots of direct address to the camera with cheeky hand gestures. Although funny, I think the whole group has in mind a full scale costume rather than a puppet.

More like the following video by Spike Jonze for a dance duo called Daft Punk. This video doesn't seem to provide the hilarity of the previous one, however it is still forcing the viewer to ask questions which in turn keeps them engaged in the video.





One of the things I notice about this video is they way that it's been filmed, in a way where we feel as if we are there with the Dog.There are a range of shots from ECU to E wide shots which reflect the variety of things we could focus on if we there. It sort of throws the audience into the action and engages them.

Another aspect of this video is more misecene. The boombox that he carries is really effective as again it involves the viewer and makes us feel like we are there with him, or atleast makes us want to be there.

This video reminded me of one I was already familiar with.



The observational style is very engaging, we see the man walking from across the road and behind cars again making us feel as if it is real. This is the second time I've seen this work now twice, filming from distance and then cutting to a close up. This obeys Vanellis' theories about breaking the 30 degree rule. The man also carries a boombox and then starts dancing which is really cool and effective as it is unique and stands out. I'm tempted to look at ways we could have a Panda dancing in a similar style. This video is set in the heart of a town by the looks of things, however I forsee practicality issues with this. Therefore, I would be tempted to not to only take note of the camera style rather than setting. Although the setting is really effective I cannot see us filming in such a crowded public place.


One video that a group member alerted us to was the following:


Like the first video, it involves the animals actually addressing the camera,performing as if they are the artists. This is a strange decision in my eyes but it is impact full and would get people talking. A potential viral music video.Like the first one it features elements of the Postmodernism theory. The view have the absurd combined with the real, for instance real location and driving cars like a human would, sort of convincing the viewer that it is normal. I really like this post-modernism technique as it definitely adds another dimension to the music video.

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.

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.

One Direction Website - Interactivity

Our artist is going to be a brand new debut artist so we need to know exactly what is needed on a website for this type of artist. Therefore we researched the ways in which bands connected with their audience's through interactivity, as raising a fan base is the most important thing when you start out in the music industry.

The One Direction website is full of interactivity, exactly what you would expect from a brand new band trying to make it back.

One method of interactivity is their utilisation of social networking, which is very clear and obvious on their homepage. There are links to outlets including; Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and Youtube.

What’s more, there is the opportunity to purchase their debut single, with a direct link on the website. The link is visual, with a picture of the single artwork, showing fans what they are getting. This interactivity is in the form of advertising, making the most of their fan base and encouraging them to buy which at the end of the day funds the band’s success.

A news feed fills audiences in about the band - essential for our website 

The news feed allows fans to be constantly up to date with the band. The content rangers from competitions to from the band, offering fans the next best thing to seeing them in person. On that subject, there are other competitions to meet the band, another example of interactivity.

 Fans can subscribe to a news letter as well as buy One Direction merchandise such as T-shirts and Posters.

A shop is definitely a feature I would look to include in our website

Cultural References

When I think cultural references in music videos I think parodies or satire, one of the main elements of postmoderminsm. This video, ‘Just Lose it’ by Eminem heavily references one man from music and culture that almost his entire audience would recognise. The reference is a wholly negative and satiric one of Michael Jackson a world famous pop star. The video starts by mocking his Billie Jean music video. The costume is over the top and the dance moves are shoddy, clearly mocking the singer.

The next step of The next step of Eminem’s parody comes when Jackson sets fire to his hair. This a famous moment that audiences will recognise, that actually happened to Jackson. Emimem’s whole tactic of mocking one of pops greatest stars was always risky, as it could have upset some of his fans. However, the majority of his fans understand his humour and are used to his jokey attitudes and will appreciate these cultural references.

Although of less importance, there is a reference to Christmas and Santa in the video. The whole scene is rather comical, with poor outfits and the bad attitude of the santa. This reflects the overall parodic nature of the video.

Santa Stan

He then goes on to reference his older work, re-creating a scene from his film 8mile. Once more, this appeals to his fan base specifically, showing inter textual references can be a strong way to please existing fans.

The parodic nature continues, when we see Jackson in a bedroom with a room full of kids., referring to his accusations of molestation when Macaulay Culkin stayed at his house.

We then see the scene where Jackson’s nose falls off, again a reference to his actual life. The way it bounces around on the floor shows the Eminem is clearly mocking Jackson. referring to his accusations of molestation when Macaulay Culkin stayed at his house. 

     

Neverland



  

Anyone seen a nose?



 



Director

I have conducted this research with my idea for an indie rock band video for Kasabian's song fast fuse.
Samuel David Bayer born February 17, 1965 is an American commercial, music video and film director, and cinematographer.

Samuel Bayer

Bayer was a graduate of New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1987 with a degree in Fine Arts, he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and became a popular director during the alternative rock era. He has shot and directed videos for The Strokes, Nirvana, Hole and Green Day and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2005 and 2007.

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade ‘The Black Parade’ is a dramatic rock video. I have chosen it because it features a performance with guitars that focuses on the lead singer. Furthermore there is a black and white style, I plan to use both of these styles in the idea I have for my own music video which I picture to also be for a rock band. What’s more, Bayer inserts a narrative into the story, which begins as a dual narrative but merges into one. Like Bayer, I also see my video featuring a dual narrative. Bayer has clearly directed the lead singer to perform aggressively and towards the camera, breaking the fourth wall. The song I have in mind is quite rocky and I think that I will try to emulate these directions to my actor if my video was to be created.      

Green Day - American Iconography

The whole performance style video is again seen in ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Keep Your hands off my girl’ , there is a fast paced and choppy editing approach to the video, which reflects the fast tempo of the music. This pace is definitely one I look to recreate. What is also interesting, is that as well as the performances, there are symbols or narrative that reflect the lyrics. In ‘Black Parade’ the setting is a parade, ‘American Idiot’ has American imagery such as a flag and an abandoned warehouse, where as ‘Keep your hands off my girl’ features lots of dancing girls. All these meanings are very literal, and Bayer proves that simplistic and obvious imagery can still be effective.

My favourite video of Bayers collection has to be ‘You only live once’ by The Strokes.

The Strokes - Isolated white setting

Not only is the song brilliant but the room is almost exactly how I pictured my band performance part of the video. It sounds silly, but having not seen the video or associated the other ones with Samuel before my idea, I feel a lot of my ideas and Bayer’s work is similar. The urban setting of ‘Heart in a cage’ is exactly what I had in mind for my duel narrative, black and white and busy. One final thing that I will take away from Bayer’s work is the unusual occasions of the performance parts of music videos. Although I’ve pictured a white room/studio I feel that an unusual location could also be effective and will discuss this with my group.



Urban black and white setting of heart in a cage.



Album Covers

1) What are the typical features an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common

After analysing a few album covers, I have narrowed styles down to 3 main categories.

Photo of band – This is almost always used for debut artists, as they aim to promote themselves and make people aware of who they are.

Album artwork – more established bands often use artistic designs on their album, they are normally digitially created but can be sketched. They can do this as fans will know what they look like and the imagery is successful way of attracting attention to the band.

Creative Photography- This could feature the band or just be a photograph which represents the band or the album.

Of course it is not impossible that bands cross over and merge these categories, and there are many examples of this.

There is the conventional list which album covers comply to. These are:
- name of artist
- name of album
- One of the 3 styles mention above, or a mix of them.

BACK COVER
- track listing
-smaller filler artwork or images. These typically reflect the style of the front.
- barcode
- institutional information



2) How would you catagorise the covers in front of you? are there any ways of distinguising between then other than generically?

The albums in front of me have been created by established Indie Bands like Kasabian and Arctic monkeys. As I have previously indentified, established bands lean away from the typical basic band photographs that we see from new bands. Instead the covers are creative, eye catching and interesting, with plenty to analyse. I’ve noticed that the bands generally focus more on the music than on their own and create a cover that reflects their music. For example West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum album appears random, with a mysterious setting, strange poses and costumes that seem out of place and that do not suit the wearers.

However, this reflects the band’s unique style and the variety of their music. Conversely, I found that my old Pop C.D’s stick to stereotypedand fit into the first Category I discovered. They focus on the Singer, and feature photoshoped to perfection close ups of the artist.

I can see that they will create a connection with the listener but not appeal to niche indie audiences. The imagery sells the artist as well as the song and are designed to appeal to the masses. Established bands like Coldplay opt for even more simplistic styles, these often stick to a font which is iconic and recognisable.

3) Album covers serve many different functions, what do you think these are? (ie. what is their purpose)

The album covers ultimate purpose is to sell the artist and their music to their fans. This can be applied to all album covers, however different fans have different tastes, and that is why we see differentiation. New artists stick to convention to attract new fans and appeal to the mass market where as bands like Oasis have an established fan base with specific tastes which they must appeal; to.

Music video analysis of LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem

Dance style video!! DJ artist? Potential inspirations

1 - Instant impact!

The video certainly has an instant impact, there is a story line which is revealed through text at the beginning of the video which emphasises ‘28days later’ before folding out, which refers to a pop culture film, appealing to a wide range of audience members.

2 - Non-linear editing

At first PRA does not apply to this feature, as they are trying to build a storyline, however once the video is in full swing it follows this style of editing.

3 – Repetitions

 The dance moves are continuously repeated to help viewers learn it, as well the cross cutting between the different dances to show how the music has effected many.

4 - Strong sense of artist identity

The artist identity is strong through the costume he wears, both reflu and skyblu wear unique costumes, which make viewers appreciate their idiosyncratic nature. These include tight fitting trousers in a unorthodox leopard print style.  

5 - A Performance

‘The shuffle’ is a dance routine which is the main performance in this video, it is a very fashionable dance move which viewers are very keen to be able to perform. The routine went viral and references to it in the song helped it be effective.

6 - Visual Pleasures

The cool costumes, the accessories as well as the shiney tight fitting trousers. Good looking characters are used.

7 - Wow Factor!

The wow factor undoubtedly comes from the dancing in this film, there are exciting dance moves performed by professional dancers that make the video exciting and entertaining to watch.

8 - Provoke a reaction

The video provokes a reaction for the right reasons, not for controversy. The dance routine and pop references encourage people to talk about the video and share it, as well as making videos such as ‘how to shuffle’ which further exposes the video to the audiences.

9 - Works on different levels

This video works very much on different levels. It features references that would only be recognised by true fans of the band such as the dancing gold Robot that is in every LMFAO video. New fans may not recognise this level of reference, however they would recognise the wider references such as the dancing Jesus or the relation to 28days later.

10. Pop culture

References to films, as well as well known characters such as Jesus. The female characters wears a union jack, which may relate to the royal wedding which took place around the time of the video’s release.