Greyscales and effects to signify the past and
the present.
The narrative is an old man
wandering around a seaside town. He is reminiscing back to the time when he and
his lover wandered around the same town when he was much younger.
Gold Snafu features a 3 minute intro to create a
setting and some context for the narrative during the actual song. We could do
this too but on a much smaller scale, maybe for a few seconds before and after
a song to give some context or closure to our narrative.
Throughout the song the visuals reflect the tone
of the music. For example during the chorus when the piano high notes come in,
the main character looks at the girl he’s infatuated with. This leads onto a
rebellious act of throwing papers at 4:26 when the music becomes more powerful.
Sticky Fingers add in additional sound effects
like the car screeching and the cricket playing on TV during the song too. To
an extent we could try and use this technique too.
The continuous, comedic narrative is a style we
could try to emulate as it doesn’t rely on a fast cutting rate or high
production costs.
SHAME is a relatively minimalist music video. It
features 1 actor, 2 locations, a jacket as a prop and blood as prosthetics. The
rest is acting, dancing and interesting cuts.
They show the name of the song in bold white
writing in the first 3 seconds of the song. This and the way they cut to a
black screen with the lyrics on to emphasize certain phrases like ‘is all you
cunts can hold onto’ and ‘just got deadly’ I think is an innovative way to make
a low budget production interesting and I think we should definitely use this
technique in our production.
·A boy (character A) around our age or early 20s is
acting as some sort of guardian angel for a character of the opposite sex of
the same age (character B). Character A anonymously does things to help character
B e.g. moving things B was about to trip over, places B’s car keys in B’s
jacket pocket.
·Character B is sad.
·An important scene would be where character B is
crying for an unknown reason (possibly sitting on the edge of a bed), she needs
a new tissue to cry into so she reaches next to her (without actually looking)
to grab another tissue however the box is actually a few inches away from where
her hand is. Character A gently pushes the box into where her hand is so that
she finds the tissues. The importance here is that in the first half of the
song the audience can see something has happened that has made B upset,
mournful even, and that character A is doing little things to look after her.
·At no point does character B acknowledge A or show any
signs of gratitude towards A. This seems slightly odd, but also entirely
plausible.
·Throughout the song, there are cuts to a time when
character A and B were very close; they cuddled, made each other laugh and were
happy. A greyscale would be put into the present day scenes to show the contrast
between the past and present.
·Character A helps character B become less of a
recluse. He does this by giving her opportunities and motivation to go out with
friends e.g. leaving her phone on the table, her friend’s number open on
screen. B looks at it, slightly confused, but decides to ring the contact on
the phone. The friend comes over and they sit together, B being comforted. A
meanwhile watches from a distance, possibly from the doorway.
·Around the 2 minute mark where the music starts to
build, we see character B shyly walking into a house which seems to be the
location of a small gathering of friends for drinks and conversation.
·From 2:12-2:39 character B is smiling and laughing
while chatting with friends in the house over drinks. The cutting rate
increases. The shots of character A and B in the past are increasing as well.
·At 2:40 character B is going out to different places
with friends & is seeming generally happier. The shots of character A and B
in the past are increasing as well.
·Character A is becoming less involved in character B’s
life, viewing from further away distances as though his work is almost done.
At 3:02 as the music starts to slow and fade, sounds
of the world and birds tweeting slowly fade in, we see character B walking with
some flowers through a cemetery (location – Highgate cemetery – London). She
walks to a grave (we need to find one of a boy aged around 20 – same age as
character A) and places the flowers down, not crying but looking thoughtful and
solemn. Character A is a few meters behind her, observing her and his own grave.
He shows a faint smile in an expression of fulfilment and completion and walks
away. She clearly senses something and turns around, looking through the
cemetery only to see no one.
·
The video ends after the music ends, with the birds tweeting and
character B looking behind her at a longshot, signifying that character A’s
work is done and has finally departed from limbo.
Or it could end after this with another cut to a
fading shot of A and B smiling in a moment of intimacy with the sunset between
them like the photo to the right.
‘Cut to Black’ Lemaitre – 2013 (It only has a music video
for the first 10 seconds)
·Ignoring the lyrics, there are many narratives
that could be applied to the varying tempo of this song.
·The most likely narrative that could be used
would be one encompassing sun, youth and fun.
·The close yet light-hearted relationship between
a boy and a girl is an option. The boy has feelings for her but the girl only
starts to feel the same way towards the end of the song.
·Another option is a pair of friends (or a bonnie
and Clyde style duo) going round raiding various shops and committing petty
burgles. Years of this would go by before one of them is killed in the act. The
other one prepares a final heist/ burglary before being killed himself (cut to
black). This could be acted out by young kids as they rob various teddy bear
picnics found in fields etc before they drive away with a sack full of plastic
cutlery and sandwiches in a bonny and Clyde fashion.
·The video could show a couple having a fight and
breaking up with no music at the start. Just a girl storming out of a guy’s
house, turning around and screaming ‘I hate you!’ Only to have the music start
a couple of seconds later. This is not a heartbreak, just a light-hearted
breakup, almost comedic.
·The rest of the video would be about how each of
them deals with the breakup individually.
·At 00:08 there could be a splitscreen with the
guy looking messy and hungover still in bed whereas the the girl steps out of
her house in running gear, checks her watch and runs swiftly out of frame. The
splitscreen continues, showing the guy clumsily fall out of bed after a few
seconds.
·Multiple other splitscreens throughout.
·Overall very different events conspire, showing
different attitudes towards the breakup.
·Towards the end we see similarities in their
idiosyncrasies and slowly we can tell they start to miss each other. As the
music fades towards the end they see each other on a street (or something) and
they stop and stare, hinting at a get together but leaving it ambiguous.
How
do music videos contribute to an artist’s metanarrative (Image style)?
·For this comparison I’m looking at the music
video for the mainstream, indie pop act MisterWives’ ‘Reflections’ against the
intimate hip hop group, Young Fathers’ ‘SHAME’.
·
I’ll start by looking
at how the music videos conform to Goodwin’s theory. His theory was that all
(mainstream) music videos abide by a set of rules.
· Reflections is a track that intends to appeal
to the youth with its upbeat feel-good melodies, a common characteristic of the
genre. The video conforms to this by being set in a school full of rebellious
adolescents as shown by their school uniforms and the paper props being
scattered in the first 20 seconds. The smiles on the students faces also connote tones of fun,
happiness and carefree attitudes.
·It further runs parrallel to Goodwin’s theory with the tempo
of the music having coherence with the visuals. As the song progresses the
cutting rate increases and the students get more rebellious. The lyrics are
amplified which is made apparent by words like “discipline” when in detention
and “dissmissed every rule to abide by” during the food fight scene. This along
with the slightly voyeristic treatment of the singers body through intentional
pans up from her bare legs to her face prove that this is a conventional music
video for the indie pop genre and also for mainstream music videos as a whole.
·
SHAME on the other hand shows
very few of these traits. Young Fathers don’t have a specifc genre but they do
have hip hop themes running somewhat inconsitantly throghout their music. Be
they hip hop or not, SHAME doesn’t demonstrate characteristics for any genre,
with powerful visuals collectively creating a cryptic and possibly deeply
metaphorical music video, one very much left to the viewer’s interpretaion.
There is a contradicting relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
however the relationship between the music and the visuals is relitively
illustrative, with the cutting rate increasing as the song progresses and the actor/dancer
doing seemingly impressionist dance. Apart from this the video doesn’t align
itself with the conventions of other hip hop videos.
·Looking at Dyer’s ‘Star’ theory, the two videos are nothing
alike. His theory was that stars were constructed through a set of values to an
end of some sort. Often to sell copies and to create an image of themselves.
·
Reflections features the
lead repeatedly, often at close ups. This and the fact that she and her band members
are dressing up as school kids shows the stars as present, human and grounded.
As an indi pop band they don’t want to seem self obsessed or serious and so the
lighthearted, fun plot with elements of humour (american) is intended to make
them seem relatable to a new and rapidly expanding audience. This is why I
think that the purpose of this particular music video (the one that most people
will search for, it being their album’s single) is to create a teen fan base
that will make them the most money. Notice there is nothing artistic, risky or
inventive about the film making. It’s completely plot driven. The plot revolves
around a group of school kids who are rebelling against their teachers. This is
aiming to create an air of anti authoritarianism surrounding the band, enough
to make them seem ‘against the system’ and therefore appealing to oppinionated
teens, but not enough to seem radicalist, a term and a state of mind most young
people tend to avoid.
·
On the other hand SHAME is
almost the polar opposite of this. The film features a single actor. He’s not a
member of the band and he doesn’t represent how the band present themselves at
concerts and at award ceremonies. However perhaps the fact that the video
seemingly has no relation to creating a star image has some relevence in
itself. It could represent a band that hasn’t got any musical genre
restrictions, after all they do said themselves that “a band that knows it’s
genre is a band that’s failed”. This could be percieved as inside dyer’s
‘originality’ category for values stars can have. This originality comes more
in the form of wierdness from the dance routine the film slowly disolves into.
This routine was done by an alternative dancer. The film was an experimental
production to focus on the fact that what you see on the outside (the first
half of the film) is not the same as someone on the inside. This may be working
in parallel with their featured album name- ‘White men are black men too’. This
is synergy within a campaign but it isn’t being done to sell copies, it’s being
done to send a message, something far more authentic and noble than Misterwives
Star ethos.
·In terms of Barthes codes the two films are
interesting to look at.
·The juxtaposition of the slo mo of the school
kids throwing paper and obviously leaving school to the close up of the
detention sign is part of the Hermeneutic code. This makes the audience guess
why they’re in detention at the end of school and so keeps the audience
captivated. However it’s done in a very linear fashion and so one by one we
learn why the students (band members) are in detention. The same goes with the
enigma code. The enigma arcs are generally very small with the question
(enigma) being raised and it being almost instantly answered. The cutting rate
being very fast means there isn’t a lot of time for in depth meanings to be
decrypted by the audience and so almost everything is intended to be taken at
face value. The moralities of the students rebelling against an institution
designed to help them and is only available in very privileged societies is
questionable however it is deemed acceptable and dismissed in first world
countries as ‘youth spirits’ and is even encouraged in the media and the
western culture with the same logic behind it that coined the phrase ‘boys will
be boys’.
·SHAME, although very alternative, doesn’t seem
to have that much more in depth set of codes and meaning behind it than
Reflections, albeit being more creative. However multiple viewings prove this
wrong. The enigma and hermeneutic codes are seen to be used effectively in this
film. It starts off with a young man walking aggressively along a road with a
knife. The reason for the aggressiveness is not known and neither is it for the
knife. This mystery captivates the audience, & the fact that we don’t
actually discover any of these reasons causes the film to gain a replayability
factor. The flash cuts to the boy’s bloodied face also creates a short
nevertheless powerful enigma arc. The symbolic code to me is the catharsis of
being able to be freed from pain and suffering and frustration by focussing on
what makes you happy, in his case dancing. It’s an uplifting and liberating
video in this respect. At first our instant judgement of the boy is that he is
a ‘chav’ and is violent from his non-verbal language and his knife prop. By the
end we can see that the only thing he is trying to fight is his own personal
demons. This shows (for lack of a better phrase) that you can’t judge a book by
its cover. Overall the audience can read into the film in as much depth as they
choose, far more than its mainstream counterpart.
