Grainy effect and Lighting

If somehow we could create a similar lighting scale to this Rizzle Kicks video, it would really add such a dreamy, professional look to our video. We have figured out that some excellent cameras can do this, as well as some good effects on Final Cut which we will have to experiment with - whilst filming just before the sun goes down!

Production Journal - Friday 30th Sept

This week has consisted of finding a new song choice for our music video. Having come across a suitable option - Nero's remix of Boy Crisis - Dressed to Digress, we may use this - we have to fully decide on Monday's lesson. I really liked this song because it is a great deal faster than Justice, allowing use to use the flashing shots, whilst some of the lyrics give us the chance to use the reverse technique we have been practising. Although it has quite a heavy beat, we can still use all our original ideas within it, particularly as it  has  a rather dark, edgy sound to it.

Song Choices

Whilst trying to find alternative songs, we came across this remix of an old classic. By using this song, we'd be able to add a real Retro feel, perhaps, by using a contrasting of age - youths singing along to a old song. As it is a remix, the beat is perfect, meaning we could include all our previous ideas. 

Unfortunately, we could not embed the official video of South Central - The Day I Die, however, we absolutely loved the pinhole idea - which was in the eye of a murderer whose role was to basically kill everybody in a car park. The style and beat of the song fit perfectly, and including a pinhole element into our music video would be extremely effective in establishing the setting.

Digitalism is very alike to the genre we have chosen for our music video. This music video, despite being very basic works very effectively. The revolving movement of the room is constantly at one shot type, yet the centre of the room is constantly changing. As the song increases in speed and time, it becomes darker - forming shadows and the use of lighting is recognised. This effect brings an edgy feel into focus, forming a sense of ambiguity. 

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos.
Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

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Voyeurism within our music video

We will include elements of voyeurism within our music video by turning on the music at the beginning by a source such as; a record player, amplifier or even a phone as seen in many previous videos. As well as this, we will need to add a sense of reflection e.g. mirrors. 

Could this be our song?

Boy Crisis - Dressed To Digress (Nero Remix)
After coming across this song on the UKF dubstep channel, I really liked the beat, as many of our previous ideas such as; the use of colourful lights, quick flashing shots and many of the techniques used in the practise video can be used. 


The original song (unremixed)
A much slower, rocky sound to the remix. Personally, I would think our genre and ideas would work much better with the Nero remix.

New Song Ideas

Passion Pit - The Reeling


Lo-Fi-Fnk - Want U


Locnville - Sun in my Pocket

Production Journal - 23rd Sept

As a group, we have decided that Justice - D.A.N.C.E is not the best of songs to choose, as it does not fit our ideas very well. Due to the fact, our ideas will need a much faster pace of song, particularly as we are going to include some very short, flashy clips in certain parts. This weekend, we are all going to research some more songs and will discuss in further detail next week. 

The Gaze

The spectator's gaze: that of the spectator viewing the text, i.e. the audience

The Intra-diegetic gaze: in a text, a character gazes upon an object or another character in the text.

The Extra-diegetic gaze: a textual character consciously addresses (looks at) the viewer, e.g. in dramaturgy, an aside to the audience; in cinema, acknowledgement of the fourth wall, the viewer.

The camera's gaze: is the film director's gaze.

Duran Duran - Rio 

This Duran Duran video  is a clear example of the Male Gaze, immediately it starts with pinholes of an attractive woman. The idea that 'sex sells' is shown, as a huge majority of the video focuses with being surrounding by women in bikinis on a beach.

Madonna is a famous figure who has always been known to appear prerogative and sexual in her videos. This can either be seen as objectifying the male gaze, in that she acts how she wants to simply because she can or perhaps, in doing this she is obeying this rule that women must always act as sex symbols.

Here we have 50 Cent's P.I.M.P video, which basically suggests his powerful, authoritative position he has over the women he is surrounded by. They are all wearing minimal clothing and appear very airbrushed, which can again imply the physical distortions within the media. 

We would really like to in cooperate a twist of the male gaze in our music video, similar to Paolo Nutini's Pencil Full of Lead, despite our characters will be dressed attractively yet not particularly porogative, we would like our leading girl to be of dominance - rather than the traditional male dominating role. In Paolo's video, although the girls are in minimal clothing, which could be considered to be conforming to the male gaze, they are also the ones who end up playing with the 'play-do' Paolo, adding a humourous yet meaningful effect.

Production journal 16th sep

This week has just consisted of putting together our montage, we've put together a series of clips from around London and nights out. We have also attempted some effects we hope to use in our actual video, such as quick flashes of black-screen, the reverse/rewind technique and a sequence of clips embedded in sections within the montage. We will upload this video next week onto our blogs.

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

• Phallocentrism -- a world view which sees the penis (symbolic and otherwise) as the defining center of meaning.  In other words, there is a central, stable meaning to things; that meaning is defined largely by men who associate their power to name and define and control reality with their masculinity.
• Symbolic Order -- the realm of meaning controlled by the Law of the Father  (in Lacan's theorizing): the language of partriachy.  As opposped  (by Kristeva) to the Imaginary -- the primal language of connectiona sscoiated with pre-Oedipal bonding with the mother.

b) Destruction of Pleasure as a Radical Weapon

• Hollywood film reflects the dominant ideology of their culture.  We get our pleasure from films from this presentation of the erotic.  If we learn to make films which do not encode these ideologies, a lot of people will lose their pleasure in looking at film.
• Mise-en-scene means staging an action. It is historically to do with directing plays, and became later to do with film to express how the material in the frame is directed.

PLEASURE IN LOOKING/ FASCINATION WITH THE HUMAN FORM

a) Film satisfies this primal pleasure we all get from looking at other people.
scopophilia - - the pleasure we get from looking, in seeing other people as objects. We get a sense of power from being able to do this.  With John Berger she believes the one who looks has the power.
Voyeristic scopophilia --
b) Narcissistic scopophilia is looking at other people as seeing them as surrogates for yourself.  We also identify with people in movies.   So there is a tension here between the sense of power we get from observing others as separate from ourselves and the pleasure we get in imagining that we are the people we are looking at.
the mirror stage:
c) tension between these impulses-- to see others as separate and to identify with them

WOMAN AS IMAGE, MAN AS BEARER OF THE LOOK

a) Split between male, active gaze which looks and female passivity which is looked upon. Women are always on display in film.  Seen as objects of sexual desire; this is trasnsformed into exhibitionism.  Visual presence of female tends to stop the stroy line to dwell on the image.
diegesis -- "In a narrative film, the world of the film's story. The diegesis includes events that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen. "
Buddy pictures
Why are so many women in film showgirls, strippers, etc.
b) Gender split carries over into narrative of film--men carry the story, make things happen, while woman remains icon.
c1) Problems with woman as icon:
444    c1a) voyeurism -- sadistic desire to punish woman for her lack
        c1b) fetishistic scopophilia -- builds up beauty of woman in order to compensate for anxiety 

Male Gaze Using Film As Case Study

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Bombay Bicycle Club

Absolutely love this song and the music video to go with it! They've even introduced the costume theme with the whole 'catch the panda' idea. Very quirky and upbeat, something we definitely want to create in video especially now we have decided that our chosen song by Justice may not fit what we intend to do.

Production Journal - 9th Sept

As it is our first week back from the Summer holidays, we have just been uploading all the random footage from the Flips this week and editing them into one. Continuing to research into new found ideas and finally emailed Ed Banger Records for permission to use their song! Definiately need to start storyboarding soon, especially as we have to pitch our idea to the entire class soon.

Focus In/Focus Out Effect

I came across this Tyler the Creator song, which despite being extremely controversial and very strange, has a brilliant effect used throughout the video. As soon as it begins, the camera gradually zooms into him slowly focusing clearer until his entire image is visible. My group and I have already had ideas on perhaps using black silhouette lip syncing, as it creates a mysterious, unidentifiable element.

Song Choice Permission

In order to use the song we are using for our video, we must contact Justice's music producers asking for permission. Here is a screenshot of the email I sent them:

Inspiration

Earlier on in the week, Joely showed the group two music videos she came across during the Summer. I particularly enjoyed Mac Miller's Frick Park Market video, beginning with an establishing shot of where it is to be set (name of the song). Also noticing the lyrics literally matching up with some of the shots taken, which if done only a couple of times is a technique I'd be happy to use in our music video. After the artist enters the blue door, he goes into this dark room covered in UV paint. As discussed regularly before in the group, we love this idea - the contrast of a dark lit room with vibrant writing on the walls or even clothing. 


This video is very different to others we have seen, although it is animation, we gained a few ideas for it. The dinosaurs in the song move exactly to the beat of the music. This is something we could perhaps, recreate in our video by getting objects/people to move precisely to the rhythm of the beat. 

Previous Song Choices

The Greeks - Is Tropical

My group and myself were considering using this song by The Greeks for our music video, the official video for this is particularly interesting. Despite not using this for our actual video, we have gained some ideas for it, as we love the whole children playing the roles of adults and the entire contrast in both reality and animation. The effects are humourous and fit the Indie genre entirely, although the lyrics allow new, completely different ideas to be made.