It is clear in this music video that certain theorists have been taken into account, the more obvious ones are Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss, and Goffman.
Propp's basic theory is that media products should include some character roles, for example the traditional fairytale roles of hero, villain, and damsel in distress; some of these character roles are shown through the video. The most obvious character role to look for is the hero, this would be the lead singer of the band in this video, Steve, as he is most often in the centre of the screen and is the focus of the band. Examples of this are in the barn during performance scenes as he is stood in the centre, in front of the other band members, holding a microphone; another example is when the band members are all doing a synchronised dance and Steve does something different, which makes him stand out.
The villain of the music video would be the only female in the band, she is represented as the villain because at approximately 1:13 of the music video, she pushes Steve (lead singer) down a hill. This shows that she is either jealous of the hero, or hates the hero and wants to defeat him; this is often the role of a villain. Villains do usually have sidekicks however, which in this case would be the other two male band members, as just after Georgia (villain) pushes Steve (hero) down the hill, Lewis and Will (sidekicks) catch Georgia before she falls down the hill as well.
In this music video there is no damsel in distress, there is only one female member of the band who would instantly be stereotyped as the damsel of the video, however she is dressed in a way in which she fits in with the males. The stylists specifically made Georgia blend in with the boys by not making her the centre of attention, but also by wearing not particularly girly clothes.
There is however a character role of a 'donor', this is the person within the media product that aids the hero. In this case the role of the donor would be taken by Will, the drummer in the video. A drummer's role in a band is to supply the main beat of the song, so some would argue that Will is aiding the hero by giving a backing beat to the song to support the main sound of the song.
Todorov's theory is that there is a form of storyline to every media product: it begins with an equilibrium; then something occurs to disrupt the equilibrium; and at the end the equilibrium is either restored or changed. This is the typical 'beginning, middle, and end' sequence of a story.
The beginning equilibrium of this video is in the daylight, the band members are all messing around and dancing throughout the majority of the video; however there is a change at approximately 1:56, as the lighting of the shots suddenly become night time. It is clear that these shots were actually filmed at night, in the dark, as there are shots of the band outside running through a forest, as well as sitting in the boat, and standing around the coffin. Todorov's theory in this instance also relates to the postmodernist term of 'bricolage'; this is when something is interpreted in a different way depending on a change in something. For example, the band members running through a forest in daylight is fun and adventurous, whereas the band members running through a forest at night becomes odd and scary.
Goffman's theory is that there are four main character roles, his theory is similar to Propp's, although it is more specific. The four roles of Goffman's theory are: the protagonist; the deuteragonist; the bit player; and the fool. These four roles fit well to the four band members within this music video. The protagonist is the main character role, which is taken by Steve, as he is the lead singer. This role is closely followed by the deuteragonist, which is the role taken by Lewis; this is because Lewis is the guitarist who is left alone on set at the end of the video to finish the song, so he plays a big part as he is the last band member to be seen as the video ends. The bit player is the character whose specific background is more mysterious and unknown, this role would be taken on by Will, the drummer; Will comes across as a mysterious character as he is on the back of the set in the performance shots, and is usually on the edge of the disjuncture shots. The fool is taken by Georgia, the only female member, this is because she wears some funny things, such as: a banana costume; a shower cap; and a colander on her head whilst skateboarding.
Levi-Strauss' theory is straight forward, binary opposites. By the term 'binary opposites', Strauss means that two things contrast each other, for example male/female, or day/night.
The binary opposition of male and female does not apply in this video as Georgia is styled to blend in with the other 3 male band members, it is also stereotypical for females to have long hair, whereas Georgia has a short hair cut in a cropped style. However, the binary opposition of day and night applies well to this video, the majority of the shots are filmed in daylight or artificial light, however there are a few shots filmed at night. The night and day opposition also relates to the bricolage theory, another example of this is, the band members dancing around a coffin in the day is quirky and fun, however dancing around a coffin at night becomes creepy and disturbing.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Narrative Theorists
Propp: Character roles e.g. hero, villain, damsel
Goffman: four types of characters - protagonist; deuteragonist; the bit player; the fool
Todorov: equilibrium - disruption - equilibrium
Applied to the music video...
Propp
Hero: Steve - lead singer
Sidekicks: Steve & Lewis - catch Georgia after she pushes Steve down the hill
Villain: Georgia - pushes Steve down the hill; Steve - chases Georgia
Damsel: none
Donor: Will - provides the beat of the song through the drums
Goffman
Protagonist (main character) - Steve, lead singer
Deuteragonist (second character) - Lewis, finishes the set of the video
The bit player (character whose specific background is unknown) - Will, drums are set in the background, no main role
The fool (uses humour) - Georgia; dressed as a Banana; wears a shower cap; wears a colander on her head whilst skateboarding
Todorov
Equilibrium - day time, fun
Disruption - night time, creepy, edgy
Equilibrium - same as before: day time, fun
Todorov's theory of the disruption also links into a postmodern bricolage application: running through the forest at night is creepy, running through the forest in the day is fun.
Goffman: four types of characters - protagonist; deuteragonist; the bit player; the fool
Todorov: equilibrium - disruption - equilibrium
Applied to the music video...
Propp
Hero: Steve - lead singer
Sidekicks: Steve & Lewis - catch Georgia after she pushes Steve down the hill
Villain: Georgia - pushes Steve down the hill; Steve - chases Georgia
Damsel: none
Donor: Will - provides the beat of the song through the drums
Goffman
Protagonist (main character) - Steve, lead singer
Deuteragonist (second character) - Lewis, finishes the set of the video
The bit player (character whose specific background is unknown) - Will, drums are set in the background, no main role
The fool (uses humour) - Georgia; dressed as a Banana; wears a shower cap; wears a colander on her head whilst skateboarding
Todorov
Equilibrium - day time, fun
Disruption - night time, creepy, edgy
Equilibrium - same as before: day time, fun
Todorov's theory of the disruption also links into a postmodern bricolage application: running through the forest at night is creepy, running through the forest in the day is fun.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Monday, 5 March 2012
Postmodern artist/song:
Devo "Whip It"
Plan:
(Fused 80's synth pop with bizarre visuals and lyrics)
This song is so embarrassing that it's become cool.
The video is exceptionally weird, and the relation from the audio to the visual is the feature of the whip; the video is a rough narrative of the lyrics.
The video was uploaded onto YouTube in 2007, however it was not the style of music that was out at this time.
The audio and visuals of "Whip It" are from an older time period as the style is from the 1980s - the music varies from real instruments, to computerised sounds.
This song would not typically appeal to the mainstream audience of 2012, I'm not even convinced it would have been popular in 2007.
However as it was released in the 1980s it could have been considered a popular song in that time era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbt30UnzRWw
Plan:
(Fused 80's synth pop with bizarre visuals and lyrics)
This song is so embarrassing that it's become cool.
The video is exceptionally weird, and the relation from the audio to the visual is the feature of the whip; the video is a rough narrative of the lyrics.
The video was uploaded onto YouTube in 2007, however it was not the style of music that was out at this time.
The audio and visuals of "Whip It" are from an older time period as the style is from the 1980s - the music varies from real instruments, to computerised sounds.
This song would not typically appeal to the mainstream audience of 2012, I'm not even convinced it would have been popular in 2007.
However as it was released in the 1980s it could have been considered a popular song in that time era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbt30UnzRWw
5 Minute Task
Post production:
AS: Post production
Adobe Photoshop - to create cover, contents, and double page spread; as well as edit photos.
Microsoft Word - to write article; Word allows a spell checker so it was suitable for me to write my article on rather than posting it straight into Photoshop.
A2: Post production
Adobe Photoshop - to edit band photographs and create poster, and digipak
Adobe Premiere Pro - to edit the entire music video
iDVD - to burn the music video to a disc
YouTube & DailyMotion - we used both of these programmes to upload our draft and final music video onto; DailyMotion was used as our final video was removed from YouTube.
Uploading: iDVD, YouTube, DailyMotion
Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop
Effects: Fast motion, stop motion
Music: Song
Transitions: Sharp editing cuts on the beats of the song
Sound: Song
Narrative: Only a few narrative: 'over night filming' - light to dark to light
Rendering: Uploading, editing, viewing sections of the video
AS: Post production
Adobe Photoshop - to create cover, contents, and double page spread; as well as edit photos.
Microsoft Word - to write article; Word allows a spell checker so it was suitable for me to write my article on rather than posting it straight into Photoshop.
A2: Post production
Adobe Photoshop - to edit band photographs and create poster, and digipak
Adobe Premiere Pro - to edit the entire music video
iDVD - to burn the music video to a disc
YouTube & DailyMotion - we used both of these programmes to upload our draft and final music video onto; DailyMotion was used as our final video was removed from YouTube.
How has your view of editing changed over the two years as you progressed with different programs?
I have become more comfortable using Adobe Photoshop and I was introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro on a MacBook over the A2 coursework year. I feel that I now have the confidence to use both of these programmes without any guidance, and I now have access to them both on my laptop.
With our filming I have improved a lot over the two years; the first filming project we did was a shot-reverse-shot filming through a door - our final A2 video was a 3 minute music video including fast motion, and stop motion. Our filming progress is visible from our first ever video to our final piece through effects, transitions, and the quality of the video.
With our filming I have improved a lot over the two years; the first filming project we did was a shot-reverse-shot filming through a door - our final A2 video was a 3 minute music video including fast motion, and stop motion. Our filming progress is visible from our first ever video to our final piece through effects, transitions, and the quality of the video.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Jonathan Kramer: Summer Camp
1. Summer Camp take a modernist and post-modernist style in their music, there are two band members but in their music there are clearly more than two instruments. This means they have used samples or digitised music, such as keyboards or a section of another song placed within theirs.
2. Came across as Swedish / American, which raised their popularity because it's considered 'cool'... When people found out they were British it became 'messing about with cool music'.
3. The video for 'Round the Moon' by Summer Camp takes a video from a 1980s film, but has audio from the present, modern day - the video however fits in with the style of the song meaning that there is no difference between the music and style of the past and present.
4. Summer Camp write their own songs and are therefore singer/songwriters; their music is classed in a high style.
5. Summer Camp have a classic/cliche approach to their music, and have the typical 'beginning, middle, and end' of a song. However, The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations ignores this rule.
6. Summer Camp has not been in the 'Top 40' or any form of chart hits, this means they are elitist rather than populist. However they are 'cool' at the minute, although once they make it big time they may become 'uncool' because everyone 'mainstream' will like them.
7. The sound samples on Summer Camp's website all sound completely different, this avoids totalizing forms. However their music does all sound the same, which contrasts that of their website.
8. Summer Camp's music is very Americanised, and could be seen as relevant to American pop culture.
9. Very focused on American, pop, preppy culture.
10. Some of Summer Camp's songs include computer produced music, for example GarageBand on Mac computers can allow regular people to create drum beats or the sound of a piano.
11. Using clips from old fashioned films to make music videos to their modern songs, this is a contradiction of style.
12. Summer Camp do not distrust the binary opposition theory, as the girl is very girly, and the boy has a more manly appeal.
13. The 'Round the Moon' video uses clips from a 1980s movie, this is an homage as it pays respect to the film and the context of the song fits in with the chosen clips from the film.
14. Summer Camp uses a techno sound, similar to those of Vampire Weekend.
15. Visuals and audios from different years
16. This relates to the idea that in the modern day people can like all styles of something, and not just be stuck in one category; this does not relate to Summer Camp.
2. Came across as Swedish / American, which raised their popularity because it's considered 'cool'... When people found out they were British it became 'messing about with cool music'.
3. The video for 'Round the Moon' by Summer Camp takes a video from a 1980s film, but has audio from the present, modern day - the video however fits in with the style of the song meaning that there is no difference between the music and style of the past and present.
4. Summer Camp write their own songs and are therefore singer/songwriters; their music is classed in a high style.
5. Summer Camp have a classic/cliche approach to their music, and have the typical 'beginning, middle, and end' of a song. However, The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations ignores this rule.
6. Summer Camp has not been in the 'Top 40' or any form of chart hits, this means they are elitist rather than populist. However they are 'cool' at the minute, although once they make it big time they may become 'uncool' because everyone 'mainstream' will like them.
7. The sound samples on Summer Camp's website all sound completely different, this avoids totalizing forms. However their music does all sound the same, which contrasts that of their website.
8. Summer Camp's music is very Americanised, and could be seen as relevant to American pop culture.
9. Very focused on American, pop, preppy culture.
10. Some of Summer Camp's songs include computer produced music, for example GarageBand on Mac computers can allow regular people to create drum beats or the sound of a piano.
11. Using clips from old fashioned films to make music videos to their modern songs, this is a contradiction of style.
12. Summer Camp do not distrust the binary opposition theory, as the girl is very girly, and the boy has a more manly appeal.
13. The 'Round the Moon' video uses clips from a 1980s movie, this is an homage as it pays respect to the film and the context of the song fits in with the chosen clips from the film.
14. Summer Camp uses a techno sound, similar to those of Vampire Weekend.
15. Visuals and audios from different years
16. This relates to the idea that in the modern day people can like all styles of something, and not just be stuck in one category; this does not relate to Summer Camp.
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