When creating an artist and his artistic image, clothing is very important as it introduces the signer visually to the wider audience. This also helps the band or artist in selling themselves on the music market. After researching of Jamie T's clothing (the original artist) and any other artist that have the same style of the music, we decided to take some test footage for different number of outlooks in variety of locations. Our intention was to use several costumes and still be able to communicate the artist's style to the fans and other people. We came up with many other options, but because we wanted our artist to also be able to communicate some message to the "ordinary" people, we thought that more varieties would confuse the target audience.
Jamie T (Our original artist)
Freddy from the band (Sam Barnham)
But in the music video there are many other costumes that stand out from the crowd. One of the examples is: Devil Costume which brought some kind of humour into the video. Another set are the police costumes used for the kids.
This was used to pass a message of dready/maturity/age which links to our artist.This was also used to show people contrast between Freddy and the kids playing the police men. The girl's leopard jacket was meant to show seduction/animal instinct side of her and it made her look like she was not the person who would pass him the disease.
During filming of our music video we used a number f different props to add some kind of realism into the shots we were making. Most of the decisions were made in the last minute. This is because we had to many options when it came to the props and we wanted to make out of the symbolism of the the props too. The props we have used are:
1. Bottles at the pub scene 2. Cigarettes [only as cut aways] 3. STD letter/envelope
There were also many other things that added symbolism to the whole scene like eg. the colourful block used in the club scene. This was used on purpose to symbolise and imply the character's drug use and the way he sees the world.
The block in the Club Scene [back]
The block in the Club Scene [front]
We used a number of props to add realism to the shoots, with much of the
decisions being made instantly and incontestably, such as the empty
bottles at the pub, cigarettes to add to the self-destructive character
of our artist, and the STD letter envelope. We were not allowed to show any smoking/alcohol consumption or drug taking in out music video, as the result of it being right to watch by our target audience.
An example of Artist applying make-up on to their face!
Because we wanted to make our artist suit the teenage reality as well as represent masculine image, make-up was not a big concern for us when we were creating the music video. This is because we thought that by him having make up on his face would create an mental image of our artist and people might not take him seriously. Another point is that people would have concentrate more on his look rather than the overall artistic side eg. music/music video. So we decided to create an effect using great lighting which was also more important for us.
This time, I have chosen to analyse Rihanna's Loud Album Cover. This is because I did not want to fall into one music style category and by exploring different styles like: Alternative/Pop/Hip-Hop, you can get the sense of different interpretation of symbols/colours etc. The front cover is full of red colour and the only thing that we can visually see is the artist face. By this we may think, by her putting the face on the front cover, she is reassuring us and guarantees us about the quality of the album and that everything we find there is worth buying it. Another point is the use of red colour. As we know the red colour signifies love/sex/romance. In this album cover she is having purely red lips which are "sex" symbols in some way. This may be used to attract wider audience mainly focusing on male between the age of 18+ or even lower. The other thing is the hair she is showing us which is also red. This is the same symbolism that appears in case of the lips. So the front cover is full of the sexual symbols which are really easy to sell to random individuals. Having her eyes shut may make us feel that she is hiding something inside and that it will be all revealed when we buy the album and listen to the music. Another thought is that she is hiding all the emotion behind her shut eyes. The name of the album " L O U D " at the bottom shows the simplicity everything is kept. The white colour of the writing may represent the purity of the songs/artist which is complete contract to what is visually seen above.
The music video that are being made in today's society are most likely to be considered as postmodern videos. They are likely to be focused on the existing text and media from industries like: 1). Television 2). Cinema 3). Theatre 4). Videos 5). Costumes 6). Fashion/Art/Photography
This is used to inspire new ideas and authors are most likely to be influenced by the things listed above. This then impresses and attracts the existing and new audience. So therefore some of the existing music videos may be related and contain the references of the list already mentioned by me. It can reference to the text/genre. This might create greater pleasure for the audience when they watch the video they like.
Intertextua references may also be presented in many other forms. They may be presented as parodies which are:
1). Humorous 2). Satirical 3). Mocking
The idea of intertextuality was introduced by Julia Kristeva who is Bulgarian-French philosopher. She was arguing against the idea of a text as a isolated medium which operates withing self-contained manner. She says that: "Any text is the absorption and transformation of another".
The first music video I have chosen to analyse is made by a group of student from my school. Throughout watching the whole music video we can see a good editing techniques. The thing which is not perfected and is very evident during watching is the lipsing of the lead singer. At some point the movements of his mouth are completely off the lyrics and if this would be perfected, the whole music video would look better. Another point that I have is the narrative in the music video. This one does not have it at all. The only thing that we can watch on the screen is the performance of the lead singer at three different location which links most likely to the outlines of the preliminary task that was done in Summer 2011. I think that we must not only hear, but also see what is being sung through the lyrics of the song. The editing is really good and it is sticking to the beat of the song. It is using couple of close-ups which are meant to sell the artist. If that music video would be made to just sell the artists image, it would do it in 100%, because it just focuses on him and no narrative is included. We get just fly-by shots of the other band members, but they are not that frequent.
This video is almost completely narrative - performance is limited to
just the vocalist - telling the singular story of a bank robbery gone
wrong by the band. They ignore music video conventions by having no
relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, and shooting in a
continuity rather than a montage style. Also, there are almost no
cutaways from the main narrative to any other location or storyline,
making the promo feel more like a film or TV drama than a music video.
Through the camera movement, editing pace and use of colour, the
director manages to 'split' the video into sections linked to the
sections of the song (ie verse/chorus/bridge). The first verse has
slowed-down footage, with a sepia, heat-haze effect applied, with
lethargic camerawork and editing pace. The chorus breaks into black and
white CCTV footage, with chaotic and exciting fast editing across the
action of the bank robbery, despite the limitation of static cameras.
These two sections are repeated for the second verse/chorus, then in the
bridge it changes into blue-ish footage of the safe, enforcing the
diegesis of the setting and storyline. The video ends with a 'shootout'
and the getaway. Despite not following the stylistic conventions of a
music video, 'Fire' still uses plenty of close ups, especially of the
lead singer - enforcing his star persona.
The key memorable concept of this video is the gimmick of using
instruments instead of weapons during the bank robbery. This seems
entirely original and is completely effective, yet is actually a sly
intertextual link to the video for 'Breaking the Law' by heavy metal
band Judas Priest (link).
It is also important to recognise where this song falls in Kasabian's
release history. 'Fire' was released as a comeback single from their
award-winning third album. In a shot towards the end of the video, it
shows that the band were not stealing money, but sheet music, fitting
the idea that they are "taking back the music". The video helps to not
only reestablish the band, bust also create the new image to go with
their new album.
I have chosen to analyse Madonna's popular music video which is "Sorry". It is very interesting, because it shows really strong image of masculinity/strenght/militancy showed by women who are trying to combat the male race in many different ways. The music video also contains all the symbolism that is needed in order to attrack the wider audience. The sexual symbolism is used a lot of times which might attrack attention as well as the quick cutting techniques between the scenes which make it look like it's a tape from school/city disco.
The music video starts with the close-up of the main artist (Madonna) singing in Italian which is her native language and the country she was born in. The colour of the background is very feminine and might represent and introduce us to the world of woman. It is really detailed to say it, but the dots at the back seem like maybe every each of them might represent a woman and the image shows their unity and sticking together. By dancing and being very attractive she is being "labelled" as the main sexual attraction and symbol of the whole music video. The lights make it look like she is on the stage and is about to reveille her real face. This happens exactly at the same second when the main beat comes in.
After we jump to a wide shot of Madonna and the rest of her "girl team" walking down the street just after they left the party which represents them being very independent and don't really need men to have good fun, the only thing they need is themselves together and the music which is played from the old tape player which is also the symbol in the music video. After the group gets into the old white van which also creates contrast between the simple colour white and the variety that they are wearing as their clothes. There are many more close ups on the tape player which also implies its importance again and the artistic image.
In the image on the left, you can see that the music video creates a lot of sexual symbolism even more when you see the main singer undressing and putting herself into very tight costume. This creates it even more shocking. This happens in the scene inside the white van, the editing and the music which is nearly coming to the chorus makes it seem like something is going to happen there. The artist undressing and putting herself into other costume might represent the preparing for the fight/battle that she is going to experience. The green colour of the cloth represent the calm image of her.Later she also wears white which represents purity of her as a character and a person.
Different kind of people are being dragged into the car which is meant to represent all the types of man, or the way women see men. In the music video you can see: - black rap/hip-hop type - obese man - little mixed race kid - really strong (muscle) man - boy focused only on education
If this is what the music video is trying to say then it is really critical of man and old fashioned, because in today's society a lot of things have changed. In the lyrics Madonna is singing: "You're the man, you think you are". This implies that she thinks she is stronger than all the men and they got everything about themselves wrong. The image below represents that image quiet well.
On the image you can see the women sticking together very closely, looking sexy in the new costumes and attracting the audience, mostly male by the sexy movements they are doing. This shot was made on purpose to show some contrast between them seating on one side of the van and all the types of men seating on the other waiting for them to be judged by Madonna.
In the other scenes, more men appear in the van. Madonna is trying to seduce them but at the same time play with them which represents the weakness of men and the strength of the character she is and the kind of music she is making. You can see it in the images on the left.
Later the music video jumps to a scene with cage fighting involved in it where we can see Madonna and all the girls fighting/dance fighting against male race. This scene was made on purpose to show that there is a lot of disagreement between the two kinds of people and the only way to resolve the problem is to do by the way of dance fighting which can also lead to real street fighting.
As we approach the finale of the video, we are introduced to a scene/shot where all the men and women are dancing on one floor which might represent that the agreement was reached and they can all co-operate which each other in some way. Even thought the image of men is shown in a good light, we can see some cut-aways where the music video is taking mock out of some of the characters.
So the overall message of the music video is to say that all women are stronger than men and there is doubt about that and we need to accept it, so as Madonna says: "Please forgive me".
