The document summarizes how the music video for "Freddy & The Letdowns – Ike & Tina" uses and challenges conventions of real music videos. It discusses applying Goodwin's theory of illustrating lyrics visually and promoting the star image. It also describes how the editing uses disjunctive techniques, and how the camerawork and narrative employ both conventional and unconventional approaches. Tropes of the music genre are explored, as well as instances of voyeurism compared to other music videos.
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Evaluation Question One
1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge the forms and conventions
of real media products?
I believe that as a whole, our music video is extremely conventional, not
only fitting the codes of music video construction, but also when viewed
within the context of its own music genre.
Freddy & The Letdowns – Ike & Tina [YouTube Link]
(Coombe Media 13B6 – Sam Hopkins)
2. Applying Goodwin’s theory to my music video
When we first began brainstorming ideas for the video, a lot of our ideas
stemmed from creating narrative concepts, framed by generic performance
scenes. These were largely informed by our interpretation of the lyrical
content and how we could create a relationship between the lyrics and the
visuals - as discussed in Goodwin’s music video theory. Once we had
discerned the basic narrative concept (the artist stumbling home after a
drunken night, coming to a lifestyle-changing epiphany through fragmented
flashbacks), it made logical sense that the visuals should therefore provide
an illustrative effect for the lyrics, in some places in an extremely literal
sense.
3. Applying Goodwin’s theory to my music video
We also used synaesthetic ideas to inform ideas about the visuals from the
texture and mixing of the audio. Through this, our cultural influences turned
us to urban environments, although interestingly rather than the expected
claustrophobic estates and alleyways, we utilised the monotony of suburbia,
demonstrating our personal influence on the creative direction of the video
applied to cues in the music.
4. Goodwin – Star Image
Another convention we conformed to while creating our music video is the
promotion of star image. This was achieved by careful technical construction
of shots, ensuring lots of close ups of our artists face to satisfy demands of
the fanbase as well as requirements of the label to promote their
commodity.
The quantity of close ups and screentime prevalence (‘Freddy’ features in
almost every shot), is compounded by the types of shots we used to film him,
such using low angles to promote fan worship of the star and centralised
framing. It was also important for us to feature a wide variety of shots
however, to sustain interest in the film and the star, so not every shot
complies with this adoration style.
5. Goodwin – Star Image
However, it was essential in my opinion to present our artist not as a
pompous, celebrity pop-star atop a pedestal, but with instead a sense of
normalcy. This is to reflect not only the class associations of the musical style
and lyrical themes, but also to challenge unfortunate genre conventions for
such real life artists who often ‘sell-out’ to fame and stardom. I think that we
combined these two conflicting sides of star image successfully through the
narrative themes as well as shot technical composition, creating a relatable
character the audience can identify with whilst still maintaining a sense of
visual presence in how they see his “star” image (such as through the artists
mannerisms).
This unique construction of the star image is something we intended to come
across in all areas of our final product, including the album
artwork/digipak and photographs we uploaded to the band’s social
networking websites.
6. Vernallis - Editing
• The editing of our music video doesn’t follow the classic continuity style of
Hollywood films, instead building upon what Vernallis recognised as the
significant disjunctive narrative music video style, heightened by our use of
fragments and flashbacks giving an even greater sense of disorientation.
• In some edits in the video (such as the verse with the child performing),
consecutive shots alternate between different scenes in a dramatically
disjunct way, demanding attention from the viewer by dragging their
attention to the different focal points of each shot very rapidly.
• This montage style is able to create new meanings through the juxtaposition
of images (Kuleshov), linking the grievous lyrical performance to the
clubbing scene of the night before, demonstrating the regret the artist feels
for his lifestyle – the key message of the song and video.
• Highly conventional editing on the beat to emphasise rhythmic basis of the
song we are promoting, and to tie the visuals closer with music. We also
edited the footage to match some lyrical phrases, such as an extended
shots for each line of the song (eg in the first verse this is done several
times), or cutting away to emphasise one word (eg “substance” at 1:48, and
“face” two seconds later).
• We manipulated the editing pace to shape the intensity of the video,
creating a series of peaks of energy to correspond to the song. Most
obviously this is done with the series of quick edits in the chorus at 2:18, as
well as the peak at 3:05, and also the slowed down, conclusive tempo at
3:29 to signify the end.
7. Vernallis – Camera
• Tracking shots create a performance space that is usually lacking in music
videos (eg the verses starting at 0:47 and 1:40) as well as a sense of
continuity necessary to counter the fragmented sections.
• This contrasts the party scene, in which we intentionally never see an
establishing shot, creating the illusion of a real club as well as a feeling of
novelty and immediacy every time a new angle is shown.
• The camerawork also varies to create interest, and the steady tracking
technique of the street performance section (eg 0:46-1:00) can be
compared to heavily dynamic camera use in the party (eg 0:19-0:23)
• In this latter example (as well as several other points in the video), we also
use the camera movement to match the rhythm of the music in a similar way
to the editing technique’s use.
• Finally, our artist rarely breaks the fourth wall, which is unconventional for a
pop music promo. During the filming of the performance sections, we
requested for many shots that he didn’t in order to give the
narrative a more distanced, separated effect on the audience,
and to create value in the rare shots where he makes direct
eye contact with the audience.
8. Vernallis – Narrative
We presented the narrative in a conventionally disjunct way, although we
create much ambiguity through the use of the letter and the unexplained
travelling put together in a largely continuous style. In this way, we have
found an odd, unconventional middle ground between a clear,
straightforward narrative interspersed with performance and an opposing
fragmented, non-narrative music video.
9. How we used tropes of the music genre
As well as conventions of music video style, we also delved into the pre-
existing codes of videos from this particular genre. Our iconography,
including sexual promiscuity and partying as typical events or locations are
easily recognised by the target audience.
However, as the genre of the song is contestable and can actually be
catagorised in many ways, such as indie, alternative rock, hiphop and even
rap, this ensured our video would not be too mundane and conventional, as
conventions for such niche genre crossovers do not exist to the same extent
as for other genres (such as bling and bikinis in gangster rap music videos):
10. Voyeurism and Scopophilia
The ‘sex scene’ in our video is an extreme instance of voyeurism in music
video, with extreme close ups worshipping the actor’s bodies,
metaphorically orgasmic blue light flash and almost explicit action.
However, from the context of this scene, the rest of the video seems
particularly un-sexualised, especially compared to some modern pop
videos and even real-life clubs - for example, compare the extremely tame
dancing scenes in the party to a video like Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado
(link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J3vgcE5i2o).
11. Voyeurism Continued
In fact, the considerable lack of sexualisation (apart from that one scene) in
our video is highlighted by one quick close up shot of a dancer (2:58), which
although flashes up for only a few frames is memorable only because its
voyeuristic connotations are so out of place.
We also consider the ‘post-feminist’ concept of voyeurism, by featuring a
shot of the artist showing off his abs, which complements the idea of star
image and fan idolisation of the artist.