Movement

Looking into sad/moving media texts and they tend to use a lot of close up shots of eyes, mouths, fingers, quivering lips, close-up shots of a tear moving very slowly down the face, downwards looking and very smooth shots, however the edit is still quickly cut.
I'm going to include these shots as I feel they're important in trying to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
Also I think it could be good to include shots of water related scenes i.e rain, overflowing gutters, dripping, bleak taps and still water.
The sequences of water shots could come before the quick shots of the black and white background story of the guy remembering what he'd done. The video would start with a fading in shot of the guy playing the piano, then we would follow this as the main narrative and this would be them man who performs, putting a lot of energy and passion into this song and as it comes back down we see his quivering fingers on the piano keys, and soft rolling tears down his cheeks. To his left is a window with rain splashing down the glass. On key chord changes it would go the the flashbacks of him and his girlfriend. The next set of flashbacks would be her cheating on him. The next set would be him attacking her. The next set would be him realising what he had done. After each flashback his face will clench up in regret. Also whilst the girl is singing at the start of the song we see her sitting in the dark and we will see the quivering fingers and so on with her aswell. A close up shot of a detail of some blood on her hand will be seen and at the end of the song her hand will appear on the guys shoulders with the same detail, then he looks at it, then as he turns round expecting to see her she is gone.

I can never seem to be able to get the actors on time or reliably and so I am going to do something simpler with a different song which I hope will draw a more emotional response from the audience as apposed to just something to watch with the video. This does mean using a different song which will be 9 Crimes by Damien Rice. It's a similar pace/genre to Atmosphere however the lyrics are around a different topic. I read into them as a woman cheating on her boyfriend and him taking harsh revenge and then seriously regretting it afterwards. For this song I will subtly follow the lyrics, as I think, for this piece, it will achieve a better response.

Lyrics:


Leave me out with the waste
This is not what I'd do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be thinking of you
It's the wrong time
For somebody new
It's a small crime
And I've got no excuse

Is that alright with you?
Give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright with you?
If you don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it
Is that alright with you?
Give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright
With you?

Leave me out with the waste
This is not what I'd do
It's the wrong kind of place
To be cheating on you
It's the wrong time
She's pulling me through
It's a small crime
And I've got no excuse

Is that alright with you?
Give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright with you?
If you dont shoot it, how am I supposed to hold it
Is that alright with you?
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright
Is that alright with you?

Is that alright with you?
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright with you?
If you don't shoot it, how am I supposed to hold it
Is that alright with you?
If I give my gun away when it's loaded
Is that alright
Is that alright with you?

Is that alright?
Is that alright?
Is that alright?
Is that alright?
Is that alright?
Is that alright with you?

No...

How did your research into audience contribute to your production work at both As and A2?

How did your research into audience contribute to your production work at both AS and A2?

Research into my target audience contributed to my AS and A2 Level Production work in various ways.
At AS my target audience was around the same as me, i.e. 16-21, Student, Music Fan/Musician. Obviously I know what I like and how I like to see things, but I thought it important to grasp a greater understanding of how others percieve media and film. So I Conducted a Video Questionaire, interviewing people on what they picked up on and liked about the opening of films. It was also an interesting way to determine how important the opening of a film actually is to a person not sutdying Media, to see if it made as much of an impact on them as the rest of the film all together or at all. The Overall outcome of my research was that, generally speaking, the opening of a film isn't overly important apart from jsut settling down the audience itno what they are about to watch. Unless, of course, the opening of a film makes very good sense after having watched the film the whole way through, such as in Pulp Fiction. This also made me udnerstand that jsut seeing a film opening on it's own could not realy make for a fantastic film opening with out becoming more of a trailer, especially if the film opening is only 2 minutes. It would have to have an incredible story line laid down within just 2 minutes to keep you really hooked on the film. Most film openings are just an interesting way of telling you which actors are in it, who directed and produced it and a few other key production team members' names, all while having a design/theme relative to the film opening.
This helped me produce my piece with as I then understood that in the very first two minutes of the film I didn't have to give away any story, or show any of the characters, I could actually start in a montage style relative to the rest of the film's genre/theme and it would work well as the film opening (such as in Napoleon Dynamite). Looking back however I would have liked to have had a couple more minutes for my film opening so my audience could have understood it a bit better. If I had had a couple more minutes I would have started into the story line. I think really a film opening should be the first 4/5minutes, honestly I think a 2 minute film opening ,even being done at AS Level, is not very realistic.
So my research contributed to my final production by enforcing my idea that I could do a montage style opening aslong as it was themed to the film's overall story/genre but that it would have been better to have more time to open the story a little bit.

At A2 level my Audience Research has helped contribute to my music video planning in various ways. From a few short questionaires I have learnt that audiences tend to like faster editing, something away from the lyrics that is changes through te video, so as to keep them interested the whole way through also that the band does not have to be in the music video at all. Also though that a music video of the band playing the song live at an interesting venue with an new event taking place at some point through out is also enough to keep a person watching. The Audience for my piece is around 17/27, will know a bit more about music than an average person and is not keen on chart music also they will be slightly artistic or appreciate art.

Original Video for Atmosphere

The original was released with the re-release of the song in 1988 and was directed by Anton Corbijn.

Joy Division - Atmosphere from Wes Dorris on Vimeo.

In this video there are men in gowns across a strange landscape moving things around, including large canvas prints of famous pictures of Joy Division and Ian Curtis. It would be good to use a small part of this, in a differnt way, in my video. Probably a shot of a field or something equally obscure where the picture is resting on the floor and there are men in the same gowns who appear to be arguing over a map between them, i.e. they're lost (another emotion frequently put accross in Ian's songs).

I think my video is going to be alot different to the original which is a good thing in my mind.

Analysis of Institutional Practices

A History of Music Videos.
In 1984, sheet music publishers, Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern, hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Thomas went aboutthis by projecting a series of still images on a screen simultaneously to the live performances, this soon became a popular form of entertainment known as 'illustrated song', the first step towards the music video.

In 1926, with the arrival of 'talkies'(a motion picture with synchronized sound), many musical films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (produced by Warner Bros.) featured many bands, vocalists and dancers. Shorts were typically six minutes in duration, and featured Art Deco-style animations and backgrounds combined with film of the performer singing.



Animation artist Max Fleischer introduced a series of sing-along short cartoons called Screen Songs, which invited audiences to sing along to popular songs by "following the bouncing ball". Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, which featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music. The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films.

Blues singer, Bessie Smith, appeared in a two-reel short film called St. Louis Blues (1929) featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period. Later, in the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film Lookout Sister. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of music video.

Another early form of music video were one-song films called "promotional clips" made in the 1940s for the Panoram visual jukebox. These were short films of musical selections, usually just a band on a movie-set bandstand, made for playing. Thousands of "soundies" were made, mostly of jazz musicians, but also of torch singers, comedians, and dancers. Before the soundie, even dramatic movies typically had a musical interval, but the soundie put the music in the forefront; virtually all known jazz performers appeared in soundie shorts. The Panoram jukebox with eight three-minute soundies were popular in taverns and night spots, but the fad faded during World War II.



Musical films were another important precursor to music video, and several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of the best-known examples is Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" (directed by Mary Lambert) which was closely modelled on Jack Cole's staging of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Several of Michael Jackson's videos show the unmistakable influence of the dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark "Thriller" and the Martin Scorsese-directed "Bad" which was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of West Side Story.

In 1956, Petrushka, directed by John David Wilson for Fine Arts Films aired as a segment of the Sol Hurok Music Hour on NBC. Igor Stravinsky conducted a live orchestra for the recording of the event. In 1957, Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London as his recording of "Stranger in Paradise" played; this film was distributed to and played by UK and US television stations. According to the Internet Accuracy Project, disk jockey-singer J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson was the first to coin the phrase "music video", in 1959. It is no coincidence that the rise of popular music was tied with the rise of television, as the format allowed for many new stars to be exposed that previously would have been passed over by Hollywood, which normally required proven acts in order to attract an audience to the box office.

Lyrics for Atmosphere

"Walk in silence,
Don't walk away, in silence.
See the danger,
Always danger,
Endless talking,
Life rebuilding,
Don't walk away.

Walk in silence,
Don't turn away, in silence.
Your confusion,
My illusion,
Worn like a mask of self-hate,
Confronts and then dies.
Don't walk away.

People like you find it easy,
Naked to see,
Walking on air.
Hunting by the rivers,
Through the streets,
Every corner abandoned too soon,
Set down with due care.
Don't walk away in silence,
Don't walk away."

I don't want to read too much in to the lyrics and relate my video to them as I feel that makes the video boring and predictable.

Eugene Riecansky

About two weeks ago Director, Creative Director and VFX Artist, Eugene Riecansky came into our 6th form to give us a presentation on how he went about his work, things he'd done and how he achieved them. Eugene has work with big name clinets, including Jim Carry, Madonna, Muse and The Prodigy.

He had a really cool work ethic, it reminded me of how I used to work before teacher's told me to plan more. Although he planned things a bit differently to how I used to. To finish off he gave us a brief and gave us two weeks to come up with a Music Video idea to a song by a band called Betty Curse. He asked us to pitch the idea to him and leave him with a treatment (a sumamry of the idea) to hand to the singer of the actual band and she would judge between them to decide the best brief.

One of the key things he told was to not listen to the song, just think out of the box and come up with a good, solid idea, so the video doesn't become trapped in the boring, generic style of whatever the current chart videos are doing.



For my idea for the Betty Curse song I didn't listen to the song, and still haven't. For my Production Music Video I have listened to the song, because I love the song, but before Eugene gave us the idea I still went about just thinking of an idea, then maybe fitting it to the song. I think the added touch of Ian Curtis's gravestone at the end will help which comes from band research. So it can help both ways.

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn (born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director.




Corbijn made his feature film debut with Control, a film about the life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. It premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2007. The film is based on Deborah Curtis' book Touching From A Distance about her late husband and the biography Torn Apart by Lindsay Reade (Tony Wilson's ex-wife) and Mick Middles. Although shown outside the Palme d'Or competition, Control was the big winner of the Director's Fortnight winning the CICAE Art & Essai prize for best film, the "Regards Jeunes" Prize award for best first or second directed feature film and the Europa Cinemas Label prize for best European film in the sidebar.




It could be well worth looking into some of Anton's other films and grasping a better idea of his directing style and trying to learn a few things from it. I have seen Control and it has already influenced my production, but I think I'll go back and watch it again and do a more in depth analysis on the more filming side of things as aposed to the Ian Curtis side of things.

Aswell as directing the music video for Atmosphere by Joy Division, Anton has also directed music videos for U2, Depeche Mode, Danzig, Nirvana Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, The Killers, Travis and Coldplay. He also directed a newly released feature length film, The American, which is definitely worth a watch as it will have his latest ideas on camera work, editing, etc.

Anton has just finished working on a big Hollywood picture called 'The American'.

Joy Divison & Ian Curtis - Lyrics & Death

While performing for Joy Division, Curtis became known for his quiet and awkward demeanour



Ian Curtis was the group's sole lyricist. Curtis would write frantically when the mood took him; he would then listen to the band's music (which was often arranged by Sumner) and used the lyrics that were most appropriate. Words and images such as "coldness, pressure, darkness, crisis, failure, collapse, loss of control" recur in his songs.



In 1979, NME journalist Paul Rambali wrote, "The themes of Joy Division's music are sorrowful, painful, and sometimes deeply sad."

The other band members later admitted they paid little attention to what Curtis was writing.
Morris commented: "We just thought the songs were sort of sympathetic and more uplifting than depressing. But everyone's got their own opinion."
The surviving members of the band in retrospect regret not seeing warning signs in Curtis's lyrics. "This sounds awful but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics," Morris said in 2007. "You'd find yourself thinking, 'Oh my God, I missed this one.' Because I'd look at Ian's lyrics and think how clever he was putting himself in the position of someone else. I never believed he was writing about himself. Looking back, how could I have been so bleedin' stupid? Of course he was writing about himself. But I didn't go in and grab him and ask, 'What's up?' I have to live with that."

Joy Division were due to begin their first American tour in May 1980. While Curtis had expressed a desire to take time off to visit a few acquaintances, he feigned excitement about the tour around the band because he did not want to disappoint his band mates or Factory Records. At the time, Curtis's relationship with his wife, Deborah Curtis (the couple married in 1975 as teenagers), was collapsing. Contributing factors were his ill health, her being mostly excluded from his life with the band, and his relationship with a young Belgian woman named Annik Honoré whom he had met on a European tour. The evening before Joy Division were to embark on the American tour, Curtis returned to his home in Macclesfield in order to talk to his estranged wife. He asked her to drop the divorce suit she had filed; later, he told her to leave him alone in the house until he caught his train to Manchester the next morning. Early on the morning of 18 May 1980, Curtis hanged himself in his kitchen; Deborah Curtis discovered his body when she returned around midday. Tony Wilson said in 2005, "I think all of us made the mistake of not thinking his suicide was going to happen.... We all completely underestimated the danger. We didn't take it seriously. That's how stupid we were."



A wall on Wallace Street in Wellington, New Zealand, had the words "Ian Curtis Lives" written on it shortly after the singer's death. The message is repainted whenever it is painted over. A nearby wall on the same street on the 4 January 2005 was originally emblazoned "Ian Curtis RIP", later modified to read "Ian Curtis R.I.P. Walk In Silence" along with the dates "1959 - 1981". Both are referred to as "The Ian Curtis Wall". On Thursday 10 September 2009, the wall was painted over by Wellington City Council's anti graffiti team. The wall was chalked back up on 16 September 2009. Following this, council spokesman Richard MacLean said "They [the anti-graffiti team] may turn a blind eye to it".



Curtis's memorial stone, which is inscribed with "Ian Curtis 18 - 5 - 80" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart", was stolen in July 2008 from the grounds of Macclesfield Cemetery. The missing memorial stone was later replaced by a new stone.
- This bit of information made me think instead of looking for a person, my main character could be looking for a place. Throughout the film he could be holding a parcel wraped in cloth so as to make you wonder what's inside then at the end he finds the perfect location and places it down to a close up shot of the inscribed message. Also it could be worth spray-painting a mock Ian Curtis New Zealand Wall.

Anti-Video

Anti-Videos are films made on a very low budget and often invole a lot of guerilla filming and large amounts of creativity. They often make lots of use of the reaction of the public and public spaces which are free to film in. I think this would be a helpful and interesting technique to utilise for my production peice, using locations such as; Roads at night, Parks, Buses, Trains, Stations, Shops, Fast Food Restaurantes, Norwich Market & Norwich's Royal Arcade, Tomblands (area of the city, DFS and likewise furniture shops, Staples, Banks, Fish & Chip shops, Music Stores, Model Shops, Clothes Shops, Petrol Stations, Factories, Warehouses, Fields, Foggy/Smokey Woods, Bridges, Underpasses, Galleries, Museums, Rooftops, Back Alleys, Cathedrals, Bathroom Shops, Pubs/Bars, Cemetery, Massive Car Parks, Underground Car Parks, Library, At A Gig, An Office, Cinema, Opticians, Car Show Room, Roundabout, A River, Police Holding Cells, Farm, Hairdressers, Printing Press, Tunnels, Electricty Transformer Sites, River Banks, Hills, Scrapyard, Docks, Drydock, Industrial Estate, Recording Studio, Road going into a Wall, Plant Shop, Old Greenhouse, Well, Old Mill, Under Wind Turbine, Fun Fair, Airport, Airstrip, In a Skip, A Fishing Lake, Swimming Pool, Card Shop, Forest with lights hanging from the Trees at night, Empty Football Stadium, Suit Shop, Art Studio, Bathroom, Train Station, In a Drawer, Fire Station, Old People's Home, Apple Store,

Audience Research

I need to look for people in my target age group (16-28) and ask them about their thoughts on the Arctic Monkeys and their previous videos and also about their musical divulgance along with how their video's have changed with them. Once I've done this I will totally finalise my idea and draft a storyboard.

Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone

Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone from Ain on Vimeo.

Richard Ayoade also directed this very simple but effective video.

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

ARCTIC MONKEYS - Crying Lightning from Framestore design on Vimeo.

This video, aswell as the song, is quite dark and mysterious.
The mise en scene is very ominous and and dark, and quite descolate. ALso quite cool and spooky with them all playing in this huddled little boat with lights for a sial and the microphone stand like the maiden head along with the fact that they can stand up totaly fine in this tiny little boat that looks like it will tip over at certain points. Pretty cool. The camra work is nothing particularly that special how ever it still works really well, especially the swooping over the water shot at the beggining, of course this whole video was done on green screen also so there were a lot of clever angles they could have achieved.

The music video for the single debuted on Channel 4 in UK on 24 July 2009.

The music video, directed by Richard Ayoade (who worked with the band previously on the video for "Fluorescent Adolescent", as well as their "At the Apollo" live DVD), shows the band performing the song on a boat on a rough sea. During a short instrumental interlude, a large figure rises up from the sea in the form of frontman, Turner. He falls to his knees where the boat passes between his legs before the other three band members (Cook, Helders and O'Malley) also rise up out from the water.

Richard Ayoade also Directed Arctic Monkeys Live At The Apollo DVD.

Arctic Monkeys - Teddy Picker

Arctic Monkeys : Teddy Picker from Hairol Fitri on Vimeo.

This video is very effective at making the viewer feel closer to the band by giving them an inside view to their life when they're actually in this big old expensive recording studio in London. The Mise En Scene is also very personal and interesting, showing the band placing personal items on their amps and them looking at old chart songs which they have covered. The Editing is very fast paced with lots of quick changes but also slow-paced with the out of the studio shots being slowed down a little. There are also a variety of shots used to make the studio environment look glamerous aswell with shots such as Alex dancing with a light behind him and them relaxing in the massive leather studio chairs. Some of the camera-work is really interesting too with shots revolving around them as they sing or play and close up shots of personal objects and the like.

Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm

Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm from jean portela frongia on Vimeo.

I'd like to have the jesters in my video dance in a similar way to the dancers in this video. Plus this video is awesome.
The Editing is very very fast paced to go with hte musicality of the song. The mise en scene is slightly commercial and slightly band like too with the dancers in front of a big LED screen and the band playing infront of them. But it also feels like the dancers are dancing to the music as they're facing the band or you could see it that the band are watching the dancers and playing as the camera shots come from both sides.

Production Idea

Music Video: Arctic Monkeys - Secret Door

Lead Character walking through the city and sees these strange looking jesters setting up for something. He stops to look at them and looks right down the camera close up of the jesters mouth as he says the first line of the song, then they all start dancing, and our main character walks on. Gets back and gets shouted at by his girlfriend straight away as he's late, they're going to a boring, middle class dinner party. He get's ready quite quickly and remembers glimpses of the jesters in slow motion. At the dinner party he seems out of place, out of mind and really doesn't want to be there. people keep trying to talk to him but he just ignores them and keeps singing the song. They leave him to hold his coat and his glass of champagne at the buffet table. A couple of the less popular guests start talking to him, well really talking to each other in front of him. Then a shot going through all the guests talking about business and all that rubbish up to his eyes then the camera turns back round and he's looking at the guests being the jesters, his fool's on parade. They do a big dance thing. Then the leader of the other jesters who he saw singing earlier sneaks around behind him and comes up and takes it's mask of, it's his old girlfriend we saw in pictures in his room when he was getting ready, they walk off arm in arm and before he goes he turns around and stops to think about the dancing guests/jesters and we see them behind him then he walks on again, out of the dinner party house and down the drive, holding his arm out and no one else is there.