What I've Been Listening to... 3/11/11

Baths- Lovely Bloodflow

Peter Bjorn and John- Second Chance

Band of Horses- Detlef Schrempf

Jack Steadman- Cheating
(without the stupid user video)

 

Starting to Plan

As soon as we decided on the song that we would use we started to plan for the music video. We wanted to keep onto of the work load as it can pile up quickly and become very much disorganised. We initially started to brainstorm ideas of words and images that come into our heads when we listen to the music without any visuals. By doing this we do not have any visuals to associate and hinder our creative streams. We all put our words together and this is what we came up with;

·         Autumn

·         Wool

·         British-ness

·         Instruments

·         Walking towards the camera

·         Moon and stars

·         Candles

·         Brighton pier

·         Arcades

·         Southbank

·         Birds

·         Saatchi Gallery on Kings Road

·         Natural Earthy look to the singer

·         Warm tones

·         Frost/ Ice 

Looking at all the words that we formulated together we were able to gather more of an idea of what it will look like. We all especially liked the idea of the Moon and as result we looked up dates for a full moon in which we can incorporate into our music video once storyboarded and finalised. Firstly we typed into Google ‘full moon dates 2011’ however we were unsure if what we were told was accurate for London so we narrowed down our search to ‘full moon dates 2011 England’. Luckily, what we were told applied to the Northern hemisphere which meant that it applied to England. The nearest date for a full moon is the 10^th of November at 8.14pm. Now all we have to do is hope for a clear night sky.

The Final Song

After much discussion my group have finally come to a decision on what song we should use for our final piece. We have decided to use a different song to the ones listed because one of our members was absent when we shortlisted songs and was unable to contribute. When she was in for a group meeting she recommended a song called ‘We Won’t Run’ by Sarah Blasko. We all loved the song but couldn’t decide between that or Laura Marling’s ‘Night Terror’. As a result we decided on conducting a survey to see what the public through was a better song. He is our findings. Sarah Blasko’s song had a landslide victory with 6 votes to Laura Marling’s 2. Our volunteer’s commented that Laura Marling’s song was “too slow and didn’t have much to work with however; it was beautifully sung and had a lot of meaning in the lyrics”. Others commented that Sarah Blasko’s song was “upbeat and could be interpreted in many ways”. 

 

 

 

Group Music Video Song Ideas

We have started in our groups to look into possible songs for our music video. During today’s lesson we used YouTube to show the other member’s the songs that we could use. During the lesson we looked at about 10 different songs, but we were able to cut them down to a final 6.This is the list of our final 6 songs that we will now decide upon.

No Doubt- Just A Girl

Lucy Rose- Scar

Best Coast- Boyfriend

Modest Mouse – Float On

One Republic – Say (All I need)

Laura Marling – Night Terror 

CGI Animation in MV

CGI Animation has dominated music videos as technology has progressed. The term computer animation refers to dynamic CGI rendered as a movie. The term virtual world refers to agent-based, interactive environments. Due to technological convergences over the years, it is now possible for consumers to create professional work from their homes. An example of this is the Wacom Tablet Pen; I received one for a Christmas present last year. This piece of equipment is used in films from the likes of Pixar and can produce work that can be so clean cut it looks real.

In Music Videos CGI animation or alteration has become something of the norm; creating the artist into an untouchable, flawless creature. This is mainly done through the use of colour enhancements, skin perfecting, body enhancements and CGI based locations. In today’s music charts this is a vital component to creating a finished video. Society has become so dependent on the idea of aspirating for perfection, whether it’s realistic or not that the look of a video is flawed in the sense that they have become prioritising the aspiration of an unattainable image. Moreover, this creates a detrimental domino effect on the audience, often leading into low self-esteem and unsuitable idols for young girls and boys. A good example of this is the Katy Perry MV for the song ‘California Girlz’ in which her skin is flawless, such has a ‘perfect’ figure and the lighting creates an idyllic world – promoting her over sexualised image to young children.

Nonetheless, CGI in music videos does not always have a sinister effect. Gorrillaz, a British band formed in 1998 by the amazing Artist Jamie Hewlett who created the Tank Girl series of comic books and the voice of 2-D Damon Albarn. Gorrillaz have based their whole image concept on the use of CGI integration into music videos. The band members of Gorrillaz are all drawing in super flat imagery such as the art movement by Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami.  As such a fitting name was given to the frontman of Gorrillaz, ‘2D’. The lead guitarist is drawn as a small Japanese girl named ‘Noodle’, the bass is a menacing ‘sex-pest’ under the name of Murdock and the drummer is a large black man called Russell. Each of these characters has interesting personalities which is further illuminated in their extraordinary website.

As technology has improved over the years, their music videos have become significantly better and find new ways of wowing the viewers. In 2001, they released the MV for the song ’19-2000’, the video was completely CGI Animated creating a whole new world for the audience to be sucked into. In 2005, ‘Dare’ was released with a significant improvement on the integration of CGI into the real world. ‘Dare’ used technology to allow the 2D character of Noodle to interact flawlessly with the image of a real person. This effect for me meant that I felt that the characters had more of a real life (even though I know they are fake) .I felt as if the way they were presented (CGI) were the actual band. 2010 saw the release of the album Plastic Beach and the release of the MV for the song ‘Stylo’. Again in the few years, Gorrillaz had again taken a massive step forward in the presentation of the band and the use of CGI. In this video, the band members are presented in 3 dimensional animations but still retain their characteristics such as 2D’s endless black abyss like eyes.  The line between the real and animated has become that much more faded in this MV. An example of this is the road on which the car drives on, it is very hard to detect the transition between real and fake, and when seen is only briefly. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IUjtHf76wM&ob=av3e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOR6ib95kQ&ob=av3e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhPaWIeULKk&ob=av3e

Laura Marling Album Covers

Laura Marling is a British Folk singer who has three studio albums out. Her sound is often soft to listen however; her lyrics are habitually full of sinister melancholy. Each album cover reveals a position in her musical life and put together can describe clearly how she has developed as an artist.

Her first album Alas I Cannot swim (2008) is punctured with vibrant, warm colours. The cover is of whimsical drawings of things such as mushrooms, crocodiles, flowers, insects and the sun; while her name is written in fluent jointed writing in the middle of what looks like a flower. These natural images reflect the style of music that she plays; folk/ pop folk music can be interpreted by some as to having connections with natural things such as animals and plants. Often being simple and solitarily played, this abundance of images from her album cover can be seen as an imprint on what type of person she is.  The colour scheme is warm, happy and fresh; reflecting the feeling of summer and joy. Moreover, the messiness of it reflects the scruffiness of her career and youthful flair.

On the other hand her second album, titled as I Speak Because I Can (2010) clearly demonstrates how her music and whole persona has changed dramatically. The colour scheme is extremely different, bland grey tones are used. However, unlike her first album cover she has an image of herself as the focus; this could be due to her increase in popularity, such as Lady Gaga her image becomes an icon and instantly recognisable. The feel of the cover is more ridged and strategic in the sense that there are lines all over the cover and the text is neatly placed in the top left hand corner on lines. Nonetheless, a hint of colour is still evident which could be an indication to her ‘roots’; reflecting her first album and telling her audience that she is still the same person she was before despite what the cover portrays, keeping her fans loyal.

Moving onto her third studio album A Creature I Do Not Know (2011), Laura reverts back to her first album in the sense that she uses drawings opposed to photographs, nonetheless the style is a big difference and compared to the whimsical style of the first album feels a lot more downhearted and heavy. However, the colour scheme is very similar to that of the second album and could be seen as a pattern and an inclination to what to expect of the music, that it’s more like that of I Speak Because I Can and less like that of Alas I Cannot Swim.

To conclude, each album cover is very different but in its own way very compelling. As one of my all-time favourite artists I found that every time one of her albums were released they appealed to me in different ways and always made me expect something new because of their differences in styles. Whereas the album covers of Taylor Swift are very similar meaning that you don’t necessarily expect and coverage of new ground and you know what you’re buying.