Basic Narrative for Jeepers Creepers video

• The video will start out establishing the location of a wood.
• The protagonist will be established with a series of close up shots.
• The audience will then establish that the protagonist is in distress, with the use of facial expression and a range of different shots.
• The protagonist is being chased by something, that the audience can not see, this will be conveyed with the use of point of view shots of both the protagonist and the thing chasing him.
• The protagonist will run away into a near by grave yard where his distress continues and he is still being chased and eventually falls over and gets attacked.
• The protagonist will wake up on a bench at the top of a hill, realising that when he was being chased he was dreaming, we will use a dream like transition to portray his dream.
• The protagonist realises that whatever was chasing him is still there, but now at a different location.
• He continues to run away from the thing chasing him.
• Again, he is caught and attacked, the attacking will be portrayed with the use of a point of view shot of the attacker getting closer to the protagonist who is in fear.
• Once again the protagonist will wake up from the dream in a more urban environment, where the chase continues.
• Finally when the protagonist is attacked for the third time, he wakes up in a hospital, he is strapped down and with the use of mise-en-scene, the audience will deduce that he is in a mental hospital. 

Genre for our music video

The song we are going to do a promotional music video and a digipak for is by a local band called Fear The Lizard, the song that we have chosen is called Jeepers Creepers. The song is very much an 'indie' song as it is about imagining things, killer clowns, monsters and general 'creepy' things. The music style is very converged; it is a cross between funk music, and rock music and sounds to be heavily influenced by many popular indie bands such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age.

Fight Club - Sublminial blips of Tyler Durden

During Fight Club there are instances where a character is flashed into shot for an extremely short period, not everyone notices this, and some people think it's an accident. It gives quite a creepy affect and it is used to represent, mental illness and to introduce a character who will be coming into the film later on. This is a technique that we could be inspired by, as our video is going to be inspired by the horror and psychological thriller genres, this would be good for us to use. Our music video is influenced by psychological thrillers such as Fight Club so we are almost directly referencing the film in our video, using intertextuality which is a common feature in postmodern texts.

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?

The video is shot in black and white, which increases the documentary feel to the video. The video involves the band in a car, 'performing', not strictly though as they have no instruments, they are playing 'air drums' and 'air guitar', this adds to the humour of the video and represents the band well. The clothes that the band are wearing are dark and plain, giving them a stylised look, to represent them as cool and individual. At the end of the video there is a performance with instruments but only two of the band are playing, this increases the odd atmosphere of the video, as they are playing in what looks like a car park. The is an almost, dystopian state in the video because the band are playing without instruments and when they are playing instruments, nobody is watching them. This could be used in our music video.

Pendulum - Propane Nightmares

The video starts off in the woods, with a close up shot of a dirty plastic bag, straight away giving a sense of normality and realism, bringing the band 'down to earth'. There are also mid shots out of focus, giving a sense of unease. There is a shot of the sun through the trees, the shot is low angled looking up at the sky. There are also close up shots of objects such as leaves, with the figure of a person out of focus in the background, which is a good technique to use. The performance part of the video is intertwined with the narrative part as the band are playing in the bar in which the narrative is taking place. There are many shots which use a change of focus, focusing on one thing and then another, in the same shot, this is a simple technique which allows to reveal things which aren't clear at first, this almost shocks the audience. There is a section in the video which uses handheld camera and fast cut editing, which creates a sense of urgency as the people in shot are runnign away from something.

Trivium - In Waves

The video has no performance whatsoever, which we may do too. The video is shot in low key lighting and low saturation of colour. There are shots in the dark woods, with high lighting coming through the trees which is a technique we may use. There are sections in the video which use fast cut editing, generally close up shots, which are edited in time with the rhythm of the song. The costumes of the band are plain, dark, clothing which connotes the band to be individual and not extravagant.

Blink-182 - I Miss You

We will take inspiration from this video. It involves both performance and a narrative. The mise en scene uses lots of 'old fashioned' clothing and objects such as spiders, these both create a 'creepy' atmosphere to the video. At the beggining, the video is shot in the woods with excessive lighting, lighting a woman dressed in white, we have intentions to use this technique in our music video. The video has lots of close up shots of people's faces, sometimes through leaves giving the audience the idea that there is something wrong with them. Also, in the performance parts of the video, the band are playing old fashioned instruments, e.g. a double bass rather than a bass guitar, this adds to the whole 'creepy' atmosphere of the video. The video uses special effects, making people seem to appear from nowhere, which is a simple but effective technique to use to create a sense of unease.

Attitude, overview - Thomas De Zengotita

• You can disagree with friends about movie stars, TV shows and even humour. But you can't be friends with someone who loves the latest boy band if you are into Ani DiFranco and Gillian Welch.
• It's no accident that ancient Greeks, linked music and morals to closely, given their interest, it was only natural for them to ask which forms of media was most powerful.
• They drew the line around arts and artifacts whose essential purpose was to communicate through representations of some kind, they found one modality that belonged with communicating arts like writing and painting - yet could not be containes by the representational criterion.
• Music doesn't represent anything else, it's there, humanly crafted, yet given, more like the wind itself than a description of the wind. It moves out of us and into us im-mediately. It blends with emotion, it becomes emotion or passion.
• Music, like the stream, like time, like life itself, will not stand still - it will not last, it cannot last, it is music, it has to end, it is mortal.
• Music takes hold of you on levels of your being that precede intentional articulation, levels of being that contain what you can put into words.
• Words when sustained by the immediacy of music, they represent, they articulate, they fill dumb bodies with meaning.
• A code 'anchored' in music has the power to 'form character', and mediated teenagers understand this, because they are engaged in constructing themselves from the ground up.
• Attitude names what the fundamentals of posture and gesture and rhythm come together to engender - the gestalt of a personality, the form that makes details of expression and deportment into a coherent identity.
• Attitude is the very nexus of music and morals.
• The essential attitude is what the heroes teach because attitude is what the fans crave.
• The great performers of this culture will have to be regarded as the heroes of this age.
• Ask yourself this, if you are under forty: who are your heroes? Who do the kids you know idolise, if anyone?
• Sports, no matter how hyped, avoid virtualisation, entertainment performers who stand for something across their appearances come as close to our culture allows heroic stature, e.g. pop stars (mainly) and movie stars (less so).
• Movie stars are not heroes in the way that pop music stars and athletes are - their land is too distant, too fictional, a realm of dreams.

Lana Del Rey Analysis

These images of Lana Del Rey suggest that she is a vulnerable, yet sexualised young american independant woman. The top image shows her retro 1950s, 1960s fashion with the sunglasses and big hair. The second Image displayed shows her breast being held by a man, her facial expression is gived the impression that she is vulnerable and shy. The 3rd image displayed shows a close up of her infront of an American flag, conoting her American mentality and her stern facial expression makes the viewer believe she is serious. In the next image she is layed on her back with short shorts on looking into the eyes of the viewer, she looks vulnerable yet sexual due to what she is wearing. The next image shows her standing infront of a classic American suburban home, making the viewer believe that she is from that sort of background and not very priveledged. The bottom image shows Lana Del Rey singing at a live performance, her facial expressions shows passion for her singing and performance. All of these images add up to the final image of a very individual woman with integrity and a raw talent and love for music.


Lana Del Rey became a massive internet hit after posting her video single Video Games online in August 2011. The YouTube video was watched worldwide and she gained commercial success at number one in many countries. The main question though, was, Who is Lana Del Rey?

Lana Del Rey - Video Games (2011)  

 

The video displays lots of American symbolism, including the American flag, Hollywood, American teenager. The Video is said to have been directed by Del Rey herself. The video is extremely retro, with shots of old newsreel, the use of retro film cameras to film things going on in the current time. The video itself has no narrative and has a few performance shots of Lana Del Rey actually singing, these shots are filmed infront of a plain white wall, giving the audience the impression that she is a normal person in a normal home. During the video there are shots of a very drunken Hollywood actress, Lana here I believe is mocking Hollywood. The general atmosphere of the music video comes from a 1950s home video, documenting nothing particular important. The song itself is very individual and unlike anything in the UK charts at the time, it has been compared to songs by Nancy Sinatra such as Bang Bang due to the melancholic drone to the lyrics and her voice in particular. Overall, the video and the single was very different to anything in the charts at the time, so there was no surprise that it was a big talking point in the 'blogosphere'.

 

 

Digipak analysis

Deadmau5  4x4=12

• The digipak is simplistic and stylish.
• 6 panels, opens up like a book.
• Behind the CD is an image of a live performance to represent his ability to perform live.
• The colour scheme is Black and Green to highlight his energy.
• On the inside of the digipak is advertisement for merchandise, obviously to try boost sales.
• On the other side of inside is a photograph of the artist's whole body shot, which is rare because he is usually just shown as a mouse mask, this gives the fans a sight of the real him.
• Next to the photo is thanks to everyone involved with the album.
• On the back cover is the track listing in the same colour scheme of the front.
• On one of the flaps there is the same image as is on the front cover, but in Yellow, maybe to represent his versatility.

Hot Chip The Warning

 

• The front cover has a very vast colour scheme and 'random' shapes that are confusing to the eye, this is to represent the quirky music style of Hot Chip.
• There is a sticker on every front cover with the album title on and informing the consumer of the most popular songs on the album.
• The back cover has very similar imagery to the front cover, but the shapes only have outlines.
• The track listing is in black so it is easy to read, against the background.
• It has 6 panels again, opening like a book.
• The inside cover is exactly the same as the front cover, without the sticker, this is to make sure that their image is being made clear.
• As it is fully opened, the CD holder is in the middle, the CD is plain white with the outline of one of the shapes similar to the front cover.
• On the panel either side of the CD it is black, with white outlines of similar shapes as on the front.
• The theme of these random shapes, represents the image of the band being quirky.
• On the inside, the colour scheme is dull compared to the outside, to represent the fun of their image, yet they have a serious side to them inside.

Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo

• It isn't a digipak, but we can extract some influence.
•  The jewel case is inside a card sleeve with the front cover image and the track listing on the back, over the top of a photograph.
• All in black and white.

 

• There is no image on google for this band because they are local and unsigned, but we did find the logo of the band.
• The digipak is DVD size rather than standard CD size showing their controversial style
• Once fully opened out it shows a twisting film reel with negative images of completely random items on it.
• On the inside it contains track list which is different to a convential CD which usually has a track list on the back to show that everything you need to see is in the middle
•  Once the CD has been taken out there is a picture of the three members of the band so we are able to grasp an image of what we think they look like.
• The same background colour is shown throughout the whole digipack showing they dont want to venture away from their original style.

Green Day - Bullet in a Bible

• The Green Day digipak contains a live performance CD and a live performance DVD.
• This digipak has a sleeve covering the actual digipak that consists of a 6 panel case with the two CDs
• When we open the first panel we see the bassist performing shwing him in a deep red colour. The next panel has details about the artists themselves and what instruments they play. It also has the acknowledgements for the digipak on the same panel.
• Also on this panel we see very clever printing because we see a bullet poking through the paper to make it look like its actually coming out to hit you and also ties in well with the title of the album.
• Under the two CDs we see all three members of Greenday performing on three seperate panels. The lead singer is on the last panel to show that everyone is equal in the band .
• The track list on the back is on a slant just to be different from everyone else, but only in this subtle way

Links to other Digipak analysis I have been involved in will be available shortly.

Postmodernism in Advertising, Pop Music, Consumerism & Media-Saturation, overview. - Dominic Strinati

Advertising

• Adverts used to tell us how valuable and useful a product was.
• Nowadays, they are more concerned by using references from pop-culture and making their status clear, as advertisements.
• Advertising is always involved in selling things to people, but now there are elements of postmodernism found in contemporary television advertising.
• The intention is still to sell, but now, advertising is more involved with the surface and style of the product, rather than the simple selling of the product on the basis of it's value.
• Adverts are now more concerned with the cultural representations that the product bring.
• Style, quotations from pop-culture and art, jokey quips, self-conscious revelation of the nature of advertisements as media constructions, and their blatant recycling of the past, are all said to be indicative of the emergence of postmodernism in television advertising.

Pop Music

• The recent history of Pop Music can be seen to be marked by a trend of explicit mixing of genres of music in very self-conscious ways.
• This has ranged from remixing already recorded songs, to the quoting and 'tasting' of distinct music, sounds and instruments to create new sub- and pan-cultural identities. 
• Whatever the respective musical and political merits of these new departures, they can be argued to be postmodern, as they are concerned with collage, pastiche and quotation. 
• With the random pasting together of different music and styles, with the rejection of divisions between serious and fun or pop music and with the attack on the notion of rock as a serious artistic music can be understood as an attempt to fashion new and distinct forms out of previous styles. 
• Rock 'n' Roll is commonly thought to have arose out of the cross-cutting influences exerted by country and western and rhythm 'n' blues.
• Postmodernism in pop music can be seen to associated with the movement from rock 'n' roll in the late 1950s, and The Beatles and Tamla Motown in the 1960s, to Jive Bunny, Music Mixing and 'art rock' and 'straight' pop in the 1980s.

Consumerism and Media-Saturation 

• Postmodernism has links with long-standing ideas about the scale and effects of consumerism and media-saturation as central aspects of the modern development of capitalist societies.
• During the 20th century, the economic needs of capitalism have shifted from production to consumption.
• Once, the major need of capitalist societies was to establish their conditions of production.
• Machines and factories for the manufacturing of goods have to be continually built and updated.
• Heavy industries concerned with basic materials, like iron and steel, and energy had to be fostered; the infrastructure of a capitalist economy - roads, rail, communications, education, a welfare state, etc. - had to be laid down.
• Once a fully functioning system of capitalist production has been established, the need for consumption to grow begins to emerge, and then people need to acquire a leisure or consumer ethic in addition to a work ethic.
• In an advanced capitalist society, like Britain, the need for people to consume has become as important, if not more strategically important, than the need for people to produce. 
• Increased affluence and leisure-time have served to accentuate the process of consumption, hence the growth in agencies like advertising, marketing, design and public relations encouraging people to consume, and the emergence of a postmodern popular culture which celebrates consumerism, hedonism and style.
• It is argued that the world will increasingly consist of media screens and popular cultural images - TVs, VDUs, videos, computers, computer games, personal stereos, adverts, theme parks, shopping malls, 'fictitious capital' or credit - which are part and parcel of the trends towards postmodern popular culture.