Thursday, 14 September 2023

SOME POSSIBLE INITIAL VIDEO INFLUENCES

KATY PERRY - HOT AND COLD


Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. 

The video takes place at a wedding, Perry appears frustrated and the music begins to play diegetically, with the congregation dancing as disco lights flash. Perry begins to sing the song to Alexander before he flees the altar. There is a narrative created through Katy's hero’s journey (Campbell's monomyth).


Perry corners him in a warehouse, and Alexander is pulled into an audience and forced to crowd-surf while watching Perry perform the song on stage. I liked how in this music video the concept, narrative and performance are intertwined. 


When Alexander pulls out his phone, Perry is on the screen singing to him, something I wish to incorporate in my music video through the tv. 


The music video features constant costume changes. After a location change from the warehouse, we see Katy Perry outside wearing urban clothing, surrounded by dancers dressed similarly. When he turns around, he discovers that he has been cornered by Perry and the group of angry brides. He stumbles and the dancers surround him as he lies on the ground, before Perry approaches him leading a zebra on a leash. Alexander blinks and finds himself back at the altar in the church, revealing that the previous events were just a daydream, making it a cyclical narrative, making the reader want to watch it again. 


The video has an overall heteronormative message, with the stereotypical normative masculine figure avoiding getting married. However, it can also have a post-feminist reading (Stuart Hall)

 as she is reclaiming her female agency. 


As conventional pop music video, it features colour pop and bright colouring. The oversaturation links to the cheery nature of the song, with humour being intertwined into the narrative. 


RADIOHEAD - FAKE PLASTIC TREES



Radiohead's musical style has been described as art rock, alternative rock, electronica, experimental rock, progressive rock, grunge, art pop, and electronic rock. Jonny Greenwood said Radiohead strive to find a middle ground between their experimental influences and straightforward rock music, and were driven by a desire not to repeat themselves rather than to be "experimental".


The music video for Fake Plastic Trees is conceptual, with a lack of any clear narrative. There is a clear link/relationship (Andrew Goodwin) between the lyrics and the visuals, with the use of plastic. 


As sombre and sinister as the visuals are, there is bright colouring and colour pop used consistently. There is personal identification, letting your inner child loose, kicking boxes and going wild in the super market, escapism. 


Vernallis, there is a hint of a narrative but it is mostly non-narrative and ellipse present. Some Proppian archetypes but they are not developed. The shot with the surveillence, they are trapped and being watched

Younger woman, older woman, older man, younger men representations. 'Colour pop' bright colours juxtaposed. Open narrative, the end is the beginning.


HALSEY - GHOSTS




At the start of the video there is a long diegetic intro and a medium long shot/long shot of a city with high skyscrapers and lots of banners everywhere with Japanese writing on. This denotes the setting to be urban and a 'big city' perhaps in the country of Japan. However, the location hasn't been intentionally anchored, it has been left as polysemic with asian signifiers through Japanese script. The issue here is globalisation - where is this city - this is a city anywhere - not western or eastern which is an aspect of representation and post-modernism, a refusal to accept a certain reality - any place any reality. 


The ‘colour pop’ apsect: The coloured lighting, neon colours, pastel colours, the slow motion effect on the characters moving, layering effect, shots being faded into each other. Almost bokeh. The costumes used in the video e.g. the pink bob wig, red lipstick, choker, black eyeshadow, black eyeliner.


Laura Mulvey's male gaze is somewhat exploited in this music video through the close ups and medium close up shots at the start of the video of Halsey and another girl's body. They are heavily glamourised through the use of high key lighting, sometimes with the use of colour gels and also colour correction. This is one of the key conventions of the electropop genre (colour correction, SFX, use of colour gels). I am influenced by this video to use colour gels for lighting in my music video on the lip syncing footage of the singer and on some of the narrative shots. Semiotics of science fiction: she’s being scanned and strobe lights, flickering. 


OLIVIA RODRIGO - GET HIM BACK




Extensive continuity. Some narrative, contradicting Vernallis' point that music videos are too elliptical to have a narrative. Shooting a long shot so the editing software can match up.  Since "Get Him Back" is a breakup song, the video tells a narrative story that reflects the song's lyrics, having an illustrative narrative (Goodwin). The video includes dynamic camera angles and stylistic colour grading that enhance the mood and atmosphere of the song.


All filmed on Iphone. Basically a glorified Apple campaign, we could implement a sponsored by Apple aspect into social media or video. Violent imagery of the knife would be considered by the BBFC as imitable behavior. Something to avoid in our music video. Extensive usage of match cutting, something we could implement. Throwing something towards the camera, smooth match cut.  


DOJA CAT - AGORA HILLS


Mix of analog and digital camera, links to retro mania (Simon Reynolds). Similar to auteur Anton Corbijn - Enjoy the Silence Depeche mode. Used only film. 


Mise-en-scene: The bedroom scene is pinky and frilly, binary opposition (Levi Strauss) of the innocence of a child's bedroom with the violence of the rest of the music video. Something we can implement: juxtapose girly Olivia with punk Olivia. We could replicate her look: exaggerated make-up and hair. The contrast of girlish innocence but hints of sexuality and male gaze (Laura Mulvey). Lighting. colour pop of pastels and use of lanterns. 

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Hello!  My name is Sasha  and this is my A-level Media  blog tracking work from 2023-2024. Together with Leila and Ambre we collaborated to ...