Locations - planning music video

How can Artic Monkey's 'A view from the afternoon' be understood through the concept of Todorov's narrative theory?

How can Artic Monkey’s ‘A view from the afternoon’ be understood through the concept of Todorov’s narrative theory?

Torodov’s theory of narrative follows a very simple concept. This concept is that music videos are split up into 3 acts with 5 different points. The first point is the equilibrium which starts act 1, this sets up and introduces the story to the audience e.g. getting off a school bus or waking up in the morning. The second factor is the problem, this is the point in the song in which the story takes a turn and things start to go bad, or difficult such as a bully incident, or something getting lost, this then sets up act 2. Torodov says there is then a point in which this all changes and goes back to normal, the resolution, this would be the main character standing up to the bully or finding whatever they thought was lost. Act 3 is then a series of shots which show how the rest of the story plays out after this resolution.

In ‘A view from the afternoon’ however doesn’t follow these simple steps so straightforwardly. At the beginning of the video there is a short clip of the main character setting up his drum kit with no music playing. Instead of this being the equilibrium, I it is more of a prologue to the story as there is no music playing and it doesn’t really establish what is going on. An enigma symbol is introduced in the prologue with the shot of the glitter spraying in the main characters face. A proairetic symbol instigates act 1 as soon as the Drummer (main character) starts playing his drum and the song starts playing with all the instruments of band being introduced. Act 1 then continues with the main character drumming away with a few shots of the scenery and of a man with a baseball bat. This act then comes to an end when three men appear in front of the drummer with intensions of messing around with him, they throw chips, stare at him all while he plays, and this is the start of the problem. This introduces us to act 2, within this act we see the drummer getting more tired and distressed as he plays, after a few slow motion shots and the shots that switch to day and night, a young girl walks passed him holding a glass of milk, she represents the resolution. The girl approaches the drummer and feed him milk while he plays, this causes the story to flow into a short interlude while the music stops. This interlude shows the drummer cleansing himself in a bath, which is a metaphor for relaxation and restoration of normality and good, this is shown to be not real as the bath shot is in colour whereas the rest of the music video is in black & white.

The next shot is of the drummer’s hand slowly opening to find that they are covered in blood. Act three however starts as soon as he continues to play the drums this expresses to the audience that although his hands are bleeding, it is a good thing as it urges him on to continue the song. The music and story go hand in hand in this music video as they complement each other, certain actions within the narrative create a change in the song and instruments. This helps define each act and points in the music video which are important. Act 3 is fairly short as it just a night time scene of the man with the baseball bat approaching the drummer. This song compliments this scene as the song is drawing to a climax as when as the narrative, this makes it all more effective to the audience. The drummer stops playing before the man hits him and then the narrative is returned to the enigma shot we see in the prologue of the drummer getting glitter sprayed on him, this makes a link to the beginning and end of the story which performs a circular structure to the narrative.

Inspiration For Concept

We were able to get inspiration from many different sources for our concept because it is quite common in music videos. The idea of a relationship in struggle is something that we could easily access from anywhere in the media, this meant that we had to work harder to try and make our video unique and not like the ones everyone else sees.
For our inspiration we looked at existing music videos as well as other sources of media like film to give us an understanding of techniques and storylines that we could use. our first source we looked at the student music video made by Joe Murray Firehorse - 'Bloodstream'.









This music video follows very similar story lines as ours, except its basically in reverse. this video uses some really nice techniques to show that one another like each other without any text or facial expressions (tucking hair behind the ear), which I believe could work really well in our video. Also the story goes from a couple falling un love to arguing and eventually breaking up, ours starts with the break up and then the couple get back together in the end.






Strangers on a train











The film 'Strangers on a train' was our next source of inspiration as it uses quite a  technique that we would find useful in our video. In the opening scene of the film, the camera films two different guys walking towards a destination but we only see their feet, what's different about this scene is that one guy is only filmed walking in one directions (left) and the other is film only walking in the other (right). This gives the audience the idea that they are going to arrive and meet each other at the same destination. This could really work in our video as the two characters in our concept are too going to find each other at the beach (our final destination) and by using this technique we can give the audience the same idea that 'strangers on a train' tried to get across. this technique also creates an enigma for the audience as they wanting to know where the characters are going and where they will arrive.

Narrative timeline

For further planning we decided to create a timeline of the duration of our chosen song 'Kings'. upon this timeline we were planning each stage and scene that we're going to film and matching with the timing of the music. This way we have a much easier job sorting out which shots are when and matching the film with the music.

Doing this timeline now allows us to much easily create detailed storyboards for each scene of the music video. It also means that we can now start to plan each shot and even start shooting draft shots of our music video, to see what we need to improve or change and what we can keep the same.

Basic Concept For our Music Video



Concept

After analysing the lyrics of the song we have chosen, we came to understand that the artist (Samuel Ford) was talking about a an incident within a relationship to which the female had maybe cheated or betrayed her partner in some way. Therefore the lyrics then talk about how he forgives the female for what she has done and although it has effected the partner he believe they can become a strong couple again.

With this information we started to gather a few ideas about the different types of locations, costumes and the basic plot of what was going to happen. We decided the basic idea was going to be a montage of shots between two people in a broken relationship reminiscing over the times that they had in their relationship before they split up. Both characters will be filmed taking a journey somewhere and stopping at different location along the way, the camera will cut between the male and the female travelling throughout the video. We will keep on cut to a cork board which would have multiple photos of the couple at different points in their relationship, such as, their first date and their first time at the beach, when each person is at the location that these moment happen, it will switch to the photo on the board. The shots would be jumping between the two people travelling all in one direction (i.e. the male will be filmed going only left and the female will be filmed only going in the right direction), this creates the idea that they are going to meet somewhere (foreshadowing what actually happens) in the same location, not knowing the other is going there. Finally they meet at the last location and seeing each other reminds them how much they mean to one another, making them rekindle their relationship.

Locations:

The type of locations that we planed on shooting at we places like a beach, a forest, a café, the boy's and girl's bedroom and Marriot's way (bridleway), each of these locations would have a significant meaning to each other.

Costumes:

Costumes aren't really a integral focus of our music video as I feel it would be best if the characters just wore casual generic clothes that teenagers would wear. This is just because our music video is about two teenagers sorting out their relationship and if we were to alter the costumes to anything slightly abnormal it would create a new enigma for the audience and take away the focus from the story we are trying to convey.

Annotated Lyrics For Chosen Song

Sonic Youths - Norwich Art Centre

On the 9th August 2016 I attended a small gig while trying to find a song that we could use for our music video. This shows off a few young unsigned bands and artists at the Norwich Art Centre.

The first act that I saw was from a girl named Sadie Nencini. It was just her and her guitar and her music was very light and peaceful. This indie artist, although was young, was able  to create beautiful melodies which would be easy to make a story or a concept out of. Unfortunately the songs that she sung were quite similar and didn't really progress throughout each song and therefore I felt there were better options out there that would make better music videos. Also the lyrics of each song were quite simple, which for someone of her age was fine, for us I felt it would be hard to work with.

The next band/ artist I saw was a woman named Abigail Blake. Abigail was able to deliver a quirky and unique style which was something I've personally never really heard. Her mixture of harp and electronic beats created a refreshing sound but the lack of flow caused the songs to be hard to follow. This made it hard to picture a story or an idea that I could use for a music video.

The third was a duo called Jaztec. Jaztec had one artist playing a saxophone while the other used an electric keyboard. I really enjoyed listening to the music they created but it wasn't going to be suitable for our needs as there were no lyrics which meant it was hard to know what the songs were about and how to make a video for one of them.

The final band that I watched was The Midnight Zoo. These were a indie punk rock band, which I felt personally were the best act out of them all. Although they were probably the least unique band I felt they gave the best performance and each song built up with a beginning middle and end. this meant that it wold be very doable to create a good standard of music video because we could use each introduction of instruments as a new step in the music videos' story. The only problem with this band was the genre they were, the punk music meant that we were going against what we initially thought of doing and this could have been a problem.

Overall, I unfortunately wasn't able to find the perfect band for our creation of a music video but it definitely gave me some experience and ideas of what songs make good music videos and which songs don't. I was also able to get help from a family friend of ours which hosts this event able each band and who to look for in general.

Lyrics For Chosen Song

Samuel Ford - Kings

Hold your tongue,

don’t let your fear become

a call for your pardon,

a call for your sins.

Take your time,

there’s no need to hide your crimes

from all that surrounds you.

So live like we ought to,

live like we’re born to,

live like were all of us kings,

together we'll learn,

to grow when we're broken,

grow as we’re open,

grow with the age of defeat,

together we’ll learn.

Together we’ll learn to lose,

and we’ll love.

Break your glass,

its to soon to cloud the path,

of hope it is waiting.

So live like we ought to,

live like we’re born to,

live like were all of us kings,

together we'll learn,

to grow when we’re broken,

grow as we’re open,

grow with the age of defeat,

together we’ll learn.

Together we’ll learn to lose

and we’ll love.

(Instrumental)

Hold your tongue,

don’t let your fear become

a call for your pardon,

a call for your pardon.

FINAL CHOICE FOR OUR MUSIC VIDEO

The final choice was Kings by Samuel Ford. Unfortunately the reason why we have chosen this song was because our first choice (Rolled on by) was rejected when we were contacting them and therefore we decided to contacted Samuel Ford. Thankfully he accepted. This is the emails that we received and sent to Samuel Ford for the conformation for making a video for his song.

After a few conversations about our previous work and what we had in mind for this video he sent us the email allowing us to use Samuel ford's song.

Looking For A Band

To start looking for a band we first needed to find a website that was going to give us British Unsigned Bands/ Artists. After looking at a few website we finally found one which was legitimate and could provide us with want we needed, this was RicherUnsgined.

From this site we were able to pick out quite a few artists and bands that were suitable for our project.

One possible song that we were planning on using was Whispering Knights - Rolled on by

This song showed us a steady build up of different instruments which is good for a music video as allows us to know when to start a story or where to introduce new ideas into the video, for example at each point where a new instrument starts playing will be the key for something to happen like a man walking down a street. Another example of this is Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve which we used for our project.



The other possible artist that we found on RicherUnsigned was Samuel Ford - Kings

This song gives us quite a nice melody to deal with as it opens up a lot of different options for a music video. This is because you could quite easily make the video seem like a sad or happy . The lyrics of the also support this idea as well as creating a story or a concept for us.

basic ideas - research

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS


1: Narrative -
Narrative music videos are ones that tell a story or show us a story. this is usually in link with the lyrics of the song (showing what the song tells us) to create a visual representation of what the song is about and what it means. An example of a narrative music video is Frank Ocean's Swim Good.





2: Performance -
Performance music videos are videos that show the band/artist performing their song. this category also includes performances from other media such as dance routines and other people singing or playing the song. The song I chose for this type was Foo Fighters - Pretender.






3. Concept -
Concept music videos are ones that are usually based on one single idea which tends to be quite different and obscure and sometimes they don't make sense. This is used to make sure the audience is watching and because they are so unusual it grabs their attention. One exapmple of this is Radiohead's 'Just' music video.

After researching different types of a music videos and watching multiple, I decided that for our own music video I think that it would be best if we were to do either a concept or narrative type (or even both). This is because I feel this is going to be the easiest to access as performance videos tend to have dance groups or the band performing themselves. This may be hard for us to do as getting the band to come and do a music video with us could be difficult depending on where they live. Also trying to find dancers to not only create a dance but to be at a professional standard could be extremely time consuming and hard to find without having to pay for anyone.

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Hello! My name is Louis Coles and this is my A2 Media Blog.