Our
brief was to create a music video, digipak and magazine advert as
part of a promotional campaign for a music artist.
Forms
and Conventions
The campaign conforms to the conventions
of the electro-swing genre through visual motifs associated with the
1920s period setting, particularly the use of costume such as the
feather boa and flapper dress that the star wears in the digipak and
the props of the pearls.
These period appropriate visual signifiers
are clearly present in the video to Alice Francis' St. James
Ballroom (2013), where the side characters wear black boas, and the
black suspenders and ties the the male and female performers wear.
The colour scheme of the campaign also
feeds into the period and the more glamorous elements of the genre,
as we primarily used reds, yellows and blacks.
Using Goodwin's critical framework it is
evident that our presentation of Emerald is quite conventional of
the presentation of female stars in the electro-swing genre. The
notion of looking is present and the fourth wall is broken at times
by the protagonist looking down the lens of the camera, which is
very typical of electro-swing as a genre as it relies on the
attractive nature of some of the stars to build para-social intimacy
and further commodify them.
However, within the conventions of
electro-swing these shots are often multi-purpose and also act as part of the narrative. As is evident from the clip of Emerald's Tangled Up (Videodrome, 2013) Emerald breaks the fourth
wall by looking down the camera lens during her performance in the
ballroom but this shot pans away to the other characters that hold
precedence in the video, and in our video the protagonist subtly
foreshadows what she is planning at the end of the video through
facial expressions and sly gestures to the band.
Challenging
conventions of the genre
The conventions of electro-swing music
videos are challenged in the use of side characters, such as Harry's
character who gets bitten during the action line in the night
before, and re-appears in the action line for the morning after, where he is seen wearing the prop of the bandage.
Additional characters are typically kept to a
minimum in music videos that are designed to promote a single star as they detract from the
focus on them, but we were careful to maintain Emerald's star status and her
place as the focus of the video by limiting the screen time these
characters received by rarely placing them alone in the frame, which
is very conventional of electro-swing music videos as the star is
generally is given prevalence by the editing.
The use of more gothic motifs in our
digipak also challenges the conventions of an electro-swing digipak.
The panel which is a close-up of Eleanor's mouth uses teeth and
blood prosthetics to create a more gory aesthetic, but to stop the
image feeling too dark and tonally conflicted with the rest of the
digipak, we applied curves in Photoshop that kept the colours
saturated so that it still had a partly glamorous look to it and was fitting of the colour scheme in how it emphasised reds. As such it can be considered more of a twist on the genre conventions, rather than a total subversion or re-invention of them.
Use
of Form
The
form of a music video is particularly apparent in our video's fast
cutting rate, the majority of our shots only last for 2 seconds, and
we cut after every two lines. Additionally, we increase the cutting rate and cut between between different lines of action during the chorus to give it a stronger sense of pace, which is obviously conventional of the form as it gives the chorus a greater sense of importance.
Meat shots take priority during the performance line of
action, which is highly conventional in presenting female stars in
music videos as it is a way for the audience to more intimately view
a star and build para-social intimacy, regardless of genre.
Narrative
Our non-linear narrative is a key part
of the video's form, which is split into three lines of action, one
set during the night where the protagonist excessively drinks blood, one in the morning in which she is recovering and has to
rush to get ready for her performance later in the day, and one set
during the performance.
We inter-cut between these lines of action
to create narrative fuzz, which is highly conventional of the form of music videos, as it encourages repeatability. The narrative is structured between three
lines of action, and while we cut between all three in the early part of the video, the
closure to each is delivered through the last portion of the line of
action playing out by each scene of it being placed consecutively in order.
The protagonist's arc through each is
evident through the use of misé-en-scene. During the line of action for the night before, her preparedness is shown through the use of costume as she wears a black robe with a hood to conceal her identity and help her blend in, and the point where she breaks and starts to drink excessively is shown by her facial expression which connotes that she knowingly gives in to her urges. The morning after shows the direct result of her actions where she is essentially hungover, and very worse-for-wear, which is symbolised by the iconic sign of the clock that shows she wakes up at one o'clock in the afternoon, and connotes she is late and unprepared. Her change in mind-set across the performance line of action may only be evident on repeat viewings, as the subtle details that demonstrate how the protagonist comes round to the idea of attacking the audience may not be immediately obvious, such as her singing the line "They think that it's a party to laugh at all my grief" to the band.
Post-modernism
The video is postmodern in its form and
style and uses a number of techniques that detract from the realism
of the product, for example the stylised text that looks like blood shows an awareness of genre and the fact that it is integrated into the
frame by placing them in empty space and animating them around the other text and parts of the location. This uses the text
in a way that is more obvious than traditional text integration and
acknowledges the medium in a way that makes it post-modern.
The
meaning of the text
The
meaning of the video can be considered polysemic in regards to the
protagonist's morality.
She could be considered corrupt as she
attacks without impunity and relentlessly, even trivialising her
actions through NVC with her sly and playful facial expression
before she bites the female character. In fact, in the end, she decides to
impulsively give into her hunger for blood at the end of the video.
However, she could be interpreted more
sympathetically. Aside from the fact she does not actually kill any
of the people she bites, she also pays them for their trouble using
the prop of the dollars, which could be seen to connote that she
feels guilty for her actions. Indeed she does suffer for her actions
as shown by the hangover. By extension she could be
seen as being punished for her natural urges, and is at least reluctant
to embrace them.
Audience
readings
The preferred audience reading is that
Emerald's actions as a vampire are darkly stylish and she is a dominant and respectable figure.
Her suffering for her natural urges
gives her an undercurrent of vulnerability that only makes her more
sympathetic and builds para-social intimacy.
These preferred reading could be aided
by the conventions of more recent vampire cinema which strips away
some of the more gothic, antagonistic elements that took precedent
in more traditional horror representations of vampires such as in Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922). In its place we drew more from the popular mystical, sympathetic and dramatic depictions such as in the
Twilight franchise (2009-2012) which supports our production, as we
suggest Eleanor has mystical powers by editing her behind Freya, and another line of action partly dedicated to how much the protagonist
suffers for her actions. Our video even conforms to comedic,
satirical depictions of vampires such as What We Do in the Shadows
(Clement/Waititi, 2014) through the use of slapstick comedy, as shown when the protagonist falls off the bed and clumsily runs away from Harry in the field.
An oppositional reading could be that
she is actually a horror antagonist, who deserves to suffer for her
actions. She could be seen as characterised by her intimidating demeanour, and aggressive in how she leads the group of vampires in the attack.
Binaries
Binary
oppositions are set up between the protagonist and those she bites,
or more specifically vampires and non-vampires as our protagonist
attacks normal people, and the band are planning to attack their
audience members. The protagonist's power is shown on a narrative
level through her skill in hounding those she plans to attack and
through technical codes such as prosthetics that serve as obvious visual signifiers through the use of red that connote danger and dominance like the blood and fangs,
which frame Emerald as something literally more than human.
Semiotics
Using
semiotics to deconstruct the digipak, it is clear meaning is created
through visual signifiers such as Emerald's pearls and expensive
jewellery such as her rings, which connotes that she is successful
and upper-class, both of which can be seen as star qualities. There
is a paradigmatic relationship between the fangs and blood on one
panel and the symbolic sign of the title, “The Shocking Miss
Emerald”, the fangs and blood obviously connoting danger that feeds
into the shocking nature of Emerald's character.
Presenting
a more vulnerable side to the star in the video is achieved through
the use of indexical signs to show how worse for wear she becomes
after drinking so much blood. For example in make-up such as her messy hair, and the camera
tracking her as it tilts from a Dutch angle that leans to the left
and then the right, and her sleeping in her bath tub which connotes
weakness and a lack of self-control.
Representation
There
is a discourse on gender evident in the all three texts we produced.
In each Emerald is framed as a “femme fatale” figure right down
to the iconic costume and make-up she wears particularly the intense red or
black dress and lipstick. A feminist interpretation of the texts
would reflect well on the representation of her character:
She is empowered, as shown by her
leading the group of vampires in the band in the attack and her
being the first to bite, and in the print advert where she is the
only person in focus, and the band are behind the text in the
background
The sex-positive feminist interpretation
would be unlikely to criticise the way she dresses, while her
costume is in some ways sexually provocative as she wears a bright
red low-cut dress, she is not actively sexualised by the any of the
three texts, which goes against the concept of the male gaze in
regards to the character's body
The male gaze is not entirely subverted
in regards to character's face as the meat shots in the video, 2
panels in the digipak, and the focus of the print advert all rely on
the attractive facial appearance of the character, and force the audience to
partake in the male gaze in a sense
For example the meat shot below does not show the character's body at all and firmly places the focus on her face, but it still relies on her appearance in doing this
In
terms of discourse on sexuality the video does not abide by typical
hetro-normative discourse as Emerald bites both male and female
character (a negotiated reading could see biting as a sexual act) and this sense the
video can be considered to reinforce emergent ideology. However it
cannot be considered ideologically destabilising as the female
character is bitten off screen.
Star
quality
Emerald is closely associated with the band, particularly them waiting
expectantly for her, as shown by intercutting her running to get to
the performance, with the band setting up and looking uneasily at the
unattended microphone. Emerald is therefore imbued with the myth and
star quality of talent as she is presented as being vital to the
performance, and the high number of people in the audience expecting
to see her suggests that she is popular because of this talent.
The brief was to create a promotional campaign for our chosen artist; which consisted of a music video, a digipak and a magazine advertisement.
Goodwin
Goodwin’s
theory of the relationship between the visuals and lyrics is shown through
amplification in our piece.
We build on the concept of a ‘liquid lunch’ which
originally had the meaning of alcohol consumption, but we furthered this by
creating a new narrative of vampires, and her liquid lunch is blood.
We also
showed an illustrative meaning, for example the line “my bed’s an ocean
liner” shows her in bed, similarly the line “I must have paid the tab” shows footage
of her counting money.
We made clear connections between the lyrics and music,
and the overall narrative is a generally amplified through our elaborated exploration of the title, 'Liquid Lunch'.
We built upon Goodwin's theory of imagery
through our repetitive use of voyeuristic shots, which was essential to build up her metanarrative; showing her as consistently glamorous and present and connected to the audience.
Conforming to a Music Video
One of the
clearest forms of a music video in our piece is our use of a fast cutting rate.
When planning we ensured we changed shot every other line/every two
seconds, this ensured we were keeping with the fast beat and also kept the
audience interested.
You can see from one of our call sheets that our shot lists shows how we changed shot (normally) every two seconds.
Furthermore, our use of narrative fuzz is a generic
convention in some music videos, as it leaves the audience wanting more, leading to repeatability and thereby increases the popularity and awareness of the artist.
Our intercutting between narrative and performance is a highly popular
structure for a music video, and I took creative inspiration from this from my research of Caro Emerald’s video 'A Night Like This'.
Electro-Swing Conventions
Our overall
campaign conforms to the conventions of the Electro-Swing genre largely due to
our use of colour.
A reoccurring convention within our chosen genre is the use
of three statement colours, normally black, white and a third colour (we chose
red).
More specifically, our chosen artist frequently uses the colour red,
which made our choice of our third colour a lot easier.
Furthermore, our images
of 1920s style-props and costumes are a feature of our campaign that clearly
follows generic conventions of the Electro-Swing genre, whereby large emphasis
is put on the period of 1920s through mies-en-scene.
Use of a clear reading
path and voyeurism is apparent in both our video and print campaign (conforming
to Goodwin) as well as the generic connotations of both the artist and genre.
We also used iconography to connote her genre of music, and symbolism to represent the
Vampire narrative, as shown in our digipak still.
The overall text is closed and has the base meaning of vampires and 1920s stylistic features.
However, some aspects of the narrative could be poylsemic due to the ambiguity created through vague narrative.
Challenging Conventions
However, we
do challenge the genre through our use of dark, gothic motifs and vampire narrative.
We place a large amount of emphasis, especially AL3, on the presentation of 'vampire chic'.
We explored how the popularisation of vampires as a sexually provocative and fashionable figure can be shown in new media to embody female power and strength.
A generic feature of our chosen genre (as shown below) is light,
airy lighting and relatively ‘realistic’ narratives.
Therefore we have clearly
challenged the generic conventions and used a mixture of both dark and light
mise-en-scene and colouring.
However, our overall costume and props still
conform to the generic conventions.
Narrative
The narrative is structured by three intercutting lines of action.
The video closes with a final ‘attack’ however the narrative ends mid-sequence which could create a sense of ambiguity for the audience as they don’t know what will happen to the leader singer (of whom they’ve built a relationship with) and what will happen to the rest of the audience etc.
The three lines of actions could have created some confusion or narrative fuzz so we tried to separate the three lines of action through colour grading, with each line of action having different shading.
Binary Oppositions
The victims are negatively portrayed - shown as naïve, powerless and weak, with no control over their future, and are simply there as 'food' for the vampires.
We also show use of Binary
oppositions, a theory suggested by Derrida.
The most apparent use of binary oppositions within our work is vampires and non-vampires.
In our piece the vampires are portrayed most positively, shown as strong, powerful and attractive. Contrasted by our portrayal of non-vampires as weak and powerless.
In contrast, the vampires are portrayed positively, shown to be in control, strong and powerful. Fully in charge of humans who are shown to be on a lower level of power and importance than them.
We also showed use of binary oppositions through two of our lines of
action.
Our scenes in the Pantiles are colour graded with dark
blue and heavy shadows, which strictly contrast our scenes at Caro's house, which
have increased light levels and red levels.
This created a strict opposition of
mood and atmosphere and contrasts the different emotions/feelings of the lead
singer.
Narrative Elements
One of our main narrative elements is the focus on vampires, we purposefully hinted at the idea of vampires throughout, such as neck biting and blood, which are all iconic signs of vampires.
The iconic symbol of vampire teeth, which were revealed purposefully near the end of the video, clearly connotes the fact that the band was vampires.
Furthermore, the use of 1920s props such as the headband and red gloves are clear iconic signs of 1920s period, and help support our period aesthetic.
I gathered inspiration and support from this from the use of mise-en-scene in Alice Francis’ and Caro Emerald’s music videos that I studied.
In Alice Francis' video you can clearly see how we took inspiration for the dark lighting with strong light spotlights, which we attempted to incorporate into our performance scene. Also, the use of period style clothing is apparent here, even shown through the band members too,
Similarly, in Caro Emerald's video we took costume inspiration, where we chose to use a statement piece of red clothing (we used a dress) and used this to represent the era and also create a contrast compared to white and black colouring.
Postmodernism
Our video in
some aspects is postmodern in its style, for example the use of narrative fuzz
throughout the video by the use of intercutting lines of action and a cut-mid
shot ending.
Furthermore, the general concept of vampires is very hyper real
and exaggerates any sense of reality, which is a very modern approach in media.
Furthermore, our colour grading, especially in the Pantiles scenes, adds to the
dream-like, unrealistic concept of our production and therefore supports ideas
of postmodernism style.
