F.L - Digipak Analysis, Caro Emerald

Digipak Analysis - Caro Emerald

Group - Concept Progression

Since our last blog post on the subject we have made some significant advancements in the depth and detail of our concept. In out meeting today we outlined the following points:

• We have decided that our video will have three distinct lines of action. The performance section, which will take place in the theatre that we are still trying to acquire, a narrative section following the protagonist's experience as she tries to recover from her vampire experience, which we outlined as essentially a hangover induced by drinking blood instead of alcohol, and another narrative section which serves as a flashback showing how she consumed the blood. 
• These three sections will be inter-cut throughout the video. As the song approaches its conclusion the three lines of action will converge. After drinking the blood she arrives home and falls unconscious, leading us into the bed sequence. The bend sequence is ended by her noticing the time and having to rush to get ready and get to the theatre to perform.
• The video as a whole should follow three acts. The first should be the singer beginning her song and starting to vaguely outline some of the events. The second should show these events in detail and culminate in the merging of the three lines of action. The third act will show her getting to the theatre, but on the way having growing urges to consume more blood. it will show the final part of her performance and end with her becoming transfixed by her desire to drink the blood of the audience. 
• We also made some progress with mapping out the shots and their timings with the video, and this is where we hope to continue our development of our concept from now on. 

K.H. - Parov Stelar - Print Analysis

 This is the digipak for Parov Stelar's electro-swing album "Coco" (2009).

This is a magazine advert is for Stelar's tour "Band" which features songs from his his album "Coco".

H.P. - Print Analysis

Group - Track and Ideas

Group - Track and Ideas

Track

The track we have chosen to use is Caro Emerald's 'Liquid Lunch' from her second studio album 'The Shocking Miss Emerald'. The lyric video below shows the track:

 

Video Concept

Our concept has developed steadily over the last few weeks, but still relies greatly on the location available to us. Currently our concept is still revolving around the idea of the main singer being a vampire who is singing about a bad experience she has had in which she drank someone's blood and has come to regret it. The sequence will feature both performance and narrative fuzz. The performance aspect will take place in the theatre, where she is performing to a crowd of people. Thge narrative will show the experience and her experiences due to the event. We are also considering having the narrative and performancce intercept, with the narrative sequences showing the past, the performance being the present and the narrative catching up with the performance and mingling with it at the end to form the conclusion.

Metanarrative

With our video and associated print work we intend to continue and develop Caro Emerald's exisitng metanarrative, rather than invent a new one. This is due to the fact that her current metanarrative links heavily with the genre of music she produces. If we are to successfully create an effective electo-swing music video, we need to encorperate as much of its existing visual style as possible, while also giving it our own creative adjustments and improvements.

K.H. Technical Analysis: Caro Emerald - Tangled Up

Duration	Shot type	Mise-en-scene	Camera movement
0:08	Styled like an extreme long shot of a city	Uses blocked colours and defined shapes, with sharp sides, consistent with aesthetic of the rest of the video	Static shot of animated title card for Grand Mono
0:02	Close up	Includes text showing character name “Maria” as establishment, animated style, heavy shader effect fitting of period	Pull out
0:02	Close up	Same as previous shot, introduces character of “Valentino”	Fast crab
0:02	Close up	Same as previous shot, introduces character of “Leon”	Pull forward
0:02	Close up	Same as previous shot, introduces Caro Emerald	Zoom out
0:09	In the style of a oner, CU into MLS divided into a number of different shot types	Switch to live action, emphasis on permance, location of ballroom, period artwork hanging in frames in the background, muted colours, costume of pink dress and black tie and white shirt of accordion player connotes class, prop of accordion ties into performance	Slow pull out
0:10	Continuation of oner, MS into CU	Setting of bar, low key lighting, period appropriate props of cigarette and cigarette holder which feeds into the upper-class atmosphere and the man holding the lighter implies there is a connection forming between the two	Fast pan in slow pull in
0:12	Continuation of oner, MLS into LS	Location of character standing in front of red stage curtain, period costume of folded white shirt and trilby with white strip, tight character blocking as Maria and Valentino start to dance	Pan and pull in and tracking shot of Valentino
0:14	Animated sequence, combining a mixture of LSs and Bird’s Eye shots of dancers and CUs of their feet and Caro	Animated, characters dancing shown in coloured silhouette, Emerald can be seen singing in grayscale	Presented as a singular shot, with transitions
0:05	CU	Period costume of hat and reflective glasses	Pan down and zoom into glasses as a scene transition
0:29	Animated sequence, LS interspersed with live action CUs, ending in switch to live action LS	Block colours, typically whites, warm yellows, dark blues and intense reds	Lateral tracking shot
0:01	Birds eye shot	Shows checker black and white tiles on dance floor	Slight pan downwards
0:02	Long shot	Includes Emerald’s performance but it is not the focus of the shot	Slight tracking of dancing
0:01	Birds eye shot		Slight tracking of dancers
0:01	Low angle, MS	Allows audience one of the only chances to see Maria’s face after the intro, highlighting how enigmatic her character is	Static
0:02	LS		Slow zoom on Emerald
0:01	LS	Maria and Leon dancing in front of bar	Static
0:01	Birds eye shot		Slight tracking of dancers
0:01	Low angle MCU	Allows audience to see Maria and Leon’s faces	Static
0:02	MCU	Emerald singing on stage	Zoom towards Emerald
0:01	Low angle MCU	Allows audience to see Maria and Leon’s faces	Slight tracking shot of dancers
0:01	MCU	She is implied to be looking at the dancers, diegetically tying her into the narrative	Slow zoom out
0:15		Dance sequence repeats

• The video is narrative focused, with a few moments given to performance, which is particularly relevant to our concept
• There is an emphasis on capturing the period setting and this is primarily done through the use of period settings, costumes and props, along with low key lighting and muted colours
• The animated sequences aren't applicable to ours as we don't have the technology or the man-power available to us but there are ideas in these that we could emulate such as the lateral tracking shot
• The cutting rate increases significantly during the dance sequence the second chorus

Stills

The shader effect here and use block colours, especially in regard to the colour scheme are something we can imitate in our shots that we create in post.

The framing of this shot and the composition is very relevant to how we plan to set up our performance shots.

There are a number of period details here such as the costume and props that we plan t include in our production.

We could use a similar effect on the glasses the boyfriend character wears in our production.

This shot combines both performance and narrative through the use of foreground and background and this technique is something we should consider in our production.

This shot combines a number of elements we intend to use in our production, colour manipulation and animation in the background, use of grayscale, and performance framed in a close up.

H.P. - Technical Analysis - The Speakeasy Three

Technical Analysis of When I Get Low I Get High - The Speakeasy Three

Technical Analysis - Shot by Shot

Shot Type	Camera Movement	Mise-en-scene	Duration
Opening Credits	Zooms	1920’s style fonts in gold and grey	0:14
Mid/Long shot at a high angle	Slow panning	Establishing shot of a crowd of people dancing in pairs in typical 1920’s fashion and in a cramped but luxurious interior setting.	0:02
Mid-shot	Panning right to left	A similarly dressed band plays instruments. The camera moves across them revealing them, finally settling on the saxophonist.	0:03
Mid/Long shot at a high angle	Slow panning	The crowd again, this time the camera pans a little faster and from left to right across the crowd of people.	0:06
Close up	Static	Only the midriff and hands of the man can be seen. He is dressed smartly and is skilfully shuffling a pack of cards.	0:01
Mid Shot/Close Up	Static	Three female singers are viewed from the side looking down the row. Three retro microphones are in front of them. They sing ‘oohs’ to the music. They too are dressed in glamorous 1920’s fashion.	0:04
Mid Shot	Slow Jib or Ped Down	A couple are dancing in the crowd and the camera picks them out and draws focus to them by slowly lowering to their height from above.	0:04
Mid Shot	Slow Dolly to the left	Two men can be seen laughing and playing cards. They are framed so that the focus is on their chests and arms rather than faces. The man on the left is likely the same man as was shuffling the cards earlier.	0:02
Mid Shot	Slow camera movement backwards and direction changing by turning to the right	The camera movement follows the man’s hand as he deals cards. The footage is slow motion. Various glass bottles can be seen both filled and empty. There is British currency on the table, suggesting the country of origin and that betting is taking place.	0:02
Mid Shot	Slow Pan to left	Slow motion still. The men laugh as they play, their faces and torsos are in shot as well as the table.	0:04
Mid Shot/Close Up	Static	Repeat of the shot with the three singers	0:03
Mid Shot/ Close Up	Static	A man’s hands can be seen playing the piano	0:02
Mid Shot	Static	The man who is playing the piano. His face is viewed from the side as he plays.	0:01
		Continues in this style until the lyrics begin
Long Shot	Static	View through the crowd towards the three singers on stage. They sing and do some simple movements with the lyrics.	0:03
Mid/Long Shot	Slow Pan to the left	Shot through the crowd, lower down than before and at a slight angle to the stage. More focused on the dancing crowd but the singers can still be clearly seen in the background. They are in focus and the crowd is not.	0:04
Mid/ Long Shot	Stabilised handheld movement. Slowly moving towards the band.	The band playing, they are more engaged in the song now that the build-up has finished. They dance while they play.	0:03
High Angle, long shot	Static	High angle shot showing the singers, the band and some of the crowd. Reveals the cramped environment.	0:02
Mid Shot/ Three Shot	Static	The three singers, a closer shot of them from in front of them.	0:03
		The video continues in this style for its duration

Summary

• The visual style is first and foremost a fairly accurate recreation of a 1920's style bar, with all the action in the video taking place here.
• The video is entirely performance based, with very little in the way of narrative fuzz. Shots away from the performance are all of people in the crowd enjoying the bar with dancing and card games, and are all closely related to the performance.
• A significant difference between this video and others of the swing genre, including the electro-swing videos we have looked at already is the cinematic style of this video. It very closely resembles a Hollywood film from the 1970's or 1980's with its use of colours, shots and camera movements. The closest comparison I can find is to the scenes in the bar in the Indiana Jones Sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg, 1984).
• The cutting rate is fairly fast for the duration of the video, with each clip usually between 2 and 4 seconds in length. This seems to make up for the number of static shots in the video, with the movement of the actors also contributing to making the video feel dynamic, despite the fact that many shots are static.

Still Frames

The following frames show the visual aspects of the video that I think will inspire our production the most. They clearly show the cinematic style that it would benefit us to try and replicate in some capacity. The most significant points of inspiration here is the colour scheme and the use of the crowded environment to make the frame look more busy and complex, while also adding a dynamic element to each shot, which is particularly important in the numerous still shots.

The framing of this image is particularly of note. By placing the three singers in the left side of the frame, facing towards the empty right side, it is implied that they are singing to an audience. It makes it clear from just one frame that this is the case.






A mixture of mid/long shots and close ups is very important. In addition to providing plenty of material to help fill the run time with a fast cutting rate, this variety of shots also shows technical skill and helps the audience to fully visualise the scene.






This shot I find particularly captivating. Among other things, I believe the strongest factor influencing the look of this shot is actually the very slight blue light hitting the woman from behind. I believe this may be one of the factors contributing to this video's late 20th century film look.






This shot is key in the video as it is the only time that all four lines of action are featured in the same shot. The band, singers, dancers and people at tables can all be seen. This is important in the video as it solidifies that they are all in the same environment, rather than just implying it.






There is a wide variety of content featured in the shots in this video, which is instrumental in keeping the viewer interested in the feature. It is not constantly cutting between the same people in the same situation, there is a wide variety of characters in various environments within the bar.






For electro-swing in particular, the music from the band is a very important component. In almost every song we have looked at in this genre the band has been featured in some capacity within the music video. We would do well to continue this trend in our own production.