Postmodernism and Other Theories (*IMPOPRTANT in understanding what the music video is about*)

Postmodernism rejects conventional reality and conventional forms. In today’s society the fine line between media and reality can be difficult to be seen; people interpret reality by how media has represented it. Out of the many forms of postmodernism I have used a few:

The narrative of my music video is not structured in chronological order with the simple beginning, middle and end. There are many different narrative theories out there, all which bring an order so people can understand and recognise the text. Without order events may seem to be random and is only understood as chaos. My main character is in a disturbed state of mind due to the loss of her lover and to show this I have used an aspect of postmodernism called erosion of time. The use of discontinuity signifies the state of mind the girl is in, it also contributes to the audience gratification theory in this case. The story starts with the boy and girl arguing, she then walks out of the room and slams the door. When she opens the door and comes back in, he has disappeared and the place (bed) where he was sitting we see three red roses (the colour red is used to signify death and blood but also love and passion; all which relate to this situation). There is then a flash back to where she remembers his funeral and the 3 roses are placed on his grave (this was done so audience can make the link between the roses on the bed and the funeral. I wanted the audience to figure out he is dead and not have me tell them so they get audience gratification for they believe they have worked something out which others might have not. However this could also lead to people interpreting the meaning behind the flowers as something else in which ‘death of the author’ theory comes into play where the meaning I implied has not been received by the audience). Towards the end of the video we see how she remembers further into the past where the couple were happy together and this is shown in black and white to make it less confusing. So the video starts of in what seems to be the present but is actually the past or in the main character’s head. When she comes back into the room that is the actual present/reality. There is a flashback into the past and the video ends further into the past.

The use of Binary oppositions can be seen in the conflict between the boy and girl. Also in the cinematography I have used scenes with high key lighting along with scenes with low key lighting to create an oxymoronic effect (dark and light). The conflict between the boy and girl, the conflict between light and dark and the conflict between reality and imagination is all questioned. I wanted my audience to see this for themselves, that is why I made it so subtle so if they do manage to see it, it would add to the audience gratification theory. The main character’s conflict with her lover and more important conflict with herself is a key message I hope the audience can see and most likely relate to.

I have also used intertextuality towards the end where we see the boy and girl being in love/happy with each other. I got the idea of this from a Korean Pop music video called Haru Haru by the BigBang. In the BigBang video the guy has a camcorder and so does the boy in my video. Also a lot of close ups and point of view shots are used in both. Both of them are shot around similar surroundings. Here are images comparing both of them.

(*last 2 frames on this picture*)

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Having cohesion between the products and its advertisement will help the target audience recognise the product and artist. It can be confusing to have an advertisement that shows sun shine, rainbows and bright colours to promote a heavy metal rock band such as Iron Maiden or Metallica. I think there are some very recognisable abstract links between my main product and ancillary texts. However if I had the opportunity again I would make the synergy between my products more obvious and noticeable.

For the CD inserts and magazine ad I decided to use photos I had available of the band. The photos used on the CD inserts tell us a lot about the Band and what type of genre they are. Indie-Rock tends to use quite simple yet powerful imagery and generally stays away from complicated graphical designs. On the front we see all four band members standing outside a garage door in a group photo where everyone has equal focus (the spend a lot of time practicing inside this garage thus it holds some kind of a sentimental attraction to them). We can see the band members are framed using the brick wall and roof almost like a picture frame; being framed relates to their songs about struggle and feeling insecure or trapped. Also by framing the band together we immediately think of the connection between them (juxtaposition). The band members each hold an identical piece of paper with the name of the band and the song. They use this paper to cover their faces; this implies the band want to be noticed for their music and not their physical appearance. The back of the CD cover uses similar framing and props but we see the fun, creative side of the band by their poses. They seem to be expressing their individuality and a glimpse of their characters in this image. Obviously the target audience may derive different meanings from this image as ‘death of the author’ theory suggests audience don’t have to always get the same message the band wanted to convey as everyone is individual and have their own way of seeing things.

Cohesion between the CD inserts and magazine ad can be seen in the mise-en-scene, props and lighting. The pieces of paper are used in both to display the band’s name. The band members wear similar styles of clothing in both the pictures. And we see how lighting is used in both to create shadows; the shadows relate to the songs and imply about the hidden struggles and dangers in life. The typography used in both has the same font style and binary opposite colours (black and white). The dark colours in the magazine ad also link with the colours used in the ice rink scene and graveyard scene while the brighter (natural lighting) lighting used in the front and back CD covers link with the rest of the narrative scenes. We see a sort of oxymoronic effect where wee see the battle between love and hate, dark and light, reality and imaginary. This is the deeper meaning of my main product and ancillary texts. I believe having a deeper hidden meaning which is not noticeable straight away will be appreciated by the audience to greater degree when they recognise it. This is using the Audience Gratification theory which implies the audience are not passive viewers and they challenge the media they view; this is contradictory to the hypodermic needle model which says the audience are influenced by the media where they simply take in anything and everything said by the media passively.

Indie Rock

Indie rock is a sub genre of alternative rock which started off during the 80s in the UK and US. ‘Indie rock’ is short for independent rock; artists of this genre tend to be unsigned or signed onto small independent labels. These small independent labels would not have much capital for advertising and marketing thus rely on means such as word of mouth and touring to get their artists noticed. Indie Rock artists tend to be anti-hegemonic and don’t create mainstream music but rather produce distinctive music for a niche audience.

The band ‘In Your Honour’ is an indie rock band. It is generally aimed at a young audience; aged from 16 to late 20’s. The band consists of a lead singer, drummer, guitarist and bass.

The UK was greatly influenced by major record companies during the early 1950’s to about late 1960’s. It was very difficult for independent labels to make a name for themselves due to their low funds and publicity. The majority of these independent labels failed to achieve commercial success and tend to have a small group of loyal fans.

Indie rock tends to have some conflicts with the cultural conventions of rock music. They tend to be rebellious and a lot more varied. From the songs such as ‘Get Outta’ My Head’ and ‘take this life’ we see the rebellious side of ‘In Your Honour’. The venues they play at such as the ‘The Croft’ and the ‘Cooler’ are clubs with a younger audience and this is the crowd the band caters to.

Filming on the Ice Rink

To be honest it was extremely fun filming on the ice; it was something new for everyone and we all were very excited. This excitement could be seen in the footage as the band preformed with a lot of emotion and energy. We were also able to control the lighting to fit our needs thus making the footage a lot clearer than the one filmed at the gig.

Negatives: I have always enjoyed ice skating and thus felt confident enough to try doing some filming while on skates. My Idea was to get a tracking shot using the skates to help me glide smoothly but unfortunately I was told the ice wasn’t in a fit enough state to skate on thus was unable to try it out. We had to make sure to get all the equipment onto the ice being careful not damage the instruments or scratch the ice. Setting up the equipment on the ice took longer than I had anticipated thus the time we had to film was significantly shortened. Due to the limited time we had I was unable to get all the shots needed.

Here is a comparison between a shot from the pretender’s music video and my music video. As you can see the camera quality for my video wasn’t great, I think if we had better cameras the video would look a lot sharper and professional.

Dancing in the Distraction Factory – Andrew Goodwin