The Nextmen - Thinking Man's Session Q1-50
1.Genre Characteristics
The genre of the song is rap. I believe this video very accurately presents and represents many conventions in the rap genre and culture.
The street setting of the 'gang' of boys directly exemplifies the environment in which gang culture and the genre of rap are set.
The clothing worn by all characters is highly associated with rap and hip/hop. They are all wearing casual sports clothes; shorts, jogging trousers, hoodies, basketball vests, ect. This ties in to another characteristic of rap, the association to sport and dance. This is also featured withi the video as in many shots, the group are playing basket ball and the main artist is performing modern hiphop dance and breakdance (1:28)
The saturated colours also flaunt the characteristics exemplified in this video. A key element to the gang culture associated to rap is the display of material possesions and clothing. By hightening the brightness of primary colours, it clearly emphasises the value of clothing in gang culture; a characteristic of the genre.
2. Lyrics/Visuals
As the primary directive of this video appears to be to sell the artist and emphasize gang culture, the need for lyrics to relate of visuals is minimal. However, in accordance with the bodily movements of rappers when they are rapping, some of the lyrics are 'acted out' with slight hand gestures. For example at (1:48) lyric: to write rhymes, the artist mimes writing on his hand. This is also a characteristic of many artists in the rap genre.
3. Music/Visuals
The editorial reactions to musical ornaments within the record are highly effective in this music video. The most interesting element of the editing of this video is the use of image 'shuffling', example: (0:11), when there is a disk scratching effect on the record. This creates the feel that the video and soundtrack are closely linked. I feel that this hightens the interest the veiwer has in the video as it gives a sense that the accompanying video is a necessity, or even that the music was written to the style of the video as opposed to the video being produced to support the music.
4. Needs of Record label
Clearly, due to use of branded clothing and centralisation of the artist, the needs of the record label were in high regard in the production of this video.
5.Voyeurism
6.Intertextuality
Thursday 20 October 2011
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Editing - 18/10/11
daymn.
Thursday 13 October 2011
Analysis of Lyrics to Jack Johnson's "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing"
Well I was sitting, waiting, wishing
You believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
The opening lines of the song set the theme of 'waiting, wishing'. We assume the 'you' is a reference to a lady (male singing) and the basic story is that she doesn't love him and is ignoring him. 'The signs' could be seen as a reference to his own actions. This gives the listener the idea that he has been dropping clues to her that he is not happy with the way he is being treated.
The rhyming pattern of the verses are the first two lines rhyming and the last not. It has a regular beat in 4/4 timing with a line to each bar, this is a usual layout for popular songs as it means that the song is easy to listen to and has a fluid motion as it is easy to predict due to the simple layout.
The Lord knows that this world is cruel
I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning lovin' somebody don't make them love you
These lines emphasize the desperate feeling of the last resort. It is clear that the singer has had enough and references 'The Lord'. A god is generally turned to in a time of need, further emphasizing the desperation of the singer to get attention from the lady.
The use of 'fool' as a term referring to himself was an inspiration for the central character of the video being a mime as they are typically associated with foolery and clowning. This also makes the character laughable and lighthearted, which coincides with the light feel of the song.
Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool
The chorus has the feel of begging due to the use of 'must i always'. It is a direct plea to the lady but almost seems to speak to the listener. **
I sang your songs, I danced your dance
I gave your friends all a chance
This part shows the effort the artist has put into this love of his. He seems to have tried his hardest to fit in to certain aspects of her life, even if they don't fit in with his own life.
But putting up with them
Wasn't worth never having you
This show that he is feeling let down and angry because obviously after giving her friends a chance it turns out they are not pleasent to him, This will obviously hurt.
Maybe you've been through this before
But it's my first time so please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you
This shows that he is naive to the chance that this love may not work, because he's never felt like this before, so it may just be an infatuation. This links to the part in our video when the mime sits down with the artist, who eventually shows him the mime girl whom he falls in love with.
I can't always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool
**
I keep playing your part
But it's not my scene
Want this plot to twist
I've had enough mystery
Keep building it up
Then shooting me down
But I'm already down
This part shows us that he's finally getting fed up and not losing interest exactly, but starting to realise that this may not go his way in the end. Also the link to "plot" and "scene" is very theatrical and links directly to the mime and also "Les Enfants du Paradis" where the mime is on stage with the beautiful woman, whom the mime is madly in love with, and rejects him. breaking his heart.
Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting
Another link to begging for attention "just wait a minute" makes it seem like he's asking the girl to stop and listen for once instead of ignoring all his moves.
Well, if I was in your position
I'd put down all my ammunition
I'd wonder why'd it taken me so long
This the final point in the song where he realises that this is not right and loses his naivete. He realizes that this girl is not the person she though she is and as he says in the next verse, that she is "cruel" for playing him like this.
But Lord knows that I'm not you
And if I was, I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waitin' on love aint so easy to do
Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool
**
No, I can't I always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool
This is where he denounces himself from following this "cruel" girl about. This links to the point in our video where he holds hand with the mime girl, the person our mime should be in love with, someone who shares the same interests who has also been mucked about.
You believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
The opening lines of the song set the theme of 'waiting, wishing'. We assume the 'you' is a reference to a lady (male singing) and the basic story is that she doesn't love him and is ignoring him. 'The signs' could be seen as a reference to his own actions. This gives the listener the idea that he has been dropping clues to her that he is not happy with the way he is being treated.
The rhyming pattern of the verses are the first two lines rhyming and the last not. It has a regular beat in 4/4 timing with a line to each bar, this is a usual layout for popular songs as it means that the song is easy to listen to and has a fluid motion as it is easy to predict due to the simple layout.
The Lord knows that this world is cruel
I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning lovin' somebody don't make them love you
These lines emphasize the desperate feeling of the last resort. It is clear that the singer has had enough and references 'The Lord'. A god is generally turned to in a time of need, further emphasizing the desperation of the singer to get attention from the lady.
The use of 'fool' as a term referring to himself was an inspiration for the central character of the video being a mime as they are typically associated with foolery and clowning. This also makes the character laughable and lighthearted, which coincides with the light feel of the song.
Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool
The chorus has the feel of begging due to the use of 'must i always'. It is a direct plea to the lady but almost seems to speak to the listener. **
I sang your songs, I danced your dance
I gave your friends all a chance
This part shows the effort the artist has put into this love of his. He seems to have tried his hardest to fit in to certain aspects of her life, even if they don't fit in with his own life.
But putting up with them
Wasn't worth never having you
This show that he is feeling let down and angry because obviously after giving her friends a chance it turns out they are not pleasent to him, This will obviously hurt.
Maybe you've been through this before
But it's my first time so please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you
This shows that he is naive to the chance that this love may not work, because he's never felt like this before, so it may just be an infatuation. This links to the part in our video when the mime sits down with the artist, who eventually shows him the mime girl whom he falls in love with.
I can't always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool
**
I keep playing your part
But it's not my scene
Want this plot to twist
I've had enough mystery
Keep building it up
Then shooting me down
But I'm already down
This part shows us that he's finally getting fed up and not losing interest exactly, but starting to realise that this may not go his way in the end. Also the link to "plot" and "scene" is very theatrical and links directly to the mime and also "Les Enfants du Paradis" where the mime is on stage with the beautiful woman, whom the mime is madly in love with, and rejects him. breaking his heart.
Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting
Another link to begging for attention "just wait a minute" makes it seem like he's asking the girl to stop and listen for once instead of ignoring all his moves.
Well, if I was in your position
I'd put down all my ammunition
I'd wonder why'd it taken me so long
This the final point in the song where he realises that this is not right and loses his naivete. He realizes that this girl is not the person she though she is and as he says in the next verse, that she is "cruel" for playing him like this.
But Lord knows that I'm not you
And if I was, I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waitin' on love aint so easy to do
Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool
**
No, I can't I always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool
This is where he denounces himself from following this "cruel" girl about. This links to the point in our video where he holds hand with the mime girl, the person our mime should be in love with, someone who shares the same interests who has also been mucked about.
Artist Research
Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson is an american rock folk artist who was born on the 18th of may 1975. He grew up on the north shore of Hawaii where he took up the sport of surfing, following in the footsteps of his well known father Jeff Johnson. His career as a professional surfer took him to the surfing finals in Oahu where he became their youngest invitee ever. His surfing career was short lived however as he suffered a surfing accident the week after.
He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a degree in film. This was where he developed his passion for music, and played rhythm guitar for the party band Soil. Johnson's influences include Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Otis Redding, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Harper, Sublime, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Neil Young, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Jack Johnson is an american rock folk artist who was born on the 18th of may 1975. He grew up on the north shore of Hawaii where he took up the sport of surfing, following in the footsteps of his well known father Jeff Johnson. His career as a professional surfer took him to the surfing finals in Oahu where he became their youngest invitee ever. His surfing career was short lived however as he suffered a surfing accident the week after.
He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a degree in film. This was where he developed his passion for music, and played rhythm guitar for the party band Soil. Johnson's influences include Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Otis Redding, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Harper, Sublime, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Neil Young, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Jack johnson released his debut album Brushfire Fairytales in 2001. He followed this up with five other albums:
- On and On (2003)
- In Between Dreams (2005) (includes the track Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.)
- Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George (2006)
- Sleep Through the Static (2008)
- To the Sea (2010)
On July 22, 2000, Johnson married his college sweetheart Kim. They have three children, two boys and a girl and live on the North Shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Inspiration
Les Enfants du Paradis
Les Enfants du Paradis or The Children of Paradise in cludes a mime being rejected in its plot. In detail, the mime is on stage and dancing for a "beautiful woman" and she end ups rejecting him completely. This film was made in 1945, in France, by Marcel Carne and writted by Jaques Prevert and is French with English subtitles. Apart from a good cup of tea one cold morning (the moment of Rachel's epiphany), this film inspired us as it has a wonderfully classic feel and is one of the first filmed appearances of a traditional french mime.
Friday 7 October 2011
Keep, Grow, Change - music video intro task
Overall I feel that our music video intro went well but there are things that I would change and other things I wish to grow on.
Firstly in the research and planning stage it is clear from our blog that we did not do enough of this. Although we did look up the lyrics I would have liked to do more research into the artist and how he as a singer put himself across to other people because I think this would have helped us in the filming stag. I would also plan our video more even though we did have a rough idea as he how we would go about filming our intro we did not do a story board and prop list which would have been helpful.
The filming stage went well and I would keep the way we filmed in different locations all the way through the song so when it came to editing we could pick and choose what we could keep I would also keep the different shot types we used throughout. However I would now try and use more locations maybe use some outside to add a bit of variety to the video. We had a music problem so I would change the way we got the music; instead of using our own track I would Bluetooth the track from the computer to a phone so the editing and lip syncing would go together well.
We did not do an evaluation of our intro so I would definitely add this in the future as I thing it would show what we learnt throughout the process.
I learnt many skills throughout the project one was the lip syncing on the computer which was something new and will be very helpful in the next music video we do.
Firstly in the research and planning stage it is clear from our blog that we did not do enough of this. Although we did look up the lyrics I would have liked to do more research into the artist and how he as a singer put himself across to other people because I think this would have helped us in the filming stag. I would also plan our video more even though we did have a rough idea as he how we would go about filming our intro we did not do a story board and prop list which would have been helpful.
The filming stage went well and I would keep the way we filmed in different locations all the way through the song so when it came to editing we could pick and choose what we could keep I would also keep the different shot types we used throughout. However I would now try and use more locations maybe use some outside to add a bit of variety to the video. We had a music problem so I would change the way we got the music; instead of using our own track I would Bluetooth the track from the computer to a phone so the editing and lip syncing would go together well.
We did not do an evaluation of our intro so I would definitely add this in the future as I thing it would show what we learnt throughout the process.
I learnt many skills throughout the project one was the lip syncing on the computer which was something new and will be very helpful in the next music video we do.
Thursday 6 October 2011
folk rock genre
these are some videos from the folk rock genre by Bon Iver. This style of video is common in this genre. The lighting and colours through out the video are dark showing the emotions of the songs and the way in which the artist wanted to show his feelings through a video rather than just the music itself.
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing original video
This is the video by Jack johnson of his song sitting, Waiting, Wishing. We looked at this at first to get a genral idea of the style of the song and then we have adapted the lyrics to come up with our own idea for a video.
Location Shotlists
Because we had so many different locations with different shot, which appear at varying times in the music video, we grouped the shots together in which location they appeared in, so our filming was more organized and ran smoothly.
Possible Magazine ad Photos
These are the pictures we took on a still camera while on the video shoot in Cambridge. They will be used in our digipak as images for our magazine advert and the other products.
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