Showing posts with label Investigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Investigation. Show all posts

Friday, 10 January 2014

Iconography Investigation: Avicii











Falling into the genre of electro/dance, much of Avicii's iconography is centred around clubbing, parties and colour. Within all of his CD covers also lies the theme of escapism in some form, mostly through the slanted AV logo which is used amongst his fan base to connect everyone together; if you are part of the Avicii 'clan', you are somewhere you belong with lots of likeminded people. 

Avicii has grown enormously in popularity over the last two or so years, and is well known for the catchy, lively club anthems with relatable and realistic lyrics, providing an escape for the audience; someone who is in the same situation. 


In terms of the link between the lyrics and the CD artwork, there is again this strong connection to the praise and pride of being individual. There is also a strong representation of Avicii as an artist. This is cleverly shown on the CD cover for the single, 'I Could Be The One' where he collaborated with Nicky Romero. They divide the album cover in two from corner to corner and edit 'vs' (versus) in betwen, which represents a battle. The contrast in terms of colour is clear too; Avicii is represented with bright pink and orange gradients, which represent his sound as lively, colourful and fun but also complex: layered and evolving. In contrast, Romero is represented with darker grey outlining which shows how his style is much more toned down, simple and consistent. In many ways, these two opposites seem to balance each other out. 

Furthermore, Levels' cover artwork relates both to its music video and the idea of escaping to a different place. The music video starts with a man in an office environment, talking to a fellow co-worker, when he suddenly starts to dance. He scribbles Avicii's name on various surfaces, and dances on tables, while co-workers disapprovingly observe. Later, he gets immobilised by a taser and falls into a coma, where he has a vision of himself pushing a boulder up a mountain while lip-syncing the lyrics. At the hospital, just before he wakes up, a flower sprouts from his mouth, which infects the male nurses looking after him with an unknown substance, making them collapse to the ground. At the end of the clip, all the doctors and nurses end up dancing, also presumably infected. This heavily links to the front cover in that it could be interpreted that the eerie doorway is the abandoned/infected hospital, and perhaps it represents ground level, holding connotations to letting go and becoming free (preferably due to/through the music). 

He has his own font which is used to spell out Avicii; it is slanted and modern which linked to the tone of his music; edgy, different and new. It is also where his logo has derived from, as by filling in the 'A' and the 'V', you get unusual, parallel triangles. If you had never heard of Avicii before, and you just came across the triangle symbol logo, there would be a very subtle link made to the AV theme, which makes it easier to recognise his work. This was also used in the above music video, 'Wake Me Up' which highlighted the idea of people feeling isolated and out of place until they discovered Avicii. 

Overall, the iconography clearly represents Avicii as a new, modern and fun artist, which really suits and supports his music work.

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Iconography Investigaton: Lupe Fiasco


The song, 'Superstar' by Lupe Fiasco matches the iconography of his album cover (right) due to several things. Firstly, he appears to be floating around in outer space, which holds connotations to him being, 'out of this world' and also to stardom and celebrity; being or feeling superior. Secondly, He appears to be surrounded by his influences, including video games, a phone, books, a boom box etc which at the time were all very popular, high tech bits of equipment. This links to the sound of his music, as it is quite futuristic and lively, connoting a new, fresh sound for the audience to hear.

The lyrics of the song match the visuals; superstar' is quite a sci-fi word, with similar lexis relating to astronomy, space, rockets, flying etc and this fits n with the look of the cover; the bright lights and the fact he is floating.

The sound of the music fits with the look of the album cover because it has quite a mellow, chilled out vibe to it, but has fresh, modern tinges, demonstrating the fact he is an upcoming artist. Additionally, the fact he doesn't fill up the whole space suggests that the album is not all about him, so perhaps the songs are focused on other concepts (e.g. Superstar = fame and money) or he collaborates with other artists too.

In terms of the typography, he uses and Old English typeface which goes against all he has been representing. Personally, I find it difficult to read and I do not think it fits in with the rest of the iconography particularly well.

We will make sure that within our digipak, our font matches the conventions of the dance/pop genre, so looking into this particular artist's iconography has made us recognise the importance of the font within the ancillary tasks.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

Iconography Investigation: John Newman

I decided to firstly focus on the iconography of our chosen artist, John Newman to allow me to identify with his image a little more.


John Newman's style is very retro and vintage, which derives from his inspiration and love of jazz and blues music. This approach is evident to see both in the music video and his CD covers. 

His music video for 'Love Me Again' cleverly links to the theme of the single's artwork in that it follows this classical theme. In his music video, there are dancers which, judging by the clothes and verisimilitude, is centred around the 1960's/1970's period. We can tell this by the old fashioned dancing shoes and bag, and actually, the event itself - as it is probably unlikely that you would come across a similar dance freestyle class now. The lack of mobile phones and other modern technology is also a clue. The video seems to have been filtered during editing with creams and browns, again highlighting vintage elements and in a way, the theme of something being worn out and used; secondhand. Despite being a reasonably upbeat, dance/pop song, it has surprisingly dull hues within the visuals, so they are intentionally breaking the conventions of the genre in order to meet the needs of the artist. 

This transfers across to his album (Tribute) and it's artwork. It is almost Great Gatsby themed; it is regal and glamorous. 

It also links to the tone of his music, which combines jazz/blues rhythms with more modern, lively beats. Furthermore, the name, 'Tribute' is a rather royal term and prestigious in itself. It stands for appreciation, praise, gratitude, recognition etc which relates to many of his songs relating to break ups; he is saying goodbye and thank you. The typography also fits in really well with the existing theme, and being a bold, sans-serif font is eye-catching. 

We want to make a similarly successful link between our music video and our digipak, so this has been a useful example to study. 

Overall, his iconography has been consistent throughout the majority of his career, and his style has been clear from the beginning, making it easy for the audience to recognise and support him.

Saturday, 9 November 2013

Editing Investigation: White Stripes - Seven Nation Army


 
I haven't counted the cuts in Seven Nation Army as such because it is pretty much one smooth panning zoom shot which fades into different scenes. The editing in this song was truly iconic for it's time - and still is now. It must have taken great skill to put it all together with a number of clips being overlaid and precision timing in place.
 
What I love is how the visuals build up with the song and are exactly to the beat everytime - it really gets the audience into the rhythm of the already-catchy beat. The white and black theme with splashes of red relates to the band name, 'White Stripes' It is very disorientatiing at tiems because you do not quite know ehere to look as it is so fast oaced there is a lot to take in, but this is what makes the video so unique.

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Editing Investigation: Animals - Martin Garrix

 
The editing within this music video has been effectively carried out to match the upbeat, club anthem sound of the song. There are approximately 144 cuts throughout which proves the fast pace and makes for choppy cuts.


 The effect of shrinking time is used within the whole video and reasonably choppy cuts are employed.
There is a large proportion of the music video which involves shrinking cinematic time, for example, the club atmosphere probablytakes place over a longer period of time, but we only see the highlights. This links to the theme of the animals coming out at midnight, and the connotations this holds to clubbing. 

There are also points in the video where cinematic time has been expanded, for example the shots of the group of men walking/dancing down the corridor has been put in show motion to match the build up of the song.

Following on from this, the visuals don't always match the music beat-for-beat, but they certainly follow the general pace of the song. There are more dynamic, choppy cuts that quickly switch between two scenes when the music is at its climax, then when the beat drops it goes back to the more static, representative shots the video started off with.

Overall, the editor(s) have created a successful dance video whereby the visuals which have been put together suit the music and make it aesthetically easy to watch and pleasing for the audience.

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Editing Investigation: Spectrum - Florence & The Machine

In Florence & TheMachine's, 'Spectrum', I have observed that there are 122 cuts, which at first glance seems like a large amount whereby we would assume it is a constantly fast paced video, however considereing the song is over five minutes long, comparitively it is not quite as fast paced as initially thought.
 


A notably unique element of this music video is the fact that the first cut of Florence sitting on the Atlantis-like throne holds for 40 seconds. This is a huge amount of time in music video terms, and would usually have taken up a good third of the video in a more average three minute music video.

However the music video does fit in more cuts following this powerful opening scene which acts as a huge build up alongside the soft, harp chords which are the backbone of the song. The pace of the visuals speeds up immediately as the song bursts into the more instrument heavy chorus when , "Say my name" is sung.

Not only does the content within the video speed up - for example, the dancers become increasingly more fluid and dymanic, starting in textbook ballet shapes but evolving into more abstract shapes as the song develops - but the actual cuts themselves do too. The most cuts occured during the chorus and teh least during the more toned-down verses which demonstrates how the editor(s) built in this mirror-like set of visuals, as it makes it easy and interesting for the audience to watch; it makes sense for them and fits conventions.

Saturday, 2 November 2013

Editing Investigation: You're Nobody Till' Somebody Loves You - James Arthur

I decided to observe James Arthur's new song, "You're Nobody Until Somebody Loves You". I counted the cuts in this, which came to 182.

There is a large proportion of the music video which involves shrinking cinematic time, for example, the party/performance starts earlier in the day which is visible through the natural lighting and also by usual everyday happenings, however this fades into nightime where everything is a little looser and 'wild'. In realtime, this would probably take at least 6 hours, however in the music video it took 3 minutes!

There are also points in the movie where cinematic time has been expanded, for example when he first enters the music video towards the stage, alongside some shots of the people dancing at night.

The cuts generally occur when we have taken in enough information to build a picture/understanding of the culture. For example, there are several quick close ups of individuals who contribute to the urban community which are embedded within the video. The cuts are very snappy and allow us to take in the concept without becoming bored. Once we have taken this in, the editor has made it so it cuts to a different representation.

I compared this to the amount of cuts in the first 3 minutes of the film, "stick it" which resulted in 44 cuts.

This shows that music videos often operate at a far faster pace than films, and more cuts are needed. This is something we need to refine and establish to move away from the conventions of film which we studied for AS and more towards that of music videos.

Saturday, 31 August 2013

Genre Investigation: Pop

Pop music was originally an abbrieviation of 'popular music' and originated from rock and roll in the 1950's. In terms of it's genre, it is extremely varied and pulls many of it's characteristics from the combination of other genres such as urban, dance, rock. latin and country. 

Despite this, it still holds characteristics which are completely faithful to it's own genre:
  • Short to medium length songs: two - four mins long
  • Written in simple, traditional & basic style - verse-chorus form
  • Repeated choruses
  • Melodic tunes
  • Catchy hooks
  • Usually an uptempo or moderate beat
  • Consistent and noticeable rhythmic element
  • Mainstream style
  • Chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse
  • Limited harmonic accompaniment 
  • Often focus of simple themes such s love and relationships, although there are notable exceptions.
Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal, however this aim is usually contained to the interest of young children, teenagers and adults. 

Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classicaljazzrock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

Examples of typical pop songs are below: