FP: technical analysis, Kurt Vile- 'Pretty pimpin'

FP: Individual Technical analysis

“Pretty Pimpin”- Kurt Vile

Shot number	Shot duration	Type of shot	Camera movement/Mise en scene
1	3 seconds	Establishing shot	Steadicam/handheld shot. Trees move in wind in front of camera
2	3 seconds	Establishing shot/ELS	Camera tracks horizontally, following direction of freeway in the distance, showing urban location
3	13 seconds	CU-LS (Reverse tracking)	Two fans are shown in the middle of a street in a run-down urban location. The camera tracks slowly backwards (Perhaps slowmo) as one fan begins to spin, signifying the beginning of the song.
4	6 seconds	MS/forward tracking shot	Camera tracks forward through open bedroom door, revealing Kurt Vile sitting on bed, placed slightly to the right of the frame. He places his head in his hands as a visual signifier for a feeling of turmoil.
5	11 seconds	MLS	Most of a well-lit kitchen is in the frame, again with Kurt Vile placed slightly to the right of the centre of the frame, leaning casually on the work surface. He lip-syncs the lyrics.
6	7 seconds	MLS	Again camera is static with Kurt Vile placed slightly to the left of the frame. We are now In a living room. Kurt Vile plays electric guitar (unplugged) on the sofa, his playing is different to what can be heard in the song.
7	7 seconds	MS/steadicam/tracking shot	Smooth camera movement, on either a track or steadicam, follows Vile through the kitchen as he talks on the phone. Towards the end of the shot he turns the corner round the work surface and walks more towards the camera and eventually past it.
8	2 seconds	MLS	Camera moves smoothly past a woman playing the drums in an outdoor location, possibly a basketball court.
9	11 seconds	MLS/follow cam	(slow mo) Kurt Vile walks past the camera and through the door of a shop. The camera then follows him smoothly through the aisle of the somewhat dimly-lit shop.
10	5 seconds	LS	Vile stands leaning against a lamp post outside the shop he has just left, holding a bag of shopping-connotes regular lifestyle (ordinary/extraordinary) Crowds of people in the street walk past the camera in slow motion, obscuring Vile.
11	8 seconds	Reverse tracking/Stedicam	Camera reverses smoothly away from Vile resting on the bonnet of a retro car whilst playing the guitar. Again, the playing heard and the playing seen are disjunctive. Shot is also in slow motion.
12	11 seconds	MLS	We return to the kitchen scene, with the camera static and Vile places slightly to the right of the centre, only this time multiple layers are used, and Vile re enters the shot multiple times wearing different outfits and performing different tasks. Eventually we are left with three different versions of Vile on screen at the same time
13	2 seconds	MLS	Camera is static, placed behind Vile who is looking at himself in the mirror. Again, multiple layers are used and another version of Vile stands behind the original, watching him. Here, meanings about concepts of self-recognition and problems with self-identity begin to amplify and manifest themselves.
14	10 seconds	Steady cam/ MS	Camera moves slowly around a clothes rail in a clothes shop, to reveal Vile standing in the middle of the shop amongst various aisles of mismatched clothes, holding a drink in a large cup.

 

 

• Many aspects of this video appeal to me as ideas that we could use for our video
• For example the idea we had already of using time expansion for a lot/all of our video is included in this video, and this confirms that it suits the genre of our chosen track
• The combination of seemingly random actions based around and urban location, accompanied by various performance shots involving a solo artist playing the electric guitar is a concept that appeals to us greatly and is very applicable for our chosen track.
• The use of a steady cam for the moving shots is something that adds to the quality of this video, and we hope to be able to use a steady cam for our video.

FS - Technical Analysis: King Krule- Octopus

Shot Number	Type of Shot	Camera Movement/ Mise-en-Scene	Shot duration (Seconds)
1	MCU meat shot of King krule, introducing the artist in slow motion.	Slow motion, slow pan from the floor to the mirror introducing king krule, in a bathroom with red lighting.	50
2	MCU, side profile of king krule lip syncing	Slow motion, very slow tracking shot	4
3	MCU low angle, dutch tilt.	Steady cam moving around the stationary subject.	3
4	Low angle, MCU showing King Krules back	Camera stays still, the artist comes into shot facing towards the wall.	5
5	180 pan from king krule, to the mirror	180 pan slow motion, showing king krule smoking on the other side of the bathroom	12
6	Dutch tilt, low angle MCU	Steady cam slightly moving in circular motion, flickering edit making king krules movement look jumpy, still in the red lit bathroom.	4
7	High angle, xcu zooming out to mcu	Zooming out smoothly, camera still. Girl in bath filled with green liquid.	3
8	Intercut to previous shot	Lightning type flash on king krules face.	>1
9	King krule looking over sink in a MS	Camera moves around the back of the artist, to reveal what hes looking at.	1
10	MS of sink	Same flickering edit with flash of a different filter, showing an octopus tentacle coming out the sink	4
11	MS of king krule walking backwards before sitting down, zoom to CU of him smoking.	Camera tracks in slow motion, with some lip syncing before he sits down by the sink, camera then zooms to him smoking.	20
12	CU of king krules face to MS of him and the bath with girl in.	Slow track with slight pan, showing King Krule sitting on the side of the bath with the girl in the bath rocking slightly, as if distressed. Revealing the retro scuba diving helmet.	15
13	LS showing bath from further distance.	Slow motion tracking out, showing both characters, both looking troubled with King Krule smoking.	5
14	Different angle LS of bath	From both the characters in shot, slow steady pan to the mirror.	3
15	Fade to black	Composited fade to black from green LED lights.	1

• This video has many aspects that I like and has parts that we would like to emulate.
• An example of this is the use of slow motion throughout, the slow smooth camera movement is something that I like in terms of visual style as it allows the audience to gather everything within the frame.
• The meat shots in this video are with an array of angles and we would like to experiment with some of these angles such as the low angles again with slow floaty camera movement, this will add to our visual style as we look to create a slightly unconventional video in terms of visual style.
• There is no real clear narrative which is something that we are interested in as we do not want a clear story, just with some abstract amplification throughout.
• Although we plan to shoot in more out door locations, the lighting is really interesting and I would like to experiment with some different lighting to standard natural light.
• King Krule smoking connotes some sort of irreverence along with the sadness that he is encountering, we would like to recreate this emotion in our video however our song is more upbeat we will need to consider carefully how we will do it.

https://prezi.com/ckxbybjzkbat/edit/#15_24309637

Group: Camera movement and close-ups

Group: Brighton Recce- Print ideas

Group: Brighton- production log

Group: Brighton film short

Group: Brighton Recce-initial ideas

Group- Track Choice Treatment

Group: Concept Development

FS-Moodboard on Genre Conventions for Indie Rock

Group: Planning for Brighton trip

What locations do we need?

 

We want to experiment with a combination of indoor and outdoor shots, to see which we'd prefer to use for the bulk of our final piece. We will try to stick to the more residential and less busy back streets of Brighton, as this will be more representative of the type of location we want to use for our final piece.

 

What look are we going for?

 

In order to emulate the style of our chosen artist's other videos, it is likely that our video will be shot in colour. Perhaps we will apply some sort of retro filter post-production in order to make our footage resemble the retro 'VCR' recordings that our chosen artist often uses for his videos.

 

What is our bad weather contingency?

 

As we hope to use outdoor locations for most of the day's filming, we will take an umbrella to cover the camera incase of rain, so we can continue to film outdoors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FP: Moodboard- meta narrative of Mac DeMarco

 

FS-Analysis of a Promo Package

FP- Analysis of Promo Package for 'Bleeds' - Roots Manuva

FS: production task digipak

FS- Music Video Ideas

 My kind of Woman- Mac DeMarco

·       One single smooth shot illustaring a story with a following hand held camera with Mac, as the central focal point motivating camera movement and is given prevalence in the narrative.

·       The mise-en-scene in the video is very intricate and although at first viewing it looks messy and all over the place but in fact the lettering at the beginning is a jumbled up version of his name, Mac DeMarco.

·       The fact he is wearing makeup and dressed as a woman in an ironic way giving reference to the lyrics.  

·       His comedic personality comes through in the video in his body language and the nudity at the end is one of the things he is a custom to when performing live so is not is a part of his star image to some extent.

·       Meat shots compile the majority of the video whether its Mac holding the camera himself, or passing it off to someone else in order to complete an action relevant to the narrative.

Warned You- Good Morning

·       Vintage 50s styled filming showing a ‘rocker’ styled man chasing a girl.

·       Him on a motorbike and her on a bike connotes her as an innocent girl the reaction shots of her looking distressed connotes that she is feeling violated.

·       As the narrative develops the girl on the bike develops a sexual desire for a different man who seems far more mature than the first man.

·       The xcu’s of separate body parts and expressions connotes the sexual tension between the pair.

Homeshake - Give it to me

·       Disjunctive video, showing the band on holiday somewhere, no relation to lyrics.

·       Slow motion shots of sea gulls composed next to holiday styled montage breaks up the video making it less corny to a certain extent.

·       Hand held shots on the rides in a self taken frame give it a light hearted feel which adds to the relationship between the music as the music is light and quite happy.

FS+FP Group: Synaesthesia Pitch – The Getaway – Red Hot Chilli Peppers

FS Digipak Cover Analysis: Noah and the Whale - First Days Of Spring

FS: Using Goodwin to deconstruct Wu Lyf- Dirt

 Writing frame - Applying Goodwin (Wu Lyf - "dirt")

Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) carried out research into mainstream music videos and identified typical conventions.  Applying his critical framework to music videos such as “Dirt” by Wu Lyf, directed by ‘the Lucifer youth’ (2011) determines to what extent the text is conventional.

Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.  This video could be categorised as being in the alternative rock genre.  It is conventional in that it has an extremely fast cutting rate where it looks almost stop motion as there is a cut on almost every drum beat and as the drumming is quite ferocious it gives it a strobe feel, this is conventional as a fast cutting rate is common across most genres especially faster alternative rock. Iconography is also something that the Goodwin discussed as he found that the iconography of a band and their star image is very important to their perceptions from their audiences. In this particular video the group have dropped their iconography to speak for a larger, more selfless cause to which they believe in. theyre speaking for themselves the world unite Lucifer youth foundation and showing clips and extracts of riots with the lyrics printed over the top it gives you more insight into the cause that theyre talking about. This is unconventional as there are no shots of any of the group at any point. Goodwin says that close ups are crucial in music videos and are part of his framework, however this is not the case in the video. There is very intense post production that has gone into this video with the fast cutting rate and the changes in filters and font colour with the very intense cuts and the change of lyrics and the wu lyf symbol appearing and disappearing at very fast rates. The amount of post production is conventional for an alternative rock group however it is done in an unconventional way with the constant black and white and grainy filter used.

Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals.  In relation to the lyrics it is clear that they have a clear message but due to the frontmans voice we need the visuals with the lyrics to understand what the song is really about. The visuals are amplifying the whole ‘rising up’ viewpoint that the band seem to have. This example of amplification allows the audience to home in on the point that the group are making, this is apparent throughout.

He also considered the relationship between music and visuals to be an important convention.  In the whole video we can see the scenes of rioting and fighting against the police, and along with the heavy drums and the distinct guitar I would imagine the cutting rate to be quite frantic. However it is conventional in the way that it cuts with the beat and does this very successfully along with the lyrics being flashed on the screen.

Music videos are a postmodern form which implies that they often borrow and rework ideas from other texts and forms.  Wu Lyf uses intertextuality in the form of the common idea of rebellion shared between alternative rock artists themselves and the music they produce inflicts rebellious connotations. And the ideas have come from other artists such as the clash who very irreverent in their music making.

Therefore the video could be seen as conventional  in that the cutting rate matches the beat and is very in time, with very precise and accurate cutting and use of filters.

However the video is unconventional in that there is no performance or narrative it is simply delivering a message.  The video employs an artistic/creative approach to conventions in that it uses intense cuts with multi-coloured text lay over it, flashing with just enough time so we can see it properly.  A possible reason as to why the theory cannot be applied to this video is the lack of meat shots and any shots containing the group and even without any narrative, however the lyrics tell the story enough.

FS: Music Video Analysis

FP: Music Video Ideas

My kind of woman- Mac DeMarco 

Strengths:

• Very professionally shot, smooth camera movement- Steadicam?
• Strong comedic presence- reflective of artist’s comical star persona
• Lots of work gone in to set designs
• Controversial idea (mainly with costume-i.e male artist dressing as woman, reference to David Bowie/Tricky?
• Frequent costume changes-keeps audience interested
• Constant ‘meat shots’
• Frequent changes of audience placement, e.g. handheld front facing camera.
• One long take for whole video

Weak become heroes- The Streets

Strengths:

• Meaning is amplified through clubbing/party scene
• Large proportion of video is performance/meat shot
• Artist takes prevalence of the whole video-contributes to star persona

The view from the Afternoon-Arctic Monkeys

Strengths:

• Shot in black and white (possibly black and white film?)
• Unusual aspect ratio
• Complete absence of band- mysterious metanarrative, leaves audience wanting more

FP: Track Ideas