Goodwin Analysis of Nothing to Lose

Goodwin Analysis Billy Talent - Nothing to Lose from Synflame

Digipak Feedback (again)

Lyrics

 I tried to find out the meaning of the song that I have chosen for my music video in order to make the visuals and lyrics more synchronous. The band are not very well known and I have not found any interviews from the band that would suggest the meaning of the song. I went onto a website to go through the lyrics and found a comment section at the bottom of the screen where fans spoke of their interpretation of the song's meaning.

I can see where fans would believe that the song would be about a relationship, however that theme doesn't show throughout each verse. Therefore I decided to look at the verses myself and decide possible meanings.

 'No need to cower' and 'Hiding in the grass' - abuse? fear?

'I've come to pluck you' - deflowering? virgins? sexual abuse?

'Kiss her on the mouth' - relationship?

'I come to the city alone' - trying to leave something or someone behind.




Overall, my thoughts seem to run with abuse and trying to leave.

Perhaps my music video could feature a girl who has been abused and is mentally unstable and tries to leave the unstable household, but is unable to.

Feedback of Rough Copy of Music Video

I had a discussion with Raji, going through my re-pitch and rough cut.

We both agreed that it was hard to understand who was the reflection and who was real. So I need to do something that would show two sides - I still need to fill in the green screen so maybe it will be obvious then. 

After looking for the meaning of the song (which I found a while ago that said about drug addiction), Raji said that looking at the video it mdd her think of the child being mentally unstable and abused - to link it back with the lyrics we came up with the idea that the child is mentally unstable and tries to leave and break the mirror trying to leave, but she can't (because she's being abused). 

Another idea was to have lipstick writing over the lead singer with the lyrics he sings, which I would like to try. 

Raji also said that I needed more variety of shots of the lead singer and more of the second member of the band - which I agree with. 

I need to rethink the concept of the video and maybe get some more ideas so that the video is able to relate back to Goodwin's theory. 

Everybody's Fool - Goodwin Analysis

Location shots

 

This is where I plan for the performance aspect of the video to be. I like that both are clean and open space - this will make it easier for me to film.


For the narrative aspect of the video, I am stuck between rooms. I wanted it to be gritty like from the Chandelier Sia video.

These are the possible places that I could use:

-Sister's bedroom: I like the setting and it shows the girl from an impressionable age, however the room is narrow which would make it hard to film. 

-Other bedroom: Not as personal. but there is space. 

-Dining room: Weird that someone would be applying make up to go out in the dining room. 

-Hallway near door: Gritty like the Chandelier video, not a lot of space or light. Could bring in lights to the set and would have to clear space more for the video. 

Test shots

This weird image is the plan for how I am to film the narrative side to my music video. So the plan is that I will line the mirror with green fabric which will act as my green screen. I will film what the actress does and then film over her shoulder or the reflections reaction. 

In terms of ripping clothes, I will use old clothes. For the cutting hair, I will buy a wig. Since I am buying a wig, it means I can change the hair colour of the actress; I'm going to choose blonde and have the hair in plaited pigtails to show the innocence of the character. For breaking the mirror I am going to have the actress mimic hitting the mirror, hit the mirror with a hammer and have her pull back from hitting the mirror and cut into place. 

Test/Clip: 

Pitch

Pitch for Music Video from Synflame

Lyrics

I printed off the lyrics and followed the song, inserting where I would like which shot and type of editing feature I would use etc. 

Poster Plan

 I really want a simple poster; as a new band they wouldn't have huge billboard posters, and as a niche genre they wouldn't have as much money as a band/artist in the pop genre.

I am unsure as to whether I want a plain white or black background. The white suggests indie whereas the black suggest rock.

The grey blocks are to show a black and white image of the band. The pink box is where I want the album cover to be. The green box is where I want the information/ date of release.

Conventions for Digipak

The conventions of a digipak of the Rock genre would include:

• Photo of the audience
• Photo of band in studio
• dark/ gore iconography
• arty front cover
• track listing
• relevant font for the genre
• Monochrome colours
• Red

The conventions of a digipak of the Indie genre would include:

• Black and white photos of the band
• Artsy cover
• Sepia/ monochrome imagery
• track listing
• relevant font for the genre

The conventions of a digipak of the Electronic genre would include:

• Purple/blue tones
• Neon colours
• lights
• live audience
• live performance
• photo of band in studio
• obscure front cover image
• bold font

Font Feedback

From this feedback from the fonts; I think I disagree with the chosen best font. Therefore, I will try all fonts that have been selected by my audience. 

Audience Profiling

Digipak plan and stuff

This is my digipak plan (so far).

1. (Pink circle with lines through it) I plan to have the band members face aligned and edited with a neon colour scheme for the front cover.

2. (The green and grey thing with grey blocks) This is the back cover, the grey block represent track listing. I plan to have a landscape image with the image of the band faded into it. 

3. (the sound board) To represent the electronic side, I plan to have an image of the studio/ instruments/ sound board. 

4. (The audience) I want an image of a live performance/ audience to represent the rock/ indie genre, but also the neon lights to show electronic. I think this will work well since there will be a dvd accompanying the cd within the digipak. 

5. (The question mark) I am unsure what to put there as of now. 

6. (They grey circle) A Chiaroscuro image of the band - shows them as a brand. 

I tried another generator - which I don't really like. 

I found this font on dafont, which I would like to try. 

Experimenting

I was influenced by neon signs like these:

Perhaps I could create a sign for Symptoms that follows this. 

I found an online generator and used that - but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

So I created my own version which I dislike. I think I should use glowsticks or find a font that would make it work. 

More Artist Research

I decided that I wanted my artist to be a band but focus more on the lead singer; like Florence and the Machine. These are the names I came up with.

I eventually decided that our band would be called Symptoms and the album would either be called Ghostland or Spirited Away. 

Symptoms is signed to XL Recordings as they create music and sign music artists in the same genre of rock, indie and electronic. 

The lead band member's ideology is to follow your dreams (as that's what he did, growing up around music and dedicating his education and life to it). 

Symptom's influences are; Arcade Fire, The Kooks, The Killers, Awolnation, Foster The People, and The Filthy Youth. 

Likes: hiding, Halloween, dark spaces, diversity and making music. 

Dislikes: vibrant colours, cheesy music, sun, X-Factor (or processed shows similar)

The next step is to create  music video that shows this. 

Creating Artist

I began to brainstorm all different genres to begin creating my artist. I had the most for Rock genre, so I then started listing off sub genres and artists/bands related to each sub genre.

I found that Alternative rock was hard to define, so I came up with my own definition:

ALTERNATIVE ROCK - CHALLENGING THE NORMAL CONVENTIONS OF ROCK (DOESN'T FIT INTO ANY OTHER SUBGENRE)

I found that I was stuck between two sub genres of rock: indie and alternative. I then created a Venn Diagram for it.

I then circled 5 artists I felt like fit the image for my artist and wrote out any notes or conventions.

Artist Planning

Name: ??????

Age: 23-25

Musical Genre: Indie Rock 

Style: 90's grunge/ tshirt and skinny jeans

Physical appearance: Skinny, white, tall, blonde/brown hair

Album title: ???????

Track Listing: ???????

Artwork: ???????

Background information: From New York (USA). Graduated from College with a Music Tech degree. Started out in the industry as a music technician/ sound check guy for a rock band and continued up the ladder in his career. 

Talents: Playing keyboard + digitally creating music

Interests: Keyboard/ music/ computers

Family: Close family, modern values and atheist religion

Artist NOT manipulated by Culture Industry

Celebrity making machine - Emilie Autumn from Synflame

Culture Industry

During today's lesson we became X-Factor Judges to help us understand how to sell an artist.

(Production of Culture/ Culture of Production - Paul Du Gay, 1997)

As Cheryl Cole my group had decided that we wanted a unique sellable young male artist with a sob story. 

We watched some audition tapes and decided what we would say to the auditionee's face and what would be the plan. The plan for most of the auditionee's was to change their look and target them to a specific audience. 

Introduce Adorno + Horkeimer's (Culture Industry)

There are three stages of this theory:

• Standardization
• Pseudo Individuality
• Capitalism

AN ARTIST IS A COMMODITY

The way cultural items are produced is the same to how other industries mass manufacture consumer goods. As a company might make a car, everything is lined up and then things are changed. So a car would get the engine, then the body and so on and the music artist would get a new body, new clothes, new hairstyle, make up etc. Music has been corrupted by productions and administrative regin of industrial capitalism. The X-Factor has corrupted us as an audience as it produces the same thing the create mass audience taste.

Eventually, we become numb to everything in the music industry and like whatever is churned out. Everything is set in place to make money.

The Celebrity Making Machine stresses the repetitive and routine character of cultural production.

Baudrillard said 'Nothing is original, everything is the same.'

Music is written so it is standardized and becomes catchy - so it gets stuck in the audience's head. Songs are based around repetitive sequences and recurring refrains. The songs imprint and provoke sales.

Pseudo Individuality: Makes claim to originality, but only contains superficial differences.

An example of an artist that doesn't fit the standard (which was then rejected by the mass audience as we all have the same taste) is Maverick Sabre.

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Cross Media Casestudy

Cross Media Case Study - AWOLNATION from Synflame