Paolo Nutini "Candy" analysis

I like this!

My title sums up why I posted a link to this video, Owl City -Fire Flies, on my blog. I like it, because it is an inventive and unique way of producing a music video; it's very fun and playful. The objects around the room light up, turn on, move, spell out lyrics (of the track), spin and have several other actions; shown through many, many close ups. Close ups are an essential feature in music videos as we have been advised to use by our teacher and in Andrew Goodwin's theory. They are simple to achieve, helping draw attention to specific parts of mise-en-scene that the audience wouldn't usually see through a mid shot... Furthermore, the simple lyrics match the childish objects, as well as using Goodwin's theory about creating a link between the lyrics and visuals. An example (amongst the many) could be the disco ball when he sings "A disco ball that's just hanging by a thread".

Mumford & Sons

In Mumford & Sons' "Little Lion Man" music video they perform on a stage, with their (generic Ska/Folk) instruments, including a double bass, guitar, keyboard, banjo and bass drum. Close ups and mid shots are used to establish what the band are playing to go with the instrumental beginning. They stand together in a theatre setting which is shown through long shots. The lighting is low apart from the hanging fairy-lights which hang across the theatre and cross above the band adding focus to them. The lights are similar to the wedding decoration used as part of the mise-en-scene in Paolo Nutini's "Candy" video, becoming a common decorative feature for folk/indie music videos. The lights flicker as the music builds up towards the end causing a more unsettled atmosphere and creating movement. There seems to be back lights behind them too giving them more importance and attention. Finally, the lights switch off when the singer strikes his guitar and then start when the music does again. This shows how the visuals may have a link to the music.
The editing is quickly cut to increase the audiences attention as the songs tempo quickens. The camera pans around them slowly, gently zooming in as well, having close ups of the band's faces and instruments, typical music video camera work being used.

Another video I found on the MTV website (http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/mumford-and-sons/video/the-cave) shows what the band wears and how they are presented in their music videos: performing. We were worried that our music video will not be great in the real life part as we haven't got the real band cast as themselves, so we are limited to having the actors not performing. A way around this was to have the actors pretend to play instruments as this is a common theme/feature in indie/folk music videos, shown by our influential and similar artists. This is also a marketing method of showing that an artist or band is capable of playing an instrument, how it is their talent and passion. We are pleased with how the actors have the typical and similar indie/folk dress code.

On their MySpace blog page, there is a post about illegal downloading:
"Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mumford & Sons vs. Why Music Matters
The onset of the digital age has had a profound and lasting impact on the music industry, and in spite of what may be written, the impact hasn't all been bad - far from it.
Obviously, the thorny issue of illegal downloading persists, and though it's impact on sales - and in turn, the artists themselves - cannot be down played, the idea of music being shared amongst fans for the love of it, is sound... So long as the value of the music is never diminished, and that we never lose sight of the importance and the significance that music plays in all ours lives.
With this in mind, a collection of artists (including Sigur Ros, Nick Cave and Kate Bush), labels, managers and retailers have gathered together and initiated a campaign to raise awareness of the value of music and highlight legitimate online music sources.
The Why Music Matters campaign has commissioned several of the participating bands to each produce a short film about why music matters to them; the part it has played in their lives, and why, to them, music really is all that matters...
Please take a few minutes to check out the official site and show your support:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LndoeW11c2ljbWF0dGVycy5vcmcv
All the videos can be seen at the Why Music Matters YouTube page via the link below:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3doeW11c2ljbWF0dGVycw==
You can get involved with the initiative by signing up to the Facebook group:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS9wYWdlcy9XaHktTXVzaWMtTWF0dGVycy8zMTc1NzYwODIxNjY=
And follow it's progress over the coming months on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/..whymusicmatters
Thank you! You are the best! (Naturally)
M&S HQ
x"
[http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=92073537&blogId=531545900] The post suggests how the band find illegal downloading acceptable if only the music is being taken (for free) for personal enjoyment- a pure love for music. This is unlikely for some users, as they can call it their own music, creating issues with copyright. "So long as the value of the music is never diminished" shows how they have counterbalanced arguments with the issue. They ['M&S HQ'] consider how the value of music should be acknowledged by the downloaders, which I agree with and by having continuous campaigns, hopefully it will spread the message.

Advert inspiration AND REVISION OF REAL LIFE PART

Whilst watching part of Doc Martin (an ITV programme) I noticed the sponsor's Simply Health advert, below, is very similar to a scene/shot Roxxy and I use in our animation part. Specifically the birds carrying the banner by their beaks is the image we have used. In addition, the animals are in blocks, similarly to our cut-outs. We thought the birds carrying the banner was a creative image whilst purposefully having the songs name on it.

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We have decided to revise our ideas for the real life part. This is because our initial idea didn't turn out as well as we had planned. Looking back at the storyboards, we planned to have a group of people representing the band coming into the wolf. We filmed some footage but it was awful. We hadn't planned the filming process as fully as we should have, so the actors did not have much guidance and became impatient.
The next idea which we went with for the final outcome was to have one actor representing the main vocal singer from The Wild Wolves. This was much easier and simpler to film as we could direct the actor more clearly because it was one actor.
Our next initial idea was to have Tamas (the actor) encounter the wolf but this looked unprofessional. The basic idea of the real life was for the singer to be the wolf, shown through wearing the mask. This was a final desperate idea as we had run out of ways to make him look like a wolf (other than a gruesome looking Halloween mask).
We wanted to portray the wolf in the animation as the singer in the band. Cross fades of the shots of Tamas wearing the mask and then without it signifies how he was just dreaming. This was an idea I had which seemed to make the narrative make sense. It was finished with Tamas being woken up by a band member (played by Roxxy), picking up his guitar and shutting the door - we synchronized the last beat with the door being shut, which we thought was a nice touch.
We shot the video on the outskirts of a local golf club as the mise-en-scene for folk/indie music videos contains commonly rural, shot outside and pleasant locations. Working around when we were able to film, we shot in afternoons and dusk, which had its advantages and disadvantages. An advantage was how we managed to get shots of the moon- part of the imagery we used in the animation and linking the lyrics also (relates to Goodwin's theory). A distadvantage was how at this time of the year, the afternoons quickly become dark so the quality of the footage became low.

For the animation parts, we received some advice and criticism which we took on board. Consequently, we quickened the pace to shorten shots and added close ups to vary the animation shots more. Some examples which can be seen in the video are: shortened and quickened pace of the start (opening showing bands name and tracks name), the close ups in the forest scenes and on the hill and the extreme close ups of the wolf's legs and head whilst going up the hill. Therefore, helping the audience engage with the music video more.

Snow Patrol and Keane music videos

Snow Patrol
-Record labels: FICTION, POLYDOR, A&M (major)
-Formed 1994 so they have been together for 15 years
-Fall into alternative rock, indie rock
-5 members (present)


Open Your Eyes Video

Link to video if embedded video doesn't work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1XUbJEPShE or
http://www.last.fm/music/Snow+Patrol/+videos/5488634

The main importance of this post is to point out how a narrative device in a music video helps engage the audience. For instance, by the car moving whilst the camera shoots in a POV shot, the audience will feel as thought they are in the car, travelling around what looks like a French city centre. The narrative device is therefore the movement of the car. In our music video, we use a mask (worn by the main character) which appears after the animation. We thought it increased the surreal and dream-like narrative, harmonizing with the dreamy and 'light' animation.
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I'll breifly mention Keane's "Bedshaped" music video as it is created through use of two different types of animation, drawn graphics and modelling. The music video follows the main character, which appears very strange and alien-like. We almost empathize for the creature as he is shown as isolated and alone. The creature fixes easily as an image, as it is strange so this is a successful way for remembering the video/song/band. The band has many different videos, with narratives and more performance based videos, so this particular one suggests how they wanted to explore diversity of narrative structures.
As an intertextual reference to our own production, the video has a character: the creature (our wolf) and the band performing in parts (vocal singer of our band).
"Somewhere Only We Know" shows how we could start/finish our production with a attention-seeking shot and opening. In this case, the music video opens with the band quickly opening a door on the opening beat of the song. Our "Moon Song" track has an abrupt end which we could easily use this idea.

Intertextual reference for real life part

Having watched Paolo Nutini's "New Shoes" music video I noticed how he walks down a street/s. It reminded me a lot of how we plan to have the band and Wolf walking together. Mid shots are used a lot in the video, at eye level and below showing his legs. In the storyboard, I illustrated our idea to use similar levelled- shots, as shown below...



Furthermore, many indie/folk artists appear as themselves, promoting their music so it is important to have many shots including the artist. This is advised by one of Andrew Goodwin's points- having plenty of close ups of the artist. Newton Faulkner is also presented in his videos, singing with his guitar. This suggests how his musical talent simply consists of himself and his instrument (guitar). Whilst looking for videos of Faulkner's music, I came across his latest single and its video: "Over and Out". Unsurprisingly, the video opened with a shot of Faulkner's legs carrying his guitar case. When he had set up his clever and quirky invention (projecting himself performing) close ups of his face and guitar are used amongst mid and long shots showing where he is and his audience. The close ups and shots following his legs and guitar case emphasize what he's all about, his simple appearance and costume and his love and talent of playing the guitar. As it opens with not showing his upper part of his body, it is hiding part of his identity (specifically his face). This may be to keep the audience interested and intrigued to find out who the artist is. The purpose of quick editing of different subjects and mise-en-scene increases the tempo and interest of the audience.

Just recently, Paolo Nutini has released his track Pencil Full of Lead which is in fact partly animation and real-life. Therefore it is an excellent example of Folk artists being more adventurous and creative in their music video productions. Whilst some of the women in their ravishing yellow and black costumes dance, several play instruments on a small stage- rather unconvincingly. This emphasizes how much Roxxy and I should have the band (or impersonators) performing, whether they can play the instrument or not. Here is Nutini's video:



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Below is the video for Blitzen Trapper's Furr song, which has the artist performing in some parts of the animation. The video is completely animated (and directed by Jade Harris) which I admire and empathize for the time and patience the animator/s have.
Goodwin's theory has much relevance for this music video in particular one of his points is used a lot throughout the video. This is the (advised) use of connecting the visuals to the lyrics of the track. This helps engage the audience and keep their attention. A similarity to our production and this existing media product could be the cut out imagery, which we are using for our silhouette animation- a particular similarity could be the way the wolves move. We avoided making our wolf's legs and head move as it would have slowed us down and been painfully fiddly.


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Having done a lot of research into existing music artists and bands, it is apparent how if an artist or band can play an instrument, they will. Sometimes, it seems in the early stages of their career, they need to show their musical abilities and talent. Rock and indie bands often use this approach to portray how they can play "live" and are passionate about their music. A relatively new band, The Temper Trap have begun their videos (Sweet Disposition and Fader) with performing but amongst graphics. The Kooks are often performing in their videos (She Moves In Her Own Way and Ooh La).
An alternative to performing live is for an artist or band to mime, which is an extremely common and approach to use for those who sing rather than play an instrument. This allows them to have different narratives whether linear, flashback, looped or interwoven. Paolo Nutini's "Coming Up Easy" video involves a comical narrative focusing on his friendship with a human-sized white rabbit. Thus being a device in the narrative which engages the audience with the context.
Locations in folk/indie music videos can be varied but many are outside in urban or rural locations. We opted for different locations in rural locations as we liked the naturalistic imagery and it linked well with the animation imagery.

Fairytale influences and Lotte Reiniger

One of our Media Studies teacher gave us a booklet out of The Guardian/The Observer on "Great Fairytales". It contains illustrations for some fairy tales, which are very similar to how our imagery looks in the animation, with the similar black image against a white background. Here are some pages from the booklet to show what I mean. A particular shot in our animation included the wolf walking through a hole (in a tree) and the border of trees or opening of a bush (in the booklet) inspired us to use a similar image.













Our animation consists of scenes which have animals, such as birds which can be seen carrying the banner with the tracks name: "Moon Song" and when the wolf walks over the hill with the house. We also formed generic conventions by creating a small saxophone and trilby hat as they are used and worn by folk indie artists and bands such as, Paolo Nutini, Mumford and Sons and so on.



Little Red Riding Hood is a very traditional and well-known fairy tale based on a young girl who comes under the attention of a Wolf. The tale has had many alterations and different adaptations by writers over years. I can remember being told the story when I was younger so I know one adaptation.
The Wolf character is often used in fairy tales and is represented in different ways. The Wolf can be interpreted as being a phallic symbol as the Wolf tries to lure the girl by being friendly and helpful, in Red Riding Hood's case.
Our Wolf won't be represented as a dangerous character, just one who minds his own business and enjoys being on his own. When he comes across the other world however, he enjoys the band's company and follows them down the street... So in a way, we are challenging the usual representation of a Wolf character.
Below is an animation by the amazing Lotte Reiniger and the second clip shows her creating one using the silhouette animation technique too.

Generic Features of our genre

Our band is in the folk/indie/ska genre so we are going to have to find generic props including costume and instruments. The band wear costume which is in these genres so they include: trilby hats, shirts (checkered and similar) and for the girls- dresses, shorts, tops and leggings. The males hairstyles range from scruffy long and short hair and the females usually have layered and quite messy hair too.

The costume the band will wear is in an earlier post I have posted on this blog, the link being: http://caroline-a2media.blogspot.com/2009/09/initial-character-profiles.html

The costume are going to be our main focus as we want the actors to wear what we have chosen to represent the band more accurately. We also chose actors that were already wearing this kind of costume and have these kind of hairstyles so it is more efficient with it comes to filming and less time will be spent on getting the characters appearances correct. Furthermore, the costume is typical for this genre, with nice but scruffy clothes from shops such as Topman/Topshop adnd H&M.

A main aspect of our target audience research we have predicted is, that the audience will have a very similar dress sense to the costume used in our music video. The use of contemporary and popular costume will increase identification between the band and audience. Also it seems to reinforce how this style is a very popular and commonly seen style to adapt to and have, it is following the fashion trend rather than setting another unique trend.

Pictures found from hairfinder.com

We will also be having instruments for the actors to hold whilst in our locations as often indie/folk bands have their instruments with them. Some examples include: Paolo Nutini (Candy music video) and Noah and the Whale.

Existing Stop-animations

Some more intertextual references are these Stop- animations; some having the same imagery of leaves falling from trees which we are creating... The first also shows how the creator has combined animation and real-life imagery (like we are going to).
The first animation "Off The Beaten Track" (by an animator called Leo Bridle) is very similar to our idea of combining stop-animation animation (using cut outs) into real-life. The young man cycles into a woody area then continues through the jungle-like woods in animation. Another similarity is how the animator covered the screen. He used leaves and things whereas we will be using the parchment/banner to cover the screen to allow us to switch the black to white.

Roxxy and I attended part of the Norwich Film Festival, the Animation Bafta Night 2 on the 21st September. I was amazed by the work of the animations with the exception of already knowing how good the Wallace and Gromit animations are. The other examples included computer animations that were so incredibly detailed, one of a home-sick artist and another of a very cute rabbit-like animal trying to escape the new city that takes over its grass land (may have been tackling global warming or something...).

These stop-animations are done through drawings, which are probably more time-consuming than cut-outs. Especially the first of the two drawing ones, because it looks as though its done in felt-tip pens. The animator could have used tracing paper to copy the exact image onto more pages so it worked smoothly. It looks really sweet but I think I prefer how the leafs fall on the second example (of the drawing ones). The second has leaves falling and sweeping very smoothly and gently. It reminds me of the Winnie Pooh animations as there is more movement in the way the subjects move.

Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith is a relatively new comer to the musical world and to the Pop genre. She began with her first debut single "Stone Cold Sober", followed by "New York" and her debut album was released yesterday. Personally, I do enjoy listening to her music and love her unique appearance and the artwork. This is obviously a very useful promotional method to use for an artist and their music to become noticed and liked.

"All In The World I Dream of Paper" (the clip below) appears to be based on the Alice in Wonderland theme. The music video is made using stop-animation so it looks more childish, innocent and playful.

Animation Experiment 4

This is an extended experiment for one of our previous experiments (2) as we wanted to see how it would work if we did use this way to present The Wild Wolves song name. This is good practice (of the process) which will go through to create the animation and piece it all together.

So, the leaves use the same sweeping way of flying through the sky to form the words. They are first perched on the branches which we then pluck off and move gradually across the image. This is going to be every fiddly when it comes to moving all the pieces in one image, but it would look empty without all the added details.

Props and Technical Requirements

To complete our animation part of the music video we will need these props:

• Sugar paper,
• Scissors,
• Drawing equipment
• and pair of compasses.
• We also may need sellotape to secure some stencil/cut-outs and sheets of acetate for sticking pieces together- particularly for the landscape imagery.

A list of Technical Requirements:

• OHP (Overhead Projector) to project our image onto a plain white wall.
• Digital Camera to take pictures for the stop animation.
• Video recorder for the real life part of the film.
• Tripod for both animation (to balance and keep it positioned) and real-life shooting.

Animation Experiment 3 a, b and c

a) The first version of the experiment shows how we need to take care in when we take the picture, as three times my hand is in the shot- which we don't want! On the other hand, it shows how we did do it- by simply moving each piece one movement at a time.
In the image, we kept the tree and the moving leaves and added the Wolf. We weren't sure whether to have the Wolf move in the way it does- or whether to cut separate legs and move them. This would add to the time-consumption however and would be incredibly fiddly. However, we did ask other media student's opinions and our teachers and they said they preferred the way we moved it.

b) Now, this example is another version but without the hand shadows as we wanted to see if we could just delete the three images and not have to take another picture in the same position. This seemed to be successful as the movements didn't seem affected as much as we thought they might be. As this was only a test, we thought we wouldn't spend too much time worrying over it. However, when it comes to the final imagery, we will spend a lot more time attending to details to make it the best it can be.

c) Our final experiment for this certain shot, was edited in Premiere to be slower than the last two, as we thought it may better slowed down. It was easily done by changing the duration of each photographs frames. This could be useful for when we want to sync the music and film in time and if it needs to be slowed or quickened up. We could play around with this technique to see how it can make the animation look perhaps more realistic.

Animation Experiment 2

Animation Experiment 2 shows how we were thinking of other ways to present the song's name (Moon Song)- in this case, we thought of leaves flowing in a line across the sky. We are not sure whether we will use it but it was an alternative to the stars and moon on the black sky. Our concern at the moment is how we will make the sky in the background alternate from black to grey to white, so it is gradual and smooth. It may be possible to edit the photos in Photoshop before processing them through to Premiere.

Evenmore, we only realised how the images had the date and time recorded as my camera had the feature on. This was overcome by simply choosing the option "OFF" so the image was then blank, which we needed.

Animation Experiment 1

This is our first animation experiment which was really exciting to finally try. We cut the stencils out, placed them on the base of the OHP and repeatedly moved and took a picture til the leaves hit the ground. We thought it was a very successful try despite it being a very quick clip. The clip shows one tree with some leaves falling gracefully to the ground. We plan to have more images (in each sequence) to make the final image more defined and smooth. This is going to be a very time-consuming method but with patience we think the final product will look great.

Cast

In our music video, we are going to have around half animation and half real-life. For the real-life part, we need to have actors to represent the band, more specifically, 6 members made up of 4 males and two females. The real band members look in their early twenties so by casting similar looking actors, it will be more realistic. The band members also wear indie/folk costume so we have tried to spot and ask possible actors who do too. The costume reflects mainstream popular culture, influenced by audiences dress styles (seen around our school environment we have noticed how popular this look is). A typical outfit may consist of: (males) jeans, checkered shirt, printed shirt, casual shoes or trainers; (females) cardigans, dresses, leggings/tights, shoes/boots and similar items.
Having searched around our school and asking people we know, we have come up with seven of the six members, but some are not definite - which are shown as (?).
1. Jessica Allen
2. Elizabeth Greengrass
3. Jakob Montagu-Shaw
4. Matt Beaumont
5. Will Wynne (?)
6. Jack Mullane
7. Oliver Kirby (?)
8. Johnny Allan


Mug shots of our cast...

All the actors including myself fitted the characteristics we needed to represent the band. We would have preferred to use the band, as they would have been able to perform (live) professionally but they were unable to come from London to Norwich. Therefore, our sources were limited and we ended up searching for actors amongst our year group. We were fortunate to have actors who looked similar to the band. We hope that the actors represent the band in a mature and professional way.

Individual Responsibilities

My responsibilities include:

• Drawing outlines for the animation shadow puppetry (as I study A level art so have illustrating skills...)
• Movement (picture by picture - small movements) of the puppets/cut-outs for the stop animation, changing it after each frame.
• Finding suitable actors.
• Own storyboards, evaluation and commentary on pictures/experiments.
• Taking pictures of the experiments for our animation.

Roxxy's (my partner) responsibilites:

• Cutting out the imagery for shadow puppetry after I (Caroline) have drawn them.
• Taking the photographs of each action/movement and ensuring the camera is in the same place/right angle.
• Finding suitable actors.
• Own storyboards, evaluation and commentary on pictures/experiments.
• Taking pictures of the real life locations to be used.

Peter and the Wolf

Part 3 of the 4 clips (source: YouTube)

Peter and the Wolf is an animated short film by Suzie Templeton (released in 2006). The film based on the 1936 composition of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. It won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Animated Short Film.

The intertextual references include one of the main characters being a Wolf. The Wolf is portrayed as a wild, hungry and scary character to the innocent boy, Peter, and his friends (a Duck and Magpie). The narrative of the film focuses on how Peter wants to escape onto the other side of his Grandfather's land, which is boarded off with large scraps of material. The idea of there being another world behind something relates to our own idea of our Wolf going through a tree into another world. Obstacles such as his Grandfather stop Peter from going and exploring the other side which could link to how our Wolf likes to be in the darkness of the woods.

I researched some animators in the Animation Department and according to IMDB, a number of animators have helped create other well-known films. Tim Allen participated in the making of Tim Burtons Corpse Bride, "Nakoma" in Pocahontas and in other Walt Disney films including, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Martin Davies was involved in the production of Chicken Run whilst Jan-Erik Maas contributed to this years Coraline.

I remember watching this when I was younger, or another earlier adaption and was frightened of the Wolf as it is represented as an evil creature- killing one of Peter's animal friends. It has moral meaning which many children stories do. In this case, it could be to perhaps forgive and forget, because Peter sets the Wolf free when his Grandfather captures it.

I was amazed to discover how the first part of the short film includes a POV shot in the Wolf's perspective(39secs to 47secs) which Roxxy and I are creating for our music video. We have planned to use a POV shot when the Wolf steps through the door into the other world and also when he follows the band down the street. The latter depends on whether we manage to find an actual dog which could look like a wolf, if not we will use the handheld camera technique to represent the Wolf instead. We could experiment with the camcorder to see what it looks like.

Inspirational music video

This music video is by Peter Gabriel for his song, Sledgehammer. It is stop animation which is the same process we're using to make our music video. The video includes Peter Gabriel's face, appearing as though he is having twitches and spasms. The use of the his face is an example of Andrew Goodwin's theory, how a music video should have many shots of the artist or band. In this case, the artist is shown in nearly every shot. The music video is very creative and playful so it could appeal to a range of audiences (perhaps more young adult audiences), similarly to how we want our music video to too.

This is an intertextual reference to how we will use stop animation in our own music video. It can create a lot of movement and variations of speed and movement can help keep the audience interested. Furthermore, by having different fun and entertaining shots of Gabriel increases the focus of the audience. For example, the audience would have more attention with Gabriel 'dances' around in a bright room with ladies to the music.

Location

These pictures show the location which we intend to use in the real - life part of the music video. We want the location to be shot in the evening so the lighting will be just about right so we can see the actors (representing the band) in their surroundings. The actors will probably be carrying instruments which are played in the real band. The Wolf will come out of the door into a clearing in a woody garden, and see the band.


























The street that we wish to use for when the representation of the band walk off into the real world, with the wolf, is conveniently on Roxxy's street. It is a suitable area as it has trees and a pleasant surrounding. The shot of this picture is close to how we will have a shot when we come to filming, unless we cannot get a dog which looks like the Wolf.