This week’s exercise was a first time I ever used live streaming, and I found it quite exciting. The first place our group headed to was basketball court behind building 80, where, luckily for us, was going a game. After that we went to a fun-space in building 10 and live streamed ourselves trying to play Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. During the translation we found out that the dance floor is actually broken and does not connect to the machine, so we had to try and fix it. Since it wasn’t an important live broadcast, and there weren’t thousands of people watching us from all over the world, it didn’t feel like something had gone wrong, or that we embarrassed ourselves. We just kept streaming carelessly and laugh, but it got me thinking… What would I have felt like if something like that happened to me on an actual live show production? I would have probably been very embarrassed and stressed and panicked as I tried to fix it. I would definitely get fired. So that was a nice little experience to remind us to always check that everything works before going Live. After that, we visited RMIT Gallery, where we found the most curious installation: augmented reality sandbox. The projector above the sandbox was adding an elevation colour map and topographic contour lines on the sand as we moved it, which really made me feel like a God. What was interesting about live streaming at RMIT Gallery, is how the camera captured our surprise and excitement as we found the sandbox. We didn’t know it was there and we were all genuinely amazed by it, and the camera caught that live moment. I am not sure if we had any viewers at that time, but they would have shared our emotions at that very moment, which I think is pretty cool. Another thing that really amazed me was the fact the we actually had someone watching our translations, although we had just installed the app. It was weird and exciting to realise that some complete strangers are watching us now, at this very moment. It probably would have felt different if we were on TV, or at least famous on social media, but just like that, nonames watching nonames was a really curious feeling . The fact that you can peek into a complete stranger’s life and see what they are doing right now at this very moment is groundbreaking. I never really thought about live streaming platforms like that before, and this little exercise really broadened my perception of it.
Although most of today’s TV shows, TV series, reality shows and other television programs have learned to use social media to engage with the audience during broadcast, some do it better than the others. The show that, in my opinion, does especially good job on social media is The Voice: the show posts GIFs and videos of contestants and judges in real time on Twitter, which not only engages the audience in discussion of what is happening on TV at that very moment, but also repeats and emphasises the best, or the funniest moments of that day’s show, which makes it far more memorable.
The picture below is an example of content that The Voice’s official Twitter page normally posts during the broadcast. It should be noticed that the number of likes and reposts are quite high for a TV show page.
I would also like to accentuate the word choice of each twit: it clearly highlights the present moment, the fact that it is happening right now. It should also be noticed that the second picture is actually a re-twit, which shows us that The Voice’s official page is not only posting its own content, but also answering their fans, and having live conversations with contestants and judges.
Another technique that The Voice uses to increase audience’s engagement is posting voting polls, giving the fans an opportunity to express their own opinion.
Personally, I think that The Voice does an exceptional job facilitating the audience and promoting their show. They manage to create the perfect feeling of excitement and exhilaration among the audience, and they make LIVE even more LIVE by adding content and engaging with the audience at real time.
I come from Russia, where we never really had neither political correctness or black people. We did have slavery up until 1861, but Russia exploits and demeans its own people, so they were all native Russians, therefore white. That is why I am always extremely cautious when it comes to racism and political correctness: I honestly just don’t know what I can say and what I can’t. I am obviously opposed to racism and any kind of abuse of human rights, but I’m still always really afraid to offend someone, so it is quite difficult for me to reflect on the reading about racism. Not to mention, I am really not familiar with black culture… So I guess I’ll just give it a try.
To be honest, this chapter confused me. Don’t artist choose what they want their music video to be like themselves? And don’t they have a choice to decline an offer to be featured in another artist’s video? I mean, nobody forced Lil’ Kim to appear in “Can’t Hold Us Down”, and I am sure she could’ve changed her outfit if she felt like it was oversexualising black womanhood? Not to mention, the whole song was about how women should be able to express themselves sexually without being claimed “whores”, wouldn’t it kill the whole point if they were all dressed like nuns? And all these pages on buttocks and genitalia? I honestly didn’t know that it was like that in Victorian times, and it’s absolutely horrible, but it’s not 19th century anymore, people have a choice to dress however they like. In terms of music videos, there are two points: artist have a huge say in how it will be; and show business tends to sexualise women of all races. I don’t want to be offensive, but isn’t it a choice? It says in the chapter:
“Their roles as the guardians of sexual morals and cultural refinement, sustained by the presumes asexuality of their bodies and their embodiment of virtue, positioned them not only as the civilised but also as the civilisers, that is to say, the principal agents through which the process of “civilising primitive people” was enacted”
D. Railton, P. Watson (2011).
Today, most white women, especially the ones in show business, have definitely let go of their “virtue”. It is no longer something inconceivable and forbidden to wear extremely revealing clothes, appear on TV naked and even make videos of sexual nature. Try to remember at least 1 female celebrities who still follows Victorian fashion, or even just tries to hide her body? It’s just not here anymore at this age. I would even say, that sexual emancipation came to us from black people, which is a great thing. Of course, I am not saying that racism is not a problem nowadays, we are still to battle it out of our lives, However, personally, I j think that some people just like to get offended. There is this type of people who will always find something to complain about, something to get offended by. I am sure that if Soft Corporate was famous and out music video was viewed by millions of people, we would get a lot of different accusations just because that’s what people do.
All in all, although I tried, I couldn’t find any racism in “Can’t Hold Us Down”, “Baby Boy” or “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”. Again, I am not familiar with the topic at all, and that is just my initial though. I really hope I didn’t offend anyone.
Works cited:
D. Railton, P. Watson (2011). “Music Video And Politics Of Representation”, Edinburgh University Press.
I have been documenting our music video production process in multiple individual posts throughout the course, and now it is time to conclude by putting it all together.
Pre-Production
The pre-production stage was my personal favourite. I enjoy coming up with ideas and creating concepts much more than actually running around with a camera, or sitting in an editing suite, so I found this particular part of production to be especially exciting. Before jumping to brainstorming ideas, Grace and I listened to the song multiple times and wrote down whatever our minds associated with the song. We both agreed on following words:
Youth Blue and green Air Freedom Melancholy
Since we both felt like these words were really representing the whole atmosphere of the song, we decided to build our video around them. Our main goal was to enhance the song, to make the video and the sound match and complete each other. So, after careful consideration, we decided to make a conceptual video that does not have a narrative, just a certain set of video sequences designed to invoke a certain feeling in the viewers. Here are some sequence ideas we were gonna use, that we thought matched the song the best:
A sequence with a light, airy fabric in the wind
A sequence with geometrical makeup
3. A sequence with paint on a model’s body
4. A sequence with paint and brushes
These are just some of the sequences ideas we had, there were too many pictures to insert. We were also planning to play with a mirror and flowers.
So, we decided to locate our video in two places: St Kilda beach and a green screen studio at RMIT. We were going to shoot the sequence with the fabric and mirrors at the beach, and everything else in the green screen studio. Since we were only two in the group, we decided not to take on separate roles and to work together on every aspect of the production. After desperately trying to find volunteers for the video, it also became clear that we were gonna have to star in our own video as well.
Filming Day 1
Our first day of shooting took place at St Kilda beach. We arrived there at 5:30 in the morning in order to capture the soft, natural sunrise light and also to avoid crowds. At this day, I was working the camera and directing, and Grace was modelling/acting. Although it was our first real production experience and we struggled to get the settings right, I believe that the filming was a success. We didn’t encounter any particular problems, except for the absence of the wind, which made it quite difficult to film the sequence with airy, flying fabric. And even then, Grace found a way to make it work. I was especially glad we thought of coming at the location early in the morning- people started to arrive very early and at 8 am it was already difficult to get a clear shot without cyclists or dog walkers appearing in it. I thought of this after watching the Front 242’s “Egghunter” music video in class: it was discussed that Corbjin managed to get such “empty” shots by shooting early in the morning.
Filming Day 2
The second part of the filming took place in the green screen studio at RMIT. This time, Grace was the cameraman and I was a model. Personally, I found it much more challenging to film in a studio as opposed to an open space. The studio was really small, so the choice of possible shots was limited, and we had a big issue with artificial lighting. Even though the class on three-point lighting was really helpful, we still couldn’t get it right ourselves, and I kept getting weird shadows on my face. Not to mention, the light these lamps were emitting was orange-ish and it couldn’t even come close to soft, natural lighting of dawning sun.Personally, I don’t think we did a very good job in there and I definitely want to improve my skill of filming in a studio. I was surprised to learn how incredibly different filming inside and outside is. Other than that, it was fun to try myself as a model, and it was a great experience overall.
Change of Plans
After trying to put the green screen footage and the beach footage together it became clear that they don’t go together. We tried to find a way to connect the characters, but the problem was in the quality: the beach footage was just times better. The shots from the beach were all light, soft, and natural, as opposed to rough and visibly artificial green screen footage. So, we made a decision to leave out all green screen footage and concentrate on the beach. At this moment, we also realised that a conceptual video with just the beach shots would be too boring, and we decided to add a narrative. The new plan was to show a tragic story of a young man, who lost his loved one. The storyline had to be very subtle. So, we quickly cast Kenneth as the young man, made a new storyboard, and prepared for another day of filming.
Filming Day 3
This time, we knew what we were doing, so the filming went quick and smooth. We had to arrive at St Kilda at 5:30 again, and we were gone by 10 am. The only issue we had that day was the weather: it was around 15 degrees in the morning so we all nearly froze to death. Other than that, the filming was a success.
Editing
It took us 2 weeks to edit the video. I have complicated relationships with editing: I keep losing it during the process, I get incredibly annoyed watching all these little clips again and again, and cutting them, and putting them together, and keeping track on every little detail, and doing the effects, and I even got mad by just writing it now. However, nothing is compared with joy and satisfaction I feel after it’s all done. So, the process itself was really challenging, especially because Grace and I both were new to the software, but the end result was all worth it. I actually think that editing was one of the best parts of our video: I love it how the colour palettes highlight the narrative, I love the ghost effect, the fading… I think we did a really good job. Although I almost turned into Hulk a few times, I really enjoy the final music video.
All in all, it was an incredible experience. These few weeks improved my filming and editing skills a lot, and I feel much more confident. I learned to use a digital SLR, to plan a filming process, to work with a camera outside and in a studio, to edit, and to do some really cool effects in Premiere Pro! I would like to say that I learned to set a three-point lighting set, but the practice proved me wrong… This studio was really great, and I feel that I learned more here, that on all classes of previous semester altogether. Hopefully, my future classes will be just as helpful.
I proudly consider myself a feminist. I believe with all my heart that women all over the world have the right to be whatever they want to be, do whatever makes them happy and express themselves freely. This is why Pink’s music video “Stupid Girls” makes me angry.
Not so long ago women were heavily oppressed, forced to stay at home delivering baby after baby, cooking, cleaning, and pleasuring their husband, to whom they were more than often wed without their consent. Women who were interested in science, war, travelling the world, or anything that was outside what they “were supposed” be interested in were laughed at and ridiculed. Then, with appearance of feminism, it changed. The big message was: you are free to do whatever you want without other people telling you how to live your life! And now, specifically in “Stupid Girls”, people are dictating women the way of life once again, but this time from other perspective: it is now somehow bad for girls to be girly. The video makes fun of “stupid bimbos” who like to feel sexy, to wear fancy clothes and make up, and to undergo different beauty procedures. Instead, women now apparently HAVE TO play football, look plain and simple and aspire to be the president. This video communicates a certain message saying that if girls are interested in typical girly stuff then they are stupid and should be laughed at. What, I guess, was intended to promote feminism and women empowerment tells us that women should be more like men instead.
“So, in terms of Pink’s “Stupid Girls”, this would mean that the young girl ought to make a choice to leave her girly toys alone- conceived as tools of patriarchal culture which socialise her into “feminine stupidity” and subservience- and instead pick up the football and play with the boys.
D. Railton, P. Watson (2011).
First of all, here is a crazy idea: why not both? Just because a woman likes to look good it doesn’t mean that she is dumb and has no life aspirations. I personally know quite a few highly successful and intelligent women who also spend a lot of time and money on maintaining their good looks, and are not afraid to show it. Secondly, feminism is about having a choice, it is about being free, and if some girl wants to be perceived as a sexual object and receive attention from men, why not? Just because you don’t want it, it doesn’t mean that it is now bad and unacceptable for everyone else. It reminds me of religion and homophobia: they personally believe that it is wrong, so millions and millions of people around the world are now supposed to be unhappy and hide their true selves? I don’t think so. If a woman wants to wear a lot of make up, dress in revealing clothes, have plastic surgery and look sexually appealing, it’s her choice and her right to do so. This whole situation reminds me of a scandal around Emma Watson’s topless photo session for Vanity Fair: she was accused of promoting patriarchy and anti-feminism.
Her response, I think sums up the whole debate:
“Feminism is about giving women choice,” she said. “Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it.”
(C. Wilson, 2017)
Another aspect of the video that angers me is how Pink is literally telling girls to be manly. The music videos gives us an idea that it’s only good for girls to act more like men,which is, as much as I hate this word, offensive. When a girl is more interested in “boy things” by herself, is one thing, but telling everybody out there that this is how it’s supposed to be is something else entirely. As Railton said:
“Our identity is not something that comes from within,something to be revealed in its truth or concealed in its denial; it is product of our specific social, cultural, and historical situation”.
D. Railton, P. Watson (2011).
All in all, this video had the right idea, but a very wrong execution. What was supposed to be a pro-feminism anthem, became an insult to all the women out there. I don’t know if Pink didn’t give this idea much though or it was exactly what she meant, but I do believe that all famous figures who have influence over people should really think what they do and say through. It might heavily affect someone’s perception of life.
Works cited:
D. Railton, P. Watson (2011). “Music Video And Politics Of Representation”, Edinburgh University Press.
I think the first thing I should say is that I am very proud of the video we made. Grace and I were both complete newbies, without any experience in scripting, filming, or editing, and not to mention, we were only two in the group. Despite all of that, we made a really good music video that we are proud of and significantly increased multiple filmmaking skills along the way. No matter the grade, or the Soft Corporate’s feedback, I am personally very content with our work.
The final version of our music video was very different from what we have planned and from the pitch we presented in class. In the beginning, we were going to make a non-narrative video consisting of two sequences: a light, bright, dream-like sequence at dawn at the beach, and an unusual, intriguing and bold sequence in the green studio. It was going to be a conceptual video, designed to match the song without distracting the audience with a storyline. However, after uploading all the footage together it became obvious very soon that these two sequences don’t go together. We tried to play and combine it, to create a story of Grace’s character and mine, but the problem was mostly of colours and quality. The beach shots were all in a beautiful colour palette, pink and sky blue, and the quality was very good as well. The green screen studio footage, however, was not as promising… The light was kind of orange-ish and we couldn’t properly figure out the three-point lighting after all so I had shadows all over my face. I realise now that we overestimated our capabilities at the very start: our initial idea would work if we had time and budget for a spacious white studio, luminous lighting and a professional model. Hopefully, I will be able to properly execute a similar idea later.
So, we decided to change the storyline.
In the final video, there’s a covert storyline. The guy in the video is the only real character: the girl is only in his memories/ dreams. He stands there, thinking of her and of how she disappeared from his life, but the video doesn’t explain what happened to her. This idea came to us because of how dreamy and unreal the original beach footage looked. We also thought about making the real character an old woman, sitting in a wheelchair by the ocean remembering her better days, but it would be too difficult to find a volunteer, especially since Grace and I both only moved to Australia in June. For the same reason we had to drop a similar idea of an old man remembering his wife who passed away, so we chose the narrative with a heartbroken young man. It’s funny, right after we approved this idea we started looking for a leading male actor, and when Grace suggested asking Kenneth it just clicked: he was perfect for the role. I even went through all of my friends and acquaintances to make sure- he was the one.
I think that the best part of our video is the footage. It was getting up at 4 am and freezing at the beach just to get these shots: they are stunning. I am not even sure what made it that good, the time, the location, the camerawork, beautiful Grace, or just luck, but I definitely consider footage to be the most successful aspect of my work. I also think our editing was pretty good for beginners, we explored and applied quite a lot of different techniques and solutions. I think that one of the best editing ideas we had is changing colour palette to highlight that Grace’s and Kenneth’s characters and not in the same world. It added so much charm and mystery to the video, I think it was magical. I also especially enjoy how every cut matches the song’s rhythm, that’s always something I personally look for in music videos. As for negative aspects, I am not sure… I feel like the video could just be better all together, but I don’t know what exactly is missing. I feel bad being that person who can’t properly explain, but it’s true, I just honestly don’t know what’s wrong with it. We worked so hard, and there’s nothing else we could change at this point, but I still get this feeling that it could be better. Then again, nothing I do is ever good for me, so I just hope that I will improve it later in my studies.
All in all, we did a great job, and what’s just as important, we had a great time doing it. I don’t think that I will ever find myself building my career on music video production, but I definitely improved myself immensely during this course.
Grace and I spent over a week trapped in editing suits, but the final result was all worth it. Again, I can’t upload the video here due to its size, but it can be found in a shared google drive folder called “Finecuts” or “Finalsubmission”.
Feedback is always very welcome, so if you have a spare minute, please send me a word on what you think about it.
Our music video doesn’t have a very distinct or structured narrative, it’s more of a hint that there’s a story. Basically, the main idea is that Kenneth’s character is real, but Grace’s isn’t. The guy stands on the beach, remembering the girl, going through the memories he has of her. The only thing that seems to be in both real and imaginary word is the white fabric. The video doesn’t explain what happened, maybe she just left him, maybe she passed away, there’s no way of knowing. It leaves room for imagination.
So, we need to find a way to show that Grace’s character isn’t really there, that she is in the guy’s memories. We were thinking of achieving that by adding multiple delayed layers on some of the footage and setting its opacity at 50%. This way, it will loo “ghostly” and surreal. We are also going to play with overlays and fades, maybe even throw in a few mirror effects.
We’ll definitely come up with various ways to add surrealistic, dreamy feeling to the video.
When Rohan first screened Hurts’ Lights in class, I was mesmerised. This music video had everything: great, yet not intrusive narrative, the distinct atmosphere, the dance that matches the song perfectly, perfect colour palette… I had to rewatch it several times at home. So, I was really intrigued to read an interview with the man who made it all happen, Dawn Shadforth.
I was pleased to notice that Shadforth approached the video concept the same way Grace and I did: build everything up on the atmosphere of the song, on the feeling it gives you.
“My impulse was to do something that had some honesty and emotionally matched the lyrics and the narrative came from my interpretation of them”
(Shadforth 2015).
What appeals to me the most in this video, is the way Shadforth managed to find the perfect illustrations for the song, it seriously makes me feel like they were created together, like the music and the video only go together and never separate. For me, that’s the best kind of music videos when the sound and the image complete each other.
Another thing that I found particularly interesting when reading the interview, is that how Shadforth said:
“Story first.”
(Shadforth 2015).
They first came up with the narrative and then started adding all the little details to make it more realistic and “alive”, while in our own production it just happened that we went the opposite way. After it became obvious that the green screen footage can’t be used, we had to create a plot based on the footage we already have. In my future work, I’ll definitely try to avoid this mistake and have everything planned from the very beginning. But then, again, in the beginning, we were supposed to have 4 people on our team. Sh*t happens.
All in all, it was exciting to have a glimpse of the production process of Hurts’ Lights. The unusual setting, the costume, the dance, and the overall fun is exactly what made me love media so much.
Unfortunately, the file is too big to upload it here, but it can be found on this class’s Google Drive in folder “Rough Cuts”. It is saved under name “international_love_roughcut.mov”.
It was extremely helpful to hear some feedback from other students and the teacher, it really helps to see audience’s perspective and direct further work in the right direction, especially because after seeing the same video so many times it’s difficult to evaluate it. Grace and I were surprised and really happy that overall impression was positive, we were both nervous showing our first work. All the notes and comments we received were helpful and constructive, which is always nice. I had experience working with people whose criticism skills ended at “I dunno why but it’s sh*t”. Anyway. Irrelevant.
Here are some of the notes I took down during the discussion session in class:
More cutaways for the music part
intensify urgency (especially the running part)
add flowers + intense red
when Grace disappears in overexposed light, use a patch to make head disappear as well
include mirror footage
Footage should not match the lyrics(the forest burns on the horizon)
Use just fabric and the wind footage
No seagull (fabric instead)
More overlay editing
Straighten horizon lines
We will definitely consider all of these comments to improve our video. Thank you, everyone, for the help!
