Today resident ukelele-slinger Georgia Fields graced us with her presence, ready to strum out some delightful tunes and bust some moves for us to film. Having not been involved a great deal behind the camera in a live scenario, I put my hand up to be in charge of one of the cameras and fumble my way through the process.

And fumble I did – despite the preparation leading up to Georgia’s performance and Rohan’s insistence that we check every last trivial thing to make sure nothing would go wrong in the shoot, I discovered during the first song that an SD card was absent from my camera. Luke, who stood as one of my assistants, attempted to subtly make his way over to the camera case to retrieve one only to trip over and cause audible racket. So as you can see live camerawork is my calling and it’d be a crime for me not to pursue it.

We skipped filming the first song but managed to pull ourselves together for the rest of them. Once I had the hang of it I was able to get some decent shots of Georgia’s guitar work and was able to pull off some pretty edgy slow focus pulls. Being fixed in one position is good as it allows you to focus purely on the angle you have and make the most out of it.

So I guess with at least a little more preparation and attention I could probably manage live camerawork, it definitely makes for a unique experience. I found myself coming up with interesting shots in my head and awkwardly trying to replicate them on the fly, but when I did manage to it was particularly rewarding.

 

On Tuesday this week we were given time to work on our third project brief: a pitch of the music video to Rohan and his friend/colleague Georgia Fields, a talented singer-songwriter who would serve as a completely fresh set of eyes and ears to our concepts. This for us meant a perfect opportunity to fine tune the details of the video and ensure that we were all on the same page.

We used this time really effectively and were able to structure our idea well by putting it into words. Today we met in the morning and polished the presentation, putting the slideshow together and assigning different areas to each speak about. It allowed us to clearly define the video in parts, ultimately making it a task easier to tackle.

Georgia and Rohan responded well to the presentation and idea. They agreed that the approach was a good match to the song and suggested that we try to branch out with the materials used so that the effect doesn’t become tiresome by the end of the song. This gave us some thoughts about what else we could include, and we began talking about more use of stop motion.

This project brief didn’t at any point really feel like an assessment or a necessity, but rather an opportunity for us to organise ourselves and reach a mutual understanding so I feel that it was a pretty important step in the process.

After having spent a class delving into some of the work of music video auteur Michel Gondry, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the influence the man has had on me and my own pursuit of music video.

Gondry has a really clearly established style, much like any other music video auteur. What stands out about Gondry’s filmography to me is the series of alternate worlds he invites you into, each wonderfully rich in strange and creative narratives. This is often assisted by the fact that Gondry collaborates with intelligent and quirky artists who depict bizarre worlds and narratives of their own.

One of the benefits of Gondry’s technique is the amount of freedom it gives him in expressing his ideas. He is not known to follow the basic formula of shoving a band in a room and making them look cool, although he does tend to feature the artist in some way or another. Gondry always brings out the essence and character of the artist by placing them in a world where they have to be equally as expressive as the environment around them.

A lot of the time his videos are quite simple but still manage to be figures of awe: they come from very simple concepts but produce astonishing results (case in point: “Fell In Love With A Girl”). This is one of the things that draws me to Gondry’s work, they often have a real DIY sense about them but at the same time you know you’ll never match the man’s standard of work.

I feel that Gondry celebrates the medium of music video by embracing it for what it is: a strange blend of endorsement and art that needs music for it to exist. Basically, Gondry bolsters the song and artist he is working with by producing a very engaging piece of work that almost immediately translates what that artist is all about.

For the second project brief that required us to discuss and present on a music video of our choice and its defining features, I chose to talk about Michel Gondry’s award-winning stop-motion video for the White Stripes’ 2002 single “Fell In Love With A Girl”.

The video is entirely made out of LEGO and displays a correlation with the band’s image by making almost exclusive use of the band’s distinctive red, white and black colour palette. Having to source the LEGO materials themselves (as a result of being unable to successfully drum up a deal with LEGO), Gondry and co. created roughly 3000 LEGO models based on pixelated images printed from footage of the band shot at 25 frames per second. These frames were then shot in stop motion, ultimately producing a staggering effect that is perfectly suited to the song’s exuberant and quite naive tone.

I chose this video out of an appreciation of White Stripes and Michel Gondry along with the fact that I think this video perfectly captures the essence of a music video – in the way that it compliments the rhythm of the song, reflects the aesthetic of the band, enhances the song and does not detract from it, is self-aware and not overly packed, and is distinct and memorable. I think, at their best, songs or pieces of music invite a glimpse into a space – the space does not have to be clearly defined in a narrative sense or always familiar, in fact often it’s a plus if it isn’t, but it should be distinct and well-defined in its own right. I feel that this goes for music videos too – the videos that grab my attention are always confident and clearly matched to the space that song evokes.

The DIY and slightly restrained aesthetic of this video has informed the creative process of my own group’s music video, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to properly research this music video.

Vernallis discusses a number of different modes of storytelling inherent in music videos, particularly outlining the different effects of narrative and nonnarrative videos. She describes the primary objective of music videos, where they generally underscore the music, highlight the lyrics and showcase the star. In the case of narrative-based music videos, a balance should be struck between the story unfolding on the screen and the inherent story in the song to avoid the music “reced[ing] into the background”. That being said, Vernallis explains that the narrative function of a music video does not often reflect that of a classic Hollywood film, wherein narrative planks allows for audiences to construct expectations and predictions. Instead, music videos produce more vague and fluid temporality within the narrative, which is not necessarily presented as a cohesive whole but rather demands a relationship with the lyrical and sonic aspects of the music itself.

Nonnarrative music videos tend to reflect this idea to an even further extent. Vernallis proposes that “each shot possesses its own truth value” and can be understood in its own right. There is an inherent vagueness in the medium of music video – it is fixed to the confines of the duration of a song and the agenda of somehow building upon the song itself. With this in mind, music videos tend to follow the conventions of commercials or film trailers rather than films or television shows: they need to express their intention in a limited amount of time and to a gripping effect.

Vernallis raises the point that music, unlike classic Hollywood cinema, generally “demands attention at every instant” and as such should not depend on what is to happen next, but rather what is happening at each specific moment. It is with this in mind that we can understand music videos as a very unique mode of storytelling, both restricted and unbounded by its limitations and stimulus.

As I expressed in my previous post, I am excited by the prospect of creating a music video within this subject that serves professional purpose. Music videos have historically served as promotional vehicles for musical artists wherein the sonic and lyrical properties of the song are given some sort of extra effect, and the artists themselves (particularly in pop music) are generally presented and promoted. A music video may give insight to the artist’s intention for a song, it may visually respond to the dynamics of the music, or it may serve to make the artist appear in a certain light (not exhaustive).

My group is working with Melbourne-based indie rock (or as they prefer, “Jizz Rock”) band Pockets following the release of their first single for 2016, “Ten Different Names”. The song is a vibrant, summer anthem, and has been released with a slick artwork and image provided by local artist Chris Watts. The artwork to me is the marriage of Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” and Tame Impala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” music video imagery: quite slick while still inviting a healthy dose of psychedelic chaos. After some discussion, this is the feel that we’re deciding to run with, with emphasis on a summery feel that mirrors the quality of the song itself.

The video is only in its early stages of conceptualisation at this point, and a meeting with the band is in the process of being scheduled. There are many things to consider beyond the aesthetic presentation that we currently have a pretty clear idea of, for instance, whether the video will reflect aspects of the lyrics, whether it will somehow incorporate the band themselves, how much it will correlate with the band’s current image (perhaps we will need to specifically consult their artist – however this will probably create cost), and what sort of materials and equipment we will be working with.

On a separate note, my own band was fortunate enough to open for Pockets at their single launch last Friday. Their live show was energetic, explosive, entertaining and involving. They created a space that felt not only occupied, but shared by all. This is a quality of the band that is perhaps one of their strongest qualities, and it might be worth considering this somehow in the creation of the music video.

 

So… The Great Belgian Egg Hunt. Seems right up my alley after my first class (and only class so far). From what I can gather at this point, one of the primary focuses of the subject lies on creative collaboration and experimentation. This works for me because I’d like to complete a worthwhile project these holidays and working within a group tends to present a set of unique challenges – creative direction, problem solving, organisation. All things I need to exercise and work on.

As a student and creative person, I find it difficult to concentrate on and complete something if I can’t find value or purpose in the finished product, as I’m sure many of us do. This is possibly the primary reason that this subject and its learning tasks appeal to me: we are to work with a client, and the emphasis lies on creating something that is of worth to both the client and the creative team behind it. This takes the project to a level beyond that of assessment and to a level of sentimentality, finesse and, hopefully, industry use.

As we were somewhat awkwardly shuffled into groups and began to discuss the nature of our final project brief in our class on Tuesday, I thought about the goals I have in mind for the assessment. Being a musician and affiliated closely with a number of fellow musicians and bands, I understand the importance of branding and image. I considered a band with whom I have a fairly close relationship with having gigged with them on many occasions, Pockets, with the fact that they are in want of a music video in mind. Considering the aims and goals that this subject encourages, I thought it would be appropriate to kill two birds with one stone and pitch the prospect of creating a music video for this band to my group. They are currently undergoing a process of reinventing their image with a new logo, EP and social media presence, so I felt that this would be the opportune moment to bolster this process of change with a brand spanking new slick music video.

My group is passionate and seem to me like they want to get some work done and better their own skills – which is awesome. Really looking forward to working on this video with some likeminded people and to tackle whatever challenges lie ahead!