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!

I genuinely feel like I’ve come a long way throughout this semester, both in understanding the way that the course operates and how I operate. I’ve learnt a lot about media and communication practices, theories and approaches just as much as I’ve learnt how to better conduct my personal approach to learning.

I have to admit that I experienced a somewhat clumsy beginning to the course, I wasn’t really engaging with the ideas as well as I should have been and was foolishly circumventing the tasks at hand, regardless of how simple or non-time-consuming they were. I feel like this was because I was so fixated on what I predicted the course to be and wasn’t allowing myself to accept a process of learning that didn’t strictly abide to that preconception. As time went on and as I was forced to put more and more work into the project briefs, however, I began to realise the value in the course.

I’ve learnt that being honest, open and communicative is absolutely essential to a course like this – there were too many instances where I should have bitten the bullet and asked for help as soon as possible to greaten my chances of better results. This became clear to me in the Project Brief #4 process, where through legitimate and rich collaboration I endured a totally comfortable and natural working process which resulted in a product that I am proud of and don’t feel as though it was a chore to produce.

I realised that I learn really effectively through consistent reflection on ideas, simply writing about something after experiencing it I find to be an awesome way to draw my own understanding from what has been presented to me and to clearly engage with the ideas at hand. As a result, I feel like I finally understand the value in the blog, and in hindsight wish that I had maintained it on a consistent, regular basis, as a lot of the key concepts within the course would have resonated with me far more effectively.

So I suppose I would say that I found understanding this way of approaching learning to be the most challenging aspect of the course, it took me pretty much the whole semester to really grasp. Typically I learn from practice, and I initially felt that I was robbed of enough hands-on content. I really do feel now though that I can accept this newfound approach to learning and benefit from it greatly.

I am proud of the majority of material that I have produced this semester, although I can’t say I was reaching my full potential in producing it. I compromised my creative ability by delaying the effort out of laziness, and in reflecting on the work that I did end up putting together, it is generally of a great quality, but I really do have a lot more potential that I’m going to explore as the course continues.

I’ve met some great people, have had some great experiences, and have learnt a lot more about myself than I particularly thought I would. Keen to see what the rest of the course brings!

Bless, Timp out. xx

PS: See below – Learning Graph, a visual representation of what I was saying above however I think since doing it I’ve begun to understand some things better than I did even in week 12 (I would suggest that the blog curve would take a much more positive incline at the end than is depicted).

Aaaaand here it is folks, proud to present Yield’s Tin Llama’s debut podcasting endeavour! Laughs were had. Some serious thoughts sometimes as well.

I have to say that I was damn near blessed with my assigned group for the task. Matched with the great, keen minds of Daniel Bowden and Sally Lewis, the three of us delved into introductory discussion and uncovered a like fascination with sound and film, making it extremely breezy to gel into a group dynamic. We were assigned the topic of ‘mediums’, which admittedly was puzzling at first, but nevertheless we chiseled away at what we thought this could be prompting us to explore. Quite early in the collaboration we decided that our shared interest in audio could make for a neat podcast – I admittedly had not had any prior experience in the production of podcasts nor had I particularly lent my ear to many at all but I was nevertheless intrigued and excited at the prospect of putting one together.

After a chat over a drink with Dan running off the work of the great Marshall McLuhan surrounding the “message” that exists within the medium, we began to develop a premise revolving around the idea of mediums changing over time, the effects this has had on society and the necessity for us to adapt to these changes, which ultimately guided our entire creative process. Establishing such a strong premise so early in the process proved to be extremely useful as we each knew what to steer ideas towards. I began to get quite excited about the project and took to putting pen to paper and roughly conceptualising some ideas in the form of streams of consciousness, which would later take shape as a decent whack of content in the final piece.

Praise be to Sal, who well and truly got the ball rolling and smashed out a great deal of initial content that came together as the opening content to the podcast. Once this had been produced, I think we all began to really see the direction the project it was taking and all began heavily contributing. What I’m particularly appreciative of is the fact that each meeting we had were genuinely exceptionally interesting – I looked forward to each one and was always inspired to produce something immediately afterwards. At no point did this assignment feel like a chore or a dull necessity, it was seriously awesome collaboration at its finest.

While we did work efficiently and cooperatively throughout the process, our avid eagerness did lead to some minor issues. Many of the ideas and references we intended to include in the podcast proved to push the project too far over the rough 15 minute restriction that we put to it with Jasmine and the class. This led to us unfortunately excluding mention of the likes of Trevor Cox and Rupert Till, who offered wonderful insight into ancient communicative mediums, which we intended to reference at the beginning of the timeline of our podcast. Equally disappointing was the fact that, due to necessary omissions and time constraints, we made no mention of the great Marshall McLuhan himself, yet did refer to his theories regarding “the medium is the message”. While the inclusion of these references would have been more than worthy content, the decisions to leave them out allowed us to make more time for the exploration of key ideas and rich discussion, which in considering that we were shooting for an engaging and varied podcast I think proved to be the right idea.

The time we spent in Dan’s seriously cool studio producing the narration and conversation for the podcast was a really great experience as well – while I’ve had prior experience in recording studios along with my own sound engineering pursuits, this was largely a new experience for me as I’d not recorded material anything like that before. It was a fluid and enjoyable session that, again, felt natural and not even close to being tedious. I did learn some techniques from Dan’s wise wizardry with audio that I will definitely take with me into future sound endeavours.

So this all brought us to the final product, which I have to say I’m pretty damn proud of. We aimed to achieve professional quality not dissimilar to what you might hear in a RadioLab podcast, and I feel that we marked pretty close territory. While we may not have been able to integrate every aspect we initially had hoped for, I reflect totally fondly on the process – could not have asked for a more energetic, passionate and thoughtful group, so bless the both of youse Dan and Sal. I have a newfound obsession with podcasts after doing this and a whole new perspective on the way in which mediums inform and dictate the progression of society, and what more can you ask for really.

Allow me to take you on a journey through what I think are five blog posts that pretty accurately depict the highlights of my experience in the course this semester.

Week 1 Connections — The Nature of Blogging
In this connections post I think I articulate my introduction to the world of blogging pretty damn well. I consider not only what blogging means to me, but where it slots into the world of media and how it is significant in its own right as a very human-based medium.

Week 2 Connections — Noticing Media
Here I apply the art of noticing media to my own petty, material-ridden existence. What I find interesting about this post is the fact that as I wrote it I genuinely became increasingly aware of my media consumption, which I feel is translated through the post.

Week 5 Lectorial — Introduction to PB#3
I felt it was important to include this post as it most accurately reflects an initial idea I stuck to and feel that I executed to a fairly successful degree. I began to conceptualise how I could go about producing the third project brief and it’s interesting to see how much of the initial concept was, in fact, reflected in the final piece.

Week 4 Lectorial — Editing / Blood in the Gutter
This was a great lectorial that communicated ideas really well to me and that I think I responded strongly to. The discussion surrounding the nature of the edit was really clearly expressed and, as a result, I felt the need to really clearly reflect on these ideas. Not to mention the reading was awesome.

Week 8 Practical — PB#4 Brainstorming
I feel that this post depicts the excitement and buzz surrounding this assignment that I began to experience from the early stages of putting it together. I really enjoyed the whole process of the fourth project brief and this was one of the highlight creative and collaborative moments for me.

 

Again uniting with my hombres Sal and Dan, we cracked out the coloured textas and let our minds vomit onto butchers paper to get some of the ideas flowing for our fourth project brief.

We’ve now decided on a podcast as the medium through which we’ll be exploring the topic of mediums, which I’m pretty excited about considering I haven’t really had much experience with podcasts at all in the past, let alone the creation of one, a good old fashioned challenge as it were. We ran with academic Marshall McLuhan’s notion that “the medium is the message” as our jump-off point for the exploration of ideas and it all took place from there in wonderful, colourful fashion. I feel that our ideas all have begun to flow really naturally, that we’re beginning to grasp the concept of mediums now and that we’re already working really well as a collective.

There’s not much I can really say that captures the true essence of what we put together today so let me rather attach the product of our mad creativity to this post – see below. Enjoy!

I was admittedly pretty desperately late to this class due to a series of unfortunate events so I wasn’t able to see everybody’s project briefs and give them feedback which was disappointing, however I did see Seb’s (which I thoroughly enjoyed, shout out to my boy, bless xx <3) and was able to show some people in the class my own project brief which they responded really well to.

I think this most recent project brief has been the submission I’m most proud of so far as I feel I did, as I originally had hoped in early conceptions of the premise, capture the essence of Mum to a fairly successful degree. Hopefully Jasmine responds well to it!

I did make the class in time to be integrated into a group for the fourth project brief, dawning the collaborative efforts between myself, Sally Lewis and Daniel Bowden. We had a great introductory chat, uncovering a lot of common ground and establishing a like interest in film and audio which is always a good basis. We were given the topic of ‘mediums’ for our project brief, which I think we’ll all need to look into independently a little deeper as it had us somewhat stumped as we tried to pull apart what it could be asking us to explore, but I have no doubt we’ll get our heads around it soon enough.

Feeling good vibes from this group! Two really interesting people that I think I’ll gel well with (unintentional rhyme there but not complaining).