Planning:
The Black Keys
-Metanarrative: Their long friendship
is something obvious in their music videos such as in ‘Tighten up’ they refer
to each other by name; Auerbach says ‘I told Patrick we were gonna meet up’
this creates verisimilitude between the music video and the artists personally
making them present to the viewer however they also appear simultaneously absent
as they only feature at the beginning and end of this video as the two boys who
symbolise their sons mime to most of the lyrics. This metanarrative is
important as their friendship means they brought themselves together rather
than being pushed together by a label so this is a lot more sincere to a fan
base and makes them more likable and authentic.
-Style: There is a comical aspect to a lot of their music videos such as the original of ‘Tighten Up’ and ‘Lonely Boy’ as they are both one shot of one figure dancing or miming to the song, a simple illustrative technique that is amusing in effect. The remake of the ‘Tighten Up’ video is also funny because the narrative shows a slap stick story of a competition for love.
-Type of videos: Most of their videos appear to feature a performance sequence often intercut with a separate narrative. These narratives are obvious to interpret and are not too arty or conceptual in meaning.
-Camera techniques: Shift focus from one band member to the other. Handicam is used rather than still shots to make movement fluid like the music.
-Grain of voice: Auerbach has an original grain of voice that projects like the generic blues singer but with their added rock, garage influence it is unique to them. It has a soulful emotive sound but it is not winey, instead very acoustically pleasing.
-Emotional colouring: ‘Little Black Submarine’ has quite saturated colouring and makes the all-performance music video very intense and heated replicating the experience of seeing them live helping to complete the star image as they are made present to the viewer. In contrast to that the music video ‘Fever’ uses a very grainy, sombre wash that creates an aged home video feel about it and helps to create the feverish, sickly emotion relevant to the name of the song. This home video style makes the audience feel part of the video in the same way as documentaries and porn does with the low tech filming equipment that creates authentic, raw film.
-Locations and props: The location of a park in ‘Tighten Up’ is consistent with the narrative that shows the band members with their fictional sons but also it reinforces the authenticity of the group’s friendship that they are shown to meet in such a natural, casual situation. This location is so accessible to everyone that it makes the artists both ordinary and present.
-Style: There is a comical aspect to a lot of their music videos such as the original of ‘Tighten Up’ and ‘Lonely Boy’ as they are both one shot of one figure dancing or miming to the song, a simple illustrative technique that is amusing in effect. The remake of the ‘Tighten Up’ video is also funny because the narrative shows a slap stick story of a competition for love.
-Type of videos: Most of their videos appear to feature a performance sequence often intercut with a separate narrative. These narratives are obvious to interpret and are not too arty or conceptual in meaning.
-Camera techniques: Shift focus from one band member to the other. Handicam is used rather than still shots to make movement fluid like the music.
-Grain of voice: Auerbach has an original grain of voice that projects like the generic blues singer but with their added rock, garage influence it is unique to them. It has a soulful emotive sound but it is not winey, instead very acoustically pleasing.
-Emotional colouring: ‘Little Black Submarine’ has quite saturated colouring and makes the all-performance music video very intense and heated replicating the experience of seeing them live helping to complete the star image as they are made present to the viewer. In contrast to that the music video ‘Fever’ uses a very grainy, sombre wash that creates an aged home video feel about it and helps to create the feverish, sickly emotion relevant to the name of the song. This home video style makes the audience feel part of the video in the same way as documentaries and porn does with the low tech filming equipment that creates authentic, raw film.
-Locations and props: The location of a park in ‘Tighten Up’ is consistent with the narrative that shows the band members with their fictional sons but also it reinforces the authenticity of the group’s friendship that they are shown to meet in such a natural, casual situation. This location is so accessible to everyone that it makes the artists both ordinary and present.
Synaesthesia exercise
·
Powerful strong beat, very rock-rebellious and
energetic
·
The chorus features backing singers so the idea
of a crowd (a lonely boy in a crowd)
·
Repetitive, consistent beat-could easily feature
a dance routine
·
Daytime-bright saturated colours
·
Gritty-raw and authentic (grunge)
·
Does not feel like a lonely song contrary to the
song title so this could be ironically presented in the music video e.g. one
person isolated amongst lots of people.
·
‘Love’ instinctively a heterosexual relationship
so with a male voice you expect a female presence to resemble the subject of
their love.
·
‘Waiting’ reference to time-could be in a rush
or keep checking watch/clock
Ideas for our section of the track (1:36-2.24)
·
Stop motion
·
Performance on stairs
·
Girl and boy chase
·
Heart-‘love’ and watch ‘time’ ‘waiting’
·
Parallel lines of action- Cutting between the
stairs and the chase scene (boy/girl)
·
Teenagers in love
·
Passing a note around a detention room
·
Older dominant character suppressing the younger
generation consistent with teen angst relevant to the black keys audience. E.g.
Teacher.
Production
Evaluation
In our groups we created a 48 second music video response to
the work of The Black Keys; the song ‘Lonely Boy.’ We researched the artists
and their other music videos so that we knew the look desired for the indie
rock genre. A characteristic we carried forward in our work was the colouring
in the music videos ‘Fever’ which used grainy sombre colours creating an aged
home video feel. This home video style is created with low tech filming
equipment that creates authentic, raw film. Our video was created without high
tech filming equipment and the neutral coloured setting and costume meant the
mise-en-scene conformed to our desired colour scheme.
Our piece includes a narrative of love and rejection set in a detention scenario. The structure of our music video reinforces the narrative fuzz as it is an incomplete story that is relatable to a wide audience as it is not specific so can be applied to many situations of love and rejection. The opening is of the teacher, an older dominant character suppressing the younger generation which is consistent with teen angst relevant to the black keys audience. We came up with our narrative by dissecting the main theme of the lyrics which is love. Instinctively a heterosexual relationship came to mind, so with a male voice you would expect a female presence to resemble the subject of their love which is why we chose Charlie to play the female subject who the artist is singing about. Jack forms the protagonist, who is almost a vice for the artists themselves so they are present in him even though they are visually absent from the music video conforming to Dyers second paradox that an artist is simultaneously present and absent to the audience.
Analysing our music video using Goodwin’s theories suggests the loose link of lyrics to visuals means it is an amplified piece. For example the shot of the clock at the point that ‘waiting’ is mentioned in the song are related because they both have obvious connotations to time. Another example of when visuals link to the lyrics is when Jacks character is left alone in one third of the shot as the title lyric plays out ‘I’m a lonely boy.’ The framing of this shot draws attention to the single character emphasising his loneliness.
A star image is formed through our music video; although there is no performance aspect and the artists are not made present we have created themes in our narrative that reflect the qualities of a star. The setting of a detention room creates the illusion of the artist’s youthfulness, rebellion and anti-authorial attitude, Dyer recognised these as some of the common values of music stardom. Other qualities like aggression are introduced in the violence of the students throwing paper aeroplanes and balls of paper at one another, this is a disregard of social values and a repent against good behaviour.
Our piece includes a narrative of love and rejection set in a detention scenario. The structure of our music video reinforces the narrative fuzz as it is an incomplete story that is relatable to a wide audience as it is not specific so can be applied to many situations of love and rejection. The opening is of the teacher, an older dominant character suppressing the younger generation which is consistent with teen angst relevant to the black keys audience. We came up with our narrative by dissecting the main theme of the lyrics which is love. Instinctively a heterosexual relationship came to mind, so with a male voice you would expect a female presence to resemble the subject of their love which is why we chose Charlie to play the female subject who the artist is singing about. Jack forms the protagonist, who is almost a vice for the artists themselves so they are present in him even though they are visually absent from the music video conforming to Dyers second paradox that an artist is simultaneously present and absent to the audience.
Analysing our music video using Goodwin’s theories suggests the loose link of lyrics to visuals means it is an amplified piece. For example the shot of the clock at the point that ‘waiting’ is mentioned in the song are related because they both have obvious connotations to time. Another example of when visuals link to the lyrics is when Jacks character is left alone in one third of the shot as the title lyric plays out ‘I’m a lonely boy.’ The framing of this shot draws attention to the single character emphasising his loneliness.
A star image is formed through our music video; although there is no performance aspect and the artists are not made present we have created themes in our narrative that reflect the qualities of a star. The setting of a detention room creates the illusion of the artist’s youthfulness, rebellion and anti-authorial attitude, Dyer recognised these as some of the common values of music stardom. Other qualities like aggression are introduced in the violence of the students throwing paper aeroplanes and balls of paper at one another, this is a disregard of social values and a repent against good behaviour.
How did you develop
your skills?
Having to transform an interpretation of lyrics to visuals was a new skill that was developed in this task that will be useful when brainstorming ideas from the song we choose for our final music video task.
Having to transform an interpretation of lyrics to visuals was a new skill that was developed in this task that will be useful when brainstorming ideas from the song we choose for our final music video task.
What advice would you
give yourself for the music video task?
Editing in time to the music brings a lot to the piece as it synchronises the visuals with the sound and this gives it a more effective music video look, so this technique should definitely be considered for the music video task. Another piece of advice I would give is to make a very detailed storyboard with specific times so that in editing no good footage has to be taken out or speeded up or even slowed down and need to put more irrelevant footage in.
Editing in time to the music brings a lot to the piece as it synchronises the visuals with the sound and this gives it a more effective music video look, so this technique should definitely be considered for the music video task. Another piece of advice I would give is to make a very detailed storyboard with specific times so that in editing no good footage has to be taken out or speeded up or even slowed down and need to put more irrelevant footage in.
What Ideas do you
currently have?
I have an idea of creating a music video with a loose narrative that refers to the song lyrics running through our video with intercuts of arty performance aspects. So a part conceptual, part performance, part narrative music video. I want to use more experimental camera techniques such as swish pans and soft focus that look good in time with the music.
I have an idea of creating a music video with a loose narrative that refers to the song lyrics running through our video with intercuts of arty performance aspects. So a part conceptual, part performance, part narrative music video. I want to use more experimental camera techniques such as swish pans and soft focus that look good in time with the music.
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