Change of narrtive

During late planning stages and the beginning of the shoot we started to feel that our footage had little narrative and worried it may fail to captivate any audiences attention, we planned to use various friends as actors but reflecting upon last years disorganization due to actors unable o make it, me and my partner Chelsea decided to was best to use ourselves to avoid any delays on our already slow shooting schedule. However this lead to change of plot/ narrative; whilst still using concepts of time passing and and the borders between past present and future, we used the concept of nostalgia, looking back on the past fondly. However we felt we were unable to fully portray nostalgia due to the footage seeming to be looking back on the past in a slightly negative way, although this is quiet ambiguous.

Narrative modes and structure:

 Use of flashbacks: 

•Flashback are interjected clips/ frames that takes the narrative back in time previous to when the current frames are set, and can be crucial to give the viewer the back story in some situations. Flashbacks can also take narrative somewhere outside of time all together, by acting as an individuals internal image of the past as they are imagining it, acting as a visual representation of the stream of consciousness.

•Flashbacks must be made clear to the audience so that they do not get the narratives chronology mixed up, this has been achieved in many ways throughout various media texts . For example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or unusual coloration or sepia tone, or monochrome when most of the story is in full colour, may be used.

•In my production i hope to use full colour image's to represent the present time, and black and white to represent the flash backs to the past, although this will still be more complex than it first seems. The full colour images, contrasting the black and white clips i wish to portray as part of a battle in the male characters stream of consciousness between the past (delusion) and the present (reality), I hope to achieve this in order to relate to the title of the song, nostalgia, although I want to leave the true meaning ambiguous to the audience.

 

 

Use of montage:

 

•The narrative structure of my production is rather complex and utilizes a montage technique, fading/ cutting with the beat, creating a link between the music and the visuals, which is important for the stream of consciousness technique I attempted to utilize to. Eisenstein describes montage as an alternative form of  form of  “continuity editing”. That is putting together a number of frames to create meaning, one frame informs the other. 

•I therefore plan to use this convention of narrative structure to put clips of footage together which on their own have little meaning, to create a continual flow of images which i aim to be representative of the character's continual ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings and consciousness.

 

 

Goodwin's theory case study

According to Goodwin music videos may be structured using match on action combined with a strong sense of story telling which either illistrated, amplifies or contradicts the lyrics. Goodwin's first rule argues music videos should demonstrate genre characteristics, of which the music video above achieves well. Goodwin's second rule argues that there must be a strong relationship between the audio and the visuals within a music video, although the visuals can either challenege or cemente the lyrical meaning of the song. Goodwin argued that music video's must demonstrate or challenge set genre characteristics which have been built up through the development of various media repeatedly and make inter-textual references to other media texts which may have made an impression on the film maker or the genre development as a whole. The cover of the iconic "Ghost Town" orginally by The Specials acted as a depiction of social breakdown during the 1980's when unemployment in the UK was at its lowest. The Hot 8 Brass Band redepictioned this by creating a relationship between the iconic socially aware lyrics with visuals which illistrate and amplify the point of the song, in order to paint a picture of zeitgeist, showing poverty, a run down society and political uncertainty. The music and video demonstrates generic conventions with the performers ethnicity being Afro Caribbean as are the roots of the ska and reggae genre.    What is so interesting about this, is that the band go to a run down disaster struck town to film the video in order to show the severity of the issue in question within he lyrics, and therefore i would argue that the video stays very within the rules of Goodwins narrative theory and effectively uses generic conventions in order to create a tribute to the music and the struggles of the past.

-A bbc article about how "Ghost Town" defined the era of the 1980's: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13780074)



"Frontier psychiatrist" by The Avalanches is built around different samples and methods of sampling and is generic and acclaimed by the electronic dance genre. The music video directed by Kuntz and Maguire fits in extremly well with Goodwin's narrative theory as it is firstly in compliance with typical generic conventions, and the visuals are a reanactment of the lyrics/samples throughout the song. All of the instruments are shown throughout the video with a twist, which can be typical of the  alternative electronic dance genre creating a relationship between lyrics and visuals, however thats only the begginging with all of the sample and lyrics depicted visually on a stage. lighting and match on action is used to cut to/ focus on reanacting the audio at all times, using lighting and cuts to seperate the relavent bits from the non relavent with reference to the audio. This video heavilly uses Goodwin's theory throughout the video and was a runner up for the "best music video" award in 2002, of which it came 19th.

Research into downtempo genre

Research into Downtempo genre from jakeaustin1

Shot List

1: Establishing shot panning towards the right, of dawn from norwich prison hill, connoting a new day, as well as the urban dystopia we are trying to show. (intertexual reference to our thriller) (disolved into next shot).



2: Establishing point of view shot of setting up of city,from carpark on st stephens birds eye view, timelapsed people and traffic.
3:  Slightly low angle close up of the wandering man as the beat kicks in, as the camera starts focusing on his journey.
3.5: Quick cut to me waking up and alarm going off, similar to opening scene for "This is England" including a close up of the time in order to connotate time passign and daily routine.
4. Low angle timelapsed shot of newmarket road roundabout at morning rush hour with me (the wanderer) in the middle of the roundabout/ or walking by in real time.
5. Over the shoulder shot of my decsent into st stephens underpass, with graffiti artists spraying at the time, (show all three directions with varying graffiti and messages).
6. close up of wanderers face as he decides which direction to go, split screen and go all down all four .
7. Close ups of the messages as point of view of wanderer and the artists faces.
8.Cut to brief timelapse of sky.
9.Tracking shot of me walking in real time with people passing by sped up timelapsed.
10. Bench shots at eaton park, long shots quick cut so seems like he is teleporting.
11. Over the shoulder shot of me walking in to my house, and quick cut to turning off light, and close up of setting alarm on phone.
12. Establishing shot of sundown in order to connotate the passing of the day.
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Track choice: Drakefrancis, Nostalgia

I have chosen this Downtempo instrumental track as it leaves the music video with an open narrative, and because of the solid beat and loops at a very mellow bpm, which would make it easier trying to get the video sequence's to fit with the track. I met the artist and he gave me full permission to use the track, however, I am still waiting for a written reply to show on here.

The theme of our video we are thinking about is daydreaming, and time passing by, focusing on the concept of nostalgia, we plan to achieve this by using an open text montage of clips which within themselves have no big meaning but when combined create the final meaning, although we want this to stay pretty open, the aim is the be thought provoking, as i feel it goes well with the mellow feel of the music. I think the music has a rather hypnotic feel to it, and i think using a montage, combined with editing techniques, manipulating the clip, by mirroring, reversing, changing speed for example, would be effective. We aim to make the film like a "tangled ball" (Barthes) allowing the auidience to draw many different interpretations. I would also like to try a time lapse, and then work out how to reverse the time lapse, as in the represent a the cycle of time as in day to day. The concept will be a journey that can easily metaphorically relate to the viewer's life. I am planning to have the journey, end it, then reverse the whole thing the the beggining, sped up, and then start over, so that it connotes repative lifestyle of modern day living.

The plan is that the journey focus's on one man's journey throughout a day as he wanders, watching others go about their day to day lives. Throughout the journey he will focus on 2-3 people, on working a repetative 9-5 job. Another person who seems very
down. These people face a problem that many people face, and can relate to, and the aim is that with the problem, the wanderer offers a solution in the context of a quote/ passage which would be thought provoking to the auidience.

The concept of nostalgia will be established via the keeping the colour within the composition representing the present/ reality. This will be contrasted by cutting to black and white while someone is daydreaming and within the shot will aim to recreate to situation of which the character is daydreaming about, nostalgia. The ending of the video i aim to solve the characters problems of nostalgia, waking them up from the past and getting them back to reality(colour).





Other music videos relating to how i want ours to be:







I want to attempt to get some footage backwards like they do here, however as there is no lyrics it will not be as complicated as learning them backwards etc.

Drakefrancis' permission