For my advanced media portfolio, I have chosen the form of music video to work within (as per my preliminary task). The purpose of a music video could be said to apply further meaning to the themes conveyed in the song through a visual medium, especially when the form of the video is conceptual/narrative (although the merits of visuals to enhance the public persona of an artist).
I have chosen tracks from Sufjan Steven’s ‘Illinois’ (2005) as the framework and basis for this audio-visual task. My chosen tracks from the album are:
- ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois’
- ‘The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!’
For the purposes of my planning, these titles will be abbreviated to ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ and ‘The Black Hawk War’ respectively.
Whilst the second song is instrumental in it’s nature and can be interpreted in many ways, the lyrics of ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ concern the themes of spirituality (through the lyrics concerning a ‘reverent’ and the biblical reference to ‘the three stars’), ambiguous eternity (‘Oh, history involved itself, Mysterious shade that took its form’) and the presence of an alien being (‘we couldn’t imagine what it was’). I will use my medium of a music video to explicitly produce meaning. When I considered these elements, I decided that the aesthetic of the visuals for the first song should be in the style of film-noir, where I would tell the tale of an alien abduction through implication.
Film-Noir (‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’)
If you take the key aesthetic details of film-noir, which consist of a strong key light and back light without a fill-light in monochrome, you can easily deduce that the style is perfectly suited to telling stories through implication and shadow – whilst evoking the the themes of eternity and the past. Popular titles that I have considered during my genre research process for this aesthetic include ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950) [Pictured above], Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ (1931) [with some consideration of his German expressionistic roots displayed in ‘Metropolis’ (1927)] and classic hammer horror titles such as ‘Frankenstein’ (1931) or ‘Dracula’ (1931).
Taking a look at Universal’s classic monster collection is a brilliant source of inspiration for how film-noir can be used to evoke multiple emotions through lighting and location. In this shot, our view of Frankenstein’s monster is obscured through the placement of a tree and the weak fill light. The lack of back-light in this shot allows the monster to blend seamlessly into the background. This all works to create the effect that there is a sense of mystery and danger surrounding Frankenstein’s creation. However, Whale evokes Shelly’s almost sympathetic view of the monster as an innocent child through his central placement within the frame. As an audience, we can see enough of Frankenstein’s hidden posture to empathize with his fear rather than fear his creation. I hope to evoke emotional resonance with my mysterious alien life-forms using the aesthetic in my video (to different effect, which will be discussed in my planning).
8mm Film Look (‘The Black Hawk War’)
As the subject matter of the second track of the album has been left purposefully broad through the many different titles and the instrumental nature, I have fully created my own interpretation of the second song through the music content as a continuation of the first song’s themes. I am doing this to evoke the vintage themes of the opening track, the aesthetic of traditional Illinois that is expanded upon in the next track of the album (‘Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)’) and the idea that the alien life forms are transcendental of time period and style. Much of this effect can be achieved in editing, through the washing out of colours and harsh blacks, the emphasis of yellows, a lower frame rate (around 18 frames per second) and added noise/grain. The real meaning will be achieved in the shot placement and sequencing, which will be discussed in my planning.
Indie Rock – Music Videos
As independent rock does not need to attract to the popular masses in the same way pop music does, these artists have more creative liberty to be experimental in their narratives and forms in the genre of music videos. Sufjan Steven’s music is the epitome of this thought process, as his music is intentionally abrasive against established conventions in regards to time signature (being an innovator of 9/8+1/16 time) and general tonality. This has given me personal liberty to be experimental in the form of my music video – especially my decision to not include the artist (or in my case, a stand-in for the artist) as a character within the narrative. In this case, the art will be allowed to express itself truly and allow the meaning to be the marketable feature.
Media Coursework 2016-2018 