Secondary Project: DigiPack Research and Planning

Distribution and Form

The available data is seeming to insinuate three major points:

1. The overall sales of music (both physical and digital) has decreased due to the presence of streaming services.
2. Physical Media is outselling Digital Media in the music industry.
3. The single is becoming a more relevant release strategy for new music than the album.

Whilst the rise of platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music can explain the first two points, it is difficult to explain why single sales have not seen the same harsh decrease that albums have suffered. It could be put down to a mixture of both anticipation and cost – as many artists will release songs from a forthcoming album as a single to generate hype at a lower cost. An example of this is Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’. This single was able to reach the top of the UK singles chart without the support of her forthcoming album, ‘Reputation’. Importantly, the song also attained the most views in it’s first 24 hours of any music video, and lead to ‘Reputation’ going three times platinum in the USA.

With my product specifically, I had to consider the context around this new CD release. The songs have been around since 2005, from an album that was given international acclaim. However, the music video that I am producing has come 13 years after this initial release, and is a major reinterpretation of the composition’s themes. This reinterpretation means that I will most likely have to repackage these older songs within the new context of the music video’s iconography – whilst promoting Sufjan Steven’s newer material.

Aesthetics

Commercial albums act to showcase the work of an artist. In the artwork associated with an album, a decision must be made to distinquish between whether an artist wants to showcase themselves, or the themes of their music. To distinguish between these different mindsets, I have created three categories of albums (which I shall showcase through the discography of the late David Bowie):

The Personality Product

I have defined this category of release as being a showcase of the artist as a performer – with there being very little focus on the themes evoked within the music. For example, ‘Space Oddity’ deals predominantly with the themes of nostalgia, love and heartbreak within a folk styling. However, as an up and coming artist he took the opportunity to replicate the aesthetics of the time to showcase his own image and promote himself. This style of album is also seen regularly within pop music:

The Thematic Product

These albums are usually released by established artists who’s personas are firmly secured within the cultural mindset. This allows for the artists to have more liberties in the risks that they take – as commercial success will not be so much of a uncertainty. For example, the cover of ‘The Next Day’ is reflective of Bowie’s musical intentions on the album. He had not released any new music for over a decade, and was recovering from a career slippage in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. In both reusing and manipulating his earlier iconography in such a way to obscure his own face – it communicates to the audience that this album will harken back to his earlier music style, whilst taking the idea of ‘Bowie’ into the 21st Century.

Considering the already developed demographic I shall be promoting this towards, plus the noncommercial aspects of my music videos, this approach seems like the optimum approach for me to use. This video and re-release are aimed primarily at Sufjan Steven’s established fanbase, and the majority of his own album releases fit into this category. Given the fact that I am purposefully applying new meaning to his songs, it seems natural to use this approach.

The Thematic, Personality Product

I considered using this method of album cover, as it works as a nice in-between of the two extremes. However, this option was not applicable for my production as I was not able to take original pictures of Sufjan Stevens. However, the method that I decided upon in the end will ultimately be beneficial for my production and the cohesion between my products.

Call Sheets

CALL SHEET 1

CALL SHEET 2

CALL SHEET 3

CALL SHEET 4

CALL SHEET 5

Shot List – Spreadsheet

Shot List

The Black Hawk War – Full Planning

The shots within this plan will be timed according to the thematic structure plan.

Evocative Shot of Autumn Decay – 

Will be shot at on a road with both visible depth and natural decay to connote the symbolism in an evocative way (Most likely Farmhill Lane) and will last approximately 5 seconds. More exact focus on individual leaves falling. There would also be an establishing shot from another, more urban road that shares this same depth. (maybe before the autumn leaves shot) to create a similarity between the two locations but a duality. This will most likely be Stevenson’s Way (pictured below). Unlike the reference photo, the shot will be shot at night-time with the artificial light of the streetlamps being the main source.

to be juxtaposed with…

Fake Americana Celebrations –

Ideas of urban Americana will be juxtaposed against traditional pagan ideas of celebration and ritualism. In this context this shall create a tonal dissonance against the music, which will highlight the continued forgery of the situation. This will create the impression that the events of the second song are as much of an interpretation of real events as the first. I will use a location that hearkens back to traditional forms of celebration, whilst also holding a strong natural aspect to them. For this reason, I will use the Douglas Head Amphitheater.  The location of the amphitheater next to the wide expanse of the ocean also visually connotes the sense of isolation – which will be an important component of the protagonist’s journey throughout the video. The shots will be distorted close ups which look like they have been shot by a fan on 8mm – which they have been in the context of the video. At this point, there will be nobody at the location, to build anticipation for the main event of the video. However, there will be inter-cut shots of the upcoming celebration in a non-linear style to create an intrinsic connection between the location and the events that have always occurred there. This will be inter-cut with the opening shots of the protagonist…

Our Protagonist –

  

In comparison to the faked enjoyment of the previous shot collection, our main character will be introduced in chilling realism – whilst still within the context of 8mm film. At this point, the question of who is behind the camera may be coming to the mind of the audience. This will remain ambiguous throughout the video to add to the sense of dissonance with the word around him and society. Above are examples of how I imagine the protagonist shall communicate through his expressions through this opening sequence. He will be shot in a very authentic, uncompromising fashion He will be within a location that is at odds to the idolized locations shown within the opening song. However, later shots will show this same environment in the same fantasized style as the opening song…

Rough Environment –

A division will be created between the two versions of Illinois, which will be metaphoric for the dual identity of the city and the protagonist’s feeling of isolation from his surroundings. The composition of these shots will be similar to the sentimental opening shots of Illinois – with the intention being that the heart of the city comes from each individual’s experience of it. These will be inter-cut with the shots of our protagonist to further establish the connection between them. A possible shooting location for this could be Finch Road (pictured above), as the industrialization and urbanization of the area pops, and it is located in a location convenient for our shooting schedule.

At this point we would cut back to the Americana celebrations, where we would see a young girl in an alien mask. She takes her mask off momentarily and drinks some Coca Cola. This would act as a reintroduction of the thematic elements of the opening song, and create a connection between the artificial nature of the opening song and the implied duality of the city. This would cut to…

Momentary Church Scenes –

The use of the protagonist praying within the church shows that for him to find meaning within the duality of the city. In this context, the connection can be regarded with dramatic irony as the alien invaders from the previous songs have an explicit religious meaning.  The mis-representation of ‘real word’ events in the opening songs has a deeper relevance when the ideas become ingrained in society. For this shot sequence, I hope to shoot within St George’s Church, as I have connections with this church that will allow me to film sequences for a secular piece. This connection will also become clear due to the re-emerging imagery of the Coca-Cola from the previous song in the preceding shot group.

The madness of the Americana celebrations would re-emerge in the next shot group, with there being dis-jointed shots of people moving past the camera – ignoring it. This will cut to…

Advertising –

The artificial nature of the city and his religious beliefs will be emphasized through a momentary cut away to a woman posing with a bottle of Coca Cola in an Americana style (such as the one established within the previous song). To emphasize both the revisionism of the town and to create an atmosphere of confusion and miscommunication, the woman posing with the bottle will be the main actress of the earlier song. This sequence will take roughly 10 seconds and will consist of a vague wide shot, a clouded extreme close up and then the iconography of the Coca Cola bottle. The location used for this shot group would require a broad white screen/wall, so there are many locations within the school that could be used, placing this shoot within a different day to the rest of the film. This will also be useful in a way as the characters required will be from the opening song, and would require different make-up and costume to the ones they will be wearing in the abduction sequence.

Protagonist at the shore –

The desire of the protagonist to find something greater than himself will be directly shown through his staring out into the ocean. However, in this video the shore already has an association with the pagan activities of the people in the amphitheater. Likewise, we can use other areas within the Douglas Head area for this shot, as they will be satisfactory for the shots I want to achieve and are practical for the shooting days. These will juxtapose with his stillness and contemplation, during which he will take a crucifix necklace out from underneath his shirt to further create a religious connection between himself and the alien activities. As a multi-stranded narrative, this will cut back to the shots of the advertisements described previously. To signify the importance of his contemplation, this shot will occur on the opening strum of the guitar within the song (after the flutes enter).

The opening shots of autumn decay will re-enter at this point as the flexibility of the narrative allows this thematic element to return.

Creating Alien-Masks –

As this works as a circular narrative, we will see the citizens creating the alien masks that were used at start of the music video and have been used extensively since. The tone of the shots will be light, as is the rhythmic brass that accompanies this section. To isolate the pagans within their location, this sequence will occur at the amphitheater, possibly on the stage. However, the audience will view the imagery of the aliens to be much more sinister than any of the characters in the film, giving the audience a privileged spectator position.

During this sequence, there will be shots of the protagonist walking around the shore, with the implication being a sense of not-belonging and exclusion (not specifically from the event though. For this, we will use the location of Douglas Head again (as I hope to complete all of these shots within one shooting day). This will be followed with a shot of another boy in another location, and a sudden cut to them being together. The other boy will be dressed in a very high-class manner within a library (Possibly the school library), to suggest an environment completely away from the world of our protagonist. However, this will immediately cut to the two being together at the shore. Whilst the explicit tone set will be a joyous one (giving the finding of love and acceptance), the inconsistent use of location will add a bitter element to this. The conclusion of his coming-of-age story is about to come, with cynical implication…

The Performance –

The citizens involved with the pagan ritual will re-enact the alien invasion in comically over-the-top fashion. Again, the tone of the music and the people will connote that very happy events should be occurring. However, viewers with the context of the earlier events will view these events with a dramatic irony. The performance will visually seem similar to Elizabethan theater, with the actions being overly directed at the audience and participation being encouraged. If the dramatic irony hasn’t become obvious to the audience, the next shot group will make the implication devastatingly obvious…

Death –

In another interweaving narrative, the rocky plummet of the cliff at Douglas Head will be shown, with the imagery suggesting participatory death. After this, a pan of a graveyard will be shown momentarily, to further solidify the murders that are being ignored by the people of the city and their celebrations. As I would like for the gravestones to be homogeneous with each other, I was planning on filming this b-roll at Douglas Borough Cemetery, although this could change depending on availability. Again, as this is being shown against the highly triumphant musical soundtrack the obvious juxtaposition becomes highly evocative. The audience are being drawn into celebrating the death of innocents in the same manner as the pagan rituals. These images will be inter-cut with previous sequences, and gradually build up in significance by the end of the song.

Protagonist Resolution –

The conclusion of the protagonist’s search for meaning will be seemingly concluded with an act of homosexual love with the partner he was seen with in a previous sequence. This narrative ‘conclusion’ will work as the defiant act of homosexuality against the traditionalism and dogmatism of the society around him acts as a conclusion to his coming-of-age story. However, his personal liberation will be countered by…

His acceptance of the Performance –

Whilst holding hands with his lover, they will both wear alien masks and be accepting of the pagan rituals, with the connotations of this being obvious. This will then cut to a wide shot of the celebrations, and our protagonist being lost within the crowd. As part of the non-linear narrative, the screening of ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ will begin with him becoming an active viewer of the revisionism. This will replace the influence of traditional religion in his consciousness, and this will be reflected in the shooting style of both events.

The Final Shots of Decay –

In a cyclic nature, the same imagery of decay and separation will re-emerge at the end of the film to suggest that his personal liberation does not reflect a change in the corrupt society around him, which itself will be countered by the highly celebratory music. In keeping with the opening of the music video, the final image of decay will be in high-definition digital film, without any explicit alteration. This will illustrate the eternal nature of the corruption and ends the film on an ambiguous note.

Locations and Equipment

Location recce

A-Roll (Where cast and crew will be required)

Shooting Day 1: 1950s Style House (Location not made public) – INTERIOR

Night Shoot: Forest near Port Sodrick (54.123728, -4.538011) (Alien Spaceship) – EXTERIOR

Shooting Day 2:

• Douglas Head Amphitheatre – EXTERIOR
• Douglas Head/Finch Road – EXTERIOR

Shooting Day 3: St George’s Church (Depending on progress during the second day shoot) – INTERIOR

B-Roll (What I can shoot without other cast and crew)

• Stevenson Way (Empty Road) – Night-Time – EXTERIOR
• Farmhill Lane (Autumn Shots of Decay) – Early Afternoon – EXTERIOR
• Albert Dock
• Douglas Borough Cemetery – Early Afternoon, Cloud – EXTERIOR

Equipment List

• Canon 700D with 18-35mm lens. Interchange with longer/shorter focal length for specific shots.
• 2 Torches with adjustable focus for film-noir section.
• Kingjoy VS1047 Professional 110 cm Handheld DSLR Video Camera Stabilizer/Monopod.
• Tripod.
• Dolly Track.
• Fake Noir Blinds for Lighting

The specific equipment and locations required for each shooting day will be made available on the daily call sheets – which will be uploaded during the filming period.

Storyboards

I created a series of storyboards depicting key scenes in my music video. I created them using Adobe Photoshop – where the arrangement of stock images and original images to fit my shot composition is lay out in rough. I thought that this would be necessary for ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ as the ambiguous narrative must be presented in an precise way so that the correct audience response is generated. I placed these storyboards on a timeline with the musical track, with the timing of the shots being accurate to how they will be in the final video. Where it has not been possible to create an exact storyboard of a shot, it has been replaced with a prose description.

 

Design Planning – The Aliens

I am going to create a distinctive disconnect between the aliens presented in the ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ section and ‘The Black Hawk War’ – as there is going to be a sensationalism to the horror elements in the noir section, and there needs to be an illusion that the alien is authentic. To create this, I am not going to show the alien itself, but instead present a strong outline shape to be revealed in shadow. The thought processes for this design element will be explored after I explain my reasoning for ‘The Black Hawk War’.

The Black Hawk War

As ‘The Black Hawk War’ will explicitly show the effects of historical revisionism, the iconic image of the Roswell alien design will be used to represent the modern interpretation of the horrific events that occur in the opening number. For the sake of dark irony, I will create masks with this alien design on and show young children wearing them whilst recreating an alien invasion. However, for the ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ section, I will want to create a creature that uses elements of German Expressionism to evoke terror – a style famously used by Tim Burton’s work.

Concerning the UFO Sighting – German Expressionism

I only plan to include two shots of the actual alien life-form that are not expressed via the means of shadow. For my first shot, I am going to create a shot that shows the being’s hand reach out for the protagonist. I will create this hand through rough hand animation, which in a chiaroscuro fashion will bounce from the bright light background. Technically, this will be created through a person doubling the hand that I want to create, and me compositing animation over each frame where the hand should be. The final shot of the alien will be an extreme close up of the being’s eyes. However, in keeping with the style of German Expressionism, the eyes will be extenuated and manipulated to bring attention to the inhuman nature of the aliens. This will work specifically because I will use digital effects to enhance the size of one of the eyes in an unnatural manner, and film the eyes at different times so the blinking motions are out of sync. For the shots that only feature the being in shadow, the creature will be presented with a human silhouette to create an uncanny valley effect between the creature’s humanity and foreign nature.

Thematic Structure – The Black Hawk War

To reiterate from my interpretation of my audience research, the themes that are generally associated with the album of ‘Illinois’ and the song ‘The Black Hawk War’ include:

Bildungsroman (Coming of Age)

Americana/Nostalgia/Whimsy

Love/Homosexuality

Man’s relationship to his surroundings/Control

Dogmatism/Spiritualism

Self-Identity

In my personal interpretation of the song, which I hope to evoke in my visual supplement, I see the celebratory Americana sounds of the song to be purpose juxtaposition against the nature of the spiritual alien invasion in the opening number.

The events of the opening number will become a victim of historical revisionism by the citizens of Illinois, which will emphasize the surreal horror of the invasion and the open willingness of Americana to forget/ interpret the past to it’s own advantage. This will become a part of the larger narrative arc of the disconnect between the pseudo-protagonist and his surroundings. This is evoked within Sufjan’s album, with the further juxtaposition between the songs ‘Illinois’ and ‘John Wayne Gracy Jr’, with the first glorifying the state and the later describing horrific murders that had occurred within it under the named psychopath.

For this main character role, I want to portray a person who has a sense of the corruption/whimsy around him and finds a need for his own type of expression – for which I will use the topic of homosexuality (a movement that has historically gone against the traditions of Americana).

The song can be thought of as being in two sections, the opening melancholy that still feels the thematic weight of the opening song and the later emphasized celebratory tone. It is of the most importance that the development of themes match the tonal presence of the audio, whether through explicit juxtaposition or expressionism. I have plotted an idea of how I would like to explore these themes:

The meaning I have created within this plan is one that emphasizes the cyclical nature of Bildungsroman and the society around individuals who experience it. Even though he has felt a personal liberation by the end of the song through his homosexuality – he has still given into the historical revisionism of the tragic events that had occurred 30 years previously. Whilst the decay before represented his personal disenfranchisement with the system, it represents the fragility of memory and history at the end of the piece. The order of events that I have plotted creates the mindset for this revelation in a way where the audience will be able to comprehend it due to what they have already seen. The religious imagery within the piece will serve the primary purpose of showing how the power of historical revisionism can be truly impactful upon a person’s beliefs. Whilst the first emergence shows that the protagonist’s only source of authenticity is through religion (most likely Christianity as this is the most accessible representation of Americana), the later pairing with the alien invasion revisionism demonstrates that the manipulation of past events into moralistic tales can be impactful upon a community. Spirituality comes across as an important theme within the opening number of Steven’s album – with references to the ‘revenant’ (a person who has come back to life), and the vision of the ‘three stars’ coming from the sky being comparable to chariots or Lucifer’s presence being felt.

Thematic Structure/Treatment – Concerning the UFO Sighting

A high focus has been built upon emulating the characteristics and aesthetics of sensationalism American cinema of the 1940s – which itself evokes ideas of Americana. A sincere approach to these elements means that my subversion of, and juxtaposition against the style will resonate in a more prominent way with the viewers. This will become especially true, given the musically complex nature of Steven’s music and the events that will be portrayed in the contrasting latter section.

Whilst much of the thematic reasoning is explored in my analysis of the structure of ‘The Black Hawk War’, this section thrives through ambiguity within the linear narrative. However, I use this to anticipate the themes that will be explored and developed used in the latter section. For instance, the disenfranchisement of the protagonist within the second song is anticipated through the disconnected presentation of ‘society’ within the opening. The unexplained elements such as the reasoning behind the decaying house and sudden disappearance of the people needs no narrative explanation, for the themes of isolation, corruptible society and a fragile history are brought into the consciousness of the viewer. I have generated questions within the viewers mind through elements such as the willingness of the society to give way to the alien invaders – which further leads to questioning about the moral decency of a nation. When this is paired with the religious imagery – the viewers are lead to bring the absurdity of the picture into their own societal understanding. Like-wise, the duality of the alien creatures between their unnatural descriptions (the expressionistic eyes, the animated hands) and their human silhouette creates ambiguity as to whether the invaders are really so disconnected from our one, and whether the revisionism associated with them is justified. To further state this point, there will be a diverted focus away from the eyes of the society that are conquered – to create even less of a division. As many of the lyrics will not be directly associated with the visuals that should accompany them in terms of predator/victim, the boundaries will become even more blurred.

 

Pictured: A collection of title cards that I will emulate for my film

Narrative Research

As my music video is a hybrid between being a conceptual and a narrative driven music video, I will be investigating examples from both sub-genres.

Conceptual

The purpose of a conceptual music video is to evoke a theme or an idea through imagery, where a story does not have to be explicitly told nor be coherent. A more surreal imagining of this concept, and the first music video to take advantage of the idea entirely, was The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (1967).

The music video is all based around a singular set, which consists of a multicolored piano being tied to the branch of a tree whilst vivid lights clutter the main subject. The visuals are not designed to tell a story, but rather to evoke the nostalgic lucid memories of Lennon’s childhood through magical realism. An explicit example of this comes through the first collection of shots where the shot framing stays the same whilst the band move perpendicular to the camera. The hard cuts between their movements without shot movement gives the illusion of a memory being interpreted and remembered in multiple ways, with none of them being an objective view of reality. Later shots in the film create the idea of psychedelia, which becomes associated with Lennon’s own memories of childhood. Whilst there are no shots of a childhood Lennon nor the use of elicit substances, both are heavily implied through these elements.

Another example of a music video within this genre is Arctic Monkey’s ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’. This could be said to be a prime example of a fully conceptual visual experience, where there appears to be very little connection between the audio and what is occurring. The topic of Arctic Monkey’s song is the memories of a nostalgic woman who is recollecting her sexually promiscuous youth (or her fluorescent adolescence). Attempting to create a linear connection between this and the clown-fighting antics of the music video proves to be difficult. To reiterate, the music video portrays clowns fighting working class men on a building site, which leads to a clown asking ‘How did we come to this?‘ and reminiscing on their shared childhood. This exaggerated metaphor of clowns, who can be thought to symbolize childhood and innocence, fighting working adults could be thematically linked to the song’s subject reminiscing on her promiscuous youth. However, the Arctic Monkeys have created an obvious dissonance between the audio and the visual – with the intended meaning being rarely explored. Conceptual storytelling can venture into ambiguity easily and, as a storytelling technique, can symbolize much more than clarity could in the same context.

Narrative-Based

The idea of a purely narrative based music video is a difficult one to comprehend for many bands, who would see their vocals as being integral to the emotion that comes with the song’s story. These narrative focused pieces will often come from more independent artists who are not driven by personality nor talent, but rather art. A perfect example of a music video that fits within this genre is Radiohead’s ‘Burn the Witch’, which emulates the style of the 1960’s BBC Animated series ‘Trumpton’. However, the video stylistically pairs this aesthetic with graphic imagery from ‘The Wicker Man’ and depicts graphic methods of mob-vigilante justice towards ‘witches’. This obvious juxtaposition was intended by the band, who said that they “wanted the video to contrast with what they’re playing and to wake people up a bit.” The video has been interpreted as a criticism of right-wing policies and ‘group-think’, whilst the stylistic choice of emulating ‘Trumpton’ was to deconstruct the traditional family values that underpin this mindset.