Print Productions Research // The Evolution of Of Montreal's Album Artwork.

Of Montreal (often stylized with a lower case 'o' as 'of Montreal') are an american indie rock band hailing from the city of Athens, Georgia. In more recent years, the band has built up a reputation for its wildly theatrical and flamboyant stage shows, with their sets incorporating flashy costumes, spoken word skits, on stage actors and extravagantly complex stage sets. one of these shows can be seen here (shame about the crowd though). Throughout their 17 year career the band has gone through a series of line-up changes, but has always been led by main songwriter and front-man Kevin Barnes whose extroverted and tortured personality has informed his duties as primary songwriter, stage producer and performer. Along with a constantly changing line-up, the band have also constantly experimented with a wide variety of different genres throughout their career, touching upon styles as varied as 60's acoustic pop, glam rock, disco, noise rock and electronica, as well as many more. This constantly changing tapestry of genres is reflected in the evolving artwork for their many releases. On this occassion however I will only be focusing on select examples of artwork for their 12 full length studio albums and, for now, ignoring the rest of their (very) prolific discography.

Music Video Planning // Character + Costume

Now that my storyboard is complete (viewable here), I will plan out in further detail the many aspects of my music video. The first I wish to plan is the characters in the music video , the representations of said characters and how these representations will be constructed (namely through costume).

There are only 2 characters in the music video, the man who falls in love with his TV and the girl on the TV Screen. The characterisation of both of these characters is important, but of particular importance is the man, as he is the protagonist and focal point for the video. The Girl is comparatively unimportant, both because she is not the protagonist, but also as a fundemental part of her character itself, an illusion that the man allows himself to become involved in.

I have chosen to name the man Dave, as an intertextual reference to the character of Dr. Dave Bowman, From classic Sci-Fi '2001: A Space Odyssey'. I have chosen to use this reference due to the immortal exchanges between him and the ship he occupies' artificial intelligence H.A.L. 9000. I have chosen this because it reflects the relationship between man and technology also represented in my music video.  Similarly, I have chosen to name the girl on the TV Scarlett, as a reference to the actress Scarlett Johansson, as she plays the role of the OS Samantha in the film 'Her'. I have chosen to so this because the character of Samantha is highly similar to my music video's character, as she is an artificial technological construct that a real, human man falls in love with.

By design, The character of Dave will need to exhibit certain characteristics, so it is important to costume and direct the actor in the correct way. To connote his eccentricity and his light abnormality, he needs to be dressed in a way that is also eccentric and er, slightly abnormal. I have created a mood board of influences to help inspire the character, and his costume.

Extra-Curricular Work // The Mondegreens - Give Me More (Live)

One of the main things I do at the BBC is help edit the masses of footage they get of live performances.  They often invite local up and coming bands to perform in the BBC Radio Norfolk studio and these recordings are uploaded onto the IntroducingInNorfolk YouTube channel as well as the BBC Introducing In Norfolk Tumblr. Of course though, these cant be uploaded raw, so are skillfully edited by BBC goblins like myself. I often only partially edit these videos as I'm only in one day a week, but I edited this one in its entirety.

The footage of the drummer may look a little off, and that is due to me having to improvise with the footage I had. I didn't have any footage of the drummer performing 'Give Me More, so had to improvise by using footage of him performing from a separate song. I did my best, but it does still mean that the drummer is largely absent from the performance. Otherwise I feel have done a fine job with the editing, and I have many more to share, once they have been uploaded.

Completed Productions // Music Video Final Cut

Print Productions Planning // Initial Design Inspiration

The amount of time I have to complete all stages of my Print Production, from the planning to the photo-shoot to editing to completion is limited. In order to complete it to the best of my ability, I need to use my time well. With this in mind, I have drawn up several areas of inspiration for my Print Productions.

A still taken from the Spike Jonze's recent film 'Her'

I wanted to design a record sleeve that reflected the general theme of my music video, the increasingly complicated relationship between technology and relationships, taken to the extreme by the character in the video, who falls in love with a 'girl' on a computer. This was influenced mainly by recent texts such as Spike Jonze's recent Film 'Her' and older texts such as Woody Allen's 'The Purple Rose of Cairo'. Both the texts referenced and my own text deal with the effect that continually developing technology and entertainment can have on the way we as human beings interact with the world and with each other. 

Another text that deals with similar issues, albeit in a much more sinister and dark manner is the British television drama 'Black Mirror' created by comedian, writer and cultural critic Charlie Brooker. Where as the mise en scene and aesthetic of the previously mentioned texts is light and sentimental, the tone and aesthetic of Black Mirror, seen in the trailer above, are clearly much more threatening and cynical. The Black Mirror aesthetic is a perversion of the sort of image and representation typically perpetrated by advertisements for companies such as Apple and Samsung. Such representations typically use recognisable tropes and mise en scene such as washed out and sunny lighting, gentle acoustic music and aspirational lifestyles to create miniature snapshots of wholesome middle class utopia, bought about and endlessly enhanced by the shiny, expensive pieces of technology the adverts are trying to promote. 

An image used to promote 'Black Mirror' demonstrating many of Black Mirror's aesthetic characteristics.

'Black Mirror' challenges this representation and wonders if new technology in fact poses a threat, alienating us from each other and our own humanity. It creates sinister images using glitches, the uncanny valley and digital imagery to create a tone of unease surrounding the technology. The above image is the perfect example of this type of image, with the cracked screen distorting violently an image, that looks like it could be a promotion for a mobile phone, into something much more devilish. This is an interesting aesthetic that I wish to experiment with when designing my print production.

Another image that I found interesting whilst researching the issue was this book cover, for Oliver James' 'Affluenza'. I found the juxtaposition of the 2 models supposed intimacy, seen with their locked hands and the lack of actual intimacy see through their facial expressions and lack of interaction with each other.This is enhance by the use of the clean and modern looking interior as well as the stylish, modern way they are dressed. This image makes itself very clear in what it is is trying to communicate, that modernity is driving us away from ourselves and each other. As this is a similar theme I wish to explore in my print production, I feel this will be a good inspiration throughout the planning and design process.

 

 

 

Another Influence/possible inspiration for my Print Production is the cover for Deerhoof's album 'La Isla Bonita'. I really like the distortion effect used on this cover, as well as the screen noise. Though it doesnt reflect the themes discussed earlier, the purely technological and artificial effect used on the album cover is very interesting to me and may be something I explore and use when producing the album cover.

Print Productions Planning // Print Productions Outline & Vinyl Research

Now that I have completed and uploaded my music video, I am moving on to the next stage of the process, producing a Digipak and promotional poster to promote our music video artists. The digipak can be CD, vinyl or even tape format, so long as it incorporate at least 4 panels, which will be designed in Adobe Photoshop. I have decided to produce a vinyl sleeve for the artist, as I feel it most accurately reflects the independent target audience of his music. This does require a little more work and research than a typical  CD Digipak, but I feel it will be worth it as it better appeals to the target audience of my artist.. 

Record sleeves come in several basic formats, including 2-sided sleeve, 4-sided Gatefold LP, 6-sided Double LP and Box-Set. The properties of each are as Follows:

Music Video Research // Genre Theory in 'Toro Y Moi- How I Know' and other texts

For this case study I will be analysing primarily the music video for the song 'How I Know' by Toro Y Moi as well as several other relevant texts. Toro Y Moi is one of the pseudonyms used by American recording artist and producer Chaz Bundwick. He is well known as one of the originators of the electronic sub-genre of Chillwave, a stylistic combination of Lo-fi production, eighties synthpop and use of effects similar to that in the genres of Shoe-gaze and psychedelic. It is a genre that heavily utilises nostalgia and retro appeal, as part of the eighties revival of the 2000's, and this can be seen reflected in the style of the video.

Music Video Research // Narrative Theory in 'alt-J-Breezblocks' and 'Here We Go Magic-Hard To Be Close'

This is the music video for the song 'Breezeblocks' by British Alt-rock band Alt-J, which was released on 18 May 2012 on Infectious Music. They are a critically acclaimed band, having won the mercury prize in 2012 for their debut album 'An Awesome Wave', the BBC Radio 6 Music Album of the Year 2012 and 2013 Ivor Novello award, as well as receiving nominations for 3 Brit Awards. The video itself won a UK Music Video Award (UKMVA) for "Best Alternative Video" on 8 November 2012. In this post I will explore the narrative theory behind the music video, in order to gain a greater understanding of narrative conventions of the form and of the music video itself. As you will see, this music video sophisticatedly uses a range of narrative techniques and film language to add to audience appeal, and construct a very clever and creative representation. 

Music Video Research // The Use of Media Language in 'LCD Soundsystem-Daft Punk Is Playing At My House'

Before I continue to plan my music video proper (planning is already underway), I will have a little look at how generic conventions and media language are used, abused and explored in a real life media text.

LCD Soundsystem-'Daft Punk Is Playing At 

My House' (Director: Chris Cairns)

Music Video Planning // Completed Storyboard

Suede Storyboard by LarsosMedia

This is the completed storyboard I have produced for the music video I am making for the song 'Suede' by Vanilla as part of my A2 course. It has and will continue to be useful for my planning as it allows me to see exactly what kind of shots I am going to get, as well as any actors, locations, props etc. that I'll need to arrange for the shoot to be of highest quality. It also proves useful on set, removing the need to come up with shots on the spot, making the shoot more efficient, but also allowing you to put more thought into the shots themselves which improves greatly the overall quality of the video.