Our Music Video

Our music video will be to Halsey's Control, which is a new song from her début album BADLANDS, which came out 28th August 2015.  The song addresses a pressing issue in society; mental illness. In a recent interview she did whilst promoting BADLANDS, Halsey decided to reveal her own struggle with this, saying she suffers with Bipolar. She said that, for her, "badlands" was the place she was "trapped in" during a very testing period of her life and therefore her album tells the story of her struggle suffering with it and overcoming it.  

'Control' is a very emotional song, that is completely honest about what she experienced due to her mental illness, talking about "villians that live in my head".  However, one of the most vital parts of the song is when she says "I'm meaner than my demons". Most of her fans are attracted to her because they find a connection with the songs and as she is such a prominent, public role model, it was important that she mentioned how she did not let her illness consume her, and managed to escape it by being "meaner".  

Due to the serious subject matter we do not want to make the video too extravagant and detract from the meaning of the song. We have decided to film in 2 or 3 different locations which I will do a blog post on soon. We have also started planning our costumes, which I will also dedicate a full post to.  

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Dyer's Star Theory is the idea that celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain.
 He believes that although famous people are constructed to represent 'real people' they fail to do so and just act as someone for the public to aspire to be like.
The first thing to question when studying Star Theory is are stars really in control of their own image?
It is common for artists to become more exaggerated versions of themselves after they begin to become wealthier and real feel the effects of fame.  However, it is also common for 'Stars' to loose themselves in order to become what the public want.  Amy Winehouse, for example often spoke in interviews, and said she was under constant pressure from her managers to do things she didn't think suited who she was. Press gossip is also a vital element to the creation of a star as they can have a massive impact on how they are perceived by the public.

Here are some of the key points in Dyer's theory:

• A star is an image, not a real person who is constructed by a range of different elements
• Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings
• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media-magazines, radio, TV, and the internet. In order to construct an image of themselves which can be marketed for target audiences. 
• The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience
• Fundamentally the star image is incoherent, and made up of two paradoxes

 The first Paradox is that the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.
The second paradox is that the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.


A good example of this would be an artist called Ashley Frangipane, who created a stage name of  'Halsey', a 21 year old artist from Washington, New Jersey. 

Right from being a little known artist she has always been quiet alternative in her fashion and music style, however as her fame and popularity grew she has become more and more extreme. 
This is a picture of Halsey before her career took off, looking quite plain

And this is her since her career really kicked off and she became more successful

'Male Gaze

The male gaze is a concept coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey. It refers to the way visual arts are structured around a masculine viewer. It describes the tendency in visual culture to depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and in terms of men's attitudes.

These are some of the main points:

1. The representation of women as a sexual fantasy and froma heterosexual male point of view
2. Scopophilia-the pleasure involved in looking at other people's bodies
3. objectification of female characters
4. patriarchal society
5. Active Male and passive female
6. men-controlling subjects
7. women as an image
8. men do the looking and women are there to be looked at
9. needs of the male ego

The male gaze theory can be found in most cinematic media and a good example is She Wolf by Shakira.

The music video displays Shakira dancing in a cage as a "She Wolf", it could be argued that this actually makes the woman appear powerful and aggressive. However, the cage detracts from her power and makes her seems submissive, a quality only appealing to heterosexual men.  Furthermore the wide shots show her in compromising positions, and performing acrobats more appropriate for a pole dancer than a wolf. Another devise used in adherence to Mulvey's theory is costume; Shakira wears a nude leotard, which frequently makes her appear naked. 

An obvious interpretation would be that it is being suggested that women are animals that need to be controlled and contained.

It is evident that the music video was made for a man's point of view within the first thirty seconds when she appears in a cut out body suit and begins to thrust her hips, holding her hand in front of them. This obvious imagery is designed to appeal to men and even make them dream to be with her, also conforming to the Star Theory. 

 

Textual Analysis of All Time Low's Future hearts album cover

All Time Low CD cover textual analysis from RachaelMedia

Hypnotic Original music Video textual analysis

To better my understanding of the song we're doing, it is important to analyse the original music video.
A wide shot is used at the beginning of the video which establishes the location, and shows a mustang rolling up next to the singer who is on a horse. This kind of imagery creates a western/ cowboy vibe which eludes to her indie genre. Furthermore the juxtaposition of new verses old is evident through the face off between the horse and the car, the sound of gun shots further supporting this. This may be metaphorical of how many artists of the indie genre attempt to subvert the typical stylisations of pop videos. 

Music video Director

Halsey Ghost- Malia James

I have decided to research the director of Halsey's music video 'Ghost' because it will be useful for when we create a music video for one of Halsey's songs.

Malia's work:

• Sinead Harnett 'Do It Anyway' 
• Natalie Prass 'Bird Of Prey'
• Binki Shapiro and Adam Green 'Just To make me Feel Good'
•  Net A Porter 'Monochromatic'
• Net A Porter 'Doube Denim'
• Dum Du Girls 'Coming Down'
• BRMC 'Spector at the feast 6'
• Valerie June 'You Can't Be Told'
• One One 'Bryan Hollon
• Net A Porter 'Party Girls'
• One One 'Carlos Nunez'
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 'Beat the Devil's Tattoo' 
• Surfer Blood 'demon dance'
• Converse 'power of the riff'
• Summer of Abandon 'Heineken'
• BRMC 'Spector at the Feast 5'
• BRMC 'Spector at the Feast 4'

source

Q Magazine "mini-movie" music videos

In Q Magazine's "mini movie" music videos article, Dave Grohl explains his dislike for event videos and says that they are simply ''long, self-regarding, hubristic and flamboyantly expensive'', with ''bonus points for celebrity appearances and homage to obvious movies''.  He argues that when an artist reaches the "mini movie" stage in their career its time to pack it all in.

He suggests that an event video is like a window into the lives of the artist, designed to project power and wealth into the viewers eyes but subsequently end up revealing their fatal floor.  He uses Rihanna's Bitch better have my Money video, saying that it was a ploy to get attention as she had not had much media attention recently.  He believes it made her look desperate, and I agree with this 100% in Rihanna's case.  However, I think that sometimes event videos can work
 very well, for example Michael Jackson's Thriller.  This was the first proper mini movie video and arguably changed how music videos are made forever.

Textual analysis of Hurricane by Halsey

As part of our research into the creations of music videos and their genre conventions we have been asked to complete a textual analysis of a music video of our choice.  I have chosen Hurricane by Halsey, an American alternative artist.  The music video is like a mini movie, and says "to be continued" at the end.




The genre is evident from the start as we three teenage boys on BMXs, with skateboards on their backs. Not only does this adhere to the indie vibe that is present in most alternative videos, the bikes and skateboards combined with the tie dye shirts create a 90's retro look.
We then see three teenage girls sat on the hood of an old windowless truck, eluding to the motifs found in many indie music videos, for example the mise en scene of Hurricane is comparable to that of The 1975's Robber's video. Both sporting ragged 'vintage' clothes and run down vehicles, the 90's Hollywood style obviously plays a big part in this genre of music video.
The slow motion at the start, during the wide shot of the three boys, emphasizes how care free and happy they are. This links to the stereotype that teenagers have no troubles and their life is like a big party.  This stereotype is also represented through the lyrics of the song; "don't belong to no city, don't belong to no man", with the american teen depicted as a free spirit. However, the protagonist of the video actually seems to subvert this theme; as the story progresses she develops feelings for one of the boys and is disappointed when the budding relationship is seemingly ruined. This creative decision is arguably apt for the tone of the song and video as it is about rebellion and non-conformity.  Furthermore, the aforementioned hegemonic reading that the lyrics suggest is actually questioned by the artist herself and the audience is forced to take on a negotiated reading whereby they accept that teenagers can be free spirited just wanting to have fun, but they also can form an opinion on whether the protagonist's actions are wholly harmless or whether there are repercussions to her careless behavior.

Hodge and Kress (1988) tell us that 'genres control the behavior of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers'.   In terms of Halsey, and her music I don't believe genre limitations are of great concern as she has quite a niche fan base and has so far only released one album- last month. Oh her google play profile she discussed with the interviewer what it was like to be turned down by a popular music show and says that music producers had no problem 'nitpicking her textured, ebbing voice '. "They said, 'yeah, you can't sing pop music. You have a niche voice that caters to one type of audience. This isn't the show for you."  However, after hearing her single 'Ghost' months later, one of the producers approached her saying 'we think you're a star'.  Halsey replied with "No, thanks . Sorry." From this we see that Halsey does not let genre expectations control the type of music she creates.

Our finished music video

Here is our finished preliminary task

Our Hypnotic Storyboard

An important part of the pre- production process was storyboarding, as it helped us to decide on how many shots we would need at each location and will help us massively during editing as we will know where each clip needs to go.

Costume for Hypnotic

Make-up and costume are crucial to our video and as soon as we decided on the song I instantly had loads of ideas come into my head. Here are some of them.

There are two costumes being spread over the four scenes:
Costume One

Here is a collage I made on Fotor.com of the kind of clothes we want her to wear, I really like the bohemian, wild style of it as I believe it captures the essence of the song and conforms to the norms of the indie genre.










Costume Two

For the second scene which is being shot in the train station we want her to look strong and powerful. Alternative singer Halsey, particularly, has influenced me when creating this look.

Choosing locations

For our preliminary video we want to shoot at multiple locations as we don't want it to look too amateur or boring.
We have chosen 4 different locations, in the hope that each will capture a different personality trait of the protagonist of the narrative.

Our first location is a field at Walton Dam, it has long grass with wild flowers (basically a field) which we think will express her wild and carefree nature. I can't find a picture of the exact field on the internet, and I haven't been down there yet to take a photo but this image I found is of Derbyshire which is where we are so is quite similar.

Our second location is outside Sheffield train station, by the water feature. At night time it lights up, looking very atmospheric.  However, although this seems like a brilliant idea we may face some difficulties regarding the lighting of the shots; we do want the footage to be quite dark but we need to be able to see it clearly.  This may be hard to achieve naturally. We are hoping that this location will help the viewers to visualise the protagonist's powerful, controlling side (highlighted through the lyric 'talking like a head strong momma').

Our third location is very simple (in theory), it's at sixth form, in front of the large black curtain that we use for the school shows. We had considered using the media department's green screen but we wanted to use lighting and are not sure how to do this using the screen. Since we are both A level drama students we know how to use the lighting deck, and change the coloured... bits of see-through plastic that go in front of each spotlight to tint the lights (I'm not doing technical theatre so don't judge my lack of knowledge on terminology).  We hope that through this we can create atmospheric footage from this. Furthermore, the shots filmed in this location will be very important as we wish to incorporate a theme of voyeurism, and 'break the fourth wall' by having Lois who is playing the protagonist directly face the camera, which we hope will have a great affect on the audience.  We are also going to film shots of my hands on Lois' face and neck because the song is largely about control. Hands will be a large theme in our 1 minute video.  We're not too sure why but we thought it would look cool in all honesty.  

Our final location is Scarsdale Ruin because we think it looks grand and since it is a protected property, it is probably a location that would be used in a high brow music video, as it is a place people go to look at for its beautiful architecture.