Preliminary Task - "Genre-Swap"

Our Preliminary Task was to produce a music video of an existing song however changed the genre and following its stylistic conventions.  Our music video had to include the first verse and chorus of the song which should last around two minutes.  My group had to recreate the song Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera in the genre style Heavy Metal.

Challenges in Pre - production

After we received our song and genre style, we had to decide the conventions which are used in a Heavy Metal genre music video. 

Heavy Metal conventions:

-Dark Clothing

-Dark Make-up

-Aggressive behaviour

-Isolated Location

-Instruments

-Horror Movie (narrative/elements)

-Androgyny

Challenges during filming

Our filming day was pretty successful, we were all available to meet on location at the time given.  Our actress/singer for our music video was also available to meet up.  We started filming after five minutes as we had everything ready.  We changed some of the ideas from our storyboard as we thought they wouldn't be very effective.  However, we finished filming in two hours, and filmed a large amount of footage which would be helpful when editing.

Challenges during editing

We was pretty confident when it came to the editing stage as we felt as we had enough footage and had filmed each shot three times so we had a wide selection to choose from.  Our only concern was if the lip syncing in the footage would not match the actual song.  This wasn't a huge problem as it was only off for about two seconds, however after adding in some transitions, the shots length increased making the lip syncing perfect and spot on.

The whole reason for doing a preliminary task was so we could have an insight on what it will be like when we are creating our music video as our final product.  This preliminary task prepared me well before I did my final music video as I was able to see what challenges I could face.  Now I am aware that when filming my final music video I must overcome these challenges.

So-Why do people like genres?

Deborah Knight - Satisfaction of having expectations fulfilled


Steve Neale - "Repetition and difference", enjoyment from the subtle deviations and innovations of what is expected


David Chandler - "Interpretive Community" - using tastes to create collective identity


Steven Neale, John Fiske, Tom Ryall (and others)


-Organises texts and meanings
(Jonathan Culler said: genre is a "contract between creator and viewer to make meanings more operative")


- Institutions use them as rules for successful films, bands, magazines, etc (speeds up creative process)


-Good way to market new texts to audiences (Eg// Terminator - market action films to males and females by introducing a female hero


-Reliable structure within which innovation can 'safely' occur without risking profits


Understanding why audiences like genres, we are able to apply clear genre conventions to our preliminary task.  This is so we could target the specific audiences for specific genres.

What is a genre? David Bordell

A genre could be....

.Historical period (Victorian Novel) 

-1940's

-Rock and Roll

-Beetles 

-Elvis Presley

.Author/institution (A scorcese film;Pixar)

-Slim Shaday

-Cash Money

-Rock Nation (Jay-Z)

.Cycle of Popularity ("Torture Porn")

-'Shoegaze'

.Series/franchise (James Bond)

.Style ("New Wave")

-Rap (all have something in common)

.Ideology (Right Wing Action Films)

-Political - Eminem/Lowkey

-Punk - Have simular ideologies

.Audience ("Chick Flicks")

-Goth (subculture)

Some Big Questions

What is 'genre'?
-Its like a category/style
-A type of text


Why do we feel we should place texts into genres?
-Because we like having our expectations fulfilled
-We like to know where we are with something
-Something to do with identity - what you personally like


Who decides what genre a text belongs to?
-The creative person themselves - their doing that to target a particular audience
For Example: 50 Cent
-He got famous from making mix tapes
-Sent to a record company
-Thy liked it but changed his genre from hip hop to gangster rap because they said its popular with the audience


CREATIVES/PRODUCERS -->INSTITUTIONS --> AUDIENCE


What are the problems with putting texts in genres?
-If you only like grime music you may not buy the Dizzee Rascal album because he used a rock beat - Not advertised as a grime/rock cross over - blame of institution 


Learning about genre we was able to broaden our knowledge and understanding.  This was so we could understand more about the music industry and so know why we need to fulfil genre conventions and how it effects audiences.

Example: The XX - 'Islands'

We looked at an example of a music video to see what conventions it follows, challenges and why some audiences may like this and why some may not.





What conventions does this follow?
-Commercial exhibitionist
-Dance routine - repeated constantly
-Narrative - not a traditional one - kissing and relationship moves apart - dancers tell a story
-Shots/pace/cuts is in time/rhythm with music


What conventions does it challenge/break?
-Shot is quite lenghty
-Lyrics don't link with visuals - contrast - lyrics contradict - its a happy song but the video seems depressed
-Narrative hard to understand
-No big dance routine - staged -same moves constantly repeated - easy to copy normally - but this dance is depressing/hard
-Focus on dancers more than artists
-One single location 
-No close-ups of artists face - we are unaware who the singer is
-Performance by dancers but artists are not part of it
-Video tells opposite story
-Band is not dancing
-Doesn't use characters (Deborah Holstein)


Why might some audiences not enjoy this video?
-Boring
-Repetitive 
-No fast cuts
-No variety of locations
-Same shots
-Same dance routine


Why would some audiences like this video, where conventions are broken?
-Different
-Unique
-Repetition balanced with difference - if everything's the same why would you bother with it 
-May think that dance routines are not important
-May be directed to underground viewers?
-Trying to show relations go through the same thing again and again - repetitive dance
-Density makes us pay more attention 
-Stunning use of mis-en-scene

Production Planning - "Genre Swap"

For our preliminary task we were given a song by an existing artist, our task was to recreate a music video however change the genre following the stylistic conventions for that genre.  My group recieved the song 'Genie in a Bottle' by Christina Aguilera but in the genre Heavy Metal.


What genre conventions are we going to use? 


Costume - Dark, Emo/Punky style
Singer - Dark long hair, Dark black eyeshadow, Emo looking
Location - Isolated, Dark


Where have you seen these conventions?


Manowar - "Die for Metal"
Gamma Ray - "Heavy Metal Mania Land of the Free"
The Dead Garden - "Sinner"


Blocked Plan 


. Main singer walking alone
. Singer sitting down
. Sitting alone near tree singing
. Walking around tree
. Walking alone through an isolated location
. Singer begins to get aggressive - kicking 
. Running towards camera - singing
. Runs towards tree, expressing anger
. Kicks and walks away singing

Identifying Genre Conventions

We watched a music video by Michael Jackson called 'Beat It'.  We tried to identify some of the Music Conventions in the video

Convention and Example                                                                          


. Close up of the artists face - establish visual image, audience feels closer - emotionally engaged
Close up of Michael Jackson's face


. Performance/narrative based                                                    

The dancing tells the story about people fighting.  Audience may imitate the dance

. Visuals enhance lyrics

Lyrics are about fighting so we visually see it                                                                  

. "Televised Bard"      

The visuals tell a story, links with lyrics.  Michael Jackson's character narrates the song             


After learning about Deborah Holstein's ideas we analysed a music video and applied her ideas to Michael Jacksons music video.  This made our understanding more clear as we could see them being used in popular music videos.  This was so we would be aware of these ideas when applying them to our own outcome.                                                   

Music Video Conventions

Before starting our preliminary project we had to have some basic knowledge of Music Videos.  We started off by looking at some of the main music video conventions:

. Performance/narrative based

. Visuals enhance/compliment the meaning of music/lyrics

. Political - sending a serious message, with star as 'opinion leader'

. Re-interpretation of American musicals or recreation of live music events (i.e/ Big song and dance numbers, often on a stage)

. Close-ups of artists face - establish visual image and makes the star recognisable which makes the audience aware of who the artist is.  This makes the audience feel closer and more emotionally engaged.

. Musical genres have their own conventions.  (e.g/ Big band dance routines) Audience likes to imitate the dance routines.

. Intertextuality - 'sampling' other media texts

. Voyeurism is used to increase the videos attractiveness, particularly to males.  This attracts the viewers and makes us as the audience feel closer to the artist.

Theorist: Deborah Holstein

3 characters played by artist:

"Electronic Shaman" - Artist is portrayed as having supernatural powers, leads viewer into a 'magical world'

"Commercial Exhibitionist" - Uses body and sexuality to win health or status (attention)

"Televised Bard" - Video's visuals tell a story not just the lyrics: artist introduces and links visuals together.


Learning about Deborah Holstein and her 3 main ideas I was able to understand the specific terms and maybe even apply her ideas to my music artist when creating my music video.