Synaesthesia

Mike Gondry, in the Daft Punk ‘around the world’ video, he uses synaesthesia.

Kandinsky, in the 1920s, was famous for his synaesthesia work, many of his paintings and stage work, used a variety of colours and timbres to establish different meanings, between different musical instruments. Kandinsky said that his connections between these colours and timbres he had selected had no scientific basis but was founded on his own personal feelings and culture. According to Kandinsky, the table below shows the connection between each colour and musical timbre.

He suggested that the following colours represtented the musical timbres: 

Colours	Musical Timbres
Yellow	Trumpet; Sound of the fanfare
Azure	Flute
Blue	Deep sounds from the organ
Dark Blue	Cello
Very Dark Blue	Bass
Green	Middle tones of the violin
White	Temporary pause
Black	Conclusive pause
Grey	Lack of sound
Bright Red	Fanfare; tube/horn
Crimson Red	Medium an deep tones of the cello
Orange	Middle bells of the church; strong contralto voice; viola
Violet	English horn; bagpipe
Deep Purple	Deep tones of the woodwinds; bassoon

Arthur Bliss, was influenced by the ideas of colour music. In 1922 he wrote the colour symphony.

In the around the world video by daft punk, it is made up of different people showing the different parts of the music. The people in the middle represent the heavy bass, dancing in time the heavy bass drums. The swimming costumes show synchronized swimmers, completely in time with each other. These are the high-pitched register. The taller people made up of 2 people have additional sections to them, evoking how they add to the music, the bass guitar show the low register. The skeletons are the guitars, and the robots are the vocals. The steps around the edge are the scale with the lyrics. The backing on the staging, changes colour due to the time throughout the song, going dark blue for instrumentation, white for when its only the beat and when there’s the lyrics it’s a lighter blue. 

The choreography shows just isolated music, evoking how each component of the music is individual and stand alone.

The inner circle of the video demonstrates the planet earth, the outside shows out of space being all black. And how the dancing are ‘walking around the world.’ Everything has to work together in harmony to create music, harmony and beauty.


In most music videos, they tend to stick to the more natural semiotics associated with colours and sound, for example black is depression, white is purity and virginity. In our music video we are going to incorperate the synaesthesia by following the natural conventions of a media text. This includes thinking of the connotations associated with each colours and images. For example, we're going to use lighting that evokes the mood.

Ellie

Inception Vs. Consumption

Hall vs. Cohen

Inception vs. consumption

Katy Perry is a popular culture act. In her music videos, she tends to create meaning at consumption. In California girls, she appears on a cloud seaming to be un-reachable, and like a sexual goddess. The sweet world implies childlike, in a Disney theme world, like she’s living in a Disney, fairytale world. She uses nudity to conform to the stereotype of what a male wants, using male gaze theory to be a masculine fantasy. The semiotics preferred reading would be that she is freeing herself from the bonds of men, however the reading that is also clear would be that man is controlling her. Snoop Dogg is demonstrated to be in control, evoked through a thrown and crown, He is gambling suggesting that he has money, power and has a risky edge and demonstrated as an omniscient god, all-seeing and in control, in control of her world. By being naked she is exposing herself and coming across as unprotected and ‘easy’. The nudity represents sex as well as the sexual connotations from snakes and cream coming from her bra. This video is allowing freedom to create meaning at consumption. It uses semiotics to establish a preferred reading, viewing her as a perfect women, in control of herself, and freeing herself from men’s control. The video implies she is in the fairytale world, but male gaze theory would read this in a different way, that she is being naïve to think it would be read innocently, and that she is clearly representing herself as a sexual object.

The fray, however present ‘how to save a life.’ This is a music video, which creates the meaning at inception. This video starts with a white background, and a man playing the piano. The singer is blurred and so shows his confusion and when he comes into focus. The lip sinking isn’t in time. The use of semiotics of a butterfly, the shot of children, braces and the word ‘listen’ braces suggest infancy and innocence. The connotations of the white background show that its pure and he has been revealed and exposed as what he is, and is only left with his music to convey his emotions. In the shot of the band, they appear quite segregated and distant to show how they have been ripped apart. The red guitar demonstrates love and pain in this shot and the following shots demonstrate ache and throbbing pain. These shots only seam to have one meaning, and the meaning has been created at inception, with a clear idea of what they want to achieve and establish. The choice of shots, demonstrate the pain and loss of the fight of losing a parent. The butterfly demonstrates something growing from a tiny insignificant object into something beautiful. The ontrast between the white backing and strong use of filler lights, and the coloured writing and words that appear on the screen, these draw attention to them and show their power. It also demonstrates how there’s a battle between conquering the words and its not easy or painless.


The Adorno’s musical theory (1950s) studied high and low culture. He suggested that the pop culture creates meaningless and thoughtless texts. He said there’s no need to engage with the texts, as they have no cultural, academic or moral value. He suggested that the audience become passive and voyeuristic and just let the meaning wash over them. He said for music such as Mozart or Beethoven, we create a meaning and by listening to high culture music, we become an active audience. He also sad that pop music is standardized to a point that we have heard it before, it’s ‘predigested’ and that the audience have already heard it, so there is no intellectual level needed to process it. The music is simply accepted exactly as it is and the passive audience allow it to just wash over them. It also reassures the listener that everything is okay, and so shops and the pop music relaxes the shoppers, therefore they are more likely to buy something, therefore serving a part in the economy. He once said, “would there be any difference between buying a CD and buying a toaster”

This contrasts with classical music, which Ardono said that classical music, every detail has a concrete meaning, and that every relationship between the music and audience is ‘living’ and alive. Against this view, he was criticized for being racist. It was said that where he pointed out that jazz music didn't match up to classical, that he was being racist. opposing views said that he didn't have grounding and just didn't understand the basis of jazz music and the foreign culture. 

Because of the current economic climate, and how music has developed over the last few decades, artists have changed the way that they make money, release new songs and get audience attention. For example, fewer and fewer artists are releasing whole albums an release individual commodities often online for downloads. This however results in each song having a download rate and so the artists can see what has been really popular and create more music similar to this, resulting in all the music sounding increasingly similar.


In our music video, we are hoping to create meaning at inception. This involves intense planning and so we are thinking about the meaning we want to convey. We are doing narrative imagery that is parallel to the music, and so we have come up with a story-line that reflects the mood of the song. The performance side of the hybrid video, allows us to represent the metanarrative of the band. This creates the preferred meaning that we hope to be interpreted by the audience.

Ellie

Sweding Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task, we had to swede a music video. We chose to do the Foo fighters video, best of you. We had restrictions on actors and timing, as well as location limitations so it was difficult to film.

In the first shot, the length of the cross dissolve is a little too long, and the colour of the image appears different in the actual video which we should’ve colour corrected in editing. However it was a difficult shot to film because of the variety of lighting.  When filming, we didn’t realise how much the little changes in the lighting would affect our overall outcome. To improve this image the use of filler using small lights and positioning them successfully in places to create point of aesthetics appreciation for the audience would have easily rectified lights and backing lights. From this, in our music video, we now know that we can use lighting in simple subtle ways to create different effects. The lighting needed to be coming through a door and we had to create a synthetic door using a window. The mise-en-scene works in the shot as the image looks similar and has the same effect that you cant see the character’s face. In our music video, its important to consider the mise-en-scene in order to establish the storyline and imagery we are trying to represent. However, the lighting in the Foo fighter’s video appears to be filmed in the evening, as we should’ve used filler lights to create this effect as we filmed in the day.  When filming our actual we wont have to film in school time, as so will be able to film and the time of day we want the image to portray, or establish the time of day through editing and lighting.

The next shot uses shadows for visual effectiveness. For this shot we had to create a bed out of a sheet and try and film from a birds eye view, which was difficult to get in the right positioning for the shot. The topside lighting we missed, and only focused on the positioning of the actors, to create the effect of the shadow, we should’ve used a filler light to get the right outlines on the bed. The creases in the bedding have connotations of creases and wrinkles and crumples in their relationship, and how they have to battle these and fight with only each other, in our shot the creases weren’t evident enough, and when we filmed it, it appeared artificial. From this we have learnt that birds-eye view filming is more difficult as its hard to get on the right position, rather than just having a high angle. Its important to remember the high angle shots and birds eye view shots have very different effects, and high angel makes the actor or actress appear looked down on and small or innocent, making the audience feel sorry for the character, where as the birds eye view has a fairly neutral appearance of the characters and is used to show the contextual relations to the image, showing the whole image, and placing the audience in a separate place unseen to the character, as they are looking in on a story rather than apart of it, therefore from this we know in our music video we will use more high angles in the narrative side story line, to create sympathy for certain characters, it will also make the audience feel more part of the video and synthetic personalisation is established as the audience are more relatable.

            In our next shot, we needed to look at our framing. The mise-en-scene was made up of a low angled shot of the main singer. In our shot, the cloud positioning was nice and worked well, create appealing, easy to watch backing visuals, however in the top corner of our shot was the piece of roof, which ruined the shot. It also made it appear amateur and in our main task its important to consider all aspects of the mise-en-scene.  The lighting in this shot was also not the same as in the video and we felt that because we were outside it wouldn’t appear as much of an issue when it came to editing as it did. The lighting effects the representation of the shot dramatically, and so in the shots its important to consider how the choice of lighting will effect the image representation.

            In the following shot it was of the main singer, Dave Grohll, and the shot demonstrates his passion to music and how he has power and male dominance through his singing. He passion, demonstrated through the closeness and pressure he puts of his mic, is the main reasoning of the shot. In our sweding we over concentrated on the shot type, getting the low angle and close-up nailed that we missed the reasoning of the shot and so the passion didn’t come through in the same way. We also found that the binary opposition that appeared in the main video was between light and dark, creating shadows I effective ways to demonstrate the difference between the good and evil behind the song and song lyrics and they’re battle against society and conforming to the social conventions that they are expected to as a male band. We also had constraints of his beard, drawing a fake beard on him, which didn’t have the same professional look that is in the foo fighters version.

            In our next shot, the natural light was too dark and strong for the shot, and we needed to use filler lights open up the shot, these filler lights would’ve also created shadows and darkness so the correct appearance came across, and would’ve balanced out the shot. To brighten this shot we also could’ve corrected it during editing, lightening the whole image. On our final production, it’s important to film shots with a variety of lights so we can establish, as well as plan beforehand so we know what sort of lighting we will need to use to create the right effects. the framing in this shot was important, as the Foo fighters used to rule of thirds to be more aesthetically appealing to the audience, placing the mic in the line down the left hand side, and Dave Grohl on the right, leaving the gap in the middle to be eye catching and demonstrating the importance of the microphone to him and his music. Also across the top third the sky is show to evoke he evening time of performance, showing how it’s a end of day as a release for the band. The clear sky also represents that the bands has clear motives and are only playing for the music and concentrates all attention to the singer. The position of tom in this shot was different to how we needed, and the top of tom’s head is cut off and the rule of thirds was abandoned, the mic is too far over the to the left, and the gap between tom and the mic is too big, suggesting separation between him and the music. Dave Grohls positioning is also more open and more like he is releasing himself, the closed body language that tom is portraying is demonstrating that he’s not comfortable around music in the same way that Dave Grohl is, and that he is not completely at ease. Dave Grohl’s body language demonstrates that music has power over him and he is completely passionate about it. In our music video it’s important to think about how body language effect the shot connotation. Subtle movements and positioning an create gaps and imply distance. To make sure we establish the image and connotations we wan its important to plan and mark out each shot through storyboarding.  Framing each shot is also important, making sure we use the rule of thirds so its visually attractive to the audience.  Finally in this shot the camera control wasn’t very strong, and the control of the moving shot was weak and mess. Whilst filming we tried to use a tripod, but because of the setting and location, the tripod wasn’t possible to use. Trying to find another piece of equipment that we could rest the camera on took time, and ended up with a table. In our music video, we will have to come up with more appropriate ways of doing moving shots to make sure that the filming still looks professional, and doesn’t appear amateur because of the movement being inconsistent and shaky.

            In the following shot, which was of the whole band. This was extremely difficult to film as we didn’t have an appropriate location to get the same image at all. The band members consisted of more people than we had actors, so we had to find more actors. The background on the actual video is clear and shows how they are performing freely and almost practicing to no-one and just want to play. They chose to do this outside as they feel they can be freer and have fewer limitations than conventional music. When filming this we discussed moving to somewhere downstairs, but felt that consistency would be more important than a shot with the wrong background. When filming our music video, it will be important to pick an appropriate location to film, but also chose appropriate shots for the location that we do have. We will also think carefully about actors and characters and where they be in relation to each other and the shot. The mise-en-scene is important to consider so that everything in the shot add together to create the visual representation that we are trying to portray for the band.

            In our next shot, the lighting and background is different to what is in our shot, again due to restrictions that we had because of setting. The zooming movement was too fast, and so again found issues with the camera movement. We didn’t realise that there was a slight zoom and so when we came to edit, we noticed. The subtleness of the zoom has a little emphasis, which e of course missed.  Therefore proving that it necessary to remember how little movements and simple emphasis can be very effective. The explosive energy of the drummer also demonstrates his passion, and it was hard for Joe to match this passion. The drummer also has longer floppy hair, which covers his face and so can create a mystery. This was impossible for Joe as he had short hair and needed to look up, however we now know that in order to be effective in our video, we can use the unknown, ‘unseen’ side of the characters, hiding facial expressions etc. to create mystery and tension. I also found in this shot, that the camera is rarely completely still, dynamic shots – however subtle, tend to represent the explosive energy of the band and how the band is actively connecting with the audience.

            The filler light in our subsequent shot, we needed to concentrate on the filler lighting and framing as before, however we didn’t realise that the shot was closer than we though with a tighter angle, changing the shot slightly. The harsh colours needed to be colour corrected during editing to establish the same image that the Foo fighters had. The colour corrector will change the representation of a shot as different colours have different connotations. Subtle changes in colour will effect how the image comes across although from a neutral eye wouldn’t be able to tell much different in a direct comparison, when standing alone the image actually has very different connotations. Again in the following shot, the colour correction was off again. In the Foo fighters video, the close up shot Dave Grohl makes him appear more ‘rosy’ and healthy looking, in an artificial way when you directly compare, but in the shot he appears brighter and easier to look at. This is also important to remember how colouring effects a lot, in association with the colours our characters and actors will wear, appear, to colours of the location as well as the colour of the shot.

            In our shot of the ring, the point of interest was the ring, which we didn’t establish while filming the backing of the shot was also not right or what we intensified and tried to exaggerate.  The colours in this shot were also off, and so the mise-en-scene wasn’t right. In our video it’s important to establish the right things to be intensified. We need to consider the whole appearance of the shot and get the right distancing and exaggeration.

            In our final shots, we didn’t have to equipment to do the shots ourselves, so had to copy the shots across. This is important that we plan only shots that are achievable and physically possible to shoot, so were not left with shots that we don’t know how to film.

Ellie

Maroon 5 - 'This Love'

Lady Gaga

Media Story Line

Shot type: Mid shot Lighting: Bright back light Others: Mid angle shot Shows signs of naturalistic lighting.	Shot type: Birds eye view Lighting: Side lighting in a bird’s eye view Others: Natural moonlighting with image of innocent of child .	Shot type: Mid shot Lighting: Gloomy lighting Others: uses a fade in effect to switch from one shot too another.	Shot type: Close up Lighting: top lighting Others: Straight cut to this shot .
Seconds: 3:03	Seconds:3:06-3:07	Seconds:3:10-3:11	Seconds:3:12-3:15

Shot type: Mid shot Lighting: Top lighting Others: Hand held shot showing movement in the shot .	Shot type: Long shot Lighting: Naturalistic lighting Others: The clouds used to show time periods.	Shot type: Close up Lighting: Gloomy lighting Others: Aggressive movement in the camera works showing handheld .	Shot type: Mid shot Lighting: Bright top light Others: Uses handheld shot for this shot just not as aggressive .
Seconds:3:16	Seconds:3:18-3:20	Seconds:3:21-3:23	Seconds:3:25-3:26

Shot type: Ex close up Lighting: front lighting Others: Straight cut shot to this shot like a zoom in shot.	Shot type: Close up Lighting: Dull lighting top light Others: Uses fast cuts shots .	Shot type: Long shot Lighting: Naturalistic lighting Others: another fast cut shot too random image.	Shot type: Close up Lighting: Dull light shot Others: Uses handheld shot aswell as a straight cut shot .
Seconds:3:27	Seconds:3:28	Seconds:3:29	Seconds:3:30

Shot type: Long shot Lighting: Gloomy and dull Others: The shot shows a storm is about to coming as well as begin handheld to show aggressive movement with the actors action.	Shot type: Close up Lighting: Dull yet bright in the back lighting Others: Uses a straight cut to the shot .	Shot type: Ex Close up Lighting: Dull and Back lighting Others: Uses fast rhythm straight cuts to catch up too music space.
Seconds:3:32-3:33	Seconds:3:34	Seconds:3:35

Pk

Sweding Task

For our preliminary task, we had to swede a music video, in order to improve our skills in filming editing. In our thriller, it was the first chance we had to film and so many of the shots looked messy and unprofessional. In this video we needed to include a wider range of shots and show how our skills have grown. We chose to swede Foo-fighters video, best of you. This music video is a performance video, also including some narrative, and is therefore a hybrid video so uses both types of video. This allows some of the narrative theories to be met. The video incorporates a wide range of shot types and camera movement, including panning, tracking and zooms, for example a low angled shot of Dave Grohl uses panning to show the performance. 

When thinking about what video would be best to shoot, we decided an area wanted to improve was our use of framing. Throughout the video there's a lot of use of the rule of thirds, that creates points of interest for the audience. From this we've learnt how to use the lighting in the frame and think about everything in the mise-en-scene, for example when shooting the performance outside, it was important to get the clouds and skyline how we wanted, and get similar lighting as in the Foo-fighters version.

In our video, the extreme close-up shots we needed show shadows onto parts of his face. This portrays him to be half good and half evil. We needed to consider the lighting, and use the filler lights and backing light. In the shots of his face, it's important to use the lighting to create the effects we wanted to establish and the image and metanarrative band had wanted to establish. When filming our shots we didn't think enough of the lighting, even though we were filming outside we should’ve used artificial light to create the effects we wanted. In our music video, we will use a variety of lighting to represent the different character types. 

While filming it was important to consider the mise-en-scene. For example when we were shooting just a shot of the performance, we needed to have no backing so they appeared on a roof. Due to the constraints at school it was difficult to get the mise-en-scene as we were restricted as to where we could film, however we needed to establish the general look of the scene and include what makes up the shot. The mise-en-scene effects the whole appearance of the video. 

When filming our thriller, we struggled with being able to vary our shot types and movement. This was partly because of lack of equipment, and that we couldn't move the camera and hold the shot still, but also because of lack of experience and time constraints. We wanted to improve the variety of shots we could use. Last year, I was in a separate group from everyone else in my group this time. In their video, the camera movement they used was much better than in ours. In order to do a tracking shot, they used tom's car driving at a steady rate in order to keep the camera from shaking and get the shot they wanted, which looked really good and created the effect they wanted.

We also learnt the importance of the tripod and this kept the camera more steady, establishing a more valid, reliable shot. 

In our thriller, one of our strongest parts was the lighting. There were certain shots which used had a lighting shot over half of it, as we were trying to copy an Alfred Hitch-cock style of shot, where the lighting shown a envelope being opened. In our sweding, the lighting was the hardest thing to get right as we were filming outside and so continuity was important. When we were looking at it we decided that filming in the morning would be most appropriate, as the shots appear to be either morning or evening and so morning was the only option because of time constraints at school. In our thriller, we found that 'steadi-cam' shots just looked messy and unprofessional, and so we knew to avoid them in the clip of or music video to swede, and in our story-boarding of our actual music video. In our thriller we had too many shots of the same thing. It was supposed to cut between a variety of shots of a hostage to create tension, but we put in too many shots and it lost the suspense. In our sweding, it’s different as we are copying the shots of a current music video, but in our own music video, it’s important to remember this. In our thriller, we had to learn to use a variety of different technologies, in our thriller I did the radio on garage band and learnt how to change the tempo and pitch of the music, and how to use final cut express to edit and have transitions between the shots. In our thriller there was a big transition between our preliminary and our thriller, but it was important to use the skills we had acquired in our thriller. We learnt that it was important not to leave the filming until the last minute, and when we were filming our shots, we had a few left that we needed to shoot, and decided to get them done and find all the props we needed. 

While filming, we overestimated what we thought we could edit and then couldn't edit as much as we wanted and the whole thriller didn't look professional and the editing and timing didn't rescue the shots enough. Throughout the first year, when filming we had no idea how much we could change through editing or how long it would take, and when it came to editing this was harder than we expected due to the amount of time it took, and how hard it was to get the exact timing we wanted. We found that finding music that was appropriate to the shot difficult and although this won’t be an issue in our music video, we will have the opposite problem in trying to match the images shown with the music and creating a narrative that matches with the image the band are trying to portray. An issue we struggled with last time was timing, and in a music video this is vital, as lip sinking and band playing in time is important to match. 

Semiotics - Signs and Symbols

Theories of signs, or semiotics, is the the science of sign and signifiers and how they are used to create different labeling of objects and create concepts. The labeling of an object through works and or pictures, and the meaning forms. They are strongly related to context, and can often mean different things to an individual. In order to decode a shot, you have to look at the connotations. Everything used in a video is a sign that is to be split into signifiers and sign. There are 3 readings that can be received from the audience, the preferred reading, the negotiated reading and the oppositional reading.  Polysemic signifiers are photos and videos, which are iconic signs that represent real things and people; each signs suggests different meaning to the audience. Iconography is the use of polysemic to identify a genre. These can also be conforming to the Barthes codes, including the semiotic, symbolic and cultural code. These are all directly linked to signs, motifs and symbols used and the connotations of these.

The use of semiotics change how the video appears.
Adorno musical theory in the 1950’s challenged this, saying that the pop culture simply creates meaningless, thoughtless texts. He said there was no need to engage in these texts as they are meaningless with no cultural, moral or academic value and audience become passive and voyeuristic, and the meanings simple wash over them.

Example

In the Foofighters version of 'The Pretender' the use of the semiotics change the whole video. In the opening, the use of bandages around his wrist show wounds, fighting, blood but also have connotations of healing and power. The warehouse setting allows the cold and emptiness to be demonstrated, and shows how the band only have their music. The riot police demonstrate the strength, and injustice, order as well as the force and how they are fighting against a order and a group of unidentified, faceless people. The line on the floor shows division and barriers and how they are trying to keep them at distance the border and separation cuts them off from the rest of the word, showing how they are different and deserve to be identified as a unique but struggle being against the conventions of the music. The use of these together create a metanarrative and give the performance video more of a story and gives the illusion of how they are battling normality. 

Ellie