James Blake promotional material, poster -D

Aesthetically they all tend to share a colour palette of white, blue, and black. They don't feature the artist's face predominantly, instead focusing on art, and creating mystery towards the artist. 

prop-list

- a glass
- equipment to start a fire
- clock
- Books
- Black food dye
- Diffuser
- Equipment to make a stencil
- black spray paint
- coffee
- car window

Promo production - D/J

First day of filming - D

The first day consisted of understanding how we could use our chosen location (Lea Valley) to the specific shots we planed before hand.

This is an example of where we filmed a couple of different shots. 

We set up the camera according to the shots we needed. As it was our first time filming properly with the appropriate equipment, it took us longer than expected to set up but this is an aspect that would progress throughout the filming process. 

Animatics - D

This is roughly what our music video would look like, we have incorporated the music with the story board. This may change due to the practicality of the filming process i.e. we may rearrange shots if we find that they don't work well.

Audience Research Questions - D

We'll go out to Shoreditch and Dalston in order to ask our target audience some questions, and we'll film this.

1.     What kind of music do you listen to?

2.     What would you expect from a James Blake video?

3.     How do you feel about black and white music videos?

4.     Do you think that a clear narrative is essential for a good music video?

5.     How often do you actually watch a music video, not just tab out?

Film schedule - D

The Pitch D/J

Character and costume - J

We put this outfit together for the character played by Dan. His outfit is a simple, smart/casual look and deliberately lacks colour to compliment the broody and sad character we are trying to create. The look is also inspired by the artist, James Blake. So there is an obvious visual connection between the song and the actor. There will not be any costume changes as he would be wearing the same outfit in the performance shots because they are supposed to show his actions throughout one day.

(Photo: James Blake from the promo of "Overgrown" album) 

Location location location - D

Primary Locations

Performance scenes

The video will primarily be filmed in Lea Valley/Hackney Marshes. I feel as if both of them have large enough spaces of just about nothing so that we can get the extremely wide angle shots. The flatness of both parks is also good as it makes the sky look bigger, and will add to the effect had by the sky's colours in the shots, truly showcasing each period of the day. It also means that on the overcast days (on which we will film) the entirely black silhouette of the protagonist's costume will stand out and pop even more against the all-white/grey sky, and it gives us more flexibility in terms of which angle the shots can come from. There are also multiple forest paths and bridges nearby, meaning that we can potentially film more shots per day than if they were far apart, and it eliminates a lot of the issues with continuity. They're both lonely, distant, and largely empty places, which fits in well with our general motifs, considering the place looks like ever so slightly like Chernobyl.

Here are some inspiration images taken at the locations, in order to give you a visual clue as to what we're going for. The last isn't really the look we want per se, but it does prove my point about the sky.

Montage shots

The majority of the montage shots that we're doing are close-ups and extreme close ups, mainly of situations and images more documentary-esque than what we're filming with the performance scenes. As part of this, some of the shots taken will likely be situational; if either of us have the camera we can take some of the shots when we come across them in real life. The cathedral scenes will be done in one with Gothic architecture, as the shapes and spikes found on/in those would be visually fitting to the theme we're trying to portray. Otherwise, we will use our school's studio in order to use their lighting equipment to add the professional quality, and playing with darkness/light that is often used in the works of James Blake and other sombre, experimental artists. 

Understanding Theoretical Approaches - J

Marxism

Focuses on the the understanding that societies consist of class struggle where there is a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat- an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides labour for production.
This can be understood as the nature of Capitalism where it produces internal tensions which would lead to its self destruction and is replaced by a new system, Socialism or Communism. Some Marxists stress the need of a revolution in order to break the oppression the proletarians' face.

Marxism has influenced other theorists who have expanded their critical thinking of sociological, economical and political issues.

Theorists such as:

Theodore Adorno and The Culture Industry: He stated that industrially produced culture "robs" people of their imagination and manipulates mass society into passivity. The culture industry delivers the "goods" so that the people then only have left over the task of consuming them.

Through mass production, everything becomes homogenised and what ever diversity remains is constituted of small trivialities. Everything becomes compressed through a process which mirrors physical reality as close as possible. Psychologically, people are then forced to believe that what they see is so real that the thought of manipulation would not be encountered.

If it has not been made apparent to how theory links into Marxism- it can be considered that the Culture Industry works as an ideological state apparatus that is controlled by the bourgeoisie and maintains the capitalist system through consumerism and and alienating the proletarians into not realising their oppression- thus they remain passive.

Antonio Gramsci and Hegemony: He used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'.

Hegemonies would use media as an ideological apparatus in order to enforce the hegemony by creating fear of deference from the established norm of imperial dominance.

The idea of of Ideological State apparatuses is also linked to the theorist Louis Althusser. He believed that it was necessary to conceive of how society makes the individual in its on image.

Noam Chomsky and Manufacturing Consent: He did an analysis of the news media, argued that the mass media "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship"

Feminism

Aims to define, achieve and defend equal political, economical, social and cultural rights for women. It also focuses on understanding the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender.

A feminist theoretical approach is what we hope to involve in our music video in some form. In order to do so, we carried out further research into feminist film/media text theory and came across the concepts of the British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey.

The Male Gaze, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: She coined the term "male gaze" in 1975 and believes that in film and other visual media texts, inevitably put the spectator in a masculine (heterosexual) subject position with the female figure on screen as an object of desire. Features of the male gaze could be instances where the camera lingers on the curves and close up of the female body, and events that would occur to women are presented largely in the context of the mans reaction to these events. The nature of the male gaze enforces patriarchal values, as the theorist Jonathan Schroeder states "to gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze"

Example of the male gaze in a music video

Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"

Psychoanalytic theory

Founded by Sigmund Freud who believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences and is commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorders.

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:

• besides the inherited constitution of personality, a person's development is determined by events in early childhood;

• human attitude, mannerism, experience, and thought is largely influenced by irrational drives; irrational drives are unconscious;

• attempts to bring these drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms;

• conflicts between conscious and unconscious, or repressed, material can materialise in the form of mental or emotional disturbances, for example: neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc.;

• the liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the conscious mind 

This is also a theory we are going to involve in our music videos, because understanding of such can help us build a better narrative in relation the star performance, and the rest of the content. Connections like this are significant to our music video because we interpret the song to be very emotional and personal to the listener so being aware of psychoanalysis helps us to understand how we can create and present the emotion in our music video.

Third inspiration video -D

Rejjie Snow - "Lost in Empathy"

Similar to the second video of inspiration, this also holds the the feeling and portrays bleak cold loneliness that is established well in relation to the rapper. 

The video shows a good connection between the performer, Rejjie Snow, and his surroundings which is an aspect we would like to achieve in our music video. This is simply because the locations (forrest-like areas , open field and parks) help to achieve the soulful feel the song of our choice provides.

Music Video Director Portfolio - Emily Kai Block

Emily Kai Bock is a young director, artist, and photographer. She's worked with artists such as Grimes, Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear (of Animal Collective), Majical Cloudz, and others who mainly fall under the general umbrella of experimental indie. The majority of her work draws inspiration from portrait photography as opposed to conventional film. So her videos often have the appearance of a beautifully shot documentary. She'd be a good source of inspiration to our video because a lot of her shots tend to be of wide, open spaces, which would really help cement the feelings which we're trying to portray. She also has some amazing work playing around with human silhouettes, which is another feature we'll try to incorporate in the Take A Fall For Me video.

She makes a strong case as to why you should shoot on film, something which we're not doing. That being said, I hope we can emulate some of the shots she uses, for example the silhouette work done in the Majical Cloudz video to the left.

Here is her website; http://www.emilykaibock.com/

Second Inspiration Video

Our main inspiration for the look, feel, and general mise-en-scene of the project that we're doing is one of James Blake's other videos; Retrograde. The video has a similar palette to what we're hoping to achieve (in the first few minutes). Director Martin de Thurah does an amazing job at establishing the feeling of bleak cold and loneliness in the initial minute of the video.

The long shot of the subject, and full view of the road behind him present to us the feeling of cold, almost palpable winter. The monotone sky also adds to this, bringing our attention to the lower part of the frame, and putting all attention onto the subject.

Contrast this shot to the exterior one above, and the differences between the framing of the subjects is huge. We would try to incorporate this, having closer, fuller shots which allow the viewer to focus on the details, as well as offering a binary opposite to the long shots used to create isolation.

Videos used as inspiration

"Drowning Butterflies" by Bipolar Sunshine

This music video very evidently consists of a montage which develops with the pace of the song which is an aspect that we would like to recreate in our music video.

The separate sections of film in the music video that form a continuous whole, partially depicts the lyrics in a playful, artistic and almost literal sense. For instance, one part of the lyrics of the song says "I feel lifted of he floor" so a short clip of a man floating in the clouds is displayed. Also, there is a lot of pattern samples used in the music video (e.g. second picture below) which is part of the montage; assuming that the pattern is a reference made to the "Butterfly" wings and linking to the title of the song.

Close analysis between the use of montage in relation to the lyrics and pace of the song in this music video signifies its effectiveness and suits what we would like to achieve in our own music video. This is simply because it allows an ambiguous story to progress in a short period, which is especially useful because the lyrics of the song we have chosen provide a lot of imagery. Unlike this video, our music video will also involve star performance and not singularly consist of different vaguely unrelated shots to form the montage.

Mood Board

Genre and Iconography

James Blake is influenced by many styles of music, therefore making his genre ambiguous. It ranges from hip-hop, soul, R & B to electronica and post dub-step.  The song chosen, "Take A Fall For Me" embraces the slight essence of hip hop because it has the rapper RZA on the song it and is rather soulful

Iconography- Due to the ambiguity of his genre, it is unlikely for our music video to follow any conventions and particular iconographies of hip hop, electronic music and soul. Instead, the visual arts and symbolic representation of the music video is dependent on the content of the song and the mood it provides for its listeners. Therefore letting the concept of the song to be amplified artistically and allowing the creation of a distinctive and unconventional video which would appeal to the aimed demographic of young adults.

Target Demographic/psychographic

James Blake – Take a Fall for me (featuring The RZA)

Target Audience Demographic

James Blake is an artist who has both mass and niche appeal. His songs have been used in adverts, and he’s a recognisable part of mainstream music, with his album reaching #8 on the UK Album charts and #32 on the US Billboard 100 (source; Wikipedia). That being said, while his music itself has a broad appeal, not that many of the people who know it would be considered fans. The people who would go out of their way to watch a James Blake music video (what we’re working on) are going to form the target audience of the music video which we’ll produce.

Demographic

Age; James Blake’s music offers a level of subtlety and artiness which doesn’t necessarily appeal to the younger side of teenagers, so really the age of our audience would be 16 and upwards. Since he’s an artist who has built his career almost entirely from internet success (pitchfork, being shared on /mu/, etc.), it’s unlikely that older adults (those above 35/40ish) would be very familiar with his work. The target age range therefore would likely be from 16-30, the songs aren’t particularly aggressive so I think they would resonate more with a mature audience.

Social Class; I think that James Blake primarily appeals to people from Middle, Lower Middle and Skilled working class backgrounds. His fans are generally quite in touch with the arts, come from a fairly well off home, and tend to be quite intellectual. Not to say that working class people are stupid, but they probably won’t care much for slow, broody, electronic music.

Sexuality; All encompassing, but there would probably an disproportionately high amount of openly LGBT people in the fan base, as he tends to appeal to the middle class, bohemian, primarily white, politically left-leaning.

Gender; Will likely be quite an even split, but may lean slightly towards males. A lot of the themes and ideas that James Blake discusses tend to be from a male perspective, and men will probably find them easier to connect to.

Ethnicity; Will likely be primarily white, but overall diverse in terms of ethnic backgrounds.

Psychographic

-Likely to be of a left wing belief
-Against sexual objectification of women, likely to hold a feminist viewpoint
-Involved with the arts and passionate about them
-Likely to be considered social outsiders
-Tend to enjoy things which are subversive or edgy
-Pro-DIY, low-budget, independent

The song we're using; Take A Fall For Me by James Blake (featuring The RZA)