Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer is an English academic who specialised in cinema and has gathered various theories about the way audiences are entertained. In his second book 'Only Entertainment' Dyer argues that entertainment is part of a common sense or cultural awareness which is always historically and culturally constructed. He discusses elements of utopia being an element in various media products, in other words, most music videos nowadays are 'fake' and unrealistic. This can certainly be said about a lot of mainstream and popular genres and music videos such as that of artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna & Britney Spears yet Francesca and I feel as if ours will not be a 'utopian' video - we want it to reflect the truth about society and not to make our audience feel that the video does not portray reality.

Another point that Dyer discusses is that of 'star quality'. oThis is when the artist has an image created about them showing the audience at how 'amazing' and 'glamourous' their lifestyle is. This can mostly be found within rap videos where the artist is seen to have loose women around them and alot of money however in real life, they are usually poor and living in an environment close to poverty - I will discuss this point in another post later on.

Dyers 'star quality' is not really represented within the Dubstep music scene. The first music video that came out from the genre of dubstep was that of 'The Bug & Flow Dan - Skeng'. The video quality was low resolution and there wasnt a variety of shots however it recieved national exposure as it was the first of its kind and was a song stepping out of the mainstream and not conforming to any of the pre existing norms which we might see in a rap video.

You can view the video below:



Therefore Francesca and I would not to follow the same conventions as this video, or use this 'star quality' that Dyer mentions. We do not want any shots of the artist, Stenchman, as we feel it would ruin the narrative structure we aim to create.

An image of Richard Dyer can be viewed below:

Video Ideas

In the beginning, the ideas we were both coming up with were varied as our music video had not yet been finalised. we had not chosen our music track. When we both heard 'The number One' by Stenchman, our ideas became similar as we both gathered that the theme should be lonelieness and isolation.

These theme became apparent within the song as the track itself has a very dulcet tone to it which was mostly because of the bassline which had a sub frequency added to it which made the song as a whole very dark and melancholy. When gathering ideas for the music video, we had set an initial idea that we should represent people as alone, isolated and deserted from society.

We were thinking of ways to achieve this and then I remembered I watched a film a couple of weeks before called 'Cash Back' and there was a distinctive scene which stayed in my mind for quite a while.

This was the opening scene to the film where we are introduced to a young couple arguing. The camera is supposed to represent what each character sees. I found this scene very powerful and imaginative.

You can view this scene in the video below and can be found at 1 minute and 10 seconds.



We want our audience to relate to this scene as we know many of them would have probably been in an argument within their relationships.

The image below is a shot of the scene we are referring to:

The facial expressions that both the male and female express are very compelling as even though we can't hear the girls narrative, we can understand that she is very angry with the way she uses her eyes and movements of her hands while arguing.

This shot is a deictic sign of anger and discontent as the shouting and anger of the girl has a direct connection with her emotions. When the girl chucks the vase of roses at the door in anger, it not only represents the 'ending' of their relationship but can also be seen as a symbolic sign as the red roses and the colour red are both representatives of love and romance, however, the fact that the vase is being destroyed, mirrors the same effects on their relationship. We decided to use this pastiche in our music video to stress the anger of the girl in our opening scene.

Other potential artists

After messaging 'Stenchman' on the social networking site: 'Facebook', we were able to get his permission to use his track, "The Number One". The image below are of Stenchman DJing at various venus, wearing his trademark mask.

Please see the messaging that took place between Stenchman and myself

As I'm also a DJ, this made it easier to communicate with 'Stenchman' as I had been in contact with him before. This has benefited us towards our coursework as it made getting permission much quicker.

By working within the Dubstep genre, I looked at other songs and artists before deciding to pursue in proposing to Stenchman. My friend is in a band called 'illAudio' and they had created a song which has elements of dubstep in it called, 'Make Money'. This song had interested us as they use samples of George Bush and put them into a context whereby it puts him in a negative light. We also liked the way they merged various shots of political violence within the world which reflected their violent however progresive song. We enjoyed the track itself however we found that it would be complex to work with the song as it is very fast paced and doesnt contain much narrative.

You can view the video below for their track:

Another artist that we were considering was 'Twizzle'. He hit song 'sky diving' has recently been remixed by up and coming djs 'Green Money Productions' and they have produced a more upbeat remix of the track. The song was however too difficult to incorporate the track into the video as there are hardly any vocals in the song and the beat is too consistent which we didnt want. Below is the youtube video of the track.

Some parts of the dubstep genre merge into sub-genres like Grime, Reggae and House. The artist 'Funckarma' falls under some of these sub-genres. Their music video, shown below, is a very simple and minimalistic idea. The beat consists of mostly synth sounds and drums, this is reflected in their video which just consists of mostly graphics of different colours almost like strobe lighting. We hope that some of this simplicity and minimalism not only to be reflective within our music video, but also our digipak work and website homepage.

The video is show below:



The last song we looked at was 'Holy Land' by 'Dan Bowskill'. A great musician and a good friend of mine, Dan Bowskill is a talented reggae musician. Even though his music isn't really dubstep, we felt that we could work with him as his song 'holy land' has alot of vocals present and the main purpose of our music video was to incorporate not only imagery but also vocals. The track interested us as it is not usually common for a reggae artist to incorporate 'rap' into their tracks however Dan Bowskill has proved that both forms of music can mix very well. The rapper 'Black Reign' spoke about the real issues of society which isnt shown in the media such as poverty, gang violence and corrupt police which is stated as 'babylon' which is a derived term from Jamaican slang which is supposed to represent the cruelty that the township people recieved from the cruel and harsh police force. As a strong fan of Reggae music I loved the track however, we wanted to experiment more with the video and we didn't want to have too much vocals in it so we could have a range of shots. Below is the youtube video of the track.

Influences

Our influences for our videos vary. The main genre we looked at was 'urban'. The connotations to urban videos usually means that the environment is edgy and the colour is downtoned, mostly grey. Here are a few examples we looked at.

Professor Green - Upper Clapton Dance


Upper Clapton Dance by Professor Green contains many signifiers such as guns, drugs and violence within his music video, which gives the video quite a dark connotation throughout the video. To begin with, the audience instantly notice a clinical mise-en-scene, and the bleak white colour connotes a feeling of emptiness. The beginning close up focuses on the artists face, which is him observing his surroundings. Constantly throughout the video it appears the camera is attached to every actors head giving off a powerful effect of point of view, enabling the audience to focus on their expressions and motions, as the editing of the video remains quite fast paced, as the camera doesn't switch angles that much. For example, the un-sturdy movement of the camera matches the odd and quite uncomfortable feel to the video, and is in fact used as a hooking technique due to the fact the audience are completely involved in the actors movement.

Another hooking technique which is used to engage the audience is the story line as such, which of course connotates paranoia. The contrast and variation of all the actors also connotes a sense of poverty within the music video, as the audience can associate the images of the council estate and young single mothers with the issue of working class. This technique is followed by the camera above the head of the black man running and the camera below the thief, which furthermore connotes insanity and the restlessness, and the black and white footage matches the clinical plainness of the setting, making them stand out more. As the chorus is playing, different scenarios are still be played out which connotes darkness upon the video, despite the song itself being quite up beat. However, the clinical setting matches the lyrics, as each sentence reflects what is happening throughout the video such as the baby getting shot or kids acting like gangsters and the clinical white setting can itself be interpreted as violence and madness.

Leftfield & Afrika Bambaataa - Afrika Shox

A similar colour tone is seen in the music videos directed by Chris Cunningham. called 'Afrika Shox' by Leftfield. Afrika Shox is quite a un-settling video with quite disturbing scenes, such as the mise-en-scene is quite un-nerving and makes the audience feel uncomfortable when watching it. For example, the way the camera tracks and pans until the audience are introduced with a mid-shot of a man who is obviously in pain, and almost looks as if he has been possessed as his eyes are bloodshot and he seems dazed. The way that the music video follows his struggle as he wonder's round through a busy city stood out for me, as it's enticing the audience to feel guilty towards him; not a typical storyline you see with other conventional music video's.

The other reason I find this music video very influential is the fact that their is an underlying message of racism and oppression. This is not common with music videos nowadays and as the message is so controversial especially no that there is a black president however we still see segregation towards the black race even though it is supposed to be 'the land of equal opportunity'. I feel that for our music video, I want to implement a subtle however powerful message that the audience can take and perceive in their own way.

Introduction

In our media class we were introduced to blogging. I will be presenting all my work in this blog and will try and blog atleast twice a week.

I grouped up with a friend of mine to be my partner for this media project. Her name is Francesca Baldwin. I state this because some of my work might seem similar to hers as we are working together.

As a pair, we began to decide upon an artist for whom we will dedicate our music video for. As I am a DJ and a dubstep enthusiast, I thought it would only be right to base the music video on this genre. Dubstep is a relatively new genre which emerged in 2003 stemming from underground genres such as Garage, Drum & Bass and 2step.

The term Dub in Dubstep is in relation to the predominantly Jamaican genre 'Dub' where the producer will create a track and will then apply that track to a mixing board. Individual parts of the track are layered onto the mixing desk and are then altered with effects such as 'reverb', 'delay' and 'echo'. An iconic figure in dub music and the originator of the genre is 'King Tubby' An example of his work can be found in the video below:


The term Step in 'Dubstep' is in relation to the genre 2step/garage. This genre was formed in the late 90s which breached on the sounds of Hardcore and Acid. The tracks are mostly drum patterns with subtle basslines. An example of this genre can be found below:


The first artist that we looked at is ‘Stenchman’ and the track ‘The Number One’.
The original track is called 'One (is the loneliest number)' by 'Three Dog Night'. Stenchman is a dubstep producer originating from Bristol. He has had many hits such as 'Too Much Ket', 'Beat the banker' & 'Lemongrass'. I recommended this track to my partner as I feel that the track is original and I get a sense of engagement when listening to it. A sense of loneliness can be found within the lyrics of the song as it talks about being single and lonely within a busy world. Both myself and my partner felt an overlying sense of isolation when listening to the track and this is exactly what type of theme we want to portray within the music video.

Please view the video below which is Stenchman - The Number One




As well as looking at music videos for influences, we also have to study theories which we will implement their ideas into the video itself. One of the theorists we have studies is Andrew Goodwin. Goodwin is author of several books concerning contemporary media. He identifies various codes and conventions that are found within music videos. He states that there is usually a common relationship between the lyrics of the track and visuals they portray.

Francesca and I have discussed this theory and have realized that what Goodwin talks about is actually very true. For example, in rock music videos, their is a common theme whereby most of the shots of of the band members performing their tracks with lots of close of shots of the instruments.

If we were to finalise using Stenchman for our music video, then we will be able to play around with the conventions as the track itself is created digitally so there cannot be any shots of instruments or of Stenchman himself as his appearance remains a mystery - he wears a mask when performing live.In our music video, we are not going to try and conform to any norms of music videos and will try and create an original piece

The basis around dubstep is that the sound should be played via turntables as the Djs that play it are mostly from the 'old school' era of analog production whereby CDs were not even created yet. We have considered having small shots of a vinyl spinning around on a turntable. This will then relate to Goodwins theory however it will still not be conforming to his view that there is always a relationship between the artist and the visuals.

As I have close ties with Stenchman and the indepdendent label he is signed to - 'True Tiger', gaining access to the personal rights of his track will be very easy as all I would need to do is either message him or his management via email.