Chase Scene in Walthamstow

Yesterday we filmed the chase scene in Walthamstow. I would have to say that it was the most strenuous and tiring day of my entire year! My muscles are seriously aching and I ran even less than Robbie. It was easy getting to the location as it is 3 streets away from my house. When we got there though, we found a man DIYing his wall, right in the way of where we wanted to film. Obviously this freaked us out but was a good lesson; we now know to plan ahead more and plan for disruptions such as this. As it turned out, we were able to film the opening to our chase scene and then once we needed the area the man was in he had moved on so it didn't impact on our filming. The main issue we found in the end was that as the day wore on Robbie and me got increasingly tired and this impacted upon our acting/running. I'm not sure that some of the last shots will be usable as we were so shattered it was more of a stagger than a sprint.
Of course afterwards we all went to my house and had a well deserved cuppa!

Location Scouting

Today we location scouted and I realised how useful Google Maps street view was. While the boys were working on other parts of our project I spent about an hour on Google Maps and found about 7 different locations. As would be expected all of us had a couple of initial location ideas from around our area so we were able to quickly get up the location and evaluate the appropriateness of it. We decided upon a couple of places in Walthamstow near my house for the chase and Fox Lane near Robbie's house for the fight scene. Because the locations are so close to our houses it will be easy to move equipment and reduces the risk of being robbed as we don't have to walk around for ages.
Another focus of today was trying out the contacts and as this was the first time I'd ever used contacts I found it difficult and uncomfortable putting them in. However I wore them in for a bit and gradually got used to them.

Filming at Broomfield Park

Today we filmed our opening section in Broomfield Park.
A personal issue I found was trying to work out whether or not my hair satisfactorily covered my face so that the camera couldn't see my eyes without making it obvious that that was what I was trying to do. Watching recorded footage helped me judge this and meant that we were able to capture as realistic a shot as possible. We now need to decide where we are going to film the next section, so location scouting is top of our list of things to do at our next meeting.

Storyboarding

At the moment our group is focusing on storyboarding appropriate sections. Today we planned the first section of our music video, focusing only on narrative. We finished storyboarding the section we will film tomorrow and have planned the shooting schedule as well. We decided that the chase scene and performance sections of the video should not be filmed as it would be too hard to figure out the relevant shots so are going to film as much as possible from all angles when the time comes. We understand that this will mean that errors are probable and that we may have to re-film but we are ahead of schedule and are using Eoin's 2 cameras so booking equipment is not a problem for us.

Gender Representation

Through discussion as a group, it was established that gender representation is an important aspect of music videos, with the presentation of a particular singer or character influenced by their gender.

Women seem to be either presented as empowered, slightly feminist beings or contrastingly, objectified and used in videos. The objectification occurs in both female and male artist's videos. 

Men don't seem to face as much derogatory objectification, but are often presented as empowered or 'sexy'. This is often when they are the desired object of a woman or when the artist(s) are male. The only time men are usually presented in a negative light is when the video has some feminist/ empowered woman theme.

In Rihanna's music video, Take A Bow, she takes on the persona of an empowered woman who has just dumped her boyfriend after he has cheated on her. She is shown as strong and independent, and as having a moral high ground in comparison to the man. Throughout the video there are shots of Rihanna where she points at the camera is accusation, showing her authority over the man. She acts feisty when she moves, and stays upright and strong whilst the man is seen leaning against her front door and running behind her in her car. She doesn't objectify herself in the video but makes herself look attractive and desirable. She seems to have achieved a good balance in this respect.  

In Jason Derulo's video, Riding Solo, he plays a strong, independent male. He, like in Rihanna's video, has just become single though the reason why is never told. He conforms to the stereotypical alpha male, and throughout the video he sues cars and girls to highlight his masculinity and make him look "cool" and desirable. This video seems to be a lot more shallow than Rihanna's which has deeper meanings of feminist power and deals with the post-break up situation.

Group Blog Transition

Now that we have a final idea and are in the planning stage of our project, our group has decided to mainly move away from our individual blogs onto the group blog to enable us to update and collaborate together in a smoother, more accessible fashion. I will still post updates and personal assessments of our progress but the majority of my work will be on the group blog. We will move back onto our individual blogs for our evaluations in December.

Intertextual References in Music Videos: Eminem

Eminem: Just Lose It

This video is a great example of intertextual referencing in music videos. As one of Eminem's spoof songs, it parodies many different musicians, films and TV shows and characters including Michael Jackson, MC Hammer Pee-wee Herman and Madonna. Controversial at the time, it mocks the issues and image of the artists he refers to.
In the video, Eminem dresses up as a number of people. He strongly parodies Michael Jackson and plays on the controversy surrounding him at the time the video was made involving child molestation and his court cases. Dancing in the style of MJ whilst dressed in a costume including a white glove on his right hand, the audience are able to immediately realise who he is parodying, enabling them to enjoy the video and song with more understanding. However, Michael Jackson was not happy with the representation of him and openly said that he was "very angry at Eminem's depiction of [him] in his video".

His reference to Pee-wee Herman is an older one, and this would appeal more to an older audience who perhaps watched or are aware of who Pee-wee Herman is. He strongly references him in the video, including his signature shout in the chorus. Already known as a comical figure, the exploitation of Herman’s humour was successful and would have been nostalgic for older audiences.  

The combination of comical celebrities and references mixed with more serious performers such as Madonna meant that the video received mixed reviews, and took a lot of criticism from fans of some of the artists and by other celebrities. Banned on MTV, this was an excellent marketing scheme that meant hype was generated around the video and more people were inclined to watch it to see what the fuss was about. Eminem has used this tactic before on such videos and songs as Ass Like That and Without You where he parodies a large number of celebrities and has guest stars appear within it and the image that he portrays them as is insulting or scandalous.

The audience for the One Show within the video is of a much older age range which highlights the older intertextual references within the video such as Pee-wee Herman and MC Hammer. Although not very old, the references could have been lost on Eminem’s younger, primary audience of late teenagers. This meant that he was appealing to a wider audience thus increasing the interest in his music. Another musician he parodies is Madonna. The reaction of the audience within the video to his parody of her is of shock and distaste as he plays on her own sexualisation of herself on a more grotesque level. There is more of a shock at parodying her due to the lack of humour in her own work in comparison to other celebrities such as Pee-wee, and his already jokey persona. The sexualisation is also different to Pee-wee’s obvious naivety and childish behaviour, so he accepts through the showing of the audience’s response that what he is rapping about can be taken negatively but that he is happy to do it anyway.

There is also a reference to Eminem’s own film, 8 Mile and another one of his music videos, Lose Yourself. At 2:26 there is a scene at an underground rap battle. This is a strong link to Eminem’s rise and start of his career whist also advertising his own film. We are able to see into his life as a rapper and how it started which connects the audience to him and satisfied the needs and gratifications of the audience by connecting them to him on a more personal level. He refers to a number of his other music videos within the music video and lyrics, “Shady’s back” is an exert from the lyrics of Without Me and “Girl you know you’re my world” is from Superman. For fans that know his music well, these links add another layer to his work and making them connect more with him as it gives a sense of knowing a joke that only his “true fans” can appreciate.

Other references/guest stars:

There is a reference to the film, Bad Santa throughout the video, and guest stars one of the actual cast from the film, Tony Cox, as the elf that he played in it.

Paris Hilton, Dr. Dre, Katie Cassidy and Alyson Stoner all make guest appearances.

Music Video Director: Sophie Muller

Sophie Muller has been directing music videos since 1982 and has worked with such artists as The Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Eurythmics, No Doubt and Blur.

Examples:
The Cure: The 13th
Blur: Beetlebum
Coldplay: Trouble
Sugababes: Freak Like Me
Dido: Life For Rent
The Killers: Mr Brightside

Visual Motifs:
Muller often works with the concept of a singer or band in a dark and isolated room

Blur: Beetlebum


As you can see in this video, the majority of the video is set in one room with focus on the band using close ups in a performance based style. There is not much diversion from the band, and there isn't much of a concept other than this. The simplicity works in giving the band complete focus and playing on the attractiveness of the lead singer. In the comments on youtube, this point is made a number of times.