MVid - Rough Cut 5

Some layering added, and more performance shots:

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WEBSITE Draft 2

Rough Cut 4 Feedback

YEAR 8 STUDENTS (12-13 years old, male + female):
Didn't think it was for their age range.
Some thought the acting at the beginning wasn't that convincing
One was very positive ("Holy moly it was amazing"), thought it was a real music video, verisimilitude achieved for her

Rough Cut 4

Still some refining to do. The later scenes (two narrative scenes, lead singer interaction with narrative character and diegetic outro don't fit so far). I will need to do a quick assessment whether I can still fit any of this in:



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DIGIPAK - Text

FRONT

FEAT. 4 NEW TRACKS + 1 COVER

BACK

TRACK LISTING

CRACK IN THE UNION JACK

HARMONY'S BORING

MONEY

DRIVE-IN-SATURDAY

SNOWBLIND

THE BIG TIME

CAN'T GET ENOUGH

PICNIC BY THE MOTORWAY

SADIE

GRAFFITI WOMEN

DIGGING A HOLE

ATTITUDE

WALKING THROUGH ANARCHY

CAN YOU SMELL THEM?

EUROPE IS OUR PLAYGROUND

KELSEY

www.suedelands.com

www.suedeshop.com

facebook.com/SuedeLands

twitter.com/SuedeLands

instagram.com/SuedeLands

facebook.com/groups/THE.INSATIABLE.ONES

photography + design by richard dannenberg

   

©&℗ 2018 SUEDE LTD. UNDER EXCLUSIVE LICENSE 

TO WARNER MUSIC UK LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

UNAUTHORISED REPRODUCTION, COPYING, HIRING, LENDING, PUBLIC PERFORMANCE OR BROADCASTING PROHIBITED. MADE IN THE EU.

SPINE

0130649716680

SUEDE

SADIE

FCPX - Issues

RELINKING MISSING FILES
In the past when files have been missing, 

LIBRARY DAMAGED

After quitting several times and trying to relink files, the libary for my main music video project said it was likely damaged, so it created a backup:

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WEBSITE RESEARCH: Original Artist

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• Make my website more attractive to a 15-25 audience
• In the social media, address the fans as "Our Insatiable Ones"

BRANDING
With the special edition release of their eponymous debut album, Suede, their website has been rebranded with the album artwork., replacing the design template of their last studio album release, Night Thoughts.

Last website design

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Current design

The cover has been filtered in black and white, but still keeping the dream-like quality (Uses and Gratifications, Escapism) ...


OVERALL KEY RECURRENT DESIGN FEATURES 
COLOUR: Black and white
SHAPES: 
IMAGES: 

LIKELY TARGET AUDIENCE/S; MODE OF ADDRESS 
Restrained used of social media, slightly older audience


LANDING PAGE 
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Detail explaining all the contents of the special

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HOMEPAGE LAYOUT  


TOP FRAME/BANNER 
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NAME/LOGO 
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PAGES/TOP LINKS LIST 
Instead of at the top of the page as the term suggests, the links are on both sides, three left on two:

These include:

• LIVE DATES
• LINKS
• STORE
• DISCOGRAPHY
• VIDEOS

AUTO-SCROLLING GALLERIES? 
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MERCHANDISE/SHOP 
As is conventional, while you can see the newest releases on the website, you have to click on to a link to another site to access the full store:

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E-COMMERCE 
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PRESENCE OF MUSIC 
PUSHING THE NEW RELEASE

No links 

TOUR DATES


GALLERY?


PERSONAL INFORMATION? 


LINKS 
First three are to two fan sites
The name: "Insatiable Ones", it is not uncommon for fans to call themselves a name, like "Little Monsters" with Lady Gaga. It is quite fitting as it gives the image of fans who can't get enough (pun intended).


ARCHIVE? 


GAMES? 


NEWS


LANGUAGE:
"Store" instead of Merch

MEMBERSHIP/SIGN-UP? 


VIDEO/VINES 


SOCIAL MEDIA 
The Big Three on their own, the icons disappear just like the main link:

FACEBOOK:
Cropped.

TWITTER:
With the timeline photo being wider and thinner, the image has been cropped even more.

INSTAGRAM:
Hasn't being updated:

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OTHER EXTERNAL AGENCIES 
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FONTS + FONT VARIATION 
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BEST + WORST FEATURES 
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FAULTY/OUT-DATED CONTENT? 
Some elements still haven't been quite updated to the new release.

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WEBSITE: General Examples

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

BRANDING 
Often the newest release will be pushed in order 

OVERALL KEY RECURRENT DESIGN FEATURES 
COLOUR: The colour of the 
SHAPES: 
IMAGES: 

LIKELY TARGET AUDIENCE/S; MODE OF ADDRESS 
The mode of address will reflect the target audience

LANDING PAGE 
It can vary whether you have a landing page 
For instance, with Lana Del Rey, the text starts appearing one by one:
First in the centre (following the Rule Of Thirds) the cover, then the artist name and the album title. You then have two options as hyperlinks, either listen to the newest album or go on to the website:

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HOMEPAGE LAYOUT  


TOP FRAME/BANNER 
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NAME/LOGO 
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PAGES/TOP LINKS LIST 


AUTO-SCROLLING GALLERIES? 


PAGE TYPE: MERCHANDISE/SHOP 


E-COMMERCE 
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PRESENCE OF MUSIC 
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TOUR DATES

GALLERY?
You will often have a gallery of images of the artist

PERSONAL INFORMATION? 


CONTACTS/ACT LINKS? 


ARCHIVE? 


GAMES? 


NEWS


LANGUAGE:
...

MEMBERSHIP/SIGN-UP? 


VIDEO/VINES 


SOCIAL MEDIA 


OTHER EXTERNAL AGENCIES 
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FONTS + FONT VARIATION 
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BEST + WORST FEATURES 
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FAULTY/OUT-DATED CONTENT? 
Some mistake with the title for tours

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DIGIPAK - Draft 1:

FRONT COVER

Two versions/choices 
One I have tried to capture the same dream-like filter of Suede's eponymous debut album. This connects with the Uses and Gratifications Theory, escapism from every day lives for the audience.

With a black + white stone-like filter:

BACK COVER

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DISTRIBUTION - Self-Producing + Self-Distribution

An interview with someone with experience of self-producing and self-distribution

Arcade Fire, Canadian indie art rockers, are an act who self-produced their debut EP and first two albums. With their third album they co-produced it with a producer, then the fourth with two, and the fifth with a number of producers involved.

This coincides with some criticisms that they having been verging to the mainstream.

With James Murphy however they certainly didn't let their artistic intentions be made less clear (Rolling Stone article)

James Murphy wasn't sure what to expect when the Arcade Fire arrived to record with him at DFA Records' New York studio in March. "There's a lot of them, and they're mostly self-produced – like, they don't need a producer in a certain way," Murphy tells Rolling Stone. "So I didn't know how it would go."

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MV TEASER TRAILER #1

A teaser trailer featuring my performer against the wall singing the chorus, using the tagline: "New Suede Video", to go with the branding I am using the decayed font:




This is something I have seen, trailers for music videos show that convergence is growing between them and film and TV, the are seen as a cinematic event almost.

I decided to make this one shorter, and release another one soon which shows clips from throughout the video.

EXAMPLES OF TRAILERS



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Also sharing it on social media:

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ONGOING REFLECTION

FOR ORGANISATION

• Scripts help
• Particular for music videos with more amounts of shots, lyric timing sheets help especially for the instruments bits
• Use the keying tags, and to help with that, stop recording when you move to different characters or scenes, that was the problem with my full band shoot where I left it recording for a while

FILMING

• NEVER underestimate how the weather is going to effect the cast, especially in this context when your actors are giving up their free time and are not doing it as part of their job
• If you have helpers make it clear that the stop button shouldn't be pressed, like when this happened on the whole band shoot as that person didn't realise I was filming for behind the scenes footage

DISTRIBUTION: Music Video Age Ratings

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

• ...

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• Due to the school context of my production I would never include extreme violence or sexuality (limit of creativity), however there are some hints of it, very subtle.
• I had hoped to include some Heterosexual Female Gaze/Homosexual Male Gaze with ripped shirts, however only my original performer for Brett Anderson was alright with this, my replacement wasn't, plus the weather would have made it very difficult to film.

EXAMPLES FROM MY ARTIST
ANIMAL NITRATE
Was apparently banned for depicting two men kissing, however that didn't let its stop becoming the first winner of the Euro Video Song Contest.
From the wiki:

The band caused some controversy with the video when it was banned for its depiction of two men engaging in a kiss.^{[citation needed]}

WE ARE THE PIGS
Featuring Dystopian themes, following a loose narrative of violent anarchy, with the artists also framed and edited in a horror-like manner, and including a baby left in distress on a rubbish dump.



From the wiki entry:

The video, directed by David and Raphael Vital-Durand, features a grim, Nineteen Eighty-Four-like setting. It was initially banned by some TV stations including MTV for being too violent. The video features car burnings, cross burnings, and various violence to humans.

The banning of MTV affects the promotion of the artist. So just like the darker theme of the music saw them pushed down the charts, the visual imagery of this video also meant they were prevented from further coverage, especially in the USA (where a legal dispute with an artist of the same name hadn't helped either)


NIGHT THOUGHTS
Instead of a few music videos, a filmic representation of the whole album.



As a full feature film, it has its own BBFC entry:
The issues raised were moderate violence and sex references, no swearing as the whole film is dubbed with the music.



EXAMPLES OF CENCORSHIP

CLEAN VERSIONS
ROBIN THICKE BLURRED LINES 
PLEASE NOTE: Highly sexually graphic content



They filmed two different versions, this being one where Male Gaze



Here are some examples where censorship has been turned into satire.

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The German indie band Kraftklub did something similar with their zombie-insipired video Fenster.

Here also there were performance elements of the rest of the band added.

VIOLENCE

MAROON 5 - ANIMALS
From the boyband Maroon 5, their lead singer Adam Levine was a huge sex symbol (Sexiest Man Alive Award). With this video, he is portrayed as a stalker of a typical American blonde woman (played by his girlfriend). This was supposed to give the band a darker edge, however caused huge controvery and the band received flak.

In this article, Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti slammed the video for trivialising the issue of stalking

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I’m sure Levine and his bandmates think they’ve done something edgy here – ooh, so dark! – but there is nothing “alternative” about showing women being stalked, hunted, raped or killed because it’s something that happens every damn day.What’s particularly disturbing about Animals is that the song’s message – that men are “animals” with no self control – implies there is nothing we can do about issues of sexual violence. If sexual predators are “animals”, or “crazy”, than it absolves us of social responsibility ... because you can’t control an animal, amiright? It’s just in their nature. (A fairly insulting vision of male sexuality, I must say.) Maroon 5’s Animals also comes on the heels of a Time article from professional provocateur Camille Paglia, who argued, apparently in all seriousness, that a culture that condones and glamorizes violence against women isn’t the problem - “evil” is. “Young women do not see the animal eyes glowing at them in the dark,” she wrote.

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DAVID BOWIE - THE NEXT DAY
An interesting comparison case study with the Maroon 5 example. Bowie ever since his landmark Ziggy Stardust persona was known for sexuality in the visualisation of music (using guitars as phallic symbols), however this video is more or less void of sexual content.
It however has similar use of gore as in Maroon 5's video.
It is an critical attack on the Catholic Church, amplifying the anti lyrics (one of Goodwin's six music video conventions) . and representing the priests as a Mafiaso-type organisation in a bar, deconstructing various themes and motifs.

Receiving flak from the Catholic Church (NME report):

Writing in The Telegraph, former Archbishop of Cantebury Lord Carey states that the video is “juvenile” and criticises Bowie for “upsetting people”. “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery perhaps Christians should not worry too much at such an exploitation of religious imagery,” Carey writes. “I doubt that Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery – I very much doubt it. Frankly, I don’t get offended by such juvenilia – Christians should have the courage to rise above offensive language, although I hope Bowie will recognise that he may be upsetting some people.”
Additionally, the Catholic League, which bills itself as America’s “largest Catholic civil rights organisation”, has taken issue with the video’s overtly religious subject matter – posting a scathing blog post on its website titled “BOWIE’S ‘JESUS’ VIDEO IS A MESS”.
The group’s President Bill Donohue writes: “David Bowie is back, but hopefully not for long. The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women.”
Continuing, Donohue claims that the video is”strewn with characteristic excess” and Bowie himself is described as “nothing if not confused about religion”. Donohue concludes: “In short, the video reflects the artist – it is a mess.”

BAN FROM YOUTUBE:
In a matter of only two hours the video was taken off YouTube and banned. Does this prove that despite freedom of speech, there is still a Christian hegemony in our culture, like in Ireland when Stephen Fry was nearly jailed for comments.
From the wiki:

The video gained wide attention and caused a controversy. It was banned from YouTube just two hours after its release due to "violation of YouTube's Terms of Service."^[4][12][13] However, the video returned on the website shortly after its removal, with an age restriction. A YouTube spokeswoman stated: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it."^[3][13][14]

Reinstated with an adult-only version:

Reuters News

The video was soon reported and taken off by YouTube, and then later marked Explicit when put back. Why was not similar action undertaken with the outcry reaction to Animals?


CARAVAN PALACE - LONE DIGGER
A video which looks like an innocent animation, but turns very gory, and also has blood splattered on sexualised female bodies. The location is a stripclub, so it is anchored very quickly this is not a child-friendly narrative, however that is something that would quite likely not be noticed by children before the violence starts.



SEXUALITY (+links with gender)
GECKO DRIVE

This video has sex scenes, and in the context of the inhuman characters, bodily fluids, which is something very controversial to show (less so for Sex in the City)

This starts off having this warning, however has not been marked explicit

 

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MYKKI BLANCO
Guardian article:, where comparisons to several controversies with sexuality including, as well as another landmark drag video, Queen's I Want To Break Free.

Madonna’s BDSM bedroom antics in Justify My Love. Freddie Mercury in drag as a housewife for I Want To Break Free. Too-hot-for-BBC leather daddies in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. Pop music has long been a place for subverting sexual norms, not least in videos. But for queer artists in 2016, it feels as if this medium of expression could be under threat.

This rapper argues (with strong language), that LGBT+ videos and art in general is attempting to be silenced through these new age restrictions.

The fact that we’re having such a political conversation over a campy video like Loner, which is as sexual as an evening at a Ringling Brothers Circus, is sad,” Blanco says. “That video is a celebration of kitsch, in many ways turning the pop aesthetic on its head, empowering the LGBTQ [community] through its flamboyance.”
Streaming sites might think that age restrictions are helpful, but acceptance won’t change if some queer art is deemed illicit. Blanco himself vows to make bulgier, queerer visuals in future. “We combat this by saying: ‘F*** you, we will not be silenced,’” he says, “[and] demanding our art not be treated as ‘less than’. We will get there.”

AGE RATING FOR MY VIDEO
My video does not include any extreme levels of sexuality and violence (the former unlike the video of my course mate Evie Gibbons)

There are some small hints of sensuality

The smoking in the video, along with the use of an image on digipak and website and social media would be read as glamorising this lifestyle.