INDIE DP #3: Kraftklub - Keine Nacht Für Niemand

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• The colour of black in my case for Suede as general branding

ACT: Kraftklub
FULL TITLE: Keine Nacht Für Niemand 
                                           (No Night For No One, an intertextual pun on this album title)
YEAR: 2017
TYPE OF ALBUM: Third studio album
DESIGN: 
PHOTOGRAPHY: 

GENRE: Indie rock, Sprechgesang
LABEL: Vertigo (owned by UMG)

Un unwrapping video:

BRANDING
The choice of the colour red fits with the general look and rebranding, their previous album had been black, wearing black costume (the name even being In Schwarz = In Black).
They are now wearing red costumes, in all their music videos and their live performances (however as I discovered when I watched them live they take these off half-way through and underneath is their original classic look)

FRONT COVER:
The theme of the album title: "No night for one", meaning not getting any sleep, is represented through. This could be seen as a cultural code as it can be common to put matches between your eyes to keep yourself awake 
Same colour, font and case (upper), however very different in sizes.






INSIDE:
The opening track of the album, Band mit dem K, is an sarcastic take on the God-like status of bands, with lyrics such as "Through your bras onto our altar" "That's no spotlight, that's a halo". Also the lyric: "Meet us at the bar, we drink W-O-D-K-A" would seem to heavily suggest this whole image is a representation of that song, there can be a relationship between record sleeve and lyrics as well, like Goodwin said about music video.

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MV RESEARCH - Differenent Levels of Male Gaze?

In this post I will be comparing two music videos that were released in the same month and coincidentally have relatively similar narratives set on a stereotypical sunny holiday location with sexualised women.

KRAFTKLUB - UNSERE FANS
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TRAILERPARK
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MUSICVID #16: Depeche Mode - Soothe My Soul

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES:

• The aspect ratio 
• Characters in the narrative joining in for singing as well
• The black and white filter
• The reflection of the keyboard
• The shades for some of the members

ACT: Depeche Mode
TRACK: Soothe My Soul
ALBUM: Delta Machine
YEAR: 2013
DIRECTOR: Warren Fu
GENRES: Techno-pop, Electronic rock, Gothic Rock
SINGLE?: Yes, second single, released after the full album came out.
LABEL: Columbia Records (owned by SME)


This video has given me several ideas from which I could take influence from.

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

• Depeche Mode are an electronic band formed in 1980, who like Goodwin said "ventured from pop to art rock in the mid 1980s, and soon after that went into industrial genre
• This was the second single from their thirteenth studio album, Delta Machine 

The single was released with a remix of another song, and on the same day six remixes were released as an EP:

THE TRACK:
The video is as long as the single version, the radio edit.

INTRO + OUTRO:
Straight into the track, no silence
Ends with three seconds of silence.


I could use this aspect ratio, maybe not for all of my video, but cross-cut with others in normal ratio.

Very haunting (gothic) but simple image and lighting, effective use of black and white

Lana Del Rey also has used this ratio for example in her National Anthem video.

The close-ups/extreme close-ups of body parts, especially the eye, and framed with black screen around them (French New Wave influence?)

*Insert GIF of eye blinking*

- The camera moving around

*Insert GIF of camera moving around*

- Martin Gore in silhouette, similar to Personal Jesus.

- A male voice but lip-synching with a female character, I could also do this with if I choose a female artist and have it with male characters.

*Insert GIF of woman singing*

Reminds me of this video by German rapper Cro, where the whole video contains a female character singing the lyrics without Cro present, a performance/concept video without artist present Goodwin would say.



- The female character going under water, that goes with the idea I had of someone under water maybe in the bath (see this post). The up-side down framing is also a good touch

*Insert GIF to replace those images if woman going under water*

INDIE ROCK MV #1: Kraftklub - Fenster

ACT: Kraftklub
TRACK: Fenster (Window)
ALBUM: Keine Nacht Für Niemand 
      (No Evening For No One)
YEAR: 2017
GENRE: Indie rock, Sprechgesang
DIRECTORS: Mario Clement, Chehad Abdallah
LABEL:  Vertigo Records (owned by UMG)
SINGLE?: Yes, second single, released before the full album

BACKGROUND

Indie rock band formed in 2010, this is their third album. With their first album they rose to prominence very quickly and attracted the attention of multiple record labels, similar to the Arctic Monkeys in the UK. However unlike the Sheffield act they didn't sign with a German indie label equivalent, but with Vertigo Records, a 

• Their last single, Dein Lied (Your Song), had already caused some controversial debate when the lead singer apparently slutshamed his ex-girlfriend (he later stated he was writing and playing a different character in the first person)
• This video has a more political tone in contrast to the personal, but deals with a similar character who is frustrated on events/the situation around him

Short compilation vid I created in order  to get a taster of the band:
To summarise, they started out with comedic videos, similar to those of Blur for example, showing a playful sense of rebellion.
With their second album some of their songs got darker, serious and more political. 
This is foreshadowing the dark nature of the Fenster video.

THE THEORIES I WILL ADDRESS:

• Firth's basic video types
• Andrew Goodwin's 6 Music Video Conventions
• Roland Barthes's codes 
• Carol Vernallis
• Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

FIRTH PERFORMANCE/NARRATIVE/CONCEPT:
Starts off as a pure narrative video, but then the performance comes in later in the world of the narrative.
The narrative follows a man who wants to go on a rampage in the city.
The editing has quick shots of the performing as a climax, so that acts as a teaser for live performance.
As is typical, the band members who are just playing are looking stoically down, while the lead singer sings at the camera all the time, and the backing vocalist and guitarrist mixes both
Most videos either do solely performance videos or cross-cut them equally with narrative and/or concept.
Those who don't know the image of the band well won't be able to follow this preferred reading, but the band members make cameos as corpses.

LYRICAL THEME
The lyrics deal with a angered character who is expressing his frustration about the state of the world, how the government.
It was interpreted as a parody of a conspiracy theorist or a right-wing enraged citizen, and received criticism it was encouraging such people to commit suicide. 

EXTRA SOUNDS:
Diegetic intro with the song being played in the car, as soon as we get to the second shot it is on normal sound and carries on like that throughout the video
Sounds of the antihero screaming and shouting, beeping his car and the buttons on the car radio, the sound of the bullet firing to kill himself, as well as doors opening and blood splattering.


TITLES:
Act and track in one on two lines appears after 2 seconds 
Director isn't mentioned. All upper-case, serif, artist name bigger than track, track is in French-style exclamation marks.








GOODWIN'S SIX MUSIC VIDEO CONVENTIONS
GENRE CHARACTERISTICS:
Rock normally features the band cross-cut with narrative segments, however here we only have them appearing at the end.

CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST:
The band do not appear a lot, however the lead singer always looks into the camera towards the end, never taking his eye off, where as the backing vocalist does to play with his guitar, putting emphasis on the lead singer.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS 
At the climax when narrative when the anti-hero shoots himself the lyrics are saying "Jump, jump out of the window"

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS 
The lyrics of frustration go well with diegetic blips of the shouting man.

NOTION OF LOOKING
The lead singer and backing vocalist are looking at the camera.

INTERTEXTUALITY:
Capturing the Zombie zeitgeist from the current TV series The Walking Dead. Just like Bring Me The Horizon and Taylor Swift did with their Follow You and Look What You Made Me Do videos. All the way back to Michael Jackson's Thriller video (which was inspired by 1950s and 1960s horror films such as Night Of The Living Dead) the zombie genre is an easy simulacrum for music videos.
Comparisons were drawn in the press with this video from The Ärzte, Hey Junge, a band which influenced them as well as lot

ROLAND BARTHES'S CODES
ACTION CODE: "A code which contains sequential elements of action in the text" (Slideshare)
We follow the protagonist through multiple scenarios.

CAROL VERNALLIS:
Musicologist Carol Vernallis argued that there is too much ellipsis in music videos in order for it be an authentic narrative, however here there is a somewhat unclear narrative but still a narrative we can follow due to it not being cross-cut with the band. There is an ellipsis towards the end as the lighting has changed to night time, this could be a fews hours later or in the context of a post-apocalyptic zombie 
BRANDING:
The band are dressed in red, the new look they moved on after white and black for their previous two albums respectively:

After the video ends there are tor dates, which are on the website and will also bee turned into merchandise, on the back of jumpers, T-Shirts and hoodies and on posters.
The new album is also being pushed, this is the second single released two months before the actual album.

REPRESENTATION
A small detail, the woman he sees is dressed in red, not very glossy lipstick but still the stereotypical red













There is a shot of her leg however one could argue that this is not  sexualised due to the gore:










INFLUENCES ON MY PRODUCTION
The urban locations, and the shots of graffiti influenced my video.
However mine does not have the band only appearing at the end. 
SMALL DETAILS:

• Have a character in the narrative sing one of the lyrics (something I observed in another other Kraftklub video, Sklave and Arcade Fire's Everything Now video)

REACTION:

• https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/chemnitz-neues-video-chemie-chemie-ya-veroeffentlicht-kraftklub-drehte-an-chemnitzer-lost-places-335345
• https://noisey.vice.com/de/article/9a77vd/kraftklub-und-farin-urlaub-fordern-verschworungstheoretiker-zum-kollektiven-selbstmord-auf

TECHNOLOGY - Watching Music Videos On TV Channels

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These are some of the videos that have helped in my research

Deluxe Music

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POSSIBLE MUSIC VIDEO/WEBSITE INFLUENCES #31 - Add Credits In YouTube Description

This would be a very small detail but a thorough detail in use of conventions to achieve verisimilitude.

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POSSIBLE MV INFLUENCES #23: Other characters lip-synching

- A male voice but lip-synching with a female character, I could also do this with if I choose a female artist and have it with male characters.

*Insert GIF of woman singing*

Reminds me of this video by German rapper Cro, where the whole video contains a female character singing the lyrics without Cro present, a performance/concept video without artist present Goodwin would say.


Also in this video by Arcade Fire at 3'14 a little girl in the narrative briefly sings one of the lyrics:

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POSSIBLE MUSIC VIDEO INFLUENCES #14: Performers singing to character in narrative

Not all lyrics will be suitable to this kind of concept, these lyrics actually involve the main character being addressed by name



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MV RESEARCH: Examples Of Diegetic Titles

KRAFTKLUB

From the second studio album, In Schwarz.

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THE PIXIES

Bagboy

Blue Eyed Hexe

Name + role of director on lips.

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Blackbear - do re mi 

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POSSIBLE INFLUENCES 2 - Layering + Reflections, Screens In Screens

LAYERING
DEPECHE MODE

MASTER AND SERVANT

From 0'29 to 0'31 there is a transition to layering in the same take, something I would like to in a longshot instead of medium shot/medium close up as was done here.

*GIF to be added*


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EVERYTHING COUNTS

Have the same performer layered in twice (or even more)

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NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN

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David Bowie

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John I'm Only Dancing

At the end the members of the band layered, combine that with the slow, light-shining/flashing transitions I saw in Suede's It Starts And Ends With You vid.

The end edited to music, flashed.

SUEDE

Good use of layering here, along with the very detailed colour-layering effect with juxtaposing colour and black + white.

 
Also like the way the band is ordered in the image here

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YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Doubling the performer, from their video for Zero:

Shot variety looking in both right and left

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REFLECTIONS
The first character who sings just wakes up and says nothing, yawns and wakes people

Turn this into a GIF so to properly see him singing.

Might be possible to shoot someone looking into a mirror from that angle (a character in a dystopian setting getting up in their backstreet camp living on the streets)

Just watched this new video and saw a more natural type of reflection


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UPDATE 23rd August 2017

Depeche Mode

In this video there is a reflection of the keyboard in Andy Fletcher's shades, I presume this would be hard to achieve (limit of creativity)

SCREENS WITHIN SCREENS

The screens are on a primitive smartphone. Maybe have it on a iPad, laptop or television.
Multiple screens surrounding someone in disturbance, agony or confusion.

Then switch to a concert-like location where the band are playing to an audience.

Kawehi's I'd Never Tell video has too parallel screens next to screening the same performance in close-up.

Depeche Mode's Stripped, instead of layering like they did in Everything Counts + Master and Servant.

CHOSEN ARTIST: 
Suede did something similar to Stripped in their We Are The Pigs video, looking like the screen in the 1984 film adaptation of Orwell's dystopian novel.