EVALQ2 - BRANDING

How do your products create a sense of branding?

It is common for their to be recurring attributes in the various texts, for example album artwork to be teased in a video (Halsey's Bad At Love)
The locations that are used in the video also feature in the album artwork and in the background of website.

Kristeva:

texts are always in a state of production, rather than being products to be quickly consumed. In her view, ideas are not presented as finished, consumable products, but are presented in such a way as to encourage readers to come up with their own interpretation of its meaning. Kristeva’s new semiotics of production thus blurs the distinction between science, or the logical, and language and imagination.

The music video isn't just the final product, the fan fiction and the cosplaying carry on the narrative.

RECURRING THEMES:

A SERIES OF VIDEOS

It was my intention to hint that my video would be the start of a series of videos, as has been done recently by Halsey with her album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, always leaving her audience wanting more. This was also done by Guns 'N Roses with their trilogy of videos, and by David Bowie with his concept albums Outside and Blackstar.
Then lead singer is also going to be involved in the narrative, it is hinted at him being at the beginning.
The second video would maybe feature the two characters meeting at that location
The location 
Through the trailer it is confirmed that we are going to see more of these characters.

CHARACTERS
Character of Sadie (weird, quirky characters signified through costume and make-up)

The make-up is then worn by the fans as a signifier of their fandom of Suede. In retrospect I wish I could have had the band also wearing the make-up in the segments, however even if that had been possible with all five logistically, I'm not sure everyone would have been comfortable with it.

Just like the Pig of the Animal Nitrate video is featured in the single cover, the character of Sadie is on the front cover of the album:
The same way the music video tells the beginning of Sadie's journey.
The images of the locations of the video are the backgrounds of the website.


SOCIAL MEDIA
I tease pictures of urban locations in social media, like photography of graffiti, or tease the locations by saying Location Scouting:

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MY VIRAL IDEA
The character of Sadie links to my viral concept:

• her personality and look is developed throughout the video
• she's on the album artwork, 
• is the background of the fan sign-up section of the website (she thereby represents the fans) her costume and make-up can be worn as cosplay by fans, 
• her image has been used for merchandise
• fans write fan fiction about her character (also being encouraged by the band, which links back to Brett Anderson really seeing himself as a writer)

The other fictional characters in the narrative can also be used as cosplay opportunities by the audience.

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MV PLANNING - The protagonist's quirks

Dancing (like Buddha) but mainly like Dave Gahan in Barrel of a Gun

Water bubbles

Dancing at the stones at night (test if night footage is effective, tomorrow), has the same functions as Stone Henge and the Ziggurat. Dance almost in a spiritual way, like summoning this alien invasion (research spiritual dancing).

Notices she is being followed, but takes control of it and lets herself be photographed.

Goes to the campfire and spreads pamphlets (something you could connect with social media). Have simple word or emblem on them. Like: "Rebel" or the name of one of the songs, can then be spread like the 500k bills at the Kraftklub concert.

The normal people behind her bow and sing to lyrics, she is freaked out by them. 

Playing with colourful leaves

Might dream of vandalising art like in Suede's Hit Me video.(in this case just the buckets of paint)

NARRATIVE Costume + Props

Possible Costume 1:

Odd socks or no socks 

Maybe chain (neck)

Make-Up like Souisie Soux 

Waist coat

Man's suit jacket 

Leather wrist bracelets 

Boots 

Braces

Fob watch

Ripped, frayed jeans or holed tights

RESEARCH TASK

If my protagonist is going to wear dreadlocks, what are the cultural associations/connotations of dreadlocks, is part of a subculture. Is it at the moment becoming more mainstream?

Possible costume 2:

A dress, but still with boots 

Leather jacket (link with the lead singer)

Possible Costume 3:

In a shirt and suit like the Francesca video 

ADD LATER?

• Cloth Cap
• Dreadlocks 

EX-PARTNER

COSTUME

• White shirt and black suit
• Lipstick
• With or without glasses 

PROPS

• Clothes to throw out
• Rucksack
• Photo to throw down

THE FLOWER SELLER
COSTUME
Cape cat so as to hide his face in

PROPS
bunch of flowers 

ALEXA

COSTUME

• White shirt
• White trousers
• Black bowler hat
• Black laced shoes

PROP
Black cane

DEVELOPPING IDEA #2: Fuelled by I Feel You

Narrative of siblings being separated at birth and finding each other:

• Twelfth Night
• The Importance Of Being Earnest 
• (based on Apolonius and Silla)
• Blood Brothers
• Two Brothers
• Prinz and Bottel 

Norman would either be this guardian angel or the father figure, or an uncle.

These family reunions, twists and discoveries are typical of Shakespeare and Charles Dickens (Bleak House)

*Add the recording burst of ideas I had*

Maybe have the female character taking over the lead singer. Are there examples of sibling reunions ending in one killing the other? The women playing the typical male singer while the male singer she just replaced has been androgynous would be perfect as a reference to Twelfth Night.

NARRATIVE THEORY #5: Monomyth

All stories see us following the Hero's Journey

First used by Joseph Campbell, since developped  by David Adams, Phil Cousineau and Christopher Vogel.

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POSSIBLE MV INFLUENCES - Found Footage

Wikipedia
My YouTube Playlist

Halsey used it as a diegetic intro, where in a voice-over she narrates an abstract futuristic society, in the first 27 seconds before the track starts and we get her name as the first title.



THE PIXES'S RING THE BELL

Link to theme of surveillance, connect it to Ballard:

he took a fear of unknown futures – "the deep currents beneath the surface" – and brought them into the present day. Whether that was the paranoia that surrounded nuclear warfare in the 60s and 70s, the emerging CCTV culture of the 80s and 90s

VOYEURISM:



This is where the character of the photographer comes in.

Can achieve a very similoar effect with the Vignette Mask effect in Final Cut Pro X.
There is also a Security and Camcorder Effect Function, I have experimented adding Lighting and other effects as well. Find sound like the similar one at the beginning of the New Americana video.

PEEPING TOM
The opening scene:

SUBMARINE

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POSSIBLE MV INFLUENCES #25: Character in Several locations

NOTE: This was part of my original concept, so needs to be a earlier.

This is a pure narrative/narrative video with no performance elements

I like how the character in her delusional state is in several locations, and their is the same focus always in the background. Use of jump cuts. Could add a more French New Wave flare to it if I were to apply it.

My main character, the protagonist, would go through several places delusional. 

*Insert GIF of protagonist in multiple locations*

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POSSIBLE MV INFLUENCES #17: Quirky characters

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

• I created three quirky characters, The Clownmaster, The Flower Man + The Boy 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES:

• The character of Alex from A Clockwork Orange

I need a group of reliable actors and strong costume for this, but it would make my video quite quirky to have a whole room full of characters all from one theme, film, TV, literature, theatre or fictional world like Christianity here, like maybe genre. (slasher :D)

A list of all the figures mentioned and deconstructed.

Quirky and confusing narrative and set of characters, one actor from Ghost Light said "Drama shouldn't have to explain everything"

Not just characters but also cultural imagery in Hollywood video:

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APPLYING RESEARCH

Desolated, forgotten location, looks like it at first.
Have a bridge if possible, standing on there like in Terminator 3. 

He goes through the town and different locations, and sees different types of weird people, in costume, takes part in a party of decadent people, like in Steve Berkoff's parody play.

These characters could be:

Alex from A Clockwork Orange

Woody Allan

Woody Allen painting, being all l'art pour l'art 
Or holding a skeleton, this idea came up when I looked for normal pictures of him after I couldn't find any picture of him painting. I think that's better than the stereotypical painter look

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A DAVID BOWIE CHARACTER

The Blackstar Preacher. A blindman walking a dog (the dog part is very stereotypical though)

Or the blind man on the bench like in The Avalanches's video.
Have it be a young character so it isn't too obvious. Part of representing blind people going into the mainstream like Daredevil.

Mixture of Uma Thurman's character in Pulp Fiction and Natalie Portman's character in Leon: The Professional 

Have Evie play a girl who isn't really into the music, but comes across a clip where she recognises the intertextual reference to Pulp Fiction (secondary audience). As we discussed in our micro drama this a counter typical image of a teenage female. She goes a really fangirl over it. (poster in background)

COSTUME: 

• Frock coat, or some suit that doesn't look to formal
• Blindfold 
• Buttons for eyes

JG BALLARD
THE SOUND SWEEP
A mute boy, could be linked to the protagonist 
An opera singer singing in the sewer.

From BBC article:

Horn admits the song - about a radio star whose career is cut short by TV - is based on a Ballard short story The Sound Sweep, in which a mute boy obsessed with collecting music discovers an opera singer hiding in a sewer. It taps into Ballard's interest in the hold of mass media on people's lives, especially the influence of television, beamed into the same suburban homes that used to listen in their millions to radio.

From Wiki entry: 

an opera singer living in an abandoned recording studio. As all previous music has been rendered obsolete thanks to advances in "ultrasonic music", the opera singer is destitute.

SUEDE
The Lindsay-Kemp like drag character, like Bowie had. That could be something that fans could do fan art for, dress up as and post UGC images on social media. 
Actor: Norman Stehr

THE DECADENT UPPER-CLASS
Horse-riding, but not too sexual.
Also have the upper-class drink and party, wine should be fine, and the consumers of alcoholic are being ridiculed snd later it's hinted with the Gin bottle that the protagonist might be be suffering from alcoholism, so not glorification of 
Gender-Fluidity by having two men and two women, one dressed in suit and one in dress and make-up.
Norman Stehr could play him as well, the protagonist could even recognise him and be freaked out (insert flashback).

THE PHOTOGRAPHER
A pun on the concept of Male Gaze, and also have post-feminism debates added, she has agency by letting herself be. And the Gaze doesn't have to be graphic (she'd be wearing similar clothes to Halsey on the cover of her debut album Badlands).

I realised that this was un unsubconscious intertextuality with the video for Halsey's Colors.

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MORE NORMAL ONES:

CAMPFIRE
Around the Campfire, some character tells a story, the protagonist comes and joins them. 
Like at the end The World's End.

THE BELIEVERS
Group of normal people all wearing same clothes if possible (Wüstenkinder!!!)