Updates

Sunday 3rd of January will commence our two days of filming. In the evening we will be shooting Lucy in our flashback scenes. Suela and I have brainstormed so we are fully prepared for the day. Firstly we need to consider everything that makes up the mise-en-scene so we will look critically at the "set" and location. The room we are using needs to be cleared of any personal knick-knacks i.e. pictures, clothes, jewlerry- and replaced with what we need to make it look like a typical, immaculate, middle-class bedroom. The room is cream and the bedcover and pilllows match to allude to the matchy-matchy clear, concise way of life. It will undoubtedly be dark so we are not relying on natural light and we breifly contemplated lighting some candles so the glow and flicker will reflect on Lucy's face and will hopefully be contribute to the cinematography. We are aware of the possible negative ramifications of using candlelight so we are doing some very quick test shots of candles only/candles and lamps/lamps only to evaluate which would be best.

Contemporary Album covers

I have already looked at iconic album covers but to earn the status of "iconic" only comes with time so I will now take a look at some album covers of a selection of successful contemporary artists who cover a range of genres to compare and see what tips me & Suela can take away for our own cover and how it is representative of the artist. The artists I have chosen are all taken from the UK & International charts to contemplate their mass appeal as oppose to those bands with niche audiences who arguably rely less so on the marketing and image of their album cover...

Black Eyed Peas, "The E.N.D"

The fifth album from the Black Eyed Peas, titled, "The E.N.D", an acronym for The Energy Never Dies. The songs featured on the album have a very futuristic theme which is sustained to the album cover. In the video "Boom Boom Pow" this green model is featured so fans of the Black Eyed Peas can identify the image with the band. Using an image relating to the music video is something that Suela & I have definately considered for our digipack to sustain some continuity. With The E.N.D the band's logo is emblazoned across the forehead of the model and the green on black is a simple, effective tool for making the face the predominant focus and it's something alot of the iconic album covers used to make them stand out so they are not overly decorated.

Susan Boyle, "I Dreamed a Dream"

A successful product of Simon Cowell's reality machine. The marketing of Susan Boyle played a key part in elevating her success and her debut album cover would be the target focus that epitomised the image that she had portrayed to the public from the first time she stepped onto the stage for her Britain's Got Talent audition. The cover sees her in a glamorous sequined black gown which appears to act as a symbol for her "superstar" transformation whilst her coy "head-in-hands" stance and shy smile connote back to her humble beginings which will no doubt appeal to the millions that witnessed her journey from the begining. The image is another black&white shot which was probably chosen to make the gold font of her name stand out and, more likely, chosen to give the image a sense of timelessness. The frame around the image brings everything together to make it a successful album cover.

Taylor Swift, "Fearless"

The second studio album from American country pop artist, Taylor Swift was massively popular worldwide. The album artwork, however, was changed for International audiences. The American cover had a similar premise of her hair being swept back, only more ferociously and Swift is wearing a white dress and not looking at the camera. It conveys an image of an All-American strong young woman and the International cover does the same yet Taylor is looking directly at the camera with a look of self-assertion to perhaps show she is comfortable with who she is-aiding the "Fearless" title. I believe it was changed as Internationally, she is lesser known and not as established as she is in her home country so, despite this being her second album, this is their "official" introduction to her. The image is relatively wholesome and shows that she hasn't bought into the over-sexualised route to sell albums. It also works for appealing to her target audience as mothers would be likely to buy it for their pre-teen/teenage daughters and also maybe for themselves.

Kings of Leon, "Only by the Night"
The UK version of the massively successful Nashville four-piece rock band's fourth studio album depicts a hybrid of the bands faces and the features of an eagle to create a very direct, proud image. This is another image that relates to a music video. In this case the music vodeo, "Sex on Fire" follows the style of the washed-out green and the interception between the human and eagle eye. Their is a strong trend amongst contemporary album covers (which could arguably be applicable to album covers in general) to emblazon a face as the focus of an album cover-favouring the ratio of image over text. The font contributes to the theme and embodies the style that the album carries, not only artistically but lyrically.

Lady Gaga, "The Fame Monster"

Within just over a year she has already become a recognisable institution within herself and it's clear by this album cover that she knows how to market it to her advantage. It's useful to consider that The Fame Monster is a evolution on her album The Fame, not a follow-up album. The Fame album cover depicts her face with her trademark blonde hair and huge dark bejeweled glasses covering half her face with "The Fame" sprawled across the bottom left hand corner of one frame. The dark, oversized seemed to be parodying their merit as the symbol of celebrity so with The Fame Monster, Gaga appears to play on that the other way round so the collar of her black leather trench coat covers her mouth in and her eyes are left staring right at the camera from underneath her platinum blonde hairdo. The image is black & white also which is fitting as Gaga has said it deals with "The darker side to fame"...hence, "The Fame Monster". We also see her from the waist up so she is more exposed despite being engulfed in an oversized coat. Against a dark grey backdrop allows the image to be the predominant focus and allows her trademark bleached hair to pop out more.

Plans for Filming this Weekend

Further Updates

On Monday, Suela and I presented our presentation on what we have acheived so far in our music video project & ancillory tasks and what we have left to do. In the presentation we covered initial ideas & research, planning the concept, research into existing music videos, storyboarding, casting, locations, costmes and filming schedules. This was recorded

Updates on Progress- 14/11/09

Admittedly, our music project has been slightly neglected for the past couple of weeks in favour of pressing coursework matters in other subjects which required my undivided attention but I'm not going to let that happen again because I get out of the swing of things and me and Suela, as a team, are prohibited from moving forward in our aim of creating the kind of music video we envisaged. In the past week we have made some progress though and the video has always been on my mind when coming across images, video clips or other music videos which have influenced ours. Currently we are putting together a presentation on how far we've come and what we still have left to achieve on powerpoint with some screen captures of our individual and group blogs. The plan is to present this on Monday. Our presentation of the presentation will be filmed and we are hoping to put the video of this onto our blogs as a testament to the point we've reached in our project.

We've also finally managed to get some screen tests. With her new camera, Suela has recorded Dan lip-syncing to the track and experimented with different ways of filming it. I also plan to upload at least 3 of these screen tests up and comment on them. Upon seeing them, I was very pleased. We've worked with Daniel before but strictly as an actor and we weren't sure how well he'd adapt to the role of storyteller, love interest and, most importantly, artist. Personally I thought he was very natural in front of the camera, singing in an intense but meaningful manner and slouching against a wall to counter-act that so it's not too intense. Dan's learnt the lyrics to Vienna perfectly so I don't have any concerns about him not being prepared.

We're hoping to get everyone together one last time before we begin filming towards the end of November and begining of December so there's no confusion on the day and they know the story well and what role they are playing. I believe it's important for the actors to be well informed on the progress we've made as they are a vital part in carrying this narrative and bringing to life what we have only planned.

Media Narrative Theories

Costume & Props: ideas & connotations

The costumes the actors wear in the music video are extremely vital in contributing to the mise-en-scene. Everything down to the nail polish syas something about the character and carries connotations throughout the music video.

I made this mood board to illustrate my collective ideas for Mimi's costume and make up. She'll have a simple white dress that was once clean but is now slightly ripped, a faded leather jacket and some scruffy converses. Her eye make up will be very heavy and dark with plenty of eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner with two streaks down her cheeks where the make-up has run to show she's been crying. Her hair will be loose and in a kind-of bed-head style. This costume should indicate her beginings (the dress), her current situation (the leather jacket and the shoes), and how she got there (the rips and the running make-up). All these things are relatively easy to obtain and we're planning on doing some costume tests, along with the screen tests, to see how the costume works on each actor, if they are able to move in each costume and whether any changes needs to be made.

As I've previously mentioned, icons such as James Dean and Bob Dylan were major sources of insiration when it came to Daniels costume. A mixture of soulful artistry and simple but sharp black shirts. Daniel wearing black on the beach will be a nice contrast to Mimi's white dress. In some ways Daniel is embodying Billy Joel as he is the artist in the video. During the begining he will wear some Bob Dylan- style shades to create a bit of mystery around him. His main costume will compile of a Black shirt, black trousers, black coat and a scarf in the scenes outside. We want it to be smart but not stuffy and make him look a little older than he really is.

The child will be dressed up. The dress will most likely be in pink. She'll have ribbons in her hair, which will be in tight ringlets. Even though she'll be about 10, she'll have a mother who dresses her like a 6 year old going to a wedding. Her face will be free of any make up as she will then smear her mum's cosmetics onto her face.

Possible Locations

The important thing about the locations was that they had to show aspects of two different worlds: one "the Girl" is runnning away from and one she is running to. So the two locations we decided upon had to juxtapose against each other to represent this clash. We contemplated a third locations such as metropolitan London with the Girl static admist crowds of passers by, all with a direction whilst she is without one. Although it would have made for excellent cinematography, it presented a number of problems such as the amount of commuting and the cost, operating camera equipment in a busy place like London would be very difficult and the background noise may present many problems so ultimatly we decided against it, drawing to the conclusion that two prime locations (with snipets on a mode of transport such the train or bus) would be enough for telling the story we wanted to tell in relation to the song.

Suburban household

The other main location is the ordinary Suburban house which made the Girl into what she is today. We wil be filming these bits with Lucy and we'll most likely use a room in my house as it's a typical kind of house that you would find in the Suburbs of Southern England. It's very mediocre and it's quite simple which is fitting for presenting this idea of a washed-out existance. Below are some pictures I took a while ago with a friend of mine substituting as the Young dreamer, bored with her shelterd life. It's an easy room to film in and has the right vibe.

Character Ideas & Inspirations

In the planning for our music video we needed to put alot of thought into creating fitting 3- dimensional characters that carry the narrative and ideas about location, costume and props that are responsible for the semiotics that contribute to the mise-en-scene. For each of the characters we had a number of initial ideas, drawing insiration from existing material as we brainstormed the character traits individually and looked at them in relation to each other.

"The Child": On the surface she is a picture of youth and innocence but beneath that dollface-facade lies a confused young girl full of questions, which is what leads her to take her mother's pills...the ones that looked just like candy. She is a dreamer strangled by overbearing parents. It reminded me of Kirsten Dunst's character in The Virgin Suicides. A free-spirit in a cage of expectations. The challenge is finding the middle point between avoiding making a 2-dimensional cardboard cut out or a far-too complex Freud example. There's an element of "Blair Waldorf" to her... i.e. a pretty girl dressed in pretty clothes to cover up her insecurities.

"The Girl": The teenage incanation of the Child. The girl is a teenage runaway. Sad, lonely, scared and incapable of trusting anyone. We didn't want to make her the typical emotional rebelious teen. When me & Suela were discussing the character, I thought of characters such as Pippa Lee from various movies. She'll be the one who doesn't quite know where she's going among all the people heading in different directions, getting on with their lives. It's fitting to the lyric, "Slow down, you crazy child". If the girl's worried or concerned then she'll find her sanctuary by the end of the video.

"Billy": He's the narrator, the performer and the protective sheild of the Girl. People such as James Dean and Bob Dylan inspired this character. Soulful and serious and concerned for her safety. The lyrics in the song call for a male vocal and it ties in with the possibility of a love story that could emerge. Towards the end the Girl will notice him and they will meet on the beach. He will represent her "Vienna"...i.e. her sanctuary. Even though it's her story, he will be the one telling it so in a way he is our protagonist.

Updates on progress so far...

Yesterday was the first meeting we called with all of the cast and crew. It was a major breakthrough in our progress of creating our music video as it was the first time everyone was together to compile and negotiate our plans and it was a chance for Suela and I to exchange ideas with the group. The roles have been cast: Suela and I are to film (naturally) and Suela will also take some promo pictures as she also does photography so her skills will crossover; Daniel Mija, Suela's brother (chosen because of his intense method acting style as a drama student and was not out of nepotism or convenience) who also starred in our practice short film in the summer term, will star as the singer to bring the performance and narrative elements of the video together and be one half of the love story that emerges towards the end. The other half is "The Girl" whom we haven't named because we feel this will add to her mystery and indicates her lost identity. There is no spoken dialogue and she will not be addressed directly, so either way it is of no resonance. This role has been given to Mimi Naran, a girl in my English literate & language class who is wonderfully expressive and we have no doubt that she will play the part to perfection. We were very lucky with finding the younger version of the girl. As it would be a young girl we wanted someone who would be dedicated as well as a good actress. Me and Suela approached my drama teachers and asked them to announce whether anyone was interested in their year 8 classes. Mrs Mundy got back to us with 6 girls who wee interested. We had not anticipated so many girls being interested so we were very pleased as it allowed for more choice and decided to hold informal auditions to cast the role. I met with the girls and gave them each a sheet of paper with a small monologue relating to the storyline as audition material. After a few moments as they looked over the dialogue, they auditioned one-by-one and after I answered any questions they had. From assessing their acting skills and their possible resembelance to Mimi we chose a girl named Lucy who is very mature for her age yet still is able to embody that little girl persona...she also has the same bright blue eyes as Mimi which will be handy when we go to a flashback. We got her parent's permission and in the meeting it was a chance to answer any queries and co-ordinate schedules so everyone was in full understanding of where we were in the process. Our next step is to do some screen tests with Daniel lip-syncing or singing over the track.

Our Actors & Costume Tests

We have now cast the actors to appear in our music video and we are very satisfied with the ensemble. When selecting the actors/actresses to appear Suela & I acknowledged that we needed to think pragmatically as well as artistically so considering factors such as availability, reliability and work ethic was vital to contemplate alongside physical appearance, chemistry between the actors (also continuity between Lucy and Mimi as they portray two different stages in life of the same person) and their abilities to elevate and contribute to the performance and narrative elements to create our visual interpretation of the song.

On Tuesday Suela & I held a meeting in order to explain the set up, schedule and storyline to all three actors and it gave an opportunity for all of us to come together so any issues or concerns could be raised and answered. We started by thanking them for their participation, introducing them to each other (although they vaguely knew each other already) and explaining the story we hoped to depict. Then to familiarise them, we played the song (which they thought went well with the storyline) and we showed our Summer task short film "Home", in which Daniel also starred to show them the kind of camera skills and editing features we would like to develop on. The meeting was very successful and we discussed availability for shooting. We estimated that Lucy's scenes would take a few hours of work to polish whereas we'd take a whole day of filming to Daniel and Mimi. Daniel also is currently learning the lyrics to the song for the performance elements of the music video and Suela is planning to record the lip-syncing attempts for us to look over. Daniel is Suela's twin brother so I have no concerns about his reliability and I am pretty confident in both Mimi and Lucy for being on time when we start shooting. We are lucky to only enlist the services of three actors as other groups are having difficulties bringing many extras together. Overall if we keep focused, everything will hopefully be on track.

24th March:

Since originally posting I have added pictures of the actors during our costume & make up tests...

Mimi: "The Girl"

In this photograph Mimi is wearing a cream-printed minidress with a white silk bow around the waist so it isn't too floaty. Her hair will be more wilder (hopefully the wind will aid this for the camera) and she will be wearing a jacket over the dress with knee-high grey schoolgirl-style socks and worn out trainers. To juxtapose the lightness of the dress and to contribute to that "Teen Runaway" look he make up with be pale for most of her face with a predominant focus on the eyes. Thick dark kohl-rimmed eyes with smokey eyeshadow and plenty of mascara. We will also smudge the eyeliner so when we shoot an extreme close-up, it will give the illusion that she has been crying.

Lucy: "The Child"

We used the same dress for Lucy. They are both have the same body type and blue eyes so it worked out well and the fact that Mimi is a little taller, her hair is a little longer and her make up is darker all adhere to the development of the character. The point of the young girl is to be the epitome of youthful curiosity struggling against sheltered innocence and one of the main sources of inspiration for souring a costume to portray that was the eponymous Alice from Lewis Carrol's, Alice in Wonderland. Although not entirely visible from this photo, she wears a white silk Alice band amongst her soft curls and in the video she will wear dainty lace-trimmed white socks.
Daniel: "Billy"

Daniel plays against the colour palette for Mimi and Lucy. Suela & I decided we wanted him dressed in sleek black from head to toe apart from white trainers to give him a more contemporary feel. We contemplated giving him a black fedora hat but dismissed the idea as it seemed to cliched, as if we were tying to copy Billy Joel's look altogether. Daniel's hair is also quiffed up with hairspray to give him a kind of James Dean "leading man" type edge against Mimi's "lost schoolgirl" image. This relates to the ideas Todorov explores about binary oppositions in a narrative.

Media theories

Audience Feedback

The First Draft of Our Storyline

For a while we have been thinking about what the narrative would be for our music video, after brainstorming some initial ideas and casting the roles we now have a solid storyline that we can translate to a story board.

We start with an establishing shot of a train pulling out of the station. The camera pans along a row of empty seats till it reaches a profile view of a young girl around 17 years old. She has no name and is meerly referred to as "Girl". Her hair is messy and her eye make up has run leaving two dark streaks down her face to show she has been crying as we see her reflection in the window. To juxtapose with the darkness and shadows she iswearing a pretty white dress underneath a worn out leather jacket and is carrying a large bag. She is a teenage runnaway with connotations of a very different life before and as the camera zooms in on her face she closes her eyes and leans back as she contemplates how she got to this place.

This a device to take us to a flashback as we cut the eyes of her as a child opening. The frames are sepia-toned to indicate this shift in time period. As the camera zooms out we see her lying star-fished on her parent's bed in a bored manner wearing a pale pink dress with her hair in tight ringlets. She sits bolt upright and aimlessley makes her way over to her mother's dressing table. At this point the intro would be over and the song would be into the first verse. The child is a sheltered, bored dreamer who yearns to be taken seriously. She covers her face in her mother's make-up and as she searches through her dresser she opens a drawer to find a bottle of pills. The young girl eyes them suspiciously as she holds them up to the light, then opens the bottle and swallows a few. This marks her attempt to escape from adolescence and the world that appears to be strangling her as the line, "Slow down you crazy child" suggests. There is then a 360 degree revolve around her is followed by her mother, a tired looking woman in a cashmere twin-set and pearls, appearing at the the door. When she sees her daughter she laughs endearingly at her make-up slathered face and strokes her hair in a motherly fashion as the girl sits awkwardly looking down and feeling guilty. Her mother then noticing the open bottle of pills becomes alert and empties the bottle, counting each pill. Once realisation has hit her that they are not all there, her behavour becomes erratic as she tears the room apartsearching for the stray pills. Admist all the chaos, the girl backs out of the room slowly. the next shot we jump to is the young girl, weighed down with bags, quietly leaving the house at the crack of dawn.

We then cut back to the train, focusing the camera at a young man dressed in black watching protectively over the teenage girl which brings us to the performance element of the video as he sings the line "When will you realise...Vienna waits for you". In our music video, we have interpreted Vienna to be a metaphor for a sanctuary to escape to when life becomes too claustraphobic. this also introduces the unrequited love sub-plot between the young man in black and the 17 year-old girl in white however, initially, she is so wrapped up in her troubles that she is oblivious to his prescence. Throughout the video, he will always be on a higher level with the camera looking down on her. This is not to diminish her but to connote a sense of caring that the boy feels towards her. It is not until the end of the video that they are both on common ground.

Iconic Album covers

One of our requirements alongside producing a music video is creating an album cover. To prepare for this I decided to research iconic album covers (internationally reknowned and my personal tastes) to identify what makes an album cover memorable. By analysing these covers I hope to take on board some tips in the process of creating our own album cover.

The Smiths "Meat is Murder" (1984)
The image repeated on the cover of the band's second studio album was taken from Emile de Antoni0's 1968 Vietnam war documentary. The soldier's helmet originally read "Make War Not Love" before being replaced with "Meat is Murder" and giving it's name to one of the most notable vegan/vegetarian information sites today.

The Velvet Underground "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (1967)
The eponymously titled debut album from the protopunk group collaborating with the vocal stylings of Nico, a moody, beautiful model/actress/singer-songwriter/one of Andy Warhol's many muses from Germany. This Warhol print of a banana on a white background was minimalistic at a time when embellishments in the entertainment industry were in full use. Original copies of the album even included a peel-away sticker with the suggestive tag "Peel slowly and see"...

Britney Spears "Baby One more Time" (1999)
Love her or hate her, you can't deny that this cover art was memorable. Her debut album at 17 portrayed her as sweet and innocent as the camera looked down on her smiling face. The clean-cut image she presents with the candy bracelets, denim skirt, pearly white teeth and golden locks that established her as an American Sweetheart played a big part in marketing her music.

David Bowie "Aladdin Sane" (1973)

Bowie's alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust, with the lightening bolt brandished down his face is immortalised on this album (intended as "A lad insane"). described as "Ziggy goes to America" it epitomises the two faces of the country which which led Bowie to be simultaneously "appaled and fixated by America".

The Rolling Stones "Forty Licks" (2002)
A retrospective two-disc back catalouge that combined the band's London era of the 60's and their self-owned post 1970 material. All bought together with the lips-&-tounge icon for which we recognise them best. This ain't your average run-of-the-mill Greatest Hits album.




















Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures" (1979)

The back of this album cover contains no track listings and is left completely blank so alredy breaks the conventions of what you would expect and makes the pulse lines, taken from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy stand out even more. It appears like an optical illusion and its simplicity has made it timeless and memorable.

Madonna "American Life" (2003)

What better way to make an icon out of your cover than to emulate an existing icon. Madonna did just that with her ninth studio album, American Life. Chosing to don a beret and pose with her head held high was a slaute to Che Guevara which went accordingly with the military theme she based her album on. The splashes of red on the black and white image also elevate the album and make it memorable.


















Pink Floyd "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

Richard Wright requested for a "simple and bold design" for the cover of "The Drak Side of the Moon"




















The Sex Pistols "Never mind the Bollock, Here's..." (1977)






















The Beatles "Abbey Road" (1969)

The immortal image that iconized the road.




















Blur "Parklife" (1994)


















The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced" (1967)

The Clash "London Calling" (1967)

Nirvana "Nevermind" (1991)

The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)

Skills we learned from our Summer short film project, "Home"

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=162291697072

Target Audience

When constructing our music video, it was vital to consider the type of target audience that our video and the music would appeal to. We needed to consider the style of music and the style of the video separately, as the two are not necessarily synonymous, then integrate aspects from both to create an audience profile. For example, a fan of BIlly Joel's folksy ballads may not necessarily be a fan of the kind of love story we want to explore in our video. Likewise a video about a troubled young teenage runaway may appeal to a young girl who is not necessarily a fan of Billy Joel's back-catalogue.

In order to assess this I have spoken to a range of people (males, female, teenagers, young adults, adults etc.); some of which are Joel fans and all of whom understand our video concept and seen our rough storyboards as a work-in-progress so we are relying on them to visualize the finished product with the resources provided.

Issues Facing the Music Industry Today

As our track is from the late 70's, it is significant to note that music has moved on since then and we needed to find a way to make the song relevant to the modern music industry...despite me, Suela & many people we talked to being in agreement that it's a timeless song. It wasn't about the actual song but our presentation (or adaptation) of the music & lyrics visually (ie. a music video). As we are presenting our video as a package along with an album cover and press release, it has made me contemplate the kind of issues that face the music industry today: the artists, the producers, the marketing team and, of course, the audience that listen to the music. S I did a little reaserch to learn more and consider what issues would be relevant for out project...

*Is the internet a friend of the music industry or a foe?

The internet is greatly beneficial to showcasing up-and-coming acts, giving a platform for unknown & unsigned artists and spreading information concerning gigs and band updates. However the internet is also infamous for hosting illegal downloading sites and leaking music videos before their official release which greatly impacts the industry. This is shown in the amount of money that has been lost due to people illegally downloading songs rather than legally downloading or buying an album the old fashioned way. The music industry also faces much more competition than ever before and it's a challenge for record companies to sign the best acts before their rivals do.

Billy Joel's influences and Similar Artists

Joel produces a diverse range of musical styles yet he has a trademark folk-inspired, harmonica sound that derived from other musicians and, in turn, inspired his successors. His profound lyrics that explore human diversity and society and his simple bass lines over piano music create a distinct sound that ties in many areas in general popular music. Some similar musicians are...

Bob Dylan

Paul Simon

Ray Charles

The Beatles

Elton John

Although all of the above artists may have pioneered or been synonymous with the music from older generations they still resonate today as their music is still downloaded, their songs are being covered by more contemporary artists (Avril Lavigne covered Dylan's "Knocking on heaven's door, The Hot Rats recently released a cover of The Beatles' hit "Baby You Can Drive My Car") and also sampled in various genres (Kanye West sampled the bass line of Ray Charles' hit, "I got a Woman" in his song "Goldigger" whilst up-and-coming UK urban artists Dj Ironik featuring rapper Chipmunk remixed the Elton John's song "Tiny Dancer" for their own version. Moreover these artists create the cannon of music that continues to influence current acts on the music scene. These are all the reasons why an artist like Billy Joel is just as relevent today as he would've been 40 years ago.

Update on Progress of Production on Music Video

Music Video Analysis of 3 No Doubt Videos: "Don't Speak", "It's my Life & "I'm Just a Girl"

I decided to also analyse a couple of music videos from a more current artist to compare and contrast...

No Doubt: the ska-influenced, Grammy award winning American pop-punk band, fronted by the peroxide blonde bob and throaty female vocals of Gwen Stefani, have a unique trademark style in their music and their image... yet they are still open to experimentation. This is evident through their music videos, which always deliver on a high level so I will be looking at three of their videos in order to compare and contrast and look at how their videos may have evolved over the years (hence, the chronology). The first one I will be looking at is "Don't Speak", arguably their biggest hit, from their 1995 album Tragic Kingdom; Next I will be looking at "Just a Girl" the first single released from the same album; and finaly I will be looking at a more recent video, "It's My Life" a cover track for their Greatest Hits compilation, The Singles, released in 2003.

"Don't Speak"

The begining of this music video sees band member, Tony Kanal, pick a fruit in an exotic Adam and Eve style garden. As the camera slowly zooms in to an extreme close-up the audience can see that the fruit is rotten. This may symbolise either forbidden fruit or the inner mould of something that appears ripe and fine may be metaphorical for the kind of toxic behind-the-scenes relationship the band portrays in the video. The video also concludes with this same orange-picking process, only in reverse, which ties together all the loose-ends. The lighting contributes to the cinematography of a smudgy, dream-like quality which is maintained to the performance in the garage with the sunlight flowing in. A tracking device establishes this switch of location & time. During this performance the band is sombre and slow as the camera does a 360 degree close-up around Gwen as she sings- to emphasize her status within the band, that becomes relevant later on. This juxtaposes to the archive footage of the band onstage, sweaty from the high energy show they're putting on, as the chorus kicks in. We are able to tell this is archive footage by the kind of grainy documentary way it is shot and it gives the music video some variety visually. The narartive elements tie-in during the second verse. In this video the audience is witnessing the disintegration of a relationship, whether it's fictional or relevant to the band's own history. The fundamental lyric of the song "Don't speak, I know what you're thinking" suggests the communication in this particular set-up is all in the expressions which say more than words could. The orange theme appears again as the band is doing a photo-shoot and the photographer take a particular interest in Gwen and slowly discards the other members of the band from the shoot, leaving her pouting glamourosly, bandishing an orange. A series of cut shots displays the band members individual reactions to this and the incident sparks of a series of disputes they have interwoven into their performance becoming more and more intense. In the segments of the band arguing the lighting is more dark and cast more shadows.

"Just a Girl"


"It's My Life"

The contextual features of this videa are not dissimilar to that of a 1940's film noir with Gwen embodying the role of a murderous femme-fatale, reminiscent to screen sirens such as Barbara Stanwyck or Jean Halow. Her "murder victims" are played by the rest of her bandmates

Billy Joel's "Piano Man", "Uptown Girl" & "We Didn't Start the Fire"

We were advised that it would be useful to look at other Billy Joel music videos to get the gist of the kind of artist he portrays himself visually. Joel's music spans from the late 70's through the 80's so the music videos don't have the technology and tricks that modern videos have the advantage on, yet its nonetheless effective in portraying an assortment of characters in one place that illustrate the lyrics of his songs. I will be looking at the relationship between the images and the semiotics they convey.

Piano Man (1973)


Uptown Girl (1983)


We Didn't Start the Fire (1989)

Vienna Lyrics, Analysis and my Personal Interpretation

It was important for us to look into the lyrics of the song to find where we could base a narrative around it and what the weaning conveyed. Some things were implied but others we had to take licenses with so it would be our interpretation of the song.

Slow down, you crazy child

You're so ambitious for a juvenile

But then if you're so smart,

tell me Why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?

You'd better cool it off before you burn it out

You've got so much to do and

Only so many hours in a day

_______________________

But you know that when the truth is told...

That you can get what you want or you get old

You're gonna kick off before you even

Get halfway through

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

____________________________

Slow down, you're doing fine

You can't be everything you want to be

Before your time

Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight

Tonight,...

Too bad but it's the life you lead

you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need

Though you can see when you're wrong, you know

You can't always see when you're right. you're right

You've got your passion, you've got your pride

but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?

Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

______________________

Slow down, you crazy child

and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile

it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two

When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?

And you know that when the truth is told

that you can get what you want or you can just get old

You're gonna kick off before you even get half through

Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

One of the advantages of using a song like this is that it could have multiple meanings. I have researched the history behind the song but, in all honesty, all of that's irrelevant. What really matters is my (as a music fan) initial reaction to the song and what kind of images it conjured up in my mind by default. To me Vienna is metaphorical for a sanctuary where you can escape from the everyday stresses of life. I see a girl who's life has snowballed and she has taken on far too much that she can sope with, "Slow down you crazy child" or she is forced to grow up far quicker than anticipated due to circumstances beyond her control. The song is re-assuring and comforting with a dose of reality, "Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true" and its not patronising. "Vienna" is suggested to always be there as something you can count on in an everychanging world and sometimes you need to abandon you're pride and escape to a place where you're allowed to be completely selfish.

About Billy Joel & Research into the song "Vienna"

Billy Joel

Billy Joel is an award-winning American rock musicians and composer whose hits include "Uptown Girl", "All My Life" and "Piano Man" among others. Born in the Bronx, New York in 1949 to German-Jewish parents, Joel discovered and utilized his musical talent from a young age. His lyrics are inspired by the metropolitan streets of New YorkCity and Long Island and focus on an assortmant of characters. Joel decided to persue a career in music upon seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show and began recording with The Echoes, a band that specialized in British-Invasion covers in the 60's. This helped him develop his folksy-classical style with a modern twist. In 1973 he moved to Los Angeles and signed with Columbia where he released his first official record Piano Man with the hit single of the same name. Throughout the next few decades he went on to have a string of sucessful hits in the United States and internationally. He is currently touring with Elton John and is recognised as one of the most influential figures in popular music.

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Research into the song Vienna

To get a full impact of the song we researched the history behind Joel writing it and looked into what the song lyrics conveyed to other people to provide us with inspiration for what we would do in our music video.

From our own knowledge and some research we knew "Vienna" was a song from Billy Joel's 1977 breakthrough album "The Stranger". Although neevr released as a single, Joel still cites this as one of his favourite songs.

We looked at various websites and found a re-occuring story that Joel told when asked about the song and why he chose Vienna to represent a sanctuary to reitire into while the rest of you life awaits:

"Why did I pick Vienna to use as a metaphor for the rest of your life? My father lives in Vienna now. I had to track him down. I didn't see him from the time I was 8 'till I was about 23-24 years old. He lives in Vienna, Austria which I thought was rather bizarre because he left Germany in the first place because of this guy named Hitler and he ends up going to the same place that Hitler hung out all those years! Vienna, for a long time was the crossroads. During the Cold War, between the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact nations and the NATO countries was the city of Vienna... Vienna was always the crossroads - between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. So the metaphor of Vienna has the meaning of a crossroad. It's a place of inter...course, of exchange - it's the place where cultures co-mingle. You get great beer in Vienna but you also get brandy from Armenia. It was a place where cultures co-mingled.
So I go to visit my father in Vienna, I'm walking around this town and I see this old lady. She must have been about 90 years old and she is sweeping the street. I say to my father "What's this nice old lady doing sweeping the street?" He says "She's got a job, she feels useful, she's happy, she's making the street clean, she's not put out to pasture". We treat old people in this country pretty badly. We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don't exist. They [the people in Vienna] don't feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought 'This is a terrific idea - that old people are useful -and that means I don't have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age. I thought "Vienna waits for you..."
There is also a lot of inside stuff on the song. The beginning and the end is very Kurt Weill. That kind of sick, middle-European, kinky decadent thing.. cabaret kinda.... there's a lot of crazy stuff going on. We are seeing the result of it in this ethnic warfare in the Balkans which is a tragedy. This century started out with this Assassination of the Archduke in Sarajevo and that begat World War I which begat the Russian Revolution, then you had the Depression then that begat World War II and then that begat the Cold War and all that's over but they're still blowing each other to smithereens in Sarajevo. So this whole thing is going on in middle Europe - it's Kurt Weill. And some composers, Dvořák, Smetana - they captured it."

Initial Ideas: Brainstorming possible track and considering who I will work with

Before I got started on the task I needed to consider two things: one was whether I would choose to do a short film or a music video and the second was who I would work with. Luckily neither took much time to think about. Before the summer we were assigned the task of creating a short film based on one or two emotions with the brief of including a range of camera shots. Whilst we enjoyed the experience of making the film, I felt I wanted to evolve into something else; trying a music video but taking on board the skills I had learned from the short film into the process. Suella, a member of my group on the short film task shared my views and after the film task we had vowed to work together on a music video which solved the latter matter.

With a partner, a new school year and a summer to consider what kinda of music video we were going to make, Suella and I were keen to get started which meant finding a song we could interpret a narrative around with some performance elements and making sure it did not already have an exisiting video that we would conciously or subconciously be influenced by. It's not secret that Suella and I have very different music interests but we undestood that the video wasn't supposed to be a reflection of our personal tastes but a showcase of the skills we have learnt during our course. With all this in mind we began to brainstorm various tracks we could use (some were well-known artists whilst some were more obscure) from various genres. We compiled a list of possible tracks that we knew fairly well and looked at their opening lyrics to decide which one stood out. The list went as follows,

Possible Tracks
"Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode (remix by Mike Shinoda)
"Bang Bang Bang Bang" by Soho Dolls
"Vienna" by Billy Joel
"Life on Mars" by David Bowie
"Memories are made of this" by Dean Martin
"I've Just Seen a Face" by The Beatles
"She's a Rainbow" by The Rolling Stones
"Out of My League" by Stephen Speaks
"Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin
"Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix
"Grounds for Divorce" by Elbow
"Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes
"She's in Fashion" by Suede
"Cherrybomb" by Joan Jett & The Runaways
"Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground
"Moi je Joue" by Brigitte Bardot
"Wrapped up in books" by Belle & Sebastian
"Hard to live in the City" by Albert Hammond Jr.
"Eighties Fan" by Camera Obscura
"La Foule" by Edith Piaf
"Jimmy Mack by Martha & The Vandellas
"Laisse Tomber les Filles" by France Gall
"Jeepers Creepers" by Hayley Mills
"I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" by Erika Eigen

Despite the extensive list it was pretty clear that we were both very enthusiastic about creating a music video for Billy Joel's "Vienna" which has no existing video and which has some beautiful lyrics which we could create a story around within the video. With our track down we needed to start considering research into Billy Joel's back catalouge, the history of the song, potential actors, filming locations, schedules etc.