Monday 7 September 2009

GCT - Responding to a Track

Artist: Pixies
Album: Surfer Rosa
Track: Where is my mind?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EE59Ex5Px4

This track belongs to the genre of alternative rock, you can tell that it is part of the genre from a few distinctive features. Firstly the unique voice that the singer uses would strongly suggest that the song is alternative rock. This backed up with the type of instruments used and the way in which they are used means that it is very clear and easy to tell that the track belongs to that genre. For example, the use of electric guitar as the lead instrument and drums as a backing.

From analysing the way in which the track sounds and makes me feel, although it would make different people feel different ways. I believe that the track represents a lo-fi video. This is due to the fact that it contains many modest and humble aspects. For example the lyrics talk about things that everyone can relate to and do, furthermore the actual sound of the track is very raw. Therefore I believe that these aspects would be best represented by a lo-fi video. On the other hand, a high-fi video may also be considered due to the track being a well known classic, therefore having to live up to the expectations of the consumers.

Many videos can be comparable to what I imagine the video for ‘Where is my Mind?’ as long as they a rock videos that are either performance based, concept based or even performance based with conceptual aspects. Two of these comparable videos are:

Foo Fighters – The Pretender
Kings of Leon – On Call

The Foo Fighters video is performance based with conceptual aspects and the Kings of Leon video is just performance based.

Unfortunately I could not find the exact budget for the above videos but as both of the artists above are signed by larger record companies I could find out the relevant average statistics. On average a large record label will spend between $60,000 and $150,000 on a music video.

A quick outline of the treatment for the music video for the song ‘Where is my mind?’ by ‘Pixies’ would be: As the track starts slowly, the singer would fade in from black appearing with the iconic image of a microphone, then as the guitar is introduced the guitarist would be shown, the same goes for the drums. The location would then start appearing around them and the viewer would realise that they are all in trees or hanging from trees whilst performing. A second line of video could show a narrative being told at the same time. This would allow the video to be performance based whilst still having conceptual aspects and also a narrative.

The location is very important to the video and therefore suitable locations would include woodland areas, a tree house location and even high sandstone rock areas. A second very different location or set of locations could be used to distinctly show another line of action taking place so that the consumer doesn’t get confused about which the performance based section is and the narrative based section.

The actor which I would use for the singer in the video would have to match the voice of the singer and therefore this decision is very important. As the voice is very unique, the use of a unique person would be suitable; therefore I have decided that an indie styled character would work well to play this role. The person would have to be skinny and not stocky as the voice is a higher pitch.

When considering special effects I listen to the tempo of the track, the style and the sounds. From this I think that using black and white effects would work very well with this track and even a possible sepia effect would also work well. The use of fades would be successful and a colour filter would also be suitable. Pro-filmic effects would include the green screen.

For making the video I would only need to ‘employ’ a few people. I could do the planning, filming, editing and post production by myself and therefore the only roles that would need to be filled would be that of the actors and extra helpers on the set. A singer, drummer and guitarist would all need actors for and I would possibly need an extra set of hands for the set equipment and props.

2 comments:

  1. Some good ideas George, you need to be specific about types of instruments, ie naming them, avoid general comments which don't really say anything and get no marks

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  2. Good song. Quite a lot of strange things we could do with this. Which is always good.

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