Exploring Themes of the Song & Inspiration

Themes to Explore and Ispirations

Since the lyrics of the song suggest searching for a lost love, we will look to create a narrative predominantly exploring this theme. We have taken some of our ideas directly from the lyrics (e.g. early on in the song the lyrics say "I was walking down the street", we can have scenes of the protagonist walking along a street and searching for the girl) whilst others were inspired by seeminlgy unrelated sources. One elemental theme that we have decided on is to use recurring scenes of fantasy or dream, revealing both the male protagonist's love for the girl and his paranoia/ angst of losing her. This idea has partly been derived from the fantasy scenes in Sam Mendes' 'American Beauty' (1999), which portray male desire and yearning. Another, perhaps more unlikely, source of inspiration for this idea comes from Hector Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique/An Episode in the Life of an Artist' (1830).

Dream scenes from American Beauty, with Kevin Spacey and Mena Suvari

Also, here is a link to the first dream scene from the movie, with further links to the others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZDQWEiOVU

Another source of inspiration for our fantasy scenes was Edvard Munch's painting 'Madonna' (1895), an expressionist painting depicting the Virgin Mary in an uconventional way; her closed eyes and calm expression connoting modesty, whilst the light, red halo and sensual pose also signify her vibrance, love, pain and sexuality.

Edvard Munch's 'Madonna' (1895)

Berlioz and the Symphonie Fantastique

Hector Berlioz was a French composer of the Romantic Period, this is his most well-known piece and is acknowledged to be one of the most important and representative pieces of its time. The symphony itself has five movements, contrary to the traditional four, and is a programme piece with 'explanotary notes' for each movement. The symphony essentially tells the story of a young man falling in love and the way in which his emotions vary as he goes through both being in love and through life itself. One of the essential themes of the piece is that the protagonist fantasises positively about his love as well as feeling paranoia and fear of betrayal, untill his love is lost and the imagery of the music becomes bitter and vulgar.

- The movements:

1. Rêveries/ Passions

Berlioz wrote in his program notes (1845):

The author imagines that a young vibrant musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer has called the wave of passions (la vague des passions), sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved image never presents itself to the artist’s mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognises a certain quality of passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.

This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro. The transitions from this state of dreamy melancholy, interrupted by occasional upsurges of aimless joy, to delirious passion, with its outbursts of fury and jealousy, its returns of tenderness, its tears, its religious consolations – all this forms the subject of the first movement

2. Un Bal/ A Ball

Berlioz wrote:

The artist finds himself in the most diverse situations in life, in the tumult of a festive party, in the peaceful contemplation of the beautiful sights of nature, yet everywhere, whether in town or in the countryside, the beloved image keeps haunting him and throws his spirit into confusion.

3. Scène aux champs/ Scene in the Fields

Berlioz wrote:

One evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds in the distance dialoguing with their 'ranz des vaches'; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring. He broods on his loneliness, and hopes that soon he will no longer be on his own… But what if she betrayed him!… This mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark premonitions, form the subject of the adagio. At the end one of the shepherds resumes his ‘ranz des vaches’; the other one no longer answers. Distant sound of thunder… solitude… silence...

4. Marche au supplice/ March to the Scaffold

Berlioz wrote:

Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.

5. Songe d'une nuit de sabbat/ Dreams of a Witch's Sabbath

Berlioz wrote:

He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonie_fantastique

The key feature of the piece is the concept of the 'idée fixe', a recurring melody within the music that always represents the protagonist's emotions regarding the girl, at first the 'passion endowed with the nobility and shyness' and finally it becomes 'vulgar... trival, trivial and grotesque'. This range of emotions is what we want to convey in our music video, as they all form the complex emotion that is love. One possible way that we will lok to explore this is with the use of masks. Actors could wear masks of the face of the girl. At first, the protagonist is shocked and afraid, but they are harmless fragments of his imagination, but then his imagination spirals and the masked 'characters' appear in greater number, mock him, taunt him, perhaps corner him in a narrow street.

Song Choice

Song Choice

As a group, we have spent a lot of time discussing our choice of song. After what seemed to be several minor disagreements, we finally agreed upon The New York Fund's "Nobody Home". The song is indie/ country rock and tells the story of a man looking for a woman, presumably an ex-girlfriend/ wife. We ultimately chose this song over others we were considering (e.g. "The Shining" by The Alps and "Living To Get By", also by The New York Fund) because, more so than the others, the song provides opportunities to create scenes both consistent with the lyrics and those which include unrealistic imagery/ fantasy, allowing us to explore the meaning of the song in a deeper way. This was an important factor in our decision as, according to Goodwin (1992), music videos should have a relationship between lyrics and visuals.

Regarding permission to use the song, we have e-mailed the band letting them know we would like to use their song and have asked them if they would allow it, below are a series of print screens of the exchange of e-mails:

Possible Music Choices

Possible Music Choice

‘Living to Get By’ – The New York Fund

This is one of the songs that I’m strongly considering to use, in fact at the moment this is the song that I would say is the most likely that I would use. The song has several features which makes it interesting and, in my opinion, sets it reasonably apart from several others that I have listened to. The most interesting of these, for me, is the tone of ‘western’ that is included in the song via the trumpet and the steady, rhythmic tempo which is similar to that of a horse riding. Due to this I feel that the song can potentially inspire a very interesting music video. A good example of a music video that I can learn from and use as inspiration is ‘Knights of Cydonia’ by Muse, as this is based on a spaghetti western theme and therefore uses several genre conventions – such as frequent close-up shots of eyes, a narrative exploring the struggle between good and evil, as well as the use of distinctive costumes and locations to create an exciting mise-en-scene.

http://www.myspace.com/thenewyorkfund

‘Kaliyuga’ – Engine-EarZ

This is quite a strange yet interesting piece which would be very difficult but also seems an attractive prospect. The song has no lyrics, which provides a challenge as the narrative must be designed from scratch, however for the same reason it also provides an opportunity to do something different and interpret the song in a more abstract manner. The piece also has different phases and changes of pace, which therefore presents the chance to create a varied video with different levels.

http://www.myspace.com/engineearz

‘Amazonian Love’ – Shake Aletti

This song I am less sure about. Although the song has a strong beat which could provide good opportunities for synchronised cuts, I feel the song may be slightly too conventional to inspire an original and engaging narrative, therefore at this stage I’m more likely to opt for one of the other two songs rather than this one.

http://www.myspace.com/shakealetti

Analysing Music Videos

Analysing Music Videos

‘Knights of Cydonia’ – Muse

This is a very interesting music video and therefore represents the band as interesting and quite daring. The video is very entertaining and, in my opinion, achieves this by using several conventions from various genres of film, most notably from the western genre (which compliments the streak of the western tone in the song), but also aspects of science-fiction (such as the laser guns, robots and hologram of the band) and comedy, as some of these conventions of westerns are exaggerated and appear humorous. There are other obvious signs which suggest the video is stylistically similar to that of a film, such as the opening and closing credits. It is clear, however, that the vast majority of film genre conventions in this video are from the western genre, as several shots can be recognised as having been lifted directly from classic westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (dir. Sergio Leone, 1966). This is especially evident in the camera movements and angles, as there are several examples of close-up or extreme close-up shots focusing on the eyes (reminiscent of shots of Clint Eastwood) as well as swooping high-angle shots into another close-up shot of the eyes from above the rim of hats – which can recently been seen in modern, exaggerated westerns such as Desperado (dir. Robert Rodriguez, 1995). The video also includes the classic struggle between good and evil (another common theme of westerns), the struggle across the desert, the escape from the gallows and, finally, the ever-present showdown at the end.

Russ Bain in 'Knights of Cydonia'

Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Antonio Banderas in Desperado

The video, however, also includes a darker, post-apocalyptic influence, which is possibly and explanation for the inclusion of robots and laser guns, as well as providing an explanation for the brief reference to Planet of the Apes (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968).

Reference to The Planet of the Apes

‘Come to Daddy’ – Aphex Twin

This video is highly unconventional and, frankly, also quite disturbing, as it explores dark issues with suggestions towards violence and vandalism. The idea of Aphex Twin’s face on the little girls combined with him climbing out of the TV as their ‘master’, the lyrics ‘I want your sole’ as well as the title of the song result in several interesting arguments. The most apparent, and the most interesting, of these is the idea that Aphex Twin is criticising both the media and the youth of today – the media for brainwashing the youth and the youth for letting themselves become brainwashed. This also suggests that the media exerts a negative influence upon young people, hence the vandalism, sinister tones and hints towards violence. The video, therefore, includes negative representations of the media and the youth, while presenting favourable depictions of the elderly as innocent victims and ‘survivors’ of the media brainwash. This sympathy for the elderly climaxes when the hideous beast climbs out of the TV and releases a long scream into the woman’s face, who is understandably terrified at this point. However, camera features also support this as the voyeuristic shots from the point-of-view of both the TV and the girls towards the woman create a further sense of vulnerability and fear for bad things to happen unto her, as if she is being judged and scrutinised. These negative themes are complimented by the bland, unglamorous settings and mise-en-scene, which is made up largely of dreary greys and some blues and blacks. Furthermore, like the ‘Knights of Cydonia’ video, this video also uses conventions from various film genres in order to emphasise points, in this case c

onventions of the horror genre are used. The idea of young, innocent girls represented as evil and violent has long been used in horrors, perhaps most famously in Kubrick’s classic, The Shining (1980).

From 'Come to Daddy'

From The Shining