Conventions of Psychedelic Genre

Well firstly I researched into the genre myself, there are various other types of psychedelic music such as neo-psychedelia (Django Django), psychedelic rock (Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall) or even psychedelic pop (Tame Impala, who also fits into the other two genres) but covers a range of other sub-genres. However, they all seem to be influenced by the 1960s psychedelic culture in which many used psychedelic drugs such as LSD and mushrooms to experience visual and auditory hallucinations while listening to music; the psychedelic music attempted to recreate the experience or at least enhance it, this perhaps explains the visual aspects of psychedelia. The music has spread from influence of Western rock and folk bands - especially in the US and UK - and some bands incorporate many other aspects of different genres, most commonly electronic sounds and effects.

Visually there is a lot of use of kaleidoscopic imagery, along with intricate illustrative patterns and often abstract or surreal art - not typically based within realism ; this again is done to enhance the experience while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.

The art often includes:

• Vibrant and/or contrasting colours within the palette 
• Surrealistic or otherwise whimsical imagery that isn't necessarily realistic
• Often extreme detail within the illustrations
• Kaleidoscopic, fractal and paisley patterns (which can be moving within videos)
• Specific focus on colour and shapes - often using spirals, circles or other recurring imagery/motifs
• The typography for the art is often warps or hand-drawn/lettered, the font is also usually extremely serif or complex in its design

To confirm my research, I sought out Jack's opinion on what psychedelia means. I was also worried because from the research, it seemed that performance wasn't the main focus of visuals which is the opposite within my project. I'm thinking that I will need to somehow make the performance clips more colourful or psychedelic in convention. Moving on, this is what Jack said:

Base Music Video Analysis (2/2)

Music video analysis thee oh sees from Eughan Wooding

Music video analysis django django from Eughan Wooding

Base Music Video Analysis (1/2)

Within my analysis of the Beatles, I was actually looking at Eleanor Rigby but had to look into some other videos (namely Don't Let Me Down and Twist And Shout). One point I forgot to raise was their presentation within their videos as initially a smartly dressed band and then a more unique and abstract style, as such I might consider having Jack dress in such a manner since he often does dress reasonably smart - with chelsea boots and a button up shirt. The smartly dressed trend even continues into analysis of the Kinks although my analysis of other bands suggests there may not be a requirement to conform to a 'star image'.

Music video analysis beatles from Eughan Wooding

Music video analysis oasis from Eughan Wooding

Music video analysis kinks from Eughan Wooding

Music Video Theories: Subvert or Adhere?

It would appear that Carlsson believes music videos fall into two categories of performance and conceptual; I disagree and believe it is possible to incorporate ideas from both the performance and conceptual conventions Carlsson describes. There are many videos which incorporate artists' performances into the video alongside some narrative or artistic visuals. As is the case in many videos for Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Eminem/Slim Shady, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and the Strypes among many other artists. While Carlsson argues that sometimes the artist acts as a 'bard' to tell the story, the lyrics and music don't always fit the story being told.
I would certainly like to focus in on Jack's identity as an artist and showcase his musical skills in using performance clips however I would also like to make the video visually entertaining and appealing to the audience for maximum re-watchability, as such I will probably combine conventions from both of Carlsson's categories which - while subverting the theoretical 'rules' Carlsson has noted - enables me to remove any restrictions I may have come across when focusing solely on either performance or conceptual, although I will likely need to find a way of balancing the conventions of each category.

Goodwin argues that there are certain conventions and stereotypes within music genres which often appear within that genre's music videos. This is an idea that I had noticed long before my research, with rock, punk and metal songs often including performance clips of the whole band or focusing mainly on the main singer, while pop songs and rap songs often had one artist to focus on allowing them to produce more dance or narrative orientated music videos - as seen best in Katy Perry's videos which have very elaborate themes throughout the video such as the candy theme in her California Gurls video. It is likely that I will have to focus on and adhere to conventions of the indie and psychedelic rock genres given that Jack creates such music, we both like such music and Jack is especially interested in the psychedelic aspect of videos and music. As I have often produced very abstract art, I believe this wont be difficult to adhere to, especially given Jack's expertise on the genre.

Carlsson and Goodwin note how the singer is typically the main focus and the video tries to sell their best attributes by focusing on them. With this in mind, I will say that I disagree with Goodwin's idea that the artist becomes an erotic symbol or that the video is for almost voyeuristic intent; while women are often sexualised in the music genre, it is sometimes a marketing choice in order to attract consumers however I wish to focus on Jack's ability to perform and help clearly display his musical identity - which is why I have and will choose to focus on him for the videos.
Moving on with Goodwin, he has suggested that lyrics and music often amplify or contradict the video's visuals which I have clearly adhered to in my Summer Nites video (showing bottles when "smashed" is said or the sun when mentioning the weather). I don't see any way to argue for or against this belief as it covers both the amplification or contradiction of the visuals to lyrics.

So in short, I have clearly researched and understand Carlsson and Goodwin but wish to subvert some ideas they have put forward in order to avoid restrictions and focus on what I believe to be important and best for my client, Jack.

Research - Music Video Theory

Below is a Prezi detailing the research I've done into Music Video Theory, focusing on Carlsson and Goodwin.




Here are the Fall Out Boy and Bowling for Soup videos mentioned in the last bubble of my prezi.

Video - Summer Nites

Below is the final Summer Nites video, it contains a mix of performance shots along with some shots arranged in a summer montage. It is fairly close to the storyboard I planned however the beginning and end I changed at Jack's request - he is a film student and so he helped come up with the idea at the beginning with the fade to white transition. I personally like the idea but was unable to make it work well enough because the clouds were rather grey during the shot I used.
In general, I quite like the concept and feel that I've really captured the fleeting essence of summer and its fun, the montage adequately shows the variety in activities during our teenage days. It's all rather positive in its imagery which adheres to the happy upbeat sound of the acoustic guitar.

It was difficult to film the candid shots as my friends were rather aware that I was shooting on the day, given that I notified them before hand. I have mixed feelings about the handheld camera, on the one hand I believe it fits the video nicely however on the other hand I think that it is too shaky in some parts which might not work in other types of videos with different concepts - which may need to be more still or clear in order to appear professional. I considered changing the colour of the montage clips or slowing them down, like in the Strypes' Hard to Say No, to differentiate between the performance clips better - further showing that the handheld filming was intentional.

Notably, light is very important in creating a good video, I especially learned this last year during one of my AS project videos (see my evaluation of the video). It seems that the lighting during Jack's performance isn't very clear but it does look fine outside - leading me to realise again that natural lighting, though temperamental, is the best for videos; perhaps artificial lighting would work if the bulbs produced very white light, as opposed to orangey light. The lighting is especially good at 0:44 in the video so perhaps shooting outside or with another camera could help make my videos look more visually appealing.
I edited the shots with hard cuts and little transitions, thus this video is quite different form my preliminary. I felt that the transitions wouldn't be necessary given that I wanted to create a montage, additionally since I was working from footage sent by friends it'd be difficult to include zoom or whip-pan transitions as I had no control over how the clips were shot.

I'm quite fond of how the font looks, it's quite reminiscent of the sans-serif font of the Strypes and the Vaccines. The Strypes use their font at the beginning of a lot of their music videos:

This choice to include the band name in the video, despite it being titled online, helps reinforce further the brand identity - something I should look into. It's quite memorable, which I suppose is why the Strypes used it given that they are a newly 'major' band. As I wish to focus in on Jack's identity as an artist, I believed it important to include his name on the video as he is a rather unknown artist. With this in mind, I understand how Jack can fit into the indie genre and will need to further look into the conventions of the indie genre. With this in mind, I am aware that most psychedelic bands include very serif fonts and will perhaps include such text on the album cover; it's important that the audience is able to read the text but should the text fit well as serif in the video then I might deviate from my choice here.
The Strypes are quite a large influence for me in my work, my preliminary video even had some whip-pan transitions which can be seen in a few of their videos. While Jack also shares my love for their music (and he likely admires them given that they are of similar age to use yet very successful), I do not believe they are a direct inspiration to his work. It may help for me to look into bands that Jack particularly associates with his music, thus I will ask for a list in the near future.



Summer Nites from Eughan Wooding on Vimeo.

In the end, it doesn't necessarily matter how I feel about the video as long as my client (Jack) is happy. I asked for feedback and while his response was brief, it is a clearly positive comment. Perhaps in the future I will ask for a more detailed response, maybe even choosing to question some friends as they are teenagers - likely to be the target audience, however I will need to look into the demographic at a later date.

Shooting - Summer Nites

I planned to shoot with Jack today, the whole shoot being rather inpromptu. It was difficult to get in contact with him as his phone wasn't working but in his absence I managed to film various other shots of the others in town. Additionally, the band members for the Acid Tsunamis all had other commitments so they couldn't come back to Jack's for the shoot. With this in mind, I was going to make Jack the main focus anyway which I essentially have to do now.

I was in charge of filming and chose to use a Canon Powershot SX510, it is a school-owned camera but it is quite light and easy to use which was great for the shoot - given how much walking around town we had done, this is also why I chose to not use a tripod as it might have been difficult to create the home-made and amateur shots while on the move. Filming was therefore handheld and this helped to make the shots more friendly to adhere to the theme of friends and summer with the 'home footage' aesthetic.

Once in contact with Jack, we eventually went back to his so that I could film him playing the guitar. The shoot at his was a lot of fun but it took a while for him to get comfortable with the lip-syncing, with this in mind I am quite happy with the shots as Jack's performance was well done.
Jack requested some additional shots be added such as the shot of him walking up the hill as well as him jumping onto the grass with his guitar in the shot. Due to the addition of these new shots, I have decided to include them in the final cut as Jack requested; the shot of him jumping onto the grass could be included at the end of the song too.

Rough Time Plan:

10:00am - Meet in town with the friends and Jack, possibly buy some food and refreshments before the shoot.
10:20am to 3:00pm - Film various shots around Durham city, capturing the 'summer fun' for the montage.
3:00pm - Walk up to Gilesgate to film at Jack's house.
3:30pm - Start filming the singing pieces and Jack playing the guitar, possibly get him to transfer over a cleaner sounding version of Summer Nites.
5:00pm - Go to Niamh's to get a few 'summer clips' for the video, then contact the group chat on Facebook asking friends to send some random clips from the summer.