Podcast 2: Joy Division - Disorder

Group Production Companies

For this project we are creating new companies indents, I intend on creating two indents with new logos, because it is not normal for a animated logo to appear before a music video, and it is normal for a logo to appear on a Digi-pak, we are going to stick with still images for production titles.

Record Label


 A record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. So we decided that it was vital that we created a record label, A example of a record label is "Factory Records". 
            The record label would be responsible for piecing together the bands new album, the individual elements may be completed by a range of other companies and this would be the case with us because our company is only a indie company. As well as promoting the band and the new album
            We decided to name our record label in relation to Joy Division because our record label is simply to market JD. We instantly thought of Transmission Records after the JD song "Transmission" and the relevance between radio transmissions which is spreading music and sound and this is something a record label would want to be doing, Transmission (Records). We didn't let this stop us though so we changed our idea to New Transmission Records which isn't taken.


For the logo we decided that simplicity is best so we opted for a simple black and white logo with a line drawing of a radio mast with radio transmissions coming out of it. Using Adobe Photoshop we created a few logos.

This is the main logo, we added text at the bottom to help spread the record labels name.
We also created a version with the two colours inverted, this version was created to be placed on a advert/ digi-pak if it had a white background.
We lastly also created a round logo without text.

Graphics Company

The graphics company would be responsible for creating the Digi-pak, they logo would also go onto the digi-pak. We followed the idea for the record label in trying to create a name using a Joy Division song but we struggled to find a idea that would not just fit but also work well, we tried "Atmosphere Graphics" as well as "Shadowplay Graphics" but neither worked.
        In the end we decided to recycle one of our AS ideas which worked well and from this "Limited Edition Graphics" was born.

We used photoshop again and again decided to create a logo with a simple idea and this time decided to opt for a text only approach. We used gold text (to symbolize limited edition) on a black background.

Evidence of Song Licensing

Post Punk & Codes and Conventions of Post Punk

Post Punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental. Post-punk laid the groundwork for alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and underground music, incorporating elements of Krautrock (particularly the use of synthesizers and extensive repetition), Jamaican dub music (specifically in bass guitar), American funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite, disco, into the genre.



I will look a range of Post Punk band's music videos and look at the different codes and conventions.

Fellow group member Jonny has also looked at a few other videos on his C+C post 

Joy Divison - Love Will Tear Us Apart



Performance Video

• Starts off with a POV shot of someone walking up some stairs. Some cutting of footage on the beat.
• Once in the room the rest of the video is your average performance video with close ups on equipment and that.

Echo & The Bunnyman - Under The Killing Moon

• Performance video with hints of concept
• Imagery of moons and stars and different planets
• Recurring shot of cloth blowing in the wind.
• Performance mainly focus on lead singer for most of song of him performing, framing of just his face with a constant swinging light bulb lighting up his face.
• Dark mood and setting

The Human League - Don't You Want Me?

• Narrative / Performance
• Story follows a male and female character who are starring in a film, preferred reading i believe is that the male character likes the female character but not visa vera and he is singing "Don't you want me baby"
• Shots at start make you think that the music video is the film being filmed in the video (thet's being filmed in the music video) Confusing? Yeah i know. But after a while it zooms out to reveal that its just a film set.
• All set at night to create a atmosphere.

New Model Army - 51st State

• Performance video
• Shots of singer with guitar playing and singing
• Then shots from a concert of a audience dancing around.
• Simples

Sonic Youth - The Empty Page

• A variety of shots from around a gig, such as the audience, band meeting fans, signing goods and playing at the show
• Some shots recorded away from show and added
• Some titles flash up of the name of the song at parts of the song.

ConclusionHaving looked at videos of the post-punk genre, I can begin to suggest certain codes and conventions that most of the videos include. So far I have found:
- A lot of the videos are performance or concept based. Many combine the two in some manner.
- There is a lot of use of flashing imagery.
- Multi-layering is also used very often as is cross-fade transitions.
- Whilst the videos often use slow paced imagery, quick cutaways to close ups are used to keep the video flowing.
- Locations used are generally run-down or urban.
- Use of colour filters, especially black and white.
- Lots of camera movement to help keep the visuals interesting.
- Some sort of motif or theme is repeated through the video. This can sometimes link to the lyrics.
- An emphasise on the cold and dark to signify the mood of the band. Characters often seem very deadpan.

Censorship

Censorship is a big issue in Music Video. 

Quoted from Wikiepedia "As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast."



They has been a lot of controversy over the censorship of music videos with people asking questions such as "Is that really necessary?". Blurring out a image of a naked person may be needed on day time TV but is it needed to bleep out words such as Gun?

 Videos that need censoring can be changed in a few ways.


1. Quite often a video that is too explicit to be show on day time TV may just be moved to be shown on a late night TV slot. This happened with Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time which was banned due to her performing wearing very revealing clothes on a ship full of sailors.




2. Quite often a video and song is changed so it can be shown. Sometimes words are changed such as the song "We are all on drugs" By Weezer where the song was changed to "We are all in love". And sometimes videos are re filmed but a version that won't be censored. Below is the rerecorded version of the song with the original video. If you look closely you can notice that the singing is all out of time with the track.

Weezer




3. Sometimes the videos are banned all together and the Artist doesn't attempt to re release a video.

• Before when MTV was the only place to watch music videos, if a video you wanted to see was banned they you wouldn't get to see it. These days through the Internet and such websites such as YouTube anyone can watch banned material.

The band i am producing a music video for do not have any censored music videos.

Joy Division - History, Genre and Music Videos

History                                         


Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis (vocals and occasional guitar), Bernard Sumner (guitar and keyboards), Peter Hook (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Stephen Morris (drums and percussion).


The bands history is a long and interesting one.

• On the 21st of July 1976 Terry Manson, Sumner and Hook started a bank and placed a ad for a vocalist, Ian responded and was hired without audition.
• They played their first gig under the name Warsaw on the 29th May 1977 in support of Buzzcocks, which The band received national exposure due to reviews of the gig in the NME.
• After going through another two drummers in August 1977 they placed a ad in a local newsagent looking for a new drummer in which Stephen Morris responded, With this addition Warsaw become a "complete family" and decided to change their name to avoid confusion with London punk band Warsaw Pakt and renamed themselves Joy Division.
• Billed as Warsaw to ensure an audience, the band played their first gig as Joy Division on 25 January 1978 at Pip's Disco in Manchester.

• From here Joy Division went from strength to strength touring and writing two albums "Unknown Pleasures (1979 through Factory Records)" and Closer (1980 also through Factory Records at first) though this was released after a major event in Joy Division's short life span. In this time they also released some major singles such as "Love Will Tear Us Apart" which was named NME's top single of all time in 2002.

• From here things started to go downhill, During January 1980 during touring Curtis found out that touring was becoming a problem and he suffered two breakdowns and was diagnoses as having epilepsy. He then managed to recorded Closer but lack of sleep and long hours destabilised Curtis's epilepsy and his seizures became almost uncontrollable.
• The band tried to continue with touring but Ian's illness was uncrontroable and he often had seizures during shows which left him depressed and ashamed. This led to Ian attempting suicide by overdose on the 7th April.
• Joy Division were due to begin their first American tour in May 1980. Ian feigned excitement about the tour around the band because he did not want to disappoint his band mates or Factory Records
•  At the time, Curtis's relationship with his wife, Deborah Curtis was collapsing. Contributing factors were his ill health, her being mostly excluded from his life with the band, and his relationship with a young Belgian woman named Annik Honoré whom he had met on a European tour.
•  The evening before Joy Division were to embark on the American tour, Curtis returned to his home in Macclesfield in order to talk to his estranged wife. He asked her to drop the divorce suit she had filed; later, he told her to leave him alone in the house until he caught his train to Manchester the next morning. Early on the morning of 18 May 1980, Curtis hanged himself in his kitchen.

• The aftermath of Ian's death had its ups and downs, Factory Records released their single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" which hit 13 of the Uk singles charts and "Closer" which peaked at 6th on the UK albums chart.
• The members of Joy Division had made a pact long before Curtis's death that, should any member leave, the remaining members would change the name of the group and with that, started a new band "New Order" which went on to achieve commercial success.

Genre

• Joy Division managed to progress their sound throughout their career. At the start when they were still named Warsaw they were classified as "fairly undistinguished punk-inflected hard-rock".
• Critic Simon Reynolds asserted that "Joy Division's originality really became apparent as the songs got slower." The group's music took on a "sparse" quality.
• Sumner described the band's characteristic sound in 1994: "It came out naturally: I'm more rhythm and chords, and Hooky was melody. He used to play high lead bass because I liked my guitar to sound distorted, and the amplifier I had would only work when it was at full volume. When Hooky played low, he couldn't hear himself. Steve has his own style which is different to other drummers. To me, a drummer in the band is the clock, but Steve wouldn't be the clock, because he's passive: he would follow the rhythm of the band, which gave us our own edge."^[Over time, Ian Curtis began to sing in a low, baritone voice, which often drew comparisons to Jim Morrison of The Doors (one of Curtis's favourite bands). - Quoted from Wikipedia.
• During the recording sessions for Closer, Sumner began using self-built synthesizers and Hook used a six-string bass for more melody.
• Producer Martin Hannett "dedicated himself to capturing and intensifying Joy Division's eerie spatiality.
• In the end they were classified as Post Punk but people argue that they really had their own musical style.

- Similar bands in terms of style and sound are Human League, when they still had band members Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory and The Sound also New Order though New Order is all the members of JD except from Ian Curtis.

Below is a song by The Sound.



Music Videos

Joy Division were around during the early wave of music videos, Only two official music videos were produced by the band and their record label with a lot of fan videos and live performance videos released on a series of formats such as live DVD's and Youtube videos.





So far JD has only released a video for their songs "Atmosphere" which was directed by Anton Corbijn and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" which was directed by the band themselves.

These are link's to the video for Love Will Tear Us Apart  embedding is disabled for the video.






Both these videos are quite different as one is a performance video and the other is a concept video.

• Love Will Tear Us Apart - This video features a opening of a POV shot of someone walking up some stairs to a door, a hand opens the door from the other side and the door jumps between opening and closing as well as the colour changes from red to white. After this the rest of the video is a simple performance video focusing mainly on the different band members with close ups of instruments. They is a part in the video where the colour go brown, though the band released that this wasn't intentional and was a problem with the footage.
• Atmosphere - This video i shot entirely in black and white and is a concept video. It is a series of shots of different events that don't seem to relate to the lyrics at all. It follows a group of monds with robes coloured black and white, at some points it looks like they are children in the robes. They are a few shots of the band but are only stills and at some points these stills are embossed on black objects carried by people. 
• This is a extract from the book "Money for Nothing" by Saul Austerlitz. "Corbijn's mystical side found a fitting client in the mournful posthumous video he shot for Joy Division's "Atmosphere" in 1988. In a landscape of dead trees and heavy shadows, the remaining members of the group watch as diminutive monks trudge through the desert, marching in packs while bearing their burdens through the still wilderness. the monks carry large-then-life photographs of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis (Who committed suicide in 1980). "Atmosphere" is a belated funeral procession, its medieval religious feeling a fitting tribute to the austerity and high moral purpose of post punk heroes Joy Division. Curtis is designated a monk of pain himself there, trudging through the desert of whos own aching psyche, and the relative disparity in size between Curtis and those who honor him is no accident; by "Atmosphere's" dint, Curtis was a giant among midgets"

Second Idea - Joy Division - Disorder - Brainstorming

From the band Joy Division, they were two different songs we looked at.

Disorder  
New Dawn Fades 


We wanted to create a concept idea and after listening to both songs and thinking of ideas we decided to work on Disorder.

Our first idea for the song

The idea is based on someone recovering from a drug addiction using the cold turkey method.

• A person stumbles out of his house and walks down a street, receiving weird looks from passing people who give him a wide berth. 
• During him walking down the street, the camera will cut to isolated locations such as Ilkley Moor, Bluebell woods and Malham Cove.
• They will be uses of extreme closes up of the character showing him sweating and shaking because of him recovering from the addiction, as well as extreme long shots at the isolated locations to further the sense of isolation.
• Uses of POV Shots
• Constant fast jumpy footage
• Possible use Fish eye lens shots, Grey Scale and Colour filters.
• A idea for the end of the video is the camera cutting to Malham Cove because its extremely desolate and after this shot cutting back to the character who is collapsed on a bench.

More Ideas

• Diegetic opening without music, of character getting up with close ups of him sweating to show his health problems

Films to watch for inspiration, 

• Cold Turkey scene from Trainspotting
• Requiem for a dream

Below are the lyrics to the song.

The lyrics are about a man with epilepsy.

Joy Division

First Idea - (See Emily Play - Pink Floyd)

The first idea in my group was the song.
See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
The video below is a short film made by Pink Floyd to be played at their shows and is not a music video.



Style of the song: Psychedelic Rock
Idea behind lyrics: Focussed around a girl who one of the band members kept seeing in one of his hallucinations.

Our idea for this song was,

• A young girl wearing a white dress keeps on appearing in a dreamlike state that a male actor is having.
• They would be multiple girls walking around and doing things wearing the same white dress.
• The locations we could film in are Ilkley Moor, Bluebell woods in Ilkley and Malham Cove.
• Use of colour filters to create a weird psychedelic look.
• Maybe use time lapse .

Videos to look at for ideas.

1. Peacebone - Animal Collective (Because of the shots it uses)
2. Zepher Song- RHCP (Because of the colour effects used)
3. Float on - Modest Mouse (Because of a style used that we could attempt to use)
4. VCR - The XX (Colour style)
5. Come to daddy- Aphex Twin (colour effects)

Podcast 1: Welcome to the Group!

The Group

Three "Gorgeous" Guys

They are three members in our Group/Team/Film troupe.

Callum Moreman
Blog
Youtube Channel 

 Joel Colborne

Blog
Youtube Channel 

Jonny Hughes

Blog
Youtube Channel


In previous years Joel and Jonny worked together on the highly successful Bat in the Belfry  and after a meeting a discussion at the famous! Young film makers festival which we all  had successful entrants. We decided to collaborate. My skills with Rom Coms, and their skills with all things dreamy and weird. We were the ideal team.

Callum "Cinematographer" Moreman

Joel "Actor" Colborne

Jonny "Director" Hughes

Main Music Video Pitch

For my main music video pitch i had 90 seconds to pitch a music video for song witch dosen't have a video.

I decided to pitch..

Seventy times 7 - Brand new

"Bio; Brand New is an American Rock band from Long Island, New York. Formed in 2000, the band currently consists of lead vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Jesse Lacey, vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, drummer Brian Lane, and guitarist/keyboardist Derrick Sherman." Quoted from Wikipedia.

Link to bands website and to Wikipedia entry

Here is the track (in a youtube video) and beneath that is the lyrics.



Seventy Times 7

My idea is based around the story that the lyrics where written about, A singer from the band Taking Back Sunday who was best friends with the lead singer of brand new, ended up starting a relationship with Jesse's girlfriend while they were going out. Jesse then wrote this song as a way of getting to him, Taking back Sunday then wrote a song as a way of apologizing, the song is called There's no I in team.

• My idea was to created a literal narrative and performance video.
• The performance video side would consist of a band of 5 performing the song maining the choruses and then last verse.
• The narrative would follow the fictional story from the perspective of Jesse, the story would conclude with a argument down a phone "Lyrics Let's end this call and end this conversation."
• I would also do a narrative clip for the line "And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt, and again when your head goes through the windshield". i would create this shot using shot angles that don't have to show a crashed car.

My idea didn't get selected and instead i am working on another idea.

Practise Music Video Pitch

I had to pitch a idea for a music video that the class could make, the song could be a single and it didn't matter if they was already a video, i also only had 90 seconds to pitch the song..

I decided to pitch,

I Can Talk - Two Door Cinema Club

Tdcc are an alternative electropop band that are signed to french record label Kitsune Music. They have released one album to date which has received moderate reviews.

Below is the video for the song and beneath that the lyrics..



I Can Talk

My idea was to be a simple performance video with a little bit of concept thrown in.

• They will also be a extra concept idea, which will break up the video, this concept idea will be of the band laid out on the floor but moving thier legs and arms in time to the song and each other through stop motion.
• The video will start with the band singing the opening (in a way very similar to that in the main video)
• They majority of the song will be performance set in a white room with the band all wearing colourful clothing, but the band members will jump around the room and swap over through the use of editing.

Music Video Directors looking at Spike Jones & Michel Gondry

Like a normal film a music video will have a director, this director could be a band member when the band have a strict budget, but quite often film directors may have a go at directing a music video or a even a music video director may turn to directing feature length movies.
          Spike Jones & Michel Gondry are two of the biggest names when it comes to music video directors. Both have a impressive back catalogue of work spanning across

• TV Ads (Such as Spike Jones's trailer for Arcade fire's live from new york show)
• Television, such as Michel Gondry's work on the TV program Flight of the Conchords

• Films (Shorts & Feature length) such as Spike Jones latest feature length Where the Wild Things Are (2009), the film was directed by Spike with a estimated budget of 100 million. The film was met with mostly critical acclaim and appeared on many year-end top ten lists.

• As well as Music videos

Both have worked with a range of well known bands and musicians such as Daft Punk, Fatboy slim, Weezer, Arcade Fire, Bjork and The Breeders.
          

Spike Jonzes                      

Spike Jonzes has led a interesting career, he started off working as a photographer and a editor for a Youth BMX club and freestyling magazine which kicked off his creative career.
    He then spent the last 18 years jumping between directing some feature length movies, directing some note able commercials and still managing to fit directing some award winning music videos in between.

Being John Malkovich (1999) was Spike J's first venture in feature length movies, "The plot brings to the forefront several issues in contemporary philosophy of mind, such as the nature of self and consciousness, the mind-body dichotomy, and sensory perception." quote taken from Wikipedia.
Even though the film received limited release it scored 92% on rotton tomato and was nominated for:

• three BAFTA Awards, winning one for Best Screenplay
• five Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, winning one for Best Screenplay
• six Chlotrudis Awards, winning three, Best Director, Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay
• four Golden Globes, winning none
• three Independent Spirit Awards, winning two, one for Best First Picture, and First Best Screenplay.

Spike Jonzes also n 2006, he was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for "Outstanding Achievement in Commercials in 2005." He was nominated for a body of work that included Hello Tomorrow for Adidas, Lamp for IKEA.



He was a producer and co-creator of MTV television series Jackass and Jackass: The Movie, also directing some of the segments.



Jonzes biggest body of work lies with music videos, he has worked on just under 50 music videos with around 30 different artists, He has a unique concept style which he seems to use for the majority of his videos

• He has used concept ideas for a lot of his videos, usually the concepts are quite humour such as the idea for California by WAX, where the concept is simply a man on fire running to catch a bus with the idea being very similar to The Pixie's Velouria with it being only 1 shot that lasts around 20-30 seconds but is sped up to fit the song, the song is also taken from the backseat on a car.

• Another similar motif in Spike's videos is the use of diegetic sound at the start and during the videos, such as Da Funk by Daft Punk, "It focuses on the character Charles an anthropomorphic dog in a leg cast with a crutch wearing urban clothing. Charles, who has lived in New York City for only one month, is shown walking around with a boombox blasting "Da Funk" at a high volume. His hobbled walk is made fun of by a pair of children. He is turned down when he attempts to participate in a public survey. His boombox annoys a bookseller on the sidewalk from whom Charles buys a paperback novel entitled Big City Nights. Charles meets a woman named Beatrice who was once his childhood neighbor. They agree to have dinner together at her home, traveling by way of a city bus." taken from wikipedia.
• Daft Punk have said that the video is simply a story with the song played in the background and during the song they is a lot of diegetic sound in the form of cars, people talking and general sounds, at times you can barely hear the music. Link to video

• Spike Jonze is well known for the creation of the music video for Praise you by Fatboy Slim. He did things a little bit differently this time. The following paragraph is quoted from Wikipedia,

• Jonze has many alter egos, including Richard Koufey (alternately spelled Coufey or Couffe), the leader of the Torrance Community Dance Group, an urban troupe that performs in public spaces. The Koufey persona appeared when Jonze, in character, filmed himself dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Rockafeller Skank" as it played on a boom box in a public area. Spike showed the video to Slim, who loved it. Jonze then assembled a group of dancers to perform to Slim's "Praise You" outside a Westwood, California movie theater and taped the performance. The resulting clip was a huge success, and "Koufey" and his troupe were invited to New York City to perform the song for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The video received awards for Best Direction, Breakthrough, and Best Choreography, which Jonze accepted, still in character. Jonze made a mockumentary about the experience called Torrance Rises.

• Spike's latest music video for Canada's indie rock band Arcade Fire is The Suburbs, the video looks like a teen drama set in the suburbs. NME described it as "this is a look at the dramatic, violent side of the suburbs". The video follows a group of teenagers around a suburb while a military force is taking control, The meaning of the video is very unsure.
• Both Spike Jonze & Arcade Fire have been working on a short titled "Scenes from the suburbs" which was expected to be released in Summer 2010 but has been pushed back due to their new album and is now expected to be released 20th December 2010. The music video for the suburbs is made up of parts of the short film.

A DVD has been released titled "The Work of Director Spike Jonze" 2003. This DVD documents a lot of his videos throughout the ages.

Link to DVD on amazon.com


Michel Gondry                            

Michel Gondry (Born 1963) is a french film, commercial and music video director as well as a award winning screenwriter. He is known for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scene.

• He started his career as a filmmaker making music videos for the french band Oui Oui which he was the drummer for. His music videos attracted the attention of Bjork who enlisted his intresting style to help with his video. This kickstarted his career in film making.

• He pioneered the "bullet time" technique later adapted in The Matrix which was used in a 1998 Smirnoff TV commercial that was also directed by Michel.

 

• He went on to work with big names in music such as Daft Punk, Radiohead, White Stripes, Foo Fighters and many more. The style of Gondry's music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference. The White Stripes - Fell in love with a girl, heavily uses videography to create the lego stop motion effect.

• Gondry has also worked creating feature length movies. His first successful movie was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which was released in 2004 and received very favorable reviews. In this film he used a lot of film making styles he used while creating his music videos.

• Gondry's latest film is The Green Hornet which is to be released in 2011 which stars Seth Rogen.

Here is a link to the trailer.

The Pixies Case Study

As part of my research into music videos i have been tasked to look at a particular band and the common codes and conventions and motifs around their music video collection, as well as look at the band and background information on them.
 I have been looking at The Pixies and i produced a PowerPoint as well as a word document which contains all my footnotes from the presentation. Also due to my PowerPoint not showing my videos i have embedded all of the videos beneath.

The Pixies

The numbers at the start of each paragraph show the slide it corrisponds with on the slideshow.

The Pixies Text











Also within my group people have looked at 3 other artist.

• Cher 
• Queen
• Metallica