Location: Living room (Harry's house), The Hamptons (Bike scene), My House (white room)
Costume: Green vintage prom dress, masks, one piece furry overalls, dungarees
Cast: Robyn Archard; 'Evie'
Props: Bike, monopoly board, dolls house, piggy bank, inflatable hammer, various toys.
Narrative:The main themes in our music video are games, and imagination, and we will show this through the use of random props and a fun upbeat style. This will portray Evie as a fun, quirky and indie star. The music video unfolds with 'Evie' sitting on an old fashioned chair, looking bored and singing to the camera. We will have a scene of playing monopoly in the white room with three mysterious characters in masks. We will also show a dolls house and will try to make it look as if she is in the dollshouse. We will use a piggy bank to relate to the lyrics, however we will make this comical by using an inflatable hammer to pretend to try and smash the piggy bank. We will then have a scene with her riding along the streets on a bike. The main element of our video is performance and this will be in the white room, in which we want to create an over exposed effect.
This is our main pitch for our ideas and we hope they will be successful. We have looked into how they fit in with codes and conventions of different music videos, and they fit most closely with a pop video. We have drawn some very close comparisons with Jessie J's video 'Price Tag'. Typically, pop videos feature performance, and this is a major aspect of our video so fits in with the codes and conventions well. Similarly, the scene we plan on the bike has been used numerous time in videos I have researched, for instance Eliza Doolittle's video 'Roller blades', and Cleo Sol's video 'High'.
When first picking songs, we chose to do Lily Allen's cover of Everybody's Changing by Keane. We really loved the song and were extremely happy that we had found it as it was not well known and only had about 300 views on Youtube. Although we knew that Lily Allen was a very popular artist we thought that it would be ok to use this song, as it was a cover and not well know. Therefore, we started to plan out our ideas for the song and were really excited with our plans.
Unfortunately, the exam boards published a notice saying that popular music artists were not allowed, and our teacher warned us that Lily Allen would be included in this. This was devastating as we had already started to plan and really liked our song choice. However, we have accepted the news and are now looking for new songs that are not as popular as we realise that people recognise Lily Allen's voice, and so if we did use her people would already have an image of the star in their heads when watching the video. We are now excited to create our own star with their own star image.
'Instead of going out to dinner tonight We can grow vegetables Underneath the skylight'
This first verse sets the theme of the song. Instead of going for dinner, Eliza wants to stay home and 'grow vegetables'. This demonstrates how she feels about money, and that she would rather stay in, than go out and spend it, reflecting her non-materialistic personality. The randomness of growing vegetables enhances her quirky, indie personality, and in our music video we will make sure to represent this.
'Clicking these downloads everyday has its price We can lounge on our couch And listen to our 45s' In this verse, the theme of non-materialism is continued, as she she would rather just 'lounge on our couch'. This is perhaps a statement to boyfriends that they don't need to spend money to impress her. Eliza is showing her personal views that you don't need money to have fun, and the free things are the best.
'So take your Dollar Your Yen Those Euros I can't spend I won't get down with no pounds Never need to leave this house' The bridge to the chorus sums up the theme of the song, and by listing foreign currencies it makes the theme universal, showing that no matter which country, you don't need money to enjoy yourself.
'Don't need a moneybox Cos I got lots and lots Of what I need right here Right here with you my dear Don't need a cash machine To make our days happy So do me a favour Don't jingle your change Sir'
In the chorus, Eliza explains how everything she needs is 'right here', and she is referring to the person she calls 'you my dear'. Again, she is telling someone that they don't need to show off their money to impress her.
'Instead of going to the movies tonight There's no shame in us playing Dust of that Sega Mega Drive' This verse again demonstrates the same theme, with the word 'shame' highlighting how others might feel about staying in, but she doesn't and would rather stay in than 'going to the movies.'
'Hand me your trousers You got holes in your knees It's no fuss patch them up Forget about that shopping spree'
Eliza is now telling the man that she doesn't care what he wears, even if he has 'holes' in his knees. Eliza's personality of not caring and freedom will be expressed in our music video. 'So take your Dollar Your Francs Your Rupees no thanks I won't get down with no pounds Never need to leave this house' 'Don't need a moneybox Cos I got lots and lots Of what I need right here Right here with you my dear Don't need a cash machine To make our days happy So do me a favour Don't jingle your change Sir' 'Lock up your moneybox It's not much of a loss All that gold just goes to waste Cos you're worth more anyway'
This line is used to boost the confidence of the audience, as she puts across a message that people are worth more than money; 'cos you're worth more anyway'. 'No need to travel round London tonight We can play Monopoly Buy Mayfair in our own time' This verse uses a pun of monopoly and mayfair, because she would rather play the game and by mayfair that way than literally buy it. This theme of playing games that is expressed in the lyrics will be a major idea in our music video. We want to reflect the fun game playing star that Eliza is, and so will have a monopoly scene, and other games. The lyrics of the song are really fun and easy going and we will reflect this mood through our video. However, we don't want to use any literal shots, and so will use have hidden messages, but overall we will highlight the theme that money is not needed to have fun.
Today we started planning our music video. At the very beginning we chose a song by Lily Allen, which was a cover. Unfortunately we couldn't do this song as our teachers felt Lily was to well known. We have now settled on the artist Eliza Doolittle and her song 'MoneyBox'. We think it will be a great choice, and today we started brainstorming ideas for the video. We want to base the video on the theme of games and have ideas such as making an oversized monopoly board and having the artist playing the game with strange characters. We would also like to use a lego or dolls house to add a quirkiness to the video, and maybe include props such as cupcakes, lollipops, and dice.
Here is evidence of our initial brainstorm...
We have chosen to use this song for our music video. We really like the themes that are explored through the lyrics, for example not needing money to have fun, and the idea of games. We also like the randomness and quirkiness that comes out and want to portray this in our video. The up beat music was one of the main reasons we picked this song as we knew we wanted a bright and uplifting video. This was also a reason why we didn't choose Leddra Chapman- Sheila as we thought that it was quite slow and there was a lot of ambient sounds in the video.
Adria Petty lives in Los Angeles and New York. She is a director of music videos, as well as commercials, films, and stills. She has directed over 30 music videos, including, Beyonce's Sweet Dreams, and Countdown, Regina Skeptor's Laughing with, and Dance Anthem, as well as videos by Corrine Bailey Rae and Duffy. Petty, a classic film enthusiast, explains how she likes to use "craft of old cinema and the opportunity in the new digital world."
When talking about co-directing Countdown, Petty describes how there was no better way to depict Knowles's transitional moment than by paying homage to those that shaped her. So "Countdown" became a prissy pop culture menagerie: in just over four minutes, Beyoncé is Audrey Hepburn and Alex Owens, Diana Ross and Danyale Luna.
Apply Goodwin’s theory to a particular music video. Lily Allen- Who’d Have Known.
In Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) he explains his main theories on music video. There are six key points to his theory. Firstly, he argues that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example stage performance in a metal video. Secondly, he states there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which is illustrative, amplifying, or contradictory. Similarly, his third point says there is either of the three relationships between the music and the visuals. Fourthly, he believes that due to the demands of the record label, there is a need for lots of close ups of the artist. In his fifth point he explains that there is frequently reference to the notion of looking, in particular voyeurism and scopophilia. Finally, he says there is often intertextual references, to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc. This essay will examine Goodwin’s theory in proposal to Lily Allens music video to Who’d Have Known (2009).
Goodwin’s first point is that music video demonstrates genre characteristics. Who’d Have Known is a love song describing the artists’ feelings at the beginning of a relationship, where she seems happy and wants her and her partner to move on to the next level. However, the music video itself shows Lily looking upset and lonely, and committing a sinister crime, rather than being happy in love. On the surface Lily’s romantic genre of music is not shown here, and so I would disagree with Goodwins theory. However, Lily falls into the genre of quirky/indie music, and perhaps the irrelevant, and contradictory narrative shown in the video, is actually demonstrating her quirky genre, as the music video is completely random.
In Lily Allen’s video, the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is complicated. At first it may seem that the relationship is illustrative, as in the first scene she sings the lines “Its 5’Oclock in the morning” and “so I snuck of to your bedroom”, and the visuals illustrate this as we see her lying in bed in the early hours of the morning. There are clear illustrations of the lyrics, for example “drinking wine” and wine is shown, and “watching telly” and they are shown watching the TV. However, this relationship soon becomes disjunctive and contradictory, as we see a clip of Elton John on the T.V, and books and newspaper articles on him. At this point the audience have no idea as to why Elton John is being shown, as there is no mention of him in her lyrics, and so this creates a contradictory relationship. Interestingly, there is also amplification between the lyrics and the visuals. When she sings “you put your arm around my shoulder”, we see a photo of them hugging, but it turns out that she has stuck her face on another women’s body, so as to make the lyrics be true, showing how she is exaggerating the lyrics. The contradictory relationship continues as she sings: “we could watch a place in the sun”, which seems as if there would be a happy visual to this, but in fact she is kidnapping Elton John, and it is actually a sinister scene. She sings: “Your quite affectionate in public”, where the visual shows him tied to a chair looking miserable, holding no affection to Lily. Goodwin’s theory that the relationship is either illustrative, amplifying or contradictory, is completely applicable to Lily’s video as the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, is all three.
The relationship between the music and the video is also a mix of contradictory and illustrative. The track is sometimes up beat, and happy, where the video is completely the opposite, which creates a juxtaposed relationship between music and visual. For example, at the chorus, when the music is the most up beat and happy seeming, we watch Elton John try to get out of the locked car, and Lily pushing him into the house, which completely contradicts the happy rhythm of the music. However, the music is overall quite slow and mellow, which illustrates Lily’s sadness and loneliness that we see in the video. In terms of the rhythm and the editing relationship, it is completely illustrative. When the beat drops, the scene cuts, for example at about 0:24, the verse goes into the bridge, and we cut from Lily in the bedroom, to a completely different room. Here Goodwin’s theory can be correctly applied, and we can see how the music is sometimes disjunctive to the video, which is a main characteristic of music video as opposed to film or TV.
Furthermore, Goodwin argues that due to demands from the record label, there will be many close ups of the star. This is highly visible in Lily Allen’s video. The video is completely centered on Lily, with a high element of performance as she sings the whole way through the video. This is interesting, as even though Elton John is present, and would be argued to be a bigger star than Lily, the focus remains on Lily Allen. This is because the record label want to sell Lily and so show close ups of her throughout. Good examples of this are at 0:40, where she turns around in the car, 1:55, where she looks through articles on Elton, and 2:53. Lily is shown wearing a lot of eye make up, black lacy gloves, and black maxi dresses, which are quite dramatic fashion statements. This represents Lily’s star image, as she is often perceived to be a fashion icon.
The notion of looking and the themes of voyeurism and scopophilia are present throughout Lily’s video, however not as much as other star’s or her other videos. In the first scene, we see Lily in lacy black nightwear, which is clearly used voyeuristically for the pleasure of the audience. Additionally, when Lily is in the outfit of a chauffeur, it is suggestive of sexual dress up, and so Lily is again being treated voyeuristically for the pleasure of the audience. At about 1:59, to 2:02, the shot shows just Lily’s upper half and it looks as if she is naked as she is wearing a strapless dress. This treatment of Lily as a sexual object demonstrates Goodwin’s theory. However, compared to other video’s Lily is not treated very voyeuristically as she wears a long dress, and the camera angles are more of her face, than her body. In a way this represents Lily’s star image, and the fact that she wants to be taken seriously for her musical talent, rather than for her good looks. This fits in with the genre of Lily’s music, because even though she often refers to sex, her songs are more about relationships as opposed to portraying her as a sexual icon, like for example The Pussycat Dolls might do.
Lily’s whole video uses intertextuality in the form of Elton John. Elton John is not mentioned in the music, or involved in the creation, yet he is used as one of the main characters in the video. This use of Elton John is quite comical, as it would be funny for an audience who know of Elton John as a respectable music star, to get kidnapped and tied up. One of the main intertextual references is of her playing the piano, which instantly creates links to Elton John. Goodwin explains that if the audience understands the reference they will get more pleasure out of the video, and this is particularly true when Lily plays the piano, as it could be very comical if you understood the link. The use of Elton John may be useful to Lily Allen’s star image as it gives her more credibility, and makes her seem as if she has high musical status, as she is shown with the credible and very famous Elton John.
In conclusion, Goodwin’s theory on music video can be successfully applied to Lily Allen’s: Who’d Have Known. It is clear that Lily’s music video demonstrates her genre of indie/quirky pop. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, are illustrative, amplifying and contradicting, showing how Goodwin’s theory can be applied. Additionally, the relationship between the music and the lyrics demonstrates Goodwin’s theory as it is both illustrative and contradictory. Goodwin’s idea that music video will include many close ups of the star, is largely apparent in Lily’s video as the camera completely focuses on her. Goodwin’s theory of voyeurism is visible at time in Lily’s video, however not as much as Goodwin suggests. Finally, Goodwin explains that music videos often use intertextuality, and this is particularly apparent, through Lily’s use of Elton John. Therefore, it is clear that Goodwin’s theory is successful.
